The Ringer's music critic, Rob Harvilla, curates and explores 60 iconic songs from the 90s that define the decade. Rob is joined by a variety of guests to break it all down as they turn back the clock. Check out 60 songs that explain the 90s exclusively on Spotify. I'm Sean Fennessey.
I'm Amanda Dobbins. And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the year 2016. We are drafting once more. It's the Movie Draft 2016 edition, and CR is here.
Chris, what's up? What's up, guys? You ready for this, Chris? You freed the boat.
You did your work. You got your job done. The style is clear. Listeners can't see this, but I'm wearing a signature Brooks-Kepka Nike hat because I'm going long.
I was going to ask about this, and then I didn't, and now I'm both glad and regret not asking. The disco stick is pulled out. I'm definitely talking about the Comey letters. Let's do this.
You really are a beefy boy here on this podcast, so I'm excited to see what kind of long drives you've got in you with this draft. Before we get into it, you know, Amanda, I realized we didn't talk about a couple of sad losses in the world of movies last week when we were chit-chatting about the Oscars and about Black Widow, and so I just wanted to give a quick shout-out to three giants of movies and television. We lost George Siegel and Jessica Walter and Bertrand Tavernier last week. That was devastating.
I thought it would be an opportunity to just recommend a couple of movies from those great movie artists. George Siegel in particular, a huge favorite of mine. If you listened to our Top 5 Gambling Movies episode, I got a chance to talk about California Split. George Siegel's energy in California Split is what I aspire to at all times, which is, say, a heavy sweater, sunglasses, and a complete disregard for my own morality.
But, you know, Chris, one of the last times we went to the movies with our friends, we went to go see the Hot Rock in New Beverly, and a lot of Hot Rock energy has been going around lately. Siegel is so good in the Hot Rock, even though it's a really Robert Redford movie. What do you think of when you think of Siegel? Well, I think that for most of my life, I thought of him as a kind of grandfatherly paternal figure in the background of comedies that I would see, and it turns out he was just one of our great leading men, you know, of maybe, like, the post-World War II era, and there's so many movies to recommend.
But yeah, he is cool, he is funny, he was believable in action, he was believable in B-movies and thrillers, and he was, like, a really capable drama actor. Amanda, were you a Just Shoot Me watcher? I feel like Just Shoot Me was the second entry. I was literally going to say, the two reference points for me are Who's Afraid of Dina Wolf and Just Shoot Me?
And that is, that's, like, the range, right? That's, like, an entire career, and that also leaves out just, like, all the awesome movies in the early 70s. I just want to say, like, being in a movie with Robert Redford in 1972 and, like, kind of she was quite an actress in the 60s, she was, one, incredibly beautiful, just a very striking woman, and seemed like she was on the road to a kind of Jane Fonda-esque career as a leading lady, and then, you know, took some turns and then did a lot of work in television in the 70s and 80s. She was in a couple of cool movies in the 60s, especially Grand Prix, which was kind of her big breakout, this really exciting car racing movie that got her some recognition from the Golden Globes.
And I was thinking about how she is the star of a movie that is really, really hard to find. There are very few movies that are really hard to find these days, but Bye Bye Braverman, which is a Sidney Lumet movie that comes right after the group, which she also was one of the stars of, which also stars George Segal. They played opposite each other in this movie, Bye Bye Braverman, and I went hunting last night for it, and you can get it on DVD on Amazon, and that's pretty much the only place I can find it. I couldn't find it on Dailymotion, I couldn't find it on YouTube, I couldn't find it on any of the streaming services, but if you can track down Bye Bye Braverman or own a copy and just want to send it to me and Amanda and Chris, that would be greatly appreciated, because it's a little bit lost of time.
Any Jessica Walter thoughts from you guys? I'm just kidding. I was going to recommend the group, which is also really hard to find. I think I found it on streaming, like, once for, like, a month, two years ago, but I recommend that book, and a great movie if you can find it.
Chris, I know you have a framed poster, movie poster of the group, in your home, so I know that's a reference point for you, too. One of my wife's favorite novels. I would also just, for Jessica Walter, shout out Mallory Archer. He'd get her character on Archer, who is sort of a sister character to Lucille Bluth, but is arguably even funnier.
And Tabernier is a really interesting filmmaker. It's been funny. We've been hearing most about him on the watch, Chris, because Andy Greenwald has been on a journey and has been, I guess, getting interested in his films for the first time. And he's soft boycott of watching the TV that we're supposed to talk about so that he can talk about the Criterion movies.
So very interesting filmmaker, and also widely considered one of the greatest advocates for movies in the world for many years, and has been a critic and a publicist and a scholar and the kind of guy who clearly just will hector you with his movie knowledge. You can see why I relate to him at times. He's made a couple of really, really terrific movies, especially his debut, The Clockmaker of St. Paul, which I think is a really cool film.
Nine of his movies are available on the Criterion channel right now, as are some of his interviews about some of his favorite films and talking about Jean-Pierre Melville and good art people like that. So if you are interested in some film history to honor a legend, check out those movies. You guys ready to draft now? Yeah.
Oh, wait, one more George Segal movie? Yeah. Bridget Ramaghan is one of the most underrated World War II movies. I've never seen it.
It's so, so good. It is so good. It's just like a classic Chris Ryan recommendation, but that doesn't make it any less valuable. It's one of my favorite World War II motifs, which is Dutch Bridge movie, because the bridge too far was also that, but this is like they're fighting, lots of close quarters fighting in a town, and there's this bridge, and the Germans are blowing, you know, the Americans are blowing the bridges up, and the Germans are just great stuff.
Dutch Bridge movies? Yeah. Do you think we could get a top five Dutch Bridge movies pod? It depends on how much longer the pandemic goes on.
We have to resort to that category. Let's talk about 2016. 2016, pretty big year for the three of us. Amanda, who were you, and what were you in 2016?
Well, I moved to Los Angeles in January of 2016 for The Ringer, because it started five months later. I also got married five months later, or was it six months later, for both of those events. They were very close together. As I recall, you got married three days before we launched The Ringer, which was certainly a choice.
Well, in my defense, the wedding was planned, not by me, long before the launch date of The Ringer was planned. You can read about that in GQ Magazine, just Google Groomzilla. Anyway, moved to Los Angeles, which, you know, it was very exciting. I was excited about this job.
I was excited to be near you guys. I had always wanted to live in Los Angeles. New York is the best place on earth, in my opinion, but it was hard, and I had kind of hit my personal limit. So I was very excited to move here, and then I totally underestimated what a change would be.
And so there was obviously a lot going on in our lives and our work lives and in my personal life, I guess, because I got married, but also was just here in Los Angeles trying to figure things out. And so all of the movies I saw and where I saw them and who I saw them with are particularly resonant, because I was learning, you know, the different parts of the city and the different movie theaters and screening rooms, and also was, you know, on a bit of an emotional journey and trying to work it out through the movies. So I have a lot of great Chris Ryan stories at the movies. I don't know that I should share them all now.
Can I share my favorite? Do you know which story I'm going to tell, Chris? No, I don't. All right.
So, you know, moved to Los Angeles. I had some friends, but it's a new city, new people. And also, my husband was traveling a lot. He travels a lot for work anyway, but especially in that first year, he was going back and forth to New York a lot.
And for some reason, well, I know why. We wanted the full LA experience, so we rented this tiny, like, old house in the hills in Los Angeles. And it was really great, except, like, we lived on the side of a hill in Los Angeles, and I was, like, home alone all the time. And LA's a pretty lonely city before you put yourself on the side of a hill with your partner traveling all the time and you're not really knowing that many people.
So I, like, it was lonely. It was a lonely year in a lot of ways, and you guys both knew that. So you were very good and planned a lot of activities. And Chris, I think one day, you and your wife, Fidi, were, like, we're going to take you to the movies.
And I think you even picked me up. And we, like, drove to the Art Light, and we went to Salabara, and we got the Brussels Spout pizza, and we, like, ordered it early enough, you know, that we'd be there. You were just, like, here's how movies work in Los Angeles. We got you.
And we go, and we sit down, and we watch a film, and it was called The Invitation. And do you remember this? Yes. Okay.
So The Invitation is, like, I saw a really great film directed by Karen Kusama, but it is, wouldn't we call it a horror film? I think it's more like a worst-case scenario film. Sure. And you are the worst-case scenario.
It's the worst-case scenario of being alone in the hill. Yes! Because without spoiling The Invitation, it's, like, not the movie that I seek out, type of movie that I seek out for myself. Don't know if I knew that then.
Right. No, it's also a nice story about learning about our friends. Anyway, The Invitation is set in the Hollywood Hills, and it makes great use of that location at one point. And then I just remember, like, I think you drove me because I remember you guys just dropping me off at home afterwards.
Just, like, alone at night, I'm, like, in the hill, and we're like, bye, good luck! And, you know, I will always treasure that memory and that movie. I want to make so many jokes now, but I don't want to spoil The Invitation for people if they haven't seen it. I mean, for so many reasons, that's such an amazing...
Like, I can't pay you to go to a movie like that nowadays, too, so it's so great that they're just like, this will be fun! We'll check out if I'm living in L.A. It'll be great! It kind of likes our party!
This is what it's like! It was nice. There was a Q&A afterwards. You know they love this reading with the Q&A.
Yeah. It's great. CR, you were, what, five years into your L.A. experience in 2016.
Who were you? What were you doing? I mean, you and I were attached to HIP. We were making what would become The Ringer.
We were coming out of a very long period of, you know, a kind of quarantine. We'd been working in this house in Hollywood, a couple of us, on building out The Ringer for a few months by then. And then, you know, I was kind of going through this year on my photos and looking at big events. Because I think I was trying to define meaning from the year that we obviously will now look back on and be like, well, this was the start of something very personally, and I think naturally is somewhat dark.
And I was looking for, like, signs that that would be coming, what was to come. And it was hard to find them. You can see things politically and in the news that you're like, oh, that's alarming. But I don't think that we kind of had the foresight or the, you know, basically perspective to know how life was going to change in November.
But, you know, when we think about what the big cultural moments were that year, and to some extent, whether we're talking about movies or TV or just like what people were talking about, I would imagine that for all the movies that we're going to be talking about, nothing was watched as much as the presidential debates. You know, nothing captured our attention and kind of, and real conversation, but also just consumed us like that did. Yeah, it feels, obviously, there's an echo, I think, with what 2020 was in many respects with regard, obviously, to the pandemic, but more specifically the presidential race that took up a lot of viewing time. And so I have a hard time remembering between the presidential race, this project that we were all working on together and getting it to come to life.
And then also, once you get something to come to life, I think a lot of the second half of 2016 being in many ways harder than the first half, where it's like, it's alive and we're doing it, but it's really hard to make work every day. And so making it work was a huge investment. That's certainly the most I've ever worked in my career. And at the same time, I think we were all kind of like circling how much movie watching we were going to do, because movie going is such a huge part of the LA experience, too.
The story that Amanda just told about Chris, you and TV taking her to the movies. Like, that's what we did. I mean, Chris, I feel like for the last 10 years, our friendship has been more or less defined by like, oh, it's Friday at 4.30. Let's go to the Arclight or let's go downtown to a movie theater, or we all have a screening to go do together on a Wednesday or what have you.
So it's interesting to think of this as like the dawning of a new time, but also a time that like is maybe not best remembered for its movies. I do think that the movie thing that will probably be best remembered about this year is the Oscars and what happened the following year with Moonlight and La La Land as the kind of two big films going against each other in that extraordinary moment at the end of the Oscars. At the time, I think I've even written a column about this. I can't totally remember, but I was like, this is a watershed moment.
There's never been anything like this at the Oscars. It's a movie that's small, a movie that really has come out of nowhere, a movie from a distributor that has such limited reach, generally speaking. And then, you know, Shape of Water and Green Book won, and so it didn't really seem like anything to change that radically. But between Oscars so wide in 2015, the presidential election in 2016, and then the obvious intense backlash to that in early 2017, it felt like movies had become, I think what a lot of us were looking for throughout the Trump administration, which is like maybe some sort of cultural reflection or reaction to what was going on in the world.
And I didn't necessarily think that the world of movies necessarily lived up to that specific moment of the Oscars, that February in 2017. But what do you guys remember from the year of movies? What do you think defines that, the movie year for both of you? You know, I think when we were at Greenland those first few years, I think I remember being very conscious about the somewhat affirmative and optimistic feeling of a lot of, especially TV, even though you had like the antiheroes of prestige TV, I think that there was like a general undercurrent of, I don't know, enthusiasm or participation in institutions.
I don't know, maybe I'm being too vague, but I'm essentially talking about Parks and Recreation, maybe that shouldn't be a blanket statement for all of television. But I do remember the end of that era of being kind of like pleasantly bored, you know? Like, oh yeah, like the double mid commercial and beam dance, and it showed up in the office, and like, isn't this all great? And then that kind of coming to a crashing halt, you know?
Now, that's like a very simplistic way of reading when there were terrible things happening during the Obama administration. But I mean, just strictly speaking culturally, that's the kind of memory I have of like that era, and then that being like an abrupt change. And you look at some of the movies from 2016, which obviously like developed and written and planned and shot before the election, they have messages of that. There are some places where it's like, I feel like there's kind of like, what if we could communicate with aliens?
You know what I mean? Like, it's like this idea that like humanity has vast potential. But then there are some traces of like the residual hangover from the 08 crash or the financial crash, and like what that meant to the next five to 10 years. And we obviously saw that in its most significant way in the election.
Amanda, what about for you? Is there anything in particular that defines 2016 as a movie year? Well, for someone who's obsessed with the Oscars, like you and I are, for me, it's obviously like Moonlight and La La Land. And that's the defining thing.
And I still remember where I was when I watched both of those movies. But it's interesting if you look at the top 20 movies of the year in a box office perspective, and then you look at the Oscar movies, or even maybe the list of movies that the three of us want to see, or kind of if I were doing like the actual Amanda version of this draft instead of the draft version to win, there's almost no overlap between those movies. And, you know, that's standard now. But there were a lot of movies that were franchises and sequels and IP and making a lot of money.
And then there were still a lot of like smaller non-franchise movies that we were all interested in. And you could go to see all of those, and you could like talk about them with other people, and then they would win things at the Oscars. And it didn't, that still didn't feel like a, I don't want to say a waste of time, because I don't, those are the movies that I like, but they didn't feel as divorced from, I guess, pop culture. Even though they were completely separate, it was just there was like still room for a non-IP movie.
And this is like maybe one of the last years where that's the case. The only film that was in the top 20 at the box office that was non-IP, non-animated, was The Revenant. And that obviously has a lot to do with the filmmaker and the stars of that movie, Leo and Tom Hardy, and their being an ability to sell a big movie like that as an event. But it does feel like that part of movie going is slipping through our fingers.
I think simultaneously, this is the last year when it felt like Netflix was not really like a significant part of the movie experience in the world. You have a couple of Amazon movies that make a little bit of noise this year, specifically Manchester by the Sea. That was an Amazon acquisition that went on to be Oscar nominated. And then pretty much from that point forward, the integration of the streamer with the traditional studios starts to be happening kind of on an ongoing basis.
And if we look at the Oscars this year, for example, it's largely streamers, it's majority streamers in terms of who's being recognized in the categories. And so, you know, I don't think it's necessarily a turning point. And I don't think that the political climate is really meaningfully represented. You can always find meaning in individual movies, but it's kind of odd here.
To jump in before Amazon and Netflix started hoovering up all of the material and while the studios were largely focusing on their IP stuff. So that's where you see, you know, not just Moonlight in particular, but movies like The Witch or Green Room or 20th Century Women, like Anna Perna is very active at this time. And so there was a lot of good stuff, but it did feel like it was not necessarily on the margins, but not in the main names. stream so it's an interesting draft because i'll bet there's a lot of movies that we feel personally committed to but aren't necessarily on the order of like an event you know they're and i wonder if like as we keep going through the years here if it will be harder and harder for us to do this exercise like we may have to just keep going into the past to make this make sense because the 2018 1920 those movie drafts might be a little bit weird what do you think chris well i was thinking while you were talking there about um what a good tv year was here and that kind of ties into what amanda was saying about like the non-ip stuff this was a year that had the crown stranger things on netflix uh fleabag atlanta and probably one of the most beloved if not the best game front season so there was just like this all of a sudden you know obviously people had been saying for a while tv is where the real stories are out but this is the first time where you're like are these tv shows as big as movies if not bigger you know like are the stranger things the crown and game of thrones you would put up against most of the blockbusters you're the exception of the marvel and star wars stuff yeah other things but yeah as we get closer and closer to the present day it seems like you know you get good years and bad years but you are like really moving chess pieces of these blockbuster ip movies around um it's harder and harder to find these kind of like you know uncut gems in there i mean do you feel like you have six movies that you're like these are my movies and i will draft them from this list was it an easy exercise no but there are movies that i like you know there are there are a few that are obvious passion points for certain people on this podcast which you know i don't want to reveal strategy or anything but i've been thinking about it um yeah you know um i mean there's still good stuff i feel like i can't remember the year it was maybe it's like 2014 where i was just like pulling teeth to find six movies that i was really excited about and it's not that but i do think it is sort of a weird year and hard to put together like a quote narrative within six films yeah i agree with you i think i guess we should just should we get right to it all right let's let's take a quick break and then we come back we will draw from fix first okay we're back wags you're here i am here my internet is holding out long enough just to help crease the wheels of the 2016 movie draft we need you just just to get the draft order here so let's let's get the draft order going okay picking first is sean god damn it everybody always seems so mad about picking first i always say the name of the person they're always like yeah like did you not prep to pick first isn't that what you do in draft well it's because it means you pick last you don't want to pick last i say okay chris is up next and that makes amanda third okay you're not excited about this amanda i don't know i guess so it's i just i'm just adjusting to the new world order you know it's like when i receive a piece of information i gotta understand how i'm gonna fit into all of it and until i understand i'm you know stressed out you know me the new world order i don't know it's different than it was two minutes ago you're picking first and chris is picking second i didn't know that i like the idea of someone listening to this podcast and imagining some sort of luminati theory based on our drafting style you know i think that they're we could i mean the cr heads they might be in that course you never know they're motivated they certainly are they certainly are um if you've never listened to a movie draft episode let us briefly explain the rules we draft from six categories we do it in a snake style the six categories are drama comedy or horror blockbuster and in blockbuster you need to make 100 million dollars or more at the box office for your pick animated or foreign language sequel and a wild card category returning to the old school categories now that we've moved on from 1984 who won 1984 by the way did i win no i don't know so neither do you know which means i won which is great no i think amanda won did she yeah no i don't shall consult the twitter account of the podcast we all host sure if you want to i got it guys i got the results if we're not factoring in in facebook because i don't have time to find it on facebook and add them up just on twitter sean has won with 43.9 percent of the vote amanda came in second and chris came in last a strong last though 25 a strong last okay so i'm i'm coming on i'm on a two-game winning streak you guys know that's like you know how that feels you don't know how that feels i don't think have we ever had a two-game streak in the history of the draft once again i do this to talk about movies with my friends and the community of people who like to listen to this and then i move on she is saying that but if you know her you know that she needs to keep the monster locked away because she is as competitive as anybody i've ever met and if she just actually engaged with the advanced analytics of like victories and defeats and road wins it would be a wrap in amanda's window right now there are two very beautiful pieces of art that are elegantly framed her head is right to tune but then directly to the right there is a homeland style pinboard all the graphs and all the results historically and this faux blasé approach you i'm not really sure i don't know about the meanwhile i'm trying to like aggressively reject like a social media accounting of my value judgment on movies that's what i'm doing and i'm just also trying to you know be in the world but not this world i have been um continuing to stoke the conversation because i don't want to make my pick you are you are fucking filibustering right now i noticed that like five minutes ago oh yeah uh okay so i have the first pick right yeah i think there's one category that's very slim here but i have not a lot of great choices so i'm going to open with that category this could be a big mistake i genuinely have no idea i didn't feel like i prepared very well for this i'm going with rogue one in sequel but rogue one is i guess a sort of odd it's like a sidequel right it's like a prequel sequel exists somewhere in between a story yeah and is it before a new hope there's a scene at the end of rogue one that you may have seen in a new hope um rogue one is very good i think when it came out there was a sense that it was um a little bit of a disappointment and a bit of a confusing endeavor and we actually are not getting any more star wars films like this it seems these kind of like side door stories that are told um a little bit askew from the rest of the historical narrative and obviously there's a lot of production drama around the film where the original filmmaker uh gareth edwards was gareth edwards yeah um gareth edwards effectively left the film or did not complete the film and tony gilroy came in to do some rewrites and shoot some additional sequences certainly seems like that worked and in some cases i think maybe some movies should have two different filmmakers working on it at two different times um what gilroy added seems to have worked really well and that darth fader scene that christ is citing is pretty incredible kind of what a bunch of nerds like me were waiting for for 30 years was to see darth fader i would like to have a higher opinion of myself but that might be my decade highlight of being in a movie theater it was pretty exciting i saw the movie i know they just do the scene where in the beginning of new hope they are trying like princess lay has gotten this message you know and it explains like um you know just basically steps off the star wars like story but this is the getting the message to her scene and a bunch of guys get killed by darth fader in the process of doing that it's a very dramatic staging of darth fader's power and it's cool it's like it's genuinely satisfying um so that's what i'm going with rogue one for sequel c r you're up i'll go um blockbuster and pick my like low-key favorite marvel movie which is so uh i rewatched this recently obviously because of wandavision because everybody's just got to talk about marvel 24 7 now but uh i also rewatched it because it has it has like some stuff to tell us about uh about falcon winter soldier this movie is pretty pretty excellent like it is two movies there is the sort of drama that's at the core of it with the iron man captain america schism and then there is sort of like a fun backdoor pilot comedy with spider-man that is like totally actually quite different from the rest of the film but uh really enjoy this movie and it's probably like my like sort of platonic ideal for a marvel movie so i'll go with uh civil war number one i think um i want to say that chris you and i brought our wives to this film is that possible if it is it's the last marvel movie my wife ever saw i think that's sort of what i was saying is i don't think that we walked i think we had dinner afterwards and uh we attempted to spoke a conversation about the film and i think we were met with the lights there wait i was going to ask you because i actually do listen to the watch what do you actually do you guys listen to the big picture yes i do oh my god how do i get tested on the big picture i know you guys want to be able to see oscars that was lovely okay there we go can you do one of your segment transitions for us okay so i do listen to the watch and i've been you with the sokovia accord or whatever it is it's like a running joke and i know that the sokovia i know that like this movie is when sokovia like really becomes central to the captain america winter soldier whatever experience but i don't remember what it is yeah so in ultron yeah that robot drops the city remember right yeah and like the superheroes pretty much save the day but at the end there's still like a lot of like infrastructural damage you know um and there are these things called the sokovia accords which are basically there for checks and balances and for governance of superheroes and some of the people like tony stark are like this is really what we need to be doing because i you know we can't just have unchecked power and captain america is like bro who better to decide how to use our power than the people with the powers and then they fight but then there's there's other stuff happening okay thank you i can't believe i got you to talk about superhero checks and balances on a podcast but that was really great for me personally it culminates in a very long fight between iron man and captain america yes they just punch each other over and over again and you know honestly i enjoyed it i'm not i'm not about that okay the hot corner with dobbins let's go all right the first one i know what i'm gonna do i was gonna do this if i got number one it will be in black western clocking in at 100 million and five hundred thousand dollars arrival um it did you're googling you're making that face at me but there's there's wikipedia has the number that amanda has and box office mojo has it at 92 and that's that's calendar gross and i did in your release which is there you go historically what we've done wow yeah huge for you okay thank you yes we're gonna have the fact checking team just just look back at this just be totally sure okay are we not doing any releases anymore even though we've done them for every other other draft no i total total lifetime gross is good absolutely domestically all right i've checked it it clears it clears on box office mojo and wikipedia look who decided to work just in time i'm here to support ananda she checked the fact she did the homework as always you were going to pick anyway this is great no matter what um arrival i both talked about like how much we love arrival and how much we provide it was on our both best of the decade list um and you know i didn't realize that it would be eligible for blockbuster i didn't realize that it made like 100 million dollars just fairly sweet five but we'll take it and i guess it is like technically an alien story but to me it is sort of like what you can do within the genre um visually and emotionally um and i just am completely amazed by it every time so if you've not seen arrival recently i really recommend it that is blockbuster it stars 80 adams by the way oh yeah okay your favorite hard to believe you remember that chris um i don't know what i'm gonna do number two chris what was your captain america pick in what category that was in blockbuster okay so you have sequel left and i kind of i know what you might do but i don't really care that much about it so i think that i will just go in drama and take moonlight um which you know we've talked about the kind of moonlight as a historical moment and we talk about it all the time on the oscars portion of the podcast but i think in because we talk about like its significance and it winning so much we forget about how good it is and it's just like an extraordinarily beautiful movie that i revisited this weekend and um it is just so i mean obviously it's so visually stunning and it has incredible performances but this sense of how to communicate who a person is by film and not like what happens to them and not just like what events are but to feel this person and this person changing and this person learning um it's extraordinary uh so moonlight best picture winner okay i mean i i i've been re-watching the films of wong kawai recently for as you do amanda and i are going to do an episode of wong's film soon which i'm really excited about the criterion collection re-issued eight of his films and remastered them um and i watched happy together last night and happy together there's a very famous quetano veloso needle drop which also was borrowed by barry jenkins and a very clear homage to wong's work um incredible film wonderful movie you know there's like a 10-part barry jenkins tv series how crazy is that 10 hours of barry jenkins should be really exciting uh of course work too um okay so i did blockbuster i did uh captain american civil war for sequel i'm gonna do conjuring 2 i thought you might go here yeah uh this i think is this isn't a huge statement it's the best conjuring movie i think it's the best conjuring movie the best extended universe conjuring movie and is a really great example of how horror does not have to uh to upset your stomach you know it's just essentially this one is set in england it does a really great job using the atmosphere of like always raining uh 1970s london um and it's just uh like nice and it's just like a really effective use of atmosphere and mood over gore and uh shock um so you know these movies are really reliable and i wish that there were more kind of um original idea horror movies that expanded like this we've kind of like we're kind of going in circles a little bit although you know there's a lot of other horror to pick from this year uh so yeah i'll just go to for for sequel okay we have a we have a huge challenge on the big picture which is in approximately two months there's a new conjuring movie now chris obviously you and i really love the conjuring movies we did a rewatchable episode about it amanda a little bit afraid of movies like the conjuring she can hang with it i watched one of them because you asked me to conjuring is the one with uh patrick wilson and yeah i was into it i'm huge patrick wilson fan you might like you might like i think it's much scarier than the original honestly okay i mean it's the doll right well annabelle that's a whole other that's in the universe right but it's sort of like a creepy fantastical thing is the source of most of the scares it's a possession yes very ghost okay um the subtitle of the new conjuring film is called the devil made me do it which is just ace that's just can't you really can't do better as far as third installment titles uh i like that pick okay so i have to make a pick huh two picks in fact i'm gonna go heart i'm gonna stop playing with my head this time i'm just going pure heart these are uh two films that i like a great deal first one i'm going comedy or horror and i'm going with everybody wants them yeah i knew it you know why it might be the best movie of 2016 might be uh certainly the movie that is the most fun to return to and as is almost always the case with richard and clear movies that bomb at the box office the cult is growing every day and this is just such a fun movie uh chris we were just talking about why russell appearing in a winter soldier i think this is really the first time i got a look at him and he is my boy of the scenes of the decade in this movie unreal him him what are they listening to they're listening to pink floyd and he's talking about the twilight zone and the power of weed and the power of rock and roll and uh just truly great shit so anyway everyone's i think a great college movie there are very few great college movies honestly a really good sports movie a really good friendship movie a really good romance has a lot of things going for it so we enjoyed it first time i ever saw her too really discovered a bunch of people as ninclair so often does so for comedy or horror and this is a tough pick for me because there's a lot of really good horror movies this year but going with everyone's next pick should i stick with my heart sure pick deadpool it's on my long list i know it's on my long list i enjoy deadpool uh i'm not picking deadpool though i'm gonna take hell or high water in drama yeah which is also a really great film this is a film i think a lot of people sought to apply some of that political ideology onto about you know chris not to some of what you're describing with the supposed 2008 financial crash and the way that a lot of industrialized towns were scooped out and small parts of the american west and midwest were kind of left to die and the idea of bank robbers who were you know essentially bankrupted by banks um then the kind of the relationship between people who don't have and people who need.
I think it's really interesting in the movie. It's also just a good heist movie and it's a good movie about brothers. So hell or high water in drama. That's okay.
Sierra, you're up. Yeah, I will go for drama. I'll take Niche of Odyssey, which features one of the best performances of the decade from Casey Affleck, but also like a raft of really great supporting performances from Luke Settis and Kyle Chandler and Michelle Williams. And it's not a movie that I plan to revisit very often throughout my life, but you know, it's the Kenneth Longer special where he just like punches you in the soul 15 times and has like two or three scenes where you're just like, this is torn out of like absolute real life and it's just heartbreaking and it just feels so true.
And you know, very special movie that like, you know, obviously like all Kenneth Longer movies seems to need like Matt Damon to move heaven and earth to get it made. But you know, it's just one that still haunts me to this day. So I'll take Niche of Odyssey. Scene where Michelle Williams and Casey Affleck see each other after a long period of time and they have the conversation is like, is in the running for the most punishing sequence of the 2010s.
Very, very moving. I saw this movie at 10 a.m. on a Saturday because I knew that like, no, on purpose, on purpose. Because I was like, yeah, like then I got to be able to have some time and some sunlight in order to like cope and work through this.
And like we really did. A friend drove across Tennessee with us and then we went and had pizza. I just remember sitting at like the table eating pizza being like, and it's just like dead silence. Everyone working through their feelings.
Yeah. Lots of pizza while thinking about the punishing nature of loss. Just really fun times. Amanda, you got two picks.
Yeah. I have to be honest. I have a million wild cards and I also, I was going to do Everybody Wants Some in comedy. So I'm a little lost now.
I would say that, hmm. Oh, the fan is on. No, I know. I mean, I was like talking about pizza.
You know what? Screw it. I'm just going to be me. In comedy horror, I will take the invitation.
Just, you know, you guys know why if you listen to this podcast. Sentimental favorite and also I never get to pick a horror film. And then. Also, Logan Marshall Green and Michael Wiesman is the original Spider-Man meme.
There's guys pointing at each other. Okay. I guess. All right.
I don't know what to do. There's a lot of good films left. No, I know. But, you know, like doing wild cards.
I have like eight wild cards and I don't feel super strongly about any of the leftover sequel really or even animated foreign picks. You know what I'll do? I'll take hand in foreign. Sheesh.
God damn it. Sheesh. So here's the thing. You and me know.
You and me are partners in the anti-drawing. Sure. Yeah. And so that really like we've shrinked down and then there's just like really only a handful of notable foreign films that I personally have seen.
Right. So this is the toughest category. Yes. That's kind of why I did it.
I confess I didn't revisit this before this draft. But I remember liking it even though Chris, I'm a little surprised that you were going to be so comfortable with Handmaiden given that anything remotely explicit freaks you out. No, but Chris has a BDSM exception. Okay.
So anything BDSM, he does like to check out. GIFs only. Oh my God. Okay.
Amanda, this is like a weird this urban legend that you're pumping out there that I'm uncomfortable with a lot of things. As soon as anyone comes to Leo, which like granted when Sean works for everybody but like your neck starts just like bulging a little and it doesn't. Yes, it does. I can see it from here.
It's okay. That's just the angle of my computer. Listen, I don't work Blueberry well either. Zach makes fun of me every time I do it.
We're just like a bunch of goody two-shoes. It's okay. But you like, it's so visible, your reaction, Chris, which is why I go with you every time. He just has to go back to his happy place and he had his arrival.
The Handmaiden is a choice. You know, Park Chan-wook, obviously straight up genius, one of the best filmmakers of the last 30 years. Again, it's very strange that this is a film that Amazon was like, we should put this on our service because if you've seen the film, it's pretty, it's very intense and very sexualized and very violent but quite beautiful and interesting. It's a great pick.
I'm sure Chris and I will seriously think about it for foreign language. Do you have another pick? No, that's two. I did Invitation and Handmaiden.
That is, I've not a thousand tries what I've guessed that you would have taken those two films. Well, you know, I live to surprise. So I have comedy horror left, I have animated foreign language left, I have wild card left. And so with my comedy horror pick, I am going to take Green Room.
Jeremy Saulnier's movie about a punk rock band, Lost in the Woods in rural Oregon and getting beset upon by a white power gang is the most intense movie I think of the decade. It features some of the most harrowing scenes of the decade. Patrick Stewart is fucking incredible in this movie. Anton Yelchin is incredible in this movie.
Count Turner, who is going to be in the new version of Band of Brothers that they're doing, Masters of the Air on Apple and he's one of the stars of that is in this film. He's really good. Imogen Poots is dynamite in this movie. This one I've gone back to over and over again.
I really think it's one of the best made movies of the decade and it's one of the most thrilling horror thrillers that you'll see. It's stuck with me for a long time. The nice scene in this movie I'll sometimes just like when I open a door I think about that scene. This is Saulnier's second best film I think after his series of Taco Bell commercials starring Steve from Stranger Things.
The Craving. Are you familiar with that Amanda? I know those commercials. What a performance is their island in those commercials too.
That's the thing. Do you want to turn this into a Amanda's commercial review? You know that's the thing. Because you're just going to talk about some theories.
I love you. I mean, poop chaka, laka chaka. All right, which has already gone too far. This is not Spawn.
The only Spawn we do is for Pizza Hut because no one has Pizza Hut here on the picture. Okay, my turn, right? Two picks. My remaining categories are Blockbuster, Animated or Foreign Language and Wild Card.
So, Animated or Foreign Language I am not going to choose an animated film. Wow. There were some good animated films this year. I'm not going to pick one.
I'm going to choose I'm going to choose Straight to Busan which is a South Korean zombie movie. Maybe the best zombie movie of the last 10 years. And very exciting movie that got a bit of a second life on streaming. There have been some sequels and prequels since then.
Neither of which I think come even close to stacking up. But the original Train to Busan is an amazing and exciting movie. Great double feature of Snowpiercer which is basically the other film that takes place on a train and runs in that kind of horizontal strategy throughout the entirety of the film. So that's my pick for foreign language.
I thought there were a lot of good foreign language movies this year though, Chris. You wouldn't say that. What are you applying? No, you just like award your knowledge of movies over us.
It's like... Okay, next category. I'm going Blockbuster and I'm going to go Sully. Sean!
You only saw Sully because I told you to. That's right. He was just Sully. Come on.
Sully is exactly what I'm talking about when I talk about Obama content. God damn it. This guy just laid a death lane. Shout out to him.
Well, as one... Amanda, you did say you love Sully. I remember you loved Sully when you died. What actually happened was Zach and I went to see it and then I think we texted you.
We went to the Vista. Shout out to Vista. Love you forever. And we were like, hey, Sully's really good.
And then you and Eileen went to see it that afternoon and then we all had dinner together. So then we talked about Sully. So I do take credit for this particular one. I have to say, Flight ruined Sully for me.
But Flight happened before Sully. I know, but I'm saying Flight... You see Flight, Sully can't live up to Flight because you're just like, when is Sully going to do all the coke? It's a good point.
It's a different experience. Have you seen Flight recently, Chris? I re-watched the crash sequence on YouTube. That is the most classic.
When he's just like, what's your son's name? Say his name to the black box. Oh my God. Yeah, it's good.
I re-watched the rest of it as well recently for our Denzel podcast. Fascinating film. Anyway, the thing about Sully is that it's a good movie. Do you have to Kelly Riley in that movie?
Amy Adams, Kelly Riley, you're off on a tangent here, Chris. Just ring it in. The thing about Sully is that it's completely made up. Certainly that man saved those people but he did not have to say before some sort of like mock trial.
That was entirely invented for the movie. And so all of the drama that comes to the end of the movie is fake. Nevertheless, Hanks crushes it. He's great.
Were you guys still in New York when that happened? I was. I was. When did that happen?
I think it was 2009? Yeah, that sounds right. I was working in an office building to overlook the Hudson and so I remember I could see out my window there was a great deal of commotion going on outside. I looked on the news.
I was working as a merchandiser at E Music at the time as I recall. Wow. Fascinating part of my career. I can't remember 2009.
I very well may have missed the whole thing. I just remember it was like really early social media and so we kind of knew that was happening in real time and so I remember people being like I guess I'm just going to walk over to the Hudson to like watch this happen but it wasn't like full form social media yet so you could just do that and watch this weird news event it's very strange. Well, it gave us a charming film from The Great Clean Eastwood. So those are my few picks.
Chris, you're up. Okay, I guess for a wild card I will take Hail Caesar. Wow. Which is for Joel and Ethan Coen.
You know, you say comedy but it's a very deep movie and I just want to shout out our buddy Adam Naiman because Adam Naiman wrote a piece I think for Reverse Shot about Hail Caesar that was like the piece that I read by Adam where I was like Adam Naiman is fucking great at this and it's this basically deep reading of the symbols and the subtext of Hail Caesar that unlocked this movie for me in a way that, you know I still remember as one of my favorite pieces of that time period and this movie is very funny Josh Bolin is great and it's got the whole Channing Tatum dance sequence it's got really a lot to it so Hail Caesar would be my wild card. Okay, Amanda. Seems like you've been foiled multiple times here. Yes, but also no because there are other options I just, you know I don't like changing things I don't like readjusting my strategy midstream.
What? No, I've never experienced that doing this podcast with you. Never got the sense that you're not flexible on these things. So I guess I have sequel and wild card left.
I have to be honest I'm not really thrilled with any of my sequel options nor did I revisit any of them before watching this so if you're going to tell me that there are huge parts of the film that I've like totally blacked out that's completely fine and I don't want to be held responsible for any of the political content in this but I'm going to go with Jason Bourne because I remember it and also honestly because as I mentioned got married in 2016 so I did actually get to go on a honeymoon in 2016 before the world fell apart and we went to Greece and we went to the Parthenon like it was one of the most magical things that has ever happened to me in my life because I didn't know that we were going to be able to do this and we were like suddenly there at sunset and it was like the most beautiful thing in the world and it's just like what a gift and I took a picture of my husband at the Parthenon and I put it on Instagram and then like Chris just left a comment about like dudes fighting from Jason Bourne like on Instagram did I? Yes! You were like did you go visit like the whatever pit where they fight in Jason Bourne because I think we saw it together so that's a nice memory and I like the Jason Bourne films Did you and Zach reenact that sequence in Parthenon? Not at that particular moment so that's my pick for sequel and then in wild card I was going to do Hail Caesar because I like that movie a lot I guess hmm you know what I'll do I'm going to stay me I'm going to stay like honeymoon travel remember the world being great and go with a bigger slash Oh yeah Yeah Which Sean I know that you like a lot I'm sorry that was going to be your wild card The Ravensons Yeah The Ravensons Obviously I look at it like kind of a remake of Lapisian sort of anyway but just for the first half at least like tremendous Sicily you know Europe in the summer living it up Ralph Fiennes dancing never forget and then things turn but a great film if you haven't seen it To Emotional Rescue Dancing to Emotional Rescue just absolutely one of the scenes of the century This was my favorite movie of the year in 2016 I probably would re-evaluate some of my rankings from the year given how many great films there were but I was definitely eyeballing this for wild card so well done So are you done Amanda?
That's it? Yeah How are you feeling about your roster? Okay Yeah I think it's good I think I got the things that I care about and then also some quirky choices I suppose but they're still on brand for the most part Got it Sierra what category is that for you? I only have foreign animated Okay so you can't take X-Men Apocalypse unfortunately No I know I've brought this up before but I think that I'm just going to bring it up one more time I think that there should be some exceptions in foreign films when a film is in everything but language foreign No My response is no Alright What would be an example of that?
Personal Shopper? No Well That film isn't entirely in English No I know but it's largely in English Oh so we have to make a ruling what percentage of the dialogue I tried this before with Her Majesty's colonies where I was like it's like a Scottish movie foreign because it's not American but we're only talking foreign language and you ruled that it was foreign language Personal Shopper I don't think it gets over the line there Okay well I'll just go Tony Urban then Good movie You done talking about it? I'll say that I haven't seen this film since 2016 and that this is playing to my Letterboxd heads who I think that we have like a mixed relationship kind of like up and down Chris you used Letterboxd I have a Letterboxd account but I still haven't gotten over the fact that you didn't follow me back on Letterboxd What are you talking about? You followed like a different Chris Ryan account and I told you like six times I'm like following me on Letterboxd and you're just like cool and you never do Are you serious?
Am I following the wrong Chris Ryan? You need to tell the CR heads to stand down that they need to stop creating false accounts everywhere they've run amok and now I don't follow the right Chris Ryan on my social media platform Anyway this is a great film very funny great movie What am I supposed to say? Very believable Chris I can't pick Elle man so I'm just going to go so I'm going to get married Did they remake this? Were they going to remake it?
They were Was Lena Dunham going to remake this? Am I making that up? I want to say That actually does sound right now that you think about it once I go through all the headlines She was going to like EP it maybe? It was going to be Lisa Cholodinko was going to write it and then Lena Dunham and Jenny Conner or maybe they were going to write it first and then Lisa Cholodinko came in with Kristen Wiig and then there was talk of Jack Nicholson coming out of retirement to play The Father Huh Wild Card I have an absolute bounty of choices here If you guys were me what would you pick?
I think I know what you're going to pick Wait what category you have left? Wild Card If I were you? Yeah I can say what I say Sure I think you'd pick nice guys It's on the long list but that's if you were me I was going to say that's if you were your last pick If I were you I would pick Suicide Squad But the air cut What are we going to do about the Suicide Squad movie guys? What are we going to do about that?
Are we going to do a podcast about that? Yeah I'm pretty concerned about that movie You're concerned about it Well you know Charles Holmes and Dan Leithan were on the Ring of Earth podcast they're doing it after every episode about The Winter Soldier and at the end of the episode they talked about the trailer and they were like this trailer rules and I just I don't see that at all I do not see that trailer ruling I'm a little bit concerned yeah welcome to how I feel all the time well it's tough so man if you were me what would you take you're going to do OJ Made in America right I am of course I am is this not eligible it's eligible but like it's just like you picked like the freaking Peabody winning documentary instead of being a lord I gotta tell you you are giving a lot away in your Letterboxd profile when you put these things together which is actually a very lovely service and I appreciate it and thank you for your prep I'm sharing it but then you like very clearly rank them and I don't yes but like subconsciously you do for those of us who know you let me tell you what I do I'm glad you pointed this out because when I post that sometimes people say are these ranked and I don't reply because I have an odd relationship to people adding me about things but I'm almost but then you replied to Andrew Yang about the Mets though so you are in your way did you reply to Andrew Yang about the Mets no I want to and I will do that right here I'm prepared to respond to Andrew Yang's Mets tweets right now Andrew let's not and say we did how about that let's not tweet as though we are a sincere fan of the Mets but we can say that we did but let's not do it do we have a deal Andrew thank you moving on the letterbox thing what I do is I clone someone else's list so someone else has made a list of all the films I clone that list on the letterbox and then whatever's missing I fill in but you're right I'm giving some things away honestly OJ Made America hard to get it's pretty undeniable obviously it's one of the signature documentary achievements in recent times and an incredible piece of work so much so that when it won the best documentary there basically was a huge backlash within the academy that then eliminated miniseries like this from being eligible for the Oscars I still think of it as a movie it was fully conceived as a film it was not conceived as a miniseries and so to me it makes sense even though it's chapterized declaration of a frankly like unevolved way of thinking in my opinion I thought that the Mid-N-America could have signaled an interesting way forward nevertheless Ezra Edelman's portrait of a country coming apart at the seams is seen through the eyes of this one very famous football player and the thing that happened to him and what he did over the course of 50 years just an amazing movie I think I've talked about it on the show before but I was working at ESPN at the time I got a chance to see the rough cut of the film and talk to Ezra about it and that was really one of the cooler professional experiences I've had and know Ezra a little bit and just an amazing admirer I think he's a genius he hasn't made a film since this film so I look forward to whatever it is he does next so that's my last pick of Jamie in America so shall we recap our selections? boy we missed a lot yeah do you want to do honorable mentions before we recap? sure no recap first then we'll do some honorable mentions okay here's the recap in the drama category Chris selected Manchester by the Sea I selected Hell or High Water Amanda selected Moonlight that's a bang up category right there comedy or horror Chris selected Green Room I selected Everybody Wants Some Amanda selected The Invitation Blockbuster Chris selected Captain America Civil War I selected Sully and Amanda selected Arrival for animated or foreign language Chris selected Tony Erdman I selected Train to Busan Amanda selected The Handmaiden for sequel Chris selected The Conjuring 2 I selected Rogue One A Star Wars Story and Amanda selected Jason Bourne and then Wildcard Chris selected Hail Caesar I selected O.J.
Made in America and Amanda selected A Bigger Splash so we missed a lot the number one movie that I feel bad about missing is The Witch Robert Eggers horror movie which I'm a big admirer of and I think if everybody wants to have not been released this year that would have been my pick in the horror category any regrets Amanda? I almost did Love and Friendship in Wildcard which is though with Stillman Jane Austen adaptation I think it's I can't remember whether it's unfinished or whether it's a novelette but it's not one of like the core six Austen novels starring Kate Beckinsale which is very charming I like that one a lot I think we all three feel an affection for the Light Between the Oceans or at least the NITWARE in Light Between the Oceans that's where they find a baby right? Sea and France what a wild man I had lunch with Eric Sea and France for this film and I was like I think this is a major work man I think big things are coming for you you are the news why do we have lunches like that where you tell me that about me? Me and you?
I only do it on pods that you don't listen to I listen to the big picture when you're not on the big picture I'm like Chris is the dearest person I've ever known and it's just a titanic talent and he should be celebrated at all times and then you get on this podcast and you and all your minions attack Amanda and I we're just trying to do the good work of sharing your voice it's shameful it's shameful and I expect an apology immediately after we finish recording okay moving on Light Between the Oceans do you like that movie? I honestly really don't remember much other than the NITWARE and like two very beautiful people who later got married on a near lighthouse is that right? I mean it looks very beautiful again I think another tough sit in actuality for sure Chris what else? What else did we miss?
Can I throw out a couple I wouldn't say B movies like I'm trying to disparage them but just like fun times at the movies how about Temple Overfield Lane Dope movie Triple Nine pretty entertaining Ouija origin of evil a great Mike Flanagan horror movie Blair Witch which is not good except for the last like 30 minutes which will literally make you barf it's so crazy Adam Wingard's got a new movie coming out it's called King Kong vs. Godzilla Congress vs. Godzilla is it Congress vs. Godzilla or are they going the full name?
I believe it's Godzilla vs. Kong oh wow Godzilla negotiated for first on the post-dust or did he we'll just have to wait and see when we see the film Amanda and I will be talking about that movie with Chase around here on Big Picture later this week also I can't let this opportunity pass me by my girl Double A Amy Adams nocturnal animals what a journey that was oh my god can't say I was a big fan just make an iced coffee that one I had to see by myself I don't remember why I guess you guys had already seen it but that was like a classic Amanda goes to the arc flight at like 4pm on weekday and goes to see a movie and that emerges and is like what the hell is happening and really like what's going on with you if you're alone if it's out of town you're just like great just going back to my house you remind me a little bit of Aaron Taylor Johnson from Nocturnal animals me? I think at times I've tried to have that vibe now I don't know I don't know so much and then I also really enjoyed The Shallows oh that was a great movie what was the bird's name hey hold on a second hey Phoebe what was the bird's name in The Shallows? we have to keep this keep this in keep this in this has to stay did you guys know that the bird's name in The Shallows was Steven Seagal?
are you fucking kidding me man? pretty good it's pretty good hold on to that for like 5 years can I tell another Phoebe going to the movie story that also relates to a movie that we did not talk about at all from this year which is La La Land remember that? oh yeah now that it did admit Best Picture and Moonlight 1 and Moonlight is a far better and more important film I have to admit it's someone who had just moved to Los Angeles and wanted to live in Los Angeles in Park because she loves movies and loves the splendor of movies I enjoyed La La Land I had a great experience I went I think on Saturday night in the Arclight Dome and my husband had already seen it so he was like you need to sit in the aisles you had this angle and he knew which parts I would really like and I was absolutely wild by the end and then we went to Minibar is Minibar still there? I hope so to meet Chris and Phoebe and it was Christmas time and they have good Christmas decorations and I was like wow the wonderful movies and La La Land and Phoebe just fucking hated it and it was a real classic Phoebe being like and here are like 10 reasons why this movie absolutely sucks and I think also at some point like I had two Negronis and I was just like tap dancing in Minibar while Phoebe was like screw this movie and then we all went to the 101 diner and had a banana split and that was really fun that was good yeah is Minibar still open?
I don't know 101 diner too close which is really sad but Minibar was part of the best westerns so hopefully Big BW was able to float it you know I'd like to revisit it out of the glow of the awards race I haven't really seen it since 2016 so maybe I'll check that out I can't wait to see what he does next man a lot of potential I mean he's got a movie with Brad Pitt coming out soon right about 1920s Hollywood as I recall can I tell you guys a second hand story about Brad Pitt I heard recently I think it's actually really good just put the bow on not only this pod but like your podcast in general is this going to get sued? what is a second hand story about Brad Pitt? I went to go pick up Detroit style pizza from a Detroit pizza place called Doe Daddy which is kind of like downtown incredible pizza Chris the only spawn is nobody out pizzas the hut I just went through this with you I support local businesses I don't know if I told you this but so downtown was very close it was really difficult to get down there and I was like it's like a lot of street close off they're shooting bullet train down there and apparently according to the Doe Daddy guy he was like the other day Brad Pitt just walked by I think this is what he said he said Brad Pitt just walked by and he turned and he said let's go make a movie and he went and shot bullet train that's really good but I'm not into Brad Pitt apparently doing 95% of his own stunts in bullet train you're not into that? no why?
I'm worried for Brad Pitt I just think maybe Brad Pitt is not it's not Troy era Brad Pitt so just respect your body respect your age respect your abilities respect your limitations here's my thing about bullet train is show me the film immediately show me this movie right now Brad Pitt David Leach who directed co-directed John Wick and Tom McBlond and it's called bullet train take all of my money now well you know what would be a good idea for the big picture podcast is to take the slate of upcoming films and say how much we would pay to watch this movie right now you have a limited amount like a bank you have a thousand dollars if you want to pay like $800 to see bullet train tomorrow that's very dangerous for me don't tell Eileen about that that's how I start to lose all our money okay is the Doe Daddy guy in bullet train see if you're in the film I hope so great piece okay we forgot about the movies I mean Chris mentioned The Nice Guys The Lobster Martin Scorsese's Silence oh my god I also saw that one alone none of you would go with me you're all like this is really important I saw it alone in New York over the holiday break and it was a strafing moment in my life I have not returned to silence maybe I should it's not a long film yeah quite long what else did you forget 20th Century Women Jackie oh Jackie Jackie that was pretty cool and speaking of whether or not we had any bellwetter movies Hypernormalization came out this year it certainly did it certainly did Chris you know we talked to Chuck last week I listened to the podcast yeah I'm aware this is ridiculous Chris what do you think of Kinkajah in my head I've only watched the first one and I for some reason am in a zone right now where I'm like this is a little too incisive and a little too revealing about the state of the world which is exactly what I felt about Hypernormalization but I think I was feeling a little bit more edgelordy back then so I was like fuck yeah let's talk about it let's get into it but now I'm like I'm ready for fucking just green screen Joe and I'm just gonna watch the Bureau you know what I mean and just chill out and then I'll think about what we've been through in a minute you know speaking of the Bureau we have also been watching the Bureau because Chris recommended it and also my dad recommended it but I had recommended the Adam Curtis documentary to my father because he likes to know what's going on he likes films and he had recommended the Bureau to me so I texted him this weekend and I was like we're finally starting the Bureau it rules and he wrote back instantly and was like it really does and it's a lot easier to watch than the Adam Curtis doc and I was like oh no it's not what you want this is why our society's never changed this is why Adam Curtis sees the future we're all just snuck in a rut of individualism are we not we didn't even mention four of the movies nominated for Best Picture this year Fences Hacksaw Ridge which as I recall is Chris's favorite film of that year Hidden Figures what was up with Andrew Garfield this year Lion and he really went through it also like recall he did Silence and I think that experience really profoundly affected him and he like really dug into a lot of the religious stuff around it and this is also like Wenki and Emma Stone broke up and you could just kind of tell that he went into his own space and they were no longer in a space together I really like him I do I hope he has a big comeback I loved Under the Silver Lake I talked to him for that movie I was like this guy is awesome he's really smart he's really funny self-aware it is kind of hard to visualize him putting himself through the torture chamber of Hacksaw Ridge in silence but he did do that what else did we forget I feel like this was a loaded movie in many ways Loving oh yeah I was going to say should we just read the top 10 because I mean we didn't talk about the most popular movies of the year even in the movies they were like oh you know we loved this sure we skipped over Finding Dory The Secret Life of Pets The Jungle Book Deadpool we briefly mentioned Zootopia Batman vs. Superman Dawn of Justice Suicide Squad not The Suicide Squad but Suicide Squad and Sing the animated film which I know has been torturing parents ever since it was released Moana didn't talk about fantastic be similar to find them the Magnificent 7 remake where Ethan Hawke plays a man in Good Night Robo Show pretty sick Doctor Strange Trolls Kung Fu Panda 3 The Ghostbusters Paul Feig film Central Intelligence it's a ton of movies weird year a lot of good films who do you guys think won out of the three of us I don't think I won because every time I say I think I won I come in third I don't think I won because I was too idiosyncratic and I don't have Moonlight obviously is a generationally historic film but I don't have Doctor Strange I don't have Captain America I don't have I don't have a Star Wars movie I didn't pick Finding Dory yeah I mean I did pick a Star Wars movie but everything else I picked is idiosyncratic but it's not massive and my blockbuster is sully so it's not like I got too cynical here hmm pretty evenly matched Bobby what do you think I don't feel qualified I don't have a pulse on the big pick listeners I'm more with the CR heads been a lot of Apple stars recently that explains a lot Bobby that explains a lot well okay this was fun guys thank you very much I look forward to winning again as I always do are we going to go 2017 next are we going back are we going to do the Oscar draft no you had an amazing idea Chris you had a great idea for what we should do in the month of April which is of course Oscars month so we'll be doing a bunch of Oscar shows and Chris suggested an Oscar winners movie draft which is pretty wide open and we're going the whole history of Oscars I think we should right but are we doing it in terms of best picture winners into our current categories or are we going to do it are we going to draft like the top five categories so my instinct was to do the eight categories the eight key categories the four acting categories picture director and the two screenplay categories and the whole arc of the Oscars what do you think about that I got stressed out but because there's so many things there are a lot of things but and I'm game I'm game too we have to draft hosts oh my god oh oh wow interesting I got dibs on Bob Hope good luck with that Chris thanks for listening to the big picture please tune in later this week because as I said me and Amanda will be back talking to Chase Arano about Godzilla vs Kong and our top five favorite blockbusters should be fun we'll see you then thanks Wags thanks Wags