A House of Dynamite

Kathryn Bigelow is back. But are WE so back? Not quite. The gang discusses the recent release A House of Dynamite, a film in which the president listens to podcasts, Tracy Letts loves the Mets, and the city of Chicago may or may not be completely leveled by an atomic bomb. Do we kind of miss Mark Boal now? Are we praying Kathryn Bigelow directs something a little more in line with Strange Days or Point Break next? Would Ethan Hunt have saved this movie? Yes, yes, and yes. Sign up for Check Book https://blankcheckpod.substack.com/welcome, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. http://www.patreon.com/blankcheck Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter https://x.com/blankcheckpod?lang=en, Instagram https://www.instagram.com/blankcheckpod/?hl=en, Threads https://www.threads.net/@blankcheckpod?xmt=AQGzctAh4mbWTwYzCV1pzNT6AMV9o99EOfymi8TLR5mTde0 and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/blankcheckpodcast/! Buy some real nerdy merch https://kinshipgoods.com/blankcheck Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/blankies/s/gpcOkQr8Sv or Discord https://discord.gg/Q6YGSR3JrA For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com https://www.blankcheckpod.com/ Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy https://acast.com/privacy for more information.

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

• 0:02Griffin Newman?

  David.

• 0:03David Sims?

  Yep.

• 0:03Griffin Newman?

  We did a live show.

• 0:04David Sims?

  Yeah, remember?

• 0:05Griffin Newman?

  Ranking Scorsese at the Bell House in Brooklyn. We did the definitive power ranking of Martin Scorsese things.

• 0:12David Sims?

  Uh, it was so fun. Uh, it was very silly.

• 0:15Griffin Newman?

  Ben and Marie were with us and they're with us right now.

• 0:18David Sims?

  Yeah, hey.

• 0:18Speaker 02

  Hey, everyone, or should I say, oh?

• 0:20David Sims?

  Oh.

• 0:22Griffin Newman?

  And thanks to our friends at Dynasty Typewriter. It was livestreamed for the first time ever. But also, the replay is still up there, but only until October 30th.

• 0:31David Sims?

  So just a few more days.

• 0:33Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 0:33David Sims?

  You can get it at dynasty.tv.

• 0:36Griffin Newman?

  Dynasty.tv.

• 0:37David Sims?

  It's $20. We had a blast and the Spreadmaster really got to work.

• 0:43Griffin Newman?

  Oh, yeah. I was moving things around. Laptop was on.

• 0:46Speaker 02

  I don't know if I'd have seen you that happy.

• 0:48Griffin Newman?

  You were thrilled. You were like a pick and share.

• 0:50David Sims?

  I was locked in.

• 0:51Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, very locked in and you were funny.

• 0:53David Sims?

  Thank you. You were funny. You were also funny.

• 0:56Griffin Newman?

  Oh, thank you.

• 0:57David Sims?

  And if you want to see like, you know, Griffin's shine box on camera, it's the only way to see it.

• 1:02Griffin Newman?

  You might see me shine Marie's shoes.

• 1:04David Sims?

  Exactly.

• 1:05Speaker 02

  Yeah, if you're into that sort of content.

• 1:07Griffin Newman?

  If that gets you off.

• 1:09Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:10David Sims?

  So once again, that's at dynasty.tv.

• 1:39Speaker 03

  I was listening to this dynamite the other day and it said, we're living in a house full of podcasts.

• 1:46Griffin Newman?

  Now here's what's going on.

• 1:47David Sims?

  I.

• 1:48Griffin Newman?

  Marie sees this movie first of the four of us. She texts us, oh my God, you guys, the big monologue in the movie, the monologue that provides the title for the film already has the word podcast in it.

• 2:01Speaker 02

  Correct.

• 2:01Griffin Newman?

  Ben and I go see the movie like a couple nights later. That line comes up, Ben like slaps himself in the face. He like face palms, right?

• 2:10David Sims?

  Oh, it's not. If you're gonna do the Leo pointing meme.

• 2:15Griffin Newman?

  I, which I did, which I did. I did my part.

• 2:18David Sims?

  Don't do it after, one, you've already had the title of the movie appear.

• 2:23Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:23David Sims?

  And then, two, you've named the third chapter of your movie that as well and had that title appear.

• 2:30Griffin Newman?

  And, and by the way.

• 2:31David Sims?

  And then, just, just, it just kind of felt like it just almost like, and by the way, the metaphor is that it's what we've built a house full of dynamite. I heard that on a podcast.

• 2:41Griffin Newman?

  I was trying to do, and you just did it well, the Idris Elba thing where it's like 95% perfect American accent.

• 2:48David Sims?

  I, I think he has had better American accents in the past, but always what you're describing where it's like, ah, some, some vowels are escaping, some vowels are out of the pen.

• 2:58Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, some Sam Wurth.

• 2:59David Sims?

  Get Babe the Sheep Pig. Let's, let's get these vowels back in. This was, I wasn't sure what was going on. He kind of sounded British to me the whole time. I was really confused.

• 3:08Speaker 02

  Forgot that he was the president.

• 3:11David Sims?

  Well, you think he was.

• 3:13Speaker 02

  I forgot, I, I like saw that he was in the movie.

• 3:16David Sims?

  Oh, you forgot that he was gonna be in the movie?

• 3:18Speaker 02

  I forgot that he was gonna be in the movie. So the whole time, I'm like, well, who's the president?

• 3:22David Sims?

  Who's the president?

• 3:23Griffin Newman?

  That's what they want.

• 3:24Speaker 02

  And I was, I saw this movie at Nighthawk, so I was like writing things down on my little, like, you know, order cards. Um, and one of the things was like, what, he sounds like Cuomo. Like, he's got like.

• 3:36Griffin Newman?

  Oh, Jesus. You were writing them down for your husband, I assume, who you saw the movie with?

• 3:40Speaker 02

  And I'm like, is it gonna be like, some, like, sometimes he sounds a little Trumpy, sometimes he sounds like Cuomo. There's definitely like a New York accent. There was just like too much going on. And then when they had the Idris reveal, I was like, oh, oh, okay.

• 3:55David Sims?

  He's plausible casting as a president, obviously.

• 3:58Griffin Newman?

  We're gonna talk about it. There's a lot.

• 3:59David Sims?

  You keep saying we're gonna talk about things. What are we gonna do right now?

• 4:02Griffin Newman?

  Finish my setup of this thing. So the line is, Ben's like, no, we go see this movie also at Nighthawk. By the way, Maria, I thought what you were gonna say is Nighthawk dining theater. You on the little order card wrote down, who is playing the president and asked the server to answer.

• 4:15Speaker 02

  Well, you know what I did write down for the server? There was a guy in front of me who was vaping.

• 4:20Griffin Newman?

  Fuck this.

• 4:21Speaker 02

  He lets out a fucking cloud of smoke in the middle of the movie and I'm like, I'm sorry. This is a civilized theater. We don't do that here.

• 4:29Griffin Newman?

  This is not a house full of dynamite.

• 4:31David Sims?

  Right.

• 4:31Griffin Newman?

  Uh, this happened to me on the subway yesterday and I like sat down, woman next to me takes out a vape pen the moment I sit down, blows a puff of smoke. I'm like, sorry, other side of the car. I am not sitting next to you.

• 4:41David Sims?

  I don't approve. I don't vape anymore.

• 4:43Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 4:44David Sims?

  Okay. I know at one time I did and I would vape in studio and I've learned my lesson.

• 4:48Griffin Newman?

  You're squeaky clean Benny.

• 4:49David Sims?

  Yes.

• 4:50Speaker 02

  You vaped in this studio?

• 4:52David Sims?

  No, when we used to record at the Audio Boom Studios, I occasionally would take a quick little puff.

• 4:57Griffin Newman?

  I was a little fuck the man. Now you're the man. Who are you fucking if you vape in the studio?

• 5:01David Sims?

  That's true.

• 5:02Griffin Newman?

  This line comes up. We go see the movie Truck Torrance.

• 5:06David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 5:06Griffin Newman?

  Great artist.

• 5:07David Sims?

  Friend of the show.

• 5:08Griffin Newman?

  Man behind a hundred percent soft was in town for near Comic Con and Alan Smithy, anonymous editor of Blank Check.

• 5:13David Sims?

  Correct.

• 5:13Griffin Newman?

  And the four of us are talking after the movie. And you're, I think Truck is like, well, makes your life easy. The quote's just there, right? And I was like, I think I want to flip the word dynamite and podcast in the quote. Cause for the first time we have a quote with podcast in it, is it funny to overdo the bit? And then Alan Smithy was like, you should just say the word podcast 15 times. And I was like, let me find the exact quote and then I'll do it. There is no way to find the exact quote. We saw it in theaters.

• 5:40David Sims?

  No one's writing down these quotes.

• 5:41Griffin Newman?

  It's not on Netflix yet.

• 5:41David Sims?

  No, not yet.

• 5:42Griffin Newman?

  We don't have a screener link. I was just like, I only remember the one sentence. I think I got it right, but also the three times.

• 5:49David Sims?

  You didn't get it exact, but who cares?

• 5:50Griffin Newman?

  House of Dynamite as title Chyron, line in movie and title of film are worded three different ways.

• 5:56David Sims?

  It's true.

• 5:57Griffin Newman?

  It's house full of dyna- a house full of dynamite.

• 5:59David Sims?

  That's the, the chapter heading. Right. Exactly. It's just.

• 6:04Griffin Newman?

  Filled with dynamite is one time, I think.

• 6:06David Sims?

  But like, you can't say.

• 6:09David Sims?

  In my opinion, you can actually do whatever you want.

• 6:11Griffin Newman?

  I can do whatever.

• 6:12David Sims?

  We live in a free country, but.

• 6:13Griffin Newman?

  For the time.

• 6:13David Sims?

  For, yeah, right, sort of.

• 6:15Griffin Newman?

  Maybe not by the time this episode comes out.

• 6:16David Sims?

  Sort of, we live, sort of live in a free country, kind of, kind of.

• 6:18Griffin Newman?

  Fifteen asterisks, yeah.

• 6:20David Sims?

  But like, I don't think your movie can have someone say the title and preface it with, "I heard this on a podcast."

• 6:27Speaker 02

  My god.

• 6:28David Sims?

  Like, and then it's like, "Oh, oh, and what's the character, President of the United States?" And I'm like.

• 6:32Speaker 02

  I was, I work for a podcast and I was so embarrassed.

• 6:36Griffin Newman?

  I was gonna say.

• 6:37Speaker 02

  I felt so ashamed.

• 6:38Griffin Newman?

  Anytime a podcast comes up in any movie, I immediately knock it a star.

• 6:44David Sims?

  Right.

• 6:44Griffin Newman?

  And maybe it's, it's self-loathing, we're, this is a room, thank god for podcasts, they saved our lives.

• 6:50David Sims?

  Of course, I like podcasts.

• 6:51Griffin Newman?

  But the second movies give any weight to podcasts, I'm like, this movie's done.

• 6:55David Sims?

  Well, especially because he's a fucking politician, he's the goddamn president.

• 6:58Speaker 02

  Although I will say.

• 6:59David Sims?

  Why is he listening to podcasts?

• 7:01Speaker 02

  We are saying this in the week.

• 7:02Griffin Newman?

  Obama and W-.

• 7:03Speaker 02

  That Obama concludes WTF.

• 7:06Griffin Newman?

  Not by that he's listening to podcasts, of course he's listening to podcasts.

• 7:10David Sims?

  Like, oh sure, should Obama be doing something different with his post-presidency, fine.

• 7:15Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, he should go on Theo Von.

• 7:16David Sims?

  I'm more, I'm more just saying, yeah, he should go on and be like, "What's the matter with you?"

• 7:20Griffin Newman?

  Fuck, shut the fuck up.

• 7:22David Sims?

  No, he's just like, "What's the matter with you?"

• 7:24Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 7:24David Sims?

  He just said that over and over again.

• 7:25Speaker 02

  Something's going on with him right now, isn't there? Theo, he's got, okay, we'll, we'll sidetrack.

• 7:30David Sims?

  Into all this and we'll introduce our show in a second.

• 7:32Griffin Newman?

  Obama should go on Joe Rogan.

• 7:33David Sims?

  It's just that the guy's literally being asked, like, "Hey, so what amount of nukes should we fire?" And he's like.

• 7:39Griffin Newman?

  Clock literally ticking.

• 7:40David Sims?

  Should we fire? And he's like, "Yeah, so I heard something on a podcast once," I would be like, "Let's table that," until we're in fucking Fort, you know, apocalypse.

• 7:49Griffin Newman?

  We got less than five minutes going on. I don't want you quoting any podcast, no. Here is what does exist on the quotes page for A House of Dynamite, the new film from Catherine Bigelow.

• 7:59David Sims?

  Our first in six years, I believe, right?

• 8:01Griffin Newman?

  Seven.

• 8:02David Sims?

  Seven, okay.

• 8:02Griffin Newman?

  I think Detroit was twenty eighteen. I believe so.

• 8:06David Sims?

  I believe, I mean, you could tell me anything. Here.

• 8:09Speaker 02

  I think it was 2017.

• 8:10David Sims?

  It was 2017.

• 8:11Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 8:11Griffin Newman?

  Jesus.

• 8:12David Sims?

  Wow.

• 8:13Griffin Newman?

  So it's been eight years.

• 8:14David Sims?

  Eight years.

• 8:15Griffin Newman?

  Uh, here's what's on the quotes page. S A I C Ken Cho. And then in brackets, talking to Lieutenant Commander Robert Reeves, the carrier of quote unquote, "the football that holds the nuclear launch codes," and about how many presidents he's worked for, and about the current serving president portrayed by Idris Elba. End of brackets. I've worked for three. They're all narcissists. At least this one reads the newspaper. None of that context necessary. Who is the lunatic who adds that to IMDb?

• 8:42Speaker 02

  I don't know.

• 8:43Griffin Newman?

  But they didn't add the line I was looking for. Look, this is Blank Check with Griffin and David. I am Griffin.

• 8:48David Sims?

  I'm David. That's not the kind of rapid response the president should be.

• 8:52David Sims?

  Hello, it's Ben Hosley.

• 8:54David Sims?

  Hello, Ben.

• 8:55Speaker 02

  And I'm Commander Lieutenant Marie Barty Salinas.

• 8:59Griffin Newman?

  There we fucking go.

• 9:00David Sims?

  Kind of more Lieutenant Commander.

• 9:01Speaker 02

  I don't know. I don't know.

• 9:03David Sims?

  My hands are up. My hands are up.

• 9:04Griffin Newman?

  Democratic Party, Barty.

• 9:06Speaker 02

  Well, you know what?

• 9:08David Sims?

  This movie doesn't pick sides.

• 9:08Speaker 02

  It doesn't pick sides. I'm technically a registered Democrat in New York because you kind of have to be in order to vote for the local primaries, but.

• 9:15Griffin Newman?

  I'm not pegging you as a Democrat. I'm just trying to come with an analog for this movie.

• 9:18Speaker 02

  Thank you.

• 9:19David Sims?

  You're part of the machine, the Democrat machine.

• 9:21Speaker 02

  No, I'm not.

• 9:22David Sims?

  No, I'm kidding.

• 9:23Speaker 02

  I dare you.

• 9:23Griffin Newman?

  Years ago, we covered Kathryn Bigelow on this podcast tied into the release of Detroit, which seemed like a very exciting new movie. That was one of the cases where we put someone on the schedule saying.

• 9:34David Sims?

  You're right.

• 9:34Griffin Newman?

  And it will line up perfectly.

• 9:36David Sims?

  Right, and we hadn't discussed a lot of women on the show. She had obvious Blank Check films in her.

• 9:41Griffin Newman?

  Absolutely.

• 9:42David Sims?

  And she was coming off of a, you know, double Best Picture contender type movies. Yeah.

• 9:48Griffin Newman?

  And, and Zero Dark was a big hit.

• 9:51David Sims?

  Zero Dark had also made money.

• 9:52Griffin Newman?

  Had made a lot of money. And you were like, she's in a real prime position. And people were excited about the trailers for that movie. And then just kind of like immediate belly flop. We had our friends from Black Man Can't Jump in Hollywood on. We were just sort of like, this thing just doesn't work. Feels like Kathryn Bigelow needs a reset. She's done these three Mark Bull movies in a row and something needs to reset. And instead, just fucking eight-year hiatus. Talking to someone the other night who was like, well, what has she made since Detroit? And I was like, nothing. And he was like, what happened in that time? And I was trying to remember, we can go into some of it. There's like an HBO series that she shoots the pilot. It doesn't happen.

• 10:30David Sims?

  Sure.

• 10:30Griffin Newman?

  She was announced a direct triple frontier.

• 10:32David Sims?

  That was obviously a sort of long gestating, yeah.

• 10:35Griffin Newman?

  There were a couple of those, though. There were a couple. Here's a hot script. Bigelow attached with three big names. It's set up at a studio. Budget disagreement. She drops off. Another year goes by without a big low.

• 10:48David Sims?

  Here's the thing. No, here's the thing. Triple Frontier was announced after Hurt Locker.

• 10:54Griffin Newman?

  Insane.

• 10:55David Sims?

  She decides to go Zero Dark Thirty. Post that, she continues to court it, but then decides she's gonna make a Bo Bergdahl movie.

• 11:02Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 11:03David Sims?

  Which never happened.

• 11:04Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 11:04Speaker 02

  Why do I know that? Who's that?

• 11:05Griffin Newman?

  Serial season two.

• 11:07David Sims?

  He's the guy who wandered off.

• 11:08Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But is that the jihadist or whatever? Am I thinking?

• 11:14Griffin Newman?

  No.

• 11:14David Sims?

  I don't know.

• 11:14Speaker 02

  The different series that New York Times Audio did?

• 11:17Griffin Newman?

  Am I wrong in thinking that Serial?

• 11:19David Sims?

  It was Serial season two.

• 11:20Griffin Newman?

  Was basically using the material that Mark Bull had from interviewing to research for that movie?

• 11:25David Sims?

  I think so. I think there was a little bit of that.

• 11:27Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. But this is that era where you're just like, maybe she needs to like stop working with Bull.

• 11:32Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, this guy. He was held by the Taliban. Yeah. Okay, I remember this. Sorry.

• 11:37David Sims?

  Uh, she did Detroit instead.

• 11:38Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 11:39David Sims?

  But then, yeah. I don't, I mean, COVID happened. She's getting older. She's in her seventies. It's not like.

• 11:45Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 11:45David Sims?

  I need Kathryn Bigelow to be pedal to the metal, but it is. Yeah, I mean, she did an Apple commercial.

• 11:52Griffin Newman?

  You're right. Triple Frontier was 2010. She was gonna do it with Tom Hanks and Johnny Depp. I also remember a version where Tom Hardy and Will Smith were attached.

• 12:01David Sims?

  I mean, it's a movie with a bunch of guys. A lot of guys could fit in it.

• 12:04Griffin Newman?

  Miraculous Year was her HBO pilot, but that was also 2010. And she had a stacked cast. Uh, and it wasn't picked up. Uh, but you're right, there hasn't even been.

• 12:17David Sims?

  I think she's mostly just chilling.

• 12:19Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 12:19David Sims?

  I don't know. I don't know what she's.

• 12:20Griffin Newman?

  Netflix, she had a film called Aurora that was an adaptation of David Koep's novel. I mean, it's even just like reading things like this. Of course, she was offered the first Andrew Garfield Amazing Spider-Man. She was offered Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

• 12:35Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 12:35David Sims?

  She um also Mogadishu, Minnesota. That was an HBO thing that sputtered. Yeah.

• 12:41Griffin Newman?

  Tomb Raider, the Vicander Tomb Raider?

• 12:44David Sims?

  Okay, you know what? Okay, all right, I have a bunch of things to say. One, I don't like, we've introduced the show, right?

• 12:50Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 12:50David Sims?

  Yes, The House of Dynamite. I don't like the film, and I do feel like it is on the same track, a track I wish she'd leapt off of, right? And so in theory, I want her to make Tomb Raider, right? Because I'm like, Catherine, high-octane action, you used to be the queen of this. Like, what happened? Like, let's do this again. Let's do something goofier. Let's do something more fun. But then like, it is like, I guess the option is like, do you want to do Tomb Raider? Right? It's like, you can't go and make probably an original giant-scale action movie with ease. You can do Tomb Raider and try and, you know, have fun with that, right?

• 13:23Griffin Newman?

  Here's the thought I had like halfway through this movie. And you're right, that it'd be more depressing if we were just like, wait a second, Catherine Bigelow directed Extraction 3?

• 13:30David Sims?

  Right.

• 13:31Griffin Newman?

  And they're not even promoting her?

• 13:33David Sims?

  Right.

• 13:34Griffin Newman?

  Here was the major thought I had. Up until this year, when the train came off the rails, I was excited by the direction Mission Impossible had gone in, being a Macquarie-driven franchise. But if we run an alternate history in which it remains a new director every time?

• 13:53Speaker 02

  She would have been great.

• 13:54Griffin Newman?

  I feel like we almost definitely would have gotten a Mission Impossible directed by Bigelow at some point in the 2010s.

• 13:59David Sims?

  At the very least, the call would have been made.

• 14:00Griffin Newman?

  Yes. Or a Bond, or like any of these things where you're like, can we at least give her like the caviar franchises? As depressing as that is, maybe that's what she should have done in 2017. That's like, put me up for the most adult, sophisticated franchises.

• 14:16David Sims?

  I, not to psychoanalyze her, but I don't think she wants to do that, right? She wants to do really serious stuff. It seems to me what interests her.

• 14:23Griffin Newman?

  I liked, but I'm like, something like Bourne is the most serious version of a franchise movie, you know? There are versions of this she can do.

• 14:31David Sims?

  But look, she tried to make a movie called Mogadishu, Minnesota, about jihadi recruitment. You know, I just feel like she's just like on this path of like, no, I want to do like docu-drama stuff. I want to do stuff about right now, like, you know, what's happening in the world.

• 14:45Griffin Newman?

  Here's my bigger take right off the bat. I say right off the bat, 15 minutes into an episode. I like this movie more than the three of you, while admitting it's pretty fucking wonky. It is not a great film.

• 14:55David Sims?

  Also courted to direct a reboot of Planet of the Apes at one point.

• 14:58Griffin Newman?

  I said that already.

• 14:59David Sims?

  Oh, sorry.

• 14:59Speaker 02

  Well, no, you said she was. You said she was, was it Rise? Was that the reboot?

• 15:05Griffin Newman?

  Rise was the first.

• 15:06David Sims?

  The 2011.

• 15:07Speaker 02

  The James Franco.

• 15:07David Sims?

  It makes sense.

• 15:08Griffin Newman?

  These were the things she was offered post Oscar.

• 15:11David Sims?

  Hurt Locker, right.

• 15:12Griffin Newman?

  Right. There's, there's that list that Deadline posted that I love to reference where they said they have four candidates to take over Spider-Man. This is Sony's dream wishlist Pascal has hand-selected of who she thinks is up to the task of rebooting Spider-Man.

• 15:27David Sims?

  And then this is, that movie was 2012, so like early 2009.

• 15:32Griffin Newman?

  2010, 2011 announcement, right?

• 15:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, so right after Hurt Locker.

• 15:35Griffin Newman?

  The names were Catherine Bigelow.

• 15:37Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 15:37Griffin Newman?

  David Fincher, who of course met on the 2002, on the first Raimi film. Wes Anderson.

• 15:44Speaker 02

  What?

• 15:45Griffin Newman?

  Who was kind of at like a bad career point, assigned to new management and they clearly were like.

• 15:50David Sims?

  Kind of like post Argealing, but no, Fantastic Fox.

• 15:52Griffin Newman?

  Fantastic Mr. Fox flopped.

• 15:54David Sims?

  Yeah, but, you know, it was a good movie.

• 15:55Griffin Newman?

  Yes, but Moonrise really did kind of like swing him back.

• 15:59David Sims?

  Him out, yeah.

• 16:00Griffin Newman?

  He got new reps and there was this moment of like, is he gonna director for hire? Can he not do his thing anymore? And then Moonrise was so much smaller budget, right? And then the fourth name on the list was Mark Webb. And they went with Mark Webb, obviously.

• 16:13Speaker 02

  Because his name was Webb?

• 16:15Griffin Newman?

  I think that was a big part of it. And I think the other thing was the other three directors went, no fucking way.

• 16:20David Sims?

  Yeah, I mean, right, is that like me saying like, I'd like a 10-year, $400 million contract.

• 16:27Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 16:28David Sims?

  But like, my actual desired salary is Mark Webb.

• 16:33Griffin Newman?

  But look, you watch this movie and I'm like, this is like kind of a gentleman's six to me. It has high highs.

• 16:39David Sims?

  Sure.

• 16:39Griffin Newman?

  It's got some really dumb shit. I didn't find it not enjoyable to watch. I also didn't find it frustrating as much as its failings are annoying. If she waited eight years and made this, I'm like, you could have made like an okay movie every two years.

• 16:56Speaker 02

  This could, this felt like a COVID movie, which is really depressing.

• 17:00Griffin Newman?

  This feels like her doing like a Netflix series.

• 17:02David Sims?

  Yes.

• 17:03Griffin Newman?

  I'm like, if, if this is the level, if you weren't taking the time to really be like, it's gotta be the right project. Then like fart a couple of these out. I'll never complain about having one of these. Every eighteen months on a streaming service. It feels really Netflix.

• 17:17David Sims?

  Is there like an interview with her? Like where she explains like, yeah, I just, you know, wasn't that excited about anything? Or, you know, I just, I wonder like what.

• 17:26Griffin Newman?

  It's all, it's also interesting to me that I feel like a lot of filmmakers who are getting older and were in this like, eh, am I retired? Do I really have that dog in me anymore? Do I want to hunt the big projects? In 2020, like flipped out. A lot of filmmakers talked about this. In 2020, they're like, fuck.

• 17:45David Sims?

  Right.

• 17:46Griffin Newman?

  It could all end tomorrow. If I never get to make another movie again, what am I making? And then they like launched projects right out of 2021, you know? End of 2020. She still waited another like five years. It doesn't feel like this movie comes out of fuck, I'm tired of sitting around, I just gotta do something.

• 18:04David Sims?

  So I'm reading an interview with her in Deadline.

• 18:06Speaker 02

  That's what I'm reading right now, too.

• 18:08David Sims?

  And she generated this project.

• 18:10Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 18:11David Sims?

  And was, she was like, who could I, you know, like, just the, the, the very basic idea of like, what does it look like if a nuclear bomb gets launched in America?

• 18:17Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 18:18David Sims?

  And someone connected her with Noah Oppenheim, who of course has screenplay credits, you know, to his name, obviously. He wrote Jackie.

• 18:25Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 18:25David Sims?

  Uh, he wrote, um, what else?

• 18:27Griffin Newman?

  Movie I like a tremendous amount, but it's also very silly. David's making stinky.

• 18:31David Sims?

  I like that movie a lot. The script is dog shit. I, I, I, everything else is good, in my opinion. No, I know, I know. I'm staying in my opinion of, of that script by Noah Oppen. It's very silly.

• 18:42Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 18:43David Sims?

  Uh, he wrote Zero Day, which I think is sort of a House of Dynamite style TV show.

• 18:48Griffin Newman?

  Like, it's very similar to this, right?

• 18:50Speaker 02

  Doesn't, don't people not like that?

• 18:52David Sims?

  Of course.

• 18:53Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 18:53David Sims?

  Of course they don't like it.

• 18:55Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, I'm seeing here that viewers called it bad.

• 18:57David Sims?

  Oh, oh out of ten. Like, you know, it's just like, you know, it was, it was, it's so exemplified what Netflix is now where they're like, we made a show, Robert De Niro, Jesse Plemons, Lucy Kaplan, Joan Allen, Connie Britton, Bill Kemp, who's the president, it's like a huge fucking thing. We cost so much money, I assume, to make it. It's about all this shit, right? There's like a terrorist attack or something.

• 19:19Griffin Newman?

  Angela Bassett.

• 19:20David Sims?

  Right. And people are like, oh, is it any good? And they're like, no, no, no. It's bad. And you can't watch it. You'd fall asleep. No one will ever watch it. Robert De Niro will go on off menu to promote it.

• 19:30Griffin Newman?

  Sat on a shelf for like two years.

• 19:31David Sims?

  Right.

• 19:32Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 19:33David Sims?

  So. Like he did that, he did Allegiant and The Maze Runner.

• 19:37Griffin Newman?

  Of course.

• 19:38David Sims?

  That's weird. But you know, he has this news background.

• 19:41Griffin Newman?

  Okay, Zero Day is-

• 19:42David Sims?

  And she calls him.

• 19:43Griffin Newman?

  Excuse me, Zero Day is cyber terrorist.

• 19:46David Sims?

  You know, what if something happened?

• 19:47Griffin Newman?

  But yes.

• 19:48David Sims?

  Yeah, another what if something happened movie.

• 19:50Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 19:50David Sims?

  And so she calls him and is like, you know, you do the research or whatever. Like, you know, so what would that look like? And so she did commission this script, basically, from him.

• 20:02Griffin Newman?

  If I got this script, lands on my desk, I read it. My immediate email back to Noah Oppenheim is like, hey, great start.

• 20:13Griffin Newman?

  Here are-

• 20:14David Sims?

  Great research material, essentially.

• 20:16Griffin Newman?

  Of notes. There's stuff in this.

• 20:19David Sims?

  Griffin, you don't know, maybe this was after years of edits and back and forth.

• 20:25Griffin Newman?

  It's possible, but that's what this feels like. This feels like a decent first draft for something you couldn't really-

• 20:31Speaker 02

  Well, what I want to know is-

• 20:33David Sims?

  Yes.

• 20:33Speaker 02

  Is the, is the structure of the film, is that something that was present from the beginning? Or is that something when they were like, hey, actually, we don't have, if we don't want to show the effects of the bomb, we don't want to show it going off, and we also want to like, plant you in media res. There really isn't that much we can do, so I guess we have to repeat it.

• 20:52David Sims?

  This is exactly what I want to say, I'll say it, and then I'll be done. This movie, right, as you mentioned, does the same thing three times. It's showing you 18 minutes.

• 21:04Griffin Newman?

  It resets the clock.

• 21:05David Sims?

  Somehow the movie's an hour 50 minutes, so I guess the 18 minutes is kind of stretched out. But right, you're seeing it, this incident, from three perspectives.

• 21:13Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 21:13David Sims?

  You do not know.

• 21:15Griffin Newman?

  But each perspective also kind of contains four or five perspectives within it. It's a three different-

• 21:20David Sims?

  And they overlap.

• 21:20Speaker 02

  They overlap.

• 21:21David Sims?

  Yes, yes, yeah.

• 21:23Griffin Newman?

  But the first act, you're seeing characters only on Zoom, the second act, you're in the office with them, whatever.

• 21:28David Sims?

  Exactly. You don't know who launched the nuke. And you don't know what happens when it hits.

• 21:37David Sims?

  As Marie says, you've stripped away, basically, all story, right?

• 21:43Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 21:44David Sims?

  Out of, I guess, necessity, because that would make it another movie. If it's a movie about we're at war with Russia, we're at war with North Korea, like, that's a different movie, right? It's just about the agony of human decision-making in this, like-

• 21:56Griffin Newman?

  Which is what I like about this movie and the spurts of it that work for me are capturing that. But yes, it is a movie that doesn't really have a political axe to grind. It is more saying, we live in a world where at any moment this could be activated. You know, we're, we're sitting in a house full of dynamite.

• 22:12David Sims?

  Here's this movie's take, that would be hard. That's it.

• 22:16Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 22:17David Sims?

  That, my friend, is a New Yorker article-

• 22:19Speaker 02

  It's not a movie.

• 22:20David Sims?

  And it's not a particularly good one. That's, that is just not enough.

• 22:23Griffin Newman?

  Here's the other thing-

• 22:23David Sims?

  And I was arguing with someone I work with, who works in national security stuff, you know, it was like, oh, it's so realistic, it's so good. And yeah, it's about how hard those decisions are to be made. I'm like, that's fine. I can read about that. I don't need to see Idris Elba going, oh, fucking, oh, bangers and mash, what should I pick?

• 22:39Griffin Newman?

  He is, it is weird that he keeps ordering bangers and mash at a cricket game.

• 22:43David Sims?

  Fucking hell, yeah, quick cricket. He's just the most British guy. Greg sausage roll, should I do, you know, option 18 and 19, mate?

• 22:53Speaker 02

  You're starting to sound more like Ozzy Osbourne.

• 22:57David Sims?

  Oh, fucking remote, mate.

• 23:00Griffin Newman?

  Sharon!

• 23:00David Sims?

  Sharon, I have a third child who's not in this show. You ever think about that?

• 23:09Griffin Newman?

  It is-

• 23:10David Sims?

  Free kids, only two of them are in the show.

• 23:12Griffin Newman?

  I'm watching this movie, and it was like, first wave of response out of Venice was Bigelow's back, right?

• 23:18David Sims?

  At a, a Venice of, of-

• 23:20Speaker 02

  A very strange Venice.

• 23:22David Sims?

  Like a mirror verse Venice. Everything that was like there kind of faltered out of Venice, everything that wasn't like there has kind of, you know, had a bounce back after it. It's so weird.

• 23:33Griffin Newman?

  You were recently on The Big Picture and talked about the flop fall that we're living through.

• 23:37David Sims?

  Yeah, yeah, the festival season has been very, like, odd and aberrant.

• 23:41Griffin Newman?

  Like a calamitous festival season, but I also feel like every first wave of responses I've heard- For a movie, the second wave is the exact opposite and the third wave evens out to eh. Like there's been this weird.

• 23:53David Sims?

  Yeah, that's true. It arrives like fully cooked on your plate and everyone's like, yeah, I don't know, C plus.

• 23:58Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 23:58David Sims?

  It was okay.

• 23:59Griffin Newman?

  But I was hearing like Hamlet, Hamlet doesn't have the juice. And then I was hearing like Hamlet's knocking people out.

• 24:05David Sims?

  Hamlet BP, yeah.

• 24:06Griffin Newman?

  And it's okay. Everything's leveling out to okay.

• 24:09Speaker 02

  J. Kelly is like, oh my God, embarrassing disaster. And then it.

• 24:13David Sims?

  Great movie.

• 24:14Griffin Newman?

  The first wave I heard was Sims and 10 other people telling me it's bomb back.

• 24:17David Sims?

  But then it debuted, that movie debuted in Venice, partly because that's where Netflix debuts its movie, but partly because it does have scenes in Italy.

• 24:24Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 24:25David Sims?

  And I imagine they were like, this rocks. It's set in Italy.

• 24:28Speaker 02

  It's a movie star in Italy. Let's bring a movie star in Italy.

• 24:31David Sims?

  Movie star debut that movie in America. Whatever. Nobody listens to me.

• 24:35Speaker 02

  I really liked what you said on.

• 24:37Griffin Newman?

  You said basically that verbatim on this pick, which is fun.

• 24:40David Sims?

  What do you think? And I'll be like, Tiff.

• 24:41Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, I love this idea of you just being like some sort of like Wizard of Oz type figure behind a curtain.

• 24:49David Sims?

  I'm like, yep, sounds like Tiff. See you later. Like, you know, I just, you know, I'm just running.

• 24:54Griffin Newman?

  It did feel like things were underwhelming at Venice.

• 24:58David Sims?

  Mm hmm.

• 24:58Griffin Newman?

  And two of the only things that came out with really positive responses were No Other Choice.

• 25:02David Sims?

  Uh, the Park Chen book film, which we will cover on this podcast, I think in the new year. Yeah.

• 25:06Griffin Newman?

  Yes. And, and to House of Dynamite, there was a sense of relief of like, it's not a masterpiece, but this thing's really gripping.

• 25:13David Sims?

  Everyone was basically like, it's, you know, it does what it's trying to do.

• 25:16Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 25:17David Sims?

  It's tense, it's thrilling, it's about something real.

• 25:19Griffin Newman?

  We've missed you.

• 25:21David Sims?

  And, uh, and this movie has been sort of ensconced on all the best picture prediction lists, right?

• 25:27Griffin Newman?

  And then the second wave of responses is, is this thing really fucking dumb? We start hearing that from a lot of.

• 25:32David Sims?

  I started hearing like, people are laughing. Like, you know, and I'm like, wait, I thought it was like incredibly tense docu film about fucking.

• 25:40Griffin Newman?

  Ripping out their armrests.

• 25:41David Sims?

  Nuclear war. And I was like, you know, getting texts like my screening erupted in laughter.

• 25:46Speaker 02

  Yeah. Did your, did your screening?

• 25:49Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 25:49Speaker 02

  We, we had a very, the vape guy.

• 25:51Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 25:52David Sims?

  Yeah. How did he do? This Kate Fier guy? He was like, ah, ha, ha, ha.

• 25:55Speaker 02

  No, he didn't laugh. And when the, the movie cut to black at the end. Are you fucking kidding me?

• 26:01Griffin Newman?

  Here's my impression of what happened when the movie.

• 26:03David Sims?

  Vape guy said. Bars from vape guy.

• 26:06Griffin Newman?

  Directed by Catherine Bigelow comes up and here's my impression of the sound we heard.

• 26:14Griffin Newman?

  It was a collective.

• 26:15David Sims?

  So wait, there was like an 80s comedian there? Like in front of a brick wall?

• 26:19Griffin Newman?

  We saw the smallest screen at Nighthawk, but it was pretty packed.

• 26:22David Sims?

  Right.

• 26:23Griffin Newman?

  Right, on a Sunday night.

• 26:24David Sims?

  But it is very much, obviously, just sort of been wedged into some theaters by Netflix in their usual way. No fanfare.

• 26:29David Sims?

  It was packed and it was basically the smallest movie.

• 26:32David Sims?

  It's like 20 seats.

• 26:34Griffin Newman?

  But I will say, like, they have it playing simultaneously, this is very New York, but playing simultaneously at the Nighthawk Angelica and at Paris.

• 26:43David Sims?

  The Paris Theater, which is.

• 26:44Griffin Newman?

  That's a little more than they usually.

• 26:45David Sims?

  It's a little bit more. I saw it at the Angelica.

• 26:47Griffin Newman?

  Yes. And the movie.

• 26:49David Sims?

  I wanted those realistic subway rumbles to come back.

• 26:52Speaker 02

  Did it add to the experience?

• 26:53David Sims?

  Of course.

• 26:53Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 26:54Griffin Newman?

  The movie ends, and there was this collective, every person in the theater had to go through all three stages of grieving, which is laughing, booing, and scoffing.

• 27:03David Sims?

  Yeah, right. All at once, all in one noise.

• 27:07Griffin Newman?

  Oof. It was like so weird. And I'm watching it and I'm like, okay. You know, Bigelow's kind of a person with high highs and low lows. She doesn't have much of a middle tier. She's got a good amount of masterpieces, in my opinion.

• 27:20David Sims?

  There's not a lot of like, it's just okays from her.

• 27:23Griffin Newman?

  And I was like, this is one of her only it's just okays, and I'm just happy that she's back. The ending happens, directed by Catherine Bigelow comes up. I'm like, that immediately just went down from like, three and a half to three for me, and I'm being generous. I feel like for most people.

• 27:37David Sims?

  You're being a little generous.

• 27:38Griffin Newman?

  It goes from three to two and a half or lower.

• 27:40David Sims?

  I guess here's my question, because this is the debate I had, and we can just get right to it, you know, because why not? What, what is the ending we want, right? Because I, I was debating this with my, with my coworker, and I'm like, I understand that there's no good ending here.

• 27:54Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 27:54David Sims?

  It's a fucking nuclear war movie. Like, what are you gonna do?

• 27:57Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 27:58David Sims?

  I would like to see the film melt.

• 28:00David Sims?

  Okay, that's all folks.

• 28:01David Sims?

  Just disintegrate.

• 28:02David Sims?

  Right.

• 28:02Speaker 02

  Oh, that's cool. That's kind of like, that's the postmodern meta-textual.

• 28:07Griffin Newman?

  And then the gremlins, you see their shadows in the projection booth, and they're making.

• 28:12David Sims?

  It was them all along. They launched it.

• 28:15Griffin Newman?

  And then the Hulkster comes up.

• 28:17David Sims?

  Because this is what I'm saying. You've stripped out, again.

• 28:20Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 28:20David Sims?

  Where did this come from? What's it leading to? So I don't know what your ending can be.

• 28:24Speaker 02

  I think they should just repeat the ending of Oppenheimer. Just put it in there.

• 28:30David Sims?

  Just, oh, like, literally cut to Killian Murphy?

• 28:32Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 28:33David Sims?

  And they're like, see? This is what he was writing out!

• 28:34Speaker 02

  Yes!

• 28:35David Sims?

  Okay, I want to add to my idea. Then a pinata comes down, and we are handed bats, and we all smash.

• 28:41David Sims?

  Just like, audience.

• 28:42David Sims?

  The movie.

• 28:42David Sims?

  Work your frustration here.

• 28:44Griffin Newman?

  The piata is the poster for House of Dynamite?

• 28:47David Sims?

  Or it's like the film canister.

• 28:48David Sims?

  Yeah, sure.

• 28:49Griffin Newman?

  How about this? The movie ends with James Cameron direct address to camera and being like, "This represents the cowardice of American filmmakers."

• 28:59David Sims?

  She brings in JC.

• 29:00Griffin Newman?

  Showing the after effects.

• 29:01David Sims?

  Oh.

• 29:02Speaker 02

  Yeah. Wait, speaking of, guys, I'm going to Hiroshima this month. Did you guys know that?

• 29:09David Sims?

  I love how she's segueing to this now.

• 29:11Griffin Newman?

  Just the tone in which you said that, Marie.

• 29:13David Sims?

  You're going on vacation, Marie, on honeymoon.

• 29:16Speaker 02

  Ben and I are both going, we're both going on separate honeymoons to separate destinations with separate spouses at the same time.

• 29:22David Sims?

  It would be weird if you were going all together.

• 29:25Griffin Newman?

  Freaky Friday.

• 29:26David Sims?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 29:27David Sims?

  Maybe David would have a blast.

• 29:29Speaker 02

  Yeah. I mean.

• 29:30David Sims?

  Not me, to be clear. Marie's husband.

• 29:32Speaker 02

  Yeah, my husband, who's also a name. Oh.

• 29:34David Sims?

  Oh, okay, all right. I'm pretty fun.

• 29:36Speaker 02

  Uh, but no, I'm going to Japan, Ben's going to Italy.

• 29:40David Sims?

  We love it. Classic places to go.

• 29:42Speaker 02

  But we just booked a one day, or one night, two day, little excursion to Hiroshima to go visit the memorial and the museum.

• 29:50Griffin Newman?

  You did just, you made that transition. It's like, oh, that reminds me. You know where we're going, and I thought you were gonna say Tokyo Disney, see? It was that level of excitement. I understand that you and your husband love history.

• 30:01Speaker 02

  We do love history, and I am like, I was very disappointed in this movie because I am fascinated by, like,

• 30:08Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 30:09Speaker 02

  The what if, similarly to Catherine Bigelow. I'm very fascinated by the what ifs of nuclear war.

• 30:15Griffin Newman?

  I think when this movie works for me. It weirdly works better at like giving us kind of interesting character glimpses than really outlining for you exactly how this would go down.

• 30:27David Sims?

  Right.

• 30:27Griffin Newman?

  Like, it does feel like it's lacking in even some of the like brass tacks, like hard, hard details of a Zero Dark Thirty.

• 30:35David Sims?

  It is because I think this is such a brief thing in a way that there's actually only so much detail.

• 30:41Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 30:42David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 30:42Griffin Newman?

  And like, I think there's stretches of it where I'm like, I'm actually enjoying watching this through this character's perspective, this performance works, I'm getting a little glimpse of their struggle. Um, in terms of the ending, the problem with the ending is you're watching it and you're going like, how the fuck is she gonna end this thing? And the ending feels like an actual, like, admission of defeat. Like, the ending of the movie feels like, I don't know, I got nothing?

• 31:08David Sims?

  It kind of feels, you're right. Yeah, okay, we, sorry, we didn't come up with an ending.

• 31:11Griffin Newman?

  Cause just full spoilers for people. This movie has these three acts, right?

• 31:14David Sims?

  We're spoiling the film.

• 31:15Griffin Newman?

  And every time where you're getting to like, one second left on the countdown, it cuts to black, there's a sustained, like, black, and then new title card comes up, and we reset the clock, right? And then the third act, we're with the president, in the back of his fucking SUV, and the second countdown happens, we cut to black, and I go like, so what's she gonna do now? Finally, the three timelines, right?

• 31:38David Sims?

  Right, right.

• 31:39Griffin Newman?

  We end on the president, what do you do here? And then it gives us like four random, like, images? Like a soldier, like, kneeling, you know?

• 31:48Speaker 02

  Well, people running to the bunker.

• 31:50Griffin Newman?

  Right. You get stuff like that where you're like, oh fuck, something's happening, and then it's like directed by Kathryn Bigelow. There's like fifteen seconds of like MOS footage of characters we don't know reacting to something? And I'm like, the movie actually is better if when it cuts to black at the end of Idris Elba, the credit comes up there. It's worse to even give us fifteen seconds of something else.

• 32:12David Sims?

  Sure.

• 32:13Griffin Newman?

  And have those fifteen seconds be like, I don't know.

• 32:15Speaker 02

  You know what I even would have preferred?

• 32:17Griffin Newman?

  What?

• 32:17Speaker 02

  Like, just giant wall of text.

• 32:19Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 32:20Speaker 02

  At the end, giving, like, some context.

• 32:22David Sims?

  This is where I was going forward with this movie.

• 32:23Griffin Newman?

  But I'm like, if you don't have anything...

• 32:25Speaker 02

  Or no, just like, hey, this is, this is like, you know?

• 32:28David Sims?

  This is just one scenario.

• 32:29Speaker 02

  This is one scenario. If you want, you know, we need to focus on nuclear disarmament, like, some sort of like, I don't know, just...

• 32:37David Sims?

  Yeah, it doesn't sound great.

• 32:38David Sims?

  It just says, "We're fucked."

• 32:39Speaker 02

  "We're fucked." I don't know, just some sort of like, I, I... I don't know. It's just whatever it is now is bad.

• 32:47Griffin Newman?

  When they come back up from the black, I'm like, oh, so there's like a bonus act. They're gonna do some kind of fallout thing.

• 32:55Speaker 02

  David, what sound is that? I'm in Gettysburg right now, so you might be hearing that on the audio.

• 33:02Griffin Newman?

  I love that. I love that.

• 33:05Griffin Newman?

  That's the other thing. You watch it.

• 33:06Speaker 02

  I'm in Gettysburg!

• 33:07Griffin Newman?

  Okay, why?

• 33:08Speaker 02

  Well, it's history happened there. Okay, so does North Korea have nuclear capabilities?

• 33:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, some maybe good, maybe medium.

• 33:19Griffin Newman?

  You're like, should there just be a fucking series where there's a whole Gretel Lee episode or something?

• 33:24David Sims?

  Well, but now, but now, now you're talking about what I don't like, of course.

• 33:27Speaker 02

  There's, there would be stretching it out more when there's less.

• 33:30David Sims?

  God, every fucking episode is the same 20 minutes.

• 33:34Griffin Newman?

  But then I'm like, do you get to focus on the characters more if each segment isn't loading in like 15 perspectives?

• 33:40David Sims?

  Um, here, well, let me do a great impression of a character in How's It Diner Right Now? Say there's a nuclear bomb coming to Chicago.

• 33:48Speaker 02

  There's a nuclear bomb. It's, it's going to Chicago.

• 33:49David Sims?

  I have a family member who lives possibly in Chicago, maybe not.

• 33:56Speaker 02

  Or I have a pregnant person.

• 33:58David Sims?

  Right, no, but just every time, it's like, well, I also have, I'm like, yeah, everyone's got fuck, this is very bad. Yes, everyone would be stressed out.

• 34:05Speaker 02

  Can I ask a question?

• 34:06David Sims?

  What if there's one guy who's like, eh, who cares? I ain't got no family.

• 34:09Griffin Newman?

  I hate my family. I'm kind of a lone wolf. Can't tie me down.

• 34:19Griffin Newman?

  David!

• 34:19David Sims?

  Yes?

• 34:20Griffin Newman?

  Shop.com is giving away $1 million in Shop Cash.

• 34:24David Sims?

  Wow. Shop has all the stores you love and lets you track every order in one spot.

• 34:29Griffin Newman?

  I love that. It's very convenient.

• 34:31David Sims?

  And now, 1,000 shoppers are each gonna win $1,000 in Shop Cash just in time for the holidays.

• 34:38Griffin Newman?

  You get gifts for everyone on your list, or get yourself something a little merry and bright. Find exactly what you're looking for at shop.com.

• 34:47David Sims?

  Uh, got stocking stuffers, maybe the sickest luxury items. Cookware to kicks, toys to high tech, even tinsel and tree toppers. Type in what you're looking for to instantly search every shop at once. Okay, that's shop.com. You can just go click around, find brands you love, search across all the stores, track every order in one spot.

• 35:10Griffin Newman?

  From cult favorites to the world's biggest brands, score sweet deals and check out fast all at shop.com. Enter to win the $1 million shop cash giveaway from now until November 1st. Just go to shop.com. There are so many ways to win. That's shop.com. Shopping designed around you. No purchase necessary. Restrictions apply. Official rules available at shop.com.

• 35:41Griffin Newman?

  David.

• 35:42David Sims?

  Hmm.

• 35:42Griffin Newman?

  It's not cuffing season for me. It's hosi season for me. And this year, that meant finally upgrading my new mattress from Lisa.

• 35:50David Sims?

  Lisa.

• 35:51Griffin Newman?

  It's supportive, comfortable, and just what my body needs after a long day. It makes crawling into bed on a chilly fall night feel like luxury.

• 35:58David Sims?

  Yeah, I have a Lisa too. Uh, they've got a lineup of beautifully crafted mattresses tailored to how you sleep.

• 36:04Griffin Newman?

  Mm hmm.

• 36:05David Sims?

  Each mattress is designed with specific sleep positions and feel preferences in mind. They've got eco-friendly materials.

• 36:11Griffin Newman?

  Maybe you hear eco-friendly and you go, oh, but I'm going to sacrifice comfort.

• 36:15David Sims?

  No.

• 36:16Griffin Newman?

  Nope.

• 36:16David Sims?

  They've been awarded best hybrid and best memory foam mattresses by New York Times' Wirecutter. They're featured by West Elm as their go-to mattress partner. And they work with local nonprofits across the US to donate thousands of mattresses each year to families in need. Over 43,000 mattresses donated to date. Go to lisa.com for up to 30% off mattresses. Plus, get an extra $50 off with promo code BLANKCHECK. Exclusive for our listeners. That's L-E-E-S-A.com promo code BLANKCHECK for up to 30% off mattresses, plus an extra $50 off. Let them know we sent you. And the survey after checkout, lisa.com promo code BLANKCHECK.

• 37:02David Sims?

  Why is Angel Reese in this movie?

• 37:04Speaker 02

  Because it needs, that to me felt like, oh yeah, remember when Bush was like teaching a classroom of children on 9/11?

• 37:12David Sims?

  Sure, right, but like, what would the president plausibly be doing during some crisis?

• 37:16Speaker 02

  But when it was at, when she actually fucking showed up in the movie, I started laughing.

• 37:21David Sims?

  Is Jason Clarke in this movie by law? Is every movie like this just require, I know, obviously, she's directed him before and serial killer, but like, like, just, it's like, where's Jason Clarke?

• 37:32Griffin Newman?

  It's a punch card. It's a punch card. He's one away from a free sandwich.

• 37:35Speaker 02

  Would we say he's getting like cucked by employees at his job? Because he doesn't really do anything.

• 37:41David Sims?

  He certainly is not, yeah.

• 37:44Speaker 02

  He gets to be in the bunker, but then he had...

• 37:51Griffin Newman?

  We're at DEFCON 4. Oh, fuck. Do we have to reset the episode? Do we have to go back?

• 38:00Griffin Newman?

  You were asking about, oh, Angel Reese. They never named the president in this. There is this scene where he shows up to like do a meet and greet with children, right? And the Jumbotron says like Angel Reese in big letters above the court? And I was like, oh, Angel Reese is a cool name for a president? Because I didn't know this was a real athlete. And I thought they were saying...

• 38:21Speaker 02

  Griffin, why don't you care about women's sports?

• 38:23Griffin Newman?

  Excuse me, I went to a Liberty game.

• 38:26Speaker 02

  Congratulations.

• 38:27David Sims?

  Griffin talks about this like he climbed Mount Kilimanjaro.

• 38:31Griffin Newman?

  Because if you're like the percentage...

• 38:33David Sims?

  He lives, not talks him, within walking distance of where they play basketball.

• 38:38Griffin Newman?

  The percentage of live sporting events I have been to in the last 20 years, going to one WNBA game makes a pretty big slice.

• 38:48David Sims?

  You went to a Mets game last season, and I know you've been to some Paris basketball games, because your brother works there.

• 38:56Speaker 02

  I really enjoyed how on the True Grid episode, you were able to participate in the conversation about basketball.

• 39:01Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 39:02David Sims?

  Has that episode come out yet?

• 39:03Griffin Newman?

  Good question.

• 39:04Speaker 02

  Yes, by the time this episode...

• 39:05David Sims?

  Just came out, right, yeah.

• 39:07Griffin Newman?

  I got into the Brooklyn Cyclones, the Mets minor league team, because they do theme nights. So I went to Seinfeld night and hot dog day.

• 39:16Griffin Newman?

  Unfortunately missed Toy Story Day, but did get some of the merch.

• 39:19David Sims?

  Right, for a markup on eBay.

• 39:21Griffin Newman?

  Who's Angel Reese? I don't, I don't know anything about anyone.

• 39:23Speaker 02

  Angel Reese is probably like the second biggest star in the NBA.

• 39:28Griffin Newman?

  Active?

• 39:29David Sims?

  I would disagree with that. Excuse me. Everyone relax. Obviously, the most famous WNBA player is Katelyn Clark because of her national fame.

• 39:36Griffin Newman?

  Even I know that.

• 39:37Speaker 02

  I think, I think Angel Reese is like-

• 39:38David Sims?

  Asia Wilson is way, is, let's not disrespect the MVP.

• 39:41Speaker 02

  I'm not saying that they're, that they're, like, that she's like the best player. I'm just saying in terms of like, people I see in my feeds popping up with endorsement deals and appearances.

• 39:54David Sims?

  Very, very big in college, much like Katelyn Clark. They were rivals. They still have a rivalry.

• 39:59Griffin Newman?

  Is there a bird magic kind of thing going on, maybe?

• 40:02David Sims?

  Well, yeah, but Angel's team sucks.

• 40:05Griffin Newman?

  Okay, that makes it tough.

• 40:07David Sims?

  Unfortunately. She kind of motherfucked her team this year. Like publicly, she was like, "My team sucks. I don't like the players I play with." I think she soft-pelled it only slightly more than the way I'm putting it right now. So she's, you know, she's working it out where, where, where her future lies, whether she leaves the team or gets better player. I don't know. But she's a famous player.

• 40:27Griffin Newman?

  Do you know that Angel Reese was born after the first Raimi Spider-Man came out? To keep using that as a demarcation in time?

• 40:33David Sims?

  Look, as, as a fan of pro sports.

• 40:35Speaker 02

  Doesn't surprise me.

• 40:36David Sims?

  It's one of those things where I'm like, where it's like LeBron James is like a year older than me. I think I said this on an episode or-

• 40:41Speaker 02

  LeBron's older than you?

• 40:43David Sims?

  I think he's a year older than me.

• 40:44Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, because I guess he's tech, he's like my husband's age.

• 40:47David Sims?

  Right. I think he was born in either late 84 or early, late, December 30th, 1984. And, you know, like in the NBA, people are like, "A medical marvel. He walks the court. This man whizzed a skeleton practically." I'm like, "Right, he's my age."

• 41:02Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 41:02David Sims?

  And like there are guys who are like 29 or guys like getting a little long in the tooth, veteran, like, and I'm like, "Right, that's just, I'm only gonna get older."

• 41:09Griffin Newman?

  We did George Lucas Talk Show recently with Chloe Trost and Amir Wakim, former SNL cast members. Both lovely people, incredibly funny people.

• 41:18David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 41:18Griffin Newman?

  And at some point, we got into like, you know, Connor as George was interrogating them about their relationship to Star Wars and what age they were when they came- And we realized Khloe was born in 97 and Emile was born in 98. And I was like, and they've already been fired from SNL. That was the part that flipped me out was I was like, you're under 30 and you're already like in your post SNL career.

• 41:42David Sims?

  Well, they've got the new, you know, cat, right? Like the Veronica, all right, she was 95.

• 41:46Griffin Newman?

  Baby Gonzo, baby Fosse.

• 41:48David Sims?

  All right, Jane Wickline was born in 99. That is cutting it close.

• 41:52Griffin Newman?

  Has SNL had a single cast member?

• 41:54David Sims?

  That was my question. A 2000s.

• 41:56Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 41:56David Sims?

  All right, Tommy Brennan, 94.

• 41:59Griffin Newman?

  Cause I wanna say.

• 42:00David Sims?

  Jeremy Colhane, 92. Fucking ancient. Get out of here, old ass.

• 42:03Griffin Newman?

  Pam Patterson, I wanna say.

• 42:05David Sims?

  He's young. I mean, that kid's young, right?

• 42:07Griffin Newman?

  Was he born post millennium, post millennium?

• 42:09David Sims?

  April 10th, 1999. Phew. Woo. Thank God. He witnessed 9/11. Like I have coworkers. I've said, like my coworker Rose, I love her to death. She's a grown person. She likes the Atlantic.

• 42:21Griffin Newman?

  The 9/11 line is really tough.

• 42:23David Sims?

  I said to her like, were you born after 9/11? She was like, no, I was in a crib.

• 42:27Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Okay, by the skin of your teeth.

• 42:30David Sims?

  Oh, Jesus. Ashley Padilla. Oh, no, no gear listed for her. It's a mysterious, mysterious.

• 42:36Griffin Newman?

  Do you know Ashley Padilla was Diane Keaton's personal assistant for many years?

• 42:40Speaker 02

  Aww.

• 42:40Griffin Newman?

  And she co-wrote a book with her?

• 42:42Speaker 02

  Aww.

• 42:43Griffin Newman?

  She had some very touching tribute posts. Um, we have so much to say about a house of dynamite.

• 42:48David Sims?

  No, we don't. Be funny if, um, Diane Keaton in like classic Diane Keaton wear, RIP to her. This was her swan song that the zoom screen is black for, you know, and then the third act is her with like a big hat being like, I don't know what to do.

• 43:02Speaker 02

  She could have, she would have been an incredible president.

• 43:05David Sims?

  This is what I'm saying. Pinterest helmet feels a little rude on. It's like, yeah, very, very handsome, esteemed. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Sure. But what about like, who's like a weirdo we could put in there?

• 43:13Griffin Newman?

  Our.

• 43:14David Sims?

  Bobcat Goldthwait. You know, like who, you know, who's the president? You could have anybody.

• 43:18Speaker 02

  They actually showed a trailer for, um, oh my God, well, it's a Bobcat movie about horses.

• 43:25Griffin Newman?

  There's a Bobcat. Oh, oh, Hot for Trot.

• 43:28Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 43:28Griffin Newman?

  Cause they're screaming that soon.

• 43:30Speaker 02

  They showed that trailer at Nighthawk.

• 43:31David Sims?

  I believe it's Hot, Hot Two Trot.

• 43:33Speaker 02

  You're right, Hot Two Trot.

• 43:34Griffin Newman?

  That is the, the infamous talking horse movie that my father always uses as an example of how to not structure your career.

• 43:40David Sims?

  Dabney's in there.

• 43:41Griffin Newman?

  And John Candy's the voice of the horse?

• 43:43David Sims?

  I just love in the eighties where they're like, who should play the boss? I'm kidding, I already called Dabney Coleman. He's already on the show.

• 43:49Griffin Newman?

  Dabney quietly was like the fucking Samuel Jackson of the box office in the eighties.

• 43:54David Sims?

  Exactly, he was reliable.

• 43:55Speaker 02

  They like, you know, try to make their pre-shows at Nighthawk specific to the movie they're playing. They did not do that for House of Dynamite.

• 44:02Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, what are you gonna do? Some bummer shit? You're gonna just play a podcast?

• 44:05Speaker 02

  So the fucking Hot for Trot trailer starts playing and my husband's like, wait, what is this movie about? Like, is there gonna be a horse? Is Bobcat in House of Dynamite?

• 44:16Griffin Newman?

  Are these spoilers? Uh, here's a question for the group. I wanna hear each of you weigh in on what, who you think delivers the best performance in this movie.

• 44:27David Sims?

  Oh, good question. Um...

• 44:28Griffin Newman?

  Cause there are good performances in this, but there's not an obvious MVP.

• 44:32David Sims?

  I don't think there are good performances in this. I think there are perfectly...

• 44:35Griffin Newman?

  Great performances, I think there are good performances.

• 44:37David Sims?

  It's probably Rebecca.

• 44:38Speaker 02

  Well, I think Rebecca's my personal favorite, but I also feel like people like Rebecca and Tracy could do this shit in their sleep.

• 44:47Griffin Newman?

  I agree.

• 44:47David Sims?

  Yeah, I don't, right, I don't feel like it's contested.

• 44:49David Sims?

  I'm gonna say, I'm gonna say, let's go.

• 44:54David Sims?

  What, we, who, let's go what?

• 44:55David Sims?

  I'm just, I'm gonna say, let's go.

• 44:57David Sims?

  Oh, let's, let's get out of here?

• 44:58Griffin Newman?

  L E T T S.

• 45:00David Sims?

  Oh!

• 45:00Speaker 02

  Let's go Mets.

• 45:01Griffin Newman?

  That's why I tried to start the applaud.

• 45:04Speaker 02

  Let's.

• 45:05David Sims?

  Let's go Mets.

• 45:06Griffin Newman?

  Let's go.

• 45:07David Sims?

  Let's go Mets, actually, good point.

• 45:08Speaker 02

  Let's go Mets. If everyone else in this film cares about like their pregnant spouse, their child, their mom, but Tracy Letts cares about Francesco Lindor.

• 45:17David Sims?

  He does shout out Francesco Lindor in what was undoubtedly my favorite part of the movie. Uh, which is funny because Tracy Letts was on, uh, The Big Picture and motherfucked the Mets quite loudly to the point that I got kind of, kind of annoyed.

• 45:33Griffin Newman?

  How great would it be if in this movie they went like...

• 45:35David Sims?

  And started like texting Sean being like, Tracy Letts is a completely exaggerated idea of the eighties Mets. Go ahead, yes.

• 45:41Griffin Newman?

  It's heading towards Chicago and they just push in on Tracy Letts and he goes, "I have a basement in Chicago with 20,000 blue eyes."

• 45:50David Sims?

  If we take my steel books and put them all around Chicago in a sort of dome, perhaps we could protect the city.

• 45:57Griffin Newman?

  Kino Lorber, first run with slipcovers. Arrow LE with booklets. I think Gabriel Basso is really good in this movie.

• 46:07Speaker 02

  Oh, okay, this is Jake.

• 46:08Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it really surprised me.

• 46:10Speaker 02

  You know what?

• 46:10David Sims?

  He's totally solid.

• 46:12Griffin Newman?

  But I thought he was like kinda the heart of this thing.

• 46:15Speaker 02

  I am not familiar with his work because I did not see.

• 46:18Griffin Newman?

  Hillbilly logic.

• 46:19Speaker 02

  Hillbilly logic.

• 46:20David Sims?

  Oh, you didn't want to check it out?

• 46:21Speaker 02

  I wasn't interested in that. I wasn't rushing to see it.

• 46:25Griffin Newman?

  He had his first wave.

• 46:26David Sims?

  COVID-19 has swept America. J.D. Vance biopic bubbles up on Netflix.

• 46:32Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 46:32David Sims?

  You know, he was in Super 8, though, and he was a.

• 46:34Griffin Newman?

  Kings of Summer.

• 46:35Speaker 02

  I don't remember that movie at all.

• 46:38David Sims?

  Kind of like Puppy Fat Kid, you know, PewDiePie?

• 46:40Griffin Newman?

  Night Agent is his Netflix show that's a hit that I will never watch.

• 46:43Speaker 02

  Is that the one with Tom Hiddleston?

• 46:45David Sims?

  No, that's The Night Manager.

• 46:47Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 46:47Speaker 02

  Okay, well.

• 46:48David Sims?

  What if there was a night manager?

• 46:50Griffin Newman?

  This is a new-ish show.

• 46:51David Sims?

  It's been on Netflix for two seasons.

• 46:54Griffin Newman?

  Created by Sean Ryan.

• 46:55David Sims?

  A third is coming. It's Sean Ryan, the shield and, you know, the unit and all those shows.

• 46:59Griffin Newman?

  I remember him as a Super 8 kid. Then it's like he's J.D. Vance and the new Ron Howard Oscar bait.

• 47:04David Sims?

  Is that like a Toys R Us kid?

• 47:06Griffin Newman?

  I want to be a Super 8 kid. And then, right, the J.D. Vance thing becomes like a fucking albatross around his neck. And I like, Night Agent's a hit. And I kept hearing people being like, he's good. And I'm like, I don't know. I immediately locked into what he was doing in this film.

• 47:22David Sims?

  I think he's pretty good, yeah. I wasn't as like pumped up about this.

• 47:26Speaker 02

  I don't know if it's a performance thing. I thought I, you know, just kept his character stuck with me. Mostly because I'm like, oh my God, like the one person who kind of knows what's going on in our government is like a millennial.

• 47:41Griffin Newman?

  Here's what I also think he plays.

• 47:43Speaker 02

  Named Jake?

• 47:44Griffin Newman?

  Very well. This guy's fresh enough and passionate enough. He's not been burnt down and jaded by all of this, right?

• 47:54Griffin Newman?

  That he's kind of the sharpest tool in the drawer here in terms of how to address and analyze this problem. And you can tell that he's been like prepping his entire life for this moment. And yet he's having the performance anxiety of holy shit, every word I'm saying actually matters.

• 48:11David Sims?

  Isn't he thrown into the situation because like his superior is not available?

• 48:17David Sims?

  Or he's like late to the meeting. Right, yeah, there's something like that. But the thing about-

• 48:22Griffin Newman?

  He knows his shit though, but it's like terrifying when you're suddenly like, every word I say could have like a humongous effect on humanity.

• 48:29David Sims?

  But he's playing the, like, he's overwhelmed. He's playing it like very authentically.

• 48:34Griffin Newman?

  There's a little Rick the intern that I am inclined to, you know-

• 48:36Speaker 02

  Wow.

• 48:37Griffin Newman?

  A-like. I'm not saying he's pulling for me. I'm saying this character type.

• 48:41Speaker 02

  Sorry, I'm just imagining Rick the intern like on the phone with like the Russian defense.

• 48:47Griffin Newman?

  The last place coffees need to get dropped.

• 48:49David Sims?

  Here's the thing I'm gonna say, cuz his, Basso's only job in this movie is to inform everyone that the, the sort of missile interceptor thing has about a 60% chance of working.

• 49:00Griffin Newman?

  It's a coin toss.

• 49:01David Sims?

  And so you have Jared Harris, again, really, really trying with the American accent going, "Oh, it's fucking coin toss, ain't it? Paya mash."

• 49:08Griffin Newman?

  I got a daughter in Chicago.

• 49:12David Sims?

  I heard this news and I was like, that tech is at 60? I thought that just didn't work.

• 49:19Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 49:20David Sims?

  I was like, this is good news, it might work.

• 49:21Griffin Newman?

  I did think, cuz there's so much ramp up of him not wanting to say the number.

• 49:25David Sims?

  I know, they really stretch it out cuz this movie has a lot of time to fill.

• 49:28Griffin Newman?

  I thought it was gonna be like 15%.

• 49:30David Sims?

  Right, right, like, actually, if I had minute, we'll, it's like a one in a million, bullet with a bullet.

• 49:34Griffin Newman?

  Also, at that point in the movie, we're in the second chapter, so you know it doesn't-

• 49:38David Sims?

  We already know it didn't work!

• 49:39Griffin Newman?

  Work.

• 49:39David Sims?

  So why is this the crux of your second act?

• 49:42Speaker 02

  Can I ask a question of you two, of you three?

• 49:44David Sims?

  The Angelica popcorn was very good, thank you for asking.

• 49:47Speaker 02

  Good, I'm glad. The struc- the, the structure of the film, deciding what to reveal when, what characters to focus in which section. What is the like organizing principle? I understand the president.

• 50:02David Sims?

  I don't really know.

• 50:03Speaker 02

  Is there one?

• 50:04David Sims?

  I mean, it's just, I guess you can think about it this way.

• 50:06Speaker 02

  Is it like proximity to power?

• 50:08David Sims?

  Not really. It's sort of like the stages of reaction. So it's like Ferguson and her team are the team that notices and sends the alert up the chain. Letts and his generals are the guys who make the military decision to try and counteract it and then have to decide what's next. And then the decision lands on the president's plate in the third act, which is like, okay, this is happening now. You have to open the football, which is actually a briefcase filled with documents, and pick a retaliation. And you have Letts going, we have to do something. You have Basso going like, I talked to the Russians. I don't think it's them. We could try to defuse this by doing nothing. Kind of the fail safe, you know, debate like in that movie.

• 50:48Griffin Newman?

  I love fail safe. We talked about this in fucking Final Reckoning. Anytime a movie is able to capture 15 minutes of fail safe juice, you got me.

• 50:55David Sims?

  Sure, you love it.

• 50:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, which is the first, like, what, 20, 30 minutes of the movie? Which I would.

• 51:01David Sims?

  Certainly the first act is the strongest because that's when you're in what's happening the most and it's the most tension.

• 51:08Griffin Newman?

  I'd also argue that Ferguson has maybe become an automatic two stars person for me.

• 51:13David Sims?

  I, I, I love her.

• 51:14Griffin Newman?

  If she is in at least a third of the movie, you're already starting out at two stars just from her presence. This movie unfortunately doesn't add a lot on top of the auto two.

• 51:23David Sims?

  I mean, I mean, but except for the snowman, sure. I know you haven't.

• 51:26Griffin Newman?

  I haven't seen the snowman.

• 51:28Speaker 02

  You haven't seen the snowman, but we have merch inspired by the snowman?

• 51:32Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 51:32David Sims?

  I mean, that was JD who, that was his creation.

• 51:35David Sims?

  Who's out of control, let's be honest.

• 51:38David Sims?

  Next year, I'm worried about Ferg a little bit. Next year, she's got Mercy, which is literally like the Tracy Morgan, my, I filmed that in my car.

• 51:47Griffin Newman?

  I have not been able to get myself to watch that trailer.

• 51:50Speaker 02

  Is that the Chris Pratt?

• 51:51David Sims?

  It's like, like, this January 2nd, as early as possible, we are dumping this out. What if you were in a, a chair? Like it's, that's the movie?

• 52:00Griffin Newman?

  Is it a like, what if emotions were robots movie? What is the premise?

• 52:05David Sims?

  Uh, let me, let me, let me see what the log on. In 2029, Los Angeles. Ooh, future.

• 52:10Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 52:10David Sims?

  A detective stands on trial accused of murdering his wife. That's Chris Pratt.

• 52:15Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 52:15David Sims?

  He has 90 minutes to prove his innocence to the advanced AI judge he once championed.

• 52:21Speaker 02

  Oh, no, not an AI movie.

• 52:23David Sims?

  While Rebecca Ferguson is playing the AI.

• 52:25Griffin Newman?

  It's directed by Timur.

• 52:28David Sims?

  It's a Timur, but Beck, uh, Beckmamta, Beckmamta. I'm sorry.

• 52:33Griffin Newman?

  It's not a screenless movie, though, right?

• 52:35David Sims?

  No, but I think it is. I think it's like him being like, what if I did screen life on a bigger scale? Where I think it's gonna be a lot of screen. You know what I mean?

• 52:43Speaker 02

  No one wants this.

• 52:44David Sims?

  Well, he is insistent that people want it.

• 52:47Griffin Newman?

  And Ferguson is the AI judge.

• 52:49David Sims?

  She's the AI judge.

• 52:50Griffin Newman?

  She's the sim one.

• 52:50David Sims?

  She's the, exactly.

• 52:51Griffin Newman?

  Jesus, uh, fuck that.

• 52:53David Sims?

  And then she's in Dune Part Three, which like, I'm sure she will crush it, but she has emphasized like was on set for a couple of days.

• 52:59Speaker 02

  Yeah, it's a small, small role.

• 53:00David Sims?

  Because that character's not even in that book.

• 53:02Speaker 02

  Did you guys?

• 53:02Griffin Newman?

  But does she have season four of Silo?

• 53:05Speaker 02

  That's.

• 53:06David Sims?

  Back to the silo.

• 53:07Speaker 02

  I believe it's season three.

• 53:09David Sims?

  Yeah, there have been, uh, currently, how many? Two seasons, so it'll be the third season.

• 53:14Speaker 02

  Two seasons of Silo, not sure when season three is coming out.

• 53:16David Sims?

  Have they left the silo?

• 53:17Griffin Newman?

  I think they're going deeper.

• 53:17Speaker 02

  Well, season two was her.

• 53:20David Sims?

  Spoilers.

• 53:21Speaker 02

  Spoilers, but season two, she goes from the one silo to another silo.

• 53:26Griffin Newman?

  Sounds like a good season.

• 53:27Speaker 02

  So, season three, who knows?

• 53:29David Sims?

  We've discovered Silo B. What's in there?

• 53:31Griffin Newman?

  Most shows these days don't transfer from one silo to another until season four or five.

• 53:36David Sims?

  You know what? That's so true. That is so true. Season one ends with them just finding a door. And then season two is how do we find the key?

• 53:44Griffin Newman?

  Why they call it Silo? The whole first season, they're not in the silo.

• 53:50Griffin Newman?

  We found this out. Well, no, I'm not gonna say it. It's a future episode spoiler. Marie, what were you about to say? Have you guys?

• 53:55David Sims?

  It's too bad, I was excited for it.

• 53:56Speaker 02

  Have you guys seen that, this quote?

• 53:59David Sims?

  Yes.

• 53:59Speaker 02

  But she, hold on, I gotta find it.

• 54:01David Sims?

  From Rebecca Ferg?

• 54:02Speaker 02

  Rebecca Fergus, I'm Googling Rebecca Ferguson, throw.

• 54:06Speaker 02

  In front of bus.

• 54:08David Sims?

  Well, it was, she was motherfucking a co-star, right? I keep saying the word motherfucker.

• 54:12Griffin Newman?

  You're so into motherfucking.

• 54:13David Sims?

  She was, she was saying that she had a very tough co-star she'd worked with, right?

• 54:17Speaker 02

  Yes, and she keeps like dropping breadcrumbs.

• 54:20David Sims?

  She won't say who it is.

• 54:21Speaker 02

  She won't say who it is, but she keeps, Mr. Blanky, I gave you, I gave you all the clothes.

• 54:25David Sims?

  Not Hugh Jackman, not Timothy Chalamet, not Tom Cruise.

• 54:27Griffin Newman?

  Not Ryan Reynolds. There are even some ones where you were like,

• 54:29David Sims?

  You're like, come on.

• 54:30Griffin Newman?

  This guy's a second tier guest. And she was like, don't worry, he's not in the mix.

• 54:33Speaker 02

  Rebecca Ferguson gets candid, quote,

• 54:35David Sims?

  She hasn't been in that many movies.

• 54:37Speaker 02

  I will shove someone under a bus to make them pay.

• 54:40David Sims?

  Well, so who does she mean? Who is it?

• 54:42Griffin Newman?

  We know who it is. No, it was every time.

• 54:44Speaker 02

  I think we decided it was Hugh, if it was Hugh.

• 54:46Griffin Newman?

  It's not Hugh.

• 54:47David Sims?

  It's not Hugh, she's worked with him multiple times. She, people forget reminiscence.

• 54:52Griffin Newman?

  No, she has openly said it's not Hugh.

• 54:54Speaker 02

  Oh, I thought, okay.

• 54:55Griffin Newman?

  Are we going to say who we think it is?

• 54:56David Sims?

  You can tell me, I forgot.

• 54:58Griffin Newman?

  Everything points towards Jake Gyllenhaal in Life, a movie that is completely forgotten.

• 55:03David Sims?

  Yes, and also, you know what? A movie that is okay.

• 55:08Speaker 02

  Have you guys met Jake Gyllenhaal?

• 55:09David Sims?

  Certainly, I have heard 1 billion stories about what a high-energy individual Jake Gyllenhaal is, and how that can really go either way on set.

• 55:17Speaker 02

  Cause in my experience, when I worked out as a receptionist, when his mom was editing a movie she made, he came in, no, he like wore like a disguise and wouldn't make eye contact with anyone.

• 55:30David Sims?

  Turtle boy?

• 55:31Speaker 02

  There were like 10 people. I mean, he looked like a fucking turtle.

• 55:35David Sims?

  Corey, you're right.

• 55:36Speaker 02

  Had a hoodie on.

• 55:37David Sims?

  You threw it on the bubble?

• 55:39Speaker 02

  But Maggie was lovely. And she and, she and Peter were talking to everyone, being like so nice, you know? But Jake was, mm.

• 55:47David Sims?

  Last night, late on TikTok, I found some rando comedian, you know, 900 likes, like not a big video, doing Rachel in Dark Knight, like doing Maggie as, and it was just one of those impressions where you're like, I've never thought about like how odd this performance is and how good an impression could be of it. Yes, just like, it just, she keeps like, first she's doing lines and then she starts doing other, but she's like, I have to go to the mall with Harvey. Like, she just keeps hitting that. I'm gonna show it, it's so funny.

• 56:18Griffin Newman?

  Uh, no, what was the, was it Arnaud Deschamps? Who was the, was there an international filmmaker who did a big story of how he shot an entire movie with Jake Gyllenhaal that got shut down?

• 56:28Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 56:29Griffin Newman?

  He's just notoriously, I will just say.

• 56:33Griffin Newman?

  Incredibly eccentric.

• 56:35David Sims?

  Right.

• 56:35Griffin Newman?

  In his process, in a way that has been known to make things complicated and drive people a little crazy.

• 56:40David Sims?

  He's never given a performance that radiates that energy.

• 56:44David Sims?

  It's just like, even something like ambulance or whatever.

• 56:47Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 56:47David Sims?

  Where it works.

• 56:48Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 56:48David Sims?

  It just kind of feels like it is, to quote Jared Harris, a fucking coin toss. Whether you're gonna get like, over the top in a way that kind of overwhelms, or over in a top way that like, kind of serves the movie.

• 56:57Speaker 02

  Mm-hmm.

• 56:57David Sims?

  Okja being the sort of barometer performance where you're like, do you like this?

• 57:01Speaker 02

  I like that.

• 57:02Griffin Newman?

  Do you even like, know what we're talking about?

• 57:05David Sims?

  No. Ever? At any point?

• 57:08Speaker 02

  Well, do you know the context of the Rebecca Ferguson stuff?

• 57:11Griffin Newman?

  So like two.

• 57:12Speaker 02

  I would answer your question. I'd say it's about, uh, fifty fifty.

• 57:16David Sims?

  A coin toss.

• 57:17Speaker 02

  It's a bit of a coin toss.

• 57:19David Sims?

  Oy, Margaret Thatcher.

• 57:20Griffin Newman?

  So like, two full years ago.

• 57:22David Sims?

  Yep.

• 57:23Griffin Newman?

  If not more, she, there's some interview where they're asking her about her experiences in Hollywood and power and whatever. And she was just like, I had a co-star, an A-list male co-star. They were number one on the call sheet.

• 57:36David Sims?

  Which he would have been in life.

• 57:37Griffin Newman?

  And they broke down yelling at me. It wasn't my fault, but they were so frustrated. The process of the movie, they took it all out at me. And I felt defenseless, like there was nothing I could do.

• 57:48David Sims?

  Right.

• 57:48Griffin Newman?

  And I went to the producers and complained and said, I'm not working with him again. I want to work off a fucking tennis ball anytime we have dialogue. And they said, you can't do that. He's number one. We have to protect him. And she said, fine, I'll be in there, but when it's his coverage, he has to talk to the back of my head. And it was presented as like, you go, girl. Like, you don't put up with his shit.

• 58:09David Sims?

  But then, of course, everyone's like, who's she talking about?

• 58:11Griffin Newman?

  Everyone comes up with the list. She's not in that many movies. It's the A-list star. It's the male lead.

• 58:15David Sims?

  Right.

• 58:16Griffin Newman?

  And then she has systematically for the last two years, just been like, circling back, it's also not Chris Hemsworth in Men in Black International. She has ruled everyone else out, which is why I feel comfortable presenting my hypothesis.

• 58:29David Sims?

  Right.

• 58:30Griffin Newman?

  That it is Jalen Hall, because he's basically the only person.

• 58:33David Sims?

  But is that because Jake was possessed by the symbiote?

• 58:36Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 58:36David Sims?

  Because life is a Venom prequel?

• 58:37Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 58:38David Sims?

  Except it isn't.

• 58:39Griffin Newman?

  But was directed by?

• 58:40David Sims?

  Daniel Espinoza, who directed Morbius.

• 58:43Griffin Newman?

  It's all.

• 58:43David Sims?

  Who directed Jared Leto's, as I was telling Griffin this morning, biggest hit as a star, Morbius.

• 58:49Griffin Newman?

  That is his highest grossing film in which he is first bill.

• 58:53David Sims?

  Hollywood Reporter was like, Tron Aries may signal that he's no longer an A-lister who can open a movie.

• 58:59Speaker 02

  He's never opened a movie.

• 59:00Griffin Newman?

  He's never been an A-lister.

• 59:02David Sims?

  Exactly.

• 59:02Griffin Newman?

  We were like, Jared Leto's best run is all ensemble, right? It's American Psycho, it's Thin Red Line, it's the two Fincher's.

• 59:12David Sims?

  Requiem for a Dream, the Fincher movies.

• 59:14Speaker 02

  Well, Requiem for a Dream is sort of the lead.

• 59:17Griffin Newman?

  That's the one he is closest to being the lead in?

• 59:19Speaker 02

  But that's such a, it's such an evenly split.

• 59:22Griffin Newman?

  It's a Burson and Connolly.

• 59:23David Sims?

  Burson, Connolly and Leto are the three leads of the film.

• 59:26Griffin Newman?

  Right. But you're like, that's the best run he ever had. It is ensemble, working with great directors.

• 59:31David Sims?

  In 25 plus years ago, like a long time ago.

• 59:34Griffin Newman?

  Exactly. All of those movies are, the last of them is 2002, right? When Angel Reese was born. That's the last of it.

• 59:41Speaker 02

  I would disagree a little bit. I've liked when he showed up in ensemble roles.

• 59:46David Sims?

  Showed up being the crucial phrase here.

• 59:49Speaker 02

  Like, I, you know, even though he's doing a thing in Blade Runner, you know.

• 59:54David Sims?

  We talk about this, I think, on a future episode?

• 59:57Griffin Newman?

  It's our new Red Hulk. We're dissecting the crash out of Jared Leto in like five different episodes.

• 1:00:01Speaker 02

  I enjoyed him in House of Gucci. He was like one of the people that was dialed into the right wavelength. Oh, I love it.

• 1:00:08David Sims?

  I liked that performance and I liked that movie. I'm not opposed to all, I'm just saying, don't piss on my leg until it gets raining. He's never opened movies. He's never been an A-list star.

• 1:00:19Griffin Newman?

  Never. It's a psyop.

• 1:00:20David Sims?

  It's, it's truly like he got that Tron role as like, yes, it feels like he fucking cast a spell on someone.

• 1:00:26Griffin Newman?

  But like, look, there's, there's like heartthrob pre Fontana, right?

• 1:00:29David Sims?

  Yes, you know, Jordan Catalana.

• 1:00:31Griffin Newman?

  Then there's the era we just talked about, which by the way, it helps that all those movies.

• 1:00:35David Sims?

  Emerging indie star.

• 1:00:36Griffin Newman?

  It helps that all those movies have lasted and have only grown in reputation, so it makes him feel more relevant.

• 1:00:41David Sims?

  Then he wasn't a big band and won an Oscar.

• 1:00:43Griffin Newman?

  Well, then he does like six years of dog shit, like that fucking, it's not called.

• 1:00:47David Sims?

  Chapter 27 is the big one.

• 1:00:48Griffin Newman?

  Chapter 27, but what's the one where it's, he's, it's not Mr. Lonely, but it's a Mr. Something.

• 1:00:53Speaker 02

  Mr. Nobody?

• 1:00:53Griffin Newman?

  Mr. Nobody. It's like, all of those movies don't work. Then he's like, I've retired from films. He focuses on the band.

• 1:01:00David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:01:01Griffin Newman?

  Dallas Buyers Club is him coming out of retirement. He wins an Oscar that. We're all happy.

• 1:01:06David Sims?

  I called it instant Byers or Morse Oscar. Just instant.

• 1:01:11Griffin Newman?

  Dallas Byers or Morse.

• 1:01:12David Sims?

  Exactly. He took the stage.

• 1:01:13Speaker 02

  Who else was nominated that year?

• 1:01:14David Sims?

  I don't care if a fucking ham sandwich was nominated. Give it the trophy.

• 1:01:17Griffin Newman?

  But this is a good exercise. Who did Jared Leto?

• 1:01:19David Sims?

  All right, okay, let's see who he beat first, you know, first and foremost, before we think about anyone else that might have been a contender. But he beat Barkad Abdi, the captain himself.

• 1:01:28Griffin Newman?

  Would have been my winner that year, I think.

• 1:01:30David Sims?

  Bradley Cooper in American Hustle.

• 1:01:32Griffin Newman?

  Quite good in that film.

• 1:01:32David Sims?

  We could have gotten the, when will Bradley get his Oscar thing out of the way? Michael Fassbender in 12 Years a Slave, an incredibly powerful.

• 1:01:39Speaker 02

  Oh, he's so scary in that movie.

• 1:01:41David Sims?

  And fucking Jonah Hill in The Wolf of Wall Street.

• 1:01:42Speaker 02

  He's so funny.

• 1:01:43David Sims?

  All of these are way better than Jared Leto.

• 1:01:45Griffin Newman?

  Barkad is, would have been my guy.

• 1:01:47David Sims?

  I mean, that's an amazing performance.

• 1:01:48Griffin Newman?

  And he won the BAFTA?

• 1:01:49David Sims?

  Probably.

• 1:01:50Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't, I, I'm more clear headed about Leo winning for Wolf of Wall Street over McConaughey and lead that year.

• 1:01:58Griffin Newman?

  Hardcore.

• 1:01:58David Sims?

  Well, obviously.

• 1:01:59Griffin Newman?

  Hardcore.

• 1:02:00David Sims?

  But like, at least with McConaughey, you were like, the man was back.

• 1:02:03Speaker 02

  He was on a roll. It was like up here.

• 1:02:05David Sims?

  True Detective, Interstellar's the next year.

• 1:02:08Speaker 02

  Yeah, him winning makes sense.

• 1:02:10Griffin Newman?

  He is, I think he is fantastic in that movie, and I think Jared Leto was bad in that movie.

• 1:02:15David Sims?

  Uh, yeah, Jared Leto was bad in that. That's the other thing.

• 1:02:17Griffin Newman?

  McConaughey is undeniably good in a movie that doesn't do really anything.

• 1:02:21David Sims?

  Shitty movie, in my opinion. Kind of a shitty. But I saw it on my first day with my wife.

• 1:02:25Speaker 02

  Oh, wow. That's kind of crazy.

• 1:02:27David Sims?

  Completely insane. It's the only reason I bring it up. Just a fucking insane thing to do.

• 1:02:32Griffin Newman?

  That's how you build a solid foundation for a marriage.

• 1:02:34David Sims?

  See, I've said this. Scene one of that movie, rough sex with two prostitutes. Scene two, you have a. This is the first date we are on. That is how that movie begins.

• 1:02:46David Sims?

  We exited, we were like, uh, anyway, like, it was like, with no discussion of the film, we were like, I don't know, it was fine.

• 1:02:51Griffin Newman?

  I just cannot think of another example of someone winning an Oscar and everyone deciding, oh, he's proven himself as three different things he's never been.

• 1:03:01David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:03:01Griffin Newman?

  A leading man, an A-list blockbuster star, you know, like, it's so bizarre.

• 1:03:07David Sims?

  Jared Leto's in this film, right?

• 1:03:08Griffin Newman?

  No, he's not.

• 1:03:10David Sims?

  What are we supposed to say about A House of Dynamite? I just find, I find the writing incredibly clunky.

• 1:03:16Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:16David Sims?

  I find the efforts to like crowbar in character stuff like, oh, I'm worried about this. Like, just so, so like root one four so bad. Like you're saying, like, notes should be getting that, hammering that out right away.

• 1:03:30Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:31David Sims?

  We do not need that level of handholding of like, people in society have families.

• 1:03:36Speaker 02

  Because they're people, they're just, they're, they're people. I also don't need to care about them because whatever they experience affects me hypothetically.

• 1:03:43Griffin Newman?

  George, like, this is what the bowl films excelled at, is like not having like overly stylized, overwritten, spell out the emotions dialogue, right?

• 1:03:54David Sims?

  You're right. I, they're, my, right. Like, those movies are both character movies. Obviously Hurt Locker very much.

• 1:03:59Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:03:59David Sims?

  More a character movie. It's about this place and about this job too, but it's about this guy, right? And then Zero Dark Thirty, the way they tricked that movie into working is by having like a central character.

• 1:04:09Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:04:10David Sims?

  Right? Versus it being per total procedure.

• 1:04:13Griffin Newman?

  And that movie will similarly to this, go on like a 20 minute side tangent with a different character. It's not everything through her.

• 1:04:20David Sims?

  Jason Clarke's gotta punch his card.

• 1:04:21Griffin Newman?

  He's gotta punch the card. He's so close to a toasted sub.

• 1:04:27Griffin Newman?

  Toast it.

• 1:04:27David Sims?

  He's gonna finish his punch card and then realize that Quiznos is gone. It doesn't exist anymore.

• 1:04:32Griffin Newman?

  That's the great shame is unfortunately, it is a Quiznos card.

• 1:04:35Speaker 02

  Can I add another com-? God, you guys.

• 1:04:37Griffin Newman?

  No one talks about the tragedy.

• 1:04:39David Sims?

  Are we so bad?

• 1:04:40Speaker 02

  No. I wanted to add another complaint that hasn't been brought up yet.

• 1:04:43Griffin Newman?

  Please.

• 1:04:44Speaker 02

  The Moses Ingram, who I think is a really great actress.

• 1:04:47David Sims?

  Love her.

• 1:04:48Speaker 02

  Has nothing to do in this movie in a subplot that is just a big old fucking wet fart.

• 1:04:53David Sims?

  There's, there's something.

• 1:04:55Speaker 02

  What is hap- like, we're introducing FEMA. Are we going to see what FEMA's response is?

• 1:05:00David Sims?

  I think.

• 1:05:01Speaker 02

  Or what their plan is?

• 1:05:02Griffin Newman?

  There's, no.

• 1:05:03David Sims?

  There's just something sort of. It's sort of interesting. Again, it's sort of like a weird footnote that would appear in an article, like the sort of perversity of like, who gets to go to the survival bunker?

• 1:05:14Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:05:14David Sims?

  And Moses Ingram is like, weirdly, I get to because of this and that, right?

• 1:05:19Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:19David Sims?

  And then this other girl who, I talked to Bobby Figer about this movie at Fran's wedding. I'll explain in a second. It was like, I'm obsessed with this girl who's like, why does she get to fucking go? She's just been here for like a month and we never see that girl again, obviously. No check in with this again.

• 1:05:33Griffin Newman?

  I took your answer.

• 1:05:34David Sims?

  There's something kind of like-

• 1:05:36Speaker 02

  We also get, we also get the bunker discussion with Rebecca Ferguson.

• 1:05:40David Sims?

  Yeah, this movie repeats its beats over and over again. I cannot deny this.

• 1:05:44Griffin Newman?

  It repeats its, it repeats half an hour.

• 1:05:46Speaker 02

  Like if we're going to introduce FEMA and it's like, okay, their emergency management, they have to deal with like, I don't know what's going on on the ground after a scenario like this.

• 1:05:56David Sims?

  We're not gonna see what's going on.

• 1:05:57Speaker 02

  Are we not go, but like, we're not going to even learn about what their strategy is behind, beyond going to the bunker?

• 1:06:04David Sims?

  A house of hurricanes.

• 1:06:09David Sims?

  I'm asking Ben for money.

• 1:06:10Griffin Newman?

  I'm interested. House of plastique. Um, they introduce her to be like, the fuck is going on? And they're just kind of getting alert messages and she's like, can someone fill us in? And they're like, we don't have time to fill you in.

• 1:06:21Speaker 02

  Yeah. It's also repeated with the, uh, the woman, the young woman in the press room.

• 1:06:26Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:06:27Speaker 02

  They introduce the element of press.

• 1:06:29Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:29Speaker 02

  And then, oh, are we going to like, the move, you know, we have such a tight timeline of when we find out that this is happening and when it's gonna hit, right?

• 1:06:36Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:37Speaker 02

  So there's that whole question of like, how do we inform the public? What, what do we do? And it seems like the answer is no, we don't. But again, like I, it's gonna get out. Someone's gonna fucking tweet that there's like-

• 1:06:50Griffin Newman?

  I, I hate saying this. This is the version of me that's like, this would have been better as a TV show, where you can just do a full episode that is the press.

• 1:07:00Speaker 02

  Yeah, sure.

• 1:07:02David Sims?

  I mean, I wouldn't watch it, but I, I know what you're saying.

• 1:07:04Griffin Newman?

  I also probably wouldn't watch it. That's the-

• 1:07:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, but it's, it's just like why, like this, they, they kind of introduce people and scenarios. They don't explore them.

• 1:07:14Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:07:14Speaker 02

  And we spend a lot of time going over-

• 1:07:19Speaker 02

  The, uh, the bullet hitting the bullet. Coin toss.

• 1:07:22David Sims?

  Now, I understand they can't show the object, right? They have to keep that as an unknown. But they do, they do launch then the missiles that are supposed to, you know, intersect. I'm kinda like, what's up with that missile?

• 1:07:35Griffin Newman?

  You wanna see it.

• 1:07:36David Sims?

  I wanna see it.

• 1:07:37David Sims?

  Do you wanna see it just keep going?

• 1:07:38David Sims?

  Yeah, just give me like three minutes. Just to chill, going through the sky.

• 1:07:42Griffin Newman?

  What if they reset?

• 1:07:43David Sims?

  And a little bit of whistling too. I love that.

• 1:07:45Griffin Newman?

  Reset the timeline and a new chapters from the perspective of the missile. And they're like, oh god, I'm so worried I'm gonna fuck this up. I'm gonna fuck this up.

• 1:07:52David Sims?

  I'm fucking messed up, shit!

• 1:07:53Griffin Newman?

  I'm a fucking coin toss.

• 1:07:55David Sims?

  Well, it's like a British actor that could have been the voice of a missile, but he's trying to do an American accent.

• 1:07:59Griffin Newman?

  I was gonna say Gary Oldman would kill it as one of the missiles.

• 1:08:02Speaker 02

  I was thinking like Ray Winstone, which is more on the Steven Graham.

• 1:08:05David Sims?

  Well, I know about nuclear weapons, fuck this!

• 1:08:08Griffin Newman?

  I'm a fucking missile, ain't I?

• 1:08:10David Sims?

  They fucked with Black Widow.

• 1:08:12Speaker 02

  Wait, what if we make it, what if we make it a woman?

• 1:08:15David Sims?

  Oh, woke.

• 1:08:16Griffin Newman?

  Do you know about this?

• 1:08:17Speaker 02

  Emma Thompson.

• 1:08:18David Sims?

  Women can be weapons of mass destruction too, okay?

• 1:08:22Griffin Newman?

  Do, have any of you followed?

• 1:08:23David Sims?

  Hire more female, yes, yeah.

• 1:08:27David Sims?

  What's up?

• 1:08:27Griffin Newman?

  We're submitting this episode.

• 1:08:29David Sims?

  To nothing. To the Bruce Sycamore.

• 1:08:31Griffin Newman?

  We're sending it into the sky.

• 1:08:33David Sims?

  Have any of us followed?

• 1:08:35Griffin Newman?

  I brought this up to Ben the other day, so he knows this. It was prompted by an activity we, we took place in. Uh, the Dragonheart franchise.

• 1:08:44David Sims?

  Uh, well, I know the film Dragonheart starring Dennis Quaid with Sean Connery as the voice of a dragon.

• 1:08:48Griffin Newman?

  So like three or four years after that, they make a direct to video sequel called Dragonheart: A New Beginning.

• 1:08:52Speaker 02

  Can I ask what activity this was that brought up Dragonheart?

• 1:08:56Griffin Newman?

  Friend of the podcast, Eva Anderson, was in New York City with her brother, the great Dash Anderson.

• 1:09:00David Sims?

  Well, he's always here.

• 1:09:01Griffin Newman?

  Yes. Uh, we went to, uh, an immersive, uh, event. Eva loves her immersive's and her escape rooms.

• 1:09:09David Sims?

  She came all the way for immersion, right?

• 1:09:10Griffin Newman?

  To do, and she, and she did like seven things while she was here.

• 1:09:13David Sims?

  I was gonna say, like, but she did a lot of immersions.

• 1:09:15Griffin Newman?

  Yes, but this one was called, uh, Viola's Room.

• 1:09:18David Sims?

  Yes, it's at the shed.

• 1:09:20Griffin Newman?

  Right, and it's a cool, like, there aren't other performers in it. It's like a set you walk through with headphones on, narrated by Helen Bonham Carter.

• 1:09:28David Sims?

  Shoeless.

• 1:09:29David Sims?

  You are shoeless like Joe Jackson.

• 1:09:32Speaker 02

  Helena Bonham Carter could have been the nuke.

• 1:09:34Griffin Newman?

  So I was going down a rabbit hole with my friends on the Dragonheart franchise.

• 1:09:37Speaker 02

  Ben's giving me the thumbs up.

• 1:09:38Griffin Newman?

  First movie theatrical. Couple of years later, like 97, there's a direct to video Dragonheart: A New Beginning, where Robbie Benson.

• 1:09:45Speaker 02

  Oh, the great Robbie Benson.

• 1:09:48David Sims?

  Who, you know, was so good on Severance.

• 1:09:50Speaker 02

  So great on Severance.

• 1:09:51David Sims?

  Season two this year.

• 1:09:51Speaker 02

  Also an excellent NYU professor. Did you know that?

• 1:09:55David Sims?

  I didn't.

• 1:09:56Speaker 02

  Yeah, he teaches in the film department.

• 1:09:57Griffin Newman?

  Okay, we're doing direct to video Dragonheart. There's a new dragon. It's Robbie Benson, the voice of the beast, right?

• 1:10:02David Sims?

  I am the dragon!

• 1:10:03Griffin Newman?

  Then the thing's on ice for like 12 years. And clearly someone at Universal runs in with data. And they're like, Dragonheart doing weirdly well on DVD.

• 1:10:12David Sims?

  Well, or it might have just kind of been like, fantasy shit, man. Game of Thrones. Whatever. We own Dragonheart?

• 1:10:18Griffin Newman?

  We own Dragonheart. But they do three Dragonheart sequels within like five years. And the dragons in those three are Patrick Stewart, Ben Kingsley, and Helena Bonham Carter.

• 1:10:29David Sims?

  So Ben Kingsley first in Dragonheart III: The Sorcerer's Curse.

• 1:10:33Griffin Newman?

  And I think he's a new character, but Patrick Stewart is continuing the Connery character? Is it the other way around?

• 1:10:39David Sims?

  So Dragonheart III: The Sorcerer's Curse, which is directed here, I'm not looking at the names, probably Orson Welles or someone.

• 1:10:45Griffin Newman?

  Yep, probably.

• 1:10:46David Sims?

  Uh, that is a prequel. So he's playing the same character of Drago.

• 1:10:51Griffin Newman?

  Kingsley is playing the Connery.

• 1:10:53David Sims?

  Right. Then in Dragonheart: Battle for the Heartfire. Um, that is set 50 years after, okay?

• 1:11:03Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:03David Sims?

  So in that one, you have Patrick Stewart as Drago.

• 1:11:06Griffin Newman?

  Okay, so they're both Drago.

• 1:11:08David Sims?

  And then Dragonheart: Vengeance. This begins before the events of the last movie, but ends after them. What are we doing?

• 1:11:18Griffin Newman?

  Their godfather chewing it. And she's like a lady ice dragon.

• 1:11:22David Sims?

  Helena Bonham Carter as Sibeth.

• 1:11:24Griffin Newman?

  She's hot.

• 1:11:26David Sims?

  Hot?

• 1:11:27Speaker 02

  This is insane.

• 1:11:28Griffin Newman?

  I watched this trailer and they, because my friends and I were watching all these trailers, right? And we're like waiting in each of the trailers for the big name drop of who's the dragon, right?

• 1:11:38David Sims?

  We get in the booth for one day. Let's be honest.

• 1:11:39Griffin Newman?

  Because especially when we're going like Patrick Stewart, Ben Kingsley, we're like, fuck, who's the third in this series? And the doctor was a woman. None of us had considered that the dragon could be a lady.

• 1:11:50David Sims?

  Swinging at a curve ball in the dirt. And that curve ball's name is.

• 1:11:54Griffin Newman?

  And they go like, and Helena Bonham Carter as the voice of Ice Dragon. And in the trailer, they cut to a five second shot, clearly filmed on an iPhone of Helena Bonham Carter wrapped in scarves and bangles in the recording studio going, "Rar!" Like, actual footage of her doing it, clearly comprising one fifth of all the time she spent recording this dialogue. And then we go to this audio show and I'm like, she would probably show up and voice the fucking missile.

• 1:12:26David Sims?

  She, I mean.

• 1:12:27Griffin Newman?

  She will loan the voice to anything for the right price.

• 1:12:29David Sims?

  Isn't that basically what she does in fucking, um, you know, Terminator, whichever one she's in, does it Salvation?

• 1:12:37Griffin Newman?

  She's in Salvation. But she's mostly, it's her.

• 1:12:40David Sims?

  No, she's right. She's the doctor in the past or whatever.

• 1:12:42Griffin Newman?

  She's Skynet.

• 1:12:43Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:12:44David Sims?

  This is what I'm saying though.

• 1:12:45Speaker 02

  I thought she was like the Rebecca Ferguson AI judge.

• 1:12:48Griffin Newman?

  You see her face in that. You see her.

• 1:12:50David Sims?

  I know, I know.

• 1:12:50Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, on a big screen.

• 1:12:52David Sims?

  But anyway, we're after the show talking about Dragonheart for some reason and then.

• 1:12:56Griffin Newman?

  Because of Helena Bonham Carter.

• 1:12:57David Sims?

  Okay, right, right.

• 1:12:57Griffin Newman?

  You were like, she's pretty good in this. And I was like, hey, Ben, you want to hear a thing that I talk about anytime I'm given the opening? I've recently learned a lot about the Dragonheart franchise.

• 1:13:06David Sims?

  They were also trying to sell me on watching Streets of Fire.

• 1:13:09Griffin Newman?

  Oh, Ben would love Streets of Fire, right?

• 1:13:12David Sims?

  Uh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean.

• 1:13:15Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah. Streets of Fire is cool.

• 1:13:17David Sims?

  I know why you haven't seen it because it was a flop and it's only recently had a cult resurgence, but like, kind of crazy you've never seen it.

• 1:13:23Speaker 02

  It's like, major, major scumbum energy. There's like really fun music in it. Willem Dafoe is like, I think it's like, it's one of his first movies.

• 1:13:33David Sims?

  Speaking of Catherine Bigelow, The Loveless, it's early rather jackety Willem Dafoe.

• 1:13:37Griffin Newman?

  Moranis as a bully, we were saying?

• 1:13:39David Sims?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:13:40Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:40David Sims?

  All right.

• 1:13:40David Sims?

  Speaking of, I just, I just want to remark on Dragonheart Vengeance, which apparently takes place both before and after Dragonheart Battle for the Heartfire.

• 1:13:47Griffin Newman?

  I'm glad I've infected you with this sickness.

• 1:13:49David Sims?

  Well, I'm just talking, so like, you know, this Halloween, last Halloween, I did the Saw movies, right? I was like, I'm doing it.

• 1:13:56Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:56David Sims?

  All the Saw's.

• 1:13:56Speaker 02

  Are dragons spooky enough to?

• 1:13:58David Sims?

  No, no, no, no, no, no.

• 1:13:59Griffin Newman?

  This is prompting a new conversation.

• 1:14:01David Sims?

  This year I've been doing the paranormal activities.

• 1:14:04Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:14:04David Sims?

  Right?

• 1:14:04Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:14:04David Sims?

  Of which there are, uh, seven.

• 1:14:06Griffin Newman?

  You recently got marked?

• 1:14:07David Sims?

  I've been marked. I've entered the ghost dimension.

• 1:14:11Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:11David Sims?

  I am now, uh, you know, I have met my next of kin, right?

• 1:14:15Griffin Newman?

  Next of kin is the Paramount Plus one?

• 1:14:17David Sims?

  Yeah, I mean, it was intended for theaters, but COVID pushed it to Paramount Plus.

• 1:14:20Griffin Newman?

  But you scaled the mountain to watch it?

• 1:14:22David Sims?

  I sure, I watched them all on Paramount Plus. They're all available there.

• 1:14:26Griffin Newman?

  And I'm sure they ran smoothly.

• 1:14:29David Sims?

  Well, I actually use, I use it through Apple, so they do run smoothly.

• 1:14:33Griffin Newman?

  Fuck.

• 1:14:33David Sims?

  Which is a smart way that, you know.

• 1:14:35Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:35David Sims?

  So it's just what I love about these things and it's why I do it. Cause people will then get on my Letterboxd being like, David, you don't actually have to watch every Paranormal. I like watching how these franchises trip over themselves to connect backwards.

• 1:14:50Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:50David Sims?

  And like how you watch the people behind them, the disparate people usually, fall over themselves being like, so what is it about the hit long ago at this point that worked?

• 1:15:01Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:15:01David Sims?

  What should we connect to? Cause in Paranormal Activity, they keep fucking like ending up back in the house from Paranormal Activity 1. Like a fucking tunnel opens and they go there. And I'm just like, guys, I don't think the audience is like, yay, the house with the staircase. Like, they don't care.

• 1:15:17Griffin Newman?

  It is funny how like the big eighties and seventies horror franchises would just be like, and this time the monster.

• 1:15:23David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:15:24Griffin Newman?

  Tracks someone different.

• 1:15:25David Sims?

  It's a guy, so it helps to be just like, Freddy's back, Jason's back.

• 1:15:30Griffin Newman?

  But it's just like, and here are a new group of characters who are gonna be haunted and hunted by this guy.

• 1:15:34David Sims?

  You're getting eight kills of varying like levels of gore and fun and all that, right?

• 1:15:40Griffin Newman?

  Paranormal Activity 10 and the big twist ending is like, oh, fuck, that's how they got the bed sheets?

• 1:15:46David Sims?

  This is exactly the vibe.

• 1:15:48Griffin Newman?

  And then the movie ends with like, hey, we got an extra set of pillowcases. You want these? And they're like, those are the cases on the pillow and the paranormal stuff started.

• 1:15:56David Sims?

  Like, my friend Hannah was watching them because I started watching them. And like, there's in, uh, four, in four.

• 1:16:03Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:04David Sims?

  Right? There's a kid.

• 1:16:05Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:16:05David Sims?

  And then there's another, there are two six-year-old boys.

• 1:16:08Griffin Newman?

  That's the Xbox Kinect one?

• 1:16:09David Sims?

  That's, that is correct. That is, that is right. And you know that in two, a baby boy got kidnapped by the monster lady from one. Okay? And then in three, you see the prequel of how those girls grew up, which is the best movie.

• 1:16:25Griffin Newman?

  And three and four are both catfish?

• 1:16:27David Sims?

  Correct. And three is the best of the series and four is not very good. Almost done.

• 1:16:32Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 1:16:33David Sims?

  Four has two six-year-old boys, okay?

• 1:16:36Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:16:37David Sims?

  And one of them is in the family, and one of them is like a spooky kid who's his friend, who's doing lots of weird shit.

• 1:16:42Griffin Newman?

  Oh, that's gonna turn out well.

• 1:16:43David Sims?

  Right, exactly. And like, clearly, the movie's like, the spooky kid is the kid who's abducted, like, the kid, right, who's been like in the hands of the evil.

• 1:16:51Griffin Newman?

  Misdirect.

• 1:16:52David Sims?

  It's a misdirect, and then the other kid is like, actually, I'm adopted. And they're like, it was him all along. And I'm like, so who's the other kid? And they're like, we don't know. Don't worry about it. And I'm like, so did he only exist to misdirect? And they're like, yeah, but what a twist.

• 1:17:05Griffin Newman?

  He just has outre-tastes.

• 1:17:10David Sims?

  And I'm like, that only exists for the twist?

• 1:17:13Griffin Newman?

  This is why I really wanna do Final Destination on Patreon, especially now that we're in an era where the modern movie is a triumph.

• 1:17:19David Sims?

  Now, that's a series that I feel like dips in and out of trying to build connections.

• 1:17:24Griffin Newman?

  And anytime they do, it's so much fun.

• 1:17:26David Sims?

  It's pretty funny. I mean, Six, the recent one.

• 1:17:30Griffin Newman?

  It's a masterpiece.

• 1:17:30David Sims?

  Did a great job, basically, on every front.

• 1:17:32Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:33David Sims?

  But there's other ones where they're like, yeah, I heard about this. And then it's sort of like the extent.

• 1:17:38Speaker 02

  Yeah. Well, the fifth one is they try and like retcon, like, they bring in the plane crash.

• 1:17:43David Sims?

  I can't remember if, I think it's the fourth, or is it the fifth one, where they, I think the fifth one ends with them getting on the plane from one.

• 1:17:50Griffin Newman?

  And you're like, this whole movie was set in the year 2000?

• 1:17:52David Sims?

  It's one of those.

• 1:17:53Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:53David Sims?

  Where they, they built to that twist, and you're like, why? And they're like, I don't know, wasn't it cool when the plane blew up?

• 1:17:57Griffin Newman?

  It's kind of fun.

• 1:17:58David Sims?

  Yeah, I guess so.

• 1:18:00Speaker 02

  I love those movies. I would like to do that on Patreon.

• 1:18:03David Sims?

  Bloodlines is great.

• 1:18:04Griffin Newman?

  I still think that is the best time I've had in a theater all year.

• 1:18:08David Sims?

  Uh, what about?

• 1:18:09Speaker 02

  Not House of Dynamite?

• 1:18:09David Sims?

  Yeah. What about House of Dynamite?

• 1:18:18Griffin Newman?

  David?

• 1:18:18David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:18Griffin Newman?

  This episode is brought to you by XYZ Films and the acclaimed new documentary, Capturing Bigfoot.

• 1:18:24David Sims?

  Hmm.

• 1:18:24Griffin Newman?

  On October 20th, 1967, Roger Patterson captured 59 seconds of film showing a creature walking through the Northern California woods. I wonder if you can log that on Letterboxd?

• 1:18:35David Sims?

  It is an iconic video.

• 1:18:37Griffin Newman?

  Footage that became the most analyzed and debated in history 59 years later. Later, a reel of 16 millimeter film discovered in a safe changes everything. Capturing Bigfoot reveals the untold story behind the world's greatest mystery told for the first time by Patterson's own son and the people who were there. This is a story about family legacy, broken friendships, and how far people will go to protect a secret.

• 1:18:59David Sims?

  Of course, you got the classic, what they call Patterson Gimlin film. Everyone knows of Bigfoot out in the woods, like the famous Bigfoot picture. This has other stuff shot by him that no one's ever seen. That's what makes this movie different.

• 1:19:11Griffin Newman?

  But we're also talking brand new 4K scans of the original film taken from the Patterson family archives that some historians have called the best rendering of the footage ever seen.

• 1:19:20David Sims?

  I feel like we've all seen that footage as like grainy.

• 1:19:23Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:19:23David Sims?

  You know, that you see, you know, whatever you see it in a documentary for two seconds, but this is restoring it and making it look much more clear.

• 1:19:30Griffin Newman?

  There's also a companion podcast, the Capturing Bigfoot Podcast, which goes deeper into the legend and lore of Bigfoot and the Patterson Gimlin film, featuring weekly episodes with experts in cryptozoology, urban legends, and filmmaking.

• 1:19:44David Sims?

  I'm something of an expert in cryptozoology.

• 1:19:46Griffin Newman?

  Well, of course, yes, but that's more of a hobby.

• 1:19:49David Sims?

  Yeah, this podcast, Capturing Bigfoot Podcast is hosted by the director of the film, Mark Evans, and it's available for free on YouTube and Spotify with exclusive episodes and content available on Patreon to members of the Capturing Bigfoot Society.

• 1:20:04Griffin Newman?

  Capturing Bigfoot is now available to rent or own on Amazon Prime Video. Learn more about Capturing Bigfoot at capturingbigfoot.com.

• 1:20:21Griffin Newman?

  David?

• 1:20:22David Sims?

  Yes.

• 1:20:23Griffin Newman?

  People cut the cord means the death of the repeat, the rerun. But where, where do repeats still exist? In your closet.

• 1:20:31David Sims?

  Ah, the sweater that goes with everything, Griffin. The tea you somehow always reach for first?

• 1:20:36Griffin Newman?

  It's, it's, we know the feeling.

• 1:20:38David Sims?

  Those are the pieces that make getting dressed easy. That's what Quince does best.

• 1:20:41Griffin Newman?

  Quince.

• 1:20:42David Sims?

  This is true for me. I will say I go to Quince. I buy a thing like a polo shirt, a sweater, whatever. And I'm like, oh, I like that. Guess I'll get a bunch more because now that's what I'm gonna put on.

• 1:20:53Griffin Newman?

  Quince focuses on high quality wardrobe staples made with premium materials like 100% Mongolian cashmere, organic cotton and merino wool. The styles are timeless, versatile and designed to become the dependable pieces you reach for day after day.

• 1:21:07David Sims?

  Love it. They got those 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters. Those start at just $60.

• 1:21:11Griffin Newman?

  I love those.

• 1:21:12David Sims?

  Giving you the softness and quality you'd expect from a luxury brand. Without that luxury price tag and look, it's starting to get chillier. You're gonna need layers, right? How about you just do Quince for every layer, huh?

• 1:21:25Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:25David Sims?

  Jacket, sweater, shirt.

• 1:21:27Griffin Newman?

  David, you know what I love?

• 1:21:28David Sims?

  What?

• 1:21:29Griffin Newman?

  The ultimate commuter pants.

• 1:21:30David Sims?

  Oh.

• 1:21:31Griffin Newman?

  Cause I'm commuting constantly.

• 1:21:33David Sims?

  Beep beep.

• 1:21:34Griffin Newman?

  Yep, that's me. David, I like these. They're just clean. They're comfortable. They got the right amount of pockets.

• 1:21:40David Sims?

  Wow. Find your next fall favorites at Quince. Download the Quince app for app exclusive offers or go to quince.com. Get free shipping on your order and 365 day returns now available in Canada and the UK too. And when Quince asks where you heard about them, let them know. It was blank check. It's the best way to support the show.

• 1:22:07Griffin Newman?

  David?

• 1:22:08David Sims?

  Yes?

• 1:22:08Griffin Newman?

  Nobody likes bank fees. Why would you like them?

• 1:22:12David Sims?

  When I was younger.

• 1:22:13Griffin Newman?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:22:14David Sims?

  I really would have benefited from a bank that did not charge me fees anytime I did anything, basically, which is, I feel like what I was always dealing with.

• 1:22:22Griffin Newman?

  Chime. That's where chime comes in. Chime.

• 1:22:26David Sims?

  They're changing the way people bank. They're not like traditional banks who charge fees and get keep perks and rewards. They offer the most rewarding fee free banking, all with no overdraft fees, no monthly fees and no minimum balance fees. Okay?

• 1:22:39Griffin Newman?

  We love being fee free. We love it.

• 1:22:41David Sims?

  You're gonna get 5% cash back on a chime card in a category of your choice like gas or groceries.

• 1:22:46Griffin Newman?

  My two favorite things.

• 1:22:47David Sims?

  Uh, all while building credit through regular everyday spending with no credit check. And you can grow your money faster with a savings rate that's nine times the national average. And if you're ever in a pinch, SpotMe lets you overdraft up to $200 fee free.

• 1:23:01Griffin Newman?

  Be free.

• 1:23:02David Sims?

  So join the millions who are already banking. Be free with America's number one choice for banking. Head to chime.com slash blank check. That is chime.com slash blank check. Sign up now. It only takes a few minutes.

• 1:23:17Speaker 05

  Chime is a fintech, not a bank. Banking services and Chime card provided by Chime's bank partners. Qualifying direct deposits required. Terms and limits apply. Go to chime.com slash disclosures for details.

• 1:23:37David Sims?

  What did you eat at Nighthawk?

• 1:23:39Griffin Newman?

  I'm trying to remember. I got, I got two things. I got tater tots and I got, you know, I had this tooth removed and I'm still in a zone where I can't eat popcorn.

• 1:23:50David Sims?

  Damn. I got some popcorn. It was great. I also got their pretzel with like the scallion or like green onion dip. It was so fucking good.

• 1:23:58Griffin Newman?

  I remember what I got. There's a fucking, there's a one battle special item.

• 1:24:03Speaker 02

  Oh, the chicken.

• 1:24:04Griffin Newman?

  Yes, the chicken lollipops. I think it's called finger licking.

• 1:24:08Speaker 02

  Guys.

• 1:24:10Speaker 02

  I almost ordered that. I kind of wish I did. I always end up getting like the halal rice bowl situation.

• 1:24:16Griffin Newman?

  I wanted like two softish finger foods.

• 1:24:22David Sims?

  We're at DEFCON 2.

• 1:24:24Griffin Newman?

  Oh, shit. Time to reset the episode.

• 1:24:26David Sims?

  No, I'm just gonna walk off the roof. I'm gonna Jared Harris it.

• 1:24:32Speaker 02

  I like averted my eyes momentarily when that happened.

• 1:24:36David Sims?

  So you didn't even catch that? Cause their reaction is like, Jesus.

• 1:24:39Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:24:40David Sims?

  Get on the fucking cop to that. You gotta go.

• 1:24:42Speaker 02

  And then I was like, wait, wait, what? Did something happen? And Dave was like, yeah, he jumped off.

• 1:24:45Griffin Newman?

  It's disorienting.

• 1:24:46Speaker 02

  The roof.

• 1:24:47Griffin Newman?

  And no one really follows up on it. I was just like, wait, which guy just died?

• 1:24:51David Sims?

  It's, it's the whole problem with this movie. It's like the stakes at this point are so apocalyptic.

• 1:24:55Speaker 02

  Caitlyn Dever got paid.

• 1:24:56David Sims?

  I hope she got a nice bag. I love to see her.

• 1:24:59Griffin Newman?

  I think she's got, does quite a good job in this scene.

• 1:25:02David Sims?

  Yes, she does. Given again, to me, the sort of hackneyed nature of the scene. Yes.

• 1:25:07Griffin Newman?

  Yes, but she makes it feel like a fucking real thing.

• 1:25:10David Sims?

  I bought property on Dever Island to justify season two. And I've got like a lavish hotel at this point.

• 1:25:18Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:25:18David Sims?

  She's always good.

• 1:25:19Griffin Newman?

  Uh, Kabenga Akinagabe, I believe is his name.

• 1:25:22Speaker 02

  Love that guy.

• 1:25:23David Sims?

  Banga. Love him.

• 1:25:24Griffin Newman?

  He is so good in this as well. There's sort of a side conversation.

• 1:25:27Speaker 02

  Speaking of people I met when I worked as a receptionist at a post facility. Love that guy. Really great guy.

• 1:25:32David Sims?

  He's Chris, he's Chris Partland in The Wire.

• 1:25:34Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 1:25:34Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:25:35David Sims?

  A character I love, and I love how at the end of The Wire, he survives and he's in prison for all the murders he did. And he's with, I think, Weeby, who's another of the characters who just survived, you know, and went to prison. And they're just hanging out in prison and you imagine them being both like, yeah, fuck, we did all that shit.

• 1:25:50Speaker 02

  This movie had two members of The Wire, two members of the original Broadway cast of Hamilton.

• 1:25:56David Sims?

  So it's got Renee Goldsberry as a.

• 1:25:58Speaker 02

  As Michelle Obama.

• 1:25:59David Sims?

  Wife, right.

• 1:26:00Griffin Newman?

  It is weird how, we need to talk about Idris. But she is. She is so Michelle in this.

• 1:26:08Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:26:09David Sims?

  Yes.

• 1:26:09Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:26:10Speaker 02

  Well, it's, it's weird. It's, it's, she's very Michelle-coded in styling and the fact that she's like, you know, her husband is like, oh yeah, you're my, kind of my advisor. I don't know if all presidents are like that with their wives.

• 1:26:21Griffin Newman?

  But also their banter is so much our public understanding of the Obama marriage.

• 1:26:27David Sims?

  Right, right, right, right.

• 1:26:28Speaker 02

  And then also you have Idris being like, well, first of all, listening to podcasts and then being like, how was your jump shot?

• 1:26:33David Sims?

  Anthony Ramos, of course, is the other Hamilton member. I found him a little distracting, I'm gonna say.

• 1:26:38Speaker 02

  I don't like him in anything. I'm sorry.

• 1:26:41Griffin Newman?

  I like him.

• 1:26:43David Sims?

  Uh, I like him in, uh, I do, I do like him in In the Heights.

• 1:26:48Speaker 02

  I don't like him in In the Heights.

• 1:26:49David Sims?

  Um.

• 1:26:50Griffin Newman?

  I like him in Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.

• 1:26:52David Sims?

  I did not, you know, I have yet to rise with those beasts.

• 1:26:54Griffin Newman?

  I will, I will.

• 1:26:55Speaker 02

  I think that he's like, what, the thing that really gets me is him in Twisters. When he's positioned as like, an alternate romance, like, an alternate romantic option. I'm like, I'm sorry, Glenn Powell is just rizzling off. He's rizzling in my face.

• 1:27:11David Sims?

  True, he is rizzling in one's face, but he, it's also like, in that one, he's like the guy in the polo shirt who's like, alright, but like, get back in the truck, we gotta get back to work. And I'm like, this is a good use of this guy?

• 1:27:20Griffin Newman?

  I feel like someone throughout when that movie came out, if you flip him and Corin Swit, both of them are more interesting in each other's roles.

• 1:27:27David Sims?

  With Corin Swit, I was just kinda like, knowing. That since he was gonna be Superman, the whole time he was on screen, I was like, this guy could be a good Superman. He's looks like Superman.

• 1:27:34Speaker 02

  Yeah, he's cool. And I also was like, oh, this is cool that he's gonna be Superman, but he's playing like

• 1:27:39David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:27:39Speaker 02

  The antagonist in this. I'm like, okay.

• 1:27:41David Sims?

  They messed with my tornado computer. I don't remember what he did in that movie.

• 1:27:45Speaker 02

  Yeah, I don't know, whatever. But yeah, not a fan. I did like that one girl, though, the one who who worked in the like Alaskan army base.

• 1:27:56David Sims?

  Oh, she's good. Yeah, yeah.

• 1:27:57Speaker 02

  Tears silently rolling down her cheeks.

• 1:28:00David Sims?

  Do we know her name? I didn't clock who you're talking about.

• 1:28:02Speaker 02

  You know how she's the one who has to, you know, announce if there was an impact?

• 1:28:07David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:28:07Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:28:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:28:08Griffin Newman?

  Uh, I'm trying to see if her name is here.

• 1:28:10David Sims?

  I don't see it on the big. I thought Tracy was good. Tracy lets, it's kind of just one of those things where you're like, is this the first time he's done this? Like, he crushes as like a general.

• 1:28:20Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:28:20David Sims?

  Like, give me that all the time.

• 1:28:21Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Can we talk about Idris?

• 1:28:25David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:25Speaker 02

  What else is there to be said?

• 1:28:26Griffin Newman?

  So Alan Smith, the editor of this show, is just like,

• 1:28:32Griffin Newman?

  his vibe as a president is so bizarre and unprecedented in terms of what he's doing. Cause he really is playing it as President Idris, where like the movie almost needs to stop and explain how he got elected. And it's part of this, I was saying, was like, we're a little fucked in a Trump era depicting presidents on screen. Because up until.

• 1:28:58David Sims?

  Because, right, this movie is about, we assume, a somewhat competent administration reacting, right?

• 1:29:03Griffin Newman?

  Right. Up until, you know, let's say, a little bit Obama, but really up until the first Trump presidency, right? Any kind of white guy over the age of 55 with a pretty good jawline and shoulders.

• 1:29:16David Sims?

  Slap a suit on him, he's the president.

• 1:29:18Griffin Newman?

  Could be the president. And if you want the president to be evil, rinse and repeat with someone who's got more of a character actor face and an interesting voice, right? But you could just sort of depict an empty suit president on screen without it feeling like any statement. Especially in shit like Transformers or whatever, where you're like, at some point, we need to cut to a White House. You know, Transformers one has the bit where there's like a fucking, you see cowboy boots on a desk and a dude doing a bad W. Bush impression.

• 1:29:43David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:29:44Griffin Newman?

  But then I feel like the later Transformers movies are like, hello, I'm president, human being. The Transformers are our friends and you're like, there's nothing political about this, right? Obama kind of breaks the mold in a lot of ways of like, here's someone who because of our own fucking ugliness as a country, we thought was unelectable, right? And is such a good communicator and is charismatic and is not a perfect figure. But obviously is the best WTF guest of all time.

• 1:30:11David Sims?

  Mark.

• 1:30:12Griffin Newman?

  And then Trump, you're just like.

• 1:30:13David Sims?

  My impression of him on the podcast.

• 1:30:14Griffin Newman?

  This thing now where anytime there's a bad president in a movie, people are like, this movie is really going after Trump, right? Even if they don't resemble Trump in any way. Idris in this kind of plays like a dilettante.

• 1:30:27Speaker 02

  He doesn't know, like, I think he was just elected or something?

• 1:30:31Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:30:32Speaker 02

  Because he keeps talking about how like, the campaign was so exhausting. He seems so sleepy.

• 1:30:37Griffin Newman?

  He seems sleepy and he seems stressed out and he seems like a little annoyed that he has to do actual work while not being a bad guy, but everyone's kind of like, he's really charismatic. Down to that Ken Choi moment, which is like kind of the most backfill you get on him, which is like, I'm gonna miss the show. It's kind of fun watching the A-listers do their routine, you know? They're all the same, they're chronically late and they're narcissists. And then you just watch this guy absolutely struggle to be like, I haven't learned any of this shit. I don't know what the fuck to do. He's turning to fucking Prince Eric from Little Mermaid.

• 1:31:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:31:08Griffin Newman?

  Being like, solve this for me. And you're like, this character is bizarre. And you can't just in the third act, cut to him and be like, and he's the president and it's a stressful situation.

• 1:31:20David Sims?

  He's not even great at the basketball.

• 1:31:22Griffin Newman?

  No. He misses the shot.

• 1:31:24David Sims?

  He misses the first shot.

• 1:31:25David Sims?

  It's kind of the joke, right?

• 1:31:26David Sims?

  Yeah. And he's just not like really engaging with the kids very well.

• 1:31:31Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:31:31Speaker 02

  He gives him high fives, you know?

• 1:31:33David Sims?

  He's also bad at the nuclear part.

• 1:31:35Griffin Newman?

  That's what I'm saying.

• 1:31:36David Sims?

  But I mean, anyone would be, I think is sort of the point of this movie.

• 1:31:38Speaker 02

  I would be good at it.

• 1:31:39David Sims?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:31:41Speaker 02

  Yeah. I'd say.

• 1:31:43David Sims?

  This one.

• 1:31:43Speaker 02

  This one. I'd point to the menu. What do you say like, rare, medium and well done?

• 1:31:48David Sims?

  Jonah Hawking.

• 1:31:48David Sims?

  That's so fucked up.

• 1:31:50David Sims?

  Who played Prince Eric and the wonderful Little Mermaid Remake.

• 1:31:55Griffin Newman?

  Probably my fifth favorite Rob Marshall Disney live action film.

• 1:32:00David Sims?

  You know, he plays the guy who's holding the football who gives him this right.

• 1:32:04Griffin Newman?

  In the back of the car with the dress. Yeah.

• 1:32:07David Sims?

  And there's a slightly sinister energy to him that I kind of appreciated. Exactly. Where you're like, is it just because this guy has this weighty job? Is Bigelow trying to tell us like, it's kind of weird that anyone would have influence at this point? Even someone who means well, like, you know?

• 1:32:24Griffin Newman?

  This is when the movie works for me and it's why I think the Gabriel Basso section works where it's just like, when all the fucking cards are down, the stakes of any sentence become so severe.

• 1:32:35David Sims?

  Right. Interesting to think about.

• 1:32:37Griffin Newman?

  There are times where I think the movie captures that well on a kind of human interpersonal level more than like the logistics of how this shit goes down. Another thing I think this movie does well is just really illustrate how much Zoom sucks. You watch the first act of this movie and you're like, these important conversations are happening on a grid of eight faces. And you're like, this sucks. This is too weighty to happen over Zoom.

• 1:32:59Speaker 02

  Fucking Gabriel Basso is taking a call like from his iPhone as he is like, I'm sorry.

• 1:33:07Griffin Newman?

  I think that is the best section of the movie. And not only that, I think it is the most effectively tense section of the movie, especially when he's doing the runaround with the security guards.

• 1:33:17Speaker 02

  Yeah, no, that's exactly.

• 1:33:18Griffin Newman?

  And the metal detector and he's so stressed out that he can't maneuver like, what is the right way to stay on this call? He lacks the professionalism of some of the other people there to be like, I should mute myself or like, I should turn video off. And yet you're like, how bleak is it that like six guys are looking at a computer screen? Where the president's video is off and he's in the back of a car being like, I don't know, I don't know. What the fuck should we do?

• 1:33:42Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:33:43Griffin Newman?

  Versus like a kind of Doctor Strangelove. Fuck, this is important, kind of thing. Like, I think this movie at times captures a certain modern hell.

• 1:33:53Speaker 02

  There was a part that, again, everything I say that I liked and want more of, it makes it sound like I want, you know, like, a limited series or whatever.

• 1:34:00Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:00Speaker 02

  But the guy who works in the, like, White House cafe.

• 1:34:06Griffin Newman?

  That moment, I think, is really good.

• 1:34:07Speaker 02

  And, because, like, that's what I'm more interested in, is like, these people on the fringes of these big, insane decisions. What, like, they're not getting any information, they're getting drops of it, how do they respond? What is life like for them?

• 1:34:24Griffin Newman?

  A rare moment in this film that is beautifully underwritten.

• 1:34:27Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 1:34:27Griffin Newman?

  What is the name of that guy who's sort of Rebecca Ferguson's right hand?

• 1:34:31Speaker 02

  Oh, the one who's about to propose to his girlfriend?

• 1:34:33David Sims?

  Yeah, did you notice that, I feel like it came up at one point, that he was about to get married, or proposed to his girlfriend?

• 1:34:40Griffin Newman?

  I even think that is better than the amount of people who have a child in a city, or the wife is pregnant. Because it's at least hinging on this idea of, this guy's gonna regret that he didn't do it. He doesn't realize that he already missed his one chance to propose, right?

• 1:34:56Speaker 02

  I mean, I guess, I don't know.

• 1:34:57Griffin Newman?

  He steps out to the hallway, he's got the fucking phones, the cafe guy asks him, "What's going on?", he takes the pause, and he just says, "Go home." And I'm like, I wish the rest of the movie had that level of confidence in its writing, to not need to spell things out. Ben, you had a major complaint off of that scene.

• 1:35:13David Sims?

  Oh, I said, "We should have followed him home."

• 1:35:16Griffin Newman?

  There should have been a whole act.

• 1:35:16Speaker 02

  I wanna know, like, I'm more, way more interested in that guy.

• 1:35:21Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:35:22Speaker 02

  Than I am in, like, anything with, like, Jared Harris and his daughter, or like, whatever, like, I would rather, I'm more interested in the people that are more like...

• 1:35:33Griffin Newman?

  I agree.

• 1:35:34Speaker 02

  Tertiary, you know?

• 1:35:35Griffin Newman?

  The Greta Lee scene, I do think is kind of interesting in that setup. Uh, Ben, Ben did specifically say afterwards, he wished we had an entire chapter based around the cafe guy, so we could learn about how long he seeps his tea, and so, so these are the kinds of questions the movie really needs to answer.

• 1:35:52David Sims?

  Yeah, maybe, like, how

• 1:35:53David Sims?

  Does he relax?

• 1:35:55Griffin Newman?

  Uh, here's another conversation.

• 1:35:56David Sims?

  Maybe he throws on a Netflix show.

• 1:35:58Griffin Newman?

  Alan, Alan Smithy was like, it's crazy to think. Greta Lee, Oscar nominee, and now two years later, she's got one scene in Catherine Bigelow movie. And I went, no, no, no, my friend. Greta Lee just missed out on a best actress nomination. And in the year 2025, we're seeing the difference. Where it's like, she got the whirlwind of press. She got like, put on the grand stage. She just missed out on the nomination. Her level up paycheck gigs are one scene in House of Dynamite and human lead in Tron Ares.

• 1:36:30David Sims?

  She's in a season, what of Morning Show?

• 1:36:32Speaker 02

  Season four of The Morning Show. I don't think she's a very great actor.

• 1:36:37Griffin Newman?

  I think she's a very good actor. David, do you want to be the tiebreaker?

• 1:36:42David Sims?

  Um, it's interesting. I, I, I really liked her in Things. Um, I like Past Lives. I think that performance fits that movie well. It wasn't a performance where I was like, oh my God, I want to see everything this person can do. She's very, you haven't seen Tron Ares yet?

• 1:36:58Griffin Newman?

  No.

• 1:36:58David Sims?

  Yeah, I haven't met him.

• 1:36:59Griffin Newman?

  I haven't entered the grid.

• 1:37:00David Sims?

  You should.

• 1:37:01Griffin Newman?

  Or I haven't entered Los Angeles.

• 1:37:03David Sims?

  She's very like, lost in that movie. I don't know that that's, um.

• 1:37:07Griffin Newman?

  Sure. That's not her fault, perhaps.

• 1:37:10David Sims?

  Probably not. I mean, maybe someone else could have had a little more. She has like, a couple moments.

• 1:37:16Speaker 02

  As someone who's seen every episode of The Morning Show multiple times, I think she is terrible in that show.

• 1:37:21David Sims?

  I have not done that.

• 1:37:22Griffin Newman?

  I have never watched The Morning Show. Can we hold The Morning Show against anyone?

• 1:37:27David Sims?

  No.

• 1:37:27Speaker 02

  Uh, well, I, I think there are people who are very good in The Morning Show.

• 1:37:32Griffin Newman?

  I, I believe that.

• 1:37:33Speaker 02

  Billy Crudup, and I think that Jennifer Aniston as Alex Levy.

• 1:37:37David Sims?

  What?

• 1:37:38Speaker 02

  Is great.

• 1:37:39David Sims?

  And she had sex with Jon Hamm in space?

• 1:37:41Speaker 02

  No, she didn't go to space. Reese went in her place, but she did have sex with Jon Hamm.

• 1:37:46Griffin Newman?

  Was it January 6th in space or were those two separate?

• 1:37:49David Sims?

  I hear things on The Morning Show where I'm like, okay.

• 1:37:54Speaker 02

  Season three opens with Reese going to space and ends with her speaking to the FBI about her involvement in January 6th.

• 1:38:02Griffin Newman?

  Does sound like the best season in television. That's never been produced.

• 1:38:06David Sims?

  Okay.

• 1:38:07Speaker 02

  A lot, a lot of stuff, a lot of stuff goes on.

• 1:38:10David Sims?

  Um, I think she's fine in House of Dynamite in the Gettysburg scene. I don't know.

• 1:38:14Speaker 02

  We're getting a documentary about the making of the Avatar films on Disney Plus.

• 1:38:18Griffin Newman?

  Hell fucking yes. Can I say this? I went back to Pandora last week, re-release of Way of Water.

• 1:38:26Speaker 02

  Uh huh.

• 1:38:26Griffin Newman?

  That new trailer fucking rules.

• 1:38:28David Sims?

  Yeah, it's so cool.

• 1:38:29Griffin Newman?

  And there, I guess, three preview scenes that they have playing in alternation for the re-release that's now done. The one I got with Stephen Lang, uh, meeting Una Chaplin, head of the Ashnavee. And I want to say I'm pretty ready to let her destroy my life. I am so all in on this character.

• 1:38:50Griffin Newman?

  Fire and Ash looks so.

• 1:38:51David Sims?

  It looks awesome.

• 1:38:52Griffin Newman?

  Fucking good. Spider can breathe now.

• 1:38:55Speaker 02

  Good for him.

• 1:38:56Griffin Newman?

  They, they fucking link him up to the tree and now his dreadlocks have the fucking tendrils.

• 1:39:01Speaker 02

  They gave him those fucking dreadlocks for a reason, baby. I love it.

• 1:39:04Griffin Newman?

  With the dreadlocks and he can breathe without an apparatus.

• 1:39:07Speaker 02

  Oh my god.

• 1:39:07David Sims?

  Seems like a lot to, yeah, to throw in the soup. Game is over.

• 1:39:11Speaker 02

  I'm really excited for it.

• 1:39:12Griffin Newman?

  Hyakon in the trailer, a bunch.

• 1:39:15David Sims?

  He is all over that.

• 1:39:16Speaker 02

  Yeah, I, I just got sent a trailer for Fire and Water colon, making the Avatar films official trailer, November 7th on Disney Plus.

• 1:39:24Griffin Newman?

  Plug my dreadlocks into that doc.

• 1:39:27Speaker 02

  I think you, I think it'd be really cool if in 2025.

• 1:39:31Griffin Newman?

  I had dreadlocks.

• 1:39:32Speaker 02

  You decide to start growing dreadlocks.

• 1:39:34Griffin Newman?

  I'm gonna push back on this.

• 1:39:35David Sims?

  Oh yeah? Oh, you got some notes on that proposal?

• 1:39:38Griffin Newman?

  The bit ends now.

• 1:39:39Speaker 02

  Yeah. Um, House of Dynamite.

• 1:39:41Griffin Newman?

  I, I, I do agree that I think it's what I like about the Greta Lee section, right? Is like, it's more interesting in a way to see a person have their life interrupted. Get a call that's just like, it's fucking happening and then have to deal with the fallout of those words being said. I think the, the moment with Rebecca Ferguson's husband in the car is like similarly kind of emotionally effective in that way. Uh, Rebecca Ferguson's very good in this, but it is funny how much this movie was like sold the whale style on one image of her standing sideways in like Mission Control with a phone to her head.

• 1:40:23Griffin Newman?

  And you're like, it's gonna be a Bigelow movie of fucking Rebecca Ferguson taking names, right? Just knocking them down, like throwing fire. David's doing the look. He's doing the whale.

• 1:40:34David Sims?

  Now, this is a reference to an episode that he still hasn't dropped, which is I think The Hell Caesar is where I start that.

• 1:40:39Griffin Newman?

  That's where we really talk about it.

• 1:40:41David Sims?

  I'm much more interested in like the fallout of all of Ethan Hunt's good intentions. And I wanted a scene in this movie where Tracy Lutz is like, do we call in the IMF?

• 1:40:49Speaker 02

  A thing that I did right on my Nighthawk order card to show to my husband is Ethan Hunt would fix this.

• 1:40:55David Sims?

  He would.

• 1:40:56Griffin Newman?

  Can we talk Bigelow tears for a moment?

• 1:40:59David Sims?

  Sure. Tears of the Catherine.

• 1:41:01Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:41:02Speaker 02

  Um, I just, just to put it out here, I have not seen Weight of Water or K-19, but I've seen all the other ones.

• 1:41:08David Sims?

  Water weighs about a pound.

• 1:41:10Griffin Newman?

  Those are the two worst ones.

• 1:41:12Speaker 02

  Okay, really? I thought people kinda liked K-19.

• 1:41:14Griffin Newman?

  Crazy.

• 1:41:15David Sims?

  No, that's, that's, um, that's like a myth that's been pushed by the woke media.

• 1:41:19Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:20David Sims?

  Um, I have my top 10, uh, my top 10 right here. And I think it's, yeah, it's unchanging, but I should put a House of Dynamite on here, so.

• 1:41:27Griffin Newman?

  But I, I basically think Near Dark, Blue Steel, Point Break, Strange Days, Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty are all degrees of excellent.

• 1:41:37David Sims?

  Uh, well, yeah, sure.

• 1:41:41Speaker 02

  What's your favorite?

• 1:41:42David Sims?

  Point Break is my favorite.

• 1:41:43Speaker 02

  Minus, minus Strange Days.

• 1:41:45Griffin Newman?

  I put Blue Steel at the top of my list when we did our rankings, just because I was so.

• 1:41:49Speaker 02

  Do you have like a Ron Silver thing?

• 1:41:50Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:52David Sims?

  Do you like when Ron Silver is not chill? He ain't.

• 1:41:56Griffin Newman?

  Strange Days I've now seen several more times since we did that series and I fucking love it.

• 1:42:00David Sims?

  I, my, my top five are Point Break, Strange Days, Hurt Locker, Near Dark, Blue Steel.

• 1:42:05Speaker 02

  Sure. Yeah.

• 1:42:06Griffin Newman?

  Like she does for, within the can of directors we've covered, and especially for how relatively few movies she has. She has a good number of like.

• 1:42:16David Sims?

  But of good movies.

• 1:42:17Griffin Newman?

  Top tier movies.

• 1:42:18David Sims?

  Yes. Well, and then I have Zero Dark Thirty, a solid sixth, but the trouble for her is I have The Loveless seventh.

• 1:42:25Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:42:25David Sims?

  And you want that to be true when you've made seven movies, not 11 movies. Because then below that I have Detroit, K-19, I'm going to put a House of Dynamite right at number 10 above The Weight of Water.

• 1:42:39Griffin Newman?

  I mean, yeah, even like me defending this movie more, I'm like, my only question is, do I put House of Dynamite above The Loveless?

• 1:42:47David Sims?

  Right, sure, right, that would be the highest you put it.

• 1:42:50Griffin Newman?

  That's the highest I'd put it, yeah.

• 1:42:53David Sims?

  House of Dynamite, mate.

• 1:42:55Griffin Newman?

  It is wild just looking at that fucking gap of like seventeen to twenty-five.

• 1:42:59David Sims?

  And to me, it's also a problem that I'm like, I did not like Detroit. I think Detroit has so many of the same problems of like, just because something happened or could happen does not mean it's a good movie, like, or it's interesting material, right? Like Detroit just gets so lost in its like, struggle for like, verisimilitude or, you know, it's like, you have to understand, like, all the horrible things. Like, no, I don't.

• 1:43:20Griffin Newman?

  Hurt Locker and Zero Dark, as you said, find ways to build really good character stories, to make them character studies within this.

• 1:43:28David Sims?

  Detroit has characters that's sort of trying to do that, like a Boyega character.

• 1:43:32Griffin Newman?

  Ten lead characters is the problem with that.

• 1:43:34Speaker 02

  I think that Zero Dark Thirty is, it works mostly for me as a like, Jessica Chastain performance slash vehicle.

• 1:43:42David Sims?

  She's cleaning out.

• 1:43:43Griffin Newman?

  I owe it a rewatch.

• 1:43:44David Sims?

  It's a very flawed movie in my opinion. It's got a lot of good stuff.

• 1:43:47Speaker 02

  I haven't been hit with the urge to rewatch that one.

• 1:43:50Griffin Newman?

  Just anytime I'm kind of stressed out.

• 1:43:52David Sims?

  I just like Pratt and fatigues. Give that guy a semi-auto, I want to watch it.

• 1:43:58Griffin Newman?

  I'm joking. He's such a real American.

• 1:44:00David Sims?

  He is such a real American.

• 1:44:01Griffin Newman?

  When are people gonna stop being mean to him?

• 1:44:03David Sims?

  And you know what he's not, is weird.

• 1:44:04Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 1:44:05David Sims?

  And I'm gonna make, do an interview about how I'm not weird.

• 1:44:08Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:09David Sims?

  Whatever kind of weird thing you think I am, I'm not that.

• 1:44:11Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:12David Sims?

  No further questions.

• 1:44:13Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. He just needs to fight the accusations of being kind of lame. He keeps responding to those as if he's been accused of war crimes.

• 1:44:23David Sims?

  It's Zachary Levi, it's not that bad yet.

• 1:44:26Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:26David Sims?

  But like, how Zachary Levi would kept, keep going on the internet being like, "Stop saying that I'm weird!" And fucked up.

• 1:44:32Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:44:33David Sims?

  "See my movie!"

• 1:44:34Griffin Newman?

  But even like Levi had more specific accusations of like, "You're favoring weird tweets."

• 1:44:39David Sims?

  Sure.

• 1:44:39Griffin Newman?

  And Pratt, it was like, the thing that started-

• 1:44:41David Sims?

  It's mostly you went to a weird church or whatever.

• 1:44:43Griffin Newman?

  The thing that started the Pratt spiral.

• 1:44:45David Sims?

  You divorced on a Ferris, you fool.

• 1:44:47Griffin Newman?

  Right, but like, someone made the grid of like, pick the best, rank the four Chris's.

• 1:44:52David Sims?

  Right, right.

• 1:44:52Griffin Newman?

  And every, like overwhelmingly, the internet put him fourth.

• 1:44:55David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:44:55Griffin Newman?

  And he felt the need to like, sit down with Barbara Walters and be like, "Why does everyone hate?" And you're like, "I don't know, you're fourth of four Chris's."

• 1:45:02David Sims?

  They really just love Pine and Hemsworth and Evans is okay!

• 1:45:05Griffin Newman?

  Twenty million a movie, you're doing okay, guy.

• 1:45:08David Sims?

  Oh, boy. House of Dynamite.

• 1:45:10Griffin Newman?

  When does this movie go up on Netflix?

• 1:45:12Speaker 02

  The 24th?

• 1:45:13David Sims?

  The 24th.

• 1:45:13Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 1:45:14Speaker 02

  Of October?

• 1:45:14Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:15David Sims?

  Um, do you think it's gonna get a Best Picture nomination?

• 1:45:17Griffin Newman?

  I don't think so. I think it's over.

• 1:45:19Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:45:19David Sims?

  Okay.

• 1:45:19Griffin Newman?

  Right?

• 1:45:20Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:45:20David Sims?

  I don't know. I, like, I'm looking at the Best Picture field and it goes about seven deep that I'm like, okay, these, these all feel plausible. And then I'm kinda like, I don't know, man.

• 1:45:30Griffin Newman?

  Let's do this with our episode. You have seen way more than the other three of us.

• 1:45:33Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:45:34Griffin Newman?

  Sure. What would your 10 be right now on October 15th?

• 1:45:37David Sims?

  I'll give, I'll give you what, uh, yeah, like, okay, One Battle After Another.

• 1:45:44Griffin Newman?

  Feels the most locked.

• 1:45:45David Sims?

  Hamlet.

• 1:45:46Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:45:46Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:45:47David Sims?

  Sinners.

• 1:45:48Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:45:48David Sims?

  Marty Supreme.

• 1:45:49Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:45:50David Sims?

  Sentimental Value.

• 1:45:52Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm. That feels like a pretty ironclad five.

• 1:45:54David Sims?

  Wicked for Good.

• 1:45:55Griffin Newman?

  Uh-huh.

• 1:45:56David Sims?

  Uh, now I am like, I don't know.

• 1:45:59Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:59David Sims?

  So here's the sort of buckets of what's next.

• 1:46:02Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:02David Sims?

  You've got, like, Avatar Fire and Ash on its own island of question mark of like, hey, they always dominated these Avatar movies.

• 1:46:11Griffin Newman?

  But it's two.

• 1:46:11David Sims?

  Just fatigue set in.

• 1:46:12Griffin Newman?

  Are they gonna take it for granted, especially when it's not a grand finale?

• 1:46:16David Sims?

  Right. You've got the Netflix bucket. J. Kelly, Frankenstein, House of Dynamite. This sort of like, what do they push? What do people like the most? We can't even tell what, like, uh, does well, cause there's no box office.

• 1:46:30Griffin Newman?

  But it's true, like, I could see a world in which all three of those get in. I could see a world in which none of them get in. I could see a world in which one of them.

• 1:46:37David Sims?

  I struggle to imagine all three, but one seems plausible and two seems possible.

• 1:46:42Griffin Newman?

  But, but also zero very possible.

• 1:46:44David Sims?

  I would right now maybe pick J. Kelly. I'm sort of waiting to see on Frankenstein if that goes over better.

• 1:46:51Speaker 02

  No.

• 1:46:52Griffin Newman?

  It might have that same kind of craft surge and, and it getting the runner-up at, uh, Toronto for audience award.

• 1:46:58Speaker 02

  Cause that's another thing where the first response is to it where it's dog shit.

• 1:47:01David Sims?

  Deviant at Tiff.

• 1:47:02Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:03David Sims?

  Um, so saying it's a friendlier audience. Then you've got your acclaimed foreign film bucket. It was just an accident.

• 1:47:10Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:47:10David Sims?

  No other choice.

• 1:47:12Griffin Newman?

  Fucking excellent, by the way.

• 1:47:13Speaker 02

  Oh, I'm excited to see it.

• 1:47:14David Sims?

  Favorite movie of the year that isn't, uh, One Battle.

• 1:47:16Griffin Newman?

  So it's your number two of the year is another way of putting that.

• 1:47:19David Sims?

  But it's sort of like one battle. It's kind of like, well, what the fuck am I?

• 1:47:21Griffin Newman?

  Sure.

• 1:47:22David Sims?

  Yeah, but I love that movie so much.

• 1:47:24Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it's phenomenal.

• 1:47:24David Sims?

  So you got, it was just an accident, no other choice, and the secret agent, uh, sort of hovering down there.

• 1:47:30Griffin Newman?

  And that's right.

• 1:47:30David Sims?

  Neon, you know, like, uh, can favorites.

• 1:47:34Griffin Newman?

  Also that it's basically now, uh, if not a given, there's almost a kind of standard.

• 1:47:41David Sims?

  Often one of those gets in.

• 1:47:43Griffin Newman?

  Director gets in and, and it gets one of the best picture ten.

• 1:47:45David Sims?

  It was just an accident in some ways is, you know, not the easiest movie to sell to Oscar for, but in other ways is so compelling.

• 1:47:54Speaker 02

  It feels like it's his most approachable in a while.

• 1:47:57David Sims?

  Like maybe this is the moment that like, yeah, it gets this, so.

• 1:47:59Griffin Newman?

  I went to see it with my dad. We saw it at the New York Film Festival. My dad only knows about Panahi from.

• 1:48:04David Sims?

  From like the news.

• 1:48:05Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 1:48:06David Sims?

  Right.

• 1:48:06Griffin Newman?

  And, and here, this guy, he's made five films, like, you know.

• 1:48:10David Sims?

  Movies essentially in, under house arrest.

• 1:48:12Griffin Newman?

  Smuggled out of the country. These movies are like an act of protest. And he just immediately goes, I, I didn't think it was gonna be so funny. And I was like, yeah, all of his movies are funny.

• 1:48:20David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 1:48:21Griffin Newman?

  That's the other thing. His movies are very political, but they're very human. They all have really strong hooks.

• 1:48:26David Sims?

  But this one especially.

• 1:48:28Griffin Newman?

  It's the.

• 1:48:28David Sims?

  Has like a more of a, right, like a straightforward plot that anyone can grab on to versus the last couple, which obviously he made under very intense conditions.

• 1:48:36Griffin Newman?

  Do you know about this guy, Ben?

• 1:48:38David Sims?

  I do, yeah.

• 1:48:38Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Can I give you like the one sentence?

• 1:48:40David Sims?

  This is one of the things I know about, David.

• 1:48:43David Sims?

  Lots of stuff.

• 1:48:44Griffin Newman?

  Can I give you the one sentence on this movie?

• 1:48:45David Sims?

  Bullshit we go on about me and him.

• 1:48:47David Sims?

  Adorable.

• 1:48:48David Sims?

  Exactly.

• 1:48:49Griffin Newman?

  Well, yeah, but now you've heard the Dragonheart sequel spiel two times.

• 1:48:52David Sims?

  Fuck.

• 1:48:52Griffin Newman?

  Try to argue you're normal. Can I give you the one sentence on It Was Just an Accident, which will also maybe function as helping to sell this movie to our audience?

• 1:49:00David Sims?

  Sure, sure. Throw it out there.

• 1:49:02Griffin Newman?

  Bunch of guys who are like POWs, basically, right? Were, were political prisoners and tortured and blindfolded.

• 1:49:09David Sims?

  And you're wrong.

• 1:49:10Griffin Newman?

  And, and have not recovered from the trauma of that. One of these guys comes across in the wild who he thinks was his torturer.

• 1:49:18David Sims?

  They never saw the guy's face, but he thinks from the guy's gate and voice.

• 1:49:21Griffin Newman?

  The sound, the gate, the smell, all of this. And he like blindfolds him, knocks him out, is gonna bury him alive. And the guy makes a fairly compelling argument while he's in the midst of being buried, that he's got the wrong guy. So then the rest of the movie is this guy being like. Fuck, am I sure?

• 1:49:40David Sims?

  Driving around in his van, going to friends and other, you know.

• 1:49:43Griffin Newman?

  Other people who were captured being like, can I show you something?

• 1:49:45David Sims?

  Oh my god. Do you, I think, do you think this is him? I think it's him.

• 1:49:49Griffin Newman?

  And every person he goes to is like, has different levels of like, how ready they are to relitigate their own trauma.

• 1:49:55David Sims?

  Sure.

• 1:49:55Griffin Newman?

  But it's just about the absolute uncertainty of like, can you ever know? And if you've got the wrong guy, then what does that say about you and what have you done?

• 1:50:04David Sims?

  I mean, it sounds heavy, but you're saying it's also funny?

• 1:50:07Griffin Newman?

  It's really tense, it's really funny.

• 1:50:10David Sims?

  But it is really funny.

• 1:50:11Griffin Newman?

  But like, isn't that a great premise for a movie?

• 1:50:13David Sims?

  It is, absolutely. And I knew nothing going into it. I truly knew nothing.

• 1:50:17Griffin Newman?

  I'd seen the trailer, which gives exactly that much away.

• 1:50:19David Sims?

  And I was, yeah. Then there's Begonia, which I have seen and I don't buy it as an Oscar movie, but obviously they do like Yorgos sometimes. You've got like the Spring Scene movie. Does that go over? It's kind of getting like tepid, you know, okay reactions. You got something like, does The Testament of Anlee come on strong? Does Weapons like have a surprise?

• 1:50:42Griffin Newman?

  I'd put money down on a weapon surge.

• 1:50:44David Sims?

  Does Bradley Cooper surprise everyone with this thing? Is the thing going to be on?

• 1:50:51Speaker 02

  How about this?

• 1:50:51David Sims?

  Does Netflix get Train Dreams, which is better than any of the other Netflix movies?

• 1:50:55Speaker 02

  Does Netflix get K-pop Demon Hunters?

• 1:50:58David Sims?

  No, I don't think so.

• 1:50:59Griffin Newman?

  No.

• 1:50:59David Sims?

  No.

• 1:51:00Speaker 02

  You guys!

• 1:51:02David Sims?

  But they'll get it in an Oscar, it's gonna win.

• 1:51:03Griffin Newman?

  I watched it for the first time with you recently. I think it's very good. Marie, can you name all of the animated films to ever get a Best Picture nomination?

• 1:51:11Speaker 02

  Uh, first one is Beauty and the Beast.

• 1:51:13Griffin Newman?

  Correct.

• 1:51:14David Sims?

  I am the Beast.

• 1:51:15Speaker 02

  Uh, we've got Toy Story 3 up.

• 1:51:17David Sims?

  I am the Potato Head. I am the old.

• 1:51:20Griffin Newman?

  I believe we're at the end of the list.

• 1:51:22Speaker 02

  Oh wow.

• 1:51:22Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:23Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:51:24Griffin Newman?

  It was really like, Beauty and the Beast was a phenomenon. When they went to 10, everyone's response was, oh, this means that Pixar is gonna get an auto nomination every year.

• 1:51:33David Sims?

  For a minute, it did seem that way.

• 1:51:34Griffin Newman?

  And then Pixar started to lose it. I don't think there's a fourth one, right? Yeah.

• 1:51:39Speaker 02

  Okay.

• 1:51:39Griffin Newman?

  And there've been other ones like, you know, the Spider-verse movies, like things like that, where they were like, this could get into here.

• 1:51:45David Sims?

  Could this be the crossover?

• 1:51:46Griffin Newman?

  Right. I, I think for an animated film to get into Best Picture again, it needs to be like, a true, it would have to be like Wally. It would have to be like, this is a giant, the absolute hit.

• 1:51:58David Sims?

  Wally would have made it with ten.

• 1:51:59Griffin Newman?

  And it's getting Critics Awards.

• 1:52:01Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:52:01David Sims?

  I mean, the thing about it is the only real version of that since. Uh, the movies we just discussed is Spider-verse and that probably was just caused by being a Spider-Man.

• 1:52:11Griffin Newman?

  And they still gave it animated.

• 1:52:13David Sims?

  Would Green Book count just because it's such an animated performance? I'm not a cartoon, I'm a real guy!

• 1:52:19Griffin Newman?

  Ben, that is the most sober, realistic way I've ever seen a pizza be eaten on screen. I don't know what you speak of.

• 1:52:25David Sims?

  How could you call me a cartoon?

• 1:52:27David Sims?

  Wow, remember Green Book?

• 1:52:28Griffin Newman?

  We gotta open the box.

• 1:52:30David Sims?

  Should we re-release Green Book right now?

• 1:52:31Griffin Newman?

  Someone was making-

• 1:52:32David Sims?

  Green Book in 4DX?

• 1:52:33Griffin Newman?

  Oh my god, the bum bum bum bum bum.

• 1:52:36David Sims?

  Every time he's being racist, every time Linda Cardellini, bum bum bum bum.

• 1:52:41Griffin Newman?

  It's the heart of the movie.

• 1:52:43David Sims?

  Thank you.

• 1:52:43Griffin Newman?

  When they throw away the glass in the trash-

• 1:52:47Speaker 02

  I was reading about the 4DX for One Battle After Another, which I really regret not going to.

• 1:52:53Griffin Newman?

  It was playing for like four or five days.

• 1:52:54Speaker 02

  But apparently when like Sean Penn gets his little butt play happening, like-

• 1:53:00David Sims?

  He gives it a little butt.

• 1:53:01Speaker 02

  It gives you a little tickle.

• 1:53:03Griffin Newman?

  Just a little lower back, a little, ooh!

• 1:53:08David Sims?

  You know, that movie's really good.

• 1:53:10Speaker 02

  Yeah, that movie's really fucking good.

• 1:53:12Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it's really good.

• 1:53:13David Sims?

  And I'll say this right now, that's my best actor right there.

• 1:53:17Griffin Newman?

  Leo?

• 1:53:17David Sims?

  I don't think that's getting beat, my friend. I was thinking about him today.

• 1:53:21Speaker 02

  Did you see Marty Supreme?

• 1:53:22David Sims?

  Haven't seen it yet.

• 1:53:22Griffin Newman?

  You're saying personally, or who you think is going to?

• 1:53:26David Sims?

  No, Timothy Chalamet's gonna win the Oscar.

• 1:53:27Griffin Newman?

  I think so too.

• 1:53:27David Sims?

  Yes, but no, no, I think, Timothy's winning for two reasons. One, I hear he's very good in the film.

• 1:53:33Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:53:33David Sims?

  Two, Adrian Brody took one step on that stage and everyone was like, why didn't we just give this to Jimmy?

• 1:53:39Griffin Newman?

  We got this wrong, absolutely.

• 1:53:40David Sims?

  Brody just like, he just goes like this, like he moves slightly to get out of his seat and everyone's like, you know, Chalamet was really good though.

• 1:53:47Griffin Newman?

  David, I'll be a little more generous. I'll give him five seconds.

• 1:53:49David Sims?

  Yeah, he took one breath on stage.

• 1:53:52Griffin Newman?

  He gets up from the seat.

• 1:53:52Speaker 02

  Oh no, it's when he throws his fucking gum. That's when he lost it.

• 1:53:56Griffin Newman?

  It's the moment he turns back around and throws his gum to Harvey Weinstein's ex-wife, where people went, oh fucking no.

• 1:54:03David Sims?

  Everyone's like, he actually already even has an Oscar, what are we doing?

• 1:54:07Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:54:07David Sims?

  Doesn't matter because it seems like this might be the better outcome in a weird sort of a way of like, it's kind of annoying when you get your Oscar for playing a musician.

• 1:54:15Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 1:54:16David Sims?

  And everyone's like, I love you and I love Bob Dylan. This one, it's like you threw your whole timosie into this one.

• 1:54:23Griffin Newman?

  How old is he now?

• 1:54:24Speaker 02

  He's 29.

• 1:54:25David Sims?

  Yeah, he's almost 30.

• 1:54:26Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 1:54:27Griffin Newman?

  And he will-

• 1:54:27David Sims?

  He'll be 30 on December 27th.

• 1:54:30Griffin Newman?

  And he will win best actor presumably with three lead nominations under his belt before the age of 30.

• 1:54:36David Sims?

  It's a good point.

• 1:54:36Griffin Newman?

  It's pretty.

• 1:54:37Speaker 02

  King shit.

• 1:54:38Griffin Newman?

  Undeniable.

• 1:54:38David Sims?

  He's having a good run.

• 1:54:39Speaker 02

  I love my boy. I'm so excited. Like, is he gonna thank Kylie at the Oscars?

• 1:54:45David Sims?

  Everyone is so hung up on the normal person he dates.

• 1:54:49Speaker 02

  I mean, I'm just, I'm, I'm not against the relationship. I'm actually very, did you see Gwyneth Paltrow gave some interview recently where she was like talking about how?

• 1:54:57David Sims?

  It was elite Gwyneth, I don't know what's going on at any point in time shit, where she said that she asked him like, do you have like a girlfriend? And he was like, yeah.

• 1:55:06Speaker 02

  Yeah, I do. And then he's like, she's got two kids. And I was like, oh, that's so nice for a young man to be interested in a woman with children. And I had no idea it was Kylie Jenner.

• 1:55:18David Sims?

  It's just like her being like, I'm in Avengers Endgame 2? I don't think so. I mean, that one?

• 1:55:24Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. No, no, I'm just, I'm, I'm withholding my statements.

• 1:55:28David Sims?

  Oh, withholding your statements on Kylie Jenner?

• 1:55:30Griffin Newman?

  Look, going into Oscar night.

• 1:55:32David Sims?

  Newman Goes to War with Jenner Family.

• 1:55:34Griffin Newman?

  When it felt like Brody and Chalamet were neck and neck, right? And Chalamet had just given his SAG speech of like, I want to be one of the greats. And I like that speech.

• 1:55:42Speaker 02

  I liked it too.

• 1:55:43David Sims?

  I did too. But it was a bold kind of thing to, to admit, like, I, it's always the risk, like, do you want to admit how much you care about this shit at these awards or whatever?

• 1:55:51Griffin Newman?

  It's him actively engaging publicly with a duel against the notion of being cringe, which I like, that I feel like he's like, you know what?

• 1:55:59David Sims?

  We're trying too hard. Right.

• 1:56:00Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Fucking, I like, I want to be good. I care about the work. I'm not trying to be fit. I'm not trying to get that back, right? Like, this means something to me. He shows up at the Oscars, Kylie's there with him in the front row, and I just immediately thought to myself, he's not winning tonight.

• 1:56:16David Sims?

  He's in that canary yellow suit.

• 1:56:18Griffin Newman?

  Where I was just like.

• 1:56:19Speaker 02

  It was more of a butter.

• 1:56:20Griffin Newman?

  I think they don't want to give it to a 28-year-old who's dating a Kardashian. And when The Rock showed up at Venice and he was really slimmed down and you were like,

• 1:56:28Speaker 02

  Oh, yeah, we gotta talk about.

• 1:56:29Griffin Newman?

  What is up with this look?

• 1:56:30Speaker 02

  Thorough.

• 1:56:31Griffin Newman?

  I said, he knows there is no universe in which they give him an Oscar if he gets up on stage and he's like bursting out of the suit. There's certain things where. Like regardless of performance, they're thinking about the moment at the podium. And I do think those things factor in. I like that movie quite a bit. I think his performance in that film is extraordinary.

• 1:56:51David Sims?

  Which was, sorry?

• 1:56:51Griffin Newman?

  It's smashing.

• 1:56:52Speaker 02

  I still have to see it.

• 1:56:53David Sims?

  I really liked that movie and that performance.

• 1:56:55Speaker 02

  Should I go see it in Japan?

• 1:56:57David Sims?

  Yeah, my friend texted me last night being like, should I go see it? And I was like, look, most people seem to not like it. It's kind of a bummer. I like it. Check it out. She got there, she was like, solo viewing. It's just me.

• 1:57:13Griffin Newman?

  Are they gonna give him the nod like out of appreciation or is he even not guaranteed to get?

• 1:57:18David Sims?

  I don't think he's guaranteed to get in the five at all because like at this point, the narrative is that it failed. Like it's not just that it underwhelmed or whatever. The narrative is like, oh, it didn't work.

• 1:57:27Griffin Newman?

  Which is what the movie's about.

• 1:57:29David Sims?

  Totally.

• 1:57:29Griffin Newman?

  Which does make the movie more fascinating.

• 1:57:32Speaker 02

  Well, who's it would be, cause okay, Leo, Chalamet.

• 1:57:38David Sims?

  I think Michael B. Jordan is a lock.

• 1:57:40Griffin Newman?

  I disagree with you on that.

• 1:57:41David Sims?

  Why?

• 1:57:42Griffin Newman?

  I would love to see him get nominated. I'm just not sensing people putting enough credit on that performance as the driving force.

• 1:57:48David Sims?

  I'll put it this way. If the Oscars saw Michael B. Jordan, it's gonna be a tornado of shit for them. And I'm pretty sure they will not. I'm pretty sure they will go for it.

• 1:57:55Speaker 02

  Well, let's revisit this.

• 1:57:56David Sims?

  You're gonna, you're gonna snub the most famous black actor of his generation for a playing twins performance in a box office sensation?

• 1:58:03Griffin Newman?

  I think it would be a fantastic nomination.

• 1:58:06Speaker 02

  And he was very much like involved with the J. S. production. Yeah, no, that, that nomination makes sense to me.

• 1:58:13Griffin Newman?

  Who else is in there?

• 1:58:15David Sims?

  Well, and here's why, here's the other reason he's getting in there. It's again, kinda tricky after that.

• 1:58:21Speaker 02

  Well, then maybe there is room for The Rock.

• 1:58:23David Sims?

  Well, all right, let me.

• 1:58:24Griffin Newman?

  Wagner Moore.

• 1:58:25Speaker 02

  Yeah, Wagner Moore, sure.

• 1:58:27Griffin Newman?

  Ethan Hawke, Blue Moon.

• 1:58:28David Sims?

  Which, which you said that I'm gonna love, David.

• 1:58:31Griffin Newman?

  Jesse Plemons, Begonia, Jeremy Allen White, Springsteen, George Clooney, Jake Kelly. This is kind of seen as the top tier?

• 1:58:37David Sims?

  It's a softish feel after that.

• 1:58:39Speaker 02

  And then, cause Stellan's, Stellan's doing supporting.

• 1:58:42David Sims?

  He's supporting.

• 1:58:43Speaker 02

  Uh, Meskell's doing supporting.

• 1:58:46David Sims?

  Uh, yes, he is. Somewhat, I think, strategic. Yeah.

• 1:58:49Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, okay.

• 1:58:50David Sims?

  Like, supporting is also.

• 1:58:51Speaker 02

  Supporting actor this year is gonna be tough.

• 1:58:55David Sims?

  Yeah, I mean, do they, I'm, I, I, you know, how much they love One Battle? Do they want Sean and Benicio?

• 1:59:01Speaker 02

  Like, Benicio, to me, is like MVP of the movie.

• 1:59:04Griffin Newman?

  I agree.

• 1:59:05David Sims?

  He's pretty, he's pretty amazing.

• 1:59:07Griffin Newman?

  I think he's unbelievable in that film. My guess is that both of them get nominated, but both of them getting nominated and both of those guys already having at least one Oscar.

• 1:59:15Speaker 02

  They split it and then it goes to.

• 1:59:17Griffin Newman?

  I think the Stellan Lifetime Treatment Award, it's hard to argue with that campaign.

• 1:59:21David Sims?

  I haven't seen the film yet.

• 1:59:23Speaker 02

  You haven't seen it? Oh, you've seen sentimental value.

• 1:59:25David Sims?

  But from what I'm hearing about Hamlet, Paul Meskell will be winning.

• 1:59:27Speaker 02

  Really?

• 1:59:28Griffin Newman?

  He's gonna win.

• 1:59:28Speaker 02

  But I thought the narrative is a Jesse Buckley.

• 1:59:31Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, Jesse's one.

• 1:59:31Speaker 02

  It's her, it's her win.

• 1:59:32David Sims?

  That has already been engraved, I think. That's, that is not in question, but I'm basically just hearing like the movie has a major moment where he fucking does like Shakespeare. And it rocks and everyone cries. And I'm like, I don't know, man, I think they might just be like, Timmy and Meskell, baby, let's do it.

• 1:59:48Speaker 02

  I read on, on Elon Musk's X, whatever.

• 1:59:52Griffin Newman?

  Oh, the everything website.

• 1:59:53Speaker 02

  The everything website.

• 1:59:54David Sims?

  A chill just went up my spine.

• 1:59:55Speaker 02

  That, uh, there is a line where he is like going to like, kill himself and he goes to be or not to be.

• 2:00:05David Sims?

  Look, I'm not saying that I think I'm gonna love Hamlet, I will see what I think of it.

• 2:00:08Griffin Newman?

  You still haven't seen it, yeah.

• 2:00:10David Sims?

  Um, but, uh, I, the, the thing with me, with sentimental value, which is a film I think is very good, have any of you seen it?

• 2:00:16Speaker 02

  No, I'm really excited for it.

• 2:00:18David Sims?

  It is not, I think it will, I think it will do well at the Oscars because they, they liked his last movie because Neon seems to be back, you know, right? But it is not a movie where it's like, oh my God, Stellan just crushed that monologue. Like, it's an odd, aloof, frosty Norwegian movie about a filmmaker. Like, it, it's not like Otto, you know?

• 2:00:40Griffin Newman?

  But at this point in October, many, many months to go, right? I think there are basically four people locked in supporting actor, it's the 2-1 battle guys, it's Meskell, and it's Skarsgård.

• 2:00:50David Sims?

  Some would argue with you about Benicio, but I would predict it.

• 2:00:53Griffin Newman?

  I think Benicio is getting it, right? Two of those guys have already won.

• 2:00:56David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:00:56Griffin Newman?

  Paul Meskell's really young, and Stellan Skarsgård's a legend.

• 2:01:00David Sims?

  He is?

• 2:01:01Griffin Newman?

  He is, and here's another thing to consider. He's probably about to give us six months of no-skip's banger interviews.

• 2:01:10Speaker 02

  I think that's gonna hurt him more than-

• 2:01:12David Sims?

  It's possible he won't put his foot in his mouth, but I'm excited. Yeah, I'm excited. Like, does he show up to interviews in the fat suit from Mamma Mia 2?

• 2:01:20Griffin Newman?

  That's best-case scenario. Does he accept the Oscar in the fat suit?

• 2:01:23David Sims?

  Does he show up as his character from Pirates of the Caribbean?

• 2:01:26Griffin Newman?

  A bootstrap bill?

• 2:01:28David Sims?

  Bootstrap Bill Senior or whatever it is.

• 2:01:30Griffin Newman?

  If we're lucky.

• 2:01:32David Sims?

  Right, right. I don't know what he'll do.

• 2:01:34Griffin Newman?

  Any of it's good. All the scenarios you just outlined are good.

• 2:01:37David Sims?

  I would love to see Delroy Lindo sneak in there.

• 2:01:40Griffin Newman?

  I think he's so fucking good in that movie.

• 2:01:42David Sims?

  Because he's so deserving of a nom at this point. He's never had one.

• 2:01:46Griffin Newman?

  Sandler was like-

• 2:01:47David Sims?

  Sandler is still high on prediction lists. He's great in the movie, and there's all, again, it's the kind of like, isn't it, we have never nominated him? Like, do they have to make room for him? I don't know. The Oscars, they're silly.

• 2:01:58Speaker 02

  What about the Shark Tank guy? What about Kevin O'Leary?

• 2:02:02Griffin Newman?

  Everyone says he's very good in the movie.

• 2:02:04David Sims?

  I think he's probably really fun in that movie. I don't think the Oscars will care.

• 2:02:07Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:02:07David Sims?

  Is he Mr. Wonderful? That's his name?

• 2:02:09Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:02:10David Sims?

  He's the bald one.

• 2:02:11Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:02:13David Sims?

  I'm a bug, Shark Tank. There's the bald one.

• 2:02:15Griffin Newman?

  What then?

• 2:02:19David Sims?

  We're at DefCon 1.

• 2:02:20Speaker 02

  Oh, fuck.

• 2:02:26David Sims?

  So, this film, I guess, came out October 10th, 2025, which was last weekend.

• 2:02:31Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:02:32David Sims?

  And it was-

• 2:02:33Griffin Newman?

  Bad weekend at the box office.

• 2:02:34David Sims?

  It was an underwhelming weekend at the box office. Now, Griffin, I know you've seen the number-two movie. Of course, the number-one movie I have seen, and we love it, and its name is Tron: Ares, starring A-Lister Jared LeDough.

• 2:02:44Griffin Newman?

  Our favorite A-Lister, the platinum movie star.

• 2:02:46David Sims?

  A movie I found just this side of enjoyable because of the Tron business. Didn't find Jared too engaging.

• 2:02:55Griffin Newman?

  I took my little cousin George to New York Comic-Con.

• 2:02:57David Sims?

  Sure.

• 2:02:58Griffin Newman?

  And as we're on the, riding the subway over to beautiful Hudson Yards, New York, a real neighborhood.

• 2:03:05David Sims?

  You know what? That's what it is. This is a real neighborhood, goddammit.

• 2:03:08Griffin Newman?

  He was asking me-

• 2:03:09David Sims?

  We have a hot dog stand and everything.

• 2:03:11Griffin Newman?

  He was asking me questions about Hudson Guards and I was like, this has been a thing barely, maybe less time than you've been alive.

• 2:03:18David Sims?

  I was gonna say, probably ten-ish years.

• 2:03:20Griffin Newman?

  It basically broke ground when you were born.

• 2:03:22David Sims?

  Yeah, you should just say, this was almost a New York Jets stadium, all of this.

• 2:03:27Griffin Newman?

  Of course, that's what I said to him. But we kept passing Tron Ares ads and he was like, oh my god, Tron Ares is out, have you seen it yet? And I was like, no. And he was like, oh, I wanna see it. And I went, do you like Tron? And he went, I saw the last one.

• 2:03:40David Sims?

  I was like, hmm.

• 2:03:40Griffin Newman?

  I thought it was boring.

• 2:03:42David Sims?

  Hmm.

• 2:03:42Griffin Newman?

  And I went, well, have you seen the original? And he went, yeah, I saw that one too.

• 2:03:46David Sims?

  Hmm.

• 2:03:46Griffin Newman?

  I thought it was boring. And I was like, here's the whole cultural experience of Tron every time, which is, they put a new thing up and you're like, that looks cool, do I care?

• 2:03:56David Sims?

  Yeah, I care.

• 2:03:57Griffin Newman?

  And then we kept seeing Tron Ares stuff at like Comic Con. He was like, oh, those Tron Ares toys are cool.

• 2:04:00David Sims?

  They're cool.

• 2:04:01Griffin Newman?

  And I was like, I thought, you said you found Tron boring? And he was like, I do.

• 2:04:05David Sims?

  But it looks good.

• 2:04:05Griffin Newman?

  It does look good.

• 2:04:07David Sims?

  I'm not denying how it looks.

• 2:04:08Speaker 02

  I like in the trailer when Jared Leto like just dissolves into a bunch of like little Legos, little black Legos.

• 2:04:13Griffin Newman?

  Excuse me, Marie, when he de-reses.

• 2:04:16David Sims?

  And Jodie Turner Smith does it too.

• 2:04:17Speaker 02

  That's so cool.

• 2:04:18Griffin Newman?

  Ooh.

• 2:04:19David Sims?

  Several times.

• 2:04:20Speaker 02

  I think that's, I just think that's really cool.

• 2:04:22Griffin Newman?

  I'm gonna see it.

• 2:04:23David Sims?

  Like some, some guy at like a Hollywood, you know, fucking test panel, right, you know?

• 2:04:27Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:04:28David Sims?

  Like, what do you like? Do you like action? I really only like it when Jodie Turner Smith de-reses. Oh, okay, we'll make a whole movie of that, I guess.

• 2:04:35Speaker 02

  I haven't seen any of the Trons.

• 2:04:37David Sims?

  They're all great. Uh, this is the worst one.

• 2:04:38Speaker 02

  I feel like I probably think they were boring.

• 2:04:40David Sims?

  Yeah, definitely, no question.

• 2:04:42Griffin Newman?

  Like, Ehrlich was like, it's okay. And I was like, that's a pretty high bar.

• 2:04:46David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:04:46Speaker 02

  Yeah, but he's got-

• 2:04:47Griffin Newman?

  From Jared Leto Tron, I thought this was gonna be a, an atomic disaster.

• 2:04:50David Sims?

  Jared Leto Tron and it's half in the real world. Like, all things from, I'm like, no!

• 2:04:55Griffin Newman?

  And they're, they're abandoning most of the original and legacy.

• 2:04:59David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:05:00Griffin Newman?

  And Bridges is barely in it.

• 2:05:01David Sims?

  He burping though.

• 2:05:02Griffin Newman?

  The idea that it's watchable to me is like, high praise. I will go see it and probably think it is fine.

• 2:05:07David Sims?

  The amount of sort of, hmm, noises that Bridges makes, makes it seem to me like there were takes that were all of those noises, right?

• 2:05:15Griffin Newman?

  I, I love Tron, Marie.

• 2:05:16David Sims?

  Tron Grot.

• 2:05:17Griffin Newman?

  And I, I, I had just like braced myself for, this thing is going to blow chunks.

• 2:05:23David Sims?

  Patreon Tron? Patritron?

• 2:05:25Griffin Newman?

  I, I've pitched it before.

• 2:05:26David Sims?

  Well, now that we've got Ares.

• 2:05:27Griffin Newman?

  Patritron, yes.

• 2:05:29David Sims?

  Uh, and I've got my seals.

• 2:05:31Griffin Newman?

  I just got them as well.

• 2:05:32David Sims?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:05:32Griffin Newman?

  Boy, that 82 steel looks good. That transfer, oh, baby.

• 2:05:36David Sims?

  Uh.

• 2:05:36Griffin Newman?

  As Tracy Lutz would say, reference quality.

• 2:05:39David Sims?

  Reference quality, DEFCON one. Number two at the box office, Griff. I actually haven't seen this movie, but I know you did, and I think you liked it.

• 2:05:45Griffin Newman?

  Marie, have you raised the roof?

• 2:05:47Speaker 02

  No, but I really want to.

• 2:05:49David Sims?

  Roof, man! Now, I've heard, Griff, can you confirm a complaint I've heard? Which is everyone's like, a little, a little long, a little shaggy, could have tightened it, apart from that good.

• 2:05:59Griffin Newman?

  I would have watched it for five hours.

• 2:06:01David Sims?

  There you go.

• 2:06:02Griffin Newman?

  It has immaculate hangout vibes.

• 2:06:05Speaker 02

  Amazing.

• 2:06:05David Sims?

  He's hanging out on the roof.

• 2:06:06Griffin Newman?

  I was genuinely compelled by every single solitary second of that movie. First of all, I can rarely think, it's a limited grouping of artists who become less pretentious while also not just becoming lazy and hacky. To see Derek Sean France be like, you know what, I wanna make something that's fun.

• 2:06:27David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:06:28Griffin Newman?

  And do it well, and be like, you're, you're like nailing a fucking Linklater movie? It's awesome, Tatum is on fire in it.

• 2:06:37David Sims?

  How's Dunst?

• 2:06:38Griffin Newman?

  Dunst is so fucking good.

• 2:06:39David Sims?

  How's Dinklage?

• 2:06:41Griffin Newman?

  Dinklage is fun, but Dinklage is like playing the pill.

• 2:06:43David Sims?

  Doing, oh.

• 2:06:44Griffin Newman?

  Dunst, in her last scene, the whole performance I thought was good, right? I'm like, Chang Tatum might be like mortal lock on my best actor blankies category.

• 2:06:53Speaker 02

  How?

• 2:06:54Griffin Newman?

  And I was like, Dunst is like kinda right there on the supporting edge, she's really solid in this, but it's really unshowy work. Her final scene is such a fucking knockout. She is doing things, there are facial expressions she is able to conjure up in a scene where she is not saying much, where I was just like, I don't understand how you can have this level of fine motor control or be able to conjure up feelings this specific and this deep to get this kind of detail work.

• 2:07:23David Sims?

  How's Melanie Diaz, an actress I adore?

• 2:07:27Griffin Newman?

  She doesn't have a ton to do in it. It was nice to see her.

• 2:07:29David Sims?

  Nice to see her. She has not made a movie since 2018, although she was for the last few years on the CW's reboot of Charmed.

• 2:07:37Griffin Newman?

  Yes.

• 2:07:37David Sims?

  Which nobody remembers.

• 2:07:38Griffin Newman?

  Um, here's my complaint about this movie. It's not a complaint about this movie. It's a complaint about the state of filmmaking right now. Uh, films don't get financed unless you have 10 names in them.

• 2:07:47David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:07:48Griffin Newman?

  There are a series of smaller roles in this, like Ben Mendelsohn, where you're like, oh, fuck, Ben Mendelsohn shows up. Now there's gonna be some-

• 2:07:55David Sims?

  Not much to do.

• 2:07:56Griffin Newman?

  Right, and it's clear that everyone's calling in favors and you're like, Uzo Adoba has like five lines in this thing.

• 2:08:02David Sims?

  Juno Temples here?

• 2:08:03Griffin Newman?

  Same.

• 2:08:03David Sims?

  Like Keith Stanfield?

• 2:08:04Griffin Newman?

  Like Keith has a significant role.

• 2:08:05David Sims?

  Okay.

• 2:08:06Griffin Newman?

  But the Juno Temple role is like, and I love Juno, and she is good in the movie, but it is the exact kind of role that used to be small enough that movies could take a chance and break a new talent on it. Mm-hmm. And instead you're like, this is a weirdly small role for the woman from Ted Lasso?

• 2:08:22David Sims?

  I love Juno. What are you, Paulie Bleeker?

• 2:08:23Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 2:08:25David Sims?

  I was in the bathroom. I just wanted to make this joke. Patron.

• 2:08:29Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, we made that joke.

• 2:08:30David Sims?

  I made that joke, but you know what? We're gonna say it again. Patron.

• 2:08:33Griffin Newman?

  Patron. You're gonna love Roofman so much.

• 2:08:36David Sims?

  I know, I'm excited.

• 2:08:37Griffin Newman?

  It is so good.

• 2:08:38David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:08:38Griffin Newman?

  It is so good. I was having a ball of a time. I was grinning from ear to ear. I found it very emotionally effective.

• 2:08:43David Sims?

  He's grinning!

• 2:08:44Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Channing's the best. You know, we do a whole, long Channing talk in the Hail Caesar episode.

• 2:08:50David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:08:51Griffin Newman?

  And right after we recorded that-

• 2:08:52David Sims?

  Cause it's a little bit of us being like, he, it happened, but could it have happened more or whatever? Like, what happened after this?

• 2:08:59Griffin Newman?

  That was kind of the end of a run and that he's been in a weird place since then. And we recorded that episode and then like a week later, I was like, fuck, we didn't even mention Roofman.

• 2:09:06David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:09:07Griffin Newman?

  By the time this episode comes out, Roofman will have come out and he will undeniably be back on top.

• 2:09:12David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:09:12Griffin Newman?

  And instead Roofman has like, Roofman is one that should have played at fucking Toronto.

• 2:09:16David Sims?

  It did play Toronto, my friend.

• 2:09:18Griffin Newman?

  Did it?

• 2:09:18David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:09:19Griffin Newman?

  That-

• 2:09:20David Sims?

  It did. It got good reviews.

• 2:09:22Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:09:22David Sims?

  People liked it.

• 2:09:22Griffin Newman?

  I think they mangled-

• 2:09:25David Sims?

  I did too, but it's, look, but it's, I can't deny it. It's tough right now for that sort of a movie, the sort of 15, 20 million dollar, you know, true story, dramedy. Yeah.

• 2:09:34Griffin Newman?

  Then here's.

• 2:09:34David Sims?

  I want to see it.

• 2:09:35Griffin Newman?

  Here's my new note. If I were them, I would have held it until January. I would have premiered it at Sundance and I would have released it in February.

• 2:09:41David Sims?

  I will say this. I certainly with, it's Paramount, right?

• 2:09:44Griffin Newman?

  Paramount, Miramax.

• 2:09:45David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:09:45Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:09:46David Sims?

  Um, two companies well run.

• 2:09:48Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:09:48David Sims?

  Cool guys behind them. Um, I, you know, they kept pitching me on it, like.

• 2:09:53Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:09:53David Sims?

  And I was like, can you show it to me? And they were like, yeah, maybe. And I was just kind of like, guys, if you want to build up buzz, like, but they were kind of like hiding the ball with it a little bit.

• 2:10:01Griffin Newman?

  It felt like they were just really doing a Channing movie star push when they really needed to like build up word of mouth. Cause it's just, it's a, it's a very, like, it just played like gangbusters with my crap last night and it's not doing well.

• 2:10:13David Sims?

  It's not doing amazing, although you know what? It didn't cost a ton of money. It opened to eight. It'll probably clear, you know, 15, 20.

• 2:10:19Speaker 02

  I'm kind of surprised because I assumed it was like getting a smaller release.

• 2:10:24David Sims?

  I don't know, man.

• 2:10:24Speaker 02

  And for it to be number two at the box office.

• 2:10:26Griffin Newman?

  This is another thing.

• 2:10:27Speaker 02

  Hi, baby Joey.

• 2:10:28Griffin Newman?

  We've like lost the ability to do the like 800 screen release.

• 2:10:33David Sims?

  The old classic, like slow expansion, mid expansion. Yeah.

• 2:10:36Griffin Newman?

  If Roofman were playing on 8,000 screens rather than 2,500, like how many screens did they put it on?

• 2:10:41David Sims?

  Uh, it opened on 3,300 screens.

• 2:10:45Griffin Newman?

  I, I believe if Roofman had opened on 800 screens, it would have made the exact same number with a higher per screen average and would have had a feeling of, oh, Roofman's over delivering. And there've been a couple of movies recently that I felt that way about.

• 2:10:59David Sims?

  What else?

• 2:11:00Griffin Newman?

  Uh, Smashing Machine?

• 2:11:01David Sims?

  Smashing, smashing. That was an interesting case of the initial tracking on it. It was like, I guess this play is working. It's going to open kind of strong and like.

• 2:11:11Griffin Newman?

  You made the joke.

• 2:11:12David Sims?

  It's the Dwayne Johnson thing, right? F Cinema score incoming, right? Yeah.

• 2:11:15Griffin Newman?

  And instead it like opened horribly and got an A minus Cinema score versus opening to 20 and getting an F.

• 2:11:21David Sims?

  I think the thing about it was. Obviously, it was just hurt by the buzz being kind of tepid, right? Like, you needed the buzz, yeah.

• 2:11:29Griffin Newman?

  I, in my opinion, one is the Taylor Swift movie completely sideswiped.

• 2:11:33David Sims?

  That's so true.

• 2:11:33Griffin Newman?

  And I use the term movie really loosely, but that was a weekend that they thought they had all to themselves. And even though they're not the same audience, they were just gonna get some default movie going, right?

• 2:11:45Speaker 02

  I also think, uh, One Battle had legs, and it also ate into it.

• 2:11:48Griffin Newman?

  That's number two, and also it just took all the excitement

• 2:11:51Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:11:51Griffin Newman?

  in the sort of like film nerd sphere that needed to be rooting for.

• 2:11:55David Sims?

  But it got middling reviews at the fests and stuff. I mean, Benny won the Silver Lion.

• 2:12:00Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it was just a weird journey. I also think we've talked about how usually the 824 hide the ball, sell it as a different genre thing, helps trick people into going to see the movie.

• 2:12:10David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:12:11Griffin Newman?

  And instead, people went like, oh, this just looks like The Rock is really transparently doing

• 2:12:15David Sims?

  Right, it's an Oscar play.

• 2:12:16Griffin Newman?

  A weak, an Oscar bait thing.

• 2:12:17David Sims?

  He's playing right some fucking guy.

• 2:12:18Speaker 02

  The way that you described it to me as like Fat City is way more interesting.

• 2:12:22Griffin Newman?

  Fat City is the closest in luck.

• 2:12:23David Sims?

  I mean, Benny told me that was the number one inspiration.

• 2:12:25Griffin Newman?

  But they fucked up by trying to sell it as something more commercial than it was, because it didn't convince the commercial audience. And film bros were like, oh, this is just sellout shit from Benny's actor.

• 2:12:35David Sims?

  Number three at the box office, one battle after another.

• 2:12:37Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, still doing okay.

• 2:12:39Speaker 02

  You guys, can I say, I just wanna say something?

• 2:12:42David Sims?

  Please.

• 2:12:42Speaker 02

  I'm really enjoying the Coens, the Coen Brothers series.

• 2:12:45David Sims?

  You're sad we didn't get to

• 2:12:46Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 2:12:47David Sims?

  like, land that plane, right, on One Battle Island?

• 2:12:50Griffin Newman?

  The week the fucking One Battle came out, our Reddit was inundated with fans being like, I hope you're all happy now.

• 2:12:58David Sims?

  This is what, the Coen series has rocked.

• 2:13:00Griffin Newman?

  It fucking ruled.

• 2:13:02David Sims?

  Seth Rogen was on it. You heard of him?

• 2:13:03Speaker 02

  No, I know, but I'm, I'm just saying, it would have been fun to

• 2:13:07Griffin Newman?

  Well, maybe our democracy is broken. That's on you. We didn't fucking pick. We assumed, we assumed PJ was gonna win. I just thrilled that the Coens won.

• 2:13:17David Sims?

  I think One Battle is doing just fine without us, but, uh, of course, it would have been nice to talk about it, but I think the Coens have been fun to do.

• 2:13:25Griffin Newman?

  I'll say this too. I got a lot of, are you guys really not gonna do an emergency episode on this? Our schedule gets too, filled up too quickly.

• 2:13:33David Sims?

  Emergency episodes on the 12th movies by auteurs, what?

• 2:13:36Griffin Newman?

  Right, that's not how the show works.

• 2:13:38David Sims?

  Get over yourself.

• 2:13:39Griffin Newman?

  People are still caught up in like the first couple of years where we'd sometimes try to glom onto a new release to get a ratings bump.

• 2:13:44David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:13:45Griffin Newman?

  I will say, and we've been sort of planning this going forward, next year we have several new releases on the Patreon schedule.

• 2:13:53David Sims?

  Yeah, we're trying to do that a little bit more.

• 2:13:54Griffin Newman?

  Things that previously would have been a quote unquote "emergency" episode that are tied to things we've covered, but aren't straight up. But like, why would we do a one battle emergency episode?

• 2:14:04Speaker 02

  We gotta do a whole PTA series.

• 2:14:06David Sims?

  One day. Number four at the box office is a little movie about a dollhouse.

• 2:14:11Griffin Newman?

  Gabby.

• 2:14:12David Sims?

  Gabby's Dollhouse. Who's this?

• 2:14:15David Sims?

  Can you guys tell me?

• 2:14:15Speaker 02

  Who Gabby is?

• 2:14:16David Sims?

  Yeah, everyone was like, and of course David, as a parent, you must be excited for Gabby's Dollhouse the movie. And I was like, I don't know what that is.

• 2:14:22Griffin Newman?

  It was a very big DreamWorks live-action CGI hybrid Netflix show.

• 2:14:26Speaker 02

  So it was a Netflix thing?

• 2:14:27Griffin Newman?

  Yes. Most of DreamWorks Animation.

• 2:14:30Speaker 02

  But they put that shit in theaters and they didn't put in K-pop Demon Hunters?

• 2:14:33Griffin Newman?

  Because, excuse me, it is a show produced by DreamWorks.

• 2:14:36David Sims?

  It's a universal picture.

• 2:14:37Griffin Newman?

  For Netflix. Netflix doesn't have the rights.

• 2:14:40Speaker 02

  Well, isn't, uh, the Sony did the fucking K-pop movie?

• 2:14:44Griffin Newman?

  Okay, so can I amend some of my Sony fix stuff?

• 2:14:48David Sims?

  You've, I wanted to bring something else. Yeah, go ahead.

• 2:14:50Griffin Newman?

  No, that, basically Sony develops more movies than any other animation studio. Because most animation studios have an agreement with their parent company that's like, we have one slot held for you a year.

• 2:15:01David Sims?

  Take a picture of Ben's face right now.

• 2:15:04Griffin Newman?

  And Sony Pictures Animation basically develops like six or seven movies per year.

• 2:15:11David Sims?

  The, the fade to us, just we all just leave our chairs and the chairs are spinning and Gris just still talking about this.

• 2:15:16Griffin Newman?

  The only thing I've never gotten clarification on is, do they take something like K-pop Demon Hunter and have everyone bid against it and see if someone like Netflix is willing to offer more money than Sony would, or do they only shop it around after big Sony has?

• 2:15:32David Sims?

  Or you know that meme of like the sports bro talking to his girlfriend and he's got sunglasses on?

• 2:15:37Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:15:38David Sims?

  You know what my daughter's obsessed with right now?

• 2:15:40Griffin Newman?

  What?

• 2:15:40David Sims?

  Uh, Super Kitties. You aware of this?

• 2:15:42Griffin Newman?

  My condolences.

• 2:15:43David Sims?

  On Disney Plus?

• 2:15:43Speaker 02

  What?

• 2:15:44David Sims?

  You aware of this one?

• 2:15:45Speaker 02

  What? Is this different from like DC's League of Super Pets?

• 2:15:48David Sims?

  It's quite different.

• 2:15:49Griffin Newman?

  Very different.

• 2:15:50David Sims?

  Do you know about this, Griff? You know about the Super Kitties?

• 2:15:52Griffin Newman?

  I've seen the thumbnail, sure.

• 2:15:54David Sims?

  Yeah, well, you pretty much got the idea there.

• 2:15:55Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, I didn't feel the need to look any further into it.

• 2:15:58Speaker 02

  Oh, no.

• 2:15:59David Sims?

  Super Kitties!

• 2:16:00Griffin Newman?

  How do you get her back on the Spidey?

• 2:16:02David Sims?

  Well, she still loves Spidey. Let's not, let's not forget Spidey. But, uh, no, her, her BFF, her, uh, her little pal from school, we went over to his house for a playdate.

• 2:16:10Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:16:11David Sims?

  He was like, "Wanna watch some fucking Super Kitties."

• 2:16:13Griffin Newman?

  I fucked her up.

• 2:16:14David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:16:14Griffin Newman?

  Uh, Gabby's Dollhouse, I think, is a perfect example of like they were truly 18 months late on it.

• 2:16:19David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:16:19Griffin Newman?

  Like, if your daughter was born 18 months earlier, she would have been into it. And the movie's a little too late. And even down to like Gabby is now like 17.

• 2:16:27David Sims?

  Right, right. And she's like, "Hey!" Uh, number five at the box office, it's made $172 million, Griffin. What is it?

• 2:16:36Griffin Newman?

  Conjuring: Last Rites.

• 2:16:37David Sims?

  Yep.

• 2:16:37Griffin Newman?

  I was talking to a friend yesterday about the disappointing Box Office of Roof Man, and he said, "But hasn't basically every movie flopped this fall?" And I was like, "No, they're two humongous hits."

• 2:16:48David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:16:48Griffin Newman?

  Conjuring and Demon Slayer

• 2:16:50David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:16:51Griffin Newman?

  are both like fucking shattering the backboard. It's just that more expected things have been underperforming, but there's not a lack of people buying tickets.

• 2:16:59David Sims?

  But like, the only thing that has underperformed to me in a shocking way

• 2:17:04Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:17:05David Sims?

  honestly is nothing, because even Tron, I'm like,

• 2:17:08Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:17:09David Sims?

  that does happen with Tron, like, it always underwhelms a little bit.

• 2:17:11Griffin Newman?

  This is on you for thinking it would do better than this.

• 2:17:14David Sims?

  Right, like, I know it was below tracking, I hear you, but at the same time, like, like, cause people are like, "Well, Tron Legacy made money," and I'm like, "Look at Christmas 2010. It was the only offering, and even then it underwhelmed."

• 2:17:26Griffin Newman?

  And in our True Grit episode, we talk about

• 2:17:28David Sims?

  We do.

• 2:17:28Griffin Newman?

  Right.

• 2:17:28David Sims?

  True Grit fills the gap.

• 2:17:30Griffin Newman?

  And you're waiting another

• 2:17:31David Sims?

  You are not in a birth

• 2:17:32Griffin Newman?

  15 years. If I were, if I were greenlighting a third Tron film for release in 2025, I would have been like, "This thing has to be under $100 million." Then they say to me, "Good news, we got Jared Leto," and I go, "Great, it's gotta be under $60 million."

• 2:17:49David Sims?

  You're not morbus.

• 2:17:50Speaker 03

  Sleeping on better ropes.

• 2:17:53David Sims?

  Uh, number six, Conjuring though, I haven't seen it yet. I will check it out possibly on HBO Max.

• 2:17:58Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, it might take.

• 2:17:59David Sims?

  I might not rush to the theater because I hear it's kind of bad, but I do kind of want to fill in.

• 2:18:02Speaker 02

  I'm just really interested in like the, you know, like that guy with the weird face bought the doll.

• 2:18:10Griffin Newman?

  Hmm. No. What are we talking about here?

• 2:18:14David Sims?

  Guy who died?

• 2:18:14Speaker 02

  Who's the fucking comedian?

• 2:18:17Griffin Newman?

  Oh, Matt Rife bought the Warrens' house.

• 2:18:20Speaker 02

  I thought he bought the doll.

• 2:18:21David Sims?

  No, someone else died and like was near the doll.

• 2:18:25Griffin Newman?

  The house.

• 2:18:25David Sims?

  And everyone was like, oh!

• 2:18:26Griffin Newman?

  The house is basically a museum.

• 2:18:29David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:18:29Griffin Newman?

  Matt Rife and his business partner bought this house. Matt Rife is apparently really into the occult. And he's made it very clear that he doesn't own the doll or any of the artifacts, that what he has bought is the right to be the custodian of the objects for as long as he is in possession of the house. But the house is basically a national landmark.

• 2:18:52Speaker 02

  So is it the house that the Warrens lived in, or is it the house that the, that was haunted?

• 2:18:58Griffin Newman?

  It's the house they lived in, which is like a museum of all their spooky objects. Namely Annabelle, who I love to remind people was in reality a Raggedy Ann doll.

• 2:19:06Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:19:07Griffin Newman?

  Is not a creepy, like fucking colonial.

• 2:19:09David Sims?

  It's just a regular ass Raggedy Ann. Now, don't touchy.

• 2:19:13Griffin Newman?

  Don't touchy.

• 2:19:14David Sims?

  I'm not, I'm not saying I'm not scared of the Raggedy Ann doll.

• 2:19:16Griffin Newman?

  Keep the case closed.

• 2:19:18David Sims?

  Number six of the box office new this week, of course, is Soul on Fire, Griffin, the William H. Macy true story in which he plays a guy who helped a kid who had burns.

• 2:19:29Griffin Newman?

  William H. Macy has been showing up in Disney Emoji Blitz when I have to watch ads to get free spins on the wheel.

• 2:19:35Speaker 02

  I thought you were going to say that he had an emoji.

• 2:19:38David Sims?

  He should have.

• 2:19:39Griffin Newman?

  I fucking wish.

• 2:19:42Speaker 02

  It's like, isn't he like the guy in The Incredibles?

• 2:19:45Griffin Newman?

  No, but he looks like him and they haven't done that character yet. That's a wall of shone. I'm like, has William H. Macy done any Wild Hogs? If they had Wild Hogs.

• 2:19:53David Sims?

  Okay, but do you remember when William H. Macy played the fucking Green Lantern villain in The Dropout?

• 2:20:00Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, that's good.

• 2:20:01David Sims?

  Remember that shit?

• 2:20:02Griffin Newman?

  Hector Hammond.

• 2:20:02David Sims?

  When they were like, "His hairline could be eighty percent higher on his head."

• 2:20:07Speaker 02

  I really enjoyed that.

• 2:20:09David Sims?

  That show is good. Yeah. I just, anytime they cut to him, I was like, "Who chose this?"

• 2:20:14Griffin Newman?

  I keep getting this autoplay ad that is William H. Macy as a surgeon performing open chest surgery on a body, and then talking about some fucking cellphone game. What has happened?

• 2:20:28David Sims?

  We know the thing-

• 2:20:29Speaker 02

  Did he go to jail?

• 2:20:30David Sims?

  No, his wife got in trouble.

• 2:20:33Speaker 02

  They had crazy legal bills.

• 2:20:35David Sims?

  No, he was, he was free and clear.

• 2:20:36Speaker 02

  But like, I'm sure, you know, I get it. He's-

• 2:20:39Griffin Newman?

  But I'm even like, what is the conversation that leads to like, "We have a game about like, castle demons that like, eat berries. How do we promote this? William H. Macy giving a measured performance as a surgeon."

• 2:20:51David Sims?

  Sounds good. Number seven is the aforementioned Demon Slayer, the latest of those?

• 2:20:57Griffin Newman?

  Now, I know the release of that film is kind of equally split across dubs and subs, I believe.

• 2:21:02David Sims?

  Oh.

• 2:21:03Griffin Newman?

  But there was an argument that it has now surpassed Crouching Tiger.

• 2:21:07Speaker 02

  Whoa.

• 2:21:08David Sims?

  Right, right, right.

• 2:21:09Griffin Newman?

  It's kind of a fuzzy stat because some people are watching the American dub version. But you're like, this is maybe ostensibly the highest grossing international film at the domestic box office ever? I think that's under discussed.

• 2:21:21Speaker 02

  That's kinda, that's crazy.

• 2:21:22David Sims?

  Thank you for discussing it.

• 2:21:23Speaker 02

  Did y'all see that trailer, that weird trailer? That's like, two trailers for Chainsaw Man?

• 2:21:28Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, that's also about to fucking overperform, I think.

• 2:21:31David Sims?

  Very excited for that movie.

• 2:21:32Griffin Newman?

  Ben likes Chainsaw Man.

• 2:21:33David Sims?

  I watched the shit out of that show. Shout out to Yoshida for recommending.

• 2:21:37Griffin Newman?

  Uh, Demon Slayer to date, the only animated film to make a hundred million dollars at the domestic box office. About to obviously-

• 2:21:43David Sims?

  Yeah, this year, right.

• 2:21:44Griffin Newman?

  Be beaten by Zootopia, but-

• 2:21:45Speaker 02

  Bad Guys 2? Didn't even make it to-

• 2:21:47Griffin Newman?

  Bad Guys 2, fucking-

• 2:21:48David Sims?

  Sold out around, what, eighty?

• 2:21:50Speaker 02

  Damn.

• 2:21:51Griffin Newman?

  Dogman's the closest and it made it to ninety-five.

• 2:21:53David Sims?

  But yeah, Zootopia 2, that'll right, man. The snake, the snake served-

• 2:21:57Griffin Newman?

  Rock the house.

• 2:21:57David Sims?

  Whatever. His head is a chainsaw, his hands are also chainsaws.

• 2:22:01Griffin Newman?

  And the dog's a chainsaw, right?

• 2:22:03David Sims?

  What's up?

• 2:22:03Griffin Newman?

  Doesn't he got a chainsaw dog?

• 2:22:05David Sims?

  Are you kidding? I don't know about this.

• 2:22:07Griffin Newman?

  I'm pretty sure-

• 2:22:07David Sims?

  Ben just bought another ticket? It has four now?

• 2:22:11Griffin Newman?

  He's gonna lie down in the-

• 2:22:15David Sims?

  He started- Pulling up arms.

• 2:22:16Griffin Newman?

  Pull his own aisle.

• 2:22:17Speaker 02

  I'm so glad that I know that you're into Chainsaw Man because I feel like that's a thing that I can buy you in Japan.

• 2:22:22Griffin Newman?

  Oh.

• 2:22:23David Sims?

  Oh my god, yes. What are you gonna buy me?

• 2:22:25Speaker 02

  What do you want, David?

• 2:22:27Griffin Newman?

  Wait, Maria, I might have to send you a little bit of a Japan list.

• 2:22:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:22:30David Sims?

  Well, I don't do that. Famously, you love getting various merch and stuff. Love stuff.

• 2:22:35Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:22:36David Sims?

  Yeah, what I want in Japan is to like sit in some like fancy onsen and like look out upon like trees.

• 2:22:42Griffin Newman?

  This year is the 30th anniversary of Toy Story.

• 2:22:45Speaker 02

  Is there, is there like a, an exclusive?

• 2:22:48David Sims?

  Oh my god, wait, David just up off a roof?

• 2:22:51Griffin Newman?

  Takara has made a collection of dolls that are Woody as Samurai, Buzz as Ninja, Jessie as Geisha.

• 2:22:59David Sims?

  Sounds culturally sensitive.

• 2:23:02Speaker 02

  Woody as Ninja.

• 2:23:05Griffin Newman?

  Woody is Samurai, please.

• 2:23:06Speaker 02

  No, sorry, Woody as.

• 2:23:07David Sims?

  Number eight is the smashing machine.

• 2:23:09Griffin Newman?

  I'm trying to find a way to get these without paying crazy tariffs.

• 2:23:12Speaker 02

  Whoa, this looks so fucking cool.

• 2:23:14Griffin Newman?

  Thank you, Chris.

• 2:23:15Speaker 02

  This is so cool.

• 2:23:20Speaker 02

  Look at this, look at this.

• 2:23:22Griffin Newman?

  It rules, right? It's really well done. Culturally sensitive.

• 2:23:26Speaker 02

  I just think this is great. Look at that. Look at him. He's got a little helmet.

• 2:23:30David Sims?

  It's not for me.

• 2:23:31Griffin Newman?

  David.

• 2:23:32Speaker 02

  See, he's so bad and he looks so cute.

• 2:23:34Griffin Newman?

  It's for me.

• 2:23:36David Sims?

  Yes, it's for you.

• 2:23:37Griffin Newman?

  Look at the Jessie one.

• 2:23:38David Sims?

  Number nine is The Strangers, Chapter Two. A real winning strategy there.

• 2:23:43Speaker 02

  Oh my god, her kimono is cow print.

• 2:23:47Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, if she can kimono my house.

• 2:23:49Speaker 02

  Oh, no.

• 2:23:50Griffin Newman?

  It's a Sparks album title.

• 2:23:51David Sims?

  A Jessie Geisha?

• 2:23:54Speaker 02

  Look at her.

• 2:23:54David Sims?

  We're saying this about Geisha, Jessie?

• 2:23:57Griffin Newman?

  Sparks album title.

• 2:23:58David Sims?

  Mm-hmm. Number nine, I said, oh, and number 10 is Good Boy.

• 2:24:01Speaker 02

  I also want to say that you're. She's not, she's not a Geisha. She's just wearing a kimono.

• 2:24:06Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 2:24:06David Sims?

  Opening at, opening at number 12, Kiss of the Spider Woman, that one kind of.

• 2:24:10Speaker 02

  Oh, I want to see that as the only person who, you know, supports all of Jennifer Lopez's creative endeavors.

• 2:24:17David Sims?

  I've heard kind of mixed things about it.

• 2:24:19Griffin Newman?

  I think Diego Luna is quite fantastic in it. And all the buzz out of the festivals was Tonataio, I believe is his name, and, and J-Lo, and I was pretty taken by, uh, Diego, who kind of doesn't miss.

• 2:24:31David Sims?

  Uh, are you watching Andor yet?

• 2:24:33Griffin Newman?

  I'm gonna get there.

• 2:24:33David Sims?

  Oh, okay. Why did I remember you saying you wanted to discuss something about Andor? Catherine Hunter? Can't remember. Anyway, Diego Luna, when does he, when's he bad?

• 2:24:44Griffin Newman?

  That's what I'm saying. Yeah.

• 2:24:46David Sims?

  I mean, I can't say I saw. Wow, he hasn't made a lot of movies recently. I guess he was busy fucking making Andor.

• 2:24:52Griffin Newman?

  He directed a couple of films too. I feel like he kind of took a step away from acting until Rogue One.

• 2:24:57David Sims?

  Hmm.

• 2:24:57Griffin Newman?

  He directed like three movies.

• 2:24:58David Sims?

  He's directing something right now called A Mouthful of Ash.

• 2:25:02Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 2:25:02David Sims?

  Sounds like a spoiler bummer.

• 2:25:03Speaker 02

  A house full of dynamite? That's what you get.

• 2:25:06Griffin Newman?

  That's what you get.

• 2:25:06Speaker 02

  When you stay in a house full of dynamite.

• 2:25:08Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:25:09David Sims?

  David, can I share something with you specifically? That I just started watching and I'm now, I'm gonna have to watch the whole thing. Gilmore Girls is so good.

• 2:25:18David Sims?

  Ben, what got you on the girls?

• 2:25:20David Sims?

  It was a show that Nelly was obsessed with. And she was like, Ben, you've never watched a single episode, throw on the pilot? I'm loving this thing. Are you kidding me? It's funny. It's heartfelt. I'm all in.

• 2:25:32David Sims?

  It's a great, it's the one of the great shows.

• 2:25:34David Sims?

  The parents think.

• 2:25:35Griffin Newman?

  The parents.

• 2:25:36Speaker 02

  I, I'm gonna say something controversial.

• 2:25:38David Sims?

  Murray, don't do this.

• 2:25:39Griffin Newman?

  Do it, Murray.

• 2:25:41Speaker 02

  Lauren Graham, like, it's her whole, like, I drink so much coffee and I, like, talk really fast.

• 2:25:47David Sims?

  Yeah, that's literally what happens in Gilmore Girls.

• 2:25:49Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:25:49Griffin Newman?

  Describing the whole show.

• 2:25:50Speaker 02

  I literally can't. I can't.

• 2:25:52David Sims?

  Look, man, as someone who was a huge Gilmore Girls fan at the time, right? Like, when it was on the WB and then the CW. This was always the thing. It was always a show that put some people off, kind of auto, put people off. They're talking too fast. I don't like Lauren Graham. You know what I mean? Like, it was always that thing where I'd be like, you know what's secretly kind of the best show on TV? Gilmore Girls. Ah, they talk too much. And then it became like, what it became. It became like a show that everyone agreed on. It was like, to my total surprise.

• 2:26:21Speaker 02

  Does she, does she stop?

• 2:26:22David Sims?

  No.

• 2:26:23Speaker 02

  She just, she keeps doing it.

• 2:26:24David Sims?

  That's the style of the show.

• 2:26:25Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:26:26David Sims?

  It's written ninety, ninety pages per episode, famously.

• 2:26:29Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:26:30David Sims?

  I mean, Lauren Graham, talk to her about it. It's so interesting. She, you can see how it haunts her. I think it was the hardest television show to make. Like, because they had to just shoot for such long, like, because the scripts were so crazy. And you can't fuck up those, like, crazy, crazy, like, rat-a-tat, like, dialogue things. And all of those guys are just now, starting to do the sort of like, yeah, maybe we had a good time on Gilmore Girls. But you can tell that they, like, really suffered, like, while they were making it.

• 2:27:00Speaker 02

  My mom used to say that we were like the Gilmore Girls. Cause she'd be like, I had you young and we're best friends. I'm like, you had me when you were like 27.

• 2:27:06David Sims?

  That's right.

• 2:27:06Speaker 02

  Which was completely normal in the 1980s, but whatever.

• 2:27:10David Sims?

  Hey, shout out. I love it. Sam, right? Is this diner Sam?

• 2:27:13David Sims?

  Luke.

• 2:27:14David Sims?

  Luke, okay.

• 2:27:14Speaker 02

  The coffee shop.

• 2:27:15David Sims?

  Love that guy.

• 2:27:16Speaker 02

  Yeah.

• 2:27:16David Sims?

  He's the best. Just keep watching, baby.

• 2:27:18David Sims?

  Oh, I'm, I'm, I'm all in.

• 2:27:20David Sims?

  What season are you on? You're still in season one?

• 2:27:21David Sims?

  I just watched the pilot.

• 2:27:23David Sims?

  Well, then you're gonna have a great time. It's only getting better until season seven, which you can avoid that one. But seasons one to six.

• 2:27:28David Sims?

  Netflix one?

• 2:27:29David Sims?

  No, season seven is when they fired Amy Sherman. It's the Dan Harmony, exactly the same as Community season four where they're like, we can still do this without the person who wrote all the episodes, right? And you're like, ooh, this is weird.

• 2:27:40Griffin Newman?

  And they hired Dan Harmon to take over Gilmore Girls.

• 2:27:42David Sims?

  Swapped him. And it was for the exact same fucking reason. It was like, this show's too expensive. You take too long. You know, like blah, blah, blah.

• 2:27:49Griffin Newman?

  I was gonna say, that's, Community's another one where you talk to anyone who worked on it and they're like, we're really proud of that show. I'm still working through it in therapy.

• 2:27:57David Sims?

  Right, right, right. Exactly. And it's like, the product was good, but you, it was really hard to make it.

• 2:28:02Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:28:03David Sims?

  But then you watch the show without the showrunner and you're like, this is like drinking RC Cola. I'm just like, huh, everyone's here. Connecticut.

• 2:28:10Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:28:11David Sims?

  Leaves.

• 2:28:11Griffin Newman?

  Leaves Connecticut.

• 2:28:12David Sims?

  But, and yet, why is this off?

• 2:28:14Griffin Newman?

  Did they promote Connecticut to regular, where, did they make the opening credits by season seven? Okay.

• 2:28:19David Sims?

  Bonda Shepherd.

• 2:28:20Griffin Newman?

  Cause they kept kind of fucking, fucking Connecticut over in the negotiations. Yeah.

• 2:28:25Speaker 02

  Alright, we, we did.

• 2:28:25David Sims?

  Yeah, we did it. House of Dynamite. Here at the end of the episode, I have a little bit of business to attend to.

• 2:28:30Griffin Newman?

  Okay.

• 2:28:31David Sims?

  If I may.

• 2:28:32Griffin Newman?

  Yep.

• 2:28:32Speaker 02

  Yes.

• 2:28:32David Sims?

  So Marie is sitting, we all have separate desks. Marie is sitting at the, the guest desk.

• 2:28:38Griffin Newman?

  Which had for so long gone without a head. Of course, you, David and I have our faces on the front of our desks.

• 2:28:44David Sims?

  Right.

• 2:28:45Griffin Newman?

  The likenesses done by our, our good friend, Joe Bowen. And Caroline Frankie in the Vamps episode drew a little picture of a vampire and taped it to the front of the desk. And that was the placeholder for a while. Yeah, where's that gone?

• 2:28:57David Sims?

  I don't know. I, I have it stashed away.

• 2:28:59Griffin Newman?

  We should still put it somewhere on the desk.

• 2:29:00David Sims?

  Well, in the Museum of Blank Check, that one day will be built.

• 2:29:04Speaker 02

  And Matt Wright.

• 2:29:04David Sims?

  Congressional Library. Yeah. And Matt Wright buys it. And fuck her. Keeps buying houses.

• 2:29:12David Sims?

  And so Joe. It was really kind. He made us another wood character, but this time of Chekki.

• 2:29:18Griffin Newman?

  We got a wood.

• 2:29:19David Sims?

  Actually, two. There's a little one up there as well.

• 2:29:22Griffin Newman?

  It's a little kind of baby Chekki. Chekki Junior?

• 2:29:24David Sims?

  Yeah.

• 2:29:24Griffin Newman?

  Yeah. Might be coming to an ad read soon.

• 2:29:26David Sims?

  So cute, but I actually have a-

• 2:29:28David Sims?

  He wouldn't have an annoying voice at all.

• 2:29:30David Sims?

  He'd be, "Hey, I'm Chekki Junior."

• 2:29:35David Sims?

  What's your business, Ben?

• 2:29:35David Sims?

  So, um, no, it's okay. I just, I have a little surprise.

• 2:29:39Griffin Newman?

  Ben has a little surprise?

• 2:29:41David Sims?

  La, la, la, la, la, la, la, la. What?

• 2:29:45Griffin Newman?

  Wait a second.

• 2:29:46David Sims?

  Whaaat?

• 2:29:47Griffin Newman?

  Oh my god.

• 2:29:48Speaker 02

  What? Are you serious?

• 2:29:50David Sims?

  Ben has handed over.

• 2:29:52Speaker 02

  Oh my god!

• 2:29:52Griffin Newman?

  Marie is blushing. Marie's face has turned entirely red.

• 2:29:56Speaker 02

  Wait, I got ahead!

• 2:29:58Griffin Newman?

  Marie got ahead.

• 2:29:59Speaker 02

  I have, oh my god, Joe!

• 2:30:01Griffin Newman?

  I did not know this was happening.

• 2:30:03David Sims?

  Marie gets ahead.

• 2:30:04Speaker 02

  Look at how, I look so sassy. I look like, look at this, I'm like-

• 2:30:08Griffin Newman?

  You got your little-

• 2:30:09David Sims?

  Classic.

• 2:30:10Griffin Newman?

  You're giving a little DreamWorks face almost.

• 2:30:11Speaker 02

  I'm giving a little DreamWorks face. I'm like, hmm, do you really think that, David?

• 2:30:16Griffin Newman?

  Me?

• 2:30:19David Sims?

  Whatever you say, Marie.

• 2:30:20David Sims?

  Yes, you look great.

• 2:30:22Speaker 02

  Oh my god. Okay, wait, so I'll leave it here and then when I'm-

• 2:30:24David Sims?

  When you're, you can activate.

• 2:30:25Speaker 02

  I can activate, yeah. Oh my god.

• 2:30:28David Sims?

  We'll swap it in. But, uh, yeah, when I, I wanted to make Chekki and I was like, you know what? I'm gonna put in the order for Marie's head as well.

• 2:30:36Griffin Newman?

  It's very thoughtful of you, Ben.

• 2:30:37Speaker 02

  Look at my bun.

• 2:30:39Griffin Newman?

  Got the bun.

• 2:30:39David Sims?

  Bun head over here. Amy Sherman Bell, you know, bun heads.

• 2:30:42Griffin Newman?

  And we got, we got a good amount of Marie episodes coming up-

• 2:30:45Speaker 02

  We do.

• 2:30:45Griffin Newman?

  Because we have so many new releases. We're gonna have a guest on at least one of them.

• 2:30:50David Sims?

  I think we're, we're planning on an Ellen McKay special guest. Ellen McKay.

• 2:30:54Griffin Newman?

  That's an interesting way to pronounce.

• 2:30:55David Sims?

  I don't know how you fucking-

• 2:30:56Speaker 02

  Was it George McKay? Is that how you pronounce it?

• 2:30:58David Sims?

  That's what, that's, you know what? That's literally why I just said that, because he spells it that way. Ellen McKay.

• 2:31:03Griffin Newman?

  Right now, though, there is a plan three-episode run.

• 2:31:06David Sims?

  Look, you're gonna be on Fire and-

• 2:31:07Griffin Newman?

  Fire and Ash is this thing on and no other shows.

• 2:31:10David Sims?

  You're gonna check if this thing is on.

• 2:31:11Griffin Newman?

  You definitely gotta check if this thing is on.

• 2:31:12David Sims?

  And you're gonna be making the no other.

• 2:31:15Speaker 02

  I also, we also, you know, the Raimi trailer came out yesterday.

• 2:31:19Griffin Newman?

  I haven't watched it yet. I'm so excited.

• 2:31:21Speaker 02

  It's, it's, I think it's gonna be fun.

• 2:31:24Griffin Newman?

  Like fucking Rachel McAdams in the dirt?

• 2:31:27Speaker 02

  She's, she's on a beach?

• 2:31:28Griffin Newman?

  Being haunted?

• 2:31:30Speaker 02

  Well, she's not really being haunted.

• 2:31:31Griffin Newman?

  Okay, well, I haven't watched it yet.

• 2:31:33Speaker 02

  No, it's, it's, she's the mousy employee of a really shitty younger boss, played by Dylan O'Brien, star of Twinless, that I haven't seen yet, but here's-

• 2:31:42David Sims?

  I wasn't a fan of that movie, and people got really mad at me about that. But I like him in it and generally.

• 2:31:48Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:31:48Speaker 02

  Um, but yeah, he's like her shitty millennial boss.

• 2:31:52Griffin Newman?

  Look, two of these are late December platform releases that were releasing in 26, but you look at the 26, here's why we don't do emergency episodes anymore. We have a Cooper, we have a Park, we have a Raimi, we have the first new Star Wars movie in seven years.

• 2:32:07David Sims?

  It's back.

• 2:32:08Griffin Newman?

  And we have a Spielberg and a Nolan.

• 2:32:10David Sims?

  Yeah, that's true.

• 2:32:11Griffin Newman?

  That's pretty fucking thrilling. That's just the first six months of the year.

• 2:32:14David Sims?

  And don't forget, M. Night Shyamalan coming later, too.

• 2:32:17Griffin Newman?

  Yup.

• 2:32:17Speaker 02

  Did you see that he posted that thing on Instagram of his, like, book tour date?

• 2:32:21Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:32:21Speaker 02

  With Nicholas Sparks, and like, the line to get the book signed was like, "doubly around the block."

• 2:32:27David Sims?

  He's candy, man. And he's like, "What do I do next, Nicholas Sparks?"

• 2:32:31Speaker 02

  He's making a Magic 8-Ball TV show? Do you see that?

• 2:32:34Griffin Newman?

  With M. Night, or, no, Sparks doesn't work in this, just M. Night.

• 2:32:37Speaker 02

  No, just M. Night.

• 2:32:37Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, that sounds perfect.

• 2:32:39Speaker 02

  Yeah, sure, why not?

• 2:32:41Griffin Newman?

  Uh, possibly Gina Prince-Bythwood, Children of Bone and Blood?

• 2:32:46David Sims?

  Yeah, that might be, uh, Blood and Bone. I think that's 2027 is the plan, but I don't really know.

• 2:32:53Griffin Newman?

  Horizon 2 will sit-

• 2:32:54Speaker 02

  Well, I was about to say that movie is never coming out.

• 2:32:56Griffin Newman?

  Safely on a shelf. I, I love to repeat, David is confident it will come out someday.

• 2:33:00David Sims?

  Monday.

• 2:33:00Griffin Newman?

  And I am confident-

• 2:33:01David Sims?

  I'm not, I'm not being, like, brash about it.

• 2:33:02Griffin Newman?

  It will be purchased at an estate sale.

• 2:33:04Speaker 02

  Um, can I read, uh, this, uh, headline from page six?

• 2:33:09Griffin Newman?

  Mm-hmm.

• 2:33:10Speaker 02

  Quote, "Furious over Hollywood reporter profile, Kevin Costner searches for buried treasure, shops shipwreck show source."

• 2:33:20Griffin Newman?

  I forgot to say this-

• 2:33:21David Sims?

  You can't count cause out.

• 2:33:24Griffin Newman?

  I forgot to say this in our intro, the lovely people at American Cinematech who had us out there for the friend of the fest to introduce a hot sucker proxy, we sent them a list of a bunch of movies as an options of things we would think about. We're excited at the idea of screening. And my big push to them was, can you guys get Horizon Part Two? He's been able to play it at festivals. It's totally log jammed. We've covered him in the past. It might take more infrastructural work, but I think if you could get it, there's also a good chance he could show up and we could do it, like, talk with him, right? And they said, we have already thought of that and tried and could not do it before this year. So I just want people to know, I made an attempt to figure out a way to

• 2:34:08Griffin Newman?

  get more blankies to see this movie.

• 2:34:10David Sims?

  Griffin himself cannot solve this problem, but I bet you some giant corporation maybe.

• 2:34:16Speaker 02

  A bunch of Saudis.

• 2:34:17Griffin Newman?

  Well, the Saudis said no.

• 2:34:19Speaker 02

  The Saudis said no.

• 2:34:20Griffin Newman?

  That's the most telling part of that.

• 2:34:21Speaker 02

  Maybe some different Saudis, I don't know. A source told Page Six this week of the Yellowstone star, Kevin Costner is on a deep sea diving binge to discover sunken treasure. The insider added, quote, "He found gold coins and emeralds recently in the Caribbean."

• 2:34:36Griffin Newman?

  The thing that's great about Kevin Costner is you start a sentence like that and I go, like, where's this metaphor going? And you get to the end of it and I go, oh, he literally...

• 2:34:44David Sims?

  Finding emeralds. I think Costner's just on a beach. He just calls his presser, "Leak the emeralds."

• 2:34:50Griffin Newman?

  Well, first of all, you were miming a cellphone, but I think that's a shell.

• 2:34:54Speaker 02

  He's communicating via conch.

• 2:34:57David Sims?

  Hello, ocean, it's me, Kev. I'm uniting with Knuckles on a search for the Chaos Emeralds. That'd be good. Speaking of Idris Elba, that's his defining role.

• 2:35:07Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, what if he plays Amy? What if he's the voice of Amy the Hedgehog?

• 2:35:11David Sims?

  I'm gonna be taking the role of Amy in Sonic 3. Or 4? How many of those are there? I'm voicing Big the Cat.

• 2:35:17David Sims?

  Real American.

• 2:35:19Speaker 02

  Costner has a history of exploring the sea.

• 2:35:22Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, he does.

• 2:35:22Speaker 02

  He played a coast guard.

• 2:35:24David Sims?

  All right, I'm wrapping this up.

• 2:35:25Griffin Newman?

  The Guardian.

• 2:35:25Speaker 02

  In the Guardian.

• 2:35:26David Sims?

  We're not just reading New York Post articles.

• 2:35:27Griffin Newman?

  He fixed the BP oil spill.

• 2:35:29David Sims?

  Or at least threw out a proposal.

• 2:35:32Griffin Newman?

  He didn't, he didn't make it worse, I'll tell you that much.

• 2:35:34David Sims?

  Probably not.

• 2:35:35Speaker 02

  Yeah, I just want to say that my husband asked me what time I'd probably be home today, and I was like, I don't know, 3?

• 2:35:41Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:35:41Speaker 02

  And he was like, there's no fucking way. And I was like, what time is it?

• 2:35:45Griffin Newman?

  Thank you all for listening.

• 2:35:48David Sims?

  We will announce our schedule with upcoming new releases as well as the new mini-series very soon.

• 2:35:55David Sims?

  Sure. Next week, of course, is Inside Lewin Davis.

• 2:35:58Griffin Newman?

  Yeah, baby.

• 2:35:59David Sims?

  Which I'm excited to record. We're recording that next week.

• 2:36:01Griffin Newman?

  I've, I've actually been holding myself off from rewatching it.

• 2:36:05David Sims?

  Me too.

• 2:36:05Griffin Newman?

  I'm really excited because there is a chance it's my number one.

• 2:36:09David Sims?

  Good ass movie.

• 2:36:10Griffin Newman?

  At times it has been my number one.

• 2:36:11David Sims?

  What if you watch it and you're like, eh?

• 2:36:13Griffin Newman?

  It could happen, but I'm just, my question is just, how high is it gonna remain with all of these?

• 2:36:18Speaker 02

  Can I, can I ask, are you gonna do the, please, Mr. President, uh, oh, I don't want, please don't podcast me in outer space?

• 2:36:26Griffin Newman?

  I have an embarrassment of options next week. That's all I'm gonna say.

• 2:36:33David Sims?

  Outer?

• 2:36:34David Sims?

  Space.

• 2:36:35David Sims?

  Outer space.

• 2:36:37Griffin Newman?

  My new bit I do with Asa Erlich, because now he loves Star Wars, is I do my impression of Kylo Ren, but I just say lines from Girls.

• 2:36:45David Sims?

  That's good.

• 2:36:45Griffin Newman?

  And I go like, do you like Kylo Ren? And then I go, you're a child, Hennel. You're a child.

• 2:36:51David Sims?

  Nothing will stand in our way. I miss Kylo Ren.

• 2:36:54Griffin Newman?

  He's a good guy.

• 2:36:55David Sims?

  Well.

• 2:36:56Griffin Newman?

  No, he's got, he's got good ideas.

• 2:36:58David Sims?

  Sure.

• 2:37:00David Sims?

  Create an intergalactic fascist force, kind of as a tantrum?

• 2:37:04Griffin Newman?

  Do everything to win your dead grandpa's love.

• 2:37:08David Sims?

  Be a school shooter.

• 2:37:10Griffin Newman?

  He's not a school shooter. He's a school slasher.

• 2:37:14Griffin Newman?

  And Anakin was worse in that regard.

• 2:37:15Speaker 02

  And I thought Kylo did that. I thought that was the Anakin thing, with the little, the little baby padwans.

• 2:37:20David Sims?

  My big prequel, I think I already said it. It just cannot earn him killing children. It is the biggest problem of the movie.

• 2:37:26Griffin Newman?

  Yeah.

• 2:37:27David Sims?

  Yeah. The moment he starts to kill children off screen, you're just like, nope, I don't buy it, sorry, even though you convinced me of the grand evil of the dark side.

• 2:37:35Griffin Newman?

  When I saw the re-release, people applauded that moment.

• 2:37:38David Sims?

  Well, now, well, now it's just a meme. Now it's just like a meme.

• 2:37:42Griffin Newman?

  Weird.

• 2:37:45Speaker 02

  Okay, I guess we're done.

• 2:37:47Griffin Newman?

  Yes. Okay. Uh, thank you all. And as always, a warning to all filmmakers. If you put the word podcast in your movie, you're immediately getting knocked down half a star.

• 2:38:07David Sims?

  Blank Check with Griffin and David is hosted by-