Who cares about your team winning the Super Bowl when your team could win the offseason? My name is Danny Heif. It's my host of the Ringer NFL Draft Show with Danny Kelly, Ben Solak, and Craig Orl there. We cover trades, free agency, the draft, obviously.
We cover quarterbacks, and there are a lot of good quarterbacks this year. And the teams at the top of the draft, Washington, New England, Chicago. Big teams with big histories. Listen to the Ringer NFL Draft Show on Spotify.
I'm Sean Fentasy. I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is the Big Picture, a conversation show about 1991. CR is here, and we are drafting again.
But as usual, I have a great of world cinema to follow CR on this podcast. Later in this episode, I'll be joined by Wim Benders, legendary German filmmaker responsible for Paris, Texas. Wings of Desire, Wings of the Social Club, so many more classics. His latest film, Perfect Days, is the Japanese nominee for Best International Feature at this year's Academy Awards.
Perfect Days, Chris, is, it's kind of like what I like about you. Quiet, profound, it sticks with me for a long period of time. Vin, amazing guest on the show. Perfect Days, one of Bobby Wagner's top five movies of 2023, a beautiful film.
I hope you'll stick around for my conversation with him. He's really just a legend of a world cinema. And so are you, Chris. I'll definitely save my most deeply inappropriate story about 1990s cinema for right before Vin Menders.
So we are talking about 1991 on our draft today. We were taking some ideas around and been looking at like the 2000s and how we're running out of years. And Amanda just burst through the group chat like the Kool-Aid man. She was like, 1991!
Why not? And we did it. What made you think that? What made you say, how about this year?
I was thinking of years that I had been alive for that we had not drafted. And most of the 80s we haven't drafted, but my consciousness was not really like raised to the right level in the 80s. And 91 is when I was just coming online. Not online.
Not like on Instagram. Not like SkyNet. Like SkyNet, yeah. Exactly.
So I propose it. I would like for the record to say that I think I just asked, have we done 1991 yet? And then it was decided in the great mind of Sean Fennessey that 1991 would be next. But a fun year.
What did you think of that choice, Chris? I'm ecstatic about it. This is a unique one. This is a phenomenal year for movies.
And it's from the top to the bottom. And I'm really excited to draft these. So Chris, 1991, who were you? What were you doing?
I actually have an answer for this that isn't just bullshit about travel baseball. Was travel baseball over by then? Well, this is like when basically I stopped caring about sports 100% of my waking life and started getting into other stuff. That's sad a little.
Sure. That's true, but it was the end of an era. It's been just days since I saw the ball fields on which Chris excelled as a rising second baseman. On Colin Fields and on the parkway.
And now you've moved on. I have. And one of the gateways into moving on was getting into, so I was like 14, and this was the period of time where I went from just liking movies to being really interested in how movies got made and why movies got made and why certain movies won Oscars and certain movies didn't. And I basically started developing taste in 1991.
And so I went back and looked at all the movies released this year. My long list for this year is 51 movies. Wow. That's crazy.
That's like the dream. And the thing I loved about this year was the dispersal of the movies across the calendar. So you basically have like a cool movie every week, every two weeks. There was something to talk about and it wasn't all bunched up at the end of the year.
And I just remember really like getting into reading Premiere and Movie Wine at this time. There are several movies on this list of just things that came out this year. And Premiere would have had you believe or like, get ready for William Hurt and the Doctor. It's going to change the way you feel about medicine and film.
That didn't happen. But I think this is where I first started getting, you know what, this is the beginning of We Are So Back. That's how it felt. Wow.
Like you would pick up Movie Wine magazine and read about a new William Hurt vehicle. Right. And you'd be like, We Are So Back. What do you mean after the low lows of Goodfellas and Dances with Wolves in 1990?
We were so back in 1991. 1991, you were a little bit younger, Chris. I turned seven. And you were online.
As I said, I was just coming online. Yeah, I turned seven. I think that this was the era of like the largest possible glasses that could be purchased. Like, think about like the Gwyneth Paltrow ski trial glasses, but like with a plastic frame all the way around.
It was sort of like a bluish clear dent. You're like Chris Sabo. I don't know who that is. Let's see if I got a smile from Bobby.
Okay, all right. No, this is the first time. It's just your up, Bobby. The third baseman of the Cincinnati Reds, circa 1991.
Okay. Are the Cincinnati Reds the team that you guys spent a lot of time talking about? They're the perfect example of, man, baseball was my fucking life when I was nine. But like two drafts ago.
Or maybe last night. Yeah, we were talking about St. John's alumnus. Okay.
That was on the night switch. You may recall as Bobby did a few weeks ago. Yeah, so I was young. I went to school.
Did you go to the movie theater often as a seven-year-old? I don't know about often. I think I probably went to see Beauty and the Beast. Yes.
I think, although I'm not totally sure that might also have been like just big VHS, you know, because that was like the era of let's just run it back 45 times. My dad, father had a toy car that was like a VHS rewind machine. Oh, yeah, for sure. And you would just like put it in.
I mean, you just, you know, rewind Beauty and the Beast and start over. So, I mean, I think I was there. But what do you remember from being six or seven years old? I can't say much about six or seven, but in 1991, I was turning nine.
Yeah, so that you remember. Big time. Yeah, big time. I think this was his first kiss year for me.
Wow. Yeah, yeah. Okay. It was a kiss that was stolen from me.
A girl who approached me on the playground who I was not in a relationship with her dating and just kissed me. This is the year. You said like a peck? No, it was like a third base.
Oh, yeah, a peck. Of course. Yeah. My parents got separated this year.
Oh, okay. I started going to the movies a lot. A lot more than usual. It was probably the first year.
How did you get there? Well, obviously, the one I had a movie theater that was within walking distance, a single theater at the mall where I grew up. The mall where I grew up was five minutes from my house. You make it sound like you grew up in a gap.
I mean, there was a gap in this mall, and there still is, in the Walt Whitman shops. Sean, he lives in orange movies. There were times when I felt like I was, especially when my parents actually split up. I was a pure lashed kid.
But at this time, the Walt Whitman mall had a single theater, and so that single theater would always play really like a big run movie. So even The Beast played there for probably six weeks, maybe even longer than that. Rock Hood and The Beast played there for a long stretch of time this year. I definitely saw that in theaters.
I wasn't going by myself, but it was often me and two friends. And if it was a PG-13 movie, they just let you in. It was a great time to be a young man getting obsessed with movies. This is the year that I also, like, you know, I'd seen violent action movies or horror movies or whatever before this, and even sex scenes and stuff.
But this was the year that I think I got introduced to, like, ideas that were really way over my head. Like, my mom took me to JFK this year. You know, I saw, like, a... What was the idea that was over your head there?
Was it communism's incursion on our nation? Was it the way that the mafia pulls the strings like the puppeteers of God? Why are you pretending to be me? You know, you're a fucking Oswald truther.
You're just like, it's just a nice, windy day in Dallas. This guy's just not lucky. You know what the absolute best thing I've seen on the internet is in weeks? Is Brock Purdy looks just like Lee Harvey Oswald.
That's my favorite thing that has happened. Hold on, I'm Googling them right now. There is a remarkable tweet with two images that is just Brock Purdy and Lee Harvey Oswald. Oh, I do sort of see it.
And frankly, Brock, long done. He's got the vibe, you know? I didn't see JFK in 1991, though, obviously. That's a big movie for us.
I think it will come up as we get into draft order. I don't think I could have even grasped it. Did you feel like you were getting conspiracy-pilled by watching that movie? No, but I think it was just like, I remember vividly seeing it in Lake Worth, Florida with my mom and her being really shaken up afterwards and being like, I had no idea.
Really? Yeah. So she, I mean, I don't think that she was then dedicated to her life to covering the truth the way Oliver said. Oliver's still working.
He's still putting in time on this issue. So is Bill. The doctors have never wavered on this. Still the best thing that has ever happened on Twitter.
But yeah, that's the other cool thing I remember about this year is just being introduced to the more adult concepts and ideas and themes that would go on to cover the rest of my life. How do you define what movies were? Because you kind of got into this a little bit. There's kind of something for everyone.
All different kinds of genres. Because, you know, we didn't feel like we had this kind of like sequel chokehold necessarily. A lot of the movies that were in the top 10 in the box office that year were somewhere for kids. Some were aimed at older people.
Some were aimed at men. Some were aimed at women. You had a rise of a couple of big stars at this time. Like, I'm reluctant to say this is like the last pure time for a certain kind of mechanized Hollywood storytelling.
But it does represent something. I don't quite have my finger on what it was, but it feels certainly a lot different than it was this year or last year or even 10 years ago. Well, some of it, it just feels like that the movies are the center of culture. And so like, whatever you want to see, whether you're six years old and need to see Beauty and the Beast or whether you need to be like radicalized and go see GFK.
Like, all of these movies were big deals. Like, we all, you know, had some sort of relationship to them. If we didn't at the time, we went and sought them out. And, you know, movies are, with the exception of like Orbenheimer or whatever, which is a fluke, are not the center of the culture in the way that they were.
Like, you know, in the 70s and the 80s or whatever. But this kind of is like the prime of that 90s era that raised us. Yeah, I would recommend that anybody who is trying to figure out what we talk about when we talk about genre movies or what we talk about when we talk about hitting doubles, to borrow Andrew Davis's description of Warner Brothers' approach at the time when they made The Fugitive. It's like, just go to the 1991 list of American films on Wikipedia and look through it.
And you'll see that a lot of the like, the peanut butter and jelly movies are like thrillers, like adult kind of like more thrillers that were probably made for around $35 million or something like that. They made about 60 and everybody went home happy, you know, and that movies felt a little bit lighter and more, they're a legion. There's just so many things to choose from, from the like scrappy Sundance indie stuff that was starting to bubble up at independent cinema to like big, glossy Barry Levinson Hollywood productions to whatever. But like, I think everything moved with a little bit of a pep in it step because it was like the entire shareholder quarter is resting on whether or not this has a fucking blockbuster opening weekend.
Yeah, we have this understanding of four quadrant marketing now with movies where they're trying to hit as many people as possible. And I'm sure that there were marketing departments and data scientists working in 1990 and 1991 to do this for movies. But it felt like at that time, the biggest movies were movies that everyone wanted to see. And even though Beauty and the Beast was aimed at seven-year-old Amanda, my mom wanted to see Beauty and the Beast.
And even though Terminator 2 Judgment Day was aimed at 19-year-old boys, six-year-old girls and 28-year-old men wanted to see it too. Like it really went across the stratosphere for all of these. Right, or if we didn't see it, then we still were being like, I'll be on the playground. It fully permeated the culture.
So this is a particularly fascinating top 10 in the box office. I set the threshold this year at 75 million. I guess it's 14 to choose from. But I mean, if you just look at them, T2, Robin Hood Prince of Thieves, Beauty and the Beast, The Silence of the Lambs, City Slickers, Hook, The Addams Family, Sleeping with the Enemy, Father of the Bride, and The Naked Gun, Two and a Half.
It felt like everybody that was in my life saw eight of those 10 movies, if not more. And it just doesn't feel that way anymore. Obviously, things have changed pretty significantly. How many times did your dad see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, Secret of the Ooze?
I went in the years. I went in the years. Was your dad go with you? Was he like, this is a four quadrant film for me?
I think I have a very fond memory of this. I just saw my dad at the live show. He came to see us two rounders in New York. And I can tell my dad's very proud.
He's like my son, who I think when he was nine, was like a big fucking loser clown, who was like really into action figures and horror fiction and comic books. And he was like, I don't really, what is this kid's problem? Why doesn't this kid want to work on cars? Why won't he play football?
I think he was really confused because he was a jockey and a guy's guy. And I think when I was like, Dad, I really need to see Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles 2, Secret of the Ooze. He was like, what the fuck is your problem? Why are you like this?
You know what? 30 years later, paid off. Jackpot. We're doing rounders in front of 800 people in New York City.
So I don't regret anything. I don't regret loving the Secret of Ooze. I haven't seen it in a long time. Have you seen it before?
I've never seen that. Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles are back though. You know about this, right? All my little nephews now.
They're just like, I'm Leonardo. I'm Rafael. Because they like the movies? Yeah.
I saw that. Yeah, quality film. I enjoyed it. It stirred some feelings.
Do you have like any Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles knowledge? I know the guys. Oh, you name them. Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Sean.
Donatello. Do you remember their sensei's name? He was a rat, right? He was a rat.
No. Splinter? Do you remember the Big Bad? No.
Do you remember? The Big Bad was not featured in Mutant Mayhem. No, then I don't remember. Schrader?
Oh, Schrader, of course. Yeah. Schrader was huge. I really like those films.
Is Secret of Ooze the Origin of Ninja Rap? No, not Ninja Rap. What's the Vanilla Ice song called? No one?
There are hundreds of millions of listeners at home screaming the title of the Vanilla Ice song from the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie. But unfortunately, we can't hear what they're saying. Okay. Any other thoughts on 1991?
I mean, obviously, a very historic box office, you think that's going to be his next challenge is to write a film with only female characters? Do you think he could do it? It's going to go really well. He should inflame Barbie Nightmare more by just remaking Little Women.
What if he just signed on for Barbie 2? Little Women, but the guy's person. What's his name? Laurie?
Yeah, Laurie's very important. Yeah, Little Women colon Laurie's version as directed by Justin Berlin. There is a sequel called Little Men that Louise May Alcott wrote. Did she really?
Yeah, but I think it's about all the children of... Because Joe winds up at a school. I mean, I don't know. I obviously don't care about it.
Is it because of IP? That's why. So recently on Twitter, because of Kirby being back, I can't repeat it. It has to do with Leon, but never mind.
I love Little Women. Stack them up one and top the other. Curb, you know, Curb ebbs and flows, but J.B. Spoo has never lost a step.
Never lost a mile per hour on his bitch. It's Larry David, Tracy Ullman, and J.B. Spoo in a scene talking about the limit. It's unbelievable.
Okay. Should we draft him? Bobby, any thoughts on 1991? I just saw Point Break in theaters last night.
Oh, second. Wow, what a great time to be on. What time? The cinema is back.
Yeah, what time? It's almost like they knew. Bobby, do you mean a section of the 1991 Minnesota Twins led by Kirby Puckett and Kent Herbeck? Isn't that the year that there was the Jack Morris 10-inning shutout in the World Series?
When guys used to work for a living? That man had just nothing but forearms by the 8th inning, and he was like, I still got this, guys. Yeah, he used to do 712 innings that season and then through a 10-inning shutout. And everybody was like, I don't know if he's a Hall of Famer, that's for sure, but this guy who pitches 84 innings a season is going in.
He was like, what if he only threw three innings? Let him know. 1991. Bad news is I forgot my Top Gun had at home.
It's a tecnic morning, you guys. Bobby, we're here for you. Thank you. I really appreciate that.
That means a lot. We're using random.org, which I have cleared the cookies. Thank you so much. And according to random.org, the randomness comes from atmospheric noise.
I'm not really sure what the fuck that means, but we're going to go for it. Thanks so much for bringing that energy. Atmospheric noise. I like your Garden Center cookie, Bobby.
Thank you. So my first job, the picture is kind of atmospheric noise. So you have a lot of gardening expertise? Yeah, some way.
Did I tell you about my, I tried to do like a wildflower garden this year and we'll see whether, and I did the seas and the mulching and everything right before the atmospheric river, so we'll see how it goes. But I wish I'd known. I would have asked you for some advice. i'd love to see some progress i know how to water plants really well and i know how to throw mulch into dudes trucks okay it's like kind of the whole thing are you a landowner robert i don't believe in landownership how pretty is that coming up on jmo okay the order will be chris selecting first sheesh followed by amanda and then the third slot is sean okay thank you to the atmosphere for that really appreciate them big ups to the atmosphere it's harder than you think it is i would say there are seven no doubt bangers okay mileage may vary of course i think there are a handful of true blue manna classics on this list yeah obviously chris and i both coming at this time learning a lot about our government and the way that men operate together so maybe we share some things right and then there's also some category ish stuff to manipulate in terms of the oscars were historic with a sweep um but that didn't leave a lot of room for other nominees there's a surprising them like they're they're free yeah but they could have taken up in other categories exactly it's a little dicey before we get into the categories i just want to address a piece of news that came out which amanda oh right there is a new category the academy awards this year and it's actually interesting to think about in the arc of oscar history yeah they're introducing officially next year which is the best casting award great um now i am not surprised that they did that given that um some of the leadership has a history in casting and so there is a desire to raise casting to the level of the other categories i think it's a great step i have two thoughts about this and i'm curious what you guys think one if this award is just another place to put the same seven movies i'm not gonna be happy about it okay this actually they need to make an effort to underline other films in a category like this otherwise there's no point in adding additional categories the point of adding more categories is to expand the portfolio of films that they're celebrating two to do this and not do some choreography as a category is a crime it's ridiculous it makes no sense if you're going to open up more categories the stunt choreography category should have been added 25 years ago to the academy awards and even in movies like this we're going to talk about from 1991 there are movies there are more than enough movies that would qualify for an award like that it's a critical part of this so i'm a little bit mixed because it just feels like this is fucking academy politics where there's just a bunch of people who are in casting right now pushing this one over the line and not other categories where people have less power and sometimes there's not a lot of people with the stunt history and leadership so a little bit skeptical but i do like that they're expanding they're adding more awards which is something we've both advocated for a long time what did you think when you saw this i guess i took the positive better than nothing you i agree with everything that you're saying there's also like if if casting were being added this year then it would be the one award that barbie gets you know and it does have that opportunity just to kind of be a consolation prize or something like well we liked it but like we're not actually taking this or any other movie seriously um i also agree with you that we need many more categories including a spent choreography categories so you know and yes the academy is a bullshit organization run by politics and self-interest uh we know that but i don't know it's a made-up award show so cool they made up another award they did what's the one award you want to see at the oscars best top of the scene for men yeah just guys packs yeah best packs how's the fucking going i haven't really gotten into it because of the rain the rain out of the way uh and sure what does that mean i just like i just like going to the gym you know it's like you okay this rain in california really makes you feel claustrophobic no i i i said that's the first thing i said frankly it's because of other drivers it's not because of you guys i'm just like oh some fucking guy is gonna like help me off you know man and i drove across town yesterday middle of the evening to go see bob marley one love together well we sat beside one another we took separate cars uh wasn't one of the better days of my year so far and then we drove home in the rain in the shower from uh century city across town if anyone at paramount or else everyone else is listening just like help us out look into it what about uh an oscar for best prestige tv show we're trending that way aren't we we are trending that way have you started this year's baby i haven't been sitting in the queue god damn it i also have been on tour so please you watch so many things when traveling both of you you're just like the laptop like okay good night everyone like sleep well and then like the laptop opens like you're sleeping in the same room like all the rewatchables guys share the room when chris and i tour every night just curl up and watch i did see a film in philadelphia i saw one from the heart which i saw in part oh cool yeah yeah oh that's so cool like the release yeah so it's pretty exciting um i actually got a chance to see it at one of chris's dad's former locals yes he's got rid of the force very nice that's nice uh okay if you've never listened to a draft episode before here so we draft from six categories and we work in a snake fashion obviously chris is going first man second and third the six categories this time around pretty standard operating procedure here drama action thriller or horror comedy blockbuster and again the threshold is 75 million oscar nominee and wild card you guys feel good about these categories is this okay yeah can we need to be mixing this up you feeling all right about how you've been going lately i'm feeling right honestly the list of movies from this year i found to revitalize this whole project for me that was my intention we need to get back to a classic time yeah i do want to say that we are going to do 1977 at some point in the near future in part to celebrate chris ryan's birth year and also because it's a very good year for movies and it's also a fun for me personally a fun viewing project to go back and you're filling gaps or revisit things i haven't seen in a long time so this is our now situation we all will start watching including hopefully the listeners will start checking out not just our list i will make a list i'll publish it and people can look at all the movies that are going to be eligible for that year 1991 a little bit easier to catch up on yeah i mean i have gaps uh for sure and i also have like special you know i have a reserve of six-year-old movies you know that if we these films won't go drafted but uh i believe that an american tale five will go west was released like the week before beauty and the beast which i'm like what were people thinking i had a bold move you know what would be kind of funny one time for you guys is if you find a year that you really like you should do the big picture as if it's that year oh that's great yeah and you should basically do the episodes of like this week this movie is coming out because i was going through the months of 1991 and there was some like we should do that for 94 meaning like let's just do an episode that's like the day full fiction came out yeah or like you know because it's 30 years and also that's like a very formative year for both of us you know i thought of this because a couple years ago actually might have been last year last fall it was the 30th anniversary of the day that entered the wu-tang and the night rotters came out yeah and people are like this is the greatest day in rapid history is that true yeah are you serious yeah wow you never see so big uh did you have like on purpose like like like like what was the one after that uh beat friends in life it might have been i can't remember because it would be a little early for me to take mushrooms when into the wu-tang clan came out but i had a night where i went out it was like the first night i met andy and i was like i'm fucking my face is melting off and yeah never mind maybe there's a love movement was it the love was that 95 6 yeah okay see i was not on mushrooms when i strike that from the record okay well that's a damn shame nevertheless i do think in the episode we were like it's october 13 1994 today we're talking about like wilco am and ghostface's first solo record came out the same night yeah i just fucking smashed both of those CDs into both sides of my face this is my personality you what made you cry harder wilco's am or ghostface kills iron man oh by far iron man i don't know uh no but there's like like there's a couple weeks that like left off the screen when i was looking at 91 where it's like on like you know what is this february february 8th it's like la story rosencrantz and gildenstern sleeping with the enemy you know i revisited something with the enemy recently for a pop it was julie roberts hall of fame but that wasn't good i don't think it's it's fine yeah it's like it's a fond memory for all of us you know how so it's a film sure but it's just like the julia like the julia wave you know because everybody wants to see it because pretty woman had been the it was the first one after pretty woman yeah yeah because she was filming sleeping with the enemy during pretty woman it had that very unique quality and i'm sorry to have this conversation but when i was re-watching it i was watching patrick bergen who of course plays the terrible he's a toxic male presence he is and the whole time and this is this is what i want you to feel but i was legitimately like what's this guy's fucking problem why is he so such a dickhead and uh i i uh guess the movie worked i guess it worked because i felt that way you know draft yeah sure i'll take wow oscars or sounds of the lambs sounds of the lambs i mean it's really good but um i re-watched it because we did philadelphia recently on the watchable so i was in my demi bag and this movie's perfect uh i re-watched it last night it's really really upsetting yeah i guess i didn't consider that but it's also like really good i've seen it before it is really good i was just like oh yeah this is really funny i'm really good i've just been jane gum pilled so much that like i you know it's it's just an absolute perfect diamond so you were how old when this movie came out i was 14 or 13 i guess and you saw what makes it you thought what uh i was just like what did he throw at her i don't think so i think it took me a couple of viewings and it was definitely but i knew i didn't want to ask my mom what happened was it bill simmons who finally made it clear what happened i learned okay uh i haven't seen this in a while but i remember first time i saw it on the cable i was like holy shit i wasn't i wasn't that was not my intention um i think it's amazing i think it's a five-star masterpiece um and but i didn't it's one of those movies you know there's a lot of movies like so in history time it was like i wish i was old enough to have seen it in the theater you know with my friends or on a date or something and just like had that version of that experience yeah just look a woman in the eye and do the jane gum voice and say what do you think hon should we keep this evening going i think that you are like far enough away from like dating to like you've forgotten that you do need to date eileen and you are meant for each other enough that if that was your first date you'd still be married with a kid today i i agree that would that would be the true test though if i was like sweetheart i know we're in sixth grade but let's rent silence of the lambs and see how things go from here uh it's an amazing movie incredible uh demi just a god to me and um i've never read this book but they say it's an amazing adaptation i mean i i think one of the great ways of a lot of like the last 25 30 years of all this ip stuff is that they had ironed out the the harris handle stuff because like you know there's they can do clarice but they can't mention lector or they can do they can't mention clarice and you know they've tried in a bunch of different ways with and with uh clarice was a show on cbs but you know i'm sure i'm sure how's your next prequel okay well the big oscar winner of the year is off the board yeah not the most um iconic film from this year right yeah there's a few options here yeah um i did you think you were getting silence of the lambs no i i thought that i was not getting what i'm about to draft which in action thriller horror i will be taking terminator 2 uh which i thought was i think i've taken terminator 2 in some context before i thought it would be your number one i'm honestly leaving another like very celebrated uh sean and chris core film on on the table for you sean and i thought about doing that as well um but i first of all action thriller horror is always a tricky spot for me especially uh at the age of six seven um but i have now seen this film thanks to the big picture and a movie swap episode we did uh quite good and you know also when i watched it i was like oh that's what it's from i obviously wanted like the great most influential action movie um absolutely the baby i'll be back etc sure so also a five-star world-class masterpiece a movie that changed movies forever um the uh four case of all the camera films are coming out very soon coming in march so the abyss oversee them he did so the abyss aliens terminator 2 and true lies true lies never been on blue-ray in the united states uh apparently um transfers are not great oh apparently the color grading is not great apparently they look weird apparently look like hyper real oh no like other smoothing kind of oh no and so i'm a little concerned i've been wanting to own the abyss and true lies for a long do you think jim cameron has like walleye from being underwater too long it's a great take that's a really really great take it's possible it's possible it's possible just from spending so much time in the world of digital creation for a long time i don't know if you're the number one dude to be 4k transferring anything he's also getting on in years that could be a factor been living in new zealand for a long time i don't know what's going on down there so when tim was a poppy talked about this did you make it to the part with the billy bookshelves and that tim is using vhs like tapes to like prop up his why are you mad i'm not mad you're so mad tim is so nervous that you are so disgusted by him and this endeavor that we're into he is he was genuinely concerned and i told him i would say the low point for me was when you were just like i went to the atwater village best buy before an eagles came and i couldn't find dvds and i was sad and i was just like an opposite day situation where you say the low point for me was actually the most ribbing because that was that was doing the work um why did i bring this up jim cameron right exterminator 2 the blu-ray isn't gonna be right well the point is i'm gonna do what george lucas did which is 30 years so now i'm gonna go back into every movie draft and i'm gonna edit i'm gonna cut and i'm gonna recut you guys completely out of episodes i'm gonna add job of the hut into every episode i can't believe how lucky we are to get to pod the show on god you are so wonderful it's so nice to be your friend and colleague thank you for being with me uh okay so i have two picks it seems obvious yeah it seems obvious it sure does it seems very obvious and so i will take an oscar nominee the film jfk there you go okay which is also in my mind a five-star masterpiece oliver stone's crazed depiction of his imagination of what transpired when john f kennedy was assassinated that's what makes you sleep better at night you say imagination you say that that's his work of solid journalism representing the events uh i mean just like chris and i do a pod about it i've been very kind about that pod it is my favorite piece of recorded material um and i listen to it once a year and when i need some comfort you guys all sound absolutely insane you also walking in there thinking that you didn't need to have your tape you were just like oh so we're doing this you know i hadn't i hadn't heard by then that the doctors had never wavered and then when i learned that i've started to evolve my thinking on thanksgiving day he tweets that out i was in my in-laws house in philadelphia being like this is gonna be a long day and then i just bill has logged on to talk about a new jfk documentary about the doctors and how they have never been they've done great work over the years um insisting that uh the wounds were so specific and could only be uh from multiple shooters so uh the movie itself is obviously like an extraordinary act of creation uh hank ormond's editing is i think the thing is like is most more or less for uh as a filmmaker in addition of stone's directing and writing but really great performances incredible menagerie of awesome movie stars and character actors johnny jones kevin bacon joe pesci of course kevin costner as garrison um just a radiant movie that i love to revisit and i did just spend 44 on the shout select blu-ray expand what additional features come over and dominate your child into the world he's moved in he lives in the ad now so for the low low price of 43.99 oliver stone lives in my house and will tell alice about for one hour a day because he's got the diagrams back to the left john it's time for alice to eat and also for me to speak about joe pesci's performance uh okay my next pick and and thank you bobby for alluding to it it's point break an extra action thriller horror um also a five-star masterpiece catherine bigelow's uh religious i would say dissertation on the two sides of men you know the the radical and conservative objective it's okay the thrills and the thrilling Keanu Reeves Patrick Swayze in the death struggle of the criminal and the government man and surfing and Ligeti I like it when hot dude's surfing yeah I mean everybody in this movie is hot and fire it's super hot it's shot as though she were filming the creation of the Grand Canyon you know it is like it's such a beautiful movie and a fun movie I actually did something recently for Gallery Avenue where we watched it and did like a chat alongside it and that was really fun and fun to watch it if you've not seen Point Break I would recommend it was one of the first rewatchables as I recall it was not that specific yeah that was Jason and Shea yeah that sounds great but no maybe I was on that because I think I talked a lot about the football scene and Johnny Utah and whether like like two these I am an FBI agent Johnny fucking Utah I didn't recognize you man so uh did you see some theaters?
yes yeah for sure like five times okay Mina? yes okay in Oscar nominee I'm taking Thelma and Louise one of my favorite Ridley Scott movies Geena Davis Susan Sarandon you know like one of the great American movies one of the great movies about two women one of the great endings great script by Callie Corey I don't know like this is one of the ones that gets sort of overlooked in the Oscars this year but it's not because of that tweet right exactly but like a pretty legendary and sort of like you know paradigm shifting movie in its time I think it's Legacy Seeker I feel like people have recognized I think we've only selected movies thus far that are undeniable Sierra you got two picks in drama I'm gonna go Boys in the Hood which was like just volcanic movie when it came out for me and for like my friends and seeing this is like right when I really remember like this feeling that like with Slacker and Boys in the Hood and a bunch of movies that were coming out at this time where you're like holy shit like this kind of looks like real life like this kind of looks like not obviously don't grow up in Central Los Angeles or Austin, Texas but the way people talked what they were interested in the music that they listened to the shit that they were obsessed with the things that they were thinking about really started to like show up on screen that's like such a great moment in your life is when you start to get your generation's movies and your generation's art so I'll do Boys in the Hood for drama and I'm gonna ask I'm gonna throw this out there I'm gonna take it either way so just so I'm not trying to category manipulate anything here can I put Barton Fink in comedy? I have it listed in comedy I will take Barton Fink as comedy I think it's a black comedy yeah certainly that yes it's very funny so Barton Fink is Joel Ethan Coen's harrowing depiction of a man losing his mind in a hotel in Los Angeles in the 1930s as he's working on a wrestling picture with a screenwriter loosely based on Clifford Odets and he kind of comes in it's one of like literally like the greatest ensembles I've ever seen just everybody firing John Mahoney as essentially William Faulkner John Goodman as an insane neighbor living in this hotel with John Turturro who plays the titular Barton Fink John Palio like everybody is cooking in this movie so yeah I'm gonna go with Barton Fink for comedy I'm trying to remember where I put Barton Fink on my Coen Brothers list I'm gonna check that out right now I think pretty high I'm sure it was that was one where you ranked them at me yeah well I mean this is podcasting and I was just like mostly like a supportive I have it in the list that I wrote wow that's pretty low but I think you updated it when we because you redid it on the podcast no I don't it's at 6 I did update it though I don't remember what I had on the show but I had No Country 5 Fargo 4 Millers at 3 Lebowski 2 A Series 901 is my list there? it's not you don't have like Letterboxd lists of my lists were you on that episode?
no you weren't on that episode this is the list that I wrote yeah and then oh DJ's was like that was right when we did literally 6 years ago I wrote like a 3,000 word piece and then during the pandemic over Zoom he re-ranked them and he just like assessed his own work and I just like sat on the other side of the computer and was like I got so many emails they're like thank you for stretching out and doing the work once again Sean you have done what we all need did this make a Deacons Hall of Fame or did it get replaced by Rango? it's not shot by Marge Deacons it's very solid it's still in the solid field actually is this the last one? it's shot by Deacons is it really? yeah it must have made a Deacons Hall of Fame then yeah I did because I remember you were like doing a lot of show you the life of the mind stuff on that part do you remember when John Goodman was racing down the hallway surrounded by fire yes I mean at some point that podcast did evolve into you just like describing just and Chris and I we're just like yeah you keep saying things like they wouldn't be doing podcasts remember when you guys listened to Cincinnati Reddits and I was like the last time I was happy yeah Barton Fink Barton Fink did make the Deacons Hall of Fame oh good Fargo was the final cut I remember you were really upset about the car the lights and the snow you were really that hill there what did you cut it for?
exact same thing with the hand did Rango? did Rango make it? no no no no there was a huge fight Skyfall did make it that was the one where you were like I will not leave the studio without Skyfall in here yeah many people have noted that was the episode that changed the big picture forever we got a lot more comfortable being insane on the show Barton Fink wonderful pair thanks Amanda you've got a pick course by course one by one till you shout and I'm not done do you know what this is from? I don't know what you're talking about wrap a napkin around your neck sherry and we'll provide the rest you sound like Jason Seedle singing ladies he's one of my chief inspirations so that is a song sung by a dancing candelabra named Lumiere Lumiere in the film Beauty and the Beast which I'll be taking a blockbuster it's a great film it's so it's wonderful I haven't watched this at the house yet oh it's so good she likes to read you know and then she cares about her dad a lot we're trying to avoid getting too hot in princesses no I get that I would as well what are some what are the role models you're showing her aside from Oliver Stone?
we'll do Jack City of course we'll be showing on repeat which I'll be speaking about later hopefully no Lion King is what's happening right now as you guys know Lion King is really important although you know some complicated aspects a lot of hierarchies in Lion King I gotta tell you her best take so far and this is how I know that we are blood is that she's basically like Scar was right like Scar is the true hero of the Lion King and she has a giant lion that looks exactly like Mufasa and she's like that's not Mufasa it's Scar he is more nice and maybe she's just a fan of Jeremy Irons has she seen Beekeeper? not yet but it sounds like a good watch along guest do we do a Beekeeping watch along? sure in like two years when we can finally buy it? you can buy it right now it's on VOD it's not still in theaters not everybody is still in theaters you can have it all here's what the Beekeeper pot is going to be incredible next week all four of us are in theaters so we really understand Movie Keeper but we'll get to that later after watching Argyle I want to get that on the record but I was there I invested Bob and I had such a nice time watching it and then he gave it like one and a half stars on Letterboxd I was like what the fuck bro the politics are tough yeah after watching Argyle and giving Argyle one star I did retroactively go back there we go can you give a half star?
yes Argyle's like a half star it's pretty bad I listen to that podcast I'm very entertained I also like imagining like huge swaths of reality just being Argyle spinoffs you know like what if this pod since Deacons has been like scripted by Matthew Vaughn that were just part of Argyle that would make this make a lot more sense to me in the abstract do you give me a great pick a wonderful movie the last time an animated film she's nominated for Best Picture Angela Lansbury was in Beauty and the Beast Chris have you never seen it? not all the way through what have you seen? what do you know about Beauty and the Beast? there's a woman and she gets into a lion right?
there's a lion guy right? the beast is a lion right? he's a beast she comes over and she comes over and a guy lets her in right? so a beast comes to your door and you say what?
it's raining outside right? I can't believe it I actually don't really know what's the tension in Beauty and the Beast it seems like they fucking well he's a beast and she's trapped there in the castle of him again Beauty and the Beast was not invented in 1991 it was a fairy tale from the 1700s it was a Jean-Cartain film in like 1945 I haven't seen that either it's not like I'm cheating wow you gotta get your weight up in terms of this literature you're too busy smashing Wilco's AM with the ghostface killer records in your head you're fucking having 19 Budweiser's with Jack Morris uh okay will you show Beauty and the Beast to your young son? yeah I think so he'll like at some point but right now we're just doing Top Gun Maverick I know that's great so here's an interesting thing so I showed my two-year-old son Top Gun Maverick to everyone because I'm mom of the year because he loves planes so he's just like music and planes so apparently last night while you and I were at Bob Marley Zach showed him some more and he wanted to re-watch the Jennifer Connelly boat scene and he kept saying boat, boat, boat even though they were doing the dogfighting afterwards and he was like I don't want these planes I want this boat now was that because of Jennifer Connelly? it's a great question it might also be because of the big sale you know he likes kites, flags, sales all those transportation yeah yeah yeah so that's a new it's been good for me did you expect Boys in the Hood to come off the board?
I was hoping it wouldn't but I assumed it would it was my number two in drama that was an amazing movie drama weirdly looking a little thin I have some favorites and I feel like maybe I should just bypass it and go to movies that I care about and or need at this point I mean there's a Marty movie on the board so I gotta take the Marty movie well I wouldn't take Cape Fear as one of my favorite Martin Scorsese movies it's still an incredible film we did do a rewatchable about it recently and it's sitting in Blockbuster and so I'm going to take it in Blockbuster how wonderful that a movie like this could make $75 million and become a Blockbuster in a year like this this is Robert De Niro's Max Cady it's a remake of the 50s classic starring Robert Mitchum and it recently released Felon who's come to torture the life of the lawyer who put him behind bars in the first place by Nick Nolte in this movie harrowing, intense, very weird my favorite nugget about this movie is that Steven Spielberg almost directed it and I can't even begin to imagine what that movie would have been like they were trading Disson Schindler's back and forth yeah I believe that's right which seems bizarre or something where they're trading two products back and forth I think that's what it was Steven Spielberg did produce this movie ultimately and it's just a banger just a high quality kind of the essence of that we were talking about which is adult thrillers that were dominating movies in 1991 can we also just shout out because like you know on the rewatchables we talked a lot about the perversion of the Juliette Lewis Rob De Niro relationship in this movie and obviously we joke a lot about like what people were exposed to watching JFK but this was really a time where like you would go to a mainstream entertainment and really get your buttons pushed in a pretty extreme way which does not typically happen anymore and I would even say for the most part in indie movies it's kind of like we're here to make everybody feel pretty good about the world you know what I mean like for the most part like I mean maybe not like you don't go to Ironclaw and come out thinking like man I love life but like you still like it's a pretty affirmative look at them you know it's not the filmmaking the things that they're saying are not like whoa I'm uncomfortable this is fucking cool like yeah I mean it's also like kind of a downer movie and an insane movie and a huge hit and also deeply informed about Simpsons and Treehouse's support and Sideshow Bob I really appreciate that reason okay one more pick and I just gotta go from the heart so in comedy I'm taking Defending Your Life Alderbrook's consecutive fourth consecutive masterpiece about being sad and having existential dread this time in the form of even after I died I'm still feeling fucked up about how everything went for me even if I've had incredible success in my life this movie features indescribable chemistry between Meryl Streep and Alderbrook's and I know Meryl Streep is like kind of like a comedy star now but was not at the time that she made this movie and she's amazing opposite Brooks and so funny and so warm and so like just the person you want to be with and obviously very insightful and funny about the way that the afterlife kind of works and the idea of putting yourself on trial and reimagining all of the moments of your life he's great as Brooks' lawyer you know Brooks celebrated last year in that documentary about his life which that's a tough one for me because it's like I wanted more I wanted more from that movie like I had a lot of fun like a fun time watching that documentary and I thought the framework of it was cool which is like Rob Reiner and Alderbrook's going to have a bite to eat and they know each other since high school and they're best friends but I didn't want like famous people being like Alderbrook's is cool and here's why I wanted just Alderbrook's talking to me the whole time about how he did everything that he did instead of like Alana Hine and Chris Rock being like yo he's so cool Alana Hine was like I've been throwing myself at Alderbrook's since I turned 18 it's very weird you guys see that he's my dream man which I respect he's my dream man too but that was what I wanted from that movie nevertheless Alderbrook's is my goat so defend your life in comedy you're up Amanda oh good okay I will also be selecting comedy and I will take probably my favorite movie of 1991 which is Father of the Red the Charles Shire and Nancy Meyers remake of the Spencer Tracy classic I do vividly remember seeing this movie like we rented it but I must have been like 7 or 8 and I watched it with my dad and like it was like the first time that you like kind of understand like I understood the emotions in the movie you know I was just like sobbing at the end very funny we still have not solved the hot dog and hot dog buns problem that Steve Martin gets thrown in jail or no like I'm serious like what will it take it's been like 30 something years and it's like 8 hot dogs and 12 hot dog buns or whatever like what are we doing so you know it made some good points it's just I think when Chris Rock did the you know they could make a Cadillac that lasts 30 years but they won't because it's bad business do you think that's the same like he jacked that from Father of the Bride and the whole like we got six hot dogs eight hot dog buns situation when I was in my more of a hot dog era about like six five six years ago tell us more of this hot dog era it would just be like something that my wife and I were like do you want a hot dog for dinner tonight we'll like grill hot dogs if I would sometimes like if I was hangry just like rock a bun I'd just grab a hot dog bun and that's how I got around Bobby you want to weigh in on that from a macro's perspective honestly bread has more protein than you think like people go nice bread in America so it's okay Chris especially if you were moving around grilling a little bit working that off but a bun solo what kind of bun are we talking about a potato bun we'll try no what would be your beverage of choice with your hot dog bun were you unhoused at this time in your life just eating a hot dog bun what the fuck was I going to do you know what I love when I've just got a loose hot dog bun and some cold cuts just put like some turkey and some cheese on there I love cold cuts I'm trying to get out of the house as quickly as possible why else Oliver's downstairs ready for another screening just throw a bologna at Oliver's own okay so I have two here I need a thriller I need a wild card and a blockbuster and thriller I'm going to kind of pit a little bit here because I am trying to become a little bit post results with these droughts now you're going to start being post results I think that I've had a moment of clarity where what I really want to do in the same way that you're like don't fucking put the casting award up and then just nominate Oppenheimer 15 times more I want to spread the wealth I'm not just going to keep trying to like edge out my guys here right so I'm going to do some movies I really loved at the time you know I'm saying this with respect Like, this is what you've always done. I know, and I also never win, so I don't know why I make it such a big deal. I think people see your spirit, but this is, again, with respect, this is not a change from the man who drafted Iron Man 3 first overall. You know what, let me put it more specifically.
I'm trying to draft movies that I haven't talked about a lot before. Okay, so in Thriller, I would like to take Dead again. Okay, tell us more. Which is Kenneth Branagh's kind of like big jump into Hollywood mainstream filmmaking, him and Emma Thompson made this like amazing Hitchcockian psychological thriller written by Scott Frank, I believe.
I think it was his first script. It was like the one that pops for him, at least. Scott Frank, obviously, Queen's Gambit and Mr. Spade.
And this is just a hell of a ride that is just Branagh really like kind of being like, what if I was a five-tool player? Like, what if I could be a movie star? Like, Academy Award winning director? Like, everything at once.
And he and Emma Thompson are kind of like the king and queen of the whole shit, right? Like, this is like them. They were, until. Yeah, so I love...
Sherry Willey, a.k. Greg was. Right, of course. And fantastic Robin Williams kind of a supporting turn in this film.
So I don't know if you guys like that again, but I've never seen that. What? You know what? There's something, first of all, I was young, and there is, like, I am still mad at Kenneth Branagh, you know?
So there is, like... Emma Thompson is resplendent in this film. She's wonderful. But there is something about, like, that era where I'm like, okay, like, I guess.
But literally, you know what you like? It's like, great interior design, like an adult sexy thriller. It's great. Do you like this film, John?
You know, to be honest with you, I saw it for the first time a few years ago and I had a hard time locking in. But it might have been a question of the circumstances. I'm a little bit up and down on the Kenneth Branagh directed experience. I'll just put that out there.
I think he is very hit and miss as a filmmaker. I guess I'm just trying to set the scene. But Thor, you're very in on. Nope, I'm not.
Okay. I do not like the Thor film. Coming off of Henry V and, like, coming out of, like, the theater world in England, like, it was, like, he was very hotly tipped. I was like, this is fucking Orson Welles.
Like, this is, like, a big deal right now. Yes. No, I'll tell you what. I'll take another look.
It's okay. I was really just trying to, like, you know, there's, like, some... Like, good. Now I have a movie recommendation.
So, thanks. Yes. And so for Blockbuster, I'm going to go with what was 14-year-old CR's favorite movie, probably, ultimately, of that year, and it's backdraft. Let's be honest.
So this is Kurt Russell, William Baldwin, Robert De Niro, Jennifer Jason Leigh. Great year for Jennifer Jason Leigh in 1981. And it's about Chicago firefighters. And it's about an arsonist who's, you know, is attacking Chicago fire.
He's basically sending fires that seem to be targeting firefighters. So it's, like, a little bit of a mystery, but also, like, a portrait. It's, like, you're kind of, like, Ron Howard making popular entertainment. Like, this is before Apollo 13, but he's, like, just doing all the shit you want from him.
And Kurt Russell, great performance by him. William Baldwin really thought we had something there. And I actually really enjoy this De Niro. This is De Niro with, like, basically no affectation.
He's playing the fire inspector in the city of Chicago. And there's, like, one little monologue, but for the most part, it's, like, invisible De Niro, and he's fucking awesome in it. It's, like, his scenes with Donald Sutherland are great. So if you haven't seen Backdraft, I think, like, honestly, also, like, just a great use of practical effects.
Like, there's some CGI stuff, but they did a lot with fire in this movie that you probably can't and shouldn't do. And I thought it was fantastic. I like Backdraft as a... It's like the Jackson Brown of movies.
Yeah. Like, it's never going to be my... He's never going to be my favorite songwriter, but if you catch me at the right moment and I really listen to the lyrics, this is pretty emotionally sophisticated. Maybe I should open my mind to this a little bit more deeply.
Ron Howard was on a run. This was the Willow Parenthood backdraft, you know, well before all that, you know, Da Vinci Code crap that Amanda loves, you know. I also love Apollo 14. Yeah.
I like Da Vinci Code. Thank you. Yeah. You like the movies?
Yeah. What do you think of the mythology? I think it's got a lot to be considered, you know? Yeah.
He's a real guy, remember? That's right. He's a real guy. God, so sad.
Amanda, you have a pick, I think. I do. This is, you know, we're just doing a minute of stuff from here on out. I mean, we were, but I, in drama, I'm going to take a movie called Truly Madly Deeply, written and directed by Anthony Gallo, which is just, there we go.
There we go. I just, yeah. Excellent film. Got a fist bump from CR from now.
Rickman? This is Rickman? This is Rickman. And Julia Stevens.
This is wonderful. So basically, Julia Stevens and Alan Rickman are married, but Alan Rickman has resigned. And so it's sort of like a magical, like a magical realism world where Julia Stevenson is just a woman in London trying to get on with her life and her husband comes back as a ghost, but like not a spooky ghost, just, it's just like he's back. And they have this set amount of time together to like really say goodbye and figure it all out.
And it's just lovely. There's this scene where they like, they do add on the sun, it's not going to shine anymore. That is just like transcendent. Very sweet, small, affecting movie.
So if you haven't seen it, seek it out. Excellent movie. I don't know if this is available in my physical experience. Okay.
I'm not sure. Well, I don't have a... Oh, you are? He's got like only five films, right?
Five films, four films? Breaking and Entering, Cold Mountain, Mountain, Innocent to Ripley, English, Patient and Truly Manly, but I think it's those five. So I can't get this one. It's a heartbreaker.
Okay, I have two picks. My final two picks. In drama, I will be taking New Jack City, which is a full-blown crime drama masterpiece. This is Mario Van Peebles following in the tradition of his father, Melvin Van Peebles, in making independent cinema.
This movie premiered fascinatingly at Sundance in 1991. Stars Wesley Snipes in the performance of his career. As Nino Brown, Ice-T, Chris Rock, Judd Nelson. Your boy Judd Nelson.
Who be named a category in the rewatchables after this performance. Which I'd send a word for doing your own thing in a movie. Yes, I was hurt deeply that I was not asked to participate on this episode because this movie definitely hit for me hard. Interesting combination of like a filmmaker who never even got close to anything this good again, but when this came out, people were like, wow, we got one.
We've got Mario Van Peebles and he is a visionary. But also just like a right place right time. Yeah, what a young director draft of this year would be versus like, you know what I mean? Like, would you take Branagh and Mario Van Peebles?
That's an interesting question. I mean, what are the amazing debuts of this year? Singleton. Obviously, Boys in the Hood, good call.
I mean, Slacker comes out this year, so you've got Link Leader. But like, even like Matty Rich making Straight Outta Brooklyn, I'd make people like, oh. Yeah, not much came of that ultimately. Yeah, interesting.
Okay, so I'll take you next to me in drama and I've got Wild Card. And I'm a little bit stumped on what to do in Wild Card. How do I want to represent myself here? Because there's a lot of movies that are movies that I watch all the time.
I need you to let your flag fly. I need you to pick something really out there. Really out there? No, just like, you know you have like a personal favorite from this year.
I just want to hear all about it. I can tell you a story about a movie that I didn't see in 1991 but that I think actually probably got me to this point. Xangu Mo's Raise the Red Lantern. That's not really what I was saying.
I know. Well, you always like Don't Call Mom the Baby Series. Which is like a movie that I like a lot and I watch it all the time on HBO and I thought it was a fun comedy. That's literally what I want you to say.
But I don't, but I, Raise the Red Lantern, and I'm just trying to do the same thing you're doing. I kind of spread the word. We never talk about international films in these drafts. So I'll just, and there were a lot of really good international films this year.
This is like every year. There's like a lot of great films this year. Raise the Red Lantern is the first movie in the first film 101 class that they ever showed. And I don't even know why they showed us this movie as the first movie.
But I think that the idea for the professors at my school in Ithaca was open your mind to stuff beyond Terminator 2. Yeah. You know, that there is an entire experience. And if you were a kid from the suburbs like me who like, you know, was kind of interested in this stuff, but definitely in 1991 did not know that there was a movie like this about China in the 1920s.
They were like strapping because this is what we're going to be doing here. I think actually the first, so we had three hour doubles basically every Monday in this 101 class where in a big auditorium they showed us two films. And I want to say it was that they informed where my taste started to go as I got older and as I started to think more openly about what cool movies are. Now that doesn't mean that I don't just want to watch New Jack City sometimes, you know, and watch Chris Rock beg me over on First Life.
But cinema can be so many different kinds of things. Yeah, I mean, if you want to have your mind open and turn on a new experience, you can also watch Jennifer Connelly and Free Opportunities. Yeah, yeah. I saw that as well and I clocked it the way that Knox is clocking Jennifer Connelly's this day.
So yeah, I'll do Razor of Red Lancer. Amanda, you guys have your final picks. I also have a wild card. I don't know whether this is what you were looking for, Chris, but I will just paint a picture of myself in 1991 and take my girl.
Good. One of this like absolute stone-cold classic. Yeah, this was a prequel to the Beeky Brown. Coming of age, loss, allergies, mood rings, Macaulay Culkin, Anna Tlonsky had it all.
Yeah, I mean, this just absolutely wrecked me. Are you kidding? Like, I can't believe they do this to seven-year-olds. You were kind of a Vita Sulton to us.
I mean, sure, yeah. This is another example of transgressive of mainstream entertainment. It's pretty fucked up. It was so, so heartbreaking.
I'm like, that's our crime right now. You know, and it just hit me. You didn't know that that could happen in life. It's just so fucked up.
What I love about doing these drafts, especially from this era, is that she feels this so deeply. This movie came out so long ago, and we can't remember the plot of Beeky Brown. We saw it two weeks ago. That's movies, man.
That is movies. It is imprinted on Amanda's brain. It's such a special thing. Yeah.
I'm with you. My guy was great. At least when I was 9, I was like, this is it, man. This is drama.
Okay. Also Anna Klumsky, who did not crush. She's great. I mentioned earlier in the pod about how this was sort of when I started to learn a little bit more about movies being made and how movies got made and the characters behind the films that I really love.
So the wild card I'm going to pick is Hearts of Darkness, which is Eleanor Coppola's documentary about the making of Apocalypse Now. Just rewatch this last night. For a solid two or three years there, I think I was like, I don't really need to love Apocalypse Now because I just have Hearts of Darkness. Hearts of Darkness was almost more important to me than Apocalypse Now in some ways because I had never seen movies being made in that way.
My idea of what movies were like was the Universal Studios back plot tour and everything is perfect. The stuntman rolls over here. And that's how I thought movies happened. And the idea that this guy was just out in the Philippines negotiating with the Air Force and dealing with monsoons and his star having a fucking heart attack and firing actors and trying to rewrite dialogue and dealing with Dennis Hopper and Marlon Brando.
It's honestly my favorite making of any movie. If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. Sean and Amanda are going to be doing a lot of Coppola stuff in the future because of the book that they're doing for their book club. I do honestly think that we should do the movie with...
It's hard to talk about the book about. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Revisit Apocalypse Now and revisit Hearts of Darkness. Yeah, because the book is centered around Apocalypse Now.
The candor with which people talk because I think that this was an era maybe before people were worried about everything that they say is going to be recontextualized forever and ever and ever in different ways. Martin Sheen talking about being in Apocalypse Now is as naked as you can possibly see in a person's soul. He was just like, I was having a nervous breakdown. This was happening.
It was away from my family. He's obviously drinking and stuff like that. It's such an incredibly searing portrait of these people and if you haven't seen it almost more than any movie I've drafted, please watch this. So this was discussed a bit in Rathery's Do We Get to Win This Time series but the thing that stuck out to me when I watched it again today especially with a journalism background is that this is the ultimate fusion of primary sourcing with basically the best ever behind the scenes feature that you're ever going to see.
So because so much time transpired between the making of the movie and the making of this documentary you've got the ability to basically sit down with George Lucas John Milius Robert Duvall Martin Sheen, obviously Coppola and seeing the experience through Eleanor Coppola's eyes through her diary and having her kind of broker the film but then having George Hickenlooper come in who was not present for the making of the film and bring this kind of like incredibly studious fanboy approach to telling the story of the making of the movie and you put these two things together and it's unlike any other making of the documentary and for me it's like my dream of that and there are a lot of good versions of this but this one because of the psychotic nature of the production of the movie and Prince George Coppola being this extraordinary showman you know like such a good speaker about his own mythology I mean that is what it is but it is a combination of that I can't believe A. that this happened that they pulled it off B. that we got this on tape with the journalistic rigor applied later I mean it's a assumption It's really cool I'll end her forever We're done You want to go through your picks? Sure Chris you want to go first?
Okay My drama was Boys in the Hood My action thriller horror was Dead Again My drama is New Jack City My action thriller horror is Point Break Comedy Defending Your Life Blockbuster K-Fear Oscar nominee My beloved JFK and Wildcard Rays the Red Lantern So I'm about to throw to a convo We should talk about some honorable mentions because there's a lot of movies this year Well how about Until the End of the World? Yes speaking of them I actually wanted to revisit this before this pod There's a director's cut on Criterion Channel Yes so I acquired that edition Are you off streaming now? Are you not watching films? I'm trying to not watch movies on streaming because of the compression and the sound it's all much worse Obviously there's many cases where I can't do that So I wanted to revisit it and it was like I mean we're doing a movie night and I was like let's try to watch this but this film of course is two hours and 40 minutes or excuse me 240 minutes Oh So that's a tough one for a single sit so you really gotta lock in if you wanna watch Until the End of the World but very good movie A lot of those international movies that we didn't really go through Double Life of Veronique Kieslowski movie Lovers on the Bridge Last characters movie Last Summer Day Life is Sweet The Michael Lee movie which was on my list My Own Pride of Idaho Yeah Love that movie Fisher King from Terry Gilliam Jim Jarmusch's Night on Earth Center Stage I think that's the Stan Kwan movie I mean it's like I got a bunch here man Janae's Delicatessen City of Hope John Sayles movie like star ego driven like gangster movies I think in the 20s and the 30s with Bugsies a little bit later than that We didn't talk about Last Boy Scout or a couple other like kind of blockbuster things Mississippi Masala was this year was fantastic that we talked about that maybe on the Dental Draft Jungle Fever I mean just like the idea that these movies were like in theaters Jungle Fever are you kidding me and I also just love The Committance Yeah I had that on the longest too Daughters of the Dust Carl Franklin's One False Move also in the Criterion Collection now Once Upon a Time in China also in the Criterion Collection now Naked Lunch also in the Criterion Collection I was wondering if this is the year with the most Criterion additions in the last 50 years Is ski school in the Criterion?
Ski school yes there is a 4K UHD expansion so the new cut is 7 hours long Ski school was part of like a kind of subgenre of movie where it was like we like let's be lifeguards or let's be ski school instructors and then it's two dudes and then like a bunch of playmates I mean I don't is there something wrong with that? And it's usually like oh no the mountain's gonna get closed it's ski school we gotta do a fundraiser beat the jocks at this I got more here man I got one of our high heels I got The Addams Family which was a huge movie that year We didn't do what about Bob right? We didn't do what about Bob Is City Slickers the movie You're shepherds in screenwriting You're my Fitzgerald and Hemingway Yeah You studied under them for a decade and you didn't drive city slickers. What's happening here?
What happened? I don't know. You reached so soon on Barton Fink for comedy. Could have had it in another category.
LeFont of Keto was this year. The Five Heartbeats was this year. There's a lot of stuff here. Poison, Todd Haynes' debut.
Can I shout out one incredibly random movie that's my most vivid theory? I saw this in theaters at the age of seven. It's a movie called Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken. Do you know about this?
And it's about horse diving, which is a thing they used to do where you would just ride a horse off a 30-foot tower into a pool. And that was a romance. But then some things went awry with the horses and stuff with the divers. But what's up with horse diving?
Let's bring it back. Is my balloon this year? Yeah, it is. Released forever.
What about The Doors? I was waiting for you to talk about The Doors. My review of The Doors is that it stinks. However, the five-to-one sequence when Morrison is arrested on stage is one of the best moments in the 1990s movie history.
I don't know why the movie is so bad and was released in the same year as JFK. Oliver Stone was just cooking. Imagine what was going on inside of that guy's brain chemistry to make The Doors and JFK in the same year and release them. I mean, honestly, us doing a pod about 1991 is like Oliver Stone in 1991 cooking up pods about The Doors and JFK.
And by pods, I mean $80 million films that were released widely to America. People Under the Stairs, John Carpenter. Really good movie. Hook?
Yeah, it was a movie. Does Hook need a revisit from the big picture? If you want. When I was a kid, I liked it.
And then when I was like 20, I was like, I'm going to see what Hook is like. And it was so stupid. Even at the time, it was not really. And I was like on the Julia train.
Well, maybe I wasn't in 1991. Do you think I was allowed to see Pretty Woman in 1990? I do not. You were six.
Isn't there like a pretty deep Hook hive? Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. People will literally take any Spielberg movie and be like, you don't understand and the master was at work here. Watch him cook.
This is War Horse. I think there is like a mid to young millennial crew of people who really, really love it. That's your people, Bobby. I know.
I don't have a huge relationship to it. I mean, I've seen it a bunch of times just because it was on cable all the time. I think people are just a little older than you. I think John Robbins is a big fan.
I feel like he came up with me in our Spielberg pod. I've decided I've become anti-Spielberg because I learned recently that he's like pretty high on the Forbes billionaire list. He's like worth $4 billion. You and my dad can start the club.
Can you imagine if he had made Jurassic Park and everything he's done that he wasn't on the billionaire list? Wouldn't you be mad that he wasn't being fairly compensated? Wait, you're out on Spielberg because he's a billionaire? Yeah.
Sorry, regrettably. Bye, Steve. There's only room in my heart for one Steve who's a billionaire and we know who that is. All billionaire Steves are welcome in my book.
Steve Jobs, Steve Cohen, Steve Spielberg. Any other Steves you can think of? Any at all? Who's the dude who owns, is it BlackRock or Blackstone?
One of those guys named Steve Schwartzman. Absolutely, yeah. I'm in on him. I hope he hasn't done anything terrible that I don't know about.
Bill and Ted's Bogus Journey. Chris mentioned Rush pre-pod. Yes. Didn't draft that.
Why? Because it's a private experience for me just to watch Greg Allman walk around a bar and then Jason Patrick and Jennifer Jason Leigh do fucking junk for two hours and Sam Elliott goes, you're a dude. You don't know a lot anymore. One thing that's great about anyone.
I'm a guy named Dodds. If you could just swap lives with Sam Elliott, would you do it? Anything would be a pretty dope life. Jason Patrick picks Jennifer Jason Leigh to be his undercover cop partner because she beats four guys at like the 200 meters running.
He's like, that one's got some sport. And then they just fucking shoot heroin. That's your best, Sam Elliott? You could do better than that.
That's Jason Patrick. Oh, that was fun. Okay, I see. Would you swap lives with Jason Patrick?
No, I would not. In 1991, there was a movie, this is the fun thing about you, let's just look at the list that I put on Letterboxd, called One Against the Wind in the poster. It's just Judy Davis' giant head and two Third Reich Nazi insignia straight alongside her. Here's the description of the film.
Mary Linden works for the French Red Cross in Occupy France during World War II and helps allied soldiers who have been shot down and escaped to the unoccupied side. Her activities are complicated by her high profile and her daughter's love affair with a German officer. This is based on a true story. I want you to start going into the Appalachia Village Best Buy and be like, what I'm trying to do is create a pathway for all of these distributors to directly contact me.
I don't want third parties. Yeah, but I think it would be funny only go into Best Buy to get like vaguely Nazi-adjacent blue babies. Do you have to return me? Your version of the criteria closet is you just...
No, but all of your criteria closet is randomly picking the Nazi-adjacent blue babies. Is this the place to talk about what Bill wants me to do? So Bill wants me, after I go see a movie, to start recording One Good Blurb, which is immediately upon exiting the theater, I film myself and I give a one-sentence review of the movie. So I say like, hey guys, it's Sean from the big picture.
This is one good blurb for Bob Marley, Colvin, One Love. Are you supposed to do this while walking with, like, you know, AirPods? I'm not walking, but you can see the marquee behind me, you know? And I'm making a big show of how I'm out of the movies.
And for Bob Marley, One Love, it'd be like, you know, we jamming straight to hell with this middling adaptation of the life of Bob Marley. You know? You think that would work? I'm at the end of this.
You think that would be good? Yeah, really good. You think there's sponsorship opportunity there? Who do you think wants to come on board?
The crazy retail. Did you tell your wife that? No. I mean, how's that going?
She's just checking to make sure she's not on a 737 Max or whatever the hell it is. There's something going on with Boeing. I'm not up on this. Are you being serious?
Yeah, I don't know. Are you serious? That the door blew off. Okay.
And then, like, they did a search and then, like, half of the plane... Are you pretending not to know what I'm talking about? Like, this is the way those whales. Like, read the news, Sean.