Reported four attempts to obtain R rather than NC 17 rating. — Bill Simmons
Four main films and four 2005–2009 directDVD spinoffs reported; Band Camp, Naked Mile, garbled third title, and Book of Love enumerated; no viewing claimed. — Bill Simmons
Reported Long Beach filming and practical prop anecdotes, Costco pie and egg-white drink effect. — Bill Simmons
Klein and Scott reportedly practiced lacrosse three weeks, body doubles handled sports despite convincing appearance.
Witherspoon reportedly declined Scream; Fear is preferred as her path, with concern that the Scream ensemble might have trapped her in a teen-star identity.
Witherspoon also reportedly passed on Urban Legend, which receives a negative assessment.
Katie Holmes was considered for Annette, but Kumble reportedly doubted her strength of character; one response thinks she would fit, while others worry about a low-energy pairing with Phillippe. — Bill Simmons
Ben’s awkward self-abuse advice to his son is the first pick.
Key parties as a pop-culture gimmick age well; CBS’s Swingtown tried and failed, and Mad Men had adultery but no key party. — Bill Simmons
The 1970s house with a single step up between rooms is a style never seen again, recalling the sunken living room in Help! — Bill Simmons
The Nixon and Watergate shadow is cited again. — Chris Ryan
Kline and Weaver, who played a president and first lady four years earlier, reuniting as adulterers is enjoyed. — Bill Simmons
Bong scenes and the Amaretto-and-brandy combination are enjoyed. — Bill Simmons
This was the Paul actor’s breakout before Pleasantville and Katie Holmes’s first film, before Dawson’s Creek and Disturbing Behavior; admiration for Holmes and a sneaky-tall anecdote follow. — Bill Simmons
Paul’s boarding-school posters, including Planet of the Apes, the Doors, and Nixon, reward set-dressing attention. — Bill Simmons
Francis and Paul’s roommate banter, including their reading-recommendation exchange, is a welcome change of gear. — Chris Ryan
Asked who should have been Oscar-nominated since the film had no acting nominations, the hosts agree on Joan Allen, citing her tearing up when the Reverend hits on her. — Chris Ryan
Reviewing that year’s supporting-actress field, the Titanic nomination is called an abomination that took Allen’s spot, and Heather Graham in Boogie Nights is also raised. — Bill Simmons
Nominees: Ledger's performance, the action sequences, the Breaking Bad fall and turn of Harvey Dent, unusual in a superhero movie, and the death of Rachel Dawes, whose he-went-to-the-wrong-building reveal is emotionally affecting and is placed second.
Rachel Dawes was Katie Holmes's part in the first film; the story is that she was busy making a Queen Latifah movie, which is read as a publicist's version of being replaced; Maggie Gyllenhaal reportedly did not understand Batman and just wanted to work with Nolan, and though she is a little divisive she gives the movie a gravitas it would not otherwise have.
Gyllenhaal seems like a real person in a movie without many, and credibly reads as someone who has known Bruce for a very long time, which he needs since nobody else in his life says 'my friend Bruce'; the love triangle is an underrated nuance, with both men making major life decisions on whether she will be with them.
On the rescue: the Joker lies about the locations, so Batman heads for Rachel, in part because he wants to keep being the Batman rather than hand over to the golden boy, and ends up with Dent; just before, she had answered his if-I-stop-being-Batman question, then chose Harvey.
Asked directly, the answer is Ledger: a YouTube mashup of his scenes is the most interesting stuff; where Sean Penn in Mystic River went from wow to the 'is that my daughter in there' meme, Ledger in clown makeup doing mannered work does not age a day, helped by how controlled his Brokeback Mountain performance had been, everything twenty miles beneath the surface.
Because he arrived already trusted as a great actor, the over-the-top choices are accepted, the tonguing of his scars, the crooked, bent-over posture, the head turned left, as an interpretation differentiated from the comics, the cartoons and Jack Nicholson, a Joker very on the ground and messed up.
Ledger died in January 2008 and the film came out that July, so first viewings carried the knowledge that this was the last time the character would be seen; rewatching ten years later you are simply in the moment with him, and he is the reason to rewatch; compared with the Joker of Suicide Squad, Ledger's has a complete lack of vanity that is crucial.
The interrogation room is the first time he is seen in bright light: makeup cracking away from his eyes, slouched on the floor, poking at the cop, Gordon and Batman, looking weak and deranged, genuinely frightening where Nicholson in Tim Burton's movie, also liked, is cartoonish.
