What the corpus says about La La Land (2016)

What was said about it (13)

1. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:57:59 · unknown (0.30)] La La Land ⇒ Babylon (the host's read) · craft · The Babylon score is said to reappropriate music from La La Land's dream ballet. · "This is like very much from the dream ballet of La Land, this music and the score."
2. [Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 1:30:19 · unknown (0.35)] Something's Gotta Give ↔ La La Land · craft · Keaton's character's play, with its mirror staging, recalls Emma Stone's one-woman show in La La Land. · "it reminds me a lot of Emma Stone's one woman show in La La Land."
3. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:11:07 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ La La Land · contrast · The hosts imagine Babylon being sold as from the director of La La Land, while Barbie's release sat nearby. · "This is from the man who brought you Laland and the woman who brought you Barbie."
4. [Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:24:30 · David Sims (0.40)] Trolls ↔ La La Land · contrast · City of Stars beat Can't Stop the Feeling and the speaker resents it as the La La Land song; the opening numbers are the film's best. · "I still am so resentful that that's the La La Land song."
5. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:19:06 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ La La Land · career · The Lee Jung Lee party sequence is said to blend La La Land and Whiplash. · "that this is kind of La La Land and whiplash blending together."
6. [The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:44:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] Babylon ↔ La La Land · career · Sean, who loved Whiplash and First Man but not La La Land, reads Babylon as Chazelle realizing La La Land was a mistake. · "This feels like him realizing that La La Land was a mistake, which I thought I think is like a magnificent thing."
7. [Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:26:01 · unknown (0.35)] La La Land ↔ La La Land · verdict · Its two opening songs are the best two, and the middle 45 minutes is not a musical. · "The two opening songs are the best 2 songs in the movie."
8. [The Rewatchables · ‘Easy A’ · 1:07:19 · Amanda Dobbins (0.40)] Emma Stone ↔ La La Land · craft · Stone's performative quality works in Easy A's numbers and webcam and also in La La Land. · "I mean, it also works in La La Land."
9. [Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:26:37 · unclear (Griffin Newman, David Sims or Richard Lawson) (0.30)] Justin Hurwitz ↔ La La Land · craft · Hurwitz's pretty score is credited with carrying La La Land's weaker songs, City of Stars included, over the line. · "I think Justin Hurwick is a really great composer and his music is very pretty and so that sort of carried those songs over the line."
10. [The Rewatchables · A CR Month Mailbag! · 1:09:12 · unknown (0.40)] Ryan Gosling ↔ La La Land · career · Gosling had The Nice Guys and La La Land in the same year, an MVP-year argument. · "And Gosling was in that and La La Land same year"
11. [The Rewatchables · ‘Easy A’ · 1:27:50 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Emma Stone ↔ La La Land · verdict · Not Easy A but La La Land is Stone's Apex Mountain, once she wins the Oscar. · "It's got to be La La Land, right?"
12. [The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ · 0:16:22 · Wesley Morris (0.50)] Marisa Tomei ↔ La La Land · industry · Her surprise win was doubted as something that would never happen, then Moonlight/La La Land happened 25 years later. · "And then it fucking happens 25 years later."
13. [The Rewatchables · ‘Easy A’ · 1:06:14 · Amanda Dobbins (0.40)] Jennifer Lawrence ↔ La La Land · what-if · Lawrence could not have done La La Land because of its performative singing and dancing. · "Do you think, I'm trying to think, do you think that Jennifer Lawrence could have been in La La Land?"

Films put beside it more than once (1)

1. [pairs] La La Land ↔ Babylon · said 4 times in 2 episodes

One hop out: what recommends the films most often joined to it (24)

1. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:53:26 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ Snack Shack · programming · A pool-snacks tangent leads to a recommendation of Snack Shack, produced by Rian Johnson's T Street. · "Um, Basically being released independently is produced by Ryan Johnson's company, T Street, and it's a, here we see Margot Robbie losing her nerve and breaking down."
2. [Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 0:05:06 · unknown (0.35)] Meet the Parents ⇒ Something's Gotta Give (the host's read) · programming · Nicholson may have seen Meet the Parents and wanted a piece of that audience. · "Do you think he saw meet the parents and was like, I can do that too?"
3. [Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 0:10:54 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Trolls ↔ Trolls World Tour · programming · Trolls had to be watched first because the sequel releases the day this episode comes out. · "knowing that the day this episode comes out, trolls world tour will also be unleashed upon the world."
4. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:30:05 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ Road House · programming · After a crocodile-fear tangent triggered by Babylon's crocodile scene, a speaker pushes Roadhouse for its crocodile scene. · "I mean, they're just... pretty exciting crocodile scene."
5. [Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 1:54:21 · unknown (0.30)] Stuck on You ↔ Something's Gotta Give · programming · Stuck on You opened the same week as the film and ranked number three. · "Big broad comedy, high concept."
6. [Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:34:57 · unknown (0.35)] Trolls ↔ Trolls World Tour · programming · Katzenberg milked properties into cartoon shows, specials and sequels; Universal owns Trolls outright now and will continue. · "Casenberg always milks every property dry."
7. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:13:47 · unknown (0.30)] Singin' in the Rain ⇒ Babylon (the host's read) · lineage · A speaker calls the sound-stage scene a direct Singin' in the Rain homage, 'on steroids times a 1000'. · "Again, like a very, very direct homage."
8. [Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 1:01:31 · unknown (0.35)] Michael ↔ Something's Gotta Give · lineage · Keanu as a possible angel prompts a question whether it remakes Michael. · "Is this a remake of Michael?"
9. [Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 0:59:43 · unknown (0.35)] Trolls ↔ Fraggle Rock (TV series) · lineage · The Trolls society of different-sized species has a Fraggle Rock structure. · "a fraggle rock structuring of society where there are different species of different sizes"
10. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:51:30 · unknown (0.30)] Singin' in the Rain ⇒ Babylon (the host's read) · lineage · The speaker says Babylon is deliberately built around Singin' in the Rain, with specific scenes mirrored on purpose. · "But it is so intentionally built around singing in the rain that I do think the mirroring of the specific scenes are intentional."
11. [Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 0:05:47 · unknown (0.40)] Something's Gotta Give ↔ Jack Nicholson · theme · The film is a deconstruction of Nicholson's own star persona. · "It's very much a deconstruction of his star persona."
12. [Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:01:36 · unknown (0.35)] Adventure Time (TV series) ⇒ Trolls (the host's read) · lineage · Trolls' look is the end of a chain from webcomics and Adult Swim through Adventure Time to mainstream kids animation. · "So you end up getting things like adventure time that feel more like what adult swim used to feel like than what a children's show used to feel like."
13. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 3:06:12 · unknown (0.30)] Zack Snyder's Justice League ⇒ Babylon (the maker said so: the hosts' own account of the show) · lineage · The Snyder Cut watch-along, born of a lost bet, started the show's watch-along concept that led to this one. · "The Snyder, the Snyder Cut thing was a bet that we lost, that Sean was like, if that, that's how the watch along concept started."
14. [Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 0:50:14 · unknown (0.40)] It's Complicated ↔ Something's Gotta Give · theme · Meyers's idea of how children process divorce is drawn from her own children. · "I think Nancy Meyers perception of how children process a divorce is entirely based on her children."
15. [Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:02:37 · unknown (0.35)] Shrek ⇒ Trolls (the host's read) · lineage · Trolls has Shrek-distilled humor: self-referential asides for the parents. · "this weird, annoying Shrek, you know, as you say, Shrek, distilled or whatever, like type of humor"
16. [The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:57:53 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85)] Pearl ↔ Babylon · theme · Amanda says Pearl completes a trilogy of 2022 films about the transition to silent film, with Babylon and Downton Abbey: A New Era. · "this completes the trilogy of silent film transition in movies this year between Babylon, Downton, Abbey, and New Era, and Pearl."
17. [Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 1:03:34 · unknown (0.40)] Something's Gotta Give ↔ Defending Your Life · theme · The white, bleached look makes the film read like a heaven set, like Defending Your Life. · "It looks like defending your life or something."
18. [Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:10:23 · unknown (0.30)] Trolls ↔ Antz (said as 'ants') · lineage · The mismatched-pair quest through the big world is compared to the plot of Antz. · "much like the plot of ants"
19. [The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:57:53 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85)] Downton Abbey: A New Era ↔ Babylon · theme · Both 2022 films are about the silent-to-sound transition in movies. · "this completes the trilogy of silent film transition in movies this year between Babylon, Downton, Abbey, and New Era, and Pearl."
20. [Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 1:31:56 · Griffin Newman (0.45)] Something's Gotta Give ↔ The Grand Budapest Hotel · theme · Like Grand Budapest, the film explains why its maker is so fussy: to build a fantasy world people can escape to. · "the Ray Fines character explained to the audience why Wes Anderson is so fussy about these things"
21. [Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:14:02 · unknown (0.35)] Trolls ↔ Cyrano de Bergerac · lineage · The middle of Trolls turns into a gender-flipped Cyrano with the trolls hiding in Bridget's wig. · "And then the movie becomes like Cyrano?"
22. [The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:15:13 · unknown (0.30)] Brad Pitt ↔ Babylon · theme · Babylon is called a smart use of Brad Pitt's skills, with the movie-star persona built in. · "This is a very smart utilization of Brad Pitt's skills."
23. [Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 0:23:39 · unknown (0.40)] Something's Gotta Give ↔ It's Complicated · craft · The same trick: a strong supporting character is big in the first half hour and then drops out. · "This movie does the exact same thing that it's complicated does"
24. [Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:19:16 · unknown (0.35)] Trolls ↔ Cinderella · lineage · The roller skate left behind makes the Bergen prince plot a Cinderella story. · "So then it becomes a Cinderella thing"

Who said it, by their latest sketch (4)

1. [speaker] Amanda Dobbins · latest sketch, The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · Loves The Strangers' withholding craft and a good tense horror film without gore, but likes fun, communal movies like Mamma Mia. She dislikes supernatural or gory horror, which irritates her more than it scares her. She is a sucker for stars and for Googling a movie mid-recording. · stances: The Strangers is scary because of what it doesn't show or explain; Ending explanation weakens it; no answer would be better; Prefers 'withholding' filmmaking; Defends Mamma Mia as joyful and intentional
2. [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'
3. [speaker] Sean Fennessey · latest sketch, The Big Picture · ‘Resident Evil’ Absolutely Rips! · Loves gory, funny, fast genre movies with craft and confidence, especially 87-minute films that never overstay. Can't stand ponderous elevated horror that fills out its runtime with introspection and sad family history. A sucker for the Carpenter-era lineage, Die Hard homages, and directors who break studio dogma. · stances: Resident Evil is one of the best films of the year; Horror movies have become a drag; fun genre experiences are needed; Short running times are a virtue; Video-game films work best when great filmmakers get creative license
4. [speaker] Wesley Morris · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ · Loves Marisa Tomei, the grits scene, and the clothes; is a sucker for Fran Drescher. Dislikes car-driving-away endings and thinks the film has done harm by encouraging self-representation. · stances: Tomei deserved the Oscar; Race in courtroom movies matters, and this one is warmly integrated; The Nanny is basically Mona Lisa Vito

The shows' running bits (2)

1. [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)
2. [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

You are a clerk at Video Culture, a video store. A customer just finished La La Land (2016) 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 La La Land (2016) 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.

[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:57:59 · unknown (0.30)] La La Land ⇒ Babylon (the host's read) · craft · The Babylon score is said to reappropriate music from La La Land's dream ballet. · "This is like very much from the dream ballet of La Land, this music and the score."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 1:30:19 · unknown (0.35)] Something's Gotta Give ↔ La La Land · craft · Keaton's character's play, with its mirror staging, recalls Emma Stone's one-woman show in La La Land. · "it reminds me a lot of Emma Stone's one woman show in La La Land."
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:11:07 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ La La Land · contrast · The hosts imagine Babylon being sold as from the director of La La Land, while Barbie's release sat nearby. · "This is from the man who brought you Laland and the woman who brought you Barbie."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:24:30 · David Sims (0.40)] Trolls ↔ La La Land · contrast · City of Stars beat Can't Stop the Feeling and the speaker resents it as the La La Land song; the opening numbers are the film's best. · "I still am so resentful that that's the La La Land song."
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:19:06 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ La La Land · career · The Lee Jung Lee party sequence is said to blend La La Land and Whiplash. · "that this is kind of La La Land and whiplash blending together."
[The Big Picture · The Top Five Movies of 2022 · 0:44:03 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] Babylon ↔ La La Land · career · Sean, who loved Whiplash and First Man but not La La Land, reads Babylon as Chazelle realizing La La Land was a mistake. · "This feels like him realizing that La La Land was a mistake, which I thought I think is like a magnificent thing."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:26:01 · unknown (0.35)] La La Land ↔ La La Land · verdict · Its two opening songs are the best two, and the middle 45 minutes is not a musical. · "The two opening songs are the best 2 songs in the movie."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Easy A’ · 1:07:19 · Amanda Dobbins (0.40)] Emma Stone ↔ La La Land · craft · Stone's performative quality works in Easy A's numbers and webcam and also in La La Land. · "I mean, it also works in La La Land."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:26:37 · unclear (Griffin Newman, David Sims or Richard Lawson) (0.30)] Justin Hurwitz ↔ La La Land · craft · Hurwitz's pretty score is credited with carrying La La Land's weaker songs, City of Stars included, over the line. · "I think Justin Hurwick is a really great composer and his music is very pretty and so that sort of carried those songs over the line."
[The Rewatchables · A CR Month Mailbag! · 1:09:12 · unknown (0.40)] Ryan Gosling ↔ La La Land · career · Gosling had The Nice Guys and La La Land in the same year, an MVP-year argument. · "And Gosling was in that and La La Land same year"
[The Rewatchables · ‘Easy A’ · 1:27:50 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] Emma Stone ↔ La La Land · verdict · Not Easy A but La La Land is Stone's Apex Mountain, once she wins the Oscar. · "It's got to be La La Land, right?"
[The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ · 0:16:22 · Wesley Morris (0.50)] Marisa Tomei ↔ La La Land · industry · Her surprise win was doubted as something that would never happen, then Moonlight/La La Land happened 25 years later. · "And then it fucking happens 25 years later."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Easy A’ · 1:06:14 · Amanda Dobbins (0.40)] Jennifer Lawrence ↔ La La Land · what-if · Lawrence could not have done La La Land because of its performative singing and dancing. · "Do you think, I'm trying to think, do you think that Jennifer Lawrence could have been in La La Land?"
[pairs] La La Land ↔ Babylon · said 4 times in 2 episodes
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:53:26 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ Snack Shack · programming · A pool-snacks tangent leads to a recommendation of Snack Shack, produced by Rian Johnson's T Street. · "Um, Basically being released independently is produced by Ryan Johnson's company, T Street, and it's a, here we see Margot Robbie losing her nerve and breaking down."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 0:05:06 · unknown (0.35)] Meet the Parents ⇒ Something's Gotta Give (the host's read) · programming · Nicholson may have seen Meet the Parents and wanted a piece of that audience. · "Do you think he saw meet the parents and was like, I can do that too?"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 0:10:54 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Trolls ↔ Trolls World Tour · programming · Trolls had to be watched first because the sequel releases the day this episode comes out. · "knowing that the day this episode comes out, trolls world tour will also be unleashed upon the world."
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:30:05 · unknown (0.30)] Babylon ↔ Road House · programming · After a crocodile-fear tangent triggered by Babylon's crocodile scene, a speaker pushes Roadhouse for its crocodile scene. · "I mean, they're just... pretty exciting crocodile scene."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 1:54:21 · unknown (0.30)] Stuck on You ↔ Something's Gotta Give · programming · Stuck on You opened the same week as the film and ranked number three. · "Big broad comedy, high concept."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:34:57 · unknown (0.35)] Trolls ↔ Trolls World Tour · programming · Katzenberg milked properties into cartoon shows, specials and sequels; Universal owns Trolls outright now and will continue. · "Casenberg always milks every property dry."
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 1:13:47 · unknown (0.30)] Singin' in the Rain ⇒ Babylon (the host's read) · lineage · A speaker calls the sound-stage scene a direct Singin' in the Rain homage, 'on steroids times a 1000'. · "Again, like a very, very direct homage."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 1:01:31 · unknown (0.35)] Michael ↔ Something's Gotta Give · lineage · Keanu as a possible angel prompts a question whether it remakes Michael. · "Is this a remake of Michael?"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 0:59:43 · unknown (0.35)] Trolls ↔ Fraggle Rock (TV series) · lineage · The Trolls society of different-sized species has a Fraggle Rock structure. · "a fraggle rock structuring of society where there are different species of different sizes"
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 2:51:30 · unknown (0.30)] Singin' in the Rain ⇒ Babylon (the host's read) · lineage · The speaker says Babylon is deliberately built around Singin' in the Rain, with specific scenes mirrored on purpose. · "But it is so intentionally built around singing in the rain that I do think the mirroring of the specific scenes are intentional."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 0:05:47 · unknown (0.40)] Something's Gotta Give ↔ Jack Nicholson · theme · The film is a deconstruction of Nicholson's own star persona. · "It's very much a deconstruction of his star persona."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:01:36 · unknown (0.35)] Adventure Time (TV series) ⇒ Trolls (the host's read) · lineage · Trolls' look is the end of a chain from webcomics and Adult Swim through Adventure Time to mainstream kids animation. · "So you end up getting things like adventure time that feel more like what adult swim used to feel like than what a children's show used to feel like."
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 3:06:12 · unknown (0.30)] Zack Snyder's Justice League ⇒ Babylon (the maker said so: the hosts' own account of the show) · lineage · The Snyder Cut watch-along, born of a lost bet, started the show's watch-along concept that led to this one. · "The Snyder, the Snyder Cut thing was a bet that we lost, that Sean was like, if that, that's how the watch along concept started."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 0:50:14 · unknown (0.40)] It's Complicated ↔ Something's Gotta Give · theme · Meyers's idea of how children process divorce is drawn from her own children. · "I think Nancy Meyers perception of how children process a divorce is entirely based on her children."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:02:37 · unknown (0.35)] Shrek ⇒ Trolls (the host's read) · lineage · Trolls has Shrek-distilled humor: self-referential asides for the parents. · "this weird, annoying Shrek, you know, as you say, Shrek, distilled or whatever, like type of humor"
[The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:57:53 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85)] Pearl ↔ Babylon · theme · Amanda says Pearl completes a trilogy of 2022 films about the transition to silent film, with Babylon and Downton Abbey: A New Era. · "this completes the trilogy of silent film transition in movies this year between Babylon, Downton, Abbey, and New Era, and Pearl."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 1:03:34 · unknown (0.40)] Something's Gotta Give ↔ Defending Your Life · theme · The white, bleached look makes the film read like a heaven set, like Defending Your Life. · "It looks like defending your life or something."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:10:23 · unknown (0.30)] Trolls ↔ Antz (said as 'ants') · lineage · The mismatched-pair quest through the big world is compared to the plot of Antz. · "much like the plot of ants"
[The Big Picture · The 2022 Movie Draft · 0:57:53 · Amanda Dobbins (0.85)] Downton Abbey: A New Era ↔ Babylon · theme · Both 2022 films are about the silent-to-sound transition in movies. · "this completes the trilogy of silent film transition in movies this year between Babylon, Downton, Abbey, and New Era, and Pearl."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 1:31:56 · Griffin Newman (0.45)] Something's Gotta Give ↔ The Grand Budapest Hotel · theme · Like Grand Budapest, the film explains why its maker is so fussy: to build a fantasy world people can escape to. · "the Ray Fines character explained to the audience why Wes Anderson is so fussy about these things"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:14:02 · unknown (0.35)] Trolls ↔ Cyrano de Bergerac · lineage · The middle of Trolls turns into a gender-flipped Cyrano with the trolls hiding in Bridget's wig. · "And then the movie becomes like Cyrano?"
[The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:15:13 · unknown (0.30)] Brad Pitt ↔ Babylon · theme · Babylon is called a smart use of Brad Pitt's skills, with the movie-star persona built in. · "This is a very smart utilization of Brad Pitt's skills."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Something's Gotta Give · 0:23:39 · unknown (0.40)] Something's Gotta Give ↔ It's Complicated · craft · The same trick: a strong supporting character is big in the first half hour and then drops out. · "This movie does the exact same thing that it's complicated does"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Trolls: The Experience · 1:19:16 · unknown (0.35)] Trolls ↔ Cinderella · lineage · The roller skate left behind makes the Bergen prince plot a Cinderella story. · "So then it becomes a Cinderella thing"
[speaker] Amanda Dobbins · latest sketch, The Big Picture · ‘Mamma Mia!’ Meets ‘The Strangers'! It’s a Movie Swap! · Loves The Strangers' withholding craft and a good tense horror film without gore, but likes fun, communal movies like Mamma Mia. She dislikes supernatural or gory horror, which irritates her more than it scares her. She is a sucker for stars and for Googling a movie mid-recording. · stances: The Strangers is scary because of what it doesn't show or explain; Ending explanation weakens it; no answer would be better; Prefers 'withholding' filmmaking; Defends Mamma Mia as joyful and intentional
[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] Sean Fennessey · latest sketch, The Big Picture · ‘Resident Evil’ Absolutely Rips! · Loves gory, funny, fast genre movies with craft and confidence, especially 87-minute films that never overstay. Can't stand ponderous elevated horror that fills out its runtime with introspection and sad family history. A sucker for the Carpenter-era lineage, Die Hard homages, and directors who break studio dogma. · stances: Resident Evil is one of the best films of the year; Horror movies have become a drag; fun genre experiences are needed; Short running times are a virtue; Video-game films work best when great filmmakers get creative license
[speaker] Wesley Morris · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘My Cousin Vinny’ · Loves Marisa Tomei, the grits scene, and the clothes; is a sucker for Fran Drescher. Dislikes car-driving-away endings and thinks the film has done harm by encouraging self-representation. · stances: Tomei deserved the Oscar; Race in courtroom movies matters, and this one is warmly integrated; The Nanny is basically Mona Lisa Vito
[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] 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 La La Land (2016); name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend La La Land (2016) 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.