Licorice Pizza 2021
Revealed via an unannounced trailer at the New Beverly, ahead of Almodovar screenings. Formerly Soggy Bottom.
The Big Picture · Discussion · Review · Hall of Fame
The Prestige Dirtbag Movie: A Celebration
September 10, 2021/ 68 min/ Sean Fennessey · Chris Ryan
Chris Ryan joins to review Paul Schrader's The Card Counter, name a genre they've been circling for years, and grade James Wan's Malignant.
60 films across 8 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.
Movie NewsNolan shops Oppenheimer, Licorice Pizza gets a title, day-and-date spreads
Halloween Kills 2021
Going day-and-date on Peacock, the news hook for the streaming-vs-theatrical talk.
PAW Patrol: The Movie 2021
Cited as evidence new Paramount chief Brian Robbins understands day-and-date.
Black Widow 2021
F9 2021
Godzilla vs. Kong 2021
Top Gun: Maverick 2022
Paramount reportedly wants it kept out of any streaming deal.
Once Upon a Time in Hollywood 2019
Cited as precedent for Sony offering a director theatrical safe harbor.
The Card Counter
The Card Counter 2021
Oscar Isaac as an ex-con card counter pulled between a stable manager (Tiffany Haddish) and a young man (Tye Sheridan) chasing revenge for Abu Ghraib.
The Paul Schrader Filmography
Taxi Driver 1976
Screenwriter, for Scorsese.
Raging Bull 1980
Screenwriter, for Scorsese.
American Gigolo 1980
Cat People 1982
The Color of Money 1986
Referenced for its pool-hall lexicon, a comp for how The Card Counter explains card games.
The Last Temptation of Christ 1988
Screenwriter, for Scorsese.
Hardcore 1979
George C. Scott watching his daughter in a pornographic film.
Light Sleeper 1992
Willem Dafoe as a drug dealer; a touchstone Fennessy had just rewatched.
Affliction 1997
Russell Banks adaptation.
Bringing Out the Dead 1999
Screenwriter, for Scorsese. Nicolas Cage as an ambulance paramedic.
Dominion: Prequel to the Exorcist 2005
Schrader's original cut, shelved and reshot by Renny Harlin as Exorcist: The Beginning before finally seeing release.
Auto Focus 2002
About actor Bob Crane.
Dying of the Light 2014
Nicolas Cage as a blind CIA agent; recut without Schrader's involvement.
Dog Eat Dog 2016
Willem Dafoe and Nicolas Cage.
The Canyons 2013
Written by Bret Easton Ellis; Lindsay Lohan opposite a porn actor.
First Reformed 2017
Ethan Hawke as a priest in crisis. One of Fennessy's favorite films of the last decade.
Paul Schrader: Man in a Room 2020
Alex Ross Perry's short documentary portrait of Schrader, on the Criterion Channel.
The Prestige Dirtbag Movie: A Celebrationcoined via the card counter, traced back to the mid-'70s
Midnight Cowboy 1969
Ratso Rizzo, an early ancestor of the type.
Dog Day Afternoon 1975
Sonny, the other mid-'70s ancestor.
Heat 1995
The genre's core text; Neil McCauley's "I am alone, I am not lonely" is the thesis statement.
Killing Them Softly 2012
Brad Pitt is the prestige dirtbag; Ben Mendelsohn is the ruling example of the messier cousin, the prestige scumbag.
Drive 2011
The viewer gets preferred seating into Driver's head that Carey Mulligan's character never does.
The Gambler 2014
The Counselor 2013
Donnie Brasco 1997
The reference case for the prestige scumbag, the dirtbag's grubbier cousin.
25th Hour 2002
Cited as the template for the one-last-day-before-the-fall structure.
MalignantJames Wan's HBO Max horror movie, screened for critics the morning it dropped
Malignant 2021
Sold as a Giallo update; Fennessy found it closer to unironic '90s Wes Craven by way of Brian De Palma's Sisters.
The State of Horror in 2021
The Empty Man 2020
Ryan's pick for one of the year's best despite a 2020 theatrical release; James Badge Dale leads.
Candyman 2021
The sequel/reboot Fennessy covered a few weeks earlier, wasn't wild about.
Fear Street: 1994 2021
Netflix's trilogy opener; both agreed each installment got weaker.
We Need to Do Something 2020
A family trapped in a bathroom during a storm; Vanessa Shaw and Pat Healy.
Spiral 2021
The Forever Purge 2021
Last Night in Soho 2021
Fennessy's most anticipated upcoming horror title, also said to draw on Giallo.
The Kathryn Bigelow Filmographyprompted by a rewatch of Strange Days
The Loveless 1984
Near Dark 1987
Blue Steel 1989
Point Break 1991
Strange Days 1995
The rewatch that kicked off the tangent.
The Weight of Water 2000
K-19: The Widowmaker 2002
The Hurt Locker 2008
Zero Dark Thirty 2012
Detroit 2017
A commercial disappointment they both think unfairly cooled her career.
Triple Frontier 2019
Bigelow was once attached before it went to J.C. Chandor.
Trailer Talk
The Matrix Resurrections 2021
Ryan hopes the trailer only spoiled the film's first 20 minutes.
Dune 2021
Fennessy's complaint: too much of the film's best material already in the trailers.
Also mentioned raised along the way
Also mentioned No Time to DieVenom: Let There Be Carnage
Not films filtered out: TV, games, ads
TV WandaVisionGirls5Eva
Video games FIFA World Cup (Netflix)FIFA 21Red Dead Redemption
Ads Boar's HeadThe Press BoxWhite Claw