The Big Picture - The Philip Seymour Hoffman Hall of Fame

Episode Date: January 30, 2024

As the 10-year anniversary of Philip Seymour Hoffman’s death approaches, Sean pays tribute to his favorite actor with an audio essay highlighting the ways in which Hoffman was sui generis on the screen (1:00). Then, Amanda joins to run through Hoffman’s entire filmography and select 10 movies to make up his hall of fame (10:00). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Did Don Draper really buy the world a Coke? Did Tony Soprano really die? Or just order more onion rings? The finales of our favorite shows can make us argue, make us cry, and make us crazy. From Spotify and The Ringer, I'm Andy Greenwald, and this is Stick the Landing, a new podcast where we'll be telling the story of modern TV backwards, one fade out at a time. Find Stick the Landing on Wednesdays on the Prestige TV feed, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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. I'm Sean Fennessy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about Philip Seymour Hoffman. Today we have a very special episode of the show, a tribute to a giant of the movies. Momentarily, we will get into a Hall of Fame discussion of Philip Seymour Hoffman's career. But before we do that, I wanted to say a few words about what he meant to me as an actor. Ten years ago, we lost one of the world's great

performers. Philip Seymour Hoffman died on February 2nd, 2014, at the age of 46 from a reported drug overdose. Hoffman was and is my favorite actor 2014, at the age of 46 from a reported drug overdose. Hoffman was and is my favorite actor. Equal parts volcanic and subterranean. He could take over a movie with one scene. Now get the fuck out of here, pervert! Didn't I warn you? That's that.

Or quietly carry another, appearing in every frame. I'd only just handed him the final scene when the bell hop told me I had a phone call. And it was my stepfather, Joe Capote, calling to say that my mother had died. He was the ultimate character actor, a performer who could transform his appearance, his voice, his posture, his manner, and he was also an exceptional, if unlikely, leading man in the mold of Spencer Tracy or Humphrey Bogart or Bob Hoskins, Richard Dreyfuss, Dustin Hoffman. He was a widely admired theater dweller who defined independent film for decades, and he also elevated Hollywood franchises. He won an Oscar for a biopic. He redefined a classic American protagonist on Broadway. And when he deigned to appear on TV

after his career had been established, he was nominated for an Emmy. Both times he appeared. The second time it was for voicing a cartoon dog theater director. Of course, he directed in real life too, a feature film, and many, many times in the theater. And he's performed the work of the greats. O'Neill, Chekhov, Shakespeare. He played spies, terrorists, baseball managers, rock critics, mattress men, nurses, teachers, actors, classical musicians, priests, political operators, journalists, alcoholics, madmen, monsters, sycophants, game makers, and masters.

He could do it all. I saw Hoffman for the first time in 1994. It was Scent of a Woman on cable. As George Willis Jr., he played the first of many venal, ugly little men compensating for their sadness and insecurity with a kind of cruelty. I was in the library.

I'd taken my glasses off, and I was going to put my contacts back in. Hoffman specialized in what I call the thwarted man. This came in many stripes. The next time I saw him was a few years later as Scotty J., the boom operator in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. Who's this a few years later as Scotty J, the boom operator in Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights. Scotty was an emotional inversion of Willis.

He was a sad gay kid looking for community and connection in the world of porn. It was the second of five collaborations between Anderson and Hoffman, and he became a kind of talisman for the director. He wasn't always there, but when he was, you knew it'd be good and that it would tie the piece together in some way.

Like so many legendary actors, Hoffman has a very specific set of tools at his disposal that made him unique. The first tool is the face. He had a face like a rain cloud. Dour, frowny, withering, but it could explode with lightning when angered. His eyes bulging, his eyebrows elevating, face reddening, hair flopping about, curling at the ears. He was preposterously vivid, unmistakable.

He could look mean and sad simultaneously. It was a gift. Also a gift, the ears. He was preposterously vivid, unmistakable. He could look mean and sad simultaneously. It was a gift. Also a gift, the voice. What an instrument. In Capote, it's shrunken down, reduced in timbre, tone, and strength to a playful, almost childlike sound. There's not a word or a sentence

or a concept that you can illuminate for me. There is one singular reason I keep coming here. In The Master, it roars and rumbles. In Mission Impossible 3, it's a sinister whisper. In Heartache, it performatively chortles. You are big time! Oh! Hard Eight! Oh, okay, here we go.

In Synecdoche, New York, it's a defeated croak. I won't settle for anything less than the brutal truth. Brutal. Brutal. In Charlie Wilson's war, it mumbles until it rages. Out of my office. Yes, sir. Before I end your career, asshole.

Yes, sir. Yeah, my friend, I'm going to need you for a second. God damn it! My loyalty! For 24 years, people have been trying to kill me. People know how. Now, do you think that's because... And then there's the body.

Hoffman had an unusual body, especially for a Hollywood star. A bit round, rumpled, but also deceptively springy. He was completely unashamed and exuberant in his physical expression. Think of Scotty's ill-fitting tank top or Freddie Miles leaping out of that convertible in The Talented Mr. Ripley. Think of Sandy making it rain from downtown in Along Came P. Or Brant bounding down the hallway with the dude in The Big Lebowski. Picture him leaping out of that pickup truck in Twister or getting pushed out of the car by Michael Madsen in The Getaway. Hoffman was like an athlete, like a dancer, even though he looked the way that he looked.

He was born in 1967. His family was from Western New York. He was a child of divorce. He played baseball and wrestled as a kid. He suffered a neck injury at 14. And so he turned to the theater, and that's the altar that he worshiped at for the rest of his life. He was first switched on by Arthur Miller's All My Sons, a playwright whose work would recur for him. And after graduating from NYU, he was hired by the beloved character actor Austin Pendleton for the Williamstown Non-Equity Company. Within a few years, he was booking parts the beloved character actor Austin Pendleton for the Williamstown Non-Equity Company.

Within a few years, he was booking parts in Hollywood movies. I never got the chance to meet Hoffman, and he rarely did the kind of lavish press and promotion that is expected of big stars. Most of his interviews are thoughtful, but reserved, considerate, modest. He was a private guy, and he had demons. Not in a sexy, self-mythologizing way either. He struggled with addiction early in his life.

He talked about recovery publicly, but he never really valorized himself or framed that struggle self-pityingly. He was able to harness a kind of blank dependableness in his public persona that I think hugely aided his ability to transform from part to part. No one was ever disappointed

to find Philip Seymour Hoffman in a movie they'd chosen to see. He always sort of looked like somebody's dad. And he was one to three children, including a son, Cooper, who's taken up acting as well. If you've seen Licorice Pizza, you know he has the same wily charm as his father. I did get to see Hoffman in person a couple of times,

fortunately for me. The first time was in 2000 with my oldest friend, Ryan. It was at the Circle in the Square Theater opposite his friend, John C. Reilly, in Sam Shepard's play, True West. It's one of the best and most memorable cultural experiences of my life. I've talked about it a couple times on the show.

Shepard's play is a two-hander about estranged brothers, Austin, a screenwriter, and Lee, a thief. Hoffman and Reilly famously traded roles night to night. The night that I went, Hoffman was Lee. He was sort of mangy and untrustworthy as a character. Together, he and Lee were like Roman candles in a hothouse. They really recreated the furious tension of these desperate men bound by their common fate. Hoffman, in particular, seemed to be sweating through his shirt the whole time, oozing a kind

of greasy destiny. Both men were eventually nominated for Tonys. I was wedded to see everything Hoffman would ever do by this point. I was completely bought in on his experience as an actor. Twelve years later, just weeks before I moved to Los Angeles from New York, I saw him as Willie Loman in Death of a Salesman, which was directed by Mike Nichols. To that point, four men had played Loman on Broadway. Lee J. Cobb, George C. Scott, Dustin Hoffman, and Brian Dennehy. Four very unlikely leading men with titanic power

and also this ability to kind of shrivel up with human frailty. You could feel Hoffman channeling all of them in his interpretation of Lohman. It's a terrifically sad and unforgettable performance. I think about Hoffman a lot. Certainly about the profundity of what his work means to me, and a little bit about what we lost when we lost him as fans of movies and acting. But more simply because he is unavoidable in the recent American canon of movies. He makes us laugh so hard in Along Came Polly. Our heart breaks watching Synecdoche, New York. Anytime I throw on Anderson's The Master, my head is swimming all over again, lapping like the waves against Lancaster Dodd's yacht. He smiles. He scowls. He bellows. He races off into that infinite desert of nothingness

on that motorcycle, vanishing, vanishing, vanishing. It's a paradox. I miss seeing him, but I see him all the time. Okay, Amanda, you're back. Hello. Thank you for joining me in this exercise. It's really not a chore. It's really a delight because this is one of the great filmographies of the last 20 to 30 years. And even more so one of the most interesting collection of performances. Yes. You know, because it's not just that he was in great movies.

He's in a lot of movies that don't work or that are not like beloved but he's so special in them that there's something really interesting about looking at what he contributed like what his life's work was um do you remember when you first saw Hoffman it's it's got to be Talented Mr. Ripley right because I saw that when it came out and anything before that oh no it was probably actually Patch Adams which I saw certainly in theaters or Twister, I guess. But those are smaller roles. I mean, he is like truly supporting in those. And I'm not sure that I would have been like, wow, that guy is one of the great actors of his generation.

Or it's not that he wasn't in those movies. I think he's great in both of those movies, but that's not really. His performance in Twister was giving that. I mean, he has a certain, like, presence, you know? He does. He's psyched to be launching that thing into the storm. He notably said that he had been living in LA for two years when he made Twister, and he took that part so that he could effectively get enough money to move back to New York,

which is where he really wanted to be. So that explains the Twister situation. But nevertheless, Twister, fun movie. I like Twister a lot. Do you have a favorite performance of his? Talented Mr. Ripley, still. I mean, but there are several. And when you first mentioned doing this,

I think the first thing I said was Charlie Wilson's War, which is kind of like a very classic. There is just one absolutely lights-out scene that he has in an office with John Slattery that is outraged and hilarious and three minutes. And then you go on with your life and but it stays with you. Yes. It's really the how do we make the whole plane out of the black box of movie scenes where you're like, can't this movie just be about this guy yelling at people? Wouldn't that be a wonderful film?

Nevertheless. Right. Yeah yeah that's interesting rip ripley because i think that's a good a really good pick because it's really indicative of the fact that he could effectively take over a movie that is surrounded by huge stars and beautiful people but his energy was so overwhelming. And this isn't just one of those things that you say after someone has passed away and you're trying to, you know, raise the level of their importance or their greatness. Like, in real time,

people were coming out of the movie being like, Tommy, how's it peeping? How's it peeping? You know, like, it was very memorable. You know, don't you want to just fuck everything just once? When we did the screening at the Arrow for Talented Mr. Ripley, and there were many people in the theater who had never seen it for the first time, and it was my first time seeing it with a group of people.

And when he comes on the screen and is, like, bounding out of that car, just being like, don't you want to just fuck every woman you see just once? Just, like, the whole room erupted. And it was amazing to watch it in real time somewhat, like a whole group of people be like that guy, like there goes the movie with him. Yeah, that's pretty special. I wish I could have been there with you there for that. But it came at a time too when he was doing a lot of parts like that. And we'll go through in this exercise every single part that he played, which is very many because he wasn't even like a Tom

Cruise-esque movie star where the movie's built around him. He popped into movies. He had years where he was in three, four, five movies. So he's got this long and varied career. It was very hard for me to think about what is my absolute favorite. It's probably The Master for a variety of reasons. I mean, I know what your favorite is, and it's The Master. Yeah. But that's like one of your favorite, and that an amazing movie and that's also an example of he is like i mean that's a that's a two-person movie there are other people in it but that is it that is a movie about joaquin phoenix and philip seaborg hoffman's characters the two halves of the brain and so he is he gets the main role he is the guy and but that character

is a great synthesis of so many things that he does. And normally when the character actor finally gets the main role, they sort of also have to take on a more matinee type thing. And it's like that role also honors Philip Seaborg Hoffman. Absolutely. We will discuss the greatness of that performance. It is probably my favorite. When you think about him as an actor,

I've just delivered this whole speech about what I think is you think about him as an actor, I've just delivered this whole speech about what I think is so great about him as an actor. Like, what makes him exceptional? What makes him so memorable? What makes him so everlasting? Well, it's a lot of things. I mean, there is, like, a versatility to... He plays, like, a lot of different roles

by virtue of the fact that he was, for such a long time, a character actor. And he was, like, kind of a character actor that could turn the people who are normally forgotten from a movie are one-dimensional into the focal point of the movie very well put um so he often plays like a a spiritually ugly person yes um that is the exact phrase exact kind of phrasing I used. There was a kind of ugliness to his characters. What's funny is that we're recording this,

but I still have not read your monologue, or your speech, so I don't really know what you said, but you can tell me how on or off I am. It's good if we disagree about things, but I think we're pretty synced on PSH. He's sort of like a... His characters are often very unhappy in all the different ways that someone can be unhappy.

And the point of most movies is for an unhappy person to find some sort of happiness and resolution. And his characters often don't. They are fixed in that discontent. In like many different shades, which is what is so fascinating about him. I think a lot of him yelling, one of the great yellers and one of the great physical movers and just like bursts of like, are you absolutely kidding me? Speaking of, you know, Charlie Wilson's war, he says it with, you know, a lot more F-bombs. I never, ever sick at sea, you know, a lot more F-bombs. I'm never, ever sick at sea, you know?

It's really good. But he also can be very quiet. He can be very still. There's that amazing scene in The Master when Joaquin Phoenix and Philip Seymour Hoffman are both in jail. They're on opposite jail cells. And, like, Joaquin is just absolutely going for it. Fucking Bronco and Philip Seymour Hoffman doesn't move and everything that he says is so um it's like

quiet in register I mean I guess he lets it go at some point but you know the dichotomy is purposeful and palpable so he could do everything and it always felt he was both like an incredible actor but everything felt lived in even the performances where he's got like a a new voice or some new grooming and there is that like peter sarsgaard moment of like oh so you're you're doing this but by the end he's just that person there's something like very raw about the way that he is doing capital A acting, I guess. I find that historically you're pretty allergic to that. So you've got to be really talented to not have to be, to not feel the energy that comes off of an actor sometimes when you can feel them making a choice. You know, he made a lot of choices as an actor that could be perceived as showy, but you also felt, and you read this all the time,

when his, he would never talk about this stuff, but his colleagues would often talk about his process or the way that he worked. And you never heard about him talked about the same way that, say, Daniel Day-Lewis would work, where he would become a cobbler for five years and then never make a movie about being a cobbler. But there was clearly a huge intellectual exploration and emotional exploration that went into every part and that he chose parts in two ways. One way was obviously like, I will do the Hunger Games because I have to make money and it's good to have money for your family. But also if I'm going to do that, I'm going to try to imbue it with something. And then otherwise, what does this mean to me artistically? Who is this person and how can I make them human?

And he, you didn't, the work didn't show, you know? Yeah. I mean, that's the other thing, speaking of his choices. He had amazing, like his movie choices. He had amazing taste. The directors that he worked with, but like, I mean, these movies, this is just a list of movies that we either are like the top of our list movies yes hello moneyball which you know he's barely in and is doing like as a favor to the director because benny miller directed capote yes but he's college together and but he but he's wonderful and you know i like speaking of stillness by the way i last night i watched moneyball until the moment

um where they trade pena and giambi and love to hear you say pena and Giambi. And... Love to hear you say Peña and Giambi. And he just, as you know, Moneyball is one of my favorites, and he just sits there. Like, he just doesn't even move behind the desk, like his disgust. And it's just visceral, but unspoken at Brad Pitt. So, but all of the movies,

even some of the movies that, like, are not good movies... He's in plenty of bad movies. He some of the movies that are not good movies. He's in plenty of bad movies. He's in so many bad movies. But a lot of them are sticky. You know? Like, you remember them. His radar was really good.

So when Norm Macdonald passed away a few years back, very quickly it became clear that a lot of fans of his, and I am a huge fan of his in a similar way to I am Philip Seymour Hoffman, a lot of fans of his built their fandom around watching YouTube clips of him appearing on talk shows or doing bits on YouTube. I would argue that Philip Seymour Hoffman is the signature YouTube actor of his generation, which is to say that even though he appeared in maybe not bad movies, but plenty of mediocre films or smaller films

or films that were meant to be big, but didn't totally take off. But if you go to the PSH scene, you get your money's worth. Yeah. You know, that it's going to be a fun three minutes, a fun six minutes. And he always brings the goods.

Now he does the same thing in big, great films. When he has small parts in big movies, he tends to steal them. When he has big parts in big movies, tends to steal them when he has big parts in big movies he tends to carry them very very well but scene stealer is like a an overworked phrase these days but he was a true blue classic hollywood scene stealer if you put him in your movie you better come prepared as a performer because he will take it from you and not in a selfish way he was often cast as characters who were outsized you know who were ridiculous who were often very ugly or um or or venal or dangerous in some way or who had like a

kind of vulnerability and frailty that was undeniable and that made you feel something for them so what do you think is like the signature part like is it capote is it truman capote i mean i guess so that's what he won the best actor oscar for but i don't know that that's like the most remembered i would say that the master's up there among the like the people who know no you know and obviously he was in so many pta films and that this was like like if you asked your mom what's your favorite film we have to ask my dad but your dad's a cinephile you can't ask don't don't ask yeah but like god love my mother but like she's just you know watches the local news okay so i'm working with her on it and And I'm saying, please stop watching The Localist because it's not giving you the information that you think you want.

I see. For the average, you know, the civilian moviegoer, I don't know. I mean, Mission Impossible 3? Wow. That's interesting. I mean, that might be the most widely seen movie he made. Almost famous, but even that, he's like a person apart.

You know? He is, but that was my thinking, that that was a very well-seen, well-loved, many times re-watched movie in which he is not the star but is critical to the film. That he is the guardian angel of that movie. I mean, for a certain generation, it's definitely Hunger Games. Absolutely.

Absolutely. But he doesn't show up until the third Hunger Games movie in that quadrilogy. Right. So, I don't know. Plutarch Evansby, though, there's not a better name in movies in 2014. That's an elite name. I assume that's Suzanne Collins. Is she the author? Yes.

Correct. She did. That's fucking elite shit. Bob, what about for you? What do you think is the signature Philip Seymour Hoffman performance slash movie? I don't know. That's a really tough question because I feel like it's probably very different

depending on who, like how old the person that you're asking is. I mean, for me, it's the master, but that's just because that is like him flexing the most of the things that I identify the most that I like about him. I think the fact that he like crops up in a sports movie is really funny

because he perfectly encapsulates like a baseball manager energy. But in the rest of his performances, I don't see anything that is really like, that guy probably likes sports, you know, which is kind of amazing and a testament to his flexibility. I guess it's probably mission impossible for me

in terms of like average movie goer, not average film, bro. He immediately comes on screen and he does the thing that he does in so many of his parts, which is that you want to know so much more about what happened before the movie started with this character.

Like you want, he to, to your point about like his intellectual exploration of the characters, even if he wasn't doing the DDL, I became a cobbler for six months thing it is very clear that every character that he portrayed had like a whole life before he became the character and you don't see a lot of actors who are that consistent in that type of thing and it's not like showy and annoying and sort of hoity-toity and actorly. Like when an actor is like,

well, I sat down and I thought, what was this person doing in the seventh grade? You're like, all right, well, we could kind of fuck off with this. Like this, we don't need to hear all of this process necessarily. But with him, you know, he didn't obviously talk about it a lot,

but in all of the performances, you can feel a reality to the character, even though it's exploding off of the page and you've probably never really met anybody like that in your life. I wonder if the movie that people would be quickest to reference from our generation, I think there's a couple, obviously.

Almost Famous is one of them. I think Boogie Nights is one of them because that's such a memorable character. I think it might be A Long Came Polly. Hugely, hugely important within a not good movie. A fun thing to do, which I actually did recently, is just to watch Along Came Polly, but just fast forward to when Philip Seymour Hoffman is.

There's a supercut on YouTube of just PSH scenes. The supercut is phenomenal. It's like nine minutes. It's gold. It is so funny. Yeah, he's amazing. He is so, so funny. And I know that the basketball scene is like the iconic scene but when he's doing it's jesus christ super is it jesus christ super

or god's bell it's god's bell is when he's doing god's bell and then at the end when he's giving the insurance for his attention i mean it's beautiful they don't make uh best friends in romantic comedies like they used to. I know. It's a good point. He's actually in the mold of usually the female character has a friend that is like that. And he is, he's the, oh gosh, what is the actress's name who always played? Judy Greer.

Judy Greer, yes. He was the Judy Greer archetype. Okay. I don't know. I guess I don't have really an answer for this signature. Part of me wants to say Almost Famous because it's the ultimate fusion of mainstream movie that did well at the box office when it opened got a lot of awards recognition he's very memorable everything he said in that movie is quotable yeah it's a there's a kind of like we all saw this at christmas together kind

of a feeling about that movie sure but but if i may you are also a former music journalist of a certain age. Do you know what I'm saying? Like when you're like, we all saw that at Christmas together. Many of us did. It's great. I want to encourage all the young people listening to this show to go back and try to read some Lester Bang's reviews and see if the guy, the very calm, quiet, nice guardian guardian angel of almost famous matches up with some of

the hysteria in lester banks's reviews the speed addled hysteria i'm wavering now and wondering if it's not just capote like if we're not overthinking yeah because what amanda said because he won the best actor for that role and also like truman capote is a figure in american history that like people tend to think that they want to know and probably only know through this movie, most likely. Yeah. And maybe through In Cold Blood. But also, that movie was not that widely seen. That's a real, like, you start that movie and you're like, oh, you're doing this.

And it's not, like, also not a hero's journey. Not that he does many hero's journeys. That's what I like about the movie, actually. It's just about how journalists are awful. process movie yeah um i think in the like for the youtube if like generation that you were talking about like charlie wilson's war is up there because it is just that three minute clip and another like otherwise forgettable movie even though i like tom hanks and julia roberts very much and Mike Nichols and Darren Sorkin. YouTube is bad because it taught Chris how to stretch wrong and probably like broke his hip bone but it's good because you get three minutes. Did that happen? Weren't we talking

about this on a pod recently? Oh that's right I just I thought I like missed an update I thought there was some sort of other channel where you were getting updates on Chris's stretching. You in a full body cast? I just saw him you guys him. You guys are going away for a while. I was like, I just thought I was like really out of the loop on the bulking and stretching pod. And okay. Thank you both for reassuring me. CR's been in the ICU for weeks. We just didn't know because you haven't been potting with him. We put a microphone in front of him though. He's still doing great stuff. Great work from him. That's a good thing. That's the thing is we can be completely felled. I can get, I can have a building Collapse on top of me

But if my mouth works Okay We're good The money maker Right here We got it You want to go through The Hall of Fame?

Yeah There are a lot of movies I've seen I have seen like a lot Of these movies I went back and looked at movies That I hadn't seen For the most part

And still at least A third of them I have not seen Well there's a big old chunk in the beginning that hardly even show us what he's going to be. I would say

from 1991 to 1994, we only really see glimmers when he's at the early stages of getting out of NYU and starting to book parts in Hollywood movies of what he's going to be. A couple of really small movies

to start. Triple bogey on a par five hole. Do you know what that score would be? What would that score be? Triple bogey. So it's an eight. That's right. Very well done.

Yeah. I haven't seen this film. And then a film called Zooler from 1992. And then a film called My New Gun from 1992. Those three films are hard to see. 1992's Leap of Faith

starring Steve Martin. Are you familiar with this film no or steve martin plays a tell sort of a televangelist type like a road televangelist deborah winger that like it's like a big group of um evangelical ministers and they put on a show like a faith healer style show and he plays one of the effectively one of the roadies for this crew very small part but it's his first big hollywood movie directed by richard pierce i think and then the same year he books son of a woman which is a huge breakthrough for him where he plays a kind of sniveling privileged

kid opposite chris o'donnell and he really falls under the ire of al pacino's character in that movie and i feel like his career basically takes off after this. He does this part. It's a pretty small part, but it's a pretty critical part to a movie that eventually did become a big box office hit. It was a big Oscar movie. Al Pacino famously won an Academy Award for his performance in this movie. And because of that, we saw the clips of, you know, I'd take a flamethrower to this place.

You know, those moments which feature several cutaways to Philip Seymour Hoffman. I think a lot of directors and a lot of actors saw this movie and saw this stuff. And so he gets imprinted in their mind. We always do the thing of like, is it in the Hall of Fame? This would be pretty early and pretty small for a part, but I want to mark it. You want to make it a yellow. It's a yellow for a big turning point. You like to do that.

Yeah. I do. That's great. I You want to make it a yellow. It's a yellow for a big turning point. You like to do that. Yeah. I do. That's great. Okay. I am going to defer to you on this. I mean, I have some opinions

in some places where I will, if not exercise veto power, then shame you. Okay. But I think yellow is good for your historical record. Then he makes a couple

of more studio movies, My Boyfriend's Back comedy. Do you remember this? You might be a little too young. Yeah. Just being my age, this is when I started of more studio movies. My Boyfriend's Back comedy. Do you remember this? You might be a little too young. Just being my age is when I started

going to the movies. This trailer was playing before every movie I saw in this year in 1993. Big year for me. Joey Breaker and Money for Nothing

which is a John Cusack kind of thriller comedy. All pretty minor. The Getaway remake starring Alec Baldwin and Kim Basinger. Married at the time. Oh yeah. Not a great movie, not a bad movie. Kind of a standard Hollywood thriller. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays one of the bank robbers, one of the heist guys, and he eventually gets shot and kicked out of a car

by Michael Madsen. Tragic end for his character. Not in the Hall of Fame. When a Man Loves a Woman. I mentioned this to you on the show a few weeks ago. I said I had just watched this for the first time. I'd never seen it before. What an interesting movie. Andy Garcia and Meg Ryan are a married couple. Meg Ryan is an alcoholic. The movie really slow plays the fact that she is struggling with alcohol and eventually she goes to rehab and in rehab she meets a man who's also struggling played by philip seymour hoffman this is a skeleton key performance it's very small he's only in three scenes the nature of his relationship with meg ryan's character is very unusual because they are clearly closely bonded and he is depending on her he she's not his sponsor but they are

they're in it together and the Andy Garcia character Andy Garcia is amazing in this movie I thought he was it was like a revelation to me what a good actor he is and complicated actor he is but he can't make sense

of their bond he can't make sense of what's between them because he can't access their struggle and you only get that because Philip Seymour Hoffman is so good in this part

as this like really vulnerable guy who really needs Meg Ryan and she's the only one who understands him. I would encourage people to see out the movie. It's not a perfect movie, but it's another good, it's another movie where I'm like,

a lot of people saw this, it made like $80 million at the box office and casting directors saw it and were like, this guy, this guy, this guy. Because this is really where from here on out. It takes off. It takes off. Starting in 1994, Nobody's Fool,

he plays a very small part in this Robert Benton movie starring Paul Newman. And then after that, he appears in Heartache. You're laughing at that? I just said, fuck you to the man. Jesus Christ. The way you look, I think you know what I'm saying, old-timer. I think you do.

Jesus Christ, why don't you have some fun? Fun, fun. Heartache is Paul Thomas Anderson's first film. He's in one scene in the movie. His character is called Young Craps Player. And he mercilessly mocks Sidney, the Philip Baker Hall character, from one end of the craps table to the other.

The movie gets a title, which is not the title PTA wanted, from this scene and that you can see the love affair that paul thomas anderson's camera is beginning by filming and giving this character all of this time and attention a character that doesn't deserve it that does exactly what you just talked about before which is like we would have just forgotten about this guy and now this is i'd love to know what like the view count is of the YouTube videos of this scene right because the idea

that a movie that was a little seen like this would be rewatchable is fascinating you know is Young Craps player in the Philip Seymour Hoffman

Hall of Fame probably not but I would like to give it an honorary yellow that's great that's what yellow was made for I got the view count

I got the view count what is the view count 460,000 views. Yeah. On YouTube. That's a lot. That is a lot. For a small scene from a movie nobody's seen.

Okay. Heartache is yellow. Twister. I got to give credit to the screenwriter of the film Twister for naming his character Dustin Dusty Davis. Dusty Davis? I mean, speaking of baseball, Jesus, that guy should be a loogie coming out of the bullpen. That's a great name.

Also a lot of dust, you know, with the tornadoes. Thank you. Yeah. You think that's how he got the name? Yeah. Or do you think he got it when he was a little kid?

You think he went into twister chasing because he was nicknamed Dusty? Yeah, so you got to be careful naming your children. Do you think he thought about this? Nominative determinism. That's right. Right there at work.

That's right. Will Alice be a beautiful girl who falls down a rabbit hole because I named her Alice? Probably. Yeah. That's why she loves rabbits, right? Right. Because who came over when Alice was six months and brought her a giant rabbit? Amanda.

That's true. I did. Yeah. So is it nature or nurture? Who knows? He had glass. It was the white rabbit that I bought. You sound like Gyllenhaal in the diner at the end of Zodiac right now.

Like piecing together why she likes rabbits. I've walked it. Twister's not in. No, it's not. Boogie Nights. Wait, wait, wait, wait. Fuck, hell, how much time is that? I'm sorry.

What the hell is the matter with you? I'm sorry. Why did you do that, Scotty? You look at me sometimes. What? I want to know if you like me. Well, of course. Yeah, I like you, Scotty. You look at me sometimes. What? I want to know if you like me. Well, of course. Yeah, I like you, Scotty.

Can I kiss you? Scotty, I don't... Please, can I kiss you? When's the last time you, Amanda Dobbins, sat down and watched the film Boogie Nights? Like four days ago?

Oh, great. That's wonderful. Because I knew who I was going to be sitting across from doing a podcast about. I didn't revisit it for this conversation.

Well, you don't need to and this is so annoying. Whenever you're like the reason that I get so annoyed with you is because I deal with a version of you at home it's like true because I was in there watching Boogie Nights and Zach didn't even come to the room into the room but he heard the music and he was like oh what are you watching this one for and I said to him when I said to you which is like you don't need to re-watch Boogie Nights to remember every single moment and scene but I do

to be able to honor Sean's conversation about Philip Seymour Hoffman so that's what I did. I appreciate your support. Yeah. Scotty J

is a very small part and a complicated part that portrayed insensitively could be disastrous, especially in a movie like this at a time like this. And frankly, if you watch the interviews of Paul Thomas Anderson at this age,

he's playing pretty fast and loose. You know, like he was willing to make some mistakes. And it's just such a sensitive, funny, devastatingly sad portrayal of a person just trying to fit in, you know, who just wants to be accepted and wants to be a part of this world. And Bobby pre-greened and frankly, he's right to do so.

Why wouldn't I? I mean, this is just, this is top 10 stuff easily. I agree. The way the character is like, he's often in the frame just off to the right or left

of very important moments. I'm thinking of when Mark Wahlberg and Burt Reynolds have their like by the pool showdown, you know, and then but it's Scotty is just like right there behind Mark Wahlberg. And like the look on his face is just like priceless, you know, like hopeful and also what's happening. And also I'm so close to him like all at once. It's very it's amazing. Someone's got to get the Scotty J fan cams cooking my Gen Z friends out there all of the like facial reactions

to everything that's going on just in and around the pool perfect fan cam material right there I saw this movie in the theater for the first time a couple months ago and a man literally stood up and clapped the first time he came onto the screen like he stood up and he was like, let's go.

He clapped in the theater. And I was like, these are my people. And this is my fucking movie. It's one of the greatest movies ever made. Yeah. I'm a huge fan. Of course, it's a green. I love his work in it.

1998, he makes a thriller called Montana. He's got quite a star-studded cast. I believe I saw this film on HBO. Keira Sedgwick, Stanley Tucci, Robbie Coltrane, John Ritter, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Paul Calderon. Great lineup there. Robin Tunney, too. The great Robin Tunney.

Not a great movie. 1998, The Big Lebowski. Wonderful woman. We're all very fond of her, very free-spirited. Bran can't watch, though. Or he has to be 100. That's marvelous boy how many times will i peer like roll back in my seat and just say like gosh i don't know what to do what to do um he plays brant who is the kind of secretary slash attache of the titular Big Lebowski. Executive assistant. Yes.

Slash butler. The funniest scene of the 1990s is Brandt showing Jeff Bridges' Jeff Lebowski the office and the photos of the little Lebowski urban achievers. First lady of the nation, not first lady of California. Without the necessary means necessary means um when when when bridges looks into the mirror of the time magazine cover it's just good stuff honestly it's just good wholesome entertainment you love to see it there's obviously like the brand character is so clearly based on someone's assistant that he met and we know exactly who that guy is or that woman is or whoever it is like that.

That person in a powerful person's life who is so annoying and always correcting every little detail about the person they are assisting his life to another person is so spot on. The constant reaching for the glasses and adjusting the glasses. The tense posture the uncomfortable laughter the chuckle the moment when he's outside with tara reed's character and she says i'll suck your cock for a thousand dollars brand can't watch though and he goes marvelous and then he dashes away just honestly what a fucking legend i I love Philip T. Robin. How do we... You can yellow that. Okay, I'll yellow it.

You'll yellow it. He's in three and a half scenes for five minutes in a two-hour movie. It's fine. I mean... He's very special. Yeah. This is going to be qualitative, not quantitative, I think. In the 1998 film Next Stop Wonderland, which was a big Sundance movie starring Hope Davis,

he plays a mansplaining ex-boyfriend named Sean. There you go. I have to beat the charges here. I don't know what to say. This is a tough one for me. He's later seen in the film on TV protesting an ecological disaster. So it's my woke daddy. Okay.

There you go. Sean from Next Stop Wonderland. Not in. 1998's Happiness also revisited this film. One of the most discomforting movies of the 90s todd salons movie that is a little bit lost to time not available on physical media not streaming you can buy a dvd which i did uh todd salons has a movie coming out i think next year and i think there will probably end up being a big retrospective of the work that he's on over the last 30 years

one of the key figures of the american indie of the 1990s uh psh is amazing in this movie very very very uncomfortable if you haven't seen it try to seek it out i think it's available on youtube if that sounds right and not going in but a very notable a very notable role that i think shows when you go pta, Coen's, Salon's, that this is a darling of the independent cinema and would stay that way effectively until the 2010s. 1998, your favorite movie, Patch Adams? I was 14. I don't know what to say. I watched the movie for the first time a few weeks ago. Wow.

Absolutely stinks. Yeah, really bad. Terrible. Actually, like, quite dangerous as a movie. The message of the movie is that if you treat patients with kindness they will heal i mean that's that's dangerous i love when you call movies dangerous you know like every movie is going to break containment and change the psyche of america patch adams ruined society um i do miss robin williams yeah rob Yeah. Robin Williams was wonderful.

That's not a controversial statement, obviously, but it's a very saccharine movie. Do you know who directed this film? No, I don't remember. His name's Tom Shadiac. He also directed Ace Ventura, Pet Detective. Another masterful film. When will we do the Jim Carrey Hall of Fame?

The next time Jim Carrey makes a movie? Okay. Yeah, he's not doing anything. I know. He's like having birthday parties and putting it on Instagram. Right, like with David Spade. Yeah.

And who was the third person in that photo? I don't, was there one other huge celebrity that was with him? I can't remember who it was. This is great content. 1999's Flawless. What a curious film.

Have you seen this? No, I haven't. This is a Joel Schumacher movie. 1999's Flawless. What a curious film. Have you seen this? No, I haven't. This is a Joel Schumacher movie. It's a drama about a New York City police officer played by Robert De Niro who has a stroke. He lives in an apartment building and adjacent to his apartment building is a drag queen with many drag queen friends.

The drag queen is played by Philip Seymour Hoffman. A movie that probably doesn't feel like it has aged well given our understanding of that community. Really good performance from Philip Seymour Hoffman though.

I think some people might think it's a little bit ridiculous and whether or not an actor like him would have been cast in a part like this in 2024 is an interesting question. But definitely not in the Hall of Fame,

but it was an interesting rewatch. I hadn't seen it since it came out. Again, another movie where like, movie doesn't really work, but he's doing something that is worth paying attention to. And then 1999, The Talented Mr. Ripley. That's going in?

That's going in. Okay. It's a green for The Talented Mr. Ripley. I have a, I want to proffer a theory that he's actually the hottest person in this movie. what do you think about that i don't know that one's that one's gonna sail on on any level like not even intellectually he's not the hottest person he's a real asshole he's a real asshole yeah he's gotta and he's an asshole right until he gets the you know bust of whoever in his head.

That scene is underrated in the movie when he comes to visit Dickie's apartment. It's like, oh, is it just along so-and-so, like across from the Corso or whatever? It's really good. Yeah, he's amazing. 1999 Magnolia. Probably the most open-hearted and empathetic character that Hoffman ever played. He plays Phil Parma, the nurse who is tending to Jason Robards' dying legendary TV producer character

who is also the father of Tom Cruise's Frank T.J. Mackey. It's hard to act against a phone. He has two different scenes where he's talking on the phone. The one where he, like, calls the hotline to try to track him down. And he, I mean, you know,

and it's great writing, too, but that speech of, like, this is I mean, you know, and it's great writing too, but that speech of like, this is like, you know, in the movie, this is the scene in the movie, but it's like the movies really have, it's amazing.

Yeah. Really great. The kind of scene that could only be written by a person who's watched 9,000 movies. Right. And also like, once again, in this, when Tom Cruise finally shows up and is sitting like by Jason Robards' bed, in the frame, he's over there.

He is in the frame for a huge part of the movie. He's out of focus or whatever, but to know what to do in that moment, it's a pretty amazing performance. It is. I like to read it as a little bit of a metaphor for how Anderson thought about Hoffman in terms of him being the caretaker of certain parts. And he really like looked after these really challenging roles in his movies. He made five movies

with Paul Thomas Anderson and most of them are small parts, but they are essential parts. The best part of Magnolia to me is Tom Cruise's arc and him returning to see his father before he dies and the performance that he gives.

But you can't have that arc, that part of the story, because Jason Robards' character can barely speak. He does give a speech at a certain point in the movie, but he is losing the grip on his life. And so Hoffman is entrusted with basically holding that entire section of the movie together and is great in it. Is Magnolia going in?

I would think so, but why don't you yellow it for now? A yellow. 2000, State and Maine. Underrated movie. Did you see this? Yeah,

and I meant to rewatch it, but I didn't get to it. This is like a political thriller of sorts? No. No, it's not? It's a comedy. Oh. It's actually a romantic comedy. What am I thinking of? I don't know. It's written by David Mam No. No, it's not? It's a comedy. Oh. It's actually a romantic comedy.

What am I thinking of? I don't know. It's written by David Mamet. Oh, this. Okay, I'm confusing. Written and directed, I should say. Yes, I've seen State of Maine.

Do you know who his romantic cohort is in this movie? No. Sarah Jessica Parker. Oh, that's right. So he plays the writer of a movie that is getting ready to film in a small town in New England.

Alec Baldwin is the lead in the movie. Sarah Jessica Parker is his opposite number. William H. Macy is the director. Julia Stiles is a local girl. Rebecca Pigeon, of course, is in the film because she's in every David Bambin movie. And it's got a pretty zippy, kind of Ernst Lubitsch,

Frank Capra, Billy Wilder, kind of lightly satirical, but also some earnest moments of connectivity. And it's a pretty big part for Hoffffman and he does tortured writer very well um it's not in the hall of fame but it's a good movie it's worth seeing you know david mamet is not the easiest person to cheer for these days you know he just got some complicated views on the world but um it's an it's a different speed for the Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross guy. And pretty good movie. And Hoffman's great in it.

Not in. 2000, almost famous. These people are not your friends. You know, these are people who want you to write sanctimonious stories about the genius of rock stars, and they will ruin rock and roll and strangle everything we love about it. You know, because they're trying to buy respectability for a form that is gloriously...

Put it in. It's in. He's now only in for supporting parts right now. Boogie Nights, talented Mr. Ripley, Almost Famous. I mean, that is in keeping with the... Can I say one thing about Almost Famous? Yeah. Which has nothing to do with

Philip Seymour Hoffman's performance in it. He's wonderful. But I was just re-watching it. I got to the famous Tiny Dancer scene. The edit that they give Tiny Dancer, the song, and they cut out the build-up to the chorus is a crime. Okay. And I would like a re-edit. Thank you for your time.

You think maybe a fan cam? Sure. A Tiny Dancer fan cam? I'm just like, you need that. Like, you need the pre-edit. Thank you for your time. You think maybe a fan cam? Sure. A Tiny Dancer fan cam? I'm just like, you need that, like you need the pre-chorus before the chorus of Tiny Dancer. That's just like basic pacing and rhythm of like music and film. Sorry. I need a Patrick Fugit

fan cam ASAP. Okay. William Miller? Show me that. 2002 Love Liza. Very sad movie. 2002, Love, Liza. Very sad movie. Very, very sad movie about a guy whose wife has committed suicide and left him a letter that he does not want to read.

And he huffs gasoline to get through the sadness and discontent of his life. Movies directed by his friend, Todd Loizzo. Just like kind of funny, but also punishingly sad like it's meant to be a comedy but you hoffman is so pathetic and on purpose well this this movie also features a bass a scene where he plays basketball in a gym and i was like did the producers of along came polly see this movie and think to cast him i called hoffman an

athlete in my little speech and you know he really you're right he kind of bursts in on the scene in some ways but he also is like very bad at basketball in this scene and so i'm like is he bad at basketball actually or did that movie just change the dramatic tension of love liza good movie not going in the hall of fame of course punch drunk. Did you revisit this? I watched the scene. The Mattress Man? Yeah. You know, I don't think it's enough to go into the Hall of Fame,

but the phone call, again, a man on a phone knows how to act against a phone. The phone call between him and Sandler's character, when Sandler follows up with the sex hotline service to see why he and his girlfriend have been attacked, kind of like explodes the movie.

You know, like, obviously the movie is about this kind of frustrated male rage and this inability to connect to people and find love and happiness and a lot of other ideas. But this being the culmination of Sandler rage, you know? Yeah. We probably just play the clip so people can hear as much of it as possible, Bobby. Now!

Are you threatening me, dick? Aren't you? You go fuck yourself! Oi! Boom! dick why'd you you go fuck yourself oh fuck did you just say go fuck myself yes i did that wasn't good you were dead but that he's met when he finds this moment of explosion by Dean Trumbull, the mattress-selling, sex-hotline-operating demon on the other end, who just drops the shut, shut, shut, shut on him. This is an incredible idea.

This is some true... PTA, man, does it every time. I think it's just a great scene in a great movie. And a scene I would not have expected like when you're watching the movie

you're like what is going on here like it just totally changes it's registered it's great it just holds like it holds

your heart in a vice script for like the first 45 minutes of the movie and then him that like the comedy of him being the person on the other end

of the phone is like the first moment where you're like okay I actually think I just breathed for the first time that this movie is on I just watched this the other night of the phone is like the first moment where you're like okay I actually think I just breathed for the first time that this movie is on I just watched this

the other night it's like it's so intense and Sandler is usually so funny and he doesn't really get to be funny in this movie he's like awkward

and uncomfortable until this and it's just so perfect they're so perfectly paired did you just ah that wasn't good brilliant

2002 Red Dragon Freddie Lownes just a disgusting performance Oh, that wasn't good. Brilliant. 2002 Red Dragon, Freddie Lownes. Just a disgusting performance about a man who's wildly disfigured by Hannibal Lecter. You hate to see it. Directed by Brett Ratner. It's so strange that Philip Seymour Hoffman's in this movie. Not a bad movie. Not a bad movie.

Kind of unnecessary given that we have Manhunter. But there are some things about it I like. Edward Norton's very good in it um definitely not going in the hall of fame speaking of edward norton 2002 25th hour jacob olenski talked about it many times probably one of my 25 favorite movies of all time incredible movie uh boy he's heartbreaking in this movie yeah that silver thing to the left of your plate, that's called a fork. When people eat rice, they use chopsticks or a fork. Grown people don't eat fried rice with their bare hands. You don't know how to behave.

You busting my balls in the way I eat? You spend the whole week figuring out how to defraud foreign governments, whatever you do, and then you get out of there and you go out to the strange world outside your office called reality. And you don't know how to behave. And kind of creepy, but also not. Like creepy, but I mean, does the Philip Seymour Hoffman thing where his characters don't always ask you to empathize with them is sometimes they're like repellent but this one he finds the the empathy and like the pathetic nature of this person he's a teacher in a private school in new york city he's a trust fund kid he's got these two lifelong friends who are cooler and

more successful than him played by edward norton and barry pepper and there's their trilogy of friendship and the kind of falseness of what it means to be old friends is a big part of the story. And his loser nature is kind of needled throughout the film, which all takes place, you know, it's been reoriented from the Benioff novel to be happening in the aftermath

of September 11, 2001. And he gets like demoralized by his friend, played by Barry Pepper, when they're having a meal together before the big night when they go out, where he talks about whether or not, what level of bachelor success he has. And he describes him as being in the 62nd percentile

of bachelorhood in New York City. Barry Pepper's character, of course, is in the 99th percentile. Right. Very sad scene. Watching Hoffman, like, accept in a way, like be mad and frustrated by his rude friend,

but also know that there's some truth to what his dick friend is saying to him. Just a great performance, a great movie. I don't think, I don't know if it's a Hall of Fame kind of performance because he's basically the fourth or fifth lead in the movie that's true though he gets like the he gets the dolly shot he does after the spike dolly yeah the spike dolly shot after after he this is a high schooler in a club bathroom so it's not like like the best situation but again

the expression on that face in like during that dolly shot is like very sad and complicated it is that Anna Paquin character not the best character I've ever seen in a movie I've seen better portrayals of young women in movies

but very good film nonetheless not going in 2003 owning Mahoney now this is an interesting period where he starts taking on like he basically does

the like one for them one for me thing back and forth owning Mahoney another very good indie but not not going in um 2003 is the party's over i'd never seen this before i watched it this week this is a extraordinarily earnest documentary about the 2000 election in which philip seymour

hoffman is the host and he travels around the country talking to people about bush versus gore and um uh the inequality of wealth the destructive nature of power in our country. He takes like, it's basically a Michael Moore movie starring Philip Seymour Hoffman. But he's just like, I'm just asking questions and he's just like waiting outside

of a press conference to talk to Jesse Jackson about his take on the 2000 race. And like, it's a bizarre time capsule. You know, definitely not going in the Hall of Fame.

It's kind of a hard movie to watch. I bought a DVD on eBay to see it. But it's, it's one of the only movies that you can see where you can see the real Philip Seymour Hoffman

for a long period of time. He is the host of this movie. And so, Who directed it? Like, what is the backstory? It's Donovan leach and another filmmaker um you know in interviews he talked about how he just kind of got curious about

politics a little too what he felt was like a little too late in his life he was about i think about 32 years old when he made the movie and i don't think the movie is very good and honestly i think he comes off as a bit naive in the film um because i and it's easy to say that now in retrospect having seen what happened to the country and what happened in that election in particular and there are long stretches of it where he's just on the other side let me just say this this is i was uh 18 years old in 2000 it was the first election i ever participated in I have a lot of deep-seated feelings around that election and why I feel about the world the way that I feel. In the movie, he interviews all the people

that I was reading and listening to. He interviews Noam Chomsky. He interviews Ralph Nader. He interviews all of the kind of like the attempts of the left to try to grow in stature in this country during that election period. And that was a massive failure during that period. And he, it kind of feels like I went around the country and just interviewed people and was like, why is this this way? How can this be the case?

It's a hard movie to watch when you're older and you're like, oh, here's how it's the case. You've been in enough rooms where people are like, here's how shit works. And so it was hard for me to watch this person who I love just seem so unaware of how these things operate. I guess it's instructive, but it's also a little bit sad. Bob, I don't think you should watch this movie. Did you punch one in for Pat Buchanan in the Reform Party that year? I did. 18 years old?

I was just trying to get the Reform Party to 5% so that it could get federal funding. You know, that was really an important initiative for me. No. Fucking of course not. 2003 Cold Mountain. Didn't revisit this. Nor did I. This is an Anthony Mangala movie

adapted from a bestseller. It was pretty celebrated. I think Renee Zellweger won an Academy Award for her performance in this movie. He plays a preacher in the movie. Did she? Didn't she?

I thought she won for Chicago. Did she win for Chicago? I'm Googling Cold Mountain won for judy oscars right but let's see cold mountain film you're right she won for this yeah okay um i don't remember loving the movie i do remember thinking he was he was pretty good uh i thought jude law was miscast yeah but this was a nice reunion for the two of them from their ripley days that's true 2004's along came polly is in what do you think i mean i think that's great i thought that i was gonna have to suggest to you that it's incredibly funny and i think he also popularizes the uh the word shart i believe so in in this film which is just like an important he invented sharting

popular sharting's been around for centuries. Popularized the term. I'm not even saying he invented the term. I'm saying this is where it grew. Yeah. An understanding. My favorite moment in the movie is, it's not make it rain when he first is playing basketball

and he's screaming make it rain and clanking it off the backboard. It's when we're seeing the cut, the sort of montage of the game that he's playing against the two guys who challenge him and Ben Stiller. And he's at roughly 38 feet, and he says, raindrop! And barely grazes the backboard.

It's just like an incredible physical performance also. Like the ways in which he's missing and hurling his body around is art. Is this where we can talk about his forearms? No one has said the word forearms yet on this podcast. Those are these big tree trunks? Yeah, exactly.

That's why he could never be good at basketball. When have you ever seen a basketball player with forearms like that? That's baseball manager forearms. He was a wrestler growing up. That's wrestling kid forearms.

He should play left guard. You know, he really would be able to block the interior linemen in a football game yeah jason kelsey he could play jason kelsey oh interesting he would have been an excellent well he's a little short but yeah who cares okay 2005 strangers with candy has a very small part in that funny movie not going in the hall of fame 2005 capote uh i'm still pretty mixed on this movie i've always been pretty mixed on it um i think it's obviously a brilliant performance. It is the most actorly thing he's ever done, though.

It's a complete transformation in voice, in posture, in weight. He lost a lot of weight to play Truman Capote. This is really not what he normally looks like. Obviously, he's styled, close-cropped haircut, the glasses. It's a transformation. It works. Obviously, he's veryled, close-cropped haircut, the glasses. It's a transformation. It works. Obviously, he's very good in the film, but it just feels a little familiar. I think the filmmaking is better, but it feels a little familiar to some of the biopics even that I have not enjoyed this year, like the Rustens and Nyads of the world where I'm like…

I don't know. It's a pretty good movie. It's quiet and it's not really maybe our cup of tea always but it is it's pretty good about like journalists or snakes you know like and and it's interesting about that and i think his performance shows both like the ambition and the venality that go hand in hand with the wanting to understand the truth and any sense of duty that he may or may not have felt. It's like pretty nuanced. Yeah, I agree.

I agree. It's not, I shouldn't say it's like Rustin or Nyad, but it just is a framework that I feel like is very familiar. There's one part of the portrayal of Cahote that I really like, which is that he's constantly telling stories about his personal life in an attempt to seem vulnerable and empathetic in order to gain trust which is of course something that good journalists do all the time yeah and also something that good celebrities do well yes in order to not get hard questions from journalists

so it's there is an interesting dance happening there but as a movie i think i think i just think that the portrayal of the relationship between him and Perry is, I don't think it works ultimately that well. I think it's a little unclear what the movie's trying to say about that.

That's valid. Okay. It's got to go in, obviously, he won Best Actor. Oh, it does? I think so. Oh, I thought you were

just going to not put it in. No, I think if you win Best Actor, you got, did we ever keep someone out for their Academy? This is the Hall of Fame. This isn't the Hall of Fame

of Sean's taste. I mean, we've kept out nominations yeah i think when you win when you have one win okay and you're an actor like this it's got to go i think he's good 2006 mission impossible three names contacts inventory lists you have a wife girlfriend it's up to you how this goes. Because you know what I'm going to do next? I'm going to find her. Whoever she is, I'm going to find her and I'm going to hurt her. I don't think this is in, but I think I'm willing to yellow it just to keep going.

I think you should yell it. I mean, it is, for you and me, the major defense of Mission Impossible 3 rests on Philip Seymour Hoffman, you know? Agreed. So, because otherwise

it looks like garbage, Bobby, just so you know. I agree with what Bobby said that you can, you want to know more about Owen Davian and you can tell that he's thought more

about Owen Davian. I don't think the movie has thought more about Owen Davian. No, I don't think it has either. And I also think that that is like

one of my biggest, if I could fantasy cast cast i would just switch him or his storyline the owen davian storyline like forward to one or two movies to where mckew has taken over mission impossible where he clearly thinks more deeply about the interconnectivity of the franchise whereas jj abrams for all of his strengths i don't think has ever been the type of person who's interested in answering questions that you might have as a viewer yes in any of his strengths, I don't think he's ever been the type of person who's interested in answering questions that you might have as a viewer. Yes. In any of his projects.

I think that's bang on. 2007, The Savages. Fucking love this movie. Have you ever seen this? This was a Knox Dobbins Christmas Day special. This is also a very sad movie. Yeah. I was like, this is one of the ones

where we banned him from picking movies for a while on Christmas. I'm looking at the Wikipedia here. Honestly, it was Savages and then Not to Step on Things, but Synecdoche, New York the next year. Could that be right? Or no, maybe it was. I think that was 09. So this is 07.

Or Synecdoche. Synecdoche is 2008. I just don't know whether that lines up for Christmas. No, it must have been. It must have been. The Savages is framed as a black comedy drama on Wikipedia.

I don't remember it being that much of a comedy. I don't either. I guess the kind of existential despair of this movie about two siblings who are single

who come together to take care of their dad who's slipping into dementia. Their dad's played by Philip Bosco, the great Broadway character actor who died, I think, shortly after this movie in real life. And it's kind of an interesting mirror image

so you can count on me. You know, Laura Linney, very good at playing the sister with the slightly unstable brother. In this case, she might actually be a little more unstable than he is in this movie. But Tamara Jenkins directed it.

It's really, really good. Very sad. I don't know if it's... It's probably not in, right? I wasn't going to put it in, but I'm bringing personal baggage to it about the context in which I saw it. Yeah, I think it's probably a red, but it's... I recommend it. I think it's probably a red but it's I recommend it

I think it's I think it's worth seeing 2007 Before the Devil Knows You're Dead did you touch anything I don't think so you don't think so I don't think so

no no I didn't I didn't touch anything did you touch anything I don't like this Andy I don't like shut up

did you touch anything? I don't like this, Andy. Shut up. Shut up. Did you touch anything? No. Going in, right? Green. Yeah, I think so. He plays the one half of a pair of brothers who endeavor to rob their parents' jewelry store in order to, I guess, pay down some debts,

support drug problems, any number of things. Philip Seymour Hoffman's character is a very, very despairing, desperate, bad person. A person who's really fallen into a pit and by the end of the movie does awful things and completely unravels. He also very credibly romances Marisa Tomei in this movie. Underrated as a romantic lead in a kind of perverse way in this movie. I think it's a great film. One of Sidney Lumet's last movies.

Sorry, I was still stuck on the Marissa Tomei thing. I don't know what Marissa Tomei is doing in that life, that character, but I don't think that's... Looking incredibly beautiful. I mean, looking incredibly beautiful, but it's like... It's just stuck between two losers, you know, but I don't think that's... Looking incredibly beautiful. I mean, looking incredibly beautiful, but it's, like, there's... It's just stuck between two losers, you know?

Like, we can do more than this. It happens, you know? It does. Does it happen to women with Marissa Tomei's, like, verve? I don't know. But, yeah, otherwise, it's absolutely amazing. And this is one of the ones where it's, like, he a like unhappy, ugly, like awful person who does not get any sort of redemption or even really like the not trying to give you empathy, not trying to make you like him. It just like gets grimier and grimier.

Very ugly, gritty, sad. Yeah. But also weirdly electrifying movie. I remember loving this movie when it came out. I haven't revisited it in a while. 2008, Charlie Wilson's War. I was posted in Greece for 15. Papandreou wins that election

if I don't help the junta take him prisoner. I've advised and armed the Hellenic army. I've neutralized champions of communism. I've spent the past three years learning Finnish, which should come in handy here in Virginia. And I'm never, ever sick at sea. So I want to know why I'm not going to be your Helsinki station chief. Your course.

Excuse me. I think it's in. I would like it to be in. We can yellow it and then come back to it. It's a deeply mediocre film. It's a deeply mediocre film. It's a deeply mediocre film, but it is just absolutely an electric scene. Well, I'll tell you what it led to.

It's directed by Mike Nichols. And it led to Philip Seymour Hoffman portraying Willie Loman on Broadway, directed by Mike Nichols, which is arguably the crowning achievement

of Philip Seymour Hoffman's career. And we're not really talking about it in context too much here because this is a movie pod but i don't know if that would have happened did you see it this experience i did yeah it was it was staged right before i moved to los angeles it was january to april of 2012 wow yeah so I'm really jealous. Yeah, it was amazing. And the other thing I will say about that is he included, at the end of his life, he started to include Andrew Garfield as among the people that are like John C. Reilly in his life, who are like his closest friends and the people that he trusts the most, who he collaborated with. Which is one of the reasons why I think I got very invested in Andrew Garfield, because I felt like he had been knighted by Philip Seymour Hoffman as like, there are some real ones in the world. Andrew Garfield is one of the real ones. Whether he's living up to that or not, I guess is debatable,

but I always love Andrew Garfield. He was amazing. He was amazing in Death of a Salesman. Okay. Charlie Wilson's war, we can yellow it. It might be his best scene. He's so on fire in that sequence that you were referring to earlier it's so funny i did the whole thing it's like i learned finnish um will come in handy

in virginia i don't like honestly even the way that he busts the door and the window in the second time just like he's like can I borrow this pulls a wrench off of the guy's tray every single scene that he's in when he's playing

like a mean and or you know tired person he seems like he's like read this line one million times and he's just like fed up with it

it just seems like very realistic to a person who has like slept two hours per night for the last 13 years well if you read a lot of if you read interviews with him and look at the descriptors

of the words that people use to describe how he appeared when they show it when he showed up for interviews it was often like disheveled unshaven you know he he was that you know he was that that wasn't a transformation i don't think i think that that's one of the reasons why he was cast as these characters is because he brought that to the role but the rage is the thing that jumps out to me about that part in a lot of these parts there is a unbound fury when he gets a piece of dialogue like this that he can unfurl and it is fucking awesome to watch uh and it's sort of it's interesting to pair this with the next movie too, Synecdoche, New York, which I know you're not a big fan of,

which I think is an amazing, amazing achievement of a movie. And it's the opposite from a performance perspective. It's all internal. It's all restrained. It's all quiet and sad. And that he could do that too.

He didn't just have to be the rage monster. He could do something else. I guess I will yellow Synecdoche, New York. It's't just have to be the rage monster. He could do something else. I guess I will yellow Synecdoche, New York. I think it's one of those movies where the people who love it love it forever. Amy Nicholson,

when we talked with her, she said this is her favorite movie of all time. I wouldn't go that far, but I think it's a major achievement. Might be going in on second turn. You might have to allow me that one. 2008's Doubt.

I was never a big fan of this one nor was i this is a john patrick shanley uh writing and directing film it's about um an accusation in the church uh and the priests and nuns who work to protect or not protect the church in the light of the allegations. Philip Seymour Hoffman plays Father Brendan Flynn. There are scenes between him and Meryl Streep that are among the better acted scenes of the decade. I just don't love the script for this movie, so I have a little bit of a hard time with it. It's a lot of acting. More like for Meryl, but...

She's doing a lot. Yeah. It wasn't my fl, but... She's doing a lot. Yeah. It wasn't my fave either. Okay. Doubt is out. Mary and Max animated film. Very interesting movie.

The only time he appeared in an animated feature. Not... This is not a Pixar film. Quite a sad film at times, but very, very good.

Who does he play? He plays the titular Max. Is Max a person? An animal? A tree? He's a person, yes. Okay. He. Worth a check. Who does he play? He plays the titular Max. Is Max a person? An animal? A tree? He's a person, yes. Okay. He's not a tree.

He would have played a wonderful tree. I think so as well. And that's the power of animation is you can be whatever you want to be. He did appear on the Arthur TV series. Oh, really? Yes. Oh, who was he in Arthur? He played a dog theater director.

That's awesome. Not only that, but he was nominated for an Emmy for his voice performance in the Arthur TV series. 2009, The Boat That Rocked. He plays the Count, the kind of DJ character. I think the DJ character on the boat. Not going in the Hall of Fame. Fun movie. I like this movie.

Fun British production. Richard Curtis, right? Richard Curtis. One of the lesser Curtis's, I would say. Yeah. I mean, the last few have been, but that's okay. Okay. Um,

2010 Jack goes boating. This is his directorial debut. Interesting movie. Uh, not, not going in. He's in this, he's really in the cutting back and forth phase.

I'm, I'm, I'm sorry. I'm cutting the, uh, invention of lying. Cause it's just the cameo. Um,

I think that Jack goes boating is actually worth seeing for John Ortiz who was one of Philip Seymour Hoffman's best friends in real life and plays a close friend in this movie and is very, very, very good.

Probably most recently seen in American fiction as a Jeffrey Reitz agent. But I don't think it's worth going in. I wanted to speak with you about the Ides of March. This is the 2011

political drama written by Bo Willimon based on his play directed by George Clooney that was, might have been my most anticipated movie of this year.

Yeah. And, and then I think pretty significantly failed to live up to my expectations. Insane cast. Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Paul Giamatti and Hoffman play dueling, James Carville-esque political managers. Campaign managers. It's not very good, and the script is flawed, but there is a scene after Ryan Gosling has, quote-unquote, betrayed Hoffman's character that is flawed. But there is a scene after Ryan Gosling has quote unquote betrayed Hoffman's character

that is amazing. And it is Hoffman. It's Hoffman Hoffman-ing for like five minutes. It's so good. Yeah. And Ryan Gosling's just like sitting there on the couch.

Yes. And I would love to know what Ryan Gosling thought of Philip Seymour Hoffman. That would be an interview I'd like to listen to. I can't in good faith put it in. But I just want to say it's another movie that is worth watching the hoffman

scenes of this is oftentimes we get asked during mailbags like what's one movie that you would want to do over you know and i would like everyone to redo this with a different, less ridiculous script, honestly. Because once it gets into the scandal, you know, the scandal is so... I mean, maybe it's not far-fetched, but it just... It's both, like, a play where everything, the coincidences are all so neat and contained, and then also just, like, preposterously tawdry

in a way that Clooney never really has the stomach to match in terms of directing or in terms of his performance. I think that's very, very smart. I think that that's the problem is that it actually should be a little bit more like exploitative and icky. Yeah. It almost needs like Adrian Lyne or something for it to work. And it's trying to be too important. Yeah. And it's ultimately a bit of drama.

And, you know, Bo Willimon obviously would go on to make House of Cards, and House of Cards actually was pitched in the right register. Exactly. That was what it should be. It should be this kind of like

sleek, slippery, you know, morally black, dark, you know, but kind of funny thriller. Yeah. Fincherian thriller. From David Fincher.

Yeah. Okay. The Ides of March. Not going in From David Fincher. Yeah. Okay. The Ides of March. Not going in. Moneyball. Going in. Is it? I think so.

I think. I mean, I love it. He is memorable, but even rewatching last night, I was like, oh, he's like really not in very much of this. He's in the critical scenes though

because, you know, he portrays Art Howe who is the manager of the Oakland A's. It's been said many times that one, this is not really how Art Howe was. Actually, Art Howe is, like, quite an avuncular and agreeable kind of character. In the book, he's obviously not as much because he represents the old world of baseball managing.

But Art Howe was, like, very upset by this movie because he felt like he got a really raw deal. Yeah. He also was kind of rude. He was like, Philip Seymour Hoffman is fat and I'm not fat which is not not cool um but the movie needs um not a villain but like a break point and the break point is play haddenburg over pena that's the the moral quandary the kind of ethical break of the movie is i have my way and you have your way. Hoffman was interviewed at a press conference for the movie when it debuted at a festival. Bobby, let's play that clip now.

I, um, no, I find it inspiring that there's a guy who, you know, the middle of his life all of a sudden like turns back into his life, uh, and looks at it and becomes obsessed with having to deal with what came before. I think that's inspiring. You almost feel like he is now going to Groundhog Day himself until that day is gone and he can sit in the stands and watch the game.

You know what I mean? That he can enjoy a baseball game again and he can enjoy his life again but he is obsessed with having to somehow turn and look back into it. I think it's very inspiring. I thought what he said about that, about how this is a movie about people looking back on what

they did in their life and then trying to correct it. And it may be too late when they come to correct it is maybe the most insightful thing I've ever heard about the movie. And the fact that he's in this very small role. Yeah. But again, doing a movie for Bennett Miller, who is his longtime friend, It feels like very resonant. Just revisiting it, thinking about what he does and who he is in that movie and the obstinacy of systemic organization

that Brad Pitt is trying to fight against, even though theoretically he's the person in charge of everything. Right. That paradox I find so interesting too, that sometimes the people who work for you are the hardest people

to get to do what you want. Might be a little revealing. I think one thing that's amazing about Philip Seymour Hoffman in this movie that the whole movie does not hinge on it,

obviously, because the Brad Pitt performance is what the whole movie hinges on. Of course, we've talked about this a million times. But another actor

would need more words and more scenes to do what he's doing in this movie. And he doesn't. And so the movie doesn't have to be super interested in the political machinations of a baseball front office and so the movie doesn't have to be super interested in like the political

machinations of a baseball front office and the managerial all that bullshit he's just like stepping in there standing for it standing there looking pretty good wearing the uniform you know looking pretty convincing wearing the uniform and it allows Brad Pitt to just sit alone really is like the physical wall

keeping it's Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men it's exactly what you said Bobby it's like he doesn't we don't need Yeah. Exactly. And it's Jack Nicholson in A Few Good Men. It's exactly what you said, Bobby. It's like he doesn't, we don't need too many scenes. We know. It's Philip Seymour Hoffman.

Like by this time in 2011, this conversation we're having now would have been credible then. We would have been like, this is one of the best actors who's worked in American movies in the last 50 years. We know.

So it confers a lot without saying a lot. So I think it goes in. Okay, wonderful. One of my favorite movies of my lifetime. 2012, The Master. There's a cycle like life. Birth, excitement, growth, decay, death.

Now, now, how about this? Here it comes. A large dragon. My teeth. Blood dripping red eyes. What do I got? A lasso. I whip it up.

I wrap it around its neck and I wrestle. Automatic green. When will this be on the rewatchables? You should just, during your tour, you should just interrupt Bill all the time live and just be like, when will we get to do The Master? When will we get to do a Stanley Kubrick film? Or another one? I know you finally did one. What if at the beginning of the first episode that I appear? just be like when will we get to do the master when we get to do a stanley kubrick film or another

one i know you finally did one what if at the beginning of the first that was another one what's that it was you guys did eyes wide shut right we did oh that was for the shining yeah um when i was listening to the back catalog for a long time they had it and you know it was a bit so it's you know rewatchables is eternal for me that's not fixed in time i'm waiting for him to let me release my solo Lolita pod. Something I'm really proud of. I put in a lot of work on that episode, but we're not ready to put it out yet.

The Master is the best. It's the best. We were talking about the zone of interest recently on the show. This is a similar movie insofar as all the stuff it's got on its mind, all of the psychology and brokenness and oddity of the storytelling, the complete commitment of the two lead actors. Have two actors ever been more committed to the psychotic nature of this story? And Hoffman gets a bunch of show pieces in this movie.

He gets the big speech at the movie. He gets the big speech at the wedding. He gets the big confrontation in the processing session at the gala party. He gets the first processing session with Joaquin. He gets all of these

incredible showcases for his concentration, his severity, his intelligence as an actor. Like, just the world-class shit. And then the heartbreaking final moments of singing the song and, you know

their love story is let me ask you an important question is the master about two guys who are in love or is the master about two guys who are actually

just one person in the male psyche the latter yeah I think yeah though it's really hard

not to be in love with Joaquin Phoenix in this movie like this movie is transfixed with him as you know, as the Philip Seymour Hoffman character is, as everybody else is. But that processing scene is fascinating because the first processing scene,

it's, like, pretty much camera only on Joaquin, but what Hoffman is doing just with that voice. And he sounds like himself, but there's just, like, a slight stentorian modulation to it that is, just with that voice. And he sounds like himself, but there's just like a slight stentorian modulation to it that is like incredibly powerful. And he doesn't have to be on the camera to be holding half of it.

It's amazing. He said they worked on it for three years, that they rehearsed a lot for this. And you can feel them knowing the magnitude of the project. Like when you do Mission Impossible 3, you're like, let's do our very best

in the 98-day window we have to make this movie. But sometimes, especially when you're making a movie with a close friend like Anderson, and he obviously had a ton of respect for Phoenix,

that they worked really hard on this. If people have not seen Back Beyond, it is the 30-minute compilation of outtakes from the movie.

It's on YouTube. It appears on all the physical media for The Master. It's really, really interesting and fun. A lot of the scenes that we saw in the trailer for that movie end up appearing in this kind of compilation. But it ends with a hilarious moment from that processing scene where he's talking about cool cigarettes

and their minty flavor, and he keeps breaking. We very rarely have seen, you know, the kind of throwaway moments. He didn't make a lot of movies like The Hangover. You know, we don't see him breaking or doing SNL or anything like that, but it's really worth checking out

if people haven't seen that. A late quartet. I would say the next few movies are not going in, but are notable and maybe, again, like continuing a tradition. A late quartet. I would say the next few movies are not going in, but are notable and maybe, again, like continuing a tradition. A late quartet is a really interesting indie about a small quartet of classical musicians and their complicated relationship. He has a very unshowy part in this role. He's really there.

It feels like his participation is there so the movie can get made. But it's worth checking out. The Hunger Games catching fire. He's fine. Yeah. He's the checking out. The Hunger Games catching fire. He's fine. He's the game maker. He brings a gravitas to a film that needs it as we get to the nearing the conclusion of those films. 2014 is God's Pocket.

This is John Slattery's debut feature. It's kind of like a grimy, philly crime saga, I guess. It's a little bit of a reunion with Christina Christina Hendricks. With Christina Hendricks and a handful of really good character actors. It's also, you know, a reunion of Charlie Wilson's war because John Slattery is the person being screamed at. That's right. I'm sure they're boys.

Another great character actor. 2014, A Most Wanted Man. Now a hard movie to watch since he passed. And this being his final film. I guess technically The Hunger Games Mockingjay was his last film but I don't even think he finished

completed his work on that movie I think he had more to do but A Most Wanted Man is an adaptation of a John le Carré novel about

a German intelligence officer a spy who is at a dissolute moment in his life and is becoming increasingly cynical about the way that the world works, about the way

that intelligence works in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks, which were largely planned at his station. Is it in Hamburg or Berlin? It's Hamburg. But they were planned in Hamburg. But I believe he's transferred later. And it's basically like Hamburg is where intelligence officers and spies are put out to pasture.

Right, right. Yeah. And so he's kind of in the final stages, seemingly, of his career as a spy. And it's almost like a one last job movie but the saddest one last job movie ever i don't want to spoil the movie for anybody who hasn't seen it but it does feature a kind of breakdown like a very small moment when things don't go as planned from hoffman's character that is just devastating to watch now like it was a moment of true like

uh true despair you you're big luck harry fan yeah and i just and i just re-watched this um this is this is another one where it's set in germany and it features a combo of american actors and and german actors and everyone is speaking german accented english including philip seymour hoffman which at the beginning you're like what are why have we decided to do this um but i think it works it works like it's another one of those things where you just kind of roll with it um though there this is an another of his like very still resigned performances um he is he is like very defeated but like before it before it even starts which i think is appropriate to the movie

and to the character and to lecrae you sent me um a john lecrae piece like a piece written by john lecrae who betrayed um after ph of it he lecrae identified uh capote as one of his favorite performances which you know if you know anything about lecrae you know that a movie about um like a an untrustworthy writer is like it makes sense that that it spoke to him and uh and then and i I think also Hoffman's interpretation of this character is really spot on for Le Carre. So there was like some understanding there. But yeah, it's a downer of a movie.

A good movie, but a downer. I think it's going in. So we've gone through the entire filmography. We're not going to go through TV. I don't really want to do TV here. Even though he's very good in Empire Falls, if you haven't seen that adaptation of the Richard Russo novel that was on HBO

okay so we have nine greens and seven yellows okay which is really not what you want no I would argue that many of the early yellows are very sentimental so I feel comfortable dispensing with scent of a woman heartache in The Big Lebowski

yeah I do as well you feel good about that? yeah but The Big Lebowski man it, I do as well. You feel good about that? Yeah. But The Big Lebowski, man. I mean, it's wonderful. So funny. So that leaves us with Magnolia, Mission Impossible 3,

Charlie Wilson's War, and Synecdoche, New York. All right, get Mission Impossible out of there. So I just want to say one thing quickly. Is there a case to be made either for Mission Impossible

or The Hunger Games as sort of like big franchise-y things that allowed him to do more. A long-came poly, isn't that? Isn't a long-came poly like the box office spot that's also extremely funny? Yeah, I'm not quite the same, but I know what you mean. Yeah.

I don't think Mission Impossible 3 is all that great, as you know. It doesn't have to. This Hall of Fame is ultimately, okay, you're just hitting yourself against the microphone because you're upset. It's ours. It doesn't have to be representative. You know, it's not. I know we always get to this point and then people yell at us, but like, who gives a fuck about Mission Impossible 3? What's the rabbit's foot, you know?

Do you know? I don't know. We're all the rabbit's foot, you know? It's the rabbit's foot we know it's the rabbit's foot we learned along the way okay magnolia mission impossible 3 charlie wilson's worst anectoky new york i would take mission impossible 3 off i'm with you farewell sorry bob i know it's your favorite it's not my favorite i'm just trying to say it's just so disrespectful circle back you said it was your favorite i said it's actually my favorite movie ever.

Yes. So right now we've got Boogie Nights and The Master as representatives of the Paul Thomas Anderson, Philip Seymour Hoffman thing. Right. So do we need Magnolia? Bob's saying no. I think I agree with him. Okay. This is coming from me.

It is coming from you But He's really the glue Holding a lot of that movie together Charlie Wilson's We're in Synecdoche, New York I'm already unhappy It's just fucking close

This sucks Like Whatever Do what you need to do Would being the Ricardos Have been better If it was Philip Seymour Hoffman As Ricky Ricardo

Yes Do what you need to do. Would being the Ricardo's been better if it was Philip Seymour Hoffman as Ricky Ricardo? Yes. What if it was like Lucy, I'm hoping. The magic phone call from J. Edgar Hoover or whatever being like, you're fine. You think he should have played Lucy? He was so good at acting opposite a phone. He should have played J. Edgar Hoover. No, doesn't, but.

That would have been good. Yeah, but isn't it, does she get the phone call? Or does Ricky, Javier Bardem as Ricky, get the phone call? And then. Well, given that I've seen the film roughly 11 times, I can tell you off the tip of my fingers that it was... I don't remember. I'm just going to have to put the kibosh on the being the Ricardos chat five hours into our recording day.

Okay. Thanks for producing us as always. I think it's... I think maybe A Most Wanted Man is out and Charlie Wilson's Warren Snacks Key New York are in. Okay. What do you think about that? I can live with it.

This is what we do. This is why we should be in charge of everything. Okay. What do you think about that? I can live with it. This is what we do. This is why we should be in charge of everything. Okay. The great compromisers of the big picture. We can do it. I'm going to read the greens.

People can choose to disagree with this. All the Twister fans out there can come through, but 1997's Boogie Nights, 1999's The Talented Mr. Ripley, 2000's Almost Famous, 2004's Along Came Polly,

2005's Capote, 2007's Before the Devil Knows You're Dead, from 2008, a pair of twin killers for me and Amanda, Charlie Wilson's Warren, Synecdoche, New York, 2011's Moneyball, and 2012's The Master.

A 15-year period encompassing the work of one of the great actors of his generation. My favorite actor. Any closing thoughts? I'm excited to hear your your thoughts roughly uh 48 000 words okay so that's good did anyone get to edit it no good great bob gave one note which was a good note okay but uh thanks to amanda thanks to our producer bobby wagner for his work on this episode later this week it's back to the world of plastic. We'll see you next time.

I want to get you On a slow boat to China All to myself alone