The Big Picture - The Bradley Cooper Hall of Fame and the ‘House of Gucci’ Oscars Surge

Episode Date: January 14, 2022

A surprising SAG Awards nomination has got Sean and Amanda thinking about Bradley Cooper’s unusual path to superstardom. In this episode, they discuss the rest of the surprises and snubs of the nominations (5:00), the incredible legacy of the late Sidney Poitier (1:00), and then finally build a hall of fame for Cooper on the eve of a potential ninth Academy Award nomination (36:00). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

I'm Derek Thompson, the host of the podcast Plain English. We tackle technology, politics, culture, history, everything that's happening in the world and why it matters. New episodes of Plain English drop every Tuesday and Friday on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about bee coops. Today on the show, we're building a hall of fame to Bradley Cooper,

and there's a very good reason for that. Among other things, we're also going to be talking about the SAG Award nominations, which came out this week, and they inspired this Bradley Cooper conversation. I hope you're excited about that. Among other things, we're also going to be talking about the SAG Award nominations, which came out this week, and they inspired this Bradley Cooper conversation. I hope you're excited about that. Amanda, before we do that, something happened last week that we didn't get a chance to talk about, which is the death of Sidney Poitier, really one of the greatest actors in the history of Hollywood, one of the more important actors in the history of Hollywood. During our episode last Friday, Peter Bogdanovich passed away, and we talked a little bit about his legacy and his impact. And I thought we should do the same here for Poitier, who really had a titanic movie career

in the 1950s, 60s, and 70s, and then worked quite sparingly in the 80s and 90s when you and I were coming of age. He popped up in a couple of movies that I think are pretty important to people that are about our age range, particularly Sneakers. I think a lot of people call back to Sneakers as the linchpin. I think that undersells Poitier's legacy as a performer.

When I say Sidney Poitier, what do you think of? Well, I do think Sneakers, but also Guess Who's Coming to Dinner and just the Titanic influence. Like one of the great movie stars and one of the things that has been interesting and moving to watch in the last week is um all of the other actors in hollywood who came after sydney poitier who were very affected both by like his work

and his career and and his death and have shared what it meant to them and he is was just the focal point for really an entire generation. Yeah. He lived quite a fascinating life. I believe he was born in the United States, but he was raised primarily in the Bahamas. And I think till the age of 11, he lived on a very small island with no running water and a kitchen that was effectively 100 yards away from his home. And he lived in unbelievable circumstances. And he moved to Miami when he was about 15 years old. And he began to learn how to read and speak English more clearly and adapt to the United States.

Eventually, by the time he moved to New York, he became an actor. And very early on at a young age, he started to get work in Hollywood. I just rewatched No Way Out, which is really his first starring role. and you know very early on at a young age he started to get work in in hollywood um i just re-watched no way out which is really his first starring role it's a movie directed by joseph mankowitz he plays a doctor in the movie in 1950 and um it's an incredible performance from such a young actor who's going toe-to-toe with richard widmark who plays this vile racist figure and that movie kind of sets the template for the kinds of figures that poitier was often asked to portray in the early stages of his career i think along with guess

who's coming to dinner i think people might think of in the heat of the night or lilies of the field a movie that he won the academy award for he often played these um dignified intelligent and uh powerful rejections of bigotry in our country for a long time. And I think he, in some ways, got stuck being an avatar for that idea for a little while until he basically grabbed his career for himself and started pursuing more romantic leading roles. And he started getting interested in making Westerns. And then he eventually became a filmmaker himself.

He's made a lot of really good movies. I think just a couple I'll point out in particular that I like a lot. Paris Blues opposite Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward is a really good film. The Slender Thread, which is a really interesting movie, too, that he made early on in his career with Sidney Pollack. And then a movie that I watched for the first time last year because it was made available on the Criterion channel is Buck and the Preacher, which is the first movie that he ever directed. It's a Western starring him and Harry Belafonte and Ruby Dee.

He's got a really big career. So if you think he's just the older guy from sneakers, I promise you there's a lot to discover. One other thing I wanted to point out to you about Poitier's career is we just talked the other day about people who should be acknowledged with Academy Awards for multiple good performances in any given year. In 1967, just as he was growing into his true box office power, these are the movies that he made. Starts with To Serve With Love,

in which he plays a teacher in the UK, one of his most delightful movies. Then In the Heat of the Night, legendary movie. And then Guess Who's Coming to Dinner, all in 1967. So he was the real deal. He was a star. star absolutely did you happen to see the clip of i believe when he was winning the like an honorary academy award uh the same night that denzel won for training day and denzel uses like the first bit of his acceptance speech

for for best actor just to to honor but also be like i you know i've been in following and sydney party has put my whole life and like here i am again on the same night that they give you in like a loving and respectful way it was very beautiful um and i think speaks to kind of his like locus in hollywood history yeah he's he was a barrier breaker for sure but also a great actor and a great movie star and the kind of person that we are always celebrating on the big picture. So, you know, best to those who he survived by. He had an incredible life and an incredible career. Shout out to Sidney Poitier. Amanda, did you notice how we just completely ignored the Golden Globes on this pod this week?

You feel okay about that? I feel really good about that. I will be honest. I don't look at Twitter on the weekends or much at all, but it was handed to me by someone in my home on that Sunday night. And I had a chuckle and then I moved on with my life. I do always get nervous that it's like some 22 year old who's been like, you know,

just put out to, to, to, you know, drive for everybody else and hasn't been allowed to see the movies and is forced to come up with tweets last minute. And that would be a sort of golden globes thing to do. And I don't want to hold the 22 year old responsible, but you know, laughter is the best medicine for West side story was like, that was very special.

And then all of the tweets about movies that clearly no one related to the the at least the tweeting of the awards had seen in any way shape or form drive my car they were just like boy drive my car that's a movie and it won yeah the golden globes is making an effort to uh rebuild its reputation in the aftermath of a series of very unfortunate scandals and um i would not say that they bathed themselves in glory in the immediate efforts to rebuild but nevertheless i don't really want to talk about what they did too much this year i thought it was funny how most of us were just sort of like these guys suck let's not talk about them this year yeah but at the same time i was going to ask you do you like, did any part of the winner's lodge in your brain?

Could you help yourself? Oh, I certainly, I followed when the winners were announced who they were, but I don't think that they're going to have the same impact that they historically do on the race. And that's sort of why I wanted to talk to you about the Screen Actors Guild nominations, because I think that those are more likely to have a bigger impact because they are part of a televised show this year. And we know that the actors of course are a huge body that do represent some influence

on how some of the Oscar races are going to turn out not always one to one in fact there are some you know differentiations in recent history that we should talk about relative to what we saw this week but seeing the SAG nominations was like oh okay here's award season

you know we're out we're past the critics stage of things. The Golden Globes was kind of a fiasco that very few people had an awareness of, fewer even than historically they typically have an awareness of. The SAG awards, I at least felt like was something concrete in the universe that we could analyze. Is that, am I overstating that you think? No, I think you're right, especially in that it will be an opportunity for all of the nominees to kind of try out their awards personas and their award speeches. And that traditionally has been one of the major, I guess, like appeals or offerings

of the Golden Globes that it's a quote, it's the fun awards show and everybody's drunk. And so you get to see what people are going to be like and also because the golden globes divides drama and musical slash comedy categories which is how west side story wound up being you know full of laughter funniest movie of the year about teen murder yeah right um that more people had an opportunity to get up on stage and be a little loose and be like here's what could happen if you're at the Oscars. I will say on the other hand of the SAG Awards, kind of weird, unexpected nominations. So on the one hand, I was like, okay, so award season is sort of starting. On the other hand, what have you guys been up to? Screen actors of America? Tell me a little bit more about how you're seeing andcing things, because this is interesting.

Yeah, so SAG is a really big group, but only a randomly selected number of people, I think it's 2,500 people, end up voting on these awards. So it's this unusual combination of figures who are a member of that guild who end up putting together these nominees. And yeah, let's talk about it, because I think that there were some surprises. There were a couple of snubs. There were definitely some people we walked away from feeling like, okay, they were clear winners. It's a little hard to tell if some of this stuff

that we've just kind of been spinning our wheels about became a little bit more clear here or if the kookiness of this body has just come to the fore. I want to start with what I assume you will receive as as hopeful and encouraging news which is that house of gucci is is back in the oscar conversation is it like and and i say this is the world's number one fan of house of gucci and i just i

had the best time loved everything about it i love ridley Scott just on his continuing tour being like I don't give a fuck I'm Ridley Scott you know I'm just making movies I I love everyone I love the robes I love the costumes I love the stupid music choices I just loved it but are we sure it's actually an Oscar conversation or did a bunch of people who maybe haven't seen all the movies recognize a lot of the names on this list and check yes? I think that's possible. So the names that they checked for House of Gucci were Lady Gaga, who is considered a real contender for Best Actress this year, perhaps even more so because of one of the other outcomes of SAG, which we'll talk about shortly. Jared Leto, recognized yet again by the Screen Actors Guild for Best

Supporting Actor. He was there last year for a little movie called The Little Things that you definitely haven't thought of since you watched it 12 months ago. And the ensemble was recognized. And that to me is the big news. The idea that they would recognize this ensemble that was just chowing down on some Italian ham for two and a half hours, you know, just shoving all the gabagool in their head for two and a half hours. The one thing that we can all agree on about House of Gucci is that there's just a tremendous amount of acting, like from just a quantity perspective, lots of actors doing their acting.

And so perhaps this guild in particular is like, wow, look what happens when you are allowed to, you know, the true art that is the actor gets to shine or whatever. I mean, you can like House of Gucci is almost, you know, on the SAG Awards where the introduction is they show various people and they're always like you know I'm Julia Roberts and I'm an actor and then like I'm Kaylee Cuoco and I'm an actor and like House of Gucci is basically just the like you know I'm Lady Gaga and I'm an actor of movies that's what they're doing so it fits my real question for you is you're cracking me up with this bit like they do it every year they won't give up it's so weird every single time yep but you know but they have their bit so you gotta stick to it like how have all of the people

in the sag community seen this movie because it's really hard to see this movie. It is and it isn't. The thing about House of Gucci is it is now the only original drama from 2021 that has made $50 million at the box office. That just happened last week. So it took, how many weeks is that? Seven weeks for it to happen? Eight weeks for it to happen? Long stretch of time and it did have the benefit of the thanksgiving release which was before omicron started slightly pre-omicron but listen the voting members of sag are not

paying money to go see movies they're showing up at their various screenings and being like please treat me with respect yeah and i mean it's one scenario because I don't get it anywhere else. You and I have been to guild screenings, though. People were showing up for those this year. I was at a couple of BAFTA screenings

that were packed to the gills back in November. So I do think, this movie was really, really noisy. It was really noisy on this show. It was really noisy

in the world at large because of the star power related to it and because it was a real-life story. The Gaga stans were going crazy, the little monsters

for this movie so i i think a lot of people did see it and that actually is why it's getting votes i think a lot of the other movies that maybe did not get recognized this year or didn't get recognized as loudly as we expected is because people didn't see those movies but this actually does feel like a movie that a lot of people saw and so that has me thinking maybe this is more of an oscar movie than i thought and maybe this is one of the maybe this is in the best picture top 10. I don't know if they're showing up for the ensemble recognition here. I think it's definitely in play. Sean, if House of Gucci is in the Oscar conversation and Will Smith wins an Oscar,

then like, I don't care if I haven't slept in a month. Like I will just be dive bombing into the live Oscars podcast after the show. And maybe I won't even have watched it. I will definitely get a sued at that point, but I like, I don't care. You can't keep me away. I would say just get the baby sling ready. You know,

just put the baby in there and just come through, come over to the crib, come to the garage where we're recording today. You know. We could talk about it. We could work things out. I don't think House of Gucci is competing for Best Picture. I think it may be nominated for Best Picture, but we'll see. Who knows? A couple of other surprises. Now, Power of the Dog, which I think is widely considered one of the two biggest front runners in the Best Picture race and in many of the acting races, is a pretty heavy hitter. Three individual nominations for Kirsten Dunst, for Benedict Cumberbatch,

and for Cody Smith-McPhee, all of which were expected, but no ensemble nomination. Yeah, but... Does that mean anything? No, I don't think it's really conclusive because, I mean,

does three make an ensemble? It makes a trend, but maybe it doesn't make an ensemble. Also, in the last few years, it has not been one-to-one of ensemble wins or nominations and Best Picture nominations. Last year, I mean, was a weird year, but Nomadland, which was the eventual winner, was not nominated. Even, you know, and that, on the one hand, is just a Francis McDormand movie, but also

is an ensemble of sorts. Like, all of the other sort of real people. I mean, they're real people, but not. You got, we don't have to do ethics in Nomadland right now, but you guys know what I'm talking about. And then Parasite obviously won best ensemble and then did one best picture, which was awesome. 2018, I guess, Bohemian, what one? No, Green Book no green book yeah green book one and it was not nominated there's some precedent here i mean i would actually i would i would suggest that nomadland is the outlier because it is largely populated by um first-time actors or non-professional

actors and so there's those people's standings amongst that community is a little bit lesser because they're lesser known. And with the exception of Francis McDormand and David Strathairn, there are not a lot of people that you saw in the movie. You're like, I know who that is. I'm excited about this. Whereas the fact that like parasite won best ensemble and they had that

great moment at the SAG awards in 19. And then it went on to win same with green book. They had a big moment. That cast was very beloved, but no green book wasn't nominated for the SAG award. Oh, it wasn't nominated. I thought you were saying that it won. Okay. No, it no it wasn't and in 2017 that's the stupid shape of water year

was also shape of water was not nominated the fish was not considered part of the ensemble apparently it's terribly rude well it wasn't that's on that's on the sag awards you talk to those great actors but so for the most part it in the last few years, it doesn't have the one-to-one. And I think the fact that all three actors were nominated in their specific categories means it's at least on the voting body's mind. What'd you think of Javier Bardem being nominated for Best Actor? Not surprised. You know who loves this movie about how hard it is to make it in showbiz? People in showbiz who aren't quite making it. Like I said, I went to a guild screening

of Being the Ricardos and I was like, well, so it's going to win every single Oscar that exists because these people are like, yeah, you know what you got to do sometimes is get J. Edgar Hoover on the phone and then you make it worthwhile. I like him a lot, so I'm not mad. It's an absolutely delightful appearance on WTF,

the Marc Maron podcast this week for Javier Bardem. Let me tell you, within the first 10 minutes, he is loudly and passionately extolling the virtues of great live ACDC albums. And I have never felt more of a kinship with Javier Bardem in my life. It was delightful. Also, obviously speaking quite sophisticatedly about Spanish art and the history of cinema

and all the other things that he's interested in. And his wife, Penelope Cruz, and their great work together. Very good conversation. On Variety's best actor predictions, Javier Bardem is currently number 12 for being the Ricardo's. That means there are 11 people in front of him and he got nominated. So I would say that this was

a little bit of a surprise. Oh, sure. The number one, I guess the number one victim of this surprise is probably Peter Dinklage. And we'll talk about Cyrano next week.

I see that. Can I borrow your DVD, by the way? I keep needing to text you about this. Yes, you may. Can we do an exchange? Yes, we can do a masked

exchange of Cyrano. Okay. Yes, you may. Can we do an exchange? Yes, we can do a masked exchange of Cyrano. Okay. What are you giving me back? The worst person in the world. But that was mine. Like, what are you giving me that is yours? I don't have any physical DVDs to give you. Perhaps you should buy one.

Like, my goodwill, my thanks, the time that I'm going to spend watching a Cyrano movie that, frankly, like, no one's going to spend watching a cyrano a movie that frankly like no one's going to care about i i sounds like an unfair trade i went to palm springs for a few days over the holidays and like there were at least three cyrano billboards on the way to palm springs with no other billboards for any other movies and i think that was like an anticipation of the palm springs film festival that usually is supposed to happen, but was canceled because of COVID. But I was like, you guys are just advertising to an empty desert. I don't really know what to tell you right now.

Yeah. Cyrano's in a tough spot. That's a film that is a theatrical only release that I believe opens next week. And I don't know, is there an audience for that movie? I'm not so sure. We'll see. We'll talk about it. We'll talk about what works and what doesn't about it. You know, Dinklage, I think, is quite good in the film. And he does do his own singing, which I know is very important to you in musicals. But there are a couple of people that I think folks out there are rooting for in the critical community. You know, Hidetoshi Nishijima for Drive My Car, who I think has been recognized by a couple of critical bodies. Cooper Hoffman for Licorice Pizza has been suggested

as a possible candidate. I think Simon Rex and Nick Cage are the two big indie, like I hope this really happens kind of folks. And so Bardem getting this nomination I think indicates that none of those people

really have a chance. Could be wrong. Could be wrong. But that one was really interesting to me. Your instincts were right that being the Ricardos, you know, not in full. The ensemble didn't get recognized here.

So that tells us something. It's not like there was no surprising J.K. Simmons nomination, for example. But, you know, Bardem and of course, Nicole Kidman, who we knew was going to be recognized, was also nominated. Yeah, it's a combo of a performance and a role in a movie that is familiar

to a lot of people. And also just like Javier Bardem rules. Like who doesn't want to spend time with him and Penelope Cruz in, you know, Sardinia or wherever they go on vacation and their awesome life. Like I would love to be involved.

I thought he should have been recognized for his performance as the Fremen who spits in front of Oscar Isaac in Dune. That was also a sick performance from 2021 for javier bardem love that guy i agree i don't begrudge him his his recognition okay here's the big surprise here's the fun stuff yeah best supporting actor absolutely two of our guys particularly ben affleck the tender bar just what a king like what i just can we talk about matt damon interviewing ben affleck haven't read it

what was that like it let me let me just be clear how much i love ben affleck i've heard the major talking points at this you know at this juncture in the press tour he's got some messages that he wants to communicate about the future of movies and streaming and picking good directors and you know some other stuff that you've heard a bunch of times but i just love it it was it was very delightful they figured out how to how to make that friendship work for them in a in a real sense but also a marketing sense so i just like to thank everyone in entertainment weekly good job Good assigning. This category is fascinating. Best Supporting Actor.

So Affleck is in for the tender bar. Bradley Cooper's in for licorice pizza. Yeah. Which you sung from the rafters his praises in our last podcast about the show. Or about the film, rather. And that's also where Jared Leto sits. So I think many people think that Cody Smith-McPhee and Troy Kotzer are kind of the leaders in this race, even though they are the least famous of the five people that we just mentioned. I think there was a there was an understanding, a suggestion that Kieran Hines and Jamie Dornan from Belfast were likely to be recognized here.

They were not. I don't know what that means for the race in particular. I wonder if this is a star power thing. were likely to be recognized here. They were not. I don't know what that means for the race in particular. I wonder if this is a star power thing. Obviously, they're being recognized because they're more famous, but maybe these shows need more star power. I don't know. What do you think?

I thought it was interesting that only Bradley Cooper was nominated for Licorice Pizza. He's a star in the two leads or not. I mean, he is a star, and you do also wonder what that says about licorice pizza's wider appeal. I don't mean to upset you, but I can see a lot of people watching that movie and being like, huh. But wasn't that like 10 minutes of Bradley Cooper pretty fun and and checking a box, which is not really an indicator of anything except of how I imagine a lot of this voting works, which is people kind of checking in and out and then going for the candy. And he's definitely the candy in

that movie. Ben Affleck is definitely the candy in the tender bar and in my life. And I don't know if they're consciously thinking, okay, we got to load this up with stars the way say the the golden globes typically did or we always suspected that the golden globes did but i think at some point people are like looking for things to hold on to it is still is kind of a weird year trying to catch up with all the movies trying to the narrative isn't really settled so it's like oh ben affleck sure yeah he was good yeah i mean he was good so it's not like it's so crazy and it's like, oh, Ben Affleck. Sure. Yeah, he was good. Yeah, I mean, he was good. So it's not like it's so crazy and it's not like it's some, you know, insulted J.K. Simmons that he wasn't recognized for his perfectly good work in being into Ricardo's.

I think that the the Oscars show could use a couple of people like this being nominated. And in fact, Cooper getting nominated here by SAG, which I'll admit I did not see coming at all, is what inspired us to do the Hall of Fame, in part because Cooper already has eight Academy Award nominations in his career, including as a director and as a producer on films. But he's gotten a bunch of acting nominations, and this would be one more.

And all of a sudden, Bradley Cooper is going to have as many acting nominations as Amy Adams, a person we always talk about as never being properly recognized by the Academy. They're about the same age. Are they living a kind of a similar career? They were once co-stars in American Hustle together. So I find him at an interesting, it's not a crossroads necessarily,

because the fact that he is not being recognized for Nightmare Alley, but is being recognized for what is essentially like a extended cameo in this movie is super interesting it's the kind of thing we're like i don't know he could win this goofy stuff happens in best supporting actor sometimes you never know bobby can you go back to when the licorice pizza trailer was finally released online after being blogged about for like three weeks which was just a very weird time in america and i i swear that i was like is bradley cooper finally gonna win his oscar for like seven minutes and licorice pizza and i just if it if it comes true once again just we're creating a lot of scenarios in which like a really sleep deprived like desperate woman bombs onto this podcast and it's just like, and then like runs away again.

I look forward to that. Let's talk about the snubs, which I would say are also something of a surprise. The biggest, the biggest bomb in this nomination set was no Kristen Stewart. Yeah. Spencer, uh,

Kristen Stewart, I think is widely considered the front runner to win the, the Oscar and no person who has ever been nominated, who has ever been not nominated for Best Actress for SAG has ever gone on to win the Best Actress Oscar. Now that's not true for Best Supporting Actress

for example. We just watched Regina King do this a couple of years ago for If Beale Street Could Talk. So it's plausible. I just... What'd you think? No case due. Well, here's the thing. I still think that movie is boring. And it's also not my favorite Kristen Stewart performance. And I,

I've been a little baffled. Listen, Kristen Stewart deserves an Oscar. I'm a huge fan of her and her work and her career. And I hope she keeps doing weird things and it would be sort of fitting for her to win this. Finally went an Oscar for, you know,

being like a, a famous person you've heard of. It's like, tis the tradition. But I don't understand why she's been a front runner. Is it just because she's agreed to do a lot of interviews and she is campaigning, which I think she's campaigning well. She doesn't always like doing press. I think she's been great at doing it and it's cool to see her, but it just sort of seems like we had nothing else to talk about so we were like oh spencer makes a ton of sense like i i the evidence of that momentum beyond people just being talking around themselves like sort of a tautology so i wasn't that surprised also again how many of these people have actually seen

spencer not easy to see you know that was that's the thing when you made that point about house of gucci that was really bored when you turn it on yeah so yeah that's definitely what came to mind for me um i feel like spencer is widely discussed and little seen and that could be an issue and it's a movie that is slightly less fun to show up to uh at a guild screening than house of gucci would be house of gucci even if you think it's not a good film is a lot of fun and so i i don't know i mean i feel like this race is wide open now i guess jennifer it's jennifer hudson um who has essentially slid into that spot who in you know the early stages of the 2021 race was widely considered someone who would be there but then

respect kind of came out in august in a quiet time in the calendar got kind of middling reviews and then went away she's of course an oscar winner already also just jessica chastain being on this list where it came out and and she campaigned really hard and And Jessica Chastain really knows how to be some sort of media presence. And then that went away because I don't think anyone saw that movie. And that movie didn't totally add up for the people who did see it. But it is also Oscar candy. I mean, the two people who were victimized by this as well, I think are Alana Heim and Rachel Zegler. I,

I still feel pretty confident that one of the two is going to get in at the Academy Awards. But now with Kristen Stewart out like Jessica Chastain and Jennifer Hudson, Alana Heim, Rachel Zegler and Kristen Stewart, that's five people for two spots. That's going to be tough to pull off. I mean,

the Rachel Zegler of it all brings up that West Side Story just pretty much blanked here except for Ariana DeBose. Correct. And, you know, that seems like a pretty obvious ensemble situation. A lot of great performances in that film

and something that you would think actors would like, sort of. I, again, wonder if it's just been harder for people to see because of the timing. Very, very few first-time nominees slash fresh faces. Troy Kotzer and Ariana DeBose are really the only people who are not well-known figures who are nominated in one of the acting categories this year.

I actually don't know enough about the history of SAG to indicate whether that's a trend or not, but it's notable because there was a lot of warm feelings behind Zegler, I think, throughout award season. We'll see. Maybe she's out. Also out in Best Supporting Actress, Anjanue Ellis, who I think many people believe is a lock to be amongst the top five for Best Supporting Actress Anjanue Ellis, who I think many people believe is a lock to be in amongst the top five for best supporting actress, but she's not there either. I think some combination of Katrina Balfe and Ruth Nega slid into that spot. I think they're both worthy of that spot. I think, you know, Anjanue Ellis gives a great performance in King Richard. Ruth Nega gives a great performance in passing. I think we might have talked about Ruth Nega on our best performances of the year episode. So that's a tricky one. I think Kirsten Dunst, Ariana DeBose are locked in. The weird one there is Cate Blanchett

for Nightmare Alley. I like Nightmare Alley a lot. I would say the movie, the least effective part of the movie is actually the Cate Blanchett part of the movie. Yeah, that's not her fault. It's not. She's good at doing what she's doing. It just doesn't fit in with the rest of the movie is actually the cable part of the movie yeah that's not her fault it's not she's like she's good at doing what she's doing it just doesn't fit in with the rest of the movie this reads a little bit to be like name

recognition yeah you know in the same way that both Affleck and Leto and who am I blanking on your boy Bradley Cooper and Bradley Cooper who are doing a podcast about wow great good job good job me all made into supporting actor this seems like oh okay people Cooper, who were doing a podcast about, wow, great. Good job. Good job, me. All made it into

supporting actor. This seems like, oh, okay, people that we have established relationships with made it in for supporting actress. And maybe that won't be like a one-to-one at the Oscars. The Oscars get a little frisky in the supporting categories. It's one of the fun things. That's very true. I pointed out the Regina King thing a couple of years ago from If Beale Street Could Talk when that movie, when she was not recognized for her performance by SAG, but did win the Oscar.

So we'll see what happens. A couple of winners from here. We mentioned being the Ricardos already. No ensemble, but it's a good showing to get two lead performances nominated.

Don't look up. No individual nominations, but the ensemble nomination. Now, obviously, it's a big ensemble with a lot of famous people and the SAG loves that. But I think that kind of confirms our suspicion that this is going to be a Best Picture nominee. Yeah. It's surprising in the sense that I don't know if anyone is like

turning in their best performance in there. It's not really for acting. It's just kind of like congratulations for amassing a large group of famous people who I'm interested in spending time with. On the other hand, that's like half the movies I enjoy. So who am I to judge? I enjoyed whatever Mark Rylance was up to. Yeah. And I actually think Cate Blanchett is very good in this movie. Yes. She's funny. Yeah. I don't know what J-Law and Leo are doing, but that's okay. Yeah. Well, more don't look up in the future is what I'll say. I feel like we're going to have to circle back to it at some point

and have a little bit of a deeper conversation when it has nine Oscar nominations. The other movie is Coda, which did get an ensemble nomination and Troy Kotzer did get a nomination from SAG. And so it's happening. Like the Coda thing, Apple TV Plus was not holding it back. You know, Denzel Washington also nominated for Best Actor for The Tragedy of Macbeth,

also on Apple. Apple's in the game. You know, it's all happening for those scrappy underdogs. They finally made it. Congratulations to them. Shout out to them and their incredible market capitalization

of like $500 bajillion. They also just, they got so many nominations for season two of The Morning Show, which I have to say is one of the worst things I've ever seen on television. Renewed for season three. With a new showrunner, please note. Is it you? It's me and Bill together. They loved our notes. They loved our attitude. I'm sure. That's usually how it works is when you're cranky about something on a podcast, they say,

please come and help us. That usually happens. Here's the one takeaway that we haven't gotten to. I have no feel for what Belfast is in the race. And these nominations didn't help me understand it at all

because Katrina Balfe is nominated here. An ensemble is nominated, but no Kieran Hines no Judi Dench no Jamie Dornan no Jude Hill all of whom have been speculated to be so like is this movie the front runner is it running in eighth place like I have no idea it did not do very well at the box office I'm sure it's doing fine on VOD but it does not seem like it's blowing the doors off it does not have a natural streaming home yet. I guess ultimately it would live on Peacock because it's a universal focus release. Oh, sure. Of course. That's because that's definitely where its audience is.

Yeah. So I don't know. Just gut check. Belfast, best picture, yes or no? No. Well, I mean, nominated, yes. Nominated for sure, but not winning. Right now, no. But I don't really feel... I feel like it's wide open. It is pretty destabilizing because I don't know who's seen it and who's not seen this. A friend of mine told me recently that her parents really liked Belfast.

And they were of a certain age going to check out all the indie movies at Lincoln Square or whatever type experience. And I was like, oh, okay. So it is making it to the right places, but it could also be The Wife. Wow. That would be a bad beat for Kenneth Branagh. I think it's better than The Wife. Let me just say that. Yeah, I think so too. I like it um let me also ask you death on the coming out in february good or bad for kenneth brana um not good yeah i was invited to a screening i look forward to the film i was also invited to a screening that you won't you won't be attending i will not be attending the screening though if they would like to send it to me i'm probably the

only person left in america who's like curious about this movie let a man to see blank movie is the hashtag that will not die can i just say while we're on that number one no no word from paramount that's okay but number two thank you to everyone for being so lovely about the baby news like you guys were just um very very sweet and i you know that i don't really like having my emotions like out in the world, but I was like very moved by it. So thank you to everyone. It means a lot to me. And I just, I can't wait for us to all see Top Gun 2 together in like 2025 because Paramount has blacklisted all of us. Great showing from the big picture listenership out there. Should we take a quick break and then talk about B-Coups?

Yeah. Okay. Get groceries delivered across the GTA from Real Canadian Superstore with PC Express. Shop online for super prices and super savings. Try it today and get up to $75 in PC Optimum Points. Visit superstore.ca to get started. Okay, we're back. I'm going to make a confession to you. I have no idea how to do this. And the reason I have no idea how to do this in terms of building a Hall of Fame for Cooper is because he's having a really super weird career. I think one of the things that we

actually know about him, even though it's, if it's never been officially reported is that he is actually having the career that he always wanted to have. That the first time we saw him sitting in the audience at inside the actor studio, observing Gene Hackman or Robert Redford talking with James Lipton about their career. And he had these big moony eyes. And he was looking longingly at the greatness of the white American male movie star. And he said, I can be all of that. And he is now. He is literally one of our great movie stars. And he's a writer, director, producer. He top lines movies. He's got his pick of any project he wants. And he's really, really good. And I guess I would not have ever predicted that sack

lodge from the wedding crashers or that the guy from the hangover who was the biggest asshole or the guy will from alias that i watched so many years ago with my wife was gonna turn into i don't is he like warren baity 2.0 i mean that's really what he's trying to be right now and it's kind of working but to get there the point I'm making is he had to do a lot of stuff that the the men historically and I do mean specifically men who

get handpicked for these kinds of careers don't always have to do he did a lot of TV he did a lot of bit parts he's done a lot of strange movies with with kind of awkward and odd roles. And so just choosing 10 movies that is this contradiction of what is a modern movie star. I think he probably at this point is having the career that he wanted,

wanted to have. I think Leonardo DiCaprio has had the career that he wanted to have for his entire life. And what's really interesting to me about Bradley Cooper is like, you could always sense that tension and he uses it a lot in those early roles where he is cast as an asshole frequently or there is like there's tension and there's anger bubbling up on it and there's that thirst as you mentioned in inside the actor's studio which isn't something I typically

associate with like a golden age Paul Newman or Redford or Beatty even though those guys like were super you know vain and really wanted it as well let's be real like everyone has a strategy and everyone at this level of movie stars thinking about themselves but it's like palpable with Bradley Cooper and there is an element of like never quite getting to what he wants to do or not being right where he wants that I think animates many of his best performances, even a star is born. And then a star is born is sort of like a, uh, a turning point. Uh, cause it's just really good. But what is being a movie star right now is sort of an interesting question because like at some point we're going to have to talk about how he's like a talking raccoon. And that means like a lot to a lot of people and that might have been a way in which

he furthered his career but like you you can't say that about warren baby it's very true i think um those guys made it look easy and maybe they made it look easy because the apparatus around them in hollywood at the time shielded them from some of the things that we see from Bradley Cooper. Obviously, our media is very different nowadays. It reminds me a little bit of the way that we very rarely knew some of the more unseemly or more challenging parts of, say, Mickey Mantle's life. But we do know a lot about our modern athletes, maybe too much about our modern athletes. And so our hero worship has evolved over time.

Bradley Cooper is one of the youngest people we've ever done a Hall of Fame for. And yet he's made as many movies as Leonardo DiCaprio. He just has not chosen in the same way. And I think when I look back at a lot of the people that we've done this exercise for, a lot of men, we probably should get a few more actresses in here.

Ben Affleck comes to mind. Denzel comes to mind. We most recently did Leonardo DiCaprio. I've seen every single movie that all those people have made. I've seen most of them multiple times. I haven't even seen some of the movies we're going to talk about with Cooper. In some cases, I don't even know what they are. Some of that is about the genre they're in. Some of that is that they're independent productions. He was one of those guys who when he got famous

in 05 and then later in 09 with The Hangover, a lot of like junkie movies that he had clearly made a few years beforehand started trickling out into the atmosphere with his name right above the title.

So it's been a harder road to hoe for him yeah you want to start you want to do it yeah well i was just gonna say the other thing as you mentioned there is like a tv segment that is instrumental and then i don't know if you saw at the end i just added like a miscellaneous segment of like it's you know crucial moments in bradley cooper history including the inside the actor's studio footage, which is really important. Perhaps you remember the press tour that he gave in Fluent French, I believe for the Hangover Part 2 DVD. I forgot about that. That was really important. Please never forget the fight

that he got in with Irina Shayk at the Wimbledon uh press box which is just like a really really important moment and to me obviously but i think a skeleton key in a lot of ways and then obviously the lady gaga oscars performance which you could like sort of attach to a star is born but is is doing its own thing some might say that was his greatest performance of all time. This is what I'm saying. There's a lot here and a multimedia career. Yeah. And Alias wasn't the only show that he was on. He was on Jack and Bobby for a while. He did an extended run on Nip Tuck.

He was on Kitchen Confidential. He was the star of the Kitchen Confidential TV adaptation playing a Jack Bourdain. Like he was making a run at a Clooney-esque launchpad TV career and it kind of worked and kind of didn't. The things that got him famous are so funny.

You know, it's so weird to look back and see that his first movie, really, his first significant film was Wet Hot American Summer. Right. In which he played Ben

who was one of the counselors at the camp and spending most of his time, I think with Amy Poehler's character in the movie. He was pretty funny in that movie and he never really did a part like this again. And it's funny to think of his career going in a different direction.

Like think of the guy who's in Nightmare Alley, the guy who's in Wet Hot American Summer. No, I know, yeah. And try to like rationalize those two things. And maybe that's just the testimony to his flexibility and ability as a performer. But they don't seem like the same career track. No, it's a little bit like the Jon Hamm situation.

Where Jon Hamm clearly just wants to be a comedian. But he's way too handsome for it. And he is funny. And I think Bradley Cooper is very funny in this. But if he had tried to just be one of the comedy guys I don't I think he would have been like running up against a wall at some point so that movie was in 2001 do you think that deserves to be in I would put like a maybe are we color coding this what are we doing yeah let's do a maybe I have such a vivid mental image of him in Wet Hot American

Summer sitting next to Amy Poehler and matching haircuts, you know? So, and I honestly don't totally remember what he does in the movie, but like, I know that he's there. So that counts for something. I just want to make an observation about his physical appearance. Cause when you mentioned his haircut, something struck me. He's one of those movie stars where of course he's, you know, conventionally handsome and people find him attractive, but he's one of those movie stars. And there are a a lot of a lot of movie stars that are like this angelina jolie comes to mind every feature is big big mouth big nose and big eyes another one and hathaway but then she just like fills up this screen like yes absolutely beautiful not necessarily like symmetrically model perfect

he has something he holds the screen. Like you said, he commands. And it's funny to think of him like trying to be a goofball comedy actor amongst the people who created the state and the people who, you know, basically like our response responsible for improv comedy in the 90s and 2000s and him trying to hold his own there. And he did. He was fine.

He didn't become a movie star out of this work. In fact, his next movie is something called My Little Eye. Never heard of it. Never seen it. Same. No idea.

So that is not going in the Hall of Fame. The next movie is called Bending All the Rules. Do you remember this gem from 2002? He plays Jeff. Jeff, of course. Love Jeff. No, I don't know what this is.

Me neither. Directed by Morgan Klein and Peter Knight. He does have top billing on the poster I'm looking at on Wikipedia. Or not top billing, but he's on the top of the poster. I'm pretty excited about it. And the other people are on the...

This plot description is good. An ambitious woman with an odd upbringing struggles to find herself amidst juggling two guys she's dating. Even though both guys know about each other and are complete opposites, jealousy begins to boil over as convivial antics break out between the two. Tough decisions will be made when growing up the hard way. Isn't this also the plot for This Means War?

I actually, why was I thinking about This Means War recently? I don't know. Because it's not a good film featuring a lot of talented people. You know why? Because I saw news that the Court Street Theater in Brooklyn might be closing, which is very sad. And I had a lot of memorable movie-going experiences there, including, I think, on Valentine's Day, going to see This Means War with my friend Willa and my friend Susan.

And I was the only person who was even trying to pretend like I had a good time. I was like, oh guys, this is pretty fun though. This means war. And they were like, this is the worst movie I've ever seen. But I was like, Chris Pine. It was not good. But I had a lovely time

at the Court Street Theater watching it. That sounds like one of the worst dates of all time. I gotta be honest. No disrespect to any of your partners. Another Valentine's Day, I went to see the first Fifty Shades movie with Wella at the Court Street Theater, and that was really fun. That sounds sensual. Just really fun.

Yeah. Anyway. So bending all the rules is out. Okay. 2005, a three-year gap between films here. I believe this is right in the peak of Alias time. He's good on Alias. He played like the wet blanket best friend.

He was like the guy who was like, Sydney, just tell me what's going on. You can trust me. I'm here for you, Sid. Was that a good impression? That was really good. Do you want to nominate Elias? Are we going to do movies first and then TV?

I don't think any of the TV really qualifies. Alias was like a big introduction to him, but he was like the eighth lead on the show and like four episodes would go by and he would not appear. It was like him and Maren Dungy. They were like the two like pals in the real world. And then Sid was working with SD6 to take

down the criminal conspiracy inside the US government. It was a pretty good show. Jennifer Garner was really cool. It's weird what happened. Her whole career has been very strange. Not at all what I expected. Jennifer Garner was really cool. It's weird what happened. Like her whole career has been very strange. Not at all what I expected. I thought she was going to be like Angelina Jolie. Anyway, moving on.

I like it when she cooks on Instagram. She loves Ina Garten and so do I. Yeah, she seems like a great person. She seems like a really kind person. Good mom. It was really weird when Will from Alias showed up as Sac Lodge in Wedding Crashers. I'm going to tell you right now this movie is going in. Of course it is.

So we planned this after the SAG Awards nomination. So we didn't have that much time to prepare. And I was like, okay, I got time for one Bradley Cooper movie to rewatch. What will it be? And let me tell you, I watched Wedding Crashers by myself last night. Immediately. Like no second thought. What will I be doing?

I will be watching Wedding Crashers. I honestly can't believe that movie got made um but also i laughed at just a huge amount of it i just i have to be very honest with myself it's really really funny and he's really funny and like the physicality of the performance of just him launching himself primarily at Vince Vaughn just for two hours. Delightful. It's in the conversation for great douchebag performances of all time. I mean, he is just such a prick and so effective and he's like channeling all the bad 80s bullies that he watched in movies growing up. Okay. So Wedding Crashers is in. Failure to launch. Never seen this film. I imagine you have. I have have but i'm having to google it right now because so he's it's matthew mcconaughey and sarah jessica parker are like the main people in it correct so i don't think i remembered that he

was in this but he plays a character named demo okay i don't remember what happened in this movie i don't really love this stretch of like 2000 rom-coms. I have to be honest. Here's an interesting twist. So he plays Demo and his friend Ace, or Trip, who is Matthew McConaughey's best friends. These three guys. Sure. And this is an early union with Justin Bartha, with whom he would go on to collaborate on The Hangover.

Oh, of course. OK. Failure to Launch, which is a movie that definitely made $130 million. And no one can remember, including you, who's a rom-com expert. That's true, but I really did. I have to say, 2005 or so, I mean, I do How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days. Of course, I'm an American, but beyond that, I don't really... 2005, 2010, it's a tough rom-com decade, or a half decade. Okay, so 2007,

we get The Comebacks, which is a goofy sports parody movie, which Bradley Cooper only has a cameo here, so I don't think we should include this one either. Yes, I see he plays Cowboy.

Oh, nice, okay. In 2008, he appeared in a movie called Older Than America. Never heard of this film. Nope. Are you familiar with this? Nope.

Apparently, this is an American suspense drama directed by georgina lightning this is a very poorly photoshopped poster which makes me think perhaps this was an independent film it does star the great actors adam beach and west studi two native american performers who are terrific so maybe this movie is worth checking out. Never heard of it. Don't know where I can find it. If you've ever seen Older Than America, give us a shout and let us know how Coops is in it. Otherwise, it's not going in.

Okay. You've seen The Rocker from 2008? No. Do you know about that movie? No. It was like, I don't think it was a big deal, but it was a deal. It was a movie right at the height of The Office Mania that starred Rainn Wilson. Remember when Rainn Wilson got to be the

star of movies? I remember when Rainn Wilson was a star. I don't really think I saw any of his movies, but I remember this era generally. I do believe this is the first film that Emma Stone took after Superbad. Okay. Great choice. And Bradley Cooper in this movie, no lie, plays a character

named Trash Grice. That's brutal. This movie is not going in the Bradley Cooper Hall of Fame. Okay. He's also, man,

so if you're reading the cast on Wikipedia, he's like 10 or 15 down behind a lot of, this is, wow, he's really made some 15 down behind a lot of, this is, wow. He's really made some leaps since 2008. That's what I'm saying.

It all, it didn't all happen at once. There was a lot of stopping and starting here going on for Cooper, but he's like well below Josh Gad, right in, in this movie. So that's, that's a,

that's a tough 2008. No one rises above Gad. Please keep that in mind. Um, so the midnight meat train, uh, this is i'm probably the only person on earth who was anticipating this movie because it was based on a clive barker story and i really like movies based on clive barker stories um but this was

definitely a movie that was shot before he became a known quantity and was, I think, rushed to release because of Bradley Cooper's fame. It's a horror movie that's not very good that is definitely not going into the Hall of Fame. Okay. Yes, man. 2008. This is a somewhat forgotten Jim Carrey comedy. Do you ever see this one? No, but I remember the poster. It's amazing how many of these you haven't seen. Well, I don't know. It was between 2005 and 2010, which was not... There were a lot of exciting things going on and also things going on in my life, but none of them

were seeing weird mid-level comedies where Bradley Cooper is the 10th lead. This is for CR how he's never seen Seinfeld. He was like, I was busy at that time you know he was like i was busy smoking smoking cigs and chatting up girls so i haven't seen the greatest sitcom of all time uh bradley cooper's the third lead in this film he plays uh peter's

or peter carl's best friend uh jim carrey and zoe dashnell this is a peyton reed movie you know director of ant-man and a number of other and bring it on a number of other good movies. This movie made $225 million. Really? Yeah. Okay. This is when Jim Carrey still had the juice. I love Jim Carrey.

I do remember this poster, but I don't know. I just I didn't go. So funny. So he's just not that into you. I have seen this. Comes in 2009 and he plays Ben. And he's kind of a cad in this movie, as I recall. I think so.

I mean, I think that's sort of the setup of he's just not that into you as evidenced in the title. I don't remember. I remember that Ben Affleck's also in this movie. I don't really remember any of the storylines. I was not at this started the era of like the rom-com that is like 45 different people interlocking stories. Yeah, Valentine's Day. Exactly. Arbor Day and Columbus Day.

Which I also, I think Valentine's Day, Bradley Cooper was also in. And I don't care. I didn't care for those, but. Yeah, I remember him having kind of a sexy scene with Scar Jo. That's all I can really remember from this movie because I was paying attention to Scar Jo. This is not going in the Hall of Fame.

We've now talked about 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 11 films, only one of which is in the Hall of Fame. Sure. Here's where it gets interesting. The Hangover, 2009. Phil Wenick. Absolutely. Of course it's in there. A movie that almost certainly would not be made

in the way that it was made today. A movie that in some cases is shocking to see how some of the humor is meted out. But a movie that is still funny. And some of it holds up really, really well. And some of the particularly uncomfortable aspects of the comedy, I think Bill recently made reference to the Zach Galifianakis jerking off the baby, which is like wildly inappropriate

and will seem more inappropriate after you've had a child, but still funny. I mean, I remember the baby wearing the sunglasses. I remember people like wearing like that. You could have a T-shirt that had the like the baby in the sling like Zach Galifianakis does with the sunglasses that you could buy. A funny thing about that rewatchables that you guys did. I haven't seen this movie since it came out in 2009. So I don't really remember how offensive it is.

And I'm just kind of like, yeah, this was a phenomenon. I'm not going to feel guilty. Such a huge phenomenon. But at some point at the beginning of the rewatchables that you guys did, Bill makes a joke about this being about Zach, my husband's bachelor party. And he uses the full Zach Barron name. And I would say every three to four months, Zach hears from someone in his life who he doesn't know being like,

yo, really? Did you guys go to Vegas? And Zach is like, my life is ruined. Is that true? Yeah. I think so i think it was the hangover um which is very funny honestly that it made me laugh wow um we've got like 300 more movies to talk about so we gotta we gotta get a groove on sorry no it's not your

fault um it's just it's really bradley's fault for being so prolific over the years uh the hangover's in two movies are in or theoretically in. Case 39 from 2009. It's just not in. No. All About Steve from 2009. You know who Bradley Cooper plays in this movie? Steve! He sure does.

Plays Steve. This movie's not in. New York, I Love You, which is one of those films, those ensemble comedies that were very big around... But isn't this more like a collection of short stories

than like the... This is more vignettes. ...interlocking thing? Yes. Anyway. So this one is also not in. Cool, but no. I don't like short fiction, as you know.

Here was an interesting movie that absolutely did not work, but in a bid to become a big action star with a sense of humor, perhaps a Bruce Willis type, The A-Team in 2010. He played Templeton Peck. Not in?

Yeah. I remember that this is when I had to learn what the original A- 18 was for the first time great show yeah I don't know but it was it was not what I watched growing up they were running reruns I believe by the time I grew up on syndicated television just heat bangers George Pappard sure yeah Dirk Benedict that's cool Mr. T Mr. T I know you kidding me? Mr. T, I know. This is when Stephen Jay Cannell was reigning as the creator of all the TV shows I watched. Okay, the A-Team is out.

Limitless. Yes. The subject of a recent Rewatchables podcast. That was very funny. Yes, Limitless. This is in, right? Yes, of course. Yeah, this is the movie.

This is actually the proof of concept movie for him. This is the one where we're like, okay, you can carry a high concept thriller by yourself and sure you have robert de niro in your back pocket but this is the bradley cooper show and we have to buy you and we did this is a pretty good guess it just also has like one of the great premises of movies of all time and i just remember the trailer coming out and we all just were making limitless jokes for i mean we still are chris r Ryan dining out on them. So he made a good choice. It worked out for him. I can't wait till you experience what I'm experiencing, which is limits. It's the

opposite of limitless when you have a child and you're like, oh, I can't do anything anymore. Oh, right. I, nine months pregnant, have not experienced any limits at all. I'm just running around doing whatever I want. I can touch my toes. No problem. That would be a great domestic comedy about a bunch of new parents who just can't do anything. I just, I can't do anything now. I just can't, I can't sit up. Jesus Christ, help me. Hang in there. You're almost there. Okay. Hangover part two. This is not very good movie. I don't think it's going in it was a huge hit oh oh i thought you i thought we were still talking about limitless limitless is in hangover part two no correct the words which was a high concept dramedy that i don't think was successful i believe is out would you agree and this is again where i'm like okay now hit and run

from 2012 it's just a cameo in this dard comedy, but he's playing like a weird white Rastafarian character. And I was like, well, how is Bradley Cooper spending his time? He's got, like you said, the Jon Hamm thing where he's like, can I get into the comedy playpen for five minutes? Yeah. Which I don't think is necessarily a bad idea, but it's fine when you're doing it in Bridesmaids. Not so much when you're doing it in hit and run, you know?

Like you got to be pretty discerning with your picks here. 2012, The Place Beyond the Pines. Is this a Chris movie or a you and Chris movie? It's me and Chris crying together. Okay. About the fragility of masculinity in our country. You're obviously the Bradley Cooper in this. I don't know how you feel about that.

I'm not the Gosling? Sorry. I mean mean just the cooper of it all wow this is painful i don't know i feel like i might be the emory cohen actually you have like the big hair in a nice way you have lovely hair sean but you know like you were talking about bradley cooper's big features so yeah yeah you know i have some big features uh i okay i'm the Bradley Cooper. Place Me on the Pines,

I think is a really, really good film and a little bit underrated, actually. It is, of course, like all films from Derek Cianfrance. It's got some pretension to it,

but I don't really mind that about it. This is the first time I ever saw Mahershala Ali, actually, is in this film too. I'm going to just make it a purple instead of a red for the moment because I don't know

that this is necessarily... We're about to go on a tear here. A tear here. Silver lining... Oh, good. Sorry. I was just going to say we have to keep in mind that this is our list

and we have... It's our Hall of Fame. We have room for personal preferences. You're absolutely right. Put it in purple. We do. Silver Linings Playbook 2012. 100%, yes.

I know that you don't like this movie, but this... I'm married to a person from philadelphia i'm married to a diehard eagles fan and like this movie and specifically bradley cooper running around in a trash bag is how i understand my marriage and my relationship to the philadelphia eagles so um i don't want to cast too many aspersions i'm not a huge fan of this movie i don't i do like what Cooper is doing I thought that this is a good performance it's interesting that he keeps getting cast as Italians

you know in Limitless he plays Eddie Mora in this movie he plays Pat Solitano Jr. and then a year later in American Hustle he plays Richie DeMasso I'm not sure that Bradley Cooper screams Italian-American to me. I'm not either, but then Lady Gaga did, and then she did a Russian accent in House of Gucci. So, you know, there's some movie inconsistency here.

It's very true. We're talking about Father, Son, and House of Cooper right now. So the Silver Linings playbook is in, no question. He's Academy Award nominated for this work. The Hangover Part 3, pretty abysmal. Honestly, it seems like everybody who made it hated it too. So that's an easy one to punt on. American Hustle, a movie that I do not think is very good.

But Cooper is good in the movie and is doing like a very clear, like coked out thing that I wonder should we be recognizing it? Put it in purple and we can discuss. Did he get nominated for this? I think he did. He did. They all did.

This would be a tough one to ignore. Okay. So we'll put it in purple. Guardians of the Galaxy 2014. He plays Rocket Raccoon, the machine gun wielding interplanetary rodent thing. Yeah. I think it's in. I think it has to be too.

Amazing. I love that you're there with me. I mean, it drives me absolutely bonkers, but I really don't like the Guardians movies, as you guys know. But just everyone is losing their mind anytime he speaks as the raccoon. He's good. Voice acting is not easy. No, I know. I love those videos he speaks as the raccoon. He's good.

Voice acting is not easy. No, I know. I love those videos of him doing the voice acting. Yes. Well. He's so committed. You know what's one of the all-time bomb How Did This Happen movies is 2014's Serena. You remember this movie?

I believe this is Jennifer Lawrence and Bradley Cooper reunited in a movie that no one cares about. Isn't that one where they tried to, on the back of American Hustle and Silver Linings Playbook, or maybe even somewhere in between, they were like, we're going to make this one. And we're going to just like the J-Law Bradley Cooper chemistry magic. We're going to make this happen. And then it really didn't work out. Correct. It's a very, very turgid and boring movie. And so it is not going in the Hall of Fame. Here's a movie that probably has to go in the Hall of Fame,

even though I'm not a big fan of it. It's called American Sniper, in which Cooper plays Chris Kyle. Academy Award nominated. This movie is one of the biggest hits for straight down the middle drama of the last 10 years. Made hundreds of millions of dollars. It is a good Cooper performance.

I don't really understand. I mean, I understand why Clint Eastwood wanted to make this movie. It's very consistent with a lot of movies he makes about american heroes or those we think maybe american heroes and how to complicate or uncomplicate their legacies it's weird because like we're gonna we may end up putting a bunch of movies that we don't like that much into the hall of fame but cooper elevates to i think a new level of stardom on the back of this movie. Yes.

I mean, it's wildly successful and it is also, we were talking about the types of old Hollywood guys that Bradley Cooper wants to be, but he has spoken a lot about how he would really love to be Clint Eastwood. So this is the, this establishes the connection. Also, you know,

he just cradles like a baby doll for a large portion of this movie that's it's still one of the best things that's ever happened can't believe that happened he also perhaps most importantly produced this movie and so he was also nominated for best picture here and that this is where the sort of Warren Beatty esque career comes into focus where he's going for

something else amazing that he would follow up American Sniper with the following films. 2015's Aloha, one of the all time self owns from the great Cameron Crowe, Cameron Crowe, who I adore, uh,

whose work is unbelievable to me. Um, but this film does not work for a variety of reasons. The Emma Stone character character of course has been considered widely problematic but just the storytelling is super super confusing and dull um not going in the bradley cooper hall of fame you feel comfortable with that absolutely okay what about the movie burnt well so he's gonna say aloha doesn't go in the hall of fame but maybe there is a second bradley cooper hall of fame that is like

can you believe this happened that aloha definitely goes in and burnt is like you know the house on which everything else the foundation on which the rest of the house is built so much shame that i sure sort of but i don't i don't think we need to be shamed ashamed exactly of burnt i mean it brought us a lot of joy in the early ringer years can i make a confession yeah i've not seen the film you haven't seen it uh it's ridiculous there's something about how he has to shuck like 3 000 oysters or something and then he like has a little like uh phylo facts or what's the fancy one called i don't know i haven't seen the film like yeah no but you know what i mean like the planners you have one that starts with an m i have what you know i don't know okay great this is great podcasting anyway he has like a

little journal that he just tallies the all the oysters that he's shocked because he's like a toning for i don't know i don't know. I don't remember what, I don't remember anything that happens. Hilarious movie. Alicia McCain are also in this. We don't have to put it in, but I think we're missing out on a little pizzazz. I do believe Dave Chang has potted about this movie multiple times. So if you want to revel in a real life, brilliant chef taking down one of the poorest representations of chefery yeah there you go 2015's joy this is a smaller part than usual but once again reunited with Jennifer Lawrence

in a David O Russell movie and it didn't like this movie no not a good movie I mean he's sort of good in it because he plays like the QVC he's like the home shopping maven of sorts correct yeah but it's not it's not but no it's not good not Hall of Fame worthy right no okay He's like the home shopping maven of sorts. Correct. Yeah. But it's not Hall of Fame worthy, right?

No. Okay. 10 Cloverfield Lane. He has a very small cameo, a voice cameo. 10 Cloverfield Lane, a thriller I like a lot. I assume you haven't seen this one. No. Is this the one that came out?

No. This is a year before the Super Bowl one. This is the John Goodman one that is like all in one house during. Is it like a plague or a pandemic or something? And a young, I think a young couple arrive at a house. Anyway, very, very good movie, but Bradley Cooper does not play a meaningful part in it. 2016 again, War Dogs. Do you remember the work that he does as an arms dealer in War Dogs? So this is Jonah Hill and Miles Teller and then he shows up as an arms dealer in War Dogs. So this is Jonah Hill and Miles Teller and then he shows up as an arms dealer? Yeah, on paper, this is my favorite movie ever made. Sure, right. In execution.

No, not so much. Just an amazing choice by him. He just is like covered in grease and Drakkar Noir the whole time. He's just such a slimy, swively character. But now we're going into five or six movies in a row that are not great. And this is the weird thing about his career.

He has these down moments. He appears in Guardians of the Galaxy 2 as Rocket again. I don't think that that is necessarily Hall of Fame worthy. It was a big hit, but, you know, it's just repeating what he accomplished in the first film. And then he appears in Avengers Infinity War,

which is, of course, one of the biggest movies ever made as Rocket. But, you know, that's not his movie. What does he do in Infinity War? How does he contribute

to the Infinity War? What's his job? He is paired primarily with Thor in that film. And they need to they need to get Peter Dinklage to build a giant axe for Thor so that he can return to Wakanda where the rest of the Avengers

are fighting okay to to bring me Thanos is Thor's famous line you remember that no I don't and the whole and Cooper is like running alongside thor you know like with a machine gun as if that's gonna do something he's a fucking raccoon anyway uh i love those avengers movies they're so stupid um infinity war is not in the bradley cooper hall of fame you know it isn't the bradley cooper hall of fame a star is born yeah so absolutely so this movie kind of like 12 movies i it's it's just like a real triumph and

also when you go through everything that this man has done in his weird career and long stretches of just like terrible choices and things we haven't seen and movies where he's an asshole and then i just he absolutely nailed this movie i was nervous i was skeptical and it was just a completely exhilarating cinema experience as an actor i do think as a director as a producer because a lot of people did see it it was a phenomenon i good for him you know not everyone pulls this off i think he is i i wonder if this will turn out to be the pinnacle of his career yeah you know obviously he's he's about to make another big film in which he is the star and the

writer and the director and the producer and doing the full baby in in the maestro the Leonard Bernstein film that you talked about on the anticipated movies pod but um this felt like everything came together really really well and he made this movie not just you know award worthy and much talked about,

but a huge hit. And so it felt like him kind of reaching the conclusion of something he had so desperately sought follows that up with a little part as an FBI agent in the mule. Love the mule. Don't think that Bradley Cooper had anything to do with me loving. This is once again, sort of like his John Hamm, you know, moment where he's showing up as an FBI agent as Jon Hamm has for a decade now.

That's true. I hadn't thought of that. They have a lot in common. You think Jon Hamm wants what Bradley Cooper has? Probably, right? And what about going in the other direction? No, I don't think that Jon Hamm has what Bradley Cooper wants at this point.

Oh, interesting. You don't think he has that kind of swarthy, old school, handsome, lady killer thing? No, I think Bradley Cooper wants to be Clint Eastwood.

Okay. All right. Fair enough. So the Mule's out. Avengers Endgame? It was so funny. It was so funny. It was like, I mean,

when we just realized what this movie was, it just tickled me. Did Clint have a threesome in that movie? I think so. That's pretty sick. He was like, I'm 87 and I'm having a threesome in this movie. I'm a florist, a.k.a. A drug mule.

Absolute Lord. Truly one of the greatest Avengers Endgame. No, right? No. What does Rocket do in Endgame? How does he contribute to the Endgame? Was Rocket blipped? I don't even remember.

Amanda. Where? Like, you know, when the Avengers assemble at the end in the gross purple land? Like, where is he in the lineup? Is he like on Chris Pratt's shoulder? I can't recall. Okay. Maybe he's lifted up by Ant-Man

that's why this isn't in the hall of fame okay fair enough let me ask you a question should films that movie stars have produced be considered for halls of fame I mean if we want them to well you want this one to be the one I don't know I mean okay here's the here I understand it was a major success the Todd Phillips and Bradley Cooper have a long-running creative partnership and friendship Todd directed Cooper in the hangover and since then they have worked on each other's projects Phillips was a producer on A Star is Born subsequently Cooper was a producer on joker okay so this is basically like if chris made joker and you were a producer i love where you're going with this would you want it to be in your hall of fame right after a star is born i just hope i'm associated with Chris in some way when they when they when they build a hall

you know like they're gonna build a hall to me is that gonna happen well I'm just worried you know we're doing the exercise someone's gonna like some enterprising young podcaster 20 years from now is gonna be like when Sean and Amanda talked about Terminator 2 on that one podcast. That goes in the hall, no? Yeah, I guess so. I mean, Joker was nominated for Best Picture and it won its lead actor Best Actor. I know. And it made a shitload of money.

That's cool. Bradley Cooper must be very rich. I hope so. I haven't really thought about that. How much money do you think he's getting on the raccoon deals? Did he get renegotiated at any point? I don't know. That's a very good question.

If he prices himself out, I think your husband, Zach, could step in. I know he's really fond of his work as Rocket Raccoon. He loves it so much. It's so embarrassing. Okay. Let's say no to Joker for now, or we'll make it purple. Okay. And now here we come to some interesting stuff.

Licorice Pizza, which could be an Academy Award nominated performance. It's certainly one of the kind of buzzier performances of 2021 and the movie is kind of sold on his mania.

Right. And also having gone through a long list of movies where he shows up for like 15 to 20 minutes is trying to do something funny or weird or memorable and it like often doesn't quite land and the stars align for this one and you're just like oh that

was the most exciting part of the movie it's a great point it's like his pursuit of this officially came came to be you know like yeah he he made good on the promise of so many cameos over the years i'm gonna go ahead and say yes. Okay, great. I feel good about that. Are you comfortable with that? Yeah. Can I talk a little bit about Nightmare Alley quickly? I knew this was coming.

Just, I don't need to like sing its praises or anything because I've done that before and I think it's really good. And the second time I watched it, I thought it was really good. But the thing about this movie that's fascinating is the scuttlebutt in town is that this was, Leo was offered this part

ah and that Leo didn't want to be a carny toyed with doing it and was interested in it and admired del Toro but that he ultimately turned it down

because he could not find a way to make the Stan Carlyle character not necessarily likable but kind of like redeemable or worthy of a celebration.

Like Rick Dalton is a bad guy in some respects, but we love him. Right. It's the, it's the Ethan Hunt thing, which like, even in don't look up, you're being reassured that this guy,

he's got some, there's something moral in his core or there's something decent, even in Calvin candy, who was one of the most vile characters of the last 20 years, there's something really charming about Calvin Candy. There's something kind of charismatic.

What he's doing in the world is awful, and that's part of the way that Tarantino writes his characters, but mostly it's the way that Leo can imbue a bad guy with sexy quality. Nightmare Alley's Stan Carlisle, I think he's a good character. I think he's a really good lead

and a really interesting figure. But you get to the end of that movie, which has this awesome ending, and you're like, we're right back where we started with this guy. And he's a fucking loser. And I don't think it's a spoiler

to say that. And people don't want to play a loser. You know, it's one of the reasons why I thought a little bit of Inside Llewyn Davisis when i was watching nightmare alley because it's got a similar energy in terms of it's sort of like dour leading man but like almost like a hugely charismatic person being constricted by the role that they've taken so i'm not saying that it needs to go in but i think it should be i feel like it should be celebrated more am i am i being weird about how good i think he is in this movie yes but like no but i just that was pretty boring

but i'm glad you liked it i just he was he was a weird carny for a while and then i i found the ending to be just like wildly predictable like the ending was set up 45 minutes into the movie and you're like, oh, okay. So this is what's going to happen. I got it. Sure. It's not really his fault. I guess he commits sort of, but I don't know. It didn't leave much of an impression on me.

I'm really sorry. This movie just wasn't for me. So I don't know that I would advocate for it over other more exciting things okay let's go back through our work because that's the last film that he's made obviously we got the bernstein film coming up we have 12 movies that have been earmarked as in or possible so i'm going to run through them with you really quickly here wet hot american summer is a maybe wedding crashers is in the in. The Hangover is in. Limitless is in. The Place Beyond the Pines is a maybe. Silver Linings Playbook is in. American Hustle is a maybe. Guardians of the Galaxy is in.

American Sniper is in. A Star is Born is in. Joker is a maybe. Licorice pizza is in now that means we have 12 films and 4 maybes so we need to convert 4 movies from the maybe list into the final list now I think the easiest one to do here is to just say American

Hustle has to be in because it's an Academy Award nominated performance and he's good in it even if we don't like the movie that's fine you on board I i'm okay with that i i just wanted to say that i didn't get to make my case for the inside the axler studio clip as going in yeah but i that's a that's a pretty historic piece of footage that was like my favorite show at like ever you can't imagine how much i liked it more again this is why there's like certain similarities between like you and Bradley Cooper. And I wouldn't be surprised if somewhere

there's like footage of Ernest. It's fine. We all have our nerd spots. God damn it. What I want is for Bobby to play the clip of Bradley Cooper asking a question on Inside the Actors Studio. Okay.

Okay, so let's hear that clip. Hey, Mr. Penn. My name is Bradley Cooper. I'm a second year actor. My question's regarding Hurley Burley. What was it like to revisit a character, Eddie, after a 10-year hiatus? Did you have new discoveries? Did you find that it was a different approach

because you had already done this character before? Yeah, it was the first time that I'd done a film of something that I had done a play of. Okay, so we heard the clip, but it's not going in. I just think if you want an explanation of bradley cooper as an actor and movie star there's like there's no better summary than that and there's no better performance than that in a way in a way but fine we're left with three films wet hot american summer the place beyond the pines and joker this is a tough spot for you man

this is how you want to talk about Wimbledon? You want to talk about what he and Arena Shape were fighting about? She looks so angry at him. It's incredible. You sure you don't want to put like burnt in there or something else just for fun? You haven't even seen burnt. I haven't seen it. I don't even remember like the oysters.

You know, I hope they were shucking. I think it really was shucking oysters. Okay. You want to get Midnight Meat Train in there? No. I guess Place Beyond the pines i mean i would be fine with it it's my favorite it's among my favorite of all the movies he's made well then put it in you sure i don't care i would rather that than joker has he been a bad romantic leading man? Yes. He has, right?

Again, he hasn't picked the right movies, but they don't really understand him. I thought he was actually great as a romantic leading man in A Star is Born, because he understands himself and his limitations. But he's not a copy and paste rom-com lead. If you could craft a romantic story for him give me give me a little sketch is he like a difficult guy yeah he's having struggling with his ego his lack of success i mean definitely there's like a lot of anger and ego i don't know whether he is like the mega selfish like accomplished guy that tends towards more of the asshole characters his early career or whether it's like you know damaged guy what is the wedding crashers line like damaged guy haunted backstory works every time um which is a little bit a star is born

um i think that he actually has more sensitivity than a lot of the movies have given him credit for um you know david o russell gave like a very famous quote about just being like this is a this is a person with a lot of rage or a lot of stuff going below the surface and it's my job to unlock that and I think that's really great for a certain type of performance. But for a romantic lead, he actually can be sort of nice. Do you think I have a lot of rage underneath the surface? You do. Okay. Yeah.

Hmm. I got to tangle with that. I'm not in therapy. I wonder if maybe I should go to therapy to assess that. If you made a list of things that i expected here in 2022 you even being like should i go to therapy this is just i didn't totally say that no i know um and i don't think that you will maybe i should i'm a big fan of therapy it's great okay i'm if it's bradley cooper that gets me in therapy we know that this show has created an incredible service to both of us. Any final thoughts on Cooper?

Cooper winning an Oscar this year? What? That would be pretty hilarious. And I don't even know, do you feel like he would be satisfied with that? Like winning finally for 18? Right, so that's what makes it interesting. That's actually really funny.

Yeah, it's funny. And it's good because it still animates him in a way. He's someone where if he gets everything he wants, then he's not going to be as interesting. But hilarious to win an Oscar and still not have everything you want. This has been a celebration and a psychoanalysis of the great Bradley Cooper. Amanda, thank you for your insights. I am not like Bradley Cooper in some ways.

And I appreciate those of you who see the other side of me. Someone who is more at peace with his station in life. This podcast has been produced by Bobby Wagner. He's the producer on all episodes of this show. He's great at his job.

Please stay tuned to The Big Picture because next week we're going to be talking about more actors. We're talking about best actors in some cases. We're talking about a movie

that is coming to Apple TV Plus this weekend actually. It's called The Tragedy of Macbeth. It's directed by Joel Cohen. He of the Coen Brothers. Stars Denzel Washington and Frances McDormand. Check that movie out. It's an adaptation of Macbeth.

You might have heard of it. We're going to talk about it in depth. We're also going to talk about Cyrano and Peter Dinklage and his work there. And then I'm going to force Amanda to listen to me rank Coen Brothers movies. Rerank them. Let's be very clear this is at least the third time

that I've had to observe you ranking Coen Brothers movies in my life I will rank them until I die okay that's great and that is the final thing I will say on this podcast

thank you for listening bye you