The plumbing visit and neighbor fight efficiently establish a lonely janitor whose life is at rock bottom. — Bill Simmons
Patrick’s hockey return is praised for the rink, coach and mix of sympathy with discipline.
Basement banter and the angry late-night dismissal turn abruptly into the fire, while the flashback structure withholds the fireplace action.
The silent theater response, police interview, attempted use of a police gun and absence of criminal blame make the fire aftermath the strongest rock-bottom candidate.
The burial-plot and parking argument is funny, purposeful and reveals that Patrick and Lee need one another.
The dialogue-free funeral and unexpected breakdown are praised as visual acting supported by classical music. — Bill Simmons
The hill encounter is called one of the century’s best scenes for its acting, withheld history and apology dialogue.
The quiet breakdown in a friend’s wife’s arms becomes a competing emotional favorite after the bar fight. — Sean Fennessey
Patrick’s freezer panic is identified as his sole meltdown; his next-day recovery is treated as realistic for a thick-skinned teenager. — Sean Fennessey
Streep is accepted as capable of the hill performance, while Hathaway is explicitly rejected.
Jessica Lang is offered as another possible hill-scene performer; the machine-transcript rendering is retained without independently normalizing the identity. — Sean Fennessey
Emma Stone is questioned as a hill-scene alternative because she rarely performs this kind of hard, straight drama.
Jennifer Lawrence, specifically through the uncertain comparison to her Winter’s Bone performance, is raised without a firm conclusion.
The repeated words “I can’t beat it” are praised for expressing the entire movie and the only direct statement about the trauma. — Bill Simmons
2023 parents Gosling and Emma Stone with Bernthal as Cady proposed; Stone perhaps too young, Amy Adams alternative. — Bill Simmons
Current Reese Witherspoon becomes preferred wife alternative; Southern background and Big Little Lies support fit. — Bill Simmons
Early-1990s alternatives: Sarandon always preferred by one, Spacek and Sally Field considered. Lange’s height and physicality may favor her over Field. — Sean Fennessey
The hot take says Emma Stone market-corrected Melissa Benoist's potential Chazelle roles, with hypothetical La La Land and Babylon opportunities; resentment is a joke, not reported fact. — Bill Simmons
Another hot take calls Whiplash Chazelle's best and most complete film despite La La Land's directing Oscar and commercial success. — Bill Simmons
The film was originally to star Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone, two people mentioned earlier in the episode whom the filmmakers would want to reunite; they dropped out, possibly toward La La Land. — Bill Simmons
Doing this and La La Land back to back would have made them a Tracy-Hepburn pairing, prompting a tangent on audiences recognizing pre-1970 references. — Wesley Morris
Stewart is praised as a subtle sexual actor, citing an extremely erotic film with Julieta Benoche, versus Robbie's externalized style; Smith and Stewart are predicted best actor and actress winners this year. — Wesley Morris
Per the internet research, Affleck dropped out over scheduling, Will Smith signed, then Stewart dropped out; whether she left over scheduling is unknown, assumed busy. — Bill Simmons
Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling (Crazy Stupid Love, La La Land) is the favorite re-pairing because they could make another completely different movie now. — Bill Simmons
The script is called well-constructed and well-written, with a shout-out to the writers, including Richard Price for the screenplay. — Bill Simmons
The kidnappers, by shorthand, are Lieutenant Dan, the bald Californication guy, New Kid on the Block number two, the HBO narrator guy and Lily Taylor; Lily Taylor is praised. — Bill Simmons
Early email as a plot device, when getting an email signaled that he must be really rich. — Bill Simmons
The crew is a sneaky good cast who all played their positions; Donnie Wahlberg was stunt casting in 1996 and has since become a successful actor on Blue Bloods. — Van Lathan
The narrative of the dirty cop as the lead villain has aged best. — Van Lathan
Why Jules likes Seth; confusing geography; Jules getting headbutted; no older siblings; burned cop car aftermath; too little alcohol for the party's reaction
Why Jules likes Seth is the most movie-magic part: he gets spit on, fears being Steven Glansberg and melts down in class; only Allie falling for Daniel-san is less plausible, and no other guys pursue her at her own party. — Bill Simmons
The rundown of her boyfriends, including Matt Muir who looks like Zach Morris with a six-pack since eighth grade, is loved. — Bill Simmons
The geography is confusing, suburban yet on an obvious L.A. bus; the Valley is assumed, though per Rogen the party was filmed half a block from where Nicole Brown Simpson was murdered in Brentwood. — Bill Simmons
Emma Stone should not have been hurt; the headbutt and black eye was a weird choice, she forgave too easily, and it may exist to set up the mall apology. — Bill Simmons
No one has an older sibling to buy alcohol and there is only one parent.
What happened in the 20 minutes after they burned the cop car goes unexplained.
They did not get enough alcohol for everyone to be so stoked when they arrived. — Craig Horlbeck
Follow-up on the same nit: he shows up with two gas cans of green beer that nobody would cheer; you would need to pull in a keg to get that reaction.
Jonah Hill, twice Oscar nominated and now a director, was on a Belushi-like track; 21 Jump Street is offered as his apex, after Moneyball changed opinions, though this may be the movie he is remembered for. — Sean Fennessey
Jonah and his peers are thoughtful fans of earlier movies who planned their careers. — Bill Simmons
This is definitely an Apex Mountain for Michael Cera, with Juno the same year and Scott Pilgrim in 2010.
His 2010s dip is attributed to not wanting fame and choosing smaller indie parts as an art-house fan; Molly's Game and Twin Peaks show a possible second life in a White Lotus-style series, though at 33 he is too young for the part mentioned there.
Christopher Mintz-Plasse is raised with an unclear "absolutely, yeah," then credited with more career than expected (Role Models, Neighbors, Promising Young Woman) and a good essay about being trapped as McLovin. — Bill Simmons
Rogen's 2007 was massive and his mogul career since (shows, weed line, books, pottery, Sony hack, fighting Ted Cruz) is the most impressive of the group; Long Shot shows his ideas, and his apex is probably Neighbors.
Pineapple Express got greenlit because of his stardom, from a generation that wanted to make its own Midnight Run or Lethal Weapon; producer Craig is asked about it and it is predicted as a late-300s episode, 383. — Bill Simmons
Comedic cops could be at Apex Mountain since the subgenre faded after this; Observe and Report was darker, and 21 Jump Street is offered by Craig. — Bill Simmons
Apex for flipping a boner into the waistband is asked as a question. — Bill Simmons
A joke Apex for Dartmouth credits the movie for Ringer staffers going there. — Bill Simmons
Goldschlager vodka was not a real vodka; Goldschlager is called an evil liquor, and a modern version would be marketed with an NFT. — Bill Simmons
The Hawaiian driver's license has got to be the peak, a cultural wave with shirts of it; one host's son Ben has a McLovin license flag from Amazon covering a window. — Bill Simmons
On Becca, the preference goes the other way: surprise that Martha MacIsaac did not have a bigger career.
Bill is asked whether Jennifer Lawrence would make it more interesting next to Emma Stone; the reply is Becca should be more bookish and on Michael Cera's speed, not a second high school babe.
A bigger actress for Michael Cera's mom is suggested with a garbled name ("Carla Gino, Gagino"), and that would be great. — Bill Simmons
The movie is perfectly cast and too precious to revise. — Bill Simmons
Rogen was meant to be Seth but got too old and became Officer Michaels; after about two years without a Seth, Apatow on the Knocked Up set told Jonah to read into a camera and within an hour he was Seth, per a Ringer piece. — Bill Simmons
Shia was circled for Seth but was offer-only; it could have been the best thing for his career or the worst for the movie, with Transformers in 2007 changing his path and a bad wig needed to dork him up.
