Who Won the Movie?
In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:31:36Read transcript
- Hoffman would have been the pick years ago, but Cruise wins the movie, and not as a contrarian zag.
- Another voice agrees and adds that the movie is Cruise's story of transformation, his first real adult part, pointing toward the rest of his career.
- Barry Levinson is floated: Best Picture, Best Director and the number one movie, though nothing he made after is as good; he is rejected because people see it as a Hoffman-Cruise movie.
- Removing the film would barely change how Hoffman and Cruise are viewed, but Cruise is said to need it more.
- Asked who from the last 20 years could pull off Charlie, Leo, Damon, Affleck, Chris Evans, Brad Pitt, E. McGregor, Michael Keaton and others are floated; Hanks would not be believable as a chain-smoking dick.
- A spoken tally lists two Cruise votes and one Levinson vote.
- Pressed, the answer is Hoffman: Raymond became an iconic figure, won Best Actor and launched a wave of imitators; Hoffman is the not-overthinking-it answer, Levinson the overthinking one, and Cruise the smart answer. — Sean Fennessey
- A voice says it really wants Cruise to win and feels bad; a reply says he'll be okay and jokes that he can't win the Oscar or Who Won the Movie. The count is not restated.
Podcast choices
- Speaker not identified
- Tom Cruise