Excuse the Intermission
Alex and Max take you on a journey through film with this discussion podcast about movies.
Excuse the Intermission
Ranking Best Picture Winners: Hits, Misses, and Surprises Since 2000
What if your favorite Best Picture winner isn't all it's cracked up to be? Join us on a cinematic journey as we, Alex McCauley, Max Fosberg, and Erica Kraus, tackle the formidable task of ranking every Best Picture winner since 2000. With Erica's delightfully unpredictable selections leading the way, prepare for some surprises as we debate the hits and misses of the Oscar world. This episode promises a lively exchange of perspectives, touching on both beloved classics and those films that have seemingly slipped through the cracks of time.
Engage with our spirited re-evaluation of contentious Oscar winners like "Crash" and "Green Book," as we question their lasting impact in a rapidly evolving cinematic landscape. We take a critical lens to "Nomadland" and "Birdman," highlighting the ways these films sparked differing emotional reactions and reflecting on the artistic risks that paid off—or didn't. Whether it's the excitement of "Argo" or the atmospheric intensity of "No Country for Old Men," our conversation dives deep into the elements that make these films both resonate and divide audiences.
Finally, our exploration wouldn't be complete without an analysis of cultural milestones such as "Moonlight" and "Spotlight," shining a light on their enduring significance in film history. We speculate on the future of cinema, pondering over potential 2025 Best Picture contenders like "The Brutalist" and "The Substance." Join us in celebrating the diverse and ever-changing world of film, as we share our hopes for the underdogs and acknowledge the unpredictable nature of the Oscars.
In this podcast, three longtime friends revisit the movies they grew up with to...
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how's it? I'm alex mccauley.
Speaker 1:I'm max fosberg and I'm erica kraus and this is excuse the intermission a discussion show surrounding the best, best picture. As we fully turn our attention to the 2025 oscar race, we first want to reflect on the 24 films that have already won the prestigious award in the 21st century ahead. On this episode, we will collectively rank every best picture winner since the year 2000, as we eagerly await the announcement of 2025's winner. That conversation up next on the other side of this break. All right, how we doing it's officially oscar. It's also a holiday. Today. We have a pleasant little midday pod on our hands. Max, I'll check in with you first, because I know you love an early podcast. What is your favorite time to pod?
Speaker 3:Favorite time to pod? I mean, yeah, I love a good cup of Joe with my podcast. What are you drinking today. This is just some iced coffee with some oat milk in it. Yeah, we had some leftover coffee from set yesterday that I was able to take home, so I took a box home of coffee. Amazing, yeah, and yeah, just threw some ice cubes in there, a little bit, a little bit oat milk, and shook it up real nice when?
Speaker 1:when are you at your most creative erica? When do you feel like you're you're most ready to jump on the mic and talk movies?
Speaker 2:maybe like in the evening. I like when we at like the end of the day because I feel like I at like the end of the day, because I feel like I needed to get all my thoughts out at the end of the day, maybe yeah but I am highly caffeinated today as well, so I'm ready a late night pod is really fun.
Speaker 1:I think going really early, or. Really late.
Speaker 2:It's a late night chat with your friends, you know yeah, you know, like a, like a reaction get out of a theater 10 o'clock yeah yeah, those are pretty fun straight to the studio.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah you get pretty high from those um, okay, so we're.
Speaker 1:We don't have anything new per se to talk about on this episode, but we are fully engrossed in the oscar race, the oscar season for 2025. But because we are now approaching the first quarter century mark, we wanted to look back and, before we get an actual 25th best picture nominee, rank the 24 films that have won this award prior to this year's ceremony. So what we did was we all individually went through, created a list one to 24, with one being our personal favorites and then we averaged those out to come up with a consensus list. So we will just be presenting that list to you, the listener, today and kind of running through our thought process on where these films were originally ranked for us individually and then where they ultimately ended up on this eti consensus ranking. So how was this exercise for you?
Speaker 1:I'm very, very curious to hear from the two of you because, max, I noticed a lot of similarities in our lists. Um, I don't know if you have any thoughts as to why that may be. Er, your list definitely more idiosyncratic, but I love that because it provides it's going to provide a lot of perspective, I think, on some of these films. So just kind of general thoughts like is this a strong list, one to 24? Like we always talk about how the Oscars don't often get it right in the moment, do you think that our ranking is going to be reflective of that?
Speaker 2:Um, I don't know. I well, okay, so I'm laughing because because my list is so different from you guys. But you know, alex and I were talking before we started recording and you know I'm just, I'm pretty set on, like, my opinion of the Oscars is just I don't typically love the best picture winner. It's never like a personal favorite, it's never something I'm like often reaching for. Looking at the list of these winners from the last 24 years, only a small handful of them do I actually like, and that's just personal taste, and so I'm I don't know. I don't really ever have high hopes for the Oscars. I don't, I don't know, but I'm curious, like what. I'm just I'm so curious who will win this year? You know there's some. It's just it's going to be a real wild card. I feel like.
Speaker 3:Yeah. I think I think like the top nine films on my list are like really, really good films to great films and everything else is just fine. Yeah, that's how you know, there's a lot of a know there's a lot of, a lot of mediocre, a lot of uh.
Speaker 1:I would even go so far as to say fine to forgettable. Yeah, I mean in in conducting this exercise, I went back and rewatched some movies that I have not seen since the year they won best picture.
Speaker 2:Yeah, a lot of these movies I have forgotten about. Yeah, yeah, absolutely 12 through.
Speaker 3:Yeah, 12 through 24 are movies I'm never, probably never, going to own.
Speaker 1:I was just. I brought that up to Erica earlier as well. Guess guess how many of these films I own on physical.
Speaker 3:Uh, let's see One, two three, four maybe maybe five. It's actually only three, three, and that's on me because I don't own parasite.
Speaker 1:I don't own parasite that's on me. That's been one that every single time the criterion sale comes around, I'm like let's throw a parasite in the cart and then I just always forget it's return of the king.
Speaker 3:No country and gladiator is what you uh it's not no country, actually, it's Argo. Argo, you are a yes, you are a huge fan of art.
Speaker 1:You don't own no country for old men. I just gift it to my friends, I buy it and I give it away. Um, there may actually? No, I don't think I do, cause I just cataloged all my movies. There's not even an old DVD laying around laying around, um great, great movie, though you know. Um, yeah, I mean, I'm. I'm right there with you where I feel like the top 10 on my list are all pretty strong, and then, once you get into the teens, it's a little messy. And they're movies that are fine, yeah, on their own, but when they have the title of being a best picture winner, it makes me resent them more. And I think about all the movies that have come out in the 21st century, yeah, that those films have ended up beating. And then I look at like, oh, I own the social network, oh, I own mahalan drive, I own all these other movies that were nominated for best picture, right, um, during some of these years.
Speaker 3:That's, that's the big I mean the king's speech like I re-watched about half of that movie. It's a good movie. It's well made, it's well acted. Like it looks like a film like it. You know like it is. It is a strong piece of of art, cinema art, but it's not fincher, it's not sorkin, it's not kirk baxter beat fucking social network I rewatched social network this this week too because I've
Speaker 1:you know, a kind of half and half sort of for this exercise just to remember what could have been, but it's also just a great background movie. At this point in my life and I've been plugging away on some like work data, as it is midwinter break right now, so, um, lots of time at home just to have stuff on and my goodness, what a picture it's. So it's so unfortunate that we don't have something like the social network on here and glorious bastards on here. You know, parasite was in competition with once upon a time in hollywood, but I'm just so. I'm thinking there's that's the other thing too. There's some years that were so stacked where you're like if you could move this movie out of 2017 or out of 2019, like I'm once again shape of water. The shape of water. A fine movie. Really cool that a genre monster movie basically won best picture. However, I would much rather see get out on this list right now from 2017.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, and I think moving films out of years is really interesting too because, like no country for old men, one of my favorite movies of all time really deserving of best picture, but same year as there will be blood yeah, there will be blood should await it. I mean, like if we could have both of those movies on this american gangster that year you have atonement this year I would take I would take atonement over no country 18 of these movies.
Speaker 3:Oh, yeah, you know, yeah. So yeah, it's, it can be tough um, okay, so we all.
Speaker 1:I shared the collective list with the two of you, so if we kind of just want to ping pong back and forth, I think that would be the most engaging. Starting with with number 24, I'll lead us off here. Our worst ranked, best pitcher winner, with a collective ranking of twenty three point six six. It was either the bottom or the second to the bottom for all three of us is the 2006 film crash. I re-watched crash yesterday.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is amazing that this movie got I understand it getting greenlit the intent behind it is admirable, but the impact and the way that this film has aged is just so poor it is it is so unfortunate that this film is a best picture winner.
Speaker 1:It's notorious for being one of the worst best picture winners of all time, but re-watching it it's like really egregious how bad the script is and how stereotypical it is in in um as far as depicting race relationships, not only amongst um you know the, the LAPD in this story and and the people within the Los Angeles community, um, but really just like on a more global level, everything that was happening three, four or five years post nine 11. There there's like a persian family that owns a convenience store and so there's all sorts of stuff with them being from the middle east and and racism and and hatred aimed towards them from the community and it's. But they are also very close-minded and, in their way of thinking, like this movie tries to do something by showing that like nobody's the good guy, nobody's the bad guy. Like you know, there's there's insensitivity, insensitivities that we all hold. But then you just think about the films that have actually done this effectively like do the right thing.
Speaker 1:I think paul thomas anderson even touches on this a little bit in magnolia when he's showing so many different walks of life, and that's also right there in Los Angeles. So once again, just the fact that this film, crash, gets recognized for this um Amos Perez style of different, different character arcs all coming together and, and quote unquote, crashing together and it wins best picture. And we're looking back and you know, I just like it's impossible to to watch this movie and not think like fuck man, like do the right thing, we should 100% be on this list. It does all the same things a million times better. Um, so I think crash is deservingly it at the bottom, at number 24, it's just not a good movie.
Speaker 3:Yeah, uh, I'll echo everything you said. Uh, I did not re-watch this. I'm glad you did free on voodoo oh, I'm sure, I'm sure it's free wherever it is, uh. But yeah, I mean again, it is kind of like up there in the pantheon of worst, best pictures of all time, with something like driving miss daisy or fucking, I'll say it, forrest gump like the, the academy just thought they were doing something so good by awarding this best picture yeah, and and like, really, I don't know, just it's so what's the word?
Speaker 3:uh, like it's, just it's so preach, it just preaches. You know, I, I know, I know a hot word is like woke, right, but like this is woke before, woke like this is it's just pandering, it's pandering to the audience and it's it's not good.
Speaker 1:And particularly like the performances are pretty not great either no, I, and I can just imagine so many and especially in 2006, so many older white academy voters watching this movie, and maybe they saw some of themselves in, like the sandra bullock character, and they're like, oh wow, I need to change the way I go about my day-to-day life, like it is exactly what you just said is pandering to, to the older oscar generation. Um, so, yeah, put at the bottom, fuck it. Yeah, fuck it. Uh, you want to take the next one, because I could say a lot of the same things about it.
Speaker 3:I mean honestly kind of a if if crash is is like one of the touchstones of of that pandering cinema. I would say green book might be the the end of it, right, it takes that long for us to finally come around and be like oh yeah, this isn't uh, this isn't a great way to tell a story on film, like and especially when it comes from someone like Peter Farley um, which is just an odd, odd, odd thing, that he made this movie, yes, and then that it won best picture in 2018. Um, but yeah, again, just a, just a, a remnant of of what we assume really trying to move away from the.
Speaker 3:Oscars to be right, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:So we all collectively had either crash or green book in our 24 or 23 spots, so we were very much aligned on these two picks.
Speaker 2:Uh, the next one we had was the King's speech. This is one of those like forgettable movies for me that I've I know I've seen it, but I just it's not my cup of tea. I I did agree with max, like what he said, like I think it's like like good acting, good performance. But was it, why? Was it best picture?
Speaker 3:I don't know well, and again, I think what really hurts this is that it's going up against social network that year which the Social. Network might be one of the best movies of this century. That's crazy the fact that it beat that movie out. This is a Todd Haynes movie, correct? I believe. No, it's not Todd Haynes. No, not Todd Haynes.
Speaker 2:No, it's Tom Hooper, tom.
Speaker 3:Hooper Tom Hooper, who has gone on to do a lot of mediocre work and this movie, again well-made, it feels like they're kind of using it. Almost felt like it was shot on a new camera for the time, because it is kind of flashy as far as like its technical aspects and for this kind of story to be told in that way. But, again, completely forgettable. When's the last time anybody, anybody, was like hey, we want to fire up the king's speech this.
Speaker 3:This is a really sleepy pic well, and and it's not even about like the oscars yes, we want the oscars to be very international and like it's really, really great that we we do that, but like we don't need a movie about some king in britain.
Speaker 1:No, I was just gonna say this should have won the baftas, it should have cleaned up at the baftas, and I'm sure it did that. Yeah, but give us, give us the social network.
Speaker 1:We are americans and we are obsessed with our phones yeah and for that movie to have such a strong commentary only a handful of years after the events of the film took place too. You know, I social networks like 15 years old now at this point, which is wild to think about because it feels like that movie was made with so much hindsight available to it when really Sorkin on the script, fincher with the direction, all the performances, every single part of that film was so reactive, like in the moment, basically to when Facebook and social media was still really taking off there, kind of at the turn of the decade.
Speaker 3:Um, so amazing stuff.
Speaker 1:And and that's really that's always going to hinder my, my ranking, my thoughts, my appreciation for anything commendable that the king speech could, could, have and did. Do you know? Because we we have it here ranked 22nd with a with a collective average rating of of 19.6, so still a little bit higher actually than the 22nd ranking, but just the way that all the numbers fell, um, kind of the way that they all fell. So, again, like, this is a movie that if you showed it to the right person, I'm sure they're gonna sit there and say, wow, yeah, okay, I can see, I can see the best picture in it.
Speaker 2:I just can never do that because of the social network. It was literally up against black. Swan Uh-huh, what Inception. And the social network.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's insane, like yeah.
Speaker 2:Black.
Speaker 1:Swan. I mean I take I would watch black Swan 10 times out of 10 before I fired up the.
Speaker 3:King's Speech and you know, I know this doesn't really go into a best picture, but like Thomas, george Hooper went on to make Cats you know like. Cats after the King's Speech you know, on the best, probably on some best picture fumes yeah, so right in it I'm gonna do cats. Um, yeah, it's, it's, uh, it's completely forgettable again.
Speaker 1:Fine filmmaking, but it just again feels like old academy, right as does this next pick at 21 overall on our ranking, with a collective average of of 18, is the artist.
Speaker 1:The artist from 2011 is one of those movies that I think is very well respected and well thought of because of the moment that it had on Oscar night, which was a really cool, um, kind of like out of nowhere uh Ascension to to victory when it comes to best picture, and Hollywood loves a movie about old Hollywood.
Speaker 1:So this is set in the twenties, about a silent film star, shot in black and white and, for whatever reason, really resonated with with Oscar voters that year, but again, one that I think, unless you're going to look back on it and and just take it at face value as opposed to comparing it to what else was out that year, it's just not going to be like. This is not going to be one that has any sort of cultural footprint in. This is not going to be one that has any sort of cultural footprint in, I mean, like right now, currently in 2025. We're still within the same 24 or 25-year span of this winning, so you have to bring it back up, but no one is going to think about the artist in any sort of meaningful way in probably the next 10 years Charming but you know not necessary.
Speaker 3:Yeah, again, like just a huge miss. I'm trying to pull up the, let me pull up the other nominees that year because I bet you we can find something that was a little better, uh, than this film the that you uh, that we we could have, uh, yeah, right here I'm looking at the like the the nominees for that year and in my opinion, I don't think it was a very strong year, but we did have moneyball, which oh, give me Moneyball.
Speaker 1:Yeah the artist Also, any day of the week.
Speaker 2:I really like Midnight in Paris. That's a really great movie. I don't know that it's like I would.
Speaker 1:Can you list them all off?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's the artist, the descendants, extremely loud and incredibly close.
Speaker 1:The help Hugo Midnight in Paris, extremely loud and incredibly close the help hugo midnight in paris, moneyball, the tree of life warhorse, that's a that's a pretty weak year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very weak year, uh, but moneyball tree of life, I ultimately the artist is kind of a gimmick film right in the 21st century.
Speaker 1:Yeah, like it is.
Speaker 3:It's a good point. It is Like if it wasn't a silent film. Does it still resonate?
Speaker 1:Or is it because it was a silent film and an ode's an opportunity to really acknowledge this person, who? Who does have a really big imprint on the movie making business? You know, globally speaking, but I don't know. It's just week year, but it's at the bottom of our list here for a reason.
Speaker 3:Yeah, our next film with a collective average of 16.33 was from 2020, and that is Nomadland.
Speaker 1:This is the last film. This is ranked 20th for us. Last of our films in the 20s, and it honestly would have been lower if not for us. Last of our films in the 20s, and it honestly would have been it would have been lower if not for Erica Max. You and I both had it at 22 overall. Erica, the floor is yours to defend why Nomadland makes your top five best picture winners of the 21st century.
Speaker 2:Like I said, like looking at all of my options here, this is a movie that I really enjoyed when it came out. I, I like movies like this. It's a very like heartwarming story. I love Francis McDormand. I I don't. I mean, I don't know, I I don't really understand all the hate about this. When I was thinking of, when I was looking at this and just kind of reading these reviews and I'm like, am I like? What am I missing here? I really enjoyed this when it came out. I, you know, this came out that year and seeing something like this resonated with a part of me and I don't know, this is just right up my alley. I like shit like this. So I, I have it pretty high, you know, with all of my options on here, you know, and so I I'm, I'm curious to see why you guys don't like it, I guess.
Speaker 1:Were we doing the pod when this one? This had to have been right around when we started. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:It is an interesting win. I will agree, and then also like looking at some of the options for that year. I mean, it's like I don't know what a weird time for the Oscars, Cause that was like it was COVID COVID.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that was in like the height.
Speaker 1:Yeah, just things weren't being made.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I I do understand that, but yeah, I'm curious just to hear like your guys is why you don't like it.
Speaker 1:To me this it's.
Speaker 1:I consider this movie in like you know what. I would put this on a double bill with the power of the dog, where it is a beautiful looking film with a great lead performance but that I feel like is ultimately ineffective in delivering the message that it's trying to send to its audience. Francis McDormand does not need to be my avatar into a world of nomadic lifestyle and giving the finger to Amazon and hitting the road Like. This is the kind of movie that just needs to be a documentary and if it, and if it, if the, if the reach of this film winning best picture turns more people on to the fact that there are hundreds of thousands of people living a nomadic lifestyle and who have, you know, kind of detached themselves from society and form these communities around, I'm sure, the the world, but in this film most specifically the United States and the American Southwest, which of course lends itself to some beautiful photography.
Speaker 1:Chloe's out is a great job directing this film, but but again, like it's just one that I feel like the the sentiment of it is is lost on me because of kind of Frances McDormand and to her, just her Oscar campaign that year, getting up on stage and howling at the moon and all the goofy stuff that she did, Like she just became such a character of herself, um, during this campaign, and so I again I hold that against it a little bit.
Speaker 1:I hold the time in our lives in which it came out against it a little bit. Um, it's just one that didn't work for me then, still still doesn't work for me now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, uh, beautifully photographed but ultimately kind of a nothing burger like a, and if you're going to go again, I think the the point of making a documentary is really, really smart, because we are pretty much dealing with real nomadic nomads.
Speaker 1:You could make the argument that this is half documentary or that it's documentarian because so many of the people are people with lived experience.
Speaker 3:Right, but then to throw a movie star right in the middle of it is contradictory, I think of what it's trying to say, yes and and really dampens the message, the meaning, behind it.
Speaker 1:So no man Land at 20. What's next? This might be the first one that kind of upsets some people. This is going to piss some people off. I'm here for it, come for me.
Speaker 2:Me too, this is my hot take. Actually, I have a couple, but this is a very hot take for me. Actually, I have a couple, but this is a very hot take for me. So at 19, we have everything everywhere all at once, with a collective score of 16.33. I am a proud hater of this movie, sorry.
Speaker 1:Just to be clear too, if you did catch, nomadland also had a collective ranking of 16.33 among us. So our tiebreaker in this situation was overall oscar wins. So not only did nomadland win best picture, but it also won best director, chloe xiao and francis mcdormand best actress. However, everything are everywhere. All at once picked up seven academy award wins the night that it won best picture, so it gets the higher spot there at 19.
Speaker 2:this is one of those movies I just it was so overstimulating to me seeing it preach.
Speaker 2:And I felt like I was having a stroke and I just I don't understand like what I missed, you know, and I I'm like, what are? What are we watching? And, like I am very spiritual, I'm very interested in like some of the subjects that, like I did not understand, like what they were trying to do, and and this is one of those movies it's like kept me up at night wondering, like what did I miss? Like why am I the only person who doesn't like this? Until alex and I reunited several years ago and hung out and started talking about this movie and I found a fellow hater and I was like I've always been a safe space, yeah, and I just remember feeling so safe in that moment.
Speaker 2:I was like, thank god I found somebody. But yeah, I, I don't understand, I, I really it's. I should probably re-watch it, like, but I, I remember it and I remember not liking it. I will say I think that, like there's some technical aspects of the movie that I really thought were cool and, like you know, the makeup was fucking sick and but I was like all I could say and I saw it with my best friend and she left the theater just being like that was the best movie I've ever seen and I was like what and I hate hearing stuff like that because I'm like, well, what did I not pick up on then?
Speaker 1:So you know, Word of mouth on this film was about as strong as I can remember word of mouth being on a movie ever.
Speaker 1:And I think that that really influenced people's reactions and feelings coming out of the movie theater. They were just sort of conditioned to think they need to like this movie. I totally agree. What I've always said is that this is an. This is a comic book movie disguised as some art house film bro bullshit. And so many people walked out of this movie thinking they just saw something profound.
Speaker 1:And I do agree, there are some deeper thematic. There's a deeper thematic context to this movie that talks about ancestry and motherhood and what it means to be the matriarch of a family. You know, like Michelle Ye yo, she's, she's great in this movie and I love when people have their moment. She certainly had her moment. But but when the movie also features just like flying butt plugs and hot dog fingers and all this other goofy goofy stuff, it's almost like it's it's the opposite version. Well, it's just like a cyclical effect of, like Nomadland, diluting their subject matter so much and then everything everywhere all at once overstimulated us with its subject matter so much to where it was completely lost on me as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, with its subject matter.
Speaker 1:So much to where it was completely lost on me as well.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think also, it really benefited from the moment that it came, the moment that it came out in right like this is 2023. We are, I I think, like pretty much officially kind of back to coming out of our houses. Uh, marvel is in the middle of a real dress spell, a real, real low point, even though, like, right now is a very, very low point as well. That low point has continued. Maybe this is like the beginning of of that nosedive and and we.
Speaker 3:We need to put a pin on that, because I want to circle back dc is also like in in complete disarray at this point, and so I remember when I saw this originally in the theater, I came out and I was hyped on it. I thought it was really, really great. However, on rewatch multiple times now it is it has dropped less and less in my mind because it is such a you know, yes, there are themes of ancestry and matriarch and the mother-daughter relationship, but then it's also like written by these two dudes and like the Daniels and like is very real quiet since this, and I'm so thankful controversy that came out after the best picture win, that like there was a short film that featured hot dog fingers in a film fest that they were a jury on that.
Speaker 3:They knew that jurored so like there was some plagiarism going on and some stealing of ideas and and it. When you watch it now, it just just does feel kind of like a weird bro-y.
Speaker 1:It's obnoxiously long, too Obnoxious is the perfect word for this movie.
Speaker 3:That is exactly how I felt. Yeah, so yeah, this movie has dropped a lot, in my estimation, over the years.
Speaker 2:Sorry guys, we don't like it, All right.
Speaker 1:Our next film on the list, coming in at 18th overall, with a collective ranking of 16, is the Clint Eastwood picture Million Dollar Baby.
Speaker 1:This is one I revisited for this exercise because it had been a very long time. This is one I revisited for this exercise because it had been a very long time and I feel like Clint should always get the benefit of the doubt when it comes to his features. Coming off of Jury no 2 this past year, I quite enjoyed that movie. I found myself more not impressed. There's really nothing too impressive about million dollar baby good fight choreography in a lot of the boxing scenes. But I found myself less annoyed with this movie than I thought I would be upon rewatch the first hour and 20 minutes of it. It's a really good sports story. Like it is a. It is a really well it. Well, I won't say it's necessarily well written, but it's a really good sports story. Like it is a. It is a really well it. Well, I won't say it's necessarily well written, but it's a really well paced sports story and has a really good performance by Hillary Swank at the center of it.
Speaker 1:But then the choice that this movie makes and and what it leaves you with for a full 60 minutes on the back end. And I it's weird to say like I don't want to spoil a movie that came out almost 20 years ago, but like I. I won't spoil it, because go back and check this movie out. It's, it's worth revisiting, but it just makes for such a sad final hour and ultimately ends up being a commentary on euthanasia. And and what is quality of life? And when do we, as humans, decide that we have accomplished enough and that and that life is, and when does life become worth living or not anymore? Um so, a heady movie, a one that it's cool that a sports movie won best, best pitcher, but but also one that I feel like it's odd that clint gets recognized for this. I mean, this movie is almost like a silence of the lambs where it takes all the big five, the only thing because clint gets director, gets best picture. It does get five big awards, but it's missing like a screenplay one.
Speaker 3:I think.
Speaker 1:But Freeman, Morgan Freeman gets supporting actor Clint best actor, Hilary Swank best actress, and then Clint also for directing, and then the film wins best picture. So widely celebrated movie. That has some redeeming qualities to it, but just, it's an odd one, it's a really, it's really weird the note that this film ends on the fact that it won best picture because it is not uplifting.
Speaker 3:Really interesting that Clint does this in 2002 and then seemingly decides to you know cause. I wonder if he was kind of thinking about those life, those themes, right In his own life at that time, because he was probably 800 years old then, and then he just continues to prolong his career, coming out with juror number two this past year at, you know, 2000 years old.
Speaker 1:Um, the man has a problem, he is a. And listen, I, sir, I commend you for your contributions to cinema because, even like right after this film, he, he takes the cache that he builds off of the best pitch winner and cranks out letters to iwo jima and flags of our fathers, like in back-to-back years or maybe even in the same year. I kind of forget the timeline of those films, but like he just doesn't stop working.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and again kind of how I feel about the King's Speech, like, yes, a good, prestigious film. I think something else could have been recognized that year, something else from 2000,. Was it 2002, 2002? I think that's what you just was was is is more memorable and more important to the the culture of movies the million dollar baby.
Speaker 1:There is a scene in this film this is a real scene in a real movie where a young anthony mackie, where a young anthony mackie is beating the absolute shit out of jay berschnell, who plays a young aspiring boxer with some mental health concerns, and morgan freeman with one eye he has a glass eye in this film, that's right stumbles into the ring, takes jay's gloves from him and proceeds to beat the shit out of anthony mackie.
Speaker 1:It's incredible stuff. It's, it's so out of place in this movie, um, and yet that's just kind of that's what you get every now and then when you're watching a movie from the early 2000s is, you know, a couple of budding stars in really small performances and it just makes for a weird, a weird scene. So again, there's, there's some good stuff in in this film, but it also has a little bit of that like hillbilly elegy to it. It's like with the Hillary Swain character and her relationship to her family, where I again like character and her relationship to her family, where I again, like I said, I commend clint. I I honor clint, I respect clint. Some of his messaging and the people who he is interested in featuring in his films has always just kind of been weird to me.
Speaker 3:A question to me um, and this film is is not devoid of that uh, our next film at number 17, a film I like a lot more than you two yes uh, coming out with a average of 15.66 is the 2000? What came out in 2001?
Speaker 1:or 2000, so at the 2001 ceremony 2001 ceremony wins uh best.
Speaker 3:Picture a beautiful mind, yeah, which uh marks.
Speaker 1:You know, russell crowe, he went back to back these years back to back right uh, we will talk about the other film coming up um, there's two actors actually who end up going back to back. We'll get. We haven't gotten to the other one yet, but it's, it's right around the corner.
Speaker 3:Oh, okay, okay, Uh yeah, a beautiful mind I. It's hard, cause I feel like there's a lot of nostalgic feeling around this film for me.
Speaker 1:Is that because you watched it with every substitute teacher ever in high school?
Speaker 3:I watched it. Uh uh, that's my relationship to it. I I do remember seeing this as a in 2001 as a kid as like a with my parents, right like it was a film that like we all sat down and watched together one week, like and it was rated r and like it was very you know it was a very like. Oh yeah, you're gonna. You're gonna watch this intellectual film and like this is garbage prestige. It is absolute garbage prestige, and I don't know.
Speaker 3:There's things to really love about, like the espionage of it all and the ed harris character, and then also like the we're still doing the thing, though, where, like a-list hollywood actors are playing people with with disabilities totally, totally and well, yeah, and his john nash is, you know, it is like this whole, like you know, the brilliant man kind of story arc, but you know, and then he, he crashes down and I will say the up in. I think for the rest of my life the bathtub scene gets me every time and it's hard to watch and it's not great, and I understand that people don't like this movie, but I don't know, I find it a bit charming.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it made your top ten.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's fair and fine defense but, but yeah, I cry like a baby every single time. He in that, he leaves that baby in the bathtub and then jennifer connelly runs out in the rain, stops the car and, screaming at him, I break down connelly's great in this movie unbelievable, unbelievable, but yeah. Yeah, I don't know. I would love to hear your guys's thoughts on it, because it was low on both of yours yeah, I had in the teens it.
Speaker 1:It made erica's like bottom five yeah yeah, I I'm.
Speaker 2:This is one of the one of the only movies on this list I've not seen, like the whole thing, but it's just not my, it's not my cup of tea, like I don't know, you know is it yeah?
Speaker 3:I don't know but I mean, like, is it boring what is boring?
Speaker 2:yeah, it's just kind of boring, you know, and I'm not. I'm not gonna lie like I mean, it's just there's a lot of movies on this list that I. That's how I feel that's just they're kind of boring, but that's just my personal taste. You know like it is. I feel like these aren't movies I reach for? I, I completely.
Speaker 3:This is one of those forgettable movies to me I I do feel like again in like the the great man, you know story thing that's going on.
Speaker 1:It is very much like guys, weird guys, like this movie um, yeah, I, I think it has a really good first 45 minutes yeah and then, once the downfall kind of begins and it, it does become more of like an espionage story as opposed to sort of this like discovery of this man with this amazing ability and there's the love story aspect. But it's, I think it's. I think it's depressing. I think it's depressing, I think it's a tough watch. I think that it is a little sleepy at times.
Speaker 3:Um, it's also oddly trying to like six cents you as well.
Speaker 1:A little bit, a little bit right, Like it's got a little shot.
Speaker 3:I'm alone too, yeah.
Speaker 1:Howard's. Ron Howard's just a weird director too. He'd be one that would I mean, like I would love to talk about some of his movies. I'm sure, I'm sure one day, yeah, okay, so who's who's up here, erica?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, so 16,. We have Birdman Weird movie man. We had this. So our rating is what? 15.33. Okay, this is fairly low on my list. I'm not really a fan of this one either. It just was weird. There's a really. I love Michael Keaton. I think there's a really cool cast.
Speaker 1:He's the other guy that goes back to back because Spotlight had won the year prior.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Nice, so big Keaton songs.
Speaker 2:This was in the middle of it was yeah, I, I really wanted to like this movie, but it's just another one of those movies I kind of forgot about. But it it turns weird for me, like with the bird man thing, like I don't really know how to explain it. What do you guys? Did you guys like this one?
Speaker 1:I can't remember the Birdman is the unexpected virtue of ignorance. This is an interesting movie because it just it feels so. It feels like such an outlier in Iñárritu's career where I just wonder how he got assigned to be the, to be the director of this film. Um, always always confusing to me. I think that keaton is great in the performance, um, and I, and I also.
Speaker 1:I always like, when you know, talk about a movie that has almost like a shamalan side to it or hitchcockian side to Like I don't even know really anybody else who I, you know, who, like Guillermo del Toro, should have directed this movie or or something like that, and and made it almost a little bit more creepier. Because this feels again like we're trying to almost backdoor in like a superhero movie to to the Oscars, and so I'm trying to think where did I let me look at my list here where I had this one? This is like right in the middle for me. This is 14 across the board, this was 14, 17 and 15 for the three of us respectively. So again, one of those movies where I remember I've only ever watched it the one time and it was the year that it came out and the year that it won, and so one that I remember thinking like oh yeah, like, huh, I get it, but also didn't do anything for me necessarily.
Speaker 3:Yeah, again, it kind of feels like a gimmicky film right the whole like in one shot even though it's not in one shot. And you know, films have really ridden, gimmicks I mean you know, 1917, I think, is a more recent example of that.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I don't know, birdman is. It is such a weird. It's a weird outlier in this list as well, right, it's a weird outlier in this list as well, right, because it does feel much more experimental and just odd compared to some of these other movies and, honestly, a lot of the time we are asking for that, we want that in our Oscars, we want the Oscars to take risk, and I think at the time this definitely felt way more risky, but then when you go back now and compare it, it's just kind of gimmicky and bland.
Speaker 1:I agree with that yeah right next is a film that I've also been on record for a long time. Um, as far as not really just being a fan, I'm not really a fan of this movie. Um, it coming in at number 15 overall with a collective rating of 13.66. Is the Martin Scorsese film that departed. For me, this is one half. It sucks that this is the movie that Scorsese gets recognized for at the Oscars and probably will be the only film that he gets recognized for at the Oscars. And then the the other half of it is just like.
Speaker 1:This movie is so goofy. This movie is so silly and is. It has eight different tones and some of it works really well. If I could just have a love triangle movie between depressed, mentally unstable Leonardo DiCaprio and Matt Damon working as this informant, and then Vera Forminga is the psychologist who's banging both of them, I'm there seated like 100 percent.
Speaker 1:But then when you have Jack Nicholson pulling out dildos and dirty porno theaters and, and then the next scene is out, baldwin and and you know our beloved Mark Wahlberg doing this like buddy cop Boston stand up routine, and then you have James Badge, dale and Anthony Anderson and all these other guys just coming in for cups of coffee and I don't, I don't know. It just feels like. It feels like every to me and I remember in the moment feeling this as well, cause you know we're like 16 when this comes out. So I've seen casino scene, good fellas, seen all the classics and just thinking like this just feels like he's just like regurgitating all his old stuff. He's playing the hits Fucking Rolling Stones plays a million times in this movie.
Speaker 1:You know it's got the infamous scene of like the rat running across the balcony at the end. You're just like being way too cute and and I think that it's just like not that it's not that exciting, like it's not that deep bro, it's not that cool and it just it sucks that that Martin Scorsese, the man who gave us taxi driver and raging bull, and even like shutter Island I rather see him get recognized for shutter Island or Wolf of wall street. The fact that it's the departed like it's just a bummer for me.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think when you go back and look at the totality of Scorsese, like departed is not his, his greatest film? And I really do.
Speaker 1:It might not be it's film and I really don't. It might not be. It's probably like barely in the top 10.
Speaker 3:It probably isn't in the top 10 if we're, if we're being honest.
Speaker 3:And honestly I I think what makes this movie worse and worse every time I watch it is is Jack Nicholson. Yeah, Uh, his performance is absolutely kooky. Um, he, there are now. You know, I've, I've, almost every month I see a new story, or I see on YouTube, I see in my algorithm there's like always some guy telling like you know, he was like the second gaffer on the departed and he's telling stories about Nicholson and how crazy he was Improving, improving, improving he's rewriting stuff without telling people.
Speaker 3:Yeah, he's demanding that. You know that cocaine scene is something he demanded happened, or he was going to walk off the film. So I don't know. Nicholson, you've given us a great body of work.
Speaker 1:It's great to see at the SNL 50 celebration. Really cool that she got out Still kicking.
Speaker 3:I think, unfortunately, this movie is bogged down because of him, and it's too bad too, because really it's kind of prime Damon it's prime DiCaprio. Leonardo DiCaprio, who, who, leo, it's Prime Leo, it's Prime Damon.
Speaker 1:I think it's a really underrated, underappreciated Leo performance. Yeah.
Speaker 3:And you know, unfortunately, I think it's kind of. It reminds me of the 2004 Lakers Jack needed. Wow, you know hurtful you can't bring in the mailman to a team that has kobe and shack on it.
Speaker 1:You know what he needed? Jack nicholson and I'm sure part of him probably thought he was doing this, but he needed to be anthony hopkins as hannibal lecter in this movie he needed to be much more menacing. He needed to be more reserved. This is a less is more kind of role and he's just so flamboyant, so outrageous, and it just brings a whole movie down.
Speaker 3:I gotta rap.
Speaker 1:Do you like this movie, Erica no.
Speaker 2:I don't. This is just, like you said, just goofy, it's corny and I it's just not my thing also, it's a remake too, yeah right like that Infernal Affairs when I started to find that out like kind of kind of also hurts it, I feel. I would like Max to introduce this next one.
Speaker 1:I can't, I'm so happy Max gets to introduce this next one.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would like Max to introduce this next one. I'm so happy Max gets to introduce this next one. Yeah, number 14. His favorite movie.
Speaker 3:This movie has an average rating of 13.66. Thanks to you and I. It was tied with Departed, but it won six Academy Awards over Departed, which only won four. So it will land at the 14 spot over Departed, which only won four. So it will land at the 14th spot, and that is the utterly lifeless, boring musical called Chicago.
Speaker 1:I'm just going to clear out here this will be my last episode with my former friends. I haven't said shit yet.
Speaker 2:I feel utterly betrayed. You know, alex, I ranked it 20.
Speaker 1:I haven't said shit, yet I feel utterly betrayed. You know, alex, I ranked it 20. I saw your ranking.
Speaker 2:Don't even I feel utterly betrayed. But you know at the same time, you guys are boys, you're. You know it's understandable why you don't like this movie. This is for the girls, right and honestly, you might have been one of the victims of some of these beautiful women.
Speaker 1:I wish, I'm just kidding.
Speaker 2:But this is infamously my. I don't like to say like it's really hard for me to pick one thing as my top favorite, but I think, just after years of deliberation, this is my all-time favorite movie all-time favorite movie yeah, I mean all-time, ever favorite.
Speaker 3:Okay, well, I feel bad, calling it utterly lifeless.
Speaker 2:It's in my top four on my letterbox. It is my all-time favorite movie and I watched it as a young, 10 year old I was gonna say, and it really came out when we were like 13 and I watched it when I was that young, you know, I was 10.
Speaker 2:I remember dancing to this song to this and, um, I don't know, I love, I love chicago. I I'm a. I love musicals. I think that, um, this has just I don't even know what to say about it. I think that, like the acting's amazing. I think katherine zeta jones is phenomenal she's, really she's doing these like incredible dance numbers and singing while she's pregnant, the whole movie and she looks shout out michael douglas, yeah, I mean she's just, she's stunning. Renee zellweger. I had the opportunity to meet her and confess this love, my love for this movie to her.
Speaker 1:How'd that go?
Speaker 2:it was literally one of the best moments of my life I'm not gonna lie and she was the sweetest angel I've ever met.
Speaker 2:She just was so kind, um, but yeah, I mean, this movie is so near and dear to my heart just probably memories alone, but I watch it constantly, I watch it every year and I never get sick of it, which is why I'm comfortable saying that it's my all time favorite, because I've never watched this and been like it doesn't hit the same as it once did. For me, it always hits the same. The soundtrack always hits the same Everything.
Speaker 1:In a year that Lord of the Rings film comes out. And I know it's not the big one, but the Two Towers is nominated this year as well for Best Picture. Big one, but the two towers is nominated this year as well for best picture. But the fact that chicago not only leaves with best picture but five others, for a total of six academy awards that night, yeah, wow, really wild it's incommendable.
Speaker 2:You know, whatever, we'll give it its flowers it's such a production and that's when I this is where I start to like, when I think of like a best, the best picture, you know, the best movie that came out that year. I think of like a production, something that was has every element to filmmaking. That's just so, next level, you know.
Speaker 3:But this is the thing, like Wicked does the musical better than Chicago, like it's so much more exciting if you, if you compare, I mean on a technical level, I just think that this is so stagey. They, they, they shot it so much it feels like 2d almost yeah, like a play that it is a play, it lose.
Speaker 3:I know but like this is film, like we're if it's. If if you want to do a play, go make what they did with hamilton as a movie. There just needs to be more. There needs to be more technical style to it. I also am someone who is extremely allergic to renee zellweger and richard gear, like over their whole careers. I'm just not a person who likes their performance style, uh, and find them utterly hard to watch.
Speaker 2:So I won't disagree. There's a little bit of a cringe factor to the acting on those two. I'm not gonna, I won't disagree with that. I don't think it's like I wouldn't. I don't think it's full-blown cringy in my opinion, but I can see why. Maybe somebody would say that. But I actually really like the way like I've never noticed that, how you're saying like it looks like a, like a 2d play, and I'm like because I've actually seen the, the broadway play of it too, and I saw it after like long after the fact.
Speaker 2:I saw the movie and I remember my mom and I went and saw it in new york and we were just so underwhelmed and like just I, I mean, I was just like, oh there's, because I like how they are able to like cut from, you know, their the real life, like jail scene, and then it cuts to them like their fantasy version of it.
Speaker 2:I actually like the way that they filmed it, because it does look like exactly what you'd think, almost like a theater version of this would be but they're able to do so much more because it's a movie, you know right right so I actually I've never noticed that, but I I really enjoy that yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's uh. Listen. It won best picture and, like you said, six awards. I and I. You're not the only person in my life who loves this movie, so my sister had the movie poster on her wall grown up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's okay, if you don't like it. I'm not, I'm just I'm. It's okay.
Speaker 1:Please don't I might, after this next conversation, all you here for number 13, erica um, all right.
Speaker 2:Well, we have coda at number 13, with a collective score of 13 of 13 13 worked out really well.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, this is a top 10 best pitcher winner for me. I revisited it last night this is a first time watch that I'll never forget fired it up I think the night before the oscars, because at that point there was real momentum and and the mystery was almost solved as to who was going to win best pitcher this year. And in this it had been building, all this momentum had been building towards coda. So I was like I have to watch this movie to see if it's gonna, to see if it's actually like worthy, and so I started it at like 11 o'clock and I and I love it because this is when I was already super plugged into letterboxd so I can go back and read that first review. It was like 1am and I'm crying like a baby at the end of this film, and this is coming from someone who is dead inside. Movies never make me feel anything anymore, unless it's like fear or terror, um, or there's some level of like grotesquery and I'm and I'm like into that for whatever effed up reason. But like this movie still too, like it still hit last night and I was getting all choked up when she's singing and her family's watching from the balcony she's trying out for for, uh, the music school there and then driving away at the end. Like it, it just, it works every time on me. Um, it's it. You know people aren't speaking in like outrageous boston accents, but it's a really good like boston. New england movie as well too. The whole subplot with the fishing and all that stuff. Troy kotzer is obviously like unreal in this film wins best supporting actor at every single awards body ceremony that took place that year.
Speaker 1:This is, this is one of those movies where you can say that it is a benefactor of coming out during the pandemic, and I won't argue with you on that. But this is also exactly what we fucking needed. Coming out of the pandemic was a a prestigious, a prestigious like hallmark movie. That's all this movie is. It's it's just a lifetime movie of the week with an apple budget pumped into it, some incredible performances from people to some real deaf actors. It's not like you got a A-list cast of movie stars to populate this film.
Speaker 1:This movie just feels so lived in, it feels so authentic. It also, too, has some of that like sports movie energy, as she is like finding her voice and getting comfortable and singing class and working towards this audition to get into the school. So it it has a lot of that like thrilling nature to it. Um, and and some of and some of these like I it's weird to call them set pieces, but in some of these, um, these scenes that have almost like more, there's more stake to them than than you're just like normal run of the mill, um, like kind of high school high school movie, uh, high school family drama mill. Um like kind of high school high school movie, uh, high school family drama. So I just I fucking love coda. I will die on the hill of coda as like a worthy best picture winner and it beats power the nap well, yeah, I mean yes, I.
Speaker 3:I will support it anytime to beat power the nap, uh. However, on this list, I mean you, you said it, you said prestigious hallmark movie. I just don't see it as prestigious. I see it as I. I don't see the budget in it. Uh, now again I. I think this is just a a down the middle of the line film. Uh, for for the best picture winner, I think on my list. I had it. I had it, number 14, I I I don't right down the middle.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I don't hate it.
Speaker 3:I don't love it. I think it's a fine film, you know, interesting that this was the first streamer to ever win best picture. Um, you know, I think that will help its legacy as it goes on. But like, yeah, it's not when it comes to like a family drama, uh, of it all, like I, I just can't get past the, the lifetime of it, all the lifetime feel of it and it's inclusive man Open your heart I'm no, I it has nothing to do with.
Speaker 1:I don't have a bone to pick with you.
Speaker 2:Actually you're good.
Speaker 2:Erica has us at 18 jesus, I don't have anything wrong with the people in it you know the great people of new england, okay, okay I watched this for the first time last week and I I'm sorry, I just I I really picked up on the lifetime vibes too. You know, I, I, I liked, I love a good. It's like a cute little coming of age story and it's so weird. I actually watched that girl. I'd never seen her in anything before and I randomly turned on some movie on Hulu the other day.
Speaker 3:She's in one of the Pirates movies.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I've never seen her before she was in some random movie I watched and then I was like I'm going to watch Coda and then she was the star of that. It was just very random. But yeah, I mean it's a fine movie and kind of looking at my list now I mean I, it's a fine movie and kind of looking at my list now, I mean I'm just so bad at like ranking things. Maybe it deserves to be higher than like some of my other things, but I just think everywhere all at once.
Speaker 2:Yes, but I was thinking more of like just this doesn't feel like a best picture to me. It just feels like it's a fine story. I don't. I didn't dislike it, I just didn't feel like any attachment to it. It's one of those movies that it's it'll. I'll forget about it.
Speaker 3:You know I will say troy cutster, kurtz cutster, amazing performance on uh, uh curb.
Speaker 1:You're in oh yes, he is great on the golf lesson. Yeah, um, yeah, I'm sorry, and I'm fine, it made. It made the like top half. It's right there in the middle at 13 for us which I think is fine I think that's where.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think that's where it belongs that's fair I agree.
Speaker 1:Objectively, I don't think that it's a better film than anything that's in front of it right now. But just personally, like I'm telling you when I cry at the end of a movie, yeah, I hear you Every single time.
Speaker 3:See, it's so interesting because this movie doesn't make me cry, but then something weird like a beautiful mind makes me cry. So it is, it's odd, you know. Know, it touches different people in different ways, coda that's why we're doing this pod all right at number 12.
Speaker 3:Uh, fittingly again yeah uh, with a 12.66 rating, 12 years, a slave, uh, a particularly hard watch, uh one, I, I, I think I've returned to maybe once or twice, um, but if you want to talk about like old school, prestigious film but is also made for the right reasons and by the right people.
Speaker 1:It's not like Oscar Beatty. Yes it is, but it isn't. It is, but it isn't it is, but it isn't.
Speaker 3:Um. Steve McQueen, excellent filmmaker, you know he gets his due here with 12 years of slave, after stuff like shame and hunger and and honestly I don't know if he's gotten back to that, that level of prestige.
Speaker 1:Some of the small acts. I haven't seen blitz. Yeah, small acts, small act stuff is really good.
Speaker 3:Um, but yeah, I would love to see him return into the fold. Uh, because it was really exciting when, when this movie came out and he was a new voice.
Speaker 1:Yes.
Speaker 3:Uh, in Hollywood so um no-transcript, so um.
Speaker 1:Lupita is amazing in this.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Spender's great in this.
Speaker 3:Brad Pitt shows up. Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Brad Pitt actually.
Speaker 3:So plan B, it's a plan B production.
Speaker 1:Brad Pitt wins best pitcher, he, he gets the Oscar for this actually Right. Yeah, which is interesting.
Speaker 2:Um, let's see our next one. Oh is 11. We have Shape of Water at 10.66.
Speaker 1:We have the next four films all clocked in at 10.66.
Speaker 3:Unbelievable.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty crazy.
Speaker 2:This is a top five for me Top four actually. I love this movie. It's beautiful and I know that it's not everyone's cup of tea and I totally get that. It took a little bit of it had to wear on me a little bit like, I think, that initial shock of watching this. You're just kind of like, oh, what am I watching? But it's. I think it's gorgeous. I think it's a beautiful like fantasy love story and I don't think it gets enough hype. It's one of those movies I don't hear anyone talk about anymore. But I love Guillermo del Toro. I think it's one of my favorite movies of his.
Speaker 3:Again. Honestly one of the weirdest Best Picture winners of all time.
Speaker 2:It's weird, it's weird and.
Speaker 3:I understand like the themes are, like you know, loving, finding love, no matter your diff, the difference or whatever. Sure, but it is literally about a woman and a fish man. Yeah, uh fine, falling in love. And you know it's got parts of Frankenstein and beauty and the beast creature from the creature from the black lagoon and all this stuff. I think much like departed. I just I don't think this is Del Toro's best work.
Speaker 1:It's not.
Speaker 3:And you know.
Speaker 1:I, I am, I am, which is not this movie's fault. It's not more of a blemish on the Oscars record.
Speaker 3:Yeah and I, I do feel like again, it blemish on the oscars record. Yeah and I, I do feel like again, it is kind of like a oh, it's his time, let's award guess what it?
Speaker 1:fucking wasn't his time, dude and now here's the tough thing, because it this is what what this whole entire episode you're gonna take. One thing away from this is that the oscars don't know how to recognize people in the right time at the right time in the moment, because what should have happened this year is you either give it to a jordan peele for get out, yeah.
Speaker 1:b greta gerwig for ladybird, yeah, or c luca guadagnino for call me by your name yeah, all three of those films are head and shoulders above the shape of water, which I agree is a cool science fiction fantasy film with amazing production design. Yeah, all of the stuff in the laboratory productions are, or the performances are, great.
Speaker 3:Yes, you know Doug Jones, a guy who is always under a mask, like you know, getting getting recognition here. Finally, yes, michael Shannon is really awesome in this movie and nasty.
Speaker 1:Yeah uh, octavia, spencer's really good yeah, uh, richard jenkins.
Speaker 3:Richard jenkins is wonderful but uh, sweet, sweet's a word that you can use to describe him in this movie. But yeah, I mean, when you look at just those three other three films alone, it's a little yeah, it's a little disappointing.
Speaker 1:So, after the Shape of Water, we enter the top 10. At number 10 for us, with a collective ranking, once again of again, of 10.66. However, this film wins five total oscars. Compared to the shape of waters, four is the first picture from the 2000s to win best picture. Ridley scott's gladiator gladiator.
Speaker 3:Seven for max, three for me, 22 for erica krauss we know, we know, listen, we've been talking a lot of gladiator this year especially erica's relationship to the gladiator to the gladiator, to the gladiator film universe, um gladiator she met that night gladiator 2 has really put a blemish on this film. For me has it. That sucks. Really don't ever watch gladiator 2, alex yeah, I've still yet to do it. I'm telling you right now, it ruins the character of maximus so hard that like that movie now means really nothing.
Speaker 1:Damn that sucks Cause. I think this is an incredible, incredible film.
Speaker 3:It's. It is a really good sword and sandals film it is. It is again one of our favorite Ridley Scott films. Um, I can't remember how far it made it in the bracket. I.
Speaker 3:I feel like I got upset by kingdom of heaven and neither the elite eight or the final four so, yeah, it's in the top 10 of ridley scott, but, man, gladiator 2, and the more I've thought about gladiator 2 and its relationship to this film and, again, what it does to the story, to the core story and themes of this film, uh, and I, and again, I don't know if that was the intent, the initial intention of ridley scott, or if he was just coming for a paycheck this this past year, but man, uh, unfortunately I just think it. It really hurts, gladiator, which why I had to drop it out of the top five yeah, I just I, I don't have that relationship to it.
Speaker 1:So I'm I'm happy, yeah to, to be able to just to keep it in the top five, um, and and celebrate it for not only everything that it does for ridley's career. As far as I know, he's still yet to ever win an Academy award. You know him to his name. Especially for a director, this wins for best picture, which goes to the producers of the film, and this is not a Scott free picture. So it does a lot for Ridley, as you know, without giving him an Academy award this year. But I it's just, I think, one of the best stories, best on screen depictions of, like the rags to riches, um, and it was it does all odds so right.
Speaker 1:Venge story it does everything so good. Russell Crowe's phenomenal, of course. Joaquin Phoenix is amazing and this movie Jaimon Honsu comes in and is really good. For a while it's just the entire production. You know the, the animals and the coliseum, everything just feels so real. Like you watch this movie now on a good blu-ray or on 4k and it it looks amazing.
Speaker 3:it looks like how you want a film to to appear like it's, just it's, and it might be a little unfair for me to hold it hostage because of gladiator 2 but again, if gladiator 2 wasn't trying to retcon what the themes and story was of gladiator, then I would be less less inclined to to mark it down because of that. Do you want to speak any more on the gladiator problem?
Speaker 2:Well, I didn't see. I didn't see gladiator too. Oh, the problem I have with it. Well, I, it's just because of my like experience. It's my experience experience, which I don't even think.
Speaker 2:I said that on the podcast before but I mean just I was introduced to this movie with by a man who like mansplained it the whole time on a first day. It was just so awkward, not something that I'm like really gonna like first all. Don't put gladiator or any movie like gladiator on when you're trying to not set a mood, it's straight out of Barbie when they do the the godfather.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and we all explain when I told you guys a story.
Speaker 2:I think you guys actually use that as an example. It's like let me play the guitar at you. It's like let me play gladiator at you. You know, I'm just like really out of all the movies we could watch to end our date is gladiator in wicker park.
Speaker 1:Come on, the bag is deep whatever, but anyway that dvd on hand I there's no blu-ray I just hold on to the wicker park dvd for moments like that I would have preferred wicker park over Gladiator.
Speaker 3:Most people.
Speaker 1:Four out of five dentists recommend Wicker Park over Gladiator.
Speaker 2:I did rewatch it, though, a few months ago, just to like, okay, I'm going to watch it for my first real time, and it was just. The moment has passed for me. It's been too long, it came out too long ago. I felt like it was corny, I felt like it was just cheap and I and I know I'm sorry, but it's just like it's there's movies like that that they, you, you have if you're not watching it in the moment or around that time and you're just coming to it with like 20 something years later. I mean that.
Speaker 1:I mean, this is our version at least, like. Personally, this is my version of like this movie comes out. When I'm 10 years old, I know my dad sat down and showed it to me like a year or two later and it's just like this is fucking dad core. This is awesome. This is a great movie, and so when you watch this at 12 years old versus 30 years old, like the impact it's going to have on you is way different I'm 32, but thank you for the compliment.
Speaker 2:Yeah, no, I totally agree and like that's what I'm saying is like I didn't watch this as a kid I never. The first time I it was that date and I'm like in my 20s, you know, like I I it's just this is not my kind of movie, this is, I mean, I think that I was really stoked to see gladiator 2, because this is where I get excited about movies like this, where I'm like okay, my moment kind of passed because it feels older, you know, it feels like the the production might not have been like what I would be used to now or like what I'd want to see now.
Speaker 2:So then I like I see gladiator 2 come out and I'm like cool, I get a moment to like appreciate, like, like, I like movies like this, I love a good action and so like for me. But then, hearing how bad gladiator 2 is, I just didn't, I didn't watch it. But um, yeah, which is unfortunate, but I, I would like those moments to be able to like appreciate it, but it's just, it's too far gone for me, I guess it's gonna be really interesting.
Speaker 3:We were talking about this in our super secret group message with Marcus Baker today. The Odyssey from Christopher Nolan is coming. A sword and sandals epic it will be. I think it is a turning point to see if these kind of movies can still work. Also, you know the Odyssey is going to still work. Uh, also, you know, the Odyssey is going to be somebody's gladiator right.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:Someone who's 10 years old is going to get sat down by their dad in the next, you know, 18 months and they're going to put on the Odyssey and it'll be really interesting to see how Christopher Nolan does it. Um, you know, I hope. I hope he's shooting for Gladiator and not Gladiator 2, which I'm guessing he is, because he is such a purist.
Speaker 1:But we'll see, we will fucking see what else is on that list of Wicker Park DVDs.
Speaker 3:Swim Fan. Swim Fan's pretty good the Glass.
Speaker 1:House you ever see.
Speaker 3:That one with Levy Sobieski, that's a good one. Yes, the glass house, oh gosh swim swim fans right there with it what's the one with uh, uh, fucking matt dylan and wild things? Yes, wild is on that list.
Speaker 1:It has to be up there.
Speaker 3:This is a that's an episode For Patreon. Patreon only First date steamy, hot sex movies.
Speaker 1:When you're trying. Yeah, we'll just end the conversation there.
Speaker 3:The next film on our list, number nine, just a totally natural transition into katherine bigelow's uh, best picture winner katherine bigelow wins best picture for the or her film wins best picture for the hurt locker uh, again, at 10.66. It won six academy awards as opposed to five and four for the last two movies. Hurt locker, a movie I think I've only returned to once. However, I believe I own a dvd of it. Uh, probably up for a rewatch. You know, I I can't remember where I ranked this.
Speaker 1:I wanted to I wanted to get back around spot yeah, I wanted to get back around to this one too. Um, you and erica both had it at 10. I had it at 12. One that I remember very fondly, but that has been probably close to like 10 years since I've seen it, or however long this movie came out. I don't know what year this one in, but I don't think I've seen it since 2010, because it beat Avatar.
Speaker 3:That was the big story around it that she beat.
Speaker 1:James Cameron Wouldn't have been 2010 because that was Social Network.
Speaker 3:But around that time, Excuse me 2009.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know she beat Cameron for director. That's correct. So yeah, it's been over 10 years since I've seen this movie. But so intense, such a good movie. Renner's on fire in this film yeah.
Speaker 3:Renner, before we know who Renner really is, and like Anthony Mackie, again, like showing up Both those guys doing stuff before, interesting stuff, before they get swallowed by the marvel machine. Um, but yeah, intense. You know the realism of it. It's a, it's a military movie, but like in a different vein of military, which I, you know, I find really, really interesting, it's not? Well, like a military like jarhead, where we're out shooting people, right? No?
Speaker 1:and it's not like a saving private ryan, where it's where, um, you know, it's like men on a mission, like one single mission type of film. What I always ask for in any movie that I'm watching, but especially one that's like quote unquote, going for something. Is it like I want to? I want to learn something, or I want to feel like I'm being like kind of taught or let into a world that I don't know anything about, and that's exactly what this film does.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And I think that's what makes it so engaging.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, I really liked this movie when it came out, but another movie I haven't watched in quite a while. But I like Catherine Bigelow, I loved Zero Dark Thirty.
Speaker 1:Yes Again.
Speaker 3:I think Zero Dark Thirty. I think Zero Dark Thirty, stronger film.
Speaker 1:Stronger film. I know that some of it is aged poorly as far as historical accuracies and some of the liberties that the filmmaking process took with Zero Dark Thirty. But what Bigelow did with Hurt Locker and Zero Dark Thirty like put that on a double bill and I will be seated for both those films.
Speaker 2:I agree, let's see. So at number eight we have Slumdog Millionaire another 10.66 collective for the three of us.
Speaker 1:But this movie won eight Oscars.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they came out probably the sweetest movie left on this list right um sweetest movie.
Speaker 1:I don't know, depends on how you feel about number one as being a sweet film, um, but this movie re-watched it yesterday is it is sweet, it has a happy ending, but it's extremely dangerous. This entire film is a. It's a thriller and I don't I don't necessarily want to say that it is, you know, cribbing from something like city of god, even though I do think that the film style is. But danny boyle is such a he's such an auteur like I cannot wait for 28 years later to come out so we can do a huge danny boyle episode because he is such an interesting director.
Speaker 3:He takes risks and he's a great. I don't know, I don't think he edits his films, but the way he lets his films be edited, uh, yeah, he is. He is a real unique uh builder of a film.
Speaker 1:And now you can say that this film also revolves around a gimmick, and I wouldn't argue with that, but with the game show who wants to be a millionaire centered at the core of this film. And then every single question leading to a flashback vignette of how the dev patel character knows the answer from lived experience. It is repetitive, but the way that it's experimental.
Speaker 1:It's experimental in the way that it's presented, the way that it's presented, the way that it's edited, the way that it's scored, the the performances that the young child actors are amazing in this movie. It's so good at like I had not watched this movie in over a decade and I put this in my letterbox review. I could not believe how nostalgic I was for certain moments that I just like knew when they were coming. I was like, oh, this is the scene where that's about to happen. Or like even when they're on the game show and the guy who is in like the Regis Philman role, who is the host of the show even him just saying who wants to be a millionaire is so iconic, like that line reading is so good.
Speaker 3:I had a blast rewatching this movie also, uh, frida pinto, step on me please I, I can't with the step on me, I yeah hey, at the same time, this is when so many young women and men around the world, dev Patel, found out about Dev Patel. One of the most handsome men of all time.
Speaker 2:He is truly just a stunning human being.
Speaker 3:Really Honestly and one of my biggest Hollywood crushes. Like the facial structure is unbelievable.
Speaker 2:And he's tall, he's got a great voice. And he's British.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Danny discovered him. On on that he's going to a place I mean, did you see monkey?
Speaker 1:monkey man no, but but slumdog is that like I don't want to just leave without really recognizing very, very slumdog millionaire is such a good movie it's really good and it is a really sweet movie.
Speaker 2:I do agree with that.
Speaker 1:I did, you know the end, the end credit scene, when we're doing like the bollywood jolly ho with the subway and everything. I'm just like can we end all movies like this, please? Yeah, yeah, I would love to see that at the end of return of the king. Yeah, yeah, I would love to see that at the end of Return of the King, just Aragorn and the boys.
Speaker 3:I mean, we did, we did eight other endings. Might as well throw that in there, let's see.
Speaker 1:Is it me? Yeah, yes, yes, it is you. Oh, great, I get to talk about number seven, with a collective rating between us of 8.66. The film Spotlight. Spotlight is an incredibly impactful, important movie, exact kind of film that should win best picture, if for no other reason than to once again provide scope and awareness to a situation that's happening in both our political and societal uh you know climate that that we're all sharing and living in, and so what this movie does as far as uncovering the incredibly upsetting transgressions of the catholic church in the boston area is, it's so well done. The performances in this are really, really good, an incredible ensemble cast in a movie that it's odd to call it rewatchable because it is so heavy. But we've talked about this for years, max, as far as, like you can fire up spotlight in a way that doesn't make sense.
Speaker 3:Totally, it is. You know, journalism movies, I think for some reason are just incredibly compelling, and especially when they're hard hit, hard hitting, and they're made on this level. I mean this movie gets you know, uh, compared to all the president's men, right, Like it is kind of our generation, all the president's men, like it is the conspiracy of it, all the, the group that is assembled, the performances are amazing, Even even if Mark Ruffalo goes, goes beyond the fucking.
Speaker 1:I felt like Mark Ruffalo, the center field wall running, running back to the house to shower from pickleball before you guys got here. So that I didn't look like Mark Ruffalo running or riding his bike to the office, whatever he's doing he's, he's, he's incredible.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I don't know, I don't know. I love that what you said there, that it is like it is utterly rewatchable, but indescribably for the reason why? Like you know, because it is utterly rewatchable, but indescribably for the reason why like you know, cause it is a dark movie.
Speaker 3:It is an extremely dark, dour, sad movie but, man, it is expertly made, um, and expertly acted and and and and again I there's something about like the the good, hard hitting, honest journalism movie that I think really, really, when it's done well yeah uh, can, can go down I'm glad we don't get movies like this all that often yeah, I think that's also kind of something that, and you know, I I think there's a run of those movies after spotlight you know something like the post or bombshell or you know people do try to to cling on to it, but you know we're not talking about those movies. So spotlight is is one of the better like again, adult dramas that it centered in real life, like it's just a, it's just a well-crafted movie.
Speaker 2:This is one of those movies that I had to kind of grow to appreciate because I was very disappointed. This was probably one of my most disappointed years that I had been at the Oscars because it went up against Mad Max, fury Road, which cleared awards that year, and the Revenant and two movies that I just absolutely believed would like were deserving of that win. And then I remember watching I lived in LA at the time that when Spotlight won it was just such an upset and and I didn't know what I mean, people were like what is this movie? Like, what is what is spotlight? And and I do, I I do agree now like that it's I. I think it's an amazing movie, it's really important, it's great, it's got amazing acting.
Speaker 2:But I just at at the time, I mean it was such an uproar that this movie won and I mean, and if you, if you, I'm like looking at it right now, just like the awards, later the the nominees, and I'm like it's, I don't know, it's crazy. I think the revenant could have easily taken that mad max, but I am biased on mad max.
Speaker 3:But it is. It is really interesting to think about Like, yeah, if, if we had if we ever do like a, an episode where we like pick the best movie from each year, right, like does Mad Max? I think Mad Max probably beats spotlight Maybe as far as like legacy and and like yeah, you like yeah you know uh importance to to the art of cinema, sure.
Speaker 1:Cause.
Speaker 3:Mad Max is is insane.
Speaker 1:It's a game changer.
Speaker 3:It is. It's a total game changer. But I don't know if there's something about spotlight and again I think it does. Again it demands rewatches. That like it just builds every time.
Speaker 1:The importance of the film is undeniable. Yeah, so happy to see it on this list and comfortably inside the top 10.
Speaker 3:Yeah, On to our number six. Yeah, I feel bad about this. Yeah, this, this is tough. Listen. The top six I feel like almost anything could be at number one, right, but with an average rating of 6.33, with four awards won at the Academy Awards, 2019's Parasite comes in at number six. The floor is yours, erica. Four awards won at the Academy Awards 2019's Parasite comes in at number six.
Speaker 1:The floor is yours, erica, where?
Speaker 3:was this for?
Speaker 1:Erica, 14. 14. I had it at two, you had it at three.
Speaker 2:I'm really losing friends over here Jeez Alex is mad at me today, I okay.
Speaker 1:I just want to give you a platform to speak your truth.
Speaker 2:I don't understand. This is one of those movies that, like, I don't I'm missing something. Personally, I don't know why I don't know why I don't like this movie. It's not that I don't. It's not that I don't know why. I don't know why I don't like this movie. It's not that I don't. It's not that I don't like it, it's just that I don't understand why people love it so much. I think it's an amazing. I think it's beautiful, I think it's a great movie. I don't get it, though. Like I don't really, I think maybe, like I'm trying to wonder, like at the time, I feel like, for whatever reason, somebody was telling me that this was a horror movie, so I expected horror.
Speaker 1:It dips its toe. I was going to say I wouldn't say it's not.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I just think I had I don't know, I didn't see it in theaters. I kind of missed that mark, but there's so much. Everyone collectively agrees that this movie is incredible. I, I don't know why, I don't like think that, I don't know why. I just it's not my cup of tea, it's just. This is purely. This is like when I made my list, this is really just like personal taste, like what I am watching or what I the kind of movies I gravitate towards. And this was a movie like I it, I don't know, it just didn't do it for me and I and I tried to re-watch it. Um, actually, yesterday I was just kind of like skimming through and I'm like, okay, like trying to see it in a different light, see like what my friends say about it, and I just I don't know, it just doesn't, and I just I don't know, it just doesn't do it for me.
Speaker 1:I don't know why I mean no, you did the assignment. You did the assignment. You understood the assignment and you completed the assignment. Um, yeah, I just. I'm surprised to hear that, though, because I do feel like this this is a thriller that wins best picture that has touches of.
Speaker 1:there's, there's horror elements to this. There are certainly some horrifying displays of of humanity and the way that, you know, class warfare is very secretly and subtly waged between different people. And and I just think that, like what bong joon-ho did with this film was was so needed at the time that the oscars were trying to go younger, go more international and be more diverse in their picks, because this was the year where a lot of folks thought 1917 was going to win, which which is very classic old Hollywood, you know. Sam Mendes does a lot of cool things in that movie and it's an interesting story, but it would have been the old guard right Once upon a time in Hollywood, which is a movie about making movies, which we know the Oscars loves to be, you know, self masturbatory about, has a great opportunity to also win Best Picture this year, and then what the Academy actually does is award the movie that I think will live on as far as being, I think, for this entire century, like a consensus top 10 Best Picture winners.
Speaker 2:And let me just say something like and this is so not any hit towards like foreign films, but this is a personal struggle I have is that I struggle really, and like having adhd when you have subtitles and an amazing story. I'm I'm such a visual learner that I really rely on just being able to hear the story, and so I'm trying to follow.
Speaker 1:Focus on the center of the screen.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and, like you know, one of my all time favorite movies, pan's Labyrinth, is obviously in subtitles. I've seen it though enough times, I know it's going on, I don't even have to pay attention anymore. But that's a movie that I had to like, really work to appreciate it. Because of that it's in a foreign language. Movies like this too I just I struggle with. It takes me out of the movie. You know, and and I'm not, I feel like I always say that people are like people. You just don't like foreign films, and I'm like that is so not true that I don't naturally put that on, because I I need to pay attention to, like what they're saying. But then I'm not watching like the story. It just it really takes me out of it and I think, and I I think, if anything, if I understand why I don't appreciate this movie more, is because of that, you know it's unfortunate it is.
Speaker 3:It is a. It is a skill that you have to practice at watching international films and being able to it is.
Speaker 3:It is really hard and I used to be in that same boat, like where international films just didn't. I think City of God might have been the first one that really unlocked, like oh there is cinema outside of England, Like you, just you really do have to lock in and like give yourself over, so that is a really hard thing to do. Um, I love this movie cause I just think it's a. It's an amazing blend of of dark comedy, of satirical, like class warfare thriller. It does have a little bit of horror.
Speaker 1:It's a con film too. Yeah, like it is all centered around one giant con it's.
Speaker 3:it's just such a a crazy a route a combination of of all these different kinds of genres pumped into one story that also, like, centers around, like just a family, you know, a family unit, unit that uh two family units, right, yeah, and and you know, the, the family that's pulling the con is just extremely charming and you, you get on their side, even though, like, they are those people, yeah, they are kind of the villain, yeah, or one of the villains right, I think everyone's a villain in this film. Um, yeah, I just think it's. I, I really think it's and I, I think it's awesome that this is the film that announced bon bon juho to to the world wide audience right where, where, even like something like snow piercer, which is an English speaking film for the most part, and like Hollywood actors.
Speaker 3:Chris Evans, tilda Swinton, tilda Swinton, john Hurt. Like action movie, science fiction. You know the fact that this film that feels a lot smaller and more contained is, is, is the, is is the win, the best picture winner I and yeah, and, and again. I also think that 2019 year was kind of the. You know the turning point of like oh, we are going to do things different at the Oscars.
Speaker 1:It's the last great year of cinema that we've had.
Speaker 3:Well, according to Quentin Tarantino, it's the last. It's when the movies died really he's. He's recently come out and said 2019 was the last year that real movies were made I mean based off what we've gotten the last five years.
Speaker 1:I can't argue with that. No, can't argue with that I I mean what a? Night for bong, though. This night too international feature best picture, best director, and I mean it won four. So what else would it have been?
Speaker 3:a screenplay had to have won an international oh so, international screenplay pitcher director yeah, huge huge. Also, I think, one of the only films ever to win international and best picture. That's fantastic.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's great so all right um.
Speaker 2:So at number five we have oppenheimer, with a collective score of 6.33 um same as parasite, but wins more total oscars yeah I had this at number six for me, but this is one of the movies on this list that I feel like really deserves the title of best picture. I think of Oppenheimer as like such a production. It's just it had me locked in from the jump. I don't know. I really enjoyed Oppenheimer. I think I appreciate everything that went into making this movie.
Speaker 3:I've always said that I think this is Christopher Nolan at his best, like this is. It is grand, yet we're not fucking, you know, flying through space or messing with time, or I mean we mess with time a little bit, I guess, uh, as far as like jumping around in time, but um yeah I don't know, it's just. It doesn't feel like the movie's trick though yeah, yeah, it doesn't feel like a gimmick, um, and you know, alex, and I saw this, I was gonna bring this up out on our road trip.
Speaker 1:we have such a weird relationship to this film and the film that I sometimes think it should have lost to Right and Barbie, right, right For Barb and Heimer.
Speaker 3:Alex and I were on the road during our ETI road trip where we were driving down the coast, uh to visit theaters and and again.
Speaker 3:Like being on the road and going to different theaters and seeing the crowds and seeing the excitement around both of those movies barbie and probably more for barbie to be honest, let's, let's be honest there were way more people dressed in pink than there were in fucking gray suits, yeah, but you know the barber heimer barben, heimer of it all um, I think just really really pushes this into another echelon and and again like a genre guy, like christopher nolan doing it is oscar baity in the way that, like it is a a big again about a great man. Yeah, uh, american story biopic no women he's got a wife problem, that chris guy's got a wife problem, we all know um. But yeah, I don't know.
Speaker 1:They again kind of like spotlight, utterly like rewatchable, and I don't know why really so I actually I have not returned to it since our road trip, but that's also because and I went, saw a premiere up in seattle and then, I think, three times on the road together with you, so seeing it in all different types of theaters too right, I can remember one of the movie theaters that we saw it in I think that was in modesto was a screen no bigger than the projector that I have downstairs. Basically, yeah, um, and so the way you, the way you interact with this movie, has a lot like I don't even know if I would want to watch it at home, really, because I think that has a lot to say about how you end up feeling about the film, like if you can experience it in IMAX or at least like in Dolby or on one of these great screens with a great sound system, and so some of those moments there, um, before like the second hour of the film starts, can really hit. I think that's great. It's comfortably inside my top 10 as well.
Speaker 1:I had it at eight overall. I think it's a. It's a good, not great, best picture winner. It feels and again the the Barbenheimer aspect of it all this feels like when movies started to come back and I mean we're not like you know, that's not like a here. You hear you like all points.
Speaker 3:bulletin or anything like that.
Speaker 1:Like this was a huge moment for movie theaters and and just for Hollywood productions to come back and there was some hope that you know, barbie and Oppenheimer both being nominated for a ton of awards at the Oscars two years ago would have been like a big moment, or I guess just last year would have been a big moment for viewership and get people back re-engaged. We didn't necessarily see that happen, so it's too bad, because the moment over the summer was certainly monumental and and so I, I, I have fond memories of Oppenheimer. I do think that it is just a lot of men in well-tailored suits talking in rooms and one of my biggest complaints is that within the first like 45 minutes of the movie, you feel like you've watched the 15 most important scenes that you're going to see in the film and then you realize that you still have like two hours left of your runtime. You know where. It's just like when we're when we're going to school, we're going to England, we're popping all around, we're meeting Einstein, we're doing all these different things and it's just like I I really appreciate Nolan's vision and everything that he tried to do, while keeping it on a smaller scale as best as he could, but at the same time I still just feel like he kind of couldn't get out of his own way with this movie a little bit, and so that's why I just have it a little bit lower than you guys.
Speaker 1:Okay, we're up to the Mount Rushmore the top four. I don't think that this is a better movie than parasite. I'd put it somewhere around oppenheimer. I'm kind of looking at the other movies that came before it here on the list, but I'm really happy to see argo in in the top four here, because argo is a movie that I've never had a bad time with. It's a thriller, it's a spy film, it's a heist movie. It's a heist movie. It's a movie about movies. It's a movie about movies it's so good.
Speaker 2:It's directed by ben affleck like I.
Speaker 1:I'm gonna re-watch this tonight. Couldn't find I. I could not find one bad thing. It's got scoot mcnerry, it's got period the end, like I could not find one bad thing to say about, about this movie even if I tried.
Speaker 2:It's so good, it's so fun and, um, yeah, like it, it's got so many great elements to it. It's just like a really. I mean it's it. It's got the like the thriller, like like heist government, like genre to it, I guess, and but then there's, like you know, there's really high stakes and there's these like human beings lives on the, on the line and and it's, it's a. It's an amazing film and it's fun and it's like I mean it's obviously kind of heavy too, but, um, yeah, I don't have anything bad to say about argo I.
Speaker 3:I think this feels the most like hollywoodish movie. Uh, maybe it feels like a 70s film yeah, right like it is, it is such a callback, uh, to an earlier age of hollywood.
Speaker 1:Um yeah, I don't know, it's like easy breezy but also I remember the first time watching this but like tense when they're in the bazaar, yeah, and, and they're out on the streets and they're being, you know, interrogated, and they're trying to go out and and develop this like cover for for a lot of the people who have been held hostage well, not necessarily held hostage, but stuck there. Um, I, I can remember, like thinking, oh, my heart rate is up right now, like, and not knowing the story almost kind of helps, because I'm like I don't know who's safe and who's not. I don't know if everyone makes it out alive. I'm not sure. Argo's. Argo's a great time, yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah. It's just a fun watch, yeah Uh, and you don't get that a lot at that. The Oscars, right, yeah Um, for number three, coming in with a rating of 4.66, which tied with the number two. However, it only won four uh, academy awards. One of my favorite movies of all time no Country for Old Men Again, we kind of talked about this at the top of the show. What a year 2007 was. Is this the best year of 2007? Or?
Speaker 1:of the 2000s.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I mean, you got to ask me on a certain day, right?
Speaker 1:Oh, is this the best film of 2007? Yeah, sometimes it's this.
Speaker 3:Sometimes it's, there Will Be Blood. You know American Gangster Atonement. We've talked about Just a baner of a year. This is, you know, the Coen brothers kind of going back to their roots with something like Fargo or blood, simple blood simple, uh, much more serious than what they were kind of known for up to that point. It gives us one of the most iconic villains of all time. It is a straight up chase movie. Um, very simple, minimal dialogue, little to no score.
Speaker 1:Highly debated. Highly debated, if there's actual score in there.
Speaker 3:I've seen this movie a million times. Most recently I went I think it was just last March for Kaylee's birthday. We went to a screening of this in Seattle while a DJ mixtaped Quentin tarantino soundtracks to it. Really interesting um, not my favorite watch of all time with it, but like I was gonna say they didn't add that feature to the criterion release, just like I don't know, a movie that I think is very much celebrated. Uh yeah, I don't know. I love this film. It's just a baner of a thriller.
Speaker 2:I watched this for the first time this past weekend actually she slid into her top ten. I mean, so this has been on my watch list.
Speaker 1:See, old things can be good.
Speaker 2:Well, I didn't say that I loved it.
Speaker 3:It's no Chicago.
Speaker 2:God, you guys Bullies today. I don't want to do these daytime recordings anymore.
Speaker 1:You guys have too much energy.
Speaker 2:Okay, so I watched this for the first time. This has been on my watch list forever. I've always meant to turn turn this on. I've heard incredible things and I'm not saying that I disliked it. I just think I had much higher expectations. I wanted it to be more exciting. Um, I think I really loved javier bardem's character, obviously. Um, he's super creepy. Just played that role so well. I really love Josh Brolin. But yeah, I think, because of all of like the wide spread, like phenomenon of this movie like everyone is, you know ranks is really really high on film lists I had a lot higher expectations.
Speaker 2:I wanted it to be a little bit more like than it was, because it is kind of this, like you know this, there's not really like much of a score to it. I think maybe with more music it would have been a little bit more exciting to me. I just had I wanted it to be more excited. I wanted it to feel more exciting because I loved the premise of it. I think visually it was really fun to watch. So I just don't know that I'll rewatch it. To be totally honest, it's one of those movies like I can. I see why people really love it. I see why, like film, people really love it too. But as far as like, uh, like action goes, I wanted, I wanted more.
Speaker 1:I don't know you know what I've always thought would be interesting, and it's I didn't really think of bringing this up until you just mentioned that quentin tarantino experience with some of his music. I've always thought that, because there's a lot of driving in this movie and going from like location to location, what would this movie sound like with a Bernard Herman type score, like if you could think of the score from psycho, when Josh Brolin is maybe just driving around and it's like, would that work?
Speaker 1:Like dun dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, dun, yeah, yeah I don't know does that turn it into too much of like a caper almost, because, like I love the minimalist approach to this movie. I think it works so well. It fits the desolation of the setting there in texas we always say the american southwest is so it lends itself so nicely to to cinematography, to photography, to, to setting your film there. So I love that for it. I, I my one. The one thing I've always bumped on with this movie and I still had a top five here, um, on my list but the one thing I've always bumped on is that I always have wanted to see the motel shootout at the end and what happens there. And people love the Tommy Lee Jones monologue at the end. But what I've always thought is that this movie kind of goes out with a little bit of a whimper. Yeah, which is just unfortunate, because I, I, I do get my thrills from everything that happens up until then.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah and I think, yeah, I think that's a great, great bump to have, right, like the fact that you don't see the death of of the brolin character is.
Speaker 2:It's upsetting yeah, I was so confused. I literally was like I felt I'm like, did I miss something? Like he's dead, like when did that happen? You know, that was strange and it took me out of it a little bit.
Speaker 1:It's very Coen Brothers ask to do something like that Totally, but I mean it's not like they just get a pass and everything. They do make sense. Like you know, they're Joel and Ethan. All due respect.
Speaker 2:But like would have been a cool scene to see. I feel like Happy to see it. At number three, Absolutely Number two, we have Lord of the Rings, Return of the King, Also at 4.66, but this has 11 Oscar wins 11 for 11 that year. Is this your guys' favorite Lord of the Rings movie?
Speaker 1:No.
Speaker 2:No, okay.
Speaker 1:But it's my favorite Best Picture winner. Max and I both had this at number one. Yeah, no, okay, but it's my favorite best picture winner.
Speaker 3:Max and I both had this at number one. Yeah, it is. I mean, it's hard because, lord of the Rings, you know, I often think of those three movies as just one big long movie, right Like. It is such a cohesive trilogy, something that I don't know if we'll ever, ever, ever, ever experience again. Yeah, and return of the king not until smile three comes up return of the king has its problems, right, like the 15 endings.
Speaker 3:Yeah, is something that is always joked about. Um, you know a lot of people hold helms deep battle the helms Deep battle, higher than Minas Tirith battle. You do start to feel a little bit of the CGI heaviness that weighs. Maybe Return of the King down compared to the first two Lord of the Rings movies, which are way more practical. But again, just like the fact that this is a pretty much an independent film on this level Now granted by Return of the King. Maybe not, but like the series.
Speaker 1:But I mean they were all shot sequentially in New Zealand at the same time, with the same right and crew Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and Peter Jackson, an independent film.
Speaker 1:They did not let us forget that on this night, the early, stages of 2004. It's very true we want to thank everyone in news and I'm pretty sure by the time that you know like costume got up there to accept their award.
Speaker 3:They're like well, there's no one left to thank new zealand yeah, um yeah, pierre jackson, just one of my all-time favorites, uh, and lord of the rings is just like it's it's our star wars man. It's like it is as far as like genre, fantasy, science fiction, whatever you want to call it like it is just the the top of the heap of of what you shoot for. Uh, if you go into that kind of field, um, I don't know, it's hard too because, as we just said, it's not our favorite Lord of the Rings movie, but it is the movie that got recognized.
Speaker 1:Yeah Well, a beautiful mind had to beat fellowship, so unfortunately we can't be celebrating the fellowship.
Speaker 3:Well, Jennifer Connelly running out in that rain, we don't have there is live Tyler. I digress.
Speaker 1:Um, to me, this is me putting LOTR Return of the King number one in Parasite two is the duality of what the Oscars can do when they are achieving, I think, their ultimate goal and purpose, because what what Parasite does by winning Best Picture is we honor international original cinema original movie making.
Speaker 1:That's an original script written by Bong Joon-ho and it's so creative and so great. And then what Return of the King does is honor blockbuster movie making while also recognizing franchise, ip, pop culture in a larger spectrum and its impact on society. And I think these are the best, two of the best examples of the oscars finally getting it right and now you can obviously make the case, and so many different movie franchises. It's like it's become um, like an adjective, like is something going to get return of the king, like we're having this conversation with with denny villeneuve and dune right now, because dune 2 is unfortunately getting blanked this year at the academy awards, aside from perhaps a few undercard wins, because I think there is some sort of speculation that maybe dune three will be when we can just give it the return of the King treatment. I don't think I I don't see that happening. You don't see that happening. But there is just that like this changed things forever going forward. As far as, what do you do when you have a franchise that is on the level of Academy awards recognition and I mean we can see by 11 wins, tied for I think the most ever is that they just they sold the farm and just said here you go, it's your night.
Speaker 1:Peter Jackson and and hot and all you hobbits and I, I love this movie, I, and I'm right there with you, like I've within, within, I would say I. I think probably during the pandemic is when I fully converted into like, if I'm gonna re-watch any of these movies, it's got to be the extended editions, it's got to be all through and it's impossible to watch just one. So I was talking to erica about this too, where it's just like, if you are gonna go back and give these movies another try, or if you are going to come to them like you need an, you don't need a day, you need an entire weekend, because it's like 14 hours of your life that you have to dedicate to it. Um, but it's great. I mean we. You want to talk about another movie. That makes me cry. Every single time you bow to no one well, what?
Speaker 3:where was it on your list, erica?
Speaker 2:I feel bad. I have it at 12. I feel bad. It's lower.
Speaker 3:I'm just not what's your relationship with Lord of the Rings?
Speaker 2:I don't really have much of a relationship with Lord of the Rings. I grew up like Harry Potter is my Lord of the Rings you know, and.
Speaker 3:I'm so sorry for your loss. You gave her the disappointed dad.
Speaker 1:I wish we had video for that.
Speaker 2:Curled the lips in yeah, I you know like this is just like a really open palm, like finger point. I hate to always bring like the whole girl versus boy thing into this, but I'm not kidding. Like my best friend is obsessed with Lord of the Rings, that's her shit.
Speaker 1:Like that's what she grew up with. Yeah, we see you. We see you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but it's like I was introduced to Harry Potter first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you know.
Speaker 2:I didn't have parents growing up who were big movie lovers. You know they didn't introduce me to Star Wars. They didn't read Lord of the Rings Like they're not like fantasy lovers.
Speaker 3:You know it really does come down to that.
Speaker 2:It really is our parents' fault.
Speaker 3:Well, I mean Any kind of taste we have.
Speaker 2:I really think that's true. It's, like you know, I didn't grow up with these in my household but I do, like you know, I came to them because of friends and like the fairies and like the high fantasy stuff, even though I really love fantasy and I think that I would really love to read the books now as an adult, just because I read a lot and I really I read a lot of fantasy.
Speaker 3:But they're like textbooks.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I know, tell you, no, I know they are tough reads yeah, and I love lord of the rings, I love the first one I love, even like the hobbit too, like they're. Just because those are movies like they're like cozy to me, you know, and I think I just don't really reach for the rest, even though they're so epic and I, I know I would let, I, I know I do like them, you know.
Speaker 2:But it's just that like they're not lord of the rings is just never. I always get shit for it. Everybody like is always like you, don't you? Of all people don't like lord of the rings, but I'm like. I am a harry potter fan till I die. That's just I've always had. Yeah, so I do feel bad, though, because I agree like I, I love to see something like this win best picture. It's kind of amazing totally all right.
Speaker 1:Well, that brings us to our number one, and coincidentally enough, this was number four for all of us, but because of the law of averages, that gives it a four overall ranking which narrowly beats out. Lord of the rings and no country for old men. And it's moonlight. This is, like I want to say, the third or fourth bracket type ranking episode exercise that we've done, where Moonlight has come out at the top of it.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the A24 bracket A24 bracket. Did it win the Best Picture nominee bracket?
Speaker 1:I'm pretty sure it won the Best Picture nominee bracket. And once again and we mentioned, you know, we did the Florida Hall of Fame episode, which I think we all consensus there was, like it's one or two. And now here we are again, so kind of what more can can be said about it. I I mean speaking about that night in oscars history as far as its its win for best pitcher is, of course, controversial and exciting and thrilling and an amazing moment of triumph for everybody involved, with moonlight and heartbreaking for the folks over at La La Land. However, I think, well-deserved, I think the right film won that year.
Speaker 1:You look at the imprint that something like this has had on the culture, not only for someone like Barry Jenkins' career, but independent cinema, the distribution slash, production company of a24. It's a phenomenal, phenomenal film about, about love, about finding love, losing love, self-discovery. It's a great coming of age film, told in three chapters. We love when a movie does time jumps like that. Um, yeah, I have no problems. I like once again returning the king, number one in my heart, I think, moonlight, um, comfortably in the top five and I have no problem seeing it here at the top of the list yeah, uh, it is.
Speaker 3:Uh, you know I say this all the time. We're not all the time, but it's a movie taught in film school like this is one that you, you say it all the time now, yeah, I do say it all the time. Now, yeah, I do say it all the time. But, uh, this is probably the most like recent release that is, we watched front to back in film school incredible cinematography cinematography.
Speaker 3:It's, you know, I I wrote, uh, a paper on it about the themes. I forgot to bring that paper with me today, or else I would read it back to you. But yeah, it's just a. It is a monumental independent film that is just a complete human story. Yeah, that is why, you know, a lot of people go into filmmaking and like this is.
Speaker 3:This is like filmmaking used for for good right. Like we. You know, lord of the rings is really good too, and like I love it very much. But like this is what the art form, I think, aspires to.
Speaker 2:That's what it's like yeah, I love this movie. It's beautiful, it's right up my alley. It's like it is a human movie. You know, it's. It's kind of impossible not to to like this, because it's just it's gorgeous to look at but also just extremely like heart-wrenching. I my only critique of this is I just wish we had more of maher shalali. Um, I would have loved to see like more of one. You know, like his character is so impactful. Um, but yeah, I watched, I re-watched this yesterday and I just I cry every time. It's. It's a really great movie. Um, yeah, all right Quick question.
Speaker 1:Yeah. I have one too, okay, I wonder if it's the same.
Speaker 3:It might be If you had to pick a 25th movie.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:From this year? Yeah, and where would you put it and where do you put it? Is that?
Speaker 1:your question, mind meld, baby. Hello. So like out of the nominees out of the nominees erica and I were kind of talking about this before we went on the mic. I'm at the point right now where I want the best picture winner from this past year of film to be a nora I. I would love for it to be the substance. That's not going to happen. I think the substance will end up being the movie that I probably return to the most. But when I and especially because this exercise is so fresh in my mind what do I think this?
Speaker 3:list needs.
Speaker 1:What does this list need Exactly? What will stand the test of time? And I think a film like a Nora goes in right around spotlight slumdog millionaire in the hurt locker at the back half of the top 10.
Speaker 3:I think I, yeah, should I say what I want or what I think is going to happen right now? I think the brutalist is going to win best picture. Okay, I don't necessarily want the brutalist to win best picture, but I think it will win and I think it goes in maybe right around like coda chicago departed interesting. Right in the middle of things and we look back and we you know we get it wrong this year.
Speaker 1:If it's a Nora, where do you put a Nora?
Speaker 3:If it's a Nora, I would. Yeah, I think I think. The nine, 10, eight spot yeah, I think it's right around there.
Speaker 2:I have a similar opinion. I think that, like this is such a hard year because there's obviously movies in this category in the Best Picture nominations that I really loved and I I know that they're not going to win, but of course I would like selfishly want them to win. But I do also think that the Brutalist will win and that's fine with me. You know, I haven't seen the Brutalist and I'm not gonna lie, I don't think I'm going to.
Speaker 2:I just I'm kind of at this point yeah, it's so long and yeah, it's a time commitment, and unless somebody is like you cannot miss this movie, you have to like take the time and watch it, then I, of course, then I will. But I'm just to this point, like, if I know I'm not, this is just not my cup of tea, why watch it? You know, I don't no one's paying me to do that, you know. But, um, I do think the brutalist will win and I do agree, like in your placement as well, um, kind of like what, like the middle ground, I guess um, you know what, now that I'm I'm staring at it even longer.
Speaker 2:I actually think like a beautiful mind million dollar, baby, everything everywhere all at once that's where the brutalist would slide even further down okay wow, um, I think, if I want, if I obviously got what I wanted, I would love to see like a Nora or the substance win best picture. Obviously, I think I would pick the substance over Nora.
Speaker 3:If the substance won, where does that get slotted? That would be absolutely amazing.
Speaker 2:It would be crazy. I mean I agree, um, that would be, it would be absolutely. It would be crazy. I mean I agree.
Speaker 1:I just on this week's episode of people are saying what if? What if it gets best?
Speaker 3:director I'm telling you, I it's like the only film that doesn't have dirt about it.
Speaker 1:Right, right, right, that people aren't attacking corley's winning left and right at some of these, like undercards, yeah, like off broadway award shows that would be insane.
Speaker 2:I mean, if it won I would be absolutely jaw on the floor, shocked, um. But yeah, as far as ranking goes, god, I don't know, help me out with that, because that is hard, like it's so different from all of these movies on here I think the substance and anora would hold the same space.
Speaker 1:For me they would both be eight, nine.
Speaker 3:Ten area I could see.
Speaker 1:I don't think as high as five or six for you. Yeah, I don't think I could put it above like slumdog or Spotlight, not after just revisiting Slumdog, yeah.
Speaker 2:I mean, if we're talking about, like, personal ranking, I mean it's definitely in my Does it take Chicago?
Speaker 3:No, by storm.
Speaker 2:No, but it's definitely top four for me. The substance, I think. But that's because you know.
Speaker 3:Are you a? Are you Bridget Jones? That's a new movie. No, no, no, no, no, no so you're not renee head.
Speaker 2:No, and I feel bad saying that, because she's an angel. I love her, but no, not at all.
Speaker 1:No sorry, renee, I know she, I have found her you once I've found her also hard to watch and everything except jerry mcguire yeah, I'm not.
Speaker 2:I I'm not gonna lie. I've not seen a whole lot of her movies I just she's not somebody I normally gravitate towards.
Speaker 1:She's not why I love chicago, though you know, yeah, okay, gonna have to call chicago svu to pick renee zellweger's corpse up off the floor in here today. God, okay. Any any other final thoughts on where a 2025 pick might slide in or the success of this exercise? How do you?
Speaker 3:feel? Do you think that these 24 movies? If we were to do like 99 to the. You know the past 24 years. If we do those movies, how do you think those movies stack up against these movies?
Speaker 1:Wait, take the final quarter of the 20th century, so like 75 to 1999. Yeah, and pit them against the first quarter of the 21st century. Mm-hmm, them against, against the first quarter of the 21st century.
Speaker 1:I am less familiar with your best pitcher winners from the 80s than I probably am any other decade, and so without having those winners in front of me right now, it would be hard to say, however, and I know the 90s had some lows and some real like we got it wrong kind of moments, but the stuff in the 70s and some of the stuff that that we did get right in the 90s is really good. So I don't know that I have a feeling that, like on that list if it's right, you know, 25, probably 12 through 25 looks very similar to what we have here, but the real question is, does that top end be this top end Exactly? What do you think?
Speaker 3:I don't know. I think you're right the the back half of the like the 70s looking at I was looking at like a long list of like all best picture winners and like literally like 70 to 79 are some of like the 10 greatest films, like just unbelievable stuff. So only to get half of that decade.
Speaker 1:That's tough Because you're missing, like the Godfather, by doing the back half and Godfather 2.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and then yeah. Having to deal with the 80s and what happens like throughout the 90s, I do think this list would end up getting stronger Interesting.
Speaker 2:Yeah, it's hard to say. I'm not familiar with the best picture winners, especially the 70s or the 80s, but I mean I.
Speaker 3:Like, where does out of Africa land right?
Speaker 1:Like you know, Does Forrest Gump by make it into like the top 13?
Speaker 3:It might. It might because of what we're dealing with.
Speaker 1:But I would put Forrest Gump on this list around that million dollar baby range right now, 18, 19. Oh, totally.
Speaker 3:I would put it probably 24.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was going to say it would be low.
Speaker 1:So yeah, the Oscars are, we might have to do that next year?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'd be into that Go further back.
Speaker 1:I would be into that.
Speaker 3:That would be super fun. Erica, open your textbook, open your history textbook, open your heart to history. Okay.
Speaker 1:Any other things of note here before we wrap up? I saw hard eyes and I loved hard eyes.
Speaker 3:I'll just say that hard eyes is a banger I have a friend at school who's just five out of five stars for hard eyes.
Speaker 1:Matthew rush, if you're listening, you're gonna love hard eyes. Um, I can't really think of too much else. Um, you know people are saying has has gotten some requests to become a segment, maybe at the end of episodes. We've already touched on the odyssey lots of rumors.
Speaker 3:This would be like a new eti rumor mill segment at the end of episodes I like, like it so people people are saying that Mia goth doesn't have a speaking. Who just got cast?
Speaker 1:in the aforementioned, the odyssey, might not talk, which is too bad, because I just saw Mia goth interviewed I can't remember what for and I was like we got to stop giving her accents and and american roles to play oh it was.
Speaker 1:She gets to do her her regular voice in suspiria, the luca remake. Yeah, and my god she's so. She is the coolest sounding person in movies right now. We have to let mia goff just speak in her adorable little accent more. So that would be disappointing if what people are saying is true about her role in the Odyssey.
Speaker 2:Is there a trailer out for the Odyssey?
Speaker 1:Just some stills.
Speaker 2:Did that come out this year or next year?
Speaker 3:I think 2026. 2026. So yeah, the hype train has begun for them. Nolan heads.
Speaker 1:We know how that goes. Okay, as for what's next here on the podcast, we will hone in now on this year's Academy Awards and present our official picks for this year's ceremony. Max, you won last year's competition, I did. Erica, you are new to this Oscars gambit, so do you, max, have any strategies that you want to pass along to our freshman co-host over here?
Speaker 3:You know? Just read the rags, read the trades, Really dig in. Become a newshound.
Speaker 1:It's a real head over heart exercise.
Speaker 2:I was just about to say I know I'm not going to use my heart for this one, yeah.
Speaker 3:I want to be more objective.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty plugged into like social media, though, like I've seen a lot of talk about stuff on, especially like tick tock, and so I'm going to use my. I'm going to use all of that to my advantage. I think we'll see.
Speaker 1:I love it. Oscars talk, oscars talk. I'm not plugged into that. That's a, that's a resource, that's that's untapped, huh.
Speaker 2:Oscars talk.
Speaker 1:Oh, like on TikTok, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, that's like I mean TikTok is I get so much of my pop culture news on there that?
Speaker 3:could be us Big fan of the Supreme Leader over there. Hmm, saving TikTok, oh God.
Speaker 2:I know Brought it back for the Oscars. People are saying God.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, so until next time, please follow. Excuse the intermission on instagram and the three of us on letterboxd to track what we are watching between shows, and we will talk to you next time on eti, where movies still matter. Bye, thank you.
