What the corpus says about The Wrestler (2008)

You are a clerk at Video Culture, a video store. A customer just finished The Wrestler (2008) 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 The Wrestler (2008) 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 · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting · 0:04:31 · David Shoemaker (0.90)] The Wrestler ↔ The Wrestler · contrast · Shoemaker separates Aronofsky's The Wrestler from the 1974 film of the same name, which he treats as completist-only. · "I'm talking about the amazing Darren Aronovsky movie and not the 1974 movie"
[The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting · 0:06:20 · David Shoemaker (0.85)] The Wrestler ↔ Nacho Libre · contrast · Shoemaker calls The Wrestler the best wrestling movie ever but not the one to show his kids; he would show them Nacho Libre instead. · "far and away the best wrestling movie that's ever been made, but it's not the movie that I would like show my kids to explain to them what pro wrestling is."
[The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting · 0:07:17 · Sean Fennessey (0.90)] Rocky III ↔ The Wrestler · verdict · Fennessey wonders whether Rocky III counts as a wrestling movie, in which case it might rank with The Wrestler. · "whether or not Rocky 3 actually counted as a wrestling movie because if so, that's obviously like, that might be up there with the wrestler is the best wrestling thing ever made"
[Blank Check · As Good as It Gets · 1:11:12 · unknown (0.30)] Cuba Gooding Jr. ↔ The Wrestler · career · His O.J. role is like Mickey Rourke in The Wrestler: the character fits his own narrative. · "I think the OJ thing is kind of like Mickey Rourke and the wrestler"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Iron Man 2 · 0:25:49 · unknown (0.30)] Mickey Rourke ↔ The Wrestler · career · After The Wrestler his battered face made casting hard, and a stylized comic-book villain was seen as a smart use of it. · "And this had felt like, okay, we're going to book villain is a good call, right?"
[The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting · 0:04:31 · David Shoemaker (0.90)] The Wrestler ↔ Darren Aronofsky · people · Shoemaker attributes The Wrestler to Aronofsky. · "the amazing Darren Aronovsky movie"
[The Rewatchables · ‘Miracle’ · 0:48:13 · Bill Simmons (0.50)] Miracle ↔ Rocky III · theme · Adrian in Rocky III is the opposite of the wet-blanket wife. · "I think Adrian does a great job in that movie."
[speaker] David Shoemaker · latest sketch, The Big Picture · Pro Wrestling Goes to the Movies, Plus Stephen Merchant on ‘Fighting · Believes the best wrestling movies are documentaries and cult oddities; loves weird, tonally pure b-movies like Body Slam and Paradise Alley. Dislikes tone-deaf studio efforts like Ready to Rumble. A sucker for wrestling's blur of real and fake. · stances: Documentaries beat fiction for wrestling; The Wrestler is the best wrestling movie; Fiction fails when it treats a fake sport in a fake world; Wrestling history (Gold Dust Trio, Sputnik Monroe) deserves movies
[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
[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 The Wrestler (2008); name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend The Wrestler (2008) 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.