Calls Last Temptation his college-era favorite Scorsese; loves Scorsese's smaller 80s and the film's closing transcendence and Gabriel score. Cannot stand fundamentalist outrage at it. A sucker for casting trivia and Tom Cruise-silliness.
Stances
Hot take: Last Temptation structurally mirrors New York, New York as a better version
Outrage over the film is stupid; it is respectful to Jesus
Scorsese's smaller 80s work beats his later baroque phases
Humor: Riffs and character bits on the Willem de ___ names and ongoing running gags.
In their words
“I find the ending so incredibly movie.” (0:19:45)
Loves quirky or deep-cut cinema and playful franchise lore (Muppets, Species, Pink Panther sequels), and enjoys the abjectly stressful pool-hall world. Is a sucker for movie-star mannerisms and for fan trivia. Cannot stand Cars 2 or Zemeckis's Pinocchio.
Stances
Color of Money is a stabilizer, not a pure paycheck gig
Cars is bad and indefensible; Cars 2 is worse
Wants Lorraine Bracco redeemed via a Goodfellas episode
Adds stabilizer to the Blank Check lexicon
Humor: Rapid pop-culture riffing and running bits, playing unpredictably with franchise absurdities and mock-serious proposals.
In their words
“But stabilizer is a term we haven't used before. And you're right. Let's add it to the lexicon” (0:19:50)
“Cars is Doc Hollywood basically beat for beat.” (0:07:08)
Treats After Hours as a personal vibe movie and loves oddball details, Scorsese lore and downtown New York. Fond of Pee-wee and Griffin Dunn, plays bits about being named after Dunn. Cannot stand wasteful nostalgia and hates auto-flush toilets.
Stances
After Hours is a downtown, very Griffin movie
Modern remakes fail because phones and piled-up incident ruin it
Wicked 2 killed Wicked
Humor: Deadpan bits that run on, mock outrage, and wordplay about the Griffin theme.
In their words
“This movie also, let's just say, is very much reflective of my temperament.” (0:07:22)
A film completist who loves the weird 1980 corners of the box office and the Scorsese-De Niro dynamic. Cannot stand Jimmy Doyle as a date and worries about Hollywood executives. A sucker for obscure titles and good trivia and for Casavetes.
Stances
Raging Bull is a funny tragedy
Studio decisions based on metrics are ruining movies
Scorsese uses comedy to implicate the audience
Humor: Playful, riffing, bit-prone, with running gags like Hollywood 3.0.
In their words
“We've coined Hollywood 3.0 today for to describe just like the fucking nonsense that goes on day to day.” (0:13:41)
“The problem is those people who make the decisions now are like, it's like saber metrics.” (1:35:40)
He came to the film bored at 14 (no monsters or puppets) and now respects it without it being his kind of movie; he adores Peter Weir's craft, Pirates of the Caribbean-era trivia and Oscar and career-arc analysis. He is a sucker for genre-bending Weir details and franchise history.
Stances
Revisited the film and understands its value though it is not innately his kind
Pirates of the Caribbean hurt this movie
Insists on playing the box office game
Weir is a patient director
Humor: Self-deprecating, quick riffs, bits about his own childhood tastes.
In their words
“It is innately not my kind of film, but I was not disengaged from it in the way I was as a 14 year old.” (0:36:16)
Loves physical media, 4K steelbooks, and calling unlikely films masterpieces. Prone to over-planning and lateness. An anxious flyer who relies on Klonopin and researches crashes. Has a blind spot for studio comedies he has not seen.
Stances
Fearless is excellent but not a three-hour oil-drilling episode
movies are great again
Small Soldiers and Sliver defended as masterpieces by friends
Humor: Rapid-fire riffs, self-roasts, and elaborate hypothetical bits.
In their words
“They announce they announce small soldiers 4K steel book. and I go, obviously, inarguable masterpiece.” (1:00:59)
A heavy researcher who comes with a 'dossier' of production history, interview quotes and box-office data, and loves Coens details, McDormand and Macy's performances, and deep-cut trivia. He is a sucker for the Mike Yanagita scene and the film's tonal balance, and delights in the weekly box-office game.
Stances
Fargo is the best encapsulation of the Coens, the way Blue Velvet is of Lynch
Macy should have been nominated for lead
Searches for essays-worthy meaning in the editing choices
Defends Jurassic Park III
Humor: Dry, bit-driven, and loves a running gag about podcast mechanics and Ben.
In their words
“I'm going to open the dossier now” (0:40:11)
“directing is about tone management.” (0:32:35)
“Okay, now I need to sidebar here for a 2nd because David and I are both Jurassic Park 3 defenders” (1:19:12)
Loves puppet-baby and in-utero comedy, rewatching movies on Letterboxd, and weird Blu-ray ephemera. He is a Shelley Long Cheers loyalist who was cool on Kirstie Alley until this movie, and has a parent's eye on infant safety. He prefers movies that feel made by one person.
Stances
The in-utero Mikey is peak comedy and the infant middle is lazy
Authorship is the show's central criterion for a director
Rebecca-era Cheers was a shadow of the show
Humor: Escalating riffs and tangents (Rugrats connections, Renaissance prequel pitch) delivered in dry mock-formal register.
In their words
“I think this is both such a good movie star performance from him and such a great example of what I would call a movie star movie” (0:37:06)
“everything about this feels like it was made by one person.” (1:49:39)
Passionate about Spielberg's autobiographical psychology and Oscar-race history; loves Lincoln, Catch Me If You Can, ensemble casts, and Malkovich as a flavor. Cannot stand Always and Spielberg's pure comedies; a sucker for deep-dive trivia and dossier research.
Stances
Empire is a very good movie where Spielberg starts subverting his own style
Fabelmans explains Spielberg's trauma
1941 and Always are weak spots
Spielberg suffers from being compared to his own canon
Humor: Self-aware riffs, callbacks, and long absurd comparisons (sun-dried tomatoes on a sandwich), plus bits about Ben's resolutions.
In their words
“I think this movie's excellent.” (0:38:38)
“He's sun dried tomatoes on a sandwich.” (0:01:21)
“I do not have a single happy memory of my childhood.” (1:52:20)
Came to Indiana Jones late, via box sets before Crystal Skull, and prefers Last Crusade for its silent-comedy streak, with reservations about Temple of Doom. Fascinated by how movies were made and by fandom history; a sucker for Spielberg staging, action craft and comics-era nostalgia.
Stances
Raiders is a lightning-in-a-bottle movie the sequels cannot recapture
Modern action imitators reverse-engineer surface elements
Treats Crystal Skull as half working
Humor: Does self-aware impressions and cranky-David riffs, mixes film nerd rigor with asides.
In their words
“Whereas I think, you know, David and I always felt like weird kids were we were paying attention to this at a time when like people were not.” (0:17:08)
He is the first-time Return viewer on this episode, so his taste shows in reactions: he loves Lynch's plainness, simple low-tech tricks and the sense that reality is ripping apart. He wants spoiler-free viewing, the proper Criterion/box-set version, and cannot stand being told to read recaps. A sucker for bits and for a gift-worthy game of ratings guessing.
Stances
Wants to be unspoiled and refuses to read recaps or the behind-the-scenes documentary yet
Treats Part 8 as hypnotic and nearly unsummarizable until the others explain it
Believes in extended bits (Wonka 2, Gethard cut) over discussion
Humor: He builds long running bits and follows riffs to absurd conclusions, sometimes holding straight faces.
In their words
“I'm going to ask dumb questions because you guys have been thinking on these things for years, if not decades, and I'm new to all of this, right?” (1:09:38)
“I felt like I, as a viewer, had like lost control of my point of view watching.” (0:52:12)
Reads the show's research dossier aloud and loves film-history trivia, particularly how directors get hired and what the studios did to them. Identified from lines addressed to him and dossier reads; many individual attributions with David are uncertain. Enjoys the Dune film as a design and sound object.
Stances
Dune '84 is fascinating as the one bounce that redirected Lynch's career
Respects the dossier's production details over speculation
Humor: Dry riffing and callbacks, running bits with Ben and the dossier-researcher JJ.
In their words
“So in the dossier, David.” (1:05:21)
“JJ, while we were recording, texted David and I hope the Dune dossier still made sense once you reach the deeper pages, LOL.” (2:29:32)
Loves plot-driven noir, weird procedural details (chain mail gloves, pockets, eyedrops) and Park's stranger visual gags. He prepares the director-biography research and box-office game. Is a sucker for bits that run for minutes, like the sand-beach and Wheel of Fortune riffs.
Stances
Park's best scenes are the quietly bizarre ones, ten per film
Decision to Leave works because the hero cannot see her directly
Likes long-running meta bits more than the ad-reads
Humor: Absurdist escalation and puns, running a single detail (chain mail, sand beach) into the ground.
In their words
“Okay, so yeah, let's talk about the plot of the movie. Guy falls off a mountain.” (0:54:04)
“Oh, can I just Shout out to she, young Kim.” (1:34:01)
Treats Sherlock Jr. as a perfect film and loves seeing silent comedy in a theater, where he says it transformed him at CalArts. Prefers Chaplin's One A.M. to his features, and is a sucker for meta jokes about film language and for Cabin Boy-style references. He sours on The Navigator's cannibal-island finale for its racism.
Stances
Sherlock Jr. is one of the best movies ever made and a contender for best film covered on the show
Certain films must be seen in a theater with an audience
Short runtimes of 40 to 50 minutes suit these comedies best
The Navigator is Keaton in play-the-hits mode and the racist finale kills it
Humor: Riffs on running bits and pop-culture parallels, then happily trips himself up in his own jokes.
In their words
“which, for my money, is still the best thing Chaplain ever did, over his features.” (0:58:42)
“you can watch rear window at home and appreciate it.” (1:00:20)
“Chris Elliott and Adam Resnick's cabin boy is such a Buster Keaton setup.” (1:51:04)
Loves Selick's visual inventiveness and thinks Wendell & Wild eventually satisfies despite its density; steeped in film-business history and trivia. Defends big sci-fi blockbusters with heavy exposition like Inception and Avatar. Rankings: Nightmare 1, Coraline 2, Peach 3, Wendell & Wild 4, Monkeybone 5.
Stances
Wendell & Wild works in spite of itself
Netflix botched the release
Nightmare edges Coraline on the ranking
Monkeybone is an odd, likable bad object
Humor: Riffs on streaming-era absurdity and takes self-aware swipes at the show's own running gags.
In their words
“I do think it is cohesive by the end of the movie.” (1:54:06)
“I would say it works in spite of itself.” (1:53:03)
Respects the craft of Fosse and defends Star 80 as powerful and aware of its own evil, while admitting it nearly unbearable. Loves the structural play of Fosse's films and Alan Ladd-era filmmaker faith. Cannot endorse or recommend Star 80, hates the soundtrack and dwells on true-crime and victim culture.
Stances
Star 80 is great but almost unwatchable and not recommendable
Fosse is underrated as a filmmaker
Fosse hates himself and does not seek forgiveness
Ranks Cabaret first with All That Jazz a close second
Humor: Self-deprecating, dark and quick, with pop-culture riffs and jokes about his own podcast.
In their words
“I think this movie is like staring into the sun.” (0:04:19)
“He, I do think, is incredibly underrated as a as a filmmaker.” (0:05:55)
Loves the film's elusive, memory-like childhood section and its refusal to explain itself; is invested in Campion's research quotes and festival lore. Can't stand the bedsheet-to-armpits sex scene and heavy-handed biopic cliches. A sucker for oddball 90s trivia like FX2 and Brian Bosworth.
Stances
The film should be a movie, not a three-part TV series
Likes biopics that focus on one slice of life
Wants to protect young Janet and root for her
Collects odd details and quotes from Campion interviews
Humor: Self-deprecating and digressive, jokes about his own obsessions and failures.
In their words
“I was so like moonlight pilled watching this movie” (0:20:22)
“I just wanted to protect her in this sort of 1st half of the movie.” (0:51:46)
Loves classic-Hollywood trivia, obsessive research dossiers, practical effects and the unfussy craft of Bridges' performance. Worships Dean Cundy and wishes he had shot Starman. Cannot stand overstuffed jukebox movies like the Amazon Cinderella. A sucker for Moulin Rouge, Romeo + Juliet and Oscar-clip nostalgia.
Stances
Starman is a good dorky movie; the poster and home-video art are bad
Cundy would have made it better
Carpenter's unsentimental filmmaking helped it age well
Coppola should make Megalopolis now
Humor: Riffs on voices, absurd imagined scenes and dad jokes, then goes deep on obscure Hollywood trivia.
In their words
“I love a road trip movie.” (1:33:30)
“I'm trying to do Jeff Bridges in this movie” (0:04:43)
Loves a good character-driven film with specificity and is a sucker for franchise action (Mission: Impossible) and spirited bad-movie obsessions. Can't stand Joy and Jason Reitman's tone-deaf fan-service sequels, and gets wary when a movie loses its human focus.
Stances
Ricki and the Flash is a good premise executed poorly
Defends Tully until its twist
Blames some Demme decisions for Ricki's flatness
Humor: Quick pop-culture riffs, fake-announcer bits and absurd puns, often at his own expense.
In their words
“Jason Reitman has given Ghostbusters back to the fans.” (0:02:48)
“I was like, we need to ban children from films forever.” (0:05:16)
Loves practical movie-making and visible seams, and gets emotionally floored by sincere pictures like The Farewell and Spirited Away. Cannot stand dense plotting without a map, gun fetishism, and 'Western catharsis'. A sucker for John Wick, Keanu Reeves, heroic dogs, and a perfect sandwich.
Stances
Nausicaä is busy and he would like it better in sequence after Lupin, Cagliostro and Sky
John Wick: Chapter 3 is the best Wick and one of the year's best
Practical animation cheats are charming, not a flaw
Dubs are fine and he regrets not using the dub for the plot
Humor: Self-deprecating, tangential, and bit-driven, he tends to run an absurd joke (the Disney Store greeter, Galactus-sized puppeteer) until the others stop him.
In their words
“I love practical shit. I love the seams of movie making, you know?” (0:55:15)
“this movie doesn't understand that this is fucked up now.” (1:37:12)
“I think it's maybe the best work of Keanu's entire career.” (1:50:14)
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 601–700 of 1,162 claims.
people (people):
Joe Ranft → Toy Story.
Ranft was a story supervisor on Toy Story.
industry (industry):
The Super Mario Bros. Movie → Chris Pratt.
The Mario trailer set off the argument over whether big-star casting matters in animation.
theme (theme):
The Nightmare Before Christmas → Toy Story.
The first breakthrough film in each form of animation becomes the template: CGI follows Toy Story, stop motion stays creepy.
“And then the CGI becomes so defined by Toy Story.”
unmapped (proof of concept):
Mike Flanagan → Stephen King.
Flanagan wrote the bar scene before the script and gave it to King as a sample of how he would thread the needle.
“He wrote that before he wrote the script and gave that to King”
people (contrast (digital vs actors)):
Doctor Sleep → The Irishman.
The two arrived the same month, one casting new actors for Nicholson and company, the other de-aging the originals.
“This movie comes out right around the same time as the Irishman.”
programming (sequel to a Kubrick film (pairing)):
2010 → Doctor Sleep.
The Patreon feed also covered 2010, another sequel to a Kubrick movie that avoids aping his style.
“Another example of how dare you make a sequel to a Stanley Kubrick movie.”
unmapped (recreated sets):
Doctor Sleep → The Shining.
Flanagan rebuilds the Overlook's art direction detail for detail without trying to ape Kubrick's style.
unmapped (learned sustained tension):
Stanley Kubrick → Mike Flanagan.
Flanagan, quoted from the hosts' dossier, says he learned sustaining tension over jump scares from Kubrick.
“I'm much more interested in sustaining tension, which I learned from Mr. Stanley Cooper.”
unmapped (Overlook recreated):
Ready Player One → Doctor Sleep.
Ready Player One rebuilt the hotel as a deliberate CGI recreation the year before; Doctor Sleep puts live actors into it.
“Ready Player one has this whole sequence where it is truly just a CGI recreation of the hotel”
theme (contemporary comparison):
Platoon → Full Metal Jacket.
At release critics said Platoon's visceral combat made Kubrick's sound-stage Vietnam look less real.
“Kubrick doing this on sound stages isn't the same.”
unmapped (considered for Hartman):
Robert De Niro → Full Metal Jacket.
Kubrick considered De Niro and Ed Harris for Hartman.
“So Kubrick considered a number of actors to play Gunner Sergeant Hartman, Robert De Niro, which is interesting to imagine, Ed Harris, who probably would be good.”
lineage (source of the dialogue):
R. Lee Ermey → Full Metal Jacket.
Per the dossier Hartman's insults came right from Ermey, whom Kubrick had write down what he screamed.
“No, obviously this guy is perfect and would write down everything he said because all the insults came right from him”
people (front-loaded performance):
Mark Rylance → R. Lee Ermey.
Rylance in Bridge of Spies is a comparable case of owning the first 45 minutes and being snubbed or split.
“Like, I was thinking about Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies, right?”
verdict (humor ranking):
Dr. Strangelove → The Shining.
Strangelove ranks lower for the speaker than Barry Lyndon, The Shining and Eyes Wide Shut among Kubrick's funny films.
“I, I, I rank Strange Love lower in the pack of movies I find funny by him.”
unmapped (same song elsewhere):
The Trashmen → Back to the Beach.
The speaker first fell in love with Surfin' Bird in Back to the Beach, not Full Metal Jacket.
“I 1st fell in love with that song in Frankie and Annette's back to the beach”
unmapped (regular hairdresser):
Leonard Lewis → Stanley Kubrick.
Leonard always did Kubrick's hair credits, which is why Hair by Leonard shows on many of his films.
“His name is Leonard Lewis. He was the world's first celebrity hairdresser.”
unmapped (talked out of it):
Paddy Chayefsky → Stanley Kubrick.
Chayefsky eventually told Kubrick he should not direct Network because they were both control freaks.
“Cheevsky eventually is like, you shouldn't do it.”
unmapped (blueprint):
Stephen King → The Shining.
The speakers read Kubrick saying the novel's plot is a good blueprint for the movie he wanted to make.
“I can make whatever movie I want with that as a blueprint.”
unmapped (borrowed habit):
Boris Karloff → Jack Nicholson.
In the Vivian Kubrick documentary Nicholson says he took his script-marking habit from Karloff.
craft (classical-music villain):
A Clockwork Orange → Sleeping with the Enemy.
The speakers ask whether this was the first film to make a love of classical music a mark of evil; then joke about Sleeping with the Enemy.
“Is this the 1st movie to make, like, for classical, like a love of classical music, this person is actually really evil.”
contrast (inverse sequence):
Terrence Malick → 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Malick's raptor scene in Tree of Life does a 2001-style sequence but as the first act of mercy rather than violence.
“Malik always described that as like the 1st act of kindness or the 1st act of mercy.”
theme (underplaying comparison):
Peter Sellers → Robert De Niro.
Speaker pairs Mandrake with De Niro's underplayed Jackie Brown as deceptively difficult acting.
“to actively play someone who's got so little going on is so deceptively difficult because you watch something like this, like Mandrake”
unmapped (business context):
Lolita → Dr. Strangelove.
The speaker says the takeaway from Lolita was that Sellers maybe saved it commercially, so the studio wanted more Sellers for a Kubrick film.
“the takeaway from Lolita was like, sellers maybe saved that movie commercially.”
craft (tone comparison):
Dr. Strangelove → Don't Look Up.
Speakers compare the ending tags and tone of Don't Look Up against Strangelove's balance of satire and sincerity.
“I remembered that don't look up has a tag, right?”
people (performance comparison):
George C. Scott → Robert Duvall.
Scott is likened to Duvall in Network for walking a line of overacting with a foot in reality.
“He's kind of the Deval of this movie where he's like, he's towing a really fine line of like overacting, but with like a foot in reality”
lineage (comedic influence):
Bob Newhart → Dr. Strangelove.
Speaker feels Newhart's one-sided phone-call format and his 1960 albums were a heavy influence on the President's call with the Soviet premier.
“I feel like a heavy influence on the way the president's phone call with Russia play out in this movie.”
lineage (comedic lineage):
Shelley Berman → Bob Newhart.
Speaker says Berman created the one-sided phone bit before Newhart, who maybe lifted a little and popularized it.
“Shelley Berman kind of created before Newheart, Newheart maybe lifted a little bit, but Newheart at least popularized to a different degree.”
craft (set design template):
Dr. Strangelove → Roger Moore Bond films.
Speaker says hiring a Bond designer for the war room changed how such rooms look on screen forever, and the Bond movies being covered have war-room sets.
“It is funny how this movie, this hiring a James Bond guy to design the war room, uh, changes the way you're allowed to put these things on screen forever.”
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.”