Casting What-Ifs reports Bill Pullman originally set for Jerry before a scheduling conflict and Richard Jenkins also considered; Pullman is judged too dashing, while Macy’s pursuit of the part is recalled.
De Niro as Moss or a younger Levene and Willis as Williamson or Blake are considered; the discussion’s Jimmy Conway reference leaves the final Blake alternative ambiguous. — Sean Fennessey
Modern franchise stars and British actors may lack the ordinary, badly dressed New York or Chicago quality needed for these roles. — Chris Ryan
Baron's first staff meeting, where he asks whether Spotlight would consider picking this story, is singled out. — Bill Simmons
The survivor Saviano (first misnamed Josh Saviano, then corrected) explaining that the abuse is spiritual as well as physical is really good and important. — Bill Simmons
The second Crudup meeting is a cat-and-mouse scene about private mediations that left no court records. — Bill Simmons
The speakerphone call, voiced by Richard Jenkins, with the pull-back across the office, is when the stakes rise from a few priests to about 90.
Baron telling them to go after the system rather than individual priests is an incredible journalism lesson, set against Ruffalo's fear of being scooped by the Herald. — Bill Simmons
McAdams's character visiting the priest who matter-of-factly describes his conduct, before his sister intervenes and a school bus appears, is highlighted.
Many of these scenes are not technically rewatchable; Ruffalo getting the documents, the cab ride and his 'They knew' speech is called iconic, with All the President's Men DNA in the copier bit.
Keaton visiting Jim the lawyer at home, with the cheerful wife and the cold husband, ends with 'you and everyone else'; the Red Sox complaints about the 2001 season are a nice touch.
Robbie admitting he had the story in 1993, followed by Marty's speech, is chosen as the favorite scene.
Another set of favorites includes the Red Sox game banter, hauling directories out of a basement with a dead rat, and Crudup's character snapping 'I sent you the names' (the sick-leave code realization is filed under What's Aged the Best); the speakerphone scene is the pick because it reveals the magnitude. — Chris Ryan
McAdams's interview with Joe Crowley, intercut with Ruffalo's, is added for explaining the victim's side, including 'Who, a priest?' with a church beside a playground. — Ryen Russillo
The Crowley sequence was also listed under What's Aged the Best; small details such as his nerves, the muffins and the Dorchester-to-Back-Bay remark avoid handholding. — Ryen Russillo
There are too many contenders to choose from; the legacy quote is held to be the Catalina wine mixer line, which anyone who loves the movie can throw out anywhere, and 'did we just become best friends' is a pretty big one too; picking a best quote is called impossible because the movie is all quotes.
The Randy Jackson martial-arts-weapon question is offered as being as good as any quote in any movie; every Derek line is funny, including a crude line about helping out his friends and his flattery of Richard Jenkins while trying to sell the house, and his first name-drop of Mark Cuban as 'the cubes' before listing douchey 2008 celebrities and the Dane Cook pay-per-view.
Richard Jenkins is proposed and contested: one host insists he is not overacting in this movie, another counters that he does a couple of times, that they knew, and that he gets really mad in the kitchen.
Riggle overacts, but that is Riggle's whole thing, and this was the first time he did the bit now familiar from his real-estate commercials; the Kobayashi line is still funny, and the pals are funny too.
Catherine Han is a yes, a hundred percent: this put her on the map in the greatest way possible in a movie people rewatch all the time.
Will Ferrell is a no: after a clarification that Apex Mountain means the greatest moment of a career rather than just comedic performances, a host still thinks Anchorman is it, he was in the middle of a great run, and he was still at the tail end of SNL, having played Bush for a couple of years.
Adam McKay gets a yes at first, the peak of his powers, making an iconic comedy out of nothing, with no plot, that let him do whatever he wants; then The Big Short, $140 million and a Best Director nomination, is raised and the same host changes his mind and goes Big Short, while another thinks McKay has not hit his apex yet and it is in front of him, citing the jittery Big Short camera work in Succession even though the show is mostly creator Jesse Armstrong's handiwork.
Adam Scott gets a hundred percent from one host; another would instead name Eastbound and Down, where his agent Pat Anderson is mind-blowing in two and a half scenes, with the black-credit-card exchange with John Hawkes recited up to its crude punchline; Will Ferrell's Ashley Schaefer BMW plums speech from the same show gets a shout-out, and without Step BrothersScott would not have been unleashed as a comedy dick in that role.
For Reilly, Boogie Nights and Magnolia are offered, with Days of Thunder and Talladega Nights in the conversation; one host calls him his least favorite part of Magnolia and would cut the whole character, Walk Hard is mentioned, and Boogie Nights is given as the answer for his exercise dance behind the glass during the Mark Wahlberg song before Feel the Heat.
John C. Reilly cried real tears in the divorce scene; Boats and Hoes was written by Dr. Luke, who had been the SNL guitarist; Ferrell did his own singing and Reilly his own drumming at the Catalina Wine Mixer; Adam Scott lip-synced Sweet Child O' Mine in the van; the dinosaur monologue was ad-libbed by Jenkins and McKay in two takes; the prosthetic testicles reportedly cost up to $20,000
John C. Reilly really cried during the divorce scene, real tears in a real acting performance; asked as a child of divorce whether the scene landed, a host answers a hundred percent; Han starts crying too and calls him honey, prompting Adam Scott (as transcribed, 'Dan Scott') to ask why she is calling him honey.
Boats and Hoes was made by the controversial Dr. Luke, which the hosts suspect traces to his years as the Saturday Night Live guitarist when McKay and Ferrell were on the show; Ferrell did his own singing and Reilly all the drumming at the Catalina Wine Mixer, and Ferrell's operatic performance (transcribed as 'Porti Volare') is weirdly good, opera rather than a pop song, from a crazy talented man.
Adam Scott lip-synced Sweet Child O' Mine, the one guy in the van doing so, which a host never noticed until armed with the tidbit; the a cappella Guns N' Roses rendition is also called one of the most rewatchable scenes.
The dinosaur monologue was ad-libbed by Jenkins and McKay during a throw-anything session and shot in only two takes; McKay promised Jenkins he would not use it, and before the screening Jenkins asked whether he had used it and learned it was in. It is called an awesome scene that arguably belonged among the most rewatchable, a favorite three-character exchange in which Jenkins's character planned to be a doctor for a while and then go back to being a dinosaur, Brennan asking how that is even a skill, and Dale telling him a human could never be a dinosaur.
Stepped on early during the scene discussion: the half-assed internet research found claims that the prosthetic testicles cost $20,000, against the few thousand dollars in the oral history.
Four nominees are thrown out first: the first dinner scene with the whole family together, start to finish great, where John C. Reilly makes Will Ferrell cry and which ends with Ferrell going to shake Richard Jenkins's hand (as transcribed, 'Richard Jacobs') and slowly pulling it away; the drum scene, a masterpiece that keeps going until the fight in the yard and Mary Steenberg's (as transcribed) profane line; the bunk beds breaking, still funny the hundredth time; and the boat video.
Also floated: the Catalina mixer song and that whole moment; the grounding after the drum set, where the couch exchange between Jenkins and Steenburgen and Reilly and Ferrell is mind-blowing because the two are visibly throwing lines out; Adam Scott's Derek popping his head up into the treehouse, with 'I haven't had a carb since 2004' called one of the best lines in the movie and an obvious body double for the abs; and the porno-magazine time-machine bit leading up to it.
The film is thought of as micro moments rather than scenes, a movie of lines and dialogue; the job interview is added, and a 2 Chainz song called Trap Back stops in the middle to play the audio of the pan scene for a minute and a half, ending on 'get out of my office', taken as proof that movie dialogue can be dropped into a song and loved.
Will Ferrell is called weirdly influential on that period of rap, basically inventing Watch the Throne; Kanye loves him and famously quoted 'don't lose your dinosaur' in an interview with Zach Barron (as transcribed).
One pick is the drum scene, played as a clip from the accusation about the touched drum set through the threat to put his testicles on it, and taken as the winner all the way through the fight.
The fake testicles got significant space in Alan Siegel's oral history: they cost a few thousand dollars by one account and twenty thousand by the half-assed internet research, the designer warned McKay a really nice set would be expensive and McKay told him to do what he needed, and Ferrell asked to keep them and brings them out for dinner parties.
A second pick is the treehouse, with Derek's 'I don't have a problem, Dale. Actually, I have the opposite of a problem. I made over 550K last year' read out as proof that Adam Scott is an amazing dickhead; a third pick is the scene when they get grounded.
