The Big Picture - The 2020 Movie Draft

Episode Date: December 18, 2023

We are drafting again! Sean, Amanda, and Chris Ryan reunite for a draft of the best movies of 2020. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Chris Ryan Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hi, I'm Musa Kwonga. And I'm Ryan Hunt. And we co-host Stadio, a football podcast on the Ringer Podcast Network. Twice a week, Musa and I talk about the goings on in men's and women's football around Europe and sometimes around the world. We like to zoom in, we like to zoom out, we like to make some silly references. So if you like soccer or football, make sure you search for Stadio, a football podcast on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.

Think we got it? Yeah, that's good. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the year 2020. We're drafting again, which means that Chris Ryan is here. Hi, Chris. It feels like it's been a while since we've had a the year 2020. We're drafting again, which means that Chris Ryan is here. Hi, Chris. It feels like it's been a while since we've had a pure year draft. Am I

misremembering this? 2006 was the last time we had a draft about a year of films. I would describe that as a better year. Was that about getting to third base? Was that that draft? They're kind of all about that, right? Wouldn't you say, Amandaanda it's all about trying to score what movie would have been about it was a discussion about you wanting to set up a separate business within vidiots hooking up friends with lonely men who watch films during the day and i was i was against it i said that i don't pay the kind of price point that i have to pay to watch people. But so this is a different one than the time when we were trying to define third base. No, that was part of the same conversation.

And like third base keeps changing. Yes. Or it was regionally different. I would have said that was a different podcast a longer time ago. It's all one podcast. Chris has been saying it for years

and it's truer than ever. We are recording every year. You guys, you didn't really know this until I made it clear, but when we get to the end of every year, we do a draft about three years previous. So at the end of 2022, we did a draft about 2019. At the end of 2021, we did a draft about 2018. The last time he said this, he was like, yeah, these are written in stone.

I was like, what the fuck are you talking about? Well, I'm the only one who does the schedule. Of course, I know this. You want to let us start scheduling this? Yeah. Of course not. Neither of you are organized enough to pull it off. That's unfair.

He's not organized enough. I could do it. You guys have no idea how organized I am. Yeah. You are just a spreadsheet maniac and I give you the birth. Okay. In 2024, you will schedule the whole show. That's fine.

Every episode. That'll be great. Come up with all the ideas. You do it. Okay. 2020. Yeah. Kind of a funny little year.

Yeah. A weird one. I think the energy is appropriate right now. Who were you in 2020? I was a frequent guest on the Big Picture podcast. I was just a guy who loved to watch stuff on screens and podcast about it. And then a funny little thing happened on the way to a wet market and the whole world sort of shut down. You still believe that is what happened? Let's just imagine. It could have been a wet marker. It could have been a lab.

You know? I think maybe by the end of the podcast, we'll have decided for once and for all. Why do you think we had COVID-19? Do you have an answer? Who were you in 2020? I don't know. I was a lady in a house like everybody else. And I was lucky to be a lady in a house like everybody else and I was lucky

to be a lady in a house. Yeah, just like a lot of screens, a lot of cooking projects. Lady in a house, great genre of movie. That's like Rebecca,

you know? Yeah. Are there any others? Is that just that one? In Ferrari, there are ladies in two houses. Oh, yeah. I wouldn't say they're really the focus of the film,

but sure. Yeah, 2020 was a tough time. That was a bad year. The thing that I watched the most in 2020 was almost certainly Donald Trump talking about COVID every day, which like, lest we forget, the pure insanity of that.

I watched a fuck ton of movies this year. This is the year that I joined Letterboxd in part because I was like, what else am I going to do with myself? It's amazing that that's

what you'll remember about 20. Well, because there was nothing else to do. Like, obviously, we were making the podcast. We were trying to work. We were trying to figure out how to sustain the ringer, right?

Obviously, we were very far into doing this altogether. The show itself, i think actually in a very perverse way kind of benefited from covid because a lot of people were looking for things to re-watch or watch for the first time they were looking for companionship in podcasting um so in a you know in an uncomfortable way i think it helped um the picture. But just an awful time in the world. An awful time in America. And a very weird time in movies. Before you go on to the year in movies, do any of you know the title of the last big picture podcast before the COVID-19 pandemic news broke?

I don't. Was it about The Hunt? Top five Mark Wahlberg movies. Oh my God. Say hi to your mother for us. Okay. Was I on that? Yeah, you were.

It was a Spencer Confidential episode. Yeah, and we were in... Look what they took from us. Look what COVID-19 took from us. That episode is lost to time. A great one. A great Chris Ryan. That's right.

We talked a lot about The Gambler on that episode. And you did a lot of... What's right we talked a lot about the gambler on that episode and I think and you did a lot of what's the boat movie perfect storm yeah you did Diane Lane the

the ringer was also acquired by Spotify roughly one week before there was a total lockdown do you think it was because of the Wahlberg episode that they were like

this is really yeah put sign on the dotted line please Bill Simmons that yeah it felt like a different time for sure we were having This is really... Yeah. Put sign on the dotted line, please, Bill Simmons. That, yeah, it felt like a different time for sure. We were having a kind of normal first two months of the movie year.

There was like Sonic the Hedgehog, right? And it was like Onward had come out, the Pixar movie. Birds of Prey, I remember, had come out. The Invisible Man was like a bit of a surprise hit. Oh, yeah. We were kind of off into our our normal movie going world and then obviously um theaters more or less shut down do you guys remember the last movie you saw in theaters yeah what was it the hunt yeah that probably was for me too yeah yeah and that was well i guess that

was a screening probably right um but i think that was the last screening and i do remember seeing sonic the hedgehog like getting dropped off at the Arclight remember the Arclight oh yeah um I know I think I saw both the hunt and Arclight and the and Sonic the Hedgehog at at the Arclight I saw the lodge uh the Riley Keough horror like moody horror movie at Arclight and I think even went to Stella Barra afterwards and then that was that was it for those two was the last times you went to either ofra afterwards. And then that was it for those two. Was it the last times you went to either of those places in your life? Yeah.

Really just a bummer town. Now, obviously there are not as many good movies from this year as there were in 2019. We were coming off of an amazing year. And a year that looks a little bit, in retrospect, like this year. But I would argue, now that we've seen more or less the full slate of 2023, that 2019 actually has a lot of movies that are from great masters that are in contention for their best movies. And they're also, in addition to that, was the conclusion of the Skywalker saga.

And, of course, Endgame was that year. And so it was a major movie year. The box office was massive that year and so it was like it was a major movie year it was you know the box office was massive that year plus we were getting you know scorsese films and no bomb back and parasite and all this great stuff plus we were getting um you know this sense that the events were paying off and so it's very weird to look at what 2020 was supposed to be. And even thinking about what 2023 is now, how many of the movies that we're getting this year have been like the runoff of the three years that were paused. Which of the next three years do you think will have the worst slate, 2020, 2021, or 2022? Do you think it's 2020? 21's really tough.

Yeah? Yeah. I haven't really thought about what that is. Well, I can't remember why I was thinking about the 2022 Oscars. I mean, obviously, like, the slap. But, oh, I think I was thinking about Power of the Dog for some reason. I was thinking about Power of the Dog because I was thinking about the last time that Kirsten Dunst was, you know, out on the award circuit after watching a certain trailer this morning. I don't know whether she'll be on the award circuit. Civil war.

Yeah. So I didn't know whether we were doing that thing where you want me to not reference time. This episode airs in five days. Well, I never know, you know? It's not airing in like 2027. Usually. Yeah. See, I just try to follow the rules that you set.

You know, you're in charge. Well, I didn't set a rule. What rule did I set? But so what was nominated? Coda beat Power of the Dog, right? And then like what else was that year? I don't remember. 2021?

Yeah. Oh, man. This is a tough one. That was a tough year. This is actually making 2020 look like a cinch. Exactly. Yeah. Dune came out in 2021. Oh, yeah. That was one. That was a tough year. This is actually making 2020 look like a cinch. Exactly. Yeah. Dune came out in 2021.

Oh, yeah, that was good. There was some good stuff. The last school. French Dispatch was that year. No Way Home was that year. There were some cool. Drive My Car. Yeah, there was some cool stuff.

This is also the beginning of sort of like the Marvel drought. So that's Eternals, Black Widow, and Shang-Chi. Yeah. But, you know, worst person in the world. West Side Story. Licorice Pizza. Oh, right. We had some good stuff in 2021.

That makes me think that 2020 is this is the nadir of this century probably in movies. Now, there are movies that I really like. It's a very weird Academy Awards year.

Yeah. Can we just outline this for the purposes of drafting right because there is didn't they extend oscar eligibility oh they did far into 21 they did in fact and so that you're right good point and so all of those movies that were extended will be eligible for our oscar nominee category so for example i believe judas and the Black Messiah. Is technically a 2021 release. And so is another one that was big. Let me see.

Is it Sound of Metal? No Sound of Metal came out in 20. Minari? Could be Minari. Although Minari debuted at 2020 Sundance. Or maybe Five Bloods. I think that was at the end of 2020. But there were films that, due to the extension,

could technically be considered 2021 films. So then maybe the rule here, what do you think about this, Amanda? The rule here is that you can only draft that movie that was released in 21 in the Oscar category. So when we do 2021, if somebody gets Judas and the Black Messiah here, they cannot draft it?

I think you should be able to draft it in non-Oscar nominee. Okay. Like, what do you think? Yeah, I mean, that makes sense. In the same way that it felt like time and space were being bent in 2020, I feel like we need to bend the time and space of the rules here. Okay, I'm fine with that. Okay.

I mean, there's only really two or three movies that would probably apply for this that actually got nominated. The signature thing I remember about this year is the fight over Tenet. Tenet going into movie theaters, going into drive-ins, Christopher Nolan wanting the film to be in theaters. There being anxiety and concern

about the spread of COVID in movie theaters. You two driving through a forest fire to go see Tenet at a drive-in. Yes. In San Diego? Yes. Yes, which was, I thought, a nice experience. We had a great time

it was wonderful a tenant rocked so that was cool um but that i don't know there was a lot of bad faith arguments about like and a real lack of information and a lack of science around like what did what was and was not dangerous to this day i still feel like there's confusion around it because people are still getting covet obviously and so we were talking about it like every week. Oh, COVID's like impact on theaters and whether theaters would be open

or whether they should be open and stuff like that. Yes, exactly. And, you know, some did open and stay open for long stretches of time after like the immediate lockdown.

Yeah, respond in different ways. I can't remember when, I think the last time, the first time I went back into a movie theater was Quiet Place Part 2, which would have been 21. And it was post-vaccine.

Post-vaccine. I went to see Old. That was your first time back in. And that was the summer of 21? Mm-hmm. Okay. So we just didn't spend very much time in movie theaters this year. That's really the takeaway. I wonder if the movies themselves are diminished by our experiences with them.

You know, this is the Manc year. This is like, that was my favorite movie of this year. I never saw this movie on a big screen. There are so many movies this year that I did see in 2023 that if I hadn't seen it on a big screen, I might have had a different relationship to it. I might not have liked it as much. We even, speaking of David Fincher, we talked about The Killer and we had the good fortune, all three of us had the good fortune to see The Killer on the big screen.

Bobby did too. And so that's a movie that maybe feels a little small and a little like minor if you don't get a chance to experience it in that way. And this is a common concern for all movies,

but it felt like it really metastasized in 2020. So I don't know. It's a little bit hard to know like was it actually awful? So my observation about this roster of movies from this year,

at least for my purposes and what I saw, which is probably the fewest number of titles that I've seen since working at Grantland and the Rare.

But, it's almost like one of those things where you take out the top, like you basically like lop off like the blockbusters and the Oscar movies because this is such a strange year. And then what you have is about 30 to 40 interesting B movies. So I think it'll be a kind of a fun draft,

but a little bit different than most drafts because it'll be a lot of personal taste and it'll be a lot of almost probably recommendations for movies that have been lost to time. Yeah. Or just smaller movies. I mean, and some of that is Sundance did happen as planned and we all were at that Sundance. But it's like, as the year went on,

whether it was studios releasing blockbusters or awards movies or people started sitting on things because they were afraid of either the financial consequences of not releasing in theaters, which that was reasonable. Like that, it turned out that you lost money and, or didn't want them on streaming. So the, like the indies, the movies that were released, released in the first couple months of the year were like, according to plan. So I have like, you know,

I have some movies that I saw at Sundance or some smaller streaming friendly movies. I was like, oh, these are pretty good because people kept releasing them. But Blockbuster is just like a brutal category. With that in mind, I have changed the threshold for Blockbuster in our categories

because there was no other way to do this. The categories we'll be choosing from today, drama, action, thriller, horror, comedy, blockbuster, and the new threshold is $25 million, which is probably the lowest we've had since we did a 1975 movie draft. Oscar nominee and wild card. Is this a mistake, this exercise?

No. I think this is cool. Good idea? Great idea. All your ideas are cool. Good idea? Great idea. All your ideas are great. You're on the edge. You're right on the edge. You got to get to the end of the year.

You guys have despot so much. We have like 45 more podcasts. We got to get through it. Okay. This is my last one with you guys today, right? It is. Yeah. Should we do draft order?

This is crucial. Yeah,, right? It is. Yeah. Should we do draft order? This is crucial. Yeah, we should. It is. Going first will be Sean. Fuck. God damn it. Wow.

You just, you love to hear it. You just, you absolutely love to hear it. I didn't say anything. I said fuck. I said god damn it, absolutely love to hear it i didn't say anything i said fuck i said god damn it but other than that i didn't say anything amanda is second and chris with her what what good does that do me fantastic news uh i'm delighted to select the film tenant and blockbuster yeah each

which uh i did not see in a movie theater but I did see a drive-in as Chris mentioned seated in separate cars alongside Amanda this is one of my favorite Christopher Nolan movies sort of a metaphor

that's right yeah together but separate or separate but together is really the question I think I remember seeing some pics of like a kind of

tailgate situation going we literally didn't know if we could get within 10 feet of each other. That was that time. Yeah. Very, very strange. I just remember looking over and watching you take a photo through your windshield of the WB logo to then put it on your Instagram. I love how it went all red at the beginning of the movie.

I just remember taking walks wearing a Liverpool buff over my face and just that being like probably not a very effective... It was not surgically sound, you know? Yeah. So I apologize to... I think... I definitely overrate this movie

because nothing else was even close to this level of movie making this year. There's no way to overrate this movie. Let's just get that straight. This movie rules. I'm glad we all agree about that. And it's one of the, really the only box office successes of this year.

There's a very short list of movies that even qualify for the $25 million threshold. So I felt like it's kind of the only movie. There's 12 movies that fit the bill here, but many of them are not movies you'd want to talk about on a podcast. So that's the only strategic choice. Plus it's a movie that I love that I've talked about a bunch.

Okay. Who's in two and who's in three? Amanda's second. I'm third. I'm second. And I guess strategically, I have to, I mean, this is not an Amanda pick, but I will take Extraction, an action horror thriller. Oh, interesting.

That is not an Amanda pick. I know, but there aren't that many. This is a great horror year. Right, but for me, you guys could have, I don't know. I remember just watching this in my living room and just being like, no! Can we unpack that a little bit? Because that could mean so many things.

Yeah, well I mean it was just like Chris Hemsworth just absolutely beating up on dudes. And I don't think the second extraction was very good, but there was something like pretty exhilarating about this, especially after not having been outside,

not having seen literally anything except like quiet dramas about people and their feelings. And this certainly doesn't have feelings. That might be one of its, you know, minuses. Or pluses. Or pluses. It was pretty good. And at this specific moment of 2020

to have this out in the world. And also, everyone seemed to feel that way. It was sort of this where like, hey, have you seen Extraction? Those guys really fucked some shit up. Yeah, it dropped on April 24th, 2020, which is right when everyone was sort of starting to lose their mind. That was roughly five, six weeks after lockdown. And I'm sure many people were like, so is this it?

Like, is this, that was the most sustained, um, isolation that I've ever experienced. And so something like this, which was so physical and, and,

and throat punchy, uh, felt like a release. I think, uh, I don't know if you guys had a chance to dig into Netflix's, uh, and throat punchy. Yeah. Felt like a release. I think, I don't know if you guys had a chance to dig into Netflix's data project that they released

where they talked about this. These films are incredibly popular. Yes. Yeah. I suspect 2 was huge. Yes. It's in the top 15 all time for Netflix,

I think. These are also easily translatable to other countries, the extraction movies. And Hemsworth, I don't know you know actually a big star of all of the weird

vanity action franchises that they've done where it's like Greyman and Red Notice and like all this stuff like this is probably

probably my favorite I think of like the post Avengers guys getting to do these movies that like kind of have no plot. Yeah.

I mean, I think I had Sam Hargrave, the director on the show when it came out and he's in that mold of David Leitch and Chad Stahelski and, you know, going back to the Burt Reynolds collaborators

of like former stuntman turned filmmaker. And so in most of those movies, like Hal Nita movies are fun and funny, but you're there for the stunts and you're there for the set pieces. And the set pieces,

especially in this one, I thought were more successful than in two. Yeah, absolutely. Where you could see the seams a little. Yeah, exactly. But it's a good pick.

Okay, CR, you got two picks. For Oscars, I will take Mank. The real question here is what to do next. I feel like... Have you revisited Bank recently? I did when The Killer came out

it was recommended to me by the Netflix algorithm interesting so thank you to Ted I think Bank's wonderful you know actually now honestly what happens in the year that something comes out is that it has all this pressure to live up to

whatever the Oscar expectations are or whatever the top 10 expectations are. And there's this, it's not as good as you say it is kind of argument. And then once it's outside of the year, it can just be a movie. And as a movie, an amazing Gary Olin performance, just a dizzying act of filmmaking. I love all the behind the scenes hollywood stuff i think people kind of are like there is like a weird anti-mank narrative out there where it's like this is one of his worst movies and you guys just don't see it but i i love this movie did those same people also not like the killer uh no not necessarily okay uh i i also is it just like a group of dudes out there being like

make fun club again for sure you know yes yeah and you are one of those dudes because you're like extraction

is good shit when I watch extraction I go oh my god I wish you would pivot to being like action Amanda you know and just being like Action Amanda.

And just be like, this is great stunt shit. God damn. Meg for Oscars. And I guess just to make sure that I get one that isn't punishing, I am going to take The Gentleman in Blockbuster. That was one of three films I had on this list. It was for me. That was also one of the last screenings I went to. That's right, you and I went.

I hate to just be candid with you guys, but it's what I have to do. I think I may have seen The Gentleman more than any other 2020 movie. The Gentleman, when it is on, I am like,

I must see Charlie Hunnam pull out an AK-47 on these guys, or I must see Hugh Grant do his disgusting accent. It's so bad. It's just awesome.

I'm all about Michelle Dockery in that movie. It's tough. It's really... She may be like the person I... She may be the number one draft pick for

Throw My Life Away. Yeah. Yeah. I've shared in the past. Even that movie? Yes. Really? Because she's like

got that like Cockney accent. So Cockney accents are it's like... that like cockney accent so cockney accents are it's like to me it's very hot okay all right i met her in person once and it was like wow listen fuck me up michelle dockery is incredibly attractive i'm very pro i don't know if i thought she was like the strongest part of the gentleman i didn't i didn't i don't necessarily think so i do think i do enjoy her performance though. And just a programming note, the Throw My Life Away draft is dropping on Christmas morning on the JMO

feed. We already recorded that one. That would actually be an incredible... Edie Falco and Copland. Who else? I just said this before. What was the... Oh, Ellen Barkin in Sea of Love. Yeah. Michelle Dockery. judd and he oh man you're forgetting a huge player oh even i know who this is even mendez no no willer nicholson oh yeah from flesh oh my god dude it a really good, it's a good category.

Okay, Amanda, you got two picks. No, you got one pick. I have one pick and I will take in comedy, Palm Springs. God damn it. Well, I had to.

One of the actually really delightful good movies released in 2020. We saw it, well, I guess I didn't actually see it at Sundance. We just met the producers

at Sundance. We did. Wonderful people. Wonderful people. Wonderful people. Very kind. And then the film was acquired for a historic amount of money. I believe $17.5 million. Happy for everybody.

Honestly worth it. Yeah. How many people saw this movie? It was released on Hulu. And there was like a kismet in sort of a like Groundhog Day, like time loop rom-com being released during the pandemic when we were all living on a time loop. But outside of that, it's just great premise,

extremely well-executed, funny minute-to-minute, funny on the big arc. Great cast. Congratulations to them. Great pick. Probably would have been my next pick yeah terrific movie gosh where to go now can i ask a point of order question so we were texting about

this a little bit we didn't get to the bottom of it so small acts yeah the steve mcqueen i believe five part five film collection on Amazon. You, when I asked you what, what do you guys, what the parameters of this should be? You, you said that you think that small acts in full should be considered one film.

Yeah. Cause you can't, I like, if we all just draft individual ones, that's no fun. I asked cause when I did my year end list, I broke up the mood, you know, like I ranked them as individual movies and I, you know I did my year-end list, I broke up the movie. I ranked them as

individual movies. They're kind of thematically related, but the characters are not. There's no crossover or anything like that. I bring that up because I wanted to ask one more thing, which is... And I'm fine with that if that's ultimately what you think is the best thing to do. What about The Last Dance?

No. That was TV. That's a television docu-series can we pick white lotus then i mean well i was i was just thinking of um oj made in america which you know was a film people got to see oj made in america the way you did i saw it in theater yeah yeah that was cool um i didn't um was last dance submitted for oscars i think it was no longer eligible. Right. Because they changed that rule.

Yeah. So no Last Dance? No Last Dance. Okay. Okay, good to know. I've got two picks. In comedy, I'm taking Shithouse. Oh, yeah, I forgot about that.

Which I think is one of the very small but nice upsides of a year like this where a lot of things were moved off the slate. And a Sundance film was it Sunday was it meant to be a South by film I think it was maybe meant to be a South by film that didn't get a chance to play because South by which we were planning to go to we were uh mere days away from going to um me and Chris were still riding that train. We were like, we're going to be good. Just have a couple beers. Nothing's going to get us.

We'll get that Liberty Tavern vaccine. Yeah, it was South by. It was supposed to premiere at South by and obviously that got pushed. And then that led to a faster release of this movie by Cooper Reif who is kind of fresh out of college. I think he was 24 when he made this movie

about a depressed kid in college looking for a connection that had kind of pangs of Richard Linklater and John Hughes and very sophisticated movie for a young guy to make that would not have gotten the amount of attention. I mean, he appeared on the Bill Simmons podcast, Cooper. I know. That was very sweet. Pretty crazy. This is shot in your neighborhood, essentially, isn't it? Yes. And every time I drive to Sean's house, essentially, isn't it? Yes, and every time I drive to Sean's house,

there's like a cut through that... Goes by accidental. Yeah, and like, specifically, this scene when they... They're not like quite hiking, but they... They are in those hills

somewhere, do you remember? And I am always like, I wonder if this is exactly where the scene from... Cooper and Dylan Galula, yeah. Exactly. Incredibly charming movie. Had more problems with Cha-Cha Real Smooth, his follow-upula. Yeah, exactly. Incredibly charming movie. Had more problems

with Cha-Cha Real Smooth, his follow-up, which I found to be a very strange movie. But I'm holding my Cooper stock. Because he's making a movie about hockey next. I think his next movie

is called The Trashers. Yes. And that's supposed to come out next year. It's about hockey. So. I think. Fingers crossed.

But I really liked this movie and thought it was very sweet and Cooper was a really nice guy. Okay, so that's comedy. Weird comedy year. Some good movies. I kept this category because there actually were a bunch of mainstream-ish comedies released. I think I'm going to go action thriller horror now.

I'm not going to take what Chris has. I think I'm going to go action thriller horror now. I'm not going to take what Chris has. I think I'm going to take The Invisible Man. Yeah. And now, so you've also basically taken the three good blockbusters. Yeah. So this was always going to be the element of this draft that was fascinating is whether or not somebody would take one of the Oscar noms or blockbusters in one of the genre, genre categories, thus upending things.

So I'm glad i got i'm glad we all got our our movies there right did you get a blockbuster yet no but i have one more okay good uh the invisible man is lee winnell's reimagining of uh the classical universal horror story featuring an incredible performance from elizabeth moss i thought a really great rendering of the kind of physical manifestation of an invisible man in our world obviously deeply metaphorical movie about essentially like women not being believed I don't know if you ever watched this movie I did yeah but I think really really good really underrated and coming at a funny time as we're doing this because it was just announced this morning that Lee Whannell is who's making a Wolfman movie just replaced his Wolfman who

is going to be Ryan Gosling and is now going to be Christopher Abbott and I would argue that that's actually an upgrade even though I love Gosling I think Christopher Abbott is very well suited to a Wolfman kind of a part even though he's not as big a star um I like this movie a lot it was a big surprise hit classic like Blumhouse invention um and they nailed it so and I saw this one in theaters for sure. Okay. Amanda, back to you. Hmm. I'm trying to think what would be more entertaining to do right now. Because I don't know. This is where it gets like a little sparse.

Or not sparse, but. Personal favorites. Yeah, I don't know if we're competing against each other. Yeah. So. Well, it's weird in a year with not a lot of stuff. Right. It's oddly more dispersed amongst our tastes. Yes. Yeah. So. Well, it's weird in a year with not a lot of stuff. Right. It's oddly more dispersed

amongst our tastes. Yes. I guess I'll just take my favorite being a loaded word about this film. But one of the best movies of the year, in my opinion, in drama,

which is never really, sometimes always. Yes. Which is Eliza Hittman's abortion. Yeah. Thriller, basically, I guess I could have taken this in Thriller, though that's, like, not really in this.

It's not thrilling. It's tense. Yeah. It's kind of a procedural in some ways. It is. It is the story of, like, a young woman trying her best to get an abortion. and the hoops and the obstacles and small dangers that she has to go through in order to just get a medical procedure.

It's incredibly well-written, acted, edited, devastating, perennially timely, and a great movie if you haven't seen it. Great pick. Amazing movie. Definitely one of the best movies of the year. perennially timely um and a great movie if you haven't seen it so great pick amazing movie yeah definitely one of the best movies of the year um i had the very bizarre experience personally of interviewing eliza hitman um at sundance at sundance on the day that kobe bryant passed away and just having a very that was just a surreal january followed closely by a surreal february and just done the Kobe Bryant BS pod.

Yeah. And then you did your pod afterwards. I was in a screening for a movie that I feel confident will not be drafted, which was Julie Tamer's The Glorious. Yeah. And then... That was a boring movie. That was Julianne Moore.

Yeah. And Julianne Moore is on stage and I turned on my phone because it was the premiere. And then I was just like, oh, this is very strange. Wild stuff. Yeah. That was a bizarre time in our history. Okay, Chris.

Okay. Two picks. For comedy, I'm going to take Happiest Season, which is Claire Duvall's what has become a holiday staple in my house.

My wife and I love this movie. We watch it pretty much every Christmas. It's Mackenzie Davis and Kristen Stewart and Aubrey Plaza it's uh mackenzie davis uh and kristen stewart and um aubrey plaza in a i guess a lesbian love triangle and also it's got like a great christmas uh story it's set in pittsburgh i believe so um or shot there but it's just one of the loveliest kind of like somewhat melancholy romantic comedies

and holiday movies. Alison Brie is great in this. Is Mary Steenburgen the mother in this? I forget. Yeah, I think so. And then Victor Garber is the dad. Victor Garber is the dad. It's just really dynamite.

If you're looking for like a holiday movie to try, if you haven't seen this yet, it's on Hulu, I believe. So check that out uh so that's for my comedy and then for i feel like we weirdly this the success of movies like palm springs and happiest seasons worked against comedies in hollywood because they were like we can just buy these for 12 million and just let them play forever we don't need to develop them for theatrical we don't have to worry about movie stars.

We'll just. Even the quote unquote good ones. We'll just go on a streaming. Yeah. Oh go ahead. It was already happening. It was already happening. No I know.

But it's like. Those are like stupid lessons to learn from those movies. Which were successful. Because they do have movie stars. And Andy Samberg. And Christina Milati. And Kristen Stewart. Who just is sensationally hot in Happiest Season.

It's really quite something. And those movies are thought through and have real scripts. And they, you know. They could have been theatrical movies. They at least paid for some of the production design as opposed to whatever they're doing now with the direct-to-streaming rom-coms, which is really upsetting. It's a drag. Happy Season is good.

You got another pick? I do. I'm going to take this movie in drama, although I think it could also go in comedy, and I'm going to do another round. Go on. Mads Mikkelsen. I don't think we've ever discussed this movie.

Thomas Vinterberg's kind of midlife crisis film about intentional alcoholism I guess very sad at places

also hilarious in places very very Scandinavian in that sense and yeah I just really

I really adored this movie it was such a such a creative and weirdly funny film. But I will take it in drama because it is also very sad. Do you like the ending? Yeah. It's one of the great endings.

It's when he's dancing. That's right. I do love the ending. I interviewed Mads Mikkelsen for this movie. And was he like? His energy was so powerful. Oh, that's right. And the screenshots were also...

Bobby, were you on that interview? I believe you were. I was, yeah. He was in his zone. And he was in a whole different ether. I questioned whether or not I'm a man after spending time with him. And Thomas Vinterberg was so sweet and very generous and nice and normal.

And he did a great job on that awards circuit. Oh, yeah. He won for the best original screenplay. And I thought his acceptance speech was incredibly moving. It was great. And he's a really interesting filmmaker. Would you consider this a drama or a comedy? I think it's a drama.

I think there's funny parts of it. I think when the guys are getting together and getting bombed, like it's kind of funny. It's fun. Yeah. But it's not. It's not a comedy. It's like an existential crisis movie it's kind of funny. It's fun. Yeah. But it's not a comedy. It's like an existential crisis movie in a lot of ways. That's a good pick.

Okay, Amanda, you've got another pick. So, another round was on my Oscar nominees list. So, I guess I'll just go ahead and go on that one. And I'm going to take Quo Vadis Aida, which was the Bosnian international feature and another one where like i guess technically it could go in thriller though it's like not thrilling where it's leading it's horrifying um but this is a movie about um i guess a a un translator um who is working basically through what is going to become this Rebendig of Asker. And it is just vivid.

And it was like the first movie that came to mind when I was thinking about Asker nominees from this year. I saw it sort of late in the year or else I think I would have put it on my best list. I just like really, really upsetting and communicates like both like attention throughout the movie that then just like pays off and like an absolute like yours,

you know, the bottom falling out of everything in a very, very upsetting memorable way. This is going to be an idiosyncratic list. I think this is great though because I have not thought of that film and I actually realized I've never seen it. So I will effort to see it soon. Is it on Hulu?

I think it was for a long time. It's on Hulu. It's on Hulu, yeah. It's worth checking out for sure if people haven't seen it. We talked about it quite a bit around. So that's two consecutive best international feature nominees. Yeah. I don't know if I have a third in me.

I don't think I do. Although that would have been sweet. Let's take a look at Oscar nominee. I've got four options. Is it Bad Faith to Take Judas and the Black Messiah? Because it's... Because it was technically released in February of 2021. No, who cares now?

Who cares? It's the movie that I think I like the most. Now, I have a big emotional relationship to a couple of other movies on this list there are potential Oscar nominees I quite liked Nomadland and Soul and found good points of

would you have taken Mank? I would have that would have been my first choice but I understood why you took it I'm going to take Judas and the Black Messiah I'm reminded of Jesse Plemons' power seeing him for 30 seconds in the Civil War trailer. He's really powerful.

Of course, Daniel Kaluuya won the Best Supporting Actor Oscar for this movie, and he is amazing in this movie. He's really good in this movie, too. Yes. This did not get any kind of theatrical release, right? This was a straight-to-Max thing? It was a straight-to-Max movie. I don't recall if it had a run in movie theaters.

I think it was... It says it made $7.4 million at the box office. I have no idea. I don't remember either. February 12, 2021 was its release date. Just a riveting and old-fashioned portrait of fred hampton kind of similar to the way we were just describing ferrari this kind of microscope biopic of a very short period of time in the life of some you know important people in american history and a movie of performances

dominique fishback also terrific in this movie uh And we have not seen a movie from Shaka King since this. I'm still waiting to see what he does next. I don't know. I don't even know if he has a movie planned. But he was a great interview when he was on the show talking about the movie. Really smart guy. So I look forward to what he does next. I love this movie.

So that's my Oscar nominee. I got one more, huh? I guess I'm looking at a drama. First Cow. Kelly Reichert's portrait of friendship lost to time and about the way that the world evolved and became a commercial enterprise and projected humanity in a lot of ways.

Very big themes in this movie. Indelible opening moments of the film when some people hanging out in Portland discover the remains of people who had lived a hundred years prior. We were just talking

about Kelly Reichert's movies because you had showing up on your end list and you were saying historically you've not always clicked with her. I admired but didn't fully connect.

I do. I love her movies. I like fully connect. I do. I love her movies. I love this movie. I don't know if this is my favorite of hers. Probably not. But it is very high up there. And she was one of the last people I interviewed on the show in person. And I remember she did not want to shake my hand.

Oh, because of? She wanted to give me a fist bump. Because we were becoming more and more aware. Right. Of COVID. And so that's very memorable to me. When you next see Kelly Reichert, will you give her like a bro hug to be like, now we can do this? I noted with interest that when I spoke to her for showing up, she was on Zoom.

So maybe that tells you a little bit about how she wants to conduct her press going forward. Who can blame her? But yeah. I would do an elaborate basketball handshake with Kelly Reichert. Like, you know, like bird fly, two slabs, play. I'm sure she'd be really into that. You've got to pick. I do.

In Blockbuster, I shall take bad boys for life. Because here's what I want to say. You know what? In 2020... You gooned out. Well, in 2020, sure, sure that but also you've like gooned it up yeah that's right in 2020 in many ways we did not know what we now know in 2023 you know and so going back to the movie theaters with will smith and martin lawrence and and Michael Bay in a cameo. And Reggie.

It was a great cameo. I mean, at the time, we had a fun time, you know? And then, and then the rest of life happened. Everything that we now know happened. But that's okay.

Also, you guys took the other blockbusters. I do feel like, though, extraction in Bad Boys Yeah, that's right what's up it paves the way for Knox you know

okay yeah thank you you had those films banging around your head and the next thing you knew exactly here's Knox was I bummed out after this

after Bad Boys or was I like this was no we had a fun time yeah I know we saw it together we were like we weren't like

the movie it was not like an existential crisis for you I think you really liked the Michael Bay cameo you were just like that's my guy and I think

like that you had had such a crisis about Will Smith's genie who fucks in Aladdin that it was I think sort of

reassuring to you to just have like semi-normal Will Smith back okay I don't think I'll ever watch this movie again, but it's good to know I didn't freak out about it. The other eligible movies for Blockbuster for anybody who's curious. So Amanda selected Bad Boys for Life, which was the number one movie of the year at the box office, 206 million in the US. Sonic the Hedgehog was 2 at 148 Birds of Prey was 3

at 84 million Doolittle was 4 We saw that together at 77 million I did have a crisis after that one I did as well

I also spent a lot of time trying to figure out what woman actor I loved was voicing like the bird I don't know whether it was like a peacock or a

eagle or something i believe it was emma thompson but now like i had a real moment of darkness when i realized i spent 30 minutes being like who is that who is that and then i think it was like emma thompson and then i was really mad emma thompson portrays polynesia sure what kind of bird uh she portrays a macaw right polynesia okay i'd like to give you some of the other voice talents that contributed to Doolittle. Who's the star of Doolittle? You know who it is.

Yeah, it's your guy. Voice cast. We mentioned Emma Thompson. Rami Malek is Chi-Chi, a shy but noble mountain gorilla. John Cena is Yoshi, a happy-go-lucky polar bear who wears a chulo because he is always cold. Kumail Nanjiani

as Plimpton, a mischievous and critical but well-meaning ostrich who wears striped stockings and argues with Yoshi as well as carrying too little around on occasion. Octavia Spencer is dad-dad.

I'm looking at Wikipedia. I'm not even close to done. I thought these were maybe from your notes. I have a solid four minutes of this in me. Are these canon? Based on like the original Doolittle?

They were in the Bible. Okay. I'll just give you the rest of the names. Is that where the Doolittle story comes from? Yes. Handed down from God on a tablet.

I mentioned... Do you guys know that Mel Gibson's making a second Passion of the Christ movie uh yes paradoxical like see

but do you think it's about he's done I think it's got some Doolittle content in it could be maybe we'll see that McCaw again you have to you have to read the rest of the cast as well

it's crazy Tom Holland you have to read it I know keep going a loyal lurcher who wears glasses Craig Robinson as Kevin

a cheeky, chippy red squirrel with a bad attitude. Rafe Fines as Barry, an aggressive Bengal tiger with golden fangs

who lives on Montverde and has a past with Doolittle. Keep going. Selena Gomez as Betsy, a friendly

Maasai giraffe. Marion Cotillard as Tutu, a French red fox who's just asking questions. And one more for the audience. Jason Manzoukas as James, a comical

damselfly. Did you say Banderas? He plays a human. He plays the king. But he's still animated, right? No, he's not animated. Antonio Banderas is just in this movie. Also, you skipped your queen, right? No, he's not animated. Antonio Banderas is just in this movie. Also, you skipped your queen, Jessie Buckley,

playing the literal Queen Victoria. Yeah, well, she was a human as well, but she was wonderful. This film also features Jim Broadbent and Michael Sheen. There's a lot of talent in this movie. Very tough. Other movies in the top 12 of that year, I got Invisible Man. The Call of the Wild,

the Harrison Ford, Jack London movie. What are you doing? Are you just naming movies? These were the box office contenders from that year. I got Invisible Man. The Call of the Wild, the Harrison Ford, Jack London movie. What are you doing? Are you just naming movies? These were the box office contenders from that year. Onward, the Pixar movie. This is like a draft technique that I don't like

is when people are like, here's a bunch of movies that I won't be picking and then I pick something. I'm sorry, but you're stuck with me. The Croods, A New Age. No, I don't mean just you.

It's like a disease that we all have. Okay. But I tried to inoculate myself. Were you thinking about taking The Croodsods in New Age, which Amanda recently referenced on this pod?

That's how Emma Stone announced her pregnancy on the red carpet for Croods in New Age. I'm happy for her. She had a baby? Yeah. Oh my God.

No idea. Yeah. Wait till you see poor things. Pandemic baby. Good Lord. Wonder Woman 1984. Yeah. Did you say Tenet?

I didn't say Tenet. I got Tenet, obviously. The Gentleman, drafted here. And Fantasy Island, which is a film that I saw in theaters, which was a horror reinvention of the famed network drama series as a Blumhouse movie, yeah. We're still going with our picks, though. Who's up now?

Christopher. Wait, who? Why did we start talking about Doolittle? Because I picked Bad Boys for Life. Okay. Which is the number one blockbuster. Doolittle via crisis. So you have two more picks

and Amanda and I both have one more pick. Okay, so for action horror thriller, I'm going to mix it up. Because I feel like we've done horror drafts from this decade and stuff like that. Whatever. I'm going to pick The Rental, which is Dave Franco and Joe Swanberg's

thriller horror movie set at an Oregon Airbnb where they get terrorized by something or someone. It's a great cast. Dan Stevens and Alison Brie and Jeremy Alan White.

And it is a great rewatchable, John Carpenter-y kind of very contemporary thriller about all the anxieties people have about class and also leisure and all this other stuff. There's a lot of casual drug taking in this movie that I think impacts people's reactions to truly terrifying things happening. I love this movie. There's a bunch of really great horror movies from this year.

I've picked different ones in different drafts for different reasons, but I'm going to go with The Rental for this year just because I also remember this being real.

Me and my wife Phoebe watched it and we're just like, yes! This is so fun to imagine going to Oregon. And being murdered. Yeah.

So I'll do that there and then I guess I have Wild Card, right? You do. What to pick? You know? Um... and being murdered yeah so I'll do that there and then I guess I have wild card right you do what to pick you know um there's a lot of

really good stuff still around I guess what I will grab is let them all talk hmm yeah Steven Soderbergh's

lovely adult drama starring Meryl Streep and Candice Bergen Jesse Eisenberg set on the Queen starring Meryl Streep and Candace Bergen, Jesse Eisenberg set on the Queen Mary, where an author, Meryl Streep, right? Is it the Queen Mary? Yeah, but is it Jesse Eisenberg?

No. It's Deborah Eisenberg who wrote the... Who's the... Oh, Lucas Hedges. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Sorry, Deborah Eisenberg, Lucas Hedges. My bad. And yeah, it's Debra Eisenberg,

the great novelist and short story writer wrote the screenplay for this. And it's the Queen Mary 2. Sorry. Did the Queen Mary 1 sink? Great cue. I think it's just haunted. It's adrift in the Pacific.

That's what Ghost Ship is on. Yeah. Can I tell you my story about this? Sure. I recently saw Steven Soderbergh. I moderated a conversation with him was it about the NBA and season tournament

or what was it it was he was very dismayed by what's going on with Zion he's like this man is eating a lot of food no he it was for

Once Within a Time a film that he executive produced and I went to go meet with him in the back of the theater before the panel and I introduced myself and he he was like, yeah, let them all talk. Which is when I interviewed him for the show, was for the movie. And he

instantaneously recognized that. And I don't know why, but I was like, I'm seen. I'm alive in this world. Steven Soderbergh remembered my face from Zoom two and a half years ago when we talked about this movie that probably has a fairly small reputation. It does. In part because of the time when it was released, but is very, very interesting and very cool. So cool. Cool and well done. And also, I think Soderbergh suffers from a lot of expectation being put on films that then people consider minor or like don't quite have like the big boom pow moments that they want um no sudden move is one of my favorite movies in the last few years which is one that is only like emerged and like grown in my estimation as i've like watched it over and over

again he was kind of on the cutting edge of like being like i'll fucking if max wants to give me money to make these adult dramas like i'm gonna'm going to just crank them out. What a guy. And they're actually quite awesome. And when you take them out of the like, did this kind of, was this successful? Or did it dominate conversation? Did people come up to you and say, sir, sir, have you seen Let Them All Talk yet? Take it out, all that shit, and just watch the movie.

It's great. Good pick. I have a very tween list. Can I give some updates on the queen mary and the queen mary too certainly so the original queen mary was launched in 1936 and retired in 1967 and now retired to hell no well to long beach so that's true you can tour really up to you right next to the aquarium yeah exactly and then the queen mary too as of 2023,

the Queen Mary 2 is the only ocean liner in service. So there you go. I have a couple of questions. Yeah. Have you ever been to Long Beach? I don't think so. Didn't you say for like a while where you're like, my thing is I'm going to fly out of Long Beach?

Fly out of the Long Beach airport? Yeah, you did say that. I've done it many times. And I've thought about that. They've killed a lot of the flights. Yeah. A lot of the flights that I used've killed a lot of the flights. Yeah. A lot of the flights that I used to take are no longer operable, unfortunately. You have the new, the new, new.

The new Long Beach? Ontario. Yeah, what's the new? Ontario. Yeah, Ontario. I mean, that is a little bit because I can only fly that to Atlanta because Atlanta is a, it's like a regional airport. So if you're flying to a hub that like

covers Ontario. But JFK would qualify, right? JFK does not. Fuck. Yeah. That's the Atlanta is like

the real southern hub. See, I think Long Beach also spiked its JFK route. Yeah. Which is troubling for me. Which means I have to go to LAX to do this. Yeah, we still have to do that

and we have to go to LAX to go to Philly. I think the only Burbank flight is the overnight. Yeah. That has been this episode of The Californians. Thank you for listening.

Amanda, you have a pick. I have wild card, and I have a long list that I'm not going to read because Chris was just rude about it. So instead, I only meant it as a drafting thing. I'll do it later. I'll do it later. We'll do it live.

Fuck it. I am going to take The Assistant, written and directed by Kitty Green, which is like another smallish film that I think did an awards or like a festival run in 2019, was released at the beginning of 2020 is about a young woman who works at an unnamed Hollywood office for what turned out to be a an executive based on on many different Hollywood individuals um well I guess she hasn't been explicit about it but there is there are shades of uh Harvey Weinstein there are shades of Scott Rudin. And it's an amazing, quiet, anxious performance by Julia Garner with some incredible supporting cameos.

Well, roles and cameos, including Matthew McFadden as the hr director one of like the most upsetting um and just like true scenes written in the last you know filmed in the last few years darkly cynical and funny and uncomfortable yes um patrick wilson just shows up i'm just always excited um when patrick wilson shows up except for aquaman 2 um and i't know. You don't know. What if you love it? What if I love it? You loved Extraction. I did.

And I love the sea, you know? It's Extraction underwater. Did you see Insidious 5? No. He directed that. He did. He also stars in it. Oh, that's right.

You guys recapped it for me, so it's like I saw it. Anyway, The Assistant feels like it was a little under-seen just because of when it was released in 2020. So it's like I saw it. Anyway, The Assistant feels like it was a little underseen just because of when it was released in 2020. And what's their new one? The one,

the new one that they did together? Kitty Green is The Royal Hotel. Yeah. Also a great movie from this year. One of my favorites this year. That I recommend.

Yeah, I saw this at Telluride with our friend Gilbert Cruz and we sat down. It was like the second, first or second thing we saw at Telluride. Knew nothing about it. Didn't even put together like what Kitty Green had done before. Was just like someone in line

was like, I heard this is good. Which is one of the exciting things about festivals, obviously. And we sat down and we were blown away and made very uncomfortable. I think we sat in the first row because it was so hard to get a seat. Yeah. Also, Gilbert likes to sit really close to the theater. Is that true? Yeah. Okay. You're really close to the screen. I mean. Hi, Gilbert. We had some great times together at Telluride. Hope you come back soon. Great movie. Kitty Green is one of my favorites right now. Okay.

Wildcard. I'm taking The Vast of Night. Thanks, man. What's that? I think that was my favorite movie of 2020. I think it was, too. Oh, I remember this now. Okay, yeah.

A very interesting movie directed by Andrew Patterson. A very kind of homemade sci-fi, sort of Twilight Zone influenced film set in Texas. No, New Mexico in the 1950s. You know, strong overtones of kind of UFO culture. Strong overtones of future podcasting culture and radio making. Features one of the

most breathtaking tracking shots in recent movie history. And it's written in a language all of its own. Yes. Very fast-paced

twang, I would say. Terrific movie. Andrew Patterson, I have no idea what happened to him. Shaka and Andrew. Where are they?

Where are they? I think two guys who deserve to get a lot more money and a lot more opportunity to do whatever what happened to him. Shaka and Andrew. Where are they? Where are they? I think two guys who deserve to get a lot more money and a lot more opportunity to do whatever they want to do. This movie was acquired out of 2019 Sundance by Amazon. I think a lot of people watched it. Yet another movie with no stars that very few people would have thought about,

but for people just looking for something new to watch. This was also a huge Adam Neiman favorite. He talked about it on the show a couple of times. And just an excellent film. So if people have not seen The Vast of Night, I recommend they check it out. I also had a long list for wild card and drama and even comedy and action thriller horror.

There's a lot of stuff on the board here that I would have been happy with, knowing that there were not five to seven desperately vied for yeah i mean was tenant really the only movie that you're like well you just want to have this i guess maybe maybe because of blockbuster that's the case yeah but mink there were so many other oscar nominees and dramas right that were like small but worthy and among many chris nolan fans tenant is kind of reviled you know so even then the the unanimous one is not that powerful so very weird draft um a few films that i wrote down

sound of metal which i thought about taking in drama which i liked i wasn't as like over the moon for it as the rest of the world but i did like it and i thought riz Ahmed was very good in it um paul greengrass' News of the World, a movie I really wish I could have seen in a theater. Oh, yeah. It has some amazing cinematography, that movie, especially in the, you know, like the kind of windstorm sequence near the end of it.

And I remember watching it at home and just feeling like, fuck, like this is not how this is supposed to be seen. I remember watching it at home thinking it was pretty good and I don't remember what happens at the end. Yeah. That's a tough one. That's a little bit lost.

I mean, Minari, did we mention Minari? Oh yeah, because it was eligible. But yeah. Very good. Wonderful. Ben Affleck's The Way Back. I thought you might have this on your... I guess it is. It's on my drama list. Yeah.

This is Gavin O'Connor, right? Gavin O'Connor, yeah. One of Ben's best performances, I think, truly. And a very self-reflexive kind of role. You mentioned The Five Bloods, Spike's movie, which is, you know, imperfect late period Spike, but I think very entertaining. Awesome Delroy Lindo performance in this movie.

Awesome Gavin O'Connor. Yeah, awesome. That's right. What else? What other movies on your list? I think it's, yeah, I have a few. Go ahead.

I had some comedies on the rocks. Yeah. My girl, Sophia, driving through New York with Bill Murray looking at awesome Cy Twombly's that his character runs.

Seems like a nice time. Emma. Mm-hmm. The Austin adaptation, which was very good. That was my next comedy I would have taken. Emma. Mm-hmm. The Austin adaptation, which was very good. That was my next comedy I would have taken. Yeah.

Another, I think this Shiva Baby could have gone in comedy. I don't think it's officially released until 21. Oh, really? Okay. I probably would have taken it.

I think it's distribution release date. Okay, well. I think it was supposed to play Sundance in 2020, or South by in 2020. Okay. But then we didn't see it till 21.

Got it. Okay. So maybe next year at this time. Yep. If we're still alive. Sylvie's Love? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I remember that.

And I think this, yeah, this was released at the end of 2020 and it was a Sundance movie written and directed by Eugene Ash. And it's just like a love story, like a very old school kind of romance with Tessa Thompson. And then the Garrett Bradley documentary Time, which I also could have done an Oscar nominee pretty, just like an extraordinary documentary if you haven't seen it. I believe it's available on Amazon.

Amazon. Yeah. Very good film. Boys State 2 was a documentary that I loved from that year. And this year it was just announced at Sundance that girl state is premiering, which is the followup from the same filmmakers, Amanda McBain and Jesse Moss. Is I'm thinking of ending things this year. It is. It was the number two in my wild wild card. So that's, that's one for me. Possessor, Brandon Cronenberg's just absolutely mind blowing. horror movie. Awesome movie. Another movie, didn't see it in a theater.

Host, which is actually a movie, it does not matter if you see it in a theater because it's set entirely on Zoom. It's a horror film from Rob Savage. The Nest, Sean Durkin's portrait of a family in the 1980s starring Jude Law and Carrie Coon.

You guys will be talking about Durkin, I'm sure. I'm overdue for a revisit of this I saw this movie at Sundance in the hottest movie theater of all time and had a I would say a bad

movie going experience and it was really really mixed on the movie so this was in my top five I think at the end of the year with Vast of Night and stuff like that

and what else why didn't you pick any of your top fives because I wanted to mix it up I feel like I've talked about Host a bunch and what else? Why didn't you pick any of your top fives? Because I wanted to mix it up. I feel like I've talked about Host a bunch,

and I think Vast of Night, I talked about a bunch at the end of that year. I was surprised you didn't take Host. I know that's a big one for you, but you have spoken about it quite a bit. How about The Informer? The Joel Kinnaman, Rosamund Pike thriller? Sure, yeah.

That movie was okay. Yeah. That was a movie, I feel like we were waiting That movie was okay. Yeah. That was a movie I feel like we were waiting like 12 years to be released. That has a great cast. Can I just run through it? Sure.

I just did the do little thing but Joel Kinnaman Rosamund Pike It's called podcasting. Is Emma Thompson in The Informer? Anna de Armas and Clive Owen.

Oh. Clive Owen doing something on a murder at the end of the world right now by the way. Interesting. What happened to him I don't think

he's fucking beautiful man so that's just like Reddit solves it's like a Reddit board but a TV show it's it's supposed to be it's too

it's a lot it's a lot that's going on but Britt Marling is a very interesting filmmaker one or two more wild cards just random movies I wanted to mention

now you've got time well I'm not going anywhere I don't have any more pounds I was saying that if you're drafting a movie and then you're like but I'm calling out 11 other movies

before I take a pick then when I pick one of the 11 movies it doesn't hit as hard you know I think we should explore a radical new format for this podcast

which is we only go around and say just the name of the movie that you're drafting and it ends after three minutes. Vetoed. Oh, the King of Staten Island

for the scene where Bill Burr talks about the Jets. That's also a documentary. Yeah. And Underwater, the movie where Kristen Stewart's underwater. Yeah. You may have heardwater, the movie where Kristen Stewart's underwater.

Yeah. You may have heard that film praised in our Garbage Fish episode. I had a couple more. I kind of liked Freaky, the Catherine Newton, Vince Vaughn, body swap serial killer movie. Anybody, you ever watch that one?

No, but I do remember I liked the trailer. It's a very good trailer. Pretty funny movie. The Dark and the Wicked was a very fucked up horror movie from this year. That's Mare in Ireland. Mare in Ireland, yeah. The Climb is a movie I liked the trailer? It was a very good trailer. Pretty funny movie. The Dark and the Wicked was a very fucked up horror movie from this year. That's Mare in Ireland. Mare in Ireland, yeah. The Climb is a movie I like quite a bit.

I just watched that for the first time recently. Yeah. Yeah. Those guys came in and we recorded an episode about that movie like six months before it actually got released. I think it's... Oh, this is the biking one. Michelangelo Covino.

Yeah. I watched this. You're going to shit on the climb? It's about dudes talking about hanging out. It's like me and CR talking about Michael Mann. No, it's beautiful. I have a really, I don't know whether this is the podcast to talk about cyclists right now. Let's do it.

Let's do it. I think we need to end on. We should be ascending. This should be like, let's end on a great note. Last draft of the year. What's going on with cyclists? Yeah. Do you not like-

I really, I think that cyclists are some of our, like the most ungenerous members of society. Purely cyclists or anyone riding a bike? Purely cyclists. And that's a huge distinction. Thank you so much. I support the environment. I support alternate modes of transportation. But we don't live in Copenhagen.

Well, I just, no, it's honestly, if you're trying to get around somewhere on your bike, that's great. You are another person, you know, moving in the world and you deserve safety and respect. All of these people in their fucking spandex just terrorizing pedestrians and, you know, people who are also trying to enjoy recreation in the world. They are so selfish and rude. There's like a Peloton just running around the Rose Bowl on a Tuesday night. Those guys are mean. They are not giving back to the larger Pasadena community.

Okay? So, yeah. The larger Pasadena community. Okay? So, yeah. The larger Pasadena community. Holy shit. And basically, if you have to wear special spandex and bike with a lot of your buddies, then you're part of the problem.

You know the scene... I guess this movie... This pod is coming out before Ferrari, right? What just happened? This is coming out before Ferrari? It's coming out before Ferrari, right? What just happened? This is coming out before Ferrari? It's coming out before Ferrari, yeah. Okay. I don't want to spoil Ferrari.

Okay. The film or the pod? The film. It is a huge plot twist that Ferrari is actually making bicycles in the film. He just walks around in spandex with his big Italian stomach hanging over it. And he's been like, I got two wives. I haven't really thought much about cyclists. Okay.

But I'm glad you were able to speak your truth. Do you feel like you, as a driver of some ill repute. Of fast cars and fast women. Do you respect bike lanes? Do you think about the bike lane? Meaning, do I actively attempt to hit bicyclists? When you see someone in a bike lane, are you like,

I'll get in the left lane and give this guy a little bit of breathing room? Or do you give him a haircut? If I get into the left lane just to get past him, I will not drive my automobile behind a bicycle because that's what they did in 1928. So do I think that bicycles should be allowed in the roadway? No, I don't.

That is a thing that I think we need to fix. I think if Joe Biden gets a second term, I want that within the first hundred days. I support bike lanes, of course. But distinguishing, maybe we should start building more monorails or something. We have to get people off the road. Well, it's always particularly vexing to me

when it's like a 38-year-old man on a Huffy and he's just like pumping out 18 miles an hour on Sunset Boulevard and I'm like sir either get a car or get off the road yeah he's listening to the national you know yeah he's got really exquisite facial hair and he's headed to a

bartending class those guys should be shot in public honestly you guys are so you guys are to get hammered for this. Bicyclists stick together. You are barking up the wrong tree right now. I was very specific. Organized cyclists in spandex.

Rich guys in their fancy outfits. Around the Rose Bowl. Listen, really anywhere. Anytime you're just driving up a mountain. This is why the climb is like... Those guys... You know what? My son and I almost got run over by a cyclist.

I guess a mountain biker. Amanda, this is a great psychological thriller picture throwing away. It's called The Cyclist. And it's about a cyclist who chases you around the greater Pasadena area. It's like Steven Spielberg's duel, but with a bike yeah i just it's not safe and they're and they're so entitled about it too because you know they've like taken over like you know keep the you guys keep the road safe for everyone isn't this gladwell's whole thing about public golf courses yeah but i don't recognize that take.

It's dangerous. If you've had an unhappy encounter on the road, are you the kind of person who will roll down the window and while you're driving by share your feelings? Has that guy reached out to you? The guy

that you got shouted at because you totally paused at a stop sign. No, but it has become, I think, something that people... I think people attach poor etiquette, stop sign etiquette with me now. They're just like, when Chris Ryan's not running through red lights, he's doing funny voices. When he's not racing through my heart, he's racing through a stop sign. I... No, I don't. But I did.

There was a group of unruly teens who almost T-boned me the other day. Unruly teens? You sound like you're 80. Well, what are you looking at me for? Because this is a. You asked. I almost got fucking T-boned outside this office because these teens were trying to be in the background of some Instagram shoot because we work in hell, aka the arts district. And then they just sped off and I was like, should I go follow them and yell at them?

And then I didn't. The answer is no. No, I didn't. So I don't. I just, I keep driving. This episode has the spirit of Christmas, don't you think? That's what I do. Whenever a guy almost T-bones me, I say Merry Christmas.

I say Merry Christmas I see sir should we recap our pics sure I tell them to subscribe to the big picture when someone cuts me off I'm like subscribe to the big picture like and subscribe please

follow the follow follow the big follow sorry we don't follow we do follow we don't right but we don't do follow bikes on the road but we follow the big picture. Follow. Sorry, we don't follow. We do follow. We don't. Right. But we don't follow bikes on the road, but we follow the big picture on Spotify.

Yes. Thank you for making that clear. Put it on a shirt. Chris, why don't you recap your selections in the 2020 movie draft? In drama, I took Thomas Vinterberg's

Another Round. In action, thriller, horror, I took Dave Franco's The Rental. Don't laugh. In comedy, I took Happiest Season. In blockbuster, I took Dave Franco's The Rental don't laugh uh in comedy I took Happiest Season in Blockbuster I took The Gentleman incredible this took The Gentleman you took The Gentleman like third overall I was going to that's the thing I would have taken it I took The Gentleman

you were both like of course and then Bad Voice for Life was all I had left this is also actually why you have to listen to the pods and not just look at the list of movies when it's done. Well, you know, I agree with that, but no one does that. In Oscar nominee, I took Mank.

In wild card, I took Let Them All Talk. So I got Soderbergh, Fincher, Richie. All the greats. I'll read mine in a minute.

I can close it out. In drama, I took Kelly Reichardt's First Cow. In action, thriller, or horror film, I took The Invisible Man. In comedy, I took Sh Reichardt's First Cow. In action, thriller, or horror film, I took The Invisible Man. In comedy, I took Shithouse.

In blockbuster, I took the antithesis of Shithouse, which is Tenet. In Oscar nominee, I took Judas and the Black Messiah. And in wildcard, I selected The Vast of Night. Can I say one more thing about Cyclos? I suppose. So when I applied for my California driver's license, they make you retake the written test, right? And Chris actually gave me a very important piece of advice for passing the written test, which I was unusually stressed about. It's because I never want to fail a test.

And he was like, here's the thing. If it's a question about motorcycles, the answer is they can do whatever they want. It's true. And I just feel like cyclists are operating by the same rules, and that doesn't seem safe to the rest of us. And I think that it's fair for motorcyclists. I do not think it's fair for bicyclists. Sure.

You would think, though, that the reverse would be true, is that by giving your physical sweat to save the world, you should get to scooch in between cars. But when motorcycles on the 10 fucking buzz the tower on you and when you're in bumper to bumper and you can see a motorcycle is doing 60 through

the little window that they have, I am both envious and I also fear them. You've just been disqualified from the bike riders episode of this podcast. No, that's not true. That's not true.

That's not true. what you don't know is fucking amanda is in charge now i'm taking over the schedule that's a good point that's right i forgot i forgot or will you be inviting chris to the bike riders episode of this podcast i've already booked myself on to night swim that's true you did you started asking yeah yeah what's going on with that? I just want to... You want to spend time? You want to be close to all this? I want to make sure I'm here. Will you see Night Swim, Amanda?

It's about a haunted pool. It is. It is. Sure. It comes out January 5th. What's the movie with the little girl... Oh, Imaginary. With the little girl named Alice

who has an imaginary friend that's a teddy bear I'll see that I've seen that trailer a lot that's Alice's first pod it's a horror movie it's from Jeff Wadlow the director of this year's

Fantasy Island holy shit it's an imaginary friend movie starring a young girl named Alice yeah and then her imaginary friend takes her over starts murdering people

it's like post Megan Cora tiny little girls are like I'm not imaginary! I'm already so ready for Dumpuary. Like, I'm so ready for, like... We got a big one coming.

Will you do Argyle with us? Yes. Okay. I, like, can't believe that that's a real movie. Every time. The trailer is flying out at us every day.

And the worst part is, like, every time I watch the trailer, I'm like, I can't believe this is real. And then there's, like, this tiny thing that's like, what if I like it? What if I like Archon? Why wouldn't you?

Dude, you might. It's about writing fiction. Sure. Every time I watch the trailer, I'm so personally offended by it. And there's also like seven people behind me fucking dying laughing. That's where we're at. Smells like a hit. I'm like horrified and also like, oh no, what if I have a good time?

What does that say about me? I'm very pro Sam Rockwell and mid pro Matthew Vaughn. So I'm like horrified and also like, oh no, what if I have a good time? What does that say about me? Very pro Sam Rockwell and mid pro Matthew Vaughn. So I'm not writing it off. And Cavill. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. And Dua Lipa.

Sure. Yeah. What are Dua Lipa's fans called? Bobby, do you know? Liverpool fans because she has a song called One Kiss that they sing.

They're called Guys Like Me. Yeah. Yeah. I'm in. Did you see her podcast? Prank Babies, yeah. Have you watched her podcast at. Yeah. Yeah. I'm in. Did you see her podcast? Prank Babies. Yeah.

Have you watched her podcast at all? No. Have I? No. But she re-grammed a screenshot of our podcast. Yeah. Did you know that we were

on Dua Lipa's Instagram? The big picture was. What? Yeah. Did you guys get a lot of followers out of it? Yeah. Not intentionally.

No. And we weren't added. It was because it was like Spotify's best of the year and one of them was one of Dua Lipa's episodes and it was like Spotify's best of the year. And one of them was one of Dua Lipa's episodes. And it was matched with our Barbie episode. And so 25 million people on Instagram know what the big picture logo looks like.

There was no link, unfortunately, for us. Has anyone seen the poster for Madam Web? Yes. No. I'd like you to Google it right now. I think that this is actually an extension of i an extension of the curse this is my most anticipated movie of 2024 of course i this poster looks like one of the fake posters from scott pilgrim like it can't be real like we can't actually it's like that can't be a movie it's like

coming home in a body bag you know what i mean it totally is that kind of movie. Is it like this? Yes. Wow. Okay. Who let Dakota Johnson do that? Why is Sidney Sweeney in the top left corner? Like barely visible. Honest question. The poster for Anyone But You is like literally Sidney Sweeney's ass. Like if you have Sidney Sweeney in your movie, you can't make her. This is related. This is related because who let Dakota Johnson do this?

Honest question. Do you think that that is her actual voice in the, like, My Mom Was Spider? Yeah. Or is that AI in that trailer?

I'm like, it could be AI. We don't see her say it. Yeah. We don't see her say it. Yeah. So, like, and I ask this by saying,

like, what level of awareness and involvement do you think that Dakota Johnson has in the Madam Web experience at this point was she ever on set

yeah it's like I have not anticipated anything more than her promotional run for this movie where she has to sincerely she's undefeated

she is so because if she does her thing where she's like haha I'm lying and she does that about Madam Web it's going to be amazing yeah if she's like Miles Morales is in'm lying, and she does that about Madame Web, it's going to be amazing.

Yeah. If she's like, Miles Morales is in this movie, and he's just not. Have you seen her architectural digest tour? I have seen her a detour. But that's not her house, right? No, I think it's her house, but it's like set dressed without,

maybe it's not her house. Or wait, no, it's her house, but she's like doing things like, look at all the oranges. Yeah, no, it's limes. And she's like, I love limes her house but she's like doing things like look at all the oranges yeah no it's limes and she's like I love limes and then she's like

no I hate limes and then she's like this was from Winston Churchill's boat guys I want to say thank you I didn't read my film list yet oh sorry please do that now

okay sorry this is the fucking funniest list ever go ahead now that I'm thinking about what you drafted this is amazing in drama I have never rarely sometimes always in action thriller horror I have extraction This is the fucking funniest list ever. Go ahead. Now that I'm thinking about what you drafted, this is amazing.

In drama, I have never, rarely, sometimes, always. In action, thriller, horror, I have extraction. In comedy, I've got Palm Springs. In blockbuster, I have Bad Boys for Life. In Oscar nominee, I have Quo Vadis Aida. And in wildcard, I have The Assistant. It's like literally somebody who's having a psychotic break. I think this is an Amanda win

in a landslide this is this is such a W it's you better fucking win for this list and I won't but that's okay

you're such a real one for this list like as long as as long as you know as long as you see it

like that's fine I'm good oh my god I know the Dobmob of course this is why they can't replace us with robots. They can't.

They can't replace you guys. I think I could be replaced, honestly. No. I think I've become predictable. Nevertheless, you've let your lights shine here on the last draft of the year.

I want to thank you both. Thank you, Bobby Wagner, for drafting. We have so many, we have, like, literally 14 more episodes this year, so not to worry,

including our next episode, which is the episode I've most looked forward to this year. It's about Maestro, Bradley Cooper's new movie. Amanda, what are you going to do? Just podcast for like eight hours. Okay.

Yeah. Chris, thank you so much for podcasting with us. It's been a delight. You know? You smell terrific. We'll thank you so much for podcasting with us. It's been a delight. You know, you smell terrific. We'll see you soon.