u/Few-Engineer-9791

As a Brit I was super into SCHOOL OF COMEDY, and SON OF RAMBOW would eventually lead to me getting a film degree. Will Poulter is a guy I have been behind for years but how big I expected him to be has never fully emerged. GG 3 is the biggest thing he’s been in and he’s the punchy side character in the third film of a franchise. The rest of his career is mostly side characters in big films and TV or small indies he leads it feels no one has seen. He is very much a favourite of a lot of big stars so I can see him getting a big leading role soon that just has not yet materialised so I’m keeping my eyes peeled

I also put my chips on Aaron Taylor Johnson but his transformation into character actor I feel suits him so no longer counts. Especially as his character is scary men and intense dads and now he’s leading WWERWULF as that makes sense.

How are your guys investments doing

Years ago, Griffin off handedly mentioned he hoped the pod would cover one animation director a year. Whilst that has not exactly happened more so than any other podcast I follow on film, it has a far better track record for discussing animation
So far, Brad Bird, Henry Selick, Hayao Miyazaki, Satoshi Kon, Musker & Clements and now Andrew Stanton have been properly covered with one-offs like Genndy Tartakvsky being covered and TinTin, Animatix and Roger Rabbit coming in as well for otherwise non-animation directors.
It makes me think about other animation directors that should be covered. Here are the obvious answers

Don Bluth (10 films, special features: Bartok/Banjo/Dragon's Lair/Sapce Ace) The king of 80's animation. The first real blow to Disney as the kings of animation since the 50's. The man mixed classic animation techniques with darker material that met the moment before slowly being unable to keep up with the Disney renounce his competition helped inspire.

Pete Doctor (4 films, special features: short films): More Pixar talk from griffin. Is one of the original members of Pixars team, First one not called Lassater trusted to lead a team. As this all happens in parerell with Stanton it might be all very similar road to tred without the more interesting fumbles. Griffin already did some Monsters Inc talk

Isiao Takahatta (8 films, special features: Panda go Panda/Documentaries) The second in command to Myazaki and a fascinating contrast to him. Much more jolly and laid back but also far more of an experimental director. Pushes animation in interesting ways usually for emotioanl impact rather than for a grand image. Feels inevitable, Griffin will be discussing Pom Poko on another pod

Ralph Bakshi (9 films, special features Christmas in Tattertown/Cool and the Crazy) The first true “adult” animation director. An influence to many for pushing boundaries and telling often uncomfortably modern stories. His continuous lack of money leads to more rota scoping and worse films but undoubtedly a strange career that combines the adult with the childish.

Mamoru Hosoda (9 films) Currently an heir apparent to Miyazaki doing blockbuster anime movies. Very generation defining for millennial anime fans. His work takes a strong look at modern Japan, teenage melodrama and the internet. His constant return to parent hood and life online would yield great discussion I can imagine summer wars becoming a new favourite for both Newman and Sims. The episode on The One Piece movie would be great especially if they get a guest who knows that world well and can explain it better

Wolfgang Reitherman (7 films, special features: Rescuers Down Under) Covering any of the 9 old men would be hard as Disney was far more seen as a brand then a collection of artists especially during his day. Reitherman leads Disney animation during its period of trying to move away from fairytales to more contemporary styles and brings ushers in a scratcher look more in line with UPA than Disney.

Makoto Shinkai (7 films, special features: Voices of a distant star) the only anime director the guys have off handed discussed so a clear favourite. The maker of the most successful anime film in the west. Far more a slice of life filmmaker but one who has allowed fantasy to creep in with recent movies. A classic auteur in his constant return to themes and consistent style.

Those are the out and out animation directors that I can imagine being covered. Wes Anderson, Guillermo Del Toro, Mike Judge and now Bong Joon Ho are ones that can be covered with at least 1 animated feature film in their filmography. Which ones would excite you more? Which films do you most want to hear episodes on? Who am I missing?

The career contexts are some of my favourite stuff as it has educated me a lot on the how and why for certain roles and the behind-the-scenes industry stuff. A recent post on what a Gore Verkinski mini-series might be like got me wondering about Sam Rockwell, and I realised he'd never been covered in the main feed. Whilst by no means the biggest actor, I was wondering who else had not been covered at all. Plenty have been covered on Patreon or in places you forget about, like Chris Pine has been covered, but only in the Wonder Woman episodes. Who is the biggest A-list actor in Hollywood not covered? Obviously, there are actors from the 70s and earlier who just don't cover that time period as much and international stars where they have not touched on their countries. But who is the biggest actor you guys can think of that has not been touched on? Especially ones you're surprised they have not gotten too.

I’m in the mist of watching movies by the “we will definitely cover them one day” directors and recently started De Palma. Loving the thrillers especially and now that I’ve finished the ones in deleted to Hitch… I’ve moved on to rewatching Park Chan Wook. I’ve seen the big Hitchcock movies and now need more. What else should I check out? What else has that stylistic approach to thrillers. I’m fine with gritty realism in the genre but are some that lean more into the Hitchcock stylisation?

Andrew Stanton will be covered next between Weir and Scorsese. I was adding his movies to my Letterboxd list and noticed he had directed a brand-new Sci-Fi movie that I had never heard of. It's going for something, Cloud Atlas, adjacent centuries apart. It has real actors and looks ok but I truly have not seen 1 thing about it, no trailer, poster or anything. Is this truly the most nonexistent movie that will be covered, at least in terms of recent movies

Trying to watch all the Shane Black movies, and had not seen THE LONG KISS GOODNIGHT. Was shocked when he showed up, and my brain suddenly realised he'd been in THE BOURNE IDENTITY and X2. It hit me as extremly specific casting, especially as I don't think any cast him to reference one of the other roles. What are some other hyper-specific type casting you've noticed you don't think others have?

As a film fan not from America it is occasionally frustrating that only two places exist in America. New York City and California. It genuinely feels at times if not there then it’s vague nowhere towns where nothing feels that specific. I love the pods love of New York movies and they will no doubt talk a lot about the city as they do Scorsese but as I will be watching along I wanna step back to other places.

Richard Linklater has Texas
Troma/Kevin Smith has New Jersey
Matt Farley has Massachusetts

What are the canonical directors around America. Who makes the best movies about falling in love in Utah? who makes the funniest movies in Florida? who makes the best coming of age movies in Nevada? Is there any movie at all in Maine without the name Stephan King attached?

Next to Spielberg, probably the most respected/well known director living today. 50 years of takes and consensus, I want some kind of mad ones.

My mum: "Marty is the most underrated director of women, even if he falls into Madonna whore dynamics, he feels like the only one who gets both are human, both are flawed" This was said after she finally watched Megalopolis and hated its portrayal of women

My dad: "Liam Neeson's best performance is Silence hands down, no competitors."

My gf: "Shutter Island is a bad Silent Hill knockoff and one of the worst movies she has ever seen"

Me: "If After Hours is meant to be a comedy, it kind of fails as it's not very funny" Also, "Leo is floundering in his movies until The Wolf of Wall Street, when it all suddenly works.

I love Derek Jarman. Whilst this pod has done its best for representation, and whilst there are plenty of queer movies and quests outside of the Wachowskis, not much in terms of directors. That says more about the industry than the pod, but it got me thinking of good ones to cover. Jarman was an obsession in my teen cinephilia as his work is a fantastic history lesson in queer cinema, not just because he worked through Thatcher Britain and the aids crisis, but also his personal love for the aesthetics of the past.

Think about it, if we got Jarman, we would get baby Tilda Swinton, Sean Bean and Dexter Fletcher, lots of UK talk from David, I think Ben would be really interested in Jubilee, plus if they did it like Singleton and got as many LGBT guests as possible, it would really shine a light on his work. Plus, only the director will cover who was sainted. Very curious how Marie would feel about that

Big reasons not to cover him are obscurity, but I hope the coverage of Lynee Ramsay has kind of broken that requirement. Though, unlike her, I don't think there is a "We Need to Talk about Kevin" where if the director is obscure on all other fronts, you can say that title. His work would include the most experimental films they would cover to this point, which might also put them off covering. It's 11 films, feels like a good series

I feel that when discussing possible episodes for Todd to do, we are very stuck in the now, with a lot of stuff so recent that the badness of the album is a meme. What are some real old ones? Some true "The artist was on top, put out this, never recovered", and because it's so old, they are very unlikely to recover.
I understand Todd is not a historian; he is a critic, but I do love the mini history lessons we get on things like Solo Ringo, John Fogerty (twice), and Edgar Winter. Love all that stuff

Did my semi-annual Spider-Man rewatch of all 8 movies and it got me thinking about the directing and storytelling that Jon Watts brings. Raimi is obviously the blue print. We love Raimi and what he brings. I think Marc Web faulted but the first AMAZING SPIDER MAN has some great incorporating of “real New York” with the fake movie sets and the actors.
I saw Homecoming at 19 and followed since but feel everything I like about them (outside of actors) feels either like things I like from the previous movies or from Marvel in general. People who know more about the behind the scenes or his other work. What does Watts bring outside of things from the MARVEL machine?

Friedkin is one of those guys whose drop-off is sort of legendary. SORCERER, CRUSING, and TO LIVE AND DIE... have turned around to be seen as cult classics, and then he comes around to people if nothing else, saying, "Oh, those last two were pretty good".
I want him to be covered, but those 20 years between seem from an outsider perspective to be some of the most "does not exist" movies I can see. This is just from not really being there when they came out and them not really getting shout-outs in the history books. JADE seems to have been brought up the most, but as a bad movie or as part of the Joe Eszterhas run.
Love what I've seen of his classics, so will get around to them eventually or if he's covered. What do others think?

Whilst it can be annoying, I do enjoy how in love with New York the hosts are. I watched Igby Goes Down, which Griffin has said he loved, as well as Margaret and am craving the 2000s New York. Specifically, ones about young people.

A fun thing about nepo babies is that you can see the touches of their parents. The fact that M. Night's daughter Ishana's debut was a high-concept horror mostly set in one location felt like the apple did not fall far from the tree. Panos Cosmatos does not have a lot in common with his dad, but as his father's work is peak VHS and Panos makes movies that feel like you are watching the cursed VHS from the ring with a plot, I kind of see it.
I have basically followed Sam now for a decade, and his love of pushing the envelope and disjusting or graphic imagery has become tiring even as he pushes his aesthetic as much as possible. I have now started watching his father's films and am shocked by how different they are. Especially as a writer, his work is nostalgic, comforting and extremly tame/wholesome. It almost feels like Sam saw Diner and said, "Shut up, old man, I'll show you how real kids talk", then had them only reference movies from the 90's.
Are there any other Nepo baby directors or writers this different? Is he influenced by his dad at all? I've only seen Vietnam, The 4 Baltimore movies and Justice for All so far, so very possible I'm missing something.

One of the best things about this podcast is how much of film history it covers.
Indies, mid-budget and blockbusters of the 80's to today are the most discussed, but we have popped in on Hollywood in the past. We have covered almost every decade and movement in someway but not the 30's and 40's. Kubrick and Keaton in the 50's and 20's sandwich the only era we have not really covered in Hollywood history. Sturgess and Welles are the two most discussed as the people that they would cover. A few others have been discussed. Is anyone else rooting for this time to get covered

Was thinking about how the guys won't cover Joe Dante until he passes in the hope he will make "just one more film" so they don't end on "Burying the Ex".
I was filling in what I had not seen and decided to re-watch "Looney Tunes Back in Action" for the first time in 23 years, and though it's definitely flawed, after binge-watching his career, it feels like the perfect final film for him. He finally fulfils his Looney Tunes obsession, makes his biggest budget and most self-referential film in movie history. It has satire on capitalism and even a cameo from Roger Coreman, who started Dante's career. Felt like a swan song more so than a third-to-last movie.
Are there any other ones people feel this way about? It just felt like their moment to walk off into the sunset

The John Carpenter Series is maybe my personal favourite mini-series. I got into film history mostly because horror film history was so well preserved in the 2000s, so I grew up with Carpenter, Craven, and Hooper, as big to me as Spielberg or Kubrick. I think both series would be very doable and pretty fun

Hooper is 15 movies, but you could easily do some doubling up toward the end (Crocodile + Toolbox Murders, Mortuary + Djin), which feels most in line with Joe Dante as a big film nerd with a campy sensibility but without the kid-friendly appeal. Cursed with both a massive hit that did not actually fit his personal sensibilities (Texas Chainsaw Massacre) and his biggest hit still being debated to this day if he made it or not (Poltergeist). His career also spans a microcosm of independent horror films from regional horror productions, to Canon Group films, to Stephen King adaptations, to Weird international investment movies. With a researcher, this could be a great history of filmmaking series.
Plus, if he has not seen it already, Texas Chainsaw 2 is the most ben coded movie ever made. Hands down, no question. A major reason not to do him is that, outside of 4 to 5 movies, he probably has the most obscure filmography, regardless of quality.

Craven is a full 20 films covering three franchises. A workhorse and student of the masters with a strong sense of character and basic filmmaking that makes stuff go crazy, hits you way more than it does in most other slasher films. Constantly trying to prove he's more of a horror guy with experimentation with visuals, tone and concept. The man arguably redefined horror three times with The Last House on the Left, Nightmare on Elm Street and Scream. The sheer amount of actor context and behind-the-scenes nonsense that went on with Cursed alone is worth it. More so then carpenter, probably the defining horror director of the Slasher era.
His long filmography and connection to franchises might make him more coverable on Patreon, and his duds are far more spread out throughout his career, leading to them not being able to double episodes without taking away time from some great ones.

I love the show, but the Coen, Ramsey, Weir, and soon Scorsses onslaught is making me crave some really goofy, fun genre directors