Affleck is placed at his apex because the performance won the Oscar.
Lonergan is also placed at his apex for the Oscar and commercial success; the familiar “Kenny” announcement is recalled.
Williams is rejected for apex. Fosse/Verdon and Blue Valentine are proposed, and her run is recalled as the machine-transcribed “So, Necta Key New York,” Wendy and Lucy, Blue Valentine, Shutter Island, “Meeks cut off,” My Week with “Maryland” (with uncertainty about an Oscar nomination), Take This Waltz and Manchester by the Sea. Shutter Island is specifically remembered as having a very similar plot line.
Venom is jokingly offered as Williams’s apex and immediately treated as a joke rather than the result.
The town of Manchester-by-the-Sea is declared to be at its apex.
The speakers report that the town was long called Manchester, legally changed its name in the late 1980s, and may have done so partly for tourism or distinction from Manchester in England.
The movie is not yet declared the apex of Rock Bottom movies because it contains too much comedy.
Hedges is rejected despite the nomination and career importance; a hypothetical career swap with Chalamet is dismissed.
Chandler is rejected, and North Shore movies are compared through The Perfect Storm and the film transcribed as Cota.
The newly introduced category asks whether prime Cruise or Hanks should take the lead, and Hanks is the initial answer.
A younger Cruise is enthusiastically proposed for Patrick because of the girlfriends, hockey and band, but this is recognized as an end run around the lead-role question.
An early-career Hanks is selected for Lee, with agreement that Hanks beats Cruise for the lead.
Lonergan is selected as the winner, with a wish that he make another film soon.
A second viewing is judged much better because foreknowledge allows appreciation of pace, editing and filmmaking; the movie is rated ten out of ten but another viewing is doubted.
