‘Silver Linings Playbook’ With Chris Ryan, Andy Greenwald, and Zach Baron
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Did Don Draper really buy the world a Coke? Did Tony Soprano really die? Or just order more onion rings? Were those guys really in hell the whole time, or was that just the audience? The finales of our favorite shows can make us argue, make us cry, and make us crazy.

From Spotify and The Ringer, I'm Andy Greenwald, and this is Stick the Landing, a new podcast where we'll be telling the story of modern TV backwards, one fade out at a time. Each episode, a guest and I will choose a celebrated series from history, from the 70s to the streaming era and beyond, and do a deep dive on its very last episode. Was it all a dream? Did it turn into a nightmare? And most importantly, what can we learn about tomorrow's new shows from the way yesterday's ended?

TV is a journey. I hope you'll enjoy this podcast about the destination. Starting January 17th, find Stick the Landing on Wednesdays on the Prestige TV feed, on Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Rewatchables is brought to you by the Ringer Podcast Network, where you can hear Stick the Landing.

The new podcast from Andy Greenwald about TV finales. You still cranking that out? Apparently. You just started cranking that out. That's available on the Prestige TV feed. The Rewatchables is not brought to you by GQ magazine. Wow. But that's where our buddy Zach Barron works. And Zach, Andy, and I, we all go back a long time. We love the Eagles.

We treasure our mental stability. I'm not going to fight. So Bill thought it would be funny if we did a pod together and released it as the Eagles played the Bucks in the wildcard rounds. It's all fucking ruined now. It's ruined. It's Silver Linings Playbook. Tiffany's coming over. What happened to Tommy? He died. Don't bring it up. Tiffany. You look nice. How'd Tommy die? No.

What meds are you on? I used to be on lithium. I was on Xanax. Did you ever take Klonopin? Klonopin, yeah. On November 16th. Don't let Tiffany get you in trouble. She's my friend. Wait, what's happening? Bradley Cooper, Jennifer Lawrence, Robert De Niro, and Chris Tucker. When life reaches out at a moment like this, it's a shame if you don't reach back. What's this? I thought you were doing it. Oh, I thought you were doing it. Silver Linings Playbook. Rated R. Select Cities, November 16th.

All right, guys, here we are. Silver Linings Playbook. A little bit about why we're here, right? About a month ago, I got a text message from Bill that said, Hey, would you host Silver Linings Playbook with you and Andy Greenwald and Zach Barron? It's on Tubi right now. I thought it would be funny going into an Eagles playoff. Just for the record, it's on Netflix. It's on Netflix. But this is Bill. He's on a plane. He's, I don't know, somehow watching Tubi. And this tickled his interests. I...

I'm happy to be doing this movie. I love this movie. I love Philadelphia sports. I love you guys. So this is enjoyable. But there is an element of humiliation. You hear the words ritual humiliation. I feel like my whole life I've heard the words ritual humiliation. I never really understood what that meant until I contemplated what we were being asked to do. I'm excited because how many of these have you done? How many rewatchables? In the hundreds. Hundreds, yeah. This is the first one to double as evidence in an OSHA complaint. That's right.

Because this is workplace harassment? I don't even work here and I'm being harassed. This is unbelievable. Bill's got an interesting sense of humor when it comes to other sports fan bases, especially Philadelphia, who he has a special place in hell for. On one hand, I'm really glad he's not here. I don't think it would have gone well for all of us. Hearing him talk about the Sixers and the Eagles on his podcast is like having my fingernails pulled out. But...

You know, it is it is make it allows these Philly guys to be alone for too long and some weird things can happen. I think that it's is he aware of our just deeply psychologically wrecked text thread that we have? Like we have a group chat. Yeah. That is. Yeah.

I think he assumed so. I'll speak for myself. I think he can assume the existence. Yeah. And so I think the opportunity to make our private pain public might be helpful. It might be healthy. I mean, the Solitano family comes through the gauntlet. To Simmons or to us? I'm choosing at the start of this to think of this as an opportunity. Okay, so for context, obviously Andy and I do the Watch podcast together. Zach...

Me, Andy, we're all longtime friends. We're all from Philadelphia. And we all have a really healthy, balanced relationship with the Eagles. Yeah, it's fine. I actually do think it's kind of funny to talk a little bit about our sports fandom because this is going to come into the discussion of the movie in such a big way.

Who wants to go first in talking about their relationship to the Philadelphia Eagles? I'm crying already, so I feel like Zach should go first. I'm already... Yeah, I mean, it's probably the most unhealthy relationship in my entire life. Yeah. Including the one with the two of you. Yeah, and that's probably lifetime true. I feel like I love all Philly sports, but the Eagles are a particular flavor...

Of disappointment and exhilaration that I cannot quit and get only more addicted to the longer life goes on. Yeah, you've been a victim of the more information sports fans have gotten. I think it's made you more wracked with like...

I just like kind of stress and like interest with the team. Like as you've gotten like more talk about Lane Johnson's leverage technique or whatever, or the different defenses that Sean Desai and Matt Patricia run. Like, I feel like you go deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole. Oh yeah, absolutely. Shout out our friends at Philly special. They do a beautiful job. She'll and Ben, thank you very much.

Yeah, and I also like... We'll talk about it a lot, but it's like one of the great things about Silver Lines Playbook is it nails that way that your life can be totally organized by the sports team that plays in your city. And it's ridiculous, and it makes no sense, but it also is 1,000% indisputably true. And when I think about...

When I think about the year this film came out, I can tell you what happened with the Eagles. When I think about the Eagle season chronicled in the film, I could tell you exactly what that felt like. And those are like my memories. And I will remember this current Eagle season for the rest of my life. I wish that weren't true, but I can feel it like already just like grafting itself onto my bones and I will not be able to get rid of it.

I don't want to make light of addiction, which is a serious thing, but I do feel like my relationship to this team could be couched in those terms. And to be fair, there's probably no better movie to make light of serious mental issues in context of because this movie does it better than just about anyone in recent history. But...

I feel like there's a lot of magical thinking involved in my life with sports where I'm like, this time I'm going to do it right. This time I'm just going to enjoy hanging out with my guys. Because for as much as Zach likes Lane Johnson's leverage technique, I'm like, Lane Johnson has struggled.

Lane Johnson's personal story is meaningful to me and I care for him. I only care about human interest stories. My all 22 is just 22 heart emojis around Jalen Hurts' head. And so every time I get drawn into one of these seasons, I'm like, I'll be healthier this time. Yeah. I'll be fine. I will not take my fragile emotional being and just hand it over.

to Matt Patricia. Right. I have a young child right now. Yes. And this is, it's been a great, like, mirror because he'll be, like, in the room when I'm either thinking about or watching the Eagles and I'm like...

you have to control yourself. And I basically, like, you just see another person, you're like, wow, the energy coming off me right now is insane. And a small, unprotected child is, like, not ready for this level of insanity. But he's like, why is dad so angry? Well, or why is dad and Chris

so angry yeah or why are dad and Chris tackling each other and crying with like joy I think I'm somewhere in the middle between the two of you guys I don't really look to the Eagles for parasocial relationships or nor is it important to me that they like one another I also expect and welcome to

an amount of pain with, with like watching sports. Like to me, it's like, that's being, being 15 and two or whatever is not actually like realistic sports fandom. Like, and I, I don't mind the record that the Eagles have this season, which is 11 and six.

I'm fine with that. Like, if you told me they were going to be 11 and 6 at the beginning of the season, I would have been like, sounds like a pretty good season. What about when they were 10 and 1? Yeah, I know. That's the thing, is that it's all about how the season plays out. It's not about where it came from. This is a good point, and I think the movie did sort of remind me of some things. One of which being...

Football seasons used to be kind of normal in the sense that I was not following every team in the league all the time. I was not familiar with what any technique anyone was doing was. You didn't have a TV that played four games at once in your face. No, and so the 2008 season, which is chronicled in the movie Silver Linings Playbook, like, they were bad a lot of the season. And then they got good at the right time, and they backed in the playoffs, and they almost went to the Super Bowl. And my experience of football as a younger person was more limited. Like, let's go get them this week. Yeah.

And then, you know, we would plunge into a Sunday depression in Brooklyn, usually when Andy Reid bungled the clock. But like, then my life went on. This sort of feast or famine where it's everything all the time and our team has been so wildly good that the expectations are out of whack has not been healthy for me. I had an interesting experience recently. So I've probably lived, I'm 46, I've lived outside of Philadelphia longer than I've lived in Philadelphia at this point. Yeah.

When you live out in Los Angeles, especially with East Coast football, you have the luxury of sometimes seeing those games at like 10 a.m. Yeah. You know, there are a lot of games where like you're done by one. You can move on with your day. It's still sunny out. Your son is staring at you. Your significant others and family may expect things from you where they're like, now let's go about like a normal weekend. That's not really the case on the East Coast. That's not really the case, especially in Philadelphia. And I recently went home to go see my mom.

And it was, I got in on a Sunday and the Monday night was the Seahawks game where the Eagles lost to Drew Locke in Seattle. Yeah, I remember that. And it was a Monday night game. So it started at like 8.

1530 or whatever East Coast time. And I was like still watching the Eagles at like 11 p.m. basically. By the way, we've played like nine Monday night games this year. Think about what it's like for people who actually look at it. And the end of that game was chef's kiss. I mean, that's really what you tuned in for. But that was like five minutes to be back in Philadelphia for that. And it wasn't like I went outside and like everybody walked out of their houses to have like a postgame like commiseration about it. But like the vibe was

especially in late December Philadelphia it was a different kind of experience than you have when you're here so you we're all like these kind of like wrecked men who are washed up on the shores of sports fandom imagine what it would be like if we still lived in Philly at least you get to go to bed after that Monday night game in Philly here you have to like put on the face of a man who's not destroyed and go about the rest of your day a normal person yeah

Just like the Hannibal Lecter face of a guy who's like, okay. Just a normal person masked. Yeah. I think that the movie does a good job of communicating to the world that after a certain point, like not too long after Labor Day, every single thing in Philadelphia is the color of the Ben Franklin Bridge. Yeah. From the sky to people's faces.

to the inside of your heart. They absolutely nailed that. That gray concrete sky, which is in like 90% of the shots in this film, is like exactly what it's like. And it just hits different. Like here, you're right. Like as much as I do not feel like a whole person when my team blows it. Yeah.

You walk outside, it's golden, it's nice out. You can sort of anesthetize yourself a little bit. Sure, yeah, you can go take a jog or whatever. But the rod is inside of us. This movie, as we've alluded to, it was a 2012 film. This is the second straight 2012 movie we've done on the rewatchables. We did Flight last time. You could make an argument that this may be the last great rewatchables era that we've experienced in terms of like

These movies that I think have had second, third, fourth lives on cable and Netflix that you can watch this 30 minute clip like chunk of or this five minute scene of and just get like a little like a little adrenalized from it. I think this movie definitely fits into that category of like there are parts of this film that like if it's on, I'm going to stick through to watch like I need to see Shea Whigham come down the stairs.

As Andy said, this movie tracks the 2008 Philadelphia Eagle season and it's about Pat Solitano's attempts to reconcile with his estranged wife after he leaves a mental institution in Baltimore. Pat has bipolar disorder and has suffered from panic attacks and experiences somewhat violent outbursts at times. He eventually finds meaning and connection in his life through Tiff Evans, a young widow played by Jennifer Lawrence.

who is going through her own mental health struggles. He partners with her in a dance competition on the condition that Tiff helps him win back his ex, Nikki. But it turns out that Tiff is in fact his silver lining. That's my synopsis of this movie. And I want to just quote a piece of journalism that was written about this film at the time of its release.

The ways in which Pat, in his pitiable mix of out-of-control rage and deranged optimism, is a product of his struggling underdog city and the maddening football franchise that it hosts will probably be obvious to most readers of this site and lost on a solid percentage of non-sports fans who go see the movie. You have to know Philly, know the Eagles to really get it.

how each of these characters is simultaneously badly scarred and up for more punishment. Silver Linings Playbook is a few different movies at once, but one of those movies is about the complicated interplay between a city's sports teams and a city's citizens, the way that over time the two start resembling one another. That was written by Zach Barron for a little website.

called Grantland. Yeah. Great paragraph. Nice. Yeah. Yeah. Good job by you. You know, I wasn't always washed up. Do you still think that that's true? Do you still think that they're in this day and age of like everything has become national coverage. We're aware of the Buffalo Bills quarterback depth chart. I know like Tank Dell got hurt. So that's going to affect CJ Stroud's blah, blah, blah.

Like, do you still have this tunnel vision and this relationship to the Eagles in a way, even though you live on the other side of the country? Yes. Yeah, I know. Very much so. I also like, I think that,

that, like, the collapse that the team is enduring right now. Or not, because this is coming out the night of the Bucks game. We could be talking about... I think the damage is done. Sailing into the divisional round. That's right. That's right. Excelsior? Yeah. Excelsior. Excelsior. Yeah, like, the way in which this is happening feels very unique to the Eagles. Yeah. And feels very unique to the, like, just the...

The Philadelphian in all of us who is like, this is going good and it's about to go real bad. And when it goes bad, I'm not going to be surprised. You know, like, it's just like my fate has arrived. I'm going to feel more safe. Yeah. There's an assumption that it's going to go bad. And I just like, like, you can know everything about the Chargers.

This isn't like built into the vocabulary of like what the Chargers franchise represents. Right. You know? And there's just like something still I find very unique about your team, your city. And if you grew up there, the way that like certain things just got jumped into you and will never come out of you.

yeah it's right there in the beginning of the movie when they say your teams have an inferiority complex i mean i think that one of the genius things about the film is that while certain players are mentioned and we're going to mention those players and i wish we were all wearing that one player's jersey

The movie is about the cultural attachment to an institution that represents something year in and year out, Sunday to Sunday, and the relationship with whoever is suiting up and what we expect from them and what they do to us and why we keep coming back for more. And I feel like people who aren't from Philadelphia, I mean, every city has its story. Every city has its psychology. But the analogy I always tell people is the degree to which Philadelphia ingrained feels like a little brother.

The way that everyone in Philadelphia walks around with a chip on their shoulder about New York City, and New York City doesn't think about Philadelphia at all. At all. Ever. That is baked in... I just watched the Giants game, the good one, not the bad one, with a family of Giants fans. And the extent to which, like...

they were like, oh, it's the Eagles. I was like kind of shocked. I was like, don't you guys hate this? And don't you don't you guys want to see Jalen Hurts writhing in pain and all the other things that like we say during the Cowboys games or during during Washington games or during Giants games. And it was just like they didn't like it, but they were like they had a much healthier relationship. I thought to the rivalry.

Yeah, it permeates the town. And by the way, I think all three of us, we love the city of Philadelphia. And I think it's a beautiful place. And there's a lot of great food and art and culture. And the teams are doing generally pretty well. And the vibes at the baseball stadium are very different than they used to be. And like, it's all good. But somewhere deep in the heart of even the greenest, biggest snouted fanatic, there's just an unrelenting reservoir of bile.

that it just is always going to be there. And even winning the Super Bowl, which apparently did happen. I was with you guys. One of you tackled me. Didn't wash it away. Didn't wash it away, right? Because even that team feels like, it feels like a fluke.

It feels bizarre that that happened. It feels like we got away with one. I disagree with that, but that's not really what this podcast is about. Like, I still feel like we're still in the, like, what Bill used to term it, like, this five-year grace period where you basically, after a championship, you weren't really allowed to complain. He does not follow his own rules. Yeah, I'm not buying that. But I think it's interesting how, no matter really what success you experience as a sports fan, like, most sports fans are happier being unhappy than they are happy.

You know, like Bill has in the last 15 years that I've known him, Bill has experienced more sports joy than he had in his entire life leading up to that than most people will ever experience in their entire lives. And he still remembers, you know,

exactly what happened in a 2011 like late season Celtics game or every single thing that the Patriots did or didn't do right when they've like rarely lost a Super Bowl or lost in the playoffs. And he references them like they happened yesterday because you hold on to the anger and you hold on to the pain more than you hold on to the joy, which I think this movie illustrates really well. And this movie is also coming off of was made during the tail end of and is about

you know, the back nine of the Andy Reid years, which were by any like normal fan metric, wildly successful. Oh, yeah. Of being always in the mix of, you know, making the playoffs year after year, of making all those championship games, making it to the Super Bowl. But formatively, it's the most Philadelphia stretch imaginable, right? Because something always went wrong. Yes. Something always...

always broke the wrong way, whether it was Tio's leg or something else. Like it just never quite worked. And that feeling, I mean, this is why I'm broken. But like my number one memory of those years is losing the NFC championship game in the last game at the vet, right? To the Bucs. Not the next year. We went to the Super Bowl. What I remember is that was our moment and what it

It felt like when it wasn't. Even the season depicted in this film, 2008, which the Dallas game that the film ends on is like one of the truly great Eagles days in the last like two decades. But what I really remember from that season is Larry Fitzgerald ripping our heart out. It's Kurt Warner, right? Kurt Warner, Larry Fitzgerald, Arizona, Arizona.

I think Larry Fitzgerald had like 400 yards. Yeah. And I still remember him just like running through our defense. I definitely think we watched that game in a bar in Brooklyn and I just walked out into the abyss afterwards. Into a bus lane. Let's talk a little bit more specifically about the movie. So this was a 2008 novel by Matthew Quick.

It was optioned by Sidney Pollack and Anthony McHale, who were looking at different ways of adapting it, and they brought in David O. Russell to work on the script and direct. He did something like 20 drafts of the script over the year,

over the years, trying to find the right tone. And it went through tons of different permutations of casting, which we'll get to. But we wind up with this movie that's directed by David O. Russell that stars Bradley Cooper and Jennifer Lawrence with Jackie Weaver and Robert De Niro in supporting roles. And what you get in this movie, I kind of think about it sometimes as like, if you listen to a lot of really like

ironic arch indie rock for a while. And then you go on to an emo record. Like there is some kind of gear shift in this movie that at the time. And even today, when I watch it now, the emotional vulnerability and the sheer like foregrounding of everybody, like how they're feeling and it's all in their faces, but it's also in the way that the characters talk is really refreshing. You know, like I still find it really like a breath of fresh air and

For whatever flaws the film has, I don't really see a lot of movies that are like this. No, no. And even then, it's not like there were a lot. This is a David O. Russell movie.

Yeah. You know, like Huckabees is like this, you know, even Three Kings like has a little bit of this, obviously American Hustle, which is the movie that's after this. Yeah. It's a lot like this. And Amsterdam, which was like two years ago, not a very successful movie, but has that same quality of it's like zany, it's madcap, but like what it's about, it's about ideas, you know, it's about...

It's about Amsterdam. It's about the idea of utopia. It's about the idea of romantic love. And it's like all the characters are chasing a feeling. You know what I'm saying? Like they're not trying to get a bag of money. They're trying to like balance the insanity in their head against the love they feel in their heart and like even it out. And that's like a really hard thing to do. And that's like what they're all striving to do. And he's like unembarrassed and also really gifted at making movies like about that. Yeah.

that. We don't have a lot of filmmakers make movies about feelings, you know? Yeah. But it's also, this struck me on the rewatch, like it's, it's very old fashioned in a lot of ways. And that helped, that, that helped me get my arms back around it, you know, for, and we'll talk about some of the things that maybe didn't age as well, or that I bumped on in the beginning of the rewatch, but,

This is a guy who grew up loving screwball comedies. I mean, there's the pitter-patter of dialogue, the sort of the wink-wink innuendo, the idea that you can save yourself through dance. I mean, all of this is like Preston Sturges. The thing in the rain is literally shown multiple times in this film. Yeah, and they do the dance number. And I think you have to watch the movie through that lens, which is not something that I think I was considering when I was watching it 10 years ago. Or modern...

Audiences might not even be familiar with the references. So it might... I just remember it being covered in a way that was like, oh, this is sort of radical, the way he's breaking this down, and he's going right for the jugular and right for the heart. But in fact, it's kind of a throwback movie. Yeah, I mean, and the two of them, the bantering, it's 1930s screwball comedy all the way. And so is the plot, because it's like, you know, when I read that synopsis, like, if you hadn't seen this film or if you haven't seen this movie in a long time, I think the things that stick with you are...

uh bradley cooper and robert de niro and their relationship to the eagles and then obviously like bradley cooper and his relationship to the jennifer lawrence character but you forget that the second half of the movie is essentially preparing for and executing a dance competition number and that there is just this almost like improvisatory unfolding of the plot that's like

grabbing things off of like a cork board, like index cards, like let's do dance. Let's do like Chris Tucker's here and let's do this. And it's like, it doesn't actually like make sense on paper, but it makes sense on screen. And there's also an element that I think could be jarring, which is like he's doing a screwball classic film with the safe search filters off. So I don't like I haven't seen the Philadelphia story in a while. I don't remember Cary Grant beating a guy nearly to death with his boots. Right.

So, you know... But there's a lot of darkness in that film, too. Actually, like, I do, you know, we'll talk about, like, double feature or something later, but I think, like, that's kind of the answer because it's, like, two very badly damaged people who occasionally are willing to hurt each other very badly. That's true. And... But then ultimately find connection. And, I mean, I think there's apparently, like, an even darker version of this film that they shot, like, where they had De Niro kind of even...

angrier. I think the novel is darker too. Yeah. Like I think in the novel Pat's away for like four years which there's almost like vestiges of that in their reaction to Pat coming home where they're like whoa he's home. Yeah like like as if he's been away on a bid but like in the movie I think it's supposed to be like something like four months or a couple of months. Yeah. It's eight months. It's eight months? Okay. And and um

I don't know if you can make it much darker. Like, you can tell that they kind of... Yes. They found the outer limit of being able to do that and have it still work. Yeah, and I think that that's why some of Russell's maybe more recent films, like, have failed. You know, I mean, not necessarily failed box office-wise, but failed to connect with audiences in a big-time way. I mean, like, to me, this is...

Pretty much as good as he gets, I think. I agree. I have, like, a real soft spot for Huckabees, I think, based on, like, where I was in my life and also, like, not really seeing a lot of movies that did what Huckabees did at the time. And obviously, David O. Russell is, like...

the public persona of him as a filmmaker has sort of aged poorly. I suppose we'll get into that in what's aged the worst. But in Bradley Cooper, he kind of finds the perfect radio tower. Like he finds the actor who almost like

perfectly captures the Cassavetes meets Cameron Crowe tone that he's going for and Zach you've had you know experiences like writing about Bradley Cooper not only just writing about his movies as a critic but interviewing him and I was curious whether without like speculating how much do you thought like Pat Solitano is like a like a perfect extension of who he is yeah so

I think about this all the time to this day. When I did a story on Bradley Cooper for GQ, and one of the people I talked to for that story, and this was for American Hustles, the year after this movie came out. It was 2014. So it was very, very fresh. I talked to David O. Russell for that story, and I remember he said something that I still think about all the time in regards to Bradley Cooper, which is he talked about his performance in Wedding Crashers, I believe. And he was like,

this guy seemed really, really angry to me. And then I met him, and I talked to him, and he was like, yeah, I'm really, really angry. And particularly when I shot that movie, I was, like, heavier than I was now. I was, like, more unhappy with myself than I was now. And I was really, really angry. Which is things that Pat talks about. Like, Pat in The Silver Linings is like, shedding weight is, like, the most important thing he can do. Yes. So they ported, like, a lot of what was actually going on with Bradley Cooper into this film. And...

And I think great directors do this. But, like, if you look at Bradley Cooper's career before this, it's a lot of hangover movies. He's in a movie called Midnight Meat Train. Yeah, which makes him a cameo in this film, yeah. Yeah, and he, again, and I've talked to him about this, was not, like, happy about that track. No, he was banging around for 10 years. Written off of Alias. Yeah. You know, like, off of a TV show. And...

So this is a person who's unhappy in his life, unfulfilled in his career. And David O. Russell says, hey, there's this thing about you that's really interesting. You're being cast as a frat guy. You're being cast as a Vegas cargo shorts jock. Vapid pretty boy. Yeah. But actually, there's like an anger inside of you. And also like a desire to improve yourself. Yeah. And they live side by side. And I am going to put that on screen. And...

Bradley Cooper's career after this is never the same. He's nominated for an Oscar for this movie and he goes on to basically only do prestige stuff with great directors or stuff he's done himself. Or voice a raccoon. Which might be his best performance. Yeah, I do love that raccoon. And this is the turning point. This is David O. Russell saw it and put it on screen. He saw what Bradley Cooper was truly great at and you see it in this movie and it's amazing.

It's amazing. And it is very much rooted in like a true thing about Bradley Cooper. There's a lot of that in this movie, I think, which is like making anything creatively is lightning in a bottle. But you have to see something. A director usually has to see something and then communicate it to the audience. Right. And it's not just seeing it in Bradley Cooper. It's seeing it in Jennifer Lawrence, who was absolutely not right for the part as it was written. It was way too young. But he understood that she would bring something that was necessary to it.

It's even in the tone that we're talking about. Like, how do you find that line? How do you find, how do you communicate a very, very dark story

in a way that's going to be a crowd pleaser. Yeah. And it's interesting to watch David O. Russell's career after it because he is, to a degree, chasing that chemistry, right? He's like, my sensibilities haven't changed. Why can't I calibrate it exactly right? And I feel like, while he's made decent to good movies since, I don't know if he's ever got the dials right the way he got it in this one. Yeah. And I don't think that's a fault of his. I just think it's really hard. And it doesn't seem like, I mean, the sort of...

of screenplays and it's never really seemed to matter to him that much. I mean, his movies are scrambling all over the place. It sounds like he does a lot of finding of the film, both on the set when he's shooting and then in the editing room when he decides like the tone of the film. But you mentioned Jennifer Lawrence. So we should talk about her before we get into the categories because I forgot that this was the same year as Hunger Games. And obviously we can get into like Apex Mountain stuff, but

I was kind of reminded, you know, she's been quote-unquote with us for the better part of a decade now, and she's kind of like not only a staple of movie theaters, but is kind of taken on... Like, she's a celebrity. She's like...

she's memefied she's when she goes on hot ones she does great appearances at award shows she just was like if i don't win i'm leaving at the golden glow she's been on the rewatchables she's been on the rewatchables it was uh it was wild to go back to this and see the raw uncut like this is this is it man yeah this is and and again we can talk about apex balance of later but like

What she's doing in this movie is awesome. And the fact that there's, like, a record of, like, 21-year-old Jennifer Lawrence absolutely throwing heat, like, with Bradley Cooper, but, like, in scenes with Robert De Niro, just, like, standing up and firing on all cylinders is...

Awesome to see. She's a five-tool player in this movie. Like, she can make you laugh, make you cry, scare you. She dances. She can do very written monologues like the Juju one that she does to De Niro, but she can also be like, you're fucking killing me to Julia Stiles. And you're like, is this Jenna Rollins? Like, holy shit. Like, this is really, really, really...

just such a raw human experience. And an extremely funny performance. And she's 21 when she makes this? Or 20 when they film it? Or 20, 21 when they film it. Probably Cooper 37. It's not ideal. But it works. I mean, it's one of the more amazing recent examples of like, none of this makes any sense. But I guess David Russell was committed and he was right. Yeah. Well, we should also mention that I think one of the reasons why Cooper is

is so resonant in this film is that he is also a Philadelphia and is also an Eagles fan is probably their most famous fan right now. Uh, since Taylor Swift decided to become a chiefs fan. So, uh, Pennsylvania heritage Cooper often seen at Eagles games. Like he is, he is sort of stuck with the program after, after this movie, he's from Abington. He's from Abington, um, legitimate, real, like bonafide Eagles fan. Yeah. Um,

Did you vet him when you were with him? He vetted me. Did he really? Yeah. It was honestly like with Philly people can go two ways. And he and I talked about this.

It can either be like, we're brothers for life, which kind of, I think, represents this table, for instance, people talking right now. Or it's like, kind of like, we're probably going to fight at this bar. And he and I were both kind of laughing, like, I think we're like in the fight category. I think we are. Yeah, we kind of are. And it's like that kind of like, you're puffing at your chest and he's puffing at his chest. And we're like,

It was actually the day I interviewed him, I remember, was like when Nick Foles threw, I think, seven touchdowns against the Raiders. Was it seven? And we were like talking about that. Who's counting, you know? Yeah, who's counting? Who remembers that? And we're like kind of like both excited about it, but also like...

somehow, like, disagreeing already about it. About what it meant? Yeah, about what it meant. But he's a real Philly dude. This movie made more than $200 million worldwide. What a time to be alive. That's insane. On, like, a $20 million budget or something. Yeah, I mean, it's a pretty incredible moment where this flight

like Argo, Zero Dark Thirty, like these sort of big studio dramas are getting into the hundreds of millions of box office returns. But also, does this trajectory even happen anymore? Because it premiered at Toronto at the end of 2012, right? And then it won the audience award. Everyone's like, oh, people are talking. People are talking. There's good buzz. And then there was still a infrastructure of theaters that it's like does the slow release and starts making money and people love it and people love it and it becomes like a phenomenon. Yeah, I think you even referenced in your Grantland article like

This is finally out. It's been kind of trickling out for a while. It platformed it, yeah. Yeah. And you could like read a review about it, but a lot of places you couldn't see it and...

Yeah, it went wide at the end of December. Right around Christmas, perfect timing. People say a lot of bad things about Harvey Weinstein, but the guy could platform an awards movie. This got the big five Oscar noms. Pick director, actor, actress, script. Jennifer Lawrence won for actress. Also had a supporting actor for De Niro and supporting actress for Jackie Weaver. Nomination. Nomination, yeah. So only won the one. Roger Ebert.

Three and a half stars. We're fully aware of the plot conventions at work here, the wheels and gears churning within the machinery. But with these actors, this velocity, and the oblique economy of the dialogue, we realize we don't often see it done this well. Silver Linings Playbook is so good, it could almost be a terrific old classic. There it is. There you go. That's why it's on the rewatchables. We'll take a quick break, and we'll come back and do the categories. Most rewatchable scene. So, as Andy said right before we started the podcast...

an almost like frenetic burst of scenes. So it's like hard to sometimes say like, oh, this is the iconic moment. And there's a lot of iconic moments in this movie, but the scenes themselves like bleed. They're fast. It's really like,

The movie tumbles out like it's being spoken. It's like a no huddle offense. How's that? It is. But I think there are some extremely memorable. Yeah, they schemed up a couple. Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'll go through a couple here that I have written down. Pat goes to Ronnie's for dinner. We meet Ronnie and Veronica. You know, we get Ronnie's take on the commercial real estate market, which is worth mentioning, I think, because...

Russell wanted this movie. He wanted the 2008 season because of the housing crisis and get that tarp loan in there. And Ronnie's like, I can't breathe. I can't breathe. Sometimes I feel like I'm just... Also, Apex Mountain for iPods. I don't know if we've gotten there yet. Don't jump ahead. Wall Mountain, yeah. Yeah. But this is where we meet Tiffany. And we get her very Morden sense of humor about... It's a drawer in the Morden. It's a drawer in the Morden. You're going to pump a body full of formaldehyde.

You know, Pat asks if you can play Ride the Lightning for a baby. I don't know if either of you guys have tried that with your children. Yeah. And when Pat sees her, he's like, you look nice! And we get that first burst of like, this is how these two are going to relate to each other. You look nice. Thank you. I'm not flirting with you. I didn't think you were. I just see that you made an effort and I'm going to be better with my wife. I'm working on that. I want to acknowledge her beauty. I never used to do that. I'm going to do that now because we're going to be better than ever, Nikki.

Just practicing. How'd Tommy die? What about your job? I just got fired, actually. Oh, really? How? I mean, I'm sorry. How'd that happen? Does it really matter? Real transparency and candor and emotional intensity. We call it radical honesty, I think, in addiction therapy. Okay. Which I am in for the Eagles. But please, go on. There is...

One scene I like before this, which is when he's reading a farewell to arms and throws it out the window. Yeah. I think his relationship to literature has, uh, is really pretty amazing. Um, that I have, I have sort of as a replacement for the throwing the book out the window. I had Pat looks for his wedding video and gets his ass beat by his dad. Um,

I don't find that rewatchable. Okay. We'll circle back. This is the thing is that some people may find the intense moments the most rewatchable. Tiff and Pat's first date, for instance, is it's pretty high up there for me. It's at the Lanark Diner. Yes. In Upper Darby. Upper Darby. Yeah. And

And... Is it like the borders, like Drexel? I think Lanark is like Upper Darby. There's like some lands down in there. It's... Well, we... When do you want to talk about the Lanark Diner? We can talk about it in a bit. But this is up there. Right before that, the first running scene, when he's out jogging, it's right after the... When he's looking for his wedding video. Yeah.

And she goes, "Hey, what happened to your face?" And he says, "Weightlifting accident." Yeah, that's what often happens to me. - Hey! - Whoa, hey! What the hell? What happened to your face? Weightlifting accident? That sounds like bullshit. Why'd you run by my house?

Like, that is the screwball of physical comedy stuff in this movie that

is the levity, is the balance. Like, it's legit funny how she keeps popping out behind, like, trees and stuff when he's running. And he's like, what the... Like, he's, like, all freaking out. And she's like, what happened to your... Like, he's like, what happened to your wife? He's like, your husband's dead, you know? And they're yelling at each other. Yeah, and I think it's smart to point that out because I think for, like, the great movie directors of musicals and things, the things that they understood was...

physical proximity, how to utilize it on camera. And this movie does it so well in both ways. It's like when she pops out and surprises him and he jumps back and screwball, it's funny. You understand what it means and where they are physically in the landscape. But then also there's a flip side to it. Like when he sees his old colleague at the school and keeps getting closer and closer to her. And she's screaming. She's like, how? And we understand that physical proximity to Pat Solitano is not always in the good book. So you get Tiff and Pat's first date

Tiff's dance studio. And that's a feeling. And we find out what happened to Tommy. And that's singing in the rain. And they're doing the dance steps. That's the training montage. It's the Dylan and Cash. Yeah. Girl in the West Country. The Giants game tailgate.

Dr. Patel comes. That's nice. Jake's there. Dark turn. Dark turn. Don't drink too much. Don't hit anybody and you'll be fine. That goes right into... That's what I say before I go over to your house. In the car, just... And then you show up for the six pack of delightful Mexican lager. Yeah. I do love this tailgate scene. I love the tailgate. I legitimately love it. And Bradley Cooper doing like the bird flap with John Ortiz. Have you ever done much tailgating?

No, me neither. No, I haven't. Did you, so in the tailgate scene, the great John Ortiz, we should talk about, he's fantastic in the movie as Ronnie. Like, he is famously a New Yorker. He had to like put on a jersey, right?

Right? And like, do fly eagles fly stuff? I'm sure he was... That's what the money's for. It's partly what the money's for, but also, if they did film it, you probably have more data than I do, did they actually go to a tailgate to film this? It looks like it's at the link. Yeah. I think it's at the link. I think it's like legit at the link. So also, I think there was an element of like, he wanted to leave...

set that day with his teeth, right? So, like, he had to commit. Yeah. I mean, it's interesting that you think that, like, the other actors in this movie had to swallow their pride to participate in a $200 million Oscar-winning film. To base themselves to be like us. Yes, this is what I think of us. This is also the scene where...

Bradley Cooper is like, like where Pat is like, I'm not going to fight. You're fucking great. You're cool. I'm not going to fight. I'm not going to fight. Just calm down. We're the real evil fans. Hey, hey, hey, hey. Come on, get him, get him.

I'm not going to fight. Yes. He's trying his best to sort of become this better person. That leads into the It's All Ruined Now meltdown from De Niro and then Tiff's explanation of why his superstitions are actually like, they're the reverse. It's like, it's Pat not being at these games and not watching these games that's leading the Eagles towards their... So I wanted to ask you guys about this because when this film came out and...

And I saw it. I was like, this scene is pornography. Yeah. It's like Jennifer Lawrence reading. Yes. Victorious Eagle score to Robert De Niro. Yes. I was like, cinema has peaks. Yeah. With this scene. Yeah. Some people do ASMR. You just watch this scene. Yes. That's right. You are why. I'm the reason why today happened. I think so. Let's talk about that.

Be my guest. The first night that Pat and I met at my sister's, the Eagles beat the 49ers handily 40 to 26. The second time we got together, we went for a run, and the Phillies beat the Dodgers 7 to 5 in the NLCS.

She's right, Dad. The next time we went for a run, the Eagles beat the Falcons 27 to 14. Wow. The third time we got together, we had Raisin Bran in the diner, and the Phillies dominated Tampa Bay in the fourth game of the World Series 10 to 2. Oh, wow. Fascinating. Let me think about that. Wait a minute.

Well, why don't you think about when the Eagles beat the Seahawks 14 to 7? He was with you? He was with me. We went for a run. There have been no games since Pat and I have been rehearsing every day. And if Pat had been with me like he was supposed to, he wouldn't have gotten in a fight. He wouldn't be in trouble. Maybe the Eagles beat the New York Giants. She's making a lot of sense, Pop. That's all right on all accounts. Watching it again, I was like, is this pandering?

Am I being pandered to or is this still the greatest scene I've ever seen in my life? It's like Bryce Harper wearing fanatic sneakers. Like, I don't care. Yeah, I think so, too. I think sometimes you got to play the hits. And this is just an extraordinary scene. Like, she's basically maintained for most of the movie that she doesn't give a shit about football. She doesn't want to see like news. She doesn't want the Enquirer in her house. She doesn't want it. It's all about the dance routine.

And obviously she's been clocking the Eagle season acutely the entire time and has this entire like sort of a strong astronomical like explanation as to why the Eagles do or don't do certain things and why Pat senior needs to let Pat junior go. The line reading Shay Wiggum being like, she's right, pop. He's the, he's the responsible one. Yeah. I think,

This is, I don't know if you're done reading the list. This is my most rewatchable scene for exactly the reasons you're talking about. I think astronomical is a good word to use here because I do think there's an element of like solar bodies and gravity because the scene prior to her entering into it and refuting the juju is careening into like weird sloppy 70s cosplay of like a lot of actors acting real loud on top of each other. Peter falls alone in a hotel room. It's all ruined!

And then Jennifer Lawrence comes in and is just like, no, no, this is why the tides are the way they are. I am in charge of this movie and in charge of this scene. Yes. And it's electrifying. When she finishes that monologue, she literally pops the top off of Budweiser and takes a swig. Yes. Now, could it have been a yingling? Yeah, that's my nitpick. But okay, we'll move on. The last two that I had were the dance competition and then the last letter. The only way you can eat my crazy was by doing something crazy yourself. Thank you. I love you.

I knew it the minute I met you. I'm sorry it took so long for me to catch up. I just got stuck. Pat. I wrote that a week ago. You wrote that a week ago? Yes, I did. You let me lie to you for a week? I was trying to be romantic. Which arguably, to your point about kind of like it all flowing together, you could match those together. Yeah. Like dance competition into them spilling outside into the Diamond District when the camera's like rotating around them. That's a lot of fives guys. A lot of fours guys. Yes.

I think for me, most rewatchable scene is Tiff Explains Superstition. Yeah. It's the Jennifer Lawrence highlight reel right there. It is. It's iconic. Although the ending, it's almost like cheating to be like, hey, the romantic ending where they kiss the diamond district and everything feels good. But also like the dance sequence is really good, you know? Yeah. And like when he finishes and John Ortiz is like, yeah, pass!

I love that they just have to get a five too. But the, and I actually like watching their dance. We could say, I didn't notice any like obvious mistakes. I guess maybe their degree of difficulty. The finishing move is a disaster. And it's meant to, I think it's meant to be a disaster. She's like half on him and they're like teetering. It's, it's,

wonderfully Philadelphian that, like, at no point did she really, like, research the competition she had entered them into? You know, in terms of, like, the quality of the competition or what the expectation... Until the parlay comes up and then she's like, yes, we are dancing against professionals. So she has some awareness. Yes. So we're gonna go with Tiff explains superstition as the most rewatchable scene. What's aged the best? Oh, come on. Mapping a movie against a sports season is elite. And this sports season...

The 2008 Philadelphia Eagles is an awesome sports season. It's like they don't even really explain. They have the sort of Dallas dance competition parlay. But the Eagles needed, if we want to get real about this, they needed the Texans to be the Bears. And they needed the Raiders to be the Buccaneers as double-digit underdogs. Both things happen. And then they stomp the Cowboys 44-6. This is crazy.

Brian Dawkins' last year as an Eagle. This is the great Jim Johnson's last year. As DC. As DC. This is like one of the really, really, really cool, great, fun Eagles. And if you go through the season, they kept winning the games they weren't supposed to and losing the games they were supposed to. There was a tie. Yeah.

I mean, it was an absurd, absurd season on paper. They had a losing record as recently as like week 10 or something. And the Deshaun Jackson dropping the ball at the one-yard line is an iconic U.S. play for Predator Horse. And this is his rookie season. And it becomes, I mean, it's pretty wild.

Because, like, to most people, I think that is a sports factoid that's kind of slipped away from the national memory. And it's like, Silver Linings Playbook uses the Deshaun Jackson spikes the ball at the one-yard line as a metaphor for, like, these guys and not being able to get their shit together. And, like... The end zone's right there and they can't get in. Yeah. Yeah. What else is... Oh, so I was just going to say, as far as, like, telling a story with the backdrop of a sports season going, one of me and Andy's...

favorite novels is The Sweet Forever, which is a George Pelicanos book that is a crime story told with the backdrop of Len Bias's last season at Maryland going up into the fateful draft night and everything that happened afterwards. But it's like this incredible March Madness is kind of happening in the background. It's the book set in D.C., so it's hometown kid. Yeah.

People should do it more. People should just set stories against sports seasons. But I think even on top of that, what aged the best for me was just the living prevalence of the psychological anguish of being a Philadelphia sports fan. That has aged super well to the degree where I was watching this movie and I was like, I think this movie's about Nick Sirianni. I think it's profoundly about a guy who believes in just like, believes his own bullshit of like, Silverlight. Next week is gonna be

Yeah, we're just gonna keep doing the same things. We don't want it badly. We watch Hoosiers twice I'm not listening to the facts on the ground. I'm not worried about that I'm gonna get by with a positive attitude who needs to be snap motion if you got cool t-shirts, right? Exactly. Uh, what else age is best Jennifer Lawrence? We talked about it I just the moment captured here has aged incredibly well You really you really see because I think it's true with the Bradley performance too because both of them are

after this become huge, huge Hollywood stars. And I think they're both incredibly gifted actors and are good in almost everything they're in. But

Like, the layers of self-regard and understanding who they are in the industry and their power and, like, that they might be nominated for Oscars. None of that's there. It's very raw. Like, Bradley Cooper obviously is, like, fighting for his life, basically. He's had a decade in the wilderness, and she's been in winter's bone, and everybody's like, who the fuck is this? Yes, and is about to be, like, a franchise star. And is about to be the biggest movie star. But is not. Yeah. And...

So it's like as unvarnished as you'll ever see stars of this quality. It's also, I think, important to note, it's like the last moment where they were willing to trust someone else's vision of who they are and what they could be. Because after this, they write their own ticket. They choose the movies. These projects come to them. And we see them have struggles with that to varying degrees. I mean, I don't think Bradley Cooper's last 10 years has been a struggle by any stretch. But...

what he wants to show us about himself is one thing and it is not this thing. And Jennifer Lawrence has had, I think, a rockier go with it where she's like, I guess I am a star from the Oscar from the box office so I will pick my project and it will be Red Sparrow or whatever that movie is, right? And that's not...

In some ways, she seems like she's slightly reorienting around stuff like this movie again. Yeah, and she said... Yeah, it's because she understands what... Within the last couple of years, one of the reasons why she changed agents is because she felt like she was not getting, like, Safdie Brothers scripts. Like, she was not getting look-ins on the stuff, the material that she really wanted to be a part of. And I think if there's any disappointment to her career, she's had a really great one, is that this version of her is kind of left...

back in the 2012 era, and she hasn't really explored that particular space in a while. And maybe you can't. Maybe you can't go back to that well all the time. But there's a special kind of magic when it's someone's rookie season or their breakout season. That's exactly right. She is the Deshaun Jackson of the season. That's what I'm going for. You're never going to be that person again because of your success. I also think what age is the best? Sneaky awesome Christmas movie and sneaky awesome...

Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas run. It's mapped against more or less the second half of the Eagle season. And it winds up... Yeah, you see Halloween. You see Christmas. You get the Christmas decorations on Jewelers Row. It's just awesome. We talked about the weather. I don't know if they filmed it exactly at that time, but it looks like they did. If it's summer, they did a great job masking it. So everything else seems pretty accurate. iPods.

Yes. Miss them. I miss just like, I don't need the, I don't need my, also my phone device and the internet in my hand. I just really want my 7,000 top songs.

Also, wasn't it funny that like when we had iPods and we're like, man, this is changing everything. And then to watch the way they interact with the iPod where he's just like basically doing what we would do when we would go to each other's apartments and look at each other's seashells. Oh, yeah. What's that story? Oh, Stranglers? Yeah, you love Stranglers. I know that about you. It felt very sweet and very quaint. This movie year, you mentioned it. Yeah. Just very fun. Flight, Argo, The Master, Django, Lincoln. Yeah.

Just like a very rich film year. Yeah. Prestige movies that actually entertained and was just like, I felt like most of the movies you would come out of and have like a really great two beers and a pizza conversation about them, which is pretty rare. Spending father-son time reading about the Eagles, talking about them. I think that this is pretty much the model for our relationship. Yeah.

We read about the Eagles and then we talk about them. Yeah, it's true. I really hung up on De Niro's part where he's just like, I want to spend time together. I want you to sit next to me while the game is on. That's what this is for. We'll spend time together. I'm like, wow, American manhood. Him having Jackie Weaver play

past like the inquire sports section yes so Bradley Cooper like it's like the Holy Grail or something I'm trusting this to you it's this and it's the Noah Baumbach version kicking and screaming of Elliot Gould leaving messages on Josh Hamilton in trouble Knicks

Call me to discuss. That's how we were raised. No, when I came down to sit at the breakfast table before school, like, I couldn't pick up the sports page until my father was done with it. And that meant, like, maybe he hadn't read it yet. It was not to be disturbed until it was... I went to a sleepaway summer camp in the Poconos. And I would open, I would get mail from my parents. I would open the mail, and it would just be the Phillies box score. Oh, my God.

Are you serious? The whole summer. Yeah. I was just like, there was no like note or anything. I was just like... Communication from a father. Box score out of the paper and put it in an envelope and sent it to you. Have you thought about with your son whether or not you're going to spend time reading about the Eagles and talking about them with him? Yeah, I don't think he's going to have much of a choice in that. So you're not going to let him choose his own adventure and become a Chargers fan? No, absolutely not. Do you think, Chris, do you think the Solitano family ever...

argued over one of your dad's reviews in the Inquirer? Do you feel like he ever said a crossword about a movie that they loved? I don't know if they... It's interesting to imagine what's movie night at the Solitano house. What are they firing up? I'm going to say this for picking that. I haven't thought about this. I would say it's probably not the conversation in my household where my father would be like, Desmond Ryan, another four stars from Merchant Ivory. An Anglophile. He's from England. It's okay.

what's aged the best Shea Whigham as Jake the least Italian person in this movie with all I mean I don't know his 23andMe but I don't think he's Italian and yet like is just the best brother and

and him being like you lost your wife i'm getting engaged you lost your house i'm getting a new house you lost your job things are going great for me at the firm but he's fucking crying when he's telling him this and he's just like i just want to connect with him and then his buddy's like giving pat a hard time at the game he's like i talked to you guys about this yeah yeah um what kind of law do you think jake practiced

Oh, tax. Yeah, I think he's I think he's more abundant. He doesn't have a bill. I don't think he has a billboard by 90 on 95. Because he's helping dad find like basically a tax shelter for his book. Yeah, that's why I kind of thought real estate. Maybe, you know, you know, but you don't think he's like better call Saul. He's not a flashy courtroom litigator. I don't feel like he's got the gift. My last my last was age. The best is the guy who tries to film Pat's breakdown.

And he's just like on the early... This is interesting. Believe this is David O. Russell's son. Okay. Well, he invents Worldstar. Yeah. No, I think Worldstar is probably around by then, but like the idea of like, oh, is something disturbing happening? Let me film it. He invents the Nextdoor app. That's what he's doing. I will say that's not the clearest threat in the film where you're like, what is this kid doing? Yeah, I feel like there's like another scene there. Yeah. Did you feel like we didn't get closure on that? I think the implication is that Pat has...

long been a disturbance on this block and that like it has now become like oh pat's flipping out everybody's calling the cops this guy's like this goes back to the proximity thing it's one of those sneaky best things about the movie is the sense that everyone is living on top of each other and everybody knows everybody's business yeah denier is like shows over go home the way the lights snap on instantly when they're shouting this is a lived in place yeah and i think that there is a real like uh

Philadelphia neighborhoods have like their own justice. I was just trying to figure out a way to put that. That was like own designated police officer. Yeah. And also, well, I'll get to Officer Keogh, but like just the way in which like, yeah, if there was a disturbance at one house, everybody would be aware of it. Anything else that I missed for What's Aged to Best?

I stick with anguish, personally. Anguish. Okay. I'm going to go with Jennifer Lawrence for this one. Kid Cudi pursued a happiness award for the best needle drop. For me, this is the early days of me feeling like needle drops are getting a little out of control in Hollywood. I just want to say that we've been now we're in year 11 of this where there's really no rhyme or reason as to why a 60s stack song is on at any given point in a movie, but

That being said, this movie has really good music and I love Girl from the West Country. I love it too. The Zeppelin needle drop in this movie. Back when Zeppelin probably was like, that's 150k from jump. Yeah, rips. It's like he's got it at like 13. It's so loud. It's like, you know, it's like what is and what should ever be at full volume while three different people are having like a nervous breakdown. Yeah.

I'm girl from North Country. Just because of the... It's a sneaky jab. It's not expected in that moment. It's lovely. It's a beautiful folk song while they're doing their dance preparation. It's a great training montage. It's very beautiful. Very inventive. And it's a really smart, subtle coding of we're taking this seriously. Because the movie is...

when you watch it again, you realize that there's a very sure hand behind the wheel, but like, it jumps around. And so we're not sure which things to be investing in, which things to take seriously. And that calms everybody down. My wife and I were re-watching this last night and the scene came on and she started shazamming the song. And I was like, it's Girl from the North Country. It's Bob Dylan. And she's like, okay. And she's still shazamming it. I'm like... To be fair, it is a different version. But I was like, I guarantee you that's what the song is. Like,

Like, I know, like, you don't have to Shazam this. And she, there was a reason for it, but. Fast forward. Like, everything's ruined. It's ruined. This is an interesting one. The Big Kahuna Burger Award for Best Use of Food and Drink. Yeah. I have two. Well, I have to be completely honest. I've never heard of Krabby's and Homemade's.

I don't think that's a thing. Yeah. So apparently that is something that Matthew Quick, the author of the novels Mother Made, and he is from South Jersey. Now, I'm not saying it doesn't exist. I'm just saying I have never encountered Krabby's and Homemade's. To be clear, so I did some research on this that I probably did 10 years ago too, but did not remember.

I'm halfway there. Crabby snacks seems like a very, very plausible past hors d'oeuvre on a Sunday. That's like crab on an English muffin with cheese, basically. It's like you make kind of a crab dip. You use either crab meat or imitation crab meat and mix it with cheese and you put it on like a cut up toasted something shmuffin. That I buy. Okay. 100%.

and homemade. If you look it up, it seems to be freshly made pasta. Right. Which also you never see on screen. I never see it. I too looked that up and then I was like, where is the pasta? I don't really see either thing. Also, that seems like, look, I'm all for, you know, at a dinner table, at a party, you mix the high-low. You mix the high-low. So you get the imitation crab meat, but you're also rolling out the dough.

you know, and you're making a lovely home. But I don't understand the connection. And also to your point is right. We see her make the Brazil. That makes sense. I think the connection is supposed to be that there is no connection. And it's family. It's like a little bit insane. Right. My nominee for this is the Raisin Bran. Yeah. Why did you order Raisin Bran? Why did you order tea? Because you ordered Raisin Bran. I ordered Raisin Bran because I didn't want there to be any mistaking it for a date. It can still be a date if you order Raisin Bran. It's not a date.

Raisin Bran is crucial. When he orders Raisin Bran at Lanark Diner, first of all, the way it's brought to him with the glass of milk and the Raisin Bran is in the box but in the bowl so that he can do it. And then their little back and forth where he's like, you're just getting teased? He's like, well, you got Raisin Bran. Her face when he orders Raisin Bran. It's incredible. I also enjoy Pat Sr.,

spending his gambling winnings on opening a cheesesteak restaurant? Yes. You know, which is, again, like, there are moments in this film where you're like, are you pandering to me, basically? Yeah, how on the nose can this get? He has, like, artistic renderings of a cheesesteak restaurant. I do wish, and I made an allusion to this before, but, like, the specificity goes out the window when it comes to the beers. Like, I know people...

everywhere drink Budweiser, but I do wish we could have seen a couple of Yinglings or Rolling Rocks just to like... Yeah, they didn't cut that check. They didn't, exactly. They didn't cut the check. All I want to do is sit here and talk to you about Lanark Diner, which is where I spent most of high school. And we could get to it in a moment. I think it's coming up. That scene-stealing location. I have ordered cereal there. That is how it arrives. It is a missed opportunity for not to have them order the signature menu item at the Lanark Diner, which is their famous snapper soup.

which is available year round. By the way, the Lennart Diner is open right now. And where do they get their snapper? Now, to be clear, snapper is a turtle. This is not fish. Where do they source it?

probably near where Matthew Quick grew up in South Jersey. They'll never tell. Like the canal next to Manioc? Yeah, that's the thing. There's certain things that are like, yeah, it's a diner. It's a diner anywhere. You can get Raisin Bran, but snapper soup, scrapple in the morning. Do you want to spell Lanark for the people at home? Do people not speak Celtic? This is the other thing. It's L-L-A-N-A-R-C-H. Yeah, and the second L is silent. Lanark.

But it's not like a Spanish. It's not like a Yonark. I think this is actually an E instead of an F. Oh, it's Lanark with an E? Yeah. It's one of the most hideous words that you'll ever see right now. So look, we live near Bala Kinwood. I'm not going to start throwing. Spelling skookle still escapes me. Denithi's Benihana Award for the scene stealing location. Oh, here we are. We can do outside of the link. We can do Lanark Diner. It's the link for me. Okay.

Sorry to your childhood. It's Lanark Diner. Everything. Mozzarella sticks and coffee. I'm going to go Lanark because it's just a perfect...

It's a perfect moment. I love when the lady stops him and is like, slow down, Raisin Bran. That must be such a bummer you get a table and it's like, this is like a $3 table right now. They're open. They've been open every second since I last set foot in there in the 90s. They have never closed. Still open now, yeah. It's open right now, 24 hours a day. And the amount of time I spent there being like, oh, I'm not really sure about this English paper. I'll sit here and think about it with a cup of...

mediocre coffee and mozzarella sticks and just like, yeah, I'll find myself staring out into the 6 p.m. twilight. Mediocre coffee and mozzarella sticks? That was your combo? Oh, yeah. Coffee and mozzarella sticks. What are you talking about? You guys would eat coffee with mozzarella sticks? This is why I drink coffee. Have you never been to a diner before? I've been to a diner, but I usually get... If you go to a diner at an off hour, I'm not saying you go for breakfast. I'm not saying you go for dinner, but you meet your friend there at like

8 p.m. or 9 p.m. Coffee and mozzarella sticks. All right. I usually would go pancakes or I would go BLT. Chris, the 10 p.m. pancake order is worthy of its own podcast. The Great Shot Gorter Award for the most cinematic shot. I think this is the patented David O. Russell award.

uh, high speed pullout shot, like pullback Dolly that he does in the fighter. But he also does here with, uh, the final kiss. Gotta be, gotta be in the diamond district looking so beautiful. Yeah. It's like all those stores close at like three 30. Right.

And then it turns into one of the secretly most beautiful parts of the city, especially during the holidays. Shout out Robin, Zayth, and Walnut. They closed. Did they? Yeah. What was the one with the guy with the diamond in his beard? That's Robin, Zayth, and Walnut. They would do the doo-wop singing and he had the diamond in his beard. The runner-up here, though, when...

Pat and John Ortiz are doing the bird flap at the game in slow motion. Truly Gordon Willis somewhere in heaven. That's right. Being like, my work here is done. The Vincent Chase Award for Are We Sure? This character was actually good at his job. A lot of nominees in this one, I think. I'm going to go Dr. Patel. Yes. Get a strategy. Isn't that your job, Doc? He's like, work on a strategy. I'm like, what is the therapist for? I just think that he...

First of all, like the patient doctor relationship is very blurry. He's showing up at Pat's house. Well, it gets blurry. Yeah, it gets blurry after the Eagles game. But even before that, I feel like he's giving him like maybe some wrong directions here. And it seems kind of like they're not really interrogating a lot of Pat's feelings. Yeah, fake befriend Tiffany. Yeah.

So that you're... So Nikki will see you as a responsible man who can care for someone else. Right. That seems like a mission impossible. You're burying the lead here. I'm willing to forgive all of the ethical lapses that are revealed once they discover that they're both lunatic tailgaters. Like that, at a certain point, to what you were saying, Zach, like they've discovered that they are blood brothers now and that is deeper and deeper than any professional obligation. What if you saw your therapist on like Eagle's Reddit in like a Brian Johnson thread? I would feel so much better. Yeah.

I would feel so much safer, to be honest. Yeah. But you're forgetting the most egregious thing that he does, which, unless we're meant to believe that this isn't real, but when Pat shows up for the first time in the office and Maishiri Amora is playing, and he's like, I wanted to see if your violent trigger still triggers you with other patients in the lobby. That is...

Can you disbar doctors? Yeah, because for a second, you're like, oh, is Pat hearing this? Just like you're thinking that maybe outside of the movie theater when he and Tiff have left the diner and he's having the meltdown. And I think in that

I in the movie theater scene is he hearing it when it's not there that time he's not it's not really but in the doctor's office it's Dr. Patel his major contribution I wanted to see if it would still trigger this is the plot of the mediocre show shrinking from this year where Jason Segel's like my life's ruined so I'm gonna be honest with these guys he's like you got a drug problem you should leave that guy and the patients are like my god you've solved therapy this is incredibly unprofessional

and maybe dangerous. Did you have any other nominees for the Vincent Chase Award? Yes. The police officer, I'm not sure if this guy... On my list. It's like, he's very severe sometimes, but then the night where they all assault each other, he just shows up and he's like, yeah, man, you gotta not hit each other. He does a lot of like, I might take you back to Baltimore, but not today.

But not today. But then he rolls up with a whole crew to personally take Chris Tucker back to Baltimore, which suggests maybe he's freelancing off the clock. He also is at the dance competition, I believe, for reasons that are not explained. This is... I'm willing to accept this, and I don't think he wins because I believe the character is being used as a comedic prop. Like, the way that he shows up instantly with a...

Yeah. Is very funny. It suggests that he has been personally assigned to the Solitano household and is always available. It's also worth it to me because then when he hits on Tiffany, it's very funny. It is very funny. But yes, I do feel like in terms of like his larger policing assignments versus his fixation on this one family. It's weird. It's like he's Wyatt Earp and this is the territory he's been assigned. There's no other cops in Ridley Park, Upper Darby, anywhere. He's the guy who pulls up at the movie theater. Yeah. Like just randomly it's him.

Day, night, he seems to work 24-hour shifts. Doesn't do anything ever. Three in the morning, yeah. I have two others. Okay. De Niro as a bookmaker? That's a good question. I have this question too because...

Is a bookmaker supposed to just be like, I'm betting it all on the Eagles? With my one friend. The only person that I engage with. We're going to get to Randy in a second. Okay. So I have questions. De Niro's, you know, as we get older, our world narrows a bit. So he's really just his couch, his handkerchief, Randy, and these beautiful schematic drawings of a restaurant. So I understand that it's like narrowed a little bit, but it does seem like he's making all this money bookmaking with

We don't really see anybody else. I think Randy is maybe a fellow bookmaker and wants his action because that's what's up in the final bet is like Randy would get the book, he would get the restaurant, etc. But yes, a very old school, back when Cousin Sal used to bet your majesty's kind of bookmaker where it's like everything's in an envelope. Right. Okay, last one. The one judge who gives them a 5.3?

Oh, yeah. Oh, I could see that. Yeah. I'm fine with that. I just felt like it was a pretty buttoned up operation. If I'm Pat Senior, I'm paying that guy off. You know what I mean? I'm making sure. You're identifying in advance who the weak link is. I also think you're just underrating the dance routine. I feel like that was pretty good. Yeah. I'm just asking the questions. Well, I'm the asshole. All right. I want them to win. I don't want the cowboys to win. I think we're going to go Dr. Patel here, though, although the cop is a good runner up. The Butch's Girl for an award for the weak link to the movie.

Let's have the Chris Tucker conversation. Oh, I'm ready for this. Yeah. Nothing's really wrong with the performance per se. I don't really know what his character does that John Ortiz's character couldn't do other than unlocking the dance moves.

when he randomly shows up at the back of Tiff's house because, like, everybody's just like, yeah, that's Danny. He's also from the mental hospital, but it's cool. Like, send him to different people's houses. I want to be clear. Baltimore is not that close. It's not. We all have been to the aquarium. Takes forever. But it takes forever. There's that tunnel. It is not... The Fort McHenry, yeah. It's not an easy jaunt. Yeah. He's dropping 95 gems. I...

I'm surprised by this. I like Chris Tucker in this film. Okay. I do. I recently watched, speaking of movies that are only needle drops, I recently watched the motion picture Air. Okay. And I was reminded when Chris Tucker is in movies, he's usually playing the role of Chris Tucker. I thought that this was a movie where he was trying out some different stuff. I remember at the time thinking that he was going to get the Adam Sandler punch drunk love thing.

script next yeah like people were gonna see this because i'm with i'm with you andy i think that i like the character i think that i think in a movie about mental illness i think that's why he's there he's like one more one more guy suffering in his own unique way and i i think he actually plays that very beautifully and i was like i feel like people are gonna see this

And make him the lead of a movie where, obviously, Chris Tucker, cinema icon, known for being sort of brash and loud and funny. And they're going to take this sort of, like, woundedness and off-kilterness of this performance, and they're going to, like, center it in something. That's not what happened at all. But then the haters, like Chris Ryan, took that from him. I think I'm more criticizing splitting...

the basically like the friend responsibilities. I don't like it when movies are like, we need another person in this movie to do the job that this one character would do. There is this, but one of the reasons the movie works is because it's always spinning like a gyroscope and like him showing up and having to leave constantly is very funny and destabilizing in a good way. And the jailhouse lawyer scene with De Niro is very funny with the holding the two remotes and sit right there and all that stuff. That's good. What's the worst? Worst.

The depiction of mental health? Hit me, because this was a conversation at the time. It was, we were in our internet take era and like,

pretty soon around the release of this movie, there are pieces on Vulture, there are pieces on Slate that are like how Silver Lighting's playbook gets mental health wrong. And yet it feels as far as long ago as like Tropic Thunder in the sense that like it's nothing compared to what it would be greeted with now. Yeah. Where it would be shouted down before it even became a... Same thing with the age gap between the actors. Which, again, was very much a talking point at the time. You referenced it like that Jennifer Lawrence was just too young for the part. She just was. Um...

And that was an issue then. I think now, I don't know if they would do it now. I think that most people, I mean, to just sort of like crystallize like what people's issues with the movies are. First of all, it's slightly ambiguous as to like what Pat's meds

Like his, how much he's sticking to his medication. I noticed that on the rewatch too. So in the first half of the film, he's obviously not taking it. Militantly not taking it. Yeah, and I think after the fight with his father that turns physical where his mother gets knocked over, I think the implication is that he starts taking his meds again. It's no longer an issue, so I assume that that's the case. Just show him taking his meds. And he makes reference to it at a later point in the film. I can't remember when, when he's just like, I've been on my meds, I've been good or whatever.

And by the way, the med scene with him and Jennifer Lawrence, underrated, great scene. But it's a complicated topic because like he says at one point, like people like me and Tiff and Danny have a sixth sense and like we see things other people can't see. Mm-hmm.

I don't necessarily on its face have a problem with that statement, but like, and I think that it does a good job of also depicting the evident pain that people go through. But at the same time, I think that there is like, this is also magic for,

that I think people rejected. I think that what we're talking about, and maybe it's no longer a sustainable equation, but Zach, what you were saying about the types of movies that David O. Russell wants to make, you need a certain type of fuel to power them. And in this case, what he's using as gasoline is mental health and instability. Is that responsible? What is his responsibility? I'm not sure. I certainly don't feel equipped to answer that question. What I appreciated about it in the second viewing is, well, there's two things. One is,

The way that Pat's parents treat him and are afraid of him and want so desperately to understand and fix him but don't have the tools or language felt very real to me and honest and genuine. And I appreciated that there's a lot of time given to that in the beginning. The idea that he finds a way to get better, even if it's only temporary,

It's a movie. It's a romantic fantasy. And why not? And David Russell has alluded to, in a way that I don't know the details. I don't know if the details have ever been shared. But he said when he was promoting this film, there was a personal story to him in some way. I think to his experience with his own son. And he even alluded to the fact that De Niro had had experiences with it too. De Niro doesn't talk about anything, so I assume De Niro has never talked about this. But to your point,

parents and kids, mental illness. Seems like it was a very personal story for people who were involved in the film. And then while we're here, we should like talk at some point about David O. Russell's reputation. Yeah. I was in my What's Age of the Worst to both his personal life and like the way that we view his particular professional tactics. Yeah. And like so professionally, he's like known as a yeller and someone who's not always in control of himself. You know, I did a story with Christian Bale a couple years ago and he's

Talk to him about this, because the movie after this, American Hustle, Amy Adams famously said that David Russell basically made her cry on the set of that film multiple times. Christian Bale had to stick up for her. And I asked him about that, and he was like, yeah, that happened. Like, that's, like, on the record. And obviously, there's the recordings of him yelling on the set of, I believe, Huckabees. Clooney has told stories about the set of Three Kings. Yeah, they got in a fight. So...

A, you know, David and David Russell, I think hasn't has made fewer and fewer movies as time has gone on. I think potentially related to some of this stuff. Yeah. Um,

But also, to the mental illness conversation, this is not me diagnosing him in any way, but, like, the idea of someone who's, like, angry and trying to figure it out. Like, you can see why he wants to tell the story. And, you know, making a movie about what he wishes were the case, which is that, despite everything, you could meet a soulmate. You could meet someone like-minded. You could fall in love. You could find an artistic regimen.

that could bring you out of the place you are. Where it brings you, I don't know. But I do think it's kind of a facile way that people talk about movies and art now in general, which is the suggestion that they're playing with something as opposed to the people who made this movie, and particularly the guy who adapted this, made it for a reason. He had a story that he wanted to tell that spoke to him.

and saw it through. And whether that jibes with people in the audience's personal experience with issues like this or medication or hospitalization, I don't know the extent of his responsibility to speak to that. We spent the first half of this podcast lauding the movie for its screwball qualities and its almost romantic fantasy aspects. The movie self-referentially calls itself romantic and does things in the film where to do it this way is a more romantic gesture. So I think that you have to give it some grace where it's like, this isn't like...

It's a very realistic film that isn't reality. But at the same time, you know, I can understand why people would have some issues with it. That's not what aged the worst for me, though. What aged the worst is hearing about Andy Reid challenging calls. Wow. And just like remembering the end, the last couple years of the Andy Reid era. And also then what happened afterwards, which is...

We watch years of Donovan McNabb on third and eight throwing at five yards. Behind the line of scrimmage. Yes. And then he goes on to the Chiefs and conducts the most electric offense since the greatest show on turf. It's painful. And it was just like, Andy Reed's just, it's all up here. It's in his head. It's like, that was not, I love Andy Reed, but that was not our experience with Andy Reed. No, especially at the end. It,

It was maddening. Yes. And his last year was 2012, right? Like, this was his last year. That'll come up in a second. Okay, great. Four and 12, I believe, yeah. The one Castillo. One more. Yeah, for that, I think our...

understanding of gambling as a society has evolved. When they like explain a parlay, it's like John Ortiz is like, explain it to me, sir. And they're like, a parlay is, uh, I don't think. Is that what's aged the worst or is it, was it better when this was more of an underworld? That aged really well for me because I still didn't understand what a parlay was. Um,

Was there a better title for this movie? I don't really have one. I think this is a great title for a movie. I had Fly Eagles Fly, but I think that would have been... Dallas Sucks? Yeah. Deshaun Jackson Jersey? That's right. I would have liked that. Excelsior is right there, but I don't think... Yeah, but that's New York State. Yeah, that's right. We did learn that. Best quote. It's cheap, but I'm going to go with the only way you can beat my crazy was by doing something crazy yourself. I love you. I knew it the minute I met you. I'm sorry it took so long for me to catch up. I just got stuck.

Way to go, Brad. That's okay, but Deshaun Jackson is the man. He's the best quote in the film. I'm gonna... I have a third answer here, which is I'm not gonna fight. I'm not gonna fight. That's good. When he's just... When Pat's trying not to fight in any way. Something Philadelphia men tell themselves every morning. I mean, for real. But also, as again, as someone who is, you know, admittedly deeply unwell, but like needs...

sports and Philadelphia sports. You're talking about you now. Yes. As a connector in the world, like even at my lowest points, the idea that appreciating that Deshaun Jackson is the man can unite you with people, you know, maybe unprofessional medical professionals, but like people from across all backgrounds, professions, spectrums, like that's important to me. Yeah. Okay. That's important. The Stephen A. Smith hottest take award. I have one. Okay. I kind of hate the garbage bag.

Okay. I like, I know it's an iconic part of this film says a lot about the character that he's wearing a garbage bag the entire time. But I feel like we, as a city Philadelphia, as a city did not need like one more addition to the, like throwing, you know, snowballs at Santa Claus and batteries and all that. Like,

We just didn't need another thing that people can reference where it's like, you got the garbage bag on, you're walking around. Yeah. I just kind of hate it. Is it an effective weight loss tool, Craig? I, you know, I've never actually known. I mean, to me, wearing a sweatsuit would make you sweat enough. I don't know if a garbage bag is really. It's weird. I mean, I know it's a metaphor, but it's strange that he's just like, this is the key to weight loss. I feel like Rocky should have had the garbage bag on.

What about you? I could have gone a different way. You know, Andy Reid had just introduced the idea of pickle juice as a magical, like, energy restorer. So he could have just been swinging from a jar of Lassic. That would have been a good visual. Yeah. I have one that I'm not proud of this. That's not, this isn't a place for being proud. Okay. Yeah. Like the ringer broadly? No, the Stephen A. Smith Hottest State Award is where it's specifically. Oh, I'm working for the wrong company. Yeah.

I don't love Jackie Weaver. Oh! I don't. Now, this is not... You ruined it! I don't mean any disrespect to our Australian queen. I think she does a good job in the movie. I think she plays the scenes with the tenderness of like, I'm a little afraid of my son, but I love my son. It's very good. But my thing is, no one has ever been less from Philadelphia in history than Robert De Niro. Uh-huh.

I feel like maybe there was an opportunity to have someone offering a glass of water in the mom. I just get Melissa Leo in there. It's just an extra level for me to have someone who's Australian doing an American accent. Like no one in the movie is doing Philadelphia accent, which is a problem. And I hope we're going to talk about that at some point. Um,

I feel like that was a missed opportunity. That's why you're here, is to tell the truth about Jackie Weaver. I mean, I feel terrible. I'm punching down. I'm picking on the wrong person. She does a great job. Oscar nominated. There's nothing wrong with her performance. I would have gone a different way. This is mine. And I think that you guys are... Silence from you guys. I agree. Honestly... Absolute... Like you're worried about offending someone's silence. I think she's good in the movie, and it is still bad casting. Okay.

Yeah, I like her in the film. I think you could also have the same conversation. This is probably even more sacrilegious, and I don't think I believe it, but I think you could have a conversation about the De Niro performance in this movie. The Wisdom at the time was like, Oscar nominated. This was his comeback. I think when you watch it now, I'm like, I really like him in this movie. He's doing a lot. I don't know why he got nominated for an Oscar.

Well, I think because he was back. He was doing... He was at... He... O'Russell... David O'Russell unlocked something in him that brought him back from the comedies he was doing. That's true. At that moment. And there are moments where you still see that, like, when, like, Pat first comes back and he's like, what? What's this? Yeah. There's some takes in there that are, like, pretty... Still analyzing this. Yeah. My Stephen A. Smith hottest take is...

Randy's a real piece of shit. And even if he had won that parlay bet, there's no way he gets out of that alive. There's no world in which...

A guy who's hanging out at your house all the time, wearing cowboy's gear, openly flirting with your wife, then takes your livelihood... Your nest egg, your whole plan, your dreams. The whole thing. Rooting against your son. And doesn't catch a beating, if not a bullet after that. I know everybody's like, oh, you gotta pay your debts and everything, and these guys are degenerates. But I would be surprised...

Most Eagles fans don't like seeing guys walking around with, like, Washington Commanders gear, much less, like, cowboy stuff. That's a straw man argument. The idea that this guy would just be, like, basically Boner from Growing Pains over at this guy's house, but also owns the note on the house now is bullshit. He would have just gotten at least...

exercise like yeah like Shane Wiggum would have been like taking him aside and been like you're not gonna see you for a while yeah exactly so that I thought Randy being like his sort of thing the other thing that I had was there is a reading of this movie in which Tiff is the Joker like in which she really really manipulates a guy who is in a pretty tender spot I don't even I think that's like that's

Texts. Like, I think that's in there. But he loves her for it. Yeah, but when she tells everyone that the only thing we can do here is lie to your mentally disturbed son about his triggering, restraining order in place wife will be there. Yeah. Not great. I mean, the letter, same thing. I mean, yeah, absolutely. Is this the right moment? Can I just circle back on this, though? Are you with me that, like, this is deeply Philadelphia in its psyche, like, in the anguish? Exactly. But

Nobody sounds like they're from Philadelphia. Maybe we weren't ready as a culture to do that and talk about the Eagles. I think emotionally they act Philadelphian but don't sound Philadelphian. Right. And I think Bradley Cooper without the accent does really good like white tea and the chain like Philly guy work. Like the haircut is right. The facial expressions are right. But he is the only person in the cast who legitimately could have said overdose. He

He could have said it. He could have. I think it was calibrated. But I think, honestly, like, we've gone through so many ups and downs with accents over the years. I'm kind of glad that they all just decided to just... And this is, like, maybe, like, we save this for, like, recasting or whatever. Yeah. But I do... You don't want to see this movie without Jennifer Lawrence. But...

What if it was like a real Philly queen in that role? Do you have one in mind? I don't know if cinema has really seen a true Philly queen. Like Patti LaBelle? Ironically, Nikki, the wife, is very Philly. Bria B, I think her name is, is from Philly. Okay. They don't even let her talk.

Yeah, she has like one line. She like whispers something. Speaking of casting what ifs, this movie was originally pairing, we're going to pair Vince Vaughn and Zoe Dashnell. I don't think that that would have worked, although it would have been an interesting Vince Vaughn. At various points, Mark Wahlberg was attached as Pat. That would have been interesting, but I don't know that

I think Bradley Cooper brings something inimitable. Had Wahlberg done invincible yet at this point? Because I don't see how you just the logic alone. You can't be both. Anne Hathaway was up for TIFF at a certain point and had to drop out. Other people who read for TIFF include Elizabeth Banks, Kirsten Dunst, Angelina Jolie. I don't know if I buy that. Blake Lively, Rooney Mara, Rachel McAdams, Andrea Risborough, which is really interesting.

and Olivia Wilde. And Emma Thompson was at various points talked about for TIFF. I don't know why. Let me just say, all of that's bullshit. All of that is awful. That's what Bill always says for recasting, for casting What Ifs, and it's just like, I'm just reading the internet. No, I'm not saying it's bullshit that like, that never would have done it. I just mean it's a sign of how precarious this movie was when you're just listing people who were being cast because they were the Manic Pixie Dream Girl of the moment. That's what that part could have or should have been. And,

One of the things you get with Lawrence, especially because she was relatively like unformed as an actor and young and unfixed in our minds, is that she's tough. And she kind of doesn't give a shit. And I was reading about how like she wanted to make it super goth. But then there was pushback about whether she should be too goth. So we sort of, they split the difference. And she has like black nails and a cross and nothing else. Yeah. But all of those things, it immediately upends the balance of it, right? If it's cutesy, the movie's ruined. It doesn't work. I think you can't,

Do it without her. I think that like Vince Vaughn in that part, like you, I don't think it's me. It would have been as good, but it probably would have like nominally worked. Yes. I wonder whether Vince Vaughn would have also demanded that it get moved to Chicago. So he could be embarrassed. I think it should have been Rob McElhenney, right? Maybe Kat Dennings. Yeah. Um, best that guy award. Uh, I have dash my Hawk, the, uh, officer Keogh.

He's also the paratrooper or the pararescue jumper in Perfect Storm. He's your guy from Ray Donovan. Yeah.

Your show. I mean, Paul Herman? Yeah, Paul Herman is Randy. He's like Beansy. He's the Pittsburgh Connect. He's the guy who's like, I'll make you see the helicopters. Yeah, that's a pretty good one. Is John Ortiz too famous to be that guy? I think he is. Okay, I'm with you guys. Dion Waiters Award. I have three nominees. Shea Whigham, Chris Tucker, and Julia Stiles.

I love the Julia Stiles performances. I'm team Julia Stiles. Julia Stiles is fucking awesome. It's legitimately funny. Yeah. When she's like hanging out the window and she's like, can you come in here, please? And she's so good. After I watched it this time when at the dance competition and Jennifer Lawrence is like, you're fucking killing me. And she's just like, relax. Like, she's truly, truly evil. How much screen time does she have? Six minutes? She has...

she deeply understands her part. Two or three scenes, yeah. Sometimes you see people like, it's a day player, you show up, she understands everything about this movie, the DNA of this character and what her role is. I love it. It's great sisters. The Ruffalo-Hannah-Rubinick-Partridge overacting word. I have De Niro. This was pretty easy for me. You're a loser. You ruined it. Yeah, I mean...

It's hard to overact in a David O. Russell movie. Yeah. Like, I kind of think he's, like, begging everyone to overact. You know? So... But yeah, probably that. You blew it. It's a tough one, too, though, because, like, one of the interesting things about the movie that's relatively unexplored, or it's not unexplored, it's just...

not subtle, is that, like, I'm not going to be my dad. And my dad's the violent one. Yes. And my dad is the one who has undiagnosed mental illness or at least OCD. And for all the things De Niro brings to the movie, I wouldn't say there's, like, a subtle arc of that. Yeah. You know, in the background. Yeah. So I like...

everything that I just said as a part of the movie. But I agree that he's the only one that could be nominated in this category. Great detail when they say De Niro's on the exclusion list at the link. Yeah. Which is such a great, like, Which, by the way, we've learned recently is really easy to get around because Chris and I talked about this on The Watch, but, like, remember when the guy ran on the field during, uh,

during the baseball playoffs. Yes. And then immediately like went on podcast. It was like, I lost two teeth. But the thing is, I was already banned. Yeah. They were like, you're banned. Yeah. Banned again. Stadium bans are like, okay, guys, nice gesture. But how are we really enforcing this? Oh, wait, by the way, I'm sorry. We forgot one major thing for what's age of the worst, which is the Philadelphia Phillies World Championship erasure of this movie. I have that. Okay. I have that coming up. Okay. Sorry. Yeah. All right. Um,

Recasting couch, we can breeze through some of these. I had Amy Adams as Nikki just to like have like the closer coming in off out of the bullpen like and maybe make it a little bit more who's he going to choose at the end if that mattered at all. But how do you be like Amy? Listen, I've got a great part for you. You're going to be naked in the shower with a date player. There's going to be blood and screaming. It'll be cut up into really artful flashbacks. And then I want you to sit and watch some bad dancing and whisper.

Can you do that for me, Amy? I'm just saying this is the one that popped into my head. Okay. Half-assed internet research. Do you guys have any other recasting couches? Half-assed internet research. Just a few things. According to Jackie Weaver, David O. Russell and she and De Niro developed backstories for their characters and decided that Pat Sr. and Dolores still made love twice a week.

So I thought that was cool. She also said, uh, I got nothing. Jackie Weaver was also responsible for making sure that the dance scores aggregated out to five because initially like the, the, the third score was still too low and it would have been below five, but they would have been reacting as if they won the bet and she fixed it. So shout out to Jackie. Who holds the remotes during these twice weekly? That's a good question. Um, and then in the novel, like I said, the main character has, uh,

somewhat more severe issues than has been in the institution for a while. Different Eagle season too. And it's a different Eagle season. Don't you think though that like as an actor I know you were referring to Do you know which one? 2006 I believe. Okay. That like Bradley Cooper gets to play a part where everyone who he sees is just like you look great. You lost weight. You look so good. I feel like actors like that. I know. Again there's a reason for that. Yeah. David O. Russell.

I think so. Yep. This and The Fighter, kind of like that... This is like he's... And The Fighter, which is, I think, a really good movie, is something that potentially another director could have made. Although it has... One of the things it shares with this movie is that true love of place and detail and the way that the place is shaping the people and vice versa. Very, very similar in the two movies. But this is like a movie that only David R. Russell could have made. And Silver Linings. And...

There's obviously Huckabees is like that. Amsterdam is like that. American Hustle is like that. But this is, I think, the one where the energy is like wild enough because after this, I think he starts sort of dialing it back. Yeah.

but also contained enough and in a, in a, basically a happy romantic story. But he caught lightning. Like it also, it translated like people bought what he was selling in a way that just on the terms of the marketplace. I don't know if it happened that way again. Jennifer Lawrence, certainly apex bound. She does this wins an Oscar and is in hunger games in the same year. Um, feeling blemish on that is that house at the end of the street is also released this year, which is a horror movie. I think she had shot before. Um, Bradley Cooper, uh,

I think this is a very interesting conversation. Because it's basically movie star Bradley Cooper who's in Silver Linings Playbook and American Sniper versus auteur Bradley Cooper. Yeah, like if you want to talk about Star is Born, I think would be the, for me, would be the competition. Um,

This is like, I think he's a truly great actor. And I think this is like about a good a showcase of like why he's good and how he's good as you ever get. I think exactly that. I just feel like there's a inflection point where for 10 years he's playing the part that everyone else thinks he is. And then he has an opportunity to show us everything that he is almost to a wildly vulnerable degree. And from this point on, he gets to call his own shots, which has led to some great successes, but also leads to

I mean this without, I don't mean this as a judgment, but it leads to Maestro, which is what he wants to show us about his abilities. I think that this is Apex Mountain. And I think that through Stars Born and Maestro, he has been efforting to build an addition onto Apex Mountain that he can still call his own, if that makes any sense. If anything about Apex Mountains makes any sense. What about sports fandom and movies?

has it ever been done better even though even though I have some questions about the sports fandom but like has the depiction of the way a team can basically govern your emotional stability ever been done no this is the best it's the best like this in fever pitch right that type of sports fandom yes the only type I recognize yes because I don't actually care about the sport anything else for Apex Mountain

No, I mean director, actor, and actress. Yeah. I think upper Darby on film. Yes. Just broadly, like not always the most cinematic location. Picking nits. Oh, here we go. Yeah. Thank you. It takes until Tiff shows up at the house to do the Juju monologue for anyone to acknowledge that the Phillies just won the World Series. So this is, it's almost unforgivable. It almost would have been better to me if they hadn't said it at all. Yeah.

Because I understand there are people who are Eagles first and everything else fifth. That makes sense to me. There are people who don't like baseball or whatever. And we are living proof of the Phillies won the World Series and it didn't change how we felt about the Eagles season. It's not like we were like, the Eagles get a gimme.

They can do whatever they want because we're just basking in this. But the civic experience of winning a championship, which had not happened in almost three decades, was enormous. That was a huge deal. Yes. And it dominated... I mean, even just the fact that there weren't little car flags and stuff in the background. I understand why there weren't.

It would have been a different story, a different movie. But he chose the year. Yeah. I've related it to pick. Okay. Yeah, go. Pat doesn't watch the games. That's my, this is my thing. This is just, Pat is not actually a football fan. Like, I don't know how you grew up in that house, in that city, and be that guy and not watch the games. It drives me insane. Even before the dancing stuff. He's like, it's like,

on he's like standing like next to it and he's like he's not even looking at the TV screen I like that well yeah you would yeah okay all right

Maybe you can explain the psychology to us. It's his dad's thing that he relates to, you know, the unpredictability of his father's love and attention and affection. There's violence in the house. He's right. He's, he's, he's, he's weak and his emotional well-being is governed by whatever the Eagles do and what his father does. I think intellectually that's true. And like, if you were going to ask, like, why is this constructed that way? That would be the answer.

It's insane. I would watch the game. Jake is talking about like, we have to like challenge these guys at the line of scrimmage, throw bubble screens. Jake's got all 22 film. Yes. Pat's like, Oh yeah, Deshaun Jackson's the man. Like he's, he's kind of a casual. I'm, I think that works for the movie. I don't, I don't, can I, can I add one other thing?

Yes, we can. No, we can't. You know what else happened in the fall of 2008? The election of President Barack Hussein Obama happened? This is what we get it to be, like a five-hour movie. It's not going to be like Adam Curtis's 2008. No, and I'm not saying that, which I would watch, especially if it was centered around the Leonard Diner. I'm just saying it is an interesting bit of artistic elision to be like,

This movie is so radically dialed into one thing that happened in the real world when it was, in fact, quite a momentous fall. I think that could be true, though, to a certain type of family's experience where they're just like, I'm paying attention to what happens in these Eagles games and the rest is noise. That's true. But do you think they'd be so cavalier in today's electoral climate, Zach? Okay. What do you think the Solitano's feel about democracy? Okay. I have a pretty dark nitpick.

All right. Tiff's story about Tommy's demise. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm glad. Where he dies trying to help somebody fix a tire on 76. Coming back from the King of Prussia Mall. Which is a 40-minute drive from approximately where Tiff lives. The other side of the city. And he goes after dinner. So after dinner, he's like, I'm going to drive to the King of Prussia Mall 40 minutes away.

I don't know what the deal was in 2008 with the retail landscape of that particular part of Philadelphia. I feel like Victoria's Secret was in more places. Yeah, I think it was probably at the Springfield Mall. I think it was probably at the Granite Run Mall. I think that 40 minutes on 76 is like a heat check. And it's a very sad end to this fictional cop's life. But it was a weird thing that...

Do you think he was buying lingerie for someone else? Do you feel like there was more of the story? She's like, he was going to Victoria's Secret to get something started. I think she knew he was going, even. Do you think she blames the King of Prussia Mall? Who's the real villain of the movie? 76. So you're saying...

Are you criticizing the specifics of the MapQuest directions? I'm questioning whether or not a guy as savvy as him would be like, I'm going to drive 40 minutes to go to this Victoria's Secret. Maybe he had something else to do up there. Maybe his parents lived there. Sure. And he was buying lingerie for his mother and for his wife. I don't know. Do you think that Dolores would be wearing a Kevin Cobb jersey? Yes. Okay. There's a good Nnamdi jersey in this movie. Yeah.

It's annoyingly hard to repair a broken glass window. He does that in five seconds. Yeah, no, that's actually, that's annoying. It's very hard to do. Yeah. And he's just like, he just, he just hoists it into place. Do you feel like there should have been more Eagles mentioned, like, by name, other than Deshaun Jackson? Like, you just said Kevin Cobb, which I just, a chill ran down my spine. There was, there was kind of a quarterback controversy that year. Yeah, there was. You feel like, I feel like,

McNabb in general was a constant source of agita. I think this just speaks to Pat's familiarity with skill position players, but a lack of interest in the trenches. Do you think... Well...

The opposite of Howie Roseman. Yeah. Do you think... Well, this is still Joe Banner era, isn't it? Oh, yeah. Howie was like the VP of something or other. Tom Hecker, Joe Banner. And they give the racist fan at the game the Westbrook jersey. That's right. That's really weird. Yeah, it's weird. It's unfair. Maybe that guy was a Phil Novo guy. Free Bryant Westbrook. Do you think that John Ortiz... Like, John Ortiz is...

always so happy to see Pat, which is one of my low-key favorite things about the movie. But it is weird. Do you feel like he's very, very happy? But it's because he's dying inside and is having a breakdown about his marriage and his professional career. And then this is a guy who's A, his friend, and B, makes him feel a little bit better. That's true. Low-key, his excitement over the jersey where he's like, you look fantastic. I wish I was wearing that. I love that. Sequel, prequel, any other pick and dits? I think that's it. Sequel, prequel, prestige TV, all-black cast, or untouchable...

It's untouchable. I guess you could do a Pat Sr. and Dolores getting together like early. What would that be? Oh, prequel? I thought you meant getting together twice a week. No, I guess it would probably be in the 70s, right? Yeah. I don't want a sequel because I don't think the Solitano family could have survived the Chip Kelly era. Yeah.

Like, I just think that would have just... I mean, what about this? We could be living this sequel right now. I know, this is the sequel. The Greenwald family is not going to make it through this current era. Three men with a group chat melting down. Better with Wayne Jenkins, Danny Trejo, Catherine Han, Steve Buscemi, Sam Jackson, JT Walsh, Byron Mayo, Harling Mazer, Philip Baker-Hall. I do think Philip Baker-Hall

would be an interesting Pat senior or Randy. Yeah. Um, but if Wayne Jenkins did play Randy, God damn Pat.

I didn't know your dad was Jimmy the Greek. He's giving me 10 points and a motherfucking parlay with your aggregate dance score. You better turn it to Mikhail Baryshnikov real soon. Pat Sr. is going away a long fucking time, big boy. Wayne would fit into this movie. Yeah. Just fine. I mean, from Baltimore, he could have been like the guy coming up to get Danny. Bernthal? Yeah. Belongs in this movie. I know.

We need that energy. You know what the spiritual kind of successor of this film is the bear. Yeah. In a lot of ways. Family energy. Yeah. Unloved second city. Loser energy in a second city. Really banking it all on sandwiches. Yeah. It's all there. So probably unanswerable questions. I think we hit a lot of these. Does Pat care about the birds? Enough.

What is the duct tape on Pat's shoes for? Well, that also leads me to, did Pat Solitano Jr. invent contemporary men's underwear? If so, his shoelaces don't get in town. Pat Solitano Jr. wearing sweatsuits, Carhartt, and chunky New Balance. Yeah, no, it's... It's essentially what most men in Silver Lake wear. Isn't that Fear of God? That movie, literally, yes. It's like, the funny, the movie does not like date it in that respect at all. Yes. Wait, so it's for your shoelaces? Yeah, it's okay. For dancing or for...

I thought he ran so much he was wearing his shoes out but didn't want to buy new ones. No, I'm pretty sure it's just like a makeshift Velcro situation. What did Pat whisper to Nikki? Oh, isn't it like Lost in Translation? I think it's the same thing. Asante Samuel made the program. Yes. We talked about whether Pat is consistently taking his meds. Can this movie happen after the 2018 Super Bowl?

Speaking from my heart, yes. Yeah. Seems like it. I think it's both of you. Yeah, it's evergreen. Yeah. So it doesn't matter that they beat the Patriots in a fantastic fashion. Not remotely. You could do like Doug's last year. You could do like what's happening right now. And it would be absolutely resonant. Zach, thank you for setting me up here because that leads me to the Andy and Red Z want NEO award. Do Tiff and Pat make it past the Dream Team in 2012? Yeah.

If they make it through the Dream Team, do they make it to Andy Reid's last season? Do they make it past the NFC Championship game against the Cardinals? So you don't think that they have long- I'm just saying. I don't know if they have much of a future. I want it to be otherwise, but I feel like they're too volatile. What does Tiff do? What's her- She dances. She lost her job. But neither of them have income at the moment. We haven't discussed not just why she lost her job, but the scene where she talks about it. That's-

That's Bradley Cooper's Apex Mountain. At the Leonard Diner. He's just like, where are any of them women? He's like literally eating his own chicken. That's a great scene. It's really good. What piece of memorabilia would you want from this movie? The handkerchief. I want the copy of Farewell to Arms or whatever that he chucks out the window. I would like...

I think I would go for the Deshaun Jackson jersey, which is pretty... It's immaculate. Pretty easy. Easy pick. But I like... Some of the literature is great. I think the boss... I love Jennifer Lawrence as Tiff to just synopsize great novels for me. Yeah, when she does Lord of the Flies, it's sick. Exactly. Do you feel like...

If your son at any point in his life woke you up at four in the morning, but only to talk about Hemingway, like what's your, like, are you like, this is bad in some ways, but like good in others? I think like the, like Pat senior later is like, he's like, dad, I'm doing better. I'm like, I'm like reading books. He's like, do us a favor. I'll be like, do me a favor. It is funny though. I do wonder like,

if your son woke you up at three in the morning but was like why aren't we running more slants for AJ Brown do you think that you would just be like yes I would be like this is the way yeah if he was like there were dance scenes in the book which were boring but I liked it I would be like well this is kind of funny Zach sleeps with a pencil over his ear like Matt Patricia he'd be ready to uh coach Finstock award for the best life lesson um

You can play Ride the Lightning for a baby. Is that one? I don't know about that one. Did you guys have one from the movie? I mean, I think the, you know, if you drink a lot and get in a fight, you could really bond with a lot of people. Yeah. I feel like I learned that. That's right. Always stick up for your brother. Yeah. Who won the movie?

Do you think we would do that for each other at a tailgate? Yeah, definitely. I know he would. I know Zach would. Zach would. I've been on public golf courses with Zach. Who won the movie? This is a complicated one. I think it's Lawrence. I think it's Jennifer Lawrence on this most recent go-around. But Bradley Cooper is the soul of the movie. I also think it does the most for Bradley. Yes. I think you're watching...

his life change in this moment. Yes, in real time. So in terms of like the implications, like it had the biggest impact

effect for him. Do I think that she's the best thing in it? Yeah, I do. I also think his journey since this is like being shot out of a cannon. It is not abated. He's been on a consistent journey since the success of this movie and what it afforded him. Whereas she had a more dramatic and immediate success in the six months to two years after, but then had some stumbles before regrouping. She should have voiced a raccoon. That's the lesson. That raccoon's great. That's a great raccoon. Producer Craig,

What do you think? You know, I've never seen this. This is a real blind spot. No way. Yeah. I don't know why. It's always been on my list, but I missed it. That's strange. This seems like it would be right up your alley. I know. I don't know what it was. I also think there's something, too. Like, I'm from the Bay Area, and I just think West Coast in general. Like, I love stuff like this because...

The like East Coast, like sports insanity, like insular family, that stuff is just not like my dad was a huge Niner fan, but it was not, it was not like this movie. Yeah. And I just think like, I don't have any friends who like live and die.

or any sports team quite like the Politano family. Is it Politano? How do you say it? Solitano. Solitano. Oh, Solitano. So, like, that stuff is always very interesting to me because it still hasn't crossed over to the West Coast. Like, I don't know if it ever will. Yeah. No, that's because you got Kyle just drawing up these beautiful...

Emotions. Everything's easy. Yeah, but in general, the funny thing about this movie is I'm so glad it was made in 2012 just because it would definitely be a TV show today. Yeah. And everything would be like stretched out and darker. I think the one good thing about this movie is that if you actually like sat down and really dug into each character, kind of dark.

Very. But you're moving so quick, you don't really think about it, and they actually just kind of use the darkness almost for humor. It's a very funny movie. In some ways, we didn't talk about it enough, how funny it is. It's a well-paced, delightful, funny, romantic movie. Yeah, even the ending is very satisfying, sweet, rom-com-y ending. So the ending was this time around, when I watched it for this, and they get to the...

She opens up the letter and it's like, Dear Tiffany. I was like, holy shit. It's getting fucking humid in here right now. I know. It's like when Harry met Sally at the end. Yeah. Like a little bit. Also the De Niro thing where he's just like, he gives them, I mean, everything gets fixed. Yeah. It's a magical fantasy. What does it say? Don't fuck this up. Yeah. He's like, go follow that. Go follow that girl. Even the plot of the movie is like a little bit like just like a dark adult Disney Channel original movie. It's like the big dance competition at the end happens on the same day of the big game. It's complete storybook fantasy. Yeah. So you liked it.

I did, yeah. All right. But isn't the real lesson, this is what we're saying, like, they got together, everything's beautiful, and then they lost the championship game. This is the most Philadelphia thing about it. Pat G doesn't care. Do you think they should have added that? Like, would that have been a funny end scene if they lose in the championship game? Oh, what if this movie had the, like, the biopic thing where over the credits it was like, and it shows...

Would be run out of town. It shows him in a Redskins jersey or whatever. Yeah, that would have been pretty good. It's devastating. Andy, Zach, thank you so much. Go Birds. Go Birds. What about an eagle? Did you need a cameo from an eagle?

This is crying out for Jason Kelsey. Oh, I think it meant like an animal. Like a bald eagle. This would have been like, if they made this about today, it would have just been Jason Kelsey's in like a third of the season. No, he would have walked through the hotel and been like, go after her, bro. Yeah, right. I appreciate they don't show a game in this. You kind of see like a little bit of that Dallas game on TV. Is that a right issue though? They couldn't probably. Yeah, I'm sure. But it works. And I feel like that is the relationship

that most people have. It's not like an eagle's walking through that door. So I appreciate it. They don't even make it into the stadium. I mean, I think, I don't know this. Also very true for most people. Research about this, that like, I don't know if David O. Russell is a football fan. Like I, I don't think he is. I love, I think one of the things that makes the movie great is that it is, it is telling an emotional and psychological story and it's not getting lost in the details. It's kind of like how Taylor Sheridan doesn't really like cowboys. He just, you know, it's more about, just owns a lot of horses. He loves special ops though. I still think the football dialogue is not quite there. I know.

It's still, it's just, it doesn't actually depict what like a true football fan. The closest football fan, the real football fan is Jake, I think. Yeah. And then even he, it seems like he's reading like a kind of cue card about a football team. I think it's Jennifer Lawrence. Like when she's like reading the scores and stuff and she knows like where they're playing and all that. This is how we all talked about football until like six years ago. Everybody's nuts. Yeah. Maybe you're right. Nobody said bubble screen. Nobody said quarters. And then Barnwell started being like EPA president.

Do you know what defense was? Defense was, did Brian Dawkins kill someone? Did he behead someone with his body? Good defense. Did the other team score? Bad defense. That was it. That was it. It's a simpler, more pure time. Maybe that's right. All right, guys. Thank you, Andy, Zach, Producer Craig. We'll be back next week with a new Watchlist.