The Eleventh Annual Blank Check Awards with Joe Reid

6:49Griffin Newman:Panahi. Yeah. I don't know. You know, F1 is nominated for Best Picture. It is. It made your list. Yeah. It was the 14th highest grossing domestic release. Don't say it made my list. It made the medley. That's what I'm saying. That's what I'm saying. It's not good. It's just hitting the top of it. So Sinners made more money than it. Yeah. Yeah. So like if you're, you know, if you're wringing your hands over like, oh, we needed a blockbuster though. It's like, well, Sinners. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not mad. I'm just saying. I was just sort of looking, being like, was there another blockbuster they could have nominated?

7:19David Sims:What were the final totals on them?

7:21Griffin Newman:On which? On Sinners and F1? Sinners versus F1. It's domestic, so not worldwide.

7:25David Sims:No, I know, but worldwide did F1 beat Sinners? Oh, I think definitely.

7:29Griffin Newman:Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. That was my question. Because F1 made so much worldwide.

7:31Joe Reid:Oh, yeah, I mean, that was the rationale, too.

7:33Griffin Newman:F1 made 633 worldwide. The International Academy members. And Sinners made 369. but Domestic Sinners is 279 to F1's 189 that's all I just you know they could have nominated Superman I don't know or Avatar there's not really a lot else

7:50Joe Reid:particularly when the juice for both Avatar and Wicked kind of ran out at the same time it did feel like a lot of people were mentally

8:01David Sims:holding a slot for one if not both and then when Wicked fell through they were like well obviously the slot is Avatar Yeah, a little bit.

8:09Joe Reid:I remember, because I covered for my colleague...

8:11Griffin Newman:Post Thanksgiving, it was like, it'll be avatars. And then post Christmas, it was like, I hear a car rumbling. Yeah, yeah.

8:16David Sims:But also, a bunch of male married Oscar voters were at their ballot, right? Licking the quill. As they do. To make the ink well, right? Right. About to write in Avatar, Fire, and Ash. And then they hear the old battle axe wife with a rolling pin. As she does. Ah, you better not be voting for the Vrang. Don't you vote for the LeVang I'm sorry

8:40Griffin Newman:Oscar voters are married to Italian nannas With rolling pins

8:47Joe Reid:That's what all the cast members from the Nonas I give you 40 children I wash your socks

8:51Griffin Newman:No wonder they're all having affairs Or whatever If the wife at home is like And the husband goes

9:01David Sims:I work all day mixing the sound I work my fingers to the bone I vote to the LeVang

9:07Griffin Newman:okay uh welcome to our 2020 25 blankies episode that's right of blank checks this is the 2026

9:15David Sims:ceremony for the films of 2025 that's right which makes this the 11th the 11th is that right yeah

9:21Joe Reid:okay i erroneously texted you a few uh several weeks ago and thought this would be the 10th but uh last last year was the 2015 movie year was the first one i remember doing correct yeah yeah

9:31Griffin Newman:So this is the 11th.

9:33Joe Reid:Yeah.

9:34Griffin Newman:Blankies. Who are you? I'm Griffin Newman. I'm David Sims. And who's that?

9:39David Sims:It's Joe Reed. A.K.A. Reading Rain Joe.

9:41Joe Reid:Reading Rain Joe. The only person in my life who calls me that is Griffin Newman, and I look forward to it.

9:45David Sims:Just only once a year. Yeah. Yeah.

9:47Joe Reid:I mean, it's not a... You've done it other times.

9:50David Sims:Yeah, but mostly in the ramp up or the wind down from this time. Once a year. Yeah.

9:53Griffin Newman:Now they're rebooting Reading Rainbow. Have you heard this? With whom? Someone called Michael Threats. Oh, of course. The great Michael Three. 24 episode pickup. Where? PBS.

10:06David Sims:Okay.

10:06Joe Reid:Well, that's good.

10:07Griffin Newman:I like that part of it. I was really bracing for Netflix. It was like fucking Paramount Plus reading you like Barry Weiss's book. What do you want from me?

10:15David Sims:Oh, brother. Producer Ben is here. What? What's up? I gifted him today a vintage McFarlane toys, a.k.a. T-Dog Mac Violator action figure from the first series of Spawn toys. and he has wrapped it around his mic arm and he's looking at it so lovingly. So tenderly. The room was feeling a little empty,

10:37Joe Reid:so I'm glad that there was some personality brought into the space.

10:43Griffin Newman:Yeah, that's true. There's just nothing. We needed a little something. Yeah. Yeah, colorful or sort of eye-popping in our office. Just perhaps a tchotchke.

10:52David Sims:To absorb the sound. Consider a tchotchke once in a while. Yeah. It's all sound absorption. And I've got my baby Joey. You got your baby Joey. Oh, nice. But it's greatly appreciated. Thank you. Of course. Anytime, buddy.

11:03Joe Reid:I'm apparently staring at a photo of Austin Powers suspended in cryostasis.

11:08Griffin Newman:Yeah, that maybe doesn't have to be there forever.

11:10Joe Reid:It's a hell of a thing for your guests to...

11:12Griffin Newman:Yeah, it does seem a little aggro for the guests.

11:15David Sims:Of course, when we cover the Austin Powers trilogy on Patreon, Marie Barty, Salinas, a woman, would not stop talking about how cut, quote... Oh, I remember that. You have never let this go.

11:30Joe Reid:That was quite the opinion that was advanced.

11:33David Sims:It really got to you. So that lives on that desk for when Marie's joining us as fourth chair. To remind her of her. Also, on the back of it, there's some notes written that I think were Ratliff trying to jot some things down during the Lady Killers episode. Connor, chicken scratching. Hold on. Yeah. All right. Let's see. Here's the thing I like about the blankies and the movies. Okay. we were just doing the count of like this is year 11 right we start off the blankies the award ceremony as a franchise in our second year but our first year as blank check

12:10Griffin Newman:right we we were like where we were like three months into being blank check and we already were like you know what we should do I do vaguely remember that being the vibe where we were just kind of like let's just do like an oscary episode also let's plant our flag this is yeah

12:24David Sims:Oh, yeah. This is who we are now. But it made me realize, last year we were all, like, fucking celebrating the decade of dreams. Everyone was running down the streets, blowing, like, Vuvuzvelas and shouting about the decade of dreams.

12:36Joe Reid:They were definitely doing that.

12:37David Sims:But from a certain point of view, this year is when we celebrate the decade of blank check. Because last year was celebrating nine years of blank check and one year of Griffin and David present.

12:47Griffin Newman:That's a good... Okay, so you... Are you trying to bring decades of dreams... It hit me the other day. to a second, like, we're sort of, like, doing the faded, sad legacy called a decade of dreams. It's a more honest decade of dreams.

13:00David Sims:So it's not actually diminishing returns. It's better.

13:03Griffin Newman:And then next year you'll be like, and really, you don't start with counting the first year. The millennium didn't begin until 2001. I was free at cruising altitude

13:11Joe Reid:until Nolan. This is the real decade of dreams. You weren't kidding about chicken scratches. I'm getting Spock, perhaps. Two words that look like bacon melt, but they can't possibly be bacon melt and then burn before reading is a thing that I can

13:25Griffin Newman:Well, that sounds like a good bit that he didn't get to do. Yeah.

13:28Joe Reid:So these were notes. Oh, I see. I think so. Is this IP that I've just produced into the universe? No, it's what I like

13:34David Sims:about having it on the guest desk is first we get to do a little Kinsey test of how you feel about Mike Myers and his cut body. No, yeah, yeah.

13:42Joe Reid:That's fair.

13:42David Sims:And then you can see how far you can get trying to decipher Connor Ratliff's handwriting. Sure, sure, sure. This is the Blanky Awards Where we pick our winners

13:53Griffin Newman:You know you're right I never thought about it That we just kind of did it Like six episodes Into our M. Night Shyamalan series Or whatever Just being like This is a thing we want to do I also remember There was no We were basically like Let's do awards episode Yeah Do you ever want to do it And you were like Yeah sure And then like You know day before It was like What is it by the way We were just like I don't know Your Oscar ballot Yeah Like I mean It was not like We were like Alright We didn't have a Planning session From super prepared Wait, you're saying that was it organized?

14:24Joe Reid:It was also recorded in the hottest little closet I've ever been. It was a little bar in the air, I'm not going to deny.

14:31Griffin Newman:And now look at us.

14:33Joe Reid:A larger windowless room. Yes, but like ceilings

14:37David Sims:that are higher. Why did I feel confident just being like, we should do an awards episode. Let's ask Joe and do no further planning because I fucking know that all three of us keep nerd spreadsheets and lists and whatnot. It was not going to be a lot of work for us. Right. The work's done.

14:53Joe Reid:Somebody asked me that the other day. Like, how do you prepare for the blankies? And I'm like, well, I keep lists throughout the year. Like, this is not like I have to like cram session. Do you know what the episode before it is? Signs.

15:03Griffin Newman:We barely started the Shyamalan series. Yeah. It was four episodes deep. That's amazing. And then we were like, let's do blankies. Yeah. Let's fucking do it.

15:12David Sims:Yeah, we nailed it.

15:13Griffin Newman:I mean, you know what?

15:14Joe Reid:Honestly, yes. Can I say? Who was our consensus pick for best actor that year?

15:19David Sims:Michael B. Jordan. Michael Freed. Yeah. Is that the only time we've all lined up on an acting?

15:26Griffin Newman:I don't have those kinds of stats.

15:28Joe Reid:I'm leaning towards no, but like, yeah.

15:30Griffin Newman:I imagine it's maybe happened once or twice.

15:32Joe Reid:There's a wiki out there that. Yes. There is. It's just. They want to take a look at that.

15:36David Sims:I know there's been a couple, like two out of three.

15:40Joe Reid:Yeah.

15:40David Sims:Both you guys picked Jennifer Lopez for Hustlers. I picked Florence LeBron, James Buckets, Pew. What's she up to? She did Thunderball.

15:48Joe Reid:I tend to consult that wiki a lot for my own picks because as I, I often on the fly go a different way in the moment. And so I'm like, what, what, where did the wind breeze me to that day?

16:03David Sims:Interesting thing. Now that we're doing this for the 11th time, do you guys find yourself at all getting into the psychological game of, well, I snubbed that person of the wind. Oh, I do that. in 2018. Of course. Like when these were private spreadsheets for myself, I didn't worry about such things and now I'm like do I owe this person or would it look shitty if I gave them a second award?

16:27Griffin Newman:I privately do that. I privately, I'm like, well I gave Leo his David for Wolf of Wall Street. Like I do that to myself all the time. I made a switch to one of my lists

16:36Joe Reid:this morning and I literally had the thought of like they're going to be so disappointed that they didn't get others. Yeah, right. They'll be sad to have

16:45Griffin Newman:missed out. You know, Pew's in that MCU quagmire right now. I need her to do some more stuff. And I know she did a lot and maybe worried about doing too much. What else is going on? I mean, next year she's in Avengers Doomsday and Dune 3.

17:00Joe Reid:And she seems to be one of those people who, like, they have plans for that character, seemingly. Because a lot of the people they're bringing back for that are being brought back, allegedly, to, like... Let's pump the brakes on they have plans. Well, okay. Here's their plans. At this point, I don't know how firm any of the plans.

17:17David Sims:I think they have a clear plan. There are sirens going off everywhere, and they're like, hold on to that fucking legitimate movie star who we have on a five-picture contract. Like, your life depends on it.

17:29Joe Reid:The day of the chairs, right? You could tell, like, a good two-thirds of those chairs are, like, coming back so that they can get kind of brushed off into the sunset.

17:36Griffin Newman:Mostly it's a vamoosing. Yes, they're not. Ian McKellen is not going to do eight more Magnetos. Right, right. It is so funny that McKellen went on Colbert and was like, I think I destroyed New Jersey. And Colbert was like, is that a spoiler? And he was like, oh, I don't know. I guess so. Just destroys New Jersey.

17:52David Sims:I saw, I got the algorithm.

17:53Griffin Newman:He gets like a bad sub or something and he just fucking, sorry, Ben.

17:57David Sims:All these guys over 70, if you put them in a Marvel movie, they spill everything. They're like, I don't fucking know.

18:02Joe Reid:McKellen's been spilling tea on big franchises since the Lord of the Rings days. And he like outed everybody in the Hobbit movies. Yes. Who'd he out? Right, no, Lee Pace. What's his name? No, but also the main troll. Richard Armitage? Richard Armitage. He was a dwarf. I don't think he said anybody by name, but I think he was just like, oh, everybody in that cast is gay.

18:22Griffin Newman:Look, I said this already, but I think it's why he's mad about Hamnet.

18:26Joe Reid:Oh, I didn't know he was mad about Hamnet.

18:28Griffin Newman:Well, he threw some shade at Hamnet recently. I can't remember where. He was like, I'm not in the chat show.

18:34Joe Reid:Oh, because it didn't address Shakespeare being gay?

18:36Griffin Newman:He was basically like, I don't think it's very interesting to try and assign, you know, this wonderful, his works, which are so important and interesting, this kind of like simple emotional narrative. That specific of it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And like that was a perfectly valid point for him to make and he made it well. But to me there is an undercover. McKellen's also like, who cares about Shakespeare's wife? Shakespeare was, you know, he was not the straightest arrow. Getting dick all over London. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I don't know if he actually feels that way. I shouldn't put words in any McKellen's mouth.

19:03Griffin Newman:Getting Dick All Over London is the title of the spinoff movie.

19:06Joe Reid:He was getting dick all over Britain. They were traveling. The Northlands, I imagine, were just teeming with, I don't know.

19:13David Sims:Kelsey Grammer did some interview where he was just like, they were like, I'm sure you can't say anything about Doomsday. And he was like, oh, I had a great time filming with Pedro Pascal. And like, he just listed all the actors he had been in scenes with. So then people were making the grid of being like, okay, so the Fantastic Four is going to go into the pocket X-Men universe. Uh-huh, uh-huh. And then I saw him on some other show where they were like, now I know you've gotten in trouble before for like admitting it. He goes, yes, I shouldn't have said I'd worked with Pedro. I shouldn't have said that.

19:44David Sims:I shouldn't have said that.

19:45Griffin Newman:I choked the life out of the human torch in one scene.

19:48David Sims:Oh, you know what? This was some conservative show because they were specifically saying like, what would Kelsey Grammer be doing on a conservative show? Zoran is a disaster.

19:55Griffin Newman:And I can exclusively reveal that Dr. Doom fucks Invisible Woman. Sorry.

20:01David Sims:He was like... Just imagine. whatever conservative fuck was like you said you had worked with Pedro Pascal what was it like sharing a set with him you guys hold pretty different political opinions and he goes Pedro I loved him he's a terrific guy you know what's interesting we only really had one real conversation and it was him saying that he thought me too was a failure okay and I was like this feels like I love that in your

20:28Joe Reid:conception of Kelsey Grammer that he's just Sam the Eagle I also love the idea

20:32Griffin Newman:of someone being like, hey, Kelsey, was it tough for you working with a left-wing guy? I'm like, he's Kelsey. He was in like La Cage of Froel on Broadway. I think he's encountered a liberal in his life. He worked with David Hyde Pearson and B.B. Newark his entire career. I think he's figured out how to navigate that in his life. Yeah. People act like he just like only does red tube movies or whatever.

20:52David Sims:Right, right. No, he's like the old school Hollywood conservative. Right. Yeah.

20:55Griffin Newman:He's like, look, I want my taxes lower

20:57Joe Reid:and my cigar's cheap or whatever. Years upon years of him and Bo Derek just going to the RNC every year and being like, we got two of them. Right, right. Exactly.

21:06Griffin Newman:All right, guys. We're going to do the blankies. We got to do the blankies.

21:08Joe Reid:All right.

21:08Griffin Newman:Okay, right.

21:09David Sims:Guys, we're going to do the blankies. We got to do the blankies. We got to.

21:11Griffin Newman:Come on. Let's do our... So what we're doing here on the Blank Check Awards, just for new listeners who this is their first episode, and I'm sure that's going really well for them, is we say our, essentially our Oscar ballots for the big categories at the year. Right, Griffin? Yes, that's what we do. That's what we do here. And what category do you all want to start with?

21:29Joe Reid:Because I don't really care. I'm up for anything. We're traditionalists. I feel like we usually start with one of the supportings. We always do, right? We could start with the screenplays if we wanted to get really crazy. No, I want to start with the supporting. You want to start with the supporting.

21:41Griffin Newman:Categories that are fairly wide open at the Oscars this year. They are. Yeah, interesting. In a sort of a fun twist. Yeah. I'm going to say this is

21:48David Sims:an anti-disclaimer disclaimer.

21:50Griffin Newman:Okay. Anti-disclaimer disclaimer.

21:52David Sims:This is the year that I've finally just gone like, it has become prohibitive.

21:57Griffin Newman:Uh-huh.

21:58David Sims:to shadow ban movies made by people who have been on the show.

22:02Joe Reid:Yeah. Oh, interesting. cause we're getting too, Barry, your reach is too far. Yeah. So you're saying,

22:07Griffin Newman:it's a true humble cracker. You're, you're in Nia DaCosta. I'm trying to think like who, who made movies this year that are, Ari. Yeah. You know, welcome in buddy. You're in the ballots. Yeah.

22:20David Sims:Alex Ross Perry made two movies. He did that crazy fucker.

22:23Griffin Newman:You're in it.

22:24David Sims:That crazy motherfucker. Uh, but I was like, we, Yeah, we had some of it last year with I Saw the TV Glow, which was one of my favorite movies. And we had had Jane on the show. And it always been this thing of like, well, there's high level working people we've had on the show who I wouldn't really say I'm like friends with. But to the listener, does it seem like there's the same level of familiarity? And is there implied bias? So don't even trip yourself up. I would get into the other thing of, is it more fair to just put all of them to the side so that I can't offend anyone by snubbing them?

22:53David Sims:Yeah. With the equal part of it. Now it's just impossible.

22:56Joe Reid:Well, now there's enough of them where now they sort of like battle it out in this imaginary ballot.

23:01Griffin Newman:Last year, I did not nominate the film that I made, Amelia Perez. Of course. Because I didn't want. I made that film. That's integrity. I played every part. Yes. I wrote all the songs. You did all the.

23:12Joe Reid:I did all the tweets. Yeah, I was going to say, you did all the tweets. You did all the interviews after the fact.

23:16David Sims:But also, you didn't give the awards yourself because you were so tired of winning. You were winning so much.

23:21Griffin Newman:This year, my best friend, Cynthia Erivo, I decided to not include her because we are best friends. Sure. And I also can't actually attend our ceremony if we do one because I will be playing 27 parts in a one-man Dracula show.

23:37David Sims:Perfect. And I heard that was the same thing the Oscar said. Yes. That they would have nominated Wicked for Good in every category. But they're best friends with her, so they couldn't do it. Right. The statue is her best friend. They're best friends. They hold her one finger. Supporting actor.

23:55David Sims:Best Supporting Actor

23:58Griffin Newman:Okay, great. So, Griffin, your supporting actress winner last year presenting this award was Renata Reinsva for A Different Man. Yeah, that was a good choice. Joe, yours was, and mine, both of ours, was Michelle Austin for Hard Truth, so she's back, too. She's back, too. So, yeah, Griffin, whatever. You know, give me your supporting actors.

24:19David Sims:Look, I tried not to overthink these this year. It was what came to me. I'll be doing some last second cuts in the categories where I have six people jotted down mostly to see who's not being covered by you guys. Got it. But supporting actor, I had a pretty clean five. Benicio Del Toro and a picture called One Battle After Another. And boy, if you heard the song I wrote for that, you'd still be laughing. Tears down our face. Toes would still be tapping. Big strong guys. Tears in their eyes. Michael Cera, The Phoenician Scheme. Awesome. Delroy Lindo in Sinners, a performance I am pleasantly surprised to be aligned with the Oscars on.

24:55David Sims:Yeah. It was one of my punch the air moments. Absolutely. Rafe Fiennes in 28 Years Later.

25:04Griffin Newman:He's there.

25:05David Sims:And Billy Crudup in J. Kelly. Nice.

25:10Griffin Newman:He's very good. He's got the one scene. I mean, I know it's a couple scenes, but it's that one big scene. Yes. The one big knockout.

25:15David Sims:I would say I might put an additional title on this of, is this the thermostat performance of the year? A little bit.

25:23Griffin Newman:Except to some people, Jay Kelly went from like 67 degrees to 68 degrees. Like no one got hot watching it. You and I liked that movie a lot. I liked that movie. But you know what I mean? Like generally there was.

25:34David Sims:But I also, I'll say this. I had a different thought of an honorific while watching this performance. And at one point I was like, do I just put it to the side and not put in proper best supporting actor? my thought was is this the black box performance of the year where you go why don't they build the whole movie out of this sure got it got it yes i think there's a juice to that like eight minute chunk of the movie that as much as i like the film i'm like this is the fucking potent thing

26:03Joe Reid:if i'm bomb back whatever i think i'm writing yeah i get to that scene even on paper before

26:08David Sims:you cast crude up and he knocks it out of the fucking park i agree maybe this is the movie Yeah Maybe these guys spend the whole night together And that's the film I can see it

26:18Joe Reid:Jay Kelly versus whatever that guy's name is Yeah

26:21Griffin Newman:Well the point is we don't know his name That's what we're proving the point right here

26:24Joe Reid:Because Jay fucking Jay Kelly Fucking Kelly

26:26David Sims:I'm Jay Kelly You're Jay Kelly You're up here You're down here That movie Here's another word I'll throw out Worst trailer of the year

26:33Griffin Newman:Oh boy You hated the trailer You were always saying how it like Almost poisoned you against the movie

26:39David Sims:You saw an early screening of the movie

26:40Griffin Newman:I did

26:40David Sims:You were like it's really excellent I was like this thing looks like dog shit. It was a bad trailer. The fuck is Sims smoking? I saw the trailer.

26:47Griffin Newman:I was smoking that dank weed.

26:48David Sims:I saw the trailer before like everything. It kept playing at the Angelica and the Paris when I was seeing a lot of things at those two theaters. It's probably still playing. Yes. And I was just like, it is impossible. This movie will do anything to me other than leave me with an overwhelming desire to eat glass. And then the movie started and I was just like, the trailer makes it look like fucking Cinema Paradiso 4.

27:11Griffin Newman:Sure. Yeah. is Cinema Paradiso there's a real like genre of foreign film that is bad that was loved you know what I mean like Cinema Paradiso Life is Beautiful Il Pastino huh Cola was that that movie Colia is a great example foreign language winner when I say bad it's not bad it's like a sort of 7 out of 10 like sweet movie but like where you're like oh this is you know this is kind of dumb all I remember is the director

27:37Joe Reid:like carrying the kid on his shoulder up to the stage and that was the poster I saw that film in theaters.

27:44Griffin Newman:I remember it being very sweet.

27:46David Sims:Look, we're not doing the happy birthday sign thing. Credit to Mulaney. And the two of you are going to list your best supporting actor categories. But I do want to say it's a shift that people don't know.

27:55Griffin Newman:But 10 minutes on Kolya. No, you're right. That like foreign film used to be the treacly shit. And now it's not so much. Is that what you're saying?

28:01David Sims:And the biggest change was it used to be to vote in that category. You had to go to a marathon screening. You had to go to so many screenings. No, but you specifically, I think, when the five films were nominated, you had to go to a full day marathon of all of them. That's crazy. And so the only people who would do that. Were the oldest people in the world. Well, right. Who are like ready for the treacly layups. The kind of sweetest movie always won.

28:25Griffin Newman:Or is it about the Holocaust or war or something like that? You know, maybe it was the opposite.

28:30David Sims:But I know certainly for the nomination process, that was part of it. I think it was more of the nominations. You had to see every single one.

28:37Griffin Newman:It was only retirees because no one else had the time.

28:40Joe Reid:But that's always been the double-edged sword of the Oscars, which is ideally you would like all the people voting on the Oscars to have seen all of the movies that they're voting on. And the realistic thing is the only people who do that are 80-year-old people who have nothing else to do.

28:55David Sims:And Kirsten Dunst.

28:56Joe Reid:And Kirsten Dunst. She has said she sees all the movies. Joe. That's why she's our hero.

29:00David Sims:Who are your nominees for Best Supporting Actor?

29:02Joe Reid:Best Supporting Actor. I have Austin Abrams in Weapons. Oh, yeah. Michael Cera in The Phoenician Scheme. Two noms for this guy. So good. Billy Crudup in J. Kelly. Hell yes. I'm stacking. William H. Macy in Train Dreams. Okay. And Dylan O 'Brien in Twinless. Is he supporting? I fudged it maybe. It's a tweener. Best actor's tough.

29:24David Sims:It's a tweener and a tweener.

29:25Griffin Newman:Best actor's tough. Very good performance by Dylan. I guess he is. I mean, the other one, the one I wanted to say bye-bye to upon meeting. You and my podcast co-host Chris Feil are of the same opinion on that guy. What's his name again? The guy who wrote it. James Sweeney. And directed it? And directed it. I believe so. Okay, so you got two shared noms of Griffith there. Passing. What was the other one? I already forgot. Oh, Sarah. Michael Sarah. It's so good. I mean, it's so good. Okay, okay. I'll do mine. All right. And then we can discuss. I have Benicio Del Toro for One Battle After Another.

29:57Griffin Newman:I have Delroy Lindo for Sinners. So I have that. Wow. I am going to just say that, like, Ralph Fiennes is a very obvious candidate for me. I'm going to hold him out just to have a little fun. I'm doing the same thing. I'm sticking a pin in the ring. And obviously also his Bone Temple nom is inscribed in stone. That's the thing. And you're like

30:12David Sims:next year he's in lead? Aren't we?

30:15Griffin Newman:I think sort of. I was sort of thinking about that. I would say. I would put him in lead.

30:20David Sims:He's more the lead. I was so conscious.

30:23Griffin Newman:The kid is the lead of the first one and maybe kind of Aaron Johnson.

30:27David Sims:I was so conscious of my Adam Driver fuck up in Blanky's Awards Pass.

30:32Griffin Newman:Oh sure.

30:33David Sims:Where... in the Force Awakens and Last Jedi years, Adam Driver was my sixth, and I cut him on air. Right, right, right. And I was like, because I'll give him the award.

30:41Joe Reid:Surely then the third one, it'll be, yeah. They'll crush it. For Rise of Skywalker,

30:45David Sims:I'll come back around

30:46Griffin Newman:and give him the trophy. He did his best in Rise of Skywalker. Adam Driver is not the issue, like, not the glaring issue with that movie. No, right. No, but I couldn't be like, and best actor goes to Adam Driver

30:58Joe Reid:for Rise of Skywalker. The difference here is we've seen Bone Temple. Bone Temple does not pull a Rise of Skywalker. No, no.

31:03Griffin Newman:All right, so sorry. So I have Del Toro in Lindo. Yeah. Then I have Alexander Skarsgård in Pillian. Mm-hmm. Nicholas Holt in Superman.

31:11Joe Reid:So good.

31:12Griffin Newman:I considered it. And Matthew Pinchillon, I'm not sure how to say his name, in Nouvelle Vague. In Nouvelle Vague. Who plays Raoul Cotard. Okay. Where I was like, did Richard Linklater fucking open a time tunnel? How did you find a guy who looks like Raoul Cotard, one, like so much? And two, get the coolest performance I've ever seen of a guy, Godard is just annoying at him for five minutes, and he goes like, boof, okay. And I was just like, cannot take my eyes off this guy.

31:42David Sims:It is, I still have not seen that movie because it doesn't exist, but. It exists, but it's tough to watch it on Netflix. Yeah. Just, it is crazy from the trailers and the images I've seen how well he has physically matched every single famous French new wave behind the camera person.

32:00Griffin Newman:This is the, like, I think all the performances in that movie are fine. But that's right. You're just like, it's a magic trick. How do you get them to all look like this fucking guy?

32:08David Sims:And you look them up and almost all of them have zero previous credits.

32:11Griffin Newman:Yes. Yeah. You just like went around Paris going like, and the people just like showed up. He lit a cigarette and they all ran towards him. A performance I really loved. My winner is Benicio Del Toro.

32:24David Sims:My winner is also Benicio Del Toro.

32:26Joe Reid:Benicio, I should say, was a close six on mine. I think all of the Oscar nominees are really good this year. So like it was tough leaving all of them up. But Benicio was my number six. My winner is, and I mean, I'm falling into the Oscar voter trap of category fraud, I suppose. But my winner is Dylan O 'Brien.

32:42Griffin Newman:Yeah, I just don't like that movie.

32:43Joe Reid:Yeah, I saw your Letterboxd review.

32:45Griffin Newman:I'm like, I'm going to be fighting enough for a battle. But I thought Dylan was really good in that movie. Yeah.

32:50David Sims:And he's fucking excellent in Send Help. I still haven't seen Send Help. It bothers me so much. I know. Fuck you, Karen.

32:55Joe Reid:I've been watching all the goddamn Oscar movies.

32:57David Sims:Yeah, you've had your work cut out for you. Del Toro, for me, nudged over the edge by having Phoenician scheme as well this year. Yep, yep, he's great in that.

33:08Griffin Newman:It's a valid point.

33:09David Sims:There's a real range of, oh right, this guy is one of the most powerful screen actors ever.

33:15Griffin Newman:People have started to swing against him, not in a mega negative way, but I've seen a little bit of a like, all right, everyone, he doesn't need to win.

33:22Joe Reid:The arc on that performance has been interesting because when the movie first...

33:27Griffin Newman:insane will be remembered for a hundred years performance to me. When people first started seeing the movie

33:31Joe Reid:and Penn seemed like such the obvious jump off for supporting actor.

33:36Griffin Newman:Sean Penn is so funny and weird. And so the Del Toro thing

33:39Joe Reid:started like this underground like am I crazy or is Del Toro the best performance in this movie? Do you know what it kind of

33:45David Sims:reminded me of? Departed where it's like well this is a fucking Oscar play if I've ever seen it for Jack Nicholson working with Scorsese the first time and then everyone starts being like is Wahlberg secretly like the best performance in that movie.

33:58Joe Reid:I don't like Wahlberg in that movie, but like that was the arc on that. Yeah.

34:01David Sims:You know, but it was a similar thing where everyone was like, Penn obviously, obviously, but like, yeah, was kind of incredible in this. Right. Like, that was absolutely the best parts of the movie. It sings the most when he's there. And then it becomes fucking king of memes.

34:14Joe Reid:Oh, yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

34:15David Sims:You know, and then it feels like, oh, I guess he's going to get in. Holy shit, he's winning all the critics awards. Is he like cakewalking his way to a win? And then it felt like there was some pushback on like, what, we're going to give him a second Oscar because we like small beers?

34:32Joe Reid:Oh, that's, yes. Yeah, give it to the meme guy or whatever, which like I find so annoying.

34:37David Sims:He won one time 25 years ago. It's true.

34:41Griffin Newman:And he's like a titanic actor who's got three Oscar noms total. Like, you know, he should have more probably.

34:50David Sims:It's been over 20 years since he was nominated last.

34:53Joe Reid:Was it 21 Grams was his last nomination? Wow. Which he's so good at.

34:57David Sims:It's not like a comeback Brody you were in the wilderness narrative. But it's more of a like, you know what? This guy has continued to be good. Has continued to be great for another quarter century.

35:07Griffin Newman:Sicario was the crazy miss for him. Yeah. Because he did have major Oscar buzz that year.

35:13Joe Reid:And that movie had a lot of Oscar attention that got a nomination. The thing about Del Toro too is like, I think without him that movie fails in a way that you can't say about I think any other actor.

35:25David Sims:The two reasons I give him the win. It's A, because he also had Phoenician scheme, right? And it's like, this feels like a year to fucking call it out. And B, you hear every story about how much he created for that character. Yeah. Not just in like the look and whatever, but like actual core story themes and beats that then had ripple effects across the entire script.

35:49Griffin Newman:Yes.

35:49David Sims:It's not just if you pull that performance out, the movie's not as good. it's like the effect he had on the movie at large

35:55Joe Reid:in the entire creative ecosystem. And his energy, his energy is so different than most of the other characters. And I think it like, it draws you in closer, right?

36:04David Sims:It's what I love. It's a great old master performance where you're like, this guy has like cleaned his craft down to the bone. You know, everything is so simple and unshowy with him. And he's always classically been one of those, who the fuck is this guy? This guy's just interesting to watch on screen. But sometimes he can do a lot. Sometimes he can be big. And even when he was giving more naturalistic performances when he was younger, he was leading on a lot of sort of like Neo-James Dean affectations.

36:33Joe Reid:Mumbling his way through Usual Suspects and that kind of stuff.

36:36David Sims:And you're like, this guy has just gotten to Zen Masterface.

36:40Joe Reid:Yeah, I agree. Yeah, he's great. Perfectly cast.

36:43David Sims:Dylan O 'Brien, you want to speak on him for a moment?

36:45Joe Reid:Yeah, so he plays two characters in Twinless. And Twinless is a movie that you start off, you sort of think you've got a handle on what's going on. This guy, you know, meets a gay guy meets a straight guy in a grief support group. And there's an infatuation going on. And you understand that, like, something's up. Something's up with the James Sweeney character and whatever. And then it hits a point where you suddenly jump to this flashback and you see Dylan O 'Brien. as his deceased twin brother, who is the gay one. And not to be like, this straight actor really gets us. But it's just an incredibly, it's not only, I think, in a really authentic feeling performance, but it also is a blast of energy in a very different vein.

37:39Joe Reid:And again, it's the kind of thing where that movie really needs this guy to sell you in the span of one night. he kind of like broke this guy's brain the James Sweeney's guy's brain um and I just think it's really incredible then you go back to the other character and he um just goes through this very um I don't know this emotional journey that I find really really good and there's a degree of like Dylan O 'Brien little teen wolf guy you know what I mean like making good and I really like that aspect to it and yeah I just think it's it's that was a movie that stuck with me from when I saw it earlier in the season yeah I was I was not able to watch it Sundance because some busy bodies decided to pirate it and got it removed from busy bodies they were

38:30Griffin Newman:they were screenshotting butts yeah they sure were they got in trouble they sure were

38:34Joe Reid:so I wasn't able to see it until later in the year but I really liked it I could have I almost went with Bill Macy and Train Dreams which that movie turned out to be a It was a lot more divisive than I thought it was going to be when I saw it.

38:47Griffin Newman:I liked that movie just fine when I saw it at Sundance. I thought it was very good. I thought it was nice. I thought William H. Macy was nice. I did not anticipate it becoming, right, the cinephile Civil War movie of the year.

38:59Joe Reid:I was really, really thrown by that. Apparently, people who read books have opinions about things.

39:04Griffin Newman:Well, it changes the book, but that doesn't bother me because whatever. Change whatever you want. But, Griffin, you were kind of whelmed by it, I feel like.

39:13David Sims:You were not like anti. I could not click into it. I might give another shot someday. I just need to call this out.

39:21Griffin Newman:Call it out. And I'm glad you put it here. The putters and murmurs thing? Yeah.

39:24David Sims:Okay. Because we've gotten a lot of messages about this. This thing screens at Sundance and immediately people are blowing up. It's a lock, right? Passing us notes being like Macy and Train Dreams. It was equivalent to running down the mountain and saying J.K. Simmons is going to win Best Supporting Actor next year. Sure. Out of the whiplash screening. Right. People just saying it's done. It's a lock. Mark it down. You know, possibly this put a burden on the movie that it was hard for it to cross. Sure. But he comes on screen and I immediately go, the fuck are these people talking about?

39:52Joe Reid:He's so eloquent in that movie.

39:53David Sims:Old timey vernacular does not make a putter or murmur. I would agree. He's speaking clearly in an old style of language.

40:02Griffin Newman:It's just he's got a corncob pipe. I think it's just kind of throwing people. It is. And like a big white beard and all that. I get it.

40:08Joe Reid:But he's got accoutrements. I feel like the vocal is not. He's got a coot remont. Oh.

40:13David Sims:This is true.

40:13Griffin Newman:That's good.

40:14David Sims:Every year we have to redefine what Putters and Murmurs is because I think it couldn't be more clear and yet it's constantly misinterpreted. There was an iron lock Putters and Murmurs performance for me. Someone turn the camera on. Turn the camera on, Griffin.

40:27Griffin Newman:Turn the TikTok camera on, Kyle. Yeah.

40:29David Sims:Clifton Collins Jr. in Eddington. This is why Putters and Murmurs exists.

40:33Griffin Newman:That's interesting. I have not thought too hard about Clifton Collins Jr. The fuck are we talking about? I don't know, Griffin. What are we talking about? All right. Well, should we put a pain in putters and rumors?

40:44David Sims:No, that's the winner. I'm just letting people know. Clifton Collins Jr. is the winner.

40:48Griffin Newman:Come on, is there no one else? I guess we could get back around. Yeah, we'll have that conversation.

40:52Joe Reid:We can get back to that.

40:53David Sims:Is there anyone else you want to call out in your category?

40:55Joe Reid:I really loved Austin Abrams in Weapons. Excellent performance. Excellent actor. Great actor. I don't know if Austin Abrams owns the middle of that movie to the degree that Amy Madigan owns the last third of that movie, but he holds the center portion of that picks up the torch with aplomb so well yep and i really he's so entertaining i love obviously you know i love alden arenreich former blankie winner of mine for hail caesar yes um but i was just like this you assume that it's just all right this tweaker is going to be cannon fodder for you know whatever monsters are happening in this movie and he becomes so like affecting weirdly and you really end up feeling for this guy and it

41:37David Sims:really works. It is a performance that is like beautifully lacking in judgment. Yeah. In a way that I feel like a lot of actors would play that character condescendingly. Yeah. While also successfully finding all the humor where it needs to be.

41:51Joe Reid:Yeah.

41:52David Sims:Yeah. He's a really good actor. And then we had

41:54Joe Reid:Michael Cera.

41:55David Sims:Michael Cera. High five. High five. It's so funny. You also add in how good he is in The Running Man.

42:02Joe Reid:I haven't seen it yet. He is the best part of that movie.

42:06David Sims:Yeah. Not only that, you get to his scene. Although you know who else is good in Running Man?

42:10Griffin Newman:William H. Macy.

42:11David Sims:He is. Yeah. With weirdly high billing, considering the size of his role. Similar to Train Dreams. Good agent. Good agent. Really good agent. And also not a lot of big guys in the movie, I guess. No. Michael Cera shows up for like one extended sequence, like a 10 minute chunk of Running man and immediately you're like huh does this whole movie work better if michael cera is in

42:33Griffin Newman:the glenn powell role yeah do most movies work better if michael cera's in the lead role i really

42:38Joe Reid:feel like we as a culture have or at least as like a cinephile culture have turned on glenn powell in a way in the last couple years i'm still rooting for the guy 100 i am too but like

42:48David Sims:i don't think running man is his fault i think people have been a little quick to throw him under the bus and be like oh so that was a nothing burger but like the days of uh what was the oh

42:56Joe Reid:hitman the days of hitman are sort of i just seem like they're far there's a lot of automatic

43:01Griffin Newman:hostility to the type of guy he's like you know the type of star role he plays sure right now yeah uh-huh and so it's sort of like tougher for him to win people over and then yeah he made a couple kind of man movies and people are like all right buddy i knew you were reheated nachos get

43:16David Sims:out of here yeah i think we had like a 15 year stretch of like studios really pushing your your Headlands and your Hunnam's and your Kitches. Yeah. And all these guys who never quite made it work. Many of whom I'm a fan of, but yes. Yes. And I think there is still some residual kind of knee-jerk resistance to... What are they pushing this guy on us for? Right. And I think Powell works really hard to be like, I am not a psyop. Right. I care. But then the second he makes one movie that doesn't work, people are like, I fucking knew it. I knew it.

43:48Joe Reid:I called it.

43:49David Sims:I was never fooled. But Sarah's really fucking good in Running Man. And you watch it, and the performance he's giving is very different than I'd say anything he's ever done before on screen. It's a really interesting, like, hostile performance. Yeah. But you watch it, and you're like, oh, right. On top of everything else, this guy did fucking, like, 18 months of kung fu training with Edgar Wright. Like, he also can do fucking fight scenes and shit. And Phoenician Scheme, I'm watching it in the first half. I'm like, yeah, yeah, all the memes, of course. How have they not done a film together yet?

44:20David Sims:Wes Anderson and Michael Cera. He's doing it really well. It's a good fit. He's making funny choices. I like that he's playing like a fucking European Eddie Bracken role. Whatever. This is good. But like there's part of me going, is this all Wes Anderson's going to use him for?

44:36Joe Reid:Sure.

44:36David Sims:And it is part of like the argument for why Wes Anderson's not fucking stuck in a rut.

44:42Griffin Newman:Yeah. Whoever thinks that is.

44:43David Sims:Without ruining any of the twists of the movie, like halfway through, he just throws an entirely different assignment at Michael Cera. And it's like, right, this guy gets that we pigeonhole Sarah into doing like two things well.

44:55Joe Reid:Turns out Wes Anderson has seen both Twin Peaks The Return and Molly's Game. Because he knows that Sarah's got that energy to him.

45:01David Sims:Right, everyone likes to say this guy only plays himself.

45:03Joe Reid:Yeah.

45:04David Sims:But like, there is a pretty astonishing range within the tapestry of Michael Cera's particular frequency.

45:09Joe Reid:Michael Cera only plays himself is really funny because I don't know if I could give you a real good sense of who I think Michael Cera is as a person. Well, I also,

45:16David Sims:That's my problem with whenever people have that criticism. It's like, you're saying Blank only plays themselves. So what you're saying is their performances remind you of how they act in interviews, which also might be an act. You don't know who they fucking are. Anyway.

45:31Griffin Newman:That was my little stump speech. A little rant mode there. Alright, turn the TikTok

45:36Joe Reid:camera off.

45:37Griffin Newman:I don't know. That's a performance I adore.

45:42Joe Reid:Oh, Holt and Superman is so

45:45Griffin Newman:we've showered praise on Delroy Lindo on these episodes over the years.

45:49Joe Reid:I'm crossing my fingers that he could come out of nowhere and win. It really feels like... Sorry JJ, sorry JJ's Twitter rant or Blue Sky rant last night. What's JJ fucking ranting about? It was a reasonable point. I'll just start composing the email now. Fire.

46:05David Sims:Follow the paper.

46:05Joe Reid:I'm normally the one being like, you guys are too mean to JJ, but this one I was just like, it was a decent point of just like, Delroy Lindo should have had 12 Oscar nominations by now. It would be weird if he wins. for this particular...

46:16David Sims:I don't disagree with him. I don't disagree with that either. And yet, who gives a shit? That's also my thing. Well, if we give him an Oscar for this now, I'm not going to be like, that one? He's really good in this. He's excellent in this. And after, you know, I think the Five Blood snub is the most egregious of this decade, in my opinion. It's a crazy snub. It is. You know, it's that and Marion John Daptiste of the two.

46:36Joe Reid:We all might have agreed on that. But with him,

46:38David Sims:he's got the ultimate, like, how had he never been nominated and they served him this performance on a platter? Yeah. And I see Sinners a year ago, and he pops up on screen, and I'm like, fuck, Delroy's in the pocket in this.

46:50Joe Reid:Yeah.

46:50David Sims:This movie's a hit.

46:51Joe Reid:Yeah.

46:51David Sims:There's a year to go, but could this possibly be an Oscar contender? He gets his big monologue. He gets to, like, run throughout basically the whole picture, but be, like, just perfect supporting, like, juice. And it made me so happy that he has, like, stuck in the whole time and has been a legitimate contender. Who do you think will win the Oscar? Right now, my inclination is still in Skarsgård.

47:13Joe Reid:Well, I talked about this. Griffin was there lurking behind me when I recorded Critical Darlings yesterday. And I mentioned that our friend Kyle Buchanan's stone-cold certainty throughout the season that once the industry awards happen, that Sean Penn is going to run the table.

47:31Griffin Newman:Kyle has been making that drum.

47:34Joe Reid:And the BAFTAs sort of leaned into that. I don't see it. I'm hoping that that's not the case. Not because I don't like that performance, because I do.

47:42Griffin Newman:he's unbelievable in that movie but he has two Oscars

47:46Joe Reid:he has two Oscars already

47:48David Sims:which is so weird if that thing fucking stuck to Benicio

47:51Joe Reid:we need to give him a second one and then Penn wins a third Penn wins a third I think that category is so wide open that it would be really it would just be really fun if Delroy Lindo could because sometimes my thing with awards is sometimes when somebody gets nominated without a ton of precursors where did that come from you're like well clearly they must have really liked that you know they must have really liked that performance because they sort of disregarded the you know pencil sketch outline of the nominees and put him in instead.

48:20David Sims:We were also talking about this or you were talking about this on Critical Darlings yesterday but like sometimes people get a career boost from the snub. Like as angry as everyone was that you didn't get the Five Bloods nomination in the worst Oscar year it led to like several years of discourse of being like remember when the fucking Academy didn't? It can help. It can help for sure. It got in people's heads, I think, a little bit in a way that boosted him in this. But this also feels like, when you got to his monologue in the car, I was like, Ryan Coogler kind of knows what he's doing. Ryan Coogler sat down and was like, someone needs to fucking figure out how to get Delroy Lindo nominated.

48:55David Sims:Maybe. I'm going to give him like a combo platter character where he gets to do everything.

49:00Griffin Newman:Yeah. I think Skarsgård will win because I think the Oscars really like that movie and that's where they can award it. That's my feeling as well combined with him. And he's another sort of just major guy who's never gotten an Oscar nomination and it's a quasi-lead role and it's a sad dad and it's just a lot of stuff that they tend to vibe with. But I don't know. I don't know.

49:21David Sims:Who knows?

49:24Joe Reid:Back to the Blankies after these messages.

49:35David!

49:36David Sims:What? This episode, don't act so surprised because it's a familiar friend. Oh, okay. This episode's brought to you by MUBI. Yawn.

49:44Griffin Newman:Just kidding. Comfortable. Secure. We love them. They are a global film company of champions grade cinema. Iconic directors. Emerging auteurs. Always something new to discover with MUBI. Each and every film hand-selected. So you can explore the best of cinema. Nothing more to say, I guess. Wrong! There's a new film coming to theaters. Movie theaters. February 13th. 13th, the first Nigerian film ever in official competition again. That's pretty wild. This is a film by Akinola Davis called My Father's Shadow. It was BAFTA-nominated, poetic, tender portrait of a father-son bond framed within the political landscape of 1993 Lagos in Nigeria.

50:24Griffin Newman:It is about a father and two young sons as they journey into and around the vibrantly rendered Nigerian metropolis, reckoning with their relationship, navigating the city that's in the middle of a democratic crisis written by real life brothers Akinola Davis Jr. and Wally Davis. Love it, brothers. Co-wrote this groundbreaking feature debut and you've got Sofei Dorisu. Oh, from Slow Horses. I love him. I hope I'm saying his name right. But he's a really good actor and he's the star. It's worth seeing. It's in theaters, Griffin. It's great to go to a theater.

51:01David Sims:It's in theaters. We love that Mubi puts Mubis in theaters before ultimately ending up on their wonderful platform. Dang right. I'm just looking at some of the stuff they got right now. Die My Love, of course. Yeah. An important watch, a necessary watch for any blankie. La Grazia, the new Paolo Sorrentino movie, which I missed in theaters. Good moment to catch up with it. The great Shall We Dance. Oh, the classic? The original. Oh, my goodness. That's fun. Like a restoration. Yeah. And look, they got a collection called Heartthrob Nicolas Cage. It's Young Dreamy Cage. Well, still dreamy to me.

51:40Hey, you're very open-hearted.

51:42Griffin Newman:Anyway, to stream the best of cinema, you can try Mubi free for 30 days at Mubi.com slash blank check. That's M-U-B-I dot com slash blank check for a whole month of great cinema for free. And then go see My Father's Shadow in theaters. Please, thank you for listening. Thank you. Thank you for your attention to this matter.

51:58David Sims:Thank you. Very kind.

52:12David Sims:Best Supporting Actress

52:15Griffin Newman:Supporting Actress Let's do Supporting Actress Okay, so our winners last year for Supporting Actor were For Griffin, The Twink for Menorah Mark Eilstein For me, to my surprise, Edward Norton And for you, Joe, The Brutalist, Mr. Guy Pearce himself Guy Pearce, sure Who I'm sure will be super normal Presenting this award I will do mine first I guess Just to switch it up My nominees are Tiana Taylor for One Battle After Another And Regina Hall for One Battle After Another Amy Madigan for Weapons Mariam Afshari for It Was Just an Accident And Una Chaplin for Avatar Fire and Ash There you go Normal five Wow Deeply Yeah okay Those are my guys I was fairly chalked though Yeah that the one battle girls have to be there.

53:06Joe Reid:I went with Maryam Afshari for It Was Just an Accident, Nina Haas for Hedda, Yom Hairan, apologies if I did not pronounce that correctly, for No Other Choice, Amy Madigan for Weapons, and Wunmi Masaku for Sinners. Love her.

53:23David Sims:Love that nom. I do too. I have to make one tough cut here.

53:27Joe Reid:All right. An annual tradition. My tough cut was Gwyneth,

53:32David Sims:who I just loved.

53:33Joe Reid:My tough cut, I mean, Gwyneth too, my tough cut was obviously Tiana Taylor. I think Tiana Taylor is incredible.

53:37David Sims:Yeah. She's doing all right

53:39Joe Reid:without me.

53:39David Sims:I love the Regina Hall performance and I'm sort of cheating it by giving it my Sergeant Shroom Award which is a performance where like, I wish I could nominate it. Sergeant Shroom just for people who don't remember

53:53Griffin Newman:is Vin Diesel's character in Billy Lynn's long halftime walk. Got it. Got it.

53:58David Sims:Love Regina Hall. I know everyone

53:59Griffin Newman:remembers that.

54:00David Sims:I think she's incredible in that movie. I think it is to the credit of the movie and the performance that it could so easily have the explosive Oscar moment that would have made it an undeniable contender.

54:12Joe Reid:Much like Vin Diesel in Billy Lynn's Halftime Walk, when that movie, when that casting got announced, people were like, Oscar numbers?

54:18David Sims:Well, that's why, of course, we call it the Sergeant Truman Award. Of course, yeah. But it's, that character is so defined by the quiet and what isn't said in the in-between spaces. She's incredible. Nice. I'm using that as a cheat to not give her one of my five. I have some great surprise wait a second please drop your rolling pins Una Chaplin in Avatar Fire and Ash Marisa Bella in Black Bag sure hot Kirsten Dunst in Roof Man yep she's so good in that movie yep I'm Wumi Masako I will say I think is an incredible performance and was my vote for SAG this year

54:59Joe Reid:nice okay

55:00David Sims:I'm dropping her for my five only because she's being represented by the Oscars and I want to get my five weird people in. Emma Stone in Eddington. Incredible performance. Not a performance I like. I think an incredible performance. And Nina Haas in Hedda.

55:17Griffin Newman:Yeah, she was a tough cop for me too because she's really good in that movie.

55:20Joe Reid:She rules in that movie.

55:21Griffin Newman:The only problem I have with that performance is that it's almost too easy. where I'm like, well, yeah, of course Nina Haas playing the person who you can't get over, who's so powerful. She ruined your life walking around in that dress or that outfit. Yeah, of course that's going to work on screen. Good thinking, Nina.

55:39David Sims:People talk so much about like, oh, if you just flip the gender of that character, the whole text transforms so rapidly. And it's like, no, but also if you just put Nina Haas in that role. Someone who also has played, had a gabbler before. has been on both sides of the situation. Who are your winners, gentlemen?

55:59Griffin Newman:Joe, who's your winner?

56:03Joe Reid:I'm here. I'm going on the fly. I'm going to go with Miriam Afshari for It Was Just an Accident.

56:07Griffin Newman:She's so good in that movie. My winner is Amy Madigan.

56:12Joe Reid:That was my almost.

56:13Griffin Newman:Yeah. I thought was going to win the Oscar, but now I guess I feel like she might not. But it also might happen.

56:17Joe Reid:It could. It's still good. I think that category is pretty up in the air. That feels like a three way race. Tiana won me and Amy. Yeah. Yes.

56:25David Sims:Yeah. I think the sentimental value women cancel each other. I agree.

56:28Joe Reid:Yep.

56:29David Sims:But like that feels like an even three way.

56:32Joe Reid:if i had supporting actor feels like a five-way yeah yeah if i had a crisp hundred dollar bill i'd put it on tiana but you know i would too but only slightly i i wonder if uh by the way you owe me a crisp hundred dollar bill i gotta i gotta do something with it oh sure yeah um i i

56:50David Sims:feel like amy madigan might pull it out at the end yeah for some other reason to sound scars guard of like the hollywood firmament being like you know what yeah thank you for all your service did

57:00Joe Reid:Did you see somebody finally asked her in an interview about her and Ed Harris refusing the clap? And her answer was pretty fucking perfect. She stuck by it, and I was just like, go with that. It was pretty excellent.

57:09David Sims:I think every interview she's done has been on fire.

57:12Joe Reid:Wearing all those suits.

57:13David Sims:My supporting actress winner is Nina Haas, which is like my performance of the year. Yeah, she's so good. And getting to the earlier point we were making, I was like, oh, but do I give it to her? Because I gave her best actress for Phoenix, didn't I? And then I looked back, and Phoenix was the year before we started doing it. So I was like, that's my private spreadsheet. I put her in my Best of the Decade Best Actress lineup. Yep, yep, yep. But because I haven't given her an award on Mike before, I'm going Nina Hassan.

57:40Joe Reid:Best of the Decade, the podcast episode that caused COVID.

57:43David Sims:Yeah, the last one. We left that recording. I was like, guys, I'm going to go to a rowdy screening of Cats and then live forever.

57:50Griffin Newman:We're doing great. We're doing great. Varang is mad at you, though, and she is going to set you on fire.

57:57David Sims:Look, I just... South Coast. We'll have a separate conversation off mic.

58:04Joe Reid:David, you and I agreed on Miriam Afshari, though. I mean, I think she's never been in a movie before,

58:11Griffin Newman:as far as I know.

58:12Joe Reid:The scene by the tree with the taillight, the taillight illumination was, I mean, there's some really good scenes in a lot of good movies this year, but that was up there for me. I really thought for as much as, I love the ending of that movie, and that's kind of what everybody talked about, but for me, the scene of that movie is that one right there.

58:26Griffin Newman:Yeah, it's been in one other movie before. Yeah. No, yes. Yes, and that movie is one of my favorites of the years. Yeah, Tiana and Regina, it's very obvious. Amy Madigan just, you know. Did you clock her when you saw the movie? Like, were you like, this is Amy Madigan? Like, when the character appeared? Because I was not really like.

58:43Joe Reid:I definitely did it in the trailer. I was so in the movie.

58:46Griffin Newman:Yeah. Right? And like, obviously, Gladys' first appearance is when she's, apart from the little glimpses, is when she's in full wig mode. And I was just like, it's kind of like the don't look now thing, where I'm like, did he just like find someone from another dimension? Like, I don't get it. What is this? Who is this? Right.

59:05David Sims:My problem.

59:06Griffin Newman:And then when you see her with the wig off, I was kind of like, okay, no, no, no. Who is this? This is an actress I know. Anyway, Carrie, your problem.

59:11David Sims:No, my problem is that the release of that film basically directly coincided with the worst of my no other choice-esque dental nightmares.

59:21Griffin Newman:Oh, God. Yeah, I remember that. Right, right, right. You took a while to see it.

59:24David Sims:I couldn't see the movie for like a week because I was sick and vomiting from a dental infection. Dental infection? Yeah. Ben, I had a lot of things going on. His gums got all fucked up. Remember?

59:38Joe Reid:My mouth was bleeding.

59:39David Sims:Tooth stuff. Yes. Right.

59:42Joe Reid:My mouth was bleeding, Bert.

59:44David Sims:Sorry. Within three days, people were already doing the, like, can Amy Madigan get a supporting actress nomination? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right, right. Just as a cheat.

59:54Griffin Newman:I went in knowing she did. knowing she was a thing. Right, right, yeah, totally, totally. You loved Emma Stone in Eddington. That's not a performance I like.

1:00:02Joe Reid:Yeah, I liked Eddington a lot. Me too. That sort of sits on the maybe lean ledger.

1:00:08David Sims:I don't dislike her Yorgos performances. I don't either. This was my favorite performance she has given in many years. I thought it was the most different thing I have seen her do in a long time. I think she's capturing something really interesting for me, which is the, you know, in a movie that is all about, like, everyone's living in separate realities, right? Yeah. That, for me, so accurately captures the chaos of what it feels to be alive right now and that no one can agree on the ground we're standing on. Right, right. This very tricky thing of, like, people who have experienced extreme trauma can be disconnected from reality in a way that is a coping mechanism.

1:00:53David Sims:Sure.

1:00:53Joe Reid:where you don't know whether to believe them or not.

1:00:57David Sims:Yeah. Even when you have endless sympathy for the understanding of what caused this disconnect.

1:01:04Joe Reid:Well, and then you have Deirdre O 'Connell in the other room breaking stick figures and casting spells. Right. She wins.

1:01:10David Sims:And I think Emma Stone gets the kind of weird husk of that really right. It really worked for me. I found it. I found a very great thing. Yeah.

1:01:21Joe Reid:I also just want to shout out Yom Hairan for No Other Choice who plays the wife of the guy that the main character is trying to knock off and is so funny. Oh, yes. Yes. She's very funny. Yes. One of those, a great running performance. Every time she runs somewhere in that movie, I think it's very funny. Your winner's Miriam? My winner is Miriam. Griffin, who's your winner?

1:01:45Griffin Newman:Nina Haas. Right. Of course, right. Yes. Okay, great. I'm going to read you the blankies supporting performance winners. Okay. Or I'll go from 10 to 1. Okay. 10, Miles Caten and Sinners. A great, great find. Great performance. 9, Odessa, Zion, and Marty Supreme. 8, Stellan Skarsgård in sentimental value. 7, Delroy Lindo. 6, Inga Ebsdottir Lilius. Is that how you say it? In sentimental value. Quite a discovery. Yeah, she's great. Tiana Taylor is number 5. Amy Madigan, number 4. Sean Penn, number 3. Ralph Fiennes, our beautiful Dr. Kelson, number 2. And Ray Benicio is their winner.

1:02:20Joe Reid:Yeah, that makes sense.

1:02:21Griffin Newman:It all makes sense. It all makes sense. It all falls into place. As the Lightning Seeds once said. Let's do our screenplays, maybe. Let's do it. I'm trying to think. Yeah, that's what we did last time. Okay, yeah. Let's do our screenplays. Okay. Okay. All right. Okay. Original or adapted? Let's go original first.

1:02:40David Sims:Best original screenplay.

1:02:43Griffin Newman:Okay, I got... It was just an accident. Written by Jafar Panahi. Secret agent. Written by Kleber. Kleber Philho. Sinners written by Ryan Coogler, If I Had Legs I Kick Ya by Mary Bronstein, and Robert Kaplow's Blue Moon script were my five.

1:03:00David Sims:Interesting.

1:03:00Griffin Newman:Is that interesting? I found it pretty interesting. It didn't seem that interesting.

1:03:05Joe Reid:Mine are Blue Moon written by Robert Kaplow, Griffin in Summer written by Nicholas Colia. I've got my ears a-burning. Love that movie. It Was Just an Accident, Jafar Panahi, Lurker written by Alex Russell, and Twinless written by James Sweeney.

1:03:19David Sims:My original screenplay nominations are If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You, Sinners, Weapons, Eddington, and of course, David, say it with me, Materialist.

1:03:35Griffin Newman:I just want to point out you sort of were getting a little Bob Duca-y there. Sinners, War Happens,

1:03:43Joe Reid:Parker Posey Pucks.

1:03:46Griffin Newman:Lucy Lou Flew. my winner is It Was Just an Accident, which I think is great in every way, but is a quiet, like, crucial screenplay, crucial story construction kind of movie. But those are all good winners. Did thankfully give that. Right, that got a nom. Yes. Right, yeah, it didn't get Best Picture, but it got the screener. Right, the Oscars, right, they went pretty, yeah, they have sentimental value in there, they have Marty Supreme in there, but they, right, yeah, I assume I still assume Coogler is winning there I do too because of the Oscar trend of awarding black directors screenplay awards rather than giving them director Spike Lee Jordan Peele they're like well we got a screenplay award for you Jerry Barry Jenkins yes plus it also just feels like

1:04:37Joe Reid:it's a very tidy split between one battle after another and Sinners where they give one to one and one to the other and I think Sinners

1:04:44Griffin Newman:is a kind of a brilliant like brilliant brilliant idea and a well-written movie. It's just funny. It's just such a visual fucking feast.

1:04:55David Sims:Anyway, I hope he wins. I want him to win. Look, there was always the thing of original screenplay, that's the cool category.

1:05:01Griffin Newman:Yeah.

1:05:01David Sims:That's the coolest movie that the Academy has recognized, but it's a little too edgy or out there or new to win Best Picture. It's the Pulp Fiction. It has sort of just become we will let black filmmakers get this close. Right.

1:05:16Griffin Newman:Or Nick Falolonga.

1:05:17David Sims:Of course. Well, we salute. No, but even, you know, those are, I'm about to name two films that were not written by their directors, but John Ridley winning for 12 Years a Slave. Yep, yep. And what's him, Jeffrey Cheshire for Precious? I believe that's correct, yes. Like, there has been a last 15 years, like, this is the exact ceiling. That's a really good point. Right. Moonlight, of course, just the weirdest Oscar shakedown of all time. Shakeout, I mean, rather. Who are your guys' winners? It was just an accident for me.

1:05:49Joe Reid:Also for me, it was just an accident. Wow.

1:05:52Griffin Newman:Who are you going for? That's a really good question.

1:05:59David Sims:Purple Narble. Are you going to murder me if I pick Materialist? I'm not going to murder you. No, but I want to hear you talk about it.

1:06:07Joe Reid:Because I did not like that movie, but I was fascinated by it.

1:06:11David Sims:Yeah. I think that movie is like the it is exploding the subtext in all kind of Hollywood romantic comedies into a like examination of how dating has basically just become or rather partners have become another form of currency in our like insane late stage capitalism house game. Sure. That the whole movie is about that we have basically reduced this to, like, a sense of belonging in your, like, it's another thing you own in your brand portfolio. Sure.

1:06:53Joe Reid:Sure. Certainly for a, particularly for a character like Dakota Johnson. Yes.

1:06:56David Sims:And how much we've, like, gamified dating through apps. That's, yes. Right. And then, you know, the people with the money to afford it bypass the apps by getting the bespoke throwback-y experience.

1:07:09Joe Reid:Yeah.

1:07:10David Sims:And that all of this doesn't actually consider what makes you want to be with someone, what makes a relationship work. You know, the intellectualization of the kind of person you want to be with versus who you were emotionally drawn to. And I just think it's like an incredible movie about people lying to themselves.

1:07:30Joe Reid:That is definitely true. Two things, and neither one of this is to sort of discount your choice. One of which is I recently, I have made the somewhat bonkers decision to, for the 25th anniversary of the movies of 2001, to watch the movies of 2001 throughout the year as they were released back then. So I watched The Wedding Planner. Oh, sure. That movie. That movie scans onto materialists so well in a way that I think doesn't do materialists any favors because it's like, we were kind of doing a lot of these beats 25 years ago. I would say. Where, like, you know, a matchmaker and a wedding planner, you know, why do they even want to be together?

1:08:09Joe Reid:Like, is this just status symbol, yada yada? The other thing is, I like Pedro Pascal in some things.

1:08:17Griffin Newman:I'm very with whatever this is.

1:08:19Joe Reid:He really does not meet the moment in that movie. He comes across as such a TV actor in that movie.

1:08:26David Sims:I firmly disagree with that. I think he's so good.

1:08:29Joe Reid:If you liked the movie, you would almost have to.

1:08:30David Sims:And like I admit my perhaps my single greatest movie frustration frustration of 2025 is how badly he fumbled Reed Richards. It drives me crazy.

1:08:42Griffin Newman:Yeah, did fumble it.

1:08:43David Sims:But I think I think it speaks to from in my opinion, why he works in materialist. I know all my defenses of materialists are. This is a feature, not a bug. Sure. But I feel very strongly about this.

1:08:56Joe Reid:That's how you end up. It's not a defense. Movies against consensus. You end up liking the thing that everybody didn't like.

1:09:01David Sims:I think, and I feel like there are other performances in the past I've referred to this way, and I'm struggling to recall another one now. But I think Pedro Pascal is giving a great fake movie star performance in Materialist. I think it is about his limitations. Sure. You know? And how, like, it's like, right, this guy should be, like, a giant movie star. Why isn't this working? Yes.

1:09:20Griffin Newman:I think that's what he's trying to do. I agree.

1:09:23Joe Reid:Right. I agree. That's the take. And all of this, what you're saying is saying to me, I'm really not surprised this movie did not do well. It did well. I mean, it made money. That's actually true. It did make more money than it. It made$100 million worldwide.

1:09:35David Sims:This is the crux of my whole take on this movie is I understand why it drove everyone insane because the marketing was, hey, guys, we're bringing it back.

1:09:45Griffin Newman:I was not baffled by the marketing of this movie. I understand what you're saying in terms of like a commercial response, but like I was not like expecting anything out of the marketing.

1:09:54David Sims:I just feel like every critic friend of mine who saw this movie early was like, the tone of this is so bizarre. It's not a comedy. It's not funny.

1:10:01Griffin Newman:I did. I did agree that it could not pick a tone. Yes. But the sexual assault plot line especially landed like so thuddingly for me, especially the way she reacts to it was just like not. I did not track a human onto that behavior. but my problem with Pascal was like I was like I think he's trying to come off as a little stiff and he's coming off as someone with heads in his fridge and I just like the whole time was just like I don't understand who this

1:10:28Joe Reid:person is and the movie doesn't really

1:10:30Griffin Newman:and like she's yes she's a little blinded by her stats and figures and is well through it but like I'm like she can't have sex with this person because he's crazy well the movie is also fairly eager to

1:10:42Joe Reid:like move on from him to the point that like also true. The movie gives him nothing. Yes.

1:10:47David Sims:We should put maybe a spoiler alert around this section of the conversation because this is a danger we get into every year at the Blankies where we start just throwing out random endings. That's true.

1:10:57Griffin Newman:People get grumpy on the Blankies episode specifically. This movie came out a long time.

1:11:01David Sims:For me it all works in the fucking kitchen scene where she like confronts him and he just like unravels and is like why is this not working? I'm everything on paper.

1:11:10Joe Reid:I see that.

1:11:11David Sims:I think his vulnerability in that scene totally makes it work for me. There is like a desperate, eager, just sort of like kind of pathetic quality that feels very honest, which I also think it's, look, part of the Pedro Pascal thing of, who is this guy really?

1:11:25Joe Reid:Right. Well, I mean, that's sort of a lot of his essential thing.

1:11:29David Sims:Totally. Totally. Yeah. Yeah. I think there is one choice in relation to the sexual assault plotline in the movie that I think is a fatal mistake. which is having the following scene take place in real time on their doorstep where Dakota Johnson and Chris Evans profess their love to each other. I think that cannot happen continuous with what she has just been going through.

1:11:59Griffin Newman:It just contributed to the feeling of like, these don't feel like people to me in the slightest.

1:12:04David Sims:Yeah.

1:12:05Griffin Newman:Like, I just had that problem with it throughout, but like, I really was just like, this is not human behavior. And satire or not, I've lost any grip on this movie because they're just not behaving like humans at all.

1:12:16David Sims:Yeah, see, it just, it totally clicked for me. And part of it is also that maybe I have dated three different Dakota Johnsons in my life. Anyway, next category.

1:12:24Joe Reid:Is it your screenplay winner? That was my screenplay winner. It is your screenplay winner.

1:12:26David Sims:Yeah, because I'm realizing this is the one place I can sort of mount my case for it. Plant your flag.

1:12:30Griffin Newman:Plant your flag. I mean, it's, yeah, it's that. Or what? I mean, you have five nominees. I know. The other four are probably better. IMO. Can't remember.

1:12:44David Sims:Yeah. If I had legs, I'd kick you, Sinners, Weapons, Eddington, Materialist.

1:12:47Griffin Newman:Yeah, those are all really, those are good ones. Eddington was, I mean, one of your favorite movies of the year.

1:12:52David Sims:Yeah, well, we'll get to that. Yeah, right, right. You know what? I've made my case for Materialist. I'm going to give it to If I had legs, I'd kick you. A great movie. Yeah, because I thought I was going to give Actress to Rose Byrne, but I think I'm going to swing on that. Just missed my swing. Yeah, that's strategizing in real time.

1:13:04Griffin Newman:I will tell you, the Blankies winners are, for original screenplay, I'll just go one to five. I'm just going 1 to 5 Sinners was their winner and then Marty Supreme Weapons Sentimental Value It Was Just an Accident and then Adapted One Battle was their winner Oh well we're about to do

1:13:18Joe Reid:Yeah we haven't done Adapted yet

1:13:23David Sims:Best Adapted Screenplay But I'll tell you

1:13:26Griffin Newman:One Battle was their winner then No Other Choice 28 Years Later Begonia and Wake Up Dead Man My Adapted Screenplays Let me see One Battle After Another 28 Years Later Wow Peter Hujar's Day, Hedda, and Superman.

1:13:43Joe Reid:I'm glad you had Peter Hujar's Day. Those are my five. Mine are Hamnet, Chloe Zhao, and Maggie O 'Farrell. Hedda, Nia DaCosta. One battle after another, Paul Thomas Anderson. Peter Hujar's Day, Iris X, Wake Up Dead Man, Rian Johnson. I was worried that Peter Hujar's Day is just so much a, oh, we have these transcripts. No, but I mean, it's all precisely constructed. Yes.

1:14:13David Sims:Trying to, what is my number five going to be?

1:14:20Joe Reid:I also realized I fell into one of the bullshittier Oscar things, which is you're adapted if you have characters from previous movies, which I think spiritually I disagree with, but in this case I wanted to nominate Wake Up Dead Man.

1:14:35Griffin Newman:Yeah, I mean, to me, right, saying Wake Up Dead Man is adapted is bizarre. Yes, it is. But I mean, but he's there. Otherwise,

1:14:42Joe Reid:otherwise y 'all were getting Song Song Blue and I would have stood by it. But, well,

1:14:47Griffin Newman:I'm glad it all worked out.

1:14:50Joe Reid:Stay tuned.

1:14:52David Sims:I'm struggling with my number five here, weirdly. Well, give us your four. Yeah, because I'm just trying to remind myself on what qualifies as what a little bit. My four definitely no other choice. One battle after

1:15:07Joe Reid:another wake up dead man a knives out mystery uh final destination bloodlines good movie

1:15:14Griffin Newman:is roofman adapted uh i don't actually think it is because it's not like it's just based on a true story yeah so it's not you don't want to nominate i don't know yeah what uh 28 years later had a

1:15:27David Sims:oh i'll nominate 20 years later correct thank you sorry yes yeah that's exactly what i'm doing so I'm three sequels sneaking in there yeah um 20 years later is a yeah just a fucking fantastic it's a great screenplay yeah

1:15:43Griffin Newman:absolutely yeah it's my nominee for me yeah I mean I'm giving the win to One Battle like sorry guys like One Battle's winning a lot of my awards we're not breaking

1:15:52Joe Reid:anybody's brains by saying One Battle but it's the best it is the best

1:15:56Griffin Newman:and it's also a very interesting feat of adaptation it's like taking the guts of a book and, you know, messing it around in all kinds of ways.

1:16:05Joe Reid:I take everybody's word for that because there's no way I... You don't want to crack open the vinyls? I can't read, so it would be pointless.

1:16:14David Sims:I'm giving it to No Other Choice.

1:16:17Joe Reid:Yeah.

1:16:18David Sims:Great movie. Other than Benicio, One Battle is, like, coming in, like, second for me in almost every category.

1:16:24Griffin Newman:Yeah. Park Chan-wook and Don McCallar and Lee Kyung-mi and Lee Jae-hee.

1:16:31Joe Reid:And that is based on a novel? The Axe? By Donald Westlake.

1:16:35David Sims:Yes. Thank you to everyone who sent me the Costas Gavras film. Oh, right. Because it was hard to find. Yes. The prior adaptation. And if anyone wants a link, I now have 47 of them. So I have many ways to watch the movie. Yeah. I can just goon it. I can surround myself. I can just goon it.

1:16:53Joe Reid:We're going to clip that as well. I can just goon it.

1:16:56David Sims:You don't need to goon it. Okay. Anytime I invoke Gooning on the show, listeners go, does he just think it's having a lot of screens? I know what the other stuff is. I'm just, I don't want to talk about it. He gets it. Oh, you don't want to talk about it? I don't want to talk about it.

1:17:08Griffin Newman:What are your animated? It's a family show. It's so true.

1:17:13Joe Reid:Best animated feature.

1:17:16Griffin Newman:What are your animated films, Griff? Give me your five.

1:17:20David Sims:This is actually a tough year for this. It's a weak year. And I will say I have not, I have some big blind spots. I really haven't met little Amelie yet yeah I bet I mean this is the problem is like I'd be putting in some stuff I like okay just to fill out the five sure that's the kind of year three yeah I mean like the day the earth blew up oh yeah sure K-pop demon hunters yeah and I'm like what else do I even like I admittedly haven't seen Arco yet oh sure I haven't seen Little Amelie yet. I was not crazy about Zootopia 2. What about Elio? I was not crazy about Elio.

1:18:03Griffin Newman:What about Fixed? I really was not crazy about that one. Which one is Fixed? It's a Jenny Tartotowski movie about a horny dog. Oh, right. Gotta cut his balls off.

1:18:11Joe Reid:See, for some reason, I thought that movie turned out to not actually, like, I know the joke, ha ha, doesn't exist, but like, I thought there was a Jenny Tartotowski movie.

1:18:19David Sims:There was a real threat of it being a Zaslav, and it escaped containment. And of course we devoted a full episode to it. Of course. No, I don't even know what my number three would be. I have some, yeah. What about you guys?

1:18:35Griffin Newman:Yeah, I have, yeah, it's boring. Like it's Zootopia 2 and Arco and K-pop Demon Hunters. And then, yeah, I have to be like, I guess Elio. I basically abstain. Yeah, I can't. It's a weak year. I haven't seen Little Amelie, which got the Oscar nom.

1:18:48Joe Reid:Little Amelie and Arco I think are in the same bucket for me.

1:18:50Griffin Newman:I did not really care for Arco.

1:18:52Joe Reid:I thought Arco was fine. I thought Little Amelie was fine. I thought Elio was not bad, which felt like a radical opinion to me because I think Elio got a lot of shit for some reason. Yeah, I think Elio's solid. But like Elio left my brain. Yeah. Before it was over.

1:19:06Griffin Newman:I barely remember. And like, I didn't like despise it.

1:19:10David Sims:I'm putting Elio and Zootopia in. I thought Zootopia 2 was fine.

1:19:14Griffin Newman:I very much enjoyed it.

1:19:15Joe Reid:I enjoyed myself with Zootopia 2. And K-pop Demon Hunters is kind of my number one with a bullet, even though I think that movie is mostly a good time that is grafted onto a decent movie. I'm glad everyone is having fun. Me too. I had a good time.

1:19:30Griffin Newman:I was a little bit like, I might be sold for this. The songs are now encoded in my brain. Sure.

1:19:34David Sims:I haven't seen Predator Killer of Killers, which I've heard is excellent.

1:19:39Griffin Newman:So our blankies put that in there, along with Arco, Dave Deer, and Chainsaw Man, Ben's favorite movie of the year, was number two for them, and then K-pop Demon Hunters.

1:19:48David Sims:I continue to struggle with the Nezha films I cannot make sense of them yeah a little impenetrable Bad Guys 2 kind of did nothing for me The King of Kings and David obviously my two favorite movies of the year

1:20:01Joe Reid:Did you see the Chainsaw one too? That's Ben's favorite

1:20:03David Sims:I did not see that I did not I missed that one Oh Joe Yeah? Worth it? It's fun Okay Alright Sneaks is one of the worst films I saw all year that's a A sneaker movie movie about talking sneakers No it's not Yeah it is starring Anthony Mackie Tony It's starring Martin Lawrence, who this is kind of there was an interesting technical breakthrough. If I can just animation nerd out for a second on the movie Sneaks. That is the first voiceover performance recorded entirely while someone is fully asleep.

1:20:33Griffin Newman:Just kind of put a mic by the bed there.

1:20:35Joe Reid:We're doing a lot with sleep technology. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:20:38David Sims:That's what it sounds like the whole time.

1:20:39Joe Reid:He was getting tested for sleep apnea and they thought while we were doing that, while we got him hooked up to machines, why not we also record a voice? Yeah.

1:20:50Griffin Newman:Any vocal performances we want to shout out this year? Honestly, no. I'm moving us on from animation. Yeah, it's depressing. You know what? We're all struggling here. Look, we talked about... You know what? David Strathairn and Andy Samberg did a great job in Zootopia 2. The whole Zootopia cast was great.

1:21:03Joe Reid:I thought Samberg was really good. Yeah. I agree with you.

1:21:07David Sims:Marin in The Bad Guys 2. I haven't seen that one yet. I really just want to talk about Goat, which is 2026. Oh, you're all about Goat. Is Goat good? I still haven't seen Goat yet. That's good.

1:21:16Joe Reid:It's the number one movie in America. It is? I got it there, baby. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:21:21David Sims:Joe, what you're witnessing is a very interesting inflection point in the narrative of Blank Check, which is I'm getting nonplused about all animated films, and David is going to see them with his daughter and be like, this thing fucking rules.

1:21:36Griffin Newman:It's kind of a, I'm now in the, I think if there's an animated film, she's old enough where it's like, if there's a cartoon, we're going to go see it. Like, we're going to Hoppers, we're going to Mario Galaxy, right? Like whatever the ones coming down the pike are.

1:21:47Joe Reid:Hoppers, do you mean Meryl Streep's grand return to feature films? Is that right? After like five years away?

1:21:51David Sims:Hoppers, the first time Meryl Streep has played an insect queen in an animated film in 20 years.

1:21:57Joe Reid:I mean, after the end bully? Is that what we're talking about? Correct.

1:22:00David Sims:One of the greatest Cinematrix plays.

1:22:02Joe Reid:I literally was like, the only reason I'm pulling that is because I've been in the Cinematrix matches. All right.

1:22:06Griffin Newman:What else should we do here?

1:22:08Joe Reid:Have you guys, did you guys do nominations for casting? Because that's the inaugural Oscar category.

1:22:13Griffin Newman:I don't do a casting.

1:22:14Joe Reid:Mine was kind of chalk, except for I wanted to throw in Griffin and Summer, which I was like, if you cast really awesome kid characters.

1:22:21David Sims:Can I just call dibs on the other three seasons?

1:22:24Joe Reid:Oh, Griffin and Spring, Griffin and Autumn. I will cede Summer to him as long as I still have the other three.

1:22:31Griffin Newman:You're doing a Romare? Like, I want to complete the season's quadrilogy?

1:22:35David Sims:I just don't like that this uppity little movie.

1:22:37Griffin Newman:Have you seen it? No, I've heard it's great. I think you really enjoyed it. I've heard it's a real winner. It is a real winner. You probably love it. The whole thing with it. Everyone's got a new Griffin they love. Pin in Griffin and Summer, actually. All right. Interesting. But cinematography.

1:22:57Joe Reid:Best cinematography.

1:23:02Joe Reid:Cinematography. Cinematography. Mine are Darius Kanji for Marty Supreme, Michael Bauman for One Battle After Another, Alex Ash for Peter Hujar's Day. Yeah, gorgeous. Mauro Hurst for Serrat and Adolfo Veloso for Train Dreams.

1:23:20Griffin Newman:Pretty movie. Yeah. Probably going to win the Oscar. Or no, actually.

1:23:23Joe Reid:I think it's going to be one battle.

1:23:25Griffin Newman:One battle. Yeah, I mean, fucking rock. Yeah. Yeah, I have one battle on Marty Supreme. I have 28 Years Later, which is my winner. That's such a good pick. Yeah. I have a Phoenician scheme because, of course, like every West movie basically deserves every technom. I can. I think it's Brose Del Bonel. And never gets them

1:23:41Joe Reid:except for one movie that's the weirdest. Oscar narrative breaks my brain all the time.

1:23:46David Sims:This is the first live action movie he's done with anyone other than Bob Newman. Correct.

1:23:51Griffin Newman:Yes. Which is also really interesting. I can't remember why. I don't know if there's a reason.

1:23:55David Sims:I don't either.

1:23:56Griffin Newman:Maybe he and Yeoman got in a fight over like craft services.

1:23:58David Sims:But Yeoman goes all the way back to Bottle Rocket, right?

1:24:00Griffin Newman:He goes way back. Yeah. And then No Other Choice is my fifth.

1:24:04David Sims:Yeah. Mine are 28 Years Later, Die My Love. Oh, yeah. No Other Choice, One Battle After Another, and Phoenicians came.

1:24:15Joe Reid:Nice.

1:24:15David Sims:He does go all the way back to Balaraka.

1:24:17Griffin Newman:Yeah, what the fuck happened? I don't know. I don't know. I mean, Delvinel's a king. I mean, he's one of my favorite DPs.

1:24:23David Sims:But you're right, Joe. I will never stop yelling about this. It makes no sense to me. Even when they don't like the movie, he should be getting, like, Young Victoria-style nominations. I think that's why they don't do it.

1:24:33Joe Reid:Royal Tenenbaum gets a screenplay nomination, so clearly you saw it. Clearly you liked it. And yet, like, no production design. What the fuck is your problem?

1:24:41David Sims:Okay, so was that movie too edgy at that point in time for the Academy? But now it should be agreed on. Right, and it's like, it feels like what happened last year with Ralph Fiennes not winning for Conclave, where people were like, but he already has one, right? This is another Griffin Buckner. Right, where it feels like people are like, but hasn't Wes Anderson, like, haven't his movies won, like, 20 Kraft Awards?

1:25:02Joe Reid:You will hear that from people being like, oh, another, you know, play for Kraft nominations from Wes Anderson. And it's like, no, actually, kind of never.

1:25:11David Sims:Desla won for Grand Budapest. And did Grand Budapest win? It won makeup and hairstyle? It won like three or four awards, I feel like. But it didn't even get, because obviously Chivo beats it for cinematography.

1:25:26Griffin Newman:Yeah, it won for costumes, makeup, score, and production design. So Stockhausen, it's like Stockhausen has his Oscar. Maybe that's how they feel, but I don't know. I don't know, and I don't like it. Yeah, it's bad. The Blanky's winners here, our listeners, were One Battle and then Sinners, 28 Years Later, Train Dreams, and No Other Choice. So, you know, good looking movies. Good looking movies. Score?

1:25:58Griffin Newman:Best Score.

1:26:04Joe Reid:I've got some score nominees. Kind of chalky. One Battle. Sinners Surat Testament of An Lee

1:26:11Griffin Newman:and Trainedry Testament of An Lee is a good shout yeah if nothing else

1:26:16Joe Reid:and I've kind of been like in many group texts I've been the sort of holdout on Testament of An Lee but like there are elements of that movie that like are really fantastic

1:26:25Griffin Newman:I was left quite cold by that film but it's quite impressive you're one of the very few people

1:26:31Joe Reid:who I've heard that from and I'm glad to have at least some company for some reason that became the like gay guy cause celeb this year and i was like folks there's some like actual movies with like gay characters i mean i know that whatever uh lewis pullman in that movie and whatever but like i don't know everybody was just on the on the cypher train and she's great i love cypher

1:26:52David Sims:adore that movie i'll talk about it uh in a little bit all right uh i did i forgot to post this on letterbox when i saw it but uh saw the film was very moved by it was very affected by it immediately came out with like a couple of really good pitches for if i had to write for the spirit awards uh-huh a testament of stanley i mean it's right there uh tim robinson chair company parody where he shows up at the shakers and he's like what's going on here and they just keep singing that that would be fun that would be funny right yeah because they made all those great chairs

1:27:27Griffin Newman:yeah i just wanted the whole movie to be about furniture right and then my and it's like it's It gets like one line.

1:27:32David Sims:And then my third Spirit Awards pitch was Shake It Off. They do like a Daniel Blumberg-style performance of Taylor Swift, Shake It Off. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Banging their chest. I thought that was like three good pitches right off the dome.

1:27:46Griffin Newman:You seem just like seething with rage that the spirits did not take you up on this. Did they even acknowledge Anne Lee?

1:27:53David Sims:I feel like these spirits were kind of so odd. Editing. Because I drafted it in our other secret movie league we're part of. What? And I got it for$1, and I was like, I'm going to fucking reap the riches with this. I'm the only one who has it on their slate, and that is the only major reward it got all year.

1:28:11Joe Reid:Indie spirits were weird this year in that the nominations were so pleasantly off the map. Yeah, because they do the weird juries. In that really classic indie spirit way of like, oh, this used to give me 20 ideas for movies that I hadn't seen. Right. And then because of that, it was so much more stark that like, oh, there's one per category that's like an Oscar nominee crossover. And so, of course, those ones were the ones that won. Train Dreams won. Train Dreams won Sorry Baby, which is not an Oscar nominee, but was also like everybody's pick for best first feature this year. So like that one, a few of them.

1:28:45Joe Reid:And like Rose Byrne won, very well deserved, but like is an Oscar nominee.

1:28:48Griffin Newman:my nominees for score were one battle of marty supreme 28 years later young fathers yeah sinners

1:28:54Joe Reid:and tron aries i did not see tron aries i was waiting to have to see it because it's an oscar nominee i believe it i mean yeah i'm i'm now like wondering if i have the exact same five

1:29:05Griffin Newman:you might yeah i mean there's other good scores this year though uh what i've been listening to what i've been bumping black bag score is great the weapon score is great weapon score is really cool yeah uh not as much one to bump because it's so just you know disorienting but good uh what are some other good stuff the superman score the weird sort of hodgepodge nature of it notwithstanding but it's good uh and lee for sure i don't know i don't know mate okay thank you thank you mate what i gave what final destination of screenplay now i'm just remembering that Yeah, it was a lovely little film for you.

1:29:41David Sims:Yeah, thank you. I think that is a perfectly structured screenplay. Yeah. I think that movie is so smart. I give it so much credit for, like, after six, right? No, no, this is the sixth entry. There were five previous Final Destinations. Showing up and just being like, this is clearly what all of these movies should have been all along. Like, just finding the perfect narrative structure and emotional like underpinning for one of these films. Yeah. I also think that movie does some of the smartest legacy sequel shit I have ever seen. Agree. It is the opposite of the stuff that makes my teeth hurt

1:30:18Joe Reid:where there is a... Well, they essentially were like David Gordon Green's Halloween, but like what if it wasn't stupid?

1:30:25David Sims:Well, because the movie basically there is a reading of it that is not necessary for you to enjoy the film. Yeah. That this is the starting point of the entire franchise. Yes. that everything that has happened in the five previous films, which have their own Fast and Furious style jumbled timeline where things keep on getting rearranged, are all the trickle effects of this one incident that is the cold open that is so good.

1:30:50Joe Reid:Yeah.

1:30:51David Sims:Yeah.

1:30:51Joe Reid:Yeah, I really liked it. I thought it was really creative. I think I go to those movies because, like, I'm not normally this much of a sadist, but I'm like, I need creative kills. I need, you know what I mean? Like, all that become, like, a real chug.

1:31:03Griffin Newman:It's a horror movie. You're allowed to be a little, you know, sort of demanding. demanding of these things.

1:31:08David Sims:Incredibly good. And I just think the Tony Todd scene is like excellent. Is another perfect example of just like retroactively applying all this meaning to previous movies that are like, I find that entire franchise very fun, but a lot of times through a lot of wonkiness. Oh, totally. Like the power of the ideas push through a lot of conceptual like sort of inconsistencies. Yeah. But yeah. And a lot of it's like a master class of directing, but also, and I've said this so many times, any movie that can get an entire audience to cheer when a child dies is doing some sort of, I completely agree.

1:31:47David Sims:super sophisticated, Raimi-esque, it was the way I felt watching Send Help, where I'm like, these are filmmakers who know how to play the audience like a drum.

1:31:55Joe Reid:That's a movie I wish I hadn't seen the trailer, because the one trailer gives away so much of the backyard scene with the lawnmower and whatnot, that I was like, But that scene has so much wrong footing

1:32:06David Sims:And so many Mr. X

1:32:08Joe Reid:Oh that's true but it's just like I just wanted that I understand why it's the same thing with the Running Man trailer where they give away so much Of the one action scene in the hallway Or the elevator or whatever they're doing

1:32:19David Sims:I liked that the first Bloodlines Teaser was the Piercing tattoo shop Yes which is the ultimate fake out

1:32:28Joe Reid:Exactly so I was like oh This is a good sequence and they're ruining it to do the

1:32:31David Sims:Marketing and then you see it in the context of the movie and you're like No, this was the exact thing for them to spoil. It's not even that character's best. Because in context, it's totally different. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:32:39Joe Reid:Yeah, it's great.

1:32:40David Sims:Can I give out a special honorific award? Sure.

1:32:42Joe Reid:Can I do one right after you?

1:32:43David Sims:Yeah, of course. The first ever Iowa Debris Memorial couldn't be more seated award. I say memorial because her time as a guest on the show is probably it.

1:33:00Griffin Newman:Look, once in a while, I talk for a learned. I talk to Ayo largely about my kids. But once in a while, Ayo will be like, gotta come back on BC someday. And I'm like, hey man, doors open. She is about to do Proof on Broadway. That's in New York. She's here. Oh shit. But she will also be fairly busy doing what is, having seen the original production, one of the more demanding theater roles I'm aware of existing. I wonder how that's going to go.

1:33:26David Sims:I feel like we threw Spielberg to her and she said, I only want to do Columbo main theater.

1:33:30Griffin Newman:She didn't say, I only want to, but she did say, I really want to do that. And, you know, again, it's sputted up. But you are honoring, of course, her iconic, I'm so seated. I couldn't be more seated. I couldn't be more seated. They're telling me it's not coming out for months, but I'm remaining seated type, you know, her tweet.

1:33:47David Sims:So this is my award for the best performance with zero standing up. Okay. Now, I think it's important that the performance cannot textually be a character who lacks the ability to stand. I understand. It needs to feel like the actor is overriding any demands going, I got an idea. What if I'm just a little what if I'm sort of in this chair here?

1:34:09Joe Reid:What if I have an emotional connection to this chair? I really shouldn't leave it. Yeah.

1:34:14David Sims:And this award was inspired. And I think this is much like Putters and Murmurs, something that would be easy to fill every year. But it was inspired by seeing a performance this year that was, in my memory, three or four different scenes in a couple different locations. All seated. And every time I cut back to this actor in a chair, I was just going, oh, I hope he doesn't fuck up the streak. I hope he never stands up. Al Pacino in Dead Man's Wire.

1:34:36Griffin Newman:Oh, sure. Yes. I have not seen, but I've heard that his performance is a smidge low energy. Four different chairs by my count.

1:34:44David Sims:Four different chairs. I believe I read that he shot the entire performance in one day.

1:34:49Joe Reid:I also believe that.

1:34:50David Sims:The movie takes place over, like, I think 72 hours.

1:34:52Joe Reid:But he goes from like a country club to like a couple different rooms in his home.

1:34:58David Sims:Yeah. Different chairs. But this man.

1:35:00Joe Reid:Off screen, he's moving and wheeling and dealing. But we never see it.

1:35:03David Sims:And he's doing a lot. But he could not be more seated.

1:35:05Joe Reid:And it's a clear choice by Big Al. I thought you were going to go for like Tracy Letts in House of Dynamite or something like that. But he's leaning and standing. Does he stand? Okay. Yeah. And he's going like.

1:35:16David Sims:Okay. Joe, it's there in the name. They could not be more seated. There have to be zero qualifiers in this performance. Yeah.

1:35:23Griffin Newman:Nuremberg, I've pointed out already, but Crow, I mean, he does do like some pushups in one scene, but Crow is largely either lying down or sitting.

1:35:31Joe Reid:Crow is a spiritually seated actor.

1:35:33Griffin Newman:I mean, he did a whole fucking serial killer movie where he's in the car the whole time. You know what I mean? Where they were like, you have to play like a crazy guy. He's like, can I sit in the car? Get out.

1:35:42Joe Reid:And another one was just like, what if I was sitting on this Vespa for most of this book? The Pope's Exorcist? Yeah.

1:35:49David Sims:Different than, what was the other one he did? he did another movie called The Something Exorcist. The Exorcism. Yes.

1:35:55Griffin Newman:Oh, right. That almost felt like they were like, we just, we sort of CGI'd a little, a different haircut on you from like deleted scenes from the other Exorcist movie.

1:36:03David Sims:But isn't that one about like, he's a guy who played an exorcist or something?

1:36:07Griffin Newman:A troubled actor begins to exhibit disruptive behavior. I don't see how Russell Crowe would vibe with that character. Am I not wrong that he is in some sort of middle space

1:36:16Joe Reid:between like real movies. Yes. And like Bruce Willis depressing red box, like slop. Yes. You know, kind of stuff.

1:36:25David Sims:They're more legitimate than that.

1:36:27Joe Reid:Yeah.

1:36:28David Sims:It's an interesting zone he's in. But once again, this category, which exists and is open to you gentlemen for all years going forward, is not for the spiritually seated. No. And if Russell Crowe is getting up and doing pushups in one scene, then unfortunately, I have a note. There is a way that you could be more seated. It's simply not doing the pushups. Yeah. It has to be someone who does not get up from the chair once.

1:36:48Joe Reid:The rigorousness of your parameters really dissuades me from picking something on the fly. I will have to punt until next year, but next year I'll come locked and loaded.

1:36:57David Sims:Yeah, just think about it. All right.

1:36:58Joe Reid:Yeah. All right. Mine is, so on my podcast, This Had Oscar Buzz, on our Patreon, we have been taken to doing what we call superlatives awards, which is all the weird detritus movie awards from various places, the NBR, whatever, tribute to integrity and filmmaking or whatever. Yeah, of course. Best Kiss from the MTV Movie Awards, the Cane Palm Dog, things like that. And sometimes we make up our own category. And as soon as we were done, I texted Chris and I said, I forgot the one category I wanted to do, which is Best Wife on Phone. because the trope of the wife on phone.

1:37:41Griffin Newman:Catherine Keener and Sully. Catherine Keener and Sully is absolutely Naples. No, she's in Captain Phillips. Correct. Sorry, I knew it was. Laura Linney and Sully. Laura Linney and Sully.

1:37:50Joe Reid:But the two, yeah, those are your twin pillars of exactly what I'm talking about.

1:37:53Griffin Newman:I hope no pirates get you today, honey. All right, I'll see you later.

1:37:57David Sims:Diane Lane in The Perfect Storm?

1:37:59Griffin Newman:Diane Lane in The Perfect Storm is on the CB radio. Yes, she's wife on CB.

1:38:03Joe Reid:I can't remember if she ever gets in a boat.

1:38:05David Sims:But Mary Elizabeth Mastriantonio's in a boat. Right.

1:38:09Joe Reid:No, she's in the war room. She's in the war room? Like, she's the one on the horn, I think, like, barking out instructions.

1:38:14David Sims:Yes. You know who's in the war room is Tracy Letts. This is true. That's true. Yes. Now, he could be more seated. Joe? Yes. Who is your nominee this year? My nominees are... Okay, you have a full five.

1:38:25Joe Reid:I did. Yeah. With some creative accounting. Yeah. Renee Elise Goldsberry in House of Dynamite, who is... Oh, God. A flotus on phone Wearing full Brian Fellows Safari getup Obviously The funniest cut in that movie I swear to God

1:38:40David Sims:She's gonna be tough to beat this year She's gonna be tough to beat This might be a Jesse Buckley run

1:38:45Joe Reid:It's so funny Bernay Lee's Goldberry Greta Gerwig and Jay Kelly Who has multiple wife on phone scenes With Adam Sandler

1:38:53David Sims:Yeah

1:38:55Joe Reid:Melanie Diaz in Roofman

1:38:56Griffin Newman:An actress I was so happy to see Same But she didn't have a ton to do with her

1:39:02Joe Reid:I don't know if that character gets done wrong. And that's essentially like the movie doesn't not make the claim of like, and he was much happier when he wasn't saddled with this family.

1:39:12David Sims:I,

1:39:12Joe Reid:okay.

1:39:14David Sims:Can I just say this quickly now? Yes.

1:39:16Joe Reid:Yes.

1:39:16David Sims:Not to interrupt your category. we'll put a pin, but I was pumping roof man really hard. I like roof man. Yeah. And I saw some blankies be like, I don't get it. Really? Well, in specifically saying, I think this character is kind of a bad guy and the movie wants me to root for him and is trying to turn it into like a charming romantic comedy. And once again, I'm like, I think the movie is a portrait of a complicated man. Yeah. I think what it is digging with is that this guy abandoned his daughters and now is like over like parenting. Right. He's being too present for these surrogate daughters.

1:39:55David Sims:Yes. But you know that it's like, he's going to fucking do this again. and that like the ending of the film is not some like their love was true kind of thing. It's like speaking to this guy's feelings are genuine and yet he can't stop fucking this up and hurting people.

1:40:09Joe Reid:This is a thing I talked about a bunch with my vulture colleague Roxanna Haddaddy who is a huge Derek Cien France fan. We're like the two most enthusiastic Place Beyond the Pines people that I know. And there is a degree to which we're like, we're not going to tell you you have to see another movie before you see Roof Man. But like knowing the whole Derek Cien France thing really helps you get more out of Roofman because like it is the bad dad thing. It is the sort of like the terminal fuck up kind of a guy and it really plays into that.

1:40:35David Sims:And because it's at a more comedic pitch, I think people, and I think some of this is a training from decade, a decade plus of very kind of, how would I put this? Didactic characterization, especially from TV, but from a lot of studio films. Yeah. of just like characters are really clean cut, good or bad. And if you're wrestling with someone who is complicated, that has to be a heavy dramatic movie. And to see a comedy in which a character is complicated and like can do things that are both... A light comedy. It felt like a 70s comedy. It felt like analysis and lipier anymore, kind of. It feels like a 70s, five easy pieces.

1:41:19David Sims:Like this guy is equally captivating and nauseating.

1:41:22Joe Reid:My thing was if the Golden Globe comedy categories weren't so crowded with fake comedies.

1:41:29Griffin Newman:Great comedies. Rip-roaring comedies.

1:41:30Joe Reid:Then Channing Tatum would have been an ideal nomination.

1:41:34Griffin Newman:Don't you think Derek Cienfranc looks like an AI of Ryan Gosling that kind of went wrong? You know what I mean? It's Ryan Gosling and Clark Gregg. Yeah, right.

1:41:42Joe Reid:He sort of like melded the two of them.

1:41:44David Sims:But like in Blue Valentine, where Gosling shaved the hairline back. And he had the big aviator sunglasses. and I was like, this is a cool look for Gosling and then I saw my first interview with Derek C in France and I was like,

1:41:55Griffin Newman:oh, okay. Got it.

1:41:56Joe Reid:He just took a picture. Got it.

1:41:58David Sims:Yeah, yeah, yeah.

1:41:59Joe Reid:Okay, two more wives on phone. I had Renee Elise Goldsberry, Greta Gerwig, Melanie Diaz, Christian Slater and If I Had Lex, I'd Kick You.

1:42:07David Sims:Yeah.

1:42:07Joe Reid:I mean, mild spoiler,

1:42:09David Sims:but God, the fucking reveal there. The reveal of him is very strong.

1:42:11Joe Reid:The classic, I know this voice, I know this voice, I know this voice. But he's not playing

1:42:16David Sims:into his go-to so hard that you're like, well, obviously. And the reveal of that's who it is and the way he's dressed and what you now understand about the character and his profession. Yes. I will not spoil for people, but it is incredibly fine.

1:42:29Joe Reid:So my winner is Grace Gummer in Springsteen, who plays Jeremy Strong's wife, who somebody said this.

1:42:38Griffin Newman:I fucking forgot about that.

1:42:40Joe Reid:She must have a real easy time.

1:42:41David Sims:She's married to.

1:42:42Joe Reid:Yeah, Jeremy Strong. But somebody said this, and I can't for the life of me remember it. And if you are out there and I've been quoting you all awards season, please let me know. Described it as a wife on phone performance where the wife is in the room with the guy. Because it very much is just like she's serving that function classically. But she's not on the phone. She's right there in person.

1:43:03David Sims:I mean, that's what's also interesting about Gerwig is that a good chunk of her performance is husband on phone, wife standing next to husband being like, talk to me.

1:43:13Joe Reid:Yes. Yes. Yes, in a different movie, she's dealing, juggling the kids or whatever, and he's Christian Slater.

1:43:19David Sims:It is interesting that we had a robust slate of new releases between September and January. We're like more of a scheduling hassle than it's ever been before. Yeah, yeah, right. For movies that didn't end up bathering.

1:43:32Griffin Newman:Yeah. They're all coming to my podcast.

1:43:34David Sims:Avatar got two noms, right? But otherwise, no other choice, zero noms.

1:43:38Griffin Newman:Bit rude.

1:43:39David Sims:House of Dynamite, zero noms.

1:43:40Griffin Newman:Yes, not rude.

1:43:41David Sims:Ella McKay, zero noms.

1:43:44Griffin Newman:I'm told that it's re-eligible for next year, and they're going to keep making it eligible until it gets a nom.

1:43:49David Sims:It's only played in theaters for five days.

1:43:52Joe Reid:J. Kelly, Rental Family, like all of these ones that are coming into the festivals.

1:43:58Griffin Newman:Is Ellen McKay the first movie to lose money on Hulu? They're like, it's somehow grossed negative dollars. I don't know what happened to you.

1:44:06David Sims:Is this thing on? Yep, zero noms. And is there one other one I'm forgetting?

1:44:10Griffin Newman:That might be it. I mean, there's plenty, you know, the three in a row for us was the avatars, this thing on and no other choice. I think that was it.

1:44:19Joe Reid:Yeah. Oh, especially like for your purpose. Oh, Die My Love. Sorry. Sword Wars. Yes. Yes. You know, because we did Ramsey.

1:44:27David Sims:Admittedly, the big strategy behind doing Die My Love and doing it at the top of 2026 was like, oh, can we do like a campion thing? Right. Because these are lesser known films, but it had such a big explosion in a can and movies putting so much money behind it. Can we line up a series to what presumably will be the first Lin Ramsey movie to break through at the Oscars? And then like zero not.

1:44:49Griffin Newman:And you know what? We did a Mission Impossible The Final Reckoning. Did that get a visual effects on? Did that sneak into somewhere?

1:44:55Joe Reid:No, Mission Impossible did not. It's not on my...

1:44:58Griffin Newman:Okay. Yeah, it's not. And then we did, of course, do a Honey Don't episode. and weirdly I think that only got like six or seven noms.

1:45:05David Sims:Superman did not get a nom or did it get a visual effects?

1:45:08Griffin Newman:Did it get a visual effects? It didn't. It's crazy. Jurassic World sure did. They kind of just don't give the superhero movies VFX noms ever anymore. I think they've just decided like you, that's too easy. Weirdly the dinos slipped through. I mean, the Jurassic movie, the VFX were good. The VFX were a lot better

1:45:26Joe Reid:than I anticipated. The story was much, much worse.

1:45:29David Sims:I mean, I don't know. Guys, there was a, There's a shot in that movie in which a camera that feels vaguely handheld struggles to pan up and down a large creature being illuminated only by a red flare gun. I've never seen Gareth Edwards come up with such an image before. Fair. That's fair. Yeah, no, we just are our slate of new releases was almost entirely this had Oscar buzz.

1:46:00Joe Reid:Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Well, give us a year and we'll get to all of them. So.

1:46:31David Sims:start, easy open lever, and dedicated brew over ice button, it's even easier to enjoy your coffee your way. Sip for yourself. Shop Virtuo up exclusively at nespresso.com.

1:46:43Joe Reid:We're leaving today and entering a world of Mickey Mouse waving, princess meeting and greeting, lightsaber

1:46:51Griffin Newman:clashing, the Twilight Zone Tower of Terror dropping, banshee flying, Space Mountain launching, galaxy rewinding what is the whole deck of galaxy rewinding fireworks igniting

1:47:04Joe Reid:worlds of other worlds for whatever you love infinite worlds await at the most magical place on earth Walt Disney World Resort

1:47:19David Sims:we're back baby it's the blankies

1:47:26Joe Reid:why don't you putters and murmurs now I mean it's I think it's I have some I have some I have some Consideration Give me some others Yeah So uh Before I get to the proper Putters and Murmurs Um Oh yeah you like to throw

1:47:41David Sims:On a couple others Lakeith Stanfield

1:47:42Joe Reid:In Die My Love Smolders and Sexers Uh huh Not a whole lot of talking He's just sort of You know Yeah He's leering Um Rebecca Holland Peter Hujar's Day Murmurs but no putters Yeah

1:47:54Griffin Newman:Yeah

1:47:54Joe Reid:Her She's digging into that accent It's really wonderful to listen to.

1:47:58Griffin Newman:It was a close miss for me. She's incredible.

1:48:03Joe Reid:Emery Cohen and Roofman, Chunkers and Shamers.

1:48:06Griffin Newman:And fucking Marty Supreme.

1:48:08Joe Reid:And Marty Supreme. I love him and Roofman though because he is the moral center of that movie. And he gets the shaft for it. The kids, Parents and Weapons, I thought. You beat me to that one. It's not a lot of puntering because they're mostly just stock still. Forget the actress's name. The one who's not Marin Ireland, but certainly, I don't think at least, but resembles. Maybe it is Marin. In weapons,

1:48:33Griffin Newman:I will look it up.

1:48:35Joe Reid:Tom Waits in Father, Mother, Sister, Brother.

1:48:37Griffin Newman:A movie I have not seen. Same, a blind spot. I did not care for it.

1:48:41Joe Reid:And I figured, I wanted to like that movie going in and I don't like it.

1:48:45David Sims:Callie Shatero. Thank you. And Whitmer Thomas are the Alex's mom and dad. Yeah.

1:48:49Joe Reid:Former winner, Timothy Spall in Goodbye June.

1:48:52Griffin Newman:Timothy Spall. I haven't seen Goodbye June on account of I'd rather or not.

1:48:55Joe Reid:Yeah.

1:48:56Griffin Newman:I don't want to be doing that.

1:48:57David Sims:Is that a movie about something incredibly depressed?

1:48:59Griffin Newman:No, it's Kate Winslet directorial debut straight to Netflix. It's just one of those things where I'm like...

1:49:03Joe Reid:Well, it's also like their mom is dying.

1:49:05Griffin Newman:I know it's also like grim. It's grim in Britain kind of shit. But like that I can handle. It just seemed like a bit of a nothing.

1:49:11Joe Reid:Look, I mean, nobody saw it. I'm like the only person who saw it.

1:49:14David Sims:I often think it is not a productive discourse, even if the sentiments behind it are valid. Yeah. But Kate Winslet coming out in defense of her children saying, I really don't like this Nepo label. my children had to work hard for what they've gotten in this industry I'm like your daughter was cast in a Wes Anderson movie that you were not in Catherine your son slipped you a screenplay and you said I'll direct this and call my friends to start you have to admit there's a pipeline I think her daughter

1:49:42Griffin Newman:is clearly has some talent and is very good in the Phoenician scheme yeah my son slipped me a screenplay there's no come on now like just that's family business stuff just cop to it that's the thing it's fine just fucking cop to it it's fine That's what's always happened in this industry. Yeah, right. And if you want to use your cloud.

1:49:59David Sims:That movie that she directed, she was saying, look, he got here on his own. And I'm like, you can say that you think his script is legitimately very good. Yeah. But you then decided to direct it.

1:50:08Griffin Newman:I just, I can't get drawn into it because I am always just like, look, you know, it's just how it works. It's always worked that way. There's things about it that are so unfair. Obviously, there's real talent that emerges who are nepotistic that grew up in the business. It's not surprising.

1:50:23Joe Reid:It is also, it's just like, it is just kind of human nature. Right.

1:50:26David Sims:It is true in lots of industries or whatever. Like barrier for access issue that has to do with wealth and class and social strata.

1:50:36Griffin Newman:Since fucking ancient Greece, if you were rich, you could be a poet. You know what I mean?

1:50:40Joe Reid:Has anybody made the like case of like, you know, whatever, butchers children used to follow their parents. Everyone makes that case.

1:50:47Griffin Newman:But I also, I. You know what? Yeah. I'm sick of these butcher Nepo babies, actually. Get them the fuck out of here. Arthur and sons? Yeah, yeah. Maybe. No, no. Russ and daughter? My whole thing is I'm like, right, let's not do a debate, guys. You don't want to invite the debate, Kate Winslet. Yes.

1:51:04Joe Reid:You want to tip the cap, acknowledge it, and move to the hell out of it.

1:51:08David Sims:And there is a degree to which it does feel like these things course correct if the person is not good and the public does not like the thing they do. Right, right.

1:51:17Joe Reid:Like this industry is so fucking sociopathic that like whatever connections and favors exist only goes so long.

1:51:24David Sims:They will kick you to the fucking curb if you don't make them money. On a completely different topic.

1:51:30Joe Reid:Anyway, yeah. Frank, Delane, and Urchin who the character sort of moves into different modes. But some of those modes have puttering and murmuring. Not an ideal choice. Yeah. Idris Elba and House of Dynamite just for doing fuck all. I feel like is it's. He's murmuring. Relatively murmuring and puttering.

1:51:49David Sims:Murmuring about podcasts. Yeah.

1:51:52Joe Reid:Everyone in Ephus, who putter and murmur their way through an entire baseball game. And then my number one choice was Benicio, who does a lot of puttering and a lot of murmuring, as is his wants in one battle. He's never been one to enunciate.

1:52:07Griffin Newman:We are missing Josh O 'Connor in The Mastermind.

1:52:09Joe Reid:Well, sure. And just that movie. Just like that. Look. I'm sure.

1:52:14Griffin Newman:But in Putters and Murmurs, it must be.

1:52:16Joe Reid:He's kind of a lifetime achievement murmurer at the very least. Yeah, he is.

1:52:20David Sims:And Mastermind is kind of like an original Kings of Comedy of... Yes, exactly. This is what I'm saying. Our best young rising putter murmurers. Sure, yeah.

1:52:30Griffin Newman:Let me think if there are any others I'm sort of scanning around that we haven't brought up. But I mean, it's a fairly solid list. Yeah, I don't know.

1:52:40David Sims:I just think like... Eddington is a movie that, A, uses the Clifton College Jr. character as like a puttering and murmuring Greek chorus. Remind me where he emerges in that movie. It has been such a long time since I've seen it. The movie opens with him wandering in the desert. Right. Puttering and murmuring to himself. Literally, yes. And you're like, who is this man? Is he insane? Or does he see everything clearly? Or is it a mix of both? And the whole film, he's like puttering and murmuring.

1:53:11Joe Reid:Under his breath, yes.

1:53:14David Sims:But he runs throughout the entire film. He's kind of like an emotional spine of the movie. Most of the third act kind of like plot hinges on him. Yes. And he's also, he's a great actor who, this is not his standard mode. I think he can speak very clearly when he wants to. He's a character actor with great sort of versatility.

1:53:40Joe Reid:So underrated in Capote I thought

1:53:43Griffin Newman:I agree Anemone Oh I never saw it That's heavy on that The New York Film Festival did me dirty and I never saw Anemone Oh boy does it exist alright I saw every existing Okay whatever I'm moving us on to I guess the big stuff is there anything else The big four No right

1:54:04Joe Reid:I don't think so No.

1:54:07Griffin Newman:Yeah, I mean, I can tell you the Blankies thought that One Battle had the best editing of the year, and Marty Supreme the best production design. Like, that's fine. That's great. You guys, are you guys mad about that? I'm not. Best Actors or Best Actor? Come on, who do you want to know?

1:54:21David Sims:I want to do Best Actor first because I've already said that Josh O 'Connor, Mastermind, is making my cut. Well, there you go. You know what?

1:54:26Griffin Newman:Kick us off.

1:54:31Griffin Newman:Best Actor. You've got Josh O 'Connor in the Mastermind. I had a dream last night, Griffin, that I became good friends with him. Lucky. It's a good dream. It was a weird dream because it was quite mundane. Yeah. It was basically like I had to interview him or something, and then we just became friends and we're hanging out all day. And then I woke up and I was like, I've never met him. Where did that come from? I had a stress dream. I haven't even seen him in a movie recently.

1:54:54Joe Reid:I had a stress dream recently that I was supposed to do a Q &A with John Lithgow and Brian Cox, and I was thoroughly unprepared for it. Sounds like a chill Q &A. Ah! And they sent a car for me. Hello! with Lithgow in the car being like, where have you been? And I, oh, God, it was so stressful.

1:55:10David Sims:Do you guys, maybe I'm just far deeper in the pool of mental illness, but do you guys ever have the thing where you wake up from a dream and it takes like four hours into your day to be like, right, I don't know Josh O 'Connor.

1:55:23Joe Reid:Right, well, I famously, I had a dream one time many, many, many years ago that the dream itself spanned like 10 years. and I had full fictional character relationship and whatever, that took me the better part of a day to shake that out. When they backfill like that

1:55:39David Sims:and also when they're kind of mundane where you're like, oh, right, yeah, right, okay. But otherwise,

1:55:44Joe Reid:I barely remember my dreams.

1:55:47David Sims:Josh O 'Connor and the Mastermind had a fucking unbelievable year. This is the guy right now, in my opinion. Totally.

1:55:55Griffin Newman:I mean, down to that he's in a Spielberg movie this year. It's like guy trophy.

1:56:00David Sims:I'm so into all the Disclosure Day trailers, posters, everything. Are you being facetious or are you being like genuine?

1:56:07Joe Reid:Genuine. Okay, me too. I'm like... I was worried that it was like, are we... Do we not like... No, I feel like people are being a little like, I don't know. And I'm like, this looks awesome to me. There was a reaction to Emily Blunt's face that has been a thing.

1:56:22David Sims:Here's what I would say to that. When the trailer cuts to her doing the weather. Yeah. Thank you. I was like, oh, her face makes sense for this character. She is a television weather person.

1:56:36Joe Reid:And then the Devil Wears Prada 2 trailer happened right after that? Sure. It also makes sense.

1:56:40Griffin Newman:The Devil Wears Prada 2 trailer is one of those things where I'm like, look.

1:56:44Joe Reid:I'm so nervous.

1:56:45Griffin Newman:It's plausible that, yes, of course, this haughty character who employed Anne Hathaway for six months might not really remember her like we all remember her because we watched the movie. But you cannot release a trailer where everyone's reaction is, does Meryl Streep's character have a brain injury? Is she demented? What's going on? Why doesn't she know anyone?

1:57:03Joe Reid:That was just everyone's reaction to that trailer.

1:57:05Griffin Newman:Yeah. Yes.

1:57:06Joe Reid:Somebody made the case to me that it was, and this is, I know the reaction this is going to get, but it's an allusion to Milton because in Paradise Regained or whatever, one of the things that one of the things about the devil is that the devil never remembers anything that's ever happened.

1:57:23David Sims:I hope that is explicitly what the movie is doing.

1:57:25Joe Reid:I do kind of hope it is, but I could not be more not certain about a movie than I am like I'm I do think it could

1:57:34David Sims:be very very does that almost feel like Avengers Endgame though where you're like they don't even need to release a trailer right

1:57:40Joe Reid:well the original movie their trailer was just like Meryl walking into the building it's one of the greatest trailers of all time it's so good it is it's a good one these trailers are

1:57:48David Sims:nothing but confusing and yet it doesn't fucking matter this movie is going to make so much

1:57:52Griffin Newman:god damn money yeah no the movie could just be Meryl Street looking at the camera being like, I endorse Donald Trump. People are like, oh, I'll see it. I'm not sure. Even De Niro's like, she raised some points. Maybe it's time for us to take another look. Okay, you've named one of your best actors. Josh O 'Connor for The Mastermind.

1:58:09David Sims:It's fascinating because I love Kelly Riker. I love her movies so much. This is the closest...

1:58:14Joe Reid:A star of Kelly Riker movies.

1:58:15David Sims:I would not say star. When I do my Kelly Riker rankings, I just forget to include that movie because I disqualify because I'm in it. I'm not even consciously doing it. I'm just like, oh, right. And then there's that one she made that doesn't count because I muddied the waters. No, that's not bad. But I think when she works with movie stars, she is usually asking them to just like strip everything back. Sure. And come to her as just...

1:58:39Griffin Newman:My friend Ellen's Letterboxd reviewed the mastermind. I just want to shout it out. I love a movie where everyone looks like a guess who card. That is just exactly the putters and murmurs ensemble thing.

1:58:50David Sims:Yes.

1:58:50Joe Reid:Yep.

1:58:51David Sims:I just think like, you know, Michelle Williams wants to work with her because it's just like, reduce me to just raw clay, right? Strip it back. Josh O 'Connor's the most I've seen someone bring their movie star energy into a Kelly Reichert film and have it harmonize. Yeah. And you're just like, oh, right. In theory, someone who's this kind of like off kilter and innately interesting should be vibrating too hard for a Reichert film. It should throw it off its balance. And yet the movie is just so locked into like, it is just fascinating to watch this guy do anything.

1:59:26Joe Reid:Yeah. You put him in any shade of like beige, brown or like off-white. Like put him in a linen thing or like an old cream colored button down.

1:59:42David Sims:It's just also smart because the guy's got the juice so hard and the title leads you to believe, oh, this is going to be a movie about. It's a heist movie. Right. Yeah. And it like wrong foots you in its casting of this guy surely must know what he's doing. Yeah.

1:59:57Joe Reid:Yeah.

1:59:58David Sims:Lee Byung-kun in No Other Choice. Yes. Channing Tatum in Roofman, more like Charming Tatum in Raise the Roofman. An incredible movie star performance. Got it. Like it just feels like the perfect. Yeah. Here's the whole Channing Tatum thing.

2:00:14Joe Reid:Oh. And like after a little bit of a wilderness for him, right? where it just felt like it's... He's always in and out.

2:00:22David Sims:It's fascinating. He, like, has a comeback every four years. This is true. And I thought this should have been, like, you know, a clear high for him instead it got kind of slept on. Liam Neeson in The Naked Gun. Yeah.

2:00:35Joe Reid:Yeah. Very good call.

2:00:36David Sims:And...

2:00:36Joe Reid:And for general politics and statements and...

2:00:40David Sims:Everything. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Especially in the 60s and 70s. And my fifth nominee, the one I think they're gonna fucking look back on and actually be embarrassed with themselves Dwayne Johnson and the Smashing Machine I couldn't agree more he is unbelievable in that film it's a great performance it is an incredible performance I think that movie so suffered from them trying to market it as a more conventional film

2:01:12Griffin Newman:it did suffer from that I think it also just suffers from being a not very pleasant movie to watch. It's not. Like, so it's just a tough festival watch, a tough, you know, whatever. It eludes any... It's not a big winning movie.

2:01:23David Sims:No, I mean, the biggest thing I tell people about the movie, which I just feel like most people didn't even bother to engage with, is, like, his entire kind of recovery from addiction basically happens in between edits. Yeah. I think the trailers made people believe this was going to be a movie that's 60%. Triumph of the Human Spirit. Totally.

2:01:41Joe Reid:Sports movie. Right. It's a sports movie that does not structure itself along the sports movie.

2:01:46Griffin Newman:It's a sports movie in which, as I said, I think my piece about it, like his major triumph is the first thing we see. Yeah. And it's all downhill from there. And it's about him accepting that he does not have it anymore and the industry is leaving it behind.

2:01:59David Sims:This is why I think the performance is so extraordinary is there is a specificity to it that just actually could not be achieved unless Dwayne Johnson has actually come to extreme realizations in the dark night of his soul. you know like he is finally like popping the balloon of all the shit that's been driving me crazy about him for like 10 or 15 years yeah i worry that him jumping straight into fucking jumanji 5 and whatever yeah that he's just now gonna like zag back into like his safe zone but this is the movie where it's all about like the scene where they ask him are you worried at all about losing and breaking your streak and he like starts short circuiting and he can't answer the question is him leaking the fucking financial documents on Black Adam being like, I just refuse to let anything be framed as a failure.

2:02:48David Sims:Sure. I cannot let this happen. And even like his biggest dramatic scene plays out with him covering his face with his hands the entire time. He is like avoiding all the obvious showy moves. And he really is clearly like interrogating himself. Yeah. And there was a thing that Benny Safdie said during the press that I thought was really interesting where he was like, you know, Dwayne like loves being famous and he loves, you know, like what he's been able to accomplish. Now he's been able to help other people. But what I connected with him on when we started talking about this project is just how exhausting it has been to maintain that for 30 years, that he has just had to be on and be this guy for everyone for 30 years.

2:03:26David Sims:And clearly it was getting to a point where it was driving him fucking insane. And he had become like a hollow husk of a human being pissing into Voss bottles on the sets of bread one. And this performance just feels like him laying everything bare.

2:03:39Griffin Newman:Everything I know about how Benny made that movie, because I wrote a profile of Benny, is that they were very into, like, let's talk about ourselves, about our feelings, like, talk about the worst shit we've been through, like, let's all lay it out together.

2:03:51David Sims:That is not a performance that a director can trick an actor into giving. You have to give him full credit for that. And I, you know.

2:03:58Joe Reid:But whatever, nobody liked it. My question is, like, isn't MMA supposed to be this like the crypto biggest sport in America that nobody wants to acknowledge. It's the thing that all real Americans like or whatever.

2:04:12Griffin Newman:Yeah.

2:04:12Joe Reid:Where were they for this movie?

2:04:14Griffin Newman:Well, but the whole thing with him was he pinned people down and beat their heads. Yeah. And the people who ran MMA were like, this is horrible television. Right. And so they basically banned the thing he was good at, which is what happens to him in the movie. Because he was just really good at like getting on top of people and just going like this. And people were like, Well, okay, he did get them out, but that's boring. This sucks. So, like, he can't do that. So that's illegal now. So has MMA kind of, like, disavowed this guy? He's, MMA, I don't think MMA has a good relationship with a lot of people who've done MMA.

2:04:46Griffin Newman:Because it's not very good for you. He was part of the trial and error of figuring out the version of it that everyone would like. Yeah, it's from, like, 30 years ago.

2:04:53David Sims:And his thing of being like, you know what? I need to, like, be okay losing. I need to step away. I need to be done with this. Yeah. Happens right before they crack the code and it becomes the biggest thing. or starts its journey, right? And like to get in the vague spoiler territory, it is just fascinating the sort of like dialogue between Marty Supreme and the Smashing Machine. And one movie is about a guy at the inflection point right before the sport that he's at the absolute earliest stages of breaks free. And he needs to accept that he needs to walk away. And the other one is the guy fucking convinced that his thing's about to explode and that he's going to be the champion and he's willing to ruin everything in order to prove that point.

2:05:33David Sims:And he like ruins his life by refusing to lose. Yeah. And then you're like, for what? It's ping pong. It's not going anywhere. Right. This is, you've hit the ceiling on it.

2:05:43Joe Reid:It's also big guy, little guy.

2:05:44David Sims:Yeah. Big guy, little guy. Big guy, little guy.

2:05:46Griffin Newman:All right. My nominee is, come on, I got to do mine. Oh, come on. You did yours, right? I did my five. You did your five.

2:05:51Joe Reid:Well, because me, yeah.

2:05:52David Sims:Channing Tatum, Joshua Conner, Liam Neeson, Dwayne Johnson. Yeah.

2:05:55Griffin Newman:All right.

2:05:56David Sims:Joe, you do yours. Okay. Go ahead.

2:05:58Joe Reid:Timothy Chalamet, Marty Supreme. That's very good. Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon, Michael B. Jordan in Sinners, Josh O 'Connor in Wake Up Dead Man, and Theodore Pellerin in Lurker.

2:06:12Griffin Newman:Oh, Lurker. I like that movie. That movie's pretty good.

2:06:15Joe Reid:It was really good.

2:06:15Griffin Newman:Yeah.

2:06:15Joe Reid:I really liked it.

2:06:16Griffin Newman:He's, uh, oh yeah, he's, he's creepy. Yeah, he is. Yeah. Quite, quite good. Look out for him. Yeah. Um, cool. You got three of the Oscar nominees there? Three of the Oscar nominees.

2:06:28Joe Reid:Yes. I flirted with maybe you know having a couple of them on the bench so I can move up somebody like Everett Blunk in Griffin and Summer right

2:06:36Griffin Newman:well

2:06:37Joe Reid:don't worry because I'll do mine

2:06:39Griffin Newman:because Leonardo DiCaprio won battle Dwayne Johnson in The Smashing Machine Ethan Hawke in Blue Moon Everett Blunk in Griffin and Summer and Ben Whishaw in Peter Hojart's Day that's a good pick and Everett Blunk is one of those things when you see Griffin and Summer where you're like well maybe they just found this kid who's this like swishy little hilarious child. And then you see the plague and you're like, oh, this is just a very talented young man who just did two crazy good performances in completely different tones. But Griffin and Summer is just one of those movies where the first scene, obviously, is him freaking out about Virginia Woolf or whatever.

2:07:16Griffin Newman:He's doing the monologue from his play. And I was just like, yeah, this is great. I get it. I get this right away.

2:07:24Joe Reid:The kid has good comedic instincts too in that movie. But like,

2:07:27Griffin Newman:that's a really sweet movie and I like how, you know, how it is not just about a silly guy. It is about, you know, this kid needing to recognize

2:07:37Joe Reid:what a poisonous creature he is. Yes, yes, yes.

2:07:41Griffin Newman:Oh God.

2:07:42Joe Reid:And they have him sort of latch onto this like straight guy who's this, you know, wannabe. Very funny O.N.T. Artistic type O.N.T. performance, yes. And yet, right, yes, the kid is still the poisonous one in that relationship. I know,

2:07:54Griffin Newman:I mean, he's an idiot, but like, Yes.

2:07:56Joe Reid:You really would have tried it. I'm sure it would hit me too hard.

2:07:59David Sims:It's like middle school Rushmore.

2:08:01Joe Reid:Sort of, but like, but if he was a theater gay. But if he was, yes, if he was a theater gay more so than just like a megalomaniac, like in that. But it's obviously

2:08:11David Sims:why Rushmore is one of the most important movies in my lifetime to me is that it's all about this guy being like, oh, I'm fucking insufferable. I'm a nightmare.

2:08:20Joe Reid:Abby Ryder Fortson also showed out is very good in that movie from Are You Their God. And Catherine Newton, who is an actress, I've been resistant to, has like one or two scenes where she just like knocks it out of the park. It's so funny.

2:08:31Griffin Newman:It's just really funny that both Catherine Newton and Abby Ryder-Fortzen are in it because they are the two Cassie Langs. Oh, you're right.

2:08:40Joe Reid:Oh, wait, when is Abby Ryder-Fortzen She's Cassie Lang

2:08:44Griffin Newman:in the original Ant-Man. No shit. She's little girl like Cassie in the first two movies. Never caught on to that.

2:08:49David Sims:And in Endgame, there's the weird middle actress who's only the adult one. Gives him a hug or whatever. That's right. Yes. He comes back home to him and then Catherine.

2:08:57Griffin Newman:In Quantumania, Catherine Newton shows up and is like, of course, I'm famously your daughter. Right. We all know me. And it's one of those things like when they put Willa Holland in for Shailene Woodley in the OC. Yeah. Where they're like, you know, Shailene's just not glam enough. We're going to sub her out. And then Shailene just goes on to have a career. Yes. Yes. And like Abby Ryber-Fortzen is like, I don't know why you fired me. I'm doing great over here. I'm killing it. Yeah. Yeah, she's great. I know they had a time jump or whatever is their excuse. Wait, did you get all five out? I did.

2:09:24Griffin Newman:I got them out. I got him out there

2:09:25David Sims:did Joe get all five out he did he did we're good okay sorry sorry sorry who are your winners Ethan Hawke I'm sorry Ethan Hawke you're sorry

2:09:32Griffin Newman:I love him so much

2:09:33David Sims:in that movie he's so good he's so fucking good I think about what our buddy host of Critical Darlings Richard Lawson said when he was talking to me about that film in August we met up for drinks it was to talk about the idea of Critical Darlings for the first time

2:09:49Joe Reid:when you were Griffin in Summer it was when I still could

2:09:53David Sims:lay claim to that title yeah and he was like it's a shame that Ethan Hawke isn't going to get nominated if he gave this performance on Broadway they would hand him the Tony before the curtain before the curtain exactly yeah yes Margaret Cawley

2:10:06Griffin Newman:would come on stage with the Tony being like by the way they got this

2:10:09David Sims:they give him another trophy every night yeah and it's so nice that that performance like punched her it's incredible it's astonishing

2:10:16Joe Reid:I filled in for my colleague Nate Jones for our Gold Rush column while he was on paternity leave this year for a few months and I put Ethan Hawke in my best actor predictions almost as a defiant, like, come on, like shame the devil kind of a thing. Like, it so sucks that this isn't going to happen, but like, whatever. Like, I'm just going to put it out there. And the fact that like, that ended up happening, I'm like, what a weird like miracle that like, now that it's happened, we're just like, well, Ethan Hawke, yeah, he got nominated. But like, think about that when I first saw Blue Moon, it was like a pipe dream that that would have been nominated.

2:10:50Griffin Newman:It just felt like a niche movie. Like, I know it's like, I know it's 20 Pictures Classics. I think Link's Later had another movie

2:10:54Joe Reid:that seemed like it was more of an Oscar-bait kind of a thing.

2:10:57David Sims:But also, the most fascinating thing about the season to me was going in, it was like, man, fucking best actor is going to be a bloodbath, right? Everyone was correct about DiCaprio and Chalamet. Yeah, that's why Meskel hightailed it to supporting actors. Absolutely. But from a distance, it was like, okay, but we have Jeremy Allen White as Springsteen, Dwayne Johnson in the Smashing Machine, Brendan Fraser in Rental Family, George Clooney and Jay Kelly. Yes. Like you were like, this is like the cup overfloweth. Yes. Our biggest movie stars, our rising stars, past winners, people who are overdue.

2:11:33David Sims:What fucking chances Ethan Hawke have? Like almost everyone wiped out.

2:11:37Joe Reid:Yeah.

2:11:37David Sims:If you look at the predictions, like eight of the 10 that people were predicting in August just died. Yes. On the vine.

2:11:44Joe Reid:Yeah.

2:11:44David Sims:It's fascinating. Yeah, it is. I agree. Yeah. And we ended up with like a perfect five, arguably. because I had some people being like

2:11:52Joe Reid:it's an excellent lineup incredible lineup it's an excellent lineup one of the best ones ever

2:11:55Griffin Newman:someone was like I really wanted Joel Edgerton to get it in there and I'm like I hear you but for like for who like it's a really really tough five to crack I love Train Dreams

2:12:02Joe Reid:as much as anybody loves Train Dreams and I love Edgerton and he's maybe in my top 10 for actor this year because it's such a good like leaving Wagner Mora off of my list is stupid and yet like

2:12:12Griffin Newman:me too that's a performance that I think is insanely good yeah so good and he was so hot at the New York Film Critics Circle. Oh, I believe it. Oh my God. I believe it. And I think Michael B. Jordan is fantastic and I love that he got the nom.

2:12:27Joe Reid:I still think of the Nikki B. Jerkin joke from Golden Globes. It's so fucking good. It's so good.

2:12:32David Sims:It's really good. Yeah.

2:12:34Joe Reid:No, yeah. Like I normally wouldn't want to put like three Oscar nominees in my blankie lineup because I'm like, that's boring. But like, what am I going to do? Like not nominate Chalamet? Like he's my winner, by the way.

2:12:43Griffin Newman:He's great.

2:12:45Joe Reid:That New York Film Festival performance and I know Festival Fever, whatever, There was no better venue to see that movie than that moment in that time. But like, I love that performance so much. It's so perfectly both tailored to him. And yet the way that like Josh Softee is like, what if we make him pockmarked and gawky? And like, it's great.

2:13:06David Sims:I want to throw that out. That's a best makeup.

2:13:09Joe Reid:Underrated best makeup snub. Yes.

2:13:11David Sims:And it happens in like multiple areas of the film. It's some of the most subtle work I have seen.

2:13:18Griffin Newman:I really... Noms this year are fine, although I don't know anything about the ugly stepsister. I heard that film's excellent. Good and gnarly.

2:13:26Joe Reid:And it's like, I like that gnarly things get nominated for makeup.

2:13:29Griffin Newman:It's like what if Cinderella had people like cutting people's noses off? It was like Cinderella, but with like, yeah,

2:13:33Joe Reid:but with botched surgery. What if Cinderella was a girl boss? Oh, gosh.

2:13:39David Sims:I was watching Marty Supreme and thinking, oh have they just been putting makeup on chalamet this whole time and he had right this is just teller right yeah awful skin truly it's so realistically done yeah and it's so subtle and even like mr wonderful's hair piece uh yeah which is like oh what if this guy's like 20 less balding than he really is yeah you know these things that are like really hard to dial in i also thought that ann lee had some of the best aging makeup i'd ever seen ann lee is just one

2:14:08Griffin Newman:It's one of those, again, things where I'm just like, the craft given the scale of the production is very impressive.

2:14:14David Sims:Yeah. But also just like really subtle things where I'm just like, oh, they dialed in the difference of like five years around the eyes.

2:14:23Joe Reid:Also, it seems more obvious, but I mentioned this to, I said this to Katie Rich on our text chain. Weapons, as a makeup nominee. Kind of crazy. It's kind of crazy. It is crazy.

2:14:33Griffin Newman:They sort of snubbed Weapons at the end of the day.

2:14:36Joe Reid:And it's not just Aunt Gladys, but there's a lot of different venues.

2:14:41Griffin Newman:The fucking Benedict Wong job is so memorable. Incredible. You know, yeah.

2:14:45David Sims:Well, and also the parents. Yeah, the parents. The multiple stages of their... Oh, my God. Am I wrong in thinking that it was left off the hair and makeup shortlist, but it was on the casting shortlist? You know, I just don't know.

2:14:56Joe Reid:It definitely... I believe it was on the casting shortlist, and I think you're right that it was not on the makeup shortlist.

2:15:01David Sims:But it ended up only getting the Madigan performance. Yes. Should have gotten that.

2:15:04Joe Reid:Yep.

2:15:04David Sims:screen players picture I don't know it was interesting I was double checking yesterday because of the critical

2:15:10Griffin Newman:casting and nothing else yeah

2:15:12David Sims:critical darlings conversation but PGA this year was 9 out of 10 overlapping with the best picture lineup it was weapons it was weapons in over secret agent right which you know and I think by the week of the nominations people were starting to think that weapons was going to stay in and that secret agent would sub in for F1 yeah I was going to say that F1 was done in the PGA lineup. Right, right. So people were like, F1's the kind of thing that the PGA puts in.

2:15:39Joe Reid:It was just an accident? Right. Yeah.

2:15:42David Sims:Anyway. My winner is Dwayne The Rock Johnson. There you go. What an evolution for you. I mean, it's truly, it's like... To make up a word for Black Adam, just admit it. It is. It's another, like, I would have given him Best Supporting Actor for that year, which was prior to us doing these on-mic awards, so I haven't had to hand him an award since then. That's when I was like, this guy has like fully come into his power. And then part of why I've been so hard on him for the last 10 years is because I'm just like, dude, you have so much power. Why aren't you applying it to anything interesting? Also, you don't seem happy.

2:16:21David Sims:I know. To what extent?

2:16:22Griffin Newman:I was hearing, I'll say off mic, but I was hearing some stories about him, of what a sweetie pie he can be and how he's very good at knowing everyone's name and blah, blah, blah. in that kind of slightly politician way. Yes, right, right. But still basically like, you know, very positive reviews. Maybe he enjoyed that one more.

2:16:43Joe Reid:He had like a good reputation in WWE too. He wasn't like, I feel like if he was a shit in WWE, that would have gotten out. It was the Voss bottles. I've only heard the best, right?

2:16:51David Sims:But it's what I was saying earlier that like, Benny was like, he was telling me how tired he was of having to do that all the time. Not because he wasn't actually a nice guy, but it was tough. the self-imposed responsibility to be that version of himself all the time. And this is this rare case of a performance that is like silencing the haters by also admitting that they were correct. I'll just say... You can only shut me up by being like, you were right about me up until now and I'm going to give the performance about that.

2:17:20Joe Reid:When my ranking for all of the Oscar nominees publishes, just like skip past the first 10 or whatever and then you'll be fine.

2:17:26Griffin Newman:Yeah. I will also, I need to point out that these awards are being handed out by Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Of course. Marianne Jean-Baptiste. Of course. And Demi Moore. Oh, I did pick Demi Moore.

2:17:35Joe Reid:Sentimental choice, yes.

2:17:37David Sims:Sentimental choice. Value. Do you say your winner? Ethan Hawke. Yep, there we go.

2:17:50Griffin Newman:Best actress.

2:17:55Griffin Newman:My best actresses are Jennifer Lawrence for Die My Love, Rose Byrne for If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You, Mm-hmm. Kiki Palmer for One of Them Days. Great call. Xiao Tao for Caught by the Tides. One of my favorite actors, obviously. Love her. Julia Roberts for After the Hunt.

2:18:11Joe Reid:I almost put Julia on. She made it for me. She is quite great in that movie. In that film.

2:18:16Griffin Newman:It's a movie that I had a lot of problems with. It didn't really connect for me.

2:18:19Joe Reid:This had Oscar buzz movie that six months into the year, people were putting that on. Absolutely.

2:18:24Griffin Newman:And I just think she really brings the thunder in it. and I truly wish, you know, everything had worked to support that performance better or whatever, you know, like, but I think she's so fucking good. It came up in some other... The scene where she chews the kid out in the, in the, in the class.

2:18:41Joe Reid:Her big tar scene.

2:18:42Griffin Newman:One of those things where like, the movie had basically lost me by that point. I wasn't really invested in what was going to happen, but then I was just like, God, she's crushing this. I also thought the scene

2:18:52Joe Reid:with her and Garfield towards the end when they're in this secret apartment.

2:18:56Griffin Newman:Yeah,

2:18:56David Sims:yeah.

2:18:57Joe Reid:Garfield's just so sad.

2:18:58David Sims:subtle and nuanced in that film. Beautifully shot. It's a good-looking movie. It's a very frustrating movie. We have this conversation in some already recorded episode that will come out in the next couple of months that I can't remember what prompted this. But I just want to throw it to you quickly because you're a bit of an expert in this field. Sure. We were discussing how bad Julia Roberts' last 20 years have been. It's tough. Considering that on paper, almost all of the choices are commendable And within that run, she has had quite a few genuine box office hits and has another Oscar nomination.

2:19:35David Sims:And yet you're like, has she not made a good movie in 20 years?

2:19:39Griffin Newman:I am a Ben is back defender. We can't go too deep on this because we did go deep on this. You're a defender of which? Ben is back. Oh, no. A great performance. I won't be going there with you. Yeah.

2:19:50David Sims:She's good at it, though. This is why I want to throw it to you. I want to see if there was one you would defend. That's the one.

2:19:54Joe Reid:Auguste, Osage County is just a quagmire that would take a longer time to... But you're like, she got an Oscar nomination for that. In for a lead role in supporting, so that was somewhat irksome. That was also the year of the selfie, which is a haunted photograph that has had its tentacles throughout history since then. Yeah, yeah. But, yeah. Money Monster, not a good movie. A lot of talent there. Wonder is a success. Big hit. Made money. Big hit. Ticket to Paradise. we shall never speak of it again. Made some money

2:20:25Griffin Newman:but let's not speak of it. It's the most frustrating

2:20:27Joe Reid:how is this not a Gentleman 6 movie.

2:20:30David Sims:Leave the world behind

2:20:31Joe Reid:I think is watchable junk. A lot of people just lop off the watchable and Secret in Their Eyes a movie I have actually seen. Maybe one of the we did it for our podcast and

2:20:41Griffin Newman:that is a crazy boring movie. It really is. I've seen that movie.

2:20:45David Sims:But this is the other crazy thing we were saying. That movie is a sleeping pill. She is really good in almost all of these.

2:20:51Griffin Newman:She is never the problem. And she's often the strongest asset.

2:20:55David Sims:And you're just like, why can't she fucking catch a break? I know, Julia Roberts.

2:20:59Griffin Newman:You know, she just can't catch a break.

2:21:01Joe Reid:She was also really good on the Sam Esmail TV show Homecoming. Yeah, let's not.

2:21:07Griffin Newman:Let's not. Come on now.

2:21:08Joe Reid:But I say this because her next movie is a Sam Esmail. I know. She loves the guy.

2:21:11Griffin Newman:Yeah, which is fine. I mean, someone's got it.

2:21:14David Sims:We threw out. Can Wes Anderson please get his hands on? I would love nothing more. I would really love nothing more. Right?

2:21:22Griffin Newman:but the problem with that is there's probably like a list of 20 actors where I'm like Wes could you do this guy a favor and Wes Anderson's like you know I don't just like randomly come up with shit I take a while generating these projects I'm like now come on write a Julia vehicle quickly quickly

2:21:38Joe Reid:well and everybody who works with him he retains so it's tougher to get new people in there but he also says he's been saying

2:21:46David Sims:that he's like five plus times written a role explicitly for and offered it to Jodie Foster who keeps turning him down.

2:21:54Joe Reid:Oh, she would be great in that too.

2:21:55David Sims:And you can fill in some of the gaps of like, oh, did Tilda start to get some of those roles? Yeah, sure. Which are the ones that were written for Jodie Foster? I feel like Julia has gotten into a Jodie Foster adjacent spiky territory at this age.

2:22:07Joe Reid:I wonder if Mia Threppleton could get her mom into one of those movies on a connections basis. Oh, a sort of reverse Neppo situation?

2:22:13David Sims:Excuse me, she's going to have to work hard and get the role in her. She's going to have to read for it, audition for Wes.

2:22:18Griffin Newman:Yeah, that's how it goes. Okay, come on, babe. Give me your best actresses. Joe Reed.

2:22:22Joe Reid:All right. Jesse Buckley in Hamnets.

2:22:24Griffin Newman:Heard of it.

2:22:24Joe Reid:Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You. Susan Shardy in On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. Oh, I love that movie. Kate Hudson in Song Song Blue. Wait, Joe, I think you... That doesn't sound like the kind of thing you would know. It's not a thing I would have... What kind of performance you'd find with? Guaranteed four months ago. Yeah. And Amanda Seyfried in The Testament of Amanda.

2:22:43David Sims:It was very, very perfect. I texted you nomination morning. Congrats. And you texted back...

2:22:47Joe Reid:I was so wary.

2:22:48David Sims:I was like, are you making fun of me? I did it. And then you, in parentheses, said, like, is this about Kate Hudson? I've seen a lot of people, mostly in relation to the perceived Amanda Seyfried snub. Oh, blaming Kate? Yes. Yeah, I have. And I'm like, that's not the performance I would knock out of the fire. I would knock out Emma Stone. Which would you knock out? I would knock out Emma Stone.

2:23:09Joe Reid:Buggy? Yeah. Little buggy? I don't dislike Emma Stone. I don't either. I have problems with Begonia, but I don't hate it.

2:23:15Griffin Newman:She's fine in Begonia. And it's like sort of a domain team performance, I guess.

2:23:20David Sims:I think Kate Hudson is legitimately pretty phenomenal in Song Song Blue. The only reason I cut her is because I knew you were going to put her in. She's a bubble six for me.

2:23:30Griffin Newman:It's also as she worked her tail off to get that nom and all that.

2:23:32Joe Reid:It's a bonkers movie that I find to be better than a lot of people get it credit for. But like on that level, it's still a fucking bonkers movie. Jackman is not up to her level. I genuinely think she really kills it with that

2:23:47David Sims:I agree and I love her of course

2:23:49Joe Reid:she was my supporting actress winner for Glass Onion of course we all remember

2:23:53David Sims:it felt like a real we did a show moment I was genuinely happy for you I was so wary

2:23:59Joe Reid:I was like Griffin's making fun of me

2:24:01David Sims:no I wasn't

2:24:02Griffin Newman:it's one of those things where Kate Hudson I know you like her I'm being nice here where Letterboxd sees her on the red carpet and they're like can you name your favorite movie like you know what's your top favorite movie on Letterboxd and she's like almost famous and I'm like yeah and then she's like I don't know what else and she's like I mean some people like Skeleton Key you can see her being like because I don't really know what would even not a great pocket right like I think she's like how to lose a guy in 10 days Skeleton Key and then even she starts to run out of ideas yeah she's like some people like something borrowed and I wanted to say like yeah some people do did you nominate that I know Lawson's I like that movie

2:24:43Joe Reid:but that's Richard's she's really excellent also every gay guy loves her in Nine loves her specifically

2:24:49Griffin Newman:I find that performance to be disgraceful

2:24:52Joe Reid:I don't know about disgraceful but my she loves cinema at Toledo my secret my secret is great in Nine person is Fergie that makes everybody crazy but like I think Fergie's scene in Nine is the one good scene in Nine I think everything about that movie is bad

2:25:04Griffin Newman:I find that movie unspeakable

2:25:05Joe Reid:it's really bad it's really bad but I like but if I met a gay bar musical musicals night or whatever and i'm requesting something from the uh the tv guy i'm like put on

2:25:16David Sims:i believe i tapped out on nine after 45 minutes because i did not wish to die in seven days you tapped out around four right i saw the girl coming out of the well and i was like i need to get out of this curse before it sticks to me so the rob marshall uh mini series is still not happening

2:25:31Griffin Newman:that is that is a that's our we're driving the cliff film and louise we're like all right let's Rob Marshall. I guess Trump's about to block us up.

2:25:40David Sims:My best actress lineup. Yes, please. Sally Hawkins in Bring Her Back. Yes, she's really good in that movie. Amanda Seyfried? Seyfried? I feel like I'm told I'm always getting it wrong. No way of knowing. I think it's Seyfried. In The Testament of Anne Lee, but let's also acknowledge she fucking rules in The Housemaid. Oh, I still have to.

2:25:58Joe Reid:That's another one I still have to see.

2:25:59David Sims:A lot of my people this year had a double performance thing going on.

2:26:03Griffin Newman:A fun one on the side. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

2:26:05David Sims:I mean, Josh O 'Connor just narrowly. Yay, mastermind, wake up. Beaten out by Dwayne in that category for me. Rose Byrne in If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You. Yeah, that's a good performance. Jennifer Lawrence in Die My Love. And Sung Yi Jin in No Other Choice.

2:26:19Griffin Newman:Yeah, she's really good.

2:26:20David Sims:And because of my last minute rejiggering to spread the wealth and giving screenplay to If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You, I cleared the path to give my award to Amanda Seyfried and Tessman of Andly. Right. which also feels like the place to honor that movie. She's the powerhouse for sure.

2:26:39Griffin Newman:I love her. Rose Byrne's my winner, certainly. Yeah. I've had that performance stuck with me all year. Rose Byrne's another one.

2:26:45David Sims:Rose Byrne's a very close number.

2:26:46Griffin Newman:And it's also another one, kind of like the Ethan Hawke thing, where when I saw it, I'd be like, yeah, a world where she sneaks a nom for this really hostile movie is a real nice world to imagine. And now it's kind of like, she's the runner up.

2:27:00Joe Reid:That was another one where, that was a Sundance premiere that didn't screen online. so I didn't see it until Tiff. And then when I saw it on Tiff, I was like, well, first of all, everybody at Sundance kind of undersold how great she is in this movie and how great, I really love the movie too. But it was another one of those, I was like, boy, it'd be really good if she could maybe sneak in an Oscar nomination. It seemed for a while that she and Seyfried were sort of like jostling for what would have been a fifth slot. And then all of a sudden it's like, oh no, Rose is just winning every single Critics Award.

2:27:29Joe Reid:And rightly so. I think she rocks.

2:27:31David Sims:Yeah. I thought it could maybe be a bit of an upset, but it does feel like Buckley's the most locked.

2:27:37Griffin Newman:Buckley is just also the classic thing of like, we've noticed you, you've been bubbling along, we gave you an earlier nom, and you screamed and cried and were very impressive. And I don't think it's a bad performance.

2:27:47Joe Reid:I think she's really good even before the screaming and crying. Yeah, she's good. I think she's just really good throughout.

2:27:53David Sims:I love Jessie Buckley. I disproportionately like the first half more than the second half, which I think you bodied me by saying, what a surprise you like the movie about a sad boy falling in love with a witchy woman in the woods. But I was like, the second they have a kid, I'm out on that movie. It just lost me. Not in any intellectual way.

2:28:10Griffin Newman:It's also just when the movie begins to be kind of like piled up suffering, like, you know, sort of different phases of suffering.

2:28:16David Sims:I think it's also...

2:28:17Griffin Newman:Childbirth, disease.

2:28:18David Sims:There's a sense of inevitability. Putting a play on. Right, suddenly you're on the rails and you're like, we know what this is heading towards and this is just going to be an endless series of body blood.

2:28:26Joe Reid:Hamnet is my materialist and that everything that people don't like about Hamnet, I'm like, that worked for me. Like, that really worked for me.

2:28:32David Sims:I did not dislike it. Yeah. But it definitely, I don't know. It lost me somewhere in there. And I thought, well, everyone says the ending is such an undeniable knockout. It'll win me back. I see. And it just didn't do it for me.

2:28:45Joe Reid:Well, and if that doesn't do it for you, then you're dead. Yeah.

2:28:48David Sims:It was, I don't have anything intellectually against that movie. I love Jesse Buckley. It'd be weird if he had something. No, no, I'm kidding. I get you, I get you. I love her too.

2:28:56Joe Reid:For the last 18 months, I've been telling people about On Becoming a Guinea Fowl. That was a movie that screened. Another embarrassing blind spot for me.

2:29:03David Sims:It's on HBO, I think.

2:29:05Joe Reid:It's very viewable. Festivals last year in A24, for some reason, did that bullshitty qualify it and then push it to March or whatever thing. No, they didn't qualify it. No, they didn't.

2:29:16Griffin Newman:They put it in the main slot.

2:29:18Joe Reid:I think they were slow playing it thinking that it would be submitted for international feature consideration. And then no country kind of claimed it.

2:29:28Griffin Newman:But the problem, I think, is it's like it's sort of a Zambian movie. It's a Zambian movie that had UK financing, I think, was the thing. But it's quite critical of like sort of patriarchal cultures. I don't know.

2:29:42Joe Reid:Anybody listening to this, like if that movie is new to you hearing about it, like go check it out. it rules it's so good

2:29:49David Sims:we all said our winners

2:29:50Joe Reid:right

2:29:51Griffin Newman:who's your winner uh Byrne I'll just give you the 10 Blinky lead performance you said your winner Rose Byrne yeah

2:29:58David Sims:no this feels like the space to honor Testament Van Lee for me but I also think it's it's like it's an astonishing performance

2:30:06Joe Reid:oh I also didn't sorry to derail us for like half a second I put O 'Connor for Wake Up Dead Man for you had mentioned in Materialists yeah um or not Materialists Mastermind so many M movies um he's doing something so different in Wake Up Dead Man and he's so he's like you know the almost like nebbishy quality he has to that character I think is incredibly funny he's so locked in in that movie and then you hit the Bridget Everett scene and it's like

2:30:35Griffin Newman:that scene is like a masterpiece of craft the way that he makes the sun set during it even though you're inside I love that scene it bumps the movie up Yeah, so when he's like, right, this is what I do. Yeah.

2:30:49David Sims:It rocks. Yeah. No, I think, I remember when they announced that he was going to be in the new Benoit Blanc. The new Benoit Blanc. And it was like, he's going to play a priest. And people were like, is he going to be a guy pretending to be a priest? Like, is it the whole thing with Flash O 'Connor the Scuzzy? And if it's not a guy pretending to be a priest, then are they going to clean him up? And isn't that what we don't want from him? Right. And then you were like, no, the idea is. Hyper earnest. Josh O 'Connor type is a priest. Yes. Yes. Yes. Right. Which is such an interesting.

2:31:22Joe Reid:It's the first time anybody's taken the movie away from Daniel Craig. I think Craig sort of most definitely sits in the backseat in that movie. Someone did a screen time. I adore Craig in that movie. I do too. But I feel like I think O 'Connor is much the more main character.

2:31:35Griffin Newman:He is, but I think Craig gets it.

2:31:37David Sims:I think it's the best of his Ben LeBlanc performances. He's great. But I also saw that someone did a screen time clock and it's like 35 minutes.

2:31:44Griffin Newman:Sure. Oh, yeah. Hannibal Lecter-esque. He takes a while to show up. It's really Joshua Conner's film. Him and Joshua Conner being silly guys together, which is really funny. The Blankies, I'll just give you their 10 to 1. Renata Reinsfa, who we all love. None of us nominated her, but we all love.

2:32:02Joe Reid:Watching that movie a second time, as I said on Critical Darlings, she really emerged for me. I thought she was so good.

2:32:08David Sims:You know, my thing with that performance is, I think it's borderline category fraud.

2:32:16Joe Reid:I kind of feel like all three women

2:32:20David Sims:have about the same real estate in the story.

2:32:22Joe Reid:I think Stellan and Renata are your leads.

2:32:25Griffin Newman:I think so too. Stellan is not in as much as you think.

2:32:28David Sims:And putting Stellan in supporting makes her being the only lead feel disconnected. It makes it feel imbalanced, but like, yeah. It's still her. She's excellent. Her opening scene is like unbelievable.

2:32:39Griffin Newman:All right, so Renata, 10. Jesse Plemons, 9. Another performance I really like. Jesse Buckley, 8. Lee Byung-Hung, seven. Ethan Hawke, six. Chase Infinity for More of Battle, five. Michael B. Jordan, four. Rose Byrne, three. Leo, two. Timmy, one. That was their list.

2:33:01Griffin Newman:Best Director. My best directors are... Give them to me. Paul Thomas Anderson, Jafar Panahi, Zach Krager, Ja Junke for Caught by the Tides, and Ryan Coogler.

2:33:11Joe Reid:I gotta see Caught by the Tides. I didn't see it before.

2:33:13Griffin Newman:It's for the job boys. It's literally like him assembling stuff he's been filming for 25 years. Avengers Endgame for Zha Junke.

2:33:24David Sims:My best director lineup is Ari Aster, Mona Fastfold, Park Chan-Wook, Mary Bronstein, and Paul Thomas Anderson.

2:33:32Joe Reid:There you go. Mine are... Thank you. Good five. Paul Thomas Anderson, one battle after another. Mary Bronstein, if I had legs, I'd kick you. Brian Coogler Sinners Kleber Mendonca Filho for The Secret Agent and Jafar Panahi for It Was Just an Accident.

2:33:49David Sims:Who's your winner, guys?

2:33:50Joe Reid:Paul Thomas Anderson.

2:33:52David Sims:Yeah, I'm giving it to Paul. He did a good job. He did, in fact, do a good job of directing a movie.

2:33:57Joe Reid:And I've been an annoying sort of fly in the way for a lot of Paul Thomas Anderson.

2:34:02Griffin Newman:We're going to have to mention that. Sorry, carry on.

2:34:05Joe Reid:Oh, okay. Justice Smith was mine, I imagine, yeah?

2:34:07Griffin Newman:Yeah, I was Hartnett.

2:34:09David Sims:And I was Coleman Domingo for Sing Sing. Yeah. Yeah. No, I might be very wrong about this, but I just really feel like there's a director picture split coming this year. I feel like Snitchers... Snitchers. So Snitchers. I was going to say, I feel like Sinners is going to snatch it, but Snatchers might also sin it. Yeah. But the Paul Thomas Anderson, the best director, feels like only Brokeback Mountain style. Nothing is like veering the soft course.

2:34:43Joe Reid:Picture is very much up in the air, but director seems solid.

2:34:47David Sims:Yeah, you can't argue with it. Yeah.

2:34:49Joe Reid:Which is interesting because generally, lately, when there's a director picture split, director tends to go to the movie that is also going to clean up in the craft awards, which I think is going to be sinners. Yeah. With a few exceptions, I think one battle will probably win editing and cinematography.

2:35:05Griffin Newman:I mean, look, I'm ready to be wrong, but no, I think One Battle is winning. I think it's just one of those rare years, kind of like the Oppenheimer year, where everyone's just like, we're not going to fuck around. Like, these movies don't come along that often. Like, you know.

2:35:20Joe Reid:And I also think like a lot of the...

2:35:23Griffin Newman:No Country. It feels like No Country as well. Their views hit September and everyone's just kind of like, I think this is the movie everyone's going to remember.

2:35:29David Sims:My question though is like, if in the No Country year, there will be blood had made like six times as much at the box office.

2:35:38Griffin Newman:That's a fair point. But I just don't know if they hear anymore.

2:35:40David Sims:Because it does feel similar to those two movies in that year.

2:35:44Joe Reid:But One Battle, like, the imbalance is there, but it's not like One Battle is like a Moonlight-style, like, No, it's not. $12 million. No, I think it's like

2:35:53Griffin Newman:Sinners is gonna win elsewhere and they'll just be like, yeah, we check the boxes. But I mean, PGA, this is, not to go all big picture or Nate Jones, but PGA will show because that's the preferential ballot.

2:36:03David Sims:And I think it will probably win SAG as well, right? Although, No, I think Sinners is winning. No, I'm sorry. That's what I mean. I thought you were saying. Oh, I think One Battle is going to win PGA. Everyone will be like, right.

2:36:14Griffin Newman:It wins the preferential ballot, which is what matters when it comes to Best Picture. Yeah. Yeah. Because I just think most people like One Battle.

2:36:21Joe Reid:I will say that at every turn, Sinners is proving to be more broadly popular. Which I love. It made so much money. But I think within industry circles and within people, there's just like, nobody seems to be like tripping up on the genre thing of it or the sort of you know and it's such a triumph and

2:36:41David Sims:it's like you know it's it's a real like throwing up the gauntlet for like no fuck this still matters we can make big movies that the people give a shit about i love how bold it is if i if

2:36:54Joe Reid:i have a snag on that movie it's a little bit like i think it it sets up a lot of vampire movie stuff and then it's just sort of like and then the vampire stuff happens um but i think there's so much else that's great about the movie yeah that like it it mostly levels out for me critical

2:37:11David Sims:darlings we did a oscar villain episode on hamnet and then i saw people going like right well like going into the season it was seen as that's the villain but it's clearly become sinners versus one battle sinners and hamnet is an actress that's very online but that's that's What's interesting is you're like, it's a year where we kind of don't have a villain.

2:37:33Joe Reid:We don't have to create a villain just because it's a binary.

2:37:35David Sims:It's like the last time where you're like, there are just two different tastes of...

2:37:40Griffin Newman:But also, Hamnet is a villain because it's like, the Oscar narrative, it could have been a villain. I think Hamnet's probably out of the top three or whatever. But the Oscar narrative of they like arty movies about making art versus big... you know, popular stuff. And Chloe Zhao has an Oscar. Chloe Zhao has an Oscar.

2:38:02Joe Reid:Yeah, so it's like, you know. Not to be like the Hamnet defender, but like there is a perception, I think a little bit, that's a little bit overblown of this idea that like Shakespeare stuff always wins Oscars. Costume dramas only win Oscars. Like Big Picture was on that train, I think. And I'm like, that's actually just not the case. Like it just like not lately, not in the last 25 years. Not so much lately.

2:38:22Griffin Newman:But when we're talking about Oscar villains, what we're really talking about is Harvey Weinstein. And like we're talking about the machine he created. It's what people remember the most. And the thing where you look back where you're like, why did Chuck a lot? Why did Cider House rules? I don't understand. Why did all these movies that don't exist? I was thinking about this the other day. I mean, that's what that fucking movie, I swear, which just set Britain back a thousand years culturally by mistake, is like one of those Weinstein movies. I know it, to be clear, not to impugn this movie. I haven't seen it.

2:38:52Griffin Newman:It's not this movie's fault, really. But it has the vibe of those Weinstein movies of like, let's convene a congressional hearing on Tourette's after you saw this small indie movie. You know, like it's like pushing a, yes, pushing a sort of discussion.

2:39:06David Sims:Three million Epstein file documents get released. One million of them are about the campaigns for different Weinstein company best picture contenders.

2:39:17Joe Reid:Right, right.

2:39:18David Sims:Including Peggy Siegel saying, I don't care how many members I have to fuck. I'll, whatever it takes to come to vote for the King's Speech. Peggy, relax.

2:39:26Griffin Newman:Yeah, King's Speech is being a pretty good. God, the I Swear thing. It's one of those things where it's like, I've said this to you, haven't I? It's genuinely upsetting that that happened and it's very bad. It's also like a Fawlty Towers-esque fucking insane sitcom incident of them being like, okay, the BAFTAs who have a horrible track record on a race have finally, finally given sinners lots of acknowledgement. There's going to be winners. It's going to go great. Now, where have we sat the I Swear guy? Where are we putting him? Why is he in the seat labeled microphone? I don't understand. It just sounds like something you made up.

2:39:59Griffin Newman:It does.

2:40:00Joe Reid:What this update, BBC, put all of the volume up as hard as it could go? Like, what's it?

2:40:04Griffin Newman:It just is so fucking, like, British. Like, in this, like, dumb, BAFTA way.

2:40:11David Sims:You know, this movie had this kind of, like, miracle underdog run in the UK and had a release there and was a hit. And then was sort of overperforming at every step and, like, whatever, the wind up to this. And the lead actor beats Timmy.

2:40:23Griffin Newman:Yes.

2:40:24David Sims:And the like, you know, the terminally online, like Oscar stat brain people are like, fuck, does this mean that this is immediately now the front runner for next year's best actor? Oh, that. Yeah.

2:40:34Joe Reid:No.

2:40:35David Sims:And I'm like, certainly not now. I was like, this is like the inverse of the King Richard thing.

2:40:39Joe Reid:Yeah.

2:40:40David Sims:Where the first moment we're becoming aware of this performance is inextricably tied to a national disgrace for a country and an academy of film. What, they're just going to put this movie in theaters in four months and people are going to be like, nice movie.

2:40:53Griffin Newman:Yeah. Without thinking about it. Certainly what they were hoping to do. And they're still hoping to do. Anyway. Yes. Sorry. I don't mean to beat up on I swear. Yeah.

2:41:02David Sims:I just think like almost every season, us and our friends and everyone we follow and talk to is sort of going like, I'm going to be so fucking angry if X.

2:41:13Joe Reid:X, Y, Z. Yeah. Right?

2:41:15David Sims:And then you have people who are like, I kind of like 1917. 17 but you're saying it embarrassed because you know right and this year it's just like if sinners beats one battle no one's like fuck I guess

2:41:28Joe Reid:if one battle beats sinners I think a lot of people will be like fuck like I think that's I but but in very online circle yeah you know what I mean like I think like I don't think I really don't think that that stuff penetrates as as widely as some people are quite possibly

2:41:46Griffin Newman:I can tell you that the Blanky director nominees are PTA number one, Ryan Coogler, Park Jenwick, Josh Safdie, Danny Boyle. Those are their five. Wonderful. Wonderful.

2:41:57Joe Reid:Back to the Blankies after these messages.

2:42:06David Sims:When you want your spring break to feel like. And your kids pool day to feel like. and your hotel bed to feel like Ooh, and room service to feel like Because at Hilton, hospitality feels like

2:42:25Joe Reid:Your cabana's ready. Would you like fresh towels?

2:42:27David Sims:It matters where you stay. Book now at Hilton.com. Hilton. For this day.

2:42:46Joe Reid:Best Picture

2:42:49Griffin Newman:All right, my top 10 of the year is right now, at least. It's always changing. One battle after another, number one. It was just an accident. Number two. Weapons, number three. Sinners, number four. Caught by the Tides, five. Secret Agent, six. Marty Supreme, seventh. 28 Years Later, eighth. Blue Moon, ninth. Eddington, tenth. Nice. I'm already looking at him being like, I want to mess with that a little bit. But that's my 10. Yeah.

2:43:12David Sims:Yeah. I got like a 15 or 20 that I'm pretty strong about. And I just made like seven changes to my 10. But what I have, I'm going to count up. I'm throwing it in here at 10. I swapped this in at the last second because I didn't call it out in any other area.

2:43:29Joe Reid:I also just swapped in my 10 at the last second.

2:43:30David Sims:The Shroud's at number 10. A movie I...

2:43:32Joe Reid:I still haven't seen it. I heard interesting things.

2:43:34David Sims:I mean, just peak, whatever you call it.

2:43:36Joe Reid:Was there a putters and murmurs case there?

2:43:39Griffin Newman:No one's really puttering and murmuring, I guess. even though it's sort of that tone.

2:43:43Joe Reid:Shrouders and Obscurers? Possibly.

2:43:46David Sims:But I think an excellent movie. Phoenician Scheme, number nine. Great movie. People are just going to be embarrassed like 30 years from now at how many West movies got slept on. And we're seen as like, not one of his best. And then like six months later, people are like, fuck, was that maybe his best?

2:44:01Joe Reid:Yeah.

2:44:02David Sims:Materialist, of course, at number eight. Sinners at seven. Weapons at six. My top five lined up with my best director. but the order is Testament of Analy at five. If I had legs, I'd kick you at four. No other choice at three. One battle after another at two. And my number one movie of the year is Eddington.

2:44:18Joe Reid:Yes. That's been your favorite for such a long time. I thought I was alone on Eddington. I'm glad to hear. I always like coming to blankies and seeing I'm not alone.

2:44:25Griffin Newman:Eddington's got its fans out there.

2:44:27Joe Reid:A lot of them are on this website

2:44:28Griffin Newman:x.com.

2:44:29Joe Reid:Interesting.

2:44:31David Sims:It's look, it's very turning point. What the fuck? People talked about this is a year where it does feel like there were like two dominant thematic strains that ran through most of the high-level movies. Right. And it was like Bad Parents. Uh-huh. And is reality collapsing? And 2020 broke our brains. Right, right. Are things broken? Can we fix them? Is it all over? How did things break? Kind of shit. Yeah. And yeah, I don't know. It probably just speaks a little more to my worldview that Eddington has Totally. stuck in my craw. in a way beyond one battle which I think is excellent and love and even like seeing it the third time in theaters when it started I was like fuck the opening like three seconds of this movie already feel iconic and then everything that happens after this point already feels iconic it already feels like a movie we've been studying for 50 years it's a text

2:45:34Joe Reid:my list I'll start also from the bottom number 10 Blue Moon Number 9 Eddington Number 8 Sinners Number 7 On Becoming a Guinea Fowl Number 6 Hamnet Number 5 Lurker Number 4 Train Dreams Number 3 Marty Supreme Number 2 One Battle After Another And my number 1 movie Is It Was Just an Accident It was It was in fact Just an Accident The movie fucking rocked

2:45:57Griffin Newman:Yeah

2:45:58Joe Reid:Me and the The can jury

2:46:00Griffin Newman:Y 'all The top 10 From the blankies I'll just do an order One Battle Sinners Marty Supreme 28 years later weapons no other choice sentimental value it's just an accident secret agent eddington and now

2:46:12Joe Reid:i'd like to turn it to ben anything here what we're all here for well yes of course i just feel

2:46:20Griffin Newman:we've we've reached that part of the episode yes before i do my original categories i need to do kind of a in memory absolutely a memorandum what do they call it memoriam memoriam but in Remarerandom would be like writing some notes, which is fine. I like this. Yeah. But sadly, my beloved cat pig. Yes. Yes. Who we all love. Yeah. I had for 17 years. The greatest. Was the best cat there was. And she was a pig in the city. Ever be.

2:46:53David Sims:She was a pig in the city. She ran the city.

2:46:57Griffin Newman:And so, yeah, I'm going to miss her a lot.

2:47:00David Sims:She passed away recently. Oh, yes. Yes.

2:47:02Griffin Newman:She passed away recently.

2:47:03David Sims:and so yeah I don't know very recently uh you're in a raw state Ben this is the first time we've recorded since yeah um uh about half an hour into our episode Ben texted bc group text max plus which is the kind of all hands on deck text and uh he just wrote guys I'm sad and we're recording blankies right now and I need to think of wet movies so I just want to know that whenever

2:47:31Griffin Newman:Ben's been on Grief Island and he hasn't been thinking about AT or T and if you have to choose now or any of his other great, you know. So, yeah, I think also I wanted to start there.

2:47:43Joe Reid:Well, that's why we went extra long is because we got to give Ben enough time to think of wet movies.

2:47:48David Sims:That's also why I bought Ben a violator who's got bendy arms and legs and is now wrapped around Ben's microphone arm.

2:47:55Griffin Newman:Yeah, there he is. That's where he belongs.

2:47:58David Sims:Yeah.

2:47:58Griffin Newman:So anyway, wanted to give that context because I am, yes, sad, feeling a little bummed, but still, let's have some fun here, folks. Have a little fun. Okay, so here we go. The Weddies. The Weddies. Okay. The Golden Mop. Right. The slickest flicks of the year. The movies that soak through. Yeah. What splished, what splashed. We're so lucky to have you, Ben. Okay, number one. Frankenstein. old timey dampness yeah

2:48:29David Sims:some wet labs you're right it's a wet movie the big rain a lot of rain there's a perm of moistness

2:48:35Joe Reid:to the creature I feel like a lot of ice

2:48:38David Sims:which we should acknowledge yes which is frozen water the hardest water of all yeah indeed number two

2:48:44Griffin Newman:sinners blood soaked yeah and also a big fight in the in the lake or whatever at the end there sweaty a lot of sweat

2:48:51Joe Reid:a lot of slick bodies

2:48:52Griffin Newman:very sweaty spit spit other bodily fluids

2:48:57Joe Reid:liquor

2:49:00David Sims:how would you spell that? liquor

2:49:05Joe Reid:the lickest flicks of the year

2:49:07Griffin Newman:and may I say it Mike makes me horny baby oh interesting

2:49:12David Sims:so I'm getting a little wet down there sure sure sure oh Michael B. Jordan I thought we were going back to Mike Myers and his cut body in the Austin Powers I know him as Mike

2:49:22Griffin Newman:well you know what let's just keep going Number three, Last Breath. Yeah, I told you. Suggested by Sims. It's a movie that's set underwater.

2:49:31Joe Reid:It's set underwater, or as I like to call it, deep water.

2:49:34Griffin Newman:It is a deep wet movie. It's about the people whose job is to go all the way down there. Yep.

2:49:40Joe Reid:Number four, Magellan, suggested by JJ.

2:49:43Griffin Newman:Nice.

2:49:44Joe Reid:Set entirely at sea, or as I like to call it, the sea. That is what you like to call it. And number five. It's wetland. I okay yeah it's the wettest version of land that's a good alt yeah yeah yeah number five sorry baby for all the tears ejected from my face also there's a bathtub scene in that one

2:50:06Griffin Newman:that's true I adored that movie but um what really got me was when the lead character adopts the kitten because they are sat on the poster yes yeah and I guess I kind of knew that was coming from the poster. But because when I first got Pig, it was a very similar moment in my life of like a close friend passing away. I was very depressed. And a kitten will really make your life a lot better.

2:50:39David Sims:Ben, sorry if I can just interject briefly. Yes. You reminded me a category that I forgot. Oh, yeah. If I can just throw it out quickly. Yes. truly one I've been working on all year. Yes. And I hope that this is not a one-off trend this year, and this is a category that can sustain and fill out three nominees for every year to come. Okay. It's the Babe Award for Best Fake Hog. Oh, yeah, sure. There were a lot of them this year.

2:51:08Joe Reid:This is a trend that is trending. Yes, increasingly. I'm now distrustful of all cinematic penises because I do feel like so many of them are fake.

2:51:16David Sims:Alexander Sarsgaard in Pillian yep Prince Albert I'm forgetting which guy it is in Splitsville one of them Kyle Marvin oh right

2:51:26Joe Reid:one of the guys the one who comes out of the shower and is really hanging it

2:51:29David Sims:big fake hog yeah obviously the first the inaugural winner of the Babel War 28 years oh yeah

2:51:36Joe Reid:yeah yeah

2:51:38David Sims:Samson Samson biggest fakeest hog I've ever seen

2:51:41Joe Reid:yeah for sure

2:51:42David Sims:sorry Ben just had to get that out grass stains on it from Walken

2:51:46Griffin Newman:Another wet movie that I did suggest to you was Dangerous Waters, the movie in which Jack Courtney feeds people to sharks. Right. Oh. Pretty fun movie. All right. Yeah. Quite a bit of shark stuff this year, too. Sure. It seems like. Sure. Dangerous animals. Sharks. Yeah. Into the deep.

2:52:02Joe Reid:My nephew would love. Secret agent.

2:52:05Griffin Newman:A lot of shark stuff. Yeah. Yes.

2:52:08Joe Reid:Okay.

2:52:09Griffin Newman:Moving on. Next category. The um, no thank yous. Right. We love to hear it. number one blue moon a movie absolutely packed with references that i don't care about what mid-50s theater the okay okay slash stewart little uh apocrypha eb white i'm i'm not a fan of

2:52:30David Sims:his style no i gotta say i'm surprised to hear that because if you cracked open stewart little like today the moment we finished recording you would be texting us in 30 minutes guys i'm rooting so hard for Stuart. He's just a little mouse trying to make it in the city. It is about a movie being obnoxious at a bar,

2:52:47Griffin Newman:and I feel like that does kind of strike you. But no, I see what you're saying. You don't really care about Oscar and Hammerstein and all that. No, that's just, yeah, not my jam. Okay, number two, War of the Worlds. I'd rather spend that half an hour, hour and a half, rather, with Stephen Miller than watch that film. It's a tough choice.

2:53:08David Sims:Have either of you seen Mercy? No. Oh, no. Oh, AI justice? No. Spoilers. First 90 % of that movie, Chris Pratt felt like he was angling for that Iowa Debris Award, and then he fucks it up. Oh, Chris.

2:53:22Joe Reid:That was defer.

2:53:23David Sims:Number three.

2:53:25Joe Reid:Deliver me from nowhere. I'm good. Yeah.

2:53:29Griffin Newman:Yeah. Despite your Jerseyness.

2:53:31David Sims:Yeah. Send me somewhere else. Anywhere else. Ben, that was a great impression of humanity at large.

2:53:37Joe Reid:Yeah. Yeah. That decision was made. Seriously. Global viewing public. That's true. Spot on impression.

2:53:43Griffin Newman:They were like, fuck, we need to call this movie Springsteen Delivery. And audiences are like, no, it doesn't matter.

2:53:48Joe Reid:That's not going to work. That's fine. It doesn't help. Yeah.

2:53:51Griffin Newman:Number four, How to Train Your Dragon. I was able to return to skipping this one in live action. Okay. A rebound skip. There you go.

2:54:00David Sims:Yeah, but Ben, would you be excited to hear that they're now making a sequel to the live action remake, which is a remake of the animated sequel in which they are now recasting another actor who had voiced the character in the animated films to now play their live action equivalent as well. What a nightmare.

2:54:16Joe Reid:Now I'm the fantastic Mr. Fox character with the spiral eyes. Yep. Yep. God.

2:54:22Griffin Newman:Number five, Jurassic World Rebirth. Ass is right there in the title. There we go.

2:54:28David Sims:Our finest film critic. Do we really need to be reborn, though? Let the dinosaurs rest. Yep. Ben, great take.

2:54:35Griffin Newman:And yet I think they're being reborn again as we speak.

2:54:39Joe Reid:there is a moment in that movie where a very tired dinosaur has wandered out of Cobble Hill Park that's right

2:54:47David Sims:and is just sort of like chilling by the bridge

2:54:50Joe Reid:it's just like oh man

2:54:51David Sims:the one good idea the movie has

2:54:53Joe Reid:we should get this out of the plot let's get as far away from this as possible

2:54:57Griffin Newman:some honorable mentions please the Bone Temple for Achievement and Bone Temples

2:55:03David Sims:and you know what it might have this category locked up next year

2:55:07Joe Reid:nomination like they milled the whole bone

2:55:10David Sims:temple I we really the this is why we can't have nice things with those two movies yeah

2:55:18Griffin Newman:Violator Achievement Award goes to Tessa Thompson as Hedda for being a delightfully evil little stinker this is a great take yeah very good stinker movie yeah yeah

2:55:26Joe Reid:we have one of our superlatives categories is homophobic enemy and despite the fact that she is queer in that movie that character she is a homophobic enemy because she makes a lot of trouble for queer people in that movie.

2:55:42Griffin Newman:Weapons for its great stick work. Not often are sticks showcased in cinema. What are we talking about here?

2:55:49David Sims:Sticks. Sticks? Oh, snapping the stick.

2:55:52Joe Reid:She's snapping that stick, baby.

2:55:54David Sims:She's snapping the stick.

2:55:54Joe Reid:She's snapping the stick. We're going, yeah. Branches are, you know... You stop looking at a picture of her anger.

2:56:02Griffin Newman:I'm snapping the stick over your head. Branches are so often scene. Leaves Plenty. Yeah. Give sticks their due. Give sticks a chance.

2:56:11Joe Reid:Yeah.

2:56:12Griffin Newman:And lastly, Pavements for Achievement and Featuring Griffin Newman on screen. This is true. This is true. Not enough movies dare to do it. I know. I want to see it more. Turn Me On. It was nice to see it. Turn Me On technically. Does it qualify as this year or last year?

2:56:28David Sims:Was it 2025? I gotta see Turn Me On. Yeah. I recommend people, Michael Daburski film, Belle Powley, Nick Robinson, Julia Shiplett Nesta Cooper Justin and myself

2:56:38Griffin Newman:IMDB is saying it hit the internet in 2024 in what month September so that was

2:56:45Joe Reid:sorry November Griffin and Autumn I

2:56:48David Sims:let me double track that I think it did not go on to VOD and then it got an illegal hidden theatrical release

2:56:56Joe Reid:the best kind of theatrical release

2:56:58David Sims:I think it was not until January but I count it as a 2025 release fair enough and then there was a movie that I think it would be very difficult to cut me out of on the schedule for 2026.

2:57:09Griffin Newman:Damn right, baby.

2:57:11David Sims:What will be my final film role? Oh, come on. I'm retiring again. No, I'm sorry. It's over.

2:57:16Griffin Newman:As long as you're doing this, you know, you're in the money forever, baby. Until people get sick of us, which could be tomorrow. Yeah, it could be yesterday. Right.

2:57:25Joe Reid:No, I've got an in with Mia Threppleton. She can get you in another movie. I'll just say, look,

2:57:30David Sims:there's a curse upon me being optimistic about anything in my career outside of this podcast. But I, you know, I shot this thing in December and I was like, this thing's got a guaranteed theatrical release. That's true. Can I also tell you... And it would cost millions of dollars to cut me out of it at this point. Not because of my contract, because continuity.

2:57:51Joe Reid:The buzz that whipped around my circles at the sight of you in a Muppet audience, by the way, was significant. So the juice is still there.

2:57:59David Sims:Well, that was just Seth Rogen being a real man. Yeah.

2:58:04Joe Reid:Pretty great.

2:58:05David Sims:But yeah, that's it for me. Wow. What a year. Good job, buddy. Thanks. What a year it was.

2:58:12Joe Reid:Well done, Pat. Looks like we made it. Yeah.

2:58:15David Sims:Joe, this had Oscar buzz. Yes. I have not been on. We've been around for a while.

2:58:19Joe Reid:I know, I know.

2:58:20David Sims:In many years because of my overwhelming allergy to Zoom. I did recently reach out to you and say, we've gotten to a place of just enough healing that I think it's time. Can we say what the movie is?

2:58:34Joe Reid:Yes, we can. If that's the movie you want to do, that is the movie I have wanted you to do.

2:58:38David Sims:I've had the pin in it for so long. Igby goes down. Igby goes down. Oh, very good.

2:58:42Griffin Newman:Would you believe that movie meant a lot

2:58:46David Sims:to one 13-year-old Griffin Newman? We've been holding that one in stasis for you.

2:58:51Griffin Newman:The family in that movie is so functional, so I don't really see.

2:58:53David Sims:I have been too terrified to watch that movie for at least 15 years. I haven't seen it in a while.

2:58:58Joe Reid:We'll see. Yeah, I'm very excited. Very excited to have you back. David will have to have you back as well. You were around for our 70s miniseries a couple years ago. What did I do? You did Don't Look Now.

2:59:08Griffin Newman:I love that movie.

2:59:09Joe Reid:Yeah.

2:59:10Griffin Newman:But what should I do?

2:59:12Joe Reid:I did Alexander. Yes, that was very early.

2:59:16David Sims:You just did a sentimental value episode on... On Critical Darlings. I'm finally on Critical Darlings. Yes.

2:59:22Joe Reid:At long last.

2:59:22David Sims:Thank you for doing that. Yeah. We were great. Unsurprisingly.

2:59:25Joe Reid:Great co-hosts you got there.

2:59:26David Sims:Hey.

2:59:27Joe Reid:Richard and Allison, my friends.

2:59:28David Sims:Proud of these kids. I think these kids got a big future.

2:59:30Griffin Newman:Yeah, I think we really did a good job hiring two very established film critics who are good on mic. Yeah, I'm going to go see Project Hail Mary.

2:59:41David Sims:I'm going to the same screening.

2:59:42Griffin Newman:Well, then. I'm very excited for the both of you. Yeah, but then I got fucking invited to Project Hail Mary. Well, well, well. What a twist.

2:59:48Joe Reid:I'm going to Moynihan train station. You did bring your luggage here.

2:59:52David Sims:Thank you for being flexible with your schedule.

2:59:54Joe Reid:Did I tell you also that two days ago when I came here, and of course I slipped on ice and fell and hurt my knee. David hurt his butt. Did you also fall? On ice, yeah. And then on the cab ride here, because I wanted to be in a cab because my knee hurts. Yes. The cabbie had to stop short, and I lurched forward and banged my knee into the back of the seat in front of me. So it's been a couple of days, but we're doing all right.

3:00:21David Sims:Let me also just clarify, David didn't hurt his butt slipping on ice. He hurt his butt because his wife whacked him with a rolling pin because he was looking at a picture of the Vareng.

3:00:30Joe Reid:I'm snapping a stick. She's snapping a stick on his tush. You want to stop by looking at the picture of Vareng? We got the 30 babies. Are you looking at the picture of the Vareng? We're going to get some kind of anti-defamation league on our ass about this one. But you know what? We're going.

3:00:47David Sims:Men do be looking at pictures of Vareng.

3:00:50Joe Reid:If I know men I know they look at pictures of a rag If I know

3:00:55David Sims:I can see you know babies I know I joke and I whack with the stick But I know men and the men They look at the pictures of a rag

3:01:05Joe Reid:You know why you be looking at a picture of a rag You know why

3:01:12Joe Reid:I don't tell this to everybody But between you and me I be looking at the picture of a rag

3:01:17David Sims:Men they are simple All they want is to look at a picture of the plane.

3:01:25David Sims:Ben, we love you.

3:01:26Joe Reid:I'm so proud to come on this podcast. Love you guys. Love Pig. I love it. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Tribute to Pig.

3:01:31David Sims:Yes. Who has been such an important part of this podcast across all the years. Yeah. We recorded in her home for two years. Close to. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. So she's been a, she was a silent participant in so many episodes. Yeah. And we miss her dearly. And our thoughts are with you. thanks so much yes thank you all for listening please remember to rate review and subscribe next week crack of the bat start of a new mini series that's right Peter Weir Peter very excited we're making it Weir

3:02:02Griffin Newman:Cars the Day Paris enjoy yeah what a great mini series Cars the Day Paris

3:02:06David Sims:guest list yeah no guest yeah we got it we got it's I think it's a good mini series majority in the camp almost all we got some great returning guests and people who haven't been on in too long we have a couple exciting first timers new faces

3:02:23Joe Reid:I'll have to re-watch Fearless before you do your episode on that I haven't seen that one since the 90s that movie is on I want to say Isabella Rossellini's known for is that not something?

3:02:34David Sims:no spoilers but that movie made David buy new sunglasses yes it did that's right that's all go listen to this at Oscar buzz folks it's a good podcast it could be episode coming soon and as always

3:02:50David Sims:RIP Pig. We stand a legend. We love you, Pig. All right. Love you, Pig. Thank you.

3:03:25Griffin Newman:Additional music by Alex Mitchell. Artwork by Joe Bowen, Ollie Moss, and Pat Reynolds. Our production assistant is Minnick. Special thanks to David Cho, Jordan Fish, and Nate Patterson for their production help. Head over to blankcheckpod.com for links to all of the real nerdy shit. Join our Patreon, Blank Check Special Features, for exclusive franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us on social at blankcheckpod. Subscribe to our weekly newsletter, Checkbook on Substack. This podcast is created and produced by Blank Check Productions.