The Big Picture - Introducing the Movie Draft: 2010 Edition

Episode Date: July 24, 2020

This is an episode about movies in the year 2010. Why? Well, it’s been 10 years since 2010, 10 long years in the life cycle of American movies. A lot has changed. Earlier this week, we celebrated the decade anniversary of 'Scott Pilgrim vs. the World' with a special episode. What else happened in movies that year? How could we have a fun conversation that didn’t just rehash the release schedule? We got an idea for a kind of movie draft: six categories, six picks each, snake-style. Chris Ryan joins Sean and Amanda to determine who has the best 2010 movie roster. Listen and decide for yourselves. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Chris Ryan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of The Big Picture is brought to you by An American Pickle. An American Pickle stars Seth Rogen as Herschel Greenbaum, a 1920s American immigrant who was accidentally brined in a vat of pickles for 100 years, emerging in present-day New York City. Seth Rogen also plays Herschel's only surviving relative, his great-grandson Ben, a mild-mannered computer coder living in Brooklyn. The movie is rated PG-13. You can stream the new Max original

and American Pickle August 6th only on HBO Max. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the year 2010. Why 2010? Well, it's been 10 years since 2010, 10 long years in the life cycle of American movies. A lot has changed in that time. Earlier this week, we celebrated the decade anniversary of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World with a special episode. It's a movie that predicted a lot

of what would come to be accepted as normal in movies. But what else happened in that year in movies? How can we have a fun conversation that doesn't just rehash the release schedule on this show? Well, I got an idea. It was inspired by a listener from Melbourne, Australia named Evan Valance, who shared with me via Twitter a movie draft of his own design in which he and friends looked at the broad history of movies and picked their favorites in a bunch of categories. So best picture winner, best sports movie, etc. So I figured for this episode, we could tweak the game to focus solely on one year and then put us to some difficult decisions. And then the listeners could decide who drafted the best 2010 movie year.

To help us, Chris Ryan is here. Hi, Chris. What's up, guys? How are you? Are you ready to compete with Amanda and I, Chris? Oh, absolutely. I actually feel very confident in my picks today. I feel like I went deep into the bag and got some really good stuff. Amanda, you're a very competitive person as am I, how are you feeling about putting that competitiveness on display here on this show? I feel very excited except for the fact that you keep changing the rules on us at the last minute.

And I know already that they're going to be a lot of shenanigans. And I'm going to fight back. I think that there's going to be an interesting strategic element to this, allegiances that might change throughout the podcast. Chris, I'm watching you. Typically, our alliance has worked out, see the Rango episode. But it's like, if you cross me, I'm ready. I also just want to say, I know Chris is feeling really confident, but I have actually done a pop culture draft with Chris before. And I got vaporized. And you had the first pick, right? Yeah. Because you were just in your own Chris world. And while I also like living in the Chris world, I feel confident in my ability to go up against Chris world in the arena of public opinion. Just so you guys know, I cannot possibly

express to you how much more competitive Sean and Amanda are than I am. It is honestly the funniest thing in the world to me to watch them lose their minds over meaningless games while I'm chilling. I'm not, I'm actually laughing. I'm not even mad. Okay. Yeah. Perhaps in the director's commentary of this episode of this show, we can talk about what psychological damage has been brought upon us that has made us so competitive, but that's not what we're going to do here. I thought actually what it would be fun to do would be to talk about the movies of 2010, the shape of that year before we get into the draft, and then also maybe reveal some allegiances or some strategy that some of us will bring into the draft. So let's talk about 2010. Big storylines. I think we've talked about this, the three of us,

many times on this show. We've talked about how the social network is sort of, I think all three of us agree, it is the movie of 2010 in many ways and was robbed of Best Picture at the Oscars for the King's Speech. Is there anything that you guys feel like we need to add beyond that conversation, which we've had multiple times? Just that we're going to have it again because we're coming up on the 10-year anniversary of that movie and then of that Oscar travesty. Yeah. That's the movie that has aged the best out of this year. That's the movie that defined the decade that came. I think you could make the argument it's still Fincher's best movie. It's still Sorkin's best script. It was a real, real high watermark. So no,

no debate, no confusion. I think we'll probably all be jockeying pretty hard for the social network in our drafting strategy. Although maybe not. Maybe,

maybe, and where it gets drafted and in what category, who can tell? Who can say, Sean? Okay. So we won't say anything further

about that specifically. This is, next conversation is important. I wanted to talk about Leonardo DiCaprio in the year 2010. This is a, you can make the case this is his greatest year. And it's because he was the star of Inception and Shutter Island, both of which opened in 2010. And these two movies have a lot in common. They're frequently compared. I want to be careful about how I discuss the movie Inception because it has gotten me into some trouble in the past.

But Chris, you went back and looked at Shutter Island last night. I know, I mean, I'm not sure if you had a chance to revisit it before this conversation, but I was quite blown away by it. And I'm trying to wrap my head around why Leo made two dead wife movies in the same year, even though he's never been married. Cause and effect there. That's true. And also just get a sense of kind of where we think the popular consensus is on these two movies. And then also kind of what that means for leo and for both the way that we remember both of these movies chris what do you think i mean the the way in which these movies wind up being intertwined uh after re-watching shutter

island uh is really striking i have to say i was a huge fan of the shutter island book which is written by dennis lahane and came out after mystic river and it was like a big paperback my my wife phoebe and i read it like together and it was like a big paperback. My wife Phoebe and I read it together and it was like this really exciting. I think we both, we were on vacation when we read it and we were both just like, have you gotten to this page yet? Have you gotten to this page yet?

And then the movie was a little bit of a letdown because the movie sort of immediately plays up the weirdness of what is happening to the Teddy Daniels character. And I think plays the story and the twist a lot differently. 10 years later, I don't think I've seen this movie

since I saw it in the theaters. I was up until two in the morning last night. I was so blown away by it. I think we started it at like 9.30 and I was just like, this is absolutely stunning. I can't believe people don't talk about Shutter Island enough.

As far as Leo goes, both of these films both like neither really take place in our world you know they both take place in this hyper cinematic dream world which is where i think leo seems most best like best suited he doesn't really feel like a person who walks among us i know he cares a lot about like the melting polar ice caps and stuff like that but like and and he's a great subject of paparazzi photos but his concerns and the things that he kind of works in it doesn't really feel like everyday reality and in some ways he is a perfect movie star because he is like you know the stuff of dreams and these are two films that are largely concerned with dreams and

nightmares and i i thought that i thought it was a really fascinating year for him. Amanda, what do you think is the superior of the two? Which do you prefer? Well, I did not revisit Shutter Island last night because I still remember watching it in 2010 and being freaked out and being like, that is not a thing that I need to ever relive again with all respect to Martin Scorsese and Leonardo DiCaprio. I think also Inception is kind of the last really pure mainstream Leo performance. It's the last time he's really in the center of pop culture, which has as much to do with pop culture as Leo, though you do see after 2010 that he starts to work less, frankly, and just make fewer movies. And obviously he has

tremendous performances i mean wolf of wall street is really up there for me in the leo canon as is once upon a time in hollywood but in inception is where he is maybe like back in the center for the first time since titanic and it's kind of like an interesting bookend to to leo as just really pop movie star. Yeah, it's a good point. So in the 2010s, he, or in the 2000s, I should say, he stars in 10 films. And then in the 2010s, he only stars in six films. And he is slowing down a little bit, the amount of work that he does. I also rewatched Inception last night, just so I didn't come in here favoring something that I had spent more time with recently. And I think my feelings about Inception kind of remain where they are,

which is that there's like incredible stuff happening in that movie, but it doesn't ultimately congeal. And I felt the opposite about Shutter Island. I felt like the intention and the execution, once you get past finding out what that movie is and is about, like what the twist is and what the framework is. And I didn't read the book like Chris did. So the first time I saw it, I was much more focused on, I think, how predictable I felt like most of the twists were. And then ultimately a little bit of, I think, Amanda, what you're referring to, which is just how like deeply traumatic and almost like insensitive, insensitively portrayed a lot of the horror at the end of the film is. And then the second time around, which like Chris, this was the first time I had watched

it since I saw it in theaters. I think I was just blown away by how sensitive and complex and earned the sense of trauma was in the movie. And also just how beautiful it is and how it's totally kind of Scorsese going into his bag. Like there's so many beautiful tricks in the film and the way that it's the shots, but, but the mute, I mean, the music is incredible throughout and it really, it really is a beautiful film and it's so hard to compare it to something like inception, which is just like an entertainment machine. You know, it's just meant to be like engaging you at every single moment and kind of like

capturing your attention, but never really worrying too much about whether anything makes sense. I think things not making sense is actually the point of Shutter Island, which is maybe why I connected with it a little bit more clearly. Fascinating for Leo, though. You know, he obviously goes on to win an Oscar a few years later. And, you know, he still has a few of his most iconic roles of all time. You still got Django, you still got the Wolf of Wall Street, you still got Once Upon a Time in Hollywood to come and The Revenant.

But this kind of does feel, I agree, man, it feels like his apex in many ways. Because Shutter Island too, we know Inception was a major hit, but Shutter Island was a huge hit too. I mean, this was a big box office hit released in the middle of February. And really only Leo can do that. Also seems like unusual for Leo to be the star of a movie released in February. I would have longed for a Leo movie this past February. A lot has changed in 10 years. One of the cool things about re-watching Shutter Island was just the way in which it was sort

of a doorway into the year itself and re-considering a bunch of these films. I actually look forward to watching a bunch of them that I haven't seen in a while. I think my wife and I actually might fire up a little Winter's Bone this week. Nice little date night action. That sounds not harrowing at all. The thing when you go through these 2010 movies and the list of it is how much you would willingly pay to go see almost 75% of these things in theaters today. And I don't know whether or not that's an exercise that proves movies were better 10 years ago or they were more reliably rewarding or consistently released. But to your point, Sean, about Shutter Island coming out in February, man, I don't know. There's a lot of stuff from this year that I would happily pay to go see again. So I wanted to use that observation, Chris, as basically a broader point about the year. And Amanda, I'm curious what you think about this too, since we spend so much time talking about

this idea on this show. But I thought that this was one of the kind of least interesting box office years in the decade, but also one of the last great years for adult movies. And the list of adult kind of mainstream, big, big top, big budget adult movies is impressive. So just this year, you get The Town, you get True Grit, Black Swan, The Fighter, Salt, Inception, and The Social Network, along with Shutter Island. And those were all kind of mainstream, well-known, successful films with movie stars. But if you look at the highest performing movies at the domestic box office in 2010, here's the list. Toy Story 3, Alice in Wonderland, Iron Man 2, The Twilight Saga Eclipse, Inception,

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1, Despicable Me, Shrek Forever After, How to Train Your Dragon, The Karate Kid Remake, Clash of the Titans, Grown Ups, Tangled, Megamind, and The Last Airbender. That's a pretty gnarly list. And so the conclusion that I've drawn from this is ultimately that Hollywood has gotten better at infantilizing adults and their interests and making mainstream children's movies more palatable for adults. So basically from this point forward, you get much more sort of Marvel stuff at the top of the box office over time. And I don't think, as you guys know, I really like the Marvel movies, but it's interesting how they kind of abandoned the town-esque movies or the fighter or the social network

in favor of essentially finding a way to work some of the adult themes into the IP-focused stuff as opposed to delineating between IP stuff is for kids, then there's these adult movies. And this feels like a little bit of a turning point in that respect. What do you think about that, Amanda? Yeah, I mean, this is a snapshot in a lot of ways of that transition, right? Because these patterns and movies themselves take two and three and four and five years to really come to fruition. So you can see here in this just absolutely miserable domestic box office top 10, which we'll revisit because of some of the rules that Sean has imposed on certain categories of the draft.

But you can see that Hollywood has figured out, okay, franchise IP, this is what is actually going to get people out. But they haven't quite made it to the MCU and to giving up, sadly, on the adult films that we all really love. So there are still movies on here that I think we three think of as grown up, go into the movie theater movies. It's funny, Chris, I found that when I was making my list of potential draft picks, I really remembered the experience of being in the movie theaters for a lot of these movies like and that shaped how I watched them and you know I don't know how much of that is just nostalgia for I haven't left my house in five months and you know I watch it all on this tear this one tv um while my husband is like making coffee that I can you know and so I

can't hear anything or whether it is because the movies themselves were more attuned to the fact that they were being seen in a theater. And it does feel like it's a bit of both. It does feel like the nature of the movies have changed. Yeah. I think it's worth noting that the following year is not bad either. It's like Tinker Tailor, Bridesmaids, Margin Call. There's Moneyball. There's plenty of cool, what we would consider movies for adults the next year. And there's probably more in 2012 as well. I think the interesting turning point comes in 2013 when House of Cards comes out on Netflix.

Because that is when I think a lot of the stuff that we see in the theaters in these first few years of the decade will start to more transition towards the streamers and the premium cable networks. And you start getting shows like True Detective and you start getting

more and more prestige dramas that ordinarily would have been developed as feature scripts. That's just, but that's anecdotal. I can't say that that's like rooted in any kind of research, but it is an interesting data point. No, I think that's a good observation

from both of you guys. And I think specifically what I identified here was there are a bunch of movies that made $100 million that are somewhere between $85 and $150 million that were for adults in this time. And that just doesn't really happen as frequently anymore. There are outliers. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood last year was an outlier in that respect. It was a huge hit, but it came with a brand name.

And I don't know. I mean, we mourn that frequently. I don't know if it's necessarily worth, you know, pouring out a little liquor for it in this exact moment. But I found it to be a fascinating example that like Black Swan, for example, was a big, big hit. And that just seems unlikely this year. Maybe I'm wrong about that, but it seems strange.

And then the other thing, too, is that this is really the last year before the superhero dam bursts. The superhero movies that were released in this year is a pretty motley crew. It's kind of fascinating to think about when we chart the movie calendar across a year. Amanda, when you and I do an episode about the most anticipated movies, invariably there are between three and five superhero movies that I'm like, well, we're going to have to pay attention to this. This is going to be important. But in 2010, these are the superhero movies. Iron Man 2, arguably the worst MCU movie, although Chris, I'm sure you have some, you could defend it in some ways. I cannot. I cannot defend Mickey Rourke's accent in that movie. And then these are the others. Kick-Ass, Super, Megamind, Jonah Hex from your boy Josh Brolin, and The Losers.

That feels like that could have been the slate of movies released in like 1987, let alone 2010. So I find this to be a fascinating crux. No X-Men movie that year, no big DC movie other than Jonah Hex, only one MCU movie and a forgettable one. So this does feel like a, turning point may be too strong a word, but it feels like a significant moment. I want to talk about the idea of cult classics from this year as well. So obviously spent some time talking about Scott Pilgrim, which was not a hit at the box office, though people clung to it pretty quickly. I am not a fan of Tron Legacy, but I learned via the internet that a lot of people are a big fan. This reminds me a

little bit of like the SpongeBob SquarePants conversation where like I'm clearly just 10 years too old to feel that Tron Legacy matters. But everybody that is sub 30 is like, you don't get it. This movie rules. I assume you guys don't care about Tron Legacy matters, but everybody that is sub-30 is like, you don't get it. This movie rules. I assume you guys don't care about Tron Legacy. I just always assume that with no disrespect intended

to people who like Tron Legacy, you know how when you were in college and there might be a guy who had a poster of The Shire in his dorm room? I always thought people who were to Tron Legacy were that guy,

but they had their movie instead of just a poster. It just feels incredibly like sees one movie once. Okay, great. Amanda, what are your cult classics from 2010? Well, I won't be giving any of the real cult classics away right now because I'm making a personal list. I mean, obviously. I do, obviously I do. I do want to say also that I do think I saw Tron Legacy, but I maybe I just like watch the trailer a bunch.

This is an interesting time. This was like this is when I was blogging. I was like a pop culture movie blogger at Vulture in 2010. So I have like pieces of all of these, but it blurs together in like what makes good content in 2010 internet, which is a funny way of looking at movies. Anyway, the only thing I wanted to isolate because I will not be featuring these on my list. I don't want to speak for you guys. It's a big Katherine Heigl year. Do you remember when Katherine Heigl was in every movie? And I was reflecting on... I remember.

You remember, Chris Ryan. And I was reflecting on the fact that Life As We Know It was recently not just on Netflix, but was kind of in the Netflix top 10 movies for a long time. It was kind of when that feature debuted, Life As We Know It was like really in the mix for reasons that I don't understand but i to me a renewed interest like there are definitely there's a genre of katherine heigl really acid

rom-com that weren't received super well at the time but people seem to still like for some reason just throwing it out there it was a simpler when, when extremely unlikable people could be movie stars. You know, you remember that Chris? Yeah. I mean, I didn't, I never found her unlikable. I always thought that she was misread by society at large. She seems like a really fun hang and I don't really like love her movies. The cult classics from this year for me

are a lot of the genre stuff predictably. There was a lot of really good horror action and crime films from this year, but I'll save some of those in case they pop up in some other categories. This episode of The Big Picture is brought to you by An American Pickle. An American Pickle stars Seth Rogen as Herschel Greenbaum,

a 1920s American immigrant who was accidentally brined in a vat of pickles for 100 years emerging in present-day New York City. Seth Rogen also plays Herschel's only surviving relative, his great-grandson Ben, a mild-mannered computer coder living in Brooklyn. While not your typical Seth Rogen comedy, An American Pickle tells the heartwarming story of two men from different generations who must learn the true meaning of family. From the producers of The Disaster Artist and 5050 comes an American Pickle, streaming August 6th only on HBO Max, rated PG-13. Stream the new Max original on American Pickle August 6th only on HBO Max.

Let's just jump to the draft, shall we? So you want to explain how this works? Yeah, I'm going to explain how it works. So what we have is we have six categories. So each of us will get a chance to pick one movie from that category. What we need to do is settle on a draft order here. So we're going to play a couple of games to determine the draft order. Once we've chosen all of our films, we're going to put those

films on the internet, our team that is being built, our team of six, and we're going to let the fine listeners of this program vote on who chose the best team. And you guys, just because I didn't like Tron doesn't mean you can't vote for me. I would... What I want people to do is cancel Chris because he disrespected Tron and vote for me or maybe Amanda, but probably just me. Okay. So to determine the draft order, here's what we're going to do. We're going to play first a little game of rock, paper, scissors, where the three of us are going to throw either a one or a two out. And whoever is the odd person out, let's say, for example, both two people throw out a two and one person throws out a one. The person who's thrown out a one gets to go first. After that, we'll flip a coin between the two remaining people and the winner of the coin flip will

pick second. The loser of the coin flip will pick third. Understood? Uh-huh. I think so. Yeah. If we can't figure this out, we have no business doing this draft. So let's go. So it's one,

one, two, three, and then we throw out our... Okay. Yes. One, two, three. Wait, wait, hold on. What? No, stop.

You... Chris, get it together. You just don't bring it to it, Okay. Chris. Okay. Is everybody ready? And now you can count Chris. One, two, three. Okay. So I have the one, which means I pick first. There are two twos. Amanda has a two. Chris has a two. I'm going up first of all. Next, Bobby Wagner, please join us quickly so that you can flip a coin between Chris Ryan and Amanda to determine who picks second and who picks third. We have a coin flipping app visible on our screen. Oh, a virtual coin flip. Okay. Bobby is going to click flip. Amanda, you call it. I was going to say you call it since you're the guest. Okay,

sure. I'm calling it heads. Okay. Here we go. Here comes the flip. And it is heads. Okay. That means Chris Ryan picks second. Amanda picks third.

Amanda is behind the eight ball already. How are you? How are you feeling, Amanda? Are you struggling? So should we explain the snake draft aspect of this right yes so this will be a snake draft meaning i will i will get the first overall pick chris will get the second overall pick amanda will get the third overall pick and then in the next category we will snake back and amanda will get the first pick and we'll snake back and Amanda will get the first pick. And we'll go backwards. That's right. So, this is very complicated.

I hope everyone listening understands. Do you guys understand? Do you guys feel comfortable? Do you feel ready to pick? Bobby says that I should have the option to take number three since it's a better pick

to pick twice in a row IMO. But I'm going to give that to Amanda. It's okay. I like hitting in the tool hole. I mean, Bobby, again, you can't be like Sean here. The rules have to be established before we start the draft, okay? I think it's fine. I think Chris should go second.

I think Amanda should go third. And then Amanda should go fourth. We're all going to pick such different movies. This isn't going to matter. This is not going to be about because like... I think there are a couple that actually do matter, but it's fine. I think, for example, the first category, it's going it's gonna matter but that's okay so the first category is drama correct the first category is drama do you do you think it is worthwhile to talk through all

the categories first or should we just let them come at come as they may i i think it would be useful for everyone to have a sense of of what's coming because there might be some classification discussion. And in that sense, it's only fair for the listeners at home to know what's what. I think you make a great point. Here are the six categories that we've chosen for the 2010 movie draft.

By we, we mean Sean, okay? We meaning me, the royal we. First category is pointed out by Amanda is drama. The second category is comedy or horror. The third category is pointed out by Amanda is drama. The second category is comedy or horror. The third category is blockbuster. The rule for blockbuster is that this film must have earned $100 million at the domestic box office. The fifth category is...

You should say something, Amanda. I was going to boo, but I'll do it later. I'll save it. The fifth category is animated or foreign language film. The sixth category is a wild card. You can pick anything you want. The seventh category is sequel. You have to choose a sequel. Okay. I think I've done a fairly good job of picking movie types. I'm just going to put that out there right now. I have the first overall pick, which is just extraordinary news for me. Not rigged at all all and i will pick with my first pick overall

the social network the best film of 2010 and of the 2010s there we go chris pick number two in drama falls to you my number two for number two i'm going to pick never Let Me Go. What? Wow. Yeah. I've never talked with you about this movie or this book, actually, which wrecked me. But go. It's your pick. No, I mean, I think that we talked a little bit about whether or not they make movies for adults anymore. And I think that there have been some efforts by people like Alex Garland over the years

to kind of revive sci-fi-ish adult dramas. But this is sort of a higher level of all of that. It stars Carey Mulligan and Keira Knightley and Andrew Garfield. And it's based on the Kazushiguro novel. And I just found it to be such a deeply moving movie. I mean, Mark Romanek is like this huge music video director who never quite, I don't think, put it together in the feature film department, but is an incredible visual stylist. I actually think that I had like overly high expectations for this film going into it.

And then in like rewatching it a few years ago, I just found myself really falling in love with it. I'm playing also very strictly by the rules here. So I'm curious to see who Amanda picks for drama because I have a lot of movies that I think are dramatic, but I have put in different categories. So ultimately this draft will probably be more about what category you're filing things under.

So Never Let Me Go is my pick here. Just an extraordinary pick. You could have picked any film that was released that had dramatic elements from 2010. And you chose a very good movie, a movie that I like, a movie that is now, I think we overuse the phrase underrated, but I think is underrated and features great performances. But you could have given me 20 guesses and I would have never guessed that that would be your first pick. So I guess kudos, Chris. I like to keep people on their toes.

Also, just tremendous sweaters in that movie, among other things. The sweaters have really stayed with me. What a year for Andrew Garfield, too, huh? Yeah. It was. Very special year for him. Heartbreaking in that movie. Yeah.

Amanda, you're up. Chris kind of predicted some of the elements shaping my pick uh which will i was going to pick the social network let's let's just all be honest but i'm number three and so i will be picking the town directed by ben affleck which this movie rules uh re-watched it last night and i was thinking a lot in looking back at 2010 about why do we talk so much about the fighter instead of the town and specifically at the Oscars which just the fighter was all over the place and the fighter is like a perfectly nice movie and but if you want to talk about Boston movies about working class guys maybe learning some things about themselves where

while cinematic hijinks are happening off screen, it's the town for me. I think that this movie has incredible performances, specifically your boy Jeremy Renner, Chris Ryan. And a great script, dialogue, one of the great heists. It'll be eclipsed the next year by the Fast Five safe heist. But I mean, robbing Fenway is pretty good as far as Boston things go. I'm not even like a huge baseball person. And just a really, a core Ben Affleck text, which is obviously the, you know,

great area of study of my life. So I just, I love this movie. It's so good. And speaking of, you speaking of movies for adults that they just don't make anymore in this way, I think The Town is always one of our top examples. So that's it for me. Good pick.

You're up again, Amanda. You have the first pick in the comedy and horror category. Okay, that's great. It will surprise no one that I'm going with a comedy. Easy A, directed by Will Gluck and starring Emma Stone. Talk about breakout performances. This is a really lovely teen comedy that also adults can enjoy. And it owes a huge debt to all the movies of the 80s, which I think everyone on this podcast was really shaped by. But it's smart and knowledgeable in those references. It's an homage. And some of the

really underrated movie parents in Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson, I don't know whether you guys remember that aspect of the movie, but great stuff. And I just, it's, it's smart. It's funny. It actually, you know, made me laugh and is also, uh, relatively it's, it's still respectful and kind of heartwarming to everybody, which is kind of the, the comedy that I go for. So easy. Listeners of this show know where I stand on Emma Stone. She is the chosen one. Really good pick. Chris, comedy or horror? This is challenging for you because you're a hilarious person who is obsessed with horror movies. So I'm fascinated to know which direction you're going. I'm going with the funniest movie of the year. That's Blue Valentine. You know what? I feel like I have a battery in my back i'm gonna do me

i'm gonna pick jackass 3d wow oh my god one of the all-time greatest experiences i've ever had in a movie theater tears of joy streaming down my face what a What a testament to 3D technology. What a testament to Spike Jonze. I fucking love the Jackass movies. And I remember, like, honestly, almost going into cardiac arrest watching this movie. So I'm going to go with Jackass 3D. Chris, you are building the bad news bears. It's an extraordinary thing.

Never let me go. Jackass 3D double feature. I know. Let me, can I just say something? Can I say something two rounds in to Chris Ryan, who I love and who's letting his light shine. And you know what, Chris, that's what I always love about you. And I think it's an extraordinary reflection of your taste. And I think that the public deserves to have access to that on a regular basis.

But I just need you to keep in mind also that we're trying to defeat Sean. Okay? So just like in the next four rounds, I want you to think about what it means to be you. Can I be honest? And also what it means to let Sean win. I feel like I was too safe going into this

because I had like the townism. It's got to be a blockbuster. Like I have to like really play by the rules. Yeah, but we got screwed on that by Sean Fantasy because it's only made like it did not make 100 million domestic box office, which is the rule. So you got to think ahead, my guy. So now I'm just pivoting to chaos and this is and I'm representing myself. Amanda, watch what happens, man. Twitter will back me up on this. All my Cary Mulligan heads, all the Cary Mulligan bots,

and all the Steve-o bots are going to come put their finger on the scale for this one. As usual, playing right into my hands. I love it. My pick for comedy or horror is Scott Pilgrim vs. The World. If you want to hear how I feel about it,

you can listen to the last episode of this show. I do not need to pontificate. It also subtly operates as like five or six other genres of movies, so I feel good about this pick. I also get the first pick in Blockbuster Must Earn $100 Million at the Domestic Box Office. And my pick is Inception, which is a movie that people think I hate, but I don't hate.

I like it just fine, and it's my pick is Inception, which is a movie that people think I hate, but I don't hate. I like it just fine. And it's my pick for Blockbuster. Boom. This worked out perfectly in my favor. Cool. Chris, you're up. Blockbuster.

So I'm doing Blockbuster, huh? I love Shutter Island. As we just talked about. It would be funny if you took it just so that Sean can't pick it in a later category. I'm just pointing that out to you. I'm going to take Shutter Island. Okay. Yes!

I watched it last night. Is it a spite pick? Miracle of a movie. No, it was between this and another film that was right there. And I think recency bias is pointing me towards Shutter Island as a blockbuster. I think it's a strong pick.

I'm fascinated to know what Amanda picks because I feel like she's been boxed in a little bit here. I was. And I want to go on record that I did have Shutter Island in my back pocket as a spite pick based on your conversations and tweeting last night. So wait, Amanda. Amanda. Yeah. Yeah. But I have a different spite pick ready.

Should I trade down with you then? No. Whoa, whoa, whoa. No, because I have another spite pick ready. Okay. I have another different Should I trade down with you then? No, no, because I have another I have another spite pick ready I have another spite pick that is also and Chris, Chris this is a spite pick

so you can't turn on me, okay? Because there are elements of it that you're going to think are a betrayal but you got to think of the greater good Never Okay? My blockbuster is Toy Story 3 Oh boy

Yep, there you go, Sean i know chris chris i told you i see that face and you got to think through it but i was boxed in i would have liked to pick either the town or frankly unstoppable but sean made that impossible at the 11th hour by the way the 100 million dollar domestic box office rule was only added in last night. No, it was. After the rule, Sean came through, Moscow Sean, with like a late inning change to procedure. Classic parliamentary bullshit. So, all right. I mean, if you can draw it, it can't happen,

but I'll allow it. So let's just put this on the record. Me, known Inception hater, has chosen has chosen inception and amanda known animated movie disliker has chosen toy story 3 and chris ryan yes mentally ill person who believes he is living a different life has chosen shutter island so it's perfect this is a perfect category i'm so glad i changed the rules on blockbuster because it made for these great selections. The next category is animated foreign language. Amanda, you just picked an animated movie, but you have the first pick in this category. I did.

And so, you know, I had another movie in my back pocket that I doubt we'll talk about, which is sad because though maybe you guys will pick one. I really considered doing a Min minions bit and, you know, explaining what minions are to Chris. Chris, do you know what minions are? Yeah. They're the yellow thing that looms over the Valley here in Los Angeles. Yes. There we go. Thank you for understanding minions in my terms, but I'm not going to do a despicable me. I'm going to do, I am love. By Luca Guadagnino, which, you know,

I was talking about movies, remembering where you were when you saw them. And I have such a vivid memory of seeing this at BAM, I believe in Brooklyn by myself, because my dad had somehow seen I Am Love and was like, this is the best movie I've ever seen. You have to go see it. And so I just remember,

and I think the theater was pretty empty. I must have gone on like a summer afternoon and just letting just the sights and really the sounds of that score and all of the Italy and the melodrama wash over me. And it has really stayed with me. You're in a great movie. If you haven't seen it, I recommend it. Great pick. One thing I want to cite rules-wise throughout this conversation

is that these are films that were released in the United States in the year 2010. Yes. We should have said that at the top of this conversation. I Am Love, for example,

and I think other films that may apply to this category could have been released at Cannes in 2009 or shown up in Europe in theaters. We're talking about the United States 2010 release dates. Chris, animated or foreign language film?

I assume you're going with Megamind, the 2010 animated film starring Will Ferrell. Is that right? I was hoping that was my second drama pick. Okay. This one's for my real CR heads. Okay. If you've been down with me.

We talked about this. If you've been down with me since day one, you know what I'm about. So I'm going with a prophet. I thought you would go in another direction. Explain a prophet to folks. One of the best crime films of the decade absolutely like colossal performance from tahar rahim in this film it's about uh a guy an algerian guy in paris or in france who gets arrested and becomes sort of transformed into a

like mega criminal in prison and becomes an assassin and like a drug dealer directed by Jacques Odiard. And it is just one of the grittiest, most like epic crime films of the decade. It's really still like a Titanic achievement. First of all, Chris, I want to compliment your pronunciation game throughout that. Thanks, man. Explanation that was extremely strong. Secondly, I'm shocked that you didn't pick Carlos, which is a film I know you're a huge fan of, Olivier Assayas' movie. And last night, I did ask a procedural question about how much English was going to be allowed to be in a foreign film. And you did allow it, but I think you didn't even answer, but I took it to be you allowing it.

But at the end of the day, I think that a prophet has just stayed with me a little bit more strongly than Carlos. Okay, strong pick. My pick is Dogtooth. This is the breakout film from Yorgos Lanthimos, the Greek filmmaker who makes incredibly unnerving, fascinating, absurdist comedy dramas. American moviegoers may be most familiar

with his movie, The Favorite, or maybe The Lobster. This is the movie that put him on the map in many ways. And man, is this one of the quarantine movies of our time? The way that the story of this movie unfolds is almost exactly as life feels in quarantine, in which the words that we think are the right words to use to describe things are frequently not. We seem to be living in a simulated experience that is guided by people who don't necessarily care about us. The story is a very intimate tale of a family who rarely leave their home and a couple of parents who teach their children a way of life, but not in a normal accepted way of life. And the language that they use and the actions that they take and the way

that they live together is confounding and disorienting. And this movie is incredibly funny, but also quite upsetting simultaneously and essentially announced really one of the great filmmakers of the next 10 years. I look forward to Yorgos' work in the future. If you haven't seen Dogtooth, I would highly recommend you check it out. So those are our picks for animated foreign language. None of us picked an animated movie, which I can't say is shocking for you guys. Amanda, you put the hard block on me with Toy Story 3. That's a real shame.

But then we... Then we go to the next category. So for my pick for wildcard, I'm going with Exit Through the Gift Shop. I mean, as a guy, can you just even begin to describe

what Banksy has meant to you? I am a bit speechless by that setup. I would say that Banksy has meant nothing to me, which is part of the reason why I like this film so much. I don't necessarily care about the artwork of the radical anonymous artist Banksy. I do really like this movie because of what it does in terms of stretching documentary form

and trying to get a sense of what is and is not real. The street artist Banksy, of course, is a very well-known British figure who also no one truly knows, who is known to create very radical and subversive street art, largely throughout Europe. And the movie ostensibly tracks his work

and the work of another artist who names himself Mr. Brainwash. But what is real and what is fake in the movie is kind of difficult to wrap your mind around. It's like a peak stunt movie. I think this was an interesting year for stunt movies. You know, Chris, you talked about Jackass 3D and the idea of fucking with the audience. I think this was a high time for that moment. Things in 2010, you know, we were right smack in the middle of the Obama era. And we were just trash humping, man.

We were trash humping. Yeah. Trash humpers was happening that year. Things seemed, if not perfect, a little bit easier, a little bit calmer, a little bit less transgressive. And this is the rare movie, I think, that was messing with our expectations. So I'm going to exit through the gift shop

with my wildcard. Chris, you have the floor. When I first saw that you put wildcard down as a category, my brain went in like a million different directions because that could mean so many different things. And if you'll allow me, if we were being specific and saying

wildcards could be even off-screen stuff, I would just want to say, this isn't my pick, but I would want to nominate the time in 2010 where Josh Brolin and Shia LaBeouf became day traders to promote Wall Street Money Never Sleeps. And there was all these articles about how they had like Charles Schwab accounts and we're doing like pullback theory on their, on their, on their hedge funds. And Shia was doing like interviews where he's like, I started my portfolio with 20 grand and now I have 300 grand. You know, it was like, and we were just like, let's get another article about this. Like, it was just so sick. That was two years after the financial collapse. And we were like, dude, did you see Shia LaBeouf? It's just like...

But that's not my pick. My pick is Monsters. So this is a Gareth Edwards movie. I think it's one of... In some ways, one of the most impressive... We throw around a lot of credit towards directors,

especially on the show, but in general, when we're talking about things, we assign a lot of authorial credit to the director. But this is really an incredible act of authorship by Gareth Edwards, who obviously went on to direct Rogue One and then

the first Godzilla film. But he shot this film. He did a lot of the special effects and production design on it. It's a movie set six years after an alien invasion on this planet. And basically, aliens being on this planet has become somewhat commonplace, but still very dangerous.

They're sort of dormant, but there. And Scoot McNary, in what is like his sort of breakout role, plays a photographer um in mexico who is uh tasked with he gets a job basically bringing a rich rich woman back to the states and they'd go on like a motorcycle road trip throughout mexico and throughout this kind of like uh unknown zone where there are still like aliens kind of roaming around it's like one of the most creative and intoxicating sci-fi movies you will see. And it's really Edwards at his best because he understands scale in a way that very few directors do

where he understands like the enormity of this stuff is actually best shown as a juxtaposition to very small like human stories. And I just always loved this movie i remember it was a very early netflix streaming movie um and that that kind of caught on that way but yeah i just i've always adored it great pick monsters chris uh you've only got one pick left amanda you have two picks left they're coming in succession your pick for wild card it this will surprise no one mine is somewhere uh directed by sophia coppola who is one of my favorite directors and somewhere

is you know like many of her movies quiet that not a not a ton of plot happens but it's about a successful actor steven dorf who is kind of between, played by Stephen Dorff, who is between projects. And so he lives at the Chateau Marmont and does kind of slightly dirtbag Hollywood actor things and then reconnects with his daughter, who is played by Elle Fanning.

And so it's a little bit about a movie about Hollywood ennui and existence. And it's a little bit about being the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola. And it is, I think, bit about a movie about Hollywood ennui and existence, and it's a little bit about being the daughter of Francis Ford Coppola. And it is, I think, really lovingly shot and definitely had an influence on me wanting to move to Los Angeles, which is a weird thing to say once you watch the movie. And I definitely don't spend as much time at the Chateau Marmont as Stephen Dorff does in this movie. But I think it is, you know, it's beautiful to look at and also shows the way in which Sofia Coppola

can kind of observe the world and make her point through the way she films it without actually saying a lot. And I find it really beautiful and ultimately a lovely father-daughter story. So that is my pick i'm i was honestly a little nervous that one of you would take it out of spite what would have happened if we had done that i actually like i kind of prepared myself for it emotionally so that i would know where to channel my anger and my rage i like i you know i'm glad

you didn't because i would have been really upset but way, like, I kind of think you guys are cowards for not taking it. Cause I waited until the, I mean, I left it to the fifth category. The perfect summation of the no win. I'm just saying it was very obvious that somewhere was going to be one of my picks and it's a, and it's also an excellent movie. So, okay. But that's fine. I it i'm thrilled i love

you sofia forever i know i like to needle you but i don't like to tempt the devil and uh i think if chris or i had chosen somewhere it's way too early in the day to get into that big of a fight good okay amanda you're you're you have the the your last pick it's in the sequel category i gotta say i don't think this was a great year for sequels so i'm fascinated to see what we do here no it was terrible and and even like a lot of the wouldn't it be funny if i just you know pick this to be a joke like if i picked the twilight movie that was released this year which was eclipse definitely the worst of the tw movies, even if you're going to lean in to the Twilight of it all. And by the way, I think the first Twilight directed by Catherine Hardwicke is very good,

but it doesn't, it's like nothing happens. She just sits there and is like, well, this guy's like a wolf or whatever Jacob was. I don't remember. And this guy's a vampire and what should I do? It sucks. Anyway, so I'm not doing that. I don't really think any of the sequels are good. I think that Toy Story 3 probably would have fit in this category, but I already took it. So I will be taking Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows part one. I have read all the Harry Potter movies and I really like them. I'm sorry. I've read all the books and I really like them. I think it was interesting rewatching part of it yesterday because the movies are still on HBO Max, though they will be leaving HBO Max, which made a lot of ways are very much like for the fans and for the culture. And in a lot of ways, they predict what's to come in terms of IP movies for the next

decade. But I do really like those books. And again, speaking of fond memories of seeing movies, I went to a screening of this movie with my friend Willa Paskin, who I worked with at Vulture at the time. And it was pretty early in my time at New York Magazine. I didn't know Willa that well. And so she like took me to the screening. And I think for six months afterwards, thought I was like the biggest geek culture person in the world because I was like so excited to see Harry Potter, which in retrospect is pretty funny, as anyone who listens to this

podcast would know. But yeah, Harry Potter. We could do worse. I think this movie is very good. I'm not as crazy about part two, but I think part one is really interesting. And it's an unfortunate byproduct of IP culture that we got these two- part finales in these movies, which I think is really stupid and unsatisfying. But I remember actually really enjoying seeing these. I enjoy the Harry Potter movies in general, too. I think they're all like as far as this stuff goes, they're pretty well made. This is the dark one where you have to deal with like all the degree, a lot of the grief and loss and like the really adult stakes before you get this sort of the fairy tale and

frankly a little nonsensical harry potter ending we don't really talk about that enough or i i mean i don't i still don't know how it ends how does it end i don't really understand i mean oh he does yeah thanos comes back he gets all the infinity stones and then he goes toe to toe with potter and then he kills Potter, and that's the end. Okay. I mean, it's honestly not that different because instead of Infinity Stones, there are these things called Horcruxes

that they have to collect, and then they use it, and they put together, and they kill the guy. But then he comes back for a second, but then he's dead again. At least I think. I have to be honest. It's like a two-ending situation.

But it's pretty good. It's pretty good. I think all of the adult actors are very good. Harry Potter child casting is, uh, and dealing with that several years later, it's not the best. It's not the best,

but that's okay. Chris sequels. You're up. Um, this was a really tough choice because on one hand, I wanted to pick the trailer for Predators, which was so much better than the actual film was, the Robert Rodriguez reboot of Predator. I am going to cheat.

And instead of doing a strict sequel, I'm going to choose a reboot. And it's going to be Ridley Scott's Robin Hood. One of the most outrageous casts you will ever come across in terms of just top to bottom, we go Russell Crowe as Robin, Cate Blanchett as Marion, William Hurt coming off the bench as the bad guy along with Mark Strong. Oscar Isaac is in this movie as Prince John. He is completely without any safety on with this this movie Oscar Isaac if you have not seen

Oscar Isaac in this film stop what you're doing and check it out Max von Sydow uh Danny uh Danny Houston Leah Seydoux just an incredible cast uh is this a good movie you're I don't know you know what I mean like it's like a lot of these movies the 07 to 12 even 13 14 run of Ridley Scott is you get an exodus god and kings you get a counselor you get prometheus I just find myself continually going back to them like I will watch body of of lies like now if you if it's on so were these movies technically good I don't know know. But Robin Hood was, I think, we're going to reboot this. We're going to make a series of these. Crow is back, gladiator style, but this time with bows and arrows. It didn't really work out.

But I still, of all the other sequels this year, this is the one that I would actually watch. Chris, before I make my last pick, I want to do a little personal history. This is important. In 2010, before Robin Hood was set to come out, you and I were, as friends, were in the middle of a big Ridley Scott jag. We were talking a lot about Ridley Scott. We were very interested in his movies. We, of course, obviously both love them. I think you even more than me, but they've been a topic of conversation for 15 years between us. So we were looking forward to this movie. We went to go see this movie. And as has so often been the case with films like Black Hat, Miami Vice,

Objects of Chris Ryan Affection, we would go to the movie together. I would sit up and say, wow, that was shockingly bad. And then you would find ways to defend it for an hour. And this is a very memorable version of it because, and here's the personal history, you may or may not recall recording a test podcast in my basement in the year 2010. This was well before we worked together professionally.

This was well before podcasting was in the mainstream of culture. This was something that you and I thought we could try just to see if it would work out. I don't even know if we ever imagined giving it to anyone. I don't know where that file is right now. The topic of conversation was entirely about Ridley's work with Robin Hood as the premise. And look at us now. The secret is real. If you will it, it is no dream. That's all I have to say to you, Chris. And we were just two crazy kids doing it for the love of the game too. You know what I mean? There

was no cut out the middleman underwear ads to be reading. There was no fame and fortune in podcasting. We were doing it because we really cared about where we were taking the Robin Long Stride canon. It's amazing what we've accomplished in that time, speaking on podcasts about mediocre Ridley Scott movies. How can we get that tape? Where do you think it is? Do you think it made the move?

It's probably on a laptop that got completely fried by a virus Sean downloaded from Audio Galaxy or something. Well, that basement in particular was a real den of iniquity for nerds it was stacked with cd jewel cases far as the eye could see and it was frequently flooding there was almost always water on the floor in that basement in that terrible apartment in park slope so uh it's probably lost the time but if anyone happens to come across it, um, if you, if you hacked me in 2010 and you have your hands on it, uh, please don't hack me anymore, but maybe you could share it with Chris. Um, and we could go back and listen to how far we've come in 10 years. It's probably

Chris. It's honestly probably exactly the 10 year anniversary. That's really wild guys. I'm just, uh, reviewing my picks. There's going to be a review portion at the end. No, there's going to be like an extended review portion with annotation. Chris Ryan, don't you worry. Go ahead. I have to make the final pick. And Chris has put me in a tough spot because he's already made good jokes about the two movies I'm choosing between.

And those two movies are Wall Street Money Never Sleeps and Predators. Now, if those are the two picks I have to make, and we've already talked about how I'm not going to pick Iron Man 2. That wasn't good. I seriously thought about Step Up 3D. You guys seen Step Up 3D? I had Step Up 3D on my shortlist. Yeah. Pretty good. Pretty good movie. I'm pro Predators, Chris, more than just the trailer. I think Predators is fun. I think it doesn't have a great conclusion. It obviously doesn't live up to the greatness of the original film, but I think it's pretty nifty. Nimrod on Tal's movie. But I'm going Wall Street Money Never Sleeps and here's why. I'm in the midst of an Oliver Stone personal moment. Oliver Stone's

memoir was released today or yesterday, and I'm very excited to read it. It's essentially the story of his life all the way up until his Oscar win for Platoon. So that includes all the films that he made in that time, his time serving in Vietnam, his very complicated relationship with American history and with protest and with what he believes to be on the side of right, and also his writing career as a Hollywood screenwriter. He also wrote movies like Scarface and Midnight Express and, you know, was just a hugely celebrated writer and director in that time. Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps, one funniest movie title, I think, of the decade. Money Never Sleeps is high comedy. Two, I love what you're talking about with Shia and Brolin day trading.

That's great stuff. But three, it's like, it's not a good film, but it is incredibly well made as most stone movies are and deeply watchable. All of his movies, I find even his, his quote unquote, worst movies. I find to be amazingly watchable. U-turn Alexander, um, it's Snowden, you know, a lot of those movies I think are, are, are not even that effective. But you don't want to turn them off. And as I dive deep into the 15, 16 Oliver Stone filmography, Money Never Sleeps jumps out. That's my last pick. That's the last pick of this game.

So let's go to reckoning time. We're going to quickly recount the picks that we've made. And Chris, condolencesences i may have been on ambient for this every time you do this you just kind of go into your own it's nice this is if i was uh if i was like an actual gm drafting stuff three people would go back 10 years from now and be like he was a fucking genius but i would definitely get fired tonight um i would be like sashi brown you know what i mean of like i i was thinking more david khan this is this has got david khan you know passing over steph curry vibes all over it but let's go team by team okay um ch Chris, we'll start with you. Here's your team. For drama, you chose Never Let Me Go.

For comedy or horror, you chose Jackass 3D. For blockbuster, you chose Shutter Island. For animated foreign language, you chose A Prophet. For wildcard, you chose Monsters. And for sequel, you chose Robin Hood, which is not a sequel. It's the Never Let Me Go Robin Hood that really makes it art you know you started and just like pure Chris Ryan and I never let me go is like what they'll write about for you just as a

lead-off choice because you could have taken the town. You could have taken many other really successful grown-up dramas. I didn't consider it a drama per se. Okay. Well, that's on you. Strategy, my guy. You could have taken Inception. You could have... Okay. Amanda, let's do your team. For drama, you chose the town. For comedy or horror, you chose Easy A. For blockbuster, you chose, spitefully, Toy Story 3. For animated or foreign language, you chose I a for blockbuster you chose spitefully toy story 3 for animated or foreign language you chose i am love for wild card you chose somewhere and for sequel you chose harry potter and the deathly hallows part one extremely amanda pics very amanda i felt like they were they were both amanda and also not the dumbest pics ever. Like I tried to... No offense to anyone else on the podcast.

I've tried to, you know, play some strategy and also have some Amanda picks. Like I didn't, for example, pick Morning Glory, which is a 2010 rom-com starring Rachel McAdams, Harrison Ford, and Diane Keaton, which like I love. That is an Amanda cult classic. That's a...

Go watch that movie. If you haven't seen it, it's completely delightful, but I'm not going to win with Morning Glory. And I know that. Should I have made rom-com a category? I thought about it. I don't think so. Well, I, you know, you could have fit it in comedy, but even by 2010, it's really waning. And it's like a lot of Katherine Heigl rom-coms and, and, and, and Morning Glory didn't do that well, despite my father walking out of the theater and asking whether it went an Oscar, which is a real thing that happened. So it, at this point, it's just not really, this is the beginning of the death of the rom-com by 2010.

Well, at some point we're going to have to have, I really want to do a James Brooks episode. You know, I've been so fascinated by the season of You Must Remember This on Polly Platt. And there's been a lot of focus on the films of James Brooks. And 2010 is the how do you know year. And, you know, James Brooks has this amazing, almost like platinum career of working on Mary Tyler Moore and Taxi and Broadcast News and Terms of Endearment. And he's made so many special things. He's a producer of The Simpsons. Unbelievable work.

And how do you know I recall being one of the most unwatchable movies of the century? I still, I was saying to Amanda, I still remember where I was when it was like, James Brooks is back. And he's like, yes, James Brooks is back. And it was like, he's making a movie with Reese Witherspoon. I'm like, are you kidding me? And he's like, she's a softball player.

And I was like, what do you mean? And that is the plot. That is the plot. Guys, Chris made these jokes to me. So it's on Netflix right now. I went back and watched part of, how do you know? I would say I made it about 45 minutes in. And then I was like, this, this has not gotten any better. It was not that it was misunderstood in 2010. It made absolutely no sense, completely miscast. No one knows what they're doing. But then I went from watching How Do You Know

to listening to the most recent episode of You Must Remember This, which is about I'll do anything. And we're talking to Brooks, but that was, that was a rough one too, for me personally. The,

the plot of how do you know reads like the seventh season of an ABC drama where you're just like this, this, these people must be the children of the main characters of this show. Like, how does this work? It's very confusing. It's, it's simultaneously the most well-heeled movie of all time.

This is a movie written and directed by James L. Brooks. It stars Reese Witherspoon, Paul Rudd, Owen Wilson, Jack Nicholson, and Katherine Hahn. The score is by Hans Zimmer, and the film is shot by Janusz Kaminski. This movie costs $120 million to make, and nobody likes it. I don't know anybody who likes it. And everybody likes all of the people involved in it. I'm just going to read the first few sentences of the plot. Softball player Lisa Jorgensen is devastated

when she is left off the Team USA roster. What? Unsure what to do next, Lisa begins dating Maddie Reynolds, a pitcher for the Washington Nationals. Okay. She also receives an intriguing phone call from a young executive, George Madison, who was advised by a friend of

Lisa's to give her a call. That's the plot of the movie. That is the plot of the movie. So strange. Just it's very unusual. And to your point, Amanda, about rom-coms, it's just, it's a very challenging time that this, we were talking about kind of turning points, and this seems like kind of a turning point year as well, where it kind of goes out of fashion. Yeah. You also mentioned the $100 million plus budget for that movie, which was another interesting thing when I was going back to the movies of 2010

and looking at live action, non-franchise movies that did have $100 million budgets. Salt is another one. I rewatched Salt. I'm sad that we didn't get to have any Salt jokes on this podcast. I also remember seeing Salt in theaters, again, alone. I guess I went to the movies alone a lot in 2010. But Salt has a $110 million budget. And it's like, I mean, I understand why it's an action film and they have a lot of, you know, they're doing a lot of stunts. But I just, they don't spend that much money on movies anymore unless they're giant franchises.

It reminds me a little bit of, a little bit of like the old guard. You know, the old guard is now like a piece of IP. And the expectation, I think, was hopefully that there would be like a Salt 2, Saltier or something like that. They never really got around to it. Salt was pretty successful though. And Angelina at that time, she was, I think where Charlize is now in terms of the, you know, the incredibly strong,

powerful female action star. Totally. And I understand why it's just funny. It's a thing. It was surprising looking at 20 in 2020 at these budgets. Okay. Let's, let's close out the episode by looking back at my absolutely glorious

picks. My six selections for drama i chose the social network for comedy or horror i chose scott pilgrim versus the world or blockbuster i chose inception for animated or foreign language i chose yorgos lanthimos's dog tooth for wild card i chose exit through the gift shop and for sequel i chose wall street money never sleeps so do you think it's like too obvious if you were like a straight I chose Exit Through the Gift Shop. And for sequel, I chose Wall Street, Money Never Sleeps. So... Do you think it's like too obvious? If you were like a straight up normie square, you'll vote for Sean. Yeah, that's the thing.

It's just you like basically just listed the movies that show up when you Google 2010 movies. Yeah. And that's your right. But like, I don't know. Do you feel like people are going to connect to that? What you're doing is what's wrong with American politics. You know, I'm not here to sling mud. I'm just a man who loves movies. I love these films. I feel strongly about all of them.

Sleepy Sean governing from the center. And also, you've like completely abandoned your own principles by picking Inception. I'm trying to get special interests out of movie drafts. I'm trying to end gerrymandering here. I'm just trying to talk directly to the people. Do you like Inception? Me too. Do you like Dogtooth? Me too. Come join me in this crusade to goodness. You don't like Inception. You said that on this podcast. You don't like it. I don't know what you guys are talking about. I don't know. What I did is I built a rock solid foundation

of thought leadership. And I'm proud of what we all did here today. Any closing thoughts? What do you guys think is the movie that we are going to get the most I can't believe you left this off? I think it's going to be Unstoppable or On Sunday. Unstoppable should have been in Blockbuster, but Sean screwed us all because it only made

like $85 million domestic, I think. So it did not qualify for Blockbuster. $85 million of the domestic box office is not busting a block. That's not, definitionally, that does not qualify. So, uh, there are a few films. You're right about unstoppable. We didn't mention unstoppable. It's a great movie. I think in the same way I didn't add rom-com, I didn't add action.

And maybe that would have been the best way to, to account for Tony Scott's final film, which as listeners of the rewatchables know, I think we all love. It's just a great, hugely entertaining movie. A couple of other ones that we left off that I think are pretty important. Animal kingdom, the Australian crime drama.

Great movie. The other guys, the Adam McKay, Will Ferrell collaboration. Greenberg, really like Greenberg. Noah Baumbach's incredibly cranky LA story. Get Him to the Greek. That's a movie that people seem to like. You mentioned En Sand D, Chris. I can't believe you betrayed Villeneuve.

Well, I've actually got scar tissue by not getting prisoners in the Deacon's Hall of Fame. So Denis and I are planning our own podcast. We're recording it in his basement tonight. Chris, where are you at on Dune? You good? Yeah, man. Nothing but confidence in Denis.

Nothing but confidence in him. I do want to shout out a couple of other movies from 2010. Is that cool? Feel free. I want to say that Frozen is an incredible horror movie and it's terrifying. It's about a bunch of teenagers who get stuck in a ski lift. That is just about as scary as you can imagine. It's like the ski lift stops at sunset and they have to spend the night on the mountain and decide whether to jump off the ski lift and there are wolves

involved. So that's a great one. I also am very fond of the cinema of Breck Eisner as we've talked about before and I love his take on The Crazies which is a Timothy Olyphant, Rodda Mitchell horror jam that I really like. And gosh, is there anything else I would like to shout out?

Chris, Breck Eisner is the son of Michael Eisner, former Disney CEO. Did you guys consider Fishtank 2010 or 2009? What is it, Amanda? What do you think? Well, you had it on your letterbox of 2010. So Fishtank is up there for me yeah i think it was january 2010 when it was released in america so it technically would qualify and

it actually might be better than almost every movie that we talked about so that's a that's that's tough that we overlooked that what any other jarring viewing experiences very upsetting movie very powerful movie. Any other leftovers, Amanda, that you want to cite? I just think it's notable that, you know, we talked about the social network, obviously, which did not win Best Picture, but we did not acknowledge really any of the Oscar picks of this year.

If you look at the Oscars, I mean, obviously the King's Speech wins, which the less said about that, the better. But The Fighter, I talked a bit about it. Black Swan, Sean, which you mentioned. The Kids Are Alright was in the mix. 127 Hours, remember that one? So the Oscars got it completely wrong this year, in our opinions.

You know, it's a big oversight. And a lot of these movies are not mentioned because of the very weird parameters around the categories that I created. But no True Grit. That's true. Which I don't think has a big reputation. And I read True Grit, the novel, the Charles Porter's novel, for the first time this year. And it was one of those like, you know, pizza is good kind of moments where I was like,

oh, wow, this is just amazing. Like, this is so, this totally lives up to the hype and the reputation of it. And I, you know, the, the, the movie, the Coen brothers version of the movie is so much more faithful to the book and to the tone of the book than that original John Wayne version for which he won best actor in the sixties. Um, but I just, I don't even know where True Grit fits in in this kind of construction of what we did here. Likewise, 127 hours. You know, that's like

a kind of interesting, mostly incredibly difficult to watch Danny Boyle movie about James Franco struggling between two rocks. And, you know, that doesn't fit into the sequel category

or the animated or foreign language category. So we just, we overlooked it. I hope people will understand. Chris, enjoy Winter's Bone tonight. I hope you get something meaningful out of that rewatch. Amanda, is there anything else

on your rewatch list that you're going to check out before we exit 2010 forever? That's a great question. You know, it was fun revisiting a lot of them. Salt is really stupid, but I had a nice time.

I think it's probably time for another social network. I mean, I think I rewatched that movie every six months and it has not been, it's been six months for me. And we're obviously coming up on the anniversary and obviously Facebook and its intentions and origins are as relevant as ever, unfortunately. Let's just say that on the big picture, we have an amazing fall

for the three of us, honestly, because we have a brand new film by Aaron Sorkin. We have a brand new film by David Fincher. And we have the 10-year anniversary of The Social Network. So we're going to have a lot of opportunity to talk about a lot of stuff

that we really care about. And it's the 10-year anniversary of Jackass 3D, too. So we have that going for us. What I promise here to do is that if we do a jackass pod i'll recreate one stunt from jackass which one i get to pick i'll pick no no no no okay this has been very fun. Chris Ryan, Amanda Dobbins, thank you guys very much.

Please tune into The Big Picture. We'll be back next week talking about a movie that probably is not Tenet. Stay safe and wear a mask. you