Likes the Apes franchise but has only seen the first two; cares about filmography and box-office context. Hard on bloated, calculated star vehicles. Attributions to David are low confidence because the transcript is unlabeled.
Stances
The 2001 film is indefensible
Hype and release dates drove production
Studios chase sequels nobody wants
Humor: Dry, sarcastic tangents about box office and franchises.
Fact-checks on a laptop, pulling dates and biographical trivia (Kinnear's Indiana roots, box office facts); lines individually attributed to him are low-confidence.
Stances
Keeps the episode on movie facts via the computer
Doesn't wear glasses
Humor: Wry deadpan and pointed film-business commentary.
In their words
“I should just note for anyone listening, David has a computer and you're getting the dates with that.” (1:02:09)
“See, I'm not glasses wear.” (0:31:09)
Blank Check with Griffin & David: Flesh+Blood (host)
Likes this movie more in the first half and gets bored by the plague second half. Defends John Hughes, Planes Trains and Automobiles, Breakfast Club. Fond of box office trivia and the 1985 weekend. Cannot stand rambling.
Stances
Second half becomes boring chaos
Hughes's first film is gross
Verhoeven becomes an impressionist of blockbusters
Humor: Dry quips, wordplay and deadpan reactions.
In their words
“I do see, I like this movie more in the 1st half where I think it's more achieving what it wants to do.” (1:12:10)
“Uh, Plan Strans and automobiles is a masterpiece.” (1:34:21)
Loves box office history and the box office game, character acting, and a well-made Spielberg set piece. Cannot stand underwritten leads, miscast villains and nostalgia as a defense. Is a sucker for Austin Powers and a wrong-footed sequel pitch.
Stances
The sequel is dramatically inert
Jurassic Park is a one-movie concept
Nostalgia should not canonize bad films
Humor: Dry, sarcastic one-liners and exaggerated nitpicking, plus comedic fury about the Crichton island names.
In their words
“I just think it's a horrible screenplay full of bad ideas that are totally disjointed.” (0:31:15)
“I don't think there is a great Jurassic Park sequel that could possibly be made.” (0:33:30)
“We have to stop canonizing things just because we saw them when we were young.” (1:39:46)
A working film critic who respects the filmmaking craft but is unforgiving of incoherence; likes actors like Bob Balaban and Jeffrey Wright and notices careful details like casting and release data. Cannot stand a film he finds unwatchable or toxic, as with My Old Lady. A sucker for box office numbers and critic-baiting trivia.
Stances
Lady in the Water is awful and unwatchable
The scrunt looks terrible
Critic characters in movies are usually unfair
Humor: Dry, quick riffs and deadpan dismissals, plus pop-culture cross-references.
In their words
“Where you lose me is the idea that this is a watchable film.” (1:49:10)
The Atlantic film and television critic who adores RDJ's charm and will watch anything out of Oscar completism. Hates showy awards bait and the Dobkin comedy style. Fond of The Godfather, The Apostle, Sam Raimi, and spaceship movies, and says he'd take a dumb spaceship movie over a dumb adult drama.
Stances
Downey was hurt by Marvel; indies are risky for him
Duvall's nomination was a veteran's default, not a sign of quality
The Judge is worse than The Phantom Menace
Humor: Dry deadpan, quick pile-ons, and overdramatic dismissals of bad movies.
In their words
“I am a film and television critic for the Atlantic.” (0:04:50)
“I just want to say this movie is a lot worse than Star Wars episode one of the Phantom Menace.” (1:09:46)
“I'd rather take a dumb spaceship movie than a dumb adult drama.” (1:10:26)
David is an Atlantic critic and box-office nerd who has written about what Hollywood failed to learn from Avatar. He loves the movie as a sincere crowd-pleaser and compares it to Top Gun: Maverick. He is exasperated by writers' rooms and 'director bullshit' he loves.
Stances
Hollywood learned the wrong lesson from Avatar
Avatar and Way of Water should be bet on
Cameron is always right
Humor: Jokey and wry, trading gags about plagiarizing Griffin's takes.
In their words
“I lifted this right from Griffin.” (0:45:17)
“If James Cameron thinks I need 4 Avatar sequels, then I need 4 Avatars.” (1:42:09)
“I also write movie reviews of the Atlantic.” (1:49:02)
Film critic who writes for the Atlantic; likes Joel Kinnaman, For All Mankind and Michael Keaton's rhythms. He is hard on the film but follows the industry context closely. A sucker for box-office trivia and the Mets.
Stances
The film is humorless and a waste of its cast
The grounded Nolan-style reboot wave ended with this film
The suit and the lack of a physical villain are the failures
Humor: Dry asides and tangents, like his Lord of the Rings Gollum-hunt pitch.
In their words
“I wrote their obituaries.” (0:01:32)
“What if you made it about them looking for Golem when he's not around?” (1:36:15)
Fond of the Tom Cruise character-actor mode over movie-star mode; reads the film through its production history and cutting. Dislikes Mr. & Mrs. Smith and Road House. Admires the 2014 slate but ranks Edge near the top.
Stances
Edge is Cruise's unheralded fulcrum performance
The Liman-McQuarrie-Cruise triangle is why it works
Does not want a sequel
Humor: Dry, argumentative asides and cinephile one-liners.
A big Cronenberg fan and a video game kid (Game Boy Camera, Perfect Dark). Likes Villeneuve and Dune but is skeptical of Linklater and Soderbergh episodes that run thin.
Stances
Cronenberg is his Lynch
Dune and Villeneuve deserve an extended look
Skeptical of directors who just try stuff
Humor: Dry deflation and piling on Griffin's bits.
In their words
“Pronenberg is kind of my lynch.” (0:42:28)
“One of my favorite games, this is David Sims speaking” (0:23:16)
Reads the dossier and runs the box office game, with a film-historian's interest in distribution and Oscar history. Skeptical of calling things masterpieces. Has less Lynch background than Griffin and Ben, and is mostly seeing the filmography fresh.
Stances
Parent Trap is not a masterpiece
Lynch's career deserves the miniseries
The box office game gives context to a release
Humor: Dry corrections and pointing out others' mistakes, plus tangents like Grimace.
In their words
“I think a couple of the things you have as masterpiece are a stretch.” (0:09:19)
A Banderas devotee who logs everything on Letterboxd and is drawn to flops and Hollywood context. Finds this film dull and the lead miscast, but likes the idea. Sucker for 1999 box-office detail.
Stances
Banderas is miscast in a realism-minded part
The film is a middling watch
Humor: Dry sarcasm and mock outrage.
In their words
“I have never seen a performance that I feel he is phoning in because he has so much energy as a performer.” (0:47:56)
A working critic who saw the film at a guild screening with Fincher and Walker and relays the Q&A; ranks Zodiac first and Alien 3 high. He likes pulpy genre craft, Soderbergh and Hit Man comparisons, and box-office detail.
Stances
The Killer is Fincher doing a stripped-down genre exercise
Netflix business strategy hurts both Fincher films
Alien 3 is bleak and underrated
Humor: Dry, deadpan ranking-banter and tangents on the weekend box office.
In their words
“I think he said it was 5 days of shooting, but it was 5 weeks of rehearsal.” (1:18:08)
“He said it was Prometheus and Haywire, which makes sense.” (1:17:06)
Likes Mank and Fincher, calls it an airy delight, and interviewed everyone on the crew for his Atlantic story. Loves the Hearst-party scenes and the machinery of Hollywood development. Dislikes the Mank writing frame and The Offer's spirit.
Stances
Mank is more fun than its reputation
The writing frame is the least interesting part of the movie
He likes Mank but not Promising Young Woman
Humor: Sarcastic and deflating, with sudden bits like showing character posters during The Offer.
In their words
“This movie is fun.” (0:20:02)
“I interviewed everyone involved with this movie.” (0:02:09)
“I watched them both in the same night, so they're mushing together in my brain.” (2:01:06)
A working critic who loves Gone Girl as a stylish pulp thriller and keeps a running grudge about the Oscars snubbing it. Fond of craft detail (lighting, gaffers) and old-fashioned stardom talk, and a self-described soft touch on Netflix when they make something good. Wary of bad Netflix-Fincher imitations.
Stances
Gone Girl deserved cinematography, editing and score nominations
Netflix prestige now looks like a diluted Fincher
He is nice to Netflix when it makes something good
Humor: Dry, with groaners and name-mangling bits that the others pounce on.
In their words
“Look, if they make something good,” (0:30:56)
“And when I interviewed Michael Mann, which I just did.” (2:43:38)
“I also was deep in watching 8000000 lawyer movies for a big picture draft episode and I did not want to take on also trying to get through 2 seasons of Mindhunter.” (3:04:06)
Treats Dragon Tattoo as a comfort movie he likes more every rewatch; loves Christopher Plummer's 80s, cold murder, Fincher's craft. Dislikes hot murder and feel-bad-is-good-for-you talk. A sucker for Plummer, Muppets-era nostalgia and a rewatch-conversion story.
Stances
Best 80s of any actor
I want cold murder
Aloha now rules.
Humor: Dry, deadpan; lands the hot take then undercuts it.
In their words
“I like it more every time I rewatch it, which I think is true for a lot of people.” (2:24:32)
A critic who ranks The Social Network number one of 2010 and calls it one of the most rewatchable films of modern history. Likes tight genre craft and thinks the movie became a genre. Cool on The Big Short and the lesser Facebook-adjacent films.
Stances
The Social Network is the best film of its decade
The Big Short rips it off
The film is a harbinger of how culture works
Humor: Dry, with deadpan asides and long riffs on Hollywood business.
In their words
“I have the social network at number one of 2010.” (0:09:14)
“I mean, I think the big short, which is not a movie I love, is the most obvious movie that's ripping off the social network” (0:11:44)
Frames Zodiac against its 2007 competition and talks about its craft precisely. Coined the phrase 'a movie where the look of it makes your teeth hurt'. Treats Zodiac as a comfort-food movie despite the subject.
Stances
Zodiac is Fincher's masterpiece
Digital cinematography can be stunning
The 2007 slate was loaded
Humor: Gleeful, self-aware, quick to riff on bits (the squirrels).
In their words
“Those knives, Griffin, that I have, in my chair back there, they're covered in blood.” (0:01:03)
“This is a movie where the look of it makes your teeth hurt.” (1:10:47)
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 1,091 claims.
lineage (adaptation):
Red Alert (novel) → Dr. Strangelove.
The speaker says Dr. Strangelove is based on Peter George's serious nuclear thriller Red Alert.
“so he scoops up this book called Red Alert, which is, of course, what Dr. Strangelove is based on by Peter George that is a serious nuclear thriller.”
unmapped (how Southern was brought in):
Terry Southern → Peter Sellers.
Sellers had given Kubrick a copy of The Magic Christian, which is how Terry Southern got involved.
“Sellers is the one who gets Southern involved because Sellers had given Kubrick a copy of the Magic Christian, Harry Southern.”
lineage (comedic influence):
Dr. Strangelove → Zucker Brothers.
Speaker had a breakthrough that Strangelove must have been a big influence on the Zucker brothers and Jim Abrahams.
“I did finally have the breakthrough watching this of how much of an influence this movie must have been on the Zucker Brothers and John Abrahams.”
what-if (what-if casting):
Gene Kelly → Sterling Hayden.
Kubrick's first choice for Ripper was Gene Kelly; when Kelly was not available he cast Scott, who asked for Turgidson, and then brought in Hayden.
“He wanted Gene Kelly when he doesn't get Gene Kelly. He casts George C. Scott and George C. Scott then was like, I want to play Buck Turgison instead.”
people (collaborator warmth):
Stanley Kubrick → David Fincher.
Speaker says the warmth of Kubrick's collaborators reminds him of Fincher's collaborators.
theme (similar premise):
Dr. Strangelove → Seven Days in May.
Seven Days in May is a serious political thriller with a similar vibe about the military clashing with the president.
“It's another political thriller with kind of a similar vibe, but it's serious,”
lineage (adaptation):
Arthur Schnitzler → Eyes Wide Shut.
Kubrick turned Schnitzler's Dream Story into Eyes Wide Shut 30 plus years later (per the dossier).
“the Arthur Schnitzler book that he's going to turn into Eyes Wide Shut 30 plus years later.”
theme (theme):
Blackadder (TV) → Paths of Glory.
Growing up on Blackadder, the speaker finds some childlike charm in trench life and felt guilty thinking it during Paths of Glory.
“I was kind of thinking that while watching this, which immediately was a thought I felt very guilty for.”
theme (theme):
Paths of Glory → Dr. Strangelove.
Strangelove pushes the same absurdity far enough for jokes, so the two films are more closely linked than the speaker had thought.
“Like Doctor Strangelove pushes it into a level of absurdity where you can actually have jokes.”
lineage (lineage):
Paths of Glory → Dr. Strangelove.
Strangelove is the nearest thing Kubrick made to Paths of Glory afterward, both being people talking through absurdity.
“the closest thing he's made to this since this is Strangelove, because Strangelove is also people talking through absurdity by and large”
lineage (lineage):
Stanley Kubrick → Fear and Desire.
Kubrick's four explicit war movies are Strangelove, Fear and Desire, Full Metal Jacket and Paths of Glory.
“This strange love, fear and desire, and full metal jacket.”
career (career):
Kirk Douglas → The Bad and the Beautiful.
Douglas in this era is a harder-edged man out of time, as in The Bad and the Beautiful or Ace in the Hole.
“Like when you see him in things like this or the bad and the beautiful or ace in the hole or whatever, you're like, this is, there's no one like this in the 50s, right?”
career (career):
Kirk Douglas → Stanley Kubrick.
Kubrick assumed what a Kirk Douglas movie should be; Douglas wanted to use his stardom to make other kinds of movies.
“And Kirk Douglas was like, I don't want to make Kirk Douglas movies.”
contrast (contrast):
Paths of Glory → All Quiet on the Western Front.
The only plausible rival as the great World War I film; All Quiet is a pre-code, unsanitized, unjingoistic picture.
programming (programming):
Paths of Glory → The Bridge on the River Kwai.
Box office game: Kwai, the 1957 Best Picture winner, was number one the week Paths of Glory went wide.
“number one at the box office, the week, the paths of glory goes wide, is the best picture winner of 1957”
programming (programming):
The Brothers Karamazov → Yul Brynner.
Box office number two; the speaker thinks it was made because Brynner is a Russian star.
“one reason that this movie is getting made is that the star is a Russian.”
lineage (legal sequel):
The Detective → Die Hard.
Sinatra's rights deal on The Detective gave him first refusal on follow-ups, so Die Hard had to be offered to him.
“something in the deal for when Sinatra had bought the rights to the detective, gave him right of 1st refusal on any of the follow-ups”
craft (documentary style):
The Killing → Day of the Fight.
The racetrack footage reminds the speaker of Day of the Fight and Kubrick's Look magazine work.
“It reminds me of, you know, a lot of Kubrick stuff like Day of the Fight”
people (collaboration conflict):
Stanley Kubrick → Lucien Ballard.
Kubrick and Ballard fought over lenses and the racetrack footage; Kubrick won the wide lens fight.
“so much of the stuff from the set of this movie is him fighting with Lucien Ballard over lens sizes”
verdict (verdict):
The Lego Batman Movie → Batman Returns.
David's two favorite live-action Batman films are Returns and Begins; Griffin calls Lego Batman the best Batman movie period.
“Which have always been my 2 favorite live action Batman movies.”
lineage (lineage):
The Lego Batman Movie → The Lego Movie.
The Lego Movie is where the earnest-Batman bit started, and the hosts doubted it could sustain a whole movie.
“It's the thing that the Lego movie lashes onto, but you felt unsustainable for a whole movie.”
craft (craft):
The Batman → The Lego Batman Movie.
Pattinson's eye treatment is the smartest live-action answer to the expressive-mask problem the Lego movie solves.
“No, the thing they do with Patinson is probably the smartest.”
craft (craft):
The Lego Batman Movie → Birds of Prey.
The Joker's funhouse set, color palette, bright lights and self-aware humor recall Birds of Prey.
“I even think, like, the color palette and the use of, like, bright lights and shit.”
career (career):
Ellie Kemper → Bridesmaids.
Kemper should have gotten a vehicle after Bridesmaids; she is a casualty of the mid-budget comedy collapse.
“for me, a perfect example of the bottom falling out on, uh, mid-budget comedy films, where it's like she should have been the next person to get a vehicle after bridesmaids”
theme (theme):
The Lego Batman Movie → Batman Begins.
The pit-and-rope lesson in Batman Begins is the one other time Batman learns anything about himself.
career (career):
Jason Reitman → Ghostbusters: Afterlife.
Reitman, who always said he was different from his father, ended up running a franchise with a PowerPoint press conference.
“now not only did he have to do the franchise that he always said he didn't want to do”
lineage (lineage):
Wes Anderson → Francois Truffaut.
Speaker lists Truffaut among the director's (transcribed Western's) biggest influences while joking about Moonrise Kingdom.
verdict (verdict):
Old Dogs → Room.
A speaker finds Old Dogs more fascinating than The Room, Neil Breen movies or Manos because it was made by seasoned professionals.
“I find this movie more fascinating than like the room or any Neil Breen movie or like Manos the Hands of Fire. Because everyone's been doing this for decades.”
career (career):
Lorenzo Semple Jr. → The Parallax View.
Semple wrote Batman and later serious 70s thrillers like Parallax View and Three Days of the Condor.
“He wrote a lot of, you know, good 70s thrillers and stuff, but he's the main guy here.”
lineage (lineage):
The Batman → Batman (1943 serial).
A New York screening of the 1943 Lewis Wilson serial caused bat fever and led Fox to greenlight the movie.
“someone screened that in New York City and it was such a phenomenon.”
programming (programming):
The Batman → Batman: Mask of the Phantasm.
The humor peaks with the first film and declines across the series; Phantasm and Lego Batman are partial exceptions.
“humor peaks with the 1st one, just decline, basically.”
lineage (lineage):
The Batman → The Dark Knight Rises.
The ocean bomb-disposal sequence is thought to be directly referenced in the final act of Dark Knight Rises.
“this sequence, a lot of people think, is directly referenced by the final act of Dark Knight Rises.”
verdict (verdict):
The Lego Batman Movie → The Batman.
One movie has the best Robin and the only real angle on the Batman-Robin relationship (probably Lego Batman; title not said).
“Because it also is the one movie that I think actually has an angle on what is this relationship?”
lineage (lineage):
The Batman → Zucker Brothers.
The film's stacked visual gags (a joke in the foreground and another behind) are the Zucker Brothers style.
“And very Zucker Brothers, the like, Drebin can be saying something, but there's an additional gag behind him.”
fun, about
Doctor Sleep (title):
The title comes from Danny's humane way of easing people dying in a hospice, a minor thread; some say it should have been Shining 2.
“It's funny that the title of the movie comes from like his very humane way of helping people be at ease before they die, a very sort of minor plot thread.”
fun, about
A Clockwork Orange:
Kubrick pulled the film from Britain a year after release and it stayed out until his death; it was banned in Ireland until 1999.
fun, about
A Clockwork Orange:
McDowell scratched his cornea during the eyedrop scenes and the numbing wore off in the car; a speed bump felt like a razor blade.
fun, about
Dr. Strangelove:
The release was delayed by the Kennedy assassination; a speaker also notes the President is the last reasonable president in an American satire, because Kennedy was in office.
“this movie was delayed because of the assassination of Kennedy.”
fun, about
Terry Southern:
Sellers gave Kubrick The Magic Christian, which brought Southern in; the dossier read is that Kubrick wrote it, George inspired it, and Southern made it funny.
“JJ's read on the screenplay, though, is that it's Dubrick wrote it.”
fun, about
Dr. Strangelove:
The first page of the screenplay says the story will be played for realistic comedy and the acting will never be so-called comedy acting.
“The 1st page of the screenplay says, the story will be played for realistic comedy”
fun, about
Gene Kelly:
The original plan for Jack D. Ripper was Gene Kelly. Kubrick then cast George C. Scott, who asked to play Turgidson instead, and brought in Sterling Hayden.
“You know who the original plan was to cast for Jack D. Ripper, the Sterling Hayden Row?”
fun, about
James Earl Jones:
Jones had a big role questioning the mission; Kubrick decided he did not want the protesting crew member to be a Black actor and cut it. Jones told him he took the part for the cut material.
“eventually Kubrick decided he didn't want the guy protesting to be a black guy and cuts everything out.”
fun, about
Dr. Strangelove:
Kubrick wrote down about thirty alternate titles, including Wonderful Bomb, Dr. Doomsday, and Dr. Strangelove's Secret Uses of Uranus.
“The weird one is Dr. Strangelove's secret uses of Uranus.”
fun, about
Kirk Douglas:
In Munich the rewritten script had a happy ending; Douglas threatened to walk. Kubrick calmly said he wanted a commercial hit.
fun, about
Kola Kwariani (Nick the Wrestler):
A former wrestler Kubrick met through chess circles, he died at 77 after fighting five teenagers outside his chess club.
“He was 76 years old and he was leaving his regular chess club where he played and he was jumped by 5 teenagers”
fun, about
Fear and Desire:
The poster sells a 'half animal girl' with an illustration of a kissed neck, making the war movie look supernatural.
“An illustration of, uh, Paul Mizurski kissing her neck that makes it look consensual, and says, fear and desire, trapped for desperate man, and a strange half animal girl.”
fun, about
Alien: Covenant:
Originally titled Alien: Paradise Lost; Damon Lindelof was going to write it before bailing, then John Logan, with a first script by the Transcendence writer and a Michael Green rewrite.
“Initially, it was going to be called Alien Paradise Lost.”
fun, about
Ridley Scott:
Scott gave interviews saying there would be no aliens or xenomorphs, then reversed; the hosts wonder if it was him or the studio telling him to put aliens in.
“initially Scott was giving these interviews where he was like, there won't be aliens”
fun, about
Alien: Covenant:
The online prologue with James Franco and Noomi Rapace is not in the film; the initial cut ran about 2.5 hours and Scott trimmed the franchise stuff.
“it was this thing with James Franco, who is not in this movie, although you see him in like photos.”
fun, about
Ron Perlman:
The basketball shot: Weaver actually sank it over her shoulder on a quick take and Perlman's reaction is real; no visual effects.
fun, about
Sigourney Weaver:
Weaver would not let toys be made with guns for years; Resurrection was the only time, and no collector figure for 15 years after.
“one of the key reasons was because she didn't want her action figures coming with guns.”
fun, about
You've Got Mail:
The box office for December 18, 1998: You've Got Mail at number one, ahead of Prince of Egypt, A Bug's Life, Star Trek: Insurrection, and Jack Frost.
“So number one, though, it's you've got mail, $18 million.”
fun, about
Jack Frost:
The animatronic Jack Frost snowman was built from the likeness of George Clooney, who dropped out late; Michael Keaton replaced him.
“But they built it off of the likeness of the actor who was supposed to play the title role who dropped out very late.”