This Had Oscar Buzz - 374 – Booksmart

Episode Date: January 5, 2026

Happy New Year, Garys! We’re kicking off 2026 with something more bubbly and light-hearted, 2019’s Booksmart. Sold as an ultra-modern and female take on boy-led high school raunch comedies, the film stars Kaitlyn Dever and Beanie Feldstein as best friends who decide to live it up after spending their entire high school experience stuck in books. … Continue reading "374 – Booksmart"

Oh, oh, wrong house. No, the right house. We want to talk to Marilyn Hack, Millen Hack, and Cran. Dick Poop. We have to go to a party tonight. What? Nobody knows that we are fun. We didn't party because we wanted to focus on school and get into good colleges.

And it worked. But the irresponsible people who partied also got into those colleges. I'm incredible at hand jobs, but I also got a 1560 on the SATs. we haven't done anything we haven't broken any rules name one person whose life was so much better because they broke a couple of rules Picasso he broke art rules Rosa Parks name another one Susan B' Anthony God damn it Hello and welcome to the this had Oscar Buzz podcast the only podcast that handles all our cash bets and we have many by sending Julia Fox to Mohegan's son 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 I'm, and we're, I'm here. I'm here, you're here, we're all here for ice cream. New year, new show. Yes. Just my show now. I'm your host, Chris Bile, and I'm here as always, now and forevermore with my, um, um, overly doting gay, positive parent, Joe Reed.

You saying this is your show now made me imagine you as Amy Morton in August O'Sage County. I'm running things now. I'm running things now. New year.

New you. Yep. All right. Yeah, thank you for making me the Lisa Kudrow and Will Forte combined of this podcast. I accept. Did you notice that the, in the end credits, that it was besides Beanie Feldstein and Caitlin Dever, then all the adults got the credits.

It was like them and then like, they're agents. Yeah, right. Jessica Williams. And then it was like with Will Forte, with Lisa Kudrow and Jason Sadekis. And then all of these kids, which is like, this is one of the more like banger youth casts of the late 20 teens. Like almost everybody in this cast. is currently flourishing in one way or another, so. Get your Siddakis comments out now, because not to bring up the private lives of the people

we're talking about in this movie, he does feel like the Bloody Mary of this episode that we're only allowed to say his name to... I don't really have a ton of Sadecas thoughts, actually. Not a performer I usually like, though I do think his two scenes in this movie are funny. I think he's funny. I think he's been good in other things. Ted Lassow kind of lost me after a season, but I'm not one of those. like strident anti-ted lasso people either. So like, I've heard that he's maybe like a lot to deal with behind the scenes in one direction or another. Perhaps not a super nice person. Yeah, but,

you know, I don't, whatever. I can, I can listen, if I have only one life to live, I'm going to spend it talking about Skylar Gizondo instead of talking about Jason Sadecas. Very true. I don't want to move past Will Forte just yet, because Will Forte, conceivably in the 6th to 10th place range for supporting actor, the Nebraska year. But Will Forte also, I think, is the, like, tethered to Will Arnette in my mind, because I did spend a lot of the, of this season, knowing that it's Will Arnette is this thing on. But, like, as that movie moved further and further into the fringes before it opened in my mind it was will forte here's what i'm going to say to you i understand your antipathy towards nebraska i posit that like will forte should be one of your like five straight

men that you like oh no i do like will forte he's so genuinely so funny and seems like a like complete munch of a guy i don't know you know whatever we don't know the lives of people like is this thing on even more if it was Forte and not Arnette in that movie, though I get that Arnette and B-Coop are buds. Our buds, yes, yes. I mean, I feel like it would exist on a different comedic wavelength for sure. Will Forte has such a, like, specific comedic energy to him, and I think it's so funny, and I keep waiting for somebody to, like, give him a movie, right?

Like, every once in a while, he'll sort of, you know, show up on. a TV show or whatever. Obviously, I really loved that show The Last Man on Earth that he was on Fox like forever ago. But I always loved him on SNL. And I don't know. I just want, I feel like he would be a great, like, singular comedic energy at the center. I mean, he's also on that show The Four Seasons. And I think he's like, no, but I think he brings a really interesting energy to that role as well. I gave that one a good four-episode try. Not a good show. He's in the new, oh, here's another one of your faves. He's in a new Nate Bargazzi movie coming out this year called the breadwinner. So it looks to me to be another supporting role. So yeah, give Will Forte a lead

in a comedy. I'll get there eventually with you. It's not going to be for the Bargazzi movie. I guess New Year knew us talking about the men first in a movie. It does feel spiritually wrong to talk about the men first. Again, we're not going to say, although some of the, like, again, younger male actors in this movie are really funny and really good. Some of them. Oh, well, we'll talk about it. We'll get into it, for sure. There's a performance I really don't like in this movie. I'm really interested to see if it's the one I think it's.

is because if it is. You know, you know, the Simpsons thing where the, like, sheep is, like, keeps getting swept away? Yeah, yeah. One of my favorites. I very like that with Noah Galvin in his movie. I'm sorry. No, I... Go away. My thing with Noah Galvin in this movie, and this may be just, like, bringing my own, like, interpretation to the role based on, like, things that I know about him from, like, other contexts. Or have, like, interpreted about him from other contexts. is almost all of the younger characters, younger actors in this movie, are bringing a level of empathy towards their own character, while also sort of showing them in all their foibles and, you know, annoyances and all the sort of things about them. I think that's true of even, like, the cool kid actors. Yes, absolutely.

Because, like, the cool kids are definitely shown because it's this type of movie as having their flaws. Like the skateboarder that Caitlin Dever has the crush on. Yes, Victoria Rusega, yeah. It is just like one of those flighty people who, like, many would maybe say queer baiting. But I think that that performance is not showing that character is ill-intended. I think that statement you made is very true about, like, so many of these players. And Noah Galvin stands out as not that. Like, Noah Galvin brings this sort of, like,

just, like, nasty energy to this character, not in an outward way, but, like, towards it, like, he does not like this character he's playing, and he is playing him in the least sort of charitable way possible, and it just really stands out in this movie. It, like, it sticks out. I think he's also pushing for the joke a little bit, whereas this movie, as hectic as it is, I do think it has a kind of laid-back, tossed-off comedic energy for the most part, and that's not. the vibe he's bringing. So it's just like, maybe he's not bad. He just really is not integrated. He's not giving a performance that's integrated into the fabric of this movie. It's not the vibe. He's going against the grain in a way that I also think pushes the, like, is like hitting the joke so hard that it's like, it's not even funny. It's like it's, you know, the joke that's telling you what's funny about the joke at all times. Yes. No, I agree with that, especially because, again, so many other people in this movie are doing it not that way.

Or, like, even like Billy Lord, even as sort of like extra as Billy Lord is in this movie, she absolutely holds a like internal integrity to that character, weirdly enough. It maybe pushes it to like the limit that Noah Galvin goes well past. Yeah. But I do think like Billy Lord is, you know, on the wavelength of this movie. Yeah. Yes. I agree with that.

I also didn't realize at the time watching this movie that there was this sort of like IRL besties click sort of happening around with like, obviously Ben Platt's not in this movie, but like Beanie Feldstein, Ben Platt, Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin all sort of run in these sort of social circle branching off from Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein being like longtime besties or whatever.

In a way that I found irksome in a movie like theater camp, but in this movie, and maybe it was just like it was before I knew it. But also, like, again, with Beanie Feldstein and Molly Gordon in this movie, they don't really like lean into those scenes in this like, oh, we're like just goofing off, you know. Yeah, I want to see more of Molly Gordon in this mode a little bit because she's an antagonist for most of. of the time that we see her or we think that she is. Yeah. And it's not, I don't want to be mean, but it's not like tryhardy in the way the theater camp was. Did you see Ohio this year?

No. It doesn't entirely work. There's more, there are elements of it that I'm like, oh, I wish it had sort of maybe gone in this direction a little bit more. Also, if you are in any way inclined towards Logan Lerman, it's worth the price of admission because he is half naked through most of it. I understand. I understand. Great actor. I love, I love Logan Lerman in like both of the ways, like the shallow way and the like legitimate way. Whenever we're, we're primed to do like, well, this movie's entirely forgotten episode, we need to do indignation because it's so good.

And Tracy Lutz is also so good. Yes, we should. But yeah, so I think this was the first movie I had ever really made much notice of Molly Gordon. I don't know if it was the first thing I had ever seen her. but, like, I definitely feel like this was the first time. And I remember at the time, you and I were both very, like, pro-Molly Gordon. And it's sort of taken a little bit of an evolution since then. I like her in Shiva Baby, too. I think she's great in Shiva Baby. I think she's great in The Bear, even though the bear sort of puts her into a corner. And it's sort of an impossible narrative corner where it's just, like, there's nowhere for it to go.

And so every time, you reach a point where every time they cut back to that storyline, You're just sort of like, okay, well, you know, can we get this over with kind of a thing. But yeah, yeah. All right. Anyway, we jump right into the middle. Booksmart. Booksmart still has a very devoted fan base of people who love it. So I'm sure that we've got some Gary's excited that we decided to do this movie.

We're doing yet another six timers. It's just we are in the year of this. had Oscar both six-timers because it's getting to the point we've done so many episodes that it's impossible to avoid them. It's like walking on a beach, you know, a rocky beach, and it's just sort of like, well, we're just like, we're walking on stones for a while. Like, for a while, we're just going to be trampling over six-timers quizzes for a good while, which is fine, which is good. And it's for a performer who I'm going to say in my estimation has never given that I've seen a bad performance.

No, she's incredible. Caitlin Deaver is always an asset to whatever she's in. Even when she's stuck in a bad movie, which this is not, but other movies on the six-timers quiz that we'll talk about will be. I really kind of thought that it was going to happen to her for Unbelievable, which I think I only watched the pilot of, but she only ended up getting the Globe nomination for it. That was one of those shows that everybody who watched it loved it, but it was hard to take it. convince a critical mass of people to watch it because the subject matter was so grim. And certainly not helped by its incredibly vague title. Yes, also that.

Thank you. Even if there's like narrative significance to it being titled that it's a too vague title to get people to press play. Listeners, if you don't, if it's too vague for you to recall to, this was the Netflix miniseries with Tony Colette and Merritt Weaver playing the detectives working. Are they working two opposite cases? Are they each working a different case? And then they come together eventually because it's, it's, the idea is that it's a serial rapist who is, who they don't realize is like working to, like, they're each working a different case of that rapist.

And then they have to like pool their resources by the end. And Caitlin Deaver is the, is the one victim who is sort of spotlit in the show. all three of those women were fantastic I think they all got nominated for something or another along the line during that award season and I can't remember what it was was that like the year of like

Mayor of East Town or maybe or maybe even Season 1 White Lotus or something because Mayor of East Town was during COVID and unbelievable was before COVID Okay so this was the 2020 Emmys because of those straddled pre

and post-COVID. And so Tony Collette was not nominated at all, which is crazy. That was the year that Regina King won for Watchman. And then Merritt Weaver was, I'm certain, nominated for... No, here's what it was. Merit Weaver was not nominated at all, which is kind of crazy because the Emmys love Merit Weaver, like have nominated her for like several different shows. Tony Colette was nominated in supporting actress

Caitlin Dever was not nominated in supporting actress and they all lost to Uzo Aduba for Do you remember what show? In Treatment? Was this when she did in treatment? No, she was nominated for a lead for in treatment. This was for Mrs. America. Do you remember Mrs. America? Yeah. Kay Planchett as Philish-Lapley.

She played Shirley Chisholm. She was nominated. Tracy Allman was nominated for playing Betty Friedan, Margo Martindale was nominated for playing Bella Abzug. They were like, they kind of ruled that category. But, like, Uzo Oduba beat out, like, Gene Smart for Watchman

and Tracy Alman and Marco Martindrell, as I mentioned, and Tony Collette. And it was one of those things where it's like, I think Uzo O'Duba's great on that show. But, like, I would not have voted for her before I voted for Gene Smart or Tony Colette or even, like, you know, Margo Martindale. But whatever.

Whatever. I'm not going to relitigate five years ago Emmy's awards. You know I could if I wanted to. This is a show all about relitigating past award shows. What are you talking about? This is 100. Yeah, but not relitigating past Emmy Award shows. Like, that's beyond our purview. I guess this episode, we're here to relitigate best first feature and original screenplay prizes at not the Oscars.

I also want to take a second, and we'll do this after, obviously, the plot description or whatever, to sort of to get into the idea of teen movies at the Oscars and what it takes or what it would take to get a teen movie nominated significantly. Though this definitely was close. This had to have been six or seven an original screenplay, and I think it's the teen comedy thing that kept it from there. It's the ladybird effect, right? Where we think, I think there was a lot of reducing Lady Bird to just being a teen comedy, which it's not not that. But Lady Bird's not nominated because it's a teen comedy. Lady Bird is nominated because it's a mother-daughter coming of age.

And I think Lady Bird is so clearly told from the vantage of memory, like it's so structured like memory, even though we're going through it with Lady Bird in real time, you know, it's, the lens on it is, oh, the way you think about your high school self as a full adult with life lived in certain perspective. It's almost, yes, it's almost an adult perspective on a teen story. The things that we can see about Lady Bird's experience that she's maybe taking for granted herself. Absolutely. Absolutely. But well, let's get, that's a longer conversation than I want to have before we do the plot description. Because we, this is how we end up 40 minutes into an episode. As we did, I believe, last week. You know. Before we get into the plot description, though, would you talk about our Patreon? Yes, it's a new year, new year, same Patreon. And it is called, This Had Oscar Buzz Turbulent Brilliance. We have been doing this for a couple of years. So we have a giant,

archive of episodes that if you sign up for the low, low price of $5 a month, you will get not only two new bonus episodes every month, but the entire catalog of back, the entire back catalog of episodes to enjoy. So, yes, we give you two, two new bonus episodes per month, one on the first Friday of the month, one on the third Friday of every month. The first Friday of every month, you will get an episode that we call an exception, which is a classic this had Oscar Buzz style commentary on a movie except that movie we can't do on flagship this had Oscar Buzz

because it got a stray nomination or two in a category but it did not win anything and it ultimately had that same film this had Oscar Buzz formula of great expectations disappointing results then on that third I could list off I could list off countless

names of movies that we've talked about But you know the titles that we're talking about, Madonna's Wee, David Lynch's Mulholland Drive. We've recently done True Lies with our friend Katie Rich. We've done Snowfalling on Cedars, that classic of a chilly cinema, early Ethan Hawk movie. Then our second episode of the month is of the type that we call an excursion, which is not about a movie specifically, but about a piece of, of Oscar or movie ephemera that we find to be particularly fascinating. What do we mean? We mean, we'll watch an old award show.

We'll dip into the 2003 Globes or the 1996 MTV Movie Awards or the 1999 Independent Spirit Awards. We will talk about old issues of Entertainment Weekly Fall Movie previews. We will do the SAG and I'm an actor speeches, one of which we talked about book smarts owned Jessica Williams when we talked about that. We did very recently. We checked in on the current Oscar race. Next month, we will be bringing you our third annual. This had Oscar Buzz superlatives, which you can't see Chris Fyle. But Chris Fyle is currently wearing a lab coat and holding an Erlenmeyer flask. And he is just cooking up madness in the laboratory for this year's superlatives. While also doing the Ella McKay challenge. all. So he can do it all. Don't let him tell you they can't do it all. This month, in the state that they were born and raised in at that. Have we decided what the January excursion is going to be? Are we still up in the air of? All right. You know what? We're in a race against time.

Trust the Duchess. We will bring you something wonderful. So that's, as we said, $5 a month. This had Oscar buzz, turbulent brilliance. You can sign up on Patreon at patreon.com slash this had Oscar Buzz, we hope you will. Book Smart, the motion picture comedy directed by Olivia Wilde from a screenplay by Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskin, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman. I wonder what those rewrites were all like. Where did this screenplay start? How did it evolve?

Is that the four screenwriters thing that also maybe kind of hurts it? I mean, I don't know. Well, I think it's, I think you're probably dealing with at least one, maybe two teams of screenwriters. I know Emily Halpern and Sarah Haskins wrote it, wrote an early version of the screenplay together. And then Susanna Fogle, I think, was one rewrite and Katie Silberman was another one. And I think part of it was that the first version of it was written a decade before the movie was made. So I think the last rewrite, the Katie Silberman rewrite, was, had a lot to do with updating it for sort of current social and cultural mores.

Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Because Book Smart is a movie that feels, it's not a movie that feels like it is desperate to remind you of just how, like, cutting edge of pop culture it is, but it is definitely a movie that is very concerned with upending tropes of teen movies and stuff like that. Like, it's very concerned with not giving you the thing that you would expect about any number of things. And I feel like that probably was, you know, in 2009, from 2009 to 2019, there were, you know, reasons to want to continually keep updating that so that you're not feeling stale.

you're not sure. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Because the thing it's most indebted to that we'll definitely get into is probably super bad, so it's not a surprise that this originated from a script

over a decade. Apparently was on the black list of screenplays in 2009. So, yeah, it was definitely kicking around for a while. With a bursting cast starring Caitlin Dever, Beanie Feldstein,

Skyler Gazondo, Billy Lord, Jessica Will William's, Lisa Kudra, Will Forte, Diana Silver, Victoria Ruizga, Molly Gordon, Noah Galvin, Austin Crout, and Jason Sadekis. It World premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival and then opened wide Memorial Day weekend 2019, opposite against the chill I felt run over my entire body when I pulled up this box office opening weekend at number. Number one, at almost $100 million, Aladdin. Aladdin. Guy Richie's live action, Aladdin.

I feel like we've all worked very hard to pretend that didn't happen, and this is not a fun reminder. It made so much money, though. And I remember at the time, the box office take for it being under $100 million. It was like, oh, this is bad. are audiences over the Disney live action thing? And it's like, oh, boy, if that movie opened to $90 million today, it would be a miracle. A miracle. Now, Chris, I know you're not here trying to act like John Wick Chapter 3 was actually called Perennium, as you have written here in the outline.

Johnwick Chapter 3 hyphen perineum. I'm not going to get away with it. That's what it's called, right? No, no, it's really not. it's really truly not the fourth weekend of John Wick Chapter 3 Paraniam making almost $25 million

I know that we should not be so doomsday when talking about the box office but it is giving some context and I think okay after that you have the fifth weekend of Avengers end game making about $9 million Detective Pikachu

we know that there's a lot of fans of Detective Pikachu after that and then in fifth place Brightburn. God. Remember Brightburn? No. Brightburn. What if your child was a superhero but evil? I know everybody remembers Brightburn.

And then behind that, Booksmart opens in sixth place with less than $7 million. This is the context that like you have forgotten Live Action Aladdin opening to almost $100 million. John Wick, Chapter 3,

being open for a month, and still making that kind of money. And BookSmart was seen as a box office disappointment being an independent production opening to basically $7 million. But again, is this another case where we're just going to be like Annapurna should have done better for this? It is Anapurna slash like, it's the era of Anapurna where they were aligned, where they were in United Artists, or basically folded into that.

before that gets bought out by Amazon. Right. I just think it's unfair to a movie like Booksmart to open Memorial Day weekend after a South by Southwest premiere being an independently produced movie with no real name draws and expect it to be doing super bad business. Can I also find a way to blame Genzi for this, though? as you're prone to do maybe can I please just find a way to say that Gen Z did not show up for this movie because they were all on their phones I do feel like it's younger people that like it more so than people our generation I think our generation is a little bit more prone to look down their nose at this movie oh I don't know if that's necessarily true I feel like everybody I knew in my social circle was really excited about this movie disappointing when you see the box office of really any comedy, star-driven or not, in, you know, the past decade. But I don't know. I think, you know...

Who was going to see Aladdin, though? Is that like nostalgic millennials or is that like parents with kids? Disney adults. Disney adults, because I mean, I'm not the, I'm not the first person, nor will I be the last person to say that Disney, over the past, you know, 15 years, stop making, you know, children and families. families, their primary audience, and started making Disney adults their primary audience, you know? I also just feel like it's parents with kids who are like, let's go take the kid to the movies. What are we going to see? I don't know. I don't know what's there. Oh, Aladdin. Oh, okay. They remade Aladdin. Well, we know what that is. It's a lot of people just showing up on awareness alone and not, oh, we think that this could be good. It's just we know what this is. Right. Right. But like, book smart, the thing about comedies is like, you don't have to know. what it is it's you're you're gonna show up and you're gonna laugh like that's all you need to know yeah you don't need to know what it's about yes um I don't know and and like book smart I really like it

I have a good time with it I think on this rewatch it kind of it really stood out to like the movies it's trying to be the type of high school like body comedies it's trying to be and I don't always think that those are the greatest movies in the world I think it, you know, comes close to some of the best of them, but like, it doesn't need to. It just needs to be funny, and it is funny. Yeah. But, like, a movie, like, Clueless imprinted upon a generation when it opened in 1995, and I think a movie like Booksmart, which is a different thing than Clueless, but, like, I would say it should imprint, it should have imprinted. least a good, like, 75% as much as clueless did. And I feel like you would probably say it imprinted

about, like, 25% as much as clueless did. I would say it probably imprinted about 5% as much as clueless did, unfortunately. I mean, like, I'm not trying to dog on Booksmart, but Booksmart doesn't need to be clueless to me. It doesn't need to be clueless. Not to jump to an eventual clueless episode that we would do. I love Clueless. I think that's a fucking comedy masterpiece. that's like that's a really like specific comedic vision and perspective book smart is you know I don't know if it's really trying to be a visionary comedy I think it's just trying to be a very funny but I don't think it I don't think it should have to be a visionary comedy in order to get people of its own demographic to flock to

go see it and they didn't I mean you know what I mean? And I think part of that is, I mean, again, I'm going to bring up MTV for like the 8th billionth time. But like back in the 90s, we had MTV as a cultural hub. And that is sort of where a lot of people from that generation kind of checked in to see what was going on. And I think Clueless was obviously a huge deal around that time. And like, there is no cultural hub that people are checking into in that same way. You know what I mean? The cultural hubs that they're checking into are person to person. Like, they're all just, like, echo chambering back and forth at each other.

And there is no, you know, cultural gatekeeper to, because the function of a gatekeeper isn't just to, like, keep people out. But it's also to just be, like, hang a sign on the gate being like, this is what we're all doing today. Well, there's a, I mean, a lot of it's social media driven. Like, that's the hub. But the thing is, like, those have pockets of subcult. in them too and there's not really monoculture in those online spaces though like this movie they did a lot to try to get like word of mouth screenings and campaigns and like get people talking about it like they were doing stuff on instagram specifically for this movie it just didn't happen like but i don't i don't know for an independent comedy to make over 20 million dollars i don't think people should have rushed to call this some like appointment. They should have maybe rushed to be like, well, maybe you had unfair expectations on this straightforward comedy. But see, I feel like what you're saying is, if this movie were as good

as clueless, this wouldn't have been a problem. And what I'm saying is, if there were a movie as good as clueless, it would still have this problem. Okay. I hear what you're saying. But I don't know how that's book smart's fault. It's not. It's not. It's Gen Z's fault, as I was saying. But not just Gen Z shows up to high school comments. Like, not, right. But Clueless was not succeeding on the backs of people in their late 30s at the time. Clueless was succeeding on teenagers.

Yes, but I think critics were incidental to Clueless. I think critics did not need to support Clueless in order for that movie to do well financially. Okay. I don't think. I think Clueless was a movie that was popular. with the people who were the age of its characters, primarily. I think that's what was, like, buoying its, like, success. And I think that Book Smart wasn't.

I think the people who supported Book Smart were people who were in their, like, early 30s. But you look at something like Superbad. That wasn't just supported by millennials. Millennials didn't get that movie to $100 million. All different types of people got that movie to $100. million dollars yeah yes you're right about that but that was about boys well yes you can't defeat me i can bring up i can bring up uh it's not about defeating you it's just about talking about the nuances

that's what we do yeah but it's uh that is a very proper thing to bring up when discussing this movie and the like the context in which it exists is that like you can't talk about the like cultural phenomena around something if you don't bring up sexism, especially for a movie that's so specifically trying to market itself as the female Superbad, you know? I agree with that, and I did bring that up, although I still feel like I think the primary culprit for this is just that, like, the cultural hierarchies of this country and, like, structures of this country right now, of this, you know, global, whatever, entertainment market. right now isn't structured into funnel enthusiasm to movies the way that it used to be.

And I think that's probably the biggest problem. I think you have to be – that's why IP matters as much, because, like, IP can bridge that gap in a way that, like, nothing else really seems to have been able to. Maybe now that Timmy Chalame has turned Marty Supreme into a ping-pong, blockbuster, we're maybe going to turn the word. But like, look at how much he had, look at how much sweat he had to put into, like that marketing in order to, you know, make that happen. And you didn't have to do that for Wonka, because people who, people knew who Wonka was. Do you know what I mean? Sure. People knew who Bob Dylan was. Anyway, whatever, I'll have plenty of chance

to talk about Marty Supreme throughout the season. On the other side of the plot description, because Joe, are you ready to give a 60-second plot description of Booksmart? Uh, yeah, yes. I had to write a quiz so I didn't prepare for this, so I'm just going to wing it. The hardest thing I think here is going to be character names. Well, that's one thing I will say about this movie is like, I know that like this is kind of how we talk about movies often, is that like when we're talking about the character, we just use the actor. Yeah. But like, yeah, that's not Molly.

That's Beanie Feldstein. Sure. That's not Amy. That's, like, their names are so insignificant in this movie. That's almost what, I know that, like, Billy Lord is Gigi. Yeah. But, like, you almost need, like, specific crazy character names. Like, nobody has a hot person's name in this movie.

That's why Sharon Dionne were important, not to keep bringing up Clueless. I'm going to keep bringing up Clueless. Sorry, sorry about it. Anyway. All right, your 60-second plot description for Book Smart starts now. Beanie Feldstein and Caitlin Dever play Molly and Amy, a pair of high-achieving besties who are entering the last week of their high school. They are positioned to go off to bright, beautiful futures.

Molly's going to New Haven, aka Yale, Caitlin Dever, or whatever, Amy, is going to Columbia, so we think. And then they find out that the other cool kids at school are also going to all these great college because they were able to both be cool and get good grades. Which sends Molly on a tailspin, and she decides that she and Amy need to hit up the big party that weekend in order to have their rule-breaking young kid moment before they go off to college. And this also has to do with Amy is a teen, is a queer teen who has a crush on a girl named Ryan. and Molly also sees, you know, we find out has a crush on Mason Gooding's character, who is Nick. Also, there is, uh, scholar Gizondo is Jared, who is a total weirdo, but who has a crush on Molly. Whatever, they, like, it's a long weird, like one crazy night comedy where they eventually

end up at this party and Amy sees Ryan making out with Mason Gooding in the pool, and then she and Molly have this huge argument, and then Amy makes out with another girl in the bathroom, pukes on her, and then Molly walks home alone and gets picked up by Molly Gordon, and learns that the girl who she said mean things about for being a slut is actually pretty dope, and they all graduate high school, and Molly makes out with Skylar Gizondo on the stage before her valedictorian speech. I feel like I've missed, like, significant plot, but like, they make up. 50 seconds over. We'll call this over. They make up. They're going to college. They

have their ladybird moment at the airport at the end it's a whole thing yeah this is basically that is the movie the structure like to give the story some like structure and not just be like antics it's a one crazy night comedy like that's how it goes they keep ending up at the wrong part yeah yeah yeah yeah uh including uh billy lord's boat party i've had to write every single goddamn six timers quiz for this entire run of this podcast this is why i do not this is why i do not prepare for plot descriptions as well as I could. The one thing I will say briefly and move on, we are not cinemasins.

Does cinemasin still exist? Just as a boogeyman, just as a boogeyman for people like us. We use this as a point of reference when we have to say something. Nitpicking or annoying about a movie, but I will say this and move on. The reason, it's not that they were also good at school. that everybody's getting into all of these elite colleges. Maybe it has something to do with affluence. Oh, no. Oh, no.

We're not going to become class conscious. Not everybody at a single school can go to Ivy League schools without affluence. I think, I mean, that part... It's a necessary idea for the movie to be like, oh, well, we need to have fun. Because it's a comedy and, like, it's heightened, it's all this sort of thing. I am too. It was just, it really should. struck me this time that I'm like, well, no, girl, that's not, that's not why they got into

those schools because they're also good at their, like, but I do like the idea of these characters having to realize, oh, we were the ones who were being judgmental, because we just assumed that all of these partiers got bad grades. This is a very post-Lis Lemon kind of world. I feel like, Liz, 30 Rock advanced that notion that, like, oh, Liz, Liz Lemon isn't this sort of like put upon sad sack. She like can be really mean and like can like from that very first season, that episode where someone calls her the C word. And you find that I was just like, well, yeah, because she's like being super mean to everybody. And like, and nobody likes her. And then you find out, of course, in the other episode where like she goes back for her high school reunion and they found out that she wasn't just this, you know, picked on nerd that she was actually mean. I think BookSmart is sort of trafficking in those same waters where sort of more with Molly. Amy, I think, is coded as being, like, very nice, but also very timid. She gets called out for being meek by the girl.

She ends up making out within the bathroom. Molly's for Taipei. Yes. And they, I mean, not to bring that awful woman into this conversation, but, like, I think it's telling that when she and Mason Gooding are having. that flirty conversation, and he pegs her as a Slytherin slash Ravenclaw, I was like, oh, that's true, and that's like, that's a terrifying combination. I really like what they do with Mason Gooding's character in this movie, where

he starts off as being this, like, he's the, you know, he's the class vice president, but who fucks off and, like, doesn't take his responsibility seriously, which drives Molly crazy. And then we find out that she has a crush on him. And when that kind of manifests at the party, he's very good at sort of flirting back with her. And he has that, there's that thing he does where he's just like, I can't believe it, Molly Davidson at my party or whatever. And he's kind of making fun of her, but not in like this stereotypical high school bullying way. There's that way that like popular kids in high school eventually sort of want the nerds to show up at the party

because at some point it becomes more fun to just, you know, have everybody around there, you know what I mean? And sometimes what's closer to reality is not we're judging you, we're picking on you for being a nerd, but like, it's this like bubble mentality of like, oh, you don't come to my party

even though I didn't directly invite you, you must not want to be here. Right. It's all, yes, it's all, you know, fear armored by, you know, whatever, antisocial behavior or whatever. Which she actually like comes to. This is one of the things I think BookSmart does really well is, especially looking at young people or high schoolers, is, you know, the things that people get pegged with are not always the thing that they actually are. Yeah. Yes. Unless you're Skylar Jizondo and it's like, no, he is the way. weird, like, tricked-out kid, but he's also, like, a person. But, you know, I was going to say he's not, like, because there's the whole thing about,

like, there was the rumors that his dad hired a prostitute to have sex with him on his 18th birthday or whatever. And he's like, no, I just want to, like, make millions in aviation and then use it to fund Broadway musicals because there should be original musicals. And I'm like, buddy, you are, unfortunately, this guy went into tech. Like, there's just no way around. This guy is the CEO of an AI company. Well, they already have the other, the burnout guy who got, like, hired off by Google right out of high school for six figures, mid-six years. Oh, no, he's a senator now. He's on a VP ticket somewhere.

Yeah, he's already been, like, removed from Congress for, you know, misappropriating funds or something. But no, you're right. I think all of these characters in a way that is kind of like invigorating are slightly more than what you think they are, slightly more than what even the movie needs them to be, which I think is really nice. There are no villains in this movie, really. We can kind of say Gigi's a villain. She just doesn't act villainously. Oh, she's fabulous.

Her function in the story is like, no, she is always wrecking some type of. He's a chaos agent. She's not a villain. She's a chaos agent. And, like, that is important. I think this movie needs chaos agents. Certainly because... I do maybe like Billy Lord a little bit less than when I first saw the movie because

at first I was like, yes, absolutely Billy Lord. I just think it's like, it's a perfect concept of a character. It is. And Billy Lord, you know, just kind of, like, shoots it straight down the middle with what is demanded of her. Plus, you find out later when Jared is talking to Molly, where he's like, yeah, everybody thinks that she's, you know, some kind of lunatic or whatever, but he's like, she really sticks up for me and, like, will, like, beat the shit out of, you know, this person who was saying mean things to me or whatever. And now I have to go check on her because she's

faced down in the pool. I do love those two characters, kind of a lot. I honestly think the characters, I mean, besides the Noah Galvin character who Noah does not seem to care for, the character who's, like, least sympathetically rendered is the Jessica Williams character who is this like she's the cool teacher who then like shows up at the party and has sex with her adult yes adult age student who is still her student right even if he's 20 well and even if it's only for another day that he's her student um but yes it's just like that's the one I I kind of feel like the movie doesn't need that either like I I feel like you can show that your teachers have feet of clay without having to sort of, like, lean into exactly that. I don't,

I wish the movie didn't quite, I think having Sudecas show up as he's the principal, but he's also, like, their Uber driver at the end, I think that serves a similar purpose. I think you can have, you can maybe have a moment where, like, Jessica Williams is a little bit less idealized for those two girls without it being, like, she's slept with a student. And, like, and, like, goes into the high school party and doesn't leave it. I'm like, that's so it's the least cool thing anybody does in that

whole movie. It's really rough. It's rough to watch. And it treats that character as not a person, as not a person, but more of like an object, right? Like that's the one where it's just like that character becomes a construct. It's not, and like that runs in such contrast

with the thing we like about all the other characters. It is, like, it's the hard pivot from going to like fantasy character to like objective bad character because the idea of cool teacher talks to you like you're a person

would also like pick you up if you like needed a ride yeah it's it's this fantasy of cool teacher who makes me feel cool you know but don't you feel like having it go the total opposite

of like that teacher isn't cool that teacher will sleep with a student like That also feels like a dark fantasy. In one version of the script, these were two characters. Maybe. Maybe. I just don't feel like you need the other one. So, yeah, anyway. I mean, it's a good time.

I think most of the jokes work. I do think it leans a little bit too much into the super bad for women. It's got to have the drug trip scene. It's got to have, you know. But I mean, like, the bent that it has. has of being like raunchy super bad is they just say vagina a lot in a really pointed way they talk about masturbating they they talk about yeah yeah they're you know and i feel like there's already enough there there's enough antics that it doesn't have to push too hard on that i do feel like

on that i do laugh a lot no it's very funny but i do agree with you that there are certain i one of the things that I like that the movie does is it kind of makes fun of the girls for being, like, lean in. Like, I have an RBG poster in my bedroom, like, those kind of girls. Like, it kindly sort of like pokes fun at them for that kind of a thing. And, like, you know, their secret word is Malala. And if one of them says Malala, that means that, like, you have to, like, support me on this no matter what, no questions asked. And it's just like, yeah, that's like, it's, I think that is funny, and I think in a way that kind of punctures the tryhardiness. And I think having that, you know, defiant raunchiness that, like, we're girls. This is a movie about girls, but they can be just as raunchy as the boys. It's like it's a little tryhard. It's a little bit like you might have, you know, integrated this a little less, you know. It's able to dodge that a little bit because its protagonists are themselves tryhards.

Yes, yes. That is true. But it's just like, you think they're nerds. These are nerds who talk about fingering. And it's just like, okay. Beanie Feldstein in particular. So she's coming off of Lady Bird. She had also been in Neighbors 2. Had she done like television stuff? Well, she had been in Hello Dolly. She had done Hello Dolly already by this point. I'm pretty sure. I don't remember. No, Hello Dolly, I think, was. was post, like immediately post-co? No. Hello Dolly was around the same time as dear Evan Hanson. They were both on Broadway at the same time, in fact, her and Ben. Hello Dolly was 2017 to 2018. Funny Girl Revival opened in 2022.

That was definitely post-COVID, yes. But no. Oh, you were saying Hello, Dolly, and I was interpreting Funny Girl. I thought we were going to immediately jump to Funny Girl. No, no, no, no. And how everybody needs to stop. being mean to beating hell. We'll get there. No, I want, I'm talking about how she played Minnie Faye and Hello Dulley. Although she was not there in that role when I, I saw fun.

She was not in Hello Dali for long. I saw, well, she was in it actually for. I think through Tony season. She started in April of 2017 and went through January of 2018. But because a lot of that was Lady Bird in the Oscar race, she had, she had to take breaks, short breaks to, like, go to the SAG Awards. Go to SAG, yeah. And so when I saw Donna Murphy in the role with the rest of the, no, it was, yes, wait, no, it was Donna Murphy and Victor Garber and doing the Bet Midler and David Hyde Pierce roles.

But, like, everybody else, like, Avon Creel was still in it. like Melanie Moore was still in it and whatever. But Beanie was gone that day. And so we didn't see her. And then by the time I saw it again with Bernadette Peters, I think there were like, I think we were into like second run cast members or something like that. Anyway, so I didn't get a chance to see Beanie and Hello Dolly, even though I saw that twice. So that was right around Lady Bird Time. She had been, right, she was in four episodes of what we do in the Shadows in 2019. She had been in Neighbors 2 Sorority Rising, something called, oh, God, a film directed and written by Whitney Cummings called The Female Brain, starring Whitney Cummings, Sophia Vergara. What's going on there? Toby Kevill, James Marston, I've never heard of this. that was the same year apparently as Lady Bird and then BookSmart is the same year as

Do you remember the movie we saw at Tiff together? How to Build a Girl How to Build a Girl Where if you look at the poster She is dressed like Amy Sherman Palladino And yeah And then so then post-COVID She did the humans

The film version of the humans And then got the role of a lifetime as Fannie Bryce in Funny girl Forget she played Monica Lewinsky Oh God

I do forget She played mom Was the one that like Nobody knew how to fucking watch that show Because they couldn't tell if it was FX or Hulu That's right That was the drags of FX on Hulu

Right And also nobody knew how to Talk about that show either Because we were in that And like Monica Lewinsky IRL Monica Lewinsky, I believe, was like a producer on that show or something like that. Like, I feel like she was a consulting producer. But it was very much like, people knew that they had to, that they couldn't talk about that show in a way that disparaged Monica Lewinsky because we were in a more enlightened space about that. But the show also was like really harsh towards the Linda Tripp character. And I remember feeling there was this dissonance. with like, okay, well, we're like, yes, girling Monica Lewinsky, but we are demonizing

Linda Tripp for being, like, fat and ugly. But, like, you know, I feel like there was this, you know, sense of, well, what's the enlightenment here? Like, what is the, what is the enlightened take on in this thing? When the reality is, it was an incredibly complicated situation with a lot of people with competing agendas. And, like, we can all agree that, like, Bill Clinton was a scumbag. But, like, there's, you know, there is no easy interpretation of, like, what Hillary Clinton's role in that whole thing was. Like, what the, like, Republican establishment's role was in that whole thing? Fucking, what's her name? Oh, God, who played Anne Coulter in that? It was somebody who was doing this, like, oh, Kobe Smolders. Kobe Smoulders as Ann Coulter.

Oh, well, not, yeah. I don't know. It was a real thing. And see, here I am like most of us where it's like, we would just rather move on. Well, right. That's why no one kind of watched it. Yes, I think that's probably true. And it was coming off of, because the previous American crime story was the assassination of

Gianni Versace, which was so fucking good. Which people really, really like. It was incredible. And so, yeah, I don't know. Anyway, but yes, she played Monica Lewinsky in that. I know I'm not looking forward to the link later. Merely, we roll along. When I know full well, I should trust link later.

I just don't. Even past the recast, even with Meskel instead of what's his nuts? Yeah. All right. Yeah. What is it exactly? Maybe it's more. I'm like, Ben Platt.

I don't know. I'm with you. I'm with you. I feel like it's almost too easy of a casting. choice for that role. Yeah. That it's just like, I don't know. I think also the fact that we now can watch the latest Broadway revival of it.

Yeah, the pro shot. I haven't watched the pro shot yet, but like I've heard nothing but wonderful things and I really, maybe that's what I'll watch this weekend of the many things I'll watch this weekend. But that was so well received and that cast especially was like really beloved. And like, I think it's going to be hard for. for particularly Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein, who, am I overly projecting when I say that I don't feel like people love that friendship? Like, people, there are friendships, there are public friendships where people are like, I love that they're friends or whatever.

Or even, like, Nicole Kidman, Naomi Watts' friendships where they're like, this is fascinating, but, like, I love them or whatever. And, like, I feel like people look at Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein's friendship. And you're sort of just like, I don't know about them. I don't know about that vibe. Like, it seems like they're kind of, like, insular. I'll plant my flag as still being pro-beene. I'm pro-beeney, not pro-Bin-Plat. But, like, people are just mean to beanie.

It's so funny that because she, her role in funny girl was taken over by Leah Michelle, and that Jonathan Groff is one of the people in the new Mary Libby Role. along, that that was the previous friendship where people looked at Jonathan Groff and Liam Michelle being best friends and would be like, really? Because like, he seems so nice and she seems so not nice. That's the thing. Is that like, I don't know. Everything I've ever heard. Jonathan Groff is still best. He's at Liamish. But like, I, what, during that whole, like, didn't every gay guy has a mean lady friend. Well, but that's, I think that's the dynamic because like everything I've ever heard about Jonathan Graff is that he's like genuinely like lovely and kind and like of course we've all heard those stories about like Leah Michelle shitting in wigs and it's just like it doesn't make any sense to anybody and front I was basically a child during shitting in wigs which isn't necessarily excusing her behavior but there hasn't been much listen I was a child and you were a child and neither one of us shit in anybody's wigs so and it's not like she was like five years old and like you know had an act

accident. Like, she was a teenager terrorizing people by shitting in wigs. Like, um, I, there was a Leah Michelle, uh, rehabilitation project that happened around the funny girl recasting. And what it seemed to me was this like nature abhors a vacuum kind of a thing of like, we all decided. And why we all, I don't mean you and me, but I mean everybody who was culturally attuned to the situation, had decided that, like, we kind of want to make fun of Beanie for this one. Like, we kind of want to, like, you know, uh, and so... There was all the rumors of the, like, backstage problems with her and the producers. But, like, I think that whole thing speaks poorly of the fucking producers, not for...

Sure. Because, like, if somebody came to me and said, do you want to play Thani Bryce on Broadway? I would be like, yeah, sure. Right. Right. knowing full well that I am not appropriate to be playing Fannie Wrenny Wicke. It was really hard for people to get behind her

because she was supposedly so bad in the role. But my point being, because everybody had made the decision that, like, you know, Beanie's going to take this one on the chin, that Leah Michelle could not be the villain because that doesn't work in our weird little, like, you know, in the structure of this psychodrama that we're playing out. So Leah Michelle has to be the conquering hero who finally gets the role that she has always wanted and she's good in it.

And so her being good in the role, then everybody was like, all right, well, now we have to, like, decide we like Leah Michelle now. And I have always sort of looked at that. When all along, it's producers who should not be castings, like, they have the decision to cast or not cast someone. Sure. And, like, I feel like they left Beanie Feldstein in a position with egg on her face that, like, some of it should be belonging to them, you know? But that's not how public narratives work. That's not how gay guys on the internet work. Well, also that.

Like, there are archetypal stories being told here, and producers making poor nickel and dime decisions are not interesting as much as, hubristic try-hard theater kid flops and is defeated by other tryhard hubristic theater kid who triumphs over illiteracy and a horrible reputation so that's what literacy cancellation and yeah yeah yeah yeah exactly plus i do feel like the general antipathy towards ben plat like did drag Beanie down to where people were like fuck Ben Platt let's kick Beanie to the curb

for this one right? I hope she you know I I again you watch something like Lady Bird and it's like

oh she's gonna be a character actress for the rest of her not to say that as a derogatory I like obviously I'm a gay guy very pro character actress yeah that it's just like I hope that that that

isn't robbed of her. What did you think of her in the humans? I like the humans a lot. I kind of like everybody in that movie. I mean, her role is not the most interesting one. Yeah. But yeah, she's good in it. I think I agree with you that everybody's good in it.

Even the bad people. I was going to say, I know. The bad people who are bad people. We can't defend Amy Schumer, but Amy Schumer is really good in that movie. But I think how to shell kind of steals that, like, steals the show there as like, you know, nobody, that movie has been memory hold in a way that I don't think it should be because I think it's really, really good. And I think we should all decide in 2026, we're going to rewatch the humans and turn it into a letterbox phenomenon for a week and see what happens. Just see what happens. I wish you luck with that. Okay. Are you not going to support me? You know, I will get you to watch... Malala! Malala, you have to support me.

I will get you to watch all that heaven allows at some point in our lives together. Yeah, that sounds like a great idea. Because there is a line where Jane Wyman is talking to Rock Hudson and like before walking away from him, she says, I wish you luck with your trees.

And it's not meant as an insult, but it's always so funny. It's a good kiss off line. I wish you luck with you. your trees. I wish you luck with your trees. No, I'll definitely watch that this year. Why don't you watch that tonight? Listen, I got a lot going on. There's a lot of...

Holidays. Holidays. I got three days ahead of me. I very well may. So, three days ahead of me and very few responsibilities. Well, I wish you luck with your viewing choices. In my trees, yes. All right, let's pick somebody else to talk about. Let's talk about Caitlin. Well, we talk about Caitlin Deamer. Again, an asset to everything she's ever been in. What was the first thing you remember seeing her in? Short-term 12.

Oh, sure. Yeah. She's tremendous in that. She's tremendous. Had you, were you a party-down watcher? Original? Like, the first two seasons of Party Down? No.

I feel like that's a show you would have really liked. And still may, if you go revisit it. She was, she played in the second season, because in the first season, Jane Lynch is a main cast member. And then Jane Lynch got Glee. And so they, her character kind of quasi-left, I think. I think she shows up in one or two episodes in the second season, but her character is replaced on the catering team by Megan Malalley. And Megan Malalley, because the whole thing about Party Down is they all work for a catering company, but they all have their various Hollywood aspirations. They want to be screenwriters or actors or whatever.

They're gigging. And Megan Malalley's character is a stage mom for her daughter. And she's always talking about, you know, well, we got Escapade an audition or whatever. her daughter's name is Escapade, and then we finally meet Escapade, and she's played by Caitlin Dever, and of course, nobody knew who she was at the time. But it's so funny to look back and like, oh, yeah, like, that was her. I remember her specifically from Justified Season 2. She would show up, she kind of became like a recurring character and Justified. She was kind of like Timothy Oliphant's conscience in a way a little bit, where she would just sort of

like show up and send him, right? But she was a young girl, Margo Martindale in the second season of Justified for which she won an Emmy Award, played a, um, she was like a matriarch of a criminal like, you know, Kentucky, uh, Kentucky criminal bootlegging or whatever. I think they were like bootlegglers or something. I don't know. Whatever. They were doing, no, I've, bootlegging. They were drug dealers. What the fuck am I talking about? They were fucking drug. Of course they were. Anyway, Caitlin Deaver was the daughter of one of their, one of the people that this family had killed. And so then she became the sort of like orphan that they took in slash sort of like, you know, held hostage. And the whole part of the season was this girl sort of figuring out what really happened to her dad. And like, but she was so good. Like, you could tell you. tell, like, even from that point. And then she just kept, like, showing up on things, right? She was in that TV movie Cinema Veritae, the one about an American family that HBO did. She was in that show,

God, right, that Tim Allen show, Last Man Standing, that sitcom for, like a decade. She was on that show, playing his daughter. She was in Unbelievable, as we were talking about. She, well that was all and then on the movie side because I don't want to get into post-COVID quite yet on the movie side she just like kept on acting

even if it's not like main roles or whatever she's in short term 12 she's in laggies she's in men women and children she's in Detroit she's in beautiful boy so by the time she's often playing like a different type of young woman

too in each of them like I think you know actors this age they usually get cast as like... Yeah. They're going to play a, like, mean teenager, or they're going to play basically a version of America's sweetheart, or they're going to play, like, quirky girl. Like, she feels like she's checked all of the various different boxes and different projects.

So it's like she's showing up in similar projects, but not necessarily doing the same thing. She's also very rarely, like, the main young person. Like, short-term 12, she is the, like, she's the main young person aside. from Lekeith Sandfield. And so it's like those two sort of have the like, you know, prominent younger roles in that. But like laggies, men, women, and children, spectacular now,

all these sort of things where she's beautiful boy, she's in them, but she's not like the focus character. So then by the time Booksmart comes, it feels really refreshing that like, oh, no, she gets to be like a co-lead in this thing. And not only a co-lead, we hadn't really ever see her do comedy comedy before. And that's what I felt like was the revelation

of Book Smart for as much as I thought Beanie was great, but we had seen Beanie do comedy before. And even like fairly broad comedy, like, people forget that like, watch the trailer for Neighbors 2 Sorority Rising and like see her get trucked by a car at one point and she like

rolls off the hood and like just gets up and keeps running because she's on like speed or something like that. But like Caitlin Dever had never done comedy like this before and she's so good at it like she's genuinely like really very funny and gives a very funny performance in this movie well and her comedic sensibility like really balances off of beanie feldsteins in a way that just make them work together so well in a way that i kind of find unexpected yes yes um this is also our sixth kately dever movie as we mentioned

we have a six-timers quiz. So I've switched up the format the last few times we've done this and did a trailer-focused six-timers game. I do want to tinker with this a little bit and maybe try out maybe a few different formats. I like this format. It does tend to run a little long, but I did not have time to really tinker with it

because we did not realize until this morning that we had to do a six-time. quiz, but we do have it. So we're going to continue... She's sneaky that Caitlin Dever. The trailer format for this one, but, like, rest assured listeners, if you're concerned, don't be concerned. Also, I think this is a fun format.

All right. So, Chris, the six movies that we are going to be talking about for the Caitlin Dever six-timers trailer buzz game are J. Edgar, in which I really don't remember. She is probably a child on screen for two seconds. probably. She's in men, women, and children playing the daughter of, is it Jennifer Garner? Let's say yes. I think yes. Who is in a romantic relationship with Ansel Elgorton in that movie. She's in the frontrunner where I believe she plays Hugh Jackman's daughter, right? Yes.

She's in Dear Evan Hansen, where she plays the love interest slash Amy Adams' daughter. She's in Beautiful Boy playing Timothy Sholomey's love interest, and then she is love interest slash drug, tragic drug buddy. And then in Booksmart, she's the co-lead. So we're going to start with Jay Edgar for the trailer. I'm not going to ask you about voiceover text before, because it's always text, and you always get it. You get to a certain era of trailer. They just stop doing voiceover. And voiceover goes away.

Yeah, it's a trend thing, yes. All right, for one point, oh, no, wait, there's, the J. Edgar trailer is so fucking bare bones. There's barely anything in this. So, like, there's barely anything to ask you. There's barely even a light on set. Right. Who gets the first line? Two points.

Leonardo DiCaprio. Yeah, big surprise. Yes, two points. You get that. When Morals decline is the first line. Who gets the last line? Leonardo's a caprio. Two more points.

Yes. Even great men can be corrupted. There is one named cast member in the cast. Who is it? Leonard's a cast. Yeah, imagine that. Okay, you get five points for fucking Jay Edgar. Not even Judy Dench.

Nobody else. Literally nobody else. And it only says is from director Clint Eastwood. So it doesn't even give you like from the director of Grand Torino and absolute power or whatever the fuck he directed. All right. Plainesty for me. Men, women, and children. This one's a little more interesting.

Although this is another one that does not even do the thing at the end where it like gives you the block of names of all the people in the movie, which is fucking stupid. For one point apiece from the director of two movies. Up in the air. Yes. And are they going

to say one of the... I mean, I guess Juno. That is correct. Up in the air and Juno. You get two points. For five points, if you guess it cold, what's the name of... What's the song that they use?

in the trailer. Oh, God. And then if you can't get it cold, I'll ask you, I'll give you hints. I wonder if it's an original or if it is like a moody acoustic version. Lana Del Rey, Summertime Sadness. I know that's wrong. It's not that. It is, in fact, a moody cover of a 70s song. This is for four points, and then I'll give you another hint for three points. Gosh, it's got to be something that is talking about a lot of different people. Everything that's coming to my mind is the 80s.

So I'll just say, the Bee Gees, how deep is your love? No, but it is a moody cover of a disco song. It's a disco diva song by maybe the most prominent disco diva of her era. So like Donna Summer. What if it's MacArthur Park? It's not MacArthur Park. That would be weird. MacArthur Park already starts as a moody acoustic cover.

It does, in fact. um uh donna summer not dim all the lights not hot stuff not bad girls both hot stuff and bad girls would be very funny slowed down for a trailer it would be so inappropriate in this context which also maybe makes it a right answer um not dim all the lights that would be so weird what are one of the other majors on the radio on the radio no not on the radio um the song is how to give you a hint for the particular song um it's a declarative statement about oneself uh donna summer's woman i'm a woman no the time no um is there anything in particular about this. I know that this is like the one major Donna Summer song that I haven't mentioned. Why can't I think of this? It's not the one that is like famously long, or the other one that's famously long. No, but there's also the other one that's famously long.

This one was released in 1977. It was... It wasn't used in anything else. Da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da-da. Produced by Giorgio Maroder and Pete Bellot. It's... Come on. Last dance?

It's not last dance. In 2020... is an Oscar winner, so I feel like you would have told me. Yeah, it's not Last Dance. It's definitely not Last Dance. It's on so many lists as like 100 best disco songs, 100 best dance songs, 100 best game. I feel love. There it is. Thank God. I feel love, yes. What a fucking weird song for that movie. It's real, real ethereal the way they slow it down. It's not, it's a cover. It's a slowdown cover, obviously. Okay. That's weird.

The domestic trailer doesn't have any dialogue at all. It's all on-screen text messages. But the international trailer does have a first and last line. So who says the first line in the international trailer? Do I think it would be an adult or a child? I'll say adult and I'll say Jennifer Garner. Not Jennifer Garner, but for one point I will give you the line and if you can get it from the line. The line is, so what do you want to know?

It's not a very good hint. Dennis Haysbert? Nope. Ansel Elgort. The last line, who says the last line, for two points if you get it cold? Jennifer Garner. No. The line is, why didn't you tell me?

Adam Sandler? No, it's Dean Norris. It's really hard. All right. So you get two points because you got up in the errands, you know, but that's it. Okay. The front runner. Okay, we're going to do first line in the trailer for the frontrunner.

huge acman yes the line is so start with the shoulder in a little he's posing himself all right so you get two points for that who gets the last line for two points also huge acmen yes the line there's going to be a story tomorrow about me so that's four points total they don't list the cast members in this one either which is annoying uh for five points if you guess it cold what's the song in the trailer I'm on Marty Supreme mode. Is it everybody wants to rule the world? No, but that's an interesting, that's an interesting answer. No, this is a song from the, hold on, I want to find, because it's either from the 60s or the 70s, but it's from 1965 solo female singer.

And that's all I'll give you. before I give you the next tune. Joni Mitchell Big Yellow Taxi? No. Think of it like thematic towards the movie a little bit. It is a song that was famously used at the end and over the end credits of a 2006 movie. Famously in the end of a 2006 movie, female singer from the 60s. There's like a whole like ending dance.

sequence under the end credits of this movie. In 2006. Yeah. So it's an upbeat song because there's a dancing. It is, I don't, yes, there is a, there is a beat to it. It is a very singular sounding song. It is, I think, based on a like, old, traditional African-American spiritual. Got it.

and a 2006 credit sequence with a dance. Yeah. 2006 is also a weird time. I cannot ever place it in my mind. I don't even know if you would necessarily place this movie in a year. It is a movie from a tremendously visionary auteur who died this year. Unfortunately, there might be a few of those. Oh, is it Inland Empire?

It is Inland Empire. Do you remember what they play over the end credits in Inland Empire? Unfortunately, no. I've only seen Inland Empire once. Okay. Female solo vocalist from the 60s, there was a documentary made about her within the last five-ish years, maybe longer than that. Is it Aretha? No. Roberta Flack?

No, but you're really like, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, you're, Getting kind of close. Oh. How am I going to get this for you? Dionne Warwick. No, that's way too mainstream. This woman is very... Shirley Bassy.

No. The credit song for the frontrunner is Godfair. She's... I believe she was in. the documentary winner from the year that Chris Rock got slapped by Will Smith. Darling Love.

No. The year that Chris Rock got slapped by Will Smith was not that movie. What was that documentary? Remember who accepted the Oscar? Oh, so Summer of Soul. I believe she's in this movie. I'm just thinking of Nina Simone.

Are you? That's interesting. Is it a Nina Simone song? Yeah, what song do you think it would be? Given the subject matter of the frontrunner. Not feeling good. No.

What's the Nina Simone song at the end of Inland Empire that might speak to the content of the frontrunner? It's Sinner Man. Oh. No points for you for Sinner Man. A banger of a song. Okay. It'll be way too long. All right.

So you get four points for that. Dear Evan Hansen, two points. If you get one point for each of these. From the songwriters of... La La Land. And? Um They didn't do Encanto.

What else did they do? What else? Oh, Greatest Showman. Yes, two points. All right. And the director of two more movies. Perks of Being a Wallflower.

And? What was the other Chabaski? Oh, boy. Why am I forgetting? I don't know. But in the interest of moving along, I'm going to cut you off if you don't get it in five seconds. Okay, that's fine.

All right. This is how we need to do this quiz. It needs to be rapid fire or no points. Wonder. Wonder. So you get three points. All right. Oh, who could get wonder?

Five points if you get the song cold. Waving through a window. No. Four points. It is from the middle of the movie. You will be found. Yes. All right, four points.

So you've got seven. All right. First line. Ben Platt. Yes, all right, eight points. The line is Dear Evan Hanson. Last line. Amy Adams.

No, Ben Platt. I have to tell them. All right. Now, there are eight named cast members, and you will get one point for everyone you get in correct order. I encourage you to do this just off the dome. Okay. Ben Platt, Amy Adams.

Katelyn Deaver. Oh, sorry, I'm going to make you start over because there's a with and an and. I feel like I could get the with and, but not all the names. Who do you think the with and? I think it's with Amy Adams and Julianne Moore. Unfortunately, it's the exact opposite. All right. Ben Platt's first.

Can you name anybody who is second. through 6th. Caitlin Deaver. I literally do not remember who the men are in this movie. You get Ben Platt and Caitlin Deaver. You missed Amanda Lstenberg, Nick Dodani, Colton Ryan, and Danny Pino. So you get two points for that.

So that's one, two, three, four, five, six, plus four is in that movie. Four, five, six, plus four is ten. You get ten points for Dear Evan Hanson. Good for you. You are the biggest dear Evan Hansen fan. this podcast has ever seen.

Clearly. Beautiful boy. Plus two points if you get based on the acclaimed memoirs of, and then it's two people. Oh, God. What's their real names? I don't have their names. Okay, David and Nick Schiff. Plus two more points for these two movies from the Academy Award winning producers of...

Broken Circle Breakdown and... Oh, producers. Producers. Academy Award winning producers. What do producers win a... Academy Awards for? What category? Best picture?

Right. So it's a plan B movie, I would say, Moonlight and Twelve Years a Slave. Bingo, two points. Well reasoned, sir. First line of the movie. I'm the biggest Plan B stand on this podcast. Two points for you say who gives the first line.

Steve Carrell. Yes, for So, how you do it? Two points, if you can say, who gives the last. line. Steve Carell. No, so close. He says everything, and then Timothy Shalemae says, everything. Bad. They are four named cast members. Can you name them in order? Steve Carrell, Timothy Shalamee.

Oh, God, who's the doctor? I'm going to say it's Cherry Jones and Moritirney. Oh, my God, so close. More a tyranny is... No, it's Amy Ryan. It's Amy Ryan. Well, but it's Mora Tierney's third build anyway, and Amy Ryan. It is Academy Award nominee, Steve Carell, Academy Award nominee, Timothy Shalame, Golden Globe winner, Mora Tierney, and Academy Award nominee, Amy Ryan.

Rude. I'm just going to say rude. Okay, so that's one, two, three, four points for Beautiful Boy. Okay. Finally, Book Smart. From executive producers, and then it's two people. Oh, named producers. Yes.

Adam McKay and Wilf Arrell. Yes, two points. Five points, if you can guess the song called. There's a second song, but this is the first song that you hear in the trailer. Okay, for four points, it's in the movie. Oh. oh god I literally just watched this movie this morning

yeah I mean there's a bunch of songs we'll talk about that on the other side of this but and I didn't take any notes on the songs um I don't know okay uh plus three points uh solo female artist who was soft uh not canceled but like

had a soft Lizzo yeah there you go boys yes there you go three points okay um first line Beanie Felstine. Yes, correct. Amy, you've been out for two years and you've never kissed a girl. Last line. Caitlin Deaver.

No, it's actually Lisa Kudrow when she says, I don't need to know all the words. When Caitlin Deaver's like, well, probably just do Korean facials, whatever. So what did we say? Three, four, five, six, seven points for Book Smart. Again, the points don't matter. Well done. Sorry, that was kind of slapped. No, it was good.

I was not good at answering the questions. Well, nobody's perfect. Okay. Olivia Wild. We haven't talked about Olivia Wilde. Her directorial debut got a lot of debut director attention, which is part of what I think if she had written this movie, it could have had a stronger chance at making the five because it gets nominated by BAFTA, shows up with the Writers Guild.

People do love the writer's. director thing. It's fair, but like there was also so much attention on Wilde as a first time feature director and there's no Oscar category for that. Here's what I find interesting is one would think, because what we always hear about the guilds, but in particular like SAG, but like SAG-DGA writers guild, what we always hear about them is you don't understand it's not just the writers, the actors, the directors you've heard of. It's everybody. So, like, it's such a big...

Commercials. Right. What strikes me is, the Writers Guild Awards never seem to show disproportionate favor for movies that are just, like, work-a-day screenwriters. Like, this particular movie, where you had a pair of screenwriters, and then you had a rewrite at one point, and then you had a second rewrite. Like, this is the format of kind of a lot of things. I feel a lot of people in the WGA would understand that process, would get what goes into making a movie like that that goes through that kind of a process work. And you would think, like, they would be less enamored of these sort of, like, writer-directors who, like, show up with a script, you know what I mean, and direct their own script or whatever. And yet that never quite seems to happen with the WGA Awards. And I wonder if it's just a function of what we always talk about with awards that, like,

like, with a big enough group, like, you're going to, the votes will eventually funnel towards the, like, the buzziest middle. But you would think, like, something, like, Book Smart would be more of a WGA kind of a thing. Yeah, because Olivia Wilde doesn't get nominated for the DGA's first time director prize, but she's like, go into Palm Springs for the Palm Springs Festival, things like that. She wins the Indy Spirit Award. for a first-time feature. Oh, wait, she was nominated for W.

They were nominated for WGA. Yes, it's W&A. Oh, okay. Oh, okay. Then I take it all back. WGA, you did what I thought you would do. I was a little confused. Sorry, sorry, sorry.

That was movie. Whatever. Yeah, this movie has, if you look at its awards tab on IMDB, there's a lot of, like, regional critics who were doing the first film thing. Like, that's, this, I mean, you talk about a group that runs deeper. In fact, Greater Western New York Film Critics Association gave her breakthrough director that year. Columbus Film Critics Association only nominated her. Who won your...

I don't think she was on my ballot, respectfully. Hold on. I'm looking it up. I'm looking it up. Who defeated Olivia Wilde. It was... Oh, so your group had breakthrough film artists. So it was not only... Yeah, they don't... It's...

It's actors and directors and directors and... writers and whatever. Florence Q won it for Midsomar little women and fighting with my family. So all three of those together. Lady Macbeth apparently didn't exist. Was Lady Macbeth not the year before that? It might not have been. No, Lady Macbeth was prior to all those minutes. Yeah, yeah. So that's what I mean. Oh, I see what you mean. That like breakthrough. The breakthrough of it. Not an actual breakthrough. Right, right, right. Yeah, well, you know, your girl, Julia Fox was nominated for at. Not my girl.

Uncut Jamms, Julia Fox, parentheses, for acting. I feel like the acting should be in. That's what they always put in there. Should be in scare quotes, though, maybe the acting part. The Farewell was nominated. The souvenir, Honor Swinton Byr nominated for the souvenir. That's your doing, I imagine. That's my doing.

Yeah, yeah. That's you. I didn't get Maddie D up in there, though. Oh, that's too bad. Maybe there should be a breakthrough dark to rise. I don't know. What else? Did Gallica do our other group, the group that we're both in?

Let's see. Lord only knows what they did. No, nothing from Gallica for Book Smart, unfortunately. Beanie was nominated at the Golden Globes that year, though. She was. She lost to Aquafina. This lineup is... It's a real interesting lineup.

It's a very... None of you are giving an Oscar nomination lineup. So, like, do what you want. Anna da Armis knives out Kate Blanchett where'd you go Bernadette I in the outline put where'd you god Burnadette type that too fast

And maybe The most Forgettable This had Oscar buzz In this lineup We gotta do this movie at some point Late night Late night

Late night had Sundance buzz Emma Thompson And then late night got a stray golden globe nomination and that's it for that movie I don't even know if Emma Thompson was AARP nominated. So this was a year where the five Globe Drama nominees were just poured it over entirely. Zellweger, Theron, Sertia, Cynthia Arrivo for Harriet,

one of the less remembered best actress nominations of the last maybe 15 years. And then Scarlett Johansson for Marriage Story. Those are your Globe Drama nominees. Those are your Oscar nominees. A number of them could have been comedies. Aquafina, I feel like, of those comedy nominees, probably finished the highest in the Oscar voting. I think Aquafina, Anadamus, Beanie were probably that order, one, two, three in the globe voting.

Who was running sixth and seventh place for actress that year? I know Florence for Midsomar was, like, talked about, but never all that seriously. Yeah. I mean, it was probably a distance. six or seventh. It honestly might be Aquafina because the thing about the farewell, a movie we haven't talked about yet, that is a movie that I think people were looking to reward that movie in some way. It is surprising that that movie didn't get anything. I do kind of think

Book Smart was probably seventh an original screenplay in The Farewell. Oh, we do forget that Lupita did get the SAG nomination for us. So she was probably a... sixth place and I don't I don't know about how distant but yeah yeah I think that's probably right um and also Aquafino winning this globe comedy category for ultimately the most dramatic performance oh I mean yeah classic classic globes um the farewell is an interesting movie that's one of those movies that everybody from like sundance on that year, talked about how devastating it was. And then when I saw it and was sort of, I wasn't unmoved by it, but I definitely felt like, oh, I'm not really, I'm not feeling maybe

what so many of my contemporaries were feeling about that movie. And then that becomes its own little, like, artificially constructed knock against the movie. Because all of a sudden, now this movie has not. Because you don't mean it that way. You just didn't. Well, it just, it has failed to clear this like arbitrary bar that you have now set that you had set for it by your own kind of expectations by what you had been hearing from other people whereas had you can be generous about that or ungenerous in the way that you know maybe some people are ungenerous towards hamlet but you can also well yes but you can also be just sort of like generally nonplussed too and sort of that's sort of how I was maybe with the farewell where I was like what I maybe

missed I maybe missed something like the problem is me but like what What am I to do about that? The farewell not working in that way for you is kind of really surprising. That kind of seems straight down the middle for you. I think part of it is because my grandmothers died so long ago. You know what I mean? Oh, yeah. And I left that movie dishevel.

Like my grandparents died in the early aughts, in the late 90s and early aught. So it was quite a while back for me. And that's what at least I chalk it up to. I was indeed sobbing. Yeah, yeah. Booksmart also wins the Glad Media Award for Best Wide Release. Would you like to hear the darkness of what its fellow nominees were? Yes.

For basically your best LGBT wide releases. And like, if you're like, if you're looking askance at Bookmark winning that, here's the nominees. Booksmart, yeah. Bombshell. Oh, no. because Margot Robbie's characters might be a little less like you know

it's all right for Kate McKinnon right right right Downton Abbey which like there is like an underground gay bar in Downton Abbey in the actual Oh no no no no it's in like in town

I know but I mean wouldn't that be amazing if like the basement of Downton Abbey becomes this like after hours club Yeah there's a sequence in Downton Abbey where they go to like the Downton Abbey version of a warehouse party. I remember, yeah. What's his name? Thomas.

Judy, which is gay, apparently, because of the scene where she goes to the home of her two gay fans. My favorite, my favorite scene in that movie. Honestly, good scene. It is. And then Rocket Man. Yeah. Rocket Man.

A movie that people really, really liked at the time, and I was like, this is. I thought it was fine. I thought it was like, well, if you wanted to make a movie that you could constantly be pointing towards and be like better than Bohemian Rhapsody, then like, yes, Rocket Man is your movie. And I think that's what, you know, kind of did it for a lot of people. I like the people in Rocket Man. Okay. So what else? Before we close out, I want to talk about, because this was probably not in any real conversation for Best picture, even with the expanded lineup, I think especially after the summer closed and this movie was branded as a box office disappointment, which, as I said, I find unfair. These are all of the movies that only received a screenplay nomination since the best picture expansion, whereas, like, this is something we've talked about before. How many?

11 movies. Can I guess some of them? Yes. So only one nomination, and that nomination was. screenplay in the years since expansion. Bridesmaids. Oh no, that's a supporting actress. Well, then I'm out. Okay, tell me what they are.

Okay. From most recent to least recent. Okay. From basically most recent to the year of the expansion. Yeah. September 5. Sure. Remember when there was a September 5?

I do. May December. Sure. First reformed. Yep. The Big Sick. 20th century women, the lobster. straight out of Compton, Nightcrawler, Moonrise Kingdom, Margin Call, and another year.

Kind of a banger lineup, all things considered. I mean, unless First Reform got some cinematography nomination that I forgot. No, no, you're right. And we used to talk about this as like more of a thing, you know, and like often it's movies that should have gotten, not that that's not true of the list I just gave, but movies that should have done better with the Academy, like the Royal Tenin Boms? Yes. Yep. Absolutely. When Harry Met Sally.

Do you think there is a movie this year that stands a chance to pull that off? I feel so... Particularly because... Unformed with the screenplay races, to be honest. Well, the thing about the screenplays this year is they're so heavily weighted towards originals that, like, your nominees for Adaptive... are going to be like one battle and hamnet for sure. But then immediately you're getting into like train dreams,

begonia, no other choice, Frankenstein, which I think is a horrible adaptation among all. Yeah, and the list I just gave is only originals. Right. Wake up Deadman. I guess there's an outside shot that this could be Sorry Baby this year. It could be Sorry Baby. Well, Sorry Baby is original, right?

Yes, I'm talking about original. Oh, yes. Sorry Baby could get into original. if for some way that like wake up dead man ends up um because glass onion was one of those movies in adapt yeah and adapt yeah so if wake up dead man shows up and adapted um i suppose there's like an outside chance that like new vel vogue shows up in although new valvog might also be a cinematography nominee as we have expressed um i think there's a weird uh you know parallel universe where j kelly doesn't get a Sandler nomination

but does get a screenplay nomination and that would be it. Yeah, that's interesting. Although, I mean, you know, if it gets a screenplay nomination, odds are that indicates strength in you know, other categories for that movie. Yeah, I don't know, interesting. I suppose if no other choice

is like a shocking omission in international feature but does show up an adapted screenplay then no other choice could be that movie. Yeah, because international is so kind of packed and there's a lot of possibility. I mean, I think Surrott could not get nominated there but get nominated elsewhere. Yeah.

Yeah, international feature has become quite competitive, which is cool. All right, I want to just talk about, just go through a handful of these younger cast members one more time because I do feel like this is going to be one of those movies that people look back on and just like, wow, they were all in this movie. Skylar Giassando, we had talked about how great he was in Superman this year. He's got some sort of Jimmy Olson TV show on the, right? Isn't he? Or like, no, is it a spinoff movie? There's something, he's doing something else with Jimmy Olson, I'm pretty sure. But then coming up, he's in the new Fokker's movie, which I normally wouldn't be

interested in it, but, like, the idea of him and De Niro sort of going up against each other in a scene where, like... But see, the star casting and the new in-law is Ariana Grande, so I do question how much there's going to be for Skylar Gazondo to do. But he's playing Stiller's kid. He's playing the grandson. So, like... He's a fucker.

And his energy is so... Also, Beanie's in this movie, apparently. A Book Smart Reunion. So I do feel like... And so she's got to be the girl he brings home, right? So, like, he and Ariana are a couple. So I just feel like she's going to be interesting. I don't know what her, like, who she's going to clash with, I guess, with Stiller.

But, like, Skylar Gizondo's energy is so opposite to De Niro's energy that I feel like they cannot resist putting those two in contrast with each other. And, like, that's the thing I'm most looking forward to in that movie by a mile. Um, and then he's also going to be in, well, he's going to be a voice in Shrek 5. I guess that's everything for Skyler. I feel like there's, I feel like I see his name show up all the time in like casting roundups and stuff like that. So, yeah, there's an untitled Jimmy Olson TV show. And then, eh, that's about it. You know what? Everybody, do me a favor. Cast my voice. Schuyler and stuff. Mason Gooding, I mentioned, I think, is really good in this. He's got another Scream movie coming out in the early part of the year. And then maybe at some point, they can put him in other things. He's going to be in the Gregoraki movie that we're both very much looking forward to, along with Olivia Wilde.

Along with Olivia Wilde. Yep. Olivia Wilde's also got another directorial feature at Sundance this year. And then he's in a movie that is, uh, In production, it's a Netflix movie, but it's a new Tim Story movie, Tim Story, who directed Barbershop and, I mean, the mid-a-auts fantastic four movies, but like Barbershop, he directed ride-along. He directed that movie. Did you see The Blackening a couple years ago? Yes. Which I thought was really good and really fun.

I thought it was fun. I think it kind of abandons its own concept, but I had fun with it. But so he's directing this comedy that stars, well, it's a Kevin Hart movie, so like your mileage may vary, but Tiana Taylor's in it, Zach Cherry's in it, Marcello Hernandez from S&L, and then Mason Gooding is in that. So that's good. I just, I don't know, I'm intrigued by all of these younger cast members, or at least most of them. the girl who Caitlin Dever makes out with in the bathroom

I really did in my memory Diana Silver's Yes, I remembered her as Kaya Gerber for whatever reason And I think I like, I like The streams crossed with her in And then Kaya Gerber in Bottoms Bottoms is a movie that I feel like

Is a little, it's obviously a movie That's like much, what's that? I do not like Bottoms Yes, but that is a movie that I feel like is a little bit of a descendant of BookSmart. Sort of goes in obviously much more sort of aggressive directions, but I feel like BookSmart is a plot along the road to bottoms. Yeah, I don't know.

I liked this movie. I enjoyed the experience of rewatching this movie. I thought it was good. I think, because we didn't bring up, Don't worry darling yet. Listeners are going to want us to... Well, we talked about that a little bit when we did our Harry Stiles movie with Katie recently. We talked about don't worry, darling.

And we'll eventually do an episode on that. I think it's pretty clear Olivia Wilde is a better director of comedy than pseudo-science fiction. Yes. I don't know if I'm giving this any, like, first feature prizes personally. Yeah. But, you know, confidently made comedy. She has a movie coming out this year that she's directing. Yes, the one at Sundance.

What's that? The one that I mentioned that's at Sundance. Which is called The Invite. Yes. Edward Norton. Very interesting cast. Seth Rogen. Oh, and it's written by Rashida Jones and Will McCormack who wrote Celeste and Jesse Forever.

Yes. I'm interested. I'm interested in this. I'm interested in quite a few. Sundance movies this year. Oh, Penelope Cruz is in this movie, my goodness. Orgy comedy. Hey, who doesn't want to watch an orgy comedy

with Penelope Cruz, Seth Rogan, Edward Norton, and Olivia Wilde. Those are four people I wouldn't off the top of my head place in the same orgy. Maybe like separate orgies with other people. Let's hope this is better than the overnight, which I really do not like. Wait, which one was the

overnight? The overnight is the Adam Scott Schwartzman one. Where they're, like, couple swapping? I feel like I've seen that, but, like, now it's really... I feel like I've seen that movie. They give Adam Scott a micropenus. Oh, I do remember that.

That's right. Jason Schwartzman's in that one. Yeah, I did not care for that movie. You're right. What is up with that giving people micro penises in movies? Because they did it in... The curse. The curse.

Yeah. Yeah, I did not care for. for that fortunately. I don't know. Maybe that it feels like it's a comedy taboo or something. Oh, that's definitely what it is. They're always looking for like that. Right, because like the comedy penis

of old was Jason Siegel, big floppy comedy penis. And now it's like, oh, we're going to go the other way. Well, all penises are comedy penises. Let's be clear. When it comes down to it. All right. A really good

a really good sex joke, I thought, in Booksmart where they keep talking about how Caitlin Deaver is going to do it. She's nervous about having sex. And I'm just like, just as you normally would, but like come from the other direction. And then, of course, she finds the wrong hole. She finds the wrong, you know, entrance.

It's a booty hole. As Tiffany Haddish once told us, it's a booty hole. Happier times. Happier times. All right. Should I tell everybody about the IMDB game? You really should. Well, every week, we end our episodes with the IMDB game.

In that game, we challenge each other with the name of an actor or actress. Then we try and guess the top four titles that IMDB says they are most known for. If any of those titles are TV shows, perhaps voice-only performances, or non-acting credits, we will make that known up front. After the guesser gets two wrong guesses, they will receive the very. remaining titles release years as clues and if that is not enough it will just become a free for all of hints would you like to give her guess first sir i will give first so i tumbled down the olivia wild uh rabbit hole and i went all the way back to the beginning her very first

directorial effort was a short film called free hugs that i've never heard of before but one of the stars of free hugs is one of my faves uh uh justin long and i'm gonna have you guess justin long um drag me to hell no wow yeah um going the distance nope nope okay so you're years are 1999, 2009, 2001, 2007, and 2014. Years are not going to help. So what was the, what's the newest? Did you say 13? 2014.

14. May have come out in 2015. That might be like a festival thing. 99. 99. Didn't know we were doing Justin Long thought long ago. He was young in it, but he wasn't like a, he was. wasn't like a child. He was like

the youngest member of a team of folks. It's a comedy. It's a comedy sort of blended with another... A team. Oh, is it Mystery Men? No, but it is a comedy blended with another

genre. A comedy superhero. Not superhero. Although superheroes are often in this particular genre. It's not like Galaxy Quest. It is exactly. Blackly Galaxy Quest.

Oh, okay. Well done. Well done. All right. So, oh, 107, 2014. 0107, 2014. You have two horror and one action. Is one of them cursed the werewolf movie?

No, that's Jesse Eisenberg. But I thought there was more people. Oh, he might also be in it. But it's not, regardless. Let me see if he's in that movie. What other horror movies was he in? They're not horror franchises, right? One of them spawned at least one sequel.

Okay. It's a cursed horror movie in that, like, we are not allowed to celebrate it. Oh. Oh, it's Jeepers Creepers. It is Jeepers, creepers. Yeah. Which is too bad because, like, there are so many things about that movie, including the look of the monster that are, like, real, real good.

But, like, unfortunately, that's directed by sex criminals. Okay, so then the other horror movie is basically stand-alone. Yes, but it is directed by somebody whose movies tend to feel of a type. It's not like a shared universe. Like this director does have something of a shared universe, but I don't think this movie is really part of it. It is technically a horror comedy, although I feel like the comedy is like it's light on the comedy. I eventually saw this movie It's like

It's fucked up Oh is it Tusk? It's Tusk Yeah Boo Yeah The site of Walrus

Justin Long Is worth like Kind of like Just watching the movie For because one of those Like you're never going to see it again Okay The action movie

All right so 2014 Wait Are you booing because you didn't like Tusk Or you booing because you never saw Tusk I will never watch Tus Okay Well then You know

You really can't boo it but okay um okay fine i'm being a jerk i accept that i'm just being a jerk that's fine i'm a jerk about things all right the action movie um it's part of a franchise oh it's an action movie yes is this a fast slash furious no it's is it an expendables i can't tell whether this was the i think this might have been the last no this is one of the diehards not live free or die hard but like a good day to die hard? Nope, you had it right the first time. Live free to your die hard.

It is live free or die hard. I can never remember whether live free or a good day is the last one. I think a good day to die hard is the last one. Okay. So is live free the one with Timothy Oliphant? I thought live free was the one with Mary Elizabeth Winstead. No. Yes.

Mary Elizabeth Winstead, Timothy Oliphant, Justin Long. Cliff Curtis, Maggie Cute. Man, they really packed this movie. Speaking of, Kevin Smith is in this movie. Kevin Smith and Justin Long have like collaboed quite a bit actually. Wasn't this the one that like Kevin Smith wrote a draft of the screenplay for?

No, maybe that's the next one. Anyway. Correct. For you, I also went into the Olivia Wild directorial filmography. She directed among other things. A red hot chili peppers music video.

So I have chosen for you everybody's favorite music. musician, actor, Flea. Motherfucker. Well, all right. Now it's just going to be a matter of what movies can I remember Flea being in. You have absolutely seen all of these movies.

This is not that difficult. Cry Baby? No. Fuck. Boy erased. Boy erased is correct. Okay. Yes, everybody knows Flea from Boy Erased.

I love that. Boy Erased is absolutely. the least scene movie. I mean, like, if this sounds strange, I will give you a hint from the beginning. Boy Erased is absolutely without question, the least seen movie. I know Flea is in a lot of movies, but it's one of those things where it's just like, I don't ever remember

that, like, oh, right, the Flea movie. I feel like he's a cop in something. Like, the Chase, the Christy Swanson movie, The Chase, that can't be. That is incorrect. I mean, he's in that, but, yeah.

Your years are 19. 1989, 1998, and 2017. 89. And you're like, oh, you're definitely going to know it. So a movie

that I've seen from 89. I don't think he's in like Batman. It's not Batman. No. I'm trying to think of like... But you're right to be thinking of franchises. Okay. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles?

No. That was 90. Bigger franchise. Much bigger franchise. But not as big as big as. Batman, certainly. No, though this franchise has a

really, it has a stronghold on the culture that I have never... Still? ...gotten on the wavelength with. Does he Ghostbusters 2? No. We're not making more of these movies, but like these movies have

like a grip on the culture. It just got re-released. Back to the Future 3? Back to the Future 2. Oh, that makes more. cents. Okay. Yeah. Got it. I do remember. Okay. 98. And 2017. Boy. All right. 98. What's the genre? Comedy. Okay. A comedy I've seen? Absolutely. Is he in Lobowski? Lobowski. Is he one of the nihilists? Nihilist number two. There we go.

There we go. All right. 2017, a movie I do not like, multiple Oscar nominee. I was very against these Oscar nominations. Oh, boy. Is it Darkest Hour? No. Imagine Flea being in Darkest Hour.

I'm just trying to think of Oscar movies you didn't like from that year. He's in three billboards? I'm not that negative about Darkest Hour, too. Good. You shouldn't be. It's not three billboards. Okay. You shouldn't be negative about Darkest Hour.

It's a good movie. It's a fine movie I don't know People go too hard hating on it But it's fine What From 2017 A Best Picture nominee

No No there was a campaign Is it either Baby Driver or Logan You're gonna need to guess one of those movies Logan It's not Logan Fuck it's Baby Driver It's Baby Driver

Yeah okay Interesting Interesting interesting Okay Well, welcome to 2026, everybody. I will be less discombobulated for our next episode. I will say that. We are recording this the morning after Christmas, and I am not in game.

Everybody's favorite Christmas movie, Book Smart. Book Smart, yeah, exactly. Listen, we gave you guys a nutcracker and four, count them four realms. So that's all the Christmas we did. Well, no, I'm just talking about us watching it basically on Christmas. Yes, yes, yes. Day after Christmas. Christmas Headspace, yes.

Yeah, we've got some fun stuff coming up for you in the new year. I am very excited to kind of map out our next few months. We also have a May mini-series coming up in only a few months. I just wanted to scare the crap out of Chris right there. May mini-series, we've got to get out and planning it. We'll come up with something really great. All right, yeah. That's our episode.

If you want more of this at Oscar Buzz, you can check out. the Tumblr at thishead oscarbuzz.tomber.com. You can also follow us on Instagram at ThisHad Oscar Buzz or on Patreon at patreon.com slash This Had Oscar Buzz. Joe, where can the listeners find more of you? Letterboxed, Blue Sky. I'm at Joe Reed, read spelled R-E-I-D. I am also at Vulture, where I am, among other things, doing the Cinematrix, doing the

movies Fantasy League, and writing about film and television and awards and all that fun stuff with my wonderful, wonderful Vulture College. colleagues. And yeah. And you can find me on Letterbox and Blue Sky at Chris Fee File. That's F-E-I-L. We would like to thank Kyle Cummings for his fantastic artwork, Dave Consolson, Gavin Miebius, for technical guidance if we need it. And Taylor Cole for our theme music. Please remember to rate, like, and review us on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcast. Five-star review in particular really helps us out with Apple Podcast visibility. So mid-drug trip while you're a doll, you can still pick out your phone. hit that fifth star for us. That's all for this week. We hope you'll be next. You'll be back next week for one bus.