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200th Episode Mailbag Spectacular: Our Dream Double Features and Francis Ford Coppola's Marvel Throwdown

October 22, 2019/ 110 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins

The 200th episode: a listener mailbag on the Coppola-Scorsese Marvel feud, dream director-and-actor pairings, do-over movies, and double features, plus Sean's interview with Robert Eggers about The Lighthouse.

55 films across 9 segments.

AI-generated This episode was transcribed and analyzed with AI models. The matches aren't perfect — expect the occasional misheard title or a link to the wrong film.

Coppola, Scorsese, and the Marvel throwdownopening the mailbag

The Irishman 2019

Out this week. The Scorsese movie that keeps the 'Marvel isn't cinema' fight fresh. Sean and Amanda read Coppola's 'despicable' quote and James Gunn's Groot-and-Rocket Instagram reply.

The state of the moviesthe mailbag grab bag

The Wife 2017

The reference point for 'what is 2019's The Wife': the awards movie no one can find or see.

The Two Popes 2019

Amanda's pick for 2019's version: a Green Book buddy comedy about the Catholic Church she can't believe exists.

Harriet 2019

Amanda took one for the team and saw it; Sean hasn't.

Queen & Slim 2019

Asked why there isn't more buzz; they've seen it under embargo and won't podcast about it yet. Out around Thanksgiving.

Gemini Man 2019

Not a success, but Sean admires it for chasing a new high frame rate instead of playing it safe.

Joker 2019

The surprise Sean admits he didn't see coming; about to clear $900 million.

Vice 2018

The 'here's the path for every nominee' exercise, with Vice as the one that was never going to win.

Wimbledon 2004

Sean's dream sports-movie pitch: remake it, but good, with Sorkin writing.

Moneyball 2011

Sean's favorite sports movie and the model he keeps reaching for.

The Firm 1993

Sean's example of the old star economy: Chris Evans couldn't draw that kind of crowd to his version of it now.

Dream director-and-actor team-upsa recurring listener request

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind poster

Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind 2004

As close as Jim Carrey got to the quiet, vulnerable register Sean wants PTA to pull out of him.

Punch-Drunk Love 2002

The Adam Sandler transformation Sean wants a Carrey equivalent of.

Phantom Thread 2017

Same idea: the PTA reinvention Sean would build around Carrey.

The Tragedy of Macbeth 2021

Sean's long-held Coen-and-Denzel wish, arriving via Joel Coen's A24 Macbeth with Frances McDormand.

Hustlers 2019

Cited as the $100M hit that makes Amanda's Nancy Meyers-and-J.Lo pairing feel plausible.

The movie that most affronts usventing on request

Murder on the Orient Express 2017

Amanda's rant: Branagh grafts a non-canon dead-love backstory onto Poirot, then sets up a sequel Poirot could never actually solve because he arrives after the murder.

Death on the Nile 2022

The sequel teased at the end, parked in the annual Venom/Joker October slot, which delights Sean.

Zeroville 2019

Sean's pick: James Franco's adaptation of Steve Erickson's great New Hollywood novel, wrecked by the wrong tone despite a Blades-of-Glory-sized comic cast.

Top five do-over movies good premise, mishandled, and how they'd fix it

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Yesterday 2019

Great premise, great lead performance, didn't stick the landing. She wanted more.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

The Great Gatsby 2013

Keep Leo, keep Baz: it understood Lana Del Rey but not Gatsby.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

The Bling Ring 2013

From a place of love: Hustlers before Hustlers, without the follow-through; push the fame-and-delusion levers harder.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Duplicity 2009

Keep Roberts and Owen; she still can't follow the last three-quarters.

Picked by Amanda Dobbins

Molly's Game 2017

Keep everyone, skinny it down: lose the Idris Elba framing device, focus it into a week-in-the-life.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Solo: A Star Wars Story 2018

Just let Lord and Miller finish their version; he doesn't care about Ron Howard's.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Public Enemies 2009

A Michael Mann miss; try swapping Depp and Bale so Depp plays the lawman.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Hancock 2008

Keep Will Smith and Charlize Theron, but make the R-rated Vince Gilligan-script version.

Picked by Sean Fennessey

Funny People 2009

Best first hour Apatow's ever made; redo the second half as a James Brooks movie, less Eric Bana and Leslie Mann.

The set we'd sit in onone entire production, start to finish

Ocean's Eleven 2001

Amanda's only real answer: be the 12th on a fun Soderbergh set in the Clooney-Pitt-Damon prank era.

Eyes Wide Shut 1999

Sean's answer: the long, painful, fracturing Kubrick shoot with Tom and Nicole, watched in real time.

A dream double featuredifferent directors, decades, and genres

Taxi Driver 1976

The Joker pairing Amanda wants to program at the ArcLight.

Working Girl 1988

Anchor of Amanda's cheating four-film run of working-woman comedies.

Baby Boom 1987

Second in that run.

The Devil Wears Prada 2006

Third, one of the two Nancy Meyers-adjacent entries.

The Intern 2015

Closes out Amanda's set.

The Treasure of the Sierra Madre 1948

First leg of Sean's greed triple bill.

Scarecrow 1973

The great Gene Hackman movie in the middle Sean thinks people haven't seen.

There Will Be Blood 2007

Sean's closer: three films in concert but not quite the same genre.

Best and worst Best Picture of the decadeclosing on the Oscars

Moonlight 2016

Sean's best win by far, proof he doesn't actually know what Academy voters will do.

The Artist 2011

Sean's worst win by far, a Weinstein movie, brutal campaign, good riddance.

The King's Speech 2010

Amanda's single worst call, over The Social Network.

The Social Network 2010

Their best-movie-of-the-decade theory; they want the Fincher-Sorkin sequel.

12 Years a Slave 2013

Appreciated, if not their favorite of its year.

Argo 2012

Enjoyed and appreciated.

Spotlight 2015

Same, though Sean doesn't think it should have won.

Birdman 2014

Sean's bigger problem win from a tough year.

Robert Eggers on 'The Lighthouse'

Robert Eggers on

The Lighthouse 2019

The batshit, black-and-white two-hander with Pattinson and Dafoe, written with his brother Max in period coastal dialect, storyboarded shot for shot and, per Eggers, meant to be funny.