Our Golden Globe Predictions. Plus: Introducing 25 for ’25!

In her triumphant return, Amanda shares her overarching thoughts on the movies and shows from the past few months that she’s been out on parental leave (1:00). Then, Sean and Amanda predict the winners of each film category for Sunday’s Golden Globes (52:00. Plus: they introduce a new yearlong project for 2025 in which they count down their collective favorite films of the century so far. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner Video Producer: Chia Hao Tat Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:01Speaker 00

  Hey, it's Brian Curtis from The Ringer, and I want to tell you about The Press Box Podcast. The Press Box is a podcast for anybody who likes news, whether it's about sports, or politics, or pop culture, and wants to understand how that news really gets made. We have new shows every Monday and Thursday. We have long interviews with everyone from John Krakauer to Joe Buck. Your social media feeds are bursting with information every day. Let us help you sort it out. Join us on The Press Box.

• 0:37Sean Fennessey?

  This episode is brought to you by LinkedIn Ads. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first but didn't live up to the hype? Marketers know that feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great, impressions reach, and reacts. But when they don't show revenue, well, that's a not-so-great conversation with the CFO. LinkedIn has a word for that: bullspend. Instead, why not invest in what looks good to your CFO? LinkedIn Ads generates the highest ROAS of all major ad networks. Reach the right buyers with LinkedIn Ads. You can target by company, industry, job title, and more. So cut the bullspend, advertise on LinkedIn, the network that works for you. Spend $250 on your first campaign on LinkedIn Ads and get a $250 credit for the next one. Just go to LinkedIn.com/thebigpicture.

• 1:20Sean Fennessey?

  That's LinkedIn.com/thebigpicture. Terms and conditions apply. This episode is brought to you by State Farm. There's nothing better than having friends who support whatever you're into, like rewatching a director's entire catalog in the lead-up to their latest release. And like those friends, State Farm is there to help you feel supported by helping you choose the coverage you need. With so many coverage options, it's nice knowing you have help finding what fits for you. So you can check coverage off the list and spend more time debating movie rankings. Go online at StateFarm.com or use the easily accessible app to get help from one of their local agents. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.

• 2:01Sean Fennessey?

  I'm Sean Fennessey.

• 2:02Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm Amanda Dobbins.

• 2:03Sean Fennessey?

  And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about the return of Dobbins.

• 2:06Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm back. Hallelujah.

• 2:07Sean Fennessey?

  She's back. Later in this episode, Amanda and I will introduce our next big project for the show. We'll also predict the winners for Sunday's Golden Globes. Did you know the Golden Globes are happening on Sunday?

• 2:17Amanda Dobbins?

  I do. I'm gonna be here. I have arranged it. I did make some preparations for my predictions, but for the Golden Globes, I like read through the list.

• 2:27Sean Fennessey?

  I see.

• 2:28Amanda Dobbins?

  And I thought about it for five seconds, but that's gonna be a freewheeling portion of the podcast.

• 2:33Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, well, let's get right into it. You're back.

• 2:35Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm back.

• 2:36Sean Fennessey?

  You're back, in a manner of speaking. You're the mother of two children.

• 2:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Two boys. Yeah.

• 2:41Sean Fennessey?

  Congratulations.

• 2:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Thank you so much.

• 2:42Sean Fennessey?

  I've spent a lot of time with your family in the last couple of weeks. It's been wonderful.

• 2:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, it was very nice, very sweet.

• 2:47Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 2:48Amanda Dobbins?

  We've each also spent a lot of time with our respective families.

• 2:51Sean Fennessey?

  I have never been happier to be podcasting than I am at this exact moment with you guys because, yeah, we've been locked down.

• 2:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 2:58Sean Fennessey?

  In a manner of speaking, but we're back. And you've been, what? What have you been doing for the last three months?

• 3:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Raising two children and not sleeping and listening to the podcast and seeing movies as best I could fit it in.

• 3:15Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 3:16Amanda Dobbins?

  With the understanding that my kids are on opposite schedules right now, so like no real downtime during the day. And then I was kind of falling asleep for a while. So I'm not caught up. And I'm gonna work on being caught up, you know, now that my time is coming back to me. And that'll be nice in a way because like then we can revisit some of the movies that you guys covered in the last three months. You know, you haven't had anyone to talk about A Different Man with. I was just listening to your under seen episodes on the way here.

• 3:45Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 3:45Amanda Dobbins?

  So.

• 3:46Sean Fennessey?

  That's true.

• 3:46Amanda Dobbins?

  I could talk about that.

• 3:47Sean Fennessey?

  You've seen that?

• 3:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I actually saw that before Si was born. But anyway, good movie.

• 3:52Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 3:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Nickel Boys, you have scheduled for February. That's great. I haven't seen Nickel Boys yet. So, but I'm going to. Got a ticket for The Brutalist at the Vista.

• 4:01Sean Fennessey?

  Hell, yeah.

• 4:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Next week in the afternoon. Uh, so I guess that's the disclaimer of the podcast.

• 4:07Sean Fennessey?

  Do you want to reveal where you're seeing it so everyone can come see it with you?

• 4:10Amanda Dobbins?

  I just said at the Vista.

• 4:11Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, at the Vista?

• 4:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, maybe I won't say the day.

• 4:14Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 4:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Um.

• 4:15Sean Fennessey?

  I'll just tweet the day.

• 4:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Do you think that I have to wait in line?

• 4:18Sean Fennessey?

  What do you mean?

• 4:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Like, I've seen-

• 4:20Sean Fennessey?

  You won't have to wait in line at the bathroom, that's for sure, because there will be a lot of men there.

• 4:23Amanda Dobbins?

  I know. Uh, one, some of the reports that I got while I was gone was, um, Alex Ross Perry letting me know that he was early on the Brutalist Boys, uh, bathroom line, uh, divide and that there would not be any lines for the women.

• 4:39Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 4:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, you know, there just have been, there's been like a lot of crowds outside the Vista.

• 4:44Sean Fennessey?

  I think the first like two or two weeks at the Vista sold out pretty hard and now I noticed there's a lot of more available tickets. So I think it'll be okay, especially in the middle of the day.

• 4:53Amanda Dobbins?

  This is also my first time at the reopened Vista, so I'm excited about that.

• 4:55Sean Fennessey?

  Wonderful.

• 4:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 4:55Sean Fennessey?

  It's really cool. I especially love the snack selections. You gotta go to Pam's Coffee next door. Coffee shop named after Pam Greer.

• 5:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 5:02Sean Fennessey?

  The, the, the pastries at Pam's Coffee Shop are out of this world.

• 5:07Amanda Dobbins?

  So could I do that and then?

• 5:09Sean Fennessey?

  They let you bring it in.

• 5:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, great. All right.

• 5:10Sean Fennessey?

  You can get, you can load up on stuff.

• 5:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Is there like a lunchtime offering at Pam's?

• 5:14Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know for sure. I don't eat lunches, you know?

• 5:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure, well, I'm going around lunchtime.

• 5:19Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I think that's wise.

• 5:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Just to narrow down the window of when I'll be there. Yeah, so I haven't seen The Brutalist, so.

• 5:26Sean Fennessey?

  But I think you've been doing, based on what you've told me, you're doing a smart thing, which is there's, you've seen a lot.

• 5:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 5:31Sean Fennessey?

  But you've held out on a complete unknown.

• 5:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 5:36Sean Fennessey?

  You've held out on The Brutalist, you've held out on Nickel Boys, movies that you want to see on the big screen.

• 5:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 5:41Sean Fennessey?

  And otherwise, it seems like you've been keeping up pretty good.

• 5:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, there are still some holes, which we'll go through, I think, as we do Golden Globes. I'm way behind on international. I'm way behind on docs. I'm way behind on animated film.

• 5:55Sean Fennessey?

  Hard to believe.

• 5:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Will I catch up? We'll find out.

• 6:00Amanda Dobbins?

  And yeah, there are spots here and there, but I did also manage to see, I saw Gladiator 2 on the big screen. I saw Wicked on the big screen.

• 6:09Sean Fennessey?

  Sure.

• 6:10Amanda Dobbins?

  I think I've gotten most of the major experiences the way they were intended and/or I have them planned for the next weeks. So.

• 6:19Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, where would you like to begin here? Like, you have, the floor is yours for whatever has been transpiring here and in the world of movies over the last three months while you've been on.

• 6:27Amanda Dobbins?

  And also on the podcast. That's the other thing. I have been listening.

• 6:30Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 6:31Amanda Dobbins?

  You have gotten.

• 6:31Sean Fennessey?

  Make it sound like you're here to scold me.

• 6:34Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, Bobby, I see you on the screen there. Yeah.

• 6:38Sean Fennessey?

  What did I do?

• 6:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, you're gonna find out, because I have some feedback that I almost texted you guys yesterday, and then I was like, oh, I have an outlet.

• 6:47Amanda Dobbins?

  I have mostly been listening, but there are some episodes that I haven't gotten to yet, because, as you mentioned, I haven't seen A Complete Unknown yet, so I haven't listened to that. I did watch Pete Seeger's, the Pete Seeger impression.

• 6:59Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. We got, we got in the same week on this show, two new characters. We got Pete Seeger and Count Orlok.

• 7:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 7:08Sean Fennessey?

  Are both on the show in perpetuity.

• 7:11Amanda Dobbins?

  So I haven't seen Nosferatu, but I will see that.

• 7:14Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, great.

• 7:15Amanda Dobbins?

  In fact.

• 7:17Sean Fennessey?

  I think you'll enjoy that.

• 7:18Amanda Dobbins?

  You know what? I was having the same conversation last night with our friend Zach and our friend Marc Anthony Green, and they were both like, no, I actually think you'll really like that.

• 7:26Sean Fennessey?

  It's a Gothic romance with like some scary stuff.

• 7:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Which I don't think I was expecting, so that's on the list, but I haven't listened to that episode yet. So I can't respond to everything, because I haven't heard everything yet, but I have heard a lot.

• 7:40Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 7:41Amanda Dobbins?

  And I've been following along as best I can with the discussion, so I have some discussion points.

• 7:47Sean Fennessey?

  Well, I mean, we're very happy to have you back. I did want to say thank you to everyone who filled in for you. Which, um, you know, Joanna Robinson, of course, CR, Mallory Rubin, Rob Mahoney.

• 7:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Van Lathan.

• 7:59Sean Fennessey?

  Van Lathan, Charles Holmes, Bobby, of course. I'm sure I'm forgetting some people.

• 8:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Tracy Letts.

• 8:05Sean Fennessey?

  Tracy Letts, the great Tracy Letts came through. Big Jim?

• 8:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 8:08Sean Fennessey?

  Big Jim came through, which was delightful. Gail Hurd.

• 8:12Amanda Dobbins?

  That was.

• 8:12Speaker 03

  I've been seeing the screenshots of Big Jim have been going around because I guess,

• 8:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 8:17Speaker 03

  you know, it got aggregated or whatever. And I just have to say, I want to give a big shout out to Big Jim for just dressing like a BMX tracer all the time.

• 8:25Sean Fennessey?

  Sick outfit.

• 8:25Speaker 03

  You know, incredible shit.

• 8:26Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 8:27Speaker 03

  Right in the big picture color scheme, too. It was amazing.

• 8:29Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, he got aggregated because he was a big fan of the film Emilio Perez.

• 8:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh.

• 8:35Sean Fennessey?

  And he shouted out Zoe Saldana's performance in that film. Obviously, he has collaborated with Zoe a few times on the Avatar films.

• 8:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure. Right. Okay. Yeah.

• 8:43Sean Fennessey?

  So then the, I think the Selena Gomez people picked it up.

• 8:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. And then you made it on Film Updates. Yes. Now I remember I'm, I am watching that. Yeah, I did watch that. Okay. I have, yeah, thank you to everyone. Everyone was great. It was very fun to consume it as a listener and then to send outrage texts and/or dictate them to my phone while I was driving, because that was often like my podcast listening time was driving to and from Whole Foods. Often with like a baby in the back and then just yelling, Siri, tell Sean. Anyway, we'll get there. So I have prepared for larger discussion points here.

• 9:25Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 9:25Amanda Dobbins?

  The first one is Oscars State of Best Picture. You and Joanna have done great work. And I think I'm, I'm mostly agree with your read of where the race is. I mean, you guys are very good at this. You know, who am I to tell you and Joanna that you're wrong? And I have not been as locked in. But I do want to address where it looks like the race is headed.

• 9:49Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm. Please do. I think I know where you're going with this, and I think you might be right.

• 9:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, so we have, we gotta talk about Wicked. We, we have to talk about Wicked, ladies and gentlemen, and we have to talk right now. I am, I'm baffled. I am absolutely gobsmacked that this is like becoming the frontrunner.

• 10:09Sean Fennessey?

  So you saw it?

• 10:10Amanda Dobbins?

  I did.

• 10:10Sean Fennessey?

  What did you think of the movie?

• 10:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Not for me on about eight different levels. Including the basic fact that, so I had never seen Wicked the musical.

• 10:20Sean Fennessey?

  Uh huh, same.

• 10:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, and I just, I wasn't part of that phenomenon. And that is like a phenomenon. And many people graduated from Rent, the musical, to Wicked. I thought Juliette Littman did just a fantastic job. It was a wonderful episode of this podcast. And she has, has lived the wicked life and really put that in a lot of context for me. But I just didn't really like the show very much. I was just, you know, that goat started singing and I was like, oh no, the animals are singing?

• 10:55Sean Fennessey?

  I, I believe in the, in the theatrical performance, there's just a man dressed as a goat. So in that respect, would you have preferred that to the CGI?

• 11:04Amanda Dobbins?

  No one told me about the animal subplot.

• 11:06Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 11:06Amanda Dobbins?

  So in general, I, listen, be kind to animals and like, don't make me think about it too much. It's kind of where I am.

• 11:13Sean Fennessey?

  Kind of a micro-science corner there.

• 11:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Just like, let's be responsible and kind and like, okay, whatever. So that's the basic level. Then obviously like the very, very obvious quote unquote metaphor for like, sure, okay. I mean, I, I'm, I'm against fascism on like most of this country, but that, you know, speaking of things I missed. And that, that's not true, I voted. But I, I thought that was pretty stupid. I didn't think the songs were that good.

• 11:47Sean Fennessey?

  Did you, did you know the songs going in?

• 11:49Amanda Dobbins?

  I knew Defying Gravity.

• 11:51Sean Fennessey?

  That was the only one.

• 11:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Because somehow even like the Idina Menzel Defying Gravity thing was such a pop culture moment. And people were rocking to the soundtrack that, you know, I, that I was aware of that. I don't think I could have told you that it was like spliced up or I couldn't have done any of the analysis that Juliette did. So that was helpful, but I was like, oh yeah, yeah, Defying Gravity, sure.

• 12:14Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 12:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, and then I think I learned from David Sims and Griffin Newman on Blank Check that that. The Defying Gravity closes the first act, so it would close the part one of the movie. So I did kind of know that was coming, but that was it. Um, yeah, so I just, I didn't respond to it in any way and in fact, thought it was sort of boring and bad.

• 12:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Personally, I'm not sure that I get the listening to musical soundtracks as a phenomenon. And clearly I'm in the minority on that, you know? I know it made a ton of money, like Wicked, the soundtrack has brought people a lot of joy.

• 12:54Sean Fennessey?

  It certainly has.

• 12:54Amanda Dobbins?

  I know you listen to it in your house.

• 12:57Sean Fennessey?

  It's on quite frequently. Last night, we listened to Popular three times in a row.

• 13:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Yeah.

• 13:03Sean Fennessey?

  And my daughter danced and performed the whole time.

• 13:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Talk me, listen, I love nothing more than Alice's performances. We got a great one at Thanksgiving.

• 13:10Sean Fennessey?

  We did. The ballerina has arrived, for sure.

• 13:15Amanda Dobbins?

  And we also got a great one at Christmas with Knox and Alice, so that was nice. I, I, how does that happen? Walk me through the choices that you have made as a person and a parent to where

• 13:28Sean Fennessey?

  As though I've made choices.

• 13:29Amanda Dobbins?

  She knows about Popular and is listening to it three times in a row. Like

• 13:35Sean Fennessey?

  Well, she's seen the movie Wicked.

• 13:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, so how'd you get there?

• 13:38Sean Fennessey?

  Before that, um, I think it was our friend Izzy who exposed her to the songs originally.

• 13:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 13:44Sean Fennessey?

  But she knew that Wicked was coming because she loves The Wizard of Oz. We've seen The Wizard of Oz many times.

• 13:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 13:49Sean Fennessey?

  And so she became aware of these other songs and began to love them. Loves The Defying Gravity, loves Popular, loves The Wizard and I, I think is the other like major song.

• 14:01Sean Fennessey?

  And yeah, she likes to dance in the evening time. She likes to go to the ball.

• 14:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 14:05Sean Fennessey?

  She likes to put on a gown, go to the ball, and then dance.

• 14:08Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm great with all that.

• 14:09Sean Fennessey?

  This is what she likes to do. So when she's like, so we put on whatever song she wants to hear. And then invariably Spotify starts playing songs that we've played in the past.

• 14:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, so you let them, you let Spotify do the work?

• 14:19Sean Fennessey?

  For example, yeah.

• 14:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, okay, so you're not taking the wheel.

• 14:22Sean Fennessey?

  But I will say I wouldn't say that she loved Wicked.

• 14:26Amanda Dobbins?

  She didn't.

• 14:27Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, it's very long. It's, um, at times scary. I would say a little confusing narratively.

• 14:33Amanda Dobbins?

  I would agree with that as someone with, you know, basically three-year-old intelligence at the time of watching the movie. But a smart three-year-old, Alice is, you know, very advanced.

• 14:43Sean Fennessey?

  She's, she can get story pretty well. It's just, it's a lot of story and it's a lot, it's, it's a bit convoluted, I would say. Um, and so I, I thought it did, I thought she did pretty well with it. We watched it at home.

• 14:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh huh.

• 14:57Sean Fennessey?

  And, but she's not asked for it since. This was like two and a half weeks ago we watched it, a week and a half ago. Um, and that's notable because when she likes something, she says, I want to watch it again. So I think that, no, she's very young relative to what the core audience of this movie is, which is, I think, 35-year-old women. Um, you know, they're watching it in droves.

• 15:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 15:17Sean Fennessey?

  And, and maybe Academy voters. Um, obviously like.

• 15:20Amanda Dobbins?

  So that's the thing. So the short.

• 15:24Sean Fennessey?

  Queer fan base, obviously, for this movie.

• 15:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, of course.

• 15:26Sean Fennessey?

  Broadway heads. Like, there's a lot of people who love the movie.

• 15:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Listen, you love what you love. I get it. And so I guess the ways it was not for me. Number one, I just didn't understand the show. I didn't understand the appeal of the show and I'm, and I'm also not like a listen to musicals soundtrack person.

• 15:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Number two, I have to be honest. Parts of it were okay. I did think Ariana Grande was very funny and good. And I was like, wow, what a star. I get it. I mean, I have always gotten it, like, since 2012, but that's a different conversation.

• 15:58Sean Fennessey?

  I wouldn't even disagree with you. I like.

• 16:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I get it. Uh, otherwise, I think it was very good. I agree with you. It looks like bordering on garbage.

• 16:08Sean Fennessey?

  It looks pretty bad.

• 16:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, I didn't care for the choreography or the, the dance numbers in, in general. I thought they were just a weird mishmash of, and listen, I say that as a, like a, a deep Step Up fan. But they were lost somewhere between, you know, modern Step Up choreography and Broadway choreography, which, which ain't Gene Kelly.

• 16:36Sean Fennessey?

  Yep.

• 16:37Amanda Dobbins?

  And.

• 16:38Sean Fennessey?

  I think that's a, a good point, and I think that's something he's trying, he's trying to have it both ways.

• 16:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 16:41Sean Fennessey?

  He's trying to modernize a classical style, and that's hard to do. I, I, I think it's pretty iffy as well, but I'm not an expert in that, so I find it a little hard to criticize it.

• 16:50Amanda Dobbins?

  And also, I just think, I. The group numbers are not well done. And then the main performers aren't dancers, respectfully.

• 17:00Sean Fennessey?

  It's true.

• 17:01Amanda Dobbins?

  I agree that-

• 17:02Sean Fennessey?

  Is Jonathan Bailey a dancer? He may be a dancer.

• 17:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Is he? I thought he was just on Bridgerton. Also, that's the really long song where he just kind of like stands around and they do a lot of plot. And then there's the completely silent dance number, which, as you pointed out on the Wicked podcast, is one of the most bizarre filmmaking choices I've ever seen in my entire life.

• 17:25Sean Fennessey?

  Hated it. People who-

• 17:27Amanda Dobbins?

  It's so baffling.

• 17:28Sean Fennessey?

  People are having like huge emotional connections to that, that sequence. I think us not knowing the show at all is probably holding us back. But when I was watching it, I was like, this is openly bad.

• 17:38Amanda Dobbins?

  It's like a, it's a pitch black room and there's no sound. The pacing is incredibly strange.

• 17:47Sean Fennessey?

  I'm with you, man.

• 17:48Amanda Dobbins?

  It's like the unf- it's the unfunny version of them touching fingers or whatever and holding space. Which, by the way, incredible press conference, the press tour, which Juliet has really covered with gusto.

• 18:00Sean Fennessey?

  And I, and I think one of the reasons probably why the movie is-

• 18:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 18:03Sean Fennessey?

  resonating is that they're like connected to those two people. They're connected to Cynthia Erivo, they're connected to Ariana Grande.

• 18:08Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I have loved Cynthia Erivo's press tour, including her appearance on Los Culturistas, where she was, her like Honey, I Can't was about cooking with onion and garlic. And like, we've lost creativity and imagination in our recipes. That every single recipe just has to start with onion and garlic. There have to be more possibilities, which I think is a great point.

• 18:31Sean Fennessey?

  Is there like an alternative that you would start with?

• 18:33Amanda Dobbins?

  She suggested some things that I don't remember, but every single time I-

• 18:36Sean Fennessey?

  Like nutmeg?

• 18:37Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I mean, I hadn't heard of them. And like, maybe we were veering into hippie dippy stuff, but that, like, that's fine, but-

• 18:43Sean Fennessey?

  Like DMT? Like, what, what was she thinking?

• 18:45Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I hadn't heard of it. You know what I'm saying? And I don't want to speak to what I don't know.

• 18:49Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, understood.

• 18:50Amanda Dobbins?

  But every single time I've been cooking something and I'm chopping the onion and I'm chopping the garlic and I'm sauteing it and I'm like, she's right, this is unimaginative. Like, what other flavor bases could we explore?

• 19:01Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 19:02Amanda Dobbins?

  All that said, I was confused by her performance in the film, which I didn't feel met the energy of Ariana Grande or the rest of the movie. And, you know, maybe that's, I don't know.

• 19:16Sean Fennessey?

  She just made a very, a choice to be incredibly serious and grave in the film.

• 19:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 19:22Sean Fennessey?

  Which is a mode that she's very comfortable in as a performer. And if you've seen her in, and the good work that she's done, like in Harriet, which I don't think is a very good movie, but I think she's very good in it. Or if you see her in Widows, like, she has a kind of like tenacity and focus and intensity as a performer that benefits some movies. In a movie like this, which is supposed to be like candy colored and pop and uplifting in many ways. Obviously, she's a tremendous singer, but the acting style just seemed all wrong to me.

• 19:50Amanda Dobbins?

  I, it didn't work for me. It was another imbalance in what is just like a very long and often like dark to look at movie.

• 20:00Sean Fennessey?

  Yep.

• 20:01Amanda Dobbins?

  I just.

• 20:02Sean Fennessey?

  But you think it's gonna win now?

• 20:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, so, and this brings me to the third way in which it doesn't work for me. Putting aside, it didn't work for me. That's fine. We all have different tastes. It brought joy to a lot of people. And that's cool. And I, you know, get that money AMC Cinemas or whatever, but, or Regal too, you know, don't.

• 20:23Sean Fennessey?

  Wow, look at you.

• 20:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Landmark.

• 20:24Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, keeping your options open, for sure.

• 20:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure, everybody, congratulations. That's great. But this being the Best Picture winner, we will throw a tantrum, probably, you know? I don't know what else to say. And it was a weird year, you know? So I, like, there isn't an obvious frontrunner. There isn't something, even though, you know, I loved Inora, it was my favorite film of the year. But.

• 20:54Amanda Dobbins?

  I like, what?

• 20:55Sean Fennessey?

  It's like, yeah.

• 20:56Amanda Dobbins?

  So that, the, the fact that it just keeps growing and growing, the shortlist made me really nervous. The shortlist, because it is everywhere. And June 2 is not there to the same degree. I mean, obviously, Emilio Perez is also there, which we, we can talk about.

• 21:14Sean Fennessey?

  We will, and we made predictions.

• 21:15Amanda Dobbins?

  I've seen it.

• 21:15Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 21:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, I, I watched it to the end. I wanted to know what happened, you know? I watched the thing.

• 21:23Sean Fennessey?

  They did that on the poster.

• 21:25Amanda Dobbins?

  I kept watching. I was like, well.

• 21:26Sean Fennessey?

  I wanted to know what happened.

• 21:27Amanda Dobbins?

  I want to know where this is gonna go.

• 21:29Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 21:29Amanda Dobbins?

  So.

• 21:30Sean Fennessey?

  I didn't love where it went.

• 21:31Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I didn't either. Um, and I didn't, I'm not sure I, I enjoyed the journey or the destination.

• 21:36Sean Fennessey?

  Some things I did, but both, those movies are very the same to me where I think that there is like a real, you're either a one star or a five star for both of those films. And I think that they both have things going for them, especially in performance, that.

• 21:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Memorable.

• 21:50Sean Fennessey?

  That elevate, I think, kind of shoddy material or weird.

• 21:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 21:54Sean Fennessey?

  Filmmaking choices that didn't work. Um, I think the writing in Emilio Perez is like appalling at times. Um, and I think that sort of filmmaking stuff in Wicked doesn't work, but, um, I, they, they feel like two of the strongest movies in like the broader Academy Awards race. Meaning they will get like the most nominations most likely. Whether or not these are two movies that like actually can win anything beyond an acting performance, I'm not sure.

• 22:21Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm not either.

• 22:22Sean Fennessey?

  It's a little hard to tell, to be honest with you, and everybody that I've talked to who's a voter, people are all over the place. There has been no consistency in anybody I know who participates in this stuff being like, oh yeah, it's The Brutalist, or oh yeah, it's Inora, or oh yeah, it's Wicked. It's kind of spread out. So I, but the thing that you're hitting on, which is like, in the absence of a frontrunner, is it a better opportunity for a pop movie to rise? Or is it a better opportunity for a smaller film to rise? That's something we don't yet know.

• 22:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. And. You've done an okay job in the last few months of being the, well, remember the international voters, because that's normally my job. I know, and I appreciate it.

• 22:58Sean Fennessey?

  I think Joanna has thought of it as well on your behalf.

• 23:00Amanda Dobbins?

  And you guys do bring it up, and I appreciate that, but I do.

• 23:04Sean Fennessey?

  What is the international film? Is it Amelia Perez? Is that's the representative in this race?

• 23:09Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, I guess so.

• 23:11Sean Fennessey?

  It's such a funky one, though, because it's like a Mexican story made by a French filmmaker with, you know, American movie stars.

• 23:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 23:21Sean Fennessey?

  You know, it's not quite, it's not quite.

• 23:22Amanda Dobbins?

  No, that's very confusing.

• 23:23Sean Fennessey?

  It's not Anatomy of a Fall, you know?

• 23:24Amanda Dobbins?

  It's more that I don't know that Wicked translates internationally in the same way.

• 23:30Sean Fennessey?

  Clearly has not commercially.

• 23:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, commercially. And if you're not, you know, wicked-pilled from the age of 12 because you put this on in middle school, which like Jade Whaley, one of our producers here, was like, yeah, we did it. We did Wicked in, maybe it was high school. I mean, you know, I'd love to meet the eighth grader.

• 23:50Sean Fennessey?

  Their theater program.

• 23:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, who's performing Defying Gravity, but.

• 23:53Sean Fennessey?

  That's a really good point.

• 23:56Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, listen.

• 23:57Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, Ariana Grande could have performed that when she was in eighth grade.

• 23:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. If the eighth grader can pull it off, then like, you know, we've got a star.

• 24:02Sean Fennessey?

  I'm sure eighth grade Cynthia Revo could have, but they don't come along very often.

• 24:05Amanda Dobbins?

  So, you know, I don't know if middle schools in, you know, in France, or in Japan, or wherever, are also performing Wicked, and maybe I'm wrong. I don't know any middle schoolers internationally. I don't think I know any international middle schoolers.

• 24:20Sean Fennessey?

  I actually do, and I can ask them.

• 24:22Amanda Dobbins?

  If you guys are, if we have any international middle schoolers listening to this podcast, please let us know. You can call in with your Wicked review.

• 24:30Sean Fennessey?

  You can let Amanda know. I'm good, I think. If you're 12 and you're listening to this show, I don't think I need to know how you're feeling about it.

• 24:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. So, that is, that's one thing where I'm like, I'm not totally sure. I've been very resistant to this. As you know, I send you a lot of text messages on my walks being like, Wicked, are you sure? And but it just.

• 24:48Sean Fennessey?

  It's kind of a relief that we're aligned on this.

• 24:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 24:51Sean Fennessey?

  Because if we were, if we had to fight about this movie for two months, I would have been kind of bummed. I think it's certainly possible right now.

• 24:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 24:59Sean Fennessey?

  When it first hit, I was like, oh shit, this is happening. And that's when I said, I'm gonna throw a tantrum.

• 25:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 25:03Sean Fennessey?

  When it first hit, I was like, oh no.

• 25:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 25:06Sean Fennessey?

  This is such a wave. And sometimes this happens, you know, where a movie just hits hard. And then it kind of slowed down a little bit. And it kind of got like its own little like corner where it was like, this is for people. This is their version of a big pop movie.

• 25:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 25:19Sean Fennessey?

  And now, in the absence of anything rising, I'm starting to sense what you are circling, I think.

• 25:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, and there's not a clear path to it, but there's not a clear path for any other movie.

• 25:31Sean Fennessey?

  There's not.

• 25:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Right now.

• 25:32Sean Fennessey?

  There's not.

• 25:32Amanda Dobbins?

  It's so funny, I know Joanna said on your most recent power rankings that, you know, isn't it fun? We don't know what's gonna happen. And I'm with you, I'm like, I find this baffling.

• 25:41Sean Fennessey?

  It's a little anxiety inducing.

• 25:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, it's anxiety inducing and also you and I both have the instinct to just correct whatever.

• 25:50Sean Fennessey?

  Get it right.

• 25:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, and to have opinions and be like, to be above the process. But you can't be above the process if you don't know what the process is. So I would agree that it's.

• 26:00Sean Fennessey?

  So true.

• 26:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, confusing and agitating, but I, maybe also good content.

• 26:05Sean Fennessey?

  I think it makes it more intriguing at large, which is good just for spending time on this stuff. Um, it's not good for our very sad, uh, hyper-specific mental process.

• 26:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 26:18Sean Fennessey?

  For handling.

• 26:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 26:19Sean Fennessey?

  Meaningless award shows. But, uh, okay, duly noted, what's next?

• 26:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, um, well, we'll need to talk about the Tracy Lutz episode, uh, which was wonderful. Which was, like, it was great. Uh, no credit to you, I mean Tracy's just a wonderful guest. Um, and that reminds me that I need to write him a thank you note if you can supply me with that contact information.

• 26:39Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I shall.

• 26:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Hello Tracy, Happy New Year. Um, and I, I loved listening to it. I was very, very, very upset.

• 26:51Amanda Dobbins?

  To hear you try to argue that your plastic cases are beautiful to look at. And that's just, I'm willing to go with you. Well, I'm not totally willing to go with you on this journey, but I would like to explore more. There is an interesting, listening to that podcast and to the physical media part of that podcast was deranged, but it made me did think, it did make me think a lot about like, you know, art and ownership. And there's also like a completist streak to what you guys are both doing. And I think that that is like an interesting strain of how a certain type of person consumes

• 27:35Amanda Dobbins?

  art and what that means.

• 27:37Sean Fennessey?

  Wait till you see The Brutalist.

• 27:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, you know.

• 27:39Sean Fennessey?

  Significant theme.

• 27:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure. So I like, and it's also sort of just, I still don't totally understand it, you know? Like, and I, so I wanted to ask you guys a lot of questions, not in an angry way, but just in like a.

• 27:52Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, I think.

• 27:53Amanda Dobbins?

  You know?

• 27:53Sean Fennessey?

  I think Tracy got it right.

• 27:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 27:54Sean Fennessey?

  When we first met, we talked about it, which is like, it's just like, it's a sickness, you know? It's like anytime you get interested in collecting anything.

• 28:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 28:04Sean Fennessey?

  It's just, it kind of can get away from you really quickly.

• 28:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 28:07Sean Fennessey?

  And it has gotten away from us.

• 28:08Amanda Dobbins?

  And I guess like collector brain is something that I don't understand. That doesn't mean that I'm not materialist. I'm like the most materialist person that you know.

• 28:15Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know about that, but you do, you seek out stuff.

• 28:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 28:19Sean Fennessey?

  But just not the entirety of stuff.

• 28:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. And I, and I was even thinking about it in terms of, of books because.

• 28:26Sean Fennessey?

  You guys have a ton of books.

• 28:26Amanda Dobbins?

  We, I mean, we have too many. We can't get rid of them. We tried and I have a very strong preference for a physical paper book as opposed to, you know, the e-readers or whatever, for many of the same reasons that you prefer.

• 28:42Sean Fennessey?

  Physical media.

• 28:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Physical media and like a good transfer and a good print. And I also understand that on a.

• 28:49Sean Fennessey?

  That I'm getting more and more interested in as I get older, is the way that I see things. Cause now when I stream stuff, it's so bad.

• 28:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, it looks like that, of course.

• 28:56Sean Fennessey?

  And now that like the technology's gotten really good on a lot of this stuff.

• 28:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 29:00Sean Fennessey?

  So you're like, they're converting movies that you never thought you would see that would look, I mean, Tracy made this point when he was talking and maybe Tim and I didn't do a good job talking about this last couple of years, but like. Movies being released on, like of The Wages of Fear being released on 4K.

• 29:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 29:12Sean Fennessey?

  Is fucking mind blowing. Like, it looks so much better than what you would see on TCM in 1999.

• 29:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 29:19Sean Fennessey?

  So, that is an aspect of it for sure.

• 29:21Amanda Dobbins?

  And I'm like, pretty lazy, and so I'm still mostly gonna use streaming and, but like, but I get all of that. But, to go back to the books thing, I guess because there's no possible way I could ever own every single book ever published.

• 29:37Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 29:38Amanda Dobbins?

  It's like, you know, I can't even own one four millionth of, I don't know.

• 29:43Sean Fennessey?

  But you're, you're building your personal canon of books that you care about.

• 29:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, but that's not what you guys are doing.

• 29:48Sean Fennessey?

  That's not what, that's not what Tracy is doing. I'm still in a place where I can navigate, and it's getting away from me for sure, but I'm still, because well, I'm getting drawn in by like, movies I've never seen.

• 30:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 30:00Sean Fennessey?

  That I wanna buy, which is not a good instinct unless it's something that I know is like a meaningful film.

• 30:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 30:05Sean Fennessey?

  But when like, exploitation movies that I don't know anything about are retailing for $34.99, and I'm like, I should get that.

• 30:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 30:11Sean Fennessey?

  That's, I'm trying to get away from that as much as I can, because it's not healthy and it's not good for your bank account. But, I have a, a widening understanding of movie history, and I'm trying to continue to fill it out. And I wanna be able to have access to stuff at any time. And like, I just read this morning, the oldest movie that's available to stream on Netflix right now.

• 30:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 30:31Sean Fennessey?

  Guess what year it is?

• 30:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, 1963.

• 30:38Sean Fennessey?

  It's 1973. It's The Sting. That's the oldest movie that is available to stream on Netflix right now. That's fucking terrifying.

• 30:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 30:47Sean Fennessey?

  There's 50 full years of movie history, of like Hollywood movie history, that comes before that movie, that the biggest media streaming service is not making available, at least in the United States. Um, that's not good. So, I, when, when I read something like that, I'm like, I'm on a great mission. This is a great hobby.

• 31:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure. Okay. I, even that, I, I don't, I, I still think that I am picking books and curating books in a different way than you are in that. And there's some, the collector's mindset, well, we'll come back to it.

• 31:19Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 31:20Amanda Dobbins?

  It's a, it's a theme to revisit throughout the year. That's all fine. The arguing that that looks good, they look like shit. It is like, it's just, it's straight up ugly. Like, I just, I have to tell you, it's ugly. And Tracy, to his credit, pushed back immediately.

• 31:34Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 31:35Amanda Dobbins?

  But the plastic does not look good. This is, at some point, film is an aesthetic, like, you know, is a visual medium. And we need you to understand some absolutes and that the rows of the plastic boxes don't look good. And Bobby, you're out here all of a sudden dropping indie, you know, label titles for, for Blu-ray releases. I don't like where this is going for you, okay?

• 32:00Speaker 03

  Oh, no, no, no. That was just, I was trying to contribute to the Hundreds of Beavers discussion. I don't actually buy any of these things.

• 32:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, but I was a little alarmed that you were even aware of the release. Do you know what I mean?

• 32:11Speaker 03

  This is just, yes.

• 32:12Sean Fennessey?

  I was inspired, thank you.

• 32:13Speaker 03

  Part of the algorithmic experience of the internet now is that I just get force-fed these things because I have a general

• 32:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 32:19Speaker 03

  interest in film.

• 32:20Amanda Dobbins?

  I just wanted you to know that I noticed, and I'm watching.

• 32:23Speaker 03

  Okay. All right. Well, I'm, now that I know I'm on Amanda's watch list, I'll tread very lightly.

• 32:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Nothing gets past me.

• 32:29Speaker 03

  That'll be one of my goals, exactly.

• 32:30Amanda Dobbins?

  And, and I, and I don't think plastic is beautiful.

• 32:33Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, fair enough. I grew up going to video stores. I loved video stores. And having a video store in my house is incredibly cool and visually relaxing.

• 32:42Amanda Dobbins?

  The video stores at least displayed the covers out.

• 32:45Sean Fennessey?

  Some did. And I may get to a place, if I ever get a bigger house, where I would display in a different way. But for now, I'm doing the best I can with the limited space that I can in a garage.

• 32:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, which is like an entire garage with wall-to-wall shelving.

• 32:59Sean Fennessey?

  That's correct.

• 32:59Amanda Dobbins?

  I would kill for that level of shelving for our books. Like, we don't, you know.

• 33:03Sean Fennessey?

  If I ever get another house, I, you can't imagine what I'm gonna do.

• 33:07Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I mean-

• 33:08Sean Fennessey?

  I'm gonna build an incredible great room.

• 33:10Amanda Dobbins?

  I think the alarming thing is that I can't.

• 33:12Sean Fennessey?

  It's gonna be so great. And you know what? You guys are invited to come over and watch films anytime you like.

• 33:16Amanda Dobbins?

  That's really nice.

• 33:17Sean Fennessey?

  The setup will be amazing. There will be movie theater seating. It's gonna be so special.

• 33:21Amanda Dobbins?

  But like, they're really good.

• 33:22Sean Fennessey?

  It is my dream to do this.

• 33:23Amanda Dobbins?

  They're really good movie theater scenes?

• 33:24Sean Fennessey?

  It's my dream to do it. My dream is to look at the Martin Scorsese personal screening room and to try to design in that mold. If I'm spending all this money on physical media-

• 33:31Amanda Dobbins?

  What are the chairs like in his room?

• 33:32Sean Fennessey?

  They're classic red, red velvet, uh, movie theater seats. They're not like Dolby room, you know, recliners. I don't know, I don't think there are photos of it online.

• 33:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, uh, yeah, I mean, this is just images of screening rooms. That wasn't a very good Google search. I guess AI isn't working. Okay.

• 33:51Speaker 03

  Just so you know, by talking about the construction of it on this podcast, you've now signed yourself up to do a YouTube series like Extreme Home Makeovers of you building this.

• 33:59Sean Fennessey?

  If someone wants to pay for this, if there's like a Discovery Channel show that designs movie rooms.

• 34:05Amanda Dobbins?

  I will, I will be involved. I'll give so much feedback.

• 34:08Sean Fennessey?

  I am, I am ready to be bought and sold when it comes to designing my home theater. I'm dead serious. If you're listening to this show and you want sponsorship and you make these things, fucking in, no question. This is, I mean, it sinks so naturally with everything we're doing. And then I'll make the plastic more beautiful for you. I'll display it more elegantly. I'll find, again, see the brutalist, then let's talk.

• 34:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, I'm going to, I have a ticket.

• 34:30Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 34:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, number three.

• 34:33Sean Fennessey?

  Not so sure about this one.

• 34:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I just, it's, it's more a report of what's really been going on in my household and what I've really been watching, uh, which is that my son has discovered Paddington.

• 34:45Sean Fennessey?

  Mm hmm.

• 34:46Amanda Dobbins?

  The concept of Paddington, Paddington, the character.

• 34:49Sean Fennessey?

  You have books?

• 34:49Amanda Dobbins?

  The bear, we have the book.

• 34:51Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 34:51Amanda Dobbins?

  We have the bear, who is one of his best friends. And Paddington, the bear closes the curtains in his room every night.

• 34:56Sean Fennessey?

  That's very cute.

• 34:57Amanda Dobbins?

  And turns on the toys, the noise machine, but it has to be Paddington.

• 35:00Sean Fennessey?

  I really like that.

• 35:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, yeah, no, I do too. And I think it was, um, my mother-in-law and sister-in-law, hi Ruthie, went to London and they brought Paddington and the book back to Knox.

• 35:12Sean Fennessey?

  Got it.

• 35:13Amanda Dobbins?

  So it's, it's gone from there, as all things do. And we did, uh, in October, when we had an infant, uh, start exploring the movies. So Paddington one, Paddington two. And I gotta tell you, this week, we started doing Wonka. We're just fully in the Paul King hive.

• 35:32Sean Fennessey?

  Wow, so he watched Wonka?

• 35:34Amanda Dobbins?

  He loves Wonka. He requests Wonka. Listen, he also loves Paddington 1 and 2, which I have now seen and I'm like part of the Paddington Dad Hive. Like, what wonderful stuff. I was just also like weeping through half of both those movies. Obviously, I was in a like a deeply emotional postpartum state, but like basically it's dangerous to watch those.

• 35:58Sean Fennessey?

  There's also some Amanda touchpoints there, right? You've got the dad from Downton Abbey.

• 36:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 36:03Sean Fennessey?

  The father in those films. You've got Nicole Kidman, obviously, in the first one and Hugh Grant in the second one. You've got some, so some big stars. Those movies are good.

• 36:10Amanda Dobbins?

  There is, I like will be teaching my own YouTube course called The Mission Impossible Influence on Paddington 1 and 2.

• 36:16Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, 2 especially with the train.

• 36:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but also in 1, there's like the overt, they actually, they play the theme song, I believe. And Nicole Kidman does the Langley.

• 36:26Sean Fennessey?

  I haven't seen one in a long time.

• 36:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Nicole Kidman does the Langley like drop.

• 36:28Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe I should revisit it for a Nicole Kidman episode.

• 36:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Or for Paddington in Peru, which is coming out soon and which I've got a, oh, you, have you seen it?

• 36:36Sean Fennessey?

  No, I haven't seen it. I was just gonna say notably not a Paul King movie.

• 36:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 36:40Sean Fennessey?

  Paul King, the director of Paddington, Paddington 2.

• 36:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Now he's moved on to Wonka.

• 36:44Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 36:46Sean Fennessey?

  So, you know, we'll see about Paddington in Peru.

• 36:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Anyway, that's what, that's what the kids are into in my house.

• 36:52Sean Fennessey?

  I, if Knox loves something, then I love it.

• 36:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 36:54Sean Fennessey?

  That's how I feel about it.

• 36:55Amanda Dobbins?

  That is nice. And also The Nutcracker, the Macaulay Culkin version, which we watched several times.

• 37:00Sean Fennessey?

  For us. I did not know that was available.

• 37:02Amanda Dobbins?

  It's really well filmed. I watched it when I was like 11. This came out in 1993 and it's just, I believe it's the New York City Ballet. It's version, or maybe it's the American Ballet. Will you Google that for me? Balanchine production of The Nutcracker and filmed very well, but it's obviously because it's, you know, the primo Nutcracker production. The costumes and the sets are really.

• 37:26Sean Fennessey?

  New York City Ballet.

• 37:26Amanda Dobbins?

  New York City Ballet, yeah. I've always wanted to go to the Nutcracker. I was in the Nutcracker as a small child.

• 37:31Sean Fennessey?

  What role did you play?

• 37:32Amanda Dobbins?

  I was one of the toy soldiers.

• 37:34Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 37:34Amanda Dobbins?

  And I was on the taller side, so I was one of the toy soldiers carrying a saber. But like, we watched and I was like, Noxy, that was me. He did not understand that at all.

• 37:43Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 37:44Amanda Dobbins?

  So, but it is really beautifully filmed. They do a great job, right?

• 37:47Sean Fennessey?

  Yep, it's incredible production.

• 37:48Amanda Dobbins?

  You have anything else you want to share on the kids watching front with me? There was one you said yesterday that you were saving.

• 37:54Sean Fennessey?

  Well, we've been watching a lot of live action movies. And I think some of it was related to Wicked coming along.

• 38:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 38:04Sean Fennessey?

  And the wave of The Wizard of Oz becoming important to us.

• 38:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 38:07Sean Fennessey?

  But she just, from looking at Disney Plus as we scroll to find the movie that we want, it's revealed that there are these live action adaptations of these classic films.

• 38:16Amanda Dobbins?

  So when you say live action movies, you've been watching the live action Disney films?

• 38:19Sean Fennessey?

  Correct.

• 38:20Amanda Dobbins?

  And not like...

• 38:21Sean Fennessey?

  I've been showing her Sakurai.

• 38:24Sean Fennessey?

  No, no, I mean, we watched the live action Cinderella, which I'd never seen. We watched the live action Action Beauty and the Beast, yes, which I'd never seen. We watched the live action... what else? I mean, she saw the trailer for the new Snow White and she was like, I need that immediately.

• 38:40Amanda Dobbins?

  She's literally the only person in the world who's like...

• 38:42Sean Fennessey?

  I agree. She has, interestingly, not asked for The Lion King or Mufasa. We have not seen the movie Mufasa.

• 38:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, you have seen it.

• 38:51Sean Fennessey?

  And I did not think it was very good and is just a tremendously disappointing Barry Jenkins two-year experience. And I can't wait for him to get started on something else. Because I was watching, actually, The Underground Railroad recently, out on the Criterion Collection.

• 39:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, right.

• 39:05Sean Fennessey?

  Tracy brought this up when we were talking and I was thinking of it too. And what an amazing series that is. And I just look forward to his next non-Disney project. And yeah, these live action movies are like somewhere between fine and horrendous.

• 39:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 39:20Sean Fennessey?

  And we've talked about a bunch of them over the years. We've talked about Aladdin. We talked about Maleficent 2.

• 39:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Has she seen either of those?

• 39:26Sean Fennessey?

  Has not seen either of those. We haven't gotten like that far down the chain. But she, the one that she wanted to see recently was 101 Dalmatians, which is like the OG live action with Glenn Close.

• 39:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 39:34Sean Fennessey?

  From the early 2000s. It's pretty good, I thought. Surprisingly good. And also, I had a take for you, which is that Miranda Priestly? That's just a rip off of Cruella in the, of Glenn in that movie.

• 39:47Amanda Dobbins?

  The hair, for sure.

• 39:48Sean Fennessey?

  The whole, the affectation, the designer aspect of it, you know, where like Cruella is a designer who's trying to get the fur for the puppies?

• 39:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. I mean, I like-

• 39:57Sean Fennessey?

  Is this cited? Has this been discussed?

• 39:59Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, I don't think that Anna Wintour is, you know, ripping off Cruella.

• 40:05Sean Fennessey?

  Are you sure?

• 40:06Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm actually not sure. The hair is very spot on. Um, but no, Meryl has said that her inspiration for Miranda Priestly is actually Clint Eastwood. Seriously, he never raises his voice. That's like a real thing.

• 40:19Sean Fennessey?

  Cruella raises her voice, for sure.

• 40:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, so, but yeah, that's a good movie. I mean, Glenn Close is good until she was in Hillbillyology.

• 40:27Sean Fennessey?

  She made some bad stuff. Let me see what else Alice has seen over the break. Was there something else that I mentioned that you want to talk about?

• 40:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, you said that there was something that was like unforgivable that she had learned about outside of urine.

• 40:38Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, fucking super kitties.

• 40:40Amanda Dobbins?

  What?

• 40:40Sean Fennessey?

  Whatever kid told her about super kitties at school, how dare you?

• 40:43Amanda Dobbins?

  What?

• 40:43Sean Fennessey?

  It's like, we have broken-

• 40:44Amanda Dobbins?

  What is super kitties?

• 40:45Sean Fennessey?

  Broken containment on the curated parental experience. And now culturally, we are just aware of things that are just not what I want her to be seeing now. Obviously, this happens to every parent.

• 40:57Amanda Dobbins?

  What is super kitties?

• 40:58Sean Fennessey?

  It's just a 30 minute Disney plus show for morons about cats that are superheroes. And it makes me want to gouge my eyes down. No disrespect to the fine people who make super kitties.

• 41:06Amanda Dobbins?

  That is better than Paw Patrol, at least.

• 41:09Sean Fennessey?

  It is, but like, how far are we from Paw Patrol now?

• 41:11Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know. But what, I'm, you need to learn that we don't have that at our house.

• 41:16Sean Fennessey?

  Unfortunately, it was identified while scrolling.

• 41:19Amanda Dobbins?

  You can't be scrolling. I mean, it's true. It happens to us all the time. I want that. I want that.

• 41:23Sean Fennessey?

  But this was not something that happened to me. It was something that happened to my wife. And when I came in the house and saw that that was on,

• 41:29Amanda Dobbins?

  It honestly-

• 41:29Sean Fennessey?

  I was mortified.

• 41:30Amanda Dobbins?

  I have, I have some feedback for the people who designed the Apple TV homepage because Knox-

• 41:35Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, straight to jail.

• 41:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Knox can find the remote now and turns it on himself and then is like, I want that, you know, and sometimes-

• 41:43Sean Fennessey?

  It's hard on you, man.

• 41:44Amanda Dobbins?

  He's like, he tries to watch Deadpool and Wolverine or whatever, you know, their advertising.

• 41:48Sean Fennessey?

  That's actually pretty cool.

• 41:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Silo, he tried. He says so many times, he's like, I watched Silo. I watched that. I watched that. No.

• 41:54Sean Fennessey?

  He quit after one episode, like so many others.

• 41:56Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm happy to report that Top Gun Maverick is just, it's like a huge passion still of our, but you know-

• 42:02Sean Fennessey?

  Your husband shared with me that to soothe him at a time when he was frustrated recently, he just, he needed a little Top Gun.

• 42:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh yeah, we had to go to urgent care for an ear infection and we sat there waiting for the, I, it wasn't even Top Gun Maverick the movie. I just played the Top Gun theme song on my iPhone. Um, and we just sat there listening to it.

• 42:22Sean Fennessey?

  It's adorable.

• 42:23Amanda Dobbins?

  And he knows how to rock out when the guitar solo really gets going in minute four of the Top Gun theme song, which is something maybe only he and I know about. Um, no, but loves Top Gun Maverick. The interesting thing though, uh, the moment where he loses interest in the movie is, um, Tom Cruise and Jennifer Connelly's quote unquote night of passion. Where he's just like, I don't care about this. Okay.

• 42:42Sean Fennessey?

  That's when Tom Cruise checked out as well.

• 42:44Amanda Dobbins?

  He loves the boat, but as soon as they get back to Connolly's house, he's like, no, no, no, start it over. I want whooshes. Uh, so there we go.

• 42:51Sean Fennessey?

  Man of taste.

• 42:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 42:53Sean Fennessey?

  What's next?

• 42:54Amanda Dobbins?

  The final, the final note and the thing that I want to address, and this is also, you know, I hear from listeners, other people in our life. And, uh, this is a recurring question, uh, just observation. We just want to check in on the monopods and how you doing?

• 43:13Sean Fennessey?

  What do you mean?

• 43:13Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, uh, you spend a lot of time alone in a dark room, talking to Bobby on a screen, but really to yourself. Uh, and I want to know how you're doing. Hi, hi, you know, every, do we need, it's just a check in.

• 43:30Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, honestly, I feel as though I've found my calling. I feel, I feel like, um, what I want to do is, is connect directly.

• 43:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 43:40Sean Fennessey?

  I want to look beyond the void and find connectivity.

• 43:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 43:44Sean Fennessey?

  So I've loved being in Studio Five.

• 43:46Amanda Dobbins?

  So that's been a point of connection for you? You feel closer to people?

• 43:50Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, my, all my unboxing boys, we did this great syllabus. That was Bob's idea.

• 43:54Amanda Dobbins?

  I know about the syllabus. That was cool.

• 43:55Sean Fennessey?

  We'll be doing many more syllabi in the future. Um, I, uh, you know, I missed you dearly on the show.

• 44:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 44:00Sean Fennessey?

  And I had fun with, um, other co-hosts.

• 44:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 44:04Sean Fennessey?

  But-

• 44:05Amanda Dobbins?

  You, so that was like a-

• 44:06Sean Fennessey?

  I'll tell you what, here's the thing. I've been watching a lot of YouTube over the last few years, like many other people.

• 44:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 44:11Sean Fennessey?

  And I'm just like watching people do that and I'm like, this is super funny. And so what I'm trying to do is some version of it that is like 50% sincere and 50% is self parody.

• 44:20Amanda Dobbins?

  I understood that.

• 44:21Sean Fennessey?

  And, and I hope it's funny and also informative.

• 44:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 44:24Sean Fennessey?

  And I'm enjoying it.

• 44:25Amanda Dobbins?

  I've been thinking a lot about what I could do in terms of unboxing videos, but my unboxing is like touring Luca Guadagnino's hotel in Rome, you know?

• 44:33Sean Fennessey?

  You should do a whole teacup series, just all teacups of the world.

• 44:37Amanda Dobbins?

  I did, Zach got me Sofia Coppola's Augustinus Bater lip balms for Christmas and it was a wonderful gift. Just, do any of those words mean anything to you?

• 44:46Sean Fennessey?

  I, I know who Sofia is.

• 44:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, and but-

• 44:48Sean Fennessey?

  I know what lip balm is.

• 44:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. The, the Augustinus Bater is the, the body cream from, uh, challengers.

• 44:55Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, right. Yes.

• 44:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. And their, their face cream is like their product, but Sofia Coppola did a thing with them.

• 45:00Sean Fennessey?

  Was that like roughly $27,000?

• 45:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, he got me all three, so it was, it was like quite an investment. It was, but it's a lovely gift set. Thank you so much, Zach.

• 45:10Sean Fennessey?

  I, I've been, I, I like doing the videos in that room. I, people are like, the lighting is weird. I, I think the lighting looks good.

• 45:15Amanda Dobbins?

  It, it does kind of look like you've passed on to the next, you know, like to the great cinnamon in the sky.

• 45:21Sean Fennessey?

  Exactly the essence I'm going for. I am the spirit of movies.

• 45:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, okay, I had two subcategories on this one that I wanted to check in. The first I added right before we started recording because

• 45:34Sean Fennessey?

  That's funny.

• 45:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Because you and Bobby have a very different perspective on the Mets in 2025 than what I took away from Juan Soto and the fact that you guys absolutely waxed the Phillies, which that was like the first week Cy was born. Like Cy, Cy was born right before that series and so we were like, I was just at home and we organized our life around those Phillies Mets games and that, and that was a terrible decision. So I was sort of starting to fear the Mets.

• 46:08Sean Fennessey?

  Well, uh, I don't mind sharing this. When game one of that Philly series happened, I was on a text chain with CR and your husband, and there was a first inning homerun in game one against Kodai Senga. And it was a risky move to start him in that game. And your husband came right out of the chute with some shit talking, right out of the chute. And I made a decision to not talk shit. And I didn't talk shit when the Knicks beat the Sixers earlier this year. Let's just say that when it comes to New York sports teams,

• 46:35Amanda Dobbins?

  We're not-

• 46:35Sean Fennessey?

  we own Philly.

• 46:36Amanda Dobbins?

  We are, we are not talking about the Sixers. I can't-

• 46:40Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, well, we can pivot away from that.

• 46:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Let that into my fucking life. The darkest time of anyone's year is coming, and that's February, when the Sixers are on, like,

• 46:50Sean Fennessey?

  They're, they're attempting to like re-recover their season right now, too. The Knicks, on the other hand, hottest team in the league. Uh, the Mets went on to win that series handily. One of the great baseball series of my adult life. I loved it. I know Bob loved it. I know Jack loved it. Um, the Juan Soto signing, pure elation, like magical, something you never would have thought could be possible for this team when they were owned by the Will Ponds, obviously great. I screamed about it on the pod. Since then, they haven't done a whole lot. And so I'm not criticizing them because I think they're doing the right thing right now. But what I said to Bobby before we started recording was, as of today, I don't think that they're a playoff team. That doesn't mean I think that they won't be a playoff team this year. It means they have a lot of work left to do.

• 47:34Sean Fennessey?

  For example, Pete Alonso is unsigned, or someone who will fill his role. For example, they have five guys who I'm not totally sure are going to be good competent starters in Major League Baseball this year lined up to start for them.

• 47:45Amanda Dobbins?

  It's a little iffy. Would you sign Pete Alonso? I mean, I, the grand slam aside.

• 47:50Sean Fennessey?

  For the, for the three years and 90 million that was suggested was an offer that they made in a heartbeat, I love that deal. Anything beyond that, I don't think is a good idea, and I don't think it's something that David Sterns, their general manager, would want to do.

• 48:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but it's like, right up until the grand slam, there was no way he was getting-

• 48:05Sean Fennessey?

  I think 0% chance he was coming back, yeah. In fact, I think I might have tweeted like moments before that happened.

• 48:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, you did, yeah.

• 48:11Sean Fennessey?

  Like, send this guy to The Hague.

• 48:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 48:13Sean Fennessey?

  Even though I love Pete Alonso and have always loved him. So, uh, you know, I don't know. Bobby, do you think that Pete will be back?

• 48:18Speaker 03

  Oh, I don't, I do think he will be back and I think neither side will be fully happy, which is, which is the definition of compromise when you're an imperfect free agent.

• 48:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 48:28Speaker 03

  Probably like four years, maybe four or five years with a lower AAV. I don't know. I just want to say, don't let me in with his doomerism.

• 48:34Amanda Dobbins?

  I was gonna say, I want your time check. Okay, you're feeling okay? You're feeling grateful and open in 2025?

• 48:40Speaker 03

  He's saying like, as of right now, the Mets would not be a playoff team. It's January 2nd. As of 50 games into last season, they weren't going to be a playoff team. And it still turned out to be magical.

• 48:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 48:50Speaker 03

  So I think we just gotta like, we gotta let go of all of that. The worst thing will definitely happen. What law is that? I don't really, I don't know. I don't follow these things.

• 48:58Amanda Dobbins?

  That's beautiful, Bobby.

• 48:59Speaker 03

  We need science corner for that.

• 48:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 49:00Speaker 03

  Let go of it. Leave it behind.

• 49:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 49:01Speaker 03

  We're, we're a quarter of the way through this century, Sean. They will definitely win a World Series this century. Will, will you and I be alive? I don't know.

• 49:09Sean Fennessey?

  Um, yeah, I don't know. Lot of people lived and died without seeing the Red Sox win. Lot of people.

• 49:14Amanda Dobbins?

  That's true.

• 49:15Sean Fennessey?

  Whole lot of Boston fans. So I, I guess I was alive technically when they won. Bobby has never been alive when they won.

• 49:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 49:21Sean Fennessey?

  We'll see. They're gonna be fine, I think. I trust, I trust Steve Cohen. I trust David Sterns.

• 49:25Amanda Dobbins?

  I really need baseball season to come back.

• 49:27Sean Fennessey?

  I'm very excited.

• 49:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Cause I finally, I finally figured out my Dodgers situation. So.

• 49:31Speaker 03

  Let's go. Baseball is back in a big way. I've been waiting for this. Culture's finally boomeranged around.

• 49:36Amanda Dobbins?

  It's only January 2nd. We have so long to go and so much garbage Philly sports before then. Okay. Final thing that I, subcategory that I want to check in on. So you published your annual best of 2024 list.

• 49:47Sean Fennessey?

  I did.

• 49:48Amanda Dobbins?

  This is the first time in several years that I haven't been like with you while you were hiding in another room.

• 49:53Sean Fennessey?

  That's true.

• 49:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Publishing it, which I, I did like have a moment of reflection.

• 49:56Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 49:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Um.

• 49:57Sean Fennessey?

  How wonderful.

• 49:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. Did, what, what, what were the circumstances in which you published this list?

• 50:02Sean Fennessey?

  Um, well, like you, it's been a gauntlet of parenting over the last 12 days. So I literally had to beg off and be like, can you give me one hour? I just like to go do this so I can keep my tradition up.

• 50:11Amanda Dobbins?

  That's, you, you have done that every year.

• 50:13Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 50:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 50:14Sean Fennessey?

  But this year was different because it was like more high stakes. Cause it was like, there's no cavalry. There's no Amanda coming in to entertain Alice for an hour.

• 50:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. That's true. I mean, we were, we were in the same boat.

• 50:23Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. So, yeah, no, I, I just said, can I have an hour? And I did, but I was more diligent about navigating. It all year.

• 50:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Oh, and so you've been arranging this and ranking this. So this is a ranking, right?

• 50:34Sean Fennessey?

  It is a ranking, yeah.

• 50:35Amanda Dobbins?

  I, they're just, honestly, I respect it. You know, I look forward to this every year. Uh, if only to disagree with it, but there are a couple of things where I'm like, you're a real one. And I'd just like to let you know.

• 50:45Sean Fennessey?

  Please.

• 50:46Amanda Dobbins?

  I really appreciate that you've got Goodrich at 65 above, a film I still haven't even seen. Above The Beekeeper, above Transformers, above Saturday Night.

• 50:58Sean Fennessey?

  Can I tell you something about Goodrich?

• 50:59Amanda Dobbins?

  You really liked it?

• 51:00Sean Fennessey?

  I really liked it.

• 51:01Amanda Dobbins?

  I know everyone really likes it. I just haven't gotten there.

• 51:05Sean Fennessey?

  The, the person who made Home Again and the person who made this movie, it's like, they're two different people.

• 51:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I, well, I don't know.

• 51:11Sean Fennessey?

  Really well-written. Michael Keaton is phenomenal. I mean, it has like, it's obviously very like familiar and trope-y.

• 51:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 51:18Sean Fennessey?

  But as someone who, you know, can respond to an elevated version of that, I think you'll really like it.

• 51:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. No, I'm sure I will too. Also, I love Michael Keaton. By the way, condolences to that whole family that, that Charles Shire. Charles Shire.

• 51:30Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 51:31Amanda Dobbins?

  No, no, no. Um, to the Myers Shire family.

• 51:33Sean Fennessey?

  You know, I, I certainly don't want to make light of this in, in light of their loss, but um, you, it's hard to not watch that movie and not think about the fact that the woman who made this movie has made a movie about her father and, or a father of some kind and her relationship to that father. And, you know, it, it just kinda, it hit me in a new way. And I thought it was very good. We're talking about Goodrich is the name of the movie, which is available on VOD now. Haley Myers Shire's, um, new film, which got a very limited release and probably would have been like a conversation topic if you were here. So when you see it, let me know.

• 52:01Amanda Dobbins?

  I will. Uh, Gladiator two at 100 is really funny. Uh, and I, listen.

• 52:07Sean Fennessey?

  Years of magazine training.

• 52:08Amanda Dobbins?

  I know, I know, but it was really good and I wanted to let you know.

• 52:10Sean Fennessey?

  I'm not, it was not a huge fan.

• 52:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. And then there were a couple of other things where I was really, I was proud of you for Trap at 26.

• 52:17Sean Fennessey?

  Thanks.

• 52:18Amanda Dobbins?

  And.

• 52:20Amanda Dobbins?

  A couple of other things that were lower than I expected, and that seems rude to shout them out, but I'm proud of you for, I thought this was a good list.

• 52:27Sean Fennessey?

  Thanks. I, it's very sincere.

• 52:29Amanda Dobbins?

  I haven't seen your numbers one and two, and I, and you put Civil War at six, but that's okay.

• 52:34Sean Fennessey?

  CR put it at number one.

• 52:35Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I know, and I got many shout outs, and that was really funny. I like, I really enjoyed, that was a great podcast.

• 52:39Sean Fennessey?

  Thanks. It was fun. We missed, we did miss you on that episode, but it was nice.

• 52:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 52:44Sean Fennessey?

  Should we pivot?

• 52:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 52:46Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, so, we have, we did talk about this quite a bit in 2024, at least three or four times, and we're definitely gonna do it. We're gonna do 25 for 25. We're gonna count down across this year, the 25, our favorite movies of the 21st century. The best, I think, is a little bit pointless.

• 53:05Amanda Dobbins?

  I think it's always the, yeah.

• 53:07Sean Fennessey?

  This is a very, an emotional duopoly.

• 53:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 53:10Sean Fennessey?

  Is how I would describe this show.

• 53:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 53:12Sean Fennessey?

  And so we will make common cause to reveal, I guess on a semi-weekly basis, one movie from the countdown. We'll go in order from 25 to one. I'd like to do this, starting after the Academy Awards in March. Are you on board with that?

• 53:28Amanda Dobbins?

  I am.

• 53:29Sean Fennessey?

  And we, you know, you've shared your long shortlist. I just shared with you this morning a longer list.

• 53:34Amanda Dobbins?

  I haven't looked at it yet.

• 53:36Sean Fennessey?

  The rules are minimal. Tell me how you feel about them in real time, because we have not in person had a chance to discuss this. So, one, as I said, this is an attempt to capture our favorite movies of the period, which represents essentially our adult lives.

• 53:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 53:52Sean Fennessey?

  You know, I graduated from high school in 2000. You graduated from college in 06?

• 53:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Correct.

• 53:58Sean Fennessey?

  So, you know, we're looking at a pretty significant transformational period of movie watching. One film per filmmaker. Which for us, autors that we are.

• 54:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Is, is very hard.

• 54:10Sean Fennessey?

  Big challenge. And then the movies must have just been released between January 1st, 2000, and December 31st, 2024. Some people might quibble and say the 21st century did not start with the year 2000, started with 2001.

• 54:22Amanda Dobbins?

  We can, yeah, we can be a part of it.

• 54:23Sean Fennessey?

  Those are pedantic discussions. We're gonna say January 1st, 2000 is when this all begins. I think that's it. Is there anything else we should add to the framework of that, this project?

• 54:34Amanda Dobbins?

  No, cuz I tested this out with you over text. You know, I think emphasizing that it is our list as opposed to, you know, definitive, all encompassing, because there are, there are movies that even you, Sean Fantasy, have not seen.

• 54:51Sean Fennessey?

  Huns I haven't seen.

• 54:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Obviously, we are both American, so there, we probably, we are, international's on the table, documentaries are on the table, everything is on the table, but we're gonna have our biases, so.

• 55:03Sean Fennessey?

  And we're very Hollywood focused on the show.

• 55:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, so it, it's not pedantic to point out that it will, if you get mad at us for having like a very Hollywood, American list, but like.

• 55:15Sean Fennessey?

  That's what we do.

• 55:15Amanda Dobbins?

  That's what we're doing, okay? So, we're not trying to speak for everyone, we're speaking for ourselves.

• 55:19Sean Fennessey?

  Right.

• 55:20Amanda Dobbins?

  And then I agree that like if I hear anyone lecture me on centuries, I'm, I'm muting them.

• 55:25Sean Fennessey?

  Agreed. So it'll be an interesting project.

• 55:27Amanda Dobbins?

  You still feel okay with one per filmmaker?

• 55:30Sean Fennessey?

  No, but I think it's a good rule to have in place, so it's not super samey. I mean, you're gonna find me arguing with you about whether or not we need a third or a fourth David Fincher movie, and that's just boring. That's not a very compelling list.

• 55:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I mean, but you know, Fincher and PTA right off the bat, it's just, you know, impossible.

• 55:47Sean Fennessey?

  Spielberg, Scorsese.

• 55:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Spielberg's funny, you pick.

• 55:51Sean Fennessey?

  I saw your suggestion, I won't reveal it. And that's an interesting choice, obviously, a film I love.

• 55:55Amanda Dobbins?

  What else is there gonna be? If you're only doing 25.

• 55:58Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know, his last two movies are spectacular in my opinion.

• 56:00Amanda Dobbins?

  They are, but are we putting them in the 25 of all time?

• 56:04Sean Fennessey?

  I think that you and I are a good fit for this project for a couple of reasons. One, obviously, we have very specific, discreet taste. Two, we have good intersections on our taste.

• 56:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 56:15Sean Fennessey?

  Three, we were editors for like 15 years. We're like, we're very strategic in thinking about what makes a compelling list. And so I think what we'll try, what I'm gonna try to do is. Respect the presumed canon, respect my personal taste, and have some fun.

• 56:31Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm, I'm trying. You saw, I, I had some fun on my list.

• 56:34Sean Fennessey?

  You did.

• 56:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, I'm excited to look at yours.

• 56:36Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, um, that will start, yeah, at some point in March. I'm also scheming on a two week break where you will be hosting the show without me, so we can talk about that as well.

• 56:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, really?

• 56:46Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, so start thinking about your co-hosts.

• 56:47Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm also, there's gonna be a month where I'm, yeah.

• 56:50Sean Fennessey?

  I, I expect that, but I'm, I need a, I need a siesta, I think.

• 56:53Amanda Dobbins?

  I think it was very fun to be a civilian.

• 56:56Sean Fennessey?

  I could use it.

• 56:57Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, it wasn't fun in the sense that what I was doing instead was emotionally rewarding, but also exhausting.

• 57:03Sean Fennessey?

  I'm not taking Si from my two week siesta, just so you know.

• 57:07Amanda Dobbins?

  He started smiling, though.

• 57:08Sean Fennessey?

  At me.

• 57:09Amanda Dobbins?

  I know, it's really nice, yeah. We have some, we have some good, also the side by sides of you with baby Knox and you with baby Si are, are very cute.

• 57:16Sean Fennessey?

  It's like sitting with little Amanda and little Zach.

• 57:21Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, all right, should we do Golden Globes?

• 57:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 57:23Sean Fennessey?

  Do you feel like interested in this show? Which we should say is hosted by Nikki Glaser, you know, new owners, this is, I think, the third year of the new, the Todd Bowley ownership crew. Some shenanigans going on, we don't really have to spend any time on that.

• 57:35Amanda Dobbins?

  It's always shenanigans, yeah.

• 57:37Sean Fennessey?

  It's become a much more critically oriented show. A lot of the voting body, there's some 300 people, I think, are a little bit more high minded than they used to be. Did you pay close attention to the nominations when they were released?

• 57:49Amanda Dobbins?

  I did. Well, I read a list on my, on my own time, I didn't wake up, and I listened to your podcast. Which I thought was very good with Joanna. Thank you again, Joanna.

• 58:00Sean Fennessey?

  Joe was gonna join us on Sunday, by the way, to talk about the show.

• 58:03Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I, I have been thinking a lot about how they are the kind of, the Golden Globes now are the most kind of milquetoast consensus-y. Let's just skim off of what all the pundits and everything have been talking about, but also whether

• 58:20Sean Fennessey?

  Well put.

• 58:21Amanda Dobbins?

  They are, whether it's all just like sort of confirmation predictive bias that is gonna, they've, they both have no perspective and also like matter a lot now.

• 58:32Sean Fennessey?

  I totally agree.

• 58:32Amanda Dobbins?

  And I don't know whether, I don't even think that's just because this year has no frontrunner.

• 58:39Sean Fennessey?

  I think they may matter to pundits more than voting bodies.

• 58:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 58:43Sean Fennessey?

  I, I think, I think BAFTA, SAG.

• 58:48Sean Fennessey?

  DGA are more influential

• 58:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm hmm.

• 58:51Sean Fennessey?

  on the outcome of the Academy Awards. I think Globes

• 58:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Probably.

• 58:55Sean Fennessey?

  is more influential on the way that we will discuss the Academy Awards for the next six to seven weeks. Now, it doesn't mean that they won't match, because I think in the past couple of years, they have matched more because of what you located, which is like, it feels like the voters are kind of looking at what the critics groups are saying.

• 59:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 59:12Sean Fennessey?

  And saying like, oh, yeah, we should nominate the brutalist in seven categories. Like, in what universe was the brutalist being nominated in seven categories in the Globes 10 years ago? Like, something has kind of shifted there.

• 59:22Amanda Dobbins?

  It also wasn't even nominated at the, at a lot of places, including independent Spirit Awards, Gotham's.

• 59:28Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, bizarre. Just, the Spirit Awards thing is weird. That's like, it feels like very pointed that that movie was passed over anyway. Setting aside even my taste and my, my interest in The Brutalist, that was an odd one. But part of it is just because like, the Globes has so many nominees. They have six nominees in every category.

• 59:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 59:45Sean Fennessey?

  Plus, they cut drama and comedy. So it just seems that you're getting like, every movie?

• 59:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 59:50Sean Fennessey?

  Like, there are snubs where like, sure, there were a couple of meaningful snubs.

• 59:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 59:54Sean Fennessey?

  But not a ton of people on the cutting room floor there. So it just feels like they're kind of, like you said, bringing everything in a big pot. And then saying like, let's, let's pull out our, our onions and our garlic and see if, see if this tastes good. The arivo.

• 1:00:11Amanda Dobbins?

  But I like watching them.

• 1:00:13Sean Fennessey?

  I do too, except for the TV awards, which seems like kind of a way, I guess it's kind of like a buffer time to eat.

• 1:00:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:19Sean Fennessey?

  You can just eat a lot of Twizzlers in that time. I might get a lot of Twizzlers on Sunday.

• 1:00:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Can we order sushi now that I can eat sushi again?

• 1:00:24Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 1:00:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, great.

• 1:00:25Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, where would you like to get it from?

• 1:00:26Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know. I just like, you know, Mom's not out.

• 1:00:29Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe You Know Me Hand Roll will be open. We can get that.

• 1:00:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, that would be, no, I don't. Like I said, I've been.

• 1:00:34Sean Fennessey?

  Phenomenal, yeah.

• 1:00:35Amanda Dobbins?

  I wasn't really doing that for a year. No, so that part's nice. I just had to Google who Nikki Glaser is. So is that, is that something I'm supposed to know about?

• 1:00:43Sean Fennessey?

  Who she is?

• 1:00:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. I recognize the name, but like.

• 1:00:47Sean Fennessey?

  She's, she's a roaster extraordinaire.

• 1:00:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, that sort of seems like.

• 1:00:51Sean Fennessey?

  That's not one of your things.

• 1:00:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:53Sean Fennessey?

  She's hilarious on the Tom Brady roast. I would even encourage you to just watch her segment.

• 1:00:58Amanda Dobbins?

  I did hear about that.

• 1:00:59Sean Fennessey?

  And I think she got booked

• 1:01:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:01:01Sean Fennessey?

  in part on that. I think she, did she host F Boy Island too? Fuck Boy Island?

• 1:01:04Amanda Dobbins?

  According to her Wikipedia page, yes.

• 1:01:06Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, which is a series that my wife has seen every episode of.

• 1:01:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Really?

• 1:01:09Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:01:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Highly rules.

• 1:01:11Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, I think she's very, very funny. I think she's also a good fit for the show.

• 1:01:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:01:15Sean Fennessey?

  Cause she's like, pretty loose and cutting and brings that kind of a, kind of a medium between Ricky Gervais and Tina and Amy.

• 1:01:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:01:23Sean Fennessey?

  You know?

• 1:01:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Great.

• 1:01:25Sean Fennessey?

  So hopefully it goes well. She might, she might drop a couple of like extremely mean jokes though.

• 1:01:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:01:30Sean Fennessey?

  Which will be interesting to see how they're received in 2025.

• 1:01:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Do you think Blake Lively will be in attendance with Ryan Reynolds?

• 1:01:37Sean Fennessey?

  Wow.

• 1:01:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Who is nominated for cinematic and box office achievement?

• 1:01:40Sean Fennessey?

  You want to start there? Should we start there?

• 1:01:42Amanda Dobbins?

  With cinematic and box office achievement?

• 1:01:44Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, cause then we can get that conversation out of the way.

• 1:01:45Amanda Dobbins?

  A really stupid.

• 1:01:46Sean Fennessey?

  Now, obviously you guys have, you guys have been covering this on Jam Session.

• 1:01:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, well, so we, we covered the first round. There were twin New Year's Eve lawsuits that we will be covering, uh, next Monday.

• 1:01:56Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. So it ends with us is not recognized in cinematic box office achievement.

• 1:02:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:02:03Sean Fennessey?

  Which is, just seems crazy to me.

• 1:02:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:06Sean Fennessey?

  Given the side, I think that movie made $400 million internationally and it's, you know, based on an extremely popular novel, but that doesn't mean anything. Popular novels bomb at the box office all the time. So the films that are nominated here are Alien Romulus, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, Deadpool and Wolverine, Gladiator 2, Inside Out 2, Twisters, Wicked, and The Wild Robot. This is obviously a stupid idea for an award. It's just an attempt to get movies like Inside Out 2 and Twisters and Alien Romulus.

• 1:02:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Wolverine.

• 1:02:33Sean Fennessey?

  And Deadpool and Wolverine.

• 1:02:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Starring Ryan Reynolds with a cameo by Blake Lively.

• 1:02:38Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, in a Deadpool costume.

• 1:02:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure. Um, I assume Ryan Reynolds will be there.

• 1:02:43Sean Fennessey?

  I assume as well, but who knows? He was not nominated and like I said on the show a few months ago, Old Globes probably would have put him in here.

• 1:02:51Amanda Dobbins?

  I did notice that Rob McElhenney is presenting, or it was on the list of presenters. Ryan Reynolds is not on the list of presentals, presenters. And they're, they're the Wrexham people together, right?

• 1:03:01Sean Fennessey?

  They are the Wrexham co-owners.

• 1:03:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Guys?

• 1:03:04Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 1:03:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Yeah, I don't, I don't know whether they'll show up, but it might, I think they should, is my opinion.

• 1:03:14Sean Fennessey?

  Just means they're gonna have to talk about it in some way, right? Will Nikki Glaser make a single joke about It Ends With Us?

• 1:03:20Amanda Dobbins?

  I wish, if they're in the room, she will, but I do.

• 1:03:24Sean Fennessey?

  I welcome that moment.

• 1:03:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, would it be at their expense or would it be at Justin Baldoni's expense?

• 1:03:29Sean Fennessey?

  I assume the latter.

• 1:03:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, so do I. So in that case, I'm like, well, it's, it seems like a win.

• 1:03:33Sean Fennessey?

  What a sordid tale. Some of the accusations are pretty awful.

• 1:03:37Amanda Dobbins?

  All, all of the onset stuff, which has then been somewhat buried by that. I think like fascinating and very useful breakdown of the, the alleged smear campaign.

• 1:03:48Sean Fennessey?

  Well, that first piece is not even about the allegations. It's about, it's about modern media tactics, which is telling, I think, about where we are in the world, where I think the New York Times piece written by Megan Toohey about this kind of thing seven years ago, would have looked a lot different.

• 1:04:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Lot different, yes.

• 1:04:02Sean Fennessey?

  Nevertheless, I, I am so, if you listened to our episode about It Ends With Us, you know I'm not an expert in any of this stuff and I don't really know what I'm talking about. So I'm, I have no opinion, frankly.

• 1:04:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. Well, I mean, it is interesting how both that story coincided with It Ends With Us being available on Netflix. Um, I, you know, I, I don't know whether that was intentional, though it's probably not, not, though it, some of it seems.

• 1:04:28Sean Fennessey?

  A lot of very strategic people.

• 1:04:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, and a lot of it seems to be with filing at the end of the year. And I don't really know, um, I'm not that familiar with California law and like statutes of limitations and whether there was like a legal reason that it all needed to happen in December, or whether they just didn't want, whether they wanted to news dump it, especially like the two New Year's Eve suits. But anyway, yeah, yeah, what a mess. That we, we were also kind of like, what's going on here at the time?

• 1:04:56Sean Fennessey?

  We did.

• 1:04:57Amanda Dobbins?

  But then also what's amazing is that no one really seems to have seen the movie but us and the 400 million people who are not opining online about it.

• 1:05:05Sean Fennessey?

  Just enjoying their Colleen Hoover books.

• 1:05:07Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, I, yeah, I guess so, but it, it is really funny as we identified, like Justin Baldoni adapted this book, softened the abuse stuff and then cast himself as the abuser. So I, you know, that, that text was right there on the page.

• 1:05:22Sean Fennessey?

  Yes. Also, literally the host of a podcast about like, modern masculinity and how to be a better man. That was something that he was doing.

• 1:05:31Amanda Dobbins?

  You know.

• 1:05:32Sean Fennessey?

  These, I think that regardless, like, we, it, it feels like we are often living in a simulation when you start seeing things like that. Very strange story. Cinematic box office achievement. I, my prediction is that Wicked is gonna win this.

• 1:05:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, really?

• 1:05:46Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:46Amanda Dobbins?

  I was gonna predict The Wild Robot.

• 1:05:49Sean Fennessey?

  You can predict it.

• 1:05:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:05:50Sean Fennessey?

  Um, I think that would be a nice win for it.

• 1:05:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:05:53Sean Fennessey?

  I like that film. I, this is not right, but I'm gonna say it. It felt to me like that movie actually underperformed just a little bit at the box office.

• 1:06:02Amanda Dobbins?

  The Wild Robot.

• 1:06:03Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Now, it's excellent. I think it's in my top 20 on my, I think it's in the top 15 on my year-end list. Um, I'm a huge fan of it. I think it has a very-

• 1:06:11Amanda Dobbins?

  It's number 12.

• 1:06:12Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I think it has a very strong chance to win Animated Feature. But, given how well-liked it is, given that it is also based on a very popular book, given that it's made by one of the most successful animated, animation filmmakers of the last 25 years. Its box office is not gigantic. This is not like an $800 million movie.

• 1:06:30Amanda Dobbins?

  It does feel, I do feel like parent core and family core are really jumping on it.

• 1:06:35Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:36Amanda Dobbins?

  As it's available, so.

• 1:06:38Sean Fennessey?

  It's a movie that honestly-

• 1:06:39Amanda Dobbins?

  But what is this award for? Is this for making money? Or is this for being good?

• 1:06:44Sean Fennessey?

  Well, that's why it's a stupid award. Cinematic and box office achievement, what does that mean? This movie made $324 million. I would guess this is the lowest grossing movie on this list.

• 1:06:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:06:56Sean Fennessey?

  Just off the top of my head. In fact, I'm a little concerned it is. So.

• 1:07:00Amanda Dobbins?

  So what? You think, you think that Inside Out, I mean, I guess you think that Wicked will win.

• 1:07:04Sean Fennessey?

  I think Wicked will win because they'll say that there's a challenge there. It's a musical. It is a, you know, a different kind of IP. It's speaking to an audience, it's not speaking to the same audience as Deadpool and Wolverine that shows out for these kinds of things. It's not a sequel. I guess it's a prequel of a sort.

• 1:07:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. That's fine.

• 1:07:20Sean Fennessey?

  Rock with your prediction. That's great. We're, we're gonna get this stuff wrong because who the fuck knows with Globes? I mean, I have no idea.

• 1:07:26Amanda Dobbins?

  I also just, I don't know what that award means. It's stupid, but continue.

• 1:07:28Sean Fennessey?

  I thought it would be fun then to go to supporting performances.

• 1:07:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:07:31Sean Fennessey?

  Um, just to get these out of the way, these are a little slightly more interesting categories than some of the other stuff we'll go through. So, best performance by a female actor in a supporting role. The nominees are Selena Gomez and Emilia Perez. Ariana Grande in Wicked, Felicity Jones in The Brutalist, Margaret Qualley in The Substance, Isabella Rossellini in Conclave, and Zoe Saldana in Emilia Perez.

• 1:07:52Amanda Dobbins?

  To me, this is between Ariana Grande and Zoe Saldana. And this is where I think I'm gonna go Globes-y and say Ariana Grande.

• 1:08:00Sean Fennessey?

  So I went Zoe Saldana. I like that we split it. But I think you're right, it could go either way. I've been percolating on like a weird Globes goes all brutalist galaxy take.

• 1:08:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:08:12Sean Fennessey?

  Which I don't think is right.

• 1:08:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:14Sean Fennessey?

  But if it's like Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, Adrian Brody, Brutalist wins best drama, I wouldn't be shocked.

• 1:08:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:08:20Sean Fennessey?

  I'm just saying, I wouldn't be shocked.

• 1:08:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Then I'm not gonna have a lot to say on Sunday night, but that's okay.

• 1:08:25Sean Fennessey?

  That's fine. I mean, it will give you some indication of how the Globes is different now.

• 1:08:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Has Felicity Jones been campaigning at all?

• 1:08:31Sean Fennessey?

  I don't think. Well, she's done a lot of group stuff.

• 1:08:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:08:34Sean Fennessey?

  With Brady, with Adrian. I haven't seen a lot of solo stuff.

• 1:08:37Amanda Dobbins?

  So she has been, she has been out there, because I just like haven't really.

• 1:08:39Sean Fennessey?

  She has. You know, you'll see in the movie, she has a very specific role.

• 1:08:44Amanda Dobbins?

  She's the wife.

• 1:08:44Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, and she, well, I don't.

• 1:08:46Amanda Dobbins?

  And we're challenging the ideas of what the wife does in the movie. Yeah, sure. Okay.

• 1:08:51Sean Fennessey?

  I didn't say that.

• 1:08:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, no one, no one said that.

• 1:08:55Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, so I'll go Zoe, you'll go Ariana.

• 1:08:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:57Sean Fennessey?

  Best performance.

• 1:08:58Amanda Dobbins?

  What if Margaret Qualley wins?

• 1:08:59Sean Fennessey?

  I think it'd be great. I think it'd be super fun.

• 1:09:01Amanda Dobbins?

  You put Substance at 10 on your list.

• 1:09:04Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:05Amanda Dobbins?

  That's, I didn't, I didn't know that you were writing that high.

• 1:09:08Sean Fennessey?

  It's a great movie.

• 1:09:08Amanda Dobbins?

  I love it too, but you were, you were like being petulant about it.

• 1:09:13Sean Fennessey?

  What do you mean? I think it was, the only thing I'm petulant about is whether or not it's really competing at the Oscars.

• 1:09:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:09:18Sean Fennessey?

  The movie itself?

• 1:09:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:09:19Sean Fennessey?

  Loved.

• 1:09:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Great, okay.

• 1:09:20Sean Fennessey?

  Super fun. Is it 20 minutes too long? Sure.

• 1:09:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, yeah, whatever.

• 1:09:24Sean Fennessey?

  But that's the point, you know? I, if it, if it gets into the Oscars, forget it. I don't know what I'm talking about anymore. The Oscars are totally different. If Everything Everywhere All at Once wins Best Picture.

• 1:09:33Amanda Dobbins?

  It definitely will get into the Oscars, it's just how many. It could get two nominations, it could get five.

• 1:09:39Sean Fennessey?

  Makeup and hairstyling feels like a lock. Everything else, we'll get there, we will get there. Margaret Qualley would be cool. That'd be a cool win. Okay, supporting, best performance by a male actor in a supporting role. Stacked category.

• 1:09:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Truly.

• 1:09:53Sean Fennessey?

  Lot of my guys here.

• 1:09:55Amanda Dobbins?

  A lot of your guys.

• 1:09:56Sean Fennessey?

  Yurba Borisov, an aura. Kieran Culkin, a real pain. Edward Norton, a complete unknown. Guy Pearce, The Brutalist. Jeremy Strong, The Apprentice. Denzel Washington, Gladiator 2. Now, historically.

• 1:10:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Too much.

• 1:10:08Sean Fennessey?

  This is a.

• 1:10:10Sean Fennessey?

  You haven't had a chance to speak on Denzel and Gladiator 2 yet. Maybe you will right now.

• 1:10:15Amanda Dobbins?

  That's all I'm really, really gonna do.

• 1:10:18Sean Fennessey?

  Historically, this is a funky category for, for the Globes. You may recall when they gave Aaron Taylor Johnson the win for his role in Nocturnal Animals some years ago.

• 1:10:27Amanda Dobbins?

  I didn't recall that.

• 1:10:28Sean Fennessey?

  When Michael Shannon was the clear supporting performance that would, should have been nominated and then I think was at the Academy Awards and Aaron Taylor Johnson was not even nominated.

• 1:10:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:10:35Sean Fennessey?

  I think they also nominated Jared Leto for his performance in...

• 1:10:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Morbius?

• 1:10:40Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 1:10:42Sean Fennessey?

  Isn't All the Small Things, that's a Blink 182 song.

• 1:10:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, the, the, oh, and that's also, isn't that the name of, what's the, the, um, Cillian Murphy movie that he, that's maybe also called All the Small Things? Anyway.

• 1:10:57Sean Fennessey?

  Small Things Like These?

• 1:10:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, yes, yeah, okay.

• 1:11:00Sean Fennessey?

  Which I saw over the break, it was okay.

• 1:11:03Amanda Dobbins?

  The Denzel Washington, the, the, the Max Only movie.

• 1:11:08Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, whatever it is. He played a serial killer.

• 1:11:10Amanda Dobbins?

  He was okay in that. I mean, whatever.

• 1:11:12Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, great.

• 1:11:13Amanda Dobbins?

  You know.

• 1:11:15Speaker 03

  It appears it's called The Little Things?

• 1:11:17Sean Fennessey?

  The Little Things.

• 1:11:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 1:11:18Sean Fennessey?

  Thank you, thank you. That's a movie that everyone loves.

• 1:11:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Bobby, do you know the song All the Small Things?

• 1:11:23Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, are you serious?

• 1:11:25Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't, listen, I don't...

• 1:11:26Sean Fennessey?

  That's a Blink Boy right there.

• 1:11:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I, you know, I don't know when it cuts out, so I'd like to check in with you.

• 1:11:31Speaker 03

  No, like, pop punk is like firmly my scene. Van's Warped Tour, like, that's my shit. Yes, I'm in there.

• 1:11:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Love it, okay, good.

• 1:11:39Sean Fennessey?

  One of my worst takes is that I think Dude Ranch is the best Blink 182 album.

• 1:11:44Speaker 03

  I don't think that's one of your worst takes. I think that's a different...

• 1:11:46Sean Fennessey?

  Because everybody loves them from that point on, but I, Dude Ranch, that's my, kind of my thing.

• 1:11:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Which one is that one?

• 1:11:52Sean Fennessey?

  It's, it's their breakthrough, I would say. But it's not the mega selling, it's one with Damn It.

• 1:12:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, okay. Sure.

• 1:12:02Sean Fennessey?

  1997, I was, I was 14 when this album came out.

• 1:12:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Sick.

• 1:12:05Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, okay.

• 1:12:06Speaker 03

  Not like it was targeted at you or anything?

• 1:12:08Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, it hit pretty, it hit pretty good.

• 1:12:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, Kieran Culkin is gonna win this.

• 1:12:11Sean Fennessey?

  He is gonna win. He's gonna win every award all the way down. I wanna ask you how you feel about that?

• 1:12:14Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm, I, I, I too liked Succession. I guess, and I, I guess everyone did and didn't get a chance to vote for him cuz they are movie voters. Like, what are we doing?

• 1:12:29Sean Fennessey?

  Didn't he win?

• 1:12:30Amanda Dobbins?

  He did!

• 1:12:30Sean Fennessey?

  Emmy's first Succession?

• 1:12:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure, but I guess, you know, if you're in the Academy of Motion Pictures, maybe you're not an Emmy voter as well. I don't know. Like, he's great. I love him. I thought he was good playing himself in this movie that I liked, but I'm not as high on as you and Joanna.

• 1:12:47Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:12:48Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I mean, I think it's, um, it, it is good, and I had a nice time watching it, and there was something reassuring of like, oh, they're still making Sundance movies like this?

• 1:12:56Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I think there, there are some obviously fixed limitations to that movie. I think with movies like that, it's about as good as we get these days. And I felt, I felt that the first, for, for me at least. And I felt that the first time we saw it. And it was very much when I have listened, you know, Jesse was on the show, and then listening to Jesse a lot, doing the rounds, promoting the movie. It's clear that, you know, he's, he keeps identifying himself as a playwright. And it's very much a play.

• 1:13:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, sure.

• 1:13:23Sean Fennessey?

  You know, it's got six characters, they're on a journey.

• 1:13:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:13:27Sean Fennessey?

  The scenery is not everything. Obviously, there are a couple of places that the film visits that are essential and crucial, um, location-wise. But if you think of it in this kind of contained way, I think it works a little bit better. I agree that Kieran Culkin, if not playing himself, is playing a very familiar Kieran Culkin archetype of like nervy, talky, little scary, little sad, motor mouth. Like, that's what he does. He's the best in the world at it. He's literally, he's Kieran Culkin, right? He's, everybody likes him, everybody thinks he's good. He carried Succession at times. All of these other performances to me are fascinating. And, and great in many ways, all of them. I think that- Even Edward Norton, who I like to joke about on the show.

• 1:14:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 1:14:11Sean Fennessey?

  But who was like basically my favorite actor from 1995 through 2005. I think is like fantastic and complete unknown. Yurba Borasov, we raved about.

• 1:14:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:21Sean Fennessey?

  And Enora, he's like the soul of that movie. Um, Guy Pearce, I'll wait for you to see it. I think it's like, I think it's him doing, in many ways, a culmination of like his onscreen persona. Um, Jeremy Strong, did you see The Apprentice?

• 1:14:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Not yet. I was, as I was looking at this, I was like, oh, I gotta watch it because I didn't want to, you know. It came out two weeks before the election. You and Brian did an episode about it, right? And you were like, you know, more innocent times when you were like, will this matter?

• 1:14:52Sean Fennessey?

  I forgot to thank Brian, who did two episodes with me too. Yeah, that was a while ago. Um, yeah, he liked it more than I did.

• 1:14:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:14:59Sean Fennessey?

  But both performances are great. We'll get to Sebastian Stan in a minute too. Um, and that's a very transformative, method-y kind of performance, you know? And then Denzel, who's just having a ball, who carries that movie. I mean, I don't, can't even imagine the movie without him now.

• 1:15:11Amanda Dobbins?

  I, yeah. I, I guess it's time to talk about that movie, since we're not really gonna talk about it again.

• 1:15:16Sean Fennessey?

  You were keeping the faith for a long time.

• 1:15:18Amanda Dobbins?

  That it would be good?

• 1:15:19Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I wanted to have fun and I did have fun. You know, I went at 10 a.m. by myself, like, you know, mom's morning out. And it was like incredibly sloppy, just, it just, both, which doesn't make sense in the sense that they had a playbook for what that movie was gonna be and it was the first Gladiator. Um, but yeah, just everyone's in a different room at some point, like talking, and I guess they edit it all together. I also did not know that those were intended to be baboons until I listened to you and Chris talking about Gladiator 2.

• 1:15:58Sean Fennessey?

  You thought they were just ancient monsters?

• 1:15:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I thought it was like a, a weird, like mythical mammal that had since gone extinct or was like Ridley's imagination of what an animal would be. Um, but, so that's tough CGI. I'm general, I'm out on CGI animals.

• 1:16:14Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:16:14Amanda Dobbins?

  In 2024 and in 2025. We should make our in and out lists for, for 2025.

• 1:16:20Sean Fennessey?

  Let's do it.

• 1:16:21Amanda Dobbins?

  For a future.

• 1:16:21Sean Fennessey?

  Let's do it on the anticipated movies episode. Yeah?

• 1:16:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, but Denzel was very good.

• 1:16:27Sean Fennessey?

  I agree. He, he's very entertaining.

• 1:16:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Also, I think that you guys were a little too hard on Paul Masco.

• 1:16:32Sean Fennessey?

  Terrific actor who I thought was miscast.

• 1:16:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, I, you know, I was rooting for him.

• 1:16:36Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Cool.

• 1:16:38Amanda Dobbins?

  He's just like in a jail cell with a folding chair.

• 1:16:42Sean Fennessey?

  If this guy-

• 1:16:43Amanda Dobbins?

  That they got at Ikea for like two hours. They're just being like, whoops.

• 1:16:47Sean Fennessey?

  I was on a text chain recently with some friends of talking about this and whether or not he was right for the movie or not. And my suggestion was, and this is gonna seem a little absurd, but do you know who Alan Richson is?

• 1:17:00Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:17:00Sean Fennessey?

  He's a Reacher? He's the new Jack Reacher on Amazon.

• 1:17:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, you wanna see that guy?

• 1:17:05Sean Fennessey?

  The guy from Fast X. If that guy could do a credible fake British Roman guy accent.

• 1:17:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but then that's just 300.

• 1:17:15Sean Fennessey?

  Paul Meskell's just looking a little scrawny in there to me.

• 1:17:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Wow. See, I mean, is this like, did Bobby get to you like Vulcan wise in the-

• 1:17:24Sean Fennessey?

  Yo, I don't agree. I think Paul Meskell, the build looks, it's just his disposition is small internal. He's like a sad boy. He's like a boy. But Russell Crowe is a man. Obviously Alan Richmond didn't know he's not a boy.

• 1:17:36Amanda Dobbins?

  He's, you know, he's kind of-

• 1:17:39Sean Fennessey?

  Lucius, he's a boy.

• 1:17:40Amanda Dobbins?

  He's the prince. The prince of Rome, as he yells like 45 times.

• 1:17:45Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Alan Richson's body looks like too manicured and bodybuilder-y to me.

• 1:17:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I don't like it. That's not part of my-

• 1:17:51Sean Fennessey?

  Russell Crowe, like, he looks like a guy that, obviously he's absurdly jacked and a gladiator, but he looks like a guy that you could run into on the street. Same with Paul Meskell. I think that their bodies look pretty similar. Okay.

• 1:18:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I really disagree with that. Even though I am, I am trying to join the protein club in 2025, Bobby.

• 1:18:09Sean Fennessey?

  I thought you already, you're already in the club as far as I'm concerned.

• 1:18:12Amanda Dobbins?

  But it's like, you know, it's, it's so depressing. You turn 40 and then you go to the doctor and they give you the speech about like, you know, I'd like, it just clicks. And suddenly I had to do resistance training and I gotta like get up my protein, you know, for like bone health or whatever. Um, that's fine. I'm, I'm thriving, but I, I was in the protein club, but I now I am making it a point of focus.

• 1:18:36Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, well, sure, it was the holidays, but here's the thing. I'm not doing any, any powders. I don't believe in that. I believe in naturally occurring protein.

• 1:18:46Speaker 03

  Okay.

• 1:18:46Sean Fennessey?

  What about cocaine?

• 1:18:47Speaker 03

  You're starting to sound.

• 1:18:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Psh. What is, does that sound, am I a little, uh, seed oily?

• 1:18:53Speaker 03

  N- not necessarily. I think a lot of people believe in the whole foods, um, being better for you. Uh, that's probably pretty proven science, but if you go too far down this road, you might be in the Yasi Solik zone, which as Sean can tell you is a

• 1:19:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, right.

• 1:19:05Speaker 03

  Dangerous game to plan.

• 1:19:06Amanda Dobbins?

  I've heard tell. Yasi Sol and I haven't been on a podcast together.

• 1:19:09Sean Fennessey?

  It's happening soon.

• 1:19:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:19:10Speaker 03

  Needs to happen.

• 1:19:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Maybe, maybe we can just have Protein Club.

• 1:19:12Sean Fennessey?

  I believe she specifically requested joining you to discuss the new Bridget Jones film.

• 1:19:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:19:20Sean Fennessey?

  Which is a big interest of hers.

• 1:19:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Do you know what happens in that movie?

• 1:19:22Sean Fennessey?

  No, I don't know anything about it.

• 1:19:23Amanda Dobbins?

  You haven't read the book? Do you want me to tell you?

• 1:19:25Sean Fennessey?

  Do you, in what universe have I read like the fourth Bridget Jones novel?

• 1:19:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Have you read the first Bridget Jones novel? Have you not? Would you read it? Would you read it for me?

• 1:19:34Sean Fennessey?

  What just got into you just now? Like, go back 90 seconds. What, what did you think was happening? Did you think I was gonna say, of course I read it. I loved it. Oh my God, Bridget Jones 4? Incredible.

• 1:19:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, okay, I guess not 4, but you really haven't read the first one? The first Helen Fielding novel?

• 1:19:50Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 1:19:50Amanda Dobbins?

  If I give it to you, we read it before Bridget Jones's

• 1:19:53Sean Fennessey?

  I'll read 12 pages.

• 1:19:54Amanda Dobbins?

  No, you have to read the whole thing. It's a lovely book.

• 1:19:57Sean Fennessey?

  No?

• 1:19:57Amanda Dobbins?

  It's really funny.

• 1:19:58Sean Fennessey?

  I've seen the film.

• 1:19:59Amanda Dobbins?

  What? It's different.

• 1:20:01Sean Fennessey?

  I like the film.

• 1:20:01Amanda Dobbins?

  It's different.

• 1:20:02Sean Fennessey?

  Alright.

• 1:20:03Amanda Dobbins?

  I almost put it on my, on my long list, by the way, but then I found another movie to fill the slot that I think is more important.

• 1:20:09Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, for, for 25.

• 1:20:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Bridget Jones's Diary, cause it's 2001.

• 1:20:11Sean Fennessey?

  Well, that's an example of a kind of movie I would love to keep in the mix.

• 1:20:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, but there's another movie that actually needs to be in the mix instead.

• 1:20:19Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Think I know what you're talking about.

• 1:20:21Amanda Dobbins?

  You should read Bridget Jones's Diary. I'll give it, I'll give it to you.

• 1:20:25Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, I'm not gonna do that, but I, I hear you.

• 1:20:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:20:27Sean Fennessey?

  I got you. Salute to you.

• 1:20:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:28Sean Fennessey?

  Congrats.

• 1:20:29Amanda Dobbins?

  And then, and then Yasi and I can talk about protein.

• 1:20:31Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, she has a couple of other things she wants to discuss with you, but I'll let you guys sort that out. Um, you guys are either gonna be like the best friends of all time, or ma- maybe like I gouge each other? And we'll, we'll see. Should be interesting.

• 1:20:45Speaker 04

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• 1:21:30Sean Fennessey?

  This episode is brought to you by the Autograph Journey Credit Card from Wells Fargo. The Autograph Journey Credit Card from Wells Fargo is built for travel. You can earn rewards wherever you book, your favorite hotel site, your go-to airline, and more. You get five times points with hotels, four times with airlines, three times on restaurants, and other travel, and one point on other purchases. Whether it's a big vacation or a quick getaway, from booking your stay to that first meal when you arrive, you're turning your trips into rewards with the Autograph Journey Credit Card from Wells Fargo. Learn more at wellsfargo.com/autographjourney. Terms apply. This episode of The Big Picture is brought to you by Amazon Prime. What pairs with a good comedy? The cozy blanket arriving with Prime. What pairs with a nail-biting thriller? Snacks arriving with Prime. What pairs with the big game on Prime Video?

• 1:22:14Sean Fennessey?

  That new couch arriving with Prime. Whatever feeling you're after, Prime helps bring it to life with great entertainment and fast shipping that delivers what the moment calls for. From streaming to fast shipping, it's on Prime. Best motion picture animated?

• 1:22:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:22:28Sean Fennessey?

  Flo?

• 1:22:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:22:30Sean Fennessey?

  Inside Out 2, Memoir of a Snail?

• 1:22:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:33Sean Fennessey?

  Moana 2, Wallace and Gromit: Vengeance Most Foul, and The Wild Robot.

• 1:22:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Fowl with a W.

• 1:22:38Sean Fennessey?

  F-O-W-L.

• 1:22:39Amanda Dobbins?

  It's about chickens.

• 1:22:40Sean Fennessey?

  It is. I've seen the film.

• 1:22:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh...

• 1:22:43Sean Fennessey?

  So how many of these have you seen?

• 1:22:45Amanda Dobbins?

  One.

• 1:22:46Sean Fennessey?

  One. Inside Out 2?

• 1:22:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 1:22:49Sean Fennessey?

  You haven't seen Wild Robot?

• 1:22:50Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:22:51Sean Fennessey?

  That could be like a good Knox movie. It's not, because it's not like junky...

• 1:22:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Everyone says, everyone says that it's like really emotional.

• 1:22:55Sean Fennessey?

  It is very emotional.

• 1:22:56Amanda Dobbins?

  And lots of crying, and I've...

• 1:22:57Sean Fennessey?

  It's such a crazy parent movie.

• 1:22:59Amanda Dobbins?

  No, but, and I'm still so...

• 1:23:01Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. It would hit you hard, I think.

• 1:23:03Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, all of the...

• 1:23:04Sean Fennessey?

  It's really well-done.

• 1:23:05Amanda Dobbins?

  The protective layers are really off the first couple of months, so I don't think I'm ready for it. But I mean, obviously, I'll have to see it before the Oscars.

• 1:23:11Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, so you're kind of flying blind here.

• 1:23:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, you know, which in some ways is just being my most honest self. Uh, Wild Robot again?

• 1:23:19Sean Fennessey?

  So I picked Flow.

• 1:23:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, you picked Flow?

• 1:23:21Sean Fennessey?

  Now.

• 1:23:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:23:22Sean Fennessey?

  This is probably my biggest reach, and I think I'm reaching towards kind of in that brutalist galaxy brain hive where I'm like.

• 1:23:30Amanda Dobbins?

  It could happen.

• 1:23:30Sean Fennessey?

  Are the globes a little bit snootier than I, than we think they are? And if they choose Flow, I think that will tell us a lot about how they think about some of these things.

• 1:23:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:23:39Sean Fennessey?

  The Wild Robot feels like the safe choice and probably the right choice, but I'm going with Flow.

• 1:23:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:23:45Sean Fennessey?

  Have I hedged enough?

• 1:23:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 1:23:46Sean Fennessey?

  Best motion picture non-

• 1:23:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Flow is about a cat.

• 1:23:49Sean Fennessey?

  Flow is about a cat, and there's a series of animals.

• 1:23:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:23:51Sean Fennessey?

  A dog, a capybara.

• 1:23:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Is it gonna make me cry?

• 1:23:55Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, I don't think so, but it's very interesting. It's, it's essentially silent, or there's no, there's no dialogue.

• 1:24:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:24:02Sean Fennessey?

  It's just the animals.

• 1:24:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Would not like it?

• 1:24:04Sean Fennessey?

  He would be entertained by it, yeah.

• 1:24:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:24:07Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. It's just not antic and crazy animation, which I know you appreciate. Like, it's much more experiential.

• 1:24:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:24:14Sean Fennessey?

  There is an aspect of it that is almost like a screensaver, which is-

• 1:24:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:24:18Sean Fennessey?

  Good and bad.

• 1:24:19Amanda Dobbins?

  That might really work for Nux.

• 1:24:21Sean Fennessey?

  You should try it. It's a beautiful movie. I think I'm gonna have the filmmaker on the show later this month. Best motion picture, non-English language. So you're a little behind on these as well.

• 1:24:31Amanda Dobbins?

  I've only seen Emilia Perez.

• 1:24:33Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, so the nominees are Emilia Perez, All We Imagine Is Light, The Girl With The Needle, I'm Still Here, The Seed Of The Sacred Fig, and Vermilio.

• 1:24:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Emilia Perez.

• 1:24:44Sean Fennessey?

  That's what I chose as well.

• 1:24:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:46Sean Fennessey?

  The movies that are the, like, official chosen international features this year that are competing in all the awards races didn't really hit with me very well. And there are a bunch of international films that I love from this year, but for whatever reason, this crew, this crop. The Girl With The Needle is quite interesting, very, very, very hard movie to watch, and I'm not sure it's a good time for you to watch it.

• 1:25:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, oh, that kind of needle.

• 1:25:10Sean Fennessey?

  It's worse than you can ever imagine, honestly. It's very grave.

• 1:25:17Sean Fennessey?

  It's from Denmark, but the cinematography in it, black and white, is beautiful. I wouldn't be surprised if it got a little bit of a nudge over the last couple of months, even though all we imagine is light and see the sacred figure are very, very well reviewed. And the Brazilians love "I'm Still Here," and they're pushing for it very hard on social media, which you will find out soon when you start sharing on Blue Sky.

• 1:25:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Oh, the Brazilians are?

• 1:25:39Sean Fennessey?

  They're a spirited base supporting the film "I'm Still Here."

• 1:25:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, no, no, no, no, they are big on Blue Sky as well.

• 1:25:47Sean Fennessey?

  I think all social media.

• 1:25:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I mean, I know that.

• 1:25:49Sean Fennessey?

  Anywhere where the international feature film race is being discussed, they are there.

• 1:25:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:25:56Sean Fennessey?

  Best original score: The Brutalist, Daniel Blumberg; Challengers, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross; Conclave, Volker Börmann; Dune Part II, Hans Zimmer; Emilio Perez; Clement Duccall and Camille; and The Wild Robot, Chris Bowers. So, one, Dune Part II is not eligible at the Academy Awards.

• 1:26:15Amanda Dobbins?

  But Wicked is.

• 1:26:17Sean Fennessey?

  But Wicked is.

• 1:26:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:26:18Sean Fennessey?

  I don't totally understand that. People insist that there's a lot of new music in Wicked. Maybe that's the case. I don't know.

• 1:26:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:26:24Sean Fennessey?

  I went with Daniel Blumberg for The Brutalist.

• 1:26:27Amanda Dobbins?

  I know you've been talking a lot about how beautiful it is.

• 1:26:30Sean Fennessey?

  It's just massive.

• 1:26:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:26:32Sean Fennessey?

  And...

• 1:26:33Amanda Dobbins?

  More is more.

• 1:26:34Sean Fennessey?

  And it helps the movie. It thrusts the movie forward, and it's a very long film. That being said, I could see anything winning here.

• 1:26:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I'm sort of at a loss.

• 1:26:47Sean Fennessey?

  Well, we rewatched Conclave over the break, and I was like...

• 1:26:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. The score is really good in it.

• 1:26:51Sean Fennessey?

  Pretty good.

• 1:26:51Amanda Dobbins?

  And it does have the three or four motif similar to the... Is it the same person who did the score for...

• 1:26:59Sean Fennessey?

  It is. "All Quiet on the Western Front."

• 1:27:00Amanda Dobbins?

  "All Quiet on the Western Front," which is a very good score. And you could see a world in which Conclave is clearly on everyone's minds, but...

• 1:27:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Maybe they throw it about, yeah, where, where does it win?

• 1:27:13Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Could be some Killers of the Flower Moon situation there.

• 1:27:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Obviously, Challengers' score is the scorer of the year for you and for me.

• 1:27:22Sean Fennessey?

  Agreed.

• 1:27:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Just absolutely rocks. Did I tell you I got a tennis racket for Christmas?

• 1:27:26Sean Fennessey?

  I heard, yes, from your husband.

• 1:27:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, because then we had to get one for Knox.

• 1:27:29Sean Fennessey?

  That's why I heard, yes.

• 1:27:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Because my, I got like a nice tennis racket and Zach was like, Zach, Knox, you may not touch it because it's, you can't ruin it.

• 1:27:37Sean Fennessey?

  Did you get a Toshi Duncan official racket?

• 1:27:40Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I, I don't even know. I should ask him what the make is, but it's what Roger Federer uses, so, or used, past tense, which is sad.

• 1:27:49Sean Fennessey?

  It's tough.

• 1:27:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Anyway, yeah, um, so I'm gonna try to take tennis lessons.

• 1:27:53Sean Fennessey?

  I fully support that. Maybe you should just choose Challengers with that in mind.

• 1:27:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:27:57Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, you wanna go with Challengers?

• 1:27:59Amanda Dobbins?

  You don't wanna talk more about my tennis lessons. I actually need a tennis instructor. Do you think that there's a, like a tennis pro who listens to the big picture who lives in Los Angeles?

• 1:28:06Sean Fennessey?

  You're about to find out.

• 1:28:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Like, seriously, I can't, I, I literally cannot serve, so you have to be really patient. I'm also, I'm told, like, not a great student.

• 1:28:16Sean Fennessey?

  No. What?

• 1:28:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Especially when I'm bad at things.

• 1:28:20Sean Fennessey?

  Uh huh.

• 1:28:21Amanda Dobbins?

  But I would like to try.

• 1:28:22Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:28:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:28:23Sean Fennessey?

  I wish you luck.

• 1:28:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Challengers.

• 1:28:25Sean Fennessey?

  You're going Challengers, okay. I'm going with the brutalist. Best original song, our favorite category, here are the nominees, Beautiful That Way from The Last Showgirl. Compress Repress from Challengers, which I did not-

• 1:28:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Which one is that?

• 1:28:39Sean Fennessey?

  Um, it's like the last song.

• 1:28:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Before match point?

• 1:28:42Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, it has lyrics that were written by Luca Guadagnino. It is a Resner and Ross production.

• 1:28:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:28:48Sean Fennessey?

  El Mal, which is one of the songs from Amelia, Amelia Perez.

• 1:28:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Which one?

• 1:28:53Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, it's the one that, I believe it's the one that Zoe Saldana performs at the beginning of the film. Um, when she's sort of walking through the streets.

• 1:28:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure, and everyone, yeah.

• 1:29:01Sean Fennessey?

  Actually, no, maybe, actually, I, I think it's the one at the gala, yeah, I think it's the, I think it's that one.

• 1:29:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:29:06Sean Fennessey?

  Um, Forbidden Road-

• 1:29:08Amanda Dobbins?

  They're not gonna have her do that again at Golden Globes, are they?

• 1:29:13Sean Fennessey?

  I hope so.

• 1:29:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:29:14Sean Fennessey?

  Uh-

• 1:29:15Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, listen, Zoe Saldana-

• 1:29:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Can act and can dance and like is a show person and I have known that since Center Stage. But continue.

• 1:29:24Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:29:26Sean Fennessey?

  Forbidden Road, which is the song from Better Man. Was this, actually was this? This, I think this was removed from eligibility because it had been previously used elsewhere. So I'm gonna take this off. This is the Robbie Williams song from Better Man. But I don't think this is eligible anymore. So they've taken it out of the mix.

• 1:29:44Amanda Dobbins?

  So it's not eligible at the Golden Globes?

• 1:29:45Sean Fennessey?

  I believe so.

• 1:29:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:29:47Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, no, no, no. No, maybe it is at the Globes, but it's now taken off the short, no, it's taken off the shortlist. That's what it was. Sorry. I've gotten that mistaken. And then Kiss the Sky, which is the centerpiece song from The Wild Robot by Maren Morris.

• 1:30:02Sean Fennessey?

  I chose Kiss the Sky.

• 1:30:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:30:04Sean Fennessey?

  From The Wild Robot, which is a frankly, a banger that we play in our house.

• 1:30:10Amanda Dobbins?

  I think I'm a Maren Morris fan.

• 1:30:11Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. She's good.

• 1:30:13Amanda Dobbins?

  I guess I'll go with El Mal just to make it interesting.

• 1:30:17Sean Fennessey?

  Great.

• 1:30:18Amanda Dobbins?

  I have to say, the songs were not my favorite part of Amelia Paris.

• 1:30:21Sean Fennessey?

  I think they're mostly bad.

• 1:30:23Amanda Dobbins?

  They're really bad.

• 1:30:24Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. I think the choreography in that movie is pretty good.

• 1:30:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. Yes, I would agree that it's of, at least of using the camera and, and the, and setting like a mise en scène.

• 1:30:38Sean Fennessey?

  What'd you think about the sequence in the hospital?

• 1:30:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, right. When they're singing about, I mean, that was funny at least. Or maybe not funny. I mean, it was a little funny.

• 1:30:49Sean Fennessey?

  Very camp.

• 1:30:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, very camp and over the top. And you know, it's like, oh, you're doing a thing here.

• 1:30:54Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Which to me made more sense than like Zoe Saldana, just like being a lawyer, singing a bad song about being a lawyer or whatever, or you know, and then.

• 1:31:06Sean Fennessey?

  There was a lot of that.

• 1:31:07Amanda Dobbins?

  And it's like a lot of time spent in being like, is this like random lawyer gonna figure it out through bad pop songs? I'm not sure.

• 1:31:15Sean Fennessey?

  Turns out, no.

• 1:31:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Yeah.

• 1:31:17Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, okay. Best screenplay.

• 1:31:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:31:20Sean Fennessey?

  Nominees are Amelia Perez, Enora the Brutalist, A Real Pain, The Substance, and Conclave.

• 1:31:28Amanda Dobbins?

  The Substance.

• 1:31:29Sean Fennessey?

  Really?

• 1:31:29Amanda Dobbins?

  I think that this is where they'll give it their thing.

• 1:31:32Sean Fennessey?

  Well, this is, one, it can.

• 1:31:34Amanda Dobbins?

  And that's the other.

• 1:31:34Sean Fennessey?

  I wouldn't say screenplay is its strength.

• 1:31:36Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I, I would agree with you.

• 1:31:39Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:31:39Amanda Dobbins?

  But, again, like throwing a bone to something that they like and the idea of it. And there are others who are not us, who think that it is a searing insight into the problems of 21st century femininity, I suppose.

• 1:31:56Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, I won with Enora.

• 1:31:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, I mean, that's the other one that makes sense.

• 1:32:00Sean Fennessey?

  You know, this is kind of a funky category. I think A Real Pain could compete here.

• 1:32:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 1:32:06Sean Fennessey?

  Um, you know, Conclave is an adaptation, so I find that to be kind of an odd nominee in this category, but anyway, um, okay, best, let's get into the heavy categories now. Best performance by a male actor in a motion picture, musical, or comedy. Now, this is a funky one, because I'm not sure if any of these people are gonna end up in the Oscar race, and this happens sometimes. The nominees are Jesse Eisenberg for A Real Pain, Hugh Grant for Heretic, Gabriel LaBelle for Saturday Night, Jesse Plemons for Kinds of Kindness, Glenn Powell for Hitman, and Sebastian Stan for A Different Man, which I'm pleased to hear you enjoyed.

• 1:32:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Sebastian Stan won at...

• 1:32:44Sean Fennessey?

  The Gothams?

• 1:32:44Amanda Dobbins?

  The Gothams. Did he win at the Gothams, or did A Different Man win at the, I know it won.

• 1:32:48Sean Fennessey?

  A Different Man won Best Feature, yeah.

• 1:32:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Jesse Plemons won Best Actor at Cannes.

• 1:32:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Hugh Grant is winning my Instagram algorithm. Really, really great stuff.

• 1:33:00Sean Fennessey?

  You haven't seen this one yet, right?

• 1:33:02Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I watched it.

• 1:33:02Sean Fennessey?

  You watched it? Oh, you know, you did, you did.

• 1:33:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 1:33:04Sean Fennessey?

  You told me on Christmas, yeah.

• 1:33:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:05Sean Fennessey?

  And you enjoyed the first two thirds, like so many of us.

• 1:33:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure, yeah. As I said to you, I think it was a little less revelatory for me, because I do consume all of the content of Hugh Grant just being weird and charming and talking a lot, and that movie is him talking in rooms.

• 1:33:21Sean Fennessey?

  Is he lecturing people about Radiohead, though?

• 1:33:24Amanda Dobbins?

  No, primarily about the traffic patterns in London and the, and how the Tory government failed the UK, which seems to be true.

• 1:33:37Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:33:37Amanda Dobbins?

  So, really, really, really good Twitter feed. And then also doing shots with Travis Kelce at the Eras Tour. That's what he's talking about.

• 1:33:45Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:33:45Amanda Dobbins?

  And, and how much he likes being a dad.

• 1:33:48Sean Fennessey?

  That's nice.

• 1:33:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:49Sean Fennessey?

  I can relate to that.

• 1:33:52Sean Fennessey?

  Who do you got winning here?

• 1:33:53Amanda Dobbins?

  I think I read this last night, got stumped. It's like, I don't know, I'll wing it and then didn't think about it again. Hmm, Jesse Eisenberg?

• 1:34:02Sean Fennessey?

  That's who I have as well.

• 1:34:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:34:04Sean Fennessey?

  I think he's gonna win. And that's interesting.

• 1:34:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:07Sean Fennessey?

  Because does that mean maybe he has a chance to get nominated? How much does the Academy like this movie or something? I have no idea.

• 1:34:13Amanda Dobbins?

  I can't really tell either. I'm surprised by how out there he is for this movie, which is possibly not surprising in the sense that he wrote and directed it. And you want to sell something that you're proud of. But I always, I haven't thought of him as like promo guy. And he's in every junket. He was on Table Manners, which is the Jesse Ware and Lenny Ware, her mother, wonderful podcast. But like, he's doing everything.

• 1:34:39Sean Fennessey?

  He is. His WTF episode is excellent, if people like that show. You know, he's obviously a brilliant guy and a great talker. But you're right that he doesn't usually go out of his way to flood the zone. My suspicion, I have no fucking idea. My suspicion is he was very happy to see the positive feedback for the film out of Sundance. And was like, okay.

• 1:34:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:59Sean Fennessey?

  I'll put my weight behind this because he's very happy that people seem to like the work so much. And he's written a lot of screenplays, he said, and you know, he's only directed two movies. So him winning here would be, there could be some interesting knockdown effect on that. Okay, best performance by a female actor in a motion picture, musical or comedy? Amy Adams in Night Bitch, Cynthia Erivo in Wicked, Carla Sofia Gascón in Amelia Perez, Mikey Madison in Enora, Demi Moore in The Substance and Zendaya in Challengers. It's maybe the last time I'm able to say the word Night Bitch on this podcast.

• 1:35:32Amanda Dobbins?

  I saw Night Bitch.

• 1:35:33Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. And you were what on it?

• 1:35:37Amanda Dobbins?

  I liked it more than I think you or I thought I would.

• 1:35:40Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:40Amanda Dobbins?

  I would say that our expectations were below this table.

• 1:35:43Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:35:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Because historically I have not responded to the films of Meryl Heller or Amy Adams or Momcore or Dogs.

• 1:35:52Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:52Amanda Dobbins?

  So.

• 1:35:53Sean Fennessey?

  Wow. Wow, kind of a tic-tac-toe-toe for you.

• 1:35:57Amanda Dobbins?

  You and Joe and Rob did a great episode and I agree that like the, the genre, the dog thing, just it didn't work.

• 1:36:05Amanda Dobbins?

  It didn't land. I also didn't totally understand the setup besides like the librarian is a, is a mom dog too. Anyway.

• 1:36:13Amanda Dobbins?

  I I thought that the parent and the mom stuff was insightful. And and and as you said, like, comes from, I I recognized it. And I recognized some of it in the, you know, there's a great monologue where she's talking about, I know that everyone will tell me that I shouldn't have hold held him when he was a baby, because now he won't sleep by himself, but he was just so cozy and something. And I had all the moment, I'm like sleep training right now. And I was like, yeah, you should not have held him. But then how can you, you know? So it was definitely engaging and very specific. You know, I've I've been at baby music class, too, and felt the way that she felt.

• 1:36:56Amanda Dobbins?

  So I give it credit for that.

• 1:36:59Sean Fennessey?

  I like, well, I'm, I said it on the show, but there's just not a lot of movies about this. And it's something that millions of people experience every day.

• 1:37:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, you you said on the show, you theorize that it's because people just like don't want to be around it. And I, like, once you've done it,

• 1:37:15Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:15Amanda Dobbins?

  you don't want to revisit it.

• 1:37:16Sean Fennessey?

  Memory hole it, yeah.

• 1:37:18Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, I'm I'm so glad to be here and not, you know, for the same thing. So I think that that had a lot of truth of like, I, the last thing that I want to do is watch or, you know, make art about.

• 1:37:29Sean Fennessey?

  I think one aspect of it, too, is that a lot of women who want to make films don't want to be put in the box of you're making a film about this thing that men don't understand or don't relate to.

• 1:37:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:37:41Sean Fennessey?

  You know, for many years in the movie business, like, women had a certain kind of a job.

• 1:37:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, yeah.

• 1:37:47Sean Fennessey?

  And they were trying to break convention and they could hang with the guys or whatever the expectations were. And so now we're in a time where, like, in theory, there's a little bit more balance between

• 1:37:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:57Sean Fennessey?

  couples in parental in parental relationships. And so this is like, this kind of movie can come to the surface, but like, I couldn't think of any other movies that are about raising toddlers. Like, look who's talking, like, there's no movies about this.

• 1:38:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Here's the thing other, also is that it's not totally about raising a toddler. As you pointed out, as Eileen, your wife, pointed out, like, that is a basically angelic toddler.

• 1:38:19Sean Fennessey?

  Too, the toddler is too good.

• 1:38:21Amanda Dobbins?

  And the, and Joanna made a really great point about how this is, this is really the woman version of how do I like be an artist and the struggle of being an artist.

• 1:38:33Sean Fennessey?

  Kind of a brutalist sequel.

• 1:38:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure. So, you know, and, and I understand everything that you said about female directors not like wanting to be siloed. And so you don't even want to touch that, like this actual topic. You would have to, you know, metaphorize it, but we're, I'm still waiting for the great, like toddler as a demon. I mean, I guess it is like every horror movie.

• 1:38:56Sean Fennessey?

  That's, it has been shunted off to the imaginaries of the world.

• 1:39:00Amanda Dobbins?

  They are, they are just.

• 1:39:02Sean Fennessey?

  They can be tough.

• 1:39:03Amanda Dobbins?

  It's amazing.

• 1:39:04Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, they can be tough. I was telling you a year ago, I was like, whoa.

• 1:39:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. But it's just, it is like another other worldly figure like takes over and you're just like, wow, this is insane.

• 1:39:13Sean Fennessey?

  We're getting through it.

• 1:39:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:15Sean Fennessey?

  Best performance by a female actor in a motion picture drama?

• 1:39:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Mikey Madison.

• 1:39:19Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, yeah, I have Mikey Madison too. I think she's gonna win. I, if you told me Demi Moore won, I wouldn't be shocked.

• 1:39:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. She has the coveted Gwyneth Paltrow defying Academy rules endorsement in order to post on Instagram. I don't know whether Gwyneth has been sanctioned, but.

• 1:39:39Sean Fennessey?

  By whom?

• 1:39:39Amanda Dobbins?

  The Academy.

• 1:39:41Sean Fennessey?

  And how would that happen?

• 1:39:42Amanda Dobbins?

  So Gwyneth was one of the.

• 1:39:43Sean Fennessey?

  Like, would she be banned?

• 1:39:44Amanda Dobbins?

  It was Gwyneth and your beloved Edward Norton, who were patient zeros in the Andrea Riseborough affair.

• 1:39:51Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:51Amanda Dobbins?

  But that is like literally, and honestly, I do think that Gwyneth's Instagram post about Andrea Riseborough was from a private screening and Demi Moore was also in the picture. So, and then she posted on Instagram recently being like, get this woman a nomination for the substance, which you're not, that, listen, we read the rules, but.

• 1:40:13Sean Fennessey?

  Not supposed to do that.

• 1:40:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but Gwyneth is too powerful and I love her forever.

• 1:40:16Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Um, Demi Moore could win. I think Mikey Madison's gonna win. I think she's on a track to run the table here. We'll see. Female actor in a motion picture drama. The nominees are Pamela Anderson for The Last Showgirl, Angelina Jolie for Maria, Nicole Kidman for Baby Girl, Tilda Swinton for The Room Next Door, Fernanda Torres for I'm Still Here, and Kate Winslet for Lee. So unlike the male acting categories, I think you're gonna get a little bit of column A and column B. You're mixing drama and comedy or musical. How many would you say out of the drama nominees will make their way to the Academy Awards if you had to guess?

• 1:40:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Two?

• 1:40:55Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe two.

• 1:40:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Maybe two.

• 1:40:58Sean Fennessey?

  Now, my pick is indicative of who I think is going. So I'm choosing Nicole Kidman to win.

• 1:41:06Amanda Dobbins?

  That's exciting.

• 1:41:07Sean Fennessey?

  I, that could be way off. I don't really know.

• 1:41:11Amanda Dobbins?

  I do think I have Nicole Kidman on my big bet because

• 1:41:14Sean Fennessey?

  Do you?

• 1:41:15Amanda Dobbins?

  With the Oscars, the money is always bet on Nicole Kidman. I still haven't seen Baby Girl. I'm so excited. I was supposed to go and everyone in my house got sick. I'm gonna see it before we record next week. I mean, Harris Dickinson, I, like, I just, we don't need to talk about it.

• 1:41:33Sean Fennessey?

  There's a lot to report on.

• 1:41:33Amanda Dobbins?

  We don't need to talk about it. Um, but I haven't seen it.

• 1:41:37Sean Fennessey?

  Now, there's certainly a world here where Angelina Jolie wins.

• 1:41:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:43Sean Fennessey?

  And she continues on in a very kind of like focused, tight campaign, which is what she's doing.

• 1:41:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure. You saw also that there was a New Year's Eve divorce settlement?

• 1:41:54Sean Fennessey?

  I did not.

• 1:41:55Amanda Dobbins?

  That's finally done. The Angelina Jolie Brad Pitt divorce

• 1:41:59Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, I didn't know that.

• 1:42:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Has been legally, and they, and they announced it on New Year's Eve as like a, you know, a dump.

• 1:42:06Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, great.

• 1:42:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Anyway.

• 1:42:07Sean Fennessey?

  I'll read through all that documentation when I finish this episode.

• 1:42:09Amanda Dobbins?

  There wasn't any documentation. It was just a statement from her publicist.

• 1:42:13Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, closed matter. Uh, her campaign continues to pace. I think Nicole Kidman's gonna win. Who do you think's gonna win?

• 1:42:19Amanda Dobbins?

  I really don't know because I've only seen Maria, which I'm really embarrassed about.

• 1:42:23Sean Fennessey?

  Do you like Maria?

• 1:42:24Amanda Dobbins?

  No. She's so boring. I also, it's like, they, I liked The Apartment.

• 1:42:32Sean Fennessey?

  Uh huh, yeah.

• 1:42:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Great production design.

• 1:42:35Sean Fennessey?

  Yep.

• 1:42:36Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I, there is a conversation to be had there and about Angelina Jolie's performance. And maybe we can have it, um, if she does get nominated.

• 1:42:44Sean Fennessey?

  Should we do it off mic?

• 1:42:46Amanda Dobbins?

  No, if she actually gets nominated for an Oscar.

• 1:42:48Sean Fennessey?

  Doing it in a quiet alleyway where no one can hear us.

• 1:42:50Amanda Dobbins?

  With me on like every single pain medication known to men, all men all at once. And giant glasses.

• 1:42:56Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I mean, I think.

• 1:42:57Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, but listen.

• 1:42:58Sean Fennessey?

  I, I think she's good in the movie. I like the movie, but I like that project. I'm interested in that project, the like museum piece of 20th century women.

• 1:43:06Amanda Dobbins?

  I like the project as well, but the, the Wikipedia page that I read during the slow parts of the movie was way more interesting than whatever was in the movie.

• 1:43:17Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, I think it's meant to be dramatizing a woman in a daze.

• 1:43:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but he's done that several times. And the first time was good primarily because of Natalie Portman's just absolutely insane voice. And then Peter Sarsgaard, Peter Sarsgaard-ing as a Kennedy in the corner.

• 1:43:35Sean Fennessey?

  Both great.

• 1:43:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:38Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I'll take Angelina Jolie just for interest.

• 1:43:41Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, great. Best performance by a male actor in a motion picture drama. This is Bloodsport. The nominees are Adrian Brody for The Brutalist, Timothy Chalamet for A Complete Unknown, Daniel Craig for Queer, Coleman Domingo for Sing Sing, Ralph Fiennes in Conclave, and Sebastian Stan for The Apprentice. Now, I think the first five names I just read are the nominees for the Academy Award. Lot of really good performances here.

• 1:44:09Amanda Dobbins?

  A lot of people really working for their, their Oscar nomination.

• 1:44:14Sean Fennessey?

  So Adrian Brody, of course, has been out in full force.

• 1:44:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Shirtless on the cover of New York Magazine.

• 1:44:19Sean Fennessey?

  He's promoting. He was on this show last week.

• 1:44:23Sean Fennessey?

  Daniel Craig, doing what he does. He's also promoting the movie pretty aggressively. Maybe that not a lot of people have seen Queer, but that there are high marks for his performance as a kind of William Burroughs stand-in.

• 1:44:31Amanda Dobbins?

  He is now like the, one of the faces of Loewe, which is Jonathan Anderson's, one of Jonathan Anderson's brands. And Jonathan Anderson did the costumes for both Queer and Challengers and is a major designer.

• 1:44:45Sean Fennessey?

  Coleman Domingo, the Sing Sing campaign has restarted. It's being re-released this month. You did. I think, obviously, he's, he's beloved in the community as well. Ralph Fiennes has decided to start campaigning with Andy Cohen and Anderson Cooper on the CNN New Year's Eve special, like you do.

• 1:45:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 1:45:05Sean Fennessey?

  And.

• 1:45:06Amanda Dobbins?

  It's very funny.

• 1:45:06Sean Fennessey?

  He did the Demir meme and was hilarious. I think he was also on Watch What Happens Live with Juliette Binoche. She also went into the Criterion Closet with Juliette Binoche.

• 1:45:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, they were doing reunion stuff?

• 1:45:17Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Well, no, they're in a new movie together.

• 1:45:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, they are?

• 1:45:20Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, which is called The Return, but is about a very focused segment, I'm not kidding, of The Odyssey.

• 1:45:28Amanda Dobbins?

  We didn't even, yeah.

• 1:45:29Sean Fennessey?

  I forgot to mention this.

• 1:45:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, you didn't respond to that text message?

• 1:45:33Sean Fennessey?

  Both, well, the first, it was a day where you sent one text message that was just incredibly hostile that I was not gonna respond to. But then the second one was a good one, but then I was just busy.

• 1:45:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:45:41Sean Fennessey?

  Christopher Nolan is adapting The Odyssey.

• 1:45:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:44Sean Fennessey?

  Now, I would say roughly 80% of the episodes we made while you were out was about what Christopher Nolan was gonna do next. CR cooked often. Turns out what he cooked was spoiled rotten because he was wrong on all accounts. This is not a helicopter movie, it's not a vampire movie, it's not any of those things.

• 1:45:59Amanda Dobbins?

  So you don't know that there are no helicopters involved in this telling of The Odyssey?

• 1:46:05Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know.

• 1:46:05Amanda Dobbins?

  You don't know?

• 1:46:05Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know.

• 1:46:06Amanda Dobbins?

  You don't know?

• 1:46:06Sean Fennessey?

  It could be a modern day telling of the travels.

• 1:46:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:10Sean Fennessey?

  Across.

• 1:46:11Amanda Dobbins?

  And it keeps crashing?

• 1:46:12Sean Fennessey?

  Land, time, Scylla and Charybdis.

• 1:46:14Amanda Dobbins?

  And then he has to fix it?

• 1:46:15Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, it's possible that that's his boat. But I think more likely it's an ancient tale.

• 1:46:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:46:24Amanda Dobbins?

  You think it's set in, it's contemporaneous with Homer?

• 1:46:29Sean Fennessey?

  You know what? I'm not ready to say. I don't really know.

• 1:46:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Is Tom Holland Odysseus?

• 1:46:34Sean Fennessey?

  I assume it was Matt Damon.

• 1:46:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, good.

• 1:46:37Sean Fennessey?

  Right?

• 1:46:37Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, I hope so.

• 1:46:38Sean Fennessey?

  I feel like he's at a good age for that, actually.

• 1:46:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, but you know, you know.

• 1:46:43Amanda Dobbins?

  And then I guess maybe Tom Holland is Telemachus?

• 1:46:45Sean Fennessey?

  Precisely. That was, that's what has been suggested. So I would say I'm.

• 1:46:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Who's Penelope?

• 1:46:54Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, not Zendaya, not Charlize?

• 1:47:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Is Charlize in this?

• 1:47:02Sean Fennessey?

  She is.

• 1:47:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh.

• 1:47:03Sean Fennessey?

  Or Lupita?

• 1:47:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh.

• 1:47:05Sean Fennessey?

  Lupita and Yango is also in this.

• 1:47:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:47:08Sean Fennessey?

  So many fucking people in this movie.

• 1:47:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:47:10Sean Fennessey?

  Like a ton of movie stars in this movie.

• 1:47:14Sean Fennessey?

  And I'm playing the Cyclops. Super excited. I, I.

• 1:47:19Amanda Dobbins?

  What if they just put the, it's universal, right? What if the Cyclops minion is the Cyclops?

• 1:47:23Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, that's a good bit.

• 1:47:24Amanda Dobbins?

  That's really good, right?

• 1:47:25Sean Fennessey?

  Somebody's gotta, yeah, you've just saved that for their marketing department.

• 1:47:29Sean Fennessey?

  I'm looking forward to it, you know, I hope it's good. Christopher Nolan, you know, sometimes it's great. Sometimes it's not.

• 1:47:38Amanda Dobbins?

  I've, I'm, I, I was surprised.

• 1:47:41Sean Fennessey?

  This is really in your, like, core realm of interests.

• 1:47:44Amanda Dobbins?

  It is, but I don't know whether-

• 1:47:47Sean Fennessey?

  In fact, you gave a book of mythology to my daughter for Christmas.

• 1:47:49Amanda Dobbins?

  I did.

• 1:47:50Sean Fennessey?

  A beautiful book that I know you were raised on, yeah.

• 1:47:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, that's such a, if you don't know the Delair's Book of Greek Mess, it's really, really very beautiful.

• 1:47:56Sean Fennessey?

  We, um, zeroed in very tightly on Aphrodite, as you might imagine, given Alice's interest. So we've read that page many times.

• 1:48:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but I mean, I still can see that art in my, in my head. That's, it's so beautiful. I, I think it would be cooler if this actually were a helicopter version of The Odyssey.

• 1:48:14Sean Fennessey?

  A modern day.

• 1:48:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, in my opinion, if he is like doing his swords and sandals, like, searching for my wife who is like alive this time.

• 1:48:23Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, the ultimate wife guy, or dead wife guy.

• 1:48:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, well, I mean, there's another thing. I don't know, it might, it might tweak the parts of Oppenheimer that I found insufferable, um, for me.

• 1:48:37Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:48:38Amanda Dobbins?

  But we'll see.

• 1:48:39Sean Fennessey?

  Well, let's talk quickly about, um, Timothy Chalamet. So, obviously, he's on a press run for the ages, right? He's, he's been on College Game Day.

• 1:48:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Incredible.

• 1:48:48Sean Fennessey?

  He has been doing meme content.

• 1:48:50Amanda Dobbins?

  He, he, he had help with that, right? I mean, an incredible performance, but-

• 1:48:55Sean Fennessey?

  Here's what I'll say. I think he's making a lot of choices based on personal taste. I think showing up on Theo Von, I think, I, I watched last night his appearance on Nardwar. Am I familiar with Nardwar?

• 1:49:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, yes.

• 1:49:10Sean Fennessey?

  And, you know, I'm a long time music journalist, hip hop head. I've watched many a Nardwar interview in my day. This is among the best ones. There's a moment, early on, when Timothy Chalamet is handed a vinyl copy of an early Common single.

• 1:49:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:49:26Sean Fennessey?

  "I Used to Love Her," just his ode, his metaphorical ode to hip hop. And hearing Timmy explain who Common is and what he means to him and what he means to his heroes, who were musical artists, who were, to quote him, "Kid Cudi and Lupe Fiasco."

• 1:49:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:49:46Sean Fennessey?

  And what that era of Chicago hip hop was, was like, just fucking fascinating. Like, just, there's no way that he, like, showed up on the Nardwar show with all of his Bob Dylan, you know, micro-knowledge, which is what he brought to the show, and his New York hip hop kid thing, and his theater kid thing, and his, like, nervy, "Shout out to this guy, shout out to this guy."

• 1:50:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:50:11Sean Fennessey?

  All of that, I could feel him doing a thing that he was comfortable and excited to do.

• 1:50:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, of course.

• 1:50:16Sean Fennessey?

  So.

• 1:50:16Amanda Dobbins?

  And that he's clearly been a consumer of the show.

• 1:50:19Sean Fennessey?

  Yes. Is he a huge college football fan? I don't know.

• 1:50:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:50:22Sean Fennessey?

  Obviously, a lot of people have said it's not hard to memorize stats when you're an actor. But most of the hits that he's done, he's either been super high-energy and funny.

• 1:50:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:50:31Sean Fennessey?

  There was that really funny interview he had with Saoirse Ronan. I don't know if you saw it on social media, where they, like, did a screening together and then they sat onstage and talked, and told stories. He's having a ball there, and Saoirse's clearly over him in many ways.

• 1:50:45Sean Fennessey?

  And there was one other one that I, I just watched one with, um, I think Vanity Fair. It was James Mangold, him and Monica Barbaro, and they were breaking down a scene.

• 1:50:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:50:54Sean Fennessey?

  And he doesn't say anything with the first seven minutes of a 10-minute video. And then in seven minutes, he just, like, takes over. And I was like, whoa. He really is, he is, he is the chosen one now.

• 1:51:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:05Sean Fennessey?

  Like, he is, he's holding, like, $5,000 sunglasses, and he's wearing a polo rugby. And I was like, oh, man, like, it's not Leo, but it's like, it's a contemporary version of that thing.

• 1:51:16Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, he has been, like, for, I have been calling that for years.

• 1:51:18Sean Fennessey?

  I've just been feeling it so deeply now with this press run. And he's obviously, I mean, you'll see the movie, but as well as you can do it, I think he did it.

• 1:51:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:29Sean Fennessey?

  So, I think he's gonna win.

• 1:51:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Do you think he's gonna win the Oscar? Or are you talking about your Golden Globe tradition?

• 1:51:35Sean Fennessey?

  I think he's winning the Golden Globe, and I think he's, I think he's gonna win the Oscar.

• 1:51:38Amanda Dobbins?

  For the Oscar?

• 1:51:39Sean Fennessey?

  I think, I mean, there's obviously a Ralph Fiennes, "It's Time" case to be made, and Ralph Fiennes is charming.

• 1:51:44Amanda Dobbins?

  He's very good in Conclave, which is a movie I've seen twice. And that's kind of what, that's, that's my summary of Conclave.

• 1:51:50Sean Fennessey?

  It's a movie I like. It's a movie I like. I, if you were like, Adrian Brody's winning again, I wouldn't be shocked.

• 1:51:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, but he has.

• 1:51:57Sean Fennessey?

  He's giving a major performance, but he's already won. Uh, so I'm going Timmy.

• 1:52:01Amanda Dobbins?

  I am as well.

• 1:52:02Sean Fennessey?

  You're okay. Best director. Jacques Audiard for Amelia Perez, Sean Baker for Enora, Edward Berger for Conclave, Brady Corbeil for The Brutalist, Corley Fargea for The Substance, and Pial Kapadia for All We Imagine as Light. I picked Brady Corby.

• 1:52:18Amanda Dobbins?

  You did?

• 1:52:19Sean Fennessey?

  I did.

• 1:52:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:52:20Sean Fennessey?

  I, for whatever reason, think that this body is gonna be more pro The Brutalist than the Oscars.

• 1:52:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Interesting.

• 1:52:27Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know why I feel that. I think because it's more of a critical group, and The Brutalist has obviously done very well with critical groups. It is a big statement.

• 1:52:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:52:36Sean Fennessey?

  Um, it's not necessarily a comforting Oscar film.

• 1:52:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:52:41Sean Fennessey?

  So, and I think just the idea, like, kinda what he, how he pulled this off, and how he mounted this big movie and this grand statement and did it independently. Um, and it's, it's a movie full of choices.

• 1:52:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:52:54Sean Fennessey?

  And, not that the substance isn't, or all we imagine is light isn't, but it feels like the, that, that feels like the pick for me. I don't think I would say that about the Academy Awards right now. I think if I was picking the Oscars now, I would probably pick Sean Baker.

• 1:53:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I think I'm going with Sean Baker here.

• 1:53:08Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:53:09Amanda Dobbins?

  In part, just because it's not fun to pick a movie I haven't seen.

• 1:53:13Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:53:13Amanda Dobbins?

  And also because it is, it's so weird that Enora is consensus, and then, and also is starting to have that tinge of like, we've been talking about it for so long, and we think it's the presumed frontrunner for so long, that now we're like, looking for other angles.

• 1:53:27Sean Fennessey?

  Totally.

• 1:53:27Amanda Dobbins?

  You know?

• 1:53:28Sean Fennessey?

  Totally.

• 1:53:29Amanda Dobbins?

  But, I, I'll stick with Sean Baker.

• 1:53:31Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:53:31Amanda Dobbins?

  And a movie I love.

• 1:53:33Sean Fennessey?

  Best motion picture drama. The nominees are The Brutalist, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Dune Part II, Nickel Boys, and the first time we are saying this movie's name, September Five.

• 1:53:41Amanda Dobbins?

  I keep forgetting to watch that. I need to watch that.

• 1:53:44Sean Fennessey?

  I think you can see it at home.

• 1:53:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, no, I know.

• 1:53:46Sean Fennessey?

  It's pretty good.

• 1:53:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. I'm gonna, I'm gonna, I'm gonna watch it. That's, that's one that I would watch with Zach, so we, we gotta find a partner.

• 1:53:52Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. I don't know if it's on the level of these other films that are in this category.

• 1:53:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:53:56Sean Fennessey?

  This is, uh, you, these other films here are the best movies of the year. You know, I'm a little lower on A Complete Unknown and Conclave, but like, Nickel Boys, Dune Part II, and The Brutalist.

• 1:54:05Amanda Dobbins?

  A Complete Unknown is sixty-three on your list?

• 1:54:07Sean Fennessey?

  That might have been a mistake.

• 1:54:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Uh, yeah, because I, again, I haven't listened to the episode because I don't, I wanna see it first.

• 1:54:14Sean Fennessey?

  I'm way lower on it than Chris and Mallory. Way lower.

• 1:54:17Amanda Dobbins?

  You are. They really, really liked it. But even I thought you were kind of like, huh.

• 1:54:21Sean Fennessey?

  I think I was just shocked at how not a mess it was.

• 1:54:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:54:24Sean Fennessey?

  Um, I think it's, it's barely a movie.

• 1:54:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:54:28Sean Fennessey?

  It is a tremendous platform for. Those songs.

• 1:54:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:54:32Sean Fennessey?

  And, and Shalhoub and Barbaro.

• 1:54:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:54:35Sean Fennessey?

  Terrific. And, and, and Norton too. Um, no, I mean Brutalist, Dune Part Two and Nickel Boys, that's, I think that's like, that's three of my five favorite movies of the year.

• 1:54:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:54:44Sean Fennessey?

  And the other three nominees are darn good.

• 1:54:47Amanda Dobbins?

  So you're gonna do Brutalist here?

• 1:54:48Sean Fennessey?

  I am.

• 1:54:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Should I do Brutalist or should I do Conclave? I don't think Conclave's gonna win.

• 1:54:54Sean Fennessey?

  It could.

• 1:54:55Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, it could.

• 1:54:56Sean Fennessey?

  It could. I think it's, it's absence in other categories, like it's absence in supporting actor, for example, is a little iffy. It is in the screenplay category.

• 1:55:06Amanda Dobbins?

  They only have six spots for, only.

• 1:55:09Sean Fennessey?

  Yep.

• 1:55:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Um.

• 1:55:10Sean Fennessey?

  Who would you choose as the supporting actor? Who is your favorite supporting guy?

• 1:55:14Amanda Dobbins?

  This year?

• 1:55:14Sean Fennessey?

  No, in Conclave.

• 1:55:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, well, I, you know, Tucci is, is, is doing great work.

• 1:55:23Sean Fennessey?

  I. It is a war.

• 1:55:27Sean Fennessey?

  I needed a little bit more of that from him in the movie.

• 1:55:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. I mean, I wanted a little bit more of the politics, uh, for lack of, you know, and the scheming. And I wanted a completely different ending. I mean, I just don't know what it was respectfully or not respectfully.

• 1:55:42Sean Fennessey?

  Someone at a, at a brunch yesterday that we were at suggested, what if the big reveal at the end were revealed much earlier in the movie?

• 1:55:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:55:51Sean Fennessey?

  And that revelation was in the mind of the Ralph Fiennes character, which I thought was a cool idea. That's obviously different from the novel that the film is based on.

• 1:55:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 1:55:59Sean Fennessey?

  But I, I really liked that concept of how differently the movie would play if you had one character knowing the truth?

• 1:56:07Sean Fennessey?

  And that driving the narrative?

• 1:56:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. Unfortunately, like what the truth is feels a little.

• 1:56:16Sean Fennessey?

  It's a little silly.

• 1:56:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Silly in terms of what

• 1:56:21Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't like, I don't know what that, that book thinks that it's trying to say about gender.

• 1:56:25Sean Fennessey?

  I don't, but that's the thing is.

• 1:56:26Amanda Dobbins?

  You know?

• 1:56:27Sean Fennessey?

  In movie form, it is just like, ta-da, like, and then we're out.

• 1:56:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:56:31Sean Fennessey?

  And because of that, you can't even really reflect on it in any way. You can't even really, you have to kind of like sit on it and think hard about what it wants to be, to mean.

• 1:56:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:56:40Sean Fennessey?

  Whereas if a character was doing the exact thing I just described, I think it might've worked better for me.

• 1:56:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Totally. I definitely would work better. But then, you know, I think my preference would be just to rewrite the book and then the movie so that it's a political conspiracy, you know? I like, I kept thinking the twist, because I knew there was a twist. Because you guys kept talking about some twist. And my mother, who is a book reader, who, and she's not a book reader. I mean, she does read books, but in this case, I mean, she has read this book.

• 1:57:09Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Almost spoiled it for me, which I think I'm really, I, hearing my mother try to explain that plot twist is just not something that I needed to experience. You experienced her being like, why would I see a movie? I have already read the book, so that's what we're working with.

• 1:57:23Sean Fennessey?

  This is a hard, tough moment.

• 1:57:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:25Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, you know.

• 1:57:26Sean Fennessey?

  Hard five minutes on Christmas.

• 1:57:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, but I, I thought the twist was gonna be that like, the Pope was evil. You know, I thought we were doing like Nazi Pope again or something.

• 1:57:33Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:57:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, I just wish Edward Berger would remake The Da Vinci Code. That's, that's kind of where I am.

• 1:57:39Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. He's got a Netflix movie coming out pretty soon. That sounds good.

• 1:57:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Is it The Da Vinci Code?

• 1:57:44Sean Fennessey?

  No, no.

• 1:57:45Amanda Dobbins?

  It looks pretty good in Conclave. You know, when all the Popes have umbrellas?

• 1:57:49Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, the, the staging and the way it's edited is like, it's a silly movie, but it looks amazing.

• 1:57:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, it looks great.

• 1:57:56Sean Fennessey?

  The whole like, I'm making a Renaissance painting in modern times thing, that was just a good idea, it looks great. Uh, okay, so I've got The Brutalist. You are gonna go Conclave or no?

• 1:58:04Amanda Dobbins?

  I guess so.

• 1:58:05Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:58:06Amanda Dobbins?

  I will go Conclave because I still have not seen The Brutalist, so.

• 1:58:09Sean Fennessey?

  Best motion picture, musical or comedy? This is our last category.

• 1:58:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:58:13Sean Fennessey?

  The nominees are Enora, Challengers, Amelia Perez, A Real Pain, The Substance, and Wicked.

• 1:58:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Hmm.

• 1:58:20Sean Fennessey?

  I've chosen Wicked.

• 1:58:22Amanda Dobbins?

  You're gonna do it?

• 1:58:24Sean Fennessey?

  I have. I don't feel good about it.

• 1:58:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:58:26Sean Fennessey?

  I hope.

• 1:58:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Maybe, you know what, I'll do it with you. I'll do it with you because I, maybe we'll do, I did Sean Baker for director, so maybe they'll do that and then they'll do, yeah, they'll do the split. I, like, I have no confidence in any of my picks.

• 1:58:39Sean Fennessey?

  Will they give drama out last or comedy or musical out last?

• 1:58:43Amanda Dobbins?

  It's a great question. Historically, they do drama.

• 1:58:47Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm. But this year?

• 1:58:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Maybe they'll do comedy. It's the Golden Globes are totally made up, even within the context of made up awards shows. They can do whatever they want, as they have made it clear year after year. So sure, put it last.

• 1:59:02Sean Fennessey?

  Will there be more nominees for Best Picture in musical or comedy or drama?

• 1:59:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Let's see. So you've got one, two, three, four, and probably Nickel Boys. So you've got five out of six in drama. I agree with you guys that Nickel Boys right now, again, I haven't seen it because I got to see it in a theater, but it does seem like it's trending.

• 1:59:23Sean Fennessey?

  Needs a little bit of a boost. Needs a little bit of a boost. I did, like I said on the show-

• 1:59:28Amanda Dobbins?

  But it's rolling out, right?

• 1:59:29Sean Fennessey?

  It's rolling out in New York and LA right now.

• 1:59:34Sean Fennessey?

  It's gonna play really well with the Directors Guild. I don't know about the group at large because it's hard to sit through and I think it's gonna be hard to stream. So if you're watching on the portal-

• 1:59:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:59:43Sean Fennessey?

  I'm not sure.

• 1:59:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:59:44Sean Fennessey?

  The idea of like Nickel Boys and The Substance being two versions of narrative extremity that are very unlike anything the Academy ever recognizes, makes me think that maybe there's something else going in there? And we're not thinking about it? I could be wrong.

• 1:59:58Amanda Dobbins?

  But that's always where we're wrong. And-

• 2:00:00Sean Fennessey?

  The last few years, for sure.

• 2:00:01Amanda Dobbins?

  And the more avant-garde or, you know, more frankly, original movies do get in at the expense of your A Complete Unknowns.

• 2:00:10Sean Fennessey?

  They have, they have. I was thinking recently of how like Michael Honecker's Amore had like four Oscar nominations? And how, you know, like, you're right, that these things do sometimes-

• 2:00:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Remember how Zach and I went on an early date to see Amore? I was just thinking, I'd like-

• 2:00:23Sean Fennessey?

  And now you'll get to die together. That's so great.

• 2:00:26Amanda Dobbins?

  But, you know, I have told that story several different times on this podcast, but it is like, you know, the step up series or whatever, where like you check in with that story every five years. And every five years into our marriage, it really means something quite different.

• 2:00:39Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:40Amanda Dobbins?

  So, um-

• 2:00:43Sean Fennessey?

  Let's circle back in five years on that one.

• 2:00:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. Musical, I, Wicked, let's see. Enora, yes. Emilia Perez, yes, too.

• 2:00:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Wicked, yes, three. I really do see a world where substance goes in. So to answer your question, still more films from drama, but I think it could be-

• 2:00:59Sean Fennessey?

  You don't think A Real Pain's going in?

• 2:01:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, I forgot about that. Yeah. One, two, three, four. It could be five and five. And just challengers on September 5 are the-

• 2:01:08Sean Fennessey?

  The ones that are left holding the bag.

• 2:01:10Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, once again, comedy here is doing-

• 2:01:14Sean Fennessey?

  Are any of these movies comedies? I guess A Real Pain, which is a deep, a movie about deep trauma.

• 2:01:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Um.

• 2:01:21Sean Fennessey?

  The Substance might be the funniest movie out of all these movies.

• 2:01:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 2:01:24Sean Fennessey?

  And Nora obviously has that screwball thing in the 30 minutes in the middle, which is great, but like, what a fucking gut-wrenching movie at the end.

• 2:01:32Amanda Dobbins?

  That's true.

• 2:01:33Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, okay. Well, those are our picks. We'll be back Sunday night.

• 2:01:39Amanda Dobbins?

  I could go oh for 20. I don't really care.

• 2:01:43Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. You think you'll be fired if you do?

• 2:01:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, I don't know. Will I?

• 2:01:46Sean Fennessey?

  Call Bill. Is Amanda out if she goes oh for 14 at the Golden Globes?

• 2:01:52Amanda Dobbins?

  We should do that. That'd be exciting.

• 2:01:54Sean Fennessey?

  It's a good, good little segment for us. Um, I'm gonna see Bill shortly. I'll ask him.

• 2:01:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 2:01:57Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, welcome back.

• 2:01:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Thank you.

• 2:02:00Sean Fennessey?

  We really missed you.

• 2:02:01Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I missed you guys. I'm thrilled to be back.

• 2:02:04Sean Fennessey?

  Bobby, thank you for your work on this episode.

• 2:02:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Happy New Year, Bobby.

• 2:02:07Sean Fennessey?

  Happy New Year, Bob.

• 2:02:07Speaker 03

  You're very welcome, Amanda. It's great to have you back.

• 2:02:10Sean Fennessey?

  Um, thanks for getting out for filling in.

• 2:02:13Speaker 03

  It's been a lot of work to be a figment of Sean's imagination. He's just been talking to an empty screen for the last few months, so it's great to have you back.

• 2:02:19Sean Fennessey?

  That's not true. I was speaking to you and with you.

• 2:02:22Speaker 03

  That's what you thought, you know, but I'm not real, so.

• 2:02:25Sean Fennessey?

  Sometimes I do think that about this whole show.

• 2:02:27Amanda Dobbins?

  From cinema heaven, yeah.

• 2:02:28Sean Fennessey?

  Sometimes I'm like, is this really happening?

• 2:02:30Amanda Dobbins?

  I thought I was fairly normal.

• 2:02:33Sean Fennessey?

  On this episode?

• 2:02:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 2:02:34Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, I agree.

• 2:02:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 2:02:35Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I, I think I need to be medicated in some ways. I'm just like physically falling apart. Mental health is weakening by the day.

• 2:02:43Amanda Dobbins?

  There were definitely, I would say, between eight and 15 times during this episode where I went to reach for a word and the language just wasn't there.

• 2:02:52Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Uh. Remember those days?

• 2:02:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, that's sort of been like a, a three-month project for me, but it's coming back.

• 2:02:59Sean Fennessey?

  Kind of a prequel to a more.

• 2:03:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 2:03:02Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Uh, well, great stuff. We'll see you guys on Sunday. Thanks for listening.

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