Admires Eddie's subtlety in the film and the Detroit-set opening that sets it apart from other 80s blockbusters. Appreciates sly craft details like pop songs turning down for a scene. He is a sucker for the rival-duo moments and the soundtrack.
Stances
The opening feels like Mean Streets rather than an 80s blockbuster
Eddie's performance is quiet and sly, not stuck in a persona
Humor: Understated, pop-culture-reference humor.
In their words
“he's really sly in this movie” (0:06:13)
“Also, a secret trope of the 80s movie making is pop song playing over montage.” (0:35:52)
Loves big-picture film history and awards lore, brings printed research and Roger Ebert quotes, and likes comfort rewatches (Wedding Crashers, Beverly Hills Cop). Bad on moral outrage as a critical starting point. A sucker for pizza as a holy deity and for New York.
Stances
Do the Right Thing is a perfect screenplay and Spike's fiction apex
The Denby, Klein, and Crouch criticism missed the film
Tarantino lifted things from this movie
The worst New York pizza beats California food
Humor: Deadpan and procedural; reads 'half-assed Internet research' with mock apology, and picks fights over pizza.
In their words
“Half-assed internet research.” (1:06:03)
“Pizza is a holy deity to me.” (1:35:53)
“I have thought about this movie every day of my life since 1989, so ask away.” (1:32:24)
Sean is the one who treats Reservoir Dogs as a film education: the Melville and The Killing recommendations, the 10-year-old rewatcher who rented it. He loves the sound-and-image craft of the opening, Buscemi as the ideal Buscemi, and the commode story. Cannot let a bad accent go.
Stances
Reservoir Dogs is the film that shaped how he related to pop culture
Roth's accent is a pet peeve
Madonna's refutation is why the tipping theory wins the Ewing Award
Humor: Dry and unbothered, undercutting Bill's categories.
In their words
“Go rent the killing if you haven't seen it.” (0:47:22)
Cinephile with filmmaker-career knowledge (Todd Phillips' documentaries, Phillips-Cooper partnership). Loves Wayne's World 2 and rewards deep-cut details. Not a fan of The Hangover sequels or the Godfather compound mistake.
Stances
Todd Phillips won the movie
Hangover 2 and 3 are not worth revisiting
Fuck the South Shore, North Shore forever
Never said Frank Sinatra wasn't cool
Humor: Mock-wounded pride about his Godfather misses and hometown loyalty.
In their words
“I am from the northern shore of Long Island, and I'm north shore till I die.” (1:09:30)
“it's Todd Phillips for me because of everything I said.” (1:05:58)
Cares about behind-the-scenes lore and fair historical context; likes Kurt Russell's career arc and Westerns. Dislikes stereotypical bad takes. Provides the lore breakdown.
Stances
Tombstone is better than Wyatt Earp
Russell's apex is 1982-83
Ghost director story is the soul of the film
Kurt Russell wins spiritually
Humor: Dry, knowing asides, calls out cohosts' takes.
In their words
“The miracle of this movie is that so it was basically, let's just say it's directed by 3 people.” (0:09:03)
“He was nominated for best supporting actor, four, Silkwood” (0:48:04)
Obsessed with Brian De Palma and sees this as his last great movie; loves Carlito's Way, The Untouchables, Blow Out, and heist movies like Rififi. Dislikes masks that break the rules. A sucker for Henry Czerny and the Langley vault.
Stances
This is De Palma's last great movie
Langley heist is the most rewatchable scene
Villains' goals in the MI series are always vague
Humor: Enthusiastic, tangents about Usenet confessions and hypothetical senator IP.
In their words
“I love I love Brian De Palma's movie making.” (0:07:34)
“I realized that this is his last great movie” (0:06:56)
Loves gory, funny, fast genre movies with craft and confidence, especially 87-minute films that never overstay. Can't stand ponderous elevated horror that fills out its runtime with introspection and sad family history. A sucker for the Carpenter-era lineage, Die Hard homages, and directors who break studio dogma.
Stances
Resident Evil is one of the best films of the year
Horror movies have become a drag; fun genre experiences are needed
Short running times are a virtue
Video-game films work best when great filmmakers get creative license
Humor: Dry, self-deprecating banter and bit-building (mouse in Boston, Dion Waiters riff, cardigan mouse).
Loves slashers and the final-girl canon, and writes about them; holds Miasma up as an A-plus and Obsession as incomplete but provocative. Uses Smile 2 as a reference. Is a sucker for tonal gear-shifts and sincere-yet-silly filmmaking.
Stances
Miasma is sweet and sincere, not scary
Obsession is incomplete but its reaction is unusual
Horror is more mainstream than ever
Final-girl trope has run to the end of the road
Humor: Dry teasing, running gags with Adam about the Blue Jays and podcasting.
In their words
“as a certified slasherologist,” (0:30:16)
“I like camping miasma exponentially more, you know, like much, much more.” (0:39:49)
“Okay, Adam, one thing, one movie that I revisited this week in writing about Final Girls was Smile 2.” (0:44:06)
A lifelong He-Man collector who admits the film has his number even when he thinks it is flawed. He loves Henson fantasy, Excalibur, and unvarnished, handmade movie moments, and prizes sincere emotional entry points. He is allergic to Marvel-style end-credit teases and sequel bait, and is a sucker for Hensonian creature work and toy nostalgia.
Stances
The film is wildly flawed and too long but tonally interesting
Handmade, unpolished horror like Obsession is what the fandom wants
Fantasy canon is mostly the five things everyone says
Tired of sequel-bait end credits
Humor: Self-deprecating about being a broken fan critic, riffing on his own 'film critic or not' persona.
In their words
“I'm a bizarre broken person and this silly thing means a lot to me, right?” (0:42:31)
“I want to watch a movie finish itself.” (1:12:44)
“Yeah, I would I would throw Dark Crystal and Excalibur into that cannon.” (1:18:46)
Likes lean, formally controlled genre movies, prefers Sondheim to Lloyd Webber-era musicals, and respects cult phenomena once he understands them. He doesn't care for modern movie musicals, bad-good irony, or over-psychologized horror. He is a sucker for movie stars and celebrity mystique and for a good Letterboxd rating.
Stances
Mamma Mia is both very good and very bad and he's willing to join the cult
Camera work and direction in Mamma Mia are poor
Dislikes modern musicals like Wicked and over-performative choreography
Not fond of 'so bad it's good'
The Strangers is richer than its 81 minutes suggest
Humor: Dry, digressive and self-deprecating, building long riffs on sports fandom, marriage and Meryl Streep's filmography.
In their words
“I've never seen a film be so good and so bad simultaneously.” (0:52:28)
“I'm actually willing to join the cult, but it is extremely important to talk about the myriad ways in which this movie also kind of stinks.” (0:52:38)
“It's just not a bad idea for a movie and maybe there should be other movies like this.” (1:26:26)
Loves genre craft and auteur signatures: devoted to Sam Raimi, delighted by Send Help as exactly what he wants from any month, and fond of movie stars with range. Detests mean-spirited, incoherent studio product like Mercy, and likes making lists of underused stars. A sucker for Beatles, Chris Pine and scenes that feel like real fights.
Stances
Mercy is ugly, mean, immoral and structurally confused
Send Help is the model fun genre movie, and Rachel McAdams should be in more
Hollywood misuses stars, especially women over 40
Amy Adams is partly responsible for her own bad roles (low confidence in attribution)
Humor: Dry compliment-sandwich deadpan, with dramatic mock hosting and running bits like the list of 22 stars.
Loves ambitious, Hollywood-about-Hollywood spectacle and big-swing auteur messiness: Babylon, Nope, Avatar: The Way of Water, Barbarian, EEAAO. Likes genre mashups with sincere hearts, rewatches Zack Snyder's Justice League, and wants theatrical formats (70mm). Will follow a filmmaker for decades after one great film.
Stances
Babylon is a near masterpiece and he is obsessed with it
Peele's messier movies reward rewatching
Avatar: The Way of Water is a film he loves and was moved by
Awards campaigns should not define a movie's reputation afterward
Humor: Dry, performative magnanimity, grandly generous gestures, and teasing his co-hosts about pants.
In their words
“I love Babylon more than I love tar.” (0:31:21)
“I love, love, love this movie.” (0:43:31)
“I tend to not go back to films aside from Zack Snyder's Justice League, which I've seen 10 times.” (0:32:25)
“I think it's probably his most satisfying film for me since in Bruges.” (0:44:50)
Loves the apotheosis of Scorsese's style and long, ambitious movies, and champions Leo, blues-drenched needle drops and big Hollywood events. He is bothered by audiences who misread excess as celebration and by passion projects that take decades. He is a sucker for personal connections, like Long Island details, and for a rankable list.
Stances
Wolf is the culmination of Scorsese's hyperkinetic 21st-century style
Leo's performance may be his best of the century
Audiences who read Wolf as a celebration are misreading it
Silence is a serious rival pick
Humor: Dry and self-deprecating, deflating moments with a deadpan aside and teasing his co-host.
In their words
“it's like the final boss of a thing he developed in the 21st century as a director.” (0:03:29)
“So we continue to make mistakes throughout this experience.” (0:02:06)
Loves Wes Anderson's Rushmore best and treats Tenenbaums as the calling card. Responds to its imaginative-Texan, literary-pop sensibility, and to sad comedy. Admires showy camera moves and needle drops. (Attribution of individual remarks is low confidence.)
Stances
Tenenbaums is the right Anderson pick as a bridge from indie to institution
Hackman's resistance to the Anderson style makes the film
Humor: Self-deprecating banter about fantasy football punishment and eyeliner.
In their words
“I will wear the Richie Tenbaum headband.” (0:26:06)
Loves Moneyball as one of his favorite movies of the decade, a baseball obsessive, a fan of Pitt's movie-star presence and Sorkin's writing. Drawn to character studies about unfulfilled promise and process movies. Allergic to self-serious later Miller and to Oscar logic.
Stances
Moneyball is the best sports movie of the decade
Pitt's best performance
Bennett Miller is interested in characters, not sports
Oscars miss the right role
Humor: Deadpan, self-deprecating banter, running gags about Chris Ryan and pants.
In their words
“The best sports movie of the decade, one of the, for my money, the best performance by one of the great movie stars of our generation.” (0:02:37)
Loves tilted, genre-mixing movies (Wild at Heart, Gremlins 2) and mainstream crowd-pleasers he grew up with (Home Alone, Ghost, Total Recall). He kept the draft's logic and also took the Spike Lee Mo' Better Blues as a heartfelt late pick. A sucker for sequels with a point of view and for the Rewatchables tie-in.
Stances
Gremlins 2 is among the cleverest movies about the scary future of America
Wild at Heart is great but not top Lynch
Chose to skip five sequels to New Hollywood classics in the sequel slot
Humor: Dry, deadpan teasing, especially of his co-hosts' drafting mistakes and the Braves.
In their words
“I'm taking David Lynch's Wild at Heart.” (1:11:00)
“one of the cleverest, if not the most clever movie about like the scary future of America” (1:15:14)
“I think misery is the best movie of the bunch.” (0:57:28)
Sean is the Minecraft-business optimist who still admits it is a mediocre movie; he loves a theatrical crowd losing its mind, auteur exercises (Soderbergh), music movies, queer European arthouse thrillers and Canadian cinema (Egoyan). He recommends in bulk, with caveats ('mixed on this, but I want to recommend it'). He's a sucker for the macro story: globalization, China, IP, and the studio math.
Stances
A Minecraft Movie is not a good movie but is an important, essential one
Kids deserve their own movies; chicken jockey gave him life
Theatrical revival needs IP and eventization right now
Film critics (incl. himself) share blame for the superhero glut
Optimistic about April and the studio year despite a bad Q1
Humor: Deadpan thesis-mongering and self-mocking melodrama ('movie bleed out'), with a constant needle for Amanda's habits.
In their words
“I'm excited about what's happened over the weekend and I have so many reasons why.” (0:01:58)
“I'm ove indexed on caring about movies.” (0:52:38)
“But you're right that I am kind of paying a penance because my enthusiasm contributed to leading us to this place.” (0:46:09)
Saw Babygirl three months before the episode and again with his wife, and the second viewing made him want a dog. Names The Brutalist his favorite movie of the year and conducts the Halina Reijn interview. Attribution inside the Hall of Fame draft is uncertain, but the draft voice that reads the filmography, champions Dead Calm and wants to hold a listener vote is probably his.
Stances
Babygirl works best as set pieces, a comedy of manners played straight, not Basic Instinct
The Brutalist is the best film of the year
Pushes Dead Calm into the Hall of Fame (low confidence)
Humor: Dry and needling, prone to pretending to be wounded.
In their words
“I think we should get a dog.” (0:12:02)
“I'm very curious about, uh, the big needle drops.” (2:32:14)
Loves spectacle done with craft and the practical heft of the original Gladiator; counts it just under his top tier of Ridley Scott. Can't stand sloppy CGI animals, soft scripts and legacy sequels that merely restate the original. A sucker for actors committing, a big Mad Max: Fury Road partisan.
Stances
Gladiator II is a huge disappointment and also incredibly entertaining
Denzel Washington is the best thing in it, but Macrinus's villainy was telegraphed
CGI baboons and sharks pull him out of the film; real animals would be better
Wants Ridley Scott to finally win Best Director
Humor: Dry, ringleader-style needling of his co-hosts, with absurd escalations (method-acting baboons, Bitcoin vs. cranking it).
In their words
“how do you communicate that this movie is a huge disappointment to me and also incredibly entertaining.” (0:16:31)
A fan of Chazelle's showy, homage-heavy filmmaking and a self-declared proud member of the Babylon hive. Loves Singin' in the Rain, physical media, genre like Suspiria, and the Immaculate theatrical experience. Can't stand long bad blockbusters, though long ambitious films do not bother him. Hunts movie-night rituals and bits.
Stances
Babylon is a maligned masterpiece and the middle and ending montage hold up
Long movies are fine when they are good; the problem is long bad blockbusters
Movies are best with a crowd and a ritual of focus
Humor: Deadpan tangents and mock-solemn setups (snack lists, bridge-dog theory, fake complaints about the golf scandal) that pull the room off the film and back.
In their words
“Now, listen, I am a proud member of the Babylon Hive.” (2:57:53)
“who's going to show this kid? Suspiria, you know, if not me.” (1:52:01)
“Tell you what, I think I'm a pretty normal guy.” (1:09:04)
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.
The Rewatchables
Apex Mountain: The moment a star peaks; where on the mountain a performance sits.
Who Won the Movie: The hosts name the person who came out of the film best off.
The Ebert review: Roger Ebert's original review and star rating read aloud. Ebert is cited, never on the show.
Casting what-ifs: Who was almost cast, or who should have been.
Most rewatchable scene: The scene each host would stop on while flipping channels.
Aged best / aged worst: What holds up and what does not.
Picking Nits: The little things in a film the hosts love that they don't think totally work: the nits.
Double feature: The film each host would pair it with; a programming pick.
Their claims
Showing 801–900 of 1,576 claims.
craft (craft):
Ferrari → Collateral.
Collateral's one-night compression is the same pleasure as Ferrari's compression.
lineage (homage):
The Killer → Rear Window.
The Paris hit sequence is a clear homage built on watching rooms across the street.
“it is a kind of rear window monkey. You know, it is like an attempt to recreate the across the street path, vision of what is happening in rooms in another building, and clear homage to that film.”
craft (sound design technique):
The Killer → Ren Klyce.
The sound designer moves the Smiths song from diegetic to stereo soundtrack as perspective flips, then pulls it back into the killer's ear on the Johnny Marr lick.
“Ren Kleiss, the sound designer, has chosen to move the music into from diagetic to pure stereo soundtracking as the perspective of the movie shifts.”
people (actor credits):
Charles Parnell → Top Gun: Maverick.
Parnell is remembered from Top Gun Maverick and Dead Reckoning, a character actor getting his chance as a plucked-by-auteurs turn.
“Charles Parnell, uh, who people remember from Top Gun Maverick, and, you know, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning”
theme (genre ancestry):
The Killer → Jean-Pierre Melville.
The sparse expressionless killer film riffs on Melville, Kurosawa samurai movies and Walter Hill's The Driver.
“This is a Melville movie, this is a Curasawa samurai movie. This is all that stuff, right? This is the Walter Hill, the driver movie.”
unmapped (emotional through-line):
The Killer → Seven.
Repressed emotion under the surface, as in Seven's gun-aiming shot of Brad Pitt, runs through Fincher's work including The Killer.
“think of the shot, um, in 7 when, uh, Brad Pitt is aiming the gun at John Doe”
unmapped (emotional through-line):
The Killer → Gone Girl.
Amazing Amy's coping with childhood exploitation is another Fincher story of someone never letting the facade break.
“Gone Girl is the same way, you know, like everything that Amazing Amy is going through is like her coping with”
lineage (influence):
David Fincher → Alfred Hitchcock.
Fincher loves Hitchcock, who made conventionally entertaining movies carrying deep, confused emotional themes, the dual-entertainment mode Fincher pursues.
“he also knows that he loves Alfred Hitchcock, and what does Alfred Hitchcock do? He makes conventionally entertaining movies that have deep, confused, emotional themes”
theme (thematic trio):
The Killer → Mindhunter.
Mindhunter, Mank and The Killer are three works asking what it was all for, suggesting Fincher is questioning his own devotion.
“Mindhunter and Mank and this are 3 movies slash series about kind of like, what is it all for?”
contrast (contrast):
The Killer → Fight Club.
Fight Club is about societal and male-psyche breakdown; The Killer is about a functioning guy who messed up at work.
“Fight Club is about the breakdown of society and the male psyche. The killer is about a guy who's like, shit, I fucked up at work”
craft (opening style):
Killers of the Flower Moon → Goodfellas.
The opening tracking shot echoes the Copacabana shot before the film rejects that mode.
“It was a very long tracking shot through Leo's arrival, which is, you know, gesturing to Copacabana”
unmapped (dim protagonist):
Killers of the Flower Moon → Taxi Driver.
Ernest joins Scorsese's lineage of dim men wreaking havoc: Jake LaMotta, Travis Bickle, Henry Hill.
“You could say this is true of Jake Lamata. You could say this is true of Travis Bickle. You could say this is true of Henry Hill.”
unmapped (cultural context):
Killers of the Flower Moon → Reservation Dogs.
Reservation Dogs is cited as one of the few truly mainstream pieces of Native culture, contrasting with the absence of a big indigenous-made epic.
“reservation dogs has become one of the most acclaimed shows of the last 10 years.”
“This is a convergence movie, in the way that so many of these movies are convergence, but silence is a convergence movie. The Irishman is a convergence movie.”
theme (genre echo):
Killers of the Flower Moon → Giant.
Its magnitude and oil, family and betrayal themes recall Giant, with Ford, Hawks, Stevens epic scale.
“I did think of giant a few times while watching the movie, which is a movie about oil and families and betrayal.”
lineage (landscape and spirituality):
Killers of the Flower Moon → Kundun.
An American version of the desolate landscapes and haunting spirituality of Kundun, Silence, Last Temptation.
“it is him doing an American version in some ways of what he did in Kundun, in silence, and last temptation of Christ”
unmapped (production scale):
Killers of the Flower Moon → Heaven's Gate.
The $250M-ish Jack Fisk-built world is defended against studio cost-cutting, with Heaven's Gate as a nod.
“you don't need $250000000 Jack Fisk production design. You don't like it is like heaven's gate”
“the fun, the brazenness, the, the energy of Wolf of Wall Street, the kind of solemnity, the probing nature, the sort of like punishing aspect of silence.”
industry (awards rival):
Killers of the Flower Moon → Oppenheimer.
Oppenheimer is the likely Best Picture winner, with Killers second or third; also a 'great men' versus 'were there any great men' contrast.
“I feel like Christopher Nolan believes that there were great men in history.”
verdict (ranking):
Crimes of the Future → Barbarian.
Adam has Crimes at five; Sean has Crimes in his top ten, with a strong case for best comedy of the year.
“strong case for best comedy of the year, though it may not feel that way.”
people (same director):
The Eternal Daughter → The Souvenir Part II.
Sean thought The Souvenir Part II was an incredible statement and The Eternal Daughter an interregnum by comparison.
“I thought the souvenir part 2 was like an incredible statement.”
lineage (influence):
The Eternal Daughter → Jack Cardiff.
Sean felt the film downshifted into a Jack Cardiff style 1960s British ghost story he had seen before.
“this just kind of felt like a downshift to like making a, you know, Jack Cardiff, like 1960s British ghost story.”
theme (comparison):
Babylon → Boogie Nights.
Sean says the Boogie Nights comparison for Babylon is apt, though he thinks the characterization is weaker.
“The Boogie Nights comparison has been made frequently.”
career (career arc):
Babylon → La La Land.
Sean, who loved Whiplash and First Man but not La La Land, reads Babylon as Chazelle realizing La La Land was a mistake.
“This feels like him realizing that La La Land was a mistake, which I thought I think is like a magnificent thing.”
people (same director):
Decision to Leave → The Handmaiden.
Sean says The Handmaiden was the first Park movie he liked in a long time, then Decision to Leave was the next.
“It was like the 1st park movie I'd liked in a while.”
theme (comparison):
Decision to Leave → Basic Instinct.
Sean likens Decision to Leave to Park's version of Basic Instinct, a perfectly directed little romantic noir.
“I liked this one as like his basic instinct, you know, like, this is a perfectly directed little romantic noir.”
people (same director):
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed → Laura Poitras.
Sean says the film fits Poitras's past films about outsiders and how media is disseminated, while reimagining what matters to her.
“somehow in keeping with the films that she's made in the past about outsiders and the way that media is disseminated”
verdict (ranking):
Tár → Top Gun: Maverick.
Sean says his number two Tar and number one Nope are close, as electric moviegoing experiences, while his number three is Top Gun: Maverick.
“This, my number 2 and my number one are just, I almost did one and one and then I didn't do it”
craft (style comparison):
Tár → Stanley Kubrick.
Sean says Tar is perceived as having Kubrickian coldness, which makes it less inviting at the box office.
“it at least is perceived as having that Kubrickian coldness, which I think is not very inviting as a movie going experience.”
programming (pairing):
Aftersun → The Fabelmans.
Sean calls Aftersun an interesting pairing with The Fabelmans, both memory movies about childhood; Aftersun is told while the memory is fresher.
“Interesting pairing with the fablemans, this movie.”
industry (awards comparison):
Aftersun → Moonlight.
Sean says A24 could push Aftersun like Moonlight if they did not have Everything Everywhere All at Once.
“you could see them really pushing a kind of moonlight-esque campaign behind this film.”
verdict (ranking):
Top Gun: Maverick → Nope.
Sean puts Nope at number one over his number three Top Gun, arguing Nope makes you think while Maverick deliberately does not; he says you can love one without knocking the other.
“It is like, I loved Top Gun Maverick, but it doesn't ask you to think about a single goddamn thing.”
lineage (influence):
Nope → Close Encounters of the Third Kind.
Sean says Nope is as much a Spielberg movie as any he has seen in a long time, with Close Encounters the usual touchstone, and notes the shared theme of looking up and trying to see.
“nope is as much a Spielberg movie as any movie I've seen in a long, long time.”
programming (same-year pairing):
Nope → The Fabelmans.
Sean finds it fascinating that in one year Spielberg made a movie about why he makes movies and Peele made the most Spielbergian movie in ages.
“it's fascinating that this is a year in which Spielberg made a movie about how he figured out why he wanted to make movies”
lineage (lineage):
Nope → Eadweard Muybridge.
Sean reads Nope as launching from the black jockey in Muybridge's original film strip, an invented family tied to a hundred years of film history.
“related to the black jockey that we see in the Edward Weybridge, you know, original film strip, and then use that as the launch point for 100 years of film history”
career (career comparison):
Jordan Peele → Christopher Nolan.
Sean says Peele and maybe Nolan are the only ones who get a huge check and use it to blow your mind.
“Like maybe Christopher Nolan is the only person you could say who's like, okay, you have a $100000000 check, blow my mind.”
career (career fork):
Nope → Phantom Thread.
Sean wonders if Peele will go the Phantom Thread route, the Visit route, or keep making Inception-scale films, and hopes for a Spielbergian approach.
“in 10 or 15 years whether or not Jordan Peele is making his phantom thread.”
lineage (sequel theme):
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever → Black Panther.
The first film's theme was isolation versus justice (Killmonger vs. T'Challa); the sequel has a real-world theme too, about allyship between Latinx and Black communities, but is not done as well.
“his movies always have a big dynamic real world theme in them in a way that I don't think many Marvel movies do.”
unmapped (mythology):
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever → Clash of the Titans.
Sean suggests Amanda could watch Namor's Mayan mythology the way she might watch Greek-myth movies like Clash of the Titans or Troy.
“is there any like suspension of disbelief where you could watch it the same way you might watch Clash of the Titans or Troy, you know?”
unmapped (mythology):
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever → Troy.
Sean pairs Troy with Clash of the Titans as myth-based movies that ask for the same suspension of disbelief.
“you might watch Clash of the Titans or Troy, you know?”
unmapped (blue people / underwater):
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever → Avatar.
Amanda could not stop thinking of Avatar because it is another Disney underwater saga with blue people.
“I mean, it's an underwater saga from the Disney corporation.”
craft (craft):
Beachler → Black Panther.
The first film's production design and Ruth Carter's costumes kept it in one coherent Afrofuturist look, which the sequel lacks.
“in part because of the Ruth Carter costume design, had a beach or production design.”
craft (visual coherence):
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever → Black Panther.
The first film lived in one coherent Wakanda look from Ruth Carter's costumes and the production design, while the sequel hops between many places and loses a single visual style.
“In this movie, we're in so many places, that ship at night, Riri's dorm room, Talakan, Everett Ross's jogging trip, his kitchen, the movie's just all over the place.”
unmapped (succession story):
Black Panther: Wakanda Forever → Game of Thrones.
Sean says a version centered on who should rule Wakanda is the kind of heir story Game of Thrones told expertly, though not House of the Dragon.
“Game of Thrones was very good at posing who should be the heir.”
lineage (lineage):
Avatar → Edgar Rice Burroughs.
Cameron's Avatar treatment drew on childhood sci-fi reading, Burroughs and Haggard.
“drawing inspiration from, quote, every single science fiction book that he had read in his childhood, and also Edgar Rice Burroughs, H. Rider Haggard.”
programming (programming):
Avatar: The Way of Water → Napoleon.
Apple may release Napoleon on Christmas Day because the landscape is soft.
“Apple is seriously considering releasing Ridley Scott's Napoleon starring Joaquin Phoenix on Christmas Day because they're looking at the landscape and they're like, it's soft out here.”
career (career context):
Baz Luhrmann → Moulin Rouge!.
Luhrmann reinvented musicals with Moulin Rouge and redefined the jukebox musical, making him a natural fit for Elvis.
“reinvented musicals, really, with Moulin Rouge and redefined the idea of the jukebox musical.”
people (performance praise):
Elvis → Austin Butler.
Butler embodies Elvis so well that Sean thought he was really good, though the Parker framing detracts from him.
“I don't know if he looks exactly like Elvis, but man, he embodies him so well.”
unmapped (prefigured by):
Elvis → Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story.
A scene in Elvis (the subject thinking over his life before going on stage) is almost beat for beat preceded by Walk Hard.
“there is a scene that is almost beat for beat preceded by walk hard 15 years ago.”
theme (genre boom):
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Rocketman.
Walk Hard did not deflate the music biopic; Rocketman, Bohemian Rhapsody and Respect kept coming, certifying it as a subgenre.
“So it didn't actually deflate anything. If anything, it almost like raised them up and certified them as an ongoing subgenre in film.”
craft (shared plot device):
Walk Hard: The Dewey Cox Story → Elvis.
Both feature a dead brother as the formative trauma (Walk Hard's wrong-kid-died gag, Elvis's twin).
“that's also the premise of Elvis is that, you know, his twin brother died at a very young age.”
career (shapeshifter filmography):
Michael Apted → Gorillas in the Mist.
Apted made the Up documentaries, a Bond movie, Gorillas in the Mist and Coal Miner's Daughter.
“He made gorillas in the Mist. He made this movie. He really was a shapeshifter.”
unmapped (wished-for complement):
Elvis → Behind the Candelabra.
Sean wished Elvis had more Fat Elvis; Behind the Candelabra is one long stretch of that excessive late period.
“I wish there was a little bit more Fat Elvis in the film Elvis.”
people (producer turned director):
Love and Mercy → Bill Pohlad.
Pohlad, a producer of Brokeback Mountain, 12 Years a Slave and Tree of Life, directed only this film of note, clearly a passion project.
“he was one of the producers of Brokeback Mountain, and 12 Years a Slave, and the Tree of Life”
craft (same structure):
Elvis → Amadeus.
Both tell a titanic cultural figure's story through a lesser, frustrated figure entrenched in their life (Salieri, Colonel Parker).
“It actually has a little bit in common with Elvis in that it's the story of this Titanic, almost imperceptible figure in the culture, through the lens of a lesser and perhaps more frustrated figure”
fun, about
Brendan Fraser and John Lithgow:
They show up as lawyers in the last 30 minutes in what feels like a different movie, with Fraser cut to erupt thunderously.
“They're doing an old timey lawyer thing. There's like this thundering explanatory.”
fun, about
Killers of the Flower Moon:
The Masonic Hall spanking scene, a Jack Fisk construction with a checkerboard floor, is called funny and strange.
fun, about
Killers of the Flower Moon:
Awards forecast: nominated for lots (Leo, Gladstone, Scorsese, production design, costume, adapted screenplay, maybe score and editing) but no real shot at Best Picture.
“I just don't think it really has any chance to win best picture.”
fun, about
Sight and Sound poll:
Sean notes that the Sight and Sound poll ballots include a Looney Tune and a 14-minute film on Adam's list, which includes Duck Amuck and Meshes of the Afternoon.
“I mean, Adam had a had a had a looney tune and a 14 minute film on his list.”
fun, about
The Eternal Daughter:
Sean saw it at the New York Film Festival about five feet from Tilda Swinton and bumped it half a star for it. Amanda had slept on it because Sean did not respond to it at the festival.
“the movie was bumped up half a star for me by seeing it in the front row and then being less than 5 feet away from Tilda Swinton.”
fun, about
Babylon:
Sean's backstory: he left a holiday party at Amanda's, in a bad mood, to drive to Century City for a three-hour-eight-minute screening, and was blown away anyway. He relays a Letterboxd review asking if it's a love letter to cinema or a suicide note.
“Is this a love letter to cinema or a suicide note?”
fun, about
Babylon:
Sean says Margot Robbie is one of the only truly fearless young stars, glorious and disgusting at times, and might deserve a best actress nod.
“She is one of the only truly fearless young stars we have.”
fun, about
The Fabelmans:
Amanda asks if she would trade having her son be as successful as Spielberg for the movie he'd make about her; Sean says to take the Jurassic Park money.
“But could you be sitting on Jurassic Park money?”
fun, about
Tár:
Sean says the opening Q&A scene with the New Yorker interviewer is how to use Blanchett: ten minutes of her talking about things she likes. A hosts' joke imagines a Todd Field and Adam Sandler pairing.
“that opening scene, as I wrote in the Ringer piece, where she's taking questions from Gopnik, from the New Yorkers, like, that is how you use Cape Blanchett.”
fun, about
Nope:
Sean admires the premise: an invented family that may be descended from the Black jockey in Muybridge's film strip, launching 100 years of film history and people whose names we don't know.
“that's a genius idea for a drama, let alone a UFO movie.”
fun, about
Clash of the Titans:
Argument over Clash of the Titans, the Harry Hamlin original versus the Sam Worthington remake, with a side note that Hamlin is Lisa Rinna's husband.
fun, about
Elvis:
Sean's contrast: Elvis was shot with one camera on Ed Sullivan; the movie cuts a hundred times in two minutes to match his magnetism.
“it literally cuts a 100 times in a 2 minute period of performance because that's almost sort of what it takes to match the Elvis Presley magnetism.”
fun, about
Love and Mercy:
Director Bill Pohlad is the son of Twins owner Carl Pohlad; he produced Brokeback Mountain, 12 Years a Slave and Tree of Life, a benefactor for filmmakers.
“a guy named Bill Polad, who is the son of Carl Polad, the billionaire owner of the Minnesota Twins.”
fun, about
Bird:
Warner Bros. and Columbia traded Revenge for the Charlie Parker rights, and Adam jokes Revenge is a gift to history that social media should avoid.
“Revenge and Bird would be quite a double feature.”
fun, about
Mission: Impossible – Fallout:
Henry Cavill and Cruise punch each other in the bathroom and later on a cliff after a helicopter chase; the Henry Cavill speech about being disavowed is remembered.
“how many times can a man be disavowed, discarded and ignored by his government?”
fun, about
The Firm:
Chris loves The Firm for Hackman, Wilford Brimley and Holly Hunter, a Hollywood movie aspiring to nothing but entertainment; Sean calls his Wilford imitation the best Rewatchables bit.
“That might be the best episode of the rewatchables ever, in my opinion.”
fun, about
The Mummy:
The Dark Universe cast photo (Russell Crowe, Johnny Depp, Javier Bardem, Angelina Jolie) was taken and then no more movies were made because The Mummy was so bad; Chris says it is the only non-festival movie he walked out of.
“I think this is the only non-festival movie I've ever walked out of.”
fun, about
Errol Morris:
Idea for the Oscars: hire people like Morris to make short documentaries, like the one with Donald Trump misreading Citizen Kane.
“he completely misreads Citizen Kane and misunderstands it”
fun, about
Oscars 2021:
The hosts catalogue the thirteen awards movies not yet widely seen and where to stream them, with Nomadland the clear frontrunner.
“There are 13 more movies that most people have not seen that I think are going to be meaningful to the Oscar conversation.”
fun, about
Pretend It's a City:
Scorsese's on-screen role is mostly laughing at Lebowitz; the one time he talks over 20 seconds, he corrects her Penny Arcade into Penny Serenade and explains Grant's career.
“Martin Scorsese's role on the show, his physical role, is largely just to laugh at the things that friend Leboitt says.”
fun, about
Penny Serenade:
Sean fact-checks Scorsese on air: Cary Grant was nominated twice, for None but the Lonely Heart and Penny Serenade, not once; Amanda dubs it very un-Cary Grant energy.
“And when a person says a fact about a movie that I know to be not correct, even if it is perhaps the greatest living filmmaker, I just have to note that.”
fun, about
A Muppet Christmas Carol:
Sean's wife Eileen, who will never appear on the podcast, has an unhealthy addiction to the film, and also yells Heat Miser at dinner.
“she has like an unhealthy addiction to a Muppet Christmas carol.”
fun, about
Eyes Wide Shut:
Sean's pick for a day on a historic set: a long shoot, one of the greatest filmmakers, two stars in the midst of a marriage, and some of the wildest scenes ever shot.
“just some of the wildest scenes ever shot in the history of movies occur in that film.”
fun, about
Aaron Sorkin:
The 'I'm never, ever sick at sea' line turns up in Malice and again in Charlie Wilson's War; the references are like a drinking game.
“I'm never, ever sick at sea, shows up in malice, and then it shows up in Charlie Wilson's war”
fun, about
Transformers:
Sean's first adult LA trip was a Transformers premiere, driving an Escalade supplied by the film's car sponsor; it hooked him on movies.
“going to a movie premiere as an adult with a VIP ticket talking to the people that were in the movie”