The controversy. The incredible Peter Gabriel score. The Last Temptation of Christ. This week, Jamelle Bouie returns to Blank Check to talk about Scorsese's long-gestating passion project, and David gets to geek out about the history of Christianity. None of us are particularly religious - yet we all find this movie profoundly moving. God bless Marty, man.

Get your livestream tickets now and watch our Scorsese-spectacular via live show your fellow Blankies LIVE, or on VOD after (for a limited time).

Get Tickets to Blank Check Presents: The Garbage Pail Kids Movie on Sun, Oct 25, 7:30pm at the Refocus Film Festival in Iowa City

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Famously, 1986's The Color of Money was a money gig for Scorsese after a bunch of big-budget bounces. But it sure as hell doesn't feel like one!

Chris Ryan joins us to talk about the original legacyquel, which passed the torch from Newman to Cruise. We're also chatting snooker, Atlantic City, and Warren Zevon this week, so grab your balabushka and chalk. It's in the way that you use it.

Get your hands on Minnesota Fats: Pool Legend.

Check out Amsterdam Billiards.

Watch Sandler do Werewolves of London.

Listen to David discuss the novelization of Species and Species 2 on the Authorized podcast.

Listen to The Physical Media High Council episode.

Listen to The Watch, The Big Picture and The Rewatchables

Read Chris' Dad's Writing

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1985's After Hours - It's the ultimate "one crazy night in New York City" movie. It's also the ultimate Griffin movie (both Dunne and Newman). But is it the ultimate cool person choice for the best Scorsese movie? Let's discuss.

The lovely Ali Sivitz (also known as Bald Ann Dowd) joins us to talk about this deliriously entertaining slice of prime SoHo history. Apologies to everyone who hates when we talk too much about New York. It's kind of difficult to avoid it with this one.

Read When Real Ann Dowd Met Bald Ann Dowd

Follow Bald Ann Dowd 

Follow Ali on IG

Check out Joe Frank’s Monologue “Lies” 

Read Public Radio’s Bad Dream By Susan Emerling

Keep your eyes peeled and hopefully there are more Plaster of Paris Bagel and Cream Cheese Paperweights

Read Dwayne Johnson: A Little Golden Book Biography

Check out Tickly Octopus Written and Illustrated by Ruth Galloway

Read Pauline and Rogers’s thoughts on the film

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This week we're covering Scorsese's The King of Comedy and we've got the real King of Comedy on to talk about how Rupert Pupkin should have done some open mic nights.

The great Stavros Halkias returns to talk Marty, Bobby, Jerry Lewis, Sandra Bernhard, the Klumps, and his billion-dollar pitch for a new action franchise character named Fuccio Pussighetti. Plus - we all apologize to Jason Mantzoukas.

Blank Check's Merch Store is back! The first round of pre-orders on new items ends September 20.

Watch Jerry Lewis at the 30th Anniversary Screening of King of Comedy.

Watch Don Rickles Tribute, from De Niro & Scorsese.

Listen to our perfect ep on Is This Thing On?

Check out Uncle Stav.

Go see Tony

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Did you pod my cast? DID YOU POD MY CAST?

Martin Scorsese's Raging Bull is often cited as one of the greatest films of all time - one of the greatest boxing films, one of the greatest biopics, one of the greatest screen transformations and lead performances of all time. It's also one of the greatest uses of repetitive dialogue.

The great David Krumholtz joins us to talk about Robert De Niro, Joe Pesci, the luminous Cathy Moriarty, and the tonal tightrope this film walks.

Again - DID YOU POD MY CAST??

Check out Krumholtz's De Niro story

De Niro FUCK TRUMP

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Start spreadin' the news, we're podding today...

Broadway icon (and newly minted Disney Legend!) Lin-Manuel Miranda joins us to talk about what is possibly Scorsese's biggest bounce - 1977's New York, New York.

Cocaine, unchecked ambition, and a misguided attempt to try and get Liza Minnelli to do improv led Marty to some dark places. But hey - at least Robert De Niro learned how to play the saxophone! Expect lots of Broadway talk on this episode - with, of course, much props to the "Homie John Kander."

Check out the Disney Legends alongside Lin

Read Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You

Watch Mick respond to Mulaney 

Watch The Songwriters: An Evening with The Homie John Kander & Fred Ebb

Read Colored Lights

Check out The Drama Bookshop

Theme from Blank Check, Blank Check Produced and mixed by “Synth Horn Savant" Kyle Joseph

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You poddin' to me? Well, listener, actually - we are podding to you. For nearly FOUR HOURS.

The great Tracy Letts joins us to talk about Scorsese's monumental Taxi Driver, a film that is both fully ingrained in the American psyche and completely surprising and effective on every rewatch. Of course we're gonna spend our longest episode ever talking about it! This week, we discuss Paul Schrader's "God's Lonely Man" fixation, Ben's uncle's experiences as a New York City cab driver, the 1976 Oscars, Taxi Driver's themes of male loneliness and white supremacy, the incredible performances of Robert De Niro and Jodie Foster, and how totally normal it is to go to a porno theater on your second date. Oh, and there's plenty of physical media talk.

Taxi Driver discussion begins at 46:52

Listen to the 1976 Draft ep of the Big Picture

Check out MVD Marquee / Radiant / Vinegar Syndrom

Buy The Haunting to listen to Tracy and Sean do a commentary

Watch Bette Davis and Robert Wise, Oscars 1987

Watch "The King of Horror"

Read Transcendental Style in Film

Read You'll Never Eat Lunch in This Town Again

Read Drama: An Actor's Education

Read Night-Shifting for the Hip Fleet “By Mark Jacobson

Listen to Marty go Hogg wild

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"Martin Scorsese doesn't make movies about women" - WRONG. "Martin Scorsese doesn't make movies that would work as a long-running workplace sitcom" - ALSO WRONG.

Katey Rich joins us to chat about Scorsese's unexpected follow-up to Mean Streets, 1974's Alice Doesn't Live Here Anymore. We're talking diners, Ellen Burstyn, parenting strategies, "women's pictures," and far more Hootie & The Blowfish than you'd expect from this episode. We're also not "trying silence," okay?

Buy the Hootie and the Blowfish shirt Katey (and David) have. 

Listen to the Screen Draft eps with Griffin and Katey.

Read about how Katherine LaNasa says Ghost of Ex-Husband Dennis Hopper Haunted Her: 'It Was Super Upsetting.'

Read Vincent Canby’s review.

Subscribe to Prestige Junkie at the Ankler and Fighting in the War Room.

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We're heading to Little Italy's San Gennaro festival this week with Griffy Parm, David Bags, and the great Miriam Bale as we chat about 1973's Mean Streets - a major breakthrough for both Martin Scorsese and Robert DeNiro. Join us as we chat about the seismic impact this film had on American cinema, DeNiro's screen persona, those iconic needledrops, and the ways racism and misogyny permeate the film's atmosphere. Also - did you know this movie was mostly filmed in Los Angeles!?!

Listen to Bobby on Off Menu

Follow @judis.annie on Instagram

Read the Next Scorsese series in Esquire

Listen to SPIRIT OF THE BEEHIVE

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Knock knock! Who's there? MARTY, THAT'S WHO! Welcome to the first installment in PODCASTFELLAS - our supersized series on the films of short king and Italian-American asthmatic Martin Scorsese. This guy made some pretty good movies, huh.

This week, Griffin, David, and Ben discuss Scorsese's Little Italy upbringing and his two first features - 1967's Who's That Knocking at My Door? and 1972's Boxcar Bertha. One feels like a film school parody of Scorsese movie. The other, a not-scuzzy-enough exploitation picture. Neither really feel like his true debut.

Check out Mostly True: The West's Most Popular Hobo Graffiti Magazine by Bill Daniel Author

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Surprise! In a first for Blank Check, we’re dropping a bonus main-feed episode featuring a conversation with the Academy Award-winning director of the films we just covered. The great Andrew Stanton joins us for a delightful conversation about Pixar, what happened to scatting, and how Elmo messed everything up for everyone. He answers many questions from Griffin (the Pixar nerd formerly known as FlikLover98), and goes in depth on the ending of WALL-E. Enjoy!

Sign up for Check Book, the Blank Check newsletter featuring even more “real nerdy shit” to feed your pop culture obsession. Dossier excerpts, film biz AND burger reports, and even more exclusive content you won’t want to miss out on.

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