The Big Picture - Ten Movies to Stream, Best Picture Power Rankings, and an Ask Amanda Mailbag

Episode Date: January 27, 2022

Sean and Amanda hit on the Producers Guild, Writers Guild, and ACE Eddie nominations, key bellwethers of award season, and what they mean for the Academy Awards (0:35). Then they share some streaming recommendations for you (35:00). And finally, since we’re getting down to our final days with Amanda for a little while, we figured it’s time to get as much of her as we can, so we’ve got an Ask Amanda mailbag for the Dobb Mob (51:18). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Bobby Wagner Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Derek Thompson, longtime writer with The Atlantic Magazine on tech, culture, and politics. There is a lot of noise out there, and my goal is to cut through the headlines, loud tweets, and hot takes in my new podcast, Plain English. I'll talk to some of the smartest people I know to give you clear viewpoints and memorable takeaways. Plain English starts November 16th. Listen for free on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started.

I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about a lot of stuff. We're getting down to our final days with Amanda for a little while on the show, so we figured it's time to get as much of you as possible. We've got an Ask Amanda mailbag later in this episode. First, we wanted to hit on the Producers Guild nominations, the Writers Guild nominations, the Ace Eddie nominations, a few key bellwethers of award season, and then after that, we'll share some streaming recommendations for you

as there are not a ton of movies in movie theaters right now for you to see. Let's start with those nominations that all hit like a stone today, Amanda. PGA nominations. Do you want to read through this top 10, the 10 films that we're looking at here? I would love to. The 10 films nominated for the PGAs, the Producer Guild Awards, Being the Ricardos, Belfast, Coda, Don't Look Up, Dune, King Richard, Licorice Pizza, The Power of the Dog, Tick Tick Boom, and West Side Story. So that means there's a bunch of significant movies that have maybe been in this conversation over the last few months that didn't make the cut. Among them, Spider-Man No Way Home.

Not a huge surprise there. No Time to Die, which I guess has been fighting recently to get recognized by this body. Drive My Car, The Lost Daughter, The Tragedy of Macbeth, House of Gucci, Sadly, and Nightmare Alley. First blush, what were your takeaways from these nominations? So the Producers Guild Awards typically go a little more blockbuster, just historically. So probably Outlook not as good for Spider-Man No Way Home. I think if that really was going to pick up steam, that this would have been a place where you could see it in the top 10. They tend to go for that stuff. I guess it

didn't work. So that stood out to me. And then we just have to talk about Tick, Tick, Boom. What are we all doing? What's happening? What is going on? I believe I said this to you last time we spoke and last time we ranked our best picture power rankings. And I was like, just don't overlook this, that people love this movie. They love the legacy of Jonathan Larson. They love Lin-Manuel Miranda. talented individual who deserves all of the success and the money that has come his way in the last 10 years. Tremendous stuff. But this feels like just a desperate 14th inning grab at the tiniest bit of Hamilton magic dust. This is almost as bad as people being like, we need to mark the anniversary of the January 6th riots with a freaking Hamilton presentation. Guys, like we've got to move on. We've got to just find some new things and let Lin-Manuel Miranda cook and make movies that I thought were like fine at best and find new gold dust. This is crazy. So the point that you made earlier, I think is relevant to this point about Tick, Tick, Boom,

which is that historically the PGAs tends to recognize at least one additional blockbuster that feels slightly outside of the awards conversation. It's almost like a recognition of the fact that producing, much of the job of producing is not just helping to get a film get made, but to think about the sort of business of movies and the way that a movie, if a producer is successful, it means that an audience is

finding their film in many ways, not just helping a filmmaker or filmmaking team realize their vision. So just in recent years, last year, Borat 2 was nominated for PGA for Best Feature. In 2019, Knives Out was nominated for Best Feature. In 2018, Crazy Rich Asians. In 2017, Wonder Woman. What do all those movies have in common? They did not get nominated for Best Feature. In 2018, Crazy Rich Asians. In 2017, Wonder Woman. What do all those movies have in common? They did not get nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. But they were popular and people saw them. They certainly were. Do you have proof that people saw Tick, Tick, Boom besides Letterboxd?

I do not. And actually, there was recently a report by, I believe his name is Entertainment Strategist Guy, who is a newsletter writer and is now a member of the burgeoning Ankler media empire. And he wrote a piece recently about sort of the struggles of many, many musicals that have largely been premier as you might think that the viewership based on what is actually what's seemingly very vague accounting based on a series of technologies that are not confirmed because the streamers don't actually have to report the same way that films that go to box office do. But I don't know if Tick, Tick, Boom is popular, just like I don't know if being the Ricardos is popular. Those two films, I would say, are the most vulnerable in the aftermath of the PGAs because frequently what happens is 10 films are nominated at the PGAs. As many as 10 films can be nominated for Best Picture at the Oscars. Usually it's closer to eight or nine films. This year, we know there

will be 10 movies at the Oscars. One movie tends to get swapped out. Last year, for example, the film The Father was not nominated by the PGAs, but it was nominated for Best Picture. That's a smaller movie. Typically smaller films are the ones that slide into the Best Picture race. So if you're looking at our list here, you're right. It's not Spider-Man that is likely to be recognized. It's not No Time to Die that is likely to be recognized. I think you're basically pulling from one or maybe two of three potential films that could slot into any of those Tick, Tick, Boom or Being the Ricardo spots. Those movies are Drive My Car, The Lost Daughter, The Tragedy of Macbeth.

My money's on The Lost Daughter here. I think that's the film that is most likely to resonate if any of those movies go out. But what else? What other options do we have? I mean, Drive My Car is obviously the critical darling at this point.

And both Drive My Car and Lost Daughter are an interesting position today because we're going to talk about the WGAs and also the editing awards. But neither Drive My Car or the Lost Daughter were eligible for the WGA just because of the way that the WGA nominations work. This works, this happens every year. So that but that is like missing out on two spots on a day where we're like, hey, it's, you know, Guild Nominations Day and everyone is going to trot out all of their bad opinions like you and I are right now. So do I think that totally ends their campaigns? I don't because I like you're right that there is always one smaller movie that kind of sneaks in. And those are not just critically acclaimed at this point, but like increasingly being seen and discussed and a part of the awards conversation. I don't think it's a total setback, but as you pointed out, I think like it's probably over for

House of Gucci, which I just feel really sad about. Let's just pour out a gigantic magnum of Barolo for House of Guccici you served us well in these months and now it is time to move on to the the great graveyard in the streaming sky where we will soon see you again but i also think it's a loss and a mistake uh to not be including house of gucci you you're already you logged on already and i'm not gonna judge you sharing your uh your feelings about the Oscar slate, but there aren't a lot of blockbusters. These are a lot of niche movies.

We're talking about substitute substituting tick, tick, boom, a movie. I did not. I don't mean to be too negative about it. It wasn't for me. I think it's very cool.

If you liked it, you know, you're bonded on this one. This is one. You can't, you can't just let it go. We had a mailbag question a few months ago that was like, what was the lowest point of your movie watching year?

And my answer was like when people started singing a Dear Evan Hansen. But number two was when people started singing and Tick Tick Boom. It's just not my genre. I'm really not with you on this. It's funny. I don't didn't love Tick Tick Boom, but you make me feel oppositional. You know, like I feel like I have to defend it. It's like, I thought it was solid. It was solid. And I would say that most of my issues are

actually with the musical, the original material itself. I agree. That's the weakest part. I have shared my thoughts on the rock musicals of the last 20 years and how it's just a hard not for me. But if you enjoyed it, that's great. But substituting The Lost Daughter, a movie that you and I both really liked, and our producer, Sasha, who's filling in for Bobby today, also really liked. I know a lot of people who liked it. Still niche, you know?

It's not the kind of movie that is gonna get people being like, ooh, Lady Gaga is gonna be performing at the Oscars. I should watch. Yeah. Well, the thing is, is that Lady Gaga is going to be performing at the Oscars. I should watch. Yeah. Well, the thing is, is that Lady Gaga may still be recognized by the Academy, and there will still be a chance to get her out there to the show. But you're bringing up a point that has obviously been rattling around in my brain for the six or so years since I've been covering this space,

which is that the show's ratings are plummeting, and one, not necessarily surefire, but one potential way to get more people interested is to recognize more movies that have bigger audiences that create more curiosity for people like us. We'll be watching the Oscars till the day that we die. We are invested. If you're listening to this show right now, you're probably going to watch it no matter what, or at least keep up with what's going on in the race. Or at least have heard of the movies that will be nominated. That's probably more critical. Which is like at this point, the hurdle that we're trying to get over is like,

have people even heard of these movies? It's a very good point. There are a few movies here in particular. I quite liked Coda and obviously had a journey with Coda as a watcher of that film and a new parent. But that's a movie that's on Apple TV+, which does not have a ton of subscribers and had virtually no theatrical audience because of how it was released. It premiered all the way back in January of 2021 at Sundance. So the conversation on that movie has cooled quite a bit. It's actually done fairly well in the awards race.

But in terms of pure eyeballs, the number of people that have seen that movie, it's got to be among the lowest in the history of movies that have been nominated for the Academy Award. And so it's simultaneously deeply accessible, but there's a barrier to entry. And this raises something that I think is so fascinating about the Academy Awards right now. This is not a permanent change, but it is notable over the last two years. So seven of these 10 nominees were distributed by and widely seen on streaming services. So just two years ago, only one film that was nominated out of nine for Best Picture could say the same thing. That was Marriage Story. Last year, five of the eight that were nominated for Best Picture were streamed as well. So the pandemic is radically changing

what an awards movie is and how we're seeing it. You are well known on this show for saying, let people see movies. The streamers do let people see movies. The problem is the coordinated campaigns about when the movies are available and where they're available is still wildly confusing to mainstream audiences. And so Tick, Tick, Boom features Andrew Garfield, who is pretty famous. He once and again played Spider-Man and it's based on a story by the guy who wrote Rent and it's directed by the guy who created Hamilton. On paper, this is a mainstream movie. I don't know if it actually, in reality, is a mainstream movie and whether that is or is

not a good thing for the Academy Awards. Now, there's a number of other examples here that we can talk about. Dune, just based on the listenership of this podcast, I can tell you there's a lot of people that are into Dune. We talk about Dune and people are checking out the pod. That's how I know that there is some correlation in the real world. Does that audience that watched Dune care about the Oscars? Historically, no. But I blame that on the Oscars, not on the watchers of Dune, because the Oscars has historically ignored movies like Dune and recognizing achievement.

So there's this, it's all tangled up. Dune is also the real asterisk in the let people see movies, because it was available for 30 days on HBO Max and now it's gone and it's same for King Richard which is like a major awards contender and you can rent it I don't you can rent King Richard online now I don't know if you can rent Dune yet they're both available on right but they're expensive yes um but for two movies that were debuted for free on a streaming service and then disappeared for the crucial moment in which people could be discovering them via the Oscars or the Oscar race could be considering them in

new ways. Your point about streamers are releasing movies, but it's so hard to keep up is incredibly important and also part of my Let People See Movies campaign of just like make it easier, like the windowing and all of these sorts of, you know, just like let people click on your button once they've heard about a movie and then watch it. It's amazing what happens when you do. Yeah. The complication this year in particular is that both Dune and King Richard

are Warner Brothers releases and they had this day and date strategy this year, or I should say last year, 2021 to pump subscribers to HBO max. They're not doing that in 2022. and they had this day-and-date strategy this year, or I should say last year, 2021, to pump subscribers to HBO Max. They're not doing that in 2022. So this could ultimately be a true asterisk year where Dune Part 2, when it's released in 2023 or 2024, whenever it's finished, that's going to be in movie theaters. I'm almost certain of that because it's clear that there's an audience for that movie. So maybe we're just in a transitional phase

and there's no reason to kind of overreact, but two years in a row with this wealth of streaming service movies, for lack of a better phrase, makes it more challenging to kind of create a sense of eventized excitement around the Academy Awards. The films feel slightly less special and I don't know, that feels like it's going to be a problem.

Now, on the other hand, there's a couple of movies, West Side Story in particular, I think that kind of checks all the historical boxes that we're citing here. It's a hugely lauded, well-known filmmaker based on a very well-known story that people love. In fact, a film that won Best Picture 50 years ago, 60 years and you know directed by steven spielberg released in theaters but not a lot of people went to go see it in movie theaters and they're still not and they're working so hard they're doing all their promo yeah and they should see it if they feel safe you know hollywood reporter this week it was i i had a wonderful time i really had a great experience and also i just it doesn't really seem like anyone is seeing this movie, at least in theaters.

And I do want to point out again that we're at a place where we're begging for a Steven Spielberg, Tony Kushner remake of a classic film that already won like 10 Oscars, including Best Picture. We're begging for people to take that seriously and then to save the Oscars. That's just a tough spot for all of us to be in. Can I tell you what movie I feel like is really in a very, very comfortable position right now?

Go for it. Don't look up. Yeah, of course. That's the movie that is a streamer that felt like an event for the period of time in which it was released over the holidays because of the clamoring conversation around it. Has big time

movie stars. Has a filmmaker who's already been recognized over and over again. Now this is his third film in a row that has been a big award season movie. It's about a pressing issue in our culture which we know the Academy likes to address. And I don't think the controversies on the internet mean anything to the Academy. I think clearly the WGA also really likes Adam McKay because he's been nominated again

for this script. And we'll talk about those nominations very shortly. I wonder now, is the Belfast Power of the Dog two-way race, is it a three-way race with Don't Look Up? Because it keeps getting recognized. The spirit of this show is I told you so, but I don't actually like to say I told you so that often. But didn't I say this after Christmas? Wasn't I just like, oh, duh, if you're not trapped on the internet? Which, once again, everybody, just log off of the internet between December 23rd and 5 p.m. and January 2nd at 9 a.m. in your respective time zone.

Just get off. Do not use the internet. Then you don't have to be subject to any of the bad behavior. And everyone else is just at home with their parents being like, oh, wow, I watched a movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, Jennifer Lawrence, and like all of my favorite other celebrities. Yeah, of course. Yeah. I think it has a chance, which is interesting and not something I saw. And I wonder if there will be a lot of hand-wringing and outrage if we get to the final day and it wins. I don't know if that would really bother me as much as it would bother other people. But let's talk about the WGAs quickly. You want to read those nominations

for original and adapted screenplay? Wow. I'd love to. I didn't know that I was going to have my announcer voice on today. Okay. Do you want me to read just the names or do it? Just the names of the films is fine. Yeah. Okay. Because there are a lot of names here. So in the original screenplay category, we have Being the Ricardos, Don't Look Up,

The French Dispatch of the Liberty Kansas Evening Sun screenplay, which I did not know was its full name, but okay. King Richard and Licorice Pizza. In adapted screenplay, we have Coda, Dune, Nightmare Alley, Tick Tick Boom, and West Side Story. So you cited something very important here, which is that historically the WGAs are always a little bit more difficult to track because some films are ineligible for this award because some writers are not necessarily members of the wga or they have not failed they fail to qualify for very particular rules-based reasons a couple of huge ones here kenneth barna's belfast and jane campion's the power of the dog are not here so you can imagine almost certainly that both of those films will be in original and adapted respectively so i guess when i look at this list it's probably it's probably the french dispatch that is not

going to make the cut on original screenplay and we'll see belfast in there and it's probably nightmare alley or tick tick boom that's not going to make the cut on adapted probably nightmare alley at this point. Can I ask you related? So are you just spending all your free time doing the viral campaign for the Black and White Nightmare Alley? Is that you? That's what you've been doing?

I have not participated in that campaign. I have not seen the film projected in black and white. Though I'll tell you, I would happily do so if I could find the time. I'm in the midst of my 38th Sundance Film Festival film so I have not had a lot of time to go out to the movies of late but um here's the thing Nightmare Alley it debuted in early December or in mid-December it did not do well at the box office the original critical reception was I would say mildly positive it clearly accumulated at least a small but vocal group of fans,

among them Martin Scorsese, who penned an entire op-ed about the majesty of Guillermo del Toro's work. As you know, I've seen the movie three times now. Like, I think it's really good.

What was the occasion for watching it a third time? I wanted to see what it was. Well, I heard Bradley Cooper on Kim Master's show, The Business. Incredible. I thought it was a really

interesting conversation. Bradley continues to fascinate me. His conversation about how he will generate revenue, I thought was quite hilarious. No, it was amazing. It was really special. And again, I think he's authentically terrific in that movie and is not even in the conversation for best actor. I know you're not a huge fan of that film and that story, but it has its admirers. And so it felt like in the last three weeks or so, Searchlight decided, like, we got to try to make something happen here. And so they started making a push. You know, Guillermo's been appearing on a lot of shows, doing a lot of interviews.

They started pushing the performances much more aggressively. Based on today's outcome, with the exception of this WGA nomination, it seems to have not really worked out. Right. Which I'm okay with. I've just noted a lot of... It's sort of like the letterbox reply, guys, to seem really aware that the new cause is taking Nightmare Alley seriously, which is cool. But we're taking Being the Ricardos seriously? Like, come on.

I'm not taking it seriously. No one can look me in the eyes and say Being the Ricardos is a better movie than Nightmare Alley. It's just not. It's not taking it seriously idea that you can't no one can look me in the eyes and say being the ricardo's is a better movie than nightmare alley it's just not it's not i i agree with that again i'm not taking it seriously but once again was there ever a movie made for the guilds more than being the ricardo's ricardo's no possibly nightmare alley because of the way that all of the crafts people who work on that film are so elevated but like all of these guilds are people who like you know walk in waving their card and it's like where is my personal red carpet and finally here is a place where i'm taken seriously and that is also like the theme of being with the

ricardos in a nutshell i would say that being the ricardos is the ultimate sag movie and that nightmare alley is the ultimate crafts people movie honestly like ultimate below the line movie and and but we can quibble on that. Um, let's talk about the ACE Eddie awards really quick because they're also an interesting bellwether. So in the past, these have also been wildly predictive and memorably films that do not get a best editing nomination, almost never win best picture. And it's very hard for them to get nominated for Best Picture if they don't get recognized in editing.

So here are the nominees there. So for Dramatic Film, and this is split into Dramatic and Comedy, Belfast, Dune, King Richard, No Time to Die, The Power of the Dog, and then Best Edited Feature Film Comedy, Cruella. What? Don't Look Up, The French Dispatch,

Licorice Pizza, and Tick Tick Boom. Now, obviously this bodes very well for Belfast, Dune, King Richard, Power of the Dog, Licorice Pizza, Don't Look Up, and probably Tick Tick Boom, all films that we think are likely to be nominated for Best Picture. It's crazy that Licorice Pizza is just a lock.

That's nice, right? It is nice. It's gotten hit on every guilt. Don't look a gift horse in the mouth, you know? I know, I'm happy about that. Anything else jump out to you there besides the oddity of cruella being recognized in comedy for editing i get maybe it was wonderfully edited i'm not sure i really realized at the one time i watched it edited um i think they had a complex execution in front of them and you could make the case that they did

well enough with it given like the raw text of that original show that you're talking about that larson wrote so maybe they're recognizing that okay whatever i don't know i mean don't look up as an interesting one because obviously hank corwin is the editor there and he's very widely celebrated by this group but some people don't like the way that corwin and mckay cut those movies together they think it's a little too aggressive and a little too obvious in the way that they're constantly positioning, say, like, the flourishing images of nature. Well, Human Rhapsody won the Editing Award two years ago. It certainly did.

So, you know, that's what I have to say. All right. We've looked at all of these nominations. What's going to happen? Give me the 10. Right now? Oh, I didn't know that I was going to have to do this. Just do it.

Just bite down and do it. You got this. Okay. I believe in you. Well, I'm going to go off the PGA nominations and just switch some things out. Being the Ricardos, yes. Sorry. I think it's in.

Sean, it's 10 movies. I've told you, every single guild is like, wow, finally, someone who understands my struggle against McCarthyism and the tabloids and also whatever. Do you relate to it on that level? Your struggle against McCarthyism and the tabloids? Yes, exactly. How'd you know? And also I want to hang out with Javier Bardem,

which same. Sure, I can buy that. Belfast, yes. I think CODA is in at this point. Okay. Don't Look Up. Yes. Dune.

Yes. King Richard. Yes. Licorice Pizza. Power of the Dog. The Lost Daughter, and West Side Story. So you're swapping out Tick, Tick, Boom for The Lost Daughter, and you think that will be the only change that is different from the PGAs? I think that this is pretty close.

We do have sort of, I think we have nine that are pretty consistent do you think drive my car is going to make it i don't i have yeah i don't i don't either so if it happens here's here's the one caveat i will make is that the lost daughter and drive my car were both on my top 10 and those are two of my favorite movies of the of that year and two filmmakers whose careers i'm really excited about as directors so when i do all, you know, melodramatic hand-wringing about the future of the Academy Awards, it's not about necessarily only recognizing the best possible films or only getting the best possible ratings. It's a mixture of those two complicated and conflicting ideas, because I don't really think Being the Ricardos should be in the same class as Drive My Car.

It's not as a filmmaking achievement. Being the Ricardos should be in the same class as drive my car. It's not as a filmmaking achievement. Being the Ricardos is not the worst movie ever made. But if we have to spend another eight weeks or frankly, I have to spend another eight weeks. Well, you are not spending a good luck talking about being the Ricardos. That's annoying to me. I'm less bothered. They are. They are annoying.

They are. And Tick, Tick, Boom. Likewise, I just don't think Tick, Tick, Boom is as accomplished and as compelling a movie as The Lost Daughter. I'd rather see The Lost Daughter in there. I don't know if that's a good or a bad thing, quote unquote. You know, like we went through this a few weeks ago when we talked about the Spider-Man thing.

I think a lot of people mistook my take on that, that Spider-Man should be nominated for Best Picture. I kind of don't care. I just actually want the Oscars to continue to be a cultural centerpiece because I feel like movies need a bullhorn. And I feel like they're turning the bullhorn into a kazoo. And that just doesn't seem like a good move for something that was once historically so culturally powerful. And that is ultimately on the Academy. That's on Ampus to recognize that they still have a noisemaker and that because of the way that the awards are structured and organized. And again, to your point that you always make, the shit is all made up. So if they wanted to change the rules, they could change them. They've changed them many times in the last 10 years. right now, it is prizing smaller films or films that flatter the egos of people who make movies. And it is not speaking to mainstream moviegoers hardly at all. And that is a long-term issue.

Absolutely. To be fair, it is always favored movies that flatter the ego of people that make movies. And in fact, honestly, we've taken a few steps away from that in the past few years. It used to be like, oh, the movie about Hollywood always wins all of the things. And there has been some widening of the net. La La Land did not win. Moonlight did. That was amazing. It was.

But yes, that it is not speaking to the mainstream of American culture at the moment. Correct. Are movies speaking to the mainstream of american culture right now besides spider-man no way home not really which is a tough spot to be in you and i both hope that it is a temporary spot because of the last two years and you mentioned that ampus has been changing rules a lot because they can but also it's been a weird two years like we're still in the weirdness of it so i don't think they're going to solve everything. I don't think they're going to solve like how COVID changed movies.

No, in the next, like in the next two months. So it's going to be, no. And I don't think you are, but like the flip side of that is like, sure.

It's going to be a weird Oscars and it's not going to be super watched. And, and I think it'll be good for the movies that actually win because people will go be like oh this won the Oscar I'll check it out but it is true that 10 or even five years ago it was a great thing sorry for this but just to be nominated like all of the movies that actually did get talked about in this period were sought out and felt more relevant as opposed to people being like, huh, what's Nomadland? How do I watch that? Can you download Hulu for me?

There's one critical wrinkle here, and it's correlated to the streaming world and the world of theatrical. Historically, when smaller films are nominated for Oscars, it platforms them back into movie theaters and it helps their business long-term. That has always been true. And obviously the pandemic has mitigated that to some extent, It platforms them back into movie theaters and it helps their business long-term. That has always been true.

And obviously the pandemic has mitigated that to some extent, but a movie like the power of the dog, if it were getting as much acclaim in 2016 and was released theatrically and not on Netflix, it's a movie that would have stayed in art houses for months. This is, and I'm not talking about like 1978 here. I'm talking about five, eight, six years ago. And that movie would have slowly accumulated

more and more and more money. We just watched this happen with Parasite, a movie that on opening weekend or whatever was not a box office bonanza, but eventually made $50 million. And that's a foreign language film. So that actual apparatus, so if you want to continue to recognize smaller films, it's harder to recognize what the long-term benefit is when a movie like that is owned and operated by a streaming service that creates no revenue long-term and that actually struggles to maintain the conversation around these films.

It's not hard to maintain the conversation around a film when more and more people keep showing up to watch it in a movie theater. That creates a word of mouth. Now, you can make the case that there's going to be word of mouth on Power of the Dog when it gets 12 Oscar nominations in a couple of weeks. I'm not so sure. The other thing that is related to this, and this is related to the massive stock market dip

that has been happening over the last couple weeks, it's related to Netflix's failure to hit some subscriber goals recently and their number taking a dip prior to the stock market dip, which is that

streaming makes less money than theatrical, period. And streaming makes less money than cable, period. We have not figured out what the economies of these systems are yet. And so all of these entertainment conglomerates are like, all right, we all race to build our streaming service up. We got all these prestige movies. We're putting them on streaming services. They're getting nominated. Isn't that great? And then these movies have no way to create revenue for the services. And so then ultimately,

if you look at the long-term, and I apologize for the galaxy brain of this, but it is essentially creating like an exit pattern for quality movies long-term. Because one day someone will come along and say, these movies are a net loss period, plus the Academy Awards and the prestige and the potential box office related to them

are now impossible because only three and a half million people watch the Academy Awards when they air. So we don't have to make movies like this anymore and they will go away completely. So when you hear me moaning about why isn't Spider-Man recognized, it's not because Spider-Man should

win Best Picture. It's because if people don't watch the show, it's related to what movies get made. And I know I've given this speech to you before, but I feel very strongly about it. And I feel like people look at me like I'm a fucking idiot for trying to convince you that comic book movies matter. And that's not what this is about. No, that's not. I mean, what's sad is that like all this is you still having like a little bit of hope of like this could be. It is. And the reality is everything you just said is correct. And we've had the conversation several times before and several years before of like, why does Netflix want to win an Oscar?

Honestly, like I understand because in terms of industry relationships and trying to get talent, that was sort of like a prestigious thing that they'd set out for themselves. And then they lost every year and the delicious irony is that if they do win finally for power of the dog it doesn't matter they've already given up and on like making these types of movies which is a blanket statement and not totally fair but they are shifting their strategy and power of the dog just you know it's it's like an oscar that doesn't matter after the fact for a type of movie that will no longer be made which i am sorry to say i think is true yeah i think if we're being fair to netflix and we should be they have empowered and financed a lot of great movies in the last five years they have given they have let great filmmakers make dream

projects in a place where they know they could. We just talked about White Noise, Noel Baumbach adapting a Don DeLillo novel. Bradley Cooper is going to get as much money as he needs to make Maestro, a biopic about Leonard Bernstein, a movie that most theatrical movie companies probably would not pay for right now. So they still do great things. It's not really about that. It's about how the nature of the economies around entertainment have changed so radically in 10 years. And a clear victim of this is movies for adults. That is the thing that basically is getting its knees knocked out. And so when the movies for adults that get recognized on these big stages are either one, not that great or feel beholden to another time and they don't feel like they've evolved or they don't have a chance to succeed in a bold way. They don't have a chance to basically reap the benefits of being recognized by award season. It throws this whole game out of balance.

And then Squid Game was a wonderful show. And you're right that Netflix is basically pivoting its strategy to Squid Game. How do we get more hours, more time, more series, more international, more subscribers? That is where it's at. And so what does The Lost Daughter really mean to Netflix long-term? Not that much, probably. It's just one more little tiny piece in a massive mosaic. Well, I'm not trying to give a silver lining here because I feel like I've been the doomsayer on this topic for many years now. But we're losing movies for adults. But what we're really losing is movies that all adults can sort of kind of agree on and or argue about. We're losing that center of the culture, which is what the Oscars have always represented and what you and I really like about it and how you and I like got into movies, but that's gone. And that's not, that's gone,

not just for movies, that's gone for TV, that's gone for all entertainment and, and dare I say it for the world at large. And so the business model to some extent is, can you make that siloed, but really passionate fan base can can you like keep streaming out content and so the lost daughter is great for say uh 30 something women considering having a kid who are into ferrante who might also watch like reality programming x and then are interested in shauna rhymes as anna delvey show you know it's like the profiles are shifting and the way that they're trying to build these bases whether you're talking about comic book movies whether you're talking about small movies whether you're talking about reality tv that there's thinking in a different

way and movies are definitely taking a hit because of that but like the oscars are really taking a hit like because the oscars are trying to come to a collective agreement on things that we just don't collectively agree on anymore we just have our own little nerd spaces and that's a real bummer but i don't i don't know what to do i don't think there's a good solution and that's the thing that's all of this overwhelming emotionality for me on the subject i'm'm kind of like, well, it's just it's ultimately resulting in a kind of nihilism around where things are going. And so increasingly, our conversations on the show become about the history of movies than they do about what's happening in the modern movie culture. And that also is a problem that is not helping current movies succeed because we're thinking about those convergence points that you're talking about, that adult middle that feels like it was such an essential part of the 1970s, 80s, and 90s in the movie culture that has slowly but surely

been having the air let out of its balloon. Let's make up for it a little bit. We don't have a ton of time to recommend a couple of movies before we get into your mailbag, but I do want to talk about a few movies that are available to be streamed, some of which were only in theaters, some of which were harder to find and now you can see that may or may not be recognized during award season a couple of these are 2022 movies but a few of them are 2021

and we never really got a chance to hit them on the hit on them on the show let's start with Asghar Farhadi's A Hero, which is just remarkably being served around the world on Amazon Prime, which I don't, I'm still trying to make heads or tails of how that's happening, but it's fantastic that everybody who has Amazon Prime can watch this movie.

Again, it's incredible. You can just open Amazon Prime Video and click on it and watch one of the best movies of, are we counting it for last year or this year? I'm still stumped on that, and I feel like it didn't make my top 10 because I was like, this feels like it's ultimately a 2022 movie, but it is one of the best movies of, are we counting it for last year or this year? I'm still stumped on that. And I feel like it didn't make my top 10 because I was like,

this feels like it's ultimately a 2022 movie, but it is one of the best movies that has been released in the last 12 months. Very briefly, I think if you are familiar with Farhadi's movies, I think both Amanda and I are huge fans of his. It's not so dissimilar. It's a kind of social dilemma movie.

In this case, it's about a man who is in a debtor's prison and has also, at a certain point in his time, recently found basically like a bag of money, like a bit of currency that he then... Even there, there are some questions. There are complications, yes. There is a lot of complexity in this story, as there are in all Farhadi stories. And it's a question of what is the right thing to do, and then should you be celebrated for doing the right thing?

And the way that you sell your deeds to the public and the way that you are understood by people who think of you as an enemy or people who think of you as a titular hero. I thought this movie was pretty brilliant. It's hugely stressful, but excellent. I mean, it should be stressful because it's examining all of those issues,

but also very puts you much in, very much in the place of the person going through it in a way that I don't know. I was like biting my fingernails a lot, but highly recommend. If you were a fan of a movie like A Separation, which was recognized by the Academy for how he's been recognized a number of times by the Academy. He's an Iranian filmmaker, and this is his first film set in Iran in a few years. I think he had made a film in Spain with Javier Bardem and Penelope Cruz. He had made a film in France. And so

this is a return to his home. He's done a lot of press about this movie. I would encourage people to read interviews with him. He's very, very smart and very insightful about the much more theatrical as in the theater approach he takes to writing stories. He is much more in the tradition of like Chekhov than he is in the tradition of Steven Spielberg.

But his movies are wonderful. And I think there are a handful more of them available on Prime 2, which as much as I just complained about streaming services, you can watch one of the best movies of the year on that one. You can also watch one of the best movies of 2021 on Hulu. You finally saw Bergman Island. What'd you think about that mia hansen love movie this ruled just just a strong recommend um one of the great needle drops in recent memory for me personally

just perfect use of i'll say an abba song and leave it at there um no but like a beautiful to look at and interesting. And I, without spoiling too much, it's about a couple who goes to, is it, how do you say Faro? Faro. Faro. The island where Bergman did film a lot of his movies. And it's a couple who are there, both screenwriters, one more successful than the other, played

by Tim Roth and vicky grips and yeah so then they they are in bergman's world and specifically sleeping in the bedroom where scenes from a marriage was filmed and it becomes a movie about creation and and relationships and and art and artists and the separation or the connection between those two and from the perspective of a woman as well, which is like very exciting for me. Love to see it. That makes it sound more, I don't know, academic than it really is. It's really intelligent, but it's also very fun and playful, I would say, a little bit.

It takes a couple of chances with its storytelling structure that I also wouldn't want to spoil for anybody who hasn't seen it, but it's definitely worth checking out. Also, Anders Danielsson-Lee, who's getting a lot of plaudits for his work in The Worst Person in the World in this movie, he and Mia Wasikowska share some scenes that are just incredible. Which people are finally going to be able to see Worst Person in the World, I hope, soon. He's amazing in that. And also, apparently, Anders Danielsson-Lee is also a full-time doctor

in Norway, in addition to being an actor in two of the best movies of last year, this year. So, shout out to him. Has been significantly vocal and worked hard during COVID-19. It's amazing. A true, true hero. That's a great movie. That was my number six movie of the year, honestly. So my number six movie of the year is now available to be streamed. The Lost Daughters is available to be streamed. That was my number nine movie.

The Worst Person in the World is coming out on February 4th. That was my number two movie. That was your number one movie. People are finally getting a chance to see some of this stuff. Movie that we talked about very briefly on the show, Swan Song, which is Benjamin Cleary's, I believe it's his debut film starring Mahershala Ali, which again, I think a little bit of a victim of the Apple TV Plus kind of came and went aspect of it. I thought this movie was perfectly fine. It's about a man who learns he has a terminal diagnosis and so explores the possibility of cloning. And I'll tell you very quickly,

there's a movie, it's Sundance, that has the exact same premise, but a completely different tone that's called Duel, starring Karen Gillan, who also gets a terminal diagnosis and then pursues a clone to take her place in the world. Very odd that there are two movies with the exact same concept told totally differently. Anyway, what'd you think of Swan Song? Well, this is one where I watched it in a certain emotional or hormonal state and just, and then at some point it's Mahershala Ali, who's incredible. And I think one of our like great actors right now, he's playing both clones. He's playing the original and the clone, but both people and just like dealing with emotions while Frank Ocean's Moon River plays.

And I was just weeping. Like, I don't know what to say to you. I don't think that's like an unbiased assessment of the film. I thought this is the kind of Black Mirror-y sci-fi that appeals to me more than real sci-fi. Also, it's hopefully like design sci-fi. You know, it fits that this is on Apple from an aesthetic perspective.

It looks very beautiful. It is. As opposed to the, you know, the future worlds of The Matrix or whatever. But it held my attention for throughout two hours at home and felt like more considered than a lot of direct-to-streaming movies,

I would say. And then I think Mahershala Ali is just, I will spend as much time with him as is available to me. I agree. He's terrific in the movie. It's very well made. It's a little bit, you know, that soft science fiction can sometimes be a little bit blah for me in the storytelling. And I feel like if you're going to do it, it needs to be a little closer to Ex Machina to get me excited in terms of it's like some of the like aggressiveness or the hard edge that some of those stories. And I never really felt like there was any danger in this movie.

And so that's not necessarily what it was going for. But I feel like it's something that is often missing from these kinds of tales. No, this is sentimental and manipulative. Very much. But it worked for me. Next movie is I'm Your Man. Did you get a chance to check this one out? So I've seen half of this. And I don't, please don't tell me how it ends. I won't tell you how it movie is I'm Your Man. Did you get a chance to check this one out? So I've seen half of this

and I don't, please don't tell me how it ends. I won't tell you how it ends. I'm curious. I want to find out. I don't want to spend too much time on it then in that case.

This is a German movie, also a kind of soft science fiction movie, also a movie about love and the curiosities of the future. It's directed by a woman named Maria Schrader who is a German actress

who has now turned filmmaker, stars Dan Stevens, who folks may know from Downton Abbey, among many other things, and Maren Eggert and Sandra Holler, who's a well-known actress herself. She appears in a later film we'll talk about in just one second. This is a movie about a woman essentially embarking on a kind of relationship with a robot, a robot pleasure robot, maybe something more than that, and the difficulties of love and sex in the future.

This movie has a pretty strong chance to be nominated for Best International Feature. It's not a lock, but it's definitely deep in the conversation. Also available on Hulu right now. I liked it. I wouldn't say I was bowled over by it, but it seemed to be a little bit more dangerous than

Swan Song, so I'll give it credit for that. I thought it was very clever. I thought it was funny. They're like the actual, the screenplay and the jokes. And, um, it's a setup that you like,

do you sort of recognize, but the twist that it was doing and, and like the, the kind of style was amusing to me. And I do want to know what happens. So I like that. I'm going to finish it is, is my endorsement.

Um, I want to cite just a couple of movies that are back on HBO Max quickly. Okay. So The Last Duel was never on HBO Max. It was actually released by 20th Century Studios by way of Disney, flopped at the box office,

but because Fox and Disney still have this distribution deal with HBO that they're working through, you can watch The Last Duel on HBO Max, which is crazy. The Last Duel is definitely also one of the best movies of 2021. Yes. And we talked about it at the time of release. You just sit down with your partner on a Friday night and just fire up Matt Damon, Ben Affleck, Jodie Comer in a Ridley Scott directed medieval trial Rashomon battle movie.

I just that whole soliloquy I gave about the future of adult movies. This is exactly what I'm talking about. You and Ben Affleck. Me and Ben Affleck and Ben call me, you know, if you want to commiserate or possibly talk about the future project. And then Malignant, which is now this is the fifth time Malignant's come up, Amanda. I don't you should not watch Malignant but i really want you to i want you to watch it um as you think about the next stages of your life and is this the one that you watched in the hospital no no that was the night house which was upsetting this movie is much more fun it is crazy and a little scary but cr and i watched it at eight o'clock in the morning on the day of release because we couldn't go to a screening of it. And we talked about it and that

was the wrong time to watch it. Uh, I watched it a second time and I was like, Oh, this is what it is. This is a midnight movie. It's a genre movie. It's a really, really crazy kind of like killer creature movie. Um, I don't like creatures, you know, that it's a different kind of creature is all I'll say. It's I'll tell you what it is it's really like ultimately a brian de palma homage and i don't you know less sexy more scary but um very very fun movie that's back on hbo max after coming around for that 30 day period that we talked about before what about munich the edge of war did you get a chance to see this i did so this is this is this is amanda and zach core yeah it together. I listen, I would say it was like, okay. At best.

It's sort of like brides had revisited meets downfall. Um, and it, and it, it, it, it, including Jeremy Irons playing Neville Chamberlain.

And it's, um, this is some revisionist history on Neville Chamberlain that I just was not expecting when I sat down. Did you think it was generous to him? Yeah, of course. It's very generous.

There's like a, I mean, guys, I hope you know what happened with neville chamberlain and world war ii sorry if i'm spoiling it but um being the ricardo's of appeasement you know yeah it's like totally is and that like the cards at the end that are like neville chamberlain is like widely credited with saving like millions of lives by not going to war in 1938 or whatever and i was like huh interesting reading i didn't know that was where scholarship was going these days was saving millions of lives by not going to war in 1938 or whatever. And I was like, huh, interesting reading. I didn't know that was where scholarship was going these days. And to be honest, I'm not an expert on 1938 geopolitical issues. I just know the traditional appeasement routine. So maybe there is more to be understood. But will say when when you cast jeremy irons as neville chamberlain i at least expected jeremy irons to be playing it for you know villainy and ridiculous not not

villainy but the bad guy or the weak guy that we understand him to be but yeah strange movie also we didn't even talk about the two people actually in the movie it's about you know two i guess scholars who meet at oxford hence the brides had revisited other other half of it and then one winds up working in at 10 downing street and one winds up working i don't know what he's doing in the german command um but they're tasked with like a doc you know trading a document to prevent a war or something their spycraft their tradecraft is awful it was very stressful that was the other part of it to me i was just kind of like guys there's like anyone who has read any of these books you are getting caught so fast and both of you are getting arrested um

but i had a nice time watching it it would be cool if one of these movies were on Netflix every two to three months. I would watch all of them. It's a British production. It was released, I believe, theatrically in the UK. In the US, it felt like a new version. It felt like a classy version of a Dumpuary movie. It was like, this movie's kind of good. It's not bad. It'll definitely get you through a Thursday night. And I would say its historical point of view was a little confusing to me as well I'm glad you pointed

that out I I got to the end of the movie and I was like didn't Neville Chamberlain not intervene quick enough isn't that the story that's like what we all know too I don't really

understand why this movie is to devil Chamberlain's son produced this movie but anyway there are some interesting spy elements to it. I want to quickly shout out three other movies

that I won't spend too much time on but that are now available on streaming services that are starting to get a little interest, all of which are 2022 movies. One is called The House,

which is an animated film on Netflix that I thought was very charming that has multiple directors that is kind of a stop-motion film. The other is The Fallout, which is a movie

that I believe premiered at South by Southwest of 21 and is directed by a woman named Megan Park and is a very, very good movie about sort of the aftermath of a school shooting. And the third is a movie called The Last Thing Mary Saw, which I watched last night at one o'clock in the morning in old school fashion. That's available on Shudder. Are you back on that schedule? Here's what happened. We got some painting done in the house. We wanted the baby to sleep in the downstairs house.

Eileen slept in the down, you know, the back house here, the garage. Sure, yeah, yeah, yeah. So she's sleeping in here, which means just party time with movies for me. So one o'clock just fired up a horror movie, knocked it out. I thought it was pretty good. It was, you know, kind of like a 1700 set story of like pathological urges amongst a religious community. I'm usually on board for something like that. And then one last recommendation.

There's, there are no movies in wide release, no new movies in wide release this weekend at the movie theaters. Now that's unusual. That's kind of scary. Like I realized it's January, not as many big movies come out in January, but like we're just,

we just have open weekends now where no movies come out. Like, what the fuck is happening to the industry? There is one movie coming to movie theaters that I thought was fascinating. That movie is called Sundown. I assume you have not checked this one out yet. No, I have not. So possibly the bleakest film I've ever seen.

Okay, great. Great sell, Sean. Let me see if I can read you the description of this movie. It was directed by Michelle Franco, who is a Mexican filmmaker whose work I've not always loved. I think it's debatable

whether I actually love this movie, but here is what this movie is about. It stars Tim Roth as a man named Neil. He's on vacation in Acapulco with his sister Allison and her two children. Allison gets a call telling them that their mother has died and the family packs up their belongings

to return home by plane. Neil, however, decides to stay for a few more days. The movie unravels from there when it becomes clear that Neil is not going back. Okay. Movie's like 80 minutes long. So it's just like Tim Roth in another vacation location. But not having a nice time. Okay. Getting getting into some trouble getting on the dangerous side of life this is a deeply existential look at meaninglessness and existentialism and okay cool occupying foreign lands and class and what happens when you have it all and you don't care and man it's tough what time of day did you watch this movie?

Definitely late at night. Okay. It's nice that that's coming back a little bit of you just really going into a dark place with a dark movie on your own at 3 a.m. Don't blame me if you end up seeing this and you hate it or you feel horrible about the world. I mean, you and anybody else here that's listening. let's just, I just want to cite it for you.

Let's, let's, let's brighten our moods. Let's go to the, let's go to the mailbag. We asked the listeners of this show to ask Amanda questions. Amanda's gonna be taking a little break from the show, which is terrible for me. Wonderful for your family. I'm just, we're just going to jump right into it. You're prepared for these conversations? Yeah, I did.

I did. I read them. They're very sweet. This is a very sweet thing that you guys did. It's like, I'm a little embarrassed, but like in the nice way. So thank you everybody for your ridiculous questions. I felt seen and loved.

Well, you are. So here we go. First question. Serene wants to know, what's a book that you would love to see get adapted into a movie? Or what's an existing book to movie adaptation that you would like a do-over for? And who would you get to direct?

Now, this question comes up frequently on this show. Yes. So there is a traditional answer that I'm going to give. The book that I would most love to see adapted is The Secret History by Donna Tartt, which I think has been optioned several times and has just never been made. I really recommend that. And to answer the second part of the question, also with a Donna Tartt theme, let's get a redo on the Goldfinch. Okay.

And let's have Joe Wright step in who, you know, I just, he's done a lot of literary adaptations that I love, including the 2005 Pride and Prejudice, Atonement, as far as adaptations of Atonement go, which is pretty challenging. He tried. Anna Karenina, good. And we need to divert our energies from the Cyrano situation. That's just, once again, adapt a book and not a weird musical of an old book. Thank you. But I do have some other suggestions.

Two books. So this is sort of in like Munich edge of war core, I guess, for Amanda. But there's this book called The Spy War Red, which is... What? Yeah, no. And I've read that. So this is a great book. So it is loosely, like really loosely based on a true story and written by this woman, original name Aline Griffiths, who then became the Countess of Romanones.

And basically she married, she's an American, she married into Spanish aristocracy and then was recruited to the OSS, which is like the pre-CIA in World War II to work, to spy like basically on the Spanish like upper class and what was going on in Spain during World War II. And so she wrote a memoir where a lot of names are changed. And I'm going to be honest, I think like a tremendous amount of information was probably changed. Like her next life after being a Spanish aristocrat was being like a upper east side lady.

Okay. And I believe Jennifer Egan, the author of, the novelist, was like her assistant at one point and wrote a very funny essay about it for the New Yorker. Anyway, but it's pretty good as like a fake Alan first spy book, you know, and also like written about a woman instead of a

man, uh, which most of the Alan first aren't. So I talked with Zach about this too. I actually got Zach to read this book and normally I don't get him to read my girl books, but he did read this one and he was like, that would be a great movie. And honestly, just show me what Spielberg can do, you know? Okay. Love that. That's very strong. So that's what I had to say. And then I have one more, which is just very short.

Ellen Hildebrand writes these books about rich ladies. I've seen you reading her books. Yeah. She just writes a book. Our friend Gilbert Cruz recommended it to me. They're about wasps on Nantucket who like have some issues every summer and then they resolve them. It's basically a Nancy Meyers situation.

But since Nancy Meyers is retired, let's get Luca Guadagnino directing my Alan Hildebrand Nantucket, like very luxurious fantasies. All great answers. Love the amount of thought that you put into that. I have not read any of those books, which is widely predictable. I've always wanted to read The Secret History and maybe one day I

will. I definitely own it. You've never read The Secret History? No. How is that possible? I don't know. It's just not possible. It's really good. I just read another book called The Latinist. It's a new book that people are like, it's like a newish secret history, which is only sort of true, but I enjoyed it and I recommend it. The Latinist? Yes. Okay. Good to know. I don't

know. Just sharing. When's your book pod coming out? There are some more book questions that I was asked for about. Let's keep this movie book pod going. Okay. Camilla wants to know, have you already decided on the order you will present Nora Ephron and Nancy Meyers movies to your baby? Will it be chronologically or by your favorites first? Love this question. This is very beautiful. Again, how I felt understood. So, you know, I don't want to be too practical, but there is a practical answer to this, which is that, well, Nancy Meyers has made a couple movies, well, at least one movie, The Parent Trap, which is like about a child and like lindsey lohan is a 12 year old stars in the parent trap and it is dealing with adult sensibilities or topics and also has nancy's like

beautiful aesthetic touch like the napa ranch where the dad lives wonderful but it's still like a 12 year old so i think a little kid would want to watch it so because it's still like a 12-year-old, so I think a little kid would want to watch it because it's about a kid's hijinks. So I think probably The Parent Trap is where you got to start. I think Father of the Bride is another one that's also accessible at a young age. I saw it at a very young age with my father.

That was a very emotional experience for me. You can listen to me and Bill talk about that on the rewatchables. Bill cried. I didn't. Have you decided when you'll be watching father of the bride with your daughter? Maybe we can make it a group activity. Okay.

That'd be great. And then just everyone weeping. And so I guess that's, that's two Nancy Meyers to start with. And then I think you just got to be a certain age. When did you first see your first Nora Ephron movie? Right. So I can't remember.

It was probably Sleepless in Seattle, and I was probably a bit too young for it. I probably did see, I think Sleepless in Seattle is 1993. Is that right? Two or three. Yeah, it is 1993. And so I would have been nine then, which doesn't make sense. But it's probably the reason it's not my favorite because I didn't totally get it. It's also on the more sentimental sides.

And I like the snappiness of Nora. But you don't want to wait too long because you kind of want to immerse a kid in the snappiness as well you know so i think you've got mail is probably what i would do as the first nora efron the the the lessons about relationships at the end are not ideal and we would have some discussions about that but just just in terms of the, you know, New York fairy tale of it all, it seems the most accessible while still having the patter

and having all the energy that I love. Two things for you. One, first Ephron that I ever saw and definitely still one of my favorites is My Blue Heaven, which is a screenplay she wrote, which is also based on the same story as Goodfellas and Henry Hill going into witness protection. The other thing is, this summer is actually the 10-year anniversary of Nora Ephron's passing.

And so maybe we can sort of recognize that by doing an episode devoted to her entire, you know, in the Nancy Meyers or Paul Thomas Anderson style. So maybe for something when you come back. That sounds wonderful. I don't know the order from there, but anyway, that seems like a good start, right? Yeah. I mean, honestly, this is like, I would never tell you what is the right thing to do in this particular question. That is very personal to you. Okay. Vinny has a question for you. He wants to know, what is your dream biopic film? Who is the subject, the lead actor, actress, and the director? Okay, I got two for you. Okay.

So, well, I mean, the obvious one is Princess Diana, but we're living in that era. And Spencer wasn't it for me. I think The Crown season five has a lot of potential, but that's not a biopic. So, I'm going to pass on that one. I trust at some point we'll get a good biopic. So, I got two. First, Agatha Christie. I don't know if you know about, and this is a little bit about our philosophies about biopics as well.

There's a very specific amount of time Agatha Christie went missing for like a couple weeks. I've heard the story. Do you know about this? Yes, yeah. missing for like a couple weeks i've heard the story you know about this yeah um and it was like a big deal at the time and it's never been fully explained she was eventually found at a spa checked in under the name of the woman who her husband was having an affair with which you know so perhaps you can explain some of it but but that's the story. I actually have hanging in my office, my husband got me an old newspaper clipping where the headline is, like, Hound's Search for Novelist. And it's people, like, looking for Agatha Christie, which is just a very funny mental element.

But so that short period of time as the biopic would, I think, be interesting. Great idea. Joanna Hogg directing it. Jesus Christ. Carey Mulligan is the star. Why don't you write this movie? I know. Well, I got to learn how to write movies.

I got another one for you. Okay. I know that Bill really wants to do a Making of Rumors documentary, and I obviously would watch all of it, But please give me... The hardest music documentary to make out there right now. And this is my dream. You know, this is my mailbag. So we're assuming that in making this biopic,

we also have rights to all of the songs and have everybody cooperating, which is never going to happen. No. Okay. Whatever. Bradley Cooper, make the Making of Rumors of rumors oh my god here's the cast that i have so far we got dakota johnson as stevie love it i think you gotta have bradley

cooper in the movie but i lindsey buckingham the age difference is too much so we're gonna make him be mcfleetwood just like for fun okay that would be good right and like it's sort of like john petersway whatever that's fine and then i you know'll take, I haven't cast the McVees yet. People can let me know. Okay. I would really enjoy Ryan Gosling as Lindsey Buckingham. I don't think that the ages right up, you know, completely aligned, but I don't care. I don't know if Gosling can get that kind of volume on his hair that Buckingham had. You know, that sort of that almost like...

He still has his hair. Yeah, he does. Okay. Those are phenomenal ideas. I'm dead serious. You should write that Agatha Christie movie. It's just an awesome, awesome idea. Okay.

Zach wants to know, not your Zach, the other Zach, wants to know what's your all-time favorite movie theater experience? Okay. I've got a bunch of these as well. I did my homework guys. So, you know, you send questions, I tried to pair them. Number one, sort of a formative story that I've told before. My dad and I definitely saw Aaron Sorkin's the American president in theaters at least four times in 1995. That's so weird. It's the weirdest thing, but it's also like everything you need to know about me and my dad and we're like, and our shared enthusiasms. And like when we really get into something,

it was the summer, it's like hot in Atlanta. My dad was just like, let's go again. Isn't, isn't that great? Would you describe your father as a centrist institutionalist who believes in the American dream? No, not at all. Okay. I wouldn't either okay i wouldn't either i wouldn't either but we found this movie very charming you know and it's also i have so many examples of going to movies with my dad and him being like should that movie can that movie win best picture just because he gets like swept up in the moment that's like including like chris rock's movie top five the rom-com morning glory you know when my dad my dad has immaculate taste and like watches way more movies than i do he's like the people who watch the most movies in my life are sean

and then my dad um but he also has a soft spot for this sort of thing so i have very fond memories of that um i went to see 50 shades of Grey on opening weekend at the since closed Court Street Theater in Brooklyn. And that was just a really fun experience. I believe it was also Valentine's Day weekend that I went to see Fifty Shades of Grey at Court Street. And it was a community experience. Is that another like a euphemism for an orgy? What do you mean by that? No, no, it was a lot of women.

And actually, I went with a friend who was very pregnant at the time. And I remember another woman just looking at my very pregnant friend and being like, well, you've already had your 50 shades, which I thought was just a very funny interaction that we all had. I have two more. One, I went to see a screening of Wolf of Wall Street in basically a blizzard in New York. It was one of the functional blizzards where the trains didn't shut down, but it was like traipsing to, to Midtown and Zach got to go with me.

And then afterwards we went to, I think it was like the King Cole bar, one of the really old hotel bars in Midtown and had like way too strong cocktails. Cause they just, you you know pour straight alcohol and like like nerds made lists of our like favorite movies of the year it was like a very romantic experience so that one was really nice that's so cute you guys were private potting yeah it was it was it was very cute i also really like the wolf of wall street maybe one of is it

my favorite scorsese i don't know I don't I don't have to answer that but it's really good definitely my favorite Leo performance a huge fan of them yeah and then when we got to see the Irishman at the Chinese theater that was that's a pretty memorable one we didn't get to sit next to each other that was the only part that sucked it would have been way more fun if we could sit together but we had assigned seats this was just like fine we were texting like across the theater also. And then like watching everybody come in, like projected on the screen.

But that was like a very magic Hollywood moment. Wasn't that the last like movies? Like we're here. It's all happening, you know? Yeah. The red carpet. That's that's feels like a hundred years ago. Okay.

Great answers. All right. Here's a complicated question. At D5s wants to know, when are you guys starting a parenting podcast where you and Sean bring problems to Andy for his sage advice? And what percentage of Andy's answers

circle back to Paddington? For those of you who don't listen to The Watch, the co-host of that show, Andy Greenwald, who has appeared on this show before and is a close friend of ours, loves the Paddington movies. Definitely more than me. One million percent more

than amanda despite the appearance of hugh grant in those films i thought it was very charming oh okay great like for a child that sums it all up i wonder if your heart will open up a little bit here child and i'm looking forward to you know seeing things through a child's eyes. That's great. It is great. Parenting pod? We're going to try. I don't know. We haven't really discussed this. We haven't.

We're going to try to not go like full parent or whatever. And I'm going to try not to, you know, girl that out about like Coda or whatever. But like, I don't know. I liked Coda. It made me cry the first time. I didn't have to have a child to see its beauty. But like I said, swan song, I just was like weeping like a hormonal mess.

So I don't know what to tell you guys. It's going to come up. It's definitely going to come up. We actually probably need to put some guardrails around our parenting conversations for both good and bad. I think there will be some bad that will come up. Just be like, good Lord, this is difficult.

And I don't have time to watch these movies uh okay at my sports burner four which is one of my sports burners wants to know since it's been mentioned on the pod that amanda is a big reader of literary fiction i was curious about what some of her favorite novels are now this could be a long answer do you have a concise version of this i focused it i like i said i prepared it um i mentioned atonement earlier because Joe Wright did make an adaptation of the Ian McEwan novel. Ian McEwan? Okay. Yeah.

That's like a perfect book. I just think it's great. If you haven't read it, don't Google anything. Just read it. The film is different, right? The film has a very different ending? It's not that it's different. It's just one of those things where the literary device is not quite communicable to film in the way that you want it to be. Sometimes a novel is the best form of something.

And I think Atonement is a real example of that. I recommend it. Another that I talk about all the time, Life After Life by Kate Atkinson, is I think just extraordinary. And of the last 20 years, probably my favorite novel. I recommend all her novels. She also has the Detective series. Obviously, Jane Austen novels. I mean, no duh. What's number one for you, Jane Austen? Pride and Prejudice still. I mean, that's the classic. And then I was also going to say the heirs to Jane Austen, everything from Bridget, Bridget Jones' diary to, I would argue, like, Crazy Rich Asians is also, you know, a social commentary.

Like, I read all of that stuff. I love all of it. And then Americana, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's, just fantastic. Aren't they making that into a movie? I believe it was optioned, and then i don't know what the status of that movie is yeah that's another that would have been on my list but since i think it's hopefully in the works it's just here and then two really recent ones which i've talked about before hamnet maggie o'farrell was like the best book i read in 2020 and then the well one of two best books i read in 2020 i know it's 22 22 now guys

sorry um girl woman other by bernadine avaristo are like recent ish great literary fictions okay that's a good rec it's that's also one where it's a it's not anthology but it's like a lot of characters coming together which i typically don't love, but just the technique and the total control of the form is astonishing. So those are some good books. Amanda, we've got 10 minutes here. So we have to choose strategically. Do you want to do this next question?

Which questions do you want to do? Give me some short ones because I feel like I have all these lists, but you know. Okay, at Zach wants to know, how does it feel to always be right? I mean,

to quote broadcast news, it's awful. You know? That was an incredible answer. I mean, it is. Okay. Andres wants to know,

what's the first animated film to show your child? Will it be the newest Pixar or a classic Disney? Or something else, perhaps? Honestly, whatever Sean picks. This is a real outstrip. I don't know. I love that. The likelihood that my child will encounter an animated film at your house before my own is really high. Yeah. house before my own pretty high is really high yeah or if like you suggested like should we go to this like you know parent and kids screening of this thing which will be you know that would

be fun i gotta say alice is just obsessed with tv i mean she's just like i know like she it's really constantly is looking at screens and she can't look away and i'm like is that like a biological imperative because she's my child are all kids like this my sister i was talking my sister she has a son and she was like yeah he's not really interested in tv it took him like a year and a half before he started looking at it he would ignore it literally if it was on in the room and i'm like okay so this is like there's something in my my soul mind that i conveyed to this child she probably also understands that like you're looking at it. I know you're right.

You know, and so you demonstrate value to it. The thing about going to a screening with the two kids is like my child has not arrived yet, but your daughter is lovely and calm and respectful. And I just know that my kid is going to be a monster. And so like, I just know like my greatest fear is going to the screening and Alice is sitting there being just like, wow, the power of cinema. And like, my kid is just like crawling on chairs. And I like, I don't even know this person yet, but I'm just like, oh God, can we go in public? I'm not sure. I don't know. I mean, your husband is a very,

very calm individual. You might have some of his energy. Yeah, but he can't sit still, so I don't know. He does it. Yeah. Well, I'm a knee-tapper and Alice is pretty calm. So anyway, all right, let's keep it going. I think people would be mad if I didn't ask you this question, so I'm going to ask it. At AK Carl Spackler wants to know, really the only question, what else has Sean done that has gotten the change the movie draft rules reaction out of Amanda? Just feels like that wasn't the first time. What a round of applause you got for your performance on the last movie auction.

I think you know the answer to this more than... I actually can't remember. I will say, and I felt like that was a very natural reaction and a part of our day-to-day pattern, but you looked a little scared when I was yelling at you. Not scared, but surprised. You weren't expecting it. I wasn't scared, but I was scared. You were surprised. I was like, Sean should know by now that I would just get like really angry about something like this. I think I had forgotten your fealty to Maverick. I think that there was a lot bound up in that, that it collided with my worst habits, my shenanigans, and your sense of fairness, plus your overweening desire to be shown the film Top

Gun Maverick. I think we also were both genuinely surprised. At this point, Sean and I know each other very well, and so I can anticipate how he's going to react to things or even what antics he's going to play and and Sean knows what's going to make me mad and you know kind of even steers things that way but I just like I I really genuinely had just thought the rules would be different than you did not even in like a combative way and I was like this doesn't make sense and so that I think some of it it just, that was not even Sean doing it. It just like fueled an anger that I sometimes demonstrate when things just absolutely don't add up to me. This is like what happens when I'm listening to NPR and just like start yelling at the radio.

And Zach's like, oh my God, like calm down. We haven't had a lot of, we've had, I mean, in the early days of the ringinger, we had some personal struggles. It's hard to work with your close friends. But on Mike, we didn't... You've had a couple of times and you've been like, you're a fucking idiot. But you've definitely not been like,

this is unjust and I will destroy you publicly. That's not a common occurrence. That's true. I'm trying to think of... I mean, they're not that... Also, it's all in good fun. Especially with the movie drafts. It's ridiculous.

But I was really surprised. I just really thought it was going to be a different thing. You were bothered. I mean they're not that also it's all in good fun like especially with the movie drafts it's like it's ridiculous I was really surprised I just really thought it was going to be a different thing you were you were you were bothered okay key question here

um at hey nong man wants to know at what age do you give up and just let chris show the kid heat can you ask the next question because it's related

at cory danielson would like to know is cr allowed to babysit baby dobbins not only is chris allowed to babysit baby dobbins chris is already allowed to babysit baby Dobbins, Chris is already in the early stages of forming the Chris Ryan Elite Soccer Academy, which will be holding sessions at a field near my home. And apparently my child will be the only student thus far because Sean's daughter actually has a mother

who knows how to play soccer. So Alice should stick with Eileen. And at some point, it will escalate to full trading academy. And Chris will be the steward of the child's future. And frankly, as far as heat goes, it's whatever the academy sees fit. Yeah, that could be a motivational resource. The action is the juice on the field as well. So I see a lot of upside there. Do you want to do a dealer's choice? One last question that you may have prepared for that you want to hit on before we wrap? Yeah. So someone asked very sweetly, what five movies will you ensure your child will have seen

by age 10? Which I asked Zach for some of these as well. So I thought that this was nice. So the obvious one for me is Singing in the Rain. Have you thought about when you're going to show Alice singing in the rain? Like what age can you show a kid singing in the rain? Pretty early.

I would say like six or seven because I don't think I think it's just so colorful and fun that you don't have to understand the satire of Hollywood to really enjoy that movie. It's almost like I feel like you could the kid is just watching the movie stuff, you

know, the musical numbers and you fast forward through the other stuff. Exactly. Hopefully we can do it a little bit earlier. I may be overshooting. I've never raised a child before. It may not be like till 11 makes sense, but I guess we'll find out. No, I think that's right. Another similar one, Bringing a Baby, which as Zach pointed out, it has a dinosaur because

he's building a dinosaur there's a dog and then obviously also a it's a leopard right yes yeah so a lot of animals plus there's an antic energy there that maybe you don't understand as a kid probably got to be like nine or ten though to get that one right yeah but you could also just like watch the physical comedy and the leopard and the dinosaur what about about black and white, though? There could be some challenges there. Well, we're going to try to start early. Zach tried to put Philadelphia story on the list.

And I was like, well. I think I was like 19 when I saw that. Yeah, but another theme of this is like what movies did your parents show you at inappropriate ages? So the two that Zach recommended were in honor of Rich Barron, his dad, who showed him Cool Hand Luke and Halloween before the age of 10. Sick. Both of those are awesome. Just totally inappropriate, but made Zach into the person he is today. So funny because Zach is not a horror guy.

So that's kind of funny that he saw Halloween so young and it didn't work on him. And another one that's from Zach that he remembers as a little kid is Star Wars because he remembers like they roll the TV out and then galloping around. And then the last one similar for me is Sound of Music, which will be forced down my child's throat every Christmas, whether they like it or not. I wonder if Alice will have more interest in Sound of Music. That seems very plausible. I don't know some of it is also just if you have it on then they learn to that this is a thing or at least that's what i'm going to try i don't know i don't have a kid yet i don't know anything so much to look forward to thanks thanks to everybody for asking these questions that was that was great nice amanda

you were really prepared well done much more prepared than i am usually i don't know everyone actually like tried to send me questions that I would be interested in, which I was very touched by. So I wanted to prepare them. No, this is very sweet. Thank you to everybody. Thank you for all of your nice messages and wishes and good thoughts, which really do mean a lot to me.

I will miss all of you. I absolutely will not be able to keep myself from sharing opinions in one form or another. So I will be taking time, but you've not heard the last of me, as you know. This may not even be the last of you for the next month or so. It ain't goodbye. It's just, we'll see you later. I will be thinking of all of you and you probably can't totally escape me. So thank you. Thank God for that. Hey, thank you to Sasha Oshel for her production work on today's episode. She's filling in for the great Bobby Wagner.

Stay tuned to The Big Picture next week. I did mention Sundance earlier. Sundance has been happening for eight days now. I've seen dozens of films. Our old pal Amy Nicholson is going to join me on the show to talk about what she's been watching at Sundance and what I've been watching too.

We will see you then.