The Big Picture - The 1977 Movie Draft

Episode Date: March 19, 2024

We are drafting again! Sean, Amanda, and Chris Ryan reunite for a draft of the best movies of 1977—the year of Chris’s birth and a compelling year for many of our most iconic directors. John Cassavetes on TV sucking: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ePptcNqXRJA Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Chris Ryan Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, can I talk to you for a second? Over 25 years ago, on September 29th, 1998, we watched a brainy girl with curly hair drop everything to follow a guy she only kind of knew to college. And so began Felicity. My name is Greg Grunberg, though you may know me better as Sean Blumberg,

the inventor of smoothies and director of docuventary. I'm still trying to get that released. I'm teaming up with my Felicity wife, Mandy Foreman, and The Ringer's Juliette Lippman to revisit our favorite moments from our favorite show and talk to the people who helped shape it. Listen now to Dear Felicity 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 Fennessey. I'm Amanda Davins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about 1977. CR is here and we are drafting again. And this week we are going back to a time before some of us were born, back to 1977 to draft the very best movies. But Chris Ryan. I was. You were born back to 1977 to draft the very best movies. But Chris Ryan. I was. You were born in the year 1977.

This year, the day after Close Encounters came out. Is that true? Yeah. That's beautiful. So this is a bit of a tribute to you. Thanks. I didn't come into it knowing that. This is going to be a bit like your funeral, I think, the way that we talk about this.

Oh, good. Yeah. I've always wanted to attend my own funeral. This is a challenging one. Should I fake my own death so I can do it? And then stand in the... Bobby cut this part out so that when we post this episode, we can tell everyone Chris has passed on coincidentally.

He walked outside, was hit by a motorcycle. He's no longer with us. RIP, CR. MI5 killed me for spreading false Charles info. CR killed Prince Charles. King Charles? Yeah, he's the king. He got promoted.

How do you feel about King Charles' death? You know, I'm still trying to get to the bottom of it. Well, you know, everyone else is focused on Photoshop, and I'm trying to source these rumors. How are you doing that? All your various sources? Yelling at all of you like while you are texting me weird memes about st pat i mean the memes were funny uh it would have been

quite something if charles died on st pat the irish were so happy for one hour so funny it was like they were really good memes but as i told you guys you both made me aware of this false rumor while i was watching the final scene of Looking for Mr. Goodbar in preparation for this podcast. So, I mean, no spoilers right now anyway. Maybe we'll talk about the ending of Looking for Mr. Goodbar another time. But if you know, then you know the very strange 10 minutes that I went through. And also, I just, you know, we have lost all integrity in our gossip reporting, as I said to you guys last night. We need to check our sources more.

People have gone off the deep end. It's always very entertaining for me, though, because I do not care about the royal family or know anything about it. So when something like this is happening, I'm just like, this is great. I don't care if it's true or not. All I know is the Irish are posting very hard right now. Amanda's also wearing a light blue shirt, so she looks like Michael Keaton from Spotlight, and she's demanding that we triple confirm everything.

Does he have a heartbeat? Does the king have a heartbeat? I was just like, have we looked at the BBC Twitter logo ourselves to see what color it is, you know? What color would they turn it? Well, they said that they would turn it black and that all he passes yeah who said that this is like protocol oh my god did you not read okay there's a great article in the guardian of course i didn't read

this years ago written by sam years ago that was about like all the absolutely bat shit preparations that were in place for queen elizabeth's eventual death because she was like getting up there I just pressed delete. I was like, I'm good. I don't need to click on that. It was pretty popular. But anyway, it's like... It was like the long read. They put it in the email.

In the protocol, it says the Twitter avatar will change to black when King Charles dies. I'm sure there actually is a provision for that now, but all the BBC presenters have to switch to wearing all black. That's like the first tell,

even before they're like officially allowed to announce it. There are like special playlists for the radio where there are like special songs that if you hear it, like you know the King is dead or whatever.

When I die, I want Chris to get on the big picture feed and just sing Ave Maria and just publish that it'll be like just a five minute episode it'll be the last episode

that's what I want you're my boy boy what do you want your avatar changed to when you pass away what should we do how do we change your avatar threads

you want it to be Barbie right Hillary Clinton Hillary Clinton in pink. Yeah, as Barbie. Yeah, thanks so much. 1977. Yeah. So this was a little bit of a homework draft. How'd you feel? Yeah, stressed, as you know, because I texted you all the time about various questions about eligibility, availability, how DVDs work, how Blu-rays work. You know what came through really, really hard? Physical media? Hard media. That's what we're calling it now. Do you know what also came through pretty well?

Google. So you were just firing up illegal streams on YouTube. They're not that illegal. I mean, nobody took them down. I don't think the rights holders were profiting from the experience. Oh, sorry, John Cassavetes. Did you do a lot of research for this episode? Because this is an interesting year.

I had to do a lot of research. There's 15 or so movies where I'm just like, that's just committed to the memory banks. That one's in the Mind Palace already. It's got its own room. And then there are some where I'm like, what happened in Julia? I had to go back and just be like, either reaffirm stuff that I had seen, check out stuff that I hadn't ever checked out

before. Um, and just, yeah, refresh my memory about some of it, but it wasn't, it wasn't that labor intensive, you know, in addition to it being your birth year. Uh, I thought this would be a fun one because it would be a little bit of a project there. There are these, I would say 10 movies that are consecrated great films. And this is the time when the new Hollywood is in full swing. This is when the movie studios are like, absolutely, we will entrust millions of dollars to this eccentric artist to make an exciting movie. But we're also like right at the doorstep of the end of the new Hollywood. So you see this big shift. And of course, this is the year of Star Wars.

This is the first Star Wars film was released in 1977. The question I wanted to ask you both before we start to get into the nuts and bolts of this movie year is, is Star Wars the most significant thing that happened in 1977? Like outside of Jimmy Carter getting elected? I mean, Jimmy Carter was inaugurated into the office.

But like, was Jimmyter's presidency less relevant than star wars beginning i'm so i'm literally opening the wikipedia page for 1977 you did not give us i was not alive what else happened okay let's see i mean let's set aside the fact that obviously there were violent conflicts around the world there were complicated moments. There were significant deaths. I'm not trying to draw an equivalency between Star Wars and those things in particular. But when you look at the scope of kind of social cultural events, it feels like it's pretty far and away the most significant thing, right? Shakira was born in 1977.

Shakira. Okay. Interesting. I'm just reading about some treaties about the Panama Canal were signed. I don't know. Wikipedia could do a better job surfacing the major headlines. You and Shakira

being the same age, how does that make you feel? I mean, I think that we, me, Michael Fassbender and Shakira all have our own qualities heading into our 47th year. Where are the crossovers for you guys? Where do you meet? Hip mobility.

Yeah, I feel like Star Wars is the big enchilada. I feel like this is really the biggest thing that happened. It's definitely the most significant cinematic thing that happened this year, even though there are some just absolutely incredible films that I think probably warrant deeper discussion than Star Wars. Albeit, I should say, I've seen Star Wars more than any movie from this year, obviously. Do you think that Star Wars is more significant than the release of Fleetwood Mac's Rumors? Oh, interesting.

I mean... That should actually be the headline for this pod. Globally, sure. Personally, no. We put on Rumors this weekend, again, this pod. Globally, sure. Personally, no. We put on Rumors this weekend again for Knox. Yeah, Knox is a big Rumors fan. But what is your favorite song on Rumors? I have no idea off the top of my head.

What's wrong with you? I'm really not a huge Fleetwood Mac person. First of all, I like Tusk better. And second of all, Star Wars is much bigger than Rumors. Okay. Wow. You both just absolutely did not... You introduced Rumors as a topic on this podcast, and we're like...

It's a hugely successful album. It's a generational classic. It's just not... I'm just not a huge Flew The Mac fan. I have nothing against them. It's just not really in my zone of interest. I also enjoy Tusk, but that's a real... Kim's video opinion over there.

My thing about it is I feel very firmly like that is a boomer text that I'm not interested in because of the way that it got kind of turned around during the Clinton presidency. Yeah, the Clinton,

you know, campaign. But you can just skip Don't Stop, you know? Yeah. It's track four. I mean, Go Your Own Way and The Chain,

like they're all part of this moment when like... Don't say anything negative about Go Your Own Way. It's okay. You know, it's just not my thing okay nothing personal um i don't know dreams do you think star wars is that's uh that's an okay pick okay more is you think star wars is more important than punk rock well that's hard right because that's a that's a movement that's not an event it's not an event. It's not a single thing.

I think they're in direct opposition to one another. I like them both. You don't think that Han Solo is kind of like... Inside me lives two movements. The movement of Lucas and the movement of McLaren. And I let them both... Well, McLaren and Lucas probably would have a lot to say to each other. I don't know if Johnny Rotten would necessarily have a lot to say to George Lucas. What do you think that combo would be like?

He'd probably be into Han, I think. You think so? Or he'd be into Greedo. Would you watch Johnny Rotten and George Lucas actors on actors? You think that would be good? Yes. I would watch that. I think Star Wars is probably the biggest thing that happened,

at least in American culture, and then eventually worldwide. When you guys went back and watched some of this stuff, were you just like, did you find that the medium was recognizable to what you were watching today? What were the things that like leapt out at you just by immersing yourself in 1977 films that you were like, God, this is so much different from 90% of what I watched today? I think the pace is significantly different in every movie and the expectations of the pace. Even in Star Wars, the pace is very different from a contemporary

Star Wars movie, which feels like people are just hopping from planet to planet now as opposed to the way that the first film works. It feels very studied and professional,

which is interesting because I think in Hollywood at the time, there was this sense that there was this chaotic, young cohort of filmmaker arriving on the scene. But when I made the list of the people who made movies, it at the time, there was this sense that there was like this chaotic young cohort of

filmmaker arriving on the scene. But, you know, when I made the list of the people who made movies, there were, there are four big debuts of this year. David Lynch with Eraserhead, Ridley Scott with The Duelists, Ron Howard's first movie makes for Roger Corman, Grand Theft Auto, and Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky. But then when you look at the filmmakers who made moviesft Auto, and Terry Gilliam's Jabberwocky. But then when you look at the filmmakers who made movies that year, and I made a little list here, you've got Scorsese, Friedkin, Agnes Varda, Louis Bunuel, Clint Eastwood, Robert Altman, Peter Weir, Sam Peckinpah,

John Waters, Joan Micklin-Silver, Paul Verhoeven, Mario Bava, Ingmar Bergman, Sidney Lumet, Fred Zinnemann, two movies from Robert Aldrich, John Frankenheimer, Don Siegel, Sidney Pollack, two movies from Herbert Ross, Stanley Kramer, two movies from Michael Schultz, and Robert Benton. At the time, it might have seemed like this was a young group of people, your Stanley Kramer's notwithstanding. But now

when we think of these people, we're like, well, these are legends. These are some of the most hallowed filmmakers of all time. It's not like that. The movies were not in the hands of chaos agents. They were in the hands of developing geniuses or at worst, like steady hands, you know, like a Robert Benton would just be a steady hand in Hollywood for another 30 years. So it doesn't feel like maybe as daring as it had been explained to me when I was 18 or 19.

And maybe that's just a product of what some of these movies are that hit this year as opposed to the year before. Doesn't mean the movies aren't good. Many of them are. The ones that are the most celebrated from this year are not necessarily the ones that we've remembered too. And that's been kind of interesting looking at where my gaps are and maybe like what was represented by the Oscars or the box office. It's a very weird Oscars year. And we do have an Oscars category. And so, you know, I mean, I guess it's not. Star Wars was nominated. This is the year that Annie Hall wins Best Picture,

Woody Allen wins Best Director, Dan Keaton wins Best Actress. So kind of the rest of the nominee is, if you're looking for like a peripheral entrant in that category, it gets strange pretty quickly. And so I wound up spending, I had to do more catch up generally on this year just because, you know, I don't know. I had not seen as many of them. So you start and you go down the list and think, all right, well, I'll try this

Oscar one. And then I'm like, what, you know, what's going on here? And in some ways, as we know, the Oscars are always going to Oscar and and they Oscared in 1977, as they did this year, where they got some truly remarkable films, and they got a bunch of quote-unquote respectable costume dramas. You know, but that's okay. I guess this is probably true for most years. The, this world changing, totally landmark movies. And then they're, they're regular stuff, you know, like the,

and, and some of the regular stuff is good and, and we recognize it in like a slightly different form than we did. And some of it is just, you know, another mess. That's true of any movie draft year that we do. It's just that most of

them we lived through. So you pick up the throwaways just by virtue of being a person who watches movies. 2003. And it's like, I watched so many of these just in the course of my life. This is a little bit more like every movie beyond like three of them are like, you have to go back and look for it, you know? Yeah. I think one of the reasons why this year resonated for me is it's a big moment in the history of genre. Like it's a Wes Craven year. It's a David Cronenberg year. It's like those, a lot of those filmmakers are at the outset of their career. I think the year before is, or the year, a year later is Assault on Precinct 13. It's like that generation of Carpenter, Craven, Tobey Hooper, Cronenberg,

all those guys are all sort of coming up at the same time. But it also feels like kind of a transitional year. This is coincidental, but I thought it was interesting that 77 is the year that Elvis, Groucho Marx, Bing Crosby, Howard Hawks, and Charlie Chaplin all died in this year. And in their own way, they all kind of represent older modes of Hollywood.

You know, this integration of musical artists making the transition to cinema, the silent cinema moving into sound cinema, the Howard Hawks, like, as a landmark figure who kind of, like, hopped across genre. Working within the confines of a studio system, even in Chaplin's case of setting up United Artists, I mean, still making things for like Terry Gilliam, who are like constantly banging their head against like the note process and the corporate overlords that

are funding their films. Yeah. Trying to break the paradigm. No question about it. 1977, who were your parents? My mom was a teacher and my dad was a newspaper journalist. What was your dad's beat it the year you were born? Do you remember? I think in 77, he was still like a metro columnist. So I think he went from crime reporter to metro columnist to film critic, if I remember the trajectory correctly.

What was the energy of his pieces? Was it like, there's too much trash on the streets? I think he did a lot of satirical writing about the mayor of Philadelphia. It was a man named Frank Rizzo. Oh, of course. Yeah.

Had a listener of the show suggest on social media that Bradley Cooper should do the Frank Rizzo biopic as his next move, which I thought was a bit of an inspired idea. Yes, I think that would be a good idea. Figures prominently in The Corrections, does he not? Frank Rizzo? Yeah, he does.

In the novel, The Corrections. What was your dad's take on Rocky taking over the city? It was right around this time. Yeah, I mean, I mean i don't know did rocky inspire the life of chris ryan at the time i don't know i remember going to see rocky four with him and him getting in an argument with a guy that he thought was speaking too loudly in the audience wow it really did actually like kind of cloud my entire take on the Rocky franchise. Because I was like, I think my dad's going to get killed

by a man. Was that guy cheering for Drago? Like what was going on? I think he was just like really like basically like we're watching SportsCenter,

like this is happening and my dad was like, will you shut the fuck up? I have to take notes on this and he was like, I'll pound your head in. You know, like,

yeah. I mean, that's a very similar energy you bring to the theater. No, I'm very respectful. We went to the theater no i'm very respectful we went to immaculate on friday and you were just beating guys up in the aisles you're just like get out of my way gotta get closer to sid yeah she's giving her body to god

can i ask a follow-up on that why did you guys have to get to the screening a full hour early uh well there was a performance before the movie i don't know how much we want to get into this before we do let's not spoil the Immaculate conversation. Did we get there a full hour? Like 6.45, 7? It's because there was a note that at 7.15 they would be giving away the Will Call tickets. And you guys didn't want to miss the chance to sit

as close to Sydney as possible. That's not what happened. We saw her. We love horror. I saw Sydney. She was there. She was. She was selling the film. working hard to sell the film. Interesting film. We'll discuss it later this week on the pod. What were your parents up to in 77? Do you know? Not really. I think my mom, I don't know whether she was a lawyer yet or still doing law school.

And my dad was probably a lawyer at this point. My mom was a chemist before she became a lawyer. So I don't really know the timeline. Yeah. She's that's like she's like Jeremy Renner in Arrival. Yeah, that's true. That's exactly what I think of when I watch that movie. I don't know what my parents were up to.

Was your dad a cop? I think this was his first year on the force. So he was probably a super cool guy back then. Yeah. Just really nice to people. Probably just living right. Helping. Helping.

Yeah, definitely helping. Yeah, I was still five years off. You were how many years off? Seven years off? Mm-hmm. Yeah. I think it was a good time in America. It seemed like it was about to be a bad time.

It's Carter presidency. It didn't quite go the way we wanted it to go. Yeah, but then Reagan came and cleaned it all up right shining in america right on a hill well it's more concerned about the oil prices you know yeah a lot a lot of those giant fucking cars i mean i could understand it now it's just like go plug in and in and out you know is that what you do no No. You drive an EV? No, I drill baby drill. You know me.

Is that like an ode to OPEC? When I got my new car, I was just like, I need a bigger tank. So you wanted Carter out because of how he handled that situation? I was really more conservative local politics at the time. You were? Yeah. You wanted Rizzo in. But all politics is local, you know?

Do you vote in the primaries? I do remember when Wilson Good became mayor. I don't know if he was the direct successor to Rizzo, but it was a turning point in Philadelphia. Was he inspired by Star Wars?

No. Do you guys want to ask me what I think about 1977 films and what I noticed? Yeah, of course. Oh, you didn't get to answer? No, it's okay. I expect you to just jump in.

Yeah, I was just going to say we got carried away because we were talking about how Amanda's mom is the basis for Jeremy Renner in Arrival uh did you guys notice like a just pure vibrancy and realism to these films that still almost is like bizarre to watch this compared to like anyone but you you know like I mean yeah where there's like more than three people in the background and realism yeah like almost documentary style because it's all happening on location and real sets and stuff i mean i just you know i don't think i saw a bra in like my 45 and uh movies or whatever they saw like certainly not on shirley mclean in her film not in any of them i guess maybe in Julia

because that's a period piece. Diane Keaton was the goat of that though, right? I mean, she looks amazing. It's no judgment. It was just that was the time and also

they, you know, no one cared. They were like, this is what we're all doing right now. Do you think George Burns wore a bra for Oh God? No.

I've been thinking a lot about titling and how maybe we should stop doing like the blank draft and just have it be like Diane Keated is goaded for not wearing bras.

Do you think the episodes would perform better if we did that? I'm curious. I'm willing to try it. Ronald Reagan cleaned up this country. I'm not sure we would be

attracting the audience for seeking if that were the episode title. The box office is interesting. Of course, Star Wars is the would be attracting the audience. We're seeking if that were the episode title. The box office is interesting. Of course, Star Wars is the biggest film of the year. Little movie called Smokey and the Bandit. Not so far behind. Kind of far behind.

Who's the biggest movie star in the world? Is it Burt? I think so. In 77? I think so. I think Eastwood Newman Reynolds. Some combination. Eastwood Newman Reynolds.

That makes sense. You know, this is the year of Saturday Night Fever and so we have an emergent star on the horizon here I think that's about I mean Connery

you know like a handful of guys like that would you consider Herbie the car to be a movie star at the time I would I would

well that's IP he's sort of the Fast and the Furious of his day nobody's like tried to do a traumatic reimagining of Herbie. Well, there was with Lindsay Lohan, but that wasn't traumatic. Well, I think it was for her and for everybody else.

And so that was the problem. Herbie colon fully loaded, I think that film was called. Do you guys watch Irish Wish? You know, I fired it up. Yeah. And I started watching it. I mean, you know, Long Island, Redhead, Lindsay Lohan. This is a rich text for me.

I googled it when I fired it up as I was watching the first 10 minutes and then I read a story that said that it was filled with MAGA coding. That was in Vulture.

I was like, what in the world? And then I turned it off. Not for that specific reason, but... Oh, you snowflaked out? No. No, because I was like, we need to go back to Reagan.

That's what I was saying. You know, I was like, this isn't my party. Right. Did you watch Irish Wish? No. Okay. I didn't. But I read a lot of blog posts about it.

And what'd you learn? That it is like crypto-fascist, but everyone really enjoyed it. Even though it doesn't seem like anyone was in the same room at the same time as it was filmed so yeah did you celebrate saint patrick's day uh no i didn't actually interesting i went to houston's notable yeah classic british bullshit um and did you celebrate you be you be like i'm not irish you could keep that uh that's not happening you're not irish you don't i read that patrick radden keep keep you you you knelt you knelt at the feet of the king I watched it happen you

said thank God Charles is here I will I will praise thee forevermore right that's what you said 1977 I guess I didn't mention that there's a Spielberg movie this year maybe not the

most significant Spielberg movie he did I did but one of. Is this like the confirmation you think for him? So this is like his most personal film up to a point, right? So he's done Jaws. What else has he done by this point?

Duel is before that. Sugarland Express is before that. His fashioning of like certain personal psychological and narrative like obsessions with divorced parents, with searching for rebuilding the home, with looking to the stars to kind of find that replacement for maybe spirituality is very evident in this.

I think it's a pretty significant movie. It's also incredible. Do you like Close Encounters? I do. I didn't re-watch it. I don't want to box you in. I re-watched it. No? Some of it was just like...

It's really different than like... I know. I mean, Tara Gar is yelling like so much and that's a tough edit, I feel, that Michelle Williams and Fableman's...

Because they let her talk too much? Is that what you're saying? No, I'm just kind of like, this is, you know, I... Oh,

you feel there's a correlation between those two? Yeah. Okay. But, um, it's a correlation between those two yeah okay but um it's a i mean it's one of the singular cod movies where it's like why did my dad abandoned me right to go explore the spaceships right and francois truffaut is like i'll tell you why yeah because cinema um so you're saying you don't like close encounters no i know i do like it i think and it is like undeniably the skeleton key, but you know, it's kind of interesting.

Like I assumed that at some point we will talk about Annie Hall, or maybe we won't, but. We should. It's another movie where I have consumed all of the movies influenced by whether it's Close Encounters. And like, you know know both in terms of Spielberg's later work but everyone else who's like trying to do Spielberg and everyone else who's trying to do Woody Allen and just because of when I come to it I sort of like the the things

that were influenced more than the original from time to time i respond to it a little bit more it's like and so this time close encounters you know you cannot watch it and like see every single shot of someone looking up in the sky and wonder and being like oh there it is like that's the shot you know and like that's not to take away from it but it's there is there i didn't respond to it as much as i thought i would so are you this is why you like Endgame more than Star Wars too? Because like you've, Endgame was like while you were alive and so that's like

you're more fully part of the MCU. Yeah, exactly. And I understood all of it. Right, right. Got it. Good. I'm trying to think of when I was shown Close Encounters.

Probably pretty young. I think that their Close Encounters, like the lifespan of the Close Encounters thing is, you see it probably when you're pretty young and you're like,

I kind of think I'm supposed to really like this, but I don't know, understand really what's happening. And then you see it maybe like more in college and you're like, holy shit.

I think it's a gateway or a doorway movie for a kind of meditative science fiction that you get more interested in when you're in college. And it gives you some of that. It still also has these incredible moments of like

a spaceship arriving and this like thrill and the kind of violence in the desert of like the wind blowing. And, you know, there's still like an energy and an excitement that Spielberg excels at. But it's like quiet and still and sad at times. And a little bit insane in the way that watching Dreyfuss's character kind of slowly loses mind. So it's an unusual thing to see at a young age. I mean, we're coming at this from a completely different perspective from somebody who is 65 and watched

these movies in real time in movie theaters and probably had a different feeling about it. You know, you mentioned the Oscars, Amanda. There's a couple of movies that are, you know, really dominant Oscar movies this year. The one that is probably the most remembered but least seen is the goodbye girl because that's the movie for which richard dreyfus won best actor there's that great story where at the oscars where he's you know gets into the elevator uh after he's won his academy award and he's holding his oscars going downstairs and jack just looks at him and he says i bet you're happy i didn't make a picture this year huh uh which is like one of the best Oscar stories of all time. But even beyond the Goodbye Girl,

which is a pretty good movie, an interesting, I think also source text for a lot of movies that you're particularly fond of. There's two big movies that were both nominated for Best Picture that year, Julia and The Turning Point, which are almost lost to time. I mean- I don't know if Julia is.

Julia was definitely on in my house growing up. My mom loves that movie. But that's 40 years ago. And it's hard to see. It's not streaming. It's not streaming. The Turning Point is just like not around. The Turning Point, Amanda had to buy a $70 DVD.

It was $56. $56 DVD just to get her hands on it and then I watched it. Yeah, my donation to the Sean Fantasy, to the Museum of Sean. Oh, so you bought a $56 DVD

and gave it to Sean? Yeah, but I did also expense it, so. We're doing the work. I see no issue here. I have to admit, I've never seen Turning Point. I watched like 10 minutes

of clips on it on YouTube and I was like, Anne Brancroft seems. I watched like 10 minutes of clips on it on YouTube. And I was like, Anne Brancroft seems to be turned up in this one. Yes, she and Shirley MacLaine both are. And they don't need to be in the film. So that's what's interesting about it. I mean, I think we should talk about them both now because maybe someone will draft Julia. I've actually never seen Julia.

That's the one kind of big one from this year that I have never seen. That's a Fred Zinneman movie. He, of course, also an old Hollywood hand, you know, directed High Noon and a number of other movies. I mean, depending on how things shake out, I might have to draft one of these. I might have to draft one. Yeah.

Okay. All right. I don't want to trample on it then, but then maybe we'll get back to it. Amanda and I had a pretty thoughtful, spirited disagreement about Julia's, how like dramatic it was yesterday. Yeah, that's true. So maybe we'll just draft it to talk about it.

Okay. Jane Fonda, very beautiful. It's a very unusual collection of Best Picture nominees. It's Annie Hall, as you said, won The Goodbye Girl, Julia, Star Wars, and The Turning Point.

Now when we go through the movies that we're going to end up drafting, you're going to be like, how are none of those movies nominated because of how we think of them now close encounters just being one example yeah but there are quite a few more of those we'll get to should we just draft should we start yeah okay so if this is your first draft we draft from six categories we each get a pick in each category the categories are drama action thriller or horror

comedy blockbuster the threshold for blockbuster is 25 million there are 19 films that are eligible Oscar nominee and wild card now we need the draft order to which we go

to our producer Poppy Wagner got the hat back got some scrabble tiles we're going back to the original for this this feels like an important draft order

yeah going first Chris Ryan damn it oh fuck wow damn it This feels like an important draft order. Yeah. Going first. Chris Ryan. Oh, fuck. Wow. Damn it. I love when Chris goes first because he just doesn't want it. Do you want two or three? Do you know what you want?

I don't. I mean, the draft is over now, but let's just have some fun. Amanda's going second. Okay. Interesting. Okay, Chris. God damn it. I didn't want to pick first. I. Interesting. Okay, Chris. God damn it. I didn't want to pick first. I mean...

I know, but... All right. Well, because I feel like this isn't representative of like... I'm going to take Star Wars and I'm going to take it

in Oscars. Okay. Yeah. All right. You don't want to say anything about Star Wars? Should we just move on? I think it's kind of interesting

that it was nominated for Best Picture in 1977. That it was recognized as this important thing here's an apocryphal story is that my mother says she always says that she was pregnant

with me in May when this came out and that the moment when they got into the movie theater they could only sit

really close up to the screen that was the last seats available she claims that it was her and my dad and then like the

destroyer flies overhead chasing the rebel ship and that they both looked at each other and they were just like well that's you've never seen that before

and like this is changes like that that this will change everything I think that that the idea that my mom and dad were just like that Bellany

at the time I don't know but you've told that story several times so I think about it I like the idea of my mom and dad were just like Matt Bellany at the time. I don't know. You've told that story several times. So I think about it. I like the idea of my mom being pregnant with me like as Star Wars is playing. But, you know.

Were your parents sophisticated consumers of the culture? Other than that, I have nothing to say about Star Wars other than I still think it's laughs. That was me and Knox with Dune one, by the way. Oh my God. Yeah. And then the IMAX was so loud that he started like moving around.

Yeah. And he was just like. Are you a Benny Jezzeret? I mean, we'll see, you know? No, shy halloo. I would have made some different choices. Is Knox Lisan Al-Ghaim? You know what?

We are kind of like the Stilgar and Gunny of Knox's life. I like it, yeah. I mean, who's Gurney and who's Stilgar is really the question. I'm Gurney. I agree. Okay. Yeah. I'm the zealot.

Okay. I mean, I think it's the only pick. Yeah. There'm the zealot. Okay. I mean, I think it's the only pick. Yeah. There are obviously great films to come. I think we're going to be fine. I'm going to be mad

if like a couple of like, because I have to sit through you guys, no disrespect, like I'm losing my like true cortex. You're going to. Well,

that disappoints me. It's frustrating. It's tricky when there's, when was another, I mean, 94 was kind of like this right with Pulp Fiction. There were a couple of years we had where we were like, well, it's obviously it's it's tricky when there's what when was another i mean 94 was kind of like this right with pulp fiction there were a couple years we had where we're like well it's obviously this one yeah i showed the speaking of nox i i showed him part of star wars because i was like

i gotta revisit it and he's really into this book with a rocket ship right now okay so i was like hey nox do you want to watch a rocket ship. And so he sat down and we watched the scroll. And he just, I mean, he was transfixed. Like motionless, just staring at the screen. And every like 10 seconds, we'd just be like, rocket ship, rocket ship. Because he identified space. But then didn't you say when? No, because I told him that a rocket ship was coming. So he's just like, rocket ship.

But when the destroyer came, did he freak out? And then as soon as the rocket ship showed up, he was like, this is scary. Goodbye. And like ran out of the room. A little young. But then we've been playing the music and he likes the music. There are YouTube montages or clip packages of just Baby Yoda. Oh, that I could show him?

I'm going to leave that to Phoebe. Okay. Yeah, Phoebe and Knox can rock out to Baby Yoda. You still in on Grogu? I actually am not in on Mandalorian anymore. You're out. Grogu, I think, is a cute little guy. Although I don't know how old he is now at this point.

You think they should find a way to put him into Heat 2? Like, what are you trying to do? He should play Shireless. Okay. Amanda, you've got the second overall pick. I'm trying. You know, I don't really know what my strategy is here because i don't know i don't i there aren't that many that i think that you guys are gonna take and i doubt that you would even take this but because blockbuster is sort of a tight category i mean it's not there are actually 20 and if i had to i could draft freaky friday starring jodie foster but um you could do that

with your second overall but i'm not i'm not going to do that i am gonna take i guess this is weird but i would really like to take saturday night fever in blockbuster great wow um the travolta is the emerging star of this year but it is of course important that the next year he is in greece which is to me like really that was one of like my first movie experiences we didn't have it my friend trish knew about it we were only allowed to watch it at like a certain age and so like travolta and travolta dancing and travolta pelvis uh is is very important to me early travolta and swayze you know that's you learn a lot and so i think i saw at least the dance portions of this very very early now the rest of it obviously really really wild and just, you know, a lot of sexual assault. But also the opening sequence of him, you know, going down like through New York in a lot of ways, like 70s New York is that to me, even more than like Taxi Driver or anything in terms of cinematic representation.

And it's just a huge hit, like a sensation. A massive thing. Yeah. I've spent a lot of time with Saturday Night Fever. Yeah, so I didn't know whether you were going to pick it or not. I don't know. I mean, I love the movie. Yeah. In our first season of Music Box, we produced a movie called Mr. Saturday Night, which was Robert Stigwood, who was the Australian impresario who managed the Bee Gees and was responsible for pulling Saturday Night Fever together as a project. And it's a very interesting doc if people haven't seen it because it basically operates in the back half as a making of Saturday Night Fever. So if you like that movie, it's worth checking out. It's a really great movie. It's a fascinating story. I

mean, John Badham wasn't supposed to be the filmmaker behind it. It's written by Norman Wexler, who many people think is the best screenwriter of the 1970s. A very eccentric guy, but a guy who wrote a lot of really good movies, including Joe and Serpico. Who was supposed to direct Sorry I Appeared? I want to say it was Avildsen immediately after Rocky, but Rocky sent him off the stratosphere.

And Avildsen had also directed Joe, which he did with Wexler. So sliding doors moment there. And then also just like casting Travolta out of Welcome Back, Cotter and the fascination of that. Anyway, I mean, a remarkable document. It's a movie that like young audiences, if they watch it now, are going to be like, this is problematic. What the fuck? But it is also, you know, not a dishonest representation of a certain kind of lifestyle

in the outer boroughs of New York amongst Italian-Americans. And I don't know if it's necessarily celebrating. I mean, it's not. Travolta, like,

Travolta dancing, like, is magnificent, but these guys are losers. And, like, you can tell that on the screen. And, like, even, like, the last, last like the dance competition that is rigged like it's obvious that it's right you know so but i mean yeah some tough stuff that's what it is though when a movie

like this gets into the culture it becomes misinterpreted or redefined about what it is like this is of course like the disco movie but the intention of the movie originally was like a hard-bitten drama from the guy who wrote Joe. You know, like it's not, it was not meant to be this kind of pop cultural artifact where it has become good movie, good pick.

I was not expecting you to take that pick. I feel like I have to go category centric here and still get movies I like because you're right that Blockbuster and Oscar are a little trickier

than I would like them to be. I don't, Because you're right, that Blockbuster and Oscar are a little trickier than I would like them to be. Do I double screw you or just screw you one way is really the tricky thing here? Because there's two that are big for both of us. Keep in mind that this is the Chris Ryan Memorial 1977 draft. Right. But it really wouldn't be a tribute to me unless you tried to screw me. He doesn't know how to communicate. Well, I'm not trying to screw you.

It is how you show your love. There's lots of stuff on the list. I want you to pick the movies that you want to pick and it's okay if you know what see but be careful though because when he's generous

it actually like it it bites back. Yeah. How does it bite back? You'll feel bad about it. So I you know. No.

Go ahead. You can pick I think I know what you're going to pick so go ahead. You can pick the... I think I know what you're going to pick, so go ahead and pick it. I got to take at least one of the two. Okay. In Blockbuster, I'll take The List of Encounters of the Third Kind.

Oh. This is me giving you a break. It's me taking this. That's what I thought. Because this category gets a little hairy. I'm probably just fully giving you the draft by taking this pick, even though this is one of the most significant movies

of the 1970s. We already kind of had our conversation about it. But I think it's major stuff. I didn't revisit it so I don't have like

any fresh insights but I like it quite a bit. It's encouraging that a movie like this would be a big hit in some ways because sure it's an alien movie

but it is this meditative drama family drama. In Oscar nominee I have to take Sorcerer. I'm sorry, Chris. You know that's on my Letterboxd for, right? Is it on your Letterboxd for?

How has your Letterboxd experience been going? I mean, I'm diligent about it. He's been updating it. So I've had to be on Letterboxd a lot recently because- You've had to be. Yeah. Or you have been drawn to it, like a moth to the plane. You made a very useful list of 1977 movies.

But so, you know, I have to log back on. Did you send me a note thanking me for that? No. Did I miss that note? Was that in the email with the Sam Knight story? Did you not catch

the $56 donation to the Museum of Sean in the form of a piece of plastic? We do appreciate that. There is something a little like offshore Panama bank

of like her buying a DVD, expensing it, and giving it to you. I will say this is the first time that's ever happened in the seven years we've been doing this show. I did also to you? I will say, this is the first time that's ever happened in the seven years

we've been doing this show. I did also test it. I was like, can I expense this before I bought it? You did. You did. I think I literally said to you,

only if you let me watch it too. Yes. You did. but yeah, but like when you like, He picked Sorcerer. Why are you guys picking on me? Anyway,

I was just going to say, but so it's very cute. Like, you guys have been seeing movies together. You was just going to say, so it's very cute. You guys have been seeing movies together. You both logged Roadhouse together. We did. You both logged

something else together. Did you log a Rewatchables movie? I did, yes. It's Internal Affairs, which is for tonight. I did. I was like,

I wonder if Internal Affairs is the new Rewatchables. That's perfect. It's the last Rewatchables. I can't wait to hear your contributions to that episode. Or is it the last one because you died? No, I just... You got hit by a motorcycle after this part.

It's just like three guys talking about wives getting fucked for like two hours. Jesus Christ. Well, it's not our wives, but it's just like... No, absolutely not. Sorcerer is the landmark thriller that was kind of a bomb

from William Friedkin in the aftermath of his incredible success with The French Connection and The Exorcist that is an international thriller spy movie effectively that takes some wild twists and turns

and I would just say if you've not heard of Sorcerer watch it immediately it's a huge favorite here at The Ringer I've come to learn that many of our editors and writers are big fans of this movie. It's played recently

in Los Angeles, so a couple people got to see it on a big screen. It's been very revived. The Church of Sorcerer is growing. Very, I would say bigger than ever

and with Friedkin's Death 2, it's becoming memorialized as maybe his best movie and he made some damn good movies in his career. Roy Scheider is the star of the movie. It does feature one of

the most unforgettable third act, like thrilling sequences you'll ever find. I don't want to spoil it for anybody who hasn't seen it. Give yourself 30 minutes to get into it. Cause it starts in this kind of traditional Friedkin documentary fashion where we're meeting the characters of the story in unusual circumstances. And it's not at all what the movie transforms into. I saw it on a big screen at CineFamily at the Silent Movie Theater, I want to say in 2013. And that was the first time I'd ever seen it projected. And that was probably when I was like, this.

This is the movie of the 70s. Tim Simon's our friend who's on the show sometimes. He worships it too. And I'll take it an Oscar nominee. I don't remember. What Oscar was it nominated Oscar nominee I don't remember what Oscar was it nominated for I don't know I want to say

sound editing oh there's a there's a full sequence of this film where you're like I don't really know how multiple people

didn't die in filming this I think they almost did it was a very harrowing production as I understand it okay those are my two picks.

Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Sorcerer. It's back to me. Okay. I think I'm just going to drive right into it. An Oscar nominee. I will take Annie Hall. I would have taken it. I know.

And you have to. And listen, there is... A lot has been said and written about Woody Allen. And you can read Dylan Farrow's piece, you can read more any Maureen Orris reporting. Annie Hall as a movie is one of the most like influential movies to a genre of filmmaking that I adore romantic comedy and comedy like ever. And it is funny and surprising and often really weird. I will tell you, the sexual humor is pretty creepy when you rewatch it now. And some of that is, you know, just like in the 70s, like all of the movies, everyone was just really letting it fly.

It's bawdy. But sure. Yeah, it was a horny decade. Well, sure, right. It was like post-pill, pre-AIDS. Like, I get it. But, you know, and there is like a particular Freudian aspect of all of the Annie Hall, or at least Woody Allen, or Alvy, I guess I should say, being like really neurotic that,

you know, plays differently. But it is touching, funny, like I said, inventive, you know, the, the subtitles when they're having the fight, the lobster scene, the fourth wall, all of it is just, um, it is wonderful and historic, I guess. So Annie Hall, there you go. One of the most watched movies in the history of my house. Yeah, I mean, what are you going to do? Truly formative. And the movie itself, if you want to just talk about the movie, I think is wildly inventive.

It's like it feels like he figured out something that you can see in the early films in terms of like stringing together bits. Because a lot of his movies are very bitty, the first five or six movies. And this is one where he threaded a real dramatic core into that comic sensibility that is undeniable. Also lights out Diane Keaton. She's incredible. I mean, every single person in the movie is incredible

in their own weird way. Like Tony Roberts is incredible. Marshall McLuhan. Yeah, absolutely. Dion Waiters. You know nothing of my work. You've been impersonating Albie Singer for years on Pods. It's one of my favorite bits've been impersonating Albie Singer

you know for years it's one of my favorite bits the teamster yeah it's a great movie I definitely would have taken it next if you hadn't taken it

it was I guess I mean I guess it is one of my favorite movies I mean I've seen it dozens and dozens of times I think it was super formative in terms of like my

idea kind of exactly what you're saying where you can not necessarily elevate dozens and dozens of times. I think it was super formative in terms of like my idea, kind of exactly what you're saying, where you can not necessarily elevate because I don't want to denigrate anything, but like do all this different stuff with a genre. Like you can say boy meets girl and then you can do a hundred different things about it. This has been a little while since I've seen it,

but still, I think it's an incredible film. All right, CR. Okay, so with that off the board... If you had done Star Wars in any hall, though, the draft would have been over. I still think it's over because of what he's going to get now. The draft would have been over because the Rebel Alliance would have come out and voted for me for Star Wars,

but then I also would have been canceled for seeing any hall. I think you would have just won, but go ahead. Well, now it's really wide open and interesting. So I'm going to go from the heart, not the heart, the funny bone, and I'll pick for comedy Slapshot, which is my favorite comedy movie ever made. Paul Newman's story of a minor league hockey team in a dying factory town.

And has like, I mean obviously the handsome brothers is the sort of take like a lot of people like remember that from this film but just the interplay between Newman and his teammates is just so fucking funny still to this day and it's actually like just an awesome story like the way that the it's just a story about a guy who basically starts creating a lie that he then needs to buy into about this team being saved by a wealthy florida like uh benefactors and it's just it's so fucking good yeah if you like major league this is what it's cribbing from if you like those kinds of 80s sports comedies this is the i don't think a lot of people know newman can be this funny too uh and it is it's really great this is my favorite kind

of comedy where it's got at the center of it like a really wry sarcastic bill murray paul newman sort of weathered uh character so i'll do that for comedy this was the one i left you that was the one i left thanks thanks man i know how much it means to you so i've taken a slap shot in your your letterboxd top four as well? Slapshot is not my letterbox top four is Heat, Jaws, Sorcerer and Philadelphia Story that's good

nice that's good you don't change them up you change them all the time right? every month yeah I thought the letterbox top four was like that's

I carved that into the side of a mountain it's whatever you want it to be okay me I like to change it if it wasn't why would they let you change it? You know what I'm saying?

Yeah. Giving this some thought. Yeah. Okay, so I have Oscar. I have comedy. I guess in... I guess in drama, I'm going to take opening night. Damn it.

Weirdly, drama is a very thin category. There are a lot of dramas. Yeah. Opening night was number two on my board um john cassavetes film uh about a actress played by his wife jenna rollins who's having essentially a long-term nervous breakdown while she's performing like an out-of-town uh preview for a play that's going to be moving to broadway it, to me, actually reads very Hitchcockian. When you watch it, I think Cassavetes is a genre unto himself, rightfully so.

But this has a kind of visual language that kind of reminds me of Hitchcock in some places. And even the inciting event of the movie, which I won't give away, has some vertigo-y kind of vibes to it. Jenna Rollins is amazing in this. I think it's shot incredibly well. It's Ben Gazzaro and John Cassavetes at her wings. It's just tons of J&B scotch being drunk. So much scotch is drunk in this. Just like true, like real alcoholism,

like in like a way that you almost have to salute, you know? Like we're just like, that was so much scotch i i deeply identify with the social cohort of the john cassavetes productions especially as i get older and i see the movies that they made as they were getting older like basically starting with a woman under the influence then killing of a chinese bookie opening night that trilogy of movies where it's like we're in our 40s life is getting a little harder a little harder than i expected for me to wake up in the morning yeah i'm using these like genre conventions or these expectations of a certain like a domestic drama or like a you know a mob movie but it's really like i feel like everything is falling apart inside of me. And I'm just putting it on this screen and filming it with my real wife.

With my wife. Yeah. Who's just fucking going for it. Who's my muse and star and also a little crazy. If you have seen this film or if you haven't and then you watch it, I recommend you check out, maybe Bobby can put this in the show notes, but there's a video interview with Cassavetes,

Gazzara, and Roland sitting at like, essentially seems like they just shot it at a New York restaurant that they were at. And they're being interviewed. And John Cassavetes just rants for nine minutes about how TV is shit. The whole rant is so good.

You sent this to me last night. Because it's about how the people who are in charge of making things for young people don't respect them. Yes. And he's like, what I've done, and he is so bold. I mean, imagine a filmmaker saying this today. He's like, what I've done is I've made something good.

I've made something that you should want to see because it is worth your time, because it is that good, because I know that my people and myself are that good. Which like, we think of like James Cameron when people talk like that, like megalomaniacal guys but he's like I'm broke and my life is falling apart around me

and all I know how to do is this. do like bit parts on TV shows to like get the bond to finish this movie. Yes.

Great pick. Thanks. Wonderful movie. Movie that's been very like rediscovered many times in the last few decades. It's on Max and it's on Criterion.

Okay. I think I gotta be strategic here. Opening Night was my number one in drama. I think what I want to take in drama is a film that I had not seen until Sean told me to watch it. So I'm afraid now that he's going to take it. So I will take Three Women by Robert Altman.

I was going to say this was number one on my drama. Yeah, sorry. But that's okay. My number three is also what I want to get. You gave it away. And so I one on my list. Yeah, sorry. But that's okay. My number three is also one I want to get. You gave it away, and so I wanted to, yeah, I had never seen this. I went home after, this was actually a nice fun thing, which is every time I'd see it, I'd be like, okay, so what 1977 movie should I go home and watch today?

And then I did. And this is Sissy Spacek and Shelley Duvall getting really weird in a rehab spa for old people. That's it. That's it. That's the movie. That's what happens. And, you know, there's a little bit of, there's a lot of transference and longing between the two of them, which is fascinating.

And a lot of just general strangeness. I mean, they both have unique personas, so watching them reflect and then trade with each other is also really entertaining. And then at the, you know, and it is, even though there is the presence of men and one man in particular, and then also all of the old guys at the spa, which is, what a weird spa, by the way. I mean, I guess. It really is. It's like, it's really weird. And it doesn't really seem there's like a lot of training that goes into it.

And I'm not really sure what anyone's doing there, but I hope it worked out for them in the 70s. But it just really is about how women are fucking crazy to each other. Like, you know, when isolated. And it's like, and it goes in very unexpected and fascinating directions, kind of like with,

but like really without the pressure of like male interference in a cool way. So I'm, I find this movie to be endlessly fast. Yeah. This is a really good example of what you were saying about like Hollywood being like, feel free to make,

why don't you make a movie with sissy space? I got a spot. Like he made mash, Altman made mash and they were like, what do you want to do next? And he was like, I want to make my version of persona. Well,

it's, it's weird because it is, you would think on the one hand, like this is a sure handed guy. Cause you know, it's not just that he made like, I want to make my version of Persona. Well, it's weird because it is, you would think on the one hand, like this is a sure-handed guy. Because, you know, it's not just that he made MASH, but he made McCabe and Mrs. Miller. He made The Long Goodbye. He made Nashville. Like, he had made a bunch of iconic films, some of which were very, very financially successful. He makes Buffalo Bill and the Indians or Sitting Bull's history lesson right before this movie. I'm sorry to altman nerd out,

but this is my passion. Yeah. I took it from you, so you're allowed. Thank you. That movie is a big failure. And then Fox is like, why don't you just come make a bunch of movies with us? And every movie he makes is basically a quote unquote failure,

even though they're all kind of interesting now. He makes three women, a wedding, quintet, a perfect quintet a perfect couple in health quintet one of the biggest fiascos in hollywood history at the time this is all before he makes popeye which was also a huge blunder so three women is actually him kicking off like one of the all-time cold streaks but it's a movie from a guy who has like a complicated relationship to women who like collaborated with a lot of great women, has a lot of great female stars, but you know, it definitely thinks women are crazy.

Yeah. And that's a recurring theme in many of his films. Like there's a, in that cold day in the park and images in this movie are like thought to be a trilogy about women losing their minds. And so like you watch the movie and you're like, what is it that you really want to say? Is it that like the more time that women spend with each other, that they share their own psychoses and then they bleed into each other?

Like obviously this is a critical part of Persona as well. But it's done in the Altman style. So it's like the movie is just like the camera's just kind of floating around, wandering. And they're going over here and it feels like there's no script most of the time, and Shelley Duvall's just telling these weird stories about her recipes, and you're trying to figure out what the point of the movie is.

Yeah, she puts onion in the tuna salad. That's one negative. She does a lot of kooky things. And then at a certain point, it seems like Sissy Spacek just starts to turn into Shelley Duvall, and they trade spots. But fascinating movie.

It's cool. I liked it a lot. Is it even a drama? I don't even know what it is. It's cool. I liked it a lot. Is it even a drama? I don't even know what it is. It's a dream movie, right? Yeah. I guess you could have made an argument for it in like thrill or horror, but it doesn't have the payoff. Like, frankly, of either even when they do.

I mean, Sissy Spacek like jumps off a building at some point, right? But you're just kind of like, okay, that seems weird that she did that. There's none of like the jump scare ever at any of it. You know what reminds me of Three Women a little bit is The Curse, the Nathan Fielder, Emma Stone show where you're just like, what is happening right now as you're watching the film? Anyway, really great film.

I like that pick. Okay. Hmm. So I have two picks. And now I would say all of the all-time beloved classics are gone. There's still a lot of critically fascinating movies, but movies that at the time, I'm not a smoking the bandit person.

I don't know if that's heresy to say that, but that's not really a movie that I love. They're driving. They're having fun. They're just like in a car for an hour and a half. They're trying to get that beer across town. Yeah, and it's like they're driving. They're having fun. They're just like in a car for an hour and a half. They're trying to get that beer across town. Yeah, and it's like they're driving to Atlanta. It's like a little south of the routes that I used to take to drive to see all my family in Tennessee and in North Carolina.

But there's a familiarity to those roads. Does Burt do it for you? It's kind of undeniable. I wouldn't say that's like my type, classically. You know what I'm saying? But, I mean, the charisma. What are you going to say? Yeah.

Does Bert do it for you? I actually find him pretty charming in this era of like Semi-Tough and this and Longest Yard and everything. But I physically don't. You know, like that's like you might as well look like you know Abraham Lincoln you know because you don't have

a sexual attraction dude is like so like I look like a leather bag is kind of like it's kind of out of

it's gone yeah lots of time Chris do you want an orange slice no I'm okay actually are you sure natural sugars

I took my vitamin C this morning I'm good actually. Are you sure? Yeah. Natural sugars. Ryan Russillo taught us. I took my vitamin C this morning. I'm good. Thank you though. But it's more about the energy boost. I don't want to go

on the glucose. I had a coconut protein bar so I'm vibing. Okay. Don't you want to know more about those key lime protein bars

that Russillo got in New Zealand? Okay. In action thriller horror I'm going to take Suspiria. This is a movie that I wish I had told Amanda to watch

and I didn't and I feel some regret about that did you see the Dakota Johnson version of Suspiria that's a that's a Luca Guadagnino

thing right no I watched some clips I think that that I've seen every other Luca body horror movie but that one I was like I'm good so this is why

you should have watched it this was an incredible year for ballet movies Suspiria is about a young woman who goes to a ballet school and that ballet school is run by and dominated by witches and uh speaking of films about the complicated nature of femininity as told by men in the 1970s but that's not a horror movie that's just factual it well as rendered in this way do you enter the world of ballet schools it's full black swan in my house yeah those bitches are we are we are truly like again yeah again no not me i'm not driving the the modes of success for her i just want her

to have fun uh but suspiria is one of the most beautiful scary movies ever made like the incredible sense of color that Argento brings to it, kind of bringing like the Giallo movies, the kind of psycho murder movies that he had been making up until this point and creating something more supernatural, more beautiful, more exciting. Like it's just wildly influential movie,

a movie that every horror director has to see to better understand how to make movies like this. It's a little incoherent, as many Argento movies are, where the script is kind of secondary to the visuals, but it's not abstract. It still has a plot. It's a favorite of mine. Got it on 4K this year.

Feel great about that. Love to have a 4K in my house. You know? You know what that is? No. Okay, moving on. It's like a compression rate? Sure.

Listen. Okay, moving on. It's like a compression rate? Sure. Listen, the amount of time that I spent engaging with you and others in our community about physical media to prepare for this project, you just need to be gracious, you know? Would you say I'm not being gracious right now? Yeah, I thought that that was ungracious. Also, many people pointed out to me that you knew my DVD would work in the Blu-ray player and you just lied to me on the podcast i'm just trying to have fun i just think it's good to have fun on the show my for drama i'm gonna take a movie that i haven't seen in a very long time and i watched yesterday with my wife that i love very much it is actually relevant to the big picture which is the american friend this is uh vim vendors film this is where you're taking this one in drama were you were you gonna take this Were you looking to take this? I was looking to take it, yes.

Oh, interesting. But that's okay. Okay. Did you revisit this for this pod? I did because it played in LA recently. I didn't go to the screening, but I was like, why not fire up old American Friend? And also because Ripley is coming on Netflix. I was like getting in the Ripley-verse. So that's what

it is. This movie, Wim Wenders in the 70s, he makes this trilogy of road movies that are all great. You got to see them. Most of them, you know, German cast. He's trying to figure out what he wants to do next. And he wants to do, he wants to adapt a Patricia Highsmith novel. He's got two ideas for movies.

He starts looking into it. And it turns out that they've both been optioned. So then he calls up the publisher and he's like, I'll do any Patricia Highsmith novel. And they're like, sorry, bad news. They're all, they've all been optioned. There's nothing available. A month later, he gets an, he gets a letter from Patricia Highsmith herself.

You almost said email. And I was like, that would have been awesome. Patricia Highsmith sent the first email. He gets a telepathic message from Patricia Highsmith, like, like Professor Xavier. And she sends him a letter and she says says please stop asking my publisher to option the books i'm i'm grouchy patricia is yeah however grouchy's putting it mildly yes famously cantankerous author but a genius but you may come and visit me and vim black to us uh is like absolutely i'm in i'll get on a train and I'll come and see you.

She was living in Paris. He's living in Germany at the time. He goes to see her and they have a nice meeting. And he's like, this is a really lonely woman living in a house full of cats. They have a nice time together. But at the end of the meeting, she says, you can't have any of my books that have been published.

But, and she opens a drawer and she pulls out Ripley's Game. This book is unpublished. And I'm willing to grant you the rights to this book, which is just a continuation of the Tom Ripley saga. So he adapts it and he adapts it very faithfully, except he flips Paris and Germany in the story so that the film primarily takes place in Germany. So he just makes a classic Wim Wenders movie, but just with a Tom Ripley story inside of it. Bruno Ganz and Dennis Hopper plays Ripley. And this movie is amazing. It is so cool and so clever and so different from the talented Mr. Ripley. So you kind of have to like junk that. Like this Tom Ripley wears a cowboy hat. I mean, he looks like Dennis Hopper in the 70s. He's kind of mischievous and mysterious. And it's interesting because you already drafted opening night.

And Vin Vendors' first pick for his Tom Ripley was John Cassavetes. And John Cassavetes said, I can't do it. I'm about to make a movie, which turned out to be opening night. But you should really, if you want a really good Ripley, ask Dennis Hopper. So Dennis Hopper's in it. And then Dennis Hopper being in it leads to Nicholas W Ray, Dennis Hopper's director in Rebel Without a Cause, getting cast in a part. And then as soon as he does that, he thinks to himself, I've cast Dennis Hopper, who's a director. I've cast Nicholas Ray, who's a director. And then throughout the whole movie, many of the actors

are French and American filmmakers that he really likes. So if you're a movie nerd, this movie is a feast because Sam Fuller shows up at a certain point, this movie is a feast because, you know, Sam Fuller shows up at a certain point. Jean Eustache shows up. Like a bunch of great filmmakers show up. So, very cool movie. When you were watching it with your wife, did you yell out? Were you like, that's Sam Fuller?

Yeah, that's so-and-so. I did do it only about Nicholas Wray. Did you show your daughter Shock Corridor? I did. And then the naked kiss immediately after that. My favorite bit about that story

is how back in the day if you were gonna like somebody would be like you can visit me and then you would just go and one day Vim Vendors would be outside

because like they can't text and be like hey I'll be there at like 7.05 I'll bring cheese. You know? You just get a knock knock knock

on your door yeah like how is Patricia Highsmith always ready for Vin Bender's show I get the impression she wasn't doing much

yeah she's banging out Ripley books I mean but borderline shut in okay especially at that stage of her life

great pick love the movie it's a wonderful movie if people haven't seen The American Friend can we do a quick recap just where we're at here yeah

we've all got a drama so you've got opening night I've got The American Friend and Amanda has three women I've got a action thriller horror and Suspiria

you've got a comedy and Slapshot me and Amanda have Blockbuster and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and Saturday Night Fever. We all have Oscar nominee,

Star Wars, Sorcerer, and Annie Hall. And no wild cards taken. Okay. So some open slots here. Action, thriller, horror, and comedy have gone overlooked for the most part. Yeah. So I have to be strategic here

and I have to do an action, in action, thriller, horror. And I don't think that you would take this in either category, but since you also don't have blockbuster and this would be eligible I will take this by Who Loved Me

in action thriller horror you scared me for like one second oh sorry no no no I didn't think that you were going to take it but this

you know this is our shared bond passion I mean this is the one this is the one with the ski jump yeah this is nobody does it better what are the ones

that they made basically they made the same movie back to back but then it was Connery and then Moore but they just made the same movie

or it was more than Connery came back for one or something. Isn't that Is that Octopussy and Diamonds? I think it's Diamonds or Forever

is the one that came back, right? Because this is Yeah. That's before That's in the early 70s. Yeah, this is like later and it's like

Roger Moore is like in his groove this is Mrs. Ringo Starr this is a good one yeah Barbara Box yeah she plays a Russian in this one

it's pretty good yeah the skiing right I mean yeah this is the ski jump this is the famous yeah the famous opening yeah and Jaws is in this one totally yeah

so and Carly Simon does the song that's right so I like this one this is a good one yeah no this is one of the better ones

and I do like Bond movies. This is my favorite of the Roger Moore. When you asked me... Gotta be Moonraker. Moonraker's legit. Okay. All right.

Moonraker's when Bond is like, oh, fuck, we gotta do Star Wars shit. Right. Okay. So I like this one, which is why I drafted it. Okay.

And when you guys asked me whether Burt Reynolds is like my... The real question is like, is Roger Moore your taste? And I really, I don't know. He is so old all the time. That was the main thing that I thought about. I thought you were going to ask, is he the best Bond or something?

I thought you were going to come up with a real take. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. But he is like, like Chris was saying that, you know, Burt Reynolds just like doesn't exist as a type of person anymore. I feel like Roger Moore in this movie also just like doesn't really exist as a human being. He was 50 years old when this movie came out. I know, I know. But he is really old.

You can see it. But that's okay. It's still good. So that's my reaction. I like the spy who loved me. Okay, so for action horror thriller, I'm going to take Rolling Thunder. Yeah.

John Flynn's this has been widely celebrated by Quentin Tarantino so it has had a little bit of a revival over the last 10-15 years

or whatever it's William Devane and Tommy Lee Jones in this revenge thriller about a Vietnam vet who comes back to Texas after the war

and gets like attacked and then takes out his revenge with the help of his his buddy played by tommy lee jones who has a hook for a hand and it is fucking awesome it is deranged it's also like one of those incredible like b movies that are actually way more telling about the state of the

country than any kind of prestige movie was at the time so just like where the heads what's headspace the country must have been in terms of its relationship to the war and in terms of its relationship to, you know, like the haves and have-nots is really incredible in this,

but it's also just like a fucking awesome popcorn movie in a lot of ways. Although dark. Very dark. Very dark. I should say yes. Not that fun, but has

like incredible payoff in the conclusion. I'll just get my gear is one of the great movie lines of all time when you see it in this movie you should send an applaud. It's back in the news

because reportedly according to Paul Schrader who wrote the screenplay this film will be recreated in some former fashion and Quentin Tarantino

is the movie critic. Oh wow. That this the movie and Quentin has talked about Rolling Thunder for years as a huge influence. His distribution, his like licensing and distribution movie company was called Rolling Thunder Pictures.

And he loves this movie. He writes about it in Cinema Speculation. And I think it's going to be made more available to a wider audience when the movie critic comes around. Is the idea of Shane Gillis starring in the movie critic basically like the same thing as King Charles is dead? Like, is that real?

I don't know. I don't have any information about that. I mean, the part that I think they were saying he's up for was a part that people had speculated was Paul Walter Hauser

before that. And so they have a similar kind of countenance, you know, somewhat similar energy. Yeah. That would be an interesting move to cast Shane Gillis, who's not acted much.

Yeah, if the last Quentin Tarantino film was Shane Gillis, Tom Cruise, and Brad Pitt, that would be really something. I trust Quentin. And then for Blockbuster, I'm taking a bridge too far. This is a movie I watched a lot with my dad, watch it a lot with my mom now. It's about Operation Market Garden,

a kind of failed D-Day that happened. The Allies first launched when they tried to invade Europe and were repelled, I guess is the way to put it. A lot of the action takes place in Holland. It's literally like Cast of Thousands. As far as the American soldiers, it's like Elliot Gould and Robert Ryan and Rob Redford and George Siegel

I think and Ryan O'Neill and then there's Anthony Hopkins and Laurence Olivier is in this movie. It is one of those like, let's get everybody together to make a big old grand movie about World War II, but this one is about the one that we let get away. Or we.

The allies like, I was there. I was there on the bridge. It was too far. You know what they were right. It's way too far. This is a super long movie. It's a double taper. And it goes on.

You know what I mean? I would second that notion notion it's a very long film you don't like it i've tried to watch it so many times and for whatever reason i could never really get into this it's really it's there's a every time i watch it so ryan o'neill's real badass but when he lands in his parachute jump he like breaks his back and he's like hobbling and i'm like is this guy gonna hobble for Czech's run time three and a half hours like

it is really wild it's basically a mini series but I think it's incredible and the level like the scale of the production

is truly mind blowing it is really have you ever seen this no I haven't you can kind of watch it's apparently five hours long I think

am I overrating how long it is is it like two and a half or is it much longer I feel like it's likerating how long it is? Is it like two and a half? Or is it much longer than that? I feel like it's like 245. It feels long. But it's a 1977 245, which to be fair is a long 245. It is 176 months.

You also like, it doesn't really, even though it's kind of, you know that this is not D-Day, you're like, it doesn't really occur to you until like midway through. You're like, oh, this is not going to work. And all these guys are going to either die or be left disappointed. And so it's a different kind of war epic, I guess, in that sense. It's one of those things where it doesn't quite live up to the

incredible amount of people who are involved, for me. The cast is mind-blowing for the 70s and it's William Goldman writing for Richard Attenborough. So you'd be like, is this the best film of all time? And it's William Goldman writing for Richard Attenborough. So you'd be like, is this the best film of all time? And it's not quite that. But it is good.

Okay. Amanda, you're up. In comedy, I'm going to take Between the Lines. Yes! Which is, I'm surprised that you

didn't take this. Well, I had slept on comedy and I was going to say, I was going to take Between the Lines for wildcard, but I'm just so happy

So this is a Joan McLean Silver about an alt weekly in Boston basically the Boston Phoenix yeah exactly but you know like Zach came in my in the room last night I was like oh the village voice movie you know like it is like to you know your alt weekly of choice and it is an ensemble movie about a bunch of people who work at this newspaper that is going to be there are rumors that it's going to be bought by some larger entity but really it's just about their petty problems uh and maybe they're not so petty but like some relationships there's like one guy who's writing a book and another guy who wants to and there's the reporter who's like chasing down a story that's maybe out of his anyway um and it's delightful i love newspaper movies and this is also like young newspaper movie good cast

john hurd lindsey krauss jeff goldblum gruno kirby he's wearing a onesie for most of the movie yeah so um well i guess it's more like a workout fit, you know, but it... Sure. Yeah. Or like a jumpsuit. Very charming. I really like this movie a lot. It's very, very good. It always struck me as the village voice, I guess, at being in Boston.

I don't have... I never had any experience with the Phoenix. Did you write for the Phoenix? I didn't. I just... But I... It was a religious experience, like, every week to get the Phoenix and to go, like, read every page while I was eating like at a diner somewhere. Yeah. Yeah. Just a really fun, clever, it's a little bit of like starter kit for broadcast

news, you know, where you're like in that kind of atmosphere where there's a lot of like young, interesting people who are all kind of falling in love or falling out of love with each other at the same time. Very good pick. Okay. I've got two categories categories left i've got comedy and i've got wild card and i think i'll have to take two and somewhat unusual movies in comedy i'm just gonna take the kentucky fried movie yes sean um i haven't revisited this one in a while i have have you in fact i think I brought it up on a draft or a conversation, and you were just like, have you revisited that recently? I think you were like, are you sure about that?

I mean, I'm framing it that way too, because I haven't rewatched it. I remember being like 15 and being extremely excited to get my hands on a copy of this movie. Because, you know, it's a movie with nudity. It's a comedy movie with a lot of nudity in it it's so we should probably describe it a little bit it's almost like an anthology movie uh the idea is basically is like even the movie itself is like you're watching this movie here are a bunch of trailers for other movies that aren't out you know or don't exist

or whatever there's also a lot of interstitials, usually with topless women in some capacity, right? Yeah. It's like a big love letter to a bunch of different kinds of genre movies. And then it ends with a long Kung Fu movie. Yes. It's like you're watching, which is called A Fistful of Yen, which is an homage to the Leone Western movies. It's like, the thing is, is when you watch it as a kid and you don't know about like women in prison 70s exploitation movies you're just like why is there a movie where like women are fighting in showers in this comedy movie but then as you get older and you start to understand like this is what this is yeah yes truly human sexuality yeah you read the mars and genre films.

Are you still reading The Mars Room? How long has that been going for you? I do like 10 pages a night. What are you reading? Rachel Kushner's The Mars Room. It's about a women's prison in Northern California. He's been reading it for like three months. Just kind of savoring it. Yeah.

Are there a lot of physically dramatic scenes in the book? Not in the Kentucky Fred movie way. Okay, that's too bad. I would just say, like, I didn't understand the movie the first time I saw it. It was just like a bunch of sketches that were about movies

that didn't actually exist. They were just like parody trailers, basically, of movies that were forthcoming. But then, when you do learn a lot about movies, you're like,

oh, this is, it would be like, if there was a, like, it would be like, if rather than disaster movie, you know those cheap- Zucker Brothers movies.

Parody movies, yeah. But there were a bunch of them in the 2010s. But rather than stretch those movies out to full length, you just had eight of them bound together in short bursts. As a teenager, I rented this from the library, actually, where I rented a lot of video cassettes when I was a kid. Wow. And I'll talk to you about my experiences renting things at the library

next week when we talk about Steve Martin, because that's also related. I was thinking about this recently. I can't believe they carried this movie at the library, to be honest with you. But I made sure that my mom was not around when I watched it. I would most succinctly describe this as Mad Magazine, but if it was a porno.

Okay. I think that's right. I mean, softcore. Yeah if it was a porno. Okay. I think that's right. I mean softcore. Yeah. It's not. What? There's stuff in there where I was like

I didn't know about that. Like what? Tell us about it. Look Amanda in the eye and tell her exactly what you learned. I'm just going to have another orange slice.

So Kentucky Fried Movie will be my comedy. Now I got to re-watch that and make sure that that's okay that I drafted that. I'm sure it's fine, right? It's fine. Wild card. It's really tough. You took KFC and Manda took Annie Hall.

I'm unscathed. The uncancellable CR. What's on your slate? Let me just see if there's anything. Undefeated, just like Don Staley, you know? I mean, it's not like Rolling Thunder. It's like a barrel of laughs. The guy who gets his hand cut off and goes on a murder spree.

Yeah, but you know, he served his country. He did serve his country. I mean, my gut's telling me to just take Eraserhead. Why not? There's a lot of movies I like from this year. There's a lot of really weird movies I like from this year there's a lot of really weird movies i like from this year i love demon seed capricorn one i like black sunday don't do this thing where you name every movie are you gonna take any of those movies no but you're coming up on a movie

i won't say anymore i won't say anymore a lot of the big blockbuster movies from this year are not really favorites of mine. And a bunch of them have been taken, obviously. And then the ones that are left are, you know, we almost watched Pete's Dragon with Alice over the weekend. Did you ever see that one?

No. Disney movie? It's hard to believe. But Pete's Dragon, what differentiates it? She's still recovering from the Kentucky Fried Chicken. I was just like,

you guys are trying to find the line of softcore and regular porn like live you know on a Monday it's changed so much since the 70s

I know it's like the new where is third base it's also regional sure and then and then there's like no penetration

in Kentucky Fried Moose I mean what are we talking about no no what did you see what do you mean like just tell us what you saw are What do you mean, like actual? Just tell us what you saw.

Are you sure you're not mistaking it with another core memory? I just am enjoying this because now you're like, did I just like, did I just draft Birth of a Nation? Like, what happened? All right, stop.

I brought Pete's Dragon because it's not quite totally animation. It's like, who framed Roger Rabbit? Are you drafting Pete's Dragon? I was going quite totally animation. It's like Rage on Rabbit. Are you drafting Pete's dragon? I was going to watch it over the weekend with Alice but then I looked at the run time and it was like two hours.

Yeah. Real people and a fake dragon? With an animated dragon. Not fake. Come on with fake. What are you talking about? You have a child.

Like get your shit together. This is absurd. Yeah. And he likes to watch Singing in the Rain. It's just hurtful. That's real. Gene Kelly's out there dancing. Okay? You are. This is absurd. Yeah, and he likes to watch Singing in the Rain. It's just hurtful. That's real. Gene Kelly's out there dancing.

Okay? Knox is going to be like, I only watch CR's Letterboxd 4. This poor kid is going to be I only watch Sorcerer. So fucking left out when everybody's going to see Moana 2. I showed him Star Wars.

So he knows what's up. This is how I got raised. Yeah. We skipped that shit. Skipped what shit? Pete's Dragon. So you him Star Wars. So he knows what's up. This is how I got raised. Yeah. We skipped that shit. Skipped what shit? Pete's Dragon. So you think Star Wars is somehow more mature than seeing Pete's Dragon? I do.

You think Yoda is more mature? Kind of. He's a puppet. Is he not a puppet? We like practical effects, though. Okay. Well, if that's the wall you're going to die on, I'll take a razorhead, speaking of practical effects though. Okay. Well, if that's the wall you're going to die on, I'll take Eraserhead speaking of practical effects.

Wait, how did you know? You had like, that was the cutest route to get to Eraserhead. Well, I had said Eraserhead. And then I was like, let's talk about the box office hits from that year,

one of which was Pete's Dragon. But I wasn't going to draft Pete's Dragon. Eraserhead, great Philadelphia movie. Remember that one, that YouTube clip? Doesn't a Razorhead live in Philly?

It's the Philly of the mind. Yeah, the torture dome that is the dreamlike state. When's the last time you watched Razorhead? Clearly long enough that I don't remember whether it's set in Philadelphia. Is it set in Philadelphia? Let's see if it's set anywhere. I feel like David Lynch is set in the Midwest, or is from the Midwest rather. Plot.

That's often where people go when they look for... Henry Spencer's face appears superimposed over a planet in space. He opens his mouth and a spermatozoon-like creature emerges. Let's just do Control-F Philadelphia. Oh, the film's tone was also shaped by Lynch's time living in a troubled neighborhood in Philadelphia. Tells you everything you need to know. Is Eraserhead about you? There's a bizarre baby in Eraserhead.

Is that you? What makes you think I was a bizarre baby? I was a pretty well-behaved kid. Something about you thinking that there's hardcore pornography in Hollywood-released films. Were you a spermatozoon in a bad neighborhood in Philadelphia? You're mad because you picked like Debbie does Dallas. Don't put in the

newspaper that I'm mad. I'm taking a racer. Chris is like, I'm so well-paid. You lost the plot. There's like pictures of me and i'm just like sitting there with an apple reading like i was like that was like honestly like that was when you were a kid peak academic it is very cute yeah what were you reading uh the box art on debbie does dallas i was interrogating

conducting my movie for any MPAA violations were you reading the novelization of Sorcerer I'm taking a razorhead it's David Lynch's first film first feature film

that was a 22 minute fucking run you just went over you named 14 movies I'm just doing my job accused me of being a spermatozoon. What is that?

I don't know. I think it's got a link. Didn't it have a link? So click through. Hold on. Jesus Christ. A spermatozoon, which is from the ancient Greek

for seed and animal, is a motile sperm cell or moving form of the haploid cell. A spermatozoon joins an ovum to form a zygote so it's just it's like one swimmer yeah

it's a swimmer okay that's great you haven't seen Eraserhead no you sitting alone in a room

watching Eraserhead is actually my dream that's what I want that's that actually is the funniest thing I can imagine we actually for the big Oscar bet

can we can we book a double feature of Eraserhead on Kentucky Friday a Twitch stream of you watching Eraserhead would honestly I have no idea

what would happen we could solve world hunger if we just put that on Twitch I would do it to solve world hunger you would do it yeah what is the financial threshold

what do we have to cross to solve world hunger yeah I mean it's I don't know how it's a lot so that's the only thing What is the financial threshold? What do we have to cross? To solve world hunger? Yeah. I mean, it's... I don't know how... It's a lot. So that's the only thing that you would do this for? You wouldn't do it just so you could get more of CR's jokes?

I get the jokes. The jokes are funny. According to estimates from the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, an annual investment of around $267 billion is needed to achieve zero hunger. Say that again. $267 billion a year. Oh, I was going to guess a trillion. So that seems...

So if the listeners of this show can get us to $267 billion, then you will watch... Per annum, though. Per annum. Yeah. Well, there's... Hmm. Tricky. Well, we could

we could we could divert some of the JMO Patreon fund which is that's true it's doing well right now stock is hot we have a slush fund

a JMO slush fund what have you been spending out of the slush fund what have you been buying I've been buying up all the hard copies of Kentucky Fright movie Amanda you have a pick

I gave you so much time to eat the most time i've given anybody in terms of waiting for their next pick i'm just keeping i think we were both ready to go and you're just no i well so so you get to filibuster for 45 minutes and i don't get i was learning about spermatozoon well maybe I want to talk through some of my decisions. Go ahead. You know, I have Wild Card. I have a lot of movies that I watch. There's nothing like that I'm truly passionate about

on this list because that was the thing, right? At some point, if you were just doing a survey of the year, you ended up watching like some weird movies or you watched it and or I watched it and I was like, that was fine. Or, you know, why did Jane Fonda do that which was my response to both Jane Fonda

movies this year and I love Jane Fonda did you watch Fun with Dick and Jane yeah I thought it was terrible like what did they think they were doing

I watched it for the first time this year too I thought it was really bad you guys watched the actual version not the remake not the remake not the Jim Carrey version

but it's like it's just not the premise of that movie is quite interesting and I actually think it could have been great yeah but they just don't have satire

land the satire at all that's exactly right it's George Segal and Jane Fonda are a well to do couple kind of at the start of midlife

they've just moved from their starter home to their family house he's an executive at a aeronautics company and he gets laid off and it turns out that she's also

really bad at managing their books and overspends so he's out of a job and they're totally broke and they turn to a life of crime to pay their way through their life funny idea bad movie yeah really bad movie and just doesn't land any of the commentary whatsoever she's funny she has to be a model at one point and she falls down like Like I said, she looks beautiful in both movies, including Julia, which I'm not going to pick. Okay. Do you want to talk about the train ride and how you didn't think it was very consequential? Well, it's just sort of like, okay. So the premise of this movie, this is so weird. I can't believe that this was a, this was a movie. Okay. So she is Lillian Hellman. Lillian Hellman,

playing like real Lillian Hellman, who was a playwright of acclaim and renown. And at some point, apparently, according to a memoir she later wrote, had a friend named Julia

who was like an American friend who wound up in Austria studying with Freud, like you do, and then became like an anti-fascist. You know, this is pre-World War II, but she's working against the Nazis. And so Lillian Hellman gets drawn up in this and smuggles some money to Berlin for them for the cause. Cool. But 90% of this movie is Jane Fonda sitting in her picturesque beach house and or in a canoe being like, Jason Robards, who's playing Dashiell Hammett,

can you please bring me some more liquor? And being like, I don't know how to write my play. And then the train ride, which is like the other 10 percent you're saying jason robards was proximate to liquor in the 1970s but he wins best supporting actor for this role which like i know you know 10 minutes was standard for supporting actor back in the day but he is like really doing nothing besides being jason robards who you know i love it when jason robards it was just a time where if you played a famous actor for five minutes, they were like, you got to get an Oscar.

Yeah. Jack Nicholson and Reds, they were just like, holy shit. Great job. Nice sweater. But so the train ride where she's smuggling the money, it's like she has to put on a hat and then she sits there for a while and they check her passport and like everything is fine, you know? And she just does it.

And there's really no suspense and then she gets to see Vanessa Redgrave who's playing her friend Julia for like two minutes and they eat a giant bowl of caviar and then Julia dies off screen and Vanessa Redgrave also wins the Oscar so would you say it's soft core or hardcore porn? I mean, they did sort of suggest, but weren't brave enough to like really suggest a romantic relationship between Jane Fonda and Vanessa Redgrave's characters. But I was like, is that going on here? And I don't think I was supposed to think that it was, but it would have been more interesting to me. Anyway, not gonna, I guess I'll do the movie that I actually liked, which was ABBA, the movie.

What? I liked it. This is you, constantly railing against the Academy. You know, their favorite choice. Do you want to talk about looking for Mr. Goodbar some more? I mean, that was weird.

That was a choice. It's a very weird film. Richard Gere is wonderful. It's his first film. As is Diane Keaton. And that's important. My sister-in-law told me that she had watched this movie with her mom because her mom really likes looking for mr my mom likes mr mr goodbar like that is fascinating this is giving away an idea into the world which i usually don't like to do but i actually think if you remade looking

for mr goodbar and you just called it like Swipe, that would be like a really good Blumhouse movie. Would you actually go through with the end though? I think you kind of have to. But just like the dangers of modern dating, that's like, that's the framework, right, for the movie is it's this episodic story of a young woman going on a series of dates with new people. And the movie is really cool because it introduces for the first time you see Richard Gere. For the first time you see Tom Berringer. For the first time you see, I think, LeVar Burton is one of the dates that she goes on. And that's all their first movies.

And it's Diane Keaton in the Annie Hall year. But it's this like, wait, what? This is what this movie is at the end of the movie? And it's pretty upsetting. Yeah. I mean, I could pick that. I could pick The Goodbye Girl. I liked Abba the movie better.

It's the last Hallstrom movie. And it's like, it's ABBA's concert film, whatever. I mean, I don't want to say like their answer to A Hard Day's Night because that is rude to A Hard Day's Night, one of the great films. But like, it's a concept movie that's very funny. And it's a guy trying to get an interview with them and he can't. And just a lot of Australiaralia which looks like a great country and kind of a prequel to spice world sort of yeah but i first of all spice world is incredibly important no shots uh and i enjoy the music of abba so i enjoyed this more than i enjoyed

the goodbye girl which i did like but i was kind of like okay I get it I think that's a perfectly good Amanda pick thank you speaks to your soul what's what's the final pick for a CR soul so for wild card I'll just take the hills have eyes Wes Craven's uh movie about freak cannibals hanging out in the Nevada wasteland and terrorizing the Carter family as they drive. Was there penetration in this one? There's throat penetration with somebody's ripping one out. I really love horror movies from this era. They are a different experience than like watching Immaculate now. Like they are very much more about like, I think parts of the country that are ungoverned and unsupervised,

you know, and people getting lost in them, that kind of is a thread that goes through deliverance and Texas chainsaw and like this freakish devilish underbelly of the country. So that's very interesting to me. And this is definitely like a post nuclear kind of manifestation of that. So I'll go with that as my wild card. Every movie that I was like, bold, this has to get drafted, got drafted today. So I'll go with that as my wild card. Every movie that I was like,

bold, this has to get drafted, got drafted today. So kudos, bravo. And there's a couple other ones that I thought were like Bad News Bears, Breaking Training. It's really a fun movie. I always really like The Twilight's Last Gleaming. I really like that movie a lot.

Which is a really good doomsday thriller and I always really get a kick out of how crazy Black Sunday is. The Robert Shaw-Bruce Dern movie about a terrorist attack on the Super Bowl. John Frankenheimer. There's a bunch that are interesting. New York, New York. Cross of Iron, the Sam Peck and Paul World War II movie. It's harrowing, speaking of your Bridge Too Far pick. Yeah.

Cross of Iron's the other side of the coin on that one. Very, very, very intense. I'm trying to think of Soldier, uh, the Soldier of Orange, the Verhoeven movie. Really good. Um, but yeah. The one I'm going with is The Hillside Lies. I'd never seen, um, Peter Weir's The Last Wave.

Yeah. So I watched that, which was, I thought, really interesting. Not totally successful, but a really cool movie about a person well one like the role of white people in their relationship to the aboriginal people in australia but also basically a similar movie about like coming to a certain stage of your life and just losing your mind a little bit and having visions of confusion uh bobby deer, also like kind of a somewhat unsuccessful but fascinating character study of a race car driver, Al Pacino and Sidney Pollack,

like in the heart of the 70s. Like on paper, you think this is one of the biggest movies of the year. I mean, there's a few films that have become really well-known. Do you like The Late Show? You know, I watched it for the first time.

I'd never seen it before to prepare for this. It's Art Carney playing a detective, a kind of like aged out bogart figure in la in the 70s wandering around with lily tomlin who's like a woman who's helping him solve the case it's charming it was charming i think it was like a little slight like a little more slight than i expected based on his reputation i think robert benton movies have such like huge kind of like you guys don't know this is the real like invisible mastery. Yeah. I mean I personally

love his older like Nobody's Fool and Twilight and those movies he's doing Paul Newman I really like a lot. Larissa Shepetko's The Ascent

is probably the big like discovery in the last 20 years. A movie that has like really been raised up as a Russian war film. Ridley's The Duelist was this

year which I like but don't love it's very similar to New York for me yeah those are both like I you could do those for wild card but I don't love them I have recommended many times demon seed you have uh which is in our AI times, a fascinating rewatch. It's a movie about Julie Christie basically being terrorized by the physical manifestation of artificial intelligence that was created by her husband. Deeply disturbing movie. There's a lot of, like, is The Sentinel this year too? The Sentinel, the horror movie. There's a lot of, like, post-Rosemary's Baby.

My wife is possessed. My wife is pregnant with the devil. My wife losing her mind in an apartment. There's a really good very small horror movie

that George Romero made called Martin about a teenage boy who may or may not be a vampire who believes he is a vampire that I really like. You should screen that

immediately after your Eraserhead and Kentucky Fried Movie double. I'm just scrolling through vampire who believes he is a vampire that I really like. You should screen that immediately after your eraser head in Kentucky Fried Movie double. I'm just scrolling through notable burgers of 1977 now because I still have that tab open from when you were like, what were the significant cultural events of 1977? The significant cultural event of 2024 is C.R. remembering every time he watched Kentucky Fried Movie. That was the highlight for me. The Gauntlet? Have you seen The Gauntlet? I have not. When you said Clint Eastwood made a movie this year, I was like, that's news to me.

But then I noticed it did show up on the box office list. It's okay. It's not one of my favorites of his. It's pretty unhinged. A cop who falls in love with a prostitute who's played by Sandra Locke, who was his wife at the time. In real life.

And he has to drive her from Vegas to Phoenix. And the gauntlet is actually the drive where people are trying to kill them. Is that that long of a drive? Vegas to Phoenix? Probably, what is it? Three hours? Four hours? How long is the drive from Vegas to Phoenix?

What do you mean? Tell us now, Google Maps. I've still never been to Las Vegas. What? Oh, is the drive from Vegas to Phoenix? What do you... Tell us now, Google Maps. I've still never been to Las Vegas. What? Oh, yeah. Have you been to Phoenix? Yes. Because my grandmother moved to Phoenix when I was like five or six.

Or she moved to like a retirement community outside of Phoenix. Would you like to sing Al Pacino singing Isaac Hughes? By the time I get to Phoenix, my eyes see up and I'm up. What are you... What are we going to do for Amanda's first trip to Vegas? What are we going to do? How are we going to make this happen? What would you do in Vegas, do you think?

I don't know. What would you like to do in Vegas? Well, I think that's part of the reason I haven't been. Would you go see Adele? Sure, but I don't think she's performing anymore. Oh, she doesn't? Yeah, she's in voice rest. I do, but I don't really like the pool party scene, which I'm told is like a big, you know,

like all the Instagram floats and women with enhancements and like. You have a problem with women with enhancements. No, it's just, you know, it's like sometimes it gets a little scary, you know, and I'm not like Chris. I don't want it like right at my face. It's not exactly what you're thinking. You do want it in your face that was such

a drive-by on me well in your birth year I mean why not you know so I don't you know I tend to like

the quiet pool at a resort okay they have those I promise do you think they have quiet pools at the Wynn

I just like if you go to Vegas it's not like a party around the pool all the time unless you're at a particular kind of pool. Okay. Some of the big hotels have multiple pools. It's like 120 degrees outside? In the summer. But if you went right now, it would be beautiful. I know beautiful is the right word. Yeah.

I feel pretty conflicted about the desert generally as a terrain. It is dry. Yeah. It is presently 70 degrees in Las Vegas. Oh, okay. It's really nice there up until about June. And then it's impossible to be there for three months. And then you guys go every year in July.

I haven't been to Summer League in several years. You're going soon, aren't you? I'm going to CinemaCon in April. Okay. So I'll let you know. But I will also just be sitting in a giant room watching movies. Right. I'm getting COVID. Okay movies is it movies or do they just show like a trailer and then the guy who runs Regal

comes out and is like we're really excited about this M&M's we're excited to show you the remake of Kentucky Fried Movie please enjoy no it's both it's screenings of forthcoming films and also the studios come and present their wares do you think CinemaCon is more important than Telluride?

I do not, no. I think it's important to the industry of theatrical exhibition. I think Telluride is a monument to filmmaking as an art form. What's the story on Con this year? What's coming out there? Anything big? Eraserhead revival. Kentucky Fried Movie 47th. I would do that. story on con this year what's coming out there anything big uh eraser head revival

i would do that do you think that we could solve world hunger if i hosted it i can definitely you should call terry fermo see if he'll have you i mean he seems open to you know famously not very welcoming of female voices so there's been some imbalance over the years with the number of female filmmakers. Audrey Dewan, you know, her remake of Emmanuel, speaking of the 70s, that's something that will be happening more than likely at Cannes this year.

You want to go to Cannes, Chris? I don't want to spend my time in the south of France in movie theaters, if I go. If I'm going to the Mediterranean, you want to lingerie on're going to catch me outside. I think I agree with you for Mediterranean. It was really nice in Venice because, you know, like when you go to a new place and you're like,

well, I got to go see this church and then I like got to go over here and I got to see this quarter. Folded into like. Yeah. So it was planned for you. Yeah. And then you just, then you go have a nice meal and you're like, wow, look at me. Look where I am. But it doesn't feel like the film festival would allow for a lot of beach time.

So that's why you got to do like an extended, you do the film festival first and then vacation. Gotcha. I like to go to the movies in any city that I'm in. I know. We know. Just something I enjoy. Yeah. Should we recap our movies?

Sure. Oh yeah. Okay, Amanda, do you want know. Just something I enjoy. Yeah. Should we recap our movies? Sure. Oh, yeah. Okay, Amanda, do you want to go first? I'd love to. In drama, I have three women. In action, thriller, horror, I have The Spy Who Loved Me. In comedy, I have Between the Lines. In blockbuster, I have Saturday Night Fever.

In Oscar nominee, I have Annie Hall. In wildcard, I have ABBA The Movie. That's a great NPR voice. Thank you so much. Chris? In drama! In drama, I have Opening Night, John Cassavetes' movie. In action, thriller, horror, I took Rolling Thunder.

In comedy, I took Slapshot. In blockbuster, I took A Movie Too Long or A Bridge Too Far. In Oscar nominee, I took Star Wars, A New Hope. And wildcard, I took The Hills Have Eyes. And in drama, I took The American Friend. In action thriller horror, I took Suspiria. In comedy, I took The Kentucky Fried Movie. In blockbuster, I took Close Encounters of the Third Kind.

In Oscar nominee, I took Sorcerer. And in wild card, I took Eraserhead. You guys feel good about this? Yeah, if I was going to do anything crazy, I would have traded you Star Wars for Sorcerer and American Friend. But what do I get? You have to keep drafting.

I give you Star Wars. I get Star... So we could do a clean category swap there. What'd you get in drama? You want me to go one-to-one? I'm not doing that. I got Star Wars. I mean, like, I did get it.

You know, I worked for it. So you're just saying, like, if I was better at drafting I would have offered you this trade. No I was just I forgot about trades because we did trade

a trade last time right. You guys did. No one ever includes me. Well I mean I'll trade you all of my movies for any hole. I'm just trying to do the permutation in my head.

So, you wouldn't do right now opening night in Star Wars for the American Friend and Sorcerer? I have to say, it's probably a closer representation of me to have those movies,

but I guess I'm just going to sit on Star Wars. I want to see what happens with the voting. Who's been winning? You? I don't think we've been putting them up.

I don't think they've been voting for the last few. That is an incredible social experiment. It's the three of us just being like, I've won again! And nobody votes on them. I think we, yeah. No collusion! I honestly have not really thought much about how we're not putting up the polls.

It seems to be going okay. People are still listening. So, I don't know. Eventually, this will just evolve into me saying movies i rented from the library when i was 14 and that'll i think that will be okay too just from a content perspective we've stopped putting up the polls because of chris's ongoing litigation with dominion yeah we just are worried about voting on anything in any capacity these days that's right i wish you luck in that but you're you've gone broke right you? You're fresh out of funds. You can't make bail. Stuff.

I gave all my money to Amanda to end the world harder. Worked out so well. Thanks to our producer, Bobby Wagner, for his work on today's episode. Later this week, CR's back. Chris and I are reconvening for a very special episode. We saw the film Roadhouse together. We will be

discussing Junk Fights, a very special new subgenre that we have been digging our teeth into. We saw the film Roadhouse together. We will be discussing Junk Fights, a very special new subgenre that we have been digging our teeth into. We're also just going to talk about a little Sidney Sweeney movie

called Immaculate. Where are you at on Sid these days? You think she's a promising young star? How was Immaculate? I didn't get the review. I just know that you

like abandoned your families on a Friday night to be there an hour early so you wouldn't miss Sidney Sweeney. That's a true story. That was like you were going to come to dinner and then sorry Chris has found out that he has to be there at 630 instead of 730. Chris and I had a great time. It was very nice to see him. We bonded.

That's nice. I thought Sidney Sweeney was very gracious in addressing the crowd. Okay. She was. She's got a new haircut. Okay. We also went to the Egyptian which the restored Egyptian is beautiful. Yeah. Very nice movie theater. Saw some of the

you know the stars of the world of horror. Saw some friends. Some producers. Some executives. The winners were out. I noticed that you're not telling me how the movie was. Oh I liked it. I liked it. I laughed a lot. I had a lot of fun.

It's very self-aware in a good way. So we'll talk about it more later on the pod. So yeah, tune in for that. See you then.