The Big Picture - The 1984 Movie Draft and the Power of ‘Nomadland’

Episode Date: February 23, 2021

A front-runner for Best Picture at the Academy Awards, Chloé Zhao's 'Nomadland' arrived on Hulu this weekend. Chris Ryan joins Sean and Amanda to discuss one of the year's most powerful films (0:30). Then, the trio head back to 1984 for a throwback movie draft, selecting their favorites from one of the greatest cinematic years of their lives (19:45). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Chris Ryan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the year 1984. That's right. We are drafting the movie draft. 1984 edition is coming up next on The Big Picture. CR, welcome back to The Big Pick, man. How are you? It's a pleasure to be here, sedated in the 80s with my two buddies.

The only person who remembers the 80s on this podcast. Wow. Are you prepared for the number of old person jokes you're about to get, Chris? I am, yes. I say that with love for you. I respect my elders. It's baked into the concept. It's fine. Okay. It's fine. We're going to get into a movie draft very soon. But before we do that, there was a big streaming release over the weekend. And it's a movie that Amanda and I have talked about a few times on this podcast. It was one of my favorite movies of 2020,

but CR had not seen it. And we thought this would be a nice time to break down a little bit of Nomadland, which arrived on Hulu, the new film from Chloe Zhao starring Frances McDormand. You know, Amanda, I certainly know how you feel about it. I don't know if you had a chance to revisit it over the weekend, but before we get to Chris's thoughts, what was it like going back to this film? I was really moved by it again. And I was also really struck by the extraordinary situation in which you and I saw this film for the first time, which I think definitely shaped the way that I understand it. And we're going to get to 1984 movies. And I think this podcast in a lot of ways is going to be about how the context and when and how you see a movie in your life does affect your understanding of it. But you and I went to a special screening

in September that was held outside the Rose Bowl. We were not in the Rose Bowl, but they used like the giant parking lots near adjacent to the Rose Bowl in order to do a very fancy drive in screening. Nomadland in our cars, which is in some ways really on theme and in other ways really drew the heightened contrast between my life and the life that I was watching. It was also a very fancy awards circuit type screening. The cars in that lot were of a certain price point, shall we say. And I found that contrast and the way that the movie does share the stories of these people, but also kind of, I don't want to say indict the viewer, but really speaks to the viewer

and makes the viewer think about their own choices. I was really struck by that when we saw it. And I was really struck by it when I watched it again. I do think that there is something pretty powerful about the way the film conveys its message. Chris, what was it like for you? You've been hearing about this movie for months, years maybe. Yeah, I mean, it certainly does feel like

I would go to Google like once every couple of weeks and just be like, when is this actually streaming? Please stop talking about this. Like it's out. It was wonderful to finally see it. It made me realize just how few things are set in the actual real world anymore. Like to watch something that clearly is rooted

in a bunch of places, but in the American West and just is about actual real things. With all due respect to Albert Sparma, I feel like I needed a movie like this. I've really enjoyed a lot of stuff recently, but it was really overwhelming kind of almost to have this window into the real world.

I was pretty overwhelmed by it. Obviously, I think it's been a long year of disconnection, I think pretty overwhelmed by it. You know, obviously I think it's been a long year of disconnection, I think, that people feel. And I certainly feel that from my mom. So watching Frances McDormand kind of navigate her later years in this film, I definitely was like, I need to get in the car and drive to Philadelphia and see my mother

like immediately. And yeah, I think there were a couple of points where it was like a little on the nose or whatever but like it it's kind of an unfuckable movie in a lot of ways it's clearly like chloe zhao is just like an amazing artist and you're kind of in the hands of somebody who really knows what they're doing especially as an editor that was the thing that really jumped out at me was just how effortlessly it glided along through this narrative that isn't really a narrative. It feels very impressionistic and kind of naturalistic in some ways, but it kind

of has like a cool pace to it. The scenes move and you move along on this journey with her. It's not languid. It's not boring. It's not like late period Malick where you're just kind of like, what the fuck is going on? You're actually really deeply involved in this story. So I thought it was a wonderful movie. Yeah, I agree with you. It's funny that you mentioned your mom. I thought of my mom a lot while watching this movie. I think Frances McDormand does have mom of a certain generation energy for a lot of us. She has been a mom in movies like Almost Famous, and she has a very sort of a direct and kind of brusque in a warm way of communicating. But it's a really fascinating movie, I think, to watch at home in

quarantine, sort of to the point that both you guys are making too, which is it's a movie really about connectedness, and not just connectedness to the people that you care about, but to strangers, but to life, to the people that you come across, and to realizing that you're all part of something. And talking about a movie like this, I think sometimes can seem a little bit hokey and it's probably best to just experience it rather than analyze it. But really just feel similarly, Chris, I feel like the way that it is constructed, there are no seams. And even if there are moments that seem like they're slightly hackneyed or overworked, like Francis McDormand, say, reciting Shakespeare to a straggler on the side of the road. There's still something that feels very clean and natural, if not real, about it. It's a very odd movie to have taken center stage. Amanda and I were

talking about this a little bit over the weekend. One of the things that I find so interesting about this is that rather than go into two theaters in Los Angeles and New York and then expand to 50 theaters and then to 300 and maybe even 1,000 theaters over the course of an award season, the movie, after months and months of discussion and festival premieres, just arrived on Hulu. Anybody who has access to that service can just watch this movie. And there are not a lot of examples of that, of non-Netflix movies essentially being seen widely by the public ahead of an award show in this fashion. Amanda, I'm curious, like, do you think that no one would watch it or the kind of lead time. And, you know, you and I talking about Nomadland, but no one having any access to it and Chris Googling it and being like, what is this? When can I see it? Would be a bad thing, right? That it like its moment came before the movie was actually released. And this is an anecdotal story, but I have been thinking so much about it. My husband talked to his parents yesterday, as one does, on a Sunday. And my in-laws are like wonderful people who are plugged in in the world.

But frankly, they spend their time doing more important things than like keeping up with movies. And on Sunday morning, they had already seen Nomadland, started reading the book, wanted to have like a really involved conversation with Zach about the film. And his dad was just asking about its Oscar chances. And my in-laws rule, but like, I can't remember the last time they saw a movie within a month of its release date. And that's like, that's not on them. That's just about kind of the way we all live now and how things are released. And they were so engaged with it.

And I was like, huh, maybe this movie is just going to find, you know, different people. And like the accessibility of it as just like a purely good thing of people being able to watch it was made very clear to me in that. Chris, what do you make of the idea of, you know, awards contenders like this entering in a new kind of experience where they're democratized in one way, but they're also frankly only available to people who are slightly more sophisticated about streaming technology. And so like the whole idea of this film in many ways is it is about class. It is about what people have access to. It is about opportunity. It is about where you live and what you are able to acquire. And oddly, there is this contrast where a film that I think could be considered the front runner for best picture right now is available widely. But I think the level of awareness that you have

to have is probably higher than, say, the Blitz marketing campaign for a movie like 1917 or Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. So the other side of that is that if you go to Hulu, it's just Francis McDormand's face on the top half of the page. And that is essentially like having an entire row at Blockbuster, or it's like having a giant marquee outside of a movie theater, or a big full page ad in New York Times. It's like these streaming services, if they really do merchandise something, I mean, I care a lot. It's the number one movie. It's the number one thing on Netflix right now. Nobody knows what that is or who Rosamund Pike really is outside of being Gone Girl, any more so than they know what Nomadland is. But putting something right in front of people's eyes will at least elicit a curiosity and giving it a chance. And I think that as soon

as you start watching Nomadland,'re like what is this it's it's actually like it grabs you in in a way that great movies do grab you and even if it's about subject matter that probably isn't very fashionable anymore you know I interestingly enough in the movies that we're going to talk about 1984 I think Nomadland would fit in quite well then you know but um I yeah I think that that think that there's two sides to it. But I felt like anecdotally, a lot of people just seeing on social media were like, oh yeah, I'll check this out.

A lot of people have said this is good or it's just right there when I turned on Hulu. And that's the best way to, I would love if more small art films had that kind of opportunity. It's an interesting contrast to I Care A Lot, which you mentioned, which I think is a movie that in many ways was designed to be memed. It is like a heavy production design, heavy costuming. There's a lot of moments that seem like you would want to screenshot the dialogue on the screen, the closed captioning for a character

having a sick burn on another character. But the movie itself is like, it is not occupied by any humans. Maybe Amanda and I will talk about I Care A Lot a little bit more later this week. Chris, can you please respond to my Slack about I Care A Lot,

which I sent you on Thursday? Yeah, I'm going to watch it tonight. Okay, all right. Okay, listen, that was a journey. It's a very strange film. And it feels like a film not made by human beings. And Nomadland is the opposite. Nomad not made by human beings and nomadland is the

opposite nomadland is only human beings almost to the point of like pain and awkwardness where you're like this is so earnest at times and so severely real that it like it makes somebody like me wince a little but in a in a good way i felt it felt warm to it and the idea of them rolling out coincidentally on the same weekend and ostensibly into the same sort of film atmosphere where streaming movies are really all we have right now, I find to be an interesting contrast. The one thing that they have in common, I guess, is that they are both sort of like, quote unquote, independent productions or smaller films that ostensibly are in the awards race of a kind. I think it's interesting, the idea of Nomadland being a frontrunner, Amanda. I shared

this with you over the weekend too when we were chatting, which is that this does feel essentially what the Oscars are now. And while it is more accessible to see Nomadland on Hulu than it would have been 10 or 20 years ago, if we were talking, or even Chris, to your point about 1984, if this were Paris, Texas, a film that I think it has a lot in common with, that you had to go to an art house theater to see Paris, Texas when it was first released. Now you can watch it right away. But if you look at Moonlight and The Shape of Water and even Parasite to some extent,

these slightly more, you know, I guess, earnest and thoughtful and frankly, slightly smaller films than what we expect from an Oscar Best Picture winner, I think have come to kind of dominate the narratives around award season. And I don't think that that's necessarily a bad thing, but it is a different thing.

It's been a while since we had an Avatar, though. Like, it's been a while since there's been a major studio blockbuster that also is considered for awards. It's a little bit, are the Oscars, like, kind of leading the industry, or are they a reflection of the industry? And it it's both but it's been a long time also since we had an avatar like in movies you know and that's separate from the MCU and I like I really don't want to litigate like

why won't the Oscars record recognize superhero movies even though you know to an extent they did with Black Panther and it seems like that's evolving but I think Moonlight was both the Academy saying this is what we would like to be um and what we would like the Oscars to be and what we hope that movies can be and also a reflection of the fact that and especially as the years go on are just movies the middle of the road studio drama that we all kind of watched when in the nineties and early two thousands, like don't exist anymore. And things do change with the times. It was fascinating not to step on 1984 again, but to rewatch Amadeus, uh, which did win best picture in the context of all the other movies that we're gonna talk about in 1984 and listen amadeus is fantastic

um and it does check check all the boxes of that like old school historical epic oscar bait that we think of but man talk about a movie that is like not mainstream compared to everything else that will be drafted it's the the Oscars are always changing. It's true. I think that's at least a film that was like a wolf in sheep's clothing. You know, you thought it was going to be one thing and it managed to Trojan horse as we talked about a couple of weeks ago,

a different sort of a thing, which is interesting. I don't think you can even really do that with the Oscars now because there is a stratification that comes between the kinds of contenders. Obviously, we just went through a pandemic. A lot of the films that we expected to be recognized here, movies like Spielberg's West Side Story or Dune or The French Dispatch or what have you, none of those movies are able to contend for any awards.

Nevertheless, I find this to be a really interesting reflection of what effectively mainstream streaming movie going is because I suspect that a lot of people saw this movie, maybe more people that would have been able to see it in theaters over the course of six months. I'm glad that we have it. Chris, anything else jump out to you about Nomadland you want to share? One last thing about what you guys are talking about is if this does

become the model for a Best Picture candidate going forward, regardless of what that says about the popularity of the Oscars as a broadcast or an event. I would be curious to see if in the next five to seven years, if some of the screenplays that had been turned into limited series now go back to being features that are on streamers. Do you know what I mean? Do you get Queen's Gambit, the two and a half hour, two hour, 15 minute version of that series as a movie?

And does it have any of the same resonance with people? So that's that. And the only other thing I would just say about Nomadland is a shout out to David Strathairn, who is one of my favorite actors and is sort of the other professional actor, I guess, or actor-actor in the movie. And I thought it was a beautiful performance, even though obviously he's only in a few scenes. It was so great to see the two of them together.

He's wonderful, and it did remind me of a lot of his John Sayles movies, his roles in those movies. They're meet-cute when they trade the potholder at the beginning. Yeah, when he breaks her plates, I was like, been there, man. Oh, God. Wonderful movie. Amanda, anything else on Nomadland?

Yeah, to build on Chris's point, I think, will it be adapted into a limited series or a movie is a question. But this is also infringing a little on documentary territory as well and how you adapt to the real life and how you use real characters and what is the best way to to tell these stories i that is going to be an interesting conversation to follow in the next few weeks as people actually do see nomadland and like people learn that these are real people but how much of their life is

real you know i'm sure that parts of that discourse will turn really ugly. Has there been an anti-nomadland take yet? Is there any? Yeah. I mean, there is one little wave of discourse around it, which is that there are some accusations that the film lets Amazon off the hook essentially for its kind of seasonal hiring practices. And by spotlighting its logo in the film a couple of times, it perhaps doesn't take the corporation to task as much as it should. I don't really see it as that kind of a film. I don't really think it's a film

that has a social dagger in its hands. I think it's a humanistic movie and obviously Amazon is being used. It's used as a tool to tell Fern's story, but that does seem to be the big strike. Is there something else I'm forgetting, Amanda? Well, I think just an extension of that is that some people see the film

as kind of sidestepping the social and political elements like inherent within it and all of the circumstances that have kind of shaped these people's lives, which again, that's a little bit to taste or to how you interpret title cards and situation and like how much you want things to be dictated versus interpreted. Like I think though, you know, again, it is on the flip side, a true story and they've inserted a fictional character into it. And and is like a tremendously famous Hollywood actress who I think does like an extraordinary job of letting the real life

actors kind of take the stage and just kind of being a conduit for the audience in a way that maybe you wouldn't have if it were just a documentary or i don't know i think it's like an interesting storytelling choice but is it as straightforward um a political document as some people might want no and did and did searchlights send out like weird uh grocery boxes that i didn't receive um to go you know to to promote this story about retirees who are living in their vans because of the economic crisis of 2008. Yes, they did. So a lot to unpack. There is. Quite literally, yeah. I liked the phrase real life actors. I think that is an effective way of describing so many

of the people that are in this film who are non-professional actors who are living this nomadic lifestyle. When we saw that screening in September of last year, many of them were there and they spoke after the film. And frankly, what they had to say was no disrespect to Chloe Zhao or Frances McDormand, but significantly more impactful. And it spoke a lot, I think, to what this film is trying to accomplish, which is not a necessarily overtly political message, but something about human experience and human behavior. And I think you can have both. I think you can watch this film, go out and buy Jessica Bruder's nonfiction book that this is based on, read that book, read about the economic conditions in places like Empire, where Fern's characters

from learn about the history of the way that the American economy strangles its citizens. There's a lot of information out there in the world. As a pure film experience, it's a very beautiful and effective movie. I think people should watch it. Okay, let's take a quick break. And when we come back, we will start drafting. We're back and we're talking about 1984. So there was a prompt on the internet. Which year should we draft from? In the past, we've been doing years like 2010, 2011, 12, 13, 14.

We drafted from 1995. We opted this time to go for a birth year. 1977 was an option. 1982 is an option. And victorious, Amanda Dobbins' birth year. 1977 was an option. 1982 was an option. And victorious, Amanda Dobbins' birth year, 1984. AD. Truly AD. After Dobbins.

Yeah. Amanda, how do you feel about being victorious here in this voting? I don't know if I was victorious or whether the year was victorious. And I'm going to give credit to the people who Googled the years before voting because 1984 is a fascinating movie year. And the fact that I saw none of these movies when they were released because I was either not alive or an infant just, you know, clawing for survival. Does it change the fact that it just, it's a, it's a real moment of change in Hollywood. A lot of things are starting. a lot of things are starting a lot of things are ending a lot of our brains are being shaped without us even knowing it the

number of theme songs to movies from 1984 that I knew and had choreographed dance routines to before I saw the movies more than two more than two wow yeah Chris you were 37 in 1984. Yeah. So in 84, let me try and paint a picture here. I was doing my post-doctorate in paranormal studies at Columbia. Me and my buddy Ray and Egon, we had converted this firehouse and I was dating this great girl who had an awesome apartment off Central Park West. And a lot of the thing, like, you know, people don't understand this about ghost busting,

but it had the same energy that podcasting does now. You know, everybody talks about moving to Austin, you know, Rogan. It's like, that's what it was like to bust ghosts in New York in 1984. And it was amazing to be,

I was seven. I was seven. I was seven. And every day I would go my friend andrew's house and he would fucking take out his casio and he would play the theme music to beverly hills cop and i was like this is the best song ever written and we would do that you did that for a year for a year because back then as a seven-year-old and also because it was the mid-80s you were just like there are eight things and i will be deeply deeply obsessed with them that's it yeah i think i get into eight things a day now but imagine that for like a year you're just like i like purple rain i like beverly hills cop you know michael ducakis is

coming i love him you know seven-year-old chris ryan were you on this were you knocking on doors for ducakis what were you doing um no i was uh i was just just just just probably uh emerging as a catcher um at seven you know just started getting but just started pitch framing back then. Interesting. You were a signal caller. It's an interesting year for a lot of reasons. I think, Chris, your point about there only being eight things is pretty significant. This is, if not the birth, I think the full blossoming of blockbuster culture, of the American blockbuster and the movies- Across many platforms. Oh yeah, absolutely. And I think the big ticket item

becoming the center and really leading us to where we are now in terms of our culture which is let's try to capture as many people's attention as possible

with this one thing that we have is really fascinating you mentioned Beverly Hills Cop that was the number one movie in America that year

it made 235 million dollars at the box office yeah come on it's so good $235 million at the box office. Yeah, come on. It's so good. You guys done? This is being recorded, guys. I don't know if you know that. Number two, Peter Venkman, Chris Ryan,

Egon, and Ray banded together to bust ghosts in Ghostbusters. Number three, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. You didn't even leave room for us to do the Ghostbusters theme. Okay, go for it. When did you decide that it was like, I'm going to sing on the pod? Because it's been happening more and more recently. I know. Our friend asked this about

me about this as well i don't know i'm just comfortable i want to share well i wish these these are important songs i wish i was like in the goffin and king's songwriting room where they were like what's the what's the line what's the line that you go here i ain't afraid of no ghost that that tracks that's perfect libra and stoler just just cranking away um and gremlins was number four and those four movies there was a wide gap between the fifth film and that list and all those films basically made 150 million dollars or more and i think the kind of spielbergification the kind of mainstreamification of movies is really in full swing here. And yet we also have a lot of, I think, fascinating non-blockbusters to talk about as well. Like when you guys look at this collection of films,

what do you think, what state is Hollywood really in at this point? Chris, what do you think? I think there are some vestiges from the new Hollywood era. So a lot of the Oscar films, well, there are these really prestige Oscar movies like Passage to India and Amadeus that are, I think, how I grew up thinking of what Oscar movies should be. Sometimes British. If anything, Merchant and line, it's like two people get a divorce and you're like, and then what does Thanos come? No, it's just two people get divorced. And that's the movie. It's like two people try to save their farm. That's the movie. A woman grows up in like rural America. That's the movie. Um, and then you have the early days of, um, American independent cinema really starting to blossom. Some directors from Europe coming over, cinematographers from Europe coming over, working with American directors. And here's the thing that I really love about this year. There are movies from 1984 that as

a seven-year-old instantly became my favorite movie that I just basically... I don't know if I can possibly explain to people just how many times people my age saw Ghostbusters or Beverly Hills Cop. Like incalculable amount. But I had movies from 1984 that were my favorite movies as a seven-year-old and movies from 1984 that were my favorite movies as a 17-year-old. Like different films. This year gives a lot to the movie lover movie movie lover because like it basically raised me in a lot of ways so it's really cool to kind of look at this list and be like oh yeah i remember when i saw that movie when i was in high school or even like when i was my first year of college

and it came out the same year as the movie that was like my favorite movie of my childhood yeah i i think um i was two during this movie year. And so I don't think I experienced any of these movies in real time unless my parents were insane and showing me, I don't know, what could they have shown me? Stranger Than Paradise?

That would have been weird. But I have seen, I saw most of the movies I think that we'll talk about here in the 80s and 90s, probably more specifically the 90s, but there are a handful that I'm kind of still catching up on.

You know, I'm still catching up on films that I haven't seen before. And that's part of the fun, I think, of going back and doing these movie years. Amanda, what jumps out to you as you did your draft strategy? There are a lot of movies that I'm still catching up on. It is interesting. And, you know, when you watched The Sound of Music 50 or 60 years later, Sean, you talked about this. It's like, when you are seeing things well after they've become kind of cultural institutions, how you watch something like that, but also how you get to a place where you're watching it is essential and can really be varied. And I just have to say some of this,

I don't want to blame my parents, but I was an only child. So I didn't have any like siblings, older siblings be like, hey, you should check this out. And I have loving, supportive parents. But my parents definitely thought it was more important to put young Amanda in front of Amadeus than Ghostbusters. And so I definitely did see the order in which I saw these movies and how I sought them out is still like very confounding. There are still like big gaps. There are things where I knew the theme song and like the action figures and the lore of something before I actually saw the original artifact itself. And it's strange to try to put it back together. We'll also say when you watch something made in 1984 in 2021 with your 2021 like addled ADD brain,

sometimes they can feel really slow. Sometimes it can feel like things are just, it was a very different way of making what we understand to be an action movie or a blockbuster movie. And there's real charm in that sometimes. And there's also like me checking my phone every five seconds being like, really? But again,

that's on, that's on me. And I guess my parents for not showing me normal movies as a child. Amanda, do you think of Chris as your older brother now, your adult older brother? It's weird. You mentioned you're an only child.

You didn't have somebody recommending Ghostbusters to you you've got cr talking about busting ghosts yeah well i guess so yeah sure i mean chris seems really weirded out by that but there are definitely a bunch of things that i do think of in terms of like well that's just for like older people like chris that's the generation before me chris i forgot to tell you this but on seven years i know on the watch recently you were talking about going to like chick-fil-a in college or something and i know when i was in like in high school and stuff yeah and i was legit like i didn't know that they had chick-fil-a when chris was in high school like i didn't know that existed had Chick-fil-A when Chris was in high school. Like I didn't know that existed. So maybe that's a big brother thing. I like how, you know, I watched The Natural last night to prepare for this. And I like how we treat Chris like he's pop, you know, Wilford Brimley all the time.

I thought you were going to say Roy Huff. I thought you were going to say like this guy who comes from nowhere and changes everything. You are like that for me, Chris. You really did. You changed my life, man. Thank you. You're not as good a hitter as Roy Hobbs, though, unfortunately for you. But how do you find these movies in the 90s?

Or, you know? HBO. HBO was everything for me. Yeah, VHS. And just like, yeah, I think, I just remember renting these movies over and over again. There was a video store down the street from me and then later there was like a really, really good one a couple of blocks away.

And I would just rent these movies over and over again. And there's the cool thing here is like you look at this and I remember how illicit some of these were, you know, going to see some of the horror movies and then later some of the artier and more indie stuff and just being like, what is this? I shouldn't be allowed to watch this.

So terrifying. Nudity. The nudity wasn't terrifying. There was other terrifying parts. The nudity was like, this is titillating. I think that's it though. I think it's HBO and I think it's the's it's it's touching every box in the aisle at blockbuster and trying to figure out should i rent blood simple will i like this movie what is this movie really about the poster doesn't really tell me what's going on here

um and so it is like you have to it's forced discovery i think it's willing to just try something and that's also we don't really have that as much right now. You know, especially I feel like young kids are not just like sitting down in front of a television and saying, let's see what's on. You know, we have a completely different way of experiencing these things. Nevertheless, pretty damn fantastic movie year. I mean, I don't think anyone is going to go wrong with any pick here based on the amount of stuff that we have to choose from.

Fair to say? I might surprise you, but. Wow, exciting. What a tease. Should we talk through the additions, the changes to our rules before we let Bobby determine the draft order? Yeah. So obviously, historically, we have six categories and those categories are set in stone, except when we go back in time, they don't make nearly as much sense so we've revised the categories we are retaining the drama category that is staying as is we are slicing comedy and horror into two

separate categories because this is a very fertile time for both of those categories so there's a comedy category that we'll be drafting from there's also a horror category that we'll be drafting from someone was it was it you amanda or ch? One of you guys suggested an action category. It was Chris. It was Amanda. She was just like, there's so many awesome fights in movies this year. Let's have an action category.

Amanda wanted to talk about Chuck Norris' missing in action. So here we are. So we're going to have an action category because this is really, I think, we're entering kind of a beautiful blooming stage for the action movie as well in the mid 80s. And for returning to Vietnam to find your POW brothers.

That was a recurring theme. Yes, of course. A film when you were doing your post-doctorate that you really related to, given your experiences in Nam, right, Chris? That's right. And we're also going to do, rather than just a sequel category, we're going to do a sequel slash franchise category, which means you can select a film that will ultimately become a franchise, even if it's the original installment

of the movie to kind of expand the scope. Because really, this isn't the beginning of that trend. I would say Star Wars is probably more closely the trend of franchising films, but it's really starting to take off in 1984. You've already heard us talk about Beverly Hills Cop and Ghostbusters. Those films obviously went on to become franchises. There are many, many more that we will talk about here. So sequel slash franchise. And then lastly, our blockbuster category, which we are changing the economics of. Historically, it is $100 million as the threshold. This time around, we will be using $40 million American dollars as the threshold for domestic box office for the film to qualify for blockbuster. Those are rules you guys you guys ready for this yeah bobby are you ready for this

yeah let's do it i'm ready to spin the wheel uh 40 million is that how much you raked in while busting ghosts in 1984 that was no that was that was non-profit. They paid me in stock. Oh, okay. So wait for us to mature. First pick goes to Sean. Wow. What? I don't, I actually don't even know what to do with that. Okay. Spinning again.

Second pick will be Amanda. And that puts Chris at the hot corner. Okay. Okay. Okay. So do we just begin? Do I just make my first pick? Yeah. I didn't want their first pick in this one.

I don't envy you. I actually don't know what to do. Yeah. I wasn't counting on this. Do you want me to vamp by telling you what year it was when I was seven? What was coming out then? No, we don't want to hear that.

No, that's not. Well, we'll do that when it's your seven-year-old year. Was that like Fast and Furious 2 or something came out? That was when Moonlight came out, right, Bobby? Yeah, exactly. Bobby's five.

Okay, I am going to choose a film in the action category and I'm going to choose The Terminator, James Cameron's film about a Terminator played by Arnold Schwarzenegger starring Michael Biehn and Linda Hamilton. It's the first movie that I thought of when I thought of 1984. It's the movie that I think in many ways kind of shapes the future of moviegoing. It's a movie that I think actually does exactly what Amanda was talking future of movie going it's a movie that I think actually does exactly what Amanda was talking about which is it is an amazing film that is quite slow uh

given what we expect action movies to be right now I don't know if people have recently returned to this Chris you just recently rewatched the Terminator rewatchables on it there's a did you find quite a long build-up yeah yeah it's a little slow but it is amazing and you can see compared to t2 especially it's pretty it's pretty wild um but it is amazing. And you can see. Compared to T2 especially, it's pretty, it's pretty wild. But it's, it's the, basically the announcement

of a major visionary in movie making and an original story and something we don't see that much these days. So that's my first pick, The Terminator. All right.

So I'm up. You're up. Okay. I, this is really mean. I feel bad about this, but it'll be in the um franchise and sequel category and i'm gonna take ghostbusters and i'm really sorry chris okay um this is a really i really honestly don't know what to do except to sing the theme song again that's like all i can do to communicate just kind of the way that Ghostbusters completely permeated the,

like our entire consciousness. And when I think of pop culture in the eighties, I think of Ghostbusters and I think of Bill Murray and I think of like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man, which is, you know, still how, like my visual reference after Thanksgiving dinner, when I'm like full and kind of like cranky and have to talk to people. And I just feel like that person walking down the street, but it, I came to it at least a decade afterwards. And so with the full franchise of it in existence and the sequels and the, and the toys and the Halloween costumes, and it is,

it's still funny when you watch it. I rewatched part of it. And especially the Bill Murray performance still just really makes me laugh. And also, it didn't invent the franchise hell that we live in now. But it certainly kind of solidified that this would be a way of engaging with blockbusters. So, Ghostbusters. Who are you going to call? Amanda, who's your favorite Ghostbuster?

Who's your favorite? Bill Murray yeah come on I thought you might be an Ernie Hudson kind of gal I think that's probably also no I don't know I probably saw Groundhog Day before I saw Ghostbuster more importantly who's your favorite ghost? is it Slime?

his name is Slimer Chris? Jesus Christ he's like the one that His name is Slimer, Chris? Slimer, yeah. Jesus Christ. He's like the one that you see. It's a very beautiful green. It's a gorgeous green, yeah. Where are you guys at on Muncher? Have you been following the Muncher discourse? Muncher's the new ghost that they premiered a photo of

from the forthcoming Ghostbusters film? No, yeah. I'm not really on that. Just Google it real quick. Just take a look at it. See what you think. Okay. I'm asking you to do it right now. Oh, you want me to do this? No, yeah. I'm not really on that. Just Google it real quick. Just take a look at it. See what you think. Okay. I'm asking you to do it right now.

Oh, you want me to do this? Seriously? Okay. Just look at Muncher. Just weigh in. Ghostbusters. Oh, yeah. This looks like a garbage pail.

This is great. That's what I'm going to look like by the time we get back into the office. This is really good okay you're welcome then i asked you to do that yeah thank you chris you're up two picks uh for for sequel i'm gonna go beverly hills cop yep which is uh really quite important to me at a young age eddie murphy uh just was like i remember just listening to raw and delirious over and over and over again and people would just do the do the comedy routines like you know like it was like this very very like like secret thing where you were like if somebody had a copy of his comedy, you would like, just be like sitting around a,

like a boom box, listening to it. And then this movie came out and, um, I don't remember if I was allowed to see it until I came into VHS. I can't imagine. My dad was like, let's go see Beverly Hills cop.

My, my young son, but I did watch it like 400 times, uh, after I was, as soon as I was allowed to and can still remember like large swaths of the dialogue most of it the Bronson Pinchot

stuff but you know like I can still remember just about every word from Beverly Hills Cop so I'll go with that I said that for for sequel right you did okay I'm gonna go drama and I'm going to go drama

and I'm going to take Paris, Texas. Wow. Which is early, probably a little early to take it, but I just kind of wanted to do it also

just to show this is the movie I was talking about when I was like, then this became my favorite movie when I was 17 and I finally

was able to like kind of understand a little bit more about it and really want to still the most beguiling beautiful sad movies I've ever seen and like an incredible Harry Dean Stanton performance and kind of really got like was instrumental in making me think about movies as art so I just wanted, I know it's an early shout for this, but I thought I would pick it. You've made it impossible for us to make fun of you by selecting a beautiful film way too early.

That was lovely. So it's Amanda. It's Amanda. Okay. Let's see. All right. The cool thing about this, doing this this way is that,

yeah, well, cause like most of the time when we're picking, it's like, Oh, I can't believe you screwed up by doing this. But it's like, these movies have changed in like,

people perceive these movies so differently now than they did back then that it's, it would be weird to be like, I'm going to pick the most popular movie from this era. You know what I mean? Well, yeah, but unlike now, many of the most popular movies are,

are purely beloved. You know, there, there, there's like, it's not complicated to say, I love Beverly Hills cop. And it is now,

if you're like, I love Avengers end game, you have to caveat it with blah, blah, blah. Here was my experience watching that movie. And, and,

and time passing allows you to have a different relationship to the movie. And I think when the three of us are doing a movie draft in 2057, which we will be, and I select Avengers Endgame, you know, everyone will say like, wow, what a thoughtful choice. You know, that really is one of the strongest franchises. Sean has a depth to his soul that is really important. So, right? I mean, Chris, i've also really only seen the popular movies because like you know i was catching up so it's i like i don't have a ton of

i have a few deep cuts i guess that i probably won't pick them and right now i'm trying to decide whether i should do the thing i really want to have or whether i should be strategically smart and wow real real human conundrum, I'm being really honest, you know? Okay. I'm going to be literally Craven and I'm going to pick in the horror category and I'm going to take nightmare on Elm street. Um, and I, as listeners will know, I'm not a horror expert. And in fact, I don't think I've ever seen nightmare on Elm Street in full, but I have seen parts of it. And I know what it's about. And listen, I did my homework. I want to thank Gilbert Cruz, our friend and my horror expert from the New York Times who I texted this

weekend. And I was like, yo, you got to help me because I'm going to have to pick in a horror category. And he told me that it was Nightmare on Elm Street 1, another movie 2, and then I was in deep trouble. So I'm honoring Gilbert's time here, really, by taking Nightmare on Elm Street. So, shame on you. I know. You know, sometimes I would really want to mess with you and take great joy in it. And I'm not feeling the best version of myself right now, but I also am really grateful to Gilbert.

So in that sense, I do feel like the best version of myself. Shout out to Gilbert. I didn't realize we were allowing outside coaching in these drafts. That's interesting. We're doing lifelines now. That's cool. Should we consider that as a category?

You should call QT. Just be like, Quentin, Amanda took a nightmare on Elm Street. What do I do? What's my move QT. Just be like... Quentin, Amanda took A Nightmare on Elm Street. What do I do? What's my move? He'd probably be like,

take Chud. Yeah, Night of the Comet. Okay, well, I have to take horror. And I think that there is a flexibility in my horror choice. This is a film

that I was thinking about picking in a number of different categories. But I'm very grateful to take it in horror. I'm taking Gremlins. Joe Dante's horror comedy. Really, truly, one of the most important movies to me as a kid. I love Dante. I'd love to have Joe Dante on this show at some point and talk about his wonderful

career. I don't know, Amanda, if you can join me for that one because I doubt. Listen, those Gremlins are fucked up and I don't want to be near them. Okay. And I know that's the point. I was also just while we're being honest about coaching was talking about this with my husband at dinner and we, who he's not a horror person either. And we just kind of like said gremlins to each other with gross faces for a while. Like, Oh, despite that, that voice you just used gremlins is a wonderful film and frankly, a beautiful film about the complexities of small town life in America. And not eating too late at night. It's like if you want to have a good night's sleep, don't eat

after midnight. CR, what's your go-to late night snack? You know, it's been getting a little sugary over here, so that's been a little bit of a problem. Sean, do you remember when Rock M said, after 12, I'm worse than a gremlin? I do. Dope line.

What song is that from? Do you remember? Isn't that Microphone Fiend? Yeah, that sounds right. Damn. See, Rock M was checking out gremlins, Amanda. You think you're better than Rock M? I know what they are because I grew up in the 80s and they also got marketed at me.

And I was like, oh, I don't like looking at that. So I just, it's fine. You have gremlins. Okay. I am going next with comedy and i'm taking possibly the funniest movie of the 1980s and that movie is called this is spinal tap rob reiner's yeah mockumentary classic really i don't know is there a lot to say about this is spinal tap at this point look at modern culture look at modern family look at the office

look at saturday night live Look at the last episode of WandaVision. Look at WandaVision. This is Spinal Tap is resonating to this very day. Truly a wonderful movie. And this is a pretty good year for comedies, honestly. But this one, to me, stands alone because it was not a major blockbuster success. But

it's kind of the Velvet Underground of comedies. It is the movie that everyone who saw it went off and wrote their own comedy. So this is Spinal Tap is my pick there for comedy. We're back to you. Is it back to me? Yeah. I'm psyched because I get to pick the thing that I wanted to pick last time,

but I had to be strategic. I'm going in Black Buster. I'm taking Purple Rain. Purple Rain being eligible for Black Buster rules. That's just, I mean, what a time. That is like the best thing that you can say about 1984 was that you could go to a theater and watch Purple Rain

and like lots of people did. And it's streaming on HBO Max right now. Tremendous stuff. Just like fun to dip in. Apollonia is still just like incredibly beautiful. Just really, that was really formative for me. As for me as well, Amanda. As for many other people, I'm sure.

Let me tell you. Lake Minnetonka, yeah. you go yeah what happened what happens in purple rain again like what's the plot it's deeply problematic right he's he's prince has a hard time with his father his dad who doesn't believe he should pursue his career as a musician. But also he is like, he beats Apollonia as an expression of his angst and frustration with his life in the world and his bad upbringing. He's also in this showdown with Morris day in the time for supremacy in the Minnesota, the Minneapolis arts scene.

It's a really weird movie. And then he plays a lot of iconic songs i mean the performances the like live performances are unreal yeah i just want to say once you go back and start looking at some of like the socio-political choices made in a lot of these movies i you know it's it's a tough time but prince extremely important this movie made $68 million in 1984 at the box office. That rules. Pretty great. I'm not going to sing Purple Rain, but I'm definitely singing it in my head.

Chris, do you remember when we got into something of a disagreement when we were on vacation once about whether 1984 was the best year for popular culture and popular music? Wasn't it mostly about Springsteen? I think it was Springsteen, Prince, and then there was a third. Was it Madonna? Yeah. These three were active at this time? Yes.

I think I was very much in support of the idea that there was a great music here. You were pro-84. And I was saying the 15th century composers, I think, the work that they did. I think the work of Bob Dylan, perhaps, should be considered in the 60s. But you were quite certain. Yeah, music starts at 18 yeah music you're so fun to go on vacation with chris you're up um okay for comedy i'm gonna take Man, which is a very, very important movie for me. Repo Man spends his life getting into intense situations. It was pretty formative for me.

Explain what Repo Man is for people who haven't seen it. It's a movie by this guy, British director named Alex Cox, who had done Sid and Nancy. Did you do Sid and Nancy after Repo Man or before Repo Man? I can't even remember.

I think it's before okay so he comes to the states and does this movie that is essentially like an la punk rock odyssey starring emilio estevez as this like miscreant who catches on with harry dean stanton's group of repo men and there's a b plot about a cadillac driving around with like nuclear waste in the trunk that it's like an alien life form situation but all you really need to know is that it is like a neon punk rock like hilarious comedy and it's it's like i guess i picked two harry dean stanton movies this year but holy shit oh yeah okay so sid okay, so Sid and Nancy was after Repo Man. That's my bad.

But yeah, I was just probably at that age when I saw this movie, like 16, 17, getting into punk rock and getting into the idea of underground culture, and this movie was a huge gateway drug for that. I love it still. It's hilarious. Do you guys like this movie?

Yes, I love it. It's amazing that you went to harry dean stanton movies in a row that's impressive thank you um i'm gonna pick for my blockbuster i'm gonna do it i'm gonna do natural wow wow that was really good um wow i wish you could see sean's face right now everybody it's really he's really getting outmaneuvered number one pick and it's just not breaking his way I'm doing fine I feel fine about where I am right now but that was tough Barry Levinson's

film about a baseball prodigal son returning to the game after disappearing mysteriously I think that I wouldn't it's not like I jam the natural like a lot,

like I just throw it on, but there are some moments in this film that are about as beautiful as anything you'll see on a movie screen, um, including especially

the final home run sequence. And it's got one of my favorite scores by Randy Newman. Um, it's just an absolutely, like, it's so nostalgic,

but it's just this glorious, like, I don't know soul stirring score and Redford's good. He's a little old, but I guess that's sort of the point. And yeah, I love the natural. So I'll go with that. Let me ask you a question because I rewatched this movie last night. I like it. I don't I don't know if I'm in the cult of the natural, but I like it. What is this movie about?

What is the deal at the end where Roy Hobbs, they're trying to bribe him to not play baseball anymore? Why is that important that he not play? And there's like all this stuff with like Kim Basinger's characters. She poisons him.

And then he's been been but also he has like a stomach problem because he was shot by barbara hershey who represents i guess the way that like women tear athletes down like it is a very odd well as an athlete you know what i mean like it's definitely something you have to reckon with oh my god who cares man he hits the fucking baseball into the lights you're right the last two minutes of the movie are the most among the most breathtaking you'll ever see in a movie and that score is when he turns first base and all the sparks are coming off of the lights i'm just like it doesn't matter what the other like two and a half hours of this film is but literally like darren mcgavin plays a

gambler who's in league with robert prosky who plays a character named the judge who i guess is the owner of the team like i have no i was I was watching it. I was like, what is going on? A lot of different threads. Like there's supposed to be some black socks stuff in there. There's supposed to be, I, you know, like some Arnold Rothstein stuff, I guess, but it's, it's a fable, whatever. Okay. Beautiful. Amanda, you're up. Yeah. I was just thinking about, I have seen the natural. I think that that was one of the films that my father did show me he showed me the natural and diner like really in succession and i was like i'm seven years old i don't know what this is about and this is an rb i have diner in particular really

just stands out it just being like me trying to like connect with my dad who i love and was definitely trying to connect with me and he was like I just need to show you this movie and I was like I what is happening I'm was he a big was he a big Barry Levinson guy I guess so okay I don't know where's he at on Tin Men that's a pretty good movie I I don't know he's probably you know my dad he's pretty weird he has like amazing tastes for this year for his birthday he told me about a birthday tradition he has that i didn't know about which is he watches the first half of the deer hunter just the first half so like literally my dad turned 70 in january i was like what are you doing he's like i'm having pancakes for dinner and watching the first half of the deer hunter

like i do every year fucking goals right there oh my god goals oh my god that is straight wow yeah um it's this is a good segue actually to my pick which will be in honor of my father in the drama category i will take amadeus which he did have me watch as a very small child because i did i I played the piano. I took piano lessons. Um, and I rewatched it this weekend. This movie is wild. I can't believe my parents sat me down at like six and were like, here's what you should be. It's like, this is, you know, they stage like four operas. Like they just stage four operas. There's a zoo's worth of live animals, just like roaming around the street for no good reason. You know? and obviously we talked about this a lot

on the biopics episode, Sean, but it's like, it's about Mozart, but it's subverting everything that you understood about Mozart and like historical epics and biopics and is just really like a lot darker and, you know, more focused on the Requiem than I remembered. But a great film that won a huge amount of awards.

So I really am not reinventing anything here. But Amadeus, thanks, Dad. Okay, you've both taken two films that I really wanted to take. So that's not ideal. It's a touching tribute to your father, who is now my hero. The weirdest man on earth, who I love.

Because he eats pancakes for dinner, which is elite. Watches John Cazale. Okay. I have a rough idea of what I'm going to do here. I don't know if these are good choices, but you guys can mock me or not. For drama,

I'm going to select the film Blood Simple. This is the debut by my guys, Joel and Ethan Coen. This is also, I believe, the first film appearance of the aforementioned Frances McDowd. Franny McD, yeah.

Wow. In an absolutely amazing role as Abby. This also features my boy John Goetz. I've been talking about John Goetz on podcasts the last few years.

Feel good about him. What happened to John Goetz? Why was he not the star of more noir films like this? Why was he relegated to Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead? They don't really make a lot of noir films like this. They did back then, but yeah. Boy, we're going to have some really good ones sitting on the table when we're done, I can tell. Oh, for sure. This is, you know, I guess loosely inspired by Dashiell Hammond and Red Harvest. It's kind of like a Texas noir. It's a bit low down.

It doesn't really betray, I think, necessarily, specifically, who the Coens were going to become, give or take, a No Country for Old Men. In fact, this is not a particularly goofy or funny movie, despite the presence of M. Emmett Walsh as a really amusing detective. But if you haven't seen- Dan Hedaya, just- Being a monster, being a piece of shit. He's one of the best piece of shit actors we have.

That's a good category. If you haven't seen Blood Simple, you've got to watch Blood Simple. It's one of the most important and fun and compelling independent films ever made. Next pick, I got to represent for my Long Island brother. My Long Island brother is Ralph Macchio,

aka Daniel LaRusso, the karate kid. Sweep the leg, yeah. So we're going to sweep the leg, Johnny, with this pick for Blockbuster. Experiencing something of a renaissance because of Cobra Kai. Exactly. To be five years old

and to see the karate kid and then to be told Ralph Macchio grew up five minutes from your house, it's just a staggering experience for me. Sean, did you take take karate lessons I never did take karate but I will punch you in the throat Chris did you take karate lessons no no no I didn't that was like uh I never really got that you never really got it yeah like I never really got why like kids would take karate to protect themselves yeah i think it teaches movement and like an understanding of your you know of your body and how it works so does baseball my understanding okay well amanda do you like the karate kid

i do i can't say that it was one i watched a lot it's another one where like the knowledge of like the you know it's the crane kick right and the and mr miyagi and all of those things become pop cultural artifacts and then you go and watch the thing and you're 12 and you're like okay cool like now i know about the karate kid but that's just sequencing you know i was in um i was in northern california a couple of years ago and i stumbled into a a wine tasting room and this is our wherever this is going I did I did I killed a man

in a wine tasting room by accident no it was called Cayman Wines and Eileen and I sat down to have some I don't know what they were Cabernet probably something like that and look over on the wall and there were some circular signs

that had names on them. And they were character names and they were phrases from movies. And I think sweep the leg was one of the phrases that was on one of these signs. Come to find out, Robert Mark Kamen, the screenwriter, is the owner of this winery. And he went on to write a great many films in Hollywood, among them Karate Kid 2 and 3 and some of the Lethal Weapon movies and The Devil's Own and A Walk in the Clouds and Taps. And he tapped me out some wine that day. It was a great day.

I went to Alan Silvestri's winery in, I think it's in Carmel. And yeah, you just have to listen to the Avengers theme song the entire time while you're sitting in the tasting room. How is that any different from any old Friday, Chris? That's what you do, right? Jam out? Crack open a jammy pinot and start singing. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Amanda, you are up.

Chris, what do you have left? I have horror and action. Okay. I, I think I'm just going to kind of be quirky and in both of these picks, I believe I have comedy and action left. And you know what? I don't think Chris is going to take this,

but I don't really think he's going to take my action pick either. So in comedy, I'm going to take Muppets Take Manhattan. What? Was that Sean? Sean, are you a big Muppets guy? Are you laughing? No, I love this movie. I love the Muppets. And I didn't see this coming. And Amanda, have you seen this movie at least? Yeah, of course. And i didn't see this coming oh yeah and i amanda have you seen this movie at least yeah of course and i rewatched it this weekend are you serious are you serious i'm a person with taste and heart these are like the reason why amanda is

really scared of horror movies is because they're shit like freddy right like this is like where it starts it's like you can't i'm not surprised that she did not watch nightmare on elm street yeah no i'm just making oh i the muppet statement is very important to me i was i just wanted to make sure that amanda had a relationship to it so that i didn't feel the need to denigrate her on this podcast and if she's seen it and she loves it that's great what a beautiful funny movie that makes fun of all the things that we love including you know new york and the theater and art artists and sardis and 3d journalism and journalism when this chef is just explaining how 3d works and he's just like throwing popcorn it's like that's funnier than anything i i do also it was funny to re-watch it

this um this weekend and be like oh so this is just where i we all got our senses of humor from from the muppets and these movies and chris i don't think that it's a betrayal because they're puppets they're not animated that's right and i think that they have a real connection to human emotions and speech patterns and uh and observations so love muppets take manhattan so this is a timely choice for a variety of reasons over the weekend the Muppet show was added to Disney Plus the Muppet show even before the Muppets Take Manhattan

and the Great Muppet Caper and all of those films I would say 1000% shaped my sensibility as a person because it is a show that is obsessed with show business it is a backstage drama that is an odd deconstruction of all the things that I have spent so much of my life

thinking about and talking about. And it is also ostensibly kids entertainment, but really made for adults. And so much of the stuff I love is just like that. And then of course, because a disclaimer was included ahead of some episodes of the Muppets for culturally insensitive material that has perhaps not aged well. It became a lightning rod for political conversation amongst the conservative right.

This just happened? This just happened over the weekend. Donald Trump Jr. was just tweeting about the Muppets, about how the Muppets were quote unquote canceled. And I was like, get me off this ride. Fuck this. Like, we're not doing this this I was not on the ride and I don't want to be part of the ride it was bad yeah Muppets Take Manhattan is beautiful and also probably every single film that we have picked on this list could qualify for some sort

of re-evaluation in terms of its cultural or assumptions it It's like, you know, it was 1994. We're all trying to do better. Except for one more film on this list, which is Aged Beautifully of Chris Selexit. And if not, I won't say anything about it. What's your next pick, Amanda? Oh, no, it's Chris. It's me. Oh, I'm sorry.

You're number two. You're right. You're up, Chris. For action, I'm going to be honest. I'm going to pick the better movie, even if there's part of me that wants to be cool or whatever. But this is still, even though it's probably the worst movie of the original trilogy of these,

it's still an excellent film. In a lot of ways, it's Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. That was the movie I was thinking of right there. Fucking terrifying. Very problematic movie, first of all that was the movie i was thinking of right there fucking terrifying very problematic movie first of all like super problematic movie but you know when you break it down to its constituent parts is like kind of a terrifying horror movie for much of the film is a musical for for much of the film and is kind of a buddy comedy for the rest of it a lot of those things can be dissected and just be like, this is fucking colonialist horse shit.

But, you know, when Mola Ram first takes the guy's beating heart out of his chest, that really meant a lot to me back then, you know? What did it mean? I was just like, I didn't know you could do that. You know what I mean? For like years after that,

me and my buddies would always just be like, Mola Ram and like punch one another in the heart. And that was like, that was dope. You know what I mean? There were two games we used to play. There was

Mola Rom where you would like punch a guy in the heart. And then there was like later in, later it was a tribute to Eagles free safety, Andre waters, where we would just run 30 yards and drive your shoulder into the base of someone's spine while they weren't looking. And,

you know, I'm surprised I'm here today to podcast with you guys. Honestly, I'm surprised I lived through my own childhood. So I'm going to take Indiana Jones and Temple Doom. Any, any comments on that one? I'm glad that you took it so that I didn't.

Okay. To take it. Cause I rewatched it this weekend and it, I agree with exactly what you said. It is like in terms of action movies and how we understand things really good. And also just like grim in the sense of it's, it is more of a horror movie.

It's child slaves. Yeah. It's not really fun except for how handsome Harrison Ford is, which is just a golden period for, for that man. But good, good job, Chris.

Thanks. Sean. That's just a deeply offensive film. And I think you should be ejected from this pod. That's my full take. It's a beautiful meeting place for Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg to fall in love and build a family together.

Those crazy kids. It's good that something nice came for her out of that movie because the actual role is not that fun. Anyway. For horror, there's the one that I should take and there's the one I'm going to take. I'm going to take Children of the Corn. corn i really really like kids fucking scare me still because of this movie like

if you see like a bunch of kids on the side of the road keep going don't pull over and be like what's up are you guys having a church meeting like if you ever see a kid with a sickle just don't even ask about it just i can tell you that uh if you see a kid with a sickle where would that happen like nebraska you know what i mean like you just don't know um stephen king adaptation and um just super creepy still um and so i'll do that and that that that's my horror okay amanda i think you're up to your last pick here yes what category is it it's action and I if Temple of Doom was still on the board I was probably I was gonna feel conflicted because I like I said I just it's good but I was a little bummed out re-watching it so instead I will take

the Amanda pick which is Romancing the Stone. Yes! Romancing the Stone! Make more movies like this! It's probably also not culturally sensitive, but in terms of Michael Douglas and Kathleen Turner falling in love while also, you know, doing some antics. Great! Thank you! Make more.

That's it. It's been a while since I've seen this one. I just watched it last year on the Zemeckis run. It was okay. I like that they did it. It's been a while since I've seen this one. Uh, I just watched it last year on the Zemeckis run. It was okay. I'd like that. They did it. It's like, it's the kind of thing that just doesn't exist anymore.

And I, this was one that I didn't even see like probably until my twenties. And someone was like, Oh, you like romantic comedies. Actually you should check this out because it is a romantic comedy just with sort of weird action set pieces. But I,

I don't know. Just give me more romantic comedies along with everything else that you're doing in your movies. Well, I've been completely screwed by you guys. Yep. But I did it to myself. What was your wrong move? Well, I probably could have moved the Karate Kid into sequel franchise rather than being

sucked. But we're talking about our youth, right? We're talking about who we were as young men, young women, or in Chris's case, entering our late 30ies in 1984. Yeah. And when I was young, I was obsessed with a movie called the never ending story. We got seen the never ending story.

I rewatched it last night. You watched the never ending story. And then I turned it off because I was like, listen, you kind of have some childlike Empress vibes, Amanda. Okay. I agree with that. Okay. Well, you didn't have to saylike Empress vibes, Amanda. Okay. I agree with that.

Okay. Well, you didn't have to say it like that. But anyway. You know, it was really creepy. So I turned it off. CR, do you know who directed The NeverEnding Story? Wolfgang Peterson, right? That's absolutely correct.

Wolfgang Peterson. Yeah. He of Das Boot. Director in the line of fire. In the line of fire in Air Force One. And frankly when you see a treyu getting up in the sky flying beautifully or like the crag monster.

Listen, I fast forwarded to Falcor. That is really upsetting. Okay? When you watch it now. Anyway. The NeverEnding Story is just a big deal to me. I haven't seen it in probably 20 years. But maybe I'll watch it tonight. Because I was not gonna pick Star III, The Search for Spock. That's not bad. That movie, that's not bad.

Oh, it's so slow. It's about environmentalism, right? All Star Trek movies are about environmentalism. Aren't they? Or is that the one with the whales? Is the whales in Search for Spock? Are the whales in that one? Was that Voyage Home?

I think that's Voyage Home, yeah. Are you a person who knows a lot about Star Trek I've seen these movies I don't really know a lot about this show so I certainly I've been watching them the newer recently um yeah they're pretty good they're pretty I mean two is a wrath of Khan is unreal wrath of Khan is like legitimately great um I would recommend that to anybody. It's one of the best franchise movies ever in my opinion. But three and four, I remember being kind of weak. So I'm going Neverending Story. I feel fine about it.

Should I have gone somewhere else with Seagull franchise based on what's left on the board? You know, if they had ever made the sequel to The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai, which the film ends with, stay tuned for the forthcoming Buckaroo Banzai and blah, blah, blah. They never made that, so I couldn't choose that there.

There's one I would throw at you, Fennessey. I don't know if you're a fan of this, but do you like 2010? You know, I watched it last night for the first time in- I think it's pretty good. Years. I'm glad you brought this up. When was the last time you saw it, Chris? Like a long time ago, but I remember when the last time you saw it Chris? like a long time ago but I remember when I last time I watched it with my mom

and I was like this movie is just utter shit because it's being compared to one of the great cinematic achievements of a century but it's like a pretty good movie and Rory Scheider is pretty good in it Scheider is amazing in it

it's got a stacked cast John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban. Really, really well-made Peter Himes movie. You can't get out of your head the 2001-ness of it. And as a movie, it's completely different. It's a well-made thriller in space. And it has really no relationship to the psychological, philosophical, sort of evolutionary ideas of the Kubrick movie.

But it's pretty cool. Helen Mirren playing a cosmonaut on fire, like one of the hottest people I've ever seen. She's just super sexy in that movie. Yeah. Early Mirren is quite an experience. And now knowing that she loves the rewatchables is also a big deal to me, too. Do you want to unpack that a little bit more? That's one of your favorite stories to not tell on a podcast. is quite an experience. And now knowing that she loves the rewatchables is also a big deal to me too. Do you want to unpack that a little bit more?

That's one of your favorite stories to not tell on a podcast. Yeah, it's exactly what Amanda was referring to earlier, which is it's a two-hour movie that is paced like a movie in 1984, which is to say it is so slow. And it's not 2001, so it is not meant to be this immersive psychological experience.

It's just a slow thriller, which is a paradox and a weird thing. So I don't think I could have gone with 2010. What else did we leave on the board? We left a ton of stuff on the board. So there's one film that means a tremendous amount to me that was actually blocked out

because of the categories. And I couldn't figure out a way to get it in without having to really do some a tremendous amount to me that was actually blocked out because of the categories and i couldn't figure out a way to get it in without like having to really do some jane fonda-esque aerobics and that is stop making sense i was gonna say yeah which is one of the great concert films ever made uh the performance of this must be the place is probably my favorite filmed like like filmed concert performance of a song. Jonathan Demme made two movies this year, This and Swing Shift. It's a great year for Demme.

And I just couldn't figure out where to get it in without being like, stop making sense as a drama. It's funny, I guess you could say, because of the outfits, it's a comedy. It just didn't really fit the parameters, which happens. There's nothing we can do about it. But that is definitely the number one with a bullet that we left off amanda what jumps out to you

anything that we didn't name that you feel like we've overlooked here there's quite a few successful movies that we didn't talk about stop making sense is i think the one for all of us kind of the most obvious one that wasn't even mentioned is not the most obvious but 16 candles is a 1984 movie that um has never been my favorite of the john h. I wanted to be Ferris Bueller, not Molly Ringwald, but it starts, it's the first John Hughes feature film. So it's a big deal. Yeah, I agree with that. Amanda, do you, are you a Passage India person?

Do you like that movie? You know, that's one that I never saw because, and it's funny, Zach reread the novel recently. I can't remember why. And like we were on a Forrester kick, I guess. And it's maybe not one of the most, it's one of the more outdated, if you will, Forrester novels. And I guess I just never read it.

Yeah, Forrester and the Temple of Doom. Yeah, exactly. And so I didn't revisit it as a result. It is, it's David Lean's final film. And I think it's the film that, you know, there's a very famous Pauline Kael takedown of this movie. Do you know about this, Chris? I don't think I do. film, which was quite negative, badly wounded David Lean, that he would talk publicly about how he felt just destroyed by Cale's take on the movie, which is sort of fascinating given that David Lean made Great Expectations and Brief Encounter and Lawrence of Arabia and some of the greatest films ever made. The idea that at the age of like 75, he could be mortally wounded by a review while his film was simultaneously a box

office success and nominated for like 10 Oscars. She says a lot about the sensitivity of artists. We've left a bunch of other movies on the table here. I'm footloose. I'm not a huge footloose fan, but that was a phenomenon at that time. It was a blockbuster backup for me. Respect to Kevin Bacon, always. Coppola's The Cotton Club we didn't talk about. The Killing Fields, which was a backup for me. It was a blockbuster backup for me. Respect to Kevin Bacon, always. Coppola's The Cotton Club we didn't talk about. The Killing Fields, which was one of the most celebrated films of that year. Cassavetes' Love Streams, which is a really great movie if people haven't checked it out.

Top Secret, you guys like Top Secret, the comedy? It's a little daffy for me. Revenge of the Nerds, CR, do you relate to that at all? Sure, yeah. I thought Ogre was in a lot of ways an icon for my generation. Okay. What about Bachelor Party, Chris? Well, so I was going to say that there are a lot of movies that are horny in a way that we probably don't really get anymore for better, I would imagine, but for better or for worse.

But every once in a while, you'll get kind of a sex comedy, but that was just like, here's an idea. Tom Hanks needs to get laid. Let's make a two and a half hour movie about that. I would also, just tossing out, there was a couple of fun, very influential, but not great movies,

like Last Starfighter and Red Dawn. That meant a lot to kids of that era. Last Starfighter and Red Dawn that meant a lot to kids of that era. Like, Last Starfighter really captured the what if I was so good at this video game that it, like, I was like the savior of civilization,

which I often had when I was playing, like, you know, Street Fighter or whatever. What else is here that I think is great? Oh, well, we didn't talk about some of the really nice

dramas, like, Places in the Heart is fucking great. Oh, well, we didn't talk about some of the really nice dramas, like, um, places in the heart. It's fucking awesome. Um, like director's cut of once upon a time in America is quite good. Uh, if you haven't seen it,

good James Woods performance. Um, this is just real dad telling us about what movies were like in the old days right now. Also brother from another planet, which is a great John sales movie. You know, we didn't talk about a soldier story when we talked about Denzel a few weeks ago,

but that's another really, an excellent film. I think it was Norman Jewison who directed that movie. Walter Hill's Streets of Fire. That's kind of a fascinating mess. You seen that lately, Chris? I have not seen Streets of Fire in a long time, but I will say that Diane Lane in that movie is powerful. Amanda, speaking of movies we talked about last year,

Irreconcilable Differences. Oh, I thought you were going to say Body Double. I can't believe you've gone this long without saying Body Double. Oh, yeah, Body Double. Yeah, speaking of horny movies. But yeah, I had a plan that if I got totally screwed in the horror category, I was going to ask whether I could do Irreconcilable Differences in horror. And I knew you would disqualify it. But fascinating movie it's very hard to watch now but i recommend it we didn't do friday 13th final chapter

is that one good i can't remember that one the opening in the hospital is pretty scary and then it gets pretty stupid okay um under the volcano great john houston movie starring albert finney uh the break-in films chris you were a break dancer back in 84 did that accurately reflect what it was like you you joke dudes did put cardboard down and just straight up bust out you know like who were dudes guys in my neighborhood and it was like that was back when we really respected the original four elements of hip-hop you know you talking as though you were raised in the South Bronx is, is frankly offensive.

It's almost as offensive as your Indiana Jones graffiti, you know, beats and rhymes. Chris, like what was your style in 84? I have, you remember, I looked like,

like a, the way that like the Stranger Things kids looked. I mean, like everybody just kind of... I have to find a picture of myself. You looked like 11? No, I was seven. I mean, like I just wore like a fucking t-shirt. A character 11, I meant.

Oh, yeah. I had a shaved head and I was like, I can move things with my mind. No, I just was like... Which Curtis Blow song should I play underneath this segment of the podcast? Basketball. Basketball rap. Yeah. Basketball. like which Curtis blows song should I play underneath this segment of the podcast basketball yeah yeah basketball okay um all right let's recap our picks since

we've named a bunch of movies here for the drama category Chris selected Paris Texas I selected Blood Simple Amanda selected Amadeus for the comedy category Chris selected Repo

Man I selected This Is Spinal Tap and Amanda selected The Mupp. For the comedy category, Chris selected Repo Man. I selected This is Spinal Tap. And Amanda selected The Muppets Take Manhattan. For horror, CR took Children of the Corn. I took Gremlins. Amanda took A Nightmare on Elm Street, which she has not seen. In fall. For action, Chris took Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. And he imitated Mola Ram many times as a child.

I selected The Term child. I selected The Terminator. Amanda selected Romancing the Stone. For the sequel or franchise category, Chris took Beverly Hills Cop.

I took The Neverending Story and Amanda selected Ghostbusters. And for Blockbuster, Chris took The Natural, I took The Karate Kid, and Amanda took Purple Rain.

Who won, guys? It depends. I think I might have. Wow. Feeling confident. Tell us more. I think I have the right mix of like popcorn fair and critical favorites. And I think the letterbox heads might, they might just like see me and I'm like,

hey guys, Paris, Texas is over here. Repo Man's over here. But then the real, you know, the Mola Rom heads will be like, there's a lot for me to love here too, you know? Chris, did you miss your calling as creepy guy at the video store? I worked at a video store for a summer. It was pretty

great. I would probably still be there if they still had them. Was there a Chris's Picks section? It was always like porkies and then who do you think won well i have ghostbusters and nightmare on elm street so that's what you've seen 1.15 i think you don't necessarily i think you think nightmare on elm street is something that it isn't that's my take okay what do you think all right okay calm down can you describe the plot of nightmare no i you think Nightmare on Elm Street is something that it isn't. That's my take. What do you think Nightmare on Elm Street is about? Alright. Okay. Calm down. Can you describe the plot of Nightmare on Elm Street?

No, I can't. But I just know that it's an important horror film. No, I don't know. There's the scary guy. I don't really like it. But it's scary for you to describe the plot or do you just... But I think you think it's The Shining. I don't think it's The Shining because I the plot or you just but i think you think it's the shining

and like i don't think it's the shining because i've seen the shining i understand but like as important table well you have gremlins okay yeah so i have two movies that people have heard of and like have seen a lot plus i have muppets take manhattan plus i have amadeus which i guess no one really cares about plus i have Purple Rain I'm feeling good and then you know I had Whimsical Romancing the Stone because it gotta be me

you know and people respond to personality too everybody has a good list everybody has a good list you have the Karate Kid that's important you got Terminator

and the Karate Kid Sean you might win you have Terminator Karate Kid Blood Simple do you think the kids raised in the 80s will see my never-ending story pic and think,

yes, I relate to that man. I want to reward him with my vote on Twitter. Well, I don't know whether they'll reward you with a vote on Twitter because do kids born in the 80s really use Twitter? I don't know. Bobby, can we start putting an election in Reddit?

Oh, God. Put the election wherever you want it's not it's not my choice i'm not the one running these polls wait where where on reddit would you want it to go i don't know you know just maybe on the front page or whatever on the front page okay there might be some good subreddits out there interesting amanda do you would you like it if there was a subreddit dedicated to you no you would not no that's i don't know if that's kind of where my interests and the people's interests align i don't know what social media platform where my interests and the people's interests do align but you know that's just house no i don't really think so no not parlor i'm not gonna let you make

a little side joke at my expense um chris is laughing um listen like i said i do this for the people who enjoy the time that we all spend together in this podcast and then they go on with their lives and they have goals they got hobbies they got interests they read things they're they're trying some cooking they're trying to better themselves they're in the community my guys who i do it for because that's true they read different things do you know chris you know you said my guys read things amanda obviously has a very diverse audience of fans um do you think that there is a single living woman that is a fan of yours what do you mean like that's so mean like what like what deceased women are super big like cr fans and then it killed them well i mean they can't speak for themselves but you know

chris i am thank you i'm the one woman, even though you just were absolutely not interested in an honorary big brother position. That was weird. We're going to talk about that later. No, I just think it's like you're my friend. Yeah, I know. But you know, it's fine. You just really didn't want to be affiliated.

I am also an only child. Like I've gotten this far, you know? That's true. It is weird suddenly living your whole life as an only child and then someone tries to spring a sibling on you. I have siblings and uh i have many sons so let's just keep that in mind you are all my children and i welcome you warmly uh guys great job everybody drafted so well here really appreciate this conversation really appreciate your openness about nomadland and about ghost busting and um's emotional reaction to The Natural.

Please stay tuned to The Big Picture. Later this week, Amanda and I are going to do two things. They are related to each other. One, we are going to predict the results of the very stupid and corrupt award show known as The Golden Globes. As we discuss it, we will talk about why it is stupid and corrupt.

We will also talk about, after much hesitation and waiting, the film Promising Young Woman, which I think we both have quite complicated feelings about. Please stay tuned for that. And thank you for listening to The Movie Draft. you