Thanks, Academy!

We skipped out on the 4-hour director's cut and opted for Kevin Costner's 3-hour theatrical juggernaut, the movie that launched a thousand bloated Kevin Costner epics and put a hard stop on Hollywood's one-sided treatment of Native Americans. While Trish and I weren't qualified to really examine the racial politics of the story, as a movie, it holds up better than many Best Picture winners of that era (or this one) and does provide some real drama, mainly thanks to the animal actors. It's good to be back! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I'm joined by 2019's Funniest Person in Austin Andrew Murphy and his brother Alex for a family tag team fresh look at this notoriously sappy gloss through the Baby Boom generation's childhood. The movie surprises us with how dark it is when you peer just beneath Robert Zemeckis's thick layer of Vaseline. But our darkest revelation is that Forrest Gump himself is The Problem with modern America -- his obliviousness standing in for white America's fantasy of a Great Again America that clearly didn't exist and Forrest is singularly unprepared to cope with. Of course, in the movie, Forrest has some sort of unspecified mental deficiency. America should have no such excuse for its own Vaseline gloss of what happened. There are two types of Americans -- those who remember this as a problematic movie portraying a series of atrocities, and those who remember it as a feel-good family heart-warmer. The latter are in charge. Enjoy your shrimp joke. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This movie did not play into our worst fears -- it's not war propaganda, it has redeeming and surprisingly strong female roles, and it contains more than a few genuinely entertaining scenes with good acting -- but it's still way too long for the extremely thin plot it's hung on. Basically a slice-of-life for three types of World War II veterans dealing with PTSD, we get yet another terrible protagonist, long and dull scenes of people not growing and changing, and ... I ran out of things. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

At one point, Asaf calls this the 1920's version of Fast & the Furious, and he's absolutely right. Despite being a 2-and-a-half hour silent movie, there's plenty to watch: real airplane dog fights, male nudity (really), female nudity (really!), lesbians on a date (really!!!), men kissing each other (REALLY!!!!!!), and brutally realistic trench warfare filmed on the actual battlegrounds of World War I. But don't rush out too quickly to watch it, because it also features the least heroic "hero" I've ever seen. We go on at length about why the second fiddle, David, should have been the protagonist instead of lame duck Jack. Loads of fun, and nice to finally get the OTHER Best Picture silent film checked off the list. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hunter and I had less than zero idea what we were in for, which turns out to be easily the most misogynist musical we've ever seen. Even allowing for the '50s, and allowing for the setting of France, and allowing for the conventions of musicals, this film goes out of its way to reiterate, in every way possible, that women are objects with no complex emotions or agency over their lives. Nice hats and dresses, though. I didn't think it would be possible to be 110% furious at a movie just one week after blowing my top at "Green Book," but here we are, wallowing in disgusting scene after disgusting scene. It turns out to be pretty hilarious. Enjoy! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is an excellent example of how to be tone deaf in 2019. In a year when African-American filmmakers and actors dominated both the box office and the awards shows, this white-bread corn muffin of a throwback warms over a '90s approach to race relations and passes it off as drama. Not only are the racial politics of the movie incredibly obtuse, the story itself is an inert slog of a literal road trip through a neutered Deep South. Pair this up with "In the Heat of the Night" and the contrast between gritty realism and this film's fantasy land is STARK. What's more remarkable is the former is fiction while this is massaged from supposedly true events. We hated it. We hated it so, so much. Thanks, Academy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

One of the most celebrated films of all time ... only works if you're inherently interested in the Italian mafia. That's the conclusion we came to in this blockbuster episode that also covers ninja moves, Trump's posture, Christmas, and other junk. Sometimes the magic of two people watching a famous movie for the first time is ... not a magical response. Still, there's hope for the sequel, I guess. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It feels weird to be surprised by this, but what a good movie! Turns out the most celebrated play of all time, when handled with straightforward care and interpretation, is a pretty damn good tale. There is the requisite amount of stilted 1940s acting, but all-in-all, it delivers what a Hamlet version has to -- you can follow the dialogue and plot -- and there's some pretty spicy meatballs thrown at us -- incestuous kisses, actually scary ghosts, unexpected comic relief. Erica takes a break from the basement of Amazon Prime with her podcast "Customers Also Watched" to revisit her English teaching days and check out this brilliant take on being or not being. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Mike Wiebe drops by to watch a 3-hour+ movie about opera, but we had a great time because the movie's themes of jealousy, mediocrity, petty revenge, and sex / drugs / rock-n-roll struck a deep chord inside both of us. Definitely one to tune into if you've ever dwelt in that uncanny valley between talented and hack-like (in other words, every comedian ever), or seen someone younger than you achieve and exceed you through no visible effort whatsoever. Also, lots of Star Wars references somehow. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Gene Kelly should have won for "Singin' in the Rain," probably the greatest movie musical of all time, but the Academy blew its wad the year before on this outing, which was pretentious enough to be Best Picture material, but not nearly as entertaining and full of, dare we say it, problematic relationships. By "we" I mean my fellow ladies of Weird Brunch (a storytelling podcast about odd shit, subscribe to it), who lend the more professional recording setup to the first episode recorded outside the famous vampire den. It's three ladies watching an old musical, and we had fun, as you'd expect, but all it really did for us was make us wish we were watching "Dirty Dancing." See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

For our halfway point, I searched high and low for someone who would be able to watch this movie with NO knowledge of what's going on, either from the reading the books or seeing other adaptations. JJ fit the bill perfectly, and with a rule in place that he could ask a maximum of 5 questions about what's going on, we set sail on an endless journey to get to damn end. For this epic episode, I included the entire 30-minute slow motion ending sequence uncut, so you can hear us slowly go insane as it stretches on, and on, and on. Is the movie any good? Is that even the point? What's the point of this project anymore? Should we throw this podcast into the cracks of Mount Doom? See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is easily the most intense episode of the podcast to date, matching the tone of this relentlessly graphic movie. Roxy and I are both sensitive, but we share a defense mechanism of humor that we use to keep each other from falling apart during the more excruciating sequences. We laugh a lot out of sheer desperation, but at times, the movie's overwhelming power kills even our spirits. It's a great, great film, and one I hope I never have to watch again. Tune in for the avowedly inappropriate quips, the screams of terror and anger we let fly, and the ultimate conclusion that Nazis must die, all of them. For this one, sincerely, thanks, Academy. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is easily the most action-packed Best Picture we've watched yet, with car chases, shootouts, stakeouts, and all the primal elements of a cops-and-robbers movie. There's a freshness to it, though, a sense that the genre was being invented before our eyes with no conventions yet in place, no holds barred, no squeamishness from the ugly truths about either side. Gene Hackman is simply fantastic as the mostly-loathsome Popeye Doyle, and the direction by William Friedkin is unforgettable. Is all of this lost on Enzo, who has only seen 25 movies in his whole life? Not exactly, though he feels a bit overwhelmed by the experience. If you enjoy hearing people get blown away by a movie in real time, this episode's for you. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Join me and Zac Brooks for the first-ever drunk episode, as we stumble through this cheesy '80s movie about race that's also somehow not at all about race. "Driving Miss Daisy" is a pleasant enough confection, and miles less offensive than other more recent confections (like "Shakespeare in Love" or "The Artist"), but lacks any deeper heft than emotional manipulation. We spend most of our time just trying to figure out why Dan Aykroyd was in this, how the fact that he is in this didn't tank the movie completely, and what in the world he did to deserve an Oscar nomination for the role. Turns out, the whole year of 1989 was a buncha Forrest Gump-style feel good movies, so was this the best of the bunch? It probably wasn't the worst. And hey, everyone deserves to just relax and enjoy themselves sometimes. Crack open a cold one and count the number of times Zac and I accidentally say inappropriate things. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is a movie that now feels like a fairly mediocre network television drama. There must have been something positively sparkling about it in 1983 when it won practically every award out there, but aside from one or two iconic Jack Nicholson scenes and a handful of good lines, this is a plain old ramble of a movie through a standard divorces-and-dates plot. It does end with cancer, which must account for its reputation as a tear-jerker, but Mac and I were not moved to much beyond confusion. The most difficult part is just figuring out WHEN the movie is taking place, with confusing time jumps and visual cues about era that are way lost on a 21st century audience. Not a bad movie, but definitely not a barnstormer in its old age. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This Bing Crosby vehicle shoehorns in several chances for the crooner to croon, but in a neutered way since he plays an oh-so-saintly progressive priest sent to save an old New York parish from the crotchety ministrations of its elderly founder. Bing proves he's better at everything than everyone, winning competitions at such things as checkers, golf, singing, piano playing, priesting, baseballing, slang talking, and $10 giving. The plot is essentially "Sister Act" but without women. Some truly bizarre things happen in this movie, which knocks us for a knickerbocker loop, and in the end Brett and I go just insane enough to invent musical duo sensation Musk & Menthol. Don't miss it! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Another '40s drama, another barn-burning polemic on societal ills. This time, it's Gregory "Atticus Finch" Peck in his younger days solving anti-Semitism by posing as a Jewish journalist. While JT and I find and express every possible way in which that is an uncool thing to do, the movie still succeeds as an emotional gut punch to the American dream as a restrictive clause for WASPs only. This time, the endless moral debates were fascinatingly relevant. It's impressive just how 2019 some of the "this is how to be an ally" speeches are. Not a movie you'd enthusiastically recommend with a bowl of popcorn, but a rightful classic that deserves to be better-remembered today. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Oh boy, oh boy, a movie about a lawyer having a dumb argument with an idiot. The story of Thomas More vs Henry VIII is not without its charms and intrigues, but you wouldn't know it from this dull plodding Kodachrome movie that feels like a cheap community theater edition. The acting is mostly dull, the script is nigh unintelligible, and the visuals are ponderous and unhelpful. That just leaves the debates. Lots and lots of debates. On the one hand, there's a bit of a Mueller vs Trump vibe going on, but on the other hand, no there isn't, because Thomas More comes across as a cold, narcissistic, psychopathic nincompoop who tossed away his loving family in the service of winning (losing) a Facebook comment thread fight. And we don't even get to see his head chopped off. Boo all around. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What a strange movie. It combines truly delightful cheesy Broadway song-and-dance numbers with some of the darkest human misery and bleakest human behavior possible. The movie feels aimed at kids sometimes, with the chipper children engaging in Bednobs & Broomsticks-style hijinks, and at other times ... well, we're not sure who the audience is for domestic abuse being justified by the abuse victim, but that's in there, too. Melody returns and we sip some tea and practice our bad cockney accents for 2-and-a-half hours. We don't quite go insane, but it's close. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We were supposed to watch 3-hour Mozart marathon "Amadeus," but couldn't find a legal copy to stream, so we quickly rolled the dice again and landed on this recent winner about the Boston Globe's expose of the Catholic church's worldwide conspiracy to aid and abet child abuse. As a former newspaper reporter (and ex-Catholic, thanks to this very Globe series), this was like candy, watching a team of journalists slowly and methodically uncover one of the biggest news stories of all time. For a movie about paperwork, it's astoundingly riveting, and the acting is nothing short of phenomenal, as understated as it is. Lea'h and I also get into how much has changed about exposes in just the 16 years since this movie took place (heck, even in the 3 years since this movie came out) thanks to #BlackLivesMatter and #MeToo. We also talk about silly stuff. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

It sure was great to see a classic live up to its billing for once. This is just a fantastic movie, and -- BONUS -- there's a great and quite explicit gay romance driving the plot. Oh, sure, Humphrey Bogart's Rick is still getting over his summer camp fling with Ingrid Bergman's Ilsa, but once he clears out those emotions, Captain Renault is right there to whisk Rick off his feet. Austin and I enjoyed the looks, the lewks, and the loooooooks between all these dewy-eyed fashionistas. But it's Claude Rains who steals the show with his sassy, morally compromised, cheerful slimeball of a sex machine. With additional discussion of Bugs Bunny's gender. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

I've hated Woody Allen my whole life. Anytime I told people that, they'd ask if I'd seen this movie. I'd say no. They'd tell me to see this movie and then decide. So now I saw the movie. He still sucks, maybe even harder than ever. I capture Woody Allen agnostic Bonnie Ambers and bring her over to the right side of history with nary a push. Woody is disgusting in this movie, and if it weren't for Diane Keaton's incredible, luminous performance, would likely be a footnote in history. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

What do you get when you cross no plot with no music and a very small cast of characters all acting against type? You get paint drying. Robert Redford's directorial debut was impressive to somebody the year it came out, but in retrospect it drags like a student film and is full of inexplicably blank moments. The movie attempts to be "subtle" but goes to far and is flat-out dull. Check out John Rabon and I trying to keep our sanity as the movie drags on and on and on... See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Gladiator is an okay 90-minute acton movie stretched out to epic proportions and shot in an epic style without any epic content. The story and the stakes are strangely small -- one dude wants revenge on another dude, but first he has to show off how invincible he is. There is also a woman who both men pursue for the simple reason that she is the only woman -- even though dude one is married and dude two is her brother. Also, dogs and tigers. It's just a sports movie pretending to be something it's not, and all that pretending leads to laughable artsy directorial choices and interminable conversations inside of tents. Brendan and I ponder how something like this even became popular, much less emerged as Best Picture. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Titanic is a movie that seared itself so deeply into the world consciousness, it hardly seems worth revisiting. But it turns out there was a reason it blew away all records and became the biggest movie of all time (at the time): it's pretty damn good. Tune in as Ky Krebs watches for the first time and we rediscover the love and tragedy of James Cameron's most obvious, but still best, movie. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We're about a third of the way through this project, it's Christmas season, and I'm stuck at home recovering from a major surgery, so I decided to abandon the "random order with random friends" part and watch the ONLY Best Picture winner that's fully suitable for young children, 1965's "The Sound of Music." As a bonus, my kids have seen this several times in school and other places, but I've really, truly, never watched this movie. Tune in as they guide me through and also introduce me to Wild Bunny & Snake, foot-fiving, and other survival tactics kids develop to get through a three-hour movie. Our first episode without explicit language, and if you don't like the long before-and-after analysis bits, well, this episode's for you! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Based on a true story that's been told a hundred different ways, this 1935 version stars Clark Gable and presents the infamous mutiny as a battle between nice and mean. Gable's (comically American) Fletcher Christian believes the crew of the HMS Bounty should be treated with carrots, but Charles Laughton's Captain Bligh treats them with sticks. Also keelhauls, starvation, and all other manner of verbal and physical abuse. During the return voyage from Tahiti, Christian takes over the ship, packing Bligh and a handful of his loyalists onto a rowboat. He then sails back to Tahiti where he lives the good life until England finds him again. That's the movie version. Real world documents prove that Christian enslaved and kidnapped several Tahitians, dragging them against their will to Pitcairn, where his descendants still rule the island to this day (fun fact: his descendants are also still engaging in large scale sexual abuse that came to light in some famous trials this decade). But why let moral ambiguity get in the way of a good story? A LOT happens in this movie, but the stakes still remain weirdly low, and that "lot" includes precious little swashbuckling action. Join Derek and I as we learn a lot about breadfruit and wooden legs. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A fascinating look at the hard-headed racism of the 1960s South. Unflinching, unrelenting, but also grounded in enough reality to avoid being a mere polemic, this film basically tortures Sidney Poitier's Detective Tibbs as he tries to solve a high-profile murder case in a low-profile Mississippi town. Poitier's performance is majestic -- assured, but nuanced enough to allow his character to make mistakes, get scared, get confused, and still come across as the most competent cop in the state. Basically a "serious" version of Beverly Hills Cop. Great soundtrack by Quincy Jones and a healthy dose of Ray Charles, too. Highly recommended. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

The most depressing Billy Wilder film for sure. This trudge through the story of one man's recidivist bender exposes the impossibility of living with alcoholism, and walks Ray Milland right up to the brink of suicide. Frightening -- indeed it's shot and scored like a horror film -- and bleak, the film has a mesmerizing power despite its downbeat story arc. The ending rings false, but was likely necessary for audiences to swallow what they just saw. Just because it's an old movie, don't take it lightly. I would honestly not recommend watching it if you would be triggered by the unflinching portrait of an alcoholic in the throes of the disease's deepest cycles. On a par with Requiem for a Dream, especially when adjusting for the techniques and conventions of the 1940s. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you like intelligent verbal sparring, overly dramatic personalities, sizzling put-downs, Shakespearean plotting, gorgeous outfits, wisecracking sidekicks, high-falutin' accents, drunks, intense bathroom conversations, facial masks, or just movies in general, then this is the flick for you. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Normally I write a summary but this movie is so boring it doesn't deserve one. It's about the 1924 Olympics, specifically Great Britain's track team, which did okay. Finland won more track medals that year but sure, let's learn about this team. The movie beat Raiders of the Lost Ark. I'm dead. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Everything about this movie is crazy, and not necessarily in a fun way. Like a lot of '70s movies, it focuses on an oddball group of people just kind of .... hanging out. Aaron and I get frustrated trying to make sense of it, which may be the point, but leads to a very unsatisfying experience, especially compared to the movie it beat for the award that year: Jaws. Still, the acting is top-notch and there are some iconic scenes for a reason. Dive in, cuckoos. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Quite possibly the perfect movie. A rare comedy winner starring Jack Lemmon and Shirley MacLaine, this screwball-ish comedy with a dramatic heart explores the absurd distance between loneliness and privacy in a world that still maintains a paper-thin Victorian morality atop a fully horny modern reality. The acting is superb, but this is a writer's movie first and foremost, stuffed with tense scenes, perfectly witty lines, dense layering, and huge laughs. The only reason the entire movie isn't played in the middle of the episode is that Ella and I spent long stretches silent and transfixed by what was happening. If you haven't seen it, do. I promise it will be one of your new favorites. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This movie didn't just win Best Picture, it won ALL the major Oscars, and it's easy to see why. Tense and gripping throughout, with some of the most incredible acting performances ever. Jodie Foster and Anthony Hopkins perfectly convey a grounded reality within the high camp of Thomas Harris's shock-based plot. Jonathan Demme also deserves a lot of credit for making the movie feel coherent as it careened between moments of intimate terror and grotesque violence. But the real surprise is that the tone of the movie holds up. There's hardly a cringey misstep, and even the (relatively) low-tech setting doesn't feel dated or awkward in 2018. This is one of the Academy's best picks of all time. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This endless dirge of Welsh coal miners singing hymns is a great movie to watch if you want to fall asleep. Plotless and devoid of any tension, the movie feels like a book someone forced you to read in middle school. It's honestly a miracle Nick and I didn't give up halfway through. Featuring "Miracle on 34th Street"'s Maureen O'Hara and future non-boring director John Ford at the helm, the film must have struck a chord in late-Depression America because it beat "Citizen Kane" for the trophy. If you watch only one Best Picture winner this year, make it ANY other pick than this one. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This movie is something else. It's played as a quirky slice-of-mid-life-crisis with wacky scenarios interspersed between hot-button topics, and I guess that's exactly what it was in the late '90s, but NOW, in 2018, knowing what we know about its star and speaking how we speak about victims of sexual assault, it's a horror movie that has romantic comedy lighting for some offensive reason. Kevin Spacey plays a manipulative self-centered pedophile who destroys his family and neighbors in pursuit of hedonistic pleasure, and he naturally does a good job, that being his life, as we now know. Almost nothing holds up about this, and we were braced for that, but Vanessa and I were genuinely wounded by how -- and I hate to sound this prude, but there's no other way to say it -- INAPPROPRIATE this movie is. Join along with the hate watch, now with longer movie clips for better context, by popular demand. Keep passing along your feedback, it helps! See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Say, fellas, I got an idea! What if we take a vaguely creepy story about a vain and jealous man who will destroy himself and everyone around him in a tantrum the minute he's not universally adored, then remove all the dialogue and replace it with sweet music so nobody notices? What's that? We'll need a dog to complete the illusion that he's not a piece of shit? And set the story in Hollywood so the industry will give it awards? Done! Send screeners to the Academy immediately. Sincerely, Harvey Weinstein, monster-at-law. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Oliver Stone's Mary Sue autobiography about being a rich kid voluntarily joining up to fight in America's Dumbest War. The movie throws 75 characters at the screen, then adds 75,000 explodey noises in for good measure, but somehow Oscar-winning screenwriter Stone still can't cover up the clunkiest dialogue he's ever written. The movie is effective in its realism. Unfortunately, that means suffering through the reality of an obnoxious war full of half-crazed, leaderless, extremely un-woke soldiers for two hours that will feel like two tours. Duncan Carson joins for this (no doubt) important movie that everybody should procrastinate on watching as long as possible. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This movie is EPIC. It defines epic. And it clearly influenced both George Lucas and John Williams, because some of the scenes and score clips are obvious precursors to the Star Wars saga. But is it fun to watch? It was with Andrew, who developed an insta-crush on Charlton Heston's body that sustained him for almost the entire 3 hours and 45 minutes. For me? Well, it's a lot of men, manning around, plus 250% of your recommended daily allowance of Jesus. The movie still holds the record for the most Oscars (in a three-way tie with Titanic and LOTR), and it's obvious to see why it gave Hollywood a hard-on. The chariot race still holds up, and some of the crowd sequences stuffed with thousands of extras are spectacular. That said, the Best Supporting Actor that year was for a white guy in this movie who plays an Arab by wearing dark bronze makeup and affecting a thick accent and silly manner, so ... it's still a 1950s movie, through and through. Strap in, because it took us a while to cover all the Ben in this Hur movie. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

If you like piña coladas and getting caught in the rain, this is the Shakespeare movie for you. Stuffed with super obvious callbacks and sitcom plotting, this soft rock movie somehow captured the Academy's heart in a year stuffed with Big Important Dramas. Gwyneth Paltrow got an award for having boobs. Judi Dench got an award for having a face. Tom Stoppard got an award for copy-pasting. And Harvey Weinstein got an award for doing things we'd still rather not think about. Join Brooke and me as we break the record for "what is happening" exclamations and try to puzzle out how a movie this inherently gay managed to be so frustratingly hetero. Also, we both forgot Ben Affleck was in it. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This movie is authenticity-adjacent. A weirdly world-music-infused score backdrops the story of an all-American road trip with a bad car salesman (played by human-adjacent Tom Cruise) and a quirky superhero (Dustin Hoffman doing an SNL sketch character). At times, the script gestures towards meaning, but for the most part this is "It Happened One Night" with an idiot savant instead of an heiress. Christina Parrish and I tear our hair out trying not to make inappropriate jokes (and, in the end, fail) about this dated movie that's remembered fondly enough that I suspect nobody's rewatched it this millennium. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This episode comes out all sorts of different for some reason (for one thing, I finally figured out how to optimize sound a little bit). Leo and I dive into the most recent winner featured so far on the podcast, Ben Affleck's "I'm going to direct myself being a hero" movie about one interesting side plot of the Iran Hostage Crisis. We dive into some hand-wringing about how you know the good side from the bad side when protests go wild, so that's heavy, but we also talk about jazz funerals and cordless telephones. The main takeaway was that the Academy gave itself 10 choices starting with this year and they somehow still made the wrong one. Sorry, Batman. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Danny and I dive into a winner that was controversial at the time, but honestly looks pretty smart today. (That NEVER happens!) "Chicago" is a stylish, fun, surprisingly deep look at the corrupting power of fame and the desperate violence of proto-feminism America. It's also a movie about imprisoned women in their underwear produced by Harvey Weinstein, so it's far from perfect, but we enjoy delving into its details. Plus we veer off into talking about "I, Tonya" and a few other relatively obscure prestige movies. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

We knew what we were getting into, kind of, but neither myself nor Eric Nagurney had seen a single frame of Gone with the Wind in our lives, so it was a fresh assault of whitewashed Confederate history, treacly matte paintings, Broadway-style overacting, and whiplashing tonal shifts that lasted FAR longer than even what "4-hour-movie" implies. We hated it. Listen closely, and you'll hear our sanity leave the room at about the 15-minute mark. This isn't a BAD movie. On a technical level it has all the ingredients of a good movie, even a great one. But it IS a movie that clumsily tells the story of horrible people who do nothing to redeem themselves and are only punished by the inexplicable sacrifices of the few innocent souls surrounding them. So that's not fun to watch. But I hope this is fun to listen to. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

A movie that most people know only as a line -- "I coulda been a contender" -- has surprising twists and wrinkles that make it an unusual watch 50+ years later. Fortunately, I have Pat Dean as a co-pilot, and we dig deep into the subtext and meaning of this labor drama while also taking detours to make sure we're okay, we're doing fine, we're not too lonely. It's a surprisingly revealing and tender episode surrounding an even more surprisingly brutal and bleak film. Check it out, and also check out Pat on his daily podcast the Lanalax Corporation (https://thelanalaxcorporation.podbean.com/) or his make-me-sound-dumb podcast I Learned Nothing (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/i-learned-nothing/id1263958157?mt=2). See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This movie goes in fits and starts. The beginning is cartoon-ish and slow, the middle is full of some of the rawest boxing footage I've ever seen in a film, and the last half hour is a torturous drag through depressingville. Pat Sirois and I try to keep our sanity with all the emotional whiplash, and figure out a couple of True Facts about Clint Eastwood's inner life along the way. This episode is narrated by Morgan Freeman. RED ALERT: This movie was written by Paul Haggis of "Crash" fame so that accounts for the sucky bits that suck. (True to form, we did zero research to prejudice ourselves, and in fact that Clint Eastwood wrote the movie for some reason. But no! There's your "Crash" connection!) Find more Pat on Lie, Cheat, and Steal - his weird crime podcast with Kath Barbadoro: http://www.bodytapeintl.com/lie-cheat-steal/ See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Lisa and I scratch our heads through one of the most complicated con movies I've ever seen, stuffed with ancillary characters and antiquated references. Paul Newman and Robert Redford are both compelling to watch -- and Redford does A LOT of sprinting in this movie if that's your thing -- but the real stars are the women. Eileen Brennan brings a casual vamp's charm to the rogue's gallery of con men, and Dimitra Arliss coyly plays a diner waitress who's much more than she appears. Other than that, it's a confusion of fedoras and jumble of motivations. You have to buy the "I climb the mountain because it's there" reasoning for most of the folks to be in on the scheme, because by the time the take gets chopped up, it's minimum wage. Listen to us ramble around this effective but not fully compelling entry that still has "The Entertainer" playing in the background somewhere to this day. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Florenz Ziegfeld Jr. was still very much a contemporary force in American entertainment when this was made. His late wife Billie Burke even had a hand in the casting of this movie, which was an enormous artistic and financial success for MGM. But what does that all add up to now? This three-hour biopic serves mainly to highlight two things -- that Ziegfeld was a "special effects" genius in his day (costumes and staging) to a degree that still astonishes today, and that his life was a mind-numbing roller coaster of money. There's very little heart in the movie despite the numerous romances, and if it weren't for the dazzling excerpts of his follies, this would rightfully never be remembered today. Join me and Rachel Hall as we try to figure out what kind of drugs people were taking in the 1930s. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Unless you've actually watched it recently, I guarantee this movie is NOT what you think it is. The star-spangled sequels are so ingrained in our minds that it's weird to revisit the grimy impoverished underdog story that kicked off the mega-franchise. Mike MacRae had never seen the movie, and I THOUGHT I had but it was very different from my memories, so who knows? We both "dinged" along as iconic moments came up, then guffawed in bafflement at the weird scenes nobody talks about anymore: Rocky ice skating? Burgess Meredith talking to a lamp? Rocky working for the mob? VERY LITTLE BOXING? The whole experience is familiar but weird, like drinking a glass of raw eggs. Tune in for a dose of old-fashioned gritty patriotism. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This movie is the origin of every trope in romantic comedies, road trip movies, AND Bugs Bunny cartoons. Micheal Foulk and I spend a lot of time delighting in the silliness of the plot, and puzzling over the manic depression of the film's main pixie dream boy, played by Clark Gable. It's one of only three films to ever win all "big five" awards: picture, director, actor, actress, writing. It's pretty good, but that accomplishment is probably more a reflection on the competition. There's no doubt this was hugely influential, and can probably be seen as the ur-romcom. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

This is easily the most famous and beloved movie we've tackled so far, and it's great! The songs are amazing, the costumes are beautiful, the dancing is quirky and fun, and the plot is ... well. Half of it is great, and surprisingly timely. Chris Cubas (Canceled) and I really enjoyed the Sharks vs Jets plotline and characters. The other half is a limp and hasty romance that's modeled on the dumber aspects of Romeo & Juliet with none of the redeeming qualities of Shakespeare's irony-laden Twilight Zone twists. The end result is a delightful but frustrating watch that had us both singing and yelling at the screen, alternately. It's just too bad I forgot to hit record during the watch. The before-and-after conversations are still there, though, so tune in as we dissect this American classic. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.