In 2018, Lynne Ramsay released You Were Never Really Here, a film about a completely implausible scenario...a townhouse on the East side of Manhattan houses a sex trafficking operation that implicates high-level government officials in its web of depravity???? Could you even imagine?!! Hollywood Handbook's Sean Clements joins us to chat about this eerily relevant film, the literary career of Jonathan Ames, Joaquin Phoenix's screen persona, and Joseph Gordon Levitt's recently announced follow-up to Don Jon.

Listen to Hayes Davenport's (not a guest on this episode) episode of High & Mighty where he talks about newspaper comics.

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This week we’re brooding, Victorian style, with Vulture’s Bilge Ebiri! Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein is a Best Picture nominee and is well represented in the craft categories, but it has only one acting nomination, for Jacob Elordi’s hulking monster. It’s of a piece with past craft-heavy Oscar contenders like Dune or The Lord of the Rings, but does Frankenstein actually stand a chance? We discuss the film itself, its lavish sets and costumes, del Toro’s choice to center the monster as the hero, and how that decision reshapes the monster’s opposite, Victor, played by Oscar Isaac.

We also touch on the new Wuthering Heights, also starring Jacob Elordi, the history of Wuthering Heights adaptations, the shameless state of celebrity Super Bowl ads, and finally atone for our past sins, as Bilge defends previous subjects Train Dreams and Hamnet against our critiques. As it turns out, we were the monster all along.

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The time has come for us to talk about Kevin. The New Yorker's Jia Tolentino joins us to talk about Lynne Ramsay's depiction of every parent's worst nightmare - 2011's We Need To Talk About Kevin. We need to talk about how Griffin grew up with Ezra Miller, and even auditioned against them to play Kevin. We need to talk about Lionel Shriver's awful politics. We need to talk about Tilda Swinton comparing her performance here to Buster Keaton. And we need to again explain the whole Fantastic Beasts franchise to another guest who is blissfully unaware of Credence Barebone.

Read Jia's Profile of Jennifer Lawrence and her other work at the New Yorker.

Check out the r/HowIsLivingThere

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Honey, we’re buzzing about Bugonia with Marie Bardi-Salinas! The movie surprised us with its appeal to Oscar voters, but maybe it shouldn’t have: Director Yorgos Lanthimos and star, frequent collaborator Emma Stone, have proven themselves Oscar favorites with strong showings from their past films, especially The Favourite and Poor Things. 

We discuss the film, but first, a Sundance report from Richard before digging into Lanthimos and Stone’s history with the Oscars, and why this somewhat prickly, political movie succeeded with the Academy despite a relatively weak showing upon release. Then we discuss the movie itself, get into spoilers, the future of the Stone-Lanthimos collaboration, and finally discover whether or not Richard is an Andromedan.

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Almost four years ago, Producer Ben Hosley watched Sam Raimi's "A Simple Plan" and proclaimed that if he'd been in that scenario, everything would have worked out perfectly. With the gleefully satisfying "Send Help," Raimi gives Ben the ending he's always wanted. Join Ben, Griffin, David, and Marie as they chat about the endless likability of Rachel McAdams, the heel turn of Dylan O'Brien, and how the various employees of Blank Check Productions would fare on a deserted island.

Read "Dylan O’Brien Is Ready to Talk About That Accident"

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On today’s show, Richard and Alison hop on a boxcar and stare wistfully as the 20th century passes them by with Best Picture nominee Train Dreams. They discuss director Clint Bentley’s lush, if somewhat sanded-down take on Denis Johnson’s novella about a lumberman haunted by his past, starring a very quiet Joel Edgerton.

Train Dreams is one of Netflix’s Best Picture nominees this year, but the film was not an original production. It was acquired by the streamer at last year’s Sundance Film Festival. On the occasion of this year’s festival (which is happening as we speak) we also discuss how Sundance works, and what, exactly gives a movie that ineffable Sundance flavor we have come to associate with small-scale American indies like Little Miss Sunshine. 

We also discuss Netflix’s seemingly endless quest to win Best Picture, why the Academy is so resistant to giving them the big prize, and why the most popular streamer in the world is so desperate for Academy validation in the first place.

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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Mommy's back! Emily Yoshida joins the gang to talk about 2002's Morvern Callar, a surprisingly tender film about grief, starting over, and taking a Jet2 Holiday. We're chatting about Samantha Morton's unconventional star quality, our personal history with mixtapes, and the Fantastic Beasts franchise for some reason. Plus, Ben reveals his love of seaside snow, Griffin adds some context from the source material (or whatever he could translate from the Scottish dialect), and everyone agrees that Morvern did nothing wrong.

Watch Shogun Season 1 

Check out the official Shogun podcast

Listen to the Emily’s Traitors Podcast: First To Breakfast

Watch Carnival of Souls

Watch the Romano Tours SNL Sketch

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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It’s Hollywood’s biggest morning! Join Richard and Alison (plus a vacationing Producer Benjamin Frisch) as they pick apart the biggest snubs and surprises of the year: Sinners breaking the all-time nominations record! The Secret Agent surging out of Neon’s international power lineup! The complete collapse of would-be frontrunner Wicked: For Good! Plus we take a conversation detour with Apple’s F1, the surprise blockbuster pulling up the rear amongst the Best Picture lineup finds alongside Train Dreams, Frankenstein, Marty Supreme, Bugonia, Sentimental Value, Hamnet, and One Battle After Another in the Best Picture category despite being a popcorn racecar movie about Brad Pitt going fast vroom vroom. 

Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, Premiere Party, and read Alison's work at Vulture.

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We need to pod about Glasgow. We need to pod about the arresting inner lives of these complicated protagonists. We need to pod about every incredible project Lynne Ramsay has been attached to over the past 25 years that never actually happened. So yeah, WE NEED TO POD ABOUT CASTVIN! Join us as we discuss Ramsay’s debut film Ratcatcher, a striking study of a young boy on the precipice of adolescence in the slums of 1970s Glasgow. Ben discovers that he adores this movie. Griffin discovers that he can make “Lin Manuel Ramsey” a bit. And everyone discovers that Scottish accents are not that easy to imitate.

Watch the Characters Welcome Sketch from Tristan Griffin

Watch Timmy on Fallon

Check out Meshes of the Afternoon

Watch The Mother Project

Check out Notes on the Cinematograph

Watch Barry Jenkins in the Criterion Closet

Listen to the Top 21 Sports movies of the 21st century episode of the Bill Simmons Podcast

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This week, we’re joined by David Sims as we orbit the Golden Globes and their Best Drama winner, Chloé Zhao’s Hamnet. In the vibes-based reality of awards season predictions, Hamnet has emerged as a potential spoiler to the season’s other favorites, including Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another and Ryan Coogler’s Sinners. But what, exactly, makes something an Oscar villain? We also get into the film itself, the historical Shakespeare, why people are weird about Chloé Zhao, and our predictions for next week's Oscar nominations. 
Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, Premiere Party, and read Alison's work at Vulture.

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Join Pulp Men (and Woman) of the Year Griffin, David, Ben, and Marie as they discuss Park Chan Wook’s latest offering, the silly and sublime No Other Choice. We’re talking about paper, AI-proof jobs, the handsomeness of Lee Byung-hun, the possibility that Director Park is the Michael Jordan of dissolves, and the fact that this is likely Griffin’s favorite film of 2025. Plus, David breaks down over the finale of Stranger Things, and we all apologize for a bunch of stuff.

Read the Chevy Chase New York Times profile.

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