The Big Picture - 'The Batman’ Is Coming and the 2011 Movie Draft Is Here

Episode Date: August 25, 2020

It’s baaaaack. Due to popular demand, we’ve decided to run back the movie draft. Chris Ryan rejoins Sean and Amanda to make their picks for the best of 2011. But first, we discuss the debut of some new trailers from the DC Universe, including an exciting first look at Matt Reeves's 'The Batman.' Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guest: Chris Ryan Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Okay, everybody expects us to have an anime podcast. Micah Peters, Justin Charity, at long last, are they podcasting once again about anime? No. I'm Justin Charity. And I'm Micah Peters. Honestly, this podcast might turn out to be like the Eddie Murphy, Martin Lawrence movie Life, except neither of us is in prison and in fact we're not even taping in the same location but we will be talking a lot about the millennial life you know

music video games strange stuff from the dark corners of the internet that piques our interest people think this is gonna be oh a little topic a oh what's topic b oh a little you A. Oh, what's topic B? Oh, a little, you know, chit chat. No. Every time you tune into this podcast, we are going to lock you into a room for 45 minutes and we are going to do criticism. We are going to get to the bottom of every Scooby-Doo mystery that the discourse produces for us each week. Mark my words. Man, that was a lot. But anyway, we are excited about it. We are excited. We're excited.

We're super excited. I'm Justin Charity. And I'm Micah Peters. And this is Sound Only. We're back on August 11th. Catch us on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's go. Seriously, guys, I think we have to remember,

this is the man. He answers to no one except ownership and God. And he doesn't have to answer to us. We make suggestions, he makes decisions. Look, that's all fine and well, but we've been working our asses off for the last six and a half weeks to make this ball club better, and you're shitting all over it. Brady, this is not a discussion.

What are we discussing? Barry, not a discussion. I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the year 2011. The movie draft is back. After much demand, or maybe at least six people in my mentions, we've decided to bring back the movie draft after my incredible victory over Amanda and Chris in the 2010 movie draft.

So I'm very excited to do that. And that means Chris Ryan's here. Hi, Chris. Wait a second. I'm disputing this election. When did you hold these votes? Check out the internet. Have you seen twitter.com? But was

there ever actually a poll? Was there a poll? Yeah bro, you got torched. Do I have you muted? Did you mute at the big pick? That's just hurtful. Never. No, I dominated, but it was unfair. And so I think we tweaked the rules a little bit.

We're going to have a more formal lottery in this episode. We are going to slightly change the rules a little bit to make this a little bit more entertaining. We listened to the listeners. They suggested we make some changes, and I was happy to do so. But before we get into the next movie draft, we got to talk about DC. You guys, two huge DC fans, I'm joined by Amanda and Chris, two of the biggest really. DC had quite a weekend. They

had something called the Fandom, which I know Chris watched all 10 hours of on the live stream. And during the Fandom experience- Amanda was actually the only person who got to go to the fandom like in person. Yeah. Yeah. It was just me, a giant dome built around me. And it's cool.

Cause the mask situation was entirely taken care of. Cause she just has a Batman helmet that she wears. Really exciting. And Amanda, you know, your favorite movie of the last 25 years was Wonder Woman. So we got to see the trailer for Wonder Woman 1984. I thought it looked pretty good.

I gotta be honest. I thought all these trailers looked pretty good. I don't have a sophisticated take. I was just, I was pleased. And Wonder Woman 84 to start with, pretty good. I agree with the Wonder Woman portion of that sentence. We'll talk about the other trailers later. Yeah, I'm excited. The last 20 seconds of the trailer when it's Gal Gadot and Chris Pine

just like kind of doing their screwball energy and he's like trying on different pants and being like parachute pants to a lot of people parachute because, you know, he died in like World War One, but now it's 1984. I mean, that's great. I give me all of that and less of Kristen Wiig trying to be serious, which is my only concern. Here's the thing. The best part of the first Wonder Woman was the comedy. Kristen Wiig, also a comedian. And instead, they're trying to do very serious stuff. I mean, I understand it's a trailer. So I'm going to stay optimistic. Yeah. Kristen Wiig is playing Cheetah. She's the villainess, apparently, of this installment of Wonder Woman.

And you know, Chris sidebarred with me after this trailer came out. And he said, the one problem with Wonder Woman is there's too many women in this movie. And I was like, Chris, that is offensive. Why would you say that? Do you want to defend yourself here, Chris? Yeah, no. I was just like, why can't we get a Chris Pine Wonder Woman movie? Fair's fair. my god the other trailer that we saw well we saw four four significant trailers there was a sort of a featurette around the Suicide Squad which is James Gunn's forthcoming

sort of sequel to David Ayer's 2016 Suicide Squad movie some actors have been replaced for example the Will Smith character is now going to be played by Idris Elba. And there are some characters like Margot Robbie, who plays Harley Quinn, who will be returning for this film. Obviously, this featurette goes out of its way to make it clear that this is a James Gunn movie

and not a David Ayer movie. And thus, maybe we'll be a little bit more fun, a little bit sweeter, a little bit more lighthearted, but also a little bit, I don't know, a little cracked, a little from the Troma Studios world of movie making. And it seemed fine. I thought that the best movie moment of 2020 is Viola Davis in this featurette, having to like with a straight face be like, you think you're ready and then it just changes directions.

Yeah, I don't know how much, I'm sure we'll spend plenty of time on the Suicide Squad And then it just changes directions. Yeah. I don't know how much... I'm sure we'll spend plenty of time on The Suicide Squad when it comes out. But these fandom events, and this is obviously... This fandom experience is very inspired by D23 and what Disney has done. And then Comic-Con before that. And there's an attempt to kind of brand manage aggressively. And DC kind of screwed the brand with Suicide Squad the first time around,

a film that had many reshoots and was not received very well, even though it made a lot of money. And so this is a full-time rebranding of what I guess is an important property for them. I'm not terribly interested in it. The next movie I am very interested in. That movie's called The Batman.

I knew exactly what we were going to get here. I knew exactly what Matt Reeves was going to do. I had a very good feel for the kind of noir-ish, dark detective version of the Batman story. They have been seeding this information to us through the trades. A gritty take on Batman? A gritty take on Batman. There is not a surprising thing in this trailer.

And yet, I was like, feed it to me immediately. Please put the movie inside me I want to watch it right now Chris I assume you enjoyed this hell yeah yeah we need fucking movies back man I was just saying this day Andy I was like I don't have like a very elegant take on this other than why can't I see this four times in a summer please what the fuck yeah and that's really what it's supposed to do I mean amanda i don't you're not the biggest batman fan in the world but i i have to assume you were just like it would be great to just watch this movie right now yes this movie and wonder woman i was just like show it to

me like i have some questions but also show it to me but if i could air one of the questions what what are we doing with rob pattinson's hair as bruce Wayne. Like I just, it's a choice, but it feels like he's a weird Victorian character. I'm not totally, or like, you know, English schoolboy. That's interesting to me. I don't know what to make of it. That's your, so you went Bob Pattinson's hair, not Paul Dano wrapped up in tape.

Well, I couldn't see that it was Paul Dano. Can we just explore the colin farrell situation a little bit and what's really going on there so it appears that colin farrell's playing the riddler and he appears he's the penguin paul dano paul dano paul dano is the riddler yeah okay so why why is colin farrell covered in um latex why is he unrecognizable i i think amanda's got to take that one amanda tackle it get into do deep penguin more i literally didn't know who any of the people in the trailer were behind besides robert pattinson and that and was like clive owen talking at one point no that's andy

circus oh okay well it sounded like clive owen and i was really excited and i'm disappointed to learn that it's not zoe is catwoman zoe's kravitz is kravitz's catwoman okay that looks great this was the other thing is that i watched it on my computer in broad daylight and it is It's not him. Zoe is Catwoman. Zoe Kravitz is Catwoman. Zoe Kravitz is Catwoman. Okay. That looks great. This was the other thing is that I watched it on my computer in broad daylight and it is quite literally dark and a lot of things I just couldn't really see what was going on. Not meant for home viewing, which is fine by me. You know, one thing that's happening right now is everyone thinks they're a movie genius about movie trailers and we've been able to identify all of the ticks, you know, the

pop song that is played in a more dramatic fashion, the way that there's the pacing, the Hans Zimmer-esque bong moment and every, you know, the dramatic line reading at the end of the trailer. This trailer takes every single one of those moves and puts them on steroids. And I wasn't bothered by it at all. As soon as the Nirvana song started playing I was like fuck let's do it. I'm fine with this. Let's just do it. They've also only shot

25% of this movie right? Yes. Yes. Yes. And production is supposed to restart I think imminently I think in the month of

September right? Yeah I would imagine so so are they and they're shooting this in London right? Yeah and the weird thing about it is this actually is a Victorian drama set

in the 1700s so it's weird that they've shown us surprising that they decided to go in this direction for the trailer. But yeah, I just feel like if you were interested in this before, you could not have walked away from that trailer and felt like, actually, I think I'll pass on that one. I also just think if you are interested in movies at all, part of the reason that we're all like, sure, whatever, it looks like a great movie because we haven't had any trailers even. i and i do feel like this is indicative of just like the wave of excitement once we can actually start seeing new things there's going to be a real grace period for a lot of movies to honestly like be bad or mediocre or have things that don't totally

work and we'll just be like yes movies the funny thing is is that just the last thing i'll say about batman we and we can talk about Justice League if you want, but for a long time with superhero franchises, if you were going to do if you were going to restart a franchise it was like, what's your take? What's the new take you're going to have on this? And it turns out

with Batman, you don't need to have a new take. Batman works. The Dark Knight worked. Just keep making Dark Knight. Just make that the James Bond and just make a gritty Batman movie every three years. I'm completely fine with it. I think it might potentially have the problem

that some of the Joel Schumacher movies had, which is like, there's too many villains here. It's like a Spider-Man 3 problem where we're getting confused about which villain is the real villain. According to Colin Farrell, he's not in this movie that much. Like he's like, I don't really have a lot to do in this one.

Is that just because they haven't actually shot the movie yet or he doesn't know? Let's talk about Justice League. So later this week, we're doing something on the big picture and the watch that we've been wanting to do for a while. We're doing a crossover pod. The four of us are going to get together. We're going to do a pod together. Andy will be joining us.

And we decided to do this before the Justice League Snyder Cut trailer arrived. And what we learned was that this was going to be four hours carved into four individual one-hour episodes of Justice League. And then we got a look at the trailer and it turns out it's still just Justice League. It's just Zack Snyder. I mean, it's the same stuff. It's maybe not the same shots, but the energy is a Zack Snyder movie and it's not radically different in any meaningful way. There obviously is going to be a new villain and a lot of new CGI added to this story. But, you know, Amanda, you noticed this right off. This trailer is set to Hallelujah, which is just ridiculous.

So I didn't watch this trailer until this morning. Believe it or not, I didn't stop my weekend for the fandom, despite being in the fandom. So I slacked Sean and I was like is hallelujah seriously in this trailer like is this a joke did i click the wrong link and shawn informed me that it was not a joke but so lol number one i can't tell whether like this is a troll and whether they know that it's a it's funny and it's gonna kind of get all of our like our backs up to include this particular song in the trailer. And if it is a troll, I kind of respect it. I think it's a little funny.

I agree. I agree. Because it's so unimaginative at this point. But the effect with the old Justice League footage cut together and this song is like, it really does look like one of those fan tribute videos that you find on YouTube. That's exactly right. Like that someone is just like, these are my favorite moments of Justice League.

And isn't this a beautiful song that speaks to the meaning of, it's, I mean, what a choice. It's like, it's those YouTube videos that are like Clark and Lois, a love story forever. Yes. And then it's like playing Bon Iver over

Amy Adams shots. But it's like, what if a massive fan movement produced a four-hour action movie and that's what they came up with? I'm just blown away. I'll save my takes for Thursday. Yeah.

Okay, well let's just put a pin in there. I can't believe how much we have and we'll continue to talk about the Snyder cut. It is a remarkable, it feels actually like God's troll job, you know, for serious movie watchers. Nevertheless, it is coming in 2021 to HBO max. So let's go back in time. Let's go back nine years. Let's go back to 2011. Let's try to put ourselves in place. Where was I in 2011? I was still living in the city of New York.

We all were. We were all living in New York. We were avid movie watchers, but we were not movie content creators. And we were probably, this is probably the last time we experienced, well, Amanda, you might have been in blog phase here. I was in blog phase. i was in blog phase which you were in blog phase yeah played a pivotal role in my 2011 experience i was telling chris this already and i i won't turn this into like a sentimental like personal 2011 podcast movie but 2011 in movies was maybe not a great year for movies. We can discuss that further. But for me, it's the year

that I met my husband at a series of press screenings because he was also in the movie blog phase. And so I have memories of a lot of these very bad movies that mean a lot to me because I awkwardly had to sit next to Zach at J. Edgar. And we didn't really know each other and had an awkward conversation. And then we't really know each other and had an awkward conversation. And then we saw J Edgar, which was a tough break for everyone involved. Hugo is another one that I remember seeing with my now husband. So I was there and the movies were definitely like a part of my professional life, but I was also just kind of, I was transitioning into making them a part of my professional and I

guess personal life. CR, what were movies in 2011 for you? What do you think of when I say that year? When I look at the list of movies that came out this year and remember all of these movies that I saw in theaters, it really made me warm and nostalgic towards the replacement level movie. Like the movie that was just okay. And even if the movie was disappointing, you were like, that was fine. That was your highness. That was horrible bosses.

I laughed or whatever. And for some reason, I feel like movies now are a little bit more worried over. I mean, even the things that are supposed to be popcorn entertainments, I think maybe this is a product of how we talk about movies and the podcasts that we do

where we're like, oh, but what does this mean for Warner Media's 20-year plan if they can't make Joker or Batman work here? And it's like, I don't know,

this was like a very big year for movies about middle-class squares doing deplorable shit to one another and I just kind of went and saw a bunch of them in the theater. Yeah, I think we'll talk about that.

I think the idea of the replacement level movie is really interesting. And we've been talking, obviously, over the last few years on the show about the erosion of the middle class of movies. And this does feel like kind of an end point in many ways. And there's a reason for that. First and foremost, though, I really think of this as one of the most treacherous Oscar years of the century. The movies that are nominated for Best Picture here, some of which have been canceled, some of which are outright bad, some of which have very complicated and problematic relationships now to the contemporary

world. I mentioned The Help. The artist obviously was the best picture winner, which in addition to just being like not really that terribly interesting a movie, was one of the last great quote unquote great Harvey Weinstein jobs during the Oscars where he pushed this movie relentlessly. When you've got Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, then you've got Woody Allen's Midnight in Paris, and now Alexander Payne, who's come under fire after an accusation by Rose McGowan last week, and The Descendants. This was kind of one of his big Oscar moments. And so you look back at this collection of movies, and especially relative to what Chris is saying, that there were a lot of kind of fun, middle-of-the-road dramas that are frankly better than a lot of the movies that were

nominated for Best Picture. And it just seems like an odd thing to look back on. And it just kind of reveals like how weak the Oscars can be and how kind of managed and overmanaged it turns out to be sometimes. This is the fewest amount of Oscar nominated. Like this year, I think I saw the fewest amount of the nominated movies. Like I still don't think I ever saw The Artist.

I wouldn't the artist. I wouldn't recommend it, but you were big into Albert knobs. I remember that. That's true. And, and Amanda, you mentioned Hugo, which,

you know, I think that also dovetails with something interesting that was happening this year, which is, it's not really the best year for the best filmmakers we have. And we've got two Steven Spielberg movies this year in war horse and Tintin, which are just not my favorite Steven Spielberg movies. We bought a zoo from Cameron Crowe. Wow. I'll never forget. Speaking of being

a blog content creator in 2011, we bought a zoo. What a gift. I will never forget every single bit of information about the film We Bought a Zoo and a blog post that I wrote about it. So thank you to them, if not for the film itself. What about My Week with Marilyn? Did you like that? No. It's not particularly memorable. Amanda, do you consider the dilemma second tier, Howard? I know that you're currently working on your Tashin book about him. So I was curious where, whether, where he kind of,

where the dilemma kind of lands. I think that that's an accurate placement. Yes. Guys, Ron Howard is a friend of this podcast. Please be careful. I like Ron Howard. Do you fucking rock with the dilemma?

I don't, I don't. I mean, this is the year that when Jon Favreau made Cowboys and Aliens. Like, things were not going, things were not going well this year for a variety of reasons.

J. Edgar, obviously, that might be the worst Clint Eastwood movie. And that's, you know, he's made a lot of films over the years. But on the flip side, this is a mega IP year.

This is, this is kinda, I feel like I'm gonna say this in every year that we do for the movie draft, but this is the first year where there are two Marvel movies, Thor and Captain America. And obviously that sets the template for what movies are going to be in the future. And then you also have the end of Harry Potter and you have Sherlock Holmes and Fast and Furious and Mission Impossible and Planet of the Apes and Twilight and Transformers and X-Men. All of those

franchises had a movie in this year. Now, on the one hand, that meant it was a strong box office year and a weak Oscar year. But on the other hand, I don't know what that means for the purposes of this draft. I don't think that necessarily helps us. I feel like last year, there was a real... 2010, I mean, was a real dearth of blockbusters under the last minute rules that Sean applied. And which was making $100 million domestic. And it was like, it was really slim pickings, even within the IP world. This and also because you had to keep some for sequels as well, you know,

so you were kind of torn between sequels and blockbusters. I do think there's a little bit more to choose from this year in those two categories, which is great, but it does mean that some of the other categories are much tougher. For example, comedy. Yeah. And there is one extremely notable, massive and important comedy from this year, which is Bridesmaids. And then after that, it's rough. So there may be, maybe we'll have a bit of a war for Bridesmaids. And then after that, it's rough. So maybe we'll have a bit of a war for Bridesmaids, depending on how the lottery shakes out. Chris, any other 2011 notes you want to make before we start getting into our picks? No, I mean, I think we could probably do a whole other podcast about what these movies reflected about the tenor of the country because you know we're we're fully into

like the obama era and there we've made kind of side comments on different pods here and there about like the obama obom tent like obama era content like how it kind of felt breezier perhaps like not necessarily it just felt like a little bit more lighter on its feet, I think, in a lot of ways in some of these movies. And especially the Hollywood movies here seem to be just like a lot of, let's just try to capture the super bad vibe, but like apply it to Jason Bateman, apply it to Adam Sandler, apply it to this, apply it to that. Let's kind of have a little bit more of a hard PG-13 or softer R sensibility to the comedy. And then they kind of vanish after this. Yeah. And I don't necessarily

know what accounts for that. I don't think it's necessarily because we've got four more years of Obama after this. It's not as if that is changing specifically, but it just seems like there's a calculation around conventional studio comedies. They're not going to work as well. And so we're not going to make as many. and maybe it's because so many of them bombed this year arthur and i don't know how she does it and the big year and 30 minutes or less and hall pass and what's your number like all these movies that could have been hits mildly horny yeah yeah but just they're just not hits and they're they're they're trying to do things that there's something about mary or when harry met sally or uh i don't even leave the weapon we're doing in the past and

they're just not able to pull them off so it's an interesting relic year in a lot of ways and it's there's some evolution that comes in the mainstream movie world afterwards let's let's go to the lottery wags you you devised the scheme here to create a more perfect union among the three of us so what are we doing? How are we doing this? Hi, guys. Well, it seemed like last time people didn't really understand the rules even while we were doing it. And it was kind of hard to explain over a podcast.

So this time I've gone with the old draw shit out of a hat, which is as close to a lottery as I can get in quarantine in my apartment here. Bobby, can I just say really quickly, it's okay if you want to admit this on the pod that your favorite movie of 2011 is actually the rock announcing that we got bin laudan god forgot about that did he do that on twitter yeah yeah that is my favorite movie that's my favorite movie of all time uh so what i've done is i've taken some scrabble tiles of each of your initials S or F A or D C or R you each have

nine options in this hat here this Mets hat here which some might think is Sean fantasy bias but is actually a bad omen for Sean and I'm going to

shake it up a little bit and I'm going to draw them out and we'll just go the first draw is one second draw is two and then whoever's last is last okay and we're still doing snake right we're still doing snake yes I just want to send you one note which is don't fuck me on this Bobby okay okay sounds good oh great audio work oh I just want to show you that they

actually are in there, everyone. You guys. Oh, yes, we can see them. All right. After this, Bobby's going to do like a punch in vocal. And he's going to it's going to be like Sarah Koenig voice. She's like, I'm Bobby Wagner. This is the sound of me shaking a Mets hat.

The first letter is R. So that means the The Frog Sheriff. Chris Ryan up first. Yes, we are. The people demanded it. Okay. And going second in the 2011 movie draft

is going to be A, Amanda Dobbins. That's... All right. Sean, third is better than second. So I didn't fuck you on this. I'm sorry. I agree.

I agree. I'm content. I'm sorry. I agree. I agree. I'm content. I'm content. I love the idea of Chris picking a number one. This is like, this has Anthony Bennett to the cabs potential. And I'm really excited about it. But it doesn't because we all know what it's going to be. So I just want to make it clear.

The one thing that we wanted to change here was we're not going to pick in order by category. We're just going to pick any movie that we want and make sure that we have six films that fit the six categories. That's something that a lot of people asked for after we did this. They felt that we were very foolish, me specifically in the design of this draft. So the six categories that we need to fill out throughout our draft are drama, comedy and horror, blockbuster, which as Amanda mentioned, you must earn $100 million at the domestic box office to qualify, animated and foreign language films, a wildcard category, and a sequel category. But they can be picked in any order. They don't have to go in that order. So Chris, you can look with the first pick

at the totality of films released in 2011 and decide which direction you want to go in. So I'm up. I'm on the clock. You're up. I'm just going to take

a dramatic pause here to look. Okay, great. That's also great audio. Great podcast. I want to ask a question. Chris has recorded 50 million hours of podcasts and he wants to take dramatic pauses. No, I want to ask a question. Chris has recorded 50 million hours of podcasts and he wants to take dramatic pauses.

No, I want to ask a question about genre designation. Is it personal? Or like, is this just like how I'm categorizing something? No. Okay. Chris, Chris. What does that mean? Chris, you have the number one pick.

The number one pick is Moneyball. There we go. Okay, thank you. And it's for drama, I guess. Yes, it is for drama, correct. Moneyball has been we go. Okay, thank you. Duh. And it's for drama, I guess. Yes, it is for drama, correct. Moneyball has been selected by Chris Ryan. That's a good pick. One might say that's chalk. That is the Anthony Davis pick, and there's no shame there, Chris. Yeah, Moneyball out of University of Kentucky, and it's obvious. I think it's probably the most beloved movie between the three of us this year.

We've talked a lot about it. And it's also probably the movie from 2011 that I've watched the most and that has gotten better and better over the years. Amanda, you're up. Number two. So just for the record, I would have taken Moneyball if I had the number one pick, but that's okay. I'm glad I went to my friend, Chris Ryan. I'm glad that Chris also now knows what a drama is. I will be taking Bridesmaids in the comedy category, as mentioned or foreshadowed by Sean. This was a huge hit and also a very big deal in the comedy world and also depending on who you talk to in terms of women being allowed to be in movies, which I am in support of despite jokes that have been made on this podcast. I do also enjoy this movie. I think it's very funny and certainly rewatchable. And I love anything that definitely makes fun of the wedding industrial complex

is also good on female friendship. And a lot of people, and Chris and Wig doing comedy. Thank you, Chris and Wig. Do more comedy. Thank you. I would say a perfect pick. You know, this has put me in a little bit of a bind.

This is a snake draft. So I will have picks three and four, and then we'll go back to Amanda and then back to Chris. Chris, are you still feeling okay about Moneyball, knowing that it's going to be a few more picks before it gets back to you? Yeah, I'm okay. This is a deep bench, deep ear. No regrets about not picking War Horse?

No? Okay. For my first pick, I'm going to take Captain America The First Adventure. What category are you putting that in? Blockbuster? This category goes into Blockbuster. I think this is the most important Marvel movie of its time

for a very specific reason, which actually Amanda and I talked about on a podcast once upon a time, which it created the opportunity to do origin stories in a way that was coherent and also a period piece and led fairly seamlessly into the Avengers, which then next year, I think, will be the prized pony in the next movie draft in a lot of ways. Beloved movie that is actually pretty good.

And so, yeah, I'm going Captain America, the first Avenger. Movie I like. My second pick, this is challenging. What do you do? Do you go with drama? Do you go with comedy horror? Do you go with animated foreign language? I'm going with drama.

And I think that it's a loose definition of drama, but it is a drama. And the movie I'm picking is The Raid. You motherfucker. That's right. Chris got boxed out. You picked a foreign film for your drama? Yeah.

You're calling The Raid a drama? Yeah. Chris, you, I am with you. I support you. You and I are united and I just need you to start thinking bigger. No, you're fixing it on the categories, my friend. And I love you

and it can be whatever you want it to be. Like, hasn't 40 something years of being a white male told you that? Just embrace it. Just there are no boundaries. You say what genre a movie is. Okay, there you go. So Amanda, you're up. Yeah.

I've got the raid in Captain America. So I'm repping for all my film Twitter bros. Shout out to those bros. Okay. I am repping for people with taste in this. It will be in the sequels category. And I am taking Fast Five. Yes.

Yes, I am. So what happens in Fast Five? They drag a fucking safe through Rio de Janeiro. Oh, okay. Yeah. Yeah. It's one of the great movies. And you know,

it's like the Fast and the Furious franchise more as like a, a heist movie as much as it is a car chase movie though. Again, they use cars to drag the safe through Rio and I enjoy this movie very much. Chris, you're up for my second pick. I'm going gonna pick a wild

card and it's gonna be Haywire okay which is Steven Soderbergh's take on the spy thriller starring Gina Carano and it is so fucking good this movie is still so great the soundtrack by David Holmes is one of my favorite scores

ever co-stars Antonio Banderas, Michael Douglas, Ewan McGregor. Who else is in this? Fassbender. Just an incredible scene with Fassbender. And was a two for a year

for Soderbergh. Just an incredibly productive, incredibly rewarding year from the guy who might be our collective favorite director, favorite working director. And yeah, it's just like, what if Soderbergh

just made a globetrotting Bourne movie starring a female MMA fighter? It's fantastic. So I'll take Haywire second. So you have Moneyball and Haywire? Yeah.

Okay. CR has another pick, yes. So four. Dramatic pause. So for comedy horror, horror little bit of a curveball from me but a shout out to a filmmaker

we lost recently I'm going to pick your sister's sister for comedy oh that's a nice pick so Lynn Shelton movie starring Emily Blunt

it was like a really interesting moment for Emily Blunt where she had obviously started to become like a big movie star but decided to do this very small film with Mark Duplass and Rosemary DeWitt. It's set in Orcas Island out in Seattle, and it's just this really, really, really heartwarming, sweet, human comedy drama that Lynn Shelton was so great at. I figured I'd get that one while I was still there.

That's a very nice pick. Sentimental, thoughtful, decent, and incredibly bad strategy. So congrats to you, Chris. But I, Chris,

I do like that you have a very you list. Yeah. So far I'm happy with my list. You having, you having Haywire is important for you. My next pick

will be in the drama category. It is also directed by Steven Soderbergh and it's a film called Contagion. Amanda, have you watched, when's the last time you watched Contagion? Did you feel like? I watched it a few weeks ago. I watched it before we,

Sean and I did the top five apocalypse movies, which we talked about Contagion on our top five apocalypse movies. So, and I. Thanks for listening to the big picture, Chrisris for fuck's sake um it's fine he has a lot of podcasts but chris since you didn't listen i'll summarize that convo for you it was interesting to watch contagion like three or four months into the pandemic i know that both you and sean re-watched it at the very beginning i think yeah like j2 rewatchable yeah for rewatch balls which um you know I understand a lot of people did and that was

like a very smart content making decision and shout out the rewatch balls and go listen to that I was way too freaked out to watch it at the beginning that's kind of not how I cope with anxiety but it I wouldn't say that it was reassuring in fact it was not reassuring there are certain elements about the last third of contagion that having watched it a few months in i was just like yikes but it was interesting in a compare and contrast situation which again contagion is though extremely well researched obviously written by scotty burns um and steven soderbergh gave a interview recently where he was talking about calling all his epidemiologist friends in january to see how bad it's going to be so

we trust i i trust stephen obviously as everyone knows but it's fiction so comparing real life to contagion is not responsible um but was at least illuminating and i would recommend it also it's it's just a great movie. It is a great movie. You guys have just, I just can't believe you didn't shank me on this. You've given me extraordinary opportunity here with two consecutive picks and I'm going to take the opportunity. My first pick is, to my mind, I think really the only genuinely great horror movie from that year. You can make the case for Insidious. You could make the case for your next two movies I like a lot. But I think The Cabin in the Woods is the best horror movie of 2011. One of my favorite movies, honestly, of the decade. And this is Drew Goddard's,

I don't know, sort of meta adaptation of all horror movies in many ways. It's like a game theory movie. It's a puzzle movie. It's a monster movie. It's a haunted many ways. It's like a game theory movie. It's a puzzle movie. It's a monster movie. It's a haunted house movie. It's everything that you can imagine. And I think it's brilliant. So I'm taking that for comedy horror. And then I just can't believe

you guys left Rango for me. I just cannot believe that Rango. Of course you can. Amanda was trying to talk me into taking Rango first. I did. Yeah. By the way, so we conspired

against you over text yesterday we were planning don't worry about it and I was like Chris you should absolutely take Rango immediately to try to that's fine good luck congratulations I still don't know what it's about besides the jokes

that Chris makes it's about a chameleon who is just looking for his way, you know, just looking for his place in the world. You know, just like all of us, we're all just changing, trying to elegantly make our way through the American West. Just like, just like Chris. So those are my two picks, the cabin in the woods and Rango. I feel, I feel good about them. And I've got four categories knocked out. Amanda, you've got three, so you've got to make a fourth pick. Sean, wait. So can you just tell me your four again?

Certainly. For the drama category, I have The Raid. For comedy horror, I have The Cabin in the Woods. For blockbuster, I have Captain America, The First Avenger. And for animated or foreign language, I have Rango. This is just some real deep letterbox stuff from you so you have sequels and wild card and wild card and Chris what do you have left? I have foreign or animated

and sequels Chris couldn't help himself and used his wild card on his third pick which is just you know if you're looking at the Doyle Brunson guide to movie drafts this is just not movie drafts you guys don't understand how this works i pick what's in my heart i pick what's in my heart i'm not gonna get like cowed by like like i'm not mad that i didn't get rengo yeah you're like brett brown you know you have a lot in common with brett but i'm just i'm thinking through this right now so i'm gonna pick right pick right now. And I have... What do I have left?

I have Wild Card. I have Blockbuster. And I have Animated Foreign left. And then Chris will make his last two picks. Right. That's right. And you have Sequels and Wild Card, Chris, right? No, I have Sequels and Blockbusters, I believe.

Oh, great. Okay. So I will then, I'm going to do animated foreign and I'm going to take a separation. Good one. The Asghar Farhadi drama that I believe it did win

the best international language feature at the Academy Awards and is an emotional and provocative film and I recommend it. Great pick. Probably the best foreign language film made that year. Yeah. Before we get to the next pick,

let's take a quick break to hear a word from our sponsor. Today's episode of The Big Picture is brought to you by Blue Moon. Don't you think some once in a blue moon moments should happen more than once in a blue moon? Me personally, I like to have a nice blue moon sitting out on the porch, relaxing, not thinking about the stress and strain of, say, recording a podcast. Blue moon is on a mission to

celebrate and inspire more of those moments. And with the new blue moon light sky, you can enjoy the same crisp citrus flavor you expect from blue moon with a fraction of the calories and less than four grams of carbs. It's light and refreshing, perfect for summertime sipping. Blue moon is crafted with a one-of-a-kind appearance and taste. It's best when garnished with the signature orange wheel to accentuate its natural citrus aromas. The next time you are out with friends or just enjoying a night in, reach for a Blue Moon. It's the beer you can enjoy every day.

You can have a Blue Moon delivered by going to get.bluemoonbeer.com and finding delivery options near you. Blue Moon. Reach for the moon. Celebrate responsibly. Blue Moon Brewing Company. Golden Colorado Ale. So, Chris, you're up. You've got two picks in front of you. Okay. So I have to pick. Let me go. So right now I have Moneyball for drama,

Haywire for wildcard, Your Sister's Sister for comedy horror. Okay? I need to pick a blockbuster and a sequel. This is really interesting. So what I'm going to do then... Oh, no, wait. What happened to... Don't I have to pick animated foreign?

You have animated foreign, blockbuster, and sequel open. Oh, so I have three picks left. Yeah. Oh, so it have three picks left. Yeah. Oh, so it'll come back to you. Got it. It'll come back to you at the end. For Blockbuster, I'm going to take True Grit. That's a 2010 film, Chris.

For Blockbuster... Chris, it's good though. You took the lessons to heart of Dreaming Big. I love it. I wonder if I can get away with this. You're looking at the box office and not the release date. Good point. Sean, you get great points. Yeah, Sean, it's really fun to compete with you and, you know, this is why I want you on my team. I want to be on a team with you guys. I think I have a lot to offer as a teammate, as opposed to a competitor. I've been trying to make this

trio a powerful team for years. But what are we going to compete in? I mean, we just played Cinephile for a good cause last week. What happened? We fucking won. Did you win an individual match in that game? Did I? Yeah, no. All you do is give.

All you do is give. That's right. I'm a teammate. Unless it's you versus me, no, all you do is give. All you do is give. Yeah. That's right. I'm a teammate. Unless it's you versus me, in which case you're dead. So I'm going to pick my sequel and it's going to be Ghost Protocol. It's a good one.

It's not my favorite Mission Impossible movie. It's got one of the most signature stunts of the Mission Impossible films, but it opened up the doors again to this franchise. Is this the Burj Khalifa stunt? Yeah. That is a great one. Brad Bird.

It's really also a fascinating little snapshot of Jeremy Renner again, just going up for a dunk and smashing the ball off the rim where he thinks he's going to get a franchise. And it's just like, what a fascinating career for that guy where he was supposed to be Ethan Hunt

and didn't become that. He was supposed to be born and made a great Bourne movie, but did not become Bourne and was Hawkeye and Hawkeye spends most of the movies kind of being like, hey guys, meet my wife. And that's it. So I'm going to go Ghost Protocol for my sequel.

That's a good pick. You have another pick now. What can we do? I know what I should do, but I got to do what I want to do. So for animated foreign language, I'm going to take Oslo, August 31st. Wow. Which is Joachim

Trier's movie about a recovery addict released from a rehab center. Walking around Oslo and sort of reliving sort of big moments from his life. It is very, very depressing, but it is depressing in a way that's different than most movies about drug addiction. And

if you haven't seen it, you've got to check it out. The kind of, the less I say about it, the better, but it is an absolutely beautiful movie. Chris, that's a real bummer pick, bro. I've got to say. You really brought the bummer energy to this draft. And I appreciate the sincerity.

And I also understand that you don't want to choose, say, Kung Fu Panda 2, right? And Amanda doesn't want to pick Happy Fe know, Happy Feet 2 or Gnomeo and Juliet. Even though, Chris, I know you've logged Gnomeo and Juliet six or seven times on Letterboxd since the pandemic started. But Amanda, you have two more picks, right? Yes, I do. And I'm going to do my wild card now because I don't trust you

Sean so I will be taking Melancholia in the wild card you got it you got it way to go

let's do a little bit Amanda this was Amanda's I have to have this this was I mean this was my somewhere and you waited so late for it it's true

and I I almost did it earlier but then we talked through the strategy live on this podcast, which I'm told is how all drafts work in the professional space. So thank you for that. And I also, Chris, I want you to know that even if you'd had wildcard left,

I trust you to not. I would have waited anyway because I trust you, but I don't trust Sean. So I'm taking, yeah. Can't trust Sean. So I'm taking, yeah. Can I show you something? I'm going to share my screen quickly and you can see in my list. Yeah. That's where I was headed. I have my number one pick in wildcard, which I still have open was Melancholia. So good on you, Amanda. This, in to being um a sentimental pick for me which is a weird thing to say but uh chris if you would like to listen to our uh top five apocalypse movies podcast you can learn about that um i i just what like a beautiful movie and a and a movie that i have

i re-watched for that podcast and have been thinking about so much. I mean, also just kind of like, obviously visually beautiful. That prologue and also kind of what his vision of the end of the world looks like. I mean, if we have to go through it, let's have it look like that. That would be my vote anyway. So I'm pleased that I got Melancholia. I'm happy for you. I still feel like I'm in the driver's seat. And that's because I've got two picks left.

How can you hear what me and Amanda just said? And then you're just like, the most important takeaway is that I am winning. I'm like, what an amazing portrait of recovering from heroin addiction. And Amanda's like, what an amazing movie about the way we're all feeling about the end of the world. And she's like, I am winning. I am the best. Also, like you're lying.

I just took a pick from you. Like you don't want to admit defeat, but I am a brilliant strategic mind and I took a pick from you. So there you go. I am the winner. Continue. It must be wonderful to live in that fantasy world that you occupy, Amanda. That must be glorious for you. Yeah.

I still feel good where I'm at. One, I get to choose a sequel that I authentically like and think is really well made and stands up. And that's X-Men First Class, which I think is... That's not a sequel. That's starting the series again. What are you talking about? It's not starting the series again.

Yes, isn't it? It's like a whole new X-Men that they start again. about it's not starting the series again yes isn't it it's like a whole new x-men that they start again and it's like first yeah it starts it again it's a prequel but it's related to the same films but so we're counting like it's not a reboot it's not a reboot okay i because no because patrick stewart and ian mckellen appear in the later films it's part of the same constellation okay you don't this is something you know you don't want to challenge me on but i am actually just saying in terms of them introducing like the the main characters who are michael fastbender and james mcavoy and they have a whole new um group of people playing those playing those roles and then they go on to do a series with those actors as the main stars so i would argue that this is the first in this particular

like reboot whatever um i'm just saying you you can take it on your on your technicality but when was the last time you watched days of future past did you watch that for apocalypse movies too because in that movie you can see that they're this is part of the same universe the actors some actors are playing younger versions of themselves but this is not a this is not a spider-man situation where you've got an Andrew Garfield Spider-Man and that is not the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man. This is the same world. So X-Men First Class fits.

I'm very sorry to break that to you. Okay. That's fine. You protest? Will you allow this draft to continue? Yeah. I mean, you win however you want to win, Sean. I hope you feel good about it.

I'm not cheating. I wouldn't cheat. I wouldn't cheat with this group of to win, Sean. I hope you feel good about it. I'm not cheating. I wouldn't cheat. I wouldn't cheat with this group of people ever. Okay. I believe in integrity. I believe in following the rules. You keep telling yourself that. You believe in hosting the servers for these elections on SeanFennessy.com?

Hosted on a server farm in Minsk? Yeah. If I want to use RT.com to share my movie takes, I will. I will use it. RT boxed. Can I ask a question about X-Men First Class? Yeah. Just to elaborate on Amanda's question.

Days of Future Past comes out in 2014, though. So, like, what movie was it following? What movie was X-Men First Class following in the sequel definition? Interesting point, Bob. Yeah. Well, it's a pre well it's it's a prequel but it's a prequels fall under sequels but when it came out would it be considered a sequel to what though just say like the category is an origin story right it's a it's an origin story starting the new phase that like the the new installments of x-men imo but that's fine it's a prequel we should just like makeMen. IMO. But that's fine. It's a prequel.

We should just like make a t-shirt with that. That's your new campaign slogan, Sean. He's so mad. He looks really mad right now. You guys can't see it. It's not quite as bad as Ringo, but like his nostrils are now flaring a bit. And he's just like,

how dare you rise up against me? Yeah. Are you guys done? Remember when you fired us off this podcast after Deacons? Yeah, but I am like George Steinbrenner, and you guys are like Billy Martin. I just can't quit you. You know, I just, I want you out, and then I want you back. And I don't know. I just can't get past it. Okay just I want you out and then I want you back and I don't know I just can't get past it

okay so I'm glad you're here this is the fourth no the fifth X-Men movie for the record X-Men X2 X-Men The Last Stand

X-Men Origins yeah I understand that other people have played Magneto yeah it's not a sequel I would argue

that it is like a Spider-Man situation but you are apparently just going to run away with this and set your own rules. And so there we go, I guess. This really does feel like you're, you're trying to make me like James Comey or something.

And I resent it. I just, I resent it. I've made a choice. I really, really wish that you had not stayed up watching all of that miniseries, by the way, because like all you do now is talk about James Comey. But also, apparently you're also learning from him and making weird decisions. Listen, it's up to you. You have to live with yourself. I actually quite liked First Class. It was a big year for Michael Fassbender, 2011, in retrospect. It was. That was fun. I wish he still made movies. Sean is kind of

like Greenwald in the way like Andy will be like, did you guys ever see that movie Burning? That was great. Like three years later. But he's like that with James Comey.

He's like, did you guys know about this Comey guy? I just want to go back to it was a big year for Michael Fassbender and just make a shame joke. I feel like you just teed me up there.

We're not done the draft, right? We're not done. I have another pick. I have another pick. Chris, do you have like 10 minutes on shame and on the one shot from shame?

I hope so at this point. For how many years was the screenshot of little Fassbender from shame on your computer? It's still... Lil' was not the appropriate nickname for it.

One of those iMac cubes, you know? As I would wake it up, it would just be like, bong! Yeah, screensaver. You had a moving screensaver that multiplied on your screen as many Fastb bender fast fast benders yeah as possible uh my next pick is drive um which is an incredible movie and uh has over the course of the last nine years gone through the complete take cycle from this is a masterpiece to this is overrated bro stylish bullshit to actually is nicholas winning rough and better than we thought to actually is Nicholas Wendinger Ruffin better than we thought to actually we saw his Amazon show and everybody agrees except for Chris and Miles Suri that it's

bad and still Drive persists as I think a very effective fascinating beautiful interesting violent dark movie with incredible cast great foresight into where the actors in the movie were going and I still like watching it. So my final pick is Drive. Good pick. That goes into Wild Card. Thank you, Chris. Chris, was that going to be?

No, I actually. That wasn't on your list? I've kind of checked me to myself. So I'm, yeah. I know. I know that's an important one to you. This also may be like where I was in my life but i drive was a definite thing like you know everyone who is interested in movies was like very interested in that and the song and the jacket

and jackets tiger shit yeah and halloween costumes it definitely felt like a time when movies were like still very central in terms of what people were talking about which is sad because the implication there is that it's not as much anymore um love drive great drive so i have one pick left and it's blockbuster and i will be quite honest i was going to take x-men first class which is will not surprise anyone to learn thank you for admitting it i was wondering why you were so obsessed with that all of a sudden well first of all because i actually i'd like it's bullshit and you know sean Sean, Chris, you can make up rules, but Sean cannot.

And I'm always going to call him on it. And also I do like that movie because it has like the international, you know, flair to it. So Blackbusters now is kind of, is interesting because all of the good stuff is taken. I think there's a good one out there. I don't know how you feel about these movies, but I I think there's a good one out there.

I don't know how you feel about these movies, but I do think there's a good one out there. Well, I think that you could be talking about one of two things. Are you talking about Rise of the Planet of the Apes? Yeah. That one's really good. I do think it's good.

I think it was my favorite of the three and I remember seeing it and thinking that it was good, but I think I'm gonna go in a different direction and maybe this is really weird because honestly I haven't re-watched this movie since I saw it um and it I remember it being pretty screwed up at the time but it has also really lodged in my brain so what if I do girl with dragon tattoo? Fuck yeah. Yes. I want to talk about this. Amanda, this might be the greatest teaser trailer ever made. Okay. Yes,

it was. Yeah. I listen. I did not go back and rewatch the whole movie, but I did go back and rewatch the Enya scene because that is the scene that is lodged in my brain, which if you don't recall, and I guess spoiler alert, Daniel Craig gets tortured in this movie.

And then Enya's Orinoco flow starts playing. And I just remember at the time being like, this is even for Fincher, who, you know, directed this adaptation. This is like really screwed up. And let me tell you, that YouTube clip on a Monday morning is not something you need to bring into your life. Take it from me. But this was such a weird moment in pop culture time because obviously those Stieg Larson books were a big deal. And I've read all of them. Again, not something that I can recommend to people, but I did learn a lot about open-faced sandwiches as a result. I feel like that's the one thing. The two things I remember are the Enya scene

and open face sandwiches and a lot of hacking. But this, speaking of movies that we don't make anymore or replacement movies, this was just a big budget adaptation of a blockbuster novel directed by David Ventura starring Rooney Mara and Daniel Craig and it was better than it needed to be and a lot of people saw it and then we all went on our way. So, I'm taking

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. I did not discuss the politics in it at all because frankly, I don't remember them and I don't know how they've aged. But,

as a movie, it was pretty fun. Screwed up and fun. This is a real we didn't know how good we had it movie. Yeah. Totally.

That rewatchables question of would this be a 10 minute? It definitely would. He just did this with House of Cards two years later or whatever, when he was like, oh, if I want to make this kind of thing. And yeah, you could say that that was his long game forgetting to make other stuff that he wanted. But this is something that just would have been Big Little Lies like six years later. And instead he's like, I'm going to make a nearly three hour mystery with like this incredible

cast like Robin Wright, Christopher Plummer, someone Skarsgård, like really Julian Sands, like all these people in it. I haven't seen this movie in a couple of years, but I remember the last time I saw it being like, this is really excellent. I think it was probably when you and me did the Fincher thing, Sean. Yeah, and I think it's one of those movies that relative to that time in Fincher,

maybe didn't get as much appreciation. But if any other filmmaker had made something that resembled it and had those choices and that style and that sound and the look and had a sequence like the one that Amanda is talking about, you'd be like, well,

this is just the most twisted, incredible crime thriller we've seen in a decade. And unfortunately we hold venture to a very high standard because of seven and fight club and everything else before and after. So it's a great pick. It's a cool movie. It's a movie that, um,

I, I lament not being able to see his other two dragon tattoo movies. I really wanted to see those other two adaptations. And this movie was just not that big of a hit. It wasn't a big enough hit to justify that, unfortunately. CR, you've got the final pick, I believe, right? So this last one, I have Blockbuster, correct? You have Blockbuster.

What do I want to say about myself with my pick here? I guess I'm just going to be boring and go with Rise. The hard part about making this final pick for this particular draft is I have a cup overfloweth in the drama category and I guess by proxy wild uh wild card but it's just like in real life I feel like we're full of drama leaving a lot

of really really really good to great movies on the table uh so it pains me a little bit to do that and to to take a movie rise of the planet of the Apes, which I think was very good. And the sequels were better. The subsequent movies were better. But yeah, I pick it with a little bit of a bittersweet feeling of looking at some of these other movies that are sitting on the table. It's an interesting pick, right? Because we were talking about the Batman and Matt Reeves wrote this movie and then went on to direct the next two. And even though Matt Reeves had been making movies since the mid nineties in Hollywood,

his screenplay for the Planet of the Apes movie and then his vision for what the rest of that series was like really put him in the position to basically make a Batman movie, which is the biggest ticket you can punch in Hollywood as a mainstream filmmaker these days. And yeah, I think it's a pretty, I think it's really solid film. But you're right, Chris, we've kind of missed.

And before we recap everybody's picks, we didn't get a chance to talk about a lot of very good, those kind of replacement level movies that you're talking about. Like just a few off the top of my head. Hannah, The Ides of March, Tinker Tail Tailor Soldier Spy which even though you guys both love the miniseries and of course the novels I really like might be I might like the movie the most out of the three of us it's definitely like the the most accessible if you haven't yeah although I I remember seeing it I saw it at Cobble Hill theaters cinemas by myself and I was just like I don't know what happened in this because I had not read read the novel yet

but that's okay because there's like a there's a nice vibe to it and such a great cast there's some big ones that we didn't talk about here one is warrior which I have

maybe have some regrets about not going after I love warrior we didn't talk about the tree of life Terrence Malick's is it a masterpiece? I don't know. It's got masterpiece elements.

And Margin Call, which might be the most watchable movie of this year. And Chris and I were just trading links back and forth last night to YouTube scenes from Margin Call. Ridiculously watchable movie. It's so weird, too, that it's so dry, and it's so jargon-heavy. And all the actors in it you're just like oh so Demi Moore is the financials

like compliance expert you know but and it just works on so many levels it's so gripping any other movies Amanda that you want to shout out before we move on yeah I had a couple on the wildcard list Jane Eyre the speaking of Michael Fassbender and speaking always

of Carrie Joji bender and and speaking always of carrie joji fukanaga um and also margaret was 2011 and speaking of uh movies that i saw with my now husband that was our first official date we'd gone to a couple press screenings together but he was like would you like to go on a date and we went to cafe mogador and then we saw the 9 p.m screening of margaret at the quad cinema and then it was over at midnight and then we saw the 9 p.m. screening of Margaret at the Quad Cinema and then it was over at midnight and that was just a real staring at a person sitting next to you being like,

what now? So... Did you get engaged right there? No. Amanda, that is up there with our nameless but collective friend who took a, I think, blind date to four months, three weeks and two days.

Yes. Yeah. It is really up there. I mean, like we, I remember that, as I said, we saw it at the quad cinema and then we went back to park slope afterwards.

And it was just like a silent taxi ride back to Commodore. It's just like, I don't know what to say at this point. Uh, but we survived. Also, just a great film. I love Margaret as well. Can I shout out a couple?

Yeah, of course, Chris. Wait, are we done picking? We are done picking. Okay, so I just wanted to shout out, you guys mentioned a bunch of them, but I just wanted to shout out

Take Shelter, the Jeff Nichols, Michael Shannon movie, which definitely feels very relevant right now. Great Chastain performance in that movie. I also really love... You know, I gotta say, I haven't watched it in a while, but I really was watching a bunch of YouTube clips

that I remember really liking 50-50. And a couple of the kind of... Yeah, it is really good. Mid-level comedy comedy comedy dramas from around there's like your highness 50 50 uh i 30 minutes or less was pretty bad but like i remember seeing a bunch of these movies in the theater and being very excited for them and probably the best one that was in the comedy action whatever uh genre was maybe attack the Block. Yeah, great movie. And the other one that has sort of been lost to time from this year is Bellflower.

Yes, yes. The Evan Glodel independent movie. There's a few more too. I mean, you could make the case that the best movie that was released in America in 2011 is Certified Copy. I was Kiarostami's movie with Julia Epinoche, which is an incredible film. I would recommend it

to anybody. Dee Rees' Pariah is this year. What else is in this year? Senna, the great sports documentary about Artur Sin Senna, the race car driver. Amanda, did you like Lincoln Lawyer? I really, we didn't talk about Limitless. We didn't talk about Lincoln Lawyer. And we didn't talk about just like movie stars getting weird.

Yeah. And making fairly big budget studio quote dramas that just didn't need to be made, but gave us a lot of memes. And that was both Lincoln Lawyer and Bradley Cooper in Limitless. It's wild because when you see Phillippe in Lincoln Lawyer, it's like that's the last time anyone dressed like that this is also the year of both

No Strings Attached and Friends With Benefits which was just like a very weird thing that happened and also probably if the rom-com was not already dead that's why even though there are little aspects of both those movies and particularly No Strings Attached that I think are a bit maligned. But yeah, a weird year for big studio rom-coms that have exactly the same premise and then are not beloved.

And then we don't get to have rom-coms anymore. I always wanted to see, wasn't the original script for No Strings Attached called Fuck Buddies? Yeah. The Liz Merriweather script? That was like one of the great spec scripts out in Hollywood. And obviously when Ivan Reitman came on,

they kind of commercialized it a bit. But I always wished that Liz Merriweather got to be more like Patty Chayefsky or something. Or at least Nora Ephron or Albert Brooks, somebody who had a very distinct point of view and got to make movies with that point of view because I always thought it was so funny.

And she obviously went on to do New Girl and had a lot of success. But I always was into the idea of a more transgressive kind of romantic comedy. A lot of good movies that year. Young Adult, Beginners, Killer Joe, like chris is limitless which was an inspiration to him that's what got him to move out to la and change his life you know you grew your hair out and you got in shape and you just changed everything overnight it was impressive um let's go through our picks so six categories six picks each. Drama. Amanda has Contagion. Chris has Moneyball.

I have The Raid. Comedy or horror. Amanda has Bridesmaids. Chris has Your Sister's Sister. I have The Cabin in the Woods. Blockbuster. Amanda has The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Chris has Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

I have Captain America, The First Avenger. Animated or foreign language. Amanda has A Separation. I have Rango. Chris has Oslo, August 31, which is just... Just an incredible category. I'll never get over that for as long as I live. For wildcard, Amanda has Melancholia. Chris has Haywire, and I have Drive.

Chris, this is some performance from you but uh and then sequel in sequel amanda has fast five chris has mission impossible ghost protocol and i have x-men first class i fucking killed it protests not a sequel it's a prequel which is different how are you how are you feeling are you feeling like you could do eight more of these with me over the course of the next eight months? Yeah. Yes, 100%. I was also honestly,

because if we do them, we're going to do the rest of this decade, as I understand it. But I was honestly thinking doing a 95 or some draft that I barely remember would be, or have specific childhood memories of. We should do our birth years.

Pretty fun. Oh yeah, that would be good. Draft our birth years. Yeah. That's a great one. Well, Chris, for you, what's that like 1944? That's like Mrs. Miniver and what else is in there? It was great because like Capra and Hawks

were coming back from the war. Fucker. It's good. You put the wiffle ball on the tee and you handed me a titanium bat and you said hit it um okay so you got who you amanda you feel like you won i got everything i wanted except for moneyball which i really wanted with all respect to um my number one guy stephen soderbergh i wanted moneyball in that category. I thought it was me. I thought it was your number one guy. CR,

you feel good with your picks? I feel fantastic about it. You feel like Billy Bean? All the movies that I really wanted, except for a few that I really wanted. But I feel really good.

I wasn't forced. I was worried that I was going to walk out of here with like Dark of the Moon. You know what I mean? That I was going to be like the Optimus Prime killed JFK and I was going to walk out of here with like dark of the moon. You know what I mean? That I was going to be like thought the optimist prime killed JFK. And I was going to have to do a big bid on that.

And I'm glad I got to put that in the trash bin. Just to recap one more time, Chris. So you had, you had the help, puss in boots, Rio, Transformers, dark of the moon. You, you had the adjustment bureau. We didn't even talk about the Adjustment Bureau. With the hats. Oh, yeah.

And Midnight in Paris. You said you really wanted to get a Woody movie in there. One of these times for these drafts, I am going to fuck it up and do that. Just because if you keep

making this joke... Chris, you've already done it twice. You're mad that I took a really beautiful movie about heroin. No, I love you very much i just your strategy is incredible to me this is who am i trying to impress this is so much better than never let me go and jackass one two which is still like i left my body when that happened i can't

believe that that was your strategy. I know, but this is like the real CR heads are going to be like, he's sold out. I'm sure when they see your sister's sister, they're going to think he's sold out. If you liked the loosely anarchic energy of this podcast, I hope you'll tune in later this week when Chris will be returning to the show

along with Andy Greenwald. First time, I think, on The Big Picture. Is it? Oh my God. I think so. Yeah, might be. He doesn't really see very many movies, so just from a numbers perspective.

He really liked Burning, which is a film that came out in 2018, which we're very happy about. Love Andy. Can't wait to have him on the show. And Amanda and I will be on on the watch as well. So stay tuned for that

later this week. Chris and Amanda, thank you so much, guys.