The Sixth Annual Blank Check Awards with Joe Reid

[00:00:00] Blank Check with Griffin and David Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to expect All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check Wow, night for blankies, blankies, blankies Who will win?

[00:00:29] Oh, you know we got five bloods, the five bloods You gotta mank, mank, mank about the script you got right I got it Minnaree, oh, minnaree Oh What? Give me just one night, oh, in Miami Marini, Marini with the black bottom

[00:01:09] Anywhere you tenet that's the way you need it Anywhere you tenet Listen I didn't watch most of these fucking movies He still got it, he still got it, that's what I'm saying I would say that to say I'm at my wit's end would be false

[00:01:30] I probably reached my wit's end like three months ago and I'm not far Yeah, look behind you Past that point in November I was very confident I wrote down all these movies and I looked up song titles that felt like I could work them in

[00:01:46] And then I just never did the work You didn't watch them So that's your very crystal 2011 kind of a place I also just didn't look up the song lyrics for most of these Here's an example of something I did I wrote Nomadland equals No Man's Land Billy Joel

[00:02:07] I don't know how that fucking song goes Yeah, I don't know how that song goes I never even listened to that song I mean you know you could have but you didn't have to Personal responsibility you know it's the name of the game this year right

[00:02:21] Everyone's got to just take care of themselves Yeah I mean look I thought at some point in November Oh it would be funny to do a parody song for The Father Based around Alan Sherman's Hello Mudda Hello Fada Yeah, yes, yeah And that's exactly how far I got

[00:02:41] You could do first cow to the tune of Last Dance Yeah I mean I should yes The Hello Fada Hello Mudda thing that is something that Billy Crystal would have 100% There's no overlap there You and Billy Crystal are a perfect circle Yes Then diagram, yes

[00:02:58] Yeah here's the other notes I wrote down News of the World Part of your world Works for me News of the world Right Okay Soul Crank that soldier boy That one I think maybe could use a second look I just want to say

[00:03:22] Oh you think that one could use a second look I think that one could use a pop I feel like there's a lot of songs with like soul already in the title

[00:03:30] That like I get like you want to like go a little further a field of like soul man or something I wrote Alts, my alt was or soul man by saying Dave Yeah That's easy Right Yeah

[00:03:42] You don't want to be lazy about this you want to you know I'm a soul comma man would probably be that Right I'm a soul man In a cat now Yeah One night Miami give me just one night 98 degrees or Miami Will Smith or waiting for tonight Jennifer

[00:04:01] Look these were written in a more optimistic time Wait do you mean give me just one night parentheses una noche by 98 degrees because that would have been a flex As far as I'm concerned Yeah that was the thought at the time Look This is the

[00:04:19] The 2021 Blankie Award Ceremony for Excellence in Films in 2020 Thank you for finally using the full title by the way we never we never do it And also January of 2021 and also February of 2021 if we're going by the Oscars which I don't think we are but that's fine

[00:04:35] I'm not but you know to each their own But I mean but also both of you guys are inarguably going to be I would imagine including movies that technically did not come out until 2021 Right Sure

[00:04:48] But I feel like that's the case every year right where like there's always a few movies that like qualify under the gun at the end of the year And then release on their own time I just feel like this year is a slightly more extreme example

[00:05:02] I will say I've been spiraling all week for any number of reasons but something about the the marking a year since the last Blankie Awards Which was one of the last in-person records we ever did

[00:05:16] Yeah having to now commemorate pretty much a full gear of not having movie going culture A year that has made me realize how much movie going is part of my love of dumb movies Yeah

[00:05:30] I found this challenging and I'll tell you in a moment what I decided to do to frame this in a way that my brain could handle This is of course a blank check with Griffin and David I'm Griffin I'm David

[00:05:43] It's usually a podcast of filmography is directed to a massive success early on in their career and are given a series of blank checks Make it over crazy passion projects they want and sometimes those checks clear and sometimes they bounce baby

[00:05:54] But once a year we get to pick the winners much like Siskel and Ebert wearing tuxes in Disney World And asking people to applaud for how good their taste is Next year let's wear tuxes, let's wear tuxes next year I think that's the mistake we've been making

[00:06:14] Now both of you work as film critics Yeah David definitely me I write about movies sometimes David Sims of course co-hosts this podcast Our dear friend Joe Reed aka Reading Range Joe I was hoping you'd say that Is joining us for the fifth consecutive Blinky Awards

[00:06:34] Is this the fifth or the sixth? It's the sixth This is the sixth? Yeah Wow because this is starting our seventh year Exactly, that's the thing it's starting our seventh year The day we're recording this is the day after the sixth anniversary of our first episode being released

[00:06:56] Correct Happy anniversary guys A fine six years if I do say so Now look, this is a silly thing of fun and games where we just get to have a nice time picking the things that we like Right? But I was looking at many things

[00:07:16] And one of them was my list of movies A little iPhone note that I keep every year When I transitioned out of keeping a text edit note Right? Sure I watched 40 some odd new release films in 2020 Which is not bad

[00:07:34] Foreign away the smallest number I've probably watched since mid-single digits Right I truly, I mean I dragged my dad to see a movie almost every single weekend You know? Yeah And including things I rented on VHS and whatever in the 90s

[00:07:50] I truly don't know the last time I watched this few new release movies Obviously, the things I had to watch for this podcast dominated my movie watching Sure Along with things I had to watch for other people's podcasts and stuff

[00:08:04] And also just me rewatching and a comfort watching shit And watching a lot more TV than I usually do I think largely because every time there was a real movie Quote on quote That was available to stream at home

[00:08:18] It depressed me that I, my option was now watching it That's how you'd have to see it You talked about this Yes I talked about this a lot But I bring this up now because I avoided watching so many of the oscary movies

[00:08:31] For as long as I could because I was just so bummed out by this reality And then the second note is I just felt like I couldn't handle most of them In one way or another it's like, it demands too much focus for me

[00:08:43] It's dealing with a subject matter that I am just not at a mental strength to deal with Or what have you That I had this list that was like a mishmash of like The couple of oscary movies I watched

[00:08:55] And a bunch of weird shit that I'm now upping to awards level Because it's what I watched to get me through the year And then it felt odd that I was even including the three or four oscary movies I did watch

[00:09:08] And excluding the 10 to 12 that I did watch That I just decided, here's my blanky words for the year I'm not nominating anything that was nominated for an Academy Award It's all out I love it It's all fulking out Working without a net Yeah Here's my question

[00:09:25] This is just out of interest You know, you're not the Oscar movies that you're kicking off the ballot That's right I'm just out of pure interest David Like one of the few you saw Yes Almost everything I mean there's so many things I watched

[00:09:39] I watched Mank but I watched it probably in like five installments I watched Mank the way most people watch the Snyder cut Right, I was about to make a Snyder cut joke It never really pulled me in But I don't

[00:09:49] I can't judge whether that's an objective issue with The movie or my opinion of it or anything I cannot f**king deal with No Mad Land I cannot believe that is the best picture front runner

[00:10:00] There's no movie that touches on all the things that I'm already f**king freaking out about That society has revealed in this last year In terms of our priorities and lack thereof And how we f**king throw people out Like, what else? I don't know

[00:10:19] I mean it's just like so many of them I just didn't even try Or watched half of or watched in a bad form And I just was like, you know what? I'm only including the f**king things that reached out and grabbed me

[00:10:33] From the small pool of the things I happened to watch Which is like comfort food getting elevated And the few movies that cut through for me that I was able to handle Here's my question, another question The Five Bloods which is a movie I know you liked

[00:10:46] And we'll get into this as we're going to start the categories in a second But that got nominated for one Oscar, best score Does that kick it off your ballot? No, I decided if... Like a little bit you're okay with

[00:10:59] Yeah, I'm fine with a little bit, a little bit But those are my rules I get it though Like there was a twinge of bummer to watching all of these movies at home Almost everything you'd rather watch in a theater

[00:11:18] For whatever reason, I think part of it is also Because at the end of the year with Oscar time I being one of those cretins who gets screeners I'm more used to just sort of like binging sh** on screeners

[00:11:33] At the end of the year because that's how I got to get it done So it was less of a change for me to just be like Well, I'm just going to watch whatever's on Netflix and what's on Hulu And then...

[00:11:43] I have had a few transcendent at home viewing experiences this year But it is a few It's my opinion on this You're going to hear that reflected in my top five movies of the year And then I have five other movies Because I'm looking at my top ten

[00:11:59] And two, three, four Four of them are movies I saw at home Six of them are not And then others in my top sort of twenty five-ish are movies Yeah, it's mostly movies that I did not see at home Or if I did see them at home

[00:12:19] I just... you know, you have that thing where you're kind of like Well, I know how much this would have hit me You have to do the sort of like... The value add Even if you're like, you know what? I zoned out a little bit during this

[00:12:32] But I know Give this thing its best circumstances It would have worked even better for me Maybe it can someday soon Look, I also found that like The eight movies I saw in theaters that were released in 2020 Before theater shut down

[00:12:52] Happened to make a big appearance in multiple categories Unsurprisingly, those movies have lingered with me a little bit more Perhaps they're getting a big theatrical bump You know, you guys had the benefit again to see a lot of these movies At festivals projected Properly

[00:13:08] Right, so a lot of the things that ended up playing big at the end of the year I also felt like things I watched earlier in the pandemic Have hit harder for me and lingered harder for me Versus now when I just like can't handle anything anymore

[00:13:25] And I'm so depressed because like when I was watching shit Go straight to Hulu and Netflix and VOD and whatever In May I'd be like, okay, but when are theaters going to be back to normal? September?

[00:13:34] You know and then to just have it be like no this is the full year Just depressed me to no end But I just felt like if I'm gonna nominate Eurovision in as many categories as I'm prepared to

[00:13:47] I don't want to have to constantly explain to people why 18 movies are left off In those categories I don't think you need to explain Yeah, this is And at all These are your picks Yeah These are your griffs picks It's been a year Yeah It's been A year

[00:14:04] Capital A, capital Y, year Yes I do think this year's Oscar nominations If you just kind of like print out them out on a piece of paper And you're looking at me like oh these are alright Oh they did an okay job I think they're actually pretty good

[00:14:19] Right But at the same time I think this whole season has been a huge bummer The fact that the Oscars are still a month away Like I'm like what are we talking about anymore Like what is the, I know why they made the decision they made

[00:14:35] I get why they did it And I can't quibble with it especially because when they made that decision There were still holding out hope that at some point we're gonna be able to release the studio movies of the year Yes Ah, West Side Story Right

[00:14:51] We'll make some room for it That's not till the end of December Surely by the end of December because they made this decision in like June or whatever Right, my, I think their strategy was Theaters will essentially return to normal by like September Right

[00:15:06] And then you're gonna have the backlog of all the blockbusters that need to come out Right So that's gonna take up the space that would have been year-end award shit Only the movies that have commercial crossover potential Like Dune and West Side Story will open then

[00:15:19] And then everything else is just gonna open January and February And that's just gonna be the time shifted award season Because fucking Wonder Woman and Ghostbusters Afterlife and whatever Had to like rule the multiplexes of the fall And instead it, everything sucks, everything's bad

[00:15:36] What's wild about this though is so like this will be the latest Oscar ceremony Beyond like whatever like maybe those first few that weren't even held in the spring Like those first few Oscars or whatever that like encompassed two years at a time or whatever

[00:15:50] But this will be the latest into April that it's been pretty much since they set the Oscar timeline But it's not by much Like the Oscars used to be in April kind of a lot And I'm just, and it's so funny to think about that now

[00:16:03] And it's just like that, I mean whatever like media was very different We were less saturated by things whatever But it just does seem endless, it just does seem Yes, yes That we're still a full month away as we record this episode from the Oscars is mind-boggling

[00:16:19] And also next year's Oscars are going to be weird because it's going to feel odd Discounting like the first three months of the year entirely Even though movies from the first three months of the year usually don't make much of an impact Always get discounted, right

[00:16:36] Right, right, right, right But it's odd to just be like well the beginning of this year was truly and purely just The Oscar movies Yeah Right From the previous year's qualifications Shall we dive in boys? Let's dive in Griffin We usually start with supporting a support

[00:16:57] Which support should we do? Let's do supporting actress first because I'm going to make a game time decision on the fifth position for supporting actor That's fair Supporting actress We are here to announce our picks for best supporting actress in the movies of 2020

[00:17:19] Whatever, yes, I don't know why I'm doing all this wind up I'll just do mine first I feel like I'm actually close to Yeah, I'm three out of five with the Oscars on this one Which is not going to be true with a lot of them probably

[00:17:31] But whatever So I have Maria Bakalova from Borat Subsequent Movie Film Amanda Seyfried from Mank Yu Niu-Jung from Minari And then I have Candace Bergen from Let Them All Talk And Gina Rodriguez from Kajillionaire I want to say that this is the hardest category for me this year

[00:17:57] There's not a lot of performances I really love in this category this year I love these performances And this has been the category where I most have just kind of like swapped in names And been like, does that look right? Yeah, yeah, yeah Those are my nominees

[00:18:17] I have a lot of really strong runners up and I'll wait till everybody does theirs before I maybe talk about those a little bit Yeah, you go next though, Jeff So mine are

[00:18:28] Now it's funny because the list I have in front of me is not an alphabetical order So I'm alphabetizing on the fly so if I screw it up listeners, make sure you let me hear about it A flex, a flex Jane Adams in She Dies Tomorrow

[00:18:42] Shereen Alvarez in St. Francis Candace Bergen in Let Them All Talk Amanda Seyfried in Mank And Yu Niu-Jung in Minari Can I just say I'm really happy about what's about to happen Oh good I'm sure I know but go ahead Yeah

[00:19:06] I think anyone can predict it if anything The only surprising element is that I'm the one going last with what's about to happen Right, right Whereas I think most people predicted I'd be leading the charge Exactly Right, I do want to say

[00:19:24] Similarly to what you guys are talking about this was a category where like I landed on a five I felt good about but I had very few alts I really also, yeah

[00:19:33] Right in the beginning of the year I just start my iPhone note and anytime I see a performance that jumps out to me I put it on the list even if I think it's probably not going to survive a year later right Yeah

[00:19:43] And I mentioned that because this first pick is going to have you flummoxed But when I saw this in a theater in the first two months of the year I went Yeah, that's the first thing I saw that could qualify

[00:19:53] And I did not see five other performances that I felt could push it out since then Now I gotta know Yeah, ready? You're going to be flummoxed by this Okay, okay Best supporting actress Miranda Otto in Downhill She was one of my runners up No she's good

[00:20:10] She's fucking great in that movie She's so funny in that movie I love her in that movie And one of the only elements that argues for force majeure being remade in the first place Because it feels like someone doing something fundamentally different and interesting

[00:20:22] I love her in that movie, I'm so glad you made that pick Here's my only problem with that pick Griffin Yeah I'm seeing here that Downhill was released 400 years ago So I don't really know what you're talking about I truly am going just off the notes app here

[00:20:36] I would tell you from memory the same thing Yeah, okay Tony Collette, I'm thinking of ending things Talya Ryder, Never Rarely Sometimes Always Yeah, that would be my runner up Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Birds of Prey Nice And Candice LeBron James Bergen

[00:21:02] Let them all talk, score and fucking block it Yup, that's the right call that she's the one for all of us She's the one I'm doing moves Look in terms of alts There were some stretches There were some things like

[00:21:17] Like Cajillionaire is one I actually tried to cram in Where I'm like, I feel like I could watch that and enjoy that And I probably would get a good couple acting nominations out of that And I resent myself for prioritizing trying to watch No Mad Land

[00:21:31] I think Cajillionaire might have fucked you up I'm gonna be honest with you Really? Yes I haven't seen it yet, it's on my list It has that Miranda July thing where an hour in She's like, this movie is actually about how we're all afraid of dying

[00:21:45] And I'm like Okay, Miranda Look, I mean Fuck yeah, I'm about to put the Charlie Kaufman movie in almost every single category It's not like I didn't nominate some movies that fucked me up But there's a specific type of fuck me up that I could handle

[00:22:00] Yeah, it's possible that it would click with you in a really nice way It's just also possible it might have freaked you out I have no idea It's Miranda July thing where you're kind of like Whoa, you know Where she dies tomorrow I knew I couldn't handle

[00:22:14] Oh no Me too I'm almost regretful that I watched it because it like really really fucked me up But it's good, like it's really good It sounds so in my wheelhouse

[00:22:24] I would love to go fucking submit myself to seeing that in a theater where I can fully focus on it Wait till you're constitutionally able to Yeah Right But Jean Adams Jean Adams is an actress who like doesn't always work for me

[00:22:39] She does a very specific kind of thing that sometimes it's a little much for me But it was perfect in this so I really really like turned that Griff two of yours were on my runner-up list I had both Miranda Otto and Tony Collette on my runner-up

[00:22:54] I feel so I sort of tweeted yesterday because I was going through and they knew they weren't going to make it And I was like there are four actresses who give very specific kind of like

[00:23:03] Very like almost out there performances and movies that I didn't really love it was those two S.C. Davis in the true history of the Kelly gang And Valerie Mahaffey and French exit And I was just like well all four of these women are like doing fantastic work

[00:23:17] Here's my thing about downhill If you didn't know that movie was an adaptation of one of the most like Consequential and original movies of the decade That movie would be straight up good You would Yeah, I agree

[00:23:29] That movie was just like you know hey here's this like kind of like dramedy with Will Ferrell and Julie Louie You know they're coming apart and it's you know and you watch it and you're like shit this is well acted

[00:23:40] This is you know kind of spare Miranda Otto you know comes in and throws heat for ten minutes Like I like this Yeah I can't separate it from the movie it's being you know you can't make me You can't

[00:23:56] If I could I think I would really like downhill instead I thought it was okay But if a bit of an odd you know thing to exist It's one of those things where it's like

[00:24:05] Oh that would be fascinating as a broad comedy with two movie stars based on nothing right Versus In 2020 Like you know maybe not in 1978 but like in 2020 Right that's the thing it feels more like what qualified as a broad comedy in the early 70s

[00:24:22] Where people were like man what if comedies made you sad Yeah Right Right Didn't have a lot of jokes Yeah exactly I just remember walking out of downhill at the AMC Kips Bay No idea how good I had it

[00:24:39] Oh yeah I saw that thing at the Grove in LA and I was just like I always my happiest when I'm at the Grove in LA I'm basic as hell but that's me And again yeah I had no idea how good I had it

[00:24:50] Right this couple walking out was just like well it like wasn't really that funny But it also wasn't really that serious It was just kind of like real life and I'm like I would be citing all of that as a positive were it not based off

[00:25:06] Force Major which is the issue But she's really good then I also just think she's the glimpse of the best version of an American Force Major Which is owning its lane as being more of a broad performative character comedy Right Dialed higher which is what it should be

[00:25:23] Yeah I mean we said it on this part the big problem with that movie and I like Will Ferrell and I like him trying things like this Is that I believe that Will Ferrell would run away from an animal Absolutely

[00:25:35] And I can't get over the movie being shocked by that Yeah you expect that to happen There's nothing shocking about it which means that if Will Ferrell is Will Ferrell at the beginning of the movie

[00:25:43] By the end of the movie he needs to go bigger than he's ever gone in his entire life It's to be like nuclear explosion Will Ferrell and obviously the movie is not interested in that It's funny how much we're talking about downhill Yeah But that's fine

[00:25:56] You know Mr. Griff I'm assuming you put Bakalova in lead which is fine obviously Or is Borat not allowed because Borat actually scored multiple big nominations It was a tweener for me but I will say Bakalova I feel very strongly is a lead performance

[00:26:14] And she would have been my lead winner I think that is the second best performance I've seen all year But I and look I am all for her being and supporting I don't think she got nominated in lead I think she's gonna win I predicted this to you

[00:26:29] I put it on the record gonna put on the record on this record But I just decided it was too validated for me to nominate even if I did the swap of a different category Surprisingly validated there's no question or maybe not that surprisingly

[00:26:45] Because it is a really good performance Can't just look I know go ahead go ahead No I just want to say about Bakalova quickly Just the complexity of what she's doing in the Giuliani scene is mind boggling to me Because she has to actually convince me

[00:27:01] So this guy who admittedly is easily duped right What are you talking about America's a man That she's a serious interviewer right and keep him there With the risk obviously the danger she knows she's getting into being alone in a room with this guy

[00:27:15] Even with a camera crew right outside the door Who knows the fuck this guy is gonna do if he thinks he's alone right But the fact that throughout all of that she is somehow simultaneously playing to the camera

[00:27:28] That she is sad that she has to do this that her father has put her in this position The emotional arc the continuity of the character She has to play the meta text and the text at the same time

[00:27:39] Right and she can't overplay the meta text because if she does she'll flag Giuliani It's just like that is such a skill piece to me I think she's incredible she would have been my best actress winner But I disqualified her

[00:27:52] First Bulgarian acting nominee in the history of the Oscars Not bad About fucking time Possibly the first Bulgarian nominee period Just want to point that out Maria so alright so we all we all nominated one person who is Let's talk about LeBron Burgon

[00:28:13] Candice Bergen and let them all talk a movie that is uniformly well acted in my opinion Yeah, I agree with that Almost did a double nom with Weest I was about to say My only serious alt Weest was a high runner up for me as well Yeah

[00:28:27] Diane Weest who's one of the queens of my spreadsheet like over the years Almost snuck in Did a Really good performance from her I actually like Gemma Janet that movie a lot Like everything about that movie Yeah Gemma Chan's great in that movie But

[00:28:41] But Bergen is just outrageous And Has so much pathos and like and it's also you're just kind of like You know you give her enough rope she'll fucking you know it's incredible Like she never gets to do this That's my thing

[00:28:56] She carries so much of the narrative of that movie So much more than you'd expect because you initially think it's just going to be like it's Merrill's movie And these are her friends and we've sort of cast this thing very well

[00:29:05] But yeah no she's she shoulders a lot in that movie I mean in a way this it's like Christopher Walken and catch me if you can where you're just like oh It's nice to see someone hand this actor such a like juicy piece of meat again

[00:29:21] It's not like we haven't seen her in a while Right But it's like no one's given her this much in so long The real estate in the movie the depths of what she has to play the specificity of the character

[00:29:34] And she does still score pretty much every single laugh line She's just one of those people who Every bucket one might say Yeah she gets buckets she gets buckets from mid-court The funny thing I talked about this on my own podcast last week I think

[00:29:51] But the whole thing about let them all talk and the fact that Warner Brothers At some point probably before the whole pandemic happened just decided that this was not going to be an awards movie for them

[00:30:03] And they were not gonna like it was not on their radar for that Yeah But the fact that they never recalibrated once the pandemic happened and everything shifted to streaming And and the like didn't really know what they had on their hands Yeah

[00:30:16] It's mind-boggling to me that there was they just didn't campaign at all the fact that like They couldn't get a Golden Globe nomination for Merrill Streep in a well-received comedy where she's in the lead role Like that's insane to me

[00:30:28] Like the fact that they couldn't like drum up some kind of I don't know if Bergen would have gotten an Oscar nomination But she sure certainly would have been a contender She's a big Hollywood like Hollywood fucking Muffin And it's a great story

[00:30:39] It's a great sort of like comeback story for her in movies at least And it just it felt to me and Warner Brothers had their own you know Litany of decisions that they made this year and whatever

[00:30:51] But like that to me is so strange that they just didn't fundamentally didn't know what they had on their hands with that movie You guys know what Soderbergh has on deck next right? What he's shot Reminds me Yeah, it reminds me It's a thriller called no sudden move

[00:31:09] Here's the log line A group of criminals are brought together under mysterious circumstances And have to work together to uncover what's really going on when their job goes sideways Okay, so already I'm like Soderbergh's making that probably gonna be the greatest film ever made

[00:31:21] Here's the guy Brendan Rockard Brendan Frazier Matt Damon Benicio del Toro Don Cheadle John Hamm Kieran Culkin Ray Leota Bill Duke I mean I'm just like Let me at this thing I can't be held responsible for my hands Fuckins Amy Simons Julia Fox Did you say Benicio?

[00:31:42] Noah Juke The King Noah Juke Noa Juke sit there Noah Juke come in a fucking shank The Tremblay It is sleep You think you're the talented child actor? You're Juke Juke scoring buckets on his own I gotta tell ya And all of his stuff lately

[00:31:59] David did you mention who wrote this movie? Noah wait a second I may not know Ed motherfucking Solomon Ed Solomon wrote it that's right Come on Come on And that's another thing that HBO Max is probably just gonna poop out in the office Yeah, right exactly

[00:32:15] Like someone will be like, yo this is a masterpiece And they'll be like, huh? What? What was that? I'm sorry Yeah, okay Okay so can I ask a how did this movie not become an awards player question about a movie I admittedly have not seen

[00:32:27] But one of you just included on your list Uh huh How does French exit not exist? People did not like it People thought it was really off-putting Even people who liked it like I I pretty much liked it But like it's really off-putting

[00:32:43] I just feel like every couple of years there's a new this might be Pfeiffer's comeback Oscar movie Right And every time it belly-flops And this one just felt like on paper like oh that has to work for her right Especially in a pandemic year

[00:32:57] That's like an easy nomination for her She's great in it She's really great in it but it's still that thing People hate that movie I didn't realize that Yeah people I remember when it premiered it premiered at New York Film Festival right David? Am I mistaken?

[00:33:13] That is correct I believe it was the closing film Right and I just remember that night like just everybody who I knew on my Twitter feed who watched it We're just like 80 to 20 like despised it And there were like there were definitely had its supporters in its fans

[00:33:27] But it's not it makes you work for it it makes you work to like it It's um it's really hard to do a wit stillman movie Like yeah you know it's just really really hard But I do also think there's the curse of Pfeiffer I like Jacobs

[00:33:45] I like Jacobs too I really liked the Lovers The Lovers was really good I like that he makes kind of thorny challenging comedies That you do have to work for But yes there is that weird Pfeiffer curse where it just feels like

[00:34:02] Oh she's doing a Stephen Frears period film Fucking slam dunk and then people are just like Shari gave me diarrhea Out of here This is the Frears movie that right we were going to erase from his record Even though the Oscars are like Stephen Frears

[00:34:16] Yeah we can get it in a nomination somewhere we'll figure it out Like they're like going through their files We just covered White Oleander on my podcast recently And that was another one where it's just like she's so good in this movie

[00:34:29] What more do you want she's fantastic But that is a great point that's essentially the start of the 20 year Pfeiffer Oscar curse If at the beginning of the year people go oh this is a big Oscar play for Pfeiffer

[00:34:41] It is fundamentally not going to be a big Oscar play for anybody That is absolutely correct It'll happen someday I have to imagine It's got to right it's got to Quantumania Yeah that'll be it They'll give everything a nomination They'll they'll it won't be just

[00:35:01] Return of the King We have to recognize the trilogy Joey both nominated Yunyue Jung which is one of those performances that is undeniable It is like you know much better than these sort of hooky fun grandma role That it very much presents itself to be yes

[00:35:20] Yeah she keeps it on a level where you do sort of I mean the late great Clarice Leachman I do not want to slay I'm sometimes sort of expected to sort of get to a level of like you said like kooky grandma or whatever

[00:35:33] I'm sorry are you talking about a Clarice Michael Jordan Leachman Yes exactly Clarice Kevin MacKell Leachman yes May she rest but yeah no it's so much of Minari sort of stays on this very sort of just like personal emotional keel

[00:35:56] The character like that could really throw off and she's really dialed into it While still being really interesting and really compelling and really like lovable but spiky Like my favorite character type are you lovable but spiky? Oh my like I absolutely love you and

[00:36:14] Yeah it's one of my favorite Oscar nominations this year it was one of those things where I first saw the movie I'm like I'm gonna have to be so obnoxious about how she deserves an Oscar nomination

[00:36:23] But it's never gonna happen because XYZ and I'm so like with the farewell like that usually gets ignored There's the narrative of like this is a really accomplished actress from her home country

[00:36:33] You know and people like oh yeah yeah yeah she'll come seventh you know like you know it's usually like just kind of like on the outside And maybe this year just because of the circumstances of the year but also it's just a special performance

[00:36:44] And Minari kind of hit at the right time Yep Alright we should move on but Griffa is there anything left in your ballot you wanted to shout out? You know I'm trying to remember Uh, Mary Elizabeth Winston Birds of Bray I feel like is She's good

[00:36:59] I mean she's good It's really good but it's an actor choosing to play a legitimate superhero role Like the hockey pads guy from the beginning of the dark night Right? Yes

[00:37:10] Which I find so fun I just like the frame of that character I think the right of that character is really good That's the best that movie has to offer for me Never rarely sometimes always the performances are really good in that movie I'll speak about it again

[00:37:22] And Tony Collette I think of ending things That's a movie that I look at with all four of those performances where I'm like this would just be so much fucking fun

[00:37:30] To act the fact that it's just four people and then two people playing off each other you know And the Thulis and Collette performances are just so meaty in terms of the shifts They get to play and the sort of like it feels like fun acting class exercise

[00:37:47] Stuff in the best way in terms of just like making bizarre strong nightmarish choices in response to everything Yeah I just wanted to throw out briefly before we move on Just because I know that like I, Shireen Alvarez in St. Francis

[00:38:04] Nobody's really talked about her this award season so I don't want to just throw her out She plays the woman that the main character Kelly O'Sullivan is working for Who's having this like postpartum sort of like very hard time trying to deal with her kids

[00:38:20] And so the main character comes and is you know sort of this like long term babysitter up here kind of situation And she's just like she is sort of what elevates that movie to me

[00:38:30] I think it's a very well written and very funny movie and you know touching But like her performance really elevates it to something special She and Kelly O'Sullivan really have a great sort of one you know tada-tada kind of stuff

[00:38:42] And good relationship that builds and evolves and I think she's just really wonderful There's some really like big scenes in that movie where she really has to like act this Postpartum depression stuff in a way that really has to land with you And I think she nails it

[00:38:56] That movie fucking rules and I assume it'll be more accessible at some point to watch But it completely rules. It's an Oscillioscope movie I don't know like where what it's sort of streaming status is right now But it's so good I might talk about it again later

[00:39:13] My winner is Amanda Safe-Reed in Mank, Nertz Nertz? I love her in that Everybody talks about Nertz but there's this one moment where Mank's in a car on the lot or whatever And she just sort of like stops and she gets in and she just looks at him

[00:39:29] And she just goes Mank like that and I'm just like well that's the funniest thing I've ever got That scene rules where he's like please do me this favor and she's like I already did my exit I love her in that movie She's incredible in that movie

[00:39:41] I think she's my number one as well And I think it's getting underrated because people don't like Mank or whatever Probably because Mank you know tells too many truths

[00:39:50] You know this is gonna be my new bit is that Mank isn't popular enough because Mank keeps it too real Keeps it real Even about people who don't like Mank though I think people mostly really like to see

[00:40:02] But like if she wins an Oscar which I don't think she will but she certainly could She could Because it's sort of a weird diffusier People will shit on that Oscar Like they will be like eh she kinda didn't let her

[00:40:15] It was like you know she kinda snuck in that Griff who's your winner? My winner is Candice Bergen Yeah well she should be much deserved Alright let's just play Mank I did watch Mank I just couldn't fully get into it I watched his pieces

[00:40:28] Yeah because he kept it too real He kept it too real Okay supporting actor David please read the nominees My nominees are Dan Stevens and Eurovision I already love it The story of Fire Sock Glyn Terman in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Lucas, Hedges and Let Them All Talk

[00:40:50] Robert Pattinson in Tenet And Orion Lee in First Cal Those are the nominees I love it Joseph Reed Alright, mine are Daniel Kaluya in Judas and the Black Messiah Robert Pattinson in Tenet Clark Peters in DeFive Bloods Paul Racy in Sound of Metal

[00:41:17] And Mark Rylance in The Trial of the Chicago Center He is so good in that He's so good in that movie Whatever you think of that movie He's so good He shows them show I agree best in show My nominees for Best Supporting Actor are

[00:41:35] Matthew McFayden in The Assistant Incredible Beautiful choice Clark Peters in DeFive Bloods Dan Stevens in Eurovision For Song of Fire and Ice Peter Thulis in I'm Thinking of Ending Things David Thulis Jesus Christ, my brain is soup David Thulis in I'm Thinking of Ending Things

[00:42:03] And Joe Panteliano in Bad Boys for Life Oh wow, there we have it Here's the thing Griffin You're angry I'm angry that's not on my list You're angry I gotta admit he was on the outskirts There are a couple of guys fighting for that fifth slot

[00:42:21] And I put him in there because I wanted to make you angry Here's the thing You've made me angry But it's not just because you put him on and I didn't I'm angry at myself because I feel like I kind of forgot about it

[00:42:31] Now obviously the movie came out like 14 months ago David, it's the number one film of 2020 I don't understand It is The last blockbuster I still walked out of that movie With a five minute Joey Pant's rant We talked about it Exactly And we talked about it after that

[00:42:50] I think we might have mentioned it on the podcast So I'm a little mad at myself But thank you for shouting including him Look, we're even I've spent years nursing the wounds of anger From you remembering to include Condi Alexander for Patriots Day

[00:43:06] So I feel like we're even now What a great moment by me No, I think about that all the time I should have done that She's so good on that movie She's so good So those are the nominees I feel like we were all over the place

[00:43:21] Did we share? There was no David, you and I shared Pattinson And Griffin and I shared Clark Peters I feel like that was Right And David and I shared Dan Stevens Dan Stevens who I made a manful effort to win

[00:43:34] Get him the win at the New York International Circle Oh, I know, you told me that I'm going to have so much But that one didn't get a lot of traction I think he's wonderful in that movie He is one of the most surprisingly versatile actors

[00:43:46] Ever considering when he left Downton Abbey I was like, why? So he can be sixth on the Henry Cavill call list What does he think? He thinks he's going to get roles And instead he has had an incredibly exciting And varied career basically

[00:44:03] Since leaving that cursed fucking mansion They're making a sequel to the Downton Abbey movie now You can never escape He escaped An example of a guy where you could announce that he is playing Any role in any type of movie and I would go

[00:44:17] Yeah, he could probably pull that off Yes, exactly I see why he would do that You know, it just feels like he's a guy who likes a challenge Like stretching himself And has pretty much pulled off everything he's ever tried to do

[00:44:28] Listen, we all know what a masterpiece beauty in the beast was So, granted But I was thinking about this Objectively, I think he does his job well in that movie It's harder to give him credit Because I think the design of the beast is so disastrous

[00:44:45] That no moment the character is on screen really works But I think if you really try to think about only what he's doing And especially if you look at behind the scenes photos Of what the fuck he was wearing Even the pillow suit

[00:44:59] You gotta kind of give him the credit for that movie And he's good at fucking everything, everything he does Yeah I'm gonna make it my background Yeah, I love Dan Stevens I love him in that movie, I think he's so funny Yeah, he's so funny

[00:45:15] What else? The Pattinson, no come on I'm glad I knew someone else would have Pattinson I knew that I would have some company with that He was close for me He's so much fun in that movie I loved that movie a lot more than most people did

[00:45:31] I always tend to anchor the two movies where I say I had fun And everybody looks at me like I've got three heads But I think Tenet is such a good time And Pattinson is the most good time in that movie

[00:45:45] He's just sort of a pleasure to watch He is, I agree with all of that He's having fun, he's just at the movie He's just like the spoonful of sugar the movie needs You know what I mean? But also it is an achingly beautiful performance Yes

[00:46:00] In my opinion, I think it's like a lovely performance He's playing a guy who is in love with his partner Not in a romantic way but just in a moment Love is real He is excited to finally meet the man he's known for years

[00:46:19] You know what I mean? And there's just so much joy to it And it's so funny to think about it Considering the Pattinson interviews It's like I didn't really know what was going on with that one He's like, I did what Chris told me

[00:46:32] But like whoa, because he's such a talented actor I think he's on my bout like every year these days Yeah, I think that sounds about right to me Maybe not every year but like often He's just such a delight He's wonderful

[00:46:47] And Hedges too, Hedges and Let Them All Talk is just the... That is crazy You throw that actor into a super three Super talented you know Middle-aged actresses who've done this shit for years Soderbergh is like, look the screenplay is you're on a boat

[00:47:03] And there's a lot of shit going on And go, you know like no script They're all improvising Hedges has to do all this like giggling And physical stuff And like this sort of like you know he's vulnerable And like that shit is hard

[00:47:18] That is such an impressive performance There are moments in that movie where you can definitely see him Being like, alright what do I do? Like what's next? Right But like everything else But that's also part of the charm of the movie I feel like And also everything else

[00:47:32] Like you said the movement and that You know he's going dancing And he's sort of like the temperament of it Is really really good He's so likable He's just like so goddamn likable Griffin who else did you have? Wait, give me your list again Griff

[00:47:46] You had Stevens obviously Clark Peters The Five Bloods Who I think is quite a part of that movie David Thulis Thank You for ending things You know pretty much everything I said about Tony Collette applies here Matthew McFadden in The Assistant David I walked out of that movie

[00:48:03] I think maybe the last new release film I saw in theaters And I was texting you about how good he was in it And I coined a phrase that I said I want to use this on the podcast When this comes up again Thermostat performance

[00:48:18] Right you remember me telling me this at the time Yes, yeah And they were single-handedly changing the temperature Of the movie just with their acting alone He's got one fucking set piece scene One long two-person conversation Towards the end of the movie That fundamentally changes the entire movie

[00:48:38] Through just the energy he brings to it It is very fascinating to me That this guy who like You know has been around since Pride and Prejudice In American movies you know Or at least in movies that cross over Right, exactly, it was Delta TV and whatever

[00:48:55] And it just was sort of like I don't know this guy like never really found his spot And it turns out he is like Fucking perfect at playing American corporate bootlickers Yeah The thing about it right is like He was in this incredible British

[00:49:11] Mini series called Perfect Strangers I think it's called Almost Strangers in America Because they don't want it to remind you of the sitcom Belgi Associations, yeah If you ever can find it It's probably on Britbox or one of these things Like really check it out

[00:49:24] It's one of the most incredible pieces of drama I ever filmed And then he was on this TV show called Spooks Which is called MI5 in America And like that was his thing It's like this guy might be the next Bond

[00:49:36] Like this guy is Britain's next charming leading man You know I'd seen him on the stage He was in some movies and he's in Pride and Prejudice He's playing Darcy, you know 20 years after Colin Firth It's like this guy has just been handed The role

[00:49:49] And that movie hits He doesn't It's not like it killed his career He just hangs out in Britain doing mostly TV and stuff And theater and stuff And then as you say The start of it is Anna Karenina I was just about to bring up Anna Karenina

[00:50:06] So I was like you did, yep As this like sort of delightful drunk And you're like oh that's Matthew McFadden And he's kind of leaning into being a buffoon This is interesting Yeah, it's a great performance And then you know come a few years later

[00:50:19] He's in succession and you're like Oh my god, like and he's playing an American And you're like oh my god He's incredible at this Yeah, you're forgetting something very important David Please He did spend some time in the Four Realms He did go to the Four Realms Right

[00:50:36] He's the dad in that movie? I guess so Like that's a perfect example How am I supposed to keep up this bit By knowing the plot and characters Four Realms that's a lot to keep up with But like that's the exact type of thing

[00:50:49] It felt like his career was going to be relegated to Right, yeah You're an also-ran in an also-ran Disney movie Yes The thing about his performance in The Assistant though Is like it's like the baseline evil Of like corporate whatever Which is also what he plays in succession

[00:51:09] And it's obviously like two incredibly different takes on it And in succession it's a comedy And in this it's a- Well the movie is sort of this like low-key drama But his scene plays like an absolute horror movie

[00:51:23] It's just like it's five minutes of the most terrifying shit You've ever seen in an office It's the she's made it out of the you know House in the horror movie scene And a cop shows up and she's like

[00:51:36] Oh thank god, you know like it's like the moment where she's like Yes, it's that I'm saved and then the twist is like Oh no, no you're not You're actually just like If you don't like the direction in which she walked into the Fire, you know

[00:51:51] It's so good and he does that solely through incredibly Deft subtle shifts in energy You know I mean it's a really really skillful performance Yeah It's great He once, many years ago My mother I really loved him in this shit This thing Perfect Strangers

[00:52:11] And my mother interviewed him for whatever spooks, you know, airing on like A&E in America or whatever. You know, like it was crossing over slightly and he called my house and I picked up the phone. Oh wow. And he was like, hello, like is, you know,

[00:52:24] his father there. And I was like, oh no, like let me go get her. Like he's like, it's Matthew, you know, like, and I had like a two minute conversation with him and he was so nice. Oh, that's so wonderful. It's a 14 year old David. I love that.

[00:52:38] Anyway, seems like a nice enough guy. I have a couple of years now just kicking ass on the number one show in America. In the exact kind of part, you would never think to cast him in. Never.

[00:52:51] You would never be like, oh, this guy can play a Midwestern as you say, like, you know, try hard bootlicker. Yeah, he's so good. He's so funny. Realizing that I loved that show was very much realizing that I loved what he was doing with that performance

[00:53:06] because it takes you a second to just be like, what are you going for here? And like, then it clicks and it's amazing. Weirdly, he figured out the show before it feels like the show figured out itself. I would agree with that. Right in those early episodes,

[00:53:20] he's dialed a little higher and the show gets there quickly. But now, right. Is he your winner, Griff? I kind of, I feel like he is, let me look at this again. Yeah, I kind of feel like I have to give it to McFade.

[00:53:38] It's just such a skill piece for me. Joe, who else did you have? So I was going to say, I got, I have Kaluya in supporting. I know there's a lot of discussion about the actors in Judas and the Black Messiah

[00:53:53] and whether they belong in lead or supporting. I could see him in either way and he sort of fit better on my supporting belt. He is absent for a good 30 minute stretch of the back half of that movie. I don't care on that one.

[00:54:08] And people are like, well, the movie has no lead character. I'm like, yeah, maybe. Well, Stanfield to me seems egregious. But like, Kaluya is very supportable. I don't disagree in that. I think Stanfield is the lead of the movie. That's what that that is the problem

[00:54:22] people have with that movie. They're like, why is that the lead character? Like, not everyone has that problem, but like that is a criticism I've seen. But Kaluya's first build, but that's because he's an Oscar nominee. Like, you know, and he's a star who's been in big movie.

[00:54:36] Like, you know, I don't know. And he's playing the more famous person. He's playing right. Like a historical figure. I don't know. Yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I mean, he's fine in there, like obviously. He's going to win an Oscar. He's a very talented actor. He's fantastic.

[00:54:50] Paul Racy I think is really fantastic and an actor I'd never heard of before or seen in anything and is, you know, very much sort of the emotional center, I think of that movie, or at least like provides the emotional sort of like

[00:55:06] back and forth with Riz Ahmed in that film. And then Rylan's, I mean, we said it right at the beginning, but just like Best in Show and Trial of Chicago 7 in a really strong cast, Griffin, I know you and I have talked about our differing opinions

[00:55:20] on who's good and who's bad in that movie. But he's so... He's a really good fit for Sorkin in a way that I don't know if I would have really expected exactly, but I would now need to see him in other Sorkin stuff. Look, I...

[00:55:38] He's talked about, I mean, he's like wanted to work with Sorkin since sports night. He like reached out to Sorkin and was like, I want to do something with you someday. Yeah. No, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm flipping this. I'm flipping this.

[00:55:49] What I'm about to say because I was confusing my thought I'm about to share. My brain is soup. I came close to putting Keaton in my five. Yes, because it's an unheralded performance. Right. Yeah. It is just so small.

[00:56:05] It just felt like a little bit too small to qualify for me. Yeah. I don't really like that movie. I have watched his scenes probably eight times. His scenes are good. They're also the great Sorkin stuff where he's like... That's the other thing. You didn't see...

[00:56:20] I'm hitting the button here. You know, you didn't see this coming and it's a little mini play that's better. But it's also... Yeah. He's doing the tossed off thing that works better for Sorkin. Yes. It's like... I remember reading an interview with Jeff Daniels

[00:56:35] where he said, like, you just need to know the fucking language backwards and forwards so thoroughly that then you can just kind of toss everything off, dance on it, take whatever it is, but just like, you know. And I feel like Sasha Baron Conan is a perfect example

[00:56:51] of someone who is playing the Sorkin of it too hard. I think that is underlined a bad performance. I am astonished that became such an Oscar run. Well, I think it's also just he was going to get an acting nomination and they all...

[00:57:04] They love to do that to give you the nomination for the serious movie over the better performance in the comic move. Right, which they should have done. But I think Rylance is great in that movie. I think Keaton's great in that movie.

[00:57:15] The other person I consider putting in, I think Yaya Abdul Mateen is great in that movie. And the fact that that character is so fucked by the sorkininess of that movie and his decisions on how he wants to represent reality almost makes that performance more impressive to me

[00:57:36] because it feels like he's working over time to overcome the shafting of that character within the narrative or, you know, his... The actuality of how things played out. Yeah, I just think that guy's a fucking star. Yeah, he's great. David, you had Glen Terman and Ma Rainey.

[00:57:58] He was one of my runners up. I also had Coleman Domingo and Ma Rainey as a runner up. Also very good. Both of them, I thought were really, really fantastic. I think Glen Terman is my winner. He's my easy runaway winner.

[00:58:09] I think that's like a slept on performance in a way, even though it was well reviewed. Yeah, I am a bit of an August Wilson slot. I don't know how to, you know, like, I really love. I really love watching incredibly talented actors

[00:58:25] tackle his language, and that's why I really like the filmed versions of his movies, even when they are, you know, filmed versions of excellent plays. Like, I think I actually have to say well directed movie. Like, I think it's making a lot of interesting choices.

[00:58:39] What do you have to say? Sorry. Well, I was basically what you just said, which is that I'm surprised how much I liked George C. Wolfe's direction of that. I was expecting a lot more of just like, I think he makes some really interesting camera choices in that.

[00:58:50] And I was impressed at the way that, like, he sort of built it out without being like, now we're going where you have to set a scene outside because you wouldn't see that in a play. You know what I mean? Like one of those kind of things.

[00:59:02] Right. I really thought he did a good job. Um, that I just think that performance is so sad and so tremendous. And I love him as an actor. He's my guy. Orion Lee is the only other guy on my list. I haven't talked about just a great performance.

[00:59:17] Great performance. And Kelly Reichart was trying to tell me about him when I interviewed her many, many moons ago. And she said like, you know, we're very different. He likes Shrek. That's how she put it to me.

[00:59:26] And I've never let that go in terms of like, did he mention Shrek? Right. How did this come up? Paul Shrek in How He Wanted to Do Something in a Scene. Was he like like Shrek? Like, I just have always wanted to know.

[00:59:39] This cow reminds me of Shrek, I think. Yeah. When Shrek came up in their conversations, but he loves Shrek, he's great in that movie. I mean, she gives him a direction and he's like, oh, like in Shrek. And she's like, yes. Exactly.

[00:59:52] I have I shared the anecdote about my day on set with her on night moves? I can't remember. I mean, we've talked about it personally, but I'm not sure. I'll just say this very quickly, because it feels parallel to this

[01:00:03] and asking how is that the thing that lingered with her? She's an intense, quiet, very focused person. Right? Right. And and she speaks in a way that is kind of economic and sparse, much like you'd imagine from the person who makes those movies.

[01:00:23] She just knows exactly what she wants and she's pretty direct about it. There was some line in the script where it's clearly this character, this manager of a sporting goods store that I played is talking about Charlie Sheen.

[01:00:38] Like she just wrote like a placeholder line of like, oh, they're talking about like people magazine shit. Right? And it's when Charlie Sheen was on his whole like winning thing. And she was like, we need more time. So can you just riff more on the Charlie Sheen thing?

[01:00:53] And she called cut in the middle of a take because I talked about him blowing his syndication money. And there was a level of disdain in her saying like, why would you even be talking? There's no way your character would know about that.

[01:01:09] But also that she resented that I as a person even had that in my mind to bring up. Yeah, because I think she's, you know, she's this person who like moved to Oregon and like is kind of like, I don't want to.

[01:01:21] I don't want to think about all that. Right. I want to make it clear. Very sweet person. I had a lovely time with an incredible director incredible director, my favorite living directors. But it was just like the way she came up to me.

[01:01:32] It was just like, first of all, no way this guy would know that. Second of all, why are you even bringing that into the picture? But yes, a Ryan Lee lecture. Here, Joe, who's your winner? Did you say your winner? I'm sorry.

[01:01:48] I didn't. I think mine is Kaluya. I also want to shout out my big runner up was Malachi Kirby and Mangrove, who I don't know if I'm going to be able to talk about Mangrove very much

[01:01:56] and the rest of this thing, I just want to say he's really, really good. He is. He is really, really good. That movie, I can't wait to watch all those again. I sort of watched them quickly. Yeah. Oh, not all. I watched all the Lovers Rock long before,

[01:02:11] but then I watched the rest of them kind of quickly. But I just want to give you the blankies. Ten supporting performers. Oh, yeah, because I could not find this. I've been looking for the last 15 minutes. No, I have it. I have it. They they have, you know,

[01:02:24] just the 10 lead, 10 supporting. So their 10 supporting performers are Paul Racing, Sound of Metal, Amanda Safe Reed and Manknurts, Yunyuzhong and Minari, Maria Bakalova and Borat two, Chadwick Boseman into Five Bloods, great performance, in my opinion. Brian Lee in First Cow, Pattinson and Tenet,

[01:02:41] Tolly Ryder and never rarely, sometimes always. Buckets Bergen and Let Them All Talk and J.K. Simmons and Palm Springs, which is a performance I liked. But some people are really passionate about. I can't say that I like that choice.

[01:02:55] Palm Springs was the last movie I saw in a theater. What a good movie. I love that movie. What should we move to? Do we do the screenplays sort of quickly? Do we want to knock those out? Let's knock those out. Griff. Yeah, sure. Yeah.

[01:03:14] OK, OK. All right. I'm going to give you my original screenplays. All right. You're going to sit there and take it. My original screenplay nominees are Sean Durkin for the Nest, Andy Ciara for Palm Springs, Kelly O'Sullivan for St. Francis,

[01:03:30] Lee Isaac Chung for Minari and Clever Phil Ho and Juliano Dornel's and I apologize. My Portuguese is probably way off for Baccarau. Those are my Baccarau. Good pick. Well, now that you've gone with the flex of naming all the writers, like I should have when I'm sorry.

[01:03:52] You don't have to. I just have my. No, no, no, no, no. This is good. The only one I actually didn't know off the top of my head was Andy Ciara for Palm Springs. He is one of my nominees, though. Also Emerald Fennell, Fennell, Fennell, I think, right?

[01:04:06] Promising young woman. Um. Oh, God. David Fincher's dad. What's his dad's name? Jack Jack. Jack Fincher for Mank, Lee Isaac Chung for Minari and Kelly O'Sullivan for St. Francis. Best original screenplay. Let them all talk. Yep. Debra Eisenberg. The Five Bloods. Uh, Rachel Wilson's dad,

[01:04:32] Spike Lee and Kevin Wilma and another guy. I forget his name now and I feel bad because I literally interviewed them. But the other guy is dead. Anyway, yes, Paul D'Amio. You're you're on you're on the hook for this, by the way. You've set the standard.

[01:04:45] Hmm? The assistant. The assistant is Kitty Green, right? I think correct. Yeah, yeah. Palm Springs. And Sierra made all three. The Way Back. Oh, the Way Back. Who wrote The Way Back? Uh, The Way Back was written by Brad Inglesby,

[01:05:07] the writer of Out of the Furnace and Run All Night. Two movies I think about constantly. All right, you're going straight to adapted. Hit it, hit it, hit it. Adapted. We'll do it snake style, right? Then we'll go back. Yeah, exactly. It's good. Adapted. First cow.

[01:05:23] Yeah, that's John Raymond and Kelly Reikart. Yes, I'm thinking of ending things. Christopher, I don't really care. Crotchalli Kaufman. The Invisible Man. Oh, I love this. Who wrote the invisible? Lee Wendell, baby. Just Lee Wendell all by himself. Good job. Nice. So low credit.

[01:05:45] I mean, this one, you're going to say who wrote it. But I think we're going to have to give this a little bit of a wink. The Old Guard. The Old Guard, which is I believe is it solely credited to Greg Rucka?

[01:06:00] It's solely credited to Rucka, but I read that comic and I saw that movie. And I mean, there was work done. Well, I think Gina collaborated with him. Absolutely. Is the nice way to put it. You know, he was never excluded or whatever.

[01:06:12] But no, no, no, no, I'm just saying she doesn't get credit on that movie. And everything I like about that movie is the stuff that she's clearly adding that is not there in the book that he wrote. And my fifth. Adapted screenplay nomination, the trip to Greece.

[01:06:28] Oh, does that I'm going to say accounts. Why not? That's the Oscars does it that way. They run. It's the boy. Yeah, based on characters. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Exactly. But before Sunset did that. Yes. Yeah. I had a good question on my last trivia night

[01:06:49] that I did that you guys would have gotten, I think. I have confidence that you guys would have done well with it. I think that's a I find it odd that that movie flew so under the radar considering that for me, it's like that's a perfect

[01:07:03] yeah, lockdown wash. Yeah, it is. It's surprising nobody really talked about it. Yeah. No, I think people got burned on Spain. I know a lot of people were really turned off by Spain where I feel like people didn't even try this one.

[01:07:17] I mean, once again, the only thing I Spain's good. All four of them are good. All four of them are good. It's one of the most consistent film series ever. My only criticism of them is I wish I was watching the TV series

[01:07:27] because my problem with those movies are I could watch them for eight hours and I hate that in England they get to watch them for eight hours. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. I mean, you could always whatever six or whatever it is. Express VPN, whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:07:42] OK, the assistant is adapted way. Is that or was that original? I'm losing my mind. I put it in original. My wrong. It is original. No, it is original. I'm sorry. I couldn't remember where things ended up. OK, Joe, give me your adaptants.

[01:07:56] My adaptants are First Cow, Jonathan Raymond and Kelly Reichert, Monterey's Black Bottom, Ruben Santiago Hudson, Nomadland, Chloe Jow, One Night in Miami, Camp Powers and Unpregnant, which is credited to Jenny Hendricks, Ted Kaplan, Jennifer, Kate Robinson, Rachel Lee Goldenberg and Bill Parker. A classic Joe pick.

[01:08:22] I really, really loved that movie. And I'm surprised more people didn't talk about it. Haven't seen it. I'm sure I would love that fucking thing. I like to know. I like to know. I like Booksmart and I thought.

[01:08:34] I thought it should have gotten maybe a little bit of, you know, a fraction of the love that Booksmart got at least and did and nobody really talked about. I mean, it was HBO Max when like HBO Max was launching and like nobody had it on Roku.

[01:08:48] And like I didn't watch it for like several weeks because I didn't have HBO Max on my Roku and like I get it. But it's really charming. Haley Lee Richardson is wonderful. The other her counterpart, Barbie Ferrera, who it's the first thing that I've ever seen her in.

[01:09:05] She's really good and funny in that. And it's like, you know, it's a good, like funny road trip comedy with these two, you know, really funny and engaging girls. And I don't know.

[01:09:15] I thought it was pretty well written and like queer positive in a way that I really liked. And yeah. Can I throw it? Oh, watch it. A hot take. Yeah, throw it. Maybe this was a weird year for movies. You think so? What are you talking about?

[01:09:30] Even just talking about you talking about why that movie fell under the radar is like, oh, right. This is the year that film culture like sort of like ate itself and then turned into an inside out creature where the veins are on the outside.

[01:09:46] We were subject to things like whether a platform had launched on Roku or not. Yeah. Right. And like a platform launching on the wrong day of the week. Yeah. Anyway, it's totally true. Here are my adapted nominees. We've got John Raymond and Kelly Breiker for first cow.

[01:10:03] We've got Charlie Kaufman from the game. Anything we have Christopher Hampton and Florian Zeller for the father, the father. We have Simon Blackwell and Arundhoy Nucci for the personal history of David Copperfield and we have David Pryor for the empty man. Which one was the empty man?

[01:10:25] The empty man is a horror film starring James Vagdale that was filmed like in the fucking Eisenhower administration and during the pandemic by Disney. It was a Fox movie that was given the same treatment as the New Mutants. It's like two hours and 20 minutes long.

[01:10:45] It is directed by written and directed by a guy who did EPK for many years, including for David Fincher and for other people. It's based on a comic book, but has nothing to do with it, except shares the title, which the director thought was cool.

[01:10:59] And it is absolutely incredible. And I highly recommend it. And I think it has a lot of brilliant ideas running through it in the screenplay, especially especially, but it's also gorgeous. Some people some some outlet just ran a story about the weird cult of the empty man.

[01:11:17] Yes, Dan Jackson was one of the first to jump on it. I'm sad that I'm on paternity leave because I would try to be all over this fucking thing. This poster scaring the shit out of me as it is. So like, I already really want to see it.

[01:11:28] It's scary. It's scary. And it's where it is. It's on a streaming platform or is it like VOD? You got to buy it or rent it. You got to buy it. I'll do it. But it was like it was like New Mutants,

[01:11:39] like the first movies pushed to the front line when theaters were reopening. It was just like, oh, this must be garbage, right? And then David two months ago was like, people are telling me the empty man is good. A couple of people started banging the drum.

[01:11:52] Adam Naiman, I think, you know, Sean Fentasy, a couple of you know, I was like, oh, OK, I guess I'll check it out. Checked it out. And I was like, well, this is straight up good. Oh, OK.

[01:12:01] And then I read one interview with the guy and I was like, oh, this guy put a lot of care into this movie. And Disney was like, I'm seeing we own something called the empty man. I don't know what that is.

[01:12:11] Why don't we put it in the empty theaters? Fuck off. David, right before we started recording, you said that you were like, I haven't seen David Copperfield in like 15 months. I put it in putting that in or putting in something really, really chaotic.

[01:12:30] No, can you tell us what the chaotic pick would have been? The empty man was the chaotic pick. I decided to include David Copperfield as well and kick out Norma Nomadland, which I don't think the screenplay is the thing about it.

[01:12:43] I do think it's an interesting work of adaptation that she's taking a nonfiction work. But like, I don't like, you know, I was like, it's OK. Chloe Chloe Jow is doing fine. She doesn't need my screenplay nomination.

[01:12:53] My winner is I'm thinking of ending things, which is an adaptation of a book I did not like that I think did all kinds of incredible work with its concept. I know not everyone agrees with that. That's obviously a very divisive movie.

[01:13:09] Yeah. But obviously I love First Cow. I think that's beautifully written. And the father, which is adapted from a play, is one of the greatest pieces of play to screen adaptation that I've seen in a long time. Oh, wow. That's yes. The father.

[01:13:24] David, my winner is also I'm thinking of ending things. I agree with you just said. I also feel like Charlie Kaufman is the only person who makes movies the way my dreams feel in a way that I find very cathartic to watch.

[01:13:39] I think people who are not riddled with panic stress nightmares all the time, perhaps find his films alienating. But I just am so on the wavelength of what that movie is doing with regards to logic. My original winner is The Nest.

[01:13:58] Sean Durkin's The Nest, one of my favorite movies this year. That is an incredible piece of I mean, I think it's a work of memoir. Like, I think it's about his life, but his childhood especially. But like it is, I think a wonderfully written movie.

[01:14:11] But Palm Springs is kind of right behind there. And then that's just like that's just kind of a slam dunk screenplay. Like it's such a good idea not to do a time loop movie, but to do a time loop

[01:14:21] movie is this metaphor for marriage, for taking the plunge on a big relationship. And it just nails the metaphor so exactly. And it's funny. And it's very funny. So I really constructed and you know, good characters. Yeah. Did you say you're adapted winter Joe?

[01:14:37] Oh no, but mine is first cow. Adapted was a lot thinner of a category for me than original this year. I think Ditto. I think in any year where like no, none of the big studio movies come out

[01:14:51] is always going to be thinner and adapted because that's where you get most of your adaptions. But yeah, it's just a really lovely story. And I think it's told really well. My original winner is probably Menari. David, you've already made me grateful that I didn't put the nest

[01:15:08] in my nominees because you're right, the nest is really fantastic. But like it's a strong set of nominees. I probably could have named, you know, up to 10. But like Palm Springs, as you said, super funny. I think St. Francis is really well observed.

[01:15:22] I think Mank I like Mank as much as I do because it's about so many more things that I thought it was going to be about. And I like the way it sort of meanders around to those kind of things. California politics and yada, yada, yada. And.

[01:15:40] Promising Young Women, which I think is more of a directing triumph than a screenplay triumph. But I think the ideas it has going on to me are very intriguing. And I think it's, you know, earns its spot on my list because of that.

[01:15:56] That you said it's more of a directing triumph than a screenplay triumph for you. Yeah, I think the I think what I love most about this movie and what sort of like took me a second to come around on

[01:16:08] is the audacity of it and sort of just like the the willingness to sort of go to the places that it goes, especially by the end and sort of leave you on the note that it leaves you. And.

[01:16:22] Yeah, I think and just sort of the way that it, you know, styles its environment and sort of like lures you into certain things in the way that the pacing of like the Mulligan-Bowburnham relationship sort of rope adopes you in.

[01:16:37] And yeah, I think it's a really well directed movie. See, I disqualified Promising Young Women for my stupid reasons. But I had the exact opposite takeaway. Yeah, I like that movie. It would have been in contention in a couple of categories for me.

[01:16:55] But I think it is far more successful as a screenplay than it is a piece of directing for me. But potatoes, potatoes. Yeah. Goodbye for now. I just wanted to say that. Sorry. I'm going to give you the blankie choices in original screenplay.

[01:17:13] The blankies chose Palm Springs, Defy Bloods, Minari, Never Early Sometimes Always and Promising Young Woman. And in Adapted they chose First Cow. I'm thinking of ending things. No Mad Land, One Night in Miami and Emma, which is a very nice screenplay in my opinion.

[01:17:29] Very good piece of interaction. I should say Defy Bloods is my winner for original screenplay. I think Spike Lee has now tapped into this really interesting thing of what if I take a script that's just sort of like on the shelf at a studio

[01:17:46] and put my shit on top of it? Correct. I like it. He's made two movies in a row that kind of have like more sort of like obvious studio genre origins and has then been able to take this really kind of sturdy kind of like a populist base

[01:18:07] and put all of his as a framework for all of his ideas and thoughts and formal expectations, experimentations. And I think that's an incredible script. I really do want to plug. I rarely plug my writing, but just check out my interview with. Yeah, that's an incredible interview.

[01:18:25] Kevin Wilma and Danny Billson, not because of what I did, just because the three of them talking was just interesting. That's the process of that script coming into the form we've seen is fascinating. Because this is the whole thing. I just assumed it was what as you said,

[01:18:39] they just off this screenplay that was Danny Billson and Paul D'Amato had written that Oliver Stone was going to direct and then just sort of languish. And so I figured that Billson had nothing to do with the movie.

[01:18:48] And when Netflix was like, hey, do you want to talk to all of them at the same time? I was like, oh, they're into that. And then it was just this incredibly sweet, especially since one of the writers is dead thing of Billson being like Spike.

[01:19:00] I had never when you did this, I had never thought about like adding that element in. And it was so cool that you had that idea and Spike Lee's like, yeah, but you had this in there.

[01:19:09] You know, like they were all just being very nice to each other about all of their contributions. But it's the argument for like getting outside eyes and fresh eyes and stuff. Like it's like Spike never could have come up with.

[01:19:22] I don't think he would have come up with that movie on his own. Whole clock. Sure. He adds to it. They never would have gotten to themselves. Right, exactly. So it was just very interesting. That movie that sort of the screen.

[01:19:36] The thing about it is like, I think the screenplay is kind of insane in a mess, but in a good way. Yeah, yeah. That's what I love about it, baby. Yeah. All right. OK, I want to move us on to lead acting.

[01:19:48] Which one do you want to do first? Let's do actress first because we did supporting actress first. That's fine. I will give you my my lead actors. So we've got here they are. Are you ready? Sydney Flanagan and never rarely, sometimes always.

[01:20:06] Julia Garner in The Assistant, Han Yehri in Minnery, Kerry Kuhn in Dawn Est. Sorry, I can't resist doing that every time. And Jesse Buckley and I'm thinking of ending things. Mine, my fifth slot is still up in the air.

[01:20:27] And we're just going to see where I get to when I get to my fifth name. But the first four are real griff style there. Yeah, I'm flying without a flying without a net here. Kerry Kuhn in The Nest. Sorry, David, the nest.

[01:20:42] On us. Julia Garner in The Assistant. Francis McDormand in No Mad Land. Kerry Mulligan in Promising Young Woman. And I think I'm going to go with Haley Bennett in Swallow. I keep trying to say shallow, it's not shallow, it's swallow. Good movie.

[01:21:00] Just edging out Elizabeth Moss in The Invisible Man, who I loved. And I will say my five starts with Elizabeth Moss. So good. Then I'm going to go to the only performer shared by all three of us. Julia Garner in The Assistant. Very good.

[01:21:22] Jesse Buckley, I'm thinking of ending things. Sydney Flanagan, never rarely, sometimes always. And Rachel McAdams Eurovision Mother. Honest. Fuckers. Certainly in my top 10 for that category. Yeah, definitely. Chris Similliotti also close. Yes, close, close as well. Yes. That's a look. No one is more astonished to have liked

[01:21:50] Eurovision that much. But one of the many things that film does right is that it is her movie. Yeah, it is so fundamentally her movie. Not only does she have more screen time, but she is the one who is the propulsive force of the narrative.

[01:22:05] And she is constantly underrated as a comedic actress, largely because she is also able to bring depth while doing comedy. I'll also just say this. She is far more convincing lip syncing her songs in that movie than people who have won Oscars or lip syncing their songs.

[01:22:24] Who could you be referring to? How dare you? I can't even go into a panel of grand jury. Who knows? But like watching that movie and it's like Will Ferrell is doing his comedy singing for those songs and she is lip syncing some prerecorded track.

[01:22:36] I buy it in that. Yeah. And that's half of the movie. It reminds me of how much I love, especially in the in the Marvel movies, maybe more so even than Wanda vision. But the way that Elizabeth Moss does finger acting when she does magic.

[01:22:50] She's so good at the handshake. That's how I feel like about Rachel McAdams doing lip syncing and hero vision. It's just like you wouldn't think that that would be such an important skill, but it really is.

[01:22:59] My winner is Carrie Koon in the Nest, one of my favorite movies of the year. And like again, I'm looking at this. It's like I saw all these movies and theaters except for I'm thinking of ending things, which was my most profound at home

[01:23:13] viewing experience of the year. I watched the night before I got married. Oh, wow. Because I was interviewing Charlie Kaufman like the day after I got married. And I was like, they gave me the screener that day and I was like, well, I got to watch this.

[01:23:27] I queue it up. I'm like, Jesus, it's like two hours and 20 minutes long. And then I'm like just sitting with it. This is anyway. And it's two hours and 20 minutes long and it's three scenes.

[01:23:39] Exactly. And it's about like the mortal terror of being with someone or being alone. Right, right. But but I anyway, I do think there is that's just one where I really know. But then the nest is

[01:23:56] Harry Koon in the nest is kind of my performance of the year. Yeah, she's probably my number one, too. It's her. It's the carries for me, jockeying for number one, Koon and Mulligan. But I think Koon takes mine.

[01:24:10] And I think my winner is going to be Elizabeth Moss and Invisible Man. She rules in that she rules in that she rules in that it's kind of like it's it's a coin flip between her and Garner, I would say. Garner is incredible, obviously.

[01:24:29] Yeah, we all had such. It's such a complicated performance with all of the weird technical aspects of that movie. And the whole thing really does hinge on her being the person you see everything through. The field of optics. Yes, that pioneer.

[01:24:50] Is that the phrase a pioneer in the field of optics? Yeah, I really like that movie when I saw it and I'd like to see it again. That is a that is as I'm sure it was for you guys.

[01:24:59] A one of my final three pandemic watches in a crowded theater. I saw it at home in pandemic, but it's the it's it's the loudest. I helped did a movie during the pandemic was the scene in the restaurant

[01:25:13] that I don't want to give away in case anybody listening. Yes, it's a hell of a scene. Yeah, really, I screamed out loud in my room to nobody. It was amazing. I wish I'd seen that in theaters.

[01:25:24] I watched it very early in lockdown because it was one of the first things that then went to iTunes early. Yes. And when I made this decision that I was not going to the fucking watch all the Oscar movies I hadn't seen,

[01:25:36] I gave that guy a rewatch and man, am I glad that I did because it certainly felt like I watched it 18 years ago and the refresh. Yes, really appreciate that movie more. The assistant is Garner just we all had her like that movie is on her.

[01:25:55] Obviously, if there's a thermostat performance in there, but like that movie is all in her face, like, you know, there's so much that she has to carry every scene where nothing is happening in her face while she's like reading emails and, you know, like that kind of shit,

[01:26:10] like to make that as compelling as it is. Right. That's the thing for me is I feel like the the invisible man and assistant performances are very similar in that way. And I worry that I'm giving Moss the edge because she ultimately has to quote unquote do more.

[01:26:27] That it's the bigger performance, which is not to say that what Garner is doing is any less complicated and skillful and difficult. But they're they're just really kind of neck and neck for me. Garner had it until I've rewatched Invisible Man last night.

[01:26:47] Yeah, I feel like that's it. Right. Is there anyone else you want to talk about? I mean, this is a crowded category. I think McDormand is great in No Mad Land. I think Chris and the audience is great. I'm trying to think of some other big ones.

[01:27:02] I'll talk about Hailey Bennett for a second, just because I think she's really that's a movie I would like more people to see. It took me a while to get to that one, just because it was just like one

[01:27:12] of a billion movies that I felt like I heard one or two people talk about at one point. But you get even past the point where you get of just like what the movie is about, which is this like it's called Swallow

[01:27:22] because she starts to swallow weird household objects that really that was another movie that made me like yelp out loud at one point when she starts swallowing thumbtacks and shit. But like it also becomes this really kind of like

[01:27:37] involved in almost like Macabre character study in terms of just like what she's going through and what, you know, her background is. And she's an actress who I have loved since forever. She was in that Greg Iraqi movie. Kaboom. Yeah, like Jillian years ago.

[01:27:55] And I'm like, she's a fucking star. And then almost right after that, Jennifer Lawrence happened and everybody was just like, well, we can't have Haley Bennett because like she looks like too much like Jennifer Lawrence.

[01:28:05] And it feels like the last few years she's started to sort of like build up more and more and more. And I'm happy about that because I think she's really, really talented. Yes, she is very talented. Swallow is crazy. Swallow is a really great

[01:28:21] Dennis O'Hare performance at the end of that movie, too. All right, well, I'm moving I'm moving over to actor guys. You're my actors. This is a stacked category where every single person is a potential

[01:28:34] winner for me. And this was the category I had the hardest time filling out probably because outside of the obvious picks, there are not many other people. Like I feel like even when I was looking at long list contenders,

[01:28:47] it was like, oh, there were like eight obvious people jockeying for these slots and then very few other people outside of that who were even in the conversation anyway. My nominees are Delroy Lindo and Defy Bloods, Mads Mikkelsen in another round,

[01:29:02] Chadwick Boseman and Ma Rainey, Anthony Hopkins and the father and Jude Law in The Nest. Those are my nomin picks. And great, great picks. Mine are Christopher Abbott and possessor, Riz Ahmed in Sound of Metal, Delroy Lindo in Defy Bloods,

[01:29:25] LaKeith Stanfield in Judas and the Black Messiah and Steven Young in Menari. Oh, my nominees are Delroy Lindo Defy Bloods, John Magaro, First Cow, Cookie, Jesse Plemons, I'm thinking of ending things. Ben Affleck, The Way Back and Lucas Hedges, Let Them All Talk, He Is Co.

[01:29:54] He Drives the Story. Yeah, sure. Yeah, I'll accept that. I thought you were going to fight me more on that. I don't know. I mean, it's an ensemble. Yeah, like so it's one of those sort of like are they all supporting?

[01:30:08] You know, yeah, I could see him as a lead. I should watch it again too. He's in a lot of it. You're kind of right. Fine movie. Yeah. He's in a lot and he is kind. He's he's the plot driver. Yeah. Yes. And he's sort of the audience

[01:30:20] surrogate character and is really the POV character as well for almost all of it. Yes, that is true. Can't can't. Yeah, very true. Yeah, it's it's pretty much either him or Bergen, you're like always pretty much in the movie.

[01:30:36] It's about seeing Meryl through Bergen's eyes or through Hedges eyes and then Hedges has all the Gemma Chan stuff as well. Yeah, he is so fucking good with her. Yeah, he is. He's wonderful with her. You guys had all of my runners up, basically.

[01:30:52] You got I had Mads and Jude and Chadwick and Magaro. Those are right next four. So. Yeah, I mean, I had we had like no overlap. And yet I feel like you probably don't disagree with any of my choices.

[01:31:05] Joe. Yeah. Well, Linda was on all three of ours. Right. That's the only one. Linda is Linda is my winner. Yeah, it's sort of bad titanic performance. It's as he's my winner as well. I feel like to tanks the exact word I use when describing it.

[01:31:19] It's arguably as good as any acting anyone has ever done on camera. It's it's just astonishing shit. And he's been an actor who. Who I've loved for so long, and I'm sure like it's the same for all of us.

[01:31:33] He's been like such a great sort of, you know, small parts. And even when it's stuff, you know, stuff like crooklyn, where he's been in the lead and whatnot, just a fucking pro. Just an accumulation of goodwill and goodwill and goodwill.

[01:31:44] And this one felt so triumphant for me. And so much just like he's just like mailing it in, you know, finally getting this really great showcase and it really, really like I don't want to talk about the Oscars too much.

[01:31:56] It's just like, why didn't this person get nominated? But like it really bums me out that just award season did not happen for him the way I expected it to. And it sucks. No, I mean, like.

[01:32:09] There is as David said, that very small group of movies where you got so engrossed by them watching them at home that it felt like as captivating as watching the thing in theaters and five Bloods is top of that list for me.

[01:32:21] And so much of that is I just feel like Lindo's performance is like like hits you on a molecular level. It is just so immediately grabbing from his first moment on screen. He's doing so many contradictory things at every moment

[01:32:40] without showing any of the work at all feels so natural and lived in. And it's like this fucking like five course meal performance where he gets the big Oscar monologue, you know, has the tearful breakdowns. He's this fucking like tsunami of charisma.

[01:32:56] I just will never understand how that movie didn't linger with the Oscars at large and even if that movie is just a little too weird for people and messy for people that it just it's one of the most bizarre snubs in a long time for me.

[01:33:12] Yeah, it just feels like that performance is undeniable. It's a crazy snub. And yet I will admit like this year's lead acting nominees are all very strong. They're all really good. It's a bad list at all. They've they've nominated five very good performances. It's tough that Lindo is.

[01:33:33] And five performances, especially there's something. Oldman is the one you should kick out. Sure. And I actually like the performance, but he's the one. Not be that right. But like, I'm so, so happy that like it was not a given even six months ago

[01:33:45] that like Riz Ahmed and Steven Young were going to be Oscar nominees. Not at all. Especially that's a pretty quiet performance. Like absolutely. I know he's having a moment as a person and as an actor. And that's that's helping.

[01:33:59] And the movie is cresting at the right time for the Oscars or whatever. But like that is not a movie you watch where you're like, well, that performance is in, you know, that I was really, I really didn't think it was going to happen until it happened.

[01:34:08] Like I was very much just like bracing, bracing myself for it to not happen. The other thing is like, I mean, I think, you know, we're complaining about Oldman, but Mank got in there because of all the dirt he's got on Hollywood.

[01:34:19] Well, well, that's that's, you know, he has too much. He knows he's no as too many phone numbers. Yeah. Call he is too many gossip columnists in his pocket. Look, he was in the kitchen wearing his standard, incredibly normal apron.

[01:34:34] And then he slowly turned to the camera and he said, let me be Mank. There are no times in art. I want to just say that I'm nodding. I know that I'm not saying anything, but I am nodding. I appreciate it. I really appreciate it.

[01:34:53] You loved every minute of it. I'm Mank. I liked Mank. Oh my God. Yeah. Mank is good. Oh, Mank. He's Mank. He's Mank. He's Mank. What do you want from us? What do you want? He's Mank. Come on. Look, I'm not saying I didn't like Mank. Mank.

[01:35:08] But then this is the thing. It's like Hopkins for me and I said this to Griffin, like I described the performance as the destruction of Alderaan because Griffin was saying, I think correctly, like, do people really want to watch that movie? It's such a tough hang.

[01:35:22] Oh, I mean, A, do people really want to watch that movie? B, has anyone watched that movie? That's what I'm saying. I haven't seen it yet. I just felt like it literally wasn't getting out there. And it's one of those movies that when I saw it,

[01:35:36] I was in a premiere to Sundance last year, I was sitting down being like, this sounds like a fucking drag. And then you watch it and you're like, oh, this is like one of the most exciting pieces of cinema. Like this is absolutely electrifying.

[01:35:50] And he is so good. And then he has a scene at the end that you're like, forget it. He's won. It's over. He has a scene at the end that you're like, it is amazing to me that after that was filmed,

[01:36:02] he wasn't like, you have to burn that film because it's too fucking intense. Yeah, or that the camera didn't just explode. Like it's the most oscar. It's a great piece of acting, but it's also their bread and butter and he's not going to win

[01:36:15] because Bozeman is so extraordinary in my rainy and then and also the tragic narrative there. But I think also just because Bozeman is kind of incredible. Yeah, I think Bozeman might who knows, you know, but like but he's so good. David, I mean, old Oscar, Mr. Gold himself.

[01:36:34] Oscar and Mink knows it. People think about him being naked, right? He's got to see it right behind you. He's he's got no pants pockets. He's holding that sword in front of his his genitals. Right. Yeah. Oh, wow. But he's holding something else this year.

[01:36:49] It's crumpled up very small in the palm underneath the handle of the sword. And you go, what is this? And he step up closer and you go, Oscar, open your hand. What do you got in there? And you take it out and you unfold it and it says,

[01:37:04] Vonte Mac, no matter what. Yeah, it does. Doesn't matter what fucking Hopkins did. It's going to be Vonte Mac. No matter what I couldn't predict. I was like, is this going to be like a like a kuk joke, like a JD Amato style?

[01:37:20] I was really ready for something. I'm you really delivered. I'm very happy about that. Look, I haven't I haven't seen that movie yet either. But just by all accounts, it's just like it's the same thing as fucking Joker where it's just like, oh, the guy maybe gave

[01:37:33] his best performance ever. And also he's a beloved person who was taken from us too soon. Impossible to be right? Yeah, impossible to be. And yet Hopkins incredible. Lindo, as we all said, incredible. Mads, Mickelson and other round is so good and so mad.

[01:37:49] Like, you know, it's like it's so full. It's such a full spectrum performance of a guy that you often in a Hollywood movie only get to see a sliver of. And you know, this is true in a lot of the Danish movies he makes,

[01:38:01] but it's still true and is obviously so good that it did resonate with voters because it got that surprise directing nomination. Yeah. My thing with the father, the Faja, the father, the father, the father is done. Asked.

[01:38:15] I since last March, I've been back in Buffalo living with my parents. It's not going on 13 months now. It's been a very obviously strange year. And then this year 2020. Yeah, yeah. I'm just going to advance that notion. Normal year, normal year.

[01:38:32] But I keep getting confronted with these movies that are like what if your parents died where it's just like and I watched Dick Johnson is dead and it's a very good movie. And I'm just like it was a lot to get me to watch that movie

[01:38:44] because I'm just like I'm not in an emotional space right now to deal with what if your parents died? And now with the father, I feel like I'm also being asked to be put in that space. That is a classic example of a movie.

[01:38:54] I just cannot imagine when I will feel ready to watch that. Dick Johnson or the father or both? The father, the father. I watched Dick Johnson, which I love. Yeah, but is a tough movie. But I think playful enough in its ways that I could handle it.

[01:39:10] The thing about the father is it is kind of it's cinematic in ways you just don't see coming. But that is. Yeah, and also, I guess what? I won't see them coming and I also won't see them period

[01:39:22] because I never I cannot foresee a time where I will be emotionally and psychologically. That's when you will know you healed is when you can watch the father. Yeah, I look forward to watching in 2037. I just want to shout out Christopher Abbott in Possessor,

[01:39:37] which is a movie I saw very recently. He's fantastic. He's having that's a movie that like I was sort of prepared for maybe to be like too gross for me. And maybe it was going to be a little bit more than I could handle.

[01:39:52] But I really loved it. I think it's really, you know, Brandon Cronenberg. He got it. And Christopher Abbott's an actor who I feel like every year is like showing me more and more and more. And like he's so good in this.

[01:40:06] He's the only thing I liked in that Sundance movie, the Suicide Pack Sundance movie, whose title I am now struggling to think of with. It's called like fucking suicide squad. Yes, it's great. John Carmichael Suicide Squad.

[01:40:22] I did not like that movie, but I thought Chris Abbott was really, really good and the good part of it. But he's the possessor sort of asks him to play, you know, both bewilderment and also like then the parts

[01:40:38] where he is sort of like being taken over by this, you know, other personality. It's the classic sort of like actors challenge that, you know, you sort of but I think he plays it in really interesting ways. And I don't know.

[01:40:53] He's and Riseborough is also great in that movie. She's one of my runners up for actress, but yeah. Look, I mean, I haven't seen whiskey Tango Foxtrot where him being in that role itself is a problem. But outside of that, he's always good. Yeah, always always exceptionally good.

[01:41:13] Yeah. Absolutely. He's a role, large role lead any type of project. He's he's he's quietly one of the best we got right now. Oh, it's exciting to see him in something. Yeah. Possessor rules. It is gross, but yeah. Yeah, super gross.

[01:41:28] But yeah, to the point where sometimes I'm watching and I'm just like, did we really like we have to see that? Yeah, Ben told me he thought it was the funniest movie of the year. A feel good romp for the whole family. Perfect. OK, Griff.

[01:41:48] Did you have any other actors you wanted to shout out? Getting your list. No, once again, I mean, look, this this was the category I had to stretch the most. Oh, but of the people I put on. Look, I have five good nominees.

[01:42:03] I just want to say, despite all your caveats, you have a very robust like the great set of nominees this year. Like I guess, look, I mean, my qualifications are that I just felt so aware of how incomplete because look, the three of us are

[01:42:17] lunatics who feel like a whole shit, a true compulsion to watch almost everything. Right. And there are so many things I left off that I felt like I had to offer more qualifiers rather than being like, I'm going to put this person on the same

[01:42:31] list with this bizarre griff nomination. But guess what? It ends up sounding not that different than my usual fucking weird. Exactly. It's a good group. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Here's some. Go ahead. Yeah. I mean, like, look, like, you know, Plemons is the least showy

[01:42:47] of the four I'm thinking of ending things. He's got nominees, but he's solid as a rock. He gets a bump from also being really fucking good in Judas, which I like a lot, but they did not include for these reasons.

[01:43:00] And then the ones again, just one of those guys who's become one of the best. Magaro super quiet, unshoey work. Probably if I had seen the four other devastating best actor front runners, he might have four other devastating best actors. Sorry.

[01:43:14] But I do want to circle back to one Mr. Benjamin Affleck, where I feel like that movie was supposed to come out October 2019. They bumped it to March. It played in theaters for 10 days before going to iTunes, essentially. Right? Yes.

[01:43:33] And it was so early front lines like it was like, oh, that's going out. And bloodshot is going out. Two of my fair moys of the year. But I feel like the other things that got put on iTunes early were like

[01:43:45] Invisible Man, which had already had a decent box office run. Right? Like even though it was cut short and then you have the bigger things that make a bigger splash a couple months later, the thing was totally forgotten.

[01:43:56] I think if that movie had gone straight to HBO Max in October, November, he would have been a serious best actor contender, even in a crowded year. I think if that movie had come out the previous year in October, he would have been a serious best actor contender.

[01:44:09] I mean, it's hard to extricate it from the narrative. But I rewatched it again last night. It was the other movie I rewatched to look at. And that guy is just so fucking in the zone at every single moment of that movie.

[01:44:23] I know it's got juice from the blurring between like everything we know about what this guy has been going through and the thing itself. But he is so incredibly good. I realized watching it because Affleck's got a lot of weaknesses, right? And a lot of times he overreaches.

[01:44:38] He takes a role that he should not take and drowns in it, right? He is so good at bullshitting on screen. And by which I mean, he's so good at playing people who are bullshitting their way through life.

[01:44:51] It's the thing that I feel like people have always struggled with with Affleck is it feels like there's a certain insincerity to him at times, you know, that he's sort of like taking shortcuts and cashing out and whatever.

[01:45:04] And he it's it's such a devastating performance the way back. And you look at the combination of the sadness there, the anger there, the quiet po裐ency there. I feel like it is the most sort of natural lived in performance he has given

[01:45:18] for a guy who has, you know, a handful of performances I really love and a far greater number of performances that I think are near catastrophes catastrophic. But I will say this a hella basic thought

[01:45:31] but coming from someone who just watched the way back and also had to watch all the fucking Snyder movies last week in preparation for ZSJL. Can you imagine if he fucking played Batman like that? Be better. It'd be better. Better.

[01:45:49] Like, I'm not saying play Batman as a lush, but also just like if he was able to conjure the energy he has. That's because that's what that movie wants. And I think he's fine in those movies. I actually want him to play like angry, grieving, broken.

[01:46:05] Yeah, I think that Snyder, the problem with his performance in those movies is I think Snyder actually does him dirty, even though Snyder obviously wants this out of him and has this whole conception of that character. He then hands him the character arcs of is mad at Superman

[01:46:22] and feels bad that he killed Superman over two movies. And I'm like, I need more than just this guy's pissed off about Superman. Like there is a Batman movie here that you didn't make anyway. The Snyder cut. Obviously will dominate 2021's ballot. That's that's another story.

[01:46:41] We're not even going to have a blankies next year. We're just going to do two hours waxing rhapsodic about this night. Wait, Joe, who's your winner? Delroy, right? All three of us picked Delroy. Did we all pick Delroy? That's my question.

[01:46:54] I think Joe has frozen, but he is frozen and a still image that looks like he is just deep in thought considering his option. Like his eyes are looking down like he's looking at his list and his lips are just lightly pursed.

[01:47:08] It looks like he's he's ramping up to drop the hammer. He look he looks like Cheryl Boone. Isaacs is about to look back up at the hammer and confidently say, Dick. Yeah. Ben, how you doing? Oh, Joe's gone. He'll be Joe's. Ben, how you do every year?

[01:47:29] Ben, I always feel so bad for you on this episode because you mostly I know you have a heater coming. I know you've got something in the pocket, but you have to listen to us blather.

[01:47:39] I do want to say Ben and I went to a drive-in movie last weekend and then was telling me how proud he was that this was the gear he felt like he had seen the largest number of Oscar films.

[01:47:49] That this is the year where I did the least and bent it the most. Well, and it just because I wanted to be informed, I wanted to see him. But yeah, these episodes, I always prepare myself

[01:48:01] and every year without fail, it's like the three or you are speaking another language where I'm picking up little words here and there. And that makes sense. But it's like chained together. It just sounds like, yeah, it sounds a completely different language. But I don't know.

[01:48:18] I enjoy hearing you guys wax poetic on these topics. Very charitable. Is Judas your number one? That's what you said the other night that you think. Yeah, yeah, I think so. It really like a period piece and it was powerful and everybody in it was so good.

[01:48:41] Look, he's unreal in that movie. He is. He's the star for me. Yeah. I loved Sound of Metal. Unsurprising. Yeah, I have very bad movie. Very bad movie. Yeah, the Five Bloods I just watched last night that blew me away. It was just like that's a movie.

[01:49:04] Like there's what isn't in that movie. It's just all of it. I mean, that's the thing. Yeah, yeah. I also just feel like that's the only movie I've watched at home, aside from the levitation thing that David's talked about,

[01:49:16] where you know, whatever, you're just fully energized by it as if you were in a theater. I also think that's the only movie I've watched in the last year that genuinely feels epic to me. And it's not just the nature of the story

[01:49:29] and that it's sort of this throwback to those kinds of adventure movies, Sierra Madre and whatever. But it's also that like the ambition of what it wants us to consider. You know, there is such a depth of thought in that movie

[01:49:45] and just the expansiveness of the characters and everything. Yeah, like in rewatching it, there's going to be so much more context to catch because again, there is just so much going on. I could study that movie forever. Yeah, I loved it.

[01:50:00] What did I want to say that I thought, oh, Minori. I mean, what an incredible movie that made me feel stuff. Do you know? Do you know like feelings? I do know. And wait a second. You're overwhelmed. A24 just issued a new poster.

[01:50:17] They're not they're no longer promoting their Oscar nominations. What an amazing movie that made me feel stuff. You know, Ben Hosley, our finest film critic. Couldn't have put it better. They finally got number one to weigh in. I mean, yeah. Yeah, they kicked Justin Chang off the poster.

[01:50:35] Ron Hosley. Yeah, Joe is returned. I have returned. OK. Hi, Joe. I do. I'll say the blankie nominees now for the lead performances, which are Delroy Lindo into Five Bloods, Riz Ahmed and Sound of Metal, Sydney Flanagan, Never Rarely, Sometimes Always, a Wonderful Performance.

[01:50:52] Do you want to shout out? Frances McDormand in Nomadland, Jesse Buckley and I'm thinking of ending things. Gary Mulligan in Promising Young Woman, Chadwick Boseman in My Rainies Black Bottom, Mads, Mickelson in Another Round, Steven Young in Minari and another one

[01:51:08] that would in a normal year be a possible winner for me. Hugh Jackman in Bad Education. Like one of the best performances that actor has ever given any as a strong body of work. Like a movie again that I saw 18 months ago now.

[01:51:22] And I would like to see again. Yes. But it's a wonderful movie. Let's also say much respect to that movie. Shout out to Mike McCauskey, Linda Blankie, screenwriter of the film, a friend of the pod. That is a movie where I feel that that is the movie

[01:51:40] that I feel the worst for in award season just because it falls through so many cracks. Yes. It got totally fucked by the fact that it going straight to HBO would not have been disqualifying if that deal had been made months later. Just a couple of months.

[01:51:59] But it won Emmy's obviously it did fine for itself. But yes, I totally agree with you. It got stuck in a 20 years. But that's a very, a very strong film with very strong performances and a lovely screenplay. Yeah. So before we get to director picture,

[01:52:15] are there some specialty things we want to do? Griffin, is there anything you had in particular? You know, you know, you're cute up score, you know, animated film, these sorts of things. I mean, I could think of some specific things. I mean, look, it's like

[01:52:32] I'm incomplete in all these categories. I know, right? I might think of some some quick things to jump out. I do want to say, you know, it always feels like a little bit of a cheat when I double dip in this category.

[01:52:49] I do. I think Thulis kind of has to be the putters and murmurs winner for the range of different putters and murmurs gets to do. We didn't even talk about putters and murmurs. Yes, I've got some options. I've got some of course, of course, of course.

[01:53:05] I love Thulis. Thulis is a fantastic one. I didn't have him on my list, but I should have. And let's say also an actor kind of a hall of fame putters and murmurs actor, right? He's done it. He's done it. He's done the work. We know he's there.

[01:53:18] Naked is like puttering and murmuring on amphetamines, you know? And then like this, it's like that's already his love language is puttering and murmuring. And with this, he gets to like, hold on to that dial and go like, OK, now I'm at a one, now I'm at an 11.

[01:53:33] I'm back to five. Like he's running the gamut. Who else did you have, Joe? So I have Caitlin Chil from She Dies Tomorrow, who was a very sort of unconventional putters and murmurs. But there is there's just the the murmuring in that movie as

[01:53:51] especially nearly going when you don't know what's going on. Great actor. I look forward to seeing that movie in 2037. Dick Johnson and Dick Johnson is dead. Sure. You have to have a big putter and murmur. Oh, fuck, that's good. Yeah. Yeah.

[01:54:05] I would shout out Elizabeth Moss in Shirley, which is very putters and murmurs energy movie in general. One of those movies where you're like, is this house one room wide or 50 million miles wide? You know, like, just moving through messy room after room,

[01:54:25] wrapped in a sheet, being weird. What are some other good ones? I've got for mumbles and muffles. I got John David Washington and Tenet. Oh, there's a lot, a lot of muffled dialogue in that film. I ordered this hot sauce an hour ago.

[01:54:41] Was there a trial of Chicago 7 murmur? I guess it's Rylan's. I sort of. But he's not really, I mean, he's puttering a murmur less than he usually does. He's a little more crisp in that movie. Peter Capaldi and David Copperfield, I might give a little to Lucas.

[01:55:00] Hedges and let them all talk for stutters and stammers. Just a little bit. Oh, yeah. I mean, we also have to include Adam Sandler and Huey Halloween if we're going to do that. Sure. I just want to say. We have to. Yeah. Excuse me. The king.

[01:55:15] Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm just seeing one thing here. Best supporting thermos in a landslide. It also goes to Huey Halloween. Good job, Huey Halloween. Brian Dennehy in a very nice performance, one of his last performances, Driveways. Very nice. You need to watch that movie. Good movie.

[01:55:32] I have Sonia Braga and Bakara for Glowers and Frowners this year. That Joe, I love the work you've done this year. You've done this year. A city on the face stuff she does in that movie. Yeah, her face is incredible in that film. If you could harness grumpiness.

[01:55:50] But my ultimate putters and murmurs is an ensemble choice, which is the entire cast of Bloody Nose Empty Pockets, which is just a lot of putters and murmurs. Might as well be called a putter's nose. Right. Bloody putters, Empty murmurs. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[01:56:10] I feel like for a majority this year, I've had my outstanding list of things to watch. And a lot of them I'm like, I should watch that. I need to watch that. Right? And Bloody Nose Empty Pockets is one of the movies

[01:56:21] where I'm like, I want to watch that and I haven't gotten around to it. Right? Actually, yeah. You'll love that thing. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, a lot of good choices here. A lot of good choices here. I'm going to give out another special citation. Yeah, please.

[01:56:39] It's actually it's kind of a condemnation. A movie that is most offensive, violently offensive to chronically late people. I'm giving this non-award to Martin Scorsese's The Irishman. OK, so you're saying one year after its eligibility, you're mad about how rude that movie is about Steven Graham's lateness.

[01:57:06] Oh, so now you're getting on my fucking face about the fact that I didn't put it in last year. What does it matter? Wow. What's the fucking big deal? There was traffic. Very good. Very good. Thank you. I've been holding on to that for a year.

[01:57:26] You had some spit on the ball and I loved it. I did. And my animated film this year is Wolf Walkers, probably sort of become just the Dijon choice. But that movie is pretty wonderful. Have you seen it yet, Griffin? I have not yet.

[01:57:40] That's also in that top five of movies. I just genuinely want to watch. Yeah, you'll just like that. Yeah, it'll be a fucking worm back. I mean, my answer is soul. A movie that I think is deeply flawed, but I also love.

[01:57:52] Yes, I have so many problems with it. And I also kind of just love it on balance. It works for me even though a lot of it sticks in my craw. But it's also just it's like that and the old guard are the two movies

[01:58:09] that I felt like kind of grabbed me and we're making the arguments I needed to hear for the value of life in a year where it feels like life has kind of been taken from us. You know, yeah. So also has my favorite voice performance of the year.

[01:58:23] Yeah, which is Rachel House and soul. Oh, I love all the Jerry's. All the I mean, we were we were just talking up Rachel House in our Malaan episode, which is an incredible vocal performance. And also I'm very aware now that Jermaine Clement is a half Maori.

[01:58:43] Thank you, everyone for correcting it. But I got my face, but I just want everyone to know I have been corrected. But I was going to say I think Fox is actually kind of underrated in that he's often because he is often underrated

[01:59:03] and I think when a movie star that big plays the lead character in animated film, it does not affect a real voice. People go like, oh, well, you're just like caching in on the movie star energy. But he is a deceptively skillful voice over actor.

[01:59:20] And, you know, most of that movie's issues come from the handling of that character within what should be his own story. But he's really, really working over time to sell that shit. Can I say what my favorite vocal performance is of the year? My very uncool choice.

[01:59:40] Chris Pratt and onward. Chris Pratt and onward. Wow, David. Wonderful performance. I was about to shout out next. I agree with you. It's a wonderful performance. And I think Onward's issue is kind of Holland. I agree. Onward is a movie I really like more than I think

[01:59:57] that as I think I might have mentioned on an episode, I can't remember. But yeah, I think Holland is kind of just flat in it. He's fine, I guess. But I kind of have a problem with this before, but I think Pratt is like really good

[02:00:12] in a role that was written clearly for Jack Black or something like that. Right? You know, like, you had more and he kind of just puts his own thing on it. He's doing his thing, like his parks and rec kind of thing.

[02:00:24] But he's I think I don't know. I just think it's it's really, really sweet and like human. It's not I agree. And funny. Doing a week of work. Funny. Yeah. Very funny. No, it's also just like Pratt had his like big couple of years

[02:00:38] and it feels like he sort of like lost the plot a little bit and weirdly watching that movie, you're like, right, that's why everyone got so into the idea of being a movie star. He's also so funny in the Lego movies.

[02:00:49] I mean, we should, you know, he's he's good at that. Yeah, he's really good at that. Lego movie guardian, same year kind of thing. And the thing that onward gets right, that those two movies got right.

[02:00:58] And a lot of the other Pratt performances in between have gotten wrong. Is he is best playing a little boy in a large adult spot? Right? Right. Yes. That is. And you can put it in different genres and modify it in different ways.

[02:01:12] But the more straight faced you make Pratt as a conventional leading man, the less interesting he becomes rather than as a sort of odd abstraction of a leading man where it's like this is a little boy pretending to be a movie star in his backyard. Right.

[02:01:27] And that's what his performance in all of his is. And he's great. I want to say that the blanky choices for a few categories, smaller categories. I'm just going to shout them out now. For cinematography, they had Nomadland, Tenet, First Cow, Mank and Lovers Rock.

[02:01:43] Five great choices for music. They had Soul, Tenet, Mank, Minnery and Eurovision Song Contest. Hey. And for ensemble, which do we usually do? Maybe we have. I can't remember. They have Defy Bloods, Minnery, Mank Grove, One Night in Miami and Ma Rainey's Black Bottom. All good choices. Yeah.

[02:02:07] Yeah, I just want to call out the Defy Bloods thing too, which is like Five Bloods is a movie that could have had like, you know, multiple best actor supporting actor contenders, you know? Like everyone's good. Clark Peters and Jonathan Majors and Chadwick Boseman are all

[02:02:22] like really top tier and then you have so many other good performances in the movie. But, you know, Spike Lee's intention for that movie was to sort of like bring his All Stars in and do it with Denzel in the Del Ruellindo part.

[02:02:38] John David Washington's The Sun, Samuel Jackson, Gene Carlo Esposito. And it was like Netflix wanted it soon. He couldn't wait for all those schedules lined up. He ended up just casting like, you know, great fucking actors. Right. Right.

[02:02:52] But put a little more in the character actor zone than the big star zone. But but to that movie's credit as an ensemble, I really think it's one of these secrets to why that movie works so well is that you genuinely don't feel

[02:03:07] like as as titanic as Del Ruellindo's performances like any star is too big in terms of what they're bringing past baggage to overpower the movie or make you feel like the hand is tipped too much as to who's going to survive and in what form.

[02:03:25] And I just think, yeah, that movie ended up being cast absolutely perfectly. Yeah. It's also nice that like Bozeman's the biggest star in it, you know, and that he has that. That's the other thing he's talked about.

[02:03:38] He would have done like Irishman de-aging if they'd given him the budget to do it, but it ends up being so much more poignant. I like it better the way they do it. I really like the way they do it so good. Right.

[02:03:47] And it now is only imbued with more power that Bozeman has passed. Yeah. Um, let's do our best directors in picture. Let's do it. OK, let's wrap it up. Speaking of speaking of Spike Lee, The Five Bloods. Oh, here we go.

[02:04:02] The Green, The Assistant, Lee Wannel, Invisible Man, Kelly Reichert, first cow, Charlie Kaufman, I'm thinking of ending things. Right. Minor Kelly Recker, first cow, Sean Durkin for the nest, Christopher Nolan for tenet, Charlie Kaufman from thinking of ending things and Steve McQueen for lovers rock. All right.

[02:04:28] Mine are Lee Isaac Chung for Menari, Sean Durkin for the nest, Steve McQueen for lovers rock, Kelly Reichert for first cow and Chloe Jow for No Bad Land. Now I do wish I put Christopher Nolan in there though. I wish I had the guts.

[02:04:46] I wish I had the guts. Love it. Number six for me. Tenet. Tenet. Mank. Mank. Tenet. Let me be mank. I think people know where this is going. My winner is Spike Lee. Yeah. Right. My winner is Kelly Reichert. I usually pick my favorite year.

[02:05:10] Mine is also Kelly Reichert. Yep, Kelly Reichert. Duboss, the blankies picked Kelly Reichert. Chloe Jow, Spike Lee, Steve McQueen and Lee Isaac Chung. With Chris Nolan is the sixth there too. And oops, I was that by mistake. All right, so best picture.

[02:05:31] All right, so should we each just do our top tens? Yeah, yeah. Now first year we did the the the we talk about it all the chaos pick. Yeah, yeah. We were learning. We were we were still figuring it out. We were so young.

[02:05:45] Let me give you I'll give you the blankies first. So here was their top 10. Number one first cow number two palm springs. Wow. Number three nomad land number four to five bloods, number five I'm thinking of anything six minari, seven sound of metal,

[02:06:00] eight lovers rock, nine never rarely sometimes always ten ten at ten at ten at ten at. OK, David, would you like to list your top ten of the year? My ten at this point. It's always changed.

[02:06:18] But my ten right now is first cow number one lovers rock number two. Those who have been pretty locked the whole time. I'm thinking of ending things. Number three, the nest number four, ten at number five, back around number six,

[02:06:33] minari number seven, never rarely sometimes always number eight, Duff I bloods number nine and bank number 10 bank bank. I was going to leave him out and then he and then he, you know, took me into his walk in humidor. He had the goods on you too.

[02:06:49] Is that what you're saying? Yeah, yeah, he's got the goods. Mine are going to go from 10 to one if if you'll permit. My number ten is possessor. My number nine is Mank eight bloody nose empty pockets, seven nomad land, six promising young woman.

[02:07:14] What that six five is Bakarao, four is soul. Three is the nest to minari and my number one movie of the year is first cow. Love that cow. Yes, cow army rise up. Donuts. Yeah, I left soul off my list through my own weird disqualifications,

[02:07:36] even though it wasn't the best picture contender, but that would have ranked five or six for me. But here's my 10, the old guard number 10. Yeah, I that movie really fucking hits for me. Number nine, let them all talk. Number eight, the way back.

[02:07:58] I always forget how much I like a Gavin O'Connor movie until I'm watching a Gavin O'Connor movie. And sometimes when I'm not presently watching it, I then immediately start underrating him once again. He knows what he's doing. He knows what to do. What he's doing.

[02:08:13] And I think he is one of the best chroniclers of masculinity, at least in American cinema, especially on the studio level. Number seven, tenet number six, the invisible man number five, never rarely, sometimes always. Number four, the assistant number three first cow.

[02:08:35] Number two, I'm thinking of ending things in number one to five bloods. That's a good test. It's a good time, Griffin. I'm proud of my 10. I just I all these fucking disclaimers at the beginning is I just didn't want

[02:08:46] people yelling at me being like, but what about Menari? But what about this? What about that? And the answer is with all these movies, either I didn't fucking watch them or I watched them and I felt like I didn't really connect to them.

[02:08:58] And I don't feel like I can actually hold that against the movie. Just admit you're making that up because no one's ever yelled at anyone on the internet and you're just afraid of me and you're just trying

[02:09:07] to get around man, but he's got people everywhere and he knows everybody. You're afraid of me. Man, I was too afraid to be man. I couldn't. I will say because we talked about most of these movies,

[02:09:22] but I will say that Lovers Rock, which obviously doesn't sort of figure into acting and screenplay nominations as much, not that the acting and screenplay is bad, but it's all sort of part of this beautiful tapestry. That movie is just magnificent. It's like it was like

[02:09:37] a surprise of the year. I had no idea what to expect going in. It's the one that I am the most since I've seen Tenant in a theater. It's the one that I am the most like I got to see that shit. Yeah, people someday.

[02:09:49] Oh, the regret I have for not being able to see that movie with people. I mean, oh, the regret I have for not being able to see any movies. Yeah, I mean, I did. It's funny. Like I was looking at my list and the amount of shit

[02:10:02] that I watched this year that didn't even come within a mile of making any of these categories, but that I watched like the day it went up. And I was just like, oh, I definitely prioritized any movie that I would have watched on an airplane.

[02:10:16] Right, you know, right. That makes sense where I just feel like I will feel zero depression about the fact that this is how I'm watching this film. Yeah. And even just like there was the fucking week recently where like coming to America, SpongeBob 3, Tom and Jerry.

[02:10:34] And there was one other one all came at the same day. And I was just like, oh, this is my biggest movie going weekend since the pandemic started for movies. I will feel no guilt about watching it home. Yeah, yeah, that's true.

[02:10:46] Here's the thing about Lovers Rock and I'm ready to get into it is what about this thing about whether it's television or movies? You guys, we got to get into it. We got to talk about it. Oh, I should make it clear.

[02:10:57] I'm sorry. I got to change my list. My number one film of 2020 was season four of the Mary Tyler Moore Show. That is definitely my favorite thing I watched last year. It made the list. Well, I think of that as 26 individual movies.

[02:11:11] So yeah, my number 11 is The Real World New Orleans, which is all on YouTube, by the way, that I watched very early on in quarantine. So yeah, my yes. Also, I'm going to change my list again. My number one is Clips of Magicians.

[02:11:25] I watch on YouTube when I can't sleep. That was my favorite movie of 2020. I got into the weirdest shit on YouTube not to like derail the conversation, but like the weird like three week runs where I watched like professional darts

[02:11:39] videos on YouTube, which is like a weird like more of a weird subculture than even you'd think of. It's just like there's so many, so many. Look, I mean, I spent so much time on YouTube this last year, pointedly not engaging with the YouTube culture.

[02:11:53] No, no using YouTube as my personal paleo center. But I asked this for both of you guys. David, I know in particular, you're addicted to signing up for streaming services. You've been talking about how you just love signing up for every single one.

[02:12:10] I got so mad that I couldn't sign up for Paramount Plus because I was already a CPS subscriber. Yeah, it just converts. Damn it. I know. I know. I can't browse their poorly transferred library and shitty films. You know what bumps me out?

[02:12:27] I signed up for some fucking six month run of CBS All Access as a channel on Apple TV. Well, I don't wait for that to die out before I can even dive into their shitty user interface. So bad.

[02:12:41] Have you really bad have either of you pulled the trigger on YouTube premium because that just feels like on one hand a bridge too far for me. And on the other hand, I am so goddamn tired of watching that fucking medication commercial with Martin Sheen and Charlie Sheen.

[02:12:58] I think your mental health would be best improved by a vaccine, which you will get. That's the number one thing I need right now. The thing with YouTube premium to not get ads on YouTube is like I've already done this with Hulu and I can't go back.

[02:13:12] The thing where like they said, oh, you can bundle Hulu now with Disney Plus and it's a lot cheaper or whatever. But it's Hulu with ads. Joe, I can't go back. I can't go back now. Joe, dig into account settings and you will find it.

[02:13:27] I'll give you the option because that's what I do. Here's but I just want to griffin. You have to pay for YouTube premium. It is a must. It is one of the things that is absolutely breaking my brain the most.

[02:13:40] It is, I would say a more essential streaming service than almost anything. I don't think I watch nearly as much YouTube as you do. The second I made the switch, I was like, never ever looking back.

[02:13:53] I would pay more if they emailed me tomorrow and they're like, it's 40 bucks a month. Now I'd be like, oh, I got it. What you got me? Look, I obviously also avoided a lot of the atomic bombs of cinema this last year.

[02:14:08] But no question, my least favorite movie of 2020 is that fucking Sheen and Sheen medical. I cannot know what you're talking about. Oh, you're so lucky. You're so lucky. There are things I know now that I could never know. Oh, no. I do love YouTube premium.

[02:14:26] I would say the most obscure service that I pay for is AMC plus, which is a bundle of AMC, IFC, Shutter and Sundance. Now it is weird how often something I want to watch is in that little catch all. And I've quite enjoyed it.

[02:14:44] Yeah, I'm going to sign up for this fucking shit right now. So we're done. I would say we did another year. I do think next year will be better Griffin. I hope you agree. Yes, it will. It will. So yeah. And it is crazy.

[02:15:04] It's been the weirdest year ever. I wonder if I will be in a strange situation next year since I have a baby. Like God knows, am I going to am I going to watch fucking my usual 150 movies like I don't know? I don't know.

[02:15:17] Like you've been you've been telling we're talking about it off Mike somewhere else, but that like you've been watching more stuff now with the baby because you're so much on the couch holding her. Yes, but I'm not watching a lot of new stuff.

[02:15:34] I'm mostly watching a gentle film festival, which is great. Your letterbox list of gentle films made me so happy when I found it yesterday. I. Um. But but also like a year from now, she's going to be more actively a handful. It will change things.

[02:15:50] She's right now, she's pretty immobile, so she really just has to do what I say. But yeah, eventually she's going to need more entertaining. And I don't know if my gentle movies list is going to do it for her. Only because you brought it up.

[02:16:03] I feel the need to mention. Look, I certainly understand a certain power in the absence of words, but I really feel like she contributed nothing to this episode. And for how adamant you were about adding an additional Mike setup,

[02:16:18] giving her her own zoom account, keeping her here for the entire recording. She has not contributed a single goddamn thought. I you joke and and it's a funny joke, but I do. This is my first recording.

[02:16:31] This is my first blank check recording apart from some March madness, you know, bits with a baby. And we're going to we're about to release like probably what, two months worth of episodes, Griffin, where I am sort of alluding to the fact

[02:16:44] that something big is brewing in my life without saying anything. I have an amazing little play on words that you do. Your listeners might be able to hear pick up on us. Oh, but I am genuinely wondering what I am going to come out to when I walk

[02:16:59] out of this room and it is the first time I'm having that experience. Well, come out and well, I'll be like, well, what's up? And you know, forky might be like, oh, yeah, she slept for like the whole time.

[02:17:07] Oh, OK. Or I might walk out or she might be like baby. I'm happy like take her. Take her right. Right. Who knows? Who knows? Yeah, she might be the poster for I don't know how she does it. Yeah, right.

[02:17:21] But I do want to apologize for her lack of contribution to this episode. But maybe one day she'll she'll weigh in next year. Next year, she'll she'll have her own list and she's the newest member of the Blankie family and she's happy to be here.

[02:17:33] I just, David, I hope you don't take this personally. But I just as it currently stands, I don't think she has incredibly good taste in films. I will say the movie she has paid most attention to so far with serendipity

[02:17:46] on HBO Max and I think it's a good start. Yeah, she hiccups throughout the Snyder cut, which is a type of attention. Maybe she had a reaction. Yeah, yeah, it's a reaction. Ultimately, isn't that all Zack is trying to do? He's provoking.

[02:18:01] He's trying to provoke and she hiccups at how uncompromising everything was. Yes, yeah. You joke about that, David, but it is like the number one reason I look forward to getting the vaccine imminently is just the ability to fucking go to the theaters again.

[02:18:18] Like I do think it will take a very long time before I can rebound in other aspects of my life. And I imagine I'm going to be someone who continues to go to theaters at off hours and perhaps also buys multiple seats to even insulate

[02:18:32] myself greater from other people than the little distancing that they put in. But the idea of being vaccinated and being able to wear a mask far away from everyone else, not be terrified for my mortal life and go

[02:18:45] see fucking like Raya and the Last Dragon at 11 a.m. is just it's I. I it's not like I didn't know this, but it truly this year has erased all doubt of how much my sanity is really kept in check by

[02:19:03] dumb movies. Griffin, when I'm back in the city, we'll both buy up a whole row of seats, we'll sit at opposite ends, we'll see a movie, it'll be fun. Like this is another thing I did.

[02:19:14] I realized I'm going to throw this out as a gift to blank check listeners. They have these rules at the chains where it's like they can only sell to a certain capacity, right? Yeah. So if you buy one seat, then suddenly like the four seats directly

[02:19:27] around that seat are all unavailable. Right. There's whatever advertised amount that it costs to rent out a screen to yourself, right? Where the risk inherent is always like, well, some guy can sneak into your theater or whatever, right?

[02:19:42] Which is a reason I have not done it more often. But there is mathematically, if the screen the film is playing on is small enough, an amount you can spend to buy like eight tickets. Right? If you triangulate your placement and whatnot. Yeah.

[02:20:00] Yeah. So I think that's going to be my move once I get back. We could we could Ocean's Eleven this whole thing. Yeah, we could we could form a plan. Yeah, it ends up being much cheaper. Yeah, sure. Especially if I feel like a lot of these theaters

[02:20:10] are doing half off Matt and A for most of the day into the early evening for most of these movies because they so desperately just want people back. Right. Yeah. Yeah. Anyway. To movies. To movies. So we're done. Ben, anything you wanted to add?

[02:20:27] Yeah, I mean, I don't know why you throw to him like that. He rarely has something chaotic to add at the end of these episodes. I just, yeah, have some, you know, like original categories I'd like to revisit. Oh, OK, cool. Sure. If that's OK. Yeah.

[02:20:42] That'll be normal. Normal. Yeah. So just, you know, there's the lead category here, films that should be remade with babies, animals, puppets also fruit now clowns to maybe a robot or two. It could be cool. Now it's changed.

[02:20:55] That's a new thing. But actually, how about we add monster hunters? Monster hunters for babies, no mad land. How about no mad babies? That's cute. Yep. Yep. You know, yeah. They ride around in little like campers. Little power wheels. Yeah, it'd be adorable.

[02:21:18] I do want to say just because you've reminded me now, Ben, I apologize for failing you as a friend. Did the frequency with which Ben texted me that we should rent out that theater in New Jersey again to go see Monster Hunter?

[02:21:31] I really I feel I feel bad that I didn't have the courage to do that. That's OK. That's all right. Well, I don't know. Well, we'll have them run it again. Yeah. We'll demand that they program it for a six month run at the Metrograph. Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely.

[02:21:51] Animals I care a lot would be a lot better because it's a depressing, despicable movie. And then if it was animals would be, I don't know, a little bit more digestible. I bear a lot. I start to bear a lot. Also, well said. Also very good. Like that.

[02:22:10] Puppets, I think the trial of Chicago 7 wouldn't change really at all if it was just performed by puppeteers to be completely honest. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to skip robot because I couldn't really find anything that's good. Chains also kind of doesn't really work because it's an insane idea.

[02:22:32] But I just say this. Oh, that's a problem. Yeah. Tenet. All right. What if the chains were off the chain? Do you know what I mean? They were unlinked. You saw it. Oh, OK. Oh, wow. All right. Chains kind of run backwards and forwards too.

[02:22:49] So you got something there. Yeah, you could work with that. There's that. There's that. And then monster hunters, hillbilly, elegy. Have the have the hunters killed those dang monsters that you're seeing on screen. You're saying Mila Javits just like burst in and starts wailing on Glenn Close.

[02:23:10] Yeah, exactly. I do kind of want to see Paul W.S. Anderson's. Hillbilly, Elegy. Yeah, the Billy Hunters. Yeah, they're good monsters, bad monsters and neutral monsters. Yeah, that's great. The Wettys, right? Another category of mine. Now, this year or the golden mops, of course.

[02:23:37] Mank, because that boy is soakin, right? He is. He's got young promising. He's pickled. He is. Pickled. Oh, yeah. 100 percent. Yeah. Promising young woman. There's all the lake stuff, right? Sure. Sure. That there's like there's some dampness going on. Another round. It's Mads drenched folks.

[02:24:00] I mean, come on to Five Bloods because it's very sweaty, like very sweaty movie. Very blood is the liquid. Probably one of the sweatiest. Yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, the sweatiest of the year, I'd say. Have you seen Let Them All Talk? No. It's that big ass boat.

[02:24:17] It's not a boat. Paul movies on water. There's just ocean as far as the eye can see. Oh, wow. All right. Well, my last one was Palm Springs because again, everyone's drunk. That was like kind of the through line. And for this year, I also, Ben,

[02:24:34] you got to check out Weathering with You, the Japanese anime. Yeah, you do. By Makoto Shinkai, where a girl turns into a cloud. It's yeah. Oh, shit. That sounds cool. It is a movie about what is precipitation? The weather was a girl. Your girlfriend. Yes. Oh my God.

[02:24:52] Wait, if you were dating precipitation, it's really. But only only the wet weather. Right. That's amazing. But it's like one of those things like she's perfect. She's so cool. You get along great. One problem, she's a cloud. One problem, record scratch. She's made a rain.

[02:25:11] I feel like that's also in that batch of like the last movies I saw in theater for the year. And I was so kind of confounded by it. I like it, but that movie is so perplexing in its ultimate message, which seems to be,

[02:25:25] I don't know if global warming is going to happen. We should probably just let it happen. That's what I love about that movie. The teen shell in hair at the earth, you're all going to drown, bitch. I want to date my girlfriend.

[02:25:37] But spoiler alert, who are we to try to prevent ourselves from dying? It's sort of the message of the movie. Ben, another wet movie you should check out that I think you would really dig is Underwater, which is a film that is set.

[02:25:51] Wait for it under the water and has great setting. And monsters. Yes, they're not really being hunted, but they're definitely being dealt with. Yeah. And one of them is above the title. That's right. It's a two-jig war joke. Folks, thank you all for listening.

[02:26:07] Oh, sure, Ben, did you have anything else? Really quickly. I know, I know, I need to let Joe go. All right. No, thank yous this year's The Father, a movie that asked what if there's a dad? It's like, no, thank you. The Snyder cut cut it all out.

[02:26:25] I'm not interested. I know it doesn't even qualify for this year, but I'm not watching four more hours of fucking superhero movies. You're officially giving the Snyder cut the Uncle Joey Award? Yeah, cut it out. 100 percent. Yeah. Rather watch the puppet that he performs with

[02:26:41] on that show than watch that thing. I'm thinking of ending me. This movie is boggers. What the hell is this? No Billy Ellingey seems bad. Didn't see it. Don't need to see it. Not good. The personal history of David Copperfield, really a let down.

[02:27:00] Thought I was going to learn about the magician. Totally different movie. I tell you, I didn't see that coming and I feel bad that I didn't see it coming. It was right there. I really shouldn't. Yeah, exactly. The secret is sometimes he's so left brain

[02:27:18] that the most surprising thing he can do is go for the easy Joe. Oh, that's good. Anything else Ben? Was that it? Really honest, honorable mentions. I always like to shout out some scumbumery this year in particular Damien Young who rules really stuck out in trial

[02:27:34] of the Chicago Seven and I care a lot. I think he's just like a really cool character actor who I feel like pops up every once in a while. He's notable for being the bus driver on PNP. Yes. Oh yeah. Yes. Yeah. Stu.

[02:27:49] Best vomit, mank, of course, hands down. Great vomit. So good. Fertact vomit. Oh, cinematic. Damn. Best possession is of course possessor. That movie was fucking nuts. And quickly, quickly, quickly. Best band, T's Sound of Metal, of course. We got Jizom Japanese hardcore band that got the German band

[02:28:12] Eidstrün Zende, New Bauten, the industrial noise band, Arabic version of a motorhead shirt and Youth of Today and some other stuff. Anyway, that's my original categories and horrible mentions for this sixth. Annual blankies. I love it. Awards. There's one. We're all done. I forgot to mention Griffin.

[02:28:38] This is a fuck up. The most irresistible movie of the year was irresistible. Sorry, I just had to. Sorry. We couldn't irresist it. Yeah, we couldn't resist it. Oh, thank God you got that in there. That would have been rough. Right, right. Folks, thank you all for listening.

[02:28:56] What a crappy year. To next year, to next year's blankies, a return to normalcy and by normalcy, I mean the way that things used to suck before this. Right, right. Hey. Please that. The kind of shitty that I was used to. Yeah. Yeah.

[02:29:15] But thank you all for listening. And please remember to rate, review and subscribe. Thanks to Marie Barty for running our social media, especially now that we're finishing up this absolute gauntlet of March Madness, which seems to have been a little weird this year.

[02:29:33] Wait, I have an interview with one of the voters from March Madness. I did not murder him. Sorry. Sorry. I think that may or may not have contributed to me being like, the fuck it, I just I'm going to just nominate whatever the fuck

[02:29:52] I want to watch all these. But I can't deal with anything. I'm done with film culture. And I hope people are ready to have to go to physical locations to vote in person for March Madness next year. I.D. We're going for a bunch of connoisseurs. Yeah, exactly.

[02:30:11] Exactly. Yeah. Thank you to Lee Montgomery, the Grand American novel for our theme song. And Alex Behrman, AJ McKinnon for all that and help they've been doing in general on the show. Tune in next week for. A new leaf. Hey, April will be May.

[02:30:36] We're turning a new leaf. April will finally be May. Just a nice quick four episode mini series about one of the all time greats. I'm looking forward to do you get it? I got it. You get the I got it. It's April for me. April.

[02:30:54] For May, but we're doing May. Yeah. Right. And head over to blank check dot com slash Patreon for blank check special features where we are still still tracking. Still tracking and getting ready for whatever is going to win that March Madness Racket show. Thank you. Thank you guys.

[02:31:12] You know, I love doing this. I love getting up in my awards nerdery with you guys. I feel like we connect on this. I feel like we're. I don't know. Kindred spirits. Sympathica. We need to have some longer conversation about the le key thing at some point

[02:31:28] off, Mike, because I'm just fascinated about it from an Oscar standpoint. We'll take it to the group text. And as always, just to clarify, the joke is that. The filmmakers name is Elaine May. Right, right, right. And she only has four movies.

[02:31:46] We do one movie a week on the show. So it's well, and I'm one month worth of episodes. Right. Right. Exactly. Right. And so we could have done those four movies in May, but instead we picked the month right before May, which is April. Right.

[02:32:03] So April is May. And if you think about it, April, April 1st, April Fools, that's how we're starting, you know, we're starting to month out. Crazy. It's a whole month of practical jokes. Yeah. It's a goof. Also, listen to my podcast. I'm just going to say it.

[02:32:19] Oh, fuck yeah. Jesus, listen to my podcast. It would be nice. How are, how are we six years in and we still. Listen, it's a long day. It's a long day. This had Oscar buzz go to had underscore Oscar underscore buzz on Twitter.

[02:32:34] I'm just going to be shameless about it. It's fun and it's not shameless. Follow the link in the episode description to check out. Do it.