Nominated scene: the greeting-card Pocketful of Sunshine montage over the weekend, which builds the character so you root for her; it is just her alone in a room carrying the movie with an annoying song. — Shea Serrano
The montage has a winning goofiness that never feels like look-how-zany-I-am; it feels like she was caught unaware, playing with the dog.
Nominated scene: the Knock on Wood performance near the end, where Stone becomes a capital-M-S movie star; a teen comedy needs a musical number with a crowd reacting. — Amanda Dobbins
Whether she was lip-syncing is wondered, since she can sing per La La Land; the scene arrives like a deus ex machina but is delightful.
Not a pick, but the confessional scene is where she weaponizes her eyes and pulls emotion out of you; it signals she will win an Oscar someday, before Fred Armisen's appearance takes the speaker out of it.
Another pick, declared a final answer: telling her parents she used the word twat and got sent to the principal, with the spell-it guessing game.
The alchemy of Patricia Clarkson, Stanley Tucci and Emma Stone is special; this is Tucci's comedy phase alongside The Devil Wears Prada.
Supportive parents like those in Booksmart (Will Forte and Lisa Kudrow) are appreciated; these may be the most underrated movie parents.
Wanting to be in the family versus finding their constant quips exhausting after two days; the film acknowledges their quippiness, and few other actors could pull off the trio.
The parents are sneakily essential to Olive seeming in control despite choices the podcast would not recommend.
In the final-answer round the twat kitchen scene is loved, but Pocketful of Sunshine is chosen as the iconic Oscar reel and another voice says "I think you're right"; she should have been nominated for an Oscar for this, a point to be repeated five times.

What’s Aged the Best?

YouTube and vlogging; Ojai location; mocking California hippies; Emma Stone's wardrobe; the one-liners; Emma Stone's performance; webcam framing; act signs

In the discussion (14)

Approx. transcript time · 00:35:35Read transcript

Number one with a bullet: YouTube and vlogging, foundational to the film; Stone reportedly auditioned via a webcam reel; it does not feel dated.
Vlogging was also first on another host's list, a moment of community; Stone could be a YouTube star or TikToker.
Second: choosing Ojai as the location was prescient.
Ojai is described as about 100 miles north of Los Angeles off the 101 toward Santa Barbara, a wealthy, hippie-rooted second-home enclave like Woodstock or the Hudson Valley, with the pink moment sunset seen when Olive and her mother sit on the car roof, and pixie tangerines. — Amanda Dobbins
Ojai first registered from Brothers and Sisters; it has a resort, golf course and spa and the outdoor Bart's Books, where Olive reads the Bible; the town is called boring, now an Architectural Digest mainstay, and as a commuter suburb like Ferris Bueller's it is off base. — Amanda Dobbins
Making fun of California hippies never gets old.
The California setting did not register for a non-Californian; the opening sign seemed only to show a small population of about 8,700; reading it as a hat tip to John Hughes suburbs is plausible. — Shea Serrano
Emma Stone's wardrobe: both regular and supposedly slutty outfits fit today's fashion.
The script's clever one-liners, especially Tucci and Clarkson scenes, though some jokes fall flat or have not aged well. — Amanda Dobbins
Returning to an original pick: Emma Stone's performance, tracing her rise from Superbad to Zombieland to carrying this film.
The performance is called undeniable but a cheat; another voice says it is not a cheat and agrees it aged best, but since Stone will win 45 categories adds webcam framing as a 1A, because teen technology usually ages poorly and this still feels spot on.
In 2010 vlogging marked a high-school stereotype; now it is ubiquitous. The webcam echoes Peyton's broadcasts on One Tree Hill, and it reinvents narration.
Her held-up act signs work as analog counterpoint to the odd landscape-text credits.
One host changes their answer to the signs device, likening it to 500 Days of Summer's early setup; the hosts agree, one out of 18 things so far.

What’s Aged the Worst?

Marianne's Christian stereotype; Griffith and Micah chlamydia plotline; Chip adoption jokes; Huckleberry Finn references

In the discussion (14)

Approx. transcript time · 00:49:04Read transcript

Number one: Amanda Bynes's character as a negatively portrayed Christian, recalling One Tree Hill's clean teens.
Marianne resonated because a Fellowship of Christian Athletes group at the speaker's school behaved just like her and got meaner through high school. — Shea Serrano
Bynes is super funny and a really good actress, which makes her not taking pride in the work sad. — Shea Serrano
Marianne's group is partly plot necessity, needing teens believably outraged by one instance of sex; the speaker also had FCA and got sex education through a strain of Christianity, and understood the choice as a nod to The Scarlet Letter and puritanical heritage. — Amanda Dobbins
The rose-petal sex-ed demonstration is recalled.
Very pro-Amanda Bynes and fond of the performance, but tying Marianne's busybody ideology to her Christianity felt like stereotyping; coming from the Upper West Side and a large public school, Christianity just gets a bad rap in media. — Juliet Litman
A joke offers to email an FCA application to make her postgraduate chapter chairman.
The movie gets away with a fundamental problem: that a virginity rumor would be a scandal, would not be shut down immediately on Facebook, and would not become uglier bullying; it falls apart if you think too hard.
A teen movie in 2020 would address bullying; here the biggest slight is being forgotten, though Marianne is clearly the bully.
Olive being unfazed by Marianne continues the Tracy Flick line through Booksmart's Beanie Feldstein character; the formerly ignored now hold the power, a self-described reading-too-far.
Nominated for aged worst: the Mrs. Griffith and Micah plotline, where the guidance counselor sleeps with an of-age student, gives him chlamydia, and her marriage to Thomas Haden Church's teacher ends; unnecessary even if the movie telegraphs it is wrong.
The most sympathy goes to Thomas Haden Church's character, whose marriage is ruined while everyone else is fine. — Juliet Litman
Chip, Olive's undeveloped adopted little brother: Tucci's adoption jokes, like asking where he is from originally, feel aimed at the audience rather than a 10-year-old.
Everything tied to Huckleberry Finn is super weird: Olive's line about not knowing anyone who snuck off with a hulking black man and the ending where Brandon runs off with his black boyfriend are called offensive and dehumanizing, a bizarre characterization of the novel that could easily have been edited out.

Casting What-Ifs

Logan Lerman as Brandon; Jennifer Lawrence as Olive

In the discussion (10)

Approx. transcript time · 01:02:13Read transcript

Only two casting what-ifs were found.
Logan Lerman auditioned for Brandon, played by Dan Byrd, who is so perfect that Lerman would have been strange.
The fake-sex party ruse with Brandon is really weird but central to the movie.
Jennifer Lawrence auditioned for Olive, which checks out.
Lawrence probably could not hit the right frequencies: she is so at ease that high-school struggles would be unbelievable.
Insults roll off Stone, whereas with Lawrence a piece penetrates her shell, making the movie less fun and adding guilt.
Stone does goofy convincingly via physical comedy, whereas Lawrence's goofy can feel sloppy or like a regal person slumming it.
Some roles are for one and not the other; the hosts agree Stone could have done Silver Linings Playbook and Lawrence Crazy Stupid Love, but not Lawrence in La La Land, though she dances in Silver Linings.
Stone's knowing performativeness suits the numbers and webcam here and La La Land, while Lawrence is more instinctive and naturalistic; Hunger Games is the Lawrence role Stone could not do.
X-Men is another superhero role only Lawrence fits; Lawrence could maybe be Gwen Stacy, but Stone could not be in the X-Men new class.

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Cam Gigandet; Dan Byrd

In the discussion (7)

Approx. transcript time · 01:08:34Read transcript

Malcolm McDowell as the principal is set aside as too famous, though his presence is weird. — Shea Serrano
McDowell's defining roles vary: A Clockwork Orange, Terrence from Entourage, and a mix-up with Jeremy Irons in Die Hard 3.
Pick: Cam Gigandet as Micah, remembered as the outstanding bully in Never Back Down goading a fight at a party. — Shea Serrano
Gigandet is always one of the Twilight guys and a that guy in Twilight; the first Twilight is recommended to Juliet. — Amanda Dobbins
Gigandet is also Volcheck from The O.C., who leads to Marissa's death in season three; it is good to have a new generation of that guys rather than a famous name like McDowell.
Asked if all pick Cam, one says yes; another instead picks Dan Byrd as Brandon, recognized from the Chad Michael Murray Cinderella remake and many aughts roles.
Sidebar: The Duff is praised, including Mae Whitman and the monster-voice scene.

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

Patricia Clarkson; Stanley Tucci

In the discussion (8)

Approx. transcript time · 01:13:12Read transcript

Introduced as the Vincent Hanna give-me-all-you-got award for overacting; a controversial pick of Patricia Clarkson, who takes it too far asking whether Brandon is gay, like a slight nod to the Amy Poehler cool mom in Mean Girls.
Olive showing her the door acknowledges she is a little much; everyone plays a heightened stereotype so the insults do not penetrate, so Clarkson being extra is okay.
Lisa Kudrow is raised as the unneeded extra one, yelling in the who-would-you-believe scene.
There is a fine line between Vincent Hanna and Dion Waiters; Kudrow arguably has a great heat check.
Kudrow's character, the chlamydia and the marriage plot are unnecessary, as is Thomas Haden Church's teacher; a counterpoint says his character develops Olive as a thoughtful student (the bit about watching a movie version instead of reading the book) though his love life and flirting with Kudrow are weird.
A theory: the script needed a teacher, Church wanted more to do, and that created the subplot; he is called the only non-hyperbolic performance, or instead demure by his standards.
Another pick is Stanley Tucci, explained as wanting to hurt feelings the way the speaker's own were hurt; no consensus is reached.
Loving Clarkson while acknowledging she could have done better is defended.

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Patricia Clarkson; Stanley Tucci; Lisa Kudrow

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 01:18:26Read transcript

Pick: Patricia Clarkson, the icon, going for it with awkward, goofy mom lines; discovered further via her Jane Davis in House of Cards. — Shea Serrano
A co-award to Patricia Clarkson and Stanley Tucci as great movie parents whose instant chemistry explains Olive; the speaker is hurt that the other two picked them for overacting.
The family-movie-night bit where the family member of the week picks, but Clarkson's character actually decides, is loved.
Another pick: Lisa Kudrow, never unwelcome, wisely within her range, making an impact in probably two days of work.
The hosts see very different movies; before the rewatch one could not have said for sure Kudrow or Bynes were in it.

Recasting Couch

Zendaya; Isabela Moner

In the discussion (7)

Approx. transcript time · 01:22:02Read transcript

The host is at a loss for a recast.
Two ideas: Zendaya, who lives teenage hell in Euphoria and is underused in Spider-Man but has the confidence to make you believe she will be okay; and Florence Pugh, with some fire, at the risk of an Emma Stone impersonation. — Amanda Dobbins
Pugh is ruled out by one host who cannot separate her from Midsommar; Zendaya is called great.
Pugh seems up for every young-actress role and will always be the loathsome Amy from Little Women. — Juliet Litman
Counterpoint: Little Women is a justice-for-Amy movie, and that is what this role needs; the Zendaya idea is called really good.
A reboot or spin-off was reportedly announced about a year ago, unconfirmed.
Another pick: Isabela Moner (transcribed "Isabella Monair"), known for playing Dora, Instant Family and the second Sicario; accepted with "She's in."

Apex Mountain

No affirmative selection

In the discussion (6)

Approx. transcript time · 01:25:27Read transcript

On paper this is not Stone's Apex since her career starts here, she won an Oscar for La La Land, and made bigger and more serious films; she should have been nominated for this. — Amanda Dobbins
The 2010 Best Actress field is recited (Natalie Portman winning for Black Swan, Annette Bening, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lawrence, Michelle Williams); there was room for Stone but the Oscars do not acknowledge comedy; not technically her Apex, but she does not reach it without this. — Amanda Dobbins
Her Vanity Fair cover came the following year, thought to be October 2011; her fame would probably have happened anyway, and this is not anywhere close to her Apex.
Her Apex is probably La La Land, though the Oscar victory lap was short because of the Moonlight mix-up; a disagreement says the Oscar let her get any movie made, and she chose Cruella.
Cruella draws concerns as a children's origin story for a dog-skinning villain, versus the pitch of evil Emma Stone; Easy A made an equally unpromising premise work.
It is not anyone's Apex, a pivotal canon movie without a peak; a hedged suggestion that it is probably director Will Gluck's peak "in my opinion" gets a "That's true."

Picking Nits

Eighth-grade flashback; mom's dress; party room offer; party scene; dark plea; 11th-grade sex as news; Facebook timeline

In the discussion (9)

Approx. transcript time · 01:31:59Read transcript

Tied first nit: the heroine being so surprised that the character called Dan Humphreys remembers eighth grade, only about three years earlier.
Casting younger actors for the flashback but using Emma Stone's voice is also stupid.
Agreement: teen-movie flashbacks to sixth grade are hard to take, and the boy would obviously remember a failed closet kiss.
Nobody believes Patricia Clarkson's character owns the tiny hot dress the heroine says is her mom's.
No entitled rich girl would offer her own room for sex at the party. — Amanda Dobbins
The party scene is the trickiest, especially the don't-mess-up-my-sheets line; the sounds are unbelievable, though the ridiculousness is played for comedy over a heavy premise of a gay student pretending to be straight.
Brandon's plea that he does not know what he might do gets dark fast; the movie skirts darkness without going there.
An 11th grader having sex would not be big news.
Once the rumors are all over Facebook and adults know, it would be shut down in two days, not two weeks; the Facebook material is not as well done as the YouTube material.

The Neil McCauley “A Book about Metals” Award for Best Line from the Movie

"in bestsellers right next to Twilight"; "the accelerated velocity of terminological inexactitude"

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 01:38:39Read transcript

Opening examples, not declared as a pick: Olive lands the most quips; Stone allegedly improvised the line about not being "the gossip girl in Sweet Valley of the Traveling Pants", stacking tropes; the different ways she refers to gossip are bangers.
Also offered as an example: Mr. Griffith's Facebook rant, "I can assure you they're not all diamonds", about Roman's Coke Zero; "Someone had to say it."
Unsure of a single pick, one host notes Olive's lines are dense references that would sound annoying out of context but are funny from Stone.
Declared pick: the bookstore clerk putting the Bible "in bestsellers right next to Twilight", enjoyed partly because the clerk was also in Twilight, a fact the speaker would share only after the movie ends.
Favorite Olive quip: gossip as "the accelerated velocity of terminological inexactitude".

Sequel, Prequel, Limited Series, or All-Black Remake

Yes, as a Netflix show or movie

In the discussion (4)

Approx. transcript time · 01:42:40Read transcript

Could it be a 10-episode Netflix show? Obviously yes, several say.
Ten hours would strain the suspension of disbelief and everything-is-okay tone; a darker version becomes a different thing.
Today it would go straight to Netflix as a movie and be a hit; whether it launches a career is uncertain, though Netflix has done so within its ecosystem (Millie Bobby Brown and her Sherlock Holmes sister movie).
Netflix teen movies target only teens, so whether a remake works for adults too is the major question.

Probably Unanswerable Questions

Unseen college brother; source of the chlamydia

In the discussion (5)

Approx. transcript time · 01:48:03Read transcript

Number one: why don't we meet her brother in college? Another host had not thought about it.
Question: who gave whom chlamydia in the movie, and is there a line saying who gave it to whom? — Shea Serrano
Answer: Micah's phone call says he does not care that she gave him chlamydia, then cuts to Lisa Kudrow on the other end; that raises where she got it, so she must have been cheating on Thomas Haden Church's character.
On first watch the call seemed to be to Marianne, echoing FCA members secretly having sex or drinking.
No questions: the movie sews things up tightly, so there is no worry about trauma for Olive or her fake partners. — Amanda Dobbins

Who Lost the Movie?

Penn Badgley

The panel proposes a new category here.

In the discussion (1)

Approx. transcript time · 01:50:43Read transcript

A resounding Penn Badgley, whom the hosts never felt compelled to discuss; he is fine without them.

Who Won the Movie?

Emma Stone

In the discussion (1)

Approx. transcript time · 01:50:58Read transcript

Emma Stone, 2010, the cornerstone of the teen-movie rebuild; she deserves a retroactive Oscar or at least a nomination.

Podcast choices

Speaker not identified: Emma Stone

More from the conversation

The episode frames Easy A as possibly one of the last great teen movies.

Approx. transcript time · 00:01:34Read transcript

On rewatch, first since rewatching it for the movie book the previous year, the film is still funny and fun, and Emma Stone is still charming and obviously a movie star.

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Easy A is understood as the movie that cemented Emma Stone as a movie star after Superbad and The House Bunny; it came out in September 2010, ten years ago, which is why they are doing the episode, and next year she made Crazy Stupid Love and The Help.

Approx. transcript time · 00:02:33Read transcript

The Stone performance is called one of the best comedic performances of the last decade, a perfect marriage of actress and role; the film walks a fine line and would not work without her charm and generosity of spirit.

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Stone's arrival is compared to Cameron Diaz in The Mask: a beautiful leading woman who is extremely funny emerging from a movie rather than from Saturday Night Live is called less common.

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The movie could fall apart with anyone but Stone, like The 40-Year-Old Virgin without Steve Carell becoming creepy.

Approx. transcript time · 00:04:56Read transcript

The Pocketful of Sunshine montage on her bed shows her winning quality from the start; she has not had a huge movie since The Favourite, she was on Maniac, and Cruella is coming.

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Cruella is joked about as a movie about a woman who likes to wear dog skins, a tricky premise.

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Stone crossed from talented actress to A-list celebrity with many hits, capped by Oscar attention for La La Land and The Favourite.

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Easy A is Amanda Bynes's final film, framed as a torch passing from the aughts teen-movie era (about 1997 to 2004, peaking with Mean Girls).

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The film is a time capsule of young actors who seemed like they would last (the actor who plays Brandon, the Rhiannon actress, and Penn Badgley, who had a resurgence with You), plus a murderer's row of adults: Thomas Haden Church, Lisa Kudrow, Stanley Tucci and Patricia Clarkson.

Approx. transcript time · 00:07:38Read transcript

Asked about Amanda Bynes teen movies, What a Girl Wants and She's the Man were watched at the time without being a big Bynes fan; Marianne in Easy A is called the favorite and most interesting role of her career, which another host says she has a very different take on.

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Bynes was also good in Hairspray; She's the Man is now a cult classic and was one of Channing Tatum's first movies.

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Learning from the emails that this was Bynes's last movie was a surprise; asked what happened, the reply is that her last decade was personally troubling and that she reportedly did not like her performance in this movie and decided to stop acting.

Approx. transcript time · 00:09:36Read transcript

Bynes and Stone have real chemistry; Bynes is essentially the villain but the movie pulls its punches so she gets to be funny.

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In the teen-movie pantheon it belongs in the upper third, perhaps top 15 but not top 10, boosted by bridging the late-90s/early-2000s slate and the later Netflix-driven revival.

Approx. transcript time · 00:11:11Read transcript

It ranks high as a summary of prior teen movies: John Hughes references (director Will Gluck reportedly calls Ferris Bueller his favorite; the shower mohawk, the never-had-one-lesson guitar bit, the line that her life is not a John Hughes movie, a John Hughes montage), plus Mean Girls-style self-aware meta commentary, though far less vicious.

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Like animated movies with jokes for adults, this is the first remembered teen movie with winks for people raised on John Hughes films, which pulls it between two worlds.

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Clueless does this too with literary references such as Cher not knowing Billie Holiday; both have an archness that works across generations.

Approx. transcript time · 00:15:15Read transcript

A corollary question places Olive among the great teen-movie female leads: Molly Ringwald, Alicia Silverstone, Lindsay Lohan and Emma Stone as the big four, despite the speaker not being a Molly Ringwald fan.

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Another host nearly fell out of their chair at not being a Ringwald fan; the reply is that Ringwald characters may resonate more with male audiences and that they are a Ferris Bueller person.

Approx. transcript time · 00:16:31Read transcript

Ferris is the idealized coolest person having the most fun; one host sides with Juliet on Ringwald, and not rating Molly Ringwald is called one of the speaker's hot takes.

Approx. transcript time · 00:17:03Read transcript

Rachel McAdams's Regina George is raised; one host argues she is Mean Girls' protagonist and better than Lindsay Lohan.

Approx. transcript time · 00:17:20Read transcript

A personal ranking: Alicia Silverstone in Clueless first (seen with the speaker's mother at Lenox Mall in Atlanta at age 11), Emma Stone second, Molly Ringwald third (she dated Ad-Rock), Lindsay Lohan fourth because Mean Girls is about everybody else.

Approx. transcript time · 00:17:52Read transcript

Rachael Leigh Cook in She's All That feels like a different world because of its male normative gaze; it is a Freddie Prinze Jr. movie, with Matthew Lillard loved; 10 Things I Hate About You and Julia Stiles also belong in the conversation.

Approx. transcript time · 00:18:39Read transcript

Picking one actress to build a new teen movie around: Clueless-era Silverstone cannot be recreated, so the pick is 2010 Emma Stone.

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The others also build around 2010 Emma Stone, called a huge accolade in one of the fundamental genres of the last 50 years.

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Second choices: 2004 Rachel McAdams for Mean Girls and The Notebook, and 2000-2001 Gabrielle Union (Bring It On, 10 Things, She's All That), who makes every movie better.

Approx. transcript time · 00:21:01Read transcript

Background: directed by Will Gluck, a professed John Hughes fan; writer Bert Royal set it in Ojai (ASR Ohio) to echo a Hughes Chicago suburb; shot on location including a local high school whose lack of indoor hallways forced improvisation; premiered at TIFF; reportedly on the Black List though Royal allegedly wrote almost all of it in five consecutive days.

Approx. transcript time · 00:22:29Read transcript

Nit: twat is not that bad a word given worse things at this high school; the C word is far worse; cut curse words for a PG-13 rating may explain it.

Approx. transcript time · 00:34:08Read transcript

Stone's run from Easy A through Birdman (Crazy Stupid Love's Gosling scenes and dirty-dancing lift, The Amazing Spider-Man, Gangster Squad) is praised until Aloha brought a screeching halt; The Favourite is suggested as a future episode.

Approx. transcript time · 01:29:52Read transcript

Will Gluck later made Friends with Benefits and the live-action Peter Rabbit films; Encore on Disney Plus, produced with Kristen Bell, is recommended.

Approx. transcript time · 01:31:22Read transcript

Watching this as a parent of 13-year-old twins, the speaker appreciates confident characters like Olive, Beanie Feldstein in Booksmart and Ferris Bueller, who you know will be okay.

Approx. transcript time · 01:41:44Read transcript

Asked whether late-90s/early-2000s teen movies were seen in theaters with friends or family: one saw Bring It On, She's All That and Honey with friends; another saw Clueless with her mother in 1995 and Legally Blonde with friends in 2001, with parents enforcing the PG-13 rule, and recalls Marvin's Room as a first co-ed group outing.

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These movies were seen with friends or girlfriends, such as a group of 14 for She's All That; straight-to-Netflix teen movies lose that shared experience.

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The twins do not watch movies, only anime their friends discuss while playing Fortnite or Fall Guys; that may come around 16 or 17.

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The future of movies is a separate sad conversation for The Big Picture.

Approx. transcript time · 01:48:03Read transcript