The Big Picture - The 2009 Movie Draft

Episode Date: June 14, 2022

We are drafting again! And Amanda is back! She and Sean are joined by Chris Ryan to pick their faves and foil their pals in a draft of the movies from 2009. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Chris Ryan Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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free, only on Spotify. I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the year 2009. Au revoir, Shoshanna! We're drafting again. It's the movie draft, 2009 edition. CR is here. Chris, how are you? Boop!

I'm doing good, man. It's good to see you guys. Bright and early on a Monday. And here we go. Let's go back in the time machine. Let's go into the time machine. Amanda, I'm going to start with you. Let's talk about the year 2009. I didn't know you in 2009.

I know. Who were you? What were you doing? Yeah, I was a single 25-year-old person living in Brooklyn. So just like a walking disaster. It was like me and Jay-Z at the grizzly bear show. You know what I'm saying? Um, you did not really go to a grizzly. No, I didn't. But I will tell you that in 2009, I saw more than one passion pitch show. So, I mean, I don't know what to tell you guys. It was a real time in 2009. Uh, just me out there in the world.

Wait, let's explore that for a second. Yeah. Hold on. I need to ask some questions about that. Sure. Because I know you. I know your music taste. I know who you are as a person.

They were opening for Phoenix. And I love that Phoenix album. And so I saw a lot of those Phoenix shows. Was this at Terminal 5? I didn't do the Terminal 5 ones. I definitely saw one at, what is it? Like Hammer Smith Ballroom? Hammerstein Ballroom.

It's open for there. I think Passion Pit also opened in Central Park for them, which I don't know whether that was like 2009 or not. And then there was an incident with like Whippets and whatever. I don't know. Like I said,

no one should ever be 25 um if you're 25 right now bobby you 25 you made it through uh yeah i turned 26 earlier okay great see i'm thrilled for you you're it's all it's on the upswing bobby was just doing he was doing whippets that's why i was just gonna say bobby does do whippets before every movie i couldn't find the zoom unmute button you know we're two two and a half years into this and I'm still working through it. Yeah. So I was a 25 year old living my life out loud, I guess. But anyway, that's how far we've come since 2009.

I also saw a lot of movies this year by myself, like quad cinema, like Brooklyn Heights cinema. Obviously a lot of BAM. I just, I can tell you all the places where I was just sitting by myself at like 4 PM watching a weird ass movie. This has been a very venue focused episode of the big picture thus far. I was out in the world. Remember when we used to like do things outside? I know. It's a part of the scene.

I went to dinner on Saturday night, just Eileen and I, and I was like, wow, hey, going went to dinner I went to dinner on Saturday night Just Eileen and I and I was like Wow hey Going out to dinner Should we say that on the pod I don't know The wife and the psalm it was wonderful You went wife and the psalm yeah that's nice man

I'm happy for you guys This is incredible spawn Oh right oh I've been wondering about that You guys had a nice time that's great It was very nice imagine tuning into your favorite movie podcast and hearing this conversation. Chris, I'm going to take you back to 09. Okay.

What were you doing? I knew you back then. What were you doing? Yeah, you did. You know, I was sitting under an Obama hope poster gazing into the future, thinking that the arc of the universe bends towards justice, that we had done it.

Turns out that may have been a little bit premature. But this is is interestingly enough my movie blackout year i look at this list of movies and this is probably the most removed i felt from one of our drafts in so much as you were also a passion pit concerts no i don't think i was at Passion Pit concerts, I gotta admit. You know, like, there's a couple of things happening. One, I wasn't really working in culture journalism at all. I was working in an ad agency and starting to write more and more about sports for various places, like soccer and basketball stuff. My dad got sick in the middle of this year. And so I just really remember like three or four movie experiences. And that's like it.

And then I saw all the, like, you know, 45, 50 movies from this year. But like in, in so much as like a, being a passionate film goer,

this one is just like, Oh man, that was 2009. I had no, I have no recollection of that or 2008. Yeah. I have no recollection of this. Or 2008. Yeah, I have no recollection of this. So yeah, this was sort of like a weird one to go back through because I was like,

I think I saw this on cable three years after it came out. I think I saw this on DVD two years after this came out or once Netflix or whatever. It's a strange blank spot year. That's interesting. I'm just looking back at the movies from this year that I have rewatched during the pandemic. And most years, I think in the 2000s, you'd see five, six, seven, maybe eight or nine movies. And this year, I've only rewatched three movies, which indicates this is a very strange movie year. So in 2009, I started the year unmarried and working at Vibe magazine. And by the end of the year, Vibe magazine no longer existed.

And I was a married person. So very fascinating, tumultuous year for me. I'd been working at Vibe for years before that. And I definitely thought I was going to be there for a much longer period of time than I actually was. And probably set me on the course to moving to California. Ultimately, I think like the end of that gig and then realizing nothing is permanent. Except for my marriage.

That is permanent. Movie-wise though. Is that what you talked about with Eileen at Wife and the Psalm is how nothing lasts forever? Listen, marriage is work, but the best kind of work as we learned from Ben Affleck. It's probably not a mistake

that this was the year of 500 days of summer. That was sort of your summer of 2009, right Amanda? It seems like you had kind of one of those. I still don't remember what happened in that movie. Juliet and I did a podcast about the Ringer rom-com list, which I won't be taking any comments from anyone about that um I'm still on leave but at the top of or I guess the number 50 on the ringers list was 500 days of summer and neither Juliet or I could recreate the plot of that film just don't do they end up together I don't remember they break up and then he does the Hall and Oates dance and then what happens Bobby you've logged on tell I remember the plot of it they They don't end up together. Sorry to spoil that movie from 2009,

but I wanted to pop on to share that that was the movie that I went on my first date to. It was to the movie theater. Like your first date ever? My first date ever. I was 13. Okay, Bobby.

12 or 13. I don't remember what time of year that came out, but I was 13 in 2009. That rules. Which I feel like paints a perfect picture of where was 13 in 2009 that rules which i feel like paints a perfect picture of where i was in 2009 i don't even need to say anything more yeah just a hopeful joseph gordon levitt type sean do you remember the first movie you took eileen to um i don't i i once made the mistake of describing a like a date with a person who isn't eileen is going to a movie but

then it turns out that i took eileen to that movie and then that was like kind of a tough night for me so uh I don't I don't want to make that mistake again um no I don't do you remember what about you and Phoebe you you know you know what the first movie was no I don't remember the first one we we went to a lot of movies in the beginning but like it the early 2000s in New York is a little bit hazy I know I think I know what Zack and Amanda's inadvertent first date movie is. Yeah, we literally met like for the first time, first words exchanged outside a screening for the Anna Faris and Chris Evans film, What's Your Number?

Thank you to Chris Evans and Anna Faris for everything that came afterwards. What's Your Number is a 2011 movie. So unfortunately, you won't be able to sentimentally draft it here. We should do 2011 though. That would be fun. We did it. That's the thing.

We did it. We did it like two years ago. When I draft. I don't know. Should we discuss this now? Like the mounting issue with the movie draft? Now, obviously there is an entire century of cinema, there should be discussed this now like the mounting issue with the movie draft now obviously there is an entire century of cinema but we've done every year now i think from 2009 through

2018 and we're also knocking we've knocked out many of the big years in the 90s i think we've done 95 94 92 99 is probably on the horizon for us somewhere soon you know the 2000s are starting to get whittled away 07 is gone 09 is gone I think we did 03 recently so

what do we what do we do are you breaking up with us are we are we but should we re-reheat drafts

should we should we re-re-draft I don't even know we could do decades like we could do super drafts. We could start adding wrinkles to the mechanics of the draft in terms of lotteries

and trading draft picks. We could even re-litigate past drafts. We could do a trip through memory lane. I feel like we can continue to find some new ways to skin a cat, so to speak. You just need to get to the end of your contract so then Rich Paul can renegotiate, right? That's your plan, CR.

Look, man, I just would love... Just CC Rich. That's all I ask. Respect the chain of command. I have a question for you guys can i ask a general movie question from the year of course um you look at this year 09 it's just about what iron man's 08 dark night is 08 so obviously the wave is coming but like not yet and in some ways does a year like this albeit with like some really cool,

really great genre movies, obviously some very well-respected Oscars. This is a pretty cool, a very interesting Oscars year. But do you think that the soft underbelly of this year is what made superhero, the superhero sort of paradigm possible? Because this is a

little bit of a shaky year and i wonder whether or not the lack of like things to hold on to from this year made it a little bit easier for you know the four or five superhero movies a year to come along and and kind of and kind of sweep everything aside i know what you're saying i i think that was basically already in motion and probably was unstoppable by this point. And we've talked about that, I think, in years past on the show about like how this all came to be. I think it definitely is an extremely quirky year. Even if you this is the first year of the 10 Oscar nominees, the return to 10 total Best Picture nominees. And it seemed to be like an interesting portent of things to come because of the variety and the unusual inclusion of a couple of different films in that lineup. So it makes it seem even more unlikely. I think the tricky thing is, is that there's probably like four or five truly beloved movies from this year that many people have seen and like. And then after that, not very many. And there's a lot of, you know, probably passion projects for the three of us, uh,

across the list of movies, but not a ton of consistency. I don't know. What do you think, Amanda? Yeah, this, the center's already gone at, at this point. Um, especially, you know, I, I try not to use like the rom-com index for everything, but this is like really grim, like multiple Sarah Jessica Parker, like being, and I love Sarah Jessica Parker. Let me tell you, like, please give me another season of, and just like that, but they are. Oh, good. Thank God. Yeah. Um, I mean, I hope so, but just, just dregs of the rom-com barrel. And, uh, you know, you see franchises starting like this is the year of Fast and the Furious.

So what's to come is like starting. And then what is going to like fall out of the movie going experience is already like this is why we don't get rom-coms anymore because of years like 2009. It's a little hard to put a gloss on success in the movie year of 2009 because this is the avatar year and avatar the same way titanic did when it was released in what was that 96 just completely like obliterated the narrative for everything that came before it avatar was a december release and it felt like everything was kind of leading up to that and in the the same way that Titanic was considered potentially a disaster, but potentially mind-blowing, Avatar just took over the movie world

and the movie conversation. Of course, we have another Avatar movie, the second Avatar movie coming out this year, which we're just not talking about too much here on The Big Picture. Chris is. I've been talking about it with a lot of the guys on our Navi, the boards, you know?

And my Navi, like, it's weird because Duolingo makes you pay for a membership to learn navi but i had enough of the basics from rewatches of the original film that i felt like i could i could get in at intermediate so it's been a project over the course of the pandemic uh and if anybody wants to just hit me up on facetime we can just do exclusive Navi talks. I have a FaceTime filter that makes me look like a Navi soldier. Sierra, now's the chance to share your phone number so that people can FaceTime you. Go ahead.

1-800-BIG-JIM. You know it. Yeah. Chris, did you see Avatar in movie theaters? I did not. This is a great example of me just being like, huh, movies. I know exactly the movies that I loved and where I saw them and what I felt about them afterwards. This is one of those weird, am I falling out of the mainstream of American popular culture that this is going to

be the biggest movie of all time? And I remember the Oscar night being like, yeah, good. Like I'm fucking glad. Like, like I wasn't the only one. I do remember you openly rooting for the Hurt Locker. Sure.

This period for a variety of reasons. And that's part of what makes this year so interesting. Amanda, you saw Avatar in theaters or no? I did. I went, Court Street Cinemas, RIP,

really sad stuff that that's gone. You just keep naming places where you were in 2009. Well, I went during a blizzard by myself. The Atlantic one or the one on Court, like kind of closer to Carroll Gardens? This is the Californians, but for Brooklynians. No, because I'm asking because it's not exactly like a really huge street. Yeah, I went to Court Street, Atlantic and Court Street, the multiplex, not Cobble Hill Cinemas, which you're referring to where I've seen also many films, and I believe is still a going enterprise. But yeah, it was a

blizzard. So I must have technically seen it in 2010, like pre-Oscar season, because I probably, like Chris, I wasn't like, you know, I got to go see Avatar opening weekend, like, you know, no thanks. And then I think once it became sort of a sensation and an Oscar nominee, I was like, I got to do this. Also, I hadn't left my house in two days because of the blizzard. So I remember being like, wow, that was kind of mind blowing again, hadn't seen anyone in two days. And I still don't really remember what Avatar is about. Conservationism. It's about unobtainium. Okay, sure. Remember that? Yeah. All I remember was like the Avatar is about. Conservationism. It's about unobtainium. Okay. Sure.

Remember that? Yeah. Yeah. All I remember is like the braids or the tails and something, you know, and that's how they have sex, right?

Yeah. You got it. You nailed it. That actually is, that was, that was, I believe that was in the marketing materials. These guys fuck with

braids. I saw Avatar on the on the lincoln square imax screen uptown on the west side and let me tell you it was fucking awesome i got i got no notes i was like this is really cool this is very very exciting that he pulled this off what a sweet guy sean you're just like you love you just you're so open to experiences uh well i mean look big jim is big jim's been giving us just gems just blessing us with happiness for fucking 40 years and he very rarely misses so that's why you won't catch me on this pod insulting the future release of avatar 2 because who knows maybe it'll be great maybe not um what about the oscars this year any takeaways looking at these winners and

nominees amanda anything you see here that's interesting yeah i mean katherine bigelow winning best director over her ex-husband uh big jim yeah all-time oscar narrative that's why we tuned in you know that was really great stuff. So that was an A+. Like some fun nominees, like people we like, I think, kind of make their moment, you know. To Carrie Mulligan, she did get nominated.

This is the big Christoph Waltz year, you know, when that still felt like fresh and exciting and like a discovery. It was a fun year. It's weird in the moment because it did really i think if i remember correctly kind of shake out to a two-horse race so which explains why sean you mentioned like i was like come on fucking bigelow let's go but in retrospect this is a year where i think the three of us would agree one movie should have just been like that

here's your 10 osars. And you know, that's Bastards. But like, I just think that if you were to redo the Oscars this year, for as much as I still think Hurt Locker absolutely cranks, Inglourious Bastards is one of the best movies of the century, if not the decade. If not the century.

Yeah, it's an interesting one because Bigelow is anointed here and it's kind of a celebration of this film, which was an indie and a small movie and a war movie and the narrative between her and her former husband was percolating at the time, but

it didn't really feel like everyone here won for their best work. You know, like Jeff Bridges won for Crazy Heart, which he had been tabbed to win many times in the past and had never won sandra bullock won for the blind side which i just really don't think is a very good movie but i love sandra bullock it's just it just felt like a kind of coronation christoph waltz as you pointed out amanda was definitely a discovery we'd never really seen him before and then monique won for best supporting actress which is a fascinating one because she's basically just slipped completely out of American movies um for a variety of reasons

I guess it's there's like a lot of speculation about why that is based on um what she wants to do with her career but um it's a it's a very odd duck year and the nominees are also very odd this was the year that District 9 got in there as a nominee this is the year when in education which Amanda mentioned for Carey Mulligan's performance the year when in Education, which Amanda mentioned, for Carey Mulligan's performance, the Lone Shurfing movie, which is a really good movie, but is not the kind of movie that would have been nominated for Best Picture if it was only five nominees. You know, Jason Reitman's Up in the Air is nominated this year.

Maybe an expected kind of Oscar fodder, but maybe not in the year of the Hurt Locker, Avatar, and Inglourious Bastards. So it's a very oddly shaped Oscar year. It's a very oddly shaped box office. You're right, Chris, that soon to come, literally the following year, I think we will be completely overwhelmed by franchise entertainment.

If we weren't already, we had a Harry Potter movie this year, there was a Twilight movie this year, we had a Star Trek movie this year, Sherlock Holmes, an X-Men Wolverine movie this year. So already that stuff was kind of in the mix. But not my favorite movie year. Pretty easy to say. And with that, let's talk about it for another hour. Should we draft? Yeah. Any other places where you were, Amanda, in 2009 that you want to cite here? I'll just go through them as we draft.

I do think I remember the movie theater where I saw almost every single one of these movies. I guess I was actually like, this was kind of a peak going to the movies here. Because once again, I was just out there in the world. Yeah. Being single in the big city creates a lot of opportunity. A lot of free time. A lot of opportunity. You know, we all had to go through it

I guess you didn't have to go through it but the rest of us did nope I didn't that's why I'm not referring to whatever movie I did or did not see with my wife back in 1999

okay Wags should we settle on a draft order? yeah speaking of the big city this is high stakes I'm settled in I've got my

top gun hat back with the scrabble the scrabble tile so we're going back to the analog world shake them up right here next to the microphone select a tile to say that amanda dobbins is going first yes oh my god i did it yes eat shit yes it's really just it's it's a shame that motherhood is really sanded down your your competitive edges i was just like he's asleep right now i'm like oh god if he woke up you know he can learn about winning from his second is chris ryan which makes Sean third Amanda is I'm a little worried for you I gotta say I feel like that's four months of just being stuck

in your house you know just staring down an infant and you win the first prize and it's the worst movie year draft we've ever had a lot of people know this, that I have already taken on the responsibility of developing Amanda's child

into one of the great USMNT players in the history of the country's soccer program. But that kind of behavior... Wait, wait, wait. We need a second baseman, Chris. Come on, dude. Don't abandon me now. Not baseball now.

But Amanda, that kind of behavior on the touchline, I will send you to the stands. Okay. All right. Okay. All right. I'm sorry. Here's the thing. Number one, I have been in my house for four months.

Number two, I don't think that this is as bad a movie year as you guys do, I guess, because there are just like a lot of, you know, personal favorites or things that I'm interested in. Number three, there's one movie that we all wanted, as Chris already identified. And it was whoever drafted first was going to get it. And so I will now. I can't be mad.

I've gotten a lot of Nancy Meyers movies in the past. So I'm happy for you to get this here. All right. I mean, if you want to take that one, I do know where you live later. But I will be drafting in Oscar nominee a film called Inglourious Bastards by Quentin Tarantino,

which is my favorite of the Tarantino movies and one of our favorite movies and one of the best movies. I was going to say, was it on my best of the decade list? But no, it wasn't because it was 2009. Anyway, this is the one I wanted and I got it. Thank you of the decade list but no it wasn't because it was 2009 anyway this is the one I wanted and I got it thank you

very much or wash a Shauna you are both Shauna that's probably cool for me and Sean because that makes you know I do know I know yeah I was starting to think about whether or not this is my my favorite of his when I was planning for this and there or not this is my favorite of his

when I was planning for this. I think there's probably the first half and the second half of QT's career. Once Upon a Time probably tipped this a little bit because of how much we loved that one. Chris, we did a top five QT movies, I think with Concepcion

a while back. Was that before once? It was. Gosh, I think with Concepcion a while back. Was that before once? It was. Gosh, I can't remember what I picked. Do you remember what you picked? I think I picked Pulp, but I can't remember. I pulled it up here. I picked Pulp and so did you.

I actually had Jackie Brown second and Inglourious Bastards third. Look at that. CRU had Inglourious Bastards second. Part of the reason that Inglourious Bastards third. Look at that. Classic Sean. CRU at Inglourious Bastards second. Yeah. Yeah. Part of the reason that Inglourious Bastards is my favorite is because it has like a lot of Amanda stuff, you know,

that it's the things that it's investigating in terms of World War II movies and European cinema, et cetera, is just like, you know, more Amanda core

than some of, you know, the action movies that he's interrogating and the other stuff. So it's a little bit of a personal favorite, but it is mine and it rules. Can't argue with that.

Should we wrap this pot up? Great drafting with you guys. This is where you get into which are the GMs who know how to get value in the second round, right? This is where we're going to find out who's been hitting tape, who's been watching Second Spectrum,

who's been seeing guys get shots up at Combines. I'm going to go Hurt Locker here for Oscars. I was tempted to take something else to play to the Letterboxd base, but I'm going to go with Hurt Locker. I want to say, this is one of the most thrilling things I've ever seen in a movie theater.

I remember coming out of this and feeling like my adrenal glands were about to fucking overload. You know what I mean? It's about a bomb squad in Iraq, so obviously it's an intense movie, but from that opening

sequence, where I won't spoil it if somehow somebody hasn't seen Hurt Locker but is listening to this podcast, you start to realize that anything can happen in this movie because of the characters on screen. And that teaches you to never be complacent while you're watching it. And so the entire time, she's just cranking up the tension as this guy starts to get punchier and punchier out on the job as the intensity of the action increases

the refined scene there's just so many absolutely masterful set pieces in this movie so that I rewatched it recently and I was like this thing still cooks Renner's incredible in it Mackie's really good in it it's just a really

really really perfectly made little watch of a movie um should it have won best picture though shouldn't have right no no now not in retrospect but like it was also like when it did win it was actually like super cool and i'm glad it did and i'm glad that katherine bigelow won because she's one of of the best directors we have and is criminally underrepresented in terms of her ability to get stuff off the ground and get stuff made. And she went on to make Zero Dark Thirty

and then Detroit and has kind of been in the wilderness, right? Apparently she's in development on a new film with Netflix at the moment, which is exciting. She was supposed to direct Triple Frontier at one point. She's been attached to a lot of stuff. Oh my God, I forgot about Triple Frontier. Yeah.

Can we revisit it? Well, Ciara and I are going to talk about Spider-Head later this week. Oh, right. Of course. There's a sub-genre of Netflix movie. And they're all secretly good. But no one ever talks about them. And Triple Frontier might be the most important. Oh, right. Of course. There's a sub-genre of Netflix movie. And they're all secretly good. But no one ever talks about them.

And Triple Frontier might be the most important example of that. Bigelow, I feel like, is now better known for Zero Dark Thirty than she is for The Hurt Locker. Which is unusual to become more, I don't know about acclaimed, but certainly more notable for the movie that you made after The Best Picture winner. And then that had two waves of it, right?

It was like, this is an American cinematic masterpiece, and then this is also a film that... Reprehensible. Reprehensible, yeah. I have a question. Do you think we should do a Netflix movie draft? You know, one of the first episodes that popped in the pandemic, I remember this specifically,

was Amanda and I did a Top 10 Netflix Movies episode, just to kind like, when we were still in pure like recommendation engine mode, you know, we were like, this is good, this is good, this is good. So there's a lot of fodder there, but there's also just so much trash. Like we probably should create a category that's like sub 30% Rotten Tomatoes draft pick.

Yeah, right. There's so much junk out there. Started automatically playing when I finished Ozark. Okay. I wouldn't say I'm stumped, but I'm a little bit bummed by where I sit. There are, this is to your point, Amanda, there are a lot of really, really good movies this year that I like a lot, but they don't have the kind of communal exaltation that I think we look for when we're drafting stuff. Right.

Stop playing for letterbox. Play for yourself. You know, turn that frown upside down. Well, today I play for Big Jim. And I take Avatar with my first pick. Sure. Yeah. Don't be an idiot.

That's good. Don't be an idiot. I won't be. I'll be a smart guy. I'm always a smart guy. I don't know. I don't know what category to take it in. You know, i neglected to

to mention the categories here i usually do that at the top of every episode so chris you've already taken uh your oscar nominee and so have you amanda and the other categories in this draft are drama comedy action horror thriller which we have brought back after the last draft blockbuster the threshold is 100 million dollars or more and and Wild Card, of course. So I will take Avatar in... I think I'll take it in action horror thriller. Whoa. Hmm. Interesting.

Hmm. Yeah, I think that's what I'm going to do. Let's see what you take next, because I bet I know what you're doing here. You want to guess? Can I? You can. You're going to guess? Can I? You can. You're going to take

a serious man in Oscar. That wasn't my plan. Okay. Oh. But maybe I should. I don't really have a guess if that's not your plan. The day that I tell you

what to do in one of these drafts, Sean. Yeah. Hmm. That's tough. I mean, obviously, I want to take a serious man. Serious man is

my favorite Coen Brothers movie I think it's their underrepresented masterpiece I had earmarked it in drama kind of a soft drama just kind of a soft drama year yeah

became a real controversial film in the Deakins draft or the Deakins Hall of Fame we argued quite a bit about that this was my like like you just want to like pick this movie because of the movie not because roger deakins did anything special here okay is that when it then then the rango devolved from there that's your call sign by the way i don't know you weren't on the rango

i wanted to be yeah i kind of want to i like the idea of call sign mind hunter okay oh that's good too yeah mind hunter i think that's cool like if you were a pilot and it's like mind hunters behind us it's like i mean it's too many syllables yeah typically only two syllables but oh is it i'd allow it rango's good so yeah i think you should be call sign shots call sign gordo yeah okay guys I'm stumped here I don't know where to take certain things okay I'm

gonna do a serious man in drama this may backfire on me but that feels right I don't know if this is a winning pick but this is a playing for myself pick once you get through Hurt Locker and Glorious Bastards and Avatar I think it's going to be a lot of personal preference stuff yeah for sure for sure um were you gonna be brave enough to take it if he didn't no I like this movie but I have I would

have you would have been very you wanted me to take it just to drive him crazy. Yeah, but I would have egged you on as well. Okay. Well, then I guess I'm glad he took it. I guess. This did. Well, continue. I'll share something with you later in the draft that I've been thinking about. I don't have anything to say.

I expected one of you to take the Coen Brothers film very early in the draft. And I was planning on it. So, so far, everything's working out as I wanted it to. I woke up this morning thinking I was getting the third pick. And so my strategy is playing out. Although it's obviously I would prefer to have Inglourious Bastards. CR, you have another pick. This is a reach.

This is maybe a film that is overrated in my household compared to other households. But I would never forgive myself if I didn't pick this. I'm going with Adventureland in drama. This is the movie that I have rewatched the most from this year with this exception of Inglourious Bastards, and has become the

thing that my wife and I watch when we want to feel better or just have a movie to slip into. You could put it in drama. You could put it in comedy. I'm going to put it in drama. I do think it's pretty poignant and pretty touching in a lot of ways. God damn it, this movie is great. This is maybe the best Ryan Reynolds has ever been in a movie. Kristen Stewart's fantastic in this. Eisenberg, in this weird five-year run of Jesse Eisenberg, is a major movie star who can open films. It was great.

And it's just an awesome Greg Mottola movie. I know, Sean, you love it. I know, Amanda, I think you like it a lot. I just wanted to make sure it went into the portfolio early on. Huge movie for me. I think that's smart. One of my absolute favorites. Yeah. Is that what you were going to take?

My thinking was if I didn't get it, Is that what you were going to take? My thinking was if I didn't take A Serious Man in Drama, if I took it in Oscar, I would have been hoping to get Adventureland in Drama, but I didn't think it would last through

at least two Chris picks. Okay. So that was why I was kind of stumped on it. But you know, hey, everybody's talking about how great K-Stew is now and isn't she just

the greatest actress in the world? And I was there, man. I was there in 2009 just banging a gong screaming about what an incredible actress she was

and of course we love Eisenberg too and this is Eisenberg right before Social Network and just the match made in heaven just a beautiful thoughtful

careful romance story about kind of figuring out where you want your life to go I love this movie I re-watched Social Network the other day great movie

just wanted to share I have two picks yeah it's really good figuring out where you want your life to go. I love this movie. I rewatched Social Network the other day. Great movie. Just wanted to share. I have two picks. Yeah, it's really good. You know, we were right once again. I'm on the record on that one, yeah. 2022 is about me being right about movies. I just am calling all of my shots and they're all panning out.

What are you talking about? You've only been on like six episodes. So have you been long since before then? I mean, sometimes. Yeah. But I mean, Top Gun, I just like, you know, may you all get the experience of feeling as right and as happy as I did. So that just paid off.

You think that you called Top Gun and no one believed in you? Yeah. Yeah. Me and Tom Cruise together. You believed in you? Yeah. Yeah. Me and Tom Cruise together. You and Tom Cruise. Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to start doing that.

I don't want to. I don't want to. I saw fucking KD. He came in. I was just like, nobody believes in this guy, but I do. Yeah.

So I'm feeling good about it. And then recently the Minions trailer debuted with Sabotage. So, and I was like, shit, I got it. All my bits. Here we go. So I'm feeling good about the content. And also the social network is a great movie. I have two picks and I don't know what to do strategically. And the question I'm turning around in my head is like, how brave are the two of you and how vengeful are the two of you and i don't think you're like that vengeful but i never know um i don't i don't seek um i don't seek dispute but i will seek revenge that's the thing that's the thing to keep in

mind about me and these i won't go after your taste but if you go after mine watch out because i will take the English patient having never seen it. That's it. I do remember that. That's... CR, did you check out

Seabiscuit yet? No, I was too busy watching Jurassic Park really closely. Jurassic World. Did you actually go see Jurassic World this weekend? For real?

No. I went and saw, I went and saw Watcher last night, the Michael Monroe heart, like thriller. And somebody brought a baby to the movie. Okay. It wasn't me.

I told Chris it was me. It was out. That was Alice. Yeah. I did think about taking the baby to see Downton Abbey, the new Downton Abbey. What do you think? At like 10 a.m. You think the old people would be okay with that i think that's a great idea it's

such a good vibe i i i absolutely love the new down nabby movie like i i can't even begin to tell you how much how happy it made me which is the dumbest opinion of all time because it's just it's one long episode of down nabby it's not even a particularly good episode but uh i just felt like i was swimming in a giant cup of tea i just did it at the theater i saw it in a movie theater i saw a screening of it um but it was a packed screening and it was a mix of press and just like i guess downton fans i don't know but there was people yeah warm spirit yeah a lot of old people okay um but it's kind of came and went like nobody cared the last one made 100 million dollars and this one's like already gone but

amanda i think you would really like it i'm i know i'll really like it it's just of came and went like nobody cared. The last one made $100 million and this one's like already gone. But Amanda, I think you would really like it. I know I'll really like it. It's just like when I can see it. And should I go by myself or, you know, I like I can't take the baby, but it would be really funny to just take the baby and let him sleep while I watch Watchdown Nabi. It would probably soothe him. OK, I got to make some picks. I think this is tricky here because there's one very thin category for yours truly. I think we can all guess what that is.

And it's not like my pick is great, but also if I don't get this pick, then I am going to be picking Seabiscuit. And then there are some other movies that I really have to have. I'm going to be really pissed at you guys so i guess that's just what i'll do even all right all right it's fine i know what i'm gonna do okay in blockbuster obviously vamp vamp vamp you just you know what yeah like five seconds ago i was letting people into the process bringing you in on the ground floor, okay? In Blockbuster, I will be taking It's Complicated, directed by Nancy Meyers,

my favorite of the Nancy Meyers movies. Not the best of the Nancy Meyers, but my favorite due in large part to the Santa Barbara setting and the immaculate home in the kitchen that she wants renovated, even though, frankly, I think it's perfect. And then there's the garden and all this other stuff. I have fond memories of seeing this at Christmas with my entire family.

I got to tell you that the Alec Baldwin Zoom butt camera experience just absolutely killed with my dad. Loved it. He thought that was really funny. So, you know, something for everyone in this film. Also, you know know this movie made 110 million dollars at the movies which shout out nancy myers the other this is so stupid but i really screwed up on action horror thriller um and i didn't get the hurt locker because that's how the cookie crumbles so i'm going to be taking state of play in action horror thriller i really like this movie holy shit well i re-watched it recently like i said i don't have anything else i forgot to prepare frankly it was 8 55 and i was like i didn't put a third

movie in that category i'm just gonna what no no you what. No, no, no. I did rewatch this. It was really fun. And I guess Chris already took something in this category, but Chris likes this type of movie. So I was like, I don't know. I don't just like this type of movie. This is the reason I get up in the morning. And I'll tell you something else.

I rewatched this with my mom last time I was home in Philadelphia. If this movie came out in 2022, we would dedicate like three episodes to it. Absolutely. This is the kind of movie where we would just be like, I mean, it would never be made as a movie. It would definitely just be a series, which the original British shoot was.

It already was a series. I know that. I fucking, I'm the Christopher Columbus of British food. That's why this movie is so pointless. That's why the, Chris, okay. It's not pointless, okay? It is so pointless. It's peak Ben Affleck sneeze mode.

David Harbour, your best friend, is showing up as like the you know the former contractor guy whatever obviously russell bro helen mirren running the washington post like you know but rachel mcadam is a blogger right that's i remember this so well spotlight no this is cr to his credit you don't know how to have fun. No, I do. I had a lot of fun watching the TV show, which was released like three years before this. And Chris, who has been the king of British television since I've known him,

and was always watching like pirated BBC shows and then telling me about them. And then I had no way to find them without like downloading malware. He was on this really early. That was the only reason I was telling you about them. I was like, you're going to want to go to was telling you about them I was like you're gonna wanna go to this Russian site

when they ask you if you accept the download say yes and then you do one season of Barry on the Prestige TV podcast and then you're suddenly like

let me tell you about the supremacy of television get out of here that's not no but in this case in this case I thought this was

a very very good uh limited british tv series and congratulations with a very good cast and like you're telling me and british people do things in an interesting way like you're trying to tell my point my point is is that this was like hollywood is out of ideas time not like this is a great hollywood movie because the tv show had just come out and it had like bill nye and david morrissey and polly walker and kelly mcdonald no one is making you re-watch this movie no one's making you draft it i drafted it strategically in order to protect myself from chris and also because i forgot to do my fucking homework okay you know i'm just like how many action movies are there i don't know what to

tell you so i i did re rewatch this movie last week. I wasn't feeling very well. Had a great fucking time. I would love it if they made a movie like this. It's on HBO Max, right? Yeah. I think that sounds right. Yeah.

Anyway, that's my pick. This film actually made $90 million at the US box office. Pretty good. We used to make things. We used to make things. Chris, what are you going to make with your second pick? Third pick. So this is, yeah, your second pick third pick so it's this is yeah it's my third pick i you know this is gonna come as a little bit as a surprise

to people i think because i'm known for a certain kind of movie that i like to pick pretty gritty pretty street level but this movie made me float away and i I'm going with Up in Blockbuster. No, absolutely not. Are you serious? Yeah. Are you serious? I'm not sobbing. Sobbing in the movie theater. This is Chris.

God, I love it. I just, I love... There's a 0% chance you saw this movie, Chris. Zero. Fuck you. I saw this movie in a movie theater and cried in the beginning. Are you kidding me?

Up? What? Explain the circumstances. There are exceptions to every... movie in a movie theater and cried in the beginning are you kidding me up what explain what compelled you to go every single person i know being like i saw up and then the first 20 minutes i had to like excuse myself and use like brittle paper towels in the movie theater bathroom to wipe away the tears that were coming out of my head. I was like, alright, everybody is like, even people who don't really fuck with Pixar, even people who don't go see animated films are telling me to go see it. And I went and saw it, and I was like, this can't be that good.

And honestly, I don't even know if the second half of the movie really ever hits the emotional high points, but strategically also, blockbuster-wise, I feel like I needed to uh get something here that i really cared about and that's this um there are exceptions to every rule i'm not sure i believe that you actually saw this film i'm i'm i'm shocked and i'm actually okay with you betraying

the no animation corner yeah it's fine because this is for this well mostly because i think sean was really banking on it and i i like the surprise element and well i also like the the image of you tearing up at the that opening montage and up it really is beautiful i mean pixar now does it in every movie we'll talk about that uh but it still affects me every time so i support you it uh it's an interesting year for you to take a pixar movie from me um from you you said or for you because i'm the only person who usually drafts these movies and then you guys are like how you nerd loser you took a movie that i was never gonna take it sound like we bully you i mean you do when it comes to animation um the this is an interesting one because no argument

on the first 15 minutes of the movie which is like masterpiece just oh my god are you about to do a up is not good it's not it's not it's it's literally it's not top 10 pixar it's honestly not holy crap it's not you are just like on a Sean level right now that even I didn't expect. When we started recording, we were like 9 a.m. We don't normally like ascend to the higher plane at this hour of the morning. And you're already rolling out the defensive up isn't good because I didn't get it in the draft. And people were mad at me last time for doing Finding Nemo. And so now I got to protect myself.

Finding Nemo is wildly superior. You know what? This worked out so much better than I could have expected. I picked Up and now you guys are fighting. No, because Amanda is just in brat mode this morning and wants to explain every pick but Up is not that good.

You can listen to all the Pixar pods that I've made in the past, which you wouldn't because you've never been invited to them, but I don't really tout Up. I listen to every the Pixar pods that I've made in the past, which you wouldn't because you've never been invited to them. But I don't really tout. I listen to every episode of the big picture. And I just happen to think Tom McCarthy is a masterful screenwriter. I'm sorry, Sean. Sean's so mad.

This is Rainbow Face. What's that? Did he write State of Play as well? I think he might have, actually. He may have. That seems very plausible. No, the thing I was going to say is I literally prepared this. That there is a version of this draft

where I could have just gone all animated movies because it's one of the great animated movies of the 21st century. This is the year of Miyazaki's Ponyo, which is way superior,

which I watched with my daughter this weekend. It's the year of Coraline, which is an amazing movie. It's the year of Fantastic Mr. Fox. Those movies didn't make a hundred million dollars. Yeah, but there's other movies

that are on the board. I'm probably going to take one. Actually, I don't have to worry about taking this one yet. Amanda, I forgot. You want to know the screenplay credits for State of Play? Tony Gilroy. Yeah, and Matthew Michael Carnahan and Billy Ray. Yeah.

Yeah. That's right. You think those guys were ever in a room together talking about the script? Who cares? You're so mad. The room was their safety deposit i didn't know that this is how i get like really make you mad we've unlocked a new level just kneeling i'm i'm mad at you for trying to explain something that isn't true okay all right i'm not i'm not mad

i'm surprised that chris because chris he opened the pod by being like i didn't see any movies in 2009 and then it was like I definitely saw Up it's like no you didn't yeah I did I totally saw Up in a movie theater because I was like

I feel fucking weird crying in front of all these people that's me at every Pixar movie except for the most recent one I saw unfortunately

yeah okay alright I'll pick I gotta make some picks so I have drama and action um that was beautiful chris i'm really proud of you john's on tilt yeah no i don't i don't know where to i don't know where to put what i want i mean up is definitively at least the third best

animated movie of that year yes but i didn but none of those movies made $100 billion, so I needed to get one for a blockbuster. I'm not picking it because I'm like, I just don't want to pick what remains after Up in blockbuster. You know what I mean? You're not in on the squeakle? Not a squeakle guy yourself? But why not just take what I'm going to take in blockbuster,

which is Taken, which is better than up. Like what? Taken's fine. Taken's good. That's, that's great. Don't you? I do your girl dad speech now.

Let's go. Let's do it. Oh my God. That's a father. That would be good. Imagine, imagine that. That actually hadn't occurred to me,

but now that I think about it, Oh my God. There's some truth to that. Would I travel? Taken with creating like a market inefficiency and allowing me to travel to uh like eastern europe a little bit you know in the subsequent years because i think people were so afraid of getting kidnapped uh and if they didn't have a liam neeson in their life like really what's what recourse was there did airfare plummet

to bulgaria i wouldn't be surprised i'd have to like look at the my spreadsheets which aren't on a Liam Neeson in their life. Like really, what recourse was there? Did airfare plummet to Bulgaria? I wouldn't be surprised. I'd have to like look at my spreadsheets which aren't on this computer. But yeah, I do think so. How many properties

do you own in Romania right now? Why Airbnbs? You know? Okay. Yeah. You meet people when they check in

or you just do the keypad? There's just like um that little like robot thing that comes with like an ipad with my face and i'm like welcome to bucharest uh okay so i've got i gotta go wes anderson i'm going oscar nominee fantastic mr fox this is a good one i wanted this one this is a good one. I wanted this one. This is a good one. Yeah. This is definitely one of his best. We rewatched this, I think, ahead of the most recent Wes Anderson movie. What was the movie called? French Dispatch.

Yeah. Which was fantastic. And then I watched it again after it came out. And I was like, this movie is amazing. Why is this not in the same? I know it's an anthology. And so those movies are easier to dismiss. French Dispatch yeah yeah the second time i watched it i was like holy shit this is unbelievable that was a movie that i feel like it's uh because that came to max pretty

quickly right is that on hbo max and i think at hulu because they have the searchlight thing where like it's all on whatever it was i felt like it very greatly benefits from being able to hit pause and be like, holy shit, look at this frame and everything that they've put in it. Yeah. And it's a kind of...

It's a uniquely... It's a unique phenomenon to the last couple of years where the theatrical window got shortened so much that you could watch something so dense and be able to go back over a scene

or just look at a sequence or a frame so close to when it was released in theaters. Yeah, I think it also it's very similar to another recent anthology movie Buster Scruggs that was on Netflix and we talked about how you can just like pause it in the middle of one of the stories and then come back to it and not feel like you've missed out on the cinematic experience. Anyway, Fantastic Mr. Fox is not an anthology, but it is a beautiful movie.

Stop motion animation, incredibly well made. Great vocal voice performances in that movie. Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, handful of others. Really, really just a delightful film, which I think we did celebrate on that French Dispatch episode. So that's my Oscar nominee.

Okay, back to you, Chris. What was your pick before the Oscar nominee? Taken. Taken. In Blockbuster. Yeah. So I think for action movie, I'm going to go with Zombieland.

Okay. Which I like a lot. I've rewatched a lot. I think there's some other cool thrillers this year that I'm hoping maybe dropped a wild card. But this was like... When you think about Woody Harrelson and Jesse Eisenberg just being in a pretty giant blockbuster.

Did this make 100, Sean? Was this in blockbuster? Let's check. It did not. Well, even if it didn't, it felt pretty big. Felt pretty big on the streets of Brooklyn. I'm sure Amanda was talking about it. Big enough to get a sequel.

At every MGMT show, every Passion Pit show she went to, it's like, you guys seen Zombieland? Just a really great blend of action and comedy, which is a pretty rare thing, even though that's a very popular genre. It's often very difficult to make well. And I thought that this did it.

And yeah, this is sort of like the kind of this and 28 Days Later. There's this kind of rise of zombie culture that kind of comes up and then peaks with Walking Dead that now still is on 12, 13 years later. So yeah, I think I'll go with Zombieland here.

Okay, great movie. I like this movie a lot. Actually written by the guests of the pod this week, Rhett Reese and Paul Wernick, who also wrote the screenplay for Spiderhead. Yeah. Okay, Amanda, you're up. Okay, in comedy,

I'm surprised that I'm going to be able to do this. And it's perhaps not what everyone's expecting me to pick. And also, I don't want to poke the bear of picking another film that was adapted from a British TV series, Sean. But I will be taking in comedy In the Loop, which is the Armando iannucci adaptation of the thick of it and is probably the hardest that i've ever laughed at any movie ever in the history of movies uh that's it that's that's the tweet um incredible movie i love this movie criminal criminally underseen i would say yeah really really funny um i was gonna say a great comedic and alfini performance yes which um is just lives on i mean they're all being very funny

and the timing and uh yeah good stuff i want to just bobby can we loop in some audio of the crossest man in scotland which is the funniest. Of Jamie's? Yeah. Of Jamie. Jamie's introduction in this movie might be the hardest I've laughed. It's certainly in this movie. Sit down. Now, right, that's enough of all the fucking Oxbridge pleasantries. What's Oxbridge about saying hello? Shut it!

Love actually! Not a whole punch of face! Right. Just unbelievable film. Another British TV series that CR put me onto for the record. Okay. There's several

like eight to ten minute compilations of Jamie from both Thick of It and In the Loop just cursing people out and saying things like, ah yeah, kid gloves

except made with real kids. So people should check that out. Really enjoy him. What's's that actor's name why is that guy not in marvel movies and he's in slow horses oh is that true i haven't watched that yeah yeah oh he's a very like like sort of shy dude in slow horses it's really funny yeah he's delightful okay good okay so that's my comedy and then in drama i'm gonna take an education which uh is the uh lone surefig film starring carrie mulligan and carrie mulligan's kind of like breakout role uh coming of age story um also starring peter sarsgaard it was interesting we watched this last night i was like wonder how this would play in 2022. Uh,

because there, the, the central conceit of the movie is a young, a British school, school girl. She's 16 turning 17. And she, um,

was seduced by an older man. And then things don't really pan out the way she thinks they're going to. But I think the movie is handled with like a lot of care and control and an incredible performance by carrie mulligan that kind of that centers all of it and it's like unexpected in a lot of ways the carrie mulligan is sort of you know so prenaturally um uh just with it in this movie while still learning all of the things that you have to learn in a coming-of-age story i just i think it's incredible and she's one of my favorite actors so um an education this is this is probably a top 10 21st century movie for my wife this is a this is in the rotation of kitchen movies that she would watch yeah while cooking and preparing stuff in the house just really really

likes this movie a lot carrie mulligan she was like hit like a like a bomb it's like who's that she's really great this is also a really underrated comedic performance from rosamund pike in this movie who just kind of plays like the ditzy girlfriend and gets a lot of very funny lines and just absolutely nails all of them and and like the you know to the kitchen movie aspect that aileen loves just like the creation of the world that Carey Mulligan is longing for. Because so much of it is about wanting to just be an adult and be somewhere else other than where she is. And it's so vivid. And I understand you feel the appeal that's created in the movie.

So it's a great movie. Ciara, I don't mean to interrupt but there's some some news that just hit some sad news that I gotta I gotta recognize which is that Philip Baker Hall just passed away oh man he passed away and uh he is I think probably safe to say one of our favorite actors certainly one of the greatest characters of all time yeah all time um you know people know him from Midnight Run and Say Anything. And especially, I think the Paul Thomas Anderson films,

especially those early films, Heart 8, he plays Sidney, the lead figure in that. And one of his best performances ever. Dude, think of a movie that you like. He's probably in it.

Argo. Like he's just in like so many great movies. Incredibly memorable on Seinfeld, you know, of course, Floyd Gondoli and Boogie Nights. He's in so many films that we love. Talented Mr. Ripley.

He's been in everything. I forgot about that. Zodiac. He's been in it all. So shout out to Philip Akerhall. He was an amazing actor. 90 years old. What a life.

Yeah. What an incredible contribution to movies. Seriously. In 2009, he was in three films. The Lodger, Fired Up, and Wonderful World. So, CR, if you want to select any of those films to pay tribute to. Yeah, this is like, you really

fucked me here because now I'm going to take The Hangover and comedy and it just really feels totally off. I didn't expect to walk out of here with the hangover and up, but, uh, these are two of the biggest movies of the year and hangover, you know,

there's like, uh, a lot of like, has hangover aged poorly debate you could have. I do think that like, it's worth just sort of like feeling like this did feel like a return to the kind of raunchy R comedy that I was kind of raised on. And when you're,

when I was seeing it, when I saw it, when it came out, because it was, this was one of the movies I saw that year, obviously I just remember kind of like having that almost uncontrolled controllable laughter for large swaths of this movie. Uh,

I did not expect it to be a trilogy. Um, this is, uh, a really a really really um different kind of brad bradley cooper performance and sometimes in the back of my mind i'm like is that who this guy is a little like more than you know the sort of sweetheart that he sometimes comes off as now uh but uh yeah i'll go i'll go with the hangover in comedy. I like it. I like The Hangover a lot.

Yeah. When it came out, I was like, this is, we have our animal house or whatever. Yeah, it was... It's not as rewarding on the rewatch. It was like a very surprising movie, and I think that that was part of its appeal. You know, it's really remembered for the outrageous aspects of Mike Tyson and the tiger um that incredible closing credit sequence where we see the photos and we

see what really happened to justin parthas character and everybody else um did hangover have like was hangover responsible for a second vegas renaissance after swingers uh for me are you asking personally like for american culture in the culture uh i don't think so those guys get into a lot of trouble you know it's not like you should definitely go to vegas now so you can lose a tooth and nearly get eaten by a tiger um amanda did you like the hangover yeah sure i mean i think i saw it in 2009 once you know and i remember like urban outfitters like sold those t-shirts with like the the hangover baby in the carrier you know so like a tuxedo shirt shirt but like the baby wearing the sunglasses in the carrier i didn't have one i want to be very clear on that but i do remember that

moment um i don't really have like a long-term like living relationship with the hangover except to say do you guys happen to remember when you did the hangover on the rewatchables bill made a joke in the first i want to say five to ten minutes about this movie being about uh zach my husband's uh bachelor party and use it you know and bill used loves to say you know zach baron when he talks about him and so i would say once every month, Zach hears from like a long lost person in his life who's like, hey, like, did you guys really like go to the, you know, do the hangover for your bachelor party? And that's just something that's a gift that keeps on giving to all of us is that people that Zach once knew thinking that that's what he was like,

or you guys were all like on his bachelor party. Should we dispel that mystery now or should we keep like leaning into it? Yeah. Whatever you guys want. Yeah. Zach was the Galifianakis. CR was the Ed Helms. Obviously I was the Cooper. I was Justin Bartha.

Yeah. Yeah. Baking on the roof. Vanished for two full days. Okay. Sorry for anyone who hasn't seen the hangover. That's something that happens in the film. I'm up, huh?

I got two picks. Sean, I have to say your attitude since the up thing is just, you gotta come strong here. I need a little bit more energy. We're done. We're cooked. You know, we've got, Chris, we've got almost 20 years of really, really tight friendship. And it's over because you lied about watching a Pixar movie. And the

bonds that we forge on this podcast are true. They are meaningful. And what I do is I tell you the truth. I speak honestly with you. And you would dare to come into this space. You think I'm lying about having seen Up?

You're using the tricks you learned from State of Play. These are rapscallion mistruths. And you're using the tricks you learned from state of play. You know, these are rapscallion, you know, mistruths and you're, you're, you're, you're spoiling the integrity of the show.

Amanda, at least, you know, she's true to herself by being really mean about stuff that isn't that important. That's, that's true to Amanda. But you,

I don't know. I do. Chris, in two sentences, what happens in Up? They float away on the balloon. And he thinks about like his life that leads him to that. I didn't say I'd seen it recently.

That's why I asked. That's good. I mean, I don't, I don't think I would have a better description. There's like, it's like hour and a half is very unmemorable. The old man and the kid become friends. Right. And the world like builds up around him, but that's like the final like hour and a half is very unmemorable the old man

and the kid become friends right and the world like builds up around him but that's in the montage yeah but then they go to south america and then they land and then they go to the garbage planet and there's like the robot kind of waddling back and forth right you know i will say though the one thing about that is that period of pixar and this is highlighted, this is deeply underscored by the movie Lightyear. That period was so amazingly creative. Like every movie that they put out, original stories, totally unique. You know, that WALL-E up period of time

was just so exciting. And it does feel like Pixar is in a slightly more homogenized IP focused era, which is unfortunate. Okay, so I got to make two picks. One, I'm surprised, you know, man, I'm really surprised

you didn't take this one. Maybe you're not the biggest fan of this one, but in comedy, I'm going The Informant, which is probably the second, second funniest movie of the year after In the Loop.

And definitely one of Damon's best performances and one of the most entertaining Steven Soderbergh movies. This is another two first Soderbergh year. What a fucking G. Just cranking two out a year. Yeah. This one another two first Soderbergh year. What a fucking G. Just cranking two out of year.

Yeah. This one's really good. It's written by Scott Burns. It's based on a true story about an Archer Daniels Midland executive in Illinois who is like Chris, a big liar. You know, just a deeply dishonest person

who gets himself into a whole heap of trouble but never realizes he's not the hero. And it's a really funny movie. Did very modest business. Didn't get a ton of Oscar nominations. And then I think it was one of those movies that like a year later, people were like, oh, right, actually another Soderbergh masterpiece.

Like we keep doing this. It's been 20 years of this. So if anybody hasn't seen The Informant, it's really, really funny and really, really odd and has an unusual tone. It's like somewhere between satire and broad comedy. He cast like a bunch of comedians in this one i think was through some people off where it was like it's like kind of a drama but it's entirely cast with like and it's also a relatively new damon yeah you know it's not what you expect from matt damon both

like comedic wise and also just in terms of he's not the, you know, every guy figuring things out. Yeah, but you're right, Chris. It was like Joel McHale and Tom Papa and Alan Havey and Patton Oswalt. Like they're all in this movie playing like relatively straight parts, but it can't help but give this movie like a comic tint. Okay, so that's comedy.

I got one more category left. It's wild card. I got to take Ponyo, guys. I don't know if you haven't seen Ponyo, the Miyazaki movie. Um, it's absolutely beautiful. It's kind of Miyazaki's Pinocchio.

It's about a goldfish that, uh, wants to be a real, real girl and makes a friend. And, and it's, it's an under the sea movie. And so obviously the like literal waves of color and magic that are in every

Miyazaki movie are really fascinating. He makes movies either like in the sky, in the ghost world, or in the water. And this one's in the water. And it's one of the best. And it was really cool watching Alice, who literally will not fucking sit still now. Like, it's just crawling all over the house nonstop every day. My life is so tiring now. Wait, are we in a full crawl?

Oh, it's everywhere, Amanda. Yeah. You didn't see the video. You're not into it? No so tiring now oh it's all everywhere amanda yeah yeah video you're not into it no it's i mean it's amazing well she's like army crawling but then she gets up on her hands and knees and like rocks back and forth but she moves really fast and so the idea of like getting anything that will get her to sit still for 20 30 minutes is very exciting now and this is why kids end up like being plopped in front of the television. It's not because you like want to go on a, you know, go to the bar or something.

It's more just like, I'm tired. Like at the end of the day, I'm really tired chasing her around. But she was locked in. She was captivated yesterday morning. I'm sure the colors

are just amazing in this one. Yeah. It's visually beautiful and mind-blowing and it's about a little girl. You know, it's about a goldfish who becomes a little girl.

Yeah. So I hope just the first of manyyazakis to come in our household and uh a really really genuinely great film uh okay are we going back chris you got one more pick yeah uh this is not a film i would show alice in wild card i'm taking a perfect getaway oh i didn, I think I'd forgotten this movie was this year. Yeah, it's David Toohey's thriller starring Steve Zahn, Timothy Oliphant, and Mila Jovovich. This is Apex Mountain for Jovovich for me.

And it is just this really, really electrifying, dark, tight thriller that starts out in one place and goes in like five different directions as you think you know what's going on and you think you have a handle on what the feeling is. And two, he's just really good at these formal experiments, especially his director work, but he's just a great screenwriter anyway.

And he just figures out like everybody's going to be expecting this to happen let's go left but even the left turns always feel earned and always feel right and this movie is just if you haven't seen this i don't want to get too far into it please go watch it it is an absolute like firecracker of a thriller i love this movie yeah really i was just googling to try to figure out where in hawaii it was do you remember uh i don't know which island it's on sorry no it's okay um good movie was this on your long was this on your long list amanda no it wasn't i forgot that it came out this year but i am a big fan of hawaii as you know also features an early chris hemsworth um okay final pick

dobbins what do you? I have a lot of options for wildcard. In a lot of ways, it's sort of a wildcard year, which I don't really mind because I like movies that cater to my interests. I think what am I going to do here? I, you know,

the movie I didn't pick that I think will surprise everyone is Julie and Julia, which is the Nora Ephron film about Julia Child and also Julie Powell played by Amy Adams, who's the woman. It's about blogs, you know, and blogging was an important part of my 2009, both in terms of my music tastes and my profession. But I like that movie a lot. I obviously Nora Ephron's very important to me. I think the Meryl Streep half of it is really good, but the other half is like whatever.

So I'm actually not going to pick it. The September issue came out this year, which was the Vogue documentary behind the scenes, which is pretty good as those things go. But I'm going to, this one's for my dad. I'm going to do I Am Love, which is the Luca guadagnino film starring um tilda swinton and is sort of like the first in his unofficial trilogy of

people living really well in italy among other things um you know in a lot of ways this is like a house of gucci gucci but like accomplished uh no disrespect to House of Gucci, which I also really loved. And this, I remember my dad saw this movie and was so taken with it. And I think this is his favorite movie of certainly this year and, you know, many years around it and encouraged me to go see it. So another one I saw by myself and probably my first Guadagnino film. And I remember it as like a really incredibly sumptuous visual, sensual experience, which is what the movie's about in a lot of ways. But it's really wonderful if you haven't seen it. And yeah, beautiful stuff.

That's the theme of Luca Guadagnino this is a really good one really really good really good Tilda Swinton performance really beautiful just the best the gowns you know such such such beautiful gowns yeah I mean it is it is beautiful gowns but turn to high art that's it that is that is

we've made all of our picks let's do a quick recap of our picks okay Let's do a quick recap of our picks. Okay, we're going to start with drama. Chris got Adventureland. I got A Serious Man

and Amanda got An Education. In comedy, Chris got The Hangover. I got The Informant. Amanda got In The Loop. Very strong comedy here. Yeah.

In Oscar nominee, Chris got The Hurt Locker. I got Fantastic Mr fox and amanda got inglorious bastards in action horror thriller chris got zombie land i got avatar amanda got state of play that happened in blockbuster chris got up a movie he's seen that he saw in a movie theater. I got taken. Go back to my taxes to find the tickets. I would welcome that. We could do an entire episode about your taxes from 2009. Yeah.

Janet Yellen would love to hear about that. In Wild Card, Chris got a perfect getaway. I got Ponyo and Amanda got I Am Love. We left a lot on the table here. We did. We did. Let's talk about what we left on the table. Sean, Paranormal Activity.

Blockbuster and horror movie. Yep. Starts a franchise that's still with us. Do you remember the first one fondly? I do. I liked it quite a bit. It had a great storyline to it, a kind of external storyline

in addition to the movie itself, which was that Oren Peli made it for like, I think under half a million dollars, maybe under like $250,000. I just this weekend watched a documentary on Shudder called The Found Footage Phenomenon

that tracks the entire, like the long arc of found footage movies over the last like 60 years. And so there's a lot of time dedicated to paranormal activity in that documentary. And it's interesting. I mean, it's kind of like the franchise

that built Blumhouse, you know, like it really did because it was so, it's considered, I still think it's considered the most profitable movie of all time because of how cheaply it was made and how huge it was culturally. It's pretty it's not looking back on it it's pretty good like it works really well but once you've seen it once you don't really need to return to it that often but you know they're still cranking them out we saw next of kin the paranormal i think paranormal

activity 7 last i loved it i enjoyed it yeah it was good uh so that was a big one um i had a trick or treat was another horror movie that i had on my list that i like a lot another anthology movie where you have the house of the devil love love ty was pretty close to how i got introduced to ty west yeah i really like that movie manda i don't think you would enjoy house of the devil that's just one of them yeah i don't know what you guys have been talking about for the last two minutes, but I support you. Greta Gerwig's in it though. Oh, okay. Yeah.

She's really, really, really cute in it. Really fun. It's like a homage to the sort of like slasher babysitter movies from the eighties. And it's a very slow burn. This is an amazing year for foreign film.

And I kind of feel bad that we didn't take more foreign films, but this is the year of enter the void. It's the year of the white ribbon uh the year of thirst and mother so we got park chen wook bong joon-ho it's the year of odiards a prophet it's the year of dog tooth yorgos lanthimos's film like a really really strong international year um amanda you got i am love and i got ponyo we did a little bit of work chris of course never never leaves the United States unless he's going to Bulgaria to tend to his Airbnb.

Service my rental properties. Yeah. Yeah. What else is on the board, Chris? Well, let's see. We got a couple of interesting wild cards that in the time

were actually like real either sensations among like people who were following movies or felt like big deals at the time and then sort of have been lost to history some of those are moon uh jennifer's body like there's a couple in here like that um gosh what else drag me to hell we didn't talk about is that 09 isn't it or was it just a big maybe it was like kind of a crossover year

the other one that i thought was like one that I anticipated quite. It was, you're right Chris. I should have taken that. Why didn't I just take that? I don't know. But another one that like I think Amanda and I probably were looking forward to quite a bit that came out this year is Duplicity. Yep. And

we all had a lot of high hopes for Tony. Let's just do it again. We get this question in mailbag a lot of just like, what movie would you redo? I want exact same team. Give me Tony Gilroy, give me Clive Owen, give me Julia Roberts. Let's take what we've learned and do it again. On first viewing is

legitimately incomprehensible. It ends and you're just like, I don't even know how to feel about how this movie resolved itself because I have no idea what happened. It's so complicated. Yeah. I,

should we revisit it? That would be like the least listened to watch along ever. But if we just tried to explain what is it? It's corporate espionage. Is that really like pharmaceutical corporate espionage? And I think it, I mean, I don't want to give it away.

Yeah. Solve baldness at one point. Yeah. Oh, sick. And then there's like yeah pineapple pizza i'm not really sure uh i'd like to revisit it okay i mean i'm always happy to i had it on my like long wild card list just and you know because at least they were like playing to my interests and it's not

like it makes no sense but it's not unwatchable in fact it's pretty fun you know it's another well one we didn't talk about District 9 at all which was a huge one because it was a blockbuster sensation from a filmmaker we'd never really heard from before and was

Best Picture nominated which now seems utterly bizarre because Best Picture never nominates genre films like that. Mike Judge's Extract was this year.

Do you guys see that? That's Jason Bateman one yeah yeah cr you're gonna watch also in state of play oh yeah that's right he's really good in state of play yeah yeah it's kind of an ozark was uh was where the wild things are this year yeah that was on my speaking of blog amanda yes it was I think I might have seen that with you, Sean. That's very possible. I just completely blanked on Where the Wild Things Are and Dragon to Hell Being this year. Those are two movies I probably would have drafted.

That's fucking crazy. This was a beautiful movie. You guys know Where the Wild Things Are with Alice yet, Sean? Yeah. Well, we were honestly in the womb. We were reading that all the time. That was a big one. We did too.

Before we go to sleep. My dad sent it so we've been reading it and I didn't realize that Max has a private boat just like a very key component of the story that I was like

this explains so much about me and my interests that Max yeah he's taking a private boat to where the wild things are maybe he should

maybe he should have directed that adaptation I always thought that was such an interesting film and very different you know I gotta say like one of the best gifts we ever got was a collection

of Maurice Sendak books from Amanda and Zach. Oh, yeah. We read those books. Do you, Pierre? All the time. All the time. Pierre is my number one.

Chicken soup with rice. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, dude, they're phenomenal. We read Pierre a lot in this home. In case you don't know, Pierre yells, I don't care a lot. So you guys can understand why it's an Amanda favorite. Big Amanda energy in all the Sendak books. Yes.

Does learn to care. So that's good. That's important as I am learning to care every day. Yeah. Where the wild things are, the movie though made me weep once again. I mean, there's like a lot of arcade fire in this again, very specific moment in time in 2009. Chris, will you listen to the future movie parenting episodes that Amanda and I do of course yeah will you give us feedback on whether or not they rise to the level of up

I feel like it's going to be a while before I live that down but I honestly don't regret it yeah it's nice it's beautiful where be a while before I live that down, but I honestly don't regret it. Yeah, it's nice. It's beautiful. Where do you stand on a single man, Amanda? Just beautiful gowns, like the most gorgeous gowns I've ever seen in my entire life. And they all look immaculate. And I think that there is a appeal in that.

And I think it fits the story better. That worked more for me than um nocturnal animals which is reverse for me yeah right exactly you know yeah uh but it's not on my i guess it was on my long list maybe but i didn't really think i was ever gonna have to go to a single man you know movie is sick from this year is Yom Colet-Saro's Orphan. Oh my God. Wait, but then the twist is that I obviously never saw this movie, but I remember that. Don't spoil it for people. Don't spoil it.

If you haven't seen Orphan, turn this podcast off and watch Orphan. To bring it back to blogging, this was the year of when blogs would just be like, LOL, can you believe that this is what this movie is about and i remember many a blog post about orphan yeah but they had the decency to do that like three weeks after the movie had been out rather than like the night it comes out being like damn the end of maverick was really like that like that's true one of chris's number one pet peeves uh any other honorable mention there's a lot of other movies. After every episode, people are like,

you fucking assholes forgot to say blank. What about, so Bright Star, which is my favorite Jane Campion film. Oh, yeah. Yours and Joe's,

as I learned when I listened to that episode. That's yours too, Amanda? Yeah, of course. That's great. It is so good. It's so underrated. I think Fish Tank is this year.

Oh, fuck. Fish Tank's this year? Which is like, is it underrated I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think

I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think

I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think

I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think

I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think

I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think I think Can I be the guest on the dog tooth episode? Sure. Okay, great. We've been deploying that method here in our household. It's been going pretty well, you know? And we've been calling you up. That's the word we use for you, Chris. So everything's going swimmingly. Yeah. From now on, when you come to our house,

you have to bring a giant bouquet of balloons, like the largest balloons that you can find. You're this all the Float up the stairs? Yeah, exactly. Any other movies? I don't think... We didn't mention Girlfriend Experience, except to say, you know, there were two great Soderbergh movies this year.

I do feel like I portrayed my guy there a little bit, but that's a good movie. I was surprised. Yeah. I was surprised. I don't know. You had to get State of play in there you know Tarantino and Soderbergh

get the most draft you make up the categories and I'm just working out as best I can and I just have to say if you guys are looking for a mindless movie to watch tonight

state of play a plus experience can I like mention also some real Amanda shit that I was never gonna pick but this is the year of the young Victoria which is the Emily Blunt movie about being young Queen Victoria pretty good honestly as quality some real Amanda shit that I was never going to pick. But this is The Year of the Young Victoria, which is the Emily Blunt movie about being young Queen Victoria. Pretty good, honestly.

Quality flick. Yeah, I like it. Yeah. And then a movie that's not as good, but I had a great time seeing, which is The Last Station, which is about Tolstoy. And it's Christopher Plummer playing Tolstoy. And Helen Mirren's also in that. James McAvoy, back when James McAvoy was really... I mean, he's always shining in my book, but it was very exciting. That's definitely another one I saw alone at Weird Art House Theater at two on a Sunday with a bunch of elderly individuals. But we all had a lovely time.

Two movies by great filmmakers that didn't quite work but are still really interesting if you have the time. Two Lovers, the James Gray movie. Oh, I love Two Lovers. And Public Enemies, the Michael Mann movie with Depp and Bale. Which I thought was going to be the greatest film I had ever seen when it came

out and it was not. Is Two Lovers 09? Oh, you're right. It is 09. I think so, yeah. I guess it was at Cannes in 08 and then released early in 09 sheesh that's a great film Public Enemies I don't understand at all I think that might be my least favorite of the man films I was always baffled by that

it might be mine too my least favorite yeah it doesn't like I legitimately have watched Black Hat more than Public Enemies Black Hat is at least funnier yeah there's at least some comedy in that one Black Hat is than Public Enemies. Black Hat is at least funnier. Yeah, there's at least some comedy in that one. Black Hat is a prequel to Spider-Head, Chris?

That's kind of a good bit, right? That is a Chris Hemsworth archetype, though, of Chris Hemsworth as Brainiac. Yeah, super smart, jacked, beautiful Chris Hemsworth. Wearing glasses, yeah. Do you guys think I'll like Spider-Head? yes super smart jacked beautiful Chris Hemsworth wearing glasses yeah do you guys think I'll like spider head should I watch spider head before I listen to the podcast or will I enjoy it more if I

okay great great I don't think I mean I do spoil it that have did you read the story no it's pretty faithful to the story um the story is fantastic I just cracked open 10th of December last night that Saunders collection of short stories, which is one of the best short story collections

in the last 20 years. I know you don't like short stories, Amanda, but in this case, maybe consider an exception. I make an exception for George Saunders. I'm not like a, you know, idiot. But in general, write a novel is what I have to say. All right. Well, there's a lot of other movies,

but we're not going to name them. Spiderhead's coming up. Sierra, are you pumped? I am. Pumped like Chris Hemsworth doing experiments on people. That would be a sight to see. Amanda, you feeling good?

You feel like you drafted well? I'm really happy that I got Inglourious Basterds because I love that movie very much. You don't seem happy, Sean. Yeah, you don't seem happy, Sean. Yeah, you don't seem happy. And like, I wasn't going to say it.

You seem exasperated with me in a way that we haven't really gotten to since, you know, I had a kid. He's exasperated with both of us, which is hard. But yeah, that is nice. You played into the CR heads game. Like you may have cost yourself this draft because now they're going to take Up Up

as a cause celeb here. They're going to take up up as a cause celeb here they're going to be like we all know up is the one true pixar movie and you're going to lose a draft in which you drafted inglorious bastards first overall you did this to yourself so you wanted me to draft up in order to keep no chris no i'm playing cr heads no what i didn't want is for you to attack me to take the heat off of me, making the very clear and obvious point that Chris has never seen up. I've definitely seen up. So you wanted me,

you wanted a Sean Amanda Alliance. Surely, you know, that's never going to happen. You know, if that happens, we have to stop doing these pods. It's like,

that's, that is actually, you and I, you and I have like three to four real emotional moments a year and they're never when competition is involved. Well, they're emotional here,

but they're just not the way you want them to be. Yeah. They're not sincere expressions of friendship. Yes. OK, that's fair. Well, but here's the thing

that you had two options. You could have just not you could have just not talked. You could have just sat there and waited for the next pick or you could have attacked me and you went with attack, which is, you know,

you already had inglorious bastards. Every day. I just sat on your hands. Okay. I just, it's as I woke up this morning and I decided to be me. That's all I can do. What a delightful movie draft.

Thanks everyone for listening. Thanks to Amanda and Sierra and of course the Wags. Bobby, thank you for your production work on this episode. As I mentioned, Sierra and I will be back later this week to talk about Spiderhead. See you then. Thank you.