The Physical Media High Council Reconvenes!

22:45um have you gotten any of your colleagues to like come by and hang out and watch a little

22:50Sean Fennessey:fun city why are you watching nine consecutive taxi driver trailers because it rules i think they were hesitant i mean like they they understand the nerdy parts of my life and i think they're supportive of them uh but it was nice to when like when i would have it on and they'd swing by to just see their eyes kind of go toward it and then become sort of engrossed in it and like that was nice to be like see it's not just me this actually feels good you know what i mean it would be nice to have friends. Yeah. You replace them with discs. Except when you come here. I don't know how to deal with what I haven't, how to choose anything anymore.

23:30Sean Fennessey:You know, like Tracy and I are preparing for a Robert Duvall Hall of Fame episode that we're going to record this week. And, you know, the man made 95 feature films. Yeah. And so that endeavor that I created thoughtlessly when we were talking about people like Tom Hanks, for whom I have seen every single movie, I'm like, yeah, I can do Duvall. and then I'm seven weeks into trying to conquer his filmography and I've acquired, I don't know, 70 % of his filmography on physical and I just can't get through it. And so what I don't have now because of this stupid job that I invented for myself is the time to just be like, Personal curiosity.

24:06Sean Fennessey:I'd like to watch this thing that I bought two years ago that I was really interested in when I bought it. And I know in my heart is actually how I would spend my time if I were free from my own prison. But so I'm kind of trying to cope with that a little bit. And that's like a very specific concern. But I think you really do have to make time when you spend money on these things to like respect, appreciate, and enjoy them. And if you don't, then you're just stamp collecting. Then you're not really like doing the thing that this is the purpose of this experience, I think. When the nanny showed up a few weeks ago, I said to her, it's all Duvall in 1976.

24:45she said great you know so we've every night it's a duval movie or a 1976 movie in the realm of the

24:51Sean Fennessey:census 1976 it sure is yeah um again amazing choice by you we're going to circle back to that um you know i i asked you guys to bring some new acquisitions some things that you're excited about um you you traveled across the country to do so you you drove from 18 minutes from here um i did take the raw i did i wasn't paying attention and i i made it a little bit longer because i went north on the five out of like sort of habit. I made a similar mistake on the way here. Yeah? And yet you guys both made it miraculously. CR, you took your private helicopter and you landed on the pad on the roof. Did you bring your stuff?

25:29Sean Fennessey:I did, of course. You brought your stuff. I brought some stuff on your behalf as well. Who's going to start? I think Chris should start because you were the fawn. You were the baby bear last we spoke. Which is he? Is he a fawn or is he a baby bear? He's an anthropomorphized, gorgeous little guy. I mentioned Takashi Miike earlier. So the first one I want to talk about is Underworld Chronicles. Where's the camera? CR, hold it up right to your camera. Aren't I three? There you go. This is from Radiance. It's a trio. I suppose loose trilogy. I wouldn't necessarily say you need to understand one to get the other.

26:09but they're all Takashi Miike movies, Yakuza movies, Japanese crime films from his V-Cinema era. And a lot of people. So there's three films. There's Fudo, The New Generation. There's Agitator, which is his 200-minute epic. And then there's one I want to talk about, which is Deadly Outlaw Rekka. Deadly Outlaw Rekka is an insane film. and it features the greatest opening five minutes to a movie I've ever seen, which I will describe starting now, if that's okay.

26:41Sean Fennessey:Please do. Starts with an old Yakuza chieftain talking about wolves and then it cuts to the incredible flower band, which is an early psych rock band from Japan, going, and then a dude running down a street at full speed while an old man crosscut is walking up some steps. And it turns out that this dude running full speed down the street is going to jump over a wall with two guns in his hand while this psych rock is playing and gun down the old man, thus setting off a Yakuza war. But it is the most electrifying, adrenalized, opening five minutes of a movie ever. I cannot recommend this more highly.

27:25It is a fucking weird, crazy movie that is, you know, cascades of blood and intense violence and then interspersed with like Jim Jarmusch scenes of guys just eating rice and talking it is a bit confusing in terms of telepathic connections to other Yakuza leaders and like you can feel the pain of other people there's some strange stuff going on in here but I highly recommend it and I highly recommend this box I am not a McKay completist it's a new it's kind of like I obviously seen the big ones like Audition and and Ichi but like this is this is a whole new world and I'm excited to be there um and it's

28:03Sean Fennessey:a big filmography right he's huge like he was making three four movies a year at some point he is still extremely active as well he released a film last year I think he has a film at Cannes this year Bad Lieutenant Tokyo yeah yeah um these are from 94 like 01 and 02 uh so just extraordinary uh pieces of action filmmaking so I highly recommend it great great and from Radiance that are boys. So when you, did you buy that blind? You were just like, I want this? I have a subscription for Radius. So when you got the box, what made you choose that out of the three in there since you hadn't seen those three?

28:35I did a little bit of research, but I also watched the trailer that they put out for this set. And the footage from Rekha, from Deadly Outlaw, was like, what is this? If you want to hear the aforementioned scream, you can just watch the trailer for this collection. You're still fucking, you're like, what happened?

28:55Sean Fennessey:75 % of my YouTube subscriptions, the things that are actually in my feed are just physical media companies posting trailers to movies that I want to buy. And it's a nice way to pass the time. And it's Flower Traveling Band, not Incredible Flower. Flower Traveling Band. I mixed up with Incredible String Band. My bad. Okay, Tim. So I went with...

29:18I went with... So I talked about it before. Or there's like this Tuesday night thing that I've had been going for probably three and a half years now. Cockfighter Tuesdays, yeah. It's now expanded to like five people. Me and my friend Johnny, who was very happy the night that you guys met at the screening of House of Dynamite. When you were introduced, you went, oh, Tuesday nights. And he was like, that's so cool. but we do call ourselves the programmers like we talk about the programming and I was really happy to hear you say that earlier this idea of like do you call yourselves that to anybody else come on now to the world now to the world but when they're at the barista and your name is and you're like the programmer well no I have to put a hit maker on for that one when we're talking to our wives they'll be like hey what do you guys have coming up like this Tuesday what are you doing because there are nights where I'm like Annie you shouldn't you actually shouldn't even walk through the living room on this one like you're not you're going to want no part of this one but I'm curious what that would be Salo was one where I was like you just don't want any part of this.

30:34That's why it's just for the guys yeah Salo's for the dudes I don't respectfully disagree Annie's no I think I think it's less it's for the boys and more I know what would upset my wife in movies and there are things that she can engage with and things that she is just like i i don't like i don't like seeing that like whatever experience that is i

30:58Sean Fennessey:don't like that experience and it does seem like the tuesday nights you're in pursuit of extremity sometimes we are very much in pursuit of extremity and uh and so i kind of chose things based on like from this lens of I'm happy that this exists in like an elevated form because this feels like the kind of thing that could just go away that a streaming service is like we are not going to host that on our platform so those are the choices that I made and I'll start with pull it out I'm weirdly excited

31:40the suspense is with a thriller a cruel picture oh yeah christina linberg is there are we definitely go with themes sometimes uh you know we'll have like this feels bootleggy but it does but it's not and who makes that disc who made this one vinegar vinegar syndrome in fact there's a nice slipcover box in the limited edition maybe? I think this is just the standard. So this... It feels like the chick with the eyepatch would get invited to Tuesday nights though. A hundred percent. And so we have these themes. Like one time we did like under-scene Tangerine Dream soundtracks. We did that for a month.

32:27Great idea. And then we did like a big Giallo run last October for like around Halloween. And this was sort of like in a accidental, but in that world of extremities, there's a lot of rape revenge. So like this was one and it was one at the end. We all stood up and actually gave this movie a standing ovation. Like this happens when there was a particularly good one at the end. We stand up and we clap. And there are like, and I know that there might be families that are listening to this.

32:55Sean Fennessey:Five men standing, applauding a rape revenge film at like 11 p.m. on a Tuesday. are not allowed to walk through the room floor? It sounds bad and it's going to sound worse when I tell you that, no pun intended, there is a hard cut to close up anal sex in this movie. Hard cut to just all of a sudden. And it's like that kind of thing where I'm like, this shouldn't exist. We shouldn't be watching it. But now Now, in perpetuity, no matter what corporations do, it exists. And I think that's why I brought that. You are on a watch list now. A hundred percent. I'm glad that me salivating at a dude jumping over a wall with two nines and killing a Yakuza chief is not the weirdest thing that's happened in this first.

33:46Sean Fennessey:Are all five discs that you brought in this vein? One is not, but all the others are. Legendary shit. One is the parent trap. I don't know how you're going to follow that up. There is no way to follow it up. So I'm going to class it up. Okay. Network, baby.

34:04Selected because out on 4K, which those of us who love this movie, it just feels like mana that this would be out on 4K. Also, I selected it because it's at the intersection of what we're doing this week. That's right. Robert Duvall, 1976, physical media, all are encompassed here in this American classic. It's a big-titted hit. It sure is. It's a big-titted hit. That's all I got to say about it. I just watched it probably for the, maybe the third time, but not, honestly, probably not since I was in college. And was pretty blown back by how relevant it stays. And I don't know. it really was like oh fuck man they did it they're like there's a reason everybody talks about this one in those glowing terms it's fucking fantastic yeah yeah i uh at the risk of tipping picks it is

35:02Sean Fennessey:one of my absolute favorite films ever and maybe the first movie that made me feel like there was a world beyond the world that i was exposed to and whether or not it's actually true and maybe at that point it wasn't as true as it is now but um it made me it grew me up i would say in an interesting way um okay that's a great big that that disc in general is looks very nice and those features on it are very good as well um all right so what how do i create i mean this is this is an interesting buffet that you have to choose from yeah i think i have stuff that represents all those different ways.

35:40Sean Fennessey:Should we live out here somewhere? Should we somehow? So this is the movie orgy. Oh, yeah. A blind buy for me that I have not checked out yet. So something that I've always wanted to see and I had never seen before, despite some of this discussion here, it does not actually feature an orgy. It is in a somewhat similar vein to Welcome to Fun City. It is a kind of like recombinant mashup movie. It's like a collection of stray cultural film television ephemera that is all smashed together. In this, the runtime is 276 minutes. Jesus Christ. It is directed by Joe Dante, the legendary movie maker behind Gremlins and many other classics.

36:26Sean Fennessey:One of my favorite directors of all time. This is something he did in the late 1960s, 1968, as like kind of a real project that showed off his editing skills. He also worked as an editor under Roger Corman, worked with Alan Arkush. And this is like if he could get his brain on film. Like all the things that he saw that he loved and was interested in that tried to represent this massive tapestry of like schlock genre, weirdo, side door culture that informs like all the movies that he made in the 70s, 80s, 90s, 2000s. And it was just not available for the longest period of time. And it would pop up on YouTube and then come down.

37:09Sean Fennessey:It was like a rights issue forever. AGFA, A-G-F-A, released this edition. They release a lot of really cool stuff like this. American genre film archives. That's right. Is that right? And it's just a really cool artifact of movie history that, as recently as three years ago, I was like, we'll never get this. And I'll never get a chance to see it. And now it does, like I said, it operates in that similar way. We can just kind of like pop it on. And if you want to just like fast forward an hour, you're not like missing the narrative in any way. It's just like... Give me like, what's a 20 minute section of that?

37:41Sean Fennessey:It moves very fast. So it'll be like a crazy monster movie about giant ants and then it'll be like, you know, what seems like a comfortable drama that has like a hard left turn that reveals that it's actually like a movie about like a possessed kid, you know, like it, and it just kind of constantly reveals the ways in which these stories are being told over this period of time. It's a lot of fun. It's very strange. And it is like, it's an unusual way to show like what your skills and interests are. It kind of reminds me of like, it's like a Pinterest board. from 1968. That's cool. Yeah, it's just a really cool thing.

38:20Sean Fennessey:I gotta check that out. I own it. Haven't watched it, but I will. Same. CR. I'm still in the A's and B's. I gotta get to the M's. M is far. One of the cool things about this experience so far of doing, starting to buy this stuff is that occasionally I buy something because I already love it. Sometimes I buy something because the production of the disc, the production of the film for home physical media is such that it gives the film itself a different context or a different kind of weight. And that's how I feel about this at close range from Vinegar Syndrome. This is 1986 movie. Actually, is this from Cinematography?

39:02Sean Fennessey:It's Cinematography, which is Vinegar Syndrome. Of Vinegar Syndrome, right. 1986 James Foley movie set outside of Philadelphia, kind of like a rural noir with Christopher Walken and Sean Penn. And this has maybe my favorite Sean Penn and Christopher Walken performances individually. It's a really, really beautiful movie. And this is one that I feel like I'd seen on VHS or streaming over the years, but takes on a whole new weight with the 4K and has a lovely hardcover book, kind of like the kind of thing that you'd find on your dad's shelves. You can pull on out. And great contextual information about the making of the movie.

39:44and just a lovely, lovely package that gives a kind of, I wouldn't say forgotten, but moderately admired genre movie from the mid-80s, and now I'm like, God, this thing has heft, and it definitely has grown in my kind of estimation because of the production of the film.

40:01Sean Fennessey:Can I tell you something? The film celebrates its 40th anniversary this week. How about that? R.I.P. James Foley. Yes. That's right. Arguably his best film. I'm a fan. Good pick. I'm going with Going Places, which is another You're really pushing it. I'm really pushing it. I feel like the other ones, one more that pushes it and the other two don't really push it. Tell us about it. But Going Places is Gerard Depardieu. I believe this is the movie that made him a movie star. And I don't know how to describe it other than it's like two French sexual harassers drive around France and are bad people.

40:49But...

40:53Sean Fennessey:Bertrand Blier, yeah. Any hard cuts to anal sex in this one? No, but they do approach a breastfeeding mom on a train and one of them ends up breastfeeding from the woman. Who among them? Who among us has not found ourselves in this situation? Respect your fellow commuters. This is one of the reasons I feel like I'm not successful in this business. Is that now when I go... Guy with the hit maker name says thing that is not true. Or maybe I could have moved the... Pushed the stone up the hill a little more if I wasn't going into like general meetings and being like, hey, I had an idea for a show.

41:36I have a few aspects of this. But also, have you ever seen going places? Because now, like the content is up for discussion, but there is no denying that I think this movie might have one of the funniest edit runner I've ever seen of these two men approaching a situation like the director puts all the elements together of something that's happening. and then it smash cuts to them running away while the event is like, the aftermath of the event is in the background. And it is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. And you can't believe that you go through this movie. I think the magic trick of this thing is that these are two of the worst people you've ever seen.

42:24And yet they are not really portrayed as heroes, but they are sympathetic or you are empathetic to them. Like you find yourself wanting them to do better and they don't. And then the final shot of the movie then kind of tells you why it's called Going Places. And I don't know. It was like another one. And again, hard to find on streaming services. I can understand why nobody wants to host it. But there's like a lot of amazing stuff in there. Is it Cohen? Who put this out? It's Cohen. Yeah, and I think this had to come from, I think this was another out-of-country one.

43:03Sean Fennessey:I haven't seen that before. It is a very controversial film. It was a huge hit in its time. Huge hit and like minted both of them as movie stars. I think Gerard Depardieu to a much larger extent international. Patrick DeWeer was a big movie star too, but he killed himself. Yes. Kind of at the height of his career too. Ebert writes, despite its occasional charms, going places is a film of truly cynical decadence. Yeah, I would probably agree. I think when we stood up and applauded at the end, I think that's one of the things that we admired about it. Okay, Tracy, what's next? Cutter's Way from Radiance.

43:39It's just one of my favorite movies ever. It's on my list. It's on my top whatever list. I love this movie. The fact that this is available on 4K is just one of those, again, it's just like I didn't think I would live long enough to see something like this available on 4K. If you haven't seen this movie, don't read about it. Don't look at a trailer. Just get this and watch it. It's a great film. Great Jeff Bridges performance, just his hottest. And John Hurd just doing some amazing work in this thing. Ivan Passer, great Czech New Wave director. It's a great film. Great noir. Check it out. Awesome movie.

44:28Go ahead. I have not seen that and I'm going to take that advice of just getting it and watching it.

44:33Sean Fennessey:My favorite John Hurt performance. The thing that's funny about this one is I completely agree that it's fascinating that it's on 4K but I think this is the third time a boutique distributor has put this movie. I think Twilight Time put it out many years ago and then Fun City put a version out on Blu-ray five years ago. Yeah. And then now Radiance is putting out this edition which is the best one that's come out yet. I bought them all. so there is definitely a market of people who are like i need to keep buying cutter's way i need to keep discovering how many times i bought kind hearts and coronets the greatest tracy let's quote that has ever existed it's so funny though that like there are these there's a lot of movies that are not available and may never be available and we'll probably talk about them shortly but like there are also movies that just keep coming out and new additions i'm like well i just gotta upgrade.

45:27Cutter's Way is funny in that it for so long kept appearing on these lists of the greatest movies you've never seen. Exactly. The greatest movie you've never heard of. It's always on that list. So I have to assume by this point a lot of people have heard of it. But if you haven't, check out Cutter's Way. Great novel too. Yeah, it is. Newton Thornburg.

45:48Sean Fennessey:Yeah. Pulled that out of my ass. Way to go. Okay, I'm going to get a little fusty. So... What? No. Yeah, me. Phenasy? I know. Oh, yeah. So Frederick Wiseman passed away recently, the great documentarian, perhaps the greatest American documentarian of all time. And I've seen some of his films, especially all of them made in the last 15 years or so. But the films that he became extremely well known for, they're not hard to find, but they were collected by BFI some years ago. And so when he passed away, I immediately raced out and bought this. And now it's a little bit harder to find than it was.

46:25Sean Fennessey:It's called Cinema Expanded, the films of Frederick Wiseman. I thought this was fairly new. I think it's in the last year or so. And it features, I think it's his first five features, which is Titicutt Falls, high school, hospital, juvenile court, and welfare. And the reason those films have those titles is because they're explorations in documentary form of institutions. That's the thing that he did over his almost 60-year career where he would go into spaces and train his camera on a mental health institution or a recently City Hall. He spent a year chronicling Boston City Hall and how their local government operated.

47:08Sean Fennessey:He recently did one about a French restaurant. And some of these films are incredibly durational. They're like four hours long and they have no narrative, no into camera conversation. They are just observational and edited in a very discreet style to show you how these worlds work in a kind of with an unobtrusive camera. But the first films made a lot of noise because they seem to reveal, you know, some of the decay that was happening in some places like the institution or in high school or in hospital. and they're not like you probably won't stand and applaud in quite the same sicko way that you would when you get through Thriller with your boys but they're just tremendously important pieces of American art and I hope that they like I hope BFI continues to collect his movies and puts them all out even though I think there's more than two dozen films that he made over his career but he's just such a huge and important voice and it's a great set.

48:07I think Tidakut Folley was kind of instrumental in shedding light on mental hospitals and the condition of those. I think a lot of changes happened as a result of that film being distributed because people had simply never, most people had simply never seen what went on inside those institutions before that film.

48:26Sean Fennessey:That's definitely true. And I think that there's a, like documentary is not journalism, but sometimes it can be. Sure. And some of these movies are cases where that's the case. So anyway, that's a little bit of seriousness. Do those have the same kind of vibe as like streetwise or is streetwise a little bit more narrative to camera? Yeah, like in streetwise, they're asking people like, when did you start working on the street? This is it's really more like the camera sits back and people are like having a meeting in a room and the camera is just looking at their meeting. Okay. And so it feels like you are spying in a way.

49:05Sean Fennessey:and it's usually in a very public kind of forum but it also feels like you're not supposed to be in the room and so like you're gathering information and also sometimes it's like quite dull sometimes it shows like how boring life can be and how like a lot of functionaries work throughout the world and sometimes it can be beautiful and explosive and interesting but anyway that's that's Frederick Wiseman I will go I wonder if one of you guys also brought this I'll go with Stuntman which just came from Transmission a couple months ago. I think one of their first releases, I believe that's the second release they did.

49:39The Transmission's a sub-label of Radiance. Stuntman is maybe my favorite film about making movies. It stars Peter O'Toole, directed by Richard Rush. Barbara Hershey's in it. And, oh my gosh, what's the stuntman's name? Steve Reelsback. Steve Reelsback. And maybe one of my favorite opening hours of a movie. like really like before they have to end it like there is a magic to this movie there is a kind of mixture of cynicism and wonder that I really adore and this is an incredible package so not only is it a fantastic just like reference I don't know reference quality I don't even know if I am qualified to say so but Tracy is I approve fantastic piece of movie preservation and then it comes with a fantastic you know booklet with it but then you get like these awesome postcards which I can't bring myself to actually use but are really dope.

50:45Sean Fennessey:You should just send one to me. Just like write me a letter. Hey, was watching the stuntman thinking of you? Hope you're well. See you at the office tomorrow. Sounds sweet. And a dope poster. So really awesome package. Really excited about transmission and this is exactly the kind of movie that deserves this kind of production. Have you watched it since you got? Yes. Yeah. I watched it too recently. Showed it to the wife and the nanny. Yeah. Thumbs up. Thumbs up, definitely. Barbara Hershey, man. Underrated. Yeah. Great, great actress. Underrated. Feelings were mixed about Steve Railsback, though.

51:18I think he's great in the film. Yeah, it's one of those, I don't know who I would replace him with in that movie, but I like him in In the Line of Fire, which is really the only other Railsback movie I can think of. Well, Helter Skelter, I think. Yeah. I really like Stuntman. I think it's a great movie. And the great mystery of Richard Rush and why he didn't have a bigger career. Yeah, there are some sequences in this movie where you're like, is this guy Spielberg? Like, this is nuts. Like, what he's like, a helicopter is flying across and then the crane shot is going around this and he's shooting a crane shot.

51:49Sean Fennessey:It's a fascinating, I mean, he was in the same lineage of many of the movie Bratz where he made a bunch of biker movies for Corman and had a lot of success. And then in the 70s, he makes Getting Straight, Freebie and the Bean, and then Stuntman, and then nothing until Color of Night 15 years later. Is that the Bruce Willis? Yeah. Oh, yeah. Yeah. That's maybe for you and the boys one. I mean, it might be for me and the boys. Similar energy. Controversial. I don't think the anal is on screen in that film. No, but the dick's on screen. Yeah, that's right. So that's good. Okay. That's good. Definitely, it would be a contender for programming.

52:25Oh, I also want to shout out Tracy. Tracy, I think you brought this one in last year, that Fun City Lifeguard, the St. Elliot Lifeguard movie, which we ended up watching on a Tuesday night and is a fantastic film. Just a great movie, yeah. It's kind of presented as a sort of bikini beach party, but then it's a tone poem on aging. Totally. It's wild how good that movie is. It kind of reminded me of the books that McMurtry wrote about the last picture show characters like after last picture show it's just like aging out of youth and trying to figure out who you are it's really good i uh at the actor awards formerly called the sag awards this year i was at a table close to uh uh i was close to sam elliot uh sam elliot and i just said fuck it and i went over and i did i was like excuse me sir i'm so sorry to interrupt i just need to let you know i recently and he saw Lifeguard, and I think it's a fantastic film, and you were incredible in it.

53:27And he said, oh, thank you very much. I don't think he was expecting, hey man, I saw you in Lifeguard. Yeah. And so I think that was a good, like it caught him off guard in a good way. And then I didn't belabor, but I felt it needed saying. Was he like, did he have anything to say about Lifeguard, or did he just like, keep it moving? I kept it moving. I think he was like, oh, thank you very much. You know that guy. Oh, thank you for that. Yeah. That was pretty good.

53:53Sean Fennessey:is that something so i was i was with a with an accomplished person yesterday and uh not like yeah not like today no fucking bums watching no i say that to pivot to your perspectives imminently um and he was telling a story about how nervous he was to talk to somebody who he really admired and like will you guys do that will you go up to people frequently that you really if you really like what they've done in their careers the way that you just described is that common for you to go up to someone like sam elliot and say like hey i love that you did this also i'm on this show uh it is i would say it's common but i try not to belabor it you know or i mean honestly more often than not i try to engage in conversations that have nothing to do with the business you know what i mean like i like that hat yeah okay or you know like you know i got to meet uh like i met you know, in passing Oscar Isaac at like an after party or whatever.

54:54I'm like, dude's been dressing really well recently. He's been going with like the, you know, the sort of.

54:59Sean Fennessey:Do you have like a drip off with Oscar Isaac? I didn't. If there was a drip off, he would have won. But it was like nice to talk to him about like, hey man, the pants, you're fucking killing it with the pants. You know what I mean? Now here's Oscar Isaac, who probably would like to be complimented about his work as an actor. As opposed to the clothes somebody else gave him to wear. Nice pants, dog. What's your favorite part of the movie? I mean I guess you want to do a going places me and you I think we just take our big pants off you ever go up to a gal on the train breastfeeding your child and try to nudge in there guys I should only be complimenting the fans because that is the shit I would say and then I'm going to be asking the party no I think I try to do it if I'm going to have that conversation I try not to do it in circumstances like that where it's that's probably the majority of what you're hearing and especially at like any event like that, you're so in a different brain that it's hard to even just have a regular conversation.

55:54So if I'm going to have that one, I try to do it in a, in a more subdued circumstance. I don't know about you. Yeah. I'll go up to somebody and say something. I, you know, I, I like it when people say something nice to me, I, you know, I, I will tell them I admire their work or what their work is meant to me. But, uh, again, yeah, I'm selective about it and I, whatever it is, I make it, I keep it brief unless they want to extend the conversation. I keep it brief. Like I'm not going to bother you. You know, what about pants? I have never discussed their pants. You got to get in there. I guess so.

56:26Yeah. Try it out. I know. I, I think that's right. Like if somebody wants to continue talking, like if I was talking to Oscar Isaac and he was like, Hey, I'd actually really like to talk about inside lewin davis i would be like yes let's take a seat because i

56:40Sean Fennessey:have now that would be weird if he said thanks for the compliment about my pants but can we please discuss my performance i would be all for it but i definitely like yeah i try to keep it brief what what bundle of depravity do you have for us next okay so this one is actually you're hiding it which makes me really nervous like maybe we can't see it so this was actually after our aborted cockfighter. I did say, well, somebody did recommend and I just bought Death Game. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Which I don't think is as depraved as the other two. But I feel like it has had a few different remakes, including a...

57:24Eli Roth remade. Yeah. The Eli Roth knock-knock. The conceit of it is incredible. This was released by Grindhouse releasing. Now, she's wearing brassiere and no panties. yes that's right that's colleen camp i believe in that photograph oh colleen camp yeah yeah and um and you should go to colleen camp you said brassiere like she has 1948 oh i spy that lady that that gentlewoman is neither neither interested in pants nor seems to care that she isn't a brassiere

57:57Sean Fennessey:She doth protest to thine undies. So an incredible conceit of a movie of like a happy family man who ends up fucking two to go. Okay, so they say that they're teenagers. We don't know if that's the truth. But there is like an extended scene in a bathtub. We can't be sure. Well, the actors were not teenagers. The actors were famous last words. I have to do my own research. This is a tough one because I love this movie, so I kind of want to be on Tim's side here. I'm also just hyperventilating imagining Tim going up to Colin Kemp. It was like, I watched you in Death Game, and did you know on the cover you were wearing a brassiere, but no panties but no panties I'm gonna keep it moving great pants on you now though great pants on you now who takes the brassiere off before the panties you like the weirdest fucking Seinfeld bit you're making it seem like people who are interested in this hobby are like afraid to buy porn but will get to the absolute edge of porn and say click but they can't put me on any lists The weirdest thing is before we started, we were walking in and I was like, sometimes I worry that people get the wrong idea about me because of the movies I pick.

59:32I had no idea what he was going to do. This one's worse in the description than it is in the execution. In the execution. And so, but ultimately what I, what I love about this movie, and again, this got a standing ovation, especially because of the end. And I think the reason that this was recommended to me is because I was talking about the movie Pieces and how that has the best ending to a horror movie that I've ever seen. And they were like, well, have you seen Death Game? And I said, no. And we watched this. And when I saw the ending, we, we absolutely were fucking floored by it. But I think this also exists in this world that I don't know that we have anymore, where people that are overqualified for the material are taking it on.

1:00:13So I am now, of course, forgetting the actress's name. um it's Sandra Locke yeah Sandra Locke yeah and uh Colin Camp definitely and Sandra Locke certainly it is clear how good of performers they are and Sandra Locke elevates this to some like like where it has like a feeling of like Marat Saad or like this is somebody who like studied theater and is bringing something to this that shouldn't be there but is because of their our own talent. And I don't know that we have that as much anymore. And so there is something, again, it's, this feels like a piece from a different time that I am glad exists.

1:00:59I am showing my ass to the entire world.

1:01:02Sean Fennessey:No, I think this is a great pick. I don't know if you remember this, but I gifted you this film as part of like, cause I was, I think I told you about grindhouse releasing and I sent you a couple of discs. This was one of them. It's been called a couple of different things over the years. I think the seducers is another title for the movie. Seymour Cassell is the male lead in the movie I mean he's an amazing actor Apparently hated the director Refused to do ADR Which is why there is all this very awkward ADR It's not his voice It's barely his voice Somebody he's been dubbed over Which is very strange But you know this is the same year That Sandra Locke made The Gauntlet with Clint Eastwood Like it's 1977 She's about to become a very well known person in Hollywood And it's like a pretty It's like a sexy weird Almost psychedelic at times like torture sex movie.

1:01:47Sean Fennessey:It's fascinating. And that is the thing is that like you, at its basest level, that's what it is. But at the end, when she's playing a judge, it has like this sense of theatricality to it that just, that goes so far beyond the material. You can't help but be impressed by it and by her. This episode is brought to you by Apple and AT &T. Scroll long enough and you'll hear it all. miracle diets, fitness trends, you name it. But with iPhone and Apple Watch, you get meaningful insights from a very trusted source, your body. You can track sleep quality, cardio fitness, and more, then unpack all the information in the health app on iPhone to get a picture of your overall health.

1:02:29These health insights are developed with clinical experts from start to finish. Find out more at apple.com slash health. Apple Watch is not a medical device and should not be used as a substitute for professional medical advice. The Gambler. Yeah. Cinematograph. Cinematograph, Radiance, all getting a lot of love here. Oh, look at that. There we go. Double up on Gambler. My dad took me to see this in 1974. I was nine. So dad took me to see this in the movie theaters when I was nine. And I remember it. I remember seeing the movie. And I remember asking the questions when the movie was over. Like, Daddy, why did he sacrifice so much for so little?

1:03:24What I really remember from it is the sense of dread. Just that sense of dread when you're in over your head and you're making it worse. that compulsion to make it worse. Great movie. Carol Reese movie. Great. Again, I've had a bad DVD of this on my shelf for 25 years. This is a big one. This was a long desired one that people wanted forever.

1:03:54Sean Fennessey:I wonder if this is a bit of a keystone to some of your writing. Oh, The Gambler? which is like about a character who's a very sophisticated well-read person who is also kind of trapped by based desires addictions obsessions this movie about sports gambling you know famously remade yeah with Mark Wahlberg a film that Chris and I think is fascinating I admire quite a bit really yeah I thought it was just considered a total misfire it is considered that by most but there's a lot going on in there oh I don't think it has a Kind of like True or a Cruel Picture. There's a lot going on in that. James Caan, man.

1:04:34He's the greatest. James Caan, such a force. You know, we recently did a Godfather and Godfather 2 rewatch, which we'll probably get into later in the week. 2 really misses Caan. He's such a force of nature, you know. He's such a whirlwind, just a charisma machine. He's just a tractor beam. He's really something to watch. I that's something I've sort of realized recently is that I don't know that he obviously like it's not like people don't know who James Conn is. But the more I've gone back and watched earlier movies like this one, I am like, oh, he should be spoken in the same breath as De Niro and Pacino.

1:05:21Like he has that level of charisma and ability and his choices are incredible. Like he and it's an incredible also an incredible movie about. It feels dangerous, too. Yeah. Which is maybe why he's not thought of like those guys. Like he has like an edge to him that maybe they were like, is that just what he feels authentic rather than studied? Where maybe like De Niro is like studied it. But like James Caan playing Jake LaMotta is like a different animal than De Niro, maybe. But it's you're completely right there. and there is also something I love a movie having a part of my brain that understands that thankfully I've never seen but that understands that level of like going on tilt or the attraction to making it worse I'm always very I always really respond to movies that have that thing that that really gets you to feel like what it is like to go on tilt like uh uncut gems i think is a really good example of that this uh california split those movies that are just like why didn't they just stop or the last moment of california split with him being at the apex of everything he's been looking for and then being like this is it like this is the thing i it didn't do anything like oh fuck this is bad news you know what i mean i love that i love films that

1:06:44Sean Fennessey:examine that idea um i think one of the reasons why he's maybe not held in the exact same esteem is because he you know de niro and pacino also have quieter 1980s and then they have these big comebacks in the 90s and con never quite got that but there's some really good con performances in the 80s like obviously thief first and foremost but like gardens of stone i think is like the opposite of what we're describing like a very internal quiet coppola movie that like not a lot of people have seen that i always point to to be like there's different shades to these directors these actors and these guys from this period of time looking at that sense of mortality that i think they're all starting to feel at that period one of my faves you know all those guys at some point started to kind of trade on their persona for comedic purposes right and con did that earlier than the rest of them where he did become a kind of, hey, bada bing, you know, this kind of guy.

1:07:37Sometimes to good effect. I'm not saying it wasn't, but I wonder if it didn't rob him of some opportunity or maybe he just wasn't getting the kind of opportunities those guys were getting. Yeah. Because he certainly seemed to make the most of them when he did get those opportunities. Well, he worked a ton in the 90s. I mean, the program rules.

1:07:53Sean Fennessey:But like he did, like he did it in Mickey Blue Eyes, for example. That was a movie that like he was kind of trading on that, but it didn't quite have the same like meet the parents level explosive hit quality. Anyway, we're talking a lot about James Caan. My pick is John Singleton's Hood trilogy from the Criterion Collection, which is really fascinating. Of course, you would expect the Criterion Collection to pick Boys in the Hood for the collection because it's one of the landmark 90s films, one of the most important Black American movies ever made. You know, a beloved movie that launched John Singleton into like a huge career in Hollywood.

1:08:27Sean Fennessey:But what I love about the choice is that it also features Poetic Justice and Baby Boy, which are two of his best movies that I think to like a certain segment of the audience that was tuned into what he was doing at the time they really care about, but are like really underserved historically by places like the Criterion Collection. Oh, right. Baby Boy especially, which I think for the longest time is only available on DVD. I've never seen it. I haven't seen it. Such a good movie. Tyrese, a phenomenal Bing Rames performance in the movie. It's like a real, like classical melodrama in a lot of ways, but also a really funny movie.

1:08:57Sean Fennessey:and I wish that Higher Learning was in this set as well because that's the other film of his that I watched over and over again as a kid and I really love the outsized, almost like Douglas Sirkian quality to a lot of his movies. He really does old school, dramatic 50s Hollywood style productions but in the world of these characters. There are hardly any movies in this LA milieu in the 90s and 2000s. So it's like you might think that they're attempting to like class up something but they're it's the opposite like to me this gives such like definition and shape to what the criterion collection should be and can be and they're also like they're studio movies they're not they're meant to be like crowd pleasing and entertaining and interesting like poetic justice is janet jackson and tupac like a road trip on a road trip and like giving i think they're two best performances um i just think that this is like signals a path for where we can go once we get past like the janice films hundred year history of international cinema.

1:09:56Sean Fennessey:Like, there's a lot that's happened in the last 30 years that needs to be, like, mined and supported and lifted up. Yeah. It's also a really good job of contextualizing three movies that maybe everyday people don't associate with each other. Like, they know that he directed them, but they don't think of it as a piece of work like that. Exactly. That they're connected in a way. Yeah. In the same way that, like, we think of, like, Tarantino's movies as being connected to each other. Anyway, next pick, Chris.

1:10:23John Borman's Excalibur. No. which just came out in this deluxe Arrow edition. It's a movie from 1981. It's about, it's John Borman's big swing. I'm going to make a King Arthur movie. And it is something that like my dad showed me when I was a kid. That was like an object of like complete obsession for me. But because I was more into King Arthur and like Arthurian legend and the idea of the sword from the stone and all that stuff. It's like that really interesting thing that happens with some movies from your childhood where you remember like you watched it a lot because you cared about what it was about and then all of a sudden somewhere along the line it becomes because you care about the movie, you know, and because you care about the director or because you care about the actors in it.

1:11:06That's happened with this. Some notable people in this, Helen Mirren, Liam Neeson, Gabriel Byrne, Nicole Williamson plays Merlin. It's a really cool performance, pretty hammy. This is something that didn't look this fucking good when I was a kid. You know, obviously we had boxier TVs and VHS that was of dubious quality. This is almost a reimagining of the movie to my eyes and it kind of took me back to seeing it for the first time.

1:11:33Sean Fennessey:So you have watched this? Yeah, it's fucking intense. It's beautiful. You have been talking about it for like 10 years though as a movie that you love, but maybe don't get to see. It's also notably the first time I ever saw people have sex on screen was in this movie. Look at buddy, do I have some films for you? but gabriel burn um uh has sex with a woman while wearing a full suit of armor um which i still haven't quite figured out the mechanics of that but you've been attempting to recreate uh but yeah this is this is a wonderful pickup um my last one might be controversial because i'm on the big picture but i think it dude i brought it too you did yeah okay it is but i think it speaks to something that we talk about and that is, I believe this is the, is this Italian?

1:12:21No, this is from the UK. It's 000. It's like the Blu-ray of 000, which I don't believe you can. This is an important thing to talk about. I don't think you can stream this anymore. It was a Prime Video original that is no longer on Prime Video. It is not available for streaming. I'm delighted to say I've never heard of this. I don't even know what this is. This is eight episodes. Limited series. Limited series that kind of came out, I think it came out during the pandemic during COVID. And so it got a little bit COVID memory hold has incredible. It's about, uh, uh, the cartel, uh, and their cocaine business, the shipping and the shipping company that is attempting to get it to the Italian mafia.

1:13:07And it is those three stories told over the course of eight episodes. Uh, Andrea Rinesborough, Dane DeHaan, um, Gabriel Byrne, speaking of fucking in a in a suit of armor and a gentleman whose name I can't remember, but who plays like the guy who tries to take over the car. Yeah. So, no, it's a guy. It's a mixing actor who I've seen do a lot. Honestly, one of the best performances I've ever seen and also one of the most terrifying. It is. It's incredible. It is something that even as I was watching it during covid, especially during covid, I had this feeling of, I don't know that this will ever get made again.

1:13:49The amount of actual location shooting they were doing. Landing helicopters on shipping vessels in the middle of the ocean. The level of violence that's in it. It is an unbelievable series that you just can't see anymore. And from what I understand, there is an Italian cut. There is, yeah. that doesn't do as much hand-holding for the audience. Yeah, I haven't seen that. I read about it when I bought this disc. This is this crazy period of Amazon where they were just kind of throwing money around. This is also the time period that produced Too Old to Die Young, the Nicholas Wendell and Refn, Miles Teller thing, which is just a complete fever dream.

1:14:34Stefano Salima directed a bunch of these episodes who did Gamora and did Day of the Soldado. just an awesome awesome TV series

1:14:42Sean Fennessey:I watched the first two episodes as I have with most shows that Chris has recommended enjoyed it and thought I'll get back to that at some point but that was exactly what I was going to say which is it's just an artifact of like a very recent history in artists racing towards opportunity and taking advantage of like corporate circumstances in very interesting ways and I do think that like as we talk about film preservation especially in a streaming era where stuff can just be pulled off and like a memory hole that no longer found i kind of think this is going to end up being something that we'll be looking into in the future of i had uh this one gave me kind of chills when this came off of amazon and prompted me to think differently about picking up stuff like it series is like that that seem like international co-pros that got bought by a streamer for a finite amount of time that if it's available, I'll grab it if I loved it, because you just really never know if the rights come up again, if anybody's going to bother.

1:15:47Yeah. Like I do have a copy of station 11 on 4k for that reason. You know, who knows? Am I up? You're up. All right. I'm going to dive into the This is from my friends at Second Run, which is a UK label. This is a trilogy of films by Isvan Jabo. I'm sure I'm not saying that correctly. Sounds pretty close. They all star Klaus Maria Brandauer. They're all on Blu-ray, but one of them perhaps on Blu-ray for the first time. if I were making Mount Rushmore for film performance Klaus Maria Brandauer in Mephisto is on it I think it's one of the great film performances ever filmed

1:16:38Sean Fennessey:Can you tell people what the setup for that film is? Because it's a really interesting movie It's basically a Faust story about an actor in Nazi Germany who's, you know, selling his soul in order to be a successful actor in Nazi Germany. And it's based on a true story and it's horrible and heartbreaking and fascinating. And Brandon was just amazing in it. Do you think there are any current day comps to what that might feel like? I have no idea what you're talking about. No idea what you're talking about. Can't think of any. I've not seen those other two films. Mephisto is amazing. You should see him.

1:17:19Conison is pretty great. Okay.

1:17:23Sean Fennessey:Do you want company in the perverted category? Please, God, Sean. I'm out here on an island. So this comes from the fine people at Umbrella Entertainment, which is an Australian company. This is what has been defined here, and I don't know I had ever seen it described this way, as the day of the woman set. This is, I spit on your grave, and I spit on your grave deja vu. Now, I'm not yet seeing I Spit on Your Grave Deja Vu, which is a follow-up to the original film. Please tell me it doesn't document the same characters. Oh, God. Deja Vu. I'll find out when I see the film. I Spit on Your Grave is a 78 movie directed by Mir Zarki.

1:18:06Sean Fennessey:It is one of the ur-rape-revenge texts. It has been studied far and wide. It is a very violent, scary, sad movie. But it is a movie that like really centers a woman taking revenge on the people who assaulted her and features incredible performances, especially Camille Keaton as the star of the movie. You know, the movie's been remade a couple of times. It was remade in the 2010s. But when you're trying to understand the history of violence on screen, I feel like this is an essential movie. there are lurid thrills in the movie and that like you can see the movie was made with that intention but that the filmmakers are also subterraneously doing something socially with what it's trying to portray and do and this is another movie that was hard to find for a while you can find it on VHS you can find it in video stores for sure and was passed around amongst sickos discovering horror movies over time but this set is pretty crazy and there's just a tremendous amount of work that's been put into it It similarly has like a huge booklet with several essays.

1:19:08Sean Fennessey:If you've ever wanted postcards featuring Day of the Woman, you want those? So maybe I'll send you a stuntman one and you send me a... That's really sweet. That's a good idea. That's nice. We should hear more postcards. There is a... The postcards that come in these books, I remember talking to a friend of mine about they had like given me like a nice bottle of wine for a birthday or something. And they asked if we'd had it. I said, no, I'm like saving it for a special occasion. They told, and this is going to be way too heavy a story when it comes to postcards that come in blu-ray boxes but they were like i actually recently had a friend who was diagnosed with cancer and he was a wine collector and they had all this wine and because he had limited time left they were just like cracking bottles at breakfast because he had never and was not going to have the opportunity to taste these and really like what it came down to was drink the wine don't wait for a special occasion just drink it and so i think i'm just saying that i apply that same sort of thing to those postcards it's like oh i gotta keep those in there those are special put a stamp on them you know what i mean this is how we make friends as adult men you got to get in there tracy with those postcards you program i didn't know this was coming coming my way well we're sharing postcards so you guys can share i'll send you a dear shot and then you pay as a job like you know what i met somebody at a party by the way and i wanted to talk to them more and we didn't have the opportunity and i'm gonna send them a postcard you know what i mean this is how we make connections in the modern world nice how are you feeling about making friends at this stage of your life you've made a couple of references here dear friends around this table it's really lovely Chris you're up it's the day of the woman man don't worry about it it will be momentarily actually my last one is was that one too perverse no it's just like kind of repetitive with some of the other stuff I grabbed Red Rooms which is Oh, I didn't get this.

1:20:58One of the best movies of this decade, I think, and one of the most relevant movies of this decade. It's from Utopia. I know that this is another example on the flip of the 000 conversation, a film that a French-Canadian horror thriller that Sean and I both love that you really cannot speak enough about because I think Pascal Plante is a very, very powerful filmmaker, and I cannot wait to see what he does next. Who put that out? Utopia. Utopia. Yeah, okay. I gotta get that. Not a lot of special features, nor do you need them. It's a great-looking movie, and I just wanted to make sure it didn't fall through the cracks.

1:21:37I was going to ask you guys how you approach buying recent releases. Do you think, okay, I gotta get Oppenheimer or whatever, like as soon as it hits 4K, do you wait for something special to come along in terms of it's an addition? Because I'm sort of like in my head about like, do I need to buy a movie that I saw 18 months ago or 24 months ago? And this feels so much more historical and archival. And then when I buy something from 2023, I'm like, I'm glad I have it. But this was just when I was worried about it falling through the cracks of streaming.

1:22:10Sean Fennessey:I have an answer to that question. I'm obviously trying to collect complete filmographies of many filmmakers at this point. And so I was thinking about, do I need to be spending money on Begonia? Which is a movie I liked but didn't love. wasn't like in my top 10 or anything like that. But I'm just interested in Yorgos Lanthimos and interested in having a stack that just is all of his movies. And I'm like, am I going to spend$45 on a steelbook of Begonia, a movie that I like, maybe we'll watch one more time before I die. And the answer is no. But I am going to get it at some point. And with the movies like that, to the point about big studios putting movies out, I'm like, I'll just wait until this movie is on sale at some point in the next two years.

1:22:52Sean Fennessey:And it will happen. it'll be$11.99 and I'll get it at that point for my sake of completism but that's and that's been my strategy with newer stuff unless it is in the one battle after another sphere where I'm just like I'm just auto pre-ordering no matter what I'm going to pay top dollar like I just want it it matters to me in a way that like a movie like Begonia does not yeah I was kind of thinking this would fall almost more like do you buy the Christopher's as soon as it comes out or something because it's like a Steven Soderbergh movie. And in any case, if you guys don't know about Red Rooms, if you missed me and Sean talking about it before, Sean and Naaman talking about it before, I found out about it because of Sean and Adam.

1:23:32If you like Fincher, if you like Olivia Seas, if you like Lynch, I would highly recommend it. Yeah, Cronenberg, for sure. It's just, yeah, incredible. Carrie and I watched it. We didn't know anything about it. It was one of our favorite movies of the year. We watched the Utopia Disc, too. And I, you know, I don't buy everything new. I don't have a consistent, I mean, I did buy Begonia because it's like, well, I'd rather see it in 4K than watch it on the Academy streaming app. I'd rather give it more of a shot than that. You know, one battle after another, we really wanted to see on the big screen, but timing in our lives, we weren't able to do that.

1:24:06And so we have a big screen in the house, but again, I wanted to wait for the 4K to watch it as opposed to the Academy streaming app. So some of them I buy, some of them I don't. I've made some bad decisions over the years doing that, but I live with it. that's how I wind up with his copy of Wrath of Man that's a good point

1:24:26Sean Fennessey:one weird thing I just want to say very quickly before we get away from Red Rooms I watched this movie Mile End Kicks recently Chandler LeVacq's movie and Juliet Garepi is in that movie the woman from Red Rooms and it was like seeing like Freddy Krueger in like a comedy like it just didn't because that actress is so singular in that movie that the idea of like seeing her in another environment was super confusing Lena Gore from Eastern Gate is in a Charlie XCX movie coming up soon and I was just like this doesn't feel right. You're supposed to be shooting your boyfriend in the face. Sorry, I interrupted you, Tim.

1:24:57Well, no, I was just going to say I was very rudely looking at my phone a moment ago because I don't know if I this is like a tweet that I saw a couple years ago that I love that I may have actually read the last time. And if so, I apologize and you can cut this out. But it is a joke where it's like essentially a conversation between a filmmaker and vinegar syndrome filmmaker this is my worst movie beyond reclamation serious but only for true sicko completists who will never see the light of god not even i will watch this again vinegar syndrome now available in limited edition 40 media book slip case with 40 page booklet And there is so much of this that of what we do that is summed up in this like this is irredeemable garbage.

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1:27:57Sean Fennessey:Okay, so you've done all five now? Yeah. So you're up now. And I cheated. I got a couple more extras. This is also from Umbrella. This is Suicide Club. I haven't seen this. 4K. You haven't seen this. Is this the... Yeah, yeah, yeah. Have you seen this one? I have, yeah, but not in a long time. It's upsetting. It's hilarious. And ultimately, surprisingly, it's very moving. for my money it treads some of the same ground as audition but I think I think I prefer Suicide Club to audition I'll check it out I'll just describe the opening to the film there's a busy train station in Tokyo and you just see people milling around almost documentary style busy train station there all different types and these school girls arrive at the train station to take the train and And 54, and they're sort of sailor suits, 54 schoolgirls step forward in the train.

1:29:01And as the train is approaching, they hold hands and jump onto the train tracks and are immediately massacred. Suicide club. What's wrong with us, man? As long as we're perving out, I think I should mention Russ Meyer. Some of his work has become available on 4K.

1:29:24Sean Fennessey:Yeah. thanks to the good people at Severin. And I really like Russ Meyer. And Carrie likes Russ Meyer. I've shown her a couple of these movies now, and she's really enjoyed them. They're very funny, and we really enjoy the film. The presentation of these movies is absolutely gorgeous on 4K. You never thought you would get it. I've even got both Carrie and the nanny Russ Meyer Busamania T-shirts that Severin, And they wear them and they're great conversation pieces. I love wearing their Russ Meyer shirts. School pickup. Russ Meyer is like a perfect saint for this conversation because as a filmmaker, one of the most impressive and accomplished independent directors in American history.

1:30:12Sean Fennessey:And also a guy who just loves a big rack. Like all of these movies are just like these gals are stacked. And I am into it and I'm not afraid to talk about it and show it to you explicitly. Also, watch me move the camera and cut like Steven Spielberg. It is an amazing, weird collision of like, I'll say heterosexual impulse. And, you know, there's been an argument ever since these movies first came out about the feminist impulse. and Carrie and the nanny can speak on that because they're not simply, it's not a simple matter. It's not. It's complex. Something else going on there. I didn't know that this was going to happen, but I'm not mad that it happened.

1:30:58We seem to be going through something collectively. Yeah. Yeah. Hold on, I got one more. Oh, you got one more. Go ahead.

1:31:03Sean Fennessey:Oh, yeah. So this is the good fellow who bought Hammer Films. I bought it a couple of years ago, and they've started releasing these Hammer films. I mean, you've got dictionaries at home that are not as big as this edition of The Curse of Frankenstein. Now, you'll notice that this isn't open because I thought we'd have a little unboxing boy scene. Wow, I'm titillated. I'm Jebediah unboxing. You've just set off the smoke alarm. I think the Department of Homeland Security found us. Bill Simmons fucking heard part of this recording and pulled. I think the FBI is coming through the doors for Tim. There has been a fire emergency reported in the building.

1:31:50Please evacuate the building by the nearest exit.

1:31:53Sean Fennessey:Jack, how does this keep happening? Well, actually, there has been an unboxing boy emergency in the building. Tim Simons tried to revive Gerard DeBird. All right. Right. So my name is Jebediah Unboxing, and I am the Unboxing Boys older brother. I don't think I've given the Unboxing Boy a first name. If you're Jebediah, maybe I'm a brotherford. Oh, look at this. Wow. Oh, that is nice. Gorgeous. The other side. Vintage poster. Yeah. What do we have inside here? We just bought... I can't believe you did this for us and not your son. The Books of Frankenstein, Volume 1, a very replete booklet. Here's The Curse of Frankenstein, the horror classic, as a graphic novel.

1:32:51Ooh, that's cool. Postcards. Postcards. Maybe I'll send some of these to my friend.

1:33:01Sweet poster.

1:33:03Sean Fennessey:Oh, is that French poster? Italian? Yeah, French. There you go. I don't need to unwrap this goddamn poster. And then look at the discs. How many we got there? My goodness. What? 12? Six? Six. The widescreen UK theatrical version, full screen as film version, widescreen US theatrical AR, widescreen UK theatrical version, full screen as film version, widescreen US theatrical AR, and two discs of special features. You got to get a padded room if you watch all of those. How much could a person love this film? My son loves it a great deal. Will he watch all of these versions? Right now, he wouldn't know the difference between the versions, right?

1:33:48But maybe he'll get to that point. Anyway, Hammer is putting out just these delicious boxes. Thanks to a guy who has a lot of money who bought a company and decided that this is the way he wanted to spend his money. as opposed to some asshole who buys social media company and decides that's how he wants to spend his money. Yeah, Sam Altman, just fucking release 000. That's right. Step it up. Yeah, do something good for the world. Can I throw out a take, and we don't have to belabor it because I know there's a time constraint, that I don't think is going to rival Tracy's Trench Run take. Here we go.

1:34:28I don't know if I give a fuck about Frankenstein. Wow. I think there's just a part of me that my entire life, I've watched all these Frankenstein movies, including last year, and it has nothing to do with the film or the filmmakers. Or Oscar Isaac's pants. Yeah. There's an essential problem with Frankenstein. And I love Frankenstein. But there is an essential problem. This guy has discovered how to bring dead people back to life. And they're just going to kill him and throw him out of the village. He's got to find equipment and build it. Why would you not like give this guy a big grant? Why would you not let Frankenstein cook?

1:35:08Sean Fennessey:It's a fair point. Obviously, the original intention is a fear of science, right? In a God-fearing community, the man who has control over life and death is dangerous and not to be celebrated. It feels like also like the that that take might be like sort of like like when Meghan McCain is posting pictures of Bob the Butcher being like, oh, this is all of America this week. And it's like, shit, did you watch the same movie? That was the bad guy where you're like a little bit of this. Like the thing is, the thing about Frankenstein is that he played God and nobody rewarded him. We're both sides in Frankenstein.

1:35:47Sean Fennessey:OK, two more for me as well. You mentioned you watched In the Realm of the Senses. This is a set I've not had a chance to dig into yet, but I'm very excited to, which is called Radical Japan. It is cinema and state. It is seven films directed by Nagisa Oshima, the Japanese director of In the Realm of the Senses, who made some of the most confrontational, politically and socially aggressive movies in Japan in the 60s, 70s, and 80s into the 90s, I believe. and this collects seven of his movies a couple of them are fairly well known Death by Hanging specifically is in the Criterion collection but a lot of these films are not often seen The Man Who Left His Will on Film Boy Diary of a Shinjuku Thief that are like all effectively looking at different aspects of Japanese society and training a very intense lens on them I'm very excited to dig into this I wanted to give it a shout it is now sold out as I understand it at Radiance, but hopefully they will print up some more and let people discover these movies.

1:36:53Sean Fennessey:Because In the Realm of the Senses split my head open when I saw it earlier this year. Fantastic film. It really is. He's also the director of one of my favorite movies of all time, Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence. Yes. It's a great movie available in the Criterion Collection. The last one I want to shout out comes to us from our friends at Fun City. It's called Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains, which is one of the best movies about music and bands. And this is a fake band that, you know, led by Diane Lane. Another movie that I think was like very much a cult classic for many years and now has been restored majestically to 4K.

1:37:29How did I not get the box? I don't, I'm pissed off. I apparently got a standard edition when I definitely would have liked a limited edition.

1:37:38Sean Fennessey:It also features a poster. But it does not feature any postcards, but this is - No postcards. No postcards. How are you supposed to have any friends? How are you supposed to make friends? Diane Lane postcards? sending me? I don't know, but long live Tony Thrills. And yeah, those are our top five, six, sevens, and some of these stories respect women and understand women. Yeah. Some don't. Some a little less. Some less so. Russ Meyer is in the respect category. I agree. Speaking of women,

1:38:10Sean Fennessey:there's a woman is present. A woman is... But she has not been present the entire time. Yeah, does that woman want to be named? Well, I thought it was going to be funnier if I just said the first question is from John. Oh, we blew the joke. But, you know, it's okay. The first question is from John. I'm here. I've sort of been listening. I've also been doing my expenses and preparing for other podcasts. I've learned a lot about you all, and I think you're very respectful towards the female form. Thank you. In physical media and in all other forms. Okay. I'm here to ask questions. The first question is from John.

1:38:45your soul is being transferred onto blu-ray and you will be put on your shelf with the rest of your collection you get to choose where on the shelf you will live for an eternity will you wedge yourself between two beloved films or a hideaway in a far corner what will be your eternal resting place well that's a totally normal question that's actually cronenbergian the idea of your final form

1:39:10Sean Fennessey:existing in one of these boxes.

1:39:14Sean Fennessey:I have such little love and respect for myself that there's no way I would wedge myself between two filmmakers who are like, there's no chance. I think even if I was on disc form, I'd still want to be buried somewhere is how I feel about this. I think ultimately, and this is maybe more for my family, but is also a little bit of like, we all want to be remembered. I would get one of those little stand-up things and it like on the shelf or above the fireplace it would just be placed on the little stand-up thing. Oh yeah. Like a Mickey Mantle rookie card? Like a little Mickey Mantle rookie card or whatever just like fuck like a war boy like witness me.

1:39:53You know what I mean? That's what I'd do. I think I would just be happy to be slid into a bunch of freakens you know. Oh. Just the book of CR just like the book of Frank Stein you know and just Between Bug and Killer Joe perhaps. Yeah sure man. Nice. I'll go buy the Russ Meyer collection. And then when my kids come to check that out later in life, I'll be right there. It's like, oh, there's dad. There's dad. But there's also... Yeah, we all go to the side of us. Vixen bosoms? Don't be mad when they pick that one. Like, I'll unbox dad in a minute.

1:40:31Sean Fennessey:Do you have a favorite Meyer vixen? You mean... From his troop. actress. Yeah. No. I don't have a favorite. I do. It's Erica Gavin. Next question, please. Understandable. This is totally normal so far. The next question is from Ian. How do you organize your Blu-rays? Personally, mine are in chronological order by release date because I'm a psychopath. On a side note, a woman I'm dating picked a movie from my collection for us to watch after a date last week. She went with total recall. She's a keeper. Ian, congrats on dating a woman. I'd love to know what her other choices were, though. We haven't discussed this.

1:41:18I just go alphabetical by title. I don't have, I'm not putting up the numbers yet to be like filmmaker or genre or anything like that, but I would love to get there one day. I'm alphabetical. At one point on the shelves, the criterions were by spine number, but when it started spilling into the next shelf, I was like, I just got to go alphabetical. I would love to, I just don't know that I have the executive function to be able to find anything if it were somehow by filmmaker. And then what if you only have a movie that's, you only have one movie by that filmmaker? Yeah, where does that go? You know, where does that go?

1:41:52Yeah. Then you're doing alphabetical and other things. Just go alphabetical. I like putting all the Radiance discs together. Like, I think there's an argument to be made for by label, but how do you do it? wrong i do it wrong and i i'm i'm about to undergo a massive reorganization i think uh because it's wrong it's mainly by label uh stuff that isn't in on interesting labels is alphabetical uh but the nanny recently watched a spy who came in from the cold and she didn't watch the 4k and i was enraged by this because it was so poorly organized she didn't know there was a 4K available. How dare she?

1:42:29Was she allowed to make a selection for herself? This was not programmed by you? I mean, like, she's picking movies for herself right now. So, yeah. The fact that she watched Spy Who Came In From the Cold and didn't see the 4K hurt me.

1:42:43Sean Fennessey:I like what she's cooking, though, by just choosing that film. That's a great choice. I also... She's a good nanny. Yeah. It's wild to me that this person is still in your employ.

1:42:54Sean Fennessey:I've spoke of this before. I organize by director, sort of by preference of director, but that was something that was started more than a decade ago. And I've changed living environments multiple times through that strategy, and I have to rethink it completely. And then there is the looming Amanda reorg. Which, oft threatened, but unfollowed through on, I think because that's like a nine-day project, and Amanda just doesn't have the time, so she knows deep down, she bit off more than she can chew. But I got to figure something else out too, because I also do know, I'm fully in double-stacking era, Like I am now, it's beyond the beyond.

1:43:29I am investigating with my AV man putting movies on a server. He's going to start putting movies on a server. I've given him a couple of stacks of stuff that is not watched much to put on a server. And he's going to show me sort of a prototype for how this would work. Like a Plex situation? Like. I don't know that it's that, but like that. Is this a private technology that's been developed for you? Not necessarily, though. I have a very good AV man. You know, he was Milos Forman's AV man. A lot of people don't know this, but Milos Forman was a collector, was a physical media collector. And had quite an extensive collection.

1:44:10How will you decide whether or not there's any degradation by moving it to digital? He insists there's not. I can tell obvious changes. I can't tell. I don't have that thing, right? I can tell when it looks like a reference quality. Does your AV man travel? He probably would. You want to bring my AV man out? I don't know if this works, though. I don't know if you guys building your own streaming libraries is really honoring the physical media. I would never give up the discs.

1:44:46Sean Fennessey:That's my thing. I would never give up the discs. It's not like I'm throwing the discs. But then you would pack them away, maybe. Yeah, some things that don't necessarily warrant display, yeah, would get packed into a storage area. Okay. Man. Okay. I'll let you know how it goes. Please do. I'm curious. You should have the AV man on the next episode. It's a good idea. I don't know if I can do what you're describing, but I do need a new system entirely. I need a new space. I asked him, by the way, if he wanted a shout-out on the show, and he said, you know, we only work by… Appointment only? Yeah, by…

1:45:17Recommendation? Recommendation.

1:45:19Sean Fennessey:No kidding. Wow. Wow. He's like a drug dealer. Okay. What's the next question? I promised that I wouldn't insert my own opinions into this. So we're just going to keep going. I never believed the promise. I did. Sean said that this had to be a safe space. So I love you all and I support you. Johan from Sweden. What is your most anticipated release that's been announced for 2026? I thought we could quickly talk about the near dark situation. Oh, yeah. And that was one of the Tangerine Dream lesser-known soundtracks run that we had. And how did you watch it? Did you just rent it? I honestly, I don't even know if it's available for rental.

1:45:58Oh, okay. I have a Blu-ray. It's not great. And is it US produced? It is US produced, but it's old.

1:46:05Sean Fennessey:Okay. There was an announcement maybe a year ago that this was in process. and then on April Fool's Day, I want to say it was, was it Severin who announced that they had been working on it? And then people could not figure out if it was a joke or not. What a weird thing to joke about. I know, but to our community, Near Dark is one of the precious few kind of lost to physical masterpieces, right? Like Catherine Bigelow's earliest films. We've talked about it multiple times on the show. And I still don't really have answers on like that news that came on April 1st, if it is real or not, or if we're being fucked with.

1:46:47Sean Fennessey:But there's like a fairly elaborate communication from the owner of a physical media company about the process that they're exploring. It seems fake to me, but then there were some who suggested, well, it seems like a bit, but it's actually not a bit. So I'm a little bit confused about it. But that's one that if it were happening, I've had that circled in red pen for 10 years. Any others? the general Buster Keaton coming out on 4k from Eureka just next month I'm very excited about that the outfit 4k coming from Arrow we'll talk about that on the Duval draft HUD from Criterion long right that's been a white whale for a long time HUD and Alice doesn't live here anymore also from Criterion those are some biggies those there you go In the same year, we were getting Boxcar Bertha and Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore, which I think are, are they the final two Scorsese films that were not available on Blu-ray or 4K?

1:47:48Sean Fennessey:I think they are. Makes sense. And he's for you, Tim. I don't have the executive function really to keep track of things that are coming up, but I am excited about the outfit, which you told me and then I forgot. And now I'm remembering and that's great. I don't mind sharing that my owning a DVD copy of the outfit was my earliest in with Quentin Tarantino. When I met Quentin, he was like, have you seen the outfit? And I sent him a photograph of my DVD copy. And I think that that was like, oh, okay, you're cool. Nice. And because that movie, which is directed by John Flynn, who also made Rolling Thunder, which is one of his favorites, which we've talked about many times, is just an absolute stunner of a crime thriller from the 70s.

1:48:31Sean Fennessey:What are you anticipating? Like Tim, I'm not like trawling for like release dates. I let the game come to me. Interesting. I like that attitude. I don't understand it, really. I mean, it's just, I can't also be on top of that. That's like, I feel like I'm kind of like almost early 27 knowing what's coming out on TV. So it's like - You can't keep on top of that because he's first chair on the watch because he's trying to be first chair on the rewatchables because he's maybe spread a little thin. It's true. It's true. That is an absolute dirty pool. And I don't respect it. I'm not going to dignify it.

1:49:10Sean Fennessey:Can I tell you the movies that I have on pre-order right now? Yeah. Yeah. Moneyball 4K. My beloved was supposed to be arriving in my house April 28th. That's today. It got pushed back by Amazon to May 12th. And I'm not happy about it. But arriving on May 12th as well, Fight Club 4K Steelbook. Oh, yes. That one. Extremely excited. You got to try to get off the Amazon pipe. It's hard. but we gotta try but with those releases there's not a lot of politics or because of like just they screw with the release dates and they're because of politics because it's terrible I generally agree with you Speed Racer 4K May 19th The Cars That Ate Paris and The Plumber 4K Peter Weir films and then along with that bundle I ordered from the Atomic Movie Store Benedetta 4K from Paul Verhoeven there you go brother Benedetta fucking rules yeah great fucking rules great movie yeah and the one battle steelbook which I still don't have I'm still waiting I don't either is that delayed or something it was delayed to June 2nd so I sit here quietly with my wait a minute do I have the steelbook or do I just have a regular presumably you have a regular edition looks good by the way question reader would you want to be identified by name whatever you think works are you the executive producer of this episode sure You want that credit on your CV forever?

1:50:34I do because once again, I think that you guys have been really respectful to women and to cinema. You know, you lift us up every day. There's women in Red Rooms.

1:50:45Sean Fennessey:This is the Bosomania episode executive produced by Amanda Dobbins. So, you know, as like any good girl boss, I'd like credit for that. The next question is from Gabriel. Who are some directors or actors whose history feels like they are being forgotten by current generations and could use an Arrow or Criterion, etc. box set to help regain a new generation of viewers? Well, I'll jump in here. I had this listed on my White Whales as well. Paul Mazursky is one of my favorite directors, and he's wildly underserved on physical media. Harry and Tonto, my God, just release it so all these fucking people bitching about Al Pacino not winning the Academy Award can see that Art Carney was cooking.

1:51:36Bloom in Love, Alex in Wonderland, The Tempest, Next Stop Greenwich Village. His whole 70s run, almost the entirety of his 70s run is not available even on Blue, much less 4K. Really? What the hell, man?

1:51:50Sean Fennessey:We've talked about this before. Next Top Grimms Village does have a Twilight Time, I think. But all of those other titles are not even available on Blu-ray at all. It's kind of a mess. And it's, you know, some of his films, like Moscow and the Hudson, there's a nice indicator, right? There's a couple of titles that have. But, you know, in that realm of, like, kind of second-tier, you know, auteur comic voices from that period of time, like, working in the mold of, like, a Woody Allen type. And, like, these movies are kind of forgotten. Or Hal Ashby, who's very well represented. and yet I think of Ashby and Mazursky in the same sentence.

1:52:24Sean Fennessey:It's like it speaks I think to the way that like some people just get canonized and others don't and there's the other example that I think of all the time and we mentioned this Amanda when we talked about Meryl Streep is Mike Nichols who is considered a much more sort of like hallowed and legendary filmmaker but when you go back and look at all of the movies that he made especially his movies in the 70s and 80s like there a lot of them are not available on anything beyond DVD or if they're available on Blu-ray like there are very limited runs of Blu-rays so like Silkwood and Heartburn and, you know, Bluxy Blues, I think, just came from Shout Select in the last couple of years, but that was not available for a long time.

1:52:57Catch-22 just came out on a Shout Select as well, which is an underrated movie as far as I'm concerned.

1:53:04Sean Fennessey:And I think last time we were all together, we talked about Carnal Knowledge and that coming from two different places. And like, it's, you know, in 2025, they're kind of finally getting around to a bunch of these movies. So he's one I think of all the time. And it's kind of inexplicable. Like, these were big studio movies and then they just never got that attention. I think, is Postcards from the Edge, is that also not available on Blu-ray? I don't think so. I mean, that's crazy. Are you serious? Yeah. So there's a, I don't know if there's anybody else that you guys are thinking of that you think.

1:53:31Sean Fennessey:No, not really. I mean, like, you know, when I first got into this, I was like, oh, there's no way, like, these 10 VHS classics from my childhood will ever have, like, deluxe, really, and they all have, you know, like, there's, like, a deluxe edition of Rad, you know? Yeah. So I feel like it would be hard for me to think of. There are directors that I would like to see centered as the sort of principle of the release rather than maybe the title. Like, I would love to, like, get, like, a bunch of McTiernan movies that are, like, about him and about, like, what he did. But I don't know. I mean, like, there's plenty of good releases of his movies.

1:54:06It's just really more about the context in which they're presented.

1:54:08Sean Fennessey:But Die Hard's still not on 4K. Oh, my God. Like, there's still plenty of things like that that are just kind of no-brainers, that are obvious. Like, you know, for example, Disney is waiting to put Star Wars on 4K in a set next year to match the 50th anniversary, right? Like, they're going to do that. I'll be shocked if they don't do it. And they'll probably put all the versions on it. Is there any danger of that not happening, though? Is it them getting rid of the whole entertainment? It's definitely possible. But, like, I was thinking about, for the 76 draft, this movie, Not a Pretty Picture, this Martha Coolidge kind of documentary slash scripted exploration of sexual assault, which is a really fascinating, interesting movie that was effectively, like, retrieved and saved and reconstituted by the Criterion Collection.

1:54:49Sean Fennessey:Then I was looking at her career, and it's like a lot of her movies have been issued in recent years, like Cinematographed Joy of Sex, Valley Girl is available, Real Genius has a 4K. Does the filmmaker, do you think, well, Martha Coolidge, we need to do more work to protect her, but Rambling Rose, all these movies have nice editions of them, and then Mike Nichols doesn't have Blu-rays for a bunch of his movies. So it's just a very capricious kind of business, and you don't totally always understand why this happens. Anyway, what's next? This one comes from Andrew. This is a big one. I hope you guys are ready.

1:55:24I hope you got your Tom Cruise emails ready. My TV just broke. It's time to upgrade. I want to hear from each of you. What is your full AV setup? TV projector, audio, and 4K player? Seating? Lighting? Popcorn maker? Give me the full details. Popcorn maker? I don't have a popcorn maker.

1:55:45Sean Fennessey:do you have a microwave I do yeah I barely use it but I do have a microwave I have a pretty standard setup I can't remember how big my Samsung TV is but it's it's fairly large and I bought the Sony that Sean had recommended before that was sort of like the starter kit for multi-region DVD viewing there's really nothing remarkable about my setup though i think i have a sony oled i think i went into the 80s for that like 80 like it's big it feels nice um have a soundbar uh sonos soundbar i think and then yeah like a region free 4k player the only thing i think in this question that i i think playstations and xboxes can play 4ks but i feel like Xbox specifically which we do have has like kind of can't play the larger storage versions of 4Ks which is sort of which is why I went to the region free 4K Sony player the one that you recommended just because like I think it's like if it's a hundred gigabyte disc Xbox can't play it and I was having trouble with that because then I wouldn't be like well fuck I gotta watch this Blu-ray that's lame um the whole thing is lame but if you want to you know if you want to just parse it out uh playing the Blu-ray when you have the 4k is lame um uh so yeah that's sort of the setup that I have I asked my AV man what I have.

1:57:27Sean Fennessey:I'll just say before you pull it up, very quickly, if you want to upgrade from that Sony that I recommend, which is the one that I usually recommend to listeners of the show because it's like 200 bucks and it does most of what you need. Occasionally you'll meet a 4K where you can't handle the bitrate and it's too strong. But if you want to upgrade, I think the Panasonic DPUB820, which is a region-free Blu-ray player, is very powerful and can do most of what you need. Okay, what do you got? We have a flagship 7.1.4 immersive environment, meticulously architected with a full monitor audio array.

1:58:07This high-fidelity 11-channel layout is driven by the reference-grade silicon of the Marantz, delivering a seamless Dolby Atmos soundstage that marries British acoustic precision with legendary musical warmth. The auditory experience is matched by a monumental 150-inch canvas. illuminated by a Sony premium 4K laser projector under the unified orchestration of a Crestron control system. These elements serve as the exhibition stage for broadcast TV, high bitrate streaming, and a bespoke master tier digital library, the Cinema Athenaeum. I'm sorry, did he write you this text message? He did. Holy shit.

1:59:08He also ghost wrote bug. Is that the setup that you watch? You're going to watch Kyler Murray on? British Acoustics?

1:59:18Sean Fennessey:Quit checking on that. How are you feeling? I feel good, baby. Skull. Skull, baby. Wow, you're feeling good. Skull. The draft is, we're going to see. We took a couple of big swings. We're going to see. Okay. I would have worn my Cubs hat. I am aware it's baseball season, but my wife looks too good in it. She stole it. She stole my Cubs hat. That's adorable. Well, that was information. Can you fucking stand on that? Can you beat that? No, but I'm but a pauper relative to Mr. Letts. It's weird how our setups are commensurate with our station in the high council. I'm like, I'm a TV! The next box!

2:00:00I haven't seen sunlight in years! This fucking guy's got like... I will tell you this rule of thumb. about your setup. Well, first of all, let me say this. Get an AV man. Get an AV man. What is it?

2:00:13Sean Fennessey:You know, get a chauffeur. No, it's not a chauffeur. It's worth, you know, maybe if you're a bit of a tech head and you know how to hook everything up and do all that stuff, I can't hook up shit. I can't do shit. Critical question. You, democracy falls. You got to get out of this country immediately. Maybe something for us all to consider. you can only bring one person with you your av man or your nanny who's coming with you the nanny okay uh i have a critical question about this what's the remote control setup like is this something that you need to have like high level understanding of different channels and all this other stuff like or can you just hit play and it goes my kids can uh operate okay remote control well yeah my kids both my kids can operate the remote control Is it like an iPad that you have like kind of like it's a...

2:01:04No, it's just a big ass remote control, but they can get around on it. That's often the... We have some disagreements in my home about how complicated the remote controls have gotten. So the first thing is get an AV man. And the second thing is whatever you spend on your visual, you should match in the audio. If your TV and your player cost$600, you should be spending$600 on your sound system.

2:01:30Sean Fennessey:I love a philosophy. That's nice. Okay, what's our next question? This comes from JD. And let's be clear that I'm channeling the voice of JD here. Greetings, gentlemen. I am humbled to be addressing Tim Hitmaker Simons, Tracy Playmaker Letts, and Chris Haymaker Ryan in the esteemed Council of Physical Media. Thank you, Grand Knight Phenasy, with noble Squire Sanders at your side, for assembling this roundtable to tout the tangible rebuff buffering and elevate classics new and old to their 4K glory. Holy shit. And of course, Lady Dobbins, who probably wants no part of this allegory correct, but we all owe you a Negroni.

2:02:23My question deviates from substance and instead focuses purely on the aesthetic. Do you remember a film you purchased purely for the box art, heft, or style? No.

2:02:39Sean Fennessey:You know, I don't really have a lot of examples of this. It does raise a question about buying things in person versus ordering online. Over the weekend, I went to the video store in part so that my daughter could pick some movies out. and also to see if there was anything I wanted to buy to bring here today. And it just so turned out that at this video store, which I love, Videotech in Highland Park, I just didn't, there wasn't anything that really appealed to me. But I will occasionally, if I see something, I'll just grab it and say like, what the heck, I'm going to try it out. But nothing sprung to mind because I don't do a ton of in-person shopping at this point in my life.

2:03:16Far more likely to do this for books than a movie. Oh. Yeah. Just from cover art? Yeah. Like I love going through used bookstores and it's like if there is a tableau that I am interested in on the cover art, I'll be like, this is really good. Sometimes even just the title of the book, I'm like, that sounds really compelling. I'll just grab it if it's like a five dollar paperback or whatever. I kind of agree that like most of these are based on emotion or recommendations so there isn't you know like I have a connection to the movie or I love it or it was seminal from when I was growing up or you guys have recommended it that kind of thing but I don't know that I've ever gotten something just because it sort of like looked nice you know what I mean I've definitely gone with like blind buys but again that's just sort of by recommendation yeah or it's the label and you know what I mean?

2:04:04Like, I'm happy to do that. The Radiant subscription is one of the best purchases I've made in years. But I don't know that I would necessarily just like walk into a video store and like just grab something like that because I like that. I'll double up. I will occasionally double dip and buy a movie that I've already got because there are some bells and whistles that I'm interested in. I'm buying the John Woo movies on Arrow in addition to The Shout.

2:04:33Sean Fennessey:So I almost brought the stack of Shout John Woo's just to kind of put a circle around all of these films are available now. Or like, you know, Choi Hark's The Blade just came from Criterion. Like that wave of Hong Kong cinema, like all of it is now coming to physical, which is so crazy because it was among the most desired stuff forever. But why, you just want to have, you want to see the different transfers or you want to see the different features? I think they're essentially going to be the same transfers, but the special features are going to be wildly different. Some of the bells and whistles are a little different, but I don't buy it because of the box, right?

2:05:08I don't buy it because of the heft of the box or anything. I bought both carnal knowledges, right? I thought that was worth, and those transfers are very different. They both look great, but they're both, the color correction on them is very different from each other. Interesting. I've been like intrigued by the idea of like the the Halloween that was going to come the Halloween box that was going to come in a pumpkin or the unboxing boy chainsaw massacre. But it really then I get like, do I love those movies enough to have it take up that amount of space? So I end up sort of pulling back from that.

2:05:43Yeah, I don't really want toys.

2:05:44Sean Fennessey:I don't really want. Yeah, I'm much more if there's an elaborate box. I'm open minded about that. That might be something you're interested in. I could dabble. Quite an elaborately phrased question as well. Thank you for that. What's next? From Will. Oh, hallowed council members. Can you explain the differences between standard Blu-rays and 4K Blu-rays? Also, more importantly, how confident are you that there won't be a new updated medium in 20 years that will render 4Ks obsolete like DVDs and VHS have become? i think i'm only qualified to handle the second one and even then a little bit hesitant my understanding is that if you go up to 8k the human eye can't actually tell the difference that's my understanding as well you know talk to us in five years when we're around the hey guys new 8k release of i spit on your grave and i picked it up and you know what i mean kind of It's Coronet's 8K.

2:06:46Tracy got it on free order. It's possible that that happens.

2:06:50Sean Fennessey:I don't get the impression that there's going to be a pivot anytime soon technologically, just based on how a lot of these companies are operating. The difference between Blu-ray and 4K is fairly legible by just saying there's more information in the technology so that you're just getting more pixels effectively. So you're getting brighter color, deeper blacks. you're getting sometimes a different aspect ratio depending on how the transfer operates. It's like a bigger piece of machinery that you're consuming with the film. Sound is improved often. It's just better, clearer. Not always. I think there are some films there's like a human eye component relative to how the films are remastered.

2:07:36Sean Fennessey:We talked about the James Cameron movies and how they don't really look the way that the James Cameron movies looked on screen to us. I've been having this issue recently with toying with the settings on my television in terms of matching them to what I think that, you know, there's the standard kind of like what is recommended for watching a 4K on my kind of television. But you can get in there and start to adjust it from like warm one to warm two. And some things come out like a bit brown, I think I find. So it's like I'll mess with it because I'm like, I don't think Excalibur is supposed to look like this.

2:08:06and you can... But that sort of gets into then you're playing Dr. Frankenstein with your movie and it's hard sometimes to exactly identify that perfect thing. My thing with the... If they do come up with an 8K and they're like, no, you can buy these movies again. I would probably say to Tracy's point earlier that the more money you spend on your setup, you'll probably get more out of your movies that you already have than worrying about some new technology coming along. Yeah. And I would imagine... at a point, Tracy's AV guy is probably right that there is going to be more and more work done on having a private server and having all this stuff backed up so that you have a digital copy of it as well.

2:08:49I think that's right. You know what will help with your remote control investigation? Sure. AV, man. Okay.

2:08:59Sean Fennessey:What's next? I do think that, yeah, sure, something will come along that will replace it. Just like something came along that replaced DVD. but not everything gets replaced, right? I've got the outfit on DVD. And I've got California Split on DVD. I'm glad I've had those to go to until something better comes along. So maybe my 4Ks will be the thing I have until something better comes along. I'm glad that the technology has advanced as far as it has. But sure, something better always, you know, we don't know what the world is going to look like in 20 years. It's probably just going to look like all of us, you know, grubbing for food.

2:09:40I hope so. It's going to look like the beginning of Fury Road with Elon Musk with a bunch of fake metals turning on the water and telling us not to become addicted. Because we will mourn its absence.

2:09:52Sean Fennessey:At least I'll have these, you know? Yeah. They hopefully won't degrade by then. What's our next question? They won't because they're made of plastic. The next question is from Georgia. It is I, Georgia, one of the dozen of women who collects physical media. Yes! I, Georgia, am new in my journey and looking to grow my collection this year. What is one director you recommend buying their whole body of work or as close to the whole body as possible? Russ Meyer.

2:10:28That's a tricky question, right? Because I... What kind of movies does Georgia like? Well, that's just it. It's like you don't want to, I don't want to sit here and say, well, George is going to like movies directed by women. It doesn't necessarily follow. The Nanny, for instance, her favorite movies are action movies. And she's the one who's made us watch all those goddamn Mission Impossible movies. We've watched them because of The Nanny.

2:10:51Sean Fennessey:Let's try this again. Say the same thing. Remove the word goddamn from the sentence and then we're okay. And maybe add thankful. So different people have different tastes. My wife tends to not like the action movie. She can't. If you ask her one thing about the Mission Impossible movie, she couldn't tell you one thing that's happened in those films. She likes a more personal story. So it's hard to know where to start. I will just say that the filmmakers who I've had the most fun collecting their titles, I think I have all of them up to a point, is the Coen brothers. And I'm just going to take a wild guess and say if George is listening to this show, she probably likes them.

2:11:35But these are, I think, relatively economical purchases. You can get the full breadth of two of the great filmmakers of this era. and uh i find that like having those as have having those as physical objects is really satisfying and you can follow their and there's a bunch of different kinds of of of additions of them and you can you can mess around with that but i i love i think that's a good place to start yeah no i don't really have like what director do you like and then go get all their movies and like watch them in chronological order and like see them develop and see yeah like man why did they make this weird choice and it was like oh because they were a cokehead and they ran out of money and they needed to take a job you know what i mean like see it in order would probably be

2:12:24Sean Fennessey:interesting i think there's a there are some simple signposts to direct people to for example i'm fairly certain that the criterion collection has issued every single charlie chaplin feature film so if you wanted to have the totality of charlie chaplin's feature filmmaking career you could just get all 10 of those discs and just say well here is a pretty dramatically important phase of filmmaking yeah and that if you watch these movies and this is like the totality of their filmography which spans like 40 years you can get a lot out of that like if you were just like starting a project and you wanted to say, well, let's say there are a hundred important filmmakers.

2:13:09Sean Fennessey:That's one of the first 10 that would probably get named in your standard one-on-one film class. But most directors, I would venture to guess no other directors shy of like Bergman have a complete collection from one distributor. Most of them are kind of dotted across. And so it's like harder to find. Even the Coen's like, there is no Blu-ray of the lady killers. I don't think there's a 4K of Raising Arizona, like that kind of thing. So, you know, you have to think hard about which are the ones that you can get in totality. But you know what, Georgia? Right back. Let us know who you like. What are your five favorite movies?

2:13:42Sean Fennessey:And then maybe we can help direct you in the future. Enjoy all those Charlie Chaplin movies. And thank you for your womanhood and your insightfulness. Oh my God. You just thanked her for her womanhood. We're not beating any of Amanda's allegations. The next one is long, but it's incredibly worthy. So buckle up. It comes from Luke. Hello, High Council. My name is Luke, and I'm a librarian down in Florida who runs our movie section. I want to sing the praises of the High Council. Most of our patrons don't have internet or can't afford to go to the movies, so physical media is their only way to watch these films and shows.

2:14:21It's the only way most people get to experience film. So I'm thankful for y 'all's passion and obsession. Y 'all, points for y 'all. Thank you. Well, you know, I come by that one personally. To honor the High Council, I would love to put together a High Council picks collection. These are usually five to six movies picked by the staff that we think go together or carry similar themes, genres. I would love to have a reason to explain to my boss who Tracy Letts, CR, the hit maker, and Sean are.

2:14:50Sean Fennessey:So we'll start with Thriller, obviously. Yeah, obviously throw a Thriller at crew. Put that in the kids section. For the family. This is a big... Big ask. Yeah. I maybe don't understand the ask. What is the ask? They want to have like a basically like, what are... Recommended by the High Council. Recommended by us. Like a little shelf recommended by the High Council. Yeah. What's a thematic quintet of films that we would select to represent our tastes and interests and speak highly of physical media? Australian new wave horror films. That's the thing is, like I think that the craft of physical media is really peering down like exploitation, horror, you know, these extreme subgenres.

2:15:35Sean Fennessey:So you're not thinking as much of like, Forrest Gump is now available on 4K, you know, but a lot of that stuff is also available. So what represents this project? Should we keep it generic and pick one Criterion movie each? Well, I was going to say like, one samurai movie, one Italian crime movie, one, you know, we can say like, what are the kind of pet interests of each council member. Okay. I'll pick an Italian crime film. I'll just do one that I have in my bag that I... Well, I'll grab it, actually. Look at you. Holding out on us. Illustrious Corpses. Nice. From Radiance, Luna Ventura, and it's about a bunch of Supreme Court justices in Italy getting murdered.

2:16:18And this guy's got to get to the bottom of it, but it's really like a meditation on corruption in institutions. And it's from Radiance, and it's fantastic. And I think, actually, would still play. You know, like if you're just like, hey, I'm coming in, I'm just picking up a little slow, maybe.

2:16:32Sean Fennessey:Fabulously bleak ending on that movie. I wouldn't know. I don't know that I would like put this in my like top five movies of all time, but I think it might be a good thing. Like if you're at the library, you're interested in movies. I'm just going to go off the Coen Brothers thing and be like, throw Miller's Crossing. Hell yeah. Because it might not be the Coen Brothers movie that you've seen, but I've like weirdly like watched it four times in the last couple of years. And I find it so comforting. And I think it's like, I don't know. I think it's great. And I think if you're just like in the library and you're looking for a good time from a filmmaker that maybe you haven't seen their entire filmography, like you're probably not, you probably haven't seen that one.

2:17:11I think that'd be fun. It'd be fun to sit down and watch that for the first time. It's Throwing Miller's Cross. Yeah, I don't think it's their best movie, but that's my favorite movie by them. Yeah. You go, Sean.

2:17:21Sean Fennessey:My go-to is always The Third Man, which now has like multiple editions that you can find of the movie. I think it's one of the richest and most interesting men. It's a huge influence on Miller's Crossing. I'm fascinated by post-war collisions of noir and crime movies. And it's the kind of movie that I think is best appreciated with like a really high quality edition of the movie because it's a black and white film that has like this amazing cinematography, this black and white photography and it kind of it has like um an interest in uh like perverting perspective you know like every time you see a character the way that they're shot indicates how the film feels about that character and it's like one of the great powers of cinema is that like it's not like watching a stage play or even a television show which is usually standard like on a tripod you know the camera's not moving a lot um and it's also just from a kind of writing performance and character perspective feels like the pinnacle of 20th century movies to me.

2:18:29Sean Fennessey:So maybe the Studio Canal most recent 4K of The Third Man. The Third Man, Illustrious Corpses, Miller's Crossing. I'm going to go with Don't Look Now. Yeah. I'm going to put Nicholas Ruggs' Don't Look Now in there. A couple of beautiful 4K editions of that both from Criterion and Studio Canal is the other gorgeous edition of that. So yeah, Yeah, 4K, don't look now. Hopefully the fine folks of that Florida library enjoy those movies. All right. This one is from self-styled Gen Z Dominic. Hi. I'm sitting up straight to read this one. I don't understand what that means. It means I didn't identify him as Gen Z Dominic.

2:19:14Oh, I see. He identified himself as Gen Z Dominic. I thought you were saying his name was so styled.

2:19:25Illustrious counsel. My name is Dominic. There's no way that all of these started like this. Listen, Tim, you can't interrupt me on this one right now. I'm so sorry. It's okay. It's just I need everybody to hang on for the ride, okay? Illustrious counsel. My name is Dominic, and I'm a 20-year-old student at The Ohio State University. After hearing the last convening of the council, you all awoke a nostalgia within me for the discs and Blu-rays I had growing up, Editor's Note, five years ago because I am 20. Eight months later, I have now basically given up going to the bars to fund my 4Ks and vinyl collection that I have started because you all made me realize the joy and human connectivity we feel towards physical media.

2:20:09I did want to tell you all that any person my age who has seen my collection has taken an actual interest and have expressed interest in starting a collection of their own. But I will say sadly, whenever I bring back birds from the bar, not once has one asked me about the 4Ks. However, it is quite automatic after I throw on a tame Impala or the new Bruno Mars vinyl. P.S. Yesterday, I was able to show a girl I've been seeing Fight Club in theaters for the anniversary screening, and she loved it. She had no idea about Tyler Durden, and I was able to see her reaction. My friend then told me tonight that it was crazy to have taken a date to see Fight Club.

2:20:45Is he right?

2:20:48Sean Fennessey:What a roller coaster. Yeah, I didn't know where that was going. I don't. So if the question is, was it crazy? I don't think it's crazy just in that way of like, I think you should be radically yourself on a first date. Sure. And if they don't, if they're not into you, then they're not into you. If you can't love me at my Fight Club? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. I, well, what do you think about that? I showed a woman I was going out with, a clockwork orange. And right before Alex's rehabilitation starts, she burst into tears and asked me to take the movie off. And I was like, but you don't understand. He's about to, there's about to be a, he's going to get, it's like, if you stop now, all you have is horror.

2:21:35And I have plenty of those to show you. There's another, yeah, it was not a great selection as it turns out. Her dad was in the hospital. Maybe he just wasn't a great selection. Can I be candid with Dominic? Yeah, yeah. I would just say don't necessarily, at your young ripe age where you're still experiencing life, don't shut yourself off from real life experiences because that's what's going to inform your movie taste in the first place.

2:22:04Sean Fennessey:Well, it's a bit of a contradiction in this email, which strikes me as that stream of consciousness where he says that he's basically given up going to the bars to fund his 4Ks and vinyl collection. But then one or two sentences later is talking about bringing back birds from the bars. Do you think he's like not drinking at the bar, but is still going to nab women to take to Fight Club? That's an interesting use of the word nab. Maybe we've been in this room for too long. I, um, this is like going places. I want to say this. Getting physical media does not mean that you're shutting out the rest of the world.

2:22:42Sean Fennessey:I don't, I didn't say that. I know, I know. I'm speaking for, I'm speaking to Dominic as well. Um, I think go to repertory theaters and experience films with people as well. That's important. Um, don't spend all of your money on 4Ks and Blu-rays, despite evidence to the contrary. That's not what I do. I think that it's good to share these things. It's good to experience them with people. Like that's kind of one of the magic of movies, right? That you can have this communal event. It doesn't, it isn't just, but the collection is more of like organizing your feelings around some of these things.

2:23:15Sean Fennessey:That's one of the things it helps with. So I hope Dominic understands that. I would, I would, I want to echo that Dominic and say like one of the reasons I got into this was because I had gone to see like a rep screening of Out of the Blue. in Atlanta. And the community around that kind of movie, I felt great about. Amanda, what is the name of that theater? The Claremont? No, the other one. Like one screen revival. In Atlanta? In Atlanta. Not the, I don't know, besides the Claremont. Okay, whichever one it is, and it very well might be Claremont. Is it the Plaza? The Plaza. Thanks a lot. What a date for that.

2:24:01I've lived there in 25 years.

2:24:03Sean Fennessey:It is Atlanta's oldest, continuously operating cinema and a hub for indie films, cult classics, and film festivals. Yeah, I would say, take the money you would have spent on the bar or maybe spent on a Blu-ray that you think would look good on the shelf but isn't one of your favorite ones and go to a rep theater and find a community there. You know what I mean? Still get out there in the world. We are old as fuck. You still have a life ahead of you. We are on the downswing. Yeah, we closed the bars. Yeah. And now we buy DVDs. Yeah. Tracy's just going to tell him to get an AV guy. That's my best advice.

2:24:36Get an AV guy. And I don't know about all this going out into the world. I can't get behind that. Stay in. Stay in and program.

2:24:47Sean Fennessey:Let's read our next question. Before we may, I have two clarifications. Number one, Tim, I'm sorry. The Claremont is a strip club that is right next to the Plaza. That's right. I was confused. Yeah, I apologize for that. And, you know, hello to everyone in Atlanta still in Fulton County. Especially at the Claremont. I want to say two things about the Claremont. Yeah. A wonderful honky tonk bar that also happens to be a strip club. The two times that I have been there, one was with who played the king, the king in the king speech. Colin Firth? I went to the Claremont at one point with Colin Firth.

2:25:25And I know that's a little bit of a name drop, but I just want to say with a large group of other people. But I just want to say that Colin Firth went to the Claremont and I was there for that. And the other time that I went there. I can see the expression on his face. It's already imprinted right here. The other time that I went there, I parked and a gentleman came up and said, hey, for five dollars, I'll make sure that nobody steals your windshield wipers. And it was very clear. He was telling me, if you don't give me$5, I'm going to steal your windshield wipers. And I was like, yeah, that actually sounds like a pretty good deal.

2:26:03And I gave him$5. And when I came back, the windshield wipers were there. Well, that's wonderful. Yeah.

2:26:08Sean Fennessey:I do love the idea of Colin Firth in an English manner. He's popped downstairs having his breakfast and tea. and he's checking out what's going on with his friends on the big picture. What are they discussing today? And he's listening and he's like, oh, Timothy Simons. I know this fellow. I'll listen to this episode all the way through this three-hour digression. I once went to a bistro with him in a great Atlantic area. We once had a meal. Yeah. And lo and behold, he reveals that we guys watched women dance together. There was a very large group of people. It's very, it's kind of like Jumbo's Clown Room in LA.

2:26:41It's not, it's not a sort of salacious place. It's more of like A celebration of dance. A celebration of dance. A review, a co-ed hang, and like a good indie bar honky tonk. The kind of place Russ Meyer might have enjoyed. Yes. Okay, I think we have time for two more. So this comes from Nathan and Emily. Dear esteemed members of the High Council. Again. We are getting married at the end of June and have been struggling to think of interesting items to put on our wedding registry. One thing that is a big part of our lives is a massive physical media collection that takes up a full wall of our house.

2:27:19So we ask you, is it appropriate to put Blu-rays or 4Ks on a wedding registry? And if so, what movies or box sets would you recommend we ask for?

2:27:33Criterion, Fellini box, Kurosawa box, Bergman box. right I mean that's a that's a lot of the history of film right there those chaplains that he talked about again it depends on the kind of collection you're trying to

2:27:49Sean Fennessey:so you're saying this is appropriate for them to put blu-rays and 4Ks on the registry more than you know some cheap ass toaster marriage in people's gift bags I just love that Nathan and Emily are doing this together right they've sent this email in together which means that they're committed not just to a life together but to collecting and supporting film history together Yeah. I mean, a hundred percent. It's a good thing to throw on there. You know, I mean, do the napkins and all that. Like, you know, if you need some dishware, that's important. You're starting a new life together. You need new dishware.

2:28:19I think that's like, that's your life. That's your life together. It'd be cool if you could put an AV guy in your registry.

2:28:26Sean Fennessey:Is that a service he's willing to provide? I would throw in like that Wes Anderson box too. And I think you're maybe right to keep it to boxes rather than individual titles just because you're probably less likely to spend the money on a box.

2:28:44And it would be fun. And you'll always remember that it was for your wedding.

2:28:48Sean Fennessey:Maybe that Capra Columbia box set. That would be a good one, right? That's a pricey one. Wong Kar Wai set from Criterion. Great one. That Godzilla one for their future case. Oh, yeah. Godzilla one. That's terrific. Herzog collections from Shout. One of my first big boxes was that set. That's how I got up to speed on all of Herzog's first 20 movies. the Zhang Yimou set from Umbrella. I don't have that. Is it Umbrella? No, it's Imprint. Okay. The Imprint from Zhang Yimou set. You could get into the Australian and English companies where they're going to be more expensive to import to. You could think about that.

2:29:35And I just want to throw this out, and I don't know your plans on having children. When you get to a baby registry, you'll absolutely need burp cloths, get more of those than you need. You're going to need onesies. But you know what? Throw kids movies on that registry as well. Great idea. Or Larry Clark's Kids. Larry Clark's Kids.

2:29:53Sean Fennessey:Yeah, there you go. Which is available from imprint, actually, but not in the United States of America. My boy right now is really into Time Bandits. Oh, man, that scared the shit out of me when I was a kid. He and his little sister dressing up as Time Bandits. Really? Yeah. He's got great taste. Yeah, he does. Okay. Will this be the last? Yes, this is the last one. Okay. It comes from Trevor. A hot topic in the physical media world is the Grail 4K, the one movie above all you'd like to see get a 4K remaster. I'd love to know yours. I don't have one that's like a collector's Grail. It's one that I just missed the window on, which is A Canterbury Tale, the Powell and Pressburger movie.

2:30:38uh i watched that for the first time randomly on tcm uh a couple months ago fell deeply deeply deeply in love with it great movie um i know it came out on criterion i've seen it used on ebay i think i've seen a couple of times like for 80 bucks like unopened on ebay but i would love like a beautiful beautiful like edition of that and that's like one i'm really waiting for the ones that come up for me are i think at one point like the devils might have been in that question like the devil seems to be like and i but that's going to be a lot of people's answer um i think the danny boyle movie sunshine which really has like a very what are we doing i have the blu-ray of it that i found in a thrift store but i think it's like finicky and skips a lot i think that was there was like a problem in the production um uh i think one up i mentioned it earlier sort of offhand uh but you can only find blu-rays of street walking that are used and that are like in the hundreds of dollars and so it'd be cool to see that upgraded and then just one of my favorites that i kind of can't believe doesn't have a blu-ray or 4k is the candidate which i think is a phenomenal movie and one of my and has become one of my favorites and and it just bums me out that like that performance in that movie isn't more accessible in that format.

2:32:06Uh, a few, the conformist, I don't understand why there's not a 4k of the conformist, which is not only one of my favorite movies ever made, but you know, there's a, there's a book or documentary. I think it's called, uh, visions of light is who write intermarital cinematographers. And the, the one movie that is consistently referenced by all of them is the conformist. it's like when they were getting together to make the great movies that they made, they sat down with the director and watched The Conformist. That's the first thing they watched. So it absolutely needs reference level disc. California Split, we've talked about, really needs an upgrade.

2:32:46It's maybe my second favorite Altman after Nashville. The Heartbreak Kid, I think, is a great white whale for a lot of people. I've got a bad old DVD of it, but such a great movie. Lonely Are the Brave, a great movie that's not talked about very much anymore. David Miller movie with Kirk Douglas and Walter Matthau. There's a Twilight Time. Oh, and Jenna Rollins also. There's a Twilight Time disc of that, but that could certainly use an upgrade. I just did Year of Living Dangerously on blank check. There's a terrible, terrible DVD, but there is no Blu-ray representation or 4K. And then a sentimental pick, because it's the first movie I ever watched with my wife, Sherman's March, which is a great, hilarious, wonderful documentary.

2:33:34Sean Fennessey:I'll tell you something. Last Saturday, Ross McElwee, the director of that movie, was at the American Cinematheque presenting that film. And they asked me to moderate the Q &A, and I couldn't do it. And I was devastated because I love that film so much, saw it in college. And speaking of documentaries that cooked my noodle. it really for those writing about your nascent relationships with your partners I have to say Sherman's March got Carrie and I off on the right foot that was a great movie to start our relationship if she clicked with it that's a good sign she definitely did I made a list about a year ago of 21st century movies that are not available in this these formats part of it is there are a great many Netflix and Amazon movies that have never been issued and hopefully we're changing that over time but I'll just go through like a handful of them Some of them, for example, David Byrne's American Utopia, which was only available on HBO Max for a while.

2:34:26Sean Fennessey:The Criterion Collection put it out, directed by Spike Lee. It's a fascinating capture of the stage show that Byrne put up. But like, let's look at a couple of them here. The Handmaiden is still not on 4K. Sexy Beast is still not available on 4K. Waking Life, I don't believe, is available on Blu-ray. Maybe an international Blu-ray, Richard Linklater's film. Tick Tick Boom the Netflix film that Lin-Manuel Miranda directed is not available In the Bedroom is not available on anything beyond DVD Wow as far as I know I don't think so Is that true? I think there's maybe an imprint Is there an Australian?

2:35:02Okay

2:35:03Sean Fennessey:Yeah there's an Australian in the bedroom By the same token Little Children Todd Field's other film I think is also only available on DVD American Splendor as far as I know is not available on Blu-ray Yeah We could go on and on I mean The Tragedy of Macbeth is a Joel Coen movie that is just not available on physical period. Because it's just on Apple, right? Yeah. I think Jim Jarmusch's Coffee and Cigarettes is not available on physical or maybe just on DVD. How to Blow Up a Pipeline, a recent film that was never issued in physical. One of the big ones on this, my list for years and years was Birth.

2:35:37Sean Fennessey:And finally, Criterion put that out, which is wonderful. Still haven't seen it. Never seen it. I mean, I just got the disc, but I've never seen it. Is there something up with the Glazer movies that takes the... It takes a while to come. I don't know. I know Under the Skin is on Blu-ray. Zone of Interest has a 4K from A24. Under the Skin doesn't have a 4K? Doesn't, as far as I know, it does not. Just watched Birth last week. Fantastic. Yeah. It's an amazing movie. Speed Racer was on this list. That's been since corrected. To your point about 000, there's a movie that Chris and I really loved from a few years back called The Vast of Night that Amazon distributed that just, it may as well be gone.

2:36:14Sean Fennessey:I think it's still available on the service. I believe so, yeah. I checked recently enough. So, you know... I would throw the killer on there. Dude, I mean, that's the thing is the Finchers and the Soderberghs of the last 10 years are all... I don't know. I mean, like, No Sudden Move might have gotten a release when it was from Max. I don't think it did. I think many of those Max and Netflix Soderbergh movies are not available. I'm thinking of anything that's not available. The one that, you know, Zach Greger's Barbarian, not available in any physical format, period. That's wild, yeah. You know what's a really weird one?

2:36:46Sean Fennessey:is I Heart Huckabees, which is only on DVD as far as I know, which was a pretty big film in its time. A lot of big stars, big director. We can get the Lily Tomlin put it on the bonus features. On the extras. But like, wouldn't you want to see an interview with her today about her experience on that film? That would be fascinating. Another weird one is M. Night Shyamalan's The Village. Only on DVD as far as I know. His first few films have now since been issued on 4K. I could do this for like hours, but there's Shattered Glass is one that I think is still only on DVD as far as I know. A lot of favorites of mine over the last 25 years.

2:37:22Sean Fennessey:In fact, one of Amanda's favorites, Something's Gotta Give, was only available on DVD for the longest time. And they announced this a month ago that it's coming to 4K. Amanda, is that exciting for you? I look forward to one of you giving it to me for my birthday. And listen, I'll treasure it. This morning, I'm not joking, my son went upstairs and found the only 4K I own. which is the 4K of Bring It On, which Sean got me last year. A treasured artifact explaining what a 4K is to a four-year-old was interesting. But we're going to try to make the player work. Or is it 4K or is it Blu-ray, Sean? It's a 4K.

2:38:04Okay. Tracy, have you watched that film yet? I haven't. I own it. I haven't watched it. I remember. I've been watching. I've been steeped in Duval in 76. I told the nanny, I said, as soon as I come home, we're going to start watching stuff that's not Duval in 76. She's very excited.

2:38:21Sean Fennessey:How do you feel about all these questions? Do you feel that everyone is normal who really enjoys this experience? Who are we to judge what's normal after the selections we just made? We joke about the people who come up to us and the people who came up to Carrie and say they're a fan of this. It really is great. It really is great to know that people are enjoying this stuff, especially when I feel that they're diving into some of the older or more obscure stuff and they're starting to expand their vision of what a movie is or how a movie works. I just think it's really cool. And I would say something else about the guy who talked about not going to the bars.

2:39:01Sean Fennessey:Dominic. I have 12 ,000 discs. I've also been sober for over 30 years. If I do the math of how much money I haven't spent on booze and drugs and other vices, and I put that money toward the discs, that's why I have 12 ,000 discs. With money left over, I might add, from what I saved from getting off the dope. Get off the dope. Get off the dope. I think you need to rationalize that with your own personal success. You're in Ford versus Ferrari. I mean, you know, like, I don't know if fucking Dominic's going to kill. I'm just saying. A little scratch left over. I'm just saying. You have a pull in there.

2:39:47Get off the dope. That's my advice. Because not only is it a financial question, but the truth is that I like myself more as a dork with a huge physical media collection than an asshole at the end of the bar who's cynical and, you know, puffing on his cigs and, you know, talking shit. Scales of justice, man. I mean, I couldn't have said it better myself. What would have happened if Nancy Reagan had that messaging instead of just saying no? Would you have done that as an undergrad in college? And like, it's time for my dork, my dork era. Like you want to go out and like you have like a couple of years of.

2:40:24Sean Fennessey:I don't know. I feel like I've always kind of been myself. I've kind of always been like really into the stuff that I'm into, to the potential alienation of others. But I think when you have a lot of enthusiasm for stuff, it can be infectious. Like, I think this, this literally did start out as a weird, like, can you just come in and let's hang out? Like, it was not some strategy. And the fact that people responded to it is why it is like become this beautiful space where these men and women send us letters about how we're like royalty. Well, and to that point, Carrie also is like, I'd rather be, you know, it's not like she's a scold about my collection.

2:41:01She's like, I'd rather be with a guy who's doing this than a guy who's got some other vice, right, that is ugly or unmanageable. Gambling on college basketball or something.

2:41:12Sean Fennessey:Are you still like a little hung up on being cool at this point in your life? Me? Yeah. No. Dude's effortless about it. He's not hung up on it at all. I'm not hung up on it at all. Did you think I used to be hung up? Well, you're kind of circling back to like what I want to be doing is ripping heaters and picking up chicks at the bar. I didn't say, I did not circle back to that. I was saying to Dominic that these years at the Ohio State University are formative and you want to build your own lore. You know, you want to have your own... Dominic was in the UK and the Ohio State was a different person.

2:41:41Oh, well then fuck it.

2:41:42Sean Fennessey:Yeah, he's fine. I'm just saying if I was... Regardless, let's be careful out there. Yeah. Everybody be careful. Everybody make good decisions. Be careful with these, with Thriller. You know, if you get Thriller, watch it in... That's not a first date movie unless you think she's really special. She's really, really the one. Unless she's really the one. I also, one thing that I love about this is what this all comes back to. It's hard cut. Is she hard cut material? She's hard cut. Wait a minute. Whoa, wait. That cut was a little, that cut was a little hard. It's not the only thing that's hard.

2:42:20Yeah. I think what this comes back to is that ultimately my favorite thing that this opens up is that, is that you end up in a conversation with someone and then you're talking about movies, which is what a fucking great thing to do. Yeah, I agree. To just be out in the world and somebody that you don't know comes up to you and then you're just talking about movies for a while. There's nothing better than that.

2:42:40Sean Fennessey:Couldn't have said it better myself. This was healthy. This was normal. This was the behavior of mature men. Yeah, our selections reflect incredibly peaceful interior lives. Yeah. We're not trying to understand anything more deranged or depraved within ourselves. We're all in functioning relationships. Yeah. Right? We trust institutions. Absolutely. We're upholding democracy. I'm in a functioning relationship with my wife and my name. And your AV guy.

2:43:12It's the great romantic square. Tracy, his nanny, his AV guy.

2:43:21Sean Fennessey:Is your nanny aware of your AV guy? Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Do you think they would have chemistry? No, I don't think so. Would you be jealous of your AV guy? You can't have her running off with him, yeah. Because then you'd lose child care. An AV guy. No, that's a total nightmare.

2:43:42Sean Fennessey:Okay, I'd like to thank Amanda Dobbins for her. Any words of wisdom, Amanda Dobbins? I would just say, to go back to Dominic one more time, that the tradition of watching Fight Club with a woman who you're not willing to publicly call your girlfriend is time-honored. It's generational. And everyone needs to go through it at least once. So he's going to be okay, I think. Is she going to be okay? You know what? She has to see it sometime, you know? And that's probably the right context in which to see Fight Club. Fight Club was released the month I started dating my now wife. And we saw the film.

2:44:19Sean Fennessey:and we're together to this day. So what more can you say? What more can you say about the film? Amanda, thanks for sitting in on this. Really quite a strange choice on your part. I admire it. I have to be honest. I was doing other work here. That's the second time you've said that. You've been very clear about that. Yes, yeah, yeah. But listen, it's called multitasking. It's called having it all, which I as a woman can do. You're like a Russ Meyer heroine. Despite everything that was just said on this podcast. Thanks to Lucas Kavanaugh for production support. Thanks to Jack Sanders for the robes, for producing this episode, for guiding the council comfortably.

2:44:54Sean Fennessey:How will you be cutting social clips of this episode safely? I mean, we probably have at least like 24 ready to go. We're okay. That's cool. We'll reconvene again. Yeah. This year? Christmas. Christmas. Yeah. I think we need to bring the four Santas together. Like on Christmas Day, you want to record an episode? Yeah. Just let your kid know. This is what it's going to be like. Sorry. I gotta go sit with some men talk about plastic no we should do a Christmas like a holiday gift guide oh I like that I think that's a great idea I do not know when this is airing or what episode is next but I'm sure it will be very good and we'll see you then oh wait shout out Alex Ross Perry who's Anglin oh yeah what do you want to do about that I don't know okay actually before we truly wrap there's been some questions about admission into the council right like Griffin Newman wants in Alex Ross Perry wants in these are men who are longtime collectors of various items.

2:45:50Sean Fennessey:I mean, what are the thoughts? I don't feel like I can be possessive here of a new addition to the council. Also, I think if you wanted to create like a high and low chamber of Congress, you know, like maybe an East Coast, like you, Tracy, Alex, and Griffin could do that. I'm not going to stand in the way of that. I mean, the round table was round for a reason, right? So as to not have a hierarchy. I mean, I feel like if you swap in and out, it's like you know we're all one head of a hydra or something i don't think tracy feels that way but yeah tracy obviously doesn't feel that way and he is irreplaceable no

2:46:26Sean Fennessey:well that'll do it we'll see you next time on the big picture

2:46:42Thank you.