The Big Picture - Our 800th Episode Ask-Us-Anything Mailbag. Plus: ‘Elio’ and ‘How to Train Your Dragon.’

Episode Date: June 23, 2025

Sean and Amanda celebrate 800 (!) episodes with a special “Ask Us Anything” movie mailbag. They answer your questions on whether or not 2025 has been a good movie year, share theatrical experiences that have floored them this century, and build their own “Intro to Film” curriculum (3:39). Then, they unpack a pair of two recent children’s movie releases. They start with the new Pixar animated film, ‘Elio,’ and wonder whether its lack of box office suggests that there is a Pixar movie crisis (1:14:20). Finally, they cover ‘How to Train Your Dragon,’ the live-action remake of the original 2010 Dreamworks smash hit, and explain why they find this to be the lowest form of creativity possible (1:30:51). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Jack Sanders Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the brand new Zach Lowe show. That's right. I'm back to have the same in-depth NBA conversations you're used to. We're going to talk about the games, the X's and O's, the drama, the playoffs are coming up. And now you get to see every episode in full on video on Spotify and on my own YouTube channel. Episodes drop every Monday and Thursday with a collection of guests you're going to love. So make sure you follow and subscribe to the brand new Zach Lowe show on Spotify or wherever you watch or listen to your podcasts. Let's go. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbin.

And this is the Big Picture, a conversation show about 800 and beyond, maybe. Today on the show, we'll talk about two kids' films dominating the movies this month, a live action How to Train Your Dragon remake, and Pixar's latest Elio. We'll also open the mailbag to answer your questions to celebrate what is our eighth, no, 800th episode. So I was 34 years old. Childless, living a quiet life as a generally panicked digital media editor. That was all when the show started.

And now today, you find me, 79 years old, on the verge of physical and mental total collapse. And drowning in plastic. And my collection is stronger than ever. How are you feeling across all these years and days of this show? Great, thrilled to be here. I don't know, I haven't thought about too much,

you know, it's another Monday. Okay. Got the kids to school. Nice. We got good questions. We did. I'm, as always, very grateful to be doing this. Very grateful to our listeners. Very excited for our live events, our film festivals,

everything we're doing this year. And, you know, and it's just another day talking about the movies. OK, thanks for hanging in there, mama. Housekeeping, Letterboxd is back. And I don't just mean my usage of it. I mean the big pictures' usage of it. Thanks to some new forces behind the scenes,

we have reactivated our show's account. It is at the big pick on Letterboxd. We are publishing lists from old episodes. We'll be doing ones for new episodes. If you want to keep up with the show, we make a lot of lists on this show. We talk about a lot of movies. We name drop tons of movies through every episode.

People are always saying, why can't I have these lists printed out somewhere? We don't put them in the show notes because we want you to listen to the episode. And if you're saying out there, but I listen anyway, I appreciate that. However, once again, this is how we feed our children. Yes.

There will be this ongoing resource though, that you can go to on our Letterboxd account. How is your Letterboxd account looking these days? I don't think that I've updated it in four to five years. Okay. You know, I checked in recently to see what my top four were and I thought they were pretty good. What were they?

They were a few good men. His Girl Friday, Marie Antoinette, and I want to say four weddings and a funeral. Okay. Congrats. Um, yeah, that's representative. Not Working Girl. No, but my icon is Melanie Griffith in Working Girl. Maybe that's what I'm thinking of.

Yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's great. We miss you. Come back. The water is warm. I'm really busy posting on Instagram. I'm thriving there. I see. Okay. And I'm, you know, movie fans are also welcome to join me or at the big picture there.

Okay, sure. But that's kind of, that's really where I'm thriving right now. Thank you so much. Understood. So, Jack Sanders, we opened the mailbag up and you know, we didn't, we just announced it on the episode. So, this, the questions that we would have gotten,

I don't believe there's a social media post about this. So, that means you had to be a real head who listened to the 28 years episode and wrote in to us and had a big thought. There was no x.com, I know you really wanted us to get it up there on X. I said, no, not this time, Amanda. We don't need to use that platform for our content.

It was only posted on Truth Social. It was Truth Social. That's great. Well, it was very busy there this weekend, as we know. Let's get to more important matters for this show, which is the questions that we received. Jack Goodmix, was everybody edgy? Were they cool? What was it like? I was very delighted.

This was a strong batch of emails, I would say. The questions that you picked out, they were good. And also, you know, I did think that people listened to us, you know, and what we were looking for and what we were maybe not looking for. What we called for. Well, maybe Jack was listening. Yeah, or Jack as well.

There certainly were plenty of dream castings still in the emails, but that's okay. It's like there are only so many people on Earth, and I have already Dreamcasted them in movies. You know what I mean? I am going the other way. Next episode, all Dreamcast. Every single question will be a Dreamcast question. Okay, let's just go right into it.

800 episodes, what's the first question for us? John asks, I've been thinking about your comments on the great slate of movies in 2023 and how this year I projected something similar, but imagine it will end up falling short of my expectations. This reflection has me wondering, are there obvious signs to note when you may or may not get a great collection of films

come end of the year? Why is John's confidence wavering? Yeah, it's early, man. I feel like things are getting, things are picking up. Things are picking up. I do think we're going to be like maybe in for a little bit of a bumpy July, right? I'm seeing Eddington tonight, man. I don't know.

I mean, so am I. You don't need to exclude me from that. But you understand what I'm saying. Like the big ticket movies, we're not sure. So June has been, I think, a pretty cool blockbuster summer so far. We'll talk about F1 on Friday. Yeah. Uh, we just raved about 28 years later.

Materialist, maybe not a perfect movie, but I have one that was very fun. Yes. For the purposes of this show. And continues to be just an incredible discussion point. It's in the culture. It's making some money. So June's been fun. July, yes, Superman and Fantastic Four.

Those are, there's a lot hinging on those in a variety of ways. I'm sure we'll spend a lot of time on this show breaking all those things down. Plus dinosaurs. And then Jurassic World, you're right, I forgot about that. And then August is unusually loaded this year. Right, but it does also have the feeling of just like, well, we don't really know what to do with this,

so here you go in August. For some of those. And that sometimes means like, oh, here is a very, you know, fun surprise or something that we're gonna be talking about for a while. And sometimes it's like, well, this didn't pan out. Yeah, that's true. But you know, come September, the festival start again,

like we're back on the horse, big things can happen. There's a new PTA. New PTA, new Spike Lee, There's a lot of stuff coming. Both Safdie brothers have movies coming out. I think there's a lot of stuff this year that could mean a great year. I'm definitely not ruling it out. The thing that he's talking about, 2023,

is that there were a lot of big brand name things promised, both in the sense of Barbie is a brand name, but Greta Gerwig, you know, Oppenheimer and Spider-Man, like, and basically everything hit, you know, and so far, some of our big hopes have hit, some we've been a little disappointed by, and you never know, right? That is kind of the fun of movies. It's then you go see it and you're just like,

wow, they did it. The core of the question itself is a little hard to locate, which is how do you know you're going to get a good movie? We obviously spend a lot of time hyping up what's to come on the show. We do movie auctions. We talk about the movies we're looking forward to at the festivals. This year, I think it was pretty reasonable to be excited about, you know, for me, which are pretty easily

the two standouts of the year so far, are Sinners and 28 Years Later. Those are the two movies that are in a very specific zone for me personally in terms of my taste and also have reached a lot of people. And, you know, movies like Black Bag, Phoenician Scheme, Warfare, these are all like the shrouds. Like, I had a pretty good feeling those movies

were gonna at least be interesting to me. Like I had a pretty good feeling those movies were going to at least be interesting to me. But I don't know that I would have known that Final Destination Bloodlines would have been one of my favorite movies of the year. I think that's a lack of introspection on your part. Perhaps. Perhaps. And especially once we saw the clip of the MRI machine. Yes, that's what I learned. It was like, oh, this has the juice. You know, creative inspiration has been found.

It does. But you know, on the other hand, you could look at the year to come and say like, oh my God, Mickey 17, we're still back. But like that movie was a little bit of a let down for people. I think I'm slightly more in the mixed camp so far this year. And I really, really liked Sinners. I really, really liked 28 years later. Also I liked 28 Days Later, but that was made 26 years ago.

Correct. So, but like I said, you know, like, oh my God, we got a really smart zombie movie. It's like, yeah, I'm like, that's cool, you know? Like, we need to bring people to the theaters, but it's not gonna like stand out in my memory forever. It's like the greatest year. I really liked Black Bag.

It, as you know, Soderbergh, my guy. Like, minor Soderbergh, even a little bit, Phoenician Scheme with Wes Anderson, which I thought was like great, but it, you know. Was received as Minor. Yeah, it's just people we really love doing their thing well. Yes. But it's maybe not the one for the history books.

But when I was going through that list of 2023 movies a couple of episodes ago, none of these movies were released at this time of the year, aside from Past Lives had to blow up a pipeline, and I think that's it. And all these other movies to this point in the year had not yet come out. And most of them were like Zone of Interest, you know, Kills of the Fire Moon.

These were fall awards movies. Totally. But I also think like 2023 is the real exception. My in-laws still like talk about and ask me regularly, because we planned our, and you and I both planned our entire summer vacations around Barbenheimer, because as soon as that was released, you and I just like kind of knew, and we're like, okay, that's going to be a major thing we need to cover. And then, and then we can go on vacation.

And so I planned my vacation with my in-laws around that. And they're so like, how did you know? That became such a thing. That's so amazing. And I love Rich and Jane, but I'm just like, it does not take, you know, a genius to know that that is going to be a thing. However, even we didn't know it would be that big. No, definitely.

I wouldn't have predicted that either. I think that's a good way to kind of try to answer that question though, because Christopher Nolan is the single biggest director on the planet right now. So that's one where it's just like anytime we won't be going away when the Odyssey is coming out next year either. Like we will don't, you know, plan your vacation now. I think it's the second week of July, first week of July, whatever the zone is that he usually likes to release in.

It's the same weekend every year, more or less. And then Greta, that's your favorite director. You know what I mean? Like, we would never not be there for a moment like that, even though it was a Barbie movie and you could be like, oh, well, you could concertual it if you wanted to. We never would have not showed up. And that's the way that we do the show and that's the way we evaluate what the year is going to be,

which is we have our favorites, we have our hobby horses, you know, if there's a Fincher movie or a PTA movie, we're like gonna be more excited than if there's not. And we look closely at the festivals. We look closely at the pipeline. Like the reason I keep bringing up which studio is putting out what movie is because I think that that also helps me dictate the slate. Like this year was an interesting one because universal slate,

while successful financially, we'll talk about how to train your dragon in a little bit, just doesn't have as much stuff that I'm interested in, as they're gonna have next year or as they had two years ago. And that, I think, helps kind of set the expectation for what kind of a year we're gonna have. Warner Brothers was concerned trolled all year, but in the back of my mind, I was like, Warner Brothers slate looks like it fucking rocks.

Like, I don't care if it makes money. Sure, but again, that was the question of like, this looks like it could go really well if everything pans out. And so far for them, it has panned out. Like sinners, absolutely rocks. Also, people went to see it. And that, which was the main question there. One battle after another, I think you and I are pretty confident is going to rock. Yeah. I've now gotten several DMs.

Yeah. We have heard all about your... See see listen. You are also talking about film on Instagram Yeah, well, I'm not using it too much to talk but I am receiving right. Okay. Wow. Okay You know, it's really more like the pony express for me When I dig into the DMS every 14 days, that's when I see the news. That's beautiful But we don't know how it's going to do box office wise. And I don't care. Right. And that's another thing, right?

Like how are we evaluating? Like what's a successful year? Is it just like the movies we care about rock for us? Do they also make literally billions of dollars? And once again, 2023 is a special example of both things happening. Superman is such an interesting... kind of triangulation for what we do on the show. You know, it's obviously somebody who annoys you.

It's a character that we have not really had any opportunity to talk about aside from our Justice League four-hour Snyder cut pod. We have not really spent a lot of time talking about Superman, the character, although he is an iconic American creation. And it's a huge movie for a studio that we're talking about right now. So when you have big interesting question marks like that, it's a little hard to be like, this will be a great year. Cause we don't know.

Can, will you come on Jam Session before August, before I go on leave again and do like a ranking the press tours of the summer, so far, because everyone's like really out here. I'm less good at seeing that stuff than you are. So maybe I'll make a point to it. I'll send you some links. What made me think of this was like the photos of David Cornswett and your wife, Rachel Brosnahan,

opposing in front of the Christ the Redeemer statue. I did see that. I did see that one. So we're like really, really going for it. I'd like to thank Rachel Brosnahan. Yeah, I mean, she's, like, they're all trying. I think he was on the cover of People. But, you know, then there's also, you know,

the Jurassic World photo calls have started. Jonathan Bailey was wearing the Roe flip-flop. It's like there's like a whole, we have like a lot to discuss. People are working hard. It's a big month. Whether it's gonna work is interesting. It's a big month. Whether it's going to work is interesting. It's a big month. Yeah, people are trying.

They are trying. We didn't really answer that question, but we did our best. And that's really what we do here. Jack, what's our next question? Reagan asks, I'll be entering my second year of law school this fall, and I'm currently interning in Los Angeles at an entertainment law firm.

My question to you both is what are the most iconic slash best movie theaters I must grab a ticket to see while I'm here this summer? I have a car so I'm mobile and willing to brave the LA traffic to try out some iconic theaters. Love this question. Are we sure? Is it Reagan or Reagan? Do we think? You know, there was some deliberation back here. We went back and forth. I'm not totally sure. There's no A. If it is like Shakespeare Reaganan, then we apologize. What character does Regan appear in?

She's one of the daughters of King Lear. King Lear. One of the bad ones, I think. Let me make sure I got that right. One of the bad ones. Well, yeah. Well, not one of the nice ones. You should probably read that at some point.

It's about daughters. Yeah. I'm getting some King Lear vibes personally here. Kind of end of a kingdom, end of an era, end of a life. Well, we've answered versions of this question before. That's fine. We can do it again. Where do you want to start? Um...

You... Go ahead. The number one is not open. Should we go west to east? Sure. Yeah. Okay. For this west, The Arrow. I love The Arrow. The Arrow, yes. The Arrow is a wonderful theater. The American Cinema Tech program programs there in Santa Monica. Santa Monica is difficult for us to get to,

but the 70-millimeter Festival tickets just went on sale last weekend, and we both grabbed a bunch of tickets to a bunch of movies. I think I've seen one film at The Arrow. We've... I've moderated a lot of conversations at The Arrow over the years. We've introduced films that we did, Gone Girl there, right? A couple years ago for Friend of the Fest. And Talented Mr. Ripley. And Talented Mr. Ripley, right? You did that.

So we have a great relationship with American Cinematheque and love what they do. They also program at the Los Fields Three on the East Side, which has recently converted in roughly five or six years ago to the Cinematheque. So moving further from the West. Hold on. If you're going to the Aero R&D kitchen across the street. Yes, that is a part of the Houston's chain. Which I'm very passionate about.

I'm not paid. Here's my one note to R&D. This is incredibly important. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You need to be open until midnight. I agree with that. Maybe even later, because I can't get out of a movie and then not have any restaurant options

or drink options in that zone. Yeah, it is tough. It's a massive impediment. It's like a, it's a charming Santa Monica block and it's like an old, old school movie theater facade and somewhat walkable, which is rare. Beautiful marquee. But then, but that little street and there are like bakeries and coffee shops and, you know, weird stuff. But it's true that it's absolutely deserted when you get out of the movie. Which is not what you want.

Yeah. Especially if you've driven all the way to the West side. I agree. You want to have a, you know. I don't know of anyone in the Hillstone restaurant group that stays open past 10. Uh, I don't know whether that's allowed for them. Once again. Sounds like you should get involved.

I mean, I would love to. As you know, my first job was at a Houston's in Atlanta when I was 17. I was a hostess when I was 17 years old. Interesting. Um. Have you thought about going back to that lifestyle? I was pretty good at it. I mean, listen, you were corralling, like, serious traffic. You know the waits at Houston's could be two hours long. And that was the case.

You know, I really like Houston's, and I'm very grateful to you for introducing me to that chain. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But I don't know that I understand the fervor. It's reliable. It's just like it is... But reliable and I will also turn over two hours of nothing to it? The people who are like,

I will sit on the bench outside for two hours to get my seat? Well, yeah, the people without a cocktail, I don't really understand that. But I have gone and just had drinks for 90 minutes. And that was a great Friday night, I gotta tell you. It's shocking to hear you say that. Moving further east. Yeah.

Oh, I forgot we were talking about movie theaters. So... Egyptian? I would say the New Beverly comes first. Oh, New Beverly is further west. Yeah, New Beverly is further west than Beverly Boulevard. That's of course the theater owned by Quentin Tarantino, which he bought, I don't even know what it was, 15, 20 years ago.

Programming there is outstanding. They have a wonderful podcast, the Pure Cinema podcast, hosted by Brian and Elric, which I've been on a few times. I love those guys. I love what they do with the new Bev. We've also done rewatchables episodes at the new Bev. I think geographically we skipped Academy Museum. We did.

Yeah. Uh, yeah. Uh, if I'm, if I'm thinking about it, sorry. Two outsiders are mid-city. This is a large city that we live in. Sure. Academy Museum is a large city that we live in. Academy Museum is a great shout.

And they do, like, a lot of great programming, also do a lot of great kids programming on weekend mornings if you're looking for that. Okay, then New Beverly, and then... And then the Egyptian, I think. The Egyptian is in Hollywood, which has also been recently restored and renovated. It's a, it might be the most beautiful room in the city.

It is, yeah. The Egyptian is glorious. It is owned by Netflix. Netflix mostly programs its own films there, though that it also works in partnership with American Cinematheque and occasionally outside programmers to put films on there. That's an awesome room. I'm also seeing, what am I seeing there? I'm seeing Nope in 70 on my birthday at the Egyptian. I'm very, very excited about that. Um, moving further east. I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I'm thinking. I mean, I guess The Vista?

The Vista, yeah. Also now owned by Quentin Tarantino in Los Feliz, which also shows films only on film. Both The New Bev and The Vista only show movies on film. They also are showing first-run movies. So they're getting printstruck of new movies. And you can see them on film. I just mentioned this about Life of Chuck. I saw Sinners there on film. They also are showing first run movies. So they're getting printstruck of new movies. Right. You can see them on film. I just mentioned this about Life of Chuck. I saw Sinners there on 70. I've seen a bunch of movies there over the last couple years. I saw The Brutalist there. Yes, wonderful. I saw The

Zone of Interest there by myself. I saw The Brutalist by myself. No, I meant like I was the only person in the room. And it's an enormous room. The Vista is a really old school movie house that has, you know, a really kind of deep, sonorous feeling inside. Moving further east, I mean, I mentioned Los Feliz 3. Right, okay, I'm thinking, I'm thinking, I'm thinking. I think that takes us to Vidiots. Yeah. And then Vidiots in Eagle Rock, which is our local,

and is a rep theater that is a nonprofit and is wonderfully programmed, has great stuff like you said for kids, for adults. I just saw Die Hard with a Vengeance on Father's Day. On Father's Day? Your husband and CR on Father's Day. That's very cute. We had an absolute ball watching that. And there's also a video store attached to the

videos. So that's like seven theaters we need. Yeah, but those are all, those are mostly rep. Mostly rep. Do you have any new release theaters? They still want to open the Arclight Dome. I mean, there's a handful of landlies across the city that I think are pretty good, depending on what part of town you're in, just look for them.

I think there's five, maybe even six at this point. For work purposes, I'm frequently in AMCs and regals because they're just convenient, it's easy to lock down seats. maybe even six at this point. For work purposes, I'm frequently in AMCs and regals because they're just convenient, it's easy to lock down seats. I'm not sure if there's too many independently owned. For years, there was the Sunset Five, and then on the West Side.

I think that's a landmark. And now it's a landmark. Which I'm partial to, I also like it. The landmarks are nice theaters. The landmarks are nice in West Hollywood and Pasadena. Yeah, so I mean, we're just West Hollywood and Pasadena. Yeah. So, I mean, we're just so spoiled here. We have everything.

And it does cloud our experience of going to the movies a little bit. It is different from other people. But if you come, if you want to see a down and dirty exploitation movie, a crazy 80s horror movie, go to The New Bev. If you want to see something new and noisy and beautiful, go to The Vista. If you want to see a great series being programmed, a number of movies over a series of days, look at what The Arrow and The Lois Philips 3 and The Egyptian are doing. Tons of options here.

Good question. What's next? Campbell asks, what is the most uncomfortable moment you've had watching a movie with your parents? For example, I remember watching Caddyshack with my dad and when Danny and Lacey are hooking up, my dad shot across the room to cover my eyes. Or even worse, when I'm older and I understand what's happening. Like when I was watching Uncut Gems and they are sexting each other and it goes on and on and on. I have two like visceral memories. One that just the dad covering your eyes reminded me of

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation when What's Her Name comes out of the pool topless in his like dream sequence. I don't remember who the actress is. Who's the in National Lampoon's Vacation you mean? Christmas Vacation. Is there a pool sequence in Christmas Vacation too? think, I'm pretty sure. Anyway, my Aunt Betty was just like this. Maybe I'm, it's like a dream situation. And I'm, Christmas vacation is what was on rotation for us. But maybe I'm confusing them. Anyway, what I remember is...

It was, there's a sequence I think where the girl who was trying to sell him perfume in the mall. Yeah. She's in the pool, but I don't know if she's topless. Well, I think it maybe is suggested that she might be. So anyway, the hands literally went over the eyes like this. You've literally never seen it because your eyes were covered. Yes, yes.

So that was a physical thing. My Aunt Betty also took me to see Jimmy Buffett and then did hand earmuffs like this during Let's Get Drunk and Screw, but we were at a concert, so the earmuffs didn't work. Do you think of yourself as a parrot head? I like the vibe a lot. I'm too uptight to actually be a parrot head, but you know me.

The beach and drinking at all hours of the day, it's five o'clock somewhere, does speak to me. And I do know all of the words to the breakdown of cheeseburger in paradise. So... Um... Let's hear it. Get in there. Once again, give me the margarita first, and then that can happen.

Good to know. Next mailbag margaritas. The other one is sort of like the foundational... Like, moment of this in my life, which is seeing Jerry Maguire with my mother and the sex scene between Kelly Preston and Tom Cruise. But then never stop fucking me! And I was just like, oh my God, I'm sitting next to my mother and the sex scene between Kelly Preston and Tom Cruise, but then never stop fucking me. And I was just like, oh my God, I'm sitting next to my mother, this is horrible.

Yeah. I think I have one that can top it. Okay. So my parents split up in 1993 and my dad rented a house when he moved out and we would, every other weekend I went to my dad's house. Okay. And we would always watch the Saturday HBO new movie.

If you were an HBO subscriber, they would, you know, release the sort of like the long S-VOD version of our youth where on Saturdays at 8 PM, they would show a relatively new release, probably like nine to 12 months after it came out in movie theaters. So we all sat down to watch Sliver together as a family. I was probably 12 by the time it hit HBO. My sister was 10 and my brother was eight. Okay.

And I don't know how long it took before a sex scene hit, but you know, that's a movie about surveillance that takes place inside of an apartment building. It started Sharon Stone, I believe it was her first film after Basic Instinct. Okay. William Baldwin is in that movie. Tom Berenger is in it.

Martin Landau. And it's written by Joe Esterhous, the sleaze master himself. And I will say my dad kept watching it for a longer stretch than I would have. Were I in his shoes, we did eventually have to turn it off because of its illicit nature. But looking back, that feels formative. You know, just being in the room for all that with my siblings. That is intense.

Yeah. I had a slight parent version of this this weekend, not like in any, like, not in any way. Fire up Sliver for Knox? No, but I did fire up Center Stage for Knox because Knox is really into ballet right now. And I'm still a parenting side, I had to nap, so Center Stage. And you know, I did forget how much cursing there was in it, but it is also like a lot of beautifully filmed ballet scenes.

So I was like, okay, we're gonna be fine. Anyway, we get to the sex scene, which is a PG-13 sex scene. And I can't really tell whether Knox is clocking anything. And then he just says to me, are they doing ballet at home? And I honestly thought that that was a great summary of what was happening. So there we go.

An expression of the self through dance and physical movement. Please don't call the cops on me. Still haven't seen Center Stage. You should show it to Alice. I mean, obviously what I just described maybe won't incentivize it, but it's really, really great. Whenever we get to a scary part of a movie

and we've had that this weekend, she'll, I'm getting to it, don't worry. She'll say, I don't like this part. And she wants me to fast forward. And so I could tell her, this is a scary part. First of all, they're not very good actors. They're professional ballet dancers. So-

Shots to Zoe Saldana? No, no, no. It's between... It's the Jodie character and Cooper Nielsen. Um, so, but it's not like, again, it's PG-13. Got it. It's just sort of the lighting and the music changes for a little, and you're like, oh, I see. This comes for us all, so it's a good question.

All right, what's next, Jack? Joshua says, in the spirit of 25 for 25, I wonder if there was a movie or theatrical experience that floored you from this century. I really liked this question. It took me back to a time when I wasn't doing this professionally. And I didn't have to be as locked in on what's coming next. I have a few that are from this time.

I see that. I just went like off the top of my head. I admire that you had that. Yeah. Um, I wanted to use debuts as my, the lens through which I see this, because I didn't know anything about the filmmakers, so I didn't have any expectation heading in. So these are the ones that I came up with, same, off the top of my head. First one was Memento.

Ironic, I guess, given my relationship with Nolan over the years, the sort of the up and down arc that we have had together, me as watcher, he as creative person. Memento though knocked me out. I was like, what is this amazing, love the structure, love the trickery of it, love the screenplay.

Was it drafted in the 2000 draft? I thought it was a 2001 release. Oh, is it? I think so. I'm fairly certain it was 2001. Okay. I thought it was eligible. No, you're right. March 2001. Okay, that's why. Because I was very confused why it didn't go. But that's because it was not eligible. It premiered at Venice in 2000.

Yes, as all the great films do. Well, sure. Others. Ex Machina. Yeah. Knocked out by that. Two things it was as all the great films do. Well sure. Others, Ex Machina, knocked out by that. Two things that was early in the run up. Obviously Alex Garland's directorial debut too was like one of the first A24 movies. So there wasn't this like, oh no, A24 movie, is it going to be good? Is it not? We weren't thinking of things that way. Whiplash, I've talked about it many times over the years, huge movie for me.

Raw, the French cannibal film, which I really, really loved. In Bourouche, Martin McDonough's directorial debut. Exit Through the Gift Shop popped into my head. I think we're a little bit too cool for Banksy these days. Yeah. He was in his heyday, so to speak. And I really liked how that movie was structured and how it was made.

And then I wrote Borat. I'm Borat in theaters? Yeah. We were hooting and hollering. That's great. Like, is this really happening? I have one of those too. This is fantastic. Okay, what did you hear?

I wrote down Tar, which is of the span of this podcast, but I just remember like shifting in my seat with excitement through all of it. And then the ending being like, oh my God, I can't believe they did this. Then bursting out laughing. One of the great movies, Napoleon Dynamite. Surprised to see this. We went in college and I remember like at the I think the Nugget was the name of

the theater in college. I wonder if it's still there. And we all thought it was hilarious. And then it was that kind of like instant making, you know, vote for Pedro jokes, like that sort of thing. It kind of took everyone. But it was pretty... Look at you, a hess head. And you haven't seen Minecraft.

Well, not yet. Um, the Irishman, which we saw together. We went to the premiere at, um, the Chinese theater. And... We didn't mention the Chinese in our list of theaters. Yeah. I like the Chinese. I don't love it. I do too. Can you go there't mention the Chinese in our list of theaters. Yeah. I like the Chinese.

I don't love it. I do too. Can you go there as like a... Yeah. And they'll just show whatever... Yeah, they screen movies there every weekend. Oh, yeah, that's fine. I mean, you do have to go through a giant mall to go there.

The mall is also where they have the Oscars, literally, which is... Yes, the Dolby Theater is there as well. ... very funny. So, you know, if you're interested in movies. But yeah, The Irishman, we were there for the premiere. And I think that movie is like deeply underappreciated, but also again, that thing where the ending, you just, you could feel everyone breathing together in the room.

It was very, very special. I also kind of had a similar thing for Wolf of Wall Street when I saw it, which was like in a blizzard in New York. And I was just like, wow, what is this? But only one Scorsese on my list. Past Lives, another one where I remember, it's funny, I was talking with a friend of ours last week who, we were talking about the great materialists debate.

And she was like, well, honestly, like I didn't, I wasn't that into Past Lives, so I turned it off. And what I said was, oh, then like you missed the ending, which for me is what kind of I remember just being like, they did it, they did it. Yeah. But that was one like I just saw opening day in an AMC. A lot of people have popped their heads up out of the sand. Yeah. And been like, I didn't care about past lives in the first place. Okay. Well, that's cool. You're allowed you have an opinion. It's okay. Congrats. You know, start your own podcast. And then the last one, I'm just gonna be honest, La La Land,

which I saw in the Arclight Dome. Yeah. And again, like one of the... Are you ashamed? You know, we've we've gone back and forth with La La Land as a society. And like, I understand where everyone is. But again, that ending, I guess, if you really nail the ending of a movie and I'm in a theater and I'm just like, wow, I can't believe this happened.

But on like the largest screen possible. I don't see Babylon on your list. As I said, I had some thoughts about the ending of that, but the middle two hours really good. Okay. Let's do the next question. Newton asks, I'm an English teacher at a tiny school and recently got the okay to teach an elective intro to film class next semester.

I'm building the curriculum now and would love some advice. I'm designing the course as a genre study, focusing on a different genre each week and the thematic questions each genre is specifically capable of addressing with an emphasis on classic or all-timer films in the genres. Do you have any recommendations for high school students that are approachable, rich, and perhaps can canonically... I can't read Sean because you're highlighting the doc. Perhaps canonically important for the following genres, horror, coming-of-age, and romance. I'm known to highlight the document often

when I'm reading. Yeah, yeah. That's just a tick that I have and I'm known to highlight the document often when I'm reading. Yeah, yeah. That's just a tick that I have and I did it to Jack and I apologize. So the way that I would do this, where I am a professor would be, I would choose one film from each decade that I think meaningfully represents the transition.

Okay. So you could say, or, you know, roughly the decade. Right. So for horror, it's fairly simple. You know, it's the ex- It's Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Exorcist, it's Halloween, it's Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13th. These are just American phones. Right, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. You could also do the international version of it.

It's Scream, it's, you know, maybe the Rob Zombie Halloween, for example, to show like a kind of shift in transgression. Um, you know, it's not, I think it would be fairly simple to locate them. You just kind of need to figure out... You don't need to be condescending. This is a cool question. And I'm really excited for all these people are very lucky. Um... That they get this class?

Yeah, and a thoughtful teacher. So you just relax there. Sounds like this teacher maybe should be working a little harder, asking podcasters to design their curriculum for them. I mean, I don't know, you know. What's this, what's this fella's name? You know, Newton. Maybe time... This is why we can't take you anywhere.

Maybe time to hit the books. This is why we can't take you anywhere. Okay, so what are your coming of age picks? It depends on how far back you want to go. I mean, you could start with American Graffiti. I think you could start with The Graduate. Start with The Graduate, yeah. And then, but American Graffiti was also my 70s pick as well.

Well, I mean, you could start with like, Old Yeller. You know, like, I'm trying to think of, there's, there were not as many movies in the 30s, 40s, and 50s, and 60s, made for, made about children that adults would want to watch. Most of the children's entertainment made at that time, your sort of your little rascal style stuff was just for kids.

So the coming of age movie, the movie about people between the ages of like 12 and 20, I think is really more a convention of 60s into New Hollywood. Okay. Graduate is a good call. Yeah. I think American Graffiti. My first thought as well.

A John Hughes for 80s. Breakfast Club for sure. That seems right. 90s coming of age? What would be your choices? What were the big ones first? Like there's, they get a little stratifiedified into genre like now and then sure girl version You know, yeah, a lot is the sports version, right?

I don't know. Is there a classic stand by me is a good one clueless is a great. Yeah, that's a great great shout Yeah, yeah 2000s I mean fast times I forgot to mention that sure that's also one that could go in the 80s 2000 super bad clearly. I I guess Virgin Suicides we put in 2000s, but really any Sofia, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, yeah. 2010s, Lady Bird. Probably the best one.

Yeah. There's a lot of them. Okay, romance. This is my kryptonite, as you know. Well, so we're going to do both romance and romantic comedy. Okay. So it happened one night. I mean, it's like not... You're right that it's...

Then I would definitely go into Casablanca. I would put in Briefing Counter. Sure. What's our 50s pick? Maybe one of the Billy Wilder movies, like Sabrina, something like that. Yeah, though I mean, like, for that one, you wanna do The Apartment, which is 60, but that's okay. So 60s romance. Dr. Zhivago, something like that.

Yeah, or My Fair Lady, even though you're anti-Audrey Hepburn, which is your own thing. Yeah, I mean, you know, it's not what I would want to be teaching my daughter either. Had I a daughter. Seventies, love story. Yeah. It's a pretty big one. Way we were.

Eighties, um, Ghost. Ghost, good call. Yeah, it's like a huge one. Well, Ghost might be 1990. Uh, what else eighties-wise? Romance, romantic comedy. I mean, when Harry like a huge one. Well, is Ghost or Ghost might be 1990. What else 80s wise? Romance, Romantic Comedy. I mean, when Harry Matt Sally is 89, so that obviously Ghost is 90. Pretty Woman is also 90. Let's see. English Patient, 96.

Oh, Moonstruck. Oh, sure. Yes, thank you. One of the greats. 2000s. A tough time for romances. Why was that? Because of the presidents? Because they gave up on women, as they always do. What about?

And probably also the presidents. They definitely gave up on women. OK. 2000s romances. The Notebook? Yeah, thank you. In this Okay. Two thousands romances. The notebook. Yeah, thank you. In this essential. That's the signature.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, and of the last... Twenty tens, fifty shades of gray. Phantom Thread. Mm-hmm, good one. Did we mention Sliver? -♪ SNIFFS AND LAUGHS, CHUCKLES, NO. -♪ No? I don't know.

I think we did good. Those are good movies. Yeah. I think we did really well. Okay. I want to do for the horror question, my intention around the 90s is to do the 90s horror movie canon with CR for I Know What You Did last summer. Oh, that's fun. Because they're, I guess it's a reboot and not a remake, even though it seems very similar in structure and style. Do you have any feelings about Madeline Klein?

You know who that is? I'm Googling now because I do, but I, oh no, I don't. Who is this? She's one of the, oh, Outer Banks. Yeah, so Outer Banks is, I thought that it was a reality show until fairly recently. And then I learned that it's not. And I know Drew Starkey is also of Outer Banks fame. Yes. So she was also one of the stars of Glass Onion. Okay.

I kind of memory hold that one. Okay, she was the young girlfriend. Yeah, and she's the star now of this new... I know what you did last summer film. Okay. I guess she's sort of in the Sarah Michelle Geller part, even though she's being pitched as the lead. Okay.

And Jennifer Love Hewitt was really more the lead of the original film. 90s horror though, I bring that up because it's a really funky decade. Obviously everybody remembers Scream and they remember like this movie and Urban Legend and a bunch of others that came in the aftermath Final Destination.

Yeah. But 1990 through 1996 is like a little bit of a wasteland. So I think it might be a fun exercise to do to kind of dig up what our faves are. All right, anyway, moving on. Was that good, Newton? Did we write your whole syllabus for you? You're welcome.

What's next? Newton, I think that it's great that you're shaping the minds of tomorrow. And this sounds like a cool class and Sean the Dick. Trying to get an adjunct position right here. No, I'm just trying to encourage people. Jesus Christ. If you need more money, just tell me, all right? I do, I need more money.

That's why you're on Instagram. Okay, next question. Kevin's coming in with a little bit of heat here. He says, I think it's become a cliche for you guys to say on the big picture in rewatchables that you've seen certain movies 50 to 100 times. I'm curious to hear what are the five to 10 movies that each of you genuinely think you've seen the most

in your life and how many times you actually think you've seen them. Well, Kevin, that's how cable works. Yeah, Kevin, watch your mouth. Just relax, all right? We saw these movies a lot. Nobody's lying here. Yeah. And if we are exaggerating, all right.

What are you going to do? Put me in prison? No. It's just a podcast. Everybody just settle down. There are a lot of movies that I have seen at least 18 minutes of, well over 100 times. Mm-hmm. In college, especially. Yeah. You just put a movie on and just let it play.

Right. I assume people are still doing this, though maybe not. Yeah, it's called Netflix and Chill. especially, you just put a movie on and just let it play. I assume people are still doing this, though maybe not. Yeah, it's called Netflix and Chill. No, Sam says no. You're, oh my, okay, well, that's a whole other conversation down the road. So in college, people are no longer just putting a movie on and letting it roll in the background while you drink, you know, Natty Lights and Smoke-A-Bowl. That's just not a thing that happens anymore.

I guess that's why we don't make comedies anymore. That's, wow. Yeah. You nailed it. That's the problem. Yeah, it's tough. God damn it, God damn it, Gen Z, you did it again. Okay, I'm not gonna let Sam solely speak on my behalf because that is not the case for me. I had a great time recently watching,

oh, what was the movie that we hit? Saltburn. Saltburn, okay. Throwing on Saltburn, getting really drunk playing cards and just being like, look, it's the time when Barry Kiyogan does this thing. Great. A great Dorm Room movie in so many ways. So between that and also being a latchkey kid, I watched so many movies dozens of times

and I'm not afraid to say that I'm not exaggerating, and I'm probably in this role in my life for that reason. I honestly, at some point, just wrote down all of the movies that I had VHSs of. Oh, that's the other thing. Yeah. Is that if you owned the movie or you taped the movie off television, which I'm sure we both did...

So I just did it off the dome list. Our lists are perfect snapshots of our formative times. Um, once I watched over and over again, Clerks, Big Lebowski, Seven, Die Hard, Pulp Fiction and Reservoir Dogs, Goodfellas, Godfather, that's the bro canon, right? But then also Turning 16 and getting into cinema, watching Citizen Kane over and over again,

watching Wizard of Oz over and over again, watching it when I was five and then watching it a lot as I got older. Those are the ones that jumped my mind immediately. I'm sure there's more on the list. Fargo is probably on the list for me there too. What's on your list? You've got Mail and When Harry Met Sally, the two Nora Ephrons, Devil Wears Prada, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Singing in the Rain, which I think was true even before I introduced it to my son. But these are all Amanda movies and not just movies I've watched 45 million times. That's the other thing. I didn't even add that part. Bridget Jones's Diary, Sound and Music, Father of the Bride, the Charles Shire and Nancy Meyer's version,

My Best Friend's Wedding, and Apollo 13. Apollo 13, I had the VHS. It's one of the great personality tests of all time, that question. What are the movies you've seen more than 50 times? Okay, Taylor. Got another question? one of the great personality tests of all time. That question, what are the movies you've seen more than 50 times? Okay, Taylor, got another question. Taylor asks, my question to you is about huge blind spots in your movie watching Lifetime.

Sean has mentioned not seeing Mamma Mia, and I imagine Amanda hasn't seen The Exorcist or something, any glaring omissions that people might be surprised you haven't seen. So what I did just now is I just pulled up my watch list on Letterboxd to answer this question. I currently have 2,584 films on my watch list. Okay, do you like living this way?

I'm very content. Okay, no you're not. I am, I think you think I'm not happy or something. Yeah, okay, go ahead. You used the word thriving on the show last week. And I felt a chill of resonance. Oh, that's great. That's nice. It's because we're happy at home with our small children.

Yes, we have, yes, we have that part of our life is very good. So the first, this is very strange. Okay. In fact, there must be a glitch in the matrix. But the first two films right now in the watch list are both directed by the man who also directed Die Hard with a Vengeance, which I just shouted out.

And I haven't seen either of these movies. Medicine Man and Basic. I've never seen either of these movies. Even though I'm a huge John McTiernan fan, these are considered two of his lesser efforts. I've heard Basic is absolutely crazy. There's a great blank check series about McTiernan fan. These are considered two of his lesser efforts. I've heard Basic is absolutely crazy. There's a great blank check series about McTiernan's films. McTiernan also was involved in some of the sordid surveillance activities. He went to prison for a stretch.

He wrote a Thomas Crown sequel in prison. Make it. Unproduced. McTiernan is truly great, but I haven't seen these movies. Lorraine Bracco and Sean Connery. Do they have chemistry? That's not like The Exorcist, though, which I don't think I've seen. I don't have a lot of those blank spots. I have recently watched Poltergeist,

but I haven't seen The Exorcist. OK. Let me see if I can, even just on this page, if there's one that is particular. What are some others for you? I mean, what are the canonical horror movies? I don't think I've seen Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Okay.

What about something outside of a genre that you haven't pursued? Like, is there an all-time romantic classic or a musical or just a pure comedy that you're like, oh, it's on my list, but I haven't gotten to it? I'm trying to think. Let's see. I mean, there are, clearly there are a lot of musicals.

I was listening to,. Let's see. I mean, there are clearly there are a lot of musicals. Um, Okay, I was listening to speaking of another podcast. I was listening to you must remember this, which had that great season about, um, the old man is still alive. And it was like the great, golden era Hollywood filmmakers making films in their sixties, seventies and eighties. And I believe in Siminelli was a subject of one episode. And he's made so many goddamn movies. Yeah. And Kareena Longworth is going through the films

that he made from his glory period all the way through his 60s. And I was like, I just haven't seen like 10 of these movies. So when you hear that. Right. I mean, I have those for pretty much every single director. A musical that just popped to the top of my head, because I think they recently showed it at Vidiots. And I was like, oh, I wish I could have gotten Victor, Victoria. Oh, yeah. Sure. pretty much every single director. A musical that just popped to the top of my head,

because I think they recently showed it at Vidiots, and I was like, oh, I wish I could have gotten Victor Victoria. Oh yeah, sure. And I am a Julie Andrews head in a big way, but haven't seen that for some reason. Directed by her husband, Blake Edwards. Yeah, let's see. Oscar nominated.

What other genres did you just throw out to me? That's a really good one. That's a good example of, yeah. I know, and I really wanted to go see it. And that's another thing, like rep theaters are amazing of, you know, we were talking about the 70 millimeter festival. I have seen 2001, but I've never seen it on a big screen. So I bought tickets to that and I'm going to get to go see it projected,

which is I think like the whole point. Will you have a gummy? Um, the way your parents did. You know what? I, like I, my, my parents didn't. So no smoking grass before 2000. I don't think my mother ever has. And has your, either of your parents ever used the phrase, we smoked grass. Definitely not. But I mean, my parents are slightly more uptight.

You know, I love them very much. Okay. I don't really like gummies, you know? I see. So I don't. More ketamine maybe? Yeah, that's it. I just, I like good old fashioned alcohol.

Will I try to go to R&D kitchen before? Yes. I feel like there's a huge difference between gummy and one and a half margaritas at R&D kitchen. Just experientially. Well, I wouldn't have a margarita. Yeah. Okay, what would you have?

Three glasses of rose? No, that's too many. Cause then you're just like a little drunk and and and loopy not more than a little I've just I would have a Negroni Classic Negroni though the the Hillstone's thing the one thing they're Negroni They're trying to put vodka in the Negroni like no. Thank you. And that's what they do at Hillstone That's their recipe. I feel like you have to make a couple phone calls to that corporation I well, I just I asked for a classic Negroni, you know now that Negroni is popular

Everyone's trying to do their spin. No, we do classic. Okay. Okay. Thanks for sharing. I accidentally forgot to order a martini with a twist the other day and they put olives in it and I almost wanted to throw it in the garbage. So olives are a no for you? In a cocktail, no way.

But will you eat them? Stuffed, I like. Just standalone, not like, I don't hate it. It's not my favorite snack. You know what I like? I like a tapenade. Oh, you do? I do. Just smear some tapenade on a piece of bread. You never know with creams, dips, spreads,

what's gonna be a yes and what's gonna be no for you. There's nothing white in a tapenade, you know? That's true, but like you actually... I don't want like a cream-based tapenade. I just want pure olive. You like mayo. Actually, you will eat it in the right circumstances, but it's mustard. No.

That you won't actually have, which I still think makes you associate path. Where are you on pimento cheese? I like. Yeah. But lactose intolerant. So complicated. Okay, all right.

A hot cheese, no problem. Melted cheese, A plus. Okay, but- Cold cheese, a little dicey. Okay, so do you think... Got to use sparingly. Do you think that's about the lactose, or is that about the temperature?

That's what they say. That's what they... They say the... Oh, because it's breaking it down the... Oh, because it's breaking it down the... Okay. This is what I've learned in my exploration... Okay. ...into lactose knowledge.

Got it. Anyway, this has been helpful. What's the next question? Grayson asks, over the years, I've had so many negative cinema experiences because of people talking, people on their phones, etc. I've never heard you talk about these kinds of things. I'm wondering if this is much of an issue for you and if so, how do you deal with it? I've had some incredible movies ruined by rude people. I'm having a bit of a turning point with this experience in my life.

Now, there's two things at play. One is everyone, myself included, is more addled by their phone than ever. They feel the need to look at their phone all the time. It really hit hard for me after we had Alice, because I was like, is everything okay at home? For the first two years of her life. So I was always kind of trying to make sure

that everything was fine. Then over time, you're just like, constantly looking at social media and it, you know, invades your brain and attaches it to yourself and you can't not look all the time. So that's one. Two, I had this experience on Friday.

I saw 28 years later off the plane, long, crazy morning, and it was a little harder than usual to retain the information from the movie. Now I never take notes during movies ever. I need to start doing that. How will I do that? I don't really like to write in the movie theater and I don't want to have one of those pens that has a light on it. But then I would want to use a notes app if I can and I'm not disturbing anyone near me. But one, it's incredibly difficult to not disturb someone when your phone is out. And I don't like when other people do it to me. And two, if you look down, you're not looking at the movie and you're missing things. And I

felt myself even watching 28 years later, like trying to look down at something and then, because I was in the theater all by myself, and then look back up and I was like, oh, I just missed like 12 seconds and that was important when I missed there. Yeah. And I'm bringing all of that up to say that I feel that I'm a very respectful movie watcher. I don't disturb other people. I try to be very quiet.

I try not to look at my phone historically. And I know that this is something that is bugging people more and more and it's an impediment to movie going. But I also know personally that like, it's hard. It's increasingly hard to do the job that we're doing and get it right. And people all the time when we make mistakes are like, why you got such fucking idiots? And two, that people are just addicted to their phones.

Like it's just a fact. And so in the movie theater experience, for example, I'm sorry, I'm rambling. Just go with me. This has been on my mind recently. We saw Elio yesterday and we saw it in an iPic. And I sat next to Alice and we were in a pod. And in those pods, you can just look at your phone. Nobody else can see you, everything is blocked around you,

you're not disturbing anyone by doing it, especially if you turn the brightness all the way down. And so there are like increasingly environments being created where you can look at your phone while you're in the movie theater. So like they gave me the Wi-Fi password when I walked into the movie theater. Right. So they're almost expecting.

Well, that's because it's in a basement. Yeah. It is in a basement. Yeah. So, all's to say... Yeah. May I speak on this? Yes, you may.

I mean... Sorry. Yeah. No, it's complicated. I mean, the larger issue is that, like, the social contract is broken, like, writ large, and it's just not... It just not just at movie theaters. Like, people are using their phones and just taking phone calls, blasting music, just being rude in phone

and non-phone related ways everywhere all the time. Like, we forgot how to be around people or be respectful to people, and that sucks. So I wish everyone would just be a little more thoughtful to everyone else. I'm with you on the... I mean, last week, Zach was out of town, and so I needed to see a few movies for work, but, like, I was... And, you know, our nanny was with the kids, but, like, if someone... If they needed me, like, it was me. You might have to leave at any moment.

Like, I was the parent on call. So, you know, I turn the brightness down. I try to see place, I try to see movies at times when I'm not gonna be like in a packed theater. And I do also try to pick seating in a way where like there aren't people behind me. That doesn't mean that I'm like suddenly on Twitter all the time, never on Twitter,

but I turn the brightness down and I just kind of have it so that if a call pops up. You can look. I can take it. But otherwise, I'm not looking at my phone. But that's just kind of how life is right now. So in the same way that people need to be respectful of other people, you also gotta give people a little grace.

You know? I agree. But just like, don't be a loud asshole wherever you are in life. Whether it's at the movies or not. Did you clock the person sitting next to me at F1? No. So we went to see F1 last week and we went to an influencer screening. Yeah.

And I was sitting next to a really young guy. He honestly seemed like he was 19. Yeah. And he looked at his phone, I would say, 75 times during the screening. Now, he looked at it really up close to his face, and his brightness was extraordinarily low. Right.

So there was no light really emanating from the phone. But even the act of pulling the phone out and getting it close is a distraction. Of course. And I could tell that he was just a kid who was just addicted to his phone. And I'm like, there's nothing there that could have possibly happened for you.

Right. With the repeated usage that you're doing. But it is indicative of a direction that we are heading that is actually a challenge to movies. And a challenge to life in general. And, you know, it makes me nervous about, like, our kids. Like, Cy is eight months old and knows exactly that the phone is the most valuable commodity

and crawls towards it. I watched him chew on it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, part of that is that he wants to chew on anything right now, but no, he spots it and it like crawls towards it. So that doesn't really help Grayson, who's just trying to like watch a movie without someone watching TikToks.

But here's one thing that we can do. Headphones or silent. No projecting music. Nobody wants to hear it. Nobody wants to hear it at a restaurant. Nobody wants to hear it on public transportation. No one wants to hear it at the beach. Keep your Bluetooth speakers at home. Listen to the ocean.

Jesus Christ. Yeah. Were you saying that Jesus Christ is making the sounds of the ocean? He might be, you know, and where else are we going to experience him? But at the ocean. That's great. But I, so turn the sound off, turn the sound off on your phone.

All of you, all of you children, TikToking, turn the sound off. This is also like, I don't understand why people are so good at like- Gen Z mommy arrived. Well, all of the voice messages, you know, like when are we listening to that? Because I'm constantly using my phone in places where I'm not supposed to be using it, where I need silence. So think about that, you know? No sounds.

Boom. You're welcome. Next question. Can I add one thing before we move on? Sure. You absolutely can. Are we being too I add one thing before we move on? Sure. You absolutely can. Are we being too old? No, not at all.

I was just going to say we talked a lot about phones, but not about people talking, which I find to be the much more distracting issue in a movie theater. Because I understand, like, if you're a mom, if you're a dad, you need to check your phone, you just pull it out, five seconds, check a text, put it away. That's not really a big deal to me. The issue is people narrating their inner thoughts aloud whilst watching a movie as if they're on their living room couch. I had an experience at the Academy Museum. It was Moneyball. Bennett Miller was there, did an intro and him and his

family sat next to my girlfriend and I and they watched the film. Bennett Miller said it was the first time he had actually watched the film since it had been made. It was really cool. And the people sitting directly behind me talked aloud almost the entire movie, not not at like a loud volume, but loud enough to where I could hear them say Brad Pitt is so sexy. And I had to turn around and tell them like, can you please stop talking and in the even in the most polite way you could just tell that they were frustrated by me telling them that, but I don't know any other solves other than telling people politely

that it's not okay to talk during a movie. I think that's crazy that people do that. I do, but that is also, I do think that's like, not a movie-specific problem. I mean, don't do that, but it's just like, don't be the person who can't read the room and is not aware that you're disrupting other people. Unless, unless, unless it's a horror movie.

Yeah. And when someone yells, don't go in there, like then that's great. Right. That I actually love that. And I think like cheering and some level of audience participation is OK. Also, listen, Sean and I will tell each other one or two

jokes. So wildly. Like per screening. But we're're very quiet. And it's not running commentary. Agreed. I'd say we're fairly, it's basically a one liner. Yeah, that we've been working on.

But it is funny. It's usually like, oh, I wrote that piece of music for the movie. I chose it. I re-recorded this just for you. Don't you just ruin the joke. You just broke the spell by saying it out loud. But every time it's funny, it's like, that's my trumpet solo. Anyway, um... I, you know, be aware, just like, have some respect for other people.

I wish you could have seen Chicken Jockey with me. Well, that's, I mean, that's the other thing. I'm sort of like, if you're going to a Minecraft movie with teens... Yeah. But that's me at one battle after another, throwing popcorn on everybody. Jack Black had to, like, record a message being like, don't throw popcorn. And, like, all the...

I felt bad for the theater workers, but otherwise I think it's pretty funny that 10-year-olds were just fully, like, chicken-jacking out, you know? I thought it was fun. You know, I don't want people dumping food on people's heads or anything like that. Buting out, you know? I thought it was fun. You know, I don't want people dumping food on people's heads or anything like that. But it was, you know...

It's a movie made for ten-year-olds to be insane. Like, it was fucking La Strada, you know what I mean? Like, you're in Minecraft. It is what it is. I agree. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Life is all about choices. For example, what happens when you show up at the movies and you're not totally sure what you wanna see?

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Shop online and get $15 in PC optimum points on your first five orders. Shop now at nofrills.ca. Okay, what's the next question? We have a pair of questions, one specifically for Sean, one specifically for Amanda. Tucker asks, Sean, what is your system for giving a star rating on Letterboxd?

It seems random, but that seems unlike you. And Andrew asks for Amanda, what do you think of Sofia Coppola's daughter, Romy Mars's music career? Have you heard A-Lister, Bop or Nah? I'll go first. Yeah. I try to rate every single,

at least every single new movie that I see over the year. Unless a person I know worked on the movie. If a person that I, if you see a new movie that's come out that I haven't rated, that I've logged, it's usually because I feel like I can't objectively have an opinion about it. Right, right, right. I don't rate right away after I log for two reasons. One, I'm often embargoed when I see movies.

Two, I do log it in my private document, but not on Letterboxd. So, like, I make my rating and then I'll add it to Letterboxd well after our episode has come out. Because I want people to listen to what we have to say on the show, which we talked about. My system is like, it's not complicated. One of the things I like about Letterboxx

is it gives you this rule of ten quality, where five stars with halves is a one through ten. So every movie is a one through ten. I remember vividly we had our deep, brutalist conversation and I made a joke that was not a joke to you, which is I was like, this is a four and a half star movie. It's not my favorite movie of the year. It's not my favorite movie of the decade. It's not a perfect movie. It has its flaws.

It's a nine out of 10. That's like a very comfortable place for me to think organizationally, categorically, and emotionally about how I feel about a movie. Did it get me to that like top register or what would I take away from it? Not a lot of movies for me get one star. If a movie gets one star or less.

What is one star down your letterbox right now? Like, I think free guy is probably one star. I think, I mean, I could dig into my stats, but like that usually means that. I think it's a deeply cynical thing that has happened and kind of corrosive to society ultimately. that has happened. OK. And kind of corrosive to society, ultimately.

So I've logged since 2020 3,752 films. Congratulations. Thank you. Sort by your rating lowest first. I gave Doolittle half of a star. You were so mad when we saw that. That was one of the last pre-pandemic movies. And you were really pissed, I remember that.

We saw that together. It was garbaggio. Yeah, we saw them at the Arclight. Black Adam, half of a star. Never saw that. Trolls, I gave one star. Oh, the original Trolls. The original Trolls.

Not Trolls World Tour. No, though we did do an episode about that. I'm sure that's why I watched Trolls. I gave Ryan Murphy's The Prom one star. That was quite unfortunate. Mmm. I have a very angry Man of Steel review. Oh, you guys were really big mad about that. So, you know, that's just like an offering of things.

Okay. Is Kevin Costner the dad in Man of Steel? He is. I like, actually, that star is for his performance, which I believe I cited in my review. So, thanks for remembering that. There's a whole bunch. Madame Web, that was one star. Argyle, that star is for his performance, which I believe I cited in my review. So thanks for remembering that. There's a whole bunch. Madame Webbe, that was one star. Argyle, that was a one star. I think that you have lost your ability to experience fun

if Madame Webbe is a one star. It's at least one and a half. The Pepsi can. Come on. Why is she holding it like that? To me, that's not purposeful and interesting. And I don't, like, relish bad. I don't really either, but sometimes it can, um... Can left your experience with it. I get it.

Yeah. I get it. I, and I don't begrudge people who are like bad movies make me happy. I, I typically am not, like I don't find joy in incompetence. This understatement of the century, but I thought that, oh, Fast X, yeah. Again, Big Mad, Sean Fantasy. Yeah, one star. Put it in the newspaper.

Don't put it in the newspaper. Put it on the podcast. OK. OK, my question. Your question. Absolute pop. Yeah, come on. Let's be real. Haven't heard it.

Let's go. It's good. And like. It's called A-lister? It's A-lister. And it's about, well, what is it about? I think it's sort of about dating a, or meeting a movie star or something.

It is like self-aware. The first time I heard it, I was like, what's going on here? This is like a little strange. And I, but it has the bones of a good song. I like the production choices. I like the way that she's, you know, like, I like that. I don't know what we would call the auras that she's doing,

whether it's like vocal fry or, but there is some sort of like speech thing in the way that she's singing. Yeah, her mom directed the music video. Like, I don't really know. She's 18? I think so, Or maybe 17. Good God.

Um, well, she's a third generation Coppola, you know? I get it. And also her father is Thomas Mars. That's young to be thrust into the... I mean, I guess Sophia was as well. Well, I think she thrust herself. Obviously, she was in Megalopolis. And she is innocent of any charges there. And also... Sure.

She was in English... Might be time to re-watch that. Did you watch English Teacher? The FX show? Uh, a couple of episodes, yeah. She's in one. It might be time to re-watch that. Did you watch English Teacher? The FX show? A couple of episodes, yeah. She's in one of them and it's funny. Okay. So I'm pro. And again, that TikTok of being grounded and because she tried to charter a helicopter

and then like everything about that TikTok is spectacular. She has real gifts. So I'm pro. Great. I'll have to listen to A-lister. What's next, Jack? Mike asks, I am a fan of your show. I'm pro. Great. I'll have to listen to A-lister. What's next, Jack? Mike asks, I am one of the sickos who listens and loves every episode of the big picture, but who goes to the movies just once or twice a year due to work, family,

et cetera. Which yet to be released 2025 movie would you most recommend for someone who loves seeing a popcorn blockbuster in the theaters? I mean, I haven't seen Jurassic World, Superman or Fantastic Four. Right. And I have not seen Avatar 3. My gut tells me Avatar 3 would be the answer to this question. Because the Avatar movies in the movie theater, whether you like the stories or not, are usually an incredible visual feast.

It's a great popcorn bucket movie. Yeah. I mean, the other answer is F1. So that's what I was gonna say. I think the actual answer for what is your kind of core text, and we're giving away some of our feelings for Friday's episode, but that movie delivers on a very specific Jerry Bruckheimer formula of fun time at the movies. Yes.

And I think you're right. I think that's probably the answer. Now it's possible those July movies will be very satisfying. Sure. In that same way, but F1 has that like, we know where this is going the whole time. Right. Everything is very exciting. The set pieces are like... Electric.

Thrilling. And you want to, and it's just... I don't think it would play as well on... No. Like at home. Not exactly an intellectual feast, but a fascinating production for a variety of reasons. Yeah.

So I agree with you. I think I have one. Okay, let's do a couple more and then we'll talk about Elio and... Oh, I forgot we had to talk about those. The Dragon movie, yeah. Cordero is coming in with some Bill Simmons commentary potentially. Are we sure Tubi is a good thing? As much as I appreciate a free streaming service having the original 1922 Nosferatu, is it a good thing for it to continually be interrupted by Febreze and Tide commercials?

I say yes. To me, access is everything. If something is available, it's better than it being difficult to find for anyone. And to be, anybody being able to have to be on their laptop, their iPad, their phone, their set-top box, whatever, however they choose to watch that service. Even if it has commercials, I mean, we grew up watching movies supported by commercials on TNT and ABC, NBC, all the, you know, local channels were all airing movies on the weekends. So I don't think it's a bad thing at all.

Nosferatu is an interesting one, right? It's like, it's in the public domain now, cause it's over a hundred years old. So you should be able to get it anywhere. You should be able to get it in your library. You should be able to get it anywhere online. It should be free. Um, there's something dystopian about a Tide commercial appearing in the middle of an airing of Nosferatu, but I think it's good.

I simply will not do it. I absolutely, I will not watch any commercials in my streaming stuff. Like absolutely not. I have quit series because they're unavailable, like, or I wasn't subscribed. Okay. Like I have a zero tolerance. Just because you're, you find it annoying? Yeah. I just like, I don't have the time or patience I have a zero tolerant just because you're you find it annoying Yeah, I just like I don't have the time or patience for this. I know there's another way Would you advise people do the same for podcasts?

I mean No But listen, I just I can't do it and I'm I think your point about access is good But libraries is I think knows fratu should be available on library. I've been trained to expect no commercials. I'm really sorry. I thought this was all about feeding your children. It is about feeding my children,

but he's asking as a consumer, you know? Okay, good to know. So there we go. Marxist Amanda. Yeah. Next question. I think this is a fun one. This is from Aidan.

If you were an emerging A-list talent, who are the three directors you would work for right now to ascend to greatness? Well... Mm-hmm. There's a few obvious ones. Yeah. Right, you could set... If you could get the opportunity to work with Christopher Nolan,

Greta Gerwig and Jordan Peele. Right. I mean those are the answers. You just do it. Right, that's what you would do. Yeah. Because they make big accessible movies with big ideas that lots of people wanna see.

They are the kind of the meeting point of art and commerce, right? Sure. Is that the right answer though? I mean, Christopher Nolan is like the number one answer. If your goal is to catapult yourself to fame, at this point, you wanna be in the Odyssey, you know? Like you wanna see if you can do like a pickup

as a person in a toga. Like it's just like, I think you like show up with your own sheet, you know, and like see how far it gets. But he doesn't really launch stars. He really uses a star system. Right, but I think there is something about if you are in the Nolan movie, like it's like cements something for you.

And even when we were doing our movie Star List, we were kind of like, oh, well, like this person whose name we know and like, you know, Oscar winners, like, but we included them because they're going to be in the Odyssey. Right. Right. So it's sort of like, and if this is your strategy, like I think you got an angle for him, um, I was just reminded of, uh, when my husband Zach interviewed Ben Affleck and Ben Affleck was talking about they were doing the Matt Damon comparison.

And he's like, I'm not saying no to people. And he's like saying no Scorsese, no Spielberg. It's not like I was saying no Scorsese, no Spielberg. I'm not going to be in your movie. So Scorsese and Spielberg seem to be two people that would also belong on the list. Yeah, I think those are the two still active lions whose movies are still awaited as sort of events.

Spielberg's box office strength has obviously been diminished a little bit in the last five years, even though I think he's making some of his best movies of his career, but he's now got a huge blockbuster alien movie coming next. So maybe he's looking to take the crown back in that respect. I don't know, you know, who is the most exciting, you know, I think like Daniels and Sean Baker and Chloe Zhao and like the winners of Best Picture over the last five or six years, I think is kind of an interesting thing to look at because those, some of those filmmakers kind of seize the moment.

We know Sean Baker is probably just going to go make another Sean Baker movie, right? But he was able to catapult Mikey Madison directly into the A-list. So there's definitely like a rung of star. You know, I think, I think Once Upon a Time in Hollywood was very good for Margot Robbie, for example. Even though she was the third lead of that movie that took her from A- to A+, and then she capitalized on it hard with Barbie and is now kind of in that, leading that inner circle.

So, there's always going to be filmmakers like that. And then there's always filmmakers who like, David Fincher doesn't make stars. No. He uses them. He also primarily makes movies for Netflix now, which I think is everybody else we just listed. I do think you want to be in theaters if you want to be. I think you're right. Catapulted. I think you're right. Listen, and I'm looking forward to the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood sequel and all three Mindhunter movies that are allegedly happening according to one Holtmecallany interview. Yeah, we'll see about that. Okay, let's do one last question.

Georgia asks, because the biggest box office successes of the year have all been for the PG audience and primarily are sequels or remakes, who is a filmmaker you think would make an excellent original movie for children? Interesting question. So this was actually a point of discussion on the town this morning, the rise of the PG movie. It's something that I was hoping to talk about with Elio and how to train your dragons.

We can use this as a bridge to that convo. The PG question is fascinating. I think that group of people, Chazelle, Peel, Greta is making a Narnia movie. You know, like they're all- That's not original, but yes. Right, not an original. But they're all entering a's not original, but yes, yeah. Right, not an original, but they're all...

entering a phase where they either have children or gonna have children, and they're gonna start to think about what movies to make for their kids. You know, like, look at the arc of Steven Spielberg's career. Look at how he viewed childhood and parenting in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and then look at how he progresses through to E.T. and look at how he progresses through to Jurassic Park

and Hook and all the other movies he made. So, I am always more interested in those kinds of people. You know, like, is Denis Villeneuve gonna make, like, a warm PG original family comedy? Like, that's not, he's not gonna make Mrs. Doubtfire. You know what I mean? I would watch Denis Villeneuve's Mrs. Doubtfire. But that's not really, it doesn't really seem like the kind of thing he wants to... I don't know. Who am I forgetting? Who am I not thinking about?

I mean, it's just really like our directors, you know? And I would like to see... I mean, Sofia Coppola makes movies for teenage girls, but, you know, Greta's already doing it. I don't know who... The other thing is like, I don't really want any of my favorite directors to make a movie for children. I want them to make a movie that I could also watch with my child.

And maybe it would be a little inappropriate at times, but that's how we learned about the world, right? Which is just, you know, being like, are they doing ballet at home? And then you learn something new. They grow up so fast. Speaking of growing up, let's get into it. Thanks for all those questions. You guys are the best.

Yeah, they're great. We really appreciate you listening so closely to the show and asking such thoughtful ones. Let's talk about Elio first. Elio is the new Pixar movie. It has three directors, sort of. We will explain what the sort of means, but Domei Shi, who directed Turning Red, Madeline Cherifian, and Adrian Molina, who was one of the writers of Coco. Now, the movie was written by Julia Cho, Mike Jones, and Mark Hammer and features the voice work of Jonas Kibriyev, Zoe Saldana,

Remy Edgerly, Brad Garrett, Jamila Jamil, and we hear the wonderful voice of Carl Sagan throughout this film. It's a space alien abduction adventure movie. Yeah. It is a slightly different flavor, I think, from any previous Pixar movie, but it is still very much an animated movie for kids. I took my four-year-old to see it yesterday. We're rounding up already.

Well, we're less than a month away. I know. Two and a half weeks. I'm clinging on. Four. Yeah. I know. I'm pumped.

Four is where- Where's my party invite? You know, it's supposed to go out today. Oh, that's so exciting. Yeah. So anybody out there who thinks they're friends with me and doesn't get that invite, I'm sorry. You, I want to let you know that you can just send it to me.

You don't have to waste coins on the whole family. I see. Your husband doesn't read email. Is that what you're saying? Well, I just like, I went through this and, but the paperless post coins, they're valuable. So it's okay. I'll alert the inviter, which is my wife,

at least in this case. This movie was supposed to come out last year, in March, and it got kicked to this year. Speculation in the industry is that it's sort of been dumped, especially because it was going neck and neck in the release calendar with How to Train Your Dragon, which we'll get to shortly. And it bombed at the box office. And people have been quite snide about it.

Yeah. It is the single biggest, worst opening weekend in Pixar history. People don't seem to care about this movie. Yeah. I thought it was perfectly nice. I thought I was fine. So, it was funny, we were talking about when to go see it, and you kept pitching me on, like, you know,

I'm gonna take Alice, we're gonna go on Sunday, like, you could come with us. And it just never occurred to me to take Knox to see this movie. Interesting. And having seen it, I don't really think... I think he's just too little still, you know, he's only three.

So, I think that he would have been scared by it. And I did have a moment of existential parental concern while watching it because it's a classic Pixar story of like a child who has experienced a devastating loss and then has to work through circumstances and find a new community. That's a beautiful story. And I thought the LAO character was very cute and I was rooting for him and he's a little weirder

than your normal Pixar guy. And they're these small little computer beings you want them to find love. But I was like, oh, this is really upsetting. And I don't know if I like want Knox to experience this yet. But then I was like, oh, am I shielding Knox from all like the hard things in the world? And does he have to learn about emotions somehow? But then I was like, does Knox have to learn about a situation in which both his parents die?

And so and he doesn't have any friends. Does Knox have to learn about a situation in which both his parents die and so, and he doesn't have any friends, and so he has to get abducted by aliens in order to understand love? Like, is that what I need to be teaching my three-year-old? And ultimately I ended on no, so. Well, it's entertainment. You know, this isn't exactly like opening

a geometry textbook. I think. But is it entertaining? I, I, if you want to use the parlance of Roger Ebert, I think a movie like this can create empathy. Sure. That you don't have to see everything of the world about yourself in Elio's experience and what he is struggling with.

Right. But they can, it can teach you to feel something, and you know, a movie like this is actually quite powerful to see through a child's eyes. Saw it with my daughter, she was locked in something. And, you know, a movie like this is actually quite powerful to see through a child's eyes. Saw it with my daughter. She was locked in. She really, really liked it a lot and much more than I did, that's for sure. And my wife was bored to tears during this movie.

OK. At the end of the film, there's a critical choice that Ellie has to make between one community and another. And Alice turned to me in the movie, much as you would turn to me to deliver a snide one-liner, and she said, I really hope Elio goes back with his family. That's nice. And to me, the movies can teach you to understand the world and your feelings in that way.

Like I take that very sincerely, and I was like so moved to hear my daughter communicate that so clearly that she not only understood the story, but understood that the character was thrust into this position and had to make a meaningful choice. So you know, do I want to have to explain to her how Ileo's parents died and what the circumstances were and how this is actually a product of a troubled production and the original was supposed to be a mother character played by America Ferrara, who was then written out of the movie,

and then they replaced her with an aunt character who was voiced by Zoe Saldana. I didn't explain any of that to her. She's listening to this episode. Hello, Alice, you may enjoy that information. Huge America Ferrara fan. She thought her speech in Barbie was fantastic. She's seen Barbie?

No, no. She really, really, really wants to see Barbie. Really, really, really. I'd Barbie. Really, really, really. I'd like to be there when she does. Okay, maybe we can arrange that in nine years. Okay. So, in that respect, I thought it was okay to take a kid to. I think it was fine to take a kid to.

I was more interrogating my own choices. Right, I understand that. And my responses to these things. And it's a little bit that question of, so this is a PG movie instead of a G movie. My child is three years old. And so, like, how old is the right age and how serious of a movie do, or like how serious the themes do we wanna present

to small kids and that sort of. And I agree with you that ultimately it's... It's totally fine. I just was like, I don't know why my instinct was just like, no, absolutely not. So I think one of the reasons why that was the instinct of many people who opted not to see it is because... We can get into whether the marketing was effective or not, what the state of the original animated film is,

per that last question in the mailbag. But to me, this movie was very self-selecting in terms of the kind of story that it's trying to tell in a way that I think is a little bit de classe right now. It's a post-80s boy sci-fi movie. You know, it's, right after ET, there was this wave of movies, Flight of the Navigator, Mack and Me, Explorers, a whole list of movies that I saw in theaters

when I was a little kid. And they were all, I loved them all. They were all great. I was a burgeoning sci-fi fan. But, you know, those characters had very few female characters, those films had very few female characters. The perspective was very locked in on adolescent boys, the wonders of space, and the idea of a friend beyond the world that you know, which ET obviously introduces in a big way to us. And this movie's right out of that playbook, and all the winks and nods,

there's the analyst characters named Melmac, which is the name of Alf's home planet from the TV show, Alf. Kate Mulgrew being the narrator of the Voyager 1 museum, she of Star Trek Voyager. Right. Carl Sagan's voice being used at the beginning and the ending of the film. These are like Easter eggs for 45 year old men? I mean, I guess, I guess you're right, but it did not read to me as particularly gendered

as opposed to just very like sci-fi coded. I mean my response to this was like ET and Star Wars exist so like why you know we can just show our children that. But I did... I didn't really feel like, but like this one doesn't really have any strong female characters in it aside from his aunt. Well his aunt who's like an Air Force pilot and she's ranking and she wants to be an astronaut. She's very secondary to the story though. Maybe that matters more to Alice,

but I didn't feel like, I didn't feel like it was like, this is like boy stuff only. And I actually did think like the creature and the universe design was like very, honestly, pink and purple-coated. Yes, very psychedelic. It was very, but it had a lot of Lisa Frank in it to me, which I know is a color that is very popular

with all small children, including my son, but definitely traditionally is girl-coated. So I didn't really think that it was exclusionary in that way. It was more just that it was, you're right, like very sci-fi. And if you're not into that, you won't go see it. And or you can watch E.T. and you can watch Star Wars. Which the kid, like I thought of the cantina, all the creature design was like very reminiscent of, but like not quite as good. It's not.

I think with the exception of my beloved Gordon. Yeah. Gordon, um, who becomes Elio's best pal and is the son of a brutal ruler in a far off galaxy named Grygon who wears a carapace to protect himself and battle. Um, I don't know if I'd ever heard the word Carapace said out loud. I haven't either, yeah. So that was interesting to hear.

I don't know, to me, I saw it in a tradition of like failed boy movies that Disney Pixar's been trying to do since the 70s. And that list of movies includes, and maybe I'm off base, but the Black Hole in Tron in the 70s and 80s. Titan A and Treasure Planet in the early aughts. Tron legacy John Carter and Tomorrowland in the 2010s.

Okay. There's like every 10 or 15 years, Disney and Pixar tries to capture this audience, this kind of Star Wars audience, with an animated film or a fanciful live-action movie. And it basically never works. It never really pulls people in and they keep trying it. And I think some of the issue here is that this movie is just not that great.

It's really bottom tier Pixar. So that being the case, plus the fact that it isn't for quadrant, for lack of a better phrase, the way that Minecraft is right now. You know, like Minecraft has a boy lead and a girl lead, and it has crazy Jack Black. You know, to me, it's trying to speak to as many people as it possibly can, and this movie felt a little bit more tightly focused.

Doesn't make it a bad thing, it's just kind of something that is unusual, and there's been so much debate over what Pixar is now. Just thought it was kind of boring, honestly. Yeah, I mean, I wrote down here that you can kind of feel the mid production shift in the story while watching it. Like it feels almost like the animated version

of why aren't these actors in the same scene where you're like, oh, there was a reshoot where like one guy was in Tanzania and the other guy was in Cleveland. And they were having to like have a phone call together but they can only film them separately because they were making another movie at the same time. It kind of felt like that,

where like pace is kind of off and a little rickety. It's very predictable. And yet my four-year-old loved it. So, you know, whatever. Well, that's nice. That's good. I don't know if there is like a Pixar crisis so much. Okay, do you subscribe to the theory that

putting Pixar movies directly on Disney Plus kneecapped their operation inside out to massive success notwithstanding? Probably, but at the same time, I think just the existence of Disney Plus, you know? It's like, once you have the ability to watch all the stuff at home, then whether it's new stuff or whether it's watching Moana for the 85 millionth time,

like that the behavior of watching movies just becomes recorded at home. So I don't know whether it's Disney Plus or, you know, brand new movie on Disney Plus because... But it's weird because like the outliers represent something unusual. Lilo and Stitch and Moana 2 and Inside Out 2 are massive. Right. Huge. And Lion King 2, the Mufasa film, also turned out to be a pretty solid hit. Sure. The pattern is no different from grown-up movies, which is that the really big movies

are things that people decide, like, oh, this is an event, or like, oh, we recognize this, or oh, this is franchise, or this is the next installment of a thing I have 45 action figurines of, is something I go see. And then everything else, I wait till it's at home on streaming. So how do we get Sinners for kids movies? Well... That's the thing. That's the real challenge right now that they have. You find a generational talent with a great idea and give him hundreds of millions of dollars and then it works.

Like this is the... That's it. Gotta support the vision. Sure, like Sinners is like incredible and an incredible success story, but I do think like we do it and ourselves a disservice by being like, well, how do we do another one? You know, it's like, you're not gonna get another one every time. I'm just talking on a podcast.

Well, I know, but I'm just saying, you know, you keep trying and then every once in a while, you know, then you get some, some Elio's. I almost said Luca's there, but I don't even remember. I never saw Luca. Luca was released in theaters. It was an original. It is another in a long line of originals that have struggled somewhat.

Obviously, Ryan, the last dragon turning red. And there was one more that I'm forgetting right now that all more or less went either straight to or had short shelf lives onward, had a very short shelf life in the movie theater before COVID hit. So people have gotten out of the habit of going to see the originals.

That was another, my parents died and then I had to like be at... My big brother. I had to go to Medieval Times. Uh, sure. Yes. That's what happened. They went to Medieval Times. I cried a lot. The next movie that they're putting out

is also an original, Hoppers. There's a little, apparently this is a stinger at the end of Elio. I assume you did not stick around. You did not learn your lesson from Sinners. You did not wait for the post-credit sequence at Elio. I did stay at the, I stayed for a long time at Materialist. Okay.

You were waiting for the huge record scratch. This is actually a Captain America movie. It's like they're all in this, they're at City Hall, you know? That blung down shirt he was wearing and revealed Caps Back Materialist as a Cap 5 prequel. Hoppers is coming out March 6, 2026. Okay. The stinger, and I don't mind spoiling it right now,

I think it was for Hoppers, because they pitched Hoppers at the end of it with a title card, was a lizard pressing an emoji button on a phone that was the lizard emoji button emoji button on a phone that was the lizard emoji button. And every time he pressed it, it said, lizard, lizard, lizard, lizard. Did you guys see this?

No? Okay, nobody saw this. I think that was for Hoppers, which I believe is about rabbits, but I don't know. Okay. That's in next March. Okay. Is that gonna work?

Lizard, lizard. Lizard, it's in my brain. Uh, then Toy Story 5, then another original called Gato in 2027, then Incredibles 3, then Coco 2. And Adrian Molina, who was one of the co-directors of this movie, left this movie in the middle of it to go work on Coco 2, which you have to imagine is extremely important. Coco 2, I think, is probably the last mega-sensation that Pixar had, original mega-sa 2, I think, is probably the last mega sensation that Pixar had, original mega sensation that Pixar has had. It's Cocoa. Now, they did have Inconto, which became hugely popular, but was during COVID.

Right, and was the Bruno. Yes. So, some of that was the virality of... Yes, and you wrote that song. I did. And performed it, but my performance is only on, like, the soundtrack, not in the actual movie, you know? Oh, I see. So I wasn't eligible for an Oscar.

Okay, that's tough. Okay. You and Diane Warren did this together. That was very special. I actually don't know if that's true. I don't know if you, if like the performance soundtrack version for the movie is eligible for an Oscar or not. You know, if it's different than what's in the film. I don't know the answer to that. I think it will be tested probably for Sinners

because Jamie Lawson sings a version of a song that Brittany Howard wrote in Sinners, and then both of them are on the soundtrack. Which one? You want to hear Brittany Howard sing at the Oscars? Do you want to hear Jamie Lawson sing? Should they sing together? They should sing too. Well, no one should sing, but anyway, that's a different conversation. Okay, no one should sing.

Non-sequels since Moana in 2016 from Disney, Wish, Strange World, and Kanto Raya and the Last Dragon. Those four movies have made $255 million domestic box office combined. That's not a lot. Yeah. That's a low number. If anyone wants to write me a check for $255 million,

I say yes. Okay, that's very brave of you. Unexploited IP is really the new benchmark. Minecraft, Super Mario Bros., Barbie, this is what people want. So what does Universal do? They go out and make a live action, How to Train Your Dragon. And you know what people wanted that too? Yeah. I didn't really want it.

I thought it was not exactly what I want from the movies. I'll tell you why. Okay. I've already seen How to Train Your Dragon. It's pretty good. It's a nice movie. I also recently watched the original 2010 animated version with my daughter. She liked it?

She liked it. She wanted more of the female heroine per this conversation we were just having. Astrid. Sure. I would say Astrid gets a slightly stronger role. She's played by Nico Parker in the new film. And she gets to be more of a leader, more of role. She's played by Nico Parker in the new film.

And she gets to be more of a leader, more of a hero than I thought she was in the animated version. Nevertheless, a lot of time spent with Hiccup, the star of the movie who's played by Mason Thames in this movie. We saw this all the way back at CinemaCon. Yeah, and I have never seen the original animated version. So I was just kind of like, what's going on here?

It was also at 9 a.m. It was. In Las Vegas. It was. After a long, you were up till 6 a.m. doing ketamine, two hours of sleep, woke up, right to how to train your dragon. Right.

And then they trained some dragons, but you know, also Gerard Butler did some pillaging. He did, Gerard Butler was the voice of the father character in the original animated film, and he reprises the role here in this movie. I think he's probably the best part of this movie, to be honest with you. Yeah, he was good.

He's very engaging. I was like, that's a, hey, that's a star. I thought the dragons looked okay. Pretty good. Yeah. Pretty good. The visual effects, I think, are strong. The movie is directed by Dean DeBlois, who was one of the co-directors of the original film

with Chris Sanders. Yeah. And I think they have converted the film fairly well. They've created a whole kind of Viking world. The problem is, it's almost exactly the same movie. Right. It's the same, more or less the same script, a couple of modulations here and there. And it's 35 minutes longer than the original. Right. Which is the same thing that happens in the Disney live action movies? Make it make sense.

Why is that the case? Well, I mean, I haven't seen the original. There was a lot, as I said, of pillaging and a lot of, like, Viking, and it felt like they were going for some sort of, hey, you liked Game of Thrones, you know, like also... You brought your kids to see The Northmen. Right, and you and I turned to each other and we said this is probably like a little too scary

for our children. I did not bring my child. In a way that I think if it's animated, there is something, you know, fantastical about it versus watching people like galloping through at night and it's like a little scary. So I didn't take, but maybe that adds some time. I don't know. You got to let all the horses run through whatever.

There were horses, right? Or were there? I don't remember. It wasn't how to train your horse. That's for sure. Well, no, but they were right. Were they riding horses in the battle scenes? I don't recall.

It was nine AM. That's true. The, the thing that is odd about this is that, um, you know, this playbook we thought was like totally dead, and then Mufasa very quietly made like $700 million, and then Lilo and Stitch came along and was... totally blah and made another $700 million. Now this movie's come along, and I think it's already at $365 million.

And I understand why studios do this for money. Yeah. But it is bottom of the barrel creativity, in my opinion. It is creatively empty. But can I give you a personal anecdote that speaks to the financial power of this? Certainly. So the marketing for this one has been all over the place.

Like, in a good way, they've been out there. Certainly. So the marketing for this one has been all over the place. Like in a, in a good way. They have, they've been out there, including in a, in a crossover commercial with Bryce Harper for I don't even know what else they're selling, but it was played during Phillies games. He's a, like a health influencer now. He's eating all kinds of powders and things. Everyone's eating raw milk. That's something he does. Yeah, that's bad. We don't because that's RFK coated and we're against that. Okay, you gotta speak to Bryce about that and your beloved Philadelphia Phillies.

I mean, I don't want to know how Bryce Harper is voted in the last something. Anyway, he was in this commercial and so was the dragon Toothless and my three-year-old son looked up and he noticed it. Like the first time it just played and then the second time he was like, who's that dragon? And then the third time we saw it, it went it and he like whispered, I want to see the dragon again. And so now, courtesy of Universal, we have like the full set of the

dragon toys in our home. Wow. And he loves the toys. Now, he like doesn't understand that they're connected to the movie, and he hasn't even asked to see the movie. But we've got all the toys, and at some point, he's going to be like, can I see that dragon again? And we will probably just go straight to the animated,

you know, but it is reviving, you know, it's more money. So they did their job. Like, and he really likes the dragon. Does he have an awareness of dinosaurs? animated, you know, but it is reviving, you know, it's, it's more money. So they did their job. I like he, and he really likes the dragon. Does he have an awareness of dinosaurs? Yeah, he's like pretty, he knows about them today. We found today we found in his school bag, a dinosaur t-shirt that is not his, you know, that like got, it got sent home, got mixed up. That's fine.

Interesting. But he, he stole a dinosaur t-shirt. But he clocked in and he said, that's a Tyrannosaurus. And I was like, I didn't even know that you knew that. So he does know about dinosaurs, but we're... This is a turning point. But we're going to New York in the summer,

and I told him that we could go to the Natural History Museum and see all the dinosaurs, and I think he's like, that's scary. I don't want to see them. I don't want to be scared. You can just take him to the Natural History Museum in LA. We have done that and I think he's like, that's scary. I don't want to see them. I don't want to be scared. You can just take them to the Natural History Museum in LA. We have done that and I think that that was scary for him. So, and then I was like, there's a big whale and he's like, I don't know about that. This is the reason that we did not go to see How to Train Your Dragon.

I wouldn't say that Knox is like confronting his fears. Again, maybe I should have seen it, taken him to see Elio. Maybe I'm just creating, you know, a was a warmer story. A bubble. But he knows about dinosaurs, yeah. No participation trophies for not seeing the dragon movie. He really, really likes these dragons. So... and I guess he likes dinosaurs. I think Toothless in particular looks really good in the live action one. Yeah.

Because the design of that character in the animated movie is very... It doesn't look scientifically like you might imagine a dragon looks. It looks like a kid's character. Right. Yeah. He's very friendly. And that's why... What's the other one called? Monstrous something? I don't recall. That's for Cy. I see. Yeah.

Yeah. That's what... I understand that. Because we had to separate them. So Cy got the more colorful one and then Knox got all of the toothless. Wow. We're into like Dragon Toys era. Yeah. For me, this is very fun. Here I am.

This is going to be exciting. Uh, I think I'd be, I really want to know what he thinks of the animated movie, whether he clings to it or not. Yeah. We, he, he still doesn't know what to do with animated movies. So that's another thing. Like I think Zach tried Moana with him. Moana, Moana, I'm sorry, Moana.

Went... We don't watch it! Wow, just disrespectful to their culture. Zach tried it when he was... The people of Multinui. I know, when they were doing... When he was doing the Dwayne Johnson piece that he did. And so they watched it and Knox was like,

what is this? And like wandered off. No, he loves Robin Hood though. You need to show him characters like that. Yeah, that's true. He does like... Male hero characters in animated films is the way in. But he really likes Sir Hiss. So...

That's great. He's like, my friend Sir Hiss. Yeah, that's like, he gives the Dion Waiters performance in that movie, Sir Hiss the Snake. So that's all good. That's just a sign of taste. Anything else you want to, you need to share? Uh... About how to train your dragon or otherwise?

Is there a kids movie this summer that I do want to take nocs to? Eddington? Eddington. Yeah. We'll check in on that and see how that looks. I don't, I mean Happy Gilmore 2 that's on the, oh, Will Smurfs. They just added Lawrence of Arabia in 70 millimeter oh my god well I didn't get to go last time hold on I gotta buy tickets right now we're recording a podcast so why don't you worry about

checking event status okay it's still going last time I missed it oh this is a this is a Saturday at 2 p.m. though. That's pretty tough for me. Uh, should I take knocks to Gabby's dollhouse? The movie? I will. If I need to, I will. I also Kristen Wiig. That's not your flavor. You know?

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. So you take him. That's fine. Alice is like, what is that? Yeah, I bet she is. And then, and then you're going to have a lot of dollhouses in your house.

You know what she got into? Did we talk about, I told you this yesterday. She-Ra. So we rented an old She-Ra movie from Videotech over the weekend. And then I just learned that there are five seasons of a She-Ra Princess of Power TV show on Netflix. And I'm like, I have to do whatever I can to avoid Alice discovering this. Because this will be the only thing I watch for the next ten years. Okay. I don't think there's any other kids' movies until there's a big one coming in the wind.

Well, Wicked 2, obviously. And then Zootopia 2. Those are the two really big ones. Did you see the Celine Song Zootopia thing? Uh, I did. What is the one movie you would recommend? Yeah, but then she clarified, and she was like, honestly, I just wasn't very prepared for that. I like that that's where her mind went. Well, she said, she was like, and it was a great answer. She was like, it, I just wasn't very prepared for that. I like that that's where her mind went. Well, she said, she was like, and it was a great answer.

She was like, it's no one's fault. Everyone told me what it would be, but I wasn't prepared. And then I heard Desert Island is like, what movie would you want to watch over and over again? So she's like, Children of Men is my favorite movie. But I don't know if I were stuck on a desert island, if that's the one I want to be watching over and over again. So I went with Zootopia, which I love. Great job. Just great. Have you seen Zootopia? You haven't, you went over this. No, but I did get a really great, remember the, and you told me what happened in it, but then I got an Instagram message that was like Zootopia is actually about how

the Reagan administration introduced crack into black communities in the 80s. Yep. Thanks to CR for sending me that DM. I thought that was a great... So now I'm going to see Zootopia and I guess Zootopia too. It's incredibly exciting. Well, that's 800. Last episode. We're done here. We did it. You feel good? You feel good about what we accomplished? Yeah, I feel great. What's next? What's 801? 801 is number 17 on our 25 for 25 list. Oh, yeah. The only clue I will give is it's a funny one. Yeah. So I hope people enjoy that conversation.

That'll be coming on Wednesday. Thanks to everyone who's been listening along. Thank you for sending in your questions. Thank you for Jack and Sam for compiling those questions. Thanks to Jack for being the producer of this episode and using his voice on this episode. We'll see you on Wednesday.