This Had Oscar Buzz - 262 – Inside Man

Episode Date: November 6, 2023

We return to the filmography of Spike Lee this week with his biggest box office success, 2006’s Inside Man. With a star-packed cast led by Denzel Washington as a hostage negotiator, Clive Owen as the bank robber opposite him, and Jodie Foster as a nefarious fixer, Lee took a standard crime thriller and made it his … Continue reading "262 – Inside Man"

Oh, oh, wrong house. No, the right house. I didn't get that! We want to talk to Marilyn Hack, Maryland Hack and friends. Dick Poop. My name is Dalton Russell. Pay strict attention to what I say because I choose my words carefully

and I never repeat myself. Recently I planned and set in motion events to execute the perfect bank robbery. Everybody get down on the floor now! Why? Because I can't. Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast staring at that face on your face. 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're here to perform the autopsy. I'm your host, Chris Fyle, and I'm here, as always, with my Albanian propaganda vocalist Joe Reed.

How dare you ask me to remove my clothes? I will stand in defiance of you. I love that lady. What a good lady. She's like, no, you should be ashamed of yourself. I loved that. She's great. Justice for her. I deeply wanted her to turn up to be one of the robbers at the very end. When you see at the end, like who some of the people actually were robbers, I wanted her to be one of them. But alas. Alas, she was not. what a fun movie what a fun movie this is we'll get into it on the other side of all our other business but i definitely want to talk about so don't let me forget uh spike lead directing other people's screenplays because it's a very small subset but like i think it's a very doesn't have an official writer's guild uh credit right right hand in the screenplay i he definitely had some retooling with this because of course he did but like It's so distinctly Spike Lee and, like, so obviously for the better, too, because I think this movie could be a very, like, serviceable, fun bank robbery movie. Totally.

Yeah. With, like, a mystery slash framing device. Did you ever watch? Sorry, go ahead. I was going to say, just because, we can talk further about it later once we're into the thick of the movie. but, like, Spikely infusing the types of things that, like, he's fascinated with his obvious love for New Yorkers and, like, the average New Yorker. Yep, yep, because, like, you almost wonder, was this movie even written specifically for New York City, and he makes it such a New York movie just down to, like, casting of bit players and, like, the type of casual racism that people have. and, you know, the visual experience of the movie where it's just, like, Jody Foster and

Plummer, go do a walk and talk, but it's like, along the Hudson, you know. Yep. It's so much even better of a movie. The opening thing where they drive all the way up from, is it Staten Island or wherever, like, all the way through Brooklyn, across, like, all the way to Wall Street, essentially. and it's just like, it's a very like, you know, a lot of people don't like when movies are very like insularly New York, but it's also just like, oh, he's so attuned to the geography of where this takes place and the fact that it matters that it's this, you know, the oldest of old banks on Wall Street that has existed since the 1940s. And that, of course, plays into the plot. But it's also, you know, part of the themes of the movie as well. So he's, oh, I love it. him as a filmmaker. Yeah, well, I mean, it's, it's just the thing of, you know, we don't want to just presume, uh, the scenario that we have essentially put forth, you know, that it's just the, a script and then, you know, it's a director, you know, changing it or infusing it. But it is, this movie is so markedly different where you can tell, on its surface, on the page, it could be a totally fine movie. But because of who makes it, it becomes a great movie.

Yes. Yeah. Well, and I mean, that's what, you know, that's what not separates the greats from the good filmmakers, but you know what I mean? It's something that is very particular to Spike Lee, that he's that kind of filmmaker then can just put his stamp on something without it seeming, without taking away from what's great about the story. You know what I mean? Like, this is a really solid story.

This is a good yarn, you know what I mean, to sort of use an old-timey term. But, oh, I really love it. I really love it. This is maybe like the third time I've seen it. And it's a, I've never actually come across it on television, which is, and I'm sort of like the last great American cable subscriber, you know what I mean? But, like, that's one of my old man tendencies. It's my Gen X are coming out that I still have cable, mostly because it's just much less of a hassle for me doing my job.

But I always have such a reverence for movies that are great, that work great on cable. Contact, speaking of Jody Foster, is one of the great cable movies, because no matter where you jump into it, you're going to still find an iconic, you know, scene that you haven't gotten to yet. We're going to talk about Jody Foster, but. But we sure are. Jody Foster feels very much like the queen of the cable movie. And I'm surprised I've never come across Inside Man on cable because I think it would be a tremendously good cable movie. Yeah. You know what I mean?

So, oh, so fun. Okay, so let's just thought experiment this now. Let's do it, yeah. If you have simultaneously multiple Jody Foster movies that would play well. on cable playing simultaneously. What is playing on what channel? I think we can agree that Inside Man is on TNT. Okay, but if Inside Man is on TNT, then where is contact? Because contact is not a TBS. Contacts on TBS. Is it? TBS is a comedy number. It's on AMC. Fine. It's on AMC. I think that that works. What's the one on TBS? TBS is more of a comedy channel.

Maverick. Maverick's a good one, actually. Yeah. Not too bad. Nell is on Lifetime. The Brave One is on Spike or something. Taxi drivers on TCM. Sure. You know what I mean?

The Brave One's on Spike. I've missed that. The Brave One is on Paramount Network. Yeah, exactly. No, that's perfect. Paramount Network. Yep. Even though...

What's on VH1? It's probably not a Paramount movie, but whatever. It's a Warner Brothers. What's on VH1? What is on VH1? What Jody movies is a Warner Brothers movie. VH1 could be Panic Room

VH1 could be Um Panic Room's on like IFC May yeah Panic rooms The Decent IFC Silence of the Lambs is on I've actually seen Silence of the Lambs on Lifetime

It's so funny that you've mentioned that Um Silence of the Lambs is probably on I mean It could honestly be network You know what I mean Like sounds of the lambs is good like afternoon movie that you can find on basically any channel.

What were we at VH1? What's the VH1 movie with Jody? There's got to be a really good one. It's not like flight plan. No, it's not flight plan. Like, flight plan sucks. Flight plan does kind of suck. I don't know, man. Like, I feel like... Maybe it's like foxes? Maybe. Maybe. If, like, in old-timey, like, older VH1 would probably do that.

Freaky Friday is on the Disney Channel. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're doing both Freaky Fridays back-to-back. Yeah. What's showing Alice doesn't live here anymore? Hmm. Maybe that's back-to-back on TCM.

TCM is, oh? TCM has a back-to-back of Alice doesn't live here anymore in taxi driver. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. They're doing like a, they're doing like a series. I love this idea. The Jody Foster cable... Oh, is playing Summersby. What's Ovation playing?

I don't even think I know what Ovation is. Oh, my God, how dare you? Wait, what's BBC America playing? A very long engagement. A very long engagement, yeah. Listeners, get at us what Jody Foster movie you think is playing on VH1. I love it. I love it. All right.

Good exercise. That's a good, like, warm-up exercise. for this movie. It's pretty good. I, like, spoiler, I think Jody Foster is incredible in this movie, and I don't think I always thought that, but, like, watching it again, I'm like, I could just, like, not to, like, be on theme for Jody

for this month, but, like, I could, like, do a backstroke through Jody's performance in this movie. Like, it's so, it's so rich and buoyant, and, oh, she's just eating it up. She is eating, like... Let's save it. Let's save it. We'll get into it later. Because I think, like, everyone's kind of eating it up, down to the point.

where it's like, okay, so if this movie is going to be a Spike Lee movie, of course like Willem DeFoe shows up as like just a cop, like just a cop, he's just like the cop that is there and they just talk. Yep. But like... Do you know who's low-key eating it up and like not even, you wouldn't even think to mention it at first?

Is Chautil Ejieffor who is like... I mean... Diving into that New York accent in this movie. Like he really is just like having... He's almost doing like a Spike Lee impersonation as, you know, with his with his character's voice. I love it so much.

Oh, yeah. All right. Love this movie. Love all of the, like, character actors slash some of them, just people off the street that Spike Lee cast as all of the people stuck in the bank when this robbery's happening. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um.

Also, like, that's another Spike Lee thing, right? Every single person in this, in this bank, whether they be an accomplice, or, or they be an accomplice, to Clive Owen, a secret accomplice to Clive Owen, or just like a legitimate bystander hostage, feels like, hand-selected by Spike Lee. You know what I mean? It's like it's a chef who like takes very good care to like every ingredient feels bespoke, right? And like every single character actor in this who has more than like one line, even down to the ones you have just one line are so, feel so bespoke and so perfectly selected for their roles in this movie. And that to me, scream, Spikely. Spike just goes around the five boroughs looking for someone who is cussing

someone out and then he casts them. But even it's just like the character actors, like he goes to, you know, there's a level of character actor that people like you and me probably know their names. You know what I mean? I think back of like our former guest Tara Ariana, former and future, because She's already reached out to me about a couple of things that, like, we got to have her on for, and we do. Schedule it immediately. Used to run a site called FameTracker, and FameTracker was so good for talking about character actors. They had a recurring feature called Two Stars One Slot that I, like, still constantly think of today about, like, two character actors who feel like they're, like, going for the same vibe. They had, hey, it's that guy, which was, like, the character actor sort of, you know, Bible there.

And so there's a level of character actor that I think as somebody like me who was sort of raised on fame tracker, I know their names. And then Spike Lee kind of goes like the level below. Like I know Ken Leung mostly because he's on Lost, but like a lot of these people is just like the guy from the Wes Anderson movies, whose name is Juarez Alaliyahalia and Peter Frachette and Peter Garrity and all of these James Ransone. Like people whose names, I don't really know, often. the top of my head, but then looking them up, I'm like, oh, yeah, like, I've seen this person in, like, eight billion things, and their face is so familiar to me, and they communicate so much as a character actor. And Spike feels like every single one of them was, like, very, very intentionally selected. And I'm sure his casting director had a, you know, obviously, I don't want to take away from, like, the job of this movie's casting director, who's name I'm not going to see because they don't, they're not included in the Wikipedia sidebar. I'll figure it out.

But just, I don't know. Like, bail me out of this. I'm spiraling. Well, I mean, how about this? I will give you something else to talk about. Thank you. Why don't you hype our Patreon? Casting director is Kim Coleman.

So shout out to Kim Coleman for phenomenal casting. Why don't I hype up our, also like, look at the, all of the craftspeople on this movie at some point, it's like Terrence Blanchard. We're going to talk about Terrence Blanchard. I can't. Yeah. I just like. Listeners.

The work. The man, the genius. If you are not already subscribed to our Patreon, this had Oscar Buzz, Turbulent brilliance, now really is the time to do it. Like, we have some really fantastic stuff for you. It's only $5 a month. With that $5 a month, you'll get two full bonus episodes a month. Plus, we are now answering your voicemails in short four.

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selected, Patreon-selected, um, episode. At this point, will Australia be up? It sure will. Our very, who else could be our first guest on the Patreon, but Katie Rich? Our best pal, Katie Rich. We're going to be talking about Australia. I'm sure we'll have some Far Away Downs discussion in there as well. I just watched the trailer for Far Away Downs. And like, it's absurd the degree to which it's going to be the best-looking show on television. It's just, it's just, like, by leaps and best. And not even trying to like call out television, but like you look at your average Netflix show and then you put that side by side with faraway downs, which is essentially just like Australia as it was originally filmed. And it was just like, oh my God. Serialized directors, cut. Yeah, 100%. We also have our excursions episodes, which are more off format stuff. We've talked about the actress roundtable for 2016. Chris went and saw Magic Mike live. We are recapping. The 1996 MTV Movie Awards, which will be coming soon?

The 15th of November. I have no idea when anything is posting. Chris is my calendar. He's my miss minutes if you watch Loki, but Chris doesn't. The 1996 MTV Movie Awards, I have so many thoughts. You're going to hear all of them. We're recording that later today. We are.

Very long day ahead of us. We do have a long day ahead of us. It's fine. We are working hard for the moment. money so hard for it honey to sign up for this had oscar buzz turbulent brilliance go to our patreon page at patreon.com slash this had oscar buzz we love you gary's we want to give you even more and for five dollars a month you can uh you can partake it'll be good for us and have some fun come play with us come play with us danny all right um you know who else was having fun

spike everyone involved with this movie everyone involved with inside man yeah what if there was a man who was inside. He truly, I mean, and it's one of those, it's a title that means a bunch of different things. Once you get to the end of the movie, you see that the title has a double meaning that it's like, oh, oh, okay, maybe even a triple meaning. Who even knows? But there's at least two meanings to the title. I love a movie that opens with a direct-to-camera address.

Clive Owen, who rules in this movie. And we're going to talk about the sort of the tragedy of Clyde of Owen, Hollywood leading man who essentially got rejected. But he's really good in this. It opens with a direct address to the camera, and he's essentially just like, my name is, what is his name in this? It's Russell something, right? Dalton Russell.

My name is Dalton Russell. I've just committed the greatest bank heist in history. I don't repeat myself. You've already got my name. Everything I say, I say with intention, so listen closely. And he says something about how his location is in a cell, but it doesn't feel like a prison cell. And so immediately you're just sort of like, all right, what does he mean by that? Like, what's going on?

And that pays off by the end. All of the stuff he's saying pays off by the end. He is a bank robber for justice. He's a bank robber for truth and reconciliation. It's good stuff. Outing Nazi profiteers. Nazi sympathizers and profiteers, exactly, exactly right. Everybody in this movie rules.

Truly everyone in this movie rules. Yeah, it's great. It's, and it was received so tepidly by both the public and critics, I think, that it's, am I wrong? Am I wrong? I mean, initially, it just, it was received like, okay, here's a spring movie. It got good reviews. It's Spike Lee's biggest box office movie. Okay.

But, like, when it was released, I feel like people were like, wait a minute, this was directed by Spike Lee. Why aren't they promoting it? It was very quiet that, like, this Spike Lee movie became this, like, Mike Lee's biggest box office hit. Okay. Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I guess because, like, his movies tend to not make a ton of money, because it, like, didn't even clear a hundred million. Uh, yeah, it was eight. 88 million, but it's still his largest grosser. But, like, I think that conversation didn't really happen until the fall, because, like, you did have, like, critics coming out for this movie in the fall, like, as you know what, you know what was a great movie? Inside Man. But even now, even now, 17 some odd years later, this movie was released 10 years before Merrill Streep and Don Gummer quietly separated. We're going to talk about that. I, I. Chris. Okay, no, okay.

We're recording this hours after the newsbreaking that Meryl and Dawn have amicably split. This is technically, this had Oscar Buzz number 262. What it is actually is this had Oscar Buzz number zero zero one for the post Merrill and Dawn era. I think the clock of time of Earth of the stars, the sun, and the moon has reset with this. I learned this, by the way, in the middle of the night. It was one of those things where I woke up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I did the most unhealthy thing you can do, which is check your phone when you wake up in the middle of the night. Like, don't ever do that.

Like, it's so bad for your, you know, whatever circadian rhythms or whatever. Just like, don't do as I do. But I did, and I checked it, and I saw this tweet from the New York Post of all awful places that said that Meryl Streep and Don Gummer have been, like, quietly separated for six years. And it was so upsetting. I immediately sent it to our group chat and then went back to sleep. But, like, oh, my God, I can't believe I didn't have, like, awful nightmares after that. You don't understand the faith and security that I have felt for all these years,

knowing that, like, if nothing else in the world makes sense, at least Merrill and Don are together, raising their identical daughters and weird rocker son and living in Connecticut. Unless we forget the rocker's son. It's the timing of it also, if you go back six years right from now, the timing of it comes not long after Merrill was nominated. Right, but she's also, it's not many months after she was nominated for Florence Foster Jenkins, and I wonder if Don maybe. took the Annette Benning snub for 20th century women a little bit harder than he should have

and maybe mentioned that, hey, you've got a lot of nominations. Maybe you could have let Annette have this one. And maybe... Don was halfway through finishing his sculpture in the honor of Amy Adams in arrival. Don was just walking around with a sign that said human and And Meryl got really, really annoyed by it. You know, it's funny because, okay, okay, also, though, you know how I've talked about how the Trump election broke a lot of people? Truly everyone. Meryl gave that speech at the Golden Globes in 2017, like, right after the Trump election.

And it was like... Got on stage with, like, completely no vocal cords. Her voice was gone. voice was gone. She was still mourning Carrie Fisher. She, like, her voice, like, choked up when you talk about Carrie Fisher. She, like, by memory, called out the, like, birthplaces of half of the room and then made this, like, very sort of, like, heartfelt statement against Donald Trump. Donald Trump put her on his enemies list or whatever the fuck.

Like, everybody was going through a fuck ton of emotions. And in public, in public, very publicly. Everybody was having a full breakdown in some public forum. Far be it for me to blame Donald Trump for one more thing, but like maybe we can also blame either Trump and Florence Foster Jenkins, some combination of the two of them, for the Merrill and Dawn split. They say that it was amicable. They say that they are, you know, still friends to this day. Thank God it was not revealed that they were separated when she won her Oscar and gave that lovely. little shout out to him because I would, like, I would lose all faith in, in humanity if that

turned out to be a lie. But all I'm saying, we could potentially in like two hours, 95 minutes, the clock is ticking, get a quote from Meryl saying that she has always known that Tupac had alopecia. To bring it back to the topic at hand, Shouldn't Meryl star in a Spike Lee movie slash shouldn't Spike Lee direct Meryl Streep in a movie? I mean. Wouldn't that be fucking amazing? I agree.

Maybe, like, just putting it out there now that, you know, she doesn't have a marriage to tend to anymore. Maybe she's got a little bit extra time. Maybe Meryl and Spike could put their heads together. They're both, like, they're both very fond of New York from, like, very different angles, right? She's very much a Greenwich village. They could make a very eccentric New York movie together. They could make an incredible New York movie together. Oh, my God.

I think it would be incredible. All right. Back to Inside Man. So Inside Man sort of starts off its life as this screenplay written by Russell Gerwitz. And he's sort of shopping it around Hollywood. And it comes to the attention of Ron Hurt. Howard and Brian Grazer at Imagine. And Ron Howard's like, oh, this seems interesting.

As like, who knows what inspires Ron Howard to like, oh, I'll make this? And is looking at it, it was attached to it for a little bit, and then turns it down so that he can make Cinderella Man with Russell Crow, which is sort of what I'm talking about. Which is just like, who knows, like, what sort of inspires Ron Howard to do whatever? On one level, he's going to make this bank heist movie. And it's like, no, I'm just going to make an old-timey boxing. movie with Russell Crow. Sure. Do whatever. So Brian Grazer's like, fine, we'll keep looking for other directors. In the meantime, like the script sort of gets tinkered with Terry George, who had done

Hotel Rwanda, right? Terry George's Hotel Rwanda. Yes. Contributes to, he's an Irish filmmaker, contributes to the script sort of adds the Nazi angle, which is interesting because It was like, what was this movie before the Nazi angles introduced? Because it's, like, kind of central to everything. And then at some point, it gets offered to Spike Lee, who's like, huh, I really love Dog Day Afternoon. This script really reminds me of Dog Day Afternoon. Why don't I try and make this? And then, you know, sort of sets about putting his stamp on it.

He does not have any kind of official screenplay credit on this. But as we were saying at the beginning, you sort of get the feeling that there are at least touches that feel like things were nudged in a direction towards his sensibility. I think even like his visual aesthetic brings, you know, I mean, you know, the like tracking shots where it's, you know, the protagonist in the center frame. You get it right at the beginning, that Goodfellas shot where the background seems to be. moving forward, advancing upon the person in the shot. Love that shot. Things like that. What would you call this like murky visual aesthetic for the framing device of...

The interrogations? Chewetel interrogation, the interrogation scenes where it's like... Where you're sort of thrown into the deep end where you don't know when these things are taking place, how far after the heist, whether these people... you know, at what stage are they explaining it? Is this happening during the heist? Are they being questioned as they're being let out of the bank? Or is this happening after? It's such a smart, just like visual assist to the audience for this movie that, like, you constantly have to keep up with that, like, we can also know that there's a before and after of what we're seeing. And that clearly something, something happens that, like, so flummoxes these detectives, that they are interrogating. the ostensible hostages and victims of this.

And you're like, why are they going so hard at this, like, old man who got let out? You know what I mean? Like, clearly he's not, you know, he's not part of this. Like, why are they going so hard at this, you know, guy who we had seen with a gun in his face? And, like, why do you know what an AK-47 is? And that's James Ransone's character, right? Like, that's the one that turns out, like, they turned out to be, like, correct in their suspicion of him. right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, which I think is so funny. Um, but clearly something has

happened to make them suspicious of all of these hostages that they're like, they, they clearly don't know who or how many people were pulling off this heist. And in the meantime, you have this, you know, opening frame of Clive Owen just being like, this whole heist, is way smarter than you even think it is. So you're just like... Pay very close attention to everything. To everything. Like, Clive Owen is essentially just like saying,

like, you will never figure out the levels at which I am operating on this, on this heist. It's like, game on, asshole. But, like, it's also true. It's cool when a movie can do something like that, because that does feel very 2000s to me. Yeah. But this is one of the movies that actually does.

pull that off? Yes. Also, the aesthetics of all of these characters is so funny because, like, the Clive Owen and his robbers are, you know, put on these very sort of blue collar, like, coveralls and, and masks and sunglasses and whatever. He looks like Hollow Man. Jody Foster. Yeah, they look like Hollow Man. Jody Foster is in this very, like, power bitch, you know, a suit going about her business. And then Denzel Washington approaches the crime scene looking like Zoot Suit Malcolm X from the very beginning of Malcolm X with like

with the hat and the tan suit and all this stuff and it's just like he's looks so hilariously out of place. It's very funny but he's just like coolest cat in the room, right? I love it. And then you have Christopher Plummer in a suit

because he is legally and contractually obligated to always be wearing a suit in every movie. Christopher Plummer would be... Unless it's beginners, but The telltale thin mustache of villainy of just like... The telltale thin mustache of former Nazi supporter. Yeah. This movie coming out, it's so funny that this movie comes out five years before Girl with a Dragon tattoo.

And yet, like, it reminds... Why do I keep thinking of Girl with the Dragon Tattoo? Is it just Plummer? Is it just the Christopher Plummer of it all? Is it just the sort of... I mean... Maybe this is like too broad of a comparison, but it is like the, I don't know. I'd love to double feature them together.

Kind of immaculate junk because like, in a way, this is a very junky movie turned into, like, just completely elevated by the filmmaker. And in the same way that like, girl, the dragon tattoo is like trash that is entirely elevated by the meticulous. And it's like it both have like social, political, uh, aspects to them. Right. It's also like white European villainy. Like, you know what I mean? Uncovered after all these years kind of a thing. So, yeah. Christopher Plummer is so great that, because at this point, beginners hadn't happened. Right. Last station hadn't happened. So still even in this movie, he is not an Oscar nominee. Right. Right. Which is wild. It is wild. That's totally true. He could have been nominated for this. A few years after what should have been his first Oscar winning performance as Mike Wallace and The Insider. This doesn't seem like, this doesn't feel like a 2006 movie to me. It feels like a 20-teens movie. And I don't know what, like, that even means. Like, I don't even know what distinction I'm putting on it. But it feels like a movie that has aged less than how long it's aged. Does that make sense?

I agree. Because, like, you watch this movie and it doesn't feel like a movie that's 20 years old. It doesn't really feel. feel dated in any significant way. No, it could come up this year and we'd be like freaking out of it. And it would still be a hit. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I've not prepared for the 60-second plot description, by the way, so I'm really... Well, guess what?

It's about that time for you to give it. Because we're cracking a half hour already on gushing on this movie. Yeah. Listeners, Gary's, the rest of you. We are talking about Inside Man, directed by the one and only Spike Lee, written by Russell Gerwitz, starring Denzel Washington, Clive, Owen, Jody Foster, Chuitel Egy, a four, Willam Defoe, and Christopher Plummer, and a vast array of character performers and New Yorkers.

The movie opened wide March 24th, 2006. Yes. Joseph. Yes. Are you ready to give a 60-second plot description? of Inside Man. I just said I was not, but let's do it anyway. All right.

Then let's go. Your 60-second plot description of Inside Man starts now. All right, Clive Owen and a bunch of people that are Steve or various aliases of Steve take this bank, this very like old bank and very like downtown New York Wall Street area. They take a shit ton of hostages. They are not shy about letting the police know that they have these hostages. The police set up this operation. where is headed by Denzel Washington.

They're going to have to figure out a way to get these hostages safe and thwart this bank robbery. Meanwhile, the owner of the bank is Christopher Plummer, who hires Jody Foster, who is this like fixer who can like basically do anything to like get around this whatever he's got in a safe deposit box there

that he doesn't want anybody to find out. Clearly it becomes more and more apparent that this thing that's in the safe deposit box is exactly what Clive Owen is after. Denzel Washington sort teams up with the Jody Foster character for a little bit in trying to get this thing solved. Obviously

something is a miss. 10 seconds. Oh, God. The bank robbers end up like escaping because everybody's dressed identically and you don't know who is an accomplice to Clive Owen. We don't know

where Clive Owen is at the end of the robbery. And then we find out like a week later that he has walled himself up in the supply room of the bank and he is able to walk out with the contents of the safe deposit box were a bunch of diamonds that were stolen from Holocaust victims, and he leaves the cops with the one diamond ring that will lead them to incriminating Christopher Plummer's character, and he slips one diamond into Denzel's pocket so that he can propose to his girlfriend with it, and Clive Owen gets away with it, and he's

sort of a Robin Hood for Holocaust victims and Christopher Plummer is screwed. The end? The end. Did I miss anything major? No. It took you maybe a full minute to explain the ending. Well, right, because the ending is convoluted.

It is somewhat convoluted, but it's a lot more fun watching it than hearing the explanation. Exactly. Because you like, you sort of, you just get it. You understand, once you reach the point in the movie, which happens fairly early on, where you understand that Clive Owen is not after millions of dollars in cash or whatever, that he's after whatever Christopher Plummer is hiding

in this safe deposit box, that you're like, oh, okay. So, like, Clive Owen is a Robin Hood. Nazi remnants, et cetera. It's, yeah, it's ill-gotten gains. And it's most of, the whole point of most of this is to expose the fact that this, like, billionaire made his fortune, on the back of stolen goods from being complicit with the Nazis back in Europe. But, like, Christopher Plummer, it's 2006. We're supposed to believe that this movie is happening in present day, right? How young would Christopher Plummer have had to have been? Christopher Plummer has been playing 90-year-old characters for 30 years.

But, like, you look good for 90. Like, all of his characters are like, you're 90, but, like... He's a suave man. You're a suave 90, man. Like, yeah. Swave 90. That's like, I don't know, Swab 90 shampoo with SPF in it or something.

Club 96 features Swave 90 products in its restrooms. Club 96 is the K bar, and Swab 90 is the straight version of Club 96. Christopher Flummer is the best. He died at the age of 91. So he was, he was playing those, you know, old-ass people for... He was playing 90 when he was 34 years old. I also think it's so funny that, like, what's at one of his, like, most iconic roles? It's like the sound of music where he's, like, on the, you know, on the noble side of reacting to the Nazis.

And in this, he's like, what if Captain von Trapp broke bad in the old days and now owns a bank in Lower Manhattan. A girl with the dragon tattoo, he's like, all of my family are Nazis. Yeah, basically. Yeah. My beloved niece sends me a flower every year.

So I want to talk about where Christopher Plummer brings Jody Foster into this, because he sees that the bank has been broken into, and immediately he seeks out Jody Foster, and she's somebody who is, like, this sort of like, unscrupulous fixer, will, like, you know, make problems go away for corrupt public officials.

She's got the mayor of New York in her pocket, essentially in her debt. She's got, you know, 8 billion connections. She can make anything happen. And she's smart because she knows enough to know that when Christopher Plummer's character, who you get the sense is like probably the wealthiest single individual in New York City, like he's spoken of in that way. And so she knows that, like, when he contacts her personally, when he doesn't do it through a lawyer or an intermediary or something like that, that she knows that this is serious enough that he doesn't want to involve anybody else than is strictly necessary. So she knows that she's got him kind of by the balls immediately, where she's just like, you're going to let me in on this and I'm going to fix it for you.

But also, like, I know that this is so important to you that you cannot allow this information to get out there. And you get the sense of like, this is how she's built, this power base of hers, is she's incredibly savvy. And she's amoral. But I think this movie introduces a moral element to this character, where by the end of the movie, you really do, I don't, am I naive in thinking that by the end of the movie, she's going to nail, she's going to use this information to nail Plummer? Absolutely not. She is corrupt. She is, no, she is a villain of this movie. Well, then, okay.

Then how am I supposed to see the end of this movie? movie then, is Denzel Washington fucking up by giving her this information then? Or is he putting her on notice? That's more what I get. Okay. Because like she, if she is attached to this man who is about to go down, she is also going to go down. But that's what I mean. So isn't the plan that they're going to get her to turn on him because it's in her best interest? I more so read that, like, she's going down to. Okay. Like, yeah.

She's so terrific, though. She's so terrific. She's so... Jody Foster, like, Salt of the Earth, Jody Foster has never, like, played someone who's, like, lifts her vocal register to, like, soften it, and it's so intimidating and scary. Yes. Well, so it's interesting. She doesn't do anything menacing in this movie, and she's so scary.

This is why it's so funny to me. This is why I mention the fact that Inside Man does not feel like a movie that happened in 2006. Because there is the post, there's the sort of aughts version of Jody Foster that starts at Panic Room, which we've talked about on this podcast before. And it's like Panic Room, Flight Plan, the Brave One, which feels like a trilogy of these kind of popcorn movies that get increasingly bad. but where she's playing essentially like a woman with a steel core who on the outside is sort of not equipped to deal with the world targeting her with some awfulness, whether it's people breaking into her home or whether it's her on a plane. Gaslighting her and kidnapping her child on a plane. on a plane, or whether it's New York City's criminal elements harassing her in Central Park. But in all of these movies, she turns out to have this sort of like spine of steel, and she comes out on top.

And I think then inside man is not that. Inside Man belongs to the trend of roles that she sort of took in the aughts. I put this movie along with like Elysium and even to a degree like Hotel Artemis, where Maybe not Hotel. Hotel Artemis, she's a weirdo. I don't know what she's doing there. I kind of love her in that, where she's, but like Elysium and Inside Man sort of seem like the same type of person who's like incredibly powerful, incredibly powerful, incredibly manipulative, like has gotten to her position by being absolutely amoral. And, and I don't love, like, nothing about Elysium really works for me too well. sucks um but she's so she performs it so well in inside man she takes to this like supremely the confidence that madeline white has on her in this movie is extremely watchable you know what i mean it's just like i can't get enough of how absolutely sure of herself she is at every moment in this movie and once like she actually shows up on the scene at the bank robbery pretty much all

of her stuff is with Denzel Washington, you know, the greatest living actor. So it's like, you know, we've never seen these two, like, mega stars together, these two incredible actors together. And you can tell that they love working together. Yeah. And they have incredible chemistry in these roles. It's just, it's just. Well, and that was kind of her 1990s narrative was 1990s, Jody Foss.

was all about working opposite these like titans of leading man status where it was like Anthony Hopkins in Silence of the Lambs, Mel Gibson and Maverick, Richard Gehrin and Somersby, Liam Neeson in Nell, um, I mean, acting them off the screen. Kind of Chow Youngfatt in Anna in the King too, you know what I mean? Yeah. Um, and kind of acting them off the screen in a lot of, in a lot of these contexts. Um, and then, you sort of then you get into then like I said like panic room sort of like sets her on to this next

but yeah like the Denzel thing feels very much akin to that it's just like what if we put Jody Foster and Denzel Washington like head to head and the sparks and cast them oppositional of course it's going to be so much that's the thing about her character in this movie that's so

incredibly interesting is she's oppositional to everyone she's oppositional to Christopher Plummer even though they are like aligned task-wise. Like, she's working for him. But she's maneuvering the scenes as if she's being accommodating. She's, she's oppositional, obviously, to Clive Owen, because she's trying to, you know, she's after the same thing that he's after, as it turns out. They're both trying to get this, you know, these, this safety deposit box contents. He's smart enough to probably realize that, you know, at the second that she shows up. That's the thing. Everybody in this

movie is smart. Like, there are no conveniently stupid people in this movie at all, which is, like, even, like, the hostages are smarter than you think they are. And also, like, smart people get genuinely deceived. Yes. Like, when the, uh, the cops discovered that their, like, little meeting tank, their, like, boardroom tank has been bugged. Right.

Right. Or when they find out that the, the video of them seemingly shooting a hostage is not correct. That's, or when they find out that the guns are fake guns. Um, right. But it's like, but it's not like these like idiots being like conveniently like dropping their brain for a scene so that, you know, something can happen. Um, it's thrilling to watch intelligent characters sort of bump up against each other in this way. And confident characters is the other thing. They're all so fucking confident. Denzel Washington is so goddamn cocky in this movie, but so is Clive Owen and so is Jody and so is Christopher Plummer and like Christopher Plummer sort of like dodged the rain drops his entire life and he's this like sort of faux humble when Denzel mentions that like you haven't been you haven't been described as like you know regular people in a long time and he's like it is true I've done well for myself and it's like you you faux humble motherfucker

and so that's the other that's also thrilling about this it's just like it's it really is kind of like an all-star game where it's just like the best of the best have been thrown together in lower Manhattan where there's like literally like no room to to avoid each other and they're all sort of like smashed into the situation and it's like see how they bounce off of each other and it's so much fun yeah more people should talk about this movie this is what I was sort of trying to get at earlier when I was talking about how this movie isn't really a cable movie like this movie is well regarded especially by critics, I think regular people should know more about this movie and should talk more.

This movie should be talked about the way that, like, I don't know, what's a good, like, middle-brow, like, you know, mainstream movie that people love from this era. I'm bad at this kind of thing, but, like, you know what I mean? It's just, like, I mean, I think the immediate comparison for this movie in a lot of ways and not, like, comparison, like, one is good and one is bad, but just, like, a movie that couldn't be more different, but I think succeeds by doing similar things. And it came out the same year, it's The Departed. And, like, of course, you know, you don't have a narrative of, like, we got to get Spike Lee and Oscar. Look, this is this legendary director's biggest

box office hit because you have the same thing happening with Scorsese. That's a really interesting comparison. I think this movie blows the doors off of the departed, like, genuinely. I think it's so much better than The Departed, not to, like, get ahead of ourselves for our Scorsese draft that we're doing. I mean, I think the departed is much more defined in, like, what it's talking about socially and, like, what it has to say about, you know, class or trying to, like, rise the American system of rising above class. Oh, do not give me a jerk off motion. I could go on. Not you.

Not you. I mean the movie. I, like, I think there is. Oh, you just don't like the departed. I don't like the departed. And I don't like the departed being, like, whatever. This, like, the poetry of, like, the American criminal, like, fuck. off. I don't think it's about the poetry of the American.

No, but you know what I mean? Like, that's, like, anything that that movie has to say, it's, you know, we're going to argue about it on screen drafts. We'll talk about it later. I don't think we'll argue, but this is very interesting to hear. I might use it against you. Not in terms of, like, smacking your wrist or anything, but using this as knowledge to get whatever I want in our screen drafts. Oh, I know. I've given you too much information for screen drafts. This is not good strategy. I am a very deceptive screen draft.

I have become conveniently stupid in a way that the characters in Inside Man never were. I've made an unforced error. Well, maybe I'm being conveniently stupid by telling you what I'm... Oh, strategies on strategies. We see each other. Have you ever watched that clip of Nini Leaks on the... Of course I have. We see each other.

I see you. We good. Okay. We good. I see. We see each other. We see each other. We good.

Yeah. I do think that these movies, obviously, the spring release of it all. Like, I feel like this would be a movie that would have been taken more seriously from the jump if it had been a fall release. Whereas, like, I think a lot of the critics that at the end of the year, like, they couldn't even get the ball rolling enough to get, like, a critics prize somewhere for this movie. Right. Right. And, of course, it's just like you talk about the actors. I feel like, you know, Jody Faw, especially at the... this time, like Jody Foster shows up

in a movie and it's talked about in this way. Even flight plan. We could do flight plan for this podcast and it's a piece of shit and like, but before that movie came out, they were like, well, maybe Jody Foster will get an Oscar nomination for Flight Plan because that's the type of performer that she is. Yeah.

She still is. She still is. Nyad is a bad movie. Oh, you saw Nyad. That's right. Okay. Oh, my God. Without spoiling things, tell us about Jody. Tell us about Jody and Niyan. She's going to get nominated, right? I think so.

I mean, I feel very weird about this movie because it's not very good. No one seems excited or anticipatory for it. Right. I think it might be a different conversation if there wasn't a strike going on. If the SAG strike wasn't continuing at this point of recording, we still don't know, and it's not looking great right now. But like, if Annette Benning was out. out there, you know, talking about how she was training for however long, swimming and such, I would believe it.

But, like, Jody Foster's in more of the movie than Annette Benning. She's better than Annette Benning in the movie. I actually think Annette Benning's kind of broad. And Jody's first build, right? Didn't I hear that? I feel like I heard that. And, like, it blew my mind that Jody was first built. She's first built on the poster.

Okay. Okay. Maybe that's what I was thinking of. I'm just so excited to have... I know the Mauritainean was also Jody in the Oscar conversation, but that felt so surreal and, like, not actually happening that, like... Right.

This feels like... It really does feel like, oh, Jody Foster's back in the Oscar conversation, in a way she hasn't been since 1994? It also feels like you're seeing a Jody Foster performance like you haven't seen in 20 years, and it's... I mean, like, maybe I'm over there. Overselling how good she is in the movie, because I don't think the movie's very good or setting her up to do anything. Sure.

All that interesting or something you haven't seen before, but it's just so, it feels so good to sit down and watch Jody Foster. Sometimes I feel like that's a function of my age because I'm such a kid of the 90s, and the 90s was so, like, Jody was the pinnacle. like beginning that decade with Silence of the Lambs and going all the way through like contact towards the end of the decade. And like she's so like with me in terms of like my conception of just a classic A-list actress who's just like taken the bull by the horns. And I love seeing her back in that mode. I joked in my letterbox log that seeing a performance like this, was it that?

No, maybe I tweet. I don't know. But, like, the thing I've been saying about Jody Foster in this movie and the type of performance she's giving is that it cleared out my brain, like, my brain was a hoarder house. It felt like a reset button of, like, removing so much clutter and bad energy from my bloodstream, watching my game of performance like that. Jody, clear out my sinuses when I come see Nyad, like, that's all I need is... I mean, truly she will. Yeah. I mean, like, she's better than mucin.

She's better than the morning... Put that on the Nyad poster. Jody Foster is better than Mucinex. Chris Fyell that said Oscar buzz. Do it, cowards. I wouldn't put it past them because some of the poll quotes that happen in this season, oh boy. Wait, so not to backtrack, but like you did mention Inside Man being a March release and sort of not the studio's priority. and it made me go check out, well, what was going on for Universal in 2006?

2006 is a weirdest fuck year for Universal. I'm going to run down. 2006 is a weird Oscar year. Well, and it's a weird Oscar year. And it's one of those Oscar years where studios, I think, needed to scramble to come up with their plan because whatever their first plan was didn't really work out. I think The Departed was either a really brilliant tactic of pretending that you, weren't going for the Oscar until everybody believed you, and then once there was a groundswell

for the movie, like, re-scrambling the fighter jets for an Oscar campaign, or, like, either that was, like, really, like, slow-planned very well, or whether that was just, like, an accident of fate, that after two years of pushing Marty so hard in 2002 and 2004, then finally they're like, we can't do this again. We're just going to, like, let go and let God, and then it finally worked. But like, you look at the movie that ended up being Universal's big Oscar play, and it ends up being United 93, which was an April release that they ended up towards the end of award season being like, we can maybe pull a director nomination for this. They probably came very close to pulling a Best Picture nomination for United 93. I would probably gather,

oh, we should do that exercise, the 2006 Best Picture Top 10. I would gather it would have been in that top ten. I think so, too. Well, especially with the lone director nomination. But you look at what it had going later on the year. So it had United 93. Whatever the fuck were the plans for Miami Vice, whatever resulted was not what was planned. Like, I'm willing to admit that.

The Black Dahlia in September is, gets a weirdo, like, backdoor nomination for cinematography? what did it get nominated for? Cinematography. But, like, clearly, like, there were bigger plans for that. This is the James Elroy adaptation directed by Brian De Palma. I'm sure, like, it was released in the same general window that L.A. Confidential was. So I think there were, like, L.A. Confidential-esque aspirations for the Black Dahlia, and that did not happen.

And then you look at their December, and I think their big horse was the Good Shepherd that year, which we're going to have to do as an exception. Crunch, crunch. It did get a nomination or a couple nominations, right? We can't do it as a main feed movie. I'm on the page. I believe it was production design. Is that the one that I got?

Or art direction? Yeah, I got an art direction. So we'll have to do it as an exception. But clearly, the Good Shepherd spent a good portion of 2006 as like the look-ahead frontrunner for that year because it was, you know, it was Robert De Niro, the actor-director. thing. Matt Damon was like so hot right now. This was before all of the Matt Damon buzz went on to the departed. Angelina Jolie, like it was so epic seeming. And then it just like, and it didn't land. And then at the same time, like during the same week, they released Children of

Men. And I cannot tell you the bungling that happened when they pushed Children of Men from the fall to December. And it was like, I- That premiered at Venice. Children of Men could have been a best picture nominee if they had opened it earlier in the fall. That is my sort of, I don't even know if that's a hot take. I think that just sort of seems fairly obvious. Because if you look, like, if you were halfway through 2007, by then, I think people had already sort of come around to like the Children of Men as a masterpiece kind of a thing. And if you had just released it earlier in 2006, I think you end up having a best picture nominee on your hands. Probably doesn't win still. But Universal was still so focused on the

Good Shepherd. And yet, if you were so focused on the Good Shepherd, why are you moving Children of Men to the exact same week that that movie is opening? It just makes no sense. Like, what a weird year for Universal. I don't know. What are your thoughts on this? Children of Men also starring Inside Man's Clive. Owen, I think Clyde. Owen would be a best actor nominee if that, if Children of Men had done. Clive Owen and Chiawechia for. They were in two movies together in that same year. We'll talk about Children of Men on the Patreon, too, at some point, because there's a whole story to be told there. But anyway, what a weird year for Universal?

What are your thoughts and opinions on all that I've spewed out there? I mean, United 93 got that director nomination and probably would absolutely have a Best Picture nomination in a year of 10, partly because of the critics. I mean, the critics really kind of rallied around that movie. It won Best Picture. It also was the... Your Critics, Director with L.A. It was the gallant to Oliver Stone's goofess is the other thing, right?

Like, it was the good 9-11 movie that year, and Oliver Stone had made the bad one. So, okay, really quickly, though, so your five nominees for Best Picture, The Departed, Babel, letters from Iwo Jima, Little Miss Sunshine, the Queen. I think if we put in United 93, so that's six. Yes. What are the other four? Because Forrest Whitaker was so strong all year, I do think that that probably would have pulled up to the best picture nomination. Did it get any other nominations besides Forrest Whitaker, though, did that movie? I know, but I do think it did well with Bafta.

Okay. I'm not ruling that out. Dream Girls absolutely would have gotten it. I think Dream Girls, so you got four more. I think I fill out those four personally, and then you let me know what you think. I think it's Dream Girls. I think it's Pan's Labyrinth. I think it's, I still don't think it's children of men.

I don't think it's little children. I do think Blood Diamond has a decent shot of making it in there from where things were. The fact that Blood Diamond was able to take the Leo nomination away from the departed, I think, says something. And so that's, that leaves me with one sort of like wild. card slot, and what do I want to put in that wild card slot? I'm going to put, huh, I still don't, something in my gut says it wouldn't be the last king of Scotland, but would it be, it wouldn't be the devil wears Prada. I do think it would be children of men.

Maybe. It did get... Children of Men ended up with how many nominations? Like, three, four? Three. Well? Three nominations.

Honestly, Notes on a scandal ended up with four. Right, because it got that score nomination. Score, screenplay, and two acting. Deserved a day. That would have been a wild

Best Picture nominee for Notes on a Scandal. I think you're probably right and Children of Men maybe sneaks into that in like number 10 slot. I think you're maybe right. So I say what? It's the five. I think the one we disagree on is Blood Diamond,

and I would say 10th is Last King of Scotland. So we have different movies about white people interfering in African politics. Sure. Yours is the Last King of Scotland, and mine is Blood Diamond. Listeners, hit us up on Twitter and let us know what you think those other five movies. You think there's a different option. So we both think it's Pans Labyrinth, children of men, dream girls, and what did I say? United 93.

And so we disagree on Last King of Scotland and Blood Diamond. That's a good... Oh, what do you think of an inconvenient truth? No. You don't think so. Hollywood was so high on its own supply about that. Like mailback times, if, like, a documentary has ever gotten there, I just, I think it Hoop Dreams and nothing else. I think that Inconvenient Truth would have come as close as any

documentary has in the post-Hoop Dreams era. That's going to be my hot take. Whether it would have made Top Ten or not, I think it would have as close as any documentary would have in the post-Hoop Dreams era. That, I mean, maybe, but I just don't think that there's ever really been a case where it's been even in the realm of possibility. Can't believe we're both discounting cars this way. The look of disgust on Chris Files' face when I said that is very funny to me. Let's talk about Spike Lee. I wanted to do that thing where we talked about, so in his entire filmography, in terms of feature films, he's only not been, he's only not had any kind of screenplay credit on, I think it's five, six movies. So it's Girl 6, which was written by Susan Lorry Parks.

Fun movie. Get On the Bus, which was written by Reggie Rock Bythwood. Any, hold on. Married to Gina Prince Bythwood. Okay, interesting. Did not realize that. Okay, so current husband of Gina Prince Bythe Wood wrote the script for Get On the Bus. 25th Hour, which we've covered here, a screenplay by David Benioff,

based on his own novel, Miracle at St. Anna, which was written by James McBride based on his novel, Miracle at St. Anna. People hate that movie. I've still never seen it. I've never seen it either, and we've talked about, like, I think initially we were like, well, we could do that to talk about Spike Lee, but we're always like, but it would just be such a bummer to shit on that movie. I know. Well, that's the thing is it doesn't exist. It's like, it's also 160 minutes, y'all. I know. We should at some point, though, it's Spike Lee. We probably owe it to him. And then, Inside Man, and then Old Boy, which is, I think, the consensus choice for, that was written by Mark Protasovic.

Sure. Protozovich also did, not Prometheus, but something like. Poseidon and I am legend. There you go. Yeah. Prometheus was Damon Lindelof. Old Boy, I think, is probably the consensus choice for worst Spike Lee movie. It's certainly the most inexplicable one. So I think this... Because it's also like,

why does this exist? But this list runs the gamut from like low-key masterpiece, like 25th hour, really intriguing movie like Girl 6, which is like worth you know, real interesting exploration to

like some of his more like bottoming out movies like Miracle at St. Anna and Old Boy. And I just think it's, I think it's very interesting because even the movies were like, they may have come from a, like, a non-spike source, but he clearly has enough of an input to put his name on the screenplay as a co-writer, which is like Malcolm X is that, Summer of Sam is that, Red Hook Summer, Shirek, Desweet Blood of Jesus, Black, Cloud. Landsman even has like a bunch of other co-writers and so but like yeah because wasn't that Oscar for like five people but like you wouldn't know it from watching the Oscars what a

wonderful joyous moment too when Spike finally wins his Oscar presented by Samuel L. Jackson but he's so clearly an auteur filmmaker so that like his stamp really is on everything but I think that's why I'm so fascinated by the the few examples where he isn't credited on the screenplay and like what those you know those films turned out to be and I like that they are some of the more interesting either successes or failures you know what I mean in his in his filmography it should also be noted that he is credited on the crooklyn screenplay with him and his two brothers which um is very fun I would love to talk about that movie uh at some point on the show uh to talk about Albury Wooder

I mean, I put Alfred Rewarded forward on... A hundred snubs. Yeah. A hundred snobs. Yeah. Could have also put Delroy Lindo forward for that movie, but I chose him for Defive Bloods. Yeah. That's probably, you know, an off-ramp to me sobbing on Mike if we ever do that movie.

Right. Well, but yeah. So you look at where Spike is at this point in his career in 2006 with Inside Man. He hasn't had an Oscar. I don't think he's had any Oscar nominations for his movies since Malcolm X, which is kind of shocking.

Well, there's he was documentary nominated. Right, that's true. For Four Little Girls. That's a good point. I'm looking at the list of features, but you are absolutely right. But in terms of like

narrative features, nothing since Malcolm X. And in that time, he's made movies like Crooklyn and clockers and he got game and summer of Sam and bamboozled which was like it took a while for people to sort of like get on board with that even if they ever did some people never really did 25th hour which we've talked about as being this like you know unrecognized masterpiece in its moment so he's got some really great movies in here and and even his most recent movie before inside man is she hate me which i haven't seen but judge

by the range of people who I've read reviews from or talked to about that movie. Everybody seems to kind of hate that movie. Yeah, that's true. That's very true. And so, like, it's kind of fascinating that between Malcolm X in 92 and Black Klansman in 2018, Spike Lee is absent from the Oscar nominations, even though so many of his movies were at some point. point or another in an Oscar conversation because he had established himself as one of the preeminent American autores. And he's always like his movies are at Cannes sometimes and his movies are at the film festivals and they have these like really grand ambitions. But it didn't

seem to me, I don't know if it's just sort of a perception thing. It did not seem like he had this 20-plus-year drought from the Oscars when, you know, when he won for Black Klansman. He's always seemed to be in and around and making really interesting movies in the meantime. And I think inside man... And making movies that are very different from one another. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Even when I don't like his movies, I'm glad that he's out there making movies, even that I don't like. Old Boy's really the only one where I'm like, what was the point of this?

You know what I mean? It's like even something like Shirek, which I have like a lot of problems. I'm pro-Shirek. And I'm, and I'm, and I'm, that a lot of people don't. I'm mixed negative on Shirek. But even that, I'm just like, I'm glad he's out there following his muse with this kind of stuff. You know what I mean? Like that's, you know, it's at the very least, very interesting.

And so some of these movies I still have to see. I still have never seen Red Hook Summer. I've still never seen The Sweet Blood of Jesus. That's one I haven't seen... I actually weirdly haven't seen He Got Game. He Got Game's good. Denzel's very good. I think for a while, probably, because I was like, well, that's a sports movie, so...

This doesn't like a sports movie. But now I want to catch up to it. What's interesting, the thing about Inside Man, I think, is a reminder that while at this period in his career, we probably thought of him more as an experimenter. and would kind of continue to after this movie a little bit. After this movie is his most experimental phase, like from Miracle at St. Anna through Shirek. Like, those are, like Red Hook Summer, Desweeple of Jesus, Shirek is a really experimental spike phase.

Like DeSweebleed of Jesus was a crowdfunded movie. Right, right. Spike Lee is as often that as he is a studio filmmaker, because, like, all those 90s movies were studio movies. Like, it's kind of, it's something like Crooklyn now could only exist as an independent movie, and it sucks because, like, he got, he achieved the status to, you know, get this movie that's about, like, his childhood made by Universal. Right. Yeah, I love that movie so much. so yeah

Let's talk about Clive Owen Clive Owen Clive Owen is so Came on hot and heavy He was in smaller things like Kruppier Right And bent

Before 2004 When the Oscar nomination happens for closer But like that's like the Bottle Rocket moment Right Where he becomes like a lister for a hot minute.

Well, and then like Gosford Park, it's one of those ones where it's like, I feel like he stood out among the ensemble in Gosford Park in a way that really like, you know, contributed there. But it's,

at what point do you feel like you became aware? It was croupier, right? Like, I feel like it was that for everybody it was croupier. Mm-hmm. Right? Yeah. So, He has this really interesting string of movies in the aughts when they are sort of ramping up to the idea of Clive Owen leading man.

But it's this kind of like start and stop kind of a thing where he's in the 2004 King Arthur, the Antoine Fuqua King Arthur, which I almost want to watch again because like what they were doing with that, where it's just like we're going to do the King Arthur story as like a great. rhymy action movie with, you know, like, badass Gwynnevere. You know what I mean? As Kieran Knightley as badass Gwynnevere. What if Gwynnevere was a badass? And it's like Mads McElson's in that movie and Joel Adjerton's in that movie, Ray Winstone. Like, the cast is kind of insanely amazing in terms of like how deep it goes with these really

interesting. And they're all like, this feels very like proto game of throne. even, you know what I mean? Where it's just like, we're going to settle these ancient, these battles of dynasty and whatnot on the battlefield. And I don't know. Good for Antoine Fuku, I guess. That's the same year that he does closer, though, where he wins the Golden Globe.

He's so good. Everybody in that movie, I'm on record as feeling like all four of those people are tremendous and closer. But, like, I think that movie is like, I, I recently rewatched it because this whole year, I took my time, but after reading, finally, reading Mark Harris's tremendous Mike Nichols' book, I did the whole filmography. And getting to closer on this rewatch, I was like, this script is maybe bad, but that movie is so watchable and enjoyable because- It's very much a play script. that like... And like a very dated...

Sure, sure. I mean, it's a 20-year-old movie at this point. Any movie, any play that was made in the 90s or aughts where the subject is a battle of the sexes, like men and women, like, are they on, you know, a collision course with each other or whatever, is always going to seem dated. And like, this is no exception. But, like, it's still as good and watchable as it. is because of those actors. The acting. Yes, 100%. Yeah. Right. Yeah. The dialogue feels very, like, the scene with Natalie and Clive Owen in the strip club, the dialogue... It's a fun scene. It's the best scene in the thing. The dialogue is so junky, but they both pull it off with such

fucking aplomb and just so, like, they tear right into each other. And, oh, it's so, I don't know, I still love it. Clive Owen is great in the movie. Yeah, he is. As a really despicable guy, to be honest. Oh, they're all in one way or another pretty despicable, but he's probably the most despicable. They're despicable in like an eye roll way, at the very least. Jude Law is weak, and

Natalie is, will never allow anybody to be close to her, and Julia Roberts has absolutely no self-esteem, and Clive Owen is the sort of like, he says it at one point, he's just like, I'm a fucking caveman or whatever, but that's also like very clearly

a... a costume he puts on to, like, keep himself safe from the world. But there's one point where he's yelling at Jude Law, and I think it's after, and it's when Jude Law comes back to him is so pathetic. And he's like, please let Anna be with me instead of you, essentially. And Clive Owen's just like, get out of here, pathetic. And at one point he's just like, you writer. He, like, calls him a writer as, like, a, as this, like, most, like, awful epithet. It's so good um it's also heterosexual nonsense of course it's heterosexual nonsense these straight people sometimes i can enjoy that i'm allowed um he's in sin city in 2005 and is one of like the featured

guys in sin city like there's a lot of people in that movie but i think that movie really spotlights clive owen bruce willis and who's the mickey rourke are sort of like the three sort of like spotlight guys in that movie. Sin City is a better trailer than it is a movie, but I remember being very fascinated by that movie even when it came out. And that was... That is a two-hour-plus movie that I think would be you lose your patience with that movie at some point. And if it was maybe a 90-minute movie, you might not. I think that's right. I think that's right. As a trailer, it fucking rules. 2006 is Inside Man and Children of Men, which is probably his best year in terms of like doing two movies where he's absolutely tremendous. Children of

Men, I think, is a masterpiece. And he's really great in it, even though he's like not the thing that you walk away sort of praising from that movie. I think you walk away like that as an Alfonso Quaron, you know, a movie sort of through and through. But I think he's very good in it. And Lubbetsky. Oh, Lubetsky. My God. Yes. 2007 is a little bit of, 2007 is sort of where the stumbles start. He's cast in Elizabeth the Golden Age, which I think ultimately doesn't serve him super well. It's barely a good movie, and it's only a good movie if you watch it as like a Kate Blanchett burlesque performance. 100%. It's very fun as that. But like he gets sort of stranded in that. Samantha Morton gets sort of stranded in that. It's too bad. He's also in

the International, which is a Tom Tickfer movie, where it's like him and Naomi Watson, the idea of it is it's supposed to be this very sort of like fun spy action drama or whatever and it just kind of falls a little flat it's it's somewhat almost anonymous isn't the right word because what tom tick for a movie is it's a little boring for it's just it gets lost it doesn't distinguish itself enough yeah it's lost in a soup of generalized spy movie mid aughts yeah So the next movie he makes, I think, is the linchpin of his entire career, and it's never going to make me less than furious. He's in Tony Gilroy's duplicity, opposite Julia Roberts, a movie that even still today, I will hear people say that that's a bad movie. And I don't understand it.

I don't understand that movie. I would probably have to rewatch it to have an informed opinion on the movie. I remember being a little disappointed by it, but it was also that it. It was, you know, him opposite Julia Roberts, obviously a reunion from closer, but also it was supposed to be this big box office smash. It flopped at the box office. And they decided that they being the culture at large, it was like he was branded, well, he's not a movie star. Well, and they also retroactively brought up like, well, he couldn't turn children of men into an Oscar hit, even though. And it's just like, first of all, that wasn't his fault.

Universal completely bungled the release of that movie. It's infuriating that you're going to try to lay the blame for that at his feet. And then, like, I will grant you your opinion on duplicity. I do think it's an unalloyed masterpiece of a movie. It's so much fucking fun. He and Julia Roberts are perfect opposite each other. They are like, it's essentially an unofficial, I almost feel like it should take place within the Ocean's 11 universe where like she plays Tess Ocean in like her side life as a

having an affair as a CIA agent who like Danny Ocean's completely unaware of it and she's sort of like living this side life their whole thing where like they are lying to each other and to everyone at all times you are never able to trust them it's like double cross on double cross on double Tony Gilroy is so nimble in the way that he directs the whole thing that character actors in that thing speaking of Kathleen Shalfon who we talked about in our hereditary episode like she rules in that Dennis O'Hare rules Paul Giamati

Tom Wilkinson Tom McCarthy like I can't and that is a perfect catch it on cable movie too if you catch duplicity on cable I promise to I will stop lecturing you about it

but I think it's I would be fine if it's sort of like soft flopped but people seem to genuinely go out of their way to shit on this movie and to shit on him because of this movie

And I'm just like... It's very strange. And it's also like, it's Tony Gilroy's follow-up to Michael Clayton. And so people were like, oh, what a disappointment or whatever. And it's like, fuck you. Like, it's not as good as Michael Clayton because, like, what is? It's not as Dark Soul of the Night as Michael Clayton was either. Sure.

But like, oh, it's so... Duplicity rules. I'm sorry. Duplicity rules. Everything after duplicity, though... It's sad. Even the things that I think are successes are just, like, very, very minor key successes. is like the Nick, a show I definitely want to loop back to and finally watch because I know

I'll probably like it. Everybody says that I'll like it, and I believe them. But it's things like even a decade on, he's in high-profile things that don't go well, like Valerian Gemini Man. I like Valerian a lot. He's still working regularly, but not in a lot of things that you've maybe seen or liked. I like Valerian a lot, and that movie doesn't really use it. him particularly well.

But yeah, it's a lot of just like, he's in this movie called Last Nights with Morgan Freeman and like, what the fuck is that movie? Yeah. It's like I'm just a lot of things that don't even exist like that. A lot of movies where it's like... Including

television that doesn't exist in American Crime Story Clinton or whatever, which was apparently like impossible to watch not in the like, it's bad, but like impossible to watch as and people didn't know when it aired where they could find it on streaming.

If I told you that Clive Owen starred in a Canadian family drama film with him and Jaden Martel, nay, Lieberhaer, and Maria Bello, and Robert Forster, would you believe me? One million percent I would believe. Okay, well, it happens. It's called the confirmation. I've never heard about it in my entire life.

but like it's it's a bummer I think it's a real bummer what does he even have coming up hold on a second IMDB it does feel like he was branded as box office poison in a way

so he just like and never bounced back and it's I find it to be such a shame all right upcoming Clive Owen he is well it's two

oh right He's in the upcoming Brit Marling TV mini-series that's going to be on FX next month. I guess this month as you're listening to it. You're going to be contractually obligated to watch. A murder at the end of the world. I'm so excited. Clive Owen, Emacoran, Britt Marling. Who else is in this?

Alice Braga, Harris Dickinson. Hello, Harris Dickinson. Rowla Sparza. Come on now. Joan Chen is in this. Fuck yeah, I'm going to watch this. Oh, I can't wait. He's also in...

IMDB really is being very slow. He's playing Sam Spade in an upcoming TV series called Monsieur Spade. I don't know where this is going to air, but Sam Spade as a 60-something expat living in France, living in the south of France. I'd kind of watch this. Sure. Why not? And then what's the movie that is in production? it's something called cleaner

that we don't get any information oh no it's a Martin Campbell movie with Daisy Ridley okay that sounds like something that is not going to it's not well yeah I think that's that does feel like it fits in this in the sort of the bummer clivo and somebody like here's the thing we are so past the point

of needing an actor who can open a movie because no actors open movies anymore so like just cast clive owen in something he's good just fucking do it i'm so fucking pissed off about all of this like just fucking do it and like he does still work a lot all the time often so it doesn't seem like the type of thing that there's like whispers around you know that he's like a monster bad or difficulty or whatever right exactly exactly all right we've talked about everything everybody else we should talk about denzil who's so fun in this movie it's a He is, I love him when he is in this mode where he's just like...

Letting loose. Smart ass, clearly having fun as a performer. He's clearly incredibly comfortable working with Spike, obviously, after all these years. Yeah. And just like, like, I've said it a million times, greatest living actor. Makes this so much more interesting by the things that he is clearly adding to the role that are, Denzel Washington's aughts are also. So you look at after the second Oscar, after the Training Day Oscar, it's either like take away like your Antoine Fisher's, which he directed, the great debaters, take away sort of that. And it's a lot of, I'm not going to say anonymous because like these aren't anonymous movies, but they are different iterations on the he's a cop and he's on his own and he's trying to solve something. These sort of mystery three. Rillers. Carl Franklin's Out of Time. Tony Scott's Man on Fire. Dejave. Dejave. Which was

another Tony Scott. The original Beyonce visuals for the song, DejaVu. That was another Tony Scott was deja vu. American Gangster is a little bit more prestige. That's a Ridley Scott. The thing is, this comes the year before American Gangster. American Gangster is, like, these are two great comparison points to what I was saying earlier. But I was speaking more for the movie, but like, just if you look at Denzel Washington's performance, American gangster makes like maybe $50 million more than Inside Man does because it opens in the Thanksgiving window and it gets buzzed throughout the season for Denzel Washington.

I would very strongly argue that Inside Man is a far more entertaining and better movie and he is better in it than he is an American gangster. I would agree with that. I would agree with that. I also didn't realize that he made... It's simple placement. He made four Tony Scott movies in the span of 2004 to 2010. That's kind of amazing.

Between Man on Fire, Deja Vu, the taking of Pelham, 1,23, and Unstoppable. Also, I'd throw two guns in there, which is a 2013 movie. And then it's sort of... That's Walberg. That's Walberg. And then he moves into these sort of like, he's either making Oscar stuff or remaking stuff where it's like the Equalizer, The Magnificent Seven, Senses, Roman J. Israel.

Equalizer 2, like, Tragedy of Macbeth. Equalizer 3. He's going to be in Gladiator 2, which I don't think I've... There's like going to be a lot of people in Gladiator 2, right? Like, it's a little wild. I am so fascinated as to what this is going to turn out to be. Because, like, it's... Yeah, what the hell is Gladiator, too, going to be?

Like, it's about Russell Crow's nephew. Or no, it's sorry, it's Joaquin Phoenix's nephew. Something, whatever. Paul Muscal's like the kid from Gladiator, who was Spencer Treat Clark and Gladiator, and I was all grown up. I forget what his actual parentage is. But he's Connie Nielsen's kid. And so Paul Mescal plays Mescal.

I'm still trying to figure that out. Paul Meskell plays this kid, the Spencer Tree Clark kid. But, like, Connie Nielsen's in this movie. Jiamen Honsu is back in this movie. And yet it's also like... As is Jacobi. Derek Jacoby, yep. Denzel Washington, though, Fred Hesinger, who...

Was it you who was talking to me about Fred Heshinger recently? Yeah, that he is, like, a Gen C character actor. Yeah. Who was in it and then had to drop out? There was somebody recently, I feel like, who... was cast in it, and hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. Give me a second. I think it was Barry Keogh.

I'm just saying, if Russell Crowe shows up in this movie as a ghost, I'm out. Barry Keogyn had to drop out, and so it's Fred Heshinger is playing the role that Barry Keogan was going to play. I know. That's a weird recasting. I don't know if it's that weird. I think they sort of are... I think Fred Heshinger is sort of like the dollar-store version of Bery Kjogan in a little bit of ways.

Is he, though? I feel like those are two very different actors. Have you seen... You've obviously seen the woman in the window or whatever. What's the one... I feel like Fred Heshinger is playing the Barry Kiyogen role in that movie. Right? He's sort of Sacred Deer Ajase in that movie.

you're very specific you're very particular it's fine it's fine anyway I didn't even like Gladiator but I'm so fascinated to see what Gladiator 2 ends up being Also they're going to end up like

it's not going to be Gladiator 2 by the time it hits theaters it's going to be called like Gladiator like Sons and Fathers Dawn of a Warrior or something like that yeah exactly

Gladiator blood and sand like yeah it'll be something we should take like that Gladiator, wrath of the sand. It's going to be the most madlibsy subtitle ever. Yeah, word salad. Yeah, for real.

Okay. And then he's, Denzel is trying to get a movie version of the piano lesson happening with John David Washington and Samuel Jackson. From the Broadway production. From the Broadway production. Directed by, it's supposed to be directed by Malcolm Washington. Is that one of his other kits? Interesting.

Yes, I believe. So it's a family affair here. I mean, that cast of that movie, I guess, are they, it must be in production at some stage of production right now. John David Washington, Samuel L. Jackson, Ray Fisher, Daniel Deadweiler, Corey Hawkins, Erica Badoo, Jerica Hinton, Stefan James. That's a banger of a cast. I know. I've never seen that on stage, the piano lesson, nor have I read it. obviously in August Wilson play.

All the August Wilsons are coming to film, which is kind of an amazing that we're in the sort of like August Wilson adaptation era between fences and Ma Rainey and now the piano lesson coming out hopefully soon. I'm into it. I'm into all of it.

Anyway, Denzel's not going to be in that, but he is producing it. So there's that. All right. Should we move into the IMDB game? Yeah. Let me just make sure that we haven't. I do want to mention a couple of the Spike Lee sort of touches to this movie.

The fact that when... Oh. What's that? No, go ahead. Go ahead. Because I have something, I'm so glad we didn't move on to the IATB game. We have to start. Good. When Clive Owen is collecting everybody's cell phones and the one guy doesn't

have a cell phone and is trying to say that he left his at home. And so Clive, first of all, that scene has such insane energy when Clive is like, furiously going through the bag of cell phones trying to find a phone that has this guy's number in its contacts, which, by the way, that dates it as 2006 more than anything because none of these phones have face scans that he can just, like, open the phone and go into the contacts without having to, like, you know, do anything else to him. And finally, the phone

rings, and it's gold digger is the ringtone of this, like, white banker, you know what I mean? Which is just like, it's a very 2006. And it's a very spikely touch. But also, Like, all the, like, all the interrogation scenes of the witnesses where, you know, the old guy is talking about how the one time he stole a nickel. And just all of those scenes feel very, again, I keep saying bespoke, which is probably like an annoying way of being, like, very singularly cared for. But, like, it's, it's the mark of a director who, A, knows exactly the kind of movie that he wants, but B, like, gives a shit about every single little. thing that happens in the movie. And I love that. Yes. Yeah. But also, like, finely detailed to the identity of this thing that it is your watch. Yes. I think that's right. Taylor made to the full experience of what this is, not, you know, for lack of a better

word, off the rack. Right. Yeah. It's a good point. Well put. So what were you going to say before I jumped in with mine? The Terence Blanchard's score in this movie. fucking rules. I'm sure we talked about Terrence Blanchard in our 25th hour episode, because that score is even better. Terrence Blanchard, never Oscar nominated until Black Klansman, does get a nomination for Defive Bloods, should have won for it. Yeah. Let's get this man his Oscar. Yes. Yeah. Um, what's your favorite Terence Blanchard score? It's probably 25th hour. Yeah, I was going to say. But I will say his Defive Blood score was, tremendous.

Yes. Agreed. Agreed. All right. Now should we get into the IMDB game? Yes. Would you like to explain the IMDB game for our listeners? Always. Every week we end our episodes with the IMDB game where we challenge each other with the name of an actor or an actress and try

and guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. If any of those titles are TV shows, voice only performances, non-acting credits, we mentioned that up front. After two wrong guesses, we will give the remaining titles release years as a clue. And if that is not enough, it just becomes a free-for-all of hints. That's the IMDB game. How do you want to do this today? Are you

giving or guessing first? I genuinely, we recorded an episode yesterday, and I already don't remember who went first. So I'm just going to give my clue first, and we'll do it that way. I think that that's the exact logic that I used last night when we recorded. Sounds good. Okay, I went through the more recent Clive Owen movies, and one of his more recent co-stars was Ms. Cara Delavine, whose name is so lovingly pronounced by Reese Witherspoon in that viral elevator video where you've seen the elevator video where Reese Witherspoon is like, Kara, Kara, I don't know how to pronounce your name. Of course, yeah. Anyway, Kara Delavine, no television, no voice performances. What was that John Green thing, not the fault in our stars, but the other thing?

What indeed? What was that called? The one with Alex Wolf. I don't know, but you want to take that again where you're not blowing out the mic? Oh, sorry. Sorry. It's the one with Alex Wolf or Nat Wolf. Whenever I'm called to tell them apart, I'm like, there's more than one?

Stop it. Alex is the better wolf. obviously, but then when I'm approached with a national... They also don't look particularly... Oh, one thing we didn't mention in the hereditary episode, not to like backtrack, that both Alex Wolfe and... Oh, what's the name of the actress who plays a sister?

Who's the name I've already... Millie Shapiro. Both are or were in sibling bands, were in bands with their siblings? That's kind of funny to me. I wonder if they talked about that. Anyway, continue. Is the title of...

about a map it's not a map but what would you find on a map a compass no but what like what is what are the the places on a map interstates and cities what's another name for cities destination town town town something towns towns town and like before you looked at maps on your phone where would you what would what would maps consist of paper towns there you go paper You gave me a lot of clues for me to have guessed nothing wrong. I don't think you're at risk of running the table on this, is what I will say. Cardalevin hasn't been in that many things. More than you would think, actually, when I'm looking at her filmography right now.

But, yeah. Suicide Squad? Suicide Squad, correct. Enchantress. I mean, I could say her smell, but I don't think her smell's showing up for... Well, no, because Caradalevine is like... like second build for it. She is second build. It's not her smell, but that's very good

logic, because she is second build in that movie. Roxy. What is her name? Roxy Rocksie Rock. RoxyRotten, of course. No, she's crassy-cassy-Rotten is Amber Benson. Got it. She's crassie-cassy. Okay. But that's like the era, Paper Towns and Suicide Squad of when

Kara was due things on screen. Is there also a horror movie? It's not Suicide Squad. That's Annie Teller Joy. Did I tell you I was talking to a friend and former guest, Kyle Amato,

and he maybe convinced me to watch new mutants sometimes soon? Oh, I would take very little convincing to watch new mutants. I've never watched it, but I'm weirdly curious. How did Kyle sell you on it? He's like, it's fine. Oh, I thought he, like, told you a thing about it that made you want to watch it.

Oh, no. I think it was just more so. He was like, it's curious because it's actually not a disaster. I remember the conversation correctly. All right, you've got two correct. You haven't gotten any wrong yet. And one wrong guess. I'm just going to say new mutants.

No, you have gotten one wrong guess. That's right. Yeah, no, not new mutants. All right, your clues are 2012 and 2017. Wow, 2012. I don't think I realized She was in this movie The 2012 movie

Interesting It's a movie we both like She would have been like 10 Yeah she would have been pretty young I don't know She's one of these people Who doesn't have her real age on her IMDB Oh no

She does and she would have been 20 Whoops Okay So It's... You saying you didn't know that she was in this movie. A lot of people are in this movie.

But there's also a lot of female roles in this movie. So, like, I'm sure that she's... Like, I can imagine where in the movie she's in. We both like it. Oh, 2017 is Valerian. 2017 is Valerian in the city of a thousand planets. That's the connection to Clive Owen. So...

Oh, and I didn't even think about that connection. So 2012. Oh, is it Sucker Punch? It's not Sucker Punch. No, Sucker Punch is older than that. It's a little bit older than that. But I'm guessing there's a large female ensemble. There is.

There's a large ensemble in general, but there's especially a lot of roles for females considering the sort of composition of the story. I shouldn't put it that way, Caradeleveen, I believe, is not binary, but uses she her pronouns. Is that true? I don't think I knew that. All right. Or maybe Caradeleveen identifies as fluid, but... Good for Caradalee.

Shouldn't just lump her with all female performers. This movie was nominated for multiple Academy Awards. It won at least one. It won exactly one. 12. Okay, so the year of 2012, we are talking Argo. It can't be Argo. It's not Argo. Is she in Les Mis? She's not in Les Mis. Okay, so what else is this going to leave me? It won Anne Oscar. She's not in Silver Linings Playbook.

She's not in Amor. Amor does that? not have a lot of roles. I don't think of more won anything. Or did it win foreign language? It won foreign language. Okay, yeah. Then no. Yeah. What would have been foreign language that year. So, so. I can... That is also the year of zero

dark 30. I can't imagine she's in zero. I feel like if I give you any more clues, you're going to get it easily. Yeah. No acting nominations, although I would have given this at least two acting nominations. Okay.

Which sounds like Argo. I don't think I would have given Argo any acting nominations. Not a Best Picture nominee? No. Okay. Screenplay nominee. I don't think so. Interesting.

All crafts. So this is like, this is a big budget movie. Did it win, like, visual effects? Nope. It won. Makeup. Like, Think of, like, tangible crafts.

Costume design? Yes. Oh, okay. So, is that young, is that the year of Young Victoria? No. Young Victoria is like 2009. What would have won costume design this year? I know listeners are screaming.

It's a very most costumes movie, but it's also very good costumes. This movie was nominated. It won for costume. It was nominated for cinematography. score and production design. Oh, God, I know it's right there. I'm going to blow out my mic when I get the answer. Yeah, be careful.

Since I've already blown out my mic, like, twice this episode. It probably got those same four categories for this director's previous Oscar-nominated movie that was a best picture of it. Germany. 2012 isn't Marie Antoinette. No, but like, you're in the ballpark. I know I'm in the ballpark. And it's not your Vittoria.

It's not. Travel eastward. Germany. Anna Karenina. Anna Karenina. Very good. She's in Anna Karenina? She's a princess of some extraction in Anna Karenina.

For a movie that I love. I have not seen it in a while. I probably owe it a rewatch soon, especially. I don't even know why, especially, especially because I think it's, I remember loving it. Also, talk about a movie with an A-plus trailer. I didn't mention it when we did our mailbag recently about trailers that I love.

The Anna-Carranina trailer slaps. It's so good. All right, what do you have for me? Today, for you, I have pulled from the Spike Leaf What accent is this? Are you from Copenhagen? What's going on? Okay, okay. So my friends and I, when we went to Provincetown, we had a, like, of unknown Swedish origin waitress who, like, became a character in our lives. And we... I love vacation characters. We always... We do like the nightly specials in her voice.

Oh, my God. We had an Instacart delivery from this lady. named Mirna one time, and Mirna was judging the homosexuals as she was dropping off the groceries. It was fantastic. Great, great. A shout out to Mirna in Palm Springs. She is like, why do you buy all of these Doritos and lube? I don't understand. We also had like the most insane order where we had like two giant bags of oranges and like You made her run by the dispensary. No, the dispensary was our own little trip, but yeah, like basically. It was a very strange order, but yeah, yes, anyway, continue. So I went into the Spike Lee filmography.

We've done a lot of those people that I initially drew. So of his headliners, I drew Jungle Fever's Wesley Snipes. Wesley Snipes. Oh, boy. Okay. White men can't jump. Correct. Passenger 57?

Incorrect. Damn. Okay. Wesley Snipes Tuong Fu? Incorrect. Dang. Oh, okay, okay.

You were right to guess both of those movies because his entire known for is from the 90s. His other years are 1991, 1993, and 1998. New Jack City. New Jack City New Jack City, not just a good movie, but did the memes help get this to his known for status, I wonder? Of New Jack City?

Yeah. New Jack City is where he's like crying and holding the gun. Oh, yeah, yeah. 1993 has got to be Demolition Man. It is Demolition Man. He so rules in that movie. He choose every fucking bit of scene of that.

I haven't seen it. Oh, my God, Chris. If I've seen it, I was a child. Talk about a movie that's fun to watch on cable. Like, Demolition Man is a time. It's also, like, genuinely funny in a lot of ways. Sandra Bullock's very good in it. 1998?

Correct. Listeners are definitely screaming at you. Is that like murder at 1600? No. Listeners are yelling at me because I'm not getting the Westwood Snipes' 1998 movie. That should be the only clue that you. you need, but maybe I'll give you more. Because it's a movie that I love?

No, I mean, maybe you do. I think this movie is very fun. I will probably watch it, if I can, if I have time, which I probably won't, in the next 10 days. Because it's a spooky season movie? Yeah. It could be a spooky season movie. Okay.

oh blade blade blade of course right I for some reason the blames I enjoy it does kind of rule the first blade it's so I'm such a weirdo the first blade I'm like oh that Stephen Dorff movie because I think Stephen Dorff's incredible in the first blade um yeah I'm not a I'm it's not that I'm not a blade person but like my my Wesley snipe touchstones are very much white men can't jump to Wong Fu, New Jack City, Passenger 57, like that kind of stuff. Like, Blade comes very, very late in my thinking process. Of course, it's Blade.

You're right. People probably were yelling at me, and they were right to do so. All right. Well, well done. Well, done. That is our episode. If you want more, ThisHad Oscar Buzz, you should check us out on Tumblr at thishead oscarbuzz.com.

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Take it back now, y'all. Take it back now, y'all. Two hops this time. Hands on your knees. Hands on your knees. Now I'm imagining Clyvode and all his bank robbers doing the cha-cha slide all the way out the vault. Please put this at the end of the audio. Yeah.