This Had Oscar Buzz - 372 – The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (w/ Natalie Walker!)

Episode Date: December 22, 2025

Happy Holidays, Garys! This week, we have some unfinished business with Keira Knightley and who better than our pal, actress Natalie Walker to join us for the holiday season. In 2018, Oscar pedigreed Lasse Hallström and family friendly Joe Johnston adapted the classic Nutcracker story for the screen in a grab bag of Disney certified … Continue reading "372 – The Nutcracker and the Four Realms (w/ Natalie Walker!)"

Oh, oh, wrong house. No, the right house. We want to talk to Marilyn Hack, Millen Hacks, and friends. Dick Pooh. Your mother created our world. My mother made all the things. She was our queen. That's your service, Princess Clara.

Princess. The future of the realms lies with you. Be careful who you trust. I've been expecting you. Mother Ginger wants to rule around. I'm going to fix it. Will you help me? It's time to save the kingdom.

Hello and welcome to the This Had Oscar Buzz podcast, the only podcast that is two all beef patties, special sauce, pickles, onion, and a sesame seed bun. 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 step by step, heart to heart, left, right, left. We all fall down, my toy soldier, Chris File. Dida-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-ha. Hi. Merry Christmas. Merry Christmas, everybody. Our annual holiday episode is brimming. with Christmas cheer and sectarian violence.

Finally. Finally, Chris. Nutcracker and the Four Rums. And to join us, we could think of no one better. Wouldn't be the holiday season if there wasn't family in town. That's exactly right. Family, she showed up with arms full of presents and some gnaug of some sort, ready to share, some spiced rum of,

of some sort. Natalie Walker, welcome back to this had Oscar buzz. Hello, boy. Yes, I was hoping for this. I've been chopping at the bit. Oh, God.

Oh, I'm so happy to be here. I'm so happy to be talking about this movie that I saw in theaters when it came out. Damn. During the movie pass era. Oh, sure, yeah. Yeah, so I was really seeing everything then, went to AMC Empire 42, and I went to the Four Realms, and I've never been the same.

Truly, if there is a multiplex in New York City that can be said to have four realms, it is the Empire, because... Is it on four different floors? I've never been to the Empire. It's on four different floors. If you make a wrong turn, you're inside a Dave and Busters. There are escalation. that are like secret escalators, there's, there's a whole lot going on.

There's a Dolby theater that sort of just like comes out of nowhere at some point. Yeah. Wait, it's Empire 25 on 42nd Street. I just needed to say that for the true head. It's an important correction. It's an important correction. Yeah, I know there would be some Gary that's like, it's not 42 actually. Thank you for saving us from having to publish a retraction podcast that we would have done.

The Empire 25 that is constantly putting out. alerts that are like bedbugs found here again. Meanwhile, the poor regal EWalk across the street is just like, nobody knows we're here anymore because we demolished our marquee and now we're just like tucked in next to a five guys somewhere, just kind of unassuming. Empire 25 is, I believe, still the most traffic movie theater in the country. It is. And it's like the one theater in the country where you'll get like sort of far flung like

movies from India or whatever. they do actually program kind of a lot of things. You just kind of don't know about them unless you really, really look into it. Unless you've been to the second and third realm. You can't really understand the fourth realm. The thing about

Empire 25 is when I, because there was a while there when I would go to it often and then at some point I'm just like, no more. The Ewok is right there and I prefer it. But it can get really crowded to a

a point where, like, the concession lines become ungovernable if you're going to like a popular movie on like a night where a lot of people are out. But the other problem is, the exit is like a series of like unending escalator, turn the corner, escalator, turn the corner, escalator, turn the corner. And if people are not cognizant of their surroundings when they reach the bottom of the escalator and move at a, you know, snappy pace, there does become that panic sensation of like, we're all going to die. Like, we are absolutely just going to turn into like a giant pile up and limbs will be broken and people will be trampled. And I, as a person of significant size, one of my like not inconsiderable fears is that like something will happen and I'll fall

atop a petite or like elderly person and like cause them great harm. And I really. And I really really, really don't ever want to do that. And I've never been more afraid of doing that than the escalators at Empire 25. So just to, just, you know, an alert to everybody. Eyes on the ball. Keep it moving.

Keep it moving. Keep it going. Keep it going. Yes. The Empire 25 does look scary and not just when you Google it, you immediately have nothing but bag bugs. But looking at the photos of the architecture.

It looks scary. That's the other thing. is like all of a sudden you're just like on a roof deck and you're just like in the middle of time square just like on a roof deck and sometimes the door like locks behind you and it's just a four realms is a very good way of of describing that because yeah it's honestly how masquerade the phantom experience feels that's where it should have been you are on the roof and yeah all i ask of you is happening and you're like how long am i going to be on stairs what is this. There's a random escalator. Yeah. I can feed the phantom baby. Yeah. If a golden rope were

to just appear that you would start following it, it would happen at the Empire 25. Like, that's, that's for sure. Anyway. I love when we can do local content for a small little city that we all love called Gotham. And, but yeah, so Natalie, did you request this or did we request you i can't remember how this became i forget i feel like it i feel like it must have been i feel like it must have been something like i had heard you reference it on an episode and i and you were like call it said i love this movie and then you were like what if we did an episode on it like last christmas i think i yeah i feel that we looked it up on on IMDB and we're like, thank God it got a costume designer

guild nomination so we can like sell the idea that it had a modicum of Oscar. That it had any buzz. I do think it's a mutual meeting of the minds though because this we also were like well fuck we miss the six-timers quiz for Kira Knightley so we have to figure out a way to do it. And then it's like well we can be we can fudge one on Christmas and do Nutcracker in the Four Realms. Yes. Listen she deserved an Oscar for this and Jackson McHenry wrote an article for

Bolcher You know, I should have nominate Kira I'm looking that up now because I was like I knew I should do a little bit of research because I know somebody must have written a a plea

for sanity. There is no prognosticator in this world. Of course Jackson and weapons level work from Kira in this. We should make Jackson the fourth realm of this episode. We're going to talk about him like he's Helen Mirren. Like, he's been cast off, and then we are the other three realms who are still, like, holding court here.

Jackson on this podcast at some point. Absolutely. Jackson, come on the show. He did two articles about the four realms. One was, like, saying that Kura should be nominated, and one was explaining the four rounds. Yes, that's what I've got. Four realms from Nutcracker Explains, which is a classic vulture construction. And, yes, give Kira Knightley an Oscar nomination for her deranged sugar plum fairy.

from November of 2018. So that's the buzz. That's the buzz right there. That's the buzz. The buzz is coming from literally inside the house when it comes to me. Excellent work. Excellent work, everybody.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like we are going to have a time talking about Kira, talking about her cotton candy wig, and her vocal intonations. And I want to talk a little bit about The Lassa Hallstrom of it all. I want to talk a little bit about the McKenzie Foy of it all.

The Joe Johnston of it all. The Joe Johnson of it all. McKenzie Foy, an actress who I will still mix up with McKenna Grace, even though I know that they're like not, one is significantly older than the other by like an important age range when you are in that age range where you're just like, they're not really competing for the same parts. McKenna Grace is the one who's like in things now. And I don't think McKenzie Foy has been in very much lately.

And meanwhile, I'm constantly thinking it's Thomas and McKenzie. Well, that's the trio. Joe, here's your next quiz. Yeah. Mackenzie Foy, McKenna Grace, or Thomas and McKenzie. Yes, absolutely. 100%. Martha McKenzie.

Mackenzie Foy is the one that I'm like, she's a scary kid in something. But I can never place what scary kid she is. She's Twilight Baby. She's... She's Twilight Baby. Renesme. She's Renesme. In the Twilight movies.

But isn't she... She's not orphan, obviously. No, that's Isabel Furman. Yes. But... McKenna Grace is gifted, I want to say, right? McKenna Grace was... Yes.

The Chris Evans movie gifted. McKenna Grace, I believe, is also it Tonya. Oh, young Tanya. Sure. Yes. Mackenzie Foy is Young Murph. Oh, that's right. She's young.

She's Murph Brackett's Young. Although, again, we had this conversation very recently that Interstellar is the Baron-Stain Bears of our time, which is I absolutely remember seeing all those, Jessica Chastain, Ellen Burstyn, McKen McKenzie Foy credited as Young Murf, Murf, and Old Murph. And now they're just Murph, parentheses, age, whatever. and I, that is not my recollection of it and that is not the world that I want to live in.

So, yeah. McKenzie Foy is one of the kids in the first Conjuring. There it is. And was I think back in some capacity in the most recent one. Yes, it says McKenzie Poy, cameo, but I wonder if that's just them using. The Conjuring series does wreak havoc on Cinematrix for us sometimes because they are no for having people in subsequent movies, but only as pre-existing archival footage. And we don't count archival footage.

And we've had, like, months of, like, debating whether we should and whether we shouldn't, blah, blah, blah. And, of course, whatever we decide somebody's going to get back at us about. But, um, whatever. Whatever. In one realm, McKenzie Foy is young enough. Yeah. In another realm. she is Merv Brackett's Young.

In another realm, she's a conjuring kid. In another realm, she is orphaned. In many ways, the IMDB game is a matter of placing an actor within four realms. And you have to just guess what four realms are their most known for. Okay, so what are the four realms of a known for? There is like the obvious one. No one will get that wrong. Right. Your Oscar nomination.

Mm-hmm. Yeah. Hairspray and or August Ossage County and or Gosford Park. Your name is on the poster. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, name is on the poster. Then it's like the fourth one is like the unwell one. The one that everybody's going to be like, what? Yeah. And the third one is the one that everybody in the car listening to the podcast is screaming at us that we're not getting. Yeah.

That we're not getting for some. reason. I think those are your four realms. Yeah. Listen, we were ahead of our time. We were doing Nutcracker in the Four Realms came out after we began doing this podcast. Did we start? We started in 2018, right? Hold on. It's right in front of me. I don't know why I don't just look at it. I think it was right after we started doing the show. Yeah, we started in June of 2018. This movie came out in November of 2018. So we were already onto our like secretariat episode by the time Nutcracker and the Four Realms came out. All time is measured in the Secretariat episode.

Turn, turn, turn. Where is it in relation? Yeah, to everything there is a season and a time to every realm under heaven. Although I don't know if this movie really recognizes a religious structure, the same way that the Narnia movies are incredibly Christian. I feel like these four realms are ostensibly created by, her mother. So I suppose you could say that there's like an intelligent design aspect to it and that like her mother is the prime mover of this. But like she's also kind of an absent mother goddess, right? Where she's just gone and in her absence, much like in angels in America, in her absence has left chaos and a power vacuum, really. What this movie is about if nothing else is about the dangers of power vacuums within benevolent dictatorships, right?

And, like, ultimately, coexistence becomes impossible when self-interest comes up against toy wind-up soldiers. It's very Jupiter ascending. I call it juniper ascending. For all the flowers. For a creesmo street. The thing about this movie, obviously, Kira Knightley is perfect and sort of exists alone. The rest of this.

And if you disagree, you are not going to want to continue listening to this. Yeah, that's true. Ben, get out while you still can. Thank you for the download, but otherwise. We will drive you up a wall if you don't think that she is less than perfect in this movie. It's a perfect performance. If one were to lift her out, though, is there anything to recommend this movie? I'm like, because I feel like a movie like this ought to be at least laudable for, like, sumptuous visuals or, like, interesting side characters or whatever.

And I'm not sure this movie has much in the way of that. The visuals aren't awful, but they're like, you kind of have the whole sandbox to play with. and you're giving us a very long tree stump and a little bit of a forest. They do give you the like squid game lady, um, uh, Helen Mirren mechanical, whatever. Helen Mirren is squid game in this movie. Essentially, yeah, Helen Mirren is the squid game, a giant doll. She is from the realm of amusements. She is basically a doll who has, uh, she has the makeup with the crack that it's like,

She's porcelain that is broke. I kind of am a sucker for that kind of makeup effect. The broken porcelain makeup effect. The Annabel doll. Yeah. Yes. Speaking of the conjuring. Were I ever to be like professionally like makeup?

Do you know how some of those things you're just like, we have like a little booth and you can like get like your face painted like a tiger or whatever? I would sit down and I'd be like, can you make me look like a cracked porcelain doll? My question is. And they would say, sir, you are almost 50. If Helen Mirren... I'm not doing that for you. Well, no, this is the thing. Because a porcelain doll that is Helen Mirren,

not a porcelain doll that is McKenzie Foy. A porcelain doll that is... Who was really popular in 2018? Rami Malik. Sure, a porcelain doll that is Romi Malik. The idea of... Oskar-winning actress being a doll. Where is the gay child who the doll belonged to in this movie?

Oh, this is like you're going to a Wells for Boys kind of a place. Yes, yes, because like, who wants this doll? Yeah. Like, a little gay boy. Obviously, yes. And no one else. That wants the mother ginger doll. Right.

Well, this is the classic. That isn't even like, give me sugar plum. is literally like, I want Mother Ginger. Yeah. Give me the character actress doll. I want an older character actress. Yeah. This is your classic Rankin-Bass Rudolph the Red Nosed Ranger problem, where a normal, I don't want, obviously, normal.

There's no such thing as normal. A, you know, a more typical child will watch Rudolph the Red Nose Rander, and they'll see the island of Misfit Toys. And they'll be like, well, yeah, like, it's a, you know, they're all irregular items and whatever. And then a little gay child will watch Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer and they'll get to the island of Misfit Toys. And they just won't have it in them to understand why these are castoffs because they're all so perfect. And they all have a very interesting interior life. And there are so many ways you could make them work within your world of play, let's say. Absolutely.

That's my theory on the Rankin'Benzhen. The one that's just depressed. The Red Nose Renniorendier. Yes. The one that's just a depressed woman is incredible. The dolly, right? I'm just sad. Yes.

Well, the one who's just like, just has the wrong name. He's a perfectly fine jack in the box, but he's named Charlie. And it's like, friend, we make our own destinies here. Like a Charlie in the box is just as valid. So I haven't watched that this season yet. I haven't watched the Christmas specials except for The Grinch because my nephew is so into. the classic Grinch cartoon. And he prefers it to the Jim Carrey Grinch,

which, like, thank God. Thank God. Just show him a Christine Boransky Supercut and call it a day. That'd be done with it. And just be absolutely done with it. Yeah. But wait, your nephew likes the Benedict Cumberbatch

animated Grinch, though. Not, no. He, we had that on the one day, but he has made his preference clear. And his preference is the Boris Karloff classic version. So he's, I do think we're going to have this phase happen, though, because right now we're going through Jim Carrey nostalgia. We are going to have Gen Alpha Benedict Cumberbatch Grinch nostalgia, and it's going to be bad.

It's just going to be puzzling. When people start getting nostalgic for, like, the animated Adams family movies, that's when I'm going to really be like, I, the culture has left me behind. Like, I don't understand it. I don't get it. But yeah, I usually make the rounds of, like, the Rudolph special, the Frosty special. Santa Claus is coming to town, although more often it's the year without a Santa Claus. Shirley Booth represents. And then, yeah, The Grinch and Charlie Brown.

They've tried to do, like, the artificial scarcity with those for a while, and now I think we've come around the other side to them being just, like, wild. Everywhere. Am I the only one of the three of us who, like, was, like, deeply obsessed with all those things? I feel like those are fairly widely. No, I was very obsessed. I am, like, waiting to watch all of them this year until I am in Virginia with my little needs. It's a home kind of the thing. Yeah.

Yeah. Because now, well, now that she's too, she is a little more able to actually perceive things on the screen. And she has her characters that she likes. And so I'm very hell-bent on making sure she loves the classics. I'm getting to show her Muppet Christmas Carol this year. Oh, wonderful. Incredible. Yeah, that's fun.

I also find that, like, some of the ones that I used to have to really, like, scrounge for, like, your Mickey's Christmas Carol or your, um, is it Muppet family Christmas, the one where they all go to Fawsey's mom's house? And it's, like, the Sesame Streets and the Fragle Rocks and the Muppets are all in the house together. Yeah. That one used to be so hard to come around. And then, like, now we've, we've, we've, reached a point of availability abundance which is nice i am happy that santa claus is coming to town

has taken a firmer place in the culture in my childhood i had to be the kid who was like advocating for santa claus is coming to town while everybody else wanted to watch frosty and i think it's because i was a little gay boy and santa claus coming to town is like a full-fledged musical there is like a dozen numbers in that thing. But the thing about all of them, there's at least one queer character in all of them, right? Like Hermie the Elf and Rudolph

is absolutely queer. The frosty one, the magician is just like a frustrated old queen. The Snowmiser is essentially like a Vincent Price character. I'm trying to think of who it is in Santa Claus's

coming to time. Oh, Burger Meister Meister Burger is like Provincetown Bear Week. Yeah, that's very smart. That's very smart. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, well, and his assistant, he's like, sir, you have to do. Oh, no, no, nah.

Like, yeah. Also, Tonsa Kringle is mother. Absolutely, Tanta Kringle. Yep. And then, of course, Charlie Brown, Christmas, you have the ever-present peppermint Patty, a lesbian icon. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

I love Christmas specials. I really do. When will the Nutcracker in the Four Realms settle into the Christmas canon? I wonder. With this episode. Yes. We're going to do it. We're going to make it happen.

We're going to do it. We're going to raise the course of history. We need you to make sure that this holiday season, Nutcracker in the Four Realms, charts on all streaming platforms where movies are rentable. To a point where people start to be like, what? And then we have to, like, like, like write the explainer of like, here's why you're just seeing Nutcracker in the Four Realms everywhere this season.

It's all because of this queer little podcast. And Gary's something I can tell you right now is that currently, if you go to Amazon Prime, Nutcracker in the Four Realms, you can buy for $4.99. So I said, okay, rent it for $3.99 or $1.00. Buy it and have it in my house forever. Are you saying buy like physical media or you buy like the digital file? I bought the the file, the file. I'm just going to say though.

I just want to know that it's always there no matter what happens with our overlords. I want to have it forever to bring someone over and show them some of these line readings. And yet, stocking stuffer. If you're looking for a last minute stocking stuffer, go check out. check out that physical media and just stick it, just nestle it in at the last minute into the top of a stocking so that on Christmas morning, your loved one will wake up, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, and they'll be like, what is that? And you'll be like, I have the podcast that will explain it all to you. All of the gay guys who have to go to their small town and need some queer comfort, watch Nightcracker in the Four Realms, don't watch Carol, don't watch other gay Christmas shows. Don't watch Batman Returns.

Wow. That cracker in the four rounds. Don't watch Carol. Chris File, December 18th, 2025. I'm writing it down. Don't watch Carol. We'll get to see Misty Copeland dancing. That is the thing that if you lift Kira out for me, the Christmas pageant with

Gustavo Dutemel doing the Fantasia hose, the Fantasia silhouette and conducting. Because also, any time the actual Chikovsky music comes in, it's just... You can't beat it. He brought it to you every ball. Yeah, yeah, quite literally. Quite literally. It's such incredible, incredible music. Plus, whenever I see Misty Copeland, I can just conjure up any of about a thousand Debbie Allen award show acceptance speeches or presentations.

Debbie Allen has a commitment to reminding the culture that Misty Copeland is there and is deserving of their respect every single time. She will not miss an opportunity to be like Misty Copeland, everybody. She's the thing. Misty Copeland gets a great screen credit in this movie. What is it? Well, I mean, just like the title. Her title is what I should say. I thought she was like an Andro introducing or something like that.

I think it's introducing. Or she might get an and. I love an introducing. Or have, like, an insane character name that we don't know about. It's, like, Misty Copeland as Agent Diva. Yeah, or, like, Misty Copeland as Isabella or something. And it's like, her name is Missy Copeland in this movie. Like, Missy Copeland plays Misty Copeland.

What was the new cat name that they gave to the dancer in Cats in the Cats movie? Set it too fast. Oh, God. Shoot. All roads lead back. to cats. I mean, yes, this is true. I mean, this felt, the opening of this feels very cats to me with the owl, the owl flying through felt very like when they show you the jellical moon. Well, yes, because it's also, that's also like a very Christmas movie trope, right,

where you get this beautiful snowy vista of the city or town you're looking on, and then it zooms into the town. The town in this movie is Russia that has somehow all, South England. Yeah. But Misty Copeland, though, this is not a musical, but I feel like this is a movie I could earnestly recommend to people who complain that modern movie musicals don't let you see the fucking dancing. Watch Nutcracker in the Four Realms because the dancing sequences are fantastic.

And, like, it's the most beautiful sequences of the movie. I know that we're a little mixed here on the visual experience of this movie. I do think that sequence is great. I should say Francesca Hayward played Victoria in. Victoria is, I think, her name in the show. Oh, okay. There's a cat named Victoria. Just not as important as.

Exactly. The way that they make her the audience surrogate of, like, finding out what happens with all of these cats once she gets tossed on the dang street. In a bag. In a bag. Guys, should I watch cats after we're done recording this? Absolutely. It would not make the worst double feature. Yeah.

The poster, so on the poster for Nutcracker in the Four Realms, Disney's the Nutcracker in the Four Realms, it's Nightly, it's McKenzie Foy, it's Misty Copeland with Helen Mirren and Morgan Freeman, which... Morgan Freeman and his iPad. Nistie Copeland being dead center above Likensie Foyshead is crazy. It is. It is also one of those like never-ending story style posters where like the whole thing is kind of a sort of a mushroom cloud above the title kind of a thing. Obviously the St. Basil's Cathedral-esque, you know, architecture in the background and the soldiers. I've never seen the Nutcracker performed live. Doesn't that seem insane?

I think I saw it nearly annually as a child. Because I remember a time my entire family went. I remember a time that the whole school went to like a dress rehearsal during the day. I remember like another time I just saw it with my grandmother. Like I saw the Nutcracker many times at home. There's a lot about mice in it, right? yes it's actually yeah i mean the mice aren't as much of a through line in the actual ballet like they just have one big scene and one big moment and where it's like the mouse king

comes and clara and the nutcracker soldier defeat them and then they go to the land of sweets where everyone just sort of honestly it is the actual structure of the nutcracker ballet kind of is cats. Once they get to the land of sweets, literally like every type of suite from a different country just comes for it and is like, this is my deal. But instead of singing a song, they do a dance about what their deal is. It's so right. A rayne coffee is like, I'm sexy and that's my thing. Natalie, what you're saying here, what you're saying here is that once the jellicle ball has gone through its obviously, hopefully years long, broad way run, that the next project to turn into a ball is the nutcracker.

Yes. Well, I honestly wouldn't be surprised if some company has already done that. Drag nutcracker? Yeah, and dance, yeah, dance, I feel like there's so much more leeway with production to production, what you do because, yeah, you don't have to do the Balanchine choreography. The music is the music and the story is the story, but you can sort of put it anywhere. Like, I know there's been, like, burlesque nutcracker productions. Stop, Nutcracker.

Yeah. But, yeah, I grew up very much with the Nutcracker. And humiliatingly, what I will say right now is this movie, when I rewashed last night, made me cry. See? It does. Because the music is so beautiful. And especially the Misty Copeland sequence, both the Misty Copeland sequence. and that final, like when they're all in the ballroom and everyone is dancing because it feels

like watching like a classic production of the Nutcracker to that music, I really was crying because it just that music and dance as a concept together just takes me so instantly to I am sitting in the backseat of the car, like sleepily coming home from the production that we just saw at the Kennedy Center, RIP. Oh, my God. We have recorded this on the day of the news, y'all. Oh, boy, God. Literally, just in my, I just can feel my velvet and taffeta little dress,

and I'm just, like, imagining, like, I could be anything. Like, next Christmas, I could be a ballerina. And I was just like, oh, God, this is killing me. And I can't believe I'm sobbing. Kelly Bishop over here giving us podcast at the ballet. I love it. I love it so much. And then never got there because I am bad at knowing where my limbs are at any given time.

That's just something that I've had to contend with as I've aged. But at the time, God, I was so hopeful. Endless possibility at the time. I saw it actually last New Year's Eve because friends of ours just randomly had tickets. And so we went and had a ball. I'm rooting for the rats now And now apparently There's like a viral

All of these productions of the Nutcracker Are going viral on Instagram By like showing the rats being like This is our year We can win this year It's like the rats can win And it's killing me I watch all of that

I literally always going This is the rats year This is going to happen And also What I see going viral is like various different animal costume, like crazy ornate costumes. And like, it's funny because there's this dissonance

of this beautiful dancing and these like massive animal costumes. But then I also am feeling such like empathy for these dancers who are able to, who have such a gift and so much talent that they can wear these like large animal costumes that are silly. But then you can still pushing through that

see the stunning dancing that's happening, the like perfect movement. We on this podcast have talked for years about the need for a choreography Oscar, and maybe now that the Oscars are going to YouTube and will be unfettered by concerns for the ceremony being too long, we can finally add.

Chris has been going through it this week with the Oscars going to YouTube. I want it to me to be the naysayer about something, But I understand everybody's optimism. I don't have that optimism. I'm concerned. I'm nervous. I need to be assuaged.

I need to be talked down that we're not going to have James Charles Oscars. Yeah, Chris is worried that, like, the influencer class is going to invade the Oscars, and I just don't, I don't see that. I would love for it to mean we're going to get more categories. We're getting a show where no one is being played off the stage, but. But they're going to televise the governor's awards, like, just right there on YouTube every year. That's going to be fun. I don't know. I am optimistic, I will say.

If everything turns out bad and it's wrong, then I will just be double sad. Is there another 2018 movie that we can remember that we would think would have beaten this for a choreography Oscar? It's an excellent question. I have the list of 2018 movies, and I don't want to waste our time going through all of them. But, like, what were... Star is Asperia. Why do you look so good at those things? I was going to say, yeah, the SNL performance of ass like that or whatever.

Yeah. Let's see. Choreography in 2018. Guess it's just this in bulk. I mean, I am also... Oh, yeah, this was Sysperia, right? Yeah. So, yeah, Syspria would have been a big one.

But probably, like, the more sort of... outtray artistic kind of a choice obviously r bg the documentary would have had plenty of interpretive dance to diane warren's hit single i'll fight wait there is there is book club mary steenbergen and crag tina at the end of book club so there's a nominee um let's see oh i guess there's Mary Poppins returns and wait would this have been out Mamma Mia here we go again oh is that 2018

this is our lineup friends this this is a good lineup it's a good lineup man see we should have been in charge of this long ago I'm just saying all right so Chris before we really delve into the hallway that turns into

a hollow tree trunk. Do you want to tell our listeners why they should be subscribed to this had Oscar Buzz's Patreon? Listen, why should you be subscribed to our Patreon this had Oscar Buzz turbulent brilliance? Because it's the holidays.

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$5 is probably going to be cheaper than any kind of sugarplum dessert that you are going to be able to find out there. That is true. At various cafes and such. And we appreciate your patronage, but what are you going to get over there? Well, you're going to get two bonus episodes a month on the first and third Friday. The first Friday is episodes we call exceptions. These are movies that fit that this had Oscar buzz rubric but managed to score a nomination or two. This month we talked about true lies in honor of James Cameron returning to cinemas with Avatar, Fire, and Ash.

We've also done great movies like Far From Heaven, Stephen Spielberg's AI artificial intelligence, contact, not so great movies like Hitchcock. House of Gucci, Madonna's W.E. We've had guest episodes like This Month's True Lies with Katie Rich and Phantom of the Opera with the one and only Natalie Walker. What? Crazy. That second episode that comes on the third

Friday, these are what we call excursions. It's deep dives into Oscar ephemera we love to obsess about or you know, things like EW fall movie previews. We've recapped old awards shows. This month we're doing just a check-in talking about the race as it's

stands this year where we've been where we're going globe nominations oscar shortlists etc we've done episodes like an entire episode of games we've talked about hollywood reporter roundtables uh i went to magic mic live god remember fun stuff like that uh so go on over to patreon dot com slash this had oscar buzz and sign up now give yourself a gift give yourself a gift excellent Yeah, we are talking about this week, we are talking about the Nutcracker and the Four Realms from 2018, directed by both Lassa Hallstrom and Joe Johnston. Chris, I'm going to count on you to sort of untangle that thread for us, how that happened. Well, this is Disney, so there were extensive reshoots because that's just how they make movies. Apparently, Lossa Halstrom, they said that he just wasn't available.

I don't think he was filming at the time of these reshoot, so who knows what it means? Um, but it's, and Joe Johnston did all of the reshoots. Got it. Um, and it sounds like it was amicable because they both kind of decided to have the shared credit over it. That's nice. Uh, was written by Ashley Powell based on the ballet of the same name by Marius Petipa, which in turn was based on the fairy tale by the Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffman, starring Kira Knightley, Mackenzie Foy, Helen Mirren, Morgan Freeman, Jaden Fow, oh, God, this is going to be bad, Jaden Fowora, that just sounds like I'm just slurring my words,

Jaden Farrara Knight, Eugenio Derbez, Misty Copeland, Richard E. Grant, all too briefly, Richard E. Grant. Matthew McFagin, premiered on November 2nd, 2018, from Walt Disney Studios, Motion Pictures, opened in second place with $20.3 million, kind of a distant second, to the first weekend, of Bohemian Rhapsody. Boo.

The 2018 Sensation that nearly won best picture. It was ahead of the first weekend of Nobody's Fool, which was, I keep forgetting. A Tyler Perry, Tiffany Hattie's in that movie. Tika Sumpter. Right, that's the movie where, like, Whoopi exists as, like, a lady leaning out her window or whatever. It was ahead of the fifth week of a star. is born and the third week of David Gordon Green's Halloween

one of Chris's favorite movies. I'm going to pull out my stopwatch and my stopwatch. I mean, put it away. This is going to be five minutes long. And not for any plot. Just like a clock away, honey. Helps anyone understand what's going on.

All right. Natalie Walker. 60-second plot 60-second asterisk plot description and you can begin when ready. It's Christmas Eve

in Victorian London and an owl takes us over the Christmas festivities to meet young Clara Stalbum a young woman in STEM talking her little brother

through the physics of her Rube Goldberg mouse trap. Okay, Dr. Christmas Jones. Their dad, played by Matthew McFadion in hot hang dog mode, gives them early Christmas

presents from their late mother who has recently died from mysterious beautiful disease. Clara receives a gold egg with a lock, but no key. The family goes to a party at their engineer godfather, Air Drosselmeyer's house, and Clara goes down to his workshop, which is littered with candelabras like the layer of the phantom himself. She asks for help unlocking the egg, and he sends her to a parallel world to find the key. In this world, she befriends a nutcracker soldier with a flawless, frosty Pat McGrath for Margella, 2024 collection beat, who takes her. to meet the regents of this world's realms.

The land of the flowers ruled by Eugenio Derbez, the land of snowflakes ruled by Richard E. Grant, looking like the makeover maxi challenge if Miss Fame got paired with Mr. Freeze, and the land of sweets ruled by the way for the James season, Pira Knightley as the Sugar Plum Fairy, doing a voice that can only be described as moaning Myrtle, doing Bernadette Peter's Broadway baby

as Winona Ryder's SNL impression of Bjork. But wait, what about the fourth realm we were promised in the title. That realm is ruled by Helen Mirren as Mother Jinja in Reba McIntyre's replacement Annie Oakley drag. She is evil, we are told, but it turns out she's not evil. She just saw that Kira Knightley was evil and wanted Clara's key to unlock a big ray gun that brings all the toy soldiers to life to assist her hostile fascist takeover of all four rounds. Clara teams up with Ginger and is able to stop the big gun and also turn Kira Knightley back into a porcelain doll that clinkety clanks onto the floor, which I rewound four times because I was laughing.

Now that she's set everything the way it should be, Clara is able to go back home and talk to her hot, sad dad in a gazebo, even though neither of them is even wearing a coat. Aren't you guys worried about catching mysterious beautiful disease? Then they dance, and we all learn something. Witches can be right. Ginger's can be good. Into the realms and out of the realms and happy as a master, I wish.

oh my god that's an all timer wow that you know they say like my stomach hurts standing ovation wow

mysterious beautiful disease come on no I you left me by the side of the road at Miss Fame teaming up with with Dr. Freeze tremendous

Richard E. Grant that may first of all that makeup should have been in consideration for the makeup Oscar because like as silly as it is it's also really good it's incredible stunning all of the makeup in this movie genuinely the makeup design is so beautiful on everyone I think it's so cool no you called it out on on Philip the the soldier Philip with his I just made a note of his frosted lips but you're right it is an entire beat that he's It's just... It's like a glass skin.

Like, it is that old Gwendolyn Christie walking in that Marcella show vibe to me. I was like, oh, this is inspiring. I was just inspo, inspo. Kura Nightly's eyebrows that keep changing what the actual design of them is. Yeah. Is it small strokes? Now it's a holographic sticker, it seems. I was enamored, enchanted.

No, that is, I mean, and that is, again, the big sort of reason to watch this because, right, I don't, I think my thing with the visual design is I want more from the art direction production design, but I think you're right that like the character detail when it comes to things like makeup is actually quite good and quite like intricate and like absolutely insane and like off its rocker. Why does Morgan Freeman have an eye patch? Why the hell not? You know what I mean? Like that kind of a thing. Because he's the phantom who got covered. I think Drosselmire usually has an eyepatch.

I forget. He's just like, they do all these signifiers of like, this is like a weird and magical old man. Yep, yep, that makes sense. I did think I sort of spotted. I don't think have an owl friend that he can talk to in the Nuckraker ballet. I did think I spotted Nick Muhammad in there. He was in there.

He's credited as short butler. Nobody tell me how well he does. Nobody tell me how well he does. in UK celebrity traders because I'm only halfway through the season but as Stan's doing quite well. I just started it so I don't know

and I won't spoil anything. Great season. Yeah, like all of the tangible things about this movie are beautiful. It's just one of those movies that you wish they didn't use as much CGI as they do

because again, the makeup is beautiful, the costume design is beautiful, the things that are actual discernible sets are beautiful. And I don't think the CGI is necessarily bad. I think you can kind of definitely tell Disney did not spend on this movie what they're spending on Marvel movies. I'm going to put a link to an image in the chat, and I'm just going to bring it up because I need to visually reference this for a second. The cure transformation does give so graphic design is my passion.

Oh, yeah. I'm obsessed with. I could not get enough of it. So I'm sending you a link to an image from the movie that is like the three, it's sugarplum and Richard E. Grant and Eugenia Durbez. And they're in essentially, this is my problem with a lot of my problem, one of my problems of Frankenstein of this year is they're all using this same template for a set of like a big room with an all seeing eye window that looks out on like the realm. And it's all shedding everything in golden light. This does it, Frankenstein does it, Wicked does it, and it's... Dancing through life.

Yeah, yeah. And it's just like, give me just something else, something new. And it all has this sort of like... I mean, in Wicked, right, it's sort of like steampunk or whatever. And in Frankenstein, it's a little bit more gothic, but like, I don't know, man. Just like, it all has the same sort of like, I say this, like all-seeing eye window that looks out until like golden sunsets all the time

and it's just like get it's just come and I know that this came first so maybe the other movies are just stealing from the Nutcracker and the fours.

From the iconic nutcracker in the four realms. Well this is one of the things that I think is underwhelming about this movie that like doesn't help it is that it does feel like it's pulling from a lot of different things

and it feels like it's pulling from a lot of different Disney things too like we mentioned Narnia earlier it's like it's the Nutcracker crossed with Narnia with like a dash of Pirates of the Caribbean crossed with Alice in Wonderland

Alice in Wonderland with Harry Potter the owl ever present Yeah Which is why it's so nice That Kira's giving something That is like genuinely singular

Right That is genuinely She's not pulling like a Tilda Swinton copy And she's not trying to be You know The Queen of Hearts for many of these other things She is genuinely doing her own demented thing.

And it's, I've always liked Kira Knightley. But, like, this genuinely is kind of, for all of the things that I think she's given really, really great performances, I'm like, oh, okay, okay, actress. Like. Right, right. And it's indicative of her taste

and her understanding of tone because part of why she's able to do that is she knows what movie she is in. Right. And like, God love Lassa Hallsman We're committed to it. Yeah. Yeah.

God love Lassa Hallstrom, God love Joe Johnston, but I don't think that's coming from them. Like, it doesn't feel like it's like their sensibility. Like, this feels like it's coming from her. And whatever,

if we find out later that that wasn't the case, and whatever. But, like, I genuinely feel like this is, this feels like her making a choice. Several choices. Many choices. Yeah, I got very angry reading seven years later Jackson's piece about her,

because one of the comments, is like, oh, please, she's just giving, like, poor man's Helena Bonham Carter. Absolutely not. No. This is so different. This is not bad at all. And I love Helena as well. But, no, this is very.

That is only looking at the wig. That is only looking at the wig and being like, that's messy like Helena Bonham Carter's hair is in some things. And it's just like, no. Well, because it's like she's playing tones of, like, a petulant child. She's anthropomorphized candy. but evil. And you can see why she would kind of go for it

and make a big choice for this because it's all right there, you know? She also knows that she's in a property that is well known and is in a movie where like it's not really depending on keeping the audience in the dark. So she allows herself to sort of like let the audience in on what's really going on a little bit, right?

There's a glint behind her eyes. She makes a glance somewhere. She's, you know, she's too sweet. She's too, you know, everything. She's not really concerned with fooling you. She's, you know, letting you in a little bit as to something's off here. And I love that. I mean, I think it's one of the things that's kind of interesting about this movie,

especially coming from Disney, is I do think that this movie is made with a target demo in mind, not of like the typical Disney product, which is like, well, everyone is our audience. You know, we don't, we're not targeting any type of audience. But I do feel like this is a children's movie that is designed with young children in mind. Not even like tweens, but like eight and below. You know, and so it's like it feels like her performance is pitched to that, but also really smart in the way that, you know, the kids' movies we grew up on were like that. where you have these smart performers who make big choices,

but like it's all through the vein of this is for kids, you know, and maybe there'll be something to hang on to when they go back and watch it as an adult. Or maybe there'll be something to entertain an adult while the lion's share of this movie is meant with younger viewers in mind. Yeah, and I think that's a little refreshing coming off of like decades of movies. that were meant to appeal to the parents as much as, if not more than the children. I think, I mean, I'm a Pixar fan in general, but I think that's a fair criticism to lob at Pixar is that they started to make movies that were more concerned with parents watching it

and being like, I sobbed rather than children watching it and being like, I had fun. But like, if up, you have parents sobbing in the first 10 minutes of the movie, but then the kids have Doug. Are laughing at Doug. Yeah, yeah. No, that's totally true. That's totally true. But I think the problem with that, when you're making something, when your brand is we are for everyone.

Yeah. That's great when you're making something that's good. But when you, when the quality goes away, instead of being for everyone, it's kind of for no one. Yeah. I think that's right. I think that's right. While we're on the subject of Kira Knightley, and since we do have multiple quizzes in this episode, I do want to get one out early. Let's do it. Let's do it. Listener, we were, we forgot on, what's it our love actually episode?

It was our love actually episode. Here we are, full circle. It's Christmas. A year later. Yep. Exactly. Yeah. We're doing a seven-timers club for Kira nightly. Yeah, we missed, we missed Kira the last time through nothing other than my own forgetfulness. So we pledged that we do a six-timers quiz for her seventh movie. And luckily, we did that now that I have juzed up the format a little bit for the the six-timers quiz. So like we did for Tony Collette, I am giving a six-timers trailer game quiz for the seven realms of Kira Knightley's that's had Oscar Buzz career. We have talked about her in David Cronenberg's Dangerous Method,

Never Let Me Go, the 2010 film, rather, Everest, where she played intrepid wife on phone, collateral beauty, where she played love. Bend at Like Beckham, where she played gay. Love Actually, where she played unattainable object of desire for a quarter-zip enthusiast, Andrew Lincoln. And finally, here we are, the Nutcracker and the Four Realms. Natalie, I'm going to catch you up on what the game is.

It's mostly, I just walk, I just walk you all through it, and you can play it as a team. We go through each of these movies. watched the trailer, I have a series of questions about the trailer, and each question is worth a certain number of points. And I can't remember, I think we have decided that we don't know what the end game is with the points, but we are going to keep track of the points anyway for Chris, and we'll figure it out later what the points all mean. So if you are ready to play the This Had Oscar Buzz trailer game for Kira Knightley.

Let's go. We begin with a dangerous method. So, for one point, did this trailer feature, omniscient voiceover, on-screen text, both or neither? Are we just shouting out answers? Yeah, you can both play as a team. If you're unsure, you can consult. I was terrible at this the last time, so, like, my confidence should be shaking. I think that there's just on-screen text.

Yes, that is what I was going to say as well. That is correct. One point for that, on-screen text. Things are looking up. For one point, you need to get both of these to get the point. It says from the director of, and then it lists two movies. A history of violence and Eastern promises, I think. because this is post

that era of Kronenberg Exactly, yes, that is correct You get them both There is no song featured in this trailer So I can't have you guess the song Which is too bad Because imagine a needle drop

In the Dangerous Method trailer Where's the dyno needle drop In that one? Nine inch nails closer Okay, it does say though Official selection of and then it lists four film festivals. You will get one point for everyone you name correctly.

Venice, Toronto. New York and Telluride, four points. Yeah. Wow. I love working with Chris on the group project. That's amazing. I'm going, you go! Yay!

You're the good luck charm. Yeah. Wait, I did have to say about... songs used in trailers. I don't know if this was used in trailers, but when you go to get Nutcracker in the Four Realms on Amazon, like a weird, slow cover of Just a Girl plays. Put a pin in that one. Put a pin in that one, Natalie. Pretend you didn't say it because. Wow. Okay. I did not hear that. I didn't hear it.

Okay. Well, we're playing together. You are playing. No. You know the answer. Right, no, but I, for the surprise phase. Oh, yeah, yeah. For two points, who says the first line in the trailer? What actor or actress?

Michael Fastbender. Michael Fastbender is correct. The very first line is sex with a question mark. One point for every actor in the cast, you can list in the order that they are named in the trailer there are four of them one of which is an and feel free to consult

Sarah Gatton is in this movie I think because it's Canadian she's required in all Canadian movies Vincent Cassell is in this movie I'm pretty sure so I think and

positive Vigo gets the and credit I think it is Fastbender, Knightley, Vincent Casell, and Vigo. You got none of those, unfortunately. It is Kira Knightley first, then Vigo Mortensen, then Michael Fastbender, and Vincent Cassell. That is like the absolute wrong. Weirdness.

Yes. It's real weird. Those four realms are fucked. Two points, if you can guess the actor who says the last line in the trailer. Vigo. It is Michael Fastbender. Damn. So a hot start.

Sex, period. Yeah. It is actually, sometimes you have to do something unforgivable just to be able to go on living. Have sex. You said it, Michael. All right. Never let me go. A trailer I have watched one bajillion times.

Voiceover, on-screen text, both or neither. This has got to be both, right? Do we think this is both? Yeah, I think. Yeah, I think this is both. It is just text. For one point, it says, based on the novel of the decade, and then it attributes that quote to what magazine? Where would they pull a book quote from?

And it's a magazine. I almost wonder if it's like time Yeah, that's Time Time is correct One point Well guessed From the author of

For one point Remains of the day Yep, there you go And the director of For another point One hour photo Yes, there you go You're on a roll now

Now Now there is not a song But there is a piece of scoring And I'm going to say for five points, if you can guess it cold, what movie the piece of scoring is from. It's the door and the floor, right? It is, in fact, the door on the floor. Yeah, we talked about it. I know, I talk about it all the time.

This is a little... This is why you watch the trailer all the time. Two points, if you can say, who says the first line in the trailer? Charlotte Rampling. It is not Charlotte Rampling. One point, if you can get it with me giving you the line. The line is... My name is Kathy H.

That's Carrie Mulligan, of course. It is Carrie Mulligan. One point for every cast member you can get in order. It is only three, and there is an and. What if Kira Knightley is the and? Yeah. But now Kira being first for Dangerous Method has made me... I just don't think those other two would have gotten an and.

Right. It's got to be Cary Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, and Kira Knightley. Three points for you. Yeah. It actually says, it says Academy Award nominee, Carrie Mulligan, Andrew Garfield, and Academy Award nominee, Kira Knightley. It's one of my favorite things when there's the lone, sad little unnominated cast member. It's worse. It's worse when they're like Golden Globe nominee or Emmy nominee, God forbid.

Yeah. It's tough. It's tough. Plus one point, if you can tell me who says the last line in the trailer. It's not, we are made of trash. It's modeled on trash, but yeah, it's not that. We are modeled on trash. I love her so much.

Maybe this is rambling. See, this is when I got bad at the quiz because I'm like, oh, I was wrong then. Well, it has to be right here. Let me redirect myself. Yeah. Is it also Carrie Mulligan? It is also Carrie Mulligan. One point.

Yes. All right. So you got 13 points all told for that movie. You got seven for a dangerous method. So you're trending upwards. Everest. Oh, boy. Plus one point for is it voiceover, on screen text, both or neither.

On screen text? Do we think it's on screen text? On screen text. Yeah. It is on-screen text, in fact, Everest. Nope. No song, again, unfortunately. U2's elevation was right there, and yet...

They should have used Celine Dionne's love can move mountains. Oh, my God, they absolutely should have. What were they thinking? What were they thinking? Two points, if you can guess who says the first line. Of the 50 people that are in this movie. Jason Clark Jason Clark is correct

Okay The line is you my friends Are following in the footsteps of history Indeed One two three four five six seven Eight cast members Are named in the trailer One of whom gets the and

Which I believe is Jake Gyllenhaal Well give me the give me the eight in order and thus just save Jake in order. This is impossible. But you get one point for everyone you get correct so you can get partial credit. This is so rude.

I kind of don't believe even though he's the lead of the movie that they would give top billing to Jason Clark. Maybe they did. Maybe it's also semi-alphabetical.

Because eight names has a lot of names to not be alphabetical. Now I have to remember who the fuck is in Everest. That is the challenge, in fact. Okay, you have, this is not the order I'm guessing, but it's got to be Clark, Jillon Hall, Knightley. Who is other wife on phone? Is it Emily Watson? Yes. Debicki has a scene.

I don't think that she's on the poster. Also, was she, like, big enough then that people knew her? I don't think so. Yeah. Because it's pre-widdows. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Um. Joe, this is so hard.

I don't remember who's in Everett. Everest is actually a great movie that. I need to, like, go back and, like, look at because it's a perfect Cinematrix play. Perfect. Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yes. Mia Goth is fucking in Everest as, like, unspeaking child.

Child. Yes. All right. Baby steps it through. Who would be in Everest? Like, Mark Ruffalo would be in Everest, but he's not in Everest. He's not in Everest. No.

Katie, if you're listening I want to also phone a friend to you because you made us do that movie. Oh my God. I can't spend all day on this. I'm just going to throw out names. Great. Jason Clark.

Sure. Mark Ruffalo. Jake Gyllenhaal. Kira Knightley. Emma Watson. Joel Edgerton John Hawks John Hawks

and why do I want to say Michael Imperiali I need the next question and Michael Imperiali We have to escape this well You got two points out of that And I feel bad because you initially called that Jake got the end and then you backed away from it at the end there

Well, I was just trying to get the names out there. You got Jason Clark. You said Emma Watson and not Emily Watson. Oh, my God. Which I love. I love thinking about Emma Watson. What's she up to these days? Live action beauty and the beast in her tombs.

I'm going to give you that anyway, because you got Jason Clark right and you got Emily Watson correct at the fifth spot. There you go. Josh Brolin is second built. Of course fucking Brolin's in that move. John Hawks is in it and he's third build. Z that all you got us a point Robin Wright

Fourth build Robin Wright is other other wife on phone Watson I said his fifth Kira Knightley 6 Sam Worthington 7th I was like there's another

Australian All right So two points there You're up to five You can show me any man And tell me it's Sam Worthington Yeah Sure

Two points if you can cold guess who says the last line in the trailer. Sam Worthington. It is not Sam Worthington. The line, for one point, if you can get it now, is if anyone can make it, you can. Kieranightly? Kyrinaightly, wife on phone. Hey!

That last line of encouragement. Incredible. Women rock. Collateral beauty. A trailer that is imprinted on my brain, I will be disappointed if I get any question wrong. voiceover, on-screen text, both or neither. And when I say voiceover, I mean omniscient voiceover, not like the voiceover from a character.

Right, right. Because there's a lot of character voiceover in this trailer. It's just lines that people are saying, yeah. But there's so much of that that I think it's neither. It is, in fact, there is on-screen text. So, yes. It does one of those, like, Cloud Atlas things where it's, like, beauty. Truth, life, death, like one of those things.

Yeah. Yeah, where it's basically a tagline. Those are realms. You're just saying realms. Collateral beauty in the poor realms. Collateral beauty is very much a movie about four realms. It is genuinely, yeah. It is also a Christmas movie.

Have we been doing Kiranightly Christmas movies for like years now? It's what? Death time. The queen of Christmas. It's her and Mariah. Death time, love, and something else. Anyway, two points, if you can get From the Academy Award-winning producer of

Well, it's directed by Dave Frankel. Yes. This could be anything. Because it doesn't necessarily mean that the movie they produced was the Academy Award win. But I think you can say that that it, that is. is, I believe, the case. Okay.

I mean, it would be semi-recent to this, probably. And it would be, like, similar vibe movie. I almost want to say Argo. They're both Warner Brothers movies. That's not what you would put in this, though. The notebook. I'm going to put whatever's there. It's not like I'm choosing to...

It is not the notebook. It is, in fact, Spotlight, from the Academy Award-winning producer of Spotlight, which had won the best picture winner. Great. Two points, if you can say, what actor says the first line in the trailer. Did you just say actress? Performer. Actor in the gender-neutral, gender-neutral sense.

It's not Will Smith. I mean, the man barely speaks in that movie. It could be Edward Norton, like, secret lead of the movie, but I think it's Kieranightly. Kieraniteley? It is Will Smith. Never mind. Oh, sorry, I should have given you the hint. The line, sorry, the line is we're here to connect.

You would have probably gotten it. Maybe not. Many are saying we are here to connect. I'll give you that point anyway. For the collateral beauty of it all. Hearing reports that we are here to connect. Many such cases. One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight cast members named in the title, including a with and an and.

Can you name them in order? You only get a point if you name where they are in the order correctly. The first three are definitely Will Smith, Edward Norton, and Kate Winslet. I think the with and the and are Mirren and Knightley, which makes five. So you're saying Miran with the with the width and Knightley with the end. Yeah. So that still leaves three more people who are Jacob Latimore, Michael Peña, and Naomi. Harris. So, I think the order is Will Smith, Edward Norton, Kate Winslet, Naomi Harris,

Michael Peña, Jacob Latimore, with Helen Mirren, and Kira Knightley. Okay, you get three points total. Will Smith, yes, Edward Norton, yes. Kira Knightley is third build. Oh, fuck. Winslet's the and. Oh, my God. Then it's Michael Pena. Then it's Naomi Harris. You have those two flipped.

You got Jacob Latimore. It is with Kate Winslet and Helen Mirren. So three points for that. Watching you do this. Huh? What? Watching you do this every time is like the scene in dropped it gorgeous when they're doing the questions and they make Kirsten Dunst do all the states in alphabetical order.

I'm just sitting here watching me and I'm going I'm Will Saso, problematic, but waiting for her to finish and that scene is so funny. See, like, correctly listing

all of the billings for collateral beauty is very serious to me. This is not a game to me. Like, this is my life. This is my identity. Two points, if you can guess,

who says the last line in the trailer? It's not. Naomi Harris. It is, in fact, Naomi Harris. Yes. Can you say it for shits and giggles? Um, she says all of the collateral beauty around us. She says, just look for it.

I promise you it's there. Yeah. The collateral beauty. Tens across the board. What does that mean? What does that mean? Bend it like Beckham. Voiceover, on screen text, both or neither.

It's a comedy, so voiceover, it came out in the early aughts, it's a comedy, got to be a voiceover. No, both, both, both, both, all right, all right, I'll give you to you. You said it right at the nick of time. It is both, in fact, yes. This question comes from the UK trailer, but it says from the award-winning director of, can you remember any of? What did Garendertrata do before this? they're both I'm pretty sure

Indian movies Bollywood movies probably was bride and prejudice before this I don't think it was I don't know

what Garenda's other movie was from the award winning director of Baji on the beach and what's cooking What's cooking Yeah I'm gonna give you five points if you can guess the song

because I have no familiarity with it and I can't even give you well I'll give you some hints but they're not going to have anything to do with the actual song okay it's not like vitamin C no god no I would have I would love not Hoku

no the band's name or the artist name is the name of a United States state a U.S. state a pretty big one one of the biggest Flowrida

No, it's not Floraida. It is not an artist I imagine it's not an artist you've ever heard of. Texas? Texas. Is there an artist

or bands named Texas that you're in any way familiar with? It is a song called Inner Smile by Texas. Thank you. That sounds like an 80s hair band. It does,

but in fact it's just like an early aughts like Europop act, I'm pretty sure. Yeah, I don't know. What do the Swedish thing Texas is like two points for who says the first line

you can say who the character is if you don't know the name of the actor hint um meaning it's not Juliet Stevenson it's not Juliet Stevenson the line is no more soccer

exclamation point oh that's the mom It's the mom. Yes, there you go. I was right that it was a mom. Yeah, there you go. Cheryl Lee Raoul. Back in the habit.

They do not name. What is the actress's name? Oh, God, I don't know. I don't have it pulled up here. There are no actors listed in the credits, so you will move on to two points if you can name who says the last line in the trailer. Kira Knightley. No, the line is, She's divorced.

That's what she is. Juliette Siefen. No, it's the same mom. It's Parminder Nagra's mom again. So only two points for Bendett like Beckham. That was tough. Love Actually, voiceover, on-screen text, both or neither. I think it's going to be both again.

I also would have said both because I have, I'm going to say Berenstain Baird, again for the second time in this podcast. I absolutely fooled myself into remembering that there was both voiceover and text. It is only text. Wow. I'm going by like the original first theatrical trailer. Plus three, and I am going to require that you guess all three of these. From the makers of, and then it's three movies.

Bridget Jones's Diary. Four weddings and a funeral. Yeah. What was the other Richard Curtis at that point? Notting Hill. Notting Hill. Three points. Well done.

We got it at the same time, too. I love it. You'll get two points for guessing either or both. Two points for each for guessing the two songs in the trailer. Surely one of them is... I wonder. if because

white flag is in the movie and the trouble with love is is in the movie I think the trouble with love is is in the trailer

and then I'm just going to say all I want for Christmas is you or maybe it's love is all around the original song it's none of those

shockingly enough even though I do feel like there were TV spots where the trouble with love is was used one of these was an iconic lip sync for your life, and one of these

is from, like, the most famous band in history. Oh, so a Beatles song. Yes. Although it's a cover version of the Beatles song, but yes. So you would get one point a piece, if you can guess them from these hints.

What iconic lip sync would it have been? I guess this will be, but that's like very iconically in while you were sleeping. But, I mean, there's certainly other rom-com trailers that it's in. So I will say, Nelly Cole, this will be one point.

Very good. This will be an everlasting love. Yep. And what's your Beatles song? I mean, Can't Buy Me Love is right there. Or, no, all you need is love. It is all you need is love. Right, because that's also in the movie in the wedding.

Yes, yes. Two points, if you can say, what actor? our actress says the first line in the trailer. Hugh Grant. Hugh Grant, two points. The A line is, hello. Yeah, basically. Somehow, they do not name any of the actors in the movie in the trailer, which is deeply insane to me.

You know them. You know these guys. You know. You know. You love them. Here they are. Two points, then, if you can guess who says the last line in the trailer. What if it's like Thomas Sankster?

Yeah, that's what I was about to say, is it's like Thomas Sankster or Bill Nye. Oh, no, doesn't he say, let's get pissed and watch porn in the closer? No, no, no, no. It's him getting interviewed about having sex with Britney Spears, and that's the button on the trailer. It is Bill Nye. It's not, although that line is in the trailer. The button is Hugh Grant when he looks up at the poster, the portrait of Thatcher, and says, did you ever have problems like this?

And then he goes, of course you did, you saucy minks. That is the last line. I love actually. And then finally, the Nutcracker and the Four Realms. Voiceover, on-screen text, both or neither. Both? Yeah. Text, only text.

From the studio that brought you, and then it says two films, you get two points, if you guess, for each one that you guess. Because it is a studio that brought you many films. It's between three. It's between Chronicles of Narnia, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Alice in Wonderland. I think one is Alice in Wonderland. Yeah. Alice in Wonderland Joe is so good at

Romano Stoic during this game Joe is so good at remaining I keep like looking for a little town Well, Kieranightly's there so I do think they'll say Pirates of the Caribbean Neither one of those It is from the studio that brought you Beauty and the Beast and Maleficent

The live action Beauty and Beauty I'm pretty sure they're talking about the live action being the beast Because it's the last movie that made them a I always forget that that horrible movie made so much money. It's so much money. A crazy amount of money. Yeah. Oh, Lord. All right. Plus two points if you can cold guess the song that is used in the trailer. Just a girl. A spooky slowed down version. Oh, yes. Just a girl. Just a girl. I could not believe. It's so demented. It's so insane. Um, two points, if you can guess what actor or actress says the first line in the trailer.

Mackenzie Poy. Yeah. It is not. The line is, this time has been difficult for all of us. Oh, McFadion. Matthew McFadion. Oh, which, Chris, we actually do have to say the text you sent our chat that made me laugh so hard, which is. Okay.

So, yes. Turn it around. Wicked Witch. Wicked Witch. But I sent that the second I saw him on screen, because for some reason, I had, like, retconed in my brain that he shows up as, like, a weird scary villain in the finale or something. I would have loved that. Give him more to do. Ray Bolgers himself. Give him the opportunity to flip it around.

To flip it around. I will say her hand motion, you know it's an iconic meme when, like, you know what the hand motion is. because it's not this, it's this. She, like, flips them up. Once again, no named cast members in the trailer. Guys, I don't know what's been going on. You got to name your actors in your trailer. You think we know Richard E. Grant looks like that.

They're trying to be careful in case of a Kevin Spacey Christopher Plummer. Right. Everybody was really burned by that. Leave it open. Those wounds were wrong. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Two points, if you can guess, who says the last line in the trailer? Nightly.

Yeah. It's not nightly. The line is, are you ready? Morgan Freeman. Morgan Freeman, yeah, yeah, yeah. It is Morgan Freeman, yes. All right, so tallying up the points, 20, 32, 34, 41, 45 points overall. Again, when I figure out what those points mean, I will let you know.

Well done on the Kira Knightley, six-timers trailer game. We may have to speed through the second one. I'm surprised they didn't use Morgan Freeman saying clever girl. The number of times is a clever girl in Nutcracker in the foreign realms is crazy. They do not stop saying clever girl. No, it is true. Well, she's a very clever girl. Do we think McKenzie Foy holds this movie back in anyway?

I hate to be mean to a child. Me, just asking questions. You too, now be mean to a child. Yeah. I think it's also hard because I kind of want her to either be younger or older, which I don't think is her fault. And maybe, like, she's just like, I don't know exactly how old she was then, but she, like, looks like Kristen Cruick from Smallville, like, already. And so it is sort of like, okay, I want her to either be like more of a teen or more of like a really preternaturally brilliant kid. And she just exists in this like no man's land for me, which also colors, I don't think it's his fault.

I think he's doing his best in playing it the way it should be played. But like the stuff with Matthew McFadion is the dad is a little like spooky. scary to me. It made me wonder of some of the reshoots. And I was like the way he looks at her older sister when she comes in in the mom's dress that she left her. I was like

oh, I think you needed an older, not as hot dad for this. And I feel like also there's so many of these types of stories, whether they're fairy tales or like based on like classic literature or whatever.

that have these children who are in, you know, they have like one parent has died or they're, you know, they had to go live with their grandmamma or like there's a stepmother situation or whatever. And in so many of those, we've sort of been conditioned to have so many of those relationships be kind of fraught. There are the ones where like, oh, like, dad, he's sad and I've got to like do something or whatever. But, like, I feel like it takes a while for the audience to sort of orient themselves into, like, what kind of home, you know, situation is our main character coming from. And if the movie doesn't really do a good job of nailing that from the beginning, you end up with the audience kind of, like, a little unsure about what's going on for a while. Yeah, it's a little bit of a soggy Lassa Halstrom thing where it's like, they just don't know how to talk about it, you know? They can't have real conflict because it's... too nice of a movie, you know, he can't be a mean dad.

Right, right. Because if he was a mean dad, yeah. If he was a mean dad, you're right. Then when she goes to the four realms, there would have been like a lord, like, thistle, fethle, or whatever, and like, that would be him. And he would be mean, and she would have to learn that, like, he's only mean because he's really sad. And then, like, she goes back and they... Which is, like, horrible psychology to impart on children. Well, let's crack open the book on, like, Like the ways that Disney fucked up like psychology for multiple generations of children.

Yeah. I wish in that flashback that she has with her mom, I wish maybe part of that could have been seeing what he was like as a dad before she died because it's just sort of like, well, this is just a sad sack guy all the time. And I wish maybe like in that little flashback we could have seen him having a little. little bit more joie de vivre. So you understand like, oh yeah, he lost the love of his life and he she misses him

being nicer. Or I was kind of intrigued by the notion that like when we find out that like Miron's not real, that Mother Ginger isn't really the bad guy. And

when McKenzie Foyt, when Clara sort of goes and investigates the giant tin squid game doll that Mirren's like, oh, your mother, she's, you know, she's died and clearly like, you know, she's struck by this, she's sad by this. There was a sense of like, oh, these, they were like girls. They had like a, like a Thelman-Louise kind of like, you know, a friendship.

It was just the two of them and maybe Knightley's character was like jealous of that or whatever. On the outskirts of it, yeah. Um, and maybe, you know, Helen Miran is one of those old, older, you know, never got married ladies who's, you know, probably a lesbian living in her land of amusements and there's, and there's, and everybody else in the realm was like, she was probably a witch. You want to fuck me, Ginger? Oh, no. You're not young. Someone has died. That's your criticism of McKenzie Foy, too, in this movie.

You're not young. Young. Notes on a scandal. Or she couldn't be older. That was been fine. Yes. There you go. There you go.

But no, I liked that. I liked that sense, and it doesn't really explore too much, this idea that, like, oh, no, like, Helen Mirren was really fond of her mother and is kind of heartbroken. And without her mother has been ostracized by the other three realms. I guess it doesn't speak well of Richard E. enter the other one, that they were so easily swayed to, like, ostracize this, again, probably lesbian, older woman. Yeah.

Well, Hawthor in front of the Land of the Flowers is just not with it at all. He doesn't know what Christmas is. There's a forest of Christmas trees in your world. Bro. You don't know what Christmas is? Sorry, your hair's full of flowers, but, like, clear out the ear canals or something. He lives in eternal April. Of course, he doesn't know what Christmas is.

That's true. What else was I going to say about, I guess that's all, I mean, you know, again. The McKenzie Foy of it all. Yeah, the McKenzie Foy of it all. She's not super expressive and with the audience surrogate character going into this world. You want someone reacting a little more outsized to all of the things happening around her. And she feels a little like. Yeah.

It's always tough when your main character is your audience, audience surrogate because sometimes that means that they're just like less interesting and compelling. because they have to be a conduit. I mean, it could go back to, like, they just don't. As much as Kira Knightley is making a choice in this movie, like on a script level, on a directorial level, they don't know how to make a choice with this character because when you go and you watch the ballet, I don't know if you think about that character as much as a character,

because she's just like a child on the stage, and then it's all spectacle, you know. and then like you try to make this movie adaptation and it's like you could kind of do anything and they don't really do much like she's just a grieving child she could have been a brat she could have like what lesson does she really kind of learn throughout this if they gave her a if they had a firmer lesson to learn yeah like a like a mary in the secret garden type of thing where it's like yeah you are dealing with profound trauma but you're also kind of annoying and kind of a brat and And then I think you also, there could be more fun in getting to play with why she immediately believes Sugar Plum, the young, more conventionally beautiful person over Mother Ginger, cracked face, character actress.

But I think they're scared of presenting a young female character as, like, not strong. Stem star, future girl boss of America. And this movie does the thing that Tim Burton's Allison, it does the thing that Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland does, which is it turns its main character into a warrior a little bit, right? You know, she's in armor, she needs a sword. And in this one she like dresses up in the whatever, the toy soldier military garb. I don't know if that's, if that comes from the ballet at all. No.

No, she is not in the Angel Raul-Lay-Miss. Okay. So that's definitely a choice. And that definitely feels like very much like we have to have a strong female. A lot of people have written about this recently. And I wish I could point to any one specifically. But about this idea that in the, you know, in the 21st century, there's been a kind of over commitment to this idea that the idea of a female character being strong has to mean like mighty or, or, or, battle tested or soldier-like or fighty, fighty, kicky punchy. Masculine. You know, masculinity is, or like, aggression is the only way to present strength. It is supposed to be a replacement for depth, you know, and your interiority, you know. Sometimes strength is sitting in a crowded room at an opera and coming to a revelation and not breaking. Like, sometimes that is strength.

How about that? Exactly. How about that? Yeah. Sometimes it's after you've... Oh, I was going to run with a joke and say sometimes it's you've been fighting with your mother after you've had a dramatic event and then you go to the theater and you cry and you hug inappropriately in the middle of it. Sometimes your husband has been reincarnated as a small child and you have to hold it together. Sometimes you need to go back to your childhood home to break up your haphableness.

married high school boyfriend who really isn't as happy as he appears to be. Natalie, what were you going to say before we went on a flight of fancy about... No, I loved it. I loved going back mentally to some of my favorite horrible, wonderful women on film. Oh, just that the sort of future girl bossification of it also undermines that. aspect of what the story is trying to do, which is be like, oh, the power was inside of me the whole time. And it's like, well, yeah, that was never really in doubt. Like, she pretty immediately, like, gets into soldier gear. Right. Like, she's leading the charge for most of the

plot. So then when she suddenly is like, oh, I have, I have the power. I'm like, well, the Nutcracker was never really helping you. He's always been your side. kick throughout this entire quest, whereas in the ballet, the nuttruck her soldier, like, does save her from all of the stuff. Yeah. Plus, the other thing in the movie does is it gives. He saves her from the Mouse King in this, the horrifying CGI mouse king. Of a bunch of rats. And King Kong.

Well, it's because the three of the four realms are having union problems. And so they put the big rat in front of the building and she had to fight it off. You can't really have a rat monster when big rat, you know, big rat is not your friend. You need to go to neighborhood rat. Yeah, no, it's true. The movie also kind of takes away one element of tension, which is that it explains early on that, like, while we're all here, time is moving very slowly back there. So, like, not much is going on over there. Don't worry.

Don't worry. You're not missing anything. Nobody's going to be looking for you. It's okay. urgency for you to get back ever like yeah it's also the thing like the title is nutcracker and the four realms as you mentioned the nutcracker doesn't really do anything in this movie and then the four realms it's kind of window dressing well and also do we spend sufficient time in the four realms we're mainly sort of like shuffling between sweets and and amusements, right? Yeah, no, she just does like the Christmas pageant, the Nutcracker like Realms pageant that she watches is just sort of like,

we're expected to believe that it's also her doing the Evita Rainbow Tour. Yeah. But like, it's basically the span of the song Rainbow Tour that she's like, oh, she's in the carriage with Richard E. Grant waving to the snow people. She's looking at flowers for two seconds, but then we're. right back in sweets I'll say I feel like this movie

kind of made me appreciate at least the first Narnia movie more like the first Narnia movie kind of holds together really well on a story level like there's nothing quite so transcendent is what Kira Knightley is doing as Sugar Plum but you do have Tilda Swinton

you do have James McAvoy I imagine ruined many lives by making people as attracted to woodland animals as he possibly did. My eyes are rolling in the back with my head, Gary. I'm broading at the morning.

Shorter, yeah, yeah, yeah. I never got into the Narnia movie. I was never, right? I was never over the moon about them. But I do feel like, now that I look back, I'm like, they were solid. At least that first one I thought was like kind of really solid.

And I remember, like, character arcs. I remember the one who like risks at all for Turkish Delight, and I remember the fucking little mouse, I think is from the second one, right? Maybe. I remember Tilda slaying. I don't really remember Tilda does slay. I mean, but when doesn't she? I mean, I think what's appealing.

Well, they're also based more directly on the books, whereas this Nutcracker adaptation is like Frankensteining together a bunch of different influences and like, yeah, just sort of. using the ballet as a jumping off point and then going, oh, well, name the mouse, mouse rinks from the book. But then, like, Hawthorne, I don't think exists. I don't think the regents, other than Sugar Plum and Mother Ginger, like, exist outside. I think shiver is completely, like, speaking of difficult female characters, Mother Ginger in this, of course, makes me think of Dogville because Lauren Bacall's character and that is Maginger and a more terrifying person. If you can demonstrate the, what does she say, if you can demonstrate the doctrine of stoicism without crying, I've got to watch that movie again. What a good slash terrifying movie, Dogville is. I need to find like a time of year that I need to make my like, oh, it's the dregs of April. I'm going to go watch Dogville again.

Like, it's the third rainy weekend in a row, like, time to watch Dogville. You know what I think is appealing now for something like Narnia? And honestly, this. And, like, I know that this is kind of a belabored point right now. And it feels like we're moving back towards this a little bit. But there is an earnestness to a movie like this that I think was probably really unfashionable in 2018, which is why the people who, like, were mean to this movie were. But there is also an earnestness to something.

like Narnia. And I realize that, you know, I'm about to use other of his movies as comparison that people think are very bad movies. But there is an earnestness to the Joe Johnston thing that I think really helps this movie, especially that it's like, it's so very clearly a movie made for children. Because, like, I think you can see the direct line between Jumanji and the Pagemaster in what this movie is doing. And, yes, he did the reshoots and we don't really know what it is. But, like, I do think that that tone is there in the movie that we have that makes, even though we've, like, listed all of these problems and they are problems and it's the type of thing that keeps it from, like, really letting this movie seep into the, like, revisit zone.

Yeah. Uh, for, like, Christmastime movies. The Rocketeer should have been her, like, sugar plums, like, a man on her arm, right? But, like, he was going to rule the Four Realms by her side, her and the Rocketeer. Yeah. This movie was not very well received at all. 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, 39 on Metacritic. But still more well received than the other Nutcracker adaptation that Richard E. Grant is in.

The McCauley Culkin one? Is he in the Nucracker in 3D, which is currently 0% on Rottenham. Is this like an angel studio's monstrosity? I think so. It's the Nutcracker in 3D also released as The Nutcracker, The Untold Story, stars L. Fanning. Oh, wow, El Fanning. Oh, this poster is nuts.

John Dickerow as the Rat King. I mean, when you say El Fanning, you mean like seven-year-old El Fanning. Baby, L-fanning. Nathan Lane as a character named Uncle Albert, who is, I guess, Albert Einstein. Wait, he's also, he's essentially Uncle Albert in the birdcage, right? Yeah. Like, come on that way. That's a great double feature.

The Birdcage and the Nutcracker 3B? 100% perfect movie, the birdcage. If you will, if you can retrofit it, apparently bad movie. You can retrofit the bird cage into 3D. I will be seated from now until whenever that movie starts. I want to see Starina right in front of me. Yes, thank you. Who is also in this movie.

I feel Hank Azaria in those shorts. Yeah, you want, you want, you want, you want Hank Azaria's ball sack, like, dangling in front of you. That's crazy. Richard E. Grant is billed as father. We're inspired by Kira Knightley. Yes. You're trying to shame me, Charlie?

Blow it out your ass. That's what I see. Richard Entertainment Grant Billed as Father His name's not Richard F. Grant Richard Father Grant Also in this movie is the person who I think

Kira Knightley's performance is closer to Fuck that commenter who said That she's just doing Helen Abottom Carter No, she's doing Shirley Henderson Bitch As moaning Mirdall

Yeah No, that makes a ton of sense especially in before the heel turn after the heel turn it gets a little deeper but like in the first half it's so shirley henderson she does do that like when she does the like come on boys like she does a little bit like that to it's great yeah it's so god it's so good she's better than both um ivy lynn and karen walker in uh smash right like she Karen Cartwright. Karen Cartwright. Karen Walker is Will and Grace. Yes, Karen Cartwright. And Karen Walker is also my mom's names.

Oh, get out of here. Get out of here. I'll talk about another person who doesn't affect a little squeaky voice, Karen Walker and Will & Grace. And maybe your mom, who knows? The whole collection. The whole collection. What was I going to say? I totally lost my train of thought.

You know what? Good. Ivy linen Karen Cartwright. Ivy linen Karen Cartwright. Right. Yeah, Sugar Plum gets that role of, she, She gets to play Maryland in that production 100%. She knows.

She gets it. Yeah, exactly, exactly. Nightly at this point in her career, she'd gone back to do it. Had she already gone back to Pirates? She had. The previous year, she went back to Pirates of the Caribbean after leaving Pirates of the Caribbean.

Which is wild because she gets that nomination for the imitation game, which I think she's quite good in. And that was, what, 2014? Yes. What nomination do you mean? She was not Oscar nominated for that. For the imitation game?

Oh, I thought, why did I think you just said a dangerous method? Yes, imitation game, which was 2014. Yeah, yeah. So, but I mean, and correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that really does much for her, for her career-wise, which is too bad. Right, after that is Everest, then collateral beauty. Then she goes back to Pirates, which is like the Pirates. Everyone forgets about the one with Javier Bardem. Which one is that called?

Dead Men Tell No Tales? Correct. Yeah, okay. It's this year and she also has Collette another this had Oscar Buzz title that we could do. Collette's not bad, I'll say. Like, she does a pretty good job in that. And I feel like she's also doing some TV around this time, but I wouldn't swear to it. I do feel like when she was in that show Black Doves last year, that she's tremendous in.

Her and Ben Wshah doing spy stuff, like sexy spy stuff. Oh, absolutely, like fully worthwhile. But I feel like I had that feeling of like, it's been a while, Kira, since I've spent time with you. And it was so nice. Yeah, she hasn't done really done television either. she was also in this year a movie that like I kind of wish we had all watched in the same weekend which is the woman in Cabin 10 which is not a good movie did you watch it yes it's not good but it's like it's a it's a fine sit and I feel like if we all watched it together we could have

all had a good time with it and Cura's not bad she's doing it's very much like the woman in the window or like the girl on the train it's like it's very much the same woman's being gaslit. It reminded me and it's not, certainly not quite as good, but that TV show that I really liked, that Britt Marling show that I'm always going to talk about, the murder at the end of the world, it had a lot of similarities to that.

But certainly was an improvement from like Boston Strangler, which I didn't see, but everybody seemed to think was like a giant piece of shit. I just want, I want good things for Kira Knightley because I think

she's genuinely incredibly talented. And especially for like a movie like this, it's like you want to see her have opportunities where she can make a big choice. And I feel like in the lead up to this movie, she's like in the perfect position that she's like, what does she have to lose to make a big choice in this movie that was probably anticipated to make much more money than it did. But it's like she gets to be a character actress for maybe the first time in her life. And I think people, there's been times in her career. where people have been less kind to her making big choices, like a dangerous method. I think she's incredible in a dangerous method.

Yeah. She also has had some bad luck. She was in that movie, The Aftermath in 2019, the James Kent movie. That was bad. With Alexander Scars Garden, Jason Clarke. Was it bad? Bad.

But, well, it was also, then maybe that's fine. Because it was released by Fox Searchlight, like, just before the Disney acquisition. So it was, well, then maybe it's better that it was. It's not the actress. fault that that movie was bad, but I remember really hating that movie. Really hating it, yeah. Yeah. What does she have coming up? Let me see if there's anything.

More black doves. Well, yes, another season of Black Doves, which is going to be great. You know who's good in Black Doves is what's her face from Happy Valley? Sarah Lancashar? Oh, yeah.

Wonderful. Black Dubs is a lot of fun. The deeply underrated Julia Child TV series that not enough people watched and I think was like a Zazlav casualty. Upcoming for Kieranightly.

I thought she was doing like a Harry Potter audiobook or something that people were upset with her about and that she had kind of a non reaction that might have been better for her to just have said nothing. She's voicing the Dolores Umbridge character in some sort of

like audio production. Yeah, the Amelda's. See, that's unfortunate. because that's kind of smart casting, but, like, I'm, I'm as out on Harry Potter and J.K. Rowling as anyone is, but... All of these people sort of signing up for this show and these projects feels very much like you... Unforced error situation. Like, you did not have to do this. You really did not have to do this. Well, it's like someone like Papa Essadu. Kills me. I'm like, Lithgow, no. I know. No! You got...

And also- This far in your career. Conflave had to put him in such a nice position. He was, you know, he was kind of like the star of that Oscars in terms of like he was the guy who Conan kept going to in the audience the way that, like, Crystal would do with like Jack Nicholson or whatever. Like, Lifkow, you have attained a position of prominence within the ecosystem. And then to just sort of be like, now of my own full-on free will, I'm going to do the new Harry Potter project. And then it's like good people also are like Going to be trapped in this forever because they're of course going to make this TV show run as long as they can and follow all of the books and then probably keep going if they can That it's like like I mentioned Papa Esa do I want to see that actor who is great doing literally anything else

Anything else Mm-hmm Mm-hmm, yep All right Bummer Kieranite was great in this movie though Anyone who dogs her sucks For this movie

I really don't like impressions of Kira Niley That people do I find them Oh the dangerous method impressions With anything that just does the underbite thing It really irks me It's like It's become a very easy

Haki impression for people to do And I don't think it's done lovingly The way that people do it for Jennifer Coolidge You know what I mean? that Jennifer Coolidge is like the only other like comparative woman impression that like a lot of people do. And I'm just like, the Kira one feels very mean, especially, I mean, she really got raked over the coals a lot. And I always forget how young she was when pirates came out. Yes. Yes.

People were so horrible about like everything about her for so long. Well, she gets that first year, 2003, she has Pirates of the First Pirates of the Caribbean, Love Actually, and then Bend it like Beckham. And there was definitely a backlash that was both well-intentioned and also targeted in the wrong direction where like, why is Kira Knightley getting famous off of this movie and nothing is happening for Parminder Nagra? And it's just like, that sucks. You're right. Kira Knightley is not your enemy here. Like, Kira Knightley is not, you know what I mean? But I think she got, you know, a good level of backlash.

And then with the Pirates movies, there was this sense of like, oh, well, she's just, like, a pretty face and can't act. And it seemed like every time she, like, delivered a knockout, like, there is no more slept on great performance than her in fucking Anna Karenina. Like, she's so good. Great movie. Or, like, Atonement. Like, Atonement gets, you know, Best Picture nomination. Sersh is nominated. All this sort of stuff.

I think the least talked about element of that movie is how good she is in it and she's so good in that movie so yeah I think she gets slept on well atonement got the hamlet treatment of everyone thinks that this is what this movie is and in its lane and they don't actually engage with the fucking thing they just dunk on it

because of what they think it is you know preach preach um so before I remembered that we had a Kieran Nightly Six-Timer's plays. I also was like, well, this is a Christmas episode. This is a Christmas movie. I want to do a little bit of a Christmas quiz for my friends.

Natalie, I made this one with a little bit more with you in mind, so you'll be able to participate more than you did in the Kira Niley quiz, which is good. Are we going against each other, too, or is this collaborative? Gary? No, you're going against each other, but like, it's friendly. Again, the points don't really matter, so whatever, even though I will keep track.

So, questions where I will give a series of four clues and they all pertain to a movie that is both a Christmas classic and was an Oscar nominee in some capacity or another. So we're not talking about movies like Love Actually or Elf or the Family Stone, right? Yeah, that didn't get any Oscar nominations. All of these got at least some kind of Oscar nominees. So I have 10 movies plus a bonus and I believe

this will go decently quick. Natalie, since you are our guest, I'll give you the opportunity. Do you want to answer the first question or the second question? Second question. All right. Very good. Make Chris go through the guinea pig of it. All right. So for each of these ones

they have a descending point value. If you guess the movie in the middle of it, then you'll be given the opportunity to guess the remaining clues to get more points. I'll walk you through it. It's all very informal. All right, Chris, so your first mystery movie, clue one.

This movie had two Oscar nominations for Best Original Score and Best Original Song. Home Alone. Home Alone is correct. Five points. Damn. Hey. So, for four bonus points, or no, it's one bonus point for each.

For a bonus point, what year? 1990. 1990 is correct. For another bonus point, it lost Best Song to... Not Under the Sea. What is 1990? Uh, uh, uh... DZZZ.

I'm just making noises trying to figure out what was not the 1990 Oscar year outside of, like, picture. God, I'll just say, um, Um, um, um, um, it's not Robin Hood. That didn't even win. Uh, I know this is wrong, but Springsteen for Philadelphia. I know that's 93. Natalie, would you like to try to steal if you have a guess? If not, that's okay. No, I'm... All right. The answer is you're both going to, uh, holler that I lost sooner or later from Dick Tracy. Of course.

Oh, boy. I love Dick Tracy, too. Well, hell, yeah. Yeah, a very good... Sondheim's Oscar. Yeah, which it was not there for. All right, Natalie, your mystery movie got one Oscar for Best Original Song. Okay.

You can either make a guess or you can just move right on to clue number two. Let's move on to clue number two. Clue number two, this was from the year 1954. 54. 54. White Christmas? White Christmas. You get four points.

For a bonus point, I'm going to say for two bonus points because this is hard. It lost Best Original Song to What? It is a title song from a movie. 54, 54, 54. Oh. Oh. Did you look it up or did you realize, Chris? No, I'm not looking it up, but I, I, I,

I thought I figured it out, but I think I'm wrong. Gonna need a guess. I don't have a guess. All right, it is. Chris, what is your guess? Is it Alfie? It is not Alfie. Oh, no, Alfie wasn't for...

Alfie's like 1960. Yeah. This lost your three coins in a fountain. Two coins in the fountain. You just let us wind up for that. Incredible classic. It's one of those things that exists as a title. Spotify wrapped.

Yeah. Yeah. The white Christmas song that was nominated is Count Your Blessings? It is. I wrote this down too, and then I changed the format so I don't have it. I think you're right. I don't know why I don't have this written down. We'll look this up later.

Sorry, folks. All right. So you got a total of four points. Chris has six points. Chris, your next film, got five. Five Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Actor, Best Editing, and Best Sound Recording. Is it Holiday Inn? It's not Holiday Inn.

Your next clue is it's from 1946. Is it going my way? It is not going my way. Your next clue is it lost picture, director, and actor, oh, and editing to the best years of our lives. Oh, one of my faves. Um Actor Oh, it's a wonderful life.

Yes, three points. It's a wonderful life. Yes. All right. So, Natalie, your mystery movie, got three Oscar nominations for best costumes, best art direction, and best makeup. Hmm. I'm trying to think of, like, fantastical Christmas time. I'll take clue number two.

Clue number two, it's from the year 2000. 2000. Huh. I should have been so squarely. in the God, this is going to kill me and if people are yelling at me I can hear them.

They're all battling to my brain. I'm going to give you one more clue. This will be for three points. It lost best art direction to crouching tiger, hidden dragon and best costumes to Gladiator.

And it won that makeup Oscar, right? It did win that makeup Oscar. Oh, Jim Carrey Grinch. Cam Carrey Grinch, three points. Very good. Jim Carrey Grinch. My God. All right. Yes, Rick Baker won for Best Makeup. All right. Chris.

Again, because it's not my ministry. Yeah, exactly. It's not real. Chris, your next mystery movie was nominated for four Oscars for Best Costume Design, Art Direction, Original Score, and Original Song. Mimi and St. Louis. No. Clue number two, it's from 1970. Is this the Albert Finney Scrooge?

It is for four points. There it is. Well done. The Albert Finney Scrooge. For an extra point, what did it lose original song to? In 1970? Yeah. I'm going to say don't take too much time on it.

Oh, okay. It's not the Rocky year. No. This is the year of Patton. The great song from Patton. Sure, the great song from Patton. No, it is. It lost to, for all we know, from lovers and other strangers.

Yeah, that's why I don't need to spend it. Yeah, awesome. All right. That's like an American Idol song that sent home like three people. Yes, basically. Yes, basically. The great American song book, yes. Natalie, your mystery movie was Oscar nominated for one Academy Award for Best Makeup.

Okay. Give me clue number two. Clue number two. It's from 1988. 1988. Is this Bill Murray Scrooge? Bill Murray Scrooge for four points. Well done.

All right. You are down one point. Point to Chris. Oh, for an extra point, you can give me the movie It Lost Best Makeup, too. Ooh, from 88. Labyrinth? No, but that's such a good guess.

It lost to Beetlejuice. Oh. Yeah. Yeah. Chris, your movie was nominated for three Academy Awards for Best Original Story, Best Original Score, and Best Original Song. This is Meet Me and St. Louis. It is not.

For four points, it's from 1942. Those three Oscar. I always forget if White Christmas was nominated as the song for Holiday Inn, but Holiday Inn had more... I'll say Holiday Inn again. Holiday Inn for 4. Wow. Well done.

I thought I was getting that wrong. For a bonus point, it lost score and, or it lost original score to what movie? 1940? 42. Is that the Casablanca? That's not the Casablanca year. I'll say Casablanca to keep it moving. No, Yankee Doodle Dandy.

I also want to, um, oh, did I not do this right? Damn it. Oh, wait. Okay. Hold on. The other nominated original songs, I just want to give them to you. There were a lot of them. Always in My Heart from the movie, Always in My Heart.

Dearly Beloved from You Are Never Lovelier. How about you from a movie called Babes on Broadway? It seems like I heard that song before from Youth on Parade. Oh, here we go. I've got a gal in Kalamazoo from Orchestra Wives. That sounds like something that they all breakable commission made up. Yes. That rocks.

Love is a song from Bambi. pennies for Pepino from a movie called Flying with Music Pigfoot Pete from a movie called Hell's a Poppin and it is accompanied by a note this nomination is a mystery both the nominations list in the program from the awards dinner list the song as being from Hells a Poppin a 1942 release for awards purposes

the song does not appear in that film but it did appear in Keep Them Flying a 1941 release from the same production company in studio and was therefore ineligible for a 1942 nomination Honestly, they just made shit up back then. Like, they just, like, threw stuff on a list. And the final nominee from a movie called The Mayor of 44th Street, There's a Breeze on Lake Louise.

Now, Natalie Walker. That sounds like a double entendre. My challenge to you is, next time you're at Joe's Pub, I need you to perform both of There's a Breeze on Lake Louise. And I've got a gal in Kalamazoo. As a medley, who's to say? I'm going to leave that up to you. But I need you to just throw that up there.

I'm going to be banging the drum for orchestra wives. Orchestra wives. These wives in here. What hell is in Orchestra Wives of Orange County? Orchestra Wives stars Glenn Miller and his orchestra, Anne Rutherford and George Montgomery. Caesar Romero is in that movie. I'm just saying.

All right. Back to the quiz. This is for Natalie. Okay. Your movie has four Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Supporting Actor, Best Screenplay, and Best Original Story. Oh. Best Supporting Actor. Clue number two?

It's from the year 1947. Is this meet me in San Francisco? Louis. It is not Meet me in St. Louis. God damn it. Lost best picture to gentlemen's

agreement. This would give you three points. I simply don't know. Your final clue for two points. It was the best supporting actor winner

for Edmund Gwen as Chris Kringle. Oh, Miracle on 34th Street. Miracle on 34th Street. Santa has an Oscar. People forget Santa has an Oscar. Chris, your movie had three Oscar nominations for Best Sound Mixing, Best Sound Editing, and Best Original Song.

Okay, so this is going to be relatively recent because it has both sounds. It's not Die Hard because Die Hard was not nominated for Christmas and Hollis. But Die Hard has, I think, four Oscar nominations. I want the second clue. The year is 2004. Okay, so O-4, original song was like, this is the year after Cold Mountain. So there's no A and True Love. Cold Mountain does have Christmas in it.

I am just grabbing my computer charger because I just want to a little about it. We have defeated Natalie's computer on this podcast. O4 original. I should be able to get it from original song, and I just don't have it. I know it's wrong, but elf. It is not elf. Your next clue. It lost best original song to the Motorcycle Diaries.

Elitralado de Rio. Phantom is that? Oh, it's Polar Express. It is the Polar Express. You get three points for that one. Notedly, not nominated for visual effects. We'll wait for Natalie to re-establish yourself, and then I will catch her up. Please judge myself to fully my chair of trash.

Oh, I love it. Parcels and packages are plenty. All right. Your beetle juice striped black and white chair, it looks like. So while you were away, Chris got the clue that it lost original song to Motorcycle Diaries and he guessed that it was Polar Express. All right, last movie.

Natalie, your movie has five Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best Director, Best Editing, Best Score, and Best Sound Recording. Don't say it. Don't say it, because it won't be right. Okay. Okay. I'm not going to say it. Okay. I'm not going to say it. I'm going to say something else. After you give me that second clue.

1947. I'm going to say embarrassingly, I forgot to put Meet Me and St. Louis on this quiz. So, um, uh, forgive me. Gays and days. God. I'm so, it's a wonderful life. held in terms of like Christmas movies from this era

that I really don't know this is a movie I will say I wasn't so bad I wasn't entirely aware that this was a Christmas movie although it makes all the sense in the world that it was your third clue

is it lost Best Picture to Gentleman's Agreement which was also what Miracle on 34th Street lost to so there were two Christmas movies nominated for Best Picture that year

Word. Trend piece. Is that like the Bishop's wife? The Bishop's Wife? Damn. Nice. Well done. I was going to give you one more clue that said it was not nominated for stars Carrie Grant,

Loretta Young, or David Niven, the Bishop's Wife. Loretta Young won that year, though, for a different movie, right? Oh, no kidding. I think. Oh, that's funny. All right. For your bonus, if you can play. on TCM the other day.

Did you really? I've never seen it. Yeah. It's like I didn't, I didn't watch it in full. I caught it halfway through and I was like, well, I love the preacher's way. Yeah. So much. Like that is like very dear to my heart and the Whitney, joy to the world is the best ever.

And Denzel has kind of never been hotter than he was in that movie. In a PG movie, too. Yeah. Where he's like also. And Jennifer Lewis says Whitney's mom who's five years older than her. I was just about to say, Jennifer Lewis playing her mom is so funny. Charlotte Dan Bois playing, like, the harried stage manager of the Christmas page. As she should always be doing, rocks.

All right. For your bonus one, you can play this together because this is very hard, but I wanted to mention something. This movie had one Oscar nomination for Best Animated Short in 1982. Oh, this has to be some short that we actually care about and love. Because why would you put it in here? Is it Christmas Time for the Jews from S&L? No, but it really should be. It really should be.

No. It's a movie that I always see on like streaming carousels, but I never see it. It's called The Snowman. And I'm mentioning it because I'm going to put a YouTube link in the chat. And I want you to just click on it to see the movie it lost to. It lost to a movie called Tango for Best Animated Short, which is one of those. animations that it is like cutouts

of like two dimensional like images that just keep moving around like in old like it's so upsetting oh my god it's creepy it's called tango it is the most this is a Polish short film

that you've ever seen a Polish short film from 1982 it is it's just absurdity like people coming into and out of a room. One woman whips her titty out

and starts breastfeeding. There is another woman who goes topless at some point in the movie. Two people start like humping on a bed. There's like an old man who's fallen down.

It feels like uncanny valley sims. It's so uncanny valley. It's the David Lynch Sims. That's me playing in bed. That's me playing in bed and the heart bed over and over. It's eight minutes long

of just repetitive movements of increasing numbers of characters check it out you'll quite simply never be the same I can't believe this has an Academy Award I've never been the same since I watched it

and now neither will you be so there we go good job on the quiz Chris wins that one by three points so close call well done all right the king sorry for overloading this episode with games everybody

I hope all our listeners enjoyed it Because this is what we do on Christmas It's an abundance culture It is it is abondanza And it's here for everybody I think the fact that there are Numerous Christmas movies That were not in that quiz

Does really show how much of a Legacy Oscar Christmas movies have Because like trading places is there Obviously maybe in St. Louis We mentioned Holiday Inn a few times Yep. Mimian St. Louis, we should say, had, was nominated for four Oscars for screenplay, cinematography, score, and song. And that it also, in addition to that, was a Juvenile Academy Award winner for young Margaret O'Brien.

As Tudy. As fucking Tudy child performances of all fucking time. Absolutely. Fucking Tudy. He and Margaret O'Brien is Clara in Nutcracker in the Four Realms. That's it. That's a better movie. Yeah.

Yep. All right. Natalie, anything else that you wrote down or wanted to mention about this movie? I'm going to give you the last word. In my little notes. Yes. Oh, the incredible exposition from Morgan Freeman, when she goes off and he goes and the owl talks a little bit the owl makes a hoot and he goes

I know owl but it was her mother's dying wish so and it's very barb and star go to Vista Del Marco did when the like the crab name Morgan Freeman comes out and starts giving the like shashank soliloquy or whatever it's fantastic Barb and Star go to the four realms we have still not gotten another Barb and Star movie. It's been five years. What the fuck? We need to see them everywhere. We need to see. That should be White Lotus. They should go to White Lotus. What's the fucking overhead? What's the fucking overhead on that project? Barbin Star go to freaking White Lotus. Let's go. Yes. 100%. What kind of weird sex are they getting into at the White Lotus? Talk about a movie that should,

talk about a franchise that should have a Christmas movie installment. Barb and Star go to go to the four. No, Barb and Star need to be our new Ernest. Ernest went to jail. He got scared. straight, he went to camp. He, yes. Barb and Starscage stupid. Yes, 100%. Santa Claus 4. Barb becomes Santa Claus.

The Santa Claus for the Coolouts Clause. Yes, 100%. We reboot it. It's like Ghostbusters, but it goes well this time and everyone loves it. My other note, the only other note, oh no, I had two other notes. Clara opening the egg and nothing being inside it was very Giroldo at Capone's vault. And then when they go to that, like, oh, nothing's there. Oh, no.

And then when they go to that, like, little attic jail for two seconds, and she listens to the music box. And then it's immediately followed by a chandelier crash to escape the realm prison. I was like, maybe Clara is the phantom. You instinctively put your hand up to the level of your eye. Yeah, I went, ooh. Yeah. It really is just taking from every successful, big fantasy, sweeping movie.

Just throwing it all at the wall. My last note is, of course, about Richard Entertainment Grant. This is the season of his Oscar run with Can You Ever Forgive Me? But I do want to say, I think he has one of the great character posters of all time for this movie. And I just dropped it in the chat, fully deranged character post. for Richard Entertainment, but just fabulous. I need this on my wall. It's perfect.

Honestly, his character in Prediporte would love this. Oh, yes. His costume was designed by him in Predoporte. Yeah. Oh, fantastic. Mine wouldn't open, but I'm going to IMDB to take a look. All of these, honestly. Oh, my God.

Bring back character posters. An incredible character poster, are you kidding me? Yes, that's incredible. Chris, why don't you explain to our wonderful listeners how the IMDB game works? Listeners, every week we end our episodes with the IMDB game where we challenge each other with an actor or actress to try to guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. If any of those titles are television, voice-only performances, or non-acting credits,

we mention that up front. After two wrong guesses, we get the remaining titles release years as a clue. That's not enough, it just becomes. a free for all of hints in rounds one, two, three, four, and on to infinity. That's right. All right, Natalie, as our guest, you get the choice of whether you want to guess first or give your clue first. And also in which direction you would like this little round robin to go. I am going to guess first and get it over with.

I'm the opening act for the main performers that are you guys. And who would you like to guess from? Ooh, I'll guess from Chris, because you've been giving me clues. That's true. That's true. Okay. All right, Chris. So for you, I went into the Joe Johnston filmography, and one of his movies that I also believe, if I'm remembering correctly, he signed on to after reshoots or someone left, I forget who that was.

But was the Wolfman. The Wolfman was awesome. Oscar-nominated for best makeup in which the presenter, Kate Blanchett, famously said, that's gross. For you, I have chosen Kate Blanchett. Nice. Great. Great. Okay.

Ooh. Tar. Tar is incorrect. I'm so sorry. What? Tar is a little recent. That's fair. That's fair.

She's got many iconic performances. Oh, Lord. Okay. Okay. The aviator. Also incorrect. I'm so sorry. Okay, I'm great. This is stunning. Actually, this is great. We'll just get me out of the way. Bump me off the dang island.

Your years are going to be 1998, 2001, 2013, and 2015. Okay. 2015, Carol? Carol is correct. Yes. Okay. Uh, 2004, you said? 2001 and 2013. Okay, 2001 and 2013. She voted.

Okay. 2001, like Elizabeth World? What is? No, let's go back to 1998. What do you think? Yeah. Ninety-eight, help me. Not Elizabeth in the world.

It's Elizabeth. Yeah. That's 1998. Oh, great. So, O-1, she had a bunch of movies in O-1. This is a huge movie that she has a small but very significant part in. Talented Mr. Ripley in O-1? No, that's 99.

99. It's a franchise movie. She doesn't have a ton of those. Lord of the Rings Yes Fellowship of the Rings Fellowship of the Rings Yeah

Everyone Gary's I'm so sorry Garies please know that I am appropriately bright red And humiliated by my IMD game can be pressure It can be pressure So there is no judgment among the Gary's

I kind of forgot that IMD game was still On the loose And so after Chris's game, I was like, I don't have to reveal myself as stupid anymore. You're going to get 2013 because it's one of the big ones. She is a title character. If you go in the tar realm, you're in the right direction. Blue Jasmine? Correct.

Oh, boy. Well done. Well done. And also now you get to quiz me and put me on the hot seats. I know, except I forgot to do them because I was so worried about getting ready for the... So you do Chris. Okay, and then you can... Yes, and I will come up with someone.

Perfect. I will Mama Let's Research. Natalie, the first time I told Chris about Mama Let's Research, he laughed for like a day. Because the thing was, like, I knew Mama Let's Research as a gay guy. He didn't know what it was from, so I sent him the tweet, the Gina Redmond. Are you guys tweet that it was from? That's, that's the best. It's still very funny.

I can very much go back to the moment and being just like. In the realm of tweets, it exists for me alongside the Maggie Gillen Hall. I like the joke that says, come on ladies, let's get information. Yes. It's so good. All right, Chris. This is why we should never tweet. I went down the, as I mentioned, McKenzie Foy plays Young

Murph in Interstellar. I don't care what it says on the credits. She's always going to be young Murph. That movie had a lot of people in it, most of whom we've already done IMDB games for recently, but not Tofer Grace. So,

you get Tofer Grace, one television show. Which is that 70s show? Correct. What a gag if I had said no. I'm going to say Interstellar because Christopher Nolan dominates IMDB game. It's a good guess, but it is, in fact, not correct. Okay. In good company, previous episode. Yes. Very good. In good company. Black Klansmen.

Incorrect. Strike two. No black Klansmen. Your missing years are 2000 and 2007. So 2000, 2000's traffic. Yes. Oh, seven. Oh, seven. That's strange. This is kind of after we were doing the Tofer Grace thing, before we were like, let's do the Tofer Grace thing again. Uh-huh, uh-huh.

Let's do the time warp again, we said, except it was about Tofer Grace. Instead of, let's just a jump to the left, it's just a jump to... Rewriting Star Wars. Polos and khakis. Were either of you video gum heads and readers back in the day? I should have been more because I knew at least a couple of people who wrote there. They used to do a feature that was like, what's going on with Toper Grace? And they became obsessed with this like one quote he gave in an interview that was like, well, you just have to think about where I'm getting my ideas from.

And so like Gabe Liedman just kept being like, we have to ask about where Toper Grace is getting his ideas. Gabe Lidman was so fucking funny on Varyogam. Yes. And my dear friend, Lindsay Robertson, was so good on video gum. Yeah. Yes. What a great place. Who was the third person?

It was Lindsay. It was, it was. Kelly Conno boy, definitely. But it was Gabe Delaheigh, right? Yes, yes. So funny. So funny. All right, Chris, 2007.

It was a pretty, it was a big movie. It was a very big movie. One of the biggest of that year. It's not like a Transformer. Is it? He's not a Transformers. Is it? He's technically on the poster, but like technically.

Because he's, no, you would have said it if it was a voice. I mean, it is a performance that incorporates both him being existing as a person, but also his character, he's not there. He's just doing voice. But it's a IRL performance. It's not an animal. animated film. But he plays a character and an animated voice in the same. Not really.

Well, CGI. Oh, boy. Slash stunt, I guess. It's not like Tropic Thunder, is it? No. Think, like, what kinds of movies in that, and we're starting to become, like, the Blockbuster movies.

Right around that time. in 07. Yeah. Video game movies? No, I think much, much more broadly popular. Not superheroes. This is, uh, it's a superhero movie, superhero movie. But like, what were the superhero movies that were that early to the game?

Like the one franchise in particular was Batman. No, Batman. Well, I guess Batman begins was 06. 4, I think. 04 or something like that. Um, not Batman. But Batman begins following about the success of. Is he in an X-Men?

No, but you're right. Those X-Men movies were there. A real, real, like, foundational superhero. Superman. No. Watchmen? No. Go back towards Superman.

Perhaps with the same. Spider-Man. Oh, he's in. Spider-Man 3. There you go. He's in Spider-Man 3. He is in... Of course. He's on the poster. He's the, you know, all clad and black, and Spider-Man is dressed like Spider-Man. And, you know. Although I guess that's both Toby. Anyway, I guess that's not his character at all. You know what? Forget I said that. Anyway, yes. Spider-Bin-Tree. Natalie, have you come up with someone to challenge me with? Excellent. Yes. And it is a challenge, I think. But I'd rather that than make something more. Make him suffer. Make me suffer.

Yeah. So we already invoked her earlier in the pod. I don't think you've done her before. Charlie Henderson. Oh, perfect. Okay. This is fabulous. Is one of the, oh, what's the Harry Potter movie that she's in?

I want to say Harry Potter in the Chamber of Secrets. No. Incorrect. Damn. Okay, wow. We should say there is a voice. I had no idea she was the voice of this character. She does have somebody who's like, right,

who's like everybody's very surprised that she's the voice of blah. I love this character. I love jokes about this character. I earnestly love this character. It's like the one good thing about this movie. Okay, I'm putting a pin in that for the moment. Is 24-hour party people one of them? Good job.

Yes. Okay, all right. Is she on train spotting? No. It's not on the list. Also, the one Chris is reacting to is a voice. I forget if he said that. Yeah, no.

I, all right. Yeah. So two more live actions and one voice. Yes. I got two strikes, so give me the years. The years are 2019. and 2008. And O5.

Oh, and O5, yes. It's yes, because I forgot that the Harry Potter is a different one. Oh, it's a different Harry Potter. O5 would have been Goblet of Fire? Yes. Correct. He's in Goblet of Fire. Okay.

It's very, well, no, because Goblet of Fire is the one. Chamber of Secrets is the main one she's in, and then she shows up again, I think, in Goblet of Fire. Yes, because that's the one when she's, like, trying to get. up next to Harry. He's opening the egg underneath the water in the bathtub. She's really curving out on it a la sugar plum. Yes, exactly. Which it's like, it's not creepy if she was cast age appropriately.

But she's not, so it's creepy. So the other two years are, you said 2019. In 2008. 2008 is the live action? Yes. Okay. They're both technically live action, but, She's a voice in the 2019.

Is she, like, the voice of, like, Bumblebee, the car or something like that in Bumblebee? No, but I would like to see it. Okay, 2008. Is it one of those, like, a guy Richie, Matthew Vaughn, like? No. Not at all. Very, very not at all. Is it, like, a ensemble of ladies in England?

Kind of a thing? Kind of, yeah, yeah, yeah. Is it made in Dagenham? No, it is not. Damn it! Still different vibe. Still a different vibe. Okay.

So not sister suffragettes. It's, um... This should one million percent be a fucking musical. Is it Brideshead Revisited? Still different vibe. Still different vibe. It should be a musical, you say. So like, lighthearted, silly billy,

dumb, or like... Not dumb, dumb, but... Certainly better than, like, people who would be dogging on Kira Knightley and Nutcracker in the Four Realms would probably talk about this movie. Is it like Pirate Radio? No, but like Pirate Radio, one of the top-billed stars is American. Well, they're both American, but one, at least... One is American in the movie and the other is playing. Yeah.

Oh, okay. Maybe they're both American in the movie. Is it like Rob? It's been a minute. It's been a minute. Are they, like, romantically connected in the lead roles? No. No. The lead one who we're trying to be like, she's American, does not have a romance.

The other one has a romance. So it's two ladies. D-de-l-l-de-l-l-l-de-le. Um. Uh-huh. And a gay actor is the only man in this situation. Who we talked about on the last time I was here. Yes.

Oh, God. That's asking a lot of my memory. We could definitely do an episode on this. A gay actor like... A gay actor like... Very large, tall, gay actor. Large tall gay actor. Much tall gay actor.

Not Rupert Everett, though. I don't know. I don't think he's gay? He might be bisexual. Wait, Rupert ever it's gay in real life, right? No, no, no, no, the actor that we're talking about. Oh, okay, okay. His counterpart in the movie that I was here for is definitely gay.

Yeah. And then he, I don't think is. The two ladies, Joe. Yes. One of them has famously many Oscars, and the other famously has no Oscars. Famously has no Oscars is Amy Adams. Correct. And Emily Blunt, Sunshine Cleaning?

No. Damn it. The other one famously has a lot of Oscars. Renee Zellweger. No. Catherine Huff. Meryl Streep. No.

Doubt? No. Damn it. A musical of Doubt would be amazing. Sure. Cherry Jones, come on back. This person has four Oscars.

Catherine Hepburn. No. Catherine Hepburn and Amy Adams, I would like to see it, but... I would like to see it, too. This person has four Oscars? Four Oscars. For acting?

Most of them are. Actress? Yes. Has two Oscars? I'm getting talked about a lot on Blank Check recently. Yes. Because they're in Cohen's, Francis, Francis. Yes.

Oh, Ms. Pedigrew. Miss Pedigrew lives for a day. Lee Pace is, in fact, out now. Yes. Oh, wait. For some reason, I thought you were talking about Kieran Hines. I was talking about Lee Pace, but I eventually got there. I was like, ooh.

And that's why I was like, we talked about him on Phantom. That's on me. They caught me stupid. Okay. Animated or animated role in a live action movie in 2019. Not animated. Not animated. Not animated, but a voice performance. Of an animal. Of a creature.

Of a creature. For sure. In 2019. What's a movie in 2019 that would be live action but could conceivably have a creature in it? Well. It's crazy that she voices this character Yeah Yeah, yeah, yeah

It's one of those things Or once we say it I'm going to be like, yes, of course I remember I heard that Is it well-liked this movie? No No Very no

Very no Elizabeth Taylor No And now I'm going to how Oh Okay so not very well liked was it like a famous flop or did it like unfortunately make money it made a lot of money though i think you would people would be like flop because it's so yeah okay but not like a disney live action quote unquote live action remake oh no no what do you mean well not like a live action remake of a disney classic like the oh okay but it's produced by disney realm realm I'm so...

Correct. Yes. 2019. Yeah, 2019. I've said multiple times that 2019 has disappeared into the pre-COVID whole and everything. Oh, this movie caused COVID.

This movie caused COVID. This movie caused destruction. Okay. Is the character that she voices in the title? No. No. So it's not like Jack the giant slayer and she's the giant or something like

that. No. No. Is it based on like a fairy tale or IP of some sort? No. Well, it is like part of like a massive frame. A massive like, okay, like universe. So it's a spin-off. Also speaking of blank check, you know. You keep saying

2019 as if that's going to help me at all and it really isn't. So it's a spinoff of IP franchise. Based on, like, a character who was in the main Star Wars? She's in... What's the Star Wars movie? What's the Star Wars movie that came out in 2019?

Oh, it's Rise of Skywalker. Now you have to guess who she voices. It's crazy. Wait, wait, give me a second and try to remember what's this. It's fucking crazy. It's awesome. It's awesome that she voices this. subjectively awesome character.

It's Babu Frick, right? Yes. Yes. It's, yeah, it's Rosas Gavu, Babu Frick. Yes, I did know that. She's the one that goes, ha-ha.

Oh, my God. That's so demented. That's so demented. Well, you sure. And that's Bobu Frick is truly, everything is perfect. Everything is perfect. It should have been

and Shirley Henderson as Babu Frick. Like, that should have been, yeah. With Shirley Henderson. With introducing Shirley Henderson as BabuFri. Reintroducing Shirley Henderson as BabuFrick. We can't all agree that the rise of Skywalker caused COVID. Yeah, no, it was really bad. It was really bad.

I'm sorry it took me so long to get there. Natalie, well done. No, that's so funny. Well done. To make sure we ended on. Bupu Frick is so good. I hope that Gary's all forgive me for my piss poor. performances during the game.

Listen, you did excellent. I got us to Shirley Henderson as Babu Brank. No episode this whole year felt more like getting together for a Christmas party at the end of the year than this episode. So thank you. Thank you, Natalie. Thank you for joining us. Can you tell the listeners where they can find more of you, see more of you, hear more

of you? You are a New York City. Theater Dynamo. Every time I see a clip from that Joe's Pub show you did, I get so incredibly sad that I cannot have been there. But that was so great. I love you guys so much. You were all,

you were my entire, like, Instagram feed. And then, and then. That night, absolutely. I was running a home for wayward boys. And then the fucking Britney whatever housewives show at 54 below, you are also, like, in the background of like several of, my friend's Insta stories talking to Brittany. A deranged, a deranged time.

And we'll talk off mic about everything about that at some point. I am on Instagram at NWox and I am about to start rehearsals for an opera adaptation of Manon by Massinay that will be going up at Irondale in Brooklyn at the end of January through mid-February with a company called Heartbeat Opera in Brooklyn. So I hope if any of the veterans of AMC Empire 25, any people of AMC Empire 25 experience want to come through, that would be amazing. And yeah, I'll just keep posting. If you're wondering whether Natalie's a worthwhile follow on social, I'll just tell you that when she announced that she would be in this production of Manon. She did accompany it by a shot of Nancy from the craft calling upon Manon.

So that's exactly why we are friends. That's exactly it right there. Chris File, for the holidays, let our listeners know where they can find more of you. Letterbox and Blue Sky, Crispy File. I am on Letterbox and Blue Sky at Joe Reed, R-E-I-D. I am also at Vulture doing. so many fun things with my colleagues at Vulture, including

the great Jackson McHenry who's the patron saint of this episode. Go seek out. Go seek out his multiple articles on Nutcracker in the Four realms. I just want to wish Chris and I just want to wish you a wonderful holiday season.

And thank you for yet another fantastic year of allowing us to truly infest your headphones and bring you our deeply demented takes on all of this. We enjoy doing it. We are very thankful that you enjoy us doing it. And we'll do it for another year. How about?

Let's do that. All right. Have yourself a Gary Little Christmas, y'all. Have yourself a Gary Little Christmas. From the very famous Oscar-nominated movie, Meet Me in St. Louis. We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic. artwork, Dave Gonzalez and Gavin Mavius for their technical guidance. Please remember

to rate, like, and review us on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, wherever else you get podcasts. A five-star review in particular really helps us with Apple Podcast visibility. So, come to the sugar plum realm and... Boys.

Boys? And take over the realms. I don't know. And then write us... Then write us a nice four-star review. Five-star review. Five-star review. five star review four stars are for losers um that is all this week but you hope you'll be back next week next year whenever for more buzz bye