The Big Picture - The 2011 Oscars Were a Travesty. Let’s Fix That.

Episode Date: April 13, 2021

With key victories at the DGAs and BAFTAs in the books, Sean and Amanda discuss whether it’s all over but the shouting for 'Nomadland’ and the Best Picture prize at the Academy Awards (0:30). Then, they travel back in time 10 years to redo one of the most egregious movie award ceremonies in recent memory: the 2011 Oscars (30:46). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Bakari Sellers podcast tackles the most pressing current events through conversations and interviews with high-profile guests. Building upon his experience in South Carolina government and politics, and his experience as a lawyer, Sellers will talk to his guests about all topics from the world of politics. Check out the Bakari Sellers podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the Academy Awards and the crushing news about the impending end

of one of the great exhibition movie experiences of our lifetime. We have a very fun episode of The Big Picture coming up soon. We are redoing in its entirety the 2011 oscars i hope you will stick around for that we'll even talk about the upcoming oscar race but amanda and i are re-recording late in the day because we've gotten some frankly terrible news genuinely depressing horrible news which is that our favorite movie theater, our movie home, since we moved to Los

Angeles, Amanda, five years ago, me, nine years ago, the Arclight movie theater chain apparently is not reopening. And I'm really sad about this. How are you feeling, Amanda? I am personally gutted. Listen, it has been a year of loss. And on the scale of things, like a movie theater that charges a lot for tickets is small. But as you said, it has been a huge part of my life, a huge part of your life, a huge part of the lives of a lot of people in Los Angeles who go to see movies, which, by the way, is primarily what Los Angeles does. So a pretty big community. And I've really been looking forward to it reopening. I drove by the Pasadena location just this weekend and like tempted the fates and said to my husband, won't it be so nice when the arc light reopens? We're so close because we moved during the

pandemic and we can, you we can still go back to the arc light. And I just kind of feel like my insides dropped out a little bit. Me too. I think you make a good point, which is to keep things in perspective here about the concept of loss during this time. But for us, obviously, this is a very big deal. We talk about this movie theater issue all the time on the show. It's very upsetting. It's been very upsetting for people who work in this industry over the course of It's very upsetting. It's been very upsetting for people who work in this industry over the course of the last 14 months. There's been a sense that things may never be as they once were.

You know, the Arclight Cinemas and Pacific Theater Locations issued a statement. I'll read that quickly so that people have a sense of what's going on here. Here's the statement. After shutting our doors more than a year ago, today we must share the difficult and sad news that Pacific will not be reopening its Arclight Cinemas and Pacific theater locations.

This was not the outcome anyone wanted, but despite a huge effort that exhausted all potential options, the company does not have a viable way forward. To all the Pacific and Arclight employees

who have devoted their professional lives to making our theaters the very best places in the world to see movies, we are grateful for your service and your dedication to our customers,

to our guests and members of the film industry who have made going to the movies such a magical experience over the years. Our deepest thanks. It has been our honor and a pleasure to serve you. I, of course, am one of those patrons and have been going to the Arclight honestly nonstop since I moved here. I have spent countless hours with you, with Chris Ryan, with my many friends and my wife here, basically creating a social experience around going to the movies, which is something, Amanda, that we've been talking about a lot in our movie drafts.

The movie drafts have been oriented around personal experience. And we just talked about 2016, the year that you moved here and the amount of time that we spent going to the movies together. So this just, it's cutting deep, obviously. Chris Ryan took me to see The Invitation,

a huge mistake at the Hollywood Arclight. You know, I was thinking about, I saw A Star is Born at the Arclight with your wife. I saw Joker, again with Chris Ryan, and a woman who decided to bring her dog to like the 3 p.m. showing at the Hollywood Arclight. I have seen so many weird movies that no one else would go see with me alone at the Arclight. I made friends at the Arclight bar. Sean, do you remember this? Like right before the pandemic, I found my new social scene, which was the Hollywood Arclight bar. If the, if the gentleman who was also there and who also went to see Sonic the Hedgehog on a Sunday afternoon, I believe in February of 2020 is listening to this. Like my guy, I'm sorry we

didn't get to meet. And, and that's stupid, but that we both went to see Sonic the Hedgehog, but that's what the Arclight could do. Like it was, and that was another, I think that we should try to like explain what the Arclight is to people who don't live in Los Angeles, because otherwise we're just like two babies crying about like a movie theater closing, which in one way is a log line for this podcast, but in another, it's like, you know, it's, there are a lot of places to see movies in the world and also in Los Angeles. But to me, it was always the place for other like actual movie nerds and even slightly different from some place like the Alamo Drafthouse,

which is obviously wonderful, but was like, let's hang and watch a movie. And I'm like, basically not chill enough for the Alamo Drafthouse. Like I, at the Arclight, you reserve your seats and people are very, are serious and are there because they want to see a movie and no one's on their phones. And it's like, I'm making it sound like a real Killjoy experience. And it's not, but people cared about the movies. That's what it was. It's a cathedral with candy.

That's what the place is. It's a fun church of movies. And it may not be the absolute best movie theater in the country, but everyone has their own personal relationships to the movie theaters that they love. If you listen to this show and you love movies, you have a place that you love to go to see your favorite movie. We just talked about the new Godzilla movie.

Was it the best movie in the world? No. We had a fun time watching it at home. I would have liked it five times as much if I could have seen it in the Cinerama Dome. You know, the Cinerama Dome is one of the, is the signature movie theater at the Arclight Hollywood, which is the Arclight that we frequented most.

And that is one of the most historic movie theaters in the city of Los Angeles. There have been countless premieres of iconic films over the last 60 years at the Cineramidome. And the idea of not being able to see a movie there, I'm just thinking of a handful of experiences I had at the Arclight off the top of my head. I spent 45 minutes with Adam Sandler and the Safdie brothers at a showing of uncut gems a couple of years ago at the Cinerama Dome. 12 hours after the most raucous holiday Grantland party at Bill Simmons's backyard, I saw Prometheus with Andy Greenwald and Chris Ryan, and Andy almost vomited all over everybody in the movie theater. He brings that up once every three months on the watch. I saw The Master with Chris Ryan at a midnight screening with all of my real PTA heads. And

when we exited the theater, we all became as one. We were one cult of Paul Thomas Anderson. And I also saw Sonic the Hedgehog on a Wednesday at 6 p.m. And I was like, you know what? This is actually pretty good. This movie is not as bad as I thought it was going to be. All of those experiences are in my mind right now because I have such a big relationship to this place. And, you know, second home, it feels like it was just bulldozed. So I'm struggling. I've got a few more.

Joint birthday party, Mission Impossible, Fallout. Oh, that was great. Yeah, that was really fun. And then we had like $500 worth of sushi afterwards. That was incredible we also like and i don't normally do like alcohol at the movies because i like to focus and also because there's a bathroom issue but i'll just never forget i had like two beers before mission impossible fallout and we had like perfect dead center arclight dome tickets and those aisles are a bit uh you know narrower it's tight and so i just like i couldn't miss a moment

i couldn't go to the bathroom but the last 30 minutes were like extra extra stressful for amanda dobbins but i made it uh i think i talked about this on the last draft but saw la la land there which like now that it didn't win best picture but my first year in los angeles on the in the dome like the old hollywood vibe was amazingrait of a Lady on Fire saw on that giant screen. I mean, imagine that. God, it's really... Here's the thing. The dome, as you mentioned,

is such like a historic Los Angeles structure. You know, already on Twitter, people are like, save the dome. And it does seem like in some capacity, the Cinerama Dome will live on whether it's with the Arclight or not. I don't really know. I don't want it to be a museum though.

I want it to be a place to see movies. Yeah. That's what I love. That's what I care about is seeing movies at the Cinerama Dome at the Arclight. That's been the signature experience of culture in my time living in this city. So how do we do that? What can we do? Can the big picture do anything? I don't know. I've already gotten a bunch of messages from people

who are like, let's band together and save this place. I would love to be a part of that. I don't know how to do it. I've never done anything like that before. But if anybody has any experience organizing an effort like this, I would love to participate. As would I. I mean, it's daunting, right? I would also like to buy the one in Pasadena that I mentioned just so I can like go see Murder on the Orient Express or yeah, or Death on the Knot, which they're never going to release probably with good reason. But that's where we saw it.

You know, like I want also a local neighborhood place that still actually has reverence for movies and is not just all the tent poles that they're trying to sell me with the action figures or whatever. But I don't know how to do it. It is a really daunting time for the industry. We should say I really feel for all of the people who work at Arclight who are so lovely, who also clearly really care about movies and add to the experience and who have been without a job for a year. And I just, I thank them. And I hope that someone is able to band together and save this experience and also, you know, offer them a job because they were an essential part of it. I completely agree. Appreciate all the work that they did for us to let us see movies. It felt like we were six weeks away from all of this really opening back up. A Quiet Place Part 2 is opening soon.

Cruella is opening soon. The Los Angeles County, June 15th, wide open order was around the corner. And no Arclight. It's very, very sad. Hopefully, this isn't the end of this story. Hopefully, we'll be able to talk about good news. Hopefully we can participate in some good news. Until then, let's just talk about

whatever else we're talking about on this episode. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the Academy Awards then and right now. Later in the show, Amanda and I will travel back in time to 2011 to correct the record on an award show that has been bugging us. The 2011 Academy Awards. What happened that year?

Well, the best movies of 2010 did not necessarily win the awards. So today we change history. But first, let's talk about the future of the Academy Awards, namely what to expect at this year's ceremony. Amanda, over the weekend, there were two relevant ceremonies, the BAFTAs and the DGAs. The BAFTAs in particular, I think, showed us where the Oscars are going. We saw some surprises. We saw some not-so-surprises. What did you think of the BAFTAs over the weekend? Didn't watch them. Unusual for me. They were watchable. I read that they didn't have great ratings, but there's a time difference. I had things to do. Wait, an award show did not have good ratings in 2021? That is surprising. So my experience of them was you texting me

that Anthony Hopkins won Best Actor over Chadwick Boseman, which was a surprise, unless you are examining the Baptist history of awarding Black actors and Black actresses, in which case it was not a surprise. But I think we thought and still think that Chadwick Boseman is an absolute lock for a Best Actor at the Oscars. And I don't totally think this changes it, even though I expected him to kind of sweep all the awards and he did not. Yeah, it's an interesting thing because in many years, the BAFTAs is somewhat predictive of the Oscars. There are 7,000 BAFTAs members and there's a great deal of crossover with the Academy. And the Anthony Hopkins performance and the Father in particular is clearly very well

liked. And Anthony Hopkins is very well liked. And I think if this were a year in which Chadwick Boseman did not give that performance in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom, and particularly if we're not going to be rewarded posthumously, I could see a universe in which Anthony Hopkins picks up his second Academy Award after his win for Silence of the Lambs. But we haven't really given that much thought until this award was handed out. You know, Anthony Hopkins is Welsh, and so that is a native prize for him. But also, I don't know. The Academy is weird.

You never can tell. And I think we're expecting some surprises in the Best Actress race. Maybe Best Actor opens up. I don't know that I would necessarily feel good about it opening up. I would like to see Chadwick Boseman win that best actor prize. But you don't think that there's much chance there. There's always a chance. It's, you know, see Olivia Colman unseating Glenn Close, who we assumed was a lock for different reasons, but in the broader sense

of like an Oscar narrative and a person who people want to reward as much as a performance, even though I think Chadwick Boseman's performance in Ma Rainey's Black Bottom is also deserving outside of the narrative. Anthony Hopkins himself does not seem to think he's going to win or care because according to his delightful Instagram, he is just, he is vaccinated and he is traveling the world. He was in, I believe Turks and Caicos a few weeks ago, um, adopting a kitten with the help of at least 10 people, according to his Instagram, which he thanked all of them. It's very nice. And then this weekend, he Instagrammed from Wales.

So if you've been following the how do international nominees get back to Los Angeles in time for the Oscars, where the window is closing on the 10-day required quarantine. And it would seem that Anthony Hopkins doesn't really care, which honestly, respect to Anthony Hopkins. Seems like he's having a great time in his travels. Perhaps he will go to one of the satellites where they're holding the awards. There are going to be

a handful of satellites scattered around the globe, but still, it does not seem like he's interested in LA right now. He did quarantine for over a year in Pacific Palisades in Los Angeles. So it was like he was already here. And then as soon as he was, I don't have any access to Anthony Hopkins' life or, you know, medical records, nor should I, you know, assume to. I just know what I see on Instagram, which is that he got vaccinated and then he started traveling. This, of course, is the only podcast where you can hear about Anthony Hopkins' medical records. I'm saying, I'm not trying to project. I don't know and I don't want to make assumptions, but I'm glad he got vaccinated. I like the idea of him playing hard to get with the Oscars.

Him tempting the fates by saying, you know what? Maybe I won't come to your show. Maybe I'm not interested. There was some slightly chalkier returns at the BAFTAs as well. Chloe Zhao won Best Director and Nomadland won Best Picture, which we'll get to the DGAs very shortly, but it appears that

Nomadland is tightly tying the bow on top of its award season right now because things have been moving strongly in their direction. In addition to that, Frances McDormand also won Best Actress at the BAFTAs, which now means we've seen various winners. I think a different person has won all of the key awards thus far through the season

for best actress, if I've got that right. Andra Day, of course, won at the Golden Globes. At SAG, we had Viola Davis. And now at BAFTAs, we have Frances McDormand. And there's a part of me that still thinks Carey Mulligan is in the race. And Carey Mulligan hosted SNL this weekend. That's right. And it was quite successful. I've had several people send me the lesbian period drama satire that Carey Mulligan was in. And to put it in context,

people don't send me SNL skits because I don't watch them. That's not my corner of the world. So it was a breakthrough. Yeah, so that's four strong contenders right now. And I don't know, anything can happen. Just gut check right now. Who do you think is winning best actress? I have no idea. Viola Davis, I think probably because the SAG overlap, I mean, actor to actor. And she hasn't won in the best actress category. She won best supporting,

I believe, but not best actress. And Frances McDormand obviously won recently in best actress. But I could be totally wrong. I really don't feel confident. Yeah, it'll be fascinating to see because for Frances McDormand, there's, of course, a lot of history on the line. There are only two women who have three Academy Awards in acting categories. Those women are Katherine Hepburn and Meryl Streep.

So she's vying for something special. And Viola Davis, obviously winning two would be a major achievement. There are vanishingly few people who would have two. What's Meryl's third? She's got Iron Lady. She's got Kramer versus Kramer. I think it's one of her signature performances, and I can't recall it.

Let's look it up. I kind of thought she only had two, because Iron, she won after not winning for all of them. It is arguably her signature performance, Sophie's Choice. Oh, yeah. Okay. So profound, it's easy to forget. So yeah, Meryl, of course, is historically dominant. And Frances McDormand, you know, anytime she appears in a film, there is a narrative about its awards worthiness. So we'll see what happens there.

We also saw Daniel Kaluuya and Ya Zheng Yun win in the supporting categories at BAFTA. Neither of which I would say are terribly surprising and probably solidify both of them. Though Ya Zheng Yun's speech, I don't know if you got a chance to see this, was fantastic. It was great um she's on a tear right now giving great speeches and identifying the historical snobbishness of the british people indicating that that made her feel better about this award was just a very charming moment at the show again you know i hope best actor is in in on solid ground although i don't like it when these things are predictable best actor seems wide open the supporting categories seem kind of locked in best director and supporting categories seem kind of locked in.

Best Director and Best Picture seem kind of locked in. We can talk about the DGAs now too. Our Chloe Zhao, of course, won. She's the second woman to win for feature film directing. And very few films have won Best Picture without DGA or PGA recognition, although Parasite did do that in 2020. So is the Oscars over?

We've got this whole slate of Oscars content lined up for next week. Should we just cancel all that and talk about Godzilla versus Kong again? I think we have two. We have one open category

and one are we sure category. Though again, I don't really think best actors are we sure. I think that the BAFTAs just decided to put a little bit of, you know,

tension in all manner of the word into that race. But otherwise, yeah, it's pretty much over. But that's OK. We like Nomadland. We like Chloe Zhao. It's cool that she's going to win. And if she doesn't, I guess it'll be or if Nomadland doesn't win, it will be exciting, but somehow we'll also be mad, I think. So that's a bad place to be in. So I think that mostly we need to think psychologically about how we are going to feel and react. And I just can't go to negativity yet, you know, because it's two more weeks. I think that's wise. What if they just gave it to to joker what if they were like the best film of 2020 was joker how would you feel about that would you be excited no i guess it would be good content because i'm trying to think like i don't know what kind of protest i would stage like via a zoom podcast you know it's not really an ideal way for you can't see me walking out i don't think there's

any protest possible on a podcast it's kind of the inherent opposite of right of a protest anyhow a couple of other notables at the dgas darius martyr one first time feature film directing for sound of metal a film that we've been talking about a bit lately that obviously has a ton of support be interesting to see if that support manifests in any way at the Academy Awards, maybe in the sound category. I could certainly see that happening. And then Michael Dweck and Gregory Kershaw won documentary direction for The Truffle Hunters, which is a movie that I don't even know if we've mentioned on the show, but that I loved and I thought had a pretty good shot to get into the best documentary category and did not. If anybody out there is able to see The Truffle

Hunters, please check it out. I don't know if it's yet available on VOD. I don't believe that it is. It's a Sony Pictures Classics film. And when it hits, I'd recommend you check it out. It is a beautifully composed movie and a very curious movie. Have you seen this one yet? No, because Sony Pictures Classics did not like to send me movies. See also The Wife. I believe I saw it at TIFF, I want to say, is where I saw this movie. Anyhow, The Truffle Hunters is a very interesting and unusual documentary.

I'm not surprised that it wasn't recognized by the Oscars because it is more of an art piece than it is, say, a story about a man connecting with an octopus, which is now the front runner. Do you know my octopus teacher is far and away the front runner for best documentary? Yes, I did. Because like, it was a meme on freaking Amy Schumer's Instagram before we had to get into the Hilaria Baldwin. Like, I don't know that if that's the world that people want to live in,

that's cool. I heard it's a nice documentary. Should Hilaria Baldwin host the Oscars? What do you think? No. Again, it's just like I'm trying to be in my positive corner of the world and not the other corners of the world. I see. Do we have any clarity on whether it's an octopus who teaches or whether it's a person who teaches octopi? I honestly thought you were going to ask me, do we have any clarity on the provenance of Hilaria Baldwin's heritage?

And I don't have the answer to that, nor do I really have the answer to your question about the octopus teacher. It's a film about how an octopus and a man helped each other. And a man understood an octopus. Okay, so it's both. It's both. Yes, yes.

They had a symbiotic emotional relationship. By profession, he is a teacher of octopi? Like he teaches them things um no no it's it's the opposite what is what the octopus taught him to be about how to be a man about how to be a human about how to be so it's an octopus who's a teacher yes yes because the octopus teaches him something how do you know that he teaches the octopus anything i know that they're fairly communicative and intelligent beings but this octopus was not like Stellan Skarsgård in Good Will Hunting. You know, he wasn't breaking down scientific mathematical equations.

It was more like. I mean, I understand that. Here's how we live in this great blue dot together. Yeah, sure. But listen, there are all different forms of teaching. What I'm saying is like, does the octopus take away any life lessons from, actually, no, I know what happened. Nevermind.

We can turn it off. We can turn this off because I don't want to spoil things for the three people who haven't seen this film. Well, there's been some controversy actually with the octopus teacher because he's running a charter school and there's a lot of complexity around

whether what's the best way to educate your grown men who are also documentarians. Just soft selling me on that one. So that's basically... Is that a wrestling term? No selling is. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't know that. You found that out on the internet when I used that phrase? I did when you used it about me and I was like, what does that mean?

But I learned something that day. So you are my octopus teacher. Let me give you an example of no selling in the world of professional wrestling. Let's say, for example, you, Amanda, and I were wrestling. And you power bombed me straight to the mat, which is to say, you picked me up and you threw me down with a great force. And then as soon as I fell to the ground, I popped right back up, pretending like it didn't hurt me at all. That's a no sell.

Yeah, I know. I watched a YouTube video. Like I said, I already educated myself about this. Okay, so you don't want to know any more about this? I just think I'm good. I've got it now. And that's great. Why do you look so sad? I'm sorry that I learned something about a pop culture phenomenon that's interesting to you. Did you watch WrestleMania last night? No, I didn't know it was happening. Was it good?

I enjoyed the main event. I must say, I really enjoyed the main event. How much time did you spend watching sports yesterday? I had one of the all-time viewing days of my life. Can I tell you about it very briefly? Please. I woke up at 8 a.m. I turned on the film Mainstream.

This is Gia Coppola's new movie starring Andrew Garfield. Interesting film. We'll talk about that in May. What time did you start that? 8 a.m. I turned on the film Mainstream. This is Gia Coppola's new movie starring Andrew Garfield. Interesting film. We'll talk about that in May. What time did you start that? 8 a.m. Incredible decision by you. Thank you. Went for a hike.

Came back from the hike. Sat down five hours of The Masters. Enjoyed every minute of it. Then as soon as The Masters ended, I watched a cut of a documentary that I'm working on. And then as soon as that was over, I watched WrestleMania. And then as soon as the Masters ended, I watched a cut of a documentary that I'm working on, and then as soon as that was over, I watched WrestleMania, and then as soon as that was over,

I turned on the film Tom Clancy's No Remorse, no, Without Remorse, starring Michael B. Jordan, finished that movie, then I turned on a film called False Positive, starring Alana Glazer, that's coming out in June, then I finished watching Hannibal,

Ridley Scott's sequel to Silence of the Lambs, speaking of our boy Anthony Hopkins. That was all in one day. Now, obviously, there's something wrong with me that I want to do that across an 18-hour day, but I did have an 18-hour day. I was up till 1.30 in the morning watching stuff, and frankly, I had a great time. Yeah, I have three thoughts, if I may. Number one, I am concerned about the level of sleep that you're getting, but that's like a continuous concern from me to you. Number two, I would also like a screener without remorse. If anyone is listening, just send it on over. I'll take some time out of watching the Bureau and all the films I watch for this podcast in order to watch without remorse. Can't wait. Number three, I am surprised to learn that that did not involve any Mets watching as

well. The Mets game was canceled, which is what made this so easy. In fact, they played for seven minutes. They threw, I believe, 12 pitches. And then they canceled the game due to rain. Okay. So that made it a lot easier. But thank you for knowing me in a deep way and knowing that that could have been on the slate. But yeah, even by my standards, that was an unhealthy load.

That was a lot of content. Okay. Did you watch anything good yesterday? I watched an episode of The Bureau. I watched a film that will be on the rewatchables, but I'm not sure whether I'm allowed to say it because Bill's weird about it. And I love Bill. And I actually enjoyed the film. I sort of watched some of the masters while filling out the outline for the podcast that we're about to do and I watched a lot of Instagram content specifically Trini Woodall do you know

Trini Woodall who is kind of the original UK what not to wear okay now she's on Instagram like everybody else and does kind of she just gives like fashion advice and I find it very compelling and she just like picks things out of her closet and I would say I spent a good 45 minutes watching that wow okay well that's you know that's a pretty robust day yourself yeah I was happy to see Hideki Matsuyama win the the masters that was a very nice moment he's a terrific golfer and it's very hard to get over the hump and he really did I left for the end of it yeah to go watch my movie but I it seemed like everyone was excited.

I heard it was like slightly suspenseful, but then everybody kind of held it together at the end. It could have been more suspenseful in a lot of ways. It was not quite the cinematic achievement

I wanted it to be. But Matsuyama is one of those guys who just has been one of the best golfers in the world for eight or nine years and has never won. And he won. So that was cool.

Speaking of winning, shall we revisit the 2011 Oscars? This is the Oscars about the movies of 2010. And that's why we're talking about them. Do you have any memory of this award show or what happened at it other than we know that there was this egregious error in Best Picture? Yes. I believe I was blogging for Vulture at the time. So I can't remember. I remember watching the Oscars the year that Anne Hathaway won, which was a couple of years later, I believe.

I remember where I was. In this Oscars, Anne Hathaway and James Franco hosted, and it did not go well, was the short version. There was a mismatch of energy and a mismatch of writing to those energies. And they tried something and it was pretty excruciating. And I think everyone involved has since been like, yes, that was excruciating. You know what's funny about that? I think at the time that it was announced, for our generation, it seemed like a bit of a curious choice because we had lived through, you know, 20 or 25 years of Billy Crystal and Steve Martin and Chris Rock and Ellen DeGeneres and hosts who were stand-up comedians or came from the world of comedy who had more of an MC vibe, who were a lot closer to the Bob Hope idea of the Oscar host. But in fact, over the history of the Oscars, actors have been the host of the Oscars many times. And if you look back over the years, there are years where Chevy Chase and Goldie Hawn together would host the Oscars, or

you would see that someone like Paul Newman would be one of four different people who was the official host of the Oscars and would come out and introduce people. And so it wasn't that unusual, but you did tap into something, which is that their energies just did not match. James Franco had a kind of reserved awkwardness. Speaking of no selling, I felt that he no sold a lot of the evening. Anne Hathaway, on the other hand,

and I'll say, I think this is really where I fell in love with Anne Hathaway. She's tried really hard to make this show work. And she obviously has that theater kid energy and that try hard. Joie de vivre that some people criticize her for, but that I really love. and so it made for a tough night in a lot of ways.

Yeah. She was not helped by James Franco. It was one of those things where that energy of Anne Hathaway is played against the right person can like be really endearing and you do need people to try like it trying is quote not cool according to our generation and and I feel that way all of the time and I'm really embarrassed but you do actually have to try in most things but certainly televised uh awards show events you need the energy but the james franco energy was like kind of always undercutting her and almost a little bit making not fun of her though maybe it was more making

fun of the things but because she was like still trying to sell it you could just see her in real time also being like oh my god i gotta deal with this guy and it's just really not working and i'm trying and he's still not working. It was uncomfortable. So let's talk about the awards. Now, Bill Simmons over the years has done the five-year Oscars. He has suggested that we should not give out Oscars until five years have passed and we get a sense of relevance and power. On the one hand, I think there's something interesting about that. And I think that we could correct a lot of wrongs if we did that on the other hand i think if you did that the parasite victory would not seem as exciting and as incredible in the moment and you would if we were reflecting back on five years ago of oscars

today or two weeks from now i don't i don't know if that would work as well as an actual practice 10 years gives us a little bit of deeper historical perspective though and there are some things here that i think it's very obvious should not have won and there are other things that i think over time we might have seen that were a little overestimated especially amongst the nominees there's some kind of weird nominees in this year um when you were going back to it did anything occur to you about the way that the films were selected here? There were definitely films that I just haven't thought about since 2011, I guess, early 2011. And there were a lot of films that weren't nominated that I have thought a lot about. I don't know whether that necessarily means that they should be nominated for Oscars.

And it was funny to try to put my Oscars hat on retroactively because even there I carried in some weird, like I wasn't doing alternative Academy Awards. I was doing, well, like, would this be like a reasonable Oscars nominee or whatever? And I was trying to avoid patterns, but even in my own preferences, there are movies that I wanted to nominate in like five different categories. And in some cases, I just did because you know what?

No spoilers, but there's one movie that just really should be recognized and one individual who should be recognized. But there is room for flexibility. I think there is room for more diversity of films though that was another tricky thing I think it's a this is a very white year in film and but I but also the Oscar like rules still kind of

I felt a little contained by them still even as I was doing this like fantasy Oscars yeah it's like we've been hypnotized into thinking and into the definition of an oscar-worthy movie now at the time i think obviously the the movie industry was in a somewhat different place than it is right now um in some respects that's good and in some respects that's bad the amount of diverse nominees this year is very exciting and frankly the number of films that feature diverse

casts and diverse filmmakers in recent years is exciting on the other hand there's not as many serious dramas for adults which tend to be the you know the heart and soul of the academy awards historically let's just go into it let's just go category by category we're not going to do every category here most of the crafts people categories will not be recognized unfortunately but um if you have any thoughts about uh the winners of best cinematography from that year please feel free it's at ak dobbins she would love to hear from you let's begin with your favorite category this is so rude music original song this is this you love to think about this category you've been you've been working on a book about this category for the last 10 years,

and I'm really eagerly awaiting it. Can I just say, I think that the chatter out there is really coming around to Amanda's point of view. And I think that's great. I just want people on board. This category doesn't make sense. I agree with you. So in this year, something nice happened, which is that Randy Newman, my hero,

won an Academy award for his song we belong together in toy story 3 here were the other nominees from country strong coming home from tangled which was a disney animated film the song i see the light and from 127 hours if i rise by a.r rockman and Dido. Now, one, there were only four nominees this year because this is a very odd category. Two, anytime Randy Newman wins anything,

that's wonderful. However, this song's okay. This is not, no, you've got a friend in me. This is certainly not in the long history of great Randy Newman songs. It's not the greatest. And also, Randy Newman does not have a Best Original Score Academy Award. He has two for Best Original Song. And the man has written some of the most iconic scores in movie history, Ragtime and The Natural Among Them. So what I would prefer is we swap out this win

and we add some nominees. So here's what we're going to do. We're just going to suggest some stuff that should have been nominated, and then we're going to pick winners. So what do you think should have been nominated here instead of one of these movies, or excuse me, instead of one of these songs? Well, I have two, but one would not be eligible. It was I'll Try Anything Once, which is the demo version of the Strokes song, You Only Live Once, that is featured in Somewhere, performed by Julian Casablancas. Obviously, Somewhere is Sofia Coppola's wonderful film. We'll come back to it.

But it's not original to the movie, even though it's essential to the movie. And, you know, it's a different version that was on the album. So the Oscars wouldn't allow it. But that's really important to me personally. So I'm going with a different country strong song. And this is a rare example where this song was written for a movie about country music singers. So it's played in the movie. Come on, come on into my arms. The song that I've chosen is Give In To Me,

which is the song that Leighton Meester and Garrett Hedlund's characters write together and perform. It's very lovely. And it's essential to developing their characters and relationship. So it is actually an original song for a movie. It's also lovely. I think Faith Hill performs it on the soundtrack,

which is like very strange. She does. And I feel like, who sang Coming Home at the Oscars of this year? Do you remember? No, but it could have been Faith Hill and Tim McGraw because Tim McGraw is famously, he's in Country Strong,

but they do not let him sing, which is just a very bizarre choice. We did Country Strong for Rewatchables last year. I think it was probably the least listened to Rewatchables ever, but I had a great time. Very controversial. Very controversial. Listen, Bill and I was just happy to let Liz Kelly have her moment and to revisit that era in Gwyneth Paltrow, which was an astonishing era. Also, I think Coming Home is like the emotional one, but I think that like the titular Country Strong, also a pretty good song. It's like the best moment in the film. Anyway, I'm nominating

Give In to Me. This had vanished from my mind, but of course, the person who sang Coming Home at the Oscars this year was, of course, Gwyneth Paltrow. Oh, of course Gwyneth Paltrow oh of course so all right so you're you're going given to me I'm going Ramona which is a song by Beck for Scott Pilgrim versus the world of course Edgar Wright's incredible adaptation of the Scott Pilgrim comic book series. And either Ramona or really any Sex Bob-Omb song, the myriad of songs that he wrote for this film that were produced by Nigel Godrich, the famed radio head producer, one of the best soundtracks of not just that year, but of the 2010s, not recognized at all. In fact, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World,

I don't think, received a single Academy Award nomination. We will also come back to that. And frankly, I just think Ramona should have won. Ramona is like a sea change level Beck song. It's a high quality Grammy winning Beck song just used in this movie. And to your point, it's relevant to the film. It's not just like an end credits, yada, yada. You're in pain right now. just used in this movie. And to your point, it's relevant to the film. It makes,

it's not just like an end credits, yada, yada. You're just, you're in pain right now. No, I'm not. I'm actually, it's like, it's a very special moment.

I just kind of like, I feel like we just like achieved peak big picture, which is like you yelling about like a C-level change Beck song while relitigating the 2011 Oscars.

I just felt like really pure Sean. And I am happy for you. And I don't think I've ever heard that song. And I'm going to pick give it to me because I like that song. And once again, reward songs that are actually in the movie and essential to the movie. This episode is about justice. And what I'm seeking is justice for Beck, who needs some more um not every category in this conversation needs to be re-litigated i'll give you an example of one music original score i would imagine that you and i are aligned on who should have won this category which is the person the two people who did win of course trent resner and atticus ross for their amazing work in the social

network however there might be some films that we think should also have been honored. This, these, these were actually fun to come up with. The other nominees, in addition to the social network where John Powell's work for how to train your dragon, Hans Zimmer's quite famous score for inception.

Sorry. That was not a good impression of allergies right now. I know, well, I have allergies right now, so I like didn't expect it to come out. But Bobby, you can put in like the real thing. Bobby, just isolate Amanda doing the brawn noise and let's just use that at the start of every episode to kind of get people fired up. Other scores nominated Alexander Desplat for the King speech

and A.R. Rockman's for 127 Hours. What else do you think should have been nominated this year? So Daft Punk did an entire score for Tron Legacy, a movie I did not enjoy and basically don't remember except for the Daft Punk score. And you know what? Maybe if you nominated them for an Oscar, they would still be together. I was, you know what? You took the joke right out of my mouth.

That's exactly where I was going. You know, the Academy Awards are responsible for the end of one of the most significant musical duos of my lifetime. Shame on them. And just also like once again, in terms of achieving peak big picture, it's just like two old people being like, you should have nominated Daft Punk. Like,

we just like, I'm, it's how I feel. I'm ashamed also of the cliches that we are. I'm not ashamed at all. It is important to be who you are and to let your light shine in the world. That's you sound like me. Yeah.

Well, I'm inspired by you. Okay, that's great. And I'm inspired by this other person who should have been nominated. His name is James Murphy. He is the founder and genius behind LCD Sound System. And he did the score for Noah Baumbach's Greenberg. Very good movie.

Very good score. Not necessarily the sort of orchestral majesty that you might find in an inception or even necessarily as emotionally complex as what Reznor and Ross do on the social network, but a perfect match of filmmaker, lead actor in Ben Stiller, and the sounds that you hear, the music that Murphy composes. If you haven't seen Greenberg in a while, I recommend it. It's a cool film. We'll talk about it more later in this conversation. Yeah. Just a really 2010 sense memory greenberg and i i believe the trailer it's all my friends that the is playing and i i am very emotional

right now and also i'm glad that i'm no longer 20 whatever i was in 2010 it's good to have that behind us yeah well i wish i was 20 I was right now, but in my current situation, living in this space where I live with all the wisdom that I have, but in that body, I would love to go back to that body. And frankly, that's what Greenberg is about in many ways is what happens when you, yes, you turn 40, you get cranky and then things go downhill and you're living in some guy's pool house in Los Angeles. Yeah. Okay. Let's go to the next category. Foreign language film. This is what it was called back then.

It is now, of course, best international feature film. Here are the nominees. They were Beautiful from Mexico, Dogtooth from Greece, En Sandi from Canada, and Outside the Law from Algeria. The winner was In a Better World from Denmark, which is not a bad film,

but certainly not my favorite international feature of that year. What would you have nominated? I Am Love, the Luca Guadagnino film, which was my first Luca Guadagnino film. And I have a very vivid memory of seeing this movie alone, I believe at BAM in the afternoon, and just being completely moved by the, like the mellow drama that manages to be turned into beautiful art. It starts Tilda Swinton. It's about a woman who is married into a rich family in Milan and then tries to explore some other facets of her life. And I love this movie.

This is a movie that my father recommended to me and he also really loves. So it's a sentimental pick for me as well. You know, the film was nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Foreign Film and lost to In a Better World. And it was also nominated for Best Costume Design at the Oscars this year. So it was very curious that it was not recognized

in that category. Nevertheless, a movie that probably has a bigger reputation now than any of these movies with the exception i would say of dog tooth and on sunday because of the filmmakers behind those movies um on sunday of course is a denis villeneuve film and he is now one of the signature filmmakers in hollywood uh and dog tooth is yorgos Lanthimos is kind of breakout feature and a frankly hilarious movie I would have gone with Carlos Olivier

Assayas is massive miniseries ask portrait that was deemed ineligible and I think it's the best foreign language film of that year but it did it was not able to run, so I thought I should have some fun, which is to say, what about Valhalla Rising, Nicholas Winding Refn's Mads Mikkelsen Viking movie?

What do you think? Once again, let your light shine. How sick would it have been if Nick Winding Refn won an Oscar for a Viking movie in which Mads Mikkelsen just stabs a lot of people. Do you think that it would have preempted? I mean, obviously, it would have changed a lot of things that happened. But would it mean that I didn't have to listen to Chris Ryan talk about what is that never-ending Amazon show called?

It's either like you live until You Die or Live and Let Die Because You're Dying or The Life of a Dying Man or I don't know, one of those, you know, just very funny title. I'm going to find out what that show is actually called.

It's called Too Old to Die Young. Sure. You watched that show? No. No, it was watched by others at my home and I was pretty mad about it. Well, once again,

if we're going to talk about the butterfly effect, if we would have just given Nick Refn his Oscar here, maybe he wouldn't have made that television show. Maybe he would be making a Star Wars movie right now. That's what I was just saying. Okay, well, you're right. Okay. You want to go to the next category?

Sure. Documentary feature. Pretty good lineup here. pretty good collection of films uh the winner of course was inside job charles ferguson's film about how we got to the iraq war essentially um and the nominees were exit through the gift shop by banksy and uh high made to cruise gas land from josh fox and Trish Adlesick. Restrepo from Tim Hetherington and Sebastian Younger.

And Wasteland from Lucy Walker and Angus Ainsley. So, I picked out a bunch of movies that I thought could have been recognized here, which would have been interesting. I don't really have a problem with the Inside Job win,

nor do I really have a problem with any of these nominees. Most of these films are quite good. Gasland good gasoline restripo these are very good films um anything you think should have been you wanted to shout out yes so the two non-nominated documentaries that i saw in 2010 were one catfish which number one is it a documentary number two i think that catfish has been rewarded or not i think it has its correct place or consequence in the pop culture sphere okay and then number two was babies so which was nice they were really cute babies but like i don't feel like either of those really need an

oscar nomination haven't had a chance to see the film Babies. Would you recommend that? It was very cute. It was like four babies in different parts of the world. And they just like did baby stuff. It was before, I mean, obviously YouTube and the internet existed, but we weren't completely overrun with like clips of, you know, cats or babies on Roombas and stuff. And so that was like one video that you had

to seek out instead of a whole you know content channel so it was a little bit just kind of like a you know youtube clip movie but they i hope the babies are well i won't be watching babies um a handful of movies that popped into my mind when i was thinking about this was tamra davis's jean-michel basqu Radiant Child, which is a very good doc about Basquiat. Marwen Call, which is now sort of an infamous film because it is the inspiration for Robert Zemeckis' iconic Welcome to Marwen. When are we doing Welcome to Marwen watch along? When are we doing the commentary pod on that?

I will never forget the day that I learned that Welcome to Marwen was a real movie, which was via you sending me a YouTube clip. And I still haven't gotten to a place where I can accept it enough to watch it. So, you know, whatever. Bobby just was like, for the love of God, please don't do any watch-along podcasts to Welcome to Marwen. Well, unfortunately, that's not up to Bobby. We watch along podcasts to welcome to Marwen. Um, well, unfortunately that's not up to Bobby.

We may have to revisit. Welcome to Marwen. At some point, um, revisit. I certainly did visit it once on a quiet Wednesday afternoon in a screening room with two other people. And,

um, it's a tough sit. It was a tough set that film. Uh, and then the third documentary I thought of was sweet grass. Do you remember this movie? This was the movie about the sheep and the shepherds it's just basically like 90 minutes of sheep doing stuff no because i went to see babies it's very similar to babies

but with sheep uh enjoy enjoyed that movie a great deal honestly what that was a real that was a very classic like have an edible just sit down enjoy the majesty of earth and all of earth's creatures kind of situation. Okay. Okay. No selling me once again. That wasn't, that's not what I did that day. And like, I don't know whether like what taking the edible and watching babies is appropriate. And it's not what I did. So I can't really relate to you on that one. Just to continue the wrestling metaphor. I just hit you with a five-star frog splash off the top rope and you were just like, I'm good. You kicked out on one. Can you follow me?

No, you don't get it. I've learned like a lot of things that I don't want to know because of my friendship with you. Like, think about all of the things that I know that I wish I didn't. And that's just not something I know. And I don't know if I need to know the lingo.

Knowledge is power, Amanda. Never forget that. Okay. Okay. I think you were comfortable with inside job winning, right? Yeah. Yes. I think it would have been neat to see Exit Through the Gift Shop win, especially since that seems now like a comet, that movie. There has not been, I don't even know what the state of Banksy even is in the world at the moment but it did seem like a feat of kind of prank documentary filmmaking i just feel like every once in a while when i check the guardian they've just got some like column about banksy and i'm like okay but but i agree it was like it was a moment maybe if you watched more professional wrestling you'd have a deeper understanding of Banksy's art. Okay. Can we just keep going? Here's your favorite category, animated feature film.

Why are we starting this way? Why couldn't we have sprinkled it up like the actual Oscars do? Give me like a best supporting actor, you know? Oh, that would have been a good idea. Keep the energy going. What would you prefer to do that? We can do that right now. It's okay. It's okay. You know me, I also like to prepare. And so I've not prepared for that. And changing course midstream is very stressful. Okay. Love to have you complain and then also be inflexible. That's just fantastic. I wasn't complaining. I just was suggesting a better idea. It is a better idea. And it was my fault to not think of it. You're right. I didn't

think of it either. Nevertheless, we're going to talk about animated features right now. Toy Story 3 won. And I think this is obviously a worthy win. Toy Story 3, one of the best movies of the 2010s also. And a movie that was also nominated for Best Picture. So it's, I think, a little bit silly to kind of try to renegotiate this one too much. This is back when there were only three nominees though for this category. I think films needed to get a certain number of votes to

qualify and so only three films got it this year. The other nominees were How to Train Your Dragon and The Illusionist, the French film from Sylvia Chaumet. But you had a movie that you wanted to recognize. Despicable me! Please take the

Minions to the oscars that would be so good what if the minions had hosted the oscars why did i think about that 20 minutes ago that would be funny i mean that would be like terrible corporate spawn con and we'd all have to like jump off a cliff like the little minions do but i would have laughed they make me laugh the minion is still there the giant. I think it's there in perpetuity. I know. The giant minion is like the tar pits now. This is just the feature of Los Angeles.

If you want to see something historical, go to the minion in Burbank. Yeah, that's true. I have not yet made my pilgrimage, but maybe one day soon. I think once that vaccine fully hits, we're going straight to the minion. That's the first. Some people are going to a bar. Some people are going to the movie theater. Some people are going to Disneyland. We're going to that fucking minion we're gonna hang out the minion yeah he's very large you know i think there's like a lot of space where we can be close to him but not close to other people still which is good what do you do

do you go inside him is he like the statue of liberty no no i don't think it's i think he's just like really large and you like regard him from afar. I have been thinking a little bit about like the angles required to be in a photo with the minion, you know, because he's so much taller. You can't be right next to the minion. You got to get portrait mode going there. Right, yeah, I guess.

I don't really know how my camera works, but we can figure it out. Okay. If there was another film that could have been recognized aside from despicable me i thought maybe the secret world of arietti which is a studio ghibli film studio ghibli films have been nominated in this category in the past kind of surprising to see this movie not recognized

honestly it's one of the best non-miyazaki features that that the studio has released that being said i think we're both pretty comfortable with toy story 3 rocking in this category right yes okay now we're starting to get into the biggies. Writing categories. Now these are always funny because I think in the past we've identified these categories as the place where

the movies we really love tend to get recognized. The hipster choices tend to get spotlit. I think that's true in some ways this year and in other ways not so true. There's something a little bit rote about some of these nominees and maybe that's true in some ways this year and in other ways, not so true. There's something a little bit rote about some of these nominees. And maybe that's just a function of the year. This is another category where I think we feel pretty comfortable with the winner.

We've been talking a lot about Aaron Sorkin over the last 12 months because of the trial of the Chicago 7. I think the social network is one of his masterpiece screenplays. This is one of his absolute iconic works. He won. Other nominees this year. 127 Hours by Danny Boyle and Simon Beaufoy. Toy Story 3, screenplay by Michael Arndt. True Grit, written for the screen by Joel and Ethan Cohen.

Winter's Bone, adapted for the screen by Debra Granik and Anne Russellini. Now, Source Material is interesting here. 127 Hours, is that, did the man who that story is about, did he write a memoir of any kind? Is that what it's based on? I can't recall. I am like Googling so fast because, yes.

He did write one. Between a Rock and a Hard Place. Of course. What's the title? That's, yeah, it's a good title. 127 Hours is a movie that I quite literally have not thought about since 2011. Same for me, and I won't be revisiting it. And not because I disliked it necessarily. Of course, it was famously a very difficult watch because of that terrifying scene in which the James Franco

character needs to sever his arm from the rock. But it's not a movie that lives with me in any way. And a lot of movies from this year, I feel similarly about. You know, Winter's Bone is one of those movies. For me, I'm not the world's biggest Jennifer Lawrence fan, but also I think that was a very well-made movie that was quite grim and not exactly a rewatchable, I would say, despite the quality of the work.

And I have not. Nor have I. True Grit I think is actually one of the more underrated movies of this year, one of the more underrated movies of the Coen Brothers catalog for a variety of reasons. And we just lost the late Charles Portis, who wrote the novel, the original True Grit, which I

read for the first time in quarantine. One of the greatest novels I've ever read in my life. It was incredibly enjoyable. Fun, funny, strange, idiosyncratic. Told from a beautiful point of view. Toy Story 3, we just talked about that one. Interesting set.

The social network was the 500-pound gorilla the whole time and won. Did seem like there were a couple that could have been recognized, though. What did you think should have been given a shout? Here begins the town soliloquy that will last through the rest of the podcast. I love the town. I think I picked the town first in our 2010 movie draft because you got the social network,

which would have been everyone's number one pick. But the town rules the screenplay was uh by peter craig aaron stockard and of course ben affleck we will come back to him and based on a novel prince of thieves by chuck hogan and i we just don't appreciate the town enough and the oscars certainly do not appreciate the town yeah it's a good. I definitely could have seen it being recognized here and it wasn't. The town had a very small number of nominations this year, but it does seem like a movie that has lived on in many ways. It's been a rewatchables. We published an oral history about it. It was a big hit at the box office. Similar kind of movie in that respect

is Shutter Island, which is a movie that was almost ignored at the Oscars of this year. Andeda Caligurides wrote the screenplay, which is based on the novel Shutter Island by Dennis Lehane. And again, another movie that, if you had swapped this out for 127 hours or Winter's Bone, I think it would have been very comfortable amongst the nominees to your point about what is Oscar and not Oscar. How do movies like Shutter Island and The Town

become not Oscar while Winter's Bone becomes Oscar or Toy Story 3 not Oscar? How do movies like Shutter Island and The Town become not Oscar while Winter's Bone becomes Oscar or Toy Story 3 becomes Oscar? It's always hard to tell there. Some of it is about campaigning, the studio, when a movie is released, its reception, who is advocating for it on the circuit. But it's still a little bit mysterious to me. In these two cases,

I think it's a little bit about genre also right that the town is a crime film with some really like thrilling set pieces but i think that that it's maybe a little too much fun and a little too much action for the kind of quote traditional oscar and then shutter island is a terrifying movie to me amanda dobbins also shutter island was released early in the year, I believe. And that's another one that's tricky. Yeah. So we still would have gone with the social network, though.

No big changes there. Yeah, of course. Let's go to original screenplay. That was adapted screenplay. So the villain of this podcast is the King speech for a variety of reasons. Speaking of movies, I've never revisited, not a movie I hated.

It's not a bad film. It's not a particularly good film in my opinion. And it did win original screenplay here. It was nominated alongside these films. Another year by Mike Lee, the fighter, which is by Scott Silver and Paul Tamasee and Eric Johnson. Inception, written by Christopher Nolan. The Kids Are Alright, written by Lisa Cholodenko and Stuart Blumberg.

This is a kind of an odd collection of nominees. And to your point about genre, Inception being recognized here, while some of the others in the other categories aren't, puts a little bit of a wrinkle into that one. Even The Fighter, which is, you know, on the one hand a family drama, but is also a sports movie, which don't usually get recognized and has a very conventional sports movie structure and ending. I don't know. I find this to be a really weird one. I was also surprised, you know, the rules around what's original, what's adapted, what's eligible are very specific and hard to describe, but you know, the fighter

is based on a true story. And I guess because the, you know, there's not a novel, but is it like the most original? I don't know. I can, we skip to should have one just to say like, I I'm picking inception because think of the hand wringing and the controversy that we could have avoided. If you just give Christopher Nolan a screenplay for what I think is a hugely original and entertaining, if not totally coherent film that I still am just like, you know, I won't do the bong again, but I had a great time. And to reward that in 2010 saves us like, I don't know, maybe everyone wouldn't be so mad about Tenet. Interesting. Yeah. Or maybe he wouldn't have even pursued Ten yeah or maybe he wouldn't even pursue tenant or maybe he would have been emboldened to make something even crazier than

tenant yeah who knows what it could have inspired um there were a couple of smaller films that i thought could have been recognized this year these would have been esoteric choices of course so not necessarily any more esoteric than a mike lee movie like another year which is a terrific movie um but i thought nicole hall of sinners please give it would have been cool to recognize that a Mike Lee movie like another year, which is a terrific movie. But I thought Nicole Hall of centers, please give, it would have been cool to recognize that or Chris Morris's four lions, which is still one of my absolute favorite and most underseen films of that time in history,

which is probably the first time I got to look at Riz Ahmed actually. As for what should have won, certainly not the King speech. I think I would have been, I probably, though I have lots of problems with inception, which is on the record, it would have just signaled something a lot more interesting in terms of the

voting. But I think another year is probably the best screenplay in part because of the way that Mike Lee writes screenplays, which is kind of historic in terms of the way that he gets his cast together when they do a kind of like conversational rehearsal period and then build out the film from there. It's extremely unique and it would have been interesting to recognize his particular approach to the genre nevertheless the king speech one speaking i wait i didn't get to do my nominee but it's fine i it's no about back for greenberg which is i think it is climbing my personal

bound back ranks as i get older and i guess more bitter and also live in Los Angeles now so that's a pretty biased take but I think it's a good balance of his acid and his emotional acuity and also the letters are still iconic to me personally did we do the bomb back rankings during the marriage story episode yeah I think so. But I don't totally remember what mine were. I think we both were number one, Frances Ha.

I think we share that. It's all those power bombs. They're getting to your head. You can't remember these things. So the big six, we've got six big categories left. Directing, four acting categories in Best Picture. Four directing, Tom Hooper won for The King's Speech. No.

Unforgivable. No. Unforgivable. This is an outrage. This is absurd that this happened. You never saw Les Miserables also directed by Tom Hooper

that's true but just it's like everyone is in a close up zoom screen the whole time it is it is awful

I don't think that the King's Speech was as poorly directed as Les Miserables but like absolutely not this is horrifying

that this happened it's horrifying in the context of the other nominees it's horrifying in the context of the other nominees. It's horrifying in the context of the films that were not recognized. It's an atrocity. This is one of the worst awards

that the Oscars has ever given out. Remember when we had to go see Cats? Yeah, speaking of the butterfly effect, this win gave Tom Hooper the confidence to make Cats. That tells you everything you need to know. No, Tom Hooper seems like a nice Cats. That tells you everything you need to know. No. Tom Hooper seems like a nice guy.

I don't, this is not a personal attack. The King's Speech is mediocre. The other nominees in this category are incredibly gifted, some of whom don't have Best Director Oscars. And then there's a whole world of other people who, we'll name some of them, but a couple more just popped into my head as we were talking, who all would have been more worthy here.

Nevertheless, the nominees were Darren Aronofsky for Black Swan, David O. Russell for The Fighter, David Fincher for The Social Network, Joel and Ethan Coen for True Grit. Now, I believe the first three in that category have never won. And then there's a whole bunch of people that should have been recognized here.

Who do you think should have been recognized? Ben Affleck for The Town. Still my favorite of his movies um i also want to throw in andrea arnold for fish tank which is a very small and incredibly upsetting but well directed uh specific film um that i guess i do recommend it it's a talk about a tough sit um but also kind of like announced her as a major talent and then obviously you know i didn't include sophia coppola for somewhere but like i just always think that sophia coppola should be nominated for thanks yeah another year where i think there were a lot of women who were

absolutely worthy who are just completely ignored here i'm thinking also of deborah granik for winter's bone nicole hollis center for please give um and then i both edgar wright for scott pilgrim which I mentioned, and then another movie that we haven't discussed very much, but I think Derek's seen France and what he did in Blue Valentine,

not just the performances he got at a Gosling and Michelle Williams, but the whole, the story that they told about how they moved into a house together and their rehearsal period

seemed nuts. And, you know, it was very Cassavetes and very sort of overdetermined, but also clearly manifest in this intensely emotionally difficult movie that I thought was very effective the kink speech thing is just fucking unforgivable it's so stupid

yeah so we've said that a thousand times and we're gonna say it at least 20 more times on this podcast but yes who should have won Fincher of course no brainer We're going to say it at least 20 more times on this podcast. But yes, who should have won? Fincher, of course. No brainer. No brainer. It's crazy that David Fincher doesn't have an Oscar. It's crazy.

It's nice that Chloe Zhao is going to win it. But also David Fincher still not going to win a best director Oscar. And this is I think I know that we did number two in the Fincher rankings because you guys wanted him to win for Zodiac. But like, this is the one he should have won for, in my opinion. In terms of Oscars history, this is clearly the one that he should have won for. We're going to look back on it baffled as to how that was not, that did not happen. And, you know, this is one of those things where like David Fincher could die without an Oscar. Will he be okay?

He'll be fine. He'll be okay. But this is also a person who really cares about movie history, who is more than worthy of a win. And Tom Hooper having his Oscar that must, maybe he doesn't give a damn. I give it. I hope that he doesn't care.

I like to think that David Fincher is like, has other concerns and doesn't care. And that is what makes me think well of David Fincher, one of many things and among them, his incredible talent, but I care. I think it's stupid. Well,

we have had our revenge on, on Tom Hooper on Fincher's behalf here on this podcast. Let's go to actor in a supporting role. The winner in this category was Christian Bale on the fighter in a very actorly performance. He is really going for it in this movie. And he was recognized for doing such. Do you like Christian Bale in The Fighter?

Yes, I guess so. It has become sort of the quintessential Christian Bale performance in a way. He does this a lot. I think he lost a lot of weight for it. There are a lot of, it's a person with some, you know, a tribulation of some sort in this case, substance abuse and like accents, he becomes like somewhat unrecognizable, but it is also Christian Bale. So I guess it makes sense. And I like Christian Bale very much. I don't know if this is what I

would pick out of his career, although I was thinking about it. And like, what would you pick? It's a tough one. He's been nominated four times, not necessarily for his best performances. You know, I think the performance of his that I thought was the most extraordinary

was in a Werner Herzog movie called Rescue Dawn, which is actually an adaptation of his documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. And that is an amazing movie, Rescue Dawn, which is actually an adaptation of his documentary Little Dieter Needs to Fly. And that is an amazing movie, Rescue Dawn. Little Dieter Needs to Fly is also a good film. But he, to your point about like losing weight and taking things to the limit and using that sort of like, you know, methody approach, he does all the same things in that film that he does in The Fighter. And I just think Rescue Dawn is also a better movie. You know, Vice and The Big Short and American Hustle are all good Bale performances, but not necessarily my favorite movies.

I know I would pick American Psycho. Oh, of course. Yeah. Yeah. That's a no-brainer. I'm sorry that I blanked, but that's the obvious one. That's what he should have won. Yeah. He's one of those actors who, because he got started so young, did not necessarily get recognized for a lot of his work in his, even his teens. I mean, Empire of the Sun and American Psycho. I was going to say, I would also accept supporting actor for Laurie in Pretty Women. I mean, not Pretty Women, Little Women.

Little Women, yeah. What an Amanda club. So we wouldn't go with Bale. Pretty solid collection of nominees here. John Hawks in Winter's Bone. That's a great performance. Jeremy Renner in the town. We love that.

Mark Ruffalo in the kids are all right. Jeffrey Rush in the kink speech. Yeah. What should have been nominated? I have a bunch here. Tom Hardy for Inception. Let's do it. If you want to have some fun.

I like I'm also trying to have a little fun here at the Oscars. And that's such a defining, supporting performance that you would just be happy to have him there. Similarly, Justin Timberlake for the Social Network. He was very good in it. Better than anything else that he's ever done, in my opinion. That's not true. I was listening to some early NSYNC recently, and that was a nice moment for me. But anyway. He can't win an Oscar for his work in NSYNC. That's true.

And Andrew Garfield also in The Social Network. Yeah, I like the Garfield shout. I think he's really great in that film. I also thought Ben Mendelsohn in Animal Kingdom, which for someone who ever saw Ben Mendelsohn would have been a great shout as well. That being said, I think we both agree that Renner

Renner. Yeah. You know, whose car we take in mind are yours. You know, that's, that's the all time.

That's the shit all time. I did also just for variety's sake and also butterfly effect put down like if we had given the Oscar to Justin Timberlake,

then would the next 10 years have been different? How would they have been different? Well, would I have to be wondering whether I need to watch Palmer? You know? You don't.

Or whatever the other, he's doing Confessions of a Dangerous Mind, but it's a TV show. Like, okay. That's not one I understand. I gotta be honest. Yeah. Where did the 2020 experience come in the arc there?

I feel like it was, it came right after he was not recognized, right? I forgot about that. Remember the 2020 experience come in the arc there? I feel like it came right after he was not recognized, right? Oh my God, I forgot about that. Remember the 2020 experience? Yes. And Fincher directed that video, right? He did. Oh, well.

Wow. What a different time. We were old. That made me feel really old. I remember that. I was young and I was like, if they think that this is what I want, then I'm old. Quick aside here. Let's just do song lengths from the 2020

experience. First song, Push Your Lover Girl. Eight minutes and two seconds. Suit and tie. 5.26. Don't Hold the Wall. 7.10. Strawberry Bubblegum. 7.59. Tunnel Vision. 6.46. Spaceship Coop. 7.17.

That Girl. A delightful 4.47. Let the Groove Get In. 7.17. That Girl, a delightful 4.47. Let the Groove Get In, 7.11. Mirrors, 8 minutes and 5 seconds. I forgot that Mirrors was that long. I've blocked out Mirrors until you just said it, and it all came rushing back to me, not in a positive way.

How did we, and Blue Ocean Floor, 7 minutes and 19 seconds. How did we let Blue Ocean Floor seven minutes and 19 seconds? How did we let this happen? This is a 10-track album that is 70 minutes long. A Justin Timberlake album. I take no responsibility for it. I didn't let it happen.

And maybe if he had at least been nominated, it could have gone in a different direction. That's all I'm saying. This was the moment. Just this is startling um yeah the academy just screwed us over in that respect okay let's go to actress in a supporting role melissa leo also won for the fighter here and amy adams was also nominated for the fighter a lot of supporting performance work you may also remember uh conan o'brien's sister was one of the sisters

in the fighter do you remember that yes i did was it just one in my mind it was multiple maybe it was nine of them i can't remember i i do believe conan o'brien has a number of sisters uh helena bonham carter was also nominated for the king speech hayley steinfeld for true grit and jackie weaver for animal kingdom who should have been nominated here at this point i'm just throwing in people from movies i like in 2010 Diane Keaton for Morning Glory the wildly underrated romantic comedy starring Rachel McAdams Patrick Wilson Harrison Ford Diane Keaton written by Elaine Brush McKenna who is kind of the undersung rom-com queen or you know films that involve more than one woman, which somehow gets slated into rom-com.

I recommend Morning Glory. And then Rooney Mara for Social Network. Yeah, that's a good call. It would be largely for a one-scene performance, but it is an incredibly memorable and impressive scene. Yeah. And that's happened before. And without that scene, you don't have that movie. Flash of Beatrice Strait from Network flashing into my mind. I thought, you know, I was thinking about the nominees this year, and I remembered Amanda Seyfried, the first performance of hers that I saw, where I thought, oh, wow, this is a serious actress and not just a comedian, is Chloe, Adam McGowan's complicated erotic thriller

starring Julianne Moore. Don't know the last time you've checked that movie out. I would, you know, it's worth revisiting. Some great stuff in that film. And Amanda Seyfried is really good in it. She's sort of terrifying as this femme fatale slash kind of crazed woman who is stalking Julianne Moore's character in many ways.

So I thought that that would have been interesting to recognize her there. We have two should have ones that were recognized though, that were nominated, but did not win. Who are you going with? I'm going with Amy Adams in the fighter from a pure butterfly effect. Let's prevent a lot of things from happening, including most recently Hillbilly Elegy.

Do you think that movie would have not happened at all if she had won here? Well, you'd also have to go back in time and give Glenn Close an award, but I would be willing to do that because Glenn Close is probably not going to win her Oscar for Hillbilly Elegy, which is good because if she did, I think for a number of reasons, we would all have to rethink our entire relationship to the Oscars. It's not good. We're doing it right now. It happens every day for me. Yeah, sure. Me too. But yikes. I'm having no part of that. Absolutely not. Nor am I having any part of anyone who is related to Hillbilly Elegy. So if Amy Adams wins for the fighter, which is like one of my favorite Amy Adams performances,

I kind of, I still don't totally know what I want from Amy Adams, which is, well, maybe speaks to what makes her a good actress. And even as I was saying that, I was like, oh, what I want is a rival, which is wonderful. And if she wins in this and then doesn't do a rival, that would be tough. But I don't really think that they're mutually exclusive. I just, I think if we gave her an Oscar, then she would stop doing the Oscar, Hunty, Beatty performances like Hillbilly Elegy, and we don't want those. I mean, to me, the Amy Adams win was supposed to come a year later for the master. That was, I thought. Oh yeah. You know, I think a rival too. I think they're both

totally worthy and she should have won. And you know, I think Arrival too. I think they're both totally worthy and she should have won. You know, those are two performances we'll look back and be like, why did this just not happen? Why do we keep having this problem? I also, I thought Haley Steinfeld was great in True Grit

and, you know, has taken a slightly different track in her career. She's the star of Dickinson right now and has taken on more contemporary roles like Bumblebee. Did you see Bumblebee?

The Transformers spinoff? No. She's pretty winning in that. But terrific in this movie. Very young when they made this film and a very complicated role. And I thought she crushed it. Would have been cool to see her win here.

Nevertheless, we had Melissa Leo. Okay, actor in a leading role. Colin Firth won for the King speech. Yet another win for the King speech. Hate to see it. Other nominees. We do love Colin Firth though here on this podcast. It's just, that's a unilateral decision by me that we love Colin Firth and I won't abide anything else.

Understood. Recognize your motion to crown him the King of your podcast. Javier Bardem was also nominated for Beautiful. Jeff Bridges was nominated for True Grit. Jesse Eisenberg for The Social Network and James Franco for 127 Hours. I'd forgotten that Franco was nominated in the year that he was presenting,

which is strange, though no one really thought he was going to win. Who should have been nominated? Ryan Gosling for Blue Valentine. Really like a core Ryan Gosling performance, right? And that's also kind of when the Ryan Gosling persona and the strategy also comes kind of into, it solidifies. And also we as a public start to kind of understand Ryan Gosling. I don't know if this starts like the Ryan Gosling memes, but I did read a lot of blog posts about Blue Valentine. Just, I was thinking about the number of blog posts that I consumed about that small movie that not that many people saw.

So let's honor Ryan Gosling. And then I also put down Andrew Garfield again for a movie called Never Let Me Go, which is the adaptation of the Ishiguro novel. And I would say it's an adaptation that does not work, but it is not the film's fault. It was directed by Mark Romanek and I believe adapted by Alex Garland, but it's pretty much an unadaptable novel. But the actors in it really try.

And I think it's Andrew Garfield like carries a lot of emotional weight and and does a lot of that reflecting interiority outwards that I think is what he's best at um contrary to what certain movies that you watched last night might feel and he tried and it was I know he like he wants branch out. And I think that's great for Andrew Garfield. But I think that this is sort of like the essence of Andrew Garfield as well. And it was a big year for him. And I'm a fan. I think it's a good call.

The Gosling call in particular, people were very upset that we did not recognize Gosling in our 35 over 35 list. The truth is we did that because he hasn't made a movie in three years. I hope he releases a bunch of movies in the near future. Apparently, he's going to be the Wolfman in the Wolfman movie coming up soon. It's kind of sad, but you know, Blue Valentine really kicks off

high time for him. In 2010, he makes Blue Valentine, then Crazy Stupid Love, then Drive, then The Place Beyond the Pines, then Only God Forgives, then he directs Lost River, which is just madness. The Big Short, The Nice Guys, La La Land, Blade Runner 2049, and First Man. That's an eight-year run right there.

Come back to us, Ryan Gosling. We miss you. A couple of other people that I would have wanted to see nominated. Leonardo DiCaprio for Shutter Island. What the fuck, man? Yeah. Why are we nominating James Franco and Colin Firth when Leo's right there?

They do not respect Leonardo DiCaprio. I mean, they finally did. I guess he did enough documentaries about the climate in order to be serious to them, but he's been serious to us for a long time. Very odd that Shutter Island was overlooked in that way. I also thought Michael Douglas was terrific in Solitary Man, which is a film that our pal Brian Koppelman wrote and directed

and is a really, really good small film. Michael Douglas, of course, has an Academy Award for his portrayal of Gordon Gekko, but thought he should have gotten a shout there.

So who do you think should have won? Jesse Eisenberg. Yeah, I can't quibble with this one. It's like that movie goes so wrong if you have someone

who can't land that performance. It's very true. I personally would have gone Leo here so then we didn't have to do The Revenant. We just didn't have to do that whole thing. I'm also okay with that. That would have been really nice to just avoid that altogether. Two to go. Actress in a leading role.

The winner was Natalie Portman for Black Swan, a movie we have not really discussed much here. A movie that I thought was very effective at the time, though I will admit to not having revisited it much. It, of course, is pulling from a lot of source material and a lot of inspirations. There's a lot of Polanski in that movie. There's a lot of Red Shoes in that movie. You can see the influences all over the place for Darren Aronofsky. I do think Natalie Portman's performance is transformative and amazing. And this is a worthy win in my estimation, though that's not fun for a podcast. So let's talk about some of the other people who could have been nominated. Annette Bening was nominated for The Kids Are Alright. Nicole Kidman for Rabbit Hole.

Jennifer Lawrence for Winter's Bone. This was her big breakout. And Michelle Williams for Blue Valentine. Who else should have gotten a look? Emma Stone for Easy A. Have you seen this performance recently? I think I've only seen this movie once. We did Easy A for Rewatchables last year, and I think it was the first time I'd seen it in a few years, though I have definitely rewatched it. It qualifies for me. I was just blown away. It's like, it is definitely the role that made Emma Stone, Emma Stone. It was a breakthrough. I believe she

was nominated the golden globes and the musical or comedy category. And you know, the Oscars just don't take comedy seriously, but man, it is just like a lightning bolt, how good she is and funny and makes a movie that like definitely shouldn't or wouldn't work but just the premise it's sort of an adaptation of the scarlet letter but it's about a high school girl who like you know pretends to date other people for money in order to save their reputations it's not it's a fine line to walk and she is so winning and completely sells it i think it was pitched marketed and sold as a kind of teen comedy like a frothy post apatow post american pie kind of reclamation story but i do remember it being a little bit more sophisticated than that

and it feels like the kind of movie that if it was made in the 70s or 80s and diane keaton was the star could have gotten academy attention, but it was overlooked here. Probably in part because of like the gloss on it, you know, the color of the logo or the way that it was sold. Yes. A couple of people who I thought it would have been cool to recognize.

If we're going to recognize Franco in the year of his hosting, then why not Anne Hathaway for her work in Love and Other Drugs? The immediately forgotten Ed Zwick movie starring Jake Gyllenhaal that I honestly remember liking. That I remember

being very strange and uh there was quite a press tour around that movie given some of the things they do in the film but uh you know she played a woman who I think was um having some personal struggles and gives a very nervy performance as Anne Hathaway often does but I thought very good and kind of like calcified the Hathaway persona, um, post devil wears Prada. I don't know. Did you ever see this movie? Yes,

I did. But this was also a Prince of Persia year, right? Oh, so Jake Gyllenhaal was just like going through it. I mean, which he has continued to do and like various forms by, by a cinema since, but that was like the narrative of just like Jake Gyllenhaal is not where he wants to be.

And it's like clearly very unhappy. And it kind of, that overtook the movie. I think that's, you know what? That's very much correct. And that probably explains that. You mentioned never let me go earlier.

I also think Carrie Mulligan is terrific and never let me go. And also could have been recognized. She was not. I would say Michelle Williams should have won just because i have a lot of appreciation for her and her work and her work in blue valentine who do you think should have won emma stone easy a let's it would be so fun okay we got one more category left this is probably the least interesting thing to discuss here uh but it must be done this has to happen we've talked about it many times over the years. The winner

of Best Picture at the 2011 Academy Awards was The King's Speech. No. Incorrect. This is the least good film of the 10 films nominated. You just absolutely hate to see it. Hate to see it. And frankly, there were other films that should have been nominated that

weren't. Here are the other nominees. Black Swan, The Fighter, Inception, The Kids Are Alright, 127 Hours, The Social Network, Toy Story 3, True Grit, and Winter's Bone. So let me just, aside from the obvious, is there a film that was nominated here that you like the most most aside from the obvious aside from the one that we're gonna award best picture to you um i i liked black swan though i like you have not revisited it and it hasn't taken up like a huge amount of mindshare for me, at least. The Fighter, like I enjoy, but I wouldn't put it above. I mean, I guess I would put it above the King's Speech, but like, what are we choosing

from? I'm not putting it above my suggested nominees. And the others really, you know, I remember seeing True Grit with my dad and my dad really liked True Grit. I just have a tradition of seeing Coen Brothers films with my father and he's like, that was so great. And I'm like, I'm glad you're happy, dad. And that's just really I just have a tradition of seeing Coen Brothers films with my father. And he's like, that was so great. And I'm like, I'm glad you're happy, dad. And that's just really how I relate to it. The Coen Brothers are like incredibly talented, but it just feels like King Dad to me. And True Grit is probably the pinnacle of their dadness. You know, that is a story about absentee fatherhood.

Yeah, I mean, also Toy Story 3, that would have been nice. You know, the kids are all right. That would have been fine. Some films that we think should have been nominated. What do you think should have been nominated?

As I mentioned earlier, Somewhere, directed by Sofia Coppola, which is up there for me. Well, all of her films are up there for me, but I think is really beautiful.

And if you haven't seen it since living in Los Angeles, Sean, I would recommend it to you. I did rewatch it for our Sofia Coppola episode. Oh, right. Yeah, that's right. And then you were like, I don't really like this that much. That's not true. You know what? I did hear from some people in our lives who were like, thank you for writing for somewhere. Sean was wilding. What? Some people?

Yeah. Some mutual friends of ours just reached out to me and let me know that you were in the wrong, but that's okay. I mean, you can name names. I'm right here. I'm not going to do that. And I would have loved to see the town nominated. Yeah, both great picks. I also would have picked Mike Lee's Another Year, which I mentioned earlier, and Shutter Island, again, overlooked for reasons that I'm confounded by. I really thought you were going to do Scott Pilgrim here as well. I was surprised. You know, that speaks to the point that you were making about kind of Oscar-iness and that that's not a movie that has much Oscar-iness to it.

But as far as pure enjoyment, The Social Network was one. Scott Pilgrim was in the two to five range for my favorite movies of that year. Nevertheless, overlooked. And what should have won, Amanda? social network no brainer this is uh we may look back at this as the key travesty of our prime podcasting years this is the most unfortunate decision um there are some mitigating factors here some contributing factors i think the the proven of the King's speech as a Weinstein Brothers film is certainly a factor and if it were not I'm not

so sure that this film would have been triumphant given the campaigning that the Weinsteins were famous for I just this is people the moment this happened people were like why why must the Oscars do this it's a shame I think that we will continue to talk about it as

like the the worst decision of our sentient adult years thus far at the oscars not not in our lives oh yes yes to be clear within the context and really like best picture oscar i'm but yes it was it was egregious and just the social network was like perfect at the moment, continues to be perfect. Like prescient, entertaining, Fincher at his best, Sorkin at his best, actors at their best. What a mistake. Hopefully we don't get a mistake like that this year. I don't even think a mistake like that this year would be possible. There could be one, but I'm loathe to even say it out loud because I don't want to put a bad idea out there.

Isn't it kind of already out there? No. Oh, am I thinking about a different one? The one I'm thinking of is not out there, yeah. Okay. There's some culture wars that could be started if certain films won. Oh, I don't want that, obviously. I'm trying even to think of...

Anyway, I hope that Aaron Sorgan doesn't win this year because he won. He should have won in 2011, but that doesn't mean that he should now win in 2021 in order to make up for it, even though the makeup Oscar Oscar is like a long tradition. But wouldn't that just be truly karmic? That is what happens. But let's, you know, let's break free from this narrative and from these bad histories. Like, let's be positive and let's welcome the cool kids to the Oscars and let's not do bad makeups anymore.

I feel we did good work here, Amanda. I feel like we broke free from the conventions of the Oscars. We're going to keep breaking free. We have a new idea for an episode later this week. It's Chris Ryan's idea. Frankly, it's just an iteration of the draft in many ways. This is a different kind of a draft. In fact, it's an auction and we are putting movies to auction. Now, I want to ask you in real time here on the pod, should we do summer movies or should we do 2021 movies at our auction among me, and chris because since we decided on

this a couple of summer movies have vacated the summer release schedule oh you want to talk about that right now i don't want to talk about it i'm not ready to talk about top gun 2 moving i think you guys know that my that was a heartbreak for me i was really looking forward to it i'm still looking forward to it in november but but I'm going to answer your question with another question, which is, are you going to tell me how the auction works? Because the last time that I asked this,

you were just like, no, you're going to find out on air. So I don't know how to pick between summer movies and 2021 movies when I don't know how it works. I'll tell you what I actually want to do is I would love to have Danny Heifetz from the Ringer Fantasy Football Show join us and explain to you how auctions work and then just jump

right into the auction. Okay. I love Danny Heifetz and Danny Heifetz is actually a very generous person. So I think that he would be willing to help me through parts of it. Okay. I'm just like, are there some, I need to have seen all the trailers, right? So I think that he would be willing to help me through parts of it. Okay. I'm just like, are there some, I need to have seen all the trailers, right? I need to know what the movies are. I think you just need to know the log line.

I think you just need to know like, this is what's happening. Cause we're going to, we're going to distribute an equal amount of dollars and we'll bid on movies. That's essentially what it's going to come down to. Okay. But I'll, I'll let Heifetz explain it all for us later this week. How does that sound? I think that's great.

I think we should probably do full 2021 just because things are still fluid. I agree with you. Amanda, thanks for doing this. Thanks for saving the 2011 Oscars from the depths of history. Bobby Wagner, thank you for producing this episode. We will see you later this week for the movie auction.