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 401–500 of 1,162 claims.
contrast (unexplained-setup contrast):
Masters of the Universe → Big.
Big reaches its magic machine in under ten minutes with no backstory, which the movie should have emulated instead of over-explaining.
“And there is no backstory of who made the machine or why or why it's possessed with a ghost or why it works or how to undo it.”
“like, it felt like a very kind of unoriginal list, but I couldn't talk myself into saying like, well, actually, BeastMaster has some really cool effects in it”
theme (borderline-genre):
Ray Harryhausen → The 7th Voyage of Sinbad.
Harryhausen movies blur Greek mythology and high fantasy; one of Sinbad or Jason would represent them.
“I could put the 7th Voyage of Sinbad on a list like this, you know?”
lineage (toy origin):
The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh → A.A. Milne.
Pooh stories are tales adapted from a mythology a boy created for his toys; the film's framing device shows a boy's room of dolls.
“They are tales adapted from The mythology created by kids for their toys.”
unmapped (canon filler):
The Hudsucker Proxy → Toy Story franchise.
To make a good toy-movie canon you have to cheat and include movies not driven by a product: Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story, Hudsucker.
“In order to make a cannon that is good. You have to cheat and put in things like Winnie the Pooh, Toy Story, and the Hudsucker proxy”
verdict (ranking):
Barbie → The Lego Movie.
Of the whole toy-movie canon, only Barbie and The Lego Movie came from a cynical place and ended somewhere fairly pure.
“And then you're like, really, it's only Barbie and Lego movie that came from the cynical place and ended up somewhere fairly pure.”
career (career):
José Padilha → Elite Squad.
Padilha comes from a gritty, stripped-down neo-realist police-force background, so the studio hired him for a serious reboot.
“this is the director who comes from a sort of like gritty kind of, uh, stripped down neo-realist”
programming (programming):
Darren Aronofsky → RoboCop.
Aronofsky was first choice, stayed three years, then left because MGM could not fund the film, the start of his flirtations with franchises.
contrast (contrast):
RoboCop → RoboCop.
In the original, Murphy loses his identity and must rediscover it; here he never does, and the host calls that stupid.
career (career):
Gary Oldman → Batman Begins.
Oldman's Gordon role changed his career after a stretch as a studio villain, and RoboCop asks him to play Gordon again without the mustache.
“He's just kind of Gordon without a mustache being like, Robocop, I'm really trying to help you here.”
contrast (contrast):
RoboCop → RoboCop.
A remake that pushes seriousness and cuts the humor, though the humor is what people remember about the original.
“you're like, huh, because the humor's the stuff that people remember.”
people (people):
José Padilha → Fernando Meirelles.
Meirelles said Padilha told him making RoboCop was the worst experience of his life, with nine of every ten ideas cut.
craft (craft):
RoboCop → RoboCop.
The original's way of showing the conversion was good, but the remake skips the time lapse and wakes him already built.
“the way they did it was really a good way to do it.”
craft (craft):
Legacy Effects → The Tick.
The shop that holds the RoboCop suits also did a lot of the effects work on The Tick, which the speaker knows from working on that show.
“I just know legacy effects who did a lot of stuff on the tick.”
craft (craft):
Legacy Effects → RoboCop.
After the first suit photos went over badly, the production gave Legacy Effects about two weeks to build a second suit closer to the 1987 look, per what the shop told the speaker.
“the production panicked when the 1st photos came out and the response was so bad and we were given like 2 weeks to make a new suit that looked more like the 80s movie”
lineage (lineage):
RoboCop → Batman Begins.
The remake is part of the grounded-and-serious wave that followed Nolan; the speakers say this film marks the end of it.
lineage (lineage):
RoboCop → Casino Royale.
Filmmakers sell the remake as the Casino Royale or Batman Begins of RoboCop while the Easter eggs sneer at the original.
career (career):
RoboCop → Chi-Raq (transcribed 'Shyraq').
Jackson's direct-address monologues here recall Chi-Raq, where he has fun as a meta narrator; here he is muzzled.
“Samuel Jackson has a character who similarly is doing like direct address to the camera monologues, right?”
contrast (contrast):
RoboCop → RoboCop.
Keaton's villain stays the same until a rooftop face-off; the speakers imagine Ronny Cox's version in his place.
“if Michael Keaton is fucking Ronnie Cox, you know. The movie like doesn't have a villain.”
programming (programming):
Resident Evil (film series) → Paul W.S. Anderson.
The next series is the Paul W.S. Anderson-involved Resident Evil films, all six, then Welcome to Raccoon City.
industry (industry):
Edge of Tomorrow → Mr. & Mrs. Smith.
Bourne, Smith and Edge all had the 'is he ever going to finish' chaos, with actors replaced mid-shoot.
“Bourne and Smith and Edge of Tomorrow all had that thing of like, is he ever going to finish this thing?”
career (career):
Edge of Tomorrow → American Made.
Edge is the end of the run where Cruise looks like an aged-well human; by American Made he looks 'nuts'.
contrast (contrast):
Edge of Tomorrow → Cocktail.
Unlike Cocktail or The Color of Money, Cruise's character does not have all the moves; he has to learn them.
contrast (contrast):
Edge of Tomorrow → The Color of Money.
Same point: the earlier Cruise plays the guy who has the moves; Edge has him work for them.
theme (theme):
Edge of Tomorrow → Groundhog Day.
Both are about depression and being stuck; Edge adds the stakes that you keep dying, and it stays hopeful.
“Groundhog Day, I would say is also like about depression.”
contrast (contrast):
Edge of Tomorrow → Groundhog Day.
Groundhog Day hits an inflection point where Bill Murray tries suicide and then just lives through it; Edge is about repeated violent deaths and the hope of advancing.
“Groundhog Day hits the inflection point about halfway through where he's like, let me kill myself.”
people (people):
Christopher McQuarrie → Edge of Tomorrow.
McQuarrie joined halfway through filming, connected the dots, and became the writer on set; he then got Mission Impossible.
“They hire Macquarie like halfway through filming and he immediately looks at what they have and starts like connecting dots and solving problems.”
career (career):
Doug Liman → Chaos Walking.
After Edge, Liman never got another good one; Chaos Walking went through reshoots and recasting and came out years late.
“chaos walking is going back for its 4th round of reshoots and recastings”
what-if (what-if):
Emily Blunt → Iron Man 2.
Fox kept Blunt in Gulliver's Travels instead of letting her be Black Widow in Iron Man 2 and the Avengers.
“Then John Favreau was like, I want you to play Black Widow and Iron Man 2”
what-if (what-if):
Emily Blunt → Get Him to the Greek.
Blunt dropped out of Get Him to the Greek; Rose Byrne replaced her and entered the Apatow system, leaving Blunt in a middle zone until Edge.
“They replaced her with Rose Byrne, who then gets properly fed into the Appatau system”
verdict (verdict):
Edge of Tomorrow → Jumper.
Same director, similar practical-effect obsession; Jumper has a good idea and a bad story, Edge solves it.
“you're like, he figured out this one thing and the story sucks.”
craft (craft):
Doug Liman → Jumper.
Liman's tactile, cable-pulled approach on Jumper's teleports prefigures the practical exosuits in Edge, a classic Liman obsession that here paid off.
“You're like classic Lyman mistake, except they solve it”
industry (industry):
Edge of Tomorrow → Snabba Cash.
Dragomir Mrsic from Edge is in Snabba Cash, the Swedish film that got Joel Kinnaman English-language work and Espinosa the RoboCop remake.
“It's the thing that got Joel Kinnaman in English language productions, and then Daniel Espinoza gets hired to do the Robocop remake”
craft (craft):
Edge of Tomorrow → Monsters, Inc..
The ambiguous final beat mirrors Monsters Inc.: you want to know he goes back to her but no more definitive answer.
“the perfect ending because it's like the Monsters Inc. ending”
what-if (what-if):
Doug Liman → Tom Cruise.
Liman and Cruise announced a film shot in space; it was canceled because Cruise didn't want to owe Trump a favor.
“the space movie is finally like officially fucking canceled”
contrast (contrast):
Million Dollar Arm → Trouble with the Curve.
Two baseball-coded movies from that era: Trouble with the Curve is the Eastwood one, Million Dollar Arm the Hamm one.
contrast (contrast):
Eraserhead → Dances with Wolves.
Dances with Wolves is argued to be a rough draft of what Costner figured out later despite winning Best Picture.
“this is a rough draft for what he fucking figured out later, even though the world responded to it at the time as masterpiece.”
contrast (contrast):
Eraserhead → Edward Scissorhands.
Eraserhead is the same outsider idea as Edward Scissorhands in raw form, where Burton's film was reworked into a presentable studio picture.
“And this is him just doing the pure raw expression version of basically the same idea.”
lineage (lineage):
David Lynch → Henry Mancini.
Lynch as a child liked the music of Henry Mancini; the speaker then jokes none of these influences show in his work.
people (people):
David Lynch → Jack Fisk.
Fisk, the production designer who plays the Man in the Planet, is the other big friend Lynch made in high school.
“Uh, the other big uh, friend that he makes in high school. Jack Fisk.”
craft (craft):
David Lynch → Herbert Cardwell.
Lynch says the original cinematographer was a genius who helped him understand making movies and lighting.
“Lynch says he was a genius who helped him understand everything about making movies, like he knew how to light what he did”
craft (craft):
Eraserhead → Twin Peaks.
Lynch still relates emotions through images the way Eraserhead does, which the speaker saw again in Twin Peaks: The Return.
craft (craft):
Come Out and Play → Makinov.
The masked, pseudonymous Makinov is credited with director, cinematographer, editor, sound department, producer and writer on Come Out and Play, his only credit.
“He is credited as director, cinematographer, editor, sound department producer, and writer.”
what-if (what-if):
The 13th Warrior → Greg Nicotero.
With two reshoot units and a tripled budget, nobody thought to hire Greg Nicotero for creature looks, so the monsters stay men in bear suits.
“no one's like, hey, maybe hire Greg Nicatero and come with a couple cool looks.”
lineage (adaptation scope):
The Killer (graphic novel) → The Killer.
The film takes almost everything from the first 200-odd pages of the comic; the series ran on to 2018.
“it feels like everything from the movie is basically taken from the 1st 200 some odd pages”
fun, about
Vanilla Sky:
Griffin's casting story: a casting director warned him not to joke about 'can you hear me now?' when the Verizon actor wrote and directed a film.
“the writer and director of this film, who's going to be in the audition is the can you hear me now, guy?”
fun, about
Vanilla Sky:
The recording was spread over years because the hosts kept leaving the country, so references to a breakup will be five weeks stale on release.
“Having to re-listen to me make references to how sad I am right now 5 weeks from now when this episode's released.”