The Big Picture - The 1995 Movie Draft

Episode Date: December 29, 2020

Happy (almost) New Year, 'Big Picture' listeners. Sean and Amanda are ringing it in by going back in time to 1995, and they are joined, as always, by Chris Ryan to draft the very best movies of that year and talk about their personal experiences from that time. Will the CR Army continue to dominate or is it due for a downfall? Tune in to find out. 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 1995. Brace yourselves, see our heads, because joining us as always is our reigning draft champion, Chris Ryan. He's here for the 1995 movie draft. It's all coming up right now on The Big Picture. Hi, Amanda, and welcome back. Chris Ryan.

Chris, how are you doing today? I'm doing fantastic. Winning suits me. We are at the end of the year, Chris. And the only way to send this year out, this hell year, is to hopefully defeat you in a movie draft. I'm glad you're back here. Before we get into it, though, I want to talk about something that feels really important with both of you guys, which is that, Amanda, there is a revolution. There is a movement rising around Chris Ryan. And Chris orchestrated it. He paid for millions of bots around the world. And he has gathered these bots on Reddit, on Twitter. And the bots are getting a little aggressive.

Are they? And I think the tide is turning on what seemed like a heartwarming bit into something that seems cult-like to me. What's going on? Amanda, I know you're largely off social media, but what level of awareness do you have of what's going on around Chris Ryan right now and his followers? I know what you guys text me on Saturday night. I'll be having a nice dinner with my husband

and then I check my phone and it's like 45 links to various social media posts that you guys have shared. And then I read them aloud and I chuckle and then I carry on with my life. I wish I could have that relationship to it. Unfortunately, Chris, are you more of a Rasputin figure or are you more of an LBJ? How do you see yourself in the rise to power? Like a master of the Senate? Yeah. Yeah. Um,

look, I just want to say one thing in all sincerity, doing the big picture is one of the joys of my life. And it's really actually been one of the highlights of a really long testing year is to talk about movies with you guys. And I think once you finish the podcast, you know, it's just like when like Dylan finishes Highway 61 Revisited. It's just out there, man. It's just out there. And then what people do

with that, that's the magic, you know, and what people do with this pod and what people do with my draft picks and what my sort of ideology is on this podcast. I can't control that, you know, any more than Dylan could control what happened, you know, after he went electric. Chris, I'm glad to see that you are handling this attention so gracefully, you know, and with such dignity and that you have perspective on what you've been building here with your revolution. Here's the thing is like, if I'm following the Dylan track, I have no choice but in 21 to fake my own death and then come back even stronger in 22. Chris, you're the only person that's saying you're following the Dylan track. You literally

just made that up. I admire your chutzpah, but no one is saying you're Bob Dylan. Maybe you are the Bob Dylan of podcasting. Do you think you are? No, I don't. I think I'm like the Jackson Brown of podcasting or something. That's right. You are the pretender, my friend. Okay. Let's talk about 1995. We wanted to mix things up at the end of the year. We've been doing movie drafts for the better part of six months now, and we've gone through 2010, 2011, 12, 13, 14. And rather than go right to 15, we thought we would go back into the past. 1995 is a great year for movies. I would say we were planning to do many of those movies on the rewatchables, and we ultimately decided not to do too many of them in part because of COVID-19. So we're going to get a chance to reflect on some of them. There's a couple here that are all-time Chris Ryan classics. There's a couple here that I think are all-time

Amanda Dobbins classics as well. Let's start with some personal reflections. Amanda, who were you in 1995? What were you doing? Well, I was 10 years old, turning 11. So I know, Chris, the age gap between us is going to be really stark here. I think that's okay. So I counted and I think I was in fifth grade and then started like sixth grade at the end of the year. Is that right? Is that how grades work? I don't know. Someone can think so. An elementary school person can correct me. I think this was like my ultimate movie year.

This is certainly the most formative movie year in my life. And I don't know whether it's kind of the mix of movies that were released. And I do think someone should have recorded me yesterday just reading the Wikipedia page of 1995 in in film and being like, oh my God. And that was this year too. And that was this year. It was like a, it was a surprise and a delight, but I guess there are a lot of movies that mean a lot to me, Sean, as you mentioned, which I'm going to try not to give away though. And then I think it was just also in my life when I started seeing movies. Like I don't have the same connection with 1994 movies. Like I, you know, and I wasn't really like old enough for Pulp Fiction at the age of nine or 10.

So this is maybe the year when my age and kind of like 90s studio greatness met. And certainly it just shapes like everything that we do on this podcast and also has shaped, you know, not to get too emotional, but I have a real connection to a lot of these. And if you guys take them away from me, I'm going to be fucking pissed at you. That's really exciting. Amanda, before I ask Chris his personal reflections, what kind of a 10-year-old were you?

Were you a good hang at 10 years old? No, I was trying to think. Were you not? I don't know. 10's been really hard. I was thinking, I don't think I had contacts yet. So I had like really, really big glasses. Like, I don't know, for whatever reason, like we didn't have the technology to have like normal sized glasses. And so, and they were kind of like this blue clear color. And I had pretty strict parents. So I really did all of my homework.

And then I did like all of my extracurriculars. I don't think I was like a bad hang, but I hadn't really unlocked my inner Amanda, if you will. And maybe some of these movies helped with that process. So maybe 1995 is a year that everybody else would like to blame for you know what it has brought in regards to me that's a heartwarming story chris in 1995 you were 42 years old um so what kind what kind of a 42 year old were you it's like season five of the wire you I was just ink-stained hands.

No, this was best of times, worst of times year for me. It's one of the most memorable years of my life. I graduated high school in 1995. And I really, really, really liked my senior year of high school quite a bit. But I didn't do any work really. You know, like I basically just worked hard in English class and kind of tried to skate by and everything else. So I didn't get into like any colleges that I wanted to.

So I wound up going to Temple, which is a school in Philly, which is quite a great university, but is like, you know, a local school by where I grew up in Philly and lived at quite a great university, but is a local school by where I grew up in Philly and lived at home for the first year of college. So basically, I went from graduating... That spring before you graduate is just, I think, one of the more memorable times for

people's lives because that's the dazed and confused moment. And then all my friends left at the end of the summer. And I was like basically alone in Philly at this college. But I think that those big swings, you know, going from this sort of like very like sensory overload time at the end of high school to a lot of like contemplation during my first year of college and trying to decide who I wanted to be opened me up to a lot of things. And the thing I remember most about 95 really is the feeling of discovery. This was a time when I think, unlike now, and if I want to see a list of all the movies that came out in 1995 and when they came out and what the box office was and what was on

their soundtracks and what those directors went on to do, I can do that in 30 seconds on the internet. But back then, I would find out about things in these really piecemeal, nonlinear ways through reading little interviews in Entertainment Weekly or the Philadelphia Inquirer had a news and notes column on Sundays that would be like, this movie's in production or this movie's going to have a sequel or word has it that Quentin Tarantino is thinking about making an Elmore Leonard book next

time or something like that. And that's how I found a lot of my favorite art and going to video stores and talking to video store clerks. And so this time period and this year specifically, kind of, it really captures a lot of that. There's these great blockbusters, but there's also these really, really awesome genre movies that were coming out of the independent cinema movement. And it was just a fantastic time to be in your late teens. So Amanda, you were doing all your homework and all your extracurriculars, and you had giant oversized Coke bottle glasses, and you were a bad hang. And Chris, you were a stay at home freshman

college loser hanging out with video clerks is that right? That's right I love you both so much that's very sweet of you Wait can Chris are you not gonna do your yearbook? You're not gonna share the highlights? I don't think we're showing this on video but let me just show but you can at least like describe it

and share the quote from this year I went to a school called Friend Select in Philadelphia. This like this both warms and hurts my heart. It's very sweet. And I basically was trying, I was just like, I was really trying to kick as much Ferris Bueller energy as I could. So there was a, here's my picture. Right.

You're, so you're posing under a sign for a real estate listing by a chris ryan who's not you yeah right and then there's another picture of me in disney world with sunglasses on just being like pimp you know doing but you're doing the chris ryan pose which is the are you not entertained russell crowe spinning in the coliseum pose hands astride to the air yeah which is a move that you do to this day if you chip out from 15 yards what does Chris Ryan do? He drops the club, raises both hands in the air. I did it. I'm the fucking man.

So it's good to know. We never really change, right? And I would just say I just page passed a couple of people who were in my class then and I had a couple of friends who were movie obsessives with me and we were trying to build out our knowledge of movies together, whether it was going to the Ritz

and seeing the artier movies or renting stuff from TLA, which was this amazing video store in Philadelphia and going through film history. So it was a really exciting time. And this is going to be an exciting draft. Sean, who was Sean? Who was Sean in 1995, man?

Well, I see a little bit of myself in both of your stories because I'm between you guys in age. And so I was not completely controlled by my parents and what my parents wanted for me the way you are when you're 10 years old. But I was also not free to roam the way that you were, Chris. My parents split up around 11 or 12 years old, and I remember that one of my reactions to that was to just borrow into my interests as deeply as I could, which has obviously resulted in me doing a lot of this work for a living. And so, Ametha, you mentioned Pulp Fiction.

Pulp Fiction, as I've mentioned on the show, like a real catalyzing agent of my life. That was a movie that basically changed what i thought about every day and um i think that this was basically the sequel to that that experience where 1995 chris you mentioned elmore leonard get shorty comes out this year that actually triggered me reading all the elmore leonard novels and then he became a big interest of mine which i think is one of the reasons you and i've been so close chris um and i i have the same relationship i think that there this is where i discovered that there were two versions of Hollywood and Hollywood

storytelling. There was the one that was the stuff that I liked, which was Seven, The Usual Suspects, Get Shorty, these very specific kind of pretty masculine mainstream, but cool seeming bridging the divide between art house, indie and mainstream movie going and then there was like the oscar industrial complex and i remember specifically the oscars this year coming out and and being baffled being like what is ill postino yeah what is sense and sensibility what is living las vegas but not not not even as a judgment i was was a 12-year-old boy, a 13-year-old boy. Just imagining a man at 10 with Coke bottle glasses being like, grow up.

I'm sure she was doing that to many a young boy. But the general confusion that I think came from that. As a person, I don't know. I was a loser when I was 13 years old. I was still five foot two. I grew like 10 inches in one year. I hated guys like you. Because I was like, up until like sophomore year, like I was essentially a small forward. You know, like we were all in the same gang. And then like dickheads like you grew 10 inches. It was pretty sweet.

I got to say. When I had the growth spurt over the summer, that was really cool. It was much easier to talk to girls. Just much easier to be alive. Honestly, I didn't have any problem with girls. I just wish I could have. We've heard the stories. What stories? I don't know. It's just like, I mean, it's like an urban legend. It's like, you just love to talk about your baseball career. I don't school girlfriend. Yeah. career and high school girlfriends. I don't. Yeah. And I love the stories. I can't wait for the one man show.

Sean, your Elmore Leonard point just triggered a memory in me. The funny thing is how you would find out about that stuff. I remember there's this director who's kind of a little bit been lost to time named Nick Gomez, who made a movie called Laws of Gravity in the early 90s. It was really cool, gritty New York crime movie. And I remember being really excited by that. I saw that. And I read an interview with him when he put out this movie in 95

called New Jersey Drive. Or maybe it was before that. It was actually, it must've been before that. Cause, and he was talking about like what he was going to do after Laws of Gravity. I think he had done an episode of Homicide Life on the street.

And there was like, Nick Gomez is going to be the next Martin Scorsese. And somebody in this interview, he asked him, would you direct Clockers? And he was like, Clockers? Well, Clockers, that's Richard Price. And I was like, who's Richard Price? And that's how I went and bought the giant hardcover copy of Clockers with the neon pink lettering on the cover.

And that's how I found Richard Price. And that's how I like got introduced to this whole world of crime fiction. So it was so cool how you would just like step into a side door down a hallway back then and then just be introduced to like a whole new kind of stuff. I'm sure that happened to you, Mandy, even at that age. Yeah, I was going to say, it's interesting. At some point, I did become an entertainment weekly head like the rest of us. I think like anyone who is a pop culture journalist of our generation, I grew up reading that every week. But I don't know if it was 95.

And I was a bit beholden to the things that either my parents told me about or just kind of the really mainstream things, the things that you could find at like the mall movie theater in Atlanta because I wasn't like searching out the indie, the art house theaters or anything. But even in that mainstream year in 1995 is like, I literally think the year that I learned about Jane Austin, because no one would have given me pride and prejudice at the age of 10 or 11. But I saw both Clueless and Sense and Sensibility this year and was like, wait, so tell me more. What's going on here? And I remember, you know, I have still the trade paperback edition of Sense and Sensibility that I read and like did not understand after seeing this movie in 1995.

And that's, you know, I mean, Jane Austen is like one of the most influential English language novelists in the Western, you know, anyway, and of all time. And discovering it is not like discovering something unknown. But to me, it was pretty unknown. There was a little bit of just the text, man. You either had the movie or the book, and you had a little bit of stuff around it, but there wasn't this time-consuming box that you could just spend all your time on where you could become kind of an expert on something, but not really, which is sort of what we do now. Yeah. Well, when I was 13, I didn't have any money, no money to spend. So the only way I could get Elmore Leonard books was by going to the library. I spent a lot of time in the library

between the ages of like eight and twelve discovering stuff. And like the library had Rum Punch but didn't have Pronto. You know what I mean? Like I couldn't

There was a used bookstore down the street on Fairman Avenue from me and it would just be like I would go down there with five bucks but some of those books

were like 50 cents. And I would just like kind with five bucks, but some of those books were like 50 cents. And I would just kind of sit there for hours trying to decide what to spend $5 on and come back with like three crime novels that I would just like ingest. Yeah, these kids with their Spotify and their Netflix, they don't understand. There was a lot of work that went into finding this stuff.

This movie draft is born of blood and tears hours spent in used bookstores and reading entertainment weekly we earned it guys uh okay so very quickly like this is generally considered one of the great movie years i think by people of our generation because it i think it blends both of the like really all of our interests and thus i think a kind of what mainstream movies have been for the past 25 years and specifically 1990s movies, which was this fusion of high toned, big, fancy studio stuff, plus this incursion of indie movies, plus a rise of interest in foreign language and art house films. And so you had this really kind of special, I don't know, this friction,

this beautiful experience where I'll be curious if we're going to even come close to naming with all of our picks what feels representative of the year. I feel like the honorable mentions portion of this conversation may be actually longer than the drafting. But any other observations or things you want to say about 95 before we get started with our picks in terms of putting the draft together a really interesting and complicated year i mean i have a list of like 40 movies eligible for certain categories and then sequels you know there aren't that many there are some it's not like we just invented sequels 10 years ago like like Hollywood's been doing it forever, but it's not like, say, 2013 in terms of the variety of things to choose

from. And you know, also in the animated foreign category, I was 10 years old, so I wasn't like, I didn't see Eel Postino, so that's going to be an interesting one. I would argue that they're not like a lot of the foreign films from that this year are not like Dynamite either.

There's only a few that I think are any good. So we're not going to change any of the categories. We're going to tweak one rule, which because of the nature of the box office 25 years ago and the rates of inflation that we've been experiencing over those years, we're going to lower the threshold from 100 million domestic box office gross to 75 million domestic box office gross to give us closer to 15 or 18 choices in that category and make it a little bit more fun. But we're not going to change the categories. And for those of you who have never heard a movie draft, here are the categories. Drama, comedy or horror, blockbuster, aforementioned, animated or foreign language, sequel, and wildcard.

Are you guys ready to draft? Yes. Okay, let's bring in Bobby Wagner to help us determine our draft order bob you ready yeah i'm ready although before i spin this wheel here this random spinner wheel that i have all of your names on since i don't have my scrabble tiles i am away from my home i did want to say that actually larry boa was on the line and sean he was saying that he wanted uh his rant about how the 90s were harder and better back well uh the the 90s were no better for the New York Mets, unfortunately.

So this is all moot. Okay, here we go. The wheel is spinning. First up is Amanda Dobbins. Oh my God. Wow. Wow. Congratulations to Amanda.

We are spinning again to determine who will go second in this draft order. And it has landed on Chris Ryan. Sean, you're back at the hot corner third. Wow. Just like Larry Boa. I think that if we did, I don't know, I wouldn't necessarily call it advanced analytics, but if we looked at this, I wonder how many times the

third drafter wins. Because they get that double draft right there. This guy gets daryl moray in hughes in philly for one month and he's talking about advanced analytics in the movie draft chris one win and it's all gone to your head bro just last night chris how many how many interns do you have building the cr r and d lab right now. Like 12? 26? How many people? How many desperate young would-be podcasters have been cracking the numbers

for you? I love scouting talent. Well, Amanda, this is your time. Yeah. I'm pleased because there was one thing that I knew I needed to do early and I was very nervous and frankly I might be taking this from Chris and Chris, I love you.

And I'm sorry, but in the blockbuster category, I will be taking Apollo 13. That's totally fine. Amanda goes to space camp, finally. I don't know why I love, I actually do know why I love this movie so much. To me, this is like peak 90s studio Hollywood movie. Best Ron Howard movie. My favorite Tom Hanks performance. It is like suspense, but without scary stuff jumping out at you. It's a movie about fear,

but not fear of the unknown fear of things that can go wrong in your everyday life, which speaks to me. It is, and then it's about problem solving and it's like if it's okay if we work together we're just going to methodically go through all of this stuff and competence will win the day spoiler alert i guess if you don't know the ending to apollo 13 i think it does a great job of doing both the procedural and the emotional which is to say that every single time i watch the scene of them in the control room waiting for apollo 13 to re-enter like i've seen that scene no joke at least 100 times i've seen this movie at least 100 times because i had it on vhs and i read the book and i invested and i cry

every single time when they finally you know make it in and then ed Ed Harris adjusts his vest and like wipes the single tear from his eye. And you're just like, holy shit, look at what we can do together. I think also James Warner's score in this movie is extraordinary. They play it at the arc light sometimes before like movies start in the dome. And I just get really emotional again. I think this is like a great big ticket Hollywood movie and also an example of like a young person just connecting to something. And it just got under my skin for whatever reason. And I love it. You have become from out of your chrysalis, you become a butterfly with your first pick.

This was I didn't even write this movie down on my long list because I think I would have not been able to host a podcast with you in the future if I didn't let you have this movie. So I'm glad you got number one and you got to get it fair and square. Thank you. Chris. Yeah. Honestly, there's a movie on the board right now that I think is really your Apollo 13. It is. And I'm very curious to see if you'll take it or not right now.

It's not only my Apollo 13. It is literally my moon landing. It's heat. And I'm. It is literally my moon landing. It's heat. And I'm going to put this in drama. Fun fact, I actually saw this film. I did some little like night of the gun personal journalism and kind of like track back. I saw this movie in 96.

So I think that this came out in mid-December, late December in 1995. but I saw it during the blizzard of 96 twice. I had this experience where I saw it once and then the blizzard hit and I walked back. I saw it twice in one weekend and I walked this insane stretch of Philadelphia to get down to Riverview to see it again. One of my favorite movies of all time. I don't think that anyone with a Ringer podcast subscription needs to hear me go on and on about heat again, but movie like I think really opened up my eyes along with Pulp Fiction to

like the possibilities of like genre filmmaking and like what you could do on like a, with like a, just a crime story, like how, how deep you could go, how, how wide you could go.

And it's still one of the most thrilling crime films you can, you could go, how wide you could go. And it's still one of the most thrilling crime films you can put on at any time. So Heat. I appreciate you guys sharing all your personal reflections at the top of this podcast. I don't understand why both of you just delivered these incredibly sober,

critical analyses of the two movies that are the most important to you in the world. No screaming, no yelling, no emotional exaltation. You were just like, the thing about heat is it's a truly extraordinary- I was like, send me to space camp. Please send me to space camp.

I found out that there's a NASA lab like 10 miles from my home. I'm leaving after this podcast and I'm fucking going to space camp with Kevin Pinkett. Do you want me to talk about like what it was like to be 17 and have Al Pacino be like, she's got a great ass.

Your head is way up in it. Alone in a movie theater in Philadelphia during the blizzard of 96. That's what it was. Yeah,

that there. We both yelled space. Thank you guys for stepping up. She's got a great ass. Yeah, you have arrived at the podcast. I appreciate it so i have two picks yeah and boy there are a lot of good movies this year strategy for this one is tough right because that first pick amanda is that's a reflection of yourself and also a good pick chris heat is a reflection of yourself

and also a good pick my first pick i think has to be a reflection of myself and since I am a widely known serial killer, my first pick is going to be Seven, which is a film directed by David Fincher. We spoke about it on the Rewatchables earlier this year. This is Fincher's breakthrough after the struggles of Alien 3. It's just a genuinely amazing movie. I am choosing this movie

in the blockbuster category and not in the drama category. Yeah. But in making that clear so there's some strategy here i feel very similarly talking about seven as chris does talking about he talked about fincher a ton this year because of mank we've talked about seven at great length over the years on this podcast no brainer for me my next pick is toy story um another movie that i've talked about on the rewatchables another movie that i am very comfortable saying i think is an absolute game-changing movie in the history of movies

i'm choosing it in animated foreign language for a variety of reasons it's an emotional pick but also strategy because this is tough sledding in animated foreign language this year and hopefully i'm leaving you guys holding the bag a little bit by selecting one of my favorite movies toy story that's it that was a can we give you the same feedback you gave us that was real robot talking about like the animated movie that you've made me listen to you talk about for literally 25 years i i wish i could be the living embodiment of the chris evans tweet about the buzz lightyear movie you know like this is the podcast about the draft pick of buzz lightyear this is not the real buzz lightyear but the buzz about the draft pick of Buzz Lightyear. This is not the real

Buzz Lightyear, but the Buzz Lightyear draft pick. This is about what Sean Fennessey's origin story as a boy falling in love with this draft pick. It's hard to try to win this game while also being emotional. That's the challenge. And that's why Chris Ryan has faltered so many

times over the years, you know, because Chris has gone with his heart. So I last draft, what was the last draft, 15? 14. 14. 14, I was almost too good. There was like, well, no, because like I played it too straight, you know?

Like I think I haven't had, I missed the sensation of you guys screaming at me. So I want to see if you're going to do it on this pick. Okay. So I have heat and drama and it's my pick, right? It is your pick. And for a sequel, I'm going Die Hard with a Vengeance. God damn it.

God damn it. Obviously you are, Chris. I was going to be mad if you didn't do this. Because I didn't know if you guys thought I'd be reaching. I was hoping I could, I could, I could, I was hoping you would make a mistake. No, because see, I could, I was hoping you would make a mistake. No, because see, here's the thing.

I think that we tend to overemphasize drama and blockbuster and drafts. And then I think that these smaller categories, it's like if you go too early on them, you kind of fuck up.

But I, so I didn't want to go, obviously I wanted to get heat, but Die Hard with a Vengeance is, is just a fucking great movie. What a great summer movie. Uh, a completely completely hungover,

just sweltering New York summer day. Sam Jackson and Bruce Willis running around with John McTiernan back in control, doing verite, quasi-Sydney Lumet, New York shit. And Jeremy Irons comes through, not quite as good as Rickmanman but like in the same ballpark i had a really really big crush on sam phillips the blonde terrorist in this movie um that's really weird chris i know i know and then it kind of it kind of falls apart as they get into the like the driving under the uh sawmill river parkway part. Once they get past Yankee Stadium, it kind of stops making sense, and then they wind up in a boat somewhere. God, the first hour and a half of this movie

are absolutely perfect. I am obsessed with this movie, and I always have been. This is a movie that I watched on HBO probably 300 times. We talked about it a lot over the years. Quentin Tarantino talked to us a lot about it because Sam Jackson starred in this movie alongside Bruce Willis. And that part, I think, was supposed to go to Lawrence Fishburne. And for a variety of reasons, it did not when he told that great Fishburne story, I think, on the King, which is one of the great script tidbits in Hollywood history. And so half of the movie is basically a puzzle movie. Fucking love puzzle movies where they have to solve the water and the jugs and move in three gallons and five gallons, that whole bit.

Wonderful stuff. Love that pic. Okay, Amanda. All the stuff with like, what's the fastest way south? Like take 8th Avenue or 5th Avenue? He's like, no, we're going through the park it's a really fun movie uh all right amanda you're up i don't know where you're going with this one yeah i i want to thank you guys because strategically i kind of feel like you've set me free because i feel like there was one obvious sequel which was die hard with vengeance with which chris took and there was one obviously obvious animated movie which was toy story and And I can't take those. So now I can just kind of, you know, be free and sing. So I have two picks. My first is going to be in the

comedy category. And this is quite obvious, but it is Clueless, which, you know, I think I have talked a lot about it on this podcast. I think, Sean, that's like my personal Pulp Fiction moment in terms of going to the movies and being like, oh, this is what this can be. And I think that's true of like what a movie can be. I think that's true of what like comedy could be and humor. I didn't know that you could just like make fun of people in this way. I didn't know what satire was. I think that's true in terms of learning about Jane Austen. I still think Clueless is the best Jane Austen adaptation and I've seen them all. And I think it probably taught me a lot about high school too.

I'm glad that I saw Clueless before I got to high school. I felt a little bit better about everything that was going on around me and had a, like a little bit better about everything that was going on around me and had a, like a little bit more understanding. I just, you know, a triumph and, and means a lot to me. So Clueless is my comedy pick. And then for drama, I'm doing a movie that was released in 1995, but I didn't see for a decade later, but that's okay. It's Kicking and Screaming, which I'm taking because I feel like I, as a younger person, always get cut out of the Kicking and Screaming conversation. I just like to say it means a lot to millennials too. You see this movie in college, whenever you're in college, and it still speaks to that amazing

moment. And still a similar thing. I think this was the first Noah Baumbach movie that I saw. And that's someone whose career, you know, I've since kind of grown up with. And probably one of the first kind of indie movies, you know, where like an awareness that this was an indie movie. And this is like different from mainstream cinema and thinking about kind of where things come from and just spoke to a certain time in my life. And also, you know, it is a very funny movie, even though I think it's I'm putting it in the drama category and it is ultimately a drama and a romance. But just great stuff.

It's nice to find people who also like to you know communicate their repressed emotions through pop cultural references and cynical humor um so that's it funny how you found yourself here in this podcast so you're taking kicking and screaming in the drama category yeah wow okay i'll allow it are we gonna get through this podcast without me picking a movie and Amanda screaming, fuck? I think so. That happened on two separate tracks. Yeah, and I think that's sweet. And what I like about this year is that we do have a lot of shared overlap in this year,

but also there's so much Chris stuff and really so much Sean stuff that I think we probably can get to the place. We're all happy. We're not going to fight. Yeah. Being really hateful. I think if you guys had taken Clueless or Apollo 13 for me, I would have been hateful towards you. It's actually broken right.

I think you choosing first is allowing for it. I don't, maybe we don't need so much commentary about the draft while it's still unfolding. Chris, there's still plenty of time for you to choose while you were sleeping right now. So why don't you go ahead and take it? Um, for, so i have my drama i have my uh sequel and for blockbuster i'm gonna pick crimson tide so uh i'm a fucking submarine aficionado i love submarine movies uh and meaning like you've been studying the history of the submarine yeah you know as a project during covid i just thought i would get super into u-boats um no i uh this movie is

speaking of quentin tarantino um we we you know uh he did a polish on this and this is that's that was actually one of the first things i perked up about like with this movie was like that it was like somehow cooler than all other action movies because tarantino had had sort of blessed it a little bit doesn't even matter it's uh it's just an absolutely perfect movie with two perfect performances from denzel washington and gene hackman i defy you to watch this movie and not get sucked in no matter like when you turn it on there are like three or four or five moments in this movie that sometimes if I'm bored, I will just dial up on YouTube

to make myself feel again, just to get the Lippin's Honor stallions running. And yeah, so Crimson Tide is my blockbuster. Chris, this draft pick is the embodiment of you so far. This is wild right now. This is wild. Okay. I'm feeling good about where I'm at. This is wild. Okay. I'm feeling good about where I'm at.

I've got two picks. For my first pick, I'm selecting the great Martin Scorsese's Casino. An absolute epic. Underrated film relative to the recent success of Goodfellas, but I think if Goodfellas is 100%, Casino is 99.6% in terms of greatness quality depth fun performances music camera movement amanda the incredible camera through the casino

really it's very sweet for young sean to learn about camera movement. I'm so excited for you. I love cameras. So my, here's how I saw this movie. Um, I, my uncle worked for, uh, a liquor company that was, um, that also owned universal. And so, uh, my uncle lived in California. I would fly to California, you know, once every few years to visit him and hang out with my cousins. And I got a little bit of access to Hollywood when I was there, when I was 16, I got to go to a movie premiere for my birthday, which was really cool for you can imagine for a loser like me, what a big deal that was. But when I was 13, I remember being at his house and I saw a box set of VHS cassettes in his TV console. And I was like, what is that box set? Because it looked like

a bunch of different movies that had nothing to do with each other, except for the fact that they had been released all in the same year. And these were the Academy screeners that were sent out to people who worked in the industry. And in that Academy screener set was Casino. And I was like, what is this? I pulled it out and showed it to him. And I was like, what is this? And he was like, that's Casino. It's a Martin Scorsese movie. And I was like, just is this? I pulled it out and showed it to him and I was like, what is this? And he was like, that's Casino. It's a Martin Scorsese movie. And I was like, just by looking at the picture on the VHS box, I was like, I need this. I need to watch this.

I need to own this. And he was like, take it, it's yours. And I held onto that cassette for years and years and watched it over and over again. I think I may, it's possible that I've seen, I saw this before Goodfellas. But I love Casino. I think it's absolutely

amazing movie so I'm grateful to take it in drama I have another pick now I'm so happy everybody's so happy I know this is going so well uh an equal cinematic achievement I would say to Casino is the 1995 comedy Billy Madison waiting for this no it's like that's great of course you should take this which is a film that i worship and have always worshipped and i can't believe i'm getting martin scorsese and adam sandler in the same turn this is huge for me huge for 13 year old me um billy madison let me just tell you it holds up still funny amanda there are so many times when you and i are doing a podcast and you're saying something you're being like nine percent rude to me and I just want to say,

stop looking at me, swan, because that is what Billy Madison makes me think of all the time. So I'm feeling good. I got a comedy. I got a drama. I got a blockbuster and I got an animated movie.

My four picks are Casino, Billy Madison 7 and Toy Story. Oh, right. Wow. The Sean Fennessey experience. In truth. Chris Ryan, you're up. Can I ask a procedural question? Certainly.

English language, if it's in English, you want foreign language, not foreign film, right? I believe the name of the category is foreign language. Yeah. Okay. So it's my turn. What's an English language foreign film? You know, like a movie made in Scotland.

No, Chris. Come on. No, I'm not going to pick Braveheart. Don't worry. You can never take my freedom! There you go. So, Chris, wait. Before you pick,

no one here is going to pick Braveheart. Braveheart and Braveheart won best picture this year at the Oscars. Why do you, why, what is it about Braveheart that we don't respect anymore? Is it, is it that Mel Gibson has had so many problems publicly because of his

actions? Is it because the movie hasn't aged well or seems overwrought somehow? Like, why is it not considered one of the great, I think that it was, it was, first of all, I have no fucking idea. Like, I have considered one of the great achievements? I think that it was, first of all, I have no fucking idea.

I have no idea why people all went, I mean, Braveheart is really, really violent. It's really gory. I guess it has a certain great man, biographical, historical,

epic element to it that it was essentially, it's like Lawrencerence of arabia but shot through the lens of like post you know i i have no idea really honestly but like amanda or do you have a yeah well i think part of it is the mel gibson which i'm i only know because there is the great joke in clueless another 1995 movie where she's like quoting the snooty brother's girlfriend like misquotes hamlet and she's like I think I know Hamlet and Cher is like well I know Mel Gibson movies and I like Mel Gibson was at this point

a major star and then also like people like it when guys in historical costumes just like kill each other violently I mean see also Game Thrones. I feel like it was those two things. Yeah, that's probably, that's got a lot to do with it. That's true. So does that mean, Chris, you're taking Braveheart? No.

Okay, so I have to do a couple here. I'm going to go, I'm going to avenge some past wrongs on my part and I'm going to go wild card before wrongs on my part and i'm gonna go wild card before sunrise oh yeah good one i fucked up last time when i could have uh picked one of its sequels and sequels and uh i just want to make up for that so we'll go wild card we'll go before sunrise can i just say of all the cr head content i've like everyone live blogging the moment when you picked iron man 3 instead of before midnight and everyone just sharing their own reactions

that was a beautiful experience i will also say that as someone who is in a romantic relationship in 1995 this movie was very formative in like my ideas about like what that should look and feel and sound like, you know, like the kinds of things that I thought like you're supposed to talk to your girlfriend about, or the kinds of things that you're almost supposed to be like interested in as a young person.

We're very much shaped by this movie. Um, are you trying to draw a direct comparison between yourself and Ethan Hawk again? How many times can one man try to say I'm just like Ethan Hawke on a podcast? That's an honest question for you. I've done that before.

I mean, all allusions to Ethan Hawke content is how you are Ethan Hawke. When I watch Good Lord Bird, I think... Oh my God. Oh my God. Okay, that's a really good pick. That's a guy committed to a bit.

And that's just like me. No, I mean like, anybody from that era would tell you the same thing, man. Those movies like that before Sunrise is really, really formative. Why are you talking to Amanda and I like you're 28 years older than us?

Well, she was 10. So I don't think she was just like. I didn't see before Sunrise in 1995. By summer abroad. That's a good point. Okay, so Chris, you've taken before sunrise amanda you now have two picks yes i do and i have the three categories i have left are wild card sequel and animated i feel very sure in one category and i feel like things are to get creative in the other two. Lots of luck.

All right. I guess I'm just going to get sequel out of the way right now. And I have two options here. I don't really feel good about either of them. Under Siege 2, Dark Territory. Come on, Amanda. I think I'm going to go with Goldeneye. Yeah.

Which was probably the first James Bond movie that I saw. I do not think it is the best James Bond movie. I do not think it's even like the top, what, 10 James Bond movies? 15? Yeah, but it inspired the greatest video game of all time. Yeah, that's true. I was just going to say that. It's not a very good movie at all, but it's a great video game.

Yeah. And I would like also to honor you know my journey to skyfall one of the best movies ever ever made it started here at golden eye so i'll take that and then i'm just i'm gonna do wild card because gotta do me and that's obviously gonna be sense and sensibility which is the ang Lee's adaptation with the screenplay by Emma Thompson, which Sean and I talked about on a movie swap and is still whenever I'm feeling really down is the movie that I put on and it both comforts me. And I think it's just like a, just an achievement. It's absolutely beautiful.

If you've ever read like the diaries that Emma Thompson wrote and published along with the screenplay and you care, I really recommend those. I also reread those when I'm feeling down. Maybe I should reread those over the holidays. Yeah, but this is the type of movie that actually gets me to buy the screenplay and read the diaries. I don't really know what else to say about it. Did you consider Father of the Bride 2? I did. That was the other that I was thinking about doing. Did you consider Father of the Bride 2? I did. That was the other

that I was thinking about doing. And I just, it's good. Father of the Bride is one of my favorite Nancy Meyers and Charles Shire productions. How about that

Nancy Meyers discourse going on last week? Yeah. That was a discourse. There sure was some discourse about Nancy Meyers. We love Nancy Meyers on The Big Picture. That was a discourse. There sure was some discourse about Nancy Meyers. We love Nancy Meyers on The Big Picture.

That's pretty much all we need to say about that. Ciara, you're up. Okay. For comedy, I was going to... So, I think sometimes

when you include... There's a movie I was thinking of, but I would have to really stretch the definition of comedy for it. So, I'm going to play it a little bit more straight. And I'm going to play it a little bit more straight.

And I'm going to pick something that is not... I'm just picking with my heart. And I'm picking with... I saw this movie, I think, two or three times in theaters. I loved it so much. I'm going with Mallrats. I fucking knew you were going to do that. That's amazing.

Look, man. Mallrats is fucking hilarious and uh you know i don't know that that whether or not it translates at all to people of this era like you know what i mean whether or not like i'm sure there's some not age great comedy in it but i thought like at that time like the jason lee was like the funniest guy in the world. Sean, are you pulling out your fucking Criterion collection of Mallrats? This was one of my first DVDs, Mallrats. Yes. This is a widescreen collector's edition.

Great film. Really love Kevin Smith. Just awful Affleck in this movie. Really fun Shannon Doherty performance. This was his sequel to Clerks. And it was this idea that you could like kind of like he was obviously building this like weird cinematic

New Jersey. This the view is skewers for lack of a better term. Why does this always happen to me? I get on a podcast with you guys and it goes longer than an hour and then suddenly we're in that weird universe. Do you like mall rats? Me?

Yeah. I don't really care about mall rats. I kind of feel like the Kevin Smith of it all. I did not see in 1995 because again, I was 10. And when I caught up to it later. It was over. It was over. We had moved past it and I could kind of identify like the consequences of this in the

world that i was living in and wanted no part of it and i just kind of get like heebie-jeebies when you guys talk about it but it's nice that it meant something to you amanda when when quarantine is over and we're all safe and healthy and have been vaccinated you're coming over i mean you're gonna sit down and watch mall rats together yes okay i'm sure I think it's funny. Listen I like it's actually not that funny. I think I think I think Clerks is like far superior and I think Chasing Amy while

problematic is also superior but Mallrats is the CR Kevin Smith movie and always has been since I've known you and I love your your affinity for it. I don't know what it

is the comic book stuff. Is it the mall stuff? I can't I think it's the mall stuff malls were really like the mall stuff. Malls were really... We used to just go to the Cherry Hill Mall a lot and I was just like, this is a terrain I'm familiar with.

It's how Amanda feels about Apollo 13. I had Mallrats on my wildcard long list but it was like number eight and you definitely just picked it for comedy. So you are the absolute best, Chris. I'm stalling because i don't know what i'm gonna do here i've got two picks left i've got wild card and i've got sequel sequel is is just a nightmare this is just this is a disaster when when chris selected dh with a v and dh with a v is how me

and all my friends referred to diehard redemptants when we were kids. Well, I actually, I call it Simon says most, most people who are strict originalists call it Simon says. Yeah. You are truly the Scalia of the McLean universe.

Every time. What do you want to, are you RBG of this podcast? Who do you want to be? What's your comp? That would be great. Remember what you have. Amanda,

Amanda Day O'Connor. How does this always happen? Like if we did movie draft bingo, it would be like unfavorable comparisons to conservative Supreme Court justice. Like, check. I comped you to RBG. What are you talking about?

I accept. It's the first time. Thank you. It's all gravy. RIT legend. Literally. Not being facetious. I'm the Sonia Sotomayor.

I don't know about you guys. I'm a revolutionary changing the game every day. Okay. Fuck. God. I guess sequel.

I'm taking I'm taking Batman Forever which is the Val Kilmer movie. Not that great. Yeah. sequel. I'm taking Batman Forever, which is... The Val Kilmer movie? Not that great. Yeah. But is also kind of great. So Amanda and I,

last week, though we're recording this beforehand, did a George Clooney Hall of Fame. And so I went back and I watched Batman and Robin, which is the film that followed Batman Forever. And Batman and Robin is a quote-unquote

camp classic, but it's absolutely horrible. I mean, it is unwatchable. So stupid and so bad and so chintzy. Batman Forever is the same director, Joel Schumacher, doing art deco, over-the-top, exploding

what Tim Burton was trying to build in the Batman premise. Some of it works and some of it doesn't. But I really like Jim Carrey and Tommy Lee Jones in the movie. And they play the two villains, the Riddler and Two-Face. And this is frankly a weak year for sequels. So I'm rocking with that. And for my other option, I feel like it was Ace Ventura when nature calls,

which I, you know, another Jim Carrey movie, which I just don't think is going to work. Maybe Candyman Farewell to the to the flesh this is a pretty tough sequel year land before time three no maybe it's not that it was a tough sequel year maybe it was like a

better time for movies when I didn't have that's it yes five sequels that's it Amanda you nailed it that's really the problem is is that movies were absolutely incredible

they were at the the center of culture in 1995 and so we didn't why would you make the you know why would you make blank to when you could make the were absolutely incredible. They were at the center of culture in 1995. And so we didn't have to worry about it. So why would you make the, you know, why would you make Blank 2 when you can make Dead Presidents, you know? Before I choose my wildcard pick,

let me ask you guys a question about future drafts. So assuming this isn't going to be the last draft where we go into the deeper past, if we were to do 1975 or 1985, would you eradicate the sequel category? Mm-hmm. Yeah. Or yes, I think we would make some adjustments

because it's amazing. I also have like five comedy possibilities. Yeah. And that just is in the mystic decade. Yeah. There was also like- Not a comedy. It was like the split.

It was really difficult to leave off all the dramas and wild cards for me. I have I had a lot of really good dramas that I couldn't get in there. Obviously. I think if you go back in time, you have to make adjustments for the fact that like, you know, prior to. I don't know, 1990. How many animated movies are there? Right.

Well, I mean, Disney is is operational. There are like to just be like disney is operational so let's give them an award in the movie draft when there's like incredible like we should like come up with an independent movies one or a low budget one or i think that would be a better category personally but you know it's your draft uh chris why don't you why don't you powwow with your army and you guys can come up with some ideas. You can pitch them to me formally and I'll get on the Zoom together and it'll be a series of blank boxes

from fake Zoom accounts that you've created and you. You act like we would have to go through these democratic means where we could just go straight solar winds on you and just take this over. Okay. My wildcard pick is,

I got to pick the usual suspects. Just a movie that also i think just kind of flipped a switch in my brain about what movies could be and got me interested in a very particular kind of crime movie heist movie uh twist ending kind of a film um another movie that was talked about that you and bill did on the rewatchables this year that obviously has a lot of complexity upon reflection because of the allegations against brian singer and the allegations against kevin spacey but as a movie still i think works like a house on fire i watch it this year and i think is still perfectly made perfectly made um incredible like a diamond script from chris mccorry who has gone on to be

one of the one of the major filmmakers in hollywood so that's my draft usual suspects we're back to chris uh so i gotta do um foreign language or animated checkmate mine is both ghost in the shell and wow interestingly enough i would say i did not see ghost in the shell in 1995 in, I don't know that I've ever actually watched Ghost in the Shell in any other context, but it being on in the background at Library Bar in New York City. Oh my God. And just like night upon night of getting loaded there and then be like, what's that movie in the back? This is kind of sick.

And it's like, that's Ghost in the Shell, man. So congratulations to them, to Library Bar and to Ghost in the Shell for being my animated foreign language pick. So is this the first pick ever made in this draft for a movie in which the selector has not heard any of the dialogue in the film? I think so, right? Has anyone chosen a movie that they haven't actually really seen it might be challenge accepted Chris what do you think of the ghost in the shell remake with Scar Jo I didn't see that one yet I'm saving

it saving it for Christmas Day all you betas are watching Wonder Woman I'm gonna be watching Scarlet incredible stuff Amanda it's down to you yeah it is i've saved this is where it really goes off the rails but you know what that's fine we're doing this for content i've saved animated foreign language film uh as previously uh discussed i was 10 in 1995 and i could read but wasn't really doing a lot of subtitles i just do want it on record that i could anyway so i'm gonna be going in the animated category

sean's already taken toy story chris has taken ghosts in the shell which was not gonna be my second pick but that's okay so um you know know what? Fuck it. Let's do it. This one goes out to all the 90s millennials, the true Devon Sawa fans. I'm taking Casper. Oh my God. Thank you. Wow. There we go. That's actually a really good pick. And I didn't even consider, even though I broke the mold by choosing Paddington in this category thus allowing Casper to qualify it's you worked the system so I have a question

now in retrospect would babe have been okay for for animated I don't think so okay that I gave this some thought because those are actual pigs right they're not animated pigs the only thing that's animated is the mouth okay I've never seen babe I gave this some thought because those are actual pigs, right? They're not animated pigs. The only thing that's animated is the mouth.

Okay. I've never seen. There's like a percentage of like animation that you have to. I think the creature, if the creature is real, it's not animation. Okay. Okay.

You know what I'm saying? Creature talks. That's cool. Yeah. Babe talks, right? Yeah. That creature talks, that's cool. Yeah. Babe talks, right? Yeah, Chris. Yeah, that's the point. He talks, yeah.

Watch Babe Challenge with Chris Ryan. Chris Ryan and the army watch Babe together. No? I don't think so. So, there were some good foreign language films

that we didn't even discuss this year. You guys all went with Animated, which is really interesting, but this was the year of Lion, the French film. Chris, were you not in the Lion vibe? I don't think I saw it.

Really? Yeah. The Vincent Cassell movie about the banlieue in France and the kind of like... No, I didn't see it. Oh my... I've never seen it.

This is one of the great kind of crime youth movies. Really? I'm shocked. I haven't. Okay. This is an amazing movie. kind of crime youth movies. Really? I'm shocked. I haven't. Okay. This is an amazing movie. This would have been my pick.

Also, Fallen Angels, the one car white movie came out this year. And The City of Lost Children, the Jean-Pierre Jeunet film. So there were some good foreign language movies. Not a ton. I would not have gone El Postino. What else did we leave on the table? Because I have a list in wildcard of a ton of movies that I really like that we never even discussed here.

So what are some notable omissions for you guys? A couple of crime movies that I really liked from this year, Clockers, Spike Lee's Clockers. Spike Lee went on to direct in that movie as a virtual prices novel instead of Nick Gomez. And it was going to originally star, I think, Robert De Niro,

but he dropped out and Harvey Keitel took over the main cop role. But really, really solid adaptation of that novel. Devil in a Blue Dress is the Denzel Washington adaptation of the Walter Mosley novel. It's great. Really good movie. Basketball Diaries is really good. There's a bunch of really really cool gritty smaller films

uh new jersey drive um for me though actually i absolutely really like dead presidents but the one that i that the sort of noir-y crime movie that i was thinking about trying to finagle into comedy was shallow grave which is danny was that first movie yeah Yeah, I think so. Yeah. And it's Ewan McGregor. It was like basically the first time Ewan McGregor popped off before Trainspotting and Christopher Eccleston I think is in this movie.

And it's about a bunch of Scottish people living in a flat who discover a dead body in their apartment and everything goes wrong from there. It's like this really good dark Hitchcock kind of comic movie

but it gets pretty morbid after a while. That's a great movie. Amanda, what about you? Anything that was left on the cutting room floor that you want to talk about? Yeah, I mean, I quite literally betrayed myself and my values because The American President is not in my draft. The American President was a 1995 movie.

And The American President was also, I've told this story a million times, including on the rewatchables that we did this year, was a 1995 movie. And The American President was also, I've told the story a million times, including on the rewatchables that we did this year. But I saw that movie in theaters four times with my dad, literally four times. We just decided to keep going. And I texted him, I think it was literally on election day this year, and he was not watching the cable news. He was just rewatching American President. And obviously, that was my first Sorkin, which is another area of interest to me. So that hurts, but I had to do Clueless

and I didn't know where else really you could put American President. You know, Sean, I was really surprised that you didn't pick Bad Boys. And I also, you know, as a noted Will Smith fan, that one was very important to me. I thought about it. The thing is, is it it's not that good. Like, yeah, The Rock and Bad Boys 2 is really where Bay becomes Bay.

Like, and it's Bad Boys is not bad, but Bad boys 2 is really where bay becomes bay like and it's bad boys is not bad but bad boys 2 is it's like a lot of pantoliano yelling yeah yeah it's just not it's not his best it was my number two pick behind usual suspects for wild card right it is important in the in the will smith origin story which that's true important to me also and then you know what there were again previously mentioned i was 10 in 1995 So there were like a lot of kid movies that came out this year that I was never going to pick, but I would like to shout out the Babysitter's Club movie, which the real 1995 year old elementary school kids know, not going to sing the theme song, but you're singing it right now in your head now and then, obviously, which is not a good movie if you're an adult but as a kid once again respect devin sawa in 1995 extremely important i thought that the little princess movie that came out that year was great as well um so i don't know movies for

children that aren't animated i like that they made those i watched them is the little princess movie the quaron movie. The Cuaron movie. Yeah it is. Yeah. Yeah that's really good. This is the only podcast in America. Where you can hear talk of. Wong Kar Wai's Fallen Angels.

And the Babysitter's Club movie. We really. Say hello to your friends. Babysitter's Club. Wow. Here we go. What a twist. There are so many more.

Speaking of formative experiences. One of the most formative experiences I had, I was a freshman in high school. This was a couple of years after this movie came out and went on a ski trip with a bunch of my classmates, many of whom were upperclassmen. And so I was the young kid, me and a freshman went on the ski trip with a bunch of the older kids.

Very exciting. A lot of mayhem on this trip, a lot of trouble. And I knew there was going to be trouble because we took a bus to Vermont for this ski trip. And on the bus ride, they had those TVs perched in the corner every six or seven rows. And there was a video cassette player. And on the video cassette, we watched the movie Kids, the Larry Clark movie. Oh, yeah. I can't believe that neither of you picked that. I thought about it.

I'm not sure how... It's like a notable movie that I never, ever, ever think be like, what do I want to watch? Kids. It's a tough hang. It was an amazing provocation for a teenager in the 90s,

but now, I don't even know if you can find that movie. I would much rather watch Empire Records. Like, I'm not... That was another one I was going to mention. But it's like, yeah, kids is really rough.

And those are like the two sides of the youthful coin, right? One being very kind of like mainstream and pop. I love Empire Records. I think that's a great movie. I've been lobbying for that movie on the rewatchables for years. A couple of others. Outbreak has been much discussed this year because of everything with the pandemic. Still a pretty good thriller, I think.

Safe, the Todd Haynes film, which is a great movie. I don't know. That's the kind of movie that always kind of gets brushed aside because it doesn't fit neatly into any of the categories here, but that's really good. Another movie that I watched over and over again on VHS is Desperado, the Robert Rodriguez movie. Never seen it, Amanda? I don't think so.

That's Antonio Banderas and Salma Hayek. It's like a crime movie set in Mexico where a mariachi is slash an assassin slash has to save a damsel. It's a really cool movie. To Die For, Strange Days, Hackers. I don't know, Dol clayborne net yeah the net sucks the net is watch the net in 2020 that is have you seen strange days recently

i haven't i haven't it's not it's not widely available in the u.s you can't even get it on blu-ray in the u.s cat say katherine bigelow though one of the greats pushing the limits back in the 90s what else anything else Chris that we didn't mention that you want to chat anything else on my list um no I think we covered

almost everything you know like uh I forgot one uh Friday oh yeah Friday is also a gem

Friday's great hilarious movie oh we didn't uh Showgirls is 1995, right? Oh, yeah. I've never really been a part of the Church of Showgirls. I haven't either,

but that it exists is notable. Yeah. You looking for your Showgirls DVD? Yeah. I don't know if I can I think I remember being aware of Showgirls in 1995 because I was obviously

like a huge part of the Saved by the Bell community. And so Elizabeth Berkley, aka Jessie Spano, suddenly like being in a movie that I wasn't able to understand the nuances of the showgirls discourse at all. So that was confusing for me. We certainly named a lot of movies on this podcast.

I'm going to run through all of our picks very quickly for the listeners. And we'll give you guys a chance to vote on this this week before the year ends. We sure will. Okay. Chris, you and Dominion will get to work on putting together the voting strategy. Here are the nominees.

For the drama category, Chris selected Heat. I selected Casino. Amanda selected Kicking and Screaming. For the comedy and horror category, Chris selected Mallrats. I selected Billy Madison. And Amanda selected Clicking and Screaming. For the Comedy and Horror category, Chris selected Mallrats. I selected Billy Madison, and Amanda selected Clueless. For Blockbuster,

Chris took Crimson Tide. I took Seven, and Amanda selected Apollo 13. For the Animated or Foreign Language category, Chris selected Ghost in the Shell, a film he has not seen. I selected Toy Story, and Amanda selected Casper

because she wanted to sleep with Devin Sawa in the 90s. For the sequel category, Chris selected DH with a V. That's Die Hard with a Vengeance. I selected Batman Forever. Okay, Simon Says. And Amanda selected GoldenEye. And for the wildcard category, Chris selected Before Sunrise. I selected The Usual Suspects.

And Amanda went out with her fave sense and sensibility so great draft truly a representation of our souls except for me having to pick Batman forever which sucked guys this is our last big picture podcast of 2020 barring any emergency news I hope no one beautiful and wonderful in the world of film dies because that's probably the only thing that's going to drag us back to the podcast studio. Uh, thanks so much to both of you guys for everything that you gave to the big

picture this year. Uh, you both made it really, really fun. I feel like we, we discovered a new audience in part because Chris set up a scheme to, uh, invent many new citizens of the world.

And, uh, bots love to pod. But I'm grateful to both of you for all you did for, for, for trying to keep up and watch all the world. My bots love to pod. But I'm grateful to both of you for all you did, for trying to keep up and watch all the movies that I'm trying to watch every year

and for making this a really fun show to do. Thanks for letting me be me, man. I feel my best self on this pod. You guys crushed it. Bobby Wagner also crushed it throughout the year producing this show.

Thank you, of course, to Wags. Wags, good job, buddy. Thank you, everyone. It's been my pleasure. Bob, I'll take you to Top Gun 2. Let's do it. Liberate Top Gun 2. We will be back in the new year on this podcast. Amanda and I are doing what we always do at the

beginning of January, which is that we are going to highlight the movies we are most looking forward to in 2021. We will see you then. Have a happy new year.