Spike Jonze

Made films the shows talk about.

Wikidata Q259913: matched by corpus:resolve, told apart by the only person by that name on Wikidata.

Counted as other. The films the hosts said they were tied to, which the two lists below run through too: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008); Harold and the Purple Crayon (2024). Count them as director (6 films), actor (8 films) instead.

Draws on

What the speakers say they, or a film of theirs, drew on. Each is a speaker's account: “the maker said so” when they report the maker's own words, “the host's read” when the read is theirs.

F. Scott Fitzgerald: 2 lines

  1. lineage (adaptation) · through The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), which they were tied to as attached director of an earlier version (transcribed as Spike Jones): F. Scott Fitzgerald ⇒ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (the host's read). The film is adapted from Fitzgerald's short story, though the speakers say it shares little with it.
    “It's quite, it's, it doesn't have too much in common with the film, right?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:01:30 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. lineage (adaptation distance) · through The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), which they were tied to as attached director of an earlier version (transcribed as Spike Jones): F. Scott Fitzgerald ⇒ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (the host's read). By the time Roth finished, the film resembles the story in name only.
    “By the time he's done with it, the movie has no resemblance to Benjamin Button apart from, it's called Benjamin Button.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:42:01 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Forrest Gump (1994): 2 lines

  1. unmapped (anti-Gump answer) · through The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), which they were tied to as attached director of an earlier version (transcribed as Spike Jones): Forrest Gump ⇒ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (the host's read). Griffin reads Benjamin Button as a pointed answer to Gump, showing the death behind the Americana.
    “But I think it's almost like pointedly an anti-gump.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:22:50 · Griffin Newman (0.60 sure it was them)
  2. unmapped (attempt at a Gump) · through The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), which they were tied to as attached director of an earlier version (transcribed as Spike Jones): Forrest Gump ⇒ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (the host's read). The speaker says the cultural narrative is that Benjamin Button is Fincher trying to do Gump.
    “but I do think this is like the cultural narrative of this movie is he's trying to do Gump, right?”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:10:05 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

Love Is Strong (Rolling Stones video): 1 line

  1. lineage (technique precursor) · through The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), which they were tied to as attached director of an earlier version (transcribed as Spike Jones): Love Is Strong (Rolling Stones video) ⇒ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (the host's read). A host guesses the Stones' giant-scale effects helped Fincher on Benjamin Button.
    “Well, and I bet this helped for Benjamin Button eventually.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · David Fincher Music Videos · 1:59:12 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

Orville Redenbacher commercial (Fincher, Digital Domain): 1 line

  1. unmapped (proof of concept) · through The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), which they were tied to as attached director of an earlier version (transcribed as Spike Jones): Orville Redenbacher commercial (Fincher, Digital Domain) ⇒ The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (the maker said so). Fincher used a Redenbacher commercial to test whether the film was makeable.
    “I'm basically stealing money from Orvell Redbocker to figure out whether this film is makeable or not.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:52:07 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)

Drawn on by

What the speakers say drew on them or a film of theirs, marked the same way.

House of Cards (TV series): 1 line

  1. career (career step) · through The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), which they were tied to as attached director of an earlier version (transcribed as Spike Jones): The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ⇒ House of Cards (TV series) (the host's read). Fincher moved Mahershala Ali from Button into House of Cards.
    “But I mean, look, Fincher puts him from this into House of Cards, which is one of the things that definitely levels him up.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 1:05:36 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (2013): 1 line

  1. unmapped (parody) · through The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), which they were tied to as attached director of an earlier version (transcribed as Spike Jones): The Curious Case of Benjamin Button ⇒ The Secret Life of Walter Mitty (the host's read). The speaker says Walter Mitty parodies Benjamin Button, as if to say Button got the Gump wrong.
    “And Walter Mitty parodies Benjamin Button, almost as if to say, they fucked up.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · The Curious Case of Benjamin Button with Richard Lawson (Ad-Free) · 0:10:46 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

What the speakers said they did

Directing (12) everyone in directing

Acting (9) everyone in acting

Other (2) everyone in other

What was said about them, by kind

career (2)

  1. career (career highlights): Spike Jonze → Moneyball. A speaker says Moneyball, Wolf of Wall Street and Babylon would be enough for Jonze's acting Hall of Fame.
    “I mean, you could just do Moneyball Wolf of Wall Street and Babylon in the Hall of Fame.”
    The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:46:16 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  2. career (career): Spike Jonze → Spike Jonze. Jonze's gaps between films, then a Vice TV detour as head programmer, explain his absence.
    “I'm gonna run a cable network.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:31:54 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)

lineage (1)

  1. lineage (source material): Spike Jonze → Where the Wild Things Are. Jonze made films from children's books by Sendak (name garbled as Herb Sendek).
    “He wrote a number of wonderful children's books that Spike Jones based films on.”
    The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:46:54 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)

programming (1)

  1. programming (programming): Spike Jonze → Sofia Coppola. Short filmographies make a Spike-then-Sofia back-to-back run possible.
    “It'd be kind of cool to do Spike and Sophia back to back.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:30:56 · Ben Hosley (0.40 sure it was them)

verdict (3)

  1. verdict (verdict): Sofia Coppola → Spike Jonze. Sofia dominated Spike Jonze.
    “who I would say pretty roundly dominated Spike Jones.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · 2025 March Madness Update 1 · 0:48:30 · unknown (0.40 sure it was them)
  2. verdict (verdict): Spike Jonze → Penelope Spheeris. Jonze beat Spheeris 57-43.
    “Spike Jones, who beat Penelope Spheres.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:26:22 · Griffin Newman (0.50 sure it was them)
  3. verdict (verdict): Spike Jonze → Her. Her was the critics' top film of its year; Griffin now fears it has an incel quality.
    “I think it has like an incel quality to it.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:29:36 · David Sims (0.50 sure it was them)

Fun items about them

  1. fun, about Spike Jonze: Great cameo in a beautiful peaceful living room, in sandals; Amanda owned similar sandals at 15 and wore them in March to Long Island high school.
    “I think I own those sandals when I was like 15.”
    The Big Picture · The 25 Best Movies of the Century: No. 14 - ‘Moneyball’ · 0:33:34 · Amanda Dobbins (0.50 sure it was them)
  2. fun, about Spike Jonze: Reading Jonze's whole filmography aloud, from Mi Vida Loca to Jackass 4.5 and Babylon, as the greatest actor since 1994.
    “of the greatest actor we've ever seen since 1994?”
    The Big Picture · The ‘Babylon’ Watch-Along · 0:45:19 · unknown (0.30 sure it was them)
  3. fun, about Spike Jonze: Jonze ran Vice TV as artistic director, and later made a Beastie Boys documentary.
    “I'm the head programmer.”
    Blank Check — Patreon · March Madness 2021 Recap - Round 2 · 0:31:57 · Griffin Newman (0.40 sure it was them)