This Had Oscar Buzz - 355 – Punch-Drunk Love (with Katie Walsh!)

Episode Date: August 18, 2025

We are so excited to welcome back Tribune News Service film critic Katie Walsh to discuss one of the most beloved American filmmakers! When will “Oscar for Sandman” happen? Well, in 2002, Adam Sandler had his first attempt at the Gold with an esoteric, anxious romantic comedy by Paul Thomas Anderson, Punch-Drunk Love. While the film … Continue reading "355 – Punch-Drunk Love (with Katie Walsh!)"

Oh, oh, wrong house. No, the right house. We want to talk to Marilyn Hack, Maryland Hack and friends. Dick Pooh. This is Barry. You canceled your credit card. That's a bunch of bull! Get your supervisor on the phone.

Yeah. What's your name, sir? You're sick. No, no, no. Shut up! Shut! Shut! Shut! Shut! Shut!

Are you threatening me? Yes. That wasn't good. You were dead. And all at once I knew it was. I knew it did it me. Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that's thinking about having a live show in Philadelphia

so we can see where they make the light cream cheese. 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 healthy choice pudding cup, Chris Fyle.

Hello, Chris. How dare you? I am the terriaki chicken for 179. You don't want to be the four for 99 cents special? Listen, we used to live in a time. The cost of food is going up. Can you imagine paying 99 cents for four pudding cups? The biggest time capsule was, or just the fact that, like, cutting coupons to, like,

like, you know, make a difference or whatever, which, like, I feel like we have aged out of coupons and have gone into these weird, just sort of like, become a, like, member of, like, the supermarket club or whatever, and we'll send you, you know, deals in your app that ultimately don't end up working. And, yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't want to throw us down another rabbit hole before we bring in our guests, but also speaking of the time machine at the supermarket, it the exact shade of green that healthy choice is in this movie. Yeah. Time capsule?

Yeah. We always look at like Dorito bags or soda cans. Right. Right. Yes. What era of Pepsi can are we looking at? Yes. But yes, you're totally right.

It was the era of snack wells, right? It was the era of like that particular shade of like weight loss green. So yes. You are right in that. I'm already getting nervous that we haven't. and our guest, what will they think of us? Are they getting resentful of what's going on? So to join us for the second time on this had Oscar buzz, one of our faves,

film critic for Tribune News Service, Katie Walsh, once again, back for the first time since the Harold and Maud episode. Welcome back to this had Oscar buzz. Thank you so much for having me. And honestly, I could go on a deep dive about 90s, early 2000s, healthy choice. I literally was like, I wonder if the lean cuisine people. got like, oh my God, yes. Oh, the little snack packs, 100 calorie snack packs. I will say, made out of pure chemicals. Exactly, exactly. High fructose corn syrup and like partially

hydrogenated oils and nothing else. I will say, a tiny triumph from yesterday, I popped a 100 calorie bag of popcorn, which is one of the like mini bags or whatever. Four unpopped kernels. Oh. Wow. Like, I really nailed it. Like, it was not, on a day when, you know, maybe not everything else is going your way, if you pop a bag of popcorn within five kernels, you will feel like you have won the day. That's a good life hack.

Yeah, exactly, exactly right. So, um, since you bring up snack packs, I do have to ask, does anybody else remember the first time seeing this movie when he gets to the pudding and you're like whispering under your breath snack packs? You're the coolest, Philly Madison. Anybody else have weird Billy Madison stuff the first time they saw this movie? No, but only because for some reason, I saw Happy Gilmore like 200 times and I saw Billy Madison like maybe twice. Oh, see, we were more of a Billy Madison house.

I think a lot of people were. And for our, like, some people were normal and we're just like, we saw them both kind of equally because like, you know, they were two years apart from each other. Maybe we saw them equally. But like I. Definitely like Billy Madison was getting quoted more than Happy Gilmore. Yeah, I was definitely. heavier, heavier, heavier into the happy Gilmore. What about you, Katie?

Where did you fall on the early Sandman? I don't think I watch those movies that much. Like, I just, I think I saw them like once or twice and was like, I'm good. You're like, I will wait for him to star in an atroist, surrealist romance. I think I was just like, I was like, okay, I get like the references and what people are talking about, but it wasn't like a on repeat type of thing for me. Sure. You're like, he punches out Bob Barker.

I got it, I got it, I got it, right, right. Old Balls, got it, got it. No, wait, old balls is Big Daddy. Yeah. It's funny. We're recording this the week that Happy Gilmore 2 is about to hit Netflix. I'm sure it'll be great. Oh my God, wow, this week.

Yeah, I didn't even, I don't think I've seen any advertisement for it, except for the fact that, like, I've seen Christopher McDonald's doing, like, SponCon stuff and like showing up in like TV commercials kind of constantly. Like he's really making the most of it and honestly good for him. Good for him. Shooter McGavin is back? Yeah, shoot him or Gavin is back, I guess.

Oh, okay. I will see my Sandman movie that I loved was the wedding singer. Oh, yeah. We were talking about this yesterday because the wedding singer does not show up on Drew Barrymore's known for

which is insane. That's crazy. But 51st dates does and so does ever after, which is a different 1998 movie. Oh, my God. I had the soundtrack to a wedding singer. I think I was, like, into it

because of the rom-com vibe, but... Oh, totally, yeah. It's an incredibly good rom-com. He's so cute and sweet in that. Yes. It was one of those... People talk about, like, movies like Punch Drunk Love and the more dramatic movies

that Ed and Sandler was in in terms of the ones that, like, stretched his, you know, stretched his acting abilities. Wedding Singer did also in, like, kind of different ways, right? It didn't ask him to be like a big dramatic actor, but like he certainly became a much better rom-com performer in that than he was in, for example, Billy Madison or Happy Gilmore. Like, there are romance storylines in those movies, but they're so perfunctory. It's just like, they just toss you Julie Bowen and you're just like, here, like, end up with her by the end of the

movie or whatever. But he and Drew were so sweet in that movie. Yeah, they were really cute together. And, yeah, you saw him as a romantic lead, and it was like, oh, wait, he's actually like, he was doing like cute best friend. Whereas I think in Airheads, he's actually kind of sexy. Oh, yes. That is a thing that I look back and I'm kind of amazed by is Airheads is, of course, Brendan Fraser, Steve Bessemi, and Adam Sandler. And Fraser is coming off of or around the same. this is sort of around the similar time as, you know, George of the Jungle and, like, Encino Man and all this sort of stuff.

Like, he was the hunk around them. But I'm watching that movie and I'm like, first of all, I'm like, Adam Sandler's so cute. Oh my God. Like, what's going on? Does not have Sandler get naked in that movie? Adam Sandler body tea. Yes. He's wearing like a midriff.

He's wearing like a midriff shirt. Yes. He's wearing a midriff. He's got the arms out. I mean, he's... I also think Steve Bussammy. is hot in that movie. So, like, I don't know what's going on. Like, I genuinely... That's something else. It's a whole other thing. It's a whole other thing. I don't know.

But, like, Brendan Fraser, to me, is, like, the least hot among those. And I am not, like, I know I was a bitch about Brendan Fraser during his Oscar campaign. But, like, I'm not stupid enough to be, like, Brendan Fraser wasn't hot. Like, Brendan Fraser was hot. But he was, to me, the least hot one in their heads. Because, like, 90s guys with long hair is, like, your thing. You would think. You would think. You would think. But similarly, well, singles is a weird movie and that, like, I didn't really pay a lot of attention to it when it was, like, in the zeitgeist. I sort of paid more attention to it afterwards. So, like, in the zeitgeist, I definitely would have been into the Matt Dillon character because he resembled all the Pearl Jam guys. And I was definitely into the Pearl Jam guys, although I couldn't admit it at the time. But, yeah, no, you're totally right. Like, that is my, like, especially back then, I had a vibe back then.

Brooding long hair with some flannel tied around his waist. His flannel, not wearing it as a shirt, but tied around his waist. Which to me was like, again, so much of grunge in like 90s alt was a rebellion against effort. And yet what is more effortful than tying your flannel around your waist rather than just wearing it as a shirt? Like these are the kinds of things. These were the kinds of things where I was seeking out queerness without even realizing it where I was just like there's something there. An actual article of clothing as accessories. Yes, yes, yes, exactly, exactly right.

The queer reading of airheads. I love it. Yes, yes. Super, super, super into it. Who was? I can't remember where I was recently, but somebody was wearing a beaded, a beaded bracelet. And I was like, are those back? Or is this kind of like, am I just talking to somebody who like does not exist within the fashion zeitgeist and whatever?

It was just like because. I feel like a few years ago, they tried to bring the puka sheds. shell necklace back. Very brief. I never put, I never took part in the puka shell thing, but I definitely, I had beaded necklaces and I found a picture of myself recently where I had the beaded necklace wrapped around three times around my, you know, wrist. I was just like, is this the photo you sent me? And I definitely was like, okay, bracelets. Yes. Yes. Absolutely. Are you talking about the like silver ball and chain? No, I'm talking about the sort of like, um, faux earthen sort of like foe, sort of like foe stone sort of looking thing. Oh, like kind of like spiritual. Yes, except like it has like comports to nothing. Like absolutely like it has no antecedent or whatever. Yeah.

But yes. No, I like anything like metallic that was not. We didn't hit that area yet. I think metallic was sort of before my time and then after my time. I definitely had one of those like big ball chain necklaces. Sure. Sure. Sure.

Absolutely. Yes. Oh, man. No, pukas. I don't think I did pukas, maybe a little bit. But, yeah. Pookas, you had to be, to me, at least, Pookas, you had to be really, really confident in, like, your sort of, like, upper chest and clavicle and shoulder area, because it drew a lot of attention to that. And, and you couldn't just be, you couldn't, you know, you couldn't be trifling with a, with a pukeshell necklace. So. Big statement. Exactly. Exactly. So, in all of which is to say, we're talking about punch drunk love this week. Did we match you with Punch Drunk Love or did you suggest Punch Drunk Love to us? I can't remember. No, we matched Katie with it.

Okay. You brought it to me and I said, I have not watched this in like 25 years. Same. Same for me. I said, this is a good excuse to rewatch. Well, I hope it was a fun experience. We'll definitely be digging into it. So I always have such an odd relationship to Paul Thomas Anderson.

And Chris thinks it's just because I think because I'm annoyed. by the people who like him too much. And it's not quite that. I do have my sort of, there is something that sort of holds me back from like fully loving a movie like Phantom Thread or, well, I think Inherit Vice is a mess, is a legitimate mess. But like fully loving a movie like licorice pizza or something like that. And I'm like, maybe I'm just sort of set in my ways and I'm like, I like Boogie Nights.

And like Boogie Nights is my favorite. And I remember sort of being somewhat nonplussed by this movie. And then watching it again this time, I was so happy how much I ended up liking it because I was just like, see, like, I'm not just a bitch. I can, I can, you know, appreciate a Paul Thomas Anderson movie for being its own sort of like oddly shapen thing. I think it's so beguiling and so, I mean, I think the 90-minute running time is not. incidental to its pleasure because it really does sort of like exist in its own terms. It gets in, it gets out. It leaves you wanting more in a way that I think really complements the movie.

And it's also like one storyline. Yes. Like it's not this big sprawling magnolia or liquor's pizza type of thing where it's like a braided narrative. It's like it's a very contained thing. of just, you know, it's almost like, it's a character study. Yes. It's a lot of, you know, a big ensemble, but like not, it's not like every single ensemble person has their own storyline that they're then, that we're then going to follow.

There are like five name actors in this, and one of them is Mary Lynn Reichigab, who was like kind of not really a name actor at the time. You know what I mean? Right, right. That's kind of it. And I think that sort of scaled down thing seemed like it was intentional at the time. Paul Thomas Anderson had sort of talked about like coming off of Magnolia. How do you do something after Magnolia?

It's so big. It's so expansive. It's so sort of operatic and going for so much that, like, you almost have to scale down from that. And he sort of had this idea that he wanted to make an Adam Sandler movie because he liked Adam Sandler movies, but he wanted to do his own sort of version of it. And which seems like a very sort of Paul Thomas Anderson thing to do. It's like, I'm going to make an Adam Sandler movie. And it's going to be like a Jacques Tatie kind of like, you know, a thing with, you know, art installation interludes in this dreamy John Bryan score, which, be prepared.

We'll get into John Bryan. I have a lot of things to say. It's so good. Good Lordy. Chris, where were you on this? Same. I own this movie, but it's maybe one of the Paul Thomas Anderson's I revisit the lease, with the exception of like hard eight, which I've seen once.

And, you know, Paul Thomas Anderson has his own complicated feelings about that movie. But I think on top of that like intentionality of the running time and having just one, you know, character to focus on rather than doing a movie that is like a tapestry, like you were both saying, I think there's a certain, I think through that intentionality of trying to pivot, it's also kind of the beginning of the more like esoteric Paul Thomas Anderson. vibe. You know, you can see the the, it's kind of why this movie marks a shift. You know, we see a connected vibe that

shows up in his later movies, but this feels so significantly different than his previous two movies, you know, that kind of uh, what word do I want to use? I don't want to be so pretentious as to say chenaiseiqua, but that, you know,

Say it. The thing that's just like in the, like, cosmos of his movies, that is, like, always kind of reaching for something maybe spiritual is the word, but that is always kind of left of center, you know, not so, he's an indirect filmmaker to, you know, I'm thinking of just the, like, vibes of paranoia that run through inherent. vice, or the, like, outsider, like, you know, mind fuck of the master. Yes. You know, this is a very, like, oddball kind of movie. It is, and, like, very obviously intentionally so. And the Sandler stuff plays into it so well. But also, like, Emily Watson plays into it so well.

Because people sort of forget that, like, by this. time is she still mostly known for like breaking the waves Hillary and Jackie I guess like she was also in Angela's ashes we got to do Angela's ashes for the Patreon on one of these days because I look at this up too because I was like what had she done I'm a huge Breaking the Waves fan which is 1996 and so I was like what what else was going on with with M my gal and she had been in stuff like um you know she had been she you know i think she got nominated for breaking the waves and then uh you know she she immediately i think becomes kind of a hot commodity but um yeah so hillary and jacky and what was uh angeles ashes and um what else would have been around

this time what was red dragon also 2002 gosford park is this year yeah gosford park no gosford park was the year before. Oh, it's 01. Oh, it is 01 because it's the same year as Moulin Rouge. Yes, yes. But yeah, and she's really great in Gosford Park and kind of overlooked because there are so many great people in the ensemble and they nominate Maggie Smith and Helen Mirren for that movie. But, like, I think Emily Watson's, you know, tremendously good in that movie. Red Dragon is 2002.

Yeah, so same year as Punch Drunk. And also Punch Drunk and Gosford Park is 01. But yeah, what else is she back? I think what's also interesting about the two of them in this movie, on top of never doing another Paul Thomas Anderson movie, when he's also pivoting from, well, this is the stable of Paul Thomas Anderson actors and, you know, that he, you know, has his two stars with people he'll never work with again, or maybe not never, but has yet to. Right, right. But they're also two incredibly grounded performers, and this is a very, you know, fanciful, you know, tribut. the headspace kind of movie and like that's kind of the thrust of the movie yes and I think because you have these grounded performers it you know helps balance it it kind of pulls you back to earth a little bit it's one of oh sorry go ahead oh I just I this keeps popping into my head I feel like

if you just look at the romance part of it it feels like a Sophia Coppola movie yeah it like just that kind of focus on these interactions between people that are kind of of odd but also relatable and and they exist kind of outside of the rest of their lives kind of thing and then it's like the phillipsymore hoffman stuff is like very paul thomas anderson yes yeah i don't know i like i keep thinking i'm like oh this reminds me of a sophia copel movie and then it's like oh but like screaming phillipsymore hoffman would like not be in a and yet also there's like and i mean maybe i'm sort of overindexing on the four thug brothers who seem very, very much like the nihilists in the Big Lebowski, who sort of tumble out of the van

and attack. But there's some Coenzy stuff in this movie, too, I feel like. So strip mall organized crime. Yes. Right, right, exactly, exactly. Or, like, one of the, my favorite things about watching the movie back again was just, like, the scene with the car that flips over at the beginning. and then the harmonium gets sort of dropped out of that van and then we never find out right what that was all about right that's just like a complete flight of fancy it's just a complete non sequitur and how heavy is a harmonium that adam sandler can pick it up and just run with it yes right maybe he has like rage strength or something in his body is still tea he has love strength he has love strength yes exactly um i also

like just like how many different like logs he has in the fire that accumulate over the course of this thing where he's like what's with the pudding i don't know what's with the harmon what's with the piano people keep calling the piano um i don't know he the phone keeps ringing and it's either his sisters or this woman who's blackmailing him or whatever and it's the it's a stressful movie like it's not a not it's a stressful movie when it's just sort of him and the walls are closing it around john brian baby um and then when he's with her you definitely feel that, you know, release whatever. But, like, even in stuff where, like, he's in Hawaii and he's calling her on the phone,

and there's just so much noise around him. There's just such a cacophony. And it's... He says he's calling from his hotel room and he's in the middle of a parade. Yes. Well, the amount of people who just sort of, like, just bald-faced lie in this movie is also in very... There's so much going on. There's so much.

The stuff, though, with the fact that this movie seems very dreamlike, it's a movie that on first blush, I would have been like, is this, like, loosely based on, like, a classic work of literature? Because, like, you could almost see, like, are the sisters supposed to be, like, you know, something else? Is this supposed to, is all, like, secretly an Ibsen thing or whatever? And, like, you've got seven sisters and you've got, you know, this, you know, the, you know, you know, do. or whatever from another kingdom who's, you know, it's maybe a fairy tale or something. It all feels very elemental, like archetypal storytelling, right? Heroes, a hero be set on all sides by villainy and just meanness.

Those sisters, they really get under your skin in this movie. Yeah, I think they're so funny. It's almost like Shakespearean, like this woman that he's being set up with, and they have this love and he has to defend her from this, yeah, this outside force. He's the prince who is, you know, has, I don't know how they would constitute emotional problems in Shakespearean times. But, like, you know, Romeo's depressed, but they can't really say depressed. So, like, he's just sort of, like, wanders the streets of Verona talking about Rosaline or whatever. And this is just, like, we can't really say that, like, he's got specific,

emotional disorders or whatever, but like he clearly has bound up rage and some sort of social anxiety disorder thing happening. Poor Barry. Poor Barry. So much is going on. But she doesn't necessarily have that, but she connects to that quality about him. And we have, I think, enough to believe that she's a little left of center herself, you know. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Totally. Totally. In that very kind of sweet way, we're in movies. I mean, the last movie we talked about all together was Harold and Maud, which is another movie where these two... Katie, we only get you here for 90-minute oddball romances. That's your new niche.

That's your niche on this podcast. All right. But, yeah, so there's a lot of... There's a lot to love about this movie. I will say, I want to talk about the sisters, maybe... before we get into anything else, because I think we need to each, like, pick the meanest sister. And for me, it's the one who gets on his case for saying chat. I don't have time to chat.

And she's, like, chat. And she's just, like, completely, like, viciously just, like, tearing him down. Just like, you said chat. God, what a pretentious asshole you are. I can't believe you said chat. Chat. You're going to come to this party. Come to this fucking party.

Like, booms and, like, hangs up the phone on or whatever. And yet, you see when he goes, shows up at the house, they all are kind of like, you know, they give him a hug and they, you know, whatever, they're, they're welcoming to him while still being like, remember when we called you gay boy? Like, uh, remember, Barry, Barry, didn't we call you gay boy? Yeah, wasn't that great? You got so mad. And it's like, hilarious. Great memory to just keep talking about when we were so cruel to you and we loved it. Yes. Um, it's a real fascinating dynamic. And of course, no. parents. So, like, you don't know whether their parents are just sort of, like, older and maybe don't live in the same city, or they've both passed away by this point. But, like, this is Barry's only family. And they are a constant source of stress and humiliation in his life.

Do you think that Paul Thomas Anderson, like, has a thing for, like, domineering women? Go on. I just think about like licorish pizza or like, you know, obviously phantom thread, you know, this like DS relationship that's happening there, that they work out. I don't know. I'm just sort of like, what's up? What's going on? What's going on in that little brain of yours? That big brain.

There is a particular type of woman that he, that continues to show up in his movies. that is, if not domineering, that is... Severe. Yes, or, like, I'm thinking of, like, Melora Walters and Magnolia or whatever, where... Amy Adams and the Master. That's what I thought of when I thought the word severe. Yes.

Mm-hmm. Where it's, like, not necessary, like, you know, even when they can be a mess of their own sort, they are very blunt and very, you know, I don't know, there's... They kind of latch on to these men who, are not maybe equipped to deal with them always. Yeah, like either he's afraid of these types of women and he's, like, working out these

issues, or he's, like, very intrigued. Dirk Diggler's mother is so mean to him. Like, that's another family relationship. The family relationships are maybe not really great in the following Paul Thomas Anderson movies. Isn't there a thing in Lickrish Pizza about, like, her sisters are, like, mean to Cooper Hoffman or am I thinking of something

else? I've only seen I've only seen that movie once. I mostly walk away from licorice pizza being like Skylar Jizond as a star and I don't care about anything else. But all right, why don't we kind of

wade our way into talking about the plot of this movie? But first, I'm going to have Chris go over why our listeners should be subscribed to our Patreon. Because it's a great Great time.

Hell yeah. Listener. This Had Oscar Buzz Turbulent Brilliance is our Patreon. For $5 a month, you're going to get two bonus episodes. What are those episodes, you ask?

Well, the first of which comes on the first Friday of every month. We call these exceptions. These are movies that fit the, this had Oscar Buzz rubric of great expectations and disappointing results, but managed to score a few Oscar nominations

in two or two. What kind of films are you going to hear on the exceptions episodes? Well, this month, we talked about Robert Zemeckis' Contact, American Classic Contact, Jody Foster, S.R. Haddon, Aliens as Grief, Contact. You're right to say S.R. Haddon is the second great thing about that movie, because he really does belong that high on that list.

What other movies have we talked about, Joe? Well, we've talked about recently Big Fish, interview with the vampire. We've done great movies like Mulholland Drive. and Inside Lewin Davis, we've done some not-so-great movies like Madonna's W-E-E-9. We've had guest episodes such as Phantom of the Opera with Natalie Walker, Knives Out with Jorge Molina, Australia, with Katie Rich. It's a good time. The exceptions episodes were something listeners have always asked for since before we started the Patreon. And now we have a whole two years' worth of episodes for you to go and check out.

But for your second episode of the month, you're going to get on the third Friday, you will get an excursion. These are basically deep dives into Oscar ephemera we love to obsess about things like recapping old awards shows. We've recapped Oscars from the 80s, globes from the 2000s, MTV Movie Awards from the 90s. We talk about Hollywood Reporter actress Roundtables. We've done a game night. And we also love to do entertainment cover the entirety of Entertainment Weekly Fall movie previews from the past, including this month. Yes. Which we will be talking about the 2000 issue with Tom Hanks's craggily, bearded, very, very skinny face from Castaway on the cover.

Yes. So go sign up to This Had Oscar Buzz Turbulent Brilliance over at patreon.com slash this had Oscar buzz. Indeed. I had scrambled to see if there was some place online that I could find out what the EW Fall Preview issue for 2002 said about Punch Drunk Love. But I couldn't find anything online. I did find the issue on eBay. And yes, I did buy it. So it will be speeding its way to my home soon enough. Gangs of New York episode. Yes, exactly. Issue. I keep calling magazine issues episode. What's wrong with me? Because magazines are a dying breed. We're all becoming video now. We don't have issues anymore.

Katie, I'm going to have you prepare to do your 60-second plot description while I pull out my phone and read the particulars for this movie. So we are talking about the 2002 film Punch Drunk Love, directed and written by Paul Thompson starring Adam Sandler, Emily Watson, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Louise Guzman, Mary Lynn Ritescubb, a host of dark-haired. sisters who are, half of them were related to each other, I believe in real life, was the scuttlebutt. And, you know, various Mormon thugs who apparently they cast out of Utah, who were also really related to each other. So it's a whole thing. This, Columbia Pictures

premiered this movie at the Cannes Film Festival in May of 2002. It would end up winning a best Director Prize. We'll get into it. Then it played the Toronto and New York Film Festivals before opening and limited release on October 11th, 2002, expanding wide on November 1st, 2002. We'll talk about that box office top five in a little bit. But first, Katie, I have my stopwatch out. If you are ready. Okay. I'm going to also do a timer for myself. Oh, God, extra pressure. I would, that would freak me out. But you know what? I'm glad that you give me a little. I will give you a 30-second mark and a 10-second mark. Okay. Then I won't do my own. Okay. Don't give yourself that added stress. That's a lot. Okay. But your timer that I will be looking at starts now. Okay. Adam Sandler plays Barry. He sells toilet plungers and other weird items in this sort of like warehouse store in Burbank or something. And he is very socially awkward and anxious. He's a weird guy. He's got these seven overbearing sisters.

He has a weird morning where a woman shows up, played by Emily Watson. She asks him to watch her car. He also sees a car crash and he gets this harmonium that's been left on the street. Anyway, the Lena person is supposed to be like, oh no, is like being set up by his sister, played by Mary Lynn Raskub. They start dating. Meanwhile, he's called a phone sex operator because he's so lonely and weird. She starts extorting him via her four brothers.

One of, and they're led by Philip Seymour Hoffman. So he has this romance with, 10 seconds. He has this romance with Lena. Meanwhile, he's also trying to do this pudding cup, like frequent flyer mile scam. But he goes to Hawaii. He has a nice trip with Lena in Hawaii. And then when they come back, the brothers hit them with their car.

And he like goes crazy. He like hits them with a tire iron. Leads are in the hospital. He drives to Utah. He confronts Philip Seymour. Hoffman and he's like all intimidating he's like I have love inside of me and it makes me strong and then they sort of like come to this detente and then he goes back to LA and gets her at the hospital he brings a harmonium for some reason and they're like she's just like yeah it's

cool and then that's the end of the movie 36 seconds over and you know what I'm going to say that's totally fine because it's a good movie and good movies deserve. One second for every minute of the movie. It's like not that much happens but also a lot happens and it's like you have to talk about the pudding cups and the harmonium and the weird morning that he has. A lot of necessary

texture. First of all I love that you bring up the weird morning because I love that this movie kind of blooms out of like sometimes you just have a weird day and it's enough to set forth the whole entire movie. It's literally like one weird day and then

all this shit cascades from there. I also, was I the only one who like fell down the little rabbit hole of the pudding cup? The real pudding guy? The real pudding cup you say scam and it's not wrong to say scam, but also like, it's not a scam, it's not

illegal, like it's perfectly within the rules. He just like exploited a loophole in their poorly designed you know sweepstakes or whatever. And it's one of those Before, the commerce industry used to be very obsessed with barcodes and UPC, you know, stickers and whatever.

And they used to have you cut them out for proof of purchase and collect them and then mail them in for some rewards. And so this was sort of the original like McDonald's Monopoly thing, where it's just like, If you keep buying these things, you can eventually accumulate enough to get a reward. And of course, you know, they've gamed it out so that you will be spending more money in purchasing these things than you would be in getting the reward. But this person in real life was able to notice that like through the fine print, they were like, oh, if I can double coupon to get more of these things. And also if I can get the cheapest possible healthy choice things, I can cut the margins down to a point where I'm making a profit. And then he figured out that these pudding cups were individually barcoded within the package so that for every package he bought, you got four UPC codes. So you were essentially like quadrupling your, you know, your reward and ended up getting like a million and a half frequent flyer miles, like lifetime like silver status. or whatever with American Airlines

and never paid for another flight again for the rest of his life and like continued to do it for a little bit until they like figured out a way to close the loophole or whatever. You know, if you're going to go to that length of figuring this out you deserve it. You deserve it. That's work.

You put in the work. Yes, absolutely. You deserve it, but then you also deserve a job with that company where they're doing these promos and you can figure out how to prevent it from happening again. You become sneakers where you're like, we're going to break into your facility to let you know why we were able to break into your facility.

And you can like, well, this guy, they said he ended up now, where is he, where did he end up working? Uh, blah, blah, blah, blah. Oh, they said it too. But it's also like the people who are like the best cybersecurity experts are, are hackers. Like all hackers end up becoming like cybersecurity experts. Right. Exactly.

Or, or terrorists. Like it's one of the two. I'm going to say, I don't know if I want to know the post script on this man. Like, what tech industry is he working for? It is somewhere in tech, I will say that. He did end up, no, he is the associate vice president of energy and sustainability at the University of California. So we like, that seems at least pretty good, right? Like energy, sustainability.

Good for you, David Phillips, parentheses, entrepreneur. I didn't go down that rabbit hole. I went down the rabbit hole of, okay, so. I just bought a flight with points. How many things of those puddings would I have to buy in order to get enough points to have just gotten pudding?

I'm like, I'm eating the pudding. Like, where's what a reward? You have to have. I had to buy like 800 packs of pudding. Well, so here's the other thing that I found out in this real life story. So the promotion included an early bird bonus if the packages were mailed,

if the UPCs were mailed back during the month of May in 1999. You would get like double mileage. So to get it all done in that time frame, this guy wasn't able to do it all himself because he was like buying like pallets and pallets of healthy choice

pudding cups and like having the stores like order more for him and spending, you know, thousands to earn millions. Right. And so in order to like cut all of these UPCs off, he recruited members of a local Salvation Army branch to cut off the UPC codes off the cardboard wrappers.

And in exchange, he donated the pudding cups to the Salvation Army. Okay. Like, that was like... They were going to people who needed it. And the post script to this is the donation allowed him to receive $850 in tax rate-offs, further increasing his return on investments. So like, on top of all of that, he got 800 bones to like as a tax rate-up. I mean, it's not a huge tax rate.

It's not, but I just think it's very funny. I think it's very funny. Oh, my God. Yeah. This guy really, like, he mailed it. He deserved the millions of miles. I, I, for all that effort. That was his healthy choice.

Yeah. For all that effort. I know. When people are talking about, like, credit card points, like, tricks and stuff, I'm like, I could never. I just, I can't go to stables. Everybody on extreme couponing should hang their head in shame for this guy. Like, they'll never be this guy.

You will never be glamour. I'll hear people talk about, like, oh, if you, like, go to Staples and, like, purchase a bunch of gift cards and then you get all the time. Like, I, I do, my brain doesn't work that way. I could never. I just, I'll just pay for the damn plate. Right, exactly. Oh, I will absolutely take like convenience and pay, like, pay for me to not have to think

about this anymore. Yes, absolutely. Like, whatever. My brain hurts. I do kind of want to get pudding now. Oh, staring at those, those packages of healthy choice pudding, I did want to be like, oh my God, low fat pudding probably tasted, like, really chemically, but also like. Because that shade, that specific shade of green, I want the sandwich cookie snack wells.

Snackwell's was such a lie because in the commercial... I can't do a snack well. Do you remember the snackwell TV commercials where they were like a delicious deviled food cake? Coated in marshmallow coating and then covered in chocolate. That marshmallow coating was like the thinest possible layer of any... Like they tried to sell you on that they were selling you a Malamar and they were selling you just like... Devil's food cakes like painted with like a paintbrush in like marshmallow, like just the thinnest glaze of marshmallow. I can't recommend enough the maintenance.

phase podcast episode about Snackwells. Oh, I should. I do like maintenance phase. I haven't listened to their snackwell episode but I will. It's a great episode and they do I think they do a whole episode on Snackwells so Oh, I should because I remember that era was like I watched that era

specifically of any kind of like infomercial like all of the, that was the era also of like the what eventually would become the Panini press but it would make sandwiches, and they would, like, cut it into triangles, like, anything that they pressed out.

Oh, yes. Oh, those looked so good. And they were like, you can just put, like, pancake batter in, and they make, like, little, like, pancake pockets or whatever. And I would, like, this seems incredible. This seems amazing. Or they make, like, omelets in there. Anyway. Always. Yes.

Exactly. And, but so that was the same era as, like, that particular brand of, like, low-fat diet, whatever, snacks. and snack wells really purported to be a revolution and you will never want for sweets again because you will be able to subsist on snack wells and that was the lie that they sold us. Meanwhile, you're just like, I need something real. Well, and that was the thing, it's just like,

and then so you learned, at least I did from like a deep, fairly early age that just like, oh, these are lies. Like, they're telling you that this will taste just as good as like real sweets and it's just like, that's a lie. choice because it's just like you microwave out all of the nutrients that they're advertising on that beautiful green packaging. A healthy choice could never fill me up if I was hungry. I will say, I have, there have been certain, like, I will rock a lean cuisine Swedish meatballs every once in a while. And like, that's not bad, but it does not fill you up. You're absolutely

right. You almost have to like, it's almost like a midmeal like tied over, at which point it like completely negates the benefits of, yes, exactly. It's a snack. And that completely negates the benefits of anything. But I will say... Do we think that the Healthy Choice Corporation, I'm sure it's some type of other food corporation, but Mr. Do we think Mr. Healthy Choice was pissed that they didn't think of selling their product with a tap dancing Adam Sandler? Well, this is why I put in this little section of the best movie scene set at supermarket. So I'm going to fashire forward to head to this because it's so charming. It's him and Luis Guzman. He sort of recruits

Luis Guzman to help him, you know, load up the, it sounds like they just like go from like supermarket to supermarket and just like load up on Healthy Choice pudding cups. And while Luis Guzman is just like getting the stuff off of the low shelf, like Adam Sandler's so happy, he just starts like soft chewing around the aisle. And it's so charming. And it's so perfect for what the movie is too. Yes. It's like instant half star upgrade. So when I say, like best movie scenes set in a supermarket like where does your mind automatically go mine goes to go yes thank you thank you yeah Nathan Bexton tangoing with the clerk while he's high on molly or whatever the hell like yeah I love that it's such a I feel like grocery store scenes and movies

were such a late 90s early 2000s thing like yes kind of this like maybe like edgy americana kind of like, ooh, it's, we're going to, like, look at all the, you know, colorful packaging, but also maybe, like, people are on drugs or, like, misbehaving or, like, rushing a parking, a card around or something, like. Yes. Oh, Adventures in Babysitting. Not Adventures in Babysitting. Don't Tell Mom, the Babysitter's Dead, has a scene like that where they're, like, it's not

quite a supermarket. I think it's more of, like, a proto, it's like a Kmart kind of a store or whatever, where they're like they're bouncing on the like you know bouncy balls or whatever through the lawnmower aisles or whatever of the of the big box store that they're in like that's very cute yeah so the ones that I wrote down because we just did an episode recently on white noise so I love the end of white noise where they're dancing to LCD sound system so good father of the bride where which is the one that I go to Steve Martin having to freak out over the hot dog buns about how there's eight hot dogs in a pack and 12 buns in a pack I have to buy 12 hot dogs And so he's, like, going through and, like, taking out the superfluous four buns and just having a nervous breakdown. Go, as you mentioned, perfect. The scene in Lady Bird, just because that's the one where she's just like, don't be a Republican to her brother. 28 days later, where they sort of, like, do you have that, like, weird post-apocalyptic fantasy of, like, we can get anything we want in the supermarket that's, like, you know, full of, like, moldy fresh foods. fresh foods but they're like anything that's like you know packed in cans just like you know

we have the run of the store um you've got mail the checkout counter scene with sutter um where what's her name in that do you remember Kathleen Kelly no the the checkout lady where like oh uh uh uh right Anna is it Anna? I like have that normally have that That's why I asked, because I figured, yeah, you would. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But it's so charming, and Tom Hanks is so charming. Fantastic, Mr. Fox, which is very similar, actually, to the end of White Noise, where they just sort of, like, dance in a supermarket at the end.

Steel Magnolias, where they, Clary and Weezer, go shopping for pork and beans after they find out about Shelby and Malin needing to have surgery, where they're just like, we're just going to make pork and beans, which is very sweet and charming. Not sweet and charming is the mist where Marsha Gay-Harden starts a religious cult inside this post-apocalyptic supermarket

that they're all stuck in. And then I had a couple, few category fraud ones because I watched some of these compilations and they all have Home Alone in it. But that Home Alone scene takes, no, you know what? Actually, I'm wrong.

There are two home-alone scenes. There's subcategories of the supermarket scenes. You can have people actually shopping, but then you have subcategory. mentioned earlier, zombie movies. And then you have subcategory checkout scenes. And then there's also subcategory parking

lot, which is what fried green tomatoes is. But they never actually enter the supermarket. So I do think there's a caveat. There's a little bit of an asterisk there. That's a parking lot scene more so than a super... Because it could have just been this parking lot to a you know, Home Depot or something like that or whatever. Home alone. You could also argue what's it called

freaking Lady Gaga A Star is born Oh, a Star is born Parking lot scene for that Checkout scene Yes, that's absolutely true And don't they actually briefly go in there

Because he needs ice Yeah, they like check out I think they get the peas Yes, they get the frozen peas Yes, you're totally right To sneak a photo Right But Home Alone I misremembered

Because some of those clips Did have the scene of him Running out of the store With the toothbrush That he hasn't paid for But that's a pharmacy like that but he does later go to the supermarket because that's when the checkout lady is like you hear alone are you here with your parents for the kids and he's yes like that whole thing

which happens later in the movie so yes there's there's two and then the reality bite scene which is also in a bunch of these compilations but is that not like a convenience store it's a mini mart yeah it's a mini mart at a gas station which is not the same thing as a supermarket it's at a gas station yes exactly it's a mini mart which is not the same thing as a supermarket Same thing as, again, don't tell Mom the Babysitter's Dad. That's at a big box store of some sort, which is not the same thing. But, yeah, there's a lot of zombie. Yeah, zombie movies are definitely their own subcategory of supermarket.

I believe there's an evil dad movie. Yes, please. Offer as many as you can. The scene in Manhunter with William Peterson and his son. Yes. I think that's a great scene. And also, I think there's like some continuity. errors with like the boxes of cereal

behind them. But it's also the kind of thing where you're just like, it's such a great scene that you don't really care about it. Yes. Yeah. And then in the category of checkout we have to go with hard truths. Yeah. Oh my God. Yes. God. How did I forget that? What is the insult that she makes about the cashier's

face? What did she say? She's like, you need to eat a hamburger. You look like a piece of string or something like that. She tells a woman She looks like a piece of string. Yes. I also, that's such a good one. I also am now remembering there's a scene in three men and a baby where Tom Selleck, they just get the baby, and Tom Selleck has to go to the supermarket to get baby food.

And so he is like, he has no idea what kind of baby food. And the lady has to, like, tell him, like, well, how old is your baby? And he's like about this old. And he's like, because he doesn't know how old she is, but he knows how big she is. So that I remember There's a lot There's a lot. There are a lot, yeah.

Movies like, doing this, I was like, oh, I'll think of like the two or three movies that have famous supermarket scenes. Like,

no, it's a lot of movies. A lot of movies have this. I feel like any movie with like a woman who's like, upset in her marriage and like motherhood.

Oh, yes. In terms of endearment, checkout scene. What was the one that Andy Adams was just in? Night bitch. Night bitch. Yes.

Or it's a movie where you need to find out that like, the local community is, like, gossiping about somebody. So they'll be, like, wheeling their cart through a supermarket, and they'll run into somebody, and they'll be like, hi, Sharon, and they'll be like, oh, hello, Margaret. And they'll, like, be shifty eye or whatever, and they're, like, look at their friend. And be like, I wouldn't have expected to see you out here. And, you know, there's a whole social.

Which is a Vietwik is kind of one of those scenes, because that's where, I believe, Susan Sarandon realizes that everybody's talking about her. it's a lot. Supermarkets are places where everybody talks about you. Yep, everybody gives you a dirty look. Rich terrain. Yes, exactly. Exactly. Oh, we love them. We love supermarkets. God, God, God, we love supermarkets. God, God, God. All right, back, back up. Why did this movie? I know the bookstores have all gone away, and the bookstores have all gone away. If they take my Wegmans, I don't know what I'm going to be able to do about it. So, oh, my God. Anyway. All right, back, back, back up. Why did this movie? Sandler's cute tap dancing. Let's talk about Sandler. Let's talk. All right. Let's talk about Sandler, because this is the first. This is the first we're going to do something serious with Adam Sandler. He's coming off of his strongest, like this is, you're coming off of the golden age of Adam Sandler movies, right?

Where you get Billy Matt, well, Airheads and Mixed Nuts in 94. Chris, I know you love Mix Nuts, so I don't want to, like, discount. My family loves Mixed Nuts. It's like almost the most because he's just a supporting character. What is his character? What is he, what is his? deal he's the he is a songwriter who lives in the building and plays ukulele songs basically i knew it was something with singing yes okay yeah but then 95 billy madison 96 happy gilmore 98 wedding singer

also 98 the water boy 99 big daddy 2000 little nicky and then same year is punch drunk love he also does mr deeds so like this is mr deeds is almost like you're already into like late major period, Sandler, right? Where, like, this era is very much an era of the late 90s. And if you went, if you were in high school during this time, which I was, you felt it. Like, Sandler was the king of all media. He was, you know, people loved him from Saturday Night Live. One of the things that I was fascinated by that Paul Thomas Anderson said was that his inspiration for wanting to make a movie with Sandler was watching specific. Specifically, a Denise show sketch from Saturday Night Live.

The Denise show is the one where the first one he did it was the one where Shannon Doherty was the host, so she was his girlfriend. And it was literally him, you know, Saturday Night Live loves to do like, you know, a fake, you know, talk show or TV show or whatever. And his whole thing was like, this is the show about my girlfriend, Denise. I needed to take me back. And he's got the like framed photo of her. I don't remember this sketch. We're taking calls.

subject is Denise. Have you seen her? Has she said anything about me? Let's take another call. Hello? Hey, Brian. I saw Denise at Friendlies with her parents. The one on Central Avenue?

Oh, yeah. Really? Did she look happy? Yeah, I guess so. Good. Good for her. That's great. Seriously, that's really, really good.

I can't tell you how happy I am for her. Okay, man. See you later. Okay, good. She deserves to be happy. I'm glad. I really am. All right. Now's the time in the show when I like to give Denise a call and hang up on her.

And like every, like third beat, it's a call. He's got to call her in because it's like called her in and it'd be like, yeah, I saw Denise down at the Dairy Queen and she was hanging with Jimmy McGill and she seemed like she was having a good time. And he's like, thank you for that update on Denise. This is stalking. It is kind. It's not not stalking.

But then, like, every third beat, he would get a phone call, and it would be his dad calling from upstairs. What did I do wrong, Denise? Just tell me, and I'll stop doing it. Hello, Brian. This is your father. What? What the hell's wrong with you? You're embarrassing a family. I can't help the dad. Oh, stop. She was everything to me.

She was so soft. Are you going to be a baby? I can't get it. You don't get it, man. She's different to butter. This is my life. you don't own me being like

pull yourself together you're embarrassing the family whatever and then Sandler would like stop and be like shut up Ted you don't get it and so

Paul Thomas Anderson was like that's the inspiration that I had for this character of this person who's like so sort of like meek and quiet

and like and then had this this like capability of like blacking out into these rages and then going back to like

you know we'll go back to my favorite songs that I I used to play when Denise and I were together. And it was just, yes, it is, it's, it is definitely a stalker ex-boyfriend, but in a very... I would really love to see the Paul Thomas Anderson opera man movie. You know at some point there must have been somebody who pitched an opera man movie.

And I wonder, like, which director at the time, like, would have wanted to, wanted to take on opera man. Like, are we talking about, like, Tony Scott's Opera Man? I'm, like, taking it in a whole other direction. I wish. Like, what's going on there? Cronenberg's hopper. Yeah. So, yeah, so Billy Madison, happy Gilmore, wedding singer, water boy. Like, by the time we get to Waterboy and the wedding singer, I'm in college. But like, the straight men were not that different. And they were still just like, Waterboy. Hell yeah. We're going to go. I'll see the Waterboy, Bobby Boucher. I think I was out by, like, Little Nicky. I think a lot of people were. I think Big Daddy and Little Nicky. I was like, I'm done, I'm done. Little Nikki doesn't have a lot to, like, hang your hat on, right?

Like, Harvey Kytel is playing the devil or whatever. And Patricia Arquette, I think, is the love interest. There's just not a whole lot. But I remember liking, I remember liking Big Daddy. I remember being like, that movie's really solid. It's a movie that, like, oh, it's cute, like the two twins. Was it the Sprouse Twins? It's the Sprouse's.

It was the Little Spouses, yes. Yeah, I think I saw that. and was like, yeah, it's fine. And then I was just like, I think it's a hard one to rewatch because it's really, really mean to the Leslie Mann character in really, like, misogynistic ways where, like, the whole thing is like, he keeps making fun of her because she used to be a Hooters waitress. And she's such a, like, stereotypical knack. She's just, like, absolutely the naggy girlfriend with the henpecked boyfriend.

John Stewart's her boyfriend. And he's the real father of the kid. and Sandler is just, like, taking care of him and whatever. And it's just like, I don't know. There's a lot of that. But there's other good stuff in the movie. The movie is a weird, like, little morality tale where it's all about him getting his dad to, like, stand up in court and be like, you'd be a good dad, son. And I'm just like, okay.

Are men okay? No, they're not. So this is kind of why I think, you know, happy Gilmore is maybe the one that's. stuck the most for people because like happy Gilmore's a nice guy he's just trying to like he's trying to save his grandma right exactly he's going to get his grandma out of this crooked nursing or whatever like old folks home that she's in where ben stiller is terrorizing her the whole time yeah um no you're totally right it's the most altruistic of all of them um wedding singer too but like wedding singer is more of just like it's a you know rom-com tropes all of these

movies you know like uh big daddy's homophobic wedding singers transphobic. Like, you know, they're all very 90s product. Billy Madison also weirdly transphobic, the scene where they cut to Steve Busemi putting lipstick on and becoming a mass shooter or whatever. Happy Gilmore. No, wait, what was they going to say? What's the, oh, wedding singer. My favorite bit in the wedding singer is easily John Lovitz as the other wedding singer. Yes. The meaner wedding singer who, uh, watching Sandler meltdown, and he just says, he's losing his mind, and I am reaping all the benefits. And then he just sort of like, he like Homer Simpson into the bushes, like slings back. It's great.

He's wonderful. It's not Sandler's joke, but I mean, the wedding singer endures because of Julia Guglia. Yes. And we were just talking about Drew Barrymore for the IMDB game last episode, Joe. And like the whole scene where she has to introduce herself, or she's trying to like test introducing herself in the mirror, and she's laughing and sobbing, and it's so fun. Yeah. And then Billy Idol's there at the end. So this is kind of the perfect time, though, for a director with a lot of vision to sort of grab Sandler and be like, I'm going to take

your very specific comedic vibe and tweak it into something that will be really odd but affecting. And I think there are some people who sort of look at this movie as if like Paul Thomas Anderson is like necromancing Adam Sandler where he's just sort of like he's just sort of like taking this weird, you know, rage monster comedic persona and sort of like putting him in the right spot and in, you know, letting him go. But I think like it's impossible for this movie to be as good as it is if Sandler doesn't know what Anderson wants out of him. and is, like, delivering it really well. He's such a good actor. He just does not choose to do that. Right, right. Well, one of the things that I've always found fascinating about Sandler is that, like, he's often, it's often laziness that, like, really, like, gets me where he's just like, he just wants to make movies with his dumb fucking buddies, and he doesn't always want to make movies with challenging directors.

He's not, like, chasing an Oscar, you know? Like, he, I mean, he's not, you know, like a, for like a Brad Pitt or something. Not that Brad Pitt was like a comedic actor, but like you, you, or Leo, it's like, you could feel the effort in them being like, when am I going to get, what, which project is going to hit for me to get my Oscar? Right. And like, Sandler's just, I think he would love to win an Oscar, but I think he's also like, yeah, he's like, I just want to go to Hawaii and like make movies with my friends and like.

Well, and you look at another example around the same time because this is sort of of around similar the same time that Jim Carrey was doing his sort of like going from rubber-faced comedy guy and then he's doing Truman Show and he's doing Man in the Moon. And you could incredibly hungry for it. Very, very hungry for it. And in a way where like I'm not going to begrudge him in that because I would have nominated him for Truman Show and I would have nominated him for something like Eternal Sunshine and Spotless Mind. But you're right in the fact that like Sandler does not seem particularly thirsty for it in a way where, I mean, they never nominated Jim Carrey either. But, like, Chris, your sort of theory that, like, this year

we're going to see finally a Sandler Awards nomination for Jay Kelly for the new Noah Bombeck movie, which would not surprise me because Sandler's so good in Myrwit's stories, the previous No Bomb Back movie. I do love that movie, yeah. And I love that movie a lot of, like, for him for a lot of it. And I am kind of a bitch about Sandler in general, too, this sort of like this weird Sandler pop-timism that sort of becomes a little oppressive in culture where they're like, Adam Sandler, like, every Adam Sandler movie is like four stars or whatever. And it's just like, Sandy Wexler? Like, I guess. Like, okay. You don't mess with the Zohan? Right? Like, sure. I know. I think it's like a very zoomer quality to, or maybe I just have one.

zoomer in mind that I'm thinking of, but like, um... See, I think it's a lot of millennial men are very, very into this angle on it, too. To be like, oh, every Sandler movie's great. It's like, no, they're not. They're not all good. Right, right. And that's fine.

And that's fine. Sandler probably wouldn't even tell you that. No. No. Uh, what's the, the... He was, was he, he was the Hateful Eight. That wasn't Seth MacFarlane's Western, right? Sandler's was the Hateful Eighth. No, not the Hateful Eighths.

The Hateful Eighths the Tarantino. No, what's the, he is. The Ridiculous Six. Sorry, the ridiculous six. There you are. And then Seth McFarland's was a different one, right? Seth MacFarlane's was... Had Charlize and... Right, but that was a different movie, right?

That was a different Western. The thing about Sandler is all of these Netflix movies, I have not watched any of them, so they kind of don't exist to me. I watched Hubey Halloween. Hubey Halloween is so good. It's charming. It's charming. It's charming. I will say, Hubey Halloween is charming.

Yeah. It's a fun watch, I will say. It's a fun watch. And it's like a rare Halloween movie that's not like a horror movie. I will take Hubey Halloween over the hocus pocus sequel. Yes. Oh my God. The hocus pocus sequel is not good.

But Hubey Halloween is very fun. Yeah. And okay, but also his basketball movie, what the heck? Didn't see it. He's supposed to be good in that. Hustle, right? That movie is so good. Is it real?

Like, I know I've heard this from people, but I will. I will take your word for it more than most, I was shocked. And it's directed by the guy who did, what was, it was called like weed the animals. Oh, we the animals. Oh, which I loved. I loved we the animals. That's right. I always forget that. They get, basically he plays a basketball scout and he's married to Queen Latifah. We love. I love that. I was like age appropriate. I love interest. He recruits this Spanish basketball player. um who's a real spanish basketball player and that guys were actually really good like i was like damn getting a good performance out of this spanish basketball player you know that's it's got this kind of like um indie lofi like more grounded sensibility to it sure i would highly recommend hustle i do not recommend the like moody sci-fi movie that he was in for Netflix, whatever the hell. Space Man. Oh, Space Man. So this is what I wanted to talk about a little bit. That movie's so boring.

2015 is when this Netflix deal kicks in, right? And it's this like either 10 year or 10 picture, whichever one comes first kind of a thing. And he does, that's where it starts off with like Ridiculous Six. He does that movie The Do Over with Spade. And it's like Sandy Wexler's part of that deal. And then like every once in a while, one of them will be like Myrowitz stories, right? And then it's like, Which is separate of that deal. Is it separate from that deal? Okay, this is just a coincidence?

Okay, that's interesting. Because that was Bomback's deal. That was Bomback's deal. Sure. Yeah, Bomback had the two-picture deal with Netflix and then. So the stuff that's part of the Sandler Netflix deal is the stuff that all like seems awful to me. It was like the week of with Chris Rock and the murder mystery movies. The one with Jennifer Aniston.

Is that murder mystery? Those are the murder mystery ones. Space Man you mentioned, though. I did not watch that. That looked. It's so boring. please save yourself. I will. I will. But Hubey Halloween is like the one from those Netflix movies that I do like. But like interspersed with all of these movies is like, and some of

these work and some of them don't. Men, women, and children is a movie that we, you know, did ages ago. The Jason Reitman movie. I tried to watch half of that for the Timothy Chalme draft and I couldn't get through it. Oh my God. Oh no. Especially because Timothy Chalemay has like two scenes in the movie so like abandoned shit. He punches out Ansel Al Goreth though, right? Like, that's fun. Yep. So, right?

Is that the deal or does Ansel Al Gore punch him up? I can't remember. Yeah, it's really bad. It's really bad. But that's not in Netflix. No, that was before. It was just before. Okay.

But I'm talking about like the like the Adam Sandler we're going to try. I guess like chronologically, after Punch Drunk Love, every few years, they try to try to make a go of like Sandler's being serious. Because like, rain over me is the one that everybody forgets, um, the Mike Binder movie post 9-11 I forgot about that. Sandler and Cheatel. Everybody's forgotten about that.

It's pretty, like, I remember that movie being pretty fine, like, not bad. I don't remember anything about it to the point where I'm like, did I maybe not see it? What's the Shoemaker one? The cobbler? Oh, that's Tom McCarthy. It's the one bad Tom McCarthy movie. So they say, I've never seen it. I don't want to bring myself to see it, the cobbler.

Everybody said it was so bad. it's him method man Ellen Barkin I yeah I would watch Method Man in another Tom McCarthy I'd watch Sandler in another Tom McCarthy

well that seems like that would be a good match and then just at the point where people are like you know what men women and children flopped the cobbler flopped he's just going to go back and make that's then the Netflix deal started and they're like he's just going to go back and make dumb comedies for Netflix forever and then it's like well except that

Noah Baumbach just cast him in this movie, and he fucking rocks. Oh, and then the Saffty brothers just cast him in their thing. And, like, I don't love Uncut Gems as much as everybody else does. But, like, it's definitely part of this, like, overall narrative of, like, Sandler being really, really good in these drama, these dramatic movies when asked to be. Um, hustle, it sort of falls into that, you know, into that two. And then now we have whatever his role in Jay Kelly. He's apparently

Clooney, I guess, plays an actor and Sandler plays his like long-time manager is maybe the most we know about this movie. And it's another bomb back. And like he was so good in Myroitz that I'm just like, I'm very, very excited to

see what this turns out to be. The other thing about uncut gems to, which obviously I don't want to get too into that movie and that performance because we'll eventually... We'll eventually do an episode on Uncotechams, yeah, yeah, yeah. But that movie was this kind of surprise hit at the time. It was A24's biggest financial success, and I think that still showed what a draw Sandler is. I mean, made so much more money than this movie, Punch Drunk Love, but that he could veer in that direction and people would still show up for it.

Yeah. What did you think of uncut gems? I love uncut gems. I think he's so good in it. And I do think that they, it's like, I think that both punch drunk love and uncut gems, it's like these filmmakers who know how to use him and in a dramatic way. He's not doing something so totally outside of what he usually does. It's like, and like that's why I think hustle works too is because he's obsessed with basketball.

you're sort of like, okay, he just wanted to hang out with all these basketball players, maybe. Right, right. But so, like, it feels authentic to him as a person being like, I love basketball. I want to, like, I love talking to basketball players. And so I think Uncut Gems is, like, really tapping into, like, a very weird, unhinged type of energy that is naturally simmering in him, but, like, using it towards a dark end rather than, like, a, you know, comedic end. Well, there was something... Yeah, it's so much about context because the elements of that movie are not unlike, like, a stereotypical Adam Sandler movie where you have him just in a maybe oddball milieu surrounded by chaos. His voice is sort of like his weird voices that he does and his comedy stuff.

Yeah. They just sort of pointed at like a darker story and it works. There is something that happened, maybe it was around Lost in Translation, where this kind of conventional wisdom set in that, like, if you want to take a comedic actor and succeed with him in a drama, you put him in this role that, like, drains all of the, like, comedic life force out of them, and they will show how impressive they are by playing a very depressed character or a very, you know... Sad clowns. Right, right, a lot of sad clowns. And I think, while I think that worked very well for that specific movie, I think in general, and of course, like, that's tapping into an energy that exists within Bill Murray anyway, because you already had seen that in, like, Rushmore. You know what I mean? But I think with Sandler, Sandler's a good example of the fact that, like, the best course of action isn't necessarily to just, like, drain all of that energy out of him. you see in Punch Drunk Love, like, yes, there is so much of this where he's, like, put upon and sort of, you know, meek and quiet, but, like, it does also have this other edge to him where he has these, like, volcanic bouts of anger or whatever. And you play into what is fascinating about the Sandlin persona. And I would much rather have that than have it just be like, oh, Steve Carell is playing a sad man in this movie. And it's like, oh, okay.

Right. Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, thank you. So it's another kind of PTAism. Yeah. Of like the id or the, you know, the boiled over personality, you know, of... Yes. Not even just male rage, but like the thing that you can no longer contain within yourself anymore. Because even Phantom Thread is a lot of that, just.

in a different setting with a different type of person. So we're going to have so few opportunities to talk about Paul Thomas Anderson movies in this way. I really don't want us to miss our shot here. So he's coming off of two consecutive screenplay nominations at this point in his career. He's nominated for Boogie Nights, which also gets nominated for supporting actor and supporting actress. Probably should have been nominated for Picture and Director given what that movie was to that year's crop of film. like it was, you look back and like that is one of the like top two or three most influential and, you know, major movies of that year.

That award he loses to Goodwill Hunting, and then two years later he's back again with Magnolia, which also gets a nomination for Tom Cruise, but again, nothing really beyond that. And that makes maybe a little bit more sense because Magnolia, the dominant sort of cultural, you know, existence of Magnolia was really, really, really. confusing people and people being like, I don't know what to make of this movie. Like, Punch Drunk Love ended up doing that a little bit, and we'll see that a little bit when we talk about the reviews. But, like, Magnolia specifically, where they're like, once the frogs happened, man, like,

I was maybe out on that one. And, but he's nominated for screenplay again, which I think is, like, huge show of respect from, you know, the fact that, like, Hollywood is definitely, like, into what he's doing. And I think it's no coincidence that that's also the same year that, like, Charlie Kaufman's getting nominated for being John Malkovich, and, like, Kaufman would end up getting a bunch of screenplay nominations and then eventually winning for Eternal Sunshine. So, like, Hollywood's definitely coming around to that kind of stuff. Wes Anderson would also get a screenplay nomination for Tenen Bombs. But that's the one for Magnolia, where he loses to Allen Ball for American Beauty, which I imagine... At the time, American Beauty had a lot of fans, but I imagine Paul Thomas Anderson was probably

hip to the more current understanding of American Beauty now, we're like, because you watch that clip, and he and Fiona Apple, just, like, could not roll their eyes harder, and it's, they're so over it. And there's so much like this bullshit, like, of course. And you know I love Fiona Apple. One of the things I found was amazing, and we'll talk about this when we talk about John Brian was the connective tissue between this movie and ultimately... Oh, are you going to bring it up because I was going to... Oh, we'll bring it up when we talk about John Brian then, because like John Brian deserves... I don't want to get off of the Paul Thomas Anderson thing.

Right, right. This is a movie that has for a long time existed in a kind of other space for Paul Thomas Anderson. It doesn't really fit with his other movies. I think after this movie, he sort of, he returns. with there will be blood, which is like so big and epic and operatic and all this sort of stuff. And then he moves on from there and he does the master. And by that point, the Paul Thomas Anderson movie becomes this like event, right? Punch drunk love is maybe the last time

that Paul Thomas Anderson released a movie that was not received as like an event by the sort of cinephile community. And it certainly is his smallest movie... with the exception of perhaps heartate. And I mean, fully by design, too. I mean, that's how you can tell a smart filmmaker, too, that after you make Magnolia, maybe it's good to just, you know, come back to home base, do something high on its own supply, but scale down, exactly. There was a period there for a while where Punch Drunk Love was kind of his Jackie Brown, where, like, the, people would be, like, real ones know that, like, Punch Drunk Love is the best Paul Thomas Anderson.

And then that has kind of gone away as he's made things like, you know, Phantom Thread and, like, movies that, like, are sort of bigger in scope or in, you know, theme or whatever that have supplanted that. I think you'll see far more people claiming, like, a Phantom Thread as their favorite Paul Thomas Anderson rather than, you know, as a sort of unconventional. choice, rather than punch drunk love. I don't even think it's unconventional anymore. I mean, I think probably the most conventional is there will be blood at this point. Yes, yes, I think that's definitely the most conventional, which is not, I don't want to, I don't want to cast dispersion. They don't want to turn this into me, like, you know, being annoyed at Paul Thomas Anderson fans.

But I do see this movie and see a lot of charm in it and a lot of freedom where it doesn't feel like he's not adapting anything. He's not adapting a novel. He's not trying to like thread the needle between like a fictional character and let's say El Ron Hubbard. You know what I mean? He's not, you know, trying to do a kind of like weird Romano Clef, but not quite with like he was with licorice pizza or whatever. And he's not trying to copy Robert Altman. Right. Right. Exactly. Exactly, exactly. Yes. So it does feel like, you know, you can see there certainly influences in this movie, but he's really doing his own thing in this. And there is a lightness to it, but also a real moodiness to this movie that I find really intoxicating in a way that I, again, don't remember it feeling that way the first time I saw it. It's such a, you know, it's almost like this little, like, chamber comedy of a movie. But I do feel like in my rewatch of this movie, I felt like it was like watching a director finding their actual voice.

You know, he's coming off of Magnolia, which is like, you know, it's a feature not a bug of Magnolia that it is really just this lumbering giant ocean barge of a thing. And you can just feel him as a storyteller just wanting to get, having a vision and just wanting to get it all out there. That's why I respect Magnolia as much as I do. Even at the parts where I don't quite get it. Fully. Yeah. But here, it feels like someone really trying to kind of re-center themselves from that experience. And like I said, there's aspects of this movie that you can find in the rest of his work after it, too.

Even if I wouldn't put this near my favorites, I do think it is an important movie in his filmography for that reason. Yeah. It's almost like this movie. could be like one of the threads in magnolia and he's like he pulls it out and like lets it breathe and like have its own you know room emotional space you know for it instead of just being like oh like a corky side character yeah yeah which i think it easily could have been in like a larger piece like a magnolia or something but um i also just like this is kind of a tangent but i just I think probably because I saw this

probably on DVD like on a college dorm room bed like stoned like two in the morning probably the first time I saw it I just like just yeah it's like the score and the colors and the dreaminess and the fact that like it's not that hard to follow

no right exactly exactly it kind of like it kind of like washes over you I always that's what I always associate this movie with is that it kind of washes over you because you're kind of just on this emotional journey with this person and then it's also being supported by these like aesthetic choices and you know yeah and it's only 95 minutes so it's like yeah a great um you know like not too long not too not too big of a bite like right right you can throw it on at midnight

when you're falling asleep and and have a nice moment yeah well and at a lot of him to be, um, to sort of follow these urges or these kind of, you know, flights of fancy or whatever. And it doesn't feel like you don't end up feeling exhausted by it because again, you know, you're sort of, you're in, you're out. I much would rather sort of feel like there's this movie ends while there's still maybe a little bit of story to be told. I, you know, maybe could have done, you know, I, give me maybe 20 more minutes of, of of him with Lena, but like, no, no, it's better to feel like, you know, they're getting have their story that's going to move on beyond the borders of the movie, which I really like.

This is also Anderson's fourth consecutive movie with Philip Seymour Hoffman after Hard Eighth and boogie nights in Magnolia. And I do love how different all of these characters are, for him. Like, you watch, especially, Heart Aid, I don't remember enough to really get into it. But, like, obviously, his character in Boogie Nights is so different than his character in Magnolia, where, like, Boogie Nights, he's

playing a really, a pathetic character to the point where I really, it's the one thing in Boogie Nights I do struggle with, where I'm just, like, I don't know how much enjoyment I'm getting of this, like, this pathetic, fat gay guy who is, like, you know, I don't know. Yeah, it's like

this humiliation thing. Humiliation kink almost. Yeah, yeah, a little bit. And then Magnolia, he's playing, like, the soul of goodness, like, in this movie full of... On the verge of tears at all times. And, like, everybody else has these, like, tragic flaws and these, you know, vices. And, you know, some of them are legitimately, like, you know, terrible people, but they're all, you know, sort of struggling with something or another. And poor Phil Parma just wants to be there for, you know, the people he's nursing for. and it's a character unlike anything that really you ever see Philip Seymour Hoffman play. And then into Punch Drunk Love, where he's such a fucking scumbag. Whoever styled his hair in this movie really deserved an up bonus. I got to say, Philip Seymour Hoffman in this movie, hot, unfortunately. Oh, very hot, yeah.

I mean, like, I always kind of had the hots for Philip Seymour Hoffman, but in this movie I'm like, oh, like, maybe organized crime does it for me. I remember literally like one of the images that sticks with me from this movie

is him like with his hands on his hips like on the phone Yeah yeah Yes Or like screaming into the phone And I remember

People always post the Shut up, shut up Shut up video It's it's the hand on his hips I'm like the one hand on his forehead like this and being like What are you talking about And he's just like

This role And his Mission Impossible Three role to me are like twin, like, conjoined twins in a way, too, where it's just like this horrible, horrible, like, nasty villain who's, like, going to fuck you up because you have, like, made him take more than 20 minutes out of his day to, like, deal with you. But, like, horrible, nasty villain that you're like, ooh, I want him to come back on screen again. Right. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. He's only in, like, three scenes in Punch Drunk Love. You absolutely remember him being in more of.

of this movie than he is. It's forever before you see him for the first time in this movie and you're like, I really remember him as being this like constant villainous presence in this movie. Or like the second lead. And it's Emily Watson. Like the girl, Georgia or whatever, the woman on the phone line is much

much more of a consistent villainous presence in this movie. She's like the primary villain and she like kicks it up to Philip Seymour Hoffman at some point. But that shut up scene is so good. It's so funny. And places him as the almost like Joseph Campbell-esque, like, oppositional force to Sandler,

where, like, these two volcanic rages that have to at some point, like, clash because one is representing. And they're both, again, we said that the pudding cup scam isn't so scammy. It's more of a taking advantage of a loophole. But, like, but Hoffman's also a scammer, but like the actual, like taking advantage of innocent people scam. And, and it plays really interestingly in 2025, especially, where he's just like, I'm going to use the shame over, you know, calling a sex line or whatever. Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, you are, you know, perverts deserve to, you know, get fucked up or whatever. And, and you called a sex line. So you've revealed yourself as being a person of like low, like moral character or whatever. Or like, I'm going to expose that

you like called a sex line or something. And it's like, okay, now we have only fans. Right, right. Exactly. Exactly. We are celebrating sex workers in our Oscar speeches, like the sex worker community. Yeah, yeah, yeah. But there is like a male idness to this too of like, I can't give this pornography my credit card. They'll destroy my life. I can't give them that much of my information. Well, and especially because like we see how easy it is to like he cancels the credit card. Like, ultimately, like, he is in, you know, until they track him down and force him to go to the ATM, he's not in financial danger. But, and he doesn't, at the point of that movie, he doesn't have a girlfriend. He does eventually get a girlfriend. But you do have this

unspoken thing of like, if his sisters were ever to hear about this, they would ruin, they would ruin his life for the rest of time. They would stop calling him gay boy. They would stop calling him gay boy, but they would, like, they would absolutely just like hang this over his head forever and it's also such a 2000 like this is no longer this would never happen in our current day the right phone sex lines aren't a thing anymore like no the like barry you have a call in line too it's your sister like uh right right it would just be a buzzing it would be a buzzing it would be a buzzing from the cell phone on the table going off and like yep you would have texts on the screen yes true true oh my god the way that he would be inundated with text from his sister on the screen He'd be, like, completely, yeah, cover it up. No, that's totally true. That's totally true. And it would have been so, he would have never needed to, like, you know, call his sister to, like, find out where Lena's staying in Hawaii, probably.

Again, stalker issues and whatever, but, like, um. She's charmed by the fact that he's there, though. She is charmed. She's very charmed. They're peas in a pod. People who are happy to, who naturally behave outside of the social norms, but they find each. She's an Easter egg in this movie. The Easter egg in this movie is that she's in the background of the supermarket when he's looking at Healthy Choice Pudding Cups.

She's there in her red coat or whatever at the ends of the aisle. You know, sort of like she had, after she met him in that first scene, she's like hanging around waiting to like, you know, see him or whatever. She stalked him, so he's a stalker. It's romantic that way. You know what? Mutual stalking. Made this love find me. Yes.

Well, you can't have that anymore now because she would just, like, DM him on Instagram after scrolling his page to the very end. Don't know what Barry's Instagram would look like. Can we just take it briefly back to the scene with Sandler and Philip Seymour Hoffman? Because I forget, one of you mentioned, and I forget who towards the beginning that it's, you know, it's just kind of, he just shows up and he intimidates him enough and it all goes away. Yeah. Sandler is so great in that scene to make this like, oh, well, this is just conveniently taken care of. He can make you believe that in the way that he plays it. Yeah. Well, and it's just sort of part of this incongruity that Anderson plays with so much in, like, the scripting of the movie, too, where, like, it can, you can have these scenes. where he's like, I just want to smash your face in. And it'd be like this like, you know, sweet romantic dialing.

And she's like, I want to like bite your face off or whatever. I want to eat your eyeballs. Yeah. Yeah, I want to scoop out your eyes. And it's just like, oh, y'all are like on your own thing. And good for you. And I'm glad you two found you. That's the, it's the movie where it's just like, oh, the two right people in the entire world found each other.

And let's be happy for that because that does not happen very often. Robert Smigel is probably not with his eternal soulmate with one of the sisters. I think it's also just one of the things about this movie. You can't take too literally. I would understand why it would make someone uncomfortable, but I think it's, you know, it's broad and taken to an extreme, but like really what's just, what the romance is there is people who are being accepted exactly for the person that they are.

Well, they're so comfortable with each other. That's what it really communicates there, is that they're so comfortable with each other that they can just sort of like, you know, say these odd little things and neither one of them is freaked out by it. They're sort of, you know, they're communicating how, you know, passionate they are for each other. It's sweet in an odd way. What a lovely movie. Okay, John Bryan's score. We need to talk about it. So, John Bryan, I don't know if this is the story you were released.

leading up to Joe. John Brian dated Marilyn Raskub prior to this movie being made. For like a few years, for like several years. They were together. Yeah. They break up as he's working on this movie. And in the process of that, he reaches out to Fiona Apple. Who was dating Paul Thomas Anderson at the time?

Who had recently broken up with Paul Thomas Anderson. And he basically tells her, I need to be working on something else. I can't keep staring at. at my ex-girlfriend all day. And through that, she didn't, Fiona was not really, like, into working at the moment. And through that, though,

it becomes what is originally the John Bryan version of Extraordinary Machine. The Extraordinary Machine, one of the great albums. Oh, my God. I, that album is imprinted on me. You talk about a No Skip's album. Like, I am very much a person who skims the singles.

So, like, I don't have very many of those, like, you know, album albums, but, like, that is absolutely one for me. It's so good. I mean, Fiona only makes those. She's the best. She's the best. I love her. She's the best. I love her. The John Bryan score, though, is just, like, of the gods.

It's, like, and he is somebody who is in the business of making, like, really great film scores. I really, really love, you know, his Huckabee's score is one of my favorites, too. But this is really kind of on another level. Anderson's really asking a lot from him because he's really asking him to set this really sort of surrealistic but sweet but dreamy but sort of like throwbacky kind of mood. The Popeye song. Well, you need to like, yes, you need to like rhyme with this, you know, sort of the song from Popeye, which is so well deployed in this movie.

Holy crap. Like Shelley Duvall's energy as olive oil is like suffused in the DNA. of this movie to a degree. So Brian... And just like the broader soundscape, too, like when you think of the anxiety that builds in this movie, and a lot of it comes from John Bryan's underscore.

And, like, that is kind of an element that clearly would become very influential. You know, you see it even in movies like Uncut Gems, where it's just, like, have a score that maybe you don't realize is there. Maybe it's blending also in with the natural diogenetic.

sound score and it becomes, you know, the vibe of the movie. Yeah. So, correct me if I'm wrong, Chris, John Bryan's never been nominated for an Oscar, right? Sure has. Which is, yes, which is crazy. I mean, this is sort of what, you know, every once in a while, these craft branches sort of reveal themselves to be very insular and very sort of clubby. And you see this, John Bryan's a huge example of this. But I also feel like this is also one of and I've brought this up before, one of the great years for film

scores in recent memory and maybe my lifetime. And the Oscar field is actually really good. This is the year that Elliott Goldenthal wins for Frida up against John Williams for Catch Me If You Can which is great and like is atypical

for our John Williams nomination at the time where it's not just like John Williams phoning it in And, like, he's really delivering something in that one. Thomas Newman for Rocha Perdition, which is my favorite Thomas Newman score. And, like, that's kind of saying something for me because I really love Thomas Newman. Philip Glass for the hours, which everybody knows how I feel about the hours. And then Elmer Bernstein for Far from Heaven, which is this, you know, Douglas Serkian pastiche kind of a thing, very beautiful. But, like, this is also the year of Terence Blanchard's 25th hour score.

Oh, what else? Oh, James Newton-Howard's signs score, which it's, with its sort of, you know, Hitchcockian kind of, you know, illusions and whatever. There's a ton of really good stuff. Peter Gabriel was nominated for the Golden Globe for his score for rabbit-proof fence. It's, and so you add to that, you know, John Bryan for Punch Drunk Love, which I would definitely put in my top five. But, like, it really, you are going to have to, like, leave out something really, really good

to make a top five scores this year. There's like, I mean, and it's all the, the heavy hitter, big guys, big names. Names, yeah. Oh, yeah. Totally. Totally. Thank God, Alexander DeSplah was not in his, in his heyday by this point. Like, Hans Zimmer or something.

Right. Yeah, Zimmer kind of took a year off and, like, thank God, because we couldn't deal with it. We couldn't handle that. I think if I'm picking five, I'm going the hours, Road to Perdition, Punch Drunk, love, 25th hour, and far from heaven? I'm probably doing the same exactly. Leaving out Frida, even though I think that's a really good score, leaving out if you can.

Leaving out signs, I love that score, but like, it's so, it's a good year. That's a good year. Listeners, get back at us. What's your top five for that? What's the closest we think John Bryan ever came to an Oscar nomination? I mean, probably this, because a lot of it, is, you know, or maybe Eternal Sunshine, because that's something that got...

I was thinking that maybe. And it's a very, it's a very front street kind of a score, as is the Punch Drunk Love one. What other, like, big major Oscar movies does he deliver the score for? Like, he does the score for Lady Bird. Lady Bird maybe is when where he came closest. Because that's another really, really good score for that movie. There's not a lot of score, though. It might not have even

been eligible because of how many needle drops are in that movie. Yeah, but I do feel like there are definitely like themes in that. Like, I've listened to that album, that original score album before. And like, there's definitely like themes that like definitely feel applicable. I wonder if it got any like

precursor stuff. Oh, he did Magnolia. Oh, well, I mean incredible. Incredible. Incredible. I guess, I guess got nominated for Grammys for Magnolia and Eternal Sunshine.

That makes a ton of sense. Sometimes the Grammys get it better on the music awards than the Oscars do. What does he have coming up, I wonder, John Bryan. He and Fiona should do a movie score together. Wouldn't that be amazing? Get Fiona an Oscar

nomination? My God. It's all like household percussive. Oh, you know what? He did the music, the original music for the Peewee documentary, Pee Wee as himself. Oh. Oh. So good. Yes.

So good. It's so funny because he does a lot of comedies. And I feel like people maybe don't think about comedies for score. Yeah. I think that's probably true. What do we think of this Golden Globes lineup that Sandler was able to crack? It's really the only major nomination that this movie was able to pull off, which is kind of funny. But again, I want to talk about the reviews briefly.

It's a good lineup. It's a real good lineup. This is where Richard Gere wins for Chicago. He's in lead in this category. I do feel like if they had more strongly pushed him for supporting, like, it would have edged out John C. Riley, which would have been too bad. But I think he'd have had maybe an easier time. Maybe, maybe not, though.

Maybe, maybe not because they did get to supporting actress nominations. But I think a lot of people thought that Gere was kind of a shoe-in for an Oscar nomination. You think gear should have been supporting? I think so. I think like that's, and I also feel like- That is a supporting role. Yes. Yeah, Billy Flynn's not a protagonist.

It's Roxy's movie. Kieran Culkin getting nominated for Igby goes down. I love the fact that if you look at this, you look at this lineup, there are two Oscar winners, and it's Nicholas Cage and Kieran Culkin. Like, that's just really funny. Crazy, yeah. And then Hugh Grant for About a boy who's so good. So good.

And we said Nicholas Cage for adaptation. Which is just... Nicholas Cage deserved it. Like, one of the best performances ever. Like, I can do anything. I love that performance so much. It's great. Why does it have a period at the end of the title?

Adaptation period? Yeah. I don't understand it. Because they can't. But I don't get it. I don't get it. Yes. It bugs me. Do you put a period on your screenplay, on the front of your screenplay, like, by WGA rules or something? I don't think so, but I don't know. I don't know WGA rules. They're weird. I did want to mention the reviews, because this is a movie that, like, if you look at, like, Metacritic or whatever, it's pretty good, right? Like, it's not great. You can tell, like, it's a movie that, like, didn't have, like, universal appeal. 78 and Metacritic, 79 and Rotten Tomatoes. These are flawed metrics, but whatever.

but if you actually like page through the reviews and like I was so mad I could not track down the Rex Reed review because Rex Reed hated this movie. The one quote I was able to find, he said one of the most pointless movies ever made. Okay, Rex. As ever, Rex Reed, shut up. And you had people like Ebert. Like, Ebert was like kind of over the moon about it. Three and a half out of four stars. Really loved it. Loved, you know, the Sandler of it all. And he was somebody who like had hated all of the previous Sandler movies. So he really, you know, enjoyed what was going on here. His quote was interesting. He said, you know, I feel liberated in films where I have absolutely no idea what will happen next, which I think is a really interesting, you know, that's a very eberty quote. But like David Anson for Newsweek, liked the movie, but says it's powerful undercurrents. He mentioned how like the Emily Watson character is underwritten and says the movie's powerful undercurrents keep tugging it in other darker directions, resulting in a movie

more amazing than satisfying. Owen Glyberman said that Punch Drunk Love is quietly sweet, even resonant without ever being truly moving. Andrew Seris says that the movie is initially mystifying, one of the most initially mystifying movies I've ever seen, which is to say I was completely in the dark about what was happening in the first half hour or so, and then pleasantly surprised thereafter. Jay Hoberman at the Village Voice said, as elegantly crafted as it often is, Anderson's movie is essentially a one-trick pony that hampered by an undeveloped script ultimately

pulls up lame. So this was not like the dominant, you know, the reviews were kind of varied, varied positive, but like there was enough mixedness. We're like, this is where we see it. Like, this is kind of the no man's land for where you don't want your reviews to be if you're an Oscar contender. You can almost have them worse than this. If you have critics being like, this is the most over-sentimental.

treakily bullshit, whatever, they're like, Green Book, got you. Whenever they're like, all these reviews are basically saying, like, I didn't get it. Right, right. Or I didn't, or I didn't fully get it. I got maybe a little bit of it, but I didn't get all of it. Which is worse, which is way, way worse than I have a problem with this one thing. Because it's just like this nebulous, like, I can't put my finger on something. And I do have, like, I do sympathize that people bought, or bought.

fathered by. Yes. It's easy to just like, be like, we're going to put that over there and we're not going to talk about it, you know? But I've definitely felt that away about certain movies. And I feel that I know that frustration of being like, why can't I get there with this movie? Like, what's, you know, what is ultimately my problem? That is my problem with a lot of like, a lot of Paul Thomas Anderson movies where, you know, I wish I knew why licorice pizza doesn't fully do it for me. And, like, there are certain, like, specific things in there, but ultimately, it's just, like, I'm left a little, you know, nonpluss or whatever. So I get that. But I also feel like that's just to be a movie that people will maybe, I imagine a lot of these people, 10 years later, are like, oh, I like, I like that movie more now.

Or maybe, like, I like it less now, but, like, are less in this, like, no man's land middle ground about it. because this is a movie that takes a while maybe for you to sort of sit with and doesn't, it's not conducive to reviewing it a day later. Every Paul Thomas Anderson movie that I, I have to see it a couple of times. Yeah. Like, I did not get Phantom Thread at all the first time. It made me sort of like angry at first. And then once I realized what it was doing, I was like, oh, and now I'm with it.

And then when I saw it a second time, I was like, this is a masterpiece. But, like, there are definitely movies that I need to, like, go back. of his that I've only seen once that I need to go back in and watch again because they do not work for me on first watch for whatever reason, whatever. That was inherent vice for me recently. You have to see a couple times. I still feel like I'm refining my opinion on Magnolia, and I've seen that movie maybe like four times.

Yeah, I think the way that we do have to review movies is like, go to the screening, turn out a review. I don't think that these movies can be pinched. down like that. And so I think that the critics are sort of in a bad position of having to formulate a thought about a Paul Thomas Anderson movie and, you know, quickly, which I think his movies are very in a way forward thinking. I think Punch Dr. Love is advanced for its time period when it came out. And I think that for college students who are watching it over and over again stoned out of their minds, it's working.

Right. Right. Exactly. It's like locking into like it's emotional currents and it's, you know, stylistic choices and it's, I think it's influenced a lot of people. Yeah. Who watched it at a young impressionable age. But yeah, it's a hard movie to like quickly synthesize. I also think this thing you're describing Katie is part of the reason why people are so passionate about his movies, because you can really develop a relationship with them as you kind of grapple with them and what they are. Well, and this brings me then to, you know, what's coming down the road. We've got another Paul Thomas Anderson movie coming out, one battle after another,

getting released in late September. So on one hand, you think, okay, late September, we'll have a good few months to sort of turn that movie over in our mind before we get to award season. And obviously, like, award season is not the B-L and end-all for Paul Thomas Anderson. But he is an 11-time Oscar nominee, and he's never won. So it's like it is one of those developing, every time there's another Paul Thomas-Handerson movie, it's a little bit more and a little bit more of a story. But I also feel like the worry is that, like, these reputations is maybe the wrong word. but, like, the conventional wisdom on movies calcify so quickly sometimes.

And it's just sort of like, and then it becomes then, oh, now we have to dismantle these initial reactions. And are we going to spend, you know, the bulk of the fall people trying to sort of change people's minds about their initial reaction to the movie? Or, I mean, I could be, I maybe am, you know, supposing things that don't, aren't necessarily going to happen. But I can see another Paul Thomas Anderson Pynchon adaptation, such as it is, for whatever, as much of a Pension adaptation as it is, being something that people are maybe going to sit with a little bit before they really understand it. It just seems like it's taken a big bite. I also think, and like this is one of the shitty, I think, truths about the movie business is because this movie is so expensive. If it doesn't do well, they're going to, like, pillory him for spending someone. Variety headlines about, aren't they already doing that with this movie?

Like, it has to make this much money. And, yeah, I just, I don't think that, like, Paul Thomas Anderson movies really do well in the, like, news churn content. No. A quick take, is it good, is a bad type of environment. He's a long-haul filmmaker. He is. Yeah. Yeah.

That's what my... I mean, look at something like there will be blood, which is going to be making money in perpetuity because of the reputation that it is. And it gets that reputation by him making the movie, however the hell he wants to make the movie. I mean, my friend Corey Everett, he used to run the Paul Thomas Anderson, like, fan site. called cigarettes and cigarettes and red vines. Oh, I didn't realize that. Oh, wow. That's funny. It's like one of the, I think, moderators of cigarettes and red vines. Get out of here. That's so funny. He, whenever a new Paul Thomas Anderson movie comes out, he sees it like

multiple times in a row, like as soon as he can. Like, he goes like three times, like the opening weekend. And I'm like, you're sick and twisted. But I, as we're talking about the fact that these movies really unfold for you on rewatch because it's almost too much to take in. at first, like, I get it. Yeah, yeah, I definitely get it. Very excited. What's everybody's favor, Paul Thomas Anderson, on the chat right now? I think it's Phantom Thread, which maybe that's recency bias, because I haven't seen,

like, I really need to do a more recent rewatch of Boogie Knights and Magnolia, because I haven't seen those in a long time, but like, I think recency bias is Phantom Thread. Yeah. It's still almost a decade old for a movie. Right. There's no recency bias. Phantom Thread is definitely like chipping away at it, but it is the master for me. Is it? Yeah.

Yeah. I think. That's definitely a movie that was, you know, very contentious when that movie came out in terms of people really liked it and other people really, really did not care for it. I mean, you even see Paul Thomas Anderson super fans that are like, I don't know about the master. Yeah. But I think where he's coming from, the story that he's telling, is. You know, it's kind of like the curdled best years of our lives. It is, you know, very much about where American culture was moving. And it's about, you know, someone who doesn't fit into the mold that they're being prescribed as culture was shifting into more of a packaged thing.

And, of course, we have all of these, you know, American cults emerging at that time. I also find the master to be just maybe one of his most emotional movies, and it's not, you know, an emotional language that you usually see in movies, but I do think it is a very, like... Yeah. And in bromance, you know. Sure. It's his bromance movie.

Yeah, Amy Adams, just throwing hand jobs out there left to night. Yeah, mine's Boogie Nights, again, at the risk of seeming, you know, I always feel like it's weird to be like, oh, the movie that, like, I first brought this person to my attention is still my favorite. But I've seen that movie again and again. Every time I see it, I'm, you know, it's so, it's such a good comedy for being, like, not really a pure comedy, but like, it's so funny when it really wants to be. And when it goes off the rails, it goes off the rails in a way that, like, really appeals to me. like the, you know, the Sister Christian scene, of course, and, like, all this sort of stuff. It's, you know, Alfred Molina was robbed of his Oscar.

But I honestly think I would probably slot in Punch Drunk Love as my second favorite after this rewatch. Like, it's, it really, really impressed me. So I was very happy with that. What else do we want to say before we move into the IMDB game? Did anybody else have notes they wanted to bring out? We haven't talked about the Cannes Film Festival. This wins Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for David Lynch's jury that included Sharon Stone, Michelle Yeo, Billy August, and Walter Salas. So, like, that's pretty cool.

Sharon Stone, who allegedly, allegedly, allegedly didn't even watch, like, a third of the movies. Well, and also to place us back in 2002, not only did the Palm Door go to Roman Polanski for the pianist, but they also gave a special honorary award to Woody Allen that year. Oh, baby. What a moment in time. You know, but it's an interesting year. 24-hour party people was at that can about Schmidt, Mike Lee's All or Nothing, Bowling for Columbine, Olivia Aceyoss's demon lover, Gospher Noes, Irreversible, which was very infamous at that particular festival when people first saw that.

Russian Ark was at that one, The Sun, the Dardens movie of The Sun, David Cronenberg, Spider. talk about a movie that, like, I did not know how to take when I saw that movie. It was David Cronenberg Spider. It's an interesting one. Like, obviously, this is where, like, the Oscar momentum begins for the pianist. But, which is interesting because that always seemed to me, that felt to me like a movie that had very much late-breaking momentum. Like, this is a movie that obviously scored big. and maybe people thought because Polansky couldn't be in the United States to campaign

or because, like, Adrian Brody wasn't really a big star at the time or whatever. Like, it was seen as a contender, but not like a top one. And that sort of, like, you know, chipped away and chipped away. And by Oscar night, it's winning, like, three major awards. And probably came, how close do you think the pianist came to winning Best Picture? Oh, it was second place. But, like, how close of a second place would you, would you wager? Chicago was a really dominant movie that year.

Yeah. Chicago is such a, like, you know, barn burner. Yeah. And, like, Chicago also made almost $200 million at the box. Yeah. Yeah. Oh, my God. It was definitely, like, monoculture.

Yeah. Yeah, very, very much so. Very much so. And yet, it did seem like the awesome. and the sort of like the Hollywood Awards machine were like just searching around for somebody else to win best director because they were like, I don't know if we know. I don't know about this Rob Marshall guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Which is interesting. And they're like, is Scorsese because like that was the big rumor was that Scorsese was going to maybe win best director and not best picture for gangs of New York, which would have been interesting. It would have been their only win. But. Yeah, you know, it's an interesting thing. I also want to relay this anecdote about Jack Nicholson at Cannes that year because Jack Nicholson's there about Schmidt and Sandler told the story on a podcast, I guess maybe

in the last several years, whenever during the podcasting era, that Nicholson was there and he and Sandler maybe had already, when was anger management? that wasn't for like several more years right that's like oh four okay so but like they somehow knew each other in some way or another hollywood whatever and so nicholson came up to him and was really effusive and uh sandler you know was talking to him about his movie and he goes i know sandman i'm coming i'm gonna go see it and sandler's like he kept call me sandman is that what the nickname came probably probably um and then listen if jack nicholson gives you a nickname that's your name now. Yeah. Yeah. And then so he said at the Punch Drunk Love screening at Cannes, he said, the lights go up, the credits, and he said, Nicholson's the first one jumps to his feet and, like, leads the standing ovation. And he's like, and he's like, a lot of people, like, took their cue from that. It was like, well, Nicholson likes it. Like, I really like it. And so he's really, like, credited Nicholson like that. And then he said the next day, he said, my body was not on French time yet. I was not on American.

time. And so, um, he was up early and said all of a time there's a knock on my door. And it's Nicholson. And he just opens the door to Nicholson. And he just goes, quassants. And he's just like, you want to go out for quassons? Um, so, uh, perfect, wonderful story. What an amazing experience. What an amazing experience. I love that. He's like a fast at. It makes me like everybody involved. It's a great story. Like, it makes you like everybody involved in the story better. It's great. Even the French, even the French and their fickle tastes. Yeah. Good for them for following Jack Nicholson. This movie was the Best Kiss nominee at the MTV Movie Awards, which is taste.

Like, good for those MTV was, by 2002, they were sort of leaving the realm of taste, but they still had some taste there. I feel like there was, like, when you look at the list of nominees, or like the winner is like Kirsten Dunson, Toby McGuire in Spider-Man, which everybody knows the upside down kiss. Yeah. And it's like, Daredevil, Drumline, Gangs of New York. New York, and then they, I feel like they would throw in, like, one artie choice. Yes. And I love that they did that. Like, that's so, it's like...

And then eventually they stopped doing that, and their one artie choice turned into, like, a TV show. And then it's like, oh, okay, it's all over. Yeah. I was just talking about this lineup on the podcast when Rom met com. And it's like, well, it's the artie choice, but it's also like, oh, we can nominate Adam Sandler for something. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. That is true.

He was huge in the MTV demographic, of course. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, all the times that, like, Jim Carrey would, like, go serious. They would still nominate Jim Carrey because he was very much, like, one of their own. Yeah, that's so true. That makes a ton of sense. Yeah, any, like, any last notes from you, Chris or from you, Katie?

All right. Chris, why don't you explain to our listeners what the IMDB game is? All right, every week we end our episodes with the IMD game, where we challenge each other with an actor or actress to try to guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. If any of those titles are television, voice-only performances, or non-acting credits, we mentioned that up front. After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining titles release years as a clue, and if that's

not enough, it just becomes a free-for-all of hints. Indeed. All right. The IMDB game. Katie, as our guest, you get the choice of deciding whether you want to give your clue first or guess first, and from whom or to whom you want to give her guess. Okay. I'm going to give.

All right, to whom? I will give to this is, I think this actually, I will give to Chris. I think I gave to you the last time. Okay, Katie will quiz Chris, then Chris will quiz me, and then I will quiz Katie. All right, wonderful. So I just give the name? No, yes, you give the name to Chris, and then Chris will guess which four. Okay, I can't believe his name isn't on the list, but it's appropriate because she's in this movie.

Miss Emily Watson Oh, okay Nice All right Titular character I'll say Angela's ashes Actually no

Oh wow The culture has forgotten Frank McCorm Yeah the culture has forgotten I'll say Punch Drunk Glove Yes Okay

Okay Breaking the waves Yes Do I want to also Say Hillary and Jackie a movie that fundamentally has been scrubbed from the face of the earth. She's good in it, but she got an Oscar nomination. Or do I want to say, is there any television?

No. Okay, so Chernobyl's. Yeah, no Chernobyl. Well, Breaking the Waves. Yeah, you said that one. Oh, I said Breaking the Ways. Okay, so we have Breaking the Ways, Punch Drunk Love. Is the water, it's not the water diviner, but the water hole.

Waterhorse? No. Damn. So now you get your years. Yeah. Oh, okay. Okay, you have 2001 and 2002. Okay, so same year.

2001's Gosford Park. I should have guessed that. You really should have. Everybody in Gosford Park has it in they're known for. O2 is it Red Dragon? Yes. Nice. Well done.

Got it. Well done. Good old Gosford Park still getting us after all these years. Still getting me. Get me. Joe, for you, I went into the Paul Thomas Anderson stable of actors, and I chose for you, someone else we have never done before. Mr. Philip Baker Hall. Nice.

The great Philip Baker Hall. The great Philip Baker Hall. Okay. The great Philip Baker Hall. I'm going to say Hard 8 is one of them? Hard 8 as the formerly titular Sidney. Right, right. Is Magnolia one of them?

Jimmy Gator is on his known for, the first on his known for. All right, I'm going to walk away from further Paul Thomas Anderson for the moment. By all rights, that Seinfeld episode should be on there because he's so fucking funny in that thing. I go back and watch that every once in a while. It's insane how good he is in that. Philip Baker Hall God, he's so like He's so good at just sort of

Showing up out of nowhere And just being in the fabric? Yes, yes, exactly. God, and it's always like, as like the boss of the boss Or like the like father-in-law Who like shows up later on or whatever Is he in any given Sunday?

Any given Sunday is incorrect. Okay. I'm just going to say Boogie Nights then. Boogie Nights is correct. It's correct. Okay. Oh, my God. What if it's a four-bagger for Paul Thomas Anderson?

Is he in a fourth one? Wouldn't surprise me if he's an inherent vice, although I can't quite remember it. I can't give you hints with this final one is maybe why I chose. Oh, God. Is he in the counselor? The counselor is incorrect. Your year is 1998. Surprise you didn't guess Talon and Mr. Ripley, even though it would be incorrect.

Yes. Yeah. 98 then. So, year before Magnolia, you're after Boogie Nights. He's in... Not Shakespeare in Love. I don't think he's in Saving Private Ryan. You're on the wrong path.

I'm on the wrong path. Is he in the water boy? It's not the water boy, but you are in the right genre. Comedy. Yes. Sandler comedy? No, but hit comedy. Is he in basketball?

It is not base. Basketball was not a hit. Oh my God, Basketball. You are not going to be able to believe you got basketball before this movie. This was a huge. movie. These movies have basically, it became a franchise, these movies have basically been memory hold. But it became a franchise, a comedy franchise. Oh yeah. Because of the stars or because of like IP? No, it's not IP. But like, yeah, the stars. Did the stars continue or did the stars also

become memory hold? The stars absolutely continued. So is it like stiller? No. The comedy star in this movie kind of didn't do much other than this franchise because, like, immediately started asking for like $10 million, $20 million paydays. Oh, my God. Okay. Allegedly, allegedly, allegedly, allegedly. Jim Carrey? No.

What is a formula for a lot of different comedies that star two people? Buddy comedy, like bromance. Yeah, but keep going. Notice how I said one of them is the comedy star. Oh, so it's like buddy cop, like mismatched cops? Yes. So is this like... One is the comedy star, and the other is what kind of star?

Action star, rush hour. Rush hour, okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, there we go. Philbaker Hall's known for is three Paul Thomas Anderson movies. And Rush Hour? That's wild. That's wild. Okay, okay. You walked me there.

You walked me up to the door. Thank you very much. All right. Katie, for you. I'm so scared. No, this will be okay. Okay. So one of the more interesting credits on Paul Thomas Anderson's filmography is one of the things that he was there.

It was like the best of Molly Shannon in SNL DVD. I'm like, what's he doing on there? And it's because he directed an SNL sketch that is a parody of MTV's fanatic. Um, and it was with like Jimmy Fallon, but the guest host in that episode was Ben Affleck. So, uh, I'm going to give you Ben Affleck. Okay. Goodwill hunting. Yes, correct.

Um, so many directions to go in. Yeah, that's the challenge with Affleck. Like, is air too recent? Is that your guess? Yeah, air? Yeah, no. Error is incorrect. Incorrect.

Strike one. Goodwill hunting. Mall rats. Not mall rats. So that's your second strike. So now you get years. Your years are 2010, 2012, and 2014. 2010.

What the fuck was this man doing in 2010? Oh, one of the Batman's? Nope. Not one of the Batmans. Those came later. Oh, okay. Yeah, 2014. Wait, it's 10, 12, 14. Yes. Paycheck. Like, is there's a bad action movie in there? He's so rude. I'll say all of these movies are Oscar nominated for something or another. Oh, they are. Ben Affle like did well on his known for. He got lucky. Yeah. Yeah. There's nothing. Nothing, like, highlighting a poor movie of his. Why am I, like, 2012, actually on his known for, it shows that he is a producer. Yeah, it's a producer credit, but it's a movie that he stars in.

Yeah. Okay. Why do I feel like this era of Ben Affleck is, like, lost in my mind? It's a specific Affleck era in that it's, like, post-Gennifer Lopez relationship. Right. But pre-Sadfleck. So it's that, like, so. And pre-batfleck.

Yes. Yeah, and pre-batfleck, yeah. Oh, my God, I need hints. Okay. Really? Like, two of them are merely acting Oscar nominees. One of them does much, much better. Does fantastically well.

As maybe as good as you can do. Yes, at the Oscars. Although Affleck specifically did not get. Yeah, did not get this nomination. Wait, wait, best actor then. But, like, what was he in that was nominated for best actor? No, what's even, what's even, yeah, what's even better than best actor at the Oscars? Oh, best picture.

Oh, wait, Argo. Argo. Yes, that's your 2012. That's 2012. Okay, Argo, of course. These other two were not nominated for Best Picture, but they were nominated for, respectively, supporting actor and lead actress. In 2014

He stars in both of them But he also directs one of them Oh, the town The town is your 2010 Yep Okay, so Argo the town Goodwill Hunting 2014 is a best actress nominee

2014 All Oscar Yep, best actress nominee Although probably should have done better At the Oscars in general I would say And I think Chris would agree Probably my favorite film

Of a different filmmaker Mm-hmm Affleck allegedly hangs Dong in this one. Oh, Gone Girl. Gone Girl. There it is. Yes. Gone Girl.

I knew that's what would unlock it. Why did it take allegedly hanging Dong? Joe says allegedly because one of my conspiracy theory believes that I choose to believe, and I made this up myself, is that Ben Affleck's penis in Gone Girl is just like, the level of David Fincher CGI that you don't even realize it's CGII. It's the sugar at the sugar factory, but it's

something different. All right. All right, we're going to end it there. We're going to end it on Ben Afflex Penex. Naturally, our Punch Drunk Love episode ends on Ben Afflex Pinas. Katie, cannot thank you enough for joining us for this episode.

We had such a wonderful time. This was delightful. Thank you so much for having me. Where can our listeners go for more from you in terms of reviews or social media or anything you want to give up publicize? I don't have anything specific to plug, but I review films every week for the Tribune News Service. So my stuff is all on Rotten Tomatoes. You can search Katie Walsh, Rotten Tomatoes, find my stuff there. Or I post it all in Letterbox. My handle is Katie Walsh STX. And then on Blue Sky, my handle is Katie Walsh STX. So you can follow me there. I link all the stuff there and have various other, you know, commentary takes. What have you.

Awesome. Follow Katie. Seeker out. One of the best in the biz. All right, listeners, that is our episode. If you want more of ThisHad Oscar Buzz, you can check out the Tumblr at thisheadoscurbuzz.com. You should also follow our Instagram account at ThisHad Oscar Buzz. And you You should seek out our Patreon and sign up if you are not already a member at patreon.com slash this had Oscar buzz. Chris, where can the listeners find more of you? A letterboxed and blue sky at Chris V-File. That's F-E-I-L. I am on Letterboxed and Blue Sky as well at Joe Reed, Reed spelled R-E-I-D.

You can also subscribe to my Patreon exclusive podcast on the films of Demi Moore called Demi and Myself and I. You can listen to the episode that Katie and I did on the film Strip Tees. That was so fun. You got a banger one. Super fun. You got an awesome one. Chris has also done multiple episodes. So like the gang's all there at Demi, myself, and I. That is at patreon.com slash DemiPod. Smelled, spelled, D-M-I-P-O-D. We would also like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork, Dave Gonzalez, and Gavin Muvius for their technical guidance and Taylor Cole for our theme music. Please remember to rate, like, and review us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get podcasts. A five-star review in particular really helps us out with a Apple podcast visibility, so do a little soft shoe in the aisle of your favorite grocery store and then write something nice about us. That is all for this week, but we hope you'll be back next week for more buzz.