What the corpus says about Fearless (1993)

The 53 lines php artisan corpus:ask hands a model, in the order it gets them, and nothing else. The model writes a clerk's answer from these and only these.

What was said about it (25)

[Blank Check · Fearless · 0:50:16 · Tim Simons (0.45)] Fearless ↔ Unbreakable · theme · Both are about a man recovering from an accident that left him untouched; Bruce Willis would have fit, but was not ready. · "sort of a similar idea of a guy who's kind of like, fucking nothing happened to me, like, and who is recovering from an accident."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:13:28 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Hero · theme · Hero, the year before, also asks what happens to people who walk out of a crash alive. · "What happens to the people who walk off walk out of a crash alive?"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:28:08 · unknown (0.30)] Fearless ↔ Kickin' It Old Skool · theme · A coma movie where a man wakes into a new reality is joked to be the Fearless of the 2000s. · "kind of the fearless of the 2000s?"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 0:52:17 · Tim Simons (0.40)] Fearless ⇒ Tron: Legacy (the host's read) · craft · The 1993 Bridges look was the reference for the de-aged CGI Bridges in Tron: Legacy. · "I believe that this was the main visual reference for creepy CGI Jeff Bridges and Tron Legacy."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:06:54 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Picnic at Hanging Rock · craft · Fearless captures an uncanny mood with invisible craft the way Picnic at Hanging Rock does. · "And it has a little bit of that picnic at hanging rock thing where you're like, what is this mood he's captured?"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:14:34 · unknown (0.30)] Fearless ↔ Sully · craft · Sully uses the same crash-in-flashback structure Weir chose for Fearless. · "Sully does basically the same thing."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:51:11 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Flight · contrast · Both are post-crash aftermath movies, but Fearless is in conversation with the intangible while Flight resolves into two pre-set systems (sobriety and faith). · "Whereas I'm like, this movie is spiritual because it's in conversation with the intangible."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:51:54 · unknown (0.30)] Fearless ↔ Unbreakable · contrast · Fearless is not Unbreakable because its protagonist is not literally invulnerable; the world helps him survive. · "But you're like, it's not unbreakable where it's like he genuinely cannot be hard."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 0:46:21 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Starman · people · Bridges plays a person one step removed from reality in both films. · "both about people who are a little outside of reality, right?"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:14:55 · unknown (0.30)] Fearless ↔ Starman · people · The first thirty minutes of Fearless feel like Starman. · "He does feel like Starman."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 0:31:59 · David Sims (0.50)] Fearless ↔ Witness · industry · The poster leads with the director of Witness and Dead Poets Society. · "the top thing of the poster is from the director of Witness and Dead Poets."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:41:44 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Schindler's List · industry · Fearless lost heat to that year's heavy hitters Schindler's List, The Piano and The Fugitive. · "it was the Schindler's list, piano, fugitive."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 1:36:26 · David Sims (0.40)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Fearless · industry · Fearless was marketed as another Chinese movie for people who liked CTHD. · "which was sort of advertised as like, if you like Crashing Tiger, here's another Chinese movie for you."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 0:56:45 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Witness ↔ Fearless · look · After the Witness episode, Bridges' Fearless look is judged possibly the top screen look ever, more attainable than Ford's. · "I'm like, this might actually be the number one look a guy has ever had on screen."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:18:22 · unknown (0.30)] Fearless ↔ Mrs. Doubtfire · coincidence · Both 1993 films turn on strawberry allergies. · "So there's 2 movies about strawberry allergies in 1993, right?"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:36:04 · David Sims (0.55)] Fearless ↔ Flight · plane crash · Fearless is called the final boss of plane crash movies, ahead of Flight and Sully. · "This is the final boss plane crash movie."
[Blank Check — Patreon · 2025 March Madness Update 1 · 0:48:14 · unknown (0.40)] Peter Weir ↔ Fearless · programming · A host has not seen Fearless and is obsessed with plane crashes. · "the most intense plane crash scene in a movie."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:11:17 · David Sims (0.50)] Rafael Yglesias ⇒ Fearless (the host's read) · lineage · Weir loved the unpublished-novel first-draft script, adapted by its own author. · "He adapts his own unpublished book."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:32:45 · David Sims (0.50)] Fearless ↔ Allen Daviau · craft · The speaker praises how Fearless looks, a film about absorbing textures and the feeling in the air, tied to Daviau shooting it. · "this film looks incredible and this is a movie that needs to just look good because it's so much about like absorbing textures of things and and the space and the feeling in the air"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:34:42 · Tim Simons (0.50)] Fearless ↔ U2 · craft · Using U2's Where the Streets Have No Name in an unhinged crash context opened up the band for the speaker. · "using U2 in an unhinged context, it really like opened that band up in that that music for me in a new way."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:35:15 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Maurice Jarre · craft · Jarre scored it, but most of the music is classical pieces. · "there's a Maurice Stray scored that's very good, but it's a lot of classical pieces."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:35:20 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Henryk Gorecki · craft · Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 plays over the plane crash montage. · "the big classical piece is the Henrik Gorecki Symphony 3 Symphony of Starhole songs, which is playing over the plane crash in Montage."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:36:28 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Henryk Gorecki · contrast · An original score could not have matched the borrowed Gorecki and U2 pieces cut to the crash, for how the music syncs and for the recognition of what is playing. · "you couldn't actually write an original piece of score for this that would work as well as both the way the music syncs up and like the power you gain from the recognition of what's playing."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:11:52 · David Sims (0.50)] Winona Ryder ↔ Fearless · people · The studio wanted Ryder for the Perez role and an audition kiss; Bridges refused. · "Winona Ryder."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:32:18 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Allen Daviau · people · Daviau, fresh off Spielberg films, shot Fearless; the first American DP Blank Check covered with Weir. · "Alan Davio shot this film, who, of course, the 1st American cinematographer that we had worked with."

Films put beside it more than once (4)

[pairs] Fearless ↔ Witness · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] Fearless ↔ Flight · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] Fearless ↔ Unbreakable · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] Fearless ↔ Starman · said 2 times in 1 episode

One hop out: what recommends the films most often joined to it (18)

[Blank Check · Starman · 1:20:41 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] An American Werewolf in London ⇒ Starman (the host's read) · lineage · The transformation sequence is indebted to American Werewolf's practical, show-it-all body effects. · "Yes, which is very like American werewolf in London, where the body is stretching out."
[Blank Check · Lady in the Water · 1:15:15 · unknown (0.30)] Lady in the Water ↔ Unbreakable · theme · Cleveland Heep's murdered family backstory is likened to the crime in Unbreakable. · "much like the crime and unbreakable."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Working Girl’ · 2:05:13 · unknown (0.40)] Working Girl ↔ Witness · programming · Witness is the double feature for double Harrison Ford. · "There's also Witness as just double hot Harrison Ford."
[The Big Picture · Did Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Experiment Work? A Binge Mode Investigation · 0:28:58 · Jason Concepcion (0.80)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ⇒ Mulan (the host's read) · lineage · The remake's wuxia/mystical style follows the wave of Chinese films that grew popular after Crouching Tiger and the Zhang Yimou films. · "they've gotten very big, kind of post, crouching tiger hidden dragon, and the Jang Yi-Mu films"
[Blank Check · Starman · 1:27:07 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] It Happened One Night ⇒ Starman (the host's read) · lineage · The hay-bale love scene in an empty train car is called a likely conscious homage to It Happened One Night. · "So it's a, maybe it's an homage."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 0:23:14 · David Sims (0.40)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Westerns (genre) · lineage · Lee reviving an old genre like making a Western, but engineered for a worldwide audience. · "It was like if somebody made a Western, but it also was implicitly built to and engineered to appeal to a worldwide audience as much as it appealed to an American one."
[Blank Check · Starman · 2:08:52 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Starman ⇒ Starman (the host's read) · lineage · The 1986 show is set 15 years later, about his son, with a recast Starman. · "is set 15 years in the future because it's about his son."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 0:24:55 · David Sims (0.40)] King Hu ⇒ Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (the host's read) · lineage · CTHD plays in the milieu of King Hu and the wuxia classics, but with a more modern sensibility. · "this movie is playing in a, in a Milu that is inherent to like King Hu movies and Musha, like the classics"
[Blank Check · Starman · 2:13:16 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Starman ⇒ Sean Levy (the host's read) · lineage · Levy announced a 2016 remake with Michael Douglas on board. · "I learned from Wikipedia that in 2016, Sean Levy was planning to direct and produce a remake of Starman."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 1:07:21 · Griffin Newman (0.30)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Last Action Hero · lineage · Jen worshipping Shu Lien and living her dreamed-of story is very Last Action Hero. · "It's very last action hero."
[Blank Check · Starman · 2:11:38 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Starman ⇒ John from Cincinnati (the host's read) · theme · A mysterious odd visitor who solves everyone's problems and parrots dialogue; John from Cincinnati owes a lot to Starman. · "He comes and visits, and he's mysterious, and he's weird, and he solves everybody's problem."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 1:46:30 · David Ehrlich (0.35)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Brokeback Mountain · lineage · CTHD as the first of Lee's 'fuck mountain diptych' of transgressive sex movies, with Brokeback. · "This is the 1st of Angley's fuck mountain diptych."
[Blank Check · Starman · 1:19:49 · David Sims (0.50)] Starman ↔ Annette · craft · The baby in the transformation sequence recalls the unsettling baby in Annette. · "There were some real baby Annette vibes in that transformation sequence."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 0:30:13 · David Ehrlich (0.45)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Sense and Sensibility · theme · Ang Lee's bottled-emotion movies; CTHD as Sense and Sensibility with a magic sword. · "This is one of his great bottled emotion movies, which is like a big running theme for people who don't know how to express those. Sensibility with a magic sword."
[Blank Check · Starman · 1:22:06 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Two for the Road ⇒ Starman (the host's read) · craft · Carpenter reportedly wanted to make something like Two for the Road. · "I want to make like 2 for the road."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 0:37:29 · Griffin Newman (0.30)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Sense and Sensibility · theme · After 15 minutes the movie goes full Jane Austen. · "But like 15 minutes later, when the movie goes full, Jane Austen"
[Blank Check · Starman · 1:22:08 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] It Happened One Night ⇒ Starman (the host's read) · craft · Carpenter wanted a road movie of two people in a car getting to know each other, in the mold of It Happened One Night. · "I want to make it happens one night."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 0:42:52 · David Ehrlich (0.55)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Lady Bird · theme · Seen as a coming-of-age story where Jen is the surrogate daughter holding the adults together and apart. · "I never really looked at it through this lens until I was just, you know, on ambient and trying to apply ladybird quotes to everything"

Who said it, by their latest sketch (3)

[speaker] David Sims · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Prepares history: novel, casting, budgets, box office. Reveres the film and thinks it reads as a normal ground-level story. A sucker for Hollywood deal backstory and box office game. · stances: Praises Keitel and Dafoe casting; Respects Scorsese's persistence and Corman discipline; The film is now well regarded though not 'canonical Marty'
[speaker] Griffin Newman · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Calls Last Temptation his college-era favorite Scorsese; loves Scorsese's smaller 80s and the film's closing transcendence and Gabriel score. Cannot stand fundamentalist outrage at it. A sucker for casting trivia and Tom Cruise-silliness. · stances: Hot take: Last Temptation structurally mirrors New York, New York as a better version; Outrage over the film is stupid; it is respectful to Jesus; Scorsese's smaller 80s work beats his later baroque phases
[speaker] Tim Simons · latest sketch, Blank Check · Fearless · Adores Bradley Whitford, Jeff Bridges, and unbridled positivity about moviegoing. Lover of old movies he has not seen yet. Can be contrarian ('movie MAGA mode') about near-consensus films and U2. Moved by performance and craft more than plot. · stances: Fearless is uniformly excellent, the first 30 and last 20 minutes transcendent; Jeff Bridges is peak, subtle and singular; the Fearless ending locks all puzzle pieces; nitpicks consensus classics

The shows' running bits (3)

[bits] The Big Picture: Drafts (Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument); Hall of Fame (A star's or director's best, ranked and argued); Countdowns (Ranked lists, top five or top ten)
[bits] Blank Check: The box office game (Guessing the film's opening weekend and what it was up against); The sung theme ("Blank Check with Griffin and David", sung; the transcriber garbles it)
[bits] The Rewatchables: Apex Mountain (The moment a star peaks; where on the mountain a performance sits); Who Won the Movie (The hosts name the person who came out of the film best off); The Ebert review (Roger Ebert's original review and star rating read aloud. Ebert is cited, never on the show); Casting what-ifs (Who was almost cast, or who should have been); Most rewatchable scene (The scene each host would stop on while flipping channels); Aged best / aged worst (What holds up and what does not); Picking Nits (The little things in a film the hosts love that they don't think totally work: the nits); Double feature (The film each host would pair it with; a programming pick)

The whole prompt

As the model gets it, from app/Ai/Prompts/CorpusAsk.md

You are a clerk at Video Culture, a video store. A customer just finished Fearless (1993) and wants to know what to watch next.

Below is what people who love movies said on three podcasts (Blank Check, The Rewatchables, The Big Picture) about Fearless (1993) and the films around it, one line each. Every line starts with where it came from, in brackets: [show · episode · time · speaker (how sure we are it was them)]. A [pairs] line says how often two films were put side by side. A [speaker] line says what that person likes. A [bits] line lists a show's running bits: a format, not an opinion.

[Blank Check · Fearless · 0:50:16 · Tim Simons (0.45)] Fearless ↔ Unbreakable · theme · Both are about a man recovering from an accident that left him untouched; Bruce Willis would have fit, but was not ready. · "sort of a similar idea of a guy who's kind of like, fucking nothing happened to me, like, and who is recovering from an accident."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:13:28 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Hero · theme · Hero, the year before, also asks what happens to people who walk out of a crash alive. · "What happens to the people who walk off walk out of a crash alive?"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:28:08 · unknown (0.30)] Fearless ↔ Kickin' It Old Skool · theme · A coma movie where a man wakes into a new reality is joked to be the Fearless of the 2000s. · "kind of the fearless of the 2000s?"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 0:52:17 · Tim Simons (0.40)] Fearless ⇒ Tron: Legacy (the host's read) · craft · The 1993 Bridges look was the reference for the de-aged CGI Bridges in Tron: Legacy. · "I believe that this was the main visual reference for creepy CGI Jeff Bridges and Tron Legacy."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:06:54 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Picnic at Hanging Rock · craft · Fearless captures an uncanny mood with invisible craft the way Picnic at Hanging Rock does. · "And it has a little bit of that picnic at hanging rock thing where you're like, what is this mood he's captured?"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:14:34 · unknown (0.30)] Fearless ↔ Sully · craft · Sully uses the same crash-in-flashback structure Weir chose for Fearless. · "Sully does basically the same thing."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:51:11 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Flight · contrast · Both are post-crash aftermath movies, but Fearless is in conversation with the intangible while Flight resolves into two pre-set systems (sobriety and faith). · "Whereas I'm like, this movie is spiritual because it's in conversation with the intangible."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:51:54 · unknown (0.30)] Fearless ↔ Unbreakable · contrast · Fearless is not Unbreakable because its protagonist is not literally invulnerable; the world helps him survive. · "But you're like, it's not unbreakable where it's like he genuinely cannot be hard."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 0:46:21 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Starman · people · Bridges plays a person one step removed from reality in both films. · "both about people who are a little outside of reality, right?"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:14:55 · unknown (0.30)] Fearless ↔ Starman · people · The first thirty minutes of Fearless feel like Starman. · "He does feel like Starman."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 0:31:59 · David Sims (0.50)] Fearless ↔ Witness · industry · The poster leads with the director of Witness and Dead Poets Society. · "the top thing of the poster is from the director of Witness and Dead Poets."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:41:44 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Schindler's List · industry · Fearless lost heat to that year's heavy hitters Schindler's List, The Piano and The Fugitive. · "it was the Schindler's list, piano, fugitive."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 1:36:26 · David Sims (0.40)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Fearless · industry · Fearless was marketed as another Chinese movie for people who liked CTHD. · "which was sort of advertised as like, if you like Crashing Tiger, here's another Chinese movie for you."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 0:56:45 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Witness ↔ Fearless · look · After the Witness episode, Bridges' Fearless look is judged possibly the top screen look ever, more attainable than Ford's. · "I'm like, this might actually be the number one look a guy has ever had on screen."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:18:22 · unknown (0.30)] Fearless ↔ Mrs. Doubtfire · coincidence · Both 1993 films turn on strawberry allergies. · "So there's 2 movies about strawberry allergies in 1993, right?"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:36:04 · David Sims (0.55)] Fearless ↔ Flight · plane crash · Fearless is called the final boss of plane crash movies, ahead of Flight and Sully. · "This is the final boss plane crash movie."
[Blank Check — Patreon · 2025 March Madness Update 1 · 0:48:14 · unknown (0.40)] Peter Weir ↔ Fearless · programming · A host has not seen Fearless and is obsessed with plane crashes. · "the most intense plane crash scene in a movie."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 1:11:17 · David Sims (0.50)] Rafael Yglesias ⇒ Fearless (the host's read) · lineage · Weir loved the unpublished-novel first-draft script, adapted by its own author. · "He adapts his own unpublished book."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:32:45 · David Sims (0.50)] Fearless ↔ Allen Daviau · craft · The speaker praises how Fearless looks, a film about absorbing textures and the feeling in the air, tied to Daviau shooting it. · "this film looks incredible and this is a movie that needs to just look good because it's so much about like absorbing textures of things and and the space and the feeling in the air"
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:34:42 · Tim Simons (0.50)] Fearless ↔ U2 · craft · Using U2's Where the Streets Have No Name in an unhinged crash context opened up the band for the speaker. · "using U2 in an unhinged context, it really like opened that band up in that that music for me in a new way."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:35:15 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Maurice Jarre · craft · Jarre scored it, but most of the music is classical pieces. · "there's a Maurice Stray scored that's very good, but it's a lot of classical pieces."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:35:20 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Henryk Gorecki · craft · Gorecki's Symphony No. 3 plays over the plane crash montage. · "the big classical piece is the Henrik Gorecki Symphony 3 Symphony of Starhole songs, which is playing over the plane crash in Montage."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:36:28 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Henryk Gorecki · contrast · An original score could not have matched the borrowed Gorecki and U2 pieces cut to the crash, for how the music syncs and for the recognition of what is playing. · "you couldn't actually write an original piece of score for this that would work as well as both the way the music syncs up and like the power you gain from the recognition of what's playing."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:11:52 · David Sims (0.50)] Winona Ryder ↔ Fearless · people · The studio wanted Ryder for the Perez role and an audition kiss; Bridges refused. · "Winona Ryder."
[Blank Check · Fearless · 2:32:18 · David Sims (0.40)] Fearless ↔ Allen Daviau · people · Daviau, fresh off Spielberg films, shot Fearless; the first American DP Blank Check covered with Weir. · "Alan Davio shot this film, who, of course, the 1st American cinematographer that we had worked with."
[pairs] Fearless ↔ Witness · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] Fearless ↔ Flight · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] Fearless ↔ Unbreakable · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] Fearless ↔ Starman · said 2 times in 1 episode
[Blank Check · Starman · 1:20:41 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] An American Werewolf in London ⇒ Starman (the host's read) · lineage · The transformation sequence is indebted to American Werewolf's practical, show-it-all body effects. · "Yes, which is very like American werewolf in London, where the body is stretching out."
[Blank Check · Lady in the Water · 1:15:15 · unknown (0.30)] Lady in the Water ↔ Unbreakable · theme · Cleveland Heep's murdered family backstory is likened to the crime in Unbreakable. · "much like the crime and unbreakable."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Working Girl’ · 2:05:13 · unknown (0.40)] Working Girl ↔ Witness · programming · Witness is the double feature for double Harrison Ford. · "There's also Witness as just double hot Harrison Ford."
[The Big Picture · Did Disney’s ‘Mulan’ Experiment Work? A Binge Mode Investigation · 0:28:58 · Jason Concepcion (0.80)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ⇒ Mulan (the host's read) · lineage · The remake's wuxia/mystical style follows the wave of Chinese films that grew popular after Crouching Tiger and the Zhang Yimou films. · "they've gotten very big, kind of post, crouching tiger hidden dragon, and the Jang Yi-Mu films"
[Blank Check · Starman · 1:27:07 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] It Happened One Night ⇒ Starman (the host's read) · lineage · The hay-bale love scene in an empty train car is called a likely conscious homage to It Happened One Night. · "So it's a, maybe it's an homage."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 0:23:14 · David Sims (0.40)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Westerns (genre) · lineage · Lee reviving an old genre like making a Western, but engineered for a worldwide audience. · "It was like if somebody made a Western, but it also was implicitly built to and engineered to appeal to a worldwide audience as much as it appealed to an American one."
[Blank Check · Starman · 2:08:52 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Starman ⇒ Starman (the host's read) · lineage · The 1986 show is set 15 years later, about his son, with a recast Starman. · "is set 15 years in the future because it's about his son."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 0:24:55 · David Sims (0.40)] King Hu ⇒ Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (the host's read) · lineage · CTHD plays in the milieu of King Hu and the wuxia classics, but with a more modern sensibility. · "this movie is playing in a, in a Milu that is inherent to like King Hu movies and Musha, like the classics"
[Blank Check · Starman · 2:13:16 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Starman ⇒ Sean Levy (the host's read) · lineage · Levy announced a 2016 remake with Michael Douglas on board. · "I learned from Wikipedia that in 2016, Sean Levy was planning to direct and produce a remake of Starman."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 1:07:21 · Griffin Newman (0.30)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Last Action Hero · lineage · Jen worshipping Shu Lien and living her dreamed-of story is very Last Action Hero. · "It's very last action hero."
[Blank Check · Starman · 2:11:38 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Starman ⇒ John from Cincinnati (the host's read) · theme · A mysterious odd visitor who solves everyone's problems and parrots dialogue; John from Cincinnati owes a lot to Starman. · "He comes and visits, and he's mysterious, and he's weird, and he solves everybody's problem."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 1:46:30 · David Ehrlich (0.35)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Brokeback Mountain · lineage · CTHD as the first of Lee's 'fuck mountain diptych' of transgressive sex movies, with Brokeback. · "This is the 1st of Angley's fuck mountain diptych."
[Blank Check · Starman · 1:19:49 · David Sims (0.50)] Starman ↔ Annette · craft · The baby in the transformation sequence recalls the unsettling baby in Annette. · "There were some real baby Annette vibes in that transformation sequence."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 0:30:13 · David Ehrlich (0.45)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Sense and Sensibility · theme · Ang Lee's bottled-emotion movies; CTHD as Sense and Sensibility with a magic sword. · "This is one of his great bottled emotion movies, which is like a big running theme for people who don't know how to express those. Sensibility with a magic sword."
[Blank Check · Starman · 1:22:06 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] Two for the Road ⇒ Starman (the host's read) · craft · Carpenter reportedly wanted to make something like Two for the Road. · "I want to make like 2 for the road."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 0:37:29 · Griffin Newman (0.30)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Sense and Sensibility · theme · After 15 minutes the movie goes full Jane Austen. · "But like 15 minutes later, when the movie goes full, Jane Austen"
[Blank Check · Starman · 1:22:08 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] It Happened One Night ⇒ Starman (the host's read) · craft · Carpenter wanted a road movie of two people in a car getting to know each other, in the mold of It Happened One Night. · "I want to make it happens one night."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon · 0:42:52 · David Ehrlich (0.55)] Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ↔ Lady Bird · theme · Seen as a coming-of-age story where Jen is the surrogate daughter holding the adults together and apart. · "I never really looked at it through this lens until I was just, you know, on ambient and trying to apply ladybird quotes to everything"
[speaker] David Sims · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Prepares history: novel, casting, budgets, box office. Reveres the film and thinks it reads as a normal ground-level story. A sucker for Hollywood deal backstory and box office game. · stances: Praises Keitel and Dafoe casting; Respects Scorsese's persistence and Corman discipline; The film is now well regarded though not 'canonical Marty'
[speaker] Griffin Newman · latest sketch, Blank Check · The Last Temptation of Christ · Calls Last Temptation his college-era favorite Scorsese; loves Scorsese's smaller 80s and the film's closing transcendence and Gabriel score. Cannot stand fundamentalist outrage at it. A sucker for casting trivia and Tom Cruise-silliness. · stances: Hot take: Last Temptation structurally mirrors New York, New York as a better version; Outrage over the film is stupid; it is respectful to Jesus; Scorsese's smaller 80s work beats his later baroque phases
[speaker] Tim Simons · latest sketch, Blank Check · Fearless · Adores Bradley Whitford, Jeff Bridges, and unbridled positivity about moviegoing. Lover of old movies he has not seen yet. Can be contrarian ('movie MAGA mode') about near-consensus films and U2. Moved by performance and craft more than plot. · stances: Fearless is uniformly excellent, the first 30 and last 20 minutes transcendent; Jeff Bridges is peak, subtle and singular; the Fearless ending locks all puzzle pieces; nitpicks consensus classics
[bits] The Big Picture: Drafts (Hosts and guests draft films in rounds; every pick is a recommendation with an argument); Hall of Fame (A star's or director's best, ranked and argued); Countdowns (Ranked lists, top five or top ten)
[bits] Blank Check: The box office game (Guessing the film's opening weekend and what it was up against); The sung theme ("Blank Check with Griffin and David", sung; the transcriber garbles it)
[bits] The Rewatchables: Apex Mountain (The moment a star peaks; where on the mountain a performance sits); Who Won the Movie (The hosts name the person who came out of the film best off); The Ebert review (Roger Ebert's original review and star rating read aloud. Ebert is cited, never on the show); Casting what-ifs (Who was almost cast, or who should have been); Most rewatchable scene (The scene each host would stop on while flipping channels); Aged best / aged worst (What holds up and what does not); Picking Nits (The little things in a film the hosts love that they don't think totally work: the nits); Double feature (The film each host would pair it with; a programming pick)

Recommend three to six films, and only films that appear in these lines. A series, a TV film, or a franchise counts too when a line recommends it or pairs it with Fearless (1993); name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend Fearless (1993) itself. For each one, give one short reason in your own words and say whose reason it is: the show, named exactly as the brackets name it, and the speaker when the line names one (an "unknown" speaker is just the show). If the lines are thin, say so plainly rather than stretching them.

Keep a contrast a contrast. When a line sets two films apart, the reason is how they differ; never turn it into a way they're alike. A line with ⇒ puts the source first and what drew on it second, and one marked "the maker said so" is still the host reporting it: say who said it, and never state an influence as fact.

You know only what's on these lines. Add no fact they don't state: not who directed a film, not what kind of film it is, not when it came out, unless a line says so. Say nothing about the store or how anything rents here.

Talk the way a clerk talks to a customer at the counter: plain text, titles written plainly with no asterisks or other markup, no headings, no lists of more than six, no JSON.