Welcome to the Ring Your Podcast Network, I'm Liz Kelly. With the NFL season a week away and the Ring Your Fantasy Football coverage gearing up, we have released our first ever fantasy football hall of fame. We assembled a panel of voters, including Bill Simmons, Cousin Sal, Robert Mayes, Mallory Rubin, and more to induct the 25 best fantasy football players of all time. You can find the rankings by going directly to fantasyfootball.theringer.com.
And for more fantasy football coverage, check out the fantasy football podcast on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. I'm Sean Fennesey. And I'm Amanda Mannadoban. And this is the big picture, a conversation show about the Oscars.
That's right, it's been six months, September is here, and so is award season Amanda. Welcome back to the Oscars show. Thank you. It's like I never left.
I know, we really didn't leave. Anytime we got annoyed with what was happening with Summer Movies, we sort of inged our way back into this show. But this is the official confirmation that we're going to start talking about awards in a material way. The reason for that is because it's September, but also I just got back from the Tell You Right Film Festival for my first time going.
And let me tell you something, I had a grand old time. I'm so happy. It really is a magical place that the Bill of Goods I was sold was accurate and true. And it's just an extraordinary experience I highly recommend it.
Maybe next year we can go together because I think it is immensely valuable in figuring out how this award season is going to play out. I was doing a little bit of research before this podcast. And just to give people a sense of what happens at the festival, it's sort of famed for being a platform for Best Picture Runers. Seven of the last 10 Best Picture Runers show to Tell You Right.
And it's unlike any other festival I've ever been to. It's very small. There's probably fewer than 5,000 people there. It's very intimate.
It's very friendly. There is no business happening there. There are no deals being cut. It was going to say there was a difference between deals and business.
That's a good point. Well, I was certainly doing a kind of business, a kind of hand-shaking and smiling and niceness emitting all over the place, likewise all the people who brought films there. But it is really a unique experience because it's powered in a lot of ways by the wealthy people who are patrons of the festival. They are the people who get into see these films before everyone else, even before the press, which is an interesting thing.
And it's also a little bit older because wealthy people who give money to festivals creates a different kind of atmosphere. So say you and I went to this out by Southwest in April. How would you describe the atmosphere of some of those screenings? Rowdy?
Yes. An energetic, enthusiastic, but not old. No, it's certainly not old. It's young.
And it's also a little bit drunk, a little bit full of candy. There's no alcohol, I tell you right. There is a good energy, there's a positive energy, but it's not... There's no alcohol at all.
It's not a dry town. It's just all the screenings. I mean, honestly, water was in short supply. They have a lot of drinking fountains.
It's like a survivalist. In a way, I would say after seeing 12 films in three and a half days, I felt like I was going through a gauntlet of a kind. But it is just significantly different. And it's different from Sundance where there's a lot of deals being made and there's a kind of a race through the snow to get to screenings.
This is a highly organized festival. A lot of the films show multiple times, so if you miss the first time, you don't have to be there for that opening night screening. And every theater is imperfect in a way. There's really only one theater that's like a true blue theater, the Werner Herzog Theater.
A lot of the other theaters are in converted hockey rinks and high school gymnasiums, and there is a little bit of like a handmade feel to it too. It's not very corporatized. There are some traditional sponsors, but there's no activation for Call of Duty 7 happening at the festival. It's just kind of a lot of like happy bourgeois people sauntering around, talking about their favorite Claire Denis film.
You know, it's just a totally unique experience. So I'm very happy to be back. I'm very happy to talk to you about some of my experiences there. From the outside, what did you see from this festival?
Because I want to try to do a little bit of a true, false game with you. It's interesting because Telly Ride is happening at the same time as Venice. And Venice is much louder. And particularly certain elements of Venice were much louder.
And I have no interest in discussing those elements now, or ever. And but it did give a sense of, OK, the big film festivals are much louder. And there are just a lot of people talking to be heard. And so Telly Ride seems like it was a lot of people going to see waves and being like, wow, what a special experience.
Yes. And more about people enjoying movies and also being happy to be where they were and not having to be anywhere else, talking with other people. Yeah, I mean, there's a significantly smaller amount of press. I tell you right.
I think that's a big factor. There's Venice. There is an end with movies like Joker and the King and a lot of sort of like big, not studio movies, but movies that demand a lot of international attention. There is a desperate race to not just get your opinion out, because I certainly was getting my opinion out of stuff that I saw, but to make a declarative statement about something's usefulness.
And you know, Venice being an international festival, it has a broader reach in our respect to Telly Ride being so small with so few people. There is a downside to that too. There's a little bit of a distortion effect because you're literally high, out of the two eyes and you're high in a kind of emotional state. And you wake up at 730 every day and head straight to a movie theater, then watch a movie and then go have, I don't know, a pack of twizzlers and then go to another movie and then to go get a hot dog and then go to another movie.
That's not a common human experience. Right. And it creates like a little bit of a mania. It's a good mania.
I think it was important to me to be aware of that mania every time I was seeing something, so I wasn't overreacting. Yeah. And I think that's we know that to be true of all festivals, right? That there is just people get swept up in the moment of the experience.
And then the people who go see the movie two or three or six months later, a year later, have a different experience, context as a part of it. And it was interesting to watch all of these and consume the festival knowledge, not having been to any of them. I realized kind of what movies I would need to be seeing and talking about. It kind of earmarks the to be discussed later movies.
Yes. But at the same time, I was like not taking any of the reactions super seriously because I haven't seen any of them. Yeah. I mean, maybe that's a great way to transition right into the big picture.
Big picture. This is a problem in a big picture. Do you know what I mean? So we'll talk just specifically about what Telluride can actually do for a movie.
I mentioned that seven of the last 10 best picture winners have showed there. This festival, I think, is changed quite a bit over the years. There was a very interesting moment where, and you're very proximate to celebrities all the time at this festival. There was a tribute to Adam Driver, who was only 35 years old, but who was celebrated at this thing.
And Martin Scorsese talked about, he presented Adam Driver with a Silver medallion, which is something that people receive every year at this festival. And as he was giving him the medallion, Scorsese told this story about how he hadn't been to the festival in 41 years. And the last time that he was there, he was being driven around in a car by a filmmaker friend of his, and he was there to present Michael Powell, the great English filmmaker with a Silver medallion. And at that time, he was driving around the town and he saw Michael Powell in the street.
Michael Powell was not supposed to know that he was there. And so he hid in the back seat of the car so that Michael Powell wouldn't see him until he saw him at the presentation. That is like a very intimate experience. Once somebody was in a car, there were no cars until you're right.
It's basically like completely shut down. People were walking into a very small space. But two, it revealed how far the festival has come. Even though it's still small, there was a lot of Netflix and a lot of Amazon and a lot of A24 and a lot of Sony Pictures Classics.
It is still a movie festival that is driving towards essentially a wort season. And there was so much conscious conversation after a movie showed about how do you think this is going to do? Almost every time I'm sure part of that is people who know me know that I care about this great deal. They know they were asking one first of all, thank you to everybody who came up to me and said that they like the show.
They're interested in the show. They like what we're doing. That was honestly fucking awesome. Every week was very sweet and telly ride.
I appreciate that. Mostly people in the industry were asking, they want to know like, hey, is the two popes actually good? Do you think it's actually going to have a chance in best picture? I think that it will.
But that is the nature of the conversation. And that also I think is a little bit confusing from your vantage point. Were you already putting your list together about what you thought was for real enough for real? Not quite.
I don't mean to be dismissive, but I was thinking a lot about this time last year when we were all talking about how a star was born. It could go into top five for five for five. And I love to star as born. We talked about it all year.
So it is useful in the sense of identifying what movies I really need to see, who I need to be emailing today. I'm sorry in advance if you're getting one of those emails from me. I look forward to coming to your screening shortly. But it does separate.
It just marks the conversation. And we've talked so much about how the conversation does and does not inform what Oscars do. And I think we'll talk about that again this year because it both fuels an industry itself. And also I think the voters are sometimes in their own bubble.
So it's useful to help sort out the big names. But I wouldn't say that I have any sense of whether Fort Verusfari actually is going to be like the crowd pleasing box office success, best picture contender. I have no idea. All I know is that it's like really loud.
And I'm nervous about that because I don't like about things. Well, there is there's something interesting about that too. So the first very first screening of the festival is a quote unquote patron screening. And so the press and patrons are invited to that screening.
No one else can get it. No other pass holders can get in. And it's a secret up until the moment you arrive at the screening. And it's always something a little bit fancy when I first got there.
They said, well, you know, like seven years ago was Argo. So it's always something best picture is something major studio, something a lot of people will want to see. So it's Fort Verusfari. You sit down in the theater.
You're right. It was loud. I thought the film was quite good. Very old fashion.
Everything that we sort of expected that we've been talking about for the last couple of months here. Huge star turns, especially from Christian Bale, Matt Damon, very charming, very credible Texan. It's just it's a really, really well made movie. It's Mangold James Mangold really in his comfort zone.
But the people who saw that movie were like 38 members of the press and a bunch of wealthy people who are not Oscar voters, more than likely. And that reception and the way that that is communicated to the world then theoretically informs a race that is voted on by all of these other people, which is weird. It is weird. It would say though that a group of wealthy non-academy voters probably has more in common with a group of academy voters than you and I do.
You make a very good point. And maybe that's part of the calculus there. And there was a lot of conversation about is it's a better to show premiere film. Tell your eyes is a better premiere to Toronto.
Some films have international rights differences. So if you premiere film in Toronto, then you have to use a different logo. Then if you premiere it in America or if you premiere it in Venice. So there are these all, it's a bit of a chess game where everybody is figuring out like the Irishman now is not premiering until the New York festival because that is a safe space for Martin's.
Where Sazy, his friend Kent Jones, the filmmaker and critic is the curator of that festival. The way that things were chosen here is interesting because something like Ford versus Ferrari makes a lot of sense. Something like marriage story, I think makes a lot of sense. A lot of sin files, a lot of people have been with No Bound Back for a long time.
We're looking forward to this movie. Something like on Cajems was played interestingly. I loved it. It was exactly what I was hoping and thought it would be and it lived up to my expectations.
But that is an abrasive movie and loud and loud in a different way and propulsive and intense and a little bit terrifying. And just when you think it's going to ease up on you, it hits you and never the ball peen hammer. And the old people were a little bit dismayed by that. And it was interesting.
I overheard quite a few elderly patrons say that movie hurt my head. I thought it was awful, which to me is a positive review in a way, if it's offending that kind of a sensibility, I think it's wonderful. But it's so interesting the way that the narrative that emerges from some of these movies, because the two popes is the opposite of that. It's very sweet.
It's very charming. It's Jonathan Price and Anthony Hopkins just kind of nattering back and forth as popes. It is completely a buddy comedy. It's just them riffing.
It's somebody described it as my dinner with the papacy. And that's what it is. It's just a lot of conversations about faith and duty and honor, but couched in a chatty, almost bro-y kind of back and forth. And old people were like, this is phenomenal.
This is exactly what I wanted is these two older folks having a grandal time. You're looking at me with a bizarre expression. You are baffled. That's a choice to make that version of the Catholic Church in those two popes at this moment.
It really doesn't really. It doesn't really. It doesn't really reckon with it. It talks about some of the controversies and complications of the Catholic Church, but that is not primarily what it's about.
It's about the differences in their philosophies, but actually about them meeting in the middle of those philosophies. It's an interesting movie. You're a mouth-a-gape. I just wanted the two popes as Benedict, right?
Yes. Yes. No. Ratching, or?
Yeah. Oh, it's Ratching, or? And Pope Francis, the current pope. Yeah.
Oh, okay. I thought that it was Benedict, which is more complicated. Pope John Paul? You're saying?
The second? Yes. Ratching, or who became Benedict? Sorry.
I was confused by their popes names. Well, that was he was a complicated historical figure. I'm guessing they don't get into that. They do a little bit.
And they sort of glance at the God's rottweiler aspect of Pope Benedict's reputation. But I would say it's not a key focus. And also when you have a person like Anthony Hopkins portraying him, Anthony Hopkins is just so naturally likable, so naturally charming. The movie is really Jonathan Price's, and that's a whole other story.
We'll get to that when we get to another category of this conversation. A couple of other things about being intelligent, right? I told you this story over the weekend. I'm going to tell it here right now.
I sat down and I touched on Friday night. I'm very excited. I got in pretty early. Sitting alone.
The middle of the show when it comes to it's not next to me. Very well-dressed, very polite. It's not right behind me, it's not right next to me. Chatting, having a nice conversation.
She's a very smart, very confident person, very happy to tell me the opinions of the things I'd already seen were bad, which I think you can appreciate. What have you seen at that point? I'd seen Ford versus Ferrari and a movie called The Assistant, which is a sort of representation of the Harvey Weinstein story as seen through the eyes of an assistant and a major movie studio. Never actually named Harvey.
So I'd seen those two movies. And then maybe I'd even seen a third by that point. So I had a lot to talk about. She was very engaged, very chatty.
Maybe a little too strong to say we were flirting, but we were having a very fun back and forth. And she asked me what I did. I said, oh, I'm an editor. I worked at the website making a podcast.
And I said, oh, I do some work with the Academy. I said, okay, cool. Talked about 30 minutes. Movie starts.
We both enjoyed the movie. Said farewell. Walked out. Next morning, very briefly wandered into the Academy Awards luncheon, the Emotion, the Chart on Sciences lunge.
And I saw this woman and she was surrounded by a lot of people. She was holding court and done on me. But that was Don Hudson, the CEO of the Academy, incredible stuff, who is a very powerful person. And I'm certain is not aware of this podcast, but if she is, hello, Don.
And I'm sorry that I did not properly acknowledge your power in the world. I promise to do so next time, my Academy of. I didn't ask you this. Did you let off any Academy takes during that 30 minute conversation?
I don't think so. I hope I hope not because they would be unfiltered in a way, because we were having a kind of jocular conversation. I don't think so. If she has read some of my writing about the Academy, I think that would have been a little bit more complicated, though I doubt that she has.
But that's just the kind of festival it is. I was at a party the next night, who's at the party. On my left is Adam Sandler. On my right is Randy Newman eating ice cream.
You know what I mean? It's that kind of a place you're walking down the street, wondering all over the place, having a grand old time. Bong Junho, the director of parasite, literally in and out of every screening, seeing everything, chatting with people who are stopping this Korean genius in the street, being like, I love what you're doing. He's like, what did you say?
What did you like? So it's a very strange thing. But it is really special. It really was transported to a different version of life.
And it took me out of the frustrations and anxieties of a lot of things that we're normally dealing with. And brought us into a good place. I don't know how to answer this question, but I do actually want to know what you think, what you thought you saw the most about. What was the movie that you thought there was the most energy and kind of anticipation and praise around movie or performance?
Well, that's a good distinction. Because we should talk about that in terms of, I think it's a bit easier to sift out how the actor and actresses categories are going to go now. I agree. Because so much of that, and always has been the case, but that's nighting someone right?
It's their year. And you can see it in the awards that they give out at these ceremonies and who agrees to be where and who's campaigning and who's giving a very intense interview to New York Magazine, which we can talk more about Renee Zellweger. But so I saw a lot about Judy in that context because Renee Zellweger is campaigning for her Oscar. I saw a lot about marriage story, in part because I am myself and have self-selected my feeds in order to have people give me as much about marriage story.
I know about that. And Adam Driver is possible. But Adam Driver was another person getting the silver medallion. And he's not someone who does a lot of press normally.
So it was very notable to me how present he was. He is clearly campaigning as well, or whatever the Adam Driver version of that campaign will be. And he did also seem like people really liked my story. So I was also trying not to read anything substantive about it until I have my own experience.
So I just saw a marriage story and then my brain turned off and I would scroll to the next thing. Yeah, I'm not trying to, how do I talk to you about this movie without telling you anything I don't want you don't want to hear it will be a fascinating thing. I think it's probably safe to say at the highest level of tell your ride marriage story was the movie of the festival. I think it was the movie of the festival going in and going out.
Even though I don't think it's a perfect movie, I don't think it's even I don't think it's bound back's best movie. But I do think that it does maybe all of the things that bound back to us well all together at the same time. Plus it has at the center of it like just an all time performance from Driver like a very in the pantheon of great 70s actors and actresses kind of putting it all out very unvarnished, very raw. And you know obviously Joker I think without question was the movie of Venice in terms of the conversation around it.
I haven't seen it. There's nothing really for us to say about it. The other ones I mean for me the movie that I loved the most was Waves which hopefully we'll talk about a lot more on the show going forward. I'm looking forward to using that.
And that clear that broke through as kind of this is the this is like the really emotional experience which I'm very excited about. I was thinking I was in Mexico City this weekend and was in Roma and was thinking a lot about how much like Roma wrecked me as like I was thinking about the experience of seeing Roma and I was like I'm ready again just for a movie to run me over. And it seems like that's what Waves gonna be. So like bring it on.
So that kind of bubbled through obviously you know I'm friends with all you chuckleheads so I know about uncut gems which actually I said this to you in private and I'm going to say in public I read your tweet about uncut gems which is a ridiculous sentence but I mean this sincerely I was very happy for you. I was like oh that sounds like best case time. And I'm curious about it. It was good.
I mean I think that it's going to be divisive. It was divisive at the festival. I think if you didn't respond to good time it is like good time times three. There is an amazing out of center performance and it's every five years he makes a movie and he actually does transform and he does something that is not just like a shabby doo like he's not just doing that thing and he is amazing as his character Howard Ratner.
I think awards wise that's probably where the movie will go. It'll probably go right to best actor. I find a movie like that's hard to believe that could be a best fiction movie. You never know.
But the sapphies are it's not it's not a mistake that Scorsese has exactly produced their last two movies. They are in a lineage of a certain kind of heedless furious hilarious violent ridiculous kind of movie. There's also like easily the best basketball player performance ever in a movie from Kevin Garnet like without question he is so good in the movie and so so important and key to the movie that even that alone and you know all the people that you would think like could be terrible. The weekend is in this movie.
He's very good. My friend says it's a movie. He's very good. Like all people who it's distracting when you foresee them and then they disappear to their characters.
So in that respect it was just so much fun to watch. It seems like a movie that is sprung from the brain of every guy that I am friends with or married to in in my real life and I don't mean that as like a neg on the sappy brothers or their unoriginality. It just seems like a synthesis of a lot of things that you guys are all interested in. A bunch of guys gesturing other people right now but you know those are the men in my life.
So I'm interested to better understand and experience you know whatever's going on with you guys. We're going to talk about the best actor later in the show but let's just talk about Judy for a second. I did see Judy. I would I'll just say I did not love Judy.
I did love Renee Zellweger. That was definitely the takeaway. It was like not a great film. Definitely a great performance.
Everyone was really happy to just see Renee Zellweger. She's just wearing like a flannel shirt and the University of Texas had the whole weekend. She's so happy. Very cheery that I think you're right that there's clearly like an engineered thing going on here but she came to it in what felt like an authentic way which I think people are usually rewarded for and you know the movie itself is essentially it's adapted from a stage show.
It's a portrait of Judy Garland at the end of her life. She died at a very young age and she was abused alcohol and pills and she obviously had this very complicated difficult upbringing as a young child star in Hollywood in the 30s and it's a it's a showcase kind of a movie and it's a quote unquote transformation. She sings a lot. She has an amazing singing voice.
I've forgotten how well she can sing. She doesn't sound like Judy Garland but it kind of doesn't matter and people were sort of comparing it very quickly to things like my week with Marilyn where Michelle Williams was nominated for a great transformation in a not great movie and I feel it feels like a pretty safe bet that that she's just going right to the Oscars with this movie. Has anyone been comparing it to the wife? I don't know.
I mean this movie opens in a month so it's not even about three weeks so will people be able to see it? I don't I assume so. I don't know. I don't think it's gonna be great.
She's not quite at that at that clinkless level of success either. No but she has had a rough decade just in terms of her relationship to the public and what it needs to be a star and she was not working for a while or was not in public view and I think this is being positioned as a comeback and a coordination of someone who we didn't take we didn't appreciate enough when we had her and also possibly didn't treat as well as we would have liked. The New York magazine piece that I mentioned by Jonathan Ben-Meter is very much it's soul-searching and she's very open and seems to be having a great time. It's just like a very relaxed kind of daffy.
Yes that was her energy at the best level for sure. And it's just also very clear that she's running for best actress. She is running. Maybe we should add a is he or she running segment to the show going forward just in keeping with our 2020 anxieties.
You know as far as the best movies at the festival we mentioned waves we mentioned marriage story I did finally get a chance to see Long Joon-Hose parasite insanely good like ridiculously good. It was also clear that was just it's as good as you thought it's kind of sweeping. And it's also very much a Bong movie. It's not like he's toning it down to get a best picture nomination like it is crazy and complicated and very genre-y but not ridiculous and like actually about it has ideas.
So I'm very excited for the world to start seeing that movie is out very soon October 11th so we're looking at like a month away from that one. If you haven't seen the films of Bong Joon-Hose the host memories of Murder, Snowpier Sir, Okja, highly recommend you dig into all of those. Ford vs Ferrari we'll be talking about it a lot more soon. I would be stunned if it was not nominated for best picture.
There will be a lot of very similar conversation. There's sort of Brad and Leo once upon a time, Damon and Bail who is the best actor who is the supporting is anyone supporting anyone in either of these movies you never really can tell. On Cuch M's and as you post we discussed I saw Kelly Rekker's first cow beautiful movie that I don't think is dated right now at the moment. Also in a 24 movie also a movie about two men trying to find their way in an evolving and changing society.
There's a bit of a theme I think happening in movies in 2019. These men don't know what to do with themselves. Yes only in 2019 it's a new theme for a new era. These movies are all specifically about men who are being pushed out of or onto the edges of their universe and how they can fight back against it.
Maybe that is as old as time. Maybe that's as old as Quovatas or something like that. But that's a very nice movie. Diego Maradana played there.
I didn't see any documentaries which I feel kind of bad about. I have seen Diego Maradana I saw earlier. There were seemingly a lot of great docs at this festival but when you're trying to pack in three or four screens a day that it automatically feels like wouldn't I rather see the two popes on the big screen than a three hour movie about Bill Gates? Nothing against the Bill Gates Netflix inside Bill's brain documentary which I'm interested in and look forward to.
I think Dave was Googling I made that movie who made the Al Gore Environmental saga. But I don't know. It just doesn't feel like the right format. Yeah documentaries lend themselves to they're more flexible in terms of situational viewing which is probably part of the reason that we've been going through a documentary boom in the last couple of years because you can really watch them in a lot of places besides a giant theater.
That's exactly right. A couple of other things that I saw. Motherless Brooklyn, Edward Norton's adaptation of Jonathan Lee's novel which I thought started off a little bit rocky and then was I thought had a brilliant second half and I'll be curious to see how this movie does because this is a hard sell in 2019. It's a movie about a complicated character with a deep literary background that has been transported to a period piece and is a studio movie and has a lot of famous actors in Alec Baldwin and Willem Dafoe and Google about the realm.
Like, okay, Williams and it's really, really well made and really, really specific and it changes the book a lot not just the period that it's set in but the story and the figures and it becomes much more of a historical document about New York and the way the New York changed in the middle of this last century. I thought it was really cool. I don't know how you convince people that it's something that they need and this was also an interesting festival for us. I think a lot of the older folks that I also really appreciate they admired whatever Norman was going for but it does feel like a movie and he's been working on this movie for 20 years that has never been harder to make and never been harder to get people to see.
Adaptations were tricky because in order to get the audience in the theater you need to be as faithful as possible but to actually make a good movie adaptation you really have to be willing to completely reinvent the text. I completely agree and that was what I admired that. When the movie first started and it was kind of faithful to the book I was kind of like, ah, this doesn't, I don't know if this is working and then as soon as he starts kind of tearing away at the core text and doing what he wants to do. It's like, oh, I see what you're interested in this I see why this works for you.
I would recommend that movie for sure to people but it is a bit of a different thing. I wonder if even a different title would have made more sense for a movie with so many changes. Yeah but then you can't get anyone to go see it. I also saw the report which debuted at Sundance which is another Adam Driver movie.
It is very good. It's a story about essentially the composition and research and time and effort over many years that Daniel Jones put into the torture report. The CIA is sort of famous and much derided and awful program that was exposed and this movie is collates years and time and thousands of pages of information into a tidy two-hour movie and does so very effectively. So that was interesting and I mentioned the assistant as well in Judy.
I missed a few things. I missed the Aronauts which I did not hear great things about which is the Felicity Jones and he read Maine. Hotter Blooper, but it turns out that it's way more survivalist movie than Hotter Blooper Adventure. One of the big questions out of the festival was how did their characters go to the bathroom?
It's important to ask that anytime you're making a movie because otherwise someone will write a blog post about it. It's a good point. Maybe Ushian on that right away. I still haven't seen Pan and Glory the page on one of our film.
I did not see Terence Malick's head in life. That's crushing. So I didn't do it because the movie is like three hours and ten minutes and there's only so much time in the day. So it's spent, you know, you got to get to these screens an hour early and then they start 15 minutes late and then there's a Q&A afterwards most of the time.
So you're looking at like a five hour experience. That's not a good use of my time. I can't wait to see that movie but just it didn't make sense at this festival. The one movie that I didn't see that I really regret that I'm looking forward to is called The Climb.
Have you heard anything about The Climb? Yes, but you'll have to remind me what I've heard. It's like a bold name that I remember reading something about it. The Climb is, has been described as sideways on bicycles.
It's a cycling drama I believe set in France, starring two Americans who are also I think the co-writers and one of them is the director of the film. It's being distributed by Sony Pictures Classics. It had like the one true blue like this is kind of an indie sensation feeling around it. I haven't seen it but every single person you know when you're waiting in line for these movies people are just like, I've seen The Climb.
I thought it was lovely. You know that is the kind of energy that that movie had. You know my big takeaway I think ultimately from the festival is Marriage Story and Ford versus Ferrari are huge Best Picture contenders. The two popes is a surprising Best Picture contender and we'll talk more about the Best Actress in a Second.
Let's do stock ups, stock downs so that we can talk about some stuff that neither of us have seen. If it goes bust you can make 10 to 1 even 20 to 1 return and it's already slowly going bust. So we weren't in Venice but we saw what was happening in Venice and you know I really didn't feel like I'm this much. It seemed like a lot of stuff was disappointing.
The Olivier Aisades movie was not great reviews coming out of there. The King did not get great reviews coming out of there. Joker will be what Joker will be. So there's about 10 movies that I think we can credibly call Best Picture contenders that no one has seen yet.
We're just a few days away from the Toronto International Film Festival. Some of these movies will be playing there most of them will not. Let's just go through those movies. I'm ready.
I think that the stock ups knockdown usually we need to decide if something is down. Nothing is down here. These are all things that are theoretically up after we saw these other movies that went up and down. So we've got a beautiful day in the neighborhood which is of course the Mr.
Rogers movie and is debuting a TIFF. Do you know if Tom Hanks is the supporting actor of this movie and not the lead? I read that. Well they haven't made that clear but it's adapting because why would they in a trailer you need just Tom Hanks in the sweater saying it's a beautiful day in the neighborhood saying the title of the movie.
Just put that on a loop on TikTok and then let people come to the movies. But you know it's an adaptation of I believe it's an Esquire article by Tom Duneau and who eventually became close friends with Mr. Rogers and I believe it's about their relationship and how Mr. Rogers affected his life.
I think that's all correct. So I think by that token then it would be the Tom Duneau character who I believe is played by Matthew Reese as the main character and Tom Hanks as Mr. Rogers as supporting. I mean again this is all these categories are made up and they can run people in whatever they want to run them in but yeah I think people are going to be surprised that it's a lot more just about a journalist than perhaps you're expecting.
Yeah so I got my intent up about that as well. So I'm very interested. The stock is up for now but we've seen a lot of movies about journalists having incredible experiences because of their proximity to famous people. So we'll see it's Maryle Heller who made a couple of interesting films and I'm interested in the kinds of movies that she makes.
Bombshell is a movie that you're shaking your head you don't know. You don't know. You don't like it. Let's go.
Show it to me now. I liked that teaser that came out two weeks ago which you know this is a story of essentially the fall of Fox News in many ways and all the sexual harassment scandals that have plagued that network for the last five to ten years and it's a murders row of blonde academy award nominated actors. Chief among them Charlize Theron and Nicole Kidman and Margot Robbie. Incredible.
Looks good. It's a J-roach movie. J-roach you know usually makes broad comedies and or HBO docu dramas that are kind of comedies. I've been told that this movie is not a comedy that it is a drama.
That'll be interesting. I don't think this is going to do any of the festivals is my guess. I think we will not see it until December. It seems like the like a popular movie play especially I think they already in terms of that teaser which was what?
20 seconds long and I've been on four different text message conversations about what kind of prosthetics they put on Charlize Theron to make her look exactly like Megan Kelly. Which they did an incredible job but I think it's going to be they're not going to go for the prestige. They're going to go for mainstream getting as many people to be interested in whatever part of that movie they're interested in as possible. I completely agree.
It'll be interesting to see how well that shakes out because it's it feels very much like vice. It's a movie with a clear point of view and message about its characters and who we should have sympathy for and who we should not have sympathy for. On the other hand it might be a little bit too broad and too weird to be as powerful as we want it to be. We'll see.
It is also it's being released at the end of the year. Yes. Which is typically what movie can I go see with my parents time and can you take your Fox News parents to bombshell? Well sure maybe they're rooting for Roger Ailes you know I mean who I can say.
It seems like a lot of people would just be like I don't want to deal with that. I think if you have any concerns about that you should take on the Little Women which is another movie that we have not yet seen. What? I don't know.
I mean yes you should take your parents to see Little Women I guess but I don't know. Well but you do not you don't want to have a political throw down. I suspect Little Women will not be that complicated. Likewise the Irishman which as I said premieres at the New York Film Festival we haven't seen that yet and it's three and a half hours long which is great.
They released the New York Film Festival press and industry screenings list today and running time is subject to change. Subject to change. Don't don't even worry about it. Maybe they heard the big picture and they heard me say make it as long as you need Marty.
Or maybe they heard me say that endings are good. We'll have to wait and find out. Cats. A lot of laughs about cats I tell you right let me tell you.
A lot of jokes. That's like the least appealing thing that you could say to me I was in the mountains just with strangers laughing about the trailer for cats. Honestly it was great. I had a great old time.
JoJo Rabbit full trailer for that was released today. That will be at the Toronto International Film Festival. I've heard some very mixed things about this movie. Some people have said this is an incredible satire one of the most funny and thoughtful pieces about fascism in our modern times and I heard other people say that this movie is not good.
So I think we're gonna find out about it less of the week. That's Taika YT's anti-hate satire. Justin Mercy you and I talked about this a bit last week. Daniel Dustin Kretten's Michael B.
Jordan Brie Larson drama about Brian Stevenson. Lucy in the sky. You're out. I understand.
I didn't say him out. I just I need the accent work to be better. Okay I'll overdub that and then send you a print. Great.
Thank you. I would love that. Maybe I should. Can I hear your other accent?
Can you do it right now? What kind of a character do you want? This is a good day. Why don't you play an astronaut who is burned and is going to drive across the country?
What's the other astronaut's name? And also and it's John Hamm. No but what's his character? What am I calling him?
I don't actually know because this is a movie about wanting to fuck John Hamm as you've noted. So I'll pull it up right now. He could just be an I don't know just call him like Jim Lovell or whatever just pick an astronaut name. Okay let me see if I can do this.
Oh Jim. No why don't you just come over here darling. Are you doing still that? No yes right now.
I'm gonna do Scarlett O'Hara. That's what everyone. All right. But she what is this like Scarlett O'Hara was loud and aggressive.
That was your. That's true. Well she's defiant. So you want me to be defiantly tempting John Hamm?
If you're doing Scarlett O'Hara that's my note is that that was a little two-point tip. Okay okay. I don't I don't voice work is not really my my metche. Um 1917 Sam Endes is war one drama.
Also I think it's gonna be kind of very similar to the bombshell where we're just not gonna see it until it gets out into the world. And then Knives Out which is a TIFF and hopefully we'll see soon. And as though Ryan Johnson I don't know murder mystery family murder mystery clue inside of a house. I'm looking forward to that too.
All of those movies for the basically the last time get to be up. They're all up. By this time next week when we're doing this show some of them are gonna be down some of them are gonna be up even higher. Any guesses on which one is up even higher?
Next week? Yeah. Well I don't know the Irish one because we want to see it yet. I know it's hard at this point unless you just have a total blazing film success.
Like festival success. I think what could happen is a beautiful day in the neighborhood could win the audience award at TIFF which is what Green Book won last year and which has become a kind of new bell weather. Whereas for years the Telly Ride, this sort of like moonlight plays a Telly Ride and people like Holy fuck moonlight. Last year's Green Book win and we talked about this last week as well just about the various TIFF audience winners over the years have been significant Oscar movies.
I don't really see a movie on this list on the TIFF list beyond the people day in the neighborhood that could win this. I guess maybe Jojo Rabbit if it really works. But I'm not sure. I mean Jojo Rabbit at least has the political lightning rod aspect to it that was three billboards and and Green Book in a way that we didn't quite know it at the time.
I really just wonder how many people want to see a movie about a journalist. That's where I am. Tell it to spotlight. Best picture winner.
Yeah but you knew that that was a movie about journalism and this is everyone thinks they're going to see a movie about Mr. Riders. I'm curious. Maybe people will just be completely moved by it anyway.
Yeah and you know notably Morgan Neville's Mr. Rogers documentary was not nominated for Best Documentary and so maybe there's not as much affection for Mr. Rogers amongst the voting bodies. Was Mr.
Rogers a big deal in Canada? I couldn't tell you. Because that's another thing to keep in mind. It's an audience award.
It's not actually Canadian audiences. It's a great point. I think the public broadcasting system is only in an American, American only situation. So maybe it won't even resonate as meaning fleet though Tom Hanks does always tend to resonate.
So we'll see. Let's go to the big race. Well mama look at me now. I'm a star.
This is not going to be the last time we talk about Best Actor but I think Best Actor is the big thing to talk about. We've already discussed Leo quite a bit on this show and whether Brad Pitt should also be considered this race this category is going to be really crowded this year. And I know that it always feels like it's really crowded but some years are actually weaker than others if you go back and look historically. You know people playing real humans tend to do well in this category.
I mean I like playing Freddie Mercury for example. And so I thought it would be interesting to just kind of go down the list of the things that I think are in big contention right now with the understanding that say we don't know anything about just Mercy and how big Michael B Jordan's role is for example. So we won't talk about stuff like that. But Leo and Brad Pitt today if you had to guess you think they'll go Leo, Best Actor and Brad Pitt, Best Supporting Actor.
I would have to think so. I mean it's it's imperfect but you can't put Leo in supporting and I don't know anything about Leo's contract but I would also imagine that it's in his contract that you cannot put him in supporting. It's a great point. I love to talk to you about the stuff because you're always thinking about the mechanics of how people get platform because it doesn't really matter what we think.
It matters what it's been agreed to. Right. I mean I would be curious whether it was agreed that Pitt would be in supporting even before they signed on to the movie. My guess is I'm getting ahead of myself a little bit but my guess is that because of Ad Astra that is the case.
So Ad Astra of course James Grace moved to coming out later this month which also played Adventist and got great reviews. I still have not seen it. I'm very excited. Actually that might be the number one we've got most looking forward to this year.
That's our leader this month. It's hard to know if we're like that in the same way that motherless Brooklyn will be hard for it to work. I think it'll be hard for it to work. I hope that it does.
Pitt is obviously the lead of that movie. So to get out of his own way maybe what you're saying is correct which is that Pitt has officially agreed to campaign for Best Supporting while knowing that he's got a Best Actor or Showcase. Yeah or maybe he just isn't going to campaign and that means they put him in Best Supporting. I will say he's been showing up.
He's been doing all of the junkets internationally from one's Planet Time in Hollywood. He was certainly the highlight of the Venice red carpet in my opinion. Can we just also very briefly I said this too privately but what's up with other models on the Venice red carpet? What's wrong with them?
It's just they aren't in the movies and it's like Brad Pitt was there and then I think like Bar Raphael for no reason and then a bunch of other models Kate Upton was at the premiere of Marriage Story. Well I mean if you're a beautiful famous person and you want to go to something usually you can. That is true. It was just like an unusual padding of very famous models.
Literal padding. Yes. Anyway I think that's right but the Brad would run for Ad Astra. I think there's a similar conundrum as I mentioned about Ford versus Ferrari with Christian Bale and Matt Damon.
Now is it because I thought it was already concluded as of this weekend? It's not though because this movie is actually I think closer to 50-50 in terms of screen time and I think Bale's character has a deeper backstory. We see his family we see his interior life in a bigger way but the Damon is the person who pushes the movie forward. You know Bale is the tool Damon is the decision maker and it'll be really interesting to see how they negotiate that.
It's been a long time I think since two people were nominated in the same category for the best movie. It has happened in the past. I'm sure someone will tweet at us what an example of that is but it's very uncommon and it really does feel very neck and neck to use a racing metaphor. I will just say watching from afar that to me it seems that Christian Bale emerged as the clear nominee.
It's because he has the flashy role. He's the person who you're in the car with the whole time and he's making the pain expression and he's using his natural speaking voice and he's got this incredible almost like it's closer to the machinist like Gaunt look about him like at lean athlete look about him. Damon is like a pudgy Texan who designs cars you know it's just not as flashy. Right.
I think who should be nominated. I'm just saying if you had to call it right now it seems like the Christian Bale role is what people are gravitating towards. Yeah you're definitely right about that and the thing with Bale is like Bale could just be nominated for every movie he does he's never ever less than fascinating and he's almost always amazing. He's similarly just amazing in this movie and you are completely within the whole time and he quote unquote transforms he's just one of those guys who you forget you're watching Bale even though it's a very movie starish performance so me just things to do there I mentioned driver I haven't seen everything this year like I just hope he wins I have just was so taken with what he's doing in this movie he gets two massive showcase moments in the movie that are the most Oscar real ready moments that I can remember a movie two things to keep in mind number one he will also be in the rise of Skywalker.
I can't believe I got the title of Star Wars 9 correct but that will be out simultaneously which people being box office stars doesn't matter as much for the academy but I do think it helps to well he can be in this tiny movie and also can make a ton of money he'll just be in front of people a lot both for that press conference and for for junk in and for whatever he decides to do for mare's story and that is a big deal I also think and this is uncommon for someone who is only 35 but there like is a real it's time sensation around him already yes but he is probably one of the great actors of his generation already. Yeah I mean we talked about him I think on the mailbag episode just about kind of who is my favorite working actor and he's only 35 as I mentioned and they showed a clip reel of his work before the tribute that Scorsese gave him and I mean he's worked with Jim Jarmish and the Coen brothers and Martin Scorsese and no bound back four times which I didn't realize is his fourth film to bound back and he consistently and obviously he got his start working with Lena Dunham on one of the most important shows of the century and he does have like a pretty significant body of work in less than 10 years. So it is I think you're right there is a kind of a feeling of why not him you know why it's not like you know Denzel winning for glory also like in his early 30s like sometimes somebody just is so good and so consistently good and so worthy and so and famous enough in a way because of what you're saying with Star Wars that it just feels right so we'll see I mean I think the honest major counter to that is going to be Walking Phoenix and Joker and how that would be placed because a lot of people are going to see that and a lot of people admire Walking Phoenix and he's frequently nominated and he may also have a similar kind of energy around him you're making a face like you want to you got a snake coming out of your eyes. No I don't mean to be making that face I are normal adjusted people going to care as much as everyone who is tweeting about Joker.
I don't know who will be tweeting about Joker because that's the thing there will it will be a sensation on the internet and we will not be able to not hear about it for six months but that does not relate to two Academy votes. It's completely true and there may be some something held against it because of its comic book origins you know the fact that it comes from that with the rare exception of Black Panther it's not usually celebrated so that'll be an issue. I mentioned Sandler you know he's another guy who at some point somebody's gonna have to give an Oscar because he keeps you know he makes three Netflix movies that people like this is garbage but it's great for my kids and then he makes a great movie and he's been doing this for 15-20 years now and his great movies are like aging well and his great performances are aging well like funny people at the time people like oh it's too long it's baggy or whatever but if you go back and look at his performance it's fucking good and he's great and punch drunk love when he puts his mind to it he really is like one of the most interesting dudes doing this. 100% he doesn't campaign.
I you know he's so interesting to see if he does that this time because one he went to tell you right and he went and he stayed like for four days and he shook a lot of hands and he seemed to be in a great movie playing basketball in the local park with people he's got a big shitting grin on his face in the in the class photo sitting with Martin Scorsese he really did seem to be there for it and you're right he never does press he never does long interviews he never turns himself over to this process driver similarly is a bit taciturn historically he was celebrated at two separate tributes and did a number of Q&As and was pretty charming you know I would not say he was very forthcoming about his life but he was great talking about the things that he worked on and so those guys can focus their energies on those things maybe it's enough we'll see it takes a lot of work. Romney Malick was fucking huffing for months. Yeah I'm curious to see whether they can invent a campaign that fits this mold of guy who definitely is eligible and who people love but refuses to do any press usually because you've got stanler you've got Adam Driver got Eddie Murphy who we were talking about last week. That's right that's right interesting trend there I mean if Robert's near it was incredible in the Irishman will he campaign for an Oscar?
I have no idea I mean probably not. You know and then you have to wonder whether it seems unlikely every time I've started a sentence with maybe the academy will change it's I have been proven wrong yeah but they need stars they need people who have who are recognizable really in the acting categories because that more than the the movies because you can get someone to tune in to see Adam Sandler probably. 100% and you know I think in part because we've discussed how there's not likely to be a more than one big box office hit in the lineup this year the way that there was last year with Bohemian Rhapsody and Star is Born and Black Panther there were a lot of movies and I genuinely attribute the bump in the ratings to the fact that people have seen a lot of these movies I think it's going to be a smaller year in that respect so if you have based on what we've discussed Leo Christian Bale Adam Driver walking Phoenix Adam Sandler Robert De Niro Eddie Murphy those people are famous they're like actually famous they're like hit movies we have long relationships with them that is beneficial I you know who knows if Tom Hanks ends up becoming a lead or not he's another guy who people when you think Oscars you kind of think Tom Hanks. So that will be fascinating there's a few other ones I did mention Jonathan Price and the two popes to he feels a bit like a he's overdue the two popes is my wife that's what I realized the two popes I just can't believe that this is real and then I am going to be taking this seriously for however long and I know you've seen it honestly it's pretty good like I really think it's pretty good I just it's so not in line with what I thought that it was going to be and I suppose it's also for a slightly older audience I just can't it's legitimately pretty funny obviously also Jonathan Price is the connecting factor between the two of them but I I just I can't believe that it's a buddy comedy I what there is a long stretch of the movie about the the revolutionary struggles and the problems of the Catholic Church in Argentina in the 1960s that's not that's like a 20 minute section of the movie listen I don't want to make every movie about politics and issues I want to have one of the movies too but it's called the two popes they're right they're popes all right um any read me in the air or not I don't know I don't care if I'm being really real sure at the end of this podcast it's just not for me like I don't know I didn't see it for a reason this weekend I mentioned Edward Norton of course on their list Brooklyn there's a world in which with the right campaign because it's such a purposefully um it's a show he performs because his character has Tourette's and so he you have to evoke his disability in a meaningful way and he's a person who's very admired in the industry and has a great reputation it has number one and this is a passion project those things tend to do well hello the Warner Brothers machine behind him so we'll see if that comes to light we talked about dark waters tautians his mysterious movie last week I guess I didn't add dark waters to that list of movies we haven't seen yet but I don't know when that's gonna appear in the world right um and Mark Ruffalo is the star of that yes could be sure I mean I still think the number one problem is that you even forgot to put it on a list because you know it's a little about it I know what was there was a movie last year that you were saying it came out too late and it didn't get the right I mean I think Beel Street yeah Beel Street really fell victim to that and I wonder what will happen with dark waters which I think is at the end of November in that crowded Thanksgiving moment Dana Coluja is in a big studio drama called Queen and Slim he's already been nominated it's definitely one of the most interesting living actors could be sure um that's pretty much my list would I forget I'm sure some people will be like how dare you leave off Robert Downey Jr for end game or whatever but I you know what he does after making a thing nominated every single one of those guys in supporting it's just all of the Avengers were in supporting that's how you get the ratings up give Thanos his Oscar all right when does Thanos get the Irving Thalberg lifetime achievement award tell me it's like you this is a your bit but then like Thanos is going to present an Oscar at the not even like in five years literally at the 2020 Oscars he's just they're going to do the whole animation thing and there will be a joke about this nap and all of this stuff was this nap this year last year doesn't matter because it ended and now everyone knows what it is I let's do it put Thanos on stage okay what's the downside why have we just put you in a giant Thanos costume stage I'm in I mean I'll be overdubbing movies going forward I'll be working on my southern accent I'll be getting my Thanos cosplay on this is that's all I want from movies I'm so glad the Oscar shows back Amanda thanks for indulging my Telluride observations we'll have plenty of conversations like this one hopefully for the next five and a half months I'm ready let's do it thanks as always to Amanda Dobbins please stay tuned to the big picture later this week when I'll be joined by Adam Naaman and we'll be talking about the movies of Stephen King see them