It is happening again - we’re covering TV! Or is it an 18-part movie? Much to ponder. We’re heading back to the Pacific Northwest (and Vegas…and New York…and the Red Room…and outer space?) in our first of four episodes covering Showtime’s 2017 series “Twin Peaks: The Return.” So far, we’ve got tulpas, Caleb Laundry Bag, three distinct versions of Dale Cooper, Dr. Jacobi’s gold shovels, Michael Cera doing a bad Marlon Brando impression, creamed corn barf, Matthew Lillard, a cryptic final message ...
Dec 01, 2024•2 hr 23 min
Only on Blank Check would an episode about David Lynch’s deeply destabilizing INLAND EMPIRE turn into a heartfelt celebration of creativity and the human experience. David Rees joins us and brings receipts - including literal receipts for every movie ticket he purchased in 2007 and his high school newspaper review of Twin Peaks (a pan) - as we gush about David Lynch’s singular position in American culture. Plus, we delve into tons of Laura Dern context, discuss dreams where you inhabit a differe...
Nov 24, 2024•3 hr 8 min
Is it a dream? Is it about a dream? Is it a TV pilot? Is it the greatest film of the 21st century? In any case, Leslye Headland returns to the podcast to talk about David Lynch’s endlessly fascinating 2001 masterpiece MULHOLLAND DR. We may not have all the answers, but we do have a lot of thoughts about Hollywood, about Billy Ray Cyrus, about actors being shoved down audiences’ throats, about diners, about Patrick Fischler’s eyebrows, about the diner owned by Patrick Fischler’s dad, about Naomi ...
Nov 17, 2024•3 hr 51 min
We apologize in advance if you had a profound emotional experience with the new Robert Zemeckis joint - HERE felt like more of a “Here?? What???? Why?” to us. Dinosaurs, Benjamin Franklin’s cuck son, a man dying from laughter, a horny couple who invent the LA-Z Boy, airplane man (who does NOT die from airplane), and the double whammy of the Black Lives Matter movement and Covid all come together to create a strange boomer diorama that misses much of the quotidian beauty of Richard McGuire’s grap...
Nov 10, 2024•1 hr 56 min
Walt Disney Pictures Presents A Film By David Lynch. And what a beautiful, expectation-defying, G-rated, cold-glass-of-beer film it is. Dana Stevens joins us to talk about 1999’s The Straight Story, a film that showcases Lynch’s fascination with Americana and his deep empathy for characters on the margins. Join us on a journey through the Midwest (Griffin can’t drive, but he’s a great passenger), where we talk about braunschweiger, cheese castles, bundles of sticks, Chicago theater actors withou...
Nov 03, 2024•2 hr 17 min
1997’s Lost Highway - is it (as David Sims wrote on Letterboxd), “a movie about headache”? Is it David Lynch’s most visually beautiful film? Is it a dry run for Mulholland Dr? A radical reimagining of Bill Pullman’s screen presence? A psychogenic fugue? Lynch’s commentary on the OJ Simpson trial? An excuse for David Sims to go off on the concept of “free jazz”?? Folks - we are pleased to tell you that it is all of the above and more. The great David Lowery joins us to talk about Lynch’s deeply h...
Oct 27, 2024•2 hr 44 min
What if they made a sequel to the Joker movie that was pretty much the finale of Seinfeld but it’s also a half-assed jukebox musical, and EVERYONE hated it? What if Michael Keaton had a 35-year-old pregnant daughter, but he also had precocious 9-year-old twins and a Los Angeles art gallery on the verge of financial collapse? Both scenarios lay the groundwork for two of the most “they don’t make ‘em like this” films of the year, and BOTH conclude with the same Daniel Johnston song. You can’t make...
Oct 20, 2024•2 hr 20 min
One of the more harrowing films we’ve covered on the podcast (and the second film we’ve covered in 2024 with a memorable “gobble gobble” line), 1992’s TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME was not the quirky, enjoyable plotline wrap-up fans of Twin Peaks wanted. David Lynch instead challenged the audience to identify with Laura Palmer’s humanity and pain, making her a real person - not just a girl wrapped in plastic. THE FIRST OMEN director Arkasha Stevenson joins us to talk about how this film (and WIL...
Oct 13, 2024•2 hr 12 min
If we told you this was the first time we’d covered a Nicolas Cage movie on the podcast - would you believe us? Well, baby - it’s true. And what a movie it is! The luminous Tatiana Maslany returns to talk about David Lynch’s smokin’ hot outlaw romance WILD AT HEART - a film that won the Palme d’Or and took Lynch away from the set of Twin Peaks. Get ready for lots of Cage career discussion (a favorite topic of Griffin Newman), a bunch of actor speak, and multiple “hey, did you know David Lynch wa...
Oct 06, 2024•2 hr 5 min
For a brief shining moment, Middle America went crazy for the surreal soap opera stylings of David Lynch and Mark Frost. We’re talking ABC, primetime, airing against “Cheers”-level mainstream. And then it all came crashing down. Listen as we take our first step into the intoxicating world of Twin Peaks - one of the most influential television series of all time and the project that would come to define Lynch for the rest of his career. Eva Anderson - who literally grew up in the town Twin Peaks ...
Sep 29, 2024•3 hr 10 min
Lend us your (severed) ears! This week, we’re jumping back into our Lynch series with a trip to Lumberton, USA, as our beloved Jamie Loftus joins us to chat about 1986’s BLUE VELVET. We’re going deep on the star persona of Kyle MacLachlan, David Sims’ obsession with Dean Stockwell, and David Lynch’s unironic obsession with Americana. How does a movie that deals with such deeply disturbing themes end up being so watchable? That’s that Lynchian magic, baby! Be sure to listen to Sixteenth Minute (o...
Sep 22, 2024•2 hr 53 min
We’re taking a break from David Lynch to answer one of the year’s biggest questions - Is Burton Back, Baby? Ummmm…kind of! Grab your “Handbook for the Recently Deceased” commemorative popcorn tin and join us as we attempt to untangle the very messy BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE. Which sequences wowed us with their sparkling ingenuity? Which plotlines would we excise from the script? What song would you possess people to lipsync to and why is it Bloodhound Gang’s “The Bad Touch”? And - the most importa...
Sep 15, 2024•2 hr 13 min
The sleeper must awaken. The filmography must contain a flop. We’ve arrived at the Planet Arrakis aka the Desert Planet aka DUNE (1984) - David Lynch’s attempt at wrangling Frank Herbert’s space epic into a single studio blockbuster. Did it work? Not really. Do we have fun talking about it? Hell yeah, we do! John Hodgman joins us to talk about all things “spice” - including the infamous glossary of Dune terms handed out in theaters, and a wild anecdote about Peter Berg reading Dune on an airplan...
Sep 08, 2024•3 hr 5 min
We’re getting in touch with our emotions this week, as Alex Ross Perry joins us to talk about Lynch’s deeply-felt, sensitively-rendered 1980 classic THE ELEPHANT MAN. Is this the most “normal” movie in Lynch’s filmography? What does “normal” mean, anyway? As with all Alex episodes, questions are posed and hotly debated, such as: What filmmakers, aside from David Lynch, made their most important work in the later part of their careers? What is the Lynch film that young people vibe with most stron...
Sep 01, 2024•3 hr 3 min
In heaven (and in podcasting), everything is fine. Welcome to TWIN PODS: FIRE CAST WITH ME, a series on the films of David Lynch - former Eagle Scout and totally normal human man. With his 1977 debut feature ERASERHEAD, Lynch burst on to the scene somewhat fully formed as an artist, confused by normal social interactions and motivated by a seething hatred of Philadelphia. The last part of that sentence is only partially a joke. Join us as we discuss where Eraserhead fits in the pantheon of first...
Aug 25, 2024•2 hr 18 min
Welp, our Kevin Costner series ends not with a bang, but a whimper. With the pulling of Horizon: An American Saga - Chapter 2 from theaters, we are left to only speculate what the future holds for Costner’s self-funded crazy passion project. What we can tell you is that Chapter 1 doesn’t really feel like its own self-contained movie. Plotlines are established, characters are introduced, and then…Giovanni Ribisi shows up. Watch Kev on The Rich Eisen Show Join our Patreon for franchise commentarie...
Aug 18, 2024•2 hr 38 min
You know the Butcher? That freakin' nutjob that goes around just chopping people up? Well, we’re about to spend nearly three hours talking about him! Join us as we unpack TRAP - the devilishly entertaining new thriller from M. Night Shyamalan, with special insights from our own David Sims, who spent much of this year interviewing Night at his compound in Philadelphia. We’re talking about a bunch of things - dads, serial killers, how much we don’t like going to concerts, the sexy elephant mascot ...
Aug 11, 2024•3 hr
Free-grazers and CR-heads - this is your week. The icon, the legend, the Ringer’s own Chris Ryan joins us to talk about Kevin Costner’s understated 2003 western OPEN RANGE. We’re finally doing a deep-dive on the Taylor Sheridan empire (aka Chris tells us what Mayor of Kingstown is actually about) as we set up the later part of Costner’s career in the run-up to Horizon. We spend a good amount of time lauding the consistent greatness of Robert Duvall and Annette Bening. You can practically hear th...
Aug 04, 2024•2 hr 4 min
This week’s movie has everything - fake teeth on Giovanni Ribisi, a mule performing Shakespeare, Tom Petty, Kevin Costner’s irresistible sperm…you read that correctly. This film has a major plot line that revolves around Kevin Costner’s sperm. Our beloved Emily St. James joins us to talk about Kevin Costner’s colossal 1997 flop, the post-apocalyptic ode to the US Postal Service - THE POSTMAN. There are parts of this movie that are truly moving. There are other parts of this movie where Kevin Cos...
Jul 28, 2024•2 hr 34 min
In a first for Blank Check, we’re covering a filmmaker who has acted alongside our own Griffin Newman! In our premiere episode covering the directorial career of Draft Day co-star Kevin Costner, we’re unpacking his 1990 Best Picture winner, DANCES WITH WOLVES. Costner as personal mythmaker, Costner as “movie sports guy,” Costner as “hot guy who women all want to sleep with (?)”, Costner as man who decided - at a crucial (and early!) point in his career - to take a huge risk by making a 3-hour ep...
Jul 21, 2024•2 hr 15 min
The first "G" in "Gigli" is pronounced like the "J" in “Jacques,” the second “G” is silent. Rhymes with "really." Now that that’s out of the way - we conclude our Martin Brest series with the turkey of all turkeys. The Bennifer original sin, the project that should have gotten Justin Bartha put in prison. That’s right, folks. We’re talking about one of the canonical “Worst Movies Ever Made” - 2003’s GIGLI. Screenwriter Jen D’Angelo joins us to talk about this fascinating cultural object, and mak...
Jul 14, 2024•2 hr 56 min
He’s hot. He’s got frosted tips. He loves peanut butter. His lil swimmers may or may not look like skulls. He’s death, baby! And we’re meeting him this week! Vanity Fair’s Richard Lawson returns to the pod to chat about 1998’s three hour long “symphonic metaphysical romance” MEET JOE BLACK. How does this film play in a post-Succession, “eat the rich” context? How do we feel about the infamous Jamaican patois scenes? What are our memories of the weekend the Phantom Menace trailer came out in thea...
Jul 07, 2024•2 hr 42 min
Warning - this episode contains an ungodly amount of Pacino impressions. Listener discretion is advised. “Actor’s actor” and local boy from Queens David Krumholtz becomes the second cast member of Oppenheimer and first person immortalized in Griffin’s beloved Disney Emoji Blitz to guest on our Martin Brest series as we talk about 1992’s dire SCENT OF A WOMAN. Would this movie be less terrible if it were at least 40 minutes shorter? What if the original first choice for Lt. Col. Frank Slade - Jac...
Jun 30, 2024•2 hr 18 min
In a first for Blank Check, Ben Hosley produces an entire episode while handcuffed and under threat of legal action. What else would you expect from a MIDNIGHT RUN episode? The great Alan Sepinwall returns to the pod to talk about Martin Brest’s fantastic cross-country buddy caper, a film that proved that DeNiro could do comedy and that Charles Grodin might be the funniest man alive. We’re talking about the unofficial Larry the Cable Guy sequel (?), the famous casting what-ifs (Cher!), and the m...
Jun 23, 2024•3 hr 2 min
An indelible synth theme by Harold Faltermeyer. A scene-stealing turn from Bronson Pinchot. A banana in a tailpipe. EDDIE FREAKING MURPHY. It’s no wonder that Martin Brest’s Beverly Hills Cop is one of the most beloved action comedies (and still the highest-grossing R-rated film adjusted for inflation). We couldn’t be more thrilled to have two of the hottest action directors in Hollywood - Bad Boys: Ride or Die’s Adil & Bilall - join us to talk about Brest’s blockbuster second feature, bring...
Jun 16, 2024•1 hr 50 min
After years of citing him as a potential series, we’re finally Brest men. In this inaugural episode of our “Podverly Hills Cast” series, we’re taking a look at Martin Brest’s debut feature, 1979’s understated and deeply enjoyable old man heist film “Going in Style.” James Urbaniak joins us to chat through the beginning of Brest’s career, and the storied personas of George Burns, Art Carney, and Lee Strasberg. Cream cheese and jelly sandwiches on toasted rye for everyone! Join our Patreon for fra...
Jun 09, 2024•1 hr 52 min
We return to the Wasteland this week with Furiosa, and we’ve got quite the tour guide. Kyle Buchanan - author of Blood, Sweat & Chrome, THE book on the making of Mad Max: Fury Road - joins us as we do a definitive post-mortem on George Miller’s latest. Going up against the reputation of Fury Road was always going to be an uphill battle for the Anya Taylor-Joy starrer, and we go into all the ways in which this film matches, exceeds, or misses the highs of 2015’s action classic. Kyle brings wi...
Jun 02, 2024•3 hr 3 min
Come join the dream parade, folks - we’re talking about Paprika! Mother of the Blankies Emily Yoshida is with us to chat about Satoshi Kon’s final film - a film that FEELS like a swan song especially in hindsight. In this episode, we address the elephant in the room (those Inception comparisons), dive into the serialized story Paprika was based on, and Griffin makes the important connection between Paprika’s “DC mini” device and this being a “BC mini” (series). Plus, we establish 2024 as “The Ye...
May 26, 2024•2 hr 52 min
They call them the Godfathers of Tokyo…and we call him the KING of TIKTOK (in an old man newscaster voice) - Reece Feldman joins us to chat about Satoshi Kon’s beautiful Christmas fable about a trio of unforgettable characters on the fringes of society. We talk about how animation is truly a medium and NOT a genre, as evidenced by this film. We talk about Ice Age (another animated movie where outsiders care for a baby). We talk about whether or not David might get roped into watching Ice Age a m...
May 19, 2024•2 hr 15 min
Our Satoshi Kon series continues with his 2003 film Millennium Actress, a moving exploration of memory, history, and the magic of da moviesh. Writer Hoai-Tran Bui returns to the pod as we discuss the strange history of Dreamworks’ arthouse animation arm (Go Fish pictures), the luminous screen presence of Setsuko Hara, and the added poignancy this film takes on in light of Kon’s untimely passing. Plus, Griffin publicly addresses the Penny Marshall debacle, and the gang contemplates a version of “...
May 12, 2024•2 hr 25 min
