The Big Picture - 600th Episode Mega Mailbag Extravaganza

Episode Date: September 8, 2023

To celebrate Episode 600, Sean and Amanda open up the mailbag to answer your questions about how they watch movies, Martin Scorsese, what’s changed in the last six years, the fictional location where they’d like to have a drink or meal, the rejected alternate names for the podcast, and more! Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Football is officially back and we've got you covered right here on the Ringer NFL feed. I'm Shiel Kapadia and every Tuesday and Friday, Ben Solak and I will be bringing you extra point taken. Nora Princiati here to tell you that Stephen Ruiz and I will be coming to you every Monday and Thursday. Our Monday show will recap everything from Sunday's games. Thursday's show will encompass any news during the week with an eye towards the next slate of games. Subscribe to the Ringer NFL show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Be sure to follow the Ringer NFL on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter at Ringer NFL. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. This is The Big Picture, a conversation show about number 600. 600 episodes, an arbitrary number that means nothing, but we have accomplished this extraordinary feat on the show today. Amanda 600 episodes an arbitrary number that means nothing

but we have accomplished this extraordinary feat on the show today Amanda and I will answer questions from the mailbag Bobby will answer some too Amanda

600 episodes how you feeling? So is it really 600 the round number? Okay because it's like this episode has moved around

a few times in the lineup and I'm just like are we who's counting? Let's not break kayfabe around a few times in the lineup. And I'm just like, are we? Let's not break kayfabe here. This is 600 on the dot. Okay.

Well, it's complicated, right? We've had a couple of great narrative series from Brian Raftery on this feed. You know, there's a trailer you got to account for. There's what the show was before you joined the show. There's what the show was before Bobby joined the show. We've probably done, I don't know, 450s together. That's not canon before Amanda and I were here. Not canon. Okay, not canon.

So whatever those first 100 episodes I did, we should junk those. Burn them alive. Like the episode count on the feed, this is 600? On the episode count on the feed, it says 621. But that could be many different reasons. There could be some duplicates from the old feeds. I'm sorry to completely derail the podcast at the very beginning, except I'm not, because have we met? I think that we are very close to 600. Sure. It was an honest question. I was more curious about your accounting processes at home. Well, I've been fortunate to be hired by

PricewaterhouseCooper in a separate capacity. I'm on their advisory board now. Great, okay. And my focus is on the Academy Awards. Wonderful. So I've picked up a few things from that. I mean, you know, hey, my wife is an actuary. Do I know? You know, she helped out.

She didn't help out actually at all. She doesn't give a shit. I think it is like between 599 and 603. Okay, great. So I feel good about this. Close enough, right? I'm on the ride with you. 599 and 603. Okay. Great. So I feel good about this. We're close enough. Right? I'm on the ride with you.

What have we learned in 603 episodes? What have we learned about ourselves? About the world of film? Right. About, I don't know, the great works?

Yeah. Don't watch the trailers. Oh. I disagree, but okay. Right. But it always gets your expectations up. You're right. Yeah. Okay. Don't watch the trailers. Yeah. Don't watch the trailers. Oh, I disagree, but okay. Right. But it always gets your expectations up. You're right.

Yeah. Okay. Don't watch the trailers. Yeah, don't watch the trailers. Did you watch the trailer this morning? No. What'd you think of the bike riders trailer? I haven't watched it yet.

What the fuck are you doing? Because you told me enough about it. Okay. All right. I'm sure it looks very good. I'm excited to see that movie, but at some point I'm just going in cold. I watched the trailer this morning for Eli Roth's Thanksgiving. I'm good. I got an email about it. I want Eli to come on the show. I'm just going in cold. I watched the trailer this morning for Eli Roth's Thanksgiving. I'm good.

I got an email about it. I want Eli to come on the show. I'm just going to put that out in the universe right now. I love Eli. I love his movies. Some of them are not great. Some of them are fantastic. The premise of that movie is that it was a trailer in a movie that was made like 15 years ago, the Grindhouse movies.

Right. And then it was a fake trailer and then he actually made the movie. Okay. Which I approve of. That's a great idea. I think it was a fake trailer and then he actually made the movie okay uh which i i approve of that was a good trailer so i think it's a good there are many fake trailers in the film um the holiday by nancy myers yeah sure so yeah we can they comprise we can keep it going 300 of the minutes of the 700 minutes of that film listen it's not my favorite of hers either okay here's i'm gonna admit it you can watch the trailer after you've seen the movie that's not fun yeah it is you know my like trailer after you've seen the movie. That's not fun. Yeah, it is.

You know my like pastime, my Friday night pastime is to just watch trailers with my loved ones. I know, and I have been a part of it. But you also came on this podcast

a few months ago and you were like, I turned off the Killers trailer. I turned off the Dune trailer because I know I'm going to see it

and I don't want to know anymore. And Chris talks all the time about how they're putting too much in the trailer and it spoils everything. He's right. He's right. We talk a lot about expectations and how you can really psych yourself out versus having a great time. So I think trailers are an art form.

I respect the people who have to get other people to see movies, but you and I are already going to see movies. If you're listening to this podcast, well, actually, there's absolutely no guarantee that you see movies. That's another thing I've learned is that people will listen to podcasts about movies without ever seeing the movies.

That is really continued psycho behavior. No, I completely support it because I do it with TV all of the time. Okay, all right. I highly recommend Chris Ryan's segment about Lioness Special Ops, a show that I will never watch, despite promising him on this podcast that I would. We never got the call.

So I can't, you know. That's true. There was a moment I thought about downloading it for the plane. And then I think I didn't have the right Paramount subscription, Bobby, or maybe you told me that and I forgot. Yeah. And now it's gone. You know, I'll never watch it.

Did you watch it, Bob? I did. You did? I watched the pilot. I think it was the most proud Chris has ever been. It superseded when I watched Six Underground at 12.01 Pacific the day that it came out. So we're really bonding over that. I haven't watched it and i

did watch him um i did listen to him recap the entire uh series on my favorite part was when he's like so when you go listen to real life navy seals on podcasts like that's just a normal thing that a person would do in the course of their day and that's just how chris is living every day no one it would be the better subject of a reality show than Chris Ryan is just what I have to say. I'm going to zag on that one and say that Chris sits at home and watches TV every day. So that's not interesting. And that's fine. He's doing his job.

You know, that's a lot of criticism of my guy. But like Chris's personalized YouTube algorithm should be submitted to the Library of Congress. That I agree with. But then just like Chris trying to figure out how kitchen appliances work, you know? Sure. Yeah. You want more of like a Curb Your Enthusiasm style show with CR. Yeah, I get that.

I'm on board with that. I haven't learned a whole lot about myself, honestly. I'm pretty much the same guy I was 10 years ago. All right. That's psychotic. I feel okay about that. What's changed? Love movies?

Super into movies? There's a question here in the mailbag that had me thinking about what my movie life was before this was such a prominent part of my career, of our relationship, of all these other things that have changed. So some things have changed, I guess, in the day-to-day execution. But the way that I feel, even how I'm spending a lot of my time, it's pretty similar. day-to-day execution. But the way that I feel when I'm, even how I'm spending a lot of my time. Yeah. It's pretty similar. Pretty much the same. Yeah. The schedule is maybe different, but the. Yeah. I'm up earlier. The approach is. I'm in bed later. Yeah. No,

I'm in bed earlier as well. I have a child. Right. The show is getting weirder. I would say. Is there anywhere else for it to go? I don't I mean Can it get much weirder Do you think? I wonder I mean Jokingly I

In our outline here I asked How many more of these episodes Of this show will we make? Any guesses from either of you two? I've never been good at those Like guess how many jelly beans Are in the

Oh over under Yeah yeah No but like Also just in general Is that what this question is? How many people Are in the room? You no but like also just in general this question is how many people are in the room you could tell me it's like 20 you could tell me it's 2000 like i don't know you know we used to play that game on the price is right all the time yeah uh bob any how many guesses how many more we'll make of this podcast uh i hope enough to keep me going here at this

at this job you think this is all you've got? This is all that's keeping you going? This is all I do at The Ringer, yeah. I don't exist. I don't do anything else besides this. I don't know. 600 more. Can we get to 1,000?

I'm not leaving. Yeah. We could definitely get to 1,000. We do like 100 episodes a week. 100 a year-ish? Yeah. More like... Well, I'm being cryogenically frozen on march 12th 2027

okay so what is that date you just pulled it out of nowhere okay i didn't know if there was like a significant like mess thing or something it was the day jesus was born um that's christmas you asshole i don't not in my canonical texts i yeah so before i'm frozen okay because i i want future societies to understand my brain right do you think once you're unfrozen that you'll get back on the podcasting train probably yeah i'll just jump right back and tell you right you book my travel do you need do you need to freeze your brain for future societies to understand that or do you need to just download the archive of your letterboxd activity and send it to them? That would be a good start.

That's where they will begin whilst frozen. I have a question related to this, not necessarily how many more episodes will we make, but is there an event that you would be like, all right, it's time to wrap it up? Like, is there an event that could happen in the world where you'd be like, all right, we're good. We're good to go.

We don't need to make the big picture anymore. You mean like how Bill is saving pulp fiction on rewatchables exactly and then it's like martin scorsese burst through that door right now and was like sean and amanda you've done it you've canonized modern film you can retire yeah yeah i mean then i yes yeah that but that just makes us very uncomfortable even even thinking about it. Like, that's, I don't want that. No, I don't want that to happen. I don't think. I would quit for a different reason.

Do you think that that's the goal of the show, to canonize modern film? That actually might be a good summation of what we're trying to accomplish. I mean, no. Okay, what do you think we're trying to accomplish? Get people to see movies. Yeah, that's right. And to talk about movies. I agree.

And to keep an appreciation for movies as a cultural force alive because people don't seem to care as much as they do about their TV stories. Do you think it would be funny to just say we're only doing 750 episodes and so now as we count down, people will be like wait you never talked about blank it's episode 729 i watched rob harville go through this in real time he went from 60 songs that explain the 90s to 90 songs that explain the 90s to now 120 songs to explain the 90s i have been in the agonizing meeting with him and justin sales every time they're like so right we have an idea. 30 more songs. And I'm like, okay, that's not what it says on the label of the show, guys. What do you care? Well, who cares?

I think you're the only person to... I'm a man of formats. I'm a man of organization. Literally, they're just like, what if we made more good shows about songs that people like, that people will listen to on our never-ending content mill because honesty and integrity is what this company is built on okay you know and i'm trying to hold true to all of those ethical facets of our identity what do you think no i think it's okay built on being obsessive and never stopping talking so uh so 666 episodes that'll be the

last one we got 66 left. Okay. Any other thoughts before we dig into the mailbag? It is very sweet how many people listen to this show and how many people come to the events or respond to the mailbag or watch movies that they've never seen and maybe end up hating as a result of us yelling at each other. So thank you. How has your merch design been going?

Why don't we have merch? I don't know. Seriously. I don't know. Can you bring it up in one of your meetings? I probably could. Yeah, sure. I don't really care for merch.

I'm wearing a black t-shirt today. Do you think I wear a lot of merch? I actually did buy from Cult of Cults a Down by Law t-shirt that Jim Jarmusch movie and I was rocking that to tell you I felt good about that. I have a lot of Sofia Coppola merch.

Okay. And I wear that. Is that merch? No. That's just more lifestyle. Okay. But I've, you know,

I've started wearing hats mostly when I'm like walking my kid around. Yeah. We're going to do the best hats in movie history pod soon. So I would, no, I would just like,

if we had a merch hat, I would wear it. What's the number one, Indiana Jones. That's probably number one, right? Bogey, his hat.

Oppenheimer, recency bias, but he's rocking. Oh yeah. Oppenheimer. That's a good one. Yeah. What about some lady hats?

I mean, my fair lady, all those hats are fantastic. Gigi. Yeah.g yeah that's that's up there what else some good ones uh ilsa's definitely wearing a hat or two in casablanca oh definitely when she first comes into sam's yeah definitely those are good okay great we're done end of episode thanks guys appreciate you submitting questions nope i just want i'm pro Okay. I just want to say I'm pro merch. I wear a lot of ringer merch. You're not getting a cut of the merch,

Bob. All right. I'm wearing a blog boy t-shirt right now. I don't need a cut. It's fine. Those are good. That was, that was a,

that was a very special era. What about like tasteful merch? Tasteful merch. Yeah. You mean like a cravat? No, I just, no,

I just mean like something that's not bright green. Perhaps. Cufflinks would be green. No. Perhaps. Cufflinks would be awesome. Neutral colors. I want a cummerbund that says, we are so back. Neutral colors is what I had to say. Things that I wouldn't feel like a clown wearing in my life.

Unfortunately, I always feel like a clown. Yeah, well, that's on you. That's on me. An embroidered handkerchief that says, we are Johann Sebastian Bach. Let's see the mailbag. Okay. Bobby, how many... I read we got 78,000 questions from the mailbag.

Is that accurate? Yeah, 77,000 of them were about whether or not we're going to tour the United States doing live shows, but I didn't include any of them. Okay. We will. I mean, we're not going to tour the United States, but we will do more live include any of them. We will. I mean we're not going to tour the United States

but we will do more live shows. The three of us in a van? No we won't do that. Sean driving. Me asleep in the back. There's a new emphasis on live.

Me listening to the watch in the headphones. Yeah. I don't know. I mean we've done a couple of rewatchables recently. Obviously we had a great time

in London doing that. Yeah. Doing a show. You were able to do Friend of the Fest. You know Obviously, we had a great time in London doing that, doing a show. You were able to do Friend of the Fest. You know, we'll have to find a time, Bobby, to get you to Los Angeles so we can do something soon.

I don't, there's no formal plans, but we'll definitely do a few live episodes. I think it would be fun to do something in like a festival setting as well. We've discussed that

with a couple of organizers. So hopefully we can do some more stuff next year. So for those asking, thank you for asking. A lot of the Ringer shows, as I'm sure many listeners know are starting to get out in the world rassilo the nba show the nfl show people are you know the ringer fantasy football show just had a great live show in dc a couple weeks ago so it's part of the plan um but uh

i don't have any more information okay what's next the first real question comes from guillerme which uh is what is your comfort movie? You want to go first on this one? I have a whole list, but I think the pure answer is the film that I queued up in the hospital after my son was born and everyone else was asleep. And I was just like-

Rosemary's Baby? Yeah. I don't know. You know, and I was like facing both an extended hospital stay and the reality of, you know, suddenly being responsible for another human being's life. And I absolutely queued up the Devil Wears Prada. Oh, did I know that? I don't know, but that is, that was, I had a whole Amanda palette on the iPad, including A Few Good Men, Working Girl, Casablanca, Skyfall,

Ocean's Eleven. Okay. You know, like. Your safe spaces. The hits. Yeah, yeah. But I went to Devil Wears Prada. Interesting. Okay. I don't really have a comfort movie right now because I changed my lifestyle 10 years ago to trying to watch as many new things as possible. But I did definitely at a certain phase of my life i think most closely it was probably in college it was probably sophomore and junior year where you have that at least i had that dorm room lifestyle just like there's always a movie on all day long especially during the week when you're like doing your homework or like your friends are kind of milling about on the floor in your tower um but those movies were clerks the big lebowski boogie nights yeah the matrix like the bro starter

pack well also like deep college movies yeah and i was watching a lot of other kinds of movies at that time i was taking film classes i was going to the independent theater in ithaca i was seeing a lot of films but the movies that i think anchorman very quickly joined that list when that movie came out, those movies that, you know, became kind of like the bedrock of like a, you know, a letterbox generation to come. Yeah.

I was watching all the time and I was watching the commentaries of those movies over and over again. Fight Club was one of those movies. Of course, seven was one of those movies. Of course, the Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, but those movies even high school were like really go-tos for me me but I don't really have that anymore I don't have that thing where

I'm like I'm sad or I'm tired or I'm like when I feel that way I'm like I want to see something new so maybe that's I don't think that's psychotic is that psychotic I don't think it's psychotic sad what what do you do your ongoing um allergy to enjoyment and comfort is sort of like a well you don't really like wearing a t-shirt right now i feel tremendously comfortable on that on that plane you're very comfort in your joggers all the time thank you but they're sleek joggers you know they're fashion forwardgers, you know? Thank you, yeah. They're fashion forward. And see, you do mostly do monochrome, like, tasteful colors. So I don't know why you were making fun of me. I can't do beige because I'm so pale.

Yeah, I don't do beige either. That's okay. And then you just look like a pear. Do you read The Day the Crayons Quit to Alice? I do, yes. Okay. Have I told you about so this is a great children's book um bobby and it goes through all the crayons and each crayon color has an

objection to its uh its work life and i mean it's a great way of describing it it's it's really i mean it's very funny and they're all written in different ways but for whatever reason i read this to my son all the time and he's absolutely obsessed with beige crayon. Like, I don't know. And he turns to beige crayon and then, like, gives it a kiss. And I'm just like, of all the colors here. And the whole beige crayon's, like, whole shtick is just, like, I'm beige and no one loves me. And, like, no one uses me.

Aw. Anyway. Yeah, I guess, you know, Knox is just trying to include everyone. That's actually, that's nice. Yeah. So you're saying he's like a White Lives Matter kind of guy. All right, relax.

Okay. What is this energy you're bringing? I'm just having fun. I'm just trying to stay loose. Last episode it was like, we did this, we did this, we did this. You know what I did last night? Nothing.

I'm quarantining from my family. So I just sat alone in a room because my family's sick. So that's, I'm trying to mix it up. That would have been a great opportunity to have a comfort movie or something else to do to make yourself i watched a movie about a woman fighting an alien that i'd never seen before okay it was it's pretty fun we'll talk about it on a future episode of this show uh what's next in the mailbag the next question comes from hugh what's changed the most for independent filmmaking since you started the podcast?

In 2017, I wrote a big piece for The Ringer about independent filmmaking and how Netflix and Amazon had really hoovered it up at the festivals. This was back when they were on a big acquisition spree, trying to build up their library of films.

And I think that that piece was accurate at the time and has now the industry has shifted a lot i'm not gonna say independent filmmaking died because it didn't die it's still very much alive but it is it is imperiled for sure and it is simultaneously easier to make a movie but harder to sell a movie than ever and so i think like we've seen a lot of young filmmakers or independent filmmakers kind of get sucked up into the studio system, which has led to a lack of development of their craft and then get getting spit out or put in a movie jail or what have you. And so I think it has like really made it harder for that generation that is somewhere between 25 and 40 right now

to grow up in the movie world um and i think that's been pretty destructive um as far as actual independent cinema goes you know neon a24 ifc bleaker street these companies still exist they're still independent studios 24 is thriving yeah i mean they're borderline a major studio at this point they may not be capitalized that way but they are as successful a brand as there is in movies. They make merch. They do. They always have. Yeah.

Do they make merch for kids? I, in fact, bought a t-shirt with the fox from the Green Knight on it and gave it to my daughter, Alice, who loves foxes. Yeah. Foxes just fucking rule. They're so cool. You ever seen a fox in real life? I don't think so. Magical creature. I don't know. Fascinating, right? You're in on foxes, Bob? Extremely pro-fox. Yeah. Pro all canine family animals. Interesting. That's a good take. What do you think about independent film? I mean, you talk to, you speak to independent filmmakers like frequently for this podcast. I try.

I really try. You know, which is, I, which I respect, but is also a little bit, you know, they're still there and they're still willing to come on the podcast. And I think it's always been a sliver of the industry where it is like very difficult and then, um, and always changing and always like a little bit imperiled it seems a lot maybe not a lot easier but easier to see some of these movies if you don't live in new york and la then you then it was five or seven years ago or whenever we started the podcast so i guess that's like one positive thing but i'm not trying to be like a pollyanna right now i mean the world is falling down.

Yeah, you're right. Access is better because of streaming. Yeah. The thing that is sort of semi-related to this that I've noticed in LA is repertory theaters are huge right now. Yeah. I mean, you were just at the Arrow for the fest. I introduced the movie at Vidiot's a few weeks back. Sold out. Yeah, you did few weeks back. Sold out.

Yeah. You did a good job. Thank you. I went to three days at the Condor at the Arrow a couple weeks ago. Sold out. And these are like

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday night screenings. Yeah. And people, especially frankly people Bobby your age, a lot of people who I feel like

are in that 25 to 35 corridor are really interested in going out and checking out old movies in a movie theater. Some of that feels like a post-COVID, like I got interested in movies during covid and now i want to kind of experience them with crowds some of that is just the natural generational curiosity i i would likened it in a conversation i had with someone last week to when we were being told when

we were still living in new york that vinyl was back and we were there was a lot of like yeah record store day came back as a came came along as an idea and then there was this fetishization of this format and now where that has gotten to about 10 years later is if you go into target you can buy a harry styles or taylor swift record on vinyl now it's 39.99 to buy it but it is something that people want that younger people want and then younger people want. And then that leads to them also buying a Jimi Hendrix album or a Beastie Boys album

on vinyl. And then they get interested in that format in that way and experience the art in that way. I think it's pretty cool as a physical media fan. I feel like there's something

kind of sort of similar. Don't look now, but here's an optimistic take for me. People like going to the movies. Yeah. And it just might not be the same bad bullshit

that studios put out all the time i do also wonder if it's a little bit not like a response to streaming but we've redefined the way that we see movies at home that even movies are like accessible and and tv to some extent and are just our watching habits. And so the definition of like, what is an event versus what is, you know, just turning the thing on on a Tuesday night and whether you're going to see some new studio bullshit

or some good new studio film, or you're going to see The Talented Mr. Ripley or whatever movie from the 80s or 90s it's just classified of like am i watching this at home or am i making a night out of this in this you know in the same way that like you know the beyonce and the taylor swift tours have become like a whole anime like we're going out and it's like a big big night i'm building my whole calendar around this type thing.

So I think- Like me and the boys going to Vegas for U2 at the Sphere. Oh, yeah. Is that going? I think we've discussed it. Okay. Wow. I'm just going to spend some time sitting with that.

Anyway, when is that? October, November, December. So we'll be going every night for the entire residence. All right. We're just going to need to sidebar with some calendars there. Yeah. Anyway, so people think about leaving their home differently. I think you're absolutely right.

And I do think that streaming has had a meaningful impact on that. Bobby, what do you think? I definitely have observed what you're saying. Going to, even if it's not like explicitly rep theater one of my favorite theaters in New York is Village East which is on 2nd Avenue and I go there a lot I'm a member there and it's

owned by like Angelica so they do a lot of the same stuff too they do rep screenings there too and I'm like on a personal mission to see every Kubrick film projected on a big screen because I've never seen any of them projected before this. And so like I went to 2001 and the big theater that they have there,

like the big old style theater with the balcony and whatnot. And it was like legitimately sold out. And it's encouraging. And also I definitely resonate with what you're saying about, I just never leave my apartment now. I think a lot of people my age like work from home

and then at night they just decided to go from where they're working to their couch eight feet away. And it doesn't feel all that exciting to turn something on when you just did that the night before in the way that it does feel worthwhile to go see something that you just have never had the opportunity to have screened for you. it's like i i think that that is a huge piece of like younger people who are interested in movies the opportunity to go see old stuff it's it is still like not that easy to do in most places though right i think new york and la totally very different and chicago and a couple of austin a couple of other places way different like both business model and just consumption model from when Sean and I were growing up

and you just like went to the mall every weekend and in the summer and you saw whatever was going out. And that habitual like box office visitation was a cultural phenomenon, the same way that like watching NBC on Thursday nights was. You know, like everything has shifted, but we do read a lot of headlines about how theatrical and leaving your home is dead.

It's not dead. It's just different. It is different. It's possible for it to... The industry is not dead. Independent film is not dead. Repertory appreciation is definitely not dead, which we haven't even mentioned.

The Vista is going to open, and then that's going to be another piece of the puzzle here in Los Angeles. I think that it is very different. The Barbenheimer thing got me way more optimistic. Yeah. Because I think you nailed it when you compared it to Taylor Swift and Beyonce, that eventizing and not serializing is the way to go. Now, we've been through this 10-year period of serialization of movies.

And I think that we're done with that. I really think we're done with that. Now, I don't think the studios are done with it necessarily and they got to, you know, they got to make their numbers so they can have their stock price so their board is happy.

But serialization, people are tired of it. They want a standalone, exciting night. And I do too. So I hope that means more good movies. And I kind of think it will. No?

It's just an amazing energy from you. Okay. Of just like optimism, but also like I don't believe in happiness simultaneously. Well, multitudes. Okay. Multitudinous. That's me. What's next, Bobby?

Neil wants to know from the lifespan of episode one to now which movie star's trajectory is the most surprising okay so once again when are we starting episode one of the pod i believe was january of 2017 okay now you were not yet a part of the show on a permanent basis at that time that was just interviews i just i mean i can't i just need so... So 2017, 2018, 2019. Is that like, what are we... Yeah, let's start with January 1st, 2017.

Well, I can't remember that far back. So, okay. Six and a half years ago. Well, Sean, a lot has happened. Yeah. Including a lot of...

How's it? A lot of movies that you have made me watch. And... I never made you do anything. Well... And I don't like how you frame that. I'm Googling 2017 in film.

Okay. So we've got Star Wars The Last Jedi. Oh, sure. Yeah. We've got Wonder Woman, Thor, Ragnarok. Mm-hmm. These are just the top movies in 2017. In 2017, the Oscars.

It was Shape of Water year. Yeah. Lady Bird, Get Out. Yeah. The ceremony wasn't until 2018, but that was a good year. Let me just put a little context around that. That was actually, in hindsight, a very cool time for me to get the chance to launch the show. Yeah.

Because one of my first guests, my first few guests were Barry Jenkins, Jordan Peele, and Ezra Edelman for the OJ film. And that was a kind of, you know, I think Barry and Jordan rising in the culture. And that was the same year that was Lady Bird and Greta emerging as a filmmaker. That was, you know, Chazelle kind of coming. It was on that crop of people that we talk about now

as like the new generation. That was, you know, Chazelle kind of coming to his own. That crop of people that we talk about now is like the new generation. That was a good time. But movie stars is tricky because the old guard of 90s stars that we love was starting to recede from view around this time. They were taking on TV series

or they were not working at all. And what you could describe as the stars of that era, you know, you mentioned some of the Marvel movies at the top of the list that year, the Gal Gadots, the Chris Hemsworths, these people who in a different era would not have been confined to Cape and Cod.

You know, they would have been doing other things. And so I don't know what Chris Hemsworth's, his trajectory hasn't changed. He's still like a pretty interesting movie presence who mostly has to make movies that need to make 500 million dollars or

he's considered a failure. I don't know. I mean there's like been a couple of people like Saoirse Ronan has become a cool movie presence. Chalamet is also 2017

because it's Lady Bird and Call Me By Your Name. Margot Robbie closely after Wolf of Wall Street at that time has become huge. You know,

Emma Stone right in the aftermath of La La Land there has become pretty huge. There's not a ton though whose trajectories have radically changed.

I think, you know, Adam Driver was just then you know, in Star Wars after Girls and now is Enzo Ferrari. Yes, he is. Yes. But a lot of the people who I had big money on, like the Oscar Isaacs of the world, they didn't really pan out to be movie stars.

They're great actors, and they're people who I like to see in movies. That's harsh. Is Oscar Isaac a movie star? No. He got cut from our 35 over 35. He did? Yeah, I think so. So that's tough. Is Oscar Isaac a movie star? No. I mean, he got cut from our 35 over 35. He did? Yeah, I think so. So that's tough.

Yeah. Big fan of his. Me too. Very charming. So yeah, I don't know. It's been kind of a dead space for movie stars, which is we've been trying to keep it alive. It's sad. Do you observe anything, Bob, since you've been working on this?

Anybody who's had a radical shift? I mean, I think Chalamet would have been my answer for who is the most surprising I guess I don't wasn't really considering him to be all that serious of an actor or to be the kind of actor that would want to try to do like a big fantasy epic like Dune he's basically trying to be like everything for everyone which I don't think I wouldn't i wouldn't have expected that at the time i would have thought he would have been more like typecast into the smarmy the like smarmy lady bird role that he was in which i thought he did really well but he's so perfect he's great in that which he's shown a lot more range than i was expecting i guess i don't really know because i wasn't really in early on like the newer spider-man movie so i guess i would have been

surprised by how dominant and and massive Zendaya has become to the point where like you can't put a movie out without letting her promote it. But that's just because I think that she's just like slightly behind my generation. But I mean,

all the people that you... She's got a lot of pieces of the puzzle working in her favor though, right? Like Disney star to Marvel and HBO prestige drama simultaneously. Like almost nobody can pull that off.

And also just like fashion. Right. Like icon instantly. And an influencer as well. Yeah. That's a very, I mean, there's a reason she is widely considered kind of the future of entertainment. Okay. What's next? Next question comes from AJ.

When the big pick movie is ultimately made, who would you cast as young Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins and Bobby Wagner, as well as the current day versions of yourselves? Who would you cast? So I had a couple ideas for you, Sean, and one idea for Bobby, because I'm not going to cast like 12 year old you. I'm sorry. I also, you know, young Sean, I couldn't, no one under 30 can really capture your essence. You've always been at this age. So younger Sean, I'm going, Andrew Garfield. That's very, that's very nice.

And then current day, I like, and this is definitely influenced by the, this is definitely influenced by the killer. And it's also really flattering to you but Fassbender you know I'm in. Sold. But he has to wear

the bucket hat and the rag and bone jeans. I'm wearing a pair of rag and bone jeans right now. Feeling great. Feeling very comfortable. Oh, and then for Bobby

Barry Keoghan. Oh, yeah. That's really good. Isn't that good? I don't think I can top that yeah that's a win for me

do you think he can do an American accent or should I just pivot to speaking in an Irish accent he can do an we've seen him do an American accent was it in Eternals

that he did an American accent oh god I forgot I'm sorry I missed that one you guys know I haven't seen any I don't think he did actually I think it was in The Killing of a Sacred Deer is where he did

an American accent that's a chill movie you guys seen that movie recently no I haven't that he did actually. I think it was in The Killing of a Sacred Deer is where he did An American Accent. That's a chill movie. You guys seen that movie recently? No, I haven't. That's your comfort movie, right? You forgot to mention that one. We got it. Well, we're going to do a little Yorgos this winter.

So you might want to revisit, you know, get back into the lobster. I've got a few months. I loved the lobster. Lobster is great. Okay. How would I cast you guys? I'm sticking to Anne Hathaway for you.

I always say that. I do feel like of all the people on the board right now, she can most clearly capture your essence. I don't think Claire Foy is funny enough to do you. That's nice. You know what I mean? Like you're really funny. Oh, thank you.

So you got to have somebody who's got like the verve. And especially Anne post, what was the Apple TV series she did where she was incredible, but nobody liked it. Oh, we work. Oh, yeah. No, I never watched it. But she's iconic. Tissues on her face. Yeah.

And she like dressed up as an as a we crashed. Yeah. Oh, we crashed. Yeah. Yeah. She's incredible. And we. I mean, I'll take it.

I really thought you were going to go with. I really thought you were going to go with, I really thought you were going to say especially Anne Hathaway post the intern. Like, I thought that was coming. Well,

I mean, you know, there's some Amanda in New York in the intern, right? Yeah. You know.

A little bit. And now there's like a can I have it all Amanda? Sure. Which is, you know. here we are. It's also intern.

Also about that. Yeah. Who would you, who do you want to be? You want to be like, you want like Linda Evangelista? Like, what do you? Sure.

No, I would, I mean, of the four, I would want Christy Turlington. Oh, interesting. Because of Ed Burns? Well, also just Christy Turlington. Yeah. You know?

Yeah. I mean, Cindy Cross, they're all extremely beautiful. I don't really feel that. I watched the trailer for this documentary today. For the docuseries? Yeah.

For the supermodels. Is it a docuseries? Yeah, there are four episodes. What do you want from me a movie okay well i didn't make it or have anything to do with it come on man jesus anyway i just no one else can be naomi campbell but naomi campbell yeah um i don't feel that i have like the the glamour side of the the or the sexy side of, to do Cindy Crawford. Though, did you read that in addition to Diplo and Chris Rock hiking out of...

Yeah, Kaya and Cindy? No, no, no, no. Cindy and Austin Butler. What? I don't know. Those were the four people that I read. Wait, but I thought Cindy and Kaya Gerber

and Austin Butler. Was it all of them together? I think so. The report that I read was just Diplo, Chris Rock, Cindy and Austin Butler, which is even funnier to me. Spending time together? They like all were on the truck. They all hiked out of Burning Man or whatever. And then, you know, hitchhiked.

You were the founder of Burning Man. How do you feel about all this? Well, you know, you win some, you lose some. Interesting. You can't. Can't predict the weather. Yeah. I think,

Bob, a person I thought of for you is, I need Lewis Pullman, but he needs to be on your bulking diet. Like, I need him to gain 30 pounds. Bob from Top Gun Maverick,

who I just saw in this movie, The Starling Girl. Oh, that's good. That is good because like you gotta be able to pull off the glasses and if you can't pull off

the glasses then I don't then I don't think can Barry Keoghan wear glasses yes he can and I the bulking also

was a part of the the physicality was a part of my calculations but yeah like Barry plus glasses I feel like and this Petco park hat brings the Bobby you know energy that we need I've been thinking about. And this Petco park hat brings the Bobby, you know, energy that we need.

I've been thinking about getting rid of the glasses recently and switching to contacts. What do you guys think? I did that when I turned 30. When I turned 30, I got rid of my glasses. I'm just getting tired of putting them on every day. It's like kind of numb with you. How bad is your vision? Or how good is your vision?

Pretty bad. Like I'm not allowed to like drive without them. Like I can't really read signs. Do you know like what your prescription is? I don't. maybe you don't want to give out that medical advice on this podcast anyway I can't negative three and a half or something okay so so I'm like negative seven negative seven and a half I like really can't see and I find that I just see a lot better with contacts like the glasses aren't providing enough like you know peripheral and more or less agree with that yeah

as somebody and i did make that jump for the exact reason that you're describing and you know what i feel great about it yeah all right good well that's something to consider for who you're casting me as then okay uh i think those are fine answers yeah i'll take it okay what's next gus wants to know uh biopics are all the rage these days who's a historical figure that each of you would like to see portrayed on film i don't like biopics i really like them and i have two i've answered this question before but i had two absolutely dynamite ideas so i'm just resurfacing them until someone gets in touch with me um i mean the first one someone gets in touch with you yeah like from the estate of the person you're suggesting or from a movie studio or both all All of the above. Okay. You know?

Okay. It's just, let's have a dialogue. Your answers were Donald Trump and Adolf Hitler. Okay. Well, the first one, like, will never happen because of music licensing. Okay. But I, and especially now that I have seen Maestro, I would like Bradley Cooper to make the Fleetwood Mac rumors biopic.

Just, like, do it. Yeah. It's a good idea. It's a really good idea. I know it'll never happen, but it's a really good idea. I feel like that show kind of obviated it a little bit. No, it didn't. Okay.

We can have multiple versions of a thing that I enjoy. You know? We don't only have to do it once. Like Armageddon and Deep Impact? Yeah. Should they come out at the same time? Exactly. Okay. It's like, whatever whatever we can make two music shows I had a great time watching Daisy Jones and the Six

okay they're all okay they're very beautiful though yeah um it looks good it looks really good and they spent money on like settings and costumes and people looking hot and it just is that's another thing we could do is spend more money on that more often i think they should just recast riley keough as stevie anyway yeah i would welcome that of course so i don't know i think we should make that one and then the other one that is like a really genuinely good idea for a movie it's like very niche amanda but whatever okay agatha christie the novelist there's a famous thing about her where she like went missing for like three weeks yeah and it was like covered at the time there was a movie about

this we talked about this yeah well okay it's like and there are theories about like what happened and when she was found she was found like at a hotel under the name of her husband's mistress it's just whatever so it's like a moment in time biopic and Joanna Hong needs to write it and Carey Mulligan should star.

So this movie exists. Okay. It exists in a major way but it's a forgotten movie. So I think we should watch this movie and talk about it on the show.

Okay. What is it? Here's the deal. Agatha is a 1979 British drama thriller directed by Michael Apted, well-known filmmaker, starring Vanessa Redgrave,

Dustin Hoffman, and Timothy Dalton. It was written by Kathleen Tine and the film focuses on renowned crime writer Agatha Christie's famous 11-day disappearance in 1926. Okay. We can do it again. It was shot by Vittorio Storaro. Right.

Well, I've never seen it. I haven't seen it either. We can do it again. Okay. Well, we got it. We're talking Agatha soon. Maybe we should watch it like this week before talking about Haunting in Venice. Okay.

Great. I will. Are you in? Sure. I'd love to. Did Agatha Christie disappear because a ghost took her away that's the question probably is that what haunting is based on yeah no you can say i mean who can say yeah the ghostly spirits um i don't someone should do a movie about robert j oppenheimer i think okay good idea that would

be a good movie right he had an interesting life I thought it was J. Robert Oppenheimer. Oh yeah. Are you mixing that up? I'm just a different guy I'm talking about. You just saw the movie three times. No Robert J. Oppenheimer

I bought bagels from that guy. Has Zach told you about his new goal for me which is just like at some point in my life to be described

somehow as the American Prometheus of something. He just thinks that's like a really funny thing and he's like it would just be really funny to me if you did something in your life

where then you could like be described as American Prometheus. It was not like a good thing. No, but he's American Prometheus because Prometheus gave the world fire. I understand. But like J. Robert Oppenheimer is the American Prometheus.

It's not the American Prometheus of like crocheting. It's not like that. It's not the American Prometheus of like crocheting. It's not like that. It's not replacing the phrase greatest of all time. Right. So you want to be the second American Prometheus. Zach wants me to be. He just thinks it's really funny. But then you have to develop cold fusion in order to do.

So are you working on that? I'm not 40 yet. So I love a goal setting. There we go. Wonderful. Okay. I feel like you could aptly be described as the American Prometheus of the Ringer Podcast Network. Thank you.

Bringing fire, bringing flames. Thanks so much, Bobby. Dividing, but bringing back together. It's like a really funny name for a book. It's accurate, but also funny. Sure, I guess. It feels appropriate. I don't really have a biopic idea.

I just don't think they're really a good idea. Uh, and for the most part, conventionally made biopics, I find to be the most boring kinds of movies. Um, I have an answer for this. Okay. It's Kurt Flood. The guy who brought free agency to American sports. Look at you.

This union drum. Wow. Bobby. Well, there's like like no not really much pop culture representation of him i think people outside of the baseball world don't even know that he exists they just think like jackie robinson integrated baseball and then everything has been hunky-dory since then but there was like a lot of serious fights going on in the 1960s and 70s it's a cool backdrop for this kurt fault is a really interesting guy i think he had a really interesting life and like relationship to the sport after all of this

kind of ruined his career so I think it would be I don't know who would play him necessarily kind of depends on who wants to make the film and how they want to make it whether it's

like more of a sports biopic or whether it's more of like the courtroom aspect of it but I think it would make for a good biopic what about Lakeith Stanfield

I'd be into it I like Lakeith he's one of my faves. I feel like Lakeith, even from an age perspective, is kind of in a nice little sweet spot where he could credibly play Curt Flood. It's a good idea. I have one more.

Okay. I would like a good Princess Diana biopic. Okay. You know what? I would like a pony. Sorry for answering the question. For having ideas. I can pass on questions and also subtreating pablo lorraine um not for the first time this season oh we didn't even talk about el conde yeah

we didn't okay we'll talk about it later it looked very pretty el conde yeah shot by the extraordinary ed lackman yeah one of the great cinematographers i thought it looked amazing okay what's next question josh asks you're having a dinner party and can invite three guests one actor one director and one writer can be living or dead who are you picking and why god you do you have sure why do i always have to go first uh i don't know okay you want me to go first yes i, I do. Okay. As previously stated. The writer would be, this is like a cheat because what I want to do is I want to have like a certain kind of person that I just want to tell me things, like what they think about things. Like I don't want to like converse.

Okay. I want to watch them talk. So. Once again, you're just an absolutely deranged person. But continue. Well, like when I host, I don't want to dominate. You know, that's definitely not true. Based on all experiences of you hosting or being in social situations. Yeah. Well, the Long Island turns on.

You're just like, hey, how are you? What? Is that true? No, I think that you're a gracious host. Okay. I want to recede. And a fun. No, no I think that you're a gracious host okay I try to I want to recede and a fun no no one wants that

okay I would I would want to be in the room for Patty Chayefsky mm-hmm I that is the writer

I think who got me excited about the possibilities of good writing in movies the cheat is that I would want Preston Sturgis to be the director because it's also

a writer whose mind i'm interested in i'm a little stumped on the actor actress because why don't another bro is not a good idea in the mix right you definitely want to have a woman i really would want to witness barbara stanwick in Sure. You know, I would want to see her do her thing because there are as many fun stories about her off set as there are on set.

So I'll go with Barbara Stanwyck. Okay. What do you got? That's a good one. My three are living. Okay. Oh, wow.

And also a cheat. So you want to make this happen? Yeah. I just did Here's What I Want to Happen and the answers are Kirsten Dunst,

Sofia Coppola as writer and Francis Ford Coppola. Well, let's try to make it happen. Let's do it. Yeah. How much fun would that be? Yeah. What would the invite say?

You were cordially invited to get murdered in my murder chamber because I want to wear you as a skin suit. What does your invite say? I would like for you to come sit in front of a one-way mirror or a two-way mirror and answer a series of questions. Here's what it would say. It would say, dearest bros, I want to spend time with your brains, and if your bodies have to come, so be it. Well, that's way more inviting than mine. I don't know.

Come hang out and let's talk about cool shit. Confronted by Kirsten Dunst. Yeah. Across the table. Oh my God. You say what? I don't know. I'm really nervous.

I mean, that is the main thing is that I would actually, I would freak out. You've met Sophia. She was very nice. She was very nice. That's why actually having francis there helps because he is the talker of all talkers he's a proud dad what blue guy blue guy

exactly so he is going to have a lot of anecdotes he's very interested in sophia's work he'll just like talk forever he'll make it uh more comfortable and. He'll just like talk forever. He'll make it more comfortable. And then I can just like talk about girl stuff with Sophia. Okay. And girl stuff. I don't know. The things that girls are interested in. What, boys you like?

No, just, you know, like the whole half of the world that is about things that are interesting to me and them and not you. I got Sophia's book. You guys will pass the Bechdel test in real time. Yeah. That's. Again, it's important to set goals, you know, for the second half of your life.

I got Sophia's book. Okay. What's in there? A lot of photos from the sets of all of the movies. Is her writing in it as well? Yeah.

Well, she, I mean, so the intro is a conversation with Lynn Hirschberg. She really likes that 2003 piece by Lynn Hirshberg about her. And she says in the book, this was like, it meant a lot to me and was very important in changing how people thought of me. In the book, does she explain the inner workings of International Immobilare and the finer points of Godfather III? No, she does not. You know what?

It starts with virgin suicides. I see. All right. Well, fair enough. Okay. What's the next question? You're so rude. My answer to this

would have been Gary Oldman, David Fincher, and Herman J. Mankiewicz. You know, we just reenact. Hell yeah. That's pretty good. Yeah.

I mean, just Mank alone. Just me and Mank, you know, drinking brandy. Chatting it out. Yeah, I would enjoy that. That guy fucking loves alcohol. Mank alone. Just me and Mank, you know? Drinking brandy. Chatting it out. Yeah, I would enjoy that. Guy fucking loves alcohol.

Mank, God. Remember when they had to deliver that alcohol to him so that he could get cranking? That was awesome. Love that movie. Next question comes from Max. Has Letterboxd changed how you watch movies at all? As much as I wish I didn't, I do often find myself thinking how I want to log a movie midway through instead of just being in the moment well you punt

it on letterbox upon logging movies on letterbox yeah but bob is now doing it and he wasn't doing it before um i don't usually rate movies right away because i want to save it for the pod so i remember pretty like shortly after a movie's over that I should log it. It's like part of the habit of watching the movie now for me, but I don't, it doesn't really affect how I watch a movie. Um, occasionally I'll see something and be like, I want to write about that, but very rarely. And so I wouldn't say it has impacted. It's, it's just nice to have an additional tool to organize, especially the like lists stuff that we do on the show that's why that that's the real primary purpose it's very useful and i even i do have a letterbox account

that i never use and while i was in venice i did log on to see what other people who had just seen it were thinking because that you know i my instinct when i finish a movie is like i would like to talk to someone else about this. And I would like to know what other people think and then like vehemently disagree with them, probably. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So Letterboxd doesn't really change that. But I don't have that, let me assign, you know, like a... A grade to this now?

Well, if I do, it's according to my own whims and metrics as opposed to like a longstanding project to like catalog the world. I don't have an archivist's mentality like you do. And that I think explains why the Letterboxd stuff doesn't, it just felt like extra homework to me. You know what I do like though? This is, I think this is a cool little feature of it that I'm not sure people are aware of. Obviously it's, I think it's more useful for older films, especially older films that are more obscure to me. And so once I've seen it, I have my opinion, but I know I don't have to share it, which is wonderful. And then I can go see what other people said. And especially contemporaneous critics, they're now starting

to upload Pauline Kael's review history is now not in full, but a lot of her reviews are on Letterboxd under a fake account. Dave Kerr the longtime Chicago reader critic who's like one of the best critics of all time a lot of his reviews are up there. There are a handful

of people who you know long term you want to see Ebert's reviews on there. You'd like to see like obviously that would threaten

RogerEbert.com and I understand that but it would be exciting for there to be a kind of you know repository for all the great writers and thinkers about film so that when you see something for the first time you can use that as a contextual space um but i don't know i mean bobby you're like on missions now to see a lot of like great movies for the first time i feel like so is it yeah when

you do that how is it impacting you i only ever like to the to the direct and directly answer this question i only ever find myself thinking about logging the film during it if the film is bad so it's like usually an indicator to me that i'm not enjoying the film all that much if like if i want to upload my review and just be done with it like 30 minutes before the movie's over i'm like i didn't really respond to this movie very much i don't really have that problem if it grips me i i mean obviously the number one thing that i like about letterbox is just seeing what other people who i like and respect have thought about it when they've seen it in the past like i i adore going to a movie and just reading like uh all of my friends reviews of it or like all of the critics who i like like every time i log on there i I find, I also find it funny how you develop like similar tastes with people who you

didn't know that you had similar tastes with. So every time I go to log a movie and I see that David Sims has given it the exact same rating as me, I'm like, David, we have a very similar taste in film. And I think that that is an additive experience to the, to watching a movie.

So especially old movies, it's community building, but not for you. No, no, no. I understand that part of it i just get stressed out by the just it's a lot of data entry you know that's i'm

trying to do less data entry okay in my life fair enough um bobby you skipped a question that i want you to answer it's one for you um this person asked kp asked uh how often do movies get spoiled for me uh due to sean and am Amanda talking about them on the pod? Like every week, every single week for the last five years. There have been maybe like 10 movies that weren't spoiled. But that's, you know, part of the job. There were a couple where we tried to schedule it, right? So that you wouldn't have it.

I'm trying to remember what they were Mission Impossible you just came and saw when you were in LA that was fun when I've seen when I've seen like

screenings of stuff those are the movies that don't get spoiled a lot of award films don't get spoiled because they screen those for the guilds and I'm a member

of the writers guild so I can go see those in advance too but for just like regular press cycle movies I'm not invited or like able to see as many of those press screenings so a lot of like the new release movies yeah what was the spoiler that was the biggest bummer that's a good question um i'm not really that bothered by spoilers because like if the movie is good it's gonna

work anyway so weirdly the one that comes to mind is when and maybe this is the nature of the podcast more than the nature of the movie is when uh mallory came on for avengers endgame at like three days before i went and saw that movie and literally just recounted the plot like line by line i was gonna make a joke about that but it turned out to be true i was gonna say when iron man died and it was when iron man died that was what bummed you out the most i mean yeah remember a time when it felt exciting but it turned out to be true. I was going to say when Iron Man died and it was when Iron Man died that was what bummed you out the most. I mean, yeah.

Remember a time when it felt exciting to go see a Marvel movie not knowing it was going to happen? That was wonderful. And I'm not, I mean, you guys know that that was the last Marvel movie I saw so I'm not even a big

Marvel movie person. Did we spoil, um, here's, did we spoil In No Time to Die for you? The last James Bond movie? Uh, yeah. Yeah.

But that's okay. I'm not the biggest James Bond fan. I feel like no one cared that that happened. No one cared. Right? Does anybody believe it? No, I think some like

really old people cared. Old people? Have you been speaking with old people about the ending of No Time to Die? I just feel like there was like a, you know,

geriatric Bond contingent. Like a how dare you? Yes. Yeah. How dare you remove this fictional character from dare you? Yes. Yeah. How dare you? Yeah. Remove this fictional character from my imagination.

Yeah. No, it's fine. That movie was okay. It was okay. Skyfall was great. So good. Casino Royale, big fan. Love them very much.

Quantum of Solace? No. No, it's not good. Not good. Is it just me or have like some of the biggest movie directors been putting out kind of unspoilable movies for the last five years since we've been doing this show? Like PTA, like Licorice Pizza, kind of unspoilable. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, not really anything to spoil in there. Like a lot of just like sit in and hang out.

There is a little bit. Some decisions that are made that you wouldn't want to know about beforehand. beforehand yeah but i guess like if you're thinking about spoilers in the context of the last 20 years of movies where it's like oh my god don't tell me who dies or don't tell me who becomes the king things like that yeah those those our favorite filmmakers don't make movies like that so we don't really have to worry about it too much but that being said we do like mission impossible for example i wouldn't want that some movie like that spoiled for me right we try to put some fencing around it in our conversations um I don't like stuff getting spoiled I reread Killers of the Flower Moon because I was overhearing people talking about it recently and I was like I want to actually feel like if I'm spoiling it I'm spoiling it for myself and I don't want somebody to tell me what's in the movie did you heard

people talking about it at Telluride or yeah a lot of talking about it at Telluride? I did. Yeah. A lot of talk about it at Telluride. I can't wait to talk about it on the show. Can't wait to see it. I'm purposefully not reading it. So I will be unspoilered. And I don't like talking to people at places. It's a tremendous book. So, I mean, I would like to read it after I see it, but.

Yeah. I'm still going through it the second time. It's like the, you don't, when you're reading a book like that, you're very focused on, Grant is very good at the like propulsion of the story, but he's just such an amazing prose stylist. It's very rare. Like a lot of nonfiction books like that are not usually not very well written. He's such a brilliant writer.

So I'm, I'm so pumped for the movie. I've decided I'm treating that movie like a marathon runner treats the race day. You know, like everything is building towards it. And then I'm going to peak on that day. The second I sit down for that movie. Well, well maybe not the second because it's three and a half hours long well that's you know you know well you don't peak at the first 10 seconds of the race either i'm saying i'm gonna be ready to rock yes that's how you fail that's how you lose true you know i'm building towards it though run a race of any kind? With my feet?

Yeah. Like, have you ever participated in any sort of... No, have you ever been in an F1 race? Yes. Have you ever run a race? I don't think so. Like, no, you know, turkey trot on Thanksgiving. You mean, like, at the Olympics? No, I mean, like, in any community anywhere.

I'm sure that as a kid, I ran races, like, in the street with friends okay but my siblings all right that doesn't really count i'm at like you know like an organized right have i ever been judged by the ioc is what you want to know no did you ever have to put one of those pieces of paper with a number across your chest so that they would officially clock your time never awareness never okay i'm a very good, I'm not a very fast runner. Right. Speed was never my skill. Okay. Hand-eye coordination was my skill. They have long ones, you know. They have long races. Yes, where it doesn't have to be about speed.

You still have to come in first, right? I mean, when you're just doing a 5k or a 10k for the hell of it, you're not going to come in first. No, I mean, honestly, since I got to know you, I thought, wow, like that is the majesty of it you're not gonna know i mean honestly since i got to know you i thought wow like that is the majesty of long distance running she really encapsulates everything in that art form and so i'm not even gonna try to attempt that's really beautiful um i don't think i've ever seen you run though i know you are a runner yeah well i i it's not something i like to do with other people you You know, there are some couples that exercise together. And I, like, know that is my time.

That is not time for anyone else. Like a Whiplash-style movie about you running. That would be good. I would watch that. I have run. I will run with my dad. I have run several. There's a big road race in Atlanta every year called the Peachtree Road Race on the 4th of July. It's like 40,000 people down Peachtree Street in Atlanta.

Oh, cool. Yeah, it's very cool. So I've run that with my dad a few times. I've run two marathons with my dad. Full marathons. Full marathons, yeah. But that's like when I was in my 20s. I'd like to do, I would like to do.

You're not in your 20s anymore? Yeah, well, only technically. Okay. I would like to do the New York Marathon at some point. Okay. But I have to get the number. It's a whole thing. Get the number?

Yeah. It's hard to register for that because so many people want to run it that there's sort of a lottery system to actually get that number that you pin on yourself. Can you leverage your world famous podcaster status to get into the New York City Marathon? You actually probably could. A lot of people do it through their companies and like it's like a donation thing. Like if you donate to a local charity, then you get more spots. You can do it through charity, which is something that I have considered doing. I've got Daniel Ek on the line.

Daniel, Amanda wants to run the New York City Marathon. Will you sponsor her? But you know who does run marathons all the time is David Lara. He is a boss. He qualifies for Boston. Like that is, he is not messing around. David is a no joke marathon runner.

Yeah. He was at the New York City, he was at the New York City marathon last year and I went to cheer him on. Yeah. It was a real nice moment. I like,

it's some real amateur stuff for me, but he is serious business. So respect to him. When you were running, what animal do you resemble? I can't see myself. You've not watched a video of yourself running?

No, I'm not like Zach taking a bunch of videos of his golf swing and then analyzing them. Next time you're getting ready for a eight plus mile run, you call me. Okay. I'll drive alongside you while you're running and film the entire thing. That sounds really great. And then we'll sit together and we'll analyze the footage and we'll talk of Animal Kingdom. Okay. That sounds really soothing.

And like definitely how I want to spend my time. I'm not really sure why you're giving our Patreon ideas away for a far off future. Sorry. Sorry, sorry. We should probably go to another question.

Okay. Sydney asked, for Amanda, when adapting a book into a movie, what are three key things you look for to determine if it was a good adaptation does being a good adaptation come at the sacrifice of being a good movie this is a great question i think it varies a little bit for adapting non-fiction versus i think for non-fiction um you just want it to be a well-reported good story you know um and like

and and hopefully that the the story is true and that the hero of your um movie if you're making a movie about a hero like doesn't turn out to be a criminal um or a liar you know i see what are you referring to nothing in particular i just that seems to happen a fair amount fiction fiction is a lot tougher um and i i this part of the question it's whether a good movie can also be a or a good adaptation can also be a good movie like is i think wise you know i like it's probably easier to adapt a bad fiction novel um with a good plot but you know without kind of the finesse or writing style or the more the novel is like a great literary novel the harder that is to translate it into into film for perspective for

you know world atmosphere all those sorts of things. I don't know. So maybe the first question, maybe the first characteristic, is it a bad book? Because that might help. That's a really smart way of framing it. I think that's right. I do think that the great works of literature often make for bad movies. There's probably a variety of reasons for that, some of which you just cited. I think just the idea of a book really resonating with someone because you build the world inside your own head

is the biggest challenge. You know? And if I'm being really honest, I much prefer truly original storytelling in movies for this reason. Not that having a source text makes a movie worse,

but when I know that someone has sat down and said, even if I'm inspired by great works or I'm riffing on something, that this new that that gets me most excited I think to bring it back to adaptation I would agree with you which is why I think the less faithful an adaptation is it's often the better because someone is saying okay I have sat with this piece of work. It has stemmed like something in my brain, but I'm not trying to recreate things scene for scene and person to, you know, to satisfy a fan base or to satisfy like my own idea in my head that might not be totally realizable on film.

You have to make changes you have to kind of like wild out a little for it to be a good movie anyway well it's an interesting time for that because we were talking about this a little bit earlier this week about the films that are at the fall festivals this year and that are going to be in the awards race and a bunch of them are adaptations but they're a bit skewed from the adaptations. Zone of Interest and All of Us Strangers are based on novels, acclaimed novels, that take very different approaches from the source material to your point. Now, the Zone of Interest is,

I don't know if it's a beloved novel, but it's a critically acclaimed Martin Amis book, but the movie is very different from the book. Conversely, The Bike Riders is based on a book of photographs with some interviews in them and then he jeff nichols just imagined a world like imagined a world of story from these images that's a different kind of adaptation that i think is kind of cool you know that falls in a different realm the killer is an adaptation of a graphic novel right so you literally have a visual representation

and how closely do you want to follow that representation? So there's a lot of different ways to do it. And it's not just adapting A Tale of Two Cities. You know, it's like there are a lot of source texts. And there are ways also to adapt A Tale of Two Cities. I was thinking a lot about Greta Gerwig's Little Women, which is faithful in plot and characters to little women, but has its own interpretation of what that book is about and about women, like artists and money and how to be a young woman in the world. That is, I guess, there in the book, but it's not how I read Little Women when I was eight. I read it as a cozy story about four sisters who like, you know, wrote a newspaper and,

and loved each other. Well, that's the other thing is context is when a movie, when a story is being adapted matters there, it was the right time for a little women movie about agency, independence, like a lot of the themes that are kind of critical to Greta's movies. It felt like it was a good time for maybe even a better time than when it

was adapted in 1993. You know, like they might've made more sense. Maybe not. I don than when it was adapted in 1993. Right. You know, like, it might have made more sense. Maybe not. I don't know. I'm speculating. They're doing different things. But I think that Greta Gerwig's Little Women is a better movie.

And also still a pretty good adaptation. But maybe the original feels closer to what a child thinks of when they read Little Women. So, I don't know. It's tricky. Okay. What's next, Bobby? Daniel asks, what is your favorite on-screen couple chemistry?

Who do you want to reunite most for another movie together? How do we get Bogie and Bacall back? Holograms? I don't think you want the answer to that. CGI? Yeah. CGI Bogie? Yeah, no thank you.

I would want to see Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone now. Yes. That's a really good one. Like at 40. Yeah. You know, not at 28. I want to see them

and what their thing is now. And they don't have to be in love, but they have to be something. Because they've... Here's a way of thinking about it. They've both gotten better they're both better actors and the parts that they had i think i'm not in love with either of those movies that they were in together i like them la la land and crazy stupid love but they

can be in a better movie they can be in a deeper movie i agree with you that's a fun one so that was what sprang to mind when i thought of this i I mean, I love like William Powell and Myrna Loy. And, you know, there's a lot of old on-screen couples. Sure, yeah. I had George Clooney and Brad Pitt. Which, happily enough, they are getting back together. So we'll see

how it goes. Is it like a bank robbing movie? What is it? There is a heist. There is some sort of thievery element to it. are they hitmen isn't everyone the hitman all their age yeah so

people were asking us why didn't you talk about hitman because I couldn't see it because it debuted like literally right after I left

I can't wait they just they really string it out at Venice you know that's annoying hitman I'm pumped I tried my best

I asked for a pre-screening I did everything I could what did they say when you asked did they say when you asked? Did they say, fuck off?

No, they said, like, we're really sorry. Okay. Dearest Amanda, get fucked. Sincerely, the producers of Hitman. They're very kind about it. But listen, I agree. I'm bummed. Okay.

What's next, Bobby? Brian asks, the Ringer Fantasy Football Show recently did their Take Purge episode. What movie-related takes do you both have that you want to get off your chest with no consequences or judgment? For people who don't know, the Ringer Fantasy Football Show does this once per year, usually before the season, I think, where for 60 straight minutes, they do a Take Purge where they share takes that they only kind of halfway believe and don't want to be judged for. I don't really believe in this. I think that this is an amazing episode of that podcast. It's really good for what they do, but is anyone under the impression that I'm holding takes back? Yeah. Like I just, you are not there. They're, they're, they're all available. Half hearted, full throated, whatever. I'm just letting it be honest on this show. Um, every once in a

while it's like, Oh, I know that person. And person and then then it's complicated but that's rare and so I don't really think I think it's probably fun to do Joanna and I did a really half-hearted version of it when you were on leave about

the Oscars and so I think that there's a way to do it like a week before the Oscars where you're like here are some things that I just want to say out loud about the

race right but about the actual movies like I'm giving some things that I just want to say out loud about the race. Right. But about the actual movies, like, I'm giving my honest opinion. I mostly am. Tell me one time when you were even 10% dishonest. No, they're just, their realist version is sometimes like. Oh, meaner. Meaner is sometimes like saved for you off mic. Yeah.

But I'm not going to do it on mic. You know, I'm trying to be a better person you thought work really hard um director bong's vision of class and parasite was fraudulent is that right you can say it now now is the time yeah that's let it loose yeah scorsese it's all a sham he's been propped up by his collaborators for decades i love marty don't say that okay yeah i don't really i don't have anything I need to get off my chest. Most of my like hard takes are about the state of the industry and people don't seem

to like those anyway. Okay. So, I don't know. And you're very positive on this episode. You're feeling good. I'm feeling great. Yeah, I'm feeling really good.

Okay. What's next? Devin asks, if you could go back in time and be on the set of one production for one day, what movie would it be and which scene would you want to see them film?

Boogie Nights. What scene? I'm not answering that. No, I want to. I mean, you know, obviously I would like to watch young Paul Thomas Anderson direct. I think that that would be exciting. The pool sequence in particular, I think, at the beginning of the film to see how he did that

would be exciting. But I also would want to see Wahlberg and Burt Reynolds going toe-to-toe and fighting that day. I think that's a legendary story. And then Burt turning his energy towards Paul

and them really having a showdown I think would be interesting. And I love that movie, so just getting a chance to see it. But I don't really like, my reaction to this question was not like I'd love to see Orson

on the set of Citizen Kane having Greg Toland frame the camera in just this way you know you were like doing a movie phone

of your own movie phone voice like what was that this is my I am the narrator of a yeah TCM series about the history and then Orson said

very gently to his cinematographer turn the camera to the left it's just you being peter bogdanovich um my answer is a tcm answer which is singing in the rain yeah that'd be fun and i my answer would be like the singing in the rain scene from singing in the rain except for gene kelly famously had a fever um so that just seems like that would be a bummer and pretty stressed out no no it's not that i don't want to get the fever i'm not crazy like you are it just seems like gene was like probably struggling through it is gene kelly anti-vax okay yes or no

so i just it didn't seem like it it seemed like it would be a tense environment, which is like not what I'm looking for if I'm going to the set of Singing in the Rain. Even though I do understand that like all of filming all of those musical numbers would like involve a lot of like blisters and, you know, and stress. But if I can't do actual Singing in the Rain, I think I'd do Good Morning. That would be fun that's great that's a confined space yeah for that one yeah Debbie Reynolds you think she would have been a barstool smoke show okay dude what what is going on with you right now I'm just I'm just airing it out gotta get loose I've been very isolated very isolated from the world so I'm just having a good time

what's next for the record I would like to be on set for the hug at the end of Top Gun the original Top Gun oh yeah

you could be my wingman anytime you wanna be the meat in that sandwich I would like to hug both of those people be hugged by them simultaneously

that would be nice next question is from Matt. Would love to hear more about how you fit movie watching into your lives as parents. Outside of work hours, of course. How do you balance it with kids and family? Sean? It's pretty hard. It's pretty hard.

I do my best. I think screenings are really challenging because they're every night basically at 7 PM and we live on the East side of the city. A lot of them are on the West side of the city. So every time we have to go to a movie and I'm at probably two movies a week at night, roughly, um, that means I have to leave the house at six o'clock. And my child doesn't go to bed really till eight o'clock. Right.

So that means every time I'm going out, my wife is taking care of her. Right. And that's a burden on her. And that's not ideal. It's also, when you factor in the driving, about a five-hour commitment. That's right.

It's a big-time commitment. And one, I love to see movies on the big screen, especially new releases, so that I can really understand the intention of the filmmakers. But it's so much more convenient to get a link. And so it is this conundrum, because if I get a link, I can actually watch two movies that night, or I can wait until 8.30 p.m. after my child's gone to bed, and I can participate in that. So, I mean, these are very particular concerns at this very particular point of our life. This won't seem so dramatic when our kid is seven as opposed to two, but it is a real juggling act

and I'm a voracious consumer, as everyone knows. So I want to see multiple movies in a day sometimes. And it's not easy. And I'm not even primary caregiver. So how is it for you? I'm not as psychotic about seeing eight movies in a day as you are. I mean, the other thing you didn't mention is that you have probably cut off that third movie at 1.30 a.m. I have.

That used to be a staple. That's gone. And it would be alarming. You'd show up to the studio and be like, well, then I stayed up and decided to watch two more things. And I was like, well, I need sleep. Yeah. You're right, though. I did lose that lose that yeah so i have the same thing i i don't go to as many screenings now we you have very kindly adjusted the way that we record a bit so that i end up checking out a lot of movies like day of release i'm a big like friday

at noon um in the local theater and and that is because that is when I have childcare. And that cuts down on the, it's a two to three hour commitment as opposed to a five hour commitment. I try to watch a movie after Anox goes to bed, but I'm also really tired because taking care of a member of jackass every day is really hard um love him though i do so sometimes it's like can i stay up you know past like we're talking

like a 10 o'clock bedtime thing so you know i would say probably three nights a week at home i'll squeeze one in like i'll do like a full feature like at home, I'll squeeze one in. I'll do a full feature at home. And a lot of that is watching older movies, doing prep for whatever movie draft or episode of older movies that we're doing. And then I spend a lot of time at Pasadena's local theaters and do the best that i can the film festival was a real gift in that sense because you know after we finished recording yesterday you and i sat down with the our spreadsheet and it was like calming to see how many of the movies i know and but that really that's just like a logistical question of it's why i started going but it's like we were talking about repertory theaters and um movies as events and um well all of it looks like this wonderful you know bobby was

talking about maybe not maybe going to a screening of barry london or maybe you're gonna have to i don't i hope you get to see barry london on the big screen me too anyway um that i don't get to do at all because i have to be pretty particular about making sure that the time i get i spend watching movies with intention work time yeah and also like zach and i except for the venice film festival which was like a ridiculous amazing thing we got to do don't get to see movies together anymore because it's like one of us needs to go for work and the other person needs to go see yeah um this is a particular bugaboo yeah who basically has to hear that i've seen everything yeah and then i have to curate for her without her right what movie she should watch so yeah it's tricky um so it's a puzzle like all aspects of

having a job and raising a child um it's a pretty, in the scheme of puzzles that we could have to solve, we're doing pretty well. I feel incredibly lucky. Super privileged. It's definitely with the understanding that we're very lucky to have the opportunity, but it's just the vagaries of our job. Anyone who schedules screenings in Los Angeles is listening. Just consider the East Side and thank you.

I'm actively promoting Vidiot's as a space for there are more film critics and film people on the east side of Los Angeles than there are on the west side. Period. So if you live in Silver Lake

you don't want to have to drive to Century City. You want to drive to Eagle Rock. So I'm actively openly promoting that. And some studios I've been told are hearing me on that.

Okay. That would be wonderful. We need to change. These are small internal concerns, but they are real. So anyone listening who is involved in this sort of stuff, we are begging. Yes,

we're begging. Sean is running a single issue campaign. Yeah. I mean, I don't want to be mayor. I just want to be Lord of letterbox. You know, that's really my,

maybe you should be mayor. Do you think that we should stop doing this pod? So you could be mayor? No, I have literally no aspirations to lead anything. If I'm being perfectly honest. John asks in the copland rewatchable sean mentioned how you blew it was a quotable line with his buddies from his youth there have been others alluded to but what are your most quotable and referenced lines from movies over the years so one i use all the time

and i realized that like no one else knows what i'm quoting and thinks I'm just saying it is um from Clueless it's the first time that Ty shows up and they're a gym class and she like asks if Cher and Dion want to have like an herbal refreshment and they don't understand what that means and Dion's like well we don't have tea but we you, you know, we can get a Coke. And Ty's like, oh, shit, you guys have Coke here? Like Coke, you know? And Cher goes, I mean, yeah, this is America. And so I say like, yeah, this is America to like things all of the time. And I mean it in an ironic, you know, clueless way. But I think people are just like, I worry.

When you say people, you think me? No, I use it like all the time, everywhere. know clueless way but i think people are just like i i when you say people you think me no i use it like all the time everywhere okay and i don't think most people are getting the reference okay um my number one is probably it's a real film jack from boogie nights uh that's something i often say after a movie um i don't have a lot of these though i think that that's kind of an obnoxious way to live your life is to be like that's just like your opinion man like just be doing movie lines all the time like now regal theaters like does it as like the intro I asked Zach about this as well um he he does what do you say Wakanda forever no he does we are not animale a lot oh yeah which is a really good one. But I was like, what movie lines do I use? And he was like, so anytime that we're considering having sushi, you yell sushi in a way that's really weird.

And I think it's from a Nora Ephron movie. And it is, in fact, from the beginning of You've Got Mail when Greg Kinnear is like leaving and Meg Ryan is waiting for him to leave so she can check her email. And he's like, we're having we're meeting for sushi and she just yells sushi like really weirdly so she can he'll leave and she can check her email so that's it that's the other thing that I do but again no one gets it but me really weird weird pull there okay that's cool I have a I have an aunt named Karen and so the the Karen from Goodfellas gets tossed around a lot. Why did you do that? Yeah.

That's probably the one that I use the most. That was all the money we had! Why did you do that? Yeah. That's a really good one. Okay. What's going on? What's next?

Andrew asks, Can you tell us the first time that you figured out you were a cinephile? I've always loved movie theaters, but when I told people at the bar my freshman year of college that I track movies I watch on IMDb and rank them, they judged me. That's when I knew. When did you guys? Do you think you're a cinephile? Because that's the flavor of the show in a way.

Cinephiles? No. Oh, that I'm not? There's a contrast to our approach in how we think about, watch, observe movies. But you have now spent a long time professionally entrenched in this world. And it's not that you didn't have any agency here, but I asked you to do it. Yeah. But it's not like I didn't seek out movies.

Totally. And prioritize them over TV always. I'm an Oscars nerd from the beginning. I think I just have a more pop approach to them than the kings of the Lords of Letterboxd. Do you think in 2008 you would have said I'm a cinephile? No. What about in 2012? No, but I was seeing a lot of movies. I mean, I think some of it is also, again, just like movies used to be more at the center of culture. And I would have said that I was like a, what is a culture of file, you know?

A culture vulture. Right. That is how they named vulture. The New York Magazine blog where I worked for many years. So I would have said that I was way more attuned to that stuff than most people that I knew. But movies were sort of the dominant language or one of the dominant languages of it. Cinephile has a kind of antiseptic, almost medicinal quality to it. There's also something academic about it,

which in general, I have very little patience for. Not just an affiliate, just all academics. I'm against it.

The irony. Yeah. Given your schooling. Just like, sometimes you got lightened up, you know what I'm saying?

Use real words. Yeah, I don't know if I ever really, I mean, it's related to the next question question why don't you just ask the next question and we can talk about that the next question is have sean or amanda ever had dreams of or ideas for writing or directing their own movie no no no for you no not at all um i definitely did but when i was 13 and I very quickly whether I disabused

myself of the notion or got less interested or more interested in something else I mean I think I probably talked about this before

but I got really once I discovered magazines I got really interested in the idea of being able to do what people who worked

at magazines did and in retrospect it wasn't as hard to accomplish as I thought it was going to be. And then when I was able to achieve it, I think I had some regrets about only focusing on achieving that and not being a little bit more multidisciplinary in my approach to what my career could have been. That being said, I could not, I literally couldn't ask more from my career. Like I just feel like insanely lucky, insanely lucky and very grateful and excited and proud and all that shit.

But I remember having like a good magazine editor job at 27 and being like, fuck, what am I supposed to do now? Because like this, this is kind of as far along as I thought. And I have another 40 years of employment to consider. Some of that has to do with just the future of magazines. Totally. Yeah. That was in part what informed it. I was like, oh, this is going away now.

Yeah. I, like you, was very focused on magazines. And sort of like a pre-Devil Wears Prada, like 90s version of magazines that did not exist by the time we even made it there. Me too. Seemed pretty sick. When we got there, it was like, oh, the party's over. Yeah. Like literally that year.

So that, but it's okay. Again, you and I, it's worked out beautifully for me. But in terms of writing or directing, I mean, I am married to a writer. He is primarily like a journalist, but he like actually likes writing and looks forward to it. And as soon as I like wound up with Zach and like watch someone who actually likes that process and thinks about things and like wants to sign up to it, I was like, Oh,

I'm not that like, Oh no, I really, I just, I don't, that's not how I approach um creativity or my lack of creativity I you know I'm you always sell yourself short on this well I just I really it's not that I can't I just hate doing it I just hate it I like and it drains so much I'm slow I agonize

I just fucking I hate writing I hate it so what do you think about writing it's like no I've never really thought about and I and I certainly haven't thought about like wanting to direct something that someone else wrote you know like that like that would never um you know what has been good yeah um is producing I producing is fun yeah producing is very hard and stressful, but the experiences I've had producing things has been rewarding and interesting. And also one of the good things about it is you don't get to take too much credit,

but you also don't get to take too much blame. And so when I work on something like that, I really enjoy the process. There have been a couple of projects we worked on this year that have really enjoy the process there have been a couple of projects we worked on this year that have been like really cool from a documentary perspective to watch really great artists up close doing what they do to be able to have conversations with them about what they do is it's kind of an extension of what i've been doing on the show with directors i'm

always interested to talk to directors and kind of nobody else like above the line in the movie industry because i don't really care what they have to say. Below the line, I think it's quite interesting as well. But I don't really talk to a lot of movie stars on the show for that reason because they don't have a lot to contribute to how things work. They're a good, well. And I've had some. We've talked to some. Yeah.

But it's not. I know what you're saying. They can either perform as movie stars or they do not but it's separate than like here is how

the mechanics of this like movie came together and some are involved in that some actors off the record

are awesome and really smart and fun to talk to but also are unwilling to kind of yeah anyway it's an extension

I haven't thought about directing a movie in 30 years it's just extension. I haven't thought about directing a movie in 30 years. It's just not something that I aspire to. But producing, yeah, absolutely. More and more. Maybe I can be the next Arnon Milchan. That would be great.

Who else? Who do you aspire to be? The person who tells Reese Witherspoon what to option. Oh, right. I forgot. There's a book out right now. Our friend Marissa Meltzer has a book out about Glossier. And I'm just like, someone needs to option this and turn this into social network.

Has it not happened yet? Not that I don't know if it has, but I'm just like. You should not have said that on mic. Okay. Well, should I do it? I don't know. How much money does it take? I don't know if I have that kind of cash.

It takes $25 billion. Do you have enough? I think it's been in. Let's go to your bank's website. What's in your checking account? Yeah. What's the next question? Wait, are you going to direct a movie, Bob?

No, I'm just going to be the next Hans Zimmer. Where like he doesn't actually like read the music or play any instruments when he composes. He's just like, I think this should sound like this. Very talented person, don't make it sound that way. But have you heard that he invented new instruments for the Dune score? Yeah, I heard that on a podcast called The Big Picture. That was fucking sick. My son invents new instruments every day.

It's not a big deal. He could be the next Hans Zimmer. That would be awesome. That's in play. He could. He's got a musical lineage. Yes. You're a writer of great works.

Thank you. Yeah. Next question comes from Anthe. What were the rejected names of the podcast before landing on the big picture? I remember Nobody Knows Anything, which is another William Goldman. I'm going to use that again somewhere.

Yeah. Yeah. When Chris Ryan and I were podcasting in my basement to an audience of zero in 2009, the name of that show. I do have those tapes, and I'm available to be bought to sell those to people, by the way.

You know what the pod was called? No. CR on the Machine. That's a true story. We didn't have a lot of names there were a bunch i actually i think as i recall i asked the staff of the ringer to suggest some names for us i remember ben lindbergh had a couple of ideas i want to say claire mcnear had a couple of ideas there were a couple people who pitched them but i don't really remember what they were i don't know um it's very easy to be like it's the popcorn hour with sean and amanda let's all go to the movies yeah produced by robert wagner um but we didn't really do anything like that the big picture i think is it's good fitting yeah yeah uh what's next? Evan asks, are there any deadly

sins of movie podcasting that those just starting out must avoid? I think calling it the popcorn hour maybe is one of them. Yeah. I was going to make a joke about the TikTok influencers, but you know. But? I don't know.

Go ahead. Make your joke. Okay. I don't know. Accepting money from studios in order to make Tik TOKs about. Yeah. Don't do that. That don't do don't. That's not, no,

don't do that. Yeah. That's horrible. I'm not saying I'm better than anybody who is doing that, but don't do that. That is very unethical and weird. And it is damaging our discourse around culture in this country. And, uh, it's not that it hasn't

happened before paola is a resonant moment in american cultural history it will persist forever but yeah man if you if you especially if you present as someone who is sincere about your opinion about an art form and even if it is a commercial art form it's still an art form. And even if it is a commercial art form, it's still an art form. Don't fucking do that. I mean, you know, movie podcasting,

otherwise I wouldn't presuppose to tell anybody what they should or shouldn't do. Dude, make whatever show you want. There's a lot of really good shows right now. It's a really,

actually quite a good time for a movie podcast. I've been on a few movie podcasts the last six months. People have been nice enough to ask me to go on them. And people are having

fun, you know, and if it's an excuse to like revisit stuff or discover new things, I'm, I'm super into that. But I, I agree with Amanda's note about a Tik TOK influencers, Bob,

you're a Tik TOK influencer. What do you, how much have you bankrolled this year? I, uh, I have several Tik TOK accounts all with over 2 million followers. Um, one of them is where I just make espresso and don't say anything it's going really well another one is where i divulge secrets

about the ringer to an audience of millions that's a good one that's uh that's illegal that's actually i think you're not allowed to do that um my my deadly sin of movie podcasting would be just just don't pretend you're better than people who maybe haven't seen the movie or don't know as much about the movie as you do. That's like, I think that that is a really off-putting. That's a good life lesson, Bobby. Yeah. It's not limited to movie podcasting.

Can sometimes be an off-putting thing about like cinephiles or like just people who know a lot about the history. It's like, this is a beautiful thing that people can discover. Like you don't have to leave people out of it just because you happen to have seen all of this stuff already. I try to be conscious of that i think sometimes sometimes i fail at that but what i want and what i think a part of the purpose of the show is is to introduce people to things and not make them feel bad about not having experienced them sometimes i you know my ego gets in the way of that but i'm working on it what if i what if i was just like i haven't seen the godfather like what if i just told you this right now on our 600th episode? How would you react?

I'd say you're a fucking loser. You got to step it up. No, I would be like, you should check it out. It's really great. I would be Ken, you know? Are you watching The Godfather? It's really good. He's the right one. Next question comes from Matt.

When will you accept The Wife as a great movie? It's just really not a very good very good movie also speaking of movie adaptations that book wasn't bad that book was interesting the wife yeah the wife yeah it's a meg willis or novel i like meg willis for novels great okay okay um haven't read it i saw the film it's okay it's not bad it's not good it's just it is what it is better than what was the next movie that glenn close made to try to win an oscar that you watched on election day yeah what was it called hacksaw jim duggan country what was it called jesus christ that was a terrible terrible movie yeah quite bad the jd van hillbilly elegy oh yeah yeah yeah that should

be put in jail bum Bummer Town? I called it Hacksaw Jim Duggan Country, which I feel really good about. Let's do two more. Spencer asks, what would you rather happen first, Martin Scorsese on the big pick

or the Mets back in the World Series? And a related question, Peyton asks, when are we getting Martin Scorsese on a movie draft? I don't think he would enjoy movie draft I don't think he would

enjoy movie drafts I think he would find them to be disrespectful to how we understand art I don't feel the same way there are

issues on which Martin and I diverge I'd love to have him on the show I've never actually asked I think I'm afraid

why don't you ask this fall I don't you ask this fall? I don't know. I am really stressed out now just thinking about it on your behalf. It's a lot. I get it.

It's a lot. I don't know. He probably wouldn't come on a movie draft, but he went on Cisco and Ebert and did his top 10 movies of the year.

He's not opposed to this. Well, that was different. He was friends with Roger Ebert. I mean, they were legitimately like friends in life. I don't know. I'm having dinner with him tonight, so I'll just ask. Okay, well, check it. You guys seeing Barry Lyndon together? Yeah.

I mean, it's one of my life's dreams is to spend time talking to him about movies, either on mic or off. So I hope I can do that one day. I don't think I have the guts right now to ask. That's good self-knowledge. Yeah. You've asked a lot of people. I've asked a lot of people.

A lot of people that I really look up to or who I'm interested in. I don't know. Scorsese's in a different. I get it. It's like meeting Walt Whitman or something. What about Ben Affleck on a movie draft? Well, I think he'd do quite well. He would do incredibly well.

He's a great shit talker. He knows a lot about movie history. And he would also neutralize you completely if he were present, which would be wonderful. You don't know that. Yes, I do. You actually... Would you try to get cut in line and get J-Lo out of the box? Like, would you end your family's sanctity?

We have talked about this. And before Knox, yes. After Knox, no. You know? Before Knox, I would ruin my life for Ben Affleck. and before Knox yes after Knox no you know before Knox I would ruin my life for Ben Affleck now

I know better but in a draft situation like I would be a little I would be really awkward for like three minutes and then it would just be

like a game on thing and I think I would really thrive I would throw my life away for Ben okay yeah yeah you know yeah sorry sorry Alice can't take you to school today I'm watching Chasing Amy with Ben

Affleck my bad uh okay let's do one more question all right um final question comes from Michael I thought this was an interesting question if you could have a drink or meal in any fictional bar or restaurant what would it be first thing that popped to mind is 100 the hard deck let's go right now that's pretty funny i will be penny you know like i think that could be a good fourth act for me i want the sweaters i want the p want the Porsche. I would run the hard deck and live on the beach. Okay. Very expensive real estate. And that would be a nice life. I had an answer and I forgot it. Okay. Sorry. It was probably something more sophisticated. I love that restaurant in Phantom Thread. Oh yeah. Where he always eats. It's really good. Yeah.

That looks like they have a mean rare steak in that place. Wait, the one that he's a regular at or the one that he meets Alma? No, the one he's a regular at. The one where he meets Alma seems fine.

I'm into the jam that they have that he puts on the biscuit. Yeah, but it's a little rural. Wow. Say more, Macon County.

Okay, I'm not from Macon County. I'm from Fulton County, where we indict everyone. Okay. Okay? Got it. Just a Rico charge for you. A Rico charge for you.

No, I just, there is something, you couldn't go every day to that restaurant. I like the very chic neighborhood appeal of the London restaurant where they go all the time. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm advocating for. That's all. That's the only differentiation. I,

where would I like to get a real cocktail? A real drink. A drink of drinks. The tender bar. I don't think they make real cocktails there. They probably don't.

Hey, this was fun. Congratulations to you both on 600 fun. Congratulations to you both on 600 episodes. Congratulations to you, Sean. Thank you. An incredibly strange energy that you brought to this experience.

Do you think so? Was it fun? No, it was fun. It was good. You know, I hadn't seen you in several weeks, so I'm glad to see you. Yeah.

You were nicer yesterday than today. Today you're a little spiky. Yeah, but it's okay. Do you think I'm meaner to you than you are to me? No, I don't. You think you're meaner to me than I am to you? Yeah little spiky. Yeah, but it's okay. Do you think I'm meaner to you than you are to me? No, I don't. You think you're meaner to me than I am to you? Yeah, I definitely do.

But I think that you understand that my meanness is just how I express my affection for you. Oh, definitely. Yeah, no, I don't know. I feel like I am sort of reading your mood at all times to get a Sean emotional check to be able to share with our loved ones. What do you think is going on right now? I think right now you've been living in a garage for like emotionally for like two weeks. Yeah. And that doesn't do well for you because you actually do have things that comfort you and they are your family.

It's very true. Much as I preach a monastic lifestyle, I actually am like very out of sorts when I'm not with my wife and kid. Bob, congrats. Thank you. You've done a great job

on this episode and on future episodes, I pray. I'm thinking of tanking. Tanking. Just getting as bad as possible as producer, editor. We only have 66 more to go.

So when we get to 666 and we close it all down should be an interesting energy blaze of glory yeah there'll be me and Marty solo on 666 thanks all the listeners for your great questions for coming with

us on the journey of the show I'm really just every day blown away by how nice this experience is for us the very few things in your professional career you will have any meaningful

relationship to those who are aware of it. So I'm really, really sincerely, very openheartedly appreciative of anybody who listens. I think it's really

weird that you do, but I appreciate it. Especially this long in the episode. Yeah. So this is when things get good. Biggest episodes

that we've ever made are all like over an hour and 45 minutes. No, I know, but it's just... Why is that? I don't know. Okay, well, next week we have a very special draft.

We're drafting the films of Denzel Washington, which I'm very excited about. We also have not one, but two very, very, very special ringer guests who will be joining us. In studio. In studio. It's going to get really heated.

A unique chaos is coming to the big picture. We will see you next week.