This Had Oscar Buzz - 294 – The Notebook

Episode Date: June 3, 2024

The May miniseries is over and we’re kicking off June with a dose of movie monoculture with 2004’s The Notebook. Adapted from the Nicholas Sparks romance novel, the film’s journey to the screen attracted a range of huge Hollywood names from Steven Spielberg to Britney Spears. The tale of two lovers divided by class in the … Continue reading "294 – The Notebook"

Oh-oh, wrong house. No, the right house. We want to talk to Marilyn Hack, Millen Hacks and French. I'm from Canada water. Dick Pooh. They fell in love, didn't it? Yes, they did. Do you want to dance with me?

Sure. This is a good story. I think I've heard it before. It's like a dream. So what do you do, Noah? I work at the lumberyard. How much do you make at your job? Forty cents an hour.

It has got to stop. He's a nice boy, but he is not for you. I don't see how it's going to work. You want not to see him anymore, and that's final. Hello, and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that is both a home for fleas and a hive for the buzzing bees. Every week on This Had Oscar Buzz, we'll be talking about a different movie that once upon a time had Lofty Academy Award aspirations, but for some reason or another, it all went wrong. The Oscar hopes died, and we are here to perform the autopsy. I'm your host, Joe Reed.

I'm here, as always, with my fixer-upper house that I refuse to sell no matter how high the price. Chris File. Hello, Chris. I only realized this morning. Yes. Not us starting Pride Month with the most heterosexual movie possible. We are queering. That's our way of queering the space, honestly.

We're queering the nexus sparks, ove. It's the queerest thing you could possibly do. It's the queerest. you could possibly do is to zag when all of Pride Month is zigging and go for the notebook. So, yes, we are truly trailblazers in our fields. Listeners, welcome to June. The May mini-series is over. We're very tired and burnt out. Welcome to movies that existed in our lifetime. We said, the theme, if we're giving ourselves a theme, if not for the listeners. The theme is low lift. listen we hope you enjoyed me we hope you loved it double episodes a whole dive into the arc of a decade we are about ready to drop but we also low lift but also like high reward that was that was the thing is something like the notebook i was like this is not going to like tax us but also it's a fun movie to talk about it is a cultural signpost

of the like 70s mold that we really got ourselves into because we did do kind of a format breaking thing and trying to do a whole decade talking to the narrative of a decade. Right. Not just like the films of a different era and talking about different stars. So like we're shaking ourselves back into the mold. I know that your thought process was like smooth brain Nicholas Sparks, no thoughts, just vibes, just kissing and, and. you know, maybe a little rain and whatnot. Had you seen...

Duck Ponds. You'd seen the notebook before, I imagine. Sure. I realized watching this, I don't think I'd ever seen all of the notebook before. Just pieces on, like, TV. TV, yeah, yeah, yeah. Like, I'd seen enough. I'd seen the, you know, the salient points or whatever.

But I don't think I'd ever seen the whole thing all at once. It's only maybe like the third Nicholas Sparks movie that I'd seen. let me see as I look here. Do you have the Nicholas Sparks IMDB page pulled up? I do. Because we're going to have to talk about it. Obviously, we kind of have to talk about Nicholas Sparks, but like, yes. We'll go through the... All of the posters are the same. Well, yes, they are. All of the posters very much are the same. There was, I mean, there was a, you know, if it ain't broke, don't fix it, sort of quality to it. But we'll go through... True, like, look at the poster for the lucky one next to the poster for Knights and Rodanthie. The same post. Two movies that I have seen. I haven't seen them all, but... I definitely have seen both of us too. Those are kind of my Sparks movies. Mostly, I remember the lucky one, and I said this at the time.

This makes me sound like such a fucking dirtball, but I remember the lucky one because of the scene. It's Taylor Schilling and Zach Efron. And it's also like, it's peak physical Zach Efron. I know that everybody's sort of flipped out for him getting all mussely in the Iron Claw. But like, this is like peak sort of golden god, Zach Ephron. And there's a scene where they're dancing in a fucking whatever barn.

You know how Nicholas Sparks movies do. And he's shirtless and she's dancing with him. And she, like, slides her hand down the back of his pants. Like, they're dancing at horse meat disco or something like that. And it is, I was like, her hands are right, just right down the back of his pants. I remember being like, I didn't think they showed this in, like, movies that they pitch to, you know, mainstream audiences. Joe, straight ladies can like butts, too. Yes, but sometimes they don't allow them to do that in movies for civilized society.

Yes, yeah. Not every movie is Never Talk to Strangers where Rebecca DeMorne bites Antonio Banderas's ass right there on screen. So that's a queer-coded film. Also, like, not just heterosexual dignified society, heterosexual dignified faith-adjacent society, because I always have to remind myself that These aren't Christian movies, but they seem to be,

they seem like they should be. Christian-esque? Like, I think a walk to remember is the only faith-esque one? Right. They're not. They're actually, they're not, I've not seen a Nicholas Sparks movie that has had any streak of,

like, Christian movie in it, but they all sort of seem to exist in a package that would suggest it. You know what I mean? Yes. Yes. 100%. And maybe it's because a walker to remember is one of the first ones. It's the second Nicholas works movie after Message in a bottle. Right, right. The third book, the second movie. Yes, because the notebook, this was the one that started it all book-wise. This was the movie that spent 52 weeks, 56 weeks on the bestseller

list and sort of, you know, it ignited this whole thing. This movie did not do poorly by any stretch of the imagination at the actual box office. But I think the, phenomenon that is this movie and I think the like monoculture that is this movie is because this was like one of the last big DVD or not last because like this is still somewhat early but like movies becoming hits on the rental market and the like home sales market this was also one of the like I mean when you say last you can't really say last but like maybe the last non-franchise movie that like teens made into a thing. I don't know if I can back that up. Teens and moms. Right. But I specifically, I'm specifically mentioning teens because like moms, I think moms have

their own culture and whatever. But like I feel like one of the things that we've lost in, you know, this time where we've lost so much in terms of what the culture used to be is I don't know what. a groundswell teen success story movie is. I know that teens make TikTok stars happen. I know that teens sometimes even still make television shows happen when you talk about like Outer Banks or something like that. And like when I watch a movie like Glass Onion and I'm like, who is that person? We seem to, it seems like we should know who this person is. And then somebody would be like, she's on Outer Banks. So they do exist. But I don't think they

permeate the culture as much anymore because you look at like five nights at freddies which made like 90% of its box office in its opening weekend and the average age of the person that the people that saw that movie was like 19 or 20 sure but that still feels more like gamer culture than teen culture and like i know that like but i'm sure that over i'm sure the overlap is huge and significant but do you but do you know what i mean where i feel like there's a little bit of a a difference. I think after the notebook, like, Twilight wasn't too long after. And once Twilight sort of happened, it was like Twilight, Hunger Games, you know, that kind of thing where like teens were sort of making franchises happen. And then it was like vampire diaries and whatever, like, you know, TV stuff. The notebook was a movie. We'll talk about it when we go through like the critical reaction to this movie, which was so much harsher than I remember. And like, we've talked about way worse movies like movies that are like remembered way worse than the notebook that got way better reviews than the notebook got yeah yeah yeah we'll talk we'll talk about like how we feel about this movie but sure i will preface it by saying this movie is fine i knew you weren't going to like this movie i knew this was not going to be a movie for chris i mean like i don't think it's bad or ever even actively bad i think there's other There's just things I think, we'll get into it when we get into the movies.

But it doesn't need to be reviled in any way. Well, it's one of those movies where, like, critics had their say, and there was the initial wave of whatever. And then, like, and then teens put the definitive stamp on it. And they were like, that's cool. We love this. We have, like, we're making this into a thing. And it's, and it now is an unquestioned thing. Talk to any millennial.

And it's like, yeah, the notebook. It's in the canon. You know what I mean? Like it is one of the definitional ones. It made Ryan Gosling. It helped make, you know, it was part of the one-two punch that made Rachel McAdams. And it, you know, it's definitional. It's a, you know, sort of cornerstone. And good for that. I'm, I look back and I'm like, I, you know, we'll talk about what we liked and what we didn't like about it. And I certainly have both, you know, items on both. sides of that ledger. But I'm glad that there's a movie that teens, you know, even as late as 2004, because there was tons of those kinds of movies in the 90s, right? You know what I mean? When we were growing up, there were tons of those kinds of movies. And I'm glad that there's a movie like this, that teens were just like, no, this is, we love this. This is great. Well, and there also used to be counterculture, or counter-programming in, I'm still stuck in the 70s. counterculture no longer there needs to be counter programming in summer movies for women and like

yes you know not in the way that like you know there's action movies for women especially now but like there would be romantic dramas or like female friend you know and this is a movie that definitely filled that whole while we still made those type of movies indeed. And even then I feel like at the time of 2004, it was like, well, I guess we get one of these for an obviously underserved demographic of audiences, you know, that want movies like this, but they only get one at a time, you know? Right. Right. Speaking of things that will fill that hole in people's cultural lives, want to talk to our listeners about this had Oscar Buzz Turbulent Brilliance and why, if they're not already signed up for our Patreon, that they should? Listen, there is no greater hole in your life than the need to support your favorite podcast. I thought you were going to say there's no greater hole in your life than Joryne, just a real hole. Thank you for not.

Luckily, luckily your favorite podcast is here to fill that hole for only $5 a month, too. We got to stop. You started. it. Um, the, for $5 a month, you can support us and you're also going to get a lot of fun bonus episodes over at this had Oscar Buzz Turbulent Brilliance, our Patreon. What are you going to get every month? You're going to get at least two bonus episodes, the first of which we call exceptions. Those arrive on the first of the month. These are movies that fit that this had Oscar buzz rubric, but managed to score a nomination or two. We've talked about movies like

The Mirror has two faces, Pleasantville, listeners have voted on episodes for movies like Molly's game, The Lovely Bones. Joe, we should do another one soon. For The 70s Spectacular, we talked about the Who's Tommy, we've done movies like nine. You know, movies you want to hear us talk about, but you won't get to hear it on the main feed because there's nominations. The second episode you'll ever, you'll get every month, we call it an excursion. They arrived two weeks after the exception. These are deep dives into

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70 Spectacular, we threw our hand in at doing our first ever commentary track for the eyes of Laura Mars. we will say that it was a first It was a first pancake of a It was the first pancake at breakfast It was very fun though

And we and we I would feel comfortable And guaranteeing that people will enjoy listening to it Yes absolutely This month we're going to be recapping the 1999 Indy Spirit Awards Um Yeah

Did I say what we did this month for the exception For this month for the exception We talked about The Who's Tommy, you said? No, that was the 70th Spectacular. What are we doing in June? Oh. Oh, Madonna's WE.

Yes. We recorded this literally yesterday, and I already forgot about it. But it is a great episode. It posted, as you're listening to this, two days ago. So yes, it's our... $5. You can go listen to it right now, and then a bunch of other backlogged content as well. Oh, God, I did it.

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again, I remind you that I once lived the charmed life of somebody who walked home from work past a Taco Bell canteena every day. That is no longer my life. I regret it as much as you do, but I'm just saying, we do what we can in this life.

If we ever, ever, ever have a live show, people need to sneak in, cheesy Gordita Crunch. Oh, I thought you were going to say we need to do it from the upper level of the Taco Bell can't. No, we will host, we will host a conference at the Taco Bell Hotel. Okay, okay. Is that our like TED Talk? Yeah, there's a full day of activities.

There is a screening, there is a commentary track screening, there is live episode. Roxanna Haddadi gives us a talk about Jeff Nichols movies and, Katie Rich gives a talk about, I don't know, Harry Styles, something like that. It's, it'll be a whole thing. Keynote speaker, Christina Tucker comes and talks about her experience seeing Adele in Vegas. We had at least a few guests because, uh, or no, who was, maybe it wasn't a guest. There was a bunch of people seeing Adele in Vegas this weekend on my Instagram feed. So I got a lot of that.

Good fun stuff. All right. We are here to talk about 2004's The Notebook. It was directed by Nick Cassavetti's son of John Cassavetes and Jenna Rollins. We will most certainly get into it. Written by Jeremy Levin, based on the novel by Nicholas Sparks. We will most certainly get into that. starring Ryan Gosling, who Chris File texted me and said was like 90% neck in this movie. I want to have Chris follow up on that. Tony, I'm wrong, listener. Rachel McAdams, who shows up with distressingly light eyebrows in the very first scene she's in in this movie, and then it, like, course corrects. And I was very glad because it was looking very like Chris Hemsworth and the first Thor, where I'm just like, you don't look like yourself right now. They've got to make her look younger somehow. She ages. Through her eyebrows?

Is that the deal? Jenna Rollins, James Garner, James Marsden doing the, this is one of the quintessential James Marzden doing the, this is one of the quintessential James Marzance. James Marsden Cuckold movies that we'll talk about the tradition there. Kevin Connolly, who does not fail to bring me out of this movie every single time because he shows up just to die. E in Entourage. Jamie Brown with Sam Shepard and Joan Allen, one of the categorically best with and combinations you will ever find in cinema.

You can't do better. There's a lot of movies where you could have conceivably gotten. a with Sam Shepard and Joan Allen. And there's probably even more movies you could improve by being with... 100% by adding a with Sam Shepard and Joan Allen. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Just replace cast members.

Madam Webb with Sam Shepard and Joan Allen, instantly a better movie. Just instantly... What's the meme of like society if, you know, X, Y, and Z? It's like society if every movie was with Sam Shepard and Joan Allen. And it's like gleaming city of the future.

Everything is perfect. We live in a utopia. All right. This movie premiered June 25th, 2004. I was in my early 20s, carefree, fancy free, did not have a worry in the world. Everything was good, except for the fact that George W. Bush was still president. Chris, I'm going to grab my phone and put 60 seconds on the clock for you. And you, for the first time in a while, that was the one thing about having guests all through our 70s episode. We are out of practice for 60 second plot descriptions because we had been offloading that to our um to our guests so here we go listen i luckily i have a fairly easy movie to talk about best late plans of mice and men chris every single time one of us says

we have a very easy time uh easy task ahead of us i'm gonna spend 45 seconds we're just like 30 seconds passed 40 seconds passed all right um are you ready though yes your time starts now all right So we're dropped into a nursing home, and James Garner is reading a lovely story to elderly dementia-ridden Jenna Rowland's flashback into time. We're hearing this story, and it's Ryan Gosling as a hot guy named Noah who makes the moves on a young woman named Allie, played by Rachel McAdams. He kind of has to be like, we should date really aggressively, and she's like, fine, I'll date you. And then they date and they have like the Major love, but they are from different sides of the track. He's poor.

She's rich. Blah, blah, blah, blah. There's expectations on her because she is rich. And he goes away and fights in a war that definitely does not look like somebody's farm in Virginia. And he comes back from the war. They're separated. Meanwhile, she's hooked up with James Marston.

They're going to get married. He's all rich too. So Mama Jonah Allen is fine with it. But then, no, she starts seeing Noah again. and they're fucking and they want to get back together and she wants to break off the marriage but Joan Allen says no I've been there before too and they eventually we find out that she does go with Noah

and then flash forward into the future James Garner and reading the story to Jen Rollins it's actually their story and she realizes it's them but then immediately dementia kicks back in and she forgets all of it and then they die together in their sleep in her nursing home 25 seconds over mister this is going to be a piece of cake. So, still pretty good.

It's still, no, you did not struggle at all. You did a very concise explanation of that movie. Well done. Wait, there was something that you had said in there that I wanted to pick up on. The scenes of Noah going off to war. Well, that. This is not a, this, like, that literally looks like the hills of Vermont. It's, they do not put a ton, Nick Casavides does not put a ton of effort into the verisimilitude of the war.

Do we know, do we, I guess that's supposed to be World War II, right? Like, I don't even know which war. Like, I didn't pay super close attention of what decade we're in when we started this, but, you know. It's not hyper-specific about it anyway. It doesn't really matter. I guess based on their age, we should be able to like back data to it is probably World War II, but, you know.

It all goes to serve this image of Noah. as the like quintessential like suffering for the good of humankind type of gritty get his hands dirty type of good guy he was a boy she was a girl can I make it any more obvious that's sort of the plot of the notebook really is in many ways he is just a skater boy and she initially did say see you later boy and she does later say see a later boy um but ultimately they get back together see you later in my dreams boy because is that not the needle drop as she you know because they're dancing and she's like why are you touching me isn't it i'll be seeing you in all the old familiar places i think it's oh that one yeah yeah um it also i think you sort of like skidded past the fact that like he wrote to her every day for a year and joan allen intercepted all the letters and so they sort of broke broke it off under false pretences and

There's truly not a single story beat in this, except for maybe the dementia element, which I think is maybe the best thing about the movie. Oh, that's interesting. I think make, I mean, not maybe the best rendered, but the most unique element of the story. Because truly every single beat along the way is predictable. It's been told in other romances before, other popular romances. Like, it could not be more like AI genera. It's not, though. Here's the thing. I see what you're saying in that fact that it is, it is the most typical story. I will say I don't get the like AI generated. There is still a, there's a character to Nicholas Sparks doing stories that we've heard a billion times before. Here's my thing with the notebook, though, is that it is super typical. It is nothing in this movie, even the stuff that's supposed to surprise you. shouldn't surprise you. And if it did surprise you, I need you to, like, prove to me that you were too young to really, like, get it. Because, like, nothing in this movie should be surprising. I remember that, like, there was a big deal about the fact of, like, we find out that they're the couple. And it's like, yeah, they're the fucking couple. What the fuck? Like, um, but anyway. But I think the primary audience for this movie, you know, faith-based moms don't really want to be surprised by stories. Like, you are characterizing that as a dick. I think.

in a really wild way. Genuine surprise and shock is not something that that audience goes to the movies for. But they want to be fed the exact. You're silencing millennial teens in a way that I think is insulting. But here's what I will say. There weren't the prime audience for this. The prime audience for this was faith-based moms. Stop saying faith-based.

There is nothing faith-based about this movie. Stop it. Stop doing that. For as wrote as the story beats are in this movie, and for as, you know, predictable as a lot of this movie is, for me, this movie is impeccably acted by like everybody. The entire cast is putting their whole fucking pussy into this movie. Everybody is rumple still skinning this movie.

They are turning gold from, like, recycled. down to like you like paper Joan Allen would have every reason to phone this role in because it's just the like on paper the incredibly stereotypical disapproving mom and she shades this role so well she does so well there's the part even the part where she's like saying like I want to get a I want to get a clip of her saying trash trash trash he's out fooling around with that boy till two o'clock in the morning and it has got to stop I didn't spend 17 years of my life raising her daughter and giving her everything so she could throw it away on a summer romance. She will wind up with her heartbroken or pregnant. Now, he is a nice boy. He's a nice boy, but he's... He's what? He is trash, trash, trash, not for you.

But, like, she's wonderful in her scenes with Rachel McHenhanes, especially later in the movie. Sam Shepard is so goddamn sweet in this movie and really lovely. and I just love him in this movie. I think he's so great. But like Gosling McAdams, Rollins, Garner, Marsden, like, everybody is really bringing it to this movie. And I will say,

for as much as I don't think the direction of this movie is like, should be winning any awards or anything like that, Nick Cassavetes does know how to create a moment. Like, there is a reason that that scene in the rain carries off as well as it does. And why you can put it on. a poster. A lot of it is Gosling and McAdams, but like, even just the way that it's, you know, the way that it's presented, I think there are moments in this movie that have stood the

test of time, and that's for a reason. And I think Cassavetes does deserve credit for that. I am going to have to disagree with you on the Cassavetti's part and the aesthetic of this movie. I think it's pretty aesthetically generic. I agree for the most part. It could be even more if it was shot better and... I agree with that. I agree with that. I'm just saying that, like, there are, there's... Casavetes has a few moments in this movie that he understands the value of, like, creating a moment that audiences will remember. And maybe it's only like one or two. Do you know what I mean? And maybe it's, you know, you're shooting for the trailer. But like,

whatever, whatever happened, like, it worked in this movie. Yeah. Shooting for the trailer is not the same thing as making it just for the memes. Not the same thing. There were, like, memes didn't really exist back then. Before I take us back to Joan Allen, though, I just want to say me when Rooney Mara

2010 to 2019 shows up on the Cinematrix. Trash, trash. You are so demented. Stephen Daldry's trash. Please, please, though, like, meme that next time you have an occasion to put Stephen Deldry's trash in any moment in the Cinematric. Joan Allen, no, Joan Allen is so good.

I mean, Joan Allen's always good, but Joan Allen is so good in this movie. I think especially the scene where she takes her to, like, the rock quarry or whatever that is. See, that strapping man over there? Yeah, exactly. And it's just, like, the way she tells her this story, like, on, on, on paper the lines that she's given are so stereotypical and she's just like turns it all into butter her facial expression not to be crass but you know she got good dick from that man like

it's just like you can see the whole not only i think the whole experience she had with this romance right life that she's lived since that's not really matched that heightened feeling You know what. Joan Allen can give you that. I do think, you know, and I was struck by this rewatch, just what you're saying too, but like maybe I think the divide between them is bigger. I think the material here is so very basic and so, you know, cribbed from any romance you can name. But the performers are so very good. And most particularly Gosselin. and Mick Adams because, like, their argument scene, the rain scene, it's just like, it truly feels like AI generated to me. It's the most basic, like, dialogue that you've heard it a million times before in a million other movies, but you maybe haven't seen it performed this well. Like, it, I, it did make me pretty amazed by, like, what they could do, their star charisma of just like turning kind of crap into something that makes you feel something.

It's really well done. Not easy to do. It's really well done on an acting front. I want to sort of go point by point a little bit in terms of why the notebook did have Oscar buzz because it's one of those movies. It was a summer movie. It's not like this had like year ahead expectations for being like New Line's big Oscar play. This would be New Line's first year after the Lord of the Rings.

movies. So New Line is as sort of high on the hog as it's ever been at this point. But this movie didn't really have year-ahead Oscar buzz. What happened was by the end of the year, James Garner's performance and Jenna Rollins, I think, to a slightly less degree, started getting support and a push for Best Supporting Actor. And eventually, Garner ends up getting a SAG nomination for Best Supporting actor. That was the year of million dollar baby. So Morgan Freeman won the SAG for that on route to winning the Oscar for that. Other nominees were Jamie Fox for Collateral and Thomas Hayden Church for Sideways. Both of them would also go on to get Oscar nominations. And then Freddie Highmore for fighting Neverland, which is a typical sort of for a while there, SAG kept nominating

children because they also nominated like Dakota Fanning and and whatnot. Freddie Highmore for nothing against Freddie Highmore. He's the good doctor. He'll always have that. He'll always have that to hang his hand on. And he was at Norman Bates. He's had honestly, like, a longer stretching career that I would have ever predicted. And good for him. This Finding Neverland nomination is crap. And the fact that like... They were just nominating a child who cries. The SAGs that year completely snubbed closer. Both Clive Owen and Natalie Portman missed SAG nominations this year for their movie. So Garner's nominated, and I remember up until Oscar nomination morning, a lot of people were predicting that Garner would get the Oscar nomination that wound up going to Alan Alda for

the Aviator. And, um... Which was probably sealed up when Alda got the BAFTA nomination. Probably, probably. But it is this typical, you know, a veteran actor story. The thing that I think might have helped seal the deal for Garner as if Garner hadn't had a nomination. You know, he had such a long career, especially a long career in television. Like if he was more of a James Coburn kind of a thing. Yes, yes. He had only had the one nomination. He was nominated for 1985's Murphy's Romance, which is a movie with him and Sally Field. I can't remember who directed that movie, but it's... I think it's also Martin Ritt because I think that is a Norma Ray reunion.

A movie that exists only as a poster slash VHS cover for me. Is that the one where he's like carrying her on his shoulder or whatever? No, it's Sally Field like leaning against a wall looking at soups cash, but yeah, totally hot. You're totally right. You're totally right. That's one where if you ever need to remember which one of the two of them got nominated that year, just remember that up until Lincoln, Sally Field had never lost an Oscar

nomination. So Sally Field was only ever nominated for years that she won up until Lincoln. So that's how I remember that it was Garner and Not Field, who got nominated that year. That was the year that William Hurt wins for Kiss of the Spider Woman. That was the same year the Harrison Ford got his only acting nomination for witness. Nicholson's nominated for Pritzie's honor. John Voight is nominated for Runaway Train. Did you, is Runaway Train a movie you've seen recently or am I making things up? runaway train. Okay, nor have I.

That's always the one that I see Oscar nominated. And it sounds like a dumb action movie, but apparently it's not. So I'm always confused when I see that year. Yeah. For some reason, I thought James Garner was one of those people who has like 12 Emmy Awards. He's only, he has two. He was nominated five times for the Rockford Files and won once. A television show I never watched, because I don't think it was ever really in reruns in places

where I was watching TV when I grew up. And then for a TV movie, called Promise, where he and James Woods played brothers. I think the Woods character has epilepsy or schizophrenia or something. So Garner, though, is like a very, like he's a, you know, veteran actor. I remember when they made Maverick, the Mel Gibson, Jody Foster Maverick movie, and they cast James Garner to reprievee, not to reprise his role because he was in the television series Maverick, but he played now like the bad guy. as a nod to him being in the Maverick television series.

But he was in, what other James Garner things would I have, like, seen before the Notebook? He was in that HBO movie Barbarians at the Gate, I remember. He's just sort of like, he was Old Guard by this time, I feel. Yeah. So. I loved The Maverick movie. Did you? I only watched it like once, but like I don't, I didn't not like it.

So. I think it's a movie we should maybe discuss more when we talk about movie. star comma Jody Foster. Yes. Because she's a lot of fun in it. Is she? Well, that's her and her best pal. That's the reason why I'm always like,

ooh, I should check back in with that movie and see if it's as fun as it was when I was a kid. But then I'm like, here's the thing. Mel Gibson, a horrible, rotten person, made real fun movies for a while there. It wasn't all, you know, ground against concrete or whatever the fuck movies he's making these days with Vince Vaughn. he used to make movies that were just sort of like fun and, you know, I don't know. I don't know. It's a bummer. So Garner is your sort of best chance at a nomination for the notebook. It's sort of carrying a lot of the weight of the Oscar buzz for this movie. But I think maybe earlier on, if there was any sort of pre-release buzz, it would be some combination of, well, it's this novel that's so popular. This is like, you know, it's not like he won the Pulitzer or anything.

Like, Nicholas Parks wasn't winning, you know, book awards for this. But 56 weeks on the New York Times bestseller list, you know, says something. And the fact that Nick Cassavetes is a legacy, right? He's not just like typical, like, oh, Nepo baby. Like, he is the son of John Cassavetes and Jenna Rollins. That's, you know. And John Q had already happened at this point, right? Because that's a pretty critically reviled movie.

I think it might have also been a different situation if it was a very respected director. Like, this was originally a Spielberg project. Did you ever see, oh, I didn't realize Spielberg was going to direct? That makes sense that like Spielberg, I think was the first person. He always is. And it traded hands. He always is the first person out of the gate with these things. He's like, dips.

Yeah. Yeah. But then it's like he passes. off to somebody else who's like a big deal and then you know eventually gets made by somebody do you remember that also explains how like everyone in hollywood auditioned for these roles we'll get into that especially the rachel mcadams role like has a lot of really famous people who auditioned for it wetherspoon well let's let's get into that when we get into rachel mcgish i definitely want to talk about that have you ever seen the 1997 movie she's so lovely with um no okay so that's that makes

sense because that is a movie that was a major release. I remember there was, there were TV commercials for that one all the time. It's John Travolta, it's a love triangle movie with John Travolta, Sean Penn and Robin Wright Penn. Robin Wright Penn at the time. A movie that was like post-pulp fiction get shorty John Travolta. So John Travolta is like maybe at his apex. Sean Penn is at the apex of his sort of like, best actor to never win an Oscar. He had only just gotten his first Oscar nomination for Dead Man Walking. You know, the Sean Penn, Robin Wright, Penn thing was a big thing. So there's so much like on paper hype for that movie. And I don't know, I've never heard a single person talk about She's So Lovely in the last 25 years. Do you know what I mean? Like that movie really has disappeared. Nobody, not even to talk about like, man, that was a bust or whatever. Like just nobody remembers it, which is kind of crazy to me. He had also, though, Nick Cassavetti's directed Unhook the Stars, which is not a movie that I've seen, but I always forget that it was two-time SAG nomination. He had gotten a nomination for Jenna Rowlands, his mother in lead, and then Marissa Tomei is nominated in supporting for Unhook the Stars. So Nick Cassavetti sort of started as a well, you know, well-received filmmaker. And I think it just sort of like, from Unhook the Stars to She's So Lovely to John Q

went sort of like steadily, you know, downward. But he'll always sort of have, you know, the notebook, I suppose. The notebook checks will still keep coming in. Okay. So let's talk about Nicholas Sparks for a second. So the notebook is his first book, 1996. It does end up getting a sequel, interestingly enough, in 2003. The log line for which is, I don't know if books have loglines, forgive me, book Twitter. The book follows the life of Noah and Allie's daughter, Jane, and her husband, Wilson. God, this is so Nicholas Sparks, Jane and Wilson. While they are planning their daughter's wedding, Wilson decides he needs to recourt his wife to save their marriage. So that's the plot of the wedding. This sounds like a base

Nicholas Sparks' book that they were like, how do we make it sell more? Connected to the notebook vaguely. Yeah, make it 1997 again through science or magic. Yeah. Okay, so after the notebook is Message in a Bottle. Have you seen Message in a Bottle? Kevin Costner-Roburned. I sure saw that opening weekend in the theater.

Did you? Thoughts, opinions, feelings about message in a bottle? I remember people being like, this is a disaster. Is Paul Newman in that movie? I remember being like, Paul Newman was nice in that. Okay, that's good. A Walk to Remember is Mandy Moore and Shane West? Yes, this is...

Mandy Moore is dying, right? This to me is more explicitly courting the teen market, obviously. Well, she plays a girl who is sheltered by her family as conservative Christianity. Yes. And she's dying, and Shane West is like the rebel boy who's going to shake her out of her, whatever. Yeah, he's like the bad boy. It's a triangle, though, in that movie, right? It's, it's, there's, who's the third spoke?

There's always, like, one person who they don't end up with, who they don't end up with. Hold on. I'm pretty sure it's Jesus. Stop it. It's either you can love me or you can love Jesus. Hold on, hold on. Film of the same name. Mandy Moore.

So, again, the typical Nicholas Sparks film poster, which is Mandy Moore hugging up on, or Shane West hugging up on Mandy Moore from sort of side-saddle and their faces are very close together. No, I guess you're right. I guess it is. Jesus is the third spoke on that. The secret third thing is to you. The secret third thing. Who do you think plays her father? Peter Coyote. So the third thing is also, I don't know, Chevrolet. He's a reverend. And then Darrell Hanna plays Shane West's

mother. Where does Shane West fit in the Nina Virginia West drag family? Is he like a grand-drag granddaughter? He's the bouncer. He's the bouncer. Okay, so moving on. Then a book called The Rescue that, to my knowledge, has never been made into a movie unless it was made into a TV movie. Or they changed the title. Doesn't seem so. Doesn't seem so. Anyway, left some money on the table there. Okay. Then something called Abend in the Road, which also was not nominated or not turned into a feature film. That just sounds like the title of like the Christopher Guest, like movie spoofing a Nicholas Sparks.

Like, that's the book. Sure, sure. A bend in the road. Knights of Nordanthe, which I definitely watched, that was the reunion of Diane Lane and Richard Gear after Unfaithful. where he builds a house on stilts on the North Carolina coast, even though the elements will surely knock it down. Viola Davis, too, right? Viola Davis is her best friend, 100%.

Yes, Knights in Rodanthe. I watch Knights in Rodanthi. Classic, I'm on vacation in Cape Cod, and this is one of the DVDs that the house that we're staying at has there. So, yes. The Guardian? I don't think was made into anything. So much money left on the table there.

Okay, anyway. Dear John, a movie I definitely saw in theaters. No, no, I saw The Vow in theaters. Never mind. The Vow seems like a Nicholas Sparks movie is not a Nicholas Sparks movie. It isn't. Right. Dear John is Amanda Seifred and Channing Tatum.

Channing Tatum. The vow is Rachel McAdams and Channing Tatum. And Channing Tatum's booty. You see a lot of Channing Tatum's booty in The Vow. I don't know how much you see into Dear John because I've never seen Dear John. The choice was made into a movie, right? No? Yes.

Yes. That was the Benjamin Walker. That was sort of one later in the road. Oh, yes. That is the most recent Nicholas Sparks movie. We've gone almost a decade without a Nicholas Sparks movie. Yes. That, again, poster Benjamin Walker hugging Teresa Palmer from behind.

Whenever I say from behind, it sounds, it sounds filthier that it is. He's just, you know, they're, you know. Christian from behind. It's just sort of like a, um, how we spent our vacation. Yeah. Clicay. The lucky one comes next. That one I definitely saw.

Taylor Schilling, Zach, uh, Zach Efron, sticking her hand down his pants. He's a, um, a, um, a war veteran who comes home. and she's the widow of his war buddy. Again, one of these things that could have been generated by AI, this thing, this, you know, story. But yes. And they, she's got a kid and he lives in her barn or something. I'm just making these things up, but I think I'm like less off target than you think. Blythe Danner is in that movie playing, I think.

think his grandmother. God, we're also old. Okay. After the lucky one, the last song. This is the Miley movie that I haven't seen, but I shamefully kind of like that song. It's such a goopy ballad from that movie. But, like, I like it. That's the one where Greg Kinnear is her dad and he dies, right?

I haven't seen that. This is the one where Miley Cyrus and Liam Hemsworth get together. Yes. Okay. The last song. Then Safe Haven. Touchdown. As far as I, this is the one, this is the, what's her face, the dancer. Juliana Huff. Julianne Huff and Josh D'Mell. And the ghost of Kobe Smolders. Remember, that's the one where we think Kobe Smolders. Have you never seen Safe Haven? No. Girl. Okay. So Safe Haven is about Julian Huff, who has fleed her abusive husband and goes. like two towns over to go live and Josh Dumel plays a widower who he's got two kids and he's mourning the death of his wife and he's sort of on the rebound and he and Julianne Huff get together

and he protects her from her. Can I guess? Yeah. She makes friends with Kobe Smolders who it turns out is the ghost of his dead wife. Yeah. Is there to be like, it's okay if you fuck my husband. I did say ghost, so I gave you a little bit of an unfair advantage. Oh, I didn't hear you say ghost, but like... Yes, that's the twist. Like, I hate, it's this, like, it's this mentality that I hate, that it's like, well, I wonder if the ghost of his wife will be okay with me taking over the family and fucking her husband. Like, yeah, it's this, it's this, uh, 100%. And then there's the one original film, um, that was not based on, um, that was not based on.

Um, hold on, hold on, hold on, hold on. What's the one where it was not based on a novel and? IMDB says the longest ride is based on a novella. Okay, there's the longest ride. Um, the best of me is James Marsden. James Marsden back in the saddle, James Marsden and Michelle Monaghan. Um, I guess they're all based up. For some reason, I thought there was, there was at least one that was not based, was an original, was a Nicholas Sparks original, but maybe not. Anyway, that's a lot of fucking movies between 1999 and 2016. It's a lot of heteronormitivity regressiveness.

A lot of sun-dappled movie posters, and I only saw about half of them, and I never liked any of them more than, like, pretty good. The notebook is definitely the one I like the best of all of them. But where a man is not a man, if he's not a veteran, a dad, or a widower. I got to tell you, though. I got to say. And also, like, the directors are like, first of all, Lassa Hallstrom directed, oh, no, only two of them. I would have guessed that he directed more. But it's like, George C. Wolf directed Knights in Rodanthe, and Scott Hicks, director of Shrine, directed the lucky one.

And George Tillman Jr. directed the longest ride. That's the one with Scott Eastwood and Britt Robertson, and he's a, I think, a rodeo rider or something. She's wearing a cowboy hat in the poster that I imagine he took off his head and, like, placed upon her head. Anyway, it's just a lot. It's just a lot of this kind of thing. But anyway, what I'd say – oh, and Adam Shankman directed a walk to remember, you know? Anyway, I was comforted. Maybe this is just shadow me missing the Obama years.

But it's one of these things is just like, I was comforted when we had Nicholas Sparks movies. And I am less comforted now that we don't have Nicholas Sparks movies. It's really shocking that, like, Netflix hasn't paid him nine figures for some type of development deal because, like, that's where all of that stuff has migrated to, where they can spend even less making those things. making them not as possible. I was going to say they would have even less personality than they do.

Once again, this is what I'm saying about, like, yes, the plots are all AI generated, but there is a, there's an aesthetic, there's a connective tissue that makes them all a sub-classification of themselves. You know a Nicholas Spark. That's why everybody thinks the vow is a Nicholas Sparks movie, because you know what a Nicholas Sparks movie looks and feels like. and we would not have that on Netflix. That doesn't exist on Netflix. That one, you know what I mean? Like, you don't have anything where it's like, oh, this feels like this and this and this.

You have to be told, did you know that this director made all of these movies on Netflix? And you're like, oh, they all seem like nothing. And all right, we need to keep going on the list. Let's talk about the actors. We talked about James Gardner. Let's talk about Jenna Rollins. Two-time Oscar nominee, both for movies that she made with her husband, John Cassavetes.

A Woman Under the Influence. Here's my shame in all of this. I have not done the John Cassavetes, my summer of John Cassavetti's. One of these years I'm going to, maybe this summer. The one I think you'll shit over and that I have to constantly be reminded. She is not her other Cassavetti's acting nomination is opening night. Opening night is like constantly referenced in movies today. Okay.

Opening night is referenced by her smell, like, you're going to like opening night. So she's nominated for a woman under the influence. That's the one that is most often cited when you talk about why Jenna Rollins is a badass of modern cinema. One of the greatest screen performances of all time. She loses to Ellen Burston and Alice doesn't live here anymore. The great counterfactual is if we had just given Ellen Burstyn, best actress for The Exorcist, Jenna Rollins would have been free to win Best Actress for a Woman Under the Influence. I'm not sure if that happens because sometimes we like

to think that the second place thing is the one we think it should have been. They don't know. It would have won for Chinatown. There you go. And then she's nominated once again in 1980 for Gloria, a movie that I mostly know because Sharon Stone remade it

later on. She loses to Sissy Spacec and Coal Miner's daughter. Similar to Ellen Burstyn and Alice doesn't live here anymore. It's not like she lost to bad performances. She lost to two really good performances. I really love Sissy Spaceic and Cole Miner's daughter. I think she's great. Wasn't ever nominated ever again. Kind of surprising that she didn't get that nomination for Unhook the Stars in 96, especially because 96 was such a weird year. You could easily have seen Barbara Hershey not getting nominated for the portrait of a lady. You could easily have

seen who else? That's Bacal, Benoche, Hershey, Marianne, Jean-Baptiste. and 96, 96, 96, help, help, help, help, help. Sorry, I'll pull it up. Is it not Joan Allen? Did you say Joan Allen? Yes, Joan Allen for the Crucible.

Thank you. You could also say, I love Joan Allen on the Crucible. I think she's rad. But, like, the crucible had fallen apart. You could easily have seen Jenna Rowland's getting in ahead of a lot of those people. Even Marianne Jean-Baptiste, again, a nomination I wouldn't trade for the world. But I could have seen, you know, a nostalgia push. for Jenna Rollins getting in there. Anyway...

Marianne Jean-Baptiste is also a lead, so... Very true. But that only helps. That only helps people vote for you. So anyway, Jenna Rollins is one of those people who, it always seems like, true heads and critics appreciate and have always appreciated more than your typical academy member. Is that safe to say? Yes. And I think some of the more mainstream things she's done aren't. going to yield her. I will not. She's great in...

Skeleton key in such a manner, Chris. How dare you? But, like, she... She brings gravitas to sometimes material that is... We will talk about... One of these times we'll do playing by heart. We keep threatening it. We will be dancing about architecture sometimes. I don't think... I don't think the culture is ready for that movie, but I do want to talk about that movie. Okay. So Jenna Rollins, she plays a woman who has all... Alzheimer's, dementia, she's sundowning. It is hard to watch in a few scenes, if not for, I mean, it's impossible to watch a movie about somebody with Alzheimer's and not sort of like try and

like map it on to, you know, your own life, your own family, your own whatever. The people that you've dealt with that have had memory care issues. I mean, I do think that this movie, I mean, nobody's yelling at this movie. for lacking authenticity, but it does, it's a very broad presentation of... You can set your watch by the moment that she's going to snap back into, who are you? Like, you know, when she, it's, it paints by numbers in that scene. Again, Rollins and Garner are so good that they make that scene passable, I think.

But they are, to me, they are my least. favorite parts of this movie. I always sort of want them to go back to Gosling and McAdams. No offense to those two actors and no sort of shade to this story. But I think that they are presenting something, at least within the framework of a romantic drama, that up until this point, we hadn't seen a lot of that. Can I also say, remember how I, it's so funny, a couple weeks ago, maybe even less than that, Somebody had tweeted, boy, I bet Joe Reed's parents would hate challengers. And I sent that text, sent that tweet to our friend, former guest, Lewitz Pitesman. And I'm like, am I being read? Are my parents being read? What is this tweet about? And he's like,

what? I didn't see this tweet. And he's like, it's because you said on the podcast that your parents hate open-ended endings to movies. And I was like, oh, I totally forgot that I had said that on the podcast. That is, I'm sorry. That is not. an open-ended ending. Well, no, but I, but I would, that was sort of, that's beside the point, but, um, we know what happens next. Well, sure, fuck to do. We sure as hell do.

We do. All the ways. Docking. Yes. Um, so every time we, we pause and you don't hear anything, it's me making the finger in, in whole, uh, uh, Joe's being disgusting. I'm being disgusting on cam. Okay.

No, but what I'm saying was, the ending of The Notebook is exactly the kind of ending for people who like their movies to have, like, wrap it up endings. They die in bed together holding hands. It's so sweet. And, like, I'm not even, like, I'm not even going to look down my nose at that. Movies don't always need open-ended endings. I know critics love movies with open-ended endings. I know we do.

I know we love to be flattered by the idea that, like, I can tell you what happens from Or it's like, it doesn't matter how it ends. It's just the, you know. Or you just want to be left thinking about what you experience, whereas this ending, it gives you nothing to think about. Not a damn thing. Except, except it gives you something to feel about, which is these people got to, got to die together rather than experience the world, you know, without each other.

And I don't know. I'm just not going to, I refuse to look down my nose at people who, who, who, like it is what I'm saying. No, I understand. This isn't the best example for the thing I'm complaining about. No, but I know what you mean. I know what you mean. All right. We got to talk about Gosling, of course. So, as you had mentioned, a lot of people were up for these parts. Specifically, Ryan Gosling is said to have gotten his role over Hayden Christensen, who at this point had already been in the first attack of the clones and had kind of already been raked over the coals for it. So it's not surprising to me that they would go for somebody

else in Ryan Gosling. The quote that I wrote down from Wikipedia was, to prepare for the park, Gosling temporarily moved to Charleston, South Carolina prior to filming. During two months, he rode the Ashley River and made furniture. It's not the most extreme, like, version of I'm going to get into character, but I love the idea of just, like, Ryan Gosling making furniture down in

the Carolinas. I want to see that busted-ass couch he made because, like, that was not... Who owns that? Who owns a piece of furniture? Did they, like, sell it down in South Carolina? Does somebody down in Charleston just, like, have a Ryan Gosling original? And it's, like, a chair that, like, doesn't

balance or whatever. And it's, like, like, only two legs ever hit the ground at the same time? It's like, asked Picasso to make, like, to paint a couch, you know? I would have that behind a velvet rope in my house, though. A Ryan Gosling original, like, I wouldn't allow nobody to ever touch it, but I'd be like, that's my Gosling, that's my Gosling chair. And you consider that when Spielberg originally grabbed onto this, he envisioned it as a vehicle for Tom Cruise, so.

So that's how long, well, the book was 96. So even in 96, I think Tom Cruise is too old for this. Jesus Christ, Tom Cruise. I agree. Peter fucking Pan. Well, and especially if you're going to have him playing 16 or whatever. Yes. Characters age throughout.

Jesus. And maybe the idea of casting Tom Cruise is then at the end, you put him in old age makeup. And it's just Tom Cruise, the whole movie. So by this point, because, oh, sorry, continue. No, go ahead. Go ahead. I'll say what I was going to say when we're in a transitional place. Okay.

Because I was just going to say, up until this point, Gosling's done, he's been in Remember the Titans, speaking of a my dad special every time that movie's still his highest grossing movie. That's not La La Land and Barbie. That's amazing. Ryan Gosling, not a box office straw. No, and it makes me sad. It's, well, all right, I want to talk about that. Put a very, like, prominent pin in that. I know what you're going to bring up and we're going to argue. Okay. He's in Remember the Titans. He's in The Believer, which he gets a independent Spirit Award nomination for. He, okay, this lineup at the Indy Spirit Awards for 2001 Best Actor is a banger. So Tom Wilkinson wins for In the Bedroom. Other nominees were Gosling for The Belie, but then Brian Cox for L.I.E., Jake Gyllenhaal Donnie Darko and John Cameron Mitchell for Headwig and the Angry Inch. That is a cool ass lineup. I fucking love that. That's a Joe Reed special right there. After The Believer, he does murder by numbers, which is a junky little psychological thriller that I personally really like. Barbette Schroeder really laid it down with there, and Ryan Gosling and Sandra Bullock end up dating briefly. That movie is trash complimentary. It is. It's Leopold and Loeb by way of, like, I don't know, like the post-7 aesthetic in movies in crime thrillers, right? Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Their numbers mean something. Murder by numbers. And it's like, just kiss Michael Pitt and Ryan Gosling. Jesus Christ. He's in a movie called The Slaughter Rule that I've never really investigated very much. I don't really have. Feels like one of those things that was like, it was Canadian. I don't know.

United States of Leland, a bad movie that sort of, to me, is one of the epitome of bad aughts indie. And, like, I give a long leash to bad odds Sundance indie. you know how much of a long leash I give those movies. I like Thumb Sucker. I like a lot of the chum scrubber. The chum scrubber. I like Thumb sucker. I like Thumb sucker.

Thumb sucker is a Mike Mills movie. Thumb sucker is good. Yeah. But United States of Leland is... I did play United States of Leland in Cinematrix one day, and I got there from... Because I think it was for Gosling, and I was like, what's the movie where Ryan Gosling has otts twink hair? United States of Leland.

Yes. But anyway, and then that's the movie he makes prior to the notebook. So the notebook really, it's very early in Gosling's film career. He had, you know, he was still really proving himself. So I feel comfortable in saying that this movie really kind of made it for him. The thing I wanted to talk about with Gosling, we've talked a lot, we've done a lot of Gosling, right? We've done crazy stupid love. We've done place beyond the pines. So we've done that sort of mid-era, middle era for Gosling. I want to talk about the thing that you brought up, which is Ryan Gosling is not a box office straw, which does tend to keep getting. proved and proved again they're all for good movies though i haven't seen the fall guy but i i trust the people who have said that the fall guy is at least pretty good i hated it and the further i get away from it i hate it more i really think that there is you were also you were also you were opposed to that movie from the very beginning because it looked bad and guess what it's bad like it i'll see for myself that is a movie that is only functioning by the

jet engine that is Ryan Gosling's charisma. Everything else about that movie falls to tatters. It is barely functioning, I think. There's like no, like, it's, the set pieces are kind of poorly shot and like they're just like stitched together. I fully intend to see it and make my, make up my own mind about it. We'll see. But this is the Barbie into Fall Guy narrative. is the exact same thing that happened after La La Land with Blade Runner 2049, where La La Land happens.

It's a big success on all sort of fronts. And everybody was like, Ryan Gosling has finally turned the corner and is ready to become like a movie star. For people forgetting that we don't make movie stars anymore, even the people in billion-dollar movies aren't movie stars. They play characters who are the stars and the ancients of those movies. People always forget that. So then Blade Runner 2049 comes out, and I am one of the people who was guilty of this. I remember writing an article where I was like Ryan Gosling is now poised to be our new big movie star with Blade Runner 2049 coming out. And Blade Runner 2049 goes out and disappoints at the box office, as did First Man.

And it was like, oh, we got burned on that one. we don't, I guess we have to admit that like Ryan Gosling is not a wide-ranging movie star. And then Barbie got everybody's hopes up again. And we all forgot that the star of Barbie is not Ryan Gosling. The star of Barbie is not Margo Robbie. The star of Barbie is fucking Barbie. And we don't have movie stars anymore. We have IP. You know what I mean? That's just the reality that we have created. That's the hell that we have fashioned for ourselves in this culture right now. And it means that Ryan Gosling can't open a movie like the Fall Guy that looked, I know you didn't think it looked fun, but I think a lot of people would have, you know, that movie 15 years ago,

20 years ago, is a success. Do you know what I mean? It just is. I do think that this is something that I'm kind of starting to be of the mindset that like, no, Ryan Gosling, as an example, is a movie star, but because there are other revenue. streams that we just know nothing about. They don't report VOD numbers. They don't, you know, let us know how movies are doing on streaming and such. So, like, we really have no idea how much money a fucking movie makes anymore. I guarantee you, Blade Runner 2049 is a movie that is going to be making Warner Brothers money in perpetuity. It's a movie we're going to be talking about when we talk about Ryan Gosling in perpetuity. That movie is not the failure I would argue that everybody thinks it is because we just don't know. Look at the Fablemans. The Fableman's made money. It also fucking rules is the other thing. Blade Runner 2049 fucking rules. And, and I'm just I mean, I understand that people don't like it. But like you look at something like the Fablements, which at the box office, the only thing we have actual data on didn't, it failed. But like,

there is no universe where that movie didn't do well on VOD. Like, and like, if they're continuing to put movies on VOD, like Challengers, as it's like just becoming monoculture, on VOD this early, it's because they're making money doing it. Can I tell you, though, the double negative of that of putting challengers on VOD so early? For one thing, it cuts off theatrical at the knees. For another, it means every fucking Yahoo, who doesn't want to watch the whole movie, but is just going to, like, make a clip of the movie, and, like, it makes it go bad viral. Originally, Challenger's was good viral, and now what they're doing is they're going to post the kissing clip and being like, look at these two, they don't know how to kiss.

Well, the day that any movie makes it on to stream, any movie that people are talking about it, it makes it on to streaming, the first day that it's on there and everybody starts clipping literally everything, it's awful. It's the worst day. It's the worst fucking day. It's annoying. It's so annoying. It's basically at this point, just flat out piracy. I'll watch Josh O'Connor slap Mike Feist. boner all day, and that's fine. But it's the marriage story thing again. It's the I'm going to

clip this one scene and make fun of it, not being at all in context. Again, I'm going to bring up Lewis Pitesman, this is your life, because I'm mentioning you twice in the same podcast, where he brings up on Twitter, he's like, they're also teenagers who've never kissed other boys before. Like, it is going to be awkward. It is going to be a little, you know, it's supposed to look a little sort of like, you know, grasping for. Or, you know, whatever. I think even when you see stuff like that and it's people joyfully, like, not knocking a movie down a peg, but like sharing it because like they love it or they're ecstatic about it. It's just like...

There were people. No, that thing went to a place of like, this movie doesn't know how people kiss. Shut up. Shut the fuck up. But like all this to say, I think like Ryan Gosling is one of the movie stars right now. And just because the fall guy hasn't made $100 million, it doesn't mean that, like, people are disinterested in him. It just means that it's a movie that people will catch up to in a way that... Here's what I will then amend my thing to.

I don't know how much they're catching up to it. There are... People don't leave the house for movie stars anymore. People leave the house for a character. People leave the house for IP. People will, you know, that's... Because you're not wrong about... alternate revenue streams and VOD and all of that. And it's frustrating that we can't, we don't have

any kind of, you know, yardstick to judge that against. Right. The yardstick used to be Tom Cruise is a movie star because all of his movies make money in theater. I would even argue that Tom Cruise is no longer movie star, but the title Mission Impossible and Top Gun. You know what I mean? Like those are the stars. But like people won't get off their ass and leave the house for hardly anyone these days. And it is, it makes it, it's a more of a challenging thing, but it also to me is more impressive when something like Oppenheimer does well, because like, oh, at the very least, we know that Christopher Nolan has made enough of a name for himself that like the Normies will, you know, make these supreme sacrifice and leave their home to go see something. And I think

Ryan Gosling right now is still as big of a movie star as there is. People were so excited for what he was doing in Barbie. But Barbie's also the example of like, I think what's unique about Ryan Gosling is that he's like, he's like a Pacino or a young Pacino where it's like he exists equally comfortably with one leg in a movie star role and the other leg in a character actor role. And like, yeah, that's kind of what we want to see him. And he maybe even, we want him to be flexing both muscles at the same time. Not to be like Gosling greater sign Pacino, but like Gosling's funnier than Pacino ever was. Well, Pacino wasn't allowed to be funny. Sure, but that's what I mean, but that's like another, that's a club that Gosling's got in his bag. You know what I mean? That

he can be straight up funny. I know you don't like the nice guys, but like I do and a lot of people too. So. But the nice guys is another example of a movie that like people talk about it like it's an objective failure. But since that movie was in theaters, it has amassed more and more. people that say they love it, that catch up to that movie. Yeah. And it's just like, because we have no yardstick for these things, it just gets to be chalked up in perpetuity as a failure when it's probably not. Did you see the clip of Emily Blunt and Ryan Gosling doing Fall Guy Press, and she's

essentially like reciting the scene from the nice guys to him? She's like, you were so, the scene where she's like, you know, it's the scene where like the girl comes up to you and you're like, shoot me, shoot me, shoot me, shoot me. and then like... The best drunk acting you've ever seen. It's one of my favorite bits where you go, come on, shoot me, shoot me, shoot me. And then you fall off.

What do you do? Do a little bit of acting? Me too. Hey, shoot me. What? Shoot me, shoot me, fucking shoot me. Bang. It's pretty good.

He goes and tumbles down the hill. He falls over the rallying and he tumbles down the hill. It's objectively very cute and funny. I like those two. I like, Emily Blunt seems like, a fun person to hang around with. I know that's the, like... Even though she's, uh, Tori.

Well, she's married to John Krasinski, of course. Like, they... Secret Republican, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But, like, she's friends with Anne Hathaway, and she's friends with Ryan Gosling. So, like, maybe I can have one Tory who I stand. She's, she's the one Republican you choose to laugh. There we go. There we go. Sorry, um, I don't even fucking know. Bo Derek. Um, remember when, like, Bo Derek was, like, the one Republican woman in Hollywood

that people would point to for, like, decades. And the one that, like, Republicans would, like, invite to the Republican convention because they're like, we got one. We got one. We got one. We would start. She's a pretty lady. It's Bo Derek. All right. Anyway. Let's transition into Rachel McAdams, which is to say. Yes. You mentioned the second choice for the role would have been Hayden Christensen, as made public and known and popularized during Spears William. the other choice for Rachel McAdams' role was Britney Spears. And so, like, there is... You have to respect this movie. I don't even know, man. Hayden Christensen and Britney Spears in this movie.

Yeah. But, like, they had the option to go with, like, bigger names, bigger, like... Yes. Cache. And they chose to go with these, like... The Canadians. They went to... They chose Canadians.

They chose... They actively. 100% Canadians instead of 50% Canadians. And truly, if that doesn't inspire other movies, be brave, cast Canadian. And that's all I'm going to say. But then we got these two great performers, like, kind of catapulted. And catapulted by, you know, the power of good work in crap. Though, like, this is also on the back of McAdams coming out in Mean Girls, which couldn't be a more different.

Well, and Mean Girls was what? March, April. It was in the spring that year, I'm pretty sure. Had the hot chick come out yet? Because I would also argue Rachel McAdams funny in the hot chick. That is your most unwell take. She's really funny. Chris Fyle coming out

in favor of the hot chick in Czech's calendar, 2024. I'm not in favor of the movie. The hot chick was in 2002. It is besides her performance on the Canadian television series Slings and Arrows. Oh, Slings and Arrows was actually

Okay, start in 2003. Okay, that was her sort of big claim to fame if you are Canadian and a theater geek. But yeah, Mean Girls and the Notebook are within months of each other in 2004. And then 2005, boom, wedding crashers, box office, smash, Red Eye, Secret Banger, Family Stone, Holiday Family Classic. So, like, boom, boom, boom, all of a sudden, within the span of two years, Rachel McAdams is in five movies that a lot of people have seen and are all. good. Wedding Crashers is... Wedding Crashers, I don't relish the fact that I laughed as many times as I laughed in Winning Crashers. It's easily the worst of the five. She's objectively good in that movie that it's just like... It doesn't give her anything to do. Doesn't need her to be as big. We have one funny lady role in this movie and we're giving it to Isla Fisher. And Rachel McAdams, you are also here. But like...

But she's really good. Like, she sells the romance of that movie that it's like, I don't buy Rachel McAdams going for Owen Wilson, period, but she sells it and she's good in the movie. I could buy Rachel McAdams going for Owen Wilson in other contexts, maybe not that version of Owen Wilson, who's like, Owen Wilson, whose best friend is Vince Vaughn is not your best version of Owen Wilson. That's not the one you want to get together with. Sure, sure. You're part of Red Eye Hive, right? You're a good thinking. Yeah, I like Red Eye.

I haven't seen it in a while, but it's a good video. I should see it. It's literally like two minutes long. It's so short. Go watch it again. Red Eye Phone Booth double feature. You'll be done in two and a half hours. I swear to God.

Red Eye is, wait, Red Eye is exactly 85 minutes and phone booth is 79 minutes. For the duration of the little time, it'll take you to eat a cheesy gordita crunch. You will have finished with Red Eye. Also good. Yes, phone booth also very good. So anyway, I want to... We need another Rachel McAdams Oscar nomination. And I feel like now that she's a chance nominee...

We had our chance last... Fall last award season with Are You There God? It's me, Margaret. Yeah, she's a Tony nominee. I love that. Good for fucking Rachel. And not just a Tony nominee. Like, it really doesn't feel like Star Does Broadway Show gets to. No, she's getting a winner at this point. I don't know when the Tonys are, though. Do you think she could win? She's nominated against someone that's like, oh, that's the performance. Is she nominated against like, is Sarah Paulson going to win? Who's going to win that? Oh, Sarah Paulson's going to win. Is she going to win? Yeah, yeah. That's a, that's a huge role and apparently a huge. performance, and, like, you know, Rachel McAdams is more low-key, but, like, discerning theater tastes have been raving about Rachel McAdams in that show. Yes. No. And every time I see it, I'm like, good. Good. Good for her. Fucking good. You're the Jessica Walter meme. Good for her. Um. No, no, like, unironically, good for her. Oh, I sometimes, I sometimes mean that un-earned. Deserves. Yeah. Did you see the thing going around the other day about, like, Sarah Paulson, talking about some actress who gave her unwanted

notes like 20 years ago. And I'm like, man, you're still holding on to that one, huh? First of all, that story is crazy. So, like, Sarah Paulson justified in her hilarious outrage. But she also comes across as a lunatic, bringing that up at this point

in her career when she's so successful. But does that woman not sound like a lunatic also? She does. But, like, hanging on to that thing when you're as successful as Sarah Paulson is, is demented behavior, as far as I'm concerned. Like, let it the fuck go. There's the Sarah Paulson story. out there. Oh, yeah, I've heard him.

Wait, I want to give the whole spiel list of everybody besides Britney Spears who almost got the... Oh, I just need to say, Brittany Spears would have sucked in this movie. Like, sorry, sorry, Brittany. Didn't they get Ryan Gosling on the record or something? Because she did screen test with him, and he was like, oh, yeah, she was great. He's so nice. He's Canadian. He's so very nice. Very polite, that boy. Okay, Jessica. Somebody got on the record as saying she was really. good. Jessica Beale, because Jessica Beale was up for every female role in that age range for like a span of five years. Jessica Bill was up for everything. Jamie King. Jane McGregor, who is not a name that I recognize off the top of my head, Jennifer Lawrence. This would have been well before anything that she was in. Kate Beck and Sale. That can't be true. She would have been a teenager. Maybe they were casting a wide net. Cape Beck and Sale. Cape Bosworth, Amy Adams, Mandy Moore.

Walk to Remember, makes sense. Scarlett Johansson, the same year that she's in, what's her 2004 movies? In Good Company and a love song for Bobby Long. Maybe that's the counterfactual. Rachel McAdams does a love song for Bobby Long and Scarlett Johansson does the notebook. Claire Danes, Jennifer Love Hewitt, remember her, Ashley Judd and Reese Witherspoon. Some of those make more sense than others, but I'm, of course, incredibly glad that Rachel got this one. Let's transition that into then the awards of it all, because she's nominated at the MTV Movie Awards for Best Female Performance.

I think that one she loses to Lohan, too, right? She loses that one, but she wins breakthrough, but for mean girls, which if you're going to give it to the breakthrough for this or mean girls, if, like, that's your option for Rachel McAdams and you choose mean girls, taste. I mean. She also wins for best on-screen team as part of the Mean Girls. But anyway, for The Notebook, she's nominated for female performance. She loses. Obviously, the big MTV Movie Award moment for the notebook. We've talked about it before.

We should keep talking about it for the rest of time. It wins best kiss. Maroon 5 starts playing on the PA. Ryan Gosling is Wrepping for Darfur Rachel McAdams takes off her jacket to reveal a A vest

A boostier top. It's a, she's wearing a bootie. It's like the Aft Moose DeA best thing. Selina's father would have been aghast at what Rachel McAdams is wearing. She does a running start. If you've ever seen the so you think you can dance routine set to Celine Dion's, then you look at me.

It is very Lauren Gottlieb coded the way she runs across the stage and leaps into his arms and she plants one on him they of course I believe they started dating after the movie was filmed

maybe like they got together on the press tour for that or something like that but I don't think it I think sometimes people I think the stories about this one kind of get away from people and some people started to be like

they didn't get along on the set I've never seen any thing that has said that. I think people made that part of it up. I thought they refuted that. Yeah. The Gosling McAdams relationship timeline is confusing because I also thought they quietly got back together at some point. A little, for a brief moment. Yes, they did. Or at least that's what I had also heard. McAdams, so those are the two MTV Movie War nominations. Obviously, best kiss will live on forever. It's not only the kiss. It is the reaction to all of the little children in the audience where it's like Lindsay Lohan, Hillary Duff, take a moment

to put their feud aside and just gasp at McAdams and Gosling. And it's, that's the moment, truly, where you realize that like Rachel McAdams is how many years older than Lindsay Lohan. It's, um, she's born in 1978 and Lohan is born in 86. So they're eight years apart. And you don't realize that, I think, until that moment at the MTV Awards, when you see literally Lindsay Lohan is like looking at her big sister and being like, oh, that's what lies ahead of me. And, you know, that's, you know, it's very admiration heavy. And so other than the MTV Movie Awards, though, this is the thing people don't realize. This movie was nominated for 11 Teen Choice Awards, winning eight. It is The Lord of the Rings return of the king. No, because it didn't sweep. It's the, what is it of, what's the Oscar equivalent of 11 nominations and 8 wins? It's the Slumdog Millionaire. Oppenheimer? It's the Oppenheimer of the Teen Choice Awards. I'm like, surely this must be a record. And then I go and look it up. And of course, like one of the Twilights, Twilight Eclipse got 16 nominations or something like that. It's just like, they also kind of invent categories. I swear to God, they're inventing categories for certain movies. Because look at the ones, eight wins, choice movie drama, choice, choice, date movie. Choice movie actor drama. That's Ryan Gosling. Choice movie actress drama. That's McAdams. Choice movie breakout performance male. Gosling wins. McAdams is nominated for that, but she once again loses to Lindsay Lohan. Lindsay Lohan is plaguing her throughout this

faky, fake award season. Choice movie love scene as Gen Z drops their monocles and can't believe how salacious these millennials were awarding a love scene. There is nothing about a love scene to be awarded, says Gen Z. Choice movie Liplock and now the Twitter kissing police sit aghast because the Twitter knows what good kissing is. Choice movie chemistry. It loses the aforementioned to McAdams Breakthrough Award. It loses Best Summer movie to Spider-Man too. Fine. It's nominated for Best Dance Scene and IMDB does not show who won that. But I'm trying to think what would have, Shelby Dance was that year, but I can't

imagine the Teen Choice Awards were into Shelby Dance. Maybe the little Madley Portman movement in Garden State wins best dance. I don't know. Anyway, the Teen Choice Awards, but like this is what I mean by like

teenagers made this movie happen is I think the critical establishment would have been surprised to see that the notebook had any sort of like life after release whatsoever because it was pretty well sort of tossed aside. The reviews of it are telling, right? Where I wrote down a few of them. So Scott Tobias, who I love and has always been incredibly friendly to me, and I'm not like calling you out, Scott, but says, in a romance where paradise is a duck-filled pond, it helps to be

mild-mannered. I think this is a statement that doesn't understand how. young people are about to take this movie. Do you know what I mean? Right, right. People who like... But it did still play to the fartier crowd. Like, I do think that it is a joint sleigh between teens and Christian moms that this movie is so huge. But it's anything but mild-mannered for the people who love it, because the people who love

it, like, it gets their blood... Oh, no, it's hot, it's spicy, it's sexy. Wesley Morris, another critic I love, did not care for it also. He says, considering the sunny, relatively poor... pleasurable romantic business that precedes it. The elderly stuff seems dark, morbid, and forced upon us. Manola Dargis said Casavetes isn't much of a director, and he never settles on a mood, which he seems intent on ruining with hiccups of goofiness.

But, she says, there's an underlying humanity to his scenes, a sense that movies are made by people for other people. I don't disagree with what Manola says here, honestly. That seems about right. You know who loved it? Rex Reed, who says, how rare to see him. see a film that says there is still a value system out there, that being thoughtful and caring is not uncool. Maybe Grex is why you think this is a Christian movie. Maybe that's

it. Noted Christian. And then finally, Roger Ebert said, he also liked it. Now, here is a story that could have been a tearjerker, but no wait, it is a tearjerker. It's just that it's a good one. I would also agree with Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. Robert. What am I grandma? Okay. M-for-G's predicted. General. I love that like the bifurcation of this movie is that like 11 teen choice award nominations, but also for AARP M-Frigi nomination. This is what I'm saying.

This is what I've been saying. It's a movie for all. Okay. Win's Best Grown-up Love Story. As it should. This is a movie that is made to win Best Grown-Up Love Story. Weird competition, I will say, for 2004. Shall we Dance, Gear and Sarandon, okay.

In Good Company. Dennis Quaden, Mark Helgenberger. First of all, not what that movie is about. I know sometimes the M4Gs do that, where they're like, we're going to nominate this subplot that, like, gets maybe two scenes. Even less what that movie is about, the clearing for Helen Mirren and Robert Redford. That is a thriller of friends. That's a thriller where Willem Defoe, like, terrorizes Robert Redford, right?

And she's like... Yeah, something to that degree. Yeah. Also nominated for Best Time Capsule, a long winner to Lovely, Beyond the Sea, Gross, The Aviator, Shore, and Vera Drake. Once again... This is the most confusing. Once again, Best Movie Time Capsule leaves me in tatters.

I don't understand it. I don't know what's going on. I understand that like DeLlovely, oh, remember when we had Cole Porter songs? Oh, Beyond the Sea. Remember when we had Bobby Darren songs? Oh, the Aviator. Remember when everything was pastel colored and Kate Hepburn played golf? And then it's like Vera Drake, remember when abortion was illegal and women were dying in back alleys

and old ladies had to perform abortions for people in England? You just have to say to the AARP M4G voting. committee. You can just have a production design category. You can just do that because I think that's what they mean. This category that is always deranged. It's just like, do you mean production design? Uh-huh. Uh-huh. Yep. Totally. Totally. The notebook also nominated for Best Movie for Jeez. Loses to Ray, which sure, I think Ray is a better movie, but I like the notebook better because I don't love musician biopics in general. Other nominees...

Ray's at least a good one. It at least, like, has full musical sequences. Ray feels like a musical, like as much as it feels like a... I always... I never will agree with that. I don't think it is a musical, but I think it's a biopic first. But anyway, it's not bad. The Aviator, good movie.

Sideways, good movie. Kinsey, good movie. In Good Company, I remember so little. about this movie. We should do that movie. We should do that movie. Give us a Scarjo a moment again. And then Jenna Rollins is nominated for Best Actress, and she loses to Anne Reed and the

mother, a movie I still haven't seen, even though it's about sexy, sexy Daniel Craig as a... Yeah, it's Anne Reid having an affair with Daniel Craig. Get it, girl. Other nominees, Merrill Streep and the Manchurian candidate, speaking of movies we should do. Chloris Leachman and Spanglish, speaking of movies we have done, Lily Tomlin and I Heart Ruckabees, ditto. And Susan Stranded into Shelby Dance, the M4G's, I think rightly so, were into Shelby Dance. Shelby Dance is made for the M4G's audience. So that's fine. That's also, I think, the Weinstein co-movie that they're showing up for. Oh, that's interesting.

Okay. All right, Chris, a very short-guessing game for you. Before we recorded this while I was doing my research, I watched both the theatrical trailer and one of the 30-second TV spots. So the theatrical trailer features original score from two previously produced movies. The TV spot features, of course, a pop song that had been a hit, I would say hit, earlier than 2004. First of all, I want to see if you can cold guess any of them, and then I'll try and guide you there with hints. My two guesses are the callings wherever you will go and show. and she will be loved by Maroon 5. Well, you're saying she will be loved because that's the song that they play at the MTV Movie Awards,

and that's a very good educated guess, and I like your thought process. You're wrong on both of those, even though the callings wherever you will go would have been incredible for a TV spot for the notebook. That is a movie that came up on my shuffle the other day. That is a song that came up on my shuffle the other day. And I literally was like, we're back. We're so back. It's the callings wherever you will go once again. That's a good song.

I stand by that song. That hits my cold play, Gene. I guess, somewhere, like, that's hitting, that's hitting my good spot. It was definitely in a Nicholas Sparks trailer of some kind. So, okay, it's a movie, it's a song that was sung by a female artist, although the female artist is better known for being part of a group, a female group. Okay. Sort of an alt, alt, uh, female group.

Interesting. That is named after a movie character. a movie character from like the 1970s that is one of those like movies that like all kids watch when they're younger and is revered still Oh, Varucasalt. Yes.

So what's the... Who's in Veruca Salt? Maybe I'm not... Yeah. Well versed in Veracal. The song is also used in the Captain Correlli's Mandolin trailer. Oh, okay. Um...

Ooh. Do you remember Nina Gordon at all? Nina Gordon is the artist. Do you remember the song Tonight and for the rest of my life? If I could play it for you, you would probably know it. From the first time he saw her. What are you doing, Annette? I'm busy.

What can I do to change your mind? He would love her forever. Probably. Okay. Because this is a trailer. That's a big... I remember at one point, one of our radio stations here in Buffalo became like Alice at like 92, whatever.

And like, Alice was like very... it was like the VH1 of radio stations. And so it was very Lilith Fair-coded when Lilith Fair was happening. That was the first time because our alternative station never played like Sarah McLaughlin and, you know, Alice would. And so all that. So Nina Gordon's tonight for the rest of my life was definitely a main play. That's where you get with like your Meredith Brooks's and your, you know, Macy Gray's and that kind of thing. Anyway, the theatrical trailer.

two pieces of movie score, side by side. They fit together well. One of them was a best picture nominee from a few years before. One of them is from a movie that we did an exceptions episode on. Got it. Um, so before this that we've done an exception on, is it the mirror has two faces? It's not. It's really like well known. Like, they're both movies that like it's both pieces of score that like you've heard in other contexts they're sort of used kind of a lot pleasantville pleasant fill exactly pleasantville gets the back half of the trailer the front half of the trailer what was you texted me something when you first started watching the notebook you were like 10 minutes into it and you texted me that the first few minutes of this

movie are very it's very pure michigan coded okay do you remember that the music that they use for the pure michigan ads american beauty thomas newman no it's rachel portman uh sider It is Rachel Portman's ciderhouse rules. Very good, yes. As busy as the world gets, there are still times when things move a little slower, when life is a little simpler, and the local color looks good enough to eat. Welcome to harvest time. When Mother Nature puts on a whole new wardrobe, and we look at life in a whole new way.

So pull out that favorite sweater and grab yourself a little piece of Pure Michigan. So the theatrical trailer is Siderhouse Rules followed by Pleasantville. It's like, perfecto. I love it. I love it so much. I think that's maybe all I have. What are my few notes that I've worked on on this? Let's move up to the IMDB game.

Wait, before I want to just say, the stash on Rachel McAdams's dad in this movie. Why? What's happening? Who made that decision? What's going on? it's so distracting. It's so, it looks like, um, it looks like guess who? You know how in guess who? Yeah. Like all the facial, it's like half of them have rosacea. Yes. And like, you would have to be like a really pronounced piece of facial hair to like set it apart. He looks,

it's, he's very guess who coded. Um, yeah. I did write down Joan Allen saying trash, trash, trash. I want that in a, in a clip. Um, I also just, wrote down, girl, not sex in this filthy house, because they start to have sex in the, before he he renovates the house. He literally like, put down that tetanus shot, girl. He puts down a blanket, and I'm like, that is not thick enough. That is, that is not enough. That is a smallpox blanket. She finally, and, uh, he brought that back from the war. She, she, she ultimately is not comfortable enough to have sex in that setting. And like, girl, I get it, because I would not be either. That is, yes, tetanus at your, tetanus of you're lucky. Like, honestly, you're probably

probably getting like wood termites or something. Yeah, termites in your who-hoo before us all, yeah, at minimum. Okay. IMDB game. Chris, why don't you tell our wonderful listeners how we play the IMDB game? Every week we end our episodes with the IMDB game where we challenge each other with an actor or actress just had to guess the top titles, top four titles that IMD says they are most known for.

If any of those titles are television, voice-only performances, or non-acting credits, will mention that up front. After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining titles release years as a clue, if that's not enough. It just becomes a free-for-all of hints. Free-for-all of hints is what we're getting at. Chris, would you like to- It's been a while since it's just the two of us. I know, I know. Having fun. Would you like to give or guess first?

I'll guess first. That's- Okay. So, we didn't mention that Nick Cassavetti's, in addition to being a director and writer, we didn't talk about how he's like the henchman in face-off. I always get knocked out by that that he's like fairly prominent in in faceoff but anyway castor troy's henchman uh yeah he's he's like the main henchman for castor troy um oh make a note of that next time you watch face off um anyway one of three siblings who are children of jena rollins and john cassovetties all of whom are filmmakers in one sense or another uh alexandra cassavetes has directed um nothing i've ever heard Oh, a segment of New York, I Love You.

So there's that. Zoe Cassavetti's directed a movie called Broken English in 2007 that I remember because I think Parker Posey got an Independent Spirit Award nomination for that movie. But anyway, one of the folks in that film is Josh Hamilton, an actor I really love. And we've never done an IMDB game on Josh Hamilton before. It is going to be kind of hard, but I will hint you through it. But anyway, Josh Hamilton's IMDB, all acting, no television, all film. Isn't he in the Hurley-Burley movie? He might be, but that is not in his known for.

Let me see if he's in. I think he was in the Hurley-burly revival is well. Oh, shit. Yeah, because he might have been, I think. He did just so much theater. Yes. Yes. Well, 8th grade.

Eighth grade. Bingo, you got one. Um... I'm not counting her librae as a guess because I don't think that was an actual guess. I feel like he's in a bomb back somewhere, but I can't remember what. Is he in, like, is he in Francis Ha? He's in Francis Ha. Remember the scene where she, like, starts, like, babbling about how when you see your person across the room, whatever.

Yeah, he's, like, one of the dinner party people. Yeah. Yes. Is that. He's the one, I think, who has to how. or has the flat in Paris where she goes and stays when she has her ill-advised

trip to Paris. Can I have one for Postenboots? I know that's not, yes, it did have, I don't know. It got a Golden Globe nomination. We need to do. It's generally one of my favorite. Maybe that's my birthday movie this year.

Remember how you let me do mermaids one year for my birthday? Maybe we can do Francis Hoth. Sure. Sure, sure. I love that movie. Okay, two more. So you got two.

You've got no wrong so far. Francis Hoth is on there. Wow. Okay. Um, not going to happen, but if I got a perfect score on Josh Hamilton. No, you got the two easier ones, unfortunately. The next two are the harder ones. Yeah, because they're going to be random and they might be like big movies where he plays like, I don't know, someone who gets eaten by a zombie. That's what I imagine, like, the Hollywood career of Josh Hamilton. I will say, you're not right, but you hit on a couple of interesting phrases there. Zombie? No. Oh, then I forget anything else.

What would the zombies be doing? Eating. Eating what? Dead. Eating what? Flesh. Yes. Humans.

Yes. People. Yes. Flesh is in the title. No. The action of what you just said. Eating flesh? Yes.

From. Cannibalism? Yeah. But not zombies. Cannibal. But not zombies. Hannibal? No.

Was he on the program animal? No, but it's all movies anyway. Okay. The... It's another cannibal movie. Not the cook the thief, his wife, and her lover, which I just saw. No, less sinister. Fun cannibals.

No, not fun. But, like, it's not like they were, like, killing people and eating them for fun. so they're already dead and then we eat them yes oh alive yes he's in alive with his buddy yes yes yes wow all right this last one i know i'm already just giving you hints but this one is a hard one um i basically don't remember this movie very well it is a um thriller horror where he plays husband to an actress who has sort of been in both film and TV, but mostly TV, has had multiple actually successful TV shows, starting in the 90s, and then also one in the aughts. Jessica Beal?

No, better than Jessica Beal. Sarah Michelle Geller? No, but like same network Jessica Beale was also the same network They were all probably in the same promos together Katie Holmes Nope, but you're circling the You're circling the right one

Michelle Williams Nope, not that show but like you're circling the They're probably almost Yes What other show Played the titular character on one of those shows Carrie Russell There you go

is it Antlers? It's not Antlers. Antlers sucks. It's more of a generic title than Antlers. What's her other horror movie? I think I've seen it. I haven't, but like, it's from the producers of insidious and sinister,

say the title that is playing on IMDB right now that I'm not looking at. It's not Blackburn. That's Elizabeth Banks. No, but the title is sort of, it's, it. Like that. It thematically rhymes a little. Not black, but. Red.

No, not a color, but like. Dark. Yes. What can be dark? Night. What is dark at night? Dark skies? Dark skies.

I have not seen this, didn't know either. of them are in it. Yeah, yes. They see things in the dark skies. Um, sorry, I know we both had trouble finding, uh, names for this one. I pulled somebody we pulled before, but in fairness, we, it was from like episode 50. You know, you know, my memory is going. I shouldn't make a joke. Uh, it is hilarious, though, that this is what I picked for you after you made me do Josh Hamilton. Much respect to the great Josh Hamilton. Yes.

I mentioned that this was originally picked up by Steven Spielberg who envisioned it for one Mr. Thomas Cruz. I have pulled for you. Fuck, Tom Cruise. See, this is hard because it could conceivably be any of like six

different Mission Impossible movies. I do think you will get to years. Yeah. I'm going to say Jerry McGuire is one of them. Jerry McGuire is one of them. Okay. For some reason, I think movies where people play the title character helps. I have nothing to back that up, but we'll see.

It's one of, at least one of the top guns. I'm going to say, is Maverick too recent? I'm going to say Top Gun. Correct. Okay. So it's going to be, one of them is going to be unwell. One of them is going to be like, Not night and day, but like something along those lines.

I'm going to say born on the 4th of July. Incorrect. His first Oscar nomination, though, so. Yes, yes. With his new teeth, because I'm so obsessed with talking about his old. You are. I love how obsessed you are. Ever since I watched The Outsiders, I've been like, Tom's original teeth.

Have you ever Googled the thing about people who have one center tooth? No. Look that up about Tom Cruise and having one. one center tooth. It's, it's, because you know how people mostly have, like, teeth that sort of, like, are symmetrically, yeah, side by side. Some people have one tooth directly in the middle of their teeth, and it's like, there's, like, theories about those kinds of people. Um, anyway. You won wrong, two correct so far.

Mission Impossible Rogue Nation. Incorrect. So you're getting your years. Your years are in 1996 and 2003. Mission Impossible, the first one. Correct. Which I should have guessed. And then 2003?

Yes. So Minority Report was 2002. Where the Worlds was 2005. Vanilla Sky is 01. What if the Oprah show was in his known for? what if it should be it really should it should um what if the Alex Gibney doc going clear what if the today show moment where he uh calls Matt Lauer of all the things to call Matt Lauer um and you settled on glib um anyway Tom Cruise O3 wait this should be easy and I'm finding it strangely vexing hold on Oh, 3. Where is his career?

I will take this moment to say... Wait, is it the Last Samurai? It is the Last Samurai. What the fuck is going on with the Last Samurai in the IMB game? Yeah, you tricked me on Last Samurai with something. I had to pay you back. That's good. First of all...

Demented! Demented that that's on Tom Cruise is known for. What the fuck is going on? Hold on. I'm pulling it up to see if this movie's on Netflix or something. It's on Tooby. Not on Netflix. Hat tip to the good folks at Tooby. Can I also say... I am going to be so fucking excited about whatever this Tom Cruise Inioritu movie is going to be. What is, what do we know about it?

You know more about it than I do. Nothing. He and Inuritu have gone swimming together in a lake and the photos came out about it. And I was like, I am. Nothing is more tailored to demented Chris File brain. I am the Iniaritu defender. Where he's like getting his hooks into an actor. Like, honestly, I'm glad that Tom Cruise is.

is like making real movies again instead of just like he and Christopher McQuary jumping out of a space shuttle and calling it a film. He wants that Oscar, baby. He wants it. That's what's going on.

I knew he would come back to Oscar. That's what's happening. And you know what? After Top Gun Maverick, they're going to give it to him. They are aching to give it to him. It's just going to be like, what deranged, gritty thing is he going to make Tom Cruise do?

And I have an opinion on what it should be. In Uri 2 should make him have his original teeth again. in iMAX You're fucking psycho You're a fucking psycho Tom Cruise's Snagletooth is Next time you do movie trivia somewhere You have to name your team

Tom Cruise's Snagletooth Like that's all there is to it All right We are actually doing trivia soon All right, let's leave Let's get out here Let's go Let's do it

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