The Third Annual Blank Check Awards with Joe Reid

[00:00:01] Blank Check with Griffin and David Blank Check with Griffin and David Don't know what to say or to express All you need to know is that the name of the show is Blank Check Oh, it's a wonderful night for Blankies Blankies, Blankies, who will win!

[00:00:28] Is that it? You done? Hello, I'm Billy Crystal I thought you were going to do that weirdly I saw that in my mind's eye I debated writing a full fucking song But then I realized I would only have my nominees vetted Yeah, that's why you didn't do it

[00:00:46] That's the only reason I didn't Remember that time I wrote one eighth of a rap for a burger report? I got very ambitious and then in a weird turn of events Could not take it to the finish line Hello everybody, my name's Griffin Newman

[00:00:58] And I never take it to the finish line I'm David Sims I'm the Steve Martin to your Alec Baldwin I mean your Billy Crystal And your Alec Baldwin maybe Yeah, yeah, Martin and Crystal I'm the... I guess I'm the Franco to your Hathaway

[00:01:14] Oh boy, I can't bring him up though Shit, god Alright anyway, talk to a great star This could be a fun episode What a wonderful year for Hollywood Hollywood, Hollywood Billy stop putting on blackface Oh no He did that very recently 2012? Yeah, Sammy Davis Jr.

[00:01:38] You know what else he did The Katrina Jazz Man Yeah, you know what else he did in that Oscar ceremony though He did tint and face Yes, he did in Outrage To all Belgians He was the cartoon Belgian He was the emergency like oh shit Yes, yeah

[00:01:56] He was Eddie Murphy and Ratten Yeah, Ratten was a scumbag Eddie Murphy went down with that chip What a stunning turn of events That Ratten would turn out to be a scumbag Yeah, especially eight years after we found out he was a scumbag

[00:02:08] Which was eight years after everyone I just showed him the Billy Crystal as Tintin It is I had forgotten that People complain about Tintin unfairly I never had any uncanny valley Which I think the movie stylized enough that it doesn't rub But talk about uncanny valley

[00:02:24] That's literally a real human being in a wig And it is the most It activates all the same receptors in your brain That go off when you see a rubbit It is ahhh It's weird It's a little weird Tintin face Well Ben remind me to ask Pat Reynolds

[00:02:44] To Photoshop Billy Crystal as Tintin To the artwork for this episode Great, I'm making a note of it Thank you producer Ben A.K. The Poet Laureate A.K. The Haas A.K. The Meatlover A.K. The Fart Detective A.K. The Poet Laureate

[00:03:02] What was the one you said Joe Oh I did say something in the e-mail The Booker The Booker He books us time slots That's his job Forget it He's our finest film critic This is one that's going to come in to play a lot I think today

[00:03:22] He's a close personal friend of Dan Lewis That's going to be relevant this year And perhaps the tiebreaker We'll see If you need my services, I'm here to help But Dan I mean Dan knocked it out of the park Oh you've seen the movie now?

[00:03:38] Yeah we'll talk about it He sewed it out of the park He's a good HEM Griffin do you think I could make a shot At the graduated to certain titles Please I've been struggling recently With doing them and getting them in the right order

[00:03:56] I don't know if I'll give them in the right order Producer Ben Kenobi Kylo Ben Ben Night Shyamalan Ben Sate Say Benny thing Ailey Benz with a dollar sign 100% Oh The Spielberg name is next Warhawz I remember I was trying to think of the Bigelow one

[00:04:20] Something the Fennellmaker And I don't know what Your Verhoeven's gonna do We're in the middle of Verhoeven Spoiler but you missed Nolan in between That's right Nolan was Predeuer Bain Great job Even though some people wanted to be haas al ghul I was on board for

[00:04:40] Osama Ben Laden That's dead in the ground Osama Ben Hosley There were variations That was one of the things You couldn't decide on one Some people wanted Ben Hosley Some people wanted Ben Laden Some people wanted Osama And I get it It sort of works right

[00:05:02] It fits in nicely but I'm not going to be associated with This leader of the The demands on This guy have really like stepped up They got into the fancy studio 100% I won't be called Osama Ben Laden I know That's just a simple request That's a fucking diva

[00:05:22] Is that Mariah Carey's rider that you can't refer to her As Osama Ben Laden That's probably true It's like only green M&Ms and no referring To me as Osama Ben Laden This of course is our award show episode Your mini series on the films of Mariah Carey

[00:05:36] Yes Our dear friend Three time guest We bring him in every year He's a big award head like the two of us You know him from Decider.com Ladies and gentlemen Joe Reed A.K.A. Reading Rangio That's right Of all the weird Joe Bay's nicknames

[00:05:56] I've never had that one so thank you It's the sweatiest of all nicknames It flips your name backwards It's not sweaty And This is our tradition where we Pick the finest of the year If we picked the winners Remember when Siskel and Nebert used to have that special

[00:06:14] One of those things when I cannot fall asleep at night I will pull those up and watch them They're great I really like them Topical references We're actually recording an episode That's coming out the next week It's so rare for us We've recorded in four or five months

[00:06:32] That will come out within Within a week of when What about that government shutdown though? What else is going on? Greatest showman's killing it As we were saying Frigid weather outdoors Cold snap has hit New York again I can't wait for that episode

[00:06:50] We recorded months ago that still hasn't come out Where I believe that Flynn's testimony Is going to have Trump impeach By the time the episode comes out You never know, still hasn't come out A lot of big Big things going on in the news You read about this

[00:07:06] Oscar fever We always record this episode after the gnomes And the gnomes are out So now we can be Contrary I feel like I want to ask you guys this Because we're dudes who have all For years if not decades Made our own lists I remember doing this

[00:07:28] At least Middle school I've done this for as long as I've had a computer I think I've done this for 15 years now I still have old notebooks that I'll find That have just like lists I would buy those The Leonard Malton books And I would literally like

[00:07:46] Write down, I would page through it And write down every movie I had seen That's interesting And that's too much free time It makes more sense to write down the list of things you had And so we had a list across That's a long list

[00:08:00] Those books are dense But we all have been doing this for a long time But now we have a platform A platform that has grown When we started doing this And I wonder how much you guys feel Because it's certainly a thing that comes into my mind

[00:08:14] About like when I'm on the edge You know, I have like I'm down to my 7 contenders for my 5 slots How much I feel Like, well if this person got an Oscar nomination Unless I feel so strongly for them I might let them fall by the wayside

[00:08:28] Because I feel like it's more important to represent The things that I feel like aren't getting attention anywhere else If I'm going to be talking to other people about it Yeah, I'm not going to want to be like the 15th person to talk about

[00:08:36] You know, X contender or something Right, because I feel like there are some things that people are going to be like I can't believe you lift this off his list And it's like, doesn't mean it's not good Was either 7 or 12 on my list But I may be like

[00:08:48] I'm not going to be like It's like, there are 12 on my list But I maybe vote to fight for my guys As you say And if Francis McDormand ever asks me I'll just lie to her and say she was on my list Who are your guys? Boy, well

[00:09:04] The fun of this year we finally get to lock the gates On our pics What if Sharon hosted the Oscars You'd be good Should I get a gate in here That I can close and open When we call it up

[00:09:18] Um, it also is like a weird year as we said because it's like, uh, uh, the year of Hollywood's reckoning. Yes. Yeah. You know, where people are now having to like acknowledge what's been terrible about this industry and humanity forever.

[00:09:33] Um, but it's like we've seen like a lot of candidates from like six months ago now become like fucking persona non grata. Yeah. Sure. And it certainly like weighs into like all these things.

[00:09:44] And then I even like putting together my list, not to turn this into a conversation because I certainly don't want to talk about this, but like putting people on my list and being like, that's one of the best performances I saw this year.

[00:09:56] I've heard rumors about this person. Oh boy. You know, and it's like rumors that aren't public yet and they're pretty unsubstantiated and I've only heard one. All right. All right. All right. I'm cutting you off. That kind of stuff is like fucking it always on you.

[00:10:08] You don't want to be on the record. I don't want to get to it. No, I'm not going to get into it. That's all I'm saying. I know. Off mic. That stuff comes in. You can just say anything you want.

[00:10:14] I'm just talking about all the deliberation process that goes in the picking. Hey, Griff, just like write it on this piece of paper for me. Sure. Just like let me see it. Yeah. Okay. No. What? In big words, I wrote the boss baby. Big words, big letters.

[00:10:30] That was almost a fucking three point shot. Big words. Big words. I don't have the fucking awful. But then it also it gets into this thing of like, I don't know. I'll sing your song again. Stop talking about this shit.

[00:10:46] My rubric I use this year, I tried to apply in every category. My phone keeps on falling down. That's your phone. My rubric I keep on trying to apply to every category is don't intellectualize it. Just pick the five things that hit you the hardest. Sure.

[00:11:01] So that's where I was coming at from, from every. I already asked this question and summed it up better. What? Is it a wonderful night for blanket? That but also who are your guys? Who are my guys? Yes. Okay. Joe, how are you doing? I'm doing pretty good.

[00:11:14] Nice to have you. Thinking about my guys. So as always, going into that, I think we should start off with my favorite category and often the first category of the night start with best supporting act. Sure. That is usually what we start with.

[00:11:25] But I want to introduce one wrinkle before we crack. And usually with the Oscar start with this. Yes. By the way, this is Blank Trek. It's a podcast about filmography. Start with your massive success. Thank you. Thank you.

[00:11:34] Two friends competitive advantage sometimes they clear and sometimes they bounce baby. This is kind of fair and we're kind of starting to come down. The one more wrinkle I want to add in our Redditors who have become wild. No, they're wild. They're almost up to a thousand.

[00:11:49] Did you see that? A thousand queer man. They should maybe change that. Maybe. They had been two threads have been running strong. One is their own picks for the Blankies. Yeah, which is great. And the other one was their choices or their predictions for what you guys.

[00:12:09] Everyone in the thread. Is there an awards daily for the Blankies? Not yet. Okay. But we do have a wiki. Yes, which is crazy. There's the blank hyphen check dot wiki.com. Everyone has your picks on it. Really? They have tables with the pre prior Blankie awards. Yeah.

[00:12:24] Whoa. The dream I'm living the dream right now. Everyone in this. This is your read page. Everyone in this thread. This phantom thread picked their five in each category. Yeah. And then Reddit user I laugh alone who we've invoked a lot. Who's our original Blankereken. Right?

[00:12:44] Is that anything? No, I don't know if I should say his real name on the show. Okay. Maybe we look that I don't know. Well, I mean he's on Twitter. Is that me? Yeah, I just feel like we had issues in the past. Fair enough. Anyway. Anyway. Anyway.

[00:12:55] Anyway. Anyway. Maybe we cut all of that out and maybe I'm not saying what I'm saying right now. Reddit user I laugh alone the original Blankereken did us a kindness and compiled the stats from all the Blankies. So he came up with a definitive nominees for each category.

[00:13:11] So after we each read our nominees, I'm going to read what the aggregate was. This is good. The other thing they've done which I've said, we'll say for the end of the episode. Okay. Wait, how does he know? Is he giving you this later? What do you mean?

[00:13:25] Okay. How does he know the aggregate of our nominees? As of no, as of their nominees. Oh, okay. Okay. I see now all the Redditors now that make their five he aggregate. Pick the five consensus choices. Okay. You do a preferential ballot? I don't know what he did.

[00:13:39] I don't know what he did. Stuck everything into piles. The second thing they did, which I'll say for the end of the episode, is they created a new set of awards called the Bennies. Yeah. That are sort of superlatives outside of regular categories that mirror Ben's nicknames.

[00:13:52] So we'll say that. So this is going to be a long episode. This is going to be a five hour episode. Ladies and gentlemen, our first category tonight is best supporting actor. Who won our best supporting actress last year?

[00:14:04] My best supporting actress last year was Lily Gladstone for certain women. Mine was Kate McKinnon for Ghostbusters. Mine might have been Greta Gerwig for 20th Century Women. I think that's correct. So they're now presenting together. Okay. Hello, the best supporting actor. And Griff's nominees are...

[00:14:23] This is the toughest one. Oh, geez. Leading off and you're like, oh boy, I don't know. Fuck. I hate that I'm going to have to... I'm going to do it. Okay. Ready? Griff's nominees are... Sure. And this is Kate McKinnon announcing them. Uh, the Ghostbusters.

[00:14:39] The Griff's nominees are Patrick Stewart and Logan. Sure. You've praised him before. Angus McFadden in The Lost City of Z. Oh, interesting. It's a very griffin nominee. Good performance. Willem de Frend of Good Cinema for The Florida Project. Willem de Frend of Mooney.

[00:15:00] Ricky Jenks for The Shape of Water. And then Balancing on the Edge of a Coin here. Mickey Stuhlbarg for Calling By Your Name. Sure. Those are my five. Those are pretty good. Greta Gerwig takes to the mic. Yes. So, all right, my supporting actor nominees.

[00:15:20] In alphabetical order as is dictated by the rules of... Agreed. Willem de Foe in The Florida Project. All right, this is a twofer from the same movie. Okay. Lucas Hedges, Lady Bird, Tracy Letts from Lady Bird. It's a really strange choice.

[00:15:36] Tracy Letts gets that little like parentheses also the post. Also... Sure. You can't give him supporting for The Lovers. The Lovers is a lead. It's also very good in The Lovers. He is. Jason Mitchell from Mudbound and Michael Stuhlbarg for Calling By Your Name.

[00:15:50] And now Lily Gladstone steps up to the mic. In a quiet and reserved but still like deeply powerful announcement. Yeah, nominees for best of the best. I guess I'll do it in... No, I'm not going to do an alphabetical order because I feel

[00:16:04] like it's more fun to say the obvious ones first. Willem de Foe in The Florida Project. Michael Stuhlbarg and Call Me By Your Name. Jason Mitchell in Mudbound. Adam Driver in Star Wars The Last Jedi. And Michael Sarah in Molly's Game. Okay. I love all of those.

[00:16:20] I do too. Those are my picks. Now, I'm glad that I'm keeping some guys out who did great work like Jenkins and stuff who I love. Yeah. I'm glad I calculated correctly because I felt bad about leaving both Driver and Sarah on, but I had a feeling

[00:16:33] you were going to cover both. You felt right. Sarah also just had a strong fucking year in general. Sure. I mean, he was in Twin Peaks. What else was he in? He's so good in the Lego Batman. Correct. He can't even get over it.

[00:16:46] Really the stand out of Lego Batman? Not to jump the gun, but my favorite voice over performance of the year. That's so wonderful. Very good in Lemon as well. I don't know if you saw Lemon. No, I haven't seen Lemon, but it's on my catch-up list.

[00:16:57] Emily Ashina was a big fan of Lemon. She was telling me to watch. It's in my pile of Magnolia screeners that I have. That's the pile that comes with a rubber band around. And then it's so like, it's no frill.

[00:17:07] So it's just like, it's the disc and a little envelope. So there's no cover. No. There's no nothing. So you don't know if you don't know anything about these shirts off hand. Right. You just pop it in. You don't know what they are.

[00:17:16] He was also good in person-to-person, which is a little movie I saw this year that I enjoyed. He did and he's got some stuff coming up next year that's exciting. So I'm sort of happy to have Sarah back. Such a good sleaze in Molly's games.

[00:17:27] I think, well, I guess we're starting with this. I'm just happy for him to be doing like, you know, the legacy of Michael Sarah is he has this year where he blows up and represents this thing and almost immediately the knives come out. Right. And he's fleeing.

[00:17:41] He's like, I don't want any part of this. He openly like, he kind of like finished out his like dance card of the movie she signed up to right after Super Mario. Right. Nick and Nora's and your youth and revolts. Scott Pilgrim was the last of those. Sure.

[00:17:52] I think one of the reasons Scott Pilgrim flopped upon release was that this backlash was in full effect. People were sick of him. And then kind of backed off and has been doing, you know, a couple Sebastian Silva movies, some voiceover, but not doing much.

[00:18:03] And it feels like this is the year, especially Molly's game for him to be in a larger film. Yeah. I want him back. He's such a fucking good actor. This is my argument for him in Molly's game too because I think he has a great perspective on Stardom

[00:18:15] that makes like, because he's playing your, he's supposedly playing Tobium McGuire or some sort of composite with a lot of Tobium McGuire in it. Sure. He's playing a celebrity ex or whatever he's called. Player ex. Player ex. That's it. Very smart casting.

[00:18:27] And rather than play the guy as like, someone who's like full, he plays it like someone like who like loves to see people on a knife edge in front of him and is like manipulative, but like enjoys just sort of the thrill of someone

[00:18:41] being like debased for his pleasure. Yes. Which is not to defame here, but the accounts of Tobium McGuire, that was what was fascinating about him. Above all the other famous who were part of Molly's game. He didn't want the money, he didn't even really like need to win.

[00:18:58] He needed to be like in control. He wanted to break people. But also that he used his vulnerability, that he had this puppy dog like gentle quality, this fragility as Eddie Redmayne would say, that he used to like lure people in and slam them down.

[00:19:12] Threatening on the surface. All right, I'm going to keep us moving because we do have a lot of nominees. Adam Driver, I've talked about that performance a lot in the past, how much I loved it. For me, he got edged out only because I couldn't decide whether placement

[00:19:21] and lead are supporting. I think he's the supporting part. I think the lead. I think that works. I think that's fair. Yeah, he doesn't quite have his own storyline in them. You know, like the storylines belong to John Boyega and Daisy Ridley and honestly to a lesser extent,

[00:19:37] Osser Isaac, like the three storylines. And he will sort of butt into Daisy Ridley. But you don't go to him. It's a very assembly movie. It is. So fragments in terms of this narrative, I don't know if anyone really has a lead amount of screen time.

[00:19:47] Let's talk about it. Imagine Daisy Ridley does. But maybe not. I'd be interested to see that, like some kind of breakdown. Stop watching. Let's talk about the two guys that were on all three of our list. The only two. Defoe and Stahlberg, I'm assuming. Right, yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:59] Dads on dads. Right. I mean, Stahlberg just has the MVP award for this year. Yeah. You mean just quantity, like consistent work in many movies. Right. I mean, the other guys who fall into that, Sarah as we've mentioned, I think also Kill Blandru Jones,

[00:20:13] who's a little more divisive in terms of how effective he is in those movies. I think he's great. I like him a lot. I like him and get out. You defend that performance. I think he's really fucking good in American made. Oh, I haven't seen American made.

[00:20:23] In American made, he's playing to me the Ben Foster role where have you guys seen hostiles? No, parts of hostiles. So there's this part in hostiles where they get to a camp. Yeah. And Christian Bales, like leading his regiment and the guy is like,

[00:20:36] oh, how are you doing? Could you take this prisoner as a next town? And he brings out Ben Foster. And like it's one of those things that never see this movie. You're screaming. You're like, don't take Ben Foster. That idea that guy's gonna, he's going to go crazy.

[00:20:49] And like Caleb Laundrie Jones has that same, I'm going to call him that from now on. Sure. He has that same as like where he shows up and you're like, no, he's trouble. Take him out back and shoot him like Tom Cruise.

[00:20:59] Do not involve him in your business. Just like wearing a metallic of t-shirt with the sleeves cut off or something. Just look at him. You know he's bad news. He could play Ben Hosley and Ben the Ben Hosley. He could 100%. I will say this. Really? Yeah.

[00:21:13] Watch American made and you're a redheaded guy. He's a little rangey. And he's more pale and freckly than you and he's got like kind of crazy eyes, but like it's just one of those like you just don't know what he's going to do.

[00:21:23] He would actually be my casting choice. I think he'd win the Oscar. It would it would evolve some reaching. I don't think he's ever shown the warmth and integrity of character that you have. Well, I think he did a little bit in the Florida project. Close. Close. Okay.

[00:21:35] You know, it would have to be a sort of Sean Penn and milk for him to be able to pull you off. Right. And they get him in and out of the Florida project. It would like extreme like swiftness. Yeah. I think his part of the Florida project.

[00:21:45] He doesn't have enough time to creep you out. His part in that movie is just like to remind you that Willem Dafoe is not like stuck here. Right. Like he has another life he could leave. Right. I'll just say this one note about

[00:21:58] an actor we have not nominated. Right. Caleb Laundry bag in American made because it's a hammy performance. But I also think I went up for that role. Oh, did you? And that role is like 75% invented by him. Not that we changed the dialogue.

[00:22:15] But how the character was behind the scenes. It's a little biased in that sense. But in terms of how the role was written and how the real guy was, I think he turned it into something a lot more interesting. But anyway, we didn't nominate him. Yeah. Dafoe.

[00:22:26] He's just fucking solid as a rock. Picture of decency. And you wouldn't always say that about Willem Dafoe character, which is like what also makes me so impressed by it. Talked a lot about how hard it is to play decent people. Yeah.

[00:22:37] And he's the last guy you expect to be able to do it that well. But he's not like sad decent. Like you don't ever just, you don't really feel bad for the character. You're just sort of like, oh, I'm glad he's here. I'm glad he's around.

[00:22:50] You're always glad that he's on screen. And he's an audience surrogate in the best way where he's not someone I'm supposed to glom onto, but more someone where I'm like, there are more perspectives going on here. Because you're watching the movie for the first 20 minutes.

[00:23:02] And you're like, this girl is running wild. Yeah. Like I love it, but like what the fuck is this? Yeah. He's the heart of the movie. He's the heart of the movie. Because as much of a cliche as it is to say. Yeah.

[00:23:10] And it is, it's very difficult, I think, to be that much of an established actor, work with non-professional actors and not stick out like a sore thumb. And he doesn't. In a way not make them look bad.

[00:23:21] He's got a lot of ginger rogersing to do in that role. The best thing I heard someone say about him, I forget who it was, but after seeing the movie at the New York Film Festival, someone said, the thing that's stunning about it

[00:23:34] is he's stripped away almost every element of what we associate with being willing to foe a star persona, but still makes himself the most compelling person on screen. Yeah. Solberg? I mean, just fucking like take it home. It's like a Beatrice straight performance.

[00:23:48] I will maybe push back about that a little bit. He's in it more. He's 100%. And it's not just that one scene. I agree. I think he has little moments. I like it in the other scenes. Gentle hand. All those other scenes. The scene where he's,

[00:23:59] there's a scene in the movie where he's going through, because Armie Hammer plays not his student, but a student who has come to sort of stay with him, but also sort of learn from him. Right. And Stuhlbarg is going through this like slideshow of. I love this one.

[00:24:12] Yeah, sculptures of like, you know, art stuff. And they're talking about how erotic it is and how athletic. Right. And Stuhlbarg walks this line of, and that's the thing he does in that last scene too, where it's just like, how much does this guy know? Right.

[00:24:24] It's this plausibly knowing, but plausibly completely like plastic and innocent. But he's like sort of underlining these points of about like attraction in the movie. Yes. And it's very smartly scripted, but I think Stuhlbarg plays it so well. He's such a person in those movies,

[00:24:40] when he could just be like dad. Yeah. And like instead of like this. It's a full body character. I've seen that movie a lot, like there's the scene where he's like, you know what? I'm going to take a swim,

[00:24:49] like things that don't need to be in the movie. Yeah. I love at the end when he's on the phone and they, well, should I spoil the play? Maybe I won't spoil it. I'll say, I mean. Because only three people in the country

[00:24:59] have seen it apparently now because so many pictures, classics doesn't have their shit together. STC. I compare him to Beatrice Strait only in that he's got that just fucking like finale pocket trailer scene. Like grab you by the heart strings kind of thing.

[00:25:14] Breaking news, Ben Google image search Caleb Landry Jones and he is not happy. Oh no. No, it's fine. I'm just going to have to transform himself. He's more methed out than you. Like no question. Hey, you know what? He's a lot of methed out guy. I like gritty.

[00:25:28] But like here just show it around. What movie are you looking at him in? Because that's also a nice difference. The American Made was the one he's summoning. Oh, I don't know. Come on. I mean, look, he's a fucking cool punk dude.

[00:25:40] He's given the finger on the red carpet. That we got to add this to the blank pictures. It's like the thing I was going to say about him is he's you know, he's kind of like Vanessa del Toro and Sicario where what's

[00:25:53] beautiful about it is he's kind of just like laying in wait for most of the movie to really kind of pounce. But everything he does up until that point is still building out, you know, like the scene wouldn't work where he not, you know.

[00:26:05] But then that monologue is the equivalent of like, and I'm telling you, I'm not going. Like it's essentially like a Broadway battle. It's also just through dialogue. It is such a feat in any movie, even like an Artie Indy movie, to demand silence from your audience

[00:26:19] and your movie for you to talk. Because the longer you do it, the more people are like, this seems fake. Like, you know, he's talking too long. This is fake. It's a monologue. I'm going to play, you know what I mean? And he doesn't ever let that happen.

[00:26:32] And if you look at the actual... I can't believe he wasn't nominated for an Oscar. I know, he's so stupid. If you look... I think it's a tough category. I mean, no questions. Very stacked. But it's still... And I think the hammer category placement fucked him. Well, yes.

[00:26:45] Yeah. But if you look at the written monologue in the script, it's a lot shorter than you think it is. Right, yeah, yeah. In terms of what's actually being said, because it's not just dramatic pauses for the sake of dramatic pauses,

[00:26:59] he plays so well, A Man, considering every word carefully. Yeah. Which takes time, but he earns it. I read that book after it had premiered at Sundance. I didn't see it at Sundance. I wasn't at Sundance, but I knew the actors were in the movie.

[00:27:16] So you read a post premiere, but pre-UZ. You knew it was an MPU. I knew it was a pre-post. And I knew that Stuhlbarg was getting... Don't get me hung up on a pre-post. I can't do it. No, no, keep going.

[00:27:25] I knew that Stuhlbarg was getting a lot of good reviews for this monologue near the end of the book. So once I got to that point, I'm like, oh, this has got to be it. And so reading that and reading it in the book,

[00:27:34] and it really affects you emotionally. And then, but I was going into the movie, I'm like, well, I wonder now that I've read this and I've experienced this, it won't be new to me. I wonder if it'll get to me the way it was.

[00:27:46] And I saw it at TIFF with sitting next to David. First movie I saw at TIFF. And our friend Katie Rich. And I'm just like... I mean, it's not a new story to be like weeping crying at that scene, but like, holy gosh.

[00:27:58] And then the ending is just so great. It's sort of the way it washes over you. But anyway, we got to keep moving. Who are some other people we want to talk about? Ricky Jenks is my favorite. There's not much to say.

[00:28:07] It's just like one of the most emotionally effective performances of the movie. It's another heart of the movie performance in a way. Yes. But I think that's such a tough character to make a caricature. This sort of like sad older gay guy. Yeah. You know what I mean?

[00:28:20] And he doesn't do it in a way that feels like something you've done. And the scene where he has to verbalize what Sally talked into. Signing to him is like kind of a magic trick in terms of... He has a few scenes like that.

[00:28:31] It's a total magic trick. I remember, but I just remembered Del Toro The last one at the pie shop is amazing. The scripting of that scene where he's like... It was so hard to find a way for to get that because it wouldn't make any sense for him

[00:28:43] to say what she's signing because he understands what she's signing. And I just had this idea where it's like, no, she needs to know that he hears it. And by saying it, that's how she knows. He's also one of my ultimate guys.

[00:28:55] You talk about who are your guys. Yeah. Janksus. He's a god. She's a god. He's the god and, you know, there was a thread. Was he on your list? Wait, was he... He wasn't. He would have been my top 10. He's... I'm very glad he got an Oscar.

[00:29:06] I had to put him in there. And after we did the Shape of Water episode, not the... Yes, no, the Weight of Water episode with Karen Hahn, there was a thread on the red. We now know how much it weighs and is what shape it is.

[00:29:17] You know a lot about water. I really kind of backed water into a corner. Can't wait for the sound of water. The water? Yeah. The look of water. There was a thread after the Karen's Boys thing about like what is your type

[00:29:29] in the way that Karen defined what her type of person is. And my ultimate type is Best Embodied by Richard Jenkins now, which is like super frazzled, haggard looking man of surprising sensitivity. Yeah. There was... There was the one day at Toronto,

[00:29:47] I was standing in line with Esther and... Esther Zuckerman and Matt Jacobs and Oliver Whitney. And we were talking about... They're a little threesome at those things. Yeah, they're so fun to run into at all of these events. They're a good group. But we were talking about...

[00:30:02] Because we had just seen Florida Project and something else. And we were talking about the Oscar contenders. And we're like Defoe, Stuhlbarg, Jenkins, we're all the ones getting the Oscar prize. And I'm like what a great dad... Like Jenkins isn't a dad,

[00:30:16] but he has a dad vibe towards Sally Hawkins. Well... Right. We didn't really... I didn't really see it coming at that point, but like it was those three and I'm like, this is a really good year for supporting actor dads because just missing my list was Ray Romano

[00:30:30] in The Big Sick. Super fucking great dad character. What did you do? What did you do? I'll say if I can quickly, the blankies, their nominees in the category of Best Supporting Actor were... Okay. Willem Defoe for the Florida Project, Michael Stuhlbarg for Calling by Your Name,

[00:30:51] Ray Romano for Big Sick, Patrick Stewart for Logan, and Michael Fassbender for Alien Covenant. Great performance. My only problem with that is it's a lead. I agree. The thing is you can say that he gave a supporting performance to the movie because he gives two performances,

[00:31:03] but that's a little trick. He's the lead of the movie. He's in almost every scene. Cool consensus choices. I love those choices. So Stewart and Logan, you talked about actually. Yeah, I'm not sure. I'll take a performance. I'll say the thing I sum up about it,

[00:31:16] why it works so well for me, it's one of the few performances of a character dying, right? This is a man slowly dying. His brain's been dying for a while. Where I think he fully embraces the ugliness and the fear of death.

[00:31:33] I think often it is played kind of cutesy or sentimental and is a very disturbing performance for me and for me. And how much fear you can see in him losing control of himself. Who else? Who was your other nominee? The last guy for me to talk about,

[00:31:48] Angus McFadden in your favorite movie. Great performance. That's a good pick. I that performance jumped out to me from the moment. So funny. I think it's a hilarious performance. He plays for people to, like this sort of puffed up, like explore guy who goes with them

[00:32:00] on like the second expedition and turns out to be a total waste of space. And the first couple scenes where he's just boasting at these dinner parties and making these speeches, I was like this guy's probably going to get out. What was his position? What was his position?

[00:32:11] He was with Shackleton's expedition or something like that. He was like the number two on that one. He's got a big beard and like a big quaffed mustache. And he's the mean grumpy zookeeper from We Bought a Zoo. He's in We Bought a Zoo.

[00:32:21] He's in Braveheart all those years ago. He's like a, you know, around. He's like a... But I was like, this is totally my kind of character actor performance of really funny blow heart. But then once he shows up on the trip and can't carry his weight,

[00:32:31] but continues to play it like he's the hero of the movie. He's like I'm doing great because there's that scene where he's like on his back and he's like eating all the food and he's also like spilled something in the rations. And you're like,

[00:32:43] and the hunt is like what do you do? He's like, this is your fault. You know, he's so funny. And then you see him again afterwards. And he's like, no, you guys practically murdered me out there. And he thinks he's in Mutiny on the bounty.

[00:32:55] Like he thinks it's a heroic story. Yeah, I love it. I just also think if I were... He may be mentioned later, so I decided to keep him off. But Robert Pattinson is wonderful in that movie. Agreed. In one of those things where like 10 minutes

[00:33:08] it's in, you're like, oh wait, that's Robert Pattinson in that big beard. And he's so quiet and so like authoritative and steady. I'll say as you've implied McFadeon gets in over Pattinson for me because Pattinson might get disgusted. I have him jotted down to discuss later

[00:33:24] and I wonder if we're all on the same page. So our winners are... No, no, we... We want a couple more people to talk about. Oh, okay. Okay. Like we both had Jason Mitchell. We both had Jason Mitchell who I think is the B standout.

[00:33:36] I think that's a fantastic cast in Mudbound. It's a good cast. He's the best one. He's the one I think the movie should be about if that's my complaint about the movie, you know, is that like it's got a lot of things. He's so good in that movie.

[00:33:48] He's really good. I think I would maybe agree with that more if I didn't also really love The Carrie Mulligan character. I love The Carrie Mulligan character, but it's... I feel like I got like two thirds of a movie from each of them. Oh, here he is.

[00:33:58] One of the only movies I've ever seen where I actually think the argument that it should have been a mini series is valid because I wish I could have gotten like a full fucking episode on each character. That's fair. Did you have anyone else, Joe?

[00:34:11] I had the two Lady Bird guys. I had Tracy Letts and Lucas Hedges. Hedges in that breakdown scene is phenomenal. He's great, but he's such a sweetie guy. Like the scene where he auditions with a giant in the sky is like... There are giant. ...is both funny.

[00:34:24] The cut to it, everything in that scene is funny. Every cut to every song is perfect, but he's so like earnest, teenage musical auditioning kid. And even the earnestness of when they're together, the scene in the field where he doesn't want to touch with a group.

[00:34:39] Where they're naming the star, yeah. I think that movie asks so much of his actors because it's so short and it's so fizzy. So it's like every... Like when Hedges pops up, we need to get his whole character in 30 seconds. And you really do. And same with Chalamet

[00:34:51] and the same with all those smaller characters. It's the most... And Steven Henderson, you know. I was gonna say, Steven Henderson, if he had two more minutes of screen time, would have made my five. If the SAG Award was voted on... They do the crying audition.

[00:35:02] Go on, sorry. If the SAG Ensemble Award was actually like the best ensemble and not just like... That's fucking yeah. West Virginia. But it's the best ensemble of the year. Agreed. And Tracy Lentz is the boss bitch. We've talked about that. He's a boss bitch. He's another bitch.

[00:35:13] I interviewed him and he was lovely. Did you really? Breaking new. Oh, that's wonderful. Our winners. Okay. My winner is Patrick Stewart and Logan. I'm sticking by it. I can't believe I'm not affected by the performance, especially since I'm not crazy about the movie,

[00:35:28] which I can now say again because... I'm kind of not crazy about the movie. You can say it again because you're not auditioning for a Mangold project. Okay, congrats. But... I talk shit about the movie. Then I really want to get cast in James Mangold's movie

[00:35:38] and the movie got canceled. Definitely the best performance in a movie that's secretly a Western. It's... Oh, wait. It wins that. David, tell me more. It's too hot. It's too off the record. Fucking secret. All right. Off the record. Your winner, Jory. My winner is Michael Stilberg. Yeah.

[00:35:53] Fucking killer. I think he's the best. He's the best. And I think I know where David's going with this. My winner is Willem Dafoe. And I believe if I'm not mistaken, let me double check this. The blanky community also picked Willem Dafoe. That's my performance of the year

[00:36:09] and the minute I saw it, I was like, I think that would... Like if you asked me to pick like best actor, no gender, no supporting versus lead, he would be my winner. All right? Love that performance. Okay.

[00:36:22] I guess it's time to go on to the next category. Hey, Joe. Hey, get the door from the audience. All right. I'll get the door. Thank you. Hi, everybody. You probably can't see me because I'm standing at an angle. Wait, are you a two-dimensional person?

[00:36:39] It's me, Flat Stanley. Okay. All right. From Flatland? No, this... Really? I don't know who you are. I feel like this is a very accessible reference. Flat Stanley, popular children's book character. Is this really... Oh yeah. This isn't landing at all. I remember you.

[00:36:56] I think I had you. Big deal. Like, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Boy, he gets flattened. That's to send himself in the mail to see people. Oh, okay. I might have a guess as to what you're here to talk to me about.

[00:37:10] Well, as you know, I live right next door to the AudioBoom Studios. Sure. So you flapped on over. One apartment over. Now, I got to send myself places when I want to get places. Which is pretty nice. It saves money on travel, right?

[00:37:24] But the problem is I'm lazy. Okay. I don't like to leave this building. Well, I'll see your flat. Hard for you to move around. Exactly. Thank you. The whipping winds? Yeah. The New York winter? Yeah. It's what we all take for granted. We can just walk the place.

[00:37:39] Right. So I've been going to every other office in this building, not getting the doors asking if anyone knows a better way for me to not leave my home, but also get myself shipped out in the mail. Well, you know how you can get anything online

[00:37:52] or on demand, you know, anything these days? I've heard rumors, sure. Well, do you know you can even get postage on demand with stamps.com? You can print real US postage with stamps.com for any letter or package right from your home or right from your office.

[00:38:07] Let's say I have a desk in the corner of my living room. Sure. Could I print it from there? You can print it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, whenever you want. Well, that sounds incredible. They'll even send you a digital scale

[00:38:18] so that you can weigh your letters and packages and print the right amount of postage every time so you're not paying too much. God, I hate stepping on that scale. You know what I'm saying? Even for flat people. No, it's being, you know, relatable. It's true.

[00:38:30] I'm just trying to relate to you guys because I really thought you'd all know me by reputation from when I walked in. I actually had a flat Stanley book as a kid. I think everyone did. I'm not trying to pat myself on the back,

[00:38:39] but I'm a very, very popular character. Stand. Stand. Chill out. Look. Will it chill you out if I tell you that it's so easy to use stamps.com? You just click, you print, and then you mail and you're done. It's a no-brainer.

[00:38:49] Yeah, I mean, that does call me though. It'll save you so much time. You can access all the services of the post office right from your desk. Yeah. It's never been easier to send out your letters and packages. You just have to understand, my frustration stems

[00:39:00] from the fact that I am a now adult version of a children's book character. I'm with you, Stan. So my career is kind of done. Right. Do you know what I'm saying? Well, that's why you need to mail your resume out a lot. Well, that as well.

[00:39:13] Yeah, I mean more, you know, trying to mail myself out, but it's, I mean, you know, sure no one's writing books about old flat Stan anymore. If you want to mail yourself out, you step on the scale and you print out

[00:39:24] the post that you need using stamps.com, and then you can, you know. It's like, everyone likes a flat guy when he looks like Jacob Tremblay. Once he starts looking like flat Dennis Fraun, suddenly the offer start drying up, you know?

[00:39:35] So it'd be nice to be able to save money, you know? Well, at Blank Check we're all really busy, so we rely on stamps.com to print out shipping labels so we can send out our prizes and all our mail, and it couldn't be easier.

[00:39:46] I'm very close to being convinced, but I would love to hear some sort of offer. I don't know. I don't know. Special, if I could get a special offer, I might not want some greedy. Okay. Well, we have a special offer with stamps.com

[00:39:56] for listeners that include a four week free trial, plus postage and digital scale. No long-term commitments. You just have to go to stamps.com, you click on the microphone at the top of the homepage and you type in check. Okay, so I check to make sure

[00:40:09] that I've typed in something at the box and what is the thing I type in? Check. Oh, great. That's stamps.com enter check. Wait a second. And you get four week trial, plus postage and a free digital scale. No long-term commitment. Wait, Penn.

[00:40:23] Did they just turn on the AC in here? Oh yeah, let's get them out of here. Oh, there he goes. All right. All right. Griffin, you were weirdly quiet for all that. Did he frighten you? Starstruck. You fucking flat Stanley? Are you kidding me? That guy's massive.

[00:40:38] Best supporting actress? Best supporting actress. I'm down. I'm ready. And I guess our winners from last year come out to present the award. Oh sure. My winner last year was Mahershala Ali. Oh, you and the Academy. That's right. My winner last year was also Mahershala Ali.

[00:40:54] I think you had a different one. I did. I had Alden Ehrenreich for Hail, Soil. He was my number two. He's my number two. He's my solo himself. And it's two Mahershalas and Alden Ehren were coming out to present. Oh God.

[00:41:04] And we're all like, hey Alden, how's Han Solo going? No comment from Alden. I feel like Alden is under embargo. And also yeah. I hope he crushes it. Aren't we all very excited for that movie now? I hope he crushes it too.

[00:41:17] But that's gone from a movie where I'm like, well look, I think it's going to be fine. It'll probably be a little routine because Ron Howard had to pick up the pieces there. For me to me being like, is this a disaster? How is there nothing?

[00:41:28] How has it helped me not seen a thing? It's the poor tents are bad. And Alden is currently standing on stage butting his nails because we won't stop talking about this in front of him. Sorry Alden. It's weird if Billy Crystal will go on and on

[00:41:40] about how bad the Han Solo movie looks. Ah Han Solo more like Han Solo. And now Alden Ehrenreich steps up to the mic to announce Joe Reed's best supporting actress nomination. Best supporting actress, best performance by an actress in a supporting role. Tiffany Haddish in Girls Trip. Woo.

[00:41:56] Sylvia Hokes, am I pronouncing that right? Yep. In Blade Runner 2049. Leslie Manville in Phantom Thread. That's right. Elizabeth Marvel in The Myra Whits Story. Joe. That's a Joe pick. That's a Joe pick. That's a real Joe pick is what it is. And Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird. Sure.

[00:42:15] All right, Mahershala number one we'll say. Mahershala leased up to the mic. Okay. And with a commanding but powerful silence and Stoicism says the nominees are Holly Hunter and The Big Sick. Ella Rumpth in Raw. That's such a good pick. She's good. Fucking thank you.

[00:42:32] Such a good pick. I'm gonna mess up her name but Brea Vanight. Yeah, Vanity. Vanity, I'm not trying to show her last name. In The Florida Project. I'll start you with that. Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird. And my fifth nominee is Connie Britton in Beatriz and Dinner.

[00:42:50] That's another good pick. Fuck the world. I just want you to look and see what my sixth place by supporting actress choice is. Ella Rumpth in Raw. That's a really good pick. My nominees are Sienna Miller in The Lost City of Z. Cool, David Pick. Yes.

[00:43:05] Laurie Metcalf in Lady Bird. Leslie Manville in Phantom Thread. Nice. Catherine Keener in Get Out. Nice. Cool. And Tatiana Maslani in Stronger. Ah, that's also very good David Pick. Wonderful performance that I voted for. Did you? At a certain critics awards.

[00:43:22] At a certain critics awards that we can't talk about. So let's talk about Metcalf first, so she's the one we all share. Yes. She's also... Well, no. OK. Here's the thing about Laurie Metcalf. Sure. She's a very good actor. Yeah. Very true.

[00:43:37] And I feel like for very long she's been under-recognized despite being this legend of theater. Because she's a fucking 75-time Emmy award winner. She almost never does movie. She has done a movie in like 15 years. I had friends over a couple weekends ago

[00:43:50] and we were going to watch something else, but we sort of had some downtime. So I was like, hey guys, you want to watch the Laurie Metcalf scenes in JFK? And I said it as a joke and then like,

[00:43:57] no, we have to watch the Laurie Metcalf scenes in JFK. She's so good. She's one of the... Susie Cox, right? She's Archie Cox's... Right, yeah. Wait, is she a person? No, keep talking about it. I can't remember who she is. She's one of Kevin Costner's like investigators. Right.

[00:44:12] She comes back with like zero person. There are two scenes where she comes back with like her findings on the Oswald stuff. And as everybody does in that movie, has this like real cornpone Louisiana accent that nobody really has down, but like she's making the most of it.

[00:44:28] And it's all exposition. That movie does so such good stuff with exposition and she like, she just makes it sing. And Lady Bird, she does all of that and yet also gives this like, you know, lived in finding all the nooks and crannies of this woman.

[00:44:44] It's just like clear. She's like invisible. It's an authoritative performance. She makes it look so fucking easy. You never sense effort from Laurie Metcalf to communicate something. She's got crying scenes, she's got yelling scenes. Like it's not like it's a small performance at all.

[00:44:59] She's playing a huge personality. Like this immense personality that is clashing up against her daughter, who's another immense personality. It's the second best mother role she's ever played. I know Toy Story trilogy. She was waiting for that. I believe she's going to be in Toy Story 4. She's listed.

[00:45:16] That's also a character who other characters talk about a lot and those characters can sometimes feel like the expectations that the characters talking about them. The acting can't always live up to it. And this one that like obviously does flat Stanley. I was star struck. I don't know.

[00:45:36] I think that totally tracks and everyone's going to really like it. Did we have any other shared? Manville was on my shows. I mean, she's in my 6 through 10. It was just about fighting for my people. She is. I agree with that. Tiffany Haddish. Great performance.

[00:45:53] I'll tell you why I left her off. It's because you love Regina King so much. Regina Hall. Sorry, Regina Hall. Excuse me. Regina Hall. Regina Hall. I mean, you do love Regina King. I love both of them. Yeah, exactly. And no lies.

[00:46:07] Regina King will be coming up later in this episode when I ask a very loaded question. Oh. Get ready for it. Don't talk to him about it. No, you're going to like it. You're going to like it. I'm going to look really smart

[00:46:15] and I'm going to win a Nobel Prize. OK. My complaint and it's not fair because it's on the movie and it's not her. Sure. I think the one emotional scene they try to give her is the weakest scene in the movie in terms of how it's written. Sure.

[00:46:30] I think that scene doesn't fucking work. Yeah, that's fair. And I think they're trying to build a sort of basement on the character in the way they do with Bridesmaids. The sort of emotional scene. Yeah. And it dings the performance for me a little bit

[00:46:43] in a way that isn't on her, but it somehow loses a little bit of shine for me. I think probably would have been my sex. I think, yes. And I think that's fair. I think the fact that any time there's a performance

[00:46:53] that elevates a movie to that degree. You've got to give her a little heart for me to live up. And it was a star who's more than performance. Even though I had loved her in like the Carmichael show. It's not like she was anonymous.

[00:47:01] She's great in Keanu, but it was still like, oh wow. Yes, 100 percent. She just fucking owns that movie and it's the best comedic performance of the year. No question. Absolutely. Yeah. But Manville rules. She's almost as funny as Tiffany Haddish.

[00:47:15] I'm so glad she got nominated just because we'll get that clip. We'll get that clip of her. Don't you pick a fight with me? Don't you pick a fight with me. It's about and I, Ben and I were talking before the podcast

[00:47:25] about how I was sort of middling on Phantom Thread. But man, everything that Manville does in that movie I love. I'm bigling on Phantom Thread. You are. Big. You know that adjective we always use is bigling. And then we just had a bunch of randos. Yeah.

[00:47:38] So Ella Rump is just one of the. She's the sister. She's the sister in Raw. And it's an incredible performance of confidence and hedonism. Yeah, she's good. You know, she's just having so much fun doing such outrageous things. There's an element of just her being so fucking captivating.

[00:47:55] Like she's a very charismatic. Well that character has to be the girl that the younger sister looks up to. Yes. And yet has to be fallible because of everything that happens. Right. No. I kind of feel like you would like it. Yeah.

[00:48:09] Because it's about a bunch of punk teams, college kids. Dental students. But then also they're eating each other. Veterinary students. Who are they? Talk more about it later. Eating each other. There's some cannibals. We'll talk more about it later. Chill out. Jesus. Who else was on your list?

[00:48:25] Who else was on my list? Connie Britton. She's great at that movie. Beatrice Denner. She's always a good actress. I was not fond of that movie. Oh, that's interesting. I like that movie a lot. I did too.

[00:48:34] I think that performance is an incredible depiction of a very insidious type of racism that is the super performative arms outstretched. Oh, we love her. We love Beatrice. Until it becomes in any way detrimental to their own well-being. Even a little bit. Even a little bit.

[00:48:54] The tiniest bit. Yeah. That sort of very performative empathy. Yeah. And she's a great actress. Let's go from that movie just missed my supporting actor list. Also very close to me. Very close to me. I really get in that. Yeah. Bria Venati. Yeah.

[00:49:08] I mean like a stunning performance from someone who had previously done Instagram sketches. Sure. Yeah. And that's a really fucking difficult character. There's a lot of range there. Yeah. And you have to, for the movie to work, you have to be feeling bad for her very often

[00:49:26] despite her constantly doing the most infuriating thing she could at any possible moment. She is infuriating. But as a victim of circumstance, she doesn't ever create these little moments of false sympathy though. No. She doesn't give you outs. That's the beauty of it. Yeah.

[00:49:40] And at the same time, she is somewhat lovable right? Like right at the start where she's like, Mooney I'm such a horrible mother. What am I going to do? And you're just like, well, I mean she did literally just spit on someone. Right.

[00:49:52] But you also, by the end of the movie, by the end of the movie you go, she certainly could have a more responsible mother. She will never have a mother that cares about her more than this woman does. It's not just about being her own child.

[00:50:03] She just doesn't know how to properly raise a child. They're fine. And of course she has no idea what she's doing with that final meal they have together. Yes.

[00:50:10] Is that's like the best she can do in terms of trying to provide some sort of happiness to her kid. But she's shitty in some aspects of motherhood. Yeah, let's say. Like a couple of mistakes made. And then Holly Hunter is my mom.

[00:50:23] We'll talk about this more in a future episode. So good at looking at people. So good at looking people. Well, Kumail said in some interview she's the fucking Holly Hunter of actors. Which I think we don't give her enough credit for being in that pantheon. Very annoying.

[00:50:38] Being at the top of her. She didn't get enough skin. She hasn't been given a substantial movie role of any real quality in such a long time. She was on TNT for years. She had to drink Jesse Eisenberg's piss and Batman vs Superman.

[00:50:51] Look, I don't think it's actually his piss. I think it's his piss and I'll fight on this till my dying day. Well, all right. That's a worthy fight. Part of me is just so relieved to have Pete Hunter back on screen.

[00:51:02] But it is a super complicated, tricky performance. I interviewed Kumail and Emily Gordon for the movie. And he told me that scene in the comedy club with the heckler was based in part on moments from his career being heckled.

[00:51:18] But also that Holly Hunter told him a story of her yelling back at a heckler at a show. I just love her. Which I can't imagine. That's fantastic. And we talked about this more in a future episode, but she looks just like my mom.

[00:51:30] My mom gets mistaken for her and in the big sick, literally every outfit she wears looks like an outfit my mom wears. Every item of clothing, it drives me insane. She rules. I was on set for the filming of that. You're kidding me. Bull the heckler scene.

[00:51:43] No way. And she's so small. At famous Chicago club, Littlefield. Yeah, I was filmed at Littlefield, yes. Right there in Chicago. She's such a tiny person. Yeah. Actors are always, they always surprise you with how tiny they are. She's like sub five feet though, right? Probably.

[00:51:58] That's one of the reasons my mom always gets mistaken for my mom is a micro-signal. David Allen Greer also had a whole section in that scene that they cut out, but it looked funny as they filmed it a bunch and he was great.

[00:52:07] It is weird that David Allen Greer plays not David Allen Greer in a movie where everyone else is a stand up somewhat parallel to their own career status. He's good though. He's very good. And so those are yours. Who else did you have, Joe?

[00:52:18] Oh, I had Sylvia Hoax from Blade Runner 2049. She's the best one. She jumped onto mine the second time I saw the movie. I liked it. That movie rules. Love it. Carla Dury is also fucking great. And then she is. I don't love that character. Interesting. I love that.

[00:52:32] I love her. Yeah, I'm sort of, I may be out on that. OK. I think Sylvia makes such a dynamic impression with that character who is essentially you know, just the semi-unstoppable villain for us. Yeah, it's a really good way to put it. She's the terminator.

[00:52:51] But they have so many cuts to her. These sort of just like silent, single-tier cuts where it's just sort of like we are left to interpret these sort of decades of history of the creation of this specific type of replicant

[00:53:08] and the relationship she has with Jared Leto's character and the relationship she has with all the other replicants where she's just seething with this kind of jealousy towards every other creature. She's the best one. But she's the best one.

[00:53:21] And she has this sort of like that she has to hold on to this maniacal belief. And it's like you can see it like shaking her from the inside. Well, I also think that movie is about like Gosling's whole journey in the movies.

[00:53:33] He's like, am I the show's the one? Right. Am I the Messiah? I can't have Messiah. That conveys specialness, right? And then at the end of the movie, the movie is like, no, you're not the Messiah.

[00:53:44] But you are special because you made your own choices here and like you like have formed emotional connections with people and like that's humanity. Right. It's got the exact same thesis as downsizing. Whereas love is she's just like, no, what matters is if I'm the best one.

[00:54:01] And like that's her own form of like, you know, searching for consciousness. And I love her. Yeah. And I have Lizzie Marville who is so good in Myrawood story. Oh, she's awesome. I love Myrawood stories so much. Agreed.

[00:54:15] And she, she's so sidelined at the beginning of the movie. The first time we see her in the movie makes me laugh so much. It's sort of a joke in the movie. Where like they've been having this conversation for like five minutes

[00:54:25] between Stiller and Hoffman and then all of a sudden they just turn a corner and she's been there the whole time. And like you know so much about her character from that. Like that's really smart on Bombax part.

[00:54:34] And then she then sort of lives up to this character who is there and not there at the same time, which I love. And then the moments where she really like asserts herself, it let you know the audience really gets taken aback.

[00:54:46] That moment where she talks, you know, tells the story about her getting sexually molested or sort of just like. Yeah, I was sort of right. Like someone was creepy and touched her. Yeah. Like an uncle or I forget, some family member, right?

[00:55:03] Or maybe he's like a family friend. I'll file that as a molestation. Yeah, we can. We can. Believe it was an over the clothes molestation. We don't need to talk some antics. Don't do it. Yeah, no good. Don't do it. Don't do it. Glad we figured that out.

[00:55:19] Yeah. Um, great movie. Great movie. Great scene. Anybody running in that movie is the funniest thing I've ever seen in my life, including her. That scene where she just runs out of a parking lot. And then at the end when she just gets that I'm prom to haircut

[00:55:32] and talks about how she makes her own videos for HR or whatever in her company. She's the best. She's also part of one of those acting couples that I just like I'm fucking in love with. Oh, reminds me. I know who it is.

[00:55:43] I didn't know about Tracy Letts and Caracoon until we did our post episode. Oh, really? Really. But Elizabeth Marvel's married to Bill Camp. Yes. Who I fucking love. Right. Yeah. And I just imagine them acting around the house together. You know what Bill Camp's great in? What? Molly's.

[00:55:56] Molly's game. He had a performance. Bill Camp in Molly's game. Molly's game every fucking supporting performance is so strong. I disagree. There's one I didn't like. And it is? I liked Chris O'Dowd. I'm trying to think of something. But I loved Brian Darcy James. Yes. That's a hilarious.

[00:56:10] She's not like Costner? No, Costner is fine. He's doing his thing. Justin Kirk. No, thank you. Oh, I totally forget that he's in that. He's in there for the whole episode. I also just forgot he was in it. I don't know why that scene's in the movie.

[00:56:20] Yeah, I agree. I mean, like I know why it's in the movie. It's duplicated by other scenes. Either give him more or cut it. Yeah, exactly. I would agree with that. Yeah. I support that. David, do you have other? My other guys. Yeah, who are they?

[00:56:31] Who are my guys? Sienna Miller in Lost Cities. What's up guys? Why isn't she on all the list? I like her. Well, why would he pronounce it Zed? It's the name of the movie. I call this city Zed. He says it.

[00:56:43] Right, but you shouldn't say it like that because those people are from England. Wait, what are you giving Acrophid? I don't understand. Why just don't understand why David, someone who grew up in America was so weird. Yeah. What's going on there? What's going on there, David?

[00:56:55] What's going on there? Um, nothing. Shut up. I hate all of you. This bit is old. No, she's wonderful in that movie. She's an actress who has sort of gotten kind of… Not an actress I've ever loved. Yeah, well she's an actress who's been easy to sort of…

[00:57:10] I might joke about her which was born out from reality was I watched All of Foxcatcher and at the end I said, God wasn't Linda Cardellini good in that movie? And I think she's really good in Foxcatcher. I do too. I just…

[00:57:21] Yeah, I mean, I had not a lot to do. Face blindness for her for the longest time. And I'm glad that she's coming into her own. She's also, it's a really unfortunate case of she was in the middle of like a PR hurricane

[00:57:37] before anyone had seen her do anything. Yes, that's true. So she like came to the screen with all this baggage and I feel like she's been fighting against that her entire career.

[00:57:46] I feel like she's finally gotten to a point where she's sort of standing on her own marriage because I think she always has been very good. And she's… I saw Factory Girl, she wasn't great. I didn't see that. Yeah. I didn't see that.

[00:57:55] Maybe she hasn't been good always. Yeah. But I think throughout her career, she has been giving good performances, if not every time. Remember when she got in trouble for calling Pittsburgh, Shitsburg? Yeah, that was really funny. Five comedy points. It's funny. She's really great in that movie. Yeah.

[00:58:13] And my… She's awesome in the movie. Yeah, we should move on. Oh, Keener and Get Out, right. Yes. Yeah. Who I'm surprised more people weren't talking about. I think it's because… This season. I don't know. Everyone's amazing in that except for maybe Mr. Laundrie. But he's…

[00:58:27] I like it. I like the Laundrie. But she is so… Everyone is navigating their role so perfectly in the movie. But she's so threatening immediately. Yeah. But in that way where you're like, oh, well, she's just kind of like an uptight mom. Yeah.

[00:58:41] And you're like, I'm afraid of her. She's a good actress for giving you… She's a great actress. Right. Yeah. But one of the things she's best at is giving you… Like she strikes a pose of authority and… Right.

[00:58:56] And there's a charm to her that you know though that she thinks she's smarter than you. Or she knows she's smarter than you. And that makes you a little worried when you're in her presence. She does that in Malcovich. Yeah. Where she's just like…

[00:59:09] She's so much more clever than most of the other characters in that movie that they should be worried that she's working them. And she uses that really well in Get Out. She has that bit, as the hypnosis scene starts, where she's like, that's my kid. Yeah.

[00:59:25] And you're like, like, suddenly it's when your goosebumps, you know, where you're like, wait a second, she's like scary all of a sudden. Yeah. And obviously the movie has prepared you for that, but still. Yeah. All right. Did we cover your full five? Who are the winners? Yeah.

[00:59:38] Your five? Okay. Who are your winners? My winner is Holly Hunter. Laurie Metcalf. Mine's Laurie Metcalf. Yep. And who are the Monkeys? The Blankies nominated Laurie Metcalf, Leslie Manville, Holly Hunter, Catherine Keener. Nice. And Daphne Keane for Logan. She's good. She's the girl. She's a little...

[00:59:57] She's a little X-23? And they gave it to Laurie Metcalf. Yeah. I can't believe Janney's running away with it, even though the second I saw it, Tanya, I was like, shit, she's winning the industry. She really wraps the audience around her figure in that movie.

[01:00:09] My dad sat there and went, fuck, she's probably gonna win, right? And then, you know, there was like a whirl. From her first scene we were like, oh, she's gonna win. When the Lady Bird hype really got huge, there was this love for Janney

[01:00:18] and everyone was like, no, maybe Metcalf is the frontrunner and then Metcalf has gone on to like not win any major award. I'd love to see her pull off. This year is almost one of those old school...

[01:00:26] And when I say old school, I mean when I was growing up watching... And the Oscars are different... The critics all agree on their performance. It was Daphne and Metcalf. And Metcalf, absolutely. Right. And Chalamet and actress was sort of a surrogate,

[01:00:40] but also a bunch of other people. And now, and all of now the Globe Sag Oscar people are different. And that feels like that divide used to happen a lot. Yeah. They all win, which I assume is upcoming. That's the classic Oscar win. Of course.

[01:00:54] But as you said, those four critics, darlings, are who I would have bet on six weeks ago. I would have said the four winners are going to be at the Oscars. Because the Oscars had been doing that recently, J.K. Simmons and such.

[01:01:06] I think with Janney, one of the reasons why I'm not too bad about it... I don't disrespect Allison Janney. Obviously a great... I think it's a pretty bad performance. Just hate that movie. I think it also, I think this is a win that capitalizes

[01:01:16] on how much people like her as an actress. And that I don't have a problem with because she's been giving great performances in movies and TV. And I think that she's been more in movies, especially recently than Matt Kaif has.

[01:01:27] I don't have a problem with it so much. I don't either. Look, it's one of those things where it's like, I will be happy living in a world where Allison Janney has an Oscar. Sure, brother. I will just constantly ignore which performance it's for. Sure. All right.

[01:01:42] We should move on. Okay. Just... Next category is... Some semblance of time. What do you want to do? Actress? Actress. Let's do actor. Okay. Okay. And now coming to the stage to present best actor, my winner from last year, Amy Adams and Arrival.

[01:01:58] Mine was an F-ending in 20th century women. Okay, performance. I'm mine is Sasha Lane in American Honey. The Sun is Darling this year. Hashtag... All right. Well, she's sort of... She was in the winner. Hashtag the three friends. My God.

[01:02:10] Would watch a movie about those three being friends. Yeah. All right. So this is best actor. Best actor. This is best actor. They're presenting best actor. Yeah. And Amy Adams steps up to the mic. She does.

[01:02:20] The nominees for best actor in a motion picture are a weirdly tough category this year. My six players... They stand very close. Fantastic category this year. And one where I'm surprised with how closely I matched to the Oscars. Oh, sure. I thought I was going to really divert.

[01:02:35] All right. My five are Daniel Kaluya in Get Out. Well, that's the one no one thought the Oscars would go for until a month ago. Yeah. Timothy Chalamet in Coming by Your Name, Denzel Washington in Roman J. Ezreal, which I also thought the Oscars would ignore.

[01:02:52] Daniel Day Lewis in Phantom Thread. I'm sorry, Dan Lewis in Phantom Thread. Thank you. Who I was afraid they would snub. Me too. And Robert Pattinson in Good Time. Cool. You really, really had me and then we diverted like ships in the night. Okay.

[01:03:07] I had Daniel Kaluya, Bring It Out, Timothy Chalamet, Call Me By Your Name, and Denzel Washington, Roman J. Ezreal. Hell's yeah. Just in Under the Wire because I saw that movie last week. Roman J. He's great in that movie. That is one of his best performances ever.

[01:03:20] And then the pair of actors I have in place for the other two are the least likely for me ever, Adam Sandler in The Myrolet Stories and Ben Stiller in Brad Stadis. Yeah. Wow. She is narrowly edging out Noel Perez-Biscayar. Great performance in BPM. He's like my sixth.

[01:03:41] Wonderful. Great performance. I will say it. I have not seen BPM yet. It's my biggest blind spot of the year. You should. And I also have not seen Brad Stadis, which you have been telling me for a long time. I like it. I really like it.

[01:03:50] I would particularly like it. It's a Mike White movie. It's one of those things where you look at the trailer and you're like, oh, it's a Ben Stiller movie. But then it's like, oh no, it's a Mike White movie.

[01:03:56] And it's a Mike White movie that reminds me of Enlightened in a way that I never expected it to. And I obviously like Mike White. Yes, me too. I also think Stiller was underrated in Myrolet.

[01:04:05] So though obviously he was never going to be the, because he's playing like a sort of tightly wound character. Right. But still he's great. Sandler would have been my sixth. Can I give you a good one? Let's give it. Yes. Mine's a mix of yours actually.

[01:04:18] It's Robert Pattinson in Good Time, Denzel Washington in Robin J. Wow. That's amazing. It's a great performance. Daniel Kaluuya in Get Out, Daniel Day Lewis, Dan Williams in Phantom Thread, and Adam Sandler in The Myroword Stories. So it's just a mix. Yeah. We're really on really.

[01:04:33] Just a tough category this year. A lot of great performances. It's been weak for a couple of years and this was a hot season. This is a strong year.

[01:04:39] This is a year where any one of those guys I nominated would have beat my winner from the last couple of years. Sure. You know it's like five performances that would have won in any other year. Yeah.

[01:04:50] My seven, I bring up only because I know he was right on the cusp for you as well. Klaus Bang. So good in the square. A movie I don't love but that performance is phenomenal. He's fantastic. I like that movie.

[01:05:01] I liked Charlie Hunnam in Lost City Is Ed. Of course he did. I liked, who else did I like? I feel like there's another obvious one. Macavoy and Split. I liked the Biscayre from BPM. Macavoy and Split. I loved the main actor after the storm.

[01:05:18] Did you guys see that movie? Nope. Hiroshi Abe. Which one was after the storm? It's like a Japanese movie. It came out at the start of the year. I didn't see it. You know, Hirokazu Kareda. I love Hanks in the Post.

[01:05:29] I thought Hanks was great in the Post. I like Hanks in the Post. Really solid in it. Yeah. It's just not a character. I like Fastbender in Aileen Covenant a lot. Sure. Yeah. There's another... Oh, Jake Jilin Hall and Stronger. Right? Yeah. It's a great performance. Yeah.

[01:05:41] Now can we get to the meat of the conversation? Sure. Okay. Because finally we can talk Roman J Israel on this. Finally. Talk that... What a odd little movie that I loved pretty much from beginning to end. I was very frustrated with the movie when I saw it.

[01:05:55] I hate the framing device. I still hate it. That's the one thing I would shed. The letter that he's writing? Yep. Yes. I don't like that either. That makes it seem like it all happened in three weeks, which... Yeah.

[01:06:06] Like I spent when on my first viewing of the movie, I was like, no, how could this possibly be happening in three weeks? And you don't need it. And also Dan Gilroy has this thing and he had it in Nightcrawler too.

[01:06:15] And Nightcrawler is not a movie I really loved too much. Me neither. But where he feels like he needs to create these life or death stakes in the third act that don't... I don't think necessarily need to be there to tell the movie

[01:06:28] that you feel like you're telling. Yeah. I feel like the stakes are there emotionally for the characters anyway. So I don't know why their lives have to be in actual danger. I question the ending a little bit.

[01:06:39] I think the movie loses the thread on the Carmen and Jogo character a little bit, which starts out really strong. Yes, I agree. And then I think she kind of stops being specific in any kind of way that makes sense. That movie just has a lot of ideas.

[01:06:53] It does. But I feel like that movie is wrangling and wrestling with those ideas in an interesting way in a way that Nightcrawler, I feel like, has a lot of big ideas that it thinks it has down.

[01:07:03] And it's going to tell you about some stuff about the movie. Yeah, I don't like this. And there's a central idea in that movie that I find fucking fascinating is one of the things I'm constantly weighing in this world that we live in.

[01:07:12] Which is, is it possible to affect large scale positive change and hang on to your principles? Without making any sort of sacrifice of principles. There is a scene in that movie where a 10-minute Jogo when he first goes to apply for a job with her.

[01:07:25] And he's sort of free associating his career and his sort of philosophy about the law and about social justice. And he can't look at her and he can't look behind him at the little shit who has no respect for him. Already thrown some shade.

[01:07:39] And that's the one I hope is his Oscar clip. And I don't think it's going to be. I think it's going to be one of the more outwardly expressive because he's barely holding it together in the scene.

[01:07:49] And he does not want to cry in front of these people. And he sort of is... That scene was when I suddenly, when I was watching this movie and I was like, I don't know what this movie is. And then you're right. Yeah. You're like, whoa.

[01:07:59] But I did give it this mixed review because I was so confused by the money in a bag plot. Yeah. Like which just sort of comes in. But then, you know, the more you think about it, the more you're like, why not make it literal?

[01:08:10] I think that the ending is fine too because he's making this like 40s morality play. Yeah. And it kind of has to end that way with like punishment. I do think he struggles to get some of his plots lined up for the ending. You know what I mean?

[01:08:23] That's the thing. I'm fine with the very ending. It's like the 15 minutes building up to that finale gets a little sweaty. I agree. He wants... I found out that Denzel won't eat bacon. So that's why it's the turkey bacon, Turkey maple bacon donut. That's really interesting.

[01:08:40] I hope that's his Oscars. I read an interview with someone where they were like, why that specific? And he was like, well, Denzel, it was a maple bacon donut, but Denzel said no, no. That's funny. So that's another in the many, many great food stuff of 2017.

[01:08:54] Well, I got a big category coming up later. Okay, good. All right. Let's see. But we, Miriam Bale, who was on... We were talking about it with Miriam whenever we recorded the big kimchi episode. And I had seen it and just liked it

[01:09:04] and we were sort of getting you to reconsider it a little bit. Well, I was... And I was... You were already starting to grapple with it. I've been thinking a lot about that movie. But the thing I said in that conversation is

[01:09:14] I will have this thing sometimes where I'm on the subway and I see a very odd person and I go, who the fuck is that person? What's their life? What does their daily life look like and how do they make it through the world? Yeah.

[01:09:26] Not in a condescending way, but in New York when you see very bizarre people on the subway and you're like, what is their hour by hour existence? And Roman J Israel is the first movie I've seen made about that guy where you're just...

[01:09:40] Like in any scene you imagine that any other movie would pick any other character in that room to be the audience viewpoint. Before we move on from Denzel, I just want to say one interesting bit of Oscar trivia that I find fascinating is this year,

[01:09:55] Denzel and Octavia Spencer, both of them, are the first black actors to ever be nominated two years in a row? Wow. Wow. Ever. Because Denzel was Fences last year and she was hidden figures. Octavia Spencer is also the most nominated black actress

[01:10:09] of all time tied with Viola Davis with three nominations. Wow. She's... And I believe both she and Viola... No, no, she is the first black actress to be nominated after winning an Oscar. Correct. Yes, that's it. Because Viola has not yet been nominated again,

[01:10:23] although one imagines it's quite possible she will. And whoopi only got two. That's right. Yeah. And she didn't win it. She was nominated after going to the Oscar. She was nominated first for Color Purple. Yep. Okay, some other... Pattinson. So obviously Griffin and I love Pattinson.

[01:10:37] Obviously you do not have the Good Time War. I don't like Good Time. I love that movie. I don't like that movie. I think Pattinson is good in it, but I don't like that movie. They drink from this bottle of Sprite. Now Ben, have you seen Good Time?

[01:10:48] So Ben texted us in a... How about Bad Time? How about that? Hey, watch yourself. Watch yourself. Let me try and find... This is a good time. Let me try and find the text. Different people's eyes. Ben texted us in a frenzy. I was very mad. All caps.

[01:11:02] How come no one told me about Good Time WTF? I need to see this movie. What? And I replied, I figured I didn't need to tell you about a movie you're the star of. And then Griffin was like, you got to watch it before the blankies.

[01:11:17] So did you watch it? I watched it and I loved it. Okay, because it pushed some buttons. It fucks. It fucks hard. Yeah. It reminded me of my adolescence. You know, there's certain things I can't talk about. And this movie, I think, portrayed the life

[01:11:37] of a person who lives a reckless life. A scumbum. A scumbum, baby. No consequences. Who cares? That movie was good. It fucking... It fucking fucks. Those directors that made a movie previous to that, starring your doppelganger. Heaven knows what? Caleb Landry Jones. Interesting. As a real scumbum.

[01:11:58] Caleb Landry Jones had not done laundry before that movie. No, no. Listen, there's a certain level of romanticism to being kind of a bad guy. Yes, but he destroys lives. And I think the movie wants you to get that. And the movie doesn't let him off the hook.

[01:12:15] And I think the movie is designed to make you actively uncomfortable every time he's destroying a life. I don't think it asks for enjoyment, perverse enjoyment. No. And his character is just like a fucking shark. He is unstoppable. Anytime he hits a wall, he runs a new algorithm

[01:12:31] to figure out a different corner to go around. And it's a character where we get very little background from him. I mean, a lot of it's inferred. He never really speaks about his emotions. Most of his dialogue is lies that he's telling to people

[01:12:44] in order to get what he needs at that moment. But there's such a full sense of who that guy is just in sort of how well round Pattinson's performance is, I think. That is my stance. Joe, do you want to offer a rubble? Mostly.

[01:12:58] I don't know how one of the directors gets away with casting himself as the mentally impaired. Well, I have actually interviewed him about that. He is good. There's an answer that I love the last scene of it.

[01:13:10] I wish the rest of the movie hitter into that last scene. Really? As good as that last scene was, it made me even more angry because I'm like, no, don't can't end it with something this well done when the rest of it was... What have you heard Griffin?

[01:13:22] Because you're pointing at me like you know something. Well, I think it's probably what they told you that they had originally wanted to cast an actor with a similar set of circumstances and they felt like they could not comfortably and safely... Couldn't do it without it seemed like

[01:13:37] they were pointing a camera at someone in Revelling. And the other thing I heard them say, which I think... Maybe cast an actor. The other thing I heard them say is that in terms of the amount of stunts involved and action

[01:13:51] and how they like to move, they wouldn't be able to do it. That's the thing they talked about. I moderated a panel with them and they talked about how making that movie unsurprisingly was hard and how Pattinson who I think is game for anything

[01:14:06] and he's in his indie mode, there was one time when they're wearing the bank masks where he was like, how long do you have to do this for? This is very uncomfortable. Like that was the only time they ever mentioned anything

[01:14:17] but there's a lot of running around New York City and like, okay, okay let's set up the shop really fast and we're gonna end... I think it was just a trying shoot. I, you know, and certainly becoming less and less tolerant

[01:14:31] of not casting appropriate people in roles by the millisecond. But this is one example where when I heard their explanation I kind of felt like it passed the snag. I think it's a fair question. Maybe in a year I'll find a reference for that. But yeah.

[01:14:45] Who else we got? Well you guys had your boy Dan Lewis. Dan Lewis. Okay, Ben is holding up victory fingers in the air. He's hungry. God, I mean, it's so cliche. He's the fucking best actor. Like he just is but the thing that really jumps out to me

[01:15:03] about this performance is it feels like it is the most personal performance he's ever given. Not to like Monday morning quarterback, but I think that's part of the reason that he's stepping away from acting now is he has always seemed like one of those

[01:15:16] actors who acts to get away from himself. And I think the psychological conditions of this guy... Imagine Bill the butcher being a vacation from your every day. He conceived this movie with PTA. It was a little more of a collaborative effort.

[01:15:29] As you I'm sure you know Ben because you talk to Dan all the time. And so yeah, so maybe he put a little more of his own relationship with people into this character. Even just the struggles of being someone who is that sensitive

[01:15:43] and that precise about your work and trying to also be a person. You should see the dress he made. Gorgeous. He made some dresses. He made dresses. He like recreated what's that designer? Balenciaga. Balenciaga. Balenciaga. He remade one of these like famous dresses of his.

[01:16:03] Did you see the same guy? Squawing thing. I did. Yeah, absolutely. The Stephen Pascuali thing is amazing. Stephen Pascuali, someone tweeted a photo of him. What was the play? A great actor by the way. Yeah, very good actor.

[01:16:15] The Robert Bridegroom and someone a long time ago or maybe someone tweeted last year I heard a rumor that Daniel DeLuis built the jacket Stephen Pascuali wore in the Robert Bridegroom because he was like going method for the Phantom Thread. And that's like this leather jacket.

[01:16:31] And Pascuali retweeted it with sometimes rumors are true. Imagine getting the call where it's like, hey, Dan Lewis is, he's in a sewing mood and he wants to make you a jacket. And there's even just like, I mean this is where the guy

[01:16:44] pays off because usually I don't care that much about like. Now the method shit who fucking cares? Right, I don't fucking care. Give a good performance. I don't care what it took you, right? But there's, I saw the movie again last night

[01:16:55] and there's a close up shot of him threading a needle where you see how fucked up his thumb is. And it is fucked up in a way that can only happen if you have spent 18 months building dresses. Like even if you were just like the night before shooting

[01:17:08] the scene, like let me pinch myself a bunch, you know? Let me scrape the skin off. It's just, it's a very revealing performance in a way I think we don't usually get from him and every single gesture, every micro expression. Sheep, don't talk to me. Sheep, fucking sheep.

[01:17:23] That word. That voice is amazing. Oh, the voice is great. And it's just a fascinating fucking curse. The tinkers fuck that. Tinkers curse. The tinkers, no it's a fucking tinkers curse. Jesus Christ, what a line. Nobody gives a fucking tinkers curse what you think.

[01:17:37] No, you know I got a scoop. No it's okay. Yeah. Okay. So obviously the character hides secrets. The lining threads them into the dresses. One of the dresses in the movie, I had Dan hide bounce baby.

[01:17:52] See, I want the fans if they can guess which dress it is and please tweet at Ben Hosley with pictures of the dress. Ben, do you ever hide things in our episodes? What's up? Backmask. Do you ever so little audio clips into our episodes?

[01:18:07] Yeah, we got to listen really close. Things are particularly twisted I imagine. Who else did you have Joe? Um, who else did I have? I had Daniel Caluya, I feel like we all had him. Did we all have him? He's so good.

[01:18:21] And Stiller and Sandler, you know the natural actors who I always go to. I'm very resistant to the Adam Sandler optimism thing where every once in a while he makes a movie and it's like Sandy Wexler and everybody's like yeah. Except Sandy Wexler is an American grass.

[01:18:35] Yes, a great film about Hollywood. The Ben most revealing and honest film about Hollywood of the last 10 years. 100%. Given that, I think he's so good in Myrowitz. I think he's so good in and I love him in Punch Drunk Love but it's a different kind of thing.

[01:18:49] In Punch Drunk Love I feel like Anderson is harnessing that sort of Sandler thing. He does the sort of volcanic eruptions in this too but I think all his but that scene at the piano where he and his daughter played by remind me of her name. She's great.

[01:19:03] She was in that movie Tramps. She was really good. And her sister is also an actress. Is that right? Yes. I'm going to have her name for you guys in just one minute. Her name is Grace Van Patten. Who is also wonderful in that movie. Great.

[01:19:17] If I had a- As is Emma Thompson. Right, every little performance is a wonderful cast. I had Dustin Hoffman. Dustin Hoffman was on my list until he got himself off my list. Died until he died. He's dead now.

[01:19:27] Yeah, but that scene at the piano where Sandler and Grace Van Patten are singing that song, the genius girl song. And I'm like, oh this is such a great thing of like Adam Sandler does his silly little songs.

[01:19:38] That's always been a thing that we've loved about him from Saturday Night Live. But this is different. This is an older, wiser sort of a melancholy. There's a little sadness to that but it's not really like-

[01:19:48] It's not mugging you for tears but it makes me cry every time I see that because there's these little inflections that they give that communicate the sort of long relationship. I'll say he gets like my weird Holly Hunter award and not at all how the character is written,

[01:20:06] the circumstances he is in but just in terms of behavior. He reminds me so much of my fucking father in that movie. That's interesting. So much. Yeah, I met your dad obviously. Yes, I could see that. Especially the parking sand at the beginning.

[01:20:18] I would have met a lot of people who lived in New York City for their whole lives would see a lot of- Yes, the parking scene as someone who owns a car and you really spoke to me.

[01:20:27] That thing where you're having a conversation with someone and then suddenly you'll have to shift into your parking mode and you're like, what the fuck is he doing? You know, like and obviously Sandler yelling is such a magisterial thing to watch. You know what I mean? Yeah.

[01:20:40] Or him exploding on camera. That's comedic. Yeller. It's incredible. Him and Odenkirk. Thank you. Odenkirk's an amazing guy. Damn it. Son of a bitch. Why would you do that? And then Stiller and Brad Stadis who I feel like- That's a very simmering performance. It's very simmering performance.

[01:20:58] Very good performance. Yeah, it's one of those- That movie reminds me of Enlightened. I don't know. I think he's wonderful in it. And it's another one of those where I want to make sure I'm being careful about not giving

[01:21:08] somebody too much credit for like giving a good effort for the first time in a while. But it's been a while. Although I mean I think he doesn't- I think he's very, very good in the other two bomb back movies he's been in. I agree.

[01:21:22] I think in all three bomb back movies he's very good. He brings out great stuff in him and I think Mike White does as well. Yes. Chalamet was he on all three of us? Chalamet wasn't on mine. I love the performance though. Yeah. It's just- It's fucking-

[01:21:35] It's the most interesting teenager performance I've seen in incredibly long time. And it feels like he's carving out an entirely new archetype. You know? I mean with that performance in particular it feels like he is this interesting, more feminine millennial James Dean.

[01:21:55] And I say more feminine only in the sense that there is not that internal conflict about fighting the emotions. Right. Right. You know? The accessibility of those emotions is pretty breathtaking. And yeah, that final shot you can't argue with that. Well and as well as he plays- Chalamet.

[01:22:12] You're talking about like playing gay and like whatever. That's a loaded term that I don't really want to touch. But what he plays really well also is only child of academic Euro-American parents in that way. Yes. That like- And again, I have no personal experience with that.

[01:22:30] But my mom is French, my father's American. And I've seen a lot of movies. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. It's just like the way that movie uses Italy I think is very smart in a lot of ways.

[01:22:37] And I think his performance is also smart for those very things. And I think he, so much of that character is about him sort of being in this cocoon of sort of leisurely Italian countryside life.

[01:22:50] And this character coming and like snapping him out of this and sort of making him realize he wants all these things they didn't know he realized and he doesn't know how to handle it. And it's- He also wins a family award for playing my brother. That character is-

[01:23:02] Man, your family's all over this year. All over this year. All right guys keep going. Okay the Blankies chose Daniel Caluya. Timothy Chalamet, they spelled it whatever. Timothy Spall style. Okay. You know what? List of people I've heard pronounce it Timothy.

[01:23:19] Include Armie Hammer, Ansel Elgort and Timothy Chalamet. So I'm fine with Colleen Kim and Timothy. Robert Pattinson for good time. Danny Day for Pentum Thread and Adam Driver for Star Wars The Last Jedi. Oh they had him in lead he's not in lead. It's borderline for me.

[01:23:36] He's not in lead. He's not in the movie much. Yeah. Like he doesn't have a plot. You know what I mean? I think he kind of does. What's his plot? His plot is take down Snoke. Yeah but he's- Stop snoking. For the first half of the movie-

[01:23:49] For the first half of the movie- Blow that ship out of the sky. This is a non-snoking zone. For the first half of the movie he's only ever really in Rey's vision. Sure. Apart from that we're not cutting to him.

[01:23:59] My counter argument is no one's elite that much. He's more object than subject. What do you mean? There's two main- Three main plots in the movie. Daisy Ridley goes to the island, John Boyega goes to Kanto Bite and Oscar Isaac stirs up some shit on the ship.

[01:24:11] Like those are the three plots we're cutting between. Chewie eats a pork. And he's not in any of those plots. I think he's the pork plot. Chewie eats a pork. I do because I can't get enough stuff on the- Yeah, that's true.

[01:24:19] Chewie eating a pork is another part. True. He's supporting those pecs. Another thing and then we do have to get to actress but I can't believe we did not talk about the fact that Rey's parents are revealed in that movie in our episode. I know.

[01:24:33] Literally my favorite element in that entire film. And not only that- The episode was 15 hours long. It was a very long episode. We were very tired boys. We were tight-tight boys. Yeah, we were tight-tight boys. But in the Force Awakens episode, you literally say like- I hope.

[01:24:46] I really hope. I hope. I prefer it if it turns out our parents were nobody's. And I'm like, you know, that'd be nice but I don't think they're gonna do that. Like, you know, because Abrams is dropping all these hints and then that's exactly what they do.

[01:24:57] I couldn't have appreciated that more and we totally did talk about it. Totally didn't mention it. You're winner, David is. Daniel Kaluya. It's a wonderful performance. Mine as well which is why I held off on talking about him. Mine as Shalame but you guys talk about Kaluya.

[01:25:09] Super strong choice. The Blankies also chose Kaluya. I can't believe he got nominated because I felt like it's- It felt like once he's gonna get ignored. No one ever gives enough credit to it. And it's so internal for so much of the movie.

[01:25:20] I mean, obviously the hypnosis is his sort of breakdown so even that he has to be locked up, you know, like physically. But an incredible looking and listening performance because you're using him to try to gauge whether or not there's a threat

[01:25:31] and a thing he's playing really well. And I think this dude just rules in general. Yes. Great in fucking Tsukario, great in Black Mirror, great even back on Skins. Oh yeah. The dude fucks. My brother knows him. Stop it with the humble breath.

[01:25:44] You should ask him about it tomorrow. Wait a second. How would Joey know Daniel Kaluya if he grew up- They worked there when the same Peter programs. Really? In the United States but Daniel Kaluya's- In the UK. The Hampstead Theater. Why was Joey your brother in the-

[01:25:56] We grew up in England. Oh. Fucking idiot. My god. Dude is great. It's wonderful. And I think the thing he plays super well, a very tough Neil DeThred in this movie is the fact that he does not want to believe something bad is happening. Right. Sure.

[01:26:15] That he's trying to- Right, he's trying to rationalize everything he sees. ... his skepticism. Because the problem with most horror movies is you go why are they walking into the room? Why aren't they running away? Of course that's the joke of the title. Get out, get out.

[01:26:27] And the thing he does well which I think makes the entire movie work Yes. ... is that it's a guy who goes I need to get over my sort of skepticism. Right. And trust that people could actually respect me and care for me.

[01:26:40] He's silencing that voice in the back of his head. And then all his worst fears are 100% accurate. Well, also you're seeing a guy who every time someone says something awkward in the movie which is often, you know before things get bad, he's so practice it like

[01:26:51] deflecting it and giving a little smile or the sort of like yeah I don't know. And like it's just so internalized him thinking like well it's going to be creepy and awkward here because we're in the suburbs and like they have black servants and it's weird.

[01:27:04] That's the scene that I think is his best is the scene with Whitford. No, the scene with what's her name? The grandmother. Betty Gabriel. Yes, that scene is phenomenal. Yeah she would be an outside pick for me on supporting her. Same here.

[01:27:18] You know this is another outside pick I forgot to mention? Pump Clementefe in Guardians 2. Wonderful performance. Very hard to play someone whose power is literally feeling everyone's emotions all the time. So much fun. Hope she gets stuff to do in a movie war. Yeah. Let's see best actors.

[01:27:33] So those are our winners and the best actress coming to the stage now, Tom Hanks, winner for Sully. He was your winner? Yeah. Wow. As I said, any one of my nominees last year would have won. Well, Adam Driver was my winner last year.

[01:27:47] Or anyone of my nominees this year would have won. I know what I'm saying. Denzel was mine for a princess. Cool performance. Cool. The three amigos up on stage announcing the nominees and the nominees for best actress are Jessica Chastain in Molly's Game, Rebecca Hall in Professor

[01:28:11] Marston and the Wonder Women, Salma Hayek in Beatriz at Dinner, Sir Sheronen in Ladybird and Meryl Streep in The Post. And now Tom Hanks is going to announce five nominees very well because he's good at his job.

[01:28:25] The nominees are Salma Hayek for Beatriz at Dinner, Sir Sheronen for Ladybird, Sally Hawkins for The Shape of Water, Jessica Chastain for Molly's Game and Vicky Creeps for Phantom Threads. Me and Vicky Creep. It's like with flat panicking.

[01:28:46] And now I'm drivers coming up to the stage and we all know what his voice sounds like. Sure. I'm not going to do it. No. How would you do it? The nominee. I can't do it. It's hard. There is an important. Someone got to find that. The nominees.

[01:28:59] That's not bad. If I hold my nose. It's pretty good. The nominees. Sir Sheronen for Ladybird, Vicky Creeps for Phantom Thread, Florence Pugh for Lady Macbeth, Cynthia Nixon for A Quiet Passion and Kim Minhee for On the Beach at Night alone. That's right. That's so taric. Yes.

[01:29:23] I like it. Blankies nominated Selly Hawkins for The Shape of Water, Sir Sheronen for Ladybird, Vicky Creeps for Phantom Thread, Meryl Streep for The Post and Rooney Marr for A Ghost Story. Oh, she's supporting. I agree with that. But I think it's a very good performance. Really?

[01:29:41] It's a good performance. It's very Rooney Marr performance. Yeah. Which I love Scared Birds so I love every Rooney Marr performance. Rooney Marr is always a pigeon. She sure is. Who's gauging how close you're going to get. She's off in the pigeon.

[01:29:54] She's a breakthrough role in The Hours as that dying sparrow that the coacan been lying lies down next to the stand. Can I just compliment our listeners saying those are really cool consensus choices? Yeah, I agree. That's like enough people had those nominations that they ruled out.

[01:30:09] David, what did I see Florence Pugh in very recently? The commuter, my friend. I sure did. And she was right in a way. Commute, commute, commute. The best summer 2018. What's crazy and I remember talking about this with Richard Lawson after seeing Lady Macbeth

[01:30:21] is like how the fuck did she not get into Game of Thrones? Seeing this performance, you know, look at this star. And you're like how did Game of Thrones not make her play some fucking, you know, breadwrench or something? Some poor awful marginalized character in some tower,

[01:30:38] that you know gets thrown off a cliff or something. Okay, so let's run through. Yeah, but she really like that too bad she didn't get to play that role. No, I'm saying I'm glad that she like got to break out with fucking Lady Macbeth.

[01:30:50] What do you got breadwrench? This is a Lannister bread bakery. Let's talk through our nominees because we have a lot of overlaps. We did. Just good testing. Oh, we want to talk to Sersha first. Because we all had Sersha. We all had Sersha. I mean, good.

[01:31:08] That's a good actress right there. Good acting from a person who is good at acting. Who is what is she 23 and she's fucking incredible like third Oscar nomination. The most assured performer on screen. So fucking funny in this movie. That's the thing for me.

[01:31:25] I mean, I said Tiffany Haddish is the best comedic performance of the year, but Sersha runs kind of right up there and how much she lands every single fucking joke. And not even the big ones. Without force.

[01:31:35] That part in the supermarket where she just goes come here often and it's too aggressive by just a little bit. And talk about her audition scene. Oh, everybody says don't which I burst out laughing. It's so funny. I'd have to kill your fucking family.

[01:31:48] Like all those bits where like as any teenager, anyone who's ever been a teenager can recognize where she goes too far. But you cannot believe that performance comes from someone who does not have a comedy background. Yeah. And you cannot believe the performance.

[01:31:59] That's true, but she loves comedy. She loves comedy. The gruber. Yeah. Sersha run if you want to get pasta dinner. I'm open. It's surprising that it's that funny coming from someone without a comedy background.

[01:32:10] And surprising it's that funny in a movie that isn't that much of an out now comedy. A certain a comedy, but isn't designed to be a laugh. A minute. It's not a yuck, yuck factory.

[01:32:19] You know it's how much she makes all those lines sing without ever betraying the sort of internal contradictions of this character who is struggling so hard to figure out who the fuck she is. Yeah. And she and Metcalfe get a really good sort of like rhythm together.

[01:32:32] She actually she's a great scene partner with all of she is there's so many good one on one in that movie her and Beanie Feldstein. Now. All those folks talking about good scene partners. The Hedges. That's my favorite scene of hers is a star name.

[01:32:46] No, the scene reacting to that. Oh, well, that's an incredible scene where she just goes from being mad at him to just being like it's going to be OK. That's what I love about that movie is she's such a teenager where she will she can do that.

[01:32:55] She'll go from being mad to like totally forgiving someone in a second. Yeah. Any other way around. Well, on the phone call at the end, I mean she sells that so well. It's a name you gave me. It's a good one. Yeah.

[01:33:07] Sally Hawkins admittedly my favorite thing about that performance. It's a technical performance. Definitely. It's very emotional, but I tend to go for emotional specificity more than I do those sorts of like look they had to do this and this while standing on their hands. Yeah.

[01:33:23] But she has to do a lot. The beauty of that performance for me is the fact that I think it doesn't ever feel gimmicky when it really, really could. It could have. Yeah. And that I feel like I go through long stretches of the movie forgetting that

[01:33:37] she's not speaking because of how expressive she is. I love her as an actress. I do too. She's great. She's fucking pan-tons. Did you have her? I didn't, but she would have been in my top 10. It was as is every year. My best actress list was like 20 people.

[01:33:50] It's a hot list. It's crazy. And I haven't seen a quiet passion yet. So I don't know. Quiet passion rules. You guys should go see it. It's one of those things where it's a tough performance obviously because

[01:34:02] she's playing someone who's so famously kooky and she's finding obviously the right angle to make her not famously kooky. Like make her a real person who just was 10% a little too much for everyone.

[01:34:16] Not everyone, but for a lot of people and like just sort of portray that very quiet receding that like, you know, if the beginning of passion. No, it's like she's like basically in society. And you can like you're just sort of gradually watching her being like,

[01:34:31] I don't think this is something I can do. You know, like over the course of a movie without anyone like, you know, freaking out or breaking down. I don't know. And movie rules. Terrence Davis. Jessica Chastain's a fucking Strativarius. Love her.

[01:34:44] She's it's one of those ones where you almost feel bad for liking it so much because it's created for you to love it. I think just be happy. It's like a roller coaster ride for me. That's like Aaron Sorkin, The Ride.

[01:34:54] Like I've decided to stop feeling bad about how much I enjoy the rhythms of his stuff and the way that actors can really tear into it. If I was in like a critique, right? Where I was asked to give notes on that movie as like someone's class project.

[01:35:08] There are thousand things I could criticize. Sure. That had me and said, I literally could not enjoy that movie more. Yeah. It's so much fun. I fucking love it. First time I saw it, I'm like, I'm going to love the next 25 times I see this movie because

[01:35:20] it's every time I'm going to hook up. I also want to stick up for the Costner monologue, which I decried after I saw the for the first time. Partly because I was at Toronto and you have to see movies, you know, one after the other.

[01:35:31] And I was kind of like, wrap it up, wrap it up. And then the second time I saw it, I was like, this isn't as bad as I remember it. And it's not just like basically what he's saying in that monologue is like, I'm an asshole. It's fine.

[01:35:43] You know, it's that's what you just, it's good that you realize that because you think he's saying like, let me explain everything that's wrong with you, but he's not like, it sort of, it just sort of bends around for him to be like, I'm fucking kidding.

[01:35:54] I don't know the answers. I just know I'm an asshole. I saw, I saw chest, Ayn and Swerkin give a talk back about that movie the second time I saw it. And they, she gave a very good rationale for that that I sort of bought in the moment.

[01:36:08] And I don't know if I necessarily do where she goes, you go into that scene expecting her to expecting the dad to make it better for her. You know what I mean? Yes. Right.

[01:36:19] And that she, and that's the fact that she's the one who ends up comforting him at the end of the scene puts her in the power seat. And I'm like, I get that's what they were going for.

[01:36:27] I still think it's that back to back with the scene where Idris Elba spends 20 minutes talking about what a good person she is. I know. Makes it too long. I agree. I agree with that. And then say why she's worth it. Spaced out.

[01:36:38] And I also think the setup of Costner just happening to be there when she happens to choose to go to the ice skating rink is, of course. Sweaty as fuck. Yeah. But, but I do think.

[01:36:47] We're to the point where like if you would tell me he was a ghost, I would have been like, oh yeah, that makes more sense. I totally thought that's where they were going. Honestly, because it seemed like you can't be this sloppy. Yeah. But, but, but.

[01:36:57] Swerkin has the tendency to do the thing that drives you crazy when I do it on the podcast, which is try to find the one internal conflict that every other moment that person's life. Swerkin should make a movie about George Lucas and his wife. 100%.

[01:37:08] I would fucking give it every great thing. I swear two hours into this thing, do not leave me down a marsh, Luke's path. Right. But the thing that I think works for this movie that is not intentional at all.

[01:37:19] I think it almost only happens because Swerkin is inexperienced as a director. Is the character who delivers the monologue, the, you know, Rooney Mar breaking up with Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs' lack of a father,

[01:37:32] Billy Bean being cut from the team is the character who we know is full of shit. Yeah. And I think that's kind of the key to the movie working, which allows that character to retain her agency and go like, that's just one guy's fucking theory.

[01:37:44] She's more complicated than that. I think that's what that's, you know, to make that movie work. And I just love the way she fucking owns every single shot of every single scene

[01:37:52] without being afraid to be feminine, that she doesn't feel the need to be like a fucking badass in any sort of traditional way. She's established this whole new way of being a badass, you know, even different from like Ripley,

[01:38:07] the new Jessica Chastain, like I'm a quiet lady who just doesn't fucking put up with shit, is my hero. Who else have we nominated? Who else are your guys? Talk about scene partners. Vicky Creeps. Vicky Creeps. Yeah, you guys tell me about Vicky Creeps. Oh man.

[01:38:22] I mean, it's like Rocky Balboa fighting against Apollo Creed. Hannah's Vicky Creeps. That's the only other thing I've ever seen her in. It's the Joe Wright movie. Right. Oh, she's in that? Yeah. She's the mom, I want to say. Yes. Creeps.

[01:38:33] Who only is around for like the first scene. Creeping. Creeping around. She's from Luxembourg, which just automatic A plus from me. Agree. Who's from Luxembourg? Vicky Creeps. Vicky fucking Creeps. She's like the one famous person from Luxembourg right now.

[01:38:48] And a few, you know, couple of decades or something else. Grand Duke. Like that's it. How do you feel about Creeps? Because you just saw Phantom Thread. She does all right against Dan. Yeah, man. She holds her own. She holds her own for sure.

[01:39:03] Saw for the second time last night, I kind of can't fucking get over that performance. So good. Yeah. I mean, just think about the intensity of just being on set with that nut job. I mean, I love Dan. Yes.

[01:39:14] But I mean, you know, he's like probably in character and being rude just like his character. You have anybody would know what how hard it is to sort of. Yeah. Oh, I would text him and he would just be like, don't bother me right now.

[01:39:26] I'm in the middle of something. He would reply with my character doesn't own a phone because he's from 1950. Well, you've also talked about just how tough it is to play like air hockey against Dan Lewis just because of how intense he is.

[01:39:37] Like no one goes head to head with Dan Lewis and comes out alive. Right. And there are a lot of movies about Dan Lewis locking horns with someone else, but they never seem his equal. And Vicky Creeps 100% seems as equal if not his superior.

[01:39:50] The whole point of the story is that he's met someone who's. Well, when she plays air hockey against him in that movie, like it's really compelling and it's shocking the way that's seen at butter hockey. It's a movie that's just going wide.

[01:40:02] I don't want to fucking like unfurl everything I think is brilliant about the performance because it ruins a lot of what I think the film ends up getting to that is sort of surprising.

[01:40:10] But I just watched that movie a second time knowing where it lands by the end of the story and just fucking a stash by every micro expression she makes at every moment. She's got a great fucking face.

[01:40:24] And I get excited when there's a new movie for the hungry boy. Yeah. Can I make a case quickly for Rebecca Hall and Professor Marston and the Wonder Woman? Very performing. She's sadly a movie I haven't seen. Best sweaters.

[01:40:34] Not a lot of people have because you know what release wide and then taken out of. I was right. Annapurna really kind of buried this movie. I wanted to see the movie very badly, but I think I had a flight that day. That it was in theaters.

[01:40:46] It was a movie that they bizarrely opened wide, which is something Annapurna decided to do a lot of this year because it was in Detroit as well. And I believe it had the worst opening weekend in the history of wide releases. And so then that was bad.

[01:40:59] Which is too bad. She's wonderful in it. I think the movie itself is good and has like great moments to it. But I think she is by far the best thing about the movie. And it's again, and this is the year after Christine,

[01:41:11] where she also probably deserved the best actress nomination and she didn't get it. Great sweaters. Just around the time. Great sweaters, good point. Yeah, you guys both had Hayek. Yeah. I mean, I love Salma Hayek. It's my favorite Salma Hayek. It's her best performance ever, no question.

[01:41:25] And I think she plays against type without playing against type. Which I like where you don't feel like she's like, look at how different I am being. Absolutely not. Absolutely not. It's a performance that is totally lacking in vanity.

[01:41:39] And I'm not saying that for superficial reasons because she wears less makeup in it than she usually does. She wears some real good mom jeans in that movie. There is a confidence in who this person is that is completely unchanged by her surroundings

[01:41:52] that makes her look very stubborn. Yeah. Well, she's so unpredictable. Like that's a performance where it's just like you don't know what she's going to say from scene to scene and that's what I love. 100 percent. Which is my gripe of the mood.

[01:42:03] The thing that leaves it off my 10 list is I think that movie mangles the last five minutes. You did the blanking choices. I did. Their winner was Sally Hawkins. I also, Kim and Hee on the beach at night alone.

[01:42:15] I know I'm assuming you guys neither of you seen it. It's a Hong Kong scene movie which is about that she, you know her. She was in The Handmaiden. Oh yes. And she's been in a couple of Hong Kong scene movies who's this Korean like romcom director.

[01:42:29] But it's as you know his movies are as different as that might you know like he's not. He makes odd little comedies and he had an affair with Kim and Hee. Okay.

[01:42:40] After making a movie with her and this is the movie about their relationship that they then made together. Interesting. It is one of the best breakup movies I have ever seen. This is essentially about a famous actress wandering around her old town and hanging out with people

[01:42:54] and them all kind of like trying to figure out ways to ask around what happened to her because everyone knows. I did not know this movie existed until now. So good. I love it. I mean it's a good movie.

[01:43:06] I think it's not a good if you've never seen a Hong Kong scene movie. Don't start with this one because this is him like it's a very inward looking movie. Yeah. Like start with something like yourself and yours or like what's another like good Hong to start with.

[01:43:20] But but it is a cool movie and Kim and Hee rules. You nominated her I believe. I believe I'm not two years ago for The Handmaiden. I think I did. She I think she made your list. Yeah.

[01:43:30] I had a tough time with both of them because I couldn't figure a category placement. And I forget I think one of them. She's right now wrong then that's a great movie. That's the one they made together. Okay. Which is essentially two people going to date.

[01:43:42] You watch the day happen. It doesn't go well then the movie resets and you watch the date happen again and it goes better. Oh that's interesting. That's the movie. I like that. That's cool. It's often his movies have some like odd little twist to them. Yeah.

[01:43:55] It's slightly super natural. Yeah. Anyway who else did you have? Do you have anyone else you want to shout out? I've done all my people. I think you did. All right so who are our winners? Oh no. Marilyn the post. Oh she's good.

[01:44:05] She's pretty good in that movie. I mean she should be on my list. I love that performance. My favorite Marilyn performance in many, many years. In a decade. Yeah. Yeah. And it's plus.

[01:44:14] And she makes that movie and I don't think there I think people she's gotten so rewarded and she's so good that people now have and this happens to her a lot in her career

[01:44:24] where early 90s was sort of this was just like oh we've all feel like we know what Marilyn delivers so we're over it and then she has to come back with something

[01:44:32] that jolts people out and I think adaptation was a thing that did it in the early 2000s. For sure. And I was hoping that this would be a performance that would do it too and that movie has been sort of inexplicably to me ignored by. It's making money.

[01:44:44] It's making money. I think it's a movie that's going to be remembered. I think so. It's so good. And it's a great performance. We talked about her fucking smart, her underplaying of all her big Oscar scenes. She's so watchable.

[01:44:53] Some of the bravest strategic work I've ever seen an actor do in terms of like I'm going to go against every single instinct of what this movie needs at this moment. Who's your winner? My winner is Vicki Creeps. Lover. Mine is Marilyn. Mine is Sershia. All right.

[01:45:07] Hey, good trio. Look, I mean fucking great. And then Sally Hawkins is the blankie word. Those are four good winners. It's a good quartet of actresses. Do we do director? We do but I think we won't harp on it much because I will be mirrored by.

[01:45:20] Are we doing screenplay? Original screenplay. Ladybird. Cocoa. Phantom Thread. The Shape of Water and Beatriz at Dinner. Okay. Adapted screenplay. Molly's Game. Star Wars The Last Jiddy. Sure. Call me by your name. The Lego Batman Movie. And Wunderstruck. Really? Sure. I'd horrible screenplay in my opinion.

[01:45:47] I think it's a very good screenplay. I think the movie doesn't 100 percent work. Did Selznick write the screenplay? Yes. Yeah, he did. He's the problem with that movie. I think it's a very good adaptation especially if you've read the book. I don't know if I would necessarily... Unadaptable.

[01:46:01] I don't know if I would say that's the whole problem with the movie though. I think all of the black and white stuff fails on a way that I wish I could put my finger on. I don't like any of the black and white stuff.

[01:46:10] I don't think that movie 100 percent works. No. But I do think it's very well written and I do think if we were doing this, I would nominate in literally every below the line category. I mean it looks beautiful. It's a nicely made movie.

[01:46:23] I think that movie is incredibly made, scored, shot. It's my favorite score of the year I will say. Beautiful score. As long as I can't include Humm-Zimmer's for Planet Earth 2, which I know is television. So I will not do that. To the screenplay nominees. I do.

[01:46:36] The ones that don't show up on my best picture list because I feel like that's you know all the best pictures stuff we'll talk about in a second. Okay. Your name, adapted screenplay I think is a great screenplay.

[01:46:46] I know a lot of people feel like that's a last year movie. I'd always talk about it in a little bit. In New York it's a 2017 movie. In New York it's a this year movie. BPM, well that shows up on my best picture list.

[01:46:57] Lady Macbeth I think is a really good screenplay adaptation and Lost City of Zed is on my best picture list. Yeah that's on mine. Mudbound is my adapted, there's Lost City, called by the name Mudbound, Molly's Game and Blade Runner 2049.

[01:47:11] My originals are Lady Bird, Get Out, Big Sick, Myerwitz and Phantom Thread. Nice. I mean original is like crazy stack. Originals are very strange. Never happens. They're very few. Usually adapted is like where all the best picture contenders live and this year they don't. Yeah it's very odd.

[01:47:27] Okay best director. Sure, yes. My nominees are Guillermo del Toro. Heard of him? Fan of the tech. He watches the tech. He said it was good. Really? Oh yeah you told me that. For the fan for the shape of water. Yeah. No for liking the tech.

[01:47:49] For liking the tech. Guillermo del Toro for liking the tech. Humble brag of all humble brags. Keep going please I'm begging you. Sean Baker for the Florida Project. Paul Thomas Anderson for Phantom Thread. Yes. Julia DeCornow for Raw. Very good. Sure.

[01:48:03] And Shosh and Benny Safty for Good Time. Good Time. That would be part in that movie where they played that song. Was it really? Hanging in a cell. The most strange part of that movie. My director nominees are Luca Guadagnino for Call Me By Your Name,

[01:48:19] Christopher Nolan for Dunn Kirk, David Lowry for A Ghost Story. Greta Gerwig for Lady Bird and Dee Reese for Mudbound. Cool. Minar James Gray for Velocity is that. Sean Baker for the Florida Project. Greta for Lady Bird, Paul Thomas Anderson for Phantom Thread

[01:48:37] and Christopher Nolan for Dunn Kirk. Got more English at the end there. So I feel bad for leaving Nolan off. Yeah. Very well directed movie. I knew he'd be represented. Very well directed movie. Insane movie. It just goes without saying that this is very much

[01:48:52] not my type of movie. We know it's not a griffy movie. I respect it deeply. It was my 11. He was my 6th director. It's an achievement. That's what I always call about that movie. It's an achievement. Unquestionably. And I would empirically like it

[01:49:03] if he won the Oscar this year. I think he's not going to. But I think that's kind of the most directed film of the year. I also think it's well directed. I do too. I'm not saying that no. Do we have anything else we want to do

[01:49:15] before we do Best Picture? We forgot to give our Best Director winners. Oh, that's true. James Gray. And I also... Joe Yours is. Mine is Luca Guadagnino. And mine is Sean Baker. OK. And the blankies nominated Christopher Nolan, Greta Gerwig, Guillermo D'Auto, Denis Villeneuve and Sean Baker

[01:49:34] and they gave the award to Nolan. Sure. Yeah. I mean, it's a good batch this year. It's a good batch. It's a real good batch. Look. Better than The Bad Batch. Which is not a good movie. No. Not a good movie. No. And better than The New Batch

[01:49:46] which is one of the best movies ever made. Sure. Like we did score some times. Some mods and ends. I mean, some of them are done song but this year is not like a hot song year. Well, Remember Me is a fucking banger.

[01:49:59] It's last year was a much better song year, I would say. I thought I have the Sufjan Stevens songs and Call of Duty. That's true. They're good. They're good. Never Enough in Greatest Showman is the best song in that movie. Should have been nominated.

[01:50:08] My favorite song in The Greatest Showman is From Now On. I don't... Oh, interesting. I don't know why that... I really am a sucker for rewrite the stars. I think that's the best number in the movie. I think that's what I'm coming down on.

[01:50:22] Like it's the best stage? The two Myra with stories. Myron Byron is a very good song. Yeah, that's fair. We're also forgetting the other great song of the year which is I Found You, a song by Seven-Year-Boy and the uncredits of the Lig of Batman movie

[01:50:37] in character as Robin. As Robin. It's very funny. Griffin Newman. Yeah, the only other things we've ever done are score and song. Yeah, you have a nomination for The Putters and Rumors. Great. Okay, because this has been a tough year for me

[01:50:49] and I want you to run by what your choice is because I've been struggling with it. I only have one because I figured you might have some more. I have a bunch. This is where I have Robert Pattinson in The Last City Who Said.

[01:50:59] Oh, Good Putters and Rumors, Young Putters. Fuck. Young Putters and Rumors. Young Putters. Yes. Here's an... He is good. Here's what I really think we need to mention is Agnes Varda in Faces of The Pussies. Oh my God. Huge Putter and Rumor veteran. I was what?

[01:51:10] I was kind of angling towards her being a specialist. Incredible. Also the nuns in Last Year. She's great Putters and Rumors. But also... Fish nuns. Hashtag time's up, a woman has never won Putters and Rumors before. That's true. We at Clarify for people to...

[01:51:26] The Putters and Rumors Award is the award Mr. Turner... You think people are this deep into this episode or like, what did I talk you? It's previously gone... It's just in case David... I don't know. You're right, you're right. It's previously gone to Joel Egerton and Loving.

[01:51:40] Yeah, that was one. You had Ian McCallan and Mr. Holmes. Right, and Timothy Spall. Timothy Spall. Timothy Spall and Mr. Turner is the sort of like patron saint of the category. Right. And it's for the performance that involves the most... How would I describe it?

[01:51:55] Puttering around and murdering. Can you take us to another one? I'll say I had this thing where I retroactively feel bad. We gave it to Egerton last year, but I think... Well, you were sort of casting about for like someone to have.

[01:52:11] Right, and I overlooked a big Putter and Murmur which was Mark Rylance as the BFG. I think I mentioned him, maybe not. We mentioned him in that episode. Egerton is very Putter and Murmury in It Comes at Night. True.

[01:52:24] So I feel like if I had done my work correctly last year and given it to Rylance, I might have given it to Egerton this year. You did a Russell Crow for Gladiator instead of a beautiful line kind of. I did.

[01:52:35] But so I think this year Agnes Varda is winning. Yeah. The Putter's and Murmur's won. Do you guys see Menache? No. The Yiddish language movie? That's a movie with a Putter and Murmur as its lead. Yeah, cool. Menache, Lustig. Oh also. Joan Didion in the Joan Didion documentary.

[01:52:51] Sure. I'll just make it anyway. Richard Geir in Norman? Yeah. Hello. This is a category that's skews old. Let's see it. Sure. Let's be honest. That's true. And I did give you Robert Pattinson, the youngest ever nominee for Putter's and Murmury. I think that's a great choice.

[01:53:04] He's breaking records. He's the Justin Henry epic. No, if I can just give out some of the Bennies quickly. Oh yeah. There aren't nominees, they're just winners for these. Okay? Okay. For the Bennies. Pro-doer, the person who's able to do the most efficient, impressive work,

[01:53:19] really Scott reshooting all the money in the world. True, I agree with that. Yeah, you got it done. Poet Laureate, actor who really kind of makes their dialogue, sing, I'm paraphrasing some of these descriptions. Sure. Mickey Stahlberg for calling by your name.

[01:53:33] The Tiebreaker Award ironically was a dead tie, so there was no consensus pick there. Fart Detective for the actor who is, I guess, most capable able to... Detective Fart? They give it to L'Oreal for get out. He does detect that fart real fast.

[01:53:49] I guess the most skeptical performance, I think that's what it is. Yeah, yeah, yeah. The Fuckmaster self-explanatory ghost army hammer for calling by your name. That's pretty good. We might have to add the P-Cheater to Ben's nickname list. No.

[01:54:03] White Hop Benny, which is like kind of breaking out the barn doors, goes to Timothy Chalamet. Hello, Fennel for best debut, goes to Greta Gerwig for Ladybird. Dirt bike sounds like it's an ensemble award for the kids from It. Oh, God.

[01:54:18] Soak and wet for literally just wet as performance, dug your own ship of water. And Mr. Positive for the brightest light is Gal Gadot for Wonder Woman, a category that will definitely be won by Paddington next year. And then of course, the close personal friend of Dan Lewis

[01:54:38] award for being a close personal friend of Dan Lewis on screen goes to Vicky Creeps. I thought I was going to say Leslie Manville, but yes. Yeah. Manville, well she's sort of a sibling. You can give it to either one. Yeah.

[01:54:49] So it's just down to your best pictures, huh? Well, did we do, I want to do my scores. I'm doing my scores. Oh, you're going to do scores. Real fast. Also, if I can just say I laugh alone from the Reddit

[01:54:59] ass that we mentioned the Blankie Discord Group. I don't even understand what Discord is. It's like a chat room. But look for that. All right, all right. Enough with the Redditors. I mean, I love them, but you know, they've had their day in court.

[01:55:08] They're going to get so angry. Yeah. That's fine. Best picture. No, I'm doing my scores. Here are my scores. Zimmerford Dunkirk, one of tricks point never. Is that how you say it for good time? Wow. Fucking banging score. I agree.

[01:55:20] This electronic musician, Mary and Ellie for darkest hour. That's like the main character in that movie. Daniel Hart and a ghost story. That's also the main character. Yeah. Fucking my winners Christopher Spellman, Felicity, is that thing as the greatest score. That score is longing in a score.

[01:55:37] My nominees are Shape of Water. Nice score. I really like it. I think it's like fine day plot, day plot. I think it's Valerian's score. I watched the movie again and I liked the score. The score really stood out. It's nice. It's a nice score.

[01:55:51] This is a big grower for me because the first time I thought the score was a little too big for the film. And the second time I thought it was just right, John Bryan and Lady Bird. Lovely score. One of my favorite films.

[01:56:00] It's a small score in terms of quantity, but it's very nice. But it felt a little emotionally large. The movie the first time I saw it and the second time it was just click right there. It's perfect. With you on good time, Wanderstruck, Carter Burwell. Very nice score.

[01:56:13] That's in there for me too. John and Greenwood, Phantom Threat. Oh, I forgot about that. That may not have gotten in. Yeah. Interesting. I may have done my score list a while back. Maybe I fucked you on this one. Yeah, it's fine.

[01:56:22] Blade Runner's got some cool shit going on. Blade Runner's... It's tough to know what's original and what's homage to old stuff. Best adapted Brahms. Yeah, basically. Do you have any scores you wanted to show? I think you guys mentioned a lot of Wanderstruck Ladybird, Phantom Threat.

[01:56:35] It's all good scores. Well, you know I got my category. Yep. I don't know. Should we... Very category. Time for bed. Yeah, do it. He's been working. He's been working. Okay. So I'm bringing back a category from the first year, which is remakes.

[01:56:49] This is the one where you made one of them fruit and he made the eight full eight fruit. So this is a category where I picked movies from 2017 that should be remade with either babies, animals, or puppets. And then you decided one was fruit.

[01:57:03] But also fruit and now clowns too. So number one, the greatest showman, or how about the greatest show baby? That's a cute little thing there, right? It's gonna make so much money. Griffin's got a real Ben face on right now. Number two, baby driver. No, no, no.

[01:57:22] Fruit driver. What? Why? It's even cuter now. What's driving... I can't even track this fit. What's the fruit that's driving... What's the main fruit? Melon. Sure. I would have gone with a bunch of grapes. But you know what, a melon's good. Melons good.

[01:57:37] Well, you know what they say, honeydoers the money, melon. That's true. That's true. It's David's bio for a long time. Okay. Number three, all the money in the world. Instead of Chris Plummer, you could have just done like a CGI puppet

[01:57:49] and it would have been a quicker fix there. Just like have like Statler play vector. Or nothing. Ha, ha, ha, ha. See? Yeah, you get it. Number four, Molly's game. So I feel like Sorkin should make a puppy movie. Puppy. Yeah. And then he could totally reference

[01:58:09] that painting of dogs playing poker. God damn it. And then number five, it's Pirates of the Caribbean, Dead Men Tell No Tales. Everyone's favorite movie. Sure. What about... What about... What about Clowns of the Caribbean, Dead Jester's Hock Nol? It works. Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha. What?

[01:58:35] All right. All right. What else you got, Benny? This is a favorite of mine, wetter movies. Of course. The wet. The wet. The Wettys. The Wettys. The slickest slicks of the year. Slickest flicks of the year. That's right. And number one, Blade Runner 2049.

[01:58:48] That's some future wet right there. So can you do that? Yeah. Eitania. It's frozen, but it's still wet. What is it? And for sure, slippery. Quantity, a lot of it. Yeah, sure. Yeah, yeah. Dunkirk, everyone is soaked to death. Yeah. Shape of water. I mean, that's just obvious.

[01:59:06] Right. And then finally, speaking of an Aquaman, we have My Man and Justice League. Cyborg. Right, yep. And it's also very sweaty. Dead is a sweaty movie. Both in terms of the sweat on their bodies and the plotting. Boy, I watched that movie a second time recently. Why?

[01:59:26] Because I was with my friends. Did you have a screener or something? Drunk in a hotel and they all voted to watch that because they hadn't seen it before. Was this in Toronto? Did you just re-watch this? This was in Toronto. We always watch movies together

[01:59:36] when my buddies and I go to Toronto to visit our other buddies. And you watched that instead of the movie? The two movies that were voted for us, the double feature, were both because of how Savage Our Dunks were on them on the pod. On the pod, yeah.

[01:59:48] People said now I need to see them. So is it a book of Henry? Correct. We opened the book. We cracked open the book. Look at Streisand Effect. Is that a movie that holds up? I'm going to say something insane.

[01:59:59] That movie, your brain starts warping and bending to it the second time you've seen it where you know where it's going. But you're like, of course, that's what happens in the book. Yeah, of course. You got to read the book. Like it's still horrible? Sure.

[02:00:12] But you're like, right. But then that's obviously what the next scene is. You stop being astonished by its awfulness and just like, well, this is just objectively bad. Justice League though, God is that thing. Fucking sweaty. Very sweaty. Are you done with your categories?

[02:00:24] Oh, I have a new one. A new one. Debuting should have had Jarelletto in it. OK, number one, Bright. Very into this category. Yeah. Great personality. Come on, right? Yeah. You should have been. We're like, Brian Elves. Not Bright.

[02:00:40] How about Wonder just to kind of give it some edge? Definitely not an edgy movie, one. No. So you just want to make it a little more twisted. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Number three, Get Out. He could play himself just like a bad white person. Sure. Right.

[02:00:57] Just scared Lito as himself. Number four again, As Himself, but as the baby in Boss Baby. No, sure. Right. Right. OK. Number five, Mother, where he also could have been the baby that gets torn apart. Ooh. Spoiler alert. Yeah.

[02:01:13] I mean, that's the one where I agree with you. I would have liked to have seen Jarelletto in that role. What else you got, Benny? OK. You know, honorable mention Good Time because it's a scumbag romp. I really needed downsizing because people are small,

[02:01:29] but then people are also big. Sure. Have you seen it yet? It's Future to Stope and Flick, which I love. Have you seen it? I haven't told me all about it. I just bribed it to Ben and he loves it.

[02:01:36] I'm really into it, so I will definitely see it. It's a movie that plays very well when you describe the concept of it to someone a lot better than when it actually plays out. Continue defending it as a gentleman's B-minus. Ooh. But that's it for me. That's all?

[02:01:51] I have one last one, but we'll see if we have time for it. So why don't we just get into our best picture? He wants the last word. Ben wants the last word. All right? That's fine with me. It's also two hours. We've just hit two hours. Yes.

[02:02:04] See, it's not so bad. It's not so bad. No. Erlich has played this trick on me where we were having dinner, past, I'm sure you guys have been early. He did it recently where he picked up the bill and he was like, $600? $600? And I was like, what?

[02:02:17] And I grabbed it and it was like $150. He's like, see now you feel better. It's great comedy. Okay, for best picture. Yes. Yep. How are we doing this? I think we go from- Let's just each read our list out. 10 to 1. All right. Sure, you can do 10 to 1. Yeah.

[02:02:32] That's what I'm going to do. Okay, you want to go first? Sure. My number 10 is a movie called Princess Sid, directed by Stephen Cohn. Just outside my top 10. It's probably the smallest movie on my list if you haven't heard of it. Seek it out. It's really good.

[02:02:45] I believe it's on VOD or whatever. Yeah, you can watch it today. It's a contemporary sort of- Coming of age. Gay coming of age drama a little bit, but also just kind of like a- It's a great movie about a summer movie.

[02:02:57] A teen girl and her aunt sort of like challenging each other on some really interesting ways. Stephen Cohn directed a movie called The Wise Kids. It's one of my favorite little movies ever. Check that out too. Number nine, Mother, which I know is not everybody's favorite movie.

[02:03:11] I don't know how you guys feel about Mother. There's something burning in here because I smell a hot take. I kind of came around on Mother. Did you really? I kind of like Mother. It's not a top 10 for me. I like the Mother exists.

[02:03:22] I still don't think it's a good movie. More like a top. I like the provocation of it. I like the fact that it had everybody arguing about what it meant for a good two weeks there. It was- I love the provocation of it.

[02:03:32] I just wish I loved it. It just loses me in the last act. It's super punk. It is. Number eight, Mudbound. Number seven, A Ghost Story. Number six, The Myra With Stories. Number five, Get Out. Number four, The Post. Number three, Lady Bird.

[02:03:48] Number two, BPM, Beats Per Minute. And number one is Call Me By Your Name. Nice. My order, I feel like I could kind of throw these movies in a bag and shake them up. I don't even- Reading this. All right, you great artist.

[02:04:03] But I'm just going to read it. Okay. Yeah, yeah. Who cares? Someone who cares? Sure be her. She any of those? Number 10, Wonder Woman. Number nine, Your Name. Very good movie. Yep, lovely movie. Number eight, Good Time. Number seven, Coco. Number six-

[02:04:27] Maybe you should say it how it is one time, so people- Coco. There we go. Number six, Phantom Thread. Number five, Raw. Number four, The Florida Project. Number three, The Lego Batman Movie. Wow, nice. Number two, The Work. My favorite documentary of the year.

[02:04:47] By a mile and number one, The Shape of Water. Nice. I love how all in you are on Raw. I'm all about Raw. Raw was not a movie I loved. I liked it. I loved it. I had a problem with all the eating. Love it.

[02:05:01] That definitely bugged me. Loved it, look, tasty. Oh my god, that eating. All right, number 10 for me, Valerian in the City of a Thousand Planets. Did I tell you I saw that movie? Yeah. I liked it. Yes, good. I wish I loved it.

[02:05:13] You know how much I wish I loved that movie. I think it'll come to you in your own time. If they make a cut where Christopher Plummer replaces Dane Dahon. Don't even talk to me about my baby Dane. He's so good in that movie. I can't stand Dahon.

[02:05:24] Both Dahon and Cara Delevingne would be on my top 10. Actings. That's nothing. They're both very good. Bananas. No, you're bananas. You're a big banana. I'm a big banana. You're in his Baby Driver Fruit. Nice. I play Jamie Faw. Yeah. I don't know about that.

[02:05:39] Number 10, Valerian in the City of a Thousand Planets. Number nine, Personal Shopper. Nice. Number eight, Call Me by Your Name. Number seven, Star Wars the Last Jedi. Number six, Get Out. Number five, Lady Bird. Number four, Dunkirk. Number three, The Florida Project. Number two, Phantom Thread.

[02:05:57] Number one, The Lost City of Zed. Nice. Very good. Scratch my face. It's a very good, strong list right there. Lost City has been my number one all year. I love that movie. It's one of my favorite movies of recent times. It's your leg of Batman.

[02:06:11] I was just kind of like, yeah, well nothing. I won't like anything more than that this year. Like I wasn't even really worried about it. And then I saw Phantom Thread. That one's the only one where I kind of had to think about

[02:06:20] like, oh fuck, that's so good though. I'll say, I also, I feel like two years from now, I will be stunned that I didn't put Phantom Thread as my number one. So good. Like because even like, Inherent Vice didn't make my 10 that year.

[02:06:33] No, Inherent Vice is a flawed movie. I like it though. It's grown for me so much. I just think that movie is only going to expand. Phantom Thread. But Shape of Water is just kind of like, it's a very hard movie for me to intellectualize and defend.

[02:06:47] That seems to be what a lot of people who enjoy the movie say. Either I feel like totally works for you if it doesn't work for you and you're able to throw out all the complaints you have.

[02:06:54] I kind of react to it the same way that most people, including myself seem to react to Paddington. Where it's just like an incredibly well crafted movie that reflects. About Sally Hawkins having an interesting relationship with the creature. With the non-human. Yes. With great underwater acting.

[02:07:10] No, I just feel like it is a movie that paints with a very broad brush. It is not super complicated in terms of what it is saying. Its heart is on its sleeve. Yeah. And it's just about trying to find the decency in people which.

[02:07:24] And it's got a real cohesive vibe. Yeah. But I think that's what like Del Toro is very good at. And here's the biggest element of the vibe. And it's just like he made a movie for me specifically.

[02:07:34] I'm not saying only for me, but it's like a thing I always wanted that no one is crazy enough to bankroll. Which is make a children's film for grown-ups. Yeah. That movie really I can compare it to Paddington because it has a very similar

[02:07:47] sort of like broad primitive symbolic. Member Fran Hoffner's review. Which one? Of Shape of Honor. What she said. What if Lilo and Stitch was rated R? Yes, yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It does. It feels like that to me. And I just I love it. I love it.

[02:08:01] Probably found there will be my favorite movie of the year a year from now. But. It's fine. I think it's cool. Your number one's call me. My number one's call me. I feel like it's just sometimes I feel like it's a little cliche,

[02:08:10] but like and I feel a little self-conscious about like, oh my favorite movie is the big gay romance. But like sorry, like I am what I am. It's. Great movie. It's the most complete vision of it just puts me in a place.

[02:08:22] I think the second time I saw it, which is when I saw it with you was what really sealed it. I was like, oh, I still feel this sort of like weird floaty thing as I'm like walking out of the theater.

[02:08:29] I'm like, okay, that's that tells me something. That's everything that I like this year has been so very like rewatchable. The post I'll watch a billion more times. Lady Bird, Myra Watsori is yes. Cocoa. I like Cocoa. Get out.

[02:08:44] But yeah, I think call me by your name is just does stuff with character and with place and you know leaves such a like leaves you in such a state. Well, those are our blank door. Thanks Ben. What's up? You had one more category.

[02:09:02] Well, I was going to say Fernanda's always. Oh, okay, Fern. Oh, is that fine? Yes. I don't know what it is. He's got some secret end category. So now Billy Crystal comes on makes a joke about how long the ceremony was. Driving Miss Daisy directed itself. Right, yeah.

[02:09:17] Dick Clark production. Dick Clark produced the Oscars? No, he produces the Globes and where come on? We're not big enough to get the same producers as the Oscars. We're not going to get Gil Cates to produce this. He's dead. Well says Dick Clark. Dick Clark Productions.

[02:09:30] His company, The Legacy Lives On. I don't think we could get them, but I do think we could get dead Dick Clark. You know what I mean to produce it? We can definitely get Dick Clark. Like Dead Army Archard on the red carpet. Exactly.

[02:09:39] And like it's just the ghosts that are all there. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Dead Dominic Dunn will write the Exposite. I think Crystal would do it too. I think he's just he's just hurting. I would wait for him to die first. Okay, good.

[02:09:54] Anyway, great wedding episode with wishing for Billy Crystal. No, Billy, stick around. Look, we'll rip Billy hard in a future bonus episode. That is true. And whoa, is he sexy? We're going to put him on ice.

[02:10:11] I cannot wait for the Redditors to guess and completely fail to identify what that episode could fucking be. If this isn't in my giant episode, I am not going to be saying this. God damn it, Joe figured it out. Okay.

[02:10:23] And there's one more bombshell I want to throw out. What? Because I forgot this was the episode where we want to announce it. You know, we get people speculating about what mini series we're going to cover. We have to announce this. We have to announce it right here.

[02:10:33] It's true. What mini series we're going to cover? What directors we're going to cover? I don't think- People writing in requests all the time. I don't know about you, but basically now any time I tweet about a movie or a filmmaker. People start theories.

[02:10:43] At least one person is like, oh, can we get a blank check mini series on that? Right. Now, we're trying to bank up episodes like Crazy before Tick season two starts, Humble Barric. No one should ever make a TV show, but I'm doing it again.

[02:10:55] And so we are going to have most of our episodes for the year saved up. That's the plan. Well in advance. Yep, that's amazing. But the mini series that we will be doing in October- Yeah, like way into the fall. Right. What about when you're back?

[02:11:12] When I'm back. When you're back, baby. Right. It's the next one that has not been decided. We are going to do for the first time ever, blank check March Madness. We're doing a bracket. This is very up Joe's alley. A tourney bracket with 32 options. That's right.

[02:11:33] People that we've batted around, people that the fans have demanded. No one that we don't want to cover. Correct. So if they're not on that list, that's why. Yeah. 32 people who we would happily do a mini series on. Yes. And a wide range of different directors, different-

[02:11:48] Head to head. Yes. So it's going to be a series throughout March of head to head battles, check our social media for that. I believe we'll be Twitter polls every week. And as her work cut out for her-

[02:12:01] And just going to do a lot of work for us. Two polls every day. Yes. It's going to be a lot of fucking head to head. That's true. I'm just super here for this you guys. Yeah. It's going to be a fucking great- It's going to be fun.

[02:12:09] God knows who they'll pick, but we have- We'll figure out. We'll figure it out. I believe you have the rough list. I do. We have to- Triple confirmed that we've come with a couple lists. And we're cool with everyone. Yeah.

[02:12:20] Weirdly, even with 32, we're leaving some big people off. Of course. But excited. There's a couple I want to ask, but I don't want to ask on air and have it be like- I'll ask. It's fine. It's fine with her. Cool. Walt Becker is going to win. Oh no.

[02:12:33] Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. This episode wasn't as long as our last blankies. I think we did a good job. Thanks to Andrew Fragudo for our social media. Thank you to Joe Bowen and Pat Reynolds for our artwork.

[02:12:49] Go to reddit.blankies.com or whatever the thing is for some real nerdy shit and also whatever the f**k discord is. And also check out Emily Oshida, Mother of Blankies. Yeah. That's right. We got to talk about this. She debuted her new podcast called Night Call.

[02:13:05] Maybe you guys could tell the fans a little bit more about it. Well, Emily- She also has co-host Molly Lambers. You know more than us. You're the producer on it. I'm talking. I'm talking. You know. You're supposed to say that. No, I'm talking.

[02:13:16] I mean, Emily is the mother of blankies as we all know. We all know. And she's going to join the Five Timers Club soon in fact. Yeah. Spoiler alert. Yeah. And she has reunited with her girls and hoodies pals from back in the day.

[02:13:29] I don't know if you guys listen to Girls and Hoodies. I used to listen every week. Did you listen to Joe? I loved it. Great. One of my favorite podcasts. So she's with Molly Lambers. She's with Tess Lynch. And yeah, it's on our network, right?

[02:13:40] It's an audio boom original. Ben's working on it. Night Call. I'm the producer. And that's a really fun show. I hope that everyone gives it a listen. And look, if you like Black Check, you love EEO. Undoubtedly. Oh yes. Yes. Yes. Yes. Right.

[02:13:57] And you like hearing friends talk. You like conversational podcasts of people speaking passionately about things they love. Especially pop culture and stuff. That's what they're talking about. Talk about pop culture. Sort of like weird mysteries. Like the internet. Sort of oddities. Just like. Pangeons.

[02:14:13] This is a straight line. If you like this show, you're not listening to that show. You're doing it wrong. That's all I'm guessing. I agree. Taking calls too. Night Call. We will be taking voicemails. Oh sure. And we will be taking emails. Sure. And. Electronic mail.

[02:14:31] With that's electronic now? Can you imagine? They have the internet on computers now. Yes they do. And I will insert that information because I don't have it in front of me. It's here. 24046 night or night call podcast at Gmail. Alright then. Okay great. And as always.

[02:14:52] My last category of the um no thank you. Three billboards outside. Um no thank you. I don't drive anymore so I'm not interested in that. The best category of the year. Murder on the Orient Express. This is like larping no thank you. Larping. Darkest hour.

[02:15:10] Yeah more like me sleeping in the theater no thank you. Geostorm a weather machine movie what is this the Cold War? You know nothing. The Mount. Kind of is the Cold War. Between us. No no not between me no no. Maybe between you but not me.

[02:15:28] No thank you. The only person in the world making mountains between us. And Wonder Wheel. Sure. No. No thank you. No thank you. And thanks to Ben for reminding me of my hot take which I'll leave here. Oh no. I ask this to the listener.

[02:15:47] Would three billboards not be 25% better if Regina King played the Francis McDormin rule? Should be good. Think on that mother fuckers. Thank you for calling the Burger Report hotline 802-8 Burger.

[02:16:03] Please leave a message with your FAMO type of burger and location and we will try to put it on the podcast if we can. That's 802-8 Burger.

[02:16:13] I was on Franklin Avenue today and I saw David Fincher take a big old bite out of a delicious looking medium cooked burger. Hey Gresham and David a couple years ago I was walking to my friend's apartment and I got a text that said to look into

[02:16:35] Whitman's in New York on like 9th Street. And they said look into the window and tell us who that man is eating a burger because we know he's famous but we don't know who it is.

[02:16:47] So I walk by I look in and I saw Danny Boyle same director of Slumdog Millionaire. Eating a burger. Hey fellas long time first time my name is Jake Sturdovant and it's calling in with my Burger Report.

[02:17:11] It was July of 2010 I had moved out to LA in April of that year so just a few months before and the first job I got out there was at Johnny Rockets.

[02:17:24] My first day was I trained in the morning and they let me serve at in the evening so my first table I had I walk up and who is it other than Jared Harris.

[02:17:37] And he was sitting out with a lovely woman and they were both very nice and he ordered a burger and fries and milkshake and it was delightful to watch a famous eat a burger. Love your show guys. Thanks for taking burger reports from fans. Burger Report.