Critical Darlings: The 2026 Oscars Ceremony with Griffin Newman

21:43Yeah. You know? And so, like, we might be waiting around for a while for that type of role. Possibly. Yeah. Another question is, what does this do for Jordan?

21:53David Sims:I mean, I want to throw out a couple Jordan thoughts here. I remember sitting with you at a bar. It was when we had the first conversation about doing this podcast in person. And you had just come back from Venice and Toronto? No, just Toronto. Just Toronto. to and we were sort of like i was getting your opinions on what you had seen and where you thought the oscar race was going and you said to me then beginning of september or maybe end of september i feel like the oscars might circle all the way back around to sinners you had seen one battle it hadn't come out yet we didn't know how it was going to do with the box office but it was like this is beloved but i feel like there could be a kind of everything everywhere all at once horseshoe especially because it's a blockbuster and like these are you know sean fantasy and big picture keeps pointing out that like uh ryan kugler's key crew has started to become like spielberg's key crew you know where you're like ruth carter's winning multiple costume awards under him uh by ludwig uh gorenson you know like yeah right these well not i mean two for boosting them.

23:02David Sims:And I feel like in the last month, there was the vibe shift of, is everything going to swing sinners? But at very least, it felt like something major has to swing sinners. They can't just give it the best original screenplay that felt kind of like a lock. And does that mean that picture is going to swing, that director is going to swing, that Michael B. Jordan is going to swing, that maybe it wins both supporting categories? And I think part of what worked for Michael B. Jordan was there was all this pressure on the idea of Timothee Chalamet as the last movie star and the movie star that Gen Z connects to and the guy who drives box office and brings legitimacy and he pulled off making Marty Supreme a hit.

23:38David Sims:And there was this kind of like, is Michael B. Jordan kind of getting in on the back of the movie? He's the fifth nominee. He's overdue. It was a kind of performance that I embarrassingly said in some episode of Blank Check to Sims, like I question if he's going to get in there. And it was I mean, we didn't know, you know, So my thinking was, in a way, it felt like the kind of yeoman's work performance of a movie star who's also a producer who's carrying all the weight of the film but is generously allowing the supporting performers to really get the flashy stuff. And I kind of comped it to Mark Wahlberg in The Fighter, snubbed all of the supporting people nominated supporting wins.

24:16David Sims:uh de niro and the irishman uh leo and killers of the flower moon all kind of like nomination morning surprises where an a-list movie star who willed that movie into existence in close kind of tandem with the director was snubbed for just sort of holding the center of the movie and being taken for granted totally and i think the two things i weren't considering were one there's the stunt factor of michael b jordan playing two characters really subtly that was kind of hiding in plain sight and it felt like in the last six weeks they like hit the gas on that narrative hey have you noticed like how skillfully he's differentiating these two characters and even like delray linda and wunyi masako going out in interviews and explaining what the process was like suddenly made people go oh that performance is better than i realized preventing people from taking it for granted the other thing i think supercharged him is you could argue this is the overdue Oscar after three previous Michael B.

25:18David Sims:Jordan Ryan Coogler snubs yeah you could argue that he should have been nominated for Fruitvale Creed and Black Panther yeah and that he was snubbed all three times and that here we have something that generationally feels similar to like Scorsese and De Niro if none of the performances were nominated before Raging Bull. Yeah. Right. I mean, I think the tricky thing with Michael B. Jordan is that he is someone who has been so good working with Ryan Coogler and then has made some other things in between that like have gone basically unnoticed, you know, and I think. All the way from like Tom Clancy's Without Remorse to Just Mercy, a perfectly well-intentioned journal for Jordan.

26:00David Sims:Yeah, exactly. Like these movies where you're like, they might as well not. Like, Just Mercy is a great example. Directed by Destin Daniel Cretton. You know, it was about Bryan Stevenson. Right, Bryan Stevenson, the civil rights attorney. But it is, like, just an incredibly boring movie. Like, it is, like, very dutiful. It's, like, very well-intentioned and just, like, has very little spark of life. It is a true Oscar-bait movie. It feels self-consciously Oscar-bait. Yes. Or even, like, I mean, he did that HBO Fahrenheit 451. Ramin Barani directed it. Great director. Yeah, just an incredibly kind of, like, lifeless movie.

26:33So I feel like the tricky thing with Michael B. Jordan has been like that the movies in which he really just has that you're like, oh, you're such a movie star have been either with Ryan Coogler or when he's directed himself in Creed 3. Yeah. Which is a really interesting movie, you know. And I feel like the biggest test for the kind of movie star he will be, which I think we are still kind of learning, is his Thomas Crown affair.

26:58David Sims:Totally. Which he's directing. Which he's directing. I mean, the potential for that to just be like a weirdly, you know, like almost in reverse order. Like, I mean, he's already a movie star. Don't get me wrong. But now he has the Oscar. And then we can kind of go back to like, oh, right. But you're also fun and sexy. And I want to pay for it to like, you know, to see you on a Saturday night, you know, theater. Like, I really hope that movie works out. Because like, you know, the more recent remake, you know, from the 90s, like, that's a really great movie. and I just, you know, there are big shoes to fill, I guess.

27:32David Sims:We covered that on Blank Check, I guess, a year or two ago and it's a real, like, why don't we have this in the ecosystem anymore? There was a movie starring grown-ups that came out in August that was like... And Bill Conti just freaking at every bar of that score. It was fun and sexy and it was a hit, you know? And it does feel like that's a very strategic move on his part to try to identify what his movie stardom is. I think you're right that there was this kind of recognition of the industry has been putting all this pressure on. Can we identify the next generation? And what it wants more than anything is to be like, can we have a Tom Cruise where no matter what, everything he makes will cross$100 million domestic.

28:12David Sims:DiCaprio being able to do that, mostly working with prestige directors and sort of more highbrow fare. Julia Roberts, what have you. And I think there's been this pressure for Chalamet to be that because the track record was building towards that. And maybe people looked back and they were like, You know, we've been like hard on Michael B. Jordan when they're like minor missteps, but the missteps are small. Every major movie he's made has been a major hit. There is no bomb that people associate with Jordan. Correct. Right. Correct. And if you just look at the Kugler work and especially the last three, you're like, that's billions of dollars.

28:46David Sims:Yeah. And then you add in that he made like two successful Creed sequels where he basically took over as the main creative voice fully on the third one. Yeah. I think there was this feeling of like, this guy has quietly, you know, through quiet little ups and downs, proven himself as if not the definitive star, certainly a definitive star. And also, we don't really know about his personal life. He's not out there grandstanding. When he does press to promote his movies, it just feels like he's a serious, focused, you know, disciplined. like this is a actor we want to present to the world as look here's our new serious leading yeah and i mean you would certainly also say that like black actors are punished more are not allowed the kind of leeway to act out the way timothy chalamet has well and then be kind of taken seriously uh but i do think that yeah like up there on stage giving that award like michael b jordan was like and like kind of explicitly putting himself in this kind of history of these like, you know, like milestone, like performers.

29:50David Sims:And yeah, the full list is Poitier, Denzel Washington, Forrest Whitaker, Jamie Foxx, Will Smith. Yeah. And Michael B. Jordan's The Six. And Will Smith, that win has been pretty memory hold because of, you know, what preceded it. But if you remove Forrest Whitaker, who's a phenomenal actor and was like fully deserving of that award, but is more of like a serious actor. The other five, Michael B. Jordan included, are like generational, definitional movie stars. They are people who like change the culture.

30:27Hi, this is Ben. We're doing Brooch Corner. Everyone's been calling out tonight, and I fully agree that this is a night for brooches. The boys and their brooches. big ones small ones shiny ones back ones front ones side brooches and i love it because here's the thing often men are just boring and they wear a tux throw a little brooch on it spice it up adrian brody wearing a very shiny stupid uh brooch michael b jordan wearing the back brooch I like that on the back of his collar. God, I don't know. Yeah. It truly feels like every actor was rocking a broach. It's like, oh, you know, who had the pro-Palestine?

31:22Javier. Javier. Javier. I like that. It was cool. It was like a handmade one. And it was political. And it had a good message. Because often people are showing a little bling, right, to have a little pop with a neutral color, a black or white colored suit. I think I would try to go for a first place rosette so that no matter what, even if I don't win, I'm number one. I got first place in my own heart. So that's what I would go for.

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33:39David Sims:If we want to shift gears a little, I'm curious, what did you guys think about Sean Penn's speech? I thought it went a little long. It is funny that after all we've talked about about like what the Academy wants in like its best actor, like to be like the opposite apparently is true for best supporting actor Sean Patton showed up for the Golden Globes, smoked in the room, didn't win, did not show up for the other things. No. But then he won. The ones he won. BAFTA. Yes. The SAG Actor Awards and the Academy Awards. Yes. Zero speeches. And there was some concern in the room last night, like, oh, I heard a rumor he's not well or whatever.

34:16David Sims:And then people were like, no, he's in Ukraine. Boots on the ground. Boots on the ground. I will say that there is a part of me and maybe this I think if you don't fucking show up the next person down the list wins unless you have a real reason for not being there the ceremony suffered from not having someone give a speech in that slot especially because you consider the other four guys would have probably given a very memorable speech they plan out the order of awards they're like okay the actor speeches the supportings are their tentpoles in the sort of first, roughly half of the show. We need two Famos in the first hour to get us through the next two hours where we go into the plane and we circle back to Famos.

34:59David Sims:Exactly. A friend of mine was texting last night and he was like, I don't know, I just feel like something's off. And I was like, it's because we've only had one actor speech so far. That's why. And not that Sean Penn would have given some rousing stump speech. Both of his speeches were memorable. The two previous times he's won. Yeah, yeah. I was, years ago, this is a sort of silly anecdote, but years ago, I was traveling abroad with a friend, and I just had this little sound sort of echoing in my head, and it was just, rise again. And I just kept thinking and saying it, and I was like, what the hell is that from?

35:35David Sims:And as we were on a train going from somewhere in Italy to somewhere in Italy, I was like, Sean Penn's milk speech when he was talking about Mickey Rourke rises again. And she was like, what is wrong with you? Why is that in your head? But no, I think it's, yeah, he does kind of give like somewhat like, you know, memorable speeches. They are interesting speeches. And I think it, and that was also, Milk was what, over 15 years ago? It was 2008. Yeah. So it would have been interesting to hear from him, especially at a political time. I will say that there is, I've seen some criticism and I maybe have it myself where the show did skirt around political stuff to some extent.

36:13David Sims:I mean, do we want them weighing in on all this? But Sean Penn, he would have done it. I want to get to that in a second. But I will also say I did appreciate that it was Kieran Culkin giving that award. And he did not pretend to be gracious about. He doesn't want to be here. No, but I mean, that felt right to be like, this asshole, like not being here. Yeah, and that also made the rhythm of the show feel off because Kieran Culkin was like, I don't know, let's get this thing over with Sean Penn. The whole moment went by so quickly that it almost felt like a hallucination. I was doing the tally in my head sort of toward the end of the night, and I was like, wait, but they haven't done supporting actors yet.

36:52David Sims:And it's like, oh, no, they did. It was just about two seconds. There was like no moment that stuck from that. I mean, I think as a performance, he's kind of undeniable in that film. Yeah. Isolated. It's not like an embarrassing win in any way. Yeah. It becomes the sort of like how many Oscars does a person need, especially when that category contains two like historic actors in their 70s who have never been nominated before getting their first nomination and giving like a great performance and a Best Picture nominee. And then like Alordi, who's another one of those, is it the future guys? And Del Toro, who'd be winning for the second time, but fully 26 years later, there's more of a distance.

37:31David Sims:And, you know, he's certainly a towering figure. It felt like any one of those guys would have given an emotional speech. And I saw people speculating that Penn not showing up at the other events after getting called out by Nikki Glaser at the Globes chain smoking and looking like a bag of garbage was strategically like the less people see of me, maybe the better chance I have at winning. Yeah. And then it was so funny. No, we're just assuming all this shit on him. He just actually kind of doesn't care. Yeah. But so with the politics, I mean, I feel like whatever I'm asked to write about the Oscars like the next day, the day is always just like.

38:08the Oscars were surprisingly apolitical, or the Oscars were very political, like the two takes. And what was interesting about this year...

38:15David Sims:Well, as an editor who fired me once said, I want any Hollywood story to be one that everyone in D.C. cares about. Which is like, no such thing as this. No, no, no. Anyway. But it was funny. In the beginning, I think in his opening, Conan was like, this might get political. Tonight might get political. But these Oscars were... The politics came through much more from the presenters than they did in the speeches. Like, there were a few... Kimmel kind of doing his, like, isn't it funny that Trump's angry at me thing. Yes, yeah. Or, like, you know, Javier Bardem being, like, no war and free Palestine, like, explicitly.

38:52That was the moment that I think people thought

38:53David Sims:was going to be happening across the show. Yes. And I do think he did exactly what you should do, which is just get out there, say the thing you want to say, and then read off the teleprompter. Grandpa Chopra looked a little thrown. Yes, yeah. But, you know... She rolled with it better than I would have guessed. She did. She did not seem like someone from afar who would have necessarily... Excuse me. I'm sorry. Priyanka Chopra Jonas. I apologize. Oh, my God. We're stuck in the past. Yeah. I want her to be single.

39:20But I feel like it actually worked better that way in that I feel like one of the things that having a political speech, like what is challenging about that is that someone wants to also get out the thank yous and I'm so grateful. And then also here's a political statement. And those don't go together very well. Like they often feel like you're just trying to serve these two enormously different purposes. So having presenters feel more freed up to make jokes about, well, without ever mentioning Trump by name, you know, like it did feel like it offered some relief to in terms of like the expectations that are on the people giving speeches.

39:58David Sims:Yeah, like the assumption that people had seen the movies, there was assumption like, look, obviously, like we're not everything's a fucking mess. And, you know, we can we can acknowledge it wryly or directly. But like, we're not going to make that the theme of the evening because that's giving him yet another thing or whatever. I think that's a big part of it. I think it's there's this feeling of it's a vicious cycle, but it's like if you get up there and say anything at like the woke liberal Academy Awards, is that just going to become fodder for Fox News? Right. And, you know, sitting members of the administration.

40:31David Sims:Or for Brennan Carr to like, you know, pull ABC's license. Right. It's like, what are you accomplishing here in a weird way? Does it become not like an echo chamber, but does it just become fuel for them to stoke outrage in their own base? I also think it's fascinating to look at like early 2000s during the Bush administration. There would be these very fiery political speeches and the audience would turn on them. Yeah. Like it was Hollywood was no less liberal. But there was this feeling of you're being unpatriotic. Don't politicize this. And, you know, Michael Moore is a famous one of those.

41:05David Sims:When he won for bowling for Columbine, right, he basically explicitly political speech and was booed in the room because Iraq had been invaded like that week. What do you say? We're engaged in a fictional war with a fictional president? And people booed him. Was it a year later, two years later, that he was nominated for 9-11 and was greeted as if like, you know, Jesus returning to Jerusalem for Easter, you know, or for Palm Sunday. And it was just, yeah, like the Oscars are not traditionally that polite to that kind of sentiment. No, no. And then, you know, Sims and I were recently talking about in 2001 when Robert Altman was seen as the best director frontrunner of like, it's time.

41:52David Sims:Here's the Lifetime Achievement Award for Robert Altman. And then in the run up, he won the Golden Globes. It was like, here we go. He did a big interview where he criticized the war. and Bush and everyone turned on him. And there was this energy of, we can't give him an Oscar. Who knows what he's going to say on stage, right? And then I think in the last 10 years, the Oscars got more overtly political. You had these moments of like, you need to take a stance. And there's a little bit of possibly a step back. Like, what did that accomplish? You know, which isn't saying it's not worth saying something and speaking truth to power, but it does.

42:30David Sims:We just live in a time that is insane and everything becomes like weaponized and picked apart. Yeah. And I don't think people were like strategically going like, I don't want to get political because it will hurt my career or we need the Oscars to be inclusive or anything like that. I think there's genuinely a moment after like a kind of 2010s of, do we all need to be tweeting all the time? Turning everything into a press release? Like what is actually going to move the needle on any of these issues? Yeah. Is it going to be whoever wins best supporting actress? Yeah, yeah. I mean, I also feel like, obviously, I support anyone who wants to go up there and make a political statement and use their time to do that.

43:11But I feel like it was telling that the first really political speeches came from the documentary winners because there's just a very obvious and easy way for them to speak to how their work has relevance.

43:23David Sims:The overtly political films, the films about Russia and Putin and about school shootings in America. Yeah. And, you know, I feel like and maybe this is just me being too generous, but like. There was just a definite definite feeling in the room more so this time of being like everyone understands, like everyone is like on an approximately same page about their feelings about what's happening in the world right now, at least certainly like within like the presidential regime. And that kind of provides you don't need to keep saying it out loud. You know, I mean, like when Jimmy Kimmel came up and like told his, yeah, his his jokes, like his late night jokes.

44:03He's going to hate this. Right. And I was just it felt kind of like it feels a little glib and pat.

44:07David Sims:I think there's another thing, too, which is like everyone's sitting there going, I don't want to be Adrian Brody. Right. It's not even like I don't want to speak out for fear of career repercussions. Yeah. It's it's a thing that's talked about a lot of like these aren't our elected officials. These are like actors and creatives. And even if they're smart, they're not necessarily like political science majors. And if they get up there and give some like self-indulgent speech where they completely muddle their own point and the audience is like, what are they saying? What does that accomplish? Yeah.

44:39I feel like it was telling that the bits that felt the sharpest were not aimed at the larger political world, but like the more immediate ways in which corporations have been affecting the industry. Right. Like Conan's bits. By the way, they should bring Conan back forever. As often as he wants to continue hosting these. Forever host. Yes, exactly. Until Mr. B steps in, of course. that, you know, the bits about, like, his job at, like, Ted Sarandos being like, here is a movie theater. And it kept going. Yeah, zest on it where I was like, oh, you genuinely dislike, like, what this man has done.

45:12David Sims:He kind of had the right targets. Yes. Yeah, and the, I mean, I loved the, Casablanca's maybe, like, a little easy as, like, the film to, like, riff on, but, like, that bit was really funny about just repeating. Certainly, K. Brown's performance. And they did it live. Yes. You know, like, it wasn't, like, a pre-taped thing, which I thought was fun. And the Jane Lynch YouTube ads, also very good. The flashlight that killed Bin Laden stuck in my head forever. Like those, those are bits were funny, but also like they felt like there was both like legitimate grievance and a way to make those have zing while also working as jokes.

45:48David Sims:We were also we were talking about right before we started recording how fascinating it was that it did feel like ultimately, despite, you know, us very confidently deciding Hamnet episode will be about Hamnet being the Oscar villain. That is clearly positioned as the Oscar villain this year. And one of the episodes in this miniseries needs to focus on that phenomenon. Things absolutely came around to one battle being seen as the Oscar villain, which was fascinating. fascinating i was arguing that uh to sims that like the last time that felt like this was 2007 where no country and there will be blood were the presumed front runners and you were like you have two movies here that are just sort of like adored and held in really high esteem by serious film people that also had some level of like popular crossover box office success where it's not like there's a lowbrow movie and a highbrow movie and which one's gonna win it's two highbrow movies that feel like in conversation with each other.

46:43David Sims:And those two like weird modern American Marfa Westerns were that and Sinners in One Battle very much feel in conversation. Well, they were fighting, but then one of them said Marfa and they said, how do you know that name? I filmed there. Nice, nice. A thousand comedy points. But yeah, it felt like a similar kind of thing. And I think in the last month, there was a lot of like, what are the politics of One Battle? And what is the statement if we give this the award? And in his first of three speeches, I feel like PTA summed up succinctly, whether or not you like it, what that movie is about, which is the feeling of like, did we fuck this up?

47:22David Sims:Have we fucked this up for the next generation? Is it done or is the next generation the one that's going to fix this? You know, have we put the burden on them or are they the first generation that's ready to sort of solve things? And he mentioned his children, which like everyone, including myself, had read into that movie and put it in reviews or write-ups of the movie. and I don't always want you know, PTA can be kind of an elusive storyteller and you don't always know what he's getting at in an intriguing way. It's what keeps people coming back to his movies but like I appreciated that given the political tenor of the evening and what was happening outside the evening and all that, I appreciated that he was like, yeah, I'm going to give you a little bit of an answer to the question.

48:00David Sims:I'm going to give you the thesis without being self-important about it or self-aggrandizing about it. I'm going to humanize it because I genuinely believe that's why he made the movie. 100%. Yes. No, it's coming from a really real place of, like, in their own ways, have the DiCaprio character and the Penn character fucked up things equally. One of them was doing it maliciously, and one of them was doing it kind of fearfully. And, you know, at the end of the ceremony, he calls out, at Best Picture, Chase Infinity, the heart of the movie. He gave her kind of the ultimate credit. My American Girl.

48:35David Sims:has now replaced Linda Cardellini as the heart of Green Book. Jesus Christ. She is the new heart of. Well, I want to see Chase Infinity's husband fold a pizza in half. That's all I'm saying. I know. I mean, like that. A few images more iconic, really, in the celebration of cinema that is the Oscars. Green Book 2, just keep cooking. Yeah. Can't wait. Yeah. Griffin, Allison. Yeah. Reveal your ballots. How'd you do? I can't remember how many missed. definitely a lot more than Richard did. I did not do as well as Richard. I went for Tiana for Best Supporting Actress, found Amy Madigan's speech delightful.

49:15Love that, you know, Weapons got its one win. But yeah, I don't know. I love Tiana. I think Tiana's amazing. I love her in, like, during the ceremony, like when PTA won, just like, you know, giving him like the...

49:28David Sims:She was also standing one or directly, one person away from her directly next to DiCaprio who had just lost best actor, like vocally cheering on Jordan on stage. And I was like, great, good. You know, I used to, when I did the 20 years ago recaps, I became obsessed with how good Sharon Stone was at being at the Oscars. Just the most enthusiastic clapper, a great presenter who really took it seriously. She would do fun fashion things. And I'm like, Tiana Taylor, if you want to come back to these Oscars every year, because she's a great audience member. Yeah. I did call out, speaking of political speeches, I did call out when Amy Madigan won.

50:07David Sims:If she had real backbone, her and Ed Harris would stay in their seat refusing to clap for her own win. Yeah. Just arms crossed. I do wonder, you did okay in your belt? I think I missed five or six. I swung Sinners for Best Picture at the last second on a vibe. I went Stellan. I thought they were going to give him the Lifetime Achievement Award. I got the other three acting categories. I got director, both screenplays. I think I missed animated short. I missed casting, which was sort of a surprise. Well, I wanted to bring that up. One of the three that I missed. I missed four in the room because I switched to F1 winning editing for some reason.

50:44David Sims:But in my official predictions. The ones that counted. Anyway, but I think a lot of predictors, prognosticators, gold derbyites got casting wrong. Yeah. And I think part of that is that like Sinners has this amazing ensemble that probably had to be found more than like, you know, PTA making a few phone calls or Safdie making a few phone calls. It didn't win. And one battle did. And then it won Best Picture. And the question is like, OK, with this new category for the time being, is it just like, I don't know, whatever I'm voting for for Best Picture wins Best Casting. I said this in the room. I wondered if, because when that won, it felt like, oh, one battle has Best Picture locked.

51:27David Sims:Yeah. In the way it kind of used to for like editing or something. Right. There's always been this Oscar metric that editing and Best Picture line up more than any two other categories. Yeah. Because even directors sometimes they'll swing a different way to spread the love. But editing rarely swings to like an editing focused movie that doesn't happen to be the Best Picture front runner. and in the way that very often, not always, the SAG Ensemble Award feels like a good predictor of Best Picture because it represents the acting branch, which is far and away the biggest branch in the Academy. Is that going to be a one-to-one?

52:02David Sims:It might be a thing where it takes five to 10 years before we understand how the casting category works because, and they called this out in the presentation, which I thought was really good. They had an actor from each of the five nominated films talk about the casting director specifically, But they said it's like invisible architecture for these movies. And what is casting? Right. In which cases are you like their job was negotiating 10 difficult contracts? In which case is it you had to find one unknown person, discover a key star? In which cases is it the amount of cast? Is it the strength and the cohesion of the ensemble?

52:37David Sims:Is it like, you know, Marty Supreme is like five people, you know, and then like 50 speaking roles that are mostly street casting. Well, that's the thing is like when you watch Gwyneth Paltrow on stage talking, you know, at Jennifer Venditti, you're like, OK, but like, like, did Jennifer Venditti reach out to Gwyneth Paltrow? I'm assuming like sadly not, you know, like that movie has like three kind of real actors. Yeah, yeah. And then everyone else is someone you know for something else, but not really acting first and foremost, or people they literally, like, found in a park muttering to themselves.

53:10I mean, I think it just raises that question of, like, what are we talking about when we're talking about casting? And I do feel like One Battle had this thing that, like, the search for, yes, this, the heart of the movie, that was just such an irresistible story. So, like, even if, I think, like, my vote, if I had, like, you know, would probably go to The Secret Agent, which is, like, a movie that is, like, filled with these incredible faces. but yeah like it's so hard to be like you would have voted

53:34David Sims:for the only man yep exactly but it is the question I hate women it is the question of like right is this award going to represent best discovery is it going to represent best cast or is it going to represent some understanding of what made the casting director's job difficult right and I think one battle might have just the best mix of all three it's got a really really strong core ensemble of known actors it has this one big fresh face discovery who's probably going to be a movie star for decades to come and it also has a lot of people you've never seen before giving like five line performances who are like who is this interrogator turns out he's a real former interrogator you know both of the nurses you know these people who like really pop in these small moments it might just be the one that's checking all three boxes at once or it might just be that this category always lines up for best picture yeah we'll have to see we don't We only have one thing.

54:29David Sims:I mean, you know, maybe Paul Thomas Anderson called Jim Downey, but maybe the casting director called Tony Goldwyn, you know, or whatever. Yeah. But I think those were the ones I missed, plus documentary I predicted Perfect Neighbor instead of Putin. Yeah. Going back to the Amy Madigan win, I think that, you know, I mean, Sam Sanders would disagree, but you could say that Sanders is a horror movie. if that's the case two out of the four best best acting winners were from horror films and that is uh you know there have been horror winners in the past but it's it's rare and i do think that there's something being said perhaps about the industry that like these two great performances but in very successful financial you know films yeah from from in the genre space i i turned to you i think last night when we were watching it and i asked if like does madigan winning sort of blow the door open that unfortunately Toni Collette couldn't, you know, etc.

55:24David Sims:It was a fascinating moment because I feel like you're less hot on weapons and that performance but she wins and you turn to me and you're kind of smiling and you're like that is kind of cool. Like you had this moment of this does feel big beyond just her being an actress who's overdue, right? Like that's cool that someone won Best Supporting Actress for playing a witch and in a summer you know, blockbuster. Plays a vampire. It's part of his multi-class performance. Yeah, I mean, a vampire coming in in an incredible period sweater. There's a kind of silliness to that that is great that it can be part of it.

56:02David Sims:A vampire and a witch winning two of the four acting categories does feel representative of something. I think you're right. I think it's part of a larger kind of like, has the idea of elevated horror now settled into something more sustainable, right? But then is weapons elevated horror? No, I think now we've come back around to these movies don't have to dress them up in a certain sense of self-seriousness. They can be personal and they can be about something. But they can also exist as genre entertainment. Right. Be well made, but not have to be like we're not like these other horror films.

56:40David Sims:Because both of those movies engage in things that are very traditional, gory, silly, over the top, static. They're not kind of these very earnest. Austere. Sure. Yeah. They're not a 24. Yeah. But I will say, like, the Amy Madigan win does very much rhyme with Ruth Gordon winning. 100%. For a Rosemary's Baby. You know? So, like, there is precedent there as well. But also, that's so many decades ago. I know. No, it is. You can't even point to another performance in between that's close. Yeah. I saw some stat that in supporting actress Madigan is the first lone nominee winner. like she's the only nominee from her film since Vicky Cristina Barcelona which was practically 20 years ago.

57:21David Sims:That's the trend. I mean horror yes would be great but like in general I would love it if like you know in April or June or even November if any of us saw some great supporting or lead even performance and we're like wow that would be so cool if that got awards attention. In years past you know for decades we'd be like but that'll never happen. But now it's like for us was another one where you're just like this felt really close and how could they ignore this? Obviously, Daniel Kaluuya got in for Get Out, but that's him playing the straight man in a horror movie. It's an unbelievable performance.

57:52David Sims:But the person playing the creature, the big bad, you know? I will say, the real test of this will be if we can get any serious traction for Ralph Fiennes for 28 years later, Bone Temple. He is incredible. He's incredible. I think it needed to make more money. Yes. I'm still going to hold out for it. I mean, New York Film Critics Circle, but we could always... Yeah, we could make the case. But I mean, you should have been nominated this year for Supporting Actor and next year for... Yeah, yeah. But yeah, I don't know. I do like that... Yeah, like something like Sinners or something like One Battle, they do work as genre films.

58:30Yeah. You know, like there is no question that they work as entertainment.

58:33David Sims:And I think the big thing is they're not embarrassed to be genre films. Yeah. Yeah. And I think the only really traditional... Thank you. You know, in some sense, Oscar win of the major categories was Jesse Buckley for Hamnet, which, you know, it's funny that, you know, we did sort of couch our conversation weeks ago at this point as an Oscar villain narrative. And like, and now it's like, oh, why were we ever worried about that? Like, it was just going to win that. And yes, it's an old fashioned kind of movie and an old fashioned kind of win. But like, that's fine, because it it fit into the mix that the sort of collage of this year, way better than an initially.

59:10David Sims:seemed like it was going to and that's not to say that it didn't deserve to win other things um but like you know i think that all told hamnet winning best actress kind of passed by with a with no friction which is you know i think it was not what people thought you know a few months ago it felt like a fait accompli that it's like buckley's winning and otherwise the movie is like happy to be there and so any sort of animosity towards hamnet felt like it mostly dissipated right right I also, I think it was 2005 or 2006 is the year where Helen Mirren and Forrest Whitaker win the two lead categories.

59:47David Sims:And that was the last time, in my opinion, that like movies screen at the earliest festivals in the fall and immediately upon sight, people are like, they're winning. And then they just won uncontested. They won every precursor. It was like a done deal. And in those cases, it was like, yeah, Helen Mirren and Forrest Whitaker should have Oscars. No one's angry about this. It's fine. But there was a real lack of drama throughout that whole season. This year, at least the other three categories felt so up in the air that the Buckley thing didn't feel as boring. Yeah. And she's, you know, in a certain way, obviously, it's why give it to her now when they know they're going to have to give it to her for the bride as well next year.

1:00:29David Sims:They're sort of in a Tom Hanks situation of like, do you really want the same person winning two years in a row? That's the only criticism I would throw out. Well, no, but they'll give her, she is a producer on The Bride, so when Best Picture, they'll give her that. So, yeah, no, you're right. That is a tricky thing. Right, because she'll win lead actress, supporting actress for the other voice she does. For playing Mary Shelley, of course. I think they're just going to have a special Bride Oscars. Like, I think it's all the acting. Like, I think that. Here comes the motherfucking Oscars. I mean, actually, actually, The Bride probably, they could run in every category.

1:01:02David Sims:Sure, sure. The craft in that movie is very good. I do like that mental exercise sometimes. What if the qualifying period for next year's Oscars end tomorrow? Does the bride get into like 10 categories by default? And then you have a lot of Golden Globes. Certainly. You have a second year of people on the Oscar stage holding trophies, thanking Frankenstein.

1:01:28Hey, this is Ben Hosley, fashion correspondent for Critical Darlings. I've decided to give myself that title. So we have Chalamet and Givenchy wearing his big boy bar mitzvah look.

1:01:46Looking like, you know, a grown boy. You know, Tiana and Chanel and then Kidman also in Chanel and Demi and Gucci all rocking feathers. I thought they all looked really great I was hoping though when Demi presented That she would have done a bit where she spit out a feather Chase Infinity looks incredible And Louis Truly just like a lavender dream She's so young and just like really I'm so excited for her I think she really looked great on the red carpet it i haven't done this before this is funny i'm like i'm like really channeling joan right now michael b jordan i mean he always wears like stylized very like modern kind of cut sort of suits but to me the accessory other than the brooch chain wallet it.

1:02:57Pedro Sands mustache. Kind of crazy just to see his face like that. That's fucked up. Wearing a brooch. And I'm taking this joke from Richard, but it's worth repeating. uh wearing an ewa looking brooch a giant like dandelion like petal brooch uh so yeah had to shout that out conan all night he was wearing color which again men are always just so boring and I am really inspired where I want to get my own velvet sports jacket because he was wearing like a kind of midnight blue you know full velvet suit and it looks so good and then I want to end on Sigourney unfortunately the dress not so great to me it kind of looked like the optical illusion dress the one famously where people couldn't tell if it was a gold or blue i saw it as gold but i'll leave it to the listeners out there to make their own decision um but yeah that's that's my my fashion corner thanks ben yeah of course

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1:06:20I do think something that this year did well is that it folded a lot of the kind of anniversary tributes into the like being presenters. Like that made it so that I mean, I do love a montage as well. Yeah. But I feel like it does stop the thing dead, like momentum dead. And so instead to be like, we're going to get the bridesmaids, except for Wendy McClendon Covey, who iconically posted on Instagram during the ceremony, like the reason I'm not there is because I got a neck lift because, quote, I'm tired of looking like a melting candle. So I had to skip the Academy Awards. No drama. Everything is fine.

1:06:59David Sims:So you read that out, but I didn't hear the beginning where you said the name. So I thought you were saying that was Sean Penn's explanation for why he had missed the album. He's fine looking like a Melty. Yeah. Melty is his thing. Yeah. I always argue he looks more like a boot left out in the rain. Yeah. I mean, I agree that I think the Bridesmaids thing was really fun. Yeah. I thought that doubling up presenters doing two categories, I think, helped keep the show moving along. Moving along, yeah. Especially Downey Jr. and Evans, who were really just kind of charmed and funny. The chemistry between those guys really just made me long for Avengers.

1:07:34What's it called? I made some joke about it on Twitter. but like it's what it's called actually it is like

1:07:38David Sims:I mean maybe it doesn't matter because just RDJ was under rehearsed or whatever but like man 10 years ago when everyone's eating out of the palm of their hands like that would have gone over so well and this time it was like who what oh right you guys like the the superhero stuff like who get like it was just very interesting it feels like a mirroring of the response to the first Avengers Doomsday trailer revealing that Chris Evans was back and they clearly thought that was the ultimate mic drop And instead, the public kind of responded by like, has he not been in these? He was gone from them.

1:08:12David Sims:You know, it's the same thing where they're coming in like victory lap. Like, aren't you thrilled we're back together again? We're like, the culture has moved on. Add to the fact that like Robert Downey Jr. in the second bit made a magic mic joke. And it was like, what year do you think it is, my friend? And then they like throw to Chang Tatum in the audience and he nails his part. He gets like four successful laugh lines. Yeah, he saved the whole thing. He saved the thing. That said, it is something to watch, you know, either a bit that doesn't work like that or a bit that does, like The Bridesmaids.

1:08:43David Sims:And they go on for some length and then have literally the mic dropping and the lights going off when someone's in the middle of their acceptance speech. Yeah. Like, I did think there were some pretty rude cutoffs. Like five or six times. That also led to awkward television where people didn't know where to cut. Yes. They cut to Conan on the side. Like laughing. credit would just be like throwback to them. And then like the one for the golden win was just the most egregious where they just basically... Yeah, she spoke and then he was like... And they just like turned the lights off on him and pulled the camera back and were just like absolutely no way.

1:09:15Like there's just not... And they didn't budge. They cut to a wide shot

1:09:17David Sims:for 20 seconds as they turned the lights off for him and I'm like right now you're showing a silence from the back of the room. He could be finishing his speech. He wrote one of the things that's saving movies. This is golden winning best song. Like, this is why, like, 10-year-olds are tuning into the ceremony. And he's from Korea. Yeah. That felt ugly. And I guess one sort of hope for the YouTube Oscars in 2029, right, is that there won't be runtimes. You know, like, just let it go. There are downsides to that as well. But yes, I feel it. You don't want to be watching for five hours? Can we talk about In Memoriam briefly?

1:09:54David Sims:Because I think this also was a big reason there were less montages in other areas. is everyone just kind of new going into this. How are they even going to tackle it because it's been such a like red wedding 12 months of historic people that kept piling up. I thought they handled this really well. Yeah. I thought it was smart to kind of like do a few spin outs into like spotlight sections to start with the Rob Reiner thing with Billy Crystal. They're so emotional. Love that they skipped North. And then stopped at American and stopped. Yeah. And then they're like that was it. Yep. That is exactly why we have always said we can't cover him on Blank Check.

1:10:31David Sims:Because it gets really bad. Yeah. Yeah. After, like, 95. You know, after he, like, tragically died, a lot of our listeners were like, but you have to do him now. Right. And I'm like, it would be so rude to be like, and after 1997, we ignore. Just do it all the way up to his first presidential administration. Right. With Michael Douglas. Yeah. Stop. Yeah. No, it's tough when you're like, now we have to do LBJ starring Woody Harrelson. you know like shock and awe and you're like no he did like that stone cold run of masterpieces yeah which was important to call out I thought Crystal's speech was like beautiful it was and then having the cast members yeah it was lovely and then you go in I am sick of having Daphne Zuniga's presence at the Oscars every year year after year Daphne Zuniga's always there I mean it's Courtney Thorne Smith sometimes totally but basically the Melrose Place cast just needs to get away from the Oscars it's crazy It feels like sometimes Daphne Zunega gets thanked more than God at the Oscars with these heathens.

1:11:32David Sims:That's the kind of nation we live in. Yeah. But that was nice. I think Rachel McAdams was lovely. And she spoke to, you know, about, you know, Catherine O 'Hara, her fellow Canadian. Diane Ladd. And Keaton, because she was in Mourning Glory with her. And Family Stone. And Family Stone, of course. Right. Yeah. I thought that was nice. And then I guess we were talking while we were watching. We were like, okay, so who do they get for Redford? but then it seemed like, oh, Redford's just in the montage. She's just the last person in the final segment of the montage. And then Babs came out. Well, actually, Richard, she hates it when you call her that.

1:12:08David Sims:I don't know if you caught it. It was a subtle thread. She gave me permission, I thought. In her time. She gave only you permission. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, what a legend. I love that she comes on. She tells this, yes, lengthy story about the, and she's like, fine I will allow you Robert Redford to call me Babs and then she started singing uh she started singing in a way that was like she was at a lectern with a mic but then she had a hand mic and it was like stage man it's just better I'm sure she didn't really either show up for rehearsal or you know whatever it also felt like there had been rumors they're gonna have her sing memories as part of the in memoriam and it felt like the way it manifested on the final ceremony felt like there was a lot of back and forth of like, I don't know if I want to do it.

1:12:56David Sims:Maybe I want to sing a little bit. Maybe I just want to talk. We'll see how I feel. Yeah. Real, I'll see how I feel energy. It ended up, in a way I liked, feeling like a wedding toast. Of like, she's kind of going on and on and emotional. And then she grabs the mic and you're like, is she about to sing? If you start singing, you're like, is she going to sing the whole thing? Is she going to walk over to the band? And then it just kind of wrapped up. But I thought it was great. And it was in a show that had a lot of modernity to it and a very contemporary sense of comedy and all that and pacing even just to have this old fashioned kind of schmaltzy but meaningful sort of Oscar moment.

1:13:34David Sims:I think it was just the right amount of that in the show. Yeah, well, I mean, especially you're like watching her. I feel like you're just acutely aware of this thing that is has been causing panic in the industry for a long time, which is like you have this this class of like larger than life celebrities and movie stars and filmmakers in her case as well. who are all dying or older and there is this real question of we will never have that back. You may have a Timothee Chalamet but he is not going to be Robert Redford. He's not going to engender that same... Well, I was asking you guys last night and I'm not putting this out in the universe but it will happen 400 years from now When La Streep goes, they're just going to have to do a fucking 40-minute segment at the Oscars, right?

1:14:30David Sims:Because the most nominated actor in history, no one will ever beat that record, I don't think. I think that record is permanent. What are they going to do? But then you think about all the other people. What happens when Tom Hanks dies? What happens when— Tom Cruise. Yeah, well, he'll be able to die in an accident. In space. We started talking about this last night, and you said, actually, no, we have to keep this for 10 years. And the point I started to make was I think we're in a somewhat unique time where our octogenarians are still present. They are still active. They feel they are deceptively older than they feel.

1:15:10David Sims:You know, some of that's advancements in cosmetic work. Some of that is just people used to retire, you know, and it's like Cary Grant didn't make a movie for the last like two decades of his life. Greta Garbo, it was like four decades, you know. A lot of these people would retreat or they would just do one movie. They all like moved to Paris or like Topanga or something. They felt like elder statesmen who would mostly come out at the Oscars and remind you they were still alive. And when they died, it was sort of sad. But it was, of course, they've exist as. Right. You've been prepared for it.

1:15:39David Sims:They feel like former presidents. Right. And there is a class of people who are all like in their 80s. And a lot of them have started going. But like De Niro and Pacino and. Dustin Hoffman. And Nicholson. And we've lost Hackman and Duvall and Diane Keaton and all these people recently who still feel very present to us, who still feel modern and active even though they are historic. They're not stuck in the past, which I think is going to make it feel all the more shocking when they go. and we're just living through a time now where we have people who tragically are gone far too soon and people where we almost aren't conscious of the fact that they are now entering or close to entering their ninth decade.

1:16:23David Sims:I mean, yeah, it's something that I sort of briefly touched on when I wrote up the show is that like, we just have to steel ourselves that these in memoriam bits are going to be hard ones for the next, you know, 15 years. Like, it's going to be every year is not going to maybe not as big as this one fell because it just happened to be, you know, an extinction-level event. But, like, it's going to be rough, you know. And like you said, Allison, like, there's not a ton of iconography coming up behind them. Yeah. Not in the same way. We're just not going to have that kind of relationship with... Just doesn't exist.

1:16:58David Sims:Yeah. It's just different. Can we, before we bring on our special guest, I wanted to speedrun a few topics. Yeah. The two live musical performances, how did we feel about them? I thought they were both excellent. I mean, I always think it's a little rude when they don't let the other nominees perform, especially, you know. You didn't want to hear the aria? It would have been good TV, even if no one has heard of this movie. Well, I was joking that Angelina Jolie should have just come out on stage to do it. Like, you said you sang live for Maria, so let's prove it. Right, now's your time. I mean, Train Dreams would have, it would have been a bit like when poor Elliot Smith got sort of like pushed out on stage to perform the Good Will Hunting song.

1:17:40David Sims:And he was like, what am I doing at the Oscars? But, like, you know, Amy Mann always talks about, like, how getting to perform at the Oscars that year basically made her career. You know, she's still touring off of that. Obviously, she had an illustrious career before that point, but there was a level of mainstream exposure that an Oscar nomination gives a musician that is unique. Yeah. Yeah. But I appreciated the showmanship of these two, where they basically staged both the numbers, I Lied to You from Sinners and Golden, like, a bit, like, like they were in the movie, but also to be like, this is going to be, these are here because it makes for a good show.

1:18:14David Sims:Yeah, it was, it had NBC live musical event energy in a good way. Yeah. Where you wanted to see how are they going to pull this off. Yeah, and I love the audience with the lights for Golden. Like seeing like Gwyneth Paltrow, like, it was, yeah, that was fun. Yeah. How about the orchestra playing the scores live for the nominees? Because I loved that. I mean, I love that. I sometimes do wish they would give a little more time to that. Like, like the 20 years ago that I recapped Itzhak Perlman plays selections from each nominated score like and I was like well they're really giving the scores they're due it maybe does eat up a lot of time but yes some sort of nod like that is I think kind of key yeah I mean just like having the orchestra I like I mean that kind of like showmanship and involving the orchestra like Conan did with like the Marty Supreme joke and you know the bum drum yeah the tie for Best Live Action Short Very rare occurrence.

1:19:09David Sims:Seventh total? Yeah. Seventh total? Yeah. How do we feel about the way it was announced? I think we all felt sort of pity for the other four, because he's like, we're going to call one winner, and they're going to go up to the stage. And then the other four were like, oh, wait, did I win? Suddenly I have a one in four chance, but also if they don't call my name, I know I didn't even come in second place. Right. I can't even comfort myself with that. um it was good showmanship it made for an exciting tv moment and canale was a good person to be stuck in that situation because he was able to throw out like five good off-the-cuff jokes about it yeah no it i think it was and it was exciting um and you know the a funny sort of bit of cosmic irony that the shorts took really long you know i don't know um i i we were talking like so the the most famous probably tie was barbara streisand and katherine hepburn barbara streisand won for funny girl right yeah um and luckily katherine hepburn never went to the oscars she she was hanging never did she used to have sean penn over to the house of denicate and they'd smoke cigarettes and talk about whatever no but so so streisand got to give a speech as if she was the sole winner but when you have both winning parties there it gets a little hairy yes uh i appreciated kumail's just a like, don't panic.

1:20:27Like, this is what we're going to do. He really, you know. Yeah, I wonder if they had told him beforehand.

1:20:31David Sims:Yeah, I kind of hope so. Bill Pullman and Lewis Pullman. What was up with that? I mean, he's, Lewis Pullman's really hot. I don't know. I just felt like they're, you would be like, their timing just felt so off throughout that. And you're like, do you guys just not talk that much? It's like two dry guys. Yeah, exactly. And their sensibility and their humor who maybe need a more boisterous person to play off of. I also think it's just like the third rail of the Nepo conversation where almost any time a Nepo tries to address it head on, it just makes everyone more uncomfortable. Yeah. It's a little bit of like a Kobayashi Maru no-win discussion.

1:21:09David Sims:Yeah. And also Lewis Pullman is not famous enough. I think if Ann Lee had been like a player at the Oscars and he's like, oh, he's one of our characters this year, Lewis Pullman, it would have worked better. And maybe they had even like booked him before. Like, I don't know. Is there some percentage of audience members who are only realizing for the first time when they come out on stage, oh, right, those guys do have the same face? I saw several posts on social media to that effect. Right. Like, oh, I never put that together. And it's like, okay. So the joke doesn't work if people are learning that information for the first time.

1:21:40David Sims:Lewis Pullman's a very familiar face at this point, but maybe not a household name by name. And Bill Pullman is infamously the guy who was always confused with Bill Paxton, where even though he is a historic that guy, there is a little bit of a, oh, wait, they're both named Pullman thing. Yeah. Yeah. Bill Pullman, I mean, he has a new movie that was at Berlin. I saw it at Berlin. He's wonderful. It's like one of his best performances. Yeah. But it's been a little while since he's just, he's been floating around in public awareness. He's trying to get gin up support for the Casper sequel, legacy sequel.

1:22:11yeah um who had better speech laughter jesse buckley with the giggles or amy madigan with

1:22:18David Sims:the cackles oh gotta go cackles yeah yeah yeah um was timothy chalamet ragged on enough about the ballet comments i think just the right amount just the right amount yeah yeah i agree he had this yeah i mean i look we talked about it last week he his sentiment i don't disagree with he just phrased it badly. But he did have to sit there and like he like it was a requirement of the evening that he get a little bit of direct, you know, fire for that. And yeah, I think it was just the right amount. Yeah. And finally, did anyone else think about when Paul Thomas Anderson admitted that there was a pleasure to having the Oscar in his hand?

1:22:58Did anyone else think about Fiona Apple's story about how he threw a chair across the room when they were watching the 1998 awards together because he lost to Matt Damon and Ben Affleck for a screenplay for Good Will Hunting.

1:23:11David Sims:I did think about his Oscars in the past, you know, like the famous, you know, Fiona Apple sort of making fun of the winner, whatever. Well, you know, they're sulking in the audience. But I also think that in a way, it's nice to think about that past because like, I think that he's shown a lot of that he's matured as a filmmaker and a person. And it's like, you can be the brash young thing and then you know time and experience changes you it comes full circle back to the chalamet conversation too which is just like this guy was a prodigious talent and the oscars were like you're so convinced you're a genius we don't want to give you that validation yet and it felt like we're already dealing with enough fucking quentin tarantino dude just sit just wait okay right right yeah it felt like he had settled into the exact right place.

1:24:00David Sims:Yeah. In terms of his own, I don't know, relationship with himself and his work. I also, I appreciate the candor of it without it being a like, finally, it's about time. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I think clearly everyone in that room wants to win. That's a thing. Yeah. You know, people come up. Except for Emma Stone. Except for Emma Stone, who was clearly like, please, I'm actually kind of surprised she went in a way. Yeah. Like, I'm sure she was just there to like support the film, but it was kind of like, just don't let her. Just don't. Yeah, yeah. No, No, but I think a lot of people get up on stage and go, oh, my God, I never believe this could possibly happen.

1:24:33David Sims:And it's like you don't really go into any film related line of work without at one point going like, what if I won an Oscar someday? Thinking about what your speech would be. I don't think that I don't has thought about it. Eight trillion times. I don't think that Kate Hudson would bring her husband Grogu to the event if she didn't think there was a chance she would. Right. What a couple, though. A beautiful couple. I just don't want it to think about that. There was some puppeteer hiding under a fake auditorium seat. They like, what am I doing?

1:25:10David.

1:25:11David Sims:Yes. We're trying to thoughtfully build a wardrobe. That's right. You know, you want premium fabrics and you want considered design. You want every. That's true. And they should be everyday essentials that feel effortless to wear. Yeah. And dependable. Even as the seasons change, as they are doing currently in New York. They've got lightweight cashmere sweaters. I've got a couple of those. They got short-sleeved Mongolian cashmere polos. I think I might need to get some of those. Linen bottoms, shorts, tees, and 100 % pima cotton. I won't settle for 99. European jersey linen. All kinds of versatile pieces that make a wardrobe work season to season.

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1:26:30Don't keep settling for clothes that don't last. Go to quince.com slash check for free shipping and 365 day returns. Quince.com slash check.

1:26:48Is it time?

1:26:49David Sims:I think so. We're going to do a very special segment, a kind of award segment of its own, an award ceremony of its own. The great Rebecca Alter from Vulture and popcorn critic extraordinaire has cultivated for us a look at the best, the Academy Award nominees of 2026 represented in popcorn buckets. Amazing.

1:27:17We are honored to have Rebecca Alter here, Popcorn Bucket correspondent extraordinaire, to run us through the rarefied Popcorn Bucket award season offerings. Thank you so much. This is the only aspect of the Oscars I feel qualified to comment on at all. and something exciting about this year is this is probably the first year where something like half the nominees for Best Picture had a corresponding promotional popcorn.

1:27:51David Sims:Because last year was just Brutalist, right? Right, of course, and it was the model. Yeah. If they had really made that, it would have been the best collector's item of all time. It is really fun in a sort of Oscars party menu way to imagine what the bucket would be for each thing. For each one. Sentimental value is like the father's head morphing into the daughter's. Hamnet. Oh, yeah. Hamlet is a... It's just a child's body. What if it's like the dead hawk and like that kind of... Oh, jeez. Right. No, it's the skull that Hamlet holds. Sure, sure. Oh, duh. Well, speaking of skull, we could start with that, which is one that was really difficult to acquire, like on the black market, secondhand market, eBay, which was Netflix's Frankenstein bucket.

1:28:37David Sims:Oh, because barely a theatrical release. I mean, it did have some theatrical points. And apparently did fairly well, given the Netflix of it all. Now, apparently when it was screening at the Egyptian, they gave the buckets out to people for free for the opening weekend. Here at the Paris in New York, they did no such thing. They put it up on their website. It sold out really quickly. And eBay, it was going for hundreds of dollars. And also for a while, the Internet was riddled with 3D printed fakes. People were ordering buckets and subpar quality. This is shocking. Wait, will you talk us through what this looks like?

1:29:14So it is sort of a pretty generic looking skull. I like the detail on the eyeballs, which are sort of rolled into the back of the head. You don't normally see a skull with eyeballs. Yeah, I have some questions about that, but yeah. And of course, the most delightful thing about this is the popcorn coming out of the head looks like brains. That is good. Yeah, yeah.

1:29:34David Sims:Now, it is not a representation of Frankenstein's monster. It is seemingly just like a prop recreation of another experiment Victor Frankenstein has in his lab, which feels like a slightly weird choice. I think we'd all love to eat out of a Lordy's skull. Absolutely. Some of us have. Or even, do you know what, like that one guy that he has open with the spine exposed on the table. Like that would have, I would have loved to have eaten out of that exposed spine area. Oh, that would have been great out of a table. Yeah, yeah. This is actually the one out of the 10 Best Picture nominees I haven't seen.

1:30:05So I'm just taking everyone's word at it. There's a ship? There is a ship.

1:30:10David Sims:And if you went to the Egyptian and you asked, if you knew to ask for it, you could eat popcorn out of Christoph Waltz. Like he would just be there. He was there. He had to hang out. Essentially feed you popcorn. You can sort of fit him in your lap. Next best picture I'll bring up is, of course, the Marty Supreme bucket. Had a real viral moment. A24 on the back. Dream big on the front. It is the orange ping pong ball, which played a big role in the marketing. doesn't hold a ton of popcorn. I gotta say also, the hole is a little small. I feel like it would, you know, getting your hand in there would be a little bit difficult in the dark.

1:30:48David Sims:I don't know. Would anyone like some popcorn from a screening of The Secret Agent 24 hours ago? Oh, wow. Okay. You're like, oh, wow, it's fresh. I'm okay. Thank you. I feel like you talk a lot about in your bucket reviews, the sort of accessibility, right? Literally, like, how easy is it to get popcorn in here and get popcorn out of here with your hand. This does feel, despite the opening being narrow, it's a clean, unobstructed design. Your hand did go in clean. It did. It's a clean hand. Also, I mean, like, I appreciate that you can close it and then travel with the popcorn. Yes. Like, that is a nice feature.

1:31:24And I love that it's just a sphere. I think this is very elegant, and it speaks to the sort of... The round themes of the movie. The round themes, the spherical themes. This is the ovum from the opening credits. Nice.

1:31:38David Sims:So this is the really, like, elegant, bespoke, you know, this is the, yeah. The tasteful one. Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is, like, the hype beast bucket for sure. Yeah. All right. Another bucket that we have in studio. I'll veer away from Best Picture ones for a bit. That's fine. And I'll just call out, I tried to, out of the blank check production funds, purchase the two other Best Picture nominated buckets. The F1 helmet and the Sinner's guitar case. And both of them were purchased over 10 days ago and have yet to arrive. I've been getting constant delivery updates that they're running behind. So thankfully, I'll just have these buckets arriving probably the second this record finishes.

1:32:20They're still printing the 3D models.

1:32:22David Sims:Yes. But here's a common complaint I've read from bucket fans, and I've spent a lot of time on r slash buckets, as I assume you do as well. the Marty Supreme the Frankenstein the Sinners and the F1 have a commonality which is too small is the complaint and very often the collectible bucket is supposed to be equivalent to a large popcorn and you're getting that amount of popcorn inside in my bucket reviews I also do measure how many cups can fit into each bucket and correspond that to you know is that a large is that a medium a lot of them come with a large that's just in a separate bad, so it's defeating the purpose in the theater kind of.

1:33:02I feel like people aren't even opening half of these in the theater.

1:33:05David Sims:No, they're, yeah. But I do think Marty specifically came with a small. Like, they're sort of channeling skinny Timmy. Sure, sure. Yeah, yeah. He just does not look like a guy who is eating a large popcorn in that movie. So, I appreciate it. Dream big, eat small. Exactly. Dream big, eat small. Next up, we have a Best Animated nominee. And maybe, you know, counterintuitively to the bucket game, there were not many buckets of animated films this year because a lot of them you know that we had two sort of europeanrd ones we had helio which i don't think it was not very merchandisable well they were putting all their effort behind stitch at the time there was stitch stuff um and k-pop was netflix yeah yeah i do find it a little offensive just circling back to frankenstein for a second when netflix throws their hat into the bucket game where i'm like you don't get to do this if you're telling us to stay at home.

1:33:58David Sims:I have my own bowls. Exactly. These are the in-theater experience. This is part of it. Okay, so we have Gary DeSnake. It's very cute, I think. This is my first, you know, I learned about the character through the bucket before I saw the film and was instantly endeared to him. He's coiled around the popcorn. It's elegant. Yeah, I like that. It's a classic bucket and it's a kind of earned organic design. I like anything where you can pretend to feed the bucket creature by putting the popcorn in his mouth. That's actually a huge deal. You can do that here. Voiced by former Oscar winner, Kihi Kwan.

1:34:35Yeah.

1:34:36David Sims:A very anointed bucket. Great performance, yeah. So I'll add that there. There was another Zootopia bucket I saw at a Cinemark. It was the little Italian-coded rats walking into a little movie theater. That's good. And I thought that was very fun. Next up. We have the two-in-one Jurassic World Rebirth, which is a sippy cup. And this is very involved. Wait, so just to... It looks like a water pick. To really describe it, it's got a clear plastic case to encase the dinosaur fetus. A test tube dinosaur fetus. Yeah, it's an incubator. And then on the side is like, what is that supposed to be? Well, so it detaches and sort of almost looks like an 80s cell phone.

1:35:32Yeah, I was going to say, it has like a walkie-talkie vibe. But that's like the drink. It has the classic logo on the side. Sure, sure. But so when you put the popcorn, you have to go around the fetus. Yes. And when the light was still working, you know, it's sort of lit from underneath. Sure. I found there to be a horrible plastic taste to this one. Even popping the top open, you get a sort of plastic smell.

1:36:00David Sims:Do you remember the price point on this? It was probably in the 50s. Okay. That's high. Yeah, yeah. But it is pretty elaborate. Yeah, I mean, I appreciate the idea of it. It just feels functionally like it would be inadequate. Is this well-liked in the collector community, this one, the Jurassic one? I think so, and certainly compared to some of the other Jurassic bucket offerings, which one other was like a generic dino head. So this is clearly like— You reviewed that one, and that one was—yeah, it certainly lacked. Yeah, it just doesn't compare. But speaking of expensive, I will get to another effects nominee, effects winner, which is the Avatar-fired ash banshee bucket, which—does anyone want to guess how much this cost?

1:36:47I feel like Griffin knows off the top. $80? Yeah. Really? Yeah.

1:36:51David Sims:That was my guess as well. Oh, wow. So this was an$80 bucket. It is, of course, a banshee, which are also known as, are they Ikron? The mighty Ikron. The mighty Ikron. Yeah. Which are the dragon-type things that they ride in the movie. And it has a basket strapped to it with a sort of harness a la something the wind traders that we were introduced to in the third movie would craft. and it is carrying popcorn and it also looks like a very inadequate amount of popcorn, especially for a movie of that length. Seriously, you'd have to go back at least twice to get refills. Especially that size. We had a miscommunication where I thought you had the bucket and you thought I had this bucket.

1:37:30David Sims:I, in fact, purchased every bucket that came out for the way of water, all of which now live permanently in the display of the blank check offices. But this was the regal one, which is pretty minimalistic, but I liked. It's just kind of a translucent blue water bowl, but it lights up. It has a nice bioluminescence. I love that. Then, or no, I'm sorry, that was AMC. Regal had this tin bucket covered with, oh, Regal, come on. Details of the water life. It has a kind of time on it. What you must understand is that, was this 2022? It was a different era. We had not, you know, we had not entered this type of territory making these elaborate molded things.

1:38:08Even the dune bucket, people don't remember they have cultural amnesia about this. It is just a tin bucket. It is a normal tin bucket with a fun topper on it.

1:38:19David Sims:But this was the one that I really liked. I think this was Cinemark because I had to get it online. No Cinemark's in the tri-state area. But it's the Banshee's Nest, which I thought was a really good form factor. Yeah. I mean, it recalls a bit, you know, this— Gary DeSneak. Yeah, Gary DeSneak. Becca, can you show off the images of the sinners and the F1 that did not arrive in time? Yes, I absolutely can. Man, I've got Sinners. Sinners, and this is tin? This is tin. It's a guitar key. It looks huge. It's covered in as if it were stickers, every poster for Sinners. Okay. But it is weirdly not super big.

1:38:57David Sims:It's like ukulele size. It's smaller than ukulele size. Okay. The other thing is this was not a product available when the movie came out. It was when they re-released it. They put it back in IMAX theaters, I think, in January, which speaks to how much maybe everyone was taken by surprise the massive success of Sinners. Because when it came out it was just the Lola Kirk bucket, right? Yes. Yes. It was just her skull. Okay, beautiful. And we have F1 which I will pull up. Again, another sort of head. Yeah, so this is the helmet. A lot of heads. I actually have upstairs a Project Hail Mary helmet that looks beautiful.

1:39:34All right. I do like that the visor allows you to see the popcorn inside. It's nice. Yeah, that's a nice touch. Like the lid is on top, a la the Marty Supreme, kind of like that kind of lid. But you can see the popcorn.

1:39:48David Sims:I also, I appreciate, that's the best of both worlds of, you want visibility of the popcorn. But if there were a micro Brad Pitt skull inside that you had to root around. Yeah, that's just awkward. I mean, it would be a fascinating choice. But the implications about what happens to Brad Pitt's character in F1 would be significant. but I do think next year every movie should just have a skull of one of the actors. That's a good point. Yeah, it's a classic. It never goes wrong. No one battle bucket this year. Sinners took a long time to get there. We had four out of 10 Best Picture nominees which feels like major progress.

1:40:21David Sims:For sure. But there's so much further we can go. You could get the Train Dreams pot of beans if you went to see it. Do you have outside of the Oscar nominees a pick for what the Best Bucket of 2025 was? I mean a really exciting moment in Buckets last year was It's up there on the shelf, Galactus Galactus, theater of worlds It was also$80 but he is half as tall as me or more Can we bring it down quickly? Is that possible? For those listening at home it's the Galactus head It's Ralph Innocent's skull It is another skull but it's huge It's truly bigger than your head There are some helmet wings that come out on either side.

1:41:05He also lights up. The button is tastefully hidden. Oh, that's lovely. Yeah, the eyes light up.

1:41:12David Sims:And I respect, you know, you're someone who lives in a city, and I don't know that you have a car, but, like, this is designed for someone to put in their car after a movie. Right, right. Not to carry on the subway. You have to fold down the third row of seats in the car. I do like the idea of someone trying to eat it in the theater, and you would be bumping both of your neighbors all of the time. Yeah, this would be very antisocial. Kids in the movie wouldn't be able to see over. No. That cost$80 as well? That cost$80 as well. And there I really do see the value because that could become an amazing planter.

1:41:40Is that the current ceiling for pricing for now? Nothing surpassed that. For now, but it's so interesting to see these 2022 ones and they're all priced at$20,$24.

1:41:49David Sims:It does feel, yeah, things have changed. My favorite bucket of last year, which I might be wrong here, I don't think is one that you got, but from the same film, the Herbie bucket from Fantastic Four. Oh, yeah. I believe was only$50. It has sounds. You press a button, it plays a sample of the Michael Giacchino score. Wow. You push a different button, it projects the Fantastic Four logo onto a wall. It's exactly what you want during a movie. A hundred percent. And it had three compartments. Three compartments. So included in the$50 was your choice of candy, popcorn, and soda. His head is the soda with a straw on top.

1:42:27David Sims:And then his body, the front is for candy. The back is for popcorn. So I sat in a theater with a robot on my lap pouring all these things into it because I insisted this is how this film is supposed to be watched. You need to be eating and drinking out of him and then just had to carry it around with me for an entire day. I love that it's fun. I love that it's interactive. I got a SpongeBob one last year that has a viewfinder in it. Good. And the thought of sitting at a movie and like doing viewfinder. Well, that's a great type of sort of old school second screen. Yeah. I appreciate that all of these are, of course, like the most important part of supporting the theatrical experience.

1:43:04Like, you've got to come so you can get your expensive collectible. Yeah.

1:43:08David Sims:Another one that was really good on the same lines, Mission Impossible, the final reckoning, had a lot of buckets. But I know the ones at AMC, it was the cup had binoculars on top, like spy binoculars. Sure. Which I tried to use during an IMAX screening as if they were opera glasses. Oh, perfect. Don't tell to me. It harkens back to like Inspector Gadget Happy Meal toys where they were all little spy toys. Yes. I was thinking of another, but I forgot it. But one more sort of a bucket that came out last year that I am claiming for one of the Best Picture nominees is it was the 50th anniversary of Jaws.

1:43:46And we got an incredible Jaws bucket.

1:43:48David Sims:Perfect. And that, you know, major motif in The Secret Agent. Yes. No, it's very relevant. So I'm saying this is The Secret Agent. Absolutely. I like it. We got to five out of ten. Perfect. And like with Gary the Snake, you can make him munch the popcorn. Yeah. Oh, perfect. And that's, you know, classic design. You want to put your hand in Jaws' mouth. Just not your leg. Just not your leg. If I'm not mistaken, the teeth are kind of rubbery, right? No, the teeth are sharp. Oh, I like that. I like that. The threat of injury makes the popcorn more delicious. You have to work for it. Dune had the rubbery philandos.

1:44:23David Sims:Well, that's because it was, yeah. Well, yeah. It's being used in different ways. But yeah, I think that's my favorite. I also think that if you wanted, you could mount it on the wall. Oh, head out. Oh, sure. Oh, that's great. That's lovely. There was also a naked gun beaver that would look really handsome on a mantle. We could also, we could reclaim that as a train dreams bucket as well. It's him chomping on a log, right? Yeah, he's got a little stump. Oh, I love that scene where Joel Edgerton eats that log as well. It's so beautiful. I like that. The future maybe of Popcorn Buckets is repurposing them for smaller movies.

1:44:57Yeah. Like we can go rogue. We don't need to stick with established branding.

1:45:02David Sims:Is there anything you'd like to say to the bucket companies in terms of what you think they can do better going into the future? What you'd like to see in 2026? I mean, I don't know if it's possible, but whatever happened with the rubber plastic smell and taste here was a real misfire. So I would like them to be using, I don't know, food-grade plastic. A fair ask, yeah. Imagine recycled plastics. A possibility? Probably not. We can't have it all. Not from InGen. They're a corrupt, horrible company. It's their slogan, actually, which is weird. Just InGen, we're evil. And I would love them to not, you know, let's try to keep it at 80.

1:45:46People are strapped. People already complain. Times are tough, yeah. People already complain about, oh, you're taking a family of four to the movies and with the this and the that and the that, it's like$200. They will use these as further fuel to make that complaint, which is not helping.

1:46:01David Sims:I think the Herbie model is a way to look forward, too, of don't charge$80 for an amount of popcorn you couldn't possibly finish within the runtime of a movie. If you're getting over 50, at least have it tackle multiple areas of concessions. Sure. Give me the all-in-one. Yeah. And I will always prefer a sort of custom molded thing with nice little details, like the sort of scarring and the gills on the shark, for example. Yeah, it's well made. Versus, like, this even has the look of those 3D printed dragons that people sell on Etsy. I like quirk. Personalize it. Yeah. Give us some texture. Well, this is a great recap of the year.

1:46:43I think this is the only important recap of the year in movies. So, thank you.

1:46:46David Sims:I hadn't seen most of these before so I'm into them. You're doing the work. Thank you for coming here. Keep doing the work. What the movies are really about. Of course. Merch. We all know that.

1:47:01All right.

1:47:02David Sims:I mean, guys, award season is over. This means we'll never be able to see each other again. That's it. We're done. We're no longer darlings. Or we could keep going. We could keep going. You know, there are other movies coming out. No. Like for the whole rest of the year. I mean, awards movies? Well, maybe. Some are saying already. I mean, nothing could top The Bride. Well, sure. And of course, we are going to do the spinoff podcast about The Bride. Yeah. But you know, there are movies like, I don't know, Project Hail Mary that some people are already kind of being like, well, reserve a spot in the Best Picture 10 for that one.

1:47:38David Sims:You know, who knows what else is coming this spring? The Cannes Film Festival might reveal some things to us. So we kind of figured, like, why not keep going and talking about stuff that's coming out in new movies? I'm game if you are. Yeah. I compared it last night to Howard Dean giving his speeches of the states he was playing with. We're going on to Patrick DelMere. We're doing a Super Mario Galaxy movie. Yeah, exactly. Exactly. And that worked out very well for him, as we all know. Yeah, he's our patron saint. Yeah, I mean, look, there's a lot to talk about that will, you know, not necessarily always bend back to the awards, you know, campaign and all that.

1:48:17David Sims:But like, but often these days you can make the case for a lot of different things. Yeah, but I think we would love to continue talking about new releases and taking the same tactic we have here, which is to put them in this kind of larger context in which they're arriving. Not always awards, sometimes awards, but also just, just how are they landing? And like, what? Like, how are we looking at that? And what does it represent in sort of the state of the industry right now, which I think you guys have done a great job of doing sort of what is the larger conversation behind each of these movies.

1:48:47David Sims:Yeah. Like I think one topic for Project Hail Mary might be like the strategy behind like showing a movie to this group of people three weeks out and then another group of people one week, you know. Or the idea of the quote unquote four quadrant movie, you know, like the movie that can please a whole family. men over 40 men under 40 rock monster fans and sandra hula fans yeah that's it those are the classic the classic demographics out there yeah yeah anyway so we're gonna do it uh you know same you know once a week kind of thing and um what we're gonna do is uh we'll be covering new releases the week after they come out so you'll have an opportunity we'll tell you what we're going to talk about the following week you'll have an opportunity to see it that way we're also helping keep the theaters alive, hopefully.

1:49:36Also, and if there are sometimes movies that are getting a platform release, we'll try and give a bit more time there so that it's not just open.

1:49:43David Sims:No, I don't only want New York and not LA listeners. I don't care about anyone else. Yeah, screw the rest of you guys. Sorry. Coastal elites. So we will try and give enough windows so that you can see the movies and join us, you know, to talk about them. Yeah, we want to be talking about these things together. And we should also acknowledge that up until this point, Critical Darlings has, of course, lived in the safe banshee's nest of the Blink Check feed. But moving on to this next stage, Critical Darlings is going to exist as its own standalone feed. So it is very important to say the thing.

1:50:14David Sims:Sarah Jessica Parker showed up because Kathy Bates and Terry Bradshaw hired her and now we are no longer a failure to launch. We're going to have our own apartment. Exactly. But to say the rote thing, but really mean it this time, please subscribe. And we're going to put links to the new podcast feed in the description of this episode. So if you want to go click down there right now and subscribe, that would really mean a lot to us. We're really excited about moving forward. Please do. Please find our new feed and subscribe if you would like to continue joining us on this journey. Yeah, we're going to have great conversations, great guests.

1:50:54We'll have people from the blank check extended cinematic universe. Absolutely. And beyond. And it's going to be a great time.

1:51:02David Sims:And I just want to quickly call out because the sinners and the F1 popcorn buckets did not arrive in time. But there was another big production cost, production value cost I put down at the beginning of this run. Yeah. Which, you know, has gone. We try not to put too much of an emphasis on it. Yeah. But this incredible kind of set dressing that I contributed. Yes. The day before our first record. These are these beautiful set of trophies. from trophy world in brooklyn yeah and peter at trophy world who hooked me up they had just moved locations they were truly like active construction site setting up their new home and he was like everything's in boxes i have these three lying around and i was like perfect i'll take them but if we can grab those off the back line quickly i want to award the three of you oh my goodness and much like the oscars and people i don't know if they know this when you win an academy award they hand you the statuette without any kind of plaque inscription right right and then after you give your speech you go to some back alley and some guys like how do you spell right paul thomas anderson um but i i would just like to quickly award the three of you uh ben frisch uh an award for the best ben ducer in podcasting critical darlings division Richard Lawson best co-host in a leading role oh thank you this might well pick up yes and then Allison best leading co-host oh thank you it means a lot to me I've practiced this speech a lot and I deserve it is what I wanted to say and screw the rest of you losers can we give an honorary award also to Anne the great Anne Victoria Clark who has been so patient with us in doing these recordings here in the Vox offices.

1:52:56David Sims:We are actively at work at a gift of appreciation for you, Anne, that is not just an oversized trophy. So know that something will be coming soon. It's a smaller trophy. It's a smaller trophy. All right, so all that said and done, no more talk of 2025 movies. We're moving to the future. We're going to space. Next week, we'll be back here and a new feed talking about Project America.

1:53:24Critical Darlings is a Blank Check production in association with Vulture. Hosted by Alison Wilmore and Richard Lawson. Produced by Benjamin Frisch. Executive produced by Griffin Newman and Neil Janowitz. Video production and distribution by Anne Victoria Clark, Wolfgang Ruth, and Jennifer Jean. Hey! Opa! to critical darling to critical darling long missy rain

1:53:57make a speech hey make a speech speech speech speech speech speech speech speech

1:54:04David Sims:this is the best thing that's ever happened from a drunk tech message that I sent to Griffin and David after I lost my job but seriously actually I didn't think they would take it seriously but they did It's been super fun so far. Yeah, yeah. We're not done. We're going to keep going, hopefully, in some fashion, right? Yeah, now you've got to do the Howard Dean yell. Go to tell me! Tomorrow goes away! And we can announce our third host, Timothy Chalamet.