Actor-host with a deep interest in how TV pilots evolve and how Michael Mann's style bleeds into everything. Loves Thief best of Mann's work. Jokes about being unhireable and the Netflix job that vanished.
Stances
Thief is his top Mann film
Pilots that feel like complete little movies are best
Defends the guest Dana Stevens against Twitter critics
Humor: Self-deprecating, long bits about his own failed career and his mother's British ancestry.
In their words
“I think you were going to think my rankings are crazy.” (1:07:55)
Loves the original Planet of the Apes franchise and Tim Burton, and was a fan of the 2001 hype as a kid. Can't stand empty studio filmmaking with no point of view. A sucker for childhood fandom and memorabilia (action figures, Lisa Marie).
Stances
Burton's Apes is the first time a beloved director failed him
The makeup is the only thing worth praising
The film does not have a point of view
Humor: Self-deprecating nerd-confessional anecdotes and riffs on childhood devotion.
In their words
“I was like, peak Griff moving nerd fanaticism.” (0:16:56)
“I had all the action figures before the movie came out.” (0:18:01)
Appears to love specific film trivia and the New York of the film; teases about being downtown. Lines identified with him are low-confidence because the transcript has no speaker labels.
Stances
Recalls opening-weekend box office from memory
Lives and grew up near the film's downtown locations (inferred)
Humor: Dry bits and running gags; becomes 'Downtown Griffey Nooms' under the guest's teasing.
In their words
“I have a TV pair of glasses now.” (0:31:40)
“This is the game where I try to recall from memory the box office the weekend the movie open.” (1:57:23)
Blank Check with Griffin & David: Flesh+Blood (host)
Loves Verhoeven and says RoboCop, Toy Story 2 and Rushmore rank among his favorites. Worries about the Weinstein-era toxicity in this film. Fascinated by effects-driven classicism and by the Hauer/Verhoeven split.
Stances
Flesh+Blood is anthropological and fascinating but joyless
Verhoeven is a technical classicist smuggling extreme content into Hollywood form
Rooted for RoboCop being a favorite
Humor: Rambling bits, tangents and character voices.
In their words
“I have never been more excited to talk about a film on this podcast.” (1:38:03)
Seems to love practical Spielberg staging and sound design, character actors with great faces, and nostalgic picks like Harriet the Spy. Cannot stand lazy sequels with no story, CGI overuse and nostalgia-canonized movies. Is a sucker for merchandise history and a good Austin Powers rewatch.
Stances
Lost World has a plot but no story and is bottom five Spielberg
Spielberg fails when he directs with one arm behind his back
Jurassic World is far worse
Humor: Escalating riffs and running bits, including bad impressions, nicknames for the producer and self-deprecating Goldblum failure.
In their words
“I've never been able to get there.” (0:00:55)
“Spielberg, I think, always fails when he tries to direct with one arm behind his back.” (0:32:33)
Loves ambitious, misguided, disastrous failures and admits a near sexual fetish for them; gravitates toward films that are naked and transparent about their director's ego. Cannot stand being unable to follow exposition but still wants to rewatch. A sucker for Shyamalan trivia, mythology worldbuilding critique, and the film-about-filmmaking read.
Stances
Lady in the Water is bad but fascinating and he likes it a lot
Watchability is not linked to quality
The film is Shyamalan's defensive reaction to critics after The Village
Shyamalan films are crisis-of-faith movies about family
Humor: Runs elaborate recurring bits and segments (Burger Report, IMDb trivia corner, rewrite station, comedy points) and self-deprecating panic-attack anecdotes.
In their words
“I admit that I have a near sexual fetish for super ambitious misguided failures.” (1:36:00)
“I like this movie a lot.” (1:35:51)
“And so watchability is a thing that I don't link to quality.” (1:49:31)
An actor and comedian who loves Robert Downey Jr. (Ally McBeal, Bowfinger) and loves cataloguing credits, billing, and who produced what. Can't stand hacky, symbolic drama like The Judge or misjudged comedies like Wedding Crashers and Fred Claus. A sucker for Shanghai Noon, Due Date, and Dax Shepard's character.
Stances
The Judge is treacle with a Dobkin comedy brain stuck in a prestige drama
Downey needs a real director like PTA or Raimi to surprise audiences
Duvall phoning it in beats De Niro or Pacino phoning it in
Humor: Long riffing metaphors (the bar mitzvah, the bagel), bodily-fluid gags, and self-deprecating asides about the show's tiny audience.
In their words
“It feels like the way that 13 year old boys have to act during their bar mitzvah” (0:56:38)
“Overbagled.” (0:28:55)
“Now you're stuck with us talking about the judge.” (0:03:31)
A deep pop-culture archaeologist who loves He-Man (especially Orko), Henson fantasy, Toy Story, Barbie, and the Lego movies, and who voiced Orko himself. He is skeptical of masculine man-defends-his-castle fantasy and of defensive, self-embarrassed jokes. He is a sucker for the Hudsucker Proxy, odd animation like Raggedy Ann & Andy, and word-of-mouth box office oddities.
Stances
The film gets the metatextual framework right but only gets 60% there
Toy movies are mostly bad except those not driven by a product
He-Man himself is his least favorite part of He-Man
Orko was unforgivably withheld
Humor: Nerdy, rapid-fire trivia and self-aware jokes about his own obsessions and merchandise hoarding.
In their words
“I have way too much He-Man merchandise.” (0:37:20)
“He's what a child thinks they would be as a grown up if they got really buff and strong.” (0:31:53)
“It is a movie entirely about the hula hoop.” (1:34:41)
Griffin is a long-time Cameron enthusiast and sincere blockbuster fan, someone who watches trailers on loop and gets choked up by them. He loves a clean engineered story and defends Avatar's sincerity. He dislikes meta, smirky franchise filmmaking.
Stances
Avatar's clunky human dialogue is deliberate
Franchise filmmaking is in a crisis point
Cameron has earned the benefit of the doubt
Humor: Affable and self-deprecating, with long enthusiastic riffs.
In their words
“I'm beyond excited.” (1:41:16)
“I truly get like emotionally choked up watching these trailers” (1:41:52)
A RoboCop devotee with posters, a bust and a bootleg toy in the office, who loves the Verhoeven original and its satire. He can't stand humorless grounded remakes that cut the jokes and the visor. A sucker for baseball giveaways at Mets games and Easter eggs done right.
Stances
The remake is an F and worse than Ouija
Satire and humor are what make the original
A black suit with no detail is a failure
Robocop should be dumb and funny, not cool
Humor: Rants and elaborate analogies, like the pizza series, delivered with escalating mock fury.
In their words
“I'm just gonna come out and say this is an F.” (0:55:03)
“Robocop one is like the best pizza you've ever had.” (1:29:28)
Loves Edge of Tomorrow as a masterpiece and Cruise's turn toward weird, low-status roles; likes Oblivion and Looper-era Blunt; likes Liman's chaos when it works. Can't stand Liman's later films like Road House.
Stances
Edge is a five-star film that improves on repeat
This is Cruise's pivot to the McQuarrie era
Alien design here and in Arrival is rare in the 2010s
Humor: Rapid riffs and movie-industry gossip, often wrapping a joke around a bit of trivia.
In their words
“Edge of tomorrow is 5 stars.” (0:07:20)
“It is truly a movie that gets better every time you watch it.” (0:07:25)
Loves cult comedy and genre curiosities such as Perfect Dark, Nirvana the Band, and weird bracket ideas like Psycho with Bates Motel. Enthusiastic about Peter Weir, Welles, and Del Toro. Dislikes long filmographies as a rule and bad Robocop sequels.
Stances
Wants more Peter Weir and Orson Welles
Votes against the long boy in every matchup
Grudge: RoboCop 2 should never put the mask back on
Humor: Builds committed running bits (pitmaster, Chip Smith) and doubles down until the room breaks.
A Lynch fan who loves Eraserhead as a pure raw expression of an outsider and calls it a fully arrived masterpiece. Loves the bit-work of generating nicknames and sorting debut films into buckets. Can't stand eggs and gets queasy at the chicken-carving idea.
Stances
Eraserhead is a masterpiece debut
It is coherent and autobiographical, not impenetrable
Debut films fall into rough draft, masterpiece and a third bucket
Humor: Escalating riffs and mock-pompous bits about nicknames, with self-aware jabs at the show.
In their words
“And this is him just doing the pure raw expression version of basically the same idea.” (0:26:19)
“Holy shit, who the fuck is this guy fully arrived masterpiece.” (0:16:34)
Runs the show and the episode dossier, and loves production-disaster minutiae, alternate titles and what-if histories. A sucker for 90s studio chaos and podcast in-jokes (jelly trilogy, Forky). Frustrated by a movie that is dark and muddy and has no scary monsters.
Stances
Eaters of the Dead was the better title
The version worth making is a smaller, pulpier one
Defends Mank and is a Fincher-series completist who ranks Zodiac first; loves the autobiographical reading of The Killer (Fincher mocking his own control). A sucker for Tilda Swinton performances and for details like the Smiths playlist. Uncertain about the Soderbergh-style streaming deal.
Stances
The Killer is about filmmaking and Fincher's own process
Fincher's Netflix deal is a bad fit for streaming
Mank is a celebration of a cantankerous artist and a self-portrait
Humor: Absurdist riffs, Letterboxd one-liners, and long tangents about fast food.
In their words
“My letterbox type clip on the movie is a psychological horror film about David Fincher imagining a reality where he's only allowed one take.” (0:22:44)
“It's fucking Sidney Lumette's making movies.” (1:24:53)
Likes the Hearst scenes and the performances, but is less sold on the movie than David and Sean. Comes at it as a wounded theatrical-experience loser, upset he never saw it in a theater.
Stances
Wishes he'd seen it in a theater
Likes the movie less than David
Wants more Fincher Tuppence Middleton
Humor: Self-deprecating, tangent-prone, and loves puns like 'Mancrodosing'.
In their words
“I cannot stop thinking about how angry I am that I never got to see this in a theater.” (0:20:21)
“I'm circling the island.” (2:27:36)
“Mancrodosing. Five minutes of manca day.” (0:22:58)
Carries the Fincher-completist trivia (the unmade projects, the casting what-ifs) and is deep in the Affleck and Reese Witherspoon career talk. Likes a franchise that earns its box office, and says he is all in on the Equalizer films. Can't stand a lazy cable-movie career move, and has lost patience with TV coverage on the show.
Stances
Fincher's unmade projects (Star Wars, 20,000 Leagues) are as interesting as the films
Wants Equalizer 3 to reach $103 million
Mindhunter was an episode he and David did not want to cover, because TV multiplies the work
Humor: Runs dead-pan bits at length (the Quibby and Reese 'Fierce Queens' routine) and keeps count of the numbers.
In their words
“Star Wars, episode seven.” (0:25:36)
“The Equalizer one made $101 million domestically.” (2:53:28)
“Dave and I really didn't want to do this episode.” (3:03:23)
Loves Fincher, comfort rewatches, commentary tracks and the research dossier; admires Rooney Mara and the film's gentleness at the margins. Can't stand the Swedish films' flatness or the Spider's Web reboot. A sucker for a good casting story and a recurring bit.
Stances
Dismisses the Swedish films as mid
calls this a movie that improves on rewatch
defends Fincher's reshoots as worth it.
Humor: Runs bits to exhaustion (string cheese, Clint Eastwood railroading, strangling-each-other energy) and teases Ben.
In their words
“I saw it Christmas time, 2011.” (0:25:28)
“I've been trying to watch most of these movies with commentaries.” (1:10:15)
“I just remember when the trailer for this came out” (0:34:01)
Loves Sorkin's dialogue and Fincher's rigor, and is the host with an actor's view of auditions and sets. Dismissive of Facebook as an experience now. A sucker for behind-the-scenes lore and the Blu-ray extras.
Stances
The script's pace is the movie
Fincher's many takes freed the actors
Humor: Rambling, self-aware riffs and character-voice bits.
In their words
“I pointedly remember that the they sent the script out, but for the auditions, it was just other Sorkin scenes.” (0:52:46)
“So this script hits and like every single person on set is like, I'm just trying to get any fucking part in the sofa work.” (0:51:41)
Became a Fincher believer at Zodiac and was all in for Button on the strength of that and the teaser. Reads Button as a deliberate anti-Gump about death rather than a failed weepy. Likes the film's passivity and its refusal to give catharsis.
Stances
Button is pointedly an anti-Gump
the film is more Fincher than its reputation allows
the hospital framing is the real film
Humor: Rapid-fire impressions and callback bits, including the running seven-but-looks-older line.
In their words
“But I think it's almost like pointedly an anti-gump.” (0:22:50)
“Whatever this guy's next movie is, this is now I'm most anticipated movie.” (0:17:37)
Their shows' recurring bits
Running bits, not opinions; a critic read aloud is cited, not present.
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.
Blank Check with Griffin & David
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.
unmapped (production method):
The Last Temptation of Christ → Boxcar Bertha.
Scorsese's Corman-style Boxcar Bertha experience let him storyboard and time every shot to make Last Temptation cheaply.
“I never would have been able to make this movie if I didn't have my Corman background and experience a boxcar Bertha specifically”
craft (structural):
The Last Temptation of Christ → New York, New York.
Both run long stretches of repeated set pieces around a central pairing, then a final act turning inward, ending in a tragic blow; Last Temptation reads as a corrective.
“I think this movie is fascinatingly, structurally so similar to New York, New York.”
unmapped (language debate):
The Last Temptation of Christ → The Odyssey.
Modern vernacular dialogue in antiquity draws the same complaints as it did for Nolan's Odyssey.
“Nolan had this happen this year with the Odyssey where people are like, well, I don't understand.”
theme (creepy-child trope):
The Last Temptation of Christ → X2.
Judas recognizing the child angel as Satan is jokingly tied to creepy-girl villains in Resident Evil and X2's White Queen.
craft (craft):
The Last Temptation of Christ → Stan Brakhage.
A cameraman exposing the magazine too early burned the crucifixion-ending image into abstract flashing light, which a host likens to Brakhage.
“And that was because, and a cameraman exposed the magazine too early. Oh yeah. And it fucked up, you know, the film. But it's like Stan Brackett shit almost.”
industry (Oscar oddity):
The Last Temptation of Christ → Blue Velvet.
Like Blue Velvet, it got just a director nomination and no picture nomination; list also includes Mulholland Drive and Short Cuts.
career (Tom Cruise career):
Cocktail → The Color of Money.
Cruise should do a Color of Money legacy sequel instead of Days of Thunder or more racing movies.
“Do fucking color of money with a Kaylee Spainey or some shit.”
unmapped (early old-Newman voice):
The Color of Money → Absence of Malice.
Absence of Malice marks the earliest time Newman plays an old man in the grave voice, with Color of Money as the later full version.
“Absence of malice feels to me like the earliest I can identify. He is playing old man.”
career (late-career persona):
The Hudsucker Proxy → Paul Newman.
In Hudsucker Newman plays the old man as comedic evil, a heightened version of the elder-statesman role.
“Which Hudsucker, he's obviously doing full on old man, but also full on evil.”
theme (thematic lesson):
Cars → The Color of Money.
The lesson of Cars and Color of Money is that excellence is in how you use it, not raw skill, and the hosts tie the tagline line to the film.
“And I would say the lesson of cars and the lesson of, uh, the color of money is, uh, it's in the way that you use it.”
unmapped (final film):
Jackie Gleason → Nothing in Common.
Gleason's last film is Nothing in Common with Tom Hanks, the film that cemented the Videology trivia-night origin of Griffin and David's friendship.
“His final film is nothing in common, which is the Gary Marshall, Tom Hanks. Bad dad comedy.”
contrast (baton-passing contrast):
Top Gun: Maverick → The Color of Money.
Cruise keeps making baton-pass movies where he refuses to pass the baton; Maverick saves Teller instead of elevating him.
“Also, the fact that Cruz keeps making baton pass movies where he refuses to pass the baton.”
lineage (Sorkin legacy-sequel comparison):
A Few Good Men → Heat 2.
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.”
unmapped (world-sharing):
The Color of Money → Tron.
The Tron arcade cabinet in Vincent's game room makes the film feel set in the Tron world; both Disney.
“obviously the Tron cabinet was like real and was more successful than the movie and stayed in arcades for years, but it does make it feel like this is a movie that takes place in the world of Tron.”
people (poor castings):
Lorraine Bracco → Medicine Man.
Blank Check has only covered Bracco's worst performances, Medicine Man and Zemeckis's Pinocchio, with Goodfellas as the promised redemption.
“this podcast has been so damaging to Lorraine Brocco, where we have only covered her worst performances ever.”
unmapped (rebound):
Tim Burton → Pee-wee's Big Adventure.
Burton stepped aside for Scorsese and immediately rebounded onto Pee-wee, which came out the same year.
“And then he just like immediately rebounds onto Pee Wee, which comes out the same year or the year after this.”
career (career):
Martin Scorsese → Thelma Schoonmaker.
Raging Bull is the reunion of Scorsese and editor Schoonmaker, who then cut nearly all his later films.
“this is the reunion of Marty and Thelma Skumaker, who will edit all the rest of his films, basically.”
craft (craft):
Thelma Schoonmaker → Martin Scorsese.
Schoonmaker said her editing Oscar felt like Scorsese's because he designed the fight sequences she cut.
“I felt like I was winning for the fight sequences, and those fight weekend sequences were designed by him.”
unmapped (host-passion-episode):
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World → RoboCop.
Like RoboCop, this is an episode where a movie means so much to one host the question was whether a guest was needed at all.
“Sometimes there is a movie like Robocop, you know, where it's just like, this means so much to one of us.”
unmapped (authenticity-of-vessel-life):
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World → Sunshine.
Both films make the viewer feel they know what living on a vessel (spaceship or sailing ship) is like, despite having no firsthand knowledge.
“This is what it feels like to live in a spaceship for a couple years.”
unmapped (dinner-scene):
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World → Mouse Hunt.
Asked what other movie has a dinner scene like this, the hosts offer My Dinner with Andre and Mouse Hunt (a chef, a cockroach dinner), then Green Card with Bebe Neuwirth.
“Wait a second. Mouse Hunt actually has, because he's a chef.”
“another serious, sober work of seafaring that I look to off in Muppet Treasure Island, in which they are on the ship for so long, they catch cabin fever”
contrast (war-depiction contrast):
Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World → Gallipoli.
Asked how its depiction of war compares to Gallipoli, they say Gallipoli is about doomed innocence in a pointless WWI battle while this film is romantic about naval empire.
“I don't find that with master and commander at all. No, not at all.”
theme (comparison):
Peter Weir → Ang Lee.
Ang Lee looked like a chameleon but had through lines; Weir may be the same, though more consciously different.
“Then you watch the movies and you're like, there are very obvious themes and through lines.”
unmapped (look):
Witness → Fearless.
After the Witness episode, Bridges' Fearless look is judged possibly the top screen look ever, more attainable than Ford's.
“I'm like, this might actually be the number one look a guy has ever had on screen.”
contrast (contrast):
Fearless → Henryk Gorecki.
An original score could not have matched the borrowed Gorecki and U2 pieces cut to the crash, for how the music syncs and for the recognition of what is playing.
“you couldn't actually write an original piece of score for this that would work as well as both the way the music syncs up and like the power you gain from the recognition of what's playing.”
unmapped (commercial track record):
Fargo → Raising Arizona.
Raising Arizona (about $5M cost, about $30M worldwide) is argued to be the Coens' first clear hit; Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing and Hudsucker lost money.
“Barton Fink, Miller's Crossing, Hudsucker all made less than they cost.”
career (career summation):
Fargo → Blue Velvet.
Fargo is the ultimate Coen film the way Blue Velvet is the best encapsulation of Lynch, not necessarily the favorite.
“this does feel like the ultimate Cohen's film in the same way we were saying in our blue velvet episode, like, that's not my favorite Lynch movie”
career (career context):
Fargo → The Hudsucker Proxy.
Fargo came after the Hudsucker flop but was not a reaction to it; the script was already being written.
“this movie was not a conscious reaction to that. They had already been writing it before they shot Hudsucker.”
unmapped (return to roots):
Fargo → Blood Simple.
Fargo is the Coens' most Blood Simple-like script, contemporary and simple, going back to what they tried there with more knowledge.
“It feels like them sort of going back to what they were trying to do in that movie with the knowledge they've gained over the...”
unmapped (false true story):
Fargo → Kumiko, the Treasure Hunter.
Kumiko is a movie about someone who believed Fargo's 'based on a true story' card and went looking for the money.
“is a movie based on an Irvin legend about someone believing that Fargo was true and looking for the bag of money.”
contrast (genre contrast):
Blood Simple → Fargo.
The Coens see Blood Simple as a James M. Cain-type noir; Fargo they wanted drier and less hard-boiled.
“They consider blood simple to be more like a James M. Kane type, you know, noir thriller, right?”
industry (studio patience):
Fargo → Bottle Rocket.
Alex Ross Perry's point: studios once kept investing in talented directors after a commercial flop like Bottle Rocket, as with the Coens.
“Wes Anderson makes bottle rocket for like $5000000 at Colombia and it bombs, but it gets good reviews.”
unmapped (darkness and cops):
Fargo → Manhunter.
Contrasts Marge's coping with Manhunter's Will Graham, who has spent so long in the darkness he can't come out.
“Manhunter is always the one I think about, where that for me is a movie about a guy who's just like spent enough time in the darkness that he's actually never going to come out now.”
people (cast as motor mouth):
Steve Buscemi → Miller's Crossing.
Buscemi was hired in Miller's Crossing as someone who can read dialogue fast, and the Coens wrote Fargo's Carl for him.
“Miller's Crossing is literally hired because they need a motor mouth.”
lineage (character origin):
Harve Presnell → Blood Simple.
The Coens wrote Presnell's character from Texas businessmen they met raising money for Blood Simple.
“they wrote that character, basically, when they were raising money for Blood Simple, they met lots of like Texas businessmen”
unmapped (documentary approach):
Roger Deakins → Fargo.
Deakins's documentary background shapes simple, in-the-conversation setups: the best camera place to capture the actors.
theme (character echo):
Peter Stormare → No Country for Old Men.
Gaear caring about Jerry's cruelty is compared to Tommy Lee Jones's sheriff not knowing whether he belongs in this world.
“This is like his Tommy Lee Jones in no country sort of like conundrum where he's like, I don't even know if I belong in this world.”
unmapped (off-screen violence):
Fargo → No Country for Old Men.
Fargo's off-screen disintegration (Jean's death) is likened to the way No Country hides its violence.
“much like in the move they pull in no country. of just like you can figure it out.”
unmapped (introduced):
Skip Lievsay → Carter Burwell.
Skip Lievsay (said 'Skip Luse') recommended Burwell as a film composer and brought him to the Coens.
“Skip Luse, say, was the one who brought Cutter Burwell in.”
unmapped (scoring lesson):
Carter Burwell → The Birds.
Burwell's first study film for learning scoring was The Birds, which has no conventional score, teaching him that sometimes the move is not to underscore.
“And he watched the birds. And then only at the end of watching the birds, did he realize, oh, this movie has no conventional score.”
unmapped (creative conflict):
Bolt → Chris Sanders.
Sanders's weird American Dog idea was killed when Lasseter took over Disney and demanded Bolt be Buzz Lightyear as a dog.
“Lassiter takes over Disney and immediately is like, this is too weird, fires him”
unmapped (autobiographical):
Look Who's Talking → Harold Ramis.
The speakers say the film is Heckerling's personal grievance about Ramis, who fathered her daughter Molly while Neil Israel believed the child was his.
“The child that Neil Israel thought was his own was actually the byproduct of a years-long affair that she had had with Harold Ramos.”
unmapped (dog-talks hook):
Look Who's Talking Now → Rugrats Go Wild.
Both use talking dogs as a hook, and Bruce Willis voices the dog in Rugrats Go Wild.
“The new hook, much like look who's talking now, is for the 1st time we can hear the dog talk.”
unmapped (authorship):
Look Who's Talking → Amy Heckerling.
Griffin ties the show's criterion that a director's movies reflect one person to this film, which feels personal despite studio calculation.
“everything about this feels like it was made by one person.”
people (casting):
John Malkovich → In the Line of Fire.
Malkovich is the sun-dried tomato on the sandwich; in Empire it is his best use as an American Fagin.
“In the line of fire, is someone making you a ham and cheese sandwich and then like putting one sun-dried tomato on it”
career (career timing):
In the Line of Fire → Unforgiven.
Released the year after Unforgiven, with Eastwood in the same vibe of asking whether to hang it up.
“In the line of fire is the same vibe of like Clint being like, should I hang it up?”
unmapped (late-period Eastwood):
True Crime → Absolute Power.
Bilge and Griffin riff on Clint Eastwood's late-period films and reviews harping on his age.
“specifically should be a plot point in 2 movies a year.”
unmapped (comedy attempts):
Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade → 1941.
Last Crusade is his one fully successful comedy; his clean comedies like 1941 and The Terminal are among his worst.
“basically, all of his worst movies are his cleanest attempts at comedies, like, 1941, the terminal, arguably all these.”
verdict (pivot / better version):
Hook → Jurassic Park.
Hook is where Spielberg turns parent, and Jurassic Park is the better telling of the same father story.
“Jurassic Park is the much better version of what the story that Huck is trying to do.”
unmapped (dry run):
Empire of the Sun → Schindler's List.
Schindler's List is the more successful grown-up film that erased Empire of the Sun from memory; it was seen as the dry run.
“Look back as this was the dry run before he totally cracked it on Shell.”
contrast (method contrast):
Schindler's List → Empire of the Sun.
On Schindler Spielberg refused to storyboard, almost as a reaction to criticism of the puppet-show control in Empire.
“Schindler, the infamous thing, is that he was like, I won't storyboard this.”
craft (aesthetic shift):
Empire of the Sun → The Color Purple.
Both are death-of-childhood movies; Empire is where Spielberg starts bending his shiny style so it does not make everything feel magical.
“This feels like the 1st movie where he successfully, to your point of what you're getting at, figures out how to shift his aesthetic a little bit”
contrast (technique contrast):
Empire of the Sun → 1941.
After 1941's show-off scale, Empire is the first time Spielberg orchestrates huge long takes without them feeling like playing with toys.
“it is the 1st time in his career, he can orchestrate something like that and not make it feel like he's playing with toys”
industry (same-year rival):
Empire of the Sun → The Last Emperor.
Two epics shot in China in 1987, both sold as firsts for China, about the same era; Bilge alternated seeing them in theaters.
“it is very strange that the last emperor and Empire of the Sun, these 2 movies that are like both kind of being sold with the like, no one's ever filmed in China before”
fun, about
The Power of Grayskull (documentary):
A good documentary on how the He-Man toy line was made, home of the viral clip about painting the cat green.
“Power of Grayskull, which is a really good documentary about how the toy line was made”
fun, about
Orko / Griffin Newman:
Griffin voiced Orko on a Kevin Smith-run He-Man show after a writer called to pick his brain in 2019 and then pitched him for the part; he calls it his hardest-won scale job.
“I ended up voicing Orco on a He-Man cartoon show, showrun by Kevin Smith”
fun, about
Big:
Rewatching Big, the fortune-teller machine arrives within ten minutes with zero backstory, the model for how fantasy used to skip setup.
“And he gets to the fortune teller machine within less than 10 minutes.”
fun, about
The Adventures of Raggedy Ann and Andy:
Richard Williams's nightmarish toy musical, watchable on YouTube; skip to the number 'Blue,' sung by a camel with four legs, for astonishing animation.
“There is a musical sequence in this uh, called Blue, uh, sung by a camel, uh, with 4 legs”
fun, about
RoboCop (2014) - the mirror scene:
The one scene the host likes: Murphy is stripped down to his lungs, brain and one hand and made to look in a mirror, called the Cronenberg moment.
“And then this is like the Cronenberg moment of this film.”
fun, about
Griffin's bootleg RoboCop toy:
Griffin pulls out a true bootleg RoboCop toy from his shelves, blue and silver with misapplied paint, which still looks better than the movie.
“But somehow still looks better than what we're watching, right?”
fun, about
Pizza analogy:
The hosts rank the RoboCops as pizza: the original is the best pizza ever, 2 is cafeteria pizza, 3 is Lunchables pizza, and this one is a picture of pizza stomped on.
“Robocop one is like the best pizza you've ever had.”
fun, about
RoboCop (2014) - budget and box office:
Budget estimated between $100 and $130 million; opened third at $21 million, made $58 million domestic, $242 million worldwide.
fun, about
Tom Cruise:
Cruise is the 'guy pretending to be Tom Cruise' for the first ten minutes: the movie strips the persona and makes him earn trust back.
fun, about
Mr. & Mrs. Smith:
On Mr. & Mrs. Smith the agency heads were cast three times; none of the actors ended up in the film, only Angela Bassett's voice.
fun, about
Edge of Tomorrow:
The title fight: announced as All You Need Is Kill, retitled with 'Live Die Repeat' as a tagline on a badly laid out poster; on home video they flipped them.
“they flipped them because their takeaway from the confusion was”
fun, about
Noah Taylor:
Taylor and Brendan Gleeson never leave their one set, avoid the suits and stunts, and get mini arcs; the hosts call it a princess part, a theater term for one big featured number.
fun, about
Doug Liman:
Hosts call the Liman method 'Limania': chaos production that sometimes comes out masterful, compared to a watchmaker tied upside-down in a crashing plane.
fun, about
Edge of Tomorrow:
The practical exosuits weighed 80 to 100 pounds; Liman called making them practical the stupidest thing they did, yet they look great.
“the stupidest thing we ever did was make those practical”
fun, about
Emily Blunt:
Blunt's Smartlist story: she cried the first time in the suit and Cruise said 'come on, stop being a pussy'; it was a joke and went viral.
fun, about
Pat Kiernan:
The New York One anchor in the opening news montage has a huge film-credit list; the hosts joke he must get a check every month.
“Pat Kieran's got like 40 of the biggest film credits of all time.”
fun, about
Griffin Newman:
Origin story of his comedy: after rollerblade camp bullying, he Photoshopped meme flyers and posted them in the locker room.
fun, about
Eraserhead:
The chicken-carving scene: the host says the movie heightens ordinary dinner discomfort by 10 percent; Griffin is not an egg fan.
fun, about
David Fincher:
Griffin's Letterboxd one-liner: the film is Fincher's nightmare of being allowed only one take, and the missed shot is the nightmare.
“a psychological horror film about David Fincher imagining a reality where he's only allowed one take.”
fun, about
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo:
On the commentary, Fincher tells how the bottle-catch and the cat landing in frame was a perfect take, and he did two more anyway, a self-parody of his many takes.
fun, about
20,000 Leagues Under the Sea:
Fincher wanted a blockbuster as dark as Empire Strikes Back; Disney would only greenlight it with Brad Pitt or a peer.
“I wanted to see if there was a way to make a blockbuster that's that dark.”
fun, about
John Getz:
The cold open riffs on John Getz, the Blood Simple lead, spending decades in movies looking exasperated at a Zuckerberg who is not there.
“For 20, 30 years, he was in movies looking at Mark Zuckerberg exasperated and people said, John, this doesn't read.”
fun, about
The Social Network:
Auditions were other Sorkin scenes, because Fincher needed to see if people could do the pace; Eisenberg's self-tape was the first time he said under two hours.
“I pointedly remember that the they sent the script out, but for the auditions, it was just other Sorkin scenes.”
fun, about
David Fincher:
Why a hundred takes: Fincher says the surprising little things only come out after the lines are routine; the Erica line appeared in a single take.
“And Fincher's like, that's like the kind of fucking moment I'm looking for, which he only does on one take.”
fun, about
The Social Network:
The title card shot over Boston is about fifteen separate shots tiled together, each lit individually, because Harvard would not cooperate.
“But like that shot's basically constructed of like 15 shots that they visually all tiled together and had to be lit individually, not by the cart.”
fun, about
The Social Network:
A mime carrying the lights kept cops busy: they will stop a crew guy at once but not a mime.
“If it's a truck, if it's a crew guy, they'll stop without like any hesitation. If it's a mine, they're going to be so confused about what's going on.”
fun, about
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:
The teaser made the audience go silent at Crystal Skull; the speakers say the trailer is a better version of what the movie does.
“2 great fucking teasers that have such a different tone than everything else that was playing that the audience just went pin drop silent.”
fun, about
The Curious Case of Benjamin Button:
The film's clock prologue tested badly until the film grain and crackles were added late in post, after which audiences accepted it as a story being told.
“we added all the filters of the film grain and the pops and the crackles and the distortion and whatever.”
fun, about
Lords of Dogtown:
Fincher's budget ask for Lords of Dogtown was fifteen million to rebuild the pier at full scale, which got him pushed off.
fun, about
Zodiac:
Graysmith claimed the killer could mount a flashlight on his gun; Fincher went to a flashlight museum, learned no 1969 bulb could do it, and so the film shows no such beam.
fun, about
Jake Gyllenhaal:
Zodiac shot through the Brokeback Mountain awards season, and Fincher would not release him for events; Fincher says he was distracted.
fun, about
Jake Gyllenhaal:
On the making-of, Gyllenhaal asks Fincher to confirm he is good at inserts after dozens of takes of his hands scribbling; Fincher teases, then agrees.
fun, about
Robert Downey Jr.:
Downey's Oppenheimer press-tour story: after 60 takes, Fincher made him watch the footage on the monitor and Downey had to admit it was not right.
“And he made him watch all the takes on the monitor.”
fun, about
Robert Graysmith:
A friend's ink review from an art store sounded too specific to be anyone but Graysmith; Griffin reads it at the very end.
“too weirdly specific to not be written by the real Robert Graysmith.”
fun, about
Janie's Got a Gun (Aerosmith video):
Steven Tyler flashed the shocker on his forehead in Disney's Rock and Roller Coaster pre-show until Disney digitally painted the finger out.
“And they digitally paint it in the remaining finger.”
fun, about
Earl (dog):
Earl, Brendan Hines's dog, is the first in-studio dog guest in Blank Check history, and it is his seventh birthday. Brendan says Earl came to set every day on The Tick and never ruined a take.
“The 1st ever in studio, dog, guest, in the history of blank check.”
fun, about
Charles Martinet:
The father in the opening home-movie footage is Charles Martinet, the voice of Mario. He once taught typing as Mario at a 1994 tech convention.
fun, about
The Game:
The original ending had Nick shoot the waitress and then kill himself; Fincher said he would feel remorse for shooting someone who tricked him, so he changed it.
“So what I had read was that the original ending was the same thing, but he shoots Deborah Carra Unger.”
fun, about
The Game:
The Criterion disc includes a one-take alternate ending, from the clapboard to Fincher saying cut, where he looks both ways and walks off without a cab.
fun, about
Alien 3:
The alien-sucks-down-a-Pepsi commercial aired a full year before the movie; the suit was built for the film, and Fox was pushing Alien toward a kids' franchise (cartoon, toys, games).
“That commercial came out a full year before this movie came out.”
fun, about
Sigourney Weaver:
She was eight months pregnant when the Newt dummy was made, so they measured only her head and shoulders; she made the film six months after her first child was born.
“When they made the dummy, Sigourney was like 8 months pregnant.”