The Big Picture · Review · Top Five · Interview
September 20, 2019/ 116 min/ Sean Fennessey · Amanda Dobbins
Sean and Amanda argue Brad Pitt is winning 2019, rank their favorite Pitt performances, and Sean talks to 'Ad Astra' director James Gray.
16 films across 3 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.
'Ad Astra'
Pitt is Roy McBride, an astronaut sent to find his father (Tommy Lee Jones), who left on a mission to a far-off planet. A quiet, meditative character study with three or four whiz-bang set pieces; Amanda was moved, both hosts flag that the marketing sets up a bigger space movie than the one Gray made.
The Top Five Brad Pitt Performancestwo hosts, two lists
Both hosts' No. 1. Billy Beane as the summation of every Brad Pitt mode (reserved, charming, dickhead-mean), carried on physical presence in nearly every frame.
Both hosts' No. 2. Sean floats the case that Pitt is 'bad' in it; the Aldo Raine cadence is a self-conscious, instantly quotable voice creation.
Amanda's No. 4 (tied for 2). Cliff Booth as the perfect 2019 match of actor and character: Tarantino plucking a star to comment on his own fame.
Amanda's No. 3. A historic bomb, now a cinephile favorite; Pitt plays James as a crotchety, ill-fitting icon. A triple feature with 'Ad Astra' and 'Once Upon a Time' on self-mythology and fathers.
Amanda's No. 5. Chad Feldheimer, Pitt's funniest, most in-on-the-joke comedic performance, handsome with terrible hair.
Sean's No. 3. Peak cool-guy Pitt; the 'you think we need one more' bit is him doing nothing on a bar and being hilarious. Starts the Brad-Pitt-always-eating gimmick.
Sean's No. 4. A bare-knuckle-boxing British gypsy you can barely understand, probably the most physically imposing he's been on screen.
Sean's No. 5. Where a lot of guys met Pitt for real, and where David Fincher's sensibility first showed; the 'what's in the box' meltdown.
James Gray on 'Ad Astra'
Harder to make than his Amazon shoot: one-man scenes with no scene partner, zero-gravity wire work, all-CG backgrounds built from the ground up. About 90% of what he wanted; he cites plausibility over accuracy, and Brad Pitt bringing more than what was in his head.
Pitt produced it via Plan B; Gray tried to put his feelings about fatherhood and family into it.
Gray rewatched it and marveled at the cast (Wahlberg, Phoenix, Theron, Charlize), who weren't yet stars when he made it.
His first film, made at 23; he says he'd never let himself make a movie that young now.
Cited as a film with more distance than 'Ad Astra': less subjective, less access to his interior life.
The provisional-officer plot people called bogus though it's real: Gray's example that believability on screen differs from real life.
He and Phoenix thought they were making a comedy, laughing on set; the first screening called it one of the saddest movies they'd seen.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Pitt's career and honorable mentions A River Runs Through ItThelma & LouiseLegends of the FallTrue RomanceInterview with the VampireThe Devil's OwnSeven Years in TibetMeet Joe BlackFight ClubTroy12 MonkeysThe Curious Case of Benjamin ButtonMr. & Mrs. SmithThe Tree of Life12 Years a SlaveThe Big ShortAlliedWar Machine
Oscar competition MilkThe Usual SuspectsThe Artist
James Gray on cinema StagecoachThe GodfatherThe Godfather Part II2001: A Space OdysseyGravityInterstellarFirst ManThe Empire Strikes BackRaiders of the Lost ArkCitizen KaneHeaven's GateThe Deer HunterThe Red Badge of CourageLa StradaVertigoApocalypse NowRaging BullBonnie and ClydeMidnight CowboyThe TripPunch-Drunk LoveThe Boston StranglerThe Narrow MarginCompulsionJoyThe Bullfighter and the LadyBatman ReturnsCaptain America: The First AvengerSupermanThe Dark Knight
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV FriendsBreaking BadDeadwood
Opera The Marriage of Figaro
Ads LuminaryBreak Stuff: The Story of Woodstock 99Three Watchables 1999