Blank Check with Griffin & David - The Eleventh Annual Blank Check Awards with Joe Reid

Episode Date: March 1, 2026

Live from our windowless studio in Downtown Brooklyn, it's the 11th Annual Blankies! Joe Reid joins us once again to give out golden Wattos to our favorite films, performances, and craftspeople of the year. Some of our picks are certainly part of the greater award season conversation. Others are Materialists. Join us as we honor the best Putters and Murmurs, the Wettest flicks of the year, and as Griffin debuts his latest Billy Crystal opening showtune. Listen to This Had Oscar Buzz Watch Igby Goes Down Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Live from a windowless studio in Brooklyn, New York. It's the 11th annual Blankies. All the stars are out tonight. Oh, is that Ella McKay's deadbeat pizza husband I see on the red carpet? Extra cheese and you're Hawaiian? Hawaiian. Just entering the red carpet, it's balls from his this thing on. Oh, looks like he spilled a gallon of milk.

It's been a lot for me to carry around. Greta Lee wishes she could be here with us tonight. However, she's at Gettysburg watching a Civil War reenactment. Varon can help you find this man. The paparazzi is loving our latest arrival on the red carpet. It's Vareng, wearing a stunning ash dress. I am the... Oh my goodness.

Samson, the Alpha from 28 years later just arrived with his date. His giant penis. Oh my God, it's even bigger than I thought. And now your host for this evening. Song and dance man, Griffin Newman. Wonderful night for blankies, blankies, who will win? And possible nominees based on mostly just the things that have been nominated ever else, in particular the Oscars, who knows where we're going to swing.

Right. Their tastes are not. F1. When you were young and your wife still had her hawk, you used to say, let Hamnet live. You know you did, you know you did, you know you did. But if this ever-growing plague would make your son sick, that play might make your wife cry.

So let Hamnet die. I had some pitch problems on that one. Sure. I was just, you know, there's a lot of buildup and I was finding my way into it. That's all. He is the creature. He's got good features.

He is hot, hot, hot. Oh, Frankenstein. Frankenstein made him. But now he hates him because he's hot, hot, hot. That's true. Thank you. You're selling shoes for uncle. He won't give you cash.

Dun, dun, dun, dun, dun. I got it. You're cuckin' Mr. Wonderful. He paddles your ass. Doing circus tricks on Globetrotter tours. You're absolutely sure that kid's not yours. You got a fight for your right to Marty. Supreme.

Honestly, you didn't even need it. I heard it said That the new Wicked would be numbed Reward both films now Return of the King was the comp But then it came out And it fucking sucks so hard Because for good sucked

Wicked for Good sucked They nominate F1 F1 made it I was wondering I was wondering if F1 was going to make it Da-ta-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-na. Now, da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. I wonder if Begonia's getting any numb today. What do you think?

I'm a sinner. I'm a twinner. I drink blood for dinner. I can't be exposed to the sun. I'm a smoker. I'm a stacker. I'm a neck blood snacker. I'm eating pussy in the club.

That's all true. It's actually correct. Stalin Scarsguard. Why won't you come to your senses? You've been so damn pretentious to your daughters so long. Got a project Elle Fanning says She's attached

But you're I don't know I ran out of lyrics on that one Whatever It's good Secret Secret agent film Secret

Secret agent film It disappeared your loved ones And they severed someone's leg Blue Moon Abu Di Abu Di Abu Dai Abu Di He's a really short guy

Abu Di abu di Abu Di Abu Di Abu Dai Blue moon he will die Abu Di Abu Dai A little roping up there The coal I feel like He's running low He's performing these in the order

That he wrote them down Wrong wrong Wrong And you can feel the kind of steam Running out Like the train is starting to slow down Well I guess you guys are forcing me off the stage And I can't perform the one battle

After another song I definitely crack So moving on No we need to hear it No we just have to know that I definitely had one. It was in, it was locked, and now he's putting it in the attic. There weren't ten different drafts.

Back to Winnipeg. One is the loneliest battle. We tried a lot of things. I got to thank the war room. The self-dubbed war room. The war room? Nicholas Frank, Tiger Weiger. Oh, yeah, yeah.

And Sean Clemens. Yeah, like the jingle. Burning the midnight roll. Shurning out, turning out jingles. Come with a good slate. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. We had one battle or or another. like one way or another.

Doing one jump ahead from Aladdin. It was tough. Every one of these, I hit a wall after like two lines. One jump ahead would have been a little like really delving inward to the like the real, real heads are going to get this. Totally. Yeah. But you know, they can all be da-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-na-pagonia. Spent that entire setup being like, where is this going?

Panahi, I couldn't quite. That's the juice. Yeah. Panahe. Yeah. I don't know. You know, F1 is nominated for Best Picture. It is.

You made your list. Yeah. It was the 14th highest grossing domestic release of 2020. Don't say it made my list. It made the medley. That's what I'm saying. It's not getting. It's just hitting the top of it.

So sinners made more money than it. Yeah. Yeah. So like if you're, you know, if you're ringing your hands over like, oh, we needed a blockbuster. It's like, well, well, sinners. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm not mad. I'm just saying. I was just sort of looking being like, was there another blockbuster they could have nominated. What were the final totals on them? On which? On sinners And F1? It's domestic. So not worldwide. No, I know. But worldwide did F1 beat sinners.

Oh, I think it did. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was my question. Sure. I mean, that was the rationale. F1 made 633 worldwide. The international academy members. And sinners made 369. Yeah. But domestic sinners is 279 to F1's 189. That's all. Yeah. I just, you know,

they could have nominated Super-Man. I don't know. Or Avatar. There's not really a lot else. There's not really. particularly when the juice for both Avatar and Wicked kind of ran out at the same time. That was the real thing. It did feel like a lot of people were mentally holding a slot. Yes. For one, if not both.

Yeah. And then when Wicked fell through, they were like, well, obviously the slot is avatars. Yeah, a little bit. I remember, because I covered for my colleague. Post Thanksgiving, it was like, it'll be avatars. And then post-Christmas, it was like, I hear a car rumbling. Yeah, yeah. But also a bunch of male married Oscar voters.

Mm-hmm. We're at their ballot, right? Licking the quill as they do ink well, right? Right. About to write in Avatar Fire and Ash, and then they hear the old battle axe wife with a rolling pin. As she does. Ah, you better not to be voting for the vang!

Don't you vote for the vang! I'm sorry. You vote for the Vaglia. Oscar voters are married to Italian Nanas with rolling pins. That's what all the cast members from the Nona's. I give you 40 children. and I'm washing your socks. You better not to vote for the vane.

Wait, no wonder they're all like having affairs or whatever. Like, if the wife at home is like Streganona, like, I can. And the husband goes, I work all day mixing the sound. I work my fingers to the ball and I vote to the barang if I want to vote to the vring. Okay. Welcome to our 2020-25, Blanky's episode. That's right. This is the 2026 ceremony for the films of 2025.

That's right. Which makes this the 11th. The 11th. Is that right? Yeah. I erroneously texted you a few several weeks ago and thought this would be the 10th, but last

last year was the 2015 movie year was the first one I remember doing. Yeah, correct. Yeah, no. So this is the 11th. Yeah. Blankies, who are you? I'm Griffin, Newman. I'm David Sims and who's that? Joe Reed. A.k.a. Reading Ranger. The only person in my life who calls me that is Griffin Newman

and I look forward to it. Just only once a year. Yeah. Yeah, I mean, it's not a... You've done it at other times. Yeah, but mostly in the Ram. up or the wind down from this time once a year. Yeah. Now they're rebooting Reading Rainbow. Have you heard this? With whom? Someone called Michael Threats.

Oh, of course. The great Michael Threat. 24 episode pickup. Where? PBS. Okay. Well, that's good. I like that part of it. I was really bracing for Netflix. Yeah. Paramount Plus.

Reading you like Barry Weiss's book. What do you want from me? Oh, brother. Producer Ben is here. What a job? I gifted him today a vintage McFarland Toys, aka T-Dog Mac, Violator action figure from the first series of Spawn toys, and he has wrapped it around his mic arm,

and he's looking at it so lovingly. So it was feeling a little empty, so I'm glad that there was some personality brought into the space. Yeah, that's true. There's just nothing. We needed a little something. Yeah. Yeah, colorful or sort of iPod.

hopping in our office today. Perhaps a Chachky. To absorb the sound. You know, consider a Chachky once in a while. Yeah. It's all sound absorption. And I've got my, I've got my baby Joey. You got your baby Joey.

Oh, nice. But it's greatly appreciated. Of course. Anytime, buddy. I'm apparently staring at a photo of Austin Powers suspended and cry of stasis. Yeah, that maybe doesn't have to be there forever. It's a hell of a thing for your guests to. Yeah, it does seem a little agro for the guests.

Of course, when we covered the Austin Powers' trilogy on Patreon. Uh-huh. Marie Bardi, Salinas, aka a woman, would not stop talking about how cut, quote. Oh, I remember that was? You have never let this go. That was quite the opinion that was advanced. Yes, yeah.

It really got to you. So that lives on that desk for when Marie's joining as fourth chair on an episode. Also, on the back of it, there's some notes written that I think were a ratlift trying to jot some things down during a lady killer's episode. There's some random. Hold on. Yeah. All right, let's see. Here's the thing I like about the blankish and the movies.

Okay. We were just doing the count of like, this is year 11, right? We start off the blankies, the award ceremony as a franchise in our second year, but our first year as blank check. Right. We were like, where we were like three months into being like blank check? And we already were like, you know what we should do? I do vaguely remember that being the vibe where we were just going to

kind of like, let's just do like an Oscar-y episode. But also, let's plant our flag. This is like, oh yeah. This is who we are now. But it made me realize last year we were all like fucking celebrating the decade of dreams. Everyone was running down the streets, blowing like Vuvuzvillas and at shouting about the decade of dreams. They were definitely doing that. But from a certain point of view, this year is when we celebrate the decade of blank check.

Because last year was celebrating nine years of blank check and one year of Griffin and David present. That's a good. Okay. So are you trying to bring decades of dreams? It hit me the other day. Into a second, like we're sort of like doing the faded, sad, like a sequel to a decade of games. It's a more honest decade of dreams. So it's not actually diminishing returns.

It's, it's better. And then next year you'll be like, and really, you don't start. Yeah. Counting the first year. The millennium didn't begin until 2001. I don't see a cruising altitude till no one. This is the real decade of dream. Yeah.

You weren't kidding about chicken scratches. I'm getting Spock, perhaps. Two words that look like bacon melt, but they can't possibly be bacon melt, and then burn before reading. Is this thing that I can... Well, that sounds like a good bit that he didn't get to do. Yeah. So these were notes. Oh, I see.

I think so. Is this IP that I've just released into the universe? It's what I like about having it on the guest desk is, first we get to do a little kinsie test of how you feel about Mike Myers and his cut body. No, yeah, yeah, that's fair. And then you can see how far you can get trying to decipher Connor Ratliff's handwriting. Sure, sure, sure, sure. This is the Blanky Awards where we pick our winners. You know, you're right, great.

I never thought about it that we just kind of did it like six episodes into our M-night Shamaun series or whatever. Just being like, this is a thing we want to do. I also remember there was no, we were basically like, let's do awards episode. Yeah. Do you ever want to do it? And you were like, yeah, sure. And then, like, you know, day before it was like, what is it, by the way? It was like, I don't know, your Oscar ballot.

Yeah. Like, I mean, it was not like we were like, all right. We didn't have a planning session. I know. Super prepared. Wait, you're saying that was it organized? It was also recorded in the hottest little closet. Well, the worst fun.

It was a little bar in there. I'm not going to deny. And now look at us. Now look at us. A larger windowless room. Yes, but like ceilings that are higher. Why did I feel confident just being like, we should do an awards episode. Let's ask Joe and do no further planning because I fucking know that all three of us.

Yes. Keep nerd spreadsheets. She's lists and whatnot. It was not going to be a lot of work for us. Right, the work's done. Somebody asked me that the other day, like, how do you prepare for the blankies? And I'm like, well, I keep lists throughout the year. Like, this is not like, I have to like cram sesh at the end.

Do you know what the episode before it is? Signs. We barely started the Shamaun series. Yeah. It was four episodes deep. That's amazing. And then we were like, let's do Blankies. Yeah.

Yeah, we nailed it. I mean, you know what? Honestly, yes. Can I say? You know who was our consensus pick for Best Actor there? Michael B. Jordan for Greed. Is that

come around again? Only time we've all lined up on an acting here. I don't have those kinds of stats. I'm leaning towards no, but like, I imagine it maybe happened once or twice. There's a wiki out there that there is.

There is. There is just, they want to take a look at that. I know there's been a couple, like, two out of three. Yeah. Both you guys picked Jennifer Lopez for hustlers. I picked Florence,

LeBron, James Buckets Pew. What's she up to? She did Thunderball. I tend to consult that wiki a lot for my own picks because as I, I often on the fly go a different way in the moment. And so I'm like, what, where did the wind breeze me to that day? This is an interesting thing. Now that we're doing this for the 11th time. Uh-huh.

Do you guys find yourself at all getting into the psychological game of, well, I snubbed that person of the wind? Oh, I do that. Of course. Like when these were private spreadsheets for myself, I didn't worry about such things. And now I'm like, do I owe this person or would it look shitty if I gave them a second award? I'm like, I privately do that. I privately, I'm like, well, I gave Leo his David for Wolf of Wall Street. Like, I do that to myself all the time.

I made a switch to one of my lists this morning. And I literally had the thought of like, they're going to be so disappointed that they didn't. Yeah, right. They'll be sad to have missed out. Yeah. You know, Pugh's in that MCU quagmire right now. I need her to do some more stuff. And I know she did a lot and maybe worried about doing too much.

What else is going on? I mean, next year she's in Avengers Doomsday and Dune 3. And she seems to be one of those people who, like, they have plans for that character seemingly. Because a lot of the people they're bringing back for that are being brought back allegedly to like. Let's pump the brakes on the Bay have plans. Well, okay. Because at this point, I don't know. I don't have firm any of the plans.

I think they have a clear plan. There are sirens going off everywhere and they're like hold on to that fucking legitimate movie star who we have on a five picture contract. But like your life depends on. The day of the chairs, right? You could tell like a good two thirds of those chairs are like coming back so that they can get kind of brushed off into the sunset. Mostly it's a Van Moosing.

Yes. They're not. Ian McKellen is not going to do eight more magnetos. Right, right. It is so funny that McKellen went on Colbert and was like, I think I'd destroy. New Jersey? And he was like, is that a spoiler? And he was like, oh, I don't know.

I guess so. Just destroys New Jersey. I saw, I got the algorithm. He gets like a bad sub or something and he just fucking. Sorry, Ben. All these guys over 70, if you put them in a Marvel movie, they spill everything. They're like, I don't fucking know. Well, it's been spilling tea on big franchises since the Lord of the Rings days.

And he's like outed everybody in the Hobbit movies. Yes. Who do you out? Right. No, Le Pace. No, but also the main. Richard Armitage. He was a dwarf.

I don't think he said anybody by name, but I think he was just like, oh, everybody in that cast is gay. It is my, look, I said this already, but, like, I think it's why he's mad about Hamnet. Oh, I didn't know he was mad about Hamlet. Well, he threw some shade at Hamnet recently. I can't remember where. He was like, I'm not a little chat show. Oh, because it didn't address Shakespeare being gay? He was basically, like, I don't think it's very interesting to try and assign, you know, this wonderful, his works, which are so important and interesting, this kind of, like, simple, emotional.

narrative. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, like, that was a perfectly valid point for him to make, and he made it well. But to me, there is an undercurrent of McCallens also, like, who cares about Shakespeare's wife? Shakespeare was, you know, he was not the straightest arrow. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if he actually feels that way.

I shouldn't put words in him. McKellon's mouth. Getting dick all over London is the title of the spin-off movie for a madden. He was getting dick all over Britain. Yeah, they were traveling. The Northlands, I imagine, were just teeming with, I don't know. Kelsey Grimer did some interview where he was, just like, they were like, I'm sure you can't say anything about Doomsday.

And he was like, oh, right, he's going to be in that. A great time filming with Pedro Pascal. And, like, you just listed all the actors he had been in scenes with. So then people were making the grid of being like, okay. So the Fantastic Four is going to go into the Pocket X-Men universe. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. And then I saw him on some other show where they were like, now I know you've gotten in

trouble before for like admitting. And he goes, yes, I shouldn't have said I'd worked with Pedro. I shouldn't have said that. Gender said that I choke the life out of the human torch in one scene. Oh, you know what? This was some conservative show because they were specifically saying like, what would Kelsey Gramer be doing on a conservative show? So ran as a disaster.

And I can exclusively reveal that Dr. Doom fucks invisible woman. Sorry. He was like. Just imagining. Whatever conservative fuck was like, right. You said you had worked with Pedro Pascal. What was it like sharing a set with him? You guys hold pretty different political opinions.

Oh, sure. And he goes, I, Pedro. I loved him. He's a terrific guy. You know what's interesting? We only really had one real conversation, and it was him saying that he thought me too was a failure. Okay. And I was like, this feels like... I love that in your conception of Kelsey Grammar that he's just Sam the Eagle.

I also love the idea of someone being like, hey, Kelsey, was it tough for you working with a left-wing guy? I'm like, Kelsey, he was in like La Cajon-Froll on Broadway. I think he's encountered a liberal in his life. Yeah, he worked with David Hyde Pearson, D.D. Newark, his entire career. I think he's figured out how to navigate that in his life. People act like he just like only does red tube movies or whatever. Right. No, he's like the old school Hollywood conservative. Right.

And he's like, look, I want my taxes lower and my cigars cheap or whatever. Years upon years of him and Bo Derek just going to the RNC every year and being like, we got two of them. Right, right, exactly. All right, guys, we're going to do the Blankies. We got to do the Blankies. All right. Okay, right. Guys, we're going to do the Blankies.

We got to, come on. Let's do our, so what we're doing here on the Blankies. Awards just for new listeners who this is their first episode and I'm sure that's going really well for them is we we say are essentially our Oscar ballots for the big categories at the year. Right, Griffin? Yes, that's what we do. That's what we do here. And what category does you all want to start with?

Because I don't really care. I'm up for anything. We're traditionalists. I feel like we usually start with one of the supporters. We always do it, right? We could start with the screenplays if we wanted to get really crazy. No, I want to start with the supporting. Okay.

Categories that are fairly wide open at the Oscars this year. They are. Yeah. Interesting. In a sort of a fun twist. Yeah. I'm going to say this is an anti-disclaimer disclaimer. Okay.

Anti-disclaimer. This is the year that I finally just gone like, it has become prohibitive. Uh-huh. To shadow ban movies made by people who have been on the show. Yeah. Oh, totally. Oh, interesting. Well, because we're getting too.

Your reach is too far. It's a true humble brag. You're in. Nia da Costa. I'm trying to think, like, who made movies this is. year that Ari. Ari.

Yeah. You know, welcome in, buddy. You're in the ballots. Yeah. Alex Ross Perry made two movies. He did. That crazy fucker.

You're in it. That crazy motherfucker. But it was like, we had some of it last year with, I saw the TV glow, which was one of my favorite movies, and we had had Jane on the show. And it'd always been this thing of like,

well, there's high level working people we've had on the show who I wouldn't really say I'm like friends with, but to the listener, does it seem like there's the same level of familiarity and is they're implied by us. So don't even trip yourself up. I would get into the other thing of, is it more fair

to just put all of them in the side so that I can't offend anyone by snubbing them? Yeah. But now... Now it's just impossible. Well, now there's enough of them where now they sort of like battle it out in this imaginary ballot. I, last year I did not nominate the film that I made Amelia Parrott.

Because I didn't want. I made that film. That's that's... I played every part. Yes. I wrote all the songs. You did all the... I did all the tweets. You did. Yeah. I was. gonna say you did all the tweets, you did all the interviews after the fact. But also, you didn't give the awards yourself because you were so tired of winning. You were winning

so much. This year my best friend, Cynthia Revo, I decided to not include her, because we are best friends. And I also can't actually attend our ceremony if we do one, because I will be playing 27 parts in a one-man Dracula show. Perfect.

And that's, I heard that was the same thing the Oscar said. Yes. That they would have nominated for good in every category. But they're best friends with her, so they couldn't do it. Right, the statue is her best friend. They're best friends. They hold her one finger. Supporting actor.

Best supporting actor. Okay, great. So, Griffin, your supporting actress winner last year, presenting this award. Okay. Was Renata Reinsva for a different man. Yeah. That was a good choice. Joe, yours was, and mine, both of ours, was Michelle Austin for Hard Truth.

So she's back, too. She's back, too. So, yeah, Griffin, whatever. You know, give me your supporting actors. Look, I tried not to overthink these this year. It was what came to me. And I'll be doing some last second cuts in the categories where I have six people jotted down mostly to see who's not being covered by you guys.

But supporting actor, I had a pretty clean five. Benicio del Toro in a picture called One Battle After Another. And, boy, if you heard the song I wrote for that, you'd still be laughing. Tears would still be tapping. Big strong guys. Tears in their eyes. Michael Sarah the Phoenician scheme. Delroy Lindo and Sinners,

a performance I am pleasantly surprised to be aligned with the Oscars on. Yeah. It was one of my punch-the-air moments. Absolutely, absolutely. Rafe finds in 28 years later. He's there. And Billy Crutup in J. Kelly.

Nice. It's very good. He's got the one scene. I mean, I know it's a couple scenes, but it's that one big scene. The one big knockout. Yeah. I would say I might put an additional title on this of is this the thermostat performance of the year?

A little bit. Except to some people, Jay Kelly went from like 67 degrees to 68 degrees. Like no one got hot watching it. You and I like that movie a lot. I like that movie. But you know what I mean? Like generally there was. But I also, I'll say this.

I had a different thought of an honorific while watching this performance. And at once I at one point I was like, do I just put it to the side and not put in proper best supporting actor? my thought was, is this the black box performance of the year? Where you go, why don't they build the whole movie out of this thing? Sure, got it. Got it. Yes. I think there's a juice to that like eight minute chunk of the movie that as much as I like the film,

I'm like, this is the fucking potent thing. If I'm bomb back, whatever I think I'm writing, I get to that scene. Even on paper, before you cast crude up and he knocks it out of the fucking park, I agree. Maybe this is the movie. Yeah. maybe these guys spend the whole night together and that's the film. I can see it. Jay Kelly versus whatever that guy's name is.

Yeah. Well, the point is we don't know his name. That's what proving the point right here. Because Jay fucking Kelly. Jay Kelly. I'm Jay Kelly. You're Jay Kelly. You're up here. You're down here. That movie, here's another word I'll throw out.

Worst trailer of the year. Oh, boy. You hated the trailer. You were always saying how, like, almost poisoned you against the movie. You saw an early screening of the movie. You were like, it's really excellent. I was like, this thing looks like. dog shit. The fuck is Sim smoking.

I saw the trailer. I was smoking that dinkweed. I saw the trailer before like everything. It kept playing at the Angelica and the Paris when I was seeing a lot of things. It's probably still playing. Yes. And I was just like, it is impossible. This movie will do anything to me other than leave me with an overwhelming desire to eat glass. And then the movie started and I was just like the trailer makes it looks like fucking cinema

paradisio four. Sure. Yeah. Is cinema paradisela. There's a real, like, genre of foreign film that is bad that was loved. You know what I mean? Like, Cinema Paradiso, Life is Beautiful. Cola.

Hola? Colia. It's a great example. Yeah. Foreign language winner. When I say bad, it's not bad. It's like a sort of seven out of ten, like, sweet movie. But, like, where you're like, oh, this is, you know, this is kind of dumb.

All I remember is the director, like, carrying the kid on his shoulder up to the stage or whatever. And out of the Oscar. The kid was covered. I saw that film. theaters. I remember it being very sweet. Look, we're not doing the happy birthday sign thing. Credit to Malaney and the two of you were going to list your best supporting actor categories. But I do want to say it's a shift that people don't know.

But 10 minutes on Collier. No, you're right that like foreign film used to be the treakly shit. And now it's not so much. Is that what you're saying? And the biggest change was it used to be to vote in that category, you had to go to a marathon screening. You had to go to so many screenings. No, but you specifically, I think, when the five films were nominated. Oh, sure, sure. You had to go to a full day marathon of all of them.

That's crazy. And so the only people who would do that were the oldest people in the world. Well, right. Who were like ready for the treakly layups. The kind of sweetest movie always won. Or is it about the Holocaust or something like that. You know, maybe it was the opposite. But I know certainly for the nomination process, that was part of it.

It was the, I think it was more the nomination. You had to see every single one. It was only retirees because no one else had the time. But that's always been the double-edged sword of the Oscars. which is, ideally, you would like all the people voting on the Oscars to have seen all of the movies that they're voting on. And the realistic thing is the only people who do that are 80-year-old people who have nothing else to do. And Kirsten Dunst. And Kirsten Dunst. She has said she sees all the movies.

Joe? That's why she's our hero. Who are your nominees for Best Supporting Actor? Best Supporting Actor. I have Austin Abrams in Weapons. Oh, yeah. Michael Sarah in the Phoenician scheme. Two knobs for this guy.

So good. Billy crude up and Jay Kelly Hell yes Stackin. William H. Macy and Train Dreams and Dylan O'Brien and twinless.

Is he supporting? I fudged it maybe. It's a tweeter's tough. It's a tweeter and a twer. Best actor's tough. Very good performance by Dylan. I guess he is. I mean, the other one,

the one I wanted to say by bye to upon meeting. You and my podcast co-host, Chris File are of the same opinion on that guy. What's his name again? The guy who wrote it.

James Sweening. And direction? And direct to it. I believe so. Okay. So you got two shared noms of grief there, Crap, and what was the other one? I already forgot.

Oh, Sarah. Michael Sarah. It's so good. I mean, yeah. Okay, okay. I'll do mine. All right. And then we can discuss.

I have Benicio del Toro for one battle after another. I have Delroy Lindo for sinners. So I have that. Wow. I am going to just say that like Ray finds is a very obvious candidate for me. I'm going to hold him out just to have a little fun. I'm doing the same thing. I'm sticking a pin on me.

And obviously also his bone temple nom is inscribed. That's the thing. And you're like, next year he's in lead? I think sort of. I was sort of thinking about that. I would say. I would put him in lead. I just, I was so.

He's more the lead. I was so conscious. The kid is the lead of the first one and maybe kind of Aaron Johnson. I was so conscious of my Adam Driver fuck up and Blanky's awards pass. Oh, sure. Where in the Force Awakens and last Jedi years, Adam Driver was my sixth and I cut him on air. Right. And I was like, because I'll give him to a war.

Surely then the third one, it'll be, yeah. For Rise of Skywalker, I'll come back around and give him the trophy. He did his best in Rise of Skywalker. Adam Driver is not the issue. Not the, like, not the glaring issue at that movie. No, but I couldn't be like, and best actor goes to Adam Driver for Rise of Skywalker. The difference here is we've seen Bone Temple. Bone Temple does not pull a Rise of Skywalk.

All right. So I have Del Toro and Lindo. Yeah. Then I have Alexander Scar's Garden Pillion. Nicholas Holt in Superman So good I considered it

And Matthew Penchion I'm not sure how to say his name In Nouvelle Vod Who plays Raoul Kotard Okay Where I was like

Did Richard Link later Fucking open a time tunnel How did you find a guy Who looks like Raoul Katard won Like so much And two Get the coolest performance

I've ever seen Of a guy Godard is just annoying at him For five minutes And he goes like boof, okay. And I was just like, cannot take my eyes off this guy.

It is, I still have not seen that movie because it doesn't exist. But it exists, but it's tough to watch it on Netflix. Yeah. I just, it is crazy from the trailers and the images I've seen how well he has physically matched every single. Sure. Famous French New Wave behind the camera. Yes, this is the, like, I think all the performances in that movie are fine. But that's right.

You're just like, it's a magic trick. How do you get them to all look like this? And you look them up and almost all of them have zero previous credits. Yes. You just like went around Paris going like do, do, do, do, do. And the people just like showed up. He lit a cigarette and they all ran towards him. A performance I really loved.

My winner is Benicio del Toro. My winner is also Benicio del Toro. Benicio, I should say, was a close six on mine. I think all of the Oscar nominees are really good this year. So like it was tough leaving all of them up. But Benicio was my number six. My winner is, and I mean, I'm falling into the Oscar voter. of category fraud, I suppose, but my winner's Dylan O'Brien.

Yeah, I just don't like that movie. Yeah, I saw your letterbox for you. I'm like, I'm going to be fighting up from battle on that. But I thought Dylan was really good in that movie. Yeah. And he's fucking excellent in Sen. I still haven't seen Sen help. It bothers me so much. I know. Fuck you, Karen. I've been watching all the goddamn. Yeah, yeah. You've had your work cut out for you. I have an excuse. Yeah. Um, uh, Deltoro, for me, nudged over the edge by having Phoenician

scheme as well this year. Yep, he's great in that. It's a valid point. There's a real, like, range of, oh, right, this guy is one of the most powerful screen actors ever. People have started to swing against him, not like in a mega negative way, but I've seen a little bit of a like, all right, everyone, he doesn't need to win. Like, I don't know.

The arc on that performance has been interesting because when the movie first... Insane will be remembered for 100 years performance to me. When people first started seeing the movie, and Penn seemed like such the obvious jump-off like for supporting actor. Champon is so funny and weird. And so the del Toro thing started like this underground like, am I crazy or is Del Toro the best performance in this movie? Do you know what it kind of reminded me of?

Departed where it's like, well, this is a fucking Oscar play if I've ever seen it for Jack Nicholson working with Scorsese the first time. And then everyone starts being like, is Walberg secretly like the best performance in that movie? Yeah. I don't like Walberg in that movie, but like that was the arc of that. Yeah. You know, but it was a similar thing where everyone was like Penn, obviously, obviously,

but like, incredible in this. Right. Like, those are the best parts of the movie. It sings the most when he's there. And then it becomes fucking king of memes. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, and then it feels like, oh, I guess he's going to get in. Holy shit. He's winning all the critics awards. Is he like cakewalking his way to a win? And then it felt like there was some pushback on like, what? We're going to give him a second Oscar because we like small beers. Oh, that's, yes. Yeah, give it to the meme guy or whatever, which, like, I find so annoying. He won one time 25 years ago. It's true

and he's like a Titanic actor who's got what three Oscar nom's total like you know he should have more probably like it's been over 20 years since he was nominated last. Was it 21 grand was his last nomination? Wow. Yeah. But she's so good. It's not like a comeback

Brody you were in the wilderness narrative but it's right like you know what this guy has continued to be good has continued to be great for another quarter century Sikarya was the crazy miss for him because he did have major Oscar buzz that year And that movie had a lot of Oscar attention

It got a nomination The thing about Del Toro too is like I think without him that movie fails In a way that you can't say about I think any other actor It's the two reasons I give him the win It's A because he also had Phoenician scheme Right and it's like this feels like a year

To fucking call it out And B you hear every story about how much he created for that character. Yeah. Not just in like the look and whatever, but like actual core story themes and beats that then had ripple effects across the entire script. Yes. It's not just if you pull that performance out,

the movie's not as good. It's like the effect he had on the movie at large in the entire creative ecosystem. And his energy, his energy is so different than most of the other characters. And I think it like, it draws you in closer, right? It's what I love. It's a,

great old master performance where you're like this guy has like cleaned his craft down to the bone. You know, everything is so simple and unshoey with him. Yeah. And he's always classically been one of those who the fuck is this guy. This guy's just interesting to watch on screen. Yeah. But sometimes he can do a lot. Yeah.

Sometimes he can be big. And even when he was giving more naturalistic performances when he was younger, he was leading on a lot of sort of like neo James Dean affectations. Yeah. Mumbling his way through usual suspects and like that kind of stuff. And you're like, this guy has just, like, gotten to like Zen Master Fates. Yeah. Yeah, I agree.

Yeah, he's great. Perfectly cast. Dylan O'Brien. You want to speak on him for a moment? Yeah. So he plays two characters in Twinless. And Twinless is a movie that you start off, you sort of think you've got a handle on what's going on. This guy, you know, meets, gay guy meets a straight guy in a grief support group.

and there's an infatuation going on. And you understand that like something's up, something's up with the James Sweeney character and whatever. And then it hits a point where you suddenly jump to this flashback and you see Dylan O'Brien as his deceased twin brother, who is the gay one. And not to be like, this straight actor really against us. But like it's just an incredibly,

it's not only, I think, in a really authentic feeling performance, but it also is a blast of like energy in a very different vein. And again, it's a kind of thing where like that movie really needs this guy to sell you on in the span of one night. He kind of like broke this guy's brain, the James Sweeney's guy's brain. And I just think it's really incredible. And then you go back to the other character and he just goes through this very, I don't know, this emotional journey that I find really, really good. And there's a degree of like Dylan O'Brien, little teen wolf guy, you know what I mean?

Like making good. And I really like that aspect to it. And yeah, I just think it's, it's, that was a movie that stuck with me from when I saw it early in the season. Yeah, I was, I was not able to watch it Sundance because some busy bodies decided to pirate it and got it removed from. Busy bodies. They were, they were screenshots. gotten butts. Yeah, they sure were. They got in trouble. They sure were. So I wasn't able to see it until later in the year. But I really liked it. I could have, I almost went with Bill Macy and Train Dreams, which that movie turned out to be a lot more divisive than I thought it was going to be. I liked that movie just fine when I saw it at Sundance. I thought it was very good. I thought it was nice. I thought William H. Macy was nice. I did not anticipate it becoming right, the cinephile Civil War movie. I was really, really thrown by that. apparently people who read books have opinions about things.

Well, it changes the book, but like, that doesn't bother me because whatever, change whatever you want. But, uh, Griffin, you were kind of overwhelmed by it, I feel like. You were not, you were not like anti-I. I could not click into it. I might give another shot, uh, someday. I just need to call this out. Yeah. Call it out. And I'm glad you put it here. The putters and murmurs thing. Yeah. Okay. Uh, because we've gotten a lot of messages about this thing screens at Sundance and immediately people are blowing up. It's a lock, right? Passing us notes being like Macy and Train Dreams. It was equivalent to running down the mountain and saying J.K. Simmons is going to win best supporting actor next year.

Sure. Out of the whiplash screening. Right. People just saying it's done. Right. It's a lock. Mark it down. You know, possibly this put a burden on the movie that it was hard for it to cross.

Sure. But he comes on screen and I immediately go, the fuck are these people talking about. He's so eloquent in that movie. Old-timey vernacular does not make a putter or murmur. Yes. I would agree. He's speaking clearly in an old. style of language.

It's just he's got a corn cob pipe. I think it's just kind of throwing people and like a big white beard and all that. I get it. But he's got a cootremonts, but like the vocal is got a coot. Oh. This is true. That's good. Every year we have to redefine what putters and murmurs is because I think it couldn't

be more clear and yet it's constantly misinterpreted. There was an iron lock. Putters and Murmers performance for me. Turn the camera on. I saw it early in the first half of year. Turn the TikTok camera on, Kyle. Yeah. Clifton Collins Jr. in Eddington,

this is why putters and murmurs exist. That's an interesting. I had not, I have not thought too hard about Clifton Collins. The fuck are we talking about? Well, I don't know, Griffin. What are we talking about? Well, should we put a pain in put a pudders and rumors?

No, that's the winner. I'm just letting people know. Clifton Collins Jr. is the winner of- I guess we could get back around. We'll have that conversation. We'll get back to that. Is there anyone else you want to call out in your category? I really loved Austin Abrams and weapons.

Excellent performance. He's excellent actor. Great actor. I don't know if Austin Abrams owns the middle of that movie to the degree that Amy Madigan owns the last third of that movie, but he holds the center portion of that movie. He picks up the torch with a plumb. So well.

Yep. And I really, he's so entertaining. I love, obviously, you know I love Aldenar and Rick, former Blanky winner of fine for Hail Caesar. Yes. But I was just like, this, you assume that it's just, right, this tweaker is going to be canon fodder for, you know, whatever. monsters are happening in this movie.

And he becomes so, like, affecting, weirdly. And you really end up feeling for this guy. And it really works. It is a performance that is, like, beautifully lacking in judgment. Yeah. In a way that I feel like a lot of actors would play that character condescendingly. Yeah. While also successfully finding all the humor where it needs to be.

Yeah. Yeah. He's a really good actor. And then we had Michael Sarah. Michael Sarah. High five. High five. It's so funny.

You also add in how good he is in The Running Man. I haven't seen it yet. He is the best part of that movie. Yeah. Not only that, you get to his scene. Although you know who else is good in Running Man? William H. Macy. He is.

Yeah. With weirdly high billing, considering the size of his role, similar to Train Dreams. Good agent. Good agent. Really good agent. And also not a lot of big guys in the movie, I guess. No. Michael Sarah shows up for like one extended sequence, like a 10-minute chunk of Running Man.

And immediately you're like, huh, does this whole movie work better if Michael Sarah is in the Glenn Powell role? Yeah. Do most movies work better if Michael Sarah's in the lead role? I really feel like we as a culture have, or at least as like a cinephile culture, have turned on Glenn Powell in a way in the last couple of years. I'm still rooting for the guy 100%. I am too, but like. I don't think Running Man is his fault. I think people have been a little quick to throw him under the bus and be like, oh, so that was a nothing burger.

But like the days of what was the, oh, Hitman. The days of Hitman are sort of seem like they're far behind. There's a lot of automatic hostility to the type of guy he's like, you know, the type of star role he plays right now. Yeah. Uh-huh. And so it's sort of like tougher for him to win people over. And then, yeah, he made a couple kind of men movies and people are like, all right, buddy. I knew you were reheated nachos.

Get out of here. Shortly. Yeah. I think we had like a 15-year stretch of like studios really pushing your headlands and your hundums and your kitchens. Yeah. And all these guys who never quite made it work. Many of whom I'm a fan of, but yes. Yes.

And I think there is still some residual kind of knee-jerk resistance to... What are they pushing this guy on us for? Right. And I think Powell works really hard to be like, I am not a sci-op. Right. But then the second he makes one movie that doesn't work, people are like, I fucking knew it. I knew it. I called it. I was never fooled.

But Sarah's really fucking good in Running Man. And you watch it. And the performance he's giving is very different that I'd say anything he's ever done before on screen. It's a really interesting, like, hostile performance. You watch it, and you're like, oh, right, on top of everything else, this guy did fucking, like,

18 months of Kung Fu training with Edgar Wright. Like, he also can do fucking fight scenes and shit. And Phoenician scheme, I'm watching it in the first half. I'm like, yeah, yeah, all the memes, of course. How are they not done a film together? Yeah, Wes Anderson. Yeah, he's awkward.

He's good. He's doing it really well. It's a good fit. He's making funny choices. I like that he's playing like a fucking European Eddie Bracken role. Sure. Whatever. This is good. But like, there's part of me going, is this all Wes Anderson's going to use him for? Sure.

Sure. And it is part of like the argument for why West Anderson's not fucking stuck in a rut. Yeah. Whoever thinks that is. Without ruining any of the twist of the movie, like halfway through, he just throws an entirely different assignment at Michael Sarah. And it's like, right, this guy gets that we pigeonhole Sarah into doing like two things well.

Turns out Wes Anderson has seen. both Twin Peaks the Return and Molly's game. Because he knows that like Sarah's got that energy too. Right. Everyone likes to say this guy only plays himself. Yeah. But like there is a pretty astonishing range within the tapestry of Michael Sarah's particular frequency. Michael Sarah only plays himself is really funny because I don't know if I could give you a real good sense of who I think Michael Sarah is as a person. Well, I also, that's my problem with ever people have that criticism where it's like you're saying blank only plays themselves.

Yeah. So what you're saying is their performances remind you of how they act in interviews, which also might be an act. Right. You don't know who they fucking are. Right. Right. Anyway. Wow. That was my little stump speech. A little rant mode there.

All right. Turn the TikTok camera off. That was good. Yeah. I don't know. I just, you know, Holtz, that's a performance I adore. Oh, Holt and Superman is so fucking good. We've showered praise on Delroy Lindo on these episodes over the years. I'm crossing my fingers that he could come out of nowhere.

It really feels like any one of the five. Sorry JJ's Twitter rant or Blue Sky rant last night. What's JJ fucking ranting about it. It was a reasonable point. I'll just start composing me email now. Fire. Follow the paper. I'm normally the one being like, you guys are too mean to JJ.

But this one I was just like, it was a decent point of just like, Delroy Lindo should have had 12 Oscar nominations by now. It would be weird if he wins for this for this particular. I don't disagree with him. I don't disagree with that. And yet, who gives us shit? That's also my thing. Well, if we give him an Oscar for this now, I'm not going to be like, that.

One, like, he's excellentness. And after, you know, I think the five blood snub is the most egregious of this decade, in my opinion. It is. You know, it's that. That also might have been one. We all might have agreed on that. But with him, he's got the ultimate, like, how he'd he never been nominated and they served in this performance on a platter. Yeah.

And I see sinners a year ago. And he pops up on screen. And I'm like, fuck, Delroy's in the pocket in this. Yeah. This movie's a hit. Yeah. There's a year to go. But could this possibly be an Oscar contender?

He gets his big monologue. He gets to like run throughout basically the whole picture, but be like just perfect supporting like juice. And it made me so happy that he has like stuck in the whole time and has been a legitimate contender. Who do you think will win the Oscar? Right now my inclination is Stalin Scarcer. Well, I talked about this.

Griffin was there lurking behind me when I recorded. Excuse me. It's called producing. Critical darlings yesterday. And I mentioned that like our, our friends, Kyle Buchanan's stone cold certainty throughout this season that once the industry awards happen that Sean Penn

is going to run the table. Kyle has been making that drum. And that has, the Bafters sort of leaned into that. So, I don't see it. I'm hoping that that's not the case. Not because I don't like that performance, because they do. He's unbelievable in that movie. But he has two Oscars.

He has two Oscars already. Which is so weird if that thing fucking stuck to Benisio, we need to give him a second one and then Penn wins a third. Penn wins a third. I think that category is so wide open that it would be really, it would just be really fun

if Delroy Lindo could, because sometimes my thing with awards is, sometimes when somebody gets nominated without a ton of precursors, it's like, where did that come from? Yeah. You're like, well, clearly, they must have really liked that,

you know, they must have really liked that performance. Sure. Because they sort of disregarded the, you know, pencil sketch outline of the nominees and put him in instead. We were also talking about this,

or you were talking about this on Critical Darling, yesterday, but like sometimes people get a career boost from the snub. Like as angry as everyone was that she didn't get the Five Bloods nomination in the worst Oscar year. Yes. It led to like several years of discourse of being like, remember when the fucking academy didn't? It can help.

It got in people's heads, I think, a little bit in the way that boosted him in this. But this also feels like when you got to his monologue in the car, I was like, Ryan Coogler kind of knows what he's doing. Yeah. Ryan Coogler sat down and was like, someone needs to fucking figure out. at how to get Dolroy Lindo nominated. Maybe. I'm going to give him like a combo platter character

where he gets to do everything. Yeah. I think Scars Guard will win because I think the Oscars really like that movie and that's where they can award it. That's my feeling is well combined with him. And he's another like sort of just major guy who's never got an Oscar nomination.

And it's a quasi-lead role and it's a sad dad and it's just a lot of stuff that they tend to vibe with. Yeah. But I don't know. I don't know. Who knows? Back to the blank. after these messages.

David. This episode, don't act so surprised because it's a familiar friend. This episode's brought to you by Mooby. Yon, just kidding. Comfortable! Secure! We love them.

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Die my love, of course. Yeah. An important watch, a necessary watch for any blankie. LaGraza, LaGrazia, the new Paolo Sorrentino movie, which I missed in theaters. Good moment to catch up with it. The great, shall we dance? Oh, the classic?

The original. Oh, my goodness. That's fun. Like a restoration? Yeah. And look, but they got a collection called Heartthrob Nicholas Cage. It's young, dreamy cage. Well, still dreaming to me.

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Supporting actress. Let's do supporting actress. Okay, so our winners last year for supporting actor were for Griffin, the twink for menorah, Mark Eidelvedi

for me, to my surprise, Edward Norton. And for you, Joe, the brutalist, Mr. Guy Pearce himself. Sure. I'm sure we'll be

super normal presenting this award. I will do mine first, I guess, just to switch it up. My nominees are Tiana Taylor for one battle after another and Regina Hall for in battle after another, Amy Madigan for weapons, Mariam Afshari for It Was Just an Accident, and Una Chaplin for Avatar Fire and Ash.

There you go. Normal five. Wow. Deeply. Yeah. Okay. That's, those are my guys. I was fairly chalk, though, with the one battle girls have to be there. I went with Miriam Afshari for it was just an accident. Nina Haas for Hedda. Mm-hmm. Hymairon, apologies if I did not pronounce that correctly, for no other choice. Amy Madigan for weapons and Wunmi Masaku for sinners. Love her. Love that, nom. I do, too.

I have to make one tough cut here. All right? An annual tradition. Griffin making a thought of love. My tough cut was Gwyneth, who I just loved. My tough cut, I mean, Gwyneth, too, my tough cut was obviously Tiana Taylor. I think Tiana Taylor is incredible. Yeah.

She's doing all right without me. I love the Regina Hall performance, and I'm sort of cheating it by giving it Sergeant Shroom Award, which is a performance where, like, I wish I could nominate it. Sergeant Shroom, just for people who don't remember, is Vin Diesel's character in Billy Lynn's long half-time walk. Got it. Got it. Got it. Got it. I know everyone remembers that. I think she's incredible in that movie. I think it is to the credit of the movie and the performance that it could so easily have the explosive Oscar moment that would have made it an undeniable contender. Much like Vin Diesel and Billy Lens Half Time Walk, when that movie, when that casting got announced, people were like, Oscar

No. Well, that's why, of course, we call it the Sergeant Truman Awards. Of course, yeah. But it's, that character is so defined by the quiet and what isn't said in the in-between spaces. She's incredible nice. I'm using that as a cheat to not give her one of my five. I have, some great surprise.

Wait a second. Please drop your rolling pins, Una Chaplin, and Avatar Fire and Ash. Marisa, Bella, and Blackbag. Sure. Hot. Kirsten Dunst in Roof, man. Yep. She's so good in that movie.

Wumi Mascow, I will say, I think, is an incredible performance and was my vote for SAG this year? Nice. Okay. I'm dropping her for my five only because she's being represented by the Oscars and I want to get my five weird people in. Yep. Emma Stone and Eddington. Incredible performance. Not a performance I like.

But carry on. I think an incredible. performance. And Nina Haas and Hedda. Yeah, she was a tough cop for me too because she's really good in that movie. She rules on that movie. The only problem I have with that performance is that it's almost too easy where I'm like, well, yeah, of course Nina Haas playing like the person who you can't get over, who's so

powerful, she ruined your life walking around in that dress or that outfit. Yeah, yeah, of course that's going to work on screen. Good thinking, Nia. Talk so much about like, oh, if you just like flip the gender of that character, the whole text transforms, like, so rapidly. And it's like, no, but also if you just put Nina Haas in that role. She's very good. Someone who also has played, had a gabbler before.

Yeah, that's not surprising. Yeah, that's not surprising. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Who are your winners, gentlemen? Joe, who's your winner? I'm here I'm going on the fly. I'm going to go with Miriam Fashari for it was just an accident. She's so good in that movie.

My winner is Amy Madigan. That was my almost, yeah. Who I thought was going to win the Oscar, but now I guess I feel like she might not. But it also might happen. It could. It still good. I think that category is pretty up in the air. That feels like a three-way race.

Tiana won me and Amy. Yeah. Yes. Yeah. I think the sentimental value women cancel each other. I agree. Yep. But like that feels like an even three-way.

If I had a supporting actor feels like a five-way. Yeah. If I had a crisp hundred dollar bill, I'd put it on Tiana. But, you know. I would too. But only slightly. I wonder if. By the way, Griffin, you owe me a crisp $100 bill.

I got to do something with it. Oh, sure. Yeah. I feel like Amy Madigan might pull it out at the end. Yeah. For some of the reason to Salon Scars Guard of like the Hollywood firmament being like, you know what? Yeah. Thank you for all your service.

Did you see somebody finally asked her in an interview about her and Ed Harris refusing the clap rally? And her answer was pretty fucking perfect. She stuck by it. And I was just like, go with that. It was pretty excellent. I think every interview she's done has been on fire. wearing all those suits. My supporting actress winner is Nina Haas,

which is like my performance of the year. She's so good. And I, getting to the earlier point we were making, I was like, oh, but do I give it to her? Because I gave her best actress for Phoenix, didn't I? And then I looked back, and Phoenix was the year before we started doing it. So I was like, that's my private spreadsheet. I put her in my best of the decade, best actress lineup.

Yep, yep, yep. But because I haven't given her an award on Mike before, I'm going Nina Hoss. Best of the decade, the podcast. episode that caused COVID. Yeah, the last one. Yeah. We left that recording. I was like, guys, I'm going to go to a rowdy screening of cats and then live forever. We're doing great.

We're doing great. Yeah. Vering is mad at you, though, and she is going to set you on fire. Look, I just... We'll have a separate conversation off, Mike. David, you and I agreed on Miriam Fshari, though. I mean, I think she's never been in a movie before. By the tree with the taillight, the taillight illumination was, I mean, there's some really good scenes in a lot of good movies this year, but like that was up there for me. I really thought for as much as I love the ending of that movie and that's kind of what everybody talked about. But like, for me, the scene of that movie is that one of the movie. Yeah. Yeah. No, she, yes, then that movie is one of my favorites of the years. Yeah, Tiana and Regina, it's very obvious. Amy Madigan just, you know, did you clock her when, when you saw the movie? Like, were you like, this is Amy Madigan? Like, when, when, when, when,

character appeared because I was not really like... I definitely didn't in the trailer. I was so in the movie. Yeah. Right? Like so I'm like... And like obviously Gladys's first appearance is when she's, apart from the little glimpses, is when she's in full wig mode. Yeah. And I was just like, it's kind of like the don't look now thing where I'm like, did he just like find someone from another dimension? Yeah. Like, I don't get it. What is this? Who is this? Right. Right. My problem. And then when you see her with the wig off, I was kind of like, okay, no, no, no. This is an actress I know. Anyway, yeah. Carrey. You're, you're

No, my problem is that the release of that film basically directly coincided with the worst of my no other choice-esque dental nightmares. Oh, gosh. Yeah, I remember that. Where I basically... You took a while to see it. I couldn't see the movie for like a week because I was sick and vomiting from a dental infection. So I, by like... Dental infection?

Yeah. Ben, I had a lot of things going on. His gums got all fucked up. Remember? My mouth was bleeding. Tooth stuff. Yes. Yes. Right.

My mouth was bleeding, Bert. Sorry. Within three days, people were already doing the, like, can Amy Madigan get a supporting actress nomination? Yeah, yeah, right, right. Just as a cheat. I went in knowing she was a thing. Right, right.

Yeah, totally, totally. You loved Emma Stone and Eddington. That's not a performance I like. Yeah, I liked Eddington a lot. Me too. That sort of sits on the, maybe. I was my least favorite part of it. I don't dislike her Yorgas performances.

I don't either. This was my favorite performance she has given in many years. I thought it was the most different thing I've seen her do in a long time. I think she's capturing something really interesting for me, which is the, you know,

in a movie that is all about like everyone's living in separate realities, right? Yeah. That, for me, so accurately captures the chaos of what it feels to be alive right now and that no one can agree on the ground we're standing on. Right, right.

This very tricky thing of, like, people who have experienced extreme trauma can be disconnected from reality in a way that is a coping mechanism. Sure. Where you don't know whether to believe them or not. Yeah. Even when you have endless sympathy for the understanding of what caused this disconnect. Well, and then you have Deirdre O'Connell in the other room breaking stick figures and casting spells. Right. And I think, like, I think Emma Stone gets the kind of weird husk of that really right.

It really worked for me. I found it. I found a very great thing. Yeah. I also just want to shout out Yom Hyran for No Other Choice, who plays the wife of the guy that the main character is trying to knock off and is so funny. Yes. Oh, yes. Yes.

Very funny. Yes. One of those, a great running performance. Every time she runs somewhere. in that movie, I think it's very funny. Your winner's Miriam? My winner is Miriam. Griffin, who's your winner?

Nina Haas. Right, of course, right. Yeah, yeah. Okay, great. I'm going to read you the Blankies supporting performance winners. Okay, or I'll go from 10 to 1. Okay.

10 miles, Caton and Sinners, a great, great find, great performance. Nine, Odessa is Aion and Marty Supreme. Mm-hmm. Eight, Stell and Scars Garden's sentimental value. Mm-hmm. Seven, Delroy Lindo. Six.

Inga, Ibs, Daughter, Lilius. Is that how you say? It's in sentimental value. Yeah, she's great. Tiana Taylor is number five, Amy Madigan, number four. Sean Penn, number three. Ray finds our beautiful Dr. Kelsey number two, and Ray Benicio is their winner.

Yeah, that makes sense. It all makes, it all makes sense. It all falls into place. As the Lightning Seeds once said, let's do our screenplays maybe. Let's do it. I'm trying to think, yeah, that's what we did last time. Okay, yeah, let's do our screenplays. Okay.

Okay. All right. Okay. Original or adapted? Let's go original first. Best Original Screenplay Okay, I got It was just an accident

Written by Jafar Panahi Secret Agent Written by Kleber Cliber Philho Sinners written by Rand Cougar If I had Legs I Kick You by Mary Bronstine And Robert Kaplow's Blue Moon script For my five

Interesting Is that interesting? I found it pretty interesting Mine are Blue Moon Written by Robert Kaplow Griffin in Summer written by Nicholas Collier. I got my ears of burning.

It was just an accident, Jafar Panahi, Lurker, written by Alex Russell, and twin list written by James Sweeney. My original screenplay nominations are, if I had legs, I'd kick you. Yeah. Sinners, weapons, Eddington, and of course, David, say it with me.

Materialists. I just want to point out, you sort of were getting a little bobbynors. Duky there. Cernor War happens. Parker Poseypox. Lucy Lou

Flew. My winner is it was just an accident, which I think is great in every way, but is a quiet like crucial screenplay, crucial story construction kind of movie.

But those are all good winners. Did thankfully give that. Right. That's that got, Anom. Yes. Right.

Yeah. It didn't get best picture, but it got the screener. Right. The Oscars, right. They went pretty, yeah, they have sentimental value in there. They have Martin Supreme in there. But they, right. Yeah.

I assume, I still assume Coogler is winning there. I do too. Because of the Oscar trend of awarding black director's screenplay awards. Rather than giving them director. It's funny. Spike Lee, Jordan Peel. They're like, well, we got a screenplay award for you, Jerry Jenkins. Yes.

Plus, it also just feels like it's a very tied. the split between one battle after another and sinners where they give one to one and one to the other. And I think sinners is a kind of a brilliant, like, brilliant, brilliant, brilliant idea and a, like, well-written movie. I'm not, it's just funny. Like, it's just like such a visual

fucking feast. And, you know, like, anyway, I hope he wins. I want him to win. Look, there was always the thing of, like, original screenplay, that's the cool category. Yeah, yeah. That's the coolest movie that the Academy has recognized, but it's a little too edgy or out there or new to win better.

picture. It's the pulp fiction. It has sort of just become, we will let black filmmakers get this close. Right. Right. Or Nick Falalanga. Of course. Or Nick. Well, we salute. No, but even, you know, those are, I'm about to name two films that were not written by their directors, but John Ridley winning for

12 years a slave. Yep. Yep. And what's in, Jeffrey Cheshire for Precious? I believe that's correct. Like, there has been a last 15 years like, this is the exact ceiling. And then really good point. Right. Yeah. Moonlight, of course, just the weirdest Oscar shakedown of all time. Shake out, I mean, rather.

Who are your guys? Winners. It was just an accident for me. Also, for me, it was just an accident. Wow. Who are you going for? It's a really good question. Purple, nerple.

Are you going to murder me if I pick materialists? I'm not going to murder you? No, but I want to hear you talk about it. Because I was sort of, I did not like that movie, but I was fascinated. about it. Yeah. I think that movie is like the, um, it is exploding the subtext in all, uh, kind of Hollywood romantic comedies,

uh, into a, like examination of how, uh, dating has basically just become, or rather partners have become another form of currency in our, like, insane late stage capitalization. housecape.

Sure. That the whole movie is about that we have basically reduced this to like a sense of belonging in your like it's another thing you own in your brand portfolio. Sure. Sure. Certainly for a particularly for a character like Dakota Johnson. Yes. And how much we've like gamified dating through apps and that's yes.

Right. And then, you know, the people with the money to afford it bypass the apps by getting the bespoke throwbacky experience. Yeah. And that all of this doesn't actually consider what makes you want to be with someone, what makes a relationship work, you know? The intellectualization of the kind of person you want to be with versus who you were emotionally drawn to. And I just think it's like an incredible movie about people lying to themselves. That is definitely true.

Two things, and neither one of this is to sort of discount your choice. One of which is I recently, I have made the somewhat bomb. conquer's decision to, um, for the 25th anniversary of the movies of 2001 to watch the movies of 2001 throughout the year as they are released, as they were released back then. So I watched the wedding planner. Oh, sure. That movie. Yeah. That movie scans onto materialists so well in a way that I think doesn't do materialists any favors because it's like we were kind of doing a lot of these beats 25 years ago. I would say. Where like, you know, a matchmaker and a wedding planner, you know, they, why do they even want to be together?

Like, is this just status symbol? Yada yada. The other thing is, I like Pedro Pascal and some things. I think... I'm very with whatever this is. He really does not meet the moment in that movie. He comes across as such a TV actor in that movie.

I firmly disagree with this. I think he's so good. If you liked the movie, you would almost have to. And, like, I admit my... Perhaps my single greatest movie frustration of 2025 is how badly he fumbled Reed Richards. It drives me crazy. Yeah. Did fumble it. I mean, IMO. I think it speaks to, from, in my opinion, why he works in materialists. I know all my defenses of materialists are, this is a feature, not a bug. But I feel very strongly about this. But that's how you end up liking movies against consensus. You end up liking

the thing that everybody didn't like. I think, and I feel like there are other performances in the past I've referred to this way, and I'm struggling to recall another one now. But I think Pedro Pascal is giving a great fake movie star performance in materialists. I think it is about his limitations. Sure. You know? And how like it's like, right, this guy should be like a giant movie star. Why isn't this working?

Yes. I think that's what he's trying to do. I agree. Right. And all of this, what you're saying is saying to me, I'm really not surprised this movie did not do well. I think it did well. It made money.

It did make more money than it. It made $100 million worldwide. This is the crux of my like whole take on this movie. is I understand why it drove everyone insane because the marketing was, hey guys, we're bringing it back. I was not baffled by the marketing of this movie. I understand what you're saying

in terms of like a commercial response, but like I was not like expecting anything out of the marketing of this movie. I just feel like every critic friend of mine who saw this movie early was like the tone of this is so bizarre. It's not a comedy. It's not funny. I did agree that it could not pick a tone.

Yes. But like the sexual assault plotline especially landed, like, so thuddingly for me. Especially the way she reacts to it was just like, not, I did not track a human onto that behavior. But my problem with Pascal was like, I was like, I think he's trying to come off as a little stiff and he's coming off as someone with heads in his search. And I just, like, the whole time was just like, I don't understand who this person is. And the movie doesn't really and like, she's, yes, she's a little blinded by her stats and figures and his well through it. But I'm like, she

can't have sex with this person because he's crazy. Well, the movie is also fairly eager to like move on from him to the point. That's also true. The movie gives him nothing. Yes. We should put maybe a spoiler alert around the section of the conversation because this is a danger we get into every year

at the Blankies where we start just throwing out random endings. That's true. People get grumpy on the Blankies episode specifically. But for me, this movie came out along. For me, it all works in the fucking kitchen scene where she, like, confronts him. And he just, like, unravels and is like, why is this not working? I'm everything on paper.

Yeah. And I see that. Yeah. I think his vulnerability in that scene totally makes it work for me. There is, like, a desperate, eager, just sort of, like, kind of pathetic quality that feels very honest. Which I also think it's, look, part of the Pedro Pascal thing of, who is this guy really? Right. Well, I mean, that's sort of a lot of his essential thing.

Totally. Totally. Yeah. Yeah, I think there is one choice in relation to the sexual assault plotline in the movie that I think is a fatal mistake. Uh-huh. Which is having the following scene take place in real time on their doorstep where Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans professed their love to each other. I think that cannot happen continuous with what she has just been going. Just contributed to the feeling of like,

these don't feel like people to me in the slightest. Yeah. Like, I just had that problem with it throughout. Yeah. But, like, I really was just like, this is not human behavior.

And satire or not, I've lost any grip on this movie because they just not behaving like humans at all. Yeah, see, it just totally clicked for me and part of it is also that maybe I have dated three different Dakota Johnsons in my life. Anyway,

next category. That was your screenplay winner. That was your screenplay. Yeah, because I'm realizing this is the one place I can sort of mount my case for it. Planch your flag. Yeah. It's that. I mean, it's that. Or what? I mean, you have five nominees. I know. The other four probably better. IMO. Can't remember. Yeah. If I'd legs I'd kick you,

centers weapons, Eddington materialists. Yeah, those are all really, those are good ones. Eddington was, I mean, one of your favorite movies of the year. Yeah, well, we'll get to that. Yeah, right, right. You know what? I've made my case for materialist. I'm going to give it to if I had legs I'd kick you. A great movie. Yeah. Because I thought. I thought I was going to give actress to Roseburn, but I think I'm going to swing on that. Just missed my swing. Yeah, that's strategizing in real time.

I will tell you the Blankies winners are for original screenplay. I'll just go one to five. Just go one to five. Sinners was their winner. And then Marty Supreme, weapons, sentimental value. It was just an accident. And it adapted one battle was their winner.

Oh, well, we're about to do it. Yeah, we haven't done adapted yet. Best adapted screenplay. But I'll tell you them anyway. On battle was their winner, then no other choice. years later, Bagonia, and wake up dead man. My adapted screenplays, let me see. One battle after another, 28 years later.

Peter Hoosier's Day, Heda, and Superman. I'm glad you had Peter Hojard's Day because... Those are my five. Mine are Hamnet, Chloe Jow and Maggie O'Farrell, Heda, Nia da Costa, one battle after another, Paul Thomas Anderson, Peter Hoogar's Day, Iris Sacks, wake up dead man

Ryan Johnson I was worried that Peter Hujar's Day is just so much a oh we have these transcripts no but I mean it's it's all

precisely constructed yeah yeah yes yeah trying to what is my number five going to be

I also realized I fell into one of the bullshitier Oscar things which is it's you're adapted if you're adapted if you

have characters from previous movies, which I think spiritually I disagree with, but in this case, I wanted to nominate Wake Up Dead Man. Yeah, I mean, to me, right, saying Wake Up Dead Man is adapted as bizarre. Yes, it is. But, I mean, but he's there. Otherwise,

otherwise, y'all were getting Song Song Blue, and I would have stood by it, but, uh... Well, I'm glad it all worked out. Stay tuned. I'm struggling with my number five here, weirdly. Well, give us your four. Yeah, because I'm just trying remind myself on what qualifies as what a little bit.

My four definitely, no other choice. One battle after another. Wake up dead man. A Knives Out Mystery. Final Destination Bloodlines. Good movie. Is Roofman adapted? I don't actually think it is.

It's just based on an article. So it's not. You don't want to nominate, I don't know, yeah, what, 28 years later had a... Die my love? Oh, I'll nominate 20 years later. Correct. Thank you, sorry.

Yes. Yeah. That's exactly what I'm doing. Yeah. So I'm three sequels sneaking in there. Yeah. 20 years later is a... Yeah.

Just a fucking fantastic. It's a great screenplay. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. And it's my nominee for me. Yeah. I mean, I'm giving the win to one battle.

Like, sorry, guys. Like, one battle's winning a lot of my awards. We're not breaking anybody's brains by saying one battle, but yet it's the best. It's the best. And it's also a very interesting feat of adaptation. Yeah. It's like taking the guts of a book and, you know, messing it around in all kinds of ways. I take everybody's word for that because there's no way I...

You don't want to crack open to Vineland. I can't read. So it would be pointless. I'm giving it to no other choice. Yeah. Other than Benicio, one battle is like coming in like second for me in almost every category. Yeah. Park Chenwick and Don McHallor and Lee Kyung-Me and Lee Jahee.

And that is based on a novel? The Axe. By Donald Wesley. Yes. Thank you to everyone who sent me the Costas Gavaris film. Oh, right. It was hard to find. Yes.

The prior adaptation. And if anyone wants a link, I now have 47 of them. So I have many ways to watch the movie. I can just goon it. I can surround myself. I can just goon it. We're going to clip that. as well.

You don't need to goon it. Okay. Anytime I invoke gooning on the show, listeners go, does he just think it's having a lot of screens? I know what the other stuff is. I'm just don't, I don't want to talk about it. He gets it. Oh, you don't want to talk about it?

I don't want to talk about it. What are your animated? It's a family show. Yeah, it's so true. Best animated feature. What are your animated films, Griff? Give me your five. This is actually a tough year for this.

It's a weak year. And I will say I have not. I have some big blind spots Um I really haven't met little Amelie yet Yeah I mean this is the problem is like

I'd be putting in some stuff I like okay Just to fill out the five That's the kind of year So give me a three Yeah I mean like The day the earth blew up

Oh yeah sure K-pop demon hunters Yeah And I'm like what else do I even Like I admittedly haven't seen Arco yet Oh, sure. I haven't seen a little Amelie yet. I was not crazy about Zootopia 2.

What about Elio? I was not crazy about Elio. I really was not crazy. Which one is fixed? The Jenny Tartit Hoski movie about a horny dog. Got to cut his balls off. See, for some reason I thought that movie turned out to not actually... Like, I know the joke ha ha ha doesn't exist.

But I thought there was a Jendi Tartovsky movie. There was a real threat of it being a Zazlav. Yeah. It escaped containment. And of course we devoted a full episode to it. Of course. No, I don't even know what my like number three would be. I have some, yeah.

What about you guys? Yeah, I have, yeah, it's boring. Yeah. It's Utopia 2 and Arco and K-pop Demon Hunters. And then yeah, I have to be like, I guess Elio. I basically abstained. Yeah, I can't. Yeah.

It's a week year. It's a real week year. Which I got the Oscar nom. I think are in the same bucket for me, which is just like. I did not really care for Arco. I thought Arco was fine. I thought Little Little Amelie was fine. I thought Elio was

not bad, which felt like a radical opinion to me, because I think Elio got a lot of shit for some reason. Yeah, I think Elio's solid. But like, Elio left my brain. Yeah. Before it was over. I barely remember. And like, I didn't despise it. I'm putting Elio and Zootopia in. I don't think either one's bad. I really, I very much

enjoyed. I enjoyed myself with Zootopia too. And K-pop demon hunters is kind of my number one with a bullet, even though I think that movie is mostly a good time. that is grafted onto a decent movie. I'm glad everyone is having fun. Me too. I was a little bit like...

The songs are great. The songs are now encoded in my brain. I haven't seen Predator Killer of Killers, which I've heard is excellent. So our blankies put that in there, along with Arco, De Beard, Blue Off, and Chainsaw Man, Ben's favorite movie of the year was number two for them,

and then K-Bop Demon Hunters. I continue to struggle with the Nijsha films. I cannot make sense of them. Little impenetrable. Bad guys, too, kind of did nothing for me. The King of Kings and David, obviously, my two favorite movies in the year. Did you see the-chaun saw one, too? That's Ben's favorite.

I did not see that. I did not. I missed that one. Oh, Joe. Yeah? Worth it? It's fun. Okay.

All right. Sneaks is one of the worst films I saw a year. That's a sneaker movie. A movie about talking sneakers. No, it's not. Yeah, it is starring Anthony Mackie. Tony. It's starring Martin Lawrence, who this is, it kind of, there was a interesting technical

breakthrough if I can just animation nerd out for a second on the movie Sneaks. That is the first voiceover performance recorded entirely while someone is fully asleep. Just kind of put a mic by the bed there. We're doing a lot with sleep technology. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. That's what it sounds like the whole time. He was getting tested for sleep apnea and they thought while we were doing that, while we got him hooked up to machines, why not we also record a voice.

Yeah. Any vocal performances we want to shout out this year? Honestly, no. I'm moving us on from Yeah. It's a surprise. You know what? We're all struggling here. Look, we talked about... You know what? David Strathern and Andy Sandberg did great job in Sutopia, too. The whole Zootopia cast is great. I like... Yeah, I thought Samberg was really good. Yeah. I agree with you.

Marin in the bad guys too. I haven't seen that one yet. I really just want to talk about goat, which is 2026. Oh, you're all about goat. Is goat? I still haven't seen goat yet. Okay. That's good. It's the number one movie in America. It is. I got it there, baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Joe, what you're witnessing, is a very interesting inflection point in the narrative of

blank check. Which is I'm getting non-pluced about all animated films and David is going to see them with his daughter and being like, this thing fucking rules. It's kind of a, I'm now in the, I think if there's an animated film, she's old enough where it's like, if there's a cartoon, we're going to go see it. Like we're going to Hoppers, we're going to marry a galaxy,

right? Like, whatever the one's coming down the pike car. Hoppers, do you mean Merrill Streep's Grand Return to feature films? After like five years away? Hoppers, the first time Merrill Streep has played an insect queen in an animated film in 20 years? I mean, after the end, boy? Is that what we're talking? Correct. Yeah, yeah, yeah. One of the greatest Cinematrix plays. I literally was like, the only

reason I'm pulling that is because I've been in the Cinematrix matches. All right. What else should we do here? Have you guys, did you guys do nominations for casting? Because that's the inaugural I did not. I don't do a casting. Mine was kind of chalk, except for I wanted to throw in Griffin in summer, which I was like, if you cast really awesome kid characters. Can I just, Paul Dibs the other three seasons. Oh, Griffin in spring, Griffin and I will seed summer to him as long as I still have the other three. You're doing a Romare?

Like, I want to complete the seasons quadrology. I just don't like that this uppity little movie. Have you seen it? No, I've heard it's great. I think you really enjoy it. It's a real winner. It is a real winner. The whole thing with it.

Everyone's got a new Griffin they love. Pin in Griffin and Summer. Okay. All right. Interesting. But cinematography. Best Cinematography. Cinematography.

Mine are Darius Conjee for Marty Supreme. Michael Bowman for one battle after another. Alex Ash for Peter Hoosier's Day. Yeah, gorgeous. Maro Hearst for Surratt. And Adolfo Veloso for Train Dreams. Pretty movie. Yeah.

Probably going to win the Oscar. Or no, actually. I think it's going to be one battle because of the... One battle. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I have one battle on Martin. Supreme. I have 28 years later, which is my winner.

That's such a good pick. I have a Phoenician scheme because, of course, like every West movie basically deserves every Technom. I can. And never gets them except for one movie

that's the weirdest Oscar narrative. I breaks my brain all the time. Yeah. This is the first live action movie he's done with anyone other than Bob Roman? Correct.

Yes. This is Del Bono. I can't remember. I don't know if there's a reason. I don't either. Maybe he and Yoman got in a fight over like craft services. But Yoman goes all the way back to

Bottle Rocket, right? He goes way back. And then no other choice is my fifth. Yeah. Mine are 28 years later. Die my love. Oh, yeah. No other choice. One battle after another. And Phoenician's game. Nice. He does go all the way back to Bottle Rocket. Yeah. What fuck happened?

I don't know. I don't know. I mean, Dublin L's a king. I mean, he's one of my favorite DPs. But you're right, Joe. I will never stop yelling about this. It makes no sense to me. Even when they don't like the movie, he should be getting like Young Victoria-style nominations. I think that's why they don't do it. It gets a screenplay nomination. So clearly you saw it.

Clearly you liked it. And yet like no production design. Right. And you could go, okay, so was that movie too edgy at that point in time for the academy? But now it should be agreed on it. Right. And it's like it feels like what happened last year with Ray Fines. Yeah.

Not winning for Conclave where people were like, but he already has one. Right. This is another Griffin Buckberg. Right. Where it feels like people are like, but hasn't Wes Anderson, like, I haven't his movies won like 20 craft awards? You will hear that from people being like, oh, another, you know, play for craft nominations from Wes Anderson. It's like, no, actually, kind of never. Desla won for Grand Budapest. And did Grand Budapest win? It won makeup and hairstyle. It won like three or

four awards, I feel like. But it didn't get, because like obviously Chivo beats it for cinematography. Yeah, it won for costumes, makeup, uh, score. production design. So Stockhausen, it's like Stockhausen has his Oscar. Maybe that's how they feel, but I don't know. I don't know. I don't like it. Yeah, it's bad. The Blanky's winners here, our listeners were one battle and then sinners, 28 years later, train dreams, and no other choice. So, you know, good-looking movies. Good look at movies. Score. Score. I've got some score nominees. Kind of chalky. One battle. Sinners. Surrath, Testament of Anley, and Trainders. Testament of Anley is a good shout. Yeah. If nothing else.

And I've kind of been like, in many group texts, I've been the sort of holdout on Testament of Manley, but like, there are elements of that movie that, like, are really fantastic. I was left quite cold by that film, but that it's quite impressive. You're one of the very few people who I've heard that from, and I'm glad to have at least some company. For some reason, that became the, like, gay guy caused Celeste. this year and I was like folks there's some like actual movies with like gay character I mean I know that whatever

Lewis Pullman in that movie and whatever but like I don't know everybody was just on the on the cypher train and she's great I love cypher I adore that movie I'll talk about it in a little bit I did I forgot to post this on letterbox when I saw it

but saw the film was very moved by it was very affected by it immediately came out with like a couple of really good pitches for if I had to right for the Spirit Awards. Uh-huh. Testament of Stanley. I mean, it's right there.

There you go. Tim Robinson chair company parody where he shows up at the shakers. And he's like, what's going on here? And they just keep singing. That would be fun. That would be funny. Yeah. Chairs, because they made all those great chairs.

Yeah. I just wanted the whole movie to be about furniture. Right. And then my... And it's like, it's like one line. And then my third spirit... Like all when we make good furniture. My third Spirit Awards pitch was shake it off.

They do like... like a Daniel Blumberg's style performance of Taylor Swift, shake it off. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I thought there was like three good pitches right off the dome. I, you seem just, like, seething with rage that the spirits did not take you up on this. Did they even acknowledge, Ann Lee?

I think these spirits were kind of so odd. Editing, because I drafted it in our other secret movie league we're part of. What? And I got it for one dollar. And I was like, I'm going to fucking reap the riches with this. I'm the only one who has it on their slate. And then that is the only major award it got all year. Indy spirits were weird this year in that like the nominations were so pleasantly like off the map.

Yeah, because they do the word jurors. And in that like really classic indie spirit way of like, oh, this used to like give me 20 ideas for movies that I hadn't seen. Right. Yeah. And then because of that, like, it was so much more stark that like, oh, there's one per category that's like an Oscar nominee crossover. And so of course those ones were the ones that won. Did Train Dreams win? Yeah.

Train Dreams one, sorry baby, which is not an Oscar nominee, but was also like everybody's pick for best first feature this year. So like that won a few of them. And like Roseburn won very well deserved, but like is an Oscar nominee. My nominees for score were one battle on Marty Supreme. 28 years later, young fathers. Sinners and Tron Aries.

I did not see Tron Aries. I was waiting to have to see it because it's an Oscar nominee. I believe it. I mean, yeah. I'm now like wondering if I have the exact same five. You might. Yeah. I mean, there's not a good score.

scores this year, though, I would have been listening to. What have been bumping? Blackbag score is great. The weapon score is great. Weapon score is really cool. Yeah. Not as much one to bump because it's so disorienting but good. What are some other good? The Superman score, the weird sort of hodgepodgey nature of it, notwithstanding, but it's good. And Lee, for sure. I don't know. I don't know, mate. Okay. Thank you, man. I gave what? I gave what? Well, final destination is screenplay now. I'm just remembering that. Oh, yeah.

It's a lovely little numb for you. Yeah, thank you. I think that is a perfectly structured screenplay. Yeah. I think that movie is so smart. I give it so much credit for like after six, right? No, no, this is the sixth entry. There were five previous final destinations.

Yeah. Showing up and just being like, this is clearly what all of these movies should have been all along. Like, just finding the perfect narrative. structure and emotional underpinning for one of these films. Yeah. I also think that movie does some of the smartest legacy sequel shit I have ever seen.

Agree. It is the opposite of the stuff that makes my teeth hurt where there is a... Well, they essentially were like David Gordon Green's Halloween, but like, what if it wasn't stupid? Well, because the movie basically, there is a reading of it

that is not necessary for you to enjoy the film. Yeah. That this is the starting point of the entire franchise. that everything that has happened in the five previous films which have their own Fast and Furious style jumbled timeline

where things keep on getting rearrange are all the trickle effects of this one incident that is the cold open that is so good. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I really liked it. I thought it was really creative. I think I go to those movies because it's like, I'm not normally this much of a sadist but I'm like I need creative kills. I need, you know what I mean? Like all that become like a real chug

to be a little, you know, sort of demand. of these things. Incredibly good. And I just think the Tony Todd scene is like excellent. RIP is another perfect example of just like retroactively applying all this meaning to previous movies that are like. Yeah. I find that entire franchise very fun. But a lot of times through a lot of wonkiness. Oh, totally. Like the power of the ideas push through a lot of conceptual like sort of inconsistencies. Yeah. But yeah. And a lot of it's like a master class of directing.

But also, and I've said this so many times, any movie that can get an entire audience to cheer when a child dies is doing some sort of like super sophisticated, Ramey-esque. It was the way I felt watching Send Help. And like, these are filmmakers who know how to play the audience like a drum. That's a movie I wish I hadn't seen the trailer because the one trailer gives away so much of the backyard scene with the lawnmower and whatnot that I was like, I want to see this play. So much wrong footing in so many Mr. X. Oh, that's true. But it's just like I just wanted that. I understand why.

It's the same thing with the running a man trailer where they give away so much of the one action scene in the hallway or the elevator or whatever they're doing. I liked that the first Bloodline's teaser was the piercing tattoo shop. Yes. Which is the ultimate fake out. Exactly. So I was like, oh, this is a good sequence and they're ruining it to do the marketing. And then you see in the context of the movie and you're like, no, this was the exact thing for them to spoil. Because in context, it's totally different.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that's great. Can I give out a special honorific award? Sure. Can I do one right after you? Yeah, of course. The first ever Iowa Debris Memorial couldn't be more seated award. I say Memorial because her time as a guest on the show is probably it.

Look, once in a while. Lessons for learned. I talk to Iowa largely about my kids. But once in a while, Iowa will be like, kind of come back on BC someday and I'm like, hey, man, doors open. Yeah. She is about to do proof on Broadway. Yes. That's in New York.

She's here. Oh, shit. Yeah. But she will also be fairly busy doing what is having seen, you know, the original production. One of the more demanding theater roles I'm aware of existing. Yeah. I wonder how that's going to go. I feel like we threw Spielberg to her and she said, I only want to do Columbo main theater.

She didn't say I only want to, but she did say I really want to do that. And, you know, again, it's split it up. But you are honoring, of course, her iconic, I'm so seated. I couldn't be more seated. They're telling me it's not coming out for months, but I remaining seated type, you know, her tweet. So this is my award for the best performance with zero standing up. Okay. Now, I think it's important that the performance cannot textually be a character who lacks the ability to stand.

I understand. It needs to feel like the actor is overriding any demands. Going, I got an idea. What if I'm just a little, what if I'm sort of in this chair here? What if I have an emotional connection to this chair? I really shouldn't leave it. Yeah.

And this award was inspired. And I think this is much like Putters and Mervis, something that would be easy to fill every year. But it was inspired by seeing a performance this year that was, in my memory, three or four different scenes and a couple different locations. All seated. And every time I cut back to this actor in a chair, I was just going, oh, I hope he doesn't fuck up the streak.

I hope he never stands up. Al Pacino in Dead Man's Wire. Oh, sure. I have not seen, but I've heard that his performance is a smidge low energy. Four different chairs by my count. Four different chairs. I believe I read that he shot the entire performance in one day. I also believe that.

The movie takes place over like, I think, 72 hours. But he goes from like a country club to like a couple different rooms in his home. Yeah. Different chairs. But this man. Off screen, he's moving and wheeling and dealing, but we never see it. And he's doing a lot. But he could not be more seated, and it's a clear choice by Big Al.

I thought you were going to go for, like, Tracy Lettson House of Dynamite or something like that. But he's leaning and standing. Does he stand? Okay. Yeah, and he's going like... Joe, it's there in the name. They could not be more seated. There have to be zero qualifiers in this performance.

Nuremberg, I've pointed out already. But Crow, I mean, he does do some push-ups in one scene, but, you know, Crow is largely either lying down or sitting. Crow is a spiritually seated actor He did a whole fucking serial killer movie Where he's in the car the whole time You know what I mean Where they were like you have to play like a crazy guy He's like can I sit in the car

Knock it out And another one was just like What if I was sitting on this Vespa For most of his book The Pups Exorcist Yeah different than what was the other one he did He did another movie called the something exorcist The Exorcism

Yes oh right That almost felt like they were like We just we sort of CGI had a little A different haircut on you from like deleted scenes from the other exorcist movie. But isn't that one about like he's a guy who played an exorcist or something? A troubled actor begins

to exhibit disruptive behavior. I don't see how Russell Crow would, would vibe with that character while shooting a horror film. Is in some sort of middle space between like real movies. Yes. And like Bruce Willis depressing Redbox like slop. Yes. You know kind of stuff.

They're more legitimate than that. Yeah. It's an interesting zone he's in. But once again, This category, which exists and is open to you gentlemen for all years going forward, is not for the spiritually seated. No. And if Russell Crow is getting up and doing push-ups in one scene, then unfortunately, I have a note. There is a way that you could be more seated.

It's simply not doing the push-ups. Yeah. It has to be someone who does not get up from the chair once. The rigorousness of your parameters really, like, dissuades me from, like, picking something on the fly. I will have to punt until next year, but next year I'll come locked and loaded. Yeah, just think about it. All right. Yeah.

All right. Mine is, so on my podcast, this had Oscar Buzz on our Patreon, we have been taken to doing what we call superlatives awards, which is all the weird detritus movie awards from various places, the NBR, whatever, tribute to integrity and, you know, filmmaking or whatever. Yeah, of course. Best Kiss from the MTV Movie Awards, the Cannes, The Can Palm Dog, things like that. and sometimes you make up our own category. And as soon as we were done, I texted Chris and I said, I forgot the one category I wanted to do, which is best wife on phone. Because the trope of the wife on phone.

Catherine Keener and Sully. Is that right? Excuse me. Absolutely. No, she's in Captain Phillips. Correct. Sorry. I knew.

Borglandian. Solic. But the two, yeah, those are your twin pillars of like exactly what I'm talking about. I hope no pirates get you today, honey. All right. I'll see you later. Diane Lane in the perfect story. Storm? Diane Lane in the Perfect Storm is on the CB radio. Yes, she's wife on C. They're all in the war. I can't remember if she ever gets in a boat. But Mary Elizabeth Master Antonio is in a boat. She's in the war. She's in the war. Like, she's the one on the horn. I think like barking out instructions. Yes. You know who's on the war room is Tracy Lett. This is true. Yes. Now he could be more seated. Joe. Yes. Who is your nominee this year? My nominees are. Okay, you have a full five. I did. With some creative accounting.

Yeah. Renée Elise Goldsbury and House of Dynamite, who is a Flotus on phone wearing full Brian Fellow's Safari get-up. Obviously. The funniest cut in that movie. I swear to God. She's going to be tough to beat this here. She's going to be tough to beat.

This might be a Jesse Buckley run for Renee Lease Goldberry. Greta Gerwig and Jay Kelly, who has multiple wife on phone scenes with Adam Sandler. Yeah. Melanie Diaz and Roofman. an actress I was so happy to see But she didn't have a ton to do In a good movie I don't know if that character gets done wrong

And that's essentially like The movie doesn't not make the claim of like And he was much happier When he wasn't saddled with this family I Okay Can I just say this quickly now? Yes, yes

Not to interrupt your category No, we'll put a pin But I was pumping roofman really hard I like I like room man yeah And I saw some blankies be like I don't get it Really?

Well, in specifically saying, I think this character is kind of a bad guy in the movie wants me to root for him and is trying to turn it into like a charming romantic comedy. And once again, I'm like, I think the movie is a portrait of a complicated man. Yeah. I think what it is digging with is that this guy abandoned his daughters and now is like over like parenting. Right. Right. He's being too present for these surrogate daughters. Yes.

But you know that it's like he's going to. fucking do this again. And that the ending of the film is not some like their love was true kind of thing. It's like speaking to this guy's feelings are genuine and yet he can't stop fucking this up and hurting people. This is a thing I

talked about a bunch with my vulture colleague Roxanna Hadati, who is a huge Derek Cien's France fan. We're like the two most enthusiastic place beyond the Pines people that I know. And there is a degree to which we're like we're not going to tell you you have to see another movie before you see Roofman. But like, knowing the whole Derek Cian France thing,

really helps you get more out of Roofman because it is the bad dad thing. It is the sort of like the terminal fuck up kind of a guy and it really plays into that. And because it's at a more comedic pitch, I think people, and I think some of this is

a training from a decade plus of very kind of how would I put this? Didactic characterization, especially from TV, but from a lot of studio films. Yeah. Of just like characters

are really clean cut, good or bad. Yeah. And if you're wrestling with someone who is complicated, that has to be a heavy dramatic movie. Yeah. And to see a comedy in which a character is complicated and, like, can do things that are both... A light, like, it felt like a 70s comedy.

It felt like analysis is lippier anymore, kind of... It feels like a 70s... Yeah, light drama. Like, this guy is equally captivating and nauseating. My thing was, if the Golden Globe comedy categories weren't so... crowded with fake comedies great comedies,

rip-roaring comedies. Then Cheney Tateum would have been an ideal nomination. Do I think Derek Cian France looks like an AI of Ryan Gosling that kind of went wrong? You know what I mean?

It's Ryan Gosling and Clark Gregg. Yeah, right. He sort of like melded the two of them. But like in Blue Valentine where Gosling shaved the hairline back. Yeah.

And he had the big aviator sunglasses. And I was like, this is a cool look for Gosling. And then I saw my first interview with Derek Cian, France. I was like, Oh, got it. He just took a picture.

I got it. Yeah, yeah. So, okay, two more. Two more wives on phone. I had René Lee Skoldsbury, Greta Gerwig, Melanie Diaz, Christian Slater, and if I had Lex, I'd kick you. Yeah, I mean, it's got it.

Mild's a minute. But God, the fucking reveal there. The reveal of him very strong. The classic, I know this voice. I know this voice. Right. But he's not playing into his go-to so hard. He's not doing the fake Jack Nicholson thing.

Well, obviously. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the reveal of that's who it is and the way he's dressed and what you now understand about the character in his profession. Yes. I will not spole for people, but is incredibly fine.

So my winner is Grace Gummer in Springsteen, who plays Jeremy Strong's wife, who somebody said this. I fucking forgot about that. She just had a real easy time. She's married to. Yeah, Jeremy Strong. But somebody said this,

and I can't for the life to remember it. And if you are out there, and I've been quoting you all awards season, please let me know, described it as a wife on phone performance where the wife is in the room with the guy because like it very much is just like she's serving that function

yeah classically but like she's not on the phone she's right there in person I mean that's what's also interesting about Gerwig is that like a good chunk of her performance is husband on phone wife standing next to husband being like talk to me yes yes in a different movie she's dealing juggling the kids or whatever and he's husband

he's Christian Slater yeah it is interesting that we had a robust slate of new releases between September in January. We're like more of a scheduling hassle than it's ever been before. Yeah, yeah, right. For movies that didn't almost all of them blanked. Yeah. They're all coming to my podcast. Avatar got two

noms, right? But otherwise, no other choice, zero noms. Bit rude. House of Dynamite, zero noms. Yes, not rude. L. Mekay, zero noms. That's right being. I'm told that it's reeligible for next year and they're going to keep making it eligible until it gets a nom. It's during only played in theaters for five days.

Jay Kelly, rental family, like all of these ones that like, coming into the festivals. Is Ellen McKay the first movie to lose money on Hulu? They're like, I don't, it's somehow gross negative dollars. I don't know what happened to you. Is this thing on? Yeah. Zero noms. Yeah. And is the one other one I'm forgetting? Uh, that might be it. I mean, there's plenty.

You know, the three in a row for us was the avatar is this thing on and nor the choice. I think that was it. Yeah. Oh, you're, oh, especially like for your purpose. Oh, die my love. Yes. Or it counts. Yes. Yes.

You know, because we did Ramsey. Admittedly, I, the big strategy behind doing Die My Love and doing it at the top of 2026 was like, oh, can we do like a campion thing? Right. Because these are lesser-known films, but it like had such a big, like, explosion I can and movies putting so much money behind it. Can we line up a series to what presumably will be the first Lynn Ramsey movie to break through at the Oscars and then like zero and not.

And you know what? We did a Mission Impossible of the Final Reckoning. Did that get a visual effect? Fesnong? Did that sneak into somewhere? No, Mission Impossible did not. It didn't. It's not on my... Okay. Yeah, it's not. And then we did, of course, do a honey-donn episode.

And weirdly, I think that only got like six or seven knobs. Superman did not get a nom or did it get a visual effects? Did it get a visual effects? Didn't. It's crazy. Jurassic World sure did. They kind of just don't give the superhero movies VFX noms ever anymore. I think they've just decided, like, you... That's too easy.

Yeah. Weirdly, the Dinos slipped through. I mean, that move, the Jurassic movie. movie, the VFX were a lot better than I anticipated. The VFX were a lot better than I anticipated. The story was much, much worse. I mean, I don't know. Guys, there was a, there's a shot in that movie in which a camera that feels vaguely handheld struggles to pan up and down a large creature being illuminated only by a red flare gun. I've never seen Gareth Edwards come up with such an image before. fair that's fair um yeah no we just our our slate of new releases was almost entirely this had oscar buzz yes yeah yeah yeah well we're give us a year and we'll get to all of them so david yep you and i have a lot of shared interests sure common interest film the movies comedy podcasts life new york city bagels sandwiches these are all true Sleep.

Oh, I love sleep. Sleep rules so much. It is kind of wild how sleep is constantly underrated. I don't think people give it enough credit. And it gets credit. And nonetheless. Even when it's bad, it's good. Well, I don't know.

I don't think anything could really change how I sleep, though. Wrong. What? Wrong. What product could change my nights? Lisa. Lisa can change your. Knights. You switch to a Lisa mattress.

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Yeah, you need hop on pop space. I do. And so I got a Lisa. a mattress from Lisa, that is my favorite place to be. It is my favorite. I say this so genuinely. It is so nice. It is. It really.

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A mattress fit for a ralke. Baby, it's the Blankies. Why don't you putters and murmurs now? I mean, it's Cliffy. I think it's time to do potters. Yeah, okay, but aren't there any other considerations? Give me some others, yeah.

So, before I get to the proper putters and murmurs, um, Oh yeah, you like to throw on a couple others. Lakeith Stanfield and Die My Love, smoulders and sexers. Uh-huh.

Not a whole lot of talking. He's just sort of, you know. Yeah. He's leering. Um, Rebecca Holland, Peter, Hu Jars Day, Murmurs, but no putters.

Yeah. Yeah. Her, she's digging into that accent. It's really wonderful to listen to. A close miss for me. She's, She's incredible.

Emery Cohen and Roofman, Chunkers and Shammers. And fucking Marty Supreme. And Marty Supreme. I love him in Roofman, though, because he is the moral center of that movie. And he gets the shaft for it. The kids' parents and weapons, I thought. You beat me to that one. It's not a lot of punger because they're mostly stock still.

Forget the actresses name. The one who's not Marin, Ireland. but certainly, I don't think at least, but it resembles. Maybe it is murder. And weapons, I will look it up. Tom Waits in Father, Mother, Sister, Brother. A movie I have not seen. Same, a blind son.

I did not care for it. And I figured, you know. I wanted to like that movie going in. Callie Chatero. Thank you. And Whitmer Thomas, or the Alex's mom in that. Yeah. Former winner Timothy Spall in Goodby June.

Timothy Spore. I haven't seen Goodbye June on account of. I'd rather not. Yeah. I don't want to be doing that. Is that a movie about something incredibly depressed? No, it's Kate Winslet directorial debut straight to Netflix. It's just one of those things from like...

Their mom is dying. I know it's also like grim. It's grim in Britain kind of shit. But like that I can handle it. It just seemed like a rid of a nothing. Look, I mean, nobody saw it. I'm like the only person who saw it. I often think it is not a productive discourse, even if the sentiments behind it are valid.

Yeah. But Kate Winslet coming out in defense of her children saying, I really don't like this NEPO label. My children had to work hard for what they, gotten in this industry. I'm like, your daughter was cast in a Wes Anderson movie that you were not in. Catherine. Your son slipped you a screenplay and you said, I'll direct this and call my friends to star.

You have to admit there's a pipeline. I think her daughter clearly has some talent and is very good in the Phoenician scheme. My son slipped me a screenplay thing. There's no, come on now. Like just that's family business stuff. Just copped to it. That's the thing. Just fucking cop to it.

It's what's always happened in this industry. Yeah, right. But while promoting that movie that she directed, she was saying, look, he got here on his own. And I'm like, you can say that you think his script is legitimately very good. Yeah. But you then decided to direct it. I just, yeah. I can't get drawn into it because I am always just like, look, you know, it's just how it works.

It's always worked that way. It's there's things about it that are so unfair. Obviously, there's real talent that emerges who are nepotistic that grew up in the business. It's not surprising. And it is also, it's just like, it is just kind of human nature. Right. This is true. I also think there's a larger, like, barrier for access issue that has to do with wealth and class and social strata.

Since fucking ancient Greece, if you were rich, you could be a poet. You know what I mean? Has anybody made the, like, case of, like, you know, whatever, butcher's children used to follow their parents. Everyone makes that case. But I also, I, you know what? I'm sick of these butcher nepo babies, actually. Get them the fuck out of here. Arthur and sons?

Yeah, yeah. Maybe. No, no. Russ and daughter. My whole thing is I'm like, right, let's not do a debate, guys. You don't want to invite the debate. It's not a to do. Yes.

You want to tip the cap, acknowledge it, and move the hell of a lot. And it's, there is a degree to which it does feel like these things, course correct, if the person is not good and the public does not like the thing they do. Right, right. Like this industry is so fucking sociopathic. Yeah. That like, whatever connections and favors exist only goes so long, they will kick you. to the fucking curb

if you don't make them money. On a completely different topic. Anyway, yeah. Frank Delane and Urchin, who the character sort of moves into different modes, but some of those modes have puttering and murmuring.

Not an ideal choice. Yeah. You just Alba in House of Dynamite just for doing fuck all. I feel like is, it's, it's, it's, it's... It's...

It's... Murmuring about podcast. Yes. Mirmaring about podcasts, yeah. Yeah. Everyone in Ephus, yeah.

Who putter and murmur there way through an entire baseball. Incredible movie. And then my number one choice was Benicio, who does a lot of puttering and a lot of murmuring, has his wants in one battle.

He's never been one to enunciate. We are missing Josh O'Connor in The Mastermind. Oh, sure? Just like, that's it. I'm sure, but in putters and murmurs, John McGarrow is kind of a lifetime achievement, a murmur at the very least. Yeah, he is.

And Mastermind is kind of like an original kings of comedy of. Exactly. This is what I'm saying. Our best young, rising putter and murmurs. Sure. Yeah. Let me think if there are any others.

I'm sort of scanning around, like, that we haven't brought up. But, I mean, it's a fairly solid list. Mm-hmm. Yeah. I don't know. Yeah. I just think, like, Eddington is a movie that A. uses the Clifton College Junior character as, like, a puttering and murmuring Greek chorus.

Remind me where he emerging. in that movie? It has been such a long time since I've seen. The movie opens with him wandering in the desert, puttering and murmuring to himself. Literally, yes. And you're like, who is this man? Is he insane? Or does he see everything clearly? Or is it a mix of both? Right. And the whole film, he's like puttering in a truck. Under his breath. Yes. Yes. But he runs throughout the entire film. He's kind of like an emotional spine of the movie. most of the third act kind of like

plot hinges on him and he's also he's a great actor who this is not his standard mode I think he can speak very clearly when he wants to he's a character actor with great sort of versatility so underrated in Capote

I thought I agree an anemone anemone whatever that one that's heavy on the New York A film festival did me dirty and I never saw an emmy. Oh boy, does it exist all right. I saw every existing moment of it.

Okay, whatever. I'm moving us on to, I guess the big stuff. Is there anything else? The big four? Before the big four, no. Right? I don't think so. No.

Yeah, I mean, I can tell you the Blankies thought that one battle had the best editing of the year and Marty screened the best production design. That's fine. That's great. Are you guys mad about that? I'm not. Best actors or best actor? Come on. Who do you want to do Best Actor first because I've already said that Josh O'Connor, mastermind.

There you go. You know what? Kick us off. Best Actor. You've got Josh O'Connor in the Mastermind. I had a dream last night, Griffin, that I became good friends with him. Lucky. He's a good dream. Weird dream because it was quite mundane. It was basically like I had to interview him or something and then we just became friends that were hanging out all day. And then I woke up and I was like, I've never met him.

Where did that come from? I had a stress dream. I didn't even see him in a movie recently. I had a stress dream recently that I was supposed to do a Q&A with John Lithgow and Brian Cox. And I was thoroughly unprepared for it. Sounds like a chill Q&A. Ah. And like, and they sent a car for me with Lithgow in the car being like, where have you been?

Oh, yeah. God, it was so stressful. Do you guys, maybe I'm just far deeper in the pool of mental illness. But do you guys ever have the thing where you wake up from a dream and it takes like four hours into your day to be like, right, I don't. know Josh O'Connor. Right. Well, I famously, I had a dream one time many, many, many years ago. Yeah.

That the dream itself spanned, like, 10 years. And I, like, had, like, full, like, fictional character, like, relationship or whatever. That took me the better part of a day. When they backfill like that. And also when they're kind of mundane, where you're like, oh, right. Yeah. Right. Okay.

But otherwise, I'm, I barely remember my dreams. Josh O'Connor and the mastermind. Yes. Had a fucking unbelievable year. this is the guy right now, in my opinion. Totally. I mean, down to that he's in a Spielberg movie this year. Yes, it looks like guy trophy.

I'm so into all the disclosure day, trailers, posters, everything. Are you being facetious? Are you being, like, genuine? Okay, me too. I'm like. I was worried that it was like, are we, do we not like? No, I feel like people are being a little like, I don't know. And I'm like, this looks awesome to me.

I think there was a reaction to Emily Blunt's face that has been, Here's what I would say to that. When the trailer cuts to her doing the weather, I was like, oh, her face makes sense for this character. She is a television weather person. And then the devil wears Prada 2 trailer happened right after that? Sure. Yeah, it also makes sense. The devil wears Proto 2 trailer is one of those things where I'm like, look.

I'm so nervous. It's plausible that, yes, of course, this haughty character who employed Anne Hathway for six months might not really remember her like we all remember her because we watch the movie. But you cannot release a trailer where everyone's reaction is does Merrill Streep's character

have a brain injury? Is she demented? What's going on? Why doesn't she know anyone? That was just everyone's reaction to that trailer. Yeah. Yes.

Somebody made the case to me that it was, and this is, I know the reaction this is going to get, but it's an allusion to Milton because in Paradise Regained or whatever,

one of the things, that one of the things about the devil is that the devil never remembers anything that's ever happened. I hope that is explicitly what the movie is doing. I do kind of hope it is, but I could not be more not certain about a movie than I am. Like, I do think it could be very, very crazy. Does that almost feel like Avengers Endgame, though, where you're like, they don't even need to release a trailer.

Right. Well, the original movie, their trailer was just like, Merrill walking into the building. It's one of the greatest trailers of all time. It's so good. Yes. These trailers are nothing but confusing and get. It doesn't fucking matter. This movie's gonna make so much goddamn money.

Yeah, no. The movie could just be Meryl's looking at the camera being like, I endorse Donald Trump. Right. People are like, well, I'll see it. I'm not sure. Even De Niro's like, she raises some points. Maybe it's time for us to take another look.

Okay, you've named one of your best actors. We kept interrupting it. Josh O'Connor for the mastermind. Got it. It's fascinating because I love Kelly Riker. I love her movies so much. Oh, this is the closest. A star of Kelly Riker movies.

Well, I would not say a star. But it's fun. When I do my Kelly Riker. rankings, I just forget to include that movie because I disqualify because I'm in it. I'm not even consciously doing it. I'm just like, oh, right. And then there's that one she made that doesn't count because I muddy the waters. But I think what she works with movie stars, she is usually asking them to just like strip everything back and come to her as just...

My friend Ellen's letterbox review the mastermind, I just want to shout it out. I love a movie where everyone looks like a guess who card. That is perfect. That is just exactly. The putters and murmurs, ensemble thing. Nails. Yep. Yep.

I just think, like, you know, Michelle Williams wants to work with her because it's just like, reduce me to just raw clay, right? Strip it back. Yeah. Josh O'Connor's the most I've seen someone bring their movie star energy into a Kelly Rikert film and have it harmonize. Yeah. And you're just like, oh, right.

In theory, someone who's this kind of like off-kilter and innately interesting should be vibrating too hard for a Rikert film. It should throw it off its balance. Right. And yet the movie is just so locked into like, it is just fasting to watch this guy do anything. Yeah. He is...

You put him in any shade of like, beige brown or like, off white. Like put him in a linen thing or like a, an old cream-colored button down? It's just also smart because the guys got the juice so hard and the title leads you to believe, oh, this is going to be,

a movie about. It's a heist movie. Right. Yeah. And it, like, wrong foots you in its casting of, yeah. This guy surely must know what he's doing.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Uh, Li Biancon in no other choice. Yes. Good. Channing Tatum in Roof Man, more like charming Tatum.

In Raise the Roof Man. Uh, an incredible movie star performance. Got it. Like, it just feels like the perfect. Yeah. Here's the whole Channing Tatum thing. Oh.

And like, after a little bit of a wilderness. Yeah. I'm right, where it just felt like it's... He's always in and out. It's fascinating. He, like, has a comeback every four years. This is true. And I thought this should have been, like, you know, a career high for him instead.

It got kind of slept on. Liam Neeson in the naked gun. Yeah. Yeah. Very good call. And... And for general politics and statements and... Everything.

Yeah. Yeah. Especially in the 60s and 70s. And my fifth nominee, the one I think they're going to fucking look at... back on and actually be embarrassed with themselves, Dwayne Johnson in the Smashing Machine. I couldn't agree more. He is unbelievable in that film.

It's a great performance. It is an incredible performance. I think that movie so suffered from them trying to market it as a more conventional film. It did suffer from that. I think it also just suffers from being a not very pleasant movie to watch. It's not. Like so, it's just a tough festival watch. It alludes.

It's not a big winning movie. No, I mean, the biggest thing I tell people about the movie, which I just feel like most people didn't even bother to engage with, is like his entire kind of recovery from addiction basically happens in between edits. Yeah. I think the trailers made people believe this was going to be a movie that's 60%. Triumph of the Human Spirit. Totally.

Sports movie. It's like, it's a sports movie that does not structure itself along the sports movie. It's a sports movie in which, as I said, I think my piece about it or whatever. Like his major triumph is the first thing we see. Yeah. And it's all downhill from there. And it's about him accepting that he does not have it anymore.

And the industry is leaving it behind. So this is why I think the performance is so extraordinary is there is a specificity to it that just actually could not be achieved unless Dwayne Johnson has actually come to extreme realizations in the dark night of his soul. You know, like he is finally like popping the balloon of all the shit that's been driving me crazy about him for like 10 or 15 years. I worry that him jumping straight into fucking Jumanji 5 and whatever

that he's just now going to like zag back into like his safe zone. But this is the movie where it's all about like the scene where they ask him, are you worried at all about losing and breaking your streak? And he like start short circuiting and he can't answer the question. Yeah.

Is him leaking the fucking financial documents on Black Adam being like, I just refuse to let anything be framed as a fail. Sure. I cannot let this happen. And even like his biggest dramatic scene plays out with him covering his face with his hands the entire time. He is like avoiding all the obvious show he moves and he really is clearly like interrogating himself. Yeah. And there was a thing that Benny Safdi said during the press that I thought was really interesting where he was like, you know, Dwayne like loves being famous and he loves, you know, like what he's been able to accomplish. Now he's been able to help other people. Yeah. But what I connected with him on when we started talking about this project, is just how exhausting it has been to maintain that for 30 years, that he just had to be on and be this guy for everyone for 30 years. And clearly it was getting to a point where he was driving him fucking insane. And he had become like a hollow husk of a human being pissing into Voss bottles on the sets of Red One.

And this performance just feels like him, like, laying everything bare. Everything I know about how Benny made that movie, because I wrote a profile of Benny, like, is that they were very into, like, let's talk about ourselves, about our feelings, like, talk about about the worst shit we've been through. Like, let's all laid out together. That is not a performance that a director can trick an actor into giving. You have to give him full credit for that. And I, you know. But whatever, nobody liked it.

No one liked. My question is, like, isn't MMA supposed to be this, like, the, the crypto-bigest sport in America that nobody wants to acknowledge. It's the thing that all real Americans like, whatever. Yeah. Where were they for this movie? Well, but the whole thing with him was he pinned people down and beat their heads.

Yeah. And the people who ran M.A were like, this is horrible television. Right. And so they basically banned the thing he was good at, which is what happens to him

in the movie. Because he was just really good at like getting on top of people and just going like this to them. And people were like, well, okay, he did get them out, but that's boring.

This sucks. So, like, he can't do that. So that's illegal now. So has M.M.A. kind of, like, disavowed this guy? He's, M.A. I don't think M.A.

has a good relationship with a lot of people who've done MMA, because it's not very good for you. He was part of the trial and error of figuring out the version of it that everyone would like. And his thing of being like, you know what? I need to like be okay losing. I need to step away.

I need to be done with this. Happens right before they crack the code and it becomes the biggest thing. It's as their track in the journey. Right. Yeah. And like to get in the vague spoiler territory, it is just fascinating the sort of like dialogue between Marty Supreme and the smashing machine. And one movie is about a guy at the inflection point right before the sport that he's at

the absolute earliest stages of breaks free. And he needs to accept that he needs to walk away. Yeah. And the other one is the guy fucking convinced that his thing's about to explode and that he's going to be the champion and he's willing to ruin everything in order to prove that point. And he like ruins his life by refusing to lose. Yeah.

And then you're like, for what? It's ping pong. It's not going anywhere. Right. This is, you've hit the ceiling on it. It's also a big guy, little guy. Yeah. Big guy little guy.

All right. My nominee is like, come on. I got to do mine. Oh, come on. You did yours, right? I did my five. You did your five. You've done on.

Channing Tatum, Joshua, Leonard, Liam Neeson, Dwayneeson, Dwayneeson, yeah. All right. Joe, you do yours. Okay. You go ahead.

Timothy Shalameh, Marty Supreme. That's very good. Ethan Hawk and Blue Moon. Michael B. Jordan in sinners. Josh O'Connor in Wake Up Dead Man. And Teodor Pellarine in Lurker. Oh, Lurker.

I haven't seen a movie. That movie's pretty good. He's really good. Yeah. I really liked it. He's, uh, yeah, he's, he's creepy. Yeah, he is. Yeah, quite, quite good.

Look out for him. Yeah. Cool. You got three of the Oscar nominees there. Three of the Oscar nominees. Yes. Yes. I flirted with maybe, you know, having a couple of them on the bench so I could move

up somebody like Everett Blunk and Griffin and Summer. Right. Well, well, don't worry because I'll do mine. Okay. Leonardo DiCaprio won battle. Yes. Dwayne Johnson and the smashing machine. Ethan Hawk and Blue Moon.

Everett Blunk and Griffin and Summer. and Ben Wishaw in Peter Hojard's Day. That's a good pick. And Everett Blunk is one of those things when you see Griffin in Summer where you're like, well, maybe they just found this kid who's this like swishy little hilarious child. And then you see the plague.

And you're like, oh, this is just a very talented guy. He's a very talented guy. Who just did two crazy good performances in completely different tones. Like, yep. But Griffin and Summer's just one of those movies where the first scene, obviously, is him what, freaking out about Virginia Woolf or whatever.

He's doing the, like, monologue from his play. But, like, where he's like, you know. And I was just like, yeah, this is, this is great. I get it. I get this right away. And, like, the kid has good comedic instincts, too, in that movie. But, like, that's a really sweet movie that, and I like how, you know, how it is not just about a silly guy.

It is about, you know, this kid needing to recognize what a poisonous creature. Yes. Yes. Yes. Oh, God. And they have him sort of latch onto this, like, straight. guy who's this, you know, want to be very funny, artistic type

oentique. And yet, right, yes, the kid is still the poisonous one in that relationship. I know, I mean, he's an idiot, but like, yes. You really would enjoy it. I'm sure it would hit me too hard. It's like middle school Rushmore. Sort of, but like, but like, but if he was a theater game. But if he was, yes, if he was a theater game, more so than just like a megalomaniac like

in that. But it's obviously why Rushmore is one of most important movies in my lifetime to me is that it's all about this guy being like, oh, I'm fucking insufferable. I'm a nightmare. Abby Ryder Fortson also showed out is very good in that movie from Are You There God?

And Catherine Newton, who is an actress I've been resistant to, has like one or two scenes where she just like knocks it out of the park. It's so funny. It's just really funny that both Catherine Newton and Abby Ryder Fortun are in it because they are the two Cassie Langs. Oh, you're right. Oh, wait, when is Abby Ryder Fordson? She's Cassie Lang in

the original Ant Man. No shit. She's little girl like Cassie in the first two movies. Never caught on that. And in end game, there's the weird middle actress. Right, who just gives her a hug. Gives her a hug or whatever. That's right. Yes.

Who comes, he comes back home to him. And then in Quantummania, Catherine Newton shows up. I was like, of course, I'm famously your daughter. Right. We all know me. And it's one of those things like when they put Willa Holland in for Shaline Woodley in the O.C. Yeah. Where they're like, you know, Shaline's just not glam enough.

We're going to sub her out. And then it's Shaline just goes on to have a career. Yes. And like, Abby Rymer, Fortin's like, I don't know why you fired me. I'm doing great over here. Yeah. Yeah. She's great.

I know they had a time jump or whatever. Yeah. Yeah. Wait, did you get all five out? I did. I got him out. I got him out there. Did Joe get all five out?

He did. He did. We're good. We're good. Okay, sorry. Sorry. Who are your winners? I love him so much in that movie.

He's so good. He's so fucking good. I think about what her buddy, host of article darlings, Richard Lawson, uh, said, uh, when he was talking to me about that film,

in August. We met up for drinks. It was to talk about the idea of Critical Darling's for the first time. When you were Griffin in summer. It was when I still could lay claim to that title. Yeah. And he was like,

it's a shame that Ethan Hawk isn't going to get nominated. If he gave this performance on Broadway, they would hand him the Tony before the curtain. Yeah. Yes. Bargalli would come on stage

with the to be like, by the way, they got this. They give him another trophy every night. Yeah. And it's so nice that that performance like punched through.

It's incredible. It's astonishing. I filled in for my colleague, Nate Jones, for our Gold Rush column while he was on paternity leave this year for a few months. And I put Ethan Hawke in my best actor predictions almost as a defiant, like, come on, like, shame the devil kind of a thing. It's so sucks that this isn't going to happen, but like, whatever. Like, I'm just going to put it out there. And the fact that, like, that ended up happening. I'm like, what a weird, like, miracle that, like, now that it's happened, we're just like, well, Ethan Hawk, yeah, I got. nominated. But like, think about that when I first saw Blue Moon. It was like a pipe dream that

that would have been nominated. It just felt like a niche movie. Like I know it's like Lickliner. I know it's many pictures classics. Like it's not. Like Linclair had another movie that seemed like it was more of an Oscar-bait kind of a thing. Yeah. But also like it's my, the most fascinating thing about the season to me. Yeah. Was going in, it was like, man, fucking best actor is going to be a bloodbath. Right. Everyone was correct about DeCaprio and Salome. Yeah. That's why Meskel high-tailed it to supporting actor. Absolutely. Yeah. But from a distance, it was. was like, okay, but we have Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen, Dwayne Johnson in the smashing machine.

Brendan Fraser and rental family. George Clooney and Jay Kelly. Yes. Like you were like, this is like the cup overfloweth. Yes. Our biggest movie stars are rising stars, past winners, people who are overdue. What fucking chances Ethan Hawke have? Like almost everyone wiped out.

Yeah. If you look at the predictions like eight of the 10 that people were predicting in August just died. Yes. On the vine. Yeah. It's fascinating. Yeah, it is. I agree.

Yeah. And we ended up with like a perfect five, arguably. Oh, this is a excellent lineup. Incredible lineup. It's an excellent lineup. One of the best ones. It's like, someone was like, I really wanted Joel Edgerton to get it in there.

And I'm like, I hear you, but for, like, for who? Like, it's a really, really tough five to crack. I love train dreams as much as anybody loves train dreams. I love Edgerton. And he's maybe in my top 10 for actor this year because it's such a good. Like, leaving Wagner Moira off of my list is stupid. And yet, like. Me too.

that's a performance that I think is insanely good. Yeah, insane. So good. And he was so hot at the New York Film Critics Circle. Oh, I believe it. Oh, my God. I believe it. And I think Michael B. Jordan is fantastic. And I love that he got the nom. I still think of the Nikki B. Jerkin joke from Golden Globes.

It's so fucking good. It's so good. It's really good. Yeah. No, yeah. Like, I normally wouldn't want to put like three Oscar nominees in my blankie lineup because I'm like, that's boring. But like, what am I going to do? Like, not nominate Chalame?

Like, he's my winner, by the way. great um that new york film festival performance and i know festival fever whatever there was no better venue to see that movie than that moment in that time but like i love that performance so much it's so perfectly both tailored to him and yet the way that like josh softy is like what if we make him pockmarked and gawky and like it's great i want to throw that out that's a best makeup underrated best makeup snub yes and and it it happens in like multiple areas of the film. It's some of the most subtle work I have seen. I really... Noms this year are fine, although I don't know anything about the ugly step-sister.

I heard that film's excellent. Good and gnarly. And it's like, I like that gnarly things get nominated for makeup. It's like what if Cinderella had people like cutting people's nose. It was like Cinderella, but with like, yeah, but with a botched surgery. What if like Cinderella was a girl boss? Oh, gosh. I was watching Marty Supreme and thinking, oh, have they just been putting

makeup on Shalame this whole time and he had like mild teller-esque scars. Awful skin. Truly, it's so realistically done and it's so subtle and even like Mr. Wonderful's hairpiece. Yeah. Which is like, oh, what if this guy's like 20% less balding than he really is? Yeah. You know, these things that are like really hard to dial in.

I also thought that Anne Lee had some of the best aging makeup. Anne Lee is just one of those, again, things where I'm just like the craft given I, the scale of the production is very impressive. Yeah. Yeah. But also just like really subtle things where I'm just like,

oh, they dialed in the difference of like five years around the eyes. Also, it seems more obvious, but I mentioned this to, I said this to Katie, Rich on our text chain. Weapons as a makeup nominee. Kind of crazy.

It's kind of crazy. It's kind of crazy. It is crazy. They sort of snubbed weapons at the end of the day. And it's not just Aunt Gladys, but like there's a lot of, you know, different venues. The fucking Benedict Wong job is so Miller.

Incredible. Yeah. Well, and also the parents. Yeah, the parents. The multiple stages of their... Oh, my God. Am I wrong in thinking that it was left off

the hair and makeup short list, but it was on the casting short list? You know, I just don't know. It definitely, I believe it was on the casting short list, and I think you're right that it was not on the makeup show. But it ended up only getting the Madigan performance. Yes. Yeah.

Should have gotten that. Yep. Screen players. Yeah. It was a great movie. I don't know. It was interesting. I was double-checking yesterday because of the critical...

Did make casting and nothing else. Yeah. Critical Darling's Conversations. conversation, but PGA this year was nine out of ten overlapping with the best picture lineup. It was weapons. It was weapons in over secret agent. Right, which, you know. And I think by the week of the nominations, people were starting to think that weapons was

going to stay in and that secret agent would sub sub in for F1. Yeah, I was going to say that 10 slot was in the PGA lineup. Right, right. So people were like, F1 is the kind of thing that the PGA puts in? Is it F1? Is it, it was just an accident? Right. Yeah. Yeah.

Anyway My winner is My winner is Dwayne the Rock Johnson There you go What an evolution for you I mean truly it's like To make up a word for Black Adam Just admit it is

It's another like I would have given him Best Supporting Actor for That year Which was prior to us Doing these on Mike Awards So I haven't had to hand him an award Since then

That's when I was like This guy has like Yeah Fully come into his power Yeah And then part of why I've been so hard on him For the last 10 years is because I'm just like, dude, you have so much power.

Why aren't you applying it to anything interesting? Also, you don't seem happy. I know. I was hearing, I'll say off mic, but I was hearing some stories about him that of what a sweetie pie he can be and how he's very good at like knowing everyone's name and like, you know, blah, blah, in that kind of slightly politic. How was he? Yeah, right, right.

But still basically, like, you know, very positive reviews. Maybe he enjoyed that one more. He had like a good reputation in WWE too. He wasn't like, I feel like if he was a shit in WWE, that would have gotten back. It was the boss bottles. Right. But it's what I was saying earlier that like, Benny was like he was telling me how tired he was of having to do that all the time. Not because he wasn't actually a nice guy, but it was tough.

The self-imposed responsibility to be that version of himself all the time. And this is this rare case of a performance that is like silencing the. the haters by also admitting that they were correct. You can only, like, shut me up by being like, you were right about me up until now and I'm going to give the performance about that. When my ranking for all of the Oscar nominees

publishes, just like skip past the first 10 or whatever, I think you'll be fine. Yeah. I will also, I need to point out that these awards are being handed up by Marianne John Baptiste. Of course. Mary Ann John Baptiste. Of course. A triple winner? Oh, and two, oh, I did pick to me. Sentimental choice. Valuable.

Who are, uh, do you say, Your winner? Ethan Hawk. Yep, there we go. Best actress. My best actresses are, Jennifer Lawrence for Die My Love. Roseburn for, if I had legs, I'd kick you.

Kiki Palmer for one of them days. Great call. Shout-Tow for Call By the Tides. One of my favorite actors, obviously. Love her. Julia Roberts for After the Hunt. I almost put Julia on. She made it for me.

She is quite great in that movie. In that film. It's a movie that I had a lot of problems with. Same. that didn't really connect for me. This had Oscar Buzz movie that yeah, six months into the air people were putting that on this.

Absolutely. And I just think she really brings the thunder in it and I truly wish, you know, everything had worked to support that performance better or whatever, you know, like, but I think she's so fucking good. It came up in some other...

The scene where she chose the kid out in the... Her tar scene. Her big tar scene. One of those things were like, the movie had basically lost me by that point. I wasn't really invested in what was going to happen, but then I was just like, God, she's crushing this. Yeah.

Joe, it came... I also thought the scene with her and Garfield's towards the end where they're in this... It's great. That's the secret apartment. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Garfield's just so subtle and nuanced

in that film. Beautifully shot. But, you know, I think she's great in that scene. It's a very frustrating movie. Yeah. We have this conversation in some already recorded episode that will come out in the next couple of months

that I can't remember what prompted this. But I just want to throw it to you quickly. Yeah. Because you're a bit of an expert in this field. Sure. We were discussing how bad Julia Roberts last 20 years have been. It's tough. Considering that on paper, almost all of the choices are commendable. And within that run,

she has had quite a few genuine box office hits and has another Oscar nomination. And yet you're like, has she not made a good movie in 20 years? I am a Ben is back defender. We can't go too deep on this, because we did go deep on this. We were a defender of which? Ben is back. A great performance. I won't be going there with you. Yeah. She's good at it, though. This is why I want to throw it to you. I want to see if there was one you would defend.

That's the one. Augustosage County is just a quagmire that would take a longer time. But you were like, she got an Oscar animation for that. And for a lead role in supporting. So that was somewhat irksome. That was also the year of the selfie, which is a haunted photograph that has had its tentacles throughout history since then. Yeah. Yeah.

But yeah. Money Monster, not a good. movie, a lot of talent there. Wonder is a success. Big hit. Big hit. Ticket to Paradise. We shall never speak of it again. Made some money, but let's not speak of it. It's the most frustrating. How is this not a Gentleman Six movie? Leave the world behind, I think, is watchable junk. A lot of people just lop off the watchable. Secret in their eyes, a movie I have actually seen. I maybe one of the, we did it for our podcast. That is a crazy boring movie. It's so fucking bad. I've seen that movie. But this is the other crazy thing we were saying. sleeping pill.

She is really good in almost all of these. She is never the problem. She's often the strongest ass. And you're just like, why can't she fucking catch a break? I know, Julia Roberts. You know, she just can't catch a break. She was also really good on the Sam Esmell TV show, Homecoming?

Yeah, let's not. Let's not. Come on now. But I say this because her next movie is a Sam SMA. I know. She loves the guy. Yeah, which is fine. I mean, someone's got it. We threw out so.

Yes. Can Wes Anderson please get his hands on? Right? Right? Right. But the problem with that is there's probably like a list of 20 actors where I'm like, Wes, could you do this guy a favor? And Wes Anderson's like, you know, I don't just like randomly come up with shit. I take a while generating these projects. Also, everybody who works with me. Right at Julia vehicle. Quickly, quickly, quickly. Well, and everybody who works with him, he retains. So that's why. Yeah. So it's tougher to get people in there. But he also says he's been. He's been. He's been. He's been. He's. He also says he's been. saying that he's like five plus times written a role explicitly for and offered it to Jody Foster who keeps turning him down. Oh, she would be great in that too. And you can fill in some of the gaps of like, oh, did Tilda start to get some of those roles? Like, which are the ones that were written for Jody Foster? I feel like Julia has gotten into a Jody Foster adjacent spiky territory at this age. I wonder if Bia Rappleton could get her mom into one of those movies on a connection space.

Oh, a sort of reverse Nipos at you're in. Excuse me, she's going to have to work hard and get the role on her. have to read for it. Audition for Wes. Yeah. That's how it goes. Okay, come on, Bob. Give me your best actresses. Joe Reed. All right. Jesse Buckley in Hamnett. Heard of it.

Rose Burned. And if I had legs, I'd kick you. Susan Shardy and On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. I love that movie. Kate Hudson in Song Song, Song, Blue. Wait, Joe, I think you... That doesn't sound like the kind of thing you would... It's not a thing I would have... Kind of performance you'd vibe with a little...

Four months ago. Yeah. And Amanda Seifred in Testament, Amanda. Who's very, very... I texted you nomination morning. congrats and you texted back. I was so wary. I was like, are you making fun of me? I did it. And then you in parentheses said, like, is this about Kate Hudson?

I've seen a lot of people mostly in relation to the perceived Amanda Seifreed snub. Oh, blaming Kate? Yes. Yeah, I have. And I'm like, that's not the performance I would knock out of the five. I would knock out. Which would you knock out? I would knock at Emma Stone. Buggy? Yeah. Little buggy.

I don't dislike Emma Stone and I just don't, I have problems with Ligonia, but I don't hate it. She's fine in Bagonia. And it's like sort of a domain team performance, I think Kate Hudson is legitimately pretty phenomenal in Song Sung Blue. The only reason I cut her is because I knew you were going to put her in. She's a bubble six for me. It's also as she worked her tail off to get that nom and all that. It's a bonkers movie that I find to be better than a lot of people get it credit for.

But like on that level, it's still a fucking bonkers movie. Yeah. Jackman is not up to her level. I think she, I genuinely think she really kills it. I agree. I agree. No, I agree. And I love her. Of course. She was my supporting actress winner for Glass Onion. Of course, we all remember. She's my favorite. It felt like a real, we did a show moment. I was, I was like genuinely happy for you. I was so wary. I was like Griffin's making fun of it. No, I wasn't. I just, you know, it's one of those things where Kay Hudson. I know you like her. Yes. So I'm being nice here.

Yeah. Where Letterbox, you know, sees her on the red carpet. And they're like, can you name your favorite movie? Like, you know, what? What's your top favorite movie on Letterbox? And she's like, almost famous. Like, yeah. Yeah. And then she's like, I don't know what else. And she's sort of like, I mean, some people like, Skeleton Key, you can see her being like, because I don't really know what would even contain. Not a great.

Right. Like, I think she's like, how to lose a guy in 10 days, skeleton key. And then she even she starts to run out of ideas. Yeah. Yeah. She was like, some people like something borrowed. And I wanted to say like, yeah, some people do. Yeah.

Didn't you nominate that? I know Losson. No, no. No, that's Lawson's. I like that movie. but that's Richard. She's really excellent. Also, every gay guy

loves her in nine. Loves her specifically. I find that performance to be disgraceful. I don't know if I'm disgraceful, but my... She loves cinema at Taliama. My secret...

My secret is great in nine person is Fergie that makes everybody crazy, but like I think Fergie's scene in nine is the one good scene in nine. I think everything about that movie is bad. I find that movie unspeakable. It's really bad.

It's really bad. But if I'm at a gay bar music musicals night or whatever, and I'm requesting something from the TV guy, I'm like put on Fergie and 9. I believe I tapped out on 9 after 45 minutes because I did not wish to die in seven days. You tapped out around four. Right. I saw the girl coming out of the well and I was like, I need to get out of this curse before it

sticks to me. So the Rob Marshall miniseries is still not happening. Not happening. That is, that's our, we're driving the cliff. We're talking to the film and Louise moment. We're like, all right, let's see Rob Marshall. I guess Trump's about to block us up. My best actress line up. Yes, please. Yes. Sally Hawkins and bring her back Yeah, she's really good in that movie Amanda Seafreed? Syfried? I feel like I'm told I'm always getting it wrong.

No way of knowing. I think it's Seifred. In The Testament of Van Lee, but let's also acknowledge she fucking rolls in the housemaid. Oh, I still have to, that's another one I still have to see. A lot of my people this year had a double performance thing going on.

A fun one on the side. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, Josh O'Connor just narrowly. Yeah, mastermind, wake up. Yeah. Beating out by Dwayne in that category. me. Roseburn and if I had legs, I'd kick you.

Yeah, it's a good performance. Jennifer Lawrence and Die My Love. Yeah. And sung ye gin and no other choice. Yeah, she's really good. And because of my last minute rejiggering to spread the wealth and giving screenplay to if I had legs, I'd kick you, I cleared the path to give my award to Amanda C. Freed and Testament of Antley.

Right. Which also feels like the place to honor that movie. She's the powerhouse. Yeah. For sure. I love her. Roseburn's my winner, certainly. Yeah.

That performance stuck with me all year. Rose Burns is another one. Rose Burns is a very close number two. And it's also another one, kind of like the Ethan Hawk thing where when I saw it, I'd be like, yeah. A world where she sneaks a nom for this, like, really hostile movie is a real nice world to imagine. And now it's kind of like, she's the runner up. Like, you know, like. That was another one where that was a Sundance premiere that didn't screen online.

So I didn't see it until Tiff. And then when I saw it on Tiff, I was like, well, first of all, everybody at Sundance kind of undersold, how great she is in this movie. I really love the movie too. But it was another one of those I was like, boy, it'd be really good if, you know, she could maybe sneak in an Oscar nomination. It seemed for a while that she and Seifred were sort of like jostling for like what would have been a fifth slot. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh no, Rose is just winning every single critics award. And rightly so. I think she rocks.

Yeah. I thought it could maybe be a bit of an upset, but it does feel like Buckley's the most locked. It's Buckley is just also the classic thing of like, we've noticed you. You've been bubbling along. We gave you an earlier numb. Yeah. And you screamed and cried and were very impressive. And I don't think it's a bad performance.

Like, I think she's really good. Even before the screaming and crying. Yeah, she's good. I think she's just like really good throughout. I love Jesse Buckley. I disproportionately like the first half more than the second half,

which I think you bodied me by saying, what a surprise you liked the movie about a sad boy falling in love with a witchy woman in the woods. But I was like the second they have a kid, I'm out on that movie. It just lost me. Not in any intellectual way. It's also just when the movie.

begins to be kind of like piled up suffering, like, you know, sort of different phases of suffering. I think it's also there's, there's a sense of inevitability. Putting a play on. Right. Suddenly you're on the rails and you're like, we know what this is heading towards and this is just going to be an endless theory of body blow. Hamnet is my materialist and that everything that people don't like about Hamnet, I'm like,

that worked for me. Like that really worked for me. I did not dislike it. Yeah. But it definitely, I don't know. It lost me somewhere in there. And I thought, well, everyone says the ending is such a undeniable. I will not get a win me back.

And it just didn't do it for me. Well, and that's a, if that doesn't do it for you, then you're, yeah. Yeah, it was, I don't have anything intellectually against that movie. I love Jesse Buckley. It'd be weird if it's, no, no, I'm kidding. I got you, I get you. Also, for the last 18 months I've been telling people about I'm becoming a guinea foul.

That was a movie that screened. Another embarrassing blind spots from it. It's on HBO, I think. It's reviewable. Festivals last year in 824 for some reason did that bullshity, qualify it. and then push it to March or whatever thing. He didn't fall. No, they didn't.

They put it in the main slot. They were slow playing it, thinking that it would be submitted for international feature consideration. And then no country kind of claimed it. But the problem, I think, is it's sort of a Zambian movie. It's a Zambian movie that had UK financing, I think, was the thing. But it's quite critical of like the sort of patriarchal cultural. or whatever? I don't know. Like, yes. Anybody listening to this? Like, if that movie is new to you hearing about it, like, go check it out.

It rules. It's so good. We all said our winners. Who's your winner? Burn. I'll just give you the 10 Blanky lead performance. You said your winner. Roseburt. Yeah. No, this feels like the space to honor Testament Van Lee for me, but I also think it's like it's an astonishing performance. Oh, I also didn't. Sorry to derail us for like half a second. I put O'Connor for Wake Up Dead Man for you had mentioned in materialists

or not materialist, mastermind, so many M movies. He's doing something so different in Wake Up Dead Man. So fucking good. And he's so, he's like, you know, the almost like nebishy quality he has to that character,

I think is incredibly funny. He's so locked in that movie. And then you hit the Bridget Everett scene. Yeah. And it's like, that scene is like a masterpiece of craft. Yes. The way that he makes the sun,

set during it, even though you're inside. Yeah. I love that scene. When he chooses it. One of the best scenes the entire cut back to her. When he's like, right, this is what I do. Yeah. Yeah.

Yeah. No, I think, I remember when they announced that he was going to be in the new Benoit Blonde. And it was like, he's going to play a priest. And people were like, is he going to be a guy pretending to be a priest? Like, is it the whole thing with Joshua Conner the Scuzzi? And if it's not a guy pretending to be a priest, then it's, are. Are they going to clean him up? And isn't that what we don't want from him?

Right. And then you're like, no, the idea is... Hyper earnest. Josh O'Connor type is a priest. Yes. Yes. Right. Which is such an interesting...

It's the first time anybody's taken the movie away from Daniel Craig. I think Craig sort of most definitely sits in the backseat in that movie. Someone did a screen... I adore Craig in that movie. I do too, but I think O'Connor is much the more main character. He is, but I think Craig gets it. I think it's the best of his Benoblong performances. He's great.

But I also saw that someone did a screen time clock and it's like 35 minutes. Sure. Oh, yeah. Like Hannibal Lecter-esque. Because he takes a while to show up. Yeah. But it's really Josh O'Connor too. He's just, him and Joshua Connor like being like silly guys together.

Yeah. Really funny. Yeah. The blankies, I'll just give you their 10 to one. We're not to Ryan's Fah. We all love. Yeah. None of it's not made her, but we all.

Watching that movie a second time, as I said on Critical Darling's really, she really emerged for me. I thought she was so good. You know, my thing with that performance. is I think it's borderline category fraud. I kind of feel like all three women have about the same real estate in the story. I think Stellan and Renata are your leads.

I think so too. Stellan is not in as much as you think. And putting Stellan in supporting makes her being the only lead feel disconnected. It makes it feel imbalanced, but like, yeah. It's still her. She's excellent. Her opening scene is like unbelievable. Yeah.

All right. out of 10, Jesse Plemans, 9, another performance I really like. Jesse Buckley, 8, Libyung, 7, Ethan Hawk, 6, Chase Infinity from One Battle 5, Michael B. Jordan 4, Roseburn 3, Leo 2, Timmy 1. That was their list. Best Director My best directors are... Give it to me. Paul Thomas Anderson, Jafar Panahi, Zach Kregor, Ja-Jon-Kuh, for Car by the Tides,

and Ryan Kuhu. I got to see Caught by the Tides. I didn't see it before. I mean, it's, it's for the job boys. Yeah. It's literally like him assembling stuff he's been filming for 25 years into a movie. Avengers Endgame for Zhajanke. Yeah.

My best rector lineup is Ariaster, Mona Fastfold, Park Jan Wook, Mary Bronsteen, and Paul Thomas Anderson. There you go. Mine are. Thank you. Good five. Paul Thomas Anderson, one battle after another. Mary Bronstein, if I had legs, I'd kick you. Brian Cougler, Sinners, Claibor, Mendonka,

feel ho for the secret agent and Jafar Panahi for it was just an accident Who's your winner guys? Paul Thomas Anderson Yeah, I'm getting at to Paul I mean, he did a good job Yeah, he did in fact do a good job

of directing a movie and I've been An annoying sort of fly in the ointment for a lot of Paul Thomas Amos James Josh Hartnett and Justice Smith Wow, I forgot to mention that Oh, carry him Oh okay Justice Smith was mine I imagine yeah

Yeah I was Hartnett Yeah and I was Coleman Domingo for Sing Sing Sing Yeah Yeah, no, I might be very wrong about this, but I just really feel like there's a director picture split coming this year. I feel like snitchers. Snitchers, those snitchers.

I was going to say, I feel like sinners is going to snatch it. But snatchers might also sin it. Yeah. But the Paul Thomas Anderson, the best director, feels like Ungley, Brooke Beck Mountain style. nothing is like veering this off course. Picture is very much up in the air but director seems solid.

Yeah, you can't argue with it. Which is interesting because generally, lately, when there's a director picture split, director tends to go to the movie that is also going to clean up in the craft awards, which I think is going to be sinners. With a few exceptions, I think one battle will probably win editing and cinema target.

I mean, look, I'm ready to be wrong, but no, I think one battle is winning. I think it's just one of those... Yeah. It's just one of those rare years, kind of like the Oppenheimer year, where everyone's just like, we're not going to fuck around.

Like, these movies don't come along that often. Like, you know. And I also think, like, a lot of the... No country. It feels like no country as well. Their views hit September, and everyone's just kind of like, I think this is the movie.

Everyone's going to remember. My question, though, is, like, if in the no country year, there will be blood had made, like, six times as much at the box office. That's a fair point. But I just don't know if they're here. Because it does feel similar to those two movies in that year.

But one battle, like the imbalance is there, but it's not like one battle is like a moonlight style like, no, it's not $12 million. I think it's like, Sinners is going to win elsewhere and they'll just be like, yeah, we check the boxes. But, I mean, PGA, this is, not to go all big picture or Nate Jones, but PGA will show, because that's the preferential ballot. And I think it will probably win SAG as well, right? Although.

No, I think Sinners, I think is going to win SAG. No, I'm sorry. That's what I mean. I thought you were saying, Oh, I think one battle is going to win PGA, but it'll be like, right, it wins the preferential ballot, which is what matters

when it comes to best picture. Yeah. Yeah. Because I just think most people like one battle. Like, I will say that at every turn, Sinners is proving to be more broadly popular. I mean,

obviously, like, it made so much money. But like, I think within, like, industry circles and within, like, people, like, there's just like, nobody seems to be, like, tripping up on the genre thing of it

or the sort of, you know, No, and it's such a triumph, and it's like, you know, it's a real, like, throwing up the gauntlet for, like, no, fuck, this still matters. We can make big movies that the people give a shit about. I love how bold it is. If I, if I have a snag on that movie, it's a little bit, like, I think it sets up a lot of vampire movie stuff. And then it's just sort of like, and then the vampire stuff happens. But I think there's so much else that's right about the movie. that like it it mostly levels out for me.

Critical Darling, as we did a Oscar villain episode on Hamnet, and then I saw people going like, right, well, like, going into the season, it was seen as that's the villain, but it's clearly become sinners versus one battle. Sinners not a villain. In very online circles. But that's what's interesting is you're like, it's a year where we kind of don't have a villain.

We don't have to create a villain. 2007 feels like the last time where you're like, there were just two different tastes of. But also Hamnet is a villain because it's like the Oscar narrative, it could have been a villain. I think Hamlet's probably out of the, you know, out of the top three or whatever. But like the Oscar narrative of like they like artie movies about making art,

you know, like versus like big, you know, popular stuff. And Chloe Show has an Oscar. Chloe Show has an Oscar. Not to be like the Hamnet defender, but like there is a perception, I think, a little bit that's a little bit overblown of this idea that like Shakespeare stuff always wins Oscars Costume dramas only when Oscars like big picture

was on that train I think and I'm like that's actually just not the case Like it just like not lately Not in the last 25 years Not so much lately but when we're talking about Oscar villains What we're really talking about is Harvey Weinstein And like we're talking about the machine he created It's what people remember the most

And the thing where you look back where you're like Why did Shackalab? Why did Sider House rules? I don't understand Why did all these movies that don't exist? I was thinking about this the other day I mean, that's what that fucking movie, I swear, which just set Britain back a thousand years culturally, by mistake, is like one of those Weinstein movies. Yes. Like, I know it, to be clear, not to impute this movie. I haven't seen it.

Yeah. You know, it's not this movie's fault, really. But it has the vibe of those Weinstein movies of like, let's convene a congressional hearing on Tourette's after you saw this small indie movie. You know, like it's like pushing a, yes. Yeah. Pushing a sort of discussion. It's a. Three million Epstein.

file documents get released. One million of them are about the campaigns for different Weinstein company Best Picture contenders. Right, right. Including Peggy Siegel saying, I don't care how many members I have to fuck.

Whatever it takes to go to vote for the King's Speech. Relax! Yeah, King's speech is being a break. But, God, the I swear thing. It's like, it's one of those things where it's like, I've said this to you, haven't? You're like, it's genuinely upsetting that that happened and it's very bad.

It's also like a faulty tower as fucking insane sitcom incident of like them being like, okay, the BFTAs who have a horrible track record on a race have finally, finally given sinners lots of acknowledgement who's gonna be winning, it's gonna go great. Now where have we sat there, I swear guy? Where are we putting him? Why is he in the seat labeled microphone?

I don't understand, you know, like, where it's like it just sounds like something you made. It does. What this update, BBC, put all of the volume up as hard as it could go? Like, what's it? It just is so fucking like British. like in this like dumb baffed away. You know, this movie had this kind of like

Miracle Underdog run in the UK and had a release there and was a hit and then was sort of overperforming at every step and like whatever the wind up to this and then the lead actor beats Timmy. Yes. And the like, you know, the terminally online like Oscar stat brain people are like

fuck, does this mean that this is immediately now the front runner for next year's best act of campaign? Oh, yeah, no. And I'm like certainly not now. I was like, this is like the inverse of the King Richard thing. Yeah. Where the first moment

we're becoming aware of this performance is inextricably tied. To a national disgrace for a country and an academy of film. They're just going to put this movie in theaters in four months and people are getting like, nice movie. Yeah. Without thinking about it. Certainly what they were hoping.

Yeah. And they're still hoping to do it. Anyway. Yes. Sorry. I don't mean to beat up on. I swear. Yeah.

I just think like almost every season, us and our friends and everyone we follow and talk to is sort of going like, I'm going to be so fucking angry if X, Y, Z. Yeah. Right? And then you have people who are like, I kind of like 1917. But you're saying it embarrassed because you know. Right.

And this year, it's just like, if sinners beats one battle, no one's like, fuck. I guess. I think people will be like fuck. If one battle beats sinners, I think a lot of people will be like fuck. Like, I think that's, I, but, but. but in very online circle. You know what I mean? I think like I don't think,

I really don't think that that stuff penetrates as, as widely as some people are quite possibly. I can tell you that the Blanky director nominees are PTA number one, Ryan Coogler, Park Chenwick, Josh Safdy, Danny Boyle. Those are their five. Wonderful. Back to the Blankies after these messages. At Desjardin Insurance,

we know that when you were a building contractor, Your company's foundation needs to be strong. That's why our agents go the extra mile to understand your business and provide tailored solutions for all its unique needs. You put your heart into your company, so we put our heart into making sure it's protected. Get insurance that's really big on care. Find an agent today at dejjardin.com slash business coverage.

Best picture. All right, my top 10 of the year is, right now at least. It's always changing. One battle after another, number one. It was just an accident. Number two. Weapons number three. Sinners number four.

Caught by the Tides, five. Secret Agent 6. Marty Supreme 7th. 28th. Blue Moon 9th. Eddington 10th. I'm already looking at him being like, I want to mess with that a little bit.

But that's my 10. Yeah. Yeah. I got like a... A third year. A 15 or 20 that I'm pretty strong about. Yeah. And I just made like seven changes to my 10.

Uh-huh. But what I have, I'm going to count up. I'm throwing it in here at 10. I swapped this in the last second because I didn't call out in any other area. I just swapped in my 10 at the last second. The shroud's at number 10. A movie I... I still haven't seen it.

I heard interesting things. I mean, just peak, whatever you call it. Was there a part of murmurs case there? No one's really puttering and murmuring, I guess. Even though it's sort of that tone. Shrouters and obscures? Possibly. But I think an excellent movie.

Phoenician scheme number nine. people are just going to be embarrassed like 30 years from now at how many West movies got slept on and we're seen as like not one of his best and then like six months later people are like fuck was that maybe his best

materialist of course at number eight sinners at seven weapons at six my top five lined up with my best director but the order is testament of Anley at five if I had legs I'd kick you at four no other choice at three one battle after another at two

and my number one movie of the year is Eddington yes that's been your favorite of that choice. I thought I was alone on Eddington. I'm glad to hear. I always like coming to Blankies and seeing I'm not alone. Eddington's got its fans out there.

A lot of them are on this website, X.com. Interesting. It's, look, it's very... Turning point. What the fuck? People talked about this is a year

where it does feel like there were like two dominant thematic strains that ran through most of the high level movies. Right. And it was like

bad parents. Uh-huh. And is reality. And 2020 broke our brains. Right, right. Are things broken? Can we fix them? Is it all over?

How did things break? Kind of shit. Yeah. And yeah, I don't know. It probably just speaks a little more to my worldview that Eddington has stuck in my crawl in a way beyond one battle. Yeah. Which I think is excellent and love. And even like, seeing it the third time in theaters when it started, I was like, fuck.

the opening like three seconds of this movie already feel iconic. Yeah. And then everything that happens after this point already feels iconic. Yeah. It already feels like a movie we'd been studying for 50 years. Yeah, it's a text. Yeah. My list, I'll start also from the bottom.

Number 10, Blue Moon. Number nine, Eddington. Number eight sinners. Number seven on becoming a guinea fowl. Number six, Hamnet. Number five, lurker. Number four train dreams. number three, Marty Supreme, number two, one battle after another,

and my number one movie is, it was just an accident. It was. It was, in fact, just an accident. The movie fucking rocks. Yeah. Me and the can jury, all buddy and up. The top ten from the Blankies, I'll just do an order. One battle, sinners, Marty Supreme, 28 years later, weapons, no other choice.

Sentimental value, it's just an accident, secret agent, Eddington. And now, I'd like to turn it to Ben. You got anything here? What we're all here for. Well, yes, of course. I just feel we've reached that part of the episode. Before I do my original categories, I need to do kind of a in-memory. Absolutely.

And memorandum. What do they call it? In memorandum. But in memorandum would be like writing some notes, which is fine. I like this, yeah. But sadly, my beloved cat pig. Yes. Yes.

Who we all love. who yeah i had for 17 years was the best cat there was and she was a pig in the city she was a pig in the city she ran this city um and so yeah i'm gonna miss her a lot but um she passed away recently oh yes yes yes passed away recently and so yeah i don't know very recently uh you're in a raw state then this is the first time we've recorded since yeah um

about half an hour into our episode So Ben texted BC group text Max Plus, which is the kind of all hands-on deck with text. And he just wrote, guys, I'm sad, and we're recording blankies right now, and I need to think of wet movies. So I just want to know that whenever you're about. Ben's been on grief island. And he hasn't been thinking about A, T, or T, and if you have to choose now or any of his other great, you know. So, yeah, I think also I wanted to start there just because. Well, that's why we went extra long is because we want to get me. to get Ben enough time to think of wet movies.

That's also why I bought Ben a violator who's got Bendie arms and legs and is now wrapped around Ben's microphone arm. Yeah, there he is. That's where he belongs. Yeah. So anyway, wanted to give that context because I am, yes, sad, feeling a little bum, but still, let's let's have some fun here, folks. Okay, so here we go. The Weddies. Okay.

The Golden Mop. Right. The slickest flicks of the year The movies that soak through What Splished What Splashed We're so lucky to have you, Ben. Okay, number one, Frankenstein

Old-Timey dampness. Yeah, yeah, it is actually... Some wet labs. You're right, it's a wet movie, the big... Rain. A lot of rain. There's a perma moistness to the creature, I feel like... A lot of ice, which we should acknowledge.

Yes, which is frozen water. The hardest water of all. Yeah, indeed. Number two, sinner. blood soaked. Yeah, and also a big fight in the lake or whatever at the end there. Sweaty, a lot of sweat, a lot of slick bodies. Very sweaty.

Spit. Spit. Bodily fluid. Other bodily fluids. Yeah. Liquor. Sure. How would you spell that?

Licka. L-I-K-A-H? The lickest flicks of the year. Yeah. And may I say it, Mike makes me horny, baby. Oh, interesting. Okay. So I'm getting a little wet down there.

Sure, sure, sure, sure. Oh, Michael B. Jordan. I thought we were going back to Mike Myers and his cut body and the awesome powers the religion. I know, Ms. Mike. And you're getting wet. Okay, well, you know what? Let's just keep going.

Yeah. Number three, last breath. Yeah, I told you. Suggested by Sims. It's a movie that's set underwater. It's set underwater, or as I like to call it, underwater. Yeah.

It is a deep wet movie. It's about the people whose job is to go all the way down there. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Number four, Magellan, suggested by JJ. Nice.

entirely at sea or as I like to call it the sea. Yeah, that is what you'd like to call it. And number five. It's wetland. I, okay. It's the wettest version of land. That's a good alt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Number five, sorry baby. For all the tears, ejected from my face. Also, there's a bathtub scene in that one. That's true. I adored that movie. But what really got me was when the lead character adopts the kittens. because they are sat. Yes.

And I guess I kind of knew that was coming from the poster. Sure. But because when I first got Pig, it was a very similar moment in my life of like a close friend passing away. I was very depressed. And a kitten will really make your life a lot better. Ben, sorry if I can just interject briefly. you reminded me a category that I forgot. Oh, yeah.

Just throw out quickly. Please, yes. Truly one I've been working on all year. Yes. And I hope that this is not a one-off trend this year, and this is a category that can sustain and fill out three nominees for every year to come. Okay. It's the Babe Award for Best Fake Hog. Oh, yeah, sure.

There were a lot of them this year. There's this a trend that is trending, yes, increasingly. Yes. I'm now just trustful of all cinematic penises because they do feel like that so many of them are fake. Alexander Sarasgard in Pillion. Yep.

Prince Albert. I'm forgetting which guy it is in Splitsville. One of them. Kyle Marvin? Oh, right. One of the guys. The one who comes out of the shower and is really hanging in it.

Big fake hog. Yeah. Obviously, the first, the inaugural winner of the Babel War. Well, yeah. Yeah. Samson. Samson.

Biggest fakesest hog I've ever seen. For sure. Sorry, Ben, just had to get that grass stains on it from walking. Another wet movie that I did suggest to you was Dangerous Waters, the movie in which Jack Courtney feeds people to sharks. Right. Pretty fun movie. All right.

Yeah. Quite a bit of sharks stuff this year, too. Sure. Seems like. Sure. Dangerous animals. Sharks. Yeah.

Into the deep. My nephew would love secret agent. A lot of shark stuff. Yeah. Yes. Okay. Moving on. Next category.

the um no thank yous we love to hear number one blue moon a movie absolutely packed with references that I don't care about what mid 50s theater okay okay slash Stuart Little

apocrypha E.B. White I'm not a fan of his style no I got to say I'm surprised to hear that because if you cracked open Stewart Little like today the moment we finished recording you would be texting us in 30 minutes guys, I'm rooting so hard for Stuart.

He's just a little mouse trying to make it in the city. It is about movie being obnoxious at a bar, and I feel like that does kind of strike you. But no, I see what you're saying, you know, like you don't really care about Oscar and Hammerstein and all that. No, that's just, yeah, not my jam. Okay, number two, War of the Worlds. I would rather spend that half an hour, hour and a half, rather, was Stephen Miller. Oh, shikes. Have either of you...

It's a tough choice. Have either of you seen Mercy? No. Oh, no. No, I missed that one. Spoilers. First 90% of that movie, Chris Pratt felt like he was angling for that Iowa Debris Award and then he fucks it up. Oh, Chris.

That was defer. Number three. Deliver me from nowhere. I'm good. Yeah. Despite your jerseiness. Yeah. Send me somewhere else anywhere else.

Ben, that was a great impression of humanity at large. Yeah. Yeah. That decision was made. Global viewing public. Spot on impression. They were like, fuck, we need to call this movie Springsteen delivery. And audiences are like, no, it doesn't matter.

That's not going to work. That's not going to work. It doesn't help. Number four, how to train your dragon. I was able to return to skipping this one in live action. Okay. A rebound skip. There you go. Yeah, but Ben, would you be excited to hear that they're now making a sequel to the live action remake,

which is a remake of the animated sequel in which they are now recasting a, another actor who had voiced the character in the animated films to now play their live action equivalent as well. What a nightmare. Now I'm the fantastic Mr. Fox character with the spiralized after you. Yes. Yep. God. Number five, Jurassic World Rebirth.

Ass is right there in the title. There we go. Our finest film critic. Do we really need to be reborn, though? Let the dinosaurs rest. Yep. Ben, great take. And yet I think they're being reborn again as we speak.

There is a moment in that movie where a very tired dinosaur has wandered out of Cobble Hill Park. That's right. It's taken a nap on to the bridge. And it's just sort of like, chilling by the bridge. Yeah. The one good idea the movie has.

We should get this out of the plot. Let's get as far away from this as possible. Yeah. Some honorable mentions. Please. The Bone Temple for Achievement and Bone Temple. I mean... And you know what?

It might have this category locked up next year. line nomination. Like, they melt the whole bone temple. I, we really, this is why we can't have nice things with those two movies. Yeah. Violator Achievement Award goes to Tessa Thompson as Hedda for being

a delightfully evil little stinker. This is a great take. Yeah, very good stinker movie. Yeah, yeah. We have one of our superlatives categories is homophobic enemy. And despite the fact that she is queer in that movie, that character, she is a homophobic enemy because she makes a lot

of trouble for queer people in that movie. Yeah. Yeah. Um, weapons for its great stick work. Not often are sticks showcased in cinema. What are we talking about here? Sticks. Sticks? She's snapping the sticks. She's snapping the sticks. She's snapping that stick, baby. She's snapping the stick. Borgonia. Branches are, you know, are... You stop looking at a picture of a wrangler. I

snap in the stick over your head. Branches are so often seeing leaves. Plenty. Yeah. Give sticks their due. Give sticks a chance. Yeah. And lastly, pavements for achievement and featuring Griffin Newman on screen.

This is true. Only not enough movies dare to do it. I know. I want to see it more. Turn me on. It was nice to see it. Technically. Does it qualify as this year or last year?

Was it 2025? I got a C. Turn me on. Yeah. I recommend people. Michael Daberski film, Bell Powley, Nick Robinson, Julia Sheplet. Nesta Cooper, Justin and myself. I'm D-B is saying it hit the internet in 2024.

In what month? September. So that was Griffin in October. Griffin and Autumn. I... Let me double track that. I think it did not go on to VOD and then it got an illegal hidden theatrical release.

The best kind of theatrical release. I think it was not until January, but I count as a 2025 release. Fair enough. And then there was a movie that I think it would be very difficult to cut me out of on the schedule for 2026. Damn right, baby. Hell yeah. What will be my final film role.

Oh, come on. I'm retiring again. No, I'm sorry. It's over. As long as you're doing this, you know, you're in the money forever, baby? Until people get sick of us, which could be tomorrow. Yeah, it could be yesterday.

Right. I just... No, I've got an in with Mia Threpleton. She can get you in another movie. I'll just say, look, there's a curse upon me being optimistic about anything in my career outside of this podcast. But I, you know, I shot this thing in December and I was like, this thing's got a guaranteed theatrical release.

That's true. Can I also tell you? And it would cost millions of dollars to cut me out of it at this point. Not because of my contract. Because continuity. The buzz that whipped around my circles at the sight of you in a Muppet audience, by the way, was significant. So the juice is still there. It was, well, that was just Seth Rogen being a real mensch.

Yeah. Yeah. Pretty great. but yeah that's it for me wow what a year good job what a year thanks what a year it was well done that looks like we made it yeah um

Joe this had Oscar buzz yes I have not been on we've been around for a while I know I know in many years because of my overwhelming zoom phobia yeah me too to Zoom I did recently reach out to you and say we've gotten to a place of just enough healing

that I think it's time can we say what the movie is uh yes we can. If that's, if that's the movie you want to do, that is the movie I've wanted you to do that. I've had the pin in it for so long. Igby goes down. Oh, very good. Yes. Would you believe that movie meant a lot to one 13 year old? I'm so excited. Griffin, Newman. We've been holding that one. The family in that movie is so functional, so I don't really see.

I have been too terrified to watch that movie for at least 15 years. We'll see. We'll see. Yeah. We'll see. Yeah, I'm very excited. Very excited to have you back. David will have to have you back as well. You were around for our 70s miniseries. couple years ago. You did, remind me. You did don't look now. I love that movie. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But what should I do? Oh, I did Alexander. Yes, that was your, that was very early. You just did sentimental value episode on, uh, on critical darlings. I finally, I am just critical darling. Yes. At long last. Thank you for doing that. Yeah. Unsurprisingly.

Great co-hosts you got there. Hey. Richard and Allison, my friends. Proud of these kids. I think these kids got a big future. Yeah, I think we really did a good job hiring two very established. Samely smart. Film critics who are good on Mike. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

I'm going to go see Project Hail Mary. I'm going to the same screening. I'm very excited for the both of you. I got fucking invited to Project Hell Mary. Well, well, well. What a twist. I'm going to Moynihan train station. You did bring your luggage here.

Thank you for being flexible with your stuff. Did I tell you also the, yes, two days ago when I came here, and of course I slipped on ice and fell and hurt my knee. And then. David hurt his butt. And did you also fall? Oh, no, I see it. And then on the cab right here, because I wanted to be in a cab, because my knee hurts.

Yes. Yeah. The cabby had to stop short, and I lurched forward and banged my knee into the back of the seat in front of me. So it's been a couple of days, but we're doing all right. Let me also just clarify. David didn't hurt his butt slipping on ice. He hurt his butt because his wife whacked him with a rolling pin because he was looking at a picture in the brink. I snapping a stick.

She's Snapping this stick on his Toish You want to stop And looking at the picture Of the ring We got the three babies Are you looking at the picture

At the frang? We're going to get Some kind of Anti-Defamation League on our ass About this one But you know what Men

Do you be looking At the pictures of ring If I are no men I know They look at the pictures If I are no If I are no

I can see you No baby I know I joke And the wacko With the stick But I know Man And the men

they look at the picture of the orang. You know, you know why you've been looking at a picture of a ring. You know, I don't tell this to everybody. Between you and me, I'd be looking at the picture of a wreck. Man, they are simple. All they want is to look at a picture of the brain. Ben, we love you. I'm so proud to come up.

I love it. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Tribute to Pig. Yes. Who has been such an important part of this podcast across all the years. We recorded in her home for two years.

Close to, yeah. Yeah. So she's been a, she was a silent participant in so many episodes. Yeah. And we miss her dearly and our thoughts are with you. Thanks so much. Yes. Thank you all for listening.

Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Next week, crack of the bat, start of a new miniseries. That's right, Peter. Very excited. We're making it weird. Carst of Paris. Enjoy. Yeah. Dough.

Oh, what a great miniseries. Cars that are guestsless. Yeah, no guest. Yeah. We got it, we got, it's, I think it's a good mini series. Majority in the cam. Almost all. We got some great returning guests and people who haven't been on in too long.

Yeah. We have a couple, exciting first time. New faces. We got some new faces. I'll have to rewatch Fearless before you do your episode on that. I haven't seen that one since the 90s. Fox. It's, that movie is on, I want to say Isabella Rossellini's known for.

Is that not something? Spoilers, but that movie made David buy new sunglasses. Yes, it did. That's right. That's all. Go listen to this, Head Oscar Buzz, folks. Yeah, please do. Igby episode coming soon. And as always, RIPP pig, we stand a legend.

We love you, pig. All right. Love you, Pig. Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by Griffin Newman and David Sims. Our executive producer is me, Ben Hossley. Our creative producer is Marie Barty Salinas, and our associate producer is AJ McKeon. This show is mixed and edited by AJ McKeon and Alan Smithy. Research by J.J. Birch.

Our theme song is by Lane Montgomery in the Great American novel, with additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon, Blank Check Special Features for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at Blank CheckPod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Podcasts.