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

Episode Date: March 3, 2024

The pomp. The pageantry. The awkwardness of trying to shoehorn any of this year’s Oscar nominees into “Moon River” - that’s right, folks. The Blankies (and host Griffy Crystal) are back! Joe Reid of “This Had Oscar Buzz” joins us once again to celebrate the momentous year in cinema that was 2023. We’re handing out fake awards, making outrageous claims, and we’ve got a special musical performance that brings the house down. Enjoy! This episode is sponsored by: Mubi (mubi.com/howtohavesex) Join our Patreon at patreon.com/blankcheck Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter and Instagram! Buy some real nerdy merch at shopblankcheckpod.myshopify.com

Live from Brooklyn, it's the 9th Annual Blankjack Awards. And now your host for this evening, song and dance man, Griffin Newman. What a wonderful night for blankies, blankies, blankies, blankies. Who will win? Mbop, Inheimer, oombop, Inheimer, oombop, Inheimer do. Yeah, oombop, Inheimer do. Second verse.

Inheimer do. Yeah, yeah. Killers of the flower moon river movies very long genocide is sad my friends I'm being the audience these are sort of abridged

you ain't nothing but a poor thing fucking all the time you ain't nothing but a poor thing. Wow. Fucking all the time. You ain't nothing but a poor thing. Fucking all the time. And Billy pitched that. You know,

but it ain't no care of mine. Billy actually faxed that one to Kimmel. Yeah. Hold on over. Hold on. Oh, baby. Hold on over baby Hold on over

Hold on over baby Catching all the age groups in this one Giamatti's got a lazy eye He can't see you Hold on over Hold on over baby So he would have had maybe like a backing group for that one Yeah sure sure sure

And then I was like I was stuck on Maestro Uh huh What fucking song do you do for Maestro? I was like, Maestro, so... I'm not the weird Al of Blank Check. That was me. That was me trying to do it. There were a couple of years where I didn't try at all.

Exactly. You're trying to do the parody songs again. You could do that like my neck, my back song, except it's like Maestro, Maestro. Oh, maestro. That would be reining it in. It's past lives. It's now or never.

Okay. I ain't gonna Skype forever. Oh, there you go. That's good. Did you just come up with that? I just came up with that one. I'm looking at other things. Yeah.

But all the other stuff you wrote months in advance. There were some stressful Skype workshop effects in that movie. Yeah, you had to put a lot of time in. Do you think Valanche just kind of is suspended in some sort of like, you know, Bacta tank or, you know, spice tank from Dune or whatever? That's how I imagine he is.

Here's my Baron Valanche. He's just kind of like ageless and then they just knock on his tank and he's like, you know, like he still has an OJ joke For them Host? What the fuck are we doing here? Valanche hosting now he's 75 years old

Ripe Yeah ripe is the word Finger on the pulse David we've been talking about you and I both recently rewatched All the Billy openings Yeah And this gets called out sometimes, but I always forget.

Yeah. I think you, you were like, really like, I'm going to do this fairly often. But this year I was like, Oh, I'm going to actually watch every single one in order.

Yeah. Uh, and I, it, people lose track of this, but like just the weird cyclical nature of, yeah, his first year hosting the Oscars was the year after the rob low snow white right am i wrong about that it's correct it's it

it's the same thing that happened with kimmel where they were like maybe we should stop trying to reinvent right what this is and hire a comedian right right yeah and so he comes out and he's like i know you all hate the thing where i promised when i took the job i said i'm not gonna do one of these horrible crappy opening musical medleys that everyone rolls their eyes at and then the bit is oh he's doing it but he's doing the lo-fi version yeah yeah the jokes the joke was him sort of doing what i'm doing which is like oh this is like the shitty they just made it up right and then it became without backup dancers or real singers and then it becomes the thing that people like me parody as isn't that corny right well it's it's it's alan carr right the year before right was

the the famous uh very um over the top producer sure and right and like just just the i still think about it like just like the big brain kind of like well who's the most famous movie star snow white yeah anyone heard of her the greatest of all time the goat oh how are we gonna do with snow how are we gonna do that um i'll just have someone wear a snow white costume send a van down to anaheim pick up whoever's playing snow white in the park right now exactly who's the ultimate gentleman with a teenage girl? And then the other part. I guess that's before, right?

It is, but barely. But beyond that. Maybe gave him some ideas. I did a trivia thing one time. Always safe to talk about on podcasts. Yeah. I did a trivia round one time where it was the Billy Crystal parodies. And I was like, match up the movie with the actual song that was parodied.

Yeah. And I think I gave like an answer bank because I was like, it would have been too hard otherwise. And it was fun watching people come up with their own crystal thing. Oh, wow. The answer was wrong, but they were like, I figured it would be because of this and this. Some of them are so weird. I mean, the one I always think about is doing sea biscuit to gold finger yes yeah yeah i mean what are you supposed to do with a movie called sea biscuit that's why i guess he

was just like okay let's break down number of syllables sometimes he's punning the title but sometimes he's punning the filmmaker like the goodwill hunting was night and day because it was ben and matt matt and ben you know that right and then because uh sofia's lots in translation was uh maria from west side story but it was sofia i just met a girl named sofia like that yes see this kit was nominated for seven academy awards including best picture of the year yeah best motion picture of the year in like a fairly big year. It was a summer release. It was a big hit. It was a big hit, but also critics were like, eh, whatever.

And then at the end of the year comes, they're like, but what about Seabiscuit this time? And they're like, eh, go. Well, the Seabiscuit one, though, I just want to call out because obviously I've said this on other episodes. It's one of the only times Billy doesn't make the opening monologue joke about the director being snubbed. Right. That's true.

He was just like, none of us, none of us are upset that Gary Ross didn't get the opening monologue joke about the director being snubbed. Right. That's true. Where he was just like, none of us are upset that Gary Ross didn't get the nomination. Who did? Instead? Yes, can you tell me? Fernando Morelos. Fernando Morelos.

Yeah. One of the biggest surprises of like Oscar nomination morning ever. For nerds like us, and let's be clear, this is Blank Check with Griffin and David. I'm Griffin. I'm David.

It's usually a podcast about filmography as directors with massive success. Bl blah blah blah once a year we pick the winner yes the blankie awards we bring in our old friend joe reed aka reading rain joe thank you from this had oscar buzz thank you and we just fucking nerd out now dga gave gary ross the knob as they often do dj will actually reflect best picture better than best director. Who did the Globes give that slot to? It wasn't Mr. Gary Ross. To be clear, the other four nominees are

Jackson. Well, you want to do them? Yeah. Did they give it to Minghella? The Golden Globes gave it to Anthony Minghella for Cold Mountain, which of course got sort of like surprisingly snubbed in the top two categories. And actress. That was a surprising snub.

So much time has passed since you left me here on Cold Mountain. Best actress that year was sort of wild throughout and then nomination morning comes and everybody was putting Keisha Castle-Hughes for Whale Rider and supporting which was bullshit. But it was where she got in the sack. And then so the Oscar voters were like, no, no, no

she's the lead actress, which like they don't do often enough. 2003, I feel like is a morning that nerds like us think about as like. 100%. I want one of those again. Where they announced Miranda Morales. That's my Roman Empire. That wasn't on a long list. Right.

It wasn't on a long list. We hadn't even conceived it. That was eighth dimensional thinking. What was that? It got four noms. Yeah. City of God. Right.

There were like a couple other surprises of like the morton getting in best actress correct that was surprising but great because i love that movie he's just category placement was surprising especially her bumping nicole she took uma's spot i'll never hunter was kind of on the bubble you know i read the nominees that year that year was sigourney sigourney we were talking about sigourney right before we started recording give me the other four directing nominees just to close this out? Okay, for 2003, well, of course. Peter Jackson, you said. Peter Jackson. Old man

Eastwood, as Billy said. Eastwood for Mystic River. He just keeps chugging along. What's the year that he did You Sang and Paint Your Wagon Don't Sing Anymore? I think that was Unforgiven. No, no, no, no, it wasn't that. Are you sure? Maybe it was. Maybe it was Unforgiven. I think it was. I mean, we both watched them recently.

It was funny. Yeah, it's very funny. There's one year where Clint's loving the Billy. Yeah. Yeah. I think it was that year because he was with Francis Fisher. The last year Clint enjoyed anything. It was kind of amazing.

Exactly. He's riding high. He's finally made it. 74 years young. Jackson Eastwood. He's like, how old is he when Unforgiven comes out? Let's look it up. Unforgiven, he's like 69. No, he's not that old is he when unforgiven comes out let's look he's like 69

no he's not that old oh yeah brother yeah all right let's see 1930 he's like 62 okay and it's just so funny to think about the oscars being like ah as you hang your hat up and head right to retire yeah let's give you some oscars and he's like 30 more years of movies coming bitch my dad's 10 years older than him now what if there was a juror right then he was in his old man movie that's the other thing though like old star like when they give the award to fucking john wayne and he's like 62 and everyone's like he's had a good run he's dead with an 18 right those people had the good sense to drink themselves to death Actors used to have like professional Wrestler lifestyles

It's just like so obvious that the Unforgiven Win was like them being like Clint we've been rude to you You're wrapping it up and it's great Taking it seriously So Jackson Morales And then the other two

For 2003 Big Fish didn't get in which made me very angry As a 14 year old Morales. And then the other two for 2003, Big Fish Didn't Get In, which made me very angry as a 14-year-old. That's a very justifiable decision. Dumb opinion. You're going to name two really good movies. So you are... Come on. Really? Yeah. One of them

I've mentioned in the last five or ten minutes. One of them was a woman. Griffin. Oh, Sophia. Sophia Coppola One of them was a woman. Griffin. Oh, Sophia. Sophia Coppola. I just met a woman named Sophia. And then one of them you're making David very sad. It's your guy.

It's Peter Weir's Master and Commander. It's a very solid five, especially given that they put Morales in there, which was cool. I would have put Burton in there. Burton's not even close. Burton's in. No, like the big snub

honestly the crazy snub is tarantino but like they just were not they did not consider those movies they did but they just didn't really know how to deal with it they didn't give a single fucking nomination no they did it i'm saying like that movie was in the oscar race uma got a nom i still have my tarantino fy FYC. Yeah, Golden Globe nom. She should have gotten an Oscar nom. Morton takes her spot. I strongly agree, but I just remember, obviously,

I was the right age to be so amped up for that fucking movie and being like, why is this not getting taken seriously? And not even getting shit like costume or editing. It was just like, oh, this was... Well, this is what we were talking about

with Wes Anderson recently, too, where it's like these people with like these huge and kind of obvious visual aesthetics. Yeah. Like, it's not like you have to be really like you got to really like see the whole board. It's like the aesthetics are up front. Tarantino is weird, though, because they when they go for him, they go for him wholeheartedly. And some movies they skip over entirely.

Wes, we were just talking about. It's the insane thing where it's like, only one of his movies has ever gotten nominated in any craft category. Right. There's one year they went for his movie in everything.

Full hog, yeah. Down the ballot. And he won a few, like, I don't really understand. And you're like, there are other guys like that where it's like,

well, the Academy doesn't love them, but their films are always gonna get cinematography or costume or art direction or like certain period pieces where you're just like no one's going to fucking nominate the duchess in

the major categories but obviously it's an automatic costume nomination zero acting nominations across all the films i mean yeah well that the across all is crazy across all is the fact that he doesn't the thing i think is crazy is the first thing you said which is like why does he not get craft consideration right he should get a production design nomination for every year and i think it partly makes it look easy right that's that's the thing robert yeoman's never gone in oscar nomination like just they they just take him for granted i guess but and then partly i think it's a focus doesn't maybe have the right like approach he's done Focus and Searchlight. Yeah, who did Searchlight?

Who are his Searchlight movies? His Searchlight movies are... Why am I fucking blanking here? Well, French Dispatch was Searchlight. French Dispatch was Searchlight. Darjeeling was Searchlight. Yeah. French Dispatch was doomed by weird pandemic.

The anime movies were Searchlight, which got his animation nominations. Asteroid City, I knew Asteroid City was getting nothing. Sure. Because it came out in the summer. Way too early. And some people don't like it. Yeah. But you don't want to just even try. Just kind of put your elbow on the

scale. Because there'll just be nothing. Joven has one. For what? Budapest. Right. Oh, everything for Budapest. I'm sorry. That's the one time everybody like got their flowers. Right. Oh, everything for Budapest. I'm sorry. That's the one time everybody got their flowers. Right. But the thing with the acting nominations is, you can see it where a lot of these movies are hugely ensemble based.

I understand that he's never gotten a supporting nomination on anybody. The fine snub is wild. The fine snub makes no sense. And that he didn't show up anywhere that season is so weird. Category confusion. Really? Yeah, they never really settled on if he was leader supporting. He's so clearly the leader.

I agree. He got a Baftonom. Hackman at least got the Golden Globe for 10 months. The Hackman snub is insane. The first Marie snub is insane. The Rushmore snub? Yeah. That movie's too weird for them, I think.

He was another one who came close, though. He won a bunch of precursor stuff. And he was just such a big star in that sort of transformative moment. That was the trial balloon that made The Lost in Translation one possible. It's just such a different... The 90s Oscar voters, they're so stodgy.

That felt like a weird something. Because he's an asshole. Well, that's the other thing. No, but then they nominated him the next time. Five years later, for a gigantic critical sensation. Rushmore was a little more of like an art, you know, house, like, you know, minor. I think the bigger thing with Rushmore was that they did the, what now works more often, but they did the...

The screenplay nod. No, it didn't get a screenplay nod. Didn't it? No. No, his screenplay nods are Royal Tenenbaums. Good movie. Moonrise. Budapest three good movies yeah brushmore they did the we release it in one week for one week in new york and la in december and

then it came out for real in february well that makes sense that that that probably heard it too right who who had rushmore touchstone the first yeah tan. Yeah, Tenenbaums was Touchstone. Sony, then three Touchstones, then Searchlight, and then he's like ping-ponging between Searchlight and Focus. Yeah, just, I mean, Murray would have won the Oscar, and he probably would have gotten nominated for Rushmore. Just has the problem that he's a gigantic

asshole who everyone hates. I think you're overrating how much that played into that one. I don't think I am. He did lose to Sean Penn, which is very funny when you think about it. The assholes get nominated. They just don't win in those situations. Rushmore's too weird. That's the Burt Reynolds, Eddie.

The assholes, that's when they pull the rug out from under them when they're actually at the show. Stallone, yeah. Like, what's the 98 Oscars Rushmore? Yeah. So who gets in there? Coburn?

Jeffrey Rush for Shakespeare in Love. Ed Harris for Truman Show. We just talked this category. I can't remember why. Who are the others? Robert Duvall for Civil Action. Coburn's the winner, right? Thornton for Simple Plan.

For Simple Plan. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I just, I don't know who the... Murray would have won had he got nominated. Do we agree? No. No?

I think Coburn won. Like... Yeah. I don't know who the murray would have won had he got nominated do we agree no no i think coburn won like yeah we i don't understand that now but in the 90s he was it was like it's time for james coburn to get his it's also they were like they were all set to give that performance which is totally good like they were all set to give nolte the lead and then benigni comes hopping along on chair back and they're like well we feel bad for Nolte so we're going to give it to Coburn as by the transit property. Maybe a little bit of that. Yeah. Although I still think McKellar

He had Waternoose in the pocket. They knew he had Waternoose in the pocket. He was working on that. Do you think Coburn took his Oscar and recorded some Waternoose? We have to start getting to our picks and Ben maybe you should push back the business call a full hour because we're 30 minutes on 1998 without getting to 2023. 20 minutes.

20 minutes. Okay. David asked me a profound question the other day, and I'm going to offer a huge spoiler warning here because this is the blankies we pick our best for the previous year. We're now picking our 2023 winners. I know what you're about to ask, and I just want to say let's do a maximum of two minutes on this.

Start the clock. People hate when in this final year-end wrap-up discussion we just kind of casually spoil movies that perhaps some people haven't seen. Vaguely new releases. We're going to spoil Monsters, Inc. We're going to spoil a 25-year-old movie. Yeah. Monsters, Inc. 23. I know when Monsters, Inc.

came out. Don't correct me. Joe Reed. Yes yes who is the primary antagonist of monsters ink and you can't just say like society okay you can't say fucking creeping adulthood like what's happening you can't say the energy no there are two villains in monsters ink okay there's steve bishami as randall who's obviously the primary physical villain right and then coburn is uh as Randall, who's obviously the primary physical villain. And then Coburn as... As Mr. Waternoose, who's revealed to be kind of like

backing the conspiracy. Once again, huge spoiler. Skip ahead if you haven't seen Monsters, Inc. Big twist. The economics of energy dependence in that movie. This is a whole conversation we've been having. Don't even get your shovel out and start digging there

because you will never hit bottom. David's daughter has been monsters pilled recently. Gave her a Sully for her birth. I did. You did. Along with a Forky and a Godzilla. The triple crown of death. By the way, that Godzilla has been moved to my room because it has been deemed too scary. Right. She was

playing a little hot and cold. Yeah, but I think she's decided, like, I can't have that in my room right now. It's too big, it's too intense. So am I choosing between Buscemi and Coburn or is there a secret third thing? No, the question is, who is the greater villain of that film? Because the way it's revealed is that Coburn is the ultimate villain. But on rewatch and rewatch and rewatch, I've seen this movie like 40 times in the last month. I'm like, I actually think Randall is the main villain.

I think he came up with the evil scare extracting technology, pitched it to Coburn, Waternoose. Yeah. And Waternoose, in his desperation and cowardice, has gone with it. But like, who originated the conspiracy?

This is the... Tweet at us, Monsters Inc. villain. The key to David's question is, is your read on Monsters Inc. There's no definitive answer, obviously.

That Coburn said, we need to come up with a solution. He goes to Randall and says, come up with a way to extract screens. I don't care if it hurts people i don't care if we kidnap children or does randall crack this technology right go into water noose's office let me pitch you something i have no other solution and then he goes oh what a good idea i'd never thought of this before so what you're saying is i think trump approached the Republican voters with a demagoguery. Yes.

That could be effective. And the Republican vote. That's what you wanted to enter into a Trump conversation. Yes. I definitely want it. I definitely want it. My read is that it all started with Water News. That Water News was looking for the alternative.

Who wrote Bob Peterson? Who wrote Monsters, Inc.? It's like four people got credit. Can we just, like, get one of them down? Possibly. You know, just be like, alright, come on, guys. Peterson, Stanton. Stanton and Daniel Gerson are the two screenplay credits.

Okay. So, let's get Stanton. Yeah. Really nail him down and make him give a real answer. Is Stanton going on March Madness Brackets? I've had a few people who have worked with him closely reach out and say, Stanton would be an incredible March Madness choice. Let me know if you guys want a possible bridge to Stanton on the podcast.

I was about to say, I almost think we could get him at least on the phone for 20 minutes. Do you know what's the part of me that thinks we could get him? Is the part where he was just like, oh, no, there's no larger Disney deal with Criterion I just called up Criterion and said could you please put my movie in the Criterion collection you should just be like we are the podcast best tailored to giving John Carter a free shake

that's a fair we're gonna give it a shake like I'm also I want to talk about the four episodes of for all mankind he directed which is good there you go like I love that he was just like, let me direct some shit. His quiet TV. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, and he's got a new live action feature

coming out this year. Which is what? Blink of an Eye. All right. It's gonna come out in the Blink of an Eye. Blanky Colby Day. Awesome. Yeah.

Or like the Blank of an Eye. Listen, where do we usually start? Supporting actors? Yeah. Should we fully acknowledge, the Oscars, which will be in a, you know, a week plus from a week from this release.

Our child's play. This is the most legitimate award show. They're just like, can we just get Divine up here for the first category? Just knock that out in two minutes, guys. The ceremony starts

with her on the stage. Yeah, exactly. We're just going to cut down on, like, come on, let's make it. Don't come on stage. We'll come right by the steps. Okay, just stand right there.

Okay, okay, okay. The Oscars will be in her home actually this year where they're just like, we're not going to bother. Let's also say this. We just stand right there. Right. The Oscars will be in her home actually this year where they're just like, we're not going to bother. Let's also say this. We were talking right before we recorded.

All three of us as time has gone on have swung towards the tendency of pick the people who maybe aren't getting recognized by the Oscars. So before people

like a tiebreaker at the very least, we'll still get tweets from people four years later going, I can't believe you snubbed X in the year where they won the Oscar for Best Lead Actress. They know what they did.

We're just fucking, we're picking the people we want to pick. And if people are getting their flowers from a ton of other places. We're recording this thing at the tail end of the award season. A lot of these names have been said a lot, a lot, a lot. We just want to, you know, throw some other stuff in. This is our space to make some weird choices. Best Supporting Actress.

The winners from last year. Griffin, you gave it to Anthony Hopkins for Armageddon time. Right, playing my grandfather. I gave it to Oscar winner, Keiho Kwan, for everything everywhere. Just flying in the face of, like, we always ignore those guys. Joe, you gave it to Tim Roth for Res everywhere. Just flying in the face of we always ignore those guys.

Joe, you gave it to Tim Roth for Resurrection. Tim Roth scared the shit out of me. I found him to be a very chill and fun hangout. My five nominees for Best Supporting Actress. Hong Chao for Showing Up.

Turn on that hot water, though. I mean, if you want to take it up with her. If she loses, that's why. Because she didn't turn it on. Paula Beer for A Fire. Julianne Moore for May December. Penelope Cruz for Ferrari. And Florence Pugh for

Oppenheimer. Wow. Great. Joe. Mine are, in alphabetical order, Hong Chao in Showing Up. Hell yeah. Penelope Cruz in Ferrari. Hell yeah. Anne Hathaway in Eileen.

Cool. Rachel McAdams in Are You There, God, It's Me, Margaret. Yeah. And Tilda Swinton in The Killer. I will admit, I felt comfortable not putting McAdams on my list because I knew unquestionably she would make your five. Yeah. Slam dunk. Yeah.

My five are. Penelope Cruz in Ferrari. She's the only one in all three, guys. Three for three. Nice. I feel like that often happens that there's maybe one. One. Yeah. Divine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers. Sure. Rachel McAdams in Are You There Gonna Be More? Sure.

A lot of words. Maura Tierney in The Iron Claw. Real David Pick. And Ruby Cruz in Bottoms. I like that. One of my favorite performances. She's incredibly good. And one of those, as I'm watching that movie,

who's that? She's going to be in 8 Billion Things. That's a performance where I'm like, I can't wait until this movie ends so I can go to her. Look up who this is. Oh, it's the girl from Mare. Shelee spain he's friended mayor that's all i really do right the the disappeared secreted one season willow disney plus that's right she was on willow i didn't watch willow sorry ruby cruz but i'm looking forward to everything you do because you're so funny we're just gonna use the anthony

pelicano terminology of any time a show gets removed from a streaming service by the people who made it, it's been secreted. It's been secreted. I love that we have all gone vroom vroom for Penelope Cruz, rudely snubbed by the Oscars.

Yeah, I'll say this. There were two... Who have tossed her bullshit noms and now they don't give a shit. I know. And trying not to... She was nominated for

nine. Nine. A nom that is actually anti-Italian. She's not even the best... She was nominated for nine. Nine. Anomaly is actually anti-atomic. She's not even the best... And this would not be. Correct. She's not even the best supporting player in nine. No.

Maybe top three. No. She's fine. It goes Fergie and then Kate Hudson. And I'm only halfway kidding when I say Fergie. You should be all the way kidding. You're all the way kidding about Kate Hudson. I am all the way kidding about Kate Hudson.

Fergie. Even though I love Kate Hudson. Fergie, I'm half with you. Fergie's performance is the moment where that movie actually has some energy. We were talking before this about when certain surprise nominations happen, we all feel the relief of like,

Oh, it's fun. Oh, it's fun. And then I don't have to give them one of my slots on the blankies because they're already getting the respect. I can free that up for someone even more off the beaten path. Yeah.

I'm like working on my five for the last couple of months. And I was like, either Cruz or Moore is going to get in. And then I can put the other one. I'm shocked. And then for both of them to get. Yeah. Yeah. I'm like two of our finest screen actresses, period.

Screen actors, period. Oscar favorites. Both Oscar winners. Winners. Multiple nominees. Right. I'll just like front load it and say like those are the two in this category for me that stands so far above everyone else.

I'm like, those are two Titanic performances by two of our best. And I was like, well, whoever doesn't get the Oscar nomination, I'll give my win to. Well, and on the other side of that conflicted now,

I was real, real ready to be a little stinker and put Jodie Foster for Nia in my five. And then the Oscars did it for me. So I'm like, all right, that's another one Nia not a great movie but like I think it's more fun than people say I agree I think that Jodie's really good I agree

yeah so Nia it's like good Oscar trash in my opinion Nia it's like I'm not doing anything I don't need to pay super close attention I'm just gonna watch Nia that's what Nia is Oscar trash if Nia did not have them trying to be like, and also let's not forget she was abused,

I would truly just be like, this is a great camp classic. That stuff is so bad. It's so bad. You guys are punching above your weight. It's really, yeah. I think Benning is hilarious in it. I think Foster is awesome in it.

Did you see the clip that they used for her at the Saga warheads? No. It's the clip where she's like, just crawled out of the water and she's salt bloated all to hell. Hell yeah. And like out of context,

even in context, it's kind of funny, out of context, it's literally like that's what Nia is. She's just like, this like, the only thing you need to do

is have a good team. It's just, it's very bad. Corridor Crew did one of their VFX artists react videos recently for Nia. Sure.

Do you know that all of the water in Nia videos recently for NIAID. Sure. Do you know that all of the water in NIAID is CGI? That's awesome. That actually rules. They filmed it in a controlled tank because they need to have control of the water. But the reflection meant that it looked wrong and the waves were not correct.

Do you know about the water that the real NIAID swam in? Also didn't exist. She made it up! Truth her! She just took the subway! Truth her! What if it turned out she took the subway to Cuba? I'm just like, that's insane that

Annette Bening was actually in the water, was in a real tank, swimming for real herself. Yeah. And then they had to CGI over the real water with fake water

on top of her for every shot. People say Hollywood doesn't overspend. Nyad also had my favorite award swag I've gotten in quite a while. Oh, the bottle? No, the towel.

I like the bottle. The towel I haven't used. It's there. Must be nice. Well, the towel was confusing so many people. I was on the Vulture Slack one day and everybody was like, what's this wall hanging that we got? And finally somebody was like, I think it's a towel. It's just an odd little towel.

It's like one of those space age, like it's super absorbent and it doesn't look like it would be. Let's look at the people we nominated. Okay. Hong Chao showing up. I mean, showing up is one of those great movies about how hard productivity is and how hard it is to just like get one blessed thing done,

especially if you're trying to be a little bit creative in your life. And Hong Chao is like the embodiment of the rest of the world sort of being like, just work with me here, man. She's the landlady for Michelle Williams. That hot water tank really does need to get fixed. But she's also so like placid about everything and like she's just become one of the most effective character actors alive yeah i'm just always happy to see her she is good used to any degree in any type of role i was so bummed last year that her one nomination so far is for

the whale because i hate it's michael shannon yes oh it's like that thing where we're like we're gonna be like what a great resume. She's got so many interesting performances. What was her Oscar number for? The whale? Yeah. You know, like these guys. She was like owning bones in the menu. She's so good in the menu. Right. Right. And then

showing up comes out. Listen, the act of being kind to a fat person takes a lot of skill. So really, we had to get back to her. She's the real superhero in that movie. Could you, an unimaginable level of humanity. My God. No, but this.

Looked at him every day, walked over there and on her own behalf. This is a role in which, like, yes, she is Michelle Williams' landlord. Michelle Williams is a working artist who is working so hard to give herself the time to make art as is Hong Chao but Hong Chao is getting this passive income and she's not maintaining the home well dropping a bird off and being like watch this bird for me

she's not only not fixing Michelle Williams problems but she's not an asshole either that's the thing this woman is maddening all Michelle Williams wants to do is yell at her and go, fix my fucking water and stop giving me shit to do. Right. Get off your tire swing.

Actually shows up, you're like, I can't yell at her. Right, right. And it's the screen line. It's so good. Paula Beer, A Fire. Yeah. I haven't seen A Fire. This is kind of... Best Hottie. Well, Best Hottie. Of all time. This is kind of an overdue. I'm giving her a little bit of a makeup nomination.

She's incredible in this film. But her third now in a row with Pet Sold after Undine and Transit. They have an amazing partnership going on. It's just one of these performances where you just cannot figure out what the fuck is going on with this woman

ever. I'm looking forward to seeing that movie. Yes. I don't want to say anything more about it because I don't want to ruin it for people. Not that it's a super twisty movie, but it's a great film and she is just a perfect showcase for her incredibly bizarre energy. I don't want to spoil anything

about it either, but Mr. Waternoose is the villain of that film. He is. In that film? There's no question. Undeniably. Who else have you got penelope cruz for our we just all agree is fucking historic she said we had that conversation she italian uh when we saw uh beef oh yes about how like i was just so yeah i get it oh she's gonna be good i understand the kind of performance i was so hand wavy about that before i saw that movie i'm like right right right penelope cruz Penelope Cruz, I get it, I get it, I get it. And then I saw the movie, I'm like, oh, no, this is like one of her best performances. Certainly her best English language performance.

Unquestionably her best English language performance, if you ask me. I do love her in Vicky Cristina Barcelona. She's great in that. But she's much, like, this is, I think, as good as she's ever been in anything. I basically agree. I love her in this movie. Yeah. I do think that what you're describing, though,

is the Penelope Kruger experience, where you're like, well, I know what she gives me. Got it. And then she gives you what she gives you. Okay, she's just going to be the wife. And she's Italian. She yells, yeah.

And then she gives you what you expect, and you're like, ah, it's so much better than I thought it was going to be. It's like there were some breakthroughs. It's like she has some drastically different take. You're like oh she's just like alive with fire right like you know like she also doesn't like fall on the floor and like this no you know what i mean like it's it's it genuinely just feels like oh there was some like breakthrough in oil drilling we've now gone deeper right like she's doing the kind of thing you know she can do but it's like she's

unlocked new depths i agree uh florence pew and oppenheimer uh you have the floor right a smaller performance but an important one i mean like in terms of the movie's energy and yeah blunt got all the attention this year and a lot of that's blunt being very overdue it's partly that i will say on rewatch scene at the end right i was like she kind of does slay when she slays. She slays the highs and the lows, and that sometimes is a lot more effective for an Oscar nomination

than, like, Steady Eddie or whatever. And I obviously love Florence, Candace, LeBron, James, Bergen, Pugh. And part of this might just be, you know, a thumb on the scale is

recently my therapist really just throwing fucking haymakers at me i made offhand reference to uh the type of women i fall for and she went oh you mean uh women with mood disorders and i was like yeah maybe there's a reason this performance has really stuck with me all year david looking around you should see that therapist twice a week maybe up to three i told you i told you recently and to any exes like, yep. I told you recently, and to any exes of mine listening to the podcast,

that's referring to everyone but you. You're the one exception. We may want to cut this out. No, keep it in. My therapist also recently compared me to Branch from the Trolls franchise. The Justin Timberlake troll.

Oh, wow. The grumpy troll. And your response to that was, you need to stop seeing lights, Cameron Jackson for therapy. You are like Branch though. And I guess I'm Princess Poppy. I guess that makes me Princess Poppy.

The most infuriating part was her, her take was pretty strong. That makes a lot of sense. Who else do you have? No, I just, I think Pew, it's just like emotional volcanic. And we, in our very long Oppenheimer episode

Didn't talk about it but the part of that movie That destroys me is after He gets Emily Blunt pregnant And she's like unconsolable on the floor crying And he goes like I proposed to you Like six times you didn't want to marry me And she says but this is a door Closing and that's always sad

You're right it's like after He gets Blunt pregnant Pew is crying No no it's fine And she says, but this is a door closing and that's always sad. Right. You're right. It's like after, yeah, after he gets blunt pregnant, Pugh is crying. Yeah. Sorry. No, no, it's fine. Just, just, yes.

No, absolutely. That energy to the performance of this woman who just kind of like cannot figure her own shit out. Yeah. And then it spends the rest of her life sort of like racked with. Yeah, until the feds get her.

Until the feds get her. Who else you got? Those are my five. Hong Chao, Paula Beer, Julianne Mooreore penelope cruz florence pugh julianne moore the fucking similarly one of our best a performance that is such she's actually like embodiment of all the different types of things she's good at it's such an insane tonal uh balancing act that's so in line with what haynes is trying to do with the movie where you're like is this for real is this like it's so in line with what Haynes is trying to do with the movie where you're like, is this for real? Is this like... It's so great to finally hear her natural speaking voice.

She was on Big Picture and she talked about the voice and she's one of those actors who can speak about acting in a way that is incredibly intelligent and unpretentious and is brass tacks where she's not sort of like, I don't know, I just wake up and I feel things. There is something

very studious about her, but then she gives these performances that feel very organic. Not to spoil, but there's a moment in Dune 2 where Rebecca Ferguson says, do the voice and Florence Pugh just starts speaking in her regular normal voice and it's quite effective. Is that true? No. It'd be funny, though. Who else did you have? I had

Anne Hathaway in Eileen. Yeah. You know, comes in and supercharges the movie the story behind that obviously is the one point the director hands her a folded piece of paper and she opens it and it said what if you slayed yeah um and she just proceeds to that didn't actually happen but it should have um eileen i just want to say and make him come up in another category later in this episode that is a movie where the first 90 percent of it i'm just like why is everyone not talking about this this is gonna fucking fit into every category

of the year and then the last part and you're like oh i get it like i was just like this thing just crumbles in real time there's not even like some horrible decision or like a twist that undoes it it just feels like it kind of disintegrates it just doesn't land in a way where you're like it all makes sense or like i now i see how this is and it feels like it kind of disintegrates. It just doesn't land in a way where you're like, it all makes sense or like, now I see how this is all. And it feels like it's building and building and building. It's got good vibes. It's got incredible performances. It's got great vibes.

And Hathaway has to be this sort of like, you have to be the most beguiling thing that this person has ever seen. And she's like, yeah, I got it. Yeah. I went to go see with Romilly, my sister, and we're just sitting there going, like, fucking Anne's back.

Like, we're so excited. Like, here she goes yeah by the way I may have seen an early version of an Anne Hathaway movie coming out this year that I do think will be the Anne's back movie not the Pogashaw I did Tilda and the Killer you guys talked her up quite a bit she's a close miss for me

as is another candidate Carrie O'Malley oh sure yeah both incredible in that movie oh you know who carrie o'malley she plays secretary yeah she's so good that's a great hell tilda with the classic like scene and a half of fire totally shows up orders a few flights of uh whiskey and and kills it and then david you and i both have rachel mAdams, who is just... Luminous. Luminous, fantastic.

Like, if you're going to do a Judy Blume adaptation, you need a really great mom, I feel like. And she delivers the scene everybody talks about. It's one of those ones that's like, yeah, everybody's talking about it, but they're doing it for a reason. Like, where she talks about her parents' situation. And also, she's still not getting enough credit. Like, yes, all those critics shout her out, and she sort of was a runner-up for some but you know like but like she's not one of those two cheese that you were talking about but she's a little level different where it's like the spotlight nomination was very good but it's still very odd that that's the only thing totally and

here's the other weird weird rude thing in my opinion so many of the movie podcasts that i listen to hosted by people I respect deeply, were talking about, like, in anticipation, it's going to be so annoying when she gets snubbed for Are You There or God, It's Me, Margaret. And they were like, what's it going to take for Rachel McAdams to finally get a nomination?

Everyone kind of already forgot she got the spotlight nomination. Yeah. Those slacks. They were so ill-fitting. Yeah. I considered dropping Divine They were so ill-fitting. Yeah. I considered dropping Divine Joy Randolph because she's obviously just like... Yes, she came to overclass for mine.

But I really actually love that performance and it moved me quite profoundly. So she's making it for me. As is... I feel the exact same way about Ruby Cruz. And then Mara Tierney's my winner. I'm going to say my winner. I think the best acting of the year might be her Not wanting to put on the dress for the second time

Which is kind of like One of the big movie moments Of the year for me A David favorite And she's really operating from the margins of that movie too And that's like Pinch hitting The confidence of durkan well now

should i spoil the iron claw that's a real life story people know fast forward a minute if you just don't want me to talk about a couple things at the end of the iron claw to have a scene where characters enter heaven and greet each other as brothers i mean yes i've seen that should which is which so well. This is the conversation I've had with 12 different people and everybody comes out like, there's no way that should have worked. A very, like, nakedly hard-on-sleeve emotional scene. Yeah.

And then the Efron final scene where the kids are talking to him is also hard-on-sleeve. Yeah. But then to also have the scene where the dad comes home, she's just painting. The painting. And you just get everything from that even though nothing is said of like what the future holds for them.

Yeah. I just have movies. The Report, the Scott Z. Burns movie, which is very good and where I was like, oh, is this the start of like next era? A little tyranny like right in her 50s.

Smart directors knowing how to give her these. And it feels like Iron Claw is continuing that and there's probably going to be one that breaks through it a larger uh sort of public uh consensus way i was smart guys being hip right i was kind of hoping for this movie but i think it's oscar chances were just hurt by coming out too late it came out um yeah uh who are your winners penelope cruz i i'm gonna use that to free myself up to give it to Julianne Moore. Those are the winners.

So let's do supporting actor. Can I just call out a couple people who barely missed my cut? I'm just trying to keep the trains running. We always happy birthday sign. We do happy birthday sign. Let's talk runners up. I considered Hayley Atwell in Dead Reckoning. A performance I love.

She's good. I really like her in that movie. She's great. Obviously, I do feel like that performance is fighting against everyone's frustration over, let's just say, how Rebecca Ferguson has handled that movie.

Sure, sure, sure. And I think people hold that against Hayley Atwell, which is unfair. That's unfair. She has the moment in The Train where he asks her if she's okay. That, for me,

is my moment equivalent to the Maura Tierney moment you described. Where I'm like, that's kind of the most incredible five second take of acting I saw I love the senior referencing I love her I love her but

also kind of weird mid space between lead and supporting I think for that performance this is one where I'm like actually kind of fucked by the movie having three separate supporting actress candidates and I couldn't pick one. Gone. Parker Posey.

Beau. Beau. Along with Patti LuPone. Patti LuPone's on my shortlist. And Zoe Lister-Jones. Yeah. And I was just like, the LuPone-Zoe Lister-Jones, it's one of the best two actors playing the same character I've ever seen. Yeah, LuPone was certainly a late cut for me.

Yeah. So I don't know how to pick one of the two character I've ever seen. Yeah, Lupin was certainly a late cut for me. Yeah, she was. So I don't know how to pick one of the two for that character. And then I was like, well, then you could go Parker Posey, but then it feels weird to them and it ends up costing all three of them. Sure, sure, sure.

Scarlett Johansson, Asteroid City. Yep, she's great. Sort of a quasi-lead. I don't really know. Yeah, she's another tough one. Those West ensembles. Right. And then this is one I feel like

I've heard no one call out. And I perhaps like this movie a little less than other people, although I did like it. Catherine Hunter, Poor Things, I think is unreal. She's very good. She sort of comes, that's when she comes in so late in that movie. And is there pretty briefly. She's great. I mean, and I love her.

Yeah. I find that to be the most tiresome part of the movie, or at least the part of the movie where I'm starting to like lose energy. So maybe that's why I'm holding it against Catherine Hunter. I just felt, maybe I think she needs to explain the pacing of that movie to me. Yeah, no, no,

no. That's maybe, yeah, she's great. Supporting actor. No, excuse me. I do.

Exactly. I'm sorry. I posted a little grid last night. If I had like 12 finalists and I'm like, I really, so it's like I had some late, late cuts. Erica Alexander in American fiction. An incredible pick.

Is so good. One I consider. My main reaction after walking out of that movie was like, I can't believe just I think she's so good at the romantic comedy thing. And if like if we made romantic comedies, if we would cast Erica Alexander as the lead in things, we'd be better off. I had Claire Foy in All of Us Strangers. Great performance. I think she's really good. A movie I think the both of you like, The Burial, I saw very recently.

I think Journey Smollett's very, very good in The Burial. I agree. Yeah. She has a couple really, really good scenes with Jamie Foxx. Mama Do, Athie also I considered. Yeah. I know we're jumping in category ahead, but he's really good in that. Marin Ireland has one of those like the movie.

That's when the movie sort of like changes on a dime. But like she's really good in that incredible monologue. Yes. And then I know not a fan of the blank and Eileen. Yeah, not a fan of the blank check verse. But I think Roz Pike is a scream and salt burn. I don't think she's so funny. I don't disagree with that. But I also feel like Rozmyn

Pike is the Velveteen Rabbit, and that by being in that movie, her exposure to a deadly illness is so severe that there's no choice but to put that performance in the incinerator. I love her, and I love her work.

But I'm like, if I give that any recognition. I'm much, much higher on Salt Burn than you guys are. I think that movie should go to jail. Oh, I think it's I don't know. I don't want to get too far into it. But like, I'm in a very like, you know, can't we just have fun kind of a place with that movie? I just think it's that is where I was. Silly and dumb and fun.

Two thirds, if not three fourths of the movie. I just think it's... That is where I was for the first two-thirds, if not three-fourths of the movie. I was totally there. Can I say this without spoiling anything? Are you going to feel bad about spoiling Salt Burn? Here's my take where I'm just like,

this movie has become indefensible. Yeah. It is not what happens in the quote-unquote twist ending that made me... It's that they feel like the need to explain it because it's so obvious

what was happening correct yeah the end of that movie structures the reveal of its quote-unquote twist as if it's the sixth sense and they're cutting back and showing you scenes yes and acting like i bet this wasn't your read when you were watching it the first time it's yeah and in that moment i go if i wasn't supposed to be reading those scenes that way the first time i have no idea what the fuck this right right no it's it's it double bags itself for stinky poop dumb reason do you have any other supporting actors you want to shout out we do have to move on but i should i want to shout out mine 10-2 cardinal in killers of the flower man the late cut for me i already said um yeah the killer ladies. Obviously, I like them.

Patti LuPone. I think those are the big ones for me. I'm trying to think if there's anyone else. Those are the big ones. Sure. Yeah. We'll return to the 7th Annual Blank Check Awards after a word from our sponsors. David. David.

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I believe Dr. Ruth is still alive. I mean, I'm definitely going to watch this film. It sounds right up my alley. But I'm also just like, I got maybe got to tackle this other problem on this side. So you want to give her a call soon. But How to Have Sex is now playing only in theaters visit movie.com slash how to have sex one word to see showtimes and get tickets that's mubi.com slash how to have sex best supporting actor Best Supporting Actor Supporting Actor

Go on Griffin You can do it Supporting Actor Who's presenting this? Who were our winners last year? Great question The answers of course are Our Supporting Actresses

Correct? So for Griffin It's Kiki Palmer for Nope Cool Kiki Palmer Category fraud Kind of category I'm calling bullshit on myself, but whatever.

I made it work. For me, it was Lashana Lynch, Woman King. And for you, it was Kate Hudson, Glass Onion. Wow. Joe. I stand by it. I stand by it. This is a vaguely wild category for me. Best Supporting Actor.

Glenn Howard in Blackberry. Ryan Gosling in Barbie was my kind of undeniable in this category. Best supporting actor. Glenn Howard in Blackberry. Ryan Gosling and Barbie was my kind of undeniable in this category. More than fair. Yeah. John Magaro showing up. Hugo Weaving, The Royal Hotel. You fucker. Fuck you.

You asked me to go first. I'm taking him off then. I'm taking him off mine. You asked me to go first. Sorry, Hugo. You're off mine. That was clever. Honestly, no. It was honestly mostly just to make you happy. I was hoping me to go first. Sorry, Hugo. You're off mine. That was clever. Honestly, no. It was honestly mostly just to make you happy. I was hoping it would delight you. No, he was in there.

No question. Yeah, he's so good. And then ready for my swerve? Corey Michael Smith in May, December. Griffin. Griffin. He's good. Mine in alphabetical order are John Magaro in Past Lives.

Holt McCallany in The Iron claw charles melton in may december antoine reinhardt's in anatomy of a fall and ready for my twist cory michael smith in may december hell yeah is that hot lawyer or mean lawyer uh mean lawyer who is also hot but they're both hot lawyer bpm lawyer yes the uhave Ted lawyer. BPM lawyer. Yes. France's sarcastic Attorney General. Oh my God. Attorney General sarcasm. By the way,

my mom, my mom who is French famously, loved Anatomy of a Fall. And I feel like most of us, dumb American film people, David, you have said many, many times on this line of thinking

the greatest thing about Anatomy of a Fall is just realizing how insane French Court is. That was my first reaction to that movie. They're up to some business. My mom was like, oh, this movie's wildly unrealistic. I don't care. I want... And I was like, really? And she was like, yeah, no, no, I think the movie's great. French Court's not like that. What do you mean? It's just like a big town hall.

I would trust my mom. I think she's been prosecuted for murder. My favorite thing about it, which I believe is just that everyone's just kind of there. And the defendant can kind of be like, hey, that's bullshit. And the judge will be like, alright, you can talk in a second. Hush, hush, hush. It's a lot of that. He's also like, that's bullshit. Don't you think

that's bullshit? No, but my favorite thing is just the guy's reading the book. The book's pretty stupid. That can be like evidence. Not good. You're bisexual. Does that mean you want to murder your husband?

I have Robert Downey Jr. and Oppenheimer. Robert De Niro and Glenn Howard and Blackberry. Kiefer Sutherland and the K-Mutiny court-martial. Considered it. Cool. And Jamie Bell and all of his strangers. Great pick. Great pick. I qualify anyone who has ever been

on the podcast. That is my internal role. I double. I super qualify them. They actually get double votes. He's amazing. He is. He's very, very good. Those were my five, but I had Hugo certainly as a contender. We can discuss. You talk about you saw royal hotel

he comes on screen you're like is that hugo weaving and then you caught yourself i'll let you say the no you say it i think i told you this though right where i was like he doesn't look like this like it's just someone who looks like hugo weave right and you were just like that's like dumb of me to think all exactly australian oh he's a middle-aged australian actor it must be hugo weaving that was me watching sam neill and hunt for the wilder people yeah yeah this is like that times a million yeah uh he's so good in it though he is he rocks in it i think he's kind of the best thing about it and i generally like it a lot that's another movie that arguably kind of falls apart in the last 10 minutes that's a movie that doesn't in an Eileen way of

just like we don't know how to end this does not know what to do with the ending yeah and I will say also Robert Downey Jr. is he is he is standing with the cast of Oppenheimer as well like you know you gotta not like what a what a supporting actor movie that is it is a feast if you had to pick out

five from that cast, like, of the supporting cast. Top five? Yeah. David's rolling up his sleeves. Let's go, let's go. Him? Obviously. Crummy. Crummy, Krumholtz, obviously. I think Safdie kind of, kind of, I want him there. If we're given five

slots, just to... I, I, Damon, who I adore. Casey Affleck is my favorite. Oh, Casey Affleck's a good thing. Because just one of those things where he has two minutes of screen time. For him to be such a seething evil creature

in the like, you just see his face and you're like, oh, Oppenheimer shouldn't have talked to this guy. This guy's crazy. I like murdering people. Oh, you say he's a connoisseur. That's interesting. Mind if I write that down in my little book?

My book that says people I'm going to mean things to. Were you going to give it to Rami? Who were you saying say it about? No, I just wasn't sure who your fifth was going to be. I mean, Hartnett's great.

I would put Hartnett. Hartnett would be in my five. Well, Hartnett's in my five like hunkiest. Downey Jr., Jason Clarke, I think, is my number two. Clarke's great.

He's really good he's really really good especially in the scene with emily blunt you know who's best scene actually i'm not gonna say it okay i'll bring that up later but you know who else i love tom conti as wonderful i love alden aaron reich as much as he's a sorghum character i love love him i love james urbaniak looking at the trees. He actually rocks. I mean, obviously we love James, but like he really, that seems lovely. Did you guys see Krumholtz

in his mauve crushed velvet suit at the Sagalore? Krumholtz is having a lovely Oscar season. He really is having a lovely Oscar season. Should I call it here? What? 2024, we're getting Krumholtz on the podcast. I don't think that's in dispute, really. I think if we want to make it happen,

we can make it happen. That's not teasing something. That's me saying there are lines of communication and I feel like I want to make the resolution here. Yeah. The commitment that we're going to make that happen. So... We both nominated John McGarver for separate films.

Yes. But he's great in both. Undeniably, that's kind of a great year for him. Coming off a couple great years. But it's also the alpha and the omega. Like in showing up, he's playing this character who's like so besieged by something

we don't fully understand, right? It's a major work as he's digging a hole. Right. And then in past lives, the fucking brimming alpha confidence of this guy of like, yeah, go see the person you've been sort of entangled with your whole life.

I'll be here playing Xbox. You're going to come right back to me, baby. Because I love you and you love me. My read's a little different because I feel like his energy isn't, I know you'll come back to me. His energy is, there's nothing I could do to change

this outcome. If we're supposed to be together, you come back to me. We'll make it worse. But to me, that's alpha energy. Yes. I mean, the scene when we revisit. Baby, no. Don't go see him.

You've done too many Skype calls with him. When you loop back to the opening of the film. Yeah. And there's the extended version of the scene of him watching them speak and him just sitting there silently at the bar. Yeah. Glenn Howard and Blackberry. Oh, great yeller. One of the great yellers.

This is kind of, I almost feel like in a year where you didn't have like four humongous movie stars basically locked into supporting performance nominations from Best Picture contenders, like huge leading men. Yeah.

He's the kind of guy who might have bumped in off the bubble. Here's the problem with what BlackBerry was, is that that Blackberry, I think a lot of people thought it was a television thing because there were so many television things that were about. Here's this product. You want to know how this product came into being? I bet you do. Like that kind of thing. And instead, it's like the first great version of that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's an incredible movie. But Glenn Howard, it's just incredible. I was talking to my friend about it, and he was like, do you find that a lot of people, the way they talk about his performance is almost a little condescending, where they're like, I didn't know

this guy could act. Good job by you, Glennie. Yeah, right. It's just like, no, whether or not you love Always Sunny, it was just always clear this guy had a greater emotional range in him. And what's interesting about that character is how horrendous he makes that guy.

I mentioned this on my podcast, but one of the great things that the Blackberry performance has done is helped resurface the Glenn Howerton does his CCH Pounder impersonation clip, which brings my day up every time I watch it. It's so fantastic. Ryan Gosling and Barbie is just, for my money,

one of the two incredible comedic performances of the year. And I always feel like I need to call out at least one of those. I also think, he didn't even make my ballot, but I do think it's like kind of the performance of the year, in a way. In a way, I was watching it and every three seconds he did something I thought was funny. And it's not like, here's my big take on it. It is the opposite of Jason Momoa and Fast Axe, my single least favorite performance of the year.

Where that just feels like him going, what's the weirdest thing I can do at every moment that will be perfect fucking gift bait? Versus Ryan Gosling is doing something funny every three seconds, but it's based on such a weirdly specific handle on that character's psychology. And the character's psychology is almost his lack of a psychology. And the way he'll react to everything is just like, fuck, that's so funny because that's exactly the face that guy would make. Ryan Gosling's going to get me to watch that piece of shit looking Fall Guy movie. I'm going to, not only is he going to get me to watch it, I'm going to go over the weekend and I'm gonna, not only is he gonna get me to watch it, I'm gonna go over the weekend

and I'm gonna be like, this is, this one's gonna be good, right? Yeah. Leach is gonna, maybe Leach gets it right this time. The thing with Gosling is, he's the kind of actor who actually makes few enough things that I'm always excited.

Same. He did make The Gray Man. That's the one I always forget about when he was The Gray Man. The Gray Man. Oh, The Gray Man, yeah, yes. But apart from that, the one i always forget about when he was the gray man the gray oh the gray man yeah yes uh but apart from that i pretty much always love gosselin was everybody in the gray man good in something else this year because i know no something in this year oh well then yeah i just i was sorry you better not be fucking teeing up that you're giving uh fucking

chris evans a pain hustlers i had you loved ghost i took the permission slip to not a pain hustler. I didn't see Ghosted. I took the permission slip to not see Pain Hustlers once nobody talked about Pain Hustlers. You know Chris Evans' last theatrically released film? What? Knives Out. Oh, theatrically released was Knives Out.

Yeah, if you don't count, Lightyear. Chris, I love Chris Evans. He's all over it. And I need Chris Evans. Just love him. Going on five years of making the worst

streaming bullshit in the world and let's see, coming up next is Red One. Yeah. A new take on holiday mythology

based on an idea by The Rock's ex-brother-in-law. I've heard he's like at least circling like The Cillian Song movie. Right, right.

More interesting stuff. Right. But I've also heard about him turning some shit down recently in a way that made me... Really? Like, yeah. He's also going to be in the second

Ethan Coen lesbian movie. Is he? Supposedly. Honey, don't. Well, I hope so. Wait, did somebody just whisper something to George W. Bush that there's a second Ethan Coen lesbian movie? Supposedly he has a trilogy he wants to make,

and luckily he's going to make those movies in 15 minutes. Yeah, for sure. I don't think it'll be that hard. There's a bunch of scripts in the drawer. Howard and Amazing, though, I completely agree. I mean, my guys left off the list were like the actual Oscar nominees. It's like Downey Jr., Oppenheimer, De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon, Sterling K. Brown.

You had Corey and Michael Smith instead of Charles Melton, I said, in addition to Charles. Right, and I'm lowering my glasses and saying maybe this will come up again later. Corey Michael Smith, I think, is. Yeah. Jumps off of that screen. Yes. The second you see him, even just when he's still on that stage and just being like a little bitch. He's got like three scenes.

He's got less than 10 minutes. He's so good. But you're just like there's kind of a complete arc to his three scenes in the movie. Yep. And it's like you've heard about the character some a lot of his characterization comes from other people talking about him the second he arrives on screen you're like i know fucking everything about this guy every decision he's making is telling you something about it's the perfect kind of a guy who is so

traumatized and is working so hard to cover it up and be like i'm in on the joke i'm telling you i'm fucked up you can't judge me i'm mad that this casting oscar is gonna happen two years too late for me to bitch about may december not getting nominated for casting a feat of cast because like everybody in that may december cast all those their kids and whatnot are all so fucking good also just yeah the way that movie is like, Natalie brings it to him. Yep. Yeah. Natalie's going to be in it.

Yeah. He's like, I'm Todd Haynes. He hits one on his phone, which calls Julianne Moore. Right. And two at this point is maybe Corey Michael Smith. Yeah.

Corey Michael Smith and a bunch of his. So like, obvious, obvious casting decisions that obviously make sense. Yeah. But then like someone like Melton, where it's like, you know,

they, they don't have him in mind. All of the kids are incredible in it. Right. Exactly. The kids are great. Like all the, you know, they don't have him in mind. All of the kids are incredible in it. Right, exactly. The kids are great. It is a beautifully cast. The lawyer, her ex-husband, like all those performances are incredible. Corey Michael Smith, I think, is always great.

The bees? I mean, butterflies. Fuck. Beautiful butterflies. Corey Michael Smith playing Chevy Chase in the Reitman SNL movie. Oh, yeah. I'm into that. David, I definitely thought you were going to do Holt McCallany for the Iron Claw. You went the other way with the Iron Claw.

He's on my long list for sure. He's excellent. Holt McCallany is one of those people I'm like, that's a David guy. I love him. I think one of your classic Simsisms you referred to him once as a cube on top of another cube. He looks like a Minecraft character. Compliment, to be be clear i'm sure if

i told him that he'd throw me through a wall what's stunning he's also amazing in the first scene of iron claw where he's younger and it's black and white yeah he's the wrestler yeah i watched some youtube clips of the real i mean he's not my best dad of course no perfect father i watched clips of the real guy it is astonishing how close it is and not in a way where it's like, what an amazing transformation where you're just like, I think Durkin's even talked about this, that he's like been a whole fan for a while. He's trying to figure out who to cast.

And he's like, is that too obvious? Is he going to feel unchallenged? And in a certain way, that character is kind of like one note, but the point of the character is that he's sort of stuck on one note and Holt finds a way to play him

in a way that is not repetitive who else you got come on let's keep going let's keep going I mean Antoine Reinhardt I've called out all my guys okay so he's being a lawyer I do want to shout out Hot Lawyer as well Hot Lawyer is great here's the thing he has going for him

is that he is hot. And there's a counterpoint, because inside all of us... Hot and tired and kind of like stressed, you know? Inside all of us, there are two lawyers. Right. One with a lot of hair, one with none.

One with a great head of hair and he's hot, one with a bald head and he's a little bitch. One who looks tired, one who has too much energy. Yep, yep, yep. Antoine Reiner is very good in BPM, several years ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah. David, who were your

others? I had Downey. We already talked about that. De Niro, I'll just say, is my winner. I think that's one of the great performances he's ever given. Wearing the Mr. Burns goggles. It's on a top tier. Yes, I give that award five Ougas from a vintage car.

Kiefer Sutherland is one of those performances where. Kiefer Sutherland is one of those performances where, because Kiefer has, like, acquired this reputation as this sort of like, oh, like,

he's kind of this, like, weird, you know, fuck up, right? And like, so you're kind of like, oh, is there, are they just tapping into that?

But like, that performance revolves around his two big, I mean, the movie revolves around his two big testimonies, right? And it's a bizarre,

stylized performance. Exactly. Like, when you like when you realize like no this is so many choices being made and the first time where he's trying to come across is like well i mean this is all very ridiculous but of course i'll tell you what happened you know he's like talking out of the side of his mouth yeah i remember seeing the trailer for that movie and that's a hard movie to trailer yeah yeah sure but going like oh kefer looks like a disaster in this. He cannot lock into a smaller register anymore. And then you watch the film and you're like, it actually makes perfect sense in the context of the full movie around him.

I agree. I do think some people are still bumping up against that performance. Also, Lance Reddick is incredible in that movie. Reddick I really liked. I didn't love that movie, but Reddick's really good. And the Kiefer thing that I liked was it's sort of in conversation with his A Few Good Men character

in a way that I find very, very fascinating. And Jamie Bell, I don't really like that movie at all. He was the thing that worked for me best. Oh, I love that movie. In that classic Jamie Bell way of just like, this guy has found the emotional center of this so fast it's the best and i'm sorry jamie but i refuse to ever nominate you again because you've

been on the show i gave you the rocket man nomination also return on recording equipment whenever you get the chance thinking about guesting on blank check just uh beware i'll give a nomination if he sends back the microphone no he, he can keep it. He can keep it for all of us. He's a cutie pie. Who are your winners, guys? Charles Melton in May, December. I guess I didn't talk about him. Yeah. Great.

Fucking great. He's great. Yeah. And he holds his own. Yeah. With Natalie Portman. And I do not mean that in a patronizing way. No.

I don't feel that way about a top tier actor. It's also a performance that is by design bottled in a movie where two actresses are going really big yeah it's hard to go small and hold your own well and he doesn't ever actually like go into like fugue state baby little like you know it's just but he like but he evokes that while being an actual adult. You know what I mean? He doesn't take that shortcut. Yeah.

And it's a good choice. My winner is Brian Gosselin. Great choice. Here are the blankies. Ten. Okay. Ten, Glenn Howerton. Nine, Penelope Cruz.

Eight, Julianne Moore. Tied for six, Rachel McAdams and Robert De Niro. Okay. Exact tie, it seems. Fifth, Mark Ruffalo. None of us mentioned. I do think he's only not he's an Oscar nominee like I gave my I'm

seeing I don't like I think a lot of fun in that movie yeah I certainly if I were to nominate someone from poor things I would go to foe Ruffalo but I would say neither of them were within my oh I like Ruffalo I rewatch poor things that my first time I like that movie terrible circumstances the rewatch very chill circumstances

He's just really funny Him losing is just kind of topped here like and it's kind of a it's a cousin to the Gosling performance of like The minute she's like what I let someone else eat me out and he's just like The minute she's like, what? I let someone else eat me out. And he's just like, he just wants all of his confidence shattered in one second. I guess it gets me more.

It's a matter of taste. Sure, sure, sure. Three, Divine Joy Randolph. Two, Robert Downey Jr. One, Charles Melton. A very strong year for supporting acting. Interesting. Griffin might dispute some things.

No, I generally agree with that. Best original screenplay. Best original screenplay. Best adapted screenplay. I went a little wild on these because I was like, let me cover some things I'm not hitting in other categories. Go on then.

For best original screenplay. Yes. Asteroid City. Yeah, by Sanders. May, December. Yes, Sammy Virch and the story is by Alex McCann. Amanda.

Oh, you love that movie. I think one of the great debut films of the year. And that film was written by Amanda? No. Looks like it was written by Carolina Cabelli. Yes, who also wrote Fremont. Yes. A movie I love and I was so happy to see it win in the spirit this year. Beau is afraid.

No, Ari Aster. Still eligible because he's never been on this podcast. It. No. Ari Aster. Still eligible because he's never been on this podcast. It was written by Ari Aster and a giant penis. Yes. That lives in his head.

Yes. And Fallen Leaves. Fantastic. We have a lot of similarity, my friend, which is I also have Wes Anderson

for Asteroid City and Ari Aster for Bo is Afraid and Aki Karasumaki for Fallen Leaves. And then I had Jonathan Raymond and Kelly Raycard for Showing Up. And A.V. Rockwell for

A Thousand and One. A blind spot for me. Mine are Justine Triet. Is it Triet? I've been screwing that one up all season for Anatomy of a Fall. Wes Anderson for Asteroid City. Doug Wright and Maggie Betts for The Burial. Again, elite edition for me.

Bury him. Sammy Birch and Alex Mechanic for May December and Celine Song for Past Lives. Who are your winners? Asteroid City. May December. Now, here's what's tricky. I'd say those are the two that I would stick between.

Well, let's say that you gave it to them. No, I'm going to pick a winner. Okay. It's interesting because it's like, there are, what I value most in each of those two is very different. Yeah.

I'm like, May, December sets up a number of character dynamics that I could think about for years, right? Like, watching that movie, I was like, this could go on another 10 hours. I would never get tired of watching different combinations of these characters in different environments react to things. Asteroid City is just, like, the ultimate

heightening of Wes's insane obsession with, like, Russian nesting doll structure and creating, like, frames around his story to talk about the frames that we use to tell stories and that he uses yes right and it's a movie that I may be like a little less than you but also because I've been hotter on the

last couple West movies than you were I don't know why that would affect how you feel about Asteroid City one of the great films ever made from a script level it is kind of astounding it's the best piece of writing of the year in my opinion which is why it's my winner. You guys make your cases and then I'll pick who I... My winner is

Asteroid City. Yeah, my winner is May, December. I'll give you the blankies while you... Here are the blankies picked. The Holdovers, which is a lovely screenplay, I think. Nami of a Fall, Asteroid City, Past Lives, May, December, number one. So they were four for five with the Oscar picks, right? Interesting, yeah. Only Asteroid

City missed that. What was the Oscar fifth? Thecar fifth for original yeah this year why am i already forgetting it was uh maestro which i forget is original yeah that's technically not based on a specific book that's why you can't you can't credit all of the bernstein children for uh as a source they do they are doing um i'm gonna go asteroid city because i gave may december supporting actress and i want to spread the love well there you go best adapted screenplay do you want me to start yes please let's mix it up oppenheimer christopher nolan killers of flower moon eric rothman's crusader remember how i wrote like a full song and it had multiple lyrics and it wasn't just me saying Killers of the Flower Moon River. Genocide is sad.

Wow, my picks are really boring. Barbie, Blackberry, and Dungeons and Dragons Honor Among Thieves. Nice. I'd say in a certain way the least surprising nomination of the year. Equivalent to like the announcement that Emily Blunt is playing Mary Poppins and the Globes were like, do you want us to carve out?

Yeah, should we just fucking put a book a table for you? Yeah. Mine are all of us strangers. Andrew Haig. Are you there, God? It's me, Margaret. Kelly Freeman Craig. Barbie. Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach. Killers of the Flower Moon. Eric Roth and Martin Scorsese. Oppenheimer. Christopher Nolan.

My nominations for best adapted screenplay. Oppenheimer. Yeah. Killers of the Flower Moon. Wow. Blackberry. Beep, beep. All of Us Strangers. Oh.

Godzilla Minus One. I loved Godzilla Minus One. I loved that. An incredible movie. I guess it's adapted by, it's like based on Godzilla, right? Like that's where we're going. You, I mean, you have different rules.

You're sometimes persnickety about what qualifies as adapted, but I'm like, that one is so specifically coasting off of the original. If Barbie is adapted because it's Barbie, then I think Godzilla can be adapted. I mean, I'm going by Oscar rules, but I bought Barbie sort of as original. I don't know. I couldn't, I couldn't, I don't know how. I would have been fine if they would have said Barbie as original.

I think it's adapted, but I would say Godzilla minus one is more adapted off of the original Godzilla than most Godzilla films are just adapted off of Godzilla as a general idea. You mean Godzilla X Kong is less faithful to the, uh, possibly. Okay. Oh, minus one's like a prequel and it's really kind of like circling back to

the original themes of the, the 54 movie. And I think it is. So it was Godzilla X Kong. Yeah. Uh, are we really supposed to say it that way? Godzilla X-Kong?

We're not supposed to say anything about that movie. It should not be. They should just re-release Godzilla Minus One again. Be like, go see it. Godzilla Minus Two. Maybe it'll be fun. I have no idea. No, Godzilla Minus One made more here than it did in Japan.

And I also feel like Shin Godzilla outgrossed Godzilla Minus One Japan. Because when this crossed over so huge in the States, people were like, oh, so this, in Japan, people must have, yeah, they must be, their favorite Godzilla movie

of all time, right? And it's like, it was very popular and well-liked there. I do think it is weirdly the Godzilla, it is the Japanese Godzilla movie with the most Western

storytelling sensibilities. Yeah. And part of that is, it is the first Godzilla movie, I would say, to successfully, totally crack a human narrative that is completely engaging

from beginning to end that feels directly tied to Godzilla. It almost feels like it could, like it couldn't, but like, long parts of it could exist independently of Godzilla. It could just be about like,

a guy trying to like, recover from the war. And there are other Godzilla movies that have that, but then the Godzilla elements feel extraneous from that. A little tacked on. It's the one where I'm like, 50, 60 years into making Godzilla movies, 70, they

cracked the perfect way to do that. I like that movie a lot. Yeah, this is a strong year for adaptation. It's like Oppenheimer, it's like it's like oppenheimer it's like i read that book turning that into a functional movie it is really yeah impressive i read flower moon what they did with that is this feat of adaptation where they took what they wanted and ignored what they didn't and that's risky you know that's cool blackberry i mean like the phones

are so small they're so small how do you adapt a whole phone A keyboard like I don't understand it Like yeah Dungeons and Dragons It's a monster manual You're gonna turn this into a movie It's just like giving you entries All of us strangers a movie Joe and I liked a lot more than David

It makes more sense than When I do my best picture Spoiler I think I get where it doesn't Work for everybody obviously Because it makes more sense than when I do my best picture. Spoiler. No, I think I get where it doesn't work for everybody, obviously. To me, it's not to play the personal experience card, but it is the rare gay movie that speaks to the Gen X experience specifically. much the sort of like wilderness in the middle of like the eighth generation of the 80s and the sort of marriage equality um sort of you know uh prep kind of age and this like this i'm sorry i'm not to cut you off i'm so confused you remember the whale came out last year right the ultimate that's gen x homosexual test well honestly not to like give the whale any credit but like the fact

that the whale is about somebody who hates himself so spectacularly that like completely ruined his life like that doesn't not apply to the like to all the strangers well or to like the thing you're talking about the kind of in between gay generation where it was like who grew up so terrified of sex and there's a little bit of like survivor's guilt. And survivor's guilt isn't there, but like all media was desperately telling you like, for God's sake, be careful because this will kill you. And then it's like, okay, well now we're supposed to be asked to like relate to this newer generation who has none of that baggage whatsoever. And it does sometimes feel like you are this sort of like specter in between.

And you also have like the, you know, this sort of like specter in between and you also had like the you know this generation of like still trying to recover from whatever trauma existed from even if you weren't able to come out to your parents you still had that fear of so it's like all of that stuff i thought andrew haig really really synthesizes it really well to me the ghost story thing really worked and i get we're like that's the thing that's probably the sticking point for a lot of people. Which ghost story? Not to reveal the,

you know, I think that's the most spoiler-in of itself. Mr. Waternoose is the ultimate villain at the end. Right, right, right. I agree that all of it works.

I think that movie makes a story swing at the end that's similar to, a twist that is similar to Iron Claw in this shouldn't work and it worked for me. I could see other people going,

I'm out. That's one thing too many. For me, it worked. Especially if the idea is like, oh, well, I guess none of this was real and whatever. And my thing is like, oh, no, like that's an actual,

like the ghost of that person. Let's talk very vaguely here. But I look, I related less personally to that film that's an actual like the ghost of of that person let's talk very vaguely here but i i look i related less personally to that film on a level of sexual identity or what have you um but i watched it and i i think i just forgot any of the background leading up to it and i was like oh this movie is based on andrew haig's own personal experiences one-to-one that he then mapped this magical realist supernatural element on. And I was astounded to then be reminded,

oh, right, this is based on a book. The book is fairly different. His parents are still alive. His parents are still alive. It is a film that feels so... But he said those are... Of course. Like, obviously, he's very...

And it was shot in his childhood home. Yes. It is just a film. I think that's what I find so fascinating about it as an adaptation, is he took a pre-existing work and he added elements that are so personal into it that it feels like every

element of this came out of his own personal experience when in fact it's an interesting adaptation. The Japanese novel, right, it's like it is about a person commuting with their parents as ghosts. Sure. But I think it has more of a horror-y kind of like he's kind of getting trapped by them.

And Mr. Waternoose, it turns out, needed the energy from that to power Monstro from being sad by talking to your dead parents. My winner is Blackberry. Yes. Click, click. Matt Johnson and Matthew Miller are the writers on that one. I think an incredible film. A film I've watched

two times and then a third time on the TV cut. I won't be watching the TV cut. I would say it's pretty skippable. Yeah, it seemed like they made the movie they wanted to make. Correct. Wasn't the TV cut kind of like required by the Canadian Broadcasting Company or whatever?

Those Canadians. Yeah, it was a weird contingency of its funding and I was just like, well, I like this movie so much, I wouldn't mind watching extra footage. And then you watch it and you're like,

there's maybe five minutes of extra footage. Yeah. Most of the extra running time is just adding credit sequences. Right, and also like, you know,

ads for Canadian films and TIFF and World Bank of Canada. I wasn't watching it with ads. I did a one-week free trial of AMC Plus and then canceled it immediately. Who's your winner, Joe?

My winner is actually Barbie. It's one of those things where it's just like very similar to what I thought about Little Women where it was just like, oh, you really did that. You were really able to take this property and bring something completely new and interesting and thought-provoking out of it. And it's one of those things where it's like...

Congrats on falling for a toy commercial, you capitalist. The other thing is just like, she's so good at this kind of thing, and it's like, oh, are we just sort of like going to encourage Greta to keep going for like more and more like, this shouldn't be a movie,

but like watch me do my magic. And it's like, part of me does want her to like, I would like another Frances Ha at some point. I would like another, you know, Lady Bird at some point. That would be nice. Sure. There's not... I wouldn't say I have a specific thing of like, I want her to do this over

this. The only thing I feel same. I'm in that boat right now. The only thing I feel strongly about is I'm disappointed she does seem to be going straight into Narnia. Only because I like she's been there for her. She's unreachable at this point. She has some Turkish

delight. She's been working on that for a while. She had it set before Barbie. Barbie obviously was so huge, got elected president of the United States. Amazingly so. But I was just like, the post-Barbie position, she could make whatever she wants. She could make her Waterworld

now, and if she makes the greatest calamity imaginable, Netflix would let her go back and make Narnia after that. I'm like, Narnia is a safe rebound from anything she does next. Yeah, that's fair. But if she wants to do Narnia, then I'm interested in seeing what her take on Narnia is.

She's in that zone for me now, where anything she wants to do, I'm interested to see why she wants to do that. My winner is Killers of the Flour. I think it's a really silly snub by young Oscars. I agree. But I can't remember what snuck in. Again, it was sort of like American fiction

is possibly going to win in that category of the Oscars, which is nice. I like that movie. Zone of Interest was the surprise Oscar contender there. That movie is an adaptation of a book in that it has the title of the book. A very unconventional adaptation that it basically disregards. And it is an excellent screen a book in that it has the title of the book and right that's a very that it basically disregards and it's it is an excellent screenplay in its way yeah but i really

think that movie's more even weirder though just than not only just getting snubbed it's the only best picture nominee that is not nominated for its screenplay fire moon yeah that's weird yeah silliness okay uh the blankankies gave it to... Yeah, Oppie was their winner. There you go. Me and Margaret was fifth. Poor Things was fourth. Okay.

Barbie, third. Flower Moon, Oppie. I should say, Zone of Interest is my most embarrassing blind spot this year that I still have not... Yeah, you're a coward. I'm a coward. Back to the Blankies after these messages we're back baby it's the blankies. Best animated film of my five. Suzume.

Boy and the Heron. Spider-Man Across the Spider-Verse. Leo. Oh, I didn't see Leo. The funniest movie of 2020. Andy Rich tells me Leo's very good. Leo fucking hits. Have you watched Leo yet, David?

Nope. I'd like to. Jesus. Leo has a character I will not ruin. I would say is the only character that trumps. Is it Leo? It's not Leo. Okay.

Although Leo is great in it. Okay. We do like Leo. We love the titular role. Sure, of course. There is a character in it that I would say is the funniest character of the year over Ken and Barbie for me. Okay.

And I won't spoil it because when the character's introduced, you're like, well, that's not a character. Right. And the journey you go on it's it's very rewarding my fifth nominee ruby gilman teenage kraken really he was done more dirty this year yeah i didn't see it probably because it was she's a good kid give it to understand that ruby gilman put up some uh driveway dolls numbers yeah uh no i think a fun-ass movie incredible like rubble rubber hose old fucking i'll buy work style animation done with modern technology just

fun-ass shit wow i didn't see enough animated movies i kind of didn't i have i had four and i'm i haven't seen teenage mutant ninja turtles mutant mayhem that's sort of waiting because i think i will like that but i I had Boy and the Heron and Spider-Verse. I had Nimona, which I really was surprised how much I loved. Nimona's very, very fun.

Yeah. And then Robot Dreams is kind of my number one. I still need to watch Robot Dreams. It's so good. My therapist keeps recommending it. A lot of beep boop. Lights, cameras, accent.

Good stuff. I think Robot Dreams feels like a Griff movie. I'm going to look like him. I have Boy, Spidey, Turtles, Suzume, and then I guess Mario Brothers is the

default fifth just in terms like i haven't seen enough movies well and here's mario's i will say mario is keeping elemental out of there i will put mark i think mario is a a more accomplished piece of entertainment than an elemental i want to can i make an executive decree here sure i think you're not allowed to nominate mario No, I am. I think you have to only nominate four films. I'm allowed to nominate Mario. I think Mario is successful. Oh.

I don't like it that much. I disagree strongly. Well, he disagrees strongly. Best voiceover performance. Yeah, who you got? Chris Pratt? Adam Sandler in Leo. Chris Pratt?

Because the character I love doesn't really talk. Chris Pratt? Haley Steinfeld across the Spider-Verse. She's so good. Incredible. Chris Pratt?

The lead of the movie. Bradley Cooper, Guardians of the Galaxy, Volume 3. Finishing up a trifecta of some of his best work. Apex shit from him, I would agree. Actually, some of his best work. I'm gonna, just as the tip

of the hat, I'm gonna go. Annie Murphy is very good in Ruby Gilman, Teenage Kraken. Okay. Spoiler, from Schitt's Creek. Schitt'sman, Teenage Kraken. Okay. As the villain. She from... Spoiler, from Schitt's Creek. Schitt's Creek, and she plays Mr. Wadden News? Correct.

And then a movie, I'll say it. This is the opportunity to say it. I found very funny watching on Peacock at 1 o'clock in the morning. Okay. I think Jamie Foxx is kind of unreal in Strays. Oh, sure. I never saw Strays. I of unreal in Strays. Oh, sure. I never saw Strays. I did not see Strays either.

We've been talking about the burial being the Jamie Foxx reminding us all why he's a fucking movie star performance. Strays, I'm like, right, Jamie Foxx is funny. Yeah, he is. I think Strays is good. Okay. I'll check out Strays. Where's Chris Pratt, though? Pratty Pratt Pratt.

He was too busy eating spaghetti With meatballs and a pizza pie And drinking limoncello Chris Pratt did play Mario But didn't play The guy in Elemental who's like What does he look like? Well if Chris Pratt was just made of water

He would look like this guy And it's bizarre He's also playing Garfield oh dear well he does love lasagna exactly he ate so much damn lasagna to play Mario you gotta give him Garfield too now I really love Jackie Chan

vocal performance wise in Turtles I do love Bradley obviously I'm very fond of that I do genuinely enjoy Mr.. I'm very fond of that. I do genuinely enjoy Mr. Jack Black's work in Mario. If there's a voice performer having fun in that movie,

it certainly is. I would agree with that. Can I give Russell Crowe a best voice performance nomination for The Pope's Exorcist? Like, I don't even care about anything else. Just the accent? That was the other scene in Dune, too, is Rebecca Ferguson says, do the voice,

and Russell Crowe from The Pope's Exorcist shows up and he does the voice. I thought you were going to say, can I give him a best animation reference nomination for Donkey Kong in Super Mario? Can I say my number one runner up for production design that just missed the list is,

oh no, wait, sorry. It's my number five. It does make the list. The Pope's Exorcist, parentheses Vespa. Just the Vespa from The Pope's Exorcist parentheses vespa just the vespa from the pope's exorcist makes it in for production i would say he's a putters and murmurs contender but he's more of a you know of rumors and yellers he's not really puttering in that one i guess this is

kind of puttering along yeah yeah yeah yeah i mean should we call out other craft things that they're things i don't i don't have full fives written out for a lot of them. I have full fives for everything. Let's just, yeah, let's pick a category. Godzilla Might as Well would be my visual effects winner as well. It's, you know. The visual effects are unbelievable. There's a lot of hand-wringing of like, how did they make this for $20 million

when every other movie costs $200 million? Sure, sure. And I think the better analog to that movie is the creator, where it's like, how was this made for $80 million when everything else cost 200? Yes. It should just be acknowledged a lot of the ways

in which the Godzilla budget was kept so low have to do with a lot of not great things that happen in the Japanese film industry. The creator coming out as pro-AI propaganda in the year 2023

is very funny also. Very bold. It's very funny. No, a lot of the ways that Godzilla minus one was able to keep its budget low have to do with very equivalent to the video game industry, crunch underpaid, what have you.

And also having a director who had a VFX background and did a lot of it himself for no extra money. Yeah. And also it is a movie that's very smart about like it has fewer visual effects shots than you think it does. Yeah. It chooses its moments very well, but it's also just unbelievably well realized. My other four production design nominations besides The Pope's Exorcist Vespa

are Asteroid City because Wes should always be in production design. Barbie because it creates a world of Barbie. Bo is Afraid for, if nothing else, The City.

creating the most, like, emotionally true New York City, terrifying New York City. Like, oh, what if you made a New York City out of just anxiety? house the city creating the most like uh emotionally true new york city terrifying new york city like oh what if you made a new york city out of just anxiety of and it's just like oh okay all of the set design work the the fantasy world and that is so cool the forest and like that's my winner in that category but also one uh that i think you guys will appreciate is blackberry like the way they do the offices in BlackBerry and the way they make it look, like,

just so shabby and low-rent and also, like, period-appropriate. Very, very good. Most years, the West movie would be my automatic production design winner. Yeah. I need to call out, Ninja Turtles Mutant Mayhem looks unreal.

And I feel like a lot of that conversation got taken over by Spider-Verse. Also looks cool. Looks cool. Ninja Turtles Woodrow White, I believe was the main character designer on it, who I believe is a blankie. Shout out.

Not Woodrow Wilson, who's a dead president. Correct. Bought a Vin Diesel oil painting from him a couple years ago. Woodrow Wilson. Not realizing who he was. Woodrow Wilson. From President Woodrow Wilson.

It showed up on my Instagram timeline, and someone was like, you should buy this, and I bought it from him, and then later found out, oh, he's a listener, and he did all the Ninja Turtles designs. But that movie, Ben, you will see it soon. You have not seen it yet. That is a movie that

somehow carries over this aesthetic of everything looking like doodles done in the margins of a notebook during class. And it's incredible. Yeah, VFX. I do think the creator has amazing VFX. I think Guardians 3 is actually kind of like incredibly triumphant VFX stuff, sort of

at the end of that Marvel run. I think D&D had really good visual effects that are like squidgy and fun and fit the tone of the movie. Oppenheimer's cool, obviously. Production design. Wellenheimer's cool, obviously. Production design. Well, Jack Fist, the King Jack Fist, still out there slaying. Wow, everyone's slaying this year.

He's like almost 80 years old. He rolls. And that movie, like the scale of it is really tremendous. Barbie's obviously worth acknowledging here. Here's a kind of special award I want to call out. The way the Oscars used to sometimes an accomplishment that defies clean categorization.

Best composite performance. Oh, okay. I think there has to be some special honor bestowed to the three-way performance in Mothrigan. Oh. Yeah, sure.

The girl, the robot, and... The dancer. The dancer, yeah. The voice the robot The dancer The voice The special effects Is the girl though the human girl doesn't she provide the voice of Megan Well I'm saying She's slay of the year can we just say if we can just go with this I'm saying there are basically like 10 people involved in that performance

And I'm saying the three facets I'm including everyone who worked on it I'm saying there's the vocal There's the special effects And there's the vocal right there's the special effects yes right and there's the human body for sure right exactly which goes between being a child being animatronics yeah being cgi being a dancer yeah uh the voice like for for that many disparate parts the entire success of that movie is that everyone saw that trailer and went i want to know more about her it's a better trailer than it is a movie.

Totally. I think the movie's a lot of fun. The movie's fun. Yeah, I think the movie's fun. But like, Mithrigan as a performance is so wildly successful that we're going to be seeing Mithrigan movies forever. We did, for This Had Oscar Buzz for our Patreon, we did like superlatives of the year and like non-traditional categories or whatever.

And that was a choreography nominee for us because it's like, it's both dance choreography and fight choreography in the same scene. I just think as a creation, split across a number of contributors, that is a wholly successful realization of a character. Yeah. Who y'all got for score? Music. Ludwig. Ludwig Goranson for Oppenheimer.

He's collecting an Oscar this year. I mean, Mark Ronson and Andrew Wyatt for Barbie, of course. Joe Hisaishi for The Boy and the Heron. Robbie Robertson, Killers of the Flower Moon. Absolutely. Incredible, incredible work. I agree. Rip.

I had Naoki Sato for Godzilla Minus One. Really good music in that movie. Alfonso de Villalonga for Robot Dreams. Again, shout out to Robot Dreams. Love that movie. Trent Bresnan, Anarchist Ross for Ninja Turtles is a really fucking good score for me I listen to that score a lot

and kind of like unlike their other work yeah although I feel like they have been branching out as they do more stuff their Challenger score which is later this year yeah slaps it's like I'm so jealous of you it's like dance music it's like awesome Their Challenger score, which is later this year, slaps. You've seen Challengers? I sure have. I'm so jealous of you.

It's like dance music. It's like awesome. I think the use of song soundtrack in BlackBerry is so fucking good. At a time when song soundtracks are really, really lazy these days. Can be at least. Like, Air does the same shit of like use popular songs from the era as signifiers to place you and all of them are air picked really obscure music i i just didn't understand blackberry every song so directly pins it to that exact year in a way that doesn't feel show-offy

but also doesn't feel like obvious the burial does song is good i know i keep bringing up that movie it's just like jello's think of the movie besides the one you just saw last but yeah yeah can i also say for songs i don't want to like i don't like whatever i'm just ken should win the oscar and um i think wanka deserved a song nominee the fact that wanka didn't show up on the short list is dumb i think there are pretty like the song i just think the songs are mad he's not a believer i think the world of our own is a really of wanka songs rock but whatever we've already been declared Like enemies of the people For liking Wonka Wonka's good and fun

Timmy's very good in it By like three people In our DMs No No The Reddit is already very Really? Which I really shouldn't bring up

Because we're not looking at Reddit anymore We're not looking at Reddit Miko Levy for Son of Interest Sure Is on my ballad as well Uh huh The Blankies picked

Oppenheimer Heron Moon Barbie Spider-Verse Spider-Verse music good Obviously Daniel Samberton Always good Fantastic is on my ballot as well. The blankies picked Oppenheimer, Heron, Moon, Barbie, Spider-Verse. Spider-Verse music good. Obviously,

Daniel Lambert's always good. Fantastic. Yeah. I'm trying to think if there are any other, I mean, I really like Lauren Boff's D&D score. Really,

really good. 1001 has an amazing score. Have you seen 1001? I haven't. I think you'd like that movie. That's another embarrassing blind spot for me. Another good,

like, micro-targeted period piece. Yeah, piece yeah for sure yeah killer had a pretty fun uh resner raw score too yep yeah all right griller also had good needle drops um yeah there's a my what i've previously called my sergeant shroom award named after vin diesel's character and billy lyn Long Halftime War, which is a performance I most wish I could nominate. Yeah. In a good conscience. Right. I'm just like, I went into.

You're ready to love it. I went into the year going, how do I not? And? I think this is a split. And I saw people in past months being like, I can't wait for the inevitable. Griffin nominates him for this. Which is? Who's the name?

Split in two categories. Nick Cage for both dream scenario and renfield very very good in both those movies i wanted to like dream scenarios i wanted to like both of those movies more than i did and there are things i like about both like i'm not gonna watch renfield now after that trailer uh i like renfield i more than dream scenario i like a lot of things in Renfield, actually. But I think he's incredibly good in both of those films. I'm very excited by these last couple years of Nicolas Cage really putting in the work again.

And I feel like he has, other than Pig, not found the vehicle that totally works in conjunction with him. I agree, but he is good. And I'm glad to see him punching above his weight in real movies. Yes, yes. Let me see what...

The other text. Okay, so cinematography. You want me to give you the blankies, cinematography winners? From one to five here. Oppenheimer, Flower Moon, Poor Things, Asteroid City, Maestro. Five movies with looks. For sure.

Can't really argue with any of those. Would that be my five as well? I have Asteroid City, right there. Can't really argue with any of those. Yeah, I'm like, would that be my five as well? It is my five. I have Asteroid City, Bo's Afraid, Iron Claw, which I think looks tremendous, Taste of Things, and Perfect Days. Yeah. Taste of Things, Best Soup. Yes.

100%. My other major embarrassing blind spot. Was that really because they just fucking released it last week? Yeah, that's why. That's actually the only one I don't feel guilty about because they made it hard for me to see it. I'm just going to also throw out Costume Winner or La Chimera. That's all I need to say. La Chimera has linen suits. That's another movie that I'm just

outraged it's considered 2020. I know, it shouldn't be. I look forward to seeing it six months from now. Best Actress. My nominees are Greta Lee in Past Lives. Sure. Salma Hayek in Magic Mike's Last Dance.

You and Chris Feil are the Salma Hayek in Magic Mike's Last Dance. Lori Kalami? Probably mispronounced in full time. Here's my mispronunciation corner. Benedetta Virginie Efira? For Benedetta again.

For what? Oh, you're saying you mangled her name. The actress's name is Benedetta Porcaroli. Benedetta Porcaroli, I think is heretta. The actress's name is Benedetta Porcaroli. Benedetta Porcaroli, I think is her name. And she's in Amanda. She's the lead. She's the titular role in Amanda.

And Alma Poisty in Thorn Leaves. Who's amazing. That's the Golden Globe nomination. She did, which was cool as hell. That movie, those worthless shits. My actress nominees are Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings,

Greta Lee in Past Lives, David's so angry. Sorry, David. It's fine. It's totally fine. Julianne Moore in May December. I'm sorry. I talked over you. Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings, Greta Lee in Past Lives, Julianne Moore in May December,

Natalie Portman in May December, and Margot Robbie in Barbie. So you're putting both the May Decembers in there. They are. It is a twin lead movie if I've ever seen one. I mean, that's totally fair. I bought what they did. I think I had no real complaints about the way they shook it out. But it does feel like a movie where you can kind of shake it almost any way you want. I don't think screen time counting is always the grand arbiter, but I was surprised

seeing the screen time breakdown of Julianne Moore being in a lot less of the movie than I thought she was. Yeah, which I think maybe even makes my point for me, because it feels like she's more prominent. The movie definitely like, right, it deploys her when it wishes to. Yes. David, you're fine.

No, no. You guys just keep talking while I make sure. So mad about Jennifer Lawrence. She was my pick. Love that movie. I love that movie and I love her. Love her especially. It's so great that she's back.

I'm very happy that Jennifer Lawrence is back. I agree. I mean, look, the only thing that's kind of a bummer is it does feel like anyone but you got the bump of people watching No Hard Feelings and Netflix and wishing they had seen it in theaters. Yeah, that's probably true. Anyone but you, like, will they keep it around long enough to hit 100 million? It's at 87 now. They just fell out of the top.

They really, really, really wanted it to hit. They tried to pump it back into more theaters for Valentine's Day to get to 100. They've given up because now it's available digitally but you know it's made obviously a lot of money getting to 90 it's made Madame Web will not put us in the red this quarter amount of money which is that's probably

they're probably happy anyone but you and I should even though and I shouldn't hold Madame Web against anybody but like Madame Web has really made me question the Sidney Sweeney project that we're if you think if you didn't like sydney sweeney and that wait till you see it anyone but you my friend someone i feel like we're all rooting for yeah we want her to work as a movie star a while since

that first season of the white lotus though like it's been a minute i'll just put this on the books for next year to call a winner early okay i think or no it was last year it came out the end of 2023 anyone but you yeah so then let me give an honorific here okay best close-up shot of a pee hole in a movie best urethra it goes to anyone but you wow right right all right okay uh fucking passages got an an NC-17 for shadowy butt crack, and anyone but you goes head-on close-up of the hole. Shadowy hole. Shadowy hole in Passages. There's plenty of crack.

The crack is... Shadowy butthole. I'm sorry. My five are Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Room, Michelle Williams in Showing Up, Tiana Taylor in 1001, Kaylee Spaney in Priscilla, and I'll just give Emma Stone for Poor Things,

who I genuinely love in that movie. Now that fucking Jennifer Lawrence has been taken away from me. My also-rans were a lot of the heavy, I mean, it was Karen Mulligan, Maestro, Natalie Portman, May, December, Michelle Williams showing up, Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Fallen.

I did lop off all of the Oscar nominees that were on my list. Sandra Huler, Emma Stone, Lily Gladstone, loved them all. They're all fantastic. And I kind of felt like you were going to rep Portman and Williams. And I put showing up in a lot of other categories. And Carey Mulligan is incredibly good.

I'll say this. And I love Alma Poitse. I'm not sure how to pronounce her Finnish last name. I'm with you on that one. Yeah. So good. Carey Mulligan's kind of in the weird space of like, is she almost getting bumped up

from what is a supporting performance? As great as I think she is in it. No, I don't think so. I'm surprised there wasn't more talk about that, except for the fact that there was so much buzz when that movie came out around... Her first billing. Her first billing.

And I love Maestro. People know I love Maestro on Maine. You do. I do think that's the most insincere element of the movie. There's a lot of insincere elements of that movie. In my opinion, that is the most insincere element. That is very much not her story or even their story as much as it is his story. And I think there's a certain generosity to Bradley Cooper as a guy.

It's extreme wife-guiness in a way. Absolutely. And she's wonderful. And a lot of Maestro is like, what if I could solve my problems by being a wife guy for a while? Like, yeah. Fascinating movie. Let's talk to our nominees. Yes.

Greta Lee in Past Lives. A performance. Greta Lives. When we had Hodgman. A term stage show at Carnegie Hall. Greta Lives in Past Lee. When we had Hodgman on our Buster Keaton may series, he referred to, uh, Buster Keaton as,

uh, uh, someone who traffics in nostril acting saying the, the stone face kind of title that's thrown at him is inaccurate because he's actually very expressive, but just with such precise micro expressions, the Gretel Lee performance is like that, where I just kind of like,

and I feel like I like that movie a little less than most people. I like it a lot, but it's a movie that many people are religious about. But that performance just knocks me out of like,

for how much of it is her in close-up listening? Or looking at a computer screen? Yes. Yeah. And her face is barely moving and she is saying so much. Well, because it has to lead up to, she can't release until the very, very, very last second.

And she's like an incredible, broad comedic performer. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, yeah. She can play to the cheap seats. Yeah. It's she has done it with a level of specificity that always made clear she had like the technique of a very skilled, dramatic actress. But to scale it down

this much is astounding she's wonderful and i love her in general i always love greta lee she was someone who was always nice to see always yeah and and you know rose to this like incredibly complex role so well uh there's a little role called margot robbie and barbie that she's a last cut for me because she's so fucking funny in that she's really i think like it was one of those things where i walked out of barbie and i texted chris and katie who are my like go-to group text and i'm like margot robbie better fucking get that oscar nomination and i was like i hated to like to boil it down to that because like that conversation has been so annoying sure but it's it's like I would not disagree with Ryan Gosling also being the performance of the year but I think

Margot Robbie as Barbie is the performance of the year. That movie falls apart it doesn't fall apart but like it really does not work. So my line doesn't nail it. Counter to what you said walking out of the theater. Yeah. I went to see it with a good friend friend of the podcast,

Orlando Allier. And I turned to him and I was like, I feel like Margot Robbie's going to get fucked. I called it immediately. Not to give myself credit. No, it's the same thing. I feel like it's another really obvious example of this recently. I said, she's in the fucking Irishman fighter position.

Yeah, De Niro in Irishman. Where she is like the star producer who willed this movie into existence, brought the people together, and she's doing incredibly good work. Felt victim to that same thing. Although that movie gets no acting nominations. Sure, sure.

I just thought the Irishman fighter kind of point where it's like these movies are like supporting bonanzas. Sure, sure, sure, sure. Right? And same with Barbie. Yep. Two supporting nominations. Yep. And she's doing the really skillful work at the center that's a little selfless

like part of the design of the movie is I'm letting everyone else play the color and I'm doing the kind of internalized thing no she's incredibly good it's doing so much more than you think it is doing at first like going in

you feel like you got the sense of it from the trailers and then you watch the movie and it's like oh no you're doing so so so much kind of my thing against the Emma Stone performance I do I prefer the way they're not identical movies not at all but I do I'm more by Margot Robbie playing the awakening of consciousness yeah I don't But that's not a negative on Margot Robbie. They're both very stylized. Margot also.

Yeah, Poor Things is about a baby at first, not like a scripted character. Like Barbie is about a scripted character who the fourth wall falls down. Right. Poor Things starts with Emma Stone being a baby.

As someone who just raised a baby, her performance as a baby is incredibly accurate. I think it's the best baby performance I've seen all year. I'm not saying anything worse. Just like the things where she just suddenly goes like like reaches out and kind of like pushes something. Yeah, for no reason. And she just had a baby. Yeah, I was

gonna say. I felt like she's just like. It feels very well observed. Yeah. I also want to say for Margot as a bonus point, her one scene in Asteroid City is incredible. So tremendously good. Same with Hong Chien. her one scene in Asteroid City is incredible so tremendously good same with Hong Chen her one scene in Asteroid City is incredible yeah

Benedetta Porcaroli and Amanda that movie rules I need to see it I haven't seen it it's so fucking good it's one of the best coming of age movies I've seen in a long time but feels like a real star is born performance uh no that was bradley cooper oh i'm sorry it feels like a real

maestro performance from her uh salma hayek magic mike's last dance salma hayek peanut i'm sorry i feel like that you've been riding for that from the second it came out right like yeah it came out like a year ago and i was like is is she going to still fucking be in my... I don't see how she could get bumped even with a year of performances ahead of us. And just a lot of fun. Just a lot of fun. I love that movie and I feel like it's done.

It's a good movie. It got stuck down. Alma Poise is just kind of like the embodiment of the magic of the tone of Fallen Leaves, which is so much the Kersmaki thing, but I feel like he's rarely had an actor funnel his energy and embody it so perfectly.

My winner is fucking Lori Kalami for Full Time, which I saw last January. She would be on my list, except I knew you had her. I watched the movie because you told me to watch it, and it's excellent. I saw it last January. It barely got a release here in the States. It came out the second week of january and i half debated putting

her in my actress last year because i was like well it's so unfair because i'm not gonna a year from now she's gonna get bummed for other people never saw a better performance that film is basically my take is it's the best film the dardens didn't make of the last 10 years uh and it's just a movie of watching dardens didn't make a lot last 10 years. And it's just a movie of watching... The Dardens didn't make a lot of movies in the last 10 years, so that's... Well, they made a lot of movies that didn't exist. But it's just a movie of a woman who... This is someone

who is primarily a comedic actress, is on Call Your Agent, giving this incredibly subtle, similarly kind of nostril performance as a woman whose sort of life is collapsing and is trying to find her way out of poverty, raising two children, living in the suburbs as there's a transportation strike, working multiple jobs, going to interviews,

trying to find a way to level up. It's like an unbelievable performance with one of the best endings of the year. And it's an ending that is entirely on her face. Yes. Yeah. It's the ending you want and they they crush it and they nail it. Yeah, face. Yes. Yeah. It's the ending you want and they crush it. And they nail it. Yeah. They nail it. Yeah. I cannot recommend that film enough full time

to anyone who is listening to the show. You're recommending that all the time. You're full time recommending it. I'm full time recommending it. Wait, David, I want to hear you talk about Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings because I... You talk about it. You picked her.

Thief. No, I'm going last. I'm always going to get trumped get trump by any yeah you can go first no i know that's what i'm saying i'm saying like i i am risking uh you know any fun by going last i just think it's sort of what griffin said we're not we're already taking it for granted yeah we begged her to do something like this. Yeah. She did it. Yeah. She was luminous and funny. Yeah.

And everyone was like, yeah, fine. Can you make another rom-com though? And it's just like, what do we want from her at this point? Her line deliveries make me laugh so hard in it. Yeah. I do think the next time she does this, there's going to be an overreaction. That's possible. Right?

Probably. Yeah. I'm trying to think of my favorite. There's one line reading that's possible right probably yeah i'm trying to think of my favorite there's one line reading that's so funny and i'm trying to find it go ahead you watched it and i really would like to um she also and i mean her counterpart her andrew barth feldman who's like first movie and whatever it's like joe we'll talk about it we'll talk about it good i'm glad we will because uh he's so much my my uh runners up that i just wanted to rep for uh the tiny little indies uh mary and ireland and judy reyes are both so good in a movie called birth rebirth need to see it that i saw at sundance um mary and ireland was just really killing it

this year but judy reyes who i love from scrubs and was always my favorite on scrubs um and it was so great to see her get a role that is like like, so if you've been hoping since Scrubs for Judy Reyes to get like a really cool role in a horror movie with some really good acting, go find Birth Rebirth. Got a Spirit nomination? She got a Spirit nomination. Yep. Yep. Well deserved. Who else did we have?

I mean, Lily, I hope she wins. Yeah, me too. Sort of huge performance of the year for me. Yeah. Michelle, we've already talked about showing up a bunch, but obviously it doesn't work without her. Tiana Taylor, you guys, Griffin and anyone else should really watch that movie.

It's remarkable stuff. Yeah, it's great. From a person whose acting is not her primary job even. She's more of a songwriter and a dancer, and she's amazing. I also feel, just to speak to Michelle Williams very quickly, you said this I think last year in our Blankies episode, but when people were dinging her in Fablemans

for being over the top and you had already seen Showing Up, which had done the festival circuit but not come out, you're like, those two movies coming out within whatever it was, four months of each other, December and March or April. March, I think it was. It's just like,

she has such control of her dial to be able to do both of those things and know what movie she's in and what's required of that part. Yes. Yes. Because you kind of can't go smaller than what she does in showing up.

I was surprised Kaylee Spaney wasn't on your ballot. I feel like you're the bigger Priscilla fan than I am. But I love that performance. Priscilla's been kind of left out of a lot of my categories. She's about to make a showing in the final two. Yeah, the final two.

No, she's great. I just... That is a very reactive performance and part of it is her being a little empty and unformed, which I think she does perfectly well. I think she does exceptionally well, in fact. But even against other subtle micro-performances,

I think it's actually just character playing against her, if that makes sense. That part of what I think is fascinating about that movie is a bit of the void at the center, which she does very well. I totally forgot to mention, of course, that our presenters here are Idris Elba, Idris Elba

and Jack Loudon. I loved Jack Loudon. You and I both had Idris Elba Griff and he had Jack Loudon. We both had Idris Elba for Best Actor. Yeah, for 3,000 years. We're like cool and we have good taste. I agree. Jack Loudon, amazing. Slow Horses. I'm now Slow Horses. I Loud and Amazing in Slow Horses.

I'm now Slow Horses. I've just started watching Slow Horses just very early on. He just will not watch anything that Saoirse Ronan's boyfriend is in. Well, listen. I say it every year. He just needs to dump Saoirse Ronan. Just have a little fight with Jack Loud.

Let Jack Loud beat you. And then it'll be you. By the way, I... And then, like, it'll be over. By the way, I go see Sometimes I Think About Dying. Yeah? A movie I've been waiting all year to see. My most anticipated film.

Waiting a year since Sundance. The second I saw it at Sundance, you were like, how is it? How is it? Yeah. And it, like, lived up to expectations. It's probably my fucking Magic Mike last dance full time

where, like, she's cruising to a best actress nomination next year uh-huh daisy redley right uh and i i'm just like how did all my friends see this a year ago at sundance and not spoil for me a that there was a literal pasta dinner in that film wow where a man makes her pasta in order to woo her and it i would say works it works although it takes some negotiation. Which I would say is almost more appealing to me that it doesn't. Yes.

That there are emotional complications. And two that she's quietly been married. Daisy Ridley. Yes. You mean in IRL. Yes. At last year at Sundance when she was doing press she's like oh yeah my boyfriend and I quietly got married. Tom Beatman who she murdered on the Orient Beatman I believe she met on the Orient Express Wow alright

Here's the thing I bought a ticket for that same ride And I just decided to sleep in that day I could have been on that train That's my Mark Wahlberg If I had been on that train Things would have turned out a lot different Can we do best actor Best actor

Best actor Who's presenting this one David? Okay so our best actresses Of last year were Lydia Tarr I said Lydia Tarr as Cate Blanchett As Lydia Tarr Cate Blanchett for both of us And Rebecca Hall for Joe Yeah I really liked that movie Cate Blanchett as Lydia Tarr. Right. Or whatever. Cate Blanchett for both of us and Rebecca Hall for Joe. Yeah, I really liked that movie.

I did Blanchett too. I'm all surprised. Best actor. Should I go first? You want to go first, David, so no one can snipe you. Kelly Murphy and Oppenheimer. Jason Schwartzman and... Oh, wait. Who are our winners for actress? Jesus. Oh. I said my winner was Laura Colami.

Okay, great. Kelly Murphy for Oppenheimer. Margot Robbie. The performance of Lily Gladstone. Okay, great. Killian Murphy for Oppenheimer. Jason Schwartzman for Asteroid City. Chris Pine for Dungeons and Dragons. Of course. Jamie Foxx for The Burial. Kenneth Branagh for A Haunting in Venice. I mean, that is the most David five I have ever

heard. I had a long text debate with a friend last night where I was like, is this flat out trolling to include old kenny and i said like should i instead argue for his and this is how i put it to her he should be his ham cannon should be etched on a mountain like you know what i mean like the the brand of ham can i love the idea of a ham cannon first of all for a lot of reasons i do too that's basically you filling the category with five insane david picks killian is uh you're just lucky that one of them happens to be a front runner this year but it is wild that we are on the precipice of killian

murphy having an oscar like it's so amazing i mean i love it and his greatest threat is paul giamatti being the ultimate mensch which none of us can protest no i i certainly cannot if giamatti wins i will be so happy yeah you know what would be happy if giamatti wins performance right killian murphy will be happy i'm sure he will be like good for him i love that wait did you see i know i keep bringing, did you see somebody at the SAG Awards? Bran has now gone full beard rather than the stache. Obviously, he wasn't wearing the stache in real life,

but like, do we know what that's for? What's the... He's, you know, he's always shape-shifting into a new guy who yells. Olympic opening ceremony where like,

my beard is needed. I was hoping it's old man Perot. Oh, old Perot. The fourth one, he's got two beards. They just call it old Perot. Steven Merchant Perot. The fourth one, he's got two beards. Just call it Old Perot. Stephen Merchant is there in like a weird, like a burned out bomb or whatever.

I have, so I put Ryan Gosling in Barbie in lead. Wow. Kind of fair. I mean, all over that movie. Yeah. Franz Rogowski in Passages. Jason Schwartzman in Asteroid City. Andrew Scott in All of Us Strangers

and Koji Akusho in Perfect Days oh I think you will like it I think I will love it my nominees for best actor you're gonna be interested public bathrooms my nominees for best actor

Charles Melton in May December you teased this I teased a couple things coming up here. Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers, Bradley Cooper in Maestro,

Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer, and Andrew Barth Feldman in No Hard Feelings. He fucking rules. My other fucking, like, unbelievable comedic performance

of the year, the opposite of Gosling in Barbie, where it's similarly such a good handle on that character that every reaction he has is funny. But it barely goes above a whisper. The hardest I think I laughed at anything all of last

year in the movies was when he orders a Coke at the bar and the waitress tells him they only have Pepsi. He just turns to her and goes, do you want to go somewhere else? That's one of the funniest parts. But in like a whisper, he goes, do you want to go someplace else?

As if they just witnessed like violence or like... That joke really feels a little dangerous. And he's just got a million of those. Oh yeah, that's the thing. He's like playing Macaulay Culkin in the

page master all grown up or whatever like some kid where you're like do you even know how to like make toast or like put your shoes on he never once sells out the integrity of the character he never throws him under the bus it's comedic yes and obviously it's exaggerated in a fun way or whatever like it is not i would say it's not i'd say it's exaggerated on the script level and he finds a way to make every decision not feel exaggerated. Yeah. He's just like, this is a real guy. I mean, the fucking Coke Pepsi thing goes straight into him explaining his wet dream about Harley Quinn.

Right. Which is another thing that would feel so silly, so well. Not to mention his fucking Oscar clip of him performing Manny. I know. I know. It's amazing. That is like one of the most heart-rending moments. Where's his nom it's one of those things it's right here on my fucking list the character has to have like to now see him with different eyes and then so do we at the same time

and like that's it's all gonna work and i know this guy's a fucking you know jimmy award yeah he's an evan hansen right i'm like this guy can sing yeah but he gets behind the piano and you're like is it gonna fuck with this movie that he performs it too well? Right. That this scene should be the joke of he's recontextualizing the song and maybe it's 5% funny. Right. And instead, the better he sings it, the funnier it gets and the more heartbreaking at the same time. Yeah.

And it's the whole thing about that movie that's fascinating is like, oh, no no the real comedic conflict of this film i think aside from what they sold it as which was hard to sell to people of like is this some creepy grooming movie right that the internet got uncomfortable about god i forgot about that dumb right so dumb but you're like no that's the moment where the movie reveals itself not as a twist but as like this is the real comedic conceit is this woman realizes she's fucked up that she thinks if i play like a fucking kelly lebrock right weird science version of an 80s sex comedy woman yeah he'll just go gazonga gazonga and come in his pants and movie over right and the one thing she hadn't considered is like he he falls in love with her right oh he might be a person

he might be like he. He might be like... He's a person. He has now caught feelings, and she now doesn't know how to handle it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Great movie, in my opinion. Also, it's all about how, like, fucking, you know,

gentrification ruined Montauk. Like, I just like that there's a lot going on in that, like, fairly short, like, punchy little movie. Let's say it, though. It is another movie that, like, I would say almost catastrophically botches the last 10 minutes. It's another movie that like, I would say almost catastrophically botches the last 10 minutes.

It's less catastrophic for me. I think I would leave it there. The stuff I like is certainly more front loaded in that movie. Yeah. I just, I think like that movie, if it could figure out how to fix, it doesn't quite know how to look.

It doesn't know how to end it. I'd say there's like three story decisions. It botches in the last 10 minutes where if it got those right, I'd be like, that's maybe an eight out of ten it doesn't know how to end without putting the two of them together which you obviously can't do yeah so it's like how do we but like wait a second like what there is no template for this like how do we just sort of like get out of this you know Gordian not to non-spoiler the movie but I sit there going like oh my god who's gonna be the incredible surprise actor who shows up for one incredible scene-spoiler the movie, but I sit there going like, oh my God, who's going to be the incredible surprise actor

who shows up for one incredible scene at the end of the movie as her father? Oh, right. And the fact that the movie just shrugs it off and goes like,

never mind, she doesn't care about that. Peter Gallagher. I mean, could be. Love that man. Could be. Kelly Murphy and Oppenheimer

is just kind of undeniable, right? And we've devoted entire episodes to it. He should be on my list, but it's one of the, was you know i again lopped off the oscar companies yeah who else we got let's let's keep it bradley and maestro he's reigning it in he's right i'm reigning it in that's his oscar clip for me that better be his oscar wait did we all have schwartzman or did i didn't put him in he's my winner wow. Wow. So, so, so good. It's an incredibly moving performance.

And the year plus that he is having, too. Just shout out to Jason Schwartzman. I think Killian's... Yeah, that's fine. Killian's amazing in Oppenheimer. That's part of me debating to go Bradley. Yeah, go for Bradley. Yell that.

No, no. Andrew Scott, all of us strangers. Andrew Scott, all of us strangers. I mean, an actor who I have loved for a very long time. that yelled at no no uh andrew andrew scott all of us strangers andrew scott all of us i mean an actor who i have loved for a very long time my least fun thing about me is that i get really annoyed when people are like hot priest and i'm like listen yeah there are other roles the man contains multitudes i uh he was in a movie called pride a few years ago that he's um i love that movie oh my god is that not a great movie david it's so good um and again you

know out gay actor which and and just like really bringing just a ton of sadness and and experience and and all sorts of stuff into that role i think he's great um rogowski is so good playing a character i cannot stand. In a way that, like, I think I'm not supposed to like this character, but just like, oh boy, the sight of this guy. There's a part to him that's almost like Emma Stone in Poor Things where he genuinely seems like, I don't understand why people are reacting to me strangely.

A little bit, yes. Just zero awareness of how he is, like, breaking all rules of society. There's a scene where he meets Adele X. Arkopoulos' parents that is unreal. Absolutely unreal. And also, that is... Killest scene of the year. Yeah. Most chill guy behavior.

That goes hand in hand with the costumer. Like, the costumer should almost, like, get, like, an assist for the performance. I would... Because there are so many... Chris always talks about the crop top, which, like, assist for the performance because there are so many by chris file always talks about the crop top which like yes the crop top he also wears this kind of like macrame green sort of yarn shirt that barely exists yeah it's amazing it's so good um and yeah i think gosling i don't have a problem with him and supporting but like i do think that's a two uh two lead thing and every there was a clip the other day that I had forgotten about.

The thing with, fuck, I'm not going to remember. But it's just like eight billion little moments in that movie where he's just reacting to the world, to this weird new little power trip that he's on or whatever. The choreography in the I'm Just Ken ken dream ballet part where it's so simplistic yeah but he sells it so perfectly yes there are two moments i go back to a lot in that performance one of them is when he's jealously watching barbie dance with simu lu ken and then he throws down his golden champagne flute yes and starts trying to outdance him but he does it with like the pouty, passive-aggressiveness of a toddler being like,

I can't believe you're making me do this. Dancing is the funniest thing. It's kind of a combo of his nice guy's performance and his crazy, stupid love performance. Yeah. Like those energies with some extra stuff. I mean, his nice guy's performance remains his comic pinnacle.

He's so good in that guy. His love of Gene Wilder is very strong there. I mean, his nice guy's performance remains his comic pinnacle. He's so good in that guy. His love of Gene Wilder is very strong there. Yeah, and I do think there's a lot of, like, that's Gene Wilder as a dumb hunk. There's the same sort of, like, he has a lot of the, like, I need my blankie kind of breakdowns in that movie. And then the final scene where he keeps on being like, and the resolution is we end up together and she has to keep letting him down over right over and over again and every time he's just like i cannot figure this out uh look i mean we did a do-si-do with uh melton and gosling we did a little swap a room tweener performances i liked that uh koji yakusho is my winner for perfect days um a movie that i saw at tiff very very very late i was standing in line and i had to do that thing where you have to make

the decision of do i get a cold brew at 10 o'clock at night and maybe like fuck up the rest of my week because i'm gonna throw off my like when i'm supposed to be awake nothing about this movie will make me think about pooping while i'm sitting there what's the harm in downing a coffee that's the other thing is like do i then take the cold brew and risk having to like bolt from the theater at some point because i did uh but anyway it all worked out everything was fine and i saw this movie that i was really like all i'd heard about was like oh it's very quiet it's very lovely it's very good i'm like i'm gonna fall asleep in this movie even if it's good i'm gonna fall asleep yeah and i sure didn't it was it's so lovely this performance is so um you're just sort of right in it with him it's

not condescending i know like i've i've seen people sort of not love this movie and find it to be condescending and i just don't understand it because i think that performance really keeps it on the right side of things it's one of those movies that builds up to this like really really great last shot and that's all him and um i'm not familiar with actually his like tremendous career like giant movie star in japan career but um it makes sense to me after watching this movie uh i i greatly look forward to seeing it um no we need to see it any of your nominees you want to shout out david who we haven't talked about pineyy. Piney. Piney. Just doing his movie star shit. And as a character whose entire job is to put a little bit of movie star spit on something that doesn't totally like hang together without it.

Like that's what a bard does. That's what he's doing. Yeah. Like a guy where the whole time if you sat him down, you'd be like, wait, what is it that you're good at? Like everyone else has a job here and we don't even really know what you do and he's just kind of like i just kind of like make everything work like to match pine to that yeah perfect jonathan no jonathan is the bird i know i just wanted to say jonathan because it's very funny it's the most fun thing to say she's like they say like fucking margaret uh duvall from you know. The ladies line reading of it. You know, from the Marx film.

Jonathan! Jonathan! It's so good. Jamie Foxx in The Burial. That's what I loved about that movie. Just like old school, you know. Hot shot showboat, like in the best possible way. You wish that, I mean, it's not a, obviously, it's not a Grisham thing, but like you almost wish that there were like Grisham, like 20 Grisham Light movies that he could.

I mean, that movie went up on Amazon when we were prepping to do the big picture legal draft episode. I was watching like four lawyer movies. Thank you. You guys were great. But I went crazy like cramming for things like that. And it was just while watching them being like, man, we just have like five of these a year. Exactly. And they starred the best actors in Hollywood and like top crafts people and were given reasonable budgets.

And then Burial is like at that same time, Burial comes out straight on streaming. Yeah. King Mutiny Court Martial on Showtime. Yeah. And Anatomy of the Fall is like French art house movie. We had so many of them that like God rest his soul, Roger Ebert called susan sarandon and the client the worst oscar nomination on the entire ballot of 94 and i'm like roger you didn't know what the future held this was a golden age you're like five of these a year please yes five yeah even if they have to be on streaming give me five yeah i understand that kenneth branna

is a little over the top as her cupola Poirot in his films. He is the engine of those movies. Like, especially by Haunting of Venice. And in Haunting of Venice, where he's, like, playing, like, I don't even want to do it anymore. And I'm like, you love it, you little sick freak. Like, that's the arc. Is he going to do more of them? I have to imagine at a certain point, he will be stopped.

Right? Just keep him on Hulu. I think he'd just do one more. Come on, just do one more. There are other cities cities Just find another city Joaquin was kind of my last cut For Beau is a frame But I honestly loved him in both Napoleon and Beau And I am not always there for Joaquin No I'm not either

Have accused him of being So I was really happy to Or in the case of Napoleon A croc monsieur That's what he is In Napoleon and it rocks So I was really happy to love his work. Or in the case of Napoleon, a croque monsieur. Yeah. That's what he is in Napoleon, and it rocks. The blankies for their lead performance, I'll give you from 10 to 1.

Jason Schwartzman, Zac Efron, The Iron Claw, another late cut for me. Margot Robbie, Natalie Portman, Greta Lee, Sandra Huller, obviously great performance. Well, none of us called her out. Paul Giamatti, Emma Stone, Lily Gladstone, and they gave Killian number one. Yeah. Shout out to Jeffrey

Wright, too, who I didn't mention, but like, so glad he's an Oscar nominee now. Best stemless wine glass work of the year. I also loved him in Astrid City. Yes. Oh, yeah. He's got a good Wes Anderson deadpan. He really does. that's the other thing I know I've cited two other performances

that gave me the giggles oh sure yeah he's really funny his monologue in Asteroid City is the most Griffin bit of all time and just delivered with full sort of faux Jeffrey Wright gravitas of like let me give the speech the speech starts with me as a child looking at the stars

and him like acting out the whole thing. Is it Astrid's to do? Or is it also like the president's like, he's furious! There's some line like that that makes me laugh. Yes. Should we do Putters and Murmurs? Yeah. Jeffrey Wright is

to me the Putters and Murmurs MVP in American fiction but I haven't thought about that category too hard I wasn't considering that but that's a good thing because you were saying another guy who's been kind of puttering and murmuring for a while and we've never given the tip of the hat last year there was that kind of thing

with Mark Rylance and we were coming at it from different angles but it was like is this the year we finally give him the overdue putters and murmurs? Yeah, yeah, yeah. You know, Adam Driver in Ferrari, obviously he yells, he accents, but he does putter and murmur.

There is a big one for me, and I think it's a real putters and murmurs performance from a putters and murmurs guy who had a couple of them this year. Joe, who's your pick? So, you know I like to paint around the edges first, right? Of course. So, um, considered Helen Mirren in Golda. I had to watch Golda so who's your pick so i you know i like to paint around the edges first right so um considered helen mirren and golda i had to watch golda because i had to watch all the nominees right i didn't watch that movie because it seemed boring and i didn't want to oh you did not have

to um that's my smokers and wheezers that is a movie about cigarettes much better call she that woman smokes there's a scene in it the only scene i really really enjoyed in it, there's a scene in where she lights up a cigarette as she's about to go in and get a CAT scan. That is just gold comedy. God, you're making hair comedy. There's no way that movie's good. But there's 18 close-ups of her tar-stained fingers. Sure. So whatever.

But it's more smokers and wheezers than anything else. The Putters and Wait a Second Award goes to Tommy Lee Jones in the burial where he putters and murmurs. And then you get the it feels good moment at the in the whatever negotiation. And I'm like, well, you're no longer puttering nor murmuring. You're singing. I was going to say it's a little for me not to like split hairs here. If we're not going to split hairs for putters and murmurs, where are we going to split hair? For me, that's a little more growling and scowling.

See, this is what Griffin... You do be growling and scowling. I need this interaction. Not that Tommy don't be usually growling and scowling. Of course, but I'm just like, I think that's kind of the juice of that performance. Yeah, no, that's correct. Okay. The Floaters and Drifters Award goes to the Snoopy Balloon in Maestro, of course.

Great floating work there yeah um tremendous uh-huh so i had a putters but not murmurs okay tom conti and oppenheimer yeah i think that's fair there's a lot of puttering down by the water but he's like he's like he's in a regular tone of voice he's in a regular tone of voice he flirts with murmuring he does yeah but like i mean downey jr they were murmuring couldn't does. Yeah. But like, I mean, Downey Jr. They were murmuring. Couldn't hear him. That's true. Dude over it. Objective versus subjective. Yeah, there we go.

Yeah. Murmurs, but not putters is the voice in Skinnamer Inc, which is just, Oh, sure. I don't know whether it's puttering or not. Cause I can't see it,

but it's certainly murmuring. I don't want that thing coming to any awards we hold. Yeah. I'll tell you that. I'm not invited. No, the one I ended up with is actually a nomination you've already said.

It's Magaro and Showing Up. Oh, great call. Which I think he's definitely puttering and murmuring around that. There's a bit of a, I mean, there's an asterisk

next to it of, does this count? Is the hole he's digging creating? Right. Is it aiding? Is it sort of like performance enhancing drugs?

If you're in your own self-dug hole, does everything sound more like a murmur? That's a fair point. That's a fair point. My winner. I want to hear yours. I have a couple more ideas. Shea Whigham in Eileen.

Oh, sure. And a guy who's been puttering and murmuring around the fucking outskirts. But he'll bark. It's true. It's impossible he'll bark. He is. But he's also got some putters and murmurs. It's something that he's kind of feeling the Baldwin,

Bassett role from those movies. And as much as Baldwin's a whisperer, he's an enunciator. He is. And here's another thing. I tend to think of Shane Wingham in that movie. My mental image of him in that movie is seated in a chair, so I didn't think of the puttering.

But you're right. He wanders the middle of the street with a loaded gun. He sure does. Puttering and murmuring some shit. He he sure does that's a good pick some other all right tobin bell and saw x that is uh they made a movie star performance out of puttering and murmuring uh that's an obvious one that has a great bit of help go on that this year at the oscars they should just announce that tobin bell has won Best Actor for Saw X. Quitting Twitter means that, like,

it's like, there's nowhere else for me to get Lex G. I mean, I know he has the podcast he occasionally will do, but, like, that has completely cut off my... The number of reasons I haven't quit Twitter. But it's like when Harold Zoid wins in the episode of Futurama, where they rigged the ballot to give it to him, and everyone's like, you know what? This is good.

Tobin Bell's been fucking keeping Jigsaw alive for 20 years. Give him Best Actor. Wait, there was another obvious one. Puttering, murmuring. Another obvious putterer or murmurer. I mean, like old Bradley Cooper and Maestro. I feel like, did you text this to me?

At some point? Because you'll text me putters and murmurers contenders throughout the year. Throughout the year. Old Lenny has some puttering and murmuring But I don't think it's the backbone Of the performance Sally Hawkins and the Halas King, which nobody saw That's an entirely Putters and Murmers performance Oh, Peter Sarsgaard in Memory

Oh, I didn't see it One of the great Ketchup Entertainment projects Which is not a bad movie It's a really well acted movie Griffin just loves it when I bring up Catch Up Entertainment. Catch Up Entertainment is the secret MVP of the year. But it's actually, to me, a very good performance, but it's very murmured. And he's puttering all right.

Sure, sure, sure, sure. Yeah, I guess those are the big ones, right? Is there anything else we need to shout out? Just in general? Doesn't have to be... Paul Giamatti's fake eye and holdovers is the askew and akimbo?

I don't know. The lens tech operator, which is the proper title on that film, is a man named Zach Ripps, who worked on the tech, who is incredible. I've man named Zach Ripps, who worked on The Tick, who is incredible. I've heard that Zach Ripps. He does. Okay.

And the name doesn't lie. Yeah. But he did Giamatti's lens for The Holdovers. I was one of the only main cast members on The Tick who didn't have lenses. Okay. Almost everyone on that show had weird eyes. Cool eyes. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because, like, Overkill's got robot eyes. Right. Jacky Earl Haley had evil eyes. The lady., yeah. Because like Overkill's got robot eyes. Jackie Earl Haley had evil eyes. Miss Lane had the one glass eye. Peter had bright blue contacts in. The guy is so good at his job. And it's one of those things where you're like, your whole career is just putting lenses in.

I love that that's somebody's job. And then you watch him work and you're like, I get it. You know this shit so well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Giamatti's been like singing his praises, which I love. Every time anyone calls out the I, he names him. Man's a mensch.

That's like, what was that old game show, like To Tell the Truth or whatever? No, was it whatever one? It's like somebody had a really like... It's the Catch Me If You Can game show. A really interesting specific job that people had to cast. That would have been a great one.

Yeah, yeah. All right. I'm giving Zach Ripps best lens tech of the year. Let me call out another undersung. Zach Ripps is... Yeah. Yeah. All right. I'm giving Zach Ripps Best Lens Tech of the Year. Okay. Let me call out another undersung. This text I just got from Jordan Hoffman that I find inscrutable. I love it.

A text from him that's inscrutable? I love Della Reese's concert album from Minsk. Della Reese live in Belarus. Now, do we get that? What is the joke? Or is he just sharing

an opinion with me? He's definitely just sharing that with me. Is that a real album? Is he not making the thing that Della Reese from Belarus is like a silly little... That's what it is. He's doing a Della Reese Belarus joke. He is. It's like, doesn't Della Reese sound like Belarus? That's sort of a Jordan thing. That is, right?

Have you guys ever discussed Della Reese? No. Have you ever been touched by an angel? No. That's her, right? I'm really... Can you tell Jordan I'm disappointed that he didn't text me after the Barbara Lifetime Achievement thing at SAG because they included a clip from Nuts and he's my guy who's supposed to text me about Nuts. Did you see that, I think it was in Puck or one of the newsletters, that she had a guy next to her in the audience shining a flashlight on anyone who tried to take a picture of her

because, like, to disrupt any pictures of her that she does not sanction? Uh-huh. Just barbara rules best director my best director nominees are aki kurasumaki for fallen leaves yeah bradley cooper for maestro hey a movie i hope time will be kinder too. It will be. It's a good movie. Here's all I'll say about that. When people complain about like, he so badly wants to win an Oscar, drives me crazy. If you want to win an Oscar, that's not the movie you make. If your only goal is to

just cakewalk to an Oscar, I completely agree. If he made the conventional biopic, if he had made the movie that people are accusing him of making, he might have won an Oscar. He would have won one of the categories at least also i don't mind when people really want him with an oscar well i also don't mind that i don't mind that but but i i get the most relatable thing about bradley cooper to me that is not a pandering movie that is a movie of and everything that people find annoying about his oscar campaign

is everything i find interesting about him as an artist. Right. It's not right. That's it's his persona is bizarre and inscrutable. And there's going to be that way whether he's campaigning for an Oscar or not.

He's a weird guy. Yeah. I also think there's something about the fact that his like mainstream ascension happened in a very bro-y vein. Yes. Right.

That was like doing the Hangover movies and American Sniper and the David O. Russell comedies where he was playing these really hangover movies and american sniper and the david o russell comedies where he was playing these really macho coked up guys and whatever dr f slur is going to be a big boulder for me to get around and i'm like probably unfair but that's where we're at him making like an old-fashioned weepy picture but he was playing this fucking cool hard drunk guy and maestro is him kind of like opening up to some stuff that maybe... Listen, Bradley's got some conversations to have.

There are conversations to be had. Sofia Coppola and Priscilla. Yeah. Matt Johnson, Blackberry. I said Sofia Coppola in Priscilla, but she is all over that movie. She sure is. Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer. Those are my director nominations.

Joe. Mine are Mr. Wes Anderson in Asteroid City, Greta Gerwig for Barbie, Todd Haynes for May-December, Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer, and Vim Vendors for Perfect Days. I've got Nolan, Scorsese, Miyazaki, Wes Anderson, and Aki Karamaki. A gentleman's five. The blankies went for Nolan, Scorsese,

Anderson, Lanthimos, and Gerwig. Scorsese was my final cut. I will say I also strongly considered putting Christopher McQuarrie on there. And I wonder if it's an unfair bump from just like me listening to his 18 hours of the... For whatever, I think there are story problems that movie cannot get past that mostly have to do with the split-and-half nature of it.

Sure. I like that. It's fun. I love that movie. I just like Fallout better. Same. So I'm not giving you director. But I love that movie. I just like Fallout better. Same. So I'm not giving you director. But I'm like, raw feat of just directing, even if it's not as good as his last two Mission Impossible movies, it is astounding the way he makes those films. And I think it has several of the

best constructed sequences I saw. Did you guys say your actor winners? I'm just making sure. My winner was Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer. Mine was Koji Akusho. Yours was Jason Sporkman for Asperger's City. I'm just making sure. People get angry Cillian Murphy for Oppenheimer. Mine was Koji Akusho. Yours was Jason Schwartzman for Aspen City. I'm just making sure. People get angry when we don't say the winner.

My director winner is Nolan. When we spoil movies or when we do the thing where we say the name of the person and then we mumble the movie they're in. Jason Schwartzman. That's Jason. My winner is Nolan.

Yes, so is mine. My winner is Nolan. It's a little undeniable. Best picture. Here are the blankies from one to ten. Or should you want me to do ten to one? That's my only question. Do ten to one. I think ten to one. Ten, Spider-Man

Across the Spider-Verse. Nine, Anatomy of a Fall. Eight, The Holdovers. Seven, Poor Things. Six, Past Lives. Five, Asteroid City. Nine, Anatomy of a Fall. Eight, The Holdovers. Seven, Poor Things. Six, Past Lives. Five, Asteroid City. Four, Boy in the Heron. Three, May, December. Two, Flower Moon.

One, Oppenheimer. I'll do my 10. All right. 10, 1001. Nine, Dungeons and Dragons. Eight, Bo is Afraid. Seven, The Zone of Interest. Six, Showing Up.

Five, Fallen Leaves. Four, Asteroid City. Three, The Boy in the Heron. Two, Killers of the Flower Moon. One moon one oppenheimer and i will say that top five has pretty much been set for me the whole time the bottom five has been very fluid for me all year go on joe mine starting with number 10 is bow is afraid nine barbie eight the holdovers sevenomy of a Fall, six, All of Us Strangers, five, Asteroid City, four, Perfect Days, three, Killers of the Flower Moon,

two, May, December, and my number one film of the year is Oppenheimer. Number 10, Mission Impossible, Dead Reckoning. Number nine, showing up, number eight, Asteroid City, number seven, Full Time, six, Killers of the Flower Moon, five, Priscilla, four, Maestro,

three, Fallen Leaves, two Blackberry, one Oppenheimer. Oh, we're all in agreement. Jay Baruchel was a last second bomb for me in Best Lead Actor. Baruchel is very good in that movie. He's very good. He is tremendously good. Yeah. It is one of the best sort of subtle, moral rot performances I've seen in a while

without tiptoeing into all-out villain. I think it is also definitively the most Canadian performance ever. I mean, yes. I think they should maybe put him on their flag. And I know they have a great flag. No, but he's so unreal

good in it. And the scene where he fucking leaves the phone in the car and then interrupts the meeting. Yes. And just suddenly for the first time gets it, like gets how to actually sell the product is so exciting. Like the Canadian coat of arms is pretty boring. I think Baruchel can sneak on there. But Blackberry also similar.

I'm like, is this like one of the five greatest Canadian movies of all time? And, and, and like most Canadian. It was, it was, it was tiptoeing around the edges,

you know, and then it had a centerpiece scene about the NHL. About the Hamilton hockey team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Fucking adore that movie. It's like the movie, it might be the film of 2023 I watched the most for the rest of my life. I'm from Waterloo where the vampires hang out. Yes, yes.

Okay. We have nothing else to say. Yeah, my number 10 I should also say was was like until the last minute was a three-way mishmash of Bo is Afraid, The Iron Claw, and Past Lives. Yeah. Bo is Afraid just sort of... Don't invite me to that three-way mishmash. Seriously, though.

Jesus. One of them kills people with his cum, the other one is so roided up he can probably barely take his clothes off. did we all acknowledge uh biggest balls bows afraid well which we should in multiple ways most deadly semen ballsiest movie yeah yeah yeah is that the way to say it ballsiest i just love that i did was that a movie that like i still don't have a grasp on like whether did people like bows afraid well it's certainly underperformed at the box office by the standards of Ari Aster's previous

films. It overperformed the box office for a three hour movie about a guy who needs to nut. I don't know that Bozefraid really was ever going to be a wildly commercial film. I think it underwhelmed but has already

grown quite a cult. People were angry about it when it came out. And angry about, like people I wouldn't expect to be angry about it. It's a movie that really stresses you out

for a very long time. Which I love. You know what I mean? I'm a glutton for punishment. It's a particular kind of enjoyment. And then at the end, Mr. Waternoose is there.

Which I just think is wild. You really didn't expect it. It's like a genuine blank check. The kind we don't often get anymore. Absolutely. The argument for why't often get anymore. Absolutely. The argument for why A24 is good.

Right? I'm like, it's the most definitive like, look, they fucking let him truly do whatever he wanted with a bigger budget than his last two movies. People are weird about A24 in both directions. I agree. In a way that like, and I much would rather vibe with people who are like psyched about something. Yeah. People are like A24, a way that like, and I much would rather vibe with people who are like psyched about something. Yeah. Or like,

when people are like, 824, a bunch of like, merchandise, hawking posers or whatever. I'm like, they give me so many movies that I like.

Also, not to talk about school, and I know you were like, I'm sure hearing more of this, David, but like, the people I talked to who worked at 824

were like, we knew everyone was going to hate this movie and we're behind it 100%. Yeah, they were hyped to release it. So often when studios have a movie like that, that's like a weird blank check. They're just like, we knew everyone was going to hate this movie and we're behind it 100%. Yeah, they were hyped to release it. So often when studios have a movie like that, that's like a weird way to check. They're just like,

we don't fucking get it. Obviously, we're trying to maintain our relationship with this guy. Right. Right? They're just sort of like, we gave him a flyer. Right.

And A24 was like proud of that movie and was also like, we're realistic. We know this is not going to be a hit. Can we give that kid the award for I can't believe it's not AI? I can't believe it's not AI. I can't believe it's not ai i can't believe it's not i'm still not ai 50 50 yeah well i think it's the moment of truth the moment we've all been waiting for see we every year make the calculation

that sodeberg tried one year and it blew up in this phase what if best picture isn't the last thing you give right right what if there's something that actually even if it seems smaller is going to get the biggest response? But year after year, it has not failed us. Well, I have kind of a surprise. I'm going to have to stand up for this. Oh my god. Ben, of course, wearing his...

Don't break another microphone arm. I already broke one. Yeah, I'm going to try and not do that. Ben is wearing his I am a dog shirt. Or you are a dog? So I have prepared for us on this year's blankies a song entitled

I'm Just Ben. And I'm going to give it my best. Okay. You better not put more work into this than I did for my opening song. Pretty sure he did. I saw him counting up. Doesn't seem to matter what i do i'm always with these two the third wheel of the two friends oh why i have hot takes want to explain they're driving me insane I have not been

so polite and I'll show you all tonight cause I'm just Ben any part else I'd be a ten is it my destiny to live and die a life of dang

scumbummery i'm just ben i like bones but can't transcend what will it take for them to see the man behind the mic and respect me it's changing sheets of paper over the part two. Moving things around. Okay. I'm just Ben. Am I crit? I must amend. I'm up on fashion. See live music and go to new arts galleries.

I'm just Ben. I'm hot as hell and dressed on trend. What will it take for you to see this life beyond the screen? Film Dodee, find me. I'm just Ben. And I'm enough. And I'm great at other stuff. So hey, check me out. Yeah, I'm just Ben.

My name's Ben. And so am I. All my nicknames are a lie. So hey, world, check me out, yeah, I'm just Ben. Baby, I've just been It's hard to do that. Hard to just stand and sing to three people in a podcast studio. Is it fair to say your fiancé has been sort of the Bruce Valanche behind this bit

for the last six months telling you you need to do this. She encouraged me and then basically wrote most of the lyrics. And I was like, I don't think I could do this. And she's like, yes, you can. You're going to do this. You're Valanche. And that's the truest form of love. Wow. Yeah. So, you know what?

I think it's okay. And Post will clean that sucker up. Oh, dirty it up with anything. That was beautiful. That was incredible, Ben. You know, yeah. And by the way, you're so much more than Ben in my eyes. That's true. You're a meat lover. But you are also just Ben. You're a fart detective. I am just Ben

though. And that's kind of what that was about. Right. So can wet Benny. Wishful Ben. The commish. Benny. Okay. Wishful Ben. Yeah. The Kamish. The Futzer.

Wishful Ben. That was... Was that in IO? I think that was IO. That was IO. That was now the most successful actor in the world, IO Adebri. Gave you that nickname?

Yeah. Yeah. That feels good. Okay. Well, it's, of course, that time of the blankies where I get to do my original categories. Just spoil us.

You're doing both? Yes. Oh, my God. I thought that was in Louisville. We would have been thrilled. Holy shit. All right. We have, of course, to begin.

Of course. The Weddies, the Golden Mop. Of course. It's the slickest flicks of the year. It's the movies that soak through. What splished? What splashed? Moist? Sure. We's the movies that soak through. What splished? What splashed? Moist?

Sure. We're so lucky. We are. Number one, this movie puts new meaning to slick flick. Killers of the Flower Moon is covered in damn crude.

This is true. It's true. Water and oil don't mix, you say? I say wet is wet, and my friends, this film be geysering. I mean, it literally begins with people bathing in oil dancing

yeah it's true yeah next is another entry that operates in a different medium besides h2o okay why chocolate of course wonka is a sweet treat and totally covered in chocolate and can't forget scrub

scrub can't forget scrub scrub very good point great point number three uh it's kind of a more traditional pick niad we gotta shout it out even though the water is fake this lady be swimming she be swimming her water is fake but her love

is real okay now that's good five comedy points true sorry to be crass took me a second but i need to give respect you know not often does semen sorry to be crass, but I need to give respect. You know, not often does semen get to be so prominently featured. Saltburn just really goes for it. Cummy bathwater, it's true. Slurp, slurp.

Yeah, exactly. Slurp, slurp. Slurp, slurp. And finally, I'm sorry to say, it's everyone's favorite and completely successful real-world analog elemental. Fire and water don't mix, you say? This movie says actually, and then just kind of trails off. If there's somewhere that movie belongs,

it is the Golden Mops. Yeah. Is Aquaman being snubbed a bigger surprise than the fucking Gerwig-Robbie snubs at the Oscars? I just, I had more fun with saying these. No, look, the Academy can make the same

argument. Is him nominating Elemental part of the water supremacy agenda that's dominated for generations? It is. Keeping the fire people down. Yeah. Okay. Just wanted to say it. It is. I mean, I'm sorry. I'm sorry, Aquaman. I've long said the mainstream media is

run by water well yeah i'll come in the quietest 123 million domestic that's ever i said it to griffin it made warner brothers desired amount of money enough to make a profit not enough to demand we were saying if you made 10 million more or less they're pulling their hair up yep yep exactly uh ruby gilman you need to add to the watch list, though. I'm just going to say. That's going to be one where in five years, you're like, I should have given it a mop and I just wasn't up on it in time. What else you got, Benny?

Well, okay. So I usually go through films that should be remade with and then pick these kind of different elements. Food. Yeah. Food. Puppets. I just decided to drop the category,

at least just for this year because there's so many remakes. It's like enough already. We don't need more. So I don't even want to encourage that kind of behavior. So you're not going to say like Bo is afraid with melons or whatever. Yeah, right. You would. There's another world.

I was too busy this morning composing lyrics with my fiance. Of course. Oh. Okay. So but on to the next um no thank you uh no thank you number one is flaming hot more like flaming not worth spending this short time on earth engaging with this story can't say i saw that one i guess you had to to. It's an Oscar nominee. How is it? You know, it's not much of... Yeah, it's a movie. Did they run that in adapted or original screenplay? Based on a series of lines?

Based on a fake Cheeto? Based on a Cheeto bag. Based on some shit some guy said. Yeah. All right, Ben, what else gets a no thank you? Madame Webb. Weird, I'm seeing a release i don't care i'm seeing myself not buying a ticket to see this at the cinema very good

wow good wow madame webb i maybe will stick with me more than any other film i see this her web connects us all it keeps me up and it's still the zone of interest okay uh can i get a b uh okay an m now an e all right i'd like to solve is the phrase huge fucking bummer is that correct so you needed two you need three letters there for a huge fucking bummer yeah well it's a wheel of fortune i understand okay american symphony never before has my brain stopped being interested in something. Homework. You just hear that title and you think homework?

Yeah. Okay. All right. I'm sorry. I just really quickly. Are you there, God? It's me, Ben. No offense, but this movie is just not for me. I'm sure it's lovely, but I still have to see the new Godzilla and I guess Napoleon first.

If they had combined it into Are You There, Godzilla? Yeah, it's me, Napoleon. Oh yeah, it's me, Napoleon. Napoleon would have vibed with Godzilla. The other thing is, Ben's going to fucking cry so hard watching Margaret. Ben, you're going to love it. Are You There, God, It's Me, Margaret.

Maybe that's just why I'm scared. You're holding it for the same reason I'm avoiding zone of interest, which is like, I don't know if I can handle this. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Honorable mentions the Super Mario Brothers for best film that features dry bones. This is true. That's true. And we are trying

to get him on as a guest. Ben's dream guest for 20. We're going to go out and put him for it. David Crumhole for dry bones. We want to try to get. In the same episode though. Yeah. Yeah. Dungeons and Dragons for just being a fucking delight. Yeah.

The Boy and the Heron receiving the Violator Achievement Award. Sure. Movie that reminds you most of the dynamic between Violator and Spawn. Correct.

Cool. And that's in a new annual category that will stick around. That's true. Who had Violator energy this year. Yeah.

Definitely. And then Anyone But You for helping to establish a new kind of comedy trope that I really appreciate around. That's true. Who had violator energy this year? Definitely. And then, anyone but you for helping to establish a new kind of comedy trope that I really appreciate when the stoner character is high and is able to communicate with a koala specifically.

You said there was another movie where this also happened? This is another movie from... There were two this year, right? Well, no. It was last year. But it was the House Party remake also did this. Those were both 2023. Really? Yeah.

Wow. And two of the best were 2023. Timmy's Wonka communicates with a giraffe. Yeah, when he's high on chocolate. Well, right, listen. It's a big broad brush we can paint with. You know, like, come on, Hollywood's a giant canvas, okay? I just think it's wild that there are two

I smoke and then talk to a koala movies in one year. And it's really cool. And we should continue with this. Yeah. Just keep going. And I'm just looking here again.

Best pee hole in a movie. I just want to remind everyone is still anyone but you. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. All right.

Well, that's that's my original categories for this year. We're not going to top that folks. No, we're not. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me as always. This had Oscar buzz. This, we're not. Thank you for joining us. Thanks for having me, as always.

This had Oscar buzz. This had Oscar buzz. We are chugging along. We have a Patreon now if you want to get two extra episodes a month. And the Patreon is movies that get some nominations, but not the major ones. Movies that don't qualify because they snuck a score nom or whatever. Our Hard and Fast rule is nothing with any nominations whatsoever. Because they snuck a score nom or whatever.

Our Hard and Fast rule is nothing with any nominations whatsoever. And so the Patreon we do one a month that's an exception that is, you know, skated by with one nomination. You're flaming hot. Right. And then another episode a month that's more of a, we'll watch the 96 MTV Movie Awards. We'll watch an old Hollywood Reporter roundtable. We'll, you know, talk about thecar race for this year and stuff like that so um having a lot of fun with that so check us out my co-host chris file and i and then i'm doing games at vulture uh now we just launched i'm gonna play this grid once we stop we love games

called the cinematrix if you're familiar with um ultimate grid for baseball or football and yeah yeah so um i think it's fun. We've started it off fairly broad. I am the psychopath who's like, let's make it harder. And there's like, like, calm down.

So the calm down is me. So I'm excited to see where it goes. So check it out. Check, check, check, check it out. I can't plug my shit.

It's blank check. Check it out. Here's my plug. See you next week for my shit. It's Blank Check. Check it out. Here's my plug. See you next week for Blank Check. Next week, we resume McTiernan? Yes, next week. That's right.

Of course, this episode is live, essentially. So, you know, everything we just said on it is actually going to air. We've basically recorded all of our McTiernans. But next week, we have the Hunt for Red October with Jermell Boyd. Yeah, one of the least surprising guest bookings of all time. But guess what? It's a fucking fun-ass episode. We're talking about the Hunt for red october with jamal yeah one of the least surprising guest bookings of all time but guess what it's a fucking fun ass episode about the hunt for red october on his own podcast you'll hear it again very exciting about talking about hunt for october is basically his free bird yeah like and no one's complaining we know we this is what we came for that was not a complaint i'm very excited to hear yeah no one has new takes on it it's great it's a fucking

great episode the movie rules yeah it does. It really does. Rustic Tune-in's really good. Yeah, it is. I think. I agree. And we set up our next three miniseries, and they're exciting. We're, like, fucking salivating at the promise of what's coming up. Guys, I'm gonna get them to tell me all of their upcoming miniseries, and I'm not gonna tell a soul. And then

March Madness is gonna be fucking good. At this point, the voting's starting. I think everyone going to be normal about it. That's what I predict. Yeah. Normal. I feel like the last one was a nice return to normalcy last year. We took it off Twitter, but I'm sure they did something insane last year.

I don't even remember. Do both. You know what? Oh, right. It was do both. I will be clear right now. I can't remember. Ben is the tiebreaker.

Yes. If you engineer a tie, he will break it. Yeah. That's how it works. Do both anything. We are not doing both. No. We will do one.

Yeah. And Ben is the tiebreaker. Does that mean we're never doing Bong Joon-ho? No. No. It just means you don't fucking tell us what to do. You get to pick one a year. And don't try to tell us what to do.

Don't try to sway me if it comes down to a tie. I'll pick The only thing that will sway him is money That's true And where are you going to find that? Or gifts Flattery A kind smile on a gloomy day

Sending him a gif of a thing he likes No, not a kind smile I need more than that A free microphone arm? We need one. Well, no. We have a recording on Wednesday. Why do you think I'm telling people

we have three miniseries? I'm sweating. Yeah, we're like Zazz Life. We got a lot of stuff coming up, okay? You guys don't even know. Tom Cruise has like eight movies. We got to end this episode so we can start our seed funding round.

We're so rich, we're going to buy Paramount. We're definitely, we have so much. We're going to round we're so rich we're gonna buy paramount we're definitely we have so much we're gonna buy we're gonna buy yeah yeah we're buying they take monopoly money right yeah but he's trying to put paramount on his amex come on come on i'll buy you right now all right we're done goodbye goodbye thank you all for listening please remember to rate review and subscribe thank you to marie bardy co-producer of this show and our announcer for the evening that's true our master of ceremonies thank you to joe bowen pat reynolds for our artwork that golden waddo thank you to lane montgomery and Great American Novel for our theme song. I don't know why I tripped on that word. Thank you to JJ

Birch for taking it sleazy for a week. He went to go see Disney on Ice. And Pixar in concert. He went to Pixar Philharmonic or some shit. I am happy that my episode gives JJ a chance to take a week off. Being a fucking good-ass dad, taking his daughter's shit.

A chance to take a week off. You're welcome, JJ. Thank you to... Take the month off, because he's fired. I'm just kidding. You're rehired. Alex Barron, AJ McKeon for editing. AJ McKeon, also production coordinator on the show. As well, we should say thank you to Alex for creating

all of the original music for our Blankie episodes. Oh, sure. Yeah, absolutely. You can go to BlankCheckPod.com for links to some real nerdy shit, including our Patreon Blank Check special features. We're finishing up the Terminator

movies, doing an episode on... You're into the good ones now, right? We actually have our Die Hard 2 Die Harder episode coming up on March 11th. And then next month, we have our Sin Eater, The Crimes of Anthony Policano episode coming up, which is... I could not be more psyched for that one.

Definitely not 45 minutes of us vamping after we've stopped talking about that. It's either going to be... We might have to talk more about that off mic. People's most or least favorite episode ever. I can't wait. I think we may have to perhaps include something else on the garbage plate.

Fair enough. Okay, well, let's talk about that later. Yeah. Anyway, next week, Hunt for Red October. And as always, next year I'm going to get Ben's fiance to do punch up on my opening number. And as always, Mr. Wagner's supposed to be behind everything all along. Yes. I'm Marie Bardi.

And this has been the Blank Check Awards. With music by the Alex Barron Orchestra. Illustrations and graphics created by Joe Bowen and Pat Reynolds. Produced by A.J. McKeon. Executively produced by Ben. Promotional consideration for the blankies provided by Chipcoin, the official currency of the moon. The Lumiere Brothers Factory. Walking out of work, walking into film history. Water. Did you remember to drink some

today? Dan Lewis's shack of subs. He retired from acting. He's making sandwiches now. Radio shack. Fran magazine. Votes for the seventh annualank Check Awards were tabulated and certified by the accounting firm of Fernst & Young. Special thanks to Jack Reed, Party Blue Jay, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Blankies for their contributions.