The Cate Blanchett Hall of Fame and the Delightfully Sleek ‘Black Bag’

Sean and Amanda discuss their upcoming trip to Las Vegas for CinemaCon (1:00) before taking stock of Steven Soderbergh’s 36th feature film, ‘Black Bag,’ starring Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender (8:30). Then, they build a Hall of Fame for Blanchett by selecting the 10 most important performances by the two-time Oscar winner (27:00). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Senior Producer: Bobby Wagner Video Producers: John Richter and Jon Jones 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

  When you hear the word Seattle Supersonics, what comes to mind? Maybe it's Shawn Kemp, the Rain Man, or Gary Payton, the Glove, or maybe an image of a tall and skinny 19-year-old rookie, Kevin Durant. For fans in Seattle, it's something else. It's tragedy, it's theft, an iconic team with an incredible fan base that packed its bags and shipped off for Oklahoma City. From Spotify and The Ringer, I'm Jordan Ritter-Kahn, and in my podcast, Sonic Boom, I talk to players, politicians, owners, and fans about how Seattle lost the Sonics. You can listen to it on the Book of Basketball feed, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts.

• 0:45Speaker 01

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• 1:13Speaker 02

  The best part of waking up? A full cup of Folgers coffee and music on full blast.

• 1:49Sean Fennessey?

  I'm Sean Fennessey.

• 1:50Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm Amanda Dobbins.

• 1:51Sean Fennessey?

  And this is the Big Pictureate Conversation Show about Black Bag. Today, we are talking about Steven Soderbergh's newest film, his second of 2025, and honestly, one of his best in years. We're also talking about the amazing career of one of this movie's stars, Cate Blanchett. We will build her Hall of Fame, long overdue, I would say, as an epic. On this show, I'm not sure what the fuck I was thinking, waiting this long to do a Kate Hall of Fame. She's had quite a career. She loves to work. My goodness.

• 2:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes. The last time we would have done it would have been for Tar. And were we doing Hall of Fames then?

• 2:22Sean Fennessey?

  We were, but I think we were just so tar-pilled that we were like, maybe another nine hours on the text of Tar. Nevertheless, we are talking about Kate today. Any news out there in the world for you? You want to talk about before we get into this movie and this career? Just tooling around on the internet.

• 2:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Nikki Glaser?

• 2:38Sean Fennessey?

  Nikki Glaser returning to the Golden Globes to host once again.

• 2:41Amanda Dobbins?

  I accept.

• 2:41Sean Fennessey?

  She was dynamite, I thought, the first time around. Just mean enough, I would say, with her energy. And I tell you what, if we got Nikki Glaser and Conan O'Brien for the next two or three years, that'd be great. I'd be very pleased with that.

• 2:53Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm open.

• 2:54Sean Fennessey?

  I never say that.

• 2:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Does that change whether you'd like to attend the shows?

• 2:58Sean Fennessey?

  I don't want to go to the Globes. I have no interest. The Oscars, yeah, I'm feeling the pull. I'm feeling the draw. Yeah. I was on my friend Katie Rich's show last week to talk about some takeaways from the Academy Awards, and she was there. And just even hearing her talk about it, as someone who, like us, has been obsessed for years. Yeah, I think I'd like to go. And if Conan is there, all the better. Nikki, she's good with the celebs, you know?

• 3:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 3:21Sean Fennessey?

  She doesn't care about me. She doesn't give a shit. That's not what that's about. She needs to burn them down. I have you to burn me down on this show every week.

• 3:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Could we just create our own Golden Globes? Just like heavy drinking? And then, and then we record a podcast?

• 3:34Sean Fennessey?

  You mean just start recording it. It's already kind of happening these days. Yeah, I'm happy about the Nikki Glaser thing. You're happy? You're okay with it?

• 3:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure. Yeah. I liked her, you know? I learned who she was. And then I watched the show and I was like, good job, Nikki Glaser.

• 3:47Sean Fennessey?

  Did you go back to the Tom Brady roast?

• 3:49Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I didn't. You know, I'm looking forward.

• 3:51Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. I'll be roasting Tom Brady going forward on this show on a weekly basis because he sucks at calling football games.

• 3:57Amanda Dobbins?

  He's so bad.

• 3:58Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, terrible. Also, part owner of the Raiders. Not really sure how that works.

• 4:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 4:02Sean Fennessey?

  Don't think that's great. He did trade for Geno Smith in this offseason. Are you aware of that?

• 4:06Amanda Dobbins?

  I think I saw something about it. Was Geno Smith a Jet?

• 4:10Sean Fennessey?

  He was a Jet some years ago.

• 4:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 4:12Sean Fennessey?

  About 10 years ago.

• 4:13Amanda Dobbins?

  And then?

• 4:13Sean Fennessey?

  He famously got punched in the face by a teammate.

• 4:16Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 4:16Sean Fennessey?

  Because of some misdeeds during a card game.

• 4:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 4:20Sean Fennessey?

  That that sort of led to his demise as a Jet. He eventually revived his career in Seattle. He was in a solid top 15 QB.

• 4:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, so that's why our friend Mina, Mina Kimes was tweeting about it.

• 4:30Sean Fennessey?

  She's got some feelings about it.

• 4:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 4:31Sean Fennessey?

  And interestingly enough, they replaced Geno Smith, former Jet, with Sam Darnold, former Jet.

• 4:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Hmm.

• 4:36Sean Fennessey?

  This has been the Ringer Fantasy Football Podcast.

• 4:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Sam Darnold did not punch Geno Smith in the face.

• 4:40Sean Fennessey?

  He did not, though hmm, that seems like an intriguing story that we could develop. Uh, no, he followed Geno as the QB of the team. He also failed, as all Jets QBs do.

• 4:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Have you ever punched anyone in the face as a result of a card game?

• 4:54Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, uh, no. I have, I have.

• 4:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, we know.

• 4:57Sean Fennessey?

  I've thrown a punch or two. Um, no, no. And it's probably been decades since I've thrown a punch.

• 5:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 5:02Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I would say more than decades.

• 5:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Speaking of card games, uh, you and I are going to Las Vegas, uh, in a few weeks.

• 5:09Sean Fennessey?

  Nice.

• 5:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Do.

• 5:11Sean Fennessey?

  Look at you, the segue queen.

• 5:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Thank you so much. Well, so should I gamble?

• 5:16Amanda Dobbins?

  And like, will you, will you like be the, um, you know, my, my guide to the, I mean, I'm not gonna like play cards.

• 5:23Sean Fennessey?

  Right.

• 5:24Amanda Dobbins?

  That seems very stressful, but like slot machines, like, should I get in the mix?

• 5:27Sean Fennessey?

  Um.

• 5:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Amanda's first Vegas trip.

• 5:29Sean Fennessey?

  Slot machines are for suckers, so I would not recommend that.

• 5:32Amanda Dobbins?

  All right, Bobby's also, well, guys, I do, like, I'm going to Vegas.

• 5:35Sean Fennessey?

  Uh huh.

• 5:36Amanda Dobbins?

  We're gonna do it, right? So Vegas.

• 5:39Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 5:39Speaker 05

  She's not there to like win return on investment. She's there to have fun. Slot machines could be fun, Amanda. You could get into that.

• 5:45Sean Fennessey?

  Slot machines are just a video game. Get in the action. Get on a table. Touch some felt, you know?

• 5:50Amanda Dobbins?

  I feel very nervous about going to a table.

• 5:53Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, I get it, but like you're gonna lose money either way, so accept it. Just walk in. This is what I, this is what I personally try to do.

• 5:58Amanda Dobbins?

  But I don't like doing things wrong, you know?

• 6:00Sean Fennessey?

  I know that about you.

• 6:01Amanda Dobbins?

  That, and that like really stresses me out.

• 6:03Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, it's true. Um, I, I think you should walk in and say, I have saved $500 this month to lose, to learn and have fun.

• 6:12Amanda Dobbins?

  What about if I gamble with your money?

• 6:14Sean Fennessey?

  I see no real reason why I would agree to that. Um, I think that Vegas is a weird place for you, but I look forward to seeing how you get in.

• 6:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Do you feel responsible at all?

• 6:26Sean Fennessey?

  To you?

• 6:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Like for, for my experience in Vegas.

• 6:29Sean Fennessey?

  Um, under no circumstances.

• 6:31Amanda Dobbins?

  That's, that's tough. I'm gonna need you to like revise that.

• 6:34Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, but I don't feel responsible. Like if you ask me, like, can we do stuff together? Of course.

• 6:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 6:39Sean Fennessey?

  But I'm not like, if you get arrested, I'm not bailing you out.

• 6:42Amanda Dobbins?

  No, no, no, that's not what I mean. But I just like, are you?

• 6:45Speaker 05

  Are you really not gonna bail her out if she gets arrested?

• 6:48Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, she'll have to rot.

• 6:48Speaker 05

  That's like one of the things you're supposed to do for your friends.

• 6:51Sean Fennessey?

  Well, casino jail is also different from Nevada.

• 6:53Amanda Dobbins?

  It's like Eaglesdale?

• 6:54Sean Fennessey?

  Jail. It is, honestly. It's like under, it's under the safe. Yeah. It's under the stadium.

• 6:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, no, I just meant like, are you going into this trip thinking, cause you're like a Vegas expert?

• 7:05Sean Fennessey?

  I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but I'm a huge fan.

• 7:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 7:07Sean Fennessey?

  I love Vegas.

• 7:08Amanda Dobbins?

  So you're like, you're gonna be an ambassador to me?

• 7:11Sean Fennessey?

  The problem is, and we'll probably go through all of this when we go to Vegas to talk about CinemaCon. You know, our, our pals, Matt Bellany and Craig Holbeck are going too. Maybe we'll do some crossover stuff while we're there. Um, we're going to hear about all the new movies that the studios have coming, which is why this trip is happening. You've never been. And I think the problem with CinemaCon, and frankly, most Vegas trips is most of what you need is in the casino that you're probably staying in.

• 7:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 7:36Sean Fennessey?

  And so in this case, we're staying at Caesar's Palace where they're holding this event.

• 7:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 7:40Sean Fennessey?

  There's like 40 restaurants in the, in the casino. You know, there's shopping, there's all kinds of pleasantries, there's entertainment, there's literally clubs that you can go to, like, and I know you love to club.

• 7:52Amanda Dobbins?

  I did actually forward you, Bruno Mars has a private club with what sounds like the world's greatest wedding cover band of all time.

• 8:00Sean Fennessey?

  That could have gone anywhere.

• 8:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, sure. That's really true.

• 8:02Sean Fennessey?

  Bruno Mars has a private club with the world's greatest... Dot, dot, dot.

• 8:07Amanda Dobbins?

  That's true. Also, it's just like where he's paying off his debts.

• 8:12Sean Fennessey?

  So you could do that, yeah.

• 8:12Amanda Dobbins?

  I want, well, I forwarded you this info and I was like, let's go. And you were just like, lol. You weren't even engaging with me.

• 8:19Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, Bruno Mars, much like slot machines, is for losers. We don't, we don't.

• 8:22Amanda Dobbins?

  It's a, no, it's the cover. It's like the, it's a cover band, the world's greatest wedding cover. Where is your sense of fun? You know, like where, where is Sean who drove us to shortstop in 2019?

• 8:34Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, he's dead. He died in 2021, July of 2021. He's gone now. No.

• 8:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Let's find him again.

• 8:39Sean Fennessey?

  Everybody has their own version of Vegas fun. I suspect that yours and mine might be a little different, but we'll look for intersections, just as we will look for intersections in our discussion of Cate Blanchett on this podcast. Thank you. Um, there will be a lot of Vegas conversation to come in the future. Let's, let's talk about Black Back.

• 8:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 8:55Sean Fennessey?

  This is Soderbergh's second movie of the year. As I mentioned, this is his 36th feature film as a director, which is remarkable, even for somebody who started in the late 80s, as he did. Stars Blanchett, Michael Fassbender, Marisa Abella, Tom Burke, Naomi Harris, Roger Jean Page, and Pierce Brosnan. All kinds of Amanda flares going off in this movie. It feels almost like it was made for you.

• 9:19Amanda Dobbins?

  It does.

• 9:19Sean Fennessey?

  And we now know that Soderbergh knows who you are.

• 9:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Well.

• 9:23Sean Fennessey?

  After my last conversation with him.

• 9:24Amanda Dobbins?

  That's true. He just knows that I, I read.

• 9:27Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, he does know that you read.

• 9:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 9:28Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know if I mentioned that you love spy fiction and spy stories, but you do. Of course, this is a high level spy story, a very familiar story, but that's not necessarily a bad thing. It's about, um, a couple who are a pair of married intelligence agents who are able to coexist in their relationship and in their professional careers. When one of those agents is suspected of some misdeeds, of some, I don't know, some, some rejection of national pride, then the other partner needs to determine whether or not that is true and how to protect or not protect their partner. Uh, very slick, stylish, perhaps the most stylish Soderbergh movie in some time. A lot of his movies in recent years have felt very designed, but a little bit sterile and a little bit like, we made this

• 10:13Sean Fennessey?

  fast.

• 10:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 10:14Sean Fennessey?

  This feels like a little bit more of an old school Hollywood movie. It's clearly a more expensive movie. Uh, I already know what you thought of the movie, but what did you think of Black Back?

• 10:22Amanda Dobbins?

  To quote the great man himself, no notes. Just like, no notes. It's perfect. And you're right. It was. Like, I don't want to say alarming because you need to like embrace things when they come to you, but I was like, is, did he make this for me? Like, does he actually did someone pass some notes? It is, as you said, incredibly stylish, both in like the Soderbergh filmmaking sense, but in the immaculate London townhouse, Michael Fassbender cooking and like his like Savile Row shirt. Like, whatever Cate Blanchett is wearing is, I mean, it looks like a lot of Phoebe Philo to me. They probably don't have that kind of budget, but it's just, everything

• 11:04Amanda Dobbins?

  is like aesthetically beautiful, very funny. This is mostly, this is spy thriller by way of Agatha Christie.

• 11:14Sean Fennessey?

  Mm hmm.

• 11:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Which is also very much in my wheelhouse. And additionally, I just think this is a very romantic movie about marriage. I think it has great marital advice. I saw it on a great date movie, if you're in the kind of relationship that I'm in. My husband agreed, which was very happy. Just, just A plus.

• 11:36Sean Fennessey?

  I really enjoyed it as well. I think the movie of his that this reminded me of, and this might seem maybe like not high praise, but is Side Effects?

• 11:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Side Effects is slept on.

• 11:48Sean Fennessey?

  A very slept on and very, very slick, well-made, has a very similar kind of like lighting technique where there's like a little bit of a glowy haze around the movie. I think some people will point to like, oh, it's, is it like haywire? Because Michael Fassbender's in it and it's kind of like a spy thing. But it's not that like kind of bare knuckle movie. Everything is very smooth. Everything is very rounded. The dialogue is very clever. The scripting and plotting is very witty and sharp and kind of keeps you on your toes. I would say I did not find this movie predictable at all, even though I've seen a ton of movies like this. I, for the most part, was surprised by the way that it played out. Dynamite casting.

• 12:25Amanda Dobbins?

  A plus.

• 12:25Sean Fennessey?

  Every single person in this movie is the right person for this part. Some people you may be more familiar with than others. Some are kind of making leaps to the big leagues out of the streaming prestige television era. You know, like Marisa Bella, like Roger Jean Page, who people probably remember from the first season of Bridgerton.

• 12:44Sean Fennessey?

  They're all great. Tom Burke, I think often underutilized, is fabulous in this movie, very funny.

• 12:50Amanda Dobbins?

  He's, I mean, he is one of the great actors, but this movie like understands that and understands what he can do.

• 12:56Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 12:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Even without dialogue, even though every bit of dialogue is pitch perfect.

• 13:02Sean Fennessey?

  Pierce Brosnan also.

• 13:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 13:05Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, I would say playing with his persona.

• 13:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 13:08Sean Fennessey?

  In an amusing way.

• 13:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, so is the movie and the movie is doing that with every single one of its actors, which is really fun. I, I don't think it's a spoiler to say that Marisa Bella plays like a hacker essentially, like a.

• 13:21Sean Fennessey?

  An ops tech.

• 13:21Amanda Dobbins?

  An ops tech, but she's in charge of getting into satellite systems and getting out of satellite systems, which is just, that's funny, you know?

• 13:29Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 13:29Amanda Dobbins?

  That's.

• 13:30Sean Fennessey?

  What do you mean, a beautiful woman can't do that job?

• 13:32Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, she's just.

• 13:32Sean Fennessey?

  What are you trying to say?

• 13:33Amanda Dobbins?

  She's just in there, you know, with the code with Michael Fassbender. And I mean, they do manage to turn like a hacking satellite scene into like a very sexy scene, but it's, that's, that's also a good joke.

• 13:45Sean Fennessey?

  I think almost exactly at this weekend last year, Marisa Bella was the star of a focus features film that we were, I don't know if we were anticipating it, but it was at least a notable spring release. That was Back to Black. And it was a huge bummer and we talked about it on the show and we tried to say like not really her fault. She tried her best, kind of, this was like a no win situation. I love her on industry. I think she's like a real find.

• 14:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 14:06Sean Fennessey?

  And it's fun to watch her go toe to toe with somebody like Fassbender, who is so comfortable in this part. And if you think that his character in the killer is sort of like dry and monotone.

• 14:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 14:20Sean Fennessey?

  It makes that character look like a ventura. Like this guy is so stiff and quiet and calculating. There's like a long sequence where he just fishes on a boat, on a still lake. It's like the perfect metaphor for how he operates.

• 14:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 14:36Sean Fennessey?

  Fassbender, one of our favorites, of course, but he does have a little bit of a like. I can't access my real feelings quality in his persona? And so that's a good part for him?

• 14:47Amanda Dobbins?

  It's perfect. And what's like Soderbergh's great with actors, great with movie stars, understands both, understands how to get like acting and also, you know, presence and, and movie star shimmer out of people. But have you been watching The Agency?

• 15:02Sean Fennessey?

  I haven't, no.

• 15:03Amanda Dobbins?

  So I still haven't finished it, um, because I'm really bad at watching TV, but it is, it is another spy thriller. It's a English language adaptation of Le Bureau de l'Agente. Apparently in France, you're supposed to say the full title.

• 15:16Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 15:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Which is an incredible show, like five seasons, if you, if you want to watch that. So, but he's also playing a spy. And the thing there is that he's supposed to play a spy who does have like very deep emotions and how much he's, or does he? But like, how much is he feeling his emotions? How much is he gonna betray his emotions? Does he have emotions? Does he not? You have to telegraph like a lot of different layers of, um, of feeling.

• 15:50Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 15:51Amanda Dobbins?

  I would say this is a better fit for Michael Fassbender.

• 15:53Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, you know, the only real like true interiority, I think he's amazing at conveying is like agony.

• 15:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 16:00Sean Fennessey?

  You know, like in shame or in hunger, this sort of like, um, dedication to his own pain by way of his own point of view or ethics or trauma or whatever. That's, he excels at that. If not that?

• 16:12Amanda Dobbins?

  And.

• 16:13Sean Fennessey?

  Charming on the outside or still on the outside?

• 16:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Also anger, I think, which is, can be related to pain.

• 16:20Sean Fennessey?

  I think it's related to the agony. Yeah.

• 16:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 16:22Sean Fennessey?

  Um, this is an interesting fit for him. You know, it's very obviously a riff on not just Bond. There's some like kind of MI5 stuff going on in this.

• 16:33Amanda Dobbins?

  There's definitely some, some Tinker Tailor.

• 16:36Sean Fennessey?

  Plenty of, I was just gonna say, there's Le Carre is a huge influence on this movie. Um, and then there's also. It's almost like a meta-text for Soderbergh, like, looking at his history of these certain kinds of thrillers and him being like, "I can do one of these Michael Caine movies, too." Like, "I'm also capable of..." It's weird, because he makes movies that are obvious homages or clearly inspired. They don't duplicate the feeling, you know? Like, there's always like a little twist on the story.

• 17:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 17:06Sean Fennessey?

  I couldn't remember, obviously, Mr. and Mrs. Smith is a movie that is like this, in description at least.

• 17:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 17:11Sean Fennessey?

  But I couldn't think of another movie with a pair of agents that are matched in this way in the British tradition of spy storytelling.

• 17:20Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm, I mean, obviously, I'm sort of an expert on this, but it is, it is primarily men, and the, and the George Smiley's of it all, in the British tradition. I mean, he's, even now that I think about it, he's fast-paced, or he's even wearing, like, the Alec Guinness George Smiley glasses.

• 17:37Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, the oversized black frames.

• 17:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, you know, the Soderbergh of it all, they're probably more, whether it's Out of Sight or Ocean's 11 and 12, in terms of romantic interests who are, like, circling each other and also legal and other consequences.

• 17:59Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, are they participating, working together? Are they working against each other?

• 18:02Amanda Dobbins?

  So, and like, and how does that fuel their relationship and their connection? To, to me, it's more in Soderbergh lineage than any sort of spy, or British, British spy at least. The, the Brits are just about dudes.

• 18:15Sean Fennessey?

  One thing I really like about this movie is the dinner party scene at the very beginning, which sort of sets the table for this story, is really great. It did remind me a little bit of, like, the occasional Ringer dinner party, where it's like, a lot of us work together. It's a little bit, there's like, some things that are spoken and some things that are unspoken at these dinners. There's like a tension, but also a sense of humor. It never gets quite as crazy as what transpires in this scene, but that, that workplace thing of like, all these people have known each other forever, they're all like, a little too mean to each other. It's Out of Love.

• 18:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 18:50Sean Fennessey?

  They trust each other. Do they really trust each other? I think they trust each other, but then maybe they shouldn't trust each other.

• 18:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 18:55Sean Fennessey?

  The whole thing is like very, very tense and very funny and really riffing on like, it's kind of a workplace comedy in many ways. And it plays all that stuff to great effect. It's also just like a very believable set of relationships that intersect with each other to me. Especially, I thought Tom Burke and Marissa Bell is like.

• 19:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, yeah, absolutely.

• 19:16Sean Fennessey?

  Very familiar circumstance, a slightly younger woman in the workplace, caddish fellow who, you know, can't keep his mouth shut or his zipper zipped. I don't, you know, it's, it's, it's an easy movie to recommend. It's a hard movie to discuss because once you start detailing the plotting, I think it really gives away a lot of the fun of the movie. But the plotting is not, it's not the reason to go to see the movie. The vibe and the energy, the performance, the way it looks, the style. You know, a classic home score from, from a Soderbergh movie, which we haven't heard in a little while. They're so, they're always so great together. And then this is the third movie he's done with Cap, who I think is a really great screenwriter.

• 19:58Sean Fennessey?

  Don't always love his, his ideas, but when he's matched with someone really good, you tend to get really good results. He's obviously worked with Spielberg a number of times as well.

• 20:09Sean Fennessey?

  So, yeah, I think this is a great movie.

• 20:11Amanda Dobbins?

  The concept of the black bag? Just really good marriage advice, I think.

• 20:18Sean Fennessey?

  That's, well, let's explore that.

• 20:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 20:19Sean Fennessey?

  What is black bag?

• 20:20Amanda Dobbins?

  So, black bag is, it's, I mean, like a safe word for lack of a, like a signal word that because these are two MI6 or MI5, I'm not really sure, actually.

• 20:32Sean Fennessey?

  I always forget. If I've made a mistake, I'm not an expert.

• 20:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. Well, one's domestic, one's international, but you know, I guess they were interna-, whatever. Who are married, and so there are certain things that they are not supposed to discuss. And because of their work, and so when a question comes up, the other just says, "black bag." And it's just like accepted in their marriage that, okay, we're not gonna go there. There's like some, some safe space and there's, there's trust, obviously built into that. There's obviously also suspicion and intrigue, which, you know, maybe a marriage needs. I thought, I just, it's great, great stuff.

• 21:12Sean Fennessey?

  Is there a topic that is in the black bag zone in your life?

• 21:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Hmm.

• 21:19Sean Fennessey?

  Because you obviously are not, as far as I know.

• 21:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I'm not a spy. I would be a really bad spy. But, but maybe that means I'm the world's greatest spy. You never know.

• 21:28Sean Fennessey?

  Absolutely.

• 21:28Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, who am I spying for is, you know, another, is another question.

• 21:32Sean Fennessey?

  I'm gonna let you cook here.

• 21:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 21:33Sean Fennessey?

  Just keep going.

• 21:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, let's see. Black bag topics. I don't think that there's anything, that there is like one topic that is not discussed. But like, sometimes I just like, don't want to have the conversation. You know, like, we know how the conversation's gonna end. Like, we know where we stand on this. We've been together for a very long time. And I like, and honestly, the conversation would just be, um, upsetting for all involved. So maybe we could just black bag this.

• 22:03Sean Fennessey?

  This is like when you guys talk about Doge at home, kind of the, the upending of the American government?

• 22:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 22:07Sean Fennessey?

  Um, yeah.

• 22:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Do you have any?

• 22:11Amanda Dobbins?

  But don't you think it's useful? Don't you think it's like very wise?

• 22:14Sean Fennessey?

  Um.

• 22:15Amanda Dobbins?

  You don't?

• 22:16Sean Fennessey?

  I come from a repressed Irish family.

• 22:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 22:19Sean Fennessey?

  So Black Bag is sort of a mode of operation.

• 22:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 22:22Sean Fennessey?

  That I have been trained to break. And so I'm probably more willing to get in the weeds of what's not, of what's really going on.

• 22:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 22:32Sean Fennessey?

  There are some things that I don't like talking about, but I feel that that is different from what Black Bag is.

• 22:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 22:38Sean Fennessey?

  Black Bag is like, let's not.

• 22:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Let's.

• 22:40Sean Fennessey?

  Crack this hornet's nest open.

• 22:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, we don't need to do this.

• 22:42Sean Fennessey?

  Because then we're both jeopardized.

• 22:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Have I ever, have I ever told you, I think one of the greatest pieces of life and definitely relationship advice that I've ever gotten from my beloved Brooklyn therapist, who is Italian?

• 22:54Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 22:54Amanda Dobbins?

  And, or she, I mean, I, I don't see her anymore, but I love Sylvia, shout out Sylvia. And I remember one time I was telling her something and it was about like, you know, I feel like, should I share this? I, I think with Zach, like maybe with a parent, but it was something about like, I don't totally feel like I'm, like, being completely honest. Or. Divulging everything in a relationship. And she was just like, I gotta be honest, this is a very American thing. That you feel like you have to like be like a total open, like, and in like, in a different way. She was like, you're not, she was proposing the idea of the black bag.

• 23:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Of like, you don't have to give everything to everyone, to a person in like, in order to have a good relationship.

• 23:42Sean Fennessey?

  This isn't, I mean, this ties.

• 23:43Amanda Dobbins?

  I have thought about it every day since.

• 23:46Sean Fennessey?

  Well, this ties in honestly very well to the movie.

• 23:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 23:48Sean Fennessey?

  And I know that it is my job to keep steering us back.

• 23:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 23:51Sean Fennessey?

  You know, Cate Blanchett's character in this movie, you could argue is being very underhanded in the first, first act of the movie.

• 23:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm hmm.

• 23:59Sean Fennessey?

  You could also argue that she is merely pursuing a version of that European strategy of, I guess, for lack of a better phrase, feminine mystery.

• 24:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 24:09Sean Fennessey?

  That there is in heterosexual relationships, this understanding that sometimes like, a woman has moves.

• 24:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm hmm.

• 24:15Sean Fennessey?

  And a man is trying to use his moves to kind of break down the woman's moves or penetrate beyond, sometimes quite literally, the like, the walls or the scarves that are sort of wrapping the truth of certain experiences. She's such a good actress for this because she's incredibly composed.

• 24:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 24:33Sean Fennessey?

  And such an elegant person and feels impenetrable.

• 24:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm hmm.

• 24:38Sean Fennessey?

  And so she makes for a great spy.

• 24:40Amanda Dobbins?

  She does.

• 24:42Sean Fennessey?

  But there's also a world where when you're watching her, you're like, maybe this is just who she is. Maybe there's no performance here at all. That she actually is this Phoebe Philo draped woman. Whose husband cooks every meal and she is sort of the lead of the marriage. And she leads from the front of the marriage. And you like, you buy it until the movie starts to play out and then you realize like.

• 25:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 25:07Sean Fennessey?

  Partnership is, is stretched in different ways at different times. But I do, I don't know that I have that thing that your wonderful Italian therapist has. You know, if I'm not sharing something.

• 25:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 25:20Sean Fennessey?

  It's probably either because I can't access it or.

• 25:26Sean Fennessey?

  I'm probably being too strategic.

• 25:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 25:29Sean Fennessey?

  You know, as opposed to having a philosophy of truth, which is a thing that obviously many spies maybe scrapple with.

• 25:35Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know. I mean, probably, but also, you know, maybe we've gone too far as like a open therapized American society.

• 25:44Sean Fennessey?

  Absolutely possible.

• 25:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Sometimes you've just got to black bag something.

• 25:48Sean Fennessey?

  Is there anything that we have to black bag?

• 25:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, in.

• 25:52Sean Fennessey?

  Like, for example, when Chris took Endgame from me in a movie draft. Like, that is, that's from now on, that's a black bag issue. We don't discuss that.

• 25:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, I don't know if we like actively. I think that we have a level of respect where it's like, we don't even need to ask the question, you know? Like, the black bag doesn't even need to be said.

• 26:11Sean Fennessey?

  I generally agree.

• 26:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, which, which I like very much, you know? That, that is its own level of trust. So I don't, you know, sometimes whatever's going on with you, I'm just gonna let it cook and I'm gonna check the spreadsheet and I'm just gonna go with it. And that's, that's, that's how we do it.

• 26:28Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 26:29Amanda Dobbins?

  You know?

• 26:29Sean Fennessey?

  Anything else you want to add about black bag? People gonna go see this movie? Probably not.

• 26:34Amanda Dobbins?

  I think they should. I like, I genuinely think it's a fun day night movie.

• 26:37Sean Fennessey?

  Feels like a real, uh, oh, I didn't realize this isn't in theaters anymore. VOD classic, the likes of which we've talked about many times on the show.

• 26:45Amanda Dobbins?

  I know, but like, this is genuinely get a babysitter, go see this movie and like dinner on either side. And I, we haven't had one of those in a long time that I think is.

• 26:57Sean Fennessey?

  Well, you weren't here for Nosferatu. That was the last time we really had one of those.

• 27:02Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I generally agree. I think it's the best movie of the year so far. I think it's been a, it's been a spotty year. It's been some gems. We'll talk about a few gems next week on the, on the show.

• 27:12Sean Fennessey?

  You haven't seen The Electric State yet, right?

• 27:14Amanda Dobbins?

  No, that's on the list for this weekend.

• 27:17Sean Fennessey?

  Me as well.

• 27:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 27:18Sean Fennessey?

  I didn't, I didn't.

• 27:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Really, really exciting.

• 27:19Sean Fennessey?

  Didn't check it out at any of the screenings.

• 27:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 27:22Sean Fennessey?

  Let's talk about Cate Blanchett.

• 27:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 27:24Sean Fennessey?

  It's a big career.

• 27:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 27:25Sean Fennessey?

  It's a long career.

• 27:26Amanda Dobbins?

  One of our great working, living actors.

• 27:28Sean Fennessey?

  I think there are some people who would say she is, she is the greatest living. Actress, actor, you know, she's in that conversation with Daniel Day-Lewis and I don't know who else is up there right now that you're like-

• 27:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Meryl, Denzel.

• 27:40Sean Fennessey?

  Meryl Streep, Denzel, yeah. People, when they show up, it's an event in and of itself. Even if the material is not always good.

• 27:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 27:46Sean Fennessey?

  And someone who works as often as she does is not always going to hit. This is a somewhat similar conversation to her Australian compatriot, Nicole Kidman, who we talked about in January for Baby Girl. She's a little bit younger than Nicole Kidman.

• 28:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 28:03Sean Fennessey?

  But she has worked just as much, if not more.

• 28:07Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know. I, in the last-

• 28:10Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe not as much in the last five years.

• 28:11Amanda Dobbins?

  In the last five years. I mean, Nicole Kidman is just-

• 28:15Sean Fennessey?

  She's making a lot of TV.

• 28:16Amanda Dobbins?

  No days off. Yeah.

• 28:18Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, that's true. She's the winner of two Academy Awards. For The Aviator and Blue Jasmine, Supporting Actress and Actress. Four BAFTAs, four Golden Globes. Not an EGOT person. Does not have an Emmy, does not have a Tony. I was surprised to learn she did not win for Mrs. America, the Emmy. That seemed like a mini-series that was almost made to pull in Emmys. And I thought it was quite good, actually. I don't know if you ended up watching that.

• 28:43Amanda Dobbins?

  I watched some of it. She was good.

• 28:45Sean Fennessey?

  She's very good, yeah. Phyllis Schlafly. She played, I thought it was a great ensemble cast. I thought it was a really interesting series. Tremendous career in the theater.

• 28:52Amanda Dobbins?

  You also didn't know what happened. Right? Like, you were like, did they get the Equal Rights Act?

• 28:58Sean Fennessey?

  Well, there was, there's another movie recently that was about that. What was it? Was it the RBG movie?

• 29:04Amanda Dobbins?

  May, well, that was about, I mean, it wasn't specifically about like the Equal Rights Amendment, but-

• 29:09Sean Fennessey?

  Can women vote? Are they allowed to vote?

• 29:15Sean Fennessey?

  She has a Tony Award nomination, no Tonys. She's done an enormous amount of work in the Australian theater.

• 29:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 29:21Sean Fennessey?

  And her husband is a playwright and a director and screenwriter, and they work together a lot as well. So there's also just a lot that she does. She lives in Sydney, I think. She doesn't even live in LA or the United States. And didn't really break into the movies as we know them until she was about 28 years old. She did some work on TV and in the theater in Australia, and she made a couple of Australian films before coming to the US. And then once she broke through, she was kind of like here to stay in the late 90s.

• 29:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 29:49Sean Fennessey?

  So what do you, what do you think about her? What do you make of her screen persona? What do you, what do you think she's really, excels at?

• 29:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Stealiness, like that is a woman who who can do anything and can bring a lot of nuance to just be an ice cold. But there is like a level of composure that she excels at that. And like, you know, regal scariness, basically, that she brings that

• 30:26Amanda Dobbins?

  you do not come to expect with her. So it was interesting to go and rewatch some of her younger, like younger, earlier performances, where she, I think, is cast in a wider range of roles and is asked to do things like naivety and, you know, cluelessness or not quite having everything together. And she can do it. She can do anything, but knowing what I know about Cate Blanchett now, I'm like, no, no, no, no, no.

• 30:56Sean Fennessey?

  It's interesting because she's often described as versatile, that she can do any kind of part. But I would say, especially over the last 10 or 12 years, she has developed a kind of framework that she really thrives in.

• 31:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 31:06Sean Fennessey?

  A certain kind of a part. Maybe some of that is just like what kind of roles are available to women in their 40s and 50s. But I do think that she has a really good feel. Because if you look at the movies that she made in the 90s, especially in the early 2000s, a lot of like broad comedy, daffiness, like maybe not showcasing that evident intelligence that she has. She's obviously a very smart person. If you ever read an interview with her, she's really deft at eliding annoying questions. She's really good at revealing just enough about herself, but not too much. She still has that aura of mystery that you were describing earlier to her as a performer.

• 31:40Amanda Dobbins?

  But a lot of charm also. And she can, there is like warmth to her, but also you don't want to cross it at any point.

• 31:50Sean Fennessey?

  But are we just confusing that with her? Her movie roles, you know, with Elizabeth or with Lydia Tarr.

• 31:58Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, I, cause I have, I have watched like a lot of content of her, especially in the last, you know, five years on, on Instagram because she has quite a devoted, um, following, especially like a queer following. No, no, no, no, no. I think she's just, she is like.

• 32:13Sean Fennessey?

  There's a huge stan culture around her.

• 32:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Huge queer stan culture.

• 32:16Sean Fennessey?

  Especially post Carol, yeah.

• 32:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. And so, and which she like has also embraced.

• 32:20Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 32:21Amanda Dobbins?

  But so there's just like a little lot of Instagram content. You can like, you can go down the reels with Cate Blanchett for a long time. And so, no, she's, and she's like game and fun. Like she is a performer.

• 32:31Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 32:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Um.

• 32:32Sean Fennessey?

  Does she have any social media?

• 32:34Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't think so. She's Cate Blanchett. Why does she, why does she need to be on Instagram?

• 32:37Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know. Actually, it's funny you say that. There was just a story this week about Scarlett Johansson saying that movie executives were encouraging her to start an Instagram page so that she could help promote, I guess Jurassic World Rebirth.

• 32:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 32:49Sean Fennessey?

  Which is something that has been in the news. I think it was maybe Maya Hawke who talked about this a couple of months ago that, you know, movies are greenlit now in part based on following, which is something we know kind of intrinsically. And we know even just from doing this kind of a work in a digital atmosphere, but.

• 33:04Amanda Dobbins?

  No, but Cate Blanchett is grandfathered in.

• 33:06Sean Fennessey?

  She, she's not that much older, that much older than Scarlett Johansson, but yes. Um, she's, she just got over the line, I would say, from having to relentlessly promote her stuff.

• 33:15Amanda Dobbins?

  She also has two Oscars, so.

• 33:17Sean Fennessey?

  She has two Oscars. She is genuinely one of the most successful women at the box office in movie history because she has a number of franchises that she can hang her hat on. You know, she's been a part of not just the Lord of the Rings and not just the MCU, but the How to Train Your Dragon movies, the Indiana Jones movies, um, the Ocean's movies. Like she's, she's not afraid to just do Hollywood stuff.

• 33:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 33:42Sean Fennessey?

  Sometimes it's not good.

• 33:45Amanda Dobbins?

  But she doesn't really seem to care.

• 33:46Sean Fennessey?

  She doesn't seem to care. And she, I get the, I get the impression she does make plenty of stuff just like for her kids. She's like, my kids would want to see me do this, which is something we've talked about with like the Ben Affleck's of the world in the past.

• 33:56Amanda Dobbins?

  And also to fund like a theater company in Australia.

• 34:00Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 34:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Which is rad. That's cool.

• 34:02Sean Fennessey?

  That is very cool. Um, do you have a favorite performance of hers? Let's, let's put Tarr in a box for a minute. Let's put Tarr in a box.

• 34:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, I think she's really, really good in Talented Mr. Ripley.

• 34:14Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 34:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, because even there, she's playing like the rich person who does, who's clueless and doesn't know anything. But there is, there are things that manipulative things like she's figuring out under the surface that I just, it's like very memorable. I like that more than I like, you know, Elizabeth. She's really good in when she shows up in Thor, whatever Thor that is.

• 34:39Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, Ragnarok.

• 34:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. Um, you know, I tend to like the bit stuff more than the things that she has won Oscars for.

• 34:49Sean Fennessey?

  So what, what makes you say that?

• 34:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, Blue Jasmine, she's obviously very good, but that's such a, I don't, it's not that fun.

• 35:00Sean Fennessey?

  Mm hmm.

• 35:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Um.

• 35:01Sean Fennessey?

  It's a very busy performance.

• 35:02Amanda Dobbins?

  And it's so obviously like, I would like an Oscar please performance.

• 35:05Sean Fennessey?

  Mm hmm.

• 35:06Amanda Dobbins?

  And then The Aviator, she's really, really good at Katharine Hepburn and she has like a lot of Katharine Hepburn-esque qualities in terms of like the, the regalness and the, and the cheekbones, I guess. And the, um.

• 35:18Sean Fennessey?

  Her posture, her elocution.

• 35:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 35:21Sean Fennessey?

  That athletic sense that she has.

• 35:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. Um, but like, you know how I feel about The Aviator. I'm like pretty mixed.

• 35:27Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Um, you think this will be a hard Hall of Fame to build or not?

• 35:32Amanda Dobbins?

  No, because there's so much to choose from and there are a couple really obvious ones.

• 35:38Sean Fennessey?

  Mm hmm.

• 35:39Amanda Dobbins?

  And then the rest, I like, I don't think, I'm not gonna like die on the, you know, fence of, or of Thor, whatever, or, you know, talent. Like, I don't feel that passionately.

• 35:55Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 35:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Though I think the ones I feel passionately about are definitely going in, so I'm not too worried. Are you nervous?

• 36:02Sean Fennessey?

  No, I, I think there's five like rock solid.

• 36:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 36:05Sean Fennessey?

  You know, you have to do these.

• 36:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 36:06Sean Fennessey?

  And then the other five, partially a matter of taste, partially a matter of impact. It's a little hard to not choose movies in which someone has won an Academy Award, even if you don't love the performance.

• 36:15Amanda Dobbins?

  We do it all the time.

• 36:16Sean Fennessey?

  Do we?

• 36:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 36:17Sean Fennessey?

  What was an example of that?

• 36:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, I don't know. I remember we didn't even, Julia Roberts was nominated for Steel Magnolias and I was like, I don't care.

• 36:25Sean Fennessey?

  She didn't win.

• 36:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, well, didn't we do it?

• 36:28Sean Fennessey?

  An Academy Award winning performance?

• 36:31Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know.

• 36:33Sean Fennessey?

  Like Erin Brockovich went in.

• 36:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, yeah.

• 36:35Sean Fennessey?

  You know, I would say Philadelphia and Forrest Gump went in when we did Hanks.

• 36:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Did we? Have we done Hanks?

• 36:42Sean Fennessey?

  Some years ago, yeah.

• 36:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 36:43Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 36:44Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know if they all did.

• 36:46Sean Fennessey?

  Hanks or Cruise, who you got?

• 36:49Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm not, I'm not getting into this. We can have them both.

• 36:52Sean Fennessey?

  You won't make a choice.

• 36:53Amanda Dobbins?

  No, no, no, that's between you and Bill and I'm not gonna be, I'm not gonna be like relitigated.

• 36:59Sean Fennessey?

  Let's build it.

• 36:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 37:01Sean Fennessey?

  She gets her start with a couple of movies in Australia in 1997. Paradise Road and Thank God He Met Lizzie. Thank God He Met Lizzie, a romantic comedy.

• 37:09Amanda Dobbins?

  I know.

• 37:09Sean Fennessey?

  That looks like, like her career could have gone.

• 37:12Amanda Dobbins?

  I would have liked to see it, but it's Australian and not, not easy to track down.

• 37:17Sean Fennessey?

  This is, you know, somewhat similar to the Nicole Kidman thing where you can see that the Australian film industry sees a cute, tall, young woman and it's like, we're gonna make her our Julia Roberts and that's not really like where they excel. And so you can kind of see her moving away from that sort of thing.

• 37:36Sean Fennessey?

  So Paradise Road and Thank God He Met Lizzie are no's. Those are both red. In 1997, she's in Oscar and Lucinda. This is probably the first time I heard of her. She's opposite Ralph Fiennes in this movie, which is directed by the Australian director, Gillian Armstrong. Very small Oscar movie that had a Best Costume nomination. Ralph Fiennes coming off of like one of the more wild runs where he's in, you know, Schindler's List and The English Patient. And he's like, really at the center and he makes this fairly small,

• 38:11Sean Fennessey?

  I guess, like novel adaptation opposite this relatively unknown actress. With great supporting cast, Karen Hines, Tom Wilkinson, Richard Roxburgh, who she's worked with many times in the past, Australian actor.

• 38:23Sean Fennessey?

  Haven't seen this movie like 30 years, whenever it came out. It's pretty good.

• 38:28Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I like everyone involved, including Gillian Armstrong.

• 38:31Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I do too. And this is not the last time she'll work with Gillian Armstrong. But I don't think it goes in. I think it's, I think it's like close. The problem is, is that the breakthrough that I always like to point to is like really loud on the next one.

• 38:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's fine. I mean, it has to be Elizabeth.

• 38:46Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. So Elizabeth comes one year later, which is probably caught a lot of people by surprise.

• 38:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 38:54Sean Fennessey?

  For a variety of reasons, a relatively unknown star. An Indian filmmaker, Shikhar Kapoor, who had, I think, only made films in India up until this point, and then became kind of a known quantity in English and Hollywood cinema, went on to remake The Four Feathers and a number of other things.

• 39:13Sean Fennessey?

  The Elizabeth story, I rewatched it this week.

• 39:16Amanda Dobbins?

  So by Elizabeth story, let's just be clear. So you like mean history?

• 39:21Sean Fennessey?

  History, yes. The story of Elizabeth the first. We can call it a story. It's ancient history.

• 39:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, no, I know. But like, I, you know, you tend to have a skepticism for this time period, whether it's Shakespeare or I'm sensing. I don't know. Just like, I heard you getting ready to just be like, I don't know about Elizabeth.

• 39:41Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, no, I wasn't gonna say that.

• 39:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 39:44Sean Fennessey?

  I think it's hard to compress a person's life that is so big

• 39:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 39:49Sean Fennessey?

  into movies like this. This movie is only two hours long. Then you remember that 10 years later, they make a sequel.

• 39:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 39:54Sean Fennessey?

  Which I think is actually quite cool. And I wish that there were more historical dramas that were like, we'll come back to you in 10 years with this.

• 40:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 40:00Sean Fennessey?

  When the actor has aged, when certain technologies have improved. So I've always liked that. She's really good. And you can see her kind of like wrap her arms around what that persona is gonna be in this movie. It isn't my favorite historical drama of all time.

• 40:12Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 40:14Sean Fennessey?

  Solid supporting cast, Geoffrey Rush, Christopher Eccleston. Joseph Fiennes never really had a taste for that. You know, not really my guy. Pretty much never really liked him in a movie.

• 40:24Amanda Dobbins?

  That's hard.

• 40:25Sean Fennessey?

  Much more of a Rafe guy.

• 40:26Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, so am I, but you know.

• 40:28Sean Fennessey?

  I know you're a Shakespearean love team.

• 40:30Amanda Dobbins?

  It's, listen, it's, it's good. It's, it's fine. History is what it is, both in the case of Elizabeth and also what happened with Shakespeare and love.

• 40:41Amanda Dobbins?

  No, it's just, I mean, the performance is just electrifying.

• 40:45Sean Fennessey?

  It is.

• 40:45Amanda Dobbins?

  And you're like, oh, who is this? And it's Cate Blanchett. And she like immediately gets Oscar attention and.

• 40:52Sean Fennessey?

  Nominated for an Oscar, won the Golden Globe.

• 40:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 40:55Sean Fennessey?

  The movie itself was a pretty big Oscar movie. And basically confirms her as a leading woman, like, and almost like a Hollywood fixture instantaneously.

• 41:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 41:05Sean Fennessey?

  She, like I said, she had been kind of working in Australia for five or six years to this point. But you don't really see things work this way in quite the same way. I guess you could say like a Nora is sort of like this, where Mikey Madison now will have her pick of the litter. But the level of prestige that was afforded to this movie and to this part.

• 41:26Sean Fennessey?

  Felt very rare to me. You know when you feel like you're, like you're, if you're a big sports fan, you know, like I know everything about the NFL. And then some guy gets signed to a free agent contract and I'm like, I don't know who the fuck that guy is.

• 41:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 41:36Sean Fennessey?

  That guy got 75 million dollars?

• 41:37Amanda Dobbins?

  It happens with young, it happens with young actresses, a fair amount.

• 41:41Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Who's the last person, I guess like Daisy Ridley is a person to whom this happened. So maybe it's more common than I'm, than I'm thinking. Nevertheless, Paradise Road, red. Thank God He Met Lizzie, red. Oscar and Lucinda, yellow. Elizabeth, the first, green.

• 41:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 41:56Sean Fennessey?

  An Ideal Husband. Is this an Oscar Wilde play?

• 41:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 42:00Sean Fennessey?

  Is it with Rupert Everett?

• 42:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 42:02Sean Fennessey?

  I haven't seen this in a long time.

• 42:03Amanda Dobbins?

  I haven't either, but I definitely saw it at the time as like a result of, okay, now we know who Cate Blanchett is.

• 42:09Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 42:09Amanda Dobbins?

  And we know who Rupert Everett is.

• 42:11Sean Fennessey?

  Yes. Minnie Driver as well as in this movie. Who directed this movie? I need to refresh my memory.

• 42:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Oliver Parker.

• 42:20Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 42:22Sean Fennessey?

  Fine, as I recall.

• 42:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, yeah.

• 42:25Sean Fennessey?

  I think she gets a little bit

• 42:28Sean Fennessey?

  typecast as woman who wears a

• 42:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, corsets.

• 42:32Sean Fennessey?

  Corsets?

• 42:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 42:33Sean Fennessey?

  And she can do that very well. I wonder how she feels about that now. When's the last time she's strapped on a corset?

• 42:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Let's see.

• 42:41Sean Fennessey?

  It's probably been a while, right? Maybe it is Elizabeth the Golden Age and she's kind of in armor in that movie.

• 42:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. She does, I mean

• 42:49Sean Fennessey?

  Cinderella perhaps?

• 42:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, yeah, like at some point it's, we're talking about like different garments, you know, like in, in Carol, they were wearing, she was doing period pieces and corsets of a sort, you know, I don't remember what's going on in Nightmare Alley, but you know, she's very good.

• 43:07Sean Fennessey?

  Shit, she's amazing.

• 43:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but I meant in terms of like the underpinnings, as they call them.

• 43:12Sean Fennessey?

  Sure, yeah.

• 43:13Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, but so period pieces, but not that level of period piece.

• 43:17Sean Fennessey?

  I see. Has Cate Blanchett posed for Playboy? No? Okay. Um, An Ideal Husband is red. Pushing Tin, do you remember this movie? This is a big like cover of Entertainment Weekly.

• 43:27Amanda Dobbins?

  I do remember.

• 43:27Sean Fennessey?

  Angelina Jolie, Billy Bob Thornton, John Cusack, you know what they are? They're air traffic controllers. This is gonna be a zany dramedy from Mike Newell, English filmmaker, uh, not a big fan of this movie. 1999, she makes three movies. Her second is

• 43:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 43:41Sean Fennessey?

  Just a vocal performance.

• 43:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 43:43Sean Fennessey?

  As mysterious woman in Eyes Wide Shut.

• 43:47Amanda Dobbins?

  She does have a great voice.

• 43:48Sean Fennessey?

  A great voice that is very good in this very weird part where she's sort of like, helps escort Tom Cruise through a mysterious, orgiastic, secret society, having their weekly fuck session. I don't know how else to describe it. Um, not going in, but I'd like to create a new delineation. And I don't, maybe the color should be orange.

• 44:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 44:13Sean Fennessey?

  And it's the, I'm fucking glad this happened.

• 44:16Amanda Dobbins?

  That's the cool shit?

• 44:17Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 44:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. Okay.

• 44:18Sean Fennessey?

  Just one cool thing.

• 44:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Great.

• 44:20Sean Fennessey?

  I'd like for it to always be in a movie. I don't want it to be some social media moment, a meme, a talk show appearance.

• 44:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Stop waving your hand at me like that as soon as you know that I'm doing it.

• 44:33Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Uh, orange for Eyes Wide Shut.

• 44:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 44:37Sean Fennessey?

  1999 again, the talented Mr. Ripley. Now you think going in, now she's a critical character, but it's a small part.

• 44:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. No small parts, only small actors.

• 44:44Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Great. Excellent.

• 44:48Amanda Dobbins?

  I think it's green.

• 44:49Sean Fennessey?

  I'll, I'll allow it.

• 44:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Thank you.

• 44:51Sean Fennessey?

  Um, have you seen The Gift?

• 44:52Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I haven't, but I know it's a Sam Raimi film, so I was just gonna let you, let you cook.

• 44:56Sean Fennessey?

  It is a Sam Raimi film.

• 44:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Getting out of the way.

• 44:58Sean Fennessey?

  Very disreputable swamp noir thriller.

• 45:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 45:03Sean Fennessey?

  Here's, here's my one note on it when I watched, re-watched it a few years ago. Um, it's got a great cast, Keanu Reeves, Giovanni Ribisi. Um, there's not really any movies about characters who have telepathy or like a sixth sense.

• 45:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 45:20Sean Fennessey?

  Like, that's not.

• 45:22Amanda Dobbins?

  We're not doing that anymore?

• 45:23Sean Fennessey?

  No, like, there are just not a lot that exist. Like, there's, there's certainly some like exploitation, like smaller horror movies that feature that, but like Hollywood movies about somebody who can like, see the future, or, um, read minds, or is like a, um, like a palm reader. This is the rare case where that's like, you know, she's got, after a murder, they go to her, the police go to her and they're like, help us solve who killed this person. Help us use your magical powers to read whether or not it's your mysticism. And that alone distinguishes it. It's very unusual because I think most people look at that stuff. And they're like, there are people in the world who are actually trying to pretend that that's real, but we all know it's not real. So it's not a good framework for a movie. What do you think about that? Do you, have you ever been to a palm reader?

• 46:08Sean Fennessey?

  Have you ever been to a psychic?

• 46:09Amanda Dobbins?

  I think that I tried to go once with our mutual friend Lindsay Fields, but the psychic was closed, which didn't seem like a good, like auspicious sign.

• 46:17Sean Fennessey?

  Lindsay Fields at a psychic is, that's an insane energy.

• 46:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, we definitely had like several drinks at lunch. It was great.

• 46:23Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, okay.

• 46:23Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I miss Lindsay. I hope she's really well.

• 46:25Sean Fennessey?

  Me too.

• 46:27Amanda Dobbins?

  So, but like the psychic being closed is kind of, I mean, I guess that's like my autobiography title.

• 46:33Amanda Dobbins?

  So, no, I haven't been that I'm aware of. You don't think that there was?

• 46:38Sean Fennessey?

  The psychic was closed. The Amanda Dobbins story.

• 46:41Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, I do kind of believe there are people with, with ESP. Is that what it's called?

• 46:48Sean Fennessey?

  ESP, extrasensory perception.

• 46:52Amanda Dobbins?

  I just, it's probably not a good story construct because it's just kind of like magic, basically. And then this person solves the problem.

• 47:01Sean Fennessey?

  And how do you visualize it? It's always like her, like, it almost has like a thought bubble attached to her head.

• 47:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 47:07Sean Fennessey?

  I'm seeing the murder transpire.

• 47:09Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, like, it's in Ghost, right? But that's played for laughs.

• 47:13Sean Fennessey?

  Yes. But even then, it's like, yeah, it's like a, it's like a ghostly figure. It's not the same as sort of like a person who can kind of channel a memory. You know, like Patrick Swayze is actually like there trying to touch you.

• 47:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. Okay.

• 47:26Sean Fennessey?

  That's a tangent. The gift is red.

• 47:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 47:29Sean Fennessey?

  Not a huge success. The Man Who Cried, never seen it.

• 47:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 47:32Sean Fennessey?

  This is your favorite movie?

• 47:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, no, but I'm reading, here's the cast. 2000 drama film written and directed by Sally Potter. Starring Christina Ricci, Cate Blanchett, Johnny Depp, Harry Dean Stanton, and John Turturro. Incredible.

• 47:44Sean Fennessey?

  Written and directed by Sally Potter. Never seen this movie.

• 47:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 47:49Sean Fennessey?

  It's about a young Jewish girl who, after being separated from her father in Soviet Russia, who I assume is Johnny Depp, and Christina Ricci is the daughter.

• 47:56Amanda Dobbins?

  No, her father is Oleg Yankovsky.

• 48:00Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, okay. Grows up in England and moves to Paris as a young adult shortly before the beginning of World War II.

• 48:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Johnny Depp is a mysterious performing horseman. I want to say whoever wrote the Wikipedia page for The Man Who Cried, written and directed by Sally Potter, you're doing great work.

• 48:14Sean Fennessey?

  Boy, this is a movie that does not exist to me. Played Venice?

• 48:17Amanda Dobbins?

  I guess so.

• 48:19Sean Fennessey?

  Cate Blanchett won Best Supporting Actress in the National Board of Review.

• 48:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 48:23Sean Fennessey?

  This will be the last movie of hers that I just straight up have not, have not heard of.

• 48:27Amanda Dobbins?

  All right.

• 48:27Sean Fennessey?

  2001's The Shipping News. Let me take you back. Once upon a time, when two-time Academy Award winner Kevin Spacey was the hottest name in Hollywood. Hard to, hard to imagine now, but this guy could get anything made. He could get K-Pax made. He could get Pay It Forward made. And he could get The Shipping News made. The Shipping News, a literary adaptation about a guy who's like an ink setter at a local newspaper, who falls in love with a woman played by Cate Blanchett, and she is not a nice woman. At all.

• 49:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 49:02Sean Fennessey?

  Cheats on him. She breaks his heart. And then he needs another woman to come in and save him. This movie stinks.

• 49:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Her name is also Petal.

• 49:11Sean Fennessey?

  The, read all of the characters' names in The Shipping News. They're insane.

• 49:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Kevin Spacey as Coil.

• 49:16Sean Fennessey?

  Coil. Q-U-O-Y-L-E.

• 49:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. Julianne Moore as Wavy Prowse.

• 49:22Sean Fennessey?

  Wavy Prowse.

• 49:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Judi Dench as Agnes Hamm, but Agnes spelled with an I. I like the name Agnes. Cate Blanchett as Petal. Pete Posel, Poselplate as Tert Card.

• 49:35Sean Fennessey?

  Tert Card. T-E-R-T. Card.

• 49:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Reese Iffens as Bowfield Nutbeam?

• 49:43Sean Fennessey?

  Bowfield Nutbeam.

• 49:46Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, we could go on.

• 49:47Sean Fennessey?

  This is the most, it's an Annie Proulx novel, I'm pretty sure, right?

• 49:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 49:51Sean Fennessey?

  And I remember trying to read this when I was a big fan of Kevin Spacey's and I was like, what in the actual fuck? You know when authors just get bored and they're like, I'm gonna try to come up with the craziest name again?

• 49:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 50:00Sean Fennessey?

  This is the...

• 50:00Amanda Dobbins?

  That's cool.

• 50:01Sean Fennessey?

  Anyway, shipping news not in. 2001 Charlotte Gray, not a bad movie.

• 50:05Amanda Dobbins?

  No, not a bad movie.

• 50:06Sean Fennessey?

  Jillian Armstrong movie about a spy in World War II.

• 50:09Amanda Dobbins?

  I know, so it's like, you know, all of Amanda's things are coming, coming together.

• 50:15Sean Fennessey?

  That's pretty good.

• 50:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, Billy Crudup is playing like a French Resistance guy with an American, the accents are all, they're doing the thing where everyone is just gonna speak in English with their best like, ha ha.

• 50:28Sean Fennessey?

  I think this is his first movie after Almost Famous.

• 50:30Amanda Dobbins?

  And Cate Blanchett is, I mean, she's capable, but she is doing that whole like, I'm, you know, thrown in the deep end and I don't know how to do all of this. And I'm like, well, you're Cate Blanchett, you would know how to do all of this.

• 50:43Sean Fennessey?

  Interesting and very good point.

• 50:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 50:45Sean Fennessey?

  Um, okay, well, Charlotte Gray, not, not even yellow.

• 50:49Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

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• 52:48Sean Fennessey?

  2001's Bandits. Never seen this before. Watched it this week for the first time. This was a big movie at the time. Barry Levinson, bank robber comedy, starring Billy Bob in a reunion with Cate Blanchett, and Bruce Willis. They play bank robbing brothers called the Overnight Bandits, I think? Where they sleep over. Sleepover Bandits.

• 53:12Sean Fennessey?

  Movie doesn't work. Yeah. It's really weird. I do really love this era of Billy Bob Thornton, when he was getting all these cool parts, and like A Simple Plan, and Armageddon, and he's great in all of these movies. That was a kind of a cool run, where he was like, not a movie star, but not a character actor. He was doing something very interesting in Hollywood. Anyway, I really like Cate Blanchett in this movie. It's one of the only times when she is completely rejecting That steeliness that you were describing.

• 53:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 53:35Sean Fennessey?

  She plays like a completely frustrated, like over it, housewife of a rich guy. Who accidentally hits one of the bandits with her car and then she goes on the bank robbing spree with them. The movie itself is not very good, but I like her performance in it. I'm not advocating for it in the Hall of Fame. I'm merely just drawing some attention to it.

• 53:54Amanda Dobbins?

  She's good.

• 53:54Sean Fennessey?

  There is a new Barry Levinson movie coming out next week.

• 53:57Amanda Dobbins?

  My dad is so excited.

• 53:58Sean Fennessey?

  The Alto Nights.

• 53:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 54:00Sean Fennessey?

  It feels a little banditsy.

• 54:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 54:03Sean Fennessey?

  In that it won't be good, but maybe something cool will happen in it.

• 54:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Have you watched any of the De Niro Netflix show?

• 54:08Sean Fennessey?

  Is it called One Day? No. Is it called Day One? Day One.

• 54:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Day, something like that.

• 54:13Sean Fennessey?

  I haven't, um, and I never will.

• 54:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 54:17Sean Fennessey?

  Have you?

• 54:18Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 54:18Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 54:18Amanda Dobbins?

  But sometimes Netflix autoplay's it for me and it's like De Niro just being like, you know, go to the Situation Room or something like that.

• 54:27Sean Fennessey?

  Is he just playing Biden?

• 54:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, probably.

• 54:29Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. The one problem with me not watching it is in the Bill Simmons mold of season tickets.

• 54:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 54:35Sean Fennessey?

  I have sworn to watch everything Jesse Plemons does.

• 54:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, that's tough.

• 54:39Sean Fennessey?

  And he's in the show.

• 54:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, right.

• 54:40Sean Fennessey?

  So what do I do about that?

• 54:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, you could just watch his scenes.

• 54:46Sean Fennessey?

  That would be deranged, but it is the kind of thing I would do.

• 54:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. So there you go.

• 54:49Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Um.

• 54:51Speaker 05

  It is not called One Day or Day One. It is in fact called Zero Day.

• 54:55Sean Fennessey?

  Zero Day.

• 54:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Zero Day.

• 54:57Sean Fennessey?

  We're not even on the first day. We're on the zero day.

• 54:59Speaker 05

  We're not to the first day yet. Maybe that's season two.

• 55:01Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, we could be on the first day in the UK.

• 55:03Sean Fennessey?

  Zero Day colon Day One is season two. Uh, okay. I'm not watching that. 2001 Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring.

• 55:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. She's a, she's the queen of the elves.

• 55:15Sean Fennessey?

  Correct. Galadriel.

• 55:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Is she really the queen of the elves?

• 55:17Sean Fennessey?

  Yes. You only know that because I just said it to you on another pod that won't be released for nine months. This happened literally yesterday. Don't pretend like you knew that.

• 55:23Amanda Dobbins?

  But it's not like I remembered that that's how you told me. And that was like, because here's the thing. I've seen all three of these movies.

• 55:29Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Local woman knows about famous actor in the biggest movie of all time.

• 55:33Amanda Dobbins?

  I've, I've seen all three of these movies, but like. The way that you can't remember like meaningful, personal interactions. I can't remember the plot of these movies. Like, and you could tell me and it just goes to a part of my brain where I'm like, uh huh, uh huh, and the ears were pointy.

• 55:52Amanda Dobbins?

  So that I remembered that. I know it's because you told me, but my brain is working in amazing ways. So she's the queen of the elves.

• 56:00Sean Fennessey?

  She's the queen of the elves. She helps set the fellowship on their path toward.

• 56:07Amanda Dobbins?

  The fellowship are hobbits?

• 56:09Sean Fennessey?

  As well as other figures.

• 56:11Amanda Dobbins?

  The tree people?

• 56:12Sean Fennessey?

  Not really, no, no. You know, there's, there's, um, there's hobbits, there's, there's Aragorn, the, the.

• 56:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Aragorn's not an elf?

• 56:22Sean Fennessey?

  No, he's a man. He's played by Viggo Mortensen.

• 56:26Amanda Dobbins?

  What's up with the humans in the Shire?

• 56:30Sean Fennessey?

  What is up with them?

• 56:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Like, what's their status?

• 56:34Sean Fennessey?

  They don't live in the Shire. The hobbits live in the Shire.

• 56:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, Middle Earth, Middle Earth, that's what it's called. So like.

• 56:39Sean Fennessey?

  That's the entire realm.

• 56:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, so like, what is the status of humans in the realm?

• 56:44Sean Fennessey?

  What do you mean, like, are they vaccinated? What are you talking about?

• 56:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, are they?

• 56:50Sean Fennessey?

  Status, like?

• 56:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, like, like, like, what?

• 56:53Sean Fennessey?

  Have they been naturalized citizens?

• 56:55Amanda Dobbins?

  What is like the human elf tree people like? Is there a power structure? Is everyone like coexisting?

• 57:03Sean Fennessey?

  There's three whole movies that you could watch and find out the answer to these questions.

• 57:07Amanda Dobbins?

  That's what I don't remember.

• 57:09Sean Fennessey?

  There are various kingdoms. Some of them are led by men. Some of them are led by these other characters.

• 57:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Is Middle Earth before now or after now?

• 57:17Sean Fennessey?

  It's not in the chronology of America. Like, I don't.

• 57:21Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm not asking about like America, about like a chronology of humanity.

• 57:28Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, this is a fantasy story. It's all made up.

• 57:32Sean Fennessey?

  Coming soon to a Ringer movies YouTube video near you, Amanda's cast system of Middle Earth.

• 57:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I'm not trying to impose a hierarchy if one doesn't exist, if they've worked it all out.

• 57:44Sean Fennessey?

  Uh huh.

• 57:45Amanda Dobbins?

  And they are treating each other with respect, which it doesn't sound like they are.

• 57:49Sean Fennessey?

  It sounds like Middle Earth needs a zero day to make it clear who's in charge. Um, Lord of the Rings and Fellowship of the Rings going in. I think that's the most Galadriel screen time we get, but honestly, I can't remember. And if there's somebody out there who's like, actually dick, it's the two towers. I apologize. I think Fellowship is a good stand in for the entire series.

• 58:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 58:05Sean Fennessey?

  And she's, she's very similar to talented Mr. Ripley, a very important character with a modest role. Okay, two towers, we can just read just for the sake of conversation. Heaven, I haven't seen in a long time, Tom tick for a movie. I think the first movie, maybe the first movie he made after Run Little Run. Um, so it's Giovanni Morrici, as I recall. Um, haven't seen in a long time, feels like a very minor movie about, what does she play, a teacher?

• 58:30Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't remember.

• 58:32Sean Fennessey?

  And this is the first.

• 58:34Amanda Dobbins?

  She plays a teacher in another movie coming up.

• 58:36Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, and she also plays a woman proximate to drug addiction in another movie coming up fairly soon, too. So this is something she's kind of like working in. And she's doing this thing where she's bouncing between big tent pole-y stuff now, or big prestigious projects and smaller projects, um, often directed by international filmmakers or women. Something that she's kind of always been committed to. So Heaven is red. 2003's Coffee and Cigarettes, she appears in one segment of Jim Jarmusch's Omnibus movie. That is a very fun movie.

• 59:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 59:08Sean Fennessey?

  It also stars the Wu-Tang Clan, Bill Murray, number of other people, the white stripes. She plays herself and a woman named Shelley.

• 59:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 59:18Sean Fennessey?

  It's a cool sequence.

• 59:19Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, that's the gist of this, it's cool. It's cool that everybody did these things, like is it, is it essential? Is it going in the Hall of Fame?

• 59:26Sean Fennessey?

  If we had not already given her voice work in Eyes Wide Shut, the coveted orange space.

• 59:30Amanda Dobbins?

  The orange thing? Okay, so there's only.

• 59:32Sean Fennessey?

  This could have been an orange space.

• 59:33Amanda Dobbins?

  There's only one cool shit award for Hall of Fame. I like it.

• 59:36Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, so Red for Coffee and Cigarettes. Veronica Guerin.

• 59:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 59:40Sean Fennessey?

  Is a movie about an Irish journalist, directed by Joel Schumacher, who is absolutely the director you want making a drama about an Irish journalist. Who is a true story based on a very upsetting, um, real woman's tale, uh, who sought to expose.

• 59:56Sean Fennessey?

  The incredible wave of drug dealing and drug addiction that was happening in Dublin in the 90s. And it's fine. She's good at accents.

• 1:00:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Why is Joel Schumacher making this movie?

• 1:00:09Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know.

• 1:00:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:00:11Sean Fennessey?

  And he's kind of bouncing around in the aftermath of his Grisham Batman period.

• 1:00:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:00:18Sean Fennessey?

  I think this is right around when he does Phone Booth with Colin Farrell. Actually, Colin Farrell, this is one of his very first roles. He plays a guy watching a soccer match in this movie. And I think, I want to say Tigerland is like right after this, another Joel Schumacher movie. And so that is, that's the movie that really set Colin Farrell on it, on it, on his way to being the wonderful man that we know today.

• 1:00:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, so does this go in Colin Farrell's Hall of Fame?

• 1:00:39Sean Fennessey?

  Well, I'd love to do it with you.

• 1:00:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:00:42Sean Fennessey?

  And he's going to be the star of The Ballad of a Small Player, which is the new Edward Berger movie about a gambler who goes to Macau, which I cannot wait for.

• 1:00:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Awesome.

• 1:00:51Sean Fennessey?

  Unfortunately, it's a Netflix movie, so I'm lowering my expectations, but after your Vegas run, maybe you could be the star of The Ballad of a Small Player 2.

• 1:00:58Amanda Dobbins?

  That sounds wonderful.

• 1:00:59Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Veronica Guerin is red. My mind feels very strong right now.

• 1:01:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. What do you think? Did it not start off strong?

• 1:01:07Sean Fennessey?

  Very weak this morning.

• 1:01:09Amanda Dobbins?

  I know, and I asked you about that and you blackbacked it.

• 1:01:11Sean Fennessey?

  It was raining very loud.

• 1:01:13Amanda Dobbins?

  It did wake, it did wake.

• 1:01:14Sean Fennessey?

  And it woke me up.

• 1:01:15Amanda Dobbins?

  It woke me up too, but I was able to go back to sleep.

• 1:01:17Sean Fennessey?

  I did have three cups of coffee.

• 1:01:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, I had two. I've been doing the, I changed magnesiums and I do think it's helping.

• 1:01:25Sean Fennessey?

  I've never tried magnesium. My wife uses magnesium.

• 1:01:27Amanda Dobbins?

  I do magnesium and it like, and it's with vitamin D for absorption and I need vitamin D anyway, because we all do. Uh, so.

• 1:01:35Sean Fennessey?

  Not something I'm currently getting as most viewers of this podcast know.

• 1:01:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, yeah. Uh, so that helped, but the rain did wake me up and it woke Zach up and then Si was crying and then, you know.

• 1:01:46Sean Fennessey?

  Tough night.

• 1:01:47Amanda Dobbins?

  So, so I think, but Zach is bearing the brunt of the, Zach's where you are. But it's nice to see that you've woken back up.

• 1:01:55Sean Fennessey?

  My mind is strong. 2003, The Missing. This is Ron Howard's follow-up to A Beautiful Mind. It's a two-and-a-half-hour western starring Tommy Lee Jones and Cate Blanchett as a woman whose daughter is apprehended, abducted, abducted.

• 1:02:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:13Sean Fennessey?

  My mind isn't as strong as I thought. Kind of a faint homage to The Searchers. Tommy Lee Jones plays her father, who's very learned in the ways of the Apache, like you do.

• 1:02:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:02:26Sean Fennessey?

  I thought this movie was incredibly boring.

• 1:02:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:28Sean Fennessey?

  There is a contingent of people who think it's very underrated. It's a very stately Ron Howard production.

• 1:02:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:34Sean Fennessey?

  I'm not a big fan.

• 1:02:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. There's a contingent of people who think every just really long western that came out between 1994 and 2005 is underappreciated.

• 1:02:45Sean Fennessey?

  I usually have a handshake agreement with those people, but in this case, I don't. I don't feel that Ron Howard has a real flair for the western. There's something kind of flat and uninspiring to me about this movie. Nevertheless, 2004, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou.

• 1:03:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, you skipped Return of the King. I just, like, I don't want people to yell at us because you didn't say.

• 1:03:04Sean Fennessey?

  It won Best Picture.

• 1:03:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:06Sean Fennessey?

  What did it do? Go 11 for 11 at the Academy Awards, something crazy like that?

• 1:03:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I saw it.

• 1:03:11Sean Fennessey?

  It's darn good. She wasn't nominated for her work in that film.

• 1:03:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:03:15Sean Fennessey?

  I think it's a fairly small part in the third film.

• 1:03:19Sean Fennessey?

  But congratulations.

• 1:03:20Amanda Dobbins?

  It's one of the people of Middle Earth and their new and equal society to be seen and heard.

• 1:03:26Sean Fennessey?

  They are not listening because they don't exist.

• 1:03:30Sean Fennessey?

  Return of the King, you know what's good about those movies? They shot them all together.

• 1:03:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:35Sean Fennessey?

  Why aren't we not doing that more?

• 1:03:38Amanda Dobbins?

  We're doing it with TV shows.

• 1:03:40Sean Fennessey?

  Well, of course.

• 1:03:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, well.

• 1:03:42Sean Fennessey?

  But three epic films, you know who did do it? Big Jim. Avatar 2 and 3 shot together. Shout out to him.

• 1:03:49Amanda Dobbins?

  They didn't do it with Dune.

• 1:03:52Sean Fennessey?

  They didn't. I think because they weren't sure if Dune 1 was gonna work. So they're hedging their bets.

• 1:03:56Speaker 05

  You know who did it, though? The god Kevin Costner with Horizon, Part 1 and 2.

• 1:04:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:04:02Sean Fennessey?

  I've, I've heard, I've heard.

• 1:04:04Amanda Dobbins?

  I actually don't know if that's true.

• 1:04:05Sean Fennessey?

  To the contrary, Bob.

• 1:04:07Speaker 05

  Really? Well, I know he didn't shoot 3 at the same time, even though he wanted to.

• 1:04:11Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, let's just say it was a rolling production. Is my understanding of the situation.

• 1:04:16Speaker 05

  Okay.

• 1:04:17Sean Fennessey?

  That's.

• 1:04:18Speaker 05

  Waiting for those checks to cash.

• 1:04:19Sean Fennessey?

  I think that there was like, let's make sure we have enough to complete 2 going on. But they did. And I can't wait to see it. Uh, okay. 2004, The Life of Kwadu Tzisusu, I think it's going in.

• 1:04:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Green.

• 1:04:30Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, great.

• 1:04:30Amanda Dobbins?

  She's wonderful.

• 1:04:31Sean Fennessey?

  She's excellent in this movie.

• 1:04:32Amanda Dobbins?

  She's so good. And, and there is a softness, like, like a little daffiness.

• 1:04:39Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 1:04:39Amanda Dobbins?

  To what's going on with her, but it's still believable. Yes.

• 1:04:42Sean Fennessey?

  Different kind of performance, yes, but still very emotional.

• 1:04:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 1:04:46Sean Fennessey?

  She is a journalist on the boat. Tracking.

• 1:04:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:51Sean Fennessey?

  Zissu's reunion with his son, right? As I recall. Um, I really, I mean, I love this movie. We both love this movie. But, uh, no brainer. 2004, let's just go back. How many do we have now?

• 1:05:02Amanda Dobbins?

  We have four.

• 1:05:02Sean Fennessey?

  We have four, and we're in 2004. We've got quite a few films to talk about, but how many greens we'll have? Let's, let's see. 2004, The Aviator. I think it has to go in. Now, you wanna fight? We can fight.

• 1:05:14Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't wanna fight. I, we can, we can fight later on, but I, I would agree. This is her first Oscar, very memorable. It, it is, you know, everyone doing old Hollywood cosplay, but like, she's perfectly cast. I do really like Katharine Hepburn.

• 1:05:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Like those pants. So, sure, green.

• 1:05:35Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. 2005, Little Fish. This is a movie I was not aware of until yesterday, an Australian production. Like I said, she does go back to Australia to make films there, uh, every few years, which I think is very admirable. This one features a number of very well-known Australian actresses, Hugo Weaving, Martin Henderson. It's about a woman who works in a video store. Who is a recovering addict and it's a very emotional family drama.

• 1:06:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:06:02Sean Fennessey?

  It was just okay.

• 1:06:03Amanda Dobbins?

  All right.

• 1:06:04Sean Fennessey?

  I like that they tried it. And I appreciate her good work.

• 1:06:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Was she a good video store clerk?

• 1:06:09Sean Fennessey?

  She's attempting in the movie to become a partner in the video store instead of just a clerk.

• 1:06:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh.

• 1:06:14Sean Fennessey?

  And so it's about her journey to become like. You know, um.

• 1:06:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Depend.

• 1:06:18Sean Fennessey?

  To elevate her status.

• 1:06:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Got it. Okay.

• 1:06:20Sean Fennessey?

  Um, much as Galadriel elevated the status of elves in the film The Lord of the Rings. Uh, not going in. 2006 Babel?

• 1:06:30Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, it's not going in.

• 1:06:32Sean Fennessey?

  I'm not a big fan of this movie.

• 1:06:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Nor am I.

• 1:06:35Sean Fennessey?

  This is, uh, Inaritu's multi-continent, multi-character story about how we are all trapped in the quagmire of power and randomness.

• 1:06:48Amanda Dobbins?

  True. And true.

• 1:06:50Sean Fennessey?

  Which is a true thing.

• 1:06:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:52Sean Fennessey?

  So it's a sort of like a spiritual sequel to Amores Peros in some ways, you know, has like a kind of a unifying conceit, but it covers a lot of different kinds of characters.

• 1:07:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:07:00Sean Fennessey?

  She plays a woman who's married to Brad Pitt. They're on a trip in, is it Tunisia? I can't quite recall which country they're in. Is it Morocco?

• 1:07:08Amanda Dobbins?

  I think Morocco.

• 1:07:08Sean Fennessey?

  Morocco. Um, and something awful happens and I don't want to watch this movie again.

• 1:07:16Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I did not revisit it.

• 1:07:18Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Interesting, the same year she also made The Good German.

• 1:07:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:21Sean Fennessey?

  Arguably the worst Steven Soderbergh movie.

• 1:07:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:25Sean Fennessey?

  When I spoke with Steven a couple of years ago, I was like, when are you guys gonna put this on Blu-ray? And he was like, why do you want to put that on Blu-ray? Um, that was very amusing.

• 1:07:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Bless him.

• 1:07:34Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, he went for something cool, I think, in an attempt to recreate a 40s black and white kind of war film. Um, it's kind of a spy war film in a way. She's cast a kind of typecast in a, in a way that she get often is typecast, has Catherine Hepburn in, as in Nightmare Alley. She has.

• 1:07:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:07:55Sean Fennessey?

  This kind of Barbara Stanwyck, Joan Crawford.

• 1:07:59Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, she can do it. She's.

• 1:08:00Sean Fennessey?

  Hollywood actress veneer.

• 1:08:03Amanda Dobbins?

  She's fine. She's not really the problem.

• 1:08:06Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 1:08:06Amanda Dobbins?

  With it. I think Clooney is miscast and then it's just like, it's a little staid.

• 1:08:12Sean Fennessey?

  Agreed.

• 1:08:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:13Sean Fennessey?

  It's out. Hot Fuzz, this also would have been a candidate for the orange cool.

• 1:08:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:08:18Sean Fennessey?

  I'm glad you did this thing where she plays at the very beginning of the film, the boyfriend of Simon Pegg's character, but she is wearing a forensic getup in the aftermath of a murder and so we never see her face. We only hear her voice, but it is her.

• 1:08:33Amanda Dobbins?

  That's her.

• 1:08:33Sean Fennessey?

  You can see her eyes.

• 1:08:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. You skipped notes on a scandal.

• 1:08:36Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, shit.

• 1:08:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, which is a green.

• 1:08:38Sean Fennessey?

  That's important. All right. I'll let you speak on it.

• 1:08:41Amanda Dobbins?

  I rewatched this because this was another buzzy Oscar.

• 1:08:46Sean Fennessey?

  She was nominated for this movie.

• 1:08:48Amanda Dobbins?

  As was Judi Dench and, you know, it was like a, we were of an age where I was like seeing every Oscar.

• 1:08:55Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, this was May, December before May, December.

• 1:08:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:59Amanda Dobbins?

  A really like.

• 1:09:01Sean Fennessey?

  It's good.

• 1:09:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Good messed up movie and incredible Judi Dench performance and like, and a good script that uses it. But the, the, the Blanchett character could be a nothing burger and she is, is very interesting. Like this, the film is about two teachers, one of whom has a, an affair with a, a student. And the other exposes it or, you know, exposes it or is interested in it for her own reasons. And I, you don't totally understand why her character is doing what she's doing, but also you do.

• 1:09:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Like there is, there, I guess that bit of mystery that she imbues, but she also just makes it like a, she makes her a real, very believable person. In what are, as the title would indicate, like pretty like scandalous and soap opera-y circumstances. Which really only Kate Blanchett could do, so.

• 1:10:06Sean Fennessey?

  It's interesting that she took on this part. She's very good in it.

• 1:10:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:11Sean Fennessey?

  I don't really have much to add to what you, what you shared. I think it's maybe a part that only she could have played.

• 1:10:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, the May, December thing is, is apt because it's, I mean, you know, the setup is like very different in May, December is. And the tones are different and there's also like a self-aware, you know, an awareness that is built in.

• 1:10:36Sean Fennessey?

  Comedy May December.

• 1:10:37Amanda Dobbins?

  To the casting.

• 1:10:38Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:39Amanda Dobbins?

  But you know, if Natalie Portman were in Notes on a Scandal, it would be quite different, which is the point of casting Natalie Portman in May, December.

• 1:10:46Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:47Amanda Dobbins?

  But.

• 1:10:48Sean Fennessey?

  Could Nicole Kidman have been in Notes on a Scandal?

• 1:10:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, maybe, but there is something.

• 1:10:58Sean Fennessey?

  Just a little more ordinary about Cate Blanchett. You know what I mean when I say that?

• 1:11:01Amanda Dobbins?

  That's, that's exactly the right word because I was trying to, you know, she is like extraordinarily beautiful and also extraordinarily like unique looking, you know?

• 1:11:15Sean Fennessey?

  She's like the striking movie that you see, she's like the striking woman that you see on a train. Where you're like, she's in the real world.

• 1:11:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:21Sean Fennessey?

  When you see Nicole Kidman, you're like, who's that alien?

• 1:11:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. That beautiful alien.

• 1:11:25Sean Fennessey?

  Totally.

• 1:11:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Exactly. But yes, there is something that she can like shift down and be a little like messy and relatable.

• 1:11:35Sean Fennessey?

  Let me ask you this, could Nicole Kidman have played Galadriel?

• 1:11:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:38Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Notes on a Scandal's green, hot fuzz is red. Elizabeth the Golden Age, as I said, nine years later.

• 1:11:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:46Sean Fennessey?

  Capor and Blanchett reunite to continue the tale of Elizabeth the first. Um, in a very different phase of her life. She's nominated again for an Academy Award.

• 1:11:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, it's not going in, but.

• 1:11:59Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:11:59Amanda Dobbins?

  It's, it's a, it's a cool way to do history, I guess.

• 1:12:02Sean Fennessey?

  Agreed. It's red. 2007, I'm Not There.

• 1:12:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Green.

• 1:12:06Sean Fennessey?

  In green, she plays Jude Quinn, who is a version of the Bob Dylan that we just saw in the recent film A Complete Unknown. The same era, essentially. It's about Bob's time in London in, it's 64, I want to say 64. She plays a version of him and it is the best Bob Dylan performance of all time.

• 1:12:29Amanda Dobbins?

  I think that's true.

• 1:12:30Sean Fennessey?

  She was nominated this year in Best Supporting Actress for this part and in Best Actress for Elizabeth the Golden Age. The rare double double, you don't see it that often. She didn't win either part. She should have won for I'm Not There.

• 1:12:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:12:42Sean Fennessey?

  We'll come back to it. 2008, Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. She plays an evil Russian named Irina Spolko.

• 1:12:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm. She's really, she's good. It's not going in.

• 1:12:52Sean Fennessey?

  It's so hammy. This is the hammiest thing she's ever done.

• 1:12:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but it's, it's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

• 1:12:59Sean Fennessey?

  Well, I mean. You've come back, Dr. Jones.

• 1:13:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, she's having fun. Like, if you're gonna be a villain in an indie movie.

• 1:13:06Sean Fennessey?

  Uh huh.

• 1:13:07Amanda Dobbins?

  That's what, you know, seize the day.

• 1:13:09Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Not in an independent film, but in an Indiana Jones movie.

• 1:13:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, yeah.

• 1:13:14Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, okay. It's red, you're saying?

• 1:13:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, it's red. But I enjoyed it.

• 1:13:17Sean Fennessey?

  Better than The Dial of Destiny or worse?

• 1:13:22Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, remember when like Archimedes comes to life? Or, no, I guess it's Indiana Jones goes back in time. So Archimedes is like still living.

• 1:13:32Sean Fennessey?

  He's confronted by Archimedes and he's like, oh my god.

• 1:13:34Amanda Dobbins?

  And they have like an emotional question, like emotional conversation about like time. I thought that was pretty dumb.

• 1:13:43Sean Fennessey?

  Completely disagree. I loved it. The only way to make that better would have been just to leave Indy there. That was the way to end that movie. When they go back to New York, they fucked that up. Okay.

• 1:13:52Sean Fennessey?

  Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull is not going in. The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, 2008.

• 1:14:02Sean Fennessey?

  Now, an interesting situation here. Uh, of course, not my favorite of the David Fincher films.

• 1:14:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. Because your heart is closed off.

• 1:14:13Sean Fennessey?

  No. Um, she plays, I think, a poorly written character.

• 1:14:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:20Sean Fennessey?

  Um, I think this is one of the more standard girlfriend figures. She is luminous in the movie. And there's that incredible sequence in the plaza where she dances.

• 1:14:31Amanda Dobbins?

  They're so, they're both so beautiful in it.

• 1:14:34Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Which is the point.

• 1:14:36Sean Fennessey?

  It is part of the point, for sure. I gotta go back to this movie and think about whether or not it's something I can ever get my heart around.

• 1:14:45Sean Fennessey?

  I'm not against it and I would suggest a yellow.

• 1:14:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Yellow. We can come back to it.

• 1:14:50Sean Fennessey?

  The thing is, is that the supporting performance in this movie is Taraji P. Henson. That's the one that is, and she was nominated.

• 1:14:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:56Sean Fennessey?

  Not Cate Blanchett. So.

• 1:14:58Amanda Dobbins?

  But the dancing really is so.

• 1:15:00Sean Fennessey?

  It's great.

• 1:15:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Beautiful.

• 1:15:02Sean Fennessey?

  As always, Kate, Ahead of the Curve, 2008, Ponyo. She supplies a voice performance in the dubbed version as Grandma Mare. Cool that she did it. She's got five. It's cool that she did it.

• 1:15:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Cate Blanchett rules.

• 1:15:15Sean Fennessey?

  Can't wait for your children to discover Ponyo. It's gonna be an amazing day. 2010, Robin Hood. Don't know what happened here. She, uh, starred as Lady Marion. And she's a little bit of a yassified Lady Marion, I would say, in Ridley Scott's completely unnecessary retelling of The Robin Hood Tale, starring Russell Crowe. Chris Ryan and I were living in Brooklyn at the time when this came out. And this was easily the biggest event of our year to that point. We were extremely fired up as hardcore Ridley heads. We both went to go see it and.

• 1:15:46Amanda Dobbins?

  And you were, and you were like, what I need is a Ridley retelling of Robin Hood. This seems like a good idea.

• 1:15:51Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:52Amanda Dobbins?

  To you.

• 1:15:53Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I mean, who's better at like the big action set piece, the period piece, battle sequences? This is what he does. He's great at this stuff. Movie is so turgid, except for Oscar Isaac, who's excellent in it as Prince John, I want to say.

• 1:16:07Sean Fennessey?

  So that's out. Now, 2011 Hannah.

• 1:16:09Amanda Dobbins?

  I was gonna say green.

• 1:16:10Sean Fennessey?

  I think it might be. This is one of her coolest performances.

• 1:16:12Amanda Dobbins?

  It's really, really fun. And also it can stand in for doing something different, playing the villain, being like in the, in the non costume drama.

• 1:16:23Sean Fennessey?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:16:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Type, also we're Joe Wright heads, so.

• 1:16:25Sean Fennessey?

  I think this is one of my favorites of his. It's about a man who is like trained as a super spy assassin, who then essentially leaves the life and goes out into the, live in the wilderness. And he raises his daughter by himself, Hannah, and teaches her everything that he knows. Hannah's played by Saoirse Ronan. Cate Blanchett plays Marissa Wiegler, who is this like CIA attache, somebody who's trying to basically bring Hannah in and utilize her skills for the government. She's very evil and intimidating and great in this movie. I think this movie's a little forgotten.

• 1:16:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:59Sean Fennessey?

  Pretty cool, though.

• 1:17:00Amanda Dobbins?

  It's really good.

• 1:17:01Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, I like that as a green. 2012, The Hobbit, An Unexpected Journey?

• 1:17:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Isn't all they do just journey places? They eat and then they gotta go somewhere. So what's unexpected about it?

• 1:17:12Sean Fennessey?

  Great note. Got no follow up to that note. That's red. 2013, Blue Jasmine. This is her first film with Woody Allen. It's a film about a middle aged woman essentially having a nervous breakdown.

• 1:17:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:27Sean Fennessey?

  As I said, a very showy performance, a lot of tics, a lot of vocal affectation in the performance. As this kind of like angry, nervous New Yorker. I think she's good in it.

• 1:17:39Amanda Dobbins?

  She's good.

• 1:17:40Sean Fennessey?

  It had, the whole campaign had this kind of air of inevitability, I think. And it was sort of in the same vein as like Sean Penn's second win, Daniel Day Lewis's second win, where it was like, you can't not, cause she's Cate Blanchett. Like she, by this time.

• 1:17:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Who's she running against 2000?

• 1:17:55Sean Fennessey?

  Good question.

• 1:17:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Oscars, here we go.

• 1:17:57Sean Fennessey?

  Would be the 2014 Oscars.

• 1:17:59Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I Googled that.

• 1:18:00Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:18:01Amanda Dobbins?

  I know what's up.

• 1:18:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Amy Adams in American Hustle, respectfully, no. Sandra Bullock in Gravity, respectfully, no. Judi Dench in Filomena, which was like the award season joke of that year because who had heard of that? Uh, and Meryl, but in Augusto Sage County. So with this lineup, you kinda can't, um, not do it.

• 1:18:23Sean Fennessey?

  I actually think Amy Adams is fantastic in American Hustle, which is a movie I don't like.

• 1:18:28Amanda Dobbins?

  She's good. This was the year of Wolf of Wall Street and Margot Robbie was not nominated.

• 1:18:34Sean Fennessey?

  I would have put her in Supporting, personally.

• 1:18:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:18:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, oh, June Squibb was nominated in Supporting that year. That was nice.

• 1:18:43Sean Fennessey?

  She's very good in Nebraska. Uh, okay. Well, I think Blue Jasmine probably has to go in. It would be weird to put in Hannah and not Blue Jasmine.

• 1:18:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, don't you feel like we're a little Sammy doing the expected stuff right now? With the exception of Hannah, that's what I like about Hannah.

• 1:19:01Sean Fennessey?

  The problem with Hannah is there's at least three more that have to go in.

• 1:19:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I just don't think that Blue Ja- we already did an Oscar. Make it yellow. Bobby made it yellow. Good job.

• 1:19:10Sean Fennessey?

  Thank you, Bob. 2013's The Turning. No, not going in. 2013's The Hobbit, The Desolation of Smaug.

• 1:19:17Amanda Dobbins?

  So Smaug is?

• 1:19:21Sean Fennessey?

  I like saying it like Smaug.

• 1:19:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Is that not how you say it?

• 1:19:23Sean Fennessey?

  Some say Smog.

• 1:19:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Well, what is, what's in the text?

• 1:19:27Sean Fennessey?

  Tolkien's dead, so I'm not really sure.

• 1:19:28Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I meant in the, in the movie. No one says Smaug at any point or Smog?

• 1:19:33Sean Fennessey?

  I think it's like somewhere in between the way that I'm descri- I'm pronouncing it.

• 1:19:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, so it's like an American thing where we can't get about the vowels, right? Um, that's, oh, Sauron is the I.

• 1:19:43Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:19:44Amanda Dobbins?

  So what's up with Smog?

• 1:19:45Sean Fennessey?

  Smog's a dragon voiced by Benedict Cumberbatch.

• 1:19:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Of course.

• 1:19:48Sean Fennessey?

  He's trapped in a, in a lair protecting gold.

• 1:19:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Hmm, okay. But then the hobbits get in the lair and they get the gold and they redistribute it equally.

• 1:19:57Sean Fennessey?

  Not exactly. You'd be surprised.

• 1:19:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, no.

• 1:19:59Sean Fennessey?

  There's an unexpected journey.

• 1:20:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh.

• 1:20:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Um.

• 1:20:04Speaker 05

  I thought we had already completed the unexpected journey. Keep your unexpected journeys out of my desolation of Smaug, Sean.

• 1:20:11Sean Fennessey?

  It's kinda, it's kinda an ongoing situation, you know? Uh.

• 1:20:15Speaker 05

  It's one of the most offensive things ever that they split this into three movies. It's so offensive.

• 1:20:21Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, Ralph Bakshi did it all by himself in the seventies. He made one movie in 110 minutes or some well.

• 1:20:27Amanda Dobbins?

  This is an adaptation of the book The Hobbit.

• 1:20:30Sean Fennessey?

  Correct.

• 1:20:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Which I've read.

• 1:20:31Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:20:33Sean Fennessey?

  Looking forward to reading that to my, my child.

• 1:20:35Amanda Dobbins?

  The Hobbit?

• 1:20:35Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, it's a good story to read. Hated it?

• 1:20:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:38Sean Fennessey?

  Explains a lot. 2014 The Monuments Men, this film's directed by George Clooney and stars Matt Damon, and it stinks.

• 1:20:46Amanda Dobbins?

  It's really, really stinks.

• 1:20:48Sean Fennessey?

  John Goodman's in it, tons of great actors.

• 1:20:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Bill Murray's in it?

• 1:20:50Sean Fennessey?

  Bill Murray.

• 1:20:50Amanda Dobbins?

  I really wanted this to be good, and it's just like really not good.

• 1:20:53Sean Fennessey?

  If you do it a hundred, if you do it 99 more times, how many times is it good?

• 1:20:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Is George Clooney directing it? With respect?

• 1:21:01Sean Fennessey?

  Let's say no. 99 other directors get a shot at making this kind of a movie, a heist movie set during World War II.

• 1:21:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Let's just have Edward Burger make it.

• 1:21:09Sean Fennessey?

  Well, that would be good.

• 1:21:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:10Sean Fennessey?

  I agree, that would be good. Would it be funny, though? I guess Conclave is pretty funny.

• 1:21:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:14Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. 2014 How to Train Your Dragon 2, um, no.

• 1:21:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:21:20Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, I, we're going to CinemaCon, they're gonna show the How to Train Your Dragon live action film.

• 1:21:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, they are?

• 1:21:27Sean Fennessey?

  While we're there.

• 1:21:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh.

• 1:21:28Sean Fennessey?

  That was officially announced.

• 1:21:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Are we going?

• 1:21:29Sean Fennessey?

  Well, do you, would you like to go?

• 1:21:31Amanda Dobbins?

  I've never seen the animated version.

• 1:21:33Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, well, this'll be interesting to you, because you won't know the story.

• 1:21:36Amanda Dobbins?

  It's at 9:30 in the morning?

• 1:21:37Sean Fennessey?

  I believe so.

• 1:21:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. I'm sure, you know.

• 1:21:40Sean Fennessey?

  We can get some coffee?

• 1:21:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:42Sean Fennessey?

  We can sit together?

• 1:21:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, well, we can.

• 1:21:44Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:45Amanda Dobbins?

  You think that I'm gonna go to a CinemaCon, like, presentation and not sit next to you?

• 1:21:49Sean Fennessey?

  Amanda, you sit over there. No, a little further back, a little further back. Um, The Hobbit, The Battle of the Five Armies, she once again recurs as Galadriel.

• 1:21:59Amanda Dobbins?

  So, name the five armies.

• 1:22:01Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, Jimmy's army, Ricky Bobby's army, Steve's army, Galadriel's army.

• 1:22:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:22:09Sean Fennessey?

  Um, forgot the other one. Uh, 2015 Night of Cups, this is her first film with Terrence Malick.

• 1:22:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:16Sean Fennessey?

  Not her last.

• 1:22:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:22:18Sean Fennessey?

  She plays, um, I think she plays Christian Bale's wife?

• 1:22:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, and also a doctor.

• 1:22:25Sean Fennessey?

  It's not the meatiest role?

• 1:22:26Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:22:27Sean Fennessey?

  This movie is interesting. Who, oh, I was just talking to Mags, who we work with, and she was like, I'm getting into Malick, I've never seen any Malick movies, and I checked, I started with Night of Cups. I was like, not the place I would start.

• 1:22:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, no.

• 1:22:38Sean Fennessey?

  It's not where you wanna go first. Um, it's, Night of Cups is, uh, an interesting emotional journey as well. An unexpected journey of, uh, assembled footage.

• 1:22:50Sean Fennessey?

  I'm not, I don't hate it.

• 1:22:51Amanda Dobbins?

  No, it was fine. I just, I revisited just the Cate Blanchett part for, for this. Um, I mean, she's in it, you know?

• 1:22:59Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, definitely she's in it. It's not, it's not a signature performance for her. Now, here's an interesting thing. 2015 Cinderella.

• 1:23:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:23:07Sean Fennessey?

  There's a case for this.

• 1:23:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Are you, have you guys done this one yet in the home?

• 1:23:11Sean Fennessey?

  And not only that, but in the light of day, which is to say 10 years later.

• 1:23:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:16Sean Fennessey?

  When this phenomenon continued so significantly after the big success of this movie. This might be the best live action Disney movie.

• 1:23:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh.

• 1:23:25Sean Fennessey?

  And I had only just seen it either this year or late last year for the first time. Come to find out, one, it's Kenneth Branagh directed it. That doesn't ensure quality, but it raises the ceiling.

• 1:23:37Sean Fennessey?

  And she's amazing as the wicked stepmother.

• 1:23:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. I mean, born to, born to play the role.

• 1:23:43Sean Fennessey?

  So good.

• 1:23:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:23:44Sean Fennessey?

  And, uh, this is like a very star studded cast in this movie. I'm not sure if you're familiar with.

• 1:23:50Amanda Dobbins?

  I saw it.

• 1:23:51Sean Fennessey?

  You saw this?

• 1:23:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. And also, wasn't Mirror Mirror around this time?

• 1:23:55Sean Fennessey?

  It was. Not, not as successful.

• 1:23:57Amanda Dobbins?

  No, but we were all doing, we were just, Cinderella was back. We were re-interrogating Cinderella, but not.

• 1:24:03Sean Fennessey?

  Lily James is Cinderella, Richard Madden is Prince Charming.

• 1:24:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:06Sean Fennessey?

  Helena Bonham Carter is the fairy godmother. My girl Holiday Granger from Mickey 17 is evil stepsister Anastasia. Sophie McShara from Downton Abbey is the other wicked stepsister Drizella. And then fucking Stellan Skarsgård and Derek Jacobi are in this movie.

• 1:24:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:24Sean Fennessey?

  I'm not saying it's in, but I'm saying it's pretty good. I'm yellowing it.

• 1:24:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:24:28Speaker 05

  Just to, uh, play ref here for you, play referee here for you guys. We do have eight greens already, four yellows, and we have some big ones coming up.

• 1:24:36Sean Fennessey?

  Bob, thank you very much.

• 1:24:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Thanks, Bob.

• 1:24:39Sean Fennessey?

  We're gonna have to do some work here. This has been a, quite a career for her.

• 1:24:42Speaker 05

  As, as always, I am reminding you of the yellow opportunity.

• 1:24:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Well, this is yellow and then the next one's green.

• 1:24:48Sean Fennessey?

  Cinderella is yellow. 2015 Carol.

• 1:24:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Green.

• 1:24:50Sean Fennessey?

  Green. One of her best performances.

• 1:24:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Harold, they're lesbians.

• 1:24:55Sean Fennessey?

  Perhaps, perhaps her best movie?

• 1:24:59Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 1:25:00Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:25:01Sean Fennessey?

  Tar is Amanda Coated, but Carol may be her best movie.

• 1:25:04Amanda Dobbins?

  I think Tar is the best movie.

• 1:25:05Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Um, I love Carol. We both love Carol.

• 1:25:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:08Sean Fennessey?

  Todd Haynes's film. Is it Todd Haynes's best movie? Probably Safe would be my choice. Anyhow, um, she plays a gorgeous woman with a strong desire for Rooney Mara. And it's about a pained love affair, an agonizing love affair.

• 1:25:28Sean Fennessey?

  Beautiful, sumptuous movie. Extraordinary costume and production design.

• 1:25:33Amanda Dobbins?

  A Christmas movie, right?

• 1:25:34Sean Fennessey?

  Very much a Christmas movie about a shop girl.

• 1:25:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:38Sean Fennessey?

  Um, and this is her kind of channeling that mystery that we're talking about, that kind of like, that ability to withhold, that I think she's very, very good at. Um, so that's a no brainer. 2015's Truth, you mentioned, you might check this out.

• 1:25:54Amanda Dobbins?

  I did check it out and then I turned it off after 40 minutes because I was offended.

• 1:25:57Sean Fennessey?

  Um, it's very bad. It gets worse if you finish it.

• 1:26:00Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, I can't believe that.

• 1:26:01Sean Fennessey?

  I can't believe it was made. Uh, it's about the television producer who helps to report and produce the segment on the story around George W. Bush's military record. Which was a big story at the time about how he had, there had been falsified documents of some kind that showed that he didn't actually serve or went AWOL. I can't remember the details. Robert Redford plays Dan Rather, who was, you know, shamed in the aftermath of this reporting when it was revealed that it was all untrue.

• 1:26:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:26:30Sean Fennessey?

  Um, I don't know why the movie was made. I don't know. Mary Mapes, the producer is like not, um, a notable figure.

• 1:26:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:37Sean Fennessey?

  That deserves this kind of treatment. I've, I find the whole thing very odd, especially for somebody who's like making Carol in Cinderella.

• 1:26:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Also, just like a very weird performance from her. It's sort of like blue jasmine light.

• 1:26:49Sean Fennessey?

  It is. Very nervy.

• 1:26:50Amanda Dobbins?

  And you're just like, why?

• 1:26:51Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Big, big, big failure.

• 1:26:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:54Sean Fennessey?

  2015's manifesto is interesting. I've never actually seen what it ultimately is, which is an art installation in which he portrays 13 roles. There was a movie version of it that was made available. It might actually still be on Amazon. It's not so much a movie as it is a performance piece, but it's a cool thing to cite. It's gonna be read. 2017's Song of the Song, she plays Amanda.

• 1:27:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:27:16Sean Fennessey?

  It's also a Terrence Malick movie.

• 1:27:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:18Sean Fennessey?

  And who, did you play Kate in this movie?

• 1:27:21Amanda Dobbins?

  We're looking for positive Amanda representation wherever we can get it.

• 1:27:24Sean Fennessey?

  Where else have you seen it recently?

• 1:27:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, I mean, that's, that's the issue. It's primarily, um...

• 1:27:29Sean Fennessey?

  What do you think's going on there?

• 1:27:30Amanda Dobbins?

  It's really tough. It's like a lot of Bachelor contestants, you know, enough that it has to be like Amanda C, Amanda W, Amanda K. Uh, so, you know.

• 1:27:42Sean Fennessey?

  It's really tough.

• 1:27:43Amanda Dobbins?

  We've got Amanda Peet, uh, and we've got...

• 1:27:45Sean Fennessey?

  She's good. I like her.

• 1:27:48Amanda Dobbins?

  I guess we've got this character named Amanda.

• 1:27:51Sean Fennessey?

  We've got the 2022 Carolina Cavalli masterpiece, Amanda? Oh, yeah.

• 1:27:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, yeah. That was great. And that was, that was like a real step forward in Amanda, uh, presentation. There's a good Waylon Jennings song.

• 1:28:03Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:28:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Amanda. Okay, that's what we have. I don't think this has to go in, but I appreciate it.

• 1:28:10Sean Fennessey?

  2017 Thor Ragnarok.

• 1:28:13Amanda Dobbins?

  I do like this.

• 1:28:14Sean Fennessey?

  I don't, I don't think it has to go in.

• 1:28:17Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't either. We've got Hannah.

• 1:28:19Sean Fennessey?

  Let's yellow it. She's good as Hela, Thor's sister.

• 1:28:23Amanda Dobbins?

  It's definitely when I woke up in the movie.

• 1:28:27Sean Fennessey?

  This movie is good. I, you know, I know that everybody is like Taika Socks now and George Rabbit is terrible and all that. I thought it was funny then. I think it's funny now.

• 1:28:35Amanda Dobbins?

  I go to the movies and it holds my attention or it doesn't. And when Kate Blanchett's like in that, on that moor, just being like, "Ah, I'm evil." I'm just like, "All right, I'm having fun." And she just wears a headpiece.

• 1:28:47Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm. Tell us more.

• 1:28:50Amanda Dobbins?

  You know. I, I liked it.

• 1:28:53Sean Fennessey?

  2018's Ocean's Eight.

• 1:28:55Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:28:57Sean Fennessey?

  What happened here?

• 1:28:58Amanda Dobbins?

  They didn't get Steven Soderbergh?

• 1:29:01Sean Fennessey?

  Gary Ross directed this movie.

• 1:29:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Why?

• 1:29:04Sean Fennessey?

  Produced by Steven Soderbergh.

• 1:29:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, sure. And that was nice of Steven.

• 1:29:08Sean Fennessey?

  Anne Hathaway cooked.

• 1:29:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Amazing. Really funny.

• 1:29:12Sean Fennessey?

  So good.

• 1:29:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:14Sean Fennessey?

  Um, who's the other lead? There's a paired. Oh, Sandra Bullock.

• 1:29:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:20Sean Fennessey?

  How did this movie not work? What happened? It's okay. It's not terrible.

• 1:29:23Amanda Dobbins?

  It's not terrible, but I would have liked to have Soderbergh.

• 1:29:26Sean Fennessey?

  You're probably right. It is missing some flair.

• 1:29:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:29Sean Fennessey?

  Ocean's Eight is out. The house with a clock in its walls has its fans. Eli Roth movie, kids movie.

• 1:29:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:29:35Sean Fennessey?

  Good movie if you're into like spooky houses and Jack Black. I wouldn't say it's a Hall of Famer for Cate Blanchett.

• 1:29:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Have you watched it in the home yet?

• 1:29:42Sean Fennessey?

  No, it's way too early for that. It's too scary for that. Um, 2018's Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle.

• 1:29:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:29:50Sean Fennessey?

  This, of course, is an adaptation of the Jungle Book, the Rudyard Kipling book. And I believe it's directed by Andy Serkis. And she plays Ka, and if my memory serves, Ka is a snake.

• 1:30:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, so I bet she would be really good at that.

• 1:30:03Sean Fennessey?

  Some more cool shit she's doing with her voice. She's now voice acted in a motion capture jungle movie, in a Miyazaki movie, in How to Train Your Dragon film, and in a Stanley Kubrick movie. Using that voice for good. Mowgli is red. How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World from 2019. This is the third film.

• 1:30:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, wow.

• 1:30:25Sean Fennessey?

  HTTYD series.

• 1:30:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:30:28Sean Fennessey?

  Which you'll soon be getting up to speed on in Las Vegas.

• 1:30:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Great.

• 1:30:30Sean Fennessey?

  She once again returns as Volka. I think Volka's a dragon.

• 1:30:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Is that where the dragon, the dragon's living in the hidden world after?

• 1:30:38Sean Fennessey?

  Volka is married to Smog.

• 1:30:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:30:40Sean Fennessey?

  That's not true. Um, red. 2019, Where'd You Go Burn a Debt? We did a whole episode about this movie.

• 1:30:45Amanda Dobbins?

  We liked that, again, we liked that they tried. We liked that everyone tried.

• 1:30:48Sean Fennessey?

  A real, a real old school misfire.

• 1:30:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. We liked that Linklater tried.

• 1:30:53Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:30:53Amanda Dobbins?

  We liked that she tried. Reunited with Billy Crudup, if, if memory serves, he tried.

• 1:30:59Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Kristen Wiig, she tried?

• 1:31:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. She's always trying.

• 1:31:03Sean Fennessey?

  Stop being mean to Kristen Wiig.

• 1:31:05Amanda Dobbins?

  It's just not, it's black licorice. It's just not my flavor, but like, I can identify patterns, you know?

• 1:31:12Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:31:12Amanda Dobbins?

  And the pattern is, when she's trying, I'm not buying.

• 1:31:17Sean Fennessey?

  2021, Don't Look Up.

• 1:31:20Amanda Dobbins?

  She's lights out good in this, but we don't have room for it.

• 1:31:24Sean Fennessey?

  She's playing who?

• 1:31:25Amanda Dobbins?

  She's one of the morning show, yeah.

• 1:31:27Sean Fennessey?

  Basically, a morning show host on a political cable channel.

• 1:31:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:31:32Sean Fennessey?

  Who slips into an affair with a rumpled climatologist portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio. Preposterous movie.

• 1:31:43Sean Fennessey?

  Neither as bad nor as people will tell you, nor as good as it was meant to be. That's my take on it. Always kind of mixed on this movie.

• 1:31:52Amanda Dobbins?

  But you know, it's a true ensemble movie and so her scenes are dynamite.

• 1:31:58Sean Fennessey?

  She's very, very funny. Them together in bed is great stuff.

• 1:32:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:02Sean Fennessey?

  But it's red. 2021 Nightmare Alley, directed by Guillermo del Toro. Best Picture nominee. She portrays Dr. Lilith Ritter.

• 1:32:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:12Sean Fennessey?

  Playing once again, a kind of Barbara Stanwyck, Veronica Lake femme fatale figure.

• 1:32:20Sean Fennessey?

  Ida Lupino, maybe an inspiration for this part. She's amazing in this movie.

• 1:32:24Amanda Dobbins?

  She's very, very good. It was the part of the movie that I really liked because it was separate from the carnival.

• 1:32:31Sean Fennessey?

  Remember her office?

• 1:32:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Beautifully. The production design.

• 1:32:35Sean Fennessey?

  Add to this world.

• 1:32:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Fantastic. She's great. Sometimes like, sometimes movies kind of use her as like an art piece almost. You know, like she is, there is something like sort of sculptural to her look and that is such a very specific visually designed movie. And she is like doing her, her shtick. So.

• 1:32:59Sean Fennessey?

  She has that purring voice.

• 1:33:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, she's great and she's, she can do it and I have no objection to it, but I don't think it needs to go in.

• 1:33:06Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Nightmare Alley's red. 2022 Tar.

• 1:33:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Green.

• 1:33:13Sean Fennessey?

  What key is that?

• 1:33:14Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know. I don't have perfect pitch.

• 1:33:16Sean Fennessey?

  Hard to believe. Tar is of course magnificent.

• 1:33:20Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm not musically inept. I thought that was a weird side, you know, side swipe.

• 1:33:25Sean Fennessey?

  What do you mean?

• 1:33:25Amanda Dobbins?

  I just don't have perfect pitch. Does Lydia Tar have perfect pitch?

• 1:33:28Sean Fennessey?

  One would hope.

• 1:33:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:30Sean Fennessey?

  One would hope, given her status as a world-class conductor.

• 1:33:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:35Sean Fennessey?

  Felled by cancel culture.

• 1:33:40Sean Fennessey?

  Tar is amazing. Tar, I want to do a, I want to do a rewatch pod about Tar. I want, we haven't done a rewatch this March. We always do a rewatch. I don't know if you realize that.

• 1:33:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, that's right.

• 1:33:50Sean Fennessey?

  I think Tar is fabulous and so fun.

• 1:33:53Amanda Dobbins?

  When is that on the schedule?

• 1:33:55Sean Fennessey?

  It's not on the schedule.

• 1:33:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, yeah. Can we do it as one of the, okay, well, we'll discuss.

• 1:33:59Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:34:00Amanda Dobbins?

  I feel like Tar, though, have we ever done a movie that good?

• 1:34:04Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, Babylon.

• 1:34:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, but, but there's a lot of, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There's a lot of, I think I was so pregnant when we did that.

• 1:34:13Sean Fennessey?

  We did Free Guy. That was good. We did.

• 1:34:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, no, I was really pregnant for that, but I was also pregnant for Babylon and it was like hour three.

• 1:34:20Sean Fennessey?

  We did the Snyder Cut. That was really good.

• 1:34:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. We did Dark Knight Rises.

• 1:34:26Speaker 05

  Podcast file, that, that podcast file was too long for me to upload, so I had to lower the quality so that people could hear it.

• 1:34:33Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, just like Zack Snyder did when he expanded the cut to four hours. I.

• 1:34:38Speaker 05

  Dark Knight Rises was good. That was fun.

• 1:34:39Sean Fennessey?

  Dark Knight Rises, that one was very funny.

• 1:34:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:41Sean Fennessey?

  Did that in Bill's old office.

• 1:34:42Amanda Dobbins?

  I remember.

• 1:34:43Sean Fennessey?

  And we did Tenet as well, didn't we not?

• 1:34:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, and that, and that was so confusing at the end.

• 1:34:49Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, for you, but not for me, the real Tenet knower. I, we, we don't have one on the schedule. Tar is.

• 1:34:58Amanda Dobbins?

  A masterpiece.

• 1:35:00Sean Fennessey?

  Todd Field is writing the script to the next Martin Scorsese movie. Did you see this report?

• 1:35:04Amanda Dobbins?

  No. Wow. I, listen, until stuff's in production, like, I love Marty, Marty, keep doing Marty, like, I can't get my heart wrapped up in it, you know?

• 1:35:15Sean Fennessey?

  2022, she's used her voice once again.

• 1:35:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:18Sean Fennessey?

  She stars as Spazatura. In Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio.

• 1:35:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. Is she a fascist?

• 1:35:24Sean Fennessey?

  I believe she is.

• 1:35:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:27Sean Fennessey?

  So you say yes going in?

• 1:35:28Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:35:28Sean Fennessey?

  Auto green?

• 1:35:29Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:35:30Sean Fennessey?

  That's a red. The School for Good and Evil. She also lends her voice to this film.

• 1:35:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:35:36Sean Fennessey?

  She plays the story in.

• 1:35:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:35:39Sean Fennessey?

  Not going in. 2023 is The New Boy.

• 1:35:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:42Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, which is one of your favorite movies of that year, as I recall. Was it number three on your list? Um, The New Boy is actually not available to be seen in the United States.

• 1:35:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Well, I haven't seen it, so.

• 1:35:52Sean Fennessey?

  It's a story about a nine-year-old indigenous Australian boy. And she has a supporting partner in the film.

• 1:35:58Amanda Dobbins?

  If I had gone to Cannes, I could have seen it.

• 1:36:01Sean Fennessey?

  Well, um, if my aunt had balls, she'd be my uncle, you know? This is, that's how, that's how life goes.

• 1:36:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:36:07Sean Fennessey?

  Um, 2024 is Rumors. This is the new Guy Madden political satirical comedy.

• 1:36:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:36:15Sean Fennessey?

  About the G6 meeting of world leaders getting lost in the woods.

• 1:36:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:36:22Sean Fennessey?

  I thought it was very bad.

• 1:36:23Amanda Dobbins?

  I did not see this because Si was born like a week before. Uh, and you know, I didn't visit.

• 1:36:30Sean Fennessey?

  Is he a big Guy Madden fan? Si? No? That's his favorite one. Um, 2024 is Borderlands, arguably the biggest bomb of 2024.

• 1:36:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. Tough break.

• 1:36:41Sean Fennessey?

  Not a good movie.

• 1:36:41Amanda Dobbins?

  No, not going in.

• 1:36:42Sean Fennessey?

  Not going in. 2025 Black Bag, hmm.

• 1:36:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, we already, we have 10, right, Bob?

• 1:36:48Sean Fennessey?

  I think we have 11. 10 or 11?

• 1:36:51Speaker 05

  I think, I think we only have 10.

• 1:36:54Sean Fennessey?

  I'll also add, in 2024, she made Disclaimer.

• 1:36:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:36:57Sean Fennessey?

  With Alfonso Cuarón. I completed three episodes of that series and stopped watching it.

• 1:37:01Amanda Dobbins?

  I completed none, but I listened to the watch, so I know what happens.

• 1:37:04Sean Fennessey?

  Um, also a literary adaptation. She's had many of those in her career. Cuarón among the finest filmmakers she's ever worked with. Largely, the reception of that show is, what is this?

• 1:37:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:16Sean Fennessey?

  I don't, we gotta just stop making TV shows.

• 1:37:19Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm with you.

• 1:37:19Sean Fennessey?

  Why did Alfonso Cuarón spend three years making this show?

• 1:37:22Amanda Dobbins?

  And you did also, you-

• 1:37:23Sean Fennessey?

  I love Alfonso Cuarón.

• 1:37:24Amanda Dobbins?

  You texted me after seeing Black Bag and were like, this is perfect. We don't make a TV show. All we need are 90-minute movies.

• 1:37:33Sean Fennessey?

  I thank you for pointing that. I forgot to say that, which is like, every TV show is trying to do what that movie pulls off in 93 minutes.

• 1:37:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:40Sean Fennessey?

  I, I don't know, you've heard that rant before. I hate it.

• 1:37:43Amanda Dobbins?

  And I agree.

• 1:37:43Sean Fennessey?

  I hate it. The elongation of story is so annoying to me.

• 1:37:46Amanda Dobbins?

  I preach.

• 1:37:47Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:37:48Amanda Dobbins?

  You know?

• 1:37:48Sean Fennessey?

  Um, we should have led with like, this movie's 93 minutes. Black Bag, uh, I don't think it's gonna go down in the history books as one of her greatest parts. She's actually really more of a supporting character in this movie than she is the star.

• 1:38:02Amanda Dobbins?

  She's very good.

• 1:38:02Sean Fennessey?

  She's very good. I would say it is really more Michael Fassbender's movie.

• 1:38:07Amanda Dobbins?

  And, and an ensemble, so.

• 1:38:09Sean Fennessey?

  It is. Let's, let's read it.

• 1:38:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Wow. Oh, yeah. All right. That's fine.

• 1:38:14Sean Fennessey?

  We can yellow it if you want. We have a lot of yellows to go through here, too. Let's go back to the beginning. Right now, we've got Oscar and Lucinda as a yellow. That's going red. I don't know. We can't make space for that. No, no offense to Jillian Armstrong. Um, the greens as of now are Elizabeth, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Aviator, Notes on a Scandal, I'm Not There, Hannah, Carol, and Tar. The existing yellows are The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Blue Jasmine, Cinderella, and Thor Ragnarok. Many will look at this list and say Hannah over Blue Jasmine?

• 1:38:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Once again.

• 1:38:56Sean Fennessey?

  If it happens, it will be because of you.

• 1:38:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, that's most things on this podcast and in life.

• 1:39:01Sean Fennessey?

  Everything that is ugly, cruel, stupid, and especially ugly is your fault.

• 1:39:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Um, I think that we already have one Oscar-winning film. I mean, do you want to do Blue Jasmine instead of The Aviator?

• 1:39:18Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 1:39:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. I don't either. Why can't we just do what we want? We can.

• 1:39:23Sean Fennessey?

  It's an amazing question. We don't live in a free society. We do not.

• 1:39:27Amanda Dobbins?

  In this, in this podcast, and in this exercise, we can do whatever the hell we want. Why is that so scary to you? Why is it always, why can't you just embrace exactly what you want?

• 1:39:40Sean Fennessey?

  I'm a man of honor. I have a code. I live by a code. That code has created incredible structure to this conversation.

• 1:39:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Is that the thing? That you just?

• 1:39:48Sean Fennessey?

  Do I not know what I want?

• 1:39:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, that you just, that you're uncertain?

• 1:39:50Sean Fennessey?

  Is there a person who knows more what he wants than me in this known universe?

• 1:39:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, so.

• 1:39:54Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe, but barely. Uh, I don't think.

• 1:39:59Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, make the case.

• 1:40:00Sean Fennessey?

  Hannah's choice is logical.

• 1:40:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Make the case. Go ahead. I don't care about logic. This is an expression of a feeling.

• 1:40:07Sean Fennessey?

  It's an irrelevant thriller. It's the fourth best Joe Wright movie. She's the third lead at best in the movie. And it's a underwritten villain part. She has tremendous presence.

• 1:40:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Would you like to do Cinderella instead of Hannah?

• 1:40:18Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 1:40:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:40:19Sean Fennessey?

  They're the same movie.

• 1:40:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Would you like to do Thor Ragnarok instead of Hannah?

• 1:40:23Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 1:40:23Amanda Dobbins?

  So you don't want to honor?

• 1:40:24Sean Fennessey?

  There are three villain parts that are fun, but are like minor compared to a movie like Blue Jasmine. It sits on her shoulders.

• 1:40:31Amanda Dobbins?

  But they represent something that she does.

• 1:40:35Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Very well throughout her career that we like. As opposed to Blue Jasmine, sure, the movie sits on her shoulders. The movie's fine. She's good, but like people have breakdowns, you know? The mascara is running down her face, like whatever.

• 1:40:50Sean Fennessey?

  That can't be your case against Blue Jasmine.

• 1:40:52Amanda Dobbins?

  I just, you're like standing on procedure a little bit too much, you know? And I think that, I think that's boring. Also, I have to be honest, if it's Blue Jasmine, then we have like no, there's nothing interesting in this list. This is so predictable. We didn't have to have a conversation.

• 1:41:10Sean Fennessey?

  Um, that's not really how it works here.

• 1:41:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, well, but I'm just saying.

• 1:41:14Sean Fennessey?

  We had a whole conversation about Middle Earth and we're in the timeline that exists.

• 1:41:17Amanda Dobbins?

  I know because I'm, listen, because I come prepared and I ask questions, you know?

• 1:41:21Sean Fennessey?

  Uh huh, definitely. That's exactly why it happens.

• 1:41:22Amanda Dobbins?

  I can always create.

• 1:41:24Sean Fennessey?

  Fully.

• 1:41:24Amanda Dobbins?

  I can, you know, engage on any topic, but I, it's boring. I think it's boring to do Blue Jasmine instead of Hannah. You can do something else if you want, but I, we don't need Blue Jasmine.

• 1:41:38Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, you can have your way.

• 1:41:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Like, I don't, I don't want it like that. That's not how I like to win. Make your decision. You do it. You, you decide.

• 1:41:47Sean Fennessey?

  You've already made your mind up.

• 1:41:49Amanda Dobbins?

  I have made my mind up, but I'm letting you conclude it.

• 1:41:53Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, no, thank you.

• 1:41:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, that's fine. Great.

• 1:41:57Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, it's, it makes your mania just a little bit more noticeable if I just pull back. That's, that's, that's my, my secret weapon in these conversations. The, the, the Cate Blanchett Hall of Fame.

• 1:42:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 1:42:11Sean Fennessey?

  Is as follows. Elizabeth, The Talented Mr. Ripley, The Lord of the Rings, The Fellowship of the Ring, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou, The Aviator, Notes on a Scandal, I'm Not There, Hannah, Carol, and Tar.

• 1:42:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Great.

• 1:42:27Sean Fennessey?

  She is the supporting character in 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 of these movies.

• 1:42:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Well.

• 1:42:35Sean Fennessey?

  You feel okay about that?

• 1:42:36Amanda Dobbins?

  I do. Because we have Tar and Elizabeth and Carol. And, I mean, I guess she's a supporting character in I'm Not There, but like, we have I'm Not There. I don't know. I don't, you know, it's not, it's not numbers on a clock for me. It's the impact of the performance.

• 1:42:58Sean Fennessey?

  Num, oh, so, because you don't believe in category fraud either?

• 1:43:02Amanda Dobbins?

  No, yeah.

• 1:43:03Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, well, you have a really strong point of view. Really, really happy for you. This is a great, a great lineup.

• 1:43:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:43:12Sean Fennessey?

  Great job.

• 1:43:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Good job, Kate Blanchett.

• 1:43:13Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, she's a wonderful actor. I highly encourage people to see Black Bag.

• 1:43:18Amanda Dobbins?

  A thousand percent.

• 1:43:19Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, Bob, you saw it. What'd you think?

• 1:43:21Speaker 05

  I thought it was awesome. I, it just wasn't trying to be more than it was. You know, when you get like an awesome chicken parm with perfectly cooked pasta? And you're just like, I'm not striving for more than this, but this is the best execution of this? That's how I felt about it.

• 1:43:36Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, I fully agree. As a chicken parm fanatic, it's an apt comparison. Um, let me ask you a quick question about that. I know you don't rate movies.

• 1:43:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:47Sean Fennessey?

  But if you were gonna rate Black Bag.

• 1:43:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:43:50Sean Fennessey?

  Do you think about what Bob is describing, which is a movie that was, that sort of has a clear intention? It is not trying to be more than it is, which I think is actually quite admirable. I think the problem is, is when something's trying to be something and it can't be it, or doesn't know how to be it.

• 1:44:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:03Sean Fennessey?

  But is there a ceiling on that in terms of how you would rate it? Like, can a movie like this only be an 8? Even though you love it?

• 1:44:13Amanda Dobbins?

  As you know, I don't like to think in those, in, in the terms.

• 1:44:17Sean Fennessey?

  I'm challenging that construct.

• 1:44:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, but I, you know, you're challenging it, but my answer to you is, I, that is why I think that your rating system is imperfect and doesn't reflect my view of the world. Um.

• 1:44:33Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:44:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Because I, I think that we need a system.

• 1:44:40Amanda Dobbins?

  That, uh, like, I don't know. I, I do think that doing the job that you set out to do and landing the plane is an extremely important part of any artistic endeavor. And as you know, I tend to wait at like, if you don't, if you tried something big and you did not land the plane, hello, the brutalist. I have some questions. Whereas if you are very clear on what you want to do and you do land the plane, I appreciate, I, like, I tend to value that more. But am I gonna tell you that the, that Black Bag is like better quote unquote than The Brutalist? I don't know. It's, they're two different systems.

• 1:45:22Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Thanks to our producer Bobby Wagner for his work on today's episode. Thanks to John Richter for filling in for Jack Sanders. We'll be back, uh, next week to talk about a movie that I'm sure will be equal to, if not stronger than Black Bag. I'm talking about The Electric State, which is on, gonna be on the Netflix service.

• 1:45:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:45:40Sean Fennessey?

  You're gonna watch it there?

• 1:45:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 1:45:42Sean Fennessey?

  Not at the 70 Millimeter Festival. You're not gonna wait?

• 1:45:46Amanda Dobbins?

  No, no.

• 1:45:46Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. We'll also talk about movies we missed so far this year.

• 1:45:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:50Sean Fennessey?

  Is there anything you're gonna catch up on?

• 1:45:52Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm gonna see Iphis.

• 1:45:53Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, oh, yeah.

• 1:45:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Which I'm excited about.

• 1:45:55Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. You love baseball.

• 1:45:57Amanda Dobbins?

  I do love baseball.

• 1:45:57Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:58Amanda Dobbins?

  So I'm gonna check that out. I don't know if I'm gonna be able to see Nova Kane.

• 1:46:02Sean Fennessey?

  I'm gonna see Nova Kane tomorrow.

• 1:46:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:46:04Sean Fennessey?

  Can tell you all about it.

• 1:46:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, I have a passport appointment for my child, so.

• 1:46:08Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:46:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Uh, and both parents have to go, you know?

• 1:46:12Sean Fennessey?

  I'm aware of this.

• 1:46:13Amanda Dobbins?

  So I'm try, I'm trying to think what else. I've, I've seen some things.

• 1:46:18Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:46:18Amanda Dobbins?

  We're gonna talk about Opus. I'm excited about that. We're gonna talk about The Last Breath, which I have seen.

• 1:46:23Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:46:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, we're gonna-

• 1:46:25Sean Fennessey?

  I think it's just Last Breath.

• 1:46:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, is it?

• 1:46:29Sean Fennessey?

  I think so.

• 1:46:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:46:31Sean Fennessey?

  Lose the the, it's cooler.

• 1:46:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Anything else that you want to throw in the mix?

• 1:46:39Sean Fennessey?

  There's a part of me that wants to have Chris and I describe the gorge to you.

• 1:46:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, I was gonna watch it, but I shouldn't watch it. You guys can just explain it to me.

• 1:46:46Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe we'll describe the monkey to you.

• 1:46:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:46:50Sean Fennessey?

  Have you seen the gorge, Bob?

• 1:46:51Speaker 05

  The gorge rocks. I loved it. I had such a fine time.

• 1:46:55Sean Fennessey?

  That was a horrendous take. I look forward to hearing your thoughts.

• 1:46:58Speaker 05

  You don't want to look at Anya Taylor-Joy's face? Like, that's the whole plot of the movie.

• 1:47:03Sean Fennessey?

  I assure you it is not. There's a lot of plot in that movie.

• 1:47:08Amanda Dobbins?

  I've watched a lot of movies at this point where the whole plot is look at Anya Taylor-Joy's face, and it is very beautiful and captivating.

• 1:47:15Speaker 05

  Still working.

• 1:47:16Amanda Dobbins?

  For me, it has limited returns.

• 1:47:19Sean Fennessey?

  That's fair. A whole bunch of other movies. I'll think of some others. I forget what they are. We'll see you then.