Introducing Critical Darlings

Welcome to Critical Darlings, a new podcast miniseries from Blank Check: A conversation about the awards season conversation, one contender at a time.  On Critical Darlings, critics and Blank Check alumni Richard Lawson and Alison Willmore guide you through the state of the Oscars race, from the precursors, to the campaigns, to the nominees themselves. To get things started, we begin with a discussion of the festival circuit and the curious state of this year's race; where many promising films have floundered upon their public release. Sidebars include the host's Oscar history, watching festival features on no sleep, Brazilian film Twitter, The Oscars on Youtube, Leonardo DiCaprio at Cannes, and Allison's shocking Il Postino experiment.  Critical Darlings is crashing the Blank Check feed every Thursday through the end of Oscar season. Starting next week we'll have video clips to share produced by our friends at Vulture, stay tuned.   Subscribe to Richard's newsletter, Premiere Party, and read Alison's work at Vulture. 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. Follow @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or DiscordFor anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We went back to Pandora and we all fell in love with a very special lady. She’s a bit prickly. A bit unconventional. But boy, is she something! Join us as we chat Avatar: Fire and Ash, aka VARANG: THE AWAKENING, the third installment in Big Jim’s Sully family saga. Yes, this movie’s a bit messier than the previous ones. Yes, it repeats many of the same beats as The Way of Water. No, we do not care. We are too distracted by our new Na’vi queen. Listen to Big Jim drop Big Lore on The Town with Matt Belloni (Part 1 - Part 2) If you're in the area check out Nitehawk Trivia  Watch the Anaconda Trailer to have 3 Bad Minutes 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. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s pretty hard being the governor of an unnamed state when you’re a 34-year-old woman with a husband who’s the heir to a local pizza empire and you’ve got a brother who has agoraphobia and your sleazy dad keeps leaving you weird voicemails and Julie Kavner is narrating your entire life story! Wooo, that was a lot. James L. Brooks’ Ella McCay is A LOT. Richard Lawson joins us to chat about this very strange movie that feels like a real outlier at contemporary multiplexes. If anything, Ella McCay is a refreshing throwback. Kind of. Minus a few glaring, mind-boggling missteps. Anyway, join us for a fun conversation about this latest Brooksian offering, and stick around for a very exciting announcement about the expansion of Blank Check Productions!  Subscribe to Richard’s newsletter Premier Party 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. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Honey Don’t? Honey probably shouldn’t have. But that’s okay, because Honey, we’re gonna talk about it anyway! Writer and illustrator Mattie Lubchansky joins us to close out our Coens series with Ethan and Tricia’s latest offering from earlier this year. How do we feel about Margaret Qualley and Aubrey Plaza as performers? How do we feel about Chris Evans’ “year of trying stuff”? How do we feel about the threatened third film in this Lesbian B-Movie trilogy, “Go Beavers!”? Well, honey, you’ll just have to listen to find out. Plus - stay tuned after this episode to hear our introduction to The Hudsucker Proxy from our screening at Friend of the Fest at the American Cinematheque! ⁠Read Mattie's books⁠ ⁠Check out Mattie's Wife Jaya's writing⁠ ⁠Check out Slow Xmas 5 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. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two gals and a briefcase full of dicks. What more could an 84 minute caper need? mxmtoon joins us to chat about Ethan Coen and Tricia Cooke’s lesbian road trip movie Drive Away Dolls, and brings with her the fascinating perspective of someone whose first Coen movie was…Drive Away Dolls! We’re chatting about Ethan and Tricia’s unconventional relationship, the legacy of Cynthia PlasterCaster, and the unlikely leading man trajectory of Pedro Pascal. Plus, we’re mourning the dearth of lesbian bars and Geraldine Viswanathan vehicles in our current cultural climate. Check out mxmtoon’s YouTube Channel Read Ethan’s Collection of short stories  Support The Lipstick Lounge if you are in Nashville Or  Sugar and Spice Bar, The Cattyshack, The Cubby Hole, Gingers   Check out Demon Slayer Follow mxmtoon on Twitch 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. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You can’t say “Macbeth” in a theater, but you can certainly say it on a podcast! Dana Schwartz joins us (in her third Blank Check appearance on a witch-centered film) to talk about Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth, the first solo-directorial effort from a Coen Brother after their amicable split. We’re debating the success of Frances McDormand and Denzel Washington’s performances, learning about the history of Scottish kings, and discovering Ben Hosley’s family crest in the first Blank Check episode devoted to a work of Shakespeare. Trust us, this isn’t homework. It’s fun! Listen to Noble Blood Listen to Hoax  Read Anatomy A Love Story Pre-order The Arcane Arts Read If Roast Beef Could Fly Check out Forbidden Planet Watch Jefferson Mays’ A Christmas Carol 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. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Six segments. Four legendary movie podcasters. Three and a half hours of keeping David Sims away from his family. Welcome to our Ballad of Buster Scruggs episode! How Did This Get Made’s Paul Scheer and Jason Mantzoukas join the Two Friends to talk about the Coens’ final film together (as of this recording), a grab bag of western vignettes that could have been titled “A Million Ways to Die in the West” if Seth MacFarlane hadn’t already claimed it. We’re picking our favorite segments, chatting about the “wild west” of Netflix projects back when Scruggs was greenlit, and ranking the Coens’ filmography before we cover their solo directorial efforts. Oh, and Jason has a few bones to pick with Griffin and David about a certain section of the True Grit episode. Listen to How Did This Get Made - Grizzly II: Revenge w/ Jake Johnson Listen to the Coens on Fresh Air Check out the Parker Novels Check out the Darwyn Cook Parker novels graphic novel adaptation Listen to Telly Savalas’ Album Listen to Tim Blake Nelson on WTF Read Joshua Pease piece on Buster Scruggs 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. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Would that it twere so simple to lasso that lazy ol’ moon! This week, we’re chatting about all the studio shenanigans in Hail, Caesar! with our pal Shirley Li. Speaking of Shirley, we all knew she was skilled at getting David “The Dog” Sims off the leash, but did you know that she also attended researcher JJ’s wedding?! Lore drop! Join us as we unpack the careers of Channing Tatum and Alden Ehrenreich, gush over the gorgeous near-Technicolor cinematography, and celebrate the love of da moviesh that comes through so clearly in this film. Read Shirley's work 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. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

🎵🎶Puh-pa-please Mr. Kennedy (uhoh!) please won’t you listen to our puh-podcast🎶🎵This week we broadcast, not from a balcony, but from the Blank Check office, with guest Rachel Zegler (she connects with people, JJ’s research confirms)! Coming off of back to back Blank Checks the Coen’s took their time to release Inside Llewyn Davis, a somber comedy following a folk singer stuck in a failure loop. We’ve got two dogs off the leash, two fart detectives, the Coen’s attempting the Armageddon method of casting Llewyn, and the cold reality of pursuing the arts. Read Jack Antonoff’s slander in print Watch Carey Mulligan in 2015’s Far From the Madding Crowd Listen to the penultimate episode of WTF  Get the Evita Album 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. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Kathryn Bigelow is back. But are WE so back? Not quite. The gang discusses the recent release A House of Dynamite, a film in which the president listens to podcasts, Tracy Letts loves the Mets, and the city of Chicago may or may not be completely leveled by an atomic bomb. Do we kind of miss Mark Boal now? Are we praying Kathryn Bigelow directs something a little more in line with Strange Days or Point Break next? Would Ethan Hunt have saved this movie? Yes, yes, and yes. 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. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook!  Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices