Prizes practical blockbuster filmmaking, big star performances and Scorsese-era craft; an unabashed defender of late-period Ridley Scott. Dislikes messy modern blockbuster scripts and over-reliance on CGI. A sucker for Denzel and for horror and sci-fi legacy sequels.
Stances
Was entertained but rates Gladiator II well below the original
Denzel Washington is the reason to rewatch it
The film wanted the original's pyramid structure without doing something different
Wanted Gladiator II to have the guts of Before Midnight
Humor: Mock-aggrieved nitpicking and tangents about food, friends and money.
In their words
“I was entertained.” (0:13:17)
“I'm mostly in the bag for everything he does.” (1:12:12)
The most openly critical voice on Babylon: admires the virtuosity but says the opening party rings hollow, and that the film holds together less well than he remembered. Relates to P.J. Byrne's character. Fan of scene-level filmmaking, Brad Pitt's persona work, golf and public courses, and menswear (J. Crew, Uniqlo). Sucker for bits like Trump impressions and Zyn.
Stances
Babylon is a collection of great scenes that does not quite congeal
Hive-adjacent, not in the hive
Seeing movies in theaters with a crowd adds to the experience
Humor: Slow-burn self-deprecation and bit commitment (the Zyn pouch, Trump voice, the J. Crew detour).
In their words
“and it rings hollow to me, which is perhaps the point” (0:26:34)
“The scenes the individual scenes are popping, but the actual movie is maybe not holding together as well as it did in the theater that I remember.” (2:12:00)
Heat is his number one and Manhunter his yearly rewatch; likes messy reclamation projects like Miami Vice. Loves Ferrari and thinks Mann went out on a high note. Big on the 'fusion' of classical and digital Mann.
Stances
Ferrari is a deeply satisfying film in his top five of the year
Miami Vice's mess is the point
Mann's themes are men and their obsessions
Humor: Grand and self-mocking, with extended comic metaphors.
In their words
“I'll never give birth, but it's the closest. It's what I imagine it's like.” (0:03:50)
Loves being manipulated by filmmakers and Fincher's subjective craft; adores the Smiths-as-joke and the sound design. Reads the film as the ultimate control-freak movie and Swinton's character as the life the killer could not have. Dislikes nothing here and calls it possibly his favorite movie of the year.
Stances
Fassbender's killer is an unreliable narrator lying to himself
The film is about the fallacy of control
The killer kills Swinton because she has a normal life
Humor: Excitable and self-aware, jokes about shaking in his chair and fashion and food habits.
In their words
“I love being manipulated by filmmakers.” (0:05:42)
“I think he killed her because no loose ends.” (0:44:38)
Loves big-screen Hollywood entertainment and communal theatrical experiences, with a horror streak (Barbarian, Speak No Evil). Loves Cate Blanchett, Martin McDonagh and Top Gun: Maverick as his number one. Admits being a little embarrassed by how populist his list is.
Stances
Hollywood theatrical experiences fired him up this year
Speak No Evil is the most effective horror film of the year
Top Gun: Maverick delivered after two years of hype and is better than the original
Humor: Boisterous and profane; fond of analogies like Stairway to Heaven and quoting Boogie Nights.
In their words
“I'm almost like at once defiantly excited about my list, but a little bit embarrassed by it.” (0:23:50)
“And it still fucking rocks.” (1:26:04)
“it's probably the most effective horror movie I've seen this year.” (0:48:20)
Loves The Firm, Collateral, Edge of Tomorrow and a Hollywood ensemble movie; thinks Born is Cruise's best performance and Jerry Maguire his most appealing.
Stances
Pushes for The Firm
Cruise now treats himself as the Rock
Fallout is exceptional
Humor: Big physical impressions and dad-style tangents; keeps asking about the rules.
In their words
“I am going to say the firm just because I also think that that is in a lot of ways, like among the best casts he's ever been a part of.” (0:40:33)
He loves cheap, anxiety-heavy genre pieces, B-minus horror movies and anything that makes him squeeze the popcorn box. He picked events that freaked him out over big hits, leaving Get Out and the Blumhouse hits off his top five. He can't stand Black Swan-style foot-breaking discomfort and doubts that Cabin in the Woods is scary at all.
Stances
Horror should dominate the audience
Genre lines (thriller, horror, terror) matter
Directors drift away from horror naturally
The B-minus horror movie is the best B movie
Humor: Cheerful self-deprecation and tangents, such as confessing to spoiling Cabin in the Woods in an NBA post.
In their words
“The B minus version of a horror movie is my favorite kind of B minus movie.” (0:34:47)
“I like that, I like feeling things.” (0:52:03)
“I spoiled Cabin in the Woods in like an NBA blog post for like 1000s of people.” (0:41:38)
A TV-first critic who came to Disney through Marvel and Star Wars rather than the legacy titles, and who loves teen entertainment and character actors such as Mark Maron. Dislikes late revival movies and fan-service compression; a sucker for crowd-roar moments like the Endgame hammer.
Stances
Will send his streaming money elsewhere than Disney+
Skeptical of Eternals and of revival movies
Counterprogramming may be dead
Moviegoing is about circumstances and shared reactions
Humor: Wry and conversational, setting up riffs such as the 1992 podcast called Smells Like Teen Spirit.
In their words
“And I will be sending my streaming money elsewhere.” (0:02:08)
“I think he takes his craft really seriously.” (0:19:29)
Reveres Spielberg's craft (lighting, camera movement, editing, music) and calls him a film school; picks Empire of the Sun as a personal favorite. Loves rewatchable, tightly made movies like Jaws, Raiders, and Jurassic Park and likes Munich, A.I., and Tom Cruise in War of the Worlds. Cold on Spielberg's explicit kids' movies.
Stances
Spielberg is his film school
Jaws is the perfect movie
Spielberg's kid-targeted films (Tintin, BFG) don't work
Munich's opening is the best
Humor: Warm, enthusiastic riffing and impressions; walks the line between sincere and goofy.
In their words
“It's my film school.” (0:03:04)
“Jaws is a perfect movie.” (0:35:06)
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.
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 801–854 of 854 claims.
career (career):
Darren Aronofsky → Mother.
Aronofsky goes for it in every film, mother! and Noah included.
theme (comparison):
Eternals → Guardians of the Galaxy.
Eternals feels like an unknown cast of space characters, like Guardians, but Guardians had one-liners as the hook.
“Guardians feels like a very unique proposition where it was like, this is in space and we're going to introduce all this stuff, but really just come for the one liners.”
theme (comparison):
Soul → Inside Out.
Soul's existential premise prompts a mixed-up recollection of Inside Out, which is really good and has an affecting Sadness character.
unmapped (revival worry):
El Camino: A Breaking Bad Movie → Veronica Mars.
Veronica Mars was wonderful as a series but felt compressed and fan-servicey as a movie, so he is wary of Breaking Bad's movie.
“Now, they brought Veronica Mars back as a series, and it was wonderful. When they made it a movie, it felt compressed.”
career (filmography):
Austin Abrams → Paper Towns.
Abrams has been in a bunch of teen movies, such as Paper Towns, and plays Cat's boyfriend in Euphoria.
“he's been in a bunch of like teen teen movies like he was in paper towns and stuff like that.”
people (performance):
Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark → Austin Abrams.
Chris nominates Abrams as best supporting performance in a bad movie, doing a lot in a role that does not require it.
“he's just like really doing a lot in a role that does not require it”
people (performance):
The Souvenir → Honor Swinton Byrne.
Her lack of preparation and late casting is part of what makes the performance seem unperformed.
“It is part of what makes the performance amazing is that there, there is no performance”
unmapped (stunts):
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood → Zoe Bell.
Interviews with stuntwoman Zoe Bell discussed how only Pitt could do the leap to the roof.
“Stuntwoman extraordinary. that only he could do to get up to the roof and stuff.”
unmapped (audience experience):
Avengers: Endgame → Avengers: Endgame.
The hammer-to-Captain-America moment at a raucous Disney lot screening made Chris feel eleven years old.
“I was like, I'm 11 years old. This is the coolest thing I've ever seen.”
unmapped (elevator pitch counterexample):
Long Shot → Yesterday.
Yesterday had a clear pitch and lots of talk, yet did only okay, so the pitch theory is not settled.
“a movie with a great elevet or premise pitch that did not work at all, which is yesterday.”
unmapped (feels like):
Sword of Trust → Straight Time.
It feels like a 70s movie you might catch on Turner Classic Movies, such as Straight Time.
“It kind of feels a little bit like a 70s movie that you would sort of catch on Turner classic or something like that, like straight time or something”
craft (craft):
Saving Private Ryan → 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The Normandy sequence is compared to the longest virtuoso stretches in film, like the openings of 2001 and There Will Be Blood.
“The opening of 2001, the opening of there will be blood.”
people (people):
Empire of the Sun → Tom Stoppard.
Stoppard's screenplay is praised as literate and morally ambiguous.
“I find the screenplay by Tom Stopper to be the most, one of the more literate and intriguing and ambiguous, morally ambiguous screenplays that Spielberg's directed.”
“And that Richard Dreyfus character being one part Spielberg, and like the idea of wonder and wanting to vanish, and one part his dad kind of abandoning his kids”
contrast (contrast):
Minority Report → Schindler's List.
Minority Report's dystopia is among the ugliest worlds Spielberg set a movie in, unlike his historical films.
“one of the uglier worlds that he has set a movie in.”
career (career):
Janusz Kaminski → Steven Spielberg.
Minority Report is maybe the fourth or fifth film Kaminski shot for Spielberg, after A.I., Saving Private Ryan and Amistad, which were real-world where this one is dreamlike.
“maybe the 4th or the 5th movie that, um, Yanush Kaminsky made with it.”
theme (theme):
The Adventures of Tintin → The BFG.
Spielberg's explicitly for-kids efforts leave the speaker cold, even though his kid characters are great.
“I think when Spielberg tries to make movies explicitly for kids.”
craft (craft):
Jaws → Visions of Light.
Visions of Light recounts that Spielberg wanted Jaws locked down on tripods and the crew pushed back.
“Steven Spielberg initially wanted everything in Jaws to be nailed down on tripods, and they were like, Steven, if we do that, people are going to be throwing up in the aisles.”