The Big Picture - We’re So Back … With a Movie Mega-Mailbag!

Episode Date: July 23, 2024

Sean and Amanda discuss the smashing success of Glen Powell and Daisy Edgar-Jones’s ‘Twisters’ (1:00) before reviewing ‘Fly Me to the Moon,’ a surprisingly under-the-radar Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum movie about the space race (21:00). After that, they open up the mailbag to answer your questions about the 2025 movie slate, Tom Cruise’s next projects, movie theater behavior, film books, James Bond, snacks, and more (30:00). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Join me, Craig Horlbeck, along with Danny... F***! It'd be really funny if we just left that in. That would actually be pretty on brand. F***! Join me, Craig Horlbeck, Danny Heifetz... Nice. ...and Danny Kelly on the Ringer Fantasy Football Show

for all things fantasy, NFL, and more. 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 Fennessey. I'm Amanda Davids. And this is the Big Picture, a conversation show about whatever you want to know. Amanda is back from vacation. Did I miss anything?

A few things here and there. We'll talk about that. We're back in the studio. No, we won't. We'll only talk about some of it. I have a lot of thoughts. Nope. Nope.

I've just come off a 36- live stream of jmo can i actually can i tell you something yeah so uh sunday morning when uh president biden dropped out of the race i guess we are talking about some of it what well um i i was in the parking lot headed to breakfast with uh my husband and son and so I did have like almost that moment walking into the restaurant being like should I go tell everyone um and then in order to subdue my son he watched Elmo on my phone while my husband just like texted with you and Chris and didn't talk to me so there actually was like a live JMO that was happening and that I watched and did not participate in. You didn't miss much is what I'll say.

I got the summary. From that text exchange. I was my usual witheringly cynical self about the entire experience. But you know what? It's morning in America. We're here to talk about movies. We're not here to talk about that mess.

We're here to have a great time to experience our own friendship in the movies. We have a here to talk about that mess. We're here to have a great time to experience our own friendship in the movies. We have a mailbag. Yeah. We have some other stuff that's going on. So movies. Yeah, we've got $80.5 million domestic. Yes. For Twisters. Yes. How do you feel about that? I feel amazing. Yeah. I feel like I really, I called my shot. You did. And I said movie of the summer. I said movie of the summer. I also was thinking, not that I'm going to win the auction or even be around for its tabulation, but I needed a hundred million dollars, you know? Oh.

And I think we might get there. Oh, you'll get it. You'll definitely get there. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know what the other one's going to be, but- Oh, interesting. I'd forgotten that you got that and that you needed that. I needed it.

Yes. Well, well done. Thank you. You know, I've been making fun of tracking this year. I mean, they fucked up. This is a bad one. They were like, maybe 40. They don't know what they're doing.

They don't know what they're doing. It's really strange. Tracking is really not working. And I think that we should all keep that in mind mathematically as we enter a season of other projections. Very good point. Yeah. Very, very smart.

You know, math sometimes lies, or this math does anyway. I agree. I wonder if we'll look back on some decisions that were made this weekend and think maybe the math was off. You know, another thought that occurred to me. I'm not saying it's what I believe. Yeah. But it occurred to me.

Okay. This is the top domestic opening ever for a natural disaster film, which was the topic of our conversation last week on the show got a lot of feedback personally about titanic as we use the word glacier and that was the wrong word iceberg straight ahead iceberg yeah that was that's that's the line of this happens you know you're recording a pod you say a word it's the wrong word people got really mad at me they were like how dare you that's not a disaster movie. Well, you're a Titanic gal. Well, like, I don't, we didn't put it on the list. We didn't.

We talked about the possibilities. And listen, one of the lessons of the film Titanic is respect nature. I agree. So, and don't get out over your skis as a human. Yeah. What are more important, glaciers or icebergs? I think glaciers. Without question.

Yeah, just in terms of the ecosystem. Absolutely. We need those glaciers. And also all the people that we need to put on them and send out. Yeah, we love our glaciers, don't we, folks?

Current crown holder for the natural disaster movies was The Day After Tomorrow, which is the kind of movie that Bob was referencing at the end of the discussion where, you know, in the 2000s

there was a big wave of those. That was only 68 million. This is actually not a very big subgenre of movie at the box office, too. So that might be part of the reason why Twisters was maybe not projected to do as well as it did. But since it did do so well, I feel like there's some fun ramifications. One, the Glenn Powell thing, I think, is a done deal. A lock.

I think a lot more people know who he is now than did three months ago or even a month ago. Because this is a mainstream movie hit in which he is on the poster and driving the movie i mean just also absolutely aced the promo press tour like the dog brisket everywhere shotgunning beers that like was it a luke cone it's like luke bryan i don't know who those i'm not sure i didn't one of them okay also daisy edgar jones was shotgunning a beer at a country concert over the weekend, which is just very funny. I've seen a lot of Daisy Edgar Jones slander. I'm not having it. I actually don't.

People are like, she's like a warm glass of milk. I don't agree. I thought she was good in this. And also, whoever's styling her did a great job. Yeah, she's quite beautiful. Yeah, but it's also like the looks have been on point. I can confirm really quickly. It was Luke Combs. We don't want another glacier situation. Everybody, it's also like the the looks have been have been on point i can i can confirm really quickly it was luke combs we don't want another glacier situation everybody's okay

thank you so much got it right we're really committed to facts or is he okay that i will not comment on here okay check the jmo feed for all of the list of canceled country artists cover right is luke combs fast car guy no i don't think so. No, no, no. The cover. I mean, I know that Tracy Chapman did the original Fast Car. Like, come on. I'm not aware of any Luke Combs songs. I'm just going to go on the record. Yeah, Luke Combs, Fast Car. Okay, yeah. And you didn't watch that wonderful Grammy performance? I missed that one. Yeah.

I was in the cinema. Okay. Well, it was nice. Tracy Chapman came out. I think she was wearing Prada. And she was very happy to be there. And he was like, he had the right amount of, oh my God, can you believe I'm here with Tracy Chapman face? And then he was on stage with Glenn Powell, Shotgun and Beers. I think they marketed this movie very effectively to the kind of folks who really enjoy Luke Combs'

cover of Fast Car, which is one of the reasons why it succeeded. It succeeded really across the country, across demographics. I think the appeal is very strong. The movie's good. It's a fun blockbuster. It's doing exactly what it's supposed to be doing, which is one of the reasons why it's succeeding. And it does have me kind of excited. You know, the box office thing, as I've said this year,

is like it's going to continue to be up and down, and there's going to be some things that are doing better than others and some things that are surprisingly disappointing. It puts an interesting pressure on Deadpool and Wolverine next weekend because, like, everybody was like, this has to be

the billion-dollar movie. But, like, now we have a billion-dollar movie in Inside Out 2. We have twisters. We have, like, an indie hit in Thelma. We have a horror hit

in Long Legs. So now, like, on the one hand, Deadpool and Wolverine, the pressure's off. On the other hand, it kind of, like, underscores

how maybe the culture is continuing to move on from some of this stuff yeah you know that things are backfilling in the way that I very vividly remember having conversations with you on the show in 21 and 22 and being like I think it's kind of over you know like this stuff is always going to have its fans and it's always going to be able. There's always going to be new stories that are told. And it's always going to have some power. But the era of dominance feels over. Now, this movie is like highly anticipated. We haven't seen it yet.

We're seeing it tonight. But the Twister success. Can't wait. I'm glad you're attending with me. I'm looking forward to it. But it does. It puts everything in a different perspective because like this was the Barbenheimer weekend. Yeah.

One year later, there's a big movie that is like kind of a sequel, but basically not really. It doesn't really have any franchise connections to the original. It's not an original per se. It has Dorothy. It has Dorothy. But that's it. And that's modest.

And I would say that some of Daisy Edgar Jones's costuming is reminiscent of what Helen Hunt is wearing. With a touch of Laura Dern in Jurassic Park, which is just, that's a great outdoor style. Is that like active wear adventure gal? No, it's like the longer Chino-esque shorts, khaki, you know, whatever, you know, not denim. To the knee. Well, not quite to the knee. It's above the knee.

And I'm going to let you know that the hem, like where it hits above the knee is very important you want to get that right i see um and then like a a very tight shirt with some sort of button down tied over it yeah you know what i do you understand the look that we're going for and then kind of staring like this yeah off into the sky that is definitely something that Helen Hunt and Daisy Edgar Jones did in those movies. I think Twister's success is a very good thing

for movies because it means you don't have to have seen like nine movies before going to see a movie for it to be a big success which is exciting. There are a couple things

that we missed that we didn't talk about that people were talking about a lot after seeing the movie. The first one was the kiss or lack thereof. The fact that Glenn Powell

and Daisy Edgar Jones do not kiss at the end of this movie. Mm-hmm. And how, in fact, there was a sequence that was shot where they did kiss.

Yeah. And it was excised from the edit. The kiss is implied. I agree. It didn't really occur to me watching the movie. It's like, we didn't see

Ingrid Bergman and Humphrey Bogart fucking, but we do understand what happens when the light goes like this. Wow. You know? Could you imagine

how much more legendary Casablanca would have been if there was just a hardcore sex scene i felt pretty confident in where they were going you know and that anthony ramos was also like the odd man looking out so i'm so distracted because all i can think of is just asking ai to create to add hardcore sex scenes with classic movie stars into our favorite films like do we not want that no we don't okay all right but like suddenly she's like wearing her robe you know it's like come on you think they got it on i know they got it on you think they got like all the way around like not just third base or second base they sealed the deal yeah because like why else are you like totally changing your clothes you know there's like a lot of undergarments also that you had to deal with in the 40s.

It was really dirty out there. A lot of wind. There was some rain. That's true. And a lot of dust. Speaking of rain, we also learned that we almost also lost the Glenn Powell walking through the rain in a white t-shirt sequence until the edit team on the movie insisted to director Lee Isaac Chung that they put that scene back in the movie. As always,

I believe in editors. Do you? Of all forms. I think there is some speculation that this is like the desexualization of movie marketing

as a reaction to whatever young people think is or isn't right in movies. I think that's an overread, but I'm wondering if that occurred to you.

everybody needs to calm down. As I said, the energy was there. And that's actually, the energy and the chemistry is what you need in a movie more than actually watching two people slobber over each other. The kiss doesn't matter to you as much. I mean, sometimes it's nice, and sometimes it's also, you don't need it. Famously, Joe Wright's Pride and Prejudice in England, they did not show the final kiss because that would go against what like the pure Jane Austenites.

Yeah. Yeah. You know, but it's there. Like, you know, it's going to work out. You say famously. For whom is that famous? To me. To me.

But, you know, like I know at least I know something. Also, like I read that on the Internet once. Like if someone wants to fact check me, that's fine. That's your version of me explaining Deadpool lore in three days on the pod. I do have to figure out when I'm going to watch Deadpool 1 and Deadpool 2. No, you don't. Who cares? You don't think I should do it?

No. I was going to try to do it. I was going to be a good steward. So you never saw them? Yeah. Well, see, now the tables have turned. I think I can probably fast forward through Deadpool 1 this afternoon before we go. Deadpool 1 is okay. Deadpool 2 I think is legit good. Okay, then I will spend fast forward through Deadpool 1 this afternoon before we go. Deadpool 1 is okay.

Deadpool 2, I think, is legit good. Okay, then I will spend my time with Deadpool 2 tomorrow. You're going to hate them both. Or Wednesday. But also, I have to sort of rewatch every single Sidney Lumet film I've ever made. So maybe we should make a list. What's your priority for me? I'm not even going to get through all the Lumet movies, unfortunately.

I mean, I know. There are so many of them. But I was thinking that there are a couple. So later this week or next. I don't know when it's running. Next week, unfortunately. I mean, I know. There are so many of them. But I was thinking that there are a couple. So later this week or next, I don't know when it's running. Next week, yeah. Sometime soon. We're doing Sidney Lumet at 100

and we are reading his wonderful book, Making Movies. And you should read it if you haven't. And then we'll talk about Sidney Lumet. There are some movies that are referenced frequently in the book that I haven't seen in a while. I think those are the ones to watch. Yes. Well, thank but should i watch them before i watch deadpool 2 like if i have honestly just read the wikipedia for deadpool 2 okay you know i'm watch some youtube clips you

want to send me some memes um not the whole movie is a meme you know that's kind of the joke um i saw that grown men were crying when hugh jackman wore his suit on set apparently yeah yeah so the two here are the two bits of superhero news that made it through my filter my vacation filter um one grown men were crying because of a wolverine suit and two the russo brothers just like gave up and are like sure we'll make more avengers movies for me thank you for bringing this up i've not had the chance to discuss this anywhere. I have a very uncomplicated take on that. Yeah.

Which is good. I mean, those are like among the best Marvel movies. They were better at that than other things. That was the thing they were good at. They were good at that. Marvel needs them. The Marvel movies haven't been very good. It's hilarious that they have had to go back and do that.

But I saw all those movies that they made. Yeah. Most of them were outright terrible. I think I saw a lot of them as well. Yeah. Did you ever watch Citadel? No.

I didn't either. That was their TV series for Amazon. Because at some point it involved a lot of homework, right? I had to choose my own adventure. I honestly don't know. I didn't watch the same.

But it's Richard Madden. That's your guy. Is he? Is he not? I mean, I liked him i mean i like that but like you know okay you didn't like his work on game of thrones i watched some of it but not all of it to his character yeah i heard like we thought he was the prince who was promised right but he wasn't because it was the red wedding right wrong footed us there yeah how are the dragons doing uh i haven't seen last night's episode i've enjoyed the season i can't complain i've really enjoyed you like dragons yeah i'm just i'm an eternally a 12 year old boy are you interested how dragons represent nuclear weapons

does that you spend a lot of time thinking about that it's a reasonable metaphor in fantasy storytelling right we have to be careful when we exercise these weapons of mass destruction you know the show this season of the show is taking that quite seriously. Until it's not. Which is leading to exciting episodes. It's a great distraction. I think it's nice that people like something. That's how I feel.

Yeah, it is. You don't agree? No, no. I think it's nice. I am just not interested in it. So I'm glad you guys are having a good time. When will you watch Long Legs? So here's the thing. So I'm glad you guys are having a good time. When will you watch Long Legs? So here's the thing.

And I'm late to this and I almost texted you this on vacation, but save it for the pod territory. Why didn't you tell me that it's the guy from Legally Blonde who directed Long Legs? It is the guy from Legally Blonde. Why didn't you tell me? Like, why did I have to find that out on the internet? I thought you knew that Oz Perkins went on to become a horror filmmaker. No, why would I know that? I don't know. He's the guy from Legally Blonde. Why didn't you tell me? Like, why did I have to find that out on the internet? I thought you knew that Oz Perkins went on to become a horror filmmaker. No, why would I know that? I don't know.

He's the guy from Legally Blonde. I'm aware. It's a very strange pivot. I didn't ask him about that when we spoke. Maybe I should have. Yeah, I know. He hasn't acted in some time. You kind of look for the overlap, you know?

That's a good point for Oz. Well, you weren't on the episode. I think if you were on the episode, we would have discussed that. It's not a movie I think you would enjoy. Okay. There are some elements of it that are unsettling, I would say. Complicated movie.

Interesting movie. I got to go see it again. I saw it a long time ago. It's been an interesting summer box office. It's done very well. That's a neon movie. It's probably going to turn out to be maybe the second highest grossing movie

in neon history after Parasite. It's already made $45 million. That's huge for a small movie like that, which is probably made for a few million. I did want to mention Aaron Sorkin with you briefly. Yeah. So you made me aware of this, actually. Thank you so much. You touched down in Los Angeles. Yeah. Clearly,'d spent the six hour flight reading up and down back and forth left and right Aaron Sorkin's op-ed in the New York Times.

No, it wasn't posted yet. I woke up Sunday morning to before the great because the best part of this also

is the timing. So Sunday morning before my like town crier moment at brunch Aaron Sorkin wrote an op-ed that he published in the New york times op-ed

section which i am on record about um saying that here's how he would script the rest of the campaign that joe biden would drop out of the his 20 the 2024 campaign and the democrats would nominate mitt romney a republican absolutely fucking not number one you tried that already season six of west wing and let me tell you i guess no actually he probably left he left at the end of season four but you have to think that some of the framework oh sorkin sorkin left at the end of season four, but you have to think that the framework still came from him. But it didn't work in season six. But there was an entire plot on the series about the president being sick.

Yes, and they were all concealing it and everyone felt betrayed, but then you have to believe in him. Yeah, that's true. He stuck his hands in his pockets. He looked to the left, you know, just like he did in one of the greatest episodes of television ever. Here's the thing. Where's your West Wing pod? Well, that other guy already did it. So, you know, Josh Molina. He was on the show. Right. But your perspective is unfiltered.

You were not on set on the day when Sorkin was pulling it all together. You know, Thomas Schlamme was shooting those walk and talks magnificently. Right. So that's the useful perspective that I can bring is none of that. I love the West Wing. But you have incredible perspective. Thank you so much.

I love the West Wing. I am one of these, you know, I was lobotomized by it in the early 2000s as everybody else. And also, You're a neoliberal dork.

It's TV. It's not real life. Aaron Sorkin, please go back to writing your little Capra-esque movies that make me feel good. And then we can all just start throwing hands and doing the real fighting IRL. Because it's very different. It is very different. And we do not need your help. And then three hours later, Biden dropped out.

And literally his comment was, I take it all back. Harris for America. So we got into a little tiff on the Kevin Costner Hall of Fame about Molly's game. You wanted it in. I didn't want it in. We briefly mentioned it. It's important to cite that. I was a fan of the TV show The Newsroom while knowing that The Newsroom was the worst thing that Aaron Sorkin had done to that point.

But I thought it was a lot of fun because it felt like him kind of like exercising all of his bad ideas, but in such dramatic terms with like an incredible HBO budget and awesome cast of actors. But it was self-parodic. And then Molly's game is like the beginning of the end. And we're in this end period where he's at the end of his creative period where his point of view on the world like no longer really clicks

with where the world is so you've got molly's game trial of chicago seven and now being the ricardos those are the last three movies that he made he directed all three of those movies none of them really work though i do like mo's game a lot. And it's amazing that, like, I don't know, maybe he should just bring the West Wing back? Yes. And just keep doing that in the silo. It's Hollywood. This is also, like, a little bit can lead us in the fly me to the moon. Like, Hollywood is very good at doing the nostalgic, idealistic, never really existed, but makes you feel good

version of America. But it was no, the West Wing in 2001 had no relevance to the actual world. I mean, look what happened. You voted for Nader and then the Supreme Court decided that George Bush would be president. And then we went to many wars and things were terrible. I cited that exact incident to my wife the moment that Biden stepped down. I was like, this is the craziest thing that has happened since the Bush-Gore election. So listen, it's not like West Wing was of a moment or reflecting any sort of reality. It was a liberal fantasy. And by the way, like a very, very middle of the road liberal fantasy neoliberal as you said even at the time so just like it's fine if you want to watch it and make you feel good

but we're not applying it to real life erin swergen is not in charge of anything which was like borne out in literally three hours i uh i'm with you 100 i was not the biggest fan of the west wing even though I watched it, because I was in an embittered phase of my political life. I was like, this is all broken and everybody needs to die. And now I'm on the other side. I'm like, who cares? Let's go see Apocalypse Now with the Egyptian on Sunday night.

That's cute that you guys did that. Speaking of Martin Sheen, there's a little continuity there. Fly Me to the Moon, a movie that came out a week and a half ago that stars Scarlett Johansson and Channing Tatum. Most humans have not heard of this film.

It was produced by Apple Original Films. It was being distributed by Sony right now. It did run into the very strange buzzsaw of Long Legs,

where it got absolutely pummeled at the box office by Long Legs. This movie is a reportedly $100 million movie, period piece set during the Apollo 11

plan for launch. The preparation for Apollo 11. Yeah. And the $100 million thing I think is a little misleading because it's a

streaming movie. It was always intended to be a streaming movie. It's a lot of payment up front. So you can't really I shouldn't have

even mentioned the budget because it's irrelevant to the conversation. I mean they spent money on it. You can tell when you watch it. Yeah. And it looks good. It's directed lot of payment up front. So you can't really, I shouldn't have even mentioned the budget because it's irrelevant to the conversation. I mean, they spent money on it. You can tell when you watch it. Yeah. And it looks good. It's directed by Greg Berlanti. It's directed by Rose Gilroy. I think this is her first script. Screenplay by. Screenplay by. Yeah. Yeah. The first that's been made. She allegedly also wrote a script that Alexander Skarsgård

is directing and starring in. So. Oh, interesting. Rose Gilroy continues to have my attention. She's on the come up. Daughter of, by the way. Daughter of? Dan Gilroy and Rene Russo. Oh, interesting. Rose Gilroy continues to have my attention. She's on the come up. Daughter of, by the way. Daughter of? Dan Gilroy and Rene Russo. Oh, no kidding. Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that.

Oh, how interesting. Okay. I'm not really sure how that colors my feelings about the movie. I was a bit perplexed by this movie. This is the most baffling and random movie that I've seen in some time. Not without moments of charm. Agree. movie that I've seen in some time not without moments of charm agree but not charm that is connected in any way through the course of the 132 minutes way too long which is also also incredibly baffling incredibly indulgent and unnecessary in that way this actually feels

like it should have been a nice 99 minute yeah movie. Yeah. It effectively is, what if a woman was a marketing person? That's like the framework for the movie. You know, it's set in this period in the 1960s. Scarlett Johansson is a mysterious woman who's got an incredible ability to communicate ideas to the public for corporations and she's tapped by a government official of some kind a spook played by woody harrelson to help modernize and narrativize to the public the apollo missions and the potential trip to the moon channing tatum plays like the mission commander the person who's in charge of getting the astronauts and the flight teams ready for this flight. And it ultimately becomes a kind of rom-com about them falling in love while putting the mission on. But then there is also a conspiracy element.

Because Woody Harrelson asks the Scarlett Johansson character to make a second fake moon landing that will replace the first moon landing on TVs to ensure, you know, the American dominance and that this, the hopes and money and dreams and everything that we have, that America puts into the space race are confirmed. In the event that there's a hitch, that America puts into the space race are confirmed. In the event that there's a hitch, right? Yeah. We wouldn't see the hitch. Right.

Weird movie because it's a movie with no stakes. None. Like the moon landing happened. We know that. Right. I believe it. Okay. They do make one or two Kubrick jokes.

They do. That's pretty funny. And I did read in the interview I read with Rose Gilroy, there was a version of the script where it was Kubrick who was directing the fake. Did the estate not approve that? Is that the issue? I think it got too wacky for everybody. Okay. I would have enjoyed that.

It would have made it more of a farce. I think the movie probably needed to be more of a farce to fully work. But instead, they have to give Channing Tatum the Apollo 1 trauma, which is legitimately a trauma that is also realized in the Ron Howard film, Apollo 13, which is the last time that I will say Ron Howard's name for many months. Not me. I know. I've got election week plans. Big 2020 energy over here.

Billy Eilish is so back. It went to number one on Netflix. Yeah, I know. Number one. I know. Have you seen it? Yes. Okay. It went to number one on Netflix. Yeah, I know. Number one. I know. Have you seen it? Yes! Okay.

We did a whole podcast about it. It's absolutely reprehensible. It's not a good film. Yeah. Anyway. Ron Howard, guest of this show, seems to be backing away from that film. I bet. Trying to keep his dinner reservations in Los Angeles.

Anyway, I love Apollo 13 so deeply that anytime this movie got close to Apollo 13, I sort of teared up in this space and what we can create. And this fake American ideal thing that sort of is marketing and that Scarlett Johansson's character does create pretty

well it works on me you know yeah um it's a movie about a competent woman who's going to help men get to space this is your mission anytime that channing tatum is like in the control room in mission control even though and so here's here's like a real space amanda science corner space fact check this movie all takes place at Cape Canaveral, which is where the launches are scheduled. And I'm sure it's where the launch director would be. But the astronauts are training in Houston. Like Houston, we have a problem is the line for a reason.

So that was very confusing. You wanted more time in Texas. Well, I was just like, this is not accurate. But then also, I guess none of this movie is real. Anyway, I like it when they're in mission control or launch control. And I find that moving. Otherwise, Channing Tatum is like

completely sewn up, charmless, rough military guy. Odd use of his skills. Even though he and Scarlett Johansson also do have chemistry, even though they and scarlett johansson also do have chemistry they do even though they only get like two scenes that it doesn't it doesn't really their love story makes no sense i would say it's bumpily executed i thought scarlett johansson was pretty good in

this actually um i'm a i'm a fan of hers but i like her making movies like this and like she produced this movie. Yeah. She pushed it forward. It is the kind of movie that we say that we want. You know, it's like a period piece with movie stars and a rom-com. And it's got a fun bit of history.

It's fucking space stuff. Yeah. It's an on-paper movie. I think ultimately, you know, Greg Berlanti is arguably the most successful television producer of the last 30 years. Had a ton of success with WB and has produced shows for Netflix and other places.

The movie is, it's a movie idea with TV pacing. You know, it's like movie stars, but there's a kind of like zippy, like onto the next set piece episode feeling to it. And you can feel it when you're watching it. And so it feels kind of like like it feels very low stakes. Right. And you don't fear

for anyone's life. You don't even worry that they're not going to end up together. It doesn't have enough charm to accept that the way you would in a rom-com normally

where you're like, who cares? We know they're going to get back together but I'm laughing and I'm super involved emotionally. Right, right, right. It just kind of keeps you

at a distance and so it's definitely not bad but it really needed to be better. It also does have the air, the film problem of just like at some point this is about how marketing is important. Yeah. I mean, it's even worse for me because it's like this is a movie about how we need to market for the government. Like, that's a tough, tough couple of weeks. Given the timing.

Yeah, no. Very strange. couple of weeks given the timing yeah no very strange i guess they were trying to tie it to the apollo 11 like the mission was in july 69 which i was like doing math in my head that's 55 years bobby you got a calculator that right yeah that's right yeah um 55 so i guess they were trying to time that but that that doesn't really work as a marketing peg it's a very strange thing you know it's supposed to be originally jason bateman directing and chris evans starring in the movie and that would have been a very different movie would have been good that probably would have worked yeah uh chris evans i think can communicate sly charm a kind of like cockiness yes in a different way than channing tatum yeah channing tatum who i really like is more meathead energy. Right. And the very first scene is him storming into launch control and being like,

having to do exposition about liquid nitrogen and look upset. And the physical comedy part is very funny. And it's very obvious when he's like, you can't see it or smell it. And I was like, oh, thank you so much for the science corner. Yeah. Weird movie. It's a movie that I think will vanish into history like instantaneously. Don't you think like a lot

of old people will watch it on Apple? Old people don't have Apple. I mean, in theory, yes. Maybe they're all signing up for Presumed Innocent. No, that's a television program. Don't.

Listen. That's a series. Don't tell me. Don't say anything. I recommend that show. I have managed to avoid everything. I haven't seen the final episode. Maybe I'll hate it.

I haven't seen anything yet. Once you go on vacation, that's where I'm spending my time. I mean, Jake is cooking. I know. It's great stuff. Okay. Fly Me to the Moon.

Puzzling. It's kind of what I'm referring to where I'm like, it's super fun that Twisters is huge, but movies like this are still coming out and bombing. You know what I mean? Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is going to kind of continue to happen.

Bob, you didn't see Fly Me to the Moon right no I did not I only had time for one movie this weekend and it was Twisters and I was there I saw it in IMAX did you enjoy it

I enjoyed it quite a lot I thought it was like kinda pitched at the perfect speed exactly what I wanted yeah I did it it is a July movie

to a T exactly correct okay we have a mailbag we do uh i i thought we should just get right into the thick of it with this first question here from jose what if 2025 is not great does cinema die i mean a lot of good energy riding high just had to knock us down a peg here jose what the hell man i mean you're harsh in my mellow i came in in a great mood this is a fucked up question so here's the thing a lot of events you know many events

in the past 10 days can you divorce the practical reality of american life from but it turns out that many people could and still want to see Twisters, despite whatever the hell was going on. Yes. They won't escape. And so do I. Maybe, no matter what happens in 2025, the interest in movies will still be there.

Does that guarantee that the movies will be good? No. But there will be some good ones, and then there will be some Fly Me to the Moons, and then there will be some Furiosas, and there will be some good ones, and then there will be some Fly Me to the Moons, and then there will be some Furiosas, and there will be some Challengers, and there will be just a mix of things, you know? And the tracking people will continue to get it wrong because there's no accountability here or anywhere else.

And we're just going to keep bringing our passion to cinema. There's a few movies that I'm going to get overexcited for. Yeah. And I don't want those movies to disappoint me. I will be very surprised if it is a bad movie year. Because there's somewhere between five and ten films that we can build entire seasons around. You know, a Peel movie, a P.T. Anderson movie, a Mission Impossible movie. There's a bunch of stuff.

If they finish it. If they finish it. Speaking of, Tom has been very active. I movie, a Mission Impossible movie. There's a bunch of stuff. If they finish it. If they finish it. Speaking of, Tom has been very active. I know that's our next question. I don't want to step on that. But he's been very present recently. Well, didn't they have to pause everything because of submarine failure? I did read that.

So now he's in London. And July is sort of the social scene in London. You've got your Wimbledon. You've got your F1 stuff. Though he was notably not at F1. And Juliette Lipman has a theory that it's because only Brad Pitt was allowed to be at F1 in order to launch F1, the movie. And so you couldn't have two movie stars competing for the space. That makes sense.

I think that's right. He's more of an NASCAR guy anyway, you know? Days of Thunder. Sure, but he's also like Lewis Hamilton's best friend in every single type of air quote possible he showed up as the

Taylor Swift show like the next night so like he's been on the London scene promoting himself I guess

did you know Avatar 3 is coming out next year is it really still it's dated for December 19th 2025 I mean I bet it is himself, I guess. Did you know Avatar 3 is coming out next year? Is it really? Yeah. Still? It's dated for December 19th, 2025. I mean,

I bet it is. It was also dated. It's been dated many times. You don't think it's going to come out? I don't know. I'm giving, I'm giving the Avatar team some space.

They had a big loss. They did. They did have a big loss. I wonder if that affects the release of the film. John Landau, the producer of the film, passed away, tragically.

That's, I hadn't thought of that. I mean, F1, speaking of, coming out. I'm psyched. All these big, noisy movies. Let's do it. Thunderbolts coming out. What's that? Marvel movie.

Oh. Florence Pugh. Thunderbolt? Thunderbolts. I thought you said Thunderballs. Nope. That's my Zucker Abrams parody of Thunderbolts coming out. It's my Mad Magazine sketch.

I hope Florence Pugh got a lot of money. Mickey 17? Yeah. I'm excited. Will you be back by then? If, you know, new dad Robert Pattinson

can be back, then I'll do my best as well. Suki Wirehouse has been hitting the festivals months. Music festivals months music festivals yeah yeah should go to glastonbury uh i don't know whether she was invited but why not you know she's been performing yeah she's a big music star yeah yeah um and and doing great work and i i'm really

impressed what do you think they talk about you think it's like a pod between me and you have you ever seen like the i don't know whether it's like a pod between me and you? Have you ever seen like the, I don't know whether it's real or a meme, but it's Robert Pattinson doing an AMA. And the question is like, what's your life like outside of movies? And his response is just like, absolutely sucks. Which like whether that's real or not is just like very funny. Wow, it's so relatable. Yeah, it makes me like him so much. so I think they're probably just like you know

what should we do today let's you know I really enjoy him yeah he's great okay I don't think 2025 is gonna suck and I don't think cinema is gonna die genuinely so don't Jose I get what you're going for here but you will not get me to meltdown period

I understand what he's going for to like it seems like everybody has a lot of chips in the center of the table and that makes people a little antsy it does next question comes from Luke in regards to our

guy Tom what's your dream cruise project for the future post mission impossible a lot of rumors swirling that he wants to work with our tours again including here on this

podcast and on our and on the watch I know but are they rumors or are they just all of us he wants to work with auteurs again, including here on this podcast and on the Watch. I know, but are they rumors or are they just all of us being like, please work with Paul Thomas Anderson again, which would be great, by the way. Well, there was a report that he was going to do something with Cuaron, which I think is a good idea. And I think Alfonso Cuaron making a movie with a movie star, you know, that worked with Gravity.

You know what I mean? Like he's really, he's good at that. And I hope he, I like when he works in the mainstream as well as when he makes films like Roma. So that would be cool. You know, my dream is for him

and Tarantino to make a movie together. I think they've been circling it for 20 years and the stars never aligned and I hope, I don't know,

I don't know what Quentin is going to do and he scrapped the last thing and he's figuring out what he's going to do and I just hope Tom Cruise is a part of it.

I just think that they would make magic together. I want Tom Cruise reading great dialogue again. That's something that matters to me. I think he's one of the great deliverers

of silly dialogue in crazy movies. That's something he excels at. So that would be my dream. Like I don't want him to like join the MCU or something.

No. I mean I knew you would say Tarantino so my answer is Fincher. Just because I think that Fincher could really go to some psychological places. It's a good call. You know, like Eyes Wide Shut.

Two obsessive types. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then someone should find a way to sneak a camera on set for every minute of it because the making of would be as fascinating. Yeah, I don't think Dr. Cruise allows that anymore, but that would be fun. Yeah, I mean, I don't have like a kind of story

that I want him to be in. He's been in every kind of movie already. There's very few things he hasn't done, but as much as I love Mission Impossible, I think we're all kind of eager for him to get back to doing a pure thriller, you know, or a drama or even a comedy. I would love to see him in a comedy again.

Yeah, he can be funny. Yeah. Okay, what's next? We got a series of movie theater related questions here. First one comes from Rachel. There isn't a true 70 millimeter IMAX screen in Chicago or really anywhere close. Can you describe just how different or better or worse Dolby Cinema is? And if there's a film this year you'd travel to, potentially as far as Grand Rapids,

to see in true IMAX. Okay, so I've pulled up Google Maps, and I put in Chicago, and now I'm putting in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Two hours and 52 minutes with tolls. Wow. Can you take a boat instead? Hold on, let's look at this.

That's a long way. Is Milwaukee not close? They don't have an IMAX in Milwaukee? I mean, why do they have an IMAX in Chicago? This question says they don't have one in Chicago. It's supposed to be one of America's great towns. Well, is it just that it can project 70 millimeters? Is that the issue?

I think so. I think so. Like the purest form. It's an interesting time for this question. Like I said, I saw apocalypse now last night on 70 at the Egyptian. I saw on Friday night on a date night with my wife. Had an amazing night.

We went to Musso and Frank and then we went to go see vertigo in 70 at the Egyptian, which was awesome. And it running, it's the 70 millimeter festival at the American cinema tech here in Los Angeles, which they do every summer, which is an incredible event.

And I encourage people if they're in LA to buy tickets to the movies. It's like Tarantino movies, or excuse me, Paul Thomas Anderson movies and Hitchcock films and Lawrence of Arabia and all kinds of stuff. But there's a little reel that runs beforehand explaining just in terms of physicality,

the difference between 35 and 70 and how much bigger the canister is and the reel is and how hard it is to transfer and how there are so few prints that are available there was a an archivist from the eastman museum in rochester new york who presented the print last night who explained just like how difficult it is to trend to for these things to travel and um obviously imax is a whole other kettle of fish on top of that so this is a rarer format than I think people understand. And the fact that there isn't one in Chicago is actually not that shocking. It's sad.

I wish that these things were more readily available so that just general movie fans could see movies in these formats. We're really spoiled out here. You know, like we just have CityWalk and can always go to CityWalk if we want to go see a movie in this format. They've made alterations to the Chinese where you can see the movie in this format too there's a one other theater i can't remember what it is it has 70 out here but um for imax i don't i mean i think dune part two is absolutely worthy of driving to an imax movie but it's 177 miles that's far i mean you need to make a weekend and this is like a 2 p.m on a on a monday i'm

guessing well it's chicago maybe it's 1 p.m chicago central time it is yeah okay did you know detroit is eastern i only learned that recently when i went to detroit yeah um i'm i'm doing a geography lesson right now but that's really far i'm interested in why Grand Rapids has a 70 millimeter IMAX projector. That's cool. That must be a cool theater. I'd love to know why you can't take a boat from Chicago to Grand Rapids just across Lake Michigan. You want to know why you can't? Yeah, that's not being offered to me as an option.

Sounds like you should vote. It seems like. Seems like you should hold your senators accountable. Who said I wasn't going to? Well, I don't know. Come on, Gretchen Whitmer. I know you got other questions being asked to you right now, but we got shit to do.

That's right. That's right. Bob, how do you feel about putting two women on the ticket? You think that'll work for American politics? I feel really- Save it for Women Wednesday. Save it. Okay?

Okay, great. All right. I was about to answer, but you know, Amanda told me not to. I've never been to Grand Rapids. I like Michigan. I had a lovely time in Detroit. I didn't understand how far East it was. Also, I didn't understand how close it was to the Canadian border. And like you would get a lot of recommendations for things to do in Detroit, but they were all things in Canada. Yeah. And I was like, well, I didn't bring my passport because no one told me to. You're not allowed in Canada anymore after what happened in Montreal all those years

ago. I've never been to Canada. What? I've never been. I don't know. Nobody tell Adam and Amy. Well, I just never have my passport when the opportunity presents itself. What am I supposed to do?

What are you supposed to do? I don't think you'll fit in. I don't think you'd fit in there. Is everyone walking around with their passport in Detroit so they can go to the suburbs? Yeah, actually, one of my wife's good friends from work is from Canada and lived in Detroit for a spell and then moved back to Canada. But she frequently crosses the border for work purposes every week. Right. I mean, it's so close.

The metro Detroit area definitely seems to involve parts of Canada. You just could not have less Canadian energy. You're going to be anti whatever it is Canada is promoting. I wouldn't know, but that sounds right.

Yeah. There's just a kind of like... Well, I won't continue. I don't think there are a ton of movies where a 70mm IMAX is essential in 2024. Challengers would be fun. Dune Part two is probably the most worthy uh i think you know there's not a 70

millimeter print for civil war for example but like something big and loud like that dolby is really good dolby's really good i don't love the seats in the dolby theaters personally um as much as i like the imax seats oh, you like the Dolby ones more. Yeah, because they're more like they're the lounger ones, right? I know, it's bad for my back. It's like it lounges in a bad angle. Well, at this point, I'm lounging and then turning on my side because that's the only way I can be comfortable. So I appreciate it. I won't be able to walk for weeks if I do that. Well, I can't be comfortable any other way.

I understand. I'll keep that in mind. we can go to dolby movies this summer i mean the the main difference between dolby and imax aside from there's a lot of technological differences but like the viewership experience the main difference is that dolby often presents in much wider format while imax presents in much taller format so it depends a lot like for the movie that you are going to see or going out of your way to see how it was shot and what the aspect ratio is for what you actually want to go see it in like for for oppenheimer the first time i saw it i couldn't get the 70 millimeter imax tickets in new york city and the first time i saw it was in dolby and then my opinion of the movie or my experience with the movie rather i still liked the movie a lot the first time i saw it but my experience with the movie changed drastically when i saw an imax so when there's a movie that's made

in partnership with IMAX, shot on 70mm to be projected like that, that's the type of movie to make the trip out there for it, in my opinion, at least. I agree. There's not a lot of movies that are shot in that format. No. Because it's so hard. The cameras are so large and so

loud that no one is one of the few filmmakers actually who insists upon doing things that way you know like jordan peele does that a handful of filmmakers are doing it right now yeah but you also have to be really comfortable with the sound mix and no one famously doesn't care if you can't understand every single word crystal clear and doesn't do adr but the sets are fucking loud so it's an unusual thing like for Oppenheimer I think that would have been a good reason to drive to Grand Rapids and make a weekend out of it make it an oppie weekend you know it looks like a lovely drive like along Lake

Michigan I'm glad you were really into the cartography of this well I was given the information so I decided to go with it I mean Midwestern Midwesterners love a road trip. It's part of the American dream, right? Wait, while we're talking about film formats, did you guys see all of the people who saw Twisters and 40X and were just like, this is it. This is like the perfect marriage of content and form. Yeah.

And I'm really jealous. Even though I feel like I'm inches away from needing a bacchiotomy, like I kind of want to go to 40 X twisters. I just want to experience it. And you have to do water on. Yeah. Water on window.

Yeah. It's fine. Can you like, can you get a seat in the very back row so that you're not bothering anybody and you do like the bill selfie style? Like you talk us through what's going on for you. That sets up the next questions bobby so why don't you ask them yeah the next question comes from samuel and we got a follow-up from

scott here a lot of people ask questions like this actually which i thought was really interesting um lately moviegoers feel more like they're in their own living room and less that they are in a shared film going experience talking loudly going on their phones etc it's affected the amount of movies i go and see do you think it's a problem that could actually be affecting the box office the last part a little bit yes i do think it is affecting the box office a little bit the idea that there is no line between civility anymore in movie theaters i mean respectfully that's like the that's the old man on lawn version of say of i mean i think that the fact that it is not your home and that your home is an option that is

easier and you have more control over is affecting everything everything and every decision that people are making i agree with that so yes i think that the fact that at home you don't have to listen to people talk or you don't have to worry about whatever is one of many reasons why you watch at home over the box office. I don't think there's a strong enforcement of etiquette in movie theaters in general. And I'm not entirely sure why that is. You know, you and I see a lot of movies. I would say you see more in general. And I'm not entirely sure why that is. You know, you and I see a lot of movies. I would say you see more in theater. I see more screenings and you see more in regular theaters.

But I'm in theaters often. Probably about once a week. And the etiquette is worse, but LA I think is probably better than other places because there is a kind of like we are in the temple of cinema feeling in many of the movie theaters. It's not as good as it used to be when the Arclight was going,

where like any Arclight, everybody there was incredibly respectful. Even if you were seeing like a kid's movie at 11 a.m. Things have gotten a little worse. The AMCs and the Regals are like a little worse. There is like places like the Alamo where you can go and you can expect to not see any cell phone light. Because they're just absolutely. They're stomping around serving food.

Well, and they're just like yelling at you for 45 minutes being like, you can't do anything or else we'll have a ban. But here's the light that you can press to order your, you know, corn dog. On the flip side, I actually love when I go to see them. Like I saw the Watchers on a Sunday night at 9 p.m. And I was the only person in the movie theater watchers yeah Sunday night at 9 p.m. and I was the only person in the movie theater and that was great because I could take notes so like I actually do like being able to take notes on my phone sometimes on a movie so I most of the people

who are looking at their phones are not taking notes for the movie right they're doing something else which does beg the question why are you at a movie but I think it varies from theater to theater, from movie to movie. Certainly time and genre play a role. If you're going to see Minions or a horror movie

at 9 p.m. at a big AMC on the weekend, there's going to be more talking. There will be more involvement. Honestly, I think

that can be fun. For the right kind of movie for sure exactly yeah you know do i want it for killers of the flower moon no yeah and like charles also charles holmes when he was here said that he went to see killers of the flower moon and an alamo and like you know people are stomping around with their popcorn refills and like that that sucks in the same way that someone on their phone would be. I do think that people could be like more considerate to you, but you, you set it up, Bobby. It's like, if you sit in the back row, you know, if you sit or you sit on the, like,

if you're just, if no one's conscientious, but that's like a, a world problem, not a movie theater problem necessarily. Fully agree. I feel like it's a, it's a direct stand in for how things have dramatically changed socially in the last 10 years. Right. It's not going to change. It's not going to get better. More and more young people are being raised with like phones and the addiction to their phones.

Just like we're all addicted and increasingly it will get worse and worse. Attention spans have been getting worse for 100 consecutive years, probably 500 consecutive years. Right. So, you know, that's not going to change. But sometimes, like at Apocalypse Now last night, if anybody took out their phone, they would have been shot in the face. You know what I mean?

Totally. That was a totally different social contract in that experience. And you can still find those experiences, but you probably can't find them at Despicable Me 4. Yeah. But also, that's a movie for children. So. That we both saw.

Rep theaters, it's like nobody takes their phone out because you're really there to see the movie. But for main theater chains, honestly, I think it's a question of like how often do people go to the movie theater? If you don't go very often, you're just like distracted and you're not used to it and you're more likely to be on your phone if people were at the movie theaters more often and like one or two people said to them hey you're distracting me you would just get used to doing that again we didn't used to just be on our phones all the time throughout movies but i don't know scott asked a follow-up question do you think anything can be done to improve theater etiquette i mean at this point like cat's sort of out of the bag i guess i mean he also asked have you found yourselves preferring certain times, days, or theaters? And yes, there's like, you know,

there are movies that I see at certain theaters for a reason. And if it's really important to you, you can suss it out. I also, half the time, not half the time, but a good chunk of the time when people are on their phones, it's because they're like doing a meme

or like, you know, recording something or being a gentle minion or whatever for content. And I like the movie, like the theaters and the studios need that. So they're not probably going to discourage it. I, the theaters don't need that. The movie studios need it to market their movies. I think that there is a more global conversation.

This is something that Bellany covers a lot on the town, where there's so many movie theaters and the companies that are running them are kind of running them poorly. And despite the great weekend for Twisters, these companies are still in a kind of financial struggle. Yeah, with like no real... There's no escape hatch.

Yeah, exactly. Totally. For the situation that they're in. And so what they're not going to do is hire more employees to more aggressively enforce this etiquette. Actually, that will turn some people away from movies and they don't want to do that. Yeah. And so there's a kind of lax attitude in the non-rep theater, non-ALAMO style places that isn't great. I don't know if there's ever going to be that.

Matt has talked on his show about how there needs to be a significant reduction in the number of theaters in America. I'm not sure that it needs to be that dramatic, nor do I think it will be that dramatic. Do I think some movie theaters will continue to close over the next 10 years? Of course. There's so many, and it doesn't have the same standing in our culture that it did 25 years ago but it's more about what the theaters are actually doing to improve or not improve like hurt the experience that matters most um i think this will just get worse like i don't i don't think it'll get better yeah i mean i find it less distracting in like dolby or imax because the seats are further apart and like the rows are more spaced out but that's just like it also it also how loud is the movie

you know yeah and how much action is in it too like in twisters like would it even matter if someone had their phone out because you're it's so also intense it's not specific to movies like yes stop you know blasting your tiktok at full volume in the middle of a public space with no headphones respectfully agree no music at the beach there's another hot take for you just no one wants to hear your music okay i'm with you we came to hear the ocean not your bad playlist my version of that is stop playing music in your golf cart on the golf course sure what the fuck are you doing we're on a golf course for christ's sake i paid a lot of money to be here. Why are you listening to Bob Marley on the fourth hole? Fuck this, man.

That should be illegal. That guy should be in jail. That Bob Marley player. I mean, also, we're all, and I'm included in this. I mean, listen, I went to see Fly Me to the Moon at 12.15 on the Sunday that Joe Biden dropped out of the race. So let me, I sat last row in the corner, brightness all the way down, had that phone in my little Driggs cup in case anything happened. Were you texting with Kamala? No. Liz Cheney is the only person who's been texting me recently. And I have reported as

junk like 15 times and Liz Cheney will not be und, you know, will not be deterred. Kamala calls you. Yeah. Amanda, it's Veep. Yeah. No, of course not. I need you on the ticket. Of course not. I need you in the cabinet. So one thing we're learning is if someone calls me and is just like, I need you to do this really big thing. My impulse answer is no. My husband has asked me to reconsider running a studio for $20 million for two years. You should do it. Yeah. He was like, maybe you should say yes. And he was like, I'll do all the job care for two years and then we'll have $40 million. But in general, if you're calling-

Did you actually get the call on that one? No, but I'm like, if you're calling me, you're that desperate that it's just like a cold call being like, hey, we're offering this to you. I don't want that job. That's kind of of it seems like it's a real very groucho marks of you yeah i mean that is my that's your energy that's my energy for sure agreed that's why you can't go to canada okay bob what's next question bj asks what's the worst movie theater snack you can purchase at a major cinema chain we've heard about what your favorite snacks are. How about the ones that you absolutely will steer clear of? I have a very simple answer for this. Sean recently exposed me to the world of,

let me see if I can get this right, sweet tart ropes? Oh, yes. Was that, is that the correct? Yeah, they're like strings. Yeah. And so there were a number of. We went to go see Godzilla X Kong.

In Screen X. In Screen X. And I got these. And in addition to me being like, okay, why aren't you using all three sides of this wall all the time um there were and and not having had a sweet tart in probably 35 years there were some real textural challenges from the conversion of that chalky original sweet tart to the rope and then how the sweetness and the tartness were deployed i believe there was also i'm sorry to say a jelly at the center of the of rope. And that was a bridge too far for me personally. Sweet tart ropes are fire. Don't know what you're talking about.

Wait, can I tell? Hold on. Can I tell one more story? So when you're pregnant, you get tested for a special form of, for like gestational diabetes. It's a test that you all have to take. And normally they make you drink this really gross drink. I asked my doctor if I could do something else. And he was like, yeah, of course, just find 50 grams of glucose. It's like, it's on the package, do whatever. So the number of snacks that Sean consumes regularly that were so eligible for my diabetes test was like, was like truly alarming.

Okay. Twizzlers, incredibly efficient. Sour Patch Kids, incredibly efficient. I ate 60 Skittles, which I have to tell you texturally, I wasn't prepared for at 9am before the test. But I think that the straws really, like it could have been three and then you would have been ready for the diabetes test. Sugary movie candy that is attempting to replicate the flavor of fruit while having no fruit in it is the best food in the universe. That's my, that's my strong take. I mean, I like it too, but it's just kind of, it's pretty overwhelming the quantity with which you're consuming it.

You needed like 10 Sour Patch Kids. Maybe that's not true. Maybe you needed 20 Sour Patch Kids. For the test. For the test. Yeah. Yeah. But that's not true. Maybe you needed 20 Sour Patch Kids. For the test. For the test. Yeah. But that's like, you regularly house like 50. I do.

Yeah. Okay. It's my vice. I mean, I don't use drugs. I don't drink very much anymore. You know, I'm addicted to movies and candy. These are the things that I, this is who I am. The worst snack is nachos.

A couple of reasons for this. One, if you're buying nachos from a movie theater, get help. Two, the cheese is gross and smells. Three, it's loud. No loud snacks at the movies. What are we doing? No crunching. I mean, but like there's a whole packaging problem as well.

You guys, you got to open your movie snacks. But listen, when I went to see Zone of Interest and people were just sitting there trying to open their bag of peanut M&Ms or whatever, I was like, I don't think you understand what you've come to experience. That wasn't ideal. Yeah.

That kind of reminds me of the movie pod idea, not a movie podcast, but the actual like little terrarium that you get where you're like enclosed in a movie theater so you can't hear

anybody else's situation. But that's stupid. Then that's just like you can get your little, what were the goggles called? Well, the Apple Vision Pro. But you don't have to wear goggles. You just like in a little glass.

You're just in like a claustrophobic space with no windows and no connection to the world. Just stay in your ADU. That's just a drive-in movie theater. You just described a drive-in. That's what I was going to say. It's more of a drive-in,

which I think is actually kind of fun. Because you know you're surrounded by humanity and you are having a communal experience, but you don't have to deal with the vagaries of other people's bullshit. However, I only think it makes sense for a movie like Zone of Interest. I don't actually want to know there's anybody near me while I'm watching Zone of Interest. True. So it's a rare... I wouldn't want to watch Godzilla Kong that way, for example.

I just think nachos... And also, you know, nachos... I mean, the nachos are... Like a great plate of nachos and also, you know, nachos. I mean, the nachos are... Like a great plate of nachos at a restaurant or at home is awesome. Yeah, but you gotta demand more from the chip. You gotta demand more

from the cheese. You're just really not getting a high quality experience. I agree with you. I still... This sweet tart ropes haunt my dreams, but... I mean, they're like evil,

but I'm addicted to that kind of stuff. Why do you need the jelly in the middle no i have a complex relationship with gelatin in general you know with gelatin i went to uh i told you i went to musso and frank and one of the things on the menu was a jellied consomme oh yeah and um we didn't order that yeah that was a whole trend of of cooking that in like 1957 yeah and also the french do a lot of things in aspect and whatnot musso though as good as ever yeah just a home run great night okay what's the next question the next question comes from alex this is the last in our

kind of run a movie theater questions here what is your ideal seat location in a movie theater and does that change depending on the type of movie you're watching and who you're watching it with you know my seat i mean we agree on this the aisle fairly far back yeah yeah yeah preferably left side aisle maybe like five rows from the back yeah if it's a bigger you know if it's a very bombastic movie or it's going to be an emptier theater, I might sit a little closer, but always I'll. I really, I need my exit. Yeah, I'm the same way.

Occasionally it's nice to just sit in that classic, you know, 10th row, dead center, but I don't need it to feel like I'm getting the right perspective on the movie. But we, I mean, we always are holding, camping out and grabbing seats for each other yes the exact same spot as often as possible that's that's eight years of hard-earned potting

together i'm a right side aisle loyalist so just right side i'm on the other side from you guys yeah i don't know why that is i think maybe my neck hurts when i turn the other way when we went when we saw the beekeeper you were on the left side well you bought the seats did i did i grab the seat why did i think you were sitting there without me like did you get there before me or no you got there way before me you were there for all of the maria menounos you know i missed that i was coming from a different movie i was coming from roadhouse oh that's what it was you were in a different movie yeah right right right okay but i'm fine with either but definitely aisle remember the beekeeper that was sick. People were getting that in on the plane. I saw some people beekeeping.

That's like the number one. I mean, never forget beekeeper zone of interest guy. Yeah. Ferrari beekeeper zone of interest. Yeah. What an alpha. Was that like Josh Shapiro? Okay.

Next question. You're coming from Philly, right? No, that time I was from Paris. Slightly different than Philadelphia. It was Macron watching Beekeeper and Zone of Interest. Yeah, and then he saved the Republic. Okay, what's next? Next question comes from Eric.

Who are some young stars that while talented and with a great track record, you think still haven't shown us fully what they're capable of or been given the chances to and then what types of projects would you like to see them in interesting time for this question because i feel like we we have the new class right yeah like it actually the answer is everyone who dies in the first 10 minutes of twisters that's a good call there are that's like a lot of people yeah and even the even glenn powell's crew in general i'm like i kind of people yeah and even the even Glenn Powell's crew in general

I'm like I kind of want to see those people lead more movies I felt like I want to see Brandon Perret I want to see Sasha Lane like get a few more shots

at stuff I wrote down Taylor Russell who was in Waves and Bones and All and I feel like

has shown flashes and auteurs like her but maybe hasn't been given a kind of mainstream thing that you want to see you wrote down a couple of good ones too yeah i post i basically wrote down possible james bonds in uh dev patel and lashana lynch who are just jump off the screen in every single thing that they're in and sometimes they're in in good things and sometimes they're the best part of messy things um but you just want to see more of them i like those pics yeah i like both of them neither of them will be bond unfortunately but i like where like where your head's at can i say really quickly i'd really like to see a whole

movie built around mahal. Like, she, in industry, is incredible, but there's like three years between seasons of that show, and so I feel like it's not quite solidifying her as like the on-screen presence

that I think she could be. I think she's really good in Bodies, Bodies, Bodies, and Leave the World Behind. She is, but I think neither of those movies

are like, about her as a star making performance. I think she's doing really interesting character things, but I think neither of those movies are like about her as a star making performance. I think she's doing really interesting character things and I think that she is definitely capable of like a more, I guess just a louder performance.

But who knows? So it's Dragons ends and then Industry Season 3 begins. I'm so ready. I'm ready to be HBO's Sunday Night Queen come August. Seems like Marissa

Abella and Kit Harington have some circumstances in that series. I'll bet that they do. So Thrones, you know, like it persists. Kit Harington, do you enjoy him? He seems okay. Remember when he was in Eternals and they were like, he's just like some super-powered woman's boyfriend. But then at the end

they were like, he's just kidding. He's the Black Knight. I don't remember that. I don't remember that either. Eternals, what a disaster. But Eternals is also when Harry Styles shows up, right? It is, yeah. Yeah. I remember that.

Do you think Harry Styles is in Deadpool and Wolverine? That would be exciting. We get your interest up. Yeah. Eternals is the one with Brian Tyree Henry, right? That Andy loved,

that performance? Yeah. Yeah, that's where he's the Oppenheimer of the world. Yeah, he has to go back and revisit Hiroshima. It's really upsetting. Really great. Super cool. Very normal movie.

Tremendous actor. Love all of his work. Brian Tyree Henry is another person. That'd be a good answer for this. Who is amazing in every single thing that he is in, even if it's Godzilla versus Kong. Yep. Would be nice to see a movie built around him.

He is a classical character actor. He basically is doing the Philip Seymour Hoffman playbook right now and doing it very well. What was the very small movie he did with Jennifer Lawrence? Causeway. Yeah. I mean, he's still the supporting ultimately and was nominated for supporting actor

in that movie. But a movie built around him would be really interesting. And maybe hopefully he'll be able to do what Hoffman did which is get a lot of indies made off of his name with him at the center of them.

Remember when he just absolutely grabbed if Beale Street could talk and that was just an electric 20 minutes? Yeah, that was 10 minutes. 15 minutes, yeah, exactly. He owns the movie.

The next question is from Chris. I can confirm this is not Chris Ryan. Would you rather see a Bond movie directed by Wes Anderson or Paul Thomas Anderson? This question did my head in. For me, it's pretty straightforward, Paul Thomas Anderson.

There's something fun about Bond officially becoming a style den for a filmmaker and not having to play by the rules and while pta obviously has a strong personal style and themes that he's interested in and i bet he could find a way to work his themes of like family money power also dumb guy at the center of uh but you know totally i think i think he could do it i think it would more closely resemble in look a typical James Bond movie yeah whereas Wes Anderson it would just be like okay maybe this would be an okay James Bond movie but the gloves are off on James Bond that this is a much more fungible kind of project which I think is exciting

yeah one thing I worry about with Bond when they they cast the next Bond, is they're just going to cast... Aaron Taylor-Johnson? Or Jack O'Connell or whatever. You know, like a handsome British white guy. Jack O'Connell. He could do it. That would be fun. He could do it.

That was the two good... No, the 30 good seconds of Back to Black. He was great in that. Yeah. I agree. They'll find somebody who looks like those guys. And there'll be some adventures. And maybe there'll be some real pathos,

you know, like there was in Skyfall. But for the most part, it's just going to be an action-adventure movie with a lot of style. I'd like to see them break it up a little bit. They're not going to do that. Obviously, it's too valuable. It's too important.

It's too indebted to the Broccoli legacy. But if they did Wes Anderson, it would mean something. Whereas if they did Paul Thomas Anderson, obviously, he's a superior filmmaker to Sam Mendes, but like they already did like, we have a prestigious filmmaker who is a really great with actors and you know,

like, you know what I'm saying? Yeah. But I really like Skyfall. So if they want to make it something else even better than Skyfall, I'm open to it. You know what it is? If PTA makes one,

then we get one less PTA movie. Okay. Right. That he writes from his sick mind. Just putting that out there. You know what it is? If PTA makes one, then we get one less PTA movie. Okay. Right? That he writes from his sick mind. Just putting that out there. Speaking of 70 millimeter, I have tickets to see

Inherent Vice August 4th. See you at the movies. Okay. Let's go. Cop one. I think it starts at 10 p.m. too, so I'll be getting home

roughly 2 a.m. Okay. I'll be asleep. That sums it up. What's next? Let's do like three or four more. Yeah. The next question comes from Evan.

Which straight to streaming pandemic era movie would have been the biggest hit had it been more normal times? And which would you pick for a wide re-release? I mean, Tenet is number one, obvious. Speaking of drive-ins yeah and they already re-released it too they did this past year

they did seemed like people enjoyed that it was I put Tenet first on the list too the thing is a lot of people don't like Tenet it's very it's probably the most controversial

Nolan movie the most divisive Nolan movie yeah a lot of people who are wrong we really liked it all three of us liked it yeah but I don't I wonder if it would have been like significant maybe it would have been

would have been 10 times as big I think so big I don't really know the Nolan crowd is loyal and vast yeah and also seeing it all together not in movie pods or cars in our case would have just like brought together sort of the mass psychosis of what's happening here and how does it all work

and everything that kind of drove us all crazy individually but um i i think it would have heightened the experience also robert pattinson forever can i just tell you um there are free ports in the new kate atkinson book that i read on vacation kate atkinson being my favorite living novelist so she was inspired by tenant i definitely think that she saw tenant and i definitely think she saw thought it was very silly but uh i was very excited to see the free ports and i recommend the book tenant was the lowest grossing nolan movie since batman begins well there was a pandemic there was dunkirk made 500 million dollars worldwide did you know nolan is a story creator and producer on man of steel

is that the one pick zack snyder is that the one that's coming out soon with corinth's well that's the one that came out and no that's the one that came out in 2013. No, that's the one with Kevin Costner as Superman's dad. And then they raise everything. And then it's bad. And we all were really upset. Have you seen that David Corn Sweeper is doing ads for some sort of like biotech, you know, macros, bulking, improve your body type thing?

No. No. Yeah. Film updates is on the case. CR told me he thought that Twisters would have worked better if Anthony Ramos and Corn Sweat had switched roles. I think I agree. I agree. Probably.

That's tough for Anthony Ramos, though. Yeah. Anthony Ramos was obviously very good in the CharlieXCX video that they did. I didn't see that. Yeah, the three of them did Apple. I learned yesterday that Kamala is brat. I really enjoyed that. I was like, Charlie's doing it right.

I listened to brat on the way to work today. I'm too old and too pregnant to be having a brat summer, but I respect everyone who is. Charlie is not Gen z okay she's millennial i just want that i don't want to put that out there just all the gen z's who want to claim charlie like we've been here since 2013 okay it's true it's this is not new all right maybe even 2012 when did when did boom clap come out that be it. Long enough for it to have been sold to... The Fault in Our Stars, right?

That was what it was from? No, what's the Chinese fast food place that's in all of the airports? Panda Express? Panda Express, yeah. I just vividly remember during the Oscars a Panda Express ad, but using Boom Clap for their firecracker shrimp. That's tight.

I was like, wow, get that money, Charlie. Yeah, True Romance came out in 2013. When did I Love It come out? And Nuclear Seasons came out in 2011. I Love It, Iconopop, that was 2012. That was a brat summer for yours, truly. Was it? Oh, yeah.

It's been a brat summer for a long time for you. It's kind of an eternal brat summer. Yeah, that's what I'm trying to... I'm trying to stay close to my brat in my brat summer inside. I like Charlie XCX. I know that makes me sound like an absolute psychotic 42-year-old man on a podcast.

I enjoy this music, but I do. I've always really liked her. Other movies that struggled and maybe shouldn't have during the pandemic. Two Disney animated movies, Soul, which I think would have done better. And Raya and the Last Dragon, which I think would have done a lot better. And that movie, like, it felt like didn't happen. And then I went to a birthday party with my daughter for three-year-olds. And it was Raya and the Last Dragon themed.

Wow. And I was like, whoa whoa this is a deep cut so like this young girl found this on Disney Plus and just fell in love with it and I remember watching it during COVID and being like

this is really good this is really well done and feels a little bit more like classical Disney animation even though it's you know in the 3D style and I think that movie

would have been a bigger deal because it's really well made Malignant the James Wan horror movie which would have been like oh fuck did it's really well made. Malignant, the James Wan horror movie, which would have been like, oh, fuck, did you see that? But it was day and date on Max because of Project Popcorn. Yeah. Remember that? Yeah, I remember Project Popcorn.

Where's Jason Kalar right now? Tweeting. Is he tweeting? Yeah. Really? Yeah. Haven't seen that. Haven't been keeping up with that.

He retweeted some Lucas Shaw Netflix chart. Is Project Popcorn brat? Is it brat? Is it good? Okay. That's a good question. And we should be the arbiters. Maybe that should be our YouTube spinoff show.

Is it brat? Is it brat? That's our hot ones. That's good. Is Deadpool and Wolverine brat is the question everyone is wondering. And we will answer it on Friday on this podcast. I put Palm Springs on this list, which did, I mean, that made a ton of money out of Sundance.

And many people watched and enjoyed it on Hulu, but we all could have had fun at the movies. Do you think it will, I guess it was set for theatrical because it was Neon and Hulu, right? I don't remember because. I think it was. Yeah. I think that was the original plan and then it just went straight to Hulu.

Okay, Bob, what's the next question? The next question comes from Scott. What is it about modern children's entertainment that makes it so popular with people who are grown adults? How could I encourage my friends to see movies made for adults like Challengers, The Bike Riders, Long Legs, et cetera? You tell them, Scott.

This is your thing. Preach preach on this is your whole thing no i don't know the answer what is it you're the one who's just like let me go watch raya and the dragon solo during the pandemic no i watched it at home with my wife that was normal we were i think i think eileen was pregnant that was okay that wasn't creepy um i there's nothing that can be done generation of kids grew up obsessed with movies and then all they wanted was all the stuff that were not movies to become movies. They started making them movies

and started getting power and control. I talked about this around the release of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. Star Wars, Marvel Comics, DC Comics, Jurassic Park, Harry Potter, all that stuff that were fascinations of young people. And then they all grew up and got big enough to make their own movies. And then they just started making the same shit.

They started making iterations of things that they'd seen before. This also applies to Pixar. Inside Out 2 is just as big with 12-year-olds and 35-year-olds as it is with 6-year-olds. That didn't used to be the case. Those movies were originally made for kids between the ages of 3 and 9. And now they're made for kids who are in their 40s like me. So it's just

not going to change. That's how it is now. I mean and it works. Inside Out 2 is going to be huge. Deadpool and Wolverine is going to be huge. Why would they stop? Encourage your friends because challengers, bike riders and long legs are good. And if you want to see an entertaining

thoughtful cool well made movie yeah go see those movies you know and Deadpool and Wolverine do not forget is brat

just don't forget that well I thought you weren't going to reveal that until Friday you said we'll tell you on Friday now you just spoiled the whole episode

the marketing of Deadpool and Wolverine is brat yeah okay which one is more brat though which of those characters clearly Deadpool I haven't seen any of the Deadpool installments yet so I'm not qualified Deadpool and Wolverine is brat. Yeah. Okay. Which one is more brat though? Which of those characters? Clearly Deadpool.

I haven't seen any of the Deadpool installments yet. So I'm not qualified to say. Great. Ryan Reynolds is not brat. But the Deadpool character is. Is Blake Lively brat? A hundred percent. Okay.

Do you, do you not agree? I don't know. I'm giving away too much by saying this. And my wife will be mad that I share this but I'm going to share it yeah we had a conversation this weekend

where she was like do you think Blake Lively has a hard time raising her children like we do like that was the specific person she asked me about because it was like

people who have all the money in the world who are incredibly successful and they have four and she's like every time I see her it's a picture of her surrounded by her children

and she's like laughing and her hair is flowing in the wind. Right, right, right. Which is all staged, but that's true. Of course. And that was what we talked about. That could be a YouTube pivot for you. We just do photo shoots like that of you just laughing with your hair blowing in the wind.

With Alice. Yeah. I cut my hair, so it's not going to flow in the wind anymore, unfortunately. You think she's doing it all herself? No childcare? I don't. No nannies? I think that she has she has nannies okay i think she would tell you she has nannies she's not one of those that's trying to hide it i i she has a lot of resources and a lot of help um and that's great i'd like having a kid too but i don't know if i don't know if having four children before the age of 35 or whatever can be brat. Oh, wow.

But this was actually... How unfeminist of you. I know. And then the cut did a whole piece about this and all sorts of things. But Blake Lively seems too confident to be fully brat. Too confident? Mm-hmm. I mean, brat, there is some anxiety on the album.

Wow. You are removing Blake Lively's anxiety. She's not allowed to have anxiety? Well. Because she's such a glamorous woman? She has not projected her anxiety. She's projecting laughing care in the wind. Let me point you to the film The Town.

There's a character with anxiety. I don't know if that's what that is. Respectfully. Or it's addiction. I it's both the town and inside out too so you were a gossip girl fan yeah of course for the first couple seasons yeah and powerful stuff what about a simple kind of favor wasn't it just a simple favor um it was a simple favor yeah a simple kind of life i don't know she has another movie coming no no but speaking of i don't album is that what a simple kind of life is that jessica simpson's sister's album are you thinking about a simple life the show with paris hilton and nicole ritchie my head hurts so much this has been going on way too long

blake lively has a movie coming out this summer. It's like one of the Colleen Hoovers. A Simple Kind of Life is a no doubt song. Okay. Well, there you go. Yes. I don't think that Colleen Hoover can be brat. And I also don't think that anyone who stars in a workday commercial,

as Gwen Stefani does, can be brat. Is that true? Yes. Apparently you were not watching as much golf as I was this weekend. I was. I missed that commercial. Yeah. She's one of the new faces of Workday.

When will we talk about It Ends With Us? I don't know. I don't have it on the spreadsheet, but we should talk about it. Well, I guess we should see it first. I guess maybe on the Sing Sing episode. Okay. Movies we missed. Yeah. Even though it's coming out that day. Okay. Movies we missed. Yeah.

Even though it's coming out that day. Well. But that's kind of a big deal movie, right? We'll see. Okay. What's next, Bob?

Let's do two more. All right. Next question. This comes from CJ. Are there any names for your children that you will not consider because they remind you

of a film character? I do have an answer for this because I'm in the process of naming a child. Or I, you know, I guess it's a process. It is. It's a conversation. Absolutely. I don't know if this is exactly what CJ means, but one name that I actually really like, my father-in-law's name is Richard.

And so I was like, OK, what about Richard? And then Dickie, Dickie Greenleaf. And then my husband was like, first of all, let's just examine the fate of Dickie Greenleaf. And also, you can't send the kid out. So we're not doing Dickie because apparently Jude Law in Talented Mr. Ripley is not what we want to model the kid after. No, but I want to help raise Dick Barron.

Oh, I know. Dick Barron is, that guy is a, he's a general in the Korean War. I know, that's the other thing is that you, I know, you always have to think about, like, what will the abbreviations be? Because I can't be the mom being like, no, I'm sorry, it's Dickie on the playground. Dick Barron is the president of Yale. Right. Well, would that be a good outcome? I'm not really sure.

Dick Barron is a CEO. Yeah, I was like, he gave J.D. Vance a degree. So, I, so Dickie from, Dickie Greenleaf is the answer. But great, great movie. Maybe it's time for my annual talent to Mr. Ripley rewatch. I'm looking at the names that we discussed. I have a list of the names that Eileen and I discussed. I will not reveal all those names.

But number four on the list is a name that we would never do for this reason. And it's Greta. Because of Greta Gerwig.wig oh and how she is like what you don't want to do is be like on the playground in los angeles and they're like oh your daughter's name is greta is a really nice name though i love the name yeah it's a beautiful name that's good but we didn't go in that direction yeah you did a good job thanks thanks yeah looking for something classical. Yeah. Okay. Last question. Why don't we close with this final question here from Busboom. I'm a high school English teacher, mostly seniors, and I frequently have students interested

in becoming more literate about film. What books would you recommend to help them watch movies thoughtfully and intelligently? I thought this could be a nice chance to talk about the Sidney Lumet episode again. Yeah. I mean, making movies is, not to spoil the next episode, but just to the light. And so wonderfully and clearly written and explanatory without being wonky or didactic. So unpretentious and undidactic. I tried to not bother you on vacation

as much as possible. But one day I did have to text you and just be like, this book is so good. This is like the best way to understand how movies are made.

It's not necessarily the best way to understand like how to watch movies that you can appreciate the work that goes into them. I think understanding how to watch movies and interpret them

is really more like a critical form. So, you know, you have like obvious books like The Great Movies by Roger Ebert where you can just look at somebody who just like really easily, almost seamlessly communicates what he thinks works and doesn't work in a film. And then there's like much more academic kind of approach to like moving more towards like Andrew Sarris or Jay Hoberman. Like their books are really really great with that and then there's like a lot of technical stuff

that you can read too you know like Walter Murch's book In the Blink of an Eye is about editing this is a Ralph Rosenbaum book about editing that I think will help you

like understand the rhythms of a movie and how a rhythm is set watching Apocalypse Now last night I was like this is unlike any of you like understand the rhythms of a movie and how a rhythm is set watching apocalypse now last night i was like this is unlike any of coppola's other movies it's the only movie of his that really feels like a dream i guess i guess dracula is a little bit like that bram stoker's dracula but that's a something he was able to conjure like out of the edit out of probably the craziest movie production of all time the more books like you read about how filmmakers make those choices i think the more

rewarding it is to watch movies and to spend your time thinking about them yeah the only thing i would add is it and this is more it's movie to movie dependent but and also i suppose biography to biography dependent but a biography or a book about a filmmaker or an actor or something that takes you behind the scenes of okay so this is what it's like when we were shooting whether it's casablanca or you know working girl i'm thinking of the great mike nichols biography by mark harris or um this and you you get a lot of anecdotes about the movies that will stoke both a personal connection that might exist to the movie, but kind of also then open the eye of being like, oh, so this is how a set works. And these are how some of these decisions are made.

And that can then walk you down the path of learning about how editing works. I've been having a good experience with Decoding John Ford, which is the new season of the Plot Thickens podcast that TCM produces. This season is really, really good because John Ford is one of those historical figures who if you're just a casual movie fan, you know that name, you know that he's important.

He's the most awarded director in Academy history. He's launched Johnne's career like you probably know the outline you know um you might know stagecoach you might know uh you know the searchers but the the pod does a really good job of both telling you about him as a person and how he evolved into his career and then what makes him a special filmmaker so i totally agree with what you're saying that if you just read about people and what they did that will open your mind um i mean there's so many books it's overwhelming i think i'm i like the idea of like encouraging more book reading on the show because it's in tandem with how i got obsessed with movies i was

just thinking about this for the rewatchables like when i go back and reread a book that I read when I was 15 to prep for an episode of the rewatchables. And it reminds me of like why I'm in this chair right now, like how I got here. So as much as reading is passe in our culture right now, like it really can help understand this stuff a lot better. Some other books that you have recommended over the years that maybe if you haven't been listening to the pod for all that long,

easy riders and raging bulls has come up on the pod a bunch of times but if you're a new listener i think that is a good place to start too i think it's funny to imagine high school students reading like collected essays and criticism of pauline kale because i think it would just kind of blow their mind like yeah i mean i'm like i let's start the high school students with ebert you know before they go to harris or kale yeah i mean i i i but i did do that in high school students with Ebert, you know, before they go to Harris or Kale. Yeah. I mean, I,

I, but I did do that in high school. I did read Pauline Kale, start to read her books in high school. And it did, it blew my hair back, you know, the fact that,

and she writes so aggressively and emotionally about movies, but she's such an eloquent writer. She's such an incredible conveyor of her feelings. Well, in particular to the point about becoming literate about film, like knowing that there is like a conventionality to the way that you can watch film. And there's also people who are like intentionally like, I'm not going to feel that way about the canon is important, I think.

Yeah. And that's the thing is like you might find her takes to be crazy or whatever. But that's fun. Yeah. It's fun to watch somebody fearlessly denounce something. When you learn more about her, you learn there was a lot of axe grinding and she was very intrinsically involved in the world of Hollywood. And that goes to your point about Easy Riders, Raging Bulls too. Scene books like that are also really important because they help you understand why movies are

being made. Not just who made them or how they made them, but why they happened in the first place. Mark Harris's books also do that really well. I love those like snapshots of a period of a year, of 12 years of, you know, an era in a filmmaker or in a studio's history. Also the one other one that I always talk about is John Dunn's Studio, John Gregory Dunn's Studio, which is an incredible book.

Monster is a really good book too about his writing screenplays with Joan Didion but Studio is like the kind of book that will never happen again where he got inside of a movie studio for an extended period of time

and watched how the sausage got made. And that's also really instructive. We haven't said William Goldman yet which just has totally influenced the name of this podcast

and also the way that we all read and think about movies. The way we talk about them on the show for sure where it's this collision of this podcast and also the way that we all read and think about movies. The way we talk about them on the show, for sure. Where it's this collision of like art and commerce and stardom and, you know,

I think people sometimes are like, why are you guys so vapid about twisters or whatever? And I'm like, this is fucking Hollywood. This is how it works. Like, we're interested in Hollywood and that's why we talk about things this way.

The number one golden book that's come up on the pod is Adventures in the Screen Trade. If people are like, searching for titles specifically. Yeah, yeah. That's definitely the place to start with him but i would read what lie did i tell i would read the big picture i would read all of his books all of his books are amazing good question i feel like we get a version of that question every year but it's a good question to ask because we have always just read something or reminded of something i've

read making movies like 25 years ago and reading it again, I'm like, yeah, this is really, really exciting. So good. Um, thanks for all the great questions to the listeners. Um, thanks. Thanks to Bobby for his work as producer of this show. Uh, we're doing Deadpool and Wolverine.

I mean, are you ready? No, but I will be. Do you think, do you think you'll bring Charlie XCX brat energy to the episode episode or do you think you'll just bring brat energy to the episode? I haven't decided yet. We'll have to see.

Great. It's exciting. We'll see you later this week. you