The Big Picture - The 25 Best Movies of the Century: No. 14 - ‘Moneyball’

Episode Date: July 28, 2025

Sean and Amanda return to continue their yearlong project of listing the 25 best movies of the 21st century so far. Today they discuss one of the greatest sports movies of all time: Bennett Miller's ���Moneyball’—starring Brad Pitt and Jonah Hill. They explore the film’s very curious production history with director Steven Soderbergh, share why they think this was the best performance of Pitt’s career, and examine what the movie’s legacy is considering Miller’s lack of work following its release. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Jack Sanders THIS EPISODE IS SPONSORED BY THE STARBUCKS COFFEE COMPANY. ORDER NOW | STARBUCKS.COM/MENU Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode of the Big Picture is presented by Starbucks. We are big Starbucks Frapecino fans over here. So when we heard about the new Strato Frappuccino blended beverage, we had to try it. It's a craveworthy iced blended beverage topped with cold foam, making for delicious layers of flavor. I love how Starbucks leans into the seasons, especially summer. From vibrant refreshers to cold blended beverages, there's always something exciting to sip on. Available now for a limited time only, your strato Frapecino blended beverage is ready at Starbucks. I'm Sean Fantasy. And this is 25 for 25, a big picture special conversation show about moneyball. And how can you not be romantic about baseball?

We are here live. at the Music Box Theater. We've just watched this wonderful movie. And let's talk about it briefly. I'll give some details for the audience, even though they've just sat here and watched the movie and watch the credits and they know everything I'm about to say. Hang with me.

Directed by Bennett Miller, written by Stephen Zalien and Aaron Sorkin, originally to be directed by Amanda's beloved Stephen Soderberg. We will get into that. Starring Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill. Who else is in this movie? Chris Pratt, Robin Wright, Spike Jones. PSA.

Thank you. Philip Seymour Hoffman. Of course. God bless the dead. And this movie was, I'm serious. This is an Academy Award nominated film, consider one of the best movies of the century by many people, including us. It's been an object of affection and fascination on the show for years. Why did we pick this one?

This is a passion project. And I just got to say it did warm my heart. We did not announce what movie we would be screening before the, it started here in the music box theater night. So you did not know. Did anyone guess raising your hands? Okay. Yeah, all right.

I would say that's like 5% of the room, which is good. Congratulations. You should feel good about yourself. But everyone wanted it to be the dark night. Well, I think. Sorry, bros. Listen, I tried, but also I didn't try. Anyway, it really warmed my heart to hear a large room of people cheering,

even if you were just being nice when you realize that it was money ball because this is it is one of my favorite movies certainly of the decade and I I do understand why

it hits a lot of soft spots for me but the best sports movie of the decade one of the, for my money the best performance by one of the great movie stars of our generation written or at least half written by one of the great screenwriters

of my life when he is being interpreted by other directors. Thank you so much. Please put a note in that. And, you know... What about being the Ricardo's? Remember when I literally put off my birth of my child for one day to see whether being

the Ricardo's got nominated? It didn't. That's okay. And just at some point, it is like the line of the movie. Like, how can you not be romantic about this movie? Which is a lot of things that are not romantic. It's about math. It is about, like, a lot of math, and there are just a lot of numbers at screen all the time.

Everybody in, it's pretty angry and a little touchy, and no one is wearing flattering pants, and it's just, I mean, it's really, really tough. And there is, there's a lot of archival, there's a lot, it's very piecy, and the, I think the score is really magical, but it's, you know, it's not really swooning until it is. So it doesn't immediately jump out as a sentimental, just irresistible classical sports movie, but to me it is. It's a weird movie. It's based on a nonfiction book by Michael Lewis, which was a wild bestseller. I don't know if I've ever asked you, have you read the book Moneyball? No, of course not. Okay.

Any Moneyball fans of the book? Yeah. You read it? Has anyone read Bill James? Yeah, crickets. Okay. All right. We got one shaking his hand.

I mean, Bill James was a great thinker about baseball. Other stuff, he's pretty weird. He's got a lot of feelings about who killed JFK. I don't know if people know that. Don't we all? Chris Ryan is in the room tonight. And he is currently going through the deleted files to figure out who killed JFK. So he won't be with us tonight.

He will be here tomorrow. He was like, so what you do is you just control F for things you're interested in. This was what we talked about at dinner. Anyway. And that's what a lot of baseball general managers started doing with Bill James. when he was exploring Saber Metrics in baseball. The book itself is fantastic. It's like a genuine page turner.

It kind of reads like a thriller, even though it's covering sports events that most people who were reading the book already knew occurred. The other thing about the movie on the book is that it's largely chronicling a kind of modest success at best, but basically it's another story about a loser.

We just did Inside Lewin Davis in this series, which was a story about somebody who doesn't quite fulfill his promise and become as famous as he hopes to become. Billy Bean still has not won a world series. He's no longer the general manager or executive president of the A's. In fact, the A's don't even play in Oakland anymore.

Yeah. And weirdly, this movie still has this incredible sentimental hold on us, even like, I don't care about the A's. No. Like at all. But,

you know, I think part of, we like it because it is a baseball movie and you are a baseball psychotic. I do love baseball not as much as Sean. Um, but it is even beyond a baseball movie at this point. It is just sort of a pop cultural phenomenon. Like I, you know, I sat and watched the Hatterberg home run because I really wanted to see that with a crowd of people.

And then the Brad Pitt head swoop up is like, it's a meme now at this point, right? You know, and it is. And now I think like the money ball of something or they're money balling this is shorthand for whatever. So it is, it's pretty weird that a nonfiction math and business, text became like a very, a movie that was nominated for many Oscars and that is now pop cultural shorthand for, you know, whenever anyone's feeling misunderstood in the workplace and just, yeah, you want me to talk? Yeah, when I point at you, yeah. Do you relate more to Billy or more to Peter Brand? Oh. Jonah Hill's character was based on the real life figure Paul D. Podesta,

but slightly changed. Well, I know you relate to Billy, but I'm, I'm, I do you? Or do you feel, do you feel more like a Peter? To hear you say that. Well, yeah, I mean. I was never drafted by the Mets. Right. Though I wish I was.

In many ways, the Mets let you down every year. So, um, thank you. Just mean. Yeah, sorry. If you're, if you're listening at home, I'm wearing a Cubs jersey right now, which was extreme mean to Sean. Um, yeah, go Cubs. Uh, sorry again about today.

Amanda has allegiance to like nine baseball team. I have renounced the brave. Okay. it's not worth it um yeah i but also you know when you're angry you don't really speak and that's true you snack a lot i do love to snack so in that sense you seem pretty billy i you know i have a young daughter there you go yeah you want to you want to talk about it well you know i don't think i really thought about the movie in that way when i saw it back when it was released 15 years ago and now i watch this and this is a movie about like a dad who's kind of fucked up you know

who's not really coming to grips with what's actually important in his life and he thinks that winning is everything and he thinks that success and it's a character study about a guy who thought he was the prince who was promised and has spent his adult life reckoning with the fact that he was not and so he's constantly trying to rebuild

the promise that he thought he was going to achieve and he can't and he doesn't realize really that the promises in his family and the daughter that he is a father to and it's a very beautiful movie if you see it in that very specific respect, if you peel away the memes and he gets on base

and, you know, Jonah Hill mugging while reading statistics off. If you peel all that stuff away, you can tell that the people who are drawn to this movie, Bennett Miller is not a sports movie hero. He's made two sports movies, but he's interested in people and characters. And that's obviously what drew pit to it.

And it's just a very affecting story about the very unique relationship between dads and daughters. You have a very strong relationship with your dad as well. I did. I went to a lot of baseball games with him growing up. And I do think he likes this movie. We've had mixed results with him on 25 for 25 so far. Yeah.

But I'm hoping that this gets a thumbs up. So he's been saying, like, the handmaiden you guys suck? Has he been going on Reddit? Would not be incredible? I don't think he knows. Actually, maybe he does. Don't. Let's not go there. Yeah.

The other thing that's interesting about it as a sports movie, is the big game is just like a winning streak game in the middle of the season. Yeah. There's no dramatic playoff moment where they're in the world series. They don't even make it to the World Series, you know? And there are sports movies and baseball movies that have done that before. Like, you know, Major League famously doesn't end with winning the World Series. But the movie almost doesn't care if you don't get that.

It's not really ultimately interested in that idea of success. It's about the idea of whether the success of the idea happens. the idea of like changing the way that people think about something that feels like dogmatic and systematic and breaking that down too, which is pretty heady for a for a mainstream September release starring Brad Pitt. I give them an incredible amount of credit for... To quote Billy Bean, it has to mean something. But in terms of the actual baseball, it, you really, you only see the moments of failure throughout the movie with the, with the exception of the Hadderberg home run. But even, even that streak, I guess, you know, they recreate and

kind of put together some archival of certain wins or victories or, you know, signs in the stands. But you don't see the 11 runs that they score. You don't see those first three innings. You only, you sit through the like very punishing at like error after error after error. And the movie really is more interested in the failure in the not quite getting there or, you know, what is, what are we trying to get out of this or how can we punish you? It is, like, people are very mad in this movie most of the time. Yeah, I think there's something to the idea of being obsessed with your job and thinking that there is an inherent moral value in the work that you're doing,

even if what you're doing is kind of bullshit entertainment. I don't relate to this at all. It's amazing I can even enjoy this movie with that as one of its core ideas. But, like, you can tell there are many shots. of Brad Pitt looking into the middle distance, pondering his lost fate. Yeah. Which sounds really boring.

Sure. And so why do you think that's, it effectively works? Well, it's a good face, you know? And let's be real. I slandered the pants, but everything else is working well. But I, understatement. I think it's his best performance. And I think that some of it is,

does not ask him to speak as much as some other movies do. And he is very good at reacting or he's very good at looking pissed or looking like regretful or looking just like he would like to be somewhere else unless he's eating a Twinkie. And, you know, we talk about all the time that like movie star thing that you can't that he holds the frame. But this movie opens. with a bunch of footage, old footage from the playoffs

and then him sitting alone in a stadium just turning a radio on and on. And it is riveting. And it's just because he can hold the frame. And he also, I think, found the right role in this of someone who is emotionally repressed, has a lot of things that he would like to change about his life. and um and and it's also pretty physical like it's he doesn't have to play baseball on this but it is

very athletic he's throwing stuff around a lot in it and that is a good match for pit as well and a good match for the movie yeah that gatorade cooler takes a beating in that scene i mean the desk yeah um incredible supporting cast in this movie some of you may recall jonahill was not a dramatic actor as far as we knew before this movie um easily best known as kind of an apatow player off the huge success of Super Bad, and he was Academy Award nominated for this role. He's a very unlikely person to be cast in this role, in part because if you've ever seen Paul DiPedesta,

you know, he's like a very tall, skinny guy. And in the version that Steven Soderberg was going to make Dimitri Martin, the comedian, was going to play the Peter Brand character. So Jonah is a really like a pretty hard pivot away from what they were doing there. But I think his comic timing mixed with a kind of like, glazed over sincerity that he applies to this is like really helps the movie because Pitt really needs a foil because he's so restrained in his performance except when he's throwing things that he needs somebody who can like give him comic timing give him something

to bounce off of constantly and and they're well matched they respond to each other and and you can watch pit i don't know whether he's just like being entertained by jonah or whether you know that is just really good acting he's a pretty good actor but you can see in the moment that, I mean, the movie is a little bit about them figuring out, you know, their little, their relationship and their mission together as well as whatever it is with his daughter. So they, yeah, they play off each other. And he's just also very funny. So Philip Seymour Hoffman, who plays Art Howe, who also managed the Mets, by the way, and he sucked. Hoffman had acted in Capote, Bennett Miller's first narrative feature film and won an Academy Award

for best actor for that role. And this is kind of a small role, kind of a nothing part on the page if you're not Philip Seymour Hoffman. And he brings a tremendous amount of gravitas and he looks like a baseball manager. There are a lot of baseball managers with that physique and that posture

and that kind of glower that he brings to the table. And he's also really good because film Seymour Hoffman is not afraid of Brad Pitt. Like he is not intimidated by him. And there are a lot of scenes where they really have to openly share contempt for one another. You are out. outside your mind.

And I love the series of confrontations that are written for them because Pitt is playing a version of himself, an overconfident movie star and how is a overweight manager and the cheapest team in the major league baseball. And they have like an unusual anti-chemistry that I think is like one of the rare aspects of tension in the movie. There's actually not a lot of ultimate tension that isn't internal. that isn't born of like, can Billy do it? There has to be some sort of foil for him going through the movie. And, you know, Rudy Giuliani and the Yankees aside, like, there's not a lot presented there. Yeah, you forgot Grady. And we can't forget Grady and the rest of the scouts.

Yeah, those guys, those fuckers. Which is another, just one of the great scenes of the 21st century. Do you know kind of where we stand with baseball right now in this debate? Like, have you followed this? Have you been reading the Sabre Matricians? No, I haven't been reading the same. So what I know is because I see you all of the time and I see Chris all the time and I live with one of your friends who's also sports obsessed. So it gets filtered. So I know that the so

Moneyball went for all the other sports for a while, right? And so like the stats wave went through and now in football you're always supposed to go for fourth down or you're never supposed to go for fourth down, right? You're always supposed to. But Bill doesn't like that, right? Because our boss, Billson. That's good. You got me. So, yeah, so stats and then people are like,

we've gone too far with the stats, and then what are we? So, but I don't know where we are right now. I would say we're somewhere in the middle. Right, there we go. You know, the eye test still matters. And it's interesting being about this movie, Grady Fuson, who is portrayed in the movie as the head scout of the Oakland A's,

who's unceremoniously fired for saying, fuck you to Billy in the movie, was a long time. scout and minor league coach with the Oakland Athletics. And according to him and some others was very supportive in real life of the revolution that Billy

was trying to push with Paul D. Podesta. But for the purposes of the movie, they needed, like, they took some dramatic license with that story. Notably Grady Fuson, where, everywhere he went after this, he kind of flamed out every time, trying to hold on to some of the old ways. But that is the other theme of the movie is

can you introduce new ways of thinking into these worlds? but not lose your soul. You know, what Grady Fuson represents is unusual. That's usually what the hero of a movie is trying to stand for, that we are about something and we can't, you know,

get rid of it in favor of data and metrics and a kind of soulless approach. And weirdly, Billy represents something that I think, like, today, we're pretty skeptical of. We're pretty dubious of having our lives dominated by a data center if you've seen Eddington. God. Yeah, he was playing earlier today here at the music box.

Playing here at the music box. Yeah, adapt or die coming from literally anyone else right now, we are allergic to. But I think, you know, the movie wisely softens it because it invents the Hattaburg character played by Chris Pat in one of his best movie roles. I feel confident in saying in public. So it's number one, electric state. Number two, Jurassic World Dominion. I saw that.

Number three is. Sure. Guardians three, my favorite of Guardians' movies. Yeah. The Tomorrow Wars for... Right. Don't forget Passengers.

Passengers five. Let's keep going. Oh, you know, I never saw Garfield. Oh, he wasn't bad in that. Garfield seven. Yeah. Jurassic World.

Eight. Help me out here, folks. someone yelled some bike wars what bride wars nine thank you guys we got to talk about bride wars i don't like i i don't i you know i understand we need that kind of representation but also do we you know um you know i'm really excited to announce that uh we're going to wrap this episode up because we're about to show number 13 on our list bride wars a great film about the bride industrial complex. What's it about? I haven't seen it. They, it's two best friends and they're getting married, like close to the same time or is it the same day?

Same day. I mean, that's not realistic. Dob mob. Um, thank you guys. And it's, and it's Anne Hathaway and, um, Kate Hudson, right? Anne Hathaway isn't that movie? Yeah. And then, and Chris Pat and then who's, wait, who's the other husband? Who? Okay. All right. This is being recorded for a podcast. I need you to have your phones out with information quickly for us. Anyway, Chris Pratt, Haddeburg is also, it's, he is both, I guess, this representation of the stats and also. He's a real person, but he's a real person and he is also a second chance and, you

know, he also has one daughter who, you know, comes out in the crucial scene at the home and it's like, hey, daddy, I love you. So, you know, it's like, the themes are aligned. She's very cute. I hope she had a great Christmas. You know, so the movie is very smart in how it's constructed, and in order to soften what you're right, is a lot of numbers. And it shows like a lot of numbers, just a lot of spreadsheets.

This must be why you love this movie. I relate to some of it. It has a very curious production history, which I think isn't necessarily always worth talking about for these conversations, but for this one it is. It was optioned shortly after publication, and Stan Shervin was hired to write the screenplay. He very quickly moved on.

They hired Steven Zalian writer of Schindler's List, the night of the recent Ripley series on Netflix, like literally one of the, considered one of the most skilled screenwriters in Hollywood for the last 40 years. And Stephen Soderberg was going to direct that movie. Yeah. And Soderberg's vision for the movie was really interesting.

It was kind of like if you made Reds as a baseball movie, where he was going to use into camera testimony and real-life people performing from the film. So Scott Haddeburg would have acted in this movie. Chad Bradford would have acted in this movie. A number of figures. I don't know, I don't, I think Brad Pitt was still going to play Billy Bean. Was David Justice going to be in it?

But I'm sure David Justice would have been in it. And it was a very audacious movie that was still going to be an expensive studio movie. And reportedly, Soderberg, three or four days before production, added a lot of things to the script that included adding a lot of things to the script that included adding a lot more stuff about statistics. And Amy Pascal, who was running Sony at the time, said, what the fuck is this? This is unintelligible to regular normal moviegoers. And right before production, she put the movie in turn around and paused it completely.

Soderberg walked away. He went off on his journey of making nine movies a year. And she hired Aaron Sorkin. And there was so much Sorkinian stuff in this movie that I have to assume is not there. And I'm sure that the dad-daughter stuff is a part. of that. And I'm sure a lot of that, kind of the nobility of the work, which is so common in all Sorkin's TV shows and movies, the idea of like just doing the thing in an honest and decent way. Sure. And also you find yourself at work. And you find your people at work and your work

is your, yeah. Again, I can't relate to the work. No, it's true. I mean, not that's not Soderberg quoted either, at least in my understanding of him. You were describing the Soderberg script to me yesterday while we were waiting for our flight at the airport. And, you know, The movie that we saw is not unlike what you described in that, I mean, it certainly still has a lot of math. Instead of people talking directly at camera, it uses a lot of talk radio, but it does use a lot of archival of the real people. Like, you know, there is a recreated collage feeling and like a good amount of math. No equations, I guess. But, you know, as devoted as I am to the Steven Soderberg project, I am happy that we got the movie that we did.

the movie that we got. The thing that's fascinating about it is that Bennett Miller is hired after Sorkin completes a draft. And Bennett Miller to that point had made a documentary called the Cruise. How many people have seen the cruise? Are you familiar with that movie? Speed Levich, who was featured in Richard Linklater movies. It follows him. And then he made Capote, which was written by his friend Dan Futterman. And then he gets hired to make this movie six years later with relatively little interest in baseball as far as I can tell, but understands the character aspect of this beautifully makes this great film he makes a Foxcatcher

a four years later a movie that no longer exists which I kind of liked honestly but it's a little self-serious and then he has not done anything since and I wonder if like the legacy of this movie is dimmed at all because Ben and Miller hasn't made a movie in over 10 years well on our list it's one of the rare movies that is not like oh this is this director's slot like Foxcatcher was not

in consideration. There is so much wrestling in that movie. And some other stuff. Like what? You know, but everyone else, I was like, okay, well, this will be, this will be our Nolan. That's why you didn't get Dark Night. And, I mean, it's long. You know, you guys have seen it.

You live here. And this will be our... Are you suggesting that the Dark Night is a documentary? men who's, I'm going on a boat tour tomorrow and that's what I'm expecting. So, um, I'll be playing the Joker during that boat tour. Um, yeah, this, so I guess in some ways, if you want to be rude, this is taking the, there are, there are many celebrated directors who we are, we devote whole episodes to aren't going to be on this list. Yeah. And, and this is, sorry Taylor Sheridan.

but I for me it was a no-brainer six Academy Award nominations picture actor supporting actor adapted screenplay film editing and sound mixing yeah no director do you remember who Brad Pitt lost to well I do because you put it in the dock this is very upsetting does anyone else here does anyone remember yep Jean du Jardin for the artist yes that's the groaning i hope the mics pick that up you know some people like the artist i don't um and i don't like i don't dislike that performance i just don't i don't i literally don't understand what happened there i do understand what happened there harvey wines and that's what happened but and that's terrible and we hate that but you know pitt of course eight years later

will eventually win best supporting actor for once upon a time in hollywood which he's very good in but yeah he's very good in but like so many before him and so many after him, very rarely winning for the right role. And that is an interesting sliding doors because if he wins in 11 and somebody else wins in 19, you know, maybe our friend Tracy Letts for Ford versus Ferrari could have gotten in there, you know? It's tough. It's too bad that didn't happen.

Yeah. Fucking idiots at the academy. Once again, our streak on this list of just no Oscars means no Oscar wins means you make a on the list. Yes. What about Ophanjur? Like, you're out.

Well, once again, you know how I felt about that episode. Usually when Roger Ebert and Manola Darkus are like this movie is crack.

Yeah. Then it's crack. And this was a case. Four stars from Ebert. It's like I was really nervous something else was coming. Roger Ebert said zero stars. This movie.

No, he loved it. And Manola wrote at length about the kind of use of Pitt's power. Yeah. And what he kind of brings as a movie star type.

And him kind of like filtering it. in your Robert Redford types, the kind of like strong, silent figures. It's like incredibly well regarded, a very adult movie that did very good business at the box office. You know, $120 million is like a 50 or $60 million movie.

And we did use to say a lot in the last five years. They don't make them like they used to anymore. You know, certainly a book based on, you know, nonfiction adaptation seems unusual. But I'm, I'm feeling, I'm going the other way. You're optimistic. the year of Minecraft. Okay.

I feel like we're back. Good. So Moneyball and then Minecraft, that's, that's the direct line. They're both IP. They are. They are. Would this have been eligible in the IP franchise category in whatever draft we did? I guess so, sure.

When they make a sequel. Right. About whatever the hell they're doing to the A's right now and sending them to Las Vegas. You following that? What would the Mets version of Moneyball be? Uh, it'd be like dog day afternoon. Like, we're all being held hostage. They won't let us out.

The bank robbers don't know what they're doing. Cops are screaming in the streets, 100 degrees out. We can't get out of New York. They won't let us free. That's good. Good job. Thanks. Is this movie standing in for anything else?

Was this in competition with anything else? Even if there wasn't a Bennett, another Bennett Miller movie. Is there anything you can think of from what we were examining? So definitely sports movie. But I don't even know what would have been in contention. beyond besides this leatherheads oh my god

lull any what sports movies should we have done speed racer speed racer wow that's a bold one I like that challengers thank you guys

challengers sure okay interesting yeah but play that tape out right because that's Luca Guadainio so then you've got you've got five movies or six so

you know So Challenger's isn't on the list. Challengers is not on the list. This is our sports movie. I'm sorry to say, I know. Well, you know, next year I'll do my own list. On what show? But I can't think of anything, any other sports movies that are also on the, you know, the quote-unquote prestige level for lack of a better word.

But really any others that we both have a connection to. It's come up on the show a lot. I thought that more people were going to guess that. this movie was Moneyball because we have talked about how every time we're asked to host any sort of rev screening, we're like, how about Moneyball? And then, and then... They said no four times. So we did this. Thank you so much, music box theater. And thank you all. Was anyone, like, tempted to leave? You're all still here. I don't see any empty seats. Maybe keep it to yourself. But yeah, we love this movie. Yeah. So there are, so recommended if you like is

something we talk about at the end of all of these conversations. Yeah. There are a couple of sports business movies that I think could have stood in for this. Most of them are fairly recent. Air comes to mind. Air is sort of a similar movie to this in terms of ideas and the relationship between commerce and finance and decision making around sports. And some movie stars in questionable pants.

Yes. But we love them anyway. Hustle, the recent Adam Sandler movie about a basketball scout, player personnel person. F1? I mean, F1 is very money well-coded. Very money-ball. And maybe we didn't talk about that when we talked about F-1, but I think a lot of what Pitt is doing is just channeling Billy, you know, like the guy who never really made it. He's done this before. Kind of a demerit for F-1, to be honest with you. Anyway, speaking of air, though, I thought a lot about Goodwill hunting watching this movie the second time,

you know, like the wizard who just kind of needs to tap into everything and all the math and all the like we're just waiting for you to really have the big moment buddy we're all rooting for you you don't you're not at your door when we pick you up in the morning Boston plays a pivotal moment and then someone has to go on their way yeah are you hoping one day I'm just not in the chair in the recording I've taken off yeah well you know we've got we've got a couple people in in the room who are ready need be so I know who to call now just you know no one in particular we'll put them to a vote tomorrow um I thought about Friday night lights really more the show than the the movie but the movie too, but especially the score and the music and, and people just doing their best.

Yeah. And you love progressive rock, right? That's the genre that you know. I actually played on the score as in the sessions. Wow. What instrument? Timpany? That was me. Yeah. Okay. I'm really impressive. I also wrote all the president's men. Sure. Procedural. Procedural process movie, trying to figure out the right way to do thing. And also taking you inside of a world that you don't totally understand and showing you literally help you. people do things literally how people talk about things which is one of the best things you can do in a movie um i mean that's more or less it was what else do you want to say about money ball we didn't talk enough about spike jones one of just just one of the one of the great cameos yeah and the sandals things are really peaceful here uh uh i just i i mean i i think i own those sandals

when i was like 15 and at the time i was like this is a great idea i'm going to wear these in march to high school on Long Island. Yeah. And it was a bad idea. Yeah. I regret it. But he's pulling him off. Well, in the context of that beautiful, peaceful living room, it is a very nice living room.

Do you think Spike should act more? Yeah. I think he should do whatever he wants. He's another guy who hasn't made a movie in 10 years. Yeah. A lot of, a lot of her on the New York Times movies of the year list. People like to film her. Yeah.

I mean, I like it too. Because they love AI. Okay. I think that's where we're going to wrap. Yeah. This has been really, really special for us. Yeah, thank you guys so much for coming out. And also...

We are eternally grateful that people care about movies and listen to the show and would come out for something like this. So thank you so much. Thank you to the music box theater, which is a very special place. Thank you. And which... And they let us keep... this movie a secret, which is an amazing thing.

And thanks to all of you for just coming to see a movie without knowing what it was. That's genuinely cool and very nice that you would trust us. For those of you who are disappointed by this pick, Chris will be hosting a screening of cruising in the alley out back, which sounds really fun. I do want to say thank you to Elizabeth Fehrman and our whole events team. Thank you to Jack Sanders for his work on this episode. Shout out Jack. He's been rolling with us all day.

Thank you to Jack Wilson, who's here, who runs video at The Ringer. He's here with us today. We are going to be at the Steppenwolf Theater tomorrow night. We are. I hope some of you will be there. We will be drafting Chicago movies. Thanks for being here. Thanks for listening.

We'll see you soon. Thank you all so much. Thank you.