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

Episode Date: February 22, 2016

On this week’s special episode, Griffin and David joined by guest, Joe Reid (The Decider), present their personal nominations for the upcoming 88th Academy Awards. This roundtable discussion looks to all the major categories and offers engaging criticism, as well as, references deep cut cinema from 2015 you may have missed. With the “Blankies”, some winners are picked, Oscar snubs deservingly defended, but as always most of the personal grudges continue. Also, Griffin reads a listener submitted Star Wars/Blank Check crossover fan fiction titled: “Fisto and the Hoz” and Producer Ben offers up some of his own original categories. And fear not, for the twists will continue next week on Pod Night Shyamacast with episode five: The Village! Music selection: “Love Wins” by Lee Rosevere licensed under Creative Commons: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

And the Blank Check Award goes to your earbuds for you to listen to, because this is a podcast for you. Whoever's- I don't like you. I really don't like you. I'm really, I'm whiffing on these week after week. That was funny.

That thing was funny. I'm Griffin Newman. I'm David Sims. This is Blank Check with Griffin and David. Yeah. A podcast that is usually constructed in a mini-series. Right. But sometimes a one- David. Yeah. A podcast that is usually constructed in a miniseries. Right. But sometimes a one-off.

Yeah, specials. We're in the middle of a miniseries called... Oh, my God. Enough. Pod Night Shamacast. Yeah. Exploring the films of M. Night Shyamalan in order. But this is a one-off because, David, this is a very special time of year.

For the first time in our history as podcasters. Yeah, because we started, I think, in March. Right after. We started in a March. We get to cover Hollywood's biggest night, David. Yeah. The best and brightest come out. Yeah.

Wear their finest duds. Yeah. In the hopes of coming home with some hardware. Yeah, Teen Choice Awards. Yeah, the Teen Choice Awards. So this is with some hardware. Yeah, Teen Choice Awards. Yeah, the Teen Choice Awards. So this is our, if we chose the Teen Choice Awards. We're no longer teens. David and I are both in our 20s.

Long, I'm barely in my 20s. Yeah, I did, I have to say, I did vote in the Kids' Choice Awards, which I don't know if that's going to, I mean, if by admitting this, now the Kids' Choice Awards is the Nickelodeon blimp. Yes. And the Teen Choice Awards is the surfboard. It's a fox surfboard. Right, right, right. I gotta say, really underwhelmed by the

nominees for the Kids Choice Awards this year. Really? Yeah, in that I didn't know 98% of them. Times change. Yeah, but Hull of Transylvania 2 was nominated for Best Animated Film, which is more than I can say for the Oscars. Callback. Callback. This is the Blank Check Awards.

Yeah, we're doing the blankies. The blankies. Most, our common thread throughout all our subjects that we cover on this podcast is the idea of the blank check. If someone being given free reign to make whatever they want,

usually because they have such monumental success early in their career that people keep on giving them the blank check to make their project in the hopes that they will replicate that magic one more time. Guess who's got the blank check today? Us? The two friends.

We got a blank check because enough people listen to our podcast that we get to pick the Oscars. I mean, so we've decreed. We've decreed. And it will have no bearing on anything whatsoever. So for all you guys who love listening to us just talk the year's movies, this is the podcast for you. This is like the most side tangent-y episode.

Right. For everyone who's excited to hear about The Village, wait till next week. Next week, we're coming back strong with Pod Night Shemacast. We have a very special guest with us today. Yes. Really the only guest. The only guest we could possibly have. We have a very special guest.

Yes. Really the only guest. The only guest we could possibly have. He, much like us, is a devourer of Oscar knowledge. Not just winners, but the ephemera of the award shows. The moments, David, within the ceremony himself. Yeah. He knows things that no human knows about the Oscars.

He's a keeper of secrets. Yes. He's a master of Oscars. And I don't know. And in our ongoing collection of trying to collect different groups. Our collection of trying to collect different groups? Our guests. We try to collect different groups of guests. You're saying we've gotten another trivia team member.

Yeah. We've netted him, finally. Possibly. I mean, he was really the third corner of our power triangle on our team. Okay. Yeah. No, because you and I were going- No, I know.

It's just power triangle is not a phrase I've ever heard before. That's what people used to call us, the power triangle. No, but you and I would go alone, and sometimes we'd have a friend, and then we were like, we need to build a solid team. And we added this man as our third permanent member. Not that there weren't other permanent members, but he was a rock. He was there every week for us. And what happened?

We won two seasons in a row with him. We did. He's shaking his head right now. Ladies and gentlemen. Being very good about not saying anything until just this second. He is a tower rider. He currently rides for the decider where he uh wrote a very nice piece about our podcast he did uh where he wrote a really good piece about the simpsons episode

homers phobia that i read yes like yesterday i think it was uh ladies and gentlemen the great joe reed hey joe reed i tried i tried to be that cool podcast guest who wouldn't say anything and i couldn't no i prefer the people who just sort of but just like bluster in and you don't know who's that voice. Who's that strange voice on my podcast. And they're excited like, oh, and they do know, of course. I thought it was just two friends. What's going on?

They looked at the title. Yeah. That's the weird thing about podcasts. It's true. It's true. You should ideally have already been enticed by this before you even hit play. Right. Some podcasts, the title is literally only the names of the guests.

That's true. And yet they still, they pretend. Wait, am I getting above title billing for this podcast? I don't know. Yeah, you'll get it. Ben, you do the titles. You know I was a supporter of PCAST Shyamalan, so I don't know whether that breaks the tie or not. Look, I appreciate your support in any form I can get it.

I mean, see, we don't believe in twists here. We're not a bunch of Shyamalans, so we'll just say who the guest is. But I do think there's an order thing. You did sort of spoil a surprise. What, that Ben's here again? Hey, don't say it. He's back! I'm back, baby! He's here the whole time.

You know how the Golden Globes have... But I'm very comfortable with not speaking up. I just... I know. You're better. Did you hear the sign? Did you listen back to the signs episode yet? Yeah. When Ben's voice comes over on the walkie-talkie, it genuinely sounds strange. Did you hear it? Yeah.

You sound like a ghost coming through the walls. Maybe I planned it. You know how the Golden Globes always have Miss Golden Globe? It's a second generation Hollywood. Sometimes even third generation. Remember Dakota Johnson before she was a movie star? Very true. It was third generation because it was Tippi Hedren and then Melanie Griffith and then herself.

But it's always second generation or third generation Hollywood royalty. And it's like coming out. It's like, here's Jamie Foxx's daughter. She's going to wear a lovely dress. Do what you will with her, Hollywood. And do they even hold the award, like the statues, or do they just stand there? That sometimes feels like they're

like assistant award holder. Like you're still a professional award holder. Right. But they get to stand next to them and maybe escort them off stage or whatever. Well, guess who's been chosen to be our Mr. Blank Check Awards today? Who? I'll give you a hint.

We call him Birthday Benny, even though it only is his birthday once a year. Yeah. We call him the tiebreaker. We call him the poet laureate. Call him the Haas. We call him producer Ben. Yeah. We do.

We call him Purdue or Ben. Yeah. Catch him on a good day. He might be the Ben Doosan. Let's speed it up. Call him the tiebreaker. Yeah. Did I say that one already?

You did. Yeah. We call him, what am I? My favorite, Hello Fennel. Hello Fennel. I was Did I say that one already? You did. Yeah. We call him... Why am I... My favorite, Hello Fennel. Hello Fennel. I was trying to save that one for last. Did you get Kylo Ben?

The peeper, Kylo Ben, producer Ben Kenobi. Peeper's a good one. Yeah. I had someone randomly come up to me. Not Professor Crispy. Someone said Hello Fennel to me. I didn't know. Just like on the street?

I got really excited. Really? Yeah. That's a genuine fan saying. Was it a coincidence? Was it just someone saying, hello, fennel? And then you were like, podcast? And he was like, podcast?

No, I thought you were a piece of fennel. He didn't realize you were eating just loose fennel from a bag. Was there any conversation following that? Or did he just walk away after that? I was awestruck. I was just like, yeah, it's me, man. Fennel. Fennel.

I misspoke. And now I have to think about it every fucking week. Before we started recording, me and Benny were having a conversation about how he's such a goofy guy. He's a real goofball. I can't talk to you guys before we record. I was trying to figure out how to do that, like have a new

name, Nom de Plume, that has the word goofy in it, but I couldn't get it. Yeah. That's tough. We'll come up with something. Oh yeah, of course we will. Email him with your thoughts. And speaking of that. He took a big swig of water. Dramatically, because I had to wet my whistle for this one. Ready? We have an email account.

Oh, yeah. I had forgot to sync it with my phone, so I hadn't been reading the emails. Yeah. I got an email alert when you synced it with your phone last night, and I was briefly afraid that someone was trying to hack my email. But it was just good old Griffey. Yeah. I had forgotten when we set up, or I don't know which of us set up.

You set up the Twitter account. We kept email notifications on. So I went to our email inbox and it was like 400 messages of anytime anything happened on Twitter. Oh, yeah, right. Like, remember when Twitter would just email you if someone favorited your tweet? I still have had to create a subfolder to direct all those to, and if I ever stumble upon it, it's just this horrible wasteland of a thousand all-Twitter emails. Yeah, aside from who followed you, who faved, it was also just like, hey, check out this new tweet from David Itzkoff. And I was like, I don't need recommendations.

It's Twitter. Itzkoff's doing fine enough on his own. He doesn't need my retweet. He's doing fine. He's doing fine. He's doing fine. I found two genuine emails. In this wasteland. In this wasteland.

One of them was from Will Stutz, who sent in some recommendations of future miniseries. I'm not going to read them on air because we might use some of them. Sure. But the other one I must read. David, Joe, Ben, I must. Simply must. Is it from M. Night? It's from a lady named Erin Ashby.

Okay. And the subject heading is, Fisto and the Haas, a fan fiction. Oh, boy. You're not going to read fan fiction right now, are you? Come on. Fisto and the Haas. Blank check with Griffin and David slash Star Wars crossover.

Category fluff slash light angst. She's formatting this like it's on a proper fan fiction website. Relationships. Ben Hosley slash Kit Fisto. Rated T, I think, for teen. Trigger warning. Questionable transcription of a Jamaican accent. It's short.

I promise you it's short. I swear to God. Kit strode into the studio and plopped down on the couch next to Ben, heaving a sigh. What a day, Kit said. Ben snuck a peek at the wary Nautilin, cleared his throat. Ah, yeah? Rough day at the old Clone Wars, huh? You said it, Kit said. Between Darth Stupid Idiot and these...

Oh, I guess Kit Fist is supposed to be Jamaican. Between Darth Stupid Idiot and these toilet chairs in the Jedi Council, I cannot catch a break. You're going to cut all of this, right, Ben? My ass is on fire! I'm sounding like Dracula. Swear to God. Kit let his eyes slip shut,

but making up for the lack of one sense, his thick, empathetic tendrils sniffed out the emotion around him. Immediately, he felt Ben's distress. Hello, fennel, Kit gasped. Sitting up and resting a hand. How much more of this is there? It's very short. Really, how much more of this is there?

On his friend's shoulder. What is wrong? Tell me now, Benducer. I can feel your pain. Ha! Ben shook his head. N-nothing. I was just, uh, sketching these new lightsaber designs. He tapped his sketchpad and

Kit frowned at the rough drawings. Those weapons are far too large. Yeah, well, I just like things really big. Kit, now realizing the cause of his friend's heartache, grinned and leaned in, tossing Mr. Positive a saucy wink. I understand. I think I can help with that. In the other room, a desperate voice pleaded, Guys, I can hear you in the earphones. It's really fucking creepy.

Come in here if you're going to do that so I can see you. Are you going to cut that? I love that. It was a good start. Because it ended with what I subscribe to, which is I like things big. Yeah. Thank you to Aaron Ashby.

Thanks, Aaron. Clearly a master talent, a writer on the rise. You know how to turn a phrase and we appreciate your support. Please send in all other fan fiction you have. Blankcheckpod at gmail.com Okay, Griffin. Blankcheckpodcast. Okay, okay. So,

here's what we're going to do. We're going to pick the Oscars. Yeah. Who needs the Oscars? The old Siskel and Ebert's of yore. Who needs a bunch of old, stuck-up white men? Here are three young white men, four young white men, in a group with full autonomy and full power. Thank you for calling me young. I appreciate it.

Of course. So we're going to go through the major categories, and we're each going to pick our five, and then who we would win. Who we would win. Who we would win. Who we would bestow the trophy upon. I slept three hours last night.

My brain is not running. And yeah, if we have extra time, we might pick some notables that we would nominate in below the line categories, technical awards, things like that. Sure. So I think we got to start with our best picture, right? Yeah. Do you want to start at with our best picture, right? Yeah. Do you want to start at the top? You want to work?

Oh, I mean, we could do the traditional supporting actor categories first. Really, really hue to the Oscars example. I think maybe let's do that, right? Yeah. Joe, do you want to start with supporting actress? Sure. Let's start with supporting actress. So this is thems of 2015, guys. So I'm just going to

lay out my five and then pass it on to you. We'll chat. We'll chew over them. Alright. In classic Oscar order then, alphabetically. You're a pro. Look at that. Elizabeth Banks for Love and Mercy. Yeah, alright. Sarah Paulson for

Carol. Kristen Stewart, Clouds of Sils Maria. Kristen Wigg, Diary of a Teenage Girl. She was good. Kate Winslet for Steve Jobs. Interesting. Only Kate Winslet is Oscar nominated of those five.

I think that's going to be a running thing, is I expect we have one overlap. Yeah, a little bit of overlap. Yeah. With the actual Oscar, although I think I have none. The Oscar nominations were fine in acting categories, for this acting category. I thought it was okay.

Well, they've got the two leads. They've got Rooney Mara and Alicia Vikander. You know, I don't like that. And I don't like it either. Yeah. And especially this year when, like, there was room upstairs for them well maybe

oh no Best Actress was pretty competitive Best Actress was pretty but I mean you know you roll with the performance you have Rooney Mara is not a supporting actress

in that movie and it sort of it shoves out Sarah Paulson who I think was an actual supporting actress in that movie and was really good see that's what I like about

what you're doing Joe is you know you're really taking a stand which is like yeah if rudy mars is supporting actress then what's sarah paulson a fucking cameo no that's a real supporting part yeah i agree and we so we all we all liked paulson should we all do our lists and then talk to see where we have maybe each throw our five out and then and then yeah, do you want to go? My best supporting actresses were Joan Allen in Room.

Nice. Rose Byrne in Spy. Great choice. Jada Pinkett Smith in Magic Mike XXL. Kristen Stewart in Clouds of Sils Maria. And Elizabeth Waterston in Queen of Earth. The underseen Alex Ross Perry. Catherine Waterston. I Maria. And Elizabeth Waterston in Queen of Earth. The underseen Alex Ross Perry.

Katherine Waterston. I always call her Elizabeth Waterston. She looks like an Elizabeth. I always call her Sam Waterston. What? But there isn't an Elizabeth Waterston in the world. I don't believe so. I'm just giving her.

Yeah, Katherine Waterston in Queen of Earth. Sorry. I'm sure there is an Elizabeth Waterston in the world, but probably not in the acting community. Who can say? My choices for best supporting actress are Elizabeth Banks for Love and Mercy. Nice. Guys liked her.

Rebecca Ferguson in Mission Impossible Rogue Nation. She's so good. Mia Taylor in Tangerine. Maya Taylor? Sure. Never heard it said out loud. I guess before now I did. Actually, I haven't either, so I could be totally wrong. M-Y-A. I thought it was Maya, but I don't know. Okay. Actually, I haven't either, so I could be totally wrong. MYA. So I always thought it was Mia.

I thought it was Maya, but I don't know. Okay. Maya, Mia, Taylor. Maya, Taylor, write in to the podcast address. Yeah, please do. We'd love to have you on as a guest. You're a great, great actress. Rachel Weisz in Youth. Nice.

And ready for the Griffius pick? I think in any category we're going to get this year. Raffi Cassidy in Tomorrowland. Wait, which one was she? That's the robot girl, right? The robot girl. She was good. I just saw that movie over the weekend.

Did not care for it. But she was pretty good. That robot girl, though. That robot girl. Was she anything else ever? Like, was this her first big movie? Yeah, she did some small British films. But I think she's one to watch.

Oh, I agree. I liked her in that film. Okay, so let's get into our... So we did not overlap at all. No, we had two You guys had Banks. The two friends with ten different,

ten picks, all distinct from each other. You guys just shared Banks. We just shared Banks. You two shared Kristen Stewart. And we shared Kristen Stewart, who is my winner. Really?

Yeah, see, this is interesting, okay? I don't know. I'm not trying to really... Supporting is always very wide open. It's very tough. I have always been a huge Kristen Stewart fan. Okay. I used to have...

You told me a gross story about how about her Into the Wilds performance last weekend and it was bad. I said I wanted to do a reverse Purple Rose of Cairo in that movie. And I won't go into any further detail. What kind of sexual position is the reverse Purple Rose of Cairo in that movie. And I won't go into any further detail. What kind of sexual position is the reverse Purple Rose of Cairo? First of all.

I think you know. And we got young listeners, so I don't want to get into it. We do. Yeah, we got some babies who listen. Get that demographic research out. Yeah, they play it in maternity wards. Right when the babies come out, they're playing an episode of Blank Check. I hate you with this every time you're going

off topic. Kristen Stewart, I'm a big fan of. I used to have two life-size cardboard cutouts of her in my bedroom. Oh my,

wow. I had, my early 20s were messy. Sure. But, I always have argued that she's an underrated actress. I think she's phenomenal.

I think, you know, it's the curse of a thing like Twilight being that big. I think people immediately discount anyone who's in something that successful. It's true. Whether or not they're doing good work. And I also think that character is a cypher. And she did some okay work in those films that is kind of drowning against the films themselves. Anyway, I was very excited for Clouds of Sils Maria. Because I was like, finally,

a film where everyone seems to be getting on the same page as me on Kristen Stewart. Saw it. I thought she was good. I didn't love the movie. I thought she and Binoche were highlights. No, it's David's favorite movie of the year. I love the movie. It is.

And I thought she was bewitching in it. Incredible. This is my point, I guess. I have nothing bad to say about the performance. I think she's was bewitching in it. Incredible. This is my point, I guess. I have nothing bad to say about the performance. I think she's very, very good in it. I think she's excellent. I also think it's about as excellent as she usually is. Right.

Yeah. Okay. Just maybe in the context of a better movie. Better material. Yeah. Yeah. Because I feel like she was really good in Still Alice last year. I probably would have nominated her last year, too.

I think she was great in that. She's great in Still Alice, but I think Clouds of Sils Maria is a part where she has a little more room to explore. Like, in Still Alice, she is a character. Mm-hmm. Like, and even if her parents don't totally get that she's, like, a real person immediately, like, you know, and they have to learn things about her, you know, she's playing, like, I don't know.

She's, like, in Clouds of Sils Maria, her character develops and pushes back against Juliette Binoche's character and there's a real dynamic between the two of them that's very like... They're really good together. The power shifts between them backwards and forwards and Clouds of Sils Maria is just incredible.

Putting in Star Relief. You guys should all see it. Chloe Moretz in that movie. Yeah, not a good performance. We all agree on that, right? I think it's one of the better performances she's ever given. That's a pretty backhanded compliment. I'm not a big Chloe Grace Moretz fan. I thought she was suited to that role as a kind of jerky young star. Saying a lot of mean things about Chloe right now.

Claude Stills Maria, if you guys haven't seen it, it's an Olivia Assayas movie. He's really good. Yeah. Well, it's about a lot of stuff. I don't know. It's about life. It's about art.

It's about aging. It's about identity. It's about growing up, for sure. It's about how the way we think about things changes as we get older. It's about two friends. It's about the two friends. It is about the two. Not the two friends.

It's about two friends. We're the two two friends. It is about the two. Not the two friends. It's about two friends. We're the two friends. Right. And that's patent pending. We have a utility patent on being friends. I love her, but let's talk about some of the others. Okay, so that would be your choice to win. Who would be your choice to win from your five, Joe?

I got Winslet. Wow, Winslet would be your winner. I watched Steve Jobs again on the plane back from LA the other day. She is so good. I like Steve Jobs better than I think a lot of people like Steve Jobs. I'm high on Steve. I really liked it. I thought it's one of Sorkin's better screenplays.

I think he does some really interesting structural stuff with it. I think a lot of the attention for that performance, for her performance, boiled down to her accent and how – and it does. Definitely it's a stronger accent in the second two thirds of the movie than it is in the first she becomes more Polish as she gets older she does it's very interesting and very strange um but I think I mean I think Sorkin's dialogue is not always the easiest and she adapts to it so well and she's sort of she's the you're you're sort of she's your sort of anchor in that movie as Jobs becomes so unlikable and sort of distant from everything and then even when they're trying to like redeem him at the end I think that's the

most resistant I ever am to the movie where I was just like I get it he's gonna put songs in her pocket but I think Winslet keeps everything sort of grounded in this very sort of like task focused kind of way. I think she's great. You do point out something interesting, which is that usually actors have to like totally bend to the Sorkin thing and fit into those rhythms. And she somehow manages to get her claws around Sorkin dialogue without making it sound Sorkin-y. Right. She made it sound very naturalistic while keeping up the rhythm and the same sort of sharpness and everything. But I mean,

I also think that the film's emotional or like moral heart center is always with her. Yeah. And it's always revolving around her in a weird specific way.

Yeah. Which is why I think she actually could win the actual Oscar. I'm starting to get the feeling she's going to win weirdly. She might. If she won,

I'd be so happy. I would be too. I think Alicia Vikander is a very exciting talent. I think she cries great in Danish Girl, but Ex Machina is probably her better performance this year. Yep. Danish Girl, she's a lead who does a lot of crying.

She cries. Yes. They cry in one room. I think I was telling this to Griffin. That movie is like they cry in one room, and then they find a new room. They cry in that room. Right.

Then they go to another country. Yes. There's more crying. Well, I think the interesting thing about the Oscar-supporting actress race is you've got Rooney Mara and Alicia Vikander and Kate Winslet. That's what everybody seems to agree are the three frontrunners. All three movies

that probably could have gotten Best Picture nominations but didn't. So you could get the sense that the voters weren't as crazy about those movies as they could have been. There wasn't the support. So it's it's not like you can tell from the best picture nominees who the winner is going to be in that category and same with hateful eight i would say was presumed to be like a 10 rachel mcadams is

the only one from a movie that you think might have like momentum she's great but she has zero chance of winning i think she's great in that movie she would be like right outside my and it's a very it's a very un-oscar baby kind a very un-Oscar baby kind of performance. That's what I love about it. Which I like that those get nominated. I give them a lot of credit because it's very unshowy. Yeah. Her two best moments in the film are very small.

Yeah. I'd say it's the scene where she goes to meet up with the guy at the diner. Yep. And. That seems great. She like pushes him about needing to be specific. I think that was what her clip was at the SAG Awards. That's her clip to me.

Because that's the scene where she is capturing like the weird dispassion of being a journalist. That you have to kind of be sympathetic without just kind of hugging someone and crying with them. You have to ask them extremely uncomfortable questions without just being a jerk. It's a sociopathic form of empathy. Yeah. It's like weaponized empathy. And you see Ruffalo's take on how that works. Where he is much more guarded and almost autistic about it,

but not mean or anything, but his scene with the survivor is also incredible. Where he's like, yeah, I think people want to hear about this. Excellent Ruffalo. I just leaned. She'd be right out of my five. Jada Pinkett and Magic Mike XXL is also right out of my five. Rose Byrne was one of my runners-up.

Rose Byrne inspires one of the funniest comic performances. The monologue, I think we've talked about the monologue about the Bulgarian clown. It's the best single scene in a movie in 2015. It's so good. And there's this line she delivers that I can't really do it. She says you're funny. Well, that's great. But, I mean, no, when they sit down, I think it's when they sit down to dinner and she

says, we just have to talk about this dress, this hideous dress you're wearing. It's hysterical. And like, I can't do, I can't deliver that line as well as she delivers it. Only Rose can. She's the only one who can. A tough role. Very tough. Oh, yeah.

You know, like you have to be a villain. You have to be really funny. Weirdly sympathetic. Weirdly sympathetic. By the end of the movie. Even though you are monstrous at all times. Oh, great. Great.

We've covered a lot on this podcast. She's one of my favorite actresses. I think she's one of our favorite actresses. Love Rose Byrne. Dorme. Dorme. Great neighbors last year. Yes.

Oh, yeah. She was Dorme. I would have put her, I would have given her a blank check best actress nomination for neighbors last year had we been doing this last year. We weren't doing this last year. I know. And I probably would have nominated her for bridesmaids within that respective year as well. I actually, she was, I put her on my top five list.

But we should probably move on, but if there's anything anyone else wants to say. I didn't pick my winner. Oh, you haven't picked my winner. I would go, even though I can't pronounce her name, I would go with Maya Taylor. She's great. She's a quasi-lead.

I agree that she can be classified as a supporter. I's a quasi-lead. I think I would also maybe put her in lead. I agree that she can be classified as supporting. I hate category fraud, but I do, I don't know. My knee-jerk watching that film was she's the supporting performance.

She's the secondary character. I think she's on screen less. She is definitely on screen less. It comes down to when I was looking at those five, like, she had all my favorite moments individually of a performance

this year. The scene where she sings Toyland. That scene is brutal. The ending of the film. And then she makes the cut it off gesture. Yes.

Yes. She has like four or five moments in that film especially coming from a you know not to use this term because who fucking who is a professional actress or not but like

a non-professional actress in the sense she had never done anything before. Right. She has four or five moments that are so profound and so small and so specific. She's great. Incredible. But yeah, I mean, do you want to say like, I think Joan Allen, it's like, just let's

all do brief things on the people. Yeah, for other people. I think Joan, it's crazy that Joan Allen never got any traction in the Oscar race this year, let alone any race. Joan Allen's an actress who, for somebody with three Oscar nominations, three, two, just the contender. No, three, because the contender, Nixon and The Crucible. Should have been nominated for Pleasantville.

For someone with, should have been nominated for The Upside of Anger. She should have won for Pleasantville. She's had slam dunk great Oscar-y performances and things that have gotten no attention, and it's just very strange. She is one of the, but that's why I thought,

she carries the emotions of that movie's latter half. Yes, oh, totally. And the scene with the cutting of the, whatever. I love Joan Allen. I thought Waterston was the standout of Queen of Earth. Didn't see it. Queen of Earth's really good. It's really good.

It's really unsettling. I think she and Elizabeth Moth are both very good. Both very good. Yeah. And then, oh, yeah, Jada. Jada's incredible. Jada's a lot of fun. That's another hard role.

I didn't quite understand a lot of what that character and what that sort of portion of the movie was supposed to be. But by the time you get to the end where they're in Orlando. Tampa or Orlando. Somewhere in Florida. Something like that. The convention, whatever. You know, the stripper convention. She's so great.

You know, may I call you queens? Oh, yeah. Yeah, all her onstage stuff is unbelievable. She would be my number six. I just think under, hard, hard. Like, harder than it looks to do that. Oh, 100%. You know, to sell those kinds of lines with, like, authority.

Like, an authenticity. Hard. Yeah, one of the trickier acting asks of the year was that role as written. So anyone you wanted to mention, Griffin? I mean, Elizabeth Banks, I guess we should both speak on her. Oh yeah, we both had her on the list. But I just think so astoundingly solid.

I mean, playing like a rock, you know? Yep. A character that at first blush looks like a very familiar trope of these sorts of biopics, which is the loving woman who stands by the troubled genius. But there are a lot of layers to the character as written, as unfolds.

I think this character is written much more thoroughly than most of these parts in these types of films. And she just brings such an integrity and a real emotional truth. The thing that I loved was she has to be such a different person with John Cusack than she has to be with Paul Giamatti. And she's so good at doing both of those things and still making it make sense.

It's the same woman. I thought it was really good. Yeah. What I like about the performance is they sort of set up this thing of her backstory being like a former like beauty queen. Yeah. Who now works at a car dealership. Yes.

And she has this like ferocity that comes out in defending him that clearly feels like an extension of people underrating her her entire life or objectifying her, whatever it is. Right. She's very protective of making sure that people are seen as people. Yeah. A great performance from a great actress who's been doing great work for years. 100%. And this is probably the best showcase I think

she's gotten as a dramatic actress ever. Yeah. Rebecca Ferguson, Mission Impossible, Rogue Nation. Just kind of like such a star is born performance. Very, very much so. So astounding and is like a full movie star performance, has the glamour and the sort of aura of that, really nails the dramatic scenes in which she has a surprising amount. And that was just on a fucking physical level.

Like, I don't know. She has like four different like things where she fucking scissor flips a guy with her legs. Like, good shit shit good shit but like someone who you think is a killer someone who you think is like a good guy all at the same time like her eyes it's all like her eyes are crazy in that movie well here's my argument for why i think like slam dunk nomination for me is she essentially has to play the female tom Cruise. Rogue Nation is entirely it's a deconstruction of Tom Cruise's movie star persona and what's exciting and terrifying about him at the same time. I think that's the meta-narrative

of that movie. And she has to come on and be the female analog to him without any history. Tom Cruise would go into that movie with 30 years of baggage that the film was able to weaponize and use in an intelligent way. Rebecca Ferguson has to present herself. Most of us have never seen her in anything before

and immediately seem like, yeah, she's at the same level as Tom Cruise. She pulls it off. There's that line where Alec Baldwin says that he is the literal manifestation of destiny. Probably my favorite line in any film. So great. Anyway, do you want to speak up for any of your guys? Oh no, you're not done. Raffi Cassidy in Tomorrowland, I just think... What a crazy pick.

It's a crazy pick. It is the Griffinist pick. It's the Griffinist pick. I don't. I'm going to top myself. Oh God. I can't wait. I don't know if I can peak. But the Raffi Cassidy.

Yeah. She's a little girl playing a robot who's been around for a hundred years. Yeah. You believe that she's actually like. You know. Yeah. Wise beyond her years and everything. And she just.

Yeah. It's another performance that feels like this. This is a star. This girl's probably going to be. I'm eager to see what she does in other things that I don't dislike as much as I disliked Tomorrowland. I am a Tomorrowland apologist. All right.

And Rachel Weisz in use. I just think. I think she was so good in that movie and so unheralded. And it was sort of bugging me that people jumped to the Jane Fonda thing, which is like a cool cameo, I guess. It's sort of this like intentionally disgusting sort of like you're sort of supposed to be taken aback by this woman and what acting has done to her um Rachel Weisz

I think she gets a monologue in that movie that's every bit as effective and if not you know more so than the Jane Fonda thing it's like a translucent performance she is just so raw and vulnerable and um you know unshowy. Yeah. But really, really strong. Yeah. Ben, any thoughts? Oh, no. I haven't seen predominantly most of the movies you've discussed.

A while ago, Ben wrote down the word sexy on his notepad and underlined it. That's what I have to say. Wait for it, though, guys. We'll get to it later. Let's get through the real categories. All right. Best supporting actor. Oh, best supporting actor.

Okay. You want to go first? Supporting actor. Mine lines up more with Oscar than the other. Well, no. Go right. Best supporting actor. Oh, best supporting actor. Okay. You want to go first? Best supporting actor. Mine lines up more with Oscars than the other. Well, no. Go ahead. Sure.

I have one out of five with the Oscars. I have two. That's more. Mark Rylance for Bridge of Spies. Nice. I think no one

can argue against that being a very good performance. It's a very good performance. I haven't heard anyone other than Jeff Walls. Fuck Jeff Walls. Stanley Tucci for Spotlight. It's my favorite in Spotlight. No, wait. Liev Schreiber's my favorite in Spot Fuck Jeff Walls. Stanley Tucci for Spotlight.

That's my favorite in Spotlight. No, wait. Liev Schreiber's my favorite in Spotlight, but he's my second favorite in Spotlight. Stanley? Yeah, Ben looks confused. Stanley Tucci. What do you think? I thought it was Steven.

No, it's not Steven Tucci. It's Stanley Tucci. No. What are you talking about, Ben? I was just- Elizabeth Tucci. Yeah. No, it's one of our finest actors.

Just because we've been calling him the Tucci for so long. I love a little touch of the Tucci. You. Just because we've been calling him the Tucci for so long. I love a little touch of the Tucci. You've won me back. As long as you're down with a touch of the Tucci. I thought it was Steven, though. We're sidetracked. Rylance and Tucci. Mark Rylance, Bridge of Spies.

The Tucci, Spotlight. Emery Cohen for Brooklyn. Oh, we have some things to talk about with that. Here's one that I haven't, I did not throughout the entire season see anyone put him on any list. Who's that?

No, no, no. Not Emery Cohen, the next one I'm about to read. Oh, okay, we got it. I didn't see anyone going like, this is who I wish, this is whatever. Tom Noonan for Anomalisa.

If we're talking about Jennifer Jason Leigh in Anomalisa, we should probably be talking about Tom Noonan in Anomalisa. He's very good. Most supporting actor, one could argue. Certainly.

And then my last, and here's my real Griffin pick in this category. Wait, if Tom Noonan wasn't the real Griffin pick. Oh, get ready. I can't wait. Michael Shannon for The Night Before. Yeah, well, you've talked to me about how much you love that performance. A lot. Joe, would you like to read your five? Sure. My five

are Kyle Chandler for Carol. Benicio Del Toro for Sicario, Nicholas Holt for Mad Max Fury Road. Great pick. Great pick. Joe, cool pick. Thank you.

Thank you, guys. Oscar Isaac for Ex Machina, and Sylvester Stallone for Creed. Great picks. My nominees, I've got three in common with you guys, so I'll just name them first. Oscar Isaac for Ex Machina for Creed. Great picks. My nominees. I've got three in common with you guys, so I'll just name them first. Oscar Isaac for Ex Machina for sure. Mark Rylance for Bridge of Spies for sure.

Sylvester Stallone for Creed for double sure. And then I have Michael Keaton for Spotlight. Although, he's a quasi-lead, but whatever. They campaigned him and I can deal with that. He's a cusper and Adam Driver in While We're Young

he was one of my runners up I don't like that movie I really like him in it really good I like that movie I love him in it actually

yeah and that also that factors into this thing you know like also was great in Star Wars The Force Awakens yeah

he's on a sort of run right now. Sometimes you want to nominate someone for a specific performance, but it also kind of represents a year of competition. I might ask you to stay tuned for that. Interesting. That's all I will say. Well, yeah, I mean, Spotlight,

I find fascinating because everyone I talk to has a different Spotlight pick. Yes. That's what I love about Spotlight, too, is that everybody has a different best in show. And they're all good. Yeah. Tucci is marvelous in the movie. Yeah. Lief Schreiber is so love about Spotlight, too, is that everybody has a different best in show. And they're all good. Tucci is marvelous in the movie.

Lee Schreiber is so good in Spotlight. The second time, I remember when I watched it, I was like, this might be my favorite. You know, it switches. And Ruffalo's great. Yeah. And his nomination is great. I love it all. He's the Oscar-y pick.

So, like, they picked exactly right, I feel like. I feel like there's got to be some sort of, like, Rorschach element to that. Just sort of like, what about your favorite Spotlight actor? What does it say about you? I feel like. I feel like there's got to be some sort of Rorschach element to that, of just sort of like, what about your favorite spotlight actor? What does it say about you? I think so, yeah. I mean, the reason why Tucci jumps out to me, aside from always loving a touch of the Tucci. Well, Tucci's always great. Always great.

The only movie Stanley Tucci's bad in is the one he was Oscar nominated for. Yep, 100% true. That's so weird, right? Do you remember when they played the clip for The Lovely Bones at the Oscars and he literally grimaced? I do, and there's a few times Do you remember when they played the clip for the Lovely Bones at the Oscars and he literally grimaced? I do. And there's a few times where you'll see that in Oscar ceremonies. I think Cate Blanchett did it for Elizabeth the Golden Age.

Oh, yeah. Remember? Where she's just like, ugh. It was great. That was a stupid nomination. It was a stupid nomination. Really dumb. Tucci looks like one of the white chicks in the lovely bones

he does because they put those weird blue contact lenses it's because of the contacts that always comes off weird I mean Jessica Alba looks like a white chick in Fantastic Four

like if you put in weird like contacts in someone's eyes it can really mess with them people with dark eyes should not have blue contact lenses never ever works the reason why I love

Santa Tucci in Spotlight and I think it's kind of like the Ur-Tucci performance, is that I think it uses the audience's relationship with Tucci in a really, really smart way. In that we're used to, like, Tucci comes in, he's a supporting actor, he's a grump,

he's gonna throw out a lot of real zingers, he's gonna be really sharp, and he kind of hates everyone around him. For reasons that are unexplained. This guy's just got a chip on his shoulder. And I think Spotlight is sort of like reveals, unfolds that like oh this guy's talking like a Stanley Tucci character because he's learned to not

trust anyone in the world. At first everyone's just like ow he's a bit of a character. When he's being spoken of. And then you realize like no this guy has to keep all his cards close to his chest. He can't trust anybody. That's a movie that does a really good job at a casting level. How many times have you seen Stanley Tucci play the smartest character in a movie?

So many times. And that plays into that character so well. But goes beyond it. Right. And Keaton is sort of like the everyman who's going to really stress himself out to the brink to really get this thing right. And Slattery's going to be the guy who's a little too comfortable in his position. He's great too. Everyone's great. It's the best top to bottom cast. Crudup's a little too comfortable in his position he's great too everyone's great

it's the best top to bottom cast Crudup's a little too slick you can't really trust him it's like it's so well cast

Crudup yeah great all great performers and all the people who play the survivors are great Michael Cyril Crichton

who plays the one that Rich McAllen meets up with every two line performance in the film is perfect fucking Richard Jenkins on the phone is great

the people who play the various higher ups. Fucking Richard Jenkins on the phone is great. Oh, God. You know, the people who play like the various higher ups. You know, Len Cariou is great. He is. Wasn't part of the SAG ensemble as laid out. You got to have your single title card, right? It's the weird SAG rule. It is. Let me see the rest of my nominees here.

Mike Rylance, Birds of Spies. I mean, just a great performance from a great actor. That's my winner. I think that's maybe the performance of the year. You just want him to read some poetry from that podium like he does at the Tony ceremony. I love it when he wins an award for sure, but I mean go on.

Tom Noonan and Anomalisa. The central gimmick of that film is that the lead character, everyone looks and sounds exactly the same to him until he meets Lisa. All my favorite parts of Anomalisa are because of Tom Noonan, I feel like. Well, he's got this really impossible needle to thread, which is play a hundred different characters who all sound exactly the same, but through performance all come off as different people. Yeah.

Because the idea is that they're all blending together for him, so he can't modify his voice at all. Yeah. But they all have to have their own agency their own personality their own different speaking rhythms you know he is also the movie's best tie-in to synecdoche new york because he plays the kind of because in synecdoche new york he's also that kind of like quietly sort of he's threatening philip seymour hoffman just by his mere presence there he's creepy despite seeming really kind and kind-threatening. And kind of boring. Yes, and really boring. I just saw his X-Files episode very recently. Oh, that's a great episode.

It's maybe my favorite X-Files episode after now watching it again. He's so creepy. And it reminded me that for a while he would only play killers and sort of after Manhunter. He played a lot after Manhunter. Yeah. He's so good in Synecdoche, New York. He would be a nominee for that year. I would nominate for that too. Do you guys want to spotlight some. Yeah. He's so good in Synecdoche, New York. He would be a nominee for that year. I would have nominated for that, too.

Do you guys want to spotlight some? Yeah. Well, let's talk about Nicholas Holt, because you guys seem to really like Nicholas Holt. He would be right behind my list. I love that character, and I do not like Nicholas Holt. Until Mad Max, I had never been a fan of him. It's his best performance. I had, because I liked him in Skins so much.

Yeah, I hate him in Skins. Well, you hate the character in Skinsins because he's such a hateable character. It's very true. No, I think he's so, I think he's asked to play such a big character and asking somebody, I think, that young

and maybe that not super experienced to play a character that big is sometimes a recipe for disaster. Agreed. But, like, he nails it. All that, you know,

what a lovely day, like, witness me, all that stuff fits so perfectly on him because he plays it with that air of vulnerability that he's sort of the littlest war boy almost where he's just got the blood bag hooked up and he's on his way out, but man, he's going to really try for it.

I think his big scene is the one with Riley Coe where he shows her the tumors. That's a good scene. He shows her his friends or his brothers. I forget what they're called. Something. He definitely calls himself. He's drawing the faces on. When you said how dangerous

it could be for a young actor to be asked to give that big of a character performance see Dane DeHaan in The Amazing Spider-Man 2. Who I love but yeah. Yeah I love him too. That performance is like

It's tough. Bad on everyone. Yeah. Not his fault. It's everyone's fault. It's America's fault for letting that happen. We all took a hit for that. So I left off Sylvester Stallone in Creed.

Yeah. And he was like my six. I mean, it just missed the cusp for me. He's great in it. And I was very resistant to not only Creed. The myth-making around that. But Stallone, too, where I was just like, okay, let's all calm down. I know he was everybody's favorite

when they were five or whatever but like and then I saw the movie and it's just like nope he really does it. He really pulls it together. He uses his own history really well. He uses the character's history. Yeah. He uses his weird way of speaking to his advantage. He uses his limited sort of

toolbox. Yeah exactly. To an advantage that he doesn't usually have. I think he's very well directed. I think Coogler helps to reign him in at all times, which is exactly what he needs. Because it's funnier when he's delivering all

these lines. We gotta catch chicken. Oh, chicken's faster than they used to be. When he's just kind of mumbling to himself and puttering around., like, he feels so real. Like, talk about the most cartoonish character in Hollywood. He fought robots. There's been six Rockies.

Yeah, exactly. He had a robot servant. Right. And yet he feels like a real guy who just kind of, like, walks in, like, from the basement. He's like, oh. Fought roaring 20s gangsters in Oscar. Yeah. Yeah, that's all the same character.

Oscar's part of the Rockyverse. Yes. The moment for me in that performance is the scene where he gets the diagnosis and the power to that is that he like,

he's just like, he doesn't, he goes out of his way to not make it an Oscar scene. Right. You know? Yeah. Like he doesn't hit

any of the notes that would showcase it. So why didn't you nominate him yet? Well, so Joe. You just want to be like, it's time to union.

Yeah, I mean, I did have enough weirdo Griffin pics that it was hard for me to like, I didn't want to lose any of the notes that would showcase it. So why didn't you nominate him yet? Well, so Joe... You just want to be like, it can't be you, it can't be me. Yeah, I mean, I did have enough weirdo Griffin pics that it was hard for me to like, I didn't want to lose any of my guys. I understand. But I also, Joe,

as you said that like, he was everyone's favorite actor when they were five, I have specifically disliked Sylvester Stallone Really? His entire life. I love the original Rocky.

Uh-huh. There are performances I like, but I just, there's something about him that always kind of rubs me the wrong way. And so he totally disarmed me with this performance, but I just, there's something about him that always kind of rubs me the wrong way. And so he totally disarmed me with this performance.

But I also, I think there is just a little bit of baggage. I'm not holding against him, but when it came down to him or like Noonan, who I felt like was not being, you know,

heralded by anyone else, he just made the loss. Yeah. Yeah. There's a tendency to like, well, the Oscars nominated, he's going to win an Oscar.

What does he need my help for? Exactly. I did feel like that selfishly. Like, you know, like, well, yeah Oscars nominated. He's going to win an Oscar. What does he need my help for? Exactly. On my little podcast. I didn't feel like that selfishly. Yeah. Like, you know, like, well, yeah, I'm going to fit my guys in who need it. I'll take care of my guys. You take care of your guys. Exactly.

Right. What else did I put down here? Did you say what your winner would be? Holt would be my winner. Holt would be your great winner. Joe's so cool. Love him in that movie. That's what I want to do.

But Kyle Chandler would give a lot of chase. Oh, he's great. Kyle Chandler and Carol. winner. Joe's so cool. Love him in that movie. That's what I want to do. But Kyle Chandler would give a lot of chase. Oh, he's great in Carol. We didn't talk. He's so good in that movie. Another one where it's just sort of, that's a character you're not supposed to like. Like, I was very surprised that I ended up being even a little bit sympathetic to Harge. First of all, his name is Harge. His name is Harge.

What a great name. Everyone's name in that fucking movie. Oh, my God. He deserves an nomination for the name alone Harge. Everyone's name in that fucking movie. Oh my god. He deserves an nomination for the name alone. But he really, that scene with him and Paulson at the doorway of where, the one where it's in the trailer and she's like, I can't help you with that. But him leading up to that, it's just sort of like, there are no true villains in this except for society. Let's all agree. Agreed.

Emery Cohen in Brooklyn, you just like that performance? It's funny. I was the one who really liked him in Place Beyond the Pines, and everybody was just like, ah. But I think there's a little bit of the parts of Brooklyn that I don't like are the parts where it seems like him and his Italian family and his little precocious little brother all seemed a little cartoony for me, and he never quite sold me on being this sort of like new york city dream

boat for her i did uh i'm i am not crazy about that movie i have my uh problems with it yeah but um i just think that's a real star performance it's a little cartoon it's a little large but i just think he's uh so so charming in it he's i don't want to give an oscar just for charm but you know domo glee, an actor I usually adore. I feel like that movie, and this is my main problem with it, I feel like that movie really grinds to a halt when it goes back to Ireland because I don't think he provides the same sort of chemistry.

I understand that the whole point is there's supposed to be contrast between the two guys, but for me, it's not even a competition. So when she goes to Ireland, I go, we'll just get back to Emery Cohen, obviously. But that performance really, like, Donald Gleeson's performance really, I almost knocked over my water bottle, underlined for me how strong Emery Cohen was

and how tricky it is to actually pull off something that looks that seamless if you're doing it correctly. My winner would be Michael Shannon for The Night Before. Which I haven't seen, so I can't speak to Michael Shannon. Also haven't seen. It's my favorite performance of the year. What kind of a character does he play? So he's totally hidden from the marketing.

He plays a drug dealer that at the beginning of the film they go to pick up weed from and they keep on losing their weed. So they come across him like four or five times in the movie. He's premium rushing them? Well, he essentially should have been nominated for that. And he should have been nominated at 99 Homes

which is great this year. So I'm sort of combining the two performances. I generally don't like him, although I would have nominated him for The Runaways, which nobody saw. I also would have nominated him for that. I would nominate him almost every year for whatever he was in. Yeah, he's good. But they totally hit this for the marketing. But the main sort of like plot gimmick of the night before is that Michael Shannon functions as like a Christmas story. Yeah.

Where every time he sees them, he gives them weed that goes into Christmas past, Christmas present, Christmas future. But he just takes that like insane Michael Shannon energy that sometimes can be overboard if it's not in the right film. Or sometimes it's something like Premium Rush can be so much fun because he's not holding anything back and dials it way down. Interesting. Totally bottles it. He's totally sedated but terrifying

just because you can't figure out what the fuck is up with this guy. And I won't spoil it, but he's got a monologue at the end of the film that's my favorite piece. You're selling me on seeing this movie, Griffin. It's great. It's a great performance. It shows up on HBO. Yeah, the movie is aggressively okay, but he's phenomenal in it.

And it's my favorite performance of the year, period, because I am a maniac. Ben, any thoughts? I thought Stallone was cool. Stallone was cool. Adam Driver's really good in While We're Young. Agreed, 100%. Hate that movie.

Love Adam Driver. Another one where he should just be an easy villain, but by the end of the movie you're like, even though this guy has kind of been the problem, he's generated all of the tension in this movie, a lot of the tension in this movie. I get where he's coming from. He's got such a great energy as an actor. Yeah, he does.

It's like, he's playing someone who's inauthentic and then you realize, no, this person isn't inauthentic. He's just like a different kind of authentic. He doesn't get that what he's doing is inauthentic. I'm not sure Noah Baumbach agrees with you, but I think you're right. I think Noah Baumbach agrees with you, but I think you're right. I think Noah Baumbach agrees.

Best actress. Yes. I think this is the category where we're going to have some overlap. Possibly. My nominees are Charlotte Rampling for 45 years, choosing to disregard recent comments she made to the press

and just judge her based on her performance. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Rinko Kikuchi, Kimiko the Treasure Hunter, Nina Haas for Phoenix, Cate Blanchett for Carol, and Rooney Mara for Carol. Joe.

All right. I literally wrote down six, so I'm making this on the fly. Okay, wow. It's a squeaker. It is a squeaker. Cate Blanchett for Carol. Wow.

Blythe Danner for I'll See You in My Dreams. Good one. Brie Larson for Room. Rooney Mara for Carol. And Charlotte Rampling for 45 Years. So we got some overlap. I almost want to just drop Cate Blanchett. Just for fun.

I almost did, actually. She wasn't your favorite. I've wavered on this. Anyway. Juliette Binoche for Clouds of Silsbury. There you go. Nina Haas for Fina. Hey, actually. She wasn't your five? I've wavered on this. Anyway, Juliette Binoche for Clouds of Silsbury. Nina Haas for Fina. Hey, now. Rooney Marr for Carol. Hey, now.

Charlotte Rampling for 45 Years. And Kobe Smulders for Results. Oh! There's the Sims pick. Such a good performance. No one's talking about it. I forgot to mention it, but Corrigan would be like my seven

I think for supporting actor. For results. He's great in results. I think Guy Pearce is fantastic in results. I do too. I think the whole cast

is great. That was like one of the little movies I saw right at the beginning of 2015 that just never left me and after a while I was like you know what

that wasn't just like a shitty little indie movie like that was one of the best movies I saw all year. Agreed. My pick who was just outside best actress for me and falls into a similar area was Alison Brie for Sleeping With Other People. She's great in that movie. It's kind of a good movie.

I liked it a lot. It's kind of a good movie, and she's great in it. Yeah. I'd like to see her make a better movie. I would agree. You know, Leslie Hedlund. I think that's a good movie, but I'd like to see her. It wasn't. I would agree. You know, Leslie Hedlund. And I think that's a good movie. But, you know, I'd like to see her.

It wasn't. I thought Bachelorette was a great movie. I thought this was a little bit of a step down. But, like, different enough that I was like, you're not just trying to copy yourself and that's cool. I keep feeling like she's holding back a little something. You think so? Leslie Hedlund. Dunst would have made my top five actresses that year, by the way, for Bachelorette.

Great in that. She's so good. Okay. So let's go over these. I almost had Nina Haas, by the way. She was the one I dropped at the last second because you mentioned her. So I was like, we'll get to talk about it. She's so fucking good. She's so good. Okay, so let's go over these. I almost had Nina Haas, by the way. She was the one I dropped at the last second because you mentioned her, so I was like, we'll get to talk about her. She's so fucking good. She's so good. But we already had, we all agreed on two out of the five.

Right. Then we overlapped on Blanchett. Well, yeah, all of us were on the same page as Mara and Rambling. Yes, Blanchett. We agreed on Blanchett. David, you and I agreed on Nina Haas. Right. Is there another one?

No. I think, yeah, but there's a lot of coverage on this one. There's a lot of coverage. And the thing is there are also like 10 more great performances out there. It was a really strong, what's her name for a Thai every teenage girl? She was great. Charlie's Theron. Kristen Wiig, by the way, you

highlighted her. Oh, yeah. I do agree that that's a good performance. That movie, for some reason, didn't click for me. Oh, that's interesting. Wiig plays that role good performance. That movie, for some reason, didn't click for me. Oh, that's interesting. Wig plays that role so much, the sort of cold, supporting character in an indie film. Yeah.

But that was not that sort of phone-in performance that I think she does all the time. No, she really nailed it, I thought. Yeah, that was like a scary, kind of sad- She walked right to the edge on that one. ... character, totally. Yeah. Anyway. And Belle Pally's really good. Emily Blunt Sicario would on that one. Full character, totally. Yeah. Anyway. And Belle Pally's really good.

Emily Blunt and Sicario would be right outside there for me, too. Yeah, me too. Blunt's good. I really loved Greta Gerwig and Lola Kirk in Mistress America. I did, too. Agreed 100%. I loved Charlize Theron in Mad Max. Agreed 100%.

I loved Kiki Rodriguez in Tangerine. Agreed. It was a very strong year for Sicario. I loved Teyana Paris in Chirac. Oh, yes. Yes, and you know what? Chirac. I loved Daisy Ridley, and you know what? Chirac. I loved Daisy Ridley in Star Wars The Force Awakens.

Cool movie. Lily Tomlin and Grandma. It was a very strong year. Yeah, don't like Grandma. Yes, Lily Tomlin. Love her in that movie. I think she's very good. I think it's a phenomenal performance.

You know, I kind of liked Meryl Streep in Ricky and the Flash. I did too. I still haven't seen it. It's not a great movie, but it's pretty good. I like that movie. So can I stick up for Blythe Danner a second here? Yeah, please. That's my outlier.

Did you guys see that movie? I did not. I did. It's a great movie. I liked it a lot. Yes. And I think she is, she would have been my Lily Tomlin Golden Globe nominee for this year. I thought she was doing that kind of late in life.

She's at sort of her wit's end. She's just at the beginning of the movie, her dog dies, and she's sort of all alone. And she has these really interesting relationships with Sam Elliott and with Martin Starr. And it's such a, like, one of those sort of, like, sensitive, sort of well-observed little indie movies about, you know, people you wouldn't normally see movies about

because it's just, you know, she's an older lady. It's great. Can I spotlight, even though he didn't make my list Sam Elliott has stellar fucking what a good year had a great year. I think we've talked about I talked to Katie. I think we've talked on Twitter gets MVP for the breath of the word. You've got grandma. You're a big

fan of his voice performance in the good dinosaur. I think the only good voice performance in that film. I think he's excellent in that. Yeah he's fine. I think he's excellent. I think he's given a fucking Toyota ad performance or whatever. I don't know what ad it is that he does. I think it's great. I mean, he's got a great voice.

He's got a great voice. I'm also just like, oh, yeah, he should be a T-Rex. Like, he gets bonus points just for he's a T-Rex and the teeth overlap. He showed up to Videology and did a guest round one time when none of us were there. What was the best vocal performance of the year? You're not allowed to say Phyllis Smith in Inside Out. Why? Why not?

Because that's the obvious answer. That's the obvious answer? I just want to see a government. Noonan and Amelie. Yeah, you already had that one.

What are some vocal performances everyone liked? The entire Inside Out cast is great. Totally. Polar's amazing. No, I agree.

I agree. Inside Out. Obviously Kevin James and Hotel Transylvania. I feel like you want to say something. Ben with Sean Paddington. Oh, yeah.

So good. Yes, I wasn't thinking of it because it's a live-action movie, but I agree 100%. Yep, that's good. Better than anything I could come up with. Yes, that's a great, great choice, David. You know who was very disappointing as a vocal performance? Sandra Bullock in Minions.

Didn't see it. Did not see Minions yet. I love her. She cannot. That's not a voice character she can pull off. Bob crushed it, though. Didn't see it. Did not see Minions yet. I love her. She cannot that's not a voice character she can pull off. Bob crushed it though. You have to admit

Bob was so good in Minions. Of course. So much better than those other two jokes. Another good vocal performance James Spader in Age of Ultron. Yes. Yes sir.

Absolutely. Anyway. Ben Schwartz and who else? Bill Hader else Bill Hader BB-8 yeah that's right

can I spotlight another thing that didn't make it in any category for me almost because it is such a true ensemble yeah there's so many good performances it was hard for me to pick

any one of them to spotlight in any of their respective categories the entire cast of Chirac is fucking unbelievable it is absolutely Angela Bassett Tiana Paris

Nick Cannon's weirdly incredible in that film yeah he's great Sammy Jackson The entire cast of Chirac is fucking unbelievable. Absolutely. Angela Bassett. Tiana Paris. Nick Cannon's weirdly incredible in that film. Yeah, he's great. Sammy Jackson. Yeah, all of them were like right outside the pipe for me. Wesley Snipes is really funny. Really funny. The sort of over-the-top stupid male performances like Wesley Snipes and what's his name? Harris.

Steve Harris from The Practice. Steve Harris are really, really funny and like an obvious but a good way. Cusack's right on the edge of working for me. I think he does. I think he improbably works in that movie. He shouldn't. He really shouldn't but he does. D.B. Sweeney's eating a big ham sandwich. Jennifer Hudson can't quite keep up

but I think everybody else is doing it. A really really good bunch of performances in that movie. Okay so let's go through the rest of these best actress picks. Yeah. I mean first of all we all just acknowledge. Yeah Rooney Moore's the of performances in that movie. Okay, so let's go through the rest of these best actress picks. Yeah. I mean, first of all, we all just acknowledge, yeah, Rooney Mara's the fucking lead of that movie. Oh, of Carol? She's 100%. Arguably over Cate Blanchett. I think she's my winner.

Yes. I think she's my winner. She's my winner. And I'm not normally a giant Rooney Mara fan. I am a giant Rooney Mara fan. I am too. I am 72. I love that Soderbergh movie she made. Side effects. Great film.

She's a four-time nominee for me. Yeah, I would have nominated her for side effects as well. Dragon Tattoo, side effects, this and what? You got to guess. Okay. It's a supporting actress nomination. Social Network? Yeah.

Yeah? Oh, yeah. Just on the edge of Cameo, but yeah, yeah, yeah. She's fucking great in that movie. I mean, I'd nominate her for Pan. That joke doesn't even work. That joke doesn't even work that joke doesn't even work because i've already done that category and also have you seen pan no i saw the trailer she

looked good she's not great in pan really no i love runy mara but that is no no good uh i love runy mara because i love scared birds uh she looks like a bird that's terrified that her eggs are gonna be stolen at any moment i saw her her at a Q&A for Side Effects where it was her and Soderbergh and Jude Law and the screenwriter. And every time she was asked a question, she would curl up in her seat and turn over

to either Jude Law or Soderbergh and whisper to them and they'd be like, so what Rooney's trying to say. Love it. Good lord. She's an odd one. She is. It's a odd one. She is. It's a great performance. It's a perfect use of her. My winner, it's almost like a coin toss between her and Nina Haas.

Yeah. Haas is amazing. Phoenix is a phenomenal movie. If people haven't seen Phoenix, I believe it's on Netflix. It is on Netflix. That's what I thought. It's an easy to watch.

It's a 90-minute, tense, psychological, kind of thriller. Kind of noir-y. Kind of noir-y movie. It's cocky. If someone tells-y movie. Hitchcockian. If someone tells you it's a Holocaust movie, don't go in thinking, oh, I'm going to be really just bummed out. The Holocaust is over by the time this starts, you guys. Guys, it's over.

I'll say this as a disclaimer, too. My 17-year-old sister was sick recently and asked for a movie recommendation to watch. I said, you should watch Phoenix because she likes sort of Hitchcock-y stuff like that. And she's sick, so her attention is a little shot, whatever. 40 minutes in, she was like, this is really slow. And I was like, give it 10 more minutes. The movie takes a long time to set up. It's intriguing, but if you're not really on board with it, you might be going like, is this going to meander?

Once it clicks into place, the second half of the film is just like a fucking freight train. You're just gripping your hands into your legs. You know, it's like, ah. And I almost don't want to talk about a performance too much because I want people who are listening to this right now to watch it going in. One of those things, last scene. But it's, yes.

We can't talk about it. The last scene's incredible, but it's also a performance where she is, without spoiling anything, having to sort of play people playing people. Yeah. So it's like a performance about performances. Yep.

And it's just, yeah, fascinating. I want to see her in a Michael Haneke movie tomorrow. Yes. Like, I want it to happen in me. Oh, hello. Yeah. All right. So we've done actress.

Yeah. I love Binoche in Clouds of Silsomarie. I imagine you guys like Binoche. Binoche is great. Binoche is great. When's Binoche bad? Pretty much never. Pretty much never.

Never. I guess I go, eh. It's funny to think back on how much i resented that chuckalot nomination now that i like absolutely love her but she shouldn't have been nominated but she's pretty good at oh yeah yeah like that like that whole thing is a is a mystery how that i mean it's not a mystery we all know how but like um she should be nominated for godzilla instead and i was and then i was like riding hard for zellweger that year for nurse betty it's such an odd thing to think of now in 2016 like she's she's good she's great in Gozo. Riding hard for Zellweger that year for Nurse Betty. It's such an odd thing to think of now in 2016.

She's good in Nurse Betty. She's great. Without opening up a big can of worms, I do think we have to talk about Rambling for just a second. And not talk about the controversy. Frolin Rambling? Yes. Yes. Well, Frolin Rambling. I think it now has become difficult to stand up for that performance because she just stuck her foot so hard in her mouth.

Oh, whatever. The performance is the performance, though. I agree, and I also think in a way, that performance is like a masterclass in what screen acting is. Yeah. Because it's all like reactions, it's all watching her think. Watching her in a scene where she's not

talking is the best screen watching in a movie this year. Yes, agreed. 100%. I'd maybe pick Nina Haas as my one. I don't I wish we all agreed on something. Rudy Mara's right there. I don't know. I could go either way. Rampling's amazing in 45 years.

She lives in France. They say a lot over here. I was going to say, it's that Streep thing the other day where she's like, we're all African in the end. That's just a dumb thing that actors say. People just shouldn't be talking about this. They always talk about how the human experience is one and whatever. Like, that's just like a thing.

Yeah. As someone who wrote the famous term paper, Black and Blackface, my lesson I've learned is if you're a white, maybe you can just have an opinion and not have to talk about it in interviews other than saying, yeah, we should be more diverse. We don't want to read into people's psychological, you know, we don't know states too much. But you can definitely imagine like Charlotte Rampling, someone who's been kind of roundly outside

Hollywood her entire career. Finally, like, gives this, like, it's a dynamic performance. Finally gets a nomination. In this fucking thrillingly depressing and scary and quiet little movie. Right. And she gets her nomination, right. And all anybody talks about.

Yeah, and then it's like, like a minute after the nomination comes out. She sits down in an interview and it's like, well, what do you think? But like, I can't really defend her because she's racist against white people. It's a stupid, dumb thing to say. I think she, like a six-year-old,

was like, you're taking this away from me. I want this Oscar. Right. Annoying that she had to say that. It's a reminder of how incredibly sheltered a lot of actors really are. Yeah, and also Francis Kooky. Yep.

As we said. Okay, best actor. Actor. Ben, any thoughts on actress? I mean, no, I didn't see any of these movies. I don't know. Don't be sorry. Actor.

Paul Dano, Love and Mercy. All right. Andrew Garfield, 99 Homes. Tom Hanks, Bridge of Spies. Michael B. Jordan, Creed. Ian McKellen, Mr. Homes. Ah. That's interesting.

Joseph. All right. This is a weird category, we should say, because one of the weakest best actor categories in years. Incredible. The Oscar nominees were kind of a disaster. I matched one of the Oscar nominees, and it's kind of amazing that I do, because it's such a weak Oscar category this year. I matched zero. I just realized years. Incredible. The Oscar nominees were kind of a disaster. I matched one of the Oscar nominees and it's kind of amazing

that I do because it's such a weak Oscar category this year. I matched zero. I just realized that. Yeah. I have Adam Driver for Hungry Hearts. Wow.

I don't know if you've seen that movie. I did not. I've heard of it. He's real good. He's real good in it. He won the Golden Lion or whatever. At Venice.

At Venice, yeah. He did. Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs. Okay. Andrew Garfield for 99 Homes. Hey now. He did. Michael Fassbender for Steve Jobs. Andrew Garfield for 99 Holes. Hey now. Michael B. Jordan for Creed. Hey now. And Geza Roerig for Son of Saul.

David. Michael B. Jordan for Creed. Three out of three. Samuel L. Jackson for The Hateful Eight. Josh Lucas for The Mend. Right. Peter Sarsgaard for The Hateful Eight. Cool. Josh Lucas for The Mend. Right. Peter Sarsgaard for Experimenter. Wow.

And Jason Segel for The End of the Tour. He was one of my runners-up. Can't believe he didn't get more traction this year. He should have. I think it was Category Confusion fucked him over. I think it's true. Paul Tano, too. Yep.

Now, David, I asked you a couple weeks ago what your five was, and Experimenter was not in there. Have you watched it that too. Yep. Now, David, I asked you a couple weeks ago what your five was, and Experimenter was not in there. Have you watched it that recently? No. Experimenter comes in and out. Because I think, did I have Fassbender there? Yeah, probably.

Yeah. Experimenter sort of comes in and out. I think Fassbender's wonderful in Steve Jobs, and he'd be a worthy winner for me almost. But I loved Experimenter. I saw it a while ago. I should see that. I didn't see it.

It's the movie about Stanley Milgram. It's a biopic. It's a Michael Almey-Yerder movie. I don't know how you say his name. This guy did Hamlet, right? Ethan Hawke Hamlet? Yeah. And a bunch of other things that I and no one else have ever seen.

But it is all on Sarsgaard, that movie. Like, because he has to talk to the camera over and over again. He has to do all these weird things. It's like he's presenting a biopic as a university lecture. It shouldn't work. There's a scene where he's walking down. No, here. Well, you know, the Milgram experiment involves like buzzing noises, you know, because it's like making people get electric shocks.

I keep getting that movie confused with Stanford Prison Experiment for that very reason. And there's one scene early on. The movie is so good. You guys should really see it. I do want to see it. There's one scene early on where he's meeting Winona Ryder who plays his eventual wife at a party.

Love it. After doing the first buzzer experiment. And someone buzzes into the apartment like the intercom buzzes for a second. And Sarsgaard just breaks and just goes like, huh? And looks over his shoulder. And that's the kind of movie this is. He walks down the corridor delivering whole

monologues to you about what's happening in his life while an elephant walks behind him for no reason in a hallway. And that's never explained. Sarsgaard rules. Near the end of his life, because the movie charts his whole life, he walks up to a hospital desk and says something, and the lady's kind of rude to him, and he just goes, like, charming. Or, like, right to the camera.

It shouldn't work. Sarsgaard is, like, one of the most transfixing actors. Speaking of which camera. It shouldn't work. Sarsgaard is like one of the most transfixing actors. Can we get a ruling on Sarsgaard in Black Mass? I was going to say, he gave two of my favorite performances in terrible movies this year. I think it works. I think it's the only performance that works in that movie, really. I think he's great in

Pawn Sacrifice. I was just about to bring up Pawn Sacrifice. Two movies I don't like. I thought he killed it in both of them. You know who's not making my best actor list is Tobey Maguire for Pond Sacrifice. Two movies I don't like. We saw that together. I thought you killed it in both of them. Yeah. You know who's not making my best actor list is Tobey Maguire for Pond Sacrifice. Tough to be great in a bad film, though. And Peter Sarsgaard pulled it off twice this year. Yeah. I need to watch Experimenter.

I never saw Black Man. I didn't want to do that to myself. Really? Good for you. Well, watch those five minutes that Peter Sarsgaard's in. I'd say it's the only part worth watching. Anyway, but I think Fassbender's amazing in Steve Jobs. I should just watch Steve Jobs again again i've only seen it twice he's so comfortable with all of jobs's bad parts and yet

and i i think jesse eisenberg's very good in the social network but i think one of the things that i didn't love about the social network was the way aaron sorkin was just sort of like so incredibly judgy of his characters in that movie and Zuckerberg in particular. And I think Sorkin's better at that in Steve Jobs of he shows the bad parts of Jobs but doesn't really try and like be like it's because he's into computers that he has no soul. And I think Fassbender is probably better than Eisenberg at not judging his Steve Jobs, his character, for his sort of failings and shortcomings. His foibles. His foibles.

Let's talk about Jordan because he's the one we all agreed on. He's my number one. He's my number one, too. I'm my winner. I walked out of the theater going, oh, this guy's going to win Best Actor. I thought he was going to just sweep the whole season. He should be days away from winning Best Actor. It's insane. I a it's a star making performance b it's a full course meal he does everything you want out of an actor in a leading role yeah he holds the screen he plays

every possible emotion i mean people fucking talk about oh my god leo was out in the cold he ate a liver michael p jordan got knocked out six times filming this movie and isn't going around patting himself on the backboard. It's like, oh, that's part of the job. Do you know how many times I've seen a movie where the main character is good at something and then goes and tries to smooth on a girl or whatever and I find him completely insufferable? Yeah. And he should, like, that's by all reasons, he should come

off that way in Creed and he totally doesn't. He's so good in those scenes with Tessa Thompson. Every scene's a minor miracle. Oh man, their first date scene. Right? Incredible. It's really good. That's where the movie really clicks.

He should be being a smoothie. He should be annoying the shit out of me. Or being kind of annoyingly awkward or whatever. He's neither. He's a regular person. Whiplash comes to mind in that regard. Whiplash is such an arch movie. And those scenes are the most arch scenes,

right? Where they're, they're like, it's like almost like they're getting ready to pull the rug out from under you. And like, yeah, those scenes are. Who's the girl?

The girl's kind of. Melissa Benoist, who's Supergirl now. I think it's very good in that film. Yeah. Oh yeah. Um, there is,

uh, it's been talked about a lot from a filmmaking perspective. The first main fight in, uh, Creed is a qualifying fight. It's all done in one continuous shot without edits. It's real good. People talk a lot perspective, the first main fight in Creed, his qualifying fight, it's all done in one continuous shot without edits. People talk a lot about,

oh, as a director, that's crazy to plan that out. And as a cinematographer, the camera operator, to move around the actors like that. As an actor, that's an insane feat. Because he has to look like

he's really boxing. The punches have to look like they're really landing, which is why he got knocked out a bunch of times filming that. But also, the choreography has to be really sharp and really precise because not only does he have to look like they're really landing, which is why he got knocked out a bunch of times filming that. Right. But also the choreography has to be really sharp and really precise because not only does he have to hit the beats they need for the fight, but he has to move out of the way of the camera. Yeah. So like in my small role on the new HBO series, Vinyl now is streaming on HBO Go and such platforms.

HBO Now as well probably. Yes. They do a lot of like a steadicam long shots like that. And it's really difficult in a way I never understood before having to do that because what will happen is if there's like a steadicam shot with eight characters and they go acting, oh, just be present. Listen, stay in the moment. You're doing

your scene, you hit your line, and then you have to take four steps back to let the camera come through. And then you have to land back in the position so that geographically you are where you were established previously. You gotta like step out, step in, step out, step in. You have to be super technical and like in it.

The fact that he pulls off that scene is insane and it looks like a real fight the entire time. Yeah. And it goes from his nerves before the fight to his like elation after the fight. Yeah. Continuous. I mean, that alone, I feel like that's an Oscar. Yeah.

He's a star. He's the best. You know, when people talk about the Oscar so white thing, that's the one that's sort of inarguably egregious. Absolutely. People would go, oh, well, Sarah Compton didn't deserve to be nominated for Best Picture. Okay, that's an argument you can make. I think he deserved it over other things that were nominated, but it wouldn't have made my 10. Correct.

Michael B. Jordan, it's insanity for him to not get nominated. Yep. Especially in a big hit film. We didn't overlap on anything else, right? All three of us. No, you and I had Garfield. Oh, yeah. We both had Garfield.

I really liked him in that movie. So, I was sort of bummed that Michael Shannon was the one getting the awards attention for that. He got a lot of those precursor nominations for that. I thought Garfield was... This is a movie I saw a long time ago. I saw it at two Toronto film festivals ago. So, it's not super fresh in my memory. Yeah.

But he's, it's, I think it's, I always think of the accent, which is like kind of a dumb first compliment for someone. But like he's one of those rare not American actors who can hit an American accent without making me feel like I'm going crazy. Like Donald Gleeson's really good, but I hate his American accent. Like it's my least favorite thing about him. And I think Garfield really nails it. I think, you know, he's a wiry guy. Yeah. You know, he's pretty slim.

He's got a high-pitched voice. He's playing in this a real, like, blue-collar. What a voice that guy has. But he's, like, a construction worker, that guy has but he's like a you know construction worker like contractor guy in like florida and you could see a lot of other actors like him especially like a guy who's sort of of like you know posh british background or whatever really trying to like up the machismo in a way to like be like i gotta be like a guy's guy yeah and he gets that across in a way where you're like. Doesn't feel forced. Oh, but this is what a real guy is like who works construction, not like a movie like manufacturing of that type of like what it is.

And he doesn't play up his character sort of like saintly working classness either. Like you see why he like falls down this rabbit hole of working for this guy who's flipping homes and who's screwing people out of the mortgages. And even little details like his cigarette work in that movie is unbelievable. Underrated aspect. and even little details like his cigarette work in that movie is unbelievable. Underrated aspects.

The way he keeps the thing he does with his mouth to keep the cigarette in there while he's working is so specific where it's like oh he needs to have

a tight grip on that because he's working machinery and shit. Great performance. Ian McKellen in Mr. Holmes a movie I think is fine. I thought it was

pretty underwhelming. But I think it's a pretty great lifetime achievement Oscar. He has to play his own age and he plays like 95 in the film as well. And best puttering of the year. He wins my putters and murmurs award which last year would have gone

to Timothy Spall for Mr. Turner. So good. If you have an old like a veteran British character actor playing a film in which they are the title character with Mr. before their last name and they putter and murmur, I will give you a nomination.

He's great. He would almost be my winner but I probably want to go with Michael B. Jordan. Tom Hanks Bridge of Spies just reminds us why he's a movie star. Very so. He's wonderful. An effortless performance that could only be done by someone who is that comfortable in their skin, knows their power, doesn't push it too hard. And just his work on having a head cold in the latter half of the film is unbelievable.

It's true. Because you keep on forgetting. He's getting into these long monologues where you're so caught up in what he's saying. And you're like, is he just tired this day? And then he takes out the tissue. It's like, right, no, he's just got a little bit of a cold. It's one of those great ways of like ramping up tension in something without having to like put more stakes on the outcome.

It's just sort of like, oh, no. He's also just like, oh, he's so miserable. Just want to get home. Want to get back into bed. Yeah. Paul Dana, Love and Mercy. Great performance. I think he's very good at that.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I think he also got fucked over by category placement yeah other ones you guys want to spotlight Lucas is great in The Mend

you guys should all watch The Mend it's on Netflix I think you just watched it yeah I saw I just saw it recently and Lucas

Lucas is an actor who I'm rooting for me too that's a movie that's a little tough for me I think movies that sort of

really try and sort of revel in check out this jerk yeah exactly look at this jerk I really root for this jerk. Root for this jerk movies are not my favorite. And yet.

I waver on them, and yet I rooted for that jerk in The Mend. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You get him. What was last year's Alex Ross Perry movie? That wasn't Alex... Listen Up, Philip. Oh, but your last year was Listen Up, Philip.

There was another root for this jerk kind of movie. That one was more interesting because that one... What I liked about Listen Up, Philip... We should probably move on. The fact that it cuts... I like that movie, too. The cut's in the middle to Elizabeth Lawson. That's the key to the entire movie. Oh one was more interesting because that one what I liked about, listen up Philip we should probably move on. The fact that it cuts in the middle to Elizabeth Moss. That's the key to the entire film. Oh right, okay. The key to the entire film.

And then Jason Segel's incredible in the end of the tour. It's a lead performance. Everyone shut up. I also have not seen that yet. I need to see that. Also, Seek Out Hungry Hearts, I'm telling you. Adam Driver is very, very good. He plays a dad, recently married new dad whose wife is sort of tumbling down this rabbit hole

of not trusting the outside world and Western medicine and baby food companies. So like all of a sudden it's just like, what is she feeding their kid? And he's got to figure out a way to deal with it.

I believe that's on Netflix as well, streaming right now. I think you are correct. Ben was champing at the bit. You look like you have something to say. Oh, well, I just wanted to add that I really kind of hope that DiCaprio doesn't win.

Oh, me too. I'm so excited to watch his face. It'd be really funny. It'd be really funny. He's totally going to win, but it'd be really funny. I mean, it's almost rigged when you look at the nominations.

It's so clearly pointing to him. Especially, we just pointed out so many good contenders some of whom were in big films that got nominated in other categories and it feels like they were just like, let's nominate four patsies so that we can like... None of the other nominees are bad, but none of them have what it takes to win. Right. DiCaprio's the only one who has a shot.

Yeah. I hope he loses so hard. I think that is not a good performance. I love DiCaprio sometimes. I think he's got certain really I think that is not a good performance. I love DiCaprio sometimes. I think he's got certain really bad habits that he can go into when he's trying to prove that he's a grown-up and a tough guy and this and that. I think this is a collection of all his worst traits. Given who is nominated this year, though, I would almost be like, you know what, give it to DiCaprio,

and then we don't have to go through this whole rigmarole next time. I agree. With like, oh, will he win? What's he got to do to win? What does he have to like – what hardships does he have to go through this whole rigmarole next time. I agree. With like, oh, will he win? What's he got to do to win? What does he have to like, what hardships does he have to go through? It's a weak year. Get it over with. Rip the band-aid off. Whatever. I hate it. Best Director.

Yes. My nominees are Todd Haynes for Carol. Steven Spielberg for Bridge of Spies. George Miller for Mad Max Fury Road. Sean Baker for Tangerine Baker's a good one and you know what I wrote down something different here but I'm gonna fucking flip it around Ryan Coogler for Creed that's good ah that's also maybe a good one for me you're making me question my

picks I had put in Charlie Kaufman Duke Johnson for Anomalisa which I love yeah but but Ryan Coogler I just I think that's such an incredible calling card movie. Yeah. And an impossible task. I mean, you look at what he was trying to do, and you look at in a year where, you know, we all like The Force Awakens.

Yeah. But Creed, he pulls it off effortlessly in every box, which is like, make a film that reminds you of the original ones, charts out new territory, erases the things that people

don't want to remember from the previous, introduce a new star that you want to follow for as many films as you follow the original characters. Really unshowy, but really precise. Every shot, every cut has meaning. And just a real authenticity and a real passion.

He's great. Yeah. Todd Haynes. Oh, yeah. Do you want me to give mine? Yes. Okay. Todd Haynes. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you want me to get mine? Yes, yeah. Okay. Todd Haynes for Carol. Uh-huh.

Mia Hansen Love for Eden. Mm-hmm. Joshua Oppenheimer for The Look of Silence. Ooh. George Miller for Mad Max Fury Road. And Laszlo Nemes for Son of Saul. Okay. David.

Olivier Assayas for Clouds of Seals Maria Todd Haynes for Carol George Miller for Mad Max Mia Hansen-Love for Eden yeah

wow and Stevie Spielberg Stevie Spielberg good old Stevie Spielberg you guys yeah I feel like you guys

are very big champions of British Spies I feel like that one's hanging out in my like 20 to 30 range it's my number 3 It's my number three. It's my number seven. Very good.

But we'll get to that. Great movie. Love it. I think we take them for granted now. Oh, we do. And the film is so low key. The amount of people I see who write off is going like, oh, it's like a good dad movie.

It is. Because it's not trying to do anything flashy. It's just a good story, well told. That's another film where if you look at the blocking of every scene, every single camera movement

in that film is justified and is linked to revealing something about character or action or something like that. This is all giving me flashbacks to the year

I defended War Horse for an entire awards season. God, I loved War Horse. That was a tough position to stake out. I don't envy that. Tintin was that same year, right? It was. I was all about that Tintin. God, I loved War Horse. That was a tough position to stake out. I don't envy that. Tintin was that same year, right? It was.

I was all about that Tintin. Living that Tintin life. But let's not dwell too much on the directors because we're about to do our best picture. Yeah, I was going to say, we can talk about that within the context of Best Picture. And I think, I mean, I'm guessing here. Unless anybody has a director

who's not on their Best Picture list. Well, are we doing five or ten for picture? Kuzler would be right out of my ten. They're all in my top ten. I'd say Creed would be out of my top ten, rather. You didn't pick, I can't pronounce his last name, but the Revenants director. Oh no, I hate him. And Yari too.

You guys hate him. He is the winner. He's the winner of my 2016 Punch in the Dick Award. You have a lot of different awards, Greg. Yeah, he's my new Colin Trevorrow. If you see Mumbles and Murmurs, if my new Colin Trevorrow. If you see Mumbles and Murmurs, if you see Colin Trevorrow,

please punch him in the penis. Same to Alejandro Gonzalez in Era 2. But he's going to win. I mean,

boy, I hope not. He might win. Yeah, I think he's, I think at this point, I think we all need to start making our peace with the fact that Inyari 2 and The Revenant

are both winning. He's the Emperor's new movie, you know? It's like, that's his whole thing. It's like, oh, these famous Oceania in the desert is cold. It's about the art, the struggle.

And it's like the movie's about nothing. Both of those movies are about nothing. Birdman's about nothing. It's going to be really great when Colin Trevorrow gets pulled off of Episode 9, only to be replaced with Alejandro Gonzalez Inari 2. I am going to blow a fuse. Who do we all pick in this?

For winner? Yeah. Haynes. Todd Haynes for Carol. David. Olivier Assas. I thought we were going to all link up in this. I go George Miller. I know it's most director. It is definitely most director. But I think that's the toughest film to pull off. I almost never don't pick

my favorite movie of the year for most director. I think, you know. Are you a hardliner for that? Shouldn't split? You know, nine times out of ten. Not always. I guess that makes me a hardliner. Perhaps foreshadowing as we go on to Best Picture.

Yes. Gentlemen, are we going to do this in any sort of ranked order? I have them ranked one to ten. Do you have them ranked one to ten? I have them ranked. Okay, so let's start at 10. Okay. Number 10.

Number 10, In Jackson Heights. Creed. I was on the cusp between two films for number 10 here, and I'm going to make just a last second choice to flip one out, what I have written down here. Number 10, Mustang. Mustang's good. Mustang's real good.

Best foreign language film nominee. Number 9. Number 9, Mad Max Mustang's good. Mustang's real good. Best foreign language film nominee. Number 9. Number 9, Mad Max Fury Road. Mistress America. Phoenix. Good choice. Number 8. Mistress America.

Phoenix. Kaviko the Treasure Hunter. Nice. That's a good one. Number 7. Spotlight. Bridge of Spies. Inside Out.

Number 6. Steve Jobs. Inside Out. Anomalisa. Number 5. Room Jobs. Inside Out. Anomalisa. Number five. Room. Tangerine. Carol. Number four. Eden. Eden. Furious 7. Eden's a great movie, by the way.

We haven't talked about it. We should. Yeah, it's really good. Number three. Curious 7. Son of Saul. Mad Max Fury Road. Bridge of Spies. Number two. The Look of Silent. Carol. Tangerine. Number one. Carol. Tangerine, number one. Carol. Files of Sils Maria.

Mad Max Fury Road. There we go. That was easy for everyone to hear. It was a hurricane of titles coming at you. All of those movies are worth seeing. Yeah. We don't really disagree. David, talk to me about Eden.

We really love that movie. I still haven't seen it. Eden's incredible. Eden's like, is it three hours long? I don't think it's quite that long. Two hour, 45 minute. It doesn't feel like it, I't seen that. Eden's incredible. Eden's like a... Is it three hours long? I don't think it's quite that long. Two hour, 45 minute. Doesn't feel like it. I'll say that.

Epic about the French house music scene in the 90s. Yep. Stretches quite a long period of time. Like it's telling a long story. Very immersive. Very kind of... It brings you through that history in a way that you'll remember. Even if you were not into house music, as I wasn't really,

um, there's a, there's a great sort of like atmospheric, uh, nineties-ness to it. Absolutely. Yeah. It's,

it's about artistic expression and stasis, you know, and like how, you know, following your passions can be rewarding, but then can also be like devastating to your life in a, in a weird sort of quiet and slowly building kind of way. And this just constant wallpaper of this really fantastic music that will really sort of like, as you're going through, there's ennui and there's sort of indecisiveness, as you were saying. But it's just like this music sort of propels you from scene to scene in a way that's just-

I agree. I was so happy after seeing that movie. Everyone in it is good. Felix de Givry, who plays the lead actor, he'd be a runner up for me. Yeah, he was one of my runners up. It's Mia Huntsman Love, who's a great director. Everything she's made is worth checking out. Goodbye First Love is one of my favorites.

I got to talk to them after I saw that movie at Toronto a couple years ago, and it was one of my better experiences at that film festival. She's married to the director of your number one film. She's married to Olivier Assayas. I love both of them so much. They're a real power couple. It's great. Anyway, so guys, check out Eden.

I have no idea how. It came out. I bet you you'd probably have to pay a few bucks to rent it on Amazon or something like that. Clean her out a few bucks to rent it on Amazon or something like that. Clean her out a few hours and sit down. Quit being such a cheapskate. Pay a little bit more.

It's a good movie to be trapped within a theater. It's a good movie you don't want to be distracted from. But go on. It's all about mood and slowly building that mood. Totally. I just want to quickly, because I picked in a few categories, I just want to throw a little spotlight because it also is on Netflix and Amazon Prime, I believe. there a little spotlight because it also is on Netflix and Amazon Prime, I believe. Kimiko the Treasure Hunter, which I love.

It's a cool little movie. It's a film based on an urban legend that has existed for a long time about a Japanese woman who saw the movie Fargo and because at the beginning of the film it says based on a true story, believes that there's actually this briefcase with the money buried in the snow and goes to Minnesota to try to

find the briefcase. And it's a fascinating movie because it's like loosely based on a true story that they didn't do any research into in the same way that Fargo is loosely based on urban legends that they didn't do any research into. So it's a movie about movies and our relationship with movies. Rinko Kuchiki is one of my favorite performances of the year.

The Zellner Brothers, who I haven't seen any of their other films. I know they sort of have a solid reputation as indie brother. They're kind of the next Coen Brothers in a weird sort of way. So it's a lot of interesting layers to that movie. I love it. We didn't talk about Inside Out at all because I feel like everyone in America has talked about Inside Out.

We all like Inside Out. It's a good movie. It's a real good movie. Phoenix we talked about. I'm looking through these. Carol we all love. We're all gaga about. Yeah.

That's your winner. That's my number one. Yep. I think that as soon as I saw that movie, I was like, this is going to be very, very hard to displace as my number one. It comes together. It's got all the elements. I'll say, the reason why Mad Max is my number one,

it's the opposite thing where every time I saw it, it got better. Yeah. I saw it the first time I liked it. I saw it with you, David. You invited me to a critic screening. Correct. It's where we came up with the blank check concept. Oh, that's true. Yes. I saw it the first time I liked it. I saw it with you, David. You invited me to a critic screening. Correct. And I had- It's where we came up with the blank check concept. Oh, that's true. Yes. I came in like, I don't remember what was happening.

You came in with like, I have a sort of overarching theory of what our podcast is about. I also came in with hives. I don't remember why it was happening. Oh, no. That's right. I was itching the whole movie and my eyes were like, I had a very difficult time physically watching it the first time, the movie, and I was like, this is great, but I'm in an intense amount of discomfort. It's very intense.

It's an intense movie. And my whole body was burning. Yeah. So I saw it a second time. So all those boils on the screen were probably not doing much for you. Right. And I was like, I know I think this movie is excellent. I got to see it a second time where my body is calmed the fuck down.

And I saw it a second time and it grew for me. I think I saw it four times in theaters. Wow. I just think it's a miracle movie. It doesn't make sense that it exists. It weirdly holds up on television. I saw it on HBO in theaters. Wow. I just think it's a miracle movie. It doesn't make sense that it exists. It weirdly holds up on television. I saw it on HBO a little bit ago, and I was surprised at how much

I still was super into it. It gets deeper for me every time. Every time I watch it, when I'm more familiar with the world, I'm able to focus on other elements and just see how fully realized every single choice in that film is towards building a world

and towards sort of asking questions about the world that we live in. Yeah. Reflects the world that we live in. Also, it does a bang up job with like geography in terms of action and in terms of narrative and like where things are going. You always know exactly where you are, where the characters are, where their pursuers are, like all of that. I read an interview with him where he said because he knew how many cuts he was going

to have and how much movement he was going to have within the frames that he always, and this runs throughout the entire movie, the most important element is always dead center at the center of the frame. And if you watch it, it's like every frame is perfectly composed so that you know what your eyes are supposed to go to first.

Yeah. He's a smart guy. Tangerine, I love. I talked about the performances, but it's, for those of you who don't know, That was just outside my top ten. Also onine, I love. I talked about the performances, but it's, for those of you who don't know, it's just outside my top ten. Also on Netflix, I believe. Is on Netflix.

And it was shot entirely on an iPhone 5. Which I noticed for the entirety of the first scene and then not at all after that. Uses it so well. I would even consider putting it in my cinematography nominees over something like The Revenant that's technically so accomplished. That's the one thing I like about that movie in my cinematography nominees over something like The Revenant that's technically so accomplished. Right.

That's the one thing I like about that movie is the cinematography. But Tangerine. But it calls attention to itself in The Revenant so much. In a way that like Tangerine really just doesn't ask for that kind of applause. They make it to an aesthetic choice but also you see how the fact that they are shooting on an iPhone affects I think in a positive way the performances from all these non-professional actors. Yep. Where they're so much more comfortable on screen. They're able to get these amazing long takes where they're walking down the streets of Hollywood and no one's stopping them

because they don't have to lay out track. They don't have to block out lights. They're just following someone around with an iPhone. Yeah, it's a movie that has a sense of its city. And obviously that guerrilla filmmaking style probably helped with that. I talked to Sean Baker. Did you?

Yeah, he's a wonderful guy, and he was very interesting in terms of talking about micro-budgeting and how he feels like... I wish I could remember the exact amount of days they shot for. It's something like two weeks. And he was saying, like, micro-budget movies these days, they shoot for a week.

You can't do that. Everyone's bad the first four days. Essentially the way he put it. You need, like need this cushion because everyone sucks at acting and they don't know what to do. And then after a few days, it's fine. You're good. He had a lot

of insights. He's been doing this for a long time. Smart guy. Great movie. He also created Greg the Bunny. He did. Many years ago. He's had a weird career. But it's a phenomenal film and I think announces the arrival of like a major, major director who I think is going to do

incredible stuff going forward. But the film is about two transsexual prostitutes Two friends. in Hollywood. Not the two friends but they are two friends. One of them gets out of jail

and finds out that her boyfriend who is also her pimp has been seeing another woman and the whole movie takes place on Christmas Eve with them trying to find the woman and the pimp and make them I like that we have another

Christmas movie where you can be like, Christmas movie! Yeah. Tangerine's a Christmas movie. It goes into that great category of diehard and all the unconventional Christmas movies. And Iron Man 3, the best Christmas film. Which takes place all in one day from what I understand. God damn it. God damn it.

Love it. Love that movie. Mustang Just Made It is my 10. I previously had written down when I locked this list, like a month ago, a Shaun. Love that movie. Mustang Just Made It is my 10. I previously had written down when I locked this list like a month ago a Shaun the Sheep movie. I liked Shaun the Sheep movie. Which is an entirely silent film. And I think deserves major props for being having less dialogue than the artist did. Yeah. Because it doesn't even have intertitles.

It doesn't have a single spoken line in it. And it's just a very, very simple story that I think kind of ends up being a little profound about our places in the world. About learning to accept who you are. Yeah. And where you are rather than dreaming big. Great movie. Mustang, also phenomenal. Yeah.

I need to see that one. That would be my best foreign film winner. Animated. It would be Phoenix. Oh, yeah. That would be my number two. Mine would be Son of Saul but I think they're all up there. Animated

film for me this year that category is the most stacked. Really? You think so? Yeah because I think I mean I like Sonoma Lisa. Well yeah I had a hard time filling up my top five for that. Inside Out. I love Shaun the Sheep movie. Yeah you're a big fan of that one. Yeah. I've been very outspoken

in my support of Hotel Transylvania 2. You have. While not living up to the heights of the original. Of course, of course. Still is probably the most accomplished piece of animation this year. From an animation standpoint alone, it's the best work in the medium. I just saw When Marnie Was There, the Studio Ghibli movie. Need to see that.

I quite like that. Need to watch that. It's good. So I got to ask, guys. We're getting down to about an hour and a half. Okay. And we've done our major categories. Yeah, I think we should kind of wrap it up.

I don't know if you want to hit some of the other categories or just what are our thoughts? I mean, here's the thing that I just assume we're all on the same page about. Yeah. Best score of the year, Carter Burwell for Carol. For Carol. Right? 100%. Great score.

There have been some really good scores this year. Agreed. I will say. I was going to say, what are some favorite scores that people have? Disaster Peace for It Follows. That score is terrifying. So good. We're gonna be listening to that score in movie trailers and

in montages and stuff like that for a long, long time. It Follows is like a top 20 movie for me that year. Great movie. I really like Johan Johansson's incredibly nominated score for Sicario I can't believe the Oscars went for that because it is all just like rumbles

and you know twanging yeah atonal bangs but that's a really cool Moody's score I think Daniel Pemberton's score for Steve Jobs which I listened to over and over I like it a lot very impressive even though it's very over the top and obviously guides

the movie. Danny Boyle leans on it a couple times when you're just like Danny. He leans on his music. I mean Boyle likes to lean on his music. Sunshine has a very overbearing score that's great. One of my favorite scores. And now it's used in every single trailer. 28 Days Later. 28 Days Later. Slumdog Millionaire.

Obviously the music's really crucial. I think Howard Shore's Spotlight score is fantastic. Phenomenal. Would be in my five, no question. As someone who's just watched a ton of Cronenberg movies, Howard Shore's the best. Got so much range. What a chameleon.

Also did Lord of the Rings. Yeah, of course. He can do anything. He was the original music director on Saturday Night Live. That guy's had an insane, insane varied career. Yeah, we got some good scores out of movies that I feel like were really small. Either of you see Z for Zachariah?

No. The movie with Margot Robbie and Shweta Lejiofor? Really good score there. Heather McIntosh was the composer. A Little Chaos, the Alan Rickman directed movie with Kate Winslet. I know. A score by Peter Gregson.

That's really good. Go out and listen to that. And then Junkie XL, who was nominated for Mad Max, also did the score for the Point Break remake. And that's not a great movie, but that is a good score. Hey, good point because I want to spotlight. I would nominate Point Break for Best Cinematography. It's got some elements in that movie that I kind of liked. Because I value my sanity and time.

Yeah, you're smart because life is finite and at some point we die. It is true, except I would also say Edgar Ramirez could have good chemistry with a man, a woman, or a pile of leaves on the floor. He's great. I mean, he's so charming and magnetic in everything and in this especially.

He's a bit of a confusing element in Joy. Yeah, he is. Well, he's not used very well. No, he is not. But what is in Joy, really? Joy is a bit of a confusing element. Bradley Cooper. The mop. The mop is not used very well no he is not but what is enjoy really joy is a bit of a bradley cooper the mop the mop is actually used very well yeah the mop's great i just like saying should be called mop yeah um do you want to say some yeah i was gonna say pop the sean movie point break was uh directed by a cinematographer and it shows definitely shows yeah because it's gorgeous looking i saw in 3d

it's one of the only good uses of 3d i've seen in years yeah it was actually sort of immersive and astounding they went to all these real locations crazy places in the earth um but movie movie sucks otherwise though another cinematography nominee i'd want spotlight is magic mike xxl great soda berg soda berg as peter andrews pretending to be a different person. The man can light. He lights things well. One scene that jumps out to me is the one where Chanteta meets... Oh, on the beach? What's her name? Ever heard on the beach?

And it's all done... No, her name is... What's her name? Yes. What's her name? She is a professional what's her name. Yeah. She's so bad in The Danish Girl.

But it's all done with moonlight and you can... Oh, so terrible. Oh, I mean... Top five worst performances. She would ruin The Danish Girl if it wasn't terrible. If it was ruinable. Yes. Yeah, I think she's getting off performances. She would ruin the Danish girl if it wasn't terrible. Yeah, I think she's getting off easy because everything else in the movie is so bad, but that's a terrible

performance. But also, it's just a triumph of terrible casting. Why do you cast her? That's strange. Do you know what Tom Hooper said? Because Johnny Depp called him and was like, will you cast her? In an interview Tom Hooper said, I cast her because I was trying to think of someone who was just so feminine and could represent femininity. Tommy. What are you talking about? Tommy, what are we

talking about here? But, yes, Magic Mike XSL, the scene with What's Her Name on the beach, it's all done with moonlight. Like, a cool thing that fucking Soderbergh isn't afraid to do is just have scenes be dark if in real life those people would not be able to see each other. It was interesting that he

lit Jada Pinkett's mansion as if it were an episode of True Blood. Loved it. All red. Me too. Loved the mansion scene. Crushed reds. Loved it. Yeah, good cinematography this year for me. You know, pretty obvious. Ed Lackman. Yeah, Ed Lackman. John Seal for

Mad Max Fur Road. Agreed. Star Wars The Force Awakens. Didn't get a nomination. I think they were able to somehow make a movie that looks like Star Wars without trying to look like the old movies. Yeah. They came up with a new visual language because the film does look different than the originals, but that represents the feeling of Star Wars.

A tough task. I am rooting for Roger Deakins to win for Sicario. He just needs to fucking get an Oscar. He's so good. He should be our Leonardo DiCaprio this year. Just let's give it to him. He's probably not going to should be our Leonardo DiCaprio this year. Just give it to him. He's probably not going to win because fucking Chivo's going to win again. Of course.

He's great. Lubezki's great. Let's all stop calling him Chivo. I know you did that ironically. Yeah, I did. We're not friends with him. Janusz is great. Mr. Pool of Light himself for Bridge of Spies.

That's a great... Thomas Newman's work for Bridge of Spies, talking about score as well. I do love a Thomas Newman score. It's his first... It's one of twoies, talking about score as well. I do love a Thomas Newman score. It's his first, it's one of two Spielberg films not scored by Williams. Three? Yeah.

That's a trivia question I'm waiting to show up at some point. Sugar Land Express. And Color Purple. And Color Purple was Quincy Jones. Quincy Jones. But I love John Williams. I actually,

despite saying some previously harsh things on past episodes, I've been re-listening to the Star Wars score a lot now and really think it's great now. It's come around for me. But I think, and Creed works in a similar way. Great score. Excellent score. Very underrated.

Using the old themes and incorporating new themes and matching them up really, really well. But it's just exciting to see Spielberg work with a new composer and vice versa. And Thomas Newman did a really great classic old Hollywood score in that movie. I hated Thomas Newman's score in Bridge of Spies. It's the one thing that doesn't work for me in the movie. I didn't love it. Yeah, that movie needed a John Williams score. That's my jam. That's my jam.

It's a huge bummer that John Williams didn't score that movie. I love that score. Ben, anything you want to throw out? You have a notepad in front of you. Yes, I do. I came up with some categories. Let's run through them. Yeah? Yeah.

I'm excited. That way you wrote sexy. Ah, nice. Best sexy. Ben's flipping over to a second page of notes now. He's got a lot of notes. Okay, so let's just start with best location. Okay.

I think Steve Jobs really used the space. I agree with you. I don't even know if you're being funny. I can't tell. I don't know which side this coin's going to land on. Also thought room. I mean, that's just- The good room.

That just makes sense. See, once again, a funny joke, but also correct. I don't know- I think that's actually true. Yeah, sure. And hateful eight. I mean, again, kind of one place, but you're just talking about places that are set inside. But he's also correct.

All of his movies used a location wall. Well, I got The Martian for you. Mars. Yeah. It's another planet. Okay. Is that sort of like how Ben looks so proud right now? We didn't talk about The Martian.

The Martian's good. It's good. Good movie. Martian's a perfect number 10 through 20 movie in almost everything. Maybe 21 for me, but a lot of fun. Yes. Great ensemble cast. Good popcorn entertainment, The Martian.

Glad it made all that money. Yes. Agreed. Yeah, that's nice for America. As is Ridley Scott, because that's all he could talk about during his Golden Globes acceptance speech. Yeah, right. Ridley Scott.

And let's just all acknowledge, that movie is so funny. The Martian is such a good comedy. He makes a poo-poo. Yeah, and I couldn't stop laughing. Ben, other categories you prefer? Or is there another nominee in that category? Well, then there's just Revenant for location.

That's Revenant? Actually, there are some movies with good locations we should talk about. I want to expand on him the house in Ex Machina the house in Mistress America actually the house in Ex Machina and the house which is in Norway and the house in Mistress America in Greenwich Connecticut

those are two great answers Donut Time and Tangerine which is a real place you've got that crazy place under the bridge and it follows where he ties her to the chair. That is such a scary location. The fucking opera house in Rogue Nation.

Let's talk about Black Hat, that crazy end sequence where they're in Malaysia or something. Do you love Black Hat, Joe? Because this is a very pro-Black Hat podcast. No, I'm not. I didn't love Black Hat. You and I have talked about how much we love Viola Davis in Black Hat.

In my 6 through 10. She's in my 6 through 10 as well. She's really good. Weaving gold out of nothing. Yes, out of absolutely nothing. Crimson Peak, the most haunted house in the world. If there's any one Oscar nomination that didn't happen that I'm saddest about, it's art direction production design for Crimson Peak.

That's art direction the movie. It is. That's entirely the point of that movie. Ben, further categories? Yeah. Okay, so David mentioned, yes, I wrote sexiest. Down?

First you wrote sexy, but then I think you... This is an interesting category where some of the entries I feel like are sexist and others are kind of sexy. We're both sexiest. Ben's always playing two angles at once. He got Fifty Shades of Grey. I mean, sort of sexy, but also kind of like,

I found that movie not very sexy. I find one scene sexy and it's the scene where they're negotiating the terms of the contract. That's the best scene in the film.

Yes. And then Jurassic World. It's sexist. Yeah. Oh yeah. Movie doesn't like women. It's got that, going for it.

Yeah. It's got that going for it. And then Entourage. Yeah. I think I know which side that falls on. Yep. But. Going for it. And then Entourage. Yeah. Yeah. I think I know which side that falls on. Yep. But then you got Carol.

Ooh. No comment. Carol. Mm-hmm. Oh, sorry. What's going on? Okay. So that was another one of my original categories.

A good original category. Cool. How about the Duke of Burgundy for sexiest movie? That's a fucking crazy, fucking crazy movie. Magic Mike XXL. Sexy as shit. As I said, Edgar Ramirez in Point Break. You know what movie's fucking sexy?

What? Creed. Yeah. It's a sexy movie. Those are some sexy young actors. They've got some nice sex scenes. Very brief, a little sexy. Yep.

Chirac is really sexy. It is. Yep. Legitimately very sexy. Bridge of Spies is very sexy. That bridge is so fucking well designed. I'm trying to think. You know what's a sexy looking movie that I forgot to mention in cinematography and location?

Slow West. One of the most- Love the way that movie works. That's a great Western that everyone should see starring Mr. Michael Fassbender and Cody Smith-McPhee and Ben Mendelsohn. What a nice group of guys. What a nice group of guys. What a good group of guys. Good bunch of guys.

And a young lady who I think I didn't know. She's good in that. But she's really good. She was like a more unknown actress. I'm going to have to find her name. Yeah, check out Slow West. Very, very good. Ben?

Okay. Now, you're going to have to bear with me on this one, guys. This one's a little complicated. Bear with you. What are you? The Revenant? Oh. Okay. this one, guys. This one's a little complicated. Bear with you. What are you, The Revenant? Ah. Okay, so I felt like initially

I was thinking like best remakes because there's like a lot of films that aren't even necessarily remakes like Point Break but like continuing with whatever the series. Like reboots of dormant franchises. But then I started thinking what would be more interesting is to analyze films that

would be remade where babies, animals or puppets are replacing all the actors. Your category is films that should be remade with babies, animals, or puppets? Yeah. Then I specified what kind of thing. Okay. So you'll tell us which of the three it falls under. So spotlight clearly puppets just because of the nature of the film. Ben's face is red with pride right now.

You don't want to recast Spotlight with babies. No, absolutely not. No, you can't do babies. That's very much. And animals aren't great actors. You need craft in order to pull off the roles in Spotlight. Okay, so Spotlight with puppets, that's one. The room animals, I think that would kind of liven that up a little bit.

Well, you don't want to let the animals outside. You just want to keep them in a room. Exactly. It just feels more natural that way. Of course, yeah. Hatefully, I thought fruit. You established that it's one of three things, and now we're breaking all the rules.

I threw fruit in, too, because I just thought that'd be fun. Like, fruits just sitting there, and then people are talking like. Then they all get like shot and they explode. Yeah. In a pulpy mess. There goes that cantaloupe just everywhere. That was Channing Tatum. He was a cantaloupe.

He was a cantaloupe. Credit where credit's due. You never see it coming. Spoiler. Credit where credit is due. I thought you were going to go Hayflay Babies and I was going to be really on board with that. Fruit is an even better choice. I want to see. What would Michael Masden be?

A mango? A guava? What would he be? A star fruit? A star fruit? No. He doesn't have the star power in that movie. If anybody-

Sam Roth is a kiwi, right? You're like, Sam Jackson's a star fruit in that movie. Yeah, you're right. You're right. Sam Roth is a kiwi. I got to hear two more. Yeah, so it's a real throw up on this one. I don't know.

It's a vomit. By the way, Ben just vomited on his notepad. It's a real bag of vomit. Go ahead, Ben. So I wasn't sure for babies. I wanted to go for either Steve Jobs. Okay. Babies in business wear is always cute.

Yeah, always cute. It's a lot of memorization of dialogue though for a baby. I love the idea of babies sitting in a control room like a NASA room for the Martian. I think that's the way to go. You could call it Martian babies.

Plus babies, a lot of poop so those potatoes would be growing like crazy. They'll have potatoes like crazy. Is there a fifth nominee? No. I think I hit them all. Great. Yeah.

So just once again, your category was movies that would be better if they were remade with babies, puppets, or animals. And then I also added fruit. And added fruit. Right. So there are only four nominees, and you didn't include fruit in the title of the category. All right. Let's move on, Griffin.

Okay, great. You know what I was doing. We get it. We get it. We all heard. We all heard. You're the poet laureate. You play by your own rules.

Oh, an honorable mention to concussion. Which? For exposing to the world about the- Just an honorable mention. It just gets an honorable mention. NFL being an evil corporation. Is there anything you've got a category called, um, no thank you? Oh, I also have one favorite bit title, uh, you're burnt.

Is that like a lifetime achievement award for like the lifetime of you burnt? It could be. I mean, I'm going to be able to reference that and make a great bit out of it for years to come. Can we end on No Thank You? I just need to hear what that is. Well, it's just movies that I didn't see and I was not interested in. And I heard about them and I was like, no thank you. As we were talking about them, you were just like, yeah, no.

I want to hear the list, but at the end of each movie you read off you have to deliver an um no thank you okay so the nominees for ben hosley's 2016 um no thank you award for indifference in 2015 are uh well we have black mass um no thank you dude looks gross like that was just like what is going on with this makeup? It's terrible. And I just didn't want to watch it. I agree. I saw it and I regret it. Crimson Peak? No, thank you. I liked Crimson Peak. It just seems like a boring horror movie.

It's a little boring. It's not untrue. It's good. Okay, Trumbo? No, thanks. I don't think any of us could really. I don't want to watch a movie about a screenwriter Unless it's Babalu Mandel

That was venomous Oh I would see a Babalu Mandel movie in a second Just Babalu Mandel not Logan Babalu Mandel And I would see only Scott Alexander Not Larry Karasiewski Who would play Babalu Mandel Goodman

Goodman oh my god Mandel? Goodman? Goodman. Oh, my God. The role of Goodman's life. That sounds good. I think Ben's still got two more no thank yous. We have the intern. Yeah, no thanks.

That was a twisty because you said, yeah, you're going to like it, but it's a no. No, that looks like garbage. Babu Mandel looks like a young Alan Arkin. Oh. I always thought he was a big guy. So Adam Arkin, is that who we're casting? Not a big guy. Interesting.

Just a cast Adam Arkin? Yeah, Adam Arkin. He'd be great. Oh, I'm into it. Dave Krumholtz. Krummy. He's not skinny anymore. As we saw in Hell, Caesar.

And your fifth nominee for the Umno Thank You Award? Everest. Yeah, no thanks. The reason why? I mean, it's just like, I feel like you get it right away that they're going to get trapped on this fucking mountain. You're forgetting something, Ben. What?

The mountain is really big. That's true. It's true, but it would be cool if there were giants climbing it. Okay, there we go. It's just little people. That's the concept I want to see. Giants climbing mountains. When do you ever see that? Never. Big Everest. Never

Everest. Big Everest. Joe, thank you so much for being on the podcast. Thank you guys so much for having me. Sharing your thoughts with us. Some classic read picks. That was great, Joe. Thanks. I'm worn out. Me too. That's a lot. The Oscars are not this Sunday, but next... February 28th.

28th. Day before Leap Day. This will be coming out the week of the Oscars. The 23rd. Or the 22nd. And I gotta say, a lot of good movies this year, but I am done with 2015. We get to that point every Oscars, right? Where it's just like, move on, 2016.

Let's do it. See what's even coming down the line. I have something to plug. On Oscar night, February 28th, I will be putting on an event of sorts at Union Hall along with John Braylock and Gerard Mulligan of the Black Man Can't Jump in Hollywood podcast. Great guys. Great guys. Great guys.

One past guest, one who will hopefully be a future guest. But we are trying something. I have no idea if it's going to work or not, which is a great selling point for an event. But at Union Hall, they're going to screen the Oscars. We're not going to do live snarking over it because I fucking think you should watch the Oscars in peace. I agree. What we're going to do, the three of us and a group of other improvisers who are still being nailed down are going to improvise

during the commercial breaks these scenes that we believe are happening off camera. So it's going to be an improv show in between the commercial breaks of the Oscars. It's sort of like the way a lot of improv shows use monologues for inspiration for scenes. We'll be using what happened earlier

in the show to comment on them and kind of keep this long-form improv show going over the course of three hours to keep things lively. Three hours. You're so optimistic, Griffin. Yeah. Yeah.

It's an interesting idea that I had with these guys, and we're seeing if it works or not, if this format has any value. If it worked, we'd maybe do it with other events. But that's Union Hall, February 28th. I think it's going to be like $10. You get to watch the Oscars with a bunch of people in a room. We will not make jokes over the show. You can watch it in

peace. We're not going to be smart and snarky and then you just get a little bonus value, a little content in the commercial breaks. So I want to plug that. If there isn't a listing already, there should be one on the Union Hall site by now. And also I want to plug, as always, my petition to join the cast of Fast 8. I will say it has been sent along to some important people.

Is that right? It has grazed some desks. A certain Vin Diesel? It's one degree away from Vin Diesel right now. Ludicrous? I don't want to put too fine a point on it. I don't want to throw it at anybody. But it has gotten within Vin Diesel's production company

and it has gotten within Original Films the main production company if you get this I'll be impressed I am committed to nothing more in my life so they can sign the petition right bit.ly backslash fastgriff furious

sign the petition share it send it to friends. I'm doing this. I gotta do this. One way or another, I'm doing this. Even if I have to pull a Sean Young and show up in a Catwoman suit and break onto set and just run in front of the camera,

I'm doing this. I'd be so confused that you were dressed as Catwoman, though. Yeah, but that's good. Franchise pollination, yeah. Joe, people can check you out on Decider. Decider.com. You can find me on Twitter, at Joe Reed, R-E-I-D.

That's about it. Those are the places. And just Google Joe Reed. There's the treasure trove of good pieces over the years. Aw, thank you. Very true. Thank you all for listening. As always, please rate, review, and subscribe to our podcast, but the other podcasts on the UCB Comedy Network.

We'll be back next week with, back to Shyamacast. Yes. So queue up your The Village rental. Live the Lodge. If you're into that. Yeah. Oh, man. The Village.

Yeah. And I'm going to throw out a happy birthday to Lay Montgomery, who does our theme song for the show. Oh, happy birthday, man. Happy birthday. Comes in live every week Reggie Watt style.

But yeah, his birthday I think was yesterday when we were recording this. Whatever. This is for him. Lane, this one's for you. Happy birthday. Lane, this one is for you. Thanks for listening everybody. Ben, thanks for being the best in the biz

uh he's in the studio today we forgot to mention that he's in the studio with us sitting here on a mic because i know that's the thread that everyone's holding on to oh boy they never know what's gonna happen to us yep uh and as always uh my pick for the uh irving thalberg uh memorial uh lifetime achievement award would go to go to Albert and the Chipmunks, The Road Trip. It's the Lifetime Achievement Award for the movie. Boo. Yay. Thank you.