What the corpus says about The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020)

The 52 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 (22)

  1. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:35:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Moonlight · programming · Moonlight is the model of a film that was right for its moment, against which Chicago 7's timeliness is weighed. · "I always felt like Moonlight was a movie for its time in a very sentimental way"
  2. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:54:31 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Mank · programming · Chicago 7 is a big fat fastball for the Oscars alongside Mank, Nomadland and Hillbilly Elegy. · "this is a big fat, fastball right down the middle."
  3. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Medium Cool · lineage · The Chicago trial and DNC events were told before in Haskell Wexler's part-documentary Medium Cool. · "Medium cool, Haskell Wexler's part documentary, part narrative feature in 1969 kind of reflects on the events at the DNC that year."
  4. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ⇒ Punishment Park (the host's read) · lineage · Punishment Park is recommended as a very loose take on this trial. · "There's this great movie called Punishment Park that I would recommend to anybody that is very loosely based on this trial."
  5. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Chicago 10 · lineage · The trial was also rendered in Brett Morgen's animated documentary Chicago 10, the HBO movie and Bananas. · "You can see it in a Brett Morgan animated documentary called Chicago 10."
  6. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:00:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Steve Jobs · theme · Both ask whether the result was worth how people were treated, and how change is made. · "But that same idea, that sort of like, was it worth it, idea, is in a lot of his other work."
  7. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:22:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ A Few Good Men · theme · Both are courtroom dramas of principled argument; Cruise's charisma is key and Chicago 7 needs scene-chewers too. · "You have to have people that want to gnaw on the scenery, that want to yell, that want to be in the center of the frame."
  8. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:22:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ A Few Good Men · theme · Unlike A Few Good Men, Chicago 7 is full of obvious themes to dissect. · "There's all of these obvious themes"
  9. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:45:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.65)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ The Social Network · craft · Both use the intercut to dramatize testimony; Chicago 7's climactic speech is another intercut that does not land. · "it is actually another intercut, Sean, as you mentioned"
  10. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:48:22 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Molly's Game · craft · Both add an unnecessary decent or fatherly figure; the Schultz character is compared to Molly's father on the park bench. · "I don't know why Molly needed to be motivated by her father on a park bench in New York City at the end of that movie."
  11. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Molly's Game · career · Chicago 7 is Sorkin's second directing job after Molly's Game. · "after 2017's Molly's game, which we talked about pretty much in full on this podcast earlier in quarantine."
  12. [The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 2:09:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Aaron Sorkin ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · programming · Next episode: Aaron Sorkin and The Trial of the Chicago 7. · "examining one of our stars, one of our beloveds, a great and complicated Aaron Sorkin"
  13. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:35:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Oliver Stone · contrast · Chicago 7 raises the question of whether entertainment can justify itself on politics, as with Stone's films. · "as I said before about Oliver Stone and all of his other things, I think there's an interesting question here, like, is this movie entertaining enough to justify itself"
  14. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:42:54 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ MC5 · contrast · The film's mix of faux-60s rock guitar and syrupy film score is faulted; MC5 is what the moment really sounded like and what a radical protester listened to. · "he has this like simulacra, like 60s rock and roll score where there's like electric tar combined with this very syrupy film music score."
  15. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:38:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Aaron Sorkin · career · Chicago 7 is called the peak Sorkin movie, a marriage of his interests, setting and style. · "this is the peak Aaron's working movie, and it is like a real marriage of interests and setting and style and career."
  16. [The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:29:50 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Aaron Sorkin · career · Sorkin's Chicago 7 should be in this wheelhouse. · "Trial of Chicago 7, which theoretically will be in this exact wheelhouse"
  17. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Steven Spielberg ⇒ The Trial of the Chicago 7 (the host's read) · people · Spielberg long wanted to make it and encouraged Sorkin to write the script. · "Steven Spielberg had always wanted to make this movie."
  18. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:40:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.75)] Sacha Baron Cohen ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · people · Cohen is the most creative casting and likely to compete for awards. · "It has the most creative and I think successful casting in the movie of Sasha Baron Cohen."
  19. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:52:09 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Mark Rylance ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · people · Rylance is cast as Kunstler but only plays 'a Mark Rylance character' with no big speech. · "Mark Rylance just kind of felt like he was doing a Mark Rylance character, you know?"
  20. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:55:38 · Amanda Dobbins (0.55)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Michael Keaton · people · Keaton's brief cameo as Ramsey Clark is a highlight for audiences. · "Michael Keaton is in this movie for 5 minutes."
  21. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:56:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Eddie Redmayne ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · people · Redmayne is not a favorite but was very effective as Tom Hayden. · "I thought he was very good as Tom Hayden."
  22. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:44:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Aaron Sorkin · verdict · Good and entertaining, worth watching, but politically small and the filmmaking not sharp enough. · "It's a really good movie."

Films put beside it more than once (2)

  1. [pairs] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ A Few Good Men · said 2 times in 1 episode
  2. [pairs] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Molly's Game · said 2 times in 1 episode

Fun items about it (6)

  1. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:18:45 · Amanda Dobbins (0.55)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · Sorkin's father-of-daughters tic reaches even Chicago 7, where a minor character has two daughters. · "character has 2 daughters who takes walking on the park."
  2. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:37:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · Bobby Seale is bound and gagged in the courtroom in an extraordinary sequence. · "he was bounding, gagged in the courtroom in this extraordinary sequence"
  3. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:39:19 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · Tom Hayden reads the names of the war dead at sentencing; the film ends there. · "chooses to read the names of every single American's older who has died in Vietnam"
  4. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:43:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · The score pairs fake 60s guitar rock with syrupy film music; real radicals would be playing the MC5. · "you have to play the MC5."
  5. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:43:19 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · Sorkin intercuts real brutality footage but cuts back to dramatized versions, which is less scary. · "the real stuff is scarier and realer."
  6. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:54:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · A drive-in screening at the Rose Bowl, courtesy of Netflix. · "We went to a lovely drive-in screening of this film at the Rose Bowl."

One hop out: what recommends the films most often joined to it (17)

  1. [The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:15:13 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Misery ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Misery sits in Reiner's incredible trio, all now Rewatchables. · "But when Harry Met Ali, Misery, Few Good Men, is really the best of all of these different great actors, right?"
  2. [The Rewatchables · ‘Pulp Fiction’ (Part 2) · 2:34:53 · unknown (0.00)] Pulp Fiction ↔ Molly's Game · theme · The Wolf's morning party is guessed to be an all-night poker game like Molly's Game. · "I feel like it's a Molly's game type situation."
  3. [The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:58:09 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] Citizen Kane ⇒ Mank (the host's read) · lineage · Mank is partly inspired by Pauline Kael's essay on who truly authored Citizen Kane. · "it's in part inspired by that very famous Pauline Kale, story raising Kane, about the true authorship of Citizen Kane"
  4. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:19:27 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] A Few Good Men ↔ Network · programming · It is in the conversation for most rewatched movie of a lifetime, next to Network, Oz, Godfather, Goodfellas and Pulp Fiction. · "and a few good men is right there with it."
  5. [The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:17:56 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Aaron Sorkin ↔ Molly's Game · craft · The father and daughter motif in Molly's Game with Kevin Costner is the best part though unneeded. · "But it's kind of the best part of the movie."
  6. [Blank Check — Patreon · Mank · 0:48:09 · Griffin Newman (0.60)] Jack Fincher ⇒ Mank (the maker said so: Fincher's own account as read from the dossier (outlet not named)) · lineage · Fincher's father wrote the original Mank script, which David set aside until years later. · "I'm handed this script that my dad wrote about all powerful directors ruining storytelling"
  7. [The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:11:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Pelican Brief ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Disqualified: legal thriller, not courtroom drama, operating outside the courtroom. · "operates almost entirely outside of the courtroom"
  8. [Blank Check — Patreon · Mank · 1:13:08 · David Sims (0.80)] Citizen Kane ⇒ Mank (the maker said so: David's interview with cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt) · lineage · Messerschmidt told the interviewer he wanted low, deep-focus photography evoking Citizen Kane, not noir. · "He's like, no, I want to do it low to the ground, lots of deep focus, evoking citizen Kane."
  9. [The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:12:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] 12 Angry Men ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · 12 Angry Men is a technicality: a morality play in a side room, not a courtroom drama. · "It's a morality play inside of a side room related to a courtroom"
  10. [The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 0:02:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] Mank ↔ David Fincher · craft · Fincher shot and cut Mank to look like a 1940s film. · "he has shot this film to look like a film from the 1940s and the trailer has been cut to look like a film from the 1940s"
  11. [The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:14:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] To Kill a Mockingbird ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Left off the list as more homework than pleasurable; the list favors twisty, speechifying, overacting movies. · "pleasurability factor of a lot of these movies"
  12. [Blank Check — Patreon · The Killer · 0:13:02 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Ren Klyce ↔ Mank · craft · The Killer's sound designer also did Mank; the speaker talked to him for both. · "Talk to him too for Mank."
  13. [Blank Check — Patreon · 2025 March Madness Update 1 · 0:06:13 · unknown (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ Aaron Sorkin · programming · A Few Good Men and The American President get folded into a Sorkin series, not a Reiner one. · "Few good men in American president."
  14. [Blank Check — Patreon · Mank · 1:10:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Citizen Kane ↔ Mank · craft · Like Citizen Kane, Mank has a complicated relationship to its lead; Mank mirrors the attitude of the man himself. · "Yeah, as much as Citizen Kane, the movie has a very complicated relationship to its lead character."
  15. [Blank Check · The Color of Money · 1:36:10 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ Heat 2 · lineage · A hypothetical Sorkin A Few Good Men sequel is compared to Heat 2 as a legacy-sequel recast by its original creator. · "it's not Fincher doing the legacyquel with an entirely different cast, but it is Sorkin making his own legacy."
  16. [Blank Check — Patreon · Mank · 2:03:48 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] The Lost Weekend ⇒ Mank (the host's read) · craft · The election-night drunk sequence in Mank is called self-consciously reminiscent of The Lost Weekend. · "almost self-consciously reminiscent of the last the lost weekend"
  17. [Blank Check · The Color of Money · 1:37:25 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ NCIS · lineage · A Few Good Men's JAG lawyer role is linked to the JAG/NCIS rights tangle as the joke legacy sequel. · "As we all know, NCIS is based on JAG. is a spinoff. technically a spinoff of the TV show, Jack."

Who said it, by their latest sketch (2)

  1. [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
  2. [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

The shows' running bits (3)

  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] 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)
  3. [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 The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) 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 Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) 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 · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:35:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Moonlight · programming · Moonlight is the model of a film that was right for its moment, against which Chicago 7's timeliness is weighed. · "I always felt like Moonlight was a movie for its time in a very sentimental way"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:54:31 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Mank · programming · Chicago 7 is a big fat fastball for the Oscars alongside Mank, Nomadland and Hillbilly Elegy. · "this is a big fat, fastball right down the middle."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:23 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Medium Cool · lineage · The Chicago trial and DNC events were told before in Haskell Wexler's part-documentary Medium Cool. · "Medium cool, Haskell Wexler's part documentary, part narrative feature in 1969 kind of reflects on the events at the DNC that year."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:32 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ⇒ Punishment Park (the host's read) · lineage · Punishment Park is recommended as a very loose take on this trial. · "There's this great movie called Punishment Park that I would recommend to anybody that is very loosely based on this trial."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:45 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Chicago 10 · lineage · The trial was also rendered in Brett Morgen's animated documentary Chicago 10, the HBO movie and Bananas. · "You can see it in a Brett Morgan animated documentary called Chicago 10."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:00:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Steve Jobs · theme · Both ask whether the result was worth how people were treated, and how change is made. · "But that same idea, that sort of like, was it worth it, idea, is in a lot of his other work."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:22:15 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ A Few Good Men · theme · Both are courtroom dramas of principled argument; Cruise's charisma is key and Chicago 7 needs scene-chewers too. · "You have to have people that want to gnaw on the scenery, that want to yell, that want to be in the center of the frame."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:22:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ A Few Good Men · theme · Unlike A Few Good Men, Chicago 7 is full of obvious themes to dissect. · "There's all of these obvious themes"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:45:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.65)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ The Social Network · craft · Both use the intercut to dramatize testimony; Chicago 7's climactic speech is another intercut that does not land. · "it is actually another intercut, Sean, as you mentioned"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:48:22 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Molly's Game · craft · Both add an unnecessary decent or fatherly figure; the Schultz character is compared to Molly's father on the park bench. · "I don't know why Molly needed to be motivated by her father on a park bench in New York City at the end of that movie."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:57 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Molly's Game · career · Chicago 7 is Sorkin's second directing job after Molly's Game. · "after 2017's Molly's game, which we talked about pretty much in full on this podcast earlier in quarantine."
[The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 2:09:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Aaron Sorkin ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · programming · Next episode: Aaron Sorkin and The Trial of the Chicago 7. · "examining one of our stars, one of our beloveds, a great and complicated Aaron Sorkin"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:35:58 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Oliver Stone · contrast · Chicago 7 raises the question of whether entertainment can justify itself on politics, as with Stone's films. · "as I said before about Oliver Stone and all of his other things, I think there's an interesting question here, like, is this movie entertaining enough to justify itself"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:42:54 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ MC5 · contrast · The film's mix of faux-60s rock guitar and syrupy film score is faulted; MC5 is what the moment really sounded like and what a radical protester listened to. · "he has this like simulacra, like 60s rock and roll score where there's like electric tar combined with this very syrupy film music score."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:38:00 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Aaron Sorkin · career · Chicago 7 is called the peak Sorkin movie, a marriage of his interests, setting and style. · "this is the peak Aaron's working movie, and it is like a real marriage of interests and setting and style and career."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:29:50 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Aaron Sorkin · career · Sorkin's Chicago 7 should be in this wheelhouse. · "Trial of Chicago 7, which theoretically will be in this exact wheelhouse"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:31:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] Steven Spielberg ⇒ The Trial of the Chicago 7 (the host's read) · people · Spielberg long wanted to make it and encouraged Sorkin to write the script. · "Steven Spielberg had always wanted to make this movie."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:40:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.75)] Sacha Baron Cohen ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · people · Cohen is the most creative casting and likely to compete for awards. · "It has the most creative and I think successful casting in the movie of Sasha Baron Cohen."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:52:09 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Mark Rylance ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · people · Rylance is cast as Kunstler but only plays 'a Mark Rylance character' with no big speech. · "Mark Rylance just kind of felt like he was doing a Mark Rylance character, you know?"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:55:38 · Amanda Dobbins (0.55)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Michael Keaton · people · Keaton's brief cameo as Ramsey Clark is a highlight for audiences. · "Michael Keaton is in this movie for 5 minutes."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:56:49 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] Eddie Redmayne ↔ The Trial of the Chicago 7 · people · Redmayne is not a favorite but was very effective as Tom Hayden. · "I thought he was very good as Tom Hayden."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:44:05 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Aaron Sorkin · verdict · Good and entertaining, worth watching, but politically small and the filmmaking not sharp enough. · "It's a really good movie."
[pairs] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ A Few Good Men · said 2 times in 1 episode
[pairs] The Trial of the Chicago 7 ↔ Molly's Game · said 2 times in 1 episode
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:18:45 · Amanda Dobbins (0.55)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · Sorkin's father-of-daughters tic reaches even Chicago 7, where a minor character has two daughters. · "character has 2 daughters who takes walking on the park."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:37:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · Bobby Seale is bound and gagged in the courtroom in an extraordinary sequence. · "he was bounding, gagged in the courtroom in this extraordinary sequence"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:39:19 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · Tom Hayden reads the names of the war dead at sentencing; the film ends there. · "chooses to read the names of every single American's older who has died in Vietnam"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:43:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · The score pairs fake 60s guitar rock with syrupy film music; real radicals would be playing the MC5. · "you have to play the MC5."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:43:19 · Sean Fennessey (0.70)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · Sorkin intercuts real brutality footage but cuts back to dramatized versions, which is less scary. · "the real stuff is scarier and realer."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:54:53 · Sean Fennessey (0.60)] The Trial of the Chicago 7 · fun · A drive-in screening at the Rose Bowl, courtesy of Netflix. · "We went to a lovely drive-in screening of this film at the Rose Bowl."
[The Rewatchables · ‘Misery’ · 0:15:13 · Bill Simmons (0.70)] Misery ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Misery sits in Reiner's incredible trio, all now Rewatchables. · "But when Harry Met Ali, Misery, Few Good Men, is really the best of all of these different great actors, right?"
[The Rewatchables · ‘Pulp Fiction’ (Part 2) · 2:34:53 · unknown (0.00)] Pulp Fiction ↔ Molly's Game · theme · The Wolf's morning party is guessed to be an all-night poker game like Molly's Game. · "I feel like it's a Molly's game type situation."
[The Big Picture · Emergency Mailbag: The Oscars Are Streaming and Hollywood Is Fighting Over Trolls | The Big Picture · 0:58:09 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] Citizen Kane ⇒ Mank (the host's read) · lineage · Mank is partly inspired by Pauline Kael's essay on who truly authored Citizen Kane. · "it's in part inspired by that very famous Pauline Kale, story raising Kane, about the true authorship of Citizen Kane"
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 1:19:27 · Sean Fennessey (0.55)] A Few Good Men ↔ Network · programming · It is in the conversation for most rewatched movie of a lifetime, next to Network, Oz, Godfather, Goodfellas and Pulp Fiction. · "and a few good men is right there with it."
[The Big Picture · Aaron Sorkin Top 5s and ‘The Trial of the Chicago 7’ · 0:17:56 · Amanda Dobbins (0.60)] Aaron Sorkin ↔ Molly's Game · craft · The father and daughter motif in Molly's Game with Kevin Costner is the best part though unneeded. · "But it's kind of the best part of the movie."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Mank · 0:48:09 · Griffin Newman (0.60)] Jack Fincher ⇒ Mank (the maker said so: Fincher's own account as read from the dossier (outlet not named)) · lineage · Fincher's father wrote the original Mank script, which David set aside until years later. · "I'm handed this script that my dad wrote about all powerful directors ruining storytelling"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:11:07 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] The Pelican Brief ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Disqualified: legal thriller, not courtroom drama, operating outside the courtroom. · "operates almost entirely outside of the courtroom"
[Blank Check — Patreon · Mank · 1:13:08 · David Sims (0.80)] Citizen Kane ⇒ Mank (the maker said so: David's interview with cinematographer Erik Messerschmidt) · lineage · Messerschmidt told the interviewer he wanted low, deep-focus photography evoking Citizen Kane, not noir. · "He's like, no, I want to do it low to the ground, lots of deep focus, evoking citizen Kane."
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:12:02 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] 12 Angry Men ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · 12 Angry Men is a technicality: a morality play in a side room, not a courtroom drama. · "It's a morality play inside of a side room related to a courtroom"
[The Big Picture · 300th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag Spectacular · 0:02:38 · Sean Fennessey (0.85)] Mank ↔ David Fincher · craft · Fincher shot and cut Mank to look like a 1940s film. · "he has shot this film to look like a film from the 1940s and the trailer has been cut to look like a film from the 1940s"
[The Big Picture · Objection! Top 10 Courtroom Dramas | The Big Picture · 0:14:25 · Sean Fennessey (0.80)] To Kill a Mockingbird ↔ A Few Good Men · programming · Left off the list as more homework than pleasurable; the list favors twisty, speechifying, overacting movies. · "pleasurability factor of a lot of these movies"
[Blank Check — Patreon · The Killer · 0:13:02 · Griffin Newman (0.50)] Ren Klyce ↔ Mank · craft · The Killer's sound designer also did Mank; the speaker talked to him for both. · "Talk to him too for Mank."
[Blank Check — Patreon · 2025 March Madness Update 1 · 0:06:13 · unknown (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ Aaron Sorkin · programming · A Few Good Men and The American President get folded into a Sorkin series, not a Reiner one. · "Few good men in American president."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Mank · 1:10:06 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] Citizen Kane ↔ Mank · craft · Like Citizen Kane, Mank has a complicated relationship to its lead; Mank mirrors the attitude of the man himself. · "Yeah, as much as Citizen Kane, the movie has a very complicated relationship to its lead character."
[Blank Check · The Color of Money · 1:36:10 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ Heat 2 · lineage · A hypothetical Sorkin A Few Good Men sequel is compared to Heat 2 as a legacy-sequel recast by its original creator. · "it's not Fincher doing the legacyquel with an entirely different cast, but it is Sorkin making his own legacy."
[Blank Check — Patreon · Mank · 2:03:48 · Sean Fennessey (0.50)] The Lost Weekend ⇒ Mank (the host's read) · craft · The election-night drunk sequence in Mank is called self-consciously reminiscent of The Lost Weekend. · "almost self-consciously reminiscent of the last the lost weekend"
[Blank Check · The Color of Money · 1:37:25 · Griffin Newman (0.40)] A Few Good Men ↔ NCIS · lineage · A Few Good Men's JAG lawyer role is linked to the JAG/NCIS rights tangle as the joke legacy sequel. · "As we all know, NCIS is based on JAG. is a spinoff. technically a spinoff of the TV show, Jack."
[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] 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
[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 Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020); name it the way the line names it. Don't recommend The Trial of the Chicago 7 (2020) 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.