Check Book: Brick Therapy

Or, how the Blank Check crew stopped watching the news and started building LEGO

Nov 11, 2024

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IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION:

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THE BARDI PARTY REPORT

It was a totally normal week. Nothing of note happened. I deleted my Twitter for some inexplicable reason. Am I Robin Wrighting right now?

Venom: The Last Dance remains atop the domestic box office. I still haven’t seen it, but have heard the film spends more time in a lab than it does with Horse-Venom, which is disappointing. Hugh Grant’s well-received A24 horror flick Heretic should have taken the #2 spot but it was beaten by a family Christmas movie I’d never heard of until I googled “box office this weekend.” The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (directed by Dallas Jenkins, the evangelical Rawson Marshall Thurber) not only surprised box office pundits like Griffin Newman, but it also ranks as Lionsgate’s most successful opener since May of this year. This is how Trump won.

Stars of iconic TIFF Bulgari preroll Anne Hathaway and Zendaya have both signed on to join Christopher Nolan’s next film which everyone seems to agree is about helicopter cops. Will Anne and Zendaya get to be copter cops, or will they be “wife?” Unclear, although Anne has collaborated with Nolan twice and has never played “wife,” so.

Ridley Scott gave another viral interview this week in which he shit-talks Pauline Kael and Quentin Tarantino, reveals that he’d like to re-dub all of Gerard Depardieu’s dialogue in 1492: Conquest of Paradise with Kenneth Branagh (not a bad idea tbh), and makes me cry about how much he misses his brother.

Grammy nominations were announced this week, and although we are not a music podcast, I would just like to touch on the fact that The Beatles were nominated for Record of The Year for their Peter Jackson-assisted track “Now and Then” which plays a pivotal role in notable 2024 release Argylle. In this category, they’re going up against Taylor Swift, Beyonce, Charli XCX, Billie Eilish, Sabrina Carpenter, Chappell Roan, and Kendrick Lamar. For the sake of chaos, I want the Beatles to win and I hope Ringo is at the ceremony. Peace ‘n Love.

The packaging for Mattel-issued Wicked dolls features a URL typo that directs folks to a porn site. No further comment at this time.

MERCHANDISE SPOTLIGHT

I’m going to avoid talking too much about the elephant in the room here because I’m aware of our position in your lives as a pleasant diversion. Let’s just say that it’s been a difficult week for all of us at Blank Check HQ and we sympathize with folks who are really going through it right now. Everyone deals with panic and political uncertainty in different ways. For example, I walked in on my husband watching Children of Men on Tuesday night, which made me laugh and weep in quick succession. But for those who prefer to disassociate, I’ll now share my personal coping strategy:

LEGO.

Longtime fans of the pod will know that this is not the first time I’ve mentioned my affinity for officially licensed movie tie-in LEGO sets. To coincide with our Avatar: The Way of Water episode, I built Payakan the Tulkun, a military “crab walker,” and the “Ilu Discovery” set.

I would spend more of my time building elaborate LEGO sets if I didn’t live in a three-room Brooklyn apartment with shelves too full of books and Blu-rays to accommodate my brick creations. But on Election Night, shelf-space be damned—I was gonna tune out the noise and build.

For this occasion, I purchased Set #43230 - The Walt Disney Tribute Camera, produced as part of the Disney centennial celebration. I am not a Disney adult, but as a fan of cinema, it felt like a no-brainer to have a plastic replica Bell & Howell motion picture camera displayed somewhere in my home. But do you know what this set also has? A multiplane camera for capturing cell animation! A functioning slate! MINIFIGS OF WALT, MICKEY, MINNIE, DUMBO, AND BAMBI!

Okay, full disclosure: at about 10pm on Election Night, I got stuck on a finicky section of the tripod base and abandoned my build to watch the returns. We all know what happened next.

But, in a victory for my mental health, I returned to finish my camera at 7am Wednesday morning. The camera cranks! The matte box moves! You can rotate the lenses! At that moment, it felt so good to focus on something completely in my control when everything outside of my grasp seemed to be spiraling.

I excitedly reported my triumph to the group chat, and set off a wave of therapeutic LEGO fever.

JJ bought and built the Jaws set this weekend:

David bought the X-Men X-Mansion, which is being delivered to our studio and not his home so Forky doesn’t kill him.

Griffin and JJ both reminisced about the LEGO Studios Steven Spielberg Moviemaker set, which included a minifig of Steve, a T-Rex, and everything else a budding millennial filmmaker needed to create their action masterpieces:

AJ shared the sets he has recently built with his son (and Kid Cinema podcast co-host) Hayes, most notably the Spider-Man Daily Bugle set which includes an Elizabeth Banks minifig, complete with fuckass bob:

All of this to say, if you’re stuck doomscrolling, put down the phone and pick up some bricks. Turn off CNN and turn on the part of your brain that controls spatial awareness. Take care of yourself.

Some Blank Check-related Lego sets to start you off:

The Nightmare Before Christmas (Henry Selick and Tim Burton series)
Venomized Groot (Griffin’s Vin Diesel obsession meets Blankie favorite Eddie Brock impression)
Phantom Menace Blockheads (Prequels Podcast)
Moana’s Wayfinding Boat (Musker & Clements series)
Jurassic Park Triceratops Research Set (hint hint)
Medieval Town Square (Unofficial Verhoeven Flesh + Blood set)
Red London Telephone Box (retired bit)
Jazz Club (David’s impression of free jazz on the Lost Highway episode)
Titanic (this one’s for sickos with giant houses only)
Batmobile Tumbler (Nolan Batmans)
Back to the Future Delorean (Zemeckis series)

Please send the team your Lego recommendations. And if you just happen to have a complete, mint-in-box version of the Spielberg Lego Studios set you’d be willing to part with…LET US KNOW.

WHAT IS THE TEAM INTO THIS WEEK?

David Sims, Host: “As I mentioned on a recent episode, I am reading the works of Roger Angell; I am on my fifth volume and luxuriating in a fantasy of spring training and baseball dominating the macroculture. It was a BAD movie week for me but I AM watching The Diplomat Season 2 and I REMAIN in love with David Gyasi’s fussy foreign secretary, but it’s maybe too dramatic for me right now and needs more messy kissing stuff like season 1.”

Ben Hosley, Producer: “I’m reading the novel Devil House by John Darnielle of The Mountain Goats. Alex gifted it for my b-day! I’m really digging it so far. It’s a gritty crime thriller but is also a inventive, experimental work of fiction. I give it 4 bones.”

AJ McKeon, Editor: “I’m reading Slow Horses. David has said this before, but it’s pure fart-forward literature.”

Marie Bardi, Social Media: “I watched the John Williams documentary on Disney+ this weekend and found it a lovely way to pass two hours. I still think ‘Rey’s Theme’ from The Force Awakens is the best thing to come out of the recent trilogy.”

JJ Bersch, Researcher: “My recommendation for this week is Treeline’s Vegan Goat-Style Cashew Cheese. It’s super creamy and tangy, and unlike the majority of the popular vegan cheeses on the market, which are made out of coconut oil and high in saturated fats, this one’s cashew-based and low in sat fats. Toss it with kale, roasted butternut squash, candied pecans, and a maple apple vinaigrette and you have a Perfect Fall Salad on your hands.”

Alan Smithee, Pseudonymous Editor: “I basically won’t shut up about Jason Pargin’s book I’m Starting to Worry About this Black Box of Doom. I also finally watched Charade and it was chaaaaaarmiiiiiiing.”

THIS WEEK ON THE PODCAST

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.