155. Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Phillip Seymour Hoffman in 'Moneyball' (2011)
Release Date: 05/23/2023
185. The Women of 'Blade Runner 2049'
Full Cast And Crew
The female actors of 'Blade Runner 2049' are a huge part of the brilliance of Denis Villenueve's 2017 sequel to Ridley Scott's 'Blade Runner'. They bring to life such wonderfully complicated, original, genre-bending, emotionally resonant, funny, and strong characters. In this special episode of the podcast, I take a look at all of the scenes featuring the incredible actors who brought the characters of Luv, Joi, Madam, and Dr. Stelline to life: Sylvia Hoeks, Ana de Armas, Carla Juri, and Robin Wright.
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184. 'Dune 2'
Full Cast And Crew
Denis Villenueve's masterpiece 2nd part of his 'Dune' trilogy.
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183. 'Get Shorty' (1995)
Full Cast And Crew
Barry Sonnenfeld and Scott Frank's adaptation of Elmore Leonard's 1990 crime novel 'Get Shorty' was the 2nd film that John Travolta made after returning to top stardom with a bang in Tarantino's 'Pulp Fiction'. This vibe-y, enjoyable, smartly-written and brilliantly-acted mid-90's example of the $20-30 million-dollar studio movie that now seems like a vestige of another time and place.
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182. 'Sunset Boulevard' (1950) with Special Guest Brad Caleb Kane
Full Cast And Crew
I'm joined again by multi-hyphenate for a discussion about Billy Wilder and Charles Brackett's iconic 1950 satirical noir Hollywood cautionary tale 'Sunset Boulevard' and various other digressions!
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181. All of Brad Pitt's Cliff Booth Scenes from 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'
Full Cast And Crew
The second in my growing collection of episodes devoted to 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'...this time it's an episode celebrating all the brilliant Cliff Booth scenes...scenes representing some of Brad Pitt's finest acting to date and the heart and soul of Tarantino's greatest homage to the Hollywood of his youth.
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180. Oscars 2024 Recap
Full Cast And Crew
It's my annual Oscar Recap. And Killers of the Flower Moon wuz robbed!
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179. All of Leonardo Dicaprio's Rick Dalton Scenes from 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood'
Full Cast And Crew
All of Leonardo DiCaprio's scenes as Rick Dalton in Quentin Tarantino's movie-making love-letter 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' If you're new to the podcast, there's an episode Previous All Their Scenes episodes:
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178. 'Klute' (1971)
Full Cast And Crew
Alan J. Pakula deserves more attention and respect as one of the grestest American film directors of any era. His run of films in the 70's, from 'Klute' to 'The Parallax View' to 'All The President's Men'...all brilliantly shot by Cinematographer Gordon Willis (The Godfather films)...are as impressive and of their moment as any films made in this thrilling period of American filmmaking. In this episode, I dive into Pakula's understated persona and genius for working with actors, the period details and psychological explorations that result in a layered, non-showy film that rewards repeat...
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177. 'The Third Man' (1949)
Full Cast And Crew
Carol Reed and Graham Greene's iconic post-war neo noir classic 'The Third Man'. A perfect movie. Steven Soderbergh calls it the only movie you need to watch in order to learn how to make a movie. In this episode I cover the making of, the battles between David O. Selznick, Alexander Korda, Reed and Orson Welles, the happenstance score to end all film scores and MORE.
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176. 'The Long Good Friday' (1980)
Full Cast And Crew
In which my evolving, complicated relationship with the crowd-pleasing John 'Frenzy' MacKenzie's exuberant, vibe-y classic 'The Long Good Friday' is flayed open and nailed to the floor for your auditory enjoyment.
info_outlineBennett Miller was the 3rd director attached to the adaptation of Michael Lewis' classic baseball non-fiction book 'Moneyball', after Steven Soderbergh was replaced by Sony, who got nervous over his plan for interspersing interviews with real-life characters from the book like Lenny Dykstra and Darryl Strawberry throughout the film. His rewrite of Steve Zaillian's script made the studio nervous when paired with the $50 million dollar budget.
Some of that technique remains in Miller's use of real baseball scouts and former players in the film, but it's blended seamlessly with the fantastic performances by Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill (who replaced Dmitri Martin in the role of Paul Brand/Paul DePodesta), Phillip Seymour Hoffman, and Chris Pratt.
Pitt and Sony exec Amy Pascal and producer Mike DeLuca stuck with the project, reduced the budget, and luckily, the film got made. On the face of it, it's an audacious undertaking: no less than an art-house take on baseball. Or is it a crowd-pleasing writer's film with a decidedly 70's bent? Or is it a treatise on the limitations of collective conventional wisdom? It's all these things and more.
Some Articles About 'Moneyball':
Roundtable with Brad Pitt, Jonah Hill, and Bennett Miller: https://youtu.be/