Loves Zodiac as a masterpiece and the Fincher dossier details; the show's box-office fixer. Gets weirdly delighted by obsessive production detail (flashlight museum, typewriters). Has no patience for the studio logic of dumping films.
Stances
Zodiac is Fincher's best film and the best of a loaded 2007
Studios act irrationally against their own interests
Fincher is often called cold and later vindicated
Humor: Dry, deadpan banter and a running bit about reading the room as a podcast host.
In their words
“Okay, I'm going to read a thing while David's still in there.” (2:25:37)
“Leslie, I get some satisfaction out of the fact that I think people who listen to this show sometimes think that I'm like on my devices during this.” (2:20:30)
Loves music videos tied to movie soundtracks and the weirdly sincere Springfield video. Grew up on Disney cassettes, Hanson, and Celebrity Death Match era pop culture. Appreciates a sprawling, nonsensical video that sets up multiple characters.
Stances
Praises the Springfield Dance This World Away video as a favorite, then sours on it
Defends movie tie-in videos that interact with the film
Mocks Fincher's autopilot work on rock videos
Humor: Escalating bits and character voices, from the Beavis and Butt-Head shirt assignments to the fake Reddit thread.
In their words
“I think all 3 of these guys are me, but it's an ed ego super ego thing.” (0:22:01)
“I was in, uh, anything goes?” (1:15:38)
“Uh, no, Hanson Hanson was my favorite band at this point in time.” (2:08:42)
Obsessive movie nerd who tracked every upcoming film as a 13-year-old and has a soft spot for Kristen Stewart. Loves craft and box office lore, recoils from suspense that stresses him out.
Stances
Panic Room was built around Jodie Foster and defies logic otherwise
Fincher scaled back after the Fight Club flop
Humor: Runs bits on tangents like Studio 60, razor scooters, and Jared Leto.
In their words
“obsessively read every fucking dork website I could and thought I was ahead of the curve and knew every movie that was in the pipeline.” (0:26:32)
Is a movie-tie-in collector who grew up in Britain, did not see Fight Club until later, and was never the target of it. Loves a deep tie-in and a rights-clearing bit. Thinks the film is fine but not his formative one.
Stances
Not the film for him, but happy to talk about it
DVD and collector culture matters
Anti-ads bit as the through-line
Humor: Runs bits (no-ads fake-outs, Deadpool-cover Photoshops) and narrates posters.
In their words
“The reason I have to tap out of this is I grew up in Britain.” (0:15:19)
Loves 90s thrillers, character actors, and Fincher at his bleakest; the show's box-office quizzer. Leans toward Se7en over The Game and wishes the movie really gamed him. Bit-hungry about names, keys, and found trivia.
Stances
Admires Se7en more than The Game
Never feels gamed by the movie
Likes The Player and the Criterion disc
Humor: Fast, absurd riffing and gags built on the movie's props.
In their words
“I would argue that I, my beef with this movie is that I never feel like I am being gamed.” (0:45:08)
Loves grim, well-made thrillers and obsessive craft detail; reads the dossier and revels in production lore. Teases guests about their bits. Has a Tisch background and some gun-safety training from a film shoot.
Stances
Se7en is great and Fincher's control of a never-named city is the key choice
Fincher is a blank-check director
Pitt's need to prove himself is the performance
Humor: Driven by running bits, exact trivia, and deadpan fake interview impressions.
In their words
“You know what has happened?” (1:36:38)
“I did when I did gun safety training for Tomorrow War.” (2:08:57)
Loves a sequel that spits in the studio's eye, and the Alien 3 behind-the-scenes extras. Enjoys box-office-weekend trivia, poster taglines, and Fincher's DVD-era thoroughness. Speaker attribution in this transcript is mostly inferred, so these are low-confidence reads.
Stances
Alien 3 is a crowd-displeaser by design
On the assembly cut versus theatrical: leans theatrical, as a cleaner movie (low confidence on which host says it)
Humor: Running bits (the Santa Claus line, the wood planet, poster minutiae).
In their words
“Okay. I think the assembly cut is better while not being perfect.” (0:14:24)
“I really do have a preference here, and it is the dog” (1:21:48)
Loves Tim Burton's early work and defends late-period Burton, theme-park lore, box-office minutiae and Pixar-style craft. Can't stand studio condescension toward children and celebrity-casting logic. A sucker for sweaty, overworked names, bones, and unfashionable Disney touchstones.
Stances
Nightmare Before Christmas is a perfect movie that outlasts its ubiquity
Jack is an analog for artists trying to make commercial art
Studios underestimate children
Mrs. Doubtfire's box-office run deserves celebration
Humor: Sweaty-pun builds and deadpan escalation, riffing on bones and box-office numbers.
Obsessed with this film and calls it his favorite of the Kubrick set alongside Barry Lyndon. Loves box-office trivia and where he saw things. A sucker for the small perfect line readings and the Christmas-lights look.
Stances
Eyes Wide Shut is a masterpiece
Reputation has risen and it will climb the Sight and Sound list
Bill's journey is about the impossibility of not knowing
Humor: Escalating riffs and bits, from alternate podcast lines to sequel fantasies.
In their words
“I don't need to know what grows for you every time when you watch that scene.” (0:01:19)
Loves Doctor Sleep and the director's cut, and the idea that the sequel deepens The Shining. Treats Flanagan's patient, emotional horror as a plus and dislikes jump scares. A sucker for Rose the Hat as a villain and for the box office game.
Stances
Doctor Sleep is a great movie and rewatchable
jump scares are fake tension
legacy sequels usually just suck the steam from the original
Humor: Riffs and runs long on bits, such as the Rose the Hat biography and the Hunk Shoe sleep-train jokes.
In their words
“Now, I have to assume this is all conjecture on my part, okay?” (0:14:58)
Loves Kubrick's dark, mordant comedy and the Barry Lyndon, Shining and Eyes Wide Shut run, and tracks the casting and production legends behind Full Metal Jacket. Reads the dossier closely, likes award-season trivia and box office games.
Stances
Kubrick's humor works best when earnest performances sit at the center
Ermey was a surprising Oscar snub
ranks Strangelove low among Kubrick's funny films
Humor: Deadpan, quotes the film back at itself and lets the guests run riffs.
In their words
“I, I, I rank Strange Love lower in the pack of movies I find funny by him.” (1:36:54)
“Now, which your answer is do it to children.” (0:15:10)
Loves Kubrick trivia, research-dossier detail, and the show's long-running bits; fascinated by how Altman's company shaped Shelley Duvall. Sensitive to anyone mishandling his catchphrases. A sucker for a Draft Day story and the box office game.
Stances
Stephen King's objections were a reaction to being shown himself
Kubrick's many takes need to be separated from cruelty
Would rather talk about the movie than its cultural weight
Humor: Pedantic riffs and teasing, usually at David's or Tim's expense.
Loves Barry Lyndon as one of his favorite movies and finds the humor in Kubrick more than the austerity. Sentimental about the film's warmth and its devastating last act, especially as a parent. A sucker for the film's absurd rules (duels, class) and for production lore.
Stances
Barry Lyndon is a comedy and Kubrick's warmest film
O'Neal is perfect in the part
Barry stays mysterious without an inner monologue
Humor: Plays it dry and jokey, leaning into modern analogies and bits.
In their words
“I feel like this was the epitome of when the critical community was like, yeah, Kubrick makes like coffee table books.” (0:07:58)
Likes genre craft and unvarnished big swings; enjoys box-office-game trivia and Kubrick lore. Dislikes pretension without payoff. Hosts wallow in sequel-hubris jokes.
Stances
2010 is respectable and watchable, not a masterpiece
Hyams not aping Kubrick was the smart move
Humor: Riffs on fake headlines and extended bits, with a dry, deflating tone.
Loves Kubrick's looseness and humor and wants to demolish the cold-genius myth. Resents the mythology built around him and the attitude of Kubrick guys. Is a sucker for comedy bits, Simpsons-grade jokes, and cinema trivia like the box-office game.
Stances
Kubrick is not a humorless perfectionist; he was elastic with actors and loved improvisation
The mythology around Kubrick makes the films less interesting
Held the line that the bits should continue
Humor: Runs long, escalating bits and puns, and pins running gags like hip hop Sims for later payoff.
In their words
“the more people try to put Kubrick in this, like, alien box, the less interesting I find him.” (0:36:11)
“I don't think of myself as a Kubert guy, is because of how much I resent the mythology that's built around him” (0:43:58)
A Kubrick-series host who rewatched the films in order and found the 2001 rewatch surprisingly brisk. Loves the slow-sci-fi tradition including Star Trek The Motion Picture, and is moved by the ending's dread. A sucker for production lore from the dossier.
Stances
Reevaluating Kubrick as funny
2001 is a brisk watch despite the slowness
Likes slow sci-fi like Star Trek TMP
AI rights may never be granted
Humor: Shifts between bits and earnest observations; lands jokes about the guest and podcast logistics.
In their words
“I found it a surprisingly brisk watch.” (0:36:31)
“I love the slowness of motion picture.” (0:44:04)
“My question is, do we ever grant them rights?” (0:48:01)
Loves Strangelove's dry delivery and Peter Sellers' underplayed Mandrake, and watched it as a comedy-obsessed kid through the AFI 100 Laughs list. Skeptical of Adam McKay's recent satire and of Don't Look Up's tag. A sucker for movie lists, titles and bits like podcast series names.
Stances
Mandrake may be the funniest of the three Sellers roles
The film's seriousness is what makes every joke funnier
Don't Look Up's ending works but its tag undercuts it
Podswide Cast was first pitch, best pitch
Humor: Escalates a bit with mock-grandiose confidence and wounded-pride deadpan.
In their words
“Podswide cast, it was like 1st pitch, best pitch, I just said we're fucking going with this.” (0:07:42)
“Mandrake talking about being captured by the Japanese is the funniest part of this whole movie.” (0:11:32)
“I watched this because AFI in the year 2000 did their 100 years, 100 laughs” (0:28:13)
Reread the book and finds it brilliantly written; an enthusiast of Kubrick on a big screen and of Sellers in Strangelove. Compares movies to a wide pop-culture range (Nope, Hail, Caesar!, The Lobster). Believes the Lolita poster beats the film.
Stances
The poster and tagline are better than the movie
The film's tone is wildly inconsistent but absorbing
Kubrick's films are best seen in a theater
Humor: Rapid-fire riffs, mock-pomposity and long tangents.
In their words
“I stand by it.” (1:38:12)
“Poster eats this movie's lunch.” (1:33:57)
“I hate watching his Kubrick movies at home.” (0:45:39)
Leans on the dossier and the Kubrick-era history; loves tidy business-and-career stories and the Blank Check 'guarantor' framing. Likes bits about stars and their careers. (Speaker attribution within the transcript is inferred; confidence is moderate.)
Stances
Spartacus is Kubrick's guarantor: the hit that gave him the blank check
Kubrick was a pain but the work stands out
Humor: Rapid riffs and impressions on the episode's running bits.
In their words
“Today we are covering Spartacus, which is what we like to call a guarantor.” (0:26:58)
“This is the film that gives them the blank check that they run off of for the rest of their career.” (0:27:03)
Admires well-made war films but finds them panic-inducing; prefers Full Metal Jacket to David. Likes the Coens (Hudsucker Proxy) and the box-office game ritual inherited from his father. Responds to Kirk Douglas as a star who used clout for challenging pictures.
Stances
War movies stress him out even when they are good
Paths of Glory is short in a way that is a blessing
Won't rewatch Saving Private Ryan despite loving it
Humor: Gallows-humor riffs and running bits that escalate the absurd (e.g. trench humor, reenactments as a Patreon goal).
In their words
“I get very stressed out watching war films even when I think they're good.” (0:02:01)
“I like full metal jacket more than you, David” (0:55:08)
“I buy it on fucking steel book.” (1:19:43)
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.
Their claims
Showing 201–300 of 1,162 claims.
unmapped (technique evolution):
Wendell and Wild → Coraline.
Selick turned against slick 3D-assisted look after Coraline and kept seams visible and embraced artifice in Wendell & Wild.
“He said Coraline was maybe a little too smooth, and he wanted to go a bit backwards and show off the artifice with this movie.”
lineage (artwork source):
Henry Selick → Tim Burton.
Nightmare Before Christmas brought Burton's artwork to life; Peach got Lane Smith; Coraline Tadahiro Uesugi; Wendell & Wild Pablo Lobato.
“Zalek is kind of bringing the artwork of Tim Burton to life.”
lineage (visual inspiration):
Pablo Lobato → Wendell and Wild.
Selick picked a flat, cutout caricature style that should not be adaptable to 3D and asked the team to build it.
“Wendolyn Wilde, Argentinian artist, Pablo Lobato, is the big inspiration for the look of a lot of these guys.”
contrast (contrast of villainy):
Wendell and Wild → Beetlejuice.
Unlike Beetlejuice, who is purely malevolent, Wendell and Wild are babes in the wood whose ulterior motive is an amusement park.
“Unlike Beetlejuice who like operates from a place of like pure malevolence, right?”
contrast (contrast of setup):
Wendell and Wild → The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Nightmare doesn't open with civic politics, so its underworld needs no explaining; Wendell & Wild front-loads dense plot.
“Yeah, it also helps that like nightmare before Christmas doesn't start with 10 minutes of like the political infrastructure of a small town.”
craft (exposition style):
Wendell and Wild → Avatar.
Big sci-fi blockbusters like Inception and Avatar earn their virtuoso final acts with an hour of clumsy exposition; Wendell & Wild operates the same way.
“And they're things like Inception or Avatar, where you're like, you know what?”
craft (exposition style):
Wendell and Wild → Inception.
The whole movie spends its running time on clumsy rules-exposition so the final act can pay off, like Inception.
“the whole movie is Inception style explaining to you, well, this is a kick, and this is a totem”
unmapped (profit accounting):
Black Adam → The Polar Express.
Black Adam's profit claims prompt a Zemeckis recollection that in the DVD era studio movies could not lose money.
“it is basically impossible for a studio movie to lose money.”
verdict (ranking):
Coraline → The Nightmare Before Christmas.
Griffin ranks Nightmare over Coraline; both masterpieces, though Coraline is the greater auteur achievement; David flips them.
“I think I got to give the hair to nightmare over Core a lot.”
career (comeback attempt):
Eric Roberts → Christopher Nolan.
Nolan's Dark Knight casting was meant as an Eric Roberts reclamation project that did not go anywhere.
“you had like Christopher Nolan giving him a good little supporting part in Dark Knight and being like, Eric Roberts reclamation project.”
career (career sequence):
Star 80 → All That Jazz.
Star 80 came about because Fosse had no planned follow-up after surviving the film in which he dies.
“I think he was almost embarrassed to still be alive after all that jazz.”
unmapped (mentor):
Bob Fosse → Paddy Chayefsky.
Chayefsky was Fosse's mentor/drinking buddy who told him the script needed no notes, and the film is dedicated to him.
contrast (tonal contrast):
Star 80 → Body Double.
Body Double is pulp that deals with similar Hollywood grime and is fun, whereas Fosse could not treat it as pulp.
“But like, I mean, fossi, for better or worse, I don't think could view things as pulp.”
unmapped (same phenomenon):
Star 80 → Manhattan.
Both star Hemingway and are about older men fixated on young women, one romanticized and one murderous.
“2 movies that are essentially about the same basic phenomenon, but in very, very different ways”
theme (theme):
Star 80 → Kate Plays Christine.
Kate Plays Christine is cited as a film about the compulsion to tell tragic victims' stories and play them.
“it is a movie about an actor trying to play a tragic, you know, a person who killed herself on news.”
career (career parallel):
Bob Fosse → Francis Ford Coppola.
Both followed a run of 70s masterpieces (Cabaret/Godfather, Lenny/Godfather II, All That Jazz/Apocalypse Now) with a decline.
“Cabaret, Godfather, Godfather to Lenny, all that jazz apocalypse now.”
unmapped (posthumous reach):
Howard Ashman → Bob Fosse.
Ashman had films with his fingerprints released after his death, showing a creator's ripple effect despite lost time.
“there are like 3 films with his fingerprints on them on top of Little Shop, right?”
people (casting across ages):
An Angel at My Table → The Last Emperor.
Campion loved The Last Emperor, which shares the kid-to-adult actor handoff; she planned the switches to land in happy moments.
“Campion loved the last emperor, which has to pull the same trick, you know, going from kid to adolescent to grown up.”
lineage (source material):
Janet Frame → Owls Do Cry.
Frame's debut novel; the sibling's burning-trash death is from the novel, while the autobiography has a drowning.
what-if (what it could have been):
An Angel at My Table → Girl, Interrupted.
With a TV-miniseries approach it could have been a sensationalist mental-illness movie like Girl, Interrupted.
craft (aesthetic carryover):
An Angel at My Table → Sweetie.
Sweetie's saturated children's-film look survives in Angel only in the Janet character's costume and hair.
“it's like an adult film that has the aesthetics of a children's film.”
what-if (what it could have been):
An Angel at My Table → Angela's Ashes.
A more maudlin filmmaker would have turned Frame's working-class background into Angela's Ashes.
“could have been turned into like Angela's ashes or something”
unmapped (production lore):
Peter Jackson → The Lord of the Rings.
Jackson pitched multiple films on the strength of unfilmed New Zealand locations and a ready industry.
“I got like 80 locations in my back pocket that no one has ever filmed before”
career (career completeness):
An Angel at My Table → Top of the Lake.
Top of the Lake seasons are on Patreon as an important missing piece of Campion's filmography.
“too important a piece in the Campion philography.”
industry (marketing comparison):
Starman → E.T. the Extra-Terrestrial.
The poster's blues and lights invite the E.T. comparison and the film strains to say it is about grown-up love.
“But, um, you know, also the the blues, the lights, the ET comparison is right there.”
career (career pattern):
Adrian Lyne → Flashdance.
After Flashdance became a colossal hit Lyne left Starman; every post-hit film flopped, then he had a hit again.
“every movie he makes after his hits is a huge flop.”
people (director):
Ridley Scott → The Last Duel.
Scott directed The Last Duel and another huge film in the same fall, both shot in the pandemic starring Adam Driver.
“Both starring Adam Driver, America's favorite giant weirdo.”
theme (persona):
Michael Douglas → Romancing the Stone.
In 1984 Douglas excelled at cads and slimeballs, so he would not have worked as the gentle alien.
unmapped (imitation):
Cinderella → Moulin Rouge!.
The Amazon Cinderella tries the Moulin Rouge jukebox-musical thing and fails; Moulin Rouge is a lot harder to pull off.
“It's trying to do the Moulin Rouge thing of like, oh, it's like a jukebox musical where we just like picked songs we like”
contrast (contrast):
Starman → John Carpenter.
Starman is one of the Carpenter movies he did not score; its synthy score is more emotional than his usual.
“this is one of the Carpenter movies that he did not score.”
lineage (effects lineage):
Starman → An American Werewolf in London.
The transformation sequence is indebted to American Werewolf's practical, show-it-all body effects.
“Yes, which is very like American werewolf in London, where the body is stretching out.”
people (people):
Stan Winston → Rick Baker.
Winston, Baker and Dick Smith, the three effects names in the Starman credits, are called the three wise men of 80s visual effects.
“it's like the 3 like wise men of visual effects of the 80s.”
craft (genre / structure):
Starman → It Happened One Night.
Carpenter wanted a road movie of two people in a car getting to know each other, in the mold of It Happened One Night.
lineage (homage):
Starman → It Happened One Night.
The hay-bale love scene in an empty train car is called a likely conscious homage to It Happened One Night.
what-if (what-if):
Dean Cundy → Starman.
Griffin says Starman would be better had Cundy shot it, because its sentimentality, lights and blues are ready for him.
“I do think this movie would be better if it was shot by Dean Cundy, just because all movies would be better.”
career (career context):
Dean Cundy → Romancing the Stone.
Cundy shot Romancing the Stone the same year Carpenter used a different cinematographer on Starman.
“this is the same year that Kundi does romancing the stone.”
unmapped (returns to Carpenter):
Dean Cundy → Big Trouble in Little China.
Despite the Starman parting of ways, Cundy comes back for Big Trouble in Little China.
“He's going to come back to do big trouble in Little China.”
unmapped (falling-out):
Dean Cundy → John Carpenter.
Carpenter said they had a parting of ways over attitude problems, while praising Cundy's work from Halloween through The Thing.
“But before we could ever work together again, we would have to clear up some attitude problems.”
unmapped (irony):
Jeff Bridges → K-PAX.
Bridges plays the man trying to get into the head of a man claiming to be an alien in K-PAX, after playing an alien here.
career (career phases):
Jeff Bridges → The Big Lebowski.
Lebowski came out ignored, then became his defining mode, and Hollywood asked him to do it again.
“everyone's like, oh, Lebowski's the best shit ever.”
theme (premise):
Starman → John from Cincinnati.
A mysterious odd visitor who solves everyone's problems and parrots dialogue; John from Cincinnati owes a lot to Starman.
“He comes and visits, and he's mysterious, and he's weird, and he solves everybody's problem.”
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.”