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Melvin Belli

Also referred to as Melvin Belly

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Zodiac The Rewatchables
Zodiac

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

In the discussion (5)
Approx. transcript time · 02:11:24Read transcript
Zodiac The Rewatchables
Zodiac

Casting What-Ifs

Gary Oldman, Orlando Bloom, Brad Pitt, and Jennifer Aniston appear in a detailed casting history.

In the discussion (6)
Approx. transcript time · 02:07:46Read transcript
Zodiac The Rewatchables
Zodiac

Most Rewatchable Scene

The Arthur Leigh Allen interrogation

In the discussion (15)
Approx. transcript time · 01:12:36Read transcript
  • The Lovers Lane opening murder and its flashlight-on-gun image are nominated. — Bill Simmons
  • The Vallejo fireworks opening is nominated. — Bill Simmons
  • Graysmith reading the decoded letter as Paul Avery watches is nominated. — Bill Simmons
  • The Lake Berryessa bluff murder is called one of the most unsettling murder scenes.
  • Melvin Belli’s live television appearance is nominated.
  • The Ione Skye car sequence is nominated. — Bill Simmons
  • Downey and Gyllenhaal’s newsroom and bar exchanges are nominated.
  • The Arthur Leigh Allen interrogation is the final favorite. — Bill Simmons
  • The search of Allen’s trailer is nominated. — Bill Simmons
  • The basement sequence is nominated, though one host says repeat viewings reduce its impact.
  • Graysmith’s late-night visit to Toschi is nominated. — Bill Simmons
  • The Ace Hardware stare-down is nominated.
  • Toschi and Armstrong processing the taxi-cab murder scene is nominated. — Chris Ryan
  • Graysmith and Toschi’s first meeting is nominated. — Sean Fennessey
  • The final Door-to-Door breakfast is called a favorite except for the interrogation. — Sean Fennessey
Zodiac The Rewatchables
Zodiac

The Dion Waiters Award for Best Heat Check Performance

In the discussion (8)
Approx. transcript time · 00:47:18Read transcript
  • Before the nominees, a moment in the credits is called possibly the best in the film: after Gyllenhaal, Ruffalo and Downey, the names Brian Cox, John Carol Lynch, Elias Codius, Dermot Malroney and Donal Loge (as transcribed) appear, a that-guy all-star team; Malroney as Captain Marty Lee is loved and Cox as Melvin Belli really makes the most of his moment.
  • More favorites: Philip Baker Hall as Sherwood, the handwriting specialist who starts drinking a little; Clea Duvall, with a great heat-check scene; John Goetz (as transcribed), from Blood Simple, as the Chronicle editor; and Anthony Edwards, fantastic and unexpected.
  • One pick gives the award specifically to Cox, with the Melvin Belli phone-call clip played, 'Is there something I can call you that's a little less ominous?', for making the most of his few moments, the television interview, the sincere attempt to offer the caller a lifeline, and the way he physically takes the incredible screaming sound.
  • Jimmy Simpson (as transcribed), who plays the shooting victim at the start and returns at the end, prompts a detail: the character is Mike Mageau, and when the name is reported over the Vallejo PD wire it is said aloud in the newsroom as 'Mayhew', so the film intentionally misleads in a way that was probably true to how it was said, an obsessive Fincherism; James LeGroix (as transcribed) is good and weird, and Zach Granier (as transcribed), the boss in Fight Club, runs the Vallejo police department.
  • A second pick is Elias Codius (as transcribed) as Detective Mullinax (as transcribed), a great real name: a that-guy who can shoot when given the ball, known to the hosts' generation as Casey from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, a guy who looks like a cop and rarely gets a stage this large, and a great serial killer in Fallen with Denzel Washington, directed by Gregory Hoblitz (as transcribed).
  • Asked directly for a winner, a third pick is John Carroll Lynch as Arthur Lee Allen, with the 'Nobody calls me Arthur' clip: the role basically made the second half of his career, he directed the last film starring Harry Dean Stan (as transcribed) this year, and he is a well-known theater actor remembered as Norm in bed with Francis McNormand (as transcribed) at the end of Fargo.
  • Asked whether the film still works with a huge star like Anthony Hopkins as Arthur, the answer is not as well: it has to be a face whose physical presence unsettles because you feel you could have seen him without knowing why, since viewers bring previous films into the room and would read a famous actor as an important part; the misdirect succeeds because the only place to remember Lynch is Fargo, where Norm is a completely different, friendly disposition.
  • Later, the Ioni Sky (as transcribed) roadside scene is called another Dion Waiters performance and the hardest scene for one host to watch.
Zodiac The Rewatchables
Zodiac

Casting What-Ifs

Gary Oldman was to play Melvin Belli but was judged not heavy enough; Jennifer Aniston recommended Mark Ruffalo to Fincher; Andrew Garfield as a later Graysmith; Anthony Hopkins as Arthur Leigh Allen

In the discussion (4)
Approx. transcript time · 00:47:18Read transcript
  • The only casting what-if with any internet leftovers is Melvin Belli: Gary Oldman was supposed to play the role, and Fincher passed because he lacked the girth to play Belli, which lands oddly now that Oldman is playing Winston Churchill in all his girth in Darkest Hour; the hosts ask why a director who can add blood splatter could not add a few pounds, doubt anyone cares whether Belli weighed 250 or 175, and joke that human body fat is as sacred to Fincher as oak trees.
  • Ruffalo was recommended to Fincher by Jennifer Aniston, and Fincher had liked him in Collateral.
  • A side question asks whether Andrew Garfield, a little more of a boy scout, would have been a better Graysmith had the film been made five years later; Eisenberg is floated and rejected, and Gyllenhaal is called alarmingly handsome despite the wide-eyed look, as is Garfield.
  • Asked whether the film still works with a huge star like Anthony Hopkins as Arthur, the answer is not as well: it has to be a face whose physical presence unsettles because you feel you could have seen him without knowing why, since viewers bring previous films into the room and would read a famous actor as an important part, and the only place to remember Lynch is Fargo, where Norm is a completely different, friendly disposition.
Displaying all 5 discussions