The Oscar Hangover Mailbag. Plus: ‘Dune: Part Three’ Is Coming!

Sean and Amanda kick off the show by reacting to a laundry list of movie news, including the new trailer for Denis Villeneuve's ‘Dune: Part Three,’ starring Timothée Chalamet and Zendaya; the reports that Bradley Cooper will direct a new 'Ocean's 11' prequel for Warner Bros.; and Universal’s decision to extend theatrical windows for new releases (1:15). Then, they open up the mailbag for a post-Oscars hangover discussion and talk through whether or not Chalamet will be OK going forward, what the Oscars can do differently when they move over to YouTube, and how the industry can build positive momentum around the good energy surrounding the state of cinema (35:22). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Jack Sanders Production Support: Lucas Cavanagh Talk to a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the Personal Price Plan®️. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there®️. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Coca-Cola. For the big, for the small, the short and the tall. Peacemakers, risk takers. For the optimists, pessimists. For long distance love. For introverts and extroverts. The thinkers and the doers. For old friends and new. Coca-Cola. For everyone. Pick up some Coca-Cola at a store near you.

• 0:46Sean Fennessey?

  I'm Sean Fennessey.

• 0:46Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm Amanda Dobbins.

• 0:47Sean Fennessey?

  And this is The Big Picture, a conversation show about closing the book on the Oscars. It's been 36 hours since one battle after another's triumph. So we are diving into the mailbag to answer your lingering questions about the season and the telecast, maybe do a little way too early forecasting for next year's Oscar race. We will also dig into some movie news that we've missed over the past week, the telecast ratings, if they've come out yet, I'm not sure if they have, and the new Dune Part Three trailer, which just dropped. We will get into all of it right after this. This episode of The Big Picture is presented by State Farm. Sure, being an expert at movie trivia is impressive. You know what's even more impressive? Being smart about saving money. And a great way to do that is by saving when you choose to bundle home and auto with the State Farm Personal Price Plan.

• 1:33Sean Fennessey?

  Bundling, just another way to save with the Personal Price Plan. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer. Availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. Okay, Amanda, we just, we just sat here together.

• 1:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Dune Three.

• 1:49Sean Fennessey?

  And we watched Dune Part Three, the trailer.

• 1:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Not Dune Messiah, I noted. Dune Three.

• 1:53Sean Fennessey?

  It is officially called Dune Part Three, the conclusion to the epic trilogy of Frank Herbert novelizations.

• 2:00Amanda Dobbins?

  As adapted by Denis Villeneuve.

• 2:02Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 2:03Amanda Dobbins?

  So am I allowed to talk now?

• 2:04Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, I asked you to not speak while we watched. I did watch it on my phone in the car when it dropped. Because I was so excited and

• 2:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Project popcorn.

• 2:15Sean Fennessey?

  I immediately wanted to race in and watch it. We just watched it. How are you feeling? What'd you think?

• 2:19Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm pro these movies.

• 2:20Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 2:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I'm excited. Looks good. Looks excited. It's not what I thought was going to happen in Dune Messiah, now retitled Dune 3.

• 2:29Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, a lot of the speculation.

• 2:31Amanda Dobbins?

  That we know, that we have seen on the screen.

• 2:34Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe they're hiding the ball on some of the crazy revelations that you feared or were excited about.

• 2:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 2:39Sean Fennessey?

  Um, I of course, as a non-do knower, I'm excited to learn about this story for the first time. And I'm with you. I'm like, I'm vibrating. I'm so excited. I think epic scale sci-fi made by a true artist like Villeneuve is fucking awesome. And this looks as good as the last two films. Robert Pattinson and Anya Taylor-Joy join the cast.

• 3:01Amanda Dobbins?

  I was gonna ask, Pattinson, Oscar, is it time?

• 3:04Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, wow.

• 3:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Cause he's clearly, he's being

• 3:06Sean Fennessey?

  Some sort of villain character.

• 3:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Villain with a Karate Kid die job at least.

• 3:10Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 3:11Amanda Dobbins?

  And looks like, he doesn't even say anything in this trailer, but I was like, oh, Weird Pattinson is locked in.

• 3:18Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 3:18Amanda Dobbins?

  And that, as we saw this year, can often lead to a supporting actor or actress nom.

• 3:24Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 3:25Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, when?

• 3:26Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, I think there's an expectation that this is sort of the trifecta, that this is a fandom movie. It's a general audience box office movie and that it's probably going to be an awards movie. Whether or not it can pull the Return of the King move, we've been speculating about that for four years since we saw the first Dune movie. I, a lot of the concerns that were raised about why this wouldn't be

• 3:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 3:48Sean Fennessey?

  do not seem to be in this trailer. This looks like a, like a war movie. This looks like a Lawrence of Arabia style epic.

• 3:54Amanda Dobbins?

  And no one that we, there were no worms.

• 3:57Sean Fennessey?

  No worms.

• 3:58Amanda Dobbins?

  In the, in the trailer, which, you know, doesn't mean that there aren't worms in the film and maybe they are saving it, but. From what we've seen, no one becomes a worm.

• 4:08Sean Fennessey?

  And I don't think that the worm is holding it back from being considered prestigious. You know, if you go back and watch The Return of the King, you know, you've got your walking trees and you've got your, your little people and you've got your creatures, you know, you've got orcs, you've got all these things in those movies and they're still considered great feats of cinematic triumph. So I'm just thrilled for this movie. I do find this movie to be a really interesting test case for where Hollywood and studio distribution is at right now, because the thing that is confirmed, it seems, is that this movie, despite what I might have suggested on the pod, despite what I have heard from people over the last few months, is sticking to its December 18th release date. That is the same release date as Avengers: Doomsday. Now, the reason why it seems-

• 4:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Your most anticipated film of 2026.

• 4:55Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I mean, the, the reason why I, I thought it would move is because obviously Avengers movies are guaranteed billion at the box office, or so they were. But Dune Part Three has the rights, at least on the opening weekend, to all the IMAX screens. And so they have no reason to move. They have secured that date. And, you know, as we know, in modern blockbuster filmmaking, those premium format screens are really valuable to the box office and really valuable to the movie's history. And I think that this just means that Hollywood is just not afraid of Marvel anymore and that Marvel just does not mean what it used to. They've only had two billion dollar movies since COVID, relative to nine prior to COVID. They've had several movies come in under 500 million over the

• 5:37Sean Fennessey?

  last five years. And that paradigm that we talked about in 2020 that could shift, like would shift, right? These things always, fashions come in, fashions go out.

• 5:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, there are phases, much like a Marvel movie.

• 5:52Sean Fennessey?

  Indeed. This feels like a really notable moment in that paradigm shift. What do you, what do you make of that?

• 5:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I want to ask you, do you think that both movies will be released on December 18th? It is March. And I think you're right, it feels a little bit like a game of chicken. And I think you're right to interpret that Warner Brothers, which has locked up all the IMAX screens and timed the release of this trailer for 36 hours after it's won Best Picture and, and really Best Picture runner up at the Oscars. Knows what it's doing, is claiming its ground and is sort of challenging Disney. Like, you know, we're not moving. This, this is what we're gonna do. You, you can come play or you can come not. And I, I think your interpretation of the threat of Marvel or the perceived threat waning is true.

• 6:44Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm curious what Disney does and I'm curious whether Disney holds on and does a, tries to do like a Barbenheimer thing, tries to move screens to, to get IMAX, tries, you know, maybe, maybe they get creative. But right now, in March, do, do you think it's gonna be a face off?

• 7:07Sean Fennessey?

  If it is a face off, I stand here before you and I will dub this Dune's Day. That that will be the Barbenheimer of 2026.

• 7:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 7:14Sean Fennessey?

  And it's D U N E three D A Y. That's how we will be spelling it. It's being trademarked right here, Dune's Day. Okay. Just all the checks come to the big picture going forward, Jack, right? And if anyone uses that. Hundred percent. Um, I'm not sure what the status of Avengers Doomsday is right now. Did they finish shooting? Is the script done? We have no idea. That, what we just saw in that trailer, looks like a movie that's ready to come out now. And I, Doomsday, we just don't know what the status of the film is. So maybe it moves, maybe it doesn't. I feel like it matters a lot to Disney's bottom line, that movie that they've been earmarking, presumably a billion dollars on their spreadsheet because of the release of this movie.

• 7:57Sean Fennessey?

  The reason that I thought in January, when this really seemed to be coming into, into clear view, that Dune would move, was because there were still a lot of open dates on the calendar, that while Thanksgiving was taken by Narnia, there were a couple of earlier weeks in November, there were a couple of weeks in October that were available for a big calendar release.

• 8:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 8:20Sean Fennessey?

  Most of those dates have been filled. There's not really any terrain in October or November for Dune Part Three to go. Now, maybe Dune Part Three does something that, remember when, um,

• 8:32Sean Fennessey?

  When Mission Impossible VII moved up like three days to get additional IMAX screens because of Barbenheimer coming, like maybe-

• 8:43Amanda Dobbins?

  I do, but it didn't work out for Mission Impossible VII.

• 8:46Sean Fennessey?

  It didn't. I mean, it probably saved a little bit of face. So maybe there's a world where like December 15th, one of these movies goes to that date, or even December 11th, you could see that. But there's a Jumanji movie coming on December 11th. And while we have not spent a lot of time breaking down the lore of Jumanji on this show over the years, those movies are also very successful and very big. So-

• 9:05Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm looking at what else Disney has this year. So they have Mandalorian and Grogu, also Devil Wears Prostitute, which I think will be, will not be a billion dollars.

• 9:16Sean Fennessey?

  A sizable hit.

• 9:16Amanda Dobbins?

  But sizable. And they're really, the tie-ins are starting, the popcorn bucket is starting. I will not be getting a popcorn bucket. I don't endorse that. Toy Story 5, Moana.

• 9:26Sean Fennessey?

  All of those movies will be big.

• 9:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. And then a bunch of other things before Avengers: Doomsday. They don't have anything in the fourth quarter that is guaranteed except for Hex.

• 9:37Sean Fennessey?

  Hex, right. Which is an original animated film.

• 9:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, but not, that's not guaranteed in a way.

• 9:43Sean Fennessey?

  But if you think about, they don't usually miss on those. You know, if you think about Moana, if you think about Encanto, like those, that, when they put an original movie in those spaces, they feel pretty confident about it. This was, that's holding the spot that Zootopia 2 had last year. So I wouldn't underestimate that movie, generally speaking. But you're right, that there's not, in between the summer blockbusters, there's not a ton in the fall for them. So could Doomsday go up? Sure, but it would have to be done.

• 10:11Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm also wondering, would it ever, would it go back to 2027? And it doesn't seem like they have a very strong summer. So maybe that can carry them through with Hex. And, you know, I'm not privy to their balance sheets, so I don't know. And the next thing that they have, they've got, they've got animated movies, but then they have Star Wars: Star Fighter in the, in the Star Wars Memorial Day spot.

• 10:39Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm.

• 10:40Amanda Dobbins?

  It's coming out on my wedding anniversary. I just realized.

• 10:43Sean Fennessey?

  That's so exciting. Congratulations.

• 10:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, thank you. Thanks so much.

• 10:45Sean Fennessey?

  Well, you think you guys will have your celebration there at the screening?

• 10:47Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, yes. After-

• 10:48Sean Fennessey?

  You, Gosling, Sean Levy.

• 10:50Amanda Dobbins?

  We're doing 10th anniversary at the Mandalorian premiere, so.

• 10:53Sean Fennessey?

  That is wonderful.

• 10:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, isn't that beautiful? So could they bump Star Wars and bump everything down?

• 11:01Sean Fennessey?

  It's possible.

• 11:02Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know.

• 11:03Sean Fennessey?

  It's possible. Here's the thing. As I mentioned earlier this year, this is the fewest comic book movies on the calendar, I think, that we've had in 15 years. And we only have the Spider-Man movie, which is Marvel, of course, but it's distributed by Sony. So then you have just Spider-Man. And then you'll wait another nine calendar months to get to Doomsday? That's a long time to go without an MCU film. That means from, basically, it would be two years between Fantastic Four and Doomsday. Two, two years? Well, how much can change in our, in our interest set in two years? I mean, entire trends will completely die in a two year period.

• 11:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 11:40Sean Fennessey?

  So this is just a really, really interesting collision of interests and changing tastes for moviegoers. Now, I, I think it's likely that Doomsday will still make more money than Dune Part Three. You know, Dune Part Three is, Dune has never crossed a billion dollars. So I don't want to overstate the point here, but the fact that a movie like Dune, which has this built-in fanbase, the first, the second film is bigger than the first film.

• 12:06Amanda Dobbins?

  No, the first film did open during COVID.

• 12:08Sean Fennessey?

  During COVID. Um, I don't know. It's just, it's just fascinating to me that this is happening and that Robert Downey Jr. Returning for a Marvel movie doesn't really scare anybody. I, it's probably for the, for the good. You know what? I still want Doomsday to be good. I'm not saying I don't.

• 12:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, because it brings in the X-Men, right?

• 12:26Sean Fennessey?

  Well, just in general, I would just like for those movies to be good.

• 12:29Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm just kind of doing like an X-Men status check with you at all times, because I think that's funny. But it, this is the introduction of the X-Men into the, you think?

• 12:41Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe.

• 12:41Amanda Dobbins?

  You don't know?

• 12:42Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, there have been no announcements made. We don't know what characters are playing.

• 12:45Amanda Dobbins?

  They weren't in the directing, the director's chairs?

• 12:48Sean Fennessey?

  There have been no announcements. It might just be the putting closure on the previous generation.

• 12:52Amanda Dobbins?

  And then the next?

• 12:54Sean Fennessey?

  Secret Wars.

• 12:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Would that would be X-Men?

• 12:57Sean Fennessey?

  That, probably. That's what I think they would do. So, you know. We're not, we may not even be close to X-Men. It might be, especially if they push this movie back, we might be two years away, three years away from getting an X-Men movie.

• 13:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 13:08Sean Fennessey?

  And where will I be then?

• 13:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Will that be, would that be before or after the Four Beatles movies? What are we podcasting for at this point? What's the finish line?

• 13:16Sean Fennessey?

  Right, so X-Men and Beatles in 2028, and then that's the end.

• 13:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 13:19Sean Fennessey?

  That's, that'll be, those will be the last episodes.

• 13:23Sean Fennessey?

  You have anything else you want to say about Dune and Marvel and the end of our year? We also have Werewolf coming out on Christmas, which is the new Robert Eggers movie.

• 13:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, but not related to Wolverine.

• 13:34Sean Fennessey?

  Dune thing and not a Wolverine thing.

• 13:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, is Wolverine a werewolf?

• 13:38Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, no.

• 13:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, because werewolves are only at night?

• 13:42Sean Fennessey?

  Just like, yeah, sunglasses, Corey Hart. I-

• 13:47Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, isn't that the moon? And then-

• 13:49Sean Fennessey?

  He's feral, Wolverine, but he's not, he's, you know, first of all, he's a Wolverine, not a wolf. That's a different animal.

• 13:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Werewolf here? But I don't, now it's trying to give me the movie.

• 13:59Sean Fennessey?

  You know Wolverine is a different animal than a wolf, right?

• 14:02Amanda Dobbins?

  What? Wolverine, a Wolverine is?

• 14:05Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, you don't know what a Wolverine is? Like the Michigan Wolverines, the, the college?

• 14:09Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I do, I know that that's their-

• 14:11Sean Fennessey?

  Wolverine was a word that they invented?

• 14:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. Or I thought it was like, I thought it was like a dragon, you know? Like, I don't, I don't know.

• 14:19Sean Fennessey?

  This is insane. You don't know that a Wolverine is an animal?

• 14:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Wolverines, I don't know. When I moved to Los Angeles, I met a coyote for the first time and I thought it was a dog with crazy eyes. I, okay, Wolverine, oh, okay. This kind of looks like a land otter?

• 14:34Sean Fennessey?

  That's, yeah, I think they're much more violent than that.

• 14:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, well, I think otters can get pretty frisky.

• 14:40Sean Fennessey?

  Is that, is that a fact?

• 14:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, seals, definitely.

• 14:44Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 14:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Dolphins, as we know, have a hidden rage.

• 14:47Sean Fennessey?

  Asked me, do seals eat penguins? And I, I didn't think so, but I wasn't sure on that. And just so, I said, uh, not the nice ones. That was my response.

• 14:59Amanda Dobbins?

  That's a good one.

• 14:59Sean Fennessey?

  Is that accurate, do you think?

• 15:01Amanda Dobbins?

  That's like in Zootopia 2, what's happening? I don't know, but everyone's okay. We watched March of the Penguins this weekend for the first time.

• 15:09Sean Fennessey?

  I was gonna show that to Alice. So did it play? Was it go well?

• 15:13Amanda Dobbins?

  It did. I had to leave to get ready for the Oscars. That was Sunday morning, but I think Knox seemed very excited. And, you know, they were looking for an egg. And he was witnessing, you know, the miracle of life.

• 15:26Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, don't forget the Penguin is in the DC films, not in the Marvel films.

• 15:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, but we're talking about real penguins in Antarctica. And he seemed okay with it. He seemed to ride with the ups and downs of the natural world.

• 15:40Sean Fennessey?

  That's exciting.

• 15:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, Wolverine.

• 15:43Sean Fennessey?

  We need to move on.

• 15:44Amanda Dobbins?

  No, but I didn't know that this was a real thing.

• 15:47Sean Fennessey?

  This is extraordinary.

• 15:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Where does it live? Oh, it's Arctic. Well, that's why. Okay. I'm not, I'm not.

• 15:53Sean Fennessey?

  You seem to know about penguins and seals.

• 15:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, that's Antarctic.

• 15:57Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 15:58Amanda Dobbins?

  And.

• 15:59Sean Fennessey?

  Are there no penguins in the Arctic?

• 16:00Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I think they're Antarctica only.

• 16:02Sean Fennessey?

  Is that a fact?

• 16:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, we read the beginning of Mr. Popper's Penguins. And that's what was stated in Mr. Popper's Penguins. That was before Knox lost his attention.

• 16:09Sean Fennessey?

  As always, this is the only movie podcast that will have this conversation.

• 16:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, so, but a werewolf. Um, oh, they can shapeshift. They're, they can be a wolf or a human, depending on, maybe depending on the moon. Okay.

• 16:23Sean Fennessey?

  That's correct.

• 16:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Great.

• 16:24Sean Fennessey?

  Thanks for clearing that up. Other movie news that we missed. Bradley Cooper will reportedly.

• 16:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 16:30Sean Fennessey?

  Star, write and direct the new Ocean's Eleven prequel, opposite Margot Robbie.

• 16:37Amanda Dobbins?

  I accept.

• 16:38Sean Fennessey?

  You do? Okay, interesting.

• 16:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Why wouldn't I accept?

• 16:41Sean Fennessey?

  Um.

• 16:42Amanda Dobbins?

  What do you want him to do? Make another film about a tortured artist betraying the people that he loves?

• 16:46Sean Fennessey?

  Well, I think this movie is about Danny Ocean's father, who might just be that. Let's just put that out into the world.

• 16:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Was Danny Ocean's father an artist? Does he create?

• 16:53Sean Fennessey?

  The art of bank heist?

• 16:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 16:55Sean Fennessey?

  You know, the art of theft?

• 16:56Amanda Dobbins?

  There is an artistry.

• 16:57Sean Fennessey?

  The art of the deal?

• 16:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, as the Night Fox teaches us every time we watch Ocean's.

• 17:01Sean Fennessey?

  That's what I'm saying.

• 17:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Still, I think. I mean, if this is a tortured origin story, if this is all about Danny Ocean's trauma, which is really about Danny Ocean senior's trauma, then of course I'm out.

• 17:13Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 17:14Amanda Dobbins?

  But if it has any trappings of a fun heist film.

• 17:19Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, it could be like, could be very Thomas Crown affair, could be exactly what you like. It feels a little bit like a retrenchment for Bradley Cooper, who took a couple of very big swings with Maestro and with Is This Thing On? By the way, we didn't mention, I thought Will Arnett was very funny with Channing Tatum on the Academy Awards acknowledging that nobody saw his movie Is This Thing On, but he was a very good sport about that. Uh, I hope this is good. He's replacing Lee Isaac Chung, director of Minari and Twisters. And he was attached to the movie for a while. He's moved on. Cooper, you know, if done right, this sounds great. Uh, it's very clear now that his bullet remake with Steven Spielberg is not happening. That was reportedly going to be the next Steven Spielberg movie after

• 18:01Sean Fennessey?

  Disclosure Day, and it appears to have been shelved. So, sure. The, the problem, I think, is that Ocean's 14 is going to happen. And so because we know that they're going to make another one of those, it's a little bit like, do we need two Ocean's movies in 20 months? I'm not totally sure that that makes sense. Okay, you do.

• 18:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Make as many heist films with, with movie stars as you possibly can. Make bad ones, make good ones, make weird ones. Don't, don't make trauma ones. I don't need that. But make as many heist films, make as many Ocean's films. My, my concern about Ocean's 14 is that Steven Soderbergh is reportedly not involved.

• 18:37Sean Fennessey?

  Yes. That doesn't seem great.

• 18:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 18:39Sean Fennessey?

  But everyone else is, right? Brad and George and the whole gang, Julia?

• 18:43Amanda Dobbins?

  I think so.

• 18:44Sean Fennessey?

  Matt.

• 18:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Matt.

• 18:45Sean Fennessey?

  All my friends.

• 18:46Amanda Dobbins?

  I hope so.

• 18:46Sean Fennessey?

  Calling by their first name.

• 18:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 18:49Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, we'll see about this.

• 18:50Amanda Dobbins?

  All right.

• 18:51Sean Fennessey?

  We'll see if it actually happens. Uh, A Quiet Place 3 was announced.

• 18:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Great.

• 18:55Sean Fennessey?

  Now, there have been three A Quiet Place films, but a quiet, the third Quiet Place film is not A Quiet Place 3. That's A Quiet Place, day one.

• 19:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Day one. I thought it was gonna be a new day, but it's really the opposite.

• 19:05Sean Fennessey?

  So a lot of people are saying that this is the third Quiet Place movie, but it's not. It's the fourth Quiet Place movie, but it's part three.

• 19:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 19:12Sean Fennessey?

  It will be written.

• 19:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Fun with numbers, Sean, fantasy.

• 19:14Sean Fennessey?

  It will be written and directed by John Krasinski. You just asked me during the Academy Awards, what's that guy up to?

• 19:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 19:20Sean Fennessey?

  We looked it up.

• 19:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Because you were, you were talking to me, we were watching the Devil Wears Pride of Two trailer. We were talking about Emily Blunt. She's obviously in Devil Wears Pride of Two. Disclosure Day, what's she up to next? But, you know, I was just wondering about their family life.

• 19:33Sean Fennessey?

  Well, he will be starring in the Jack Ryan film, Jack Ryan: Ghost War, which I assume is about a war between ghosts. And that movie is coming out on May 20th on Amazon Prime, not theatrically.

• 19:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Hmm. Okay. Well, that's gonna be, will that be international? Is, can we watch that in Cannes?

• 19:54Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I mean, it says premieres globally.

• 19:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, great.

• 19:56Sean Fennessey?

  Do you want to do a ghost war pod whilst in Cannes?

• 20:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, we've been talking a lot about what we're gonna do while we're in Europe for several weeks. In my case, I'm just relocating from May.

• 20:06Sean Fennessey?

  That's great.

• 20:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Um, so that's, thank you, I guess, to Amazon for making that internationally available. I'm sure that it'll be received very well internationally. Jack Ryan is the, the kind of perspective that travels.

• 20:19Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, the hero we need in this war-torn country and war-torn universe.

• 20:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 20:24Sean Fennessey?

  I've never seen an episode of Jack Ryan.

• 20:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Nor have I. I've, I've seen-

• 20:29Sean Fennessey?

  I've seen every film.

• 20:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, and I've enjoyed every film.

• 20:32Sean Fennessey?

  I have too.

• 20:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Despite the bad ones.

• 20:33Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Shadow Recruit, I love a Shadow Recruit.

• 20:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Is that Ben Affleck?

• 20:36Sean Fennessey?

  No, that's the sum of all fears.

• 20:38Amanda Dobbins?

  I enjoy the sum of all fears.

• 20:39Sean Fennessey?

  Shadow Recruit is Chris Pine.

• 20:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure. Listen, we always enjoy Chris Pine.

• 20:43Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 20:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Princess Diaries 2 Forever, you seen that yet?

• 20:46Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 20:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Princess Diaries 1?

• 20:47Sean Fennessey?

  Could be a while. No, I'm currently preparing for the 1988 movie draft.

• 20:51Amanda Dobbins?

  I am gonna start doing that this afternoon. You're not gonna do any Princess Diaries before Devil Wears Prada? So you can really, before the year of Anne Hathaway?

• 21:01Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe I will.

• 21:01Amanda Dobbins?

  So you can speak to the full-

• 21:02Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe I'll complete the, the arc.

• 21:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 21:04Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, the whole filmography.

• 21:05Amanda Dobbins?

  That's right.

• 21:06Sean Fennessey?

  We did watch Ella Enchanted earlier this year, which Alice seemed to enjoy. Have you seen that?

• 21:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Is that, that's not Amy?

• 21:11Sean Fennessey?

  No, that's Enchanted.

• 21:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 21:13Sean Fennessey?

  Ella Enchanted is almost like, it's sort of like The Naked Gun, but for fantasy movies, starring Anne Hathaway.

• 21:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, good for her.

• 21:20Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, it's a little goofy, but charming enough. And Anne Hathaway, as always, is wonderful. Uh, okay, more movie news. Um, this is probably the most important thing that's happened in movies in the last week. Universal announced last week that it is extending the window theatrically for all of its films to five weeks in 2026 and seven weeks in 2027.

• 21:45Sean Fennessey?

  My reaction to this-

• 21:46Amanda Dobbins?

  You get up on the table?

• 21:46Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, my reaction to this is let's go. We are, we are crawling back, we are dragging back what we deserve, what we have earned, what we have fought for. Now, Universal implemented during COVID, the 17 day window, a lot of their films, if they didn't cross a certain threshold financially, would go straight to PVOD after a very limited period of time. A lot of the Focus feature films in particular, it doesn't seem like that's changing for Focus. It seems like their windows will still be pretty short. But the, the major Universal releases starting next year will basically be spending two months in theaters before going to PVOD.

• 22:23Sean Fennessey?

  Here's my take, as somebody who thinks about this shit way too much. I don't think it's gonna have a dramatic impact on the box office for most films because most films by the end of the fourth or fifth week stop drawing in big money. However, there will be one out of every roughly five, maybe four films that they release for which this will really matter. And if you look at a movie like The Housemaid, The Housemaid did okay in its first weekend. It did a little better in its second weekend. And it through three months clawed to hundreds of millions of dollars. This is how movies used to work. When we had longer windows, when we waited longer to let people watch these movies at home or rent them from Blockbuster, they made profit over time. Movie studios know that this still works. Like Tom Rothman talks about this with Sony, Universal's doing it.

• 23:08Sean Fennessey?

  I think some of it feels like a little bit of a, hey cinephiles, we have your back in the face of the conglomeration of Warner Brothers and Paramount. And some of that I think is just good business when you're already working with Christopher Nolan and you're already working with Steven Spielberg, people who-

• 23:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Care about these things.

• 23:24Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 23:24Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I just think it's interesting in terms of what it says about Universal's relationship to the PVOD window and to who is buying and renting and paying money for movies at home, which is kind of a-

• 23:42Amanda Dobbins?

  A window we had, like a group of people and a group of consumption and money that we never really talk about. The streaming window isn't changing here. Universal has said for several years that they do actually make a lot of money at Peavod.

• 23:54Sean Fennessey?

  In Peavod, yes.

• 23:55Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't think I have ever met anyone besides myself who rents or pays for a movie at home because it does really feel like people are either gonna go see it in theaters or they'll wait till it's free.

• 24:07Sean Fennessey?

  Wait for streaming, yeah.

• 24:08Amanda Dobbins?

  So.

• 24:09Sean Fennessey?

  I think a lot of parents do. I think a lot of parents do because they couldn't get out to Zootopia 2, so they're gonna rent it.

• 24:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Right, and that's true, actually. We do own Zootopia 2 because the stomach bug hit our house.

• 24:18Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, I think that's a very common thing.

• 24:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but it's interesting. It's more a reflection of, it seems like if that business were still working very well for them, that maybe they wouldn't be changing it in the same way.

• 24:30Sean Fennessey?

  I think that's.

• 24:31Amanda Dobbins?

  So I just think it's interesting.

• 24:32Sean Fennessey?

  I agree. I think that's the right takeaway. It's hard to know because I always felt like there was a lot of chest puffing about the Peavod performance over the last few years. Like, The Northman was the one that you always heard about, right? The Northman did like $70 million in theaters and it was like, how could this $100 million Viking movie be considered a success? But a lot of people around the industry were like, oh, no, no, this was a really big hit on Peavod.

• 24:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 24:54Sean Fennessey?

  Which, sure, I mean, how do we know that? And there's no system in place to allow us to see what that data is. But I think you're right that this shows that they wouldn't make a choice like this if it wasn't good for their business. But it's good for our business. It's good for what we care about.

• 25:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure. I guess it is, yeah. Maybe it trains a few more people to go to theaters instead of renting Zootopia or buying Zootopia 2 at home. You know, that's Disney, so it's a whole different one doing Can of Worms. But I don't know. I think it's fine. Good luck, movie theaters, you know?

• 25:29Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Well, we'll be at CinemaCon soon. Will you shake every theater owner's hand and say thank you for your service?

• 25:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. You guys are doing great. You're definitely innovating and keeping up.

• 25:39Sean Fennessey?

  I'll tell you, Universal is gonna be applauded. They're gonna be really celebrated.

• 25:43Amanda Dobbins?

  They are. I mean, they always are.

• 25:44Sean Fennessey?

  They always are. Relatedly, Hopper's has grossed $164 million in 10 days. And now, a movie that I think I underestimated when we talked about the movie last Monday in terms of its box office performance, could end up becoming a sort of elemental or even bigger size hit, $500, $600, $700 million. And, once again, original storytelling.

• 26:09Sean Fennessey?

  Kind of having a little bit of a bounce back moment here in movies.

• 26:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Take that Avengers Doomsday.

• 26:14Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, and box office is up 14% year over year.

• 26:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 26:18Sean Fennessey?

  And we just ran through a whole bunch of the blockbusters that are coming. I regret to inform you, we are back. We're back.

• 26:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, and especially the little guys like Disney, they're back.

• 26:29Sean Fennessey?

  Well.

• 26:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Let me ask you one thing. It's great. Listen, that's great. We had a great time. I, another thing I was thinking about idly. Have you had one conversation or mention of Hoppers with your child since you went to see it in theaters?

• 26:43Sean Fennessey?

  Yes. I was giving Alice a bath last week and it was after you and I spoke and we mentioned that there was no discussion of the movie on the pod. It was a Wednesday.

• 26:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 26:56Sean Fennessey?

  She was absolutely filthy.

• 26:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 26:58Sean Fennessey?

  She's in the bath. She turns to me, she's been in the bath for 20 minutes. And she says, Dad, why was that beaver a robot?

• 27:09Sean Fennessey?

  Unprompted, no context. We're seven days away from having seen the film.

• 27:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Keep going. How did you answer that question?

• 27:16Sean Fennessey?

  I said, well, they created the robot so that people could get closer to animals to understand them.

• 27:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Hmm.

• 27:21Sean Fennessey?

  Which I think is accurate.

• 27:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, Sam Altman.

• 27:25Sean Fennessey?

  Well, I mean, you know, this wasn't an AI situation. It was just, it was a psych link.

• 27:31Amanda Dobbins?

  I know that. I just, it's very.

• 27:33Sean Fennessey?

  I don't support Sam Altman.

• 27:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. He was at the Vanity Fair party, I heard. I read.

• 27:38Sean Fennessey?

  I read that as well.

• 27:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Town.

• 27:41Sean Fennessey?

  Did you give him your ticket?

• 27:45Sean Fennessey?

  Have the Oscar ratings come out? Where are they?

• 27:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Where are the Oscar ratings? I don't know. Do you think this means that they're bad? Because they're being kept from you?

• 27:54Sean Fennessey?

  Tuesday at 11 a.m. I mean, where are they? Has it ever gone this late? Jack, can you, while we're doing this conversation, can you just keep your eye on that?

• 28:02Speaker 03

  I'll keep, I'll stay posted on it.

• 28:05Amanda Dobbins?

  As Brian Curtis would say, the number of people who watch the Oscars will not meaningfully affect your life.

• 28:12Sean Fennessey?

  Well, as I have frequently said to Brian, I disagree. I think it's a meaningful data point and represents something about how money works in these spaces, and that actually matters. The amount of money that you can get for a telecast, the amount of money that goes into these systems, which then dictates what kind of movies we see, that does matter. The same is true for sports.

• 28:30Amanda Dobbins?

  That's true, but the amount of money they're getting for the telecast has already been decided and it's going to a place where...

• 28:36Sean Fennessey?

  But it's connected to future sales. The ad rate will be meaningfully affected by how many people are watching the show. This is understood. You know, it's a very clever catchphrase that Brian has, but it is actually not accurate, in my opinion. Nevertheless, um, okay, so we don't know the ratings.

• 28:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 28:52Sean Fennessey?

  Before we get into the mailbag, any loose thoughts about the telecast, about the results, anything that has bubbled to the surface since we spent all that time preparing for these awards?

• 29:08Amanda Dobbins?

  It's been strange how good the vibes are. You know, except for in the comments and on the internet, which is always the case. I liked the show. It was interesting talking to friends, loved ones, people who are not in the Oscar nerd bubble that this show is, and who also seemed to respond to the actual, the movie moments and the wins and this telecast as celebration of this year's films as opposed to an advertisement for movies or, you know, a random celebration of Moulin Rouge. And that feels nice because that's why we watch the Oscars and that's kind of how we

• 29:50Amanda Dobbins?

  would design the Oscars to be, which is these movies that we really liked. And, you know, that's the other thing, it was a good year for movies. And for the most part, the movies we liked were rewarded, so...

• 30:05Amanda Dobbins?

  I I'm trying to make sense of how of the positivity that I feel about all of it.

• 30:11Sean Fennessey?

  I said it on Sunday night.

• 30:12Amanda Dobbins?

  It's very strange.

• 30:12Sean Fennessey?

  I was like, we we're in a positive time. We are in a

• 30:15Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, we're not. We're in a pretty, yeah.

• 30:17Sean Fennessey?

  The world is not, but this world?

• 30:19Amanda Dobbins?

  The Oscars. The Oscars are.

• 30:21Sean Fennessey?

  And the movie business is up.

• 30:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 30:23Sean Fennessey?

  Consolidation is happening and that's terrible, but

• 30:26Amanda Dobbins?

  David Ellison incoming.

• 30:27Sean Fennessey?

  Well, I I noted this beforehand, but I couldn't think of a time in Oscars history where the two films that were like in a legitimate race for Best Picture had been as widely seen as both One Battle After Another and Sinners. And, you know, Sinners made $400 million. One Battle made over $200 million. I couldn't think of another time when before nominations were announced, two movies had made over $200 million at the box office that like actually had a chance to win. Now, there have been many nominees that make over that much money, but they're more in the F1 variety. Your Top Gun Mavericks, your Barbies, where you're like, this movie's good, everybody loves it, has no chance to win.

• 31:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 31:04Sean Fennessey?

  There was a real sense that these two very widely seen movies had a chance to win. They had big stars in them. They represented something culturally. The Oscars has not been good about representing something that specifically. And there's no way to control it. It just has to happen based on the movies that come out and the swell behind them. But I think that helped a lot. And even though we haven't heard the ratings, and maybe they're way down, but my instinct tells me that they're way up. And by way up, I mean maybe a million people, but that would be good. And I think one of the reasons why the vibes are good is because there were a lot more people who were just generally invested in the story this year. And not everybody liked the ending to the story. You know, not everybody is going to agree that One Battle, a lot, a lot of One Battle takes out there. Boy.

• 31:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, sure.

• 31:47Sean Fennessey?

  Boy.

• 31:47Amanda Dobbins?

  The the best one that I got, and I'm realizing now that I forgot to respond to my dad's text message. So if anyone in my family is watching, my dad will never watch this. But he had seen One Battle the first time and and he and my stepmom did not like it very much. They didn't respond to it and they shared that take.

• 32:05Sean Fennessey?

  They said leftist propaganda.

• 32:08Amanda Dobbins?

  They said, they just kind of sighed and they were like, we, we had a harder time with this. And then Zach and I, you know, just diffused about it and kind of said, well, this is what we responded to. And my dad texted me on Sunday night saying, you know, maybe I'm just getting older, but I rewatched it. And I was very moved, like, what a, what a lovely movie about being a parent.

• 32:27Sean Fennessey?

  A girl dad.

• 32:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, no, I know. So maybe some of those people will also rewatch.

• 32:32Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 32:33Amanda Dobbins?

  With the, with the spirit inside them and reconsider. Or maybe they'll just keep writing bad things on the internet.

• 32:38Sean Fennessey?

  Well, I, I thought it was interesting. There was a reporter who very reasonably asked Paul Thomas Anderson to specifically address some of the criticisms of Perfidia, Beverly Hills.

• 32:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 32:49Sean Fennessey?

  And just generally kind of his point of view around the way that he shaped the characters in the film. And Paul has been very resistant to that.

• 32:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm hmm.

• 32:57Sean Fennessey?

  Not just throughout this campaign, but really for all of his movies for about 20 years.

• 33:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, he got to the point where he didn't have to explain his movies anymore and, and he stopped, which, you know, may, may, may we all get there someday.

• 33:08Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. And I, I've interviewed him multiple times now. And many times I've tried to say, what does this movie mean to you and why? You know, like just direct questions that are seeking theme. And he, I think, has pretty deftly navigated those conversations. And when he answered that question in the, the press conference after one of his wins, he attempted to communicate specifically how he saw that character as flawed and how it spoke to the general idea of the movie, which is about, we tried, and now it is about the future and the next generation, which I think you and I talked about specifically in our very first episode about the movie. We clicked into that idea right away. And

• 33:48Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, the, the ending of the movie is an incredibly moving letter read in voiceover by Tiana Taylor as Perfidia Beverly Hills to the Willa character saying exactly that. It's not, you know, we, we aren't geniuses. It says, you know, we tried our best, I'm, you know, Like, I'm sorry. I hope you'll make the world a better place.

• 34:11Sean Fennessey?

  Do you have love? Are you happy?

• 34:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 34:13Sean Fennessey?

  Yes, all those things. Um, and, you know, of course, I saw a lot of reactions to his response, his answer in the question. He seemed nervous answering the question. I think he didn't want to say the wrong thing. I thought he spoke, seemed to be very honestly about it. And then, of course, there's just the pylon.

• 34:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 34:26Sean Fennessey?

  It's just like, here's the, here's what's wrong with that answer. And that was confirmation why you shouldn't answer questions like that. Because when you're an artist and you're asked to explain yourself, you're never going to give people something that is satisfactory in that way. I say this as someone who loves to interview artists and talk to artists and try to get them to tell me how they feel. But when a movie is as tightly loaded as a movie like this, you're never going to satisfy everybody. It's just not possible. It's a subjective art form. And he'll probably never be in that specific situation again. Where it's like, okay, you won all the prizes. All our eyes are on you. You have to answer every question that this scrum is asking. You can't control who is in the room right now.

• 34:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 35:00Sean Fennessey?

  And I found it to be interesting, you know? And it's like, obviously, it is the role of journalists to pursue that information as best they can to better understand what matters to the world at large. But, see the reactions, you know, you think he like committed a violent crime. Like, people are just, they feel so strongly about this stuff, which maybe is good, you know? Maybe it is good that people are passionate about art, but I thought it was pretty funny.

• 35:22Amanda Dobbins?

  I do, in general, at the end of this season, and I, this is not just specific to the Oscars or to the award season, or, um, but to the internet at large. People just gotta think a little bit while they're typing. You know, we all can see this. We can all see your behavior. And it's, it's in public.

• 35:45Sean Fennessey?

  Uh huh.

• 35:46Amanda Dobbins?

  So just, just consider that, you know?

• 35:50Sean Fennessey?

  Just consider it.

• 35:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Just consider it.

• 35:52Sean Fennessey?

  Okay. Do you want to go into the mailbag? Any other thoughts?

• 35:56Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I, they're good questions.

• 35:58Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 35:58Amanda Dobbins?

  So we can do it.

• 35:59Sean Fennessey?

  Our first mailbag question is brought to you by Volkswagen. All the actors, directors and artists from this award season have one thing in common. They've made some of their best work by taking risks, by trying something different and taking control of their futures. Take it from them, from us, from VW and from all the drivers out there. Grab the wheel, see what you can achieve. Okay, Jack, what is that first question?

• 36:19Speaker 03

  Our first question is an amalgamation of about 5,000 emails. Is Timothy Chalamet going to be okay? Will he be nominated for Dune Part Three? And is he the next Leo? And we'll need to wait a painfully long time.

• 36:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, maybe yes, is the short version. He's gonna be fine. Our, our, our sweet baby, Timothy Chalamet. We never, we never stopped believing, even if we had some notes about delivery. And, you know, maybe we also, maybe we all learned something from

• 36:52Sean Fennessey?

  What'd you learn?

• 36:53Amanda Dobbins?

  That, that, that you do gotta think about what you're saying before you say it, whether you're typing it, or whether you're saying it on a recorded podcast slash town hall. But on the other hand, it's him not thinking before he says things that got him where he was and gotten millions of people to go see Marty Supreme in theaters the rest of the time. So you win, you lose some. Timmy's gonna be fine. Timmy, we love you. They'll never take Marty Supreme from us. If nobody else loves you, that's okay, because, you know, that's the lesson of Marty Supreme. And we'll get there. I don't know if he'll be nominated for Dune 3. It does seem like that's gonna be, it seems like they're trying

• 37:36Amanda Dobbins?

  to make it an Oscars movie. That they're, and

• 37:40Sean Fennessey?

  You know what movie I thought of watching that trailer that is related to this? Braveheart.

• 37:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 37:45Sean Fennessey?

  Because of that kind of war imagery and that, you know, that Messiah character at the center of it, who leads into battle. And did Mel Gibson get nominated for Best Actor for Braveheart? I don't think he did. I could be wrong about that. You know, the film, obviously, won, but I don't believe he was nominated. I don't think he's ever had an acting nomination. So sometimes in parts like that, it's a little bit more, it's a little bit trickier, because you're just doing a lot of yelling and sword wielding. We did see some intimate moments with, with Chani, the Zendaya character in the film. And I'm sure there will be some palace intrigue in that story as well. But as far as Chalamet goes, my only hope for him is that he continues to make interesting choices as an actor. I think he has had exceptional

• 38:29Sean Fennessey?

  balance of prestige, genre, and franchise. I think he's really, you know,

• 38:38Sean Fennessey?

  Pursuing Dune is very smart. Pursuing Dune over playing a villain in a Batman movie is very smart. And I hope he continues to do that for the big stage stuff. I hope he continues to work with auteurs like Josh Safdie. I hope he, you know, I don't like Wonka, but that was smart.

• 38:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 38:55Sean Fennessey?

  You know?

• 38:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Isn't, aren't they doing Wonka 2?

• 38:58Sean Fennessey?

  That I have not heard.

• 38:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Wonka 2? Let's see.

• 39:01Sean Fennessey?

  You know, my opinion about that is I hope not.

• 39:03Amanda Dobbins?

  No, there's no official confirmation.

• 39:05Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, wonderful. Uh, his next movie apparently is-

• 39:08Amanda Dobbins?

  Started crying when he started singing Pure Imagination. That's just one woman's experience.

• 39:14Sean Fennessey?

  I thought I was gonna vomit.

• 39:18Amanda Dobbins?

  And he helped that little girl, you know?

• 39:20Sean Fennessey?

  Sure.

• 39:20Amanda Dobbins?

  And they met the giraffe.

• 39:22Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I remember.

• 39:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 39:23Sean Fennessey?

  It was okay. Um, I think his next movie is a James Mangold crime movie?

• 39:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Sick.

• 39:29Sean Fennessey?

  Which sounds great.

• 39:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 39:30Sean Fennessey?

  So I'm hopeful for that. I do think, Van and Rachel asked us about this when we were on Higher Learning earlier this week. What did the Academy make him pay for his hubris, essentially? And I-

• 39:42Amanda Dobbins?

  A little bit.

• 39:43Sean Fennessey?

  I think it's a, it's a series of factors, right? It's an unlikable character you've been pointing out and a movie that not everybody connected to. It's, um, it's certainly his campaign. You know, I think Kyle Buchanan had an interesting piece in the Times this morning about the, some of the specific things he did during the campaign that maybe the voters didn't like. For example, not going to the Governor's Awards.

• 40:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Hmm, okay.

• 40:05Sean Fennessey?

  That's a place where you're sort of meant to be seen and to shake hands. You know, showing up at the, the lunch, the nominees lunch, like very late. And not, not connecting with a lot of people.

• 40:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh.

• 40:15Sean Fennessey?

  You know, kind of like waiting until the last minute to show up and to be a part of the photographs. And, you know, he's a big star and a lot of big stars do that. Leo did the same thing at that luncheon. So it's not like it's totally out of bounds, but when you consider the fact that he's so young, that he hasn't quote unquote, paid his dues.

• 40:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 40:30Sean Fennessey?

  Um, yeah, maybe he got, he might've gotten slapped on the wrist a little bit by people out there.

• 40:34Amanda Dobbins?

  But we've been saying throughout the season and others have been pointing out, this is, this is typical for- Young actors in specifically men.

• 40:43Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 40:43Amanda Dobbins?

  In Hollywood. They do not do the ingenue thing.

• 40:46Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 40:46Amanda Dobbins?

  They don't give people.

• 40:47Sean Fennessey?

  It's weird. The couple of times when they've done it, like they did it for Eddie Redmayne and they did it for Rami Malek, right? Those are two examples of two under 40 guys who won best actor. But they were such like.

• 40:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, and Michael B. Jordan is also under 40.

• 40:59Sean Fennessey?

  He is.

• 40:59Amanda Dobbins?

  But he's been working for so long.

• 41:01Sean Fennessey?

  Right?

• 41:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 41:02Sean Fennessey?

  It feels different for him. But those, those two guys, you know, I would, they weren't unknown, but they were much less known than Timothy Chalamet.

• 41:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 41:09Sean Fennessey?

  They were not stars. They didn't open movies.

• 41:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm hmm.

• 41:12Sean Fennessey?

  They were considered fine actors, you know, the Rami Malek award. I'll never understand that. But Eddie Redmayne famously, famously was, went to every single event and kissed every baby on that campaign for, was it the Theory of Everything? Is that what he won for?

• 41:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 41:29Sean Fennessey?

  And so, you know, that's kind of the opposite of what Chalamet did. You know, Redmayne was all humility. He was all presence. He was all, I will work hard to get this. So, you know, we'll see. We were joking around about how he'll have to wait until 52 and now the meme is going around about having to wait for his son of a woman. He could win in two years.

• 41:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 41:47Sean Fennessey?

  We don't know.

• 41:48Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, he also posted the first Dune 3 image like 12 hours after the Oscars, which once again, shout out to Warner Brothers, who just.

• 41:58Sean Fennessey?

  They were ready.

• 41:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Has this all lined up, very, very ready. And he was ready as well. And I think that was, that was the right move.

• 42:07Sean Fennessey?

  Yes. I also like the Oscars relatives of the success of a movie like Dune Part Three is actually meaningless. Like Dune Part Three is bigger than the Oscars in many ways. So more people will end up seeing that movie over time than will watch the 2026 Academy Awards. So I think it's kind of a drop in the bucket to his career at large. Okay. The, that mailbag question was brought to you by Volkswagen. Like all the nominees and winners, if you want to make waves, you have to follow your own path. Take action, take chances, because when you get in the driver's seat of life, who knows what you'll accomplish? Learn more at VW.com.

• 42:38Sean Fennessey?

  Jack, what is our next question?

• 42:40Speaker 04

  With Sinners, Frankenstein and Weapons all taking home Oscar wins, have we witnessed a permanent shift in the Academy's official stance on horror and genre films?

• 42:51Sean Fennessey?

  Jack, your voice sounds so different.

• 42:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, you are there. Okay. The camera is blocking you. I was like, was this recorded? Hi, buddy. Van in the booth. That was great. That was very exciting.

• 43:02Sean Fennessey?

  Van, what's your producer persona? Like, are you more Dr. Dre, more DJ Premier? Like, who do you vibe with?

• 43:09Speaker 04

  Bro, I'm Jay Dilla, bro.

• 43:10Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, okay.

• 43:11Speaker 04

  You know what I'm saying?

• 43:12Sean Fennessey?

  God bless. Yeah, God bless the dead.

• 43:18Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, that's an interesting question and interesting to hear it from Van.

• 43:23Sean Fennessey?

  No. My answer is no.

• 43:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 43:25Sean Fennessey?

  You know, I don't really, I think it's cool that those movies got, I think it's really cool that Amy Madigan won, but like Ruth Gordon won for Rosemary's Baby in 1969. Like, I don't, you know, what does that mean?

• 43:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Anthony Hopkins, Silence of the Lambs. It's not, it's, I would say that Sinners, Frankenstein and Frankenstein are definitely prestige horror. And I think Frankenstein in the categories that it was rewarded, production, costume, makeup. Those, those were old school, very like hands-on.

• 43:54Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 43:54Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, even the costumes are like gowns, beautiful gowns. So there are horror elements of it, especially the makeup. But I don't know if that's really what's being rewarded. Sinners is a horror movie, but it's also a musical and it's, it's, it's an action movie. It's all sorts of things. So Amy Madigan, Weapons is cool.

• 44:15Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, it's not nothing.

• 44:16Amanda Dobbins?

  The only nomination that it got, it did not get screenplay, did not get Best Picture.

• 44:21Sean Fennessey?

  If it got Picture, I think you could make a stronger case because you'd be like, this is a really gnarly witch movie.

• 44:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 44:26Sean Fennessey?

  That got a Best Picture nomination, you know, even by Rosemary's Baby, you know, from a European auteur, like you could see there was a kind of, there was a kind of prestigious quality to that movie. Weapons is like, a witch gets her guts torn apart by cursed children.

• 44:42Amanda Dobbins?

  And spooky children are running around.

• 44:43Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, it's a crazy horror movie. So I don't really feel that way. That being said.

• 44:51Sean Fennessey?

  You know, Lucas Shaw had a piece about Neon in Bloomberg this weekend because they uncovered some financial information around Neon and how solvent or not solvent that business is because it's changing hands now. A new company is buying Neon. And in the piece, they characterized like the financial wins as like just horror. And I thought that it was sort of like horror movies that overperformed. And I was like, this is what it's been for 25 years. Like, horror movies are fandom and franchise movies. Like, they are at the center of the business and have been for a very long time. So I think to underestimate them in that way is slightly mischaracterizing them. Whether

• 45:32Sean Fennessey?

  or not the Academy can get their arms around that, I think specifically, I've been excited about this year because this year, I don't know how many of these movies you're going to connect with or even want to be on the episodes of, but, you know, Leviticus out of Sundance, Obsession, Currie Barker's new movie, which is upcoming, Backrooms, Kane Parsons, you know, YouTube to A24 film. There are several more. There's Sebastian Vannichek taking over the Evil Dead franchise. There's a Lee Cronin making a mummy movie. Like, there's a big wave of filmmakers under 35, under 40, who are coming into studio filmmaking and kind of like premium, like premium mini studio filmmaking that represents something bigger about the genre. The Filippo brothers have been doing it the last couple

• 46:16Sean Fennessey?

  of years with A24. Like, something's going on with the genre that is simultaneously commercial and artistic. One of these filmmakers that isn't Jordan Peele is going to get over the line and is going to get to the place where I think the genre is going to get what this question is trying to get to the bottom of. And Weapons winning an acting Oscar, I think, is like a link in the chain. It's a step towards something impressive happening. You know, you could say like, oh, it felt that way when M. Night Shyamalan came along, right? Because The Sixth Sense got a lot of love, but like, that happens and then goes away.

• 46:47Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, the other thing that you're describing and that particularly centers and Weapons achieved, and we know that because we have box office receipts. Is that those, every, all the films you just named were crossover sensations, right? And some of that is just that they made a lot of money at the box office and they were seen, but they are genre movies, but people who do not show up for every single horror movie went to see all of those films. And that's, they just got, they broke containment of, of, of horror. So I think that all, certainly Sinners and Weapons are evidence of the, you know, the genre finding bigger audiences. And I think that's some of the reason they were, they showed up at the Oscars, but that

• 47:32Amanda Dobbins?

  does happen from time to time.

• 47:34Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. I think Eggers too is an interesting person to think about because he hasn't crossed that Oscars threshold yet, even though I thought if you told me Nosferatu in 2025 was in 11th place, I would not be surprised. And movie went on to be a big hit. I've heard that the werewolf script is like incredibly violent and gnarly, like really, like the nasty.

• 47:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Nosferatu being a huge hit, I like, is, I just would like a case study on it.

• 48:00Sean Fennessey?

  You were out for that, yeah, I remember.

• 48:01Amanda Dobbins?

  No, but I did see it. And I think even you, I listened to your podcast with Chris and Rob Mahoney and you guys all admired it, but didn't love it.

• 48:11Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, true.

• 48:12Amanda Dobbins?

  And I wouldn't say that experientially, it was like a, a laugh riot. I was, I'm so glad I saw it in theaters type thing. In fact, I think I took a quick nap, which like, please, I was four months postpartum, don't judge me.

• 48:26Sean Fennessey?

  Not even, four months?

• 48:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, not even four months. Yeah, like I was sleep deprived. But Sue, I, I would like to understand, I would like a breakdown of how that was such a big hit because it is resistant of basically every trend or that I understand with audience horror going, except for that it's a horror, it's a quote unquote horror movie?

• 48:49Sean Fennessey?

  I thought it was more in the tradition of a lot of Del Toro movies. And I think it actually has a lot in common with Frankenstein. And Frankenstein didn't go into theaters, but I think it would have been a hit in theaters as well, Frankenstein. And I think probably in a similar zone. Nosferatu made 182 million dollars worldwide. One of the reasons why it's considered such a big hit is, one, the budget, which was about 50 million reportedly, and two, it was focus and not universal. So it had the focus, you know, it was a really good marketing campaign, but it had that. So. You take that plus the PVOD that we were talking about.

• 49:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 49:18Sean Fennessey?

  And it seemed like a lot of people saw it and liked it. And, you know, it had a lot of big stars and supporting parts. And, you know, it was like Aaron Taylor Johnson's in it for 20 minutes. It wasn't.

• 49:26Amanda Dobbins?

  He was funny.

• 49:26Sean Fennessey?

  He was very funny. I, I think that that movie also is one of those links in the chain, like Weapons, where it's like something is evolving. Frankenstein is a link in this chain.

• 49:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 49:37Sean Fennessey?

  Something's going on. Whether or not it will continue, it probably depends on whether or not horror stays in the place of centrality in movie going right now, but it is in that place. Good question. And as everybody who listens to the show knows, I'll look forward to tracking it very closely over the next 20 years of my life. What's the next question?

• 49:54Speaker 03

  Next question comes from Jordan. It really bugged me how aggressively winners were played off during their speeches this year. With the Oscars heading to YouTube in 2029, do you think that change could actually fix some of that? More broadly speaking, what other things could the Oscars experiment with on YouTube that broadcast television never allowed?

• 50:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I think it was quite bad at the, at the show this year. And I don't think it was a well-produced show. We talked about that a little bit on Sunday night, but it was pretty rickety in, you know, the, the moment where Conan didn't know that he was on air and there were some camera angles and, and things that they didn't quite have nailed down.

• 50:37Sean Fennessey?

  The microphone disappeared on a, on a winner.

• 50:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. Though I thought that that was part of the playing people off strategy that they didn't think through at all. I don't, I don't know that YouTube is gonna have, I don't think this was a time limit thing, is what I'm saying. They clearly seemed to have agreed back in the room that only two people get to speak or something, and then otherwise you get cut off. And then the communication between the booth and the orchestra. Was not existent or responding in the moment. Obviously, the K-pop Demon Hunters, the Golden win was the absolute disaster. And the way that the broadcast handled K-pop Demon Hunters and Golden in general,

• 51:19Amanda Dobbins?

  I think, indicates how little they understood their audience and how little they understood what they had, making everyone wait for three hours for Golden. When I got home, the first thing my son said to me this morning, the morning after the Oscars, was, "It was good. We had to wait a long time for Golden."

• 51:38Sean Fennessey?

  We were saying it while we were watching the show.

• 51:40Amanda Dobbins?

  It was insane. And then I don't really think they, I think that the singers and the performers did a great job, but the production of that performance was not what I wanted. And then the playing everybody but EJ off after making everyone wait three hours and not understanding how significant those performers are and how significant that moment is to the Oscars.

• 52:04Sean Fennessey?

  That was the most seen movie for anybody watching the show.

• 52:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, that was bad production. And that doesn't have anything to do with time limits. That has just to do with like not understanding the material that you're working with. So I-

• 52:17Sean Fennessey?

  But that's on the producers. That's not on ABC. You know, that's on, the Academy participates in that decision. And I don't, I'm not sure what role YouTube specifically will play there because YouTube has never done anything specifically like this before. The Academy guides who is going to be producing the telecast in conjunction with who is airing the broadcast. And they have a lot of say over who is doing that work.

• 52:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 52:40Sean Fennessey?

  So this was the first year for the producers of the show, on the show. And it's a hard show to produce. Like, it's not easy to do this. But there were, there were a few too many mistakes this year that were very obvious to the, you know, the layperson, the naked eye while watching it. And that wasn't great. The speeches thing is always a challenge. I don't really know what the solution is. There are 24 awards. We praised how wonderful the in memoriam section was. One of the reasons why it was so good was because it was long and they let people speak.

• 53:12Amanda Dobbins?

  They did.

• 53:12Sean Fennessey?

  And that was, that was a good choice, but that means you've just tacked on seven more minutes onto the broadcast than you normally have. So where do you cut? How do you keep the show under four hours? That's what they're thinking about because they know that they are not going to be able to retain audience over a four hour period. Almost nothing on television at this point runs four hours, aside from your epic tennis match here and there. So I don't know what the solution is. It's a, it's a long ass award show. For me, I'd watch nine hours, but most people wouldn't.

• 53:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. And the awards thing in particular, they just clearly didn't have a good plan for the fact that there are some awards where there are many winners. And

• 53:48Sean Fennessey?

  Including a tie.

• 53:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes. And they didn't communicate, I guess, to the winners or the people where there are four or five listed winners, that there's going to, you need to have a designated speaker or time limits or what. It's, it was a mess and it, I was disrespectful and hopefully they'll do better next year.

• 54:07Sean Fennessey?

  I'm with you. Uh, what other things could the Oscars experiment with on YouTube? I, I've already said this when the news was announced. I think that YouTube TV needs to just have an Oscars channel and like, honestly call me. Like I, I would love to help because I, I think that there is a whole world of engagement that you could create around your award show to make it a 12 month a year thing. And like, I see what the Oscars is doing on YouTube right now. Some of it is cool. I think getting Amelia DeMoltenberg involved a few years ago was very smart. I think they're going to continue to lean into the creator path, but there is so much archive

• 54:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 54:45Sean Fennessey?

  That they have of so many interesting things. Like the clip shows alone that you could make based on the telecast over the years are fascinating.

• 54:54Amanda Dobbins?

  It's true. I mean, you could just rerun old shows as they do on TCM and for people, you know, who can't sleep at three in the morning and suddenly you're watching the weirdest, you know, 1983 opening number or a presenter. It, I mean, it's a great idea.

• 55:11Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. And you could do all the musical performances. You could do all the craziest speeches of all time. You do the most shocking wins. Like there's a, there's so much raw material to work with there. You just have to invest in it. You have to spend the time to curate it and make it viable because it's not just Oscar history, it's just movie history. And when we think about movie programming, like look at what performs on YouTube. Look at what people actually watch. They actually watch 20-minute videos of people breaking down shots in Sergio Leone movies.

• 55:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 55:40Sean Fennessey?

  Those videos have millions of views. This is valuable stuff. So I hope that they take that seriously. I hope they really lean into that.

• 55:47Amanda Dobbins?

  The other thing that YouTube allows is that it is available internationally. And there's no licensing or whatever is going on stuff. You can watch it in one place at the same time. And I think many non-American Oscar nerds have talked for years about what a pain it is to try to watch the Oscars. So there's obviously stuff that you could do in the lead up. And you could do watch part, you could do all sorts of funny things of just making it more available.

• 56:18Sean Fennessey?

  Also, call me about the game show.

• 56:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 56:20Sean Fennessey?

  I'll host your game show. I'm ready. I've been waiting my whole life. There's so much programming that they could do. It's honestly, they have more at their fingertips for movie history than any other organization in the world, and they have money.

• 56:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 56:33Sean Fennessey?

  Exploit it. Do something cool. Okay, that's my, that's my plea. What's the next question?

• 56:39Speaker 03

  Next question comes from Daniel. Would you like to see Conan back as host next year? If he took himself out of the running, who would you like to see replace him? And what would you think of Kumail Nanjiani?

• 56:51Sean Fennessey?

  I would like to see him come back.

• 56:53Amanda Dobbins?

  I would as well. We're fans.

• 56:54Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I thought, I thought it wasn't, he wasn't as good this year as he was last year, but he's really good at just guiding the show. I thought he had a similar skill as Kimmel in that like, we're in a safe pair of hands, right? He knows how to make a joke or, you know, you pointed out when Auden Daryl Darkapal won, that he announced this was the first woman to ever win this award because most people who don't follow these things closely didn't know that. I thought he had a deft touch with some of those things. The pre-written bits I thought were very funny. And that's his staff and his writing team and, you know, his people who've been producing with him for years and years. So that cold open, the YouTube gag, the closing gag with Jim Downey, all that stuff was really funny. I would like to see him back, be back. However. We did just see Kumail host a show.

• 57:35Amanda Dobbins?

  He hosted the DGAs. He was fantastic.

• 57:38Sean Fennessey?

  So funny.

• 57:38Amanda Dobbins?

  His opening monologue was amazing. And we also saw live on this year's broadcast that Kumail can keep the show running because he was presenting the Thai moment. And did we get any clarity? Did we find out whether he was tipped off?

• 57:53Sean Fennessey?

  It sounds like he was.

• 57:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, good.

• 57:55Sean Fennessey?

  I heard that he was.

• 57:55Amanda Dobbins?

  But still, even if he was, he knew exactly what to do. He kept it moving. We've seen instances in the past where people don't keep it moving.

• 58:05Sean Fennessey?

  That's right.

• 58:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty and was also very funny. His bit was good. His bit at the bits of the DGAs were really great. So I'd love to see him. The other person that comes up in the context of people we have seen do great bits at the Oscars, who could do the whole show is obviously John Mulaney. Field of Dreams Forever. I wish John Mulaney had gotten to present Amy Madigan with her Oscar now that I think about it.

• 58:29Sean Fennessey?

  Of course.

• 58:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, it would have tipped it off, but it would be very funny.

• 58:32Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I'm still hoping that Mulaney will do it one of these days. It sounds like he was offered it and he turned it down at one point.

• 58:38Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, it does seem like a lot of work. Also, he tours all the time.

• 58:42Sean Fennessey?

  And makes a lot of money doing that.

• 58:44Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, I understand that.

• 58:46Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I mean, Conan, even, you know, we spoke with Conan's producing team when we were at the DGAs and, you know, they were like, he's been working on this show for months. Like, it sounds like he starts in the fall. So he's got a six-month window of prepping and writing jokes and kind of knowing what he needs to know. So it is a lot of work, but it's also a great honor. You know, I will say when Billy Crystal came out to honor Rob Reiner, I felt safe. I felt like, oh, this is like my childhood. And like, he just, has anybody ever been more comfortable speaking to that audience, both in the crowd and to us on TV?

• 59:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 59:17Sean Fennessey?

  He was so good at that.

• 59:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Conan is definitely taking a page from him. The the opening where he and the Weapons kids were running through all the movies is straight out of the Billy Crystal playbook. And again, I felt safe and also old because the nostalgia is now directed directly at me.

• 59:32Sean Fennessey?

  I know.

• 59:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Set to Satish.

• 59:33Sean Fennessey?

  But that's a bridge, like, that's a bridge from our parents, you know, like Billy was my parents' Oscars host.

• 59:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah.

• 59:39Sean Fennessey?

  And we got introduced to the show, watching him. So I honestly think Billy Crystal could come back and do it. Like, he seemed like he was doing great.

• 59:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 59:46Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, what's the next question?

• 59:47Speaker 03

  Can I throw out a potential one?

• 59:48Sean Fennessey?

  Sure.

• 59:49Speaker 03

  We have a question later asking about the 100th Academy Award, so not to step on that too much, but I was texting a buddy about what they need to do for 100. What would you think about Matt and Ben?

• 1:00:02Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know if it's worth it to them.

• 1:00:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, no, they should.

• 1:00:05Speaker 03

  But a dream for us, no?

• 1:00:06Amanda Dobbins?

  They should present. But the thing is, is if they have to keep the show running, then it's kind of, it's, it's like CR on the watch where it's like, sometimes when he has to be the straight man, he doesn't really get to shine, you know? And you need, you need to really let them roam free. So I, I think they should get.

• 1:00:27Sean Fennessey?

  In the Ben Matt equation, who's CR and who's Andy?

• 1:00:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, well, I think, okay.

• 1:00:35Sean Fennessey?

  See, I think Andy Ben.

• 1:00:37Amanda Dobbins?

  You do? I was gonna go the other way.

• 1:00:39Sean Fennessey?

  Cause I think Ben is more the take Smith.

• 1:00:42Sean Fennessey?

  You know, he's more, and he's, he's the intellectual, right? He's the one who's got a grand theory of everything.

• 1:00:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:00:47Sean Fennessey?

  Right? And, and Matt's just getting off jokes. You know, Matt's just like, I'm in the Thor movie.

• 1:00:53Amanda Dobbins?

  I'll show up for a good time. I'll cameo on like in anyone's movie.

• 1:00:56Sean Fennessey?

  Euro trip.

• 1:00:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, yeah, that's fine.

• 1:00:59Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, Mad Ben would be fun. I think it'll be interesting to see if they lean into a higher wattage of celebrity or a safe pair of hands because that's gonna be a big, big show. That's gonna be a really big, I hope the movies are good that year. Cause if they're not good, that's gonna be tough. Cause you have, we have dud years all the time. And if we have a dud year, like Anora wasn't a dud year, but it was a much smaller movie. It was a much smaller field of movies.

• 1:01:20Amanda Dobbins?

  What year is that?

• 1:01:22Sean Fennessey?

  It's gonna be airing in 2028, right? Cause this is 2026.

• 1:01:26Amanda Dobbins?

  It's the 2027 movies. So Avengers, Secret Wars.

• 1:01:31Sean Fennessey?

  Definitely top of the list. I don't know. What's actually, what else is on the?

• 1:01:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Beekeeper 2! Yes!

• 1:01:38Sean Fennessey?

  I've got my 2027 list open right now.

• 1:01:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. Cocoon Melon, the movie. Wow.

• 1:01:43Sean Fennessey?

  Frozen 3.

• 1:01:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Michael B. Jordan's Thomas Crown Affair.

• 1:01:47Sean Fennessey?

  Mm-hmm. Batman 2, Spider-Verse 3.

• 1:01:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:01:51Sean Fennessey?

  Only the franchise movies have claimed these dates. None of the other movies that.

• 1:01:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Quiet Place Part 3, allegedly.

• 1:01:57Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Shrek 5, Superman, Man of Tomorrow.

• 1:02:00Amanda Dobbins?

  Shrek 5 got bumped all the way to 27?

• 1:02:03Sean Fennessey?

  It did.

• 1:02:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Wow. That's, that's tough for.

• 1:02:05Sean Fennessey?

  It's June 30th of 27.

• 1:02:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Generation.

• 1:02:08Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. I don't know. The Lord of the Rings, The Hunt for Gollum? Where are you at on Gollum these days? Good guy, bad guy?

• 1:02:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Have you ever told you that my mother did this with both babies? That when they were really little and she would hold them and she would just call them my precious?

• 1:02:24Sean Fennessey?

  But was that from reading Tolkien?

• 1:02:26Amanda Dobbins?

  No, that was just from my mother being my mother. And I had, I just, but it was too hard to explain. I know, but also she did once lock me in a room and make me read The Hobbit in one day for summer reading. So at some point, they were like, you can't go back to school until you've read The Hobbit.

• 1:02:44Sean Fennessey?

  Your mother said this?

• 1:02:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:02:46Sean Fennessey?

  That sounds like something I would do.

• 1:02:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, and I did it and it sucked. Ooh, ooh, December 25th, 2027, Nancy Meyers film.

• 1:02:54Sean Fennessey?

  That's right. That's right. You're excited?

• 1:02:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, yeah. Listen, I mean, I saw they recast it, Erin Doherty of Adolescence, but also Princess Anne from The Crown, Real Ones Now. So it seems like-

• 1:03:09Sean Fennessey?

  She went into the Emma Mackey role.

• 1:03:12Amanda Dobbins?

  I think so. I mean, she was originally-

• 1:03:15Sean Fennessey?

  Scar Joe? Is that right?

• 1:03:17Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I don't know. So I, yeah.

• 1:03:21Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:03:21Amanda Dobbins?

  We'll, we'll see. But it seems like they're back on track to be filming again. Again, I'm, I'm protecting my heart.

• 1:03:28Sean Fennessey?

  Let's go to the next question, Jack.

• 1:03:29Speaker 03

  Next question comes from Dee. On the show, Sean and Amanda have mentioned how rare it is that their favorite movie of the year actually wins Best Picture as One Battle did this year. That had me wondering, exactly how rare is it? Has their favorite movie of the year ever won before now? If so, which year or years?

• 1:03:49Sean Fennessey?

  Um, well, it's very rare.

• 1:03:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:03:54Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, I could count three. Nope, four. I count four.

• 1:04:03Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:04:04Sean Fennessey?

  You have yours?

• 1:04:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I'm scrolling back. I've got two right now. And this is in the modern era, right?

• 1:04:13Sean Fennessey?

  I did the whole Oscars.

• 1:04:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, so I've got three.

• 1:04:16Sean Fennessey?

  With the understanding that I haven't seen the full slate of 1930s films, obviously. But I've seen plenty, seen plenty of Academy Award nominated movies from the 30s.

• 1:04:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:04:25Sean Fennessey?

  Now-

• 1:04:28Sean Fennessey?

  To me, 34 and 35 are two great winners. One is It Happened One Night.

• 1:04:33Amanda Dobbins?

  That would be one of mine.

• 1:04:35Sean Fennessey?

  Which is one of the all-time Oscar winners. One of the three films that have won the five major awards. 35 is Mutiny on the Bounty.

• 1:04:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh.

• 1:04:42Sean Fennessey?

  Which is a movie I love. And I have been doing a bit with my daughter, and I'm gonna do it right here with you. Where Captain Bligh, as played by Charles Lawton in the film, has my favorite line reading in the history of movies. Where he's been cast off by Christian Fletcher onto a boat and sent to the island. The mutant has occurred. And Lawton is standing up on the rowboat with the other men who've been cast off with him. And he says, "You're sending me to my doom, eh?" "Well, you're wrong, Christian."

• 1:05:17Sean Fennessey?

  "I'll see you, all of you, hanging from the highest yardarm in the British fleet."

• 1:05:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Did you do it that loud?

• 1:05:26Sean Fennessey?

  I do, and she laughs every time. I'm just completely blown out my voice.

• 1:05:30Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, I applaud you for your commitment.

• 1:05:33Sean Fennessey?

  Thank you.

• 1:05:33Amanda Dobbins?

  We're working on volume control of the other residents of my home right now. So I don't really know whether we could bring that in.

• 1:05:38Sean Fennessey?

  It's not the best thing to do at bedtime.

• 1:05:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:40Sean Fennessey?

  You know, she gets a little fired up.

• 1:05:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:42Sean Fennessey?

  So those are my two picks from the 30s. Then you have to go all the way to 1962.

• 1:05:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Damn, just absolutely skipping over Casablanca?

• 1:05:52Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, maybe I missed that. Let me take a look at that year. Yeah, no, you're right. Casablanca would be on there for me, for sure. Um, is there anything after Casablanca between that and 1962 that you would clock?

• 1:06:02Amanda Dobbins?

  So you got Sunset Boulevard over All About Eve?

• 1:06:05Sean Fennessey?

  That's exactly right. I picked Sunset. But that's a close race.

• 1:06:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I understand that. It's not that All About Eve isn't deserving. It's just that Sunset Boulevard.

• 1:06:14Sean Fennessey?

  It's just the one I prefer.

• 1:06:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure, okay. Um, anything over the apartment?

• 1:06:20Sean Fennessey?

  Psycho.

• 1:06:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, yeah, of course.

• 1:06:22Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:06:22Sean Fennessey?

  So that's a tricky one, but yeah, I went psycho.

• 1:06:25Amanda Dobbins?

  What about, oh, you don't, you don't like West Side Story?

• 1:06:29Sean Fennessey?

  I like it, but I don't like it more than Hustler.

• 1:06:31Amanda Dobbins?

  I like it more than Hustler, so that would work for me.

• 1:06:33Sean Fennessey?

  Okay.

• 1:06:34Amanda Dobbins?

  And let's see, what else?

• 1:06:36Sean Fennessey?

  So sixty-two.

• 1:06:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:06:38Sean Fennessey?

  Is Lawrence of Arabia.

• 1:06:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:06:39Sean Fennessey?

  And.

• 1:06:40Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, hard to, hard to argue with that.

• 1:06:41Sean Fennessey?

  Hard to argue with that one. There's some good movies that year. The remake of Mummy on the Bounty is that year. To Kill a Mockingbird is that year.

• 1:06:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm-hmm.

• 1:06:47Sean Fennessey?

  But that was pretty easy. And then I think it's pretty easy to go through the sixties and not have to pick one. I like A Man for All Seasons quite a bit. I would take Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf over it, Mike Vickles' first film. Um, and then in the seventies, of course, you have The Godfather. Now seventy-two is not, is among, I would say, the weaker years from this glory period in the nineteen seventies. Seventy-four, however, for The Godfather Part Two.

• 1:07:13Amanda Dobbins?

  You're doing Chinatown over Godfather Part Two?

• 1:07:15Sean Fennessey?

  I think so. I think so.

• 1:07:16Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't, that's hard.

• 1:07:19Sean Fennessey?

  It is hard.

• 1:07:19Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know whether, where I go on that.

• 1:07:21Sean Fennessey?

  Chinatown has been.

• 1:07:22Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I think I like Godfather Part Two more than you do.

• 1:07:26Sean Fennessey?

  Uh.

• 1:07:27Amanda Dobbins?

  You always say you like Godfather more than Godfather Part Two. And I think I'm, I'm too over Godfather.

• 1:07:32Sean Fennessey?

  Godfather, the first Godfather film to me is.

• 1:07:35Amanda Dobbins?

  Perfect, obviously. Yeah. No, I know. Listen, it's, it's splitting hairs.

• 1:07:39Sean Fennessey?

  It's a.

• 1:07:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:07:42Sean Fennessey?

  It's a, it's a Mexican Coke on a sunny day. It is just, it is always good. It never, never doesn't work.

• 1:07:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:07:47Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, seventy-five, we just, just came up. You know, of course, I would take Jaws and Nashville over One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, and probably Barry Lyndon and Dog Day. I think, I think it's.

• 1:07:56Amanda Dobbins?

  I agree.

• 1:07:57Sean Fennessey?

  And I like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. And I've been thinking about Milos Forman, and I kind of want to do a Milos Forman episode.

• 1:08:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:08:02Sean Fennessey?

  Um, but, because he only had twelve movies.

• 1:08:05Amanda Dobbins?

  It's, it's five for me on this.

• 1:08:08Sean Fennessey?

  Seventy-six, Rocky, not my favorite out of that year.

• 1:08:10Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:08:10Sean Fennessey?

  I might take all the other four, maybe three of the four. Annie Hall is the year of Star Wars. Can't take Annie Hall.

• 1:08:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:16Sean Fennessey?

  Deer Hunter, interesting one. I prefer Coming Home.

• 1:08:20Amanda Dobbins?

  I do too.

• 1:08:22Sean Fennessey?

  Kramer versus Kramer in 79? Close, however, Apocalypse Now and all that jazz.

• 1:08:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:29Sean Fennessey?

  The 80s is kind of a mess. Not a lot of great 80s wins, in my opinion.

• 1:08:33Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:08:33Sean Fennessey?

  A lot of fusty stuff. Wasn't very difficult to make this choice. Now, maybe Amadeus?

• 1:08:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but Ghostbusters is also 84, so.

• 1:08:40Sean Fennessey?

  When you get outside of the nominees in the 80s, there are a lot more popcorn movies that I much prefer. So it's a very good point.

• 1:08:45Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, some of that is also just because then we've seen more movies of the 80s than we have 30s. So we probably could go, if we had seen everything in 40 and 41 and 42.

• 1:08:56Sean Fennessey?

  Silence of the Lambs?

• 1:08:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Over JFK?

• 1:09:00Sean Fennessey?

  No, I would take JFK. I'm asking.

• 1:09:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah, no, no, no. Not for me.

• 1:09:03Sean Fennessey?

  I wanted to talk about Demi really quickly. You know, the win for One Battle After Another reminds me a lot of the Silence of the Lambs win for a variety of reasons. Jonathan Demi, widely revered amongst filmmakers, especially at this period in history. He makes this movie and Philadelphia back to back, which are two very big Academy films. Tom Hanks wins from Philadelphia. But in general, when you look at the totality of Demi's career and as a filmmaker who I was turned on to by Paul Thomas Anderson repeatedly invoking his name when he was a young director and saying how much his movies meant to him, which led to me going back to explore all of Demi's movies, which I love. His career is super similar to PTA. And this one is super similar, where it was like, okay, this is the guy who's been doing it for 20 years. We really like what he's doing. You know, he comes from a certain tradition of filmmaking.

• 1:09:48Sean Fennessey?

  Every once in a while, he gets material that is right for the moment, and then he'll go back to making his stuff. And I think when you look at the Phantom Thread and One Battle experience, where like really big Academy movies, but then everything else he's done is like Licorice Pizza and Her Advice, like, doesn't totally match up with what they expect. I've just been thinking a lot about how, I think Demi would have enjoyed One Battle After Another. Okay, let's keep going. I mean, I can't take Unforgiven over A Few Good Men. I just can't.

• 1:10:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, no.

• 1:10:21Sean Fennessey?

  It's not out of my constitution. Schindler's List?

• 1:10:25Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:10:26Sean Fennessey?

  You would take The Remains of the Day?

• 1:10:27Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I'd take The Fugitive or Jurassic Park.

• 1:10:30Sean Fennessey?

  Jurassic Park, of course. I would too. 94, of course not.

• 1:10:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:34Sean Fennessey?

  95, of course not.

• 1:10:35Amanda Dobbins?

  No, absolutely not.

• 1:10:36Sean Fennessey?

  96, no.

• 1:10:36Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:10:37Sean Fennessey?

  97. Now, I, of course, would take L.A. Confidential. I was an L.A. Confidential boy.

• 1:10:42Amanda Dobbins?

  Titanic is incredibly important, but I would take Good Will Hunting.

• 1:10:46Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, okay.

• 1:10:47Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, that was... Good Will Hunting, extremely important to me. Speaking of Matt and Ben.

• 1:10:51Sean Fennessey?

  Shakespeare in Love, perhaps you would. I never, I never would. I never in my wildest dreams would. 99 is Car Crash with American Beauty.

• 1:10:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Absolute disaster.

• 1:11:01Sean Fennessey?

  Now, 2000 is Gladiator. I think many people would choose that. I personally have both Traffic and Crouching Tiger over Gladiator, though I like Gladiator quite a bit.

• 1:11:09Amanda Dobbins?

  And this is just of the nominees.

• 1:11:13Sean Fennessey?

  It's the easiest way to manage this, right?

• 1:11:15Amanda Dobbins?

  I think I prefer Brachovich to Gladiator, so.

• 1:11:18Sean Fennessey?

  And you have this run here.

• 1:11:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:11:20Sean Fennessey?

  Beautiful Minds, Chicago, Return of the King. I like Return of the King, but it's might be my least favorite of the three Lord of the Rings movies.

• 1:11:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Lost in Translation Forever.

• 1:11:27Sean Fennessey?

  Million Dollar Baby, Crash, The Departed.

• 1:11:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes. Devil Wears Prada should have won this year. Thank you. Well, no, it's fine. Martin Scorsese won. That's great. Like, The Departed wins. That's great.

• 1:11:42Sean Fennessey?

  What's my favorite movie of 2006? Is it The Departed?

• 1:11:48Amanda Dobbins?

  That's wonderful, if so.

• 1:11:50Sean Fennessey?

  Is it? What were Ebert's favorite films of 2006? That's a useful metric.

• 1:11:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Let's see.

• 1:12:01Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, it's Children of Men.

• 1:12:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, yeah, that should have also won. Also, you know what was in 2006? The Da Vinci Code.

• 1:12:08Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, that movie stinks.

• 1:12:09Amanda Dobbins?

  I noticed no one's memeing my Da Vinci Code moments. That's fine. I'm gonna start my own blog. Yeah. Just saw Lucas pointing in the booth.

• 1:12:19Sean Fennessey?

  Uh, Pan's Lab.

• 1:12:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Casino Royale? Is that here? I mean, fine, it's not, it's not Skyfall, but it's pretty good.

• 1:12:25Sean Fennessey?

  More of a Skyfall guy.

• 1:12:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay. I know, that's why, that's why despite everything.

• 1:12:29Sean Fennessey?

  We're together, yes. No country, no.

• 1:12:32Amanda Dobbins?

  No.

• 1:12:33Sean Fennessey?

  There will be blood and, and probably Michael Clayton too. 2008 Slumdog, it's not Slumdog, I don't know what it is from that year. There's another movie that year that I like more than Slumdog, which I think is solid.

• 1:12:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Movies, this is just fun to Google, it's, yeah, I mean, that was the year of Dark Knight and Wally. So you probably like those more.

• 1:12:50Sean Fennessey?

  I certainly do. 2009, The Hurt Locker. Of course, I would go Serious Man and Glorious Bastards.

• 1:12:55Amanda Dobbins?

  And Glorious Bastards.

• 1:12:56Sean Fennessey?

  2010, King's Speech, no. 2011, The Artist, absolutely not. 2012, Argo, no. I would take Lincoln over Argo. Eight days a week.

• 1:13:06Amanda Dobbins?

  I might, I might take Argo.

• 1:13:09Amanda Dobbins?

  On that one.

• 1:13:10Sean Fennessey?

  Through all the 2012 films?

• 1:13:11Amanda Dobbins?

  When did you and Bill and Chris have your Lincoln fight? Which Rewatchables was that also Zodiac?

• 1:13:20Sean Fennessey?

  Sure, that sounds right.

• 1:13:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, and you guys were yelling at him and he was like, nobody cares about Lincoln, which I agree is a strong take.

• 1:13:29Amanda Dobbins?

  However, like, I wasn't there at E. Rustic when you guys just watched Lincoln silent on the screen for whatever, it's, it's a good movie, I like it a lot.

• 1:13:37Sean Fennessey?

  It's an American classic.

• 1:13:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Important, um.

• 1:13:41Sean Fennessey?

  Just the man?

• 1:13:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, yeah.

• 1:13:42Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, sure, I agree.

• 1:13:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Thumbs up, Abraham Lincoln.

• 1:13:44Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:13:45Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I don't, I think I liked other movies from 2012 more than any of the nominees, though.

• 1:13:51Sean Fennessey?

  2013?

• 1:13:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Skyfall, Skyfall!

• 1:13:52Sean Fennessey?

  Skyfall, sure. 2013, Twelve Years a Slave, no, I would take Wolf of Wall Street. 2014, Birdman, no, I would take Whiplash. 2015, Spotlight, no, I would take The Martian.

• 1:14:02Amanda Dobbins?

  I just want to say, I'd take Grand Budapest Hotel in 2014.

• 1:14:06Sean Fennessey?

  I would as well. 2016, Moonlight, hmm, Moonlight.

• 1:14:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Hmm. I really love Arrival. Speaking of Denis Villeneuve.

• 1:14:15Sean Fennessey?

  Moonlight. Well, I was making lists in 2016.

• 1:14:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, brother.

• 1:14:20Sean Fennessey?

  Shall I pull it up?

• 1:14:20Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:14:21Sean Fennessey?

  Will you vamp for me?

• 1:14:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, let's see. This is so Moonlight, Arrival.

• 1:14:28Sean Fennessey?

  Moonlight wasn't my number one movie of 2016. There's no way.

• 1:14:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Manchester by the Sea could be in there. It's kind of like too depressing to be your favorite movie of the year. This was a pretty strong year. This is obviously La La Land or Gaga Land as it's known in my house.

• 1:14:40Sean Fennessey?

  Handmaiden.

• 1:14:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, yeah. It's a great one.

• 1:14:43Sean Fennessey?

  We were still considering OJ Made in America film at that time.

• 1:14:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure. I think that's gone.

• 1:14:48Sean Fennessey?

  Love 20th century women. Love.

• 1:14:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. Now my favorite, Mike Mills, but that's okay.

• 1:14:53Sean Fennessey?

  Hell or Hot Water.

• 1:14:55Amanda Dobbins?

  Nominated.

• 1:14:55Sean Fennessey?

  Nice guys.

• 1:14:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, sure. That made it into C R month, right?

• 1:15:00Sean Fennessey?

  It did. It just recorded it.

• 1:15:01Amanda Dobbins?

  That's exciting.

• 1:15:02Sean Fennessey?

  Um, okay. Let's keep going. We'll finish this very quickly.

• 1:15:04Amanda Dobbins?

  2017, absolutely not.

• 1:15:06Sean Fennessey?

  Not The Shape of Water.

• 1:15:07Amanda Dobbins?

  2018, Green Book. No. 2019, I put Parasite at number one. I know that it was not. I did.

• 1:15:13Sean Fennessey?

  I did not.

• 1:15:13Amanda Dobbins?

  I called it.

• 1:15:14Sean Fennessey?

  But I had Once Upon a Time in Hollywood.

• 1:15:16Amanda Dobbins?

  But listen, that was also the year of the Irishman, Little Women, and Marriage Story, along with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Banger year.

• 1:15:22Sean Fennessey?

  Used to be a proper country.

• 1:15:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:24Sean Fennessey?

  2020 Nomadland. Nomadland was pretty high on 2020 list for me. Wasn't number one, but it was pretty high.

• 1:15:29Amanda Dobbins?

  But sure. I just, oh, my God, I just remembered.

• 1:15:32Sean Fennessey?

  Hank was my favorite.

• 1:15:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:33Sean Fennessey?

  2021, Coda, no. 2022, Everything Ever All Once, no. 2023, Oppenheimer?

• 1:15:40Amanda Dobbins?

  No. Killers of the Flower Moon was both our number ones.

• 1:15:43Sean Fennessey?

  That's right.

• 1:15:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Because we have taste. 2024, Enora. Yes, actually, Enora was my number one, but I was out for a chunk of the year, so I didn't see everything.

• 1:15:50Sean Fennessey?

  The Bird List is my number one, so no.

• 1:15:52Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:15:52Sean Fennessey?

  One battle after another is the first time in, God, I mean, it's gotta be, we're going all the way back to, I mean, back to the 90s.

• 1:16:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:16:08Sean Fennessey?

  Back to, no, we're going back to the 80s.

• 1:16:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Did you put a bigger splash as your number one movie of the year in 15 or 16?

• 1:16:17Sean Fennessey?

  I did.

• 1:16:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Let's, listen, every once in a while, you're still a real one.

• 1:16:20Sean Fennessey?

  Thank you.

• 1:16:21Amanda Dobbins?

  But that's it. Dee, thank you for asking the question that just had us listing movies for 20 minutes. We appreciate you.

• 1:16:27Sean Fennessey?

  This is what it's all about.

• 1:16:28Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:16:28Sean Fennessey?

  This is what podcasting is all about, is people naming some stuff.

• 1:16:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Mm hmm.

• 1:16:32Sean Fennessey?

  I, uh, I, we have to go, God, all the way back.

• 1:16:37Sean Fennessey?

  Am I going back to the 70s for my pick? I think I'm going all the way back to The Godfather for the last time my favorite movie of the year won Best Picture.

• 1:16:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:16:47Sean Fennessey?

  Wow.

• 1:16:48Amanda Dobbins?

  Congratulations.

• 1:16:48Sean Fennessey?

  What a historic win that was on Sunday for me. All right, what's the next question, Jack?

• 1:16:55Speaker 03

  Next question comes from Brian. We had a largely awesome awards night with worthy winners and a jarringly positive Sean. This got me thinking, what would have been your quote unquote darkest timeline for the big six? Picture, director, actress, actor, and screenplay? Which choices would have left you with the worst taste at the end of the night?

• 1:17:15Sean Fennessey?

  Frankenstein for picture.

• 1:17:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:17Sean Fennessey?

  Chloe Zhao for director.

• 1:17:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 1:17:21Sean Fennessey?

  Actress, probably Kate Hudson.

• 1:17:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Sorry. And she, she did a nice job on the circuit.

• 1:17:29Sean Fennessey?

  Not her fault.

• 1:17:29Amanda Dobbins?

  You know, but especially after doing the, the Baby Yoda bit, the Grogu bit, excuse me. And then it would just feel a little too industry-y.

• 1:17:40Sean Fennessey?

  Actor, there is no, there are no bad answers.

• 1:17:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:17:42Sean Fennessey?

  There were no bad answers. I don't, you know, what is the darkest timeline? All five of them are awesome.

• 1:17:46Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I think probably the darkest experiential timeline would have been Timmy winning and just getting in everyone else's face. You and I would have joined it, but everyone else would have had a full meltdown. And we would still be in a very dark timeline right now. Imagine.

• 1:18:03Sean Fennessey?

  I know.

• 1:18:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Imagine the taste.

• 1:18:04Sean Fennessey?

  What a troll that would have been.

• 1:18:05Amanda Dobbins?

  I know. It's, it's fine. He'll get there one day.

• 1:18:08Sean Fennessey?

  Screenplay?

• 1:18:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Darkest timeline is Anyone But Coogler winning and.

• 1:18:12Sean Fennessey?

  In original?

• 1:18:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. And Chloe Zhao and Maggie Farrell winning in Adapted over PTA.

• 1:18:18Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. The Frankenstein is up for Adapted too, wasn't it?

• 1:18:22Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:22Sean Fennessey?

  That also would have been rough.

• 1:18:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 1:18:55Speaker 05

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• 1:19:25Sean Fennessey?

  What's next?

• 1:19:27Speaker 03

  Next question comes from Gabe. With Sean Penn winning his third acting Oscar, who do y'all think will be the next actor to join this exclusive list? I think Emma Stone will surely win another, but is there hope for Timmy? Does Tom Hanks or Denzel have one more in the tank?

• 1:19:43Sean Fennessey?

  Well, let's look at the list of two.

• 1:19:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 1:19:45Sean Fennessey?

  There's a lot of people who've won two acting Oscars, many of whom are not with us anymore. So let's talk about who's still with us.

• 1:19:51Amanda Dobbins?

  Cate Blanchett.

• 1:19:52Sean Fennessey?

  Cate Blanchett, sure.

• 1:19:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Seems very possible.

• 1:19:55Sean Fennessey?

  Let's just do the, let's do the whole list of who's, who's on the board because there's some people who are alive who will never win another one. For example, Kevin Spacey.

• 1:20:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:03Sean Fennessey?

  He won't win again. Adrian Brody? I wouldn't take bets on Adrian Brody. Christoph Waltz? Probably not.

• 1:20:13Amanda Dobbins?

  I, I would agree. You never know.

• 1:20:15Sean Fennessey?

  Quentin Tarantino has one more film in him. You never know.

• 1:20:18Amanda Dobbins?

  So he says.

• 1:20:19Sean Fennessey?

  So he says. Mahershala Ali.

• 1:20:23Amanda Dobbins?

  I think that could happen.

• 1:20:24Sean Fennessey?

  It could happen. He's 50.

• 1:20:25Amanda Dobbins?

  They were so closely grouped together.

• 1:20:28Sean Fennessey?

  Two years.

• 1:20:28Amanda Dobbins?

  He's such a wonderful actor.

• 1:20:30Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. Need a good movie from him soon.

• 1:20:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:34Sean Fennessey?

  Hilary Swank?

• 1:20:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Hmm, that was a moment in time that I think is over.

• 1:20:39Sean Fennessey?

  What about Diane Weest?

• 1:20:42Amanda Dobbins?

  That would be nice. The right late career. Though again, that late in a career, you tend, tend to get the it's time and it's not really time.

• 1:20:52Sean Fennessey?

  That's right.

• 1:20:53Amanda Dobbins?

  So I think that would be a bit harder.

• 1:20:54Sean Fennessey?

  Surprising to me that both Diane Weest and this other two-time winner Sally Field are not even 80 years old yet. Still work to be done.

• 1:21:01Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:21:03Sean Fennessey?

  Renee Zellweger.

• 1:21:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, I was kind of surprised by the first two, so you never know.

• 1:21:10Sean Fennessey?

  Yes. Glenda Jackson is still alive.

• 1:21:13Amanda Dobbins?

  Wow.

• 1:21:14Sean Fennessey?

  She's 87.

• 1:21:15Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:21:15Sean Fennessey?

  She has not acted in several years.

• 1:21:17Amanda Dobbins?

  So it seems unlikely.

• 1:21:19Sean Fennessey?

  Emma Stone.

• 1:21:21Amanda Dobbins?

  This seems like a great bet.

• 1:21:23Sean Fennessey?

  It's gonna happen.

• 1:21:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:21:24Sean Fennessey?

  It probably may not be 20, 20 more years before it happens, but it's gonna happen.

• 1:21:28Amanda Dobbins?

  That's what happened with Meryl, right?

• 1:21:29Sean Fennessey?

  It's gonna be Meryl, Catherine Hepburn, like she's in that lineage for sure.

• 1:21:34Sean Fennessey?

  Jodie Foster.

• 1:21:36Amanda Dobbins?

  You know what? Jodie Foster is so great in every movie that she is in and, and you've watched the movie. I haven't seen the most recent one.

• 1:21:43Sean Fennessey?

  I haven't either and I wanna see it.

• 1:21:45Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm gonna watch it before we do our movies that we missed, but basically every time she's in something, whether it's good or bad, you're like, you know what? Jodie Foster.

• 1:21:55Sean Fennessey?

  We're on the exact same page. I think her choices have been bold, but poor in the last 15 years. I think she's taken some interesting risks and she clearly likes to challenge herself. The movies just haven't worked out. I remember, remember The Mauritanian?

• 1:22:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, with Shailene Woodley.

• 1:22:10Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 1:22:10Amanda Dobbins?

  That was so strange.

• 1:22:12Sean Fennessey?

  And that was like meant to be an awards film and it didn't really get there. But she was just wonderful in, in NIAID. I thought she was so good in NIAID.

• 1:22:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Incredible.

• 1:22:21Sean Fennessey?

  So yeah, you could see that. You could see her having a performance in her 60s or 70s where she gets in.

• 1:22:27Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, Jessica Lange.

• 1:22:31Amanda Dobbins?

  I think if it's gonna happen for like one more time for a great Hollywood icon, even though this person doesn't work that much anymore.

• 1:22:43Sean Fennessey?

  She does TV.

• 1:22:44Amanda Dobbins?

  No, no, not Jessica Lange. I think it's gonna go to Jane Fonda.

• 1:22:48Sean Fennessey?

  Oh, wow. But she's pushing like 85, right?

• 1:22:50Amanda Dobbins?

  She is still fucking out here protesting and giving.

• 1:22:54Sean Fennessey?

  Redford.

• 1:22:54Amanda Dobbins?

  And giving amazing quotes about CNN and Redford and everything else.

• 1:22:59Sean Fennessey?

  She was like, why did Barbra Streisand get to present? She did one movie with him. I did four with Robert Redford and I was in love with him.

• 1:23:05Amanda Dobbins?

  And Jane Fonda hasn't won an Oscar since 78, since Coming Home.

• 1:23:09Sean Fennessey?

  Controversial figure.

• 1:23:10Amanda Dobbins?

  That's true.

• 1:23:12Sean Fennessey?

  Michael Caine? He's retired, right?

• 1:23:15Amanda Dobbins?

  I, he's not keeping me updated on that.

• 1:23:17Sean Fennessey?

  Anthony Hopkins.

• 1:23:19Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't think we can do it again after the father.

• 1:23:21Sean Fennessey?

  Okay, Tom Hanks.

• 1:23:23Amanda Dobbins?

  I would love it. I would love nothing more and I could see this, you know, if he finds the right part, one last go to an American treasure.

• 1:23:34Sean Fennessey?

  Dustin Hoffman next year at the Oscars for Focker-in-law.

• 1:23:43Amanda Dobbins?

  The Dustin Hoffman scenes in Megadoc are amazing stuff.

• 1:23:49Sean Fennessey?

  De Niro.

• 1:23:51Amanda Dobbins?

  You could see it. But it didn't, he was nominated for Irishman, Irishman, right?

• 1:23:56Sean Fennessey?

  He was.

• 1:23:56Amanda Dobbins?

  And it didn't happen.

• 1:23:57Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 1:23:58Amanda Dobbins?

  Irishman blanked. What a mistake.

• 1:24:00Sean Fennessey?

  De Niro without three is interesting.

• 1:24:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Not since-

• 1:24:04Sean Fennessey?

  Jack with three and De Niro with two.

• 1:24:07Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, it's not over.

• 1:24:08Sean Fennessey?

  And Pacino with one.

• 1:24:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I don't know what that's about.

• 1:24:11Sean Fennessey?

  Pretty weird. Denzel's got two. I could-

• 1:24:14Amanda Dobbins?

  It'll happen.

• 1:24:15Sean Fennessey?

  It could happen. He doesn't seem like he's gonna stop working.

• 1:24:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:18Sean Fennessey?

  Um, I think that's it. I think that's a list.

• 1:24:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:24:22Sean Fennessey?

  Everybody else is passed on. You mentioned Cate Blanchett. Definitely seems like that's a possibility.

• 1:24:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:24:27Amanda Dobbins?

  And I think Meryl will get to four.

• 1:24:29Sean Fennessey?

  You do?

• 1:24:30Amanda Dobbins?

  I do.

• 1:24:31Sean Fennessey?

  For Devil Wears Prada two?

• 1:24:32Amanda Dobbins?

  No, I just think before all is said and done.

• 1:24:35Sean Fennessey?

  For Narnia?

• 1:24:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Who is she in Narnia?

• 1:24:38Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know. I made that up.

• 1:24:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Someone told me that you pronounced the line in Narnia in a different way than I have been producing it, but now I can't remember how you produce it. Anyone in the booth know?

• 1:24:46Sean Fennessey?

  Oslan?

• 1:24:47Amanda Dobbins?

  No, that's not it.

• 1:24:48Speaker 03

  Wait, how do you say it?

• 1:24:50Amanda Dobbins?

  I'm saying Oslan. I'm saying it, you know, as a dumb American.

• 1:24:53Sean Fennessey?

  Assland?

• 1:24:54Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, that's what it is.

• 1:24:56Speaker 03

  I have no idea.

• 1:24:56Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't either. And someone even spelled it out for me phonetically. I'm gonna, I'm gonna need the UK people to weigh in at some point, but now I'm psyched out. Now I can't remember what's correct.

• 1:25:09Sean Fennessey?

  I don't care.

• 1:25:10Amanda Dobbins?

  I'd-

• 1:25:12Amanda Dobbins?

  You're gonna care come Thanksgiving when the magician's nephew comes to town.

• 1:25:16Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, when the plumber's niece comes, visits Narnia. What's the next question?

• 1:25:22Speaker 03

  Next question comes from Nelson. What would it actually take for the Academy to release vote totals? Obviously, the reason they have never done it is because theoretically it may hurt a nominee's feelings. But vote totals are released for basically every award in every major sport, and non-winners are rarely if ever publicly aggrieved. I know the casting or stunt Oscars are actual industry awards for professionals, but do you think a similar sustained push for releasing the votes could lead it to happening?

• 1:25:50Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 1:25:51Amanda Dobbins?

  It'll never happen. I don't follow the sports voting very much. You know, every once in a while, someone posts like, oh, well, there goes MVP, or that's it's decided, or something or other. And I am just kind of like, that's a black box to me.

• 1:26:06Sean Fennessey?

  Sure.

• 1:26:07Amanda Dobbins?

  But my impression is that people do have feelings about MVP and being voted for or not voted for.

• 1:26:16Sean Fennessey?

  They're usually voted on by the press.

• 1:26:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes.

• 1:26:18Sean Fennessey?

  So journalists vote, and then you do see the tallies.

• 1:26:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but then I see a lot of athletes like weeping when they get it. And I, all I see are conspiracy theories about Kevin Durant's burner accounts. So I do, maybe that doesn't count as public, but-

• 1:26:34Sean Fennessey?

  I'm not sure if those things are related, but-

• 1:26:36Amanda Dobbins?

  As we've previously discussed, if you're posting on the internet, we see it.

• 1:26:40Sean Fennessey?

  How many burner accounts do you have?

• 1:26:42Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't have that kind of time. Here, here's something I think about, honestly, when I am, when like a mean comment or something makes its way into my orbit is,

• 1:26:53Amanda Dobbins?

  I, except for what I am posting for my job, I just do not post on the internet. I am just almost never commenting, typing into that comment box. And I don't really know anyone who is.

• 1:27:04Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:27:04Amanda Dobbins?

  So I don't-

• 1:27:05Sean Fennessey?

  It's only the best people that are doing it.

• 1:27:07Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't know, I don't know that many people who are just like, now it's time for me to log into my comment box.

• 1:27:12Sean Fennessey?

  It's always people who have the most fulfilled and complete lives. People who feel that they are loved and can give love. And people who have kind of realized their potential as men and women. And I, I find common unions with them.

• 1:27:27Amanda Dobbins?

  Jack, you in the comments a lot?

• 1:27:28Speaker 03

  Absolutely never. I don't, I don't, I don't understand. It's like, it's not, you're not a real person. You're a robot.

• 1:27:35Amanda Dobbins?

  What is the impulse to just click in and take the time? I mean, I know what it is.

• 1:27:40Sean Fennessey?

  I deserve to be heard.

• 1:27:41Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure. That's right. Make your own page, you know?

• 1:27:43Sean Fennessey?

  Agreed. Next question.

• 1:27:45Speaker 03

  For the record, I like nice community building comments.

• 1:27:48Amanda Dobbins?

  We have, I, listen, we have a lot of nice comments, you know? Thank you for everyone for asking where my dress is from. But like, you know what I'm saying?

• 1:27:56Sean Fennessey?

  Of course, of course.

• 1:27:57Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't really spend that much time. Anyway.

• 1:28:00Speaker 03

  Next question comes from Cameron. There seems to be a positive energy surrounding the general state of cinema this year, culminating in an Oscars that felt optimistic, exciting, and a bit unpredictable. Most importantly, there was a meeting of movies people actually saw and liked, original ideas, and quote unquote, "good films." How do movie studios keep this up and build on what feels like positive momentum?

• 1:28:24Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, I try to take some lessons from whatever Pam and Mike were doing. You know, I think if you feel like coming out of this, that taking chances on great artists and letting them have a little bit more so you can get their movie.

• 1:28:36Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:28:37Sean Fennessey?

  Fucking do it. What else can I say?

• 1:28:39Amanda Dobbins?

  Don't pay David Zasloff $800 million?

• 1:28:41Sean Fennessey?

  Well, I don't think we can stop that, unfortunately. That seems to be transpiring.

• 1:28:45Amanda Dobbins?

  I don't even think the studios can stop that, but you know.

• 1:28:48Sean Fennessey?

  I think the, I think it's just investing in artists. I think that's the most important thing. I think it is finding people who have good ideas, putting them in supportive environments, making sure that the other parts of the studio system that really matter to the movie industry, the marketing department, business affairs, how the productions are run, that all of those pieces of the puzzle are still getting, are being fed and getting the attention that they need so that they can best serve the movies that are being made. Because they're always good movies. Good movies are always coming out. I have no trouble making a best of list every single year, even during COVID. It's the way that those movies are platformed and how they're sold to people, and then how they go up into the conversation. No guarantee that Sinners was gonna work. No guarantee that it was gonna work at the box office.

• 1:29:30Sean Fennessey?

  No matter how good it is, it's gotta be sold properly to the world. Ryan Coogler did a smart thing by taking the reins on that movie and coming up with his own marketing plan and getting out in front of it and being like, "Here's how I should, you should see my movie, and here's why it's important." That helped a lot. I think that also educated audiences about what movie going is all about. This can be done. Just sit down and think about it. And don't treat people like they're five years old. Don't treat people like they just wanna fucking eat garbage all the time. We don't want garbage. We want good stuff. We know what's good. We can tell. We're sophisticated. I promise. Just listen to us and listen to the people who are making your stuff. Okay, rant over.

• 1:30:10Speaker 03

  Okay, next question. Comes from Chase. Now that Leonardo DiCaprio has headlined three Best Picture winners with Titanic, The Departed, and One Battle, something that I believe only Dustin Hoffman has ever done, where do you view him all time in the pantheon of great stars? Do you put him alongside a Brando or Nicholson? If not, what else would have, what else would he have to do to get to that level?

• 1:30:33Sean Fennessey?

  Hoffman is not the only one. Clark Gable also did this. Speaking of the 1930s, in 1934, he was in Happen One Night. In 1935, Muni on the Bounty, which just blew my voice out. And in 1939, Gone with the Wind. Within six years, he was the lead of three Best Picture winners, which is extraordinary. And Gable, I think, doesn't have the same stranglehold on Hollywood history that some of his, some of the people who directly followed him, you know, your Jimmy Sturts. But he was, he was Leo before Leo.

• 1:31:06Sean Fennessey?

  I think Leo was pretty clearly on the Nicholson level at this point.

• 1:31:09Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, yeah.

• 1:31:10Sean Fennessey?

  You know, I think in terms of star power and his acting skills and kind of representing generationally what the movies are.

• 1:31:15Amanda Dobbins?

  I was gonna say, he is the generational guy, for sure.

• 1:31:18Sean Fennessey?

  Brando's different. Brando, Brando was a great star, but Brando was first and foremost a great actor who transformed acting and transformed what people thought acting, American acting, could and should be. Leo has not done that. I think he's a wonderful actor, but that's not his, that's not what he's known for. And he probably never will be known for that specifically.

• 1:31:36Amanda Dobbins?

  And then Brando also very much rejected a lot of the public understanding of him and or expectation of what it means to be a movie star.

• 1:31:45Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 1:31:46Amanda Dobbins?

  And Leo has handled it very differently than Jack Nicholson. And I wouldn't quite say that Leo is a statesman of Hollywood and doesn't have any interest in it, but he is very, very deliberate in what he chooses and who he works with and how he is gonna be perceived. And then wanted his, his time to promote a movie, like, he shows up, he was on this podcast, he, he was there throughout award season, even if he was stuck on a yacht.

• 1:32:14Sean Fennessey?

  He was also throwing gas at the Oscars. Like, he just like, I was like, oh, yeah, he's back.

• 1:32:17Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:32:18Sean Fennessey?

  The mustache looked cool. He looked cool. He played along with all the bits. Like, he just kind of lived up to the moment in a way that Nicholson would have.

• 1:32:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Exactly.

• 1:32:25Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I mean, I love Leo. We've been saying for 10 years, Leo is, he's the guy of the generation without question. I do think that he has a very similar thing, too, which you learn about the more you talk to people who make movies, that when a big star comes, becomes involved in a movie, they have a lot of opinions. They have a lot, a strong point of view about what is a Leonardo DiCaprio movie, and then they collaborate with the filmmaker and they make sure that the character that they're playing in the film at large kind of works with that persona, that it fits who they are. You know, if you look in the 90s, you see Will Smith doing this, you see Nicolas Cage doing this, of course, Hanks and Cruise do this. They have a really, because of all of the power that they've accumulated, they

• 1:33:03Sean Fennessey?

  get to collaborate more than your, you know, run-of-the-mill movie star. And I can tell that his influence is very strong and that he is so deliberate, as you say, because he also likes working with people who know how to collaborate with him. So I think Nicholson's a very good comp. Nicholson kind of bent movies around his will because he had such a strong personality and that personality, very few of his performances could be considered subtle. But they were, the movies were almost always better because he was in them. So that's a unique thing that Leo, I think, for the most part, has got his arms around, especially as he has gotten more comedic over the last 10 years. He's got, really gotten to be a skilled comic actor, and you can feel him almost infusing that personality

• 1:33:47Sean Fennessey?

  into the movies. This is my favorite thing to think about, so I love that question. What's next?

• 1:33:53Speaker 03

  Next question comes from Alex. Can the Oscars help save movie theaters?

• 1:33:57Sean Fennessey?

  No.

• 1:33:58Amanda Dobbins?

  And do they, like, is it their job?

• 1:34:02Sean Fennessey?

  No. Well, okay.

• 1:34:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Well, but like-

• 1:34:05Sean Fennessey?

  Here's the thing to do.

• 1:34:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:06Sean Fennessey?

  If your movie does not open on X number of screens for X number of weeks,

• 1:34:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:34:11Sean Fennessey?

  you're not qualifying for Best Picture. I don't know if they can do that because small movies like The Secret Agent might not never be able to, to-

• 1:34:18Amanda Dobbins?

  And that punishes also small movies and that punishes, and that-

• 1:34:20Sean Fennessey?

  It does.

• 1:34:21Amanda Dobbins?

  That punishes movies rather than helping movie theaters is sort of the issue. And I think that-

• 1:34:28Sean Fennessey?

  It would help movie theaters. It would help movie theaters if they broke Netflix's will. If they told them, either you're signing up, or you're getting out of this race entirely. You're either giving up your whole fight for not putting movies on 5,000 screens, or- You have to do it. And then, once you start doing it, there can be, there can no longer be Guillermo del Toro's $150 million dream project that you can only watch at home. That won't happen anymore. It won't make sense. It won't be logical. It would have to go into movies onto thousands of screens, but it would hurt the secret agent. It would hurt sentimental value. It would hurt it was just an accident. It would change the Oscars again dramatically. So I don't think that they'll do it.

• 1:35:08Sean Fennessey?

  But if they wanted specifically to work with exhibitors, that would help. Then you wouldn't be able to sneak around and be a streamer and get to compete for these awards. But you know what? Streamers still haven't won. Only Apple has won one for Coda.

• 1:35:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:21Sean Fennessey?

  In a COVID year.

• 1:35:23Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:35:23Sean Fennessey?

  So I don't, is there anything else? What else could they do?

• 1:35:28Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, you really do have to limit that to Best Picture because then otherwise you're absolutely kneecapping documentaries and international features, as you said, but even some of the smaller craft movies that don't have any chance of making it.

• 1:35:44Sean Fennessey?

  The Ugly Stepsister.

• 1:35:44Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah. I, you know, I have a complicated relationship with the ideas of the movie industry and its attendant parts, quote unquote, saving movie theaters, which are a dependent but separate business and have not adapted in their own ways to serve either the movies or the customer. So, you know.

• 1:36:08Sean Fennessey?

  I know, and I respect where you're coming from on that. And I think you're right that the exhibitors can always do more to make it just better for all of us.

• 1:36:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:15Sean Fennessey?

  The thing is, is if you're too hardline about that, then baby goes out with bathwater.

• 1:36:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:36:19Sean Fennessey?

  You know?

• 1:36:19Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, I think it's both ways.

• 1:36:21Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:36:21Amanda Dobbins?

  Right?

• 1:36:21Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. You're right. Okay. Good question. What's the next question?

• 1:36:25Speaker 03

  Next question comes from Matthew. Piggybacking on your conversation of what legendary active filmmaker has yet to win an Oscar, what actor or actresses have never won or even never been nominated that you'd like to see win someday?

• 1:36:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Harrison Ford.

• 1:36:44Sean Fennessey?

  I mean, we

• 1:36:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Tom Cruise, real one, not honorary.

• 1:36:51Sean Fennessey?

  Who's never been nominated?

• 1:36:54Sean Fennessey?

  Because Ford was nominated.

• 1:36:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Once.

• 1:36:58Sean Fennessey?

  But he was nominated.

• 1:36:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Once.

• 1:36:59Sean Fennessey?

  Cruise has been nominated.

• 1:37:00Amanda Dobbins?

  In 1985.

• 1:37:02Sean Fennessey?

  I didn't prepare for this question. Who's the most talented, deserving person who's never been nominated for an Academy Award?

• 1:37:11Amanda Dobbins?

  Rachel McAdams got nominated for Spotlight. So that's out. I'm just thinking of people I've seen recently who don't have Oscars.

• 1:37:18Sean Fennessey?

  I'm just thinking of directors, like who's a director who's been nominated, who has never been nominated?

• 1:37:24Sean Fennessey?

  Such an interesting question.

• 1:37:25Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:37:27Sean Fennessey?

  Denis has been nominated. Denis has got a win soon, by the way. He's not going to win for Bond. Be really interesting to see if he's really competing for director. That could happen. I could see that happening.

• 1:37:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, I would assume that it would.

• 1:37:41Sean Fennessey?

  Denis versus Nolan in 27. It's pretty sick.

• 1:37:43Amanda Dobbins?

  It's exciting.

• 1:37:44Speaker 03

  John Goodman?

• 1:37:46Sean Fennessey?

  Great one. He's never been nominated?

• 1:37:47Amanda Dobbins?

  John Goodman's never been nominated?

• 1:37:48Speaker 03

  I mean, I just Googled it. I can do a second fact check.

• 1:37:51Sean Fennessey?

  That's a great call, Jack, and many people have pointed that out over the years. And he has a supporting part in Digger.

• 1:37:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, OK, here we go.

• 1:37:58Speaker 03

  It's time.

• 1:37:59Sean Fennessey?

  So it might be time. Another guy who you've never seen him pop up in a movie and think, I wish he wasn't there. Makes everything better. Walter Sobchak, of course, the goat.

• 1:38:10Sean Fennessey?

  I like that. Let's go with that. Never nominated is tricky. There are a lot of people who we like who've never won, but never nominated is rare. OK, let's do two more, two and a half more.

• 1:38:21Speaker 03

  Sounds good. Next one comes from Dean from Australia. The 100th Oscars are fast approaching. What would you do differently during the show to celebrate a century of film?

• 1:38:33Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, Sean's earlier point slash pitch was correct is that you got to build it out over a year so that you're not stuck trying to cram in three and a half, like 100 years of Oscar history into three hours. I think this is a place where clips could work, but clips of previous awards acceptance speeches and great Oscar moments as opposed to movie moments. I think you can't honor 100 years of film in one television broadcast, but you could focus it on the Oscars. And I think this is one place where it's okay

• 1:39:13Amanda Dobbins?

  to be a little navel gazy. You got to walk a fine line. But use, use the history of the ceremony itself. Use all the great tape that you have.

• 1:39:25Sean Fennessey?

  So interesting. I don't know a single one of our quote unquote guys or gals who are going to be making movies for 2027 and the 2028 Oscars. Go down the list of all of our faves.

• 1:39:37Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:39:38Sean Fennessey?

  I can't think of a single one who's going to have a movie out that's going to be competing. Maybe Jordan Peele, maybe.

• 1:39:43Amanda Dobbins?

  Sophia, you never know.

• 1:39:45Sean Fennessey?

  You never know.

• 1:39:46Amanda Dobbins?

  But it might be smaller.

• 1:39:47Sean Fennessey?

  There's nothing, nothing's been announced.

• 1:39:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, but you know, it's still a little bit of time. It's early 2026. Not all movies need a.

• 1:39:54Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, but Tarantino, Fincher, Soderbergh, PTA, Spike.

• 1:39:59Amanda Dobbins?

  Nancy Meyers.

• 1:40:00Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, but that's.

• 1:40:01Amanda Dobbins?

  But I know it's not. I know.

• 1:40:02Sean Fennessey?

  That's, that's a total commercial play, that movie.

• 1:40:05Amanda Dobbins?

  I, yeah, I.

• 1:40:06Sean Fennessey?

  Which is great. There's nothing wrong with that. It's just, you know, Secret Wars is also a commercial play.

• 1:40:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Sure.

• 1:40:10Sean Fennessey?

  I don't think that will be competing. But there's not even like a Dune Part Three, where you're like, oh, an event film.

• 1:40:16Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:40:16Sean Fennessey?

  That is prestigious, but probably will be in the awards conversation or an odyssey. All of the, all of the franchise stuff that's been announced is money making stuff and that's it. So, and as far as I know.

• 1:40:30Amanda Dobbins?

  Like who's on the.

• 1:40:31Sean Fennessey?

  Is there a Shazell movie coming? You know, I'm trying to think of who are the.

• 1:40:33Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, the prison movie.

• 1:40:33Sean Fennessey?

  You know, like that is not, we don't know because there's, these things change over the course of 20 months. But as I think about that race, whatever it is and how it is reflected in the show, does the show have to be more history than contemporary too? Is an interesting question, right? And maybe you're right. Maybe it's, maybe it's kind of how they celebrated. Here's what, here's what they should do. Maybe it's how they celebrated SNL 50.

• 1:40:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:40:58Sean Fennessey?

  Night before, you have a separate event that is televised. You know, it was a music concert.

• 1:41:04Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:41:05Sean Fennessey?

  On SNL 50 the night before, which also had plenty of bits and famous people and people who were a part of the cast and history of it. And then the second night was the proper SNL 50 performance of the show. You could do something like that. And then also, maybe you'll you have six attendant documentaries that are associated with Oscar history, the same way that SNL did. I would probably take a page out of that book because I think by and large, SNL 50 was very successful.

• 1:41:28Sean Fennessey?

  I'm sure they're already deep into planning a lot of the things that are going to be happening around that, but maybe a film festival? I would probably try to start a film festival that gives you a seven day run in the January or February before the Academy Awards, which then can work also as like F Y C events. I should be being paid for this.

• 1:41:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Right. I mean, I like, why are you still talking?

• 1:41:49Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know.

• 1:41:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:41:50Sean Fennessey?

  But if you'd like to call me, you can. What's next?

• 1:41:54Speaker 03

  If this is our last question, I'm going to jump down to Ken.

• 1:41:58Sean Fennessey?

  Just Ken?

• 1:41:59Speaker 03

  Just Ken. Picture this, it's 2036. What are you looking back on from this year's Oscars that turned out to be an indicator or an omen for how the Academy Awards or Hollywood in general would change over the next few years? What from this year represents a turning point?

• 1:42:18Sean Fennessey?

  Is AI involved?

• 1:42:19Amanda Dobbins?

  I mean, I, you know, I was going to say, I hope it's not a capper on the Warner Brothers as a, you know, existing historic studio and or the original filmmakers, you know, making big budget blockbuster works of art that also compete for best picture.

• 1:42:42Sean Fennessey?

  I don't think that will be the case.

• 1:42:45Sean Fennessey?

  I, there's definitely a reading that this is, this was the last day of the good times, right?

• 1:42:50Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:42:51Sean Fennessey?

  You could definitely say that this is, you know, the funeral pyre for the end of studio filmmaking and its primacy in terms of prestigious filmmaking at scale, but probably not, because The Odyssey's coming out, you know?

• 1:43:06Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:43:06Sean Fennessey?

  It's not over. And Universal's not going to stop making great movies. Um, in fact, I think studios like Disney and Amazon kind of got to get with the program and they got to start making more mainstream.

• 1:43:18Amanda Dobbins?

  Real stuff.

• 1:43:18Sean Fennessey?

  You know, real adult movies with original material or adaptations. Like Project Hail Mary is three days away. I think that a movie like that is the future of this stuff. And it's not, it's not original. It's based on something that exists.

• 1:43:30Amanda Dobbins?

  But it's based, you know, on a book.

• 1:43:31Sean Fennessey?

  It's based on a book.

• 1:43:32Amanda Dobbins?

  That's a tale as old as time.

• 1:43:33Sean Fennessey?

  Yes.

• 1:43:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Or at least Hollywood.

• 1:43:35Sean Fennessey?

  And also has a lot of touchstones that we're familiar with, which we will get into at large later this week, but it feels familiar but different. I'm going to keep saying that. And that you can't just make the same franchise movie. You can make a movie that is in the same vein as something, but it has to have a spin on it. And I think Project Hail Mary is successful in that regard. And I, so I don't think that when we look back at this show, we're going to be like, it was the end of something specifically.

• 1:44:05Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:44:06Sean Fennessey?

  I do think it's going to seem like an outlier, though, that PTA got $100 million to make a movie and then he got to the mountaintop and is invoked with like, it happened one night and Silence of the Lambs on a podcast. That's, I would never have predicted that. Um, even, even if he was like going to get an its time Oscar, I would have thought, okay, original screenplay.

• 1:44:24Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:44:25Sean Fennessey?

  Maybe director in a split. Never would have thought.

• 1:44:28Amanda Dobbins?

  I guess so.

• 1:44:28Sean Fennessey?

  The run of show.

• 1:44:29Amanda Dobbins?

  It does seem like this will look like 93 did for Spielberg and 2006 did for Scorsese, which was, they finally get, like, you know, a great generational or cross generational director, like gets, gets their moment.

• 1:44:48Sean Fennessey?

  He gets to be considered in that, in that vein. Now, you're right.

• 1:44:50Amanda Dobbins?

  And I think also that we'll probably look back on this as the year. Hopefully we'll look back on this as a year that, you know, Kugler really did become a major presence at the Oscars. You know, I was joking about him as, you know, the new Meryl Streep of the Oscars from a reaction shot, but like a fixture, someone in the audience, someone who is regularly nominated, someone who has a connection to a lot of people working because what Ryan Kugler has done in addition to, you know, creating Sinners, winning his own original screenplay Oscar, starting a whole movement is he has brought up a whole generation of filmmakers with him, right?

• 1:45:28Sean Fennessey?

  Absolutely.

• 1:45:29Amanda Dobbins?

  Like everyone below the line has won Oscars with him or, you know, one, started whole careers on his sets. So I think he's going to be there a lot. And that has been happening at Oscars previous, but this is the year it really crystallized.

• 1:45:45Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah. What I hope for him, he can lead his career however he likes, but what I hope for him is he has, makes more sinners. You know, his next two projects are The X-Files and Black Panther 3. I love Black Panther and I love The X-Files. I'm looking forward to both of those projects. I don't think of them in the same way, for me personally, as someone who loves film, the same way I think about something like Sinners. And I hope that that is the direction that he goes. And if he continues to pursue that direction, he'll be there every time he makes a movie.

• 1:46:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:13Sean Fennessey?

  You know, he will be Nolan. That's Nolan is now in that place where every time a Nolan movie comes around, you're like, well, this is the event of the year. And that's where you want to go when you're a filmmaker with that much power and that much skill and that much insight. So it could be, it could be the announcement of him. You could say the announcement of him was Black Panther. You could say the announcement of him was Creed, you know, like it's hard to say like, what was the pivot point?

• 1:46:34Amanda Dobbins?

  Totally. But he won his first Oscar to, like on Sunday night and the camera kept finding him because everyone, many people associated with him also won Oscars.

• 1:46:43Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:44Amanda Dobbins?

  And it just...

• 1:46:45Sean Fennessey?

  He goes from up and comer to ambassador now.

• 1:46:47Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:48Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, yeah, yeah. No, you're right about that. Um, okay. Any closing thoughts?

• 1:46:53Sean Fennessey?

  We're done.

• 1:46:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, good Oscars.

• 1:46:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Moderate outlook. You want to do anything on 2027 before we go?

• 1:47:01Sean Fennessey?

  Sure. What are the?

• 1:47:02Amanda Dobbins?

  Odyssey, Dune.

• 1:47:04Sean Fennessey?

  Yep.

• 1:47:04Amanda Dobbins?

  And then everything that's going to be at Cannes.

• 1:47:07Sean Fennessey?

  Hmm, there's, there's, there's more than that.

• 1:47:10Amanda Dobbins?

  Disclosure Day.

• 1:47:11Sean Fennessey?

  Yeah, I wonder. I hope so.

• 1:47:12Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, I hope so. Sorry to our third chair, Steven Spielberg, for not putting that in the first sentence.

• 1:47:17Sean Fennessey?

  There's gotta be odds right now. There's gotta be odds on this.

• 1:47:19Amanda Dobbins?

  Oh, great.

• 1:47:21Sean Fennessey?

  I'll say, I mean, Josephine from Sundance.

• 1:47:26Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:47:27Sean Fennessey?

  I think will be in consideration. If you're looking for an it's time person. Martin McDonagh, his new film, Wild Horse 9, is coming later this year from Searchlight. Of course, we have Digger.

• 1:47:38Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:47:39Sean Fennessey?

  From Tom Cruise and Alejandro Gonzales Inarritu. We have The Social Reckoning from Aaron Sorkin.

• 1:47:45Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay, I'm, I'm getting a little.

• 1:47:46Sean Fennessey?

  We have Michael, the Michael Jackson biopic.

• 1:47:49Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:47:50Sean Fennessey?

  We have Jack of Spades from Joel Coen.

• 1:47:53Amanda Dobbins?

  Right.

• 1:47:54Sean Fennessey?

  We have the aforementioned Project Hail Mary.

• 1:47:56Amanda Dobbins?

  Yes, we do. Anne Hathaway season.

• 1:47:59Sean Fennessey?

  Multiple Anne Hathaway films. Hope she gets at least one Oscar nomination. God bless her. Fiord. Lot of speculation about Fiord. You know who looked very good at the Academy Awards is Renata Reinsba.

• 1:48:10Amanda Dobbins?

  She really did. That was one of my favorites. She was wearing Louis Vuitton.

• 1:48:14Sean Fennessey?

  My, my word.

• 1:48:14Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah, the red.

• 1:48:15Sean Fennessey?

  After party.

• 1:48:16Amanda Dobbins?

  That was also, listen, she's very, very hot. I preferred the ceremony look, but I understand what you're responding to. And I think that's great.

• 1:48:25Sean Fennessey?

  Ay caramba.

• 1:48:28Sean Fennessey?

  And then, of course, Doomsday.

• 1:48:31Amanda Dobbins?

  Yeah.

• 1:48:31Sean Fennessey?

  Right?

• 1:48:32Amanda Dobbins?

  Great.

• 1:48:32Sean Fennessey?

  Jackie pumped for Doomsday?

• 1:48:34Speaker 03

  I could not care less.

• 1:48:37Sean Fennessey?

  I don't know. I'm still kind of excited. I want to see it. Show it to me.

• 1:48:40Amanda Dobbins?

  It's done. Definitely. They've, they've figured everything out.

• 1:48:43Sean Fennessey?

  You think they'll call me in?

• 1:48:44Amanda Dobbins?

  So they'll definitely let you see it.

• 1:48:46Speaker 03

  Their shitty bit at the Academy Awards was just like everything for me. I'm just like, I cannot wait for this to be over.

• 1:48:52Sean Fennessey?

  I know. That was rough. Well, I can wait for this episode to be over. It's ending right now.

• 1:48:57Amanda Dobbins?

  Okay.

• 1:48:57Sean Fennessey?

  You feel good about it? Yeah, sure. Thanks to Jack Sanders. What a run by Jack Sanders. He's been cranking out content with the big picture multiple days in a row. Content Never Sleeps here on the show. Thanks to Lucas Cavanagh for his production support on the show. We'll be back on Friday to break down one of the biggest movies of the year so far, Project Hail Mary. We'll see you then.

• 1:49:35Speaker 00

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