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The Rewatchables ·

Gone Girl

year 2014decade 10sdirector David Finchergenre Drama
host Bill Simmonshost Shea Serranohost Mallory Rubinhost Sean Fennessey
All 15 categories

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award · 1:23:10

Staying with Amy after everything is the right call

Shea Serrano: His hottest take of the whole podcast: he would be in, because she really loves him a lot, or if not will pretend to; she believes in love and did all of that stuff; and she is very clear with her rules, do these things and everything will be great, so if he knows what to do he will do what he is told.

The objections: Nick never thinks for a second that he loves her or she him; what makes the interview sequence so good is watching her watch him, the chin moment, the tie and watch she gave him, like the Scoot McNary (as transcribed) scene's theme of crafting him; she goes home because she has lost control of the Desi situation and sees proof she can still make Nick what she wanted, which is recognition rather than love, enough for these two; the price is being a prisoner in your own home for eighteen years.

The film

Gone Girl (2014)

Directed by David Fincher · Drama

149 minutes

IMDbLetterboxdJustWatch
Cast

Selected cast credits · Film reference

Ben Affleck Nick Dunne, a professor
Rosamund Pike Amy Elliott Dunne , Nick's missing wife
Neil Patrick Harris Desi Collings, Amy's wealthy and obsessive ex-boyfriend
Tyler Perry Tanner Bolt, Nick's attorney
Carrie Coon Margo "Go" Dunne, Nick's twin sister
Kim Dickens Detective Rhonda Boney, the lead investigator on Amy's disappearance
Patrick Fugit Officer James Gilpin, Boney's partner
Missi Pyle Ellen Abbott, a cable TV host based on Nancy Grace
Emily Ratajkowski Andie Fitzgerald, Nick's mistress and student
Casey Wilson Noëlle Hawthorne, Nick and Amy's pregnant neighbor
Lola Kirke Greta, a young woman Amy meets at the Ozarks campground
Boyd Holbrook Jeff, a flirtatious man Amy meets at the Ozarks campground
Lisa Banes Marybeth Elliott, Amy's mother
Sela Ward Sharon Schieber, a network TV host
Scoot McNairy Tommy O'Hara, another former boyfriend of Amy's
Scott Takeda TV Producer
David Clennon Rand Elliott, Amy's father
Kathleen Rose Perkins Shawna Kelly

Everything from the episode

In the order the hosts got to it. Open a row for the discussion.

31:36

Most Rewatchable Scene

The reveal: Amy's 'I'm so much happier now that I'm dead' monologue

The reveal: Amy's 'I'm so much happier now that I'm dead' monologue

In the discussion (17)
Approx. transcript time · 00:31:36Read transcript
  • The first hour is watchable but rewatchability heats up around the big turn; the first nominee is Affleck coming home to find Amy missing and calling the police, with the neighbor across the street, the lady cop quietly suspicious because it is usually the husband, and the meticulousness of the search, which sets the film up as a whodunit it is not.
  • You have to instantly believe Rhonda Boney knows what she is doing, because she is a central figure and the last life raft for hoping someone keeps pursuing the case; her post-it notes on the blood spatter and the way she reads the plugged-in iron beside a dress that represents romance show something is up right away.
  • The outdoor Amy rally with protesters is a good scene with a good twist, shot wide so it feels like another bullshit vigil before the turn against Ben Affleck; Casey Wilson is great as Noelle, the extremely dumb pregnant neighbor seduced into Amy's plan, and the shots of Emily Ratajkowski mouthing words back at him and of Affleck fleeing cameras in slow motion like a lumbering old quarterback are smartly staged.
  • The big reveal, 'I am so much happier now that I'm dead', arrives one hour and seven minutes in, a point where Bloodsport is nearly over; Amy's monologue runs about five pages on IMDb though it is much shorter than the book's cool girl passage, and a first-time viewer briefly fears a dead-narrator movie before 'technically missing, soon to be presumed dead' lands.
  • Asked to read the bold paragraph aloud, she asks which part, protests that her dad listens to these podcasts, hates the 'befriend a local idiot, fake a murder' part because she feels bad for the local, and identifies the waxing passage as the part she is being made to read before reading it. — Mallory Rubin
  • The paragraph read aloud, waxing, canned beer and Adam Sandler movies, cold pizza at a size two, forging the man of her dreams and being the happiest couple they knew, is called the whole movie in one paragraph: a couple that learned to like the identity of being a couple more than being together; someone asks whether there were no salons in New York.
  • Taking issue with that reading, he recalls his father, not a speech-giver, sitting him down before his wedding to say that people change: Nick changes and becomes a less good partner, Amy becomes more insane with a history of manipulation involving Skeet Ulrich's character, and after the sparks of first meeting everyone has pitched a slightly more appealing version of themselves. — Sean Fennessey
  • The other key passage is 'you think I'd let him destroy me and end up happier than ever? No fucking way. He doesn't get to win. Grownups work for things, grownups pay, grownups suffer consequences.'
  • Teased that he has the happiest marriage anyone on the show knows and yet loves a film that is its opposite, he answers that it ends with her covered in blood coming back, and it is fun to watch and be glad that is not him right now. — Shea Serrano
  • Lola Kirk (as transcribed) is shouted out as the runaway Dionne Waiters (as transcribed) winner, especially the pool scene and her re-enactment of Affleck touching Emily's face; Nick's interview with the TV host played by the actress from The Fugitive (transcribed 'Cee LaWord') works like the unseen heist in Reservoir Dogs, cutting to the car where he is told how good he was.
  • Amy's return to Nick's house is called amazing: one host watching with Laramie, who had read the book, could not believe her stumbling out of the car covered in blood, with Affleck's 'you bitch' in her ear, the 'I'm not a quitter' lead-up to the interview and the twin sister crying devastated in the kitchen, an amazing Carrie Coon performance; that host's pick is Amy returning and everything after, while another much prefers the beginning.
  • Smaller early picks: the first police interview, where 'she's a voracious reader' reveals how little Nick knows about his wife, Boney's instant lack of trust, Gil asking whether they are really married and the blood-type question, which leaves the hosts admitting they do not know their own or their wives' blood types, or even their social security numbers.
  • The press conference: Nick's four words devoid of sincere emotion, the iconic pie-eating grin beside the poster, contrasted with her parents going into stump-speech mode with talking points; the parents sold her childhood and turned her into something others could digest, which earns some sympathy for Amy and explains both relationships.
  • The Desi murder has to be in the list as the most iconic, amazingly staged scene, with Amy untucking his shirt so the security cameras catch him tucking it back in, but some find it too unpleasant to rewatch; even on a seventh or eighth viewing, the throat slicing still shocks.
  • The reveal is the pick for several: one expected the familiar turn where the husband's face goes evil and the body is in the basement, and instead sat hands on head listening to her explain everything; 'America loves pregnant women' followed by calling Noelle a pregnant idiot, and the closing pregnancy reveal, tie it all neatly together.
  • The seduction scenes are also good: the meet-cute at the party, the proposal at the Amazing Amy book party, Nick posing as a journalist, really a men's-magazine writer; the reveal, another host's pick, references those fairy-tale early days as true and crucial, the foundation for believing in their love at all.
  • What makes the reveal great beyond the shock is the pride and vindication in Amy's meticulous steps, 300 diary entries written with different pens, sitting on the kitchen floor of a home in his hometown she never wanted, an IV draining her own blood while she reads a book, with a quick shot that Nick would clean poorly; one host would pay for just the first part as a rom-com, which is said to already exist as He's Just Not That Into You.
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48:36

What’s Aged the Best?

Nick's unshaven video-game swoon; Carrie Coon as the twin sister; the vigil selfie turning on Nick; the Nancy Grace c...

Nick's unshaven video-game swoon; Carrie Coon as the twin sister; the vigil selfie turning on Nick; the Nancy Grace character Ellen Abbott; the detective team of Kim Dickens and Patrick Fugit; the Mastermind board game and the other games; the Reznor and Ross spa-dread score; the meticulousness of Amy's plan; the side dick; Rosamund Pike's performance; the Twincest; Affleck's Mets hat; every small role perfectly cast; the twist

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 00:48:36Read transcript
  • Affleck's unshaven video-game swoon has aged best for one host, a true-to-life moment that probably happened to him around 2006, bummed out in his living room with a laptop; Carrie Coon, in her first role, is believable as his twin, though ten years younger, and went on to star in The Leftovers.
  • The first gathering where the lady takes a selfie with them and then turns on them is really well done and has surely happened to Ben Affleck in real life; the Nancy Grace character Ellen Abbott and the detective team of Kim Dickens and grown-up Almost Famous star Patrick Fugit also hold up.
  • Fincher reportedly told press that the Mastermind board game Nick gives his sister was a red herring thrown in for his own amusement at critics scribbling it down; one host does not believe that for a second, arguing the games shown, Let's Make a Deal as they make their deal, Life with its meta line and a Ouija board as her talking from the dead, are all on purpose, and Mastermind is a game about entrapment and being smarter than your opponent; a confession of cheating at board games follows.
  • Fincher briefed Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross (transcribed 'Tannicus') after a spa visit where music meant to relax him felt creepy, wanting passive music that instills dread, and the result feels like a spa where you might get stabbed in the aorta mid-massage; with Social Network it is an all-time two-for-two, Reznor's scores are argued to rival Nine Inch Nails in his legacy, with the ER episode that used Closer floated as his origin, and the Desi murder cue feels like it emanates from inside your chest, the hardest left turn the film takes.
  • The meticulousness of the plan has aged well, pouring wine on herself, untucking his shirt and knowing where every security camera is.
  • She disputes that: Amy's meticulous nature governs everything with Nick, plotted since she saw him with Andy in the snow replicating the lip wipe and sugar cloud from their own origin story, down to the 'kill self?' calendar entry, whereas the Desi material is purely reactive and instinctual, which is why she thinks the end of the movie does not work; Amy thought Desi would be another puppet, realized she was the prisoner in the dollhouse he built, and her way out is sloppy. — Mallory Rubin
  • The counter: she either went to Desi's knowing what she would do or decided once she lost her money, parked as an unanswerable question; Nick's woodshed line in the interview shows her he can keep up with her; anyone with eight weeks could fake a death, but she devised an instant exit without implicating herself, though she had already lost weight, cut and dyed her hair and built up rope marks on her wrists, so twenty-something days had passed.
  • One side holds that she got away with it only because the FBI agents should be jailed, not because she did a good job; the other sees an acid-dipped commentary from a female writer on believing women and survivors and the FBI's historical approach to trauma, something fraught and complicated inside an otherwise whirling thriller.
  • The side dick has aged best for one host, and nobody mentions that Desi's is visible too when she slides off him; Rosamund Pike's performance as Amy Dunn (as transcribed), which will live forever, is another host's answer to every category; the Twincest reference was followed by years of Twincest on Game of Thrones.
  • Affleck putting on a Mets hat in the airport, refusing the Yankees hat Fincher had in his head, has aged fantastically and the fight between them is great; the nitpick is that he should have worn a Cardinals hat given his Cardinals shirt, unless he bought it at the airport.
  • Also the musical score, awe-inspiring when it kicks in at Desi's murder; every single small role is perfectly cast, which everyone agrees has aged well; and the twist itself.
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59:28

What’s Aged the Worst?

The shock value of the big twist, which cannot be recaptured on rewatch; the internet outrage reaction to the movie; ...

The shock value of the big twist, which cannot be recaptured on rewatch; the internet outrage reaction to the movie; the brutality of the Desi murder; Neil Patrick Harris's performance; Wesley Morris's negative review; Bill Simmons saying Neil Patrick Harris was bad

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:59:28Read transcript
  • The big twist has aged worst in one sense: in the theater, where a guy audibly went 'oh, shit', it was the best part if you had not read the book, and that shock cannot be recaptured on a tenth viewing, though you appreciate the details in a new way, like rereading Goblet of Fire knowing Voldemort rises from the cauldron, which is the whole point of the podcast; it belongs in both categories.
  • The internet reacting to the movie has aged badly: one of the first cases of people pulling other things into a piece of art and arguing outrage over it, as now with the new Tarantino movie, when to one host it is a movie about a crazy lady who framed her husband and came back; another counters that using criticism to understand society through art is reasonable and happens on this podcast, and it was the 'how dare you, this is irresponsible' tone that grated.
  • Gillian Flynn has engaged the criticism of the story's sexual politics and of Amy, as she did when the book came out; her boiled-down response is that women can be murderous and violent too, anyone can be a psycho, an inversion the hosts find compelling; neither Nick nor Amy is a good person, and Nick's cheating does not entitle her to frame him, kill Desi and frame him for rape, or bring a child into that household, the baby being perhaps the most fucked-up thing she does.
  • The Desi murder is brutal and has aged worst for one host from a rewatchability standpoint; in the book she drugs him with sleeping pills and kills him off the page with a knife grabbed in the kitchen rather than a box cutter, less premeditated and violent, and Patrick Fugit's line asking how she got her hands on a box cutter is relished.
  • Neil Patrick Harris sucks, capital S, for one host: a sitcom actor with no chemistry, out-acted in his scenes and not a Fincher actor, with the other How I Met Your Mother guy Josh Radner (as transcribed), Zach Braff or Tobey Maguire suggested instead; others argue the lack of chemistry is the point, that he evinces weak, privileged, waspy cornball well, and that Amy is supposed to outclass him.
  • Wesley Morris's Grantland review is nominated, with one host eager to make fun of him: brilliant, sophisticated criticism nominated for a National Magazine Award, with a bad opinion inside it, that the movie is not good; another plans to argue with him for an hour at Rembrandt's wedding after three drinks.
  • A late addition, written in two sets of notes: what has aged worst is Bill Simmons saying that Neil Patrick Harris was bad.
  • Earlier, during the scenes, the Desi murder was already called too unpleasant to enjoy, grotesque despite being exceptionally well done.
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1:06:51

Casting What-Ifs

Jon Hamm, slated for Nick until Mad Men's Matthew Weiner would not release him; Tom Cruise and George Clooney weighed...

Jon Hamm, slated for Nick until Mad Men's Matthew Weiner would not release him; Tom Cruise and George Clooney weighed for Nick; Reese Witherspoon, who held the rights to play Amy before Fincher talked her out of it; Charlize, Natalie Portman, Emily Blunt, Rooney Mara, Olivia Wilde and Julianne Hough considered for Amy; Emily Ratajkowski cast on Ben Affleck's recommendation

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 01:06:51Read transcript
  • In the formal casting what-ifs, most having been covered already, the one new item is that Fincher cast Emily Ratajkowski on a recommendation from Ben Affleck, which the hosts find the funniest thing they have heard and worth a shout-out, joking about hiring her as a football writer to cover the NFC.
  • Jon Hamm was going to play Nick but Matthew Weiner would not let him out of his contract for the last season of Mad Men, the way The Office accommodated Ed Helms filming The Hangover at night; the part could have ignited Hamm's career as Don Draper in a bad marriage, though whether Hamm would have done the side dick is called the only question that matters.
  • The case against Hamm is that the role needs innate likability, and nobody ever simply liked Don Draper even if Hamm is loved in The Town and Baby Driver; the counter is that Nick is supposed to seem rationally likable yet somehow repellent, which Hamm could swing.
  • The relationship we have with Hamm is with Don Draper, while with Affleck it is with Affleck the public person; a Hamm version would still have been a good movie, because the film is about marriage, what women and men say they want, stardom and the media, bigger than Fincher's narcissism explanation; another voice thinks Hamm would have been good but loves that Affleck did this at the point of his completed comeback.
  • Tom Cruise as Nick Dunn is floated, with one voice calling the idea amazing, and rejected by the rest: he is too short and lacks Affleck's bulk and wide shoulders, you need to believe Nick can keep up with Amy, you need to see his belly exposed when he rolls over, and nobody can picture Cruise sitting down for Battlefield 3; Clooney fifteen years earlier is possible but a little too skinny.
  • Reese Witherspoon obtained the film rights intending to produce and play Amy, met Fincher and somehow gave the part up; the hosts cannot picture her riding Neil Patrick Harris covered in blood, finding her too earnest, open and likable to go dead-eyed the way Amy requires.
  • Other names reported for Amy: Charlize and Natalie Portman, both of whom would have been interesting though Charlize carries baggage as an actress, Emily Blunt, Rooney Mara whom Fincher had just worked with, Olivia Wilde, and strangest of all Dancing with the Stars' Julianne Hough, who got far down the road before her bid at a serious acting career stalled.
  • Fincher wanted an actress with a Faye Dunaway in Chinatown persona, someone who has experienced avenues of pain no one can articulate; he settled on Rosamund Pike because at 35 she could pass for 29 or 40, she was an only child like Amy, and after four or five of her movies he had never got a beat on her, an opacity he found interesting, when the natural move would have been Charlize.
  • Fincher has always had an eye for unproven, on-the-cusp talent, Pitt in Seven, Eisenberg and Rooney Mara in The Social Network, Mahershala Ali and Taraji Henson in Benjamin Button; the hosts expected Pike's career to go somewhere else after her Oscar nomination, and before this her notable role was Jack Reacher, an embarrassing part two years earlier.
  • Asked whether baggage with a real celebrity hurts a part like this, the answer is that for Amy you need to be totally confused about the person, the opposite of the Affleck character whom you must root for implicitly, so somebody you have never seen before makes it scarier. — Shea Serrano
  • Pike's biggest role until then was Jane Bennett in Pride and Prejudice, the book that turns up in the bookshop where they have sex.
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1:07:53

The Joey Pants “That Guy” Award

Missy Pyle (Ellen Abbott); Patrick Fugit; Kathleen Rose Perkins (Shauna Kelly)

Missy Pyle (Ellen Abbott); Patrick Fugit; Kathleen Rose Perkins (Shauna Kelly)

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:07:53Read transcript
  • Patrick Fugit, the grown-up Almost Famous guy, is the first suggestion, though there are a handful of candidates; Missy Pyle, who plays the Nancy Grace type Ellen Abbott, is a that-lady in a lot of stuff; Boyd Holbrook is in the movie for one minute and has since transcended that-guy status, though seeing him here takes you back to when you would do meth with him.
  • The Nancy Grace lady wins one host over since he had no idea of her name; another had Kathleen Rose Perkins as Shauna Kelly, familiar from Episodes, Colony and You're the Worst, someone who should be a big comic actress and is great in her one minute; Casey Wilson is too famous as an SNL cast member.
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1:08:37

The Ruffalo / Hanna / Rubinek / Partridge Overacting Award

Casey Wilson

Casey Wilson

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:08:37Read transcript
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1:09:49

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

Emily Ratajkowski; Lola Kirk (as transcribed); Tyler Perry

Emily Ratajkowski; Lola Kirk (as transcribed); Tyler Perry

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 01:09:49Read transcript
  • It is a crowded field: Tyler Perry qualifies, a candidate is noted as being in only about four scenes, Casey Wilson, and one host's personal choice Lola Kirk (as transcribed), Jemima Kirk's sister from Girls also seen in Mozart in the Jungle; Scoot McNary (as transcribed) as Tommy O'Hara, who tells Nick the whole story of their encounter in one harrowing, intense scene with the 'you do know your wife' line, is a literal heat check, something he keeps doing in ninety-second roles.
  • Another host's obvious pick is Emily: her entire performance, with sincere admiration, is standing in the snow so Ben Affleck can rub her lips, sitting on a couch so he can take her dress off, mouthing 'fuck you' at the vigil, then dressing in a schoolgirl-innocent outfit for her press conference, so there is weirdly range in it; she is also fodder for the incredible underwear exchange between Nick and Go.
  • Final positions: Emily is one pick, another goes Lola, and a third likes Tyler Perry's likable, funny performance ending with 'she got you, what are you going to do', which Wesley's piece sums up as one long 'y'all white people are crazy'.
  • Earlier, during the scenes, Lola Kirk (as transcribed) was declared the runaway Dionne Waiters (as transcribed) winner unless someone wanted to have the Tyler Perry argument, for the pool scene and her memory of Affleck touching Emily's face.
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1:12:18

Half-Assed Internet Research

Affleck studied men accused of killing their wives, especially Scott Peterson; Affleck lost a bet that Fincher would ...

Affleck studied men accused of killing their wives, especially Scott Peterson; Affleck lost a bet that Fincher would not notice a tiny lens change; the bar is now a real restaurant in Cape Girardeau, Missouri; Affleck's first on-screen full frontal, really a side view; 500 hours shot over a 100-day shoot; Pike and Neil Patrick Harris rehearsed the sex scene alone for two hours; Pike gained and lost 13 pounds three times; take 18 of the head-against-the-wall scene left Pike seeing stars; Gillian Flynn felt she had 'killed feminism' after the gender criticism; Reese Witherspoon held the rights before Fincher moved on

In the discussion (7)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:18Read transcript
  • Affleck researched several men accused and convicted of killing their wives, paying particular attention to Scott Peterson, awkward reading for anyone married to him; on set he changed a camera lens setting an almost indiscernible amount and bet a crew member that Fincher would not notice, and lost when Fincher brought it up.
  • Asked whom Fincher identifies with more, the answer is Amy; asked about Gillian Flynn, the answer is Nick, offered as exactly why the movie works: there is a Nick and there is an Amy.
  • The bar is now a real restaurant exactly where it was filmed in Cape Girardeau (transcribed 'Cape Gerardale'), Missouri; this was Affleck's first full frontal on screen, which Fincher wanted to feel like a European movie, warts and all, though the hosts quibble that it is side-frontal or side-back, compare it to a Batman comic given his Batman prep, and recall Sidedick.com as one of five finalist names for the Ringer.
  • Fincher shot an allegedly incredible 500 hours of material over the 100-day shoot, five hours a day; by Rosamund Pike's account she and Neil Patrick Harris spent two hours alone on set rehearsing their sex scene at Fincher's request, with an unverified report that she practiced with a children's doll (transcribed 'Adora the Explorer'); she gained and lost 13 pounds three times, hamburgers and malts to gain it, four hours a day with a boxer and five miles of running to lose it.
  • Around take 18 of Nick bashing her head against the wall, Pike literally saw stars and felt she had a minor concussion; the hosts were 100 percent shocked by that late moment and read it as purposeful: Nick is not off the hook, he is a bad guy rather than a good one, they will stay together forever with something toxic between them, and you should not feel pure sympathy for him.
  • Flynn reportedly admitted the gender-related critical response affected her: she hovered under her covers saying she had killed feminism and had not meant to, then got over it.
  • Flagged early as half-assed internet research: Reese Witherspoon obtained the film rights, decided to produce and play Amy, then after meeting Fincher somehow let him talk her out of the part rather than insisting on it.
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1:15:48

Apex Mountain

Rosamund Pike; Cape Girardeau, Missouri

Rosamund Pike; Cape Girardeau, Missouri

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:15:48Read transcript
  • Rosamund Pike is the definition of Apex Mountain here.
  • Fincher's own apex was decided to be Social Network, the best movie of the decade for one host though the answer changes with every rewatch, which another disputes, with Benjamin Button the one nobody understands because it is not perverted; this was emphatically not Neil Patrick Harris's apex because he sucked in it.
  • Mountain Dew might be at its apex: amid the junk food of the makeover montage, mini donuts, a hamburger, Coke, Cheetos and Fritos, the camera lingers on the Dew poured into a glass so the spit is visible with the bottle still in frame, and Amy's satisfied sip signals she will let no slight go unpunished; Cape Girardeau (transcribed 'Cape Gerardo'), Missouri, is definitely at its apex.
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1:17:22

Picking Nits

Meticulous Amy cannot hide her money and loses it at miniature golf; her suicide plan is not believable; the FBI neve...

Meticulous Amy cannot hide her money and loses it at miniature golf; her suicide plan is not believable; the FBI never interrogates her or presses on the box cutter; Nick going down on Amy with her underwear on; the cat on the stool amid broken glass and left home alone; Tanner Bolt winning Nick over by finding Tommy O'Hara online; the Mets hat instead of a Cardinals hat; media training ten minutes before the interview; Amy still covered in blood during the FBI interview; nobody hears the whispered 'kiss me' exchanges; the trust-fund math leaves them far from poor

In the discussion (11)
Approx. transcript time · 01:17:22Read transcript
  • Amy spends three years framing Ben Affleck with diaries in different pens, a type-A maniac, yet absconds to a hotel and cannot figure out how to hide her money, unlike Josh Brolin (transcribed 'Josh Berlin') in No Country for Old Men pushing it through a vent; she just has a money belt.
  • A defense: this is the first time Amy has faced anything actually hard, a super-privileged person isolated in her fancy New York community and then in Missouri who has never slept in a place like that or dealt with scurrilous people, and never considered being robbed because she is always the one taking advantage; others disagree, noting she is ready to get out when they show up and that keeping the money on you is the right move.
  • Her mistake was getting excited about a hole in one at miniature golf; what kind of money belt falls off when you jump six inches in the air, and why play mini golf with those two fuckheads at all, except that she was getting comfortable in her new life; she slipped up, sloppy, right after making the long putt.
  • Her suicide plan is not believed: she loved herself too much and was too much a fan of Amy to ever kill herself, going through the charade while really wanting a twelve-year victory lap about how awesomely she framed him.
  • The FBI's incompetence: how is she not interrogated for seven hours instead of being let go because she seems tired, while covered in blood; the box cutter question is asked, but not by the agents, who fail to press on purpose; her look at Boney once she knows she has won is relished.
  • Nobody mentioned that on the night they meet, after the sugar storm, Nick goes down on Amy without removing her underwear, despite sugar handprints on the headboard showing they have been at it a while, the classic leg-blocking framing and the reverse angle of him lifting her underwear to look; she also keeps her underwear on with Desi, defended as being ready to escape or a known preference of hers, with men's-magazine advice blamed for Nick.
  • When Nick sweeps up the broken glass, Bleeker the cat sits on the stool, so he let him walk through glass, and he leaves the cat home alone rather than taking him to Go's house; Nick is sold on $100,000-retainer lawyer Tanner Bolt because Tanner finds Tommy O'Hara, a registered sex offender anyone could find online, who says women see it when they search him.
  • The Mets hat should have been a Cardinals hat; how did the money belt fall off when she jumped; the gummy-bear media training with Tanner Bolt happens ten minutes before the interview and is very clearly a first run-through; Amy staying covered in blood through the FBI interrogation is disgusting and makes no sense, except as commitment to the bit that sets up the blood running off in the shower.
  • Nobody hears what Nick whispers when they reunite or Amy's 'kiss me on the cheek' at the welcome-home event, and nobody sees that he does not do it, which one host enjoys as revealing the falseness of the whole presentation: life is fakery.
  • When they fight about money she says her parents took almost all of the million-dollar trust fund, but the later figure of $870-something thousand leaves her at least $120,000, so they are not poor and should relax about the job depression; their whole life is a fake version of struggle in a beautiful McMansion with French doors in Missouri.
  • Raised earlier, during what has aged best: Affleck puts on a Mets hat in the airport while wearing a Cardinals shirt for half the movie, which makes no sense unless he bought it there.
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1:23:10

The Stephen A. Smith Hottest Take Award

Staying with Amy after everything is the right call

Staying with Amy after everything is the right call

In the discussion (2)
Approx. transcript time · 01:23:10Read transcript
  • His hottest take of the whole podcast: he would be in, because she really loves him a lot, or if not will pretend to; she believes in love and did all of that stuff; and she is very clear with her rules, do these things and everything will be great, so if he knows what to do he will do what he is told. — Shea Serrano
  • The objections: Nick never thinks for a second that he loves her or she him; what makes the interview sequence so good is watching her watch him, the chin moment, the tie and watch she gave him, like the Scoot McNary (as transcribed) scene's theme of crafting him; she goes home because she has lost control of the Desi situation and sees proof she can still make Nick what she wanted, which is recognition rather than love, enough for these two; the price is being a prisoner in your own home for eighteen years.
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1:32:10

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

"I swear, you two are the most fucked up people I've ever known, and I specialize in fucked up"; "I love tests"; "Wha...

"I swear, you two are the most fucked up people I've ever known, and I specialize in fucked up"; "I love tests"; "What are you thinking? How are you feeling? What have we done to each other?"; "I was with you before we were even born"; "You want to stay with her?"; "Everyone knows that complicated is a code word for bitch"; "No, but it is humiliating"; "He actually expected me to love him unconditionally"

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 01:32:10Read transcript
  • Nothing from the Amy monologue is allowed; the favorite non-Amy quote is Tanner's 'I swear you two are the most fucked up people I've ever known, and I specialize in fucked up', played as a clip, a good high-school yearbook quote if you can get the asterisks past the school.
  • Picks are capped at four; one host's favorite line of the whole movie is Amy's 'I love tests' when Nick demands a paternity test at the very end, imagine saying that to your fiance in front of reporters, quite a flex; 'you have a world class vagina' is thrown out but nobody picks it.
  • The opening narration, picturing cracking his wife's lovely skull to get answers to the primal questions of any marriage, what are you thinking, how are you feeling, what have we done to each other, is called an incredible opening note and poignant to apply to your own life, unless you are the Serranos; Go has many good lines, 'I was with you before we were even born', 'I thought writers hated cliches' while dunking on the affair, and the devastating, really well acted 'you want to stay with her?' at the end.
  • More Go lines: the woodshed exchange, why not a hotel, it shows up on the statement, why not Andy's, it goes to her parents, 'ew'; 'everyone knows that complicated is a code word for bitch'; and the least believable line of dialogue, a sister telling her twin to go home and smack her in the face with his penis, 'there's some wood, bitch', which is kind of Lannister-esque.
  • Gil's 'no, but it is humiliating' to Boney about Amy funding Nick's life is a succinct but important moment about emasculation and the gender politics at large; among Amy's many lines, 'invite pregnant idiot into your home and ply her with lemonade' and the crushing 'he actually expected me to love him unconditionally' passage about being dragged penniless to the navel of the country for a newer, younger, bouncier cool girl.
  • Best quote is called first here, before more nits interrupt it.
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1:37:01

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

A ten-episode Netflix series, structured as two five-episode seasons

A ten-episode Netflix series, structured as two five-episode seasons

In the discussion (1)
Approx. transcript time · 01:37:01Read transcript
  • Could this be a ten-episode Netflix show: yes, but it would have to be two five-episode seasons; asked whether they would rather Fincher made this or Mindhunter (transcribed 'Manhunter'), the view is that Mindhunter is the better idea for a series while Gone Girl is the better idea for a movie and works great as one.
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1:37:16

Probably Unanswerable Questions

How many YouTube views would the clip of Amy returning covered in blood have? What would a Gone Girl sequel look like...

How many YouTube views would the clip of Amy returning covered in blood have? What would a Gone Girl sequel look like? What will the baby's life be like? Did no one hear them in the bookshop? Was there any fluffing? What would have happened if Nick had left? Did Amy go to Desi's knowing what she would do? Who are Tanner Bolt's two guys? What happened to Bleecker the cat?

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 01:37:16Read transcript
  • Amy's return to Nick's house in front of the cameras: estimates start at 25 million YouTube views and climb to 125 million, since it would be the craziest clip of all time and a national story.
  • Rosamund Pike has mentioned rumors of a Gone Girl sequel she would be interested in; it could be the ten-episode Netflix show, the further adventures of Amy Dunn (as transcribed) orchestrating something else the internet would hate, or a pitched Gone Girl 2 in which Amy, Ben and their Damien-like daughter visit a carnival and cartel members shoot up the place over Affleck's bad drug deal, a Den of Thieves or Peppermint crossover, or Gone Boy with a five-year-old kidnapped at the carnival.
  • What their kid's life will be like: good at soccer and an Ivy League school, against the reminder that Amy is a psychopath, not crazy in the casual euphemistic sense, the star of a future Mindhunter season, so the child would not be happy.
  • Did no one hear them in the bookshop, with a person very close by; asked what they would do if they heard, the hosts would walk away, maybe taking out a few books first; a call to bring out Ben Affleck to demonstrate how he pulled it off ends the section.
  • Asked, as a question just for her, whether there was any fluffing, she is glad it was brought up, has been wondering about it, and thinks there had to be a little. — Mallory Rubin
  • Whether Amy went to Desi's knowing what she would do the whole time, or decided once she lost her money, is parked as an interesting unanswerable question.
  • What would have happened if Nick had left: fear of exposure of things he had done, fear that she would do something like kill his sister, or the baby, which one host calls the only thing that makes him stay, while another senses an ambiguity in the conversation with Margot that he wants to be with her.
  • Leftover questions: Tanner Bolt's two guys he keeps mentioning could have filled thirty minutes; and what happened to Bleecker the cat, who is said to be thriving, or to have run away and been hit by a car.
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1:40:47

Who Won the Movie?

David Fincher, shared with Rosamund Pike

David Fincher, shared with Rosamund Pike

In the discussion (3)
Approx. transcript time · 01:40:47Read transcript
  • The initial answers are Rosamund, Fincher, as one host always answers for Fincher movies, and Bleaker the Cat (as transcribed); the Fincher case is that this is his most successful movie ever, in 2014 when movies were no longer successful at the box office, after which he dropped the mic, went to television and got all the money in the world from Netflix.
  • Fincher is obsessed with Alfred Hitchcock, speaking at length about studying his films in the documentary about the Hitchcock book (transcribed 'Hitchcock True Foe'), and this is a Hitchcock movie with more blood, sex and dick: a striking blonde, a scurrilous tall handsome movie actor and a changing sense of whom to trust, his ode to those films.
  • The Hitchcock argument convinces another voice; the Rosamund holdout thinks the part was so incredible that four or five actresses would have scored at least fifty points with it, but she is exceptional, so maybe it is a fair win for them and for Bleaker the Cat.
Podcast choices
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Rosamund Pike
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David Fincher
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David Fincher
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More from the conversation

This is called the last great Fincher movie, with his 2007-2014 run listed as Zodiac, Benjamin Button, The Social Network, Dragon Tattoo and Gone Girl in eight years.
Approx. transcript time · 00:01:46Read transcript
Asked why Fincher no longer makes movies, the answer is that he took Netflix's money to help launch House of Cards, which changed entertainment, and is now making Mindhunter for Netflix; a film is coming but this may be his last theatrical release, sad for an absolute master of fucked-up movies whose work inspired the Ringer's Take Hunter series.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:00Read transcript
The Villains podcast's championship belt for best villain still belongs to Amy five years on, inherited from Heath Ledger's Joker; Joaquin Phoenix's Joker is not expected to take it, and a case for Gellert Grindelwald gets no support.
Approx. transcript time · 00:02:34Read transcript
Fincher's stated interest was narcissism as a way to hold two people together and projecting the best version of ourselves; her view is that narcissism is a very real factor in everyday life, and having read the book first, that the twist and mechanics are thrilling but the film rewards rewatching because it is ultimately a story about human nature.
Approx. transcript time · 00:03:36Read transcript
His theory is that the film is about control and above all Ben Affleck's narcissism as a public person, one long discreet thesis about Affleck's fame, liked, loved, distrusted, hated and loved again, with Fincher, who understands stardom, knowing exactly what he is doing by casting him.
Approx. transcript time · 00:04:27Read transcript
Affleck took this right after completing his comeback with Argo, while his body was changing for Batman; it is a movie-star part in which he basically plays Ben Affleck, his fourth-highest-grossing film and the only non-franchise one among them, one of the most fucked-up Hollywood movies alongside Cruising; Gillian Flynn's adaptation keeps the book's three-part structure but drops the inner monologue, which arguably makes the movie more gripping.
Approx. transcript time · 00:08:22Read transcript
Affleck's top performances are ranked The Town, Gone Girl, Armageddon; his Batman decision is likened to going for a 19-0 season and blowing out an Achilles, derailing an interesting stretch into bad movies, though Live by Night, shelved for Gone Girl, has interesting stuff and Triple Frontier and The Accountant are liked; aging actors chase roles that impress their kids.
Approx. transcript time · 00:10:59Read transcript
Fincher took the film to try a mystery that hands off to an absurdist thriller and then to satire, three movies in one; the criticism that he did not land the satire is rejected, and one host disagrees with virtually every review written about the movie, including Wesley Morris's.
Approx. transcript time · 00:14:25Read transcript
The Pride and Prejudice copy in the bookshop where they have sex may be a coy nod to Pike's closed-off Jane Bennett; the Jack Reacher shower scene with a shirtless Cruise got laughs for its lack of chemistry; Pike drew on Nicole Kidman in To Die For, Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct and studied Carolyn Bessette Kennedy for aloof, patrician elegance; a Not Aging Well tangent crowns The Crush with Alicia Silverstone and Carrie Elwes (as transcribed) the new number one.
Approx. transcript time · 00:19:33Read transcript
Fincher described Nick to Affleck as a man run over by a steamroller inch by inch, and Affleck already knew the 35-foot waves of public perception, the symbol of you outweighing your actual participation; the media in the film are vampires feeding on tragedy porn; Fincher wanted Affleck for the way he smiles in pictures, hence the poster grin and the selfie; the film is really about identity and control, the fear of being seen and the fear of never truly knowing another person, which is why the cool girl speech is iconic.
Approx. transcript time · 00:21:42Read transcript
Amy is an actual psychopath, and the couple's disappointment is about the past, that neither was who they sold the other on being, a bad contract; jokes about other horrors follow; the film cost $61 million and made $369 million worldwide as Fincher's highest-grossing film, and the IMDb description is read admiringly.
Approx. transcript time · 00:24:26Read transcript
Asked what happened to Pike's career, he answers that there are not enough good parts for women, that at 40 Hollywood pushes women toward the exit, that her break came late, and that her all-in performance as Marie Colvin in A Private War would have been Oscar-nominated had a studio like Warner Brothers been able to platform it.
Approx. transcript time · 00:25:45Read transcript
Beirut is praised as the greatest airplane movie of 2018; Pike's Best Actress loss to Julianne Moore for Still Alice is called an It's Time award, with Reese Witherspoon in Wild also in contention, and Still Alice a tough sit nobody wants to think about again.
Approx. transcript time · 00:26:52Read transcript
Fincher quotes recited: seeing his own movies is like flipping channels onto your graduation picture, movies are not finished but abandoned, and he always sees two minutes to cut; his all-people-are-perverts mission and control-freak methods break some actors, Jake Gyllenhaal on Zodiac though not Affleck; the 80 takes here and 99 on Social Network prompt the question whether he could break Mallory, who would be fine; the cat, Bleeker, never let him down.
Approx. transcript time · 00:27:37Read transcript
Nobody would sleep in the same house as Amy with the door unlocked; the hosts would add locks and sleep like Josh Brolin in No Country for Old Men with a rifle, love Nick holding the cat in the second bedroom, recall the book's line about sleeping next to a spider, and Amy's 'there can be' when asked if there was really a baby.
Approx. transcript time · 01:22:03Read transcript
Why Nick stays: there is an ambiguity, like the shaving-mirror ending of Cruising, about whether he is really in the marriage; what they share is closer to addiction than affection, and the baby is what lets it kick in; the book made Nick's cheating, misogynist father a defining presence and his fear of becoming him, which the film cuts to thirty seconds, losing why Nick wanted the child.
Approx. transcript time · 01:25:05Read transcript
Mallory's insistence on calling the cat by its name, Bleeker, rather than 'the cat' is teased; the actor cat's name is Cheeto, who has presence in every scene and witnessed everything.
Approx. transcript time · 01:31:39Read transcript
Sign-off thanks the three guests, repeats the Vudu and Hotel Tonight reads, and notes the show is on a Rewatchables run with more episodes coming.
Approx. transcript time · 01:42:19Read transcript