The Big Picture - The 2016 Movie Draft: Three the Hard Way

Episode Date: March 30, 2021

Sean and Amanda are once again joined by Chris Ryan to draft the best (a.k.a. their favorite) movies from the year 2016. They discuss their lives that year, how Hollywood was changing, what the 'Moonlight' Best Picture Oscar win meant, and how world events manifested at the movies. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Chris Ryan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

The Ringer's music critic Rob Harvilla curates and explores 60 iconic songs from the 90s that define the decade. Rob is joined by a variety of guests to break it all down as they turn back the clock. Check out 60 songs that explain the 90s exclusively on Spotify. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the year 2016. We are drafting once more. It's the movie draft, 2016 edition, and CR is here.

Chris, what's up? What's up, guys? You ready for this, Chris? You freed the boat. You did your work. You got your job done. I did it. The canal is clear.

Listeners can't see this, but I'm wearing a signature Brooks Koepka Nike hat because I'm going long. I was going to ask about this, and then I didn't. And now I'm both glad and regret not asking about The disco stick is pulled out and I'm definitely talking about the Comey letter. So let's do this. You really are a beefy boy here on this podcast. So I'm excited to see what kind of long drives you've got in you with this draft. Before we get into it, you know, Amanda, I realized we didn't talk about a couple of sad losses in the world of movies last week when we were chit-chatting about the Oscars and about Black

Widow. And so I just wanted to give a quick shout out to three giants of movies and television. We lost George Segal and Jessica Walter and Bertrand Tavernier last week. That was devastating. I thought it would be an opportunity to just recommend a couple of movies from those great movie artists. George Segal in particular, huge favorite of mine. If you listen to our Top 5 Gambling Movies episode, I got a chance to talk about California Split. George Segal's energy in California Split is what I aspire to at all times, which is to say a heavy sweater, sunglasses, and a complete disregard for my own morality. But Chris, one of the last times we went to the movies with our friends, we went to go see the Hot Rock at the New Beverly. And a lot of Hot Rock energy has been going around lately. Siegel

is so good in the Hot Rock, even though it's really a Robert Redford movie. What do you think of when you think of Siegel? Well, I think that when, you know, for most of my life, I thought of him as like a kind of grandfatherly paternal figure in the background of comedies that I would see. And it turns out he was just one of our great leading men, you know, of, of maybe like the post-World War II era.

And I, there's so many movies to recommend, but yeah, he is cool. He is funny. He was believable in action. He was believable in B movies and thrillersvable in B-movies and thrillers. And he was like a really capable drama actor.

Amanda, were you a Just Shoot Me watcher? I feel like Just Shoot Me was the second entry. I was literally going to say the two reference points for me are Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf and Just Shoot Me. And that's like the range, right? That's like an entire career. And that also leaves out just like all the awesome movies in the early 70s um that you guys were referencing and i just want

to say like being in a movie with robert redford in 1972 and like kind of upstaging 1972 robert redford is like really all you need to say about george seagull that's hard to do not getting your ass kicked by robert redford is very impressive um Also, Jessica Walter, of course, best known, I think, to people of our generation as Lucille Bluth on Arrested Development, truly one of the funniest TV characters of the last 30 years. But she was quite an actress in the 60s. She was, one, incredibly beautiful, just a very striking woman, and seemed like she was on the road to a kind of Jane Fonda-esque career as a leading lady, and then took some turns and then did a lot of work in television in the 70s and 80s,

which is a couple of cool movies in the 60s, especially Grand Prix, which was kind of her big breakout, this really exciting car racing movie that got her some recognition from the Golden Globes. And when I was thinking about how she is the star of a movie that is really, really hard to find, there are very few movies that are really hard to find these days, but Bye Bye Braverman, which is the Sidney Lumet movie that comes right after the group, which she also was one of the stars of, which also stars George Segal. They played opposite each other in this movie, Bye Bye Braverman. And I went hunting last night for it. And you can get it on DVD on Amazon. And that's pretty much the only place I could find. I couldn went hunting last night for it. And you can get it on DVD on Amazon. And that's

pretty much the only place I could find it. I couldn't find it on Dailymotion. I couldn't find it on YouTube. I couldn't find it on any of the streaming services. But if you can track down Bye Bye Braverman or own a copy and just want to send it to me, Amanda, and Chris, that would be greatly appreciated because it's a little bit lost the time. Any Jessica Walter thoughts from you guys? I was going to recommend the group, which is also weirdly hard to find. I think I found it on streaming once for a month, two years ago. But I recommend that book and a great movie if you can find it.

Chris, I know you have a framed poster, movie poster of the group in your home. So I know that's a reference point for you too. One of my wife's favorite novels. I would also just for Jessica Walters, shout out Mallory Archer. The, her character on Archer, who is sort of a sister character to Lucille Bluth,

but is arguably even funnier. And Tavernier is a really interesting filmmaker. It's been funny. We've been hearing most about him on the watch, Chris, because I feel like Andy Greenwald has been on a journey and has been, I guess, getting interested in his films for the first time. Andy's soft boycott of watching the TV that we're supposed to talk about so that he can talk about Criterion movies. So very interesting filmmaker and also widely considered one of the greatest advocates for movies in the world for many years and you know has been a critic and a publicist and a scholar and the kind of guy who clearly just

will hector you with his movie knowledge you can see why i relate to him at times um he's made a couple of really really terrific movies especially his his debut the clockmaker of saint paul which i think is a really cool film nine of his movies are available on the criterion channel right now as are some of his interviews about some of his favorite films, him talking about Jean-Pierre Melville and Godard, people like that. So if you are interested in some film history

to honor a legend, check out those movies. You guys ready to draft now? Yeah. Oh, wait, one more George Segal movie? Yeah. Bridget Remagen is like one of the most underrated World War II movies. I've never seen this.

It's so, so good. It is so good. It's just like a classic Chris Ryan recommendation there, but that doesn't make it any less valuable. We love you, Chris. It's one of my favorite World War II motifs, which is Dutch Bridge movie. Because the bridge too far was also that. But this is like they're fighting lots of close quarter fighting in a town and there's this bridge

and the Germans are blowing, you know, the Americans are blowing the bridges up and the Germans. It's just great stuff. Dutch bridge movies? Yeah. Do you think we could get a top five Dutch bridge movies pod?

It depends on how much longer the pandemic goes on, honestly, whether we have to resort to that category. Let's talk about 2016. 2016, pretty big, pretty big year for the three of us. This was, Amanda, who were you and what were you in 2016? Well, I moved to Los Angeles in January of 2016 for The Ringer because it started five months later. I also got married five months later, or was it six months later for both of those events?

They were very close together. As I recall recall you got married three days before we launched the ringer which was certainly a choice well in my defense the wedding was planned not by me long before the launch date of the ringer was planned you can read about that in gq magazine just google groomzilla anyway um moved to los angeles which you, which was very exciting. I was excited about this job. I was excited to be near you guys. I had always wanted to live in Los Angeles. New York is the best place on earth, in my opinion.

But it was hard. And I had kind of hit my personal limit. So I was very excited to move here. And then I totally underestimated what a change it would be. And so there was obviously a lot going on in our lives and our work lives and in my personal life, I guess, because I got married, but also was just here in Los Angeles trying to figure things out. And so all of the movies I saw and where I saw them and who I saw them with are like

particularly resonant because I was learning like you know like the different parts of the city and the different like movie theaters and screening rooms and also was you know on a bit of an emotional journey and trying to to work it out through the movies so I have I have a lot of great Chris Ryan stories at the movies I don't know that I should share them all now. Sure. Can I share my favorite? Do you know which story I'm going to tell Chris? No, I don't. All right. So, you know, move to Los Angeles. I had some friends, but it's, it's a new city, new people. And also my husband was traveling a lot. He travels a lot for work anyway, but especially in that first

year, he was going back and forth to New York a lot. And for some reason, well, I know why we wanted the full LA experience. So we rented this tiny, like old house in the Hills in Los Angeles. And it was really great, except like we lived on the side of a Hill in Los Angeles. And I was like home alone all the time. And LA is a pretty lonely city before you put yourself on the side of a Hill, um hill with your partner traveling all the time and you not really knowing that many people. So I like it, it was lonely. It was a lonely year in a lot of ways. And you guys both knew that. So you were very good and planned a lot of activities. And Chris, I think one day you and your wife, Phoebe were like, we're going to take you to the

movies. And I think you even picked me up and you like drove to the Arclight and we went to Salabara and we got the Brussels sprout pizza and we like ordered it early enough, you know, that we would be there. You were just like, here's how movies work in Los Angeles. We got you. And we go and we sit down and we watch a film and it was called The Invitation. And do you remember this? Okay.

So The Invitation is like, I thought a really great film directed by Karen Kusama, but it is, would we call it a horror film? I think it's more like a worst case scenario film. Sure. And you are the worst case scenario. It's the worst case scenario of being alone in the hill. Yes. Because without spoiling The Invitation, it's like not the movie that I seek out type of movie that I seek out for myself.

But I don't know if I knew that then. Right. You know, it's also a nice story about learning about our friends. Anyway, the invitation is set in the Hollywood Hills Hills and it makes great use of that location at one point. And then I just remember like I think you drove me because I remember you guys just dropping me off at one point. And then I just remember, like, I think you drove me because I remember you guys just dropping me off at home afterwards. So just like alone at night and like in the hills and we're like, bye, good luck. And you know, I will always treasure that, that memory and that movie. I want to make so many jokes now, but I don't want to spoil the invitation for people. I mean, for so many reasons, that's such an amazing story.

Like, I can't pay you to go to a movie like that nowadays, too. So it's so great that they were just like, this will be fun. We'll check out a film. It's about living in LA. It'll be great. It kind of was. Dinner parties.

This is what it's like. It was nice. There was a Q&A afterwards. You know they love this greeting with the Q&A. Yeah. It's great. Ciara, you were, what, five years into your LA experience in 2016. Who were

you? What were you doing? I mean, you and I were attached at the hip. We were making what would become The Ringer. We were coming out of a very long period of a kind of quarantine. We had been working in this house in Hollywood,wood uh a couple of us on on building out the ringer for a few months by then and then you know i i was kind of like going through this year on like my photos and and looking like at big events because i think i was trying to divine meaning from the year that like we obviously will now look back on and be like well this was the start of something very personally and i think nationally somewhat dark uh and i was looking for like signs that that that would be that would be coming what was to come and i really it was hard to find i mean you

can see things politically and in the news that you're like oh that's alarming but i don't think that we kind of had the foresight or the, you know, the basically the perspective to know how life was going to change in November. But, you know, when we think about what the big cultural moments were of that year,

and to some extent, whether we're talking about movies or TV or just like what people were talking about, I would imagine that for all the movies that we're going to be talking about, nothing was watched as much as the presidential debates. Nothing captured our attention and drove conversation, but also just consumed us like that did. Yeah. It feels, obviously, there's an echo, I think, with what 2020 was in many respects with

regard, obviously, to the pandemic, but more specifically, the presidential race that took up a lot of viewing time. And so I have a hard time remembering between the presidential race, this project that we were all working on together and kind of getting it to come to life. And then also, once you get something like this to come to life, I think a lot about the second half of 2016 being in many ways harder than the first half where it's like it's alive and we're doing it, but it's really hard to make work every day. And so making it work was a huge investment. And that's certainly the most I've ever worked in my career. And at the same time, I think we were all kind of like circling how much movie watching we were going to do because movie going is such a huge part of the LA experience to the story that Amanda just told about Chris, you and Phoebe taking her to the movies. Like that's what we did. I mean, Chris, I feel like for the last 10 years, our friendship has been more or less defined by like,

oh, it's Friday at 4.30. Let's go to the Arclight or let's go downtown to a movie theater or we all have a screening to go do together on a Wednesday or what have you. So it's interesting to think of this as like the dawning of a new time, but also a time that like is maybe not best remembered for its movies. I do think that the movie thing that will probably be best remembered about this year is the Oscars and what happened the following year with, with Moonlight and La La Land as the kind of two big films going against each other. And then that extraordinary moment at the end of the Oscars at the time,

I think I may have even written a column about this. I can't totally remember, but I was like, this is, this is a watershed moment. This is, there's never been anything like this. The Oscars,

a movie, this small, a movie that really has come out of nowhere, a movie from a distributor that has such, you know, limited reach, generally speaking. And then, you know, shape of Water and Green Book won.

And so it didn't really seem like maybe things had changed that radically. But between Oscar So White in 2015, the presidential election in 2016, and then the obvious intense backlash to that in early 2017, it felt like movies had become, I think what a lot of us were looking for throughout the Trump administration, which is like maybe some sort of cultural reflection or reaction to what was going on in the world. And I didn't necessarily think that the world of movies necessarily lived up to that specific moment of the Oscars that February in 2017.

But what do you guys remember from the year of movies? What do you think defines that the the movie year, for both of you? I think when we were at Grantland those first few years, I think that I remember being very conscious about the somewhat affirmative and optimistic feeling of a lot of, especially TV. Even though you had the antiheroes of prestige TV, I think that there was a general undercurrent of, I, you know, you had to like the antiheroes of prestige TV, I think that there was like a general like, um, pleasantly bored, you know, like, oh yeah, it's like the double mint commercial meme dance and it showed up in the office and

like, isn't this all great. And, and then that kind of coming to a crashing halt, you know, uh, now that's like a very simplistic way of reading when like there were terrible things happening during the Obama administration. But I mean, just speak strictly speaking, culturally, that's the kind of memory I have of like that and then that being an abrupt change. And you look at some of the movies from 2016, which obviously developed and written and planned and shot before the election. They have vestiges of that. There are some places where I feel like there's kind of like, what if we could communicate with aliens? know what i mean like it's like this idea that like like humanity has vast potential uh but then there there are some

there are some traces of like the residual hangover from the 08 crash or the the financial crash and like what that meant to the next five to ten years and and we obviously saw that in its most significant way in the election. Amanda, what about for you? Is there anything in particular that defines 2016 as a movie year? Well, for someone who is obsessed with the Oscars like you and I are, for me, it's obviously like Moonlight and La La Land. I mean, that's the defining thing. And I still remember where I was when I watched both of those movies. But it's interesting if you look at the top 20 movies of the year in a box office perspective, and then you look at the Oscar movies or even

maybe the list of movies that the three of us went to see, or kind of if I were doing like the actual Amanda version of this draft instead of the draft version to win, there's almost no overlap between those movies. And, you know, that that's standard now but there were a lot of movies that were franchises and sequels and ip and making a lot of money and then there were still a lot of like smaller non-franchise movies that we were all interested in and you could go to see all of those and you could like talk about them with other people and then they would win things at the oscars and it didn't that still didn't feel like a not a i don't want to say a waste of time because i don't i those were the movies that i like but they didn't feel as divorced from i guess pop culture well um even even though they were completely separate, it was just there was like still room

for a non-IP movie. And this is like maybe one of the last years where that's the case. I mean, the only film that was in the top 20 of the box office that was non-IP, non-animated was The Revenant. And that obviously has a lot to do with the filmmaker

and the stars of that movie, Leo and Tom Hardy, and there being an ability to kind of sell a big movie like that as an event. But it does feel like that part of moviegoing is slipping through our fingers. I think simultaneously, this is the last year when it felt like Netflix was not really like a significant part of the movie experience

in the world. You have a couple of Amazon movies that make a little bit of noise this year, specifically Manchester by the Sea. That was an Amazon acquisition that went on to be Oscar nominated. And then pretty much from that point forward, the integration of the streamer with the traditional studios starts to be happening kind of on an ongoing basis. And if we look at the Oscars this year, for example, it's largely streamers, majority streamers, in terms of terms of who's being recognized in the categories. And so I don't think it's necessarily a turning point. And I don't think that the political climate is really meaningfully represented. You can always find meaning in different individual movies,

but it's kind of an odd year. I think there's some fun stuff. I think of it as a big, big, big A24 year. It seemed to me like the smaller boutiques had a small window to jump in before Amazon and Netflix started like hoovering up all of the material. And while the studios were largely focusing on their IP stuff. So that's where you see, you know, not just Moonlight in particular, but movies like The Witch or Green Room or 20th Century Women, like Annapurna is very active at this time. And so there was a lot of good stuff,

but it did feel like it was, not necessarily on the margins, but not in the main mainstream. So it's like, this will be an interesting draft because I'll bet there's a lot of movies that we feel personally committed to, but aren't necessarily on the order of like an event, you know, they're there. And I wonder if like, as we keep going through the years here, if it will be harder and harder for us to do this exercise, like we may have to just keep

going into the past to make this make sense because the 2018-1920, those movie drafts might be a little bit weird. What do you think, Chris? Well, I was thinking while you were talking there about what a good TV year it was here, and that kind of ties into what Amanda was saying about the non-IP stuff. I mean, this was a year that had The Crown and Stranger Things on Netflix, Fleabag, Atlanta, and probably one of the most beloved, if not the best, Game of Thrones season. So there was just like this all of a sudden,

obviously people had been saying for a while, TV is where the real stories are at. But this was the first time where you were like, are these TV shows as big as movies, if not bigger? Like is Stranger Things, The Crown and Game of Thrones, you would put up against most of the blockbusters here with the exception of the marvel and star wars stuff you know other things but yeah as we get closer and closer to the present day it seems like you know you get good years and bad years but you are like really moving chess

pieces of these blockbuster ip movies around um it's harder and harder to find these kind of like you know uncut gems in there amanda do you feel like you have six movies that you're like these blockbuster IP movies around. It's harder and harder to find these kind of like, you know, uncut gems in there. Amanda, do you feel like you have six movies that you're like, these are my movies and I will draft them from this list? Was it an easy exercise? No, but there are movies that I like, you know, there are, there are a few that are obvious passion points for certain people on this podcast, which, you know, I don't want to reveal strategy or anything, but I've been thinking about it.

Zootopia, right? You love Zootopia. that's, you know, I mean, there's still good stuff. I feel like I can't remember the year it was.

Maybe it was like 2014 where I was just like pulling teeth to find six movies that I was really excited about. And it, and it's not that, but I do think it is sort of a weird year and hard to put together. just like pulling teeth to find six movies that I was really excited about. And it's not that, but I do think it is sort of a weird year and hard to put together like a quote narrative within six films. Yeah, I agree with you.

I think, I guess we should just, should we get right to it? Yeah, let's do it. All right, let's take a quick break and then when we come back, we will draw for who picks first okay we're back wags you're here i am here my internet is holding out long enough just to help grease the wheels of the 2016 movie draft we need you just to just to get the the draft order. We need you just to get the draft order here.

So let's get the draft order going. Okay, picking first is Sean. God damn it. Interesting. God damn it. Everybody always seems so mad about picking first. I always say the name of the person, and they're always like, ah.

Like, did you not prep to pick first? Isn't that what you do in drafts? Well, it's because it means you pick last. You don't want to pick last. I see. Okay.

Chris is up next and that makes Amanda third. Okay. You're not excited about this, Amanda? I don't know. I guess so.

I'm just adjusting to the new world order. It's like when I receive a piece of information, I got to understand how I'm going to fit into all of it. And until I understand, I'm stressed out. You know me. The new world order. I don't know. It's different than it was two minutes ago you're

picking first and chris is picking second i didn't know that i like the idea of someone listening to this podcast and imagining some sort of illuminati theory based on our drafting style you know i think that they're we could i mean the cr heads they might be into that chris you never know they're motivated they certainly are they certainly are. If you've never listened to a movie draft episode, let us briefly explain the rules. We draft from six categories. We do it in a snake style. The six categories are drama, comedy or horror,

blockbuster, and in blockbuster, you need to make $100 million or more at the box office for your pick, animated or foreign language, sequel, and a wildcard category. We're returning to the old school categories now that we've moved on from 1984. Who won 1984, by the way? Did I win?

I don't know. So neither of you know, which means I won, which is great. No, I think Amanda won. Did she? Yeah. No, I don't. Shall we consult the Twitter account of the podcast that we all host? Sure, if you want to.

I got it, guys. I got the results. Cook them. What are the results? If we're not factoring in Facebook, because I don't have time to find it on Facebook and add them up,

just on Twitter, Sean has won with 43.9% of the vote. Amanda came in second and Chris came in last. A strong last, though. 25%. A strong last.

Okay. That's going to be the name of my memoir. Okay. Okay. last though 25 a strong last okay that's gonna be the name of my memoir okay so i'm i'm i'm coming on i'm on a two-game winning streak you guys know what that's like you know how that feels you don't know that how that feels i don't think have we ever had a two game winning streak in the history of the draft amanda did you get two in a row at a certain point she might have actually you might have once, I do this to talk about movies with my friends and the community of people who like to listen to this. And then I move on with my life.

She is saying that. But if you know her, you know that she needs to keep the monster locked away because she is as competitive as anybody I've ever met. And if she just actually engaged with the advanced analytics of like victories and defeats and road wins it would be a wrap in amanda's zoom window right now there are two very beautiful pieces of art that are elegantly framed her head is right between them but then directly to the right there is a homeland style pin board of all of the drafts and all of the results historically

and this faux blase approach to i'm not really sure i don't look at the internet i don't know about the meanwhile amanda has been seeking out for the record i'm trying to like aggressively reject like a social media accounting of my value judgment on movies that's what i'm doing and i'm just also trying to you know be in the world yeah but not this world i have been um continuing to stoke this conversation because i don't want to make my pick you are you are fucking filibustering right now i've noticed that like five minutes ago you're like oh yeah uh okay so i have the first pick right yeah i think there's one category that is very slim here that i not a lot of great choices so i'm gonna open with that category this could be a big mistake I genuinely have no idea I didn't feel like I prepared very well for this but I'm

going with Rogue One in sequel with Rogue One is I guess a sort of odd it's like a sidequel right it's like a prequel sequel exists somewhere somewhere in between. A Star Wars story. Yeah. And is it before A New Hope? Is that when this takes place? Yeah. And it's essentially, it's a- There's a scene at the end of Rogue One that you may have seen in A New Hope.

Rogue One is very good. I think when it came out, there was a sense that it was a little bit of a disappointment and a bit of a confusing endeavor. And we actually are not getting any more Star Wars films like this it seems these kind of like side door stories that are told um a little bit askew from the rest of the historical narrative and obviously there was a lot of production drama around the film

where the original filmmaker uh gareth edwards was gareth edwards i'm again edwards yeah yeah um gareth edwards effectively left the film or did not complete the film and Tony Gilroy came in to do some rewrites and to shoot some additional sequences. Certainly seems like that worked

and in some cases I think maybe some movies should have two different filmmakers working on it at two different times. What Gilroy added seems to have worked really well

and that Darth Vader scene that Chris is citing is pretty incredible. Kind of what a bunch of nerds like me were waiting for for 30 years was and that Darth Vader scene that Chris is citing is pretty incredible. Kind of what a bunch of nerds like me were waiting for for 30 years was to see Darth Vader. I would like to have a higher opinion of myself but that might be my decade highlight of being in a movie theater.

It was pretty exciting. It was honestly pretty exciting. Dream bigger? I saw the movie and I know who Darth Vader is. They just do the scene where in the beginning of New Hope they are trying like Princess Leia has gotten this message, you know, and it explains, like, you know, it just basically sets off the Star Wars

story. But this is the getting the message to her scene, and a bunch of guys get killed by Darth Vader in the process of doing that. It's a very dramatic staging of Darth Vader's power. And it's cool. It's like, it was genuinely's power and it's cool it's like it was genuinely satisfying um so that's what i'm going with rogue one for sequel cr you're up i'll go um blockbuster

and pick my like low-key favorite marvel movie which is captain america civil war so uh i re-watched this recently obviously because of wandavision and because everybody has just got to talk about Marvel 24-7 now but I also rewatched it because it has like some some stuff to tell us about about Falcon and Winter Soldier I this movie is

pretty pretty excellent like it is two movies there is the sort of drama that's at the core of it with the Iron Man Captain America schism and then there is sort of like a fun backdoor pilot comedy with Spider-Man that is like tonally actually quite different from the rest of the film, but,

uh, really enjoy this movie. And it's probably like my, like sort of platonic ideal for a Marvel movie. So I'll go with, uh, civil war. Number one,

I think, um, I want to say that Chris, you and I brought our wives to this film. Is that possible? If it is, that's the last Marvel movie my wife ever saw. I think I want to say that, Chris, you and I brought our wives to this film. Is that possible? If it is, it's the last Marvel movie my wife ever saw. I think that's sort of what I was saying is I don't think that we walked out. I think we might have had dinner afterwards.

And we attempted to stoke a conversation about the film. And I think we were met with some blank stares. Wait, Chris, I was going to ask you because I actually do listen to the watch. What do you actually do? You think I don't listen to the big picture? Yes, I was going to ask you because I actually do listen to The Watch. What do you actually do? You think I don't listen to The Big Picture? Yes, I do. No, you don't. Yes, I do.

Oh, my God. How do I get tested on The Big Picture? I know you guys wanted me to host the Oscars. That was lovely. Okay, there we go. Can you do one of your segment transitions for us okay so i do listen to the watch and i've been you the sokovia accord or whatever it is is like a running joke and i know that the soko i know that like this movie is when sokovia like really becomes central to the

captain america winter, whatever experience. But I don't remember what it is. So could you just tell me? In Ultron, that robot drops a city. Remember? Right. Yeah. And the superheroes pretty much save the day.

But at the end, there's still a lot of infrastructural damage. You know? And there are these things called the sokovia accords which are basically there for checks and balances and for governance of superheroes and some of the people like tony stark are like this is really what we need to be doing because i i you know we can't just have unchecked power and captain america is like bro who better to decide how to use our power than the people with the powers and then they fight but then there's other stuff happening. Okay.

Thank you. I can't believe I got you to talk about superhero checks and balances on a podcast but that was really great for me personally. It culminates in a very long fight between Iron Man and Captain America in which they just punch each other over and over again and you know honestly I enjoyed it. I'm not above

that. Okay amanda you're up you have two picks the hot corner with davins let's go all right the first one i know what i'm gonna do i was gonna do this even if i got number one it will be in blockbuster clocking in at 100 million and 500 000 arrival um it did you're googling you're making that face at me but there's there's wikipedia has the number that amanda has and box office mojo has it at 92 and i that's that's calendar gross and i did in your release which is there you go historically what we've done wow yeah huge for you okay thank you yes we're gonna have the either way i was gonna give it to you we're gonna have the fact-checking team just just look back at this just to be just to be totally sure

okay are we not doing any releases anymore even though we've done them for every other box other other draft no no i total total lifetime gross is good absolutely domestically all right i've checked it from box office it clears it clears on box office mojo and wikipedia look who's internet decided to work just in time i'm here to support amanda she checked the facts she did the homework as always you were gonna pick it anyway this is great no matter what um arrival i'm team arrival chris and i have both talked about like how much we love arrival and and how moved we were by it. It was on our both best of the decade list. And, you know, it is I didn't realize that it would be eligible for Blackbuster. I didn't realize that it had made like 100 million dollars. It just barely squeaked by, but we'll take it. And I guess it is like technically an alien story. But to me,

it is sort of like what you can do within the genre visually and emotionally. And I just am completely amazed by it every time. So if you've not seen Arrival recently, I really recommend it. That is blockbuster. It stars Amy Adams, by the way. Oh yeah. Okay. Your favorite.

Hard to believe you remember that, Chris. I don't know what I'm going to do with number two. Chris, what was your Captain America pick in? What category? That was in Blockbuster. Okay. So you have sequel left. And I kind of, I know what you might do, but I don't really care that much about it. So I think that I will just go in drama and take Moonlight. Great. Which, you know, we talked about the kind of Moonlight as a historical moment, and we talk about it all the time

on the Oscars portion of this podcast. But I think in, because we talk about like its significance and it winning so much, we forget to talk about how good it is. And it's just like an extraordinarily beautiful movie that I revisited this weekend. And, um, it is just a, it, I mean, obviously it's so visually stunning and it has incredible performances, but this sense of how to communicate who a person is via film and not like

what happens to them and not just like what events are, but to feel this person and this person changing and this person learning. Um, it's extraordinary. Uh, so moonlight, best picture winner. Okay.

I mean, can't argue with it. No complaints there. I, I, I've been rewatching the films of Wong Kar Wai recently, uh, for as you do, Amanda and I are going to do

an episode about Wong's films soon which I'm really excited about the Criterion Collection reissued 8 of his films and remastered them and I watched Happy Together last night and Happy Together there's a very famous Caetano Veloso needle drop which is also was borrowed by

Barry Jenkins and a very clear homage to Wong's work. Moonlighting. Incredible film. Wonderful movie. You know, there's like a 10 part Barry Jenkins TV series. How crazy is that? 10 hours of Barry Jenkins should be really exciting. Chris, where to?

OK, so I did Blockbuster. I did Captain American Civil War. For sequel, I'm going to do Conjuring 2. I thought you might go here. Yeah. This, I think, is... This is a huge statement, but it's the best Conjuring movie.

I think it's the best Conjuring movie, the best extended universe Conjuring movie, and is a really great example of how horror does not have to uh to upset your stomach you know it's just essentially this one is set in england it does a really great job using the atmosphere of like the always raining uh 1970s london um and it's just uh or like 1970s england i don't think it's set in london um and it's just like a really effective use of atmosphere and mood over gore and shock so you know these movies are really reliable and I wish that there were more kind of

original idea horror movies that expanded like this we've kind of like we're kind of going in circles a little bit although you know there's a lot of other horror to pick from this year so yeah let's go Conjuring 2 for sequel. Okay, we have a huge challenge on the big picture, which is in approximately two months, there's a new Conjuring movie. Now, Chris,

obviously you and I really love the Conjuring movies. We did a Rewatchables episode about it. Amanda, a little bit afraid of movies like the Conjuring. She can hang with it. I watched one of them because you asked me to. Conjuring is the one with Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga.

I was into it. I'm a huge Patrick Wilson fan, so that really helps. You might like two even more because it's England set and it's a period piece. It is very scary, though. I think it's much scarier than the original, honestly. Okay. I mean, it's much scarier than the original honestly okay i mean it's the doll right well that annabelle that's a whole other that's in the universe but that's a

whole whole other but it's sort of like a creepy fantastical thing is the source of most of the scares it's possession it's a possession yeah it's very ghost story okay a kid is obsessed yeah um the the subtitle of the new conjuring film film is called The Devil Made Me Do It, which is just ace. That's just you can't. You really can't do better as far as third installment titles. I like that pick. Okay. So I have to make a pick, huh?

Two picks. In fact, I'm going to go hard. I'm going to stop playing with my head this time. I'm just going pure heart. These are two films that I like a great deal. First one, I'm going comedy or horror, and I'm going with Everybody Wants Some. I knew it. You know why? Because it might

be the best movie of 2016. Might be. Certainly the movie that is the most fun to return to. And as is almost always the case with Richard Linklater movies that bomb at the box office, the cult is growing every day. And this is just such a fun movie. Chris, we were just talking about Wyatt Russell appearing in Falcon and the Winter Soldier.

I think this is really the first time I got a look at him and he is radiant. My boy has one of the scenes of the decade in this movie. Unreal. Him, what are they listening to? Pink Floyd. Pink Floyd and he's talking about the Twilight Zone and the power of weed about the twilight zone and and the power of weed and the power of rock and roll and uh just truly great shit so anyway everybody wants some I think a great college movie there are very very few great college movies honestly a really good sports movie a really good friendship movie a really good romance has a lot of things going for it Zoe Deutsch in this right Zoe Deutsch first time I ever saw her too. Really discovered a bunch of people as

Linklater so often does. So for comedy or horror, and that was a tough pick for me because there's a lot of really good horror movies this year. But going with everybody wants some. Next pick, should I stick with my heart? Sure, pick Deadpool. It's on my long list. I know it is.

It's on my long list. I enjoy Deadpool. i'm not picking deadpool though i'm gonna take hell or high water in drama yeah which is also a really great film this is a film that i think a lot of people sought to apply some of that political ideology onto about you know chris not dissimilar to what you were describing with the sort of post-2008 financial crash and the way that a lot of industrialized towns were scooped out and small parts of the American

West and Midwest were kind of left to die and the idea of bank robbers who were, you know, essentially bankrupted by banks and the kind of relationship between people who don't have and people who need I think is really interesting in the movie. It's also just a good heist movie

and it's a good movie about brothers. So Hell or High Water and drama. That's my pick. C.R., you're up. Yeah. I will go for drama. I'll take Manchester by the Sea, which features one of the best performances of the decade

from Casey Affleck, but also like a raft of really great uh supporting performances from Lucas Hedges and Kyle Chandler Michelle Williams and it's not a movie that I plan to revisit very often throughout my life but you know is is the Kenneth Lonergan special where he just like punches you in the soul 15 times has like two or three scenes where you're just like this was torn out of like absolute real life and it's just heartbreaking and it just feels so true and you know very special movie that like you know obviously like like all Kenneth Lonergan movies seems to need like Matt Damon to move heaven and earth to get it made but uh you know is just one

that still haunts me to this day so I'll take Manchester by the Sea for drama scene where Michelle Williams and Casey Affleck see each other after a long period of time and they have the conversation is like is in the running for the most punishing sequence of the 2010s very moving

I saw this movie at 10am on a Saturday because I knew that like no on purpose on purpose because i was like torpedo you yeah like then i gotta be able to have some time and some like sunlight in order to like cope and work through this and like we really did a friend drove across town to see it with us and then we went and had pizza and i just remember sitting at like the table eating pizza being like and just like dead silence everyone working through their feelings yeah love to eat pizza while thinking about the

punishing nature of loss it's just really fun times uh Amanda you got two picks yeah I have to be honest I I have a million wild cards and I also I was going to do everybody wants some in comedy so I'm a little lost now I would say that hmm the vamp is on no I know I mean I was like talking about pizza to try to do you know what screw it I'm just going to be me in comedy

horror I will take the invitation just you know you guys know why if you listen to the beginning of this podcast I'm just going to be me. In comedy horror, I will take the invitation. Just, you know, you guys know why if you listen to the beginning of this podcast. Sentimental favorite. And also, I never get to pick a horror film. And then... Also, Logan Marshall Green and Michael Wiesman is the original Spider-Man meme.

There's you guys pointing at each other. Okay. I guess... All right. okay i guess all right i don't know what to do there's a lot of good films left no i know but you know like doing wild card i don't i have like eight wild cards and i don't feel super strongly about any of the leftover sequel really or even animated foreign picks. You know what I'll do? I'll take The Handmaiden in foreign. Sheesh.

God damn it. Sorry. So here's the thing. You and me know, you and me are partners in the anti-drawing. Sure, yeah. And so that really like we we've we've shrink it down and then there's just like really only a handful of notable foreign films that i personally have

seen from this so this was the toughest category yes um that's kind of why i did it i confess i didn't revisit this before this draft um but i remember liking it even though chris i'm a little surprised that uh you were gonna be so comfortable with the handmaiden given that anything remotely explicit freaks you out no but chris has a bdsm exception okay so anything bdsm he does like to check out gibbsims only. Yeah. Oh my god. Okay. Amanda this is like a weird this urban legend that you're like do you keep pumping

out there that I'm uncomfortable with as soon as anyone which like granted when Sean works blue it's uncomfortable for everybody but like your like neck starts just like bulging a little. No it doesn't. Yes it does. I can see it from here. It's okay. That's just like bulging a little. No, it doesn't. Yes, it does. I can see it from here.

It's okay. That's just the angle of my computer. Listen, I don't work blue very well either. Zach makes fun of me every time I do it. We're just like a bunch of goody two shoes. It's okay. But you like, it's so visible, your reaction, Chris, which is why I go to you every time.

He just has to go back to his happy place. Amy Adams in arrival. You know, that that's just that's what soothes him uh the handmaiden is a choice I you know Park Chan-wook obviously straight up genius one of the best filmmakers the last 30 years look very again this is it's very strange that this is a film that Amazon was like we should put this on our service yeah because if you've you've seen the film, it's pretty, it's very intense and very sexualized and very violent, but quite beautiful and interesting. It's a great pick.

I'm sure Chris and I were both seriously thinking about it for Foreign Language. Do you have another pick? No, that's two. I did Invitation and Handmaiden. That is,

not a thousand tries would I have guessed that you would have taken those two films. Well, you know, I live to surprise. That is, not a thousand tries would I have guessed that you would have taken those two films. Well, you know, I live to surprise. CR, you're up. So I have comedy horror left,

I have animated foreign language left, and I have wild card left. And so with my comedy horror pick, I am going to take Green Room. Jeremy Saulnier's movie about a punk rock band lost in the woods in rural Oregon and getting beset upon by white power. A white power gang is the most intense movie, I think, of the decade.

It features some of the most harrowing scenes of the decade. Patrick Stewart is fucking incredible in this movie. Anton Yelchin is incredible in this movie. Anton Yelchin is incredible in this movie. Calum Turner, who is going to be in the new version of Band of Brothers that they're doing, Masters of the Air on Apple, and he's one of the stars of that,

is in this film and he's really good. Imogen Poots is dynamite in this movie. This one I've gone back to over and over again. I really think it's one of the best made movies

of the decade and it's one of the most thrilling horror thrillers that you'll see. It's stuck with me for a long time. The knife scene in this movie I'll sometimes just when I open a door I think about

that scene. This is Saul Nye's second best film I think after his series of Taco Bell commercials starring Steve from Stranger Things. The Craving, yeah. Are you familiar with that, Amanda? I do, actually. I know those commercials.

What a performance from Sarah Hyland in those commercials, too. That's the thing. Saulnier always gets the best out of his actors. Amanda specifically hasn't really talked about it enough. Do you want to turn this into Amanda's commercial review? You know that's a thing. Because you're just going to talk about Scoop

There It Is for like 20 minutes. I mean poop chaka laka chaka. Alright, we've just already gone too far. This is not Spawn. The only Spawn we do is for Pizza Hut because no one out pizzas the Hut here on Big Picture. Okay, my turn.

Right? Two picks picks my remaining categories are blockbuster animated or foreign language and wild card so animated or foreign language i am not going to choose an animated film wow there were some good animated films this year i'm not going to pick one i'm'm going to choose... This is filler. I'm going to choose Train to Busan, which is the South Korean zombie movie. Maybe the best zombie movie of the last 10 years. Very exciting movie that got a bit of a second life on streaming. There have been

some sequels and prequels since then, neither of which I think come even close to stacking up, but the original Train to Busan is an amazing and exciting movie. Great double feature with Snowpiercer, which is basically the other film that takes place on a train and runs in that kind of horizontal

strategy throughout the entirety of the film. So that's my pick for foreign language. I thought there were a lot of good foreign language movies this year, though, Chris. You would say that. What are you implying? Just some pretentious douchebag? No, it's just like the lord your knowledge of movies over us it's like well i mean you know there was a paul verhoeven film

i know that that is a difficult watch this is yeah a lot of tough sits this year green room is a tough sit the invitation is a tough sit conjuring two um manchester by the sea this was a bit of a punishing year that culminated in the election of Donald Trump. Interesting how that happened. Okay, next category. I'm going Blockbuster. And I'm going to go Sully. Sean!

You only saw Sully because I told you to. That's right. What? He would have skipped Sully. Come on. Sully is exactly what I'm talking about when I talk about Obama content. God damn it.

This guy just landed that plane. Shout out to him. Well, as a one, Amanda, you did say you had you you loved sully i remember you loved sully when you saw it like what actually happened was zach and i went to see it and then i think we texted you we went to at the vista shout out the vista love you forever and we were like hey sully's really good and then you and elaine went to see it that afternoon and then we all had dinner together so and then we talked about Sully.

So I do take credit for this particular one. I have to say, flight ruined Sully for me. But flight happened before Sully. I know. But I'm saying, you see flight. Sully can't live up to flight. Because you're just like, when is Sully going to do all the coke? That's a good point.

It's a different experience. Have you seen Flight recently, Chris? I rewatched the crash sequence on YouTube. Oh, God. That is the most classic Chris answer. When he's just like, what's your son's name? Say his name into the black box. Oh, my God.

Yeah. It's good. I rewatched the rest of it as well recently for our Denzel podcast. Fascinating film. Anyway, the thing about Sully is that it's 90 minutes long. Shout out to Kelly Riley in that movie. You're just Amy Adams, Kelly Riley.

You're off on a tangent here, Chris. Just rein it in. The thing about Sully is that it's completely made up. Certainly that man saved those people, but he did not have to stand before some sort of like mock trial that was entirely invented for the movie. And so all of the drama that comes at the end of the movie is fake. Nevertheless,

Hanks, Hanks crushes it. He's great. Were you guys still in New York when that happened? I was, I was. What year did that happen? I think it was 2009.

2010. That sounds right. I was working in an office building that overlooked the Hudson. And so I remember I could see out my window, but there was a great deal of commotion going on outside. I looked on the news. I was working as a merchandiser at eMusic at the time, as I recall. Wow. It's a fascinating part of my career.

I honestly can't remember 2009. I very well may have missed the whole thing. I just remember it was like really early social media. And so we kind of knew that it was happening in real time. And so like, I remember people being like, I guess I'm just going to walk over to the Hudson to like watch this happen, but it wasn't like full swarm social media yet. So it like, you could just do that and watch this weird news event is very strange. Well,

it gave us a charming film from the great Clint Eastwood. So those are my two picks. Chris, you're up. Um, okay. I guess for wild card, I will take hail Caesar.

Wow. Which is, uh, the Jolene Ethan Cohen, you know, you say comedy, I will take Hail Caesar. Wow. Which is the Joel and Ethan Coen. You know, you say comedy, but it's a very deep movie. And I just want to shout out our buddy Adam Naiman because Adam Naiman wrote a piece, I think for Reverse Shot,

about Hail Caesar. That was like the piece that I read by Adam where I was like, Adam Naiman is fucking great at this. And it's this basically deep reading of the symbols and the subtext of Hail Caesar that unlocked this movie for me in a way that I still remember

as one of my favorite pieces of that time period. And this movie is very funny. Josh Bolin is great in it. It's got the whole Channing Tatum dance sequence. It's got really a lot to it. So Hail Caesar, it would be my wild card. Okay, Amanda. It seems like you've been foiled multiple times here.

Yes, but also no, because there are other options. I just, you know, I don't like changing things. I don't like readjusting my strategy midstream. What? No, I've never experienced that doing this podcast with you. Never gotten the sense that you're not flexible on these things.

So I guess I have sequel and wildcard left. Okay. I have to be honest. I'm not really thrilled with any of my sequel options. Nor did I revisit

any of them before watching this. So if you're going to tell me that there are huge parts of the film that I've like totally blacked out that's completely fine. And I don't want to be held responsible for any of the political

content in this, but I'm going to go with Jason Bourne because I remember it. Um, and also honestly, because as, as I mentioned, got married in 2016. So I did actually get to go on a honeymoon in 2016 before the world fell apart. And we went to Greece and we went to the Parthenon. Like it was one of like the most magical things that has ever happened to me in my life because like, I didn't know that we were going to be able to do this. And we were like suddenly there at sunset and it was like the most beautiful thing in the world. And it's just like a gift and i took a picture of my husband at the the parthenon and i put it on instagram and then like chris just left a comment about like dudes fighting from jason bourne like on the instagram did i yes you were like did you go visit like the whatever pit where they fight in jason bourne because i

think we saw it together um So that's a nice memory. And I like the Jason Bourne films. Did you and Zach reenact that sequence as a Parthenon? Not at that particular moment in The Honeymoon. So that's my pick for sequel. And then in Wild Card,

I was going to do Hail Caesar because I like that movie a lot. I guess hmm you know what I'll do I'm gonna stay me I'm gonna stay like honeymoon travel remember the world being great theme and go with a bigger splash oh yeah yeah with which Sean I know that you like a

lot and sorry if that was going to be your uh your wild card the rafisance i was yeah the race yeah um obviously a luca guadagnino film and a and like kind of a remake of lapisian sort of anyway um but just for the first half at least like tremendous sicily you you know europe in the summer living it up ray fines dancing never forget and then and and then things turn but a great film if you haven't seen it to emotional rescue dancing to emotional right just absolutely one of the scenes of the of the century uh that was this was my favorite movie of the year in 2016 i there i probably would re-evaluate some of my rankings from the year given how many great films there were but uh i was definitely eyeballing this for

wild card so well done um so are you done amanda that's it yeah how you feeling about your roster okay yeah i think it's good i think i got the things that i care about and then also some some quirky choices i suppose but they're still like on brand for the most part got it cr what category is left for you i only have foreign animated okay so you can't take x-men apocalypse unfortunately in that no i know i i have brought this up before but i think that um i'm just gonna bring it up one more time i think that there should be some exceptions in foreign films when a film is in everything but language foreign no my response is no all right then i guess from what would be what would be an example of that personal shopper oh well that film isn't entirely in english no i know but it's largely in english

right oh so we'd have to make a ruling what percentage of the dialogue i tried this before with her majesty's colonies where i was like like, is like a Scottish movie foreign? You know, because it's not American, but are we only talking foreign language? And you ruled that it was foreign language. Personal Shopper, I don't think it gets over the line there. Okay. Well, I'll just go Tony Erdman then.

Good movie. You done talking about it? I mean, I know, I just like, I'll say that I haven't seen this film since 2016 um and that this is playing to uh to my letterbox heads who i think that they we have like a mixed relationship kind of like up and down chris you don't use letterbox i have a letterbox account but i still haven't gotten over the fact that you didn't follow me back on Letterboxd.

What are you talking about? You followed like a different Chris Ryan account. And I've told you like six times, I'm like, follow me on Letterboxd. And you're just like, cool. And then you never do. Are you serious? Am I following the wrong Chris Ryan?

You need to tell the CR heads to stand down. They need to stop creating false accounts everywhere. They've run amok. And now I don't even... How do I follow the right Chris Ryan on my favorite social media platform? Anyway, this is a great film. Very funny, very moving.

What am I supposed to say? I don't remember. Very believable, Chris. Very believable. This is a great film. I can't pick L, man. So I'm just going to go Tony Erdman here.

Okay. All right. Cool. Did they ever remake this? Weren'm just going to go to Tony Erdman here. Okay. All right. Cool. Did they ever remake this? Were they going to remake it? They were. They were. Was Lena Dunham going to remake this?

Am I making that up? I want to say. That actually does sound right. Now that you think about it. Once I go through all the headlines. She was going to like EP it, maybe. It was going to be Lisa Cholodenko was gonna write it and then Lena Dunham

and Jenny Connor or maybe they were gonna write it first and then Lisa Cholodenko came in okay with Kristen Wiig and then there was talk of Jack Nicholson coming out of retirement to play the

father yeah huh okay I somehow I doubt that movie is ever gonna happen and he seems highly highly unlikely okay I somehow I doubt that movie is ever gonna happen he seems highly highly unlikely um okay last pick I have one pick left I have wild card I have an absolute bounty

of choices here if you guys were me what would you pick well I think I think I know what you're gonna pick wait what category do you have left wild card if I were you yeah I would I can I can say, should I say?

Sure. I think you'd pick nice guys. It's on the long list. But that's if you were me. I was going to say. Not if me were me. That's if it were your last pick, Chris. If I were you, I would pick Suicide Squad.

But the air cut. What are we going to do about the Suicide Squad movie, guys? What are we going to do about the suicide squad movie guys what are we going to do about that are we going to do a podcast about that yeah i'm pretty i'm pretty concerned about that movie you're concerned about it well you know charles charles holmes and dan leath and we're on the ringer verse podcast um i highly recommend that pod they're doing it after every episode of falcon and the winter soldier and at the end of the episode on friday they talked about the trailer and they were like, this trailer rules.

And I just, I don't see that at all. I do not see that trailer ruling. I'm a little bit concerned. Yeah. Just my take. Welcome to how I feel all of the time. Well,

it's tough. So Amanda, if you were me, what would you take? You're going to do OJ Made in America, right? I am. Of course I am.

Is this not eligible? It's eligible, but not eligible it's eligible but like it's just like you picked like the friggin Peabody winning documentary instead of just being a lord and don't breathe you are giving a lot away in your letterboxd profile when you put these things together which is actually a very lovely service and I appreciate it and thank you for your prep and sharing it but then you like very clearly rank them and i don't yes but like subconsciously you do i like and for those of us for those of us who know you let me tell you what i do so i'm glad you pointed this out because when i post that sometimes people say are these ranked and i don't reply because i have an odd relationship to people

adding me about things but i'm what i'm almost but then you reply to people adding me about things. But what I'm most often doing- But then you reply to Andrew Yang about the Mets though. So you are in your way. Did you reply to Andrew Yang about the Mets? No, I want to. No, and I will do that right here. I'm prepared to respond

to Andrew Yang's Mets tweets right now. Andrew, let's not and say we did. How about that? Let's not tweet as though we are a sincere fan of the Mets. But we can say that we did, but let's not and say we did. How about that? Let's not tweet as though we are a sincere fan of the Mets. But we can say that we did, but let's not do it. Do we have a deal, Andrew? Thank you.

Moving on. The Letterboxd thing. What I do is I clone someone else's list, Amanda. So someone else has made a list of all the films. I clone that list on Letterboxd, and then whatever is missing, I fill in. But you're right, Amanda, that I'm giving some things away. Honestly, O.J. Made in America,

hard to miss. It's pretty undeniable, obviously. It's one of the signature documentary achievements of recent times and an incredible piece of work. So much so that when it won the Best Documentary,

there basically was a huge backlash within the Academy that then eliminated miniseries like this from being eligible for the Oscars. I still think of it as a movie. It was fully conceived as a film. It was not conceived as a miniseries. And from being eligible for the Oscars. I still think of it as a movie was fully conceived as a film. It was not conceived as a miniseries.

And so to me, it makes sense, even though it is chapterized to, to think about it in this way. And I don't even, I don't really like that Oscar change. I think that Oscar change actually set the Oscars up for failure long-term as opposed to success because of the conversation that the three of us in

Greenwald have been having for years now about what is TV and what is movies. And that was like a firm declaration of a frankly like unevolved way of thinking, in my opinion. I thought that the Made in America win could have signaled an interesting way forward. Nevertheless, Ezra Edelman's portrait of a country coming apart at the seams seen through the eyes of this one very famous football player and what happened to him and what he did over the course of 50 years. Just an amazing movie. I think I've talked about it on the show before, but I was working at ESPN at the time

and got a chance to see the rough cut of the film and talk to Ezra about it. That was really one of the cooler professional experiences I've had and know Ezra a little bit and just amazing admirer I think he's a genius he hasn't made a

film since this film so I look forward to whatever it is he does next so that's that's my last pick OJ made in America so shall we recap our selections

boy we missed a lot yeah do you want to do honorable mentions before we recap sure no recap first and then we'll to do honorable mentions before we recap? Sure. No, recap first, and then we'll do some honorable mentions.

Okay. Here's the recap. In the drama category, Chris selected Manchester by the Sea. I selected Hell or High Water. Amanda selected Moonlight. That's a bang-up category right there. Comedy or Horror. Chris selected Green Room.

I selected Everybody W everybody wants some Amanda selected the invitation blockbuster Chris selected Captain America Civil War I selected Sully and Amanda selected arrival for animated or foreign language Chris selected Tony Erdman I selected train to Busan Amanda selected the handmaiden for sequel Chris Chris selected The Conjuring 2. I selected Rogue One, A Star Wars Story. And Amanda selected Jason Bourne. And in wildcard, Chris selected Hail Caesar.

I selected O.J. Made in America. And Amanda selected A Bigger Splash. So, we missed a lot. The number one movie that I feel bad about missing is The Witch, Robert Eggers' horror movie, which I'm a big admirer of. And I think if Everybody Wants Him had not been released this year, that would have been my pick in the horror category.

Any regrets, Amanda? I almost did Love and Friendship in Wild Card, which is the Whit Stillman, Jane Austen adaptation. I think it's a, I can't remember whether it's unfinished or whether it's a novelette, but it's not one of like the core six Austen adaptation. I think it's a I can't remember whether it's unfinished or whether it's a novelette but it's not one of like the core six Austen novels. Starring Kate Beckinsale which is very charming. I like that one a lot. I think we all three

feel an affection for the light between the oceans or at least the knitwear in the light between the oceans. Talk about a completely forgotten movie. That's where they find a baby, right?

Yeah. Cianfrance. What a wild man. Yeah. I had lunch with yeah talk about a completely forgotten movie that's where they find a baby right yeah C in France what a wild man yeah I had lunch with Derek C in France for this film and I was like

I think this is a major work man I think big things are coming for you you're gonna you are you are the new Scorsese why don't we have lunches like that

where you tell me that about me me and you I only do it on pods that you don't listen to yeah you're on the big picture I listen to the big picture

what is this when you're not on the big picture I'm listen to the big picture. What is this? When you're not on the big picture, I'm like, Chris is the dearest person I've ever known and it's just a titanic talent and he should be celebrated at all times.

And then you get on this podcast and you and all of your minions attack Amanda and I. We're just trying to do the good work of sharing your voice. It's shameful. It's shameful

and I expect an apology immediately after we finish recording. Okay, moving on. Light Between O between oceans you like that movie i honestly really don't remember much other than the knitwear and like two very beautiful people who later got married um on a near a lighthouse is that right and i mean it looks very beautiful again i think another tough sit in actuality for sure yeah um Chris what else what else did we miss can I throw out a couple like I wouldn't

say B movies like I'm trying to disparage them but just like fun times at the movies how about 10 Cloverfield Lane don't movie triple nine pretty

entertaining uh Ouija Origin of Evil a great Mike Flanagan horror movie uh Blair Witch which is not good except for the last like 30 minutes

which will literally make you barf it's so crazy Adam Wingard's got a new movie coming out it's called King Kong vs. Godzilla or Kong vs. Godzilla

is it Kong vs. Godzilla or are they going the full name I believe it's Godzilla vs. Kong oh wow Godzilla negotiated for first

on the poster. That's pretty big for him. Or did he? We'll just have to wait and see when we see the film. Amanda and I will be talking about that movie with Shea Serrano here on The Big Picture later this week. Also, I can't let this opportunity pass me by. My girl, Double A, Amy Adams. Nocturnal Animals.

What a journey that was. Oh, my God. Can't say i was a big fan of that one just making iced coffee that one i had to see by myself i don't remember why i guess you guys had already seen it but that was like a classic amanda goes to the arc light at like 4 p.m on a weekday and goes to see a movie and then emerges and is like, what the hell is happening? And really like, what's going on with Jake Gyllenhaal? Also not a chill movie if you're alone.

Like if Zach is out of town, you're just like, great. Just going back to my house in the hills. You remind me a little bit of Aaron Taylor Johnson from Nocturnal Animals. Me? Yeah.

I think at times I've tried to have that vibe. Now I don't know. I don't know so much. And then I also really enjoyed The Shallows. Oh, that was a great movie. What a fun movie. What was the bird's name? Hey, hold on a second.

Hey, Phoebe? What was the bird's name in The Shallows? We have to keep this. Keep this in. Keep this in. Keep it. This has to stay. Did you guys know

that the bird's name in the shallows was Steven Seagull? Are you fucking kidding me, man? It's pretty good. He's been holding on to that for like five years. I'm so glad we got to use it.

Oh my God, wait. Can I tell another Phoebe going to the movie story that also relates to a movie that we did not talk about at all from this year, which is La La Land, remember that? Oh yeah. She's not a fan. Listen, now that it, yeah,

now that it didn't win Best Picture and Moonlight won and Moonlight is a far better, more important film. I have to admit, as someone who had just moved to Los Angeles and wanted to live in Los Angeles and far because she loves movies and like loves, you know, the splendor of movies, I enjoyed La La Land. I went to see it. You were a great pro.

Yeah. And I had a great experience. I went, I think on a Saturday night, like in the Arclight Dome and my husband had already seen it. So he was like, you need to sit in the aisle. So you have like this angle. And he knew which parts I would really like. And I was like, absolutely walloped by the end. And then we went to mini bar, which is mini bar still there.

I hope so. To meet Chris and Phoebe. And it was like Christmas time and they have good Christmas decorations. And I was like, wow, the wonder of movies and la la land. And Phoebe just fucking hated it. And it was a real classic Phoebe being like, and here are like 10 reasons why this movie absolutely sucks. And I think also at some point, like I had two Negronis and was just like tap dancing

in minibar while Phoebe was like, screw this movie. And then we all went to the 101 diner and had a banana split. And that was really fun. That was good. Yeah. Is minibar while Phoebe was like, screw this movie. And then we all went to the 101 Diner and had a banana split. And that was really fun. That was good. Yeah. Is minibar still open? I don't know. 101 Diner did close,

which is really sad. But minibar was part of the best Western. So hopefully Big BW is able to float it. I hope it sticks around. Yeah, La La Land. I'd like to revisit it out of the glow of the awards race. I haven't really seen it since 2016.

So maybe I'll check that out. I can't wait to see what he does next, man. A lot of potential. I mean, he's got a movie with Brad Pitt coming out soon, right? About 1920s Hollywood, as I recall. Should I tell you guys a secondhand story about Brad Pitt I heard recently?

I think it's actually really good. Just puts a bow on not only this pod, but like your podcast in general. Is this going to get us sued? What are you saying? Secondhand story about Brad Pitt? I went to go pick up Detroit style pizza from a Detroit pizza place called Dough Daddy,

which is kind of like a pop-up downtown, incredible pizza. Chris, the only spawn is nobody out pizzas the HUD. I just went through this with you. I support local businesses. I don't know if i told you this but so they downtown was very closed all like was really difficult to get down there and i was like oh what's going on it's like a lot of streets closed off they're shooting bullet train down there and apparently according to the dough daddy guy he was like the other day

brad pitt just walked by i think this is what he said he said brad pitt just walked by. I think this is what he said. He said, Brad Pitt just walked by and he turned and he said, let's go make a movie. When he shot Bullet Train. That's really good. But I'm not into Brad Pitt apparently doing 95%

of his own stunts in Bullet Train. You're not into that? No. Why? I'm worried for Brad Why? I just, I'm worried, I'm worried for Brad Pitt.

I just think maybe Brad Pitt is not, he's not, it's not Troy era Brad Pitt. So just respect your body, respect your age, respect your abilities, respect your limitations. Here's my thing about Bullet Train

is show me the film immediately. Show me this movie right now. Brad Pitt, David Leitch, who directed, co-directed John Wick and Atomic Blonde and it's called

Bullet Train. Like, take all of my money now. Yeah. Just can't wait. You know what would be a good idea for the

Big Picture Podcast? Is to take, like, the slate of upcoming films and say how much we would pay to watch this movie right now.

And you have like a limited amount, like a bank. You have like $1,000. Oh, well, I was going to say... And do you want to pay like $800 to see Bullet Train tomorrow? That's very dangerous for me. Don't tell Eileen about that.

That's how I start to lose all of our money. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. Is the DoDaddy guy in Bullet Train? Is he appearing in the film? I hope so. I hope so. Great pizza.

Okay. We forgot a bunch of other movies. I mean, Chris, you mentioned The Nice Guys, The Lobster, Martin Scorsese's Silence. Oh, man. When Jesus starts talking. I also saw that one alone. None of you would go with me. You're all like this is really important i saw it alone in new york over the over the

holiday break and uh it was it was a strafing moment in my life i have not returned to silence maybe i should sound it's a long film yeah quite. Quite long. What else did we forget? 20th Century Women? Jackie? Oh, Jackie. Jackie, that was pretty cool. And speaking of whether or not we had any bellwether movies, Hypernormalization came out this year.

It certainly did. Oh, yeah. It certainly did. Chris, you know, we talked to Chuck last week about- I listened to the podcast. Yes, I'm aware. Yeah.

You guys, this is ridiculous. Chris, what do you think of Can't Get You Out of My Head? I've only watched the first one and I, for some reason, am in a zone right now where I'm like, this is a little too incisive

and a little too revealing about the state of the world, which is exactly what I felt about hyper-normalization. But I think I was feeling a little bit more edgelordy back then. So I was like, fuck yeah,

let's talk about it. Let's get into it. But now I'm like, I'm ready. I'm ready for fucking just green screen Joe. And I'm just going to watch the Bureau. You know what I mean? And just chill out, you know, and then I'll think about what we've been through in a minute. You know, speaking of the Bureau, we have also been watching the Bureau because Chris

recommended it. And also my dad recommended it. But I had recommended the Adam Curtis documentary to my father because he, you know, uh, because Chris recommended it. And also my dad recommended it, but I had recommended the Adam Curtis documentary to my father. Cause he, you know, likes, he likes to know what's going on. He likes films and I, and he had recommended the Bureau to me. So I texted him this weekend and I was like, we're finally starting the Bureau. It rules. And he wrote back instantly. It was like, it really does. And it's a lot easier to watch than the Adam Curtis doc. And I was like, oh no.

It's tough. It's not what you want. This is why our society has never changed. This is why Adam Curtis sees the future. We're all just stuck in a rut of individualism. Are we not? We didn't even mention four of the movies nominated for best picture this year

in this conversation. Fences, Hacksaw Ridge, which as I recall is Chris's favorite film of that year. Hidden Figures. What was up with Andrew Garfield this year in this conversation fences hacksaw ridge which as i recall is chris's favorite film of that year um hidden figures up with andrew garfield this year lion silence and hacksaw ridge right and he like he really went through it also like recall he did silence and i think that experience really profoundly affected him and he like really dug into a lot of the religious stuff around it and this was also like when he and emma stone broke up and you could just kind of tell that he went into his his own space and

they were no longer in a space together i really like him i did too i hope he has a big comeback i loved under the silver lake i talked to him for that movie i was like this guy is awesome he's really smart he was really funny self-aware it is kind of hard to visualize him putting himself through the torture chamber of Hacksaw Ridge and silence but he did do that what else

what else did we forget I mean I feel like this was a loaded movie year in many ways loving oh yeah loving was good I was gonna say that should we just read like the top 10 because i mean we didn't talk about the most popular movies of the year like even in the movies that were like oh you know we loved this sure i mean we skipped over finding dory the secret life of pets the jungle book deadpool we briefly mentioned zootopiaopia. Batman vs. Superman, Dawn of Justice.

Obviously a very important film on this podcast. Suicide Squad. Not The Suicide Squad, but Suicide Squad. And Sing, the animated film, which I know has been torturing parents ever since it was released. Moana, didn't talk about. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.

The Magnificent Seven remake, where Ethan Hawke plays a man named Goodnight Robichaux. Pretty sick. Doctor Strange. Trolls, Kung Fu Panda 3, The Ghostbusters, Paul Feig film, Central Intelligence. It's a ton of movies. Weird year.

A lot of good films. Who do you guys think won out of the three of us? I don't think I won because every time I say I think I won, I come in third. I don't think I won because I time I say I think I won, I come in third. And I don't think I won because I was too idiosyncratic and I don't have like Moonlight obviously is a, you know, generationally historic film, but I like, I don't have an, I don't have like Dr. Strange. I don't have Captain America. I don't have, I don't have a Star Wars movie. I, you know, I didn't pick Finding Dory. Uh, yeah. I mean, I did pick a Star Wars movie, but, you know, I didn't pick Finding Dory.

Yeah, I mean, I did pick a Star Wars movie, but everything else I picked is, I don't know about idiosyncratic, but is not massive. And my blockbuster is Sully, so it's not like I got too cynical here.

Hmm. Pretty evenly matched. Bobby, what do you think? I don't feel I don't feel qualified. I don't feel qualified. I don't have a pulse on the big pick listeners. I'm more with the CR heads.

Reddit threads. Been in a lot of Apple stores recently. That explains a lot, Bobby. That explains a lot. Well, okay. This was fun, guys. Thank you very much. I look forward to winning again, as I always do.

Are we going to go 2017 next are we going back are we going to do the Oscars draft no you had an amazing idea Chris you had a great idea for what we should do in the month of April which is of course Oscars month so we'll be doing a bunch of Oscars shows and Chris suggested an Oscar winners movie draft

which is pretty wide open and we're going the whole history of Oscars, right? I think we should, right? But are we doing it in terms of best picture winners into our current categories? Or are we going to do it? Are we going to draft like the top five categories?

So my instinct was to do the eight categories, the eight key categories, the four acting categories, picture, director, and the two screenplay categories and the whole arc of the oscars what do you think about that i got stressed out but because there's so many things there are a lot of things but i mean i'm game i'm game too we also have to draft we have to draft hosts oh my god God. Oh. Oh, wow. Interesting.

Because you know I got dibs on Bob Hope. Well, good luck with that, Chris. Thanks for listening to The Big Picture. Please tune in later this week because as I said, me and Amanda will be back talking to Shea Serrano about Godzilla vs. Kong

and our top five favorite blockbusters. Should be fun. We'll see you then. Thanks, Wags.