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

Episode Date: February 23, 2025

It’s a wonderful night for Blankies! Join us and This Had Oscar Buzz’s Joe Reid as we survey the year that was 2024 in cinema. Not to spoil too much, but some things that happen in this episode: Griffy Crystal sings a tribute to The Brutalist to the tune of “Bootylicious,” Nosferatu wins zero awards but shows up to present every category, Griffin is obsessed with Hundreds of Beavers, David hates The Bikeriders, Joe invents an incredible new bespoke category, and as always - Ben ranks his wettest films of the year. Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your  pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

MUSIC David? Yes? This is a pre-roll before the actual episode. Wow. Because we have something special. An announcement to communicate about our show. Blink check. Luke Griffin and David. Ten years. Decade. Of dreams. This March coming up is the

anniversary month and we want to do something special. Last year for our live show at town hall we had our buddy Olly Moss, the mad lad himself, make a beautiful poster. You might be seeing more of that artwork soon. Yep, and He sends us like six ideas Right of just like here ways. I thought I could graphically represent the show and his rough drafts were incredible Yes, it's it sparked something in my head. Okay, we got all these amazing artists. We know listen to the show Well, what would happen if we perhaps gave those artists a blank canvas to see whatever crazy ideas they could come up with? Wait, I'm sorry, Griffin, did you have a complicated idea? Yes, I did.

Exactly. Griffin's doing a lot of talking here because this was all his idea and I've not been involved with it. We're celebrating a decade of dreams with a special anniversary art show presented in partnership with Koda Gallery and Mutant. And who's invited? You're invited. Hell yeah. So here's the deal. March 21st to March 23rd at Koda Gallery, located at 210 Rivington Street, New York, New York, 10002.

The show will be open to the public Friday and Saturday from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. This special event will showcase exclusive prints from Maregaia, Brian Gaja, Brian Leo Malley, Herdahim, Kevin Wilson, our buddy Joe Bowen, and we'll also have unique kind of one of one works from Brad Hill, Sarah Rubin, Abigail Noy, Truck Torrents, just to name a few. It's quite a list

of contributors, and I've seen some sneaky peekies of what they're working on. There's some really cool stuff. So we will have first run prints available exclusively in person at the show. If there's any leftover inventory, we will make it available online to those of you who cannot attend.

And here's another thing. You could take a trip down memory lane, curate selection of blank check ephemera from over the years. Some very important historical items may or may not be on display. The envelope, buried jeans,

perhaps a full ass porch. I think it's gonna be a fun thing. If you're a dang ass freak and a real nerd who likes this podcast, we think it's gonna be a fun thing to do. I think it's going to be very fun thing to do. I think it's going to be very fun. I'm actually excited to see all this stuff that I've had no real participation in curating. Look, we make a mistake every year, which is planning a big live show in the same month

we do March Madness and taxing ourselves to the high heavens. We will do a live show later this summer, but we wanted to do something special in March for the anniversary, and this was a fun idea. To reserve a time to see the show go to blankcheckartshow.eventbrite.com. So mark your calendars, spread the word, we'll see at the Koda Gallery, 210 Rivington Street, March 21st through March 23rd. And for more info you can follow us on socials or visit the aforementioned blankcheckartshow.eventbrite.com. A decade of dreams David. com. A decade of dreams, David. David! A decade of dreams.

Coming to you live from Brooklyn, New York, it's the for Blankies, Blankies, Blankies, who will win? And some of the possible nominees are oh Amelia Amelia Perez affirming your gender and singing oh Amelia you ran a cartel guacamole smell run a charity i was very surprised that's what that movie's about I was very surprised that's what that movie's about. When the girl gets on top and she grinds till you pop, that's anora. When they reach Russian boy, treat your heart like a toy, that's anora. Anora's a vampire now. I also did a more for Minari, I believe.

Yes. Yeah. Dun-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un-un- Church through changing times conclave I don't think you're ready for this shelving. I don't think you're ready for this shelving I don't think you're ready for this cuz my style is too brutalistic for you, babe That was a respectful nod from David I'm watching wicked tonight I'm watching wicked tonight I'm watching wicked tonight, but just part one All I can say

Real pain coconut eyes and bird state in their lanes Yeah, that's good. He's a young Bob Dylan, conquering the world of folk. Wants to go electric, Pete Seger's saying no. He sleeps with a girl named Joan,

girl named Joan, plot of a complete unknown. This is danger zone. Okay, I was like, what is it? I was like Okay Here's the big one Why are the nickel boys nickel boys the school is real bad and real racist to racist to they mess kids around and then Worst of all worst of all the film is all shot from their POV POV. I see what they see empathy

Okay, I'm typed out oh that was great that was great. Thank you Now let's let's acknowledge a thrill ride as for the first year for the 10th annual blankies We brought in our Bruce phalanx. Oh, yeah, that's right. And who's that? It's on Clemens of Hollywood handbook. How many of those did he come up with almost all of them? Okay, great nickel boys was all me. I did some adjustments on a couple of them. This was almost all. Last year he was like, hey, I heard you struggled to come up with the songs.

I like song parodies. Feel free to activate me earlier. And I remembered to text him last night. So Nickel Boyz to build me a buttercup. Yeah. I see what they see was the big, that came to me. Yeah, yeah, yeah, no, that was great. POV!

The school's bad shut it down I Was trying to figure out how to fit that lyric in there I was yeah, I want to make it clear close the schools. That's what shut it down Yeah, close the schools right what if you didn't like me you like nickel boys because you don't like any schools Yeah, right shut them all All right Linda McMahon. Hey Hello All right, Linda McMahon. Hey! Hello. Welcome to the 10th annual... People are pointing out that this is actually the 11th year of Blank Trek. Right, but we didn't do a Blankies award in our first year.

Which makes this the 10th annual, but people are saying, why are you talking about all this decade of dreams shit? This is year 11. Decade of dreams is all about looking back. Much like the 10th annual blankies, which are about looking back to 2024. Right, it's like we've done 10 years and one day and two days, right?

So it's a decade. It's a decade of- I hate people listening to this show and commenting on it. This is how- Turn it off! It's also how birthdays work and have always worked. It is how birthdays work, thank you. That's how... and everything else.

Check my watch here. Well, well, well. Uh-oh. It's my birthday today. Happy birthday, Griffin Newman and Blanky Awards. Well, well, well. And what a great gift I got this year. The episode that stresses me out most yearly.

Oh, this stresses you out? You get too stressed out about these assignments. I get too stressed about making these tough, tough decisions. I'm moving things around still. Well, it's tough out there to make those decisions. I understand that. But we, of course, are here. It's Three Six Mafia, I would say.

It is. It's hard out here for an awards body. Hard out there for a Gryff. I want some. Hey, that's good. How is Three Six Mafia doing? Great, have yeah three academy awards. They each have a trophy What do you mean like their last album was released in 2008? Okay? All right Yeah, but you know what they can do they can look on their bookshelf and see an Academy Award

It was a deserved win as far as it was good movie. I wonder if I would like it now, but I loved it. I have not seen it. Oh, you know what? I actually didn't like it at the time. And now I'm curious if I'd like it more. I liked it a lot. I liked the hustle. Maybe not so much the flow.

You weren't into the flow. Yeah. Did you like hustle and flow, Ben? Did you ever see hustle and flow? I did see it. You know, it's hard out here for a pimp. I liked it. I love a gritty movie about a bunch of riffraff.

Maybe the flow this time around can be a bunch of animals on a little boat, hustling to make it through the floods. And you know what? I love to see scrappy audio production. Oh, well, I mean, Make It Work Culture was happening in the studio right before we started recording. So, Ben Hosley. We had a little bit of equipment failure, but thankfully we had an extra part and we were able to get things back on track.

I red-holked out for a second there, I guess. People might be worried that now that Captain America Brave New World has come out, and we as a culture have entered a Brave New World, that the Rolke reference riffs might end. Never! I want you to know, first of all, we have maybe six episodes in the can where we talk about Red Hulk.

I can't stop thinking about him! I'm looking at him right now. Yeah, he's looming. He is just above me. He is looming. Our friends at Regal Sen has a Red Hulk popcorn bucket. You eat out of his back bucket connected to the red hulk

No, that is a an avatar bucket. Okay. This is literally just a bust a very detailed bust Yeah, hulk harrison ford and there's a slot in his back and you can read. Oh, oh god. That's that god does not Approve of that. Hey, our guest today. Hey. Returning to the show for the 10th time. Getting better with age, I think so. Getting better with age. Yeah, let's say it.

Co-host of This Has Oscar Buzz. Yes, had Oscar Buzz. This had Oscar Buzz. But you know. Today we'll talk about things that also had Oscar Buzz. And it either. This has Oscar Buzz. Came to be or not.

He's also the godfather of the Cinematrix. That's true. I indeed am. Godfather? Father? Speaking of things that are turning one. Hey, today is also the birthday. I said last year when I recorded The Blankies

was the very first day that Cinematrix went live. Everything's happening. Joe Reed, AKA Reading Ranger. Thank you. A nickname that I solely uphold. The only person to call me that, and you know what? I appreciate it. Hey, that's what I'm here for.

Guys, was 2024 a weird year for movies? Nah, you know... I'm just, I'm thinking about this. I'm thinking normal. And for the first time... Yes? No, it was weird, right? It was an odd one.

Very odd year for life. Mm-hmm. You know what? It's an odd one. Very odd year for life. Mm-hmm. You know what? That's a good way of framing it. Bit of an odd year for movies. Why was it, I guess, the strike that, you know... I think a lot of it is... A lot of weird stuff got kind of, like, gummed up.

A lot of it's the strike. I think when things... What? The strike? The studios foolishly, hubristically thought they could avoid and then went on so much longer than they thought that when the machine started up, it was just like, we have to finish five, 10 polls.

And everything else was just kind of like backlogged. You also hear all these stories of just nothing getting fucking greenlit anymore. And during the strike, there was a lot of talk of like indie waivers. Well the indies get to go but what people don't know I had good friends who were ready to make a feature and the strike happened and I was like well can't you guys go can't you get an indie waiver and they were like the indie waiver list is so fucking backed

up. Oh wow. Right especially because all these stars were like, get me on an indie. 824 got a couple of things through the pipeline, you know, like there were things that happened. Yeah, things got approved. But like they needed to be one by one approved. And so even the indie offerings were backed up. And 824 had about 12 movies this year that you were like,

well, this is probably going to be an Oscar contender. They had a weird year. They're all competing with the inside the same house. They had a weird year and then they just bought something at Tiff and just put everything on that. Yeah. Venice, I think, right? Yeah, you're right.

Yeah. Yeah. Both. Whatever. Who knows? Everything. It was a weird year. I mean, that is the number one reason.

And also we've like, as we talk about every year, the last 10 years have been very transformative for the Oscars. And you now basically have this body that's like at war with itself and is like every year swinging back and forth on what it is. Yeah. They're so international now. They're so very much like, and now all of a sudden, this is why the Oscars are much more an extension of Cannes than they used to be.

Younger and artier, and that you still have old fuddy-duddies, and sometimes you have a movie that seems like a critics' darling art house festival play that then comes out bombs and then the fuddy-duddies reclaim it? One of the weirdest awards season arcs of all time, in my opinion. Yes. Especially in the fact that, like, it seemed at times that like, do you even know what you like about this movie? Like, because I don't know if you necessarily do. But like Netflix definitely thought buying Amelia Perez, this is at least anatomy of

a murder best case, uh, parasite. They didn't think we're Green Book this year. Right. Right? Well, because it was like, listen, it's on the cutting edge of, you know, we are being radically inclusive and we are telling it's a trans musical drug cartel, it's in Mexico, it's all, it's international,

yada, yada, yada. And every little element of this, the component communities were like, don't want it. Just to be clear, we're talking about Hot Frosty. Yeah, we're talking about Hot Frosty. Netflix's riskiest bet. Do you like EP? So I saw it last night.

I'd been pulling it off this whole season. And I finally saw it. Here's what I'll say. I did not like it. It's very French. I didn't. It is a very French movie. I didn't desp saw it. Here's what I'll say. Yeah. I did not like it. It's very French. I didn't. It is a very French movie. I didn't despise it.

No. I don't know if that's because I have seen it so late in the bell curve that my expectations were most offensive, incompetent, and coherent movie ever made. It's a really bad musical and I really don't like that about it. It is a disastrous musical. You could do a subcategory this year of like the broken musicals of 2024. Yeah. Amelia Perez, Joker, Folly, a duh and Moana to are three musicals in crisis where it's like, you can't figure out why you're a musical.

Yeah. I think Joker two comes out the best out of those three as a musical or as a movie, both. Wow. Okay. David's making a stinky. I would take Amelia Perez over. I liked Amelia Perez more than Joker, Folly a Do.

Watching Amelia Perez made me respect Folly a Do even more. Have you seen Moana 2? The songs are so fucking bad. I know. I've waited till the Oscar nominations and then it didn't get any and I was like, that's a movie I do not have to see this year. I complained that Folly a Do, Todd Phillips

didn't have enough conviction to really like own the cinematic language of it being a musical. And then watching Amelia Perez, I'm like, he went for it much harder than ODR did. That's a movie that feels embarrassed to be a musical in a way that is weird to me. Well, perfunctory more than maybe embarrassed. I just think they don't know how to sing.

Right. So that's like the major issue. But also the songs are bad and the numbers aren't shot in any sort of like outspoken. There's a couple exceptions. I just agree they don't know how to sing, so that's the major issue. What else? That the songs are bad and the numbers aren't shot in any sort of, like... There's... There's a couple exceptions. I disagree with that. I think there are two. Yeah. Joker Fallen just stinks. The songs are so poorly chosen.

I will not get on board with the, like, reclamation of that movie. It's so annoying to me. It's such a dull fucking movie. I half like it's better than Amelia Perez. That's fine, but I don't like either of those movies, so that's not a dull fucking movie. I half like it's better than Amelia Perez. That's fine, but I don't like either of those movies, so that's not a conversation to me. But Amelia Perez is at least an original musical with songs written to match a plot. I'll give it that.

I can give it that. I don't like that movie. I think it's also dull for a movie that's so bananas. I found it dre dreary especially the last Half I think I just committed harder to the songs in the intro to the blankies than emilia pares does to its musical numbers The actors can't sing musical numbers. That's the issue. That's not the only problem. They're 10 issues That's but I mean i'm just with the music I'm just kind of like it felt like watching the musical cut of i'll do anything

Right, right lift this and the movie plays the same. Oh, God. For Amelia Peres, yes. Yeah. This was Aukerman's take, which I think is really dead on, where he's like, it's single biggest issue in a lot of ways is it's like complete failure dramatically as a musical in that the musical numbers, aside from the not being good songs, not being well-stayed.

Their punctuation rather than like plot movers. They are just stating things. The musical numbers, aside from the not being good songs, not being well-staged, not being well sung. They're punctuation rather than plot movers. They are just stating things. It's not the fundamental, like musical should be, this is the only way to express a thing that narratively pushes the plot forward. And the musical numbers are just characters restating things without any charm. I also just think whatever. Which is what I'll Do Anything feels like.

It felt like watching that, it's so weird that that movie got fucking 13 Oscar nominations. That's mostly... I just feel annoyed that I had to discuss that movie at all. Like it should have been just like, oh yeah, that thing didn't really work, did it? Okay, let's kind of put that in the, you know, forgotten bucket. Richard Brody, I think, hit the nail on the head, where he just pinpointed it. Its fundamental issue being that it is a deeply incurious movie. Incurious. Which I was like, that's the whole thing for me.

Incurious bastards. Right. But it's a lot like Green Book, where I'm like, I don't find this movie offensive. I find it stupid and glib. I find the people who elevate it to profundity to then be offensive. Sure. Except I think one of the people elevating it to profundity to then be offensive. Sure. Except I think one of the people elevating it to profundity is Jacques Odiard. Yeah. Here's the thing I didn't know.

And also Carlos Chico. Until yesterday. He's 72 years old. Yeah. The man's been around. Been around. He's been around. I spent literally, like, months evangelizing

The Sisters Brothers, though, because we rewatched it for Oscar buzz. I love that movie. And I was like, I fucking love this movie. I love almost all of his films. And I was so high on Odiard at that point, literally like months evangelizing the Sisters Brothers though, because we rewatched it for Oscar buzz. And I was like, I fucking love it. I love almost all of his films. And I was so high on ODI art at that point and the press came along and I was like, oh. He had like 20 years in France writing crime movies

and stuff before he in like the mid 90s starts directing. Like he, his first writing credit is in like the 70s. And I don't really know know why he spent so long, like not directing before he finally was like, you know what, maybe I'll. Yeah. And then started pushing out a lot of interesting movies. He's made a lot of interesting movies.

He's also made a couple of misfires. I'm going to call this one a misfire. Sure. I think that's fair. But have any of us nominated Amelia Perez for anything today? No, zero noms, goose egg. Ben, admit it. Sweet. It might appear in a category.

So luckily we do not have to bow to the Oscars love of Amelia Perez in discussing it too much, but you did see it. You did your homework. I did my homework. That's not good. No, it's not good. And you know, I watched a lot of these movies, like 2024 is defined by me,

like in the middle, my twins are born, I go on leave. Wait, I'm sorry. I miss, thank you again. I'm giving this for the first time. I go on leave, I miss like fall festival season, I miss all the awards movies, I catch up with them all,

like with their buzz kind of calcified, right? You know, where it's like, I'm just... Usually, I'm not, oh, I'm taking the temperature with... You know, but, like, I go see... We call him the thermometer. ...Anaura just, like, in the movie theater. Like, it was just kind of fun. I was like, great. This is great. I don't have to, like,

worry about, oh, my gosh, am I, you know, whatever. Like, am I going against the grain with this one? I go see a Nora and I'm like, ah, it was good. I can see what people liked about this one, right? Like, yeah. But then like other things like Amelia Paris is me going like, oh, okay, I guess it's on Netflix. I guess I'll get around to this

and just watching it be like, I don't have a lot of time right now. This is what I have to be doing at my time, which was Joker 2 as well. Sure, sure. So we're here to do be doing with my time. Which was Joker too, as well. So we're here to do our Blankie Awards. Joe Reed is here. Have we?

Reading Ranger. You did the Reading Ranger. Yeah, I did it. Ben Hossley's here. Ben Hossley, the great Ben Hossley. He's just been. I got a box, I got a thing of peanut butter cups from Trader Joe.

Yeah, it's a bold move. It's a bold move by me. And we should kick off. We don't need to do too much prelude, but we all agree. 2024 weird year. Weird year. Yeah, here's my one qualifier. I always resent doing qualifiers.

I regret doing it immediately, but I'm going to throw this out. I have had a rule that I've enforced only for myself in every year that we've done this. That anyone who has been on the show is disqualified due to bias. Oh, OK. So who does that entail done this, that anyone who has been on the show is disqualified due to bias. Oh, okay. So who does that entail for this year? Well, I saw the TV glow was very much one of my favorite movies. Oh, just put it in your list. I have just, I have exempted...

Yeah, that's a good movie. ...Jane in director and screenplay. You do what you want. Just the personal nominations, that was my one move I did. I get it, I get it. So just read into that snob as you will. I felt it was unfair.

I put it in other records. My close personal friendship with Ryan Reynolds has forced me to disqualify Deadpool and Wolverine and also If. My close personal friendship with the purple guy from If. Yeah. Has caused me to also reject it. Isn't his name Bloom?

Oh. I couldn't make it past the 30 minute mark. Can I tell you about movies that I haven't seen this year? One of them is If. Yeah. I also did not see If, which features George Clooney. We were all busy that day. Yeah, somehow.

If lagged out some pox office, I will say. Like, it muscled through to... It was the highest-grossing original film in some... I mean, we fight over this stuff. There's some way, certainly, to be like, right? Like, it's based on no IP, except ripping off other IP, I guess. Mm-hmm. Right? Let's see. Let's take a look.

Because it's like, I mean... The whole box office list. Yeah, because like, Wicked, beyond it being based on a musical, it's like, it's also, you know, playing with toys we know. Absolutely. It's based on a thing that's based on a thing. Right. That's based on a thing. It's an adaptation of a musical.

It's an adaptation of a book. That's an adaptation of the original book. It ends with us crushed, but it's based on a book. Based on a bestseller. Right. And it crushed. We all loved it. I never saw.

Did not. Yeah. No, but it did incredibly well at the box office. Red One is based on Santa Claus. That's true. Yes, it's based on our crudest mythology. Right, it's also based on quality, the notion of a high quality product. Red One falling just short of a hundred million domestic is very funny.

You know what? I hadn't been keeping track. 96. I gave up at some point and I was like, fuck, it's gonna cross it, that sucks. I'm really happy it stalled out. It's like 97. The other one that stalled out that I kind of feel bad about stalling out is Nosferatu because that got up to 95. What's it up to right now?

It's still in theaters. It's not, it's going to need to like get an infusion of something to get to 100 million. What? An infusion? Come here. But I think it's also hanging right around. It's hanging right around. It's hanging right around.

It's a good bit voice. It will never get old. Has anyone called out that Nosferatu sounds like Watto? That it is dramatic Watto. You, you, uh, what does it want to say? My intrigues don't work on me. Only money. No money, no party, no deal. Oh, it's what is want to say you mind tricks don't work on me only money No money, no part. I know drives for sale. I would buy a ticket to Nosferatu though

That's just the most ferrata read the boy Cannot be beaten. I wish not for out to I wish that graph or like complain about so bull Oh, I got so much money on that motherfucker. It's a bulb You know, what's funny what's so ball? Too much time doing bottle comedy you for a comeback Subulba bring him back. I really you know what? I thought it was brave at Brian Cox in that interview to say that it's time to uncancel subalba. Yeah, no Brian Cox actually won't stop saying it

He's done it five times in the last two months And meanwhile guy Pierce is like I have some nails for a coffin for look I know he had his weirdnesses, but subalba is one of the great pot racers I do have off. I do have a waddle question for you Please are you taking care of your voice with that's a that's... It's a really well-trained muscle at this point. It just sounds like it would hurt to do that much Watto voice. The answer is that at this point I don't... I have found a modified version that is easy to sustain. Okay, good. I'm glad to hear about this.

Watto in the movie is like, eh, no money, no parts. Like that tension would hurt to do for two hours. That sounds like a nodule. That's why I don't do that. That's why I'm like, hey, hello. Welcome to the George. Okay, it's much more triumphing. I've gotten good at how to do it Hey, let's start out this Supporting actor. What should we do first? Best supporting actor Let's mention that Nas faratu is hosting the awards this year.

Usually we have the past winners present this year. It's five Nosferatu's coming out to present each individual number. Can we present, can we say who our winners were last year? Can we pull that up? Can we pull that up, baby? I'm 100% sure that we can. But don't we usually start with like a supporting actor or whatever? Yeah, so I'm saying, why don't you pull up

our supporting actress nominees? I'm going to. I appreciate this so much. Oh, so you wanna know who won supporting, right. So best supporting actress last year, wow. It is a real trip down memory lane because of some of these movies I haven't thought much about. This is why I like doing this.

Griffin, who is Julianne Moore from May, December presenting your best, what's she who, what she's saying. Oh, okay, so we're gonna. I'll say, all right, fine. Mine is of course, Mara Tierney from The Iron Claw. Of course. And Joe's of course was Penelope Cruz in Ferrari. Another person with a normal accent in the movie.

Very much so. I was sort of coin tossing between Cruz and Moore and then I, once you picked that, I put my chips down. Okay, I'm doing this last second edit, which is just removing the person who got the Oscar nomination, whose performance I love to fight for my guys. There you go.

Best supporting actor in a motion picture. Supporting supporting actor. And I'm ready for right out the gate, David, to make a stinky poo poo face. I'm gonna be so angry about it. I'm gonna be so angry. David, neutral face, please That was the least neutral face I've ever seen

My nominees for best supporting actor Tom Hardy in the bike riders Okay, his face stayed still I appreciate it Mark Edelstein Enora That's his name. It doesn't have a longer name. Maybe no You're right. you're right. He just has a lot of extra Y's in it. There's just a lot of letters in there.

It's spelled in an interesting way. Jack Haven, I saw the TV glow, credited as Bridget Lundy Payne in the film, citing this just for lack of... No, it's for clarity. Yes. Adam Pearson, a different man. Chris Hemsworth, Furiosa, Mad Max Saga.

Now, he is supporting, right?emsworth, Furiosa, Mad Max Saga. Now he is supporting, right? I mean, I wondered about him because he's sort of, he's sort of the lead of like a lot of the movies that are his. Right. But then he's also not in it for a while. It was obviously my least favorite movie of 2024. You hated it.

You will see it receive six spiteful nominations for me this year. I saw it three times in theaters across the three times. With a grimace on your face every time. Across the three times, I was like, let me do the math, not stopwatch, but like really feeling is he supporting or lead. The first act he is absolutely like running.

Right, because... He really disappears for like... Furious, it doesn't even really talk. ...the middle hour plus. I think it's firmly supporting. Much more so than perhaps the person who is about to win supporting actor at the Academy Award. All right, I've come around on this.

I think there is a solid argument to be made that Karen Culkin is supporting him. I mean, it's sort of a... It's a Brad Pitt in Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, like when you have a two-hander, someone sort of becomes automatically supporting. Yeah, I think you could almost argue that Culkin is more the lead than Eisenberg though. And I'm not stop watching this. And the movie's about Eisenberg a little bit more. And it's about Eisenberg taking Culkin in

and trying to make sense of him. It's just me what makes the lead this supporting. It does begin and end with Culkin. It does. Does it? See, the other thing is I saw that movie more than a year ago. And I do not remember it very well, except for the only scene in the movie I truly loved,

which involved Jesse Eisenberg. So I walked away being like, hey, Eisenberg did a good job. The dinner table? Yeah. You were calling it, you thought Eisenberg was gonna win Best Actor. No, I was calling him to make the five,

and then I was kinda like, who knows? There was a while there where it seemed like that was a very good one. It was when, it was pre-Timmy, pre-The Dillon movie hitting for anyone, where everyone was like, who's even getting nominated? There was this brief period where it was like, is this the weakest actor field ever?

And then it kind of, everyone settled down. Sure. Like everyone kind of settled down. We settled their asses down. Who's presenting Joe's nominees? Joe's nominees are pre, I said... Penelope Cruz. Penelope Cruz. So Penelope Cruz is coming out.

I will not be doing an accent. Weird, weird choice. My nominees, Griffin, you will appreciate a lot of these. Mark Eidelstein in Enora. Chris Hemsworth in Furiosa. Karen Karagulian in Enora. Love that guy. Love that guy.

Baker is gonna be making a fucking Marvel movie and you'd be like, there's a rumpled Armenian guy. Okay? Who's dressed out for much of this. He's showing up. Conflicted relationship with his wife. That's the Captain America we need and deserve, is Karen Karagulian. Guy Pearce in The Brutalist, and Adam Pearson in A Different Man.

Guy Pearce was my last second book. Right, I mean, that's a great performance. And I think we all love Guy Pearce. Like, right beyond liking that performance, we're just like... It's kind of nice to have Guy Pearce, like, landing a punch. It is certainly my favorite of the five nominees and the one I want to win. I bumped him just purely because... Yeah, out of spite.

We're going to talk about him. You bumped him out of spite. I bumped him out of spite. Yeah, Guy Pearce is interesting. So you like... I guess... Wait, who are the five nominees? Because there's... My five nominees? No, no,ce is interesting. Uh, so you like, I guess... Wait, who are the five nominees? My five nominees? No, no, the five nominees.

It's Pearce, Culkin, Edward Norton, who I do really love, and a complete unknown. Jeremy Strong, who I also really love. It's a good five, and Yura Borisov, who I assume we all enjoy. I like all the Anura guys. I just wanted to give the... Because my thing with Yura Borisov is like,

you know, he's getting the nomination. He's already hot. This is the thing. God doesn't need to give with both hands all the time. He's already super hot. So let's give it to... I feel bad that Mark Eidlstein has been like the forgotten one. Like Karagulian even at least got a couple of things. I think Eidlstein was so good at playing his character that everybody was like,

fuck that guy. This is my take, but we'll get into this that I think you're right that everyone was kind of like He's is he is this just what this stupid kid is like right? I kept talking to people our friend Tim Simons. Yeah, was got man. You're you're always got normal takes right? Perfectly dictated into his phone With no mistakes. Yeah, that's right He was like man your bursev That's right. He was like, man, Yuriborov's like amazing. And I was like, really?

Mark Edelstein's the one who like kind of blew me away. And he went, yeah, but isn't that just Baker fighting some kid who's just like this? Which I guess is Baker's reputation, right? Totally. And I kept hearing people say that. And Tim is such a great actor and such a good judge of acting. But like that guy...

But he's like a Russian actor, right? He's like classically trained. He is like the Timothee Chalamet of Russia. He's the big, young leading man. This part is totally out of his wheelhouse. And I thought it was kind of the most electric, new to me performance I have seen in a very long time. And the whole movie runs on the peaks and valleys of just...

But also that. Yeah, it runs on Duncan. But there probably was a lot of Duncan on set. There probably was. Jokes aside. Jokes aside that yeah, it runs on Duncan. Yeah, but I there probably was a lot of Duncan Yeah Yeah, they were probably done Brighton Beach Duncan was a contest I think But you know the whole movie hinges on being like I can't figure this guy out. Is he for real? We love it So my five nominees presented by more tyranny more it's here. Oh, sheney, oh gosh. Quiet, ruthless painting. She comes out and everyone's like,

God, she's so good. We take her for granted. Wasn't she good in something this year? I feel like I just saw her pop up in something again. Wait, I think you're right. What did Maura Tierney just pop up in? I was very excited to see her pop up in something. What was Maura Tierney doing the pop up in?

All right, Maura Tierney. I'm gonna figure it out while you do your nominees. I just saw her in the Criterion closet and she must've, well, Twisters. It was Twisters. It was Twisters. The only problem with Twisters is that it's not- It's clearly meant to be Helen Hunt's.

Well, that's true. That is very true. But it is not, and right, it wasn't Helen Hunt's thing. Well, actually I wanted to direct Twisters and they were like, well, we weren't interested in you doing that. Right, so. Correct.

My only problem with Twisters is it should be canonically in the movie Glenn Powell and Mortimer have fucked. Yes, even though it's obvious to. Right, like Glenn Powell and Mortimer have enough chemistry in that movie that you're kind of like, oh, I can go with it. But he actually should be like, oh, I know your mom. It's like, all right.

Biblically. My five nominees are, and I'm also, just for the record, kind of basically kicking Guy Pierce and Yura Vorosov out, who have both performances out. Yeah. Look, once again, like, it's just, why not take the time on these microphones to vouch for the people who aren't getting credit in other places? We're recording this at the tail end of Oscar season. Yeah.

But Guy Pierce would be my winner out of the five people they nominated. I think all five of those nominees are great. I do too. I really like Jeremy Strong. It's maybe the best lineup of the four acting categories. And yet I think Kieran's gonna win, and I think he's my least favorite performance, although I don't mind the performance, and I like Kieran.

I think the pendulum's gone, again, a little bit more against him than I think it should. The whole, you know, oh, he's just playing the same guy he always plays, like, I don't know if I necessarily go with that. I love the guy. I've been holding stock for so fucking long. Same! Yeah. It will surprise no one to hear that Igby Goes Down left a very big impression on me when I was fucking 12.

I keep trying to rope you in to do that to this head Oscar, but whenever you are ready to be on Zoom again, come on over. Yes. Yes. We'll figure it out. My thing is, and I feel like I've said this before, with Oscar performances, I either want to see something I've never seen them do before. I understand. Yeah. I want to see them do the absolute best version of it they've ever done, where I'm like, they've never gone this deep before. I don't buy into the blank is just playing themselves because it's all

acting. Like, Kieran Coulkin is not playing himself. Acting is casting way more than people understand. He is doing his thing, which he has never had this good of a vehicle to do in a movie at this length. It suffers in comparison to him just having finished a five-year run of what I think is the best case of his thing, which he got a ton of awards for.

So there's just the part of him... But not only at the very end, though. He was undervalued on that show for the first several seasons. The last season really put him front and center, and he won his awards, he went out on top. He swept the whole season. It just happened in the last year. So there was the part of me that's like,

he's undeniably good in this movie. I have nothing against him. I just sat there being like, I'm gonna be blown away. This is sometimes how the Oscars work. Totally. Like, that's sort of... And again, like blown away. This is sometimes how the Oscars work. Totally. Like, that's sort of, and again, like, we sort of push up against the Oscars. And the heightening of TV in sort of prestige has led to this thing where people get this sort of like, halo effect win of like, McConaughey

being pushed over the edge in the Dallas Buyers Club year because of True Detective. Even a performance that I really love, like Regina King and Beale Street, was the culmination of her being, like, great on, like, four or five TV shows leading up to that. Yeah, and I feel like there's another one I'm forgetting recently, but yes, it's starting to happen more and more.

David. Yes. Don Johnson, Rebel Ridge. Oh, that's a good one. That's been an iron lock for you for, like, six months. Such a good fucking performance. Yeah. Brian Tyree Henry and the Fire Inside.

A performance that when I saw it, I was kind of like, I think this could waltz to a nom. And now partly a strong field, partly I feel like the film kind of getting a raw deal in its release and stuff, like did well at festivals, but then like, you know, kind of gets lost at Christmas. There was festival word for Brian Tyree Henry in Toronto. A beautiful performance from an actor who never ever misses.

One of her best. Edward Norton in a complete unknown. The one nominee I cannot leave. Because that would... He nailed me to the wall. Yeah, he's great. J.O. Sanders and his three daughters. David, I'm glad you did that.

Swinging in like a wrecking ball. A movie I know I would love and I never got around to. And a movie where you're like, oh, and does the dad ever show up? And you're like, oh, he shows up at the end, played by J.O. Sanders. And you're like, I bet that's good. Yeah.

And David Webber in Hard Truths. The most undersung Hard Truths actor. This is the husband. Per... Per... Per... What's the character's name? Uh... Is it Perd? It's, uh, Kirtley.

Yeah, he's incredible in it. I strongly consider it. Incredible and the most incredible carrying a bathtub down the stairs action of the year. Yeah. That's a really good stuff. Just amazing stuff. Yeah. But no, just a performance that we're like the tiniest.

Yeah. When he, and going up against someone who's essentially playing like, you know, Nosferatu, right? And like the tiniest like ripples of emotion on his face. Yeah, why are you trying to sell me a couch? Pansy, you are so mean to me. Oh, well now he's Nosferatu too? Yeah, it doesn't make any sense.

It's a family of Nosferatu. It would be funny, right, Pansy's like, why do babies have pockets? Why, they don't need them. What are they carrying? My winner. Nosferatu. A late cut for me was Javier Bardem. It's why they don't need them. What are they carrying? My Late cut for me was Javier Bardem and Austin Butler in Dune part 2 a movie It doesn't get enough acting acclaim for its great performers. Austin Butler was very very close for me

My winner is Edward Norton though. I just could not believe how much I love that performance That was that movie blew me away generally in terms of like I'm walking in going like I hope this isn't long Like oh, yeah, I have to see this What an obligation we've talked about it so much But the arc of Edward Norton is just so fascinating to me from being like he is Brando He is De Niro to being like no one is better at playing kind of earnest Straightforward people than Edward Norton, the king of over-complicating things in the 90s.

Wes Anderson unlocked something in Hell. But it's incredible. I'm like, he went from being like Stanley Kowalski times a million to being Howdy Doody. Yes, but like- But he's so good at it. I don't think you get this Pete Seeger unless you get him in like Moonrise Kingdom. I agree. You know what I mean?

Also, he was like last second sub in like Bennett or bad Dropped out like a month before filming started because this was a strike delayed movie and number batch Yeah, plumber bash which like Cumberbatch looks more like Pete Seeger. Yes, you could see that casting honestly He's a good and good might have done a good job. But Norton gets the kind of like simplicity, the clarity. Pete Seeger is a guy who's really important to me. Grew up with his music. Taught you it was okay to be weird. He did teach me it was okay to be weird.

And right, when I heard it was Edward Norton playing him, I was like, well, I don't like that. Like, that does not strike me. And so I just real do credit to the guy. When did you ever think you would describe an Edward Norton performance as without vanity? I think like that's lovely. Lovely. Right. Like generous. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No, I just like that. He's got two modes now basically, which are mocking his reputation as an obsessive, right. Self-impressed, right. Right. Blowhard or playing the nicest guy.

Yes. Yes. it's amazing. Who are your winners? I think at the risk of being sort of boring about it, it's Guy Pearce and the Brutalist. He really just sort of like comes in that movie and like just the, you hit another energy level with that. Hello, I'm America. I'd like to buy you.

Subtly, I might be bad. There is. I'd like to buy you. Subtly, I might be bad. There is, yeah. There's a tinge of plain view in there, right? Like, it's great, yeah. My name is, uh, colonizer genocide. President Q Evil. Yeah.

Um, yes, Guy Pearce for Joe Reed. Mark Elsteen's my winner. It just kind of knocked me out. I was like, who the fuck is this guy? I just thought it was electric and also the kind of thing where I'm just like, I've never seen someone like this before. I've never seen a performance like this. It made perfect sense to me

for a character that doesn't like explain itself, all of his behavior, which I think a lot of people maybe wrote off as like, he found a guy who's quirky. I'm like, I think that is like very smart analysis, like behavioral analysis of the way this guy would act out. Well, and the way this guy sort of learned to operate in the world and the ways he's never like...

The parts of his personality that have never formed, that have never hardened into like human being because he's never had to. He's just sort of been this little like, you know, rich baby. that have never formed, that have never hardened into like human being because he's never had to. He's just sort of been this little like, you know, rich baby. My other nominees, Tom Hardy and the Bike Riders. Welcome back. Just nice to see him doing fucking. There's a lot of really good acting in the bike riders, too,

and he's really great. There's a lot of really good actors in it. Yeah. OK. But I thought Hardy was great. And it's like, this is the guy I was like all in on six years ago who has kind of disappeared down a well of Jiu-jitsu and Venom. No, yes.

And I enjoyed him in the first Venom movie. Oh boy. I loved him in the first Venom movie. But you look and you're like he basically has done no non-venom movies since 2019. Yeah, it is a good welcome back. Yes. I like that. Jack Haven, I saw the TV glow.

Great. Movie I think we all adore. I love that performance. It's another performance that the whole movie hinges on in terms of the energy. It's a lot like Mark Edelstein where it's like, you have this main POV character who's basing everything off of the energy that this character is giving and the shifts they go through. Especially their return later in the film, I found incredibly impactful. And has to be a little bit mysterious, right?

A little bit unknowable. Yep. And does that very well. But play it with specificity. What I look for in those types of performances is like, I can't pin this down, but I have a sense that the actor has it figured out. They're not being vague in their choices.

With Tom Hardy, it's like... It's been bad. If you ignore the sort of beautiful tapestry that is Vanum, and like, I love him in Dunkirk, but that's, you know... Yeah. ...a small supporting performance in a way. It's also his last Nolan. He hasn't done a Nolan since then. That was 2017.

I know. Oh, I know. He was the explosion in Oppenheimer then. Yes. He was just going, boom! It's like The Revenant? You're going over a decade back now. That's like, right? That was his last performance that was sort of like, you know...

When's the drop? I think he's very good in the drop. The drop is 2014. It's the year prior. They never see you coming, do they? Ha ha ha ha ha! Like, that's the whole thing, that kind of like... That run of like, Bronson to, you know, the Revenant, or whatever. Where it's like six or seven years, like, man, this guy has got so much juice!

Look, I don't like the Revenant, but like, I think he's great in that, I was so happy where I'm like, okay, we've broken the seal, he's a guy who's getting nominated now. Warrior is my favorite performance of his. But yes, that was my guy. When this show started, I was like, undeniably my favorite leading man. And it feels like he's on the beginning of his elevation.

Yeah. I hope so. Is there anyone else? Speaking of getting back, Chris Hemsworth taking the new male part and Mad Max, but doing an insane kind of inversion. Was that always him or did he get, did he replace? It was always definitely always him. Tom Burke replaced Yaya Abdul-Mateen.

But it was always Hemsworth. I desperately wanted to play Mad Max in Fury Road and hadn't yet popped. And you see in that performance, I think, the energy of an Australian kid who grew up just being like, all I want to do is be in a Mad Max movie someday. And his lack of vanity. You feel him being totally unleashed in that. I know some people ding the nose, and I think we said this in the episode, I think the nose allowed him to be freed of being Chris Hemsworth in a way that unlocks that performance. The nose is great.

The nose plays. I historically approve of weird noses in movies being the ours as number one fans, so I get it. Adam Pearson, my last nominee, it's just like... Such a fucking funny performance. It's so good, and it's such a a like, unshowy energy performance, because the whole movie, once again, hinges on, when this guy enters, you immediately go, oh, Sebastian Stan could have been happy. Well, and not only that, this guy is so effortless

in his sort of like, schwa-davie. He can't be too effortful. He can't be too big, or else the comedy really falls apart. You really need Sebastian Stan to fall to pieces effortfully can't be too big or else the comedy really falls apart. You really need Sebastian Stan to fall to pieces over this guy who is just being himself, but like, cool. Which is what's unshowy about it. Because you don't want it to be like Owen Wilson meets the parents like, oh, fuck this guy.

This guy's too slick. Right. You have to have the plausibility of like, if he knows what he's doing, he's doing it really like slyly. The movie basically hangs on him entering and you immediately going, oh, Sebastian Stan's character sucks. You don't like have contempt for Adam Pearson. You're like, this guy we've been hanging out with is a bummer. It's a great movie. D'jean, I'm gonna run through your other nominees.

Oh, J.S. Sanders, I already shot it out. Check out that movie. That's another movie where it's like, I saw that like a year and a half ago, and I like that movie. I think it's good. His scene just kind of, you know, is the showstopper for me. Uh, John Johnson, Rebel Ridge would be so easy for him. I'm surprised he wasn't your winner. Dorton came in and snatched it. Snatched it like Aaron Pierre snatches the gun out of John Johnson's hands in Rebel Ridge.

Have you seen Rebel Ridge? No, I still haven't watched it. You'd really like it. Netflix, it's the Netflix one. I know, I know. It's the same with Daughters. I'll watch it at some point. Netflix to the point of like Rebel Ridge

is getting nominated for like TV awards. Like as a, it's being considered a TVB. What are we doing? Which is so fucking dumb. Can I do my impression of Edward Norton snatching the award away from Don Johnson? Well, excuse me, let me just take this win quickly. There we go.

Can I also just say about Hemsworth? Because I, I, I... The most gentle yoink of all time. I'm not the Furiosa fan that y'all are, and that's fine. Um, I'm gonna give myself permission to do that. Um... Yeah, let everyone get angry at you instead of pretending that we hate the movie.

Wait, do they think you hate the movie? I think we hate the movie. Go on, Joe. I'm sorry, guys. I listened to that podcast and I'm like, they're being real fucking lenient on fucking Furious. What were you gonna say? The thing I was gonna say about Hemsworth is, I thought he was getting real lazy

in the last few Thor performances. And I was worried that this was just gonna be an extension of that. And I think somewhat like Tom Hardy, I saw him sort of get reinvigorated by this. In a way that we sort of like, we kind of infused Hemsworth with more of that movie star energy that we love. Bombs and the following Tuesday they announced that Chris Hemsworth will be the live-action Lead of the GI Joe Transformers team-up movie. Is that real? Yeah, I mean I know further update. I know Transformers beasts tease that rice the beast ends with a business card that Hollywood working so hard

Wasn't Hemsworth the voice of Optimus Prime in Transcorpers 1? I'm like, what are we doing? A great performance. Yeah, he was good. He was locked in. Yeah. I mean, I guess. But I'm like, we're failing this guy.

He's trying to evolve. I know. I know. I feel like there's another thing he just announced he's doing that I'm like, okay. Chris Hemsworth has tried. He has over his entire career worked with major directors to make non-franchise stuff like Rush and In the Heart of the Sea and stuff and it's just often just not his. To his credit, he tries to get tourist big budget studio movies bankrolled on his name.

Like he's not doing weird indies, but he's doing weird studio movies. And then he retreats back to, like, Men in Black International. The other one he's doing is the fucking live-action Prince Charming movie directed by Paul King. Well, that sounds fun. Sure, but I'm like, Paul... I know.

Paul! No, I'm disappointed in all those people. Paul, anything you want to do, I will see. My arms are on my... But I also, like, I had that same reaction to Wonka. I was like, Wonka, and like, I fucking love Wonka. Yeah, but also, as I texted to David the other day, if Paul King had stayed on Paddington 3,

maybe the pandemic wouldn't have happened. Well, you know... It's just funny that we're all like, I wish Paul King had made a sequel. Right? Like, we're like, you know, how dare he try to do other things? Back to the Blankies after these messages. David it's February, which means it is my birthday month, and all I ask for as a present this year is a robust slate of new theatrical motion

picture releases and that our listeners perhaps use our sponsor Regal and their Regal Unlimited program to see such releases. Yeah what do we got? The Monkey actually called The Monkey, new film from Oz Perkins whose long legs I loved last year, starring another one of her friends, past and future guest Tatiana Mazzolani. That's right. And looks very, very funny and cool and scary. Also very intrigued by this Martin Campbell action

or cleaner with Daisy Ridley. Yeah, starring Daisy Ridley, someone I've always had very, very calm opinions about on this podcast. I'm very excited for it feels like she's kind of ramping up her movie career again. Here's the thing. Oh, and then there's The Day the Earth Blew Up. I was gonna say, if that weren't enough, February ending with the first original feature length animated Looney Tunes movie ever that I have heard is excellent. And here's the thing.

The Day the Earth Blew Up in a Looney Tunes movie. What's awesome about all this is that there's lots of interesting different kinds of movies in theaters that you can go see. And with Regal Unlimited, the whole point is you sign up and seeing three, four, five, six of those movies is easy and affordable. And I find that once, you know, you have the Regal Unlimited, right? You know, sort of the option of basically like, let me pop over my theater. I have three free hours.

You do it more. That's what's nice about it. You do it more. You do it more. Go see the movies. Go see the movies. Sign up now in the Regal app. Yes.

Or the link in the description in our show notes. And use code blank check to get 20% off your three months subscription. And then you're going to be in the Crown Club. You're going to get rewards. You're going to build up points. You can get free popcorns and sodas and upgrades. 25% off candy on Tuesdays, 50% off popcorn, discounted tickets. Go to the Regal Crown Club website. And as I said, it's a little deep, it's a little buried in here.

There is a section where you can redeem your points for old promotional movie memorabilia like Red One Socks. Follow the link in the show notes, go to the Regal app, click on the unlimited banner, and then follow the instructions to sign up and enter promo code blank check when prompted to receive your discount. And look, I'm just gonna say it again, David,

signing up for Regal Unlimited or maybe gifting a membership to a moviegoer in your life. Sure. Great way to support the show. This is a dream advertiser. Yes. A dream partner for us. We want to keep this going.

We think it could benefit everybody, especially the movies. And we're back to the 2025 Plankies. We have to move on. As usual, we're taking too long. John Johnson, I just wanted to say, could have played that one dimensional. Doesn't watch that movie. He doesn't play it one dimensional at all. And you probably not seen the fire inside either, you little twerp.

I haven't, I missed that. It's hard to see. When I had my fucking dental surgery, when I was in recovery. He blames the dentist. Well, that movie was like in theaters out of it. It was. It was very close.

I'll say this, my little cousin George, our second finest movie critic, took him to see maybe it was Sonic 3, and we walked by the poster and he went, is that Creed 4? And I said, what? And he said, isn't like the next Creed going to be The Daughter? I forgot that the Creed movies are setting up that The Daughter is going to be a boxer. Oh, I didn't see the last two Creed movies.

But I was like, no, that's like another movie. It's supposed to be good. And he was like, really? Because it looks like a Creed ripoff. And then I looked at the poster and it is Amazon MGM who released the last Creed movie. Yeah. And I was just like, they are in the marketing making this look like Creed runoff. Amazon's not very good at marketing. Right. I think they totally missholt that movie. You keep bumping Lights, Camera, Jackson down the list of our finest film critics. He's going way down.

He's just getting... Yeah, an alarming speed. Yeah. All right. Should we move on to... Yeah, an alarming speed. Yeah. All right, should we move on to, oh, the blankies. Oh no, or I'll give you the blankies after the reader choices. The supporting choices. Jesus.

After we do Supporting Actress. ["Best Supporting Actress"] Best Supporting Actress. ["Best Supporting Actress"] Do you wanna hear who our supporting actor winners were last year, Griffin? I would love nothing more. Okay, well apparently Griffin's winner was Ryan Gosling and Barbie.

Hell yeah. My winner was Awuga, Honk Honk, Get Your Goggles On. Colin Farrell? Robert De Niro and Killers of the Flower Moon. Taking the 430 auto gyro to Prussia. And Joe's winner was Charles Milton in May, December. Three of the big performances that year, I feel. So who is Ryan Gosling telling us about Griffin

for supporting actress? My nominees for supporting actress are Alicia Witt in Long Legs, Allison Pill in Trap, Renata Ronsva in A Different Man, Ramina... excuse me, Ramina Di Ugo in I Like Movies, and Michelle Austin in Hard Truth. Now what is I Like Movies? I know you like this movie. The Great Chandler Leavitt.

I like I Like Movies. Canadian filmmaker. Yep. A movie that played at TIFF like two years ago and finally got a very limited release, but is watchable on PVOD Uh and is like a great uh sort of Inversion of the kind of romana clef Autobiography Canadian kid works in a video story young man coming in the ass. Yes. It is like it is the um The incredible kind of like response film to a lifetime of special little guy movies

that I grew up loving. Have you seen it? It's excellent, she's amazing in it. She has that incredible monologue she gives in the video store where she explains her history. It's the best Maria Dizia performance not given by Maria Dizia. Correct, that's a great way of putting it.

This was an actress I was not familiar with before and it knocked me out. Yeah, no, I really liked that movie. Knocked you out? Go see a doctor. My nominations are Michelle Austin, our truth, Dolly De Leon in Ghostlytes. Oh, there you go. You know what?

A late fill-in for someone else. Borderline Insane, I consider Dolly DeLeon for Between the Temples. Oh, nice. She is insanely good. She's very good in that movie, yes. Elizabeth Olsen in His Three Daughters, Tilda Swinton in Problemista, and Emily Watson in Small Things Like These.

I'll say the Tilda in Problemista was on my long list and I was like, Joe's gonna cover it. I had the exact same. Yep. Yep. And I really like that performance. Yeah, she's great. Okay.

That's great. Your nominees, David. My nominees are Anjanue Ellis-Tayloring, Nickel Boys, Michelle Austin, and Hard Truths. The only one in all three. Yeah, I mean, undeniable. Sophie Arconedo in Janet Planet. Also strongly considered and left off because I knew you'd go.

Yeah, I had that one covered. But one of my favorite. I had that one covered. Monica Barbaro, Phoenix herself in A Complete Unknown, a movie where these guys ended up getting the noms, but I'm still just kind of like, yeah, I'm rooting for you in your big studio Bob Dylan movie. But I liked it.

Yep. And, you know, it's like, do I go weird and do I go normal? No, I'm just. Go weird and then tell us the normal. The normal one is Ariana Grande in Wicked, who I really think deserves, you know, a firm handshake for the great work that she did in Wicked.

But not even having heard the weird one yet, I feel confident in telling you to go weird. I don't know, I can't. Who's your weird? My God, stop yelling at me. Like, you guys took my two weird? I don't know, I can't. Who's your weird? My God, stop yelling at me. Like, you guys took my two weirds, I will say. Which is great, you took Allison Pill, a performance I really like.

And you took Tilda Swinton, I mean nobody took her, nobody can ever dare take Tilda Swinton. She can't be taken. Tilda takes, Tilda takes. Tilda takes you. Yeah, exactly. So I guess like at that point, I gotta go with Grande. I mean, I don't know, I mean I I guess, like, at that point, I gotta go with Grande. I mean, I don't know. I mean, I could go with, like... No, I don't know. I'm going with Grande. I will say, I went into Wicked as a real sort of bitchy little

I don't like Ariana Grande person. And I walked out of that movie being like, well, she's the best. Like, she's so fucking entertaining in that movie. She's very good at the comic stuff. I've always been neutral on her, I guess, would be my, yeah, my grande take. Mm-hmm. Right? Sure, now.

Yeah. Yeah. I like the movie. Okay. I know you do. You like it okay. Yeah. Oh, the movie's got its ups and downs. I'll say that, but like, she's definitely an up. She's a big old up. U ups and downs. Yeah, I'll say that but like she's definitely an up She's a big she's a big old ups and downs. I thought it defied gravity I'm like, you know, it's like should be staying in one place right in the middle You know, I'm looking at my other choices here and it's just you know, like my other kind of yeah I had Renata Ryan so very close. She's good

I like I mean I love her to be obviously love my my three people I knocked off But but I was like that felt like a pretty strong five to me. It felt pretty locked in. Joan Chen and Dee Dee, a movie I know I like a lot more than you do, David. That's a lovely performance. A lovely performance. I thought she's great, but like the movie itself

didn't entirely do it for me. Ayla Brown and Furiosa, who's young Furiosa. I kind of missed the first act of that movie. Right, is that a great performance? Is that just great direction direction of a kid because she's so quiet and intense and yeah She's good. Here's what I thought about like Sophie Thatcher or Chloe East and heretic both of them I think they're good, but they're both kind of the lead I was gonna say, you know, like, you know, yeah, so I couldn't really can I throw out the one? I couldn't quite justify but I was seriously. I think Zoe Deutsch in Juror Number Two

is one of the best making something out of nothing performances. She's really working with very little. I've seen it a long time. She is working with very little. And I love her. I love her. I'm in the bag. But it's like such a stock character. You know that Eastwood's giving her half a take.

And she's playing... That was his direction for her in this scene. And he's doing that in the middle of the take. Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Into a microphone. Right. I just think she is playing an internal conflict in a... The scene with her and Toni Collette is better than it needs to be.

Yeah. I had a hard time sort of figuring out what I wanted to do with the three actresses and his three daughters. A movie that I really loved. Like, loved, loved, loved. Yeah, it's a good movie. And they're all good. And they're all really good. They're all plausibly leads. They're all plausibly... You could do... They're all leads.

I think, like, Coon is undeniably a lead. And I think Leona's a lead. Olsen is the one where I'm kind of like, she's sort of more supporting. The Julianne Moore in The Hours, where it's like, the less of equals kind of thing. Or the Shailene Woodley in Big Little Lies where you're like she's like a lead, but she is the sort of thinnest arc, I guess.

Yeah. But when she has her couple moments in that movie, she really nails it. As a spoiler ahead, I had similar issues. Well, I had issues with the Inora guys and also the three people in Challengers. Just trying to... There's a lot of movies this year. Well, I made a choice. Trying to like sift through. I did similar issues. Well, I had issues with the Enora guys and also the three people in Challengers. Just trying to... There's a lot of movies this year. I made a choice. Trying to like sift through. I did as well. Loved her not a Ryan's of a different man. She almost made it for me.

Loved Anjanou, Alice Taylor, and Nickel Boys. The hug of the year? I mean, come on. I love a good hug in a movie. I shouted out Maria Dizia already, but like Maria Dizia and Christmas Eve in Miller's Point is so good. I like that movie. I like that movie. Yeah, and she's really good.

You know what? She's always good. She's good in My Old Ass as well. Yeah. All right. I think that's it. And that movie just, I had to read My Old Ass out at the New York Film Critics Circle voting a bunch. You know, like, My Old Ass. And everyone would laugh every time.

You can't help but laugh. Have you seen it? No, haven't seen it. I'll say this, that was a movie where people kept telling me it was good, and I was like, yeah, yeah, I get it. Like, I was being very smoky about it, but I'm like, I'm sure it's true.

I know what that movie is, sure, sure, sure. And then I watched, in my post dental surgery phase, where I was like, what do I wanna watch? Let me just watch like coming of age movies that mostly went to streaming that I missed out on. And I watched that and it kind of, David Call a Doctor knocked me out. It's a much wiser, deeper film than I was expecting.

You know what? I'll give Supporting Actress my fifth slot to Sienna Miller for Horizon American Star for chapter one. Ooh. Like that and I'll say this, David, that investment will pay off when you see Chapter Two. I have seen Horizon in American Saga Chapter Two.

And she's really, she's got a fucking barn burner monologue. I love her. For an actor who's given bad performances and like for a long time seemed like a total zero, right? Like it was like, oh, they tried to make her happen, it didn't happen. She's really good in that movie. Have either of you two seen Ghostlight? No, that's a movie I haven't seen because it's seen,

I know it's gonna be good, but it seems like it's gonna bump me out. I think it's the kind of movie that both of you would really like. It's also, Kelly O'Sullivan is the writer and co-director who did a movie called St. Francis. St. Francis I loved. Oh, sure. Yeah, which is incredible. And I was on the Gotham's jury for many years

on their first film jury, and that was a first film I would not have seen if I had not been serving on the jury, and I loved it. Gentlemen, who did you pick as your winners? My winner is Michelle Austin for Hard Truths. Great pick, Joe. It was very close between Michelle Austin until Diswitten for me, but I think I go with Michelle Austin for Hard Truths. Great pick, Joe. It was very close between Michelle Austin until it just went in for me,

but I think I go with Michelle Austin. A byproduct of us now having done this for 10 years is we've started to develop our own internal overdue. Oh, you're like, right, I haven't actually given the trophy, the Griffey to X. My winner is Renata Reinsva, which I think is my favorite performance of these five, but also I did just double check and I gave Best Actress to Rebecca Hall for The

Night House that you're over worst person in the world. A choice I defend and stand by. But I think Renata Reinsva is so good in A Different Man. I think the, like, the whole movie, it's another hinge performance, but that's kind of what I like in these supporting performances. The whole movie hinges on him reappearing and her suddenly presenting an entire different backstory and changing all these details to him

and the realization of like, what the fuck is going on with her? Which the movie never quite answers in a way that actually says a ton, if that makes sense. She plays a villain in a really... It is not judgmental performance at all. It is not a judgmental performance.

It is a very recognizable kind of like familiar villainy, which is just sort of like she's taking shortcuts and she's sort of, she sees an opportunity to succeed in a way that sells out somebody. And she's a quieter version of what's going on to him, which is just like everyone has an idea of how they could reset their life and reframe themselves the way they want to be. And she does that in a way that she doesn't understand is so fucking painful to him because she doesn't know who he's talking to.

Yeah. The blankie voters, the listeners of the show have a ten, you know, person list for best supporting performance that I will now read from bottom to top. So ten, Mike Feist and challengers. Nine, Ariana Grande and Wicked. Eight, Margo Kowali and The Substance. Seven, Kieran Culkin and A Real Pain. Six, Jack Haven and I Saw the TV Glow.

Hell yeah. Five, Adam Pearson and A Different Man. Hell yeah. Four, Guy Haven and I saw the TV glow. Hell yeah. Five, Adam Pearson, a different man. Hell yeah. Four, Guy Pearson, the brutalist. Hell yeah. Three, Yura Beresov and Anora. And now I have to say hell yeah for everybody or I'm not saying great.

Two, Hemsworth. And one, Josh O'Connor in Challengers. Now, that's not a supporting performance. I agree, a big cocked eyebrow from old Grigioons. Now I know that got run. I think maybe MGMs are not only ran all three, or do they run Zendaya as lead? They ran Zendaya as lead

because she got the Golden Globe nomination in lead. All three of them are leads. Comedy, which is another conversation I need to have. Well, Feist is the one. You can talk me into it. You can make the argument if you want to spread it out. But I think O'Connor is unquestionable. It's a three-part movie. Put a pin in this and get to it pretty soon. Yeah, I think the pin is planted.

And look, we can look at MGM, Amazon's award strategies as scant, but I think we can all agree, it paid off beautifully for them checks notes here, blanked at the opposite. Zero nominations. What a fucking disaster. Well, they did release my favorite movie of the year. I guess I'll give them that.

Yep. MGM. Pin in that as well. They released two did release my favorite movie of the year. I guess I'll give them that. Yep. MGM. Pending that as well. They released two of my five favorite movies of the year. Okay, so let's move along to what should we do? The screenplays, what should we do here, guys? Yeah, sure. Let's do screenplays.

Fine. Best original screenplay. Best adapted screenplay. I got six in both. I'm gonna have to make a hard cut at this last moment. I know. Right, so original screenplay. Here are my original screenplay winners.

Then this is obviously being presented by the winner of adapted screenplay last year, isn't it? So that would be, oh, Eric Roth, shuffling out. Perfect, get Eric Roth out there. Let's see, who am I adapted to? And he wrote so much of that movie. Eric Roth out there. Let's see, who am I adapted to? And he wrote so much of that movie.

Yeah. My adapted screenplay nominees appear to be, I'm worried I like didn't give this a once over. Dune Part II, Hitman, Fire Inside, Furiosa, Nickel Boys, which is my winner, spoiler alert. I'm gonna stand by this. My adapted screenplay nominees are Sing Sing,

Furiosa, Nickel Boys, The People's Joker, a radical act of adaptation. Is that just nominally adapting the character of Joker? Undeniably an act of adaptation. And a movie about that, in a way.

And my fifth nominee Sometimes I think about dying. Is that based on something? It is weirdly based on based on a thought That you sometimes to have it is weirdly based on I believe a one-act play. That is just I can I can see that But but here's what's weird It was written by someone else and the one-act play is just about the party scene, playing murderer. You know what I'm talking about, David? Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

And then that was like optioned, and then a new writer came on and was like, what if I spun this character out and that scene becomes the centerpiece? I love that film. There's a movie I saw two years ago, I think, but I like that movie. But yeah, it came out January...

2023, at Sundance. Well, right, it played January 2023 at Sundance. It was released theatrically January 2024. Right, so even you saw it a long time ago. Even I saw it a year ago. But yes, it's... I give it more credit as an act of adaptation because it is unfurled from such a weird specific piece

with a couple different writers. I thought that I was seeing that movie and the movie that I actually saw was the feeling that the time for doing something has passed. A movie I have not seen. A movie I did not care for. Okay. Joe, your nominees.

Screenplays. Conclave, Conclave. Conclave. Conclave! Peter Strong. Dune Part II. Denny Villeneuve and... John Spence.

Spence. Spence. It does sound like you just sort of... Seeing a third name listed here, Muab Adib. and. John Spence. John Spence, Spence. It does sound like you just sort of. Seeing a third name listed here, Muab Adib. Muadib. That was close. Nickel Boys, Ramel Ross and Jocelyn Barnes. Sing Sing, which is screenplayed by Greg Quedar and Clint Bentley with the story credit

to Quedar Bentley, Terrence Macklin and John Devine G. Whitfield. And then Small Things Like These, who's N. DeWalsh and Claire Keegan. You know, I got sent that book by the swag team behind Small Things Like These. They did not. I'm gonna read it. It's good. Yeah. I mean, the movie's great. Yeah, I didn't see it.

Too busy. But you saw the book, the cover. There it is. Yeah. Sitting on my desk. And who's your winners, guys, I forgot to ask? Oh, for Adapt. I mean, it's gotta be Nickel Boys.

It's a really, really interesting way to adapt that book. The only one, all three of us, not Nick. Is that your winner? No, David, what's your winner? Nickel Boys. I think my winner is People's Joker. Sure, great. Between that and Sing Sing.

I adore People's Joker. I strongly great. Between that and Sing Sing. I adore People's Joker. I strongly implore people to seek it out. I went to see it assuming it was just gonna be like a fun act of cinematic fuck you. And what I love about that movie is it really is kind of an argument for why, like, I refuse to call it IP, but it is worth adapting works

and reinterpreting them through different prisms. It's sort of a movie about like there's a reason we go back to the same stories, because we find things that we can only express through those sets of characters, and it makes you frustrated about how often these things are rebooted in the same derivative ways over and over again. But I think it's like an incredible self-reflexive piece of adaptation. The blankies picked Nosferatu five, Furiosa for Nickel Boys three, Conclave two, Dune part two was their winner. Great. Dune part two is a sneaky, like really interesting adaptation.

And a really complicated thing. They really like what he's not. Yeah, yeah. They they move it around in some different ways. To end that movie on the note that it ends on is pretty ballsy. What he did with Chani is impressive. Yes, that's specifically, yes, Chani's character. Yep. Best Original Screenplay.

Uh-oh. Uh-oh, Spaghetti-O. My, of course, Adapted Screenplay winner last year was, I know I already did this wrong. Okay, yeah, my best original screenplay winner is Wes Anderson. So here he is, hey, look at that. Look at the light. My winner last year was?

It looks like it was Wes Anderson. I also went with Wes Anderson, okay? Asteroid City, great movie. Joe went with it. What did I do? Joe, you went, your adapted screenplay winners, by the way, were Blackberry for Griffin and Barbie for Joe. Hell yeah.

And Joe, you went with May, December, a great screenplay for original. So my best original screenplays of 2024 are... Andy Baker for Janet Planet, Justin Kuritsukis, potion seller for Challengers, Jane Schoenberg for I Saw the TV Glow, Mike Lee for Hard Truths, and Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Evil Does Not Exist.

Joe. Mine are Challengers, Justin Kuritsukis. A different man, Aaron Schimberg. and Ryusuke Hamaguchi for Evil Does Not Exist. Joe. Mine are challengers, Justin Kuritsuki's A Different Man, Aaron Schimberg, his three daughters, Azazel Jacobs, I Saw the TV Glow, Jaden Schonbrunn, and Problemista, Julio Torres. My nominees for screenplay are A Different Man, Aaron Schimberg, challengers, Justin Kuritsuki.

You want to speak up a little bit? Well, I'm just realizing I'm gonna forget the names of some of these people. Just keep going. Keep going. I can tell you the names. Thelma. Oh, I don't know who wrote that. Oh, well, Mr. I can tell you that. Thelma was of course written by Josh Marklin, who I believe also directed it.

Thank you. Yes. Hard Roots? I forget. Oh, that's who wrote it. Okay. And Hundreds of Beavers. Oh, who wrote that?

Get up, David. Is that a screenplay movie? I'm gonna make the case and Ryland 2. I'm gonna make the case It is a silent film. It is a pure silent film. Okay. It is like one of the most beautifully structured films you watch it I'd heard a lot of hype. I'm so resistant to this movie Griffin. This movie is so fucking good You guys are going to eat No, I'd like to see it. Well, I don't now going to eat shit if you watch it. Now I really don't want to watch it. I sat there and I was like, people have told me this is fun. It starts and I'm like, is it really going to be this the whole time?

How long is this thing? Like 72 minutes? It's like two hours long. It not only doesn't run out of steam, it grows. There are like concepts in that movie that are so fucking complicated, that are communicated with such elegance and wit, it blew my mind. I've seen it twice in theaters now. It plays like a fucking rock concert. I hope it is a movie that will continue making the rounds theatrically for years, because it feels like a perpetual midnight

movie touring thing. And it is, it's incredible to watch with the crowd because it starts basically with silence of everyone reacting the way I did and Then by the end it's undeniable my worry is that watching it with a crowd will make me like it less I think you're wrong about okay. I don't my only question is how it plays alone sure my winner is Annie Baker, who's your winner my winner is How's this little Jacobs for his three daughters. It's a screenplay movie. And I'm not saying that to save the directing.

I think I saw a lot of like, this feels like a play, and I'm like, to me, I'm like, that's fine. You know, that does not diminish my enjoyment of the movie. Feels like Griff's picking beavers. I'm a little inclined to do beavers. There are three other things that are in there that I also know are gonna win a different award for me. So I'm like, is there a spread the wealth argument?

I think challengers is a really, really intelligently constructed screenplay that really nails the ending, which is the hardest thing to do. And that was his ending and he insisted on it. That's my- I think I saw the TV close, brilliant. I agree, I exempt it from this category. Okay.

Yeah. He exempts it. Yeah. Exempted it. Yeah. Uh. Exempted! But Annie Baker, she's my favorite living writer, and she wrote a movie for me and I got to watch it. She gets the trophy from me. I'm gonna do Beaver's here because this is the one place

where I can kind of make the case. That makes sense. Although I will say it also should have been nominated for best original song. Oh, there's an original song. Beaver's. No, it's not what you think's original song nominees are such a disaster. David, you think you know what it is?

And it's not what you think. I honestly don't think I know what it is. The score and the song in that film are exceptional. But yeah, no, Hard Truths, Challengers, Different Man are all kind of fucking Hall of Famer scripts for me. The blankie picks. That I will give roses in other places. Were A Different Man, five, five, brutalist, four, I saw the TV glow, three, a Nora, two, and

challengers, one. Back to the Blankies after these messages. David. David, yes, here's an impression of me going glasses shopping before Warby Parker. Okay, now here's a new impression I've been working on for my med TV reel. Okay, this is me glasses shopping since I've jumped over to Warby Parker. Oh. Ha ha ha ha ha. Sounds like someone's having a lovely time. An incredible time.

I love it. Well, why do you love it? Is it because Warby Parker uses nothing but premium materials in each frame? That's a big part of it. Designing them in house? That's huge. They've got silhouettes, colors colors and fits made to suit every face

Yes, but also Warby Parker has done some good work over the years cutting out some of the middleman making glasses more Affordable and sturdier they last longer and less worried when it comes time to replace them It feels like less of a holistic life commitment. Yeah, there's a cheap This is what I'm saying. And not cheap and like, oh, they're cheap. Like they're inexpensive considering the quality. They cut out the middleman. But that's the thing.

It used to be, I'd go like, oh my God, new glasses. Cut out the middleman. This is a, they cut them out with giant scissors. I'd go to old fashioned glasses stores. Right. And I'd go like, this is a doctor, who by the way was a jerk had terrible bedside manner But I'd go there and I go these prices

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Expressvpn.com slash check. expressvpn.com slash chat. And we're back to the 2025 Blankies. Next, last time was the best animated feature. So let's do that again. Best animated feature guys. What a year for animated features stinky poopoo I limited myself to I have five highest grossing ones were they almost the worst ones in my opinion wanted to and inside out to and

Minions eight or whatever. Yeah, and I feel like there's another one that did well that I didn't care for. Let's see Certainly right like it's not like I mean inside out to Smashing through every record was the moment every, like, the entire industry sort of trend line went from like, God, this year's a disaster, too. Like, oh, I think everything's fine. Like, you know, it was so crazy. That's why I'm like, I'm grateful for Inside Out 2 for that. Sure.

But it's also funny that it was Inside Out 2 that did that. Yes. Which I thought was fine. I think I liked it more than you, but I didn't like it very much. I think that movie profoundly doesn't work. Let's see what the other big anime... Here are my five nominees. Give me your nominees.

I gave a proper five. Kung Fu Panda 4 must be the other one. Yes, right. I started... It's a 2-2s, 2-4s, and what's the other one? I don't know. Of the highest grossing? Moana 2, Inside Out 2, Despicable Me 4, Kung Fu Panda 4.

I don't fucking know. There's one other one we just listed, I forget. I don't know, whatever, who gives a shit? Fuck you. The Garfield movie's up there. That movie sucks. It sucks, yeah. I regret to say, at a certain point I was like, let me go through more of the qualifying films

because maybe there are some hidden gems here. And the deeper I dug, the less I liked what I found. Garfield being a movie about reconnecting with his deadbeat dad is almost as infuriating as Super Mario Brothers being about Mario proving to his parents that he can... He's a good plumber. Yeah, he's a good plumber.

It's almost like the people who run these animation studios have bad relationships with their fathers. Almost like. Don't respect them going into animation. I'm good at cartoons, Dad. Sonic 3 is the other one, maybe yours. It's not an animated film. I didn't see it, I don't know.

Joe, how dare you? I'm surprised you would talk so rudely about Vic, my favorite character from the Garfield strips. We all love Big Vic, Garfield's dad, an important character. My five nominees for best animated film are Memoirs of a Snail, which spoiler is my winner, Flow, which I admit is undeniable,

but also had the most ill-timed bath and break of my movie-going career. Oh, what, like you come back and like, it's the apocalypse or whatever? I came back to the director's credit on screen. Oh, no. It's not a long movie. No, but I was like, it's hard to pin how long this has been going on.

And then I saw another wave coming and I was like, oh, feels like there's maybe another 20 minutes left. Let me run to pee now. And I came back and the movie. Oh, disaster. I later watched it. The Wild Robot Transformers one. Oh, OK.

Which I think is far and away the best of the animated IP slop, if I can call it that. Yeah, no, I mean, right. And Lookback, which I think is far and away the movie of the animated IP slop if I can call it that yeah No, and look back which rolls. What's that? That is the Japanese movie? I haven't seen that yet 52 minutes long Mm-hmm. Oh sign me up wait. That sounds great. You can watch it three times and watch it right now You just play it while we do this episode, but Memoir of a snail was I gotta see that It's really really fucking good. Did you guys have voiceover performance nominees? I can do that in a sec. Okay, well list your animated films.

Yeah, let's see. But it will tie to my... Yeah, because my anime, it's rough. It's just Flow, Wild Robot, both of which I liked. Transformers 1, which I liked. Wallace and Gromit Vengeance, Most Foul, which I liked. It's a step up. But I could have done with it being better.

Do you agree with my note? Yeah. What's your note? It is the one Wallace and Gromit movie that isn't actually about their relationship. And at the very end, it tries to pretend it is. Yeah, it kind of tries to squeeze it in there. But also, it's like, what's there to say left about their relationship, I guess.

Right? You know, I mean, I liked it more than the bakery one. I fucking loved Vengeance Most Vowel. I loved it. I find it very entertaining. Yeah. I also think it's at the exact wrong size between being feature and short, and I kind of can't decide. I think Inside Out 2 is my fifth nominee by default. That's insane.

I mean, I don't think I saw any other animated movies. Joe, your three. So my three are... Oh, I saw War of the Rohirrim, but that thing is pretty... I heard such bad things about it. That is a homework-ass movie. I was excited for the concept of it, and then I heard just the worst things about it.

If you're gonna make an Ashcan movie, you could still make it good. And it's like, no, it's very, very... Do you guys know about This Christmas? Is that what it's called? I think it's called This Christmas. The short? It is a Netflix feature film. Oh, okay. In which Brian Cox is the voice of Santa Claus.

I'm Santa! Ho ho ho, fuck off! And it's based on three different Richard Curtis short stories. That's right. And it- that are kind of really mushed together. Wow. It's like trying to do animated love actually with children. I'm gonna watch that next Christmas.

But this is like one of the- I'm like- This looks like trash. It's like trying to do animated love actually with children. I'm gonna watch that next Christmas. But this is like one of the, I'm like... This looks like trash. It's bad. This is what I'm saying. I was like digging and I was like, Garfield's from Mark Dindal, is there anything here? There's a reason that Flo rose to the top. It's like, you know, there was space for a movie like that

to break through, because all the animated offerings were kind of whatever. Yeah, my three are Flo, Wallace from Granite, Vengeance Most Vile, Justice for Feathers McGraw, the greatest character in cinematic history. And then the Wild Robot. Wild Robot's good, by the way. Wild Robot's good as hell.

I really loved. Wild Robot is a manipulative movie that I was very happy to be manipulated by. Yeah, that's a good way of putting it. I was just like, bring it on me. I think Memoir of a Snail is a very well-made movie that to me is excessively miserable in a way that I did not appreciate.

It definitely is, and I think it is reflective of the way you and I differently respond to miserable movies. That makes sense. I called it the A Little Life of stop-motion animation, and I stand by that. Jesus. I'm definitely not watching it now. I'm back to that 52 minute movie. To that degree of just like pile it on, pile another one on. Yes.

He has his thing that he does and it works for me and I could see it being cilantro for people. You know who's great in Transformers 1? Brian Tyree Henry. Brian Tyree Henry. I had no idea Transformers 1 was good. I totally ignored it. I put it on the pile of things I don't have to pay attention to.

Directed by Josh Cooley who made the great Toy Story 4. Okay, yeah I love Toy Story 4. It's one of those things where it starts where it's like, Hey, we're just two transformers. My name is like Optimus prime, you know, Berg, like his name's a little different. Your name is Megatron is on sir. What are you know? Right. And we're just, we're those co I can't believe Megatron could do that. I'm going to check it out. That's crazy. There is truly-

What a betrayal! There is that moment where you're like, I am angry this movie has like- So this is like Childhood Friends, Optimus Prime and Megatron. It's an origin story for them, although I think Transformers Lore is so like deep. I think most of what is so deep, that it's kind of like a reboot of the lore. Transformers lore is so deep, is a sentence that is both incredibly true and sounds insane. And just to be clear, I don't like fuck with Transformers lore at all.

I don't know it. I love to throw out random Transformer names that I think are funny, but I can't track any of this shit. I think the whole thing with Transformers stuff is just like like no one was really minding the shop, right? So like someone else would come along be like I'm gonna do this and everyone be like, that's fine We don't care right whatever you has been written. I like everything this movie is doing here It also looks good. It does anyway here were my five nominees for voiceover. Oh, yeah, go ahead Jackie Weaver memoir of us No, I give you that which is my winner. She's on fucking believable, she's great Maybe the most fucking believable in it. She's great.

Maybe the most emotionally affected I was by any performance this year, possibly. Maya Hawk, Inside Out 2, compelled to make her my winner. I think she's the only reason that movie even partially works. I think her character though is a huge problem, but her performance is quite good. She paralyzes the kid with anxiety. She can't play hockey. Papers over the fact that the script was not figured out. Right, I think she plays incredibly well.

I'm gonna give it after, you know, I so rudely snubbed him for best actor. When you guys gave him the flowers years ago and I think this is the time to properly give him a sort of career achievement. Oh boy. A Return of the King style nomination nomination for best voiceover performance. I'm nominating Tom Hardy as Venom in Venom, The Last Dance.

That movie is kind of garbage. Yeah. But like any time he's talking, I was like, right, this is the whole thing. Yes, it is. Lupita Nyong'o for The Wilder Oba. Yeah, really great. I was very compelled to also put Pedro Pascal in there, who I think is credible in Wilderoba.

Could not place him in that movie. Which one's he? He's the fox. Oh yeah, sure. Does he sound like him? It's transforming. He's really good and really funny. But it felt a little silly to do double nominations,

so I, in my fifth slot, put in Robbie Williams as the narrator in Better Man. Yeah, Robbie Williams deserves it for Better Man. Is that how he's credited, the narrator? Well, so... He's the monkey, isn't it? The singing is his old recordings. Right.

The character of Robbie Williams is voiced by the actor who did the mocha performance. Jhomo Frey, I believe. Oh, that I did not know if I... No, Jhomo Frey is the cinematographer for Nickel Boys. Who might think... But his name is Jono. That's why I'm confusing it.

Jono Wilson? I'm looking it. John O. Wilson? I'm looking up. Yeah. It's John O. something. John O. Davis. Davies. But Robbie Williams is specifically just doing the narration, which I thought was excellent, and we'll talk about that movie. Robbie Williams is so overflowing with charisma.

Like, he's so good at getting you through that movie. Like, if you're like, what is going on? know like complaining about I don't know who this guy is I'm like his narration alone is explaining to you I don't know the energy why he became Robbie Williams was not as famous in America as he was in Britain That does not mean that he was not famous in America. He absolutely what? He was but I feel like he was more famous enough to like remember who he was But famous for sort of not happening a lot of people at TIFF were texting me like can you explain who Robbie Williams is to me? Including I believe Joe Reed me and Katie, but I was we were not asking we were asking

Explain the Robbie Williams for extent of the Robbie Williams phenomenon. So crazy, right? This guy is so big in England so big in Europe He comes to America and no one like gives a shit about him, right? And this movie's based on True Story, and people were like, Shrug, I don't care, I don't know who he is. And I'm like, this is incredible that this really happened, that there was a random monkey born who could sing and dance, and became a pop star and a sex idol?

You'd think more people would have remembered that. That's a fascinating story. Yeah, but Britain's always got shit going. It's like, what's up with them? Like, ah, they all like a monkey. I'm like, yeah, it sounds like somebody do. Sounds like right. I've been sitting on that bed for two months.

Great bit. I'll nominate. I like all your, John Hamm is great in Transformers. One is the villain. Orion Pax, maybe? Sentinel Prime. Sentinel Prime, of course. Orion Pax, I think, is Optimus's name before he.

That's correct. And of course, Brian Tyree Henry is D16. He's not called Megatronicus or whatever I said before. I would also say if we're doing narrators, Isabella Rossellini in Problemist is an incredible narrator. Good call. Oh, she's great. Incredible narrator.

Almost just a layup for Julio to use hers in the... Oh, totally. But it's so perfect. Again, casting is often more than... I just love Paul Walter Hauser and inside out too. He was great Who was he an inside out? He's embarrassment. He doesn't really I do my impression Did the blankies pick anything there they I don't think so. You fucked up blankies. I don't see it here. Okay, so can I just while while I was on the subject

Get out best CGI monkey in a movie to better man. Great, sure. Do you have a winner? There was a different competition. Oh, you should. No, I was going on for a while. Wicked has a monkey? Wicked. The VFX Oscar category could have been five monkey movies.

It could have been five monkey movies. And it was a little... That later, two monkey needed a couple more go-rounds. You can't deny there were a lot of CGI monkeys. Gladiator 2 had two different monkey entities. One real and then a bunch of them CGI. Well, let's move on to, well, before we get onto the big performers,

do we wanna do like music or cinematography or ensemble or anything like that? I did write down cinematography nominees because I always feel like I'm caught short-handed with that. They seem to be pretty obvious ones. I have Nickel Boys, I have Brutalist, I have Challengers, which is actually really tremendous tennis match photography that culminates in a moment

that just could never actually happen that I find incredible for the movie. But the thing where they're volleying back and forth, like a foot apart of each other, I'm like, that is not possible. That doesn't happen. But it's fine. In the movie, they wanna do it

because they wanna kiss. They make you do it because they want to kiss. Dune Part II and then my one stop to the Oscars. Maria is not a good movie, but Maria's cinematography... Oh, Ed Lachman is the king. Incredible. Yeah, I would put TV Glow in there. But I think that's an excellent five-jump. I got Nickel Boy's Dune Part II, Trap, Brutalist, Janet Planet.

But Trap, of course, is shot by the guy who shot Challengers in one of the most versatile, like, DP performances of the year. Incredible. Do you guys have music picks? Oh, the blankie cinematography picks were No Sphere are Too Very Dark, Nickel Boy's Brutalist.

Drop it down another F-stop. Challengers and Dune Part II Anamorphic. No, yeah, Hundreds of Beavers is... I put music because that's a movie that really has to be carried by its music. Can I say a thing that might turn you on to Hundreds of Beavers, David? It uses 8-bit video game language in a way I think is really smart. Sounds cool. I'll see it. It's like we are conditioned as a generation to understand things visually

minus dialogue from video games in a way where that's a cleaner kind of jump to aid silent comedy. Do you have any score, other score picks though? Challenger score. Challenger's brutalist I think. I think why robots a really good score the Furiosa score is once again fantastic Yeah, yeah. Yeah. I also had I like the I saw the TV close score a lot by Alex G I love that as well. I like the NOS for our to score. Okay Yeah, I don't know. This is a really really bad bad year for original score, or song at the movies, at the Oscars,

but it could have been quite easily better if they just, like... Last Showgirl's not a movie that I liked, but I liked that Miley song in it quite a bit. There's a song on Wild Robot that they could have nominated, and it could have been, like, you know, an okay year for a best original song, and instead they opted for, like, a really bad year. Yeah, they're starting to make the argument themselves for taking that category out behind the bars.

And they had rehabbed it for a little while there. They had gotten it back to C-level. They'll never kill it because there'll always be a year where Taylor Swift wins, they're like, we can't get rid of this, and then there's two bad years again. Last year, where they're like, we can have Billie Eilish and a whole big, another Barbie number on top of that.

Can we say it, does it feel like Diane Warren might win this year? That's crazy. I feel like it's going to really depend. Amelia Perez, isn't it? For which for which fucking song? I don't fucking know. I don't remember the names of those songs. All the songs are bad and two of them are nominated and no one can tell the difference. It does feel so. If you look at the F.Y.C. stuff that Amelia Perez has been sending out, El Mall, which is the Zoe Saldana number. That's the number at the fundraiser dinner.

Yes. Where she's in the red and she's doing that. Yes. Where she's like, fuck you. I mean, that song sucks. She just dances well. She performs it very well, but that's the one they're going with. I think that will win if a song wins. I'm also feeling like watching this movie less than 24 hours ago. I was like, all these songs are 55 seconds long. And they do feel short.

They don't linger at all. Which is part of it's like embarrassed at being a musical where it's like, don't worry, we'll get this over with quick. I also threw down some needle drops. The tattoo needle drop in Enora is one of my favorite things that happened. The movie that used this year,

Baby Girl also has several incredible needle drops. I just think Diane Warren seems to be campaigning harder than usual this year and is campaigning with a very smart strategy of, -"Come on, guys." -"Enough." Right. And it's sort of like... But, like, is her song this year remotely good? Isn't it for the Tyler Perry movie? It's for the Tyler Perry movie. That's awful.

Yeah, it sounds fine. Whatever. It doesn't matter. There's no stronger nominee. No, I understand... Even if you like Amelia Presse. I understand the argument. Yeah. Whatever. It doesn't matter. There's no stronger nominee. Even if you like Amelia Perez. I understand the argument. But Joey sent me a link from a clip from the 6888, and it really... His movie's really...

It's so bad. Because now he attracts this top-shelf talent, I guess, because he has a budget and he's like... It's also weird that he used to make three movies a year. Right! And they were made at the level... The, the correct level, you know what I mean? Like, his style. But now he makes like one movie every three years and it's worse. They're bad because like he's trying to make an Oscar movie. But also he's, what, single-handedly quote-unquote writing and directing every episode of television himself for like 20 series?

Yeah. I'm sure they're so good. I'm sure they're so good. I'm sure they're so good. I love his annual pile of scripts post. I don't even know what that is, but I'll check it out. Every year he's like, here's everything I wrote this year and it's a pile of like 40 different episodic scripts.

And it goes to the moon or whatever. And then a bunch of guys in the comments are like, hey, thanks for not crediting me for hiring scab writers and not letting them into the fucking union and not giving us credit. How dare you. Should we do best actor or best actress? Tyler Perry's never done anything wrong.

I'm sure. Uh, let's do best actor first. Best actor. Best actor first. So best actor, best actor for 2024. Your winner last year, Griffin, in Actress, was Lord Calamity in Full Time. What a good pick.

Good movie. I picked Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon. Good pick. The Oscars did too, I'm pretty sure. I wanna check my notes. And you picked Margot in Barbie. You remember that? I do, I was mad that she didn't get nominated.

I thought Margot was great in Barbie. She was not nominated. You and Hillary were fighting that fight together. Me and Hillary always, like arm in arm. Yeah. But this year, I can go first. I've been making Griffin go first, for Griffin. Justice Smith and I saw the TV glow.

Josh Hartnett in Trap. Aaron Pierre in Rebel Ridge. Nicholas Hultinger, number two, and Sebastian Stan, a different man. Which rhymes when you think of it. Yes. In fact, it does. My three are. Three?

My five. Just do three. No, I'll do five. Mike Feist in Challengers. Wow. Killian Murphy in Small Things Like These. Josh O'Connor in Challengers. Wow.

Justice Smith in I Saw the TV Glow and Sebastian Stan in a different man. Okay, I'm gonna do this cuz you nominated Josh, right? I know I'm ready to just hurt me. Yes, and you nominated Josh O'Connor He's the best so then I'm gonna drop Josh Hartnett cuz at least someone else called him out My nominees are Josh O'Connor and challengers Glenn Powell and hitman Sebastian Stan and A Different Man. What is this, a crush list? Justice Smith and I Saw the TV Glow. Judy Brigade?

Wait till you get to my best actress picks. Oh, boy. Justice Smith and I Saw the TV Glow and Coleman Domingo in Sing Sing. Coleman Domingo at very close sixth. Very good performers. Yeah. Because you guys did nominate Glenn, right?

I didn't. No, I'm going. I enjoyed that performance. I put him in there so someone called him out, and I didn't put him in a screenplay. I love him I he was that was my six pick for screenplay. I saw that movie at a WGA screening I was in plus one where the Q&A afterwards was with screenwriter Glenn Powell and it was moderated by our friend Esther Zuckerman Glenn Powell walked out looking like $8 trillion.

He can do that. I was like, the movies are alive and well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then proceeded to talk so fucking intelligently about story in a way that wasn't like save the cat bullshit, in a way that was like interesting and challenging, where I was like, oh, this was probably largely a Linklater script that he like jumped onto.

Right, where Powell was like hanging out. And it made it so clear it was the other way around, where he was like, Rick, this was probably largely a Linklater script that he jumped onto and hanging out. And it made it so clear it was the other way around where he was like, Rick, can you help me here? Linklater's getting baked. And everything I like about that movie came from him on the screenplay level, which is why, of course, I'm nominating him in best actor. It's undeniable movie star performance.

But also at one point in this Q&A, he went to Esther. He reached out, I think he might've touched her hand and said, sorry, I cut you off, what were you saying? And Esther went, uh. And look, Esther is a pro at this stuff. Yes, she is unflappable. I watched her melt and I walked out

and I was like, buy all the stock you can. This guy is running. He's gonna be the president of fucking Hollywood. I'm all in. Hitman is just a fucking showreel for him in so many ways, but God is compelling on that front. Another movie that Netflix put on Netflix and then a bunch of people watched it on streaming and were like, I don't get it.

And I'm like, see it in a fucking theater then. I saw it once in theaters and it certainly plays like Gangbusters. Yeah, I saw it both times in theaters, but the first time was a TIF where no one knew it was gonna happen. And it really did. Like the scene, the iPhone Note scene really played like two screams and yells. So wait, all three of us nominated Stan and Smith. We love the guys! Yes. And then you didn't nominate either of the Challenger's boys.

No, but I like them both. I've been a Justice Smith fan for, like, a long time ago. I always tell the story he was in. HBO used to do this series of little short documentaries on young arts, which does a mentorship thing where they put five, like, select five people. Is he in it as, like... He's in two separate ones. He's in the one with Anna DeVere Smith,

where she has them interview each other, also play each other in the like Anna DeVere Smith, you know, one woman show style. He's incredible in that. He's also in the Alan Alda one. So I've like had my eye on him since that, since he was just like- This is his best performance.

He's so fucking good and versatile and like just has to do, has to tackle so many different, really specific emotional states. It's also, it is like a performance that is painful to watch. And it is, in a way where when it starts, I was like, is it just gonna be hard to make it through this movie with this character? I also think he's like, he's so constrained and tight-knit,

and he's playing it sort of like so small and pulled back that you're like, is he doing something accurately that will actually be to the fault of the movie in like pulling back too much, and he just like makes it fucking work? Well, he does the thing that the movie does really well, which is like through specificity,

it gets at something that is universal. Let's talk about Sebastian Stein. This fucking guy. Fucking love that guy. Talking about people. Fucking love that guy. Mayors of Hollywood, right? Some people...

Sebastian Stein, you guys may or may not know, plays Bucky, aka the Winter Soldier, in the Marvel films, right? Now, he's in The Martian, he's in Ricky and the Flash, he's in Itania, he's in movies where people have said to me, like, well, I liked him in that one. And I've always kind of been like, not me, bonk. Has been my thing.

Never disliked him, but was just sort of like, he doesn't really pop out. He was fine, bonk. And then there's other stuff I'm looking at here, like he's in Destroyer, the Karen Kusama movie. I saw that movie. I did not remember he's in it. Oh, he's good in that.

I believe you, now. I am one of those people who you've been bonking away for Oh, he's good in that. Yeah, I believe you. Now... I am one of those people who you've been bonking away for years and years. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, totally. You know... The USA original series, Political Animals, because Tony Griffin and all? The NBC... I know you were in that one, but the NBC series, Kings.

Two separate shows where he plays the gay scions of political dynasties. Kings was one of those... Right. Kings was a show where everyone seemed high on goofballs, and you were kind of like, I can't believe this exists. And then it got canceled, and you were like, of course it got canceled. Of course it did. Bye-bye! This guy's been around for like 20 years.

Right, because he was in Gossip Girl way back then. And Black Swan, he of course originally tested for Captain America, and was one of the finalists, and then they found out he was not USA-born. Right, he's Romanian. And so they were like, we'll give you Bucky as a consolation prize, right? My big takeaway from this year, besides just him like totally coming into his own, proving himself, two movies that clearly got financed like on him, right?

Right. Right. Like all his attachments. You can get a little budget because you have Sebastian Stan. Totally. Like those are not big budget movies. Now I'm suddenly, like, all in on him as a guy. Anything he wants to attach himself to, I think, is interesting. These are both, like, bizarre, challenging movies. Look, honestly, like, I'm, like, not immediately excited,

but I'm, like, if he's in it, I'm suddenly more... I have heard from, and I don't even know if this is from Reputable or whatever, but, like, I have heard that it's, like't even know if this is from Reputable or whatever, but I have heard that it's like the best of this next crop, which is like, you know... It sounds incredible. So it's a three out of ten? It's such faint praise. But like... I laser targeted David with that one. Jesus Christ.

Have you seen, you still have not done a 4DX of Brave New World. I have bought tickets to enter the Brave New World this Saturday. His scene in that film is, Oh, he's in it? He shows up for one scene. Okay. And as people have pointed out online, but it's still insane, Bucky is apparently running for Congress.

Bucky, who I believe canonically, assassinated JFK! He's running for Congress! Also like, assassinating T'Challa's dad, right? Yeah, Bucky! Howard Stark, like it'sinating T'Challa's dad, right? He assassinated... Howard Stark, like, it's like, you couldn't be a famous dad in these movies without Bucky blowing your damn skull open. Here's what I want to say about Stan. He's like, I want to represent the good people of Michigan

or whatever the fuck he's doing. Here's what I want to say about Stan. He is... His one scene in Brave New World, you're like, God damn, like, this is more interesting than anything else I'm watching. He's just figured it out. I think he's figured it out himself as a performer. He's figured out the kind of material

he can get excited about. He brilliantly fucking navigated this awards season where it felt like he was gonna get double snubbed. He did some of the savviest campaigning. He fucking gave his deserved Golden Globe speech for a different man as if he'd won for The Apprentice. Right, right. Knowing, I think that like, well, that's my Oscar play,

so I really should shout it out too, right? But my big line on him is, he's arguably number 16 on the list of Marvel actors relative to the juice they carry, right? Like he's like the 16th most important Marvel character at best. Uh, sure. Yeah, I mean, certainly not top ten. Yeah. If everyone fucking above him was using their juice the way he is right now, we'd live in a much better fucking era for movies.

He's good in those Marvel movies. Sure, he's pretty good in them. But I'm also like, Chris Evans, not to constantly back on him. He's finally this year, like, doing the fucking Cohen, Tricia Cook movie and the Celine Song movie. And I'm like, this is what I'm talking about. Can all you guys fucking do this, please? Also, Sebastian Stan revealing that he's been attached

this whole fucking time to the Elaine May, Dakota Johnson movie that can't get insurance. Yeah, the Elaine May can't get insurance just because Elaine May is 4,000 years old and is never seen in public. It's weird. I hear she mostly eats powder. Wait, can I? I'm not joking. I've heard that she eats bags full of powder.

It's like, what powder? It's funny. It's a good bit. Guess what color the powder is. I don't know. Not normal ones, that's what I thought. They say you're normal colored powders. Sebastian's hand, very good, and a different man. Yeah, Hartnett's my winner.

Hartnett's very good. Hartnett was on the long list. I want to sort of make my justification for challengers. No, I don't think any justification is required. They're obviously the leads. They're obviously the leads. They're obviously the leads. I also, though, like, Josh O'Connor fucking rules in that movie. This guy's on fire.

So I don't watch The Crown? No, I didn't. I stopped watching The Crown before he showed up. He's fine in The Crown. Luckner is embarrassingly one of my biggest blind spots of the year. Oh, he's so good at that. I feel like there was one other thing he was in that I didn't see. So I've just seen still pictures of this guy and everyone telling me he's like a heartthrob

and then he's got the genes. Oh, that's interesting. You're going in like really dry on him. This guy looks goofy as hell. How am I gonna fall for this? You know who goes in really dry? It's Josh O'Connor in God's Own Country. That is true.

Right, that's the other one I hadn't seen. So like, I was just like, I don't know if I'm buying this Josh O'Connor thing. He walks in two seconds, I'm like, this guy's a fucking movie star? This guy rules? This is... Challengers is a movie that gets... Emma? Did you ever see Emma?

No. I've missed, like, all of his shit. He and Callum Turner are both in Emma, and for most of that movie, I kept being like, which one is this guy again? Which is no slight against either one of them, because I actually think they're both really good at that. Challengers is a movie that gets types of tennis players, and I think they get the tennis dirtbag

and the tennis sort of professional really well. I think Feist has been undervalued in this movie because everybody's like, Patrick's wife, fucks. Like... And his job is to be the unshowy one. His job is to be a little boring. Fucking that.

And I also... It's kind of Yeoman's work. And I'm kind of also the person who's like justice for R. Donaldson, cause he put in the work and he's the best tennis player in the world. And like, he won all those grand slams and he deserves it. So, no, I love him. And I've loved him in West Side Story.

I loved him on stage in Evan Hansen. He plays a great little journalist boy and bike riders. I'm all in on fights. He's got a good stash. Did you run through all your nominees? Kelly and Murphy, small things like these, which I was gonna say, I'm sort of carrying the banner alone,

but that is one of those movies where I watched it and I'm like, this dude just won an Oscar and I just now saw his best performance the year after. No slight at all against his Oppenheimer performance. But he's in a very different type of movie. This is about, he lives next door to one of the Magdalen laundries and sort of takes in this girl who runs away

and he has to make this moral decision of like, am I going to allow this thing to go on by just sort of looking the other way or am I going to allow this thing to go on by just sort of looking the other way or am I going to like, you know... That's what it's about. That's good. Yeah. And Emily Watson plays like the terrifying nun who runs the orphanage.

You're currently doing a better job advertising this movie than anyone involved in the movie. I'm saying. You're making both of us get activated. Yeah. Like, check this movie out. It's rad and he's awesome in it. So... It was a Lionsgate film. I'm sorry bleaker shoot

I didn't mean to follow you there. Just kind of felt like a bleaker. Yeah, it's got huge bleaker Bsc. Yeah, boy Okay, so you finished your five David I just wanna I mean Aaron Pierre start making stuff in rebel rigid Nicholas Holt had an amazing year But I do think like I always, really great Clint performances, given how, like, as you said, we're sorry, Deutsch, like, how little they're probably being told to do. Like, we agree on Holt being amazing in that movie, right?

Yeah, I also think, look, I think that is his first successful leading man performance. I think there has always been a divide between when the thing is put on his shoulders and he's sort of being positioned as, like, conventional matinee idol, I think he tends to go a little blank and he's always good playing Weasley. What are you thinking of in that though? Jack the Giant Slayer. I don't find him very compelling in the X-Men movies. Yeah, no.

I like him in Warm Bodies, which is... Renfield. Yeah, that's closer. Oh, I would not see Renfield. I'm like Renfield in Warm Bodies are getting closer to how to make him work as a leading man, which is like he needs to be a likable weasel. But he's best as weasels and cucks. That is what he is great at.

Sorry, Nick, it's true. This year was like King Cuck shit for him, getting cucked by the law, getting cucked by Nosferatu, and getting, of course, cucked by his cat Garfield, lest we forget that Nicholas Holt is the voice of John Arbuckle. The weirdest shit. Wait, when you say cucked by the law, do you mean in journal number two by the legal system?

Do you mean by Jude Law in the order? That as well. Good in the order. Great call. Yeah, here's my impression of Nicholas Holt in the Garfield movie. Garfield, what are you doing? Sounds good. Why did... What?

Why is Nicholas Holt John on the phone? Because Illumination is addicted to casting British people as like American icons for some reason. It's so fucking bizarre. Who else do you want to shout out, Griffy? I feel like you guys covered all my nominees. My winner is Coleman Domingo. I caught up with Sing Sing very late. It was

another movie that I was sort of cynically like, yeah, I'm sure it's good. And then I saw it and it is just like, it avoids... It's the best version of that kind of a movie. It avoids all cliches. It is just like elegantly intelligently made and told. And in a way, I was like, I love Coleman Domingo. He's a guy that I've long been like, is this guy quietly the best actor alive? I'm glad he got this nomination after getting the nomination he got last year for Rustin.

This is the deserving one. I couldn't feel good about that one purely. I feel the same way. And I feel great about that. I feel great about him being a two-time nominee. 100%. And being like, he's in the firmament, it's not a fluke. Absolutely. But I also think this is like a deceptively difficult role to be the one actor mostly

working against these real guys playing themselves and to like not stand out in either direction. His character stands out but in a way that I think benefits the movie where he's really elegant this guy. Like you see where he frays at the edges as the movie goes along, but he's a really elegant kind of character, calling him beloved, like he's very into the process. He's quite very smartly, he is quietly kind of this elitist who's like, I'm not like these other guys.

Yeah. Like, he is propping himself up in his own mind as part of the program, I don't belong here. I'm not like them. Look at my empathy and connecting to them. But he thinks he's more like the Paul Racy character who is also incredibly good in this. And then yes, to watch his like unwinding in the final 30 minutes of the movie, no spoilers,

and it goes through multiple arcs. But like this guy finally gets pushed to a breaking point and emotionally kind of like unravels and he's just phenomenal. He's one of my favorite actors and I think this is the best work I've ever seen him do. He's a very good actor. There's a moment I almost just spoiled that I just was devastated by his silent reaction shot too. It is in his parole meeting. I think you guys can probably

guess which line I'm talking about and they ask him a question and his face in response to it, I literally gasped. He's incredible. David, your winner. Josh Hartnett, baby! High wire axe! Oh, I love him so much in that movie. Yeah, he's my favorite.

I do wanna shout out, nobody mentioned him. You said your winner was... Oh, my winner is Justice Smith. That's another great... Look, great performance. We're spreading the wildfire. We're doing good work here tonight. I almost nominated Magaro for September 5 because I really, really... I'm just a Magaro fan.

Still haven't seen it. I saw someone on the Reddit say recently that they genuinely thought it was me until the end credits. Or like September 6 out of 10. You know, that's... David! Over the shoulder from behind! Spattered the backboard! I just thought that movie was okay. And then, have either of you seen Woman of the Hour,

The Anna Kendrick movie? I have not. Was busy that day. I was busy that day and the subsequent 14 months. Guys, sorry to be rude. No, I understand the reticence to it. It's so much better than you think it's going to be. And the guy who plays the killer in that movie, Daniel Zavato, is terrifying.

He's like having, like, D'Onofrio. I'm very pros of Zavato. Yeah. He was in the rowboat with me in the Chiller original four. Oh, he was! Beneath. We were fighting that killer puppet fish. But he's also in station 11. Yes He's in it all grows up to be the cult leader in station 11. Yeah, we're watching station 11

He's really good. Apparently an excellent actor. Yeah Follows he's in ladybird apparently the chiller original. Oh, yeah, he's the guy who he's Jonah Ruiz. He's the band Yeah that I think he's kind of the off lead in the Pope's exorcist. Anyway, which I saw. He breaks an oar in half and tries to stab the fish with it. Listeners, watch Women of the Hour if you haven't. I'm going to convince these guys. We'll figure it out. Sassy little nobody.

Sassy little nobody. Yeah, okay. Back to the Blankies after these messages. David! Yes? Are you ready to optimize your nutrition this year? I am, but who's... I'm challenging you! Who's this? This is Nutritious Griff. Okay, I'm ready to optimize.

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I'm nutritious, Nick Norton now. We're back, baby. It's the Blankies. Best Actress Best Actress. My best actor winner last year was Jason Schwartzman in Asteroid Shitty City. Wow. Jesus. Shocked by dick poop, I guess. R.I.P. We can still make that joke, right? Jesus Poop I guess

We can still make Crap I'm sorry Schwartzman had another great year between the temples great warts. I really enjoyed his crazy work in queer Put a pin in that cuz I have a bespoke Notice for him. Yeah, what was another I feel like he had another thing this year that. Well, Megalopolis. Hey man, he was there. He was there. Along with everyone else.

He did the pre-recorded audio for the part that someone stands up to do. Yeah. My nominees for best actress. Oh, can I just call it two? Best actor also rans very quickly. Ethan Harisi and Nickel Boyz. Yeah, I mean those guys are both amazing. And it's, you know, a little tough because by the nature of the performance, he's not on screen that much, which is maybe the only reason I caught him.

But I think he is so fucking impactful, especially when we wait so long to see his face. And the moments he has, has to like sell you on the idea of the ripple effects of this guy's presence over decades, not to spoil anything in the film, kind of knocked me away. Isaac Yang and Dee Dee, a movie I liked quite a bit and I was like, oh, this is like a good got a teenager and gave him a natural awkward performance. And then I dug in, this guy's a fucking chameleon. I keep forgetting this is the same kid, but he's good in everything. He's in Walbeckers Clifford, The Big Red Dog. He is in Good Boys, where he plays the cool kid.

Yes, yes. Jacob Tromble is Good Boys? Yeah. Correct. He was the best voice in Raya and the Last Dragon. He's just like a really, really good young actor, who I'm very excited by every time he shows up. Apparently he was in the Santa clauses.

Yeah, I haven't seen it. Okay. Wouldn't know. Now, my nominees for best actress. Marianne Jean-Baptiste for Hard Truths. Mikey Madison for Anora. Julianne Nicholson for Janet Planet. Ilinka Manolake, I have no idea if I pronounced her name right, for do not expect too much from the end of the world.

And I gotta give it to her. Naomi Scott for Smile 2. Oh, my God, I almost did Naomi Scott. That's a great nomination. Wonderful performance. She will never be speechless or awards-less. It's such a jump up from Smile, it's amazing. Yeah, I mean, for me it was a jump up

from like a two and a half to a three, but I thought she was really good. I could not believe how good she was. There are sequences in that movie that are like, there's some real good fucking sequences. There's a lot though of where she thinks, she's like, why are you smiling at me weird? And then everyone's like, what are you talking about?

And then they do that 18 more times. And then every time she had me on the hook. One of my main complaints about the first smile was that there wasn't enough smiling. Like, there weren't enough moments of like... It's a smile factor. Like, there's a lot of fucking smiles. That's a pretty good smile.

Yeah. Best actress, Joe. All right, I have Marianne John-Baptiste in Hard Truths. I have Demi Moore in The Substance. I have Hunter Schafer in Cuckoo. I have June Squibb in Thelma. And I have Fernanda Torres in I'm Still Here. I'm Still Here!

And little loopy. I will admit that Cuckoo just missed me entirely. I did not care for Cuckoo. I just did not get it. I like Hunter Schafer a lot. I think Hunter Schafer, I like Hunter Schafer better than I like the movie, but I like the movie pretty well. I liked Hunter Schafer in that movie. I also thought the movie looked good.

I just thought it was stupid. Yeah, it is stupid. I hate to say this. No, it is. Again, though, a movie with like two or three really, really rad sequences, one of which is unfortunately given away in the trailer. And but I think just like she does not only the final girl thing, but also has like really amazing sister energy.

Can I give out an award on behalf of Ben or maybe it's in tribute to Ben? I'm sure Ben will have his own awards. Can I give Dan Stevens the DAF performance, the DFA award, the Dengas Freak Award for performances most like directly targeting Ben Hosley. Dan Stevens is a German, you know, fully German like well, whatever the fuck he is in cuckoo This is a mad scientist

And then also as like a Godzilla dentist A monster dentist Godzilla ex-con And then an Abigail, a sleazebag And like, hey I'm from the Bronx, what's the matter with you? I got sunglasses on his side. Dan Stevens and Melissa Brera carry that movie on their shoulders. That is not a movie I liked, but I thought it was a love movie. I also think, uh, Catherine Noonan, I think, is really good.

I think everyone's good in it. Yeah, everyone's good in it. I just am frustrated by that movie. Ben, am I correct in thinking you saw zero of those three movies? Correct. Those are three performances of Dan Stevens yelling and waving his arms and going, Ben, pay attention. I'm your favorite actor. Well, you know what? He's on my radar, so I'll have to check out his work. All three of those movies don't work for me,

but what he's doing in them, you'd be into. It's just like, if you saw that guy in Downton Abbey, you know, 15 years ago, going like, oh, I sure hope that I get to be part of Downton Abbey. And I was like, yeah, this guy plays like a Bronx cop who fights Dracula's daughter the same year that he pulls Kong's tooth. And this is also... This is why The Guest was a very important and impactful movie.

That movie is, and I will say this with respect, pornography. My best actress nominees. Yes. I disrespect pornography. Yeah. My best actress nominees. And I'm wiping my glasses here because for this lineup, I could mistake it for Tuesday night at the Olive Garden. Oh, oh, oh. If you catch my drift. Pasta dinners galore.

Best actress. Zendaya in Challengers. Sir Charonin in The Outrun. Daisy Ridley in Sometimes I Think About Dying. I'm front loading the three pasta dinners. But here are two more pasta dinners coming. June Squibb and Thelma. Marion John Baptiste and Hartruss.

My winner is Marion John Baptiste for Hartruss. Oh, I mean, yeah. We're unified in that. That felt like a mortal luck for all three of us. Yeah, incredible. That's the performance of the year. It is, yes. The most egregious snub.

It was a performance that was so much the best performance of the year that it almost got nominated And a way that like well, of course nobody's gonna know it like she's so like she's so She's pushing you away so hard flooring And it's like of course there's people voting for awards aren't gonna do this But like they almost did it came pretty close. I feel like yeah Yes And with that thing getting like a very limited,

very late release from a smaller distributor, it was fighting a lot of uphill battles. And I thought the work was so undeniable that it was gonna punch through. But yeah, it's, I mean, it's incredible shit. It is, it's the most incredible screen performance of the year. I'm really, I probably should have nominated for Zendaya, but...

I gotta give it to Naomi Scott. I put her in there. Yeah, yeah. No, I saw that... The TV Glo? Oh, I'm sorry, your actor winner, by the way, was Killian Murphy, and yours was Koji Yakushu for Perfect Dates. Who was yours?

Jason Schwartzman, maybe? Yaku-shou for Perfect Day. Who was yours? Jason Schwartzman, baby. Oh, right, yeah. It is, it did not get a very wide release. I feel like a lot of people didn't get the opportunity to see it with a crowd. It was kind of fascinating to watch how much of that movie successfully plays as a comedy,

where you watch it and you're like, where is this going? At first you're like, am I really gonna spend the whole movie with this woman acting like this the whole time? Isn't this gonna get exhausting? The biggest out loud laugh reaction I've heard, I heard in a movie this year was the, what's a baby need pockets for?

The middle chunk of that movie, it's like everything she's saying is like fucking Bernie Mac Def Jam, like just like three point shots, right? And then it makes it all the more astonishing when the bottom can totally fall out in the last act and like really make you kind of like interrogate this person how she ended up like this. And I think it's really smart about like the answers it provides

and the clues it gives and the things it leaves unexplained and yeah. Absolutely. I mean the way that, you know, Wade Lee works, the creative process of his, you know, the actors are very, have big stakes in the story being told. But it's a performance that shouldn't work. Sure. You're like, it should be repetitive. It should be alienating.

It is kind of crazy that you're right. Like, you're never like, I fucking get it. I get it. She's mentally ill and really, really difficult to be around. It is a performance that should make the audience act the way David acts when episodes have hit three hours. Where he's yelling like, Basta, enough! Basta.

Yeah. David just checked the clock. Mikey, oh, I love to check the clock. We're doing good on that. I gave Mikey the nod. Obviously, she's the breakout star of the year and she's got Oscar noms and she won a BAFTA in Zimli. She was on my shortlist. Yeah.

It's funny that that's the one the BAFTAs were like, oh, we don't care for her much, except for you, Mikey. and she won a BAFTA in San Lee. She was on my shortlist. Yeah. It's funny that that's the one the BAFTAs were like, oh, we don't care for Nora much, except for you, Mikey. You were making a prediction right before, Error. Do you want to say it here, or do you want to save it for another episode? About a Nora. Yeah.

No, I'll make it here. My thing with, well, this award season has been so goofy. So insane. And so with the, obviously, bottom falling out of Amelia Perrin. Unsurprisingly goofy, given that there never was the movie. Correct. So it is a movie where the buzz just ping-pongs.

Can I say one thing about the Amelia Peres bottoming out? Yeah. This same kind of thing... Do you think it has to do with those tweets that Lady sent? Not as extreme, but this is the exact same point that Green Book was at in the arc before, then One Best Picture. But nothing like that happened. Nick Vallalanga had the fucking tweet where he said, I saw Muslims cheering.

And I know that was one tweet. I agree. Yeah, I said not the best. God was posting. It was one of those things where like, is there something she didn't post about? No, everything. I said not the same scale, but I went back and read some of the articles, post the Vallalanga tweet and people being like, I guess that's it. Green Book's done. And people forget that also Mahershala Ali, who later went on to win Best Supporting Actor, at one point issued a press release basically apologizing

for being in the movie. Zoe Saldana didn't do that, but she also has been like very skillful about like distancing herself. Here's the thing about Green Book that does not appeal. Amalia Perez is Green Book times 10? There was also a weirdly 2024 election-esque thing with Green Book where people were like, I'm gonna silently push back against people being like... Right, I enjoyed it. Stop telling me I can't enjoy that. That's exactly... And I don't think you're getting that with Amalia.

Amalia Perez has always had a more polarized like fan base or whatever. Like there's some people who just love it. I just refuse to believe it's a hundred percent dead. Oh, I think it's dead. It's the way you feel about John Wick. Where you're like, they're going to bring them back to life. I need to see that body cut into pieces and spread around the earth before I'm like, he's dead. They had him what? Sit on some stairs.

I'm like, he's alive. I don't care. Fade to white. Yeah, exactly. before I'm like, he's dead. They had him, what, sit on some stairs? I'm like, he's alive, I don't care. Yeah, fade to white. Yeah, exactly. But so the state of the race currently is Enora wins PGA and DGA, and everybody's like, done. And the critic's choice. And the critic's choice.

Well, nothing could be more important than the critic's choice. But it was somewhat surprising because it was similarly kind of like, it didn't win anything else. It literally won Best Picture. Kyle Buchanan tweeted, or whatever, blue-skied, is Enora ever gonna win anything at one of these televised awards

minutes before it won Best Picture? And I literally like Kyle, you turned around this entire Oscar season with that tweet. It felt done in every category. It just felt weird. And I went on Katie's podcast and was like, it's too good a movie to win Best Picture. It's just not gonna happen.

And it peaked too early. Right, yeah, exactly. It was kind of the first one, right? And so that hurt it. But it was like weird that it's winning zero precursors and then suddenly it starts winning everything. And it's only got a handful of nominations. So my thing that I wanna get on.

But it got more than I thought it might. Like it got that Borisov. It did get that Borisov. Say your thing on Mike, cause then I'm gonna put out the counter and I think this is an interesting thing to pin at this moment in time. I'm saying there is a non-zero chance and like I'm putting it out there that I think this is an interesting thing to pin at this moment in time. I'm saying there is a non-zero chance,

and I'm putting it out there that I think it is possible that Enora does a grand hotel of winning Best Picture and nothing else. I, last night, was like, that idea hit me. And I was like, I could see that happening. I could see Korbe getting director. I could see Demi getting actress. I could see anything else getting editing. I think editing is totally up for grabs. Yeah, and I could see Reali getting actress. I could see anything else getting editing. I think editing is totally up for grabs.

Yeah, and I could see Real Pain getting screenplay. Yes, me too. Well, Real Pain got the BAFTA screenplay. Know what I mean? I think it'll end up with three wins. I'm not saying it's the most likely scenario, but I think it is. No, it could happen.

What's interesting is, a fantasy on a recent big picture called out that Sean Baker stands to be the single person to win the most Oscars in one night for one movie Sure, right if code wins for picture director screenplay at the screenplay and editing Yes, Kouroun had this chance so that you know, it's happened like a couple times this isn't it's when you edit your own movie You know Cameron won three Oscars for Titanic. He didn't win screenplay Obviously right and like the only sort of asterisk, Disney won four and one night for different films,

doesn't count. And Bong, there's the international award that doesn't technically go to the director. But he accepted four times on stage, right? I could see Baker winning all four, and I could see Enora only winning Best Picture, and I could see it weirdly winning zero. Equally likely, yeah.

Right, it's like, it feels so random. Right now I'm betting on some flip of a Nora and Brutalist for picture and director. But it does feel like it could go any of those ways. Speaking of the Oscars, I have current best actress front runner, Demi Moore, in The Substance. That's your winner?

I don't know how either one of you guys feel about The Substance. Am I on treacherous ground here? No, me more, in The Substance. That's your winner? I don't know how either one of you guys feel about The Substance. Am I like on treacherous ground here? No, no, I love The Substance. Here's the thing, I'm like, that's a movie I would have nominated in like six categories and then when the Oscars went so hard. They became an Oscar favorite.

Right, it didn't make me like, well, it's obvious now, but I was just like, cool, I can open up space for something else. Yeah, yeah. No, that movie totally works for me. I think she's very good and I know you love Demi. I do love Demi. I've been doing this little side podcast onto me.

The funny thing about it is I'm not doing this podcast because she's like my favorite actress. She's just so 90s coded. Yeah. And that's a period of filmmaking that I love thinking about and talking about. I just remembered I wanted to do a song parody of Just Dance for Substance.

It's gonna be okay, Griffin. It's gonna be okay. Put that green goo into your spine. Substance. Oh, you're doing Bowie and I was doing Gaga. Sorry. You can do either one. But I think she's really fantastic in that movie. I love that she's getting an awards narrative when she never,

even when she was at the height of her popularity, was never an awards actress. Yeah, I also think, like all of the kind of like, I say this lovingly, but the like mad TV aspects of the performance, I'm just like, I never knew she had this in her. I never knew she could do like grand ganyol. She gets to play so many different phases of the character.

And then on the opposite end of that that just like her standing in the mirror wiping the makeup away is probably why she's gonna win the Oscar. It is so sticky and it is just an actor tapping into a moment that feels so poignant and resonant and is done wordlessly that there's just such range of that performance from an actor who I've always kind of liked but I've never seen her do either of those extremes. Exactly. I agree. I agree I'm gonna reach across our divide and say thank you for doing Thelma. Well, thank you for doing June's crib and June's crib and Thelma Hey, I mean she fucking rolls in that movie and that movie is I

It's so charming. It's so it's the most charming It's incredibly charming came very close to putting Fred Heschinger on my supporting Love him heck in her. Is it Heckinger? It is. And Brown Tree also RIP. Great performance. Brown Tree is so good in that movie. Oh my God, Parker Posey is really funny in that movie.

Yes. I'm going to say this. There's maybe half a second and it got full by scheduling where I was going to play Malcolm McDowell's grandson in that movie. Really? And I was just like, Iowell's grandson in that movie. Really? And I was just like, I just kinda can't make it work. It was like right around the same time I did the movie Turn Me On, now available on PVOD,

directed by Michael Tversky. That's the only reason I wasn't in Thelma, basically. A much bigger role is... Yes. Turn Me On. But when I saw the movie, my biggest regret was fuck. That was my one opportunity to get punched in the face by Richard Rauchery. Oh my god.

RIP. Died out on that forever. Unless I build a time machine. Yeah. I didn't get it. Get off the set of Shaft in Africa or something. Yeah, I'd be really good on that set. You know what that movie needed?

More white guys in position to power. Griffin Newman. Didn't John Garman direct that? I don't remember. We talked about it. It's directed by a white British man, whatever. The Lanky's picks for lead performance, I'll go from 10 to one. Coleman Domingo, Rafe Fiennes, Conclave,

Marianne Jean-Baptiste, Joshi Hartnett, Zendaya Challengers, Justice Smith. People forget that her last name is Challengers, cool. That's right. Sebastian Stan, Adrian Brody, and the Brutalist. A performance I really like. Yeah, he's great in that movie. It's undeniable.

I think none of us actually mentioned him. No. Demi Moore in The Substance, Mikey Madison in Enora is the winner. Ah. She's great. The Blankies loving Anjanu. Do the Oscars, maybe she'll win.

Yeah, well, except this year they didn't love Anjanu Ellis Taylor. Which honestly, they fucking fucked up. They did, they fucking fucked up. They did fucking fucked up. Now, before we get to picture director. Yeah, some bespokes. What are some other things we wanna shout out? Well, you called out right before we started recording.

I put you in a panic. Hard to pin down a putters and murmurs. I have one! I have one too. I looked at the list while we were recording and I was like, wait a second, why didn't this jump out to me immediately? What's yours? Hiding in plain sight.

Timothy Chalamet as Robert Zimmerman in a complete unknown. If fucking Bob Dylan himself is not the king of puttering and murmuring and if Chalamet did not invoke it well, then what are we even doing here? Hey Woody. I was very proud of Timothy's work. I'd like to give a little buzz lightyear to your Woody. Says that in the movie.

Who's your putter and murmur winner? Bill Camp in Drive Away Dolls! I think I've given Camp a P&M before. Of course! The man is practically guaranteed an arm every year. But he is so... I mean, for one, Bill Camp not getting famous earlier, he deprived us of him being in a lot of Coen Brothers movies. Like he would have been really good

in pretty much any Coen Brothers movie that ever existed. I made this point on Vulture Slack yesterday, in fact, like literally yesterday. You know, nominative determinism, the thing that like your name determines your personality. He's the opposite of that. He's the least campy actor. He's the least campy person in movies.

That's a great take. Oh, just to share, he plays Curly, the owner of the drive away, you know, have you guys seen drive away dolls? I did, I did not really care for drive away dolls, but Bill Camp is great. I both stan drive away dolls and love his two scenes, one where he's with the girls and then after,

he says, won't somebody save Curly, is his line Holman's also great in that he is very fun. I I consider both of the female leads in that movie. I really love Geraldine Margot quality is dropping jars of mustard She's got a cricket bat She's taken she I I you know what like a kid's plastic hollow, like big slugger bat. She's having fun. She is.

Who else though? Putters and murmurs. Puttersers and murmursers. I have, as I tend to do, sort of a lead up. I think you could plausibly say that monstro Elyssa Sue in the substance. Is it putter and murmur? She's... Is that not more of a sputters and bleaters? Sputters and bleaters, she becomes sputters and bleaters. 100%.

I also thought you could do a thing where you combine Sebastian Stan in the first act of A Different Man and Justice Nathan in the last act of I Saw the TV Club. Yeah. Into a little combined punters and murmurs. None of these are your winner. This is all wind up. No, this is all Leo. Leo Harvey, Eldridge, Ell-ledge as Liam Gallagher in Better Man, slurs and sneers. Here's the, Better Man, watching that movie as someone who is not deeply entrenched in

British pop, that's like the most shocking twist I've ever seen in a movie. No, that was news to me. I knew that they hated each other, but I didn't know that it was over the girl. I think Better Man works better if you don't know any of it. Kind of. Um... I'm pro-Robbie in that fight. Isabella Rossellini in Conclave, copies and curtsies. What a great curtsy she does.

Look, I was like, she's almost a putters and murbers. There's something there. Yes, because she takes a long time to speak. June Squibb in Richard Rountree in Thelma, Snazzters and murmurs. There's something there. Yes, because she takes a long time to speak. June Squibb and Richard Rowntree and Thelma, snazzies and jazzy. They're on their little jazzy's. I had Todd Phillips in Joker Follyadoo just puttering his way through that movie.

Yeah, I think he murmured most of his direction. Murmured most of his direction. Just absolutely, just zero effort. My pick is Dave Bautista in The Last Showgirl. and when he putters and murmurs, it's good Blade Runner 2049 Yeah, I have not seen it yet I will watch it before sag voting this weekend because of course it's been nominated for two That is the one reason I'm looking forward to watch he's the best part not to be rude Yeah, and I'm all here for the Pam Bible campaign very excited for her being a naked gun, but Batista in a drama. I'd love to see it

There's an obvious winner, but it's in a film I guess neither of you saw because I think a lot of people did not see it Anthony Hopkins in one life One life's a good movie James Hawes true story movie. It's it is a good movie It's a great example of that kind of movie. You're like correct that we didn't see it. Right. This is a movie about you. Joseph is a movie about like a real guy who did a thing. You know that's that's a you know, interesting to think about and important to honor.

But also the first 20 minutes of that movie is hoping to put that mail. Yeah, no, it's. What do we do? Flashback to the young guy who plays me. Your letterbox of this movie really stuck out to me. Very much the classic original Griffey Noom's definition of putters and murmurs. That's what I'm saying. It's actually straight down the line. Mr. Holt.

My letterbox was, sorry, but if you have Anthony Hopkins in a slow-moving English drama that builds to a quiet but devastating emotional climax, I'm gonna like it. It's exactly right. You're exactly right, David. Yeah, that's... that is sort of the... You know, Samuel L. Jackson in The Piano Lesson is a putters and murmurs. It's the other thing I need to watch before SAG voted.

I liked that movie. I did too. I liked it better on Broadway. Talk about a movie that just evaporated in the race. If you're... Netflix. It's fucking Netflix. You really... Netflix. It's fucking Netflix. You really get lost. But he is kind of right.

I think a lot of people are surprised by that performance, assuming, oh, Samuel L. Jackson in August will say, is he gonna have tons of crazy, loud monologues? He was nominated for a Tony also. Because he was... I don't think he won the Tony, but he was definitely nominated for the Tony. But he's really good.

But other bespoke awards. Okay, here are some other bespokes. Okay. Best Godzilla of 2024, I'm giving to Bisexual Lighting Ozempic Godzilla and Godzilla X Kong. I'm gonna give it to Marianne Jean Baptiste and Hard Truth. Biggest mistake of last year's awards,

I'm going to give to forgetting to do the best Godzilla category in the year that Godzilla minus One came out. Uh, biggest mistake of this year's awards. I'm gonna give to making the bisexual lighting ozempic Godzilla in Godzilla versus Kong joke. It's just kind of an easy joke. It's very dumb. Have you guys seen that movie?

Best power glove. I haven't. No, I think I maybe saw the end of it on TV. Godzilla gets all, like, pink and blue and skinny. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Anyway, uh, my Sergeant Shroom Award, named after Vin Diesel's performance of it on TV. Godzilla gets all like pink and blue and skinny. Yeah. Oh yeah. Anyway, my Sergeant Shroom Award, named after Vin Diesel's performance in Billy Lynn's Long Halftime Walk, it is performance that I most wanted to give a nomination to and I can't quite sell it.

Now, usually it's more of a like, there's just nothing there. Sight unseen, I wanted to believe in it. This is someone where I'm like, the performance is really good. If I'd put it in and not included Adrian Brody, who I'm already snubbing from my five, people would have asked for my head on a pike, given to Michael Keaton and Goodrich. But a good performance.

This is the thing, it's genuinely a good performance. Me putting it in the five would have been overselling it a little bit. Best airplane movie, as in movie to watch on an airplane. Giving that to Goodrich. Goodrich 2 wins 1 year. Wow, I gotta see that movie. Best performance by Megalon in a supporting role. I'm giving it to Megalopolis. There's nobody in Transformers 1 called Megalon. It's funny that Megalon is just kind of a thing in that one. Yeah. What do you mean? It's how they make buildings and stuff. That's not the main

thing. It's how they heal skin. It's just one of the many things that movie is throwing out. Megalon in a supporting role. Best thriller where the villain is time. Saturday Night. I don't know if you know this. That movie's not a comedy. It's a thriller where the villain is time. And most destructive movie. It ends with us.

Talk about just fucking like... It ends. Everyone. Well, that's true. Everyone who saw that movie in theaters. Yeah, it's just fucking like it ends everyone. Well, that's everyone who saw that movie in theaters. Yeah. Turned into a killer. Of course, upon their family. Yeah, I heard that Lorne is going to

fire Jenny Slate again. Yeah, I have a couple bespoke's. I want to step on Ben's toes at all. The bespoke he's best conveyance of information by an object in a film, which is a little busy, but hang with me. The flyers for Horizon in Horizon

and American Saga, part one, the photocopies in Conclave, the portrait of Bill Clinton in Long Legs, which tells you exactly when this movie is taking place. It is taking place when Bill Clinton is president. It does get bigger every time they cut back to it, I believe, I firmly believe. Obviously the Notes app in hitman. Can I just call a shot quickly off of what you said? I want to pin

Praying that it gets a qualifying release Rubici might have next year's putters and murmurs in the bag The thing I'm most excited for in horizon 2 is Rubici. To find out what Rubici's gonna do. Here's a spoiler. You're not gonna find out a lot. It's the- He is not on screen much, but most of it is buttering and murmuring.

It's the little Yakuza boss in that Simpsons episode where the Japanese mafia comes after Marge Simpson and her pretzel wagon. Is you just wanna see what he's gonna do. I would have- You know what's gonna be good. I would have been so angry at how little he has to do in the movie if

The end didn't stick the landing so fucking hard. Okay. I'm you seem genuinely I was so thrilled by like watching it and just immediately being like slot machine payoff Like it's like the movie starts and at like minute two. Can we please not do this? Come on Let's not think of about movies no one has seen that didn't come out that year. Let's have a wheel it into release. It'll come out, don't worry. My fifth nominee in best conveyance of information by an object in a film is obviously the tennis ball

against the neck of the racket in Challengers. A neck movie. Best necks, Challengers. Challengers, very good. That's a great example of... People like to think that screenwriting is about dialogue. That is a screenwriting decision. That is, like, beautiful, like, structure and setup and payoff.

Yeah. That whole last match is no dialogue, and it's perfect. When he did that move at the end of the film, in a close-up... And you know he's gonna do it. ...the crowd I saw it with burst into applause. Yeah. And it was the most ecstatic moment. I had that reaction from him. I had a movie theater last year where where all of us were responding to like,

fuck, good story, Tess! Best one! Like, nothing throws me more than when a movie can build its sort of like, its obstacle course so perfectly that at the end, one single image can mean 20,000 things without any words. Yep. Yep. And we just all know it. Almost as if Challengers was a great movie

and its director should have stood by it more and that's a word season question. Luca is a really normal and not ordinary guy who makes normal decisions, guys. And also, to be fair, in his defense, he could only stay above water on ground for so long before he was gonna get caught for being a sea monster. Hey, Luca! Why you in a bike race?

He couldn't campaign for two movies and also check in with his fish parents. That's true. With my Rudolphins. Jim Gaffigan. There you go. The most Italian sea monsters. Good movie.

It's a good movie. That movie rolls. My other... Movies for cool kids. My other bespoke category is best performance by... Wait, who's the winner in that category? Oh, sorry, my winner in that category... It's the tennis ball. It's the tennis ball.

Yeah, it's perfect. Which is kind of a huge upset because like no, I did not think anything was beating notes up after I saw it. But this is by the way, good category. I think that one's a perennial. Thank you. Best performance by an actor of another actor. Austin Butler playing Stellan Skarsgard in Dune Part

Two. Pretty good. Nicholas Podani is the guy's name as Billy Crystal in Saturday Night. I went to see this film. It's such a subtly accurate portrayal. That movie is quietly a thriller in the villainous time. What? But it's my favorite, secretly a Western of this year.

I, he comes on screen. There's a lot of people playing famous people in that movie. He comes on screen, says two words, and I went like, Holy shit! Again, you're just like, I can't believe he's nailing young, not famous crystals. And I'm also realizing, in real time, I've never heard anyone do a crystal. Right, I guess.

Well, I hear someone do it at the top of blankies everywhere. But this is what I'm saying, that's what I'm expecting. I'm like, some guy's gonna come on and be like, -"Sorry!" -"Mickey Mantle!" He is, like, stunning. He's great. He's great. I love him. Um, Aaron Taylor-Johnson doing Matthew McConaughey... By the way, that's become the new guy who beats me out for every role I want.

Go on. He's a great actor. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is Matthew McConaughey and the Fall Guy. Um, endlessly amusing. I thought it was... Yeah. Talk about another guy who needs to not be a leading man. Mm-hmm. Oh, he's so great when he shows up at a pinch hitter kind of a... Did you like him in Nosferatu? I did like him in Nosferatu. Enough with this Nosferatu nonsense!

Yes! I fucking hate this shit! You know what I didn't like him in? Craven the Hunter. I haven't seen that one. You should go hunt it. tried I tried to I fucking was texting showtimes to Alex Perry as they dwindled 1040 a.m. Or bus. Yes. Yeah, and then he was just busy And then that was that I was gonna go with a crew to see it in 40x and we all got a head cold And all canceled like 10 of us had bought tickets

and canceled tickets. You would have been the only box office for that movie. Yes, and then it was gone the next day. There was one performance in that movie you will love and I bet you can't guess who it's from. Iron Under Bows? Pfft. Who else is even in that?

Russell Crowe. Oh, I'm sure all of that, of course. You're gonna fuckin' eat that up with a fuckin' other. I assume he's much like with Thor and everything, you know, Pope's actually just playing another Greek diner owner. No, he plays a Russian monster. But it's always Greek diner owner. The last exorcist is very much a Greek diner owner.

I'd say it's a sensitive Thor. Joe, sorry. Go on. Two more. Jason Schwartzman playing Stanley Tucci in Queer. Interesting. Jason Schwartzman, who knew that Jason Schwartzman playing gay is just Stanley Tucci? It's fantastic. Interesting. Okay.

And then Jodie Comer playing Bill Swertzky from The Superfans in The Bike Rider. A very close best actress candidate for me. She's good in the movie, but the accent is insane. She's absolutely, she sounds absolutely insane. She is fucking so best in the movie. She's so good in it. David's high on crack for not respecting art. I like J Kober though

Yeah, good, I feel like I'm sitting back in the multiplex. I feel like I'm sitting back and closing my eyes and dreaming of other things during that Leaning in and falling out of my seat I'm a queen loon of a film. I'm leaning in and falling out of my seat. You can't do both directions. You can't say you're asleep in both directions. Yes I am! That's the one movie that made me asleep in both directions. Movies good. David's are good. Jeff Nichols keep making more movies. Thank you. Keep making those C++ movies. David!

Oh my god! The second C++ factory. There's no director you're rude to. That guy is a cheap supermarket because he's C town. Wow. Wow. Wow. Is that going to travel? Are there only C towns in New York?

I've never seen a C town outside of that. It's a northeast supermarket. I did my best. Yeah. Do you guys want to give me your best directors or do you have any more? No, I'm out. I'm out of bullets. Yeah, you know, best going live on Instagram goes to Lady Raven for trap. Yep.

Over Zachary Levi? Zachary Levi of course gets best crayon. I don't know. I don't know what to give that guy. We need to give that guy something. You didn't win best crayon. I think we need to give that guy something No one who's more anti-medicine where I'm like you might need some medicine Need to go to the doctor following following the exact wrong path Exactly Levi showed up at the fucking horizon chapter two and I was like don't make me feel like I'm not allowed to like jump-scare People there. Oh Tall. Yeah, he's very tall. It sucks

Yeah, that's why he gets to play fucking Shazam or whatever. Uh, best normal chills sculpture to have in your house oddity Did you guys see oddity? I liked oddity. I Would man and oddity Is it Australian I think it's, is it Australian? I think it's Australian. Okay. Is it not Welsh? It might be fucking Welsh.

I don't know. It's something or other. Something. No, it's Irish. Maybe it might be Irish. I think it is Irish. But it's a horror movie about someone who gets the most fucked up sculpture in the world

and puts it in their house. And they're like, it's like a vengeance movie. I don't think anything's gonna go on with this. Don't kill a witch's sister is basically the lesson of it. A best exposition about, like, the past and mythic stuff. Ty, Owen Flore in both The Watchers and Tarot

shows up in both movies to, like, dispense, like, here's the lore of the movie. Is that the old lady in the, oh, she's good. She's good, she's like this legendary Irish. No, The Watchers rocks. I'm pro The Watchers. Did you see The Watchers? I still haven't seen it.

Check it out. Yeah, I don't know, best baseball cap, Jerry, Jason Bateman and Karrion. I still haven't watched that either. You just said that like, hey, haven't watched that buddy? Hey, buddy. Hey, hey. And haven't caught that one. Yeah, said that like, hey, haven't watched that, buddy? Hey, buddy. Hey, buddy.

And haven't caught that one. Yeah, I don't know. Is there anything else we wanna shout out? That's stuck in the Netflix pit for me. Yeah. Look, I'm happy Claw and Sarah's back. What was the thing I saw? Best movie that for 10 minutes,

you're like, we are fucking cooking. And then it kind of gets a little boring. Natalie Erika James's Apartment 7A. Oh, I didn't see that. Which like, we all love the first omen, directed by a friend of the show, Arkausha Stevenson, and that one similarly, you're like, oh, she's doing stuff here.

Like, this is actually more than just like, I sort of wrote TV prequel to Rosemary's Baby, has this amazing sequence in the middle of the movie, but some of it's a little boring. There was something I saw. What was it? Now I'm trying to remember, but it was, oh, oh, you know what it was?

It was Flight Risk. Oh, sure, yeah, yeah, right, right, of course. I'm like, if Colitzero directed Flight Risk, it would be winning Best Picture next year. It was just directed by some bum called, oh, Mel Gibson is an Oscar winner I'm seeing here. No, I checked the poster recently, and I think it's from the director of Apocalypto

and Hacksaw Ridge, no name needed. Uh-huh. Who are your best directors, guys? [♪ dramatic music playing. V.O.] Best director. [♪ dramatic music playing. V.O.] My best director nominees are Luca Guadagnino.

I was thinking about making another Pixar joke and why put that word disrespect on his name. George Miller for Furiosa, a Mad Max Saga. Oh, sorry, I'm reading off the wrong list. Worst directors of movies I hate. Mike Cheslik for Hundreds of Beavers. Rommel Ross for Nickel Boys. Mike Lee for Hard Truth.

It's a very hard truth. It's the hardest truth of all. The worst nominee. Yeah. My list is Brady Cour of all. That's the nominee. Yeah. My list is Brady Corbet for The Brutalist, Luca Guadagnino for Challengers, Julio Torres for Problemista, Ramel Ross for Nickel Boys, and Matthew Rankin for Universal Language. Oh, I need to see that.

I think you both might get... That's Now in Theaters, a Canadian-Iranian film that I've been told is really, really good. My nominees are Andy Baker for Janet Planet, Radu Jouret for Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, Luca Guadagnino, all three nominees for Challengers, Mike Lee for Heart Truths, and Rommel Ross for Nickel Boys. My winner is Rommel Ross. My winner is Rommel Ross. My winner is Luca Guadagnino for Challenge. Yeah, well it's a great movie.

And you know what? I'll say, you can feel the presence of a director on that movie. Oh, interesting. But not in his other films. No. Not a showy filmmaker. Should we just go straight into Best Picture because I feel like these are overlapping conversations. Yes, we should. I will say I watched his first movie, The Protagonist, because it was on movie. You know how like,

Luke kind of tried to make good movies for 10 years before he suddenly started making them? I didn't see any of them before I Am Low. Same, no one has. Yeah, that was the first. But they put The Protagonist from 1999 with Tilda Swinton on movie, and I'm like, how bad could it be in 10 minutes?

And I was like, oh no, it stinks! Whoa! I can't believe it. But hey, isn't that part of the fun of doing this podcast when we see someone come out of the dirt? But you're like, I don't understand how the filmmaker I love, like, it's trying stuff, so you're kind of like, I guess he was trying stuff and not doing a good put. Whoa! But there were, I mean, Park Chan-wook's another example, Stanley Kubrick's another example, where the first movie almost feels like they have to do every single thing wrong. So then by process of elimination, emerge like seemingly fully formed. I'll give you the blankies nominees where Rommel Ross five, I'm going from the

bottom up. Rommel Ross, Sean Baker for Nora, Jane Schoenberg, Denny Villeneuve, Luca Guadagnino. Best Picture. Best Picture. So your top tens for the year basically is what we're going to do next for Best Picture. Do you want to do them bottom up or not? I'm going to do bottom up. Okay, you go first. Number ten, Better Man.

Wow. Loved it. Monkey. Loved it. Monkey. Loved it. Number nine, The People's Joker. Number eight, Hundreds of Beavers.

Number seven, Lung Legs. This is a griff list. This is a real griff list. Number six, A Different Man. Number five, Furiosa, Mad Max Saga. No, number 500, you mean. Oh yeah, sorry. Number four, Hard Truths.

Number three, I Saw the TV Glow. Number two, Nickel Boys number one, Challengers. At the end of the day, I just like, that was the most transcendent experience I had watching a movie. And I kept being like, is that still my number one? It feels kind of poppy to be my number one. But like-

Open that pop. God, I love soda. Exactly, drink that bubbly soda. Yeah. Starting from number 10, my number 10 is I Saw the TV Glow. Number nine is Nickel Boy's. Number eight is Universal Language. Number seven is Hard Truths. Number six is I Saw the TV Glow. Number nine is Nickel Boys. Number eight is Universal Language. Number seven is Hard Truths.

Number six is I'm Still Here. Number five, A Different Man. Four, Challengers. Three, His Three Daughters. Two, The Brutalist. And my number one movie of the year, which I watched this morning just to make sure it was Problemy Star.

Wow. What a great movie. Past and future. I love that movie. Possibly future guests. I'd love to get Julio back. Why not? I think I recently. Possibly future guests? I'd love to get Julio back. Why not? I think I recently... He's really using his schedule. Yeah. I think I recently realized I somehow don't have

any of his contact information. And I was like, how did we get him on the first time? Did we literally, like, whisper into a pigeon's ear? It kind of was. We did basically whisper into a pigeon's ear or write something on a Lego brick and leave it on the subway. Like, we DM'd him, I think we... Like, there was a Twitter, someone had a Twitter.

And he was... I mean, I've known him for a while. I swear at one point I had some direct contact. But I think it was a social media contact. I don't think we ever had a phone number, because I'm not even convinced he has a phone. No. No, nothing about him would indicate that he would have a phone.

He's got a pocket full of precious gems. I mean, you know... What was the movie that he did with Edward Scissorhands? It's one of those episodes where the day before we were like, are we just gonna do that one without a guest? And then Julio was like, hey, I'm coming. Right. There was another movie, I feel like this year, where we were like, fuck, that'd be a good time to get Julio back.

And we talked about it, and then I was like, I actually don't know how to reach him. I love Julio Torres, as do you, as do I think everybody here, he's a great guy. But I was really blown away by how like emotionally intelligent and beautiful Problemy is. Yeah, I will say this. I obviously did not like it as much as you did.

And I was like, this is like a good first movie. He's like working out some stuff. And then like the last 20 minutes, I was really impressed by how hard it all paid off. There are certain ways in which I think it, like... The setup is almost to the movie's detriment. It needs to hold back on certain things in order to make that payoff work.

But I was like, the last 20 minutes of it worked for me so fucking hard. There are so many ways that he could have just sort of rested on... quirky, strange, you know, I'm Julio Torres, I love shapes, like that kind of a thing. I think it's an incredibly funny movie is the other thing though. There's so much actual overt out loud comedy. And then to pull it together and really sort of like, there's a lot of good insight in that movie. There's a lot of insight in that movie to...

The human condition. His specific experience and like the specific experience of people trying to emigrate to the country and like stay in the country, but also universal creative. Every single character in that movie is so well observed. Yes. And like Tilda Swinton's character, who is like simultaneously a dragon lady cartoon and also admirable in certain ways. And understandable in certain ways.

Same with the racist character, which could just be a kind of offhand note. The amount of time it spends in investing in this character who's gone, yeah. David, your 10. My 10 are, from bottom up, Red Rooms, number 10, which I haven't mentioned on this podcast. I should have fucking nominated Juliette Garrepe in actress,

but I had to give Naomi Scott her flowers. But a great, insanely freaky Canadian horror film that I think a lot of people are discovering, including me, late in the race. Number nine, Evil Does Not Exist. Number eight, Trap. Number seven, I Saw the TV Glow. Six, Dune Part II. Five, Trap. Number seven, I Saw the TV Glow. Six, Dune Part II.

Five, Janet Planet. Four, Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World, great Romanian movie that everyone should watch. You'll like it, Griff. It's got a view of society that I think he'll respond to. Three challengers, two hard truths, one nickel voice. Director was so overflowing with people I wanted to nominate for Best Director. I thought so many of these, like I don't always subscribe to the like the best movie is the best directed movie always. Like at some point I love the movies that I love so much and certain movies

feel like they have more of a directorial, you're taking a little bit more of a chance as a director or you're like taking on, you know, maybe a bigger sort of project. But like Aaron Schimberg for a different man, Jane Shonbrunn, Coralie Fargeot, obviously Villeneuve and Sean Baker and, you know, Walter Sells for I'm Still Here. Have you guys seen I'm Still Here? I saw it last night. I liked it. Yeah.

I really was so engrossed by that movie. I thought I was just like, it really does like, you know, grab you by the shoulders. I'm gonna say this and I don't mean this in any backhanded way, but this was like my profound takeaway from watching the movie in a certain way, right? The Academy's changed so much.

It's gotten so much more international. It used to be so rare that a foreign language film crossed over into any other categories. Now it's obviously more commonplace, right? And it used to be that when it would break through, there was this air of like, this is the kind of shit that could never get made in America, right? Not that it was like,

the studio system would never support this. It's so foreign, it's so international. These other countries are arduer and whatever. And I watched that and I was like, this is the kind of movie that studios used to be great at making for 30 years. And then for 30 years after that, it was supplanted by like Focus and Searchlight and the mini majors making them.

And now it kind of like we need to import our like incredibly sturdy, intelligent political family drama. It has been happening since, you know, the Miramax era of the nineties and all of that. And it feels like much like last year, this was the, what's the cooking move? The Taste of Things. Yeah, oh, sure.

Every year there's a movie where I'm like, Harvey Weinstein wants to break out of prison to run the Oscar campaign for this movie. He's like, I'm gonna call a congressional hearing. I'm gonna have a press conference. That's so true about The Taste of Things. Have you, oh, The Taste of Things was, I was like, are we sure Harvey's in jail? And I love that movie, to be clear.

I'm just talking about the kind of sort of middle brow adult foreign drama that like Miramax loves. I'm not saying that I'm still here as middle brow, but I'm saying there's a degree of being like- It's not high art. Yeah, it's incredibly well made. It's like a very affecting story. The casting at the end is very impactful.

Not surprising to me. I also saw it like... maybe two days after the election. So... Yeah, there was an election. It hit particularly hard. Certainly harder than when I saw Dr. Strange the day after the last time. Yep.

I did one of those. Give me the news. Look, it's a good time for movies at the top, and there's lots of interesting stuff in the middle. This was not my favorite movie year. Wasn't mine either. It was not my number one favorite movie year of all time. Which of course was 1928.

What a great year. But I do feel like people sort of, I've heard quite a few people calling it like a bad year for movies. It was good stuff. I can't, I don't think there's ever a bad year for movies is the thing. No, not really.

If you just slice off the top. Except for 2011. Like that's the only bad year for movies. But no, I think there's, yeah, you slice off the top. Wasn't 2011 Margaret and Moneyball or was that 2012? No, 2011 was Margaret and Moneyball. It's a really bad Oscar year. It's a really bad Oscar year. It's a very bad Oscar year.

But 2011, yeah, my top 10 is Margaret, Moneyball, Certified Copy, Tree of Life, Girl with a Dragon Tattoo, Ghost Protocol, Uncle Boon Me, Archipelago, Tinker Tailor, Fast Five. That's a great top. I mean, Fast Five was obviously in my 10. I'm trying to remember, I feel like I had my top five or all in movies and now I'm trying to remember

what the other ones would have been. But it was definitely- Martha Marcy, Meem Rumi? Off the top of my head, Margaret is up there. Martha Marcy, certified copy, Hannah. Joe writes Hannah, is that your Hannah? War Horse, of course. Like there's some positive takeaways from this year.

As we said, the Inside Out 2 lesson, David's doing a slide whistle? Oh, is my penis on the mention of Warhorse going, er? First of all, that was kind of impressive. David mined the slide whistle really well. I had to get my lip wet. But he was doing the motion.

Yeah, no, it was good. It was good. Good improv, yeah. Yeah, there was good stuff this year, and I think there were good takeaways, and I feel like, as you said, there was like this feeling of catastrophe when all the May movies underperformed. And then immediately it was just like, no, people shit up in fucking droves

for Inside Out 2 and Twisters and Deadpool and Wolverine, and It Ends With Us and some other things. Movies of the exact same level of quality. Look, you can't automatically trick people into fucking a blockbuster anymore. You have to give them something they want to see, and if they want to see it, they'll show up in droves. And I think the things that people are showing up for is diversifying a little bit. It's not just the same couple fucking temple franchises. And I think also that all that doomsdaying was forgetting that like,

Dune and fucking Godzilla were just like genuine blockbusters in the first three months of the year. The thing I'm always pointing at is like January, you had Beekeeper and Mean Girls. Yeah. Both make like 80 million domestic, close to 200 million. Bob Marley One Love is this close from 100 million domestic.

And like Mean Girls and Beekeeper were supposed to go straight to streaming. And I was like, here's the lesson, make more movies like fucking this. Make mid-sized films. Well, the things that encourage me is Nosferatu 95 domestic, Complete Unknown 71 domestic. Like, you know, those kinds of movies are still getting,

you know, they're not, you know, knocking it down like Oppenheimer did. David and I were talking about the sort of like rise of like quote-unquote auteur horror, which is like the horror which used to be this autopilot every horror movie opens to 20 and makes 50, basically had like more kind of like actual flops. But the through line is like movies are being sold on Oz Perkins, on like, Damien Leone, you know, like all these people, which is like exciting. It's like, it speaks to a culture that is engaged

with the idea of like movies are made by people and visions and all that sort of stuff. All that sort of stuff. Uh, movies are good. Ben, can you save us? Yeah, Ben, do some stuff. You got some stuff planned, right? Yeah.

Uh, so it's that time in the episode of our Blankies episodes where I... Relaxing. I do some of my original categories. So to start things off, as I do every year, we have, of course, The Weddies, The Golden Mop. Right. The slickest flicks of the year.

I love when he says slickest flicks of the year. It's the movies that soak through... Yeah. Oh, boy. Golden mop. Right. The slickest flicks of the year. I love when he says slickest flicks of the year. It's the movies that soak through. What splished, what splashed. Right. Okay. Good questions. Good questions.

Who dunked? Keep going. Rub-a-dub-dub, I'm taking a bath. I don't think I quite understand the parameters of this category. Can you explain it to me a little more? So the films are wet? It's the wettest films. All right. So number one, Twisters.

OK, not only is there rain, OK, which there is an abundance of rain. That's true. But Glenn, he's not just giving. My man's pouring out Riz. This is true. Oh, you're so you're saying his his acting is so charismatic that he's wet. It's dripping wet.

Right. He's dripping. I like that. He's glistening with Riz. He's wet with Riz. It's dripping Riz, I like those. He's glistening with Riz. I like those. Okay, number two, the substance. Yeah, it's a moist. Moist. It's a squishy movie.

It's just, there's so many fluids being represented in this film. Of various colors, a rainbow of fluids. Yeah, a cornucopia of fluids. Going in, going out, like, yeah, yeah. Number three, challengers. It's a sweaty movie a lot of beads very sweaty but in the best way yeah right it's often on the

show we label movies as sweaty because it's just like a sauna scene half baked right we're not on court that's sweating yes but yeah the actors are hot right not only are the actors are hot but I walked away perspiring after seeing that. Number four, we live in a time. Oh, the um, we live in time. We live in time, excuse me. So now when I say that I ugly cried during- Yeah, you shouldn't have seen that one, Ben.

Honestly, I would have kept you away from it. Ugly like Donald Trump's heart ugly. I would have kept you away from it. Ugly like Donald Trump's heart ugly. Wow. That'd be getting political. That's ugly. Destroyed, truly destroyed, clean up an aisle my ass.

Okay. Okay. Wow. And then number five, unfortunately, is Moana 2. That's a lot of water. It was wet. It's extremely wet. Yeah, please.

It's a movie for losers, but it is wet. Honorable mention, The Young Woman in the Sea, which I know you haven't seen. Oh yeah. That's a swimming movie. That one don't belong in the sea. I missed that one. I think you'd like it. Yeah. Flo?

If you like wet movies. Flo is very wet. Yeah, Flo! Flo, I can't believe you haven't seen, right? You'll enjoy that one. It's a cat. Friend of the show, Jordan Fish, had suggested it. I think you'll really like it.

It's a cat in water. But I know, I know. Yeah, you'll cry. But there's a bird. You'll cry it like very bad. You're not. We live in time crying. You'll cry at moments of like, oh my God, the cat is scared.

You know, sure. You'll cry moments of intimacy. OK, I can't go out a couple. I'm surprised you didn't include. Well, may I just finish my point on Moana too? And then, yes, please. I just wanted to, though, say, Can I Get a Chee-Ho has maybe some of the sweatiest lyrics of all time.

That's a song? Can I Get a Chee-Ho? It is indeed a... it's a rap song. Reformed by Dwayne Johnson, of course. Built around his famous catchphrase, which you remember definitely was there in the first movie. He does say it in the first movie. Does he?

I've seen Moana, you know, one to two hundred times. Yes, he says it a bunch. He says it eight hundred times in this movie. I would say he probably says it like three times in Moana. He says it when he's about to turn into something. Okay, because in this it feels like a Marty McFly chicken thing. Sure. Where like, you're telling us this was your deal the whole time?

The song sucks. But what are some other films that could have made it? It feels like a Marty McFly chicken thing. Sure. We're like, you're telling us this was your deal the whole time? The song sucks. But what are some other films that could have made it? Look, Flow is a big snob, but you just haven't seen it yet. Rude to Pool Man. He hasn't seen Pool Man. I'm not going to go see fucking Pool Man. It's wet.

I'm sure it is. That guy's fish now leaves the whole time. Yeah. Also Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. Well, the water is frozen in that one. Yeah, but imagine what happens at the whole time. Yeah. Also Ghostbusters Frozen Empire. Well the water is frozen in that one. Yeah, but imagine what happens at the end of that movie. Honestly, I saw it. They stop the day, it's going to start melting.

City's about to get wet as hell. You know, I saw that movie and I could not tell you a single thing that happened in it. It is gone. I remember being like, this is better than I thought it was going to be, but I also don't remember it. But it's gone. I almost, slimmer almost as a putters and What else you got Benny, okay well, I think I've sort of

Decided that you know, of course there is the films that should be made remade with and then I you know pick out all Of these kind of right Yeah, right, but again, I'm gonna say like I did last year, I'm sick of remakes, I'm sick of just everything being so IP driven that as in a protest, I will not continue to generate more content. I like that, also saves you some time. That's right.

Okay, but moving right along, we have of course, the um, no thank yous. Number one, at the top, Emilia Perez. Never before have I avoided something that somehow also doesn't exist. It's as if the culture is telling me, look, ghosts exist. And I'm like, sorry, what? Because I'm wearing noise-hancelling headphones. Number two, blink twice.

I did, and suddenly the movie stopped playing because I had left the theater. No, there you go. You got out of there fast. Yes, I did. The movie's not very good. Not very good and with a horrible ending. I would agree with that. Audra Arjona is kind of incredible in it, though.

Half-concept nominating. No, she's very good. She's very good. Number three, The Apprentice. Me thinks no one asked for this. I do think it's quite a good fact. But I made the, in retrospect, great choice to see it four days before the election. I could not imagine watching it now. Yeah.

Yeah. Number four, Nosferatu. Shoe? Boring. How dare you call my movie boring? You tried to sleep with me. I top you like a wicked. What a beautiful looking movie.

Sure. Like great costuming. It's fucking dirty and shit. Sticky. It provides a... But it was boring. No, come closer. Take 20 minutes to come closer.

Boring like a dream. Oh, slow down. Slow 20 minutes to come closer. Boring like a drill. Slow down, slow down. Not that fast. Do you want to open my coffin? You can take your time. Karen, sorry. That's fine.

Okay, and then lastly- I just couldn't stop thinking about how sticky that mustache would be with all the blood. Oh man. Yeah. Blood, the bugs. The blood and the bugs. Yeah, there's a lot of stuff in that.

Okay, so lastly, I just struggled and it ended up just kind of being a three-way tie between Mufasa, IF and Red One. For your film of the year? Well, just like what they all share for me is I would- For the Nobel Prize. Yeah. What they all have in common for me is that

I would prefer to go to prison than watch any of those movies. Well, because at least there you can put on good plays. I have also not seen any of those movies. I think Red One is my dead bottom of the year. It has to be. I think it's one of the worst things our culture's ever produced. My bottom of the year currently is Joker Follyadoo. Carry on, Ben. My second to worst is a Ricky Stanicky, a movie that we should not let get away with its crimes.

It's not under the radar. Well, cause nobody saw it. Is that Caphron? Is that Ricky? Correct. Okay. Yeah. Okay. So honorable mentions Saturday night. I had fun. I thought it was good.

I had fun with Saturday night. I will agree with you. Okay. It's not like reinventing the wheel. It's a stupid predictable biopic, but fuck it. I liked it. Is it a biopic? Cause I think of it more as a thrill over the villain. Who's the villain there?

Tyne. No, it's Ben R2. Sorry, I mean Tyme. I didn't care for you. This is carrying over from last year. I guess it's become now a new award, Violator Achievement Award movies that remind me the most of the relationship between violator and spawn

Last year the winner was boy in the hair Who had violator energy this year is Karen Kulking in a real pain my friends He's not wrong. What an absolute monster of a person And of course when I saw Jesse Eisenberg come on screen in that film. I went, man, this guy's got huge chains and ectoplasm energy. Never before has a character felt more like- Oh, the Prince of Hell himself? No, I think you're right. Megalopolis, I love when an artist sees through their vision uncompromised by coherence.

Vision doesn't need to make sense. Agree. Yeah. Can just be- Especially if you lose one of your eyes. Cuckoo crazy. Put the wow platinum in the world that you want to see. Wicked little letters. What a fucking steaming bag of fun. You saw that?

I did. Some of my favorite insults include, you really are a tricksy old fucker. You belong in hell probably, and you're a sad, stinky bitch as well. That movie went direct to Cobble Hill Cinemas. That's a joke for ten people. I was angry at myself for not seeing that.

I was like, I bet I would love this. It's a fucking delight. It's Olivia Colman and Jesse Buckley writing mean letters to each other. In like an English town. Yeah, Chris, I'm as cool as hell. It's so good. I almost made it my annual Tiff Cozy Watch when I'm too far into, Chris, I'm as cool as hell. It's so good. I'm so funny.

I almost made it my annual Tiff Cozy Watch when I'm too far into Tiff and I'm too stressed. And this year was the Steve Coogan movie with the Penguin. I was about to ask, I saw a trailer for that yesterday before I'm still here. That's the most Sony Pictures classic, the ass movie. 100% made up shit I have ever seen. Do you want to go see that?

Yep. Wait, am I the only one that saw this movie? Correct. That's crazy. I know, that's crazy. That literally never happened. have to go see that? Yep. Wait, am I the only one that saw this movie? Correct. That's crazy, that literally never happened. When did you see it? Like how did you, did you see it on TV? My dad told me about it and I realized this is a major, like my dad was like, I saw this really funny movie.

You need to check it out. And it's very like his vibe. My wife and I debated seeing that film and I think picked something else. I have not gotten around to, did you see it in theaters? No. OK. Other just swear words to our favorite swears or insults.

You aging fucking soft cock streaks of a hot horse piss. This is all in that movie. Correct. And I'll leave you with you mangy old titless turnip. God, are we going to have to record an adendum to this episode when we all see it and it sweeps every category? Best depiction of Kendrick versus Drake wicked little letters. Amazing. But that's it, that's it.

Wow, what a year. What a year. What a year it has been. What a year for film. A decade of dreams. A decade of dreams. A decade of dreams continues. Joe, thank you for being here. Joe, thank you for being here.

Every year I have such a good time at this. Hey Joe, thank you for being here. It's me, Bob Dylan. That's actually a shockingly Timmy-esque Dylan. I'm really excited about our guest we have here today. He loves to give out awards and talk about Oscar books. Hey, fuck you Pete, shut up. I'm gonna play this guitar until you get mad.

Good movie that appeared on none of my categories this year. A complete unknown. I really liked it. A complete unknown, tremendous amount. It really worked for me. I literally walked out, I texted people, I'm like, I liked it, I don't know if other people are gonna like it, but I think I liked it.

Yeah, I thought it was really smart. Other people also liked it, I was happy with that. Joe, this had Oscar buzz. This had Oscar buzz. Oh, come on, Kirby. I just need to do my Zoom episodes. I know, listen, I understand it. Especially after Cure wins.

I hate the little window. I can't look at the screen. I feel like I might be in a box, in a box, in a box. I did enjoy dropping into Doughboy's via Zoom because I was watching you guys for a minute before I got to dropping for more than a minute, like 10 minutes. But also you not knowing the most famous conversation

and then getting brought into it, that couldn't have gone any better. It was so organically funny because I did not know what you were talking about, that I listened to the episode and my reaction, then it's bubbling up two hours later, it was great. Gardner and Weiger texted each other and were like, I have a conspiracy that Griffin came to LA with the explicit goal of recording the longest episode of each show.

And I said to you in confidence, my goal was like, I want to be on really good behavior. I want to come in tight on rails, deliver normal episodes and silence the haters. And I fucked up. Well... I fucked up. You fucked up! You fucked up. I fucked up. Well, I fucked up. You fucked up. You fucked up. I fucked up.

I do want to also, if... Snake is more famous than Pokeball. If the Blankies want to sign up for another Patreon, Hell yeah. Yes. To me, myself, and I chugging along, three episodes a month for $5 on Patreon. I've got some blank check famili uh, uh, familiars there.

I just had Fran Hoffner on to talk about the Scarlet Letter. Katie Rich is on, uh, often Richard Lawson was on to talk about disclosure. Um, just lots of real good fun. We're in the thick of the like nineties stuff. So, um, 90s, not a great decade for her. At the end. Yeah, at the end it was bad. The only part she was raking in money hand over fist. I'm really close to Count Von Count, I realize.

One. Two. Cookie Monster and Count Von Count combined is kind of the... I have killed Mr. Noodle. Ben, next week on the calendar is next week on the calendar. Next week. Next week. I'm losing my Spielberg. Now the film after ET, the extra terrestrial is surely color purple.

Indiana. Oh, no, it was a temple of doom. Yeah. With Olivia Creek. Nice. An episode that will make certain people very angry at us for being dismissive. Why? Because we don't like that movie very much. I don't like the movie that is annoying. I feel like that's the Indiana Jones movie most people don't like. That's right, but then there's lots of people who are like, it's secretly the best.

Oh, guys. And I'm like, it's the best at annoying me. The real secret is shut up. Anyway, it's a fun episode. We talked about a lot of stuff. Annoying me. The real secret is shut up. Anyway, it's a fun episode. We talked about a lot of stuff. I promise this. We talked about a lot of stuff in that episode and it's on topic. We recorded that like, I don't know, that April.

I don't fucking remember when we recorded that. Yeah, listening to you guys these days is really a journey to the past kind of Aaliyah style. We somehow recorded the Temple of Doom episode before David and I had met. It's amazing. Anyway, this guy seems to be pretty smart. I don't know who he is. The episode ends with you going, weird, I got a text about video-logy trivia.

Want to come with me? Amazing. Anyway, Decade of Dreams. Hey, this episode will be coming out kind of quickly after we record it. Yeah, that's a quick turnaround. Yeah. Good job, everybody. Good job, everybody. I love quick turn around. Yeah. Yeah. Good job. Bye everybody

Joe and yeah, we'll see you next year for blankies Edition 11 11 a new decade a new beginning and you know what people keep asking for We did our decade best of blankies for the 2010s. We did it brought on the pandemic It it did unfortunately bring in the pathetic. Yeah that and paul king now making pannington 3 We got our culprits. It would be another five years before we could do the 2020s blankies true Uh, but I do feel like i'm my calendar. I hear cries for people begging us to go backwards And to maybe in a future year do a uh, an old a 2000s and 90s and 80s or something I think it'd be fun to i I'm just picking it as a...

You know, I don't quite have the spreadsheet, the old spreadsheet. It would take some work to put together, but I could do it. I've got a Word document, I've got an unruly Word document that stretches back into the 90s and beyond. I stayed on TextEdit for too long.

Yeah, oh I know, I'm in the process of trying to transfer to Google Sheets, and it is a process. Now I use the Notes app, which is better. You are my affliction. Thank you all for listening. Please remember to rate, review, and subscribe. Didn't you pre-record that shit so we don't have to do it anymore?

Yeah, but this is the one part I say at the end. This is how I don't credit everybody. The crediting of the people who work on the show happens in a pre-recorded segment. You keep not having the confidence that I know how to end the episode, which then stretches the episode out longer. Count, just so you know, we haven't locked those credits in yet. Oh, great. So I'm the one who fucked up.

That's quite all right. Okay. Well let me go die on a bed of fire. But not before snacking on a dip. And as always, let me snack on a dip. I'm going to go to the bathroom. Thank you.