What the corpus says about The Player (1992)

What was said about it (25)

1. [Blank Check — Patreon · The Game · 1:04:58 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] The Game ↔ The Player · programming · Two 90s satirical thrillers about soulless titans of industry caught in a trap of their own design. · "In terms of like 90s, uh, sort of vaguely satirical thrillers"
2. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:03:46 · Bill Simmons (0.95)] The Player ⇒ The Larry Sanders Show (the host's read) · lineage · Bill asks whether The Player is ground zero for the meta-Hollywood strain that runs through Larry Sanders and Curb. · "Larry Sanders and Curb your enthusiasm and all these different things we've had over the 30 years."
3. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:04:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] Singin' in the Rain ⇒ The Player (the host's read) · lineage · Sean says movies about movies go back long before The Player, e.g. Singin' in the Rain, but this one is far more inside the joke. · "Going back to singing in the rain."
4. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:07:08 · Wesley Morris (0.80)] The Long Goodbye ⇒ The Player (the host's read) · lineage · Wesley reads Greta Scacchi's character as an echo of Nina van Pallandt's ice queen in The Long Goodbye, itself a riff on noir femmes fatales. · "that character is a an echo of another Altman character, the Nina Van Palant character in the longabai"
5. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:27:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] The Player ↔ Network · lineage · In the meta-Hollywood movies discussion, Network, Argo, Tropic Thunder and Bamboozled are floated as the nearest cousins, none as acidic. · "But you have never seen a movie this acidic about, you know, the, and also involving the, the level of fit."
6. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:39:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] The Player ↔ The Larry Sanders Show · theme · Both treat agents and executives as the villains; Odenkirk's Larry Sanders finale line calls back to Griffin's wish to eliminate the writer and actors. · "So then in Larry Sanders, in the last episode, Bob Odenkirk, who plays, um, Sander's agent"
7. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:57:57 · Bill Simmons (0.80)] The Player ↔ Pretty Woman · theme · The recurring pitch-as-mashup joke (Out of Africa meets Pretty Woman) and the running Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis casting gag. · "How Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis get suggested for every movie is just a funny running bit."
8. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:17:32 · Wesley Morris (0.85)] Nashville ⇒ The Player (the host's read) · craft · Wesley says the tricks Altman uses in The Player, like famous people dropping into a space, are ones he used in Nashville. · "a lot of the tricks that he's using in the player, I mean, he uses in Nashville, right?"
9. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:35:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Touch of Evil ⇒ The Player (the host's read) · craft · The Player's opening nods to Touch of Evil's tracking shot by having Fred Ward's character talk about it, then reveal he never watches foreign films. · "Fred Ward talking about the tracking shot and touch of evil, but then revealing that he never watches foreign films."
10. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:37:01 · Wesley Morris (0.60)] The Player ↔ Freaks · craft · Wesley notes Griffin knows his movies, citing him talking Freaks with Lyle Lovett's detective. · "he's like conversant in freaks enough to like, you know, talk to Freaky Lyle Lovett."
11. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:44:15 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] The Player ↔ Bicycle Thieves · craft · Griffin and the screenwriter end up at a screening of Bicycle Thieves, where the murder is set up. · "Griffin Huntsdown, Vincent DiNaprio's character at the old movie theater, um, bicycle thieves"
12. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:04:48 · Wesley Morris (0.85)] The Player ↔ Wayne's World · contrast · Wesley pairs the two 1992 releases as opposite poles of fourth-wall-breaking commentary on the thing you are watching. · "this is the same year that Wayne's world came out."
13. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:06:07 · Bill Simmons (0.90)] The Player ↔ Presumed Innocent · contrast · Bill finds Greta Scacchi much more compelling in Presumed Innocent than in The Player. · "The player, I don't think she's that good in the player."
14. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:37:49 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] The Player ↔ Super Pumped · contrast · Bill jokes a ten-episode Netflix Player would be Super Pumped; the others say the mystery element makes binging work. · "But isn't this just called super pumped."
15. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:09:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.75)] The Player ↔ Short Cuts · career · The Player put Altman back among world-class directors: a best director nomination here and another the next year for Short Cuts. · "he gets nominated for best director here and then gets nominated the following year for his next film, Shortcuts"
16. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:22:18 · Bill Simmons (0.50)] The Player ↔ Presumed Innocent · people · Bill's memory of falling for Greta Scacchi in Presumed Innocent frames why he finds her Player character underwritten; Scacchi refused nudity after Presumed Innocent. · "Skocky's like, I fucking went to town on Harrison Ford and presumed innocent."
17. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:32:24 · Bill Simmons (0.60)] The Player ↔ The Bonfire of the Vanities · verdict · The quoted review calls The Player the movie Bonfire of the Vanities wanted to be, and the hosts agree; Wesley followed the Bonfire saga before seeing it. · "The bonfire of the vanities wanted to be."
18. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:10:45 · Wesley Morris (0.70)] Greta Scacchi ↔ The Player · theme · Wesley says the 'quirky artist' love-interest type in The Player is a cliche that will soon be replaced by teachers and gallerists. · "But that character is soon going to be like in movies."
19. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:24:23 · Wesley Morris (0.80)] The Player ↔ Jean-Luc Godard · theme · Wesley says withholding the nudity you paid to see is a Godardian frustration of the male gaze. · "it's very Godartian, that, that kind of frustration of the, of, I mean, let's just go there for 12nd."
20. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:05:45 · unknown (0.30)] Alfred Hitchcock ⇒ The Player (the host's read) · craft · Wesley notes the Hitchcock-like touches in the rattlesnake and police station scenes. · "Little Hitchcock homage, I feel like."
21. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:33:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] The Player ↔ Brian De Palma · craft · The through-the-window phone call scene is called an Altman dunk on De Palma. · "It's it's like, it's a, it's a total dunk on diploma."
22. [The Rewatchables · ‘Die Hard 2’ · 0:08:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.90)] Bruce Willis ↔ The Player · people · He played himself in The Player 30 years before Ocean's 12. · "he did the same thing 30 years before that in the player."
23. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:13:46 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Chevy Chase ↔ The Player · what-if · Chevy Chase wanted the Griffin Mill part but Warner Brothers said no. · "Chevy Chase wanted to play Griffin Mill."
24. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:19:11 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Robert De Niro ↔ The Player · what-if · Bill proposes De Niro in the Fred Ward part, overqualified, as the right-era move after Goodfellas and Cape Fear. · "Could he have just played the Fred Ward part for like 4 scenes."
25. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:19:53 · Bill Simmons (0.50)] Jennifer Jason Lee ↔ The Player · what-if · Bill says the Bonnie part, instead of Cynthia Stevenson, has Jennifer Jason Lee written all over it; the others disagree. · "it just has Jennifer Jason Lee crying all over it."

Films put beside it more than once (2)

1. [pairs] The Player ↔ Presumed Innocent · said 2 times in 1 episode
2. [pairs] The Player ↔ The Larry Sanders Show · said 2 times in 1 episode

Fun items about it (3)

1. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:59:50 · Bill Simmons (0.60)] The Player · fun · The throwaway Pasadena line is called iconic. · "Come to think of it, Pasadena is as good a place to die as anywhere is just iconic."
2. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:59:59 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] The Player · fun · Every time Griffin Mill enters a bar, restaurant or party he is served a different brand of bottled water. · "every time Griffin Mill enters a bar restaurant or party, he orders or is served a different brand of bottled water."
3. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:34:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] The Player · fun · Nitpick: the LA Times has suspects and evidence of the Kahane murder by morning, only hours later; Even Tokyo Vice does not work that fast. · "Even Tokyo Vice doesn't work this fast."

One hop out: what recommends the films most often joined to it (5)

1. [The Big Picture · The 1990 Movie Draft · 0:51:04 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80)] Amanda Dobbins ↔ Presumed Innocent · programming · Pick 8 (round 3), category blockbuster: Wanted Harrison Ford in a legal thriller. · "In Blockbuster."
2. [The Rewatchables · ‘This Is the End’ · 0:03:31 · Bill Simmons (0.60)] This Is the End ↔ The Larry Sanders Show · lineage · Celebrities playing exaggerated versions of themselves with real insults leaking through is a Larry Sanders move. · "This has so many Larry Sanders moments where it's like, They're celebrities, but they're, they're playing like exaggerated or shticky versions of themselves"
3. [Blank Check — Patreon · Paths of Glory · 0:34:22 · unknown (0.30)] Paths of Glory ↔ Bicycle Thieves · theme · A joke that Paths of Glory is as big a bummer as Bicycle Thieves, which is why nobody wanted to fund it. · "up there with bicycle thieves."
4. [The Big Picture · The 1990 Movie Draft · 0:52:13 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Scott Turow ⇒ Presumed Innocent (the host's read) · lineage · Airport-novel adaptations starring movie stars; Amanda plans to read all of Turow this summer. · "that type of, like, airport novel with respect to Scotchro"
5. [The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:16:51 · Bill Simmons (0.50)] Tanner '88 ⇒ The Larry Sanders Show (the host's read) · lineage · Bill calls Tanner '88 ground zero for the mockumentary with cameos, thrown into a real world. · "that is kind of ground 0 for that mockumentary."

Who said it, by their latest sketch (4)

1. [speaker] Bill Simmons · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘Friday the 13th’ · Loves the Friday series as a communal, rental-era memory and tells childhood stories about the ads and theaters. Likes casting what-ifs and sports analogies for everything. Skeptical of horror at Christmas and of anything that wastes the premise. · stances: Friday the 13th is not the best entry but the origin story had to be told; Friday 2 is a leap over the original
2. [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
3. [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
4. [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

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 The Player (1992) 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 Player (1992) 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 — Patreon · The Game · 1:04:58 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] The Game ↔ The Player · programming · Two 90s satirical thrillers about soulless titans of industry caught in a trap of their own design. · "In terms of like 90s, uh, sort of vaguely satirical thrillers"
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:03:46 · Bill Simmons (0.95)] The Player ⇒ The Larry Sanders Show (the host's read) · lineage · Bill asks whether The Player is ground zero for the meta-Hollywood strain that runs through Larry Sanders and Curb. · "Larry Sanders and Curb your enthusiasm and all these different things we've had over the 30 years."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:04:08 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] Singin' in the Rain ⇒ The Player (the host's read) · lineage · Sean says movies about movies go back long before The Player, e.g. Singin' in the Rain, but this one is far more inside the joke. · "Going back to singing in the rain."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:07:08 · Wesley Morris (0.80)] The Long Goodbye ⇒ The Player (the host's read) · lineage · Wesley reads Greta Scacchi's character as an echo of Nina van Pallandt's ice queen in The Long Goodbye, itself a riff on noir femmes fatales. · "that character is a an echo of another Altman character, the Nina Van Palant character in the longabai"
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:27:11 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] The Player ↔ Network · lineage · In the meta-Hollywood movies discussion, Network, Argo, Tropic Thunder and Bamboozled are floated as the nearest cousins, none as acidic. · "But you have never seen a movie this acidic about, you know, the, and also involving the, the level of fit."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:39:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] The Player ↔ The Larry Sanders Show · theme · Both treat agents and executives as the villains; Odenkirk's Larry Sanders finale line calls back to Griffin's wish to eliminate the writer and actors. · "So then in Larry Sanders, in the last episode, Bob Odenkirk, who plays, um, Sander's agent"
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:57:57 · Bill Simmons (0.80)] The Player ↔ Pretty Woman · theme · The recurring pitch-as-mashup joke (Out of Africa meets Pretty Woman) and the running Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis casting gag. · "How Julia Roberts and Bruce Willis get suggested for every movie is just a funny running bit."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:17:32 · Wesley Morris (0.85)] Nashville ⇒ The Player (the host's read) · craft · Wesley says the tricks Altman uses in The Player, like famous people dropping into a space, are ones he used in Nashville. · "a lot of the tricks that he's using in the player, I mean, he uses in Nashville, right?"
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:35:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Touch of Evil ⇒ The Player (the host's read) · craft · The Player's opening nods to Touch of Evil's tracking shot by having Fred Ward's character talk about it, then reveal he never watches foreign films. · "Fred Ward talking about the tracking shot and touch of evil, but then revealing that he never watches foreign films."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:37:01 · Wesley Morris (0.60)] The Player ↔ Freaks · craft · Wesley notes Griffin knows his movies, citing him talking Freaks with Lyle Lovett's detective. · "he's like conversant in freaks enough to like, you know, talk to Freaky Lyle Lovett."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:44:15 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] The Player ↔ Bicycle Thieves · craft · Griffin and the screenwriter end up at a screening of Bicycle Thieves, where the murder is set up. · "Griffin Huntsdown, Vincent DiNaprio's character at the old movie theater, um, bicycle thieves"
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:04:48 · Wesley Morris (0.85)] The Player ↔ Wayne's World · contrast · Wesley pairs the two 1992 releases as opposite poles of fourth-wall-breaking commentary on the thing you are watching. · "this is the same year that Wayne's world came out."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:06:07 · Bill Simmons (0.90)] The Player ↔ Presumed Innocent · contrast · Bill finds Greta Scacchi much more compelling in Presumed Innocent than in The Player. · "The player, I don't think she's that good in the player."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:37:49 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] The Player ↔ Super Pumped · contrast · Bill jokes a ten-episode Netflix Player would be Super Pumped; the others say the mystery element makes binging work. · "But isn't this just called super pumped."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:09:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.75)] The Player ↔ Short Cuts · career · The Player put Altman back among world-class directors: a best director nomination here and another the next year for Short Cuts. · "he gets nominated for best director here and then gets nominated the following year for his next film, Shortcuts"
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:22:18 · Bill Simmons (0.50)] The Player ↔ Presumed Innocent · people · Bill's memory of falling for Greta Scacchi in Presumed Innocent frames why he finds her Player character underwritten; Scacchi refused nudity after Presumed Innocent. · "Skocky's like, I fucking went to town on Harrison Ford and presumed innocent."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:32:24 · Bill Simmons (0.60)] The Player ↔ The Bonfire of the Vanities · verdict · The quoted review calls The Player the movie Bonfire of the Vanities wanted to be, and the hosts agree; Wesley followed the Bonfire saga before seeing it. · "The bonfire of the vanities wanted to be."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:10:45 · Wesley Morris (0.70)] Greta Scacchi ↔ The Player · theme · Wesley says the 'quirky artist' love-interest type in The Player is a cliche that will soon be replaced by teachers and gallerists. · "But that character is soon going to be like in movies."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:24:23 · Wesley Morris (0.80)] The Player ↔ Jean-Luc Godard · theme · Wesley says withholding the nudity you paid to see is a Godardian frustration of the male gaze. · "it's very Godartian, that, that kind of frustration of the, of, I mean, let's just go there for 12nd."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:05:45 · unknown (0.30)] Alfred Hitchcock ⇒ The Player (the host's read) · craft · Wesley notes the Hitchcock-like touches in the rattlesnake and police station scenes. · "Little Hitchcock homage, I feel like."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:33:26 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] The Player ↔ Brian De Palma · craft · The through-the-window phone call scene is called an Altman dunk on De Palma. · "It's it's like, it's a, it's a total dunk on diploma."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Die Hard 2’ · 0:08:44 · Sean Fennessey (0.90)] Bruce Willis ↔ The Player · people · He played himself in The Player 30 years before Ocean's 12. · "he did the same thing 30 years before that in the player."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:13:46 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Chevy Chase ↔ The Player · what-if · Chevy Chase wanted the Griffin Mill part but Warner Brothers said no. · "Chevy Chase wanted to play Griffin Mill."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:19:11 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Robert De Niro ↔ The Player · what-if · Bill proposes De Niro in the Fred Ward part, overqualified, as the right-era move after Goodfellas and Cape Fear. · "Could he have just played the Fred Ward part for like 4 scenes."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:19:53 · Bill Simmons (0.50)] Jennifer Jason Lee ↔ The Player · what-if · Bill says the Bonnie part, instead of Cynthia Stevenson, has Jennifer Jason Lee written all over it; the others disagree. · "it just has Jennifer Jason Lee crying all over it."
[pairs] The Player ↔ Presumed Innocent · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] The Player ↔ The Larry Sanders Show · said 2 times in 1 episode
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:59:50 · Bill Simmons (0.60)] The Player · fun · The throwaway Pasadena line is called iconic. · "Come to think of it, Pasadena is as good a place to die as anywhere is just iconic."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:59:59 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] The Player · fun · Every time Griffin Mill enters a bar, restaurant or party he is served a different brand of bottled water. · "every time Griffin Mill enters a bar restaurant or party, he orders or is served a different brand of bottled water."
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 1:34:34 · Sean Fennessey (0.40)] The Player · fun · Nitpick: the LA Times has suspects and evidence of the Kahane murder by morning, only hours later; Even Tokyo Vice does not work that fast. · "Even Tokyo Vice doesn't work this fast."
[The Big Picture · The 1990 Movie Draft · 0:51:04 · Amanda Dobbins (0.80)] Amanda Dobbins ↔ Presumed Innocent · programming · Pick 8 (round 3), category blockbuster: Wanted Harrison Ford in a legal thriller. · "In Blockbuster."
[The Rewatchables · ‘This Is the End’ · 0:03:31 · Bill Simmons (0.60)] This Is the End ↔ The Larry Sanders Show · lineage · Celebrities playing exaggerated versions of themselves with real insults leaking through is a Larry Sanders move. · "This has so many Larry Sanders moments where it's like, They're celebrities, but they're, they're playing like exaggerated or shticky versions of themselves"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Paths of Glory · 0:34:22 · unknown (0.30)] Paths of Glory ↔ Bicycle Thieves · theme · A joke that Paths of Glory is as big a bummer as Bicycle Thieves, which is why nobody wanted to fund it. · "up there with bicycle thieves."
[The Big Picture · The 1990 Movie Draft · 0:52:13 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Scott Turow ⇒ Presumed Innocent (the host's read) · lineage · Airport-novel adaptations starring movie stars; Amanda plans to read all of Turow this summer. · "that type of, like, airport novel with respect to Scotchro"
[The Rewatchables · 'The Player' · 0:16:51 · Bill Simmons (0.50)] Tanner '88 ⇒ The Larry Sanders Show (the host's read) · lineage · Bill calls Tanner '88 ground zero for the mockumentary with cameos, thrown into a real world. · "that is kind of ground 0 for that mockumentary."
[speaker] Bill Simmons · latest sketch, The Rewatchables · ‘Friday the 13th’ · Loves the Friday series as a communal, rental-era memory and tells childhood stories about the ads and theaters. Likes casting what-ifs and sports analogies for everything. Skeptical of horror at Christmas and of anything that wastes the premise. · stances: Friday the 13th is not the best entry but the origin story had to be told; Friday 2 is a leap over the original
[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
[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
[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 The Player (1992); name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend The Player (1992) 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.