The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance
In the discussion (9)
Approx. transcript time · 00:45:44Read transcript
- Al Palagonia's heat-check performance is the best; he is one of the best Spike Lee players. — Sean Fennessey
- The heat-check list is the longest in at least 20 movies.
- Candidates include Ken Lung, the Albanian translator, the little boy, the bigot cop, the turban guy, the 34D lady, Kim Director as Stevie, and Ransone.
- Kim Director was Julia Fox 15 years before Uncut Gems. — Chris Ryan
- Lost could have cast several people from this movie.
- The Albanian translator gets one vote for owning three minutes before leaving the movie, a classic Spike Lee move.
- Another vote is 100% Al Palagonia, a Spike friend often seated with him courtside at Madison Square Garden who is not an actor, playing the construction worker who identifies Albanian.
- Palagonia plays versions of that guy in many Spike films, including the "optical illusion" line in 25th Hour.
- Conceding being outvoted, the translator backer declares Palagonia the winner.