The Rewatchables - ‘L.A. Confidential’ With Bill Simmons, Chris Ryan, Sean Fennessey, and Andy Greenwald

Episode Date: March 31, 2026

As we close out CR Month, the guys gather together for one more pod that is all very off the record, on the QT, and very hush-hush. They take a trip to the Formosa Cafe and revisit Curtis Hanson’s ���L.A. Confidential’ starring Russell Crowe, Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey, and Kim Basinger. Producers: Craig Horlbeck, Chia Hao Tat, Eduardo Ocampo, and Matt Pevic Join us in San Francisco for a live taping of ‘The Rewatchables’ on April 8th! Tickets go live on April 1st HERE Find what you're looking for. https://www.amazon.com/firetv/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is brought to you by Adobe Firefly, the all-in-one creative studio with AI-powered image and video generation. Built for today's creative process, Firefly helps you generate, edit, and experiment fast. Because the asks aren't getting smaller. And the timelines? Ooh, yeah, still tight. With all the best creative AI models in one place, Firefly brings your ideas to life. Learn more at Adobe.com slash Firefly. Before we start today's show, I have an announcement. It's been a while since we've done a live rewatchables on the road. That's my fault.

I'm just lazy. I'm sorry. But we are finally, it's never happened before. We're coming to San Francisco. We've never done a live show in San Francisco. And that's all about to change because I am bringing CR. I'm bringing a band. I'm bringing Mallory.

And we are doing a live episode of basically. Instinct, which we did a million years ago, I think during COVID. We're running it back. It's going to be way more fun. We have more categories. And one of the more fun movies to talk about from the last 35 years for a variety of reason. I'm not even sure it's legal to have Van Mallory in the same place talking about Basic Instinct. We'll find out. We will be at the ACT's Tony Remby Theater, Wednesday, April 8th. And you can join us. Tickets go on sale. Wednesday, April 1st, 10 a.m. Pacific. All you have to do is head to the ringer.com slash events for more information. The ringer.com

slash events and you can see us. Wednesday. San Francisco April 8th. There's a Giants game that day. There's a, there's a Warriors game the next day. We're right in the middle of it. We're going to see in San Francisco. This episode of the rewatchables is presented by TikTok. The online world moves fast. That's why TikTok approaches teen safety with families in mind from the start on TikTok. Teens get over 50 built-in protections right when they join. Their accounts are private by default for those under 16 direct messages are turned off.

Only friends can comment on their videos. When safety comes first, discovery can follow. Learn more at TikTok.com slash guardians guide. The rewatchables is brought to you by the Ringer podcast network. we're on a new studio we have in Hollywood, which allows us to have four people on the rewatchables again, four people who have never done a video podcast together, even though we have all worked together,

really since the early 2010s, Sean Fantasy, hosted the big picture, Andy Greenwald, Chris Ryan, you guys did a little podcast called Hollywood Perspectus in the Grantland Days, and now we're here.

You do the watch together. Greenwald's always doing stuff. It's the end of CR month. We couldn't have CR. month without you, Andy. I really appreciate that. This is the only thing I wanted. This is the quartet. This is really meaningful to me. This is my L.A. Quartet, actually. I have to say,

there are not three men on God's Earth who have done more to celebrate the greatness of Chris Ryan publicly than these three men. We have really gone to puff and beyond. It's like a... See our celebration. I want Vanne of the ABC names.

There's so that, you know, Chuck Gloucesterman, he loves you. This trio, we love Chris Ryan. Are we bringing Bernthal in now? hour after the Well, to go back to the start of the rewatchables, the first, the early seeds of the ringer,

which was basically my backhouse, 2015, and we started my podcast, and we started the watch with Chris and Andy, and it got to the point where they would just kind of

go through my house. My dogs wouldn't even bark anymore. You were doing the watch. And that was also where the rewatchable started because we did the anniversary heat December 2015.

And now we've all circled back. this is the last episode of CR Month. What did you think of the choices, Andy? I thought they were amazing, that they were representing the man himself. I thought it was a little, we were just discussing,

it's a little chalk at the end. Yeah. You could have gotten a little more creative. What was the one you really wanted that you didn't get from CRMuth? Like, what would have been the craziest wildest one? For you, that would have been realistic. Rise of Skywalker.

Just run it back. I'd be good. Some of your favorites. No, I mean, I think we all thought you were going to do heat again. But I don't know if there's anything left to say there. No, we'll save it. There's plenty to say.

I have a lot of thoughts. I have more thoughts than I've ever had. Was the live show that you did about heat considered? No. No. No. That was a B. That's not canon.

That was just an excuse to have Christo Pacino impersonations for an hour and a half. I think I got to go back in the lab with Pacino. Do you think you're going to take a step back for the next month? I asked him about this and he was like, what are you talking about it? You know, I was like, am I getting put out to pasture?

Money never sleeps. This isn't the gold watch. Are you going to be pesty if you're going to be a gold watch? Yeah, that's right. Well, coming up next, a request from CR, L.A. Confidential. 1997, Sean, Titanic, Boogie Nights, Goodwill Hunting, LA Confidential, and Jackie Brown. We used to make things in this country. I'll have you know I have the exact same list right in front of me.

1997 movies, boogie nights, Jackie Brown. I have others, but we can talk. But those five specifically just feels very rooted in 97. And then this one, Greenwald, there's, the revisionist history of 97 now is that this should have won the Oscar and not Titanic. So why don't we just start there? For sure, yeah, this was definitely the critics pick.

It was definitely the burgeoning college student who wished they were critics pick. We all felt very smug for loving this movie and caping up for it. But I don't think there was ever a moment when it seemed like it was like, I mean, it was never going to win against a juggernaut like Titanic, but it wasn't even like a hit, was it?

It was more of a critically, a critically well-regarded modest smash, the type that they don't make anymore. It made 126, which I was surprised by it. It kind of hit that people used to be satisfied with. Yeah. It did pretty well, but it just was up against the most successful film

in the history of movies. So, by comparison. But you were in the Academy at that time? I mean, I was a huge, huge Titanic supporter. I think my work speaks for itself, the way I whipped votes. during that time period. Big call girl guy.

So this movie resonated with him immediately. Why this one? Why did this have to be in Sierra Month? I think that this is kind of a perfect Hollywood movie. It's interesting because I have a kind of different relationship than people may assume or you might assume, which is like, I love it, but I love it conditionally because I come to it from the novels.

I come to it from the Elroy books. And it's quite different than the novel. Elway has like a weird relationship to it. I think he knows it made him a lot of money and made his name go even further than it already had. But I think he also is like, they left out a lot of the plot and a lot of the sort of soul of the book

and kind of sanded down the edges. But that being said, like we said with Fargo, I think I was like, Fargo is a five-tool movie. It's like, this is a five-tool movie too where it's the acting, the writing, the cinematography, the direction, and the music are all like completely in sync,

completely in harmony. there's not a bum scene really in this movie we can nitpick about it but like you're watching this and you're just watching the best that Hollywood can make I think at this era you agree with that it's like an amazing plate of chicken parmesan

in a good way yeah it's like it's not that complicated Dan Tana's chicken parmesan I love Danana's chicken parmesan it's my favorite I'm sorry the protein to sauce ratio I'm coming in here I'm coming here throwing these Andy no save that for Hattest Head Tantananish chicken parmesan

It's wonderful. All right. It's just, it's a, it looks on the surface, like it's going to be simple. But then when you cut in and you look at the layers, you look at the depth, the way that the sauce meets the cheese meets the chicken, there's a lot going on here. There's a lot. There's a lot. It's, it's deeper than it seems. And it's only 29.95 on the menu, you know? Well, we also have not a tantana.

We have chicken parmesan prices for Crow and Pierce, which is one of the things that really helps us. Crow is not even Crow yet. He's barely Crow. knew him from the one Denzel movie didn't know him from anything else at the time. I think it's Romp or Stomper, right? That was his biggest movie to that point, yeah. Did you get to be done that yet?

Romp or Stomper? No. That would have been the final, yeah, the final edition for the show. That was going to be CR-27. That's a fun one. And you wanted to do an entire Nazi month, is that you said, Nazi adjacent,

the believer, what else could you do there? That's right, yeah, yeah. Coming out of this movie, would you bet on Pierce or Crow being a bigger star? Because that would have been on Crow. but Pierce is, it's a great movie for him. I thought that they would both be big stars. Yeah.

And Pierce is actually a little bit weirder. Like the parts of the character, the reason why he gets the part, right, is because he has the cheekbones and he looks like a leading man. Straight jaw, yeah. But he's kind of a freak on the margins. And I think that that's served him well in the later part of his career. But I thought that he was like, yeah, he's going to be the more handsome leading man type coming out of it.

I guess I thought Crow. The movie really loves Crow. It's really, really interested in Bud White. in a way that I find even the book isn't as interested in Bud White. And you can tell, and Curtis Hansen and the director talked a lot about how most of the executives wanted the movie to be Bud White's movie. And they wanted it to be like... Guy, kicking ass all over. Yeah, almost like Arnold Schwarzenegger is like the toughest cop in 1950s Hollywood.

And obviously that he wasn't going to let that happen. But, I mean, Crow went on to have the bigger career. I'm not sure if this is in my hot take or what. But Pierce as an actor is just a fascinating guy. and his career is really, really interesting and where he's gone. And the fact that he's still cooking, like he's still doing his best work right now, says a lot.

Crow is in a way different place. So the legacies are kind of perfect, right? Because one guy really went up, the other guy did fine. Yeah. And then they kind of traded places somewhere along the way. So it's really interesting in that way.

He's a little bit... I don't even know if he's a little bit older. How much older than DiCaprio is he? Like, maybe five, six years, right? For him, it's not LA confidential. That's always the big question mark for me. It's momentum because... I think it would be relatively easy to project him

into a number of Christopher Nolan leading roles going forward. And at which point, you start to get into, like, could that guy have been Batman? Well, there is, like, there are a bunch of bail movies you could have thrown him in and he probably would have been him to drive the car. That's it. We can save this for the casting part, but this was a question I had, too, because obviously the casting makes this movie, and the casting was kind of not controversial, but more challenging

because Curtis Hansen said he wanted unknown so that the audience didn't have preconceived notions. But if you think about, I'll defer to the film experts here on this. But, like, who are the other 30-year-old people that they may have been trying to put in this movie? There's some... It was kicked around. McConaughey was the one. The casting what-ifs weren't what I wanted.

McConaughey was the big one. It's funny, it's a perfect Damon part. Like, the Guy Piers one... It's basically he plays that part in the Departed. Nine years later, right? But Guy Piers is, like, almost 10 years older than DeCapria. I don't know if I would have bought McConaughey as ex-ly. I think that would have been a bad man.

It's coming off time to kill where it would be like pretty much like an extension of that character. And they're wearing the same glasses as they as in a time to kill. Pierce had a certain energy. It was, it reminded me of when Sean got to Grantland where he's like, I'm just here to do good work, but he was secretly scheming who he could take out. That's that, that's the guy Pierce energy. I don't want to Bogart this, but I did come into this movie realizing why you picked this group because if you had to do it, there is a hot head who can hang with everyone and is strangely popular with the ladies.

Yeah. There is a cerebral power broker. who is very, very moral. There's another charming power broker who knows where all the bodies are buried in a senior role. That's me. So is he Dudley?

Yeah, and I'm committing crafts. And then you had to get a semi-self-loathing guy who moonlights in Hollywood and kind of forgets where his bread and butter is and gets called back. So it's hard to works up. Yeah. Okay.

It's Hollywood and. We've got a beautiful Lynn Bracken over here too in the producer's chair. Cut to look up. No. He's going to be like, it's all hushingy. He's a Simon-Baker character. He's a show.

Matt Reynolds? They're all bad. Come on, Greg, it's just acting. Yeah. I think that makes, you haven't done it before. That makes Gahow, Johnny Sompanato, of course. Oh, yeah, no question. Well, my, I wrote this down.

L.A. is a beautiful, seductive, fucked up place that's really here to break your dreams and steal your soul. Is that what we told Sean, we wanted him to move for Grantland? I believe it was. I'm so happy that I'm here. Honestly, I love it here so much. And this movie is a good reason why. I think most people have this weird, tortured relationship with the city.

And I'm like, I love it. I love it. It's a shit hole. I love that it's full of people who are doing terrible things to each other every day. I think that's fascinating. It's way more interesting than you would have it be understood than when you're like watching movies in the 90s. And you're like, oh, well, this is the city of dreams. Like, I don't dispense with all that.

I'm not interested in that. I'm interested in like the nastiness of the city. And this movie is all about that. It's really, oh, go ahead. No, just worth noting because Curtis Hanson is from here. And I feel like he's not as interested in the narratives or presenting it a certain way. He's just like, well, yeah, this is also a place. There's something kind of melancholic about watching this and watching.

boogie nights because I think they're both, you know, obviously period pieces made in the 90s about earlier eras of Los Angeles. And one thing L.A. had, I think, even up to maybe the point where we moved here, was still those bones were still there. Like, you could still probably shoot the outside of the Formosa and not have a target next to it. Right. And now that is kind of, I think, fully changed. I think you can still find it in different neighborhoods. But it's wild watching this movie and thinking about how little they must have had to do when it came to Hollywood. Yeah, in the 90s.

Because if you're shooting Hollywood in the 90s, it doesn't look that much different than Swingers, you know? It's 45 years between when the movie is set and when they filmed it, and it's 30 years. 30 years since they made it. One of the great themes that we've talked about another rewatchable's episodes about L.A. that everybody comes here wide-eyed with a dream, right?

And sometimes it really works out. Sometimes it kind of works out. But multiple characters say this in the movie. Basinger says at one point, like, basically says I didn't obviously come here to do this, but it's kind of how in it up, right? Some people try it, try it, try it, and they leave. And we knew, you know, I'm older than you guys, but we had a bunch of people when my kids were younger, the parents in schools, and one guy's trying to be an actor, another person

is trying to be a director. Eventually, it just doesn't work out. You moved here for a job and show business. Right. I moved here to write for a TV show. But this is this is kind of how it goes And sometimes the city choose, yeah I mean the corruption stuff

Which I think we've seen in the last 30 years Has morphed into different more public versions of this But that underbelly of what was going on That was always part of the romance of L.A. Like right? It's like it could make you, could break you, be found dead. You don't know who the good guys are.

Yeah, a lot of people who don't want to know how the sausage is made. Godfather, Jack Waltz. That's right. Khartoum. Listen to me, my Kremick friend. Jack would have been great in this movie. You could easily throwing them in.

But there were two quotes in here. One was, life is good in Los Angeles. It's Paradise and Earth. That's what they tell you anyway. DeVito says the beginning. And then how can organize crime exist in a city with the best police force in the world? Which seems to be, you're big on these Elroy books,

but this seemed to be a huge theme in these LA books in the 40s, 50s, 60s. Yeah, so he writes this court. of novels, the LA Quartet, Black Dahlia, Big Noir, which is my favorite, LA Confidential, and then White Jazz. And, like, they can't get increasingly Byzantine and hallucinatory as he goes on. And he would later take on the Kennedy assassination, one of your pet projects. You just recently talked about that. And wait a second.

Yeah. And they try and we saw the Kennedy Assassination. No kidding. Wow, congrats. That's great. Are you going to visit the White House? What's going to happen next? No, it's done.

Yeah, they don't even need me. Yeah, they didn't know. He basically tries to write a secret history of Los Angeles of these novels. And some of them are fictionalized versions of real characters. So in the novel of LA Confidential, a lot of stuff is happening at what is basically Disneyland, but is not in this adaptation. I think one of the things that really, really struck me about watching this and refreshing myself with the novel is it is an incredible adaptation.

It's an incredibly brave adaptation, but it's also like, Two guys, Brian Helgland and Hansen, sitting down and just drilling, like, what is this movie going to be about? And every scene needs to be about one of the three cops and hopefully more. So initially it was eight, right? And they narrowed it down to three. It's got like eight characters, so many characters, so many different spinning out. It spreads over eight years, right? It's like a much broader canvas.

It's three years in this movie. And more real people in the book than are in the movie as well. You know, the movie is trying to balance like the truth of Hollywood. versus this created world. It's an incredible book that I voraciously read right before the movie came out and was kind of shocked

by how different it is. Yeah. But it has this like really readable but also awkward style where it's like all staccato. Like the writing is like five word sentences

over and over and over and over again. So you almost like can feel the words coming out of the typewriter as you're reading it. It's a very unusual and it's different from his other books. So other books are not, like that as much. I feel like they're a little bit.

The white jazz is a little bit. It's like weird. The movie is way closer to the way Robert Town writes in Chinatown that it is Elroy's novel. But the scenes are short in this film for the most part. And I feel like that replicates the feeling of page turning. Like where you're like, I got

I just got to keep going. But you're right. I mean, his Elroy's authorial voice is, you can't replicate that on screen without extensive voice. So, but, you're like, you're like, extensive voice. But can you think of another example of an adaptation that is respected on both sides of the aisle, like the way this is? Because I think people who love the book understand that it's a different piece and respect how well it is made. Midvis and cruising. The only two.

Was cruising a book? I think it was a book, right? Was it a novel? Yeah. I've got it in my bag. Wow. Yeah. You've got to memorize. Andy's trying to adapt it right now for a re-mink. You want to be on the re-cruising? They're going to cruise again. Andy was with us on the cruise. Andy, have you ever,

your guy who's written some scripts from time to time for the last, I don't know, eight, nine, ten years? Yeah. Have you ever tried to adapt a book? Yes. How hard is it? What are the things we don't know?

Well, it's very hard. I think the hardest thing is the fidelity issue. Like, when I did Briar Patch, I basically just took the characters in the plot and changed everything because, A, it's not a beloved, I mean, it's a, I love it, but it's not a very well-known book. You have that liberty to do it.

But I think the, most important thing is when adapting anything is that you have to, as the adapter, try not to be too precious about what you know other people love and zero in on what you love. Because the enthusiasm is the one thing that you can carry from the book to the screen. And I think that that's what these guys did to a degree that is almost unprecedented. When you see, you watch Curtis Hansen like on Charlie Rose from promoting the movie 30 years ago, and he brings the same pitch that he brought to Arnon Milton, on and the producers to Charlie Rose where he's like, here are six images that I found about

coming to Los Angeles in the 50s that remind me of a place that I grew up in that is no longer exists. And I showed him a picture of Aldo Ray. And I thought about how I love these characters, even though I hate them. And those were the pillars of his adaptation. And for whatever reason, maybe it's ego or whatever, he felt comfortable throwing everything else away. Yeah, I think that if I were trying to adapt to James Elroy book, I would just look.

I would just completely lose myself being like, well, we can't have this without this. We can't have this without the Disney character. We can't have this without Inez being a bigger character. It's like a metastasized tumor. Everything touches everything. And these guys are just like, no, we're fucking screenwriters. And we need to like make every single scene go into the next one

and every action has a consequence and every single thing needs to be about the theme of these guys. Yeah. And it's just a really, really impressive piece of work in that way. I think it's notable that of the L.A. Quartet, only two of the books have been made into movies and the other one is a really bad De Palma movie. And the other, I always wanted to see white jazz.

And Clooney wanted to make white jazz for the longest time. And you heard about, like, Smokehouse's making white jazz for like five years. And it never happened. And that book is so cool and fascinating. It's about, like, a cop who is also a hitman for the mob. And then he has this, like, kind of confrontation with himself over how the city really works. And he's also really hot for his sister. Incessuous.

Crazy book. They never happen. They're just, they're really hard to do. So I think Andy's right on. Like this is an amazing way of like kind of calling something that's very big, like a 500-page novel down to two hours and 10 minutes. Yeah. It's just like there is a central mystery that we are going to solve.

It's ruthlessly efficient too. I feel like you probably all noticed it when we're re-watching it. Like looking for a seam, looking for something to either make a joke about or point out, and it just rolls almost to the point if you just get lost in it and I stopped taking notes both times watching it. Yeah, there's some stuff that I'm like, this wasn't as electric as I remembered, but there's nothing where. I'm like, you could just lose this.

Really? Yeah, it's a structurally almost perfect movie. I noticed, I watched it two times in the last thing. I was like, man, they're just, this is like a big ass bone-in filet. Like, no fat at all. Yep. Just zooming through it. I think if I adapted, I would be more in the Kubrick camp, like, kind of like, fuck

this guy with the writer. I'm going to get some moon landing stuff in here. And I almost think if the author's mad at you when the movie comes out, that's where you want to be. Yeah, but there's a difference between, like, the guy who right eyes would shut, who's, like, you know, dead. And, like, James Elroy going around

being like, this is a fucking turkey. These guys are communists. Kubrick does the same thing that Andy is talking about, though, which is, like, he just picks what he likes. Like, in Lolita, he's just like, this is so funny to me. And I'm going to make this, like, a broad comedy about a 45-year-old man

who wants to fuck a teenager. And that's, you know, there's a comic aspect of Lolita, but it's not Peter Sellers doing bits, you know? Yeah, that's true. So I think it's like, it's kind of brave, but also I think there's some like industrial design to the way that Curtis Hansen did it too where he was just like,

studios don't want to make period pieces, they don't want to make noir movies because they never make any money. I'm not going to shoot this in black and white. Like every choice I make is going to be so this movie can get made so that it can be commercially successful. And then I can also make something

that I think is artistically interesting. It's a pretty like slick move by an old studio directing hand. His run here where it's like, Hand the Rocks of Cradle, River Wild, this, and then Wonder Boys in 8 miles. kind of like culminating after that. Just the tour to force.

In her shoes erasure. Oh, in her shoes, right? Not at this table. But it's kind of like the dark twin of Ron Howard. You know what I mean? Like that incredibly safe pair of hands. Save that for your one-man show. That's a good one.

Dark twin of Ron Howard. Yeah. It is I. John Howard. What if the Apollo 13 crashed? Anyway, he's just like this incredibly professional. Maybe there's nothing in this

that's super flashy like holy shit Scorsese camera move or something you've never seen before but all of the jigsaw pieces wind up coming together. That's the thing when I was watching it. There is no,

even some of the questions that I know categories we're going to get through about if it could be improved in certain ways. Like every single piece of this movie is in service to the movie. It is the type of like buttoned up

industry forward professionalism that we do not do anymore. It kind of reminds me of Apollo 13 in that way. where it's just like, oh, you're watching it. And it's like, oh, man, and then this, and then this, and then this. And there's no ego. And, like, Dante Spanati's like, yeah, I know how to shoot this. And Jerry Goldsmith is like, I get it.

I'm already 75. It's a bunch of grownups. Yeah. Just a bunch of grownups who were like, we got a really good idea for a movie. This is how we're going to do it. Let's make the picture. Yeah. Well, he did the opening credits.

Wasn't that part of his pitch? Yeah. He had all the postcards. It was like literally how he made the movie. Yep. Yeah. Hand that Rock So Credo is a great example. that movie's been made 17,000 times.

It's being made now. You could go on Netflix and probably find five of them right now. They make them on Lifetime every week. And for some reason, that's probably the best one of all of them. Except for maybe fatal attraction. We're saving it for From Hell Month.

It's just so well done. But what's the movie? It's like Nanny's mad at the family and she's just getting her revenge. That's every lifetime movie. For some reason, that's the best one. It is, I popped it in last night after watching Annali Compotential,

just to be like, what was Hanson's style to your point? Like, trying to figure out, like, what is it that he does? Like with the camera, how the movies look, the colors of the movie, and it's a totally different-looking movie.

Totally different feeling movie. But even though it is a bonker script, do you remember the premise of the hand that rocks the cradle where it's like a woman is assaulted by her OBGYN, and she goes public on him, and then he kills himself

and his wife, his widow, then gets a job as the name. and then seeks to revenge. DeMorne's part. Yes. So it's like, it's a nutty lifetime movie. And the only person who's on tour is the special needs gardener.

Yes. Played by Ernie Hudson. Oh, that's right. I forgot about the gardener. The movie's amazing. Julianne Moore's in it. She's murdered in it. Yeah, it's a bizarre movie.

Julianne Moore's Hall of Fame smoking performance, CR. Just smoke burring from every. But it is like, the ideas in it are lifetime movie level. You know, like, it is really dopey in a lot of ways. But it looks so great. and it feels so professional. And you watch these interviews with Curtis Hansen and his heroes,

and some people he actually interviewed because he started as a journalist visiting sets as he talks about like Howard Hawks, Sam Fuller, and it's just like, The Thing is the Thing. And speaking of great shows where people talked around a wooden table, I did watch this Charlie Rose interview. And he's like, well, Charlie, you know,

every movie has a simple concept behind it and you should just say it in a line, you know? And he's like, so he asks about hand that rocks the cradle. And he goes, every movie has a simple concept. Charlie leans in and goes, is it the hand rocking the cradle? No, it's just be careful who you trust when you turn around But

Intellectualism might display Patented rose charm What's the LA confidential Your OBGYN kills himself and you say what Maybe that can be a new CR character Charlie? I've tried him out before What is LA confidential in a sentence?

City of Angels is full of devils Yeah Sounds good There's a good line in it I think it's Jack Vincenzo says, everybody wants something. This is a real, everybody wants something. I wrote down some themes including tabloid culture, still prevalent.

Yeah. Police brutality, haven't gotten rid of that yet. Racism still exists. Good and evil, sure. Seductive and beautiful L.A. that's here to steal your soul still exists. How about using blackmail against the rich and powerful to advance your political and financial interests? No, no, that's a bridge too far.

Yeah. What else? I think it's a really good movie about the real and the fake and how they coexist in the city very comfortable. Yeah. That, like, you can see Michael Jackson having a dance off with Spider-Man on the streets of Los Angeles, and that feels normal. That you can step on the walks of fame, and that feels normal. That you can walk past the Chinese theater, that you can go up to Beverly Hills and look at homes. You can go on tours of people's homes in the city.

And also, you know, there's, like, a lot of crime, and there's a lot of sadness and poverty and terrible things happening in the city on a daily basis. And they all are just kind of coexisting in a way that is very unusual even for by metropolis standards. But to that point, maybe, and well, I'm sure we'll talk about it later, but maybe the most important scene in the movie is the scene when Exley insults the real Lanna-Tunner

who is actually dating a real gangster, all of which was true. John Stompinato and Lanna-Tunner were dating. By the way, that was its own movie. Incredible. You could have just detoured into a separate Stompanato movie. I don't think they ever made it successfully. They never made it up because of her daughter, right?

Yeah. Her daughter. Murder Johnny Stomponato. Are you worried about spoiler alert there on the murder of Johnny Stompinato? Yeah, don't worry about that, Sierra. What you said, though, when I moved out here to work for Jimmy Show and we were at in Hollywood Boulevard and would go out to get coffee and Spider-Man and Superman were doing it. And it took me six months to get used to it, how weird everything was, the man theater

where the premieres happened, the stars, just the weirdness. But you do get used to it. You do. And I don't know what for everybody, it's different. For me, it was like six months in, I wouldn't blink. I think that I start every single, day here the same way, which is like, it's too bright, it's too hot. And then I get to 6 p.m. And everything turns purple. And it's the perfect temperature. And you're like, oh, I'm never

leaving. You know, it's like, it's that kind of weird, like you can exist in heaven and hell at the same time sensation that Elroy writes about incessantly. Well, Greenwald mentioned the three types of police officers in this movie, aggressive rule breaker, star fucker, personality builder, and straight arrow idealist. And they do a great job within 20 minutes of like, okay. I get your type. I get you. I get you. Cromwell, hmm.

What's he up to? And it's just, we're up. Well, the genius move that they pull is that they all have to go before the police commissioner and respond to the same question, which is, are you going to rat on your friends? Right. And actually says yes. Jack says, maybe. And Bud says, fuck no. One of the ingenious ideas of the book that is also really well preserved in the movie is that, like, those three characters are three very clear male archetypes post-war War II.

Right? There's like the GI Bill college boy. There's the World War II grunt, right, who's in the trenches who's like all muscle. And then there's like the very cynical, like, I just want to get what's best for me person in the 50s is trying to kind of get fat as he heads into the second half of his life. And those are like those set up, I think, kind of an archetype of masculinity over the next 75 years in America that are really smart. And the idea of using them as like this triangle of trying to solve something together is really, really fascinating. They kind of do represent, like, one person ultimately. They kind of feel like the totality of a guy living in a city.

Also, each one of them during the course of the movie tries to overcome the limitations that they realize they have placed on themselves. Like, Bud's whole thing is that he's not smart enough to do it until someone tells him that he is. And then X-Len comes shotgun in. They all want to be the thing that they are not. Like, Exley wants to be his dad. Jack wants to be thought of his moral, even though he knows he's not.

And Bud wants to be smart even though he's strong. Don't figure out of the call girls who want to be various stars. They get cut. They get cut. Cut to look like Veronica Lake. If you could be cut to look like anyone, who would you be cut to look like?

Chandler Big. That's perfect. Rollo Tamasi. Yeah. One of the great stealth plot ideas of all time. Because I was thinking like they're the big ideas. Like where the Kaiser, it's like ironically Spacey Kaiser Sozee.

Awesome. Oh, holy shit. What's in the box? Again, Spacey. Yeah. You know, the Sixth Sense. We all know like the, huge ones. The stealth,

I don't know what this is, and then it reveals itself in a very small way, but you're like, oh, it's way up there. I don't even know what it's competing against. It's a movie invention. The Roll of Tommasi idea is Hanson and Hegeland coming up with themselves. There's such, there's elegance and efficiency and play throughout the entire

movie, because you were thinking about these different archetypes. The movie does, I think people can watch this movie and be a little confused the first time, potentially. it doesn't really hold your hand and yet if you watch it again you realize that it does do the Chiron of the character's names

it does show Susan Leffert's face when we first read her to remind you, it nudges you and then when you get to something like Rollo Tomasi you can imagine Helgland and Hanson for months beating their heads against the wall being like how can we combine these moments how can we educate the characters

with something that is clever with something that gets us along the track fast You couldn't have called a John Malone like the Rollo Tomasi was really smart It's a memorable thing. My son, I watched it with my son. He missed it. He didn't.

What's the big deal? Well, it's the two. And then when Cromwell says at them, you really have to be paying attention to Pierce's face. So I don't think he totally got it. And Pierce does such a great job in that scene, but just... He does a lot of drawbone out. Yeah, but it's like that's the way actually usually looks.

So Dudley wouldn't pick up on actually looking like he has to take a shit anyway. Like, it's always kind of how he looks. Craig, did you have you seen this movie before? No. Was it hard to follow? And did you get the Rollo Tomasi? I did get the Rollo Tamasi, but to Andy's point, I had trouble sometimes.

There are so many last names just being thrown around throughout the entire movie that I had to kind of stop and almost go to another tab and be like, wait, which one has this last name? That part was harder, but I did catch Rollo Tamasi. It's funny. It's like there's two things that jump out at me when I watch it. One is that Buzz Meeks is one of the main characters

of the previous novel. So like his life and... death in this book is much more significant, kind of. And then the heroin, which kind of is a runner throughout the plot of like, somebody stole the heroin from Mickey Cohen. And it's like, that is a major animating factor in the book. And it kind of gets yada yada at the end of the movie. I think he's never said it.

But I think it's one of the reasons why Elroy is very hot and cold on the movie is because it cuts out that part of it, which he's, that's like the way that drugs started running through the city is a big theme of all of his novels. And the movie is not really super interested in that. Yeah. Same thing with the freeway. Yeah. Like the sort of the actual spine of what was changing and how it was going to be changed is kind of yada, yada.

Yeah. Yeah. Do you miss heroin as a big plot in a movie? It feels like we're not getting in as much lately. Well, I mean, we live in a time where, you know, like a different kind of drug, I think, dominates these kinds of movies, too. Like opioids is really, yeah. It's just a different thing. But, like, I remember vividly talking to my dad when he was literally on a heroin task force for years.

And then they like kind of paused that and shifted their focus onto more fentanyl related cases when he was working. Because everything in this country changed, it doesn't mean heroin is gone, but it just doesn't hold the city. This is the rise of heroin. You know, like this is the rise of, you know. Coming up next on first take, heroin or fentanyl? What's a better movie drug. What Sean was saying, Chris, it's like the rise of Skywalker. Yeah, that makes sense.

Yeah. You mentioned the screenplay and how it came from the 1990, James, James, Elroy novel where basically Hanson said he was talking about the apparently golden era of the 20s and 30s which had been basically bulldozed. I was trying to think of other movies and TV shows that kind of hit that a little bit.

Mad Men when they went to L.A., which I can't remember. I haven't, I got to rewatch. Madman's my next sauna show after I'm done with Thrones. Your Instagram followers. After I get out of the 1300s and go to the 1960s. but bad men was in L.A.

almost for the whole season, right? And didn't it tap into this? I'm remembering vaguely. He would go occasionally and then then one season Pete is living out here and it was the only time they could ever do exteriors

because they shot L.A. for New York the rest of the time. So everything was, which kind of helped the show because it was kind of hermetically sealed. But I think it definitely captured the sense still the boom times

of being out here that this was a place where everything worked and it was golden and verdant and full of possibilities and opportunities and sunshine. Yeah. Well, and pre-sports, because the Dodgers come late 50s and so do the Lakers, right? And then the angels come and then all of a sudden it's like, L.A., here we go. Yeah.

Pre-Walley joiner. Yeah. But that idea that's in this movie, too, of like, we're selling it. We've decided on the dream we're going to sell people. But we had to create this too. This is everything that to be created. I mean, Sean's beloved Babylon is also about this. It is. That's probably the best representation of that period of time that this movie is kind of reacting to.

It's a TV movie? Nope. It was a feature film. Oh. Directed by Damien Chazelle. Starring Rad Hit, Margot Robbie. Came out in the theaters? Yep. Yeah.

Good film. I'll look for it. But you could also make the point. I think this is something that Curtis Hanson did as well when he was pitching it around, that most noirs that we think of as classics are set in like the 30s and 40s, which was psychologically and physically a different time in America. Fashion is different. Intentionally, and the only 40s in this movie is Veronica Lake.

And that's intentionally, she's, as we say, cut to look like that. Everything else is just an abundant, optimistic time. And this is still the underbelly of it. So Hanson held a mini film festival for the people in the movie and showed them the bad and the beautiful in a lonely place. Don Siegel's the lineup, Private Health 36, and Kissby Deadly. I don't know if Sean had any thoughts. I haven't read your substack today.

Can I ask you? know if you covered those. Would the most fun part about directing a film be like programming the pre-film... The film festival for the cast? That would underline the fact that I don't know how to make films, but I do know how to program a festival of old movies. We brought in Sean Fennacy for a film festival. Did you have any thoughts on those five?

I've seen all the movies and I love all of them. I think Don Siegel is like, I don't know if you mentioned him as like an actor that Hansen really likes, but that's clearly a, you know, kind of a fur-hire guy who can work in a lot of different... sorts of dramas, but is really good about like guy with a gun. Guy with a gun who's on a mission, who's got a problem to solve. A lot of his movies are like that.

And then the killing the Kubrick movie is really interesting because there's a lot, apparently, of Sterling Hayden's character in that movie in the Budwhite performance that Russell Crow looked at him. Yeah, because also he was... Sterling Hayden was physically... Didn't Elroy say this, that he wanted...

that Sterling Hayden was his choice to play Budweig? Oh, interesting. Because he was physically a big actor. In the book, he's like the incredible Hulk. Yeah, he's the biggest guy in L.A. the book. Crow looks pretty jacked in this movie.

Yeah, but there's a couple of shots where you're like he's like a little bit taller than Danny DeVito. Yeah. How tall do we think Crow is? He's listed at six. I looked it up. Is this like a major league baseball thing? He's a five ten.

He's a got a couple inches in the, the major league baseball heights thing has been my favorite sub-put. It's funny. It's like he's listed. He lost three inches. Did he? He went from six one to five, ten? What?

Yeah, because they're measuring all these dudes for the strike zone. Oh. A lot of height line going on. Wait, so everybody gets the, This is an amazing story. I got Billy Gill come on and do the whole breakdown of this. Yeah.

There's been a lot of height lying. We're going to take a quick break and then I want to talk about the actors. This episode is brought to by Fire TV. You've been there settling in for a relaxing evening of TV. You waste half the night scrolling through options. Can't really find anything to watch. Well, enter Fire TV. It's entertainment with zero effort required.

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but I look at it as like the starter kit for proof of life. This movie walks so proof of life could run. I don't know, was that part of CRM for you? Absolutely went into the math, yeah. Stuff of Legends. Yeah, stuff of Legends. But you can see it. You can see where the next 10 years are going.

Like, he's just a movie star in this movie. I can see it. Caruso could have done LA Confidential. So I had that in... Can I do that now? Can I do that now? Wow. He would have been good.

Can I... I had this in my recasting coach. What about him in the DeVito spot? No. Not Sid. Listen. No, I think Vincent's. I think he would have been a really interesting...

He didn't even been a really interesting... He didn't... I think... I mean, he's a little younger. A little younger. But, I mean, he could do actually... CR is alive right now. Because I'm trying to think of what I...

Caruso at that time. Is this pre or post-Mypd? This is post-MyPD and post-J... Post J. Post J. Post J. Pre CSI and pre-provalive. Yeah.

Available. Jack would have been a good one. It kind of fits the book a little bit more. I mean, Jack's a little, like, washed in the book. And in the movie, it's like, boy, he could, he's basically, like, the double

for the guy. He's like D. Martin. Yeah. But Crow, perfect. Guy Pearce. We mentioned the bail thing. I think that's a great comparison. They're making this movie in 07, it's clearly bail is X-Ley, 2005 ranch.

Because you got to emit intelligence for sure. And that kind of posture, right? That stiff posture. But then there's like, he's got some stuff going on, you know? He doesn't grab Lynn Bracken lightly. He grabs her. No, and also there's the scene that I really caught on rewatches when the camera show up outside the night owl and Dudley, like, puts his hat on, and actually kind of flexes.

Yeah. He does, what did Wesley call Sicario? He does the gym flex. The gym selfie. The gym selfie of a performance in that moment. And then Spacey, who from 95 to 99, rips off usual suspects, 7, outbreak, time to kill. L.A. Confidential American Beauty and wins two Oscars. Yeah.

And he's really good in this movie. And now it's like Kevin Spacey, problematic, to say the least. I think to Guy Pearce, especially. Yeah. Yeah. He's just a really good actor. I think this is his best performance. I'm with you.

I thought that would be on an island with that. I think he's been more iconic, obviously, as villains in movies and more memorable in certain movies. But given that he's on screen for 25 minutes and does doing a lot of acting with his face. Yep. And not with his words. That's like some of my favorite lines and line readings in the movie.

Also, a classic spacey performance where it's like, is this guy straight or gay? Is this guy a good guy or a bad guy? Is this guy funny or not funny? The layers to the scene with Matt Reynolds where he's like, yeah, show business. Even like when he's talking to X-Lay, it's like, is he flirting with this guy

or is just talking to him? Like, there's, it's always, he's like that last level of actor where he's playing it where you're trying to figure out what he's up to in the scenes. And that was with House of Cards, he's basically playing this guy

as an older House of Cards as a senator. And everything about the role his performance, which increasingly as he got more rewarded for his performances, that became what he did as he was doing Stick. Most of the time. Yeah, I don't feel like this was Stick at all. There's a moment that I, one of my favorite moments in the movie, this really small moment, is after they've told the boxer that they're going to help his brother get freed and they

go back to the car and the guy's like, you're going to come see me, right? You're going to go talk about it. And Spacey just has a cigarette in his mouth and he goes, keep it up. Keep it up. And it's like, it's such a perfectly choreographed bit that fits the character because the character is always looking for the moment to camera, because that's what he admires most. There's a really great Elroy quote about Spacey that I think kind of sums up both his performance and also kind of how we understand him as a public person and even some of the thornyness without

actually coming out and saying anything specific where he says, Spacey is so deft, he is so controlled, is so subtle, is so good at suggesting a character's inner life with a minimal of outward action, he glides. There's something amorphous about the guy. I met him a couple of times. I don't have any kind of rapport with him, you know. I like him well enough. He's not a bad guy.

But there's a mask that's up when you meet him personally. And I imagine that this helps him when he immerses himself. It's a deep immersion performance. Some of the best self-loathing I've ever seen on screen. Yeah. I still think that we'll also come up in other parts of the pod. But like him coming across Matt's body and like the wordless kind of like funeral he has for Matt, but like kind of also himself as he like slides down is like, that's really, really good shit.

You know, like, that's... The problem with his career, which was... I mean, that run was incredible. He could never... Like, remember he made that terrible movie, pay it forward? Oh, yeah. Tough one. He could never just be a normal person.

He couldn't be like, Kevin Spacey's now a high school teacher and with a heart of gold. He always had to play these mysterious guys. And I gotta be honest, I think he's like a one-on-one. I don't think he exists anymore. This was like a specific type of actor

who kind of, you know, kind of knew what the perfect Kevin Spacey role was, and I don't know who's filled that void since. I don't think we've found the person. I think that kind of character forward, mainstream American drama, it just doesn't really happen that much anymore. He did actually pivot to television because he was kind of an actor who would really thrive in that space.

But, you know, when you go back and look at the movies and the parts that he took on, it's not unreasonable to be like, there's kind of a red arrow pointing at the unseemliness of this person. And almost the industry telling you by how they're casting him, like what they think of him that is really fascinating. And what's so weird is, I remember at the time

when he was at his apex, he was always talking about how Jack Lemon was his hero. Yes, that's right. And the thing about Jack Lemon was that everyone loved Jack Lemon. He played in every man, whether it's the apartment

or grumpy old man, you're like, I like that guy. So warm. Yeah, Kevin Spacey and the odd couple you would have been like, is he going to kill Oscar? Yes, it's absolutely. I think the course is he gets to like

Lemon, in a way, like the margin call performance where he's kind of more like Shelley and Glengarry and doing that kind of hang-og. But... Which he can do. Is kind of an outlier, he's right.

Like, there's a lot of Kevin Spacey performances. You'd be like, so you picked him to be the guy in seven. Interesting. Yeah. No, that's true. He's the kind of guy who cut his fingerprints off. Interesting. It's probably worth restating for the younger audience is that he was the star.

He was the top-billed star of this movie. And that, speaking of professionalism, with Curtis Hansen, what he could do and what he couldn't do, he was like, my deal-breaker is, I want unknowns. And we'll get to that in terms of the... other cops so they don't have a predisposition about them. For Dudley, I want someone that everyone thinks is the farmer in Babe, so that everyone will like him, so we'll do that misdirect.

And then we'll have a movie star play Jack Vincennes, and he got Kevin Spacey. He said he tried to get him to make it before he won for Usual Suspects. And it was winning the Oscar, as I think one of the big reasons why this movie got to go, because it wasn't going to go just with Pierce and Crow. It was just a certain type of part, and he was the best at it.

But if you put him in, like, the ref as, like, the husband and it's just not going to work. Kim Basinger, there's two separate conversations here. Conversation number one, CR, the Catherine Tremel, would you throw your life away for this obvious stayaway award? Pretty solid, pretty solid choice. It's pretty, she's operating at a high level,

but the Oscar. Well, that's the second conversation. She wins supporting actress. And if you were saying, hey, if you knew nothing, who won the Oscar, would have been like a kind of a fourth round pick? From this movie, you mean, or from that year. Like the ninth pick, if we did a draft?

From this cast, cinematography, director, adaption. You pick any category. You do Julianne Moore. I personally would put Bridget Fonda and Jackie Brown. Also, this was the year you were whipping votes for Gloria Stewart. That's right. I heard she was quite difficult to work. I deep-died that Oscars year before we do.

Craig, were you surprised you won the Oscar for this? Shocked. I mean, I would have given her a Razzie. I think she's probably the only character in the movie where I'm like, takes me out of it a little bit. I think it is like among the more bizarre wins in recent Oscar history, I don't think she's bad. Yeah, I think she's fine. Screws up a perception of the performance.

I think if she didn't win the Oscar, you'd be like, she looks enough like Veronica Lake that this is interesting. She's the same character as the natural and the lady that seduces Redford. It's no different. But the Oscar is just like, she has four scenes. They're fine. In the same apartment wearing the same gown, having the same. same conversation four times. That's a lovely house in Hancock Park.

Sure. Which I think we need to recognize. We have a whole place to talk about that. Can't wait. I was confident that was coming up. But I think that like Hanson is really good with actors and is very fond of actors. And he gives her opportunities to show more variety than she had been given in a lot of other parts. And certainly even what this part would suggest.

Like there's the moment when they're in the theater watching Roman Holiday and Bud whispered something to her and she's a little playful and throws popcorn at him. So he's giving her a chance to, succeed. But my question, Sean, as the local Oscar expert, I feel like Oscars like to do this thing where it's like we're rooting for this person who got a chance to show us something. And it's time to reward them as the next phase of their career begins. And Tip, there wasn't really a next phase for her. Is there a precedent for that? Usually it's when someone has made like 10 or 15 all time beloved classics or they've been a part of like something really special about movie history.

And Kim Basinger is a beautiful star and a good actor. But like, Like, what are her five best performances? What are the unforgettable moments in Kim Basinger movie history? You know, she's Vicki Vale. You know, she's, she was a bond girl. I was going to say nine and a half. She's in nine and a half weeks, you know, which is like a good erotic thriller. It's a tense movie.

Craig, you should watch that with Liz tonight, nine and a half weeks. It's Roncom. I think you're right that it almost seemed to be like, okay, well, we can't wait to see what you do next. But usually when they give someone like this an award, it's someone like Amy Madigan, right? Who's like, in their 60s or 70s. And they can't wait a lot of work for this. I deep dove this. So she beats Joan Kusack and in and out.

Wild nomination. Good performance. I think she's good in that movie. She's very good. She plays the wife of a man who is gay who, like, isn't coming out, but is coming out. And it's like, that's the star of that? Kevin Klein.

Yeah. How's that movie aged? I haven't seen it a long time. It did shoot in Northport, which is the town next to me. And when it was shooting, it was like, Frank Oz and Kevin Klein are making a movie next door. And it seemed like a big deal. You don't think Tom Selleck was the big name at that moment?

That was great casting, I thought. We'll do the rewatchables for AG month. Mini driver and Goodwill Hunting? Sure. I don't think she should have won, but I thought she was good in that movie. Yes. I think she's excellent, and I love her. Julianne Moore and Boogie Nights?

I mean, this is... What the fuck are we doing? It's so fucked up. What are we doing? So fucked up. Like, we should just put a thousand people in a movie theater, show Boogie Nights and L.A. confidential and be like, guess who won supporting acts? It's just insane.

It's a good way of putting it. It's a great idea. I think that... Should we do like the Jubilee, like, debate-style thing with Gen Z kids, but do it for Oscars history? This one isn't a debate. Like, Julian Moore, her job is 30 times harder in that movie. Yes.

I just think that movie had a little bit of a stigma. It's porn 90s. It was just... It was on the edge. It had a lot of, like, a claim for how... Yeah. But it was a young director. But Lynn Bracken is also a prostitute.

It's not as though it's like... I know. But is there... Can you look at this, Sean, and, like, see the games involvement because voters like do you think Gloria Stewart was came in second? So Gloria Stewart was the fifth one from Titanic, the old lady

who's still talking about Jack who she spent a weekend with meanwhile she has this whole fucking family. She's in like 80 seconds of the movie. I'd be so mad of my wife. Van and I talked about this. I'd be so mad. That guy's like we lived together for 60 years. You don't have this fucking Jack. I don't think that's why Gloria Stewart

was punished and humiliated the Academy Awards and they gave her Kim Basing her this Oscar. You think that the thinking person's voter, in this case, voted for Kim Basinger because they knew L.A. Confidential wasn't going to win? I'll tell you what I think happened. I watched a bunch of the making of documentaries that are on the Blu-ray for this movie. And in every single... Is it a physical media? I'm sorry. It's a physical media, yes. It's a Blu-ray.

Every single interview when they are asked about Kim Basinger is just like, she's just like the best person. She's just really cool. And Danny DeVito is like, you know, she just really cares about the work. And she's like a really nice person. And there's none of this weird, like, talking around Kevin Spacey being a maniac stuff going on in the interview. Kevin, what he did after work? I can't say. Do you think Kevin got to, hey, Kevin's Kevin?

So, but when you go back and look at the year, she won Bafta, she won SAG, she won the globe, she won everything. She dominated the season. So. Really weird. People just like her. There should have been Twitter back then because I think they would have been like, let's really interrogate this. Are we really going to do this?

I guess so. I wrote down a couple more. Bridget Fonda and Jackie Brown. Heather Graham and Boogie Nights? Yeah, why not? Sure. Sigourney Weaver and Ice Storm. Yeah. Well, that's a good one.

Parker Posey and Waiting for Government? Yes. Although the Oscars does do comedies. Yep. But I think you could make a case for all of those to at least be nominated. Really strange year. This is a new game I'm playing with IMDBs

when IMDB suggests the four movies you know the person from. What do you think IMDB says known for for James Cromwell. This is great. Babe Pig in the City. Eraser. You still have a named one.

Not one? Really? Does it... Does TV count? Does it do TV in there? No. No. It's four movies. Known four.

This is a... Wow, this is my new favorite game. This is a great game. John's going to steal this. I might. There's a couple of animated movies that he did voice performances. Were there any animated performances? No.

LA Confidentials won. Star Trek First Contact. LA Confidential I robot The Green Mile and the longest yard IMDB gave us for James Cromwell The Lorden Yeah and the rebake

That's right Come on IMDB We gotta do give us a little How is Babe not in there? That's not right Babe was in Goldman thought that was the best movie of 1993 or whatever year I'm shocked it's not in the top four

Do you want to talk Cromwell for a second? Incredible run by him Did you? I thought Succession was the exclamation point It was a multiple exclamation point I'm seeing Big Hero's 6 as number two Has animated performance. I think that's algorithm.

Yeah. I have that. Oh, you're looking at Google. Sorry, I thought you were saying a letterbox. Oh, no, I was doing IMDB. Oh, IMDB. Okay. Got it.

Cromwell, I assume when you watch this, you're probably like, when did you sort of feel like Dudley was not on the straight and narrow when you're watching LA Conno? I don't remember how I felt when I saw in that theater. He's Satan across these four books. Did you know? No.

Did you know he was the bad guy? I kind of didn't really until they basically told me. It was the only downside of reading the book beforehand, I thought. Because the movie handles it so well. But the casting of him was so great because this is like three, three and a half years after Babe. Yep. And in general, he was always like, oh, I like that guy. It was like when they flipped Ronnie Cox in the late 80s with Robocop.

Like, oh, Ronnie Cox friendly face. It's like, nope. I like flipping them. That's what they've done. Yeah, that's good. It's like a heel turn. I can remember seeing this in the theater at age 20. and being shocked, having not read the books.

I'm absolutely a memorable rugout from under me most. The way that they film Jack's death is really, really good. Like, it's really, really good. Yeah. He's really great in this. What do you think with the new strike zone, how would Cromwell fare? I mean, he's 6'7? Tall guy.

Is he really that tall? It was the biggest flaw of succession that him and Brian Cox were brothers. It couldn't even be in the same frame. It was like a foot and a half taller than him. You would need two Brian Coxes to reach. So nine Oscar nominations, it won for Adapted and it won for a supporting actress. You know, the best actor in a supporting role that year, Robin Williams won for Goodwill Hunting, Robert Forster for Jackie Brown.

No Slinder, please. Anthony Hopkins and Amistamastad. Great Caneer and as good as it gets is the weak one. Terrible. That tire is just wobbling in the back. And then our guy, Bert Reynolds, the Boogie Nights. No, John C. Riley. I think Spacey, it's kind of insane.

He was the nominated. I think the only reason he was the nominated was because he won. I think so, too. And they were like, fuck him. And two years later, he wins again for American Beauty. Best actor, we've talked about this year before. It's a weird one where you have Peter Fonda's in there and Dustin Hoffman and wagged the dog.

Anyone ever seen Louise Gold? I have, yeah. Have you seen it? Yeah. Is it a nice film? Do you prefer Uly's gold or Lorenzo's oil when it comes to, like, ingredients you can get at Arrowon? deep premiere magazine.

They're very different films. Lorenzo's Oil is very traumatizing film about a family, a couple trying to find a cure for their child's illness. Directed by George Miller. It's really a sad film. Yule's Gold is about a beekeeper, who's a kindly old man who's trying to make a connection with his family.

Andy likes to get a turmeric latte at Airwine with Lorenzo's oil. I do, just like a little bit. Some people get a cream top latte. I think they could have named it movie a little bit better. Lorenzo's oil. Because it makes it sound like it's like a landman. You know, like,

it's like, it's like Bouguin' Nights. It's like, it's the 80s, we've got to start using Lorenzo's oil. They renamed Flurdeleine Lorenzo's Oil. Like Goddoll is talking about with a Lorenzo's oil. So if you had to say Crow for best actor, Guy Pearce for supporting,

or Spacey for supporting, and you can only give one nom. It feels like the rare actor-actor actor for Pierce and Crow. Like two best actors, yeah. And that was only happened a couple times, right? So who would you go between Crow and Pierce? Pearse. Probably Pierce, too.

Wait, you'd give Pierce the Oscar nomination over Russell Crow for this movie? Yeah. I think that's the right call. I also think Russell Crow was going to... Could have done both. Could have been like when we had two guards and all NBA together. But I think it shows a little bit more that he is not American. Like, I think his accent and his manner sometimes comes across as a little like,

I'm still on the set of virtuosity. I think Pierce is incredible. 138 minutes Craig plus 38 There's just a lot of food on the plate I don't think you could have You couldn't make the same movie For an hour and 40 minutes

That's just like not possible But this did feel a little long to me Yeah I did have a horrifying thought That you could have easily done this As a six episode drama And there's like specific cuts Yeah but you would need to have If you're gonna

I'm sorry I was just thinking like there is like Natural like cliphangers They've been amazing TV show Is a TV show Nobody has the stomach. Shut the fuck up about making this TV show. I'm usually never.

I'm just saying a digital guy, but I don't want to do it. This IP is off limits. Anybody to do Elroy, unless you've got this stomach to like do Elroy. We have the evidence. They try to make the TV show twice. Right. It failed both times. Perhaps what's a better way to do it to express this.

He's so sad. It's really confidential. Look what we used to be able to do. Yeah. There are what this movie does with like ellipsies with like just assuming you're going to get there of condensing. time of showing you the five most interesting moments in this character's journey is remarkable. And I went into the, I was reading the shooting script to see if there were like, you know,

novelistic disquisitions about whatever. 100% no. The things that got cut were like the two things that I have in my nitpicks of what I wish were in the movie. Like it started with the more stuff about the freeway. Like it was just more context table setting stuff. Or you came into a scene a little bit before. Like I think it starts with Johnny Stomponado and Bud.

and Stensland. Johnny Stomps. So there's more of that. And the payoff in the movie where he's like, I don't need your 20 bucks. I'm not a rat anymore. The first scene is him accepting 20 bucks from Bud and Stensland to be a right. But you don't need it. I think if you told me that the same way that this is a movie made by really,

really gifted craftspeople and like veteran filmmakers, if it was like, okay, Matthew Weiner or Vince Gilligan are taking on it the works of James Elroy. I'm vetoing it. That would be, I would at least more open to that, but if it's just like, coming to see, CBS, Sunday nights,

LA Confidential. Are we doing this now? I'm ready. No, if the movie's at a certain level, I don't think you can do it. I think it's off limits. Like, they made a fucking boogie nights TV show. But obviously it is very,

people are very tempted. Like, Dahlia got made, they wanted to make white jazz. I think Big Nowhere would be incredible. Wouldn't the move be to just do, each season is a different Elroy. Not only just basically do that? You Castle Rock, but Elroy.

It would be cool because of the way that all of the characters intersect. You know, famously, or infamously, Dudley survives LA Confidential. And like Chris said, he kind of hovers over the trilogy, the quartet of books.

And so if you had like one amazing, if you had like John Malcovic's Dudley Smith across four seasons of TV and it's 12 episodes each and they're each an adaptation of the novels and all the novels are long, that would be interesting, but it just has to be like

the most talented adapter of that kind of work in the world. And maybe it's any great. Well, the other problem would be, they'd be shooting it in Vancouver because we have a terrible mayor and a terrible governor and we can't shoot shit in here because the whole film industry has gone to shit.

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Raj. Raj has been on fire at 2026. So, like, you could have blindfolded me, and I would have said pretty much that. That would be a review. Do your dad review this? I don't know. Probably.

I had too many rewatchable scenes. I'll go through, I'll go fast. Crow meets Basinger the first time. Exley shows up at the night owl coffee shop after all the murders. And then they take the picture after. He's like, hold on me, take my glasses off for this great shot. Crow goes to Basinger's house. She came on a bus with dreams to Hollywood.

and this is how it turned out. Thanks to Pierce, we still get to act a little. To be fair, she took a bus from Echo Park. Her mother lives. I do like you're the first person in five years who didn't tell me I look like Veronica Lake. It's like you look better, right? Good move, by our guy, bossy.

The interrogation scene, can we talk about this quick? Why quick? The scene's a fucking banger. It's a masterpiece of folly. It's probably my favorite. I think it's my favorite. And just to be clear, where are we putting the parentheticals? interrogation into Bud going to solve the real crime?

You can have that, but it's just actually moving from room to room, Bud with the chair, Dudley and Jack, the sort of deep-focused shots. It's just all the reflective stuff that they're doing. It's so awesome. Just quickly, Bud kills the rapists,

almost fights with Exley, X-Ley kills three guys, become shotgun eddie. We have a couple good action scenes. The Rollo Tomasi's story, the two Johnny Stomponado scenes, scenes, which I'm just lumping together because we get, what do I get if I

give you your balls back, you wop, cock sucker? You're going to hear the word wop again? I'm half Italian. I can joke about it. And then the she is Lana Turner, and we get to the Formosa Cafe. Yeah. Then we get Lynn Bracken, seduces Exley, and then

Smith shoots Hollywood Jack, and then the roll of reveal all in a row. Sierra, I have a question. The shocking Kevin Spacey Descene, after Cromwell goes heel. The Rollo Tamasi, the way he says it and then dies. Is that eligible for the Jesse Eisberg?

That's good. You should be proud of that right there. Don't worry if you don't make it any further award. It's funny you said that because that was going to be my flex, but it was a different Spacey line. Oh, we'll save it. Okay. Do you like that new category?

I'm excited. I got to say, it's been a minute. There are a lot of new categories. There's a little category treat a little bit. Yeah, no comment. I like to have a lot of choices. It's like a big diner. You want a corned beef sandwich?

The factory menu, yeah. You're, but like, how often when you go to a diner are you changing up the order? Because, like, the thing about a diner is, you find what you like, and you stick by it, right? I'll cut the fucks categories down. I like, try to challenge myself to, like, I think the thing that's weird about... How often will you get sushi at a diner? It's like specials. But you get in a huge of today.

Right? Sometimes. Sometimes. Right? You got them. The specials, fine. Bill should start each pod by reading the specials,

which is the new categories for the episode. Oh, that's a good idea. I like that. That's good. I have a cream of broccoli. Can I just add one or two? Well, I'm not done yet. Oh, you're sure.

I have Bud finds the photos. Danny DeVito's truck. Yeah. Tough one. Convenient. He thought it was of him. Nope, it's not of you. It's of Exley.

That's like when I see social clips of the watch. And I'm like, no, Chris. No. chasing you down on the path of the commute. And then Bud versus X-Lay where it seems like Bud's going to kill him and then they decide to work together. Bud tortures the DA for answers,

which includes the combo, toilet dunk, legs dangle outside the window. We don't get that often. Yeah. Get one, but not both. Incredible risk.

And then the big shootout at the end. Victory Motel. CRO talks about situational awareness with action scenes, tight spaces where the camera is can follow where everybody is, it's a good one for that. It's really good.

Yeah. And it's, uh, it almost feels a little bit premature. Like when you're watching the movie, you're like, oh, we're doing this now. We're done. We're done. Okay.

Because in the book, I feel like you're like, it's just like, you know, and the victory motel shootout isn't quite the same in the book and stuff like that. There's like a train and shit. But yeah. Also, Crow, some of his gunwork in this movie, leads to proof of life three years later. Yes.

A lot of people don't make that point. I was just having a conversation about this the other day. With Meg Ryan? You know, since the emergence of wearing the tactical bulletproof vest, I think we've seen a different kind of, like, gun acting going on. Yeah. And it's also like, especially since John Wick. Yeah.

But between this and to live and die in L.A., I kind of miss guys running around with a revolver shaking everywhere. You know, like, where it's like Pankow jumping over something and be like, hey! I forgot to tell you, I was watching the first eight episodes of Miami Vice again because they're on Tubi. Pankow is in Glades. Yeah, I know.

Couldn't, there was a Pankow, like, a Pankow rejuvenation in Glades. I was going to text you about this, but I was like, I don't want to bother him with about Pankow. You can never bother me with my advice. It's two guys and one girl, and then the two guys realize they love each other at the same time, and the girl's like, hey,

but we're the one girl. Listen. Beautiful. Tube is flexited for us. Yeah. Whole series is there. We talking about the Panko songs? Yeah. Cousin Ira.

Panko had a tough pod to live and die in LA. You gave him a tough time. I think I liked him. I was kind of with Bill. Fantasy didn't have the balls to jump on the Pankow recasting bandwagon, but it was hinting. You were more on my side than we are. Did you get a note in your mailbox from Billy Peterson about, he's like, hey, love your work? No, he's just, all he does is just roll in piles of money. Yeah.

He's never heard of podcasting. He's a swimming pool, but just with $20. our bills in it. He just dives into it. His uncle scrooges it all day. He just swims around and watches the bills flat. So what's your, what did you, what scenes did you have that I didn't mention? Well, we mentioned it, but when Exley and Bud

and Vincennes go into the DA's office or the captain's office and they're being kind of confronted with Will You Rat, the way that those three scenes are cut, another amazing Spacey performance when he is told that he's going to have the show taken away from him just on his face. It's amazing. And then putting Ed behind the mirror

and observing when Jack is being interrogated. I think that whole section is so smart. And kind of like, that's when the movie coalesces and you're like, oh, it's these three guys. Like, this is really what this movie is about. It's three cops. What did you have for mostly watchable? You name them all, but it's the interrogation scene for me.

It's the interrogation. It jumps up such a level. And to see, it's always fun when the audience gets put in the same position as some of the characters when Jack says, are you sure college boy is up to this? And he's like, I think he'll be surprised what the boy is capable of. And we all lean in being like, oh, I guess we're about to be surprised.

and then I didn't, has there been other precedent of the manipulation of the live mic in an interrogation scene? No, I don't. He's conducting it. He's like, Dudamel in there. He's like, God. Yeah. He's like, he's making sure that the other guys can hear certain things that the other, the other. And really good fully on the snap of the switch.

Yeah. I had that in one stage the best is, um, when college boy was an insult. Oh, yeah. In like the 40s, 50s, 6th, like, oh, look at college boy. We just don't have, we've lost college boy. I don't know what it is now. Like, master's boy? Doesn't have the same way.

PhD boy. I don't know. Just the era where you would make fun of somebody for pursuing higher education, just somehow. Somehow beneath. I feel like that was for a minute. People were calling guys libs. That was like sort of a,

they're going to let the lib. So that's the most lib thing I've ever heard. They think that's over-lil. Over-lib. They're like, I was an era on today. No one was calling me a lib. Lives are back, man.

So we all have the interrogation. I have the interrogation Interesting I have one other small one Which is Bud visiting Pierce Patchett for the first time I love that scene We have not talked about Pierce Patchett And just like

Yeah Strath Aaron come on Strath Aaron is so good in this movie too Our guy Dion Dion Dave Oh okay Well I don't want to piss on it But he's so good and He can do that in any movie

Sneakers like whatever Like he's one of my favorite IMDBs Including he's in the best Miami Vice Episode ever Dyer Strait's brothers in arms Yeah Wow The third episode of season two

Just keep you in the loop Cut the energy Him and Bruce McCall Yep McGill McGill Bruce McGill Yeah Bruce McGill

Bruce McCall Bruce McGill Bruce McGill New coach of Creighton I was watching Bruce McGill in a really terrible Bruce Willis movie

that I like Can you guess Is it a nice castle? Nope Is it a Hudson Hawk Bruce McGill Bruce Willis Sarah Jessica Parker

Oh uh Striking distance Oh yeah This is the boat right Pittsburgh Pittsburgh boat cops Disgraced cop Doing now

Like Pittsburgh Pittsburgh What in and out Was to Long Island People in Pittsburgh were like Striking distance Willis was here Willis was having a

Promise I could I like that movie Made it all the way It's good The third act Where it's like All in that one boat

And he's gonna move around the boat But he's being spotted Yeah I saw it It takes them boxes. I'll tell you that much. Cops not liking each other. There's disgrace

cops. Pennsylvania. Come on. It's kind. It's right in the heart of the Barry Bonds era, too. Is it not? It's like early 90s. It's the killer Bs. It's pretty good. Yeah. Benia was on the Mets at this point, I think. It's still on the Mets. Tech. A.O. A. A. O. A. Filly guy with the

most Philly joke of all time. When I'm hosting 2B classics in seven years. The CR Month will allow it. The only other thing I would shoot fraud is like a rewatchable. I have the interrogation scene. You know what's fucking. great is the post-Xley shootout montage that they do to skip ahead time where it's like

exly gets promoted, Jack returns to badge of honor, Bud goes like, continues to see Lynn, and then you get like, you know, Bud keeps beating up all of the mobsters moving it on Mickey's turf and the 10 opens. Those montages can go the wrong way. That one works. It really does. But I think it's probably the worst part of the godfather when it, Pacino. Oh, just the newspapers.

Michael kills McCloskey and Salazzo, and then it's like, Dada, it's like playing this carnival music, and they're just showing newspapers. It's like, wow. The other risk you run is like driving the bus past something you actually wish you could stop and get out and spend more time in. Like the Santa Monica Freeway. Well, on the Santa Monica Freeway to Pierce Patchett's gender bending

champagne parties, which really, like they had a location. Yeah. You know, they brought in the cabaret dancers. They could. My brain those back. Those parties? Gender-bending parties at your house? Just, I might do have a Pierce Paggette.

party. You should. Just like guys, no limits tonight. Just a bunch of chicks wearing clutch sweatshirts. Some of the girls are cut like modern actresses.

We'll just go for it. I'm listening. I'm listening. I'm listening. You're just a bunch of chicks wearing clutch sweatshers. I was like nothing. Craig's already RSVPed. What's the most

1997 thing about this movie, tough one, because it's set in the 50s, but it's got to be young crow, right? Would you say anything else? Poster? Kevin Spacey is a leading element. Kevin Spacey on the posters.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. I had, this is to, not to piss, Sean off, but I had that this is a movie in the first place is the most deeply 1997 thing about it. Because this would be,

this is a TV show. What streamer would this be on? Exactly. I don't know, man, we're coming off Project Hell Mary. Book adaptations are back. Like, this is the way with movies is adapt these really good novels

into movies. This was how it was for like 40 years in Hollywood. But this was not a popcorn slam dunk beat, true true true do you guys want to hear my son's review in the kitchen of project hill mary sure i tell you this you texted it to me yeah he was like how was it and he said it sucked it's like really it sucked people like he's like no it was good it sucked but it was really good it kept my interest and i'm glad i sat in the theater

it sounds like you liked it he's like no i liked it i was like we had to do you think he was intimidated by thinking he was going against conventional wisdom i think he was trying to zag Because I don't know what he was thinking. We're still working on him. I do, to his credit, there's that thing where the expectations are really high for a movie, and you're like, this did not be the expectations. That's where we landed.

Yeah, he thought, it's good, and I appreciate it. But the next thing he said was it wasn't like 2001. That's his next quote. That's true, though. Yeah. It wasn't going to be 2001, Ben. So we're working. He's only 18.

Work in progress. Special category I threw in the Floyd gondoli butter in my ass and lollipops in my mouth award for something I just enjoy. I like scared characters with a puddle of pee underneath them. We get two in this. Home run.

Huge. If someone pisses themselves, it means it's good movie. I didn't think they'd go back to the well, so to speak. You know somebody's scared when they're just, the pee's running down their leg

or there's pee under their seat? It's the last level of fear. Craig don't. Put the cameras down beneath this table. That's how I felt when you guys asked me if I like proof of life. You like proof of life. You just don't know it yet.

Mike Gondoli was Cadillac El Dorado's driving around L.A. In the 1950s. It's pretty cool. I just go for it. Would you have for What's Age the Best, Andy? What's age the best? I thought your Floyd Gondoli would be like a group of men being told to go out and like pursue justice without mercy.

Like that is just a slam dung for you. That is. I like watching movies and like that. What's age the best? Well, we already said, racial profiling is an attempt to project dominance and safety in a community. Going great.

I thought audiences' willingness to explore twisty morality genre tales just not in movie theaters. You had tabloid culture. I feel like LA is still a rough adjustment for some outsiders. You don't usually get pulled into the victory motel. But, you know, emotionally it can be a tough adjustment.

That's what working above herbal life was, Grantland. That's right. That's right. It was kind of our victory motel. Yeah. What you have? Oh, well, my gondoli is when a seemingly kindly old Irish man is the most evil person in the movie,

which is also we find that in the town as well, of course. There's many such examples. And this one has a great one in Dudley. But what's age of the best is there is a really good interview with Hansen where he said, I love characters who only have one scene, but they're the star of that scene. And this movie is a great example. of that. And there's a handful of actors when we get into some of the other character categories that we can talk about. But that's a really clever idea that I think has been dispensed with the bit

over the last 25 years. And he was really good at them. Tarantino bought him with the Watkins. Yes. But it's like the coroner. The coroner is like he's had a whole day before Budway walked into his office. I mean, Stensland is a great example of a character when he's in the scene. He's the star of that. Sure. That's a good one. What do you have CR? For best? Yeah. Pierce Patchett is a proto Epstein. enriching himself, exerting control from the shadows using blackmail.

This is more of like a movie thing. I think for the novel readers, they're a little like, all right, but Dudley telling Exley he'll never be a great cop unless he can shoot a criminal in the back in order to get justice, and that's exactly how Exley kills Dudley.

I add that as well. And just like the balls on these guys to do the Dudley, to make Dudley like a twist rather than going into it, we all know Dudley. is like the dark prince of Los Angeles and instead it's like, holy shit, this guy is taking over for Mickey Cohen.

I have corrupt LA cops, which you mentioned. I love movies where the police department hates one of their own cops. Yeah. Always works. Shunning him. Yeah, and there's like, they're in groups and he's coming around the corner and they're just kind of stink eyeing him.

Serbico, yeah. Yeah. That always works for me. I was kind of like, there's, I don't ever want to use SORA, the AI video thing. But I kind of want to put Inspector Todd in LA Confidential.

Is that that fucking X-L.A. Out there? Just put him in every cop movie. Increased racial harmony within the LAPD. Talking about getting plastic surgery as having you cut. I think we just need to bring it back.

God just to come back. Yeah. You're going to have me cut to look like Nick Wright. Where's Chris been? Why is Chris have so many chief's opinions? Why does Chris have a QB tier? Yeah, but he's Chris okay. DeVito, I mean, I know it's the 50s, so you can get away with it, you could have now. But when he rips off the back-to-back, did you know, the DA is a swish?

And then he does the Reynolds as an A.C. Doocy, two phrases nobody said in 50 years. Yeah. Just, I thought it was. There's a lot of colorful Elroyisms in the book, too, that are, you don't hear too often. And then Russell Crowe said that Elroy told him Budway doesn't drink, so Crow didn't drink. so Crow didn't drink during the entire shoot and described it as the most painful period of his leg. And not ironically.

Yeah, probably why he looks great by the end of the movie. He legendarily builds his own bar at set. He has like a pub setup or he did. So the best all-time drunk actors, Quentin Jaws is number one. He died when he was like 34. Richard Harris and Oliver. Tom Cruise,

Oliver Reed. Oliver Reed was another he died during Gladiator. Sterling Hayden. Starling Hayden. Long goodbye. Didn't even look at the script. Yes.

Famously, huge drunk. Peter O'Toole and Lion and Winter. Yeah. I mean, throughout as a time. Peter was a great one. Yeah.

Robert Mitchum. Yeah. Incredible Mitchum story. Mitchum wouldn't do Saturday Night live unless they gave him a case of Jose Cuervo Gold. He wouldn't go on. That's so far up.

That's pretty great. Nick Nalti was a famous one. That's a good one. I mean, Colin Farrell, you know, our beloved Colin Farrell for a time. You know, he was... Andy, could this be a new ringer podcast for you where each episode is just the history of a drunk actor? Sure. Yeah.

Do we do the full arc of the character? Remember how much time we spent talking about Robert Shaw and the Jaws? Yeah. Spent like 20 minutes. He was daring Dreyfus to climb up on top of the boat. Shamingham and Dreyfus was going to do it. Spielberg had to step in because he was going to die. Did you ask Spielberg back that?

Yeah, we talked about it at length. It was roughly 50 minutes of our conversation. which is about Robert Shaw being shit-faced during the making of Jaws. What would it be now, Craig, just somebody who took too many gummies? Yeah, overdosing on CBD during a pod. Yeah, it's just...

Soft. Again, we used to know how to make things in this country. We used to be able to really be belligerly drunk on movie sets. So that they could work in brothels modeled on movie stars. Now, to be fair, Kim Basinger has not been cut. We should be clear.

She's not just dyed her hair a tiny bit. to Bisbee, Arizona. Sierra, what do you have for Great Shot Gordo? All the stuff in the interrogation scene before Exley goes in, there's like a great one of Jack in the front of the frame, Dudley and Mid. X-Ley-Exley is reflected off the glass and you can see into the interrogation booth

to see the kid waiting for them, and it's just like, these guys are Spanati. It's funny, I was watching the movie thinking that was like minus 250 N-Fandil that that was going to be C.R.'s Gordo. Did you have a different one? You love reflection shots. You're a big reflection guy.

Multiple splits. after shots in the movie. Mold, like three, I think. Name them. Well, one in particular, when Exley and Bud burst into the DA's office, they show Rifkin in the background

and Bud in the foreground and Bud in the foreground. Like, it's just, it jumps out at you. I think also just the, one of the very last shots in the movie is Exley holding up the badge

in the shadows of the cop cars arriving, which is just a beautiful image. I like the cop cars coming over the hill. That's really good. There's one other one too, which is like the, when Exley and Budwhite are about to showdown in the street, and it's one of the only zooms in the movie, and

like zooms in the two of them and captures them in the frame head to head with each other. This is the thing I wanted to say. Like, it is such an unshoey movie in terms of camera work and direction. It is always serving the story. And then when I went through it to consider this category, that's what jumped out. The very few times that they choose to move the camera, you pay attention. So weirdly, one of my nominations for this category is like not even that memorable of the scene, but it's when Stensland walks out of Dudley's office after turning.

in his badge and gun. And he puts out his hand to shake Bud's hand. And we kind of move the camera around to this just wall of raw beef faces, all being like raw deal stends. And then we completely move the camera to see Exley coming down the hall. And similarly, you called it a minute ago, when Bud shows up at Patchett's house and he's at the top, the Patchett's putting at the bottom,

and they're both in frame. And you feel the divide between them. Chess Rockwell, Brocklander is a word for best character name. Hollywood Jack, the Big V. A lot of good ones in this. The big V. In two names. He pulled out two nicknames successfully.

A lot of good ones. Pierce Morehouse Patchett, which is P-I-M-M-P, is pretty darn good. Yeah, pretty good. What about Buzz Meeks? Bigs-Densland. I would say there's a shadow version of this category, which is missed opportunities, because there are a lot of characters in the film, some of whom have lines and have a role to play, and their names are chief of police or city councilmen.

I think that's because those. Those guys in the novel, at least the chief of police are like real people, real cops. Like, yeah. It's just, it just,

I feel like if you were able to, like, dine out in Los Angeles in 1998 and be like, guess what? I'm in the best picture nominated film, LA Confidential.

And I have three scenes. Who do you play? Counselman. It's kind of a bummer. Yeah. It is a bummer. The Amanda Daven's a word for best piece of real estate.

Here we go. Shout out to Amanda. Um, the LA Confidential House. It's in Hancock Park. of Wilshire Country Club. And this is Lynn's house? This is Lynn's house.

So it's basically the 11th 11th fairway. It was for sale twice in the last seven years. And the first time, so it was on one of my walks. Went and checked it out. Went did an open house

before somebody fixed it up. And it was pretty beaten up. Yeah. But it was like the LA Confidential house, everybody in the neighborhood knows the house. All that Bud White's sperm, is that what the issue was? Yeah.

Keep the black light in the house. But it was cool. buy it to put his money in there? Well, there's no backyard. It was like mostly a front yard and then a side yard that's next to the golf course. And it was kind of like,

this is something you'd really have to spend money to fix it up. Somebody bought it, fixed it up, and then sold it during COVID for $7.5 million. Do you think they gutted it or do you think that amazing front room is still there? I think they kept the bones, but I think they had to fix.

It was one of those where you walked on it, you could feel the floor is creaking. Yeah. It was old. It was buried under there. But it's fucking cool. And that's a really cool street that,

you basically come off Rossmore, which is one of the first big Hollywood streets, you take a left and you go down and it curls around. And where it curls is where that house is. So you see it and it curls right through Coenga. But it's a really cool distinct house. I don't know how livable it is. It's funny, this is the category I picked from my flex category,

but I didn't pick that house. I picked Pierce Patchett's house. Yeah, that's the architectural house. So I had some thoughts on the Pierce House because that's the runner-up. I wanted it to be even bigger. the inside. I wanted it to be like this,

like the fucking Babylon house. Oh, yeah. Yeah. If he's stealing, if he's stealing H, Sean, he's getting that H money.

Yeah, but he's sniffing it too. Plus, oh, maybe he's using the product. He's also got to pay for all those ladies to get cut. Getting cut was more expensive than I think.

That might not be covered by insurance. So you like the house? I don't, are the interiors in the movie, the actual interior of, I've never been, it's up the street from where I live. It's in Los.

feels. It's the level house. It's a very famous house, very famous architectural masterpiece in L.A. that was built like 100 years ago. But it feels like it was designed in the 50s and it's beautiful. It's a Neutra house. It was built in 27. The great thing about Hancock Park is like these houses have been around for 110 years and like some shit went down in a lot of the houses and you just can kind of feel the energy. But it's like, yeah, definitely. Like Amityville horror style? Well, you never know. Ghosts? Yeah. Who knows? Sean Fantasy, a word for stealth homage that gives every movie nerd

a criteria orgasm. What a pleasure to have Andy here for this category. I'm excited for this. But wait, what about the real estate? I thought someone was going to mention Bob's market in Echo Park,

which is that the three streets converging where the boxer is. And that's where Fast and Furious starts, right? Isn't that, that's the market? Wow. I didn't want to bring that up, but it did look a little familiar.

I thought a warm feeling. You would invoke Fast and Furious. It's fine, man. I've never seen it. I just thought you, I thought that was appealing to you, Sean. What do you have for criteria? I hate those songs.

Two in they're related. As Andy mentioned, Bud and Lynn go to a showing of Roman Holiday. The Audrey Hepburn Gregory Pack Classic, Oscar winning movie. Released September of 53. So it's right at the perfect time

because this movie is December, January, and January, and when Jack goes for a drink after the party at badge of honor, he goes to the frolic room, which is right next door to the Pantages Theater, which is showing on the marquee, the bad and the beautiful, which is, as you mentioned, is one of the key inspirations for this movie. Frolic room is still there. Still there.

My only other criteria orgasm is an oral. You don't get to have criteria orgasms. I'm just considering Sean Solo. I'm pulling one in there because it's music based. You just joined in. It's CR month. All right. It is CRM month.

Jerry Goldsmith based some of the score off of Leonard Bernstein's on the Waterfront score. That's a pretty cool. It's a fact. Sierra Golds based. Sierra Mad does get to have a criteria orgasm on. He rift on it. Do you, have you ever orgasmed on the show? On this one?

Yeah. During Sakara, you just didn't know. Just a quiet death. It's a time to meet God. Little death. Yeah. Walked into the dark. Did you hear on the mailbag of a listener said that the Emily Blunt character should have been Tom Cruise?

It was an amazing email. Like Tom Cruise, the firm early 90s. Yeah. Yeah. Young guy who's a rationally cocky. I'm not a soldier. It's pretty interesting thought. Maybe you can do that on Sora.

Sure. Tom Cruise and Sicario. You have a flex category. Let's see. I had Jesse Eisenberg. That's good. You should be proud of that right there. Don't worry if you don't make it any further.

The best line reading was when Jack says to X-Lexley, why in the world do you want to go digging any deeper into the Night Owl Killings Lieutenant? Because it's like that made you. So yeah, that was my favorite. Butch's girlfriend award, weak link of the film. This will be interesting. Do we have a wink link, Sean?

I don't think that it's Basinger, but I wrote down Basinger because I didn't know what to do. Okay. Andy? This might be sort of a niche thing, but I think DeVito is the worst on-screen Italian as Jew since De Niro and Casino. Great take. This is honestly...

I'm fixated by this. Love it. Like, there's a lot of... And we'll get to, I imagine, Cromwell's Irish accent, but like, there's a lot of... Certain words are doing a lot of labor for DeVito's performance

where he's just like... Boychick. Boychick. Like, okay. Yeah, I found that. Maybe the scales are even because Jason Alexander played a character named George Costanza.

So maybe the Jewish Italian alliance is strong. This is a... real hobby horse of yours. Yeah, you like to point out great acts of anti-semitism and casting, yeah. I love it. Come on. Anytime it comes up on the watch, I like it. When you have a long role of representation,

like the muck-racking editor-cheek of Hush-Hush magazine crouches in closets to photograph the rich and powerful having sex. Ellis Logue at a BJ. This is important for the culture. Yeah. Okay? So I'm just saying that's an opportunity. For sure. That's the weakling.

The passage of time in this movie is not super well documented to me. So I think if you watch this movie, like, the way Craig did, like, the first time, like, did you think years have gone by in this movie? It was a little unclear. Is that true? Yeah. It starts in 53 and, no, 51.

Yeah, they flip a newspaper at one point, the newspaper says 503. In the book, it's like a decade almost. It's eight years or something. I'm going to throw a Dodgers game in there. But they do a good job of it. Like, it doesn't really matter. It's not a week-like. And I also think, like, to that.

To that same point, like the heroin, it's still kind of hard to track the heroin in the movie. My weak link was Danny DeVito. Yes, thank you. For different reasons? For the reasons you mentioned, I just wasn't buying it. He's just an Italian.

He's just Danny DeVito. I also, he takes me out of the movie a little. A little bit. His Danny DeVito-ness is just too omnipresent and too much of a history with him and he's in taxing his remains. I can't buy him as a character and I almost don't know if we needed

a famous actor for that part. Every time he's in the scene, it's such a good Bouchemey role or something. Yeah, it's just... There you go again. I know it's the R month. But excuse me. Kevin Pollack?

Is Kevin Pollock Jewish? What about Panco? Yeah. He's right there. Pancolle. Come on. Honestly, Kevin Pollock could have done it. Yeah.

He could have. I find that DeVito is a great first voice to hear when the movie opens and you're getting those postcards. and he's kind of a great narrator. But when he's in scenes, and Spacey, who is a big showy actor, but is much more subtle in this movie,

and DeVito is just throwing ham sandwiches at him nonstop. I mean, it's crazy how big he is. Which maybe is why they cast a guy. Could be. I just think he's done too much comedy over there. Like, even when he was getting, like, beaten up in the chair at the end, it's like, come on this guy who pulled his punches.

I had a, I had one for this for recasting. It's Billy Crystal two fans. For that part? Yes. Well, you've certainly made the case Danny DeVito is way too famous for this part. Why is Danny DeVito even in this movie? My point is if you're going to go famous for that part,

I'd rather have Billy Crystal. Yeah. And then my dream... My dream choice would have been Larry David because nobody knew who Larry David really looked like in 97. Yeah. This is the big brain thinking I want.

Yes. That could have been where we went, but I just... So that's when Larry David walks up to Jack Vincennes and he says, has a jacquillet in his stomach. I don't know. He took me out of the movie. Too much history.

Anyway, what's age the worst? Kevin Spacey. I didn't like the Pierce House as much. I really wanted like a Babelan house for him. I wanted like just this house is obscene. We're like in Hollywood Hills. There's no house within maybe we're in Malibu. I don't know.

I just wanted like a giant kind of like crazy. Oh my God. This guy's got to be the richest guy in LA kind of house. I got a no-sell that one Guy Pearce, Kevin Spacey stuff that was just in the news Specy got handy with him on the set and he was uncomfortable

on the whole thing I probably should have just punched him James Elroy's relationship to the film is all over the map 97 he said it was a work of art on its own level and in 2016 he said it was problematic and in 2022, he said it was turkey of the highest form.

And the crow and basing are impotent, right? Yeah. And then when Curtis Hansen died, he was like, it's a pretty good movie. James, I don't have any other what's age the worst. Kind of a weird cat. Yeah. Yeah. I think what's aged the worst is hands down the opening, and I quote,

there are jobs a plenty and land is cheap. Every working man can have his own house. I don't know. Any millennials, Craig, do you want to weigh in on that? Don't have a home. Can working men have a home for Los Angeles, Craig? Craig is producing this from an ACURA.

There's one other quote in the film that is obviously very purposefully, almost grown-worthy, but from downtown to the beach in 20 minutes is a heinous note, which is just simply not true. Unless you're driving a cab. You're buying it.

Interesting. A couple of what's aged the worst. The fight that Bud and Exley have in the records room when he catches Xxie. like after Lynn. Yeah. He would have fucking killed him.

Like the way he's like throwing him around the room. He's like slamming his head into a filing cabinet and the guy is like a Shiner afterwards. That's also Russell Crow's audition to be Wolverine. That's right. That's why he really throws the chair out of the window no, for no reason or not. Just to be like, ah, god damn. I got to get something, somebody had to pay.

Something else we've got to bring back is just being able to be ruthlessly violent in the workplace, you know, just throw on furniture through windows. Yeah, that was definitely an HR violation. Yeah. I don't think the day you transition to talent only is the day you make that. As soon as I can get a window out, yeah. Do you think that the LAPD had HR? No, right.

And then the only other thing that had... Do they happen now, I think is a better question. The Lynn Dudley Bud triangle. Yeah. That whole, like, we're going to take pictures of Exley with Lynn to make Bud go crazy so that he attacks Exley thing is the one film-only flourish that is... a little off because in the book,

Inez, the rape victim is actually the center of their love triangle. So you think El-Roy saw that part and said, what the fuck? Well, I think it's just almost as like, why wouldn't they just have actually killed? Like, they're doing that to everybody else. Like, why they think Al-Roy sounds insane, but if somebody did, like, a adaptation of the book of basketball and they had, like, Carl Malone third,

I would fucking lose my mind. But you said your adaptation would be to forget the entire text. We got to game this out. Who's making the film? Is it a narrative? Is it a scripted film? Nobody is. A 12-part documentary.

I have an easy category. I will direct the 12-part documentary book of basketball if I can reorder the pyramid in anyway. And the film festival beforehand is going to be killer. The rough low hand of Rubeneck Partridge overacting word is an easy one. It's the old lady who IDs her call girl daughter and then has two other terrible scenes. And looks like David Letterman. Looks like David Letterman in drag. Gwenda Deacon?

It's just a zero. the entire time. Say her name. Come on. Did somebody call it sick? Was there some Oscar winner that at the last second, like, fell ill? And they just had to grab someone? In one scene, it's a vibe. Like, okay, when she's identifying, that's my girl. And you're like, wow, that was really

memorable day player that they found to play that role. Yeah. Of all the people who show up on set, and you're like, let's reward this person with an entire... Two more scenes. Really bad. You have a flex category. I already did it. It's Pierce Patchen. You just shot me down. You said, it's not a nice house, and it's not architecturally significant. significant and I should stop talking and so I will.

I thought it was a nice harder. I was saying I feel like his house would have been splashier and more... What's his background, Pierce? How did he make his fortune? Businessman. Oh, H? H. H. Slingin H. No, no, I think he's dabbling now. But he's like, he's in his 40s or 50s at this point.

So, like, what do he... I think he's like 30. Honestly, people eat differently. It's good point. I think he's emerged out of a world of blackmail and extortion. Okay. I had a major nitpick for this that I was going to do later, but I'll do now since Sean brought it up. I just think gambling's part of this. I don't

know how he misses it. The guy's a businessman. You got H over here. I got my call girls here. I'm having that. I have like a whole underground casino in my giant palace. He's watching March Madness hitting parlay. Every boxing thing, the guys are going down there, they're taking bets.

There's no way he's not doing gambling in L.A. So there would have been this vacuum. Big missed opportunity. The CR thinks Luke will could have been Harrison Ford hottest take award, Andy. You haven't done this before. I don't know if I have a hot take.

Okay, you don't need a struggle to find one. I have one. I think this is like the perfect modern period film in that it feels really true to life. It has all of the sort of superficial like the cars, the production design. All of it looks like the 50s,

but it feels like a 90s movie. It's cut like a modern film. Yeah. The acting style is decidedly modern. everything about like the performance and the editing and the feel of the film is like 97. Like you could put this up against usual suspects and it feels very similar. But then they take all of the know-how of like how to make a full-on L.A. noir movie and push it out there.

It's just like the perfect balance. We should we should chat out Brian Raftery, our friend's article on the ringer.com about 90s noir. It really talks about why the, like the 50s and the 90s were decades that celebrated noir because they were decades after a big conflict where the United States had a very clear self, at least the way they thought of ourselves that's Boy Scout role to play and then there's kind of a moral morass afterwards.

Yeah. Yeah. Take wasn't hot enough. I'm coming in way hotter. Okay. That was warm. I'm just telling you, I'm going to be scorching. Sean, you go. Okay. Set up to fail there. This is... You can come in hot.

I'm just saying people are going to get burned. The second best adaptation of the Wizard of Oz of all time. That's pretty good. And Wicked and Wicked For Good are very far near the bottom. There's Bud, the cop with no brain. There's Ed, the cop with no heart. And there's Jack, the cop with no courage.

And then there's the victimized girl Lynn who just wants to escape Oz and go back home to Arizona, not Kansas. And they all get what they want. And Dudley is the wizard? He is the Wizard of Oz. Sean Fenton Fenton. That was really good. I didn't invent that take. That is something that has been suggested about this movie.

That's really good. It is good. If you play Dark Side of the Moon, starting at... Who invented that, taken? Can we get them here before the end of the recording? I just been rid about since the 90s, because the archetypes of the characters are so strong, and it's like, why does this movie feel so familiar,

even though I've never seen this movie before? It feels like getting trapped by Tarantino in a kitchen somewhere, and he's like, what you don't know, man? Is L.A. Confidential. It's just Wizard of Us, man? Mine is... This is almost a new category. The Pierce Patchett Award for...

most reprehensible movie plot idea that was actually pretty awesome. His business of high-class call girls being cut to look like movie actors, I think it's kind of a brilliant business. Great job by him. Wow. Yeah. It's ahead of its time. Yeah. Like, I think

you could do this now. You think he wins Shark Tank? I think you could you've got a Shark Take right now and be like, so we got the Kardashians. We have Margot Robbie. And I don't know. I think in the room, I think Cuban buys it. Who knows, Bill?

Maybe it's still happening today. Craig? I literally had this written down. I was like, this guy invented deep fakes, essentially. Casting what ifs? We mentioned McConae. He turned it down, said in 2018, really regretted it. Russell Crowe turned it down.

Then they talked them into it. Nothing else interesting. There was Isabella Scroopco offered the lead female role, turned it down. I don't know if I believed it. That was in one of the research things. Gold-Nye. Gold-Nye. One of the things,

other things I saw, Basinger was their first choice. They really wanted her, so who knows? There was a Michael Madsen as Bud thing. I didn't believe that one. Okay. No, I'd kick the tires on it.

I'd just think at 97 is Madsen getting a movie like this? What about Michael Madsen? His career was kind of... To look like Russell's up. Could I interest you in that? Yeah, this could go both ways. We can start doing guys, too. Yeah.

That's very... Go on? No, you can cut guys to look like other. actors. And then what would happen? Look at this Glenn Powell look like I have, yeah. What are you doing with him? Fucking, you're having a catch. I don't know. Don't torture CR and CR, but.

I bet that guy were this. Shmorgas and barbecue. There's so many that guys. This is the best category. Run this routes. You want to do the Pierce Patchett, but just to make cool friends who look like famous people? I'm going to make Colin Farrell from Miami plates and go get mojitos.

But he's just some dude from Nebraska. Got off the bus. Yeah. That's a good idea. I'm a pun for mojitos. I feel like he would do that. Have you seen that video of the guy who hires the Tom Cruise impersonator and just has him come over to his house? To make human desire.

Pamela Anderson is Lynn Bracken. Did you kick the tires on that? I just don't believe it. Okay. I don't think they're going. This is a year after Baywatch. This is one of the great mysteries of this podcast to me is when you'll decide a rumor is not real. Listen, there's a sniff test to all of these.

And I just don't think. Curtis Hanson was like, you know who we should get Pamela Anderson to play? I just don't see it. And I think as the years pass, as we discussed, I think that people just start adding stuff into the history of the movie. And I'd

I want to start doing that for recreation. Just popping on the IMDB trivia page. Or Wikipedia. You can just basically start adding shit. That's that guy. We have a ton. We have, for the common man, the Craig's out there. We have Straitarn. Sure. I think people, not everybody knows his name. Rob

is definitely that guy. I have Ron Rivkin. Ron or Robb? Ron. Ron Rifkin. I'm going so much deeper. The leader of SD6. We have Matt McCoy, the dad from him that rocks the cradle.

Callback. Wait, Matt McCoy, also, who I will always think of as Nick Lassard, the replacement for Steve Gutenberg in the later period, Police Academy movies. Five and Six.

I was like, this guy's going to be a star as big as Steve Gutenberg. That's a 10-year-old does my first podcast take. And then in one of the TV adaptations, he played Exley's dad. Matt McCoy is Matt McCoy

except for Craig. There's a couple other guys. There's a step on Alan Graff is the wifebeater in the beginning. I feel like he might have been in the most rewatchables even more than Tom Cruise. He's a legendary stunt coordinator and second unit director.

But yes, he has been killed in 74 rewatchables. But I know that we have the same winner for this. I'm excited. Do you have Thomas Arana? What part was he? He's one of Dudley's henchmen who's in, he's the fucking guy at the end of Hunter for October,

and he's Russell Crowe's homie and Gladiator, and he's in Limitless. So, great choice, but that was not who I had. There's another one from the first rewatchable. John Mahon, yeah, that's who I have. John Mahon, who's always... I assume you were talking about Paul Gilfoyle. The guy driving the armored truck and heat

is one of the guys that get in the prison fight with... Wait, wait. Yeah. The first guy is driving the car. Oh, my God! Are you serious? Yeah. Yeah.

The guy who's like got shit coming out of his ears. The guy is driving in the armored truck and he looks over and sees the truck and does this. He's the first guy that they punch. Yeah. Yeah. Cousin Art, you know. I can't believe you didn't notice that. I'm sorry.

I mean, this is why you're you, man. I thought you would have been riding with me on this. I don't even know that guy's name. I don't want to look at up. I found a guy who was in fucking Hunt for October gladiator and Liverpool. That was pretty good. What about Tomahone, though? Yeah, he's great.

Yeah. Yeah. He was. He's the American president, Armageddon, Zodiac. In Austin Powers 2, he was NATO colonel. He was Earth Corp Ship Commander and something. And famously, he was

the LMU coach in the Hank Gathers story. Oh. I just put that into Appeal to Bill. Who was the LMU coach? Wasn't somebody famous? Who was their... Paul Weston. Yeah, that's right. Yeah. There you go. But again... So that guy, he's typecast, but in a good way, and he's telling his wife, yeah, there's this new Tom

Quincy, there's this part for the general. I think I'm going to get it. He just kind of knows at this point. I'm either one of the chiefs of staff or I'm chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, no matter what it is. Philip Baker Hall is busy. That's that guy. Who do you have for Dan Waiter, CR?

I think this is straight. At him as well, unless you wanted to throw some Dick Stenslin at me. I throw Simon Baker in here as well. Hmm. Early Simon Baker? First Simon Baker, actually. So much so that he has a different name. That's always cool.

You see that. Yeah, this movie. Did get my wife's attention when he came on. He's, you know, Big Devil Wears Prada. Part for him. What about the mentalist? Were you a fan of that show? Mentholst, never watched them.

Okay. Recasting couch director of City. Did anybody have anything else for this? I do. I do. I want to talk something out here. Yeah. For Dudley. Possibly.

Oh. Who is his point? Actually Irish. Authentically Irish. Yeah. If there's a hell, your mother's in it. Unquestionably fucking evil the second you see him, nobody's like, what a nice guy.

Small, though, of stature. Not of charisma. But is closer to, like, what Dudley, was, which was just like very sinister. You think postuate communicates evil right away. Yeah, don't you? I mean, I know in the Jim Sheridan. No, that's like, yeah, in the name of the father, he's so

moral. But he's coming off the lawyer and usual suspects. Oh, yeah. Kobayashi, yeah. Coming off that. That's good. And then I had... How tall is Cromwell? He keeps growing in my estimation. He's like... He's like... She's like... She's like... Wembe, yeah.

The only other ones I had was... How about Campbell Scott or Josh Charles as Exley? Oh, good choices. Is Bail too young? At this point? I'm just trying to get an American a job here. Oh, I see what you're doing. So, Damon.

It should just be Damon. Okay. He could have done this, talented Mr. Ripley, Goodwill hunting, and rounders all in a row. Would have been like, oh, my God. The fucking goat is here. Norton? Yeah.

I like that. It's one year after Larry Flint. So Ed Norton is a possibility. And he, you know. Ed Norton. That's a really good one. That's crazy. It's Andy Greenwald.

that's why I'm here. So Ed Norton was American History X and Rounders in 97. So would not have probably been available for this movie. But would have been a really good ex-ling. I think so. Ed Burns? You're a pretty good.

You're before Saving Private Ryan? She's the one. Is that 96? Yeah. I don't know. Ed Burns is Exley? Ed Burns was a hard-boiled detective in a TV show like seven years ago. What was that show called? You came on the podcast.

Yeah, what was that show called? Great question. I watched some of that show. Was he a detective? Obviously, Ed Burns, Long Island. It got stocked for life. Andy, you have a flex category. I do.

What was this show called? Was it public morals? Yeah, my flex category is probably, let me find it, but you probably could have guessed that I would have chosen this. I chose the Big Gahuna Burger category. But I don't know if I did it right, because there are a couple opportunities to discuss food and drink in this movie. How much time do we have left?

I mean, generally, this maybe this also goes into the Floyd Gundali. Like, I really like movies set in an era when there are no choices in liquor stores. You walk in and you say, give me a box. And in that box, I want gin, scotch, and vodka. And the guy's like, okay. I don't know what the holdup is, too. Like, I feel like he could have been doing this more quickly since there were no other options. It's also just, like, great to go into stores where people are just dicks to you from by the counter.

Like, where it's just like, don't worry about a Yelp review, man. I also feel like, I feel like Nick from Nick's liquor's entire performance was 80 yard for some reason. You never see his face. It always sounds like a very strong voice. Also, speaking of drinks, I really feel like Stensland, you know, probably is correctly labeled as a malcontent and maybe not a good cop. Pretty fun at parties, considering his mixology abilities, in which he takes dark liquor and light liquor and just pours them into the punch at the same time.

Shout out of Formosa, which still exists. You can get a good meal there. I don't think you can, like Johnny Stomponado, have a daytime schlitz there and just with a company of your own thoughts. which I did enjoy. And then the only other food really mentioned in the film is Matt Reynolds' last meal, which is pretty iconic. It's a Frankfurger, French fries, alcohol, and sperm.

Tough one. Tough order. It's a tough order. But maybe, you know, restaurant menus were different. That's the secret menu at In and Out. Dudley picked up to check panels. God damn. I thought it was just, they filled the onion.

Nope. Can't believe Sierra month is ending. Half Ascent research. No building in L.A. back in the day was led to be taller than City Hall. So they had to basically cheat all the camera work so we wouldn't see any buildings. Had that.

So they had the fight scene with Guy Pearce and Russell Crow. They were shot four months after principal photography had ended. And Pierce had shaved his head for another movie. So he's got a wig on. But I didn't really know. noticed a wig when I was watching it. I'm wearing one right now.

The cop that congratulates Exley at the end is Darrell Gates, famously of the LAPD. It's a weird movie for him to make a cameo. Say the least. Not ideal. Very strange choice. Not ideal. And then you mentioned the rape victim, Anez, in the movie who then disappears after

one more scene. In the book, she's huge. Huge and with Exley, and they just cut all that out. And works for his dad. Yeah, it's crazy. And then the level house is here that's Patchett's home. It's a famous house as we mentioned.

Bracken's house is at 501 Wilcox, which is we talked about next to the Wilshire Country Club. Current inhabitants just had it broadcast to the entire project. Sorry, guys. And then they can find this on the internet.

And then the Victory Motel was built. They just like the location and they built. It's like the Englewood, like the oil fields out by there. Apex Mountain, Crow, no. Spacey? This is...

I think there's a case to be made there. It's either this or American Beauty, but I like this. I prefer this. It sets up American Beauty and... I wrote down Spacey. Okay. Guy Pearce, it's Momento. Although it didn't really turn in anything after Momento like we thought.

I think he's had a great career. No, but I'm saying after Memento, it's like... I think post the Brutalist it might be now. Wow. I think he is very well regarded as an actor. It was a movie? It was a film? Okay.

Did you see Brutonist? You start Brutalist? Started Brutalist. Listen, did you... I think you made the right call. Wow. So it's just ten minutes. Some shameful opinions here.

Not all of us have to watch every movie. We can pick and choose a tiny bit. It was nominated for Best Picture. It wasn't like so obscure piece of shit. My weird ones are dominated. But really, it could have been a TV show. Okay. I will assassinate both of you.

Tell you what? I have another singer for you. I never finished Babelow. My main concern, Sean, I'm with you in terms of Guy Pearce being an interesting actor who will age into different gravitas. He should probably stay offline. I don't know if you've seen some of his recent retweets and quotes regarding global actions. Let's just say that the tenor of his tweets suggests that he was pro-Danny DeVito being cast as Sid Hutchins. And he would not want someone else cast in that role.

Oh, no. I'll just throw that out there. Okay. So you want to, you want him? abolished from society? No. I just wanted to take his phone away.

Stop tweeting. CDLA noir crime movies, Chinatown? Apex Mountain? Yeah. Got to be, right? Facing her,

I don't, I really don't think this was Apex Mountain for her. I think it was in the 80s during that nine and a half week's stretch. Did she, dude, the getaway after this?

She was a big movie. Getaway was before this. Getaways before this. I think it was nine and a half weeks, Batman, like that era. What did she follow this up with? Some,

everyone loved her, some well-deserved, Well, she married Alck Baldwin, and I think she scaled back a tiny bit after this. But weren't they married before this movie? They were married during this film. Yeah, yeah. I saw No Mercy in the theater with my mom.

Her next movie was 8 Mile 5 years later. She's weird. That's weird. She took 5 years off. Which one did you see with your mom? No Mercy with Richard Geer and Kim Basinger were their handcuffed together and trying to escape in New Orleans. And there was...

I got him that I don't know this movie. It's bad. I haven't seen it. My mom really wanted to see it. I hadn't been hanging out there and we went. And there was a point I'm like, wow, this is a weird one, is be with my mom. I kind of wish I wasn't with my mom.

It's amazing that just 90 seconds ago you were like, I don't have to see every movie, but you're telling us about no mercy. You're seeing no mercy. Gear and Bassinger, come on. Yeah, it turned out to be legendary. Frolic for him. Wait, hold on.

I have a question. Do you think that 8 Mile is rewatchable? I don't love it. It's an interesting time capsule. I don't know if I, no. I'm glad it exists. but I wouldn't like get the 4K. I wonder if my just

being a few years younger makes me like that movie a little bit more. You were more of an M&M. I was more into Eminemone. He spoke to you. Frolic. That movie peaks with Bob Deep playing in the opening seconds.

DeVito, no. It's a critical part of the film. I know. Evil Cromwell? Has he been evil and anything else? He's bad in a couple of things, but not the devil. What's your favorite Cromwell?

Is this. Oh, God. Well, he really is good in that Star Trek movie. I think he's very good in that. But Succession was good. I really loved him in Succession. He's Uncle Ewing? I think that's my favorite.

He's really good. He's hilarious in that because he's, him and Nick, Nicholas Braun, are genius together. He plays the president in a Jack Ryan movie. Yeah. Yeah. But I think this is like maybe his. Like Harrison for Jack Ryan or which one?

No, it's the Ben Affleck. I think he's excellent in this. I'd probably, I might say. say this. Toilet face dunking, I still think it's San Elmo's fire. Okay.

50s, LA, maybe. Dangling a guy out the window to get a tour? Dengling a guy out the window, sure. Toilet dunking, Big Lobowski, pretty good one. Oh, yeah. Good call.

Yeah. I've got a special big picture episode, toilet dunks. That's a really good, for a slow time. Like a June? It'd be like two and a half, three hours. I would pay $10 to watch Amanda watch four hours of guys getting dumped in a two.

Do we have? four hours of that much footage. I gotta say whenever there's a toilet dunk, I always think about the actor. And if I had been the actor, like how many times I would have asked the crew? Are we sure it's clean? Nobody's going to the bathroom on this.

Who cleaned it? Like, I just can't think anything worse. The Santa Mo's Fire is a good one because it's like a pretty, like, grungy bathroom. Yeah. Hancock Park movie houses. It's probably the, it's the Howard Hughes house and the Aviator.

I still feel like. Which one is that? It's on the eighth hole in Wilshire. It's when they land the plane. But he's in that... I feel like that's the best movie location of all of them. Cruiser, Hanks. Oh, wait, can I do one to Apex Mountain here?

Yeah. For me, this is the Apex Mountain of guys getting shot in the heart. Like, the dude watching the cartoons... Yeah. ...will live rent-free in my head forever because of the noises he makes after being shot. And the attention paid to Kevin Spacey's post-heart shot it's very good.

I feel like they had a shot in the heart consultant on the film. It's like you don't need to... We're good. That guy's done. You shot him in the heart. Checking him a pulse shot. A heart shot if it's double-tapped

and then a guy gets a head shot after. Because Wayne Groh is like... That's a good one. When they get him in the hotel room, but then he gets shot that. And what movie was that, Chris? Keith, yeah. Well, fortunately, we have a future Syracour here,

Craig Roebbeck. Shot in the heart, you die instantly, right? No, I don't think you do. Which is why when Russell Crowe shoots him him and then goes immediately checks his pulse, I guess he wouldn't have a pulse if he was just shot in the heart, but it has been literally like two seconds. Yes.

Because we see Spacey die, and he gets 20 seconds to deliver the line of Rollo... Tomasi. I don't think I would have had that in front of mind. So they kind of fudge it a little bit. Sometimes you die instantly when you get shot in the heart. Sometimes you don't. It depends if you're like a ventricle or...

I mean, I think your brain still works. It's amazing to have five doctors here and not know the answer to this question. Well, look, we're all about doing... Feel free to email us the answer. All of us are employed at the CDC, Sean. We are all... How many games could Jason Tatum play after getting shot in the heart? You know, it's just like right back at it.

Don't tempt O.G. Ananovi is all I'm saying. Cruiser, Hanks. Hanks is Hollywood Jack? Cruz's Xxley. Cruz's X.ly is what I was thinking as well. Yeah, I'd Cruz's Exley was the other choice. So we go Cruz? I think later Hanks as Dudley. That would be a great twist.

Thanks would never go heel like that. What's the close? as he came. Elvis? He did it in... What's the Wachowski's movie? Cloud Atlas? Cloud Atlas, yeah.

Doesn't he play like nine guys? He plays like four characters, but he does play a villain. He haven't seen it. No, this would have been good for him. I think for the catalog, him playing one villain in the 90s with all the other shit he did

would have been good. Do you think it would be fun if Bill watched Cloud Atlas? I do think it would be fun. Yeah, I think if we could get some... It would be how long will Bill last during Cloud Atlas would be a better game?

I don't think it's your speed, but you're not a Hank's completist. That's something we can say about you. You haven't seen them all. I haven't been happy with the 21st century in Hanks. I've been on the record for a while. I know you have as well. I wish he did some different things. He's trying a lot of new instruments.

They don't all sound good. I think when you fly as close to the sun as he did in the 90s and then with castaway, at some point, it's like, I've won seven titles. What else do you want from me? He only seems happy in the West Anderson movies now. He enjoys that. He's very good. I think he's good at that.

He's in Cranston. Yeah. They're cooking. Yeah. Scorsese or Spielberg, clearly Scorsese. Yeah, but I do think it would be interesting to see Spielberg have, the way that this movie excises some of the gross stuff from LA Confidential and also makes the characters a little less.

I mean, actually is like lies about his war record in the novel. Like, there's a lot of stuff like about these characters that are even worse. But if you kind of like gave Spielberg this script, I do think it would be good. That being said. He would have cast the V. as the hush, hush editor. Thank you. A hundred percent.

Dreyfus. Absolutely. Yeah, Drifus. That's great. That's a great pick. Oh, my God. That would have been great. Sean, for this category,

I feel like you have to stand up for, like, the working director like Curtis Hanson. Because, again, if it's Scorsese or at Spielberg, it has a very different point of view. Okay. So you think stylistically? That's not the game, though.

Yeah. You have to pick. You have to pick. One thing I will say about Hansen that he said that I thought was really interesting is he was like, I like suspense films. And that's not really,

a word you hear. Like, we talk about thrillers all the time on the show. This is often called a crime movie. This is a suspense movie, the way that, like, a lot of Alfred Hitchcock films are, where you're just, like, really want to know where it's going and what's going and what's going to happen. And you're kind of, you're locked in, like we were saying, there's just not a lot of fat on the movie.

And because of that, if you look at almost all, the, River Wild is the same thing. Yeah. The whole time, you're like, where is this going? You like that movie? The River Wild? Fuck yeah. I like the remake, too. I watched on Netflix. a movie called

Gaslit by my husband it's right there in the title We didn't finish Babel First of I was amazing It was a lifetime movie It was number one on Netflix Had to check it out And I was just riveted

The entire time What do you think about What happens? Or Gaslit by my husband The title is gaslit by my husband Was this Everything I wanted

Did anybody appear in it That we would ever have heard of? Didn't recognize one actor Okay Will the algorithm on Netflix Just roll from this rewatch right into that film. Can we arrange for it? When we do the after CR month, when a gaslight by my husband is the next day.

Gaslighting Month is a good idea. You could do the film Gaslight. Craig, you should check it out, Liz. I think you guys would like Gaslight by your husband. Yeah, she basically thinks she's going crazy, but he's doing stuff to her. And it's actually, it actually would have been a really good movie with better actors. That's my one blurb. I'd like to encourage you to check out the 1940s classic Gaslight, around which this seems to be very clear.

I'm going to do that too. Best hang, worst hang. Best hang. Probably Lynn, Kim Basinger's character. That Jack. Hollywood Jack? Best hang? Go to the frolic room with Hollywood Jack?

Pierce Patchett is the best hang. Andy. Cool, that's a cool attitude. It's a house of heroin. He's on heroin all the time. So he's chill. Yeah. Maybe four hours of golf with Pierce Patcher would be fun.

It would probably be eight hours. I think Jack would be like, I know how to get into all the clubs. I know, like, we go get a nice meal or something like, grease the wheels. Dudley? No. Best or worst? No. He does like his whiskey from Ireland.

He didn't drinker. He knows all the secrets of the world? Where's Tang? Stenlin. No, no, no, Mrs. Leffertz. Oh, yeah. That's also a dead body. I had actually, but he's right. Yeah, you're right. Pickin' Nits.

I mentioned the gambling really bothered me that there was no gambling in this movie. Kim, Bay, Singer, was prettier than Veronica Lake. I did some Bronical Lake research. Whoa. No. Did your hottest take? Hold on.

I just think like she's right. I just needed to dye my hair and I'm good because I'm hotter than Veronica Lake. That's a subjective opinion, right? Fair. Whoever's hotter. I don't think she looks like Veronica Lake. Nor do I think she acts like Veronica Lake. No.

And so she might be the actress who most looks like Veronica Lake at that time who would make sense for the movie. But Veronica Lake- I think I would have cast that differently if anyone who went to the movie in 1997. Couldn't remember her Veronica Lake was, except for a little- Correct film nerds. Yeah, but even just the way that Veronica Lake, she's a way more playful actor. Yeah. She was, like, way funnier and is in, like, a lot of light comedy in the 40s.

And Kim Basinger is not a funny actor at all. No. No. Do you think the lady who's, they think, is a Lana Turner look-alike, but is Lana Turner, in fact, looks like Lana Turner? I thought that was pretty good, actually. Yeah, I didn't mind that one. Lana Turner and Johnny Stompano, by the way,

weren't together until a couple of years after this movie wrapped up, which was they kind of shaved it. Anything else for Nipix? A lot of my input in what's age yours. There's a lot of, it's actually not that fun to go searching for Nits for this movie because there's like a thousand people being like,

actually plastic ketchup bottles weren't invented until the 70s. The books. The books in Pierce's bookcase. The only knit that I really bugged me on rewatch was, there's the scene where Dudley's like, Edmund, lose the glasses. I've never seen a police officer wearing glasses. And then it cuts the stencil and pouring liquor. And the first guy with this cup is fucking four eyes.

So I feel like Dudley just left that party. Yeah. Come on. Sequel, prequel, prestige, TV, all black cast are untouchable. So in 2020, Brian Hegelin, the writer, said there was a sequel that was in development with Chadwick Boseman who then got sick. And they decided not to do it. Not based on an Elroy novel?

It was set in 1974. and Crow and Pierce would have both been in it. And it just kind of fell apart. Yeah, and Helgwin said, and said Warner Brothers passed, and he said that Elroy was either on board or had been spoken to. Okay.

Interesting. Is this movie better with Wayne Jenkins, Fergie the florist, Zane Lowe, or somebody else? Do you have CR? I just wanted, like,

I just wanted to just shout out the other TV pilot. Oh. Because there were two. There was one in 2003. You can watch online with Kiefer Sutherland as Hollywood Jack. And the Trio logo during the heyday of Trio. The Trio's brilliant but canceled when they would air pilots.

Really good idea, by the way. I wish we could bring that back. But the one that was for CBS 2019 is pretty compelling because it was created by a writer named Jordan Harper who wrote a book we love called Everybody Knows. And it was Walton Gagins as Vincennes. It was Shea Wiggum as Stensland. Then a bunch of other good working act.

Like Mark Weber was Bud White. And Harper's whole pitch was that he was going to spread out time. And so the night owl wasn't even going to happen until the second season. And that's like, you can't find that one.

You can't find it. I've heard, I've heard that it was very good and that also CBS never ever would have made it because it was a very strange choice for CBS in 2019. I just don't know how you can do a show

like that on network television. No. It was an era when I think they were taking swings to try it. Like, will we become cable or will we? CBS was like, can you move it to Chicago

and just said it in a fire department? I mean, and have them never leave the fire department? If you just called it, Cops, Colin Los Angeles. Yeah. It probably would have been

on the fall schedule. Sorry to interrupt. What do you got, C.R? You have Wayne Jenkins, Fergie the floor, St. Lowe, anybody else?

We've had Zane every week this month. Dudley, man. Here we are from the streets of Dublin to the boulevards of sunset, the city of Angels,

and you, you've always held that badge high. That's your journey. But now you're on the other side of the law, so tell me, tell me how you got there.

Tell me what you plan to do with all that H, the rackets, the sin, the vice. Just explain it all to me, man. It just kills me, man. Why didn't Zay, keep interviewing cops? Zane.

Yo, if Zane just launched cop talk and was it talking to fictional and non-fictional cops. Amazing. But he talks about their, like, career high points. Yeah, I mean, everything is like, as if they're Harry Styles. It's like, you've just, You know, all the sounds you feel, you're hearing, you're seeing.

You're bracing people. Harry. I thought for sure you were going to have him interview the Simon Baker character. It's been a roughrope for you, May. Matt Reynolds' last meal. A hot dog with a top of semen. But here you are, man. So close to badge of honor.

It's in the Bernthal zone where I can't make eye contact with you when you start doing it. To transform. Have you ever watched the Zane interview? Yeah, because of Chris. Oh, he encouraged it to say. No, I didn't encourage. I didn't tell you you have to watch a Zane interview, did I? You tell me to do lots of things.

It's weird. It's like, I was, when Zane, like, interviewing Adele or whatever was happening during Craneland and Juliet and Chris were both so into it. They would show it to me and I'd be like, this is nothing to me. I don't know what is interesting about this. Like, it's fine. It's an interview of an artist. They were just walking around the office with the-

with a computer showing it to different people hoping to connect. But what you've done with it, you've transformed. And today, the return of that is... It's just fucking playing a lo. Just one Oscar, who gets it? Dante Spanati. Nah, he fucking blacked out here.

The cinematographer. Chris explained it so well, I thought, which is like, how does that... This movie doesn't look like it's trying to be a 50s movie. It looks like it's trying to be a 90s movie. Titanic One. Yeah. movie actually won two Oscars and lost

seven and it lost all seven to Titanic. Oof. Tough beat. Dante has an incredible incredible CV where he's also known as working as being the primary DP for Michael Mann and Brett Ratner. Yes. He shot parts of Melania.

He did Manhunter and X-Men the Last Stand. I think I read a Q&A with him about Melania where they were like, what are you doing? And he was like, I'm a working journalist. He's interviewed by the New Yorker about it. And he was just, he wouldn't blink. He was like, yeah, I took the job. I'd take it again.

He is, I believe, how old is he? He's currently 84? 85. It's a very well shot documentary. Probably in answer to questions. You see you haven't finished Babylon, but you have completed Melania?

I didn't finish Melania either. I did watch the first 20 minutes. But you haven't watched Gaslip by my husband to completion. The first... That's all for Maloney. Gaslip by my husband. When's the sequel? Yeah. She's got to remarry it, have it happen again.

Probably an answerable question. Actually, like a whiff, maybe gay. Maybe there's something going on there with him and Bud. What does Lynn say? You can't fuck Bud by fucking me. I thought to tell. And also, like, he was really, now, granted, Lynn looks great. Yeah.

But it's the only time he's interested in that, the entire movie. And it seems directly because of some sort of weird Bud thing. I think that's true. I don't know. It kind of, by not having him take care of Ynez, like, it also undercuts a little bit of his white night kind of like presentation in the book. I just thought that whole part was weird. And then this is the biggest one to me.

Is it a better movie if Bud just dies? Do we need to see him again? It's kind of related to my unanswerable, which was what was Bud White going to do to support Lynn in Arizona? What was Lynn going to do to support Bud? The dress store. She's going to do the dress store. She's going to pay for the,

he's been shot like multiple times. This year's the Wat Neo Word. What are they doing in Phoenix? He's got a hole in his face. This is what I wondered. Like, former call girl. Is the implication that he can't speak anymore? That's in the book.

He can't talk anymore. Yeah. Wow. And he's really surviving the two gunshots and then the one right to the face from five feet away. That felt like a note. It wasn't a note, but it felt like what we got to have is like the three good people in this movie handshake at the end. Were you surprised to see him in the car at the end? Yeah, that was my flex.

The Clarence Worley should have died. I do think he should have died. It would have been better for his character. Go down a hero. Showing him in the car. I think the whole ending, I felt a little deflated at the, end of the end. Her line at the end is like, some guys get the girl or whatever.

Yeah. Some guys get the world. Others get an ex-hooker in a trip to Arizona and then you see Russell Crow, I do feel like it kind of deflated a little bit. I think Aaron Rogers said that to Mike Tomlin when the Steelers fell apart last year. He's coming back. There's a case that this movie could just end

at the hotel and we don't even need the last scenes. Yeah, the badge. We definitely don't need the psycho ending with him explaining the entire plot in the to all the cops. That's Elroy. Every Elroy book is like,

there's a five, 10-page scene of like, they find the one guy who can explain everything and he does. Is that the all-time? Why did you add this scene? The psycho?

Yeah. Person? Like, just get that scene out of there. Turn the movie off as soon as people listening who haven't seen Psycho. During the big attempted murder scene at the end, just end the movie.

I've gone back and forth on the Psycho. Maybe we can save it for the Psycho. But I think it's a psycho episode. I love that movie. That would be great if you want to do psycho. I love psycho. I like the way you acted as if you didn't just suggest it. Oh, you guys want to do psycho?

Well, I never actually thought we would make a film. He planted the suggestion and then made the other person think they thought of it. But it's 1960. We don't do movies that far back historically. But I would love to do that. But there's two things. Running out of movies now that we've done CR month. Vertigo.

Don't you want to do Vertigo? Yeah, vertigo. We've talked about for a while. That's, but that's like a horny CR, horny Bill Hall of his two. Speaking of course. Speaking of cutting women to look like other women, that's a part of vertigo as well. That's not like a big pastime of mine is cutting women

to make them look like... Maybe not, maybe so. The psycho thing about psycho is the psychiatrist explaining Norman Bates, that part is terrible. But the cutaway to Norman at the end with the fly and him like the voice in his head, that part is great.

I was talking about the doctor explaining the four minutes. I had a probably answer. What do you got? Do you think you'd be more entertaining if Shams adopted SIDS writing style? Word around the form is that Lucas, Slovenian sweetheart, is taking his kids back to the motherland. But while the baby mama is away,

the cat will average 34 points a game. Hashtag Shams. Hush, hush. Again, Shams is now portrayed by Robert Losha, which is problematic. Problematic. Why is that problematic? Can Shams, can we add Shams to the Wayne Jenkins and St.

Lowe category? But Shams Shams Hudgens Yeah This is great This is what Shams needed Yeah A little boost

Instead of him like going on First take in these shows He could just That could be his little video thing Everybody in Boston is talking about Whether the two Js Will be able to share the ball And what it means

For the two P's Peyton Pritchard Of the dome Hashtad Shams Why is this Robert Losh? It's Robert Losey as Shob's as the as the That's my

Davey Davino voice Is that weird? You can do better than that. Workshop That's good. Secret Handshake

Club Memabilian one from this movie It's got to be the night owl coffee bug, right? I had Roller Tamasi. I guess is that too big?

What is it though? I don't know because sometimes I don't know because I was that memorabilia. Oh, it's specifically memorabilia. Yeah,

night out. You've got to be the name out that we could each share and if one of us is killed. That's pretty good. We should come up with that. There wasn't, like, was there

matches from the Victory Hotel? I had Jack Vincennes' tortoises which I think are sick. But this is different than memorabilia. It's memorabilia, but it's secret handshake memorabilia. Gotcha. Okay, so if I just had a night owl coffee mug

and you were like, is that L.A. Confidential? It's like one of those. Like, you almost have to, like, get it. So you haven't seen me leaving Florida Lee business cards at your house then. flirt to leave business cards.

That would be another one. I got to go one. The opening scene of the movie, the opening montage, they show you a hush, Hush magazine cover that says the line that DeVito says in the beginning

of the movie of, Anjanoe Dykes in Hollywood, you could, that would be mine, the hush-hush magazine. Where would you leave that? Just among the stack of regular magazines

from the right next to Michael Hibald. I'm just imagining Bill getting on Jules and Hollywood served on Netflix. I'm searching for it tonight on eBay. It just be like, All right. I was going to watch Babylon, but fuck it.

The brutalist is too long. You guys laugh. Put on gaslight by my husband. Get gas lit. Give it 10 minutes and see if you're still watching. It would be a good bit for you, Sean. I'm like, one of the box. Start logging it.

Yeah. Is there a sequel of this? It would be funny if you just logged it out of nowhere. I'll watch it. Look, I'll watch anything. I don't care. It was number one on Netflix. That had my attention.

Coach Finstock, Mr. Miyagi, were a best, worst life lesson. Some men get the world. others get ex-hookers and a trip to Arizona. It's a pretty good life lesson. Best double feature choice. We all up Chinatown. Who framed Roger Rabbit?

Which is similarly a movie about this period in history. Post-war detectives trying to solve a big cover-up, but also kind of a parable about the building of the highways and who controls the ways and means of the city. What noir would you put up with this in a lonely place? That's a great one. That one's a little Hollywood inside baseball. I like Touch of Evil.

for that. That's good. Not an LA movie. I would also say as a kind of museum piece more than an enjoyable movie, the Brian De Palma's Black Dahlia, which there is now legendarily a director's cut. I don't know if that's true or not. Are there dala heads

out there? I mean, Black Dahlia is an incredible novel. That I'm saying for the movie. I think there are people who are like there's a secret director's cut that would be better. Hold on hope. Yeah. So I think a really good semi-classic noir not as seen as some of the best known ones that would be good for this is the blue dahlia

which is um features veronica lake allen ladd is the star it's about a guy who comes home from war war two and takes a trip to los angeles and it's the only original screenplay that raymond chandler ever wrote and he was nominated for an academy award for it and it's like it's a pretty good movie it's not considered on that like bogart class of noir's but i really like it i have a double feature gas lit by my husband that's good good choice I'd watch it first, though, and then go in L. In a lonely place. In a lonely place.

But I said it wasn't good enough. Who won the movie? I remember it. No, you guys are turning at each other. I forgot. I've been praying for it for two hours. Who won the movie? Curtis Hanson.

Come back to me. I actually, Hanson and Helgeland. I feel like Pro has been minimized. We have not talked about... You might be right. Crow is the answer. Kind of won this movie. Crow wins the movie because it sets up

10 years of Russell Crow being one of the biggest stars we have. And a feeling... It has to start with this. It still matters. Like, as little as it happens, where it's like you go to a movie and you don't really know this person,

you leave the movie only talking about this person. Yeah, that's true. And being like, oh, this is a new... It's a new... It's a breakout. This is, yeah. What are we going to do with this next?

How are we going to see him next? Who's going to harness this rage and this surprisingly modest frame? I also think he needs it for the IMDB. Like, just a collage of work. This is a good one. throw in there. And then he's got gladiator and of course everything peaks with beautiful

life. It's a good argument. I just have beautiful mind. The writers just keeps going. It's like an unadaptable book and they made yeah that's true. A great script out of it. That's fair. All right. Here we go. Producer Craig. What do you got? I don't want to get crushed for this. You don't like it. I like that. I didn't love it.

I liked it. I didn't love it. And I do it's always tough. Every time I listen to you guys by the end of it, I'm like, wow, maybe that was way better than I thought. But in the moment I thought the lead three actors were great. I thought the story was really interesting. I don't know. It felt just like a little cheesy to me.

I had trouble with a lot of the dialogue. And I don't know if it's just great actors, tough dialogue, or if that is kind of the style of the noir 50s world they're building and that's the way it's supposed to be. But when it wasn't Pierce or Russell Crow or Spacey and it was like the DeVito or the Kim Basinger mixed in with some of the dialogue, I had trouble kind of like fully get my hands dirty. with it. That's when you're on Stewards mock drafts.

No, I was locked in the whole time. I pay attention. There are a couple, like, there are a couple lines that, like, are a little clunkier than I remember them being? Like, when Exley's trying to get Jack to go and Jack's like, are you ready to pay the consequences? Which I don't think is something you say or do. But... And then I started, you know, after I watched the movie, I was reading some stuff. And then I was like, oh, wow, this is, Library of Congress is saving this movie, preserving this film and everyone's, like, greatest movie ever made. And I was like, oh, maybe I'm missing something. I need to watch it again. I mean, I see what he's I think it's a second-watch movie.

I think the second time when you don't, you're not so worried about following every single thing that's happening and you're just watching it for the actors and the choices. It's a different movie. But not only is it a 30-year-old movie, but the lexicon of the film is 75 years ago. So it's like basically a Western to you, you know? My thing, when I saw the movie,

I was relatively film illiterate of old movies, and I hadn't seen the noir's that it was influenced by. And so my relationship with this movie has deepened because of what it sent me back to. That was probably how I felt about Chinatown when I saw it, where I was like, this is so incredible. And then you go back and watch 40s and 50s movies. And you're like, well, it's style of the acting and the style of the performance. One thing that's noteworthy is a lot of people have tried and failed to make movies like this.

Oh, like gangster squad. I think this is one of the high degree of difficulty. Oh, I can see what they were going for, but that just didn't work. Or they cast the wrong person or they didn't have the feel for it. it's only a couple that have actually made it. Or it tried to be about too much. Like, this is going to the TV point. Like, the smartest decision they made was the one that was harshest, maybe, for Elroy Superheads,

which is, if it's not about these three guys and their journey with this one case, it's not in the movie. What was that one Affleck made? It was in the mid-2010s. They lived by the movie. The dead land. Oh, no, I'm talking about it was sent in, they live by night. Oh, live by night. Live by night.

But that's an example of, like, when you go way back and you're really going on. 30s, right? Yeah, and I don't... Good book. I like Affleck. I don't know if that movie totally worked, but... But Hollywoodland would actually be an interesting double feature with this, because that's sort of about a similarly...

A few years later in sort of mid-late 50s. This is a movie where I fully just copped to having on my 15-year-old glasses, where in 97 you went through some of the movies. Like, I made a much longer list of movies, all of which I tried to see or saw in movie theaters that, like, totally switched me on. I was voraciously consuming movie magazines at this time. It was the game.

It was Cronenberg's Crash is that year. Contact is that year. Private Parts, the Howard Stern movie, Night Falls on Manhattan, the Lumet movie. I know what you did last summer. Wag the Dog. We mentioned In and Out. In The Company of Men was a huge movie that year. Event Horizon, liar, liar.

Like all of those movies, I was really just starting to go crazy. You at the perfect time. Where I was like, I'm going every Friday. Good year. Dang. That's why I still support Karate Kid, all those Purple Rain. Inspector Todd. Yeah, 15, I think, is the key movie year.

I even saw it happen with my son a little bit. Your brain has just developed enough that you can start actually understanding movies and you think you're smarter than you are. And this movie is really a good, like you're a grown-up now? Yeah, that's exactly right. But it'll be interesting to watch Ben's taste develop because we had

video stores and what was in the theaters. Ben has everything that's ever been made. like his fingertips. When are we going to have, maybe Zane can interview Ben. Ben, you fell in love with Kubrick? So when you see Project Hail Mary, you're seeing a copy of a copy.

That's it for CR month. Yeah. Wow. We did it. Five movies in a mail bag. Unbelievable. Thanks, guys. What a month.

What a month. A lot of bangers. I'm sorry I couldn't close it out strong for you, but it's okay, man. I had a great time. What were the highlights? Definitely Matt Reynolds' last meal. The highlights were getting to finally do Sicario

and getting to podcast with my guys. What do you think of all this? As someone who's known him longer than anybody. What does that mean? Well, no, I think it's... You should ask that like Zane. What do you think of the oddest? Every month of my life for the last 30 years

has been CR month, so it's just nice to see everyone else catch up. Did you guys know each other when this movie came out? Yes. Yeah, this is our 30th anniversary this year. Oh, that's sweet. Unbelievable. But we didn't see this movie together. He was probably at parties.

97? I was probably going to see later. C.R. Who would you hold good son style if they're both hanging on a cliff and you had to save one? You only have the strength to save one. Of Greenwald and Sean? Yeah. It's a tough question. I've lived in full life. Save it for April. I'm fine. I'm younger. Yeah. Sean has more to give. My mom is furious that we didn't do any in the cruisers. Well, we can still do it. Are you now holding a hostage for the next CR month? Yeah.

Will there be another CR month? I think every March should be CR month I don't know why we wouldn't do that I'll compete with March Madness Yeah it's kind of It's Patino and CR I'm glad that it's a 31 day month It's not like women's history month being like February

This is good We cram five boob is one of the reasons we did I mean the next when we do from hell month I think that's going to be the peak of the rewatchables Yeah Can you do have like a I was scouting breakdown Oh fuck

Can we do perfect getaway from from hell No. Okay. That's noir. Wait, is Breakdown the Breakdown from Hell? Trucker from Hell. But isn't that Duel?

No, the breakdown's different. I mean, I love breakdown and I love J.T. Walsh. Breakdown's insane. I'm a huge fan. Another similar Curtis Hanson-style guy, Jonathan Mostow made that one. My favorite one that's on the From Hell Month schedule is Domestic Disturbance

with John Tribal to convince Vaughan. Evil stepfather. I don't remember this at all. Who's the evil stepfather? Vince Vaughn is the evil second husband to Terry Polo. Oh. And John Chibolte is the first husband. And he thinks something's up with this guy.

You guys didn't notice that? There's something up with this guy. Is domestic disturbance Harold Becker? I think it is. I think that the perfect getaway is from hell. It's the people we meet on vacation from hell. Oh, you're talking about the Steve Zahn one. Oh, yeah, yeah.

I like that movie. I love that movie. Yeah. It's a good one. Good little... You're familiar with that one, Andy? No, I love... This is like a scene under the hood.

It's a really good twist. This is how it gets made. Don't spoil it. Good Hawaii movie. It's a good Hawaii movie. Which one is this? Perfect Getaway. With Steve Zon and Timothy Oliphant and Milojovovich.

You've told me that this film. We should go to Hawaii. We should go to Hawaii. Could we do a live show in Hawaii? Get Neffed out? Yeah. Sounds great. It's the greatest place on Earth, so please.

It really is. That sounds awesome. All right. All right. Thanks to Ciarma. Thanks to Cahua and Eduardo as well. And everybody else at the ringer, great to be in here in the studio. We'll do, anytime we have three or less, we're doing my studio.

Yeah. But I thought for four, I thought this was good. How did it feel? It felt great. It just like riding a bike. You can listen to CR and 80 on the watch. Sean on Big Picture. And we'll see you in April and then we watch.

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