The "Anything But Oscars" Mailbag! Plus: ‘Hoppers’

So, I'm standing, standing, standing. Tamara is. This feeling can be done now. Tamara's men.

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Tamara's. I'm Sean Phenasy. I'm Amanda Navin. And this is The Big Picture. A conversation show about your questions and our answers.

Today on the show, we are coming to you live on Netflix. And otherwise, in your standard podcast experience to dig into your anything, but Oscar's mailbag questions, then we will dive into the next Pixar film Hoppers, which just came out over the weekend.

But first, we need to talk about some news,

some box office, a new franchise announcement. We'll do it all right after this. This episode of The Big Picture is presented by State Farm. Sure, being an expert at movie trivia is impressive. You know, it's even more impressive, being smart about saving money.

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Okay, Amanda. We're alive. We are also going live on Sunday night, right? Yes.

It'll be first on Instagram live.

What time? Before the show. This is very important. So everybody listen. So 3 PM PT Pacific Time, 6 PM Eastern.

That's on Instagram before the show. Before the Oscars, yes. The reason it's so early is because the Oscars telecast starts at 7 PM Eastern 4 PM Pacific. Let me say that again. The Oscars telecast, and I'm not being paid by ABC right now,

so you know, is at 7 PM and not the traditional 8 PM. I'm letting you know because I don't think anyone has done this sufficiently good job of broadcasting that. It's unusual. It's nice. It starts a little earlier.

Hopefully it'll be done a little earlier. But if you don't want to miss the first hour. Join us at 3 PM 6 PM. Join the Oscars at 4 PM 7 PM. And then join us again after the Oscars.

Somewhere between 7 30 PM PT 10 30 PM ET based on how long the telecast goes. Where we will be back live on Netflix. You can watch our immediate reactions to all of the hopefully interesting results. And I have been waxing and waning on my predictions over the last few weeks. And we'll talk about those predictions later this week on the show.

But not today. Not today. That'll be on Wednesday. How do you feel about that? Can you hold it in until for two more days?

“I think a couple things will creep out probably.”

But also, I don't feel that my predictions are yet locked in. Mine are not either. I'm going right down to the wire. So in that sense, it's fine. You know?

Well, I agree. Maybe it will feel it out. Let's talk about the precursors over the weekend quickly. So this is not an Oscars podcast, but I at least want to note what happened on Sunday, which was two of the relatively big precursors based on how we've been tracking this.

God forsaken awards season for six months. One is the WGA awards, which of course, much like the Academy Awards splits between adapted screenplay and original screenplay. One battle after another one adapted. Seniors want original. We have learned nothing about the status race seems talk.

That seems like we know which to pick in those categories. Yes. The other major precursor was the American society of cinematographers awards, which transpired last night. And Michael Ballman won for one battle after another, which means he now has the trifecta of cinematography precursors, which I think means this is over.

“I do as well, which is not I think what we expected and probably not even if I had filled out my predictions on Friday that I would have put down.”

Yeah.

I, you know, there's always room for a surprise, but I do wonder again, it's just a really tight race.

And every time you think, oh, maybe it's going to be over here.

“You get something else, but I think one battle is very strong.”

People like this film. I completely agree with you. It is absolutely dominated, the precursors.

And a way that almost like we've maybe we've never seen.

Yeah. And there's something in play that could be tremendously historic for that movie. But we'll talk about that on Wednesday. We have a lot more award season to come on Wednesday and then Sunday, and then probably after that on Tuesday as well. So for now, let's talk about movies, movies, movies, Pixar's back.

Sure is. Over the weekend, hoppers made $81 million worldwide, made $47 million here in the United States of America. It is the second largest original opening movie.

The second largest original movie opening this decade behind F1, which we can quibble about whether or not that's an original.

And then on down the list, you've got weapons onward and other Pixar film and Seniors. This is the biggest Pixar opening for an original since Coco in 2017. And I do feel like the thing that started happening around the barbie time, around the Super Mario Brothers movie time, where you could sense that audiences were a little sick of the hegemony of the previous 15, 20 years of franchise movies, was starting to shift and that the old was going out and that the new was coming in.

And then, you know, we had Minecraft last year and then we had movies like Seniors and weapons last year.

“You know, I don't want to overreact, but what do you make of the hoppers success?”

I see what you're saying. And I think yes, in the sense of there is a new generation of young audiences who are ready to get in on the ground floor of something, instead of being handed whatever their parents were really into 30 years ago. Even though that's also thriving in both our houses and at the world at large. I think you're right. I do also think that this just had a billboard with an animal at the center of it.

I really don't have to overthink it. And I know that was very powerful in in my home.

And there were many people who just and I think by many people, I mean, many children under the age of 16 who were taken by that simplicity. You know, it is effective. It's just here's an animal. Maybe it's going to talk. Yeah, come to see what's going on. I've been thinking about this with respect to the last five years of Pixar, which has been a troubled period, I would say, in 2020 and 2021 soul and turning red both went kind of day and day. They went on Disney plus very, very shortly after their release or maybe it's a same time, same to their release.

“And I like both of those movies a lot. I think they were like a little bit disturbed by the moment.”

Since then, Pixar has been in a little bit of a rocky place. The doctor has come under some fire for some of his changes that he has made to stories to make them quote unquote less woke, less DEI. Whatever you want to call it, there's been a lot since the Disney is maybe putting their thumb on the scale to change the point of view of some of the movies. But like if you just look at the movies themselves, if you look at like light ear. Inside out to last year's LEO, there's a fourth one that I'm forgetting that is also in that kind of mid tier.

Look at, look at precedes that, but there's another one onward. You know, there's a handful of these movies from this time that have not quite hit and elemental. Elemental, yes, which did decent business, but I don't think anybody would put it in the top five Pixar movies of all time. And so, because the company is in this kind of transition, one unsurprising that over the weekend, they announced monsters in three because they have come to rely very much on the sequel machine. As like maybe the rest of the world is getting a little more interested in original stories.

Pixar knows that like every two years there has to be a new toy story, a new monster's ink, a new inside out, a new one's rat, a two-week coming. Well, there'd be a third finding Nemo movie, like all, that's kind of their business strategy at this point. I think that's good business. The monsters, you know, they're pre-marchened eyes, they're great. Monsters ink, a classic, you know, and every pediatrician's office in the waiting room that I've ever been to. So, that makes sense to have your baseline of things that we know work.

And things Pixar movies that are made a little bit more in the mold of, it's a slightly more at a child's level than some of the other experiments you just made. And maybe also hoppers, we'll talk about it later, and then, and repeatable. And that's, listen, if you repeat it well, that's not inherently an evil thing. I agree. I don't think there's anything evil about it. I think it is good business. I think creatively I'm curious where the studio goes. It was once kind of the the most successful bastion for original storytelling.

And not just animated features, but arguably in all feature storytelling in this country for the last 25 years. So, I think you can make that case. They're roughly 10 original stories that this studio just built and created and made into individual franchises.

So, it's just maybe just a transition period, we shall see, but I do feel, I feel pretty good about what's going a project hell marries two weeks away.

I'm psyched.

“The buzz is like, definitely positive on that.”

And we both seen it, we'll wait to share the thoughts, but I don't know if something's happening. Listen, my child laughed multiple times during the minions versus monsters trailer, and it's like, that was my, it's a wonderful life. You know, every time a bell ring, like every time knocks laughs, magical things happen in my heart. So, yeah, it's, it's looking up. I agree, not such original news, Christopher McCquarie, last seen completing his

"Octology of Mission Impossible" films with the final reckoning. Is that a word, "Octology"? Probably not. He finished the Mission Impossible movies of Tom Cruise, and now he's making a Conan the Barbarian movie for 20th century studios. With Arnold Schwarzenegger, reprising his role as Conan the Barbarian, how will this Arnold Schwarzenegger pop quiz? Don't look it up. Okay, 64?

I think he's got to be old in that, no? Really? I don't know. It's very confusing now with all of the plastic surgery. Some people are way older, some people are way younger. There's 78 years old. Really?

Yeah.

Well, okay. Well preserved.

Funny on Instagram. How did you think he did as governor in California? Did you like his work? I have some notes. I enjoyed that documentary about him on Netflix a couple years ago.

This is interesting for McCquarie. I get it. This is for guys who like to work at scale, and he likes to work with big budgets on big stories.

“Sure, you need to have IP. You actually need to have a no unknown story to get your arms around.”

It seems somewhat similar to what 20th century studios. What their mandate is now, since they were kind of subsumed in the Fox Disney deal, where, okay, we have Predator. What are we going to do with Predator to make a new Predator movie to make it coherent? Okay, we've got Alien.

What are we going to do with the xenomorph and they've pretty successfully done movies like that? And so I suspect they'll have a pretty cool spin. McCquarie is great.

I have had some concerns about the last couple of mission impossible movies about like losing the plot

and things getting a little bit too big to get your arms around. Yeah, and also the process, the structure and the stuntification of the movie getting away from what they're actually doing. I also, you know, another star of our childhood trying to reinvent a phase of their career. But like, I haven't seen our Arnold Schwarzenegger run, like I don't know how he's doing, but 78 is different than 60 or whatever cruises hovering around.

Presumably, there's some sort of baby cone and hanging around. Are they yet they're going to like create it? I assume so. Okay. I think, well, that would be interesting if what they did was they had James Earl Jones's character from the original,

Conan the Barbarian. If he had a son, then he could be the the Adonis Creed. Now, then we would be cooking with gas. Okay. That's a nice idea.

Now you're excited.

“Well, God, I got to remember what the name of that character is from Conan the Barbarian,”

because that character is a sick villain that James Earl Jones plays. Hmm, it is. Folza doom. That's cool. So what's the sun's name?

Doom to you. Well, in the Apollo Adonis formulation would it be like, they lower doom, like something similar to different, just just, obviously, put me in the room for this movie. Like, I worshiped the John Millies original, Conan the destroyer not a big fan of, but, uh, God, this is, I got interested again.

Who's going to play, play, baby, Conan? Nicholas Galison? Austin Baller? Noah sent a nail? Maybe.

Could see that, right? Yeah. Will Polter? Well, I like Will Polter. Okay.

I'm just, I'm firing off names here. Yeah. You're just firing off the cast of Warfare. That's true. Yeah.

Well, though. I mean, maybe they should just bring the whole group back together together to do Conan the Barbarian. I'm excited. Yeah. Conan, not really in your interest set.

No. We asked Jack Sanders our producer to break it. And if there was any breaking news during this. And with four minutes to go, he broke it. And I was bracing for something, like, more exciting than a Conan the Barbarian.

But that's okay. Jack, you are empowered to break in again if something dramatic happens again. Don't worry. I will. Okay.

Any other, any other stray thoughts? How are you feeling? You feeling good about the world movies? You feeling good about your life? There's two very different questions.

Okay. I feel like they're intertwined for me. Um, feeling good about the world of movies. Yeah. Sure.

Okay. I feel I had a great time with my son. I also recorded him watching the entire two-minute Mandalorian and Grogu Trailer, which, I mean, I really feel Disney should be paying me at this point because this, this work, but he's excited.

choice of theater was sold out when we could go. So that's good. Yeah. It was a robust scene. We ran into some school friends.

Wow. At the, at the, at the, at Hopper's Highly Rally. If you're listening. Yeah. So incredible stuff.

Yeah. Films. They're great. Everything else. Really don't want to get into it.

You know, I'm about to make my, my first half-picks for the movie fantasy

Lee Gunman. And that goes March through August on the Slates. Okay. So I've been taking a longer look at where, what, what this show is going to be. Go as March through August, but you haven't done it yet.

It's due on Wednesday on my text or doing one. So Hail Mary is eligible. Hail Mary is eligible. And I am likely to take it. Now there's a price of fixed every movie.

How much? And I would, what I want to do is I want to introduce this game to the world at March. I want to make a, I want to make a big picture movie fantasy Lee. Okay.

This is something I mentioned to Jack. It will require a lot of work. Yeah. Probably a little bit of back-end tech.

“But I think it would be really fun because it's kind of in the spirit of everything”

that we do on the show with the auctions and, you know, all of our previews. So I've been looking at the slate and I, it's not the greatest first, like, next three months of the year. Once July comes around, we're cooking. Yeah.

I'll put it all about you. I'll put it all about Toy Story 5. It's not an ideal set of circumstances, which I think is pretty common.

And that's usually when my panic starts to set in is, like, roughly April May.

Yes. So I mean, we can annotate it. But it's like, we have a record of past years. But it is, it's, I would say mid April. Mid April is when I get a little concerned.

And you know what? And or you go to see Minecraft by yourself on Saturday night. And are like, the movies are safe. Minecraft right into sinners. That was a very special time for me.

We kind of staved off my panic this past year. Yeah. I don't know if our April is going to look quite that good this time around. But I think that there's a lot to look forward to. We'll preview this summer stuff as we get a little further into the spring.

But I think I'm feeling pretty good. The world at large? No. Yeah. Bad.

Real bad. Extremely bad. Also, I want to let you and Jack know that another international women's day has passed without your comment. So thanks again. That's on.

It was on a Saturday. There was a big banner. We can't even get our real day. Yeah. It's the day of rest.

I did turn to my wife and daughter when I saw that banner.

And did you do it for your day? Oh, no. Before we start. Let me just say one of the best means of all time was this. I just clocked this bracelet halfway through this pretty much.

I love. Thank you. It's wonderful. Is she going to? Is it one of one?

Is she making any other? This was individually made. It's in order. I think she would like. I can come make one with her.

“Yeah, I mean, honestly, she would have nothing.”

I was in a big amount of phase right now. Big like will a man to be there. What's a man to doing so. Thank you. That's first.

What color would you go with? I mean, I do like the blue. I guess I don't want to see the options. Red. All manner of bead.

Okay. So make a choice. Maybe don't maybe not to match imagine. You might want to find some different. I should have the table.

Okay. Red. Red is nice. Then we can be like my colors. Super man and super girl.

Yes. That's exactly what they put. They put super girl. So close international women's day on purpose. This year on the calendar.

I was about to ask you what it is. Yeah. You're a super girl. I'm telling you so much every day. Should we do the male egg?

Absolutely. How do you feel about these questions? Good. Yeah. Yeah.

Okay. They're funny.

“Jack are we opening up our people going to submit in the.”

While we're recording or not. Not today. All right. Not today. All right.

Not today. All right. What does someone emails during the show? Sure. Okay.

Email in the Big Big Mel Bag at Gmail.com. If you have anything truly special. I'll fire it out. Because the one thing I'll say, these are great questions. I'm excited.

I love our community. I also love that I no longer really look at the Big Big Mel Bag. Account because there are a lot of unsolicited essays. There's people took anything but Oscars, like pretty literally in a film sense. You know, and just one question of advice.

You know anything. People need to check it out. That's it, Amanda. If any of you live listening have advice questions to send to Amanda Dobbins. Email them right now.

I will try to get them in at the end. You. You. You want to be dear, Abby. You don't want to be a podcaster.

I just think I have a unique perspective. That I will not. You're sorry. I can't say I feel good about that. That is definitely true.

That you are you are one of one. Thank you so much. You got it. All right. Let's begin the questions.

Check where do we start. Well, I just want to say if you email me your question nine times in a 24 hour period. I will not be reading it. Not to name any names, but Philly's fans. CR-123.

Your question is not going to be read.

This first one is probably my favorite, and I'm guessing Sean moved it up to the front.

From Paul, he's asking, in one battle after another, we see a shot of Bob Ferguson watching the Battle of Algiers on his couch. I doubt that the local Fox affiliate and backton cross would be airing this film. So does this mean Bob is into physical media?

“If he were invited into the criteria and closet, what other films do you think he'd grab?”

What do we think he was doing? Did he have a VHS tape? Was he watching TCM? I think so. You think?

I mean, they like really, it was like tucked in for the afternoon. Yeah. You know, where he was like, this is what I'm doing today. I'm watching the Battle of Algiers in the middle of the afternoon. In the evening time, I guess his daughter went off to the day after the time to chill.

Yeah. It's still, it's still dusk. For 30. Probably five, 30 because it's springtime. No one's wearing winter coats.

So it's getting a little bit later in the day, but it's not like a 9 p.m. start for school. Are you feeling what the illiterate savings by the way? I'm thrilled. I went outside at 7.30 yesterday to take the trash out. And just like almost started crying.

I'm happy. I'm happy with it. It smells so good. It's, I love it. Um, this is a two-part question.

Yeah. And I'm going to let you have part two. Okay. But I'm going to take part one. Great.

Does this mean Bob is a difficult media fan? He does not have a phone. This guy is not investing in plastic. He has like a wash up. No.

He's just, he does not know about like international, like region free, whatever. He doesn't even believe in borders, like, not investing. He's watching this on TCM. No. Not a collector.

That's nice. And also, are you. Incorrect. If you want, he's a, he's a, he's a wash up. He's a loser.

Do you want him? Like in your army? Fuck yeah. Okay. Bob Ferguson.

Of the French 75. He's got a good heart. Get a pat. I'm rooting for him. But I just, I feel like.

First of all, is he like all on the internet?

Checking out new releases, does he know about all? No. No. No. He has his old favorites.

He's nice.

“And that's why if you were invited to the criteria.”

Was it? Yes. He would do wonderfully. That's, that's why I said you can answer part two. Because he's watching TCM.

He has taste. He's just not like hoarding plastic. In the preceding scene, we hear him talking to his daughter who could not give less of a day about recording with his band, the old band. Sure.

And he's out. And he's getting that tube sound from the silly Dan record. This is an analog King. This is a guy. This is also a place is into vinyl.

Well, yeah. Cannot remember anything. And it's also watching the Battle of Algiers. Like 530 PM because he's lost contact with the rest of the world. And he has nothing going on.

I know. It's so fucking relatable. You know where you're just like you just talking to a cinema classic on an afternoon. If you send your daughter out for the evening. Yeah.

No, he does. And Bob is not having a letter box. Bob is not. No, he does. And Bob is not.

He's not into physical media.

“But I think he would have a lovely time.”

And some very interesting picks in the criteria and closet. So now you you made dreamcast. I've made five criterion closet selections on Bob's behalf. Whether he owns these discs, laser discs, VHS, DVD, blue ray, 4k. We don't know.

Probably not. Bob isn't into ownership. That's a very true. That's true. But the great works must be celebrated even in a socialistic experience.

We still we support. Listen, I believe I believe in film preservation. Okay. I just don't believe that like you are the only person preserving film. You know what I'm saying?

No, but I have a voice. Sure. And I'm using that voice to proclaim. That's great. You are making capitalism work for you.

Well, that's very true. And you know what? Hopefully sending a positive message in doing this. And any are supporting the work of other people who actually do this. That's where you are crazy person with a garage full of plastic.

I am a creator. The five films that he would either pull from the criterion closet, or maybe he hasn't his status as follows. And all of these movies are in the closet, and I would recommend all of them. It's actually technically, I chose seven movies because he's pulling a box set off

the shelf. One is Jean Pierre Melville's Army of Shadows.

Nice little pairing about the paranoia of living in a revolutionary moment.

Jean Pierre Melville, one of the great filmmakers about war and espionage and subterranean societies. Number two paths of glory Stanley Kubrick's classic about living in ethical rejection of awful fascism. Three revolutionary films by Usman Semen, the African filmmaker.

Those films are Amitis Zala and Sedo. All three of those movies are amazing and unseen. Steven Zordberg's Chey. Yeah. That big, I don't know, but that box tells me.

Yeah. Great film. Sorry, but he's so del Toro. Of course. Does the film Chey exist in the one battle after another universe because Benicio del Toro

is in it, but so is Sensei. Sensei is also in it. Well, Sensei is in Bob's universe, so does Chey exist.

Interesting. You know, is it like Lou Diamond Phillips in Chey?

“I'm trying to think of other in the universe, what else exists?”

Probably it exists. And it's just a guy who looks a lot like Sensei. OK. But here's my question. We're just saying, just look like Benicio del Toro.

Is that the thing? Yeah. OK. Here's my question.

What is Bob's second favorite Steven Soderberg film?

Full frontal. What do you think it is? Let's see. The limey. You could see.

Yeah. You know? Tell them I'm fucking coming. Yeah. Although, Terence Stamp in that movie has really has more Sean Penn vibes from one

battle. Well, Sherby, you got to know your enemy. Good point. Good point. Number five, eraserhead, right?

Good girl dad movie. You know, and just like Guy figuring out what it means to be a father, the absolute abject

terror of bringing life into this world and having to protect it.

Yeah. What we're doing every day. We are doing that every day. Thank you, Bob. Thank you for that question.

Thank you, Paul. I didn't move this question up. Why did you send by Paul Thomas Anderson? That is correct. Okay.

Thanks, Paul.

“You think you would go for shortcuts in film in the PTA world?”

Bob is like a real kind of single issue voter. I would say, you know, it doesn't really, he's kind of in the revolution and not much else. And I guess steely Dan, but we don't know a whole lot about him. I'd love to know what's on his, what's on his nightstand?

You think he's doing a lot of reading like anarchist cookbook? Well, I definitely know the he has a Kindle, you know? No. So I don't know. How does Bob make money?

Well, I don't know, but we don't know that. Which means that we don't, where does the money come from to buy the DVDs? Sorry. I don't know. I don't know.

I think it might just be VHS tapes. Okay. I think he might just be rocking. I gotta go back and look at that scene. Okay.

I need to see that scene for a ninth time.

Just a wonderful question, incredible way to start this.

My physical media, that's my message to everyone watching right now in Netflix. What's the next question? Next question comes from Thomas. Frequently, we hear someone affectionately referred to a modern movie as something that feels like a 70s movie.

In my heart, I know what that means.

“If you had to describe a 2020s film, what would that mean to you?”

What do you think of this question? You feel that we know the character of the films that are happening right now, where do we need more space to determine that? I guess we know some of the visual signifiers and some of the mood. And I think when we say it feels like a real 70s film, sometimes that means the subject

matter or the performance or, you know, or the style of direction, but it can often mean that someone's just like ripping off Gordon Willis, and, and that's good. By the way, you know, all good art is, you know, great art is steel. So at this point, we have a sense of what it's going to look like. The tricky part is that all the examples of what we consider to be like good films made

in the 2020s, we often compare to 70s films. And so I think our definition of 2020s would be just because of subtraction, like negative. Yes. Which is unfair. Yes, there are, but if I had to think of examples of like new cinema, like visually, that

I think is genuinely, really exciting, I don't know, I mean, maybe that's reflection of me that I am, I am, you're in for the traditional. Yeah, I think like the signature movies of the century so far is probably in some order, top gun maverick, barbie, everything everywhere, all at once, up in Hymer, you know? Right.

You know, I'm sure there's a few others that you could throw in there, but just kind of off the top of my head, those are movies, and they're, they're all different, right? They're, those are mostly franchise stories, they're pretty heavyweight. This is, this is a very American focused point of view, obviously. I don't mean that those are the best movies, I don't mean that they're the most successful

movies. There's kind of somewhere in between, they're kind of like, when you go back, when we get to 2030 and we look back at what this decade represented, I do think that there's something about spectacle and about fusing genres together, yeah, that has been pretty consistent. I think we're in a very, both a synthetic and a synthesis era where everything feels a

little bit more, like Barbie is a very kind of created world, right? Right. Everything I ever want is a very created world, it's a very hyper-stilized world. Oppenheimer, even, is a very stylized movie. It's not a gritty, realistic, naturalistic movie, I think, when you think of like all

the president's men or, you know, the cine, the met films from the 70s, those are very like on ground level, hard-bitten, naturalistic films in the way that they're shot and in their

Now, everything is sort of like, there's a kind of extra textual mania in every movie, you know, the mission impossible movies that have come out in the last seven years, minecraft, like these are these are kind of zany constructions, so I feel like that is a thing and I feel like that is very much the influence of the internet, yeah, in terms of people's attention spans and the stylistic things that we have seen on like Instagram, Vine, Twitter, Facebook,

all of these social media platforms over the last 15 years. I feel the influence there, I've personally been super excited by the YouTube influence on movies and I feel like it's really strong on horror and we're about to have this stretch this year where you've got back rooms and obsession and pilot or ballroom, it's skintimerink has another movie coming out and there's like all of these new filmmakers, I know,

I know, the Chris Ryan Voice, but I like that there is, there's like some, there's like some peanut butter getting in the chocolate right now that is kind of messing with what a movie is a lot to look like on a big screen that I like, but for the most part, I'm going to agree with what I'm saying about the big movies and what their character is. Yeah, I'm both the, like the hyper production, the spectacle of it all and also as you said

that essentially the meme or the one shot influence reflected back into the movies and we know that this is going to be like parceled out, image by image, so people are really kind of

West Andersoning out, but in very specific ways and that's, you know, that's not always bad

“thing, I liked most of the movies that you just mentioned. The other thing I think about and this”

is sort of related to the YouTube of it all, but just screens and you know, very obviously like phones in movies and how that affects on a plot sense, but I mean more in terms of when you see people on their phones or you see the text messages, you see surveillance footage, you see, you know, monitors in like situation rooms, all sorts of just like the presence, you see recreations of YouTube and TikTok, all the ways that we spend our time looking at screens other than a movie screen

now have to be reflected back into the movies themselves and sometimes that's done in an interesting way, sometimes it's done in an absolutely vial way, but the the movies visually trying to get their arms around the internet and all of the ways we're projected around ourselves all the time is certainly a visual signature. I agree, I feel like there's some filmmakers really have their arms around it, part-time look in particular, like as I don't really

nice job with that. Well, was there was this Soderberg series that was on HBO a couple of years

“ago, it was a mini series that Ed Solomon wrote, I can't remember the name of it at the moment,”

was it full circle, something like that? Not mosaic, yeah, maybe no, maybe it wasn't mosaic, maybe there was another one that was actually the Sharon Stone one, that wasn't the one I'm thinking of. Full circle sounds yeah, full circle. Yeah, that also I think had an interest in this and this kind of idea of surveillance and in that way, it kind of mimics the 70s and the sense of paranoia right that you'd find in films like the conversation and I can feel that coming in a little bit in mainstream

movies not really in blockbusters. It's a little bit more like in that second tier of size of film, but there's definitely some some of the anxiety of the world is creeping in. I mean, we talked about a little bit with even just the Academy Award nominees this year, secret agent, one battle centers, these are all movies about kind of like one group coming in to take over another group and doing it in subterranean ways, but I think there's also just a little bit of a nostalgia

“porn pre-branded thing that is essential to it too. Like F1 is another movie that I think will be”

if not memorable like notable in the in the chain of big movies over the last 10 years and that movie is kind of like a big hash of other stuff and some of it works really well and some

of it doesn't work as well, but you never watch a movie and think like never seen this before.

Yeah, like I've never seen racing like that before, but I've seen race car movies. I've seen old guys still got it movies, you know, I've seen reinventions of that, you know, hero dynamic, like all of that seems very familiar. So it feels like Hollywood is kind of figuring trying to figure out like what people want and the only time when it really works is when someone truly original comes along and it's like I have an idea, you know? Yeah, Jordan Pill comes along and he's like I got something

or Daniels are like we're gonna try something. Like that is when things really shake a little. Hopefully that keeps happening. What's next? Before our next question, just want to let you know, we probably have already 15 advice questions

to which I've put at the bottom of the run now. Wow. Wow. Okay. Incredible. Thank you guys.

let's flip the classic desert island question around instead of what movie you'd bring, what movie would you force each other to have as their only option with the idea being they can't leave

“the island until they finally get it? Double worst part of it. Easy. Is it that I don't get it?”

Yeah. I don't get it. I don't get it. I'm your resistant to it as well. You don't want to get it, you know? And it's a good movie. On a desert island, I think it could really click for you. I, you want me to believe it is a five-star masterpiece and you think repeated viewing will reveal that. You don't think I'll turn against it by being exposed to it so often, because I have, I don't have negative feelings towards it. I don't think that you value it.

I see. And by definition, this would make you value it in the sense that it's something for you to, you can see only thing you have. Also, Bill's point since, you know, you go to Paris, you get it makeover from York, King Colibar. Tell you something, double as proud and not available in 4K. Okay. What's going on there? Uh, I don't know. Maybe those people are just spending their money on other things, like clothes like Prada. They probably are. The divorce product,

two trailer ran before hoppers. Curious, I would say based on the audience in my movie theater. And Alice was like, what's this? I will let her know. Okay. We'll take her and we will find out

together. Um, first of all, just a few words on survival 50. Yeah. Loving it so far. Uh, I think

the three hour premiere was an active evil. And I don't support that just making any episode of television three hours is not okay. However, um, just loves seeing all my old friends together again

“on an island. That's nice. Just fighting it out. It's a wonderful show. You should get involved.”

Has anyone been sent home? Oh, certainly. Yeah. Well, we've had two tribal councils and one injury evacuation, thus far. Oh, no, some poor guy who is a great player named Kyle. Um, I believe you ruptured his Achilles in full, which is not what you want. No, it was one of those things where they showed it. And at in real time with lots of happened. No, no, no, no, no, no. No, it was like watching sports. Right. You know, you knew immediately it was as Achilles. That was, it was very tough. Uh,

wonderful. For me, just in keeping with the same rainy thing, I think I'll just give you evil dead to and you can just sit with it. And you can look at the craft and the creativity, the relationship to send them a history that it has, uh, the wonders of Bruce Campbell's chin. There's so much also Bruce Campbell diagnosed with, uh, a treatable, but not curable cancer he announced last week. I want to send my love to him, one of my all-time favorite actors. That was very sad.

Evil dead, too. Just fucking banger. Banger. Okay. I, I, I can appreciate craft. What's your preferred format on a desert island? Streaming? Uh, Sue, am I building my own theater? Or does him like, okay, is my preferred is the send help island? Or can we like, you know, airlift in a full

“couch? And not sure that's how it's going to work. Okay. How would you, remind me, you,”

you would do well on the send help environment? No, no, no, no. Because first of all, I haven't watched

survivor. Okay. So when we saw send help, you kept, you know, turning me and being like, this is like, they do on survivor and they do this on survivor. And then afterwards, I was asking you, so like, which skills did you recognize from survivor? I'm like, do you, and you have some practical knowledge? I guess I don't think I do very well. I would know to like, I need to build a shelter. I need to stay out of this, the sun. Um, I could build the shelter. I have some

concerns about fire. I mean, also spoiler alert for send help. I guess, but you know, if I had the knowledge that Rachel Mike Adams's character has and send help, I'd be great. We'll sure. That's that's called cheating. Um, okay. What's the next question? Our next question comes from Drew with the Warner Bros. merger. I've been wondering, why don't industry giants like Apple or Disney go after this story studio and all it has to offer? I feel like they've got more than enough

money and power to obtain it, so I don't get why they never threw their hat in the ring.

I actually invited Tim Cook and Bob. I was going to say, um, I actually did just get my advanced degree in like debt load management. And so I'm able to explain Disney's balance sheet to you in like great detail. Uh, Disney. I mean, Disney's just now digging out of the box debt, so they were never really under consideration. And they have enough of their own stuff that they don't actually need it to compete. I'll tell you what, there was a lot of talking about game over

if the Netflix seal went through if Disney bought Warner Bros. That would really be IP game over, then they would really have the complete war chest of valuable franchises. I don't think Disney was ever on the table. Um, and particularly because they're bringing in a parks chief to know run their content business, which I think should tell you a little bit something about how they intend to monetize over the next 10 years. Apple, we did we talk about Apple as like, you might

have been offline where we were just like, couldn't just be Apple and make this a little bit

we were at least talking about, you know, Apple has it or has had a distribution deal with a

24 in the past. And it was always ruined. Maybe that was what we were talking about. Yeah,

it was maybe rumored, but that like has never really happened. And it's just sort of unclear what Apple

“wants. Uh, I think they are enjoying just kind of journeying up their own stuff. Yeah. You know,”

like they feel very proud of the F1 thing. I think their movie and TV strategy has been like a little hit or miss, but it's kind of hard to just start from nothing. Um, and they have built out like a very credible slate. And you go to Apple TV now. And you're like, there's a lot to watch here. There's a lot of shows. There's a lot of original films. There's a lot of kids content. And five years. And they can just keep doing it because it's a drop in the bucket for them, right? And I don't,

you know, I'm very curious to see where they go with movies. I wish that they were throwing more behind theatrical movies because I think they could end up doing really good business. And it even taking an L would not be that big of a deal for them. But some of it is just reputational on what can be seen as far as acquiring. I mean, they've been very persistent. Actually, I think Eddie Q was on the town last year. Vement that he was not that they were not going to pursue Warner Bros.

So it was never really under consideration. Could they afford it? Yeah. They would be a big

they would be doing it just to get the IP 2, right? I mean, what? Like, yeah, but then it's like, what are they going to use the IP for? It sort of seems like they're not a distraction from, you know, I'll, here's what I think you would be. They don't need to sell Mickey Mouse for Batman branded iPads, you know, like they just have iPads. They, they, they, I think it would be not for the tech and the hardware. I think it would probably be a big experiential shift where they would actually

start exploring theme parks. They would start exploring different lines of business that are much more experiential one to one person to person in the real world, which they don't really do. Yeah.

“And that's just a totally different kind of a business and you have to build up a whole infrastructure”

to do that. That's the one thing with Warner Brothers. And there's, there was talk, even one of the studio lots being transformed in a kind of like an experiential playground for people who love movies to use shows to paramount a lot. And then they would move to Warner, but there's some centrality there with there's Netflix working. Yeah. So I don't know that would work. But if they wanted to get involved in that business in addition to being able to just have Batman and Harry Potter,

I guess I could see that. And also HBO obviously just matches very neatly with Apple. What Apple TV has been. Correct. You know, like just totally the vibe of the shows even some of the administration and people like Richard Plepler advising on Apple content. So that it would make sense. They just, they didn't want to do it. Yeah. So they didn't do it. You know what I was wondering about the other day related to Apple? Whatever happened to the vision pro vision pro. I was thinking

about it because I went to the eyed doctor and was basically given a vision pro to do a test.

Good version of AI. Yeah. The fancy eye doctor. And then that's it's our local eye doctor. I recommend them. Okay. And then I was like, and then I was like, oh, I haven't seen or heard from those things in actual years. I mean, I remember it because that was another like not quite experiential, but at their version of experiential, right? And also trying to merge in with video games, streaming, whatever. And that just didn't happen. It didn't happen. I tested one out. The only person I know

who actually bought one, and he enjoyed it. I watched some of a movie and an a really unique, kind of baseball game experience with the headset. And I thought it was very cool. I can't imagine wearing a headset for hours on end. That's just not something that seems fun to me. Yeah. And it is, you know, I just rewatch ready player one to prepare for this Steven Stewart conversation that I'm having

“later this week. And you know, that movie, which I think is pretty cool actually in a little bit”

misunderstood, is about the hellscape of like plugging yourself in and not unplugging. And so I think that there was some wisdom. Yeah. But I just, I thought of it because their version of experiential is still gadget based because that's ultimately what they are. They are, you know. And the most recent iteration didn't work, but I do still think their business aim is to release another product that they can sell rather than, you know, a Batman theme park. I think you're right.

What's the next question? Next question comes from Skyler. My question is related to a comment Amanda made in the alternative Oscars episode about how she visits the Rebecca Ferguson death bridge every time she is in Venice. I mean, it's bent twice, but it is true. Every time. Every time my voice here too. My question is simple. Is Venice the greatest film location in the world, if not what is. I don't know. I mean, Paris, New York. It's New York for me. Yeah. But that's,

you know, I've got some biases there. I just, like, I just want to put Paris in as a European look, like Asian, they've done good work. Absolutely. You know, no question about it. The light, just right.

Mission Impossible Bridge. Venice, yeah, yeah. Dead reckoning bridge. Let's see the bridge of hold on. You got the size. Hang in there, Mala. But S, I see S, I G, H, S, not, C, Y, size, like, like, like, like, I, I G, H, S. Yes. The bridge of size. Apparently. Wow. That's traumatic. That was not what I was expecting. I mean, this is an AI, thanks. I was expecting, like, mozzarella, a multiple G, I don't know. I, you know, that is not respectful of the, of the Italian people.

Who is this? Are we on Netflix right now? I'm not just going out. Why? Yeah, I don't know. Let's see. Now I'm looking on Reddit and I don't, I don't know. Some people just talk in about their opinions of this scene, which they didn't like. So we're going to go with Bridge of size, which apparently also Lord Byron wrote about again. This is an AI answer. So it's wrong, most likely. There are a lot of bridges in Venice. So, but there's a little bit of a crowd when I'm very, usually. I have not been

“to Venice before. Yeah. I can't say how it matches specifically. I think Rome, speaking of Italy,”

is also a wonderful movie location. Rome. Dynamite. Love, go, love, Rome. This is, had a wonderful time there. London is not bad. London is interesting. You know, we can just name Lord Sidney's Chicago is a fine city. You know, I think Oslo. I enjoy Oslo. Have you been to Oslo? No. Okay. But I enjoyed the cinema. No, I'm just thinking of all of the places where Bond did opening sequences. So Mexico City, that's a really good one. Yes, I love Mexico City. Let's see.

I mean, we haven't said Los Angeles for a minute. I was just about to say that, took about a dozen. It was. It was. And then they stopped letting us shoot movies here. You know, I, I'm dramatically over-rate crime 101, because I'm like, I know what that is. That's very rare to be able to look at a movie and say, I know what that is in 2026. I don't know, I got to get to Venice one of these days. Once I can be. I don't know whether it'll be the Sierra, but it won't be. I won't be

“going to Venice. Okay. Maybe one here. It's great. Okay. What's the next question?”

Next question comes from Tim. What is a movie you objectively know is flawed, messy, and maybe even chaotic, but you still defend with your whole heart? This comes right on the heels of the bride absolutely tanking at the box office. Like, far worse than anyone could have

imagined. I think it was tracking for between $12 and $18 million on Thursday and it finished

$7 million. You know it's bad when just Jared does its Instagram card and says, it's bad news for the bride at the box office and it was like, "Damn." Even just Jared is getting in on the bride. They're not regularly doing box office criticism. Yeah. It's a very dramatic underperformance for that film. I skipped this question and my prep and it was like, I'll come back to it if I forgot. So you gotta go first. Well, anytime people like, it's flawed. It's messy, but like, you know,

it's perfect. Like, no, to me, it is perfect. Therefore, it's not flawed. Well, and that was actually at the center of me with the love actual cards. To me, it is perfect. That's like, I think that I really cotton to a kind of scene. I went for it kind of a movie that doesn't totally come together. I really have a real like sentimentality about those kinds of movies. It's why I was defending the bride and pretty much enjoyed my experience watching it while also acknowledging it has a lot of

problems. And we talked about Mickey 17. We talked about Babylon. We talked about these movies.

Here comes the mother fucking bride. I realized, let's always fall asleep last night that I didn't

say that on our podcast. But that's really all the things that she says. That's how she ends the prologue. And then it says the bride. And I liked the typeface, like the fun that they used. That's my one nice thing. Very good about the bride. There's a somewhat similar question to this about like disasters. It will get to in a minute. It feels like they kind of feel intertwined because I don't know. You know, like my easy answer for this is always Congo, which is like the

dumbest movie of all time that I think is a five star class. Well, I was about to say triple frontier. Yeah. That's pretty good. I mean, it's a chaotic. I don't know. They're just like, I'm the side of a mountain for a while. I'm not really sure about any of the choices that Bedaflex make game.

“But that's just like, and I think Charlie Hanam like, has a breakdown in a publics, you know?”

I know. So relatable. Holy shit. You haven't been to a publics? I have. Yeah. Okay. You don't need to say it like that. That's fine. How did I say it? Well, you were just like, I, that's the thing that you people in the South have and we don't really care about it. That's a little bit too dismissive. You know, the shopping, the supermarket that I think of most when it comes to the South is

food line. Oh, yeah. This is food line when I would visit North Carolina. Oh, yeah. We would always

Food line still kicking around. I hope so. Okay. Cool. You know what was a lead going to college in Ithaca was wagmans and wagmans is kind of spread now. I've heard a lot about wagmans still

have never been. What I, wagmans check. It's where I first purchased alcohol under the age of 21 with a fake ID.

This is Sanders lore. I love it. I would really like to go to wagmans because I really like grocery stores and I like grocery store like, you know, tourism. Sure. But I just, I've never made it to a wagmans. I feel like it is expanding. And it was the first, it was, I don't know if it predates Whole Foods entirely, but it was the first time where I was like, this is a lot of fucking grocery store. Yeah. Like there are a lot of places to being 18 and just being like,

I'll just buy every bad junk food that I was not allowed to eat as a kid in my mom's house.

“Thrilling experience. Anyway, I don't know how we got here. What's the next question?”

Next question comes from Thomas. What are some upcoming titles that you hope will be world

premiering at this year's Cannes Film Festival? Should we make an announcement? Sure.

We're booked for Cannes. It's happening. Cannes 2026. Sean and Amanda. We're going. We're going. We're going. We have a place to stay. I got a submit that expense report. Not a good reminder. Thanks so much. And I have some outfit concepts as to you. So I'm pretty excited. I am excited. I'm a little nervous. Why? Because this is kind of the last mountain to scale in terms of life. And you don't feel you'll be like good enough? Well, I just don't know what to expect.

It's a lot. It's a very long festival. That is a well-tested festival. I want to do a good job being at the festival. But just given what our job is, it's not really coherent for us to be out for 13 days. So I'm trying to figure out how we can pull that off. And I want to see as much as possible.

Like that's my disease, right? It's trying to knock everything off the list. And that's not totally

achievable it can. So I want to just play this properly. Well, it's very different from what I understand tell you right to be, which is just everyone convenes together for three days and does trust falls and then like we just see films. That's not what it's like to continue. And I'm assuming that this is a little bit more like Venice. It is also a ticket. Like Venice. So I look forward to us up at like 1 a.m. on the French ticketing website. But you'll be able to see a lot. You do also

bless you. You don't have to file reviews three times a day. I don't, but I want to try to find a way to cover it. Which is realish time. Yes. You know, like realish. But that is different than having to

“go to three press conferences. No doubt. So I think you'll be able to see a lot. You're right. We're”

very lucky in terms of the way that we cover the movies and cover the festivals. I'm really grateful that we've been able to figure that out in the way that we have. And I don't want to spoil actually what I think is usually a very fun episode where we convene to talk about what we've seen. And I think we should also divide and conquer a little bit too. Like we should definitely see some stuff that I can't make in vice versa. But there's a lot of potentially great stuff this year.

I don't know if there's anything on the like, I don't you know, they're like killers of the flower moon level. No, I don't know that that's sort of like, it would be my hope and dream to see a world premiere of blank blank or even the year of Megalapolis and Horizon. And a lot of other things that turned out to be fairly disastrous. Right. I'll read just misfire. But we're historic. Yeah. See, that's a really good answer to the previous question. Like Horizon is like kind of a

mess, but I enjoyed it. Megalapolis is a kind of a mess, but I really need to revisit it because I didn't

“like it very much. So what is Kevin Costner doing opening zero bond in Las Vegas? What is zero bond?”

That's just the new, listen, he was just at a club opening with Tom Brady and Alex Earl. Wow. This week. That's exciting. I have some, they really need to get that horizon money back. Okay. So Alex Earl and Tom Brady, that's officially happening. They've been seeing a lot of the same places. Yeah. I can. We did go through this a bit in January in terms of what we thought could happen, but here's the list that I made. Yeah. Tell me if you have additions and the other thoughts

the adventures of Cliff Booth. Netflix doesn't premiere movies there. So I assume that's not going to happen. Yeah. But it's QT and venture. Well, it's the summer. Is the release? It is the summer. And it's not like September 15th. And which we're technically the definition of summer. We don't know either. I don't know. It's not Netflix. We don't know shit. I also don't have any information. So I'm not pretending like I do. I have not talked to go into about it. I don't know. I think your

adventure has history of Venice. Yes. And Netflix is very, very Venice forward. So if they want to do something splash. Yes. But this would be my number one. Oh, sure, our kidding. That would be

for seven consecutive years. Some people seem to think this could be the year. I think April 9th is the announcement date. So we have a full month till we find out what's coming. Jack of Spades, the new Joel Cohen movie, which I think I took in the auction. That sounds right. Nicholas winning reference her private hell will almost certainly be there. CR come to can. Yeah. That is,

“you think Chris is watching right now? On Netflix. Yeah. I think he has to make his own podcast, right?”

I will, they're usually wrapped by now. Let's true. I will say the last time we know, but the last time we went live, like I heard from a lot of friends and loved ones by a text message, just noting that everyone's silent right now. So it's a good point. Would you, would you say you have a lot of friends and loved ones? He depends on the day. That's exactly how I feel. Don't me all feel that way. Isn't that the mystery of life? Yeah. You know, sometimes you're so alone.

And sometimes we're so together. Disclosure day, perhaps. I'd love it. The new Steven Spielberg film, which I think it'll only come out maybe three weeks or four weeks after cans. That seems definitely possible. Okay. Spielberg has premiered five films out of competition. I think he is

only competed for the Pondor one time. And it was for his first theatrical feature film,

the Sugarland Express. I've been doing a lot of Steven's music. Yeah. I'm excited. I'm excited for her disclosure day too. Oh, I'm also excited for you to talk to Steven Spielberg. Oh, yeah. I'm nervous.

“Digger? I think that's a Venice. I think you're right. The entertainment system is down.”

Ruben Osseln's new film. This to me, he's, you know, the Prince of Cane. So that seems like an operator. Also, that means that once again, Kirsten Dunstan, I would be sharing the same air. Yeah. How do we do you guys should get her socially? I don't know. And I really don't want to force it. Right? Because what if I pursue? I have some contact. She's genuinely cool. So she's not. I don't want to be like, hey, this person wants to be your friend. The one time I'm about her,

she's great. We just talked about kid stuff. So she's lovely, but we don't know, hate this person wants to be your friend. No one, that you can't be intro that way. Well, I know. I feel like you guys would get along great as something as well. But like, with any of the fake, the Hollywood bullshit set up is just not going to work. Okay. You know? Okay. So I got to, I got to think smart. Do you like her because she's real talk central, just like you?

She's like, we're just cutting through it. It's really like, okay. Let me get that. That's nice.

“Do you think she has many loved ones in friends? I think she does. I think she does too.”

'Cause she doesn't need any more. Okay. A paper tiger. James Gray's new movie. I hope so. Speaking of big and friends. I don't want to ask him. Shame on you right now. James is watching on Netflix. Probably not because you have Netflix. We should talk about that. 1949, Pablo Pablo Cowsky's new movie. This would be really fun.

There's a naturally a bunch of very exciting potential international films. Fjord also with Renata Rainsva. And oh my gosh. What is Bucky Barnes's name? Sebastian Stan. Thank you. Hope Nohong Jen's new movie. I haven't seen the wailing in like 10 years. I'm just going to rewatch the wailing before can.

Just in case this movie is playing there. Albert Sarah's out of this world, which is starring Riley Kio. His first English language work.

I'm pretty excited about is there anything else that you're thinking about that could be there? I mean, I think you took the big lens. You think men don't grow go we'll do a add-accompetition. You're going to see it. That's the real challenge. And how am I going to see it with my child? I mean, it's fine. Chris Ryan's taking him as he knows. He says he's not seeing the film. Then I told him that he will be seeing it with Knox. It will be so locked in. Who's so excited.

He has so many questions. And maybe Joanna and Mallory who have become kind of my, like, like, ask Gives. But instead, it's ask out of our questions about the Mandalorian. Interesting how you think of them as service people and not loved ones or friends. They're lovely. But when Knox asked me is Grow Goon animal or a human at 530 on a Thursday. What am I supposed to do? And then he follows up with can you ask the director? That's actually I'm like, I don't know. I can't. But these

people know they're close enough. Okay. So we'll ask Mallory and Joanna. I never had John Fattler on the

pod. Should I pursue that? I guess that. Oh, Knox has been a fan of John Fattler. I don't really, you know, his career has taken a turn that wouldn't be my first choice. But you know, that those early stretch of the swingers story was, I contact me. One of the first screenplays I ever bought was John Fattler, a screenplay for swingers. How am I? It's a little personal. Maybe he'll be in can for the out of, you know, out of competition screening. And we can all see it

together. I think he's pumped for a fjord. You don't know him. You don't know. I don't. I know he loads movies. Yeah. I hope he likes fjord. Any other thoughts on can you're excited? I'd like to go to the

How are you on C? Fine, I'm from one hour. You're never ever sick at C. No. Okay. Then we'd like to go on

“a boat. I didn't say I wanted it. And if you want to out there, you're going to be a can. Let us know.”

Are there movies playing there? That's the thing I'm most excited about. Mornings are for movies. Then the evenings are for boats. Is that how it works? I would hope that, I mean, I'm just basing this on the Venice of it all, but that all of the, you know, the big movies at least get press screenings in the morning. So then you could do the press conference. And then they have like the premiere later at night. That's what I would assume. Do you feel that you'd like to go to press

screenings or premieres? Press screenings as much as I can. I mean, it would be fun to do one premiere, you know, and just see all the hoopla. But it's inefficient. I see. Good question. Thank you for asking. All right, Jack. What's up? Next question comes from Brandon. Every March, especially after the Oscars happen, I like to watch a bunch of baseball movies in the lead up to opening day.

“What are your favorite garbage sports movies and why don't we get them anymore?”

Opening day at my house on Saturday. Yes, little league has gone. That's right. I saw the Instagram clip on the very side of the middle. Yes. There we go. Um, this is a nice tradition. I like baseball movies. I like sports movies. These are important to my childhood. Like bad movies about sports that aren't regularly broadcast on American television. I have a bunch of these as well. I didn't write mine down. Um, I will just say they don't happen anymore because audiences don't

show up for them. And that this was like stock and trade Disney strategy for 30 plus years that almost every year without fail, there would be a new kind of like high concept low execution movie four nine year olds about sports. And you've listed some of them here. Others not listed include like the little giants, for example. The angels in the outfield. Yeah. There were a lot of movies that were like that when I was, you know, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, where you could kind of count

on them at all times. And there was definitely a generation, our generation had our stretch of these. And they, I think that they really carried on and extended to people who were in there like 30s, even their 20s. And now it feels like if you're like 15, what are the sports movies of your life? Like, Creed? I mean, warrior, you know, like, what are Creed would be great if the if the youth are embracing Creed? Yeah. The way back. I mean, that would be exciting. I do remember taking

F1 or a little as cousin Max on Thanksgiving to Creed to high max if you're listening. And it's the lights went down. He said, so what happened in Creed one? So I don't think that, you know, that generation 18 ish is embracing Max. Listen to the show. Meet sometimes, but listen, he's in college. She's got a lot of obligations. What makes you more concerned, loved ones of which you have many lives out to the show or famous people that you've

heard, listen to the show. Because we've now heard some some prominent famous people are listening. No famous people or no people who work in cinema should have listened to this podcast. Okay. Why?

Because they know things. So like they first of all, they know where they know all the secrets.

But like they know how things work. And this is, this is not, this is a, this is a fan thing.

“This is a celebration. You know, I think there should be some, would you say this is a fan dumb podcast?”

No, because I think we're often too mean, but I also don't really feel that artists should read criticism of their work positive one. I'm going to disagree. I don't, I don't know how you can preserve that. Well, let's see. I think people would be themselves. And if they are neurotic and need to see that, yeah, feedback, I think they should. I think that obviously artists are different from people engaged in a commercial enterprise that passed to make money, which movies also are. And you kind of

do have to take some of that feedback. But no, I don't think filmmakers should be listening to what we have to say. I think you could just go and create. And there's listening. And there's listening. Right? Sure. But I don't know. We don't look like a camera. You know, so I listen, that's what I'm saying. So famous people a good job on everything you're doing. And I would say to you what I say to the rest of the job, I'll go outside. What are, what were your own

garbage sports movies? Cutting edge essential. Yeah. Just absolutely dynamite related, my detox.

The salmon is not garbage. But it's for children. I don't think any of these first three movies are garbage. I mean, they're garbage in the, in the, in the classical, like we love this. Edge ridden by Tony go right. Yeah. The sandlot is an A plus masterpiece. So is the next film bring it on, which is a straight up masterpiece. And is also about a competition cheerleading. Chairs of fire, which my parents tried to show me when I was like 10. And great, you know,

but also it won best picture over that's 1980, right? Yeah. So it won over raging bull. So

I don't know whether we can defend that. Well, no, no, it was ordinary people. Oh, that's right.

“So what did it win over? I think Chairs of fire is 84. 81. I love. Okay. Okay. And what is,”

what did it win over there? Well, I just Google Chairs of fire. So 1982, two Oscars, we got to really standardize this. Okay. It won over Reds. Yeah. That's for me. That's us. Yeah. And that was a split. 81 for directing. Anyway. I don't like that. It is really funny to follow people around who are running or exercising with the chariots of fire. Do you like the Van jealous, the theme? Yeah, of course. It's very beautiful. I run to it. No, but like sometimes when knocks is on the

playground. And I'm trying to get him to run somewhere. I played on my phone and then we run along. And it gets him from A to B. I'm going to tell you something. I've been preparing for the to live and die in LA. I rewatchables, which is recording immediately after this normal day for me. Congratulations. And I used to think that the 80's sucked. And I used to think that the pop music from the 80 was not was not interesting. And I didn't really like the cinema. I'm coming

around. Listen, Harold Faltamier, a god in our house. Wow. I don't know what I know nothing besides his music. So I don't and his contributions to cinema. So like in the event he has 10 people tied up in his basement. You don't like bring the politics to me. I don't know. I haven't done that with

that research. Yeah, powerful stuff. Okay. A couple of others. Wait, I'm getting the Wimbledon.

Speaking of kitchen. Wimbledon stinks, but okay. Excuse me. Tim Cupp. Yeah. That's more of your alley. So stinks. But whatever. Please stop. Molly's game. She was a competitive skier. That is garbage sports. I've ever seen it and watch a long garbage. That would be really good. That would be good. So fine. Yeah. Okay. No one watches those. But it would be good. Yeah. And then blue crush. Yeah. I don't know if I've seen that. That was, that was, that was, that was a thing. No, we were young.

Jack, blue crush ever heard of it. No. Yeah. Um, I mean, a few others like Miracle is just good. You know, like that's, but that's kind of in the same zone. Remember the titans is a famous version of this. Sure. This isn't a list of like good sports movies. It that those are mainstream sports movies. It means you're in garbage. Cool enough. Sure. Yeah. That's kind of the big green the soccer movie.

There we go. No, I never saw that one. You're kind of anti soccer aren't you? No. I'm a soccer

practice every Saturday, except what it's my turn to say home with the sleeping baby. Thunderstruck starring Kevin Durant. Haven't seen this. Came out like seven years. Darring Kevin Durant was still on the Oklahoma City Thunder. Thunderstruck is a plan words. And he's the star. He's the co-star along with a young boy. Um, but like how much screen time, like how much is the movie rest on Kevin Durant's shoulder. And that equipment, a teenage class becomes the star of his high school basketball team when

he magically acquires the abilities of his hero NBA star Kevin Durant. But the switch leaves Durant unable to score. Oh dear. It's kind of a body swap. Okay. With NBA. Did I haven't seen it? How did it turn out? What's the body swap movie is terrible? What's the body swap movie with

“Kirk Cameron and Dudley Moore? I think that's who. Who's like father like son?”

Yeah. Is that, is that it? Is it Doug? No. Is a judge Ryan hold with Kirk Cameron? What is this? Let's see. Uh, no. This is the father and son are switching lines in this. Yeah. Okay. Like father like son. Yeah. That movie is a banger. What's there? Is there a judge Ryan hold body swap movie too? I feel like there is. Yeah. Vice versa. Fuck. Yeah. Vice versa is actually the superior film. Okay. Vice versa is judge Ryan hold in Fred Savage and they body swap. Wow.

And it is fucking good. Let me tell you. Okay. We're talking about sports movies right now. How are we? Um, I said thunder struck. People were screaming at the TV. I mean, cry kid. Sure. But like, is that garbage? I guess it is. I don't know whether. I don't what's what's the definition of garbage here. And Ralph Machio, the proud of Long Island. Yeah. Thank you to Ralph. Noted met's fan. Okay. What's the next question? Next question comes from

Patrick from Ghana. What recent underseeing or underappreciated movies do you see becoming a cult classic in the future? What do you think about my theory of the

“holy Trinity of low wattage late 2010s early 2020s romcoms of Palm Springs plus one and set it up?”

These are good key attributes that they have. If not the next generation of movie stars, but like young stars, we really like Glen Powell, Andy Sandberg, Christina Melotti, Zoe Deutsch is the other and set it up and then plus one is Jack Quaid and my Erskine.

I feel like we should do a new romcom canon. Okay. I was thinking about this and I was like,

these are these other movies that I listed here. And I'm not saying these are the best answers ever. But I'm like, these already kind of have their own cults. They already had like instant cults because of the filmmaker who was attached to whatever. And I remember when set it up came out and set it up. It's like 2016. It's a long time ago. Yeah. But when it came out, I was like, what the hell is this? It was one of the only times I can remember in the last 10 years,

I was like, where did this come from? Who made this? Who's the idea was this? And probably because it was like based on Ireland. But you know, still there was something in it where I was like, how did this get over the line given what was happening in movies at that time? And I do feel that

the same vibe is in plus one in Palm Springs where it's like, yeah, it's dromity. There's like

real-world stakes, but it's kind of silly, you know, in Palm Springs, this case is more elevated because of the time travel concept. The tricky thing is that these are all direct to streaming. That's the other thing. Which there's been no shortage of direct to streaming romantic companies. Films and TV shows, but like a lot of movies in the last 10 years. Yes. Many of them starring our greatest former movie stars. And most of them like quite bad, but it does seem like the

high profile, not very good streamers, still get all of the like the attention and where things are

“where things are directed. Yeah, no, I think you're right. I think there's like, I think those three”

movies, I I listed are kind of like the hidden bridge to the kissing booth to all the boys I loved before the Colleen Hoover wave. Like, they're not those movies are not really that funny. They're much more in the sort of like romance kind of teen obsession. And the the other movies are more calm than rom. I would say. Yeah, no, like more vibey. I guess so they're just they're the best work I can come up with. They're their traditional rom goms where the people are like opposed and

at war until the very last moment when they like kiss and makeup. That's it. And so much about what's going on is the world that it's set up set in. We're like the premise. Palm Springs being like, oh, we're groundbreaking. Dang it, but at a wedding. Also, many of these two out of three wedding based. They both start at weddings. Do they end, they don't end at weddings. Plus, there's such a banger because it's a, it's a, it deploys this really, really well. I know, but your wedding rule is

would you like to stay there? If your film opens with a wedding good, if it ends with a wedding bad. Right. Palm Springs does end with a wedding, but it's not, well, it's kind of a continuous loop of wedding. Okay. So it's allowed. And the other things, those are just different genres. Like the kissing booth. It's the team thing, which is, which is very different. And the calling Hoover

“stuff is romance, weird, whatever. So I think part of the reasons that these work is because they are”

just really traditional structured rock. I agree. If they don't have a cult, I'd like to inspire well. Okay. Good idea. The rest of your list is good. So some other ideas I had for this pearl,

which I do think is basically a cold movie already. I think, you know, that the Thai West trilogy

is well known and well-covered, but like that movie in particular, I think has like a cosplay quality to it where people are just obsessed with that character. Bottoms? Just saw that Alex Russ Perry put a question in here. Yeah, I put it in there for him. Bottoms is great. Bottoms is great, but not, not super well seen. Yeah. But I think generationally well seen by a younger movie. And also has like, I would every, and Rachel Senate and Molly Gordon and...

Hi, Gerber. Yeah, like everybody, all the people who have then a whole generation. Yeah.

“Bo is afraid. Great movie. That, I think will be dramatically reclaimed in the next 10 years.”

Okay. Red rocket. Love it. Honestly, this is the one that I would have picked for all the Oscar Hoseannas for, for Sean. I feel like this is like maybe his best movie. Saltburn? Yeah, but it was also, it was reclaimed as soon as it hit Amazon Prime. It was watched. Was anybody like, this is actually good? I think a lot of young people. What do you think, Jack? I don't know if a lot of young people were saying it's good,

but I feel like it did penetrate like the Gen Z pot culture stream. Chris Ryan? He enjoyed it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, he identified it with a little bit more than any other Emerald Finnell. Final movie? Yes. That was your favorite of the three. Yeah. Okay. Betterman? We tried instantly. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Um, malignant. Have you seen malignant? No. Which one is that? Malignant is a good movie swap. Oh, MJ. Holy cow. Just look, look at the

log line. Actually, don't, don't question the movies. Okay. I did it. I looked at the poster in the night.

set aside the major franchises that I work on for one minute and just make this bonkers original

“horror movie and it's crazy. Yeah. I added a couple game night. I think it's there.”

I do think it's there, but it's like, we aren't, we aren't saying it out loud yet. Every single time it comes up. Everyone's like, oh, yeah. I remember how game night was the funniest movie

ever made and it still is. It was funny. The first time I saw it, it's funny on reworn. How can

that be profitable for free to lay? Oh, no, died. Which I realized when we saw sent help, I accidentally, I did that like in homage by accident. It was just kind of in my head. Yeah. So, challengers, I think, also. Yes, I'll hit, though. Sure. But a modest hit. Yeah. And then I was wondering whether Marty Supreme cuts for this. I think the last two were too big. And I think that there are great examples of a legitimate power of a handful of people who are

under the age of 35. Yeah. And we're doing 35 under 35 in April. And I'm excited for it. I'm a little concerned about it, given the like, some of the new audience we've discovered in

“the last two years. We haven't done this project in Alaska. Oh, I was thinking, I think you think”

all of it. A lot of haters come out for this episode. It's usually like a really controversial episode. So you think it's going to be, you mean that just because of the negativity or because we have young people who are going to be like, okay, Mama Dad. Both, you know, I think it kind of is coming in all directions. I mean, it's really good. Honestly, I like it when it's really noisy like that. But, you know, we had a debate about Margo versus Timothy Shalame. The last time

we did that episode. And you've held tightly to Margo. Yeah. Understandably because she was coming right off of Barbie. I think I was pushing for Timothy. But it was, once again, it's reflective of what they've done versus what they're going to do. So it's like, are we forecasting, where are we marking the moment in time? Because now, yes, you're right. It's Timmy. And did Margo Robby cross the 35th article? Yeah. She's not as well. So interesting. She's, oh, she's 35. She just turned 35. Yeah.

Okay. Uh, what's the next question? Next question comes from day. What would you like to see in the new X-Men movie coming from Jake Shire? PS, the outfits go hard Amanda. Thank you. Well, I want something that feels familiar, but new. Okay. I want the Chris Claremont era yellow and blue costumes. I want the classic team. I want Storm and Cyclops and Jean Gray and Wolverine and Beast and Professor Xavier and I want to see Rogue. I want to see some of the

like tier B characters, you know, Jubilee, Archangel, be interested in that. I want to see them fight Magneto. Okay. You know, I want to see like a classical X-Men story. And I don't want them to have to redo any of the stories they previously done. It would be interesting to see them try to do something brand new. That would be risky. Comic movies don't usually not use source material. I imagine they are because one, it like paths the fan on the head, you know, where they're like,

oh, good. You, the age of apocalypse. You like this, you know, dark Phoenix, you'll enjoy this. And it's also like because they're usually big epic stories. Very legible for Normie Amanda.

“That's pretty much it. I, you know, I think I could probably personally do”

12 consecutive episodes wish casting the like fan casting who should play the X-Men. Actually, I made an offer to the legendary news and deals text thread which includes the blank check guys and Alex Ross Perry and a few other friends where I'm like, if you guys are all in LA at the same

time, we will do an X-Men fan casting episode. But they'll never all be in LA at the same time.

So we'll never actually make that episode. What do you want from an X-Men movie? I'd like for you to be happy and I think I mean that both sincerely and also in the sense that I don't know if I can deal with the level of the breakdown. The fallout. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Because this, you know, this will make many waves. It's not just that this movie is bad, but they've just merged this legacy and then they, you know, killed a whole studio and lots of

people lost their jobs and all for what? For this? For an X-Men movie that does not, you know, make the X-Men man happy. So you nailed it, man. That's actually it. It's like when you boil

down the fox deal to its barest essential, it's bareest essential as X-Men. It's got another stuff,

right? We just talked about getting Conan and getting to do alien and predator and getting to do

Remember, if I don't want to talk about fantastic for it anyway, um, I think yeah,

there will be a crash out amongst Gen X millennial and Gen Z alike because X-Men is very, very sacred and very inspiring to young people who discover that comic book because it's a story about outcast people who are trying to find each other, found a family and favorite. But it actually literally is a fun to family. Yeah. And it's about figuring out like what makes you special instead of what makes you different. And that's a beautiful way of telling a story.

“I really think X-Men is very, very, um, intellectually deep in a way that is uncommon for, for a lot of”

comic books and also very legible for young kids. So I like it. After seeing Thunderbolts do you think Schrier has the right sensibility for the material? I do. I, you know, I think that movie is now maybe a bit underrated relative to what comic book movie has been since 2019, um, it by no means perfect. But I do think he, he has a background in YA and X-Men is YA, you know, it's about, it's about young kids going to school and figuring out their powers. I like that. I'm obviously

prefers Spider-Man to all the other. The kids, teens are the, the right entry point. Also sci can say Spider-Man

now, just so you know. So Batman, the problem is you can't have teen Wolverine. Why not?

This is just not a teenager. You know, like Logan, weapon X. He was like a man. Oh, I see. But the Adam and team in this body. Okay. And they don't time travel? They do time travel. Well, there you go. You want old, well, they did old Logan and younger X-Men, right? Didn't they already do that? No, you guys don't remember. There you go.

“Days of future past, right? Isn't that what happens in that? I'm fairly certain. That's what happens”

in that. Okay. Uh, do you know one? Is that the one where they go to Argentina or whatever? No idea which way. Anyone? Are you thinking about Michael Fassbender? Oh, that's first class. Yeah, that's okay. All right. They go to Argentina, no one. I don't know where they go somewhere. All right. What's the next question? That's a generous question. Thank you, Dave. Next question comes from Tom from England. On longer journeys, I have started downloading a

movie. I have seen many times and then play the audio only through my car speakers. If you were to do this, which movie would you choose? Probably network, because I can do network word for word. I was going to say a few good men. Another movie. I've memorized large chunks. Exactly. And also, you don't really need the visuals. Yeah. It's a lot of, there's not a lot of empty air. There's something to a movie that you can listen to. I shared this with you recently.

I don't think I said this on the show. I watched the movie "Nurmberg" on December 24th, 2025. Right. And here's why I did it. One of us obviously cramming for the

“year-in movies. I think "Nurmberg" is on Netflix. You haven't seen it yet? No, I keep forgetting.”

It's probably worth a chat at some point. You keep saying this, but then they're all these other movies. Can we put it on the movies we messed up, so? Yeah, that's great idea. I won't say anything about it, but here's how I watched it. I was building a five-foot-told doll house for my daughter. Spoiler alert Alice Santa is not real. She's not listening. So I'm building this doll house on Christmas Eve and it was in ornate complicated. It's quite impressive.

It is a very large episode. Does it close or is it? It's just kind of like the Tony Collette and hereditary. The miniatures are there. I couldn't really see the TV while I was building it.

Because it was so tall. But I had "Nurmberg" on. I found "Nurmberg" to be an amazing movie to

listen to. Because it's just people yelling at each other in rooms and overexplaning the state of the world. I'd want another. And so what I heard, I found it an enjoyable way to pass the time. When I was seven or eight, I got really into it. And we would drive a lot to see my grandparents lived in Tennessee and North Carolina. And so this was in the olden days before iPads kids and I would get books on tape. But what I liked was not just the narrated audiobook. They were like audio

place of Agatha Christie mysteries that the like I think it was the BBC. They're amazing. And they can still, you can get them on Libby or whatever. I really recommend them. But they had the same, you know, there were people do. It was kind of like a prey home companion. They had people doing sounds and people doing like enough of the theatrical interesting to set the vibe. And it was sort of like listening to a movie. They're great. I recommend that. But I guess you could also just

listen to Ms. Marple on without looking at it. Send me a related. Have you read "Cycho Matsumoto's Tokyo Express?" I don't think so. I mean was was I in this recently and it's a sort of an Agatha Christie-esque Japanese detective novel that apparently is very good. Oh no, I haven't read this. Okay,

Next question comes from Brandon. What is your most memorable movie theater experience ever?

“I vividly recall seeing there's something about Mary. Which I did with 10 friends.”

Oh, that's cute. And we were huge, huge, huge, fairly brothers and Jim Carrey and, you know, like super slapstick comedy fans. And I don't know if Buzz worked differently at that time in history, but the pre-release buzz on there's something about Mary, probably powered entirely by trailers and commercials was like this will be the funniest movie that ever touches your soul. And at the moment it was like it was, it was like going to see fucking

Led Zeppelin or something. Were you reading entertainment weekly, by then? I was. Yeah,

whether that's friends or whatever. Well, I probably was like the plug for all that stuff. Yeah. So, but then you started and then you're like, no, we really got it. We got to do this. It was pretty pretty electrifying. Got to be honest. I was a teenage boy living on Long Island, you know, what do you want? That's beautiful. I'm trying to think so. As a child, I remember going to see Clueless at Lennox Mall with my mother. I was 11, 10 turning 11. And just remember being like,

wow, I'm allowed to get to see something this quote unquote grown up and also movies can be like this. I also remember seeing a year later during a choir with my mother, which was a pretty scarring experience because of the sex scene. I remember seeing the American President with my

“dad multiple times in theaters. So that's sort of a, I think we saw it four times in theaters.”

Okay. Four times you both went together. Yeah. Wow. We just, we really liked it. That's very sweet. Well, yeah, he likes movies. That's when a centrist liberal America was still possible. 1995, that was the end of it. But so I guess 95 big movie here. Let's see. And then as a grown-up, I'm trying to think, I think a lot about the Irishman premiere. Oh, that was very cool. Yeah, which was great. At the Chinese theater in Hollywood and was like a big deal. And very fancy

and everyone was there. And then wound up being one of the last big premieres that we went to before COVID. So the great call. And I also just remember the end of that movie and in the still of the night, like playing through the Chinese, it really, really works. So, and then I remember taking my son in your son to sing it in the rain. And to your daughter to sing it in the rain. That video is a win-win. Where's my son? Give me back my son! And then they all started dancing

in the front during the actual song singing in the rain. That's very, it was really very special. More recent adult ones for me. I mentioned this on our 25 or 25. But I was at the New York Film Festival

premiere of The Social Network in September 2010. It was incredible. I took Alice to see wish

when she was barely two years old. And I watched something happen that happened to me that is just unforgettable. And it's like a huge part of our relationship right now, which is very special. I don't know more recent fair. I'm trying to think of what's a, like an exciting festival street. Oh, uncut gems that tell you, right? Yeah. That was fucking electric. And it was amazing because 25% of people were there left. Because they were like, "This is disgusting to me." And the other

75% of us sickos were absolutely vibrating. Good question. But what I wanted to tell you, but I didn't want to study the whole of the studio. The semester, by the time, I was just going to say, "You can't do the whole thing." But you didn't do it. But you didn't do it. Exactly. The studio was just finished. It was just like this. And when they then work, he says, "Catching?" "That's right." "Safe." "How do you do that?" "I'm going back." Now it's time to try it out.

Okay, what's next? Next question comes from our good friend, Alex Ross Perry. He asks, "I wanted to know if you and Amanda have to take those passport-style photos that serve as the banner for every episode by looking at the camera and giving a big old smile

“every single episode." And if so, do you do it at the beginning or end of the recording?”

What, you think AI is doing this? You think we're just changing our little outfits with the AI every time? No, of course we do it. We do it at the end. Here's the alternative Alex Ross Perry.

that you possibly could make. And then the green goblin photoshopped into every single around you,

like five of them, trying to eat you. And then it just shows up and it pops out at you. A YouTuber, Spotify, you're just going about your business. You're trying to hit Rafi, you know, to please your children. And then you're faced being eaten by the green goblin going like, "Ah, it's just frozen there." It's made that special. Yeah, we do a direct-to-camera thumbnail, Alex Ross Perry. We're going to do it after this one.

I don't do a big ol' smile. Sometimes, um, uh, an NBA group chat, you know, they're getting like snazzy with the little-- Yeah, everything, it's like this, like me one time, you know, just some dance moves. Oh, like pulp fiction or whatever? Um, no, because then immediately once the

photo exists, it gets taken out of context, right? Very good point. So when I have enough out of my

control, uh, being live on Netflix as we are right now. So that's my one attempt to

“direct this. What should we do with our thumbnails? Anyone have any thoughts?”

I don't care. Okay. You know, I've been on the rewatchables on video for some time now, and, uh, every single photo of me, promoting an episode of the rewatchables, is me awkwardly laughing at something Chris has said. Every single time, they're like, this is going to be gold guys. We'll just put Sean right in the middle and he'll look like a freak. And you know what? That's that show biz, baby. You know what? What can I say? That's just how it works.

Okay. What's next? Thanks, Alex. Next question comes from Jeffrey. Joffrey or Jeffrey, I apologize. It's Jeffrey. I recently saw Charlie Kaufman speak at Synecdeny, New York screening at Yale, and was reminded of how much his work changed when he started directing his own screenplays with every best director when they're dating back to the 2013 Academy Awards, having written or covert in their films, and all five nominees writing their

own films this year is something being lost in the old way of a great screenwriter turning over a script to a great director. This is a great question. And a wonderful observation about how

“things have changed. I personally, I think you too, we're otorists. We love people who can”

see even imagine and build all from the whole cloth, however. Well, the reason that we're so excited about that is because we came of age and came to love cinema in like the great heyday of our fate of wonderful directors taking great scripts from screenwriters and turning them into this classic, they don't make them anymore like this anymore studio fair. So we were excited by what was new, and what the younger generation was doing. And you know, I think we'll all still really

feel that way. And there's nothing, I think both of us more exciting than someone who just has like who has it all in their head. They see it. And they've written it. They know what it's supposed to look like. They understand it that it is kind of the closest you can get to film as a sculpture or a painting or as like fine arts. So I do really value that, but also like Aaron Sorkin is directing the social reckoning like why God help us. And that is that is someone who wrote this screen plays for

some of my favorite movies that were then directed by Rob Reiner and David Fincher. And it's like

“and now he's just doing it by himself. So I think there's two reasons this. This is a very interesting”

question to me. I've given this some thought in the past two. One of the reasons is because obviously the studios are not taking the chances on those kinds of stories that you were talking about that are written by screenwriters. And it's just much harder to submit. It was much harder. Up until about two years ago to just submit a spec script and hope that anything could happen. Yeah, even movie like send help getting made is super exciting. Because that just came from two

veteran screenwriters who've been writing movies for decades. And that's a movie that they written, you know, I don't know how many years ago it was 567. And rainy was like I'll do this one. And that's kind of how the business should work like 30% of the time. Yeah, where there's just a good idea floating around and someone grabs it who has a lot of skill and they can transform it into something. It feels like that business is coming back. We were raised, you know, in like the Shane

Black era, right? We're Shane Black was like writing these mind-blowing screenplays and selling them for a million dollars. And that person was venerated in the same way that like William Goldman was

venerated before that William Goldman never directed a movie. So we're obviously working in the same

tradition. I think it's coming back a little bit. It sales are up this year, which is really cool. Coffman's a really good example. I like his films as a director, but I do not like them more than when he's working with Spike Jones. And him and Spike Jones together to me is as magical get as it gets. In fact, I was listening to how to live in the DINLA commentary track with William

did. And he'd listen to handful of movies. All about Eve was certainly one of them. But there were

a couple of others. And he said, one of the things that these movies do is you have no idea where the story is going and they surprise you. They upend your expectations than they surprise you. And he said the best modern example of that is when Charlie Kaufman and Spike Jones get together. And I was like,

“that's such a random coincidence that that was part of that question. I think sometimes great”

screenwriters won. They're not as trained in the art of filmmaking. So when they try to take their hand at it, like someone like Aaron Sorkin, he didn't train as a film director and a film director is a artistic craft. And I find that he's a little bit lacking stylistically to those who have worked on his films before. There's also just like something going on with the marketing and primacy

of the one guy or the one girl. And like movie studios have latched on to this very wisely where

it's like, this is a Christopher Nolan movie and that is the selling point. As our friend David Sims wrote recently, I mean, and as we have been discussing, you know, movie stars are are long gone replaced by Batman and Spider-Man and Harry Potter. And so David observed that now it is the director that gets sold as like this is the it's a star vehicle, but it's a star vehicle for Christopher Nolan or Greta Gerwig or Gordon Peel. This is not a mistake. This is something that

movie studios have learned through market research and looking at the audiences because as movies get smaller, the people who go consistently are Zikos and they are signing up for brands and those brands are not as frequently stars. They're much more of these people that create. It's like being really interested in an author and buying any book that they write. It's the same kind of fandom. I'm obviously one of these fans too. So I relate to it. But it has come with the expense of the stock

and trade screenwriter. And that's a little sad. What's next? Next question comes from arena. After watching the studio, I rewatched the player and I was wondering, what are some of your favorite Hollywood satire movies? You heard it a lot. I know you made a long list of many of the classics. I added a couple. The top three classic Hollywood additions of this are Sullivan's travel singing in the arena and sunset boulevard. Presumably, if you're listening to this show, you've heard

of those movies. They're three of our favorite movies. We talked about them all the time on the show.

“They all, I think, operate in a different register of satire when it comes to Hollywood and”

achieve their ends in different ways. We should also say that since the player was mentioned in the question, it's not also on the list, which would be, it would be a tap for it. It would be an operation or a situation. No question. Handful that I'm thought of. Hail Caesar, Tropic Thunder, the Hollywood shuffle. The loved one is a little bit of an underrated one. It's a Tony Richardson movie from the 1960s that has a lot of fun. Alper Brooks is the muse. Bow finger.

Speaking of criterion, there's a great addition of Will successful rock hunter starring Jane Man's field. That I think is very funny. State and main blazing saddles, especially like the last 20 minutes of blazing saddles, when it becomes clear that they're inside of a movie. Thinking about blazing saddles a lot, something about Mel Brooks who's turning 100 and you know, his career is really

“deserves as much a claim as it can get while he's still with us. What else did you have?”

Speaking of Spike Jones and Charlie Kaufman adaptation, which is the satire of many things, but screenwriting is certainly one of them. And then not in kill, which may have a sweet ending, but is pretty acidic about movie stars and certainly about Alp Baldwin as a movie star. Yes, did we ever do an episode about Hollywood satires? I think so, but maybe during the pandemic. Okay. But we could go back.

Okay, let's keep going. Let's go. Are we going to talk about hoppers? Yeah, let's keep buzzing. We're going to do two more questions. Okay. Should I make one of them life advice? Yes. Okay. Last movie related question comes from Kyle. What films really capture the people or culture of the city or state you grew up in? There's a whole history of Long Island's cinema, many of which get it very, very, very right. No movie gets it more right than the Wolf

Wall Street. Yeah, which doesn't take place entirely on Long Island, but it captures the Long Island agrobro, better than any movie I've ever seen. Mary to the mob and good fellows are sort of antecedents for this. They are like much more in the sort of like the production design,

the vocal intonations of people, the relationships that they make. First half of Mary to the

mob, second half of good fellows. You know, it's sort of like, yeah, when they're in the suburbs, moments of those movies, Steve Bushemi's film "Tree's Lounge" is an all-time Long Island classic,

How heartly's trust, it's unforgettable. It was Frank Osis in and out starring Kevin Klein was shooting

in Northport, which is one town over for me when I was a teenager, and there was a huge flurry around that movie when I was a kid. I remember very well, and it takes place in Long Island.

“No heart feelings in Montauk, which I think is a really good like the locals in the beef town,”

you know, in the tourist town representation, eternal sunshine in the spotless mind, a lot of Long Island railroad in that movie, final destination one. Yeah. You know, it's just sad Jets fans getting annihilated by death. And then the sentiment of Ed Burns. Sure. You know, especially the Brothers McBullin. Have you seen the family McBullin? I haven't, but I will watch it.

I'm, I'm Burns, completeist. I'm a fan of the film. No, of Ed Burns. Oh, yeah, okay. Yeah.

And it's a choice to make a crazy darling. Good job. I'm a fan of that choice as well. They put Tracy Ellis Ross in the mix there too. She's joining the McBullin. Oh, wow. Hey, I'm going to see it. I'm intrigued. Yeah. So on HBO Max. Okay. What's, what's what's Atlanta? So the thing about Atlanta is that now every movie is filmed there, but not that many like good movies are set there. Yeah. So to get the vibe and to movies actually that represent Atlanta,

I'm, I'm sorry to say that gone with the wind represents well listen. Yeah. It happened there. And Atlanta is like, has been and you feel that was when it was that fast. Can be a very racist I guess. And then the the other historical one I thought of was Selma, which obviously is in Alabama, but Dr. King was from Atlanta, like a very important part of the fabric and history of Atlanta. And also John Lewis is featured pretty prominently in Selma and that was our Congress

person for many years growing up. And like a absolutely intelligence. So those are Atlanta historical.

“Then present day drum line. Yeah. You know, and the like HBCUs. Yeah. And I believe that it's like a”

made up one in Atlanta. Mm-hmm. In the canon. contagion, which the CDC, back when it existed. Yes. CDC is important. It's there. I went to summer camp near the CDC for many years. And I'm healthy and thriving. And I believe in vaccines. Yeah, so you have many friends and closed. Yeah. And then I mean, every marble movie, I guess. I don't know. So Black Panther starts in with a heist at the high museum of art. And I, it's not identified as the high museum of art. Of course, I grew up two

blocks from the high museum of art. And I went there all the time and played in the front lawn all the time. And then the library where I went to story time was right across the street. Wow. So I didn't witness any heists in my time. Nor did I meet any superhero. Okay. But er, kill longer, not exactly a superhero, right? Well, ford it. I guess, you know, and he's angry about it. He's trying to steal it back. That's true. I, I don't know, Atlanta. I, it's good. It's good. It's good and it's bad. Okay.

That's, you had a tough experience, but you weren't properly in the city of Atlanta. So no, look, I learned as I feel the same way. Yeah. It's good. It's bad. It's like any place. Okay. What's our last question for chat and hoppers a little bit last question live life advice with Dustin. Mm-hmm. He writes in, I recently ordered an engagement ring for my longtime girlfriend, but I've been struggling to come up with a fun and meaningful way to propose. We're both

cinephiles and are going to tip for the second year in a row this fall. Should I work our love of cinema into my proposal? I mean, yes, absolutely. It's like, I don't think where are you on a public proposal? So what I would do? It's not what I would do either. It's not what happened to me. And I don't think, I'm a big fan of TIF, excited you guys are going, but I like, we shouldn't be trying to run out like a screen, you know, to do some sort of, will you marry me, public sort of thing?

I just, I wouldn't, I couldn't afford it. Let's just, let's just, let's just give it out.

Well, I don't know, I've never been to TIF, right? I've never been to Canada. You book a friends and

family only mask screening of Maggie Jill and Halls of Braille. The greatest love story ever told.

“And then you and your gal come out. You should do the film. You know, you say, hey, my name's Dustin,”

this is Maggie Jr., we're madly in love with each other. Yeah. This is an expression of our love. Two monsters trying to make their way across the United States of America, or Toronto, I guess Toronto, and Canada. This is a Canadian story. And I guess now it revolves figures prominently in, in the film. Oh, yeah, that's right. That looked real fake. And after the film is over, stick around. We've got a special surprise for you all. No, no, no, no, no. I mean, what you have to do is you either

And instead of here comes the mother fucking bride or wait, you want to, you want to cut the film?

Yeah. And then you either, listen, you've already read it out of friends and family screening for the bride and Canada. I can't recommend any of that. No, I don't, you know, I don't know.

“I don't think public. But what's like a small thing that you could do for movie night?”

I mean, let's see. I don't, I honestly, it's great that you have shared interests. A gimmicky proposal. You don't really have to do it. Do something from the heart. I still don't remember anything my husband said to me during the proposal because I was so surprised and I like sort of blacked out. Wow. He says it was nice. I'm sure that was. I said yes. Did you fear dying alone?

No, I didn't. But you know, you know, just, you know, this is that we didn't really,

we didn't have a conversation about it. It's not like I picked out a ring or anything. We had one conversation about my very ambivalent feelings about the institution of marriage because of, you know, previous events, child, of course. And more to, like, what do you mean? Sure, all of that. And nothing happened. And six months went by and then just like out of nowhere. So I didn't remember. And that was nice. I thought it was very romantic. One of the most romantic

“things that you can do, even though I think marriage is like a pretty weird institution. And primarily”

a business arrangement. One of the most romantic things you can do is ask one to marry you. So just do that. Just do it. Like do it meaningfully, probably not in public. I don't know if you need a photographer hidden, but that's up to you. And then you can go see a movie. That's good advice. Okay. Let's take it there. Thank you for all of these wonderful questions. We had a bunch more, but we just didn't have time to get to them. We will be doing another male

bag immediately after the Academy Awards. So maybe some of these questions can float into that male bag. That will be about the Oscars, though. Promost and so entirely. Yeah. But, you know, maybe we'll just sprinkle in some other stuff for fun. You know, just to keep it loose. How are you feeling about your 20, 27 Oscar picks? It's a lead. A lot more than a half months away. It's going to be great.

“Hoppers. Have they announced the date for the 20, 27 Oscars?”

Yeah. It's July 18, 20, 27, which I think is a really good idea. And they should keep pushing it back. Hoppers is directed by Daniel Chung.

It's his first feature for Pixar, though not his first feature film. It's written by Jesse Andrews

and the story is by Chang and Andrews. The voice cast includes Piper Kurdah, Bobby Moynihan, John Ham, Kathy Najimi, and Dave Franco. The story is as follows, when scientists discover a way to transform human consciousness into robotic animals, Mabel uses the new technology to uncover mysteries of the animal world that are beyond anything she could have ever imagined. What did you think of hoppers? I had a nice time as did my four-year-old son.

It was a little convoluted. Is it not? It is. It's a little end. It is. I would say the most succinct review was delivered by my son, 20, maybe 25 minutes into hoppers. When you just said very loudly, this is not hoppers because he had not seen any of the animals advertised on the billboard just yet. And very shortly thereafter, King George, the Beaver, and all the other animals of the animal kingdom showed up and he was very excited.

I don't think he could tell you reliably anything that happened in the film hoppers afterwards, but spending time with animals and trying to be a force for good in the world. I'm pro. Yes, I'm with you. I like this movie. Yeah. I thought it was perhaps the most laugh-out loud, funny Pixar movie in a long time. I thought I had really good jokes. Yes. It had a couple of real gas moments. There's one in particular where one character is eliminated,

but I was like, oh my. That was funny. It was great. It was a great moment. There's a handful of moments like this that are- And played for that. And played for that. And the slapstick of it is very good. I think the voice performances are great in this movie. I thought Dave Franco and Merrill Streep in particular were excellent. It's crazy to just be saying Merrill Streep and hoppers, but she's in there. Yeah. It is ornately plotted. And I would say, I don't want to say

it's challenging for a little kid, but I'll tell you this in the same way that Knox had a reaction 20 minutes in about an hour in Alice, who I would describe as a high-level plot-understander,

Turned to me one hour in, she said, Dad, what is this movie about? And I couldn't answer that

“succinctly and quietly for her in the movie theater, but I think, and you know what,”

maybe for eight-year-olds, it's super easy to understand, but because of the experience that we find ourselves in here, it's going to see these movies. I'm watching it through her eyes a little bit more, and it's okay for them to not understand every plot detail. But this is a wacky plot. Yeah. To be fair to hoppers, my son can't really recount the plot to anything that he sees, but it is, it's a hat on a hat, on a hat, on a animatronic beaver, or a robot beaver. I just,

you know, I don't want to get the technology wrong. It's a robot. Also, how are we supposed to set consciousness in a real battle with my son over whether robots are good or evil and really about drones, and whether drones are good or evil, I'm obviously anti-drones in all cases, but and he is a contrary to opinion, it's just like drones. Yeah, I'm into it. I like them. You don't like them,

“but I do, because I think he likes that when they're flying around at the park horse. And then”

robots, he's very interested in Siri. That's very complicated, you know, he likes to talk to Siri. So I didn't love it when robots were lionized in this film, but but it was so confusing. It was it was a robot for such a short period of time that I think it really just passed over an access to it. I personally didn't find the actual plot confusing to understand, like as an adult, I don't think it's, I think most people will understand the movie. I think for young kids, it's just a

lot of information. It's a lot of jobs. It's also a few different kinds of films. It is kind of a body swap body horror movie in a way. It's also like a conservationist comedy. You know, it's very throw, Ralph Waldo Emerson, in terms of how it thinks about the transcendental relationship to

nature and how fulfilling and powerful that can be for the young able character and her relationship

with her grandmother. I found that's a pretty very touching. Yeah. Very classical Pixar. You know, I mean, there's a 10 minute, very moving prologue about loss. Yes. That animates the, sorry, that does animate the rest of the film. Literally. Pun intended. I guess. I also like, especially young maple. I loved. I really would have liked a whole movie about young maple.

“Yes. She then she turns into a teenager, which I guess you have to be to have access to the”

research lab where they're turning into, I get it from a plot place, but I was really into angry seven-year-old maple trying to free all the reptile pets in her classrooms. Yeah, I would, I think there's something interesting too about how old is the kid in the story that you're telling for a Pixar film? You know, in Elio, I think he was maybe like eight or nine in this movie maple is a teenager. Yeah, she's an activist teenager. And that is, that has got to be the oldest

lead. She's living on her own movie short of soul, like yes. She goes to school. She goes to college

in Beaverton. She doesn't always attend her classes, but she's college age. Yeah, that's, and so

that choice, I think leads to kind of a naturally little bit more elevated experience, where this kind of like this collision of science and the real world and politics, the initially the villain of the film is a, is a Gavin Newsomask mayor named Jerry, voiced by John Ham, who is up to know good. He's trying to build a bridge and in doing so he is sending the wildlife racing away from their natural habitat. And so that's really what maple is trying to preserve. And there's like a

couple of things about this movie that I didn't totally click with. Clearly like maple is trying to make some chaos to transform the human world to let the animals return to their safe place because she believes that they should have their own sanctuaries and they shouldn't be disrupted by humans. And also she has this emotional connections, our family and the way that she kind of came to understand herself and be more at peace by being in that world herself. So then she's like kind of

setting up an animal plot to undermine the humans, but then she accidentally kills the queen of the insects. And when she does so, the all the creatures want to go kill a politician and maple and they go on a mad spree. And then one of the butterflies son grows up to be an evil butterfly king. Titus and then he goes into the robot body of Jerry. Once they've been cat like it's a very, yeah there's it's just going in a lot of places and it's a lot of it's a lot of plot

in the final 40 minutes of the movie. And then the movie has a naturally like sweet conclusion like

this place after a forced fire which is a little. That was not the actual thing about when the

when they finished like script development on this because I mean these movies take years to make obvious. So we're a year out of wildfires here in Los Angeles and that was unfortunate to see my wife said something about it immediately afterwards. And then Jerry's just like cleaning up the forest and he's it hasn't lost office despite all the terrible things that he's done and it's like okay we got this you guys we can conservative the environment. I don't know I was left a little like

I guess this is solved then thanks hoppers and then like and you get a job at the local research thing but we can't be animals anymore so instead the professor has a whole white board of

other ideas of things so science continues but like in harmony with nature yeah I don't I don't

I don't know I mostly just laughed at the animals like like my child did yeah the jokes are good yeah and it's very entertaining like and the I did think it was notable that to me the funniest joke was about an iPhone and about using voice like voice to text or text of voice and emojis

“and but we've you know a lot of yeah but like and not that's the only thing that knocks”

remember is as soon as I start going beaver beaver beaver heat remembers the potato punch lines so it works yeah I thought Bobby Moyen was really funny and the like the George character has the classic like I would buy you know a stuffy merchandiseable I'm rooting for this person very funny endearing I thought the ways that they're expressions but they're and and their eyes changed depending on whether they were like talking between animals yeah and so the thing the in the child thing

of wouldn't it be fun to be an animal and be able to talk to animals which I you know all children or most children do feel I thought they realized really well I just everything else was involved I say that but we sat next to like two grownups on a date to see the Pixar movie in the middle of the afternoon which is really cool and I was mostly nervous about making sure that my child you know behaved appropriately yes but it did remind me that these movies have the burden of

like a much wider audience now they have to support both audience yes they really do is a very good

“point um yeah I think so Chong shared a kind of like 2D animation preview of what the film looked”

like at an early stage and it was a pure Miyazaki style hand drawn experience of 2B versus going up the river and it was beautiful we don't know how the movie would have poured it over in that way but I do think that there's something in the like hypermania of kids movies and that extends to good kids movies like this like suitopia 2 like these are pretty good movies but there's something like really antique about them that you don't find in a Miyazaki movie and I wonder what

this movie would have been if it had removed a little bit of the like robot chaos mania share and been a little bit more ground level like a little bit more panio if it would have been a better movie and frankly if Chong might have been like almost more well suited to that I can kind of feel just the like populist Pixar stuff going on in the film at times it's not it's not like it doesn't make it bad but it did make me wondering about the alternative and well you can feel it in the

pacing and the it both does it does have jokes every few minutes but it's almost like it's the

“kid version of the Netflix make sure that you have something that you have to look at the screen at”

every five seconds because people are going to be looking away and so it's just over here over here and it worked you know my kids sat happily but it it felt over stuffed and it kind of just you can really feel the divide between okay we're putting this stuff in for the bigger kids in the grownups and we're putting this stuff in because we know we have to get a new younger audience they they are not cohesive yeah I found with a lot of these movies I can feel I can hear the noises

of 15 adults in a room like negotiating between what's going to work at what time in the movie and that's just a product of having seen every single one of these multiple times and really liking a lot of them but it's very hard to go back to a like a more innocent viewing experience of seeing toy story for the first time or even though I was like probably 13 at the time they're just

felt like something like something extraordinary that had never been done was happening but just the

use of that 3D animation style at that time felt so novel and now that has been the experience we've lived in for 30 years as animation consumers and so when I saw that 2D image I was like there's there's a reason why a Miyazaki movie still feels special and still feels different

that the texture of those movies is unlike just whatever he picks our movie like right looks like

you mentioned Luca earlier Luca is one of the few picks our movies that looks totally different

“like the visual palette is so dramatically different um I don't mean to dump on the movie I think”

it's like very good and I'm glad that it's successful and very well but I had some no and I've seen it twice now so I like I had some time to kind of mull it over and kind of work through like

how much did this really follow through on all of its intentions yeah I don't know that it has

real lasting power in the mind of the people in my house either like I know it is it is not been brought up several times but um at like once since we saw it but Mandalorian and Groku lives

“run free and I did also forget that the movie theater we went to had like Zutopia to”

popcorn buckets still out they just they just have them all they're making popcorn buckets for

everything apparently yeah yeah and about to get that skittemory popcorn bucket my son was

like begging me like please please can we have this please he was holding it you know because it's just a friendly snake and that's when you did it that's where he is no of course not no we're making a put that on his head after consumption we got popcorn and then when the

“movie ended I'll say I can I have M&Ms so we just got M&Ms after the movie oh that's really nice”

not trying to buy me peanut M&Ms because he knows I like them that's true and he kept being like mama I really want to get these for you mama I can I get them I was like this is a general fact yeah but it's all serving but I appreciate the creativity yeah of trying to think that he can buy it's gonna be awesome and then yeah it's smart anyway he had a nice time how did you feel our live experience one did this break two minutes in and we don't know

Jack no it's good it's all good nothing broke we're still on Netflix who's watching my mom my girlfriend's watching I really really this has been a great episode of the big picture thank you to Jack Sanders look as Cavanaugh yeah yeah thank you to our producer Jack Sanders for navigating these live waters thanks to Lucas thanks to everybody here at Spotify who helps make this happen for us we appreciate it this was a road test yes for next Sunday

episode but that's not that's not our next episode our next episode is on Thursday we're gonna be making our final Oscar predictions you're gonna wait till Thursday to put it up are you sure you're not gonna say put it up as soon as it's ready Jack because I bought my wisdom yeah there's a reason why I can't do that that I will reveal to you okay on the episode okay how exciting um Jack how did you feel about this good home Roddy okay come see us on next Thursday thanks thanks

to everybody for watching at home all doesn't have you we'll see you next time