This Had Oscar Buzz - 204 – A Prairie Home Companion (with Clay Keller)

Episode Date: July 25, 2022

An episode long teased has finally arrived. Screen Drafts co-host (and proud Minnesotan) Clay Keller joins us to discuss the final film from beloved auteur Robert Altman, 2006′s A Prairie Home Companion. Based on and set within the eponymous radio show, the film follows the backstage goings-on during the show’s fictionalized final live recording, with … Continue reading "204 – A Prairie Home Companion (with Clay Keller)"

Uh-oh, wrong house. No, the right house. No, I didn't get that! We want to talk to Marilynne Heck. A Prairie Home Companion. It was a live radio variety show. The kind that died 50 years ago. But somebody forgot to tell them until this night.

What are you writing? Poem. What's it about? Suicide. Oh. Big corporation down in Texas had bought up the radio station. This isn't really going to be your last show, is it? Every show's your last show.

That's my philosophy. Thank you, Plato. It was curtains. and everybody knew it. A lot of good people up there. These folks put their lives into this. Now they can put their lives into something else. You're going to say something about it.

How about just a moment of silence? Silence on the radio. I don't know how that works. Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that's distracting you while Maria Dizzias sneaks up behind you with a knife. Every week on This Had Oscar Buzz we'll be talking about a different movie

that once upon a time had Lofty Academy Award aspirations, but for some reason or another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died, and we are here to perform the autopsy. I'm your host, Joe Reed. I'm here, as always, with my blue box of powder milk biscuits. Chris Fyle. Hello, Chris.

You know what? Jesus is a powder milk biscuit. I had so many things to choose from to intro you for this. So many different products, so many different little idiosyncrasies from this movie. Take a shot at every powder milk of black coffee. That's true. Yes, exactly. You will want to drink a quart of it.

Yes. well stay tuned um but your uh insurance contractually required um secondhand director right right your sandwich lady yeah there's a lot of ways we could have gone with this oh that would have been the compliment to end all compliments to compare me to mary louise burke yeah yeah i figured you would like that you whip up a mean ham salad nothing sounds more disgusting to me than a ham salad but you know if mary louise burke offered me a ham salad sandwich i would eat it the cuisine of the midwest is uh is is mysterious yet alluring so as uh as virginia madison's character exhibited so yes as you have probably already heard

listeners we have a guest for this episode we are very very excited to have him along with us we've been dancing around trying to make these plans happen for a while. We have been on his podcast a few times. We are finally returning the favor. So a warm welcome to host of the Screen Drafts podcast, which if you are not listening to, you should, because in addition to Chris and I being on it every once in a while, it's also super rad. They draft lists of movies of every different type and genre and categorization. He's also a certified Minnesotan, which makes him the only person

we could have on to talk about this movie. Clay Keller, welcome to this had Oscar Bose. Oh, my God. Thank you. Thank you, guys. I am very, very excited to be here. I love your show, and I know you guys, being a guest is something of a badge of honor here.

You guys do not do guests all the time. So I was glad to be asked. We are very much like Garrison Keeler. We are laissez-faire and. Catch as catch as catch can when it comes to many aspects. As our publicists will tell you, scheduling conflicts, scheduling conflicts, scheduling conflicts. That's right. Now, Clay, you showed up to record today in a white trench coat.

Yeah. Yes. Well, I wear that every time I record. Right, right. Because I am, if nothing, if not an angel of death. Yeah, exactly. Sometimes you just show up on other people's podcasts where you're not even guesting, and you're just in that white trench coat kind of just like drifting through their...

But, like, yeah, deep in the background. Like, sometimes you don't even notice. There was one shot in this movie that I wanted to, I almost gift it for Twitter last night, but my bandwidth was low. I think it's guy noir is looking at something on a desk and it flips down. It's a cigarette case. That's right. It's the cigarette case. And then Virginia Madsen is in, like, the deep background, but like perfectly framed.

It was, I gasped. It was one of those things were just like, I actually. gasped at a filmmaking choice. I was like, oh, this is wonderful. Robert Ellswitt, of course, doing the cinematography for a Prairie Home Companion, the final film from Robert Altman? I thought was Ed Lachlan. I could be wrong. It was one of the, it was, all right, give me a second to look at this up. Sorry, I didn't mean to derail you here. It is Ed Lachman. You're right. I was, I was thinking

Elswit because of, um, uh, because of Paul Thomas. Paul Thomas Anderson, yes, yes, yes, yes, who was, the degree to which he did anything on this movie besides the backup is a little unclear, but he was essentially the, not to be morbid, but like in case Robert Altman should die while making this movie. Paul Thomas Anderson was there to pick up the slack. Altman did make it through this movie, got his honorary Oscar a few months after filming, and then did pass away. way by the end of 2006. So this is the final Robert Altman movie, but it is also a deeply, deeply

Minnesota movie. And Clay, I imagine this was a big part of the reason why you wanted to lay your claim to it. Well, yes. I mean, also, I feel like, I don't know, whenever this was when I started haranguing you guys to allow me on the show. We were recording

one of the previous times. I think it was the queer drafts. I always wait until I've got people, I like, you know, on the podcast at a minimum, live in front of an audience is preferred to start backing them into a corner to make me promises. Good strategy. But no, I just thought my in, well, look, one, I really do love this movie and I am, you know, you guys know this. And most, I feel like most people from Minnesota are like this is I am deeply proud to be from Minnesota. I feel like there are, I know a lot of people who are somewhat either ambivalent about their home state or they,

are in some cases, you know, depending on how bad the political situation has gotten maybe a little bit embarrassed of their home state. I'm just, I hit the lottery where I'm from the Midwest, but from like the one state that is always solidly Democrat. Yeah, there you go. I've just got cover. I can just be proud of, of being from Minnesota. But yeah, I feel like there's a lot of, a lot of people from Minnesota are real homers. And as a buffaloanian, I get it. Anytime I find out that an actor or some sort of professionals from Buffalo, I, like, latch on. And I'm like, all right. William Fickner will always be one of my people.

Christine Beranski is one of mine. I was like, yes, we've got another one. So, yeah. Fickner and Baranski are really good. Yeah, yeah. They're both Bill's fans. So, like, they're, I mean, kind of obviously. But, like, yes.

So, like, yeah, they're in. That's great. No comment on the state of Ohio. That's what I'm saying. I got really lucky. So I, you know, and, and, and, and, Beyond being from Minnesota, my extended family is all very, you know, they're Scandinavian, upper, you know, Minnesota people. So I, stuff that really leans into the sort of stereotypical depiction of someone from Minnesota rings very true to me.

You know, when people try to say, you know, when people who are from the urban part of the Twin Cities or something are like, oh, Fargo isn't what Minnesota's really like. I'm like, well, you haven't been to Thanksgiving up in, you know, up northwestern Minnesota. because it was kind of what it's kind of accurate so how much familiarity oh no go ahead clay i didn't want to well i but with this movie i figured i could my in was that and as i told you guys i was uh on set as an extra for several days of this movie and i thought that was a good i figured if i threw that at you you would have no choice that's right that's right but to bring me on to talk about this film that was yeah you kind of tied our hands on that one clay so good job good job there um no we like it when you know, state your claim and, uh, yeah. And I came in full Minnesota, um, costume here. I'm wearing a

Minnesota State Fair. Oh, wow. Amazing. T-shirt and I am drinking, uh, black coffee. Not a, not a, not a coret, just a, just about maybe eight or ten ounces, but out of a, uh, Swedish dollar horse mug here. Oh, phenomenal. You are, yeah, you came to play. This is good. So what kind of familiarity then as a Minnesotan or perhaps, you know, with family members in Minnesota, did you have with a Prairie Home Companion the radio program?

That is the interesting thing about this is I had never listened to it. Yeah. When I went to do this movie, I had never listened to it. And it wasn't, I feel like that is a thing, especially if you were a young person, that had to be inherited. Someone had to,

like a family member, had to love it, had to whatever. And, um, no, It just never made it. I mean, I knew what it was. I knew what Parham Companion was. I knew that it was one of the Minnesota things. I knew sort of what it was about and the tone and the vibe. And obviously, everyone in Minnesota knew who Garrison Keeler was and everything.

So I was certainly aware of it. But I had never actually listened to it. I had never been to the Fitzgerald to see a taping of the radio show. It was something that I had really very little personal connection with beforehand, which I guess was unusual. But it was also like, it's an unusual thing. It's a live variety show that was on public radio. Right. So it was, you know, when I was listening to the, when I was listening to the radio, you know, I had a boombox in my room.

But when I listened to the radio, it was music or Timberwolves games or something. I wasn't sitting down like it was the 40s to listen to a variety show. But a lot of people did. And that's a testament to the quality, the whatever the enduring, unique quality of the show was that it had people into the, into 20. 16, 2017, sitting down and listening to a variety show. I never really, I didn't listen to it. My first real familiarity with it, when I worked at the public library when I was in high school, Garrison Keeler had written a novel called Lake Wobagon Days,

which sort of ties into the stories that he would tell on the radio show. But I didn't really know about the radio show, so I just knew about this book. And then that, when I heard then about the radio show, I was like, oh, this is its whole kind of little ecosystem and whatnot. And I didn't listen to it. I didn't, don't think anybody in my family really listened to it. But now watching, after watching the movie, I had a thought of just like, I don't have any family members who listen to it, but I know the type of family member that I would

have who like would listen to it. It really, it kind of taps into a type of person. It has this very cool sort of like non-specific nostalgia that isn't really. for anything, but it, um, even the characters all seem to be from like some different type of imagined, you know, fictitious past sort of narrative past. I don't know. Chris, did you have any kind of Garrison Keeler connection before you had seen this movie? I mean, I showed up to record this episode in my NPR t-shirt, my NPR mug, my NPR. So like not, like I wasn't a diehard listener, but before seeing the movie in theaters, I had heard the show.

Yeah, yeah. One of the things I think the movie does very cleverly is it pulls you into the, obviously it has characters who had been from the radio show, obviously not played by some of these performers. Kevin Klein is playing Guy Noir and all this sort of stuff. And it allows you this, like it welcomes you into this world where you understand that this is a thing that has been going on for years, and even if you haven't been experiencing it, it feels like you can just sort of settle into it. And the vibe of it is very, you know, you're sort of stepping into this thing that has been

going for all this time, and you're observing it as it goes. You are kind of the Virginia Madsen character in this. That's sort of almost like the audience, POV, if you are not somebody who had listened to a Prairie Home Companion. And if you were, then you are even more so, like, in this company. of people who in this kind of de facto family. It's really cool. I mean, I just kind of dive right into the thematics of it.

Like, this is a movie about death and, you know, radio is essentially beginning to become a dying art form. It's interesting, like, when this movie would have come out in terms of podcast because it's like, it's not, podcast existed, but like, not nearly the ubiquity that they have. now so it's like radio has kind of morphed into that so like the movie doesn't really predict that side of it but it does see radio or at least this type of radio as a dying art form too so it just like huh what if it had what if timie lee jones had like some like young guy with him who was like virginia madsen shows up the future is podcasting yeah she's not there to take one of them away in the final scene of the movie virginia madsen just shows up and says have you heard of this new show serial she shows up at the diner she's clutching her iPod video

the entire time she shows up at the diner at the end with like ira glass on her arm and it's just like you know ready to go for for the next phase of things um before we get too far into it though yeah before we get too far into it though clay you are a first time guest and for all our first time guest we do ask uh what was your because we are an oscar's podcast even if we are about Oscars' shortcomings. What was the first sort of awareness that you remember having of the Oscars, and when did you sort of get into it as a, you know, enthusiasm, if you ever did? Well, yeah, I mean, you know, unlike some of your guests,

and this is why I love listening to your shows where you bring on people who are as equally passionate about the history and the ephemeral and everything as you guys are, who can rattle off all the nominees and all their the snubs that make them the most infuriated and all that stuff. And I am certainly not obsessed with the Oscars on a statistical level like that. But the Oscars, like, for a lot of people, you know, from the Midwest or, you know, I did not have really any relatives who were interested in arts and entertainment. You know, I loved TV and movies. So my mom and dad would bring me to TV and movie. They're very encouraging of my interest.

but I didn't really inherit any, and I was the oldest child and the oldest grandchild, so I didn't really inherit any, uh, movies, TV, any of that from anybody.

Uh, it was kind of an interest that was, that I, I kind of grew on my own. And the Oscars were a big, you know, they were a window. They were a conduit into the larger world of,

certainly like more artistic adult grown up movies. And it was much like watching, honestly, and this is why every year when we debate, how they should fix the Oscars, I'm always on team, you know, put in,

make it five hours and put in as many goddamn clip packages as you want. Because when I was a little kid, watching clips on Ciskel and Ebert and on the Oscars were how I got to get my first little glimpses. 100%.

These movies that I was not old enough to see yet or wasn't allowed to see yet, but were kind of, you know, the things that I was looking forward to seeing and were, you know, created populated the larger world of of movies and films so that was why the

Oscars was in was important to me is I loved just getting that little you know peek through the window at what I was not experiencing yet and kind of made you know in a lot of ways what the future held for me so that and and I just I enjoy a collective you know experience I enjoy watching even if I didn't pay attention to that NFL season I'll watch the Super Bowl I'll watch sure sure I don't know anything about music and I'll watch the Grammys if I'm not doing anything that night. I enjoy the pageantry and the production of a lot of a big live show like that. And the Oscars was always the best of them. Maybe give or take a Tony's. So I, um, I always love the Oscars. I watch it every year.

I have people over. I don't make them dress up. Some people make people dress up to go to Oscar parties. I'm not a, I don't like dressing up for a thing. I'm not a costume party person and I would not require that of other people. No. But I do turn it on. dressed like Bronco Henry. I don't know if that's not a costume. That's true. My costume is not, my culture is not a costume. But no, I turned the Oscars on three hours early to watch all the arrivals and everything.

I do. I get into it. I really enjoy the Oscars. Yeah. Your experience dovetails a lot with mine just in terms of, uh, down to like being the oldest child and the oldest grandchild. But like, yeah, I, I very similarly didn't have anybody sort of pass this down to me, but it was my little window into, this greater world. Siskill and Ebert, I feel like, we don't talk about their show as much on this podcast, but, like, that was a huge window into film culture that, uh, that I love

watching going back. There's so much available on YouTube of like old Siskel and Ebert episodes. I think that kept a lot of people saying in the early months of lockdown was all of the YouTube, uh, Siskel and Ebert episodes. And they said they'll have like their, if we picked the Oscar winners and they're like, best of the year stuff. It's, just like, oh, it's fantastic. You could waste an entire weekend. I've had people talk to us about our show that they're like, you

and Joe just like fight a lot. And I'm like, do we? You've never seen a Siskel and Iber episode. Like they have some of the bitchiest things that they say to each other and it's so funny. Yeah. Yeah. It's fantastic. All right. Well, let's move into then discussion of the movie

because we're going to have a ton to talk about and including we've a couple little games lined up because, among other things, this is going to be our 10th Merrill Street movie. We'll get into that. So many little like avenues and offshoots we have, though, with this movie, just in terms of the cast and obviously the altman of it all. And that's going to be big. So let's waste no time. Clay, I'm going to have you sort of crack your knuckles and prepare for a 60-second plot description. I'm going to pull my phone, but first I'm going to

read off the particulars of this movie. We're talking about this week. We're talking about 2006 as a Prairie Home Companion. It's directed by Robert Altman, written by Garrison Keeler, based on a story by Garrison Kepler, and Ken Lezebnik, starring

Kevin Klein, Merrill Streep, Lily Tomlin, Lindsay Lohan, Woody Harrelson, John C. Reilly, Tommy Lee Jones, Virginia Manson, Garrison Keeler himself, Maya Rudolph, Mary Louise Burke, a cast of many others, regulars from the Prairie Home Companion show

and all in all just a typically intertwined Robert Altman ensemble. So I've got my stopwatch... Elkie Jones? Yes. Who just passed away last week? Oh, I didn't even realize that.

Oh, wow. Good timing on our part. So, I don't know why I decided to pat ourselves on the back for somebody dying. Now who's Virginia Madsen, Joe. Now, indeed, who is Virginia Manson, yeah. Technically speaking, Virginia Mattson is not billed as the angel of death.

No, she is billed as dangerous woman. So actually, Virginia Mattson is not playing an angel of death. She is playing Ariana Grande. Fantastic. All right. Clay, I'm going to hit start on the stopwatch in a second, and you'll have 60 seconds to lay out the plot such as it is of a Prairie Home Companion. Are you ready?

I'm doing this. When I just listened to the ad of the very episode, Yeah. He seemed very prepared. I'm doing this extemporaneously, so let's see how I... All right. Listen, I've done it both ways and chaos lies either way. So, all right, you can begin now. Okay, it is Saturday night in St. Paul, Minnesota, and that means that a couple hundred people have gathered to view a live broadcast of a long-running variety show called a Prairie Home Companion. We spend most of the time of the movie backstage, onstage and backstage, with the regular. cast of characters of this radio show

including the host GK as he's credited although Garrison they call him Garrison and Keeler over the course of the movie so I don't know why they just call him Garrison Keeler but it's Garrison Keeler you've got the Johnson sisters

Wanda and Yolanda Merrill Streep and Lily Talman you've got the guy noir played by Kevin Klein you've got Maya Rudolph is there you've got Dusty and Lefty the Cowboys a whole bunch of people and there isn't a plot per se

but it's mostly about everybody's sort of finding out in dribs and drabs that this is the final show they're going to do. Tommy Lee Jones has come to shut the show down and it's melancholic and someone dies and there's an angel of death walking around and there's no plot, but it's about coming to terms with the end of an era. Very good seconds over. Good job, Clay Culloch. Very, very well done.

There is the plot to a lot of time talking about Garrison Keeler's credit, which I think threw it off. I think that was a unnecessary detour. Strategically very dangerous, but you managed to pull it out anyway. So once you started running down every single cast member, I was like, oh, no, oh, this is, but you pulled it out. The thing about the plot of a Prairie Home Companion is you could sum it up in five minutes or you could sum it up in 10 seconds. Do you know what I mean? Where it's like it's everything and nothing all at once, which is a kind of thing that really appeals to me.

There's a lot of, this is a movie that does a very good job of giving you sort of the history of these characters by little bits, especially I feel like that way when it comes to, the Johnson Sisters, where you get so much of their relationship to each other, Yolanda and G.K.'s sort of Torrid, romantic, whatever that is going on there, in a very sort of small space. I think it's very good. I love how they open it. They open the movie. Well, they opened it with a guy in noir voiceover, which is fun. And Joe, did you notice how wet those streets were in the opening? Okay, all right, we got to talk about this. You were wet as a hot topic hell. We got to talk about this. I'm so embarrassed.

God, so we did our episode. There's nothing to be embarrassed about. We did our episode on, how do you know? And I noted in that movie, as I did when I was watching it, that the streets were incredibly wet. And I think, like, even beyond, like, there were, like, standing puddles of water in daytime in this. So, like, even among, in the fact that, like,

I never realized that this is a thing that people do on movies all the time where they wet down the streets to make them more photogenic and have them reflect the light and, you know, cinematographic concerns and whatever. Even among that, it does seem unusual that for daytime shots that there would be like just puddles of water, that it looked like it really did just like a rainstorm had just passed through. But anyway, so I made note of this. And then I screen grabbed like four things and I tweeted it.

And I was like, is this a thing? And then as soon as I tweeted it, I followed it up. with like, is this a thing that happens all the time and I've just not noticed it? So I did at least allow for the possibility that that was the case. And that definitely was the case. I particularly didn't realize that this was a Yanush Kaminsky thing. And we had talked about that it was odd that Yanush Kaminsky had been the cinematographer for this rather terrible movie and that doesn't seem like a cinematographer's movie. And so I immediately was just like, oh, God, like I, I, you know, I'm a fraud, I don't know the medium that I speak of.

I, you know, I spiraled for a little bit, but it was fine. It was okay. Anyway, you're fine. Look, like I said, I was, I noticed this, you know, many years ago, but perhaps it's because I, I, did you, okay, I have a little game for you guys first, but, you know, I was on set for this, for this movie and maybe I saw them wetting the streets down. Maybe that's how I found out about it. Insider information. Insider information. But I remember for a long time when I was like a teenager, I was like, oh, if I ever do like a really self-aware movie about Hollywood or whatever, have really self-aware characters, I'll have it. Like, every time they exit a building, it'll be daytime and the streets will just be soaked. And they'll be like, what?

When did it rain? Or just like, how am I missing the rain every time? You could make like a fly on the wall movie about somebody on a film set. It's just job is just to wet down the streets, right? Yeah, that's somebody's job. Well, and it's funny because somebody mentioned, speaking of Kaminsky, they were like, yeah, on West Side Story, it was kind of a thing because at some point Spielberg had to be like, you can't wet down the streets so much because the dancers will slip and fall. And I literally, as I've mentioned on this podcast before, they filmed the America scene on the street behind the apartment that I was living in at the time. I spent an entire Saturday sort of hanging out my fire escape watching them set up.

set up this shot and the and and and film it and a bunch of like I watched that all that time and I was probably much more like concerned with trying to find out like what chair Spielberg is sitting in and like where uh you know the performers were and whatnot that I probably did not notice that like Kaminsky had somebody prowl in that street and like wetting it down so uh yeah he's feast fighting at every single spot that there won't be a dancer and just yeah exactly just getting a little bit wet. Yes, so I will never not notice this now. So, yeah. Well, it's used beautifully in the opening shot of this film when it kind of transitions from the Aurora Borealis in the opening credits into the reflection in the water as the camera cranes up on the, on the Mickey's Diner, which is a real place. Is it? It's not built for the movie or anything. Actually, they shot there in Jingle All the Way as well. Oh, cool.

Same, same diner. The only two movies you could need. So I told you guys that I was an extra in this movie. Yeah, I want to hear all about this. But did you spot? You can spot me very, relatively easily twice. No way. Did you spot me?

I didn't, no. I was so caught up in the movie. Where were you? Yeah, there you go. I am in this opening scene where the camera is craning up and the crowd is walking into the Fitzgerald. I walk in right in front of Kevin Klein. So Kevin Klein, I'm with my mom because I was 17, so I had to have an adult. with me. My mom's in this bright green coat and I'm just like, you know, lanky. And we walk in,

and Kevin Klein walks in directly behind me. And my mom and I are doing a bit of acting business. We're discussing something or whatever. And so you can kind of, we've got a little action. So Kevin Klein comes in right behind me. And that was funny because you see me. I stutter step because there was this old woman who would walk kind of parallel to me, but then every take, try to like get in in in front of me through the door. So I was, and then, so I was, every take, I was trying to, like, not knock this old woman over. Sure, sure.

And on one take, she jutted right in front of me, and I had to stop to knock her over. And Kevin Klein had to stop his movement to not knock me over. And so they didn't use that take. That's just what you want out of the extras in a scene is, uh, is to make Kevin Klein have to stop and knock Kevin Klein. Yeah. So, but in the take that's in the movie, you can, you can see it very easily. an old woman comes in front of me and I have to like

sidestep and be like we got a we got a screen grab this for when this episode goes up so that's the first one Twitter yeah yeah that's the first one uh the second one though maybe we'll get to a little bit later on because it occurs later in the movie

and I was also in the crowd which there's not a lot of crowd shots in this movie but they had a they had a pretty full theater for a lot of the shooting so a lot of extras just sat there and watched stuff but I had I spent a good amount of time in the crowd, and maybe I'll mention it when it's relevant, but I saw extended takes of a lot of

the songs and all that stuff. Oh, my God. That's very cool. God. So this was filmed at the Fitzgerald theater in St. Paul, as you said, named after F. Scott Fitzgerald, which I didn't realize until after I saw the movie that the bust was F. Scott Fitzgerald. Local boy wrote some romantic novels, as they say. Wrote some novels. People may have heard of them, you know, played famously by Tom Hiddleston. Midnight in Paris. So the fact that they filmed this in this pre-existing theater that was not made for, you know, film productions. This is for live theater.

It was amazing to me that this was not a set because of the way that the camera was able to move throughout this, you know, apparatus. And up through, there's one point where it comes up from the lower level through the, you know, the door and the front. floor of the stage comes up and I was just incredibly impressed by this movie that feels I remember when the movie came out and we'll talk about its reception I remember the reception of it being like oh it's a little it's a you know it's slight it's sort of it's small it's it doesn't feel I don't I think a lot of people tended to get into a point where you were expecting these kind of big bigger things from Altman which is an odd thing to expect of if you actually think about his filmography. But there's a lot of filmmaking in this movie that we would sort of like

we would, that you typically think of like, you know, choices and, and, you know, really kind of impressive stuff that he does with camera and obviously with audio, that's sort of his calling card. But I was very, very impressed that this was done in an actual existing theater. Yeah. Yeah. And it's kind of a cramped theater. Like, at least in the audience, it's not a big theater. It's a, it's a pretty narrow theater. And it's a, it's a, it's a pretty narrow theater. There isn't a lot of room to move around. And yeah, and the actors, you know, didn't have trailers. Like, it was, everybody did this movie because they wanted to work with Altman,

and they accepted these really suboptimal, you know, circumstances in terms of pay and comfort. Sure, sure, sure. To do it. And it was very impressive. I mean, and, you know, to see it was impressive because they would, you know, they had all of the, they would remove big sections of the seats. to create these platforms to put the dollies on and everything. And they didn't do a lot on the stage.

And I think you can tell in the movie, there isn't a lot of stuff looking from the back of the stage out. There's a lot of kind of moving back and forth, kind of on the front of the stage and kind of getting a few degrees over or over. But I like that because they're trying to give you a backstage feel, but it's not frantic. It's not frenetic. And when you are watching them perform,

they are sort of approximating, you know, they're letting it sit back, they're putting it in a, you know, like a wide or a medium wide, and they're letting you sort of experience the performance of the radio show and trying to get across how, you know, talented these people are and how, you know, kind of this is the really fascinating thing about doing a broadcast that's going out live, and there are people watching you, but you're not really, you're not worried too much about the audience watching you. I love when they're, you know, the scene where. he's vamping during the ad because my The papers go all over the floor And he's done this And it's this this like fun thing Where you know people listening You know next to the hearth

Or in their car or whatever Sure Have no idea But these people you know They're like frantic and doing this And grabbing this thing and everything And it's that that invisible chaos That I think they do a really good job of

portraying Well when you think about it on paper This idea of we're making a movie about the production of a radio show. And it's like, well, how dynamic can this be? And yet there's so much happening on that stage. There's so many people on that stage at any given moment from musicians to the sound effects guy and Garrison Keeler, obviously, and then whoever else is there.

And the camera does a great job of, like you said, just sort of like allowing you to be in the position of looking at a lot of things, at a lot of things at once. Yeah. Yeah. And great use of depth, too. You don't get like a lot of cut around closeups or inserts or anything. It's you get, you know, like I said, a lot of like medium wides where it's close up where you can focus on what like Garrison is doing, but you also get everything going on in the background. And it's, it's, it's, I don't know. I don't know why people knocked it as kind of simplistic. I don't know, maybe just because it's not a Nashville-esque epic or something. I don't know. But it was. I mean, I do think it's a tonal thing. I think it's that it's kind of a musical thing, and people don't take those as seriously. And it's probably also, I mean, maybe we can talk about Altman a little bit here. But I think it's the run-up of films that Altman had had before this, even though, like, Gostard Park was incredibly praised and such.

But, like, later Altman is not, you know, seen as the pinnacle of his career. You guys talked about Dr. T. and the women on screen draft recently. We sure did, yeah. And we had an episode on it, too. Yes. We're not fans. I also think that there is something about this movie that, I mean, when did Altman actually die after this release? November of that year.

Okay, so after the movie was seen, I do think it's very easy, it's much more easy to see what the thematic content of this movie is. And it's very, after he died, it fully. re-contextualized this movie because this is a movie about death and it is very much his final movie like in the same timeline of him actually dying. You know, it's not like he made this

even two years, five years before he died. This movie was released the year that he died. So I don't, there's something about that that I think allows people to see this movie for as great as it is. One of the fascinating things about this is. So he had filmed

the movie after that the Oscars, the Oscars for 2005 that happened in March of 2006. Altman gets the honorary Oscar. He had never won a competitive Oscar. He gets the honorary Oscar presented to him by Lily Tomlin

and Merrill Streep, who did this super delightful overlapping dialogue intro in the style of these Altman movies. It was an incredible tribute. It's also just like super entertaining in and of itself. Boy, I didn't think we'd get past security out there. Yeah, I know.

Now we just have to get past all our insecurities up here. Okay. Hello, I'm Meryl Streep. And I'm Lillie Tomlin. And tonight we are pleased to honor a man. Wait a minute. A man, we're honoring a man. That's a man who didn't, that's my, you're reading my line.

A man who didn't play by the rules. Yeah, that's what I said, who didn't play by the rules or stick to the script. Stick to the script. I am, Merrill. No, I'm agreeing with you. agreeing with you. I'm just saying that Robert Altman didn't stick to the script. He colors outside the lines. And he wants actors to do the same thing. Yeah. He doesn't want us to act. No, and I'm grateful for that. And then Altman gives really lovely, grateful, you know, self-possessed

speech. A speech where it's not as if it is both aware of his own mortality. He mentions the heart transplant that he had gotten several years earlier, and he gives a sense of this, you know, sort of wide, wide angle look at his career. And yet he does explicitly say, I don't feel like this is the end for me. I feel like I've got, you know, many years to come. And I think I have to get, become straight with you. Ten years ago, 11 years ago, I had a heart transplant, a total heart transplant. I got the heart of, I think, a young woman who was about in her late 30s. And so by that kind of calculation, you may be giving me this award too early,

because I think I got about 40 years left on it. And I intend to use it. Thank you, very much. there's irony in the fact that by the end of the year he would have passed away but like it was not necessarily a sudden death he died of leukemia there was enough concern about his health that they had brought on paul thomas anderson to be in the movie so it's you can almost then look at that speech as that a little bit of defiance in terms of just like i'm not i'm this you know this isn't the end for me

and you could almost feel him maybe willing that to be true and yet you look at the Prairie Home Companion which is ultimately a story coming from a different author altogether in Keeler it's Keeler's milieu it's keelers thing but like as Chris said

there is so much of this as a final film it's a perfectly chosen final piece for Altman in that it it's a it's a capstone on so many of the things that he did so well with these you know big cast and overlapping dialogue and and being an independent movie this was produced by picture house which was a sort of independent wing of new line uh warner brothers new line around that time that didn't really last too much longer but um just as a final picture house also had i think pan's labyrinth was there movie this year, which was... Did they have Lovian Rose?

Oh, did they? Maybe. They were done by 2008. I remember I, uh, watching the movie last night, I was like, God, we're in around a picture house. And it's a real shame. That's it. They have a good, uh, good logo and a good little fanfare. It was a nice way to open a movie.

I was, uh, too bad we don't have that in front of more movies. It like fits into the aesthetic of this movie in particular. Yeah. Their 2006, they had Tristam Shandy, a cock and bull story. They had the notorious Betty Page, Prairie Home Companion, Fur, an imaginary portrait of Dion Arbus.

Pan's Labyrinth was their big award success. That one really, really performed above and beyond for them at the Oscars. And then the next year, LeVion Rose, and a movie that I love fiercely, which is Starter for Ten, which is a movie I will evangelize

to any and everybody. A great James McAvoy, Rebecca Hall movie. A great movie. I really, Joe, I really wanted to be able to convince myself to play that on the Rebecca Hall draft. You know, that's what I was rooting for when I was listening to that. I was like, that was my rooting interest.

I rewatched it being like, okay, I'm going to make, get my argument ready for why this shit and I was like, ah, she's not really in the movie version. Yeah, no, that's, you're not wrong. You're not wrong there. It's much more of a James McAvoy. It's very much a Rebecca Hall movie. Listen, all of the hall monitors out there,

all this had Oscar buzz listeners that are also Hall monitors, go see resurrection in theaters. Yeah. Hollis on fucking one. Resurrection is rad. Yes, she's the best. Anyway, Joe, it's interesting. You were saying that, you know, obviously this seems to fit so well with Altman's sort of, you know, the arc of his life ended up being, though it came from someone

entirely different. But the Altman's did have a good amount of influence on the creation of this movie. I just reread before this an article from the Minneapolis Star Tribune that Colin Covert wrote that was put up right after the movie finished shooting and he did some interviews and stuff the film originally going to be titled The Last Broadcast interestingly enough, although there's

another movie called that, I don't know, just called a prayer and companion. That was the smart thing to do. But apparently Keeler for a while had been trying to get people interested in a Lake Wobagon movie, just a movie about his fictional, like you said, he's written some Lake Wobagon books, it's this

fictional town in Minnesota, and then during the Preram Companion radio show, So he would do these little, like, local news dispatches from Lake Wobagon. So he wanted to do a Lake Wobagon movie and was talking to Altman about that. And then it was actually Altman's wife, who was a big fan of the radio show and said, you know, I love the rhythm of the radio show. I love the little characters popping in and out. I love the ads.

I just think that would be perfect and kind of convinced Altman and Keeler that it would really fit Altman's style of the interweaving characters. an overlapping dialogue and stuff really well so that they kind of changed their ideas that was a smart decision yeah that was a good note and I mean it's interesting because the show the movie both

is and is not about the show like it has as much to do with what's going on in a prairie home companion as it fully doesn't like the show is a stand in allegory whatever for death

and like a a dying art form. They're all existing in this dying or dead ecosystem. And I don't and the characters also all represent also dying or dead genres

right? We've got the two years. Both from the Western. Their whole like dressing room sequence which like I want to live in that. When I die I want to be buried in those production designs. And all they do is talk about the past. Every character. Yep. And all Ted Cruz talk about the past, the entire movie.

Yep. Yeah. Until the very end, until after the show has ended, then Merrill Streep is talking about the future and doing it too. And even that is like, they want to do one last tour and have it be one last show followed by one last show, followed by one last show. And the only modern character is Lindsay Lohan, who comes in at the end as like a, you know. In executive realness drag. Yeah, basically. But see, the thing is, like, ultimately, like, this is a, this is a movie where if we've been

kind of marinating and thinking about, like, characters are talking about the past. They're talking about their dead loved ones. We're, like, kind of just languoring in this abluent, like, art form that is effectively, like, it's, it's presented as Prairie Home Companion's last show. It wasn't their last show. But, like, it's dead. It's dying. And then, like, you have this final scene that, like, really, I think, gives kind of, or Altman's giving. this kind of almost ambivalent perspective on death.

Like Virginia Manchin shows up and famously, we don't know who she's taking with her. She is there as like, death can be arbitrary. It, like, we in living lend it so much significance, but in fact, it is random, it is indiscriminatory. And, like, it is ultimately insignificant. like anybody else who's at that table is going to go on and do whatever and then they will die eventually or randomly and like we lend it more meaning than it actually has absolutely and the death is the the literal death stuff Chris the earlier death when LQ Jones dies both of these things are treated as dark they're sort of they're treated with with with weight and respect but also sort of both of them are tied to a dark joke you know the LQ Jones they're thing, you know, goes right into, turns into an extended fart joke. Right. And then at the very end, when Virginia Madsen comes in, there's a great subtle bit of

physical acting from Kevin Klein where he is kind of like looking at her and pointing at the different people. Yeah. Yeah, he's like, her, her, him? Yeah. It's great. So there is, and, you know, it is, it is treated like everything. And that is the ethos of prim companion and, you know, Garrison Keeler's whole thing.

which is, you know, having fun with the past, paying homage while also sort of making light of it and pointing out where it's silly, but all done very dry and, yeah, and I, it's interesting. I love, I love the bit. I mean, there's lots of great bits, and we'll talk about, you know, obviously Garrison Keeler had his complicating things 10 years or so after this movie. Right, right, right. But, I mean, he's, I think he's so funny in this movie. And I just, I love when, when.

It's such an odd energy that he brings to all of it. And Merrill Streepis keeps hounding him. Originally, it's about the death of the show. And then later she brings it up again when Chuck Acres dies. She's like, aren't you going to say something? And he's like, oh, what am I going to say? I'm not going to give a big, like, weepy speech. She's like, well, you know, they want to remember people.

That's for the audience. He's like, I don't want to, I don't want people to be told to remember me or whatever. Right, that's, yes. Yeah. He says, like, Liddy Lohan is like, when you, yeah, if you died, The performative lack of ego is what... Yeah. Yes, basically.

He was all about. There's also the Streep's character says to him, she's like, well, how about a moment of silence? And he just goes, silence on the radio. I don't know how that works. Like, it's a really good scene. There's a lot of, yeah, his energy is just, is such an odd, like an odd fit for everything and yet perfect for this... An Altman movie?

Well, and also for this radio program that seems to be... A program that is also comment, like, looking at itself as it happens, you know, on this sort of, like, dual levels. It's very interesting. Yeah. The energy that Keeler brings to it is this, is this, it's this brilliant concept, and, you know, it goes all the way back. The movie's an interesting thing because it is, as you were saying, Chris, it is this, like, 50-50, where it is presenting Parham Companion as though this is the real show. But then you have these, you know, made-up characters. like Dusty and Lefty and Guy Noir and the Johnson Sisters.

All these people, as Joe pointed out, characters who existed on the show but were played by other people. It presents them as real people, not as characters being played by actors in the show. So it's this weird sort of like half-and-half reality, surreality thing going on that's done really subtly. But I love Keeler's character, which is the attitude of a real Midwestern,

well, I work a job. I get up in the morning, I go do my job, and blah, blah, blah. But for him, it's not. you know, working at the grain elevator, it's he's on the radio, he's an entertainer. And all of his stories about... He says at the end when they're in the diner.

Oh, does it all of his stories about how he got into what? No, go ahead. Well, I was going to say, when they're at the diner. Yes. This is a very Altman interaction. This is kind of, yes. I'm going to shut up and I'm going to let Clay finish saying what he was saying.

And then I'm going to say, yeah. This podcast is in the Elkman's Somatic Universe. And he has that the attitude at the diner if the show has ended where they say, what are you doing? And he's like, oh, I'm working. at the parking ramp and it's good good job whatever but he's got that whole that whole energy and all of his stories about how he got into radio none of them were like oh i always wanted to be on the radio i wanted to be an entertainer they're all like an accidental i was like oh well so then

i ended up being on the radio kind of thing and it's that's that very kind of tossed off it's just it's a it's a very unique character that he created totally yeah i was literally just going to say the thing about the he's parking cars now i was like what a weird little fun touch um So I want to get into a little bit of the Meryl Streep of it all during that year, because obviously this was a big year for her. This was the same. This came out in June, did I say, when I ran this down earlier? Yes.

Yes. It premiered in Berlin. A few weeks before Devil Wears Park. I was going to say it. Yeah, premiered in Berlin. It played South by Southwest, but then it opened in June, and then Devil Wears Prada was a few weeks later. So this was, and that obviously was the one that got a lot of attention. When she won the National Society of Film Critics supporting actress prize,

it was for both of the movies, which I think is interesting, because she was obviously a lead actress nominee at the Oscars for Devil Wars Prada. I think she's tremendous in a Prairie Home Companion. I always love – This is maybe my favorite movie in which she sings. She sings in actually quite a bit. More movies than people think of when you think of – She's not known.

She's not known as a musical actress. Postcards from the edge. she created musical being in musical opportunities for herself when she got became the Grand Dame or whatever and she's like I will be in your musical and everybody's like okay that's fine okay I can do it but like we were watching because we did a Soderberg episode about post-retirement Soderberg movies a couple weeks ago

so I watched Let Them All Talk for the first time And Meryl Streep dies and then there's like a somber like I don't know Irish or British sort of like song playing after her character has died. I was like, that's fucking Meryl Streep. And lo and behold, it was Meryl Streep. This is something I have noticed over the years is that she,

this movie, Ricky and the Flash, postcards from the edge. Death Becomes her, the opening with a Broadway number. She loves singing. Even Flo Flo Chankans, she's like supposed to be singing horribly in that movie. And then at the end of the movie, they give her a fantasy

sequence where she can sing well. And it's maddening. But this love singing. This is my favorite. I think she's, she brings a ton of character into the performances. Also, she and Lily Tomlin harmonized so well together. It's really something else. Goodbye to my mama, my uncles and ants. One after another, they went to lie down in the green pastures beside the still waters and made no, some their arms that have held me for so many years their beautiful voices no longer I hear they're in Jesus' arms and he's talking to them in the rapturous new

I love them together I love their singing together I love that first scene where they walk in with Lindsay Lohan and they're getting ready and they go down into their dressing room and they're telling all these stories about the two sisters who used to be in the act and their mom and all of this. I just, oh, my God, they're, I love in these Allman movies. And this one is a little, maybe a little different because these characters are not necessarily supposed to be real people. They are a little bit more archetypal, a little bit heightened.

Yeah. But they, you know, we don't get a lot of time with each character, but all of the characters are so specifically tuned. And I guess, Dusty and Lefty and. Guy and Dwyer, they're sort of cartoons. But the Johnson sisters feel more real, and I just love their dynamic, and I love Meryl Streep, like you said. Especially, this and Devil Wars Prada in the same year is like Spielberg doing Jurassic Park and Schindler's List in the same. It just shows the talent and the range. Yeah, and the range. Yeah. Two wildly different characters, could not be more different characters between Devil Wars Prada in this movie. Yeah. Well, and even

what they talk about things like, because there's a lot of regret with those characters, where they never were as famous as other people who were in, there were other family acts that got more success than they did. And they have some resentments towards, again, as they're spinning these stories that feel like they are coming up with them on the fly about the one sister who got arrested for shoplifting a glazed donut. And that's how their father had the coronary. And that was the end. Now, if we were rock and roll, we could be throwing couches out of windows. That's the thing. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. But you got these Christian audience. Couches, not even your own couch.

You can throw someone else's couch out of the window. God. Lily Tomlin kills it in this movie. She's great. And then, though, it all leads up to, and it doesn't even feel like it's leading up to, but they ultimately have this performance of this song dedicated to their mother that is so gorgeous and sad and sweet. And the fact that it can sort of go from one thing to the other is really special, I think.

And then add Lindsay Lohan to that mix, which this. movie came about in the thick of post mean girls tabloid nightmare Lindsay Lohan she had she was you know going out on the town and getting photographed by the paparazzi all these breakup

stories she had just she was just about to start filming Georgia rule which I think was like the nadir of Lindsay bad onset stories but she had also she had given this interview to Vanity Fair where she mentioned that she was bulimic and then she took that

back and said that's not what I meant and all the sort of stuff and yet this movie feels like such an oasis in the middle of that they did that W magazine article with Streep and Lohan and Streep is incredibly complimentary of her of Lindsay and she called her one of the best performers she's ever worked with Altman said he loved working with her and would work with her again which is you know a sad thing obviously knowing that this was his final film um they talked about what a professional she was and she's very good in this movie. And the tone of the movie, which I love in the context of Lindsay's story, is it's a movie very much about sort of welcoming this young girl into the fold of these seasoned professionals

who operate like a family, and they're all singing on stage together at the end. And in the very end, when it's her and Jerylind singing together on Sweet Bye and Bye, I was like, oh, this is a very, like, this is an acknowledgement of this young talent, you know, come sing with me, come sing alongside me. In light of everything else in her career, it feels very special. Yeah, and she's great in the movie. She's the only cast member I did not get to see perform. Oh, yeah?

When I was on set. She's the only one I missed. And I feel like she was not, but she was there when I was there. I think she was not, obviously, all eyes were on her. I remember people were excited that the production was coming to Minneapolis, But I remember they were like, oh, Lindsay Lohan, too. Like, Lindsay, like, as though, like, it was, she was going to tear around, like, Ezra Miller, like, terrorizing Minneapolis. There was a lot of incredulity going into this.

Yes, at that time. People were being, like, really, Lindsay Lohan in a movie with Meryl Streep? How's that going to work? And Merrill kept being asked about it, too, because I'll never forget the quote from Meryl, I pray for Lindsay. Like, like, Merrill still will be effusive about Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay had a quote semi-recently about how she wanted. to, she wanted to do a movie with Meryl about, oh, I can't remember what it was, whether it was

a, like, a Little Mermaid movie or something like that, like, something where she wanted to, like, make a movie with Meryl. I mean, that's basically the shit that Meryl's making these days anyway. I mean, honestly. 06, great year for Meryl, because with the exclusion of the post, everything else is just drag from then on.

I also remember... I don't know. I think there's some good Merrill in post... Well, now I'm going to have to pull up the IMDB. I like... Lawrence Foster Jenkins. I think she's phenomenal in Julian, Julia. I think she's phenomenal in the post.

Oh, and also, excuse you, Chris, there were two Mamma Mia films that came out after 2006. I mean, like, I love the Mamma Mia movies, and I love her in them, but they still just, like, drag, Meryl. You brought me here to insult me personally, is what you did. Now, you're right, that it's... One thing I remember about Lindsay during this time is I remember on, like, E or something, they were, like, it was some...

you know, report from the premiere of the movie. Not in Berlin, I don't think. But it is like amidst these, like, you know, whatever was actually going on with her, the press was actually, regardless of it, awful to Lindsay. And I remember her showing up to the premiere and, like, she's being interviewed and she's in tears and, like, just talking about how proud she is to be in a movie like this. And it's just, like, remembering that and kind of, like, reflecting where things would go. It's just like, she was just really run through the meat grinder and was doomed.

I mean, like, set up to fail, basically. We were on screen drafts and we were talking about, I know who killed me, that would have been the year after this, was this, was this, no, I think that's 08. Is it 08? Okay. It's 08 or 9. Not too far long after Prairie Home Companion. And when we were talking about that movie, we were talking about how the,

sort of anticipation for that movie was very much like, oh, Lindsay's going to play a stripper. And this very kind of leering way that the press and the public sort of, you know, got to look at her. She was this, she, it was interesting that so much of her tabloid stuff came sort of as a corollary to the Paris Hilton stuff. Because like Paris Hilton was all of that, plus the insulation of her family, her money, her wealth. like Paris was never going to ultimately be that hurt by any of that because she was insulated by all of this privilege. And Lindsay had none of that. She had a terrible family.

She had no real like institutional support whatsoever. And she, you know. She'd already been run through the Disney tween meat grinder. Right. Exactly. You know, like talk about a system that'll chew you up and spit you out already. Right. And you now, now look at where, you know, they are like, Paris has now managed to like try to reinvent herself and she's got.

reality shows and all of this and she still got all that money and whatever and then Lindsay's career was never really able to recover and we'll see this year she's got her Netflix Christmas movie which is just like quite a qualifier but I feel I feel it in the water

that there's going to be Lindsay appreciation you have to do one of those I'm glad those exist as a as a platform for people to crawl back into just to prove that you can show up to set every day yeah and whatever and then okay great then we'll give you you know whatever the next thing is.

They're planning more movies with her, so obviously it was a great experience for all involved. So before we get off the subject of Meryl, though, this is our 10th Meryl Street movie. This is the first performer who has reached the milestone, let's say, of us doing 10 different episodes about them. We have in the past, well, first of all, let's rattle them off because truly it is a wild collection of movies so in I believe yes in order of that we've done them on the podcast Lions for Lambs

it's complicated Ricky and the Flash rendition evening prime suffragette the House of the Spirits the River Wild and now finally a Prairie Home

Companion and Joe is this just because I mean it must be because every single time Merrill appears in a film there's at least a little bit of a chance she will get nominated for it. Every movie she's made since Sophie's choice

has had some kind of Oscar buzzer or another. So, like, we've got a lot to choose from, even though she is the most Oscar nominated person in history, nominated actor in history, there's still, it can't happen every time. And a lot of these movies are like from the same year that she had got nominated for something else. So, but yeah, Clay, that's exactly the vibe.

We have in the past, when we've gotten to six timers for action, done a little quiz. I wanted to memorialize this in a little bit of a different way while still kind of gamifying it. And I racked my brain and I tried to figure out something interesting.

We'll see how this goes. I'm not saying that this is going to be our ten timers thing every time, but we'll see how this goes. Lord knows we will get to ten on somebody else. There's a bunch of them hanging around in that kind of general area. So we'll get to some. But anyway, so for Meryl, for these ten movies,

and I'm going to drop the title as I just listed them in the chat so you can refer to them. Thank you that. I'll just say, I don't even know what the game is yet, but I'm not feeling great about going up against Chris in a Meryl Streep game. This is going to be real informal. It's not going to be super competitive, so don't worry. On these 10 movies, though, I could go up against anybody.

So what I did was, I don't remember doing it. I looked up the release dates for this movie, these movies, and then I looked up the correlating entertainment weekly cover at the time. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to describe what was on the cover of EW the week that, I'm going to describe an EW cover, and you guys are going to guess what movie, what of these 10 movies was released that week. Okay. So I'll start with, I'll start with minimal hint, and then if you don't get it, by the first hint, I'll give you the second hint. And then the third hint, I'll sort of describe as much of this issue as possible. We're doing, okay, so explain the timeline again.

The timeline? Yes, so the cover of EW is the week that the movie opened. Yes, yes. Okay. So we'll walk through it. It's going to be, we'll walk through it. We'll learn as we go. All right.

So starting for this first one, and you can guess or you can wait to guess, but we'll sort of similar to what's the Barry Lyndon rules in the screen? Oh, the Lord Bullington rule. Right. So if you make a guess, you can't guess again until the other person guesses. All right. So this first one, the cover of EW was Sandra Bullock. Uh, oh, gosh, oh, ooh, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um,

Um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, um, house of the spirits. It's not house of the spirit. All right, second hint, the top banner read, James Cameron on Avatar. Is it suffragette? It's not suffragette. All right. The third hint is the title of the Sandra Blick cover story was called Sandra Seriously. And then the subtitle was...

It's complicated. It's complicated, yes. Yeah. Two huge hits... 2009. 2009. Two huge hits, 300 million. Oscar Buzz for the Blind Side.

And how was your year? Said that cover. All right. So Clay, one to nothing. Oh, I should keep a score. All right. Ooh. All right.

Clay one. Chris, I take it back. I'm going to absolutely destroy Chris. I actually think this is going to happen. All right. Next movie. Cover of this movie was Rob Morrow, John Titoro, Ray Fines, and Robert Redford. Oh, this is River Wild. This is the River Wild. Clay gets two. That's a quiz show, right?

Yes. So the headline was The Whiz Behind Quiz Show. And my third hint was going to be, there was a news and notes in this issue, because I managed to look this up, about a Fantastic Four movie that was made on the cheap by a German producer who was trying to retain the rights to Fantastic Four before they were reverted back to Marvel, a story that I had never heard of that sounds absolutely bizarre and insane, and I wanted to... Fantastic Four, the most cursed, like, IP in Hollywood. Pretty much. All right, Clay's up two to nothing. Next one. The cover was Liam Hemsworth, Jennifer Lawrence, and Josh Hutcherson. Ricky in the Flash.

No. All right. Suffragette. Yes, Chris got right. Suffragette. The headline was Game Over, an exclusive preview of the Hunger Games Mocking Jay Part 2. I think it's Suffragette. What was this?

Like 2014 or 2015. The other headlines or notes, there was a definitive history of Alanis Morissette's jagged little pill. The Martian was the must list's number one movie and in news and notes there was a breakdown of Taylor Swift's squad which exactly is how I would get it because I remember covering news

for Vanity Fair that summer where I had to report on every Taylor concert where she brought different people up to the stage when she did style. All right. Two to one in favor of Clay. Next movie. The cover was Johnny Depp.

Cursed name that I had to now put into the... Huffer was Johnny Depp. Hmm. Prime. Uh, not prime. The headline, this was an EW holiday movie preview. When you do the next clue, does that reset, or then do I still have to wait?

No, you still have to wait. Oh, guessing first is stupid. I should stop doing that. If we, if we, if we get to the next hint, then it'll reset. So... Is it Lyons? for lambs. It is lions for lambs.

Was it for Sweeney Todd? It was for Sweeney Todd. Yes. Yes. Very good. All right. Ties it up at two. Okay.

If you don't want to guess on the hint, you can just wait and we can, and I'll give you a little, you know, a little bit of time and then I'll just move on to the next hand. So don't feel like you need to guess every hint. All right. Next one. And I do realize that as we go on, the options are going to thin, so it'll probably be a little bit of process of elimination.

We're just going to play along anyway. All right. hint. The cover for the next one is Charlize Theron. Looking at the different things. A couple of these, I don't know what year they came out. All right. The hint for the second one is, the headline is, Charlie's Sitting Pretty, Why She's Not Afraid of Anything except Oscar Buzz. Oh, uh, what year was the? I don't know what, is this prime? This is Prime.

Clay gets it, yes. This was Monster. What is that? This was... It was North Country. North Country. North Country. It was 2005.

Other headlines were Star Wars Secrets of the New DVD and what's wrong with Desperate Housewives. So already in its second season. Another Minnesota movie, that did get nominations, though, didn't it? It did. Charlize and Frances McDormon. Yes. Another iconic...

Francis McDormand Minnesota movie I guess Yeah so All right Next one The cover is Andrew Lincoln Melissa McBride

and Norman Redis Ricky in the Flash Melissa McBride It is Ricky in the Flash Clay got this one too This was First Look at the New Season

of the Walking Dead The other hint was The top Photos were Stephen Colbert Ed Helm Olivia Munn all roast John Stewart

And then there was a headline That was just VidCon wrap up So if you remember where you were When VidCon happened that year So all right Next one The cover This is the sort of

There's the least hintiness to this But the cover was Patrick Dempsey Rendition Rendition Chris gets it This was the photo issue So the celebrities listed on the cover For the photo issue were George Clooney, Reese Witherspoon, Brad Pitt, Penelope Cruz, Matt Damon, Tina Faye, Matthew McConaughey, Rihanna, Daniel Craig, Rayne Wilson, which is part one of the ones that I think would have maybe been a helpful clue.

Terrence Howard and Macea Oka, which I think is the best hint, because like when would Masioka have been... Right, what was that Pacific Rim? Heroes. That would have been 2007 Heroes playing Hero. I don't watch Heroes. Yeah, I think you're fine. Speaking of those, the guy, where has he been in anything since then? I don't think so. Not that I have noticed.

Actually, I think he was in a movie semi-recently, and now I can't remember what it was. But anyway, speaking of heroes, though, the cover for the next one is Hayden Panetteer. Evening. Evening. Chris gets this one. All right. Four to four. The show Heroes again.

It was literally Heroes. Yes. It was the EW 100. I thought you were saying that Hayden Panetier is one of your heroes. African hero, Hayden Panetaire. Yeah, no, she was in cheerleader costume on the cover of the EW100. This was also what were the reviews Owen Glyberman reviewed Live Free or Die Hard. The movie's headline was Shia LeBuff transforms into a box office star, and Greece was on Broadway.

All right. Wait, so what's the score? Four to four, going in the last two. So again, if you've been, process of elimination, nationing it, this is going to be pretty quick. I hope I remember which two have not been done yet. I hope you too. All right.

The cover for this next one was John Grisham. House of the Spirits. Tie! That's an actual tie. Okay. I'm going to give you each a half a point. All right. The John Grisham headline is very funny.

It was John Grisham exposed. The $25 million author finally talks about the firm, the Pelican brief, the client, and his problems with Hollywood. were his problems that they were giving him too much money because I can't imagine at that moment. Joe, there's only one title left. I know. We're just going to talk about it.

It's going to be fine. It's going to end in a tie. And this game should end in a tie. It's going to end in a tie. Okay. Yeah, it's going to end in a tie. All right. So obviously, the last one that we haven't talked about is a prairie home companion.

I just want to sort of give a little sense of who was on the cover VW the week that a prairie home companion came out. Cover was Adrian Grenier, Jerry Ferreira, Kevin Dillon, Jeremy Piven and Kevin Connolly. The Stars of Entourage. Fuck off. Fuck off. This was the summer TV preview. We also had reviews for the breakup and other Cannes movies, the theater reviews were

the History Boys and the Wedding Singer on Broadway. And the third headline on the cover was Harry Potter, Wolverine, or Bart Simpson, who's the world's most powerful movie character? Oh, I don't know. That's a weird one. But, okay. Anyway. So now just imagine yourself going to the movies to see a prairie home companion.

And on the outside in the culture, roaring around you, it is entourage fever everywhere. So you're safe in your little theater. You are enjoying this beautiful, delicate movie. All the while, Johnny Drama is doing shit elsewhere. Johnny Drama's doing shit. Ari Gold is hugging it out, bitch. Yep. It's all around you. It's all happening. All right.

What else do we want to? So we did a, that was a Meryl Jag. Where were we in the movie? Where were we in the movie? So, all right, well, we don't, this is the problem with our podcast is we don't really go chronologically through the movie. Okay. Let's at least say, what have we not talked about? Who won? Who won? It was a tie. You guys finished in a tie. Oh, it was a full tie. Yeah, four and a half to four and a half. Congratulations. He finished in a tie, which is, which, you know. Good game, Chris.

Lower than my Uber Eats score Like 4.97, baby So let's talk about So when we get to the point in the movie Where Chuck dies And you get that lovely little scene Where Mary Louise Burke sort of like Happens upon him

And they're having this little Clandestine affair That also happens like in the backgrounds of shots And stuff like that You get these little moments of it And Ham salad sandwiches known after prodigiacs. Right. But she finds Chuck and she starts to cry and then it cuts away to something

else or even like maybe like just the camera moves away to something else. And when you go back there, Virginia Madsen's sort of there standing behind him and she's there to comfort Mary Louise Burke. And it's again this thing where the degree to which other people can or cannot see this angel character, the dangerous woman, sort of goes in and out. And it's very kind of, you know, it changes. And as again, she reveals herself to people when she wants to. Right. There's that great moment at the end of the movie after she convinces Tommy Lee Jones to take this shortcut to the airport. And he gets into his town car to leave and she's there sort of sitting in the back seat with him. Yeah. Well, Joe, you just segued perfectly into the second

time you can spot me in this movie. Okay, good. All right. Perfect. So the second time, so like I said, I sat in the audience for several days, and you cannot spot me in the audience, but I can maybe tell you about the stuff I saw from the audience when we get to those, talking about those bits. But yeah, so the big story, this is my big story from Pram Committee. All right. So, you know, my mom and I were extras. Actually, the first day I went with my dad because it was a weekend, and then he had to go to work. So I went with my mom the following week. I think it was about total of like nine days.

or something with a weekend in there in there um uh you know i was a little movie kid i was planning to apply to film school and then this production with all these people fucking comes to town i was like yeah and it was just a thing where it was like in the paper or something or somebody sent my mom's like hey they're they're looking for extras for this movie you should tell cool so we had to go to the production office and like give them a photo of myself and everything but we were and i was we were selected not everybody was selected my mom and i were selected but i was unpaid uh we were not given lunch. This was a really low-budget production.

Extras holding was not comfortable. It was, you really had to want to be there or really have nothing else to do to want to be an extra in this movie. But we went and it was magical. And it was the last night and it was like two in the morning and they come and it's the last day they're going to use background. As I think it was the second to last day of shooting. I think they had one more day with some pickups or something.

But this was kind of the last big day of production. and the last day for extras. So they cut our group. My mom and I, they're like, group B or whatever, you can go home. So we were done. We took our little badges off, whatever. We were leaving. But it was two in the morning and we were fully awake.

And we saw that they were shooting an exterior bit, which they didn't, very few of. They were shooting an exterior scene in front of the, in front of the theater. Like, let's just go watch. Let's, we'll just go over there. We'll stand in the crowd and we'll watch. Yeah. So we go over there. We're watching for a few minutes and like a second AD walks up to us.

and says, are you guys with us? And we go, mm-hmm, yes, we are. There's other extras. There's other extras who are still supposed to be there, like, waiting. And we very cheekily, this is not, I would, look, this is the, this is the only lie that I've ever told. But I was like, yes. But he didn't say, are you extras in a group that has not been dismissed? He said, are you with us?

And I felt a real kinship with this production. I said, spiritually, you were. We are with you. So he pulled my mom and I for this shot, and it is the shot where Tommy Lee Jones comes out of the theater, gets in the town car, drives down the street, and the camera cranes back. Yeah. And the background people in this shot are, my mom and I, two other people who come out 20 seconds after we walk out of the theater. And that's it. So we are there.

You co-starring with Tommy Lee Jones and Virginia Mass? We are there at two in the morning. Yeah, the shot is that Time of Lee Jones walks out, the camera kind of pans down or cranes down to get the shot you talked about, Joe, with Virginia Madsen rolling the window down. Yeah. Then they drive off, and you can see my mom and I exit the theater and walk behind Time Lee Jones, but then the camera cranes back as the car moves. And my mom and I are the only people walking down the street. So you can see us just walking down the street as the town car goes and takes the corner. But the interesting part of this is when, you know, before the shot started, the holding area was the lobby in the theater.

and the people in this room at 2 in the morning were my mom and I, this older couple who were on the other side of the room, a makeup woman, and Tommy Lee Jones. Amazing. That's the only people who are standing in this room and we're all, I'm standing 15 feet away, 10 feet away from Tommy Lee Jones.

And I've met a lot of famous people because I worked at a popular video store in Los Angeles and whatever. My list of very famous people that I've interacted with is several dozen names long. But like the fugitive was, and so I've kind of always been like, and I'm Minnesotan, so I was raised to not bother people. Right. Like that's the only life lesson my mother has ever taught me is don't annoy people. Right.

You know, don't stand too close behind somebody in line at the grocery store. Don't, like, that is, I'm just not going to bother somebody. But this is, like, this is Tommy Lee Jones. The Fugitive is my favorite movie from the time I was 10 until I was 15 or whatever Like this is the star of U.S. Marshals. This is the star of U.S. Marshals.

I know. Yeah. This is Sam Girard and he's standing right there. And so had he been in a better mood? Which is a key caveat with Tommy Lee Jones. A key component of this. I maybe would have said,

if he was had, was presenting jovially, I maybe would have said something. that he normally is presenting jovialy. But Tommy Lee Jones was not present. He was grumpy cat himself. He was grumpy cat. He had a cold and the PAs could not find him Kleenex.

So PAs were like running around trying to find him clean X. He was disagreeing. There was originally another extra who exited before him and it kept fucking up the timing and they just did it over and over and over. And he's just like grumbled, literally grumbling

to himself. And Finally, finally, the second AD comes in is like, okay, Robert, or I think they called him Bob. Like, Bob decided to remove, like, I'm sorry, you can go home. He's going to take you out of the shot. And Tommy Lee Jones, I think still while this woman was in earshot goes, he should have cut her 10 takes ago. Like, he's just, he is in a foul move. But you would expect nothing less. But this gets up here.

I think this is, this is the key part of the story. and this is so this is so Minnesota and so just so we're there I think we only ended up doing I don't know after they cut the blonde woman

I think we did maybe three or four more takes but the whole thing was maybe 45 minutes half hour and I'm just sweating my mom and I are just trying not to look at Tommy Lee Jones

because he's not a tall man but he is a presence I imagine so he's like a statue come to life or something he's like he doesn't look like a real man um so we're there we're sitting there he's sniffling over and over and he so he sneezes big loud gnarly old man sneeze oscar nominated sneeze oscar nominated sneeze

and the woman on the other end of his part of the couple says like god bless you loudly to to tommy jones and he kind of goes yeah it's her last god bless you she ever gave goes like uh 10 a full 10 seconds go by And her husband goes, I was going to say it, but she said it first. Oh, my God. And my mom and I both just like, like Captain Picard face palmed. Like, what on? And Tommy Lee Jones did not.

He did not acknowledge that at all. And I was so embarrassed on behalf of the people of Minnesota. I was like, oh my God. I almost wanted to follow up with an apology or something. I was like, I just couldn't believe it. Oh, my God. So that was my big, that was my big Tommy Lee Jones. And then the next day, you know, I'm a 17-year-old kid.

And I was, and I was just fucking stoked on this story. I went on the IMD page for the movie on the message board and relayed this story. Oh, my God. Amazing. The next day. But the only response was people who had been waiting there to be called in as extras and had seen my mom and I. get pulled out of the face. Oh, and they dragged your ass after.

We're like, that was you? You, I, like, getting mad at me. Oh, my. And so I deleted the comment and was like, oh, no. You deleted the comment. Internet culture is bad. Comment boards are bad. Yeah, message boards are bad.

Yeah. Well, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to petition whoever's in charge of Amazon X-ray. We need to add Clay's credit into that scene so that when I hover my mouse over the screen when I'm watching it on Amazon, I want to see Clay Keller, Virginia Madsen, and Gary's, if you have the contact that we can add on Twitter, we will cyber bully this person until Clay Keller is adequately credited on Amazon Prime X-ray. And we were really acting.

We had a whole, we're just, our action is to walk down the street. And we were not told to imbue our characters with a backstory. But we were like, okay, so we have to leave the show early because, because, because you left your other son at home alone and told him to call something was wrong. And so, like, we were like, motivation, walking down the street, like, oh, I hope Hanson's okay. This reminds me, Clay, I was going to ask you about your experience with Meisner, Stella Adler School, Circle in the Square.

It's the only time. I studied for 15 years under the tutelage of those masters, and this is the only time I've been able to. You really showed your stuff. Use those skills, yeah, walking down the street. But yeah, so that's my big, that's my big prayer and companion story, but, you know, I'll mention the other ones if we, you know, we'll talk about John C. Riley and all them. John C. Riley and Woody Harrelson in this movie are, they're obviously maybe the least essential of that kind of ensemble, but every single time they're on screen, they're very funny together. Bliss.

Their schick is, you know, obviously they're telling these off-color jokes and they're kind of plaguing the stage manager with. What are they going to say? And it's all very, again, these very kind of grandpa jokes, kind of, if you have a particular... But also, like, lewd? Yes. Oh, yeah. I'll show you my moonshine if you show me your jugs is... Yes.

Yeah. Dirty grandpa jokes. Yeah, exactly. They're dirty grandpa jokes. The one about, like, she asked, uh, she asked, do you want super sex? And he said, I'll take the soup. I'm like, oh, man. Like, that is, uh, that's a dirty grandpa joke.

Right. Yeah, exactly. It's a dirty grandpa joke. I'll tell you, Joe, I sat for a good hour and a half watching them do take after take after take of bad jokes. Oh, no kidding. I'm sure they had to have done stuff that was way filthier that was never going to make the movie. Way filthier. And just by the end of that, I was like, I never want to hear this song again for as long as I live.

That's funny. I, oh my God, it was excruciate. There, it was, this is my other favorite. Part of this was part of this song. I don't really like that song much. That's my least favorite part of the movie is that song. Yeah. And so the fact that I just watched take after take after take after take.

But at some point, they had to do a really complicated new setup for the camera. They had to like take out a section of chairs and build that platform I was telling you about. It was like a 45 minute reset. Yeah. And instead of leaving the stage, probably because they had nowhere to go, but maybe also just because they are performers, John C. Reilly and Woody Harrelson just started noodling. And it turned into, like, you know, Woody Harrelson started playing hound dog or something. And they started doing Elvis songs. Oh, wow. Sure. So they start doing Elvis songs. They do like, what or two Elvis songs? Then the band filters on. Like, they had gone off because, like, okay, you know, to take 10. And everybody left except for what Harrelson and. in Riley, but then the band wanders back on, and Richard Dorski, the piano player, sits down

and starts playing. And it turns, and eventually, Geraldine Steele comes out. Oh, wow. And they're doing a full-blown, improvised, like, 50s and 60s songs. That's wild. For the audience. And everybody was having such a good time that you could tell the camera setup, they were, they were ready to go.

The lights were set and everything, and they did, like, four more songs. Oh, wow. the setup was done and at some point there's a little break there's like a breath in the thing and you can hear Altman who spent the whole time in the back of the house the video village with his megaphone

at some point Alman just gets on the microphone is like are you finished they're like yeah yeah Bob he's like okay let's get back to it or whatever he said it was yeah that was really really special that was a very amazing the music in this movie is really fantastic.

Every time they cut to, even when it's not one of the stars in the show, when it's even just like Linda and Robin Williams doing their, they're great. You know, what is it? Bluegrass, I imagine. I'm very bad with genres of music. Really, really fantastic little songs. Folk bluegrass.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just tremendous stuff. And again, like, even like the little like commercial jingles all have a cool musicality. The song that AP Carter sings as his kind of, you know, send off, and his voice starts to break at the end when he sings... LQ Jones, you mean?

Sorry. Yeah, the AP Carter is the credited songwriter that I'm looking at the... I'm looking at the soundtrack page on the... I love the soundtrack. It's wonderful. It's a wonderful. That Gold Watch and Chain is a beautiful song. We mentioned this song.

I love Gairs and Healer is a singer, too. Again, he's just like... I wish I didn't like... He's so appealing and so strange. What was his big scandal? His big thing was, and I looked it up so I could remember. It's a sexual harassment thing, right? It was a sexual workplace.

It was not, from what I understood, it was mostly, like, jokes in emails that were sexually inappropriate about a specific coworker. Like, talking about sex dreams he had about a co-worker. And then I guess he did sort of a John Lasseter, Al Franken, comforted a female coworker at a function, where she had a backless dress and touched her back. But this was the height of me, too, where they, you know, people were definitely getting fired for things like this. And it was, but it's after he retired from the show. So it didn't get him kicked off of prayer and companion.

It got him fired from Minnesota Public Radio after he had retired from the program. And his stuff also came out while there was a slew of a bunch of other people, too. So it kind of got buried. it got buried because it was right with all of the wines the first wave of Weinstein stuff and frank and all of that other stuff uh but he Charlie Rose and whatnot Charlie Rose and yeah so he so he uh you know they almost I think they almost uh they replaced they got a new they had a new host of the show anyway it was Chris Thiele um who had been a who had been a musician on the show for a little while he's uh he's in the Punch Brothers he's kind of like a musical prodigy from when he was a little kid um

But then when he had been hosting Purr and Companion, then when the scandal happened, they changed the name of the show, even though Garrison Keeler was not on it anymore to live from here, which is also kind of a cute name, I guess. But then it was canceled within two or three years. Yeah. Well, God, do better. Do better men with authority positions. Yeah. But yeah, the soundtrack to this is, this was a movie, I remember. watching a lot when it was on HBO very shortly after it was new. And so I remember just a lot of

the rhythms of the movie and the songs and whatnot. And it's a really, it's a great movie to sit and like pay active attention to and really like get into what's going on. But it's also a tremendous movie to just sort of like have on and as sort of like sonic wallpaper because like the music is really, really fantastic. And yeah, yeah, just really lovely. This was obviously there's nothing you can't really pull like original music out of this or whatever for like an awards perspective but again you wish there was a way right yeah I guess maybe but you wonder whether some of those had existed on a prairie home companion the radio show beforehand but this is where I always go back and like the Oscars need to find a way to

recognize outstanding achievement in repurposing or you know what I mean you know adapting that category used to exist you know but it would go

to musical adaptations you know right right this is also the year dream girl so it might not have won it anyway it could be a performance award I think there's I also think of though like soundtracks like drive I always think of which is just like

not original music but it is sort of reinterpreting stuff I mean, you can do best music supervision. I think that would be a fantastic way to do it or something. Just, again, the Oscars are struggling so hard with their identity at this point of what do we want to put on the show to make people interested. And the one category they're sort of holding onto with both hands is best original song because it at least allows them to bring performers on. And yet, original songs are kind of not where it's at. Mostly, there's been examples recently, obviously.

in Canto and Frozen and, you know, whatnot. Now, of the, like, noteworthy musical moments from Oscars in recent memory, it's like Lady Gaga doing a tribute to the sound of music, you know, like, why haven't, why do, why are we doing bond tributes, but we don't have, like, a montage of Bond songs, you know? The Bond tribute in the last Oscars was what of, or two Oscars ago, whichever one it was, was one of, they've done them recent, two, they've done them in recent, like they did it like four years ago and then one

last year. There, it was, it was nothing. It was a YouTube clip mont. Like, exactly. Bring out, you, I mean, Connery died recently, but you, like, you, I, you could have gotten Dalton to the Oscars.

You could have gotten Lazanby to the Oscars. Craig was already there, right? Something, yeah. Bring out the existing bonds. do a thing. They just did like a clip package. It was, and I look, I love clip packages, but you could do something with it. You could do, you could do a giant musical medley of Bond songs. You could have like Big Frida come out and do Golden Eye, and it would be amazing.

You could have, you could have McCartney there. You could have Sarah Borellis do nobody does it better. It's like, you could, they did nothing. Anyway, Chris, do you want to, Joe's gone. Joe will be bad. I'm here. I'm just trying to I'm trying to get,

I don't know whether how out of sync I am. We're trouble shooting. Joe is the Maya Rudolph coming in and like rescuing, saving things. He dropped his pages.

He's picking them back up. Yes, this is all, this is live radio, the excitement of live radio guys. Myrudev in her first movie. And like, I remember people being like, wow, so Maya Rudolph,

might actually be a real actress there and it's like just you know yeah it she's always been amazing like like and i mean i i like and i mean i haven't seen it in 15 years but i remember really liking uh the mendes movie um away we go jo and i have talked about it before uh joe is a phantom lurking in the background right now but joe is absolutely fist pumping she's incredible she's great in that um she was there speaking to joe brought up the question kind of how much did PTA do or not do on that set, I will say from my limited, you know, from my experience, I saw, Altman was never on stage. He was, I guess he like twisted his ankle coming down the steps of Mickey's Diner early in the shoot. So he was on, he was in a wheelchair from, for when I was

there. He was in a wheelchair at Video Village. And he was directing with a megaphone. But he was directing. I mean, he was calling the shots. He was doing whatever. He had ADs, you know, talking to the cast and the, so I mean, I saw Paul Thomas Anderson there, mostly just kind of like hanging out with Maya Rudolph, obviously, because she was pregnant with their first child. I think their first child. And, you know, that was that. I did not see Paul Thomas Anderson doing any directing. So at least that's what I can contribute to that. that question. I know his, his director's chair said pinch hitter on it. So they were, they were having fun. But yeah, from what I could see, Altman was directing the movie. From what little he's kind, Paul Thomas Anderson has discussed it, it at least seems like he definitely downplays, like the, and like it seems like partly a gracious thing, partly true of like he was there for like contractual obligations and blessed to be able to absorb what that environment.

But people love, if there is any little in for people to have a conspiracy theory, they will take it, you know. Paul Tom Sanderson was there, so he must have secretly directed, or like, Stephen Spielberg was on set during poltergeist, so he must have secretly directed it. It's like, it's always, it's always fun to chase the conspiracy. And Joe is back. That's my conspiracy.

People love the secret director movies. Yes. Oh, yeah. People love the secret director conspiracy. They can't get enough of them. All right. So my Wi-Fi is currently in Open Revolt against me. I'm going to suggest I have one more game I wanted to do before we got into IMDB game.

And it'll still allow us to talk about maybe odds and ends. So, Clay, we have been on your podcast several times screen drafts. It is a super fun. It is a competitive collaboration, as you call it, which is a perfect way of putting assembling a seven film draft of whatever, sometimes seven, sometimes more, as in when you're talking about F-Sin of score movies, and you talk for five hours.

For this movie, with this fantastic cast, I thought we could do a little mini-screen drafts here where we draft a seven-person roster of performances from this movie between the two of you to do the top seven performances in a prairie home companion. Clay, because you are our guest, you'll get the choice of being drafter A or B. Draftor A gets picks 7, 6, 4, and 2.

Draftor B gets 5, 3, and 1. And we'll try and move through it quickly because we are pushing time here. Does that mean no vetoes? No, you each get one veto. But we'll move it. So this is performances within this movie. We're pushing time and we're about where we do like the midway intermission on screen.

Yeah, for this had Oscar buzz. We're pushing time. For screen drafts, we are we are luxuriating in the open road. Yes. Okay. So Clay, would you like to be drafter A or drafter B? Uh, ooh. I will be drafter.

Actually, I want to be Draftor B. All right, so you're going to have picks 5, 3, and 1. You want that number 1 pick? I do want the number 1. All right. So Chris, you're going to have pick 7 to start, and you'll also have 6.

So anybody who was any performance in a pair home companion is up for grabs. And are we delivering the picks to you, screen draft style, in the chat? Oh, yeah, throw it in the chat. Oh, I'm for, oh. okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yes, you're first. I was ready for Chris to go.

All right. So Chris, with the pick for number seven on the, this had Oscar Buzz screen drafts list for performances in a Prairie Home Companion, has selected Maya Rudolph. I mean, we were just talking about her. I do think that she is a really fun presence in this movie. You could argue she doesn't get much to do other than very stressed outedly. try to shove people onto the stage in this movie. And yet, I do think, we haven't seen her do it much beyond this movie and Paul Thomas Anderson's movies, in that she can be a bit player in a huge ensemble and still provide something kind of essential to it and provide her own energy. And I definitely, I mean, like, while I wouldn't put her at the very top of the list of performances in this movie, I do think she merits mention.

I like this pick. I'm not going to veto it. I think she's really good in this movie. She is a great straight man. There's varying degrees of straight man in this. You say you have the harried stage manager. Keeler plays a bit of a straight man too, even though he is bringing his own strange energy. He is kind of rebuffing the more emotional people who keep trying to come to him with things.

She is, I think, the most straight man where she is just not going to play along. with these cartoon people at all. And I think she's sort of representing sort of a little bit of a defensive thing that the movie is doing, being like, okay, I know some people watching this are going to be like, okay, Kevin Klein is a bit much. But this is you. You are Maya Rudolph. She is representing that that portion of the audience.

And I think she does a good job of that. So, yeah, I'm fine with this at seven. All right. All right. My Rudolph at seven. Chris, you are also making pick number six. all right let me take a second gander at the full list of the cast taking a gander okay i got to see you on that too here all right pick number six is in let me just write it down with pick number six Chris has selected

virginia madsen as the dangerous woman um something about you makes me feel like a dangerous woman Virginia Madison. There is a thing about late Altman that is like, okay, he's going out on a limb here with some weird stuff. And I do think that this, just some of the dialogue that she has to say in this movie is like really kind of, you know, pushing it in a way.

But I think what I was really impressed by her performance is just kind of the naturalism of it on this rewatch. But like she, like it's, you know, it could very, easily not work and I think because she is such a very understated and direct and straightforward performer it makes it work in a way and I also love Virginia Madsen and it's like post sideways Virginia Madsen this is maybe the best thing she got to do and the most like well I wanted to mention that the most like risky thing she got to do because it could not work yeah she's great because this was this was kind of her first projects after the Oscar nomination for Sideways was this and then the movie Firewall the Harrison Ford

Paul Bettney movie that I did not see oh I saw it it's nothing but I was working at a movie theater at the time and I was going to see pretty much everything for free no I was going to say it was interesting I mentioned that Star Tribune article that came out at the conclusion of filming and a lot of it is centered around

Virginia Madsen. I was like, why are they talking about Virginia Madsen so much? And then it got to the end, they were like, Virginia Madsen, who, you know, was just Oscar nominated recently for her performance. I was like, oh, she was, this was where she was maybe going to be super, super hot. And then, not really.

And then she hit a firewall. And then she hit a very literal firewall. And then next thing, you know, she was experiencing a haunting in Connecticut. Yeah. As a pick. Yeah. I don't know.

I am tempted to feed on Virginia Madsen. I think she's a little stiff in this movie. I don't know. I don't. Her scene with Keeler is very funny, but it's mostly him. I don't, she feels like she's giving a bit of a cold read, which I know isn't true based, because based on this article that I was talking about, that she was really into this movie. And she showed up early, like two weeks early and was absorbing the atmosphere. I don't love her in this movie.

And mostly, I'm just looking at the list now. Sure. You're pulling the Ryan marker. Oh, God. Oh, God, what's going to get left off? Already in, oh, God, territory. Okay. Keep in mind, if you veto me, I can draft you, and you can't veto me drafting you.

I didn't even, I did not even occur to me that I was eligible for this. Wow, the clay's on the table, yeah. And he, but, you know, so then Chris could play, could play Virginia Madsen higher. He is himself a dangerous woman right now. Yes, this is true, yeah. In the spirit of Minnesota non-combativeness, I will allow Virginia Madsen to remain at number six. But who, okay, but it's not on, it's not. on me if some other people. There's

like two people. I'm like, well, that's it for them. Okay. All right. So, Clay is allowing, if I'm hearing correctly, Clay is allowing the Virginia Madsen picked a stand. The one line reading of hers that I really liked when she's in that scene with Garrison Keeler, she makes him repeat the joke

and the punchline of this joke about the penguins that she doesn't get. And he says the punchline, and she just goes, now, why is that funny? And just the way she says that, I don't know. I appreciate that. But, all right. So, Virginia Manson at 6. I just, yeah. Yeah.

No, I get it. I get it. Yes, you've got pick five. Okay. I will not feel bad if Chris vetoes this. I mean, I'm trying to work this through in my head, but I'm going to, I'm going to explain why I'm doing this. And we'll see if, we'll see if Chris agrees or not. With pick number five in the Prairie Home Companion Performance Draft,

Clay Color has selected Geraldine Steele. Oh. As herself, essentially. Yeah. As herself and also as sort of a representative of the band, the Williams' is. Like this, I wanted somebody who was a genuine cast member, recurring person on the radio show, who then gets this opportunity to then be in the movie. Yep.

And I picked, I picked Jerylund. because she brings just such a personality like the Williams is her fun and Robin has kind of a he has a line in there kind of that's part of a little comedic bit

read banters with with with GK but Jureen just fills the screen she comes on she's not a screen performer she's just part of this radio show but when she gets her chance to shine in this movie she brings so much energy

and so much warmth and her performances are fantastic, and she is such an integral part of the very, you know, she's such an integral part of the feeling you have when you leave the theater, when they, after that scene in Mickey's, when they, for the credits, they go back to that final performance of Red River Valley slash sweet by and by.

And she's singing with Lindsay and there she's, she really is becomes the kind of the focus of the final moments of the movie. And I think that that is really integral to the feeling you have, the smile on your face, and the the mist in your eye as you're filing out of the theater. So I think Gerald Steele representing the larger group of original players of the Pram Companion, but in particular her performance, I think, is key to the movie. And I would like to see her here on the list.

Love that pick. Chris, how do you feel? Under no circumstances, would I be vetoing this? That is a great call. I second everything you said. And I like that we have an actual performer from the show on. the list all right great chris you are up next with pick four i have a feeling the pleasantries end here yeah this is where it gets tricky yes i mean it's

also hard to kind of pick some of them apart there are two pairs which is there are two pairs there are two pairs with pick number four chris has selected john c riley half of one of those two pairs that we were talking about. Chris, why John C. Riley? I mean, keeping in mind that we still have list to come and we're talking about pairs and such, John C. Riley always

just like, I like John C. Riley when he sings. It just makes me happy. It is basically identical to his natural speaking voice, but I do not care. It's true. What a great duo. Neither of them is either the straight man

or the, like, what's the opposite of a straight man to the... The clown? Actually, I don't know. Yeah, like, neither of them are. It's the curvy man, guys. The curvy man. Yes, that's the actual industry term. It's the curvy man.

The bootcut man. The, they're both just like almost these link later characters in the background. But, like, I do think he maybe has a little bit less to, not to, like, you know, play my hand with how I'm trying to stack the deck, maybe has a little bit less than Woody gets to have of this pairing, but John C. Riley is still very wonderful to me. Yeah, John C. Riley, I am trying to, I definitely, I don't know what you're going to do, Chris. I would have picked between the two. I may have gone with Harrelson, just because of what you said, he gets a little bit more to do. And he does seem a little bit like the smarter one. John C. Riley, as he's want to do, plays a bit of

of Adufus, especially in that scene where he's trying to figure out the history of how Garrison got into radio, and they're doing the, yeah, it was Wilbur, yeah. His, like, dumb, like, thinking silences. Yeah. But he's great. I think we had to have one of them on here.

I'm fine with it being John C. Riley. And, again, like Geraldine Steele, he just brings, he just emanates this, like, warm, fun energy. And it's just fun whenever he's on the screen. Harrelson's a little bit more of a, of a, of a, of a little, he's a bit of a trickster. He's kind of, he does one where he literally winks at the camera, you know, he's, he's a little slyer. And I think he does, during the bad jokes song, there's one where he tells it particularly, I think it's one of the ones that's a little bit misogynistic. And he, the, the laugh is kind of like, oh, and he gives a little cheeky like, hmm, like look at the, at the directly to the camera.

So he's, but, but, but I do love the, the back and forth that Riley does, with Keeler at the beginning of the movie, like in the second scene, uh, is great. And he brings a lot to the movie. So I'm, I'm fine with,

with Riley here. All right. John C. Riley not getting vetoed. I am now fully the Ryan marker of this, uh, situation where I am looking at this list. And I am sweating because someone's getting left off of this.

All right. Clay, you have pick number three. Send her in when you're ready. Oh, I'm torn now. I had typed in and I was about to hit enter. And now I'm,

Uh, nope, okay, I'm switching. All right. But so, but this is really, this would. Switching on the fly. Yeah, yeah. This would be my, this would be my two. And I feel like kind of by a margin, but I, let's see. Okay.

All right. But I'm not, I'm going to play it safe. I'm going to do it here at three. All right. The pick is in. I'm writing it down. With pick number three in the Prairie Home Companion Performance draft, Clay has selected Kevin Klein as

Guy Noir. Kevin Klein. We've barely talked about Kevin Klein yet, but he is maybe the second most present character in the movie. I mean, he's he opens and closes the movie with his narrations. He is like chasing Virginia Madsen

around. He has interactions with every single character. He's the one who talks to Tommy Lee Jones there when Tommy Jones shows up at the end. Like Kevin Clyde as Guy Noir is really, you know, like you said kind of Virginia Mads was, he's also sort of, the audience is kind of

dread following behind him as he walks around and interacts with people and does his little bits. And he is also just very funny. It is a full-blown Kevin Klein type character and Kevin Klein is playing it. His dialogue, his line deliveries are funny. He's inserting all of this little physical humor, all of his little bits where he's tripping on things

and then recovering and trying to look cool. or he's has this recurring thing where he keeps getting his fingers caught in different doors and stuff I think you know he's not he's not on stage singing until the end of the movie when he has his beautiful little piano moment

with the bust of John F. Scott Fitzgerald even though he is himself you know like of the stage I think he is the humor there's a lot of humor in the movie but I think he is kind of the comedic through line and I love the energy he brings. And I love his narration. I think he is, we haven't talked about him much because, like I said, he's not doing musical numbers or whatever. But he, I think he's really integral to the movie. So, Kevin Klein is my pick at number three. Yeah. I love Kevin Klein in this movie. I think he's tremendously funny. Again, you mentioned the energy that he brings, this kind of aloof yet trying to maintain this facade of being the, like, in-charge.

of security or whatever for this thing, this illusion that there is any kind of control over where this whole enterprise is going. And I think he's very... I love his bit. At the very end of the movie, there's 10 minutes left in the show, the final show. And he's like, all right, I've got a plan. You know, Timely Jones is part of this band. I think if we get them all together for a reunion here on the show, we can save the day. Yes. Yes. And his bit at the very very end with Virginia Matson where he's subtly pointing. I mean he just he is so dialed in and he's such a natural

comedic performer that um and we and after this we didn't what did we get from him after this? A couple of things here and there and I don't know. I feel like this is kind of his one of his last. He won a Tony after this. Yeah. And he was in last Vegas but I think this is like

one of his one of his last really good comedic performances. Chris is I'm just waiting for Chris to fucking swoop in with the I know I know he's lurking he's lurking I don't even know if Kevin Klein would have been on my seven

I maybe like I I fully support your enthusiasm I don't know if I agree but I I'm not going to veto it okay he is like I think just in terms of he's probably the lead of the movie in terms of like lines

he is maybe the lead of the movie yeah he is if there is a protagonist in the movie it probably is because he's the only one who has a plot like for as such as it is he has a driving forward narrative thing that he's trying to like do all right so Chris

you are not vetoing okay who I snuck it by Chris was so quiet the whole time I was like because I was weighing if I wanted to get so nervous no I'm not going to veto it how could I ever veto Kevin Klein

a performer who I love I guess I maybe when I think of this movie see him as a little essential, but you've made such a strong argument that I will not veto. It's scary to be on this side of it.

All right, Chris, you have pick number two. Chris has sent in his pick already with pick number two in the prayer home companion draft. Chris has selected Lily Tomlin as Rhonda Johnson. I mean,

you have to have a quintessential if not the quintessential altman performer on this list and towards the top of it um i mean it's obviously in duet with merrill and it's like it's interesting that they're emotional rhythms in performance i think you especially see this in what tomlin is doing of like she's usually taking the bottom harmony and I think you kind of if I can use kind of maybe a crunchy metaphor you can see that

in her acting choices too she's the more grounded she's the leveling of the two of them even like her emotion when they're singing the song about their mother is much more understated but you can tell that she's the one having like a rich kind of emotional experience

that like is kept to her own the whole story about their sister Wanda getting arrested for accidentally stealing a donut like while Meryl's like

kind of harrowed by it Lily Tomlin like when she jumps in and has an observation about it it's so fucking funny yeah just wonderful her voice sounds great her she reminds me so much

of my grandma mother in this movie. I love her. I love Lily Tomlin. Lily Tomlin is great. I think had I picked between the Johnson sisters, I would have maybe defaulted to Merrill, but everything you're saying is irrefutable. I mean, yes, as soon as you said, we needed.

Because she really is, she is kind of the only major Altman stable person in this. I think L. Q. Jones maybe pops up in one or two of the previous ones, maybe. El Q. Jones also... How fucking wild is it that Lyle Lovett is not in this movie? L. Lovett is not in this movie. Yeah, it is a few people in surprising are not in this movie. El Q. Jones, by the way, the director of a man or a boy in his dog. Have you guys seen a boy in his dog? No.

It is a wackadoo psychedelic 70s post-apocalypse movie where a teenage Don Johnson is wandering the apocalypse looking for a woman to have sex with and he's being led around by his documentary right by his by his telepathic dog it's um it's a trip it is a trip um anyway um yes i agree with everything chris said what i appreciate about lily tomlin in this movie is that merrill is doing i think i think a very good Minnesota lady kind of a very guileless innocent sweet maybe a little bit slow on the uptake Minnesota lady. Her accent is really good. She's got all, oh, yeah, you know, you say sweet. It's a very sweet lady. I love Merrill's bit. Her funniest bit is at the end when she's talking about the bus she bought for the tour. And Lindsay Lowe is like, your financials are are a mess. And she's, Merrill always, she does a great, she's so, she likes to touch her face a lot in everything. But she does this great thing where she like goes, like, this like looking at the financials and like makes a little like, like, like, like, a ledge with her hands to like put her like rest her chin on and then she goes so so can i keep

the boss or she's got those she's got these great moments these little things but lily talman i like that she is doing a very different and kind of a less archetypal but very real midwestern woman that you find chris you said she reminded you of her of your grandmother where she, you know, does love the old traditions and everything. But you can see maybe she was, got, you know, went to a couple of, you know, peace and love park gatherings in the 60s. She's a little bit more worldly, a little bit sassier. I love when they start doing one of the songs. And she covers the mic and turns to the band and says, if you sons of bitches speed up.

I'm going to kill you whatever she says. But I think she is, that's a very. honest, you know, that's a real person that she plays, and I think it's not what people would assume, and it balances so beautifully with the other side of the coin, which is Merrill. So I do think that Lily Toblin brings an essential energy to this, and she has some great punchlines that punctuate scenes, like, oh, you know, I'm not going to lend you my car anytime soon or whatever she says when she's talking about the tailpipe stuff. Hors in his tailpipe.

I think she is, like Chris said, integral to the movie, and an important. Really important. Like, I think the movie would maybe, the energy that Merrill is bringing is maybe found in other places, maybe a little bit. But I don't know if what Lily Tomlin is doing is represented by anybody else on the list. So I think, yeah, she is, she's really important. All right. All right. Lily Tomlin, uh, ensconced in number two.

Clay, you are left with our number one pick. Clay Keller with the number one pick has selected as GK. Garrison Keeler himself with the number one selection in the Prairie Home Companion Draft, Clay, defend this. No one likes drafting a canceled person. However, it's Prairie Home Companion. It is as much as anything, a wholly created thing that is born out of one person's imagination and their unique person. has created this larger unique personality of this entire thing. Like, it's without G.K., without Garrison Keeler, this could be, this is anything.

This is anywhere. This is any town radio show. It's, it's become so much more, it's charming, becomes so much more anonymous. Like, you, outside of the writing part of it, the incredibly, you, you, you, we've talked about it. Garrison Kieler brings an energy and a look. He's got such a look to him to this movie that I've never seen anywhere else. It is utterly unique. And also, he wasn't a screen actor, you know, like Gerald Stilt.

Not a screen actor. And he comes in and he is sharing scenes with the greatest screen actors of a generation. And he never seems like he is outpaced or outmatched or underwater. or he is fully himself and fully in in the scenes with these people his line deliveries are perfect you know everything he says is funny and so specific and yeah you know he's carrying on a romantic thing with with maryl Streep is throwing all of her maryl Streep energy at him and he is rolling with it and um and creates a unique his scene with lindsay lohan where he softens and his eyes open up a little bit more and he's kind of talking about how, you know, the the accident thing that he did that ended up leading to her being born is the most beautiful thing he ever did. Like his scene with the dangerous woman where she sits down and she's like, I'm the angel of death and it cuts to him and he's just holding the apple and his eyes are like, you would not know. If you didn't know the

backstory, you would not know that he wasn't a great actor who is just part of this generation of great actors, which is, you know, I... You know, he was abused his position of power and whatever in real life in a way that is very disappointing. But in this movie, I just, this isn't this movie without this performance. And I had to put him in number one. All right. You make a very strong case. You have made a strong case.

And you've been very complimentary in a lot of ways that I agree with. I'm, my thing is I'm not quite sure that I agree that this movie isn't this movie without his performance, the performance he's giving. And I, I certainly don't think that it's necessarily one of those things where someone is just playing themselves and it's not a performance. And yet, I don't necessarily think that he is as integral as several other people in the cast, so I'm going to veto it. Chris, veto's number one. I can't push back against vetoing a canceled person, but I mean, that's not why I veto it. But it's, okay, yeah, but I, oh, man, it's so often, again, it is so much about how people play off of him and, and though his performance, his, his, uh, uh, seemingly aloof, but occasionally, really, really, know, open, open performance that he gives and his just his voice, the way it resets throughout

the radio show back to him and his steady, calm, you know, his weird voice that he does, I just, the rhythm of this thing and the tone of this thing is totally different if it's not him that it keeps, you know, the gravity keeps going back to. All right, okay, but he's vetoed. So now what the fuck do I do? Well, I don't, I literally, I, I was, Chris, we're on such different pages with this. I was going between him and Kevin Klein for my number one. That was the decision I was making. Whatever you pick, it's set in stone, though, because Chris is out of Vito's, so.

I mean, this is, I really do think this is madness. Pick yourself, pick yourself. I'm taking this seriously, Chris. I am always the chaos agent I don't know This is not going to have Keeler on it But it has Virginia Madsen Which is really spinning

All right Okay All right All right Clay is going to make his pick Under protest perhaps We'll see The IOC will be informed

And we'll make a ruling on this Yeah All right With the number one pick As a replacement for Garrison Keeler Clay Keller has selected the great Meryl Streep. I was very, very interested that we would have a Prairie Home Companion, performance draft, and not have Meryl Streep.

So she is on it. This list has been, the list making has been as satisfyingly chaotic as I would have hoped. But Clay, you picked Meryl as your replacement. That's here. Yeah. I mean, I certainly wanted Meryl on the list. Like I said, I would have picked her over. Tomlin, probably. That's why

the veto happened. I said too much. I said too much. I, yeah. No, Merrill's great. I mean, I've praised Merrill a bunch over the course of this episode. I think she and then her interplay with, you know, Keeler is the

I think, what makes Keeler's personality and the way he is performing and grounding everything. imbuing it with this very Minnesotan, you know, don't show your emotions type of thing. And then Merrill is the, is the yin to that, to that yang. She is the other side. She is the really sweet, really complimentary, really more open type of Minnesotan person.

Usually a woman, but, you know, it can be anybody now. But she is bringing that energy, and that's, I think, those two are. really important, but really if there's a beating heart, if there's a heart of this thing, if there's someone who makes me cry three times over the course of the movie, it's Merrill Street. Certain.

Her, like I said, all of her little intricacies and vagaries of her characterization are so specific and so well-observed, and then her singing is so passionate, and the acting she does while she's singing is

so moving just the way the way she can just make her eyes well up with tears at a particular line in a song that you can tell is making her think of something her mother did or something she's she is they mean she's front and center on the poster because she's Merrill but I think she would have been there kind of anyway because she is she's the pumping heart of the movie

which every movie needs this movie needs a pumping heart I think you know Keeler is the really unique, very different, more closed-off emotional element to the movie. But Merrill is who makes you cry? The scene where they're doing the duct tape ad read, and she keeps trying to make it personal between them, and he's so rebuffs that, where she eventually works herself up into, she's like, what do you want or what do you need?

And he just says, I need duct tape. Yeah. And it's fantastic. It's so funny. I love the beginning of that, too. which is, and this is such great character work between her and Tomlin is the more clever one. She's, she's in on the improv.

She starts the thing where she's fucking with the sound got, the sound effects guy. And then, and then Merrill walks in, and she's got this big grin on her face, and she's like, oh, people are having fun. Yep. She can't do it. She tries to jump in, and she goes like, oh, and, oh, and they keep going,

and she can't find a spot to jump in. It's great. she does jump in the first thing she says is kind of stupid and you're like it's just relatable queen yeah it's just it is uh the character work between the two of them is really really it has so much you it just implied and uh you know imbued inherent backstory to it that they don't need to you know go through yeah uh in detail to really feel it even though they do and it's wonderful when they do but yeah yeah so i am totally fine with the johnson sisters ronda and Yolanda being at the top of the list.

All right. Before we move on to the rest of this, though, I just want to put a cap on the actor draft to run it down for the listeners. So the final draft was Maya Rudolph at 7, Virginia Madsen at 6, Jerilyn Steele at 5, John C. Riley at 4, Kevin Klein at 3, Lily Tomlin and 2, and Merrill Streep at 1. I thought that was a very fun little mini draft. Chris, final thoughts before we move into elsewhere.

I would just maybe, like, just to bring the, we didn't do much of the Oscar conversation for this, obviously this kind of got eclipsed because this is the year of Devil Wears Prada, but they, at least in early on in the season, you know, before fall kind of kicked in, they were talked about in tandem, and partly because there was some initial confusion slash maybe hesitation on the campaign's part, like if there would even be one for Merrill for Devil Wears Prada and whether she would be placed in lead or supporting. I think ultimately they did the right thing but maybe some of that hesitation kept, you know, Merrill in supporting for this movie, kind of taking off. We'd seen only four years previous what happens when you try to

get Merrill in lead and supporting and one only happens. So I think that might have ultimately happened anyway. It's a shame that this movie wasn't received as warmly as I think it is now because this movie definitely has,

its fans and it has its Altman fans specifically because, and maybe this is me as someone who kind of hates this Oscar year quite a bit, even though I love that it is finally Scorsese's year. 06 is a bad Oscar year, and I think one of the things that would have made me like it more is if there was a posthumous nomination for Robert Altman. I don't think there's been a posthumous director nomination unless Kislovsky. was he dead by that time? I don't think he was. I don't believe so, but I could be wrong. Okay. Are he nominated for red? For red? Yes. Oh, okay. Yeah. Chris, you make a good point about the wanting for a posthumous nomination for Altman. It would, I believe, have been a first. He did get nominated at the Independent Spirit Awards that year for Best Director, which is an interesting little lineup.

The movie's only nomination at Spirit Awards. Yeah. Nominated All right. Alongside, that was, Little Miss Sunshine was the big winner at the Spirits that year, where a lot of people were very like grumble, grumble about that movie. I really loved that movie, so I kind of defended it. Director went to Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Ferris for that movie, who to me will always be the directors of the Smashing Pumpkins Tonight Tonight Video. They are music video luminaries for me. Other nominees were Ryan Fleck for Half Nelson and Karen Moncrief for The Dead Girl and Soderberg for Bubble.

That was his year where he did The Good German and Bubble in the same year And one was good and one was not But I don't think anybody really saw either one of them I saw Good German in theaters I did too I don't remember much about it But I definitely did see it

It's a weird one Oscar nominee The Good German Otherwise we could definitely talk about that meaning What did that get nominated for? Score Thomas Newman Score is a wild card It's the reason why we can't do so many movies. Across the board. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. It's a snag for us.

Angela's ashes, the bird cage. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Any movie that John Williams was involved in is ineligible. Basically, yes. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Um, the most nominated, the most nominated person that you guys know this, John Williams in the history of the. Oh, yeah, absolutely. Didn't, wasn't there a thing that this, whatever movie he's working on now? Is it Fableman's? Is it going to be his last, uh, score? He said it's going to be his last full score. that before, though. But he's also, but now he's 90. True. Yeah. Yeah. We'll see. We'll see where things go. Chris, since I'm glitching like crazy, do you want to take over MC duties for the IMDB game? Yeah, absolutely. Every week, we end our episodes with the IMDB game where we challenge each other with an actor or actress to try to guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. If any of those titles are television, voice only performances, or non-acting credits, we mention that up front. After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining titles release years as a clue. If that's not enough,

it just becomes a free for all of hints. Clay, as our guess, you get to decide not only if you would like to give or guess first, but who you are giving and guessing from. We'll go clockwise on my screen, so I'll go to Joe. But Chris, why don't you go to me first? Okay. So, Joe brought up Little Miss Sunshine, which in terms of the awards race, this movie did fared best in terms of being an honest.

ensemble nominee, which probably doesn't surprise anybody. However, Little Miss Sunshine pretty much beat it in a lot of the instances where it was nominated. We have done a lot of ensemble members from Little Miss Sunshine for the IMTV game. However, one person we have not done is Mr. Steve Carell. Oh. There is one television.

Okay. The office? The office, correct. All right, got the TV. The office, I'm going to go Wait, which ones do you have to You said voice ones do you have to point out? Yes, so there are no voice ones. Okay.

So no Gru. I know that Gru has risen. Gru will come again. He's currently rising now. But Gru is not on his known. I'm in the middle of watching all of the Minions movies because we're doing that series, a draft of that on the Patreon for screen draft.

So I've been immersed in Gru. Sponsored by Chiquita Bananas Yeah Okay, so I got the office I am going to say Foxcatcher Correct, his Oscar nomination Okay

Crazy Stupid Love Incorrect I think he is the only person On the crazy stupid love poster who doesn't have it in their known for I feel like I see that poster all the time on IMD Yeah

Okay, so no crazy stupid love Dan in real life? Incorrect. No Dan in real life. So your years are 2005 and 2015. Is 2005? No. That would have been later.

The 40-year-old virgin. 40-year-old version. Virgin. Jesus. What was the other one? 2015? Yes, 2015. 2015

Correll would have been This is a movie that has stumped me on other people before Is it? Yeah Okay

Is he He is on the poster For this movie too That's the thing about Steve Corell is I feel like he's probably on the poster For most of his movies I Unless I

Might have to tap out Unless you give more his I'll give you more clues I'll give you more clues. He's one of four male actors on this poster. One of the four was Oscar nominated for this movie. Four male actors and one of them was Oscar nominated for the movie. The other two, I'm pretty sure if I told you that they were in the movie, you would call me a liar.

This is a Best Picture nominee. That's what I was trying to think. Is it a best picture nominee? I just keep going back to, but he wasn't in, he wasn't in Spotlight. No, but it's that year. From a director who has since directed two more Best Picture nominees, neither of which people really like all that much. Oh, for fuck's sake.

I don't know. This is just going to be dead air. This is going to be silence on the radio, guys. I don't know. I'm, I don't know how many. get it. I know you're going to get it. Steve Carell is married to an Oscar-winning actress in this movie. He's married to Marissa Tomey.

Oh, that's not going to help. That's the most obscure fact about this movie. I always forget that. Oh, I remember people being outraged. That's the best thing that Marisa Tomei wasn't in a better role. Everybody has insane haircuts on this poster. Oh, I fucking hate this movie. The big short. Yes, thank you for hating it.

I hate it, too. You should have said it was a very expensive PowerPoint presentation. Then I probably would have gotten it. It's not really a movie. A very expensive condescending pounder points. Oh, big short. Yep, I can see why that's a stumper. There you go.

So I did badly, but I feel okay about that. You got out of it. You got out of it a lot. It's fine. It's better that we forget the big short. I think so. So I'm going, so I'm going now to Joe. Yes.

So Joe, I'm going to give you a choice. Okay. I, my very first thought for this was one of my favorite performers who I was kind of shocked, wasn't on the list you sent me. But then I thought of someone who is more connected thematically to Prairie Home Companions. So do you want the one who's one of my personal favorites or do you want the person who is? And they were both, I think you, for, to your, to your interest, I think they are probably equal, maybe one a little bit more than the other. But do you want the one that is sort of related to the movie or the one who is one of my personal faves? Give me one of your personal faves.

Okay. Juliet Benoche. Oh, I love Julia Benoche. Okay. I couldn't believe Juliet Benoche was not on the list yet. She might have been in our first hundred episodes. We've sort of cut off the first half in terms of eligibility just because we don't want to handicap our guests too much. But so, but you don't think you've done.

If we have, I don't remember. If we have, I do not remember. So my memory is very goldfish-like. I still need us to do it again because I've pulled it up. All right. I would imagine. So, Chris, you're proctoring this, though, Chris, or am I? you are you are but if we have to speed it if we have to push it along with clues i i'll i'll

jump in with clues for you too so yes one of my favorite actresses ever if you ever are doing a bit a julie binoche movie in the future you've got my email all right well unlike clay i will not guess dan in real life for julia binoche um i think i think as recently as five years ago Dan in real life was on the top four. For Corel, but not for Benosh. Okay. The English patient, I imagine, must be there. Yes.

English patient is there. Her Oscar win. Is, speaking of Kislauski, is three colors blue on there? Three colors blue is above my head here in my Zoom window, but no, it is not on her IMDB top four. Oh, oh, oh, you pointed. I see. I've got the laser disc framed of blue, white, and red there on my.

Okay. Listeners, you can't see this, but there they are. Okay. It looks great. Clouds of Sils Maria. Yep. Clouds of Sills Maria is on there. I'm going to take a flyer on one of her American blockbuster forays and say Godzilla. Godzilla is not in the top four. Chulia Benos shows up in that movie Just to Die. Just to die. Do we start doing clues now? So I get years. Joe gets the years now. Years, okay. So the years, we have the year 2000 and the year 2017.

2000 for Juliet Benoche would be what was happening? My goodness, Joseph Reed. Is this an obvious one? I'm surprised that he hasn't gotten this one. You're really disappointing this right now. I don't, I don't really love this movie. I should have gotten it because of Oscar-wise. It's, uh, it's, it's Chacolaa.

Yeah, okay. It is Chacola. You should watch it again. Chacola is wonderful. I was an English patient. Clouds of Sils Maria, Chacola, and we've got 2017. So, this is for Shacola. Everybody shits on that movie and it's nice.

Sils Maria was 2014, or at least played TIF 2014. 2014. 2014 is the date on IMDB, yeah. Is it like, is it let the sun shine in? It is not, but that's about the right year, I think. Yeah, no, it is not. Is it high life? It is not high life.

What am I missing? Let's do a clue. Is it clue time, Chris? Can I do a clue? Yeah, give me a clue. Yeah, you can throw out a clue. You were on the right path with one of her blockbuster entries. Oh.

is it a different no she's only in the one Godzilla movie genre wise okay she dies in the first yeah I was gonna say I don't think she I don't think she shows up in the next Godzilla well she comes back as right oh she is she is Mothra okay I forgot yes yes they they did motion capture

and she's Mothra all right so Joe Avatar situation 2017 so another blockbuster science fiction and Chris gave you the the clue that it's another science fiction movie okay um gosh

franchise it is a they wanted one yeah it was a yeah a long it's a known IP though a long in development project that we talked about uh cancelled people there are also cancelled movies

oh and it's also kind of funny I'll give you another clue. Yeah. The movie, the movie that Chloe Moretz is in, in Clouds of Sills Maria, bears a striking visual resemblance to this film that would come out three years later and featured Julia Benoche. Is she in Valerian? No. I guess a lot of sci-fi movies have women in, like, tight-fitting body armor cats. Yeah.

Oh, God. flopping on this. I'm so flopping on this. This is starring somebody. The lead of this movie got into some hot water for this movie for trying to justify why they were cast in this role. Oh, is it the, the, oh, what's the title of this movie? The Scarjo movie? Ghost, ghost in the, what is it? Ghost in the shell. I was going to say Ghost in the machine, but that's something else. Ghost in the shell.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I had no idea she was in that movie. I got to like, not a clue. She plays Dr. Dr. Wallet. I tell you, I punched in Julie, Julia Binoche, and I saw Ghost in the Shell in the top four,

and I was like, oh, I'm doing Julia. That is wild. That's insane. No, I have no idea. I want to posit that this is maybe the ideal known for. Like, we always, like, play, like, you want, like, the just of, viable good things to be the known for but i think for the games purposes the ideal known for

is like uh an oscar win something they're super known for something you would hope would be there but wouldn't think it would be like claudius maria and then something unhinged and i would say julia pinoshe right here has that's perfect the ideal that's perfect known for do you want to know who your other option would have been, Joe. Sure, but let's not guess it because we can save it for a future one, but who would it have been? Well, save for a future one. The other one was, I picked a, a Minnesotan. Oh, okay.

And so another person who I was shocked had not been done yet, Miss Judy Garland. Oh, we've never done Judy Garland. I think I have almost pulled Judy Garland for something maybe when we did a Renee Zellweger movie because her known for is. Let's hold that one in the holster, though. That'll be a good one. Maybe when you're on again, Clay, you can remember, and we can do that. All right. Happy to.

Chris, for you, I delved into the Altman archives, and because we have Clay on, I wanted to talk about a movie that we've talked about on both of these podcasts, which is Dr. T and the women, delved into that cast, and I excavated women who I often referred to as my cousin, even though we are not related in any way, Miss Tara Reid Oh, fun Oh, this is not going to be easy Josie and the Pussy Cats No, unfortunately, not Josie and the Pussy Cats Fuck off! Fuck off!

American Pie American Pie, that is correct. The question is it, are there more American pies? They made several American pies, well, but in her notes. for um chris knowing me you know that i don't i don't like to do filmographies that are choked with franchises because i feel like that is boring yeah i don't either unless it's like

the second and fourth of a seven movie franchise because then it's evil i consider doing like vin diesel and just being like which four of the fast i'm sure triple x is in there or like the pacifier I bet it's triple X and Fast 5 and the original Fast and the Furious and maybe the most recent one. Okay, Tara Reid. Calling back to RS Cinema Score screen drafts, I'm going to guess Alone in the Dark. No, not Alone in the Dark. All right, so you're going to get years. Your missing years are 1998, another 1999, and then 2002.

One of the 98s would have been my first guess. She's on the poster of three of these four. movies, one of which you've already guessed American Pie. I should have called back to our scatigories. One of the 98's is Big Lebowski. It is Big Lobowski, yep. Because we always pulled her for

Cohen Brothers stars. Is the other 98 Urban Legend? Yes, it is. Urban Legends. Okay. Yep. And then, O2, I would have guessed one of the American Pies, but I don't

think you would have pulled it if there's two American pies on there. Nope. It is Plus, it's not O2. American Pie 2 is 01, which you know of because it's a movie that they go to see in the secret 9-11 movie. Remember me. All right. She's on the poster of this one. The male star is somebody you can't stand.

Ryan Reynolds. Ryan Reynolds, yes. What's the movie with Ryan Reynolds and her? This saving, not saving Silverman, but Van Wild. Van Wilder, exactly, in 2002's Van Wilder. Well done. Good job. Justice for Josie and the Pussycats on all fronts. Yes, I agree. I absolutely agree.

Yeah, that is a fun game, guys. That's a good thing you guys cooked up. I enjoy the IMDB game immensely. I was not correct about Vin Diesel. There's a voice performance on his. Really? Oh, Groot, obviously. Yeah. Very big, yeah.

He's got guardians on there. And the two Fast and Furious are the original and seven. Sure. That makes sense. What qualifies for Oscar Buzz? Does Vin Diesel repeatedly declaring that the newest Fast and Furious movie will win Best Picture count as Oscar Buzz? We've had people ask us that. No.

No. Okay. I would. I would talk about it. Maybe if Vin Diesel worked for Gold Derby, but no. All right. Clay, thank you so much for joining us for this episode. So this was super fun.

Any last tidbits about the movie you want to throw out there before we say goodbye? Are there any last tidbits? Not really. I mean, yeah, I saw them play bad jokes a million times. I saw one of the Merrill and Lily Tomlin performances, but I can't remember if it was the really sad one about the mom or if it was in my Minnesota home. But I saw them do one of their duets. but yeah no it was just it was a very very very exciting thing for me especially at that age you know like I said just the the thing that was you know I the two things I was doing was you know I was obsessed with doing

high school theater I just you know I just finished my junior of high school and been in the spring musical and I was just I love stage and musical stuff and then I wanted to go to film school and this was just the kind of the intersection of those two things and little did I know you know that radio or, you know, vocal entertainment was going to be a big part of my life in the future as well. So, yeah, no, it's a, it's a movie that means a lot to me, and I genuinely enjoy it. And I'm, I'm, I'm, had a absolute blast talking to you guys about it. Thank you for, thanks for being here with us, Clay. We, uh, yes, absolutely. And, uh, and we'll definitely have you back on again. But, uh, that is our episode, uh, listeners. If you want more, this had Oscar Buzz.

you can check out the Tumblr at this had oscarbuzz.tumbler.com. You should also follow our Twitter account at had underscore Oscar underscore buzz. Clay Keller, where can the listeners find you and your various internetti projects? Yeah, sure. So I am on social media at Clay Keller, basically on everything. I was able to lock that one down early, you know, when you've been on Twitter for 13 years. I got Joe Reed. I got the original Joe Reed.

I'm very happy about that. And screen draft. You can find on all of the podcast apps. It's screen drafts, two words, and we're on all the social media stuff. You know, Chris and Joe have done, I think they're on three or four episodes. Three definitely main ones. And then we had the queer, queer live show. The live show one.

Yes. Right. You did. Well, you did drag movies. Drag movies. Best actress of the 20th century. So yeah, it's four. It's four.

You've done four. You've done four episodes because the live show is in the main feed as well. So they've done four episodes, but one appearance away from being screen drafts all stars. But I will say, you guys, you must have a very, like, loyal audience because a couple of your episodes are some of the most popular. Oh, get out of here. Oh, absolutely. Oh, feed our egos for that. That's fantastic.

I love that. Always love having you guys on. and we'll have you on again soon. So if you like Joe and Chris, which I hope you do if you're listening to this. I really hope you do because it's a lot of us if you don't. You can find them. And actually, if you want to find their episodes,

we've got fans who created a fan screen drafts wiki that is incredibly detailed. Did you guys know that you have GM pages on a Wikipedia that lists all your picks and all of your episodes? No. All right, we got to check that out immediately. It has a photo, and it says, like, whether or not you have a rollover veto at the current time. It's madness.

So if you want to find what episodes Chris and Joe are on, you can go to, just type in screen drafts wiki, and then on the search, punch in their names, and it'll tell you which episode is. Oh, I love that. Some of our best, yeah. All right. Thank you, Clay. Chris, what about you? Where can the listeners find you on your... You can find me on Twitter and Letterbox at Chris V. File.

That is F-E-I-L. All right. I am on Twitter and Letterboxed at Joe Reed. spelled R-E-I-D. We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork and Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Mievous for their technical guidance. Please remember, you can rate, like, and review us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Play, Stitcher, wherever else you get podcasts.

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We hope you'll be back next week for more. We shall be on that beautiful shore. There's a land that is fairer than day. Come on, Lord. And by faith, we can see it far. But the father await over there. To prepare us a dwelling place there. Everybody, come on, sing with us now.

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