Check Book: Extra Extraterrestrials

Some of our favorite films about alien encounters

IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION:

THE BARDI PARTY REPORT

We want to believe.

Ever since Georges Méliès took a trip to the moon, cinema has shown us many interpretations of life outside of earth. Aliens who are little green men. Aliens who look just like us. Aliens who speak to Amy Adams in circle diagrams. Aliens who come to earth to understand us, or to exterminate us, or both. Aliens who disguise themselves as woodland creatures and stare at you with big empathetic eyes.

In honor of Disclosure Day, here are some of the Blank Check gang’s favorite movies about aliens.

NOTE: Beware of spoilers!

MEN IN BLACK (1997) - Selected by Griffin Newman

A wide variety of almost Looney Tune-like aliens, including a guy who sounds like a Redditor. Of course Griffin picked this one.

Are the aliens nice? Some are!

SOLARIS (2002) - Selected by JJ Bersch

The planet Solaris itself is the alien, which is a swerve, as is picking Soderbergh’s version over Tarkovsky’s. Very JJ. But you know what’s the most JJ about this pick? That the extraterrestrials create replicas of astronaut’s loved ones…meaning they have to do some RESEARCH first. VERY JJ.

Are the aliens nice? This is too complicated to answer.

ATTACK THE BLOCK (2011) - Selected by Marika Brownlee

A genre-bending cult classic, a clever take on racial politics, plus a gaggle of exciting young British actors. The aliens in this are furry, which feels UNIQUE! When are we getting a sequel???

Are the aliens nice? NOPE. RUN.

UNDER THE SKIN (2014) - Selected by David Sims

I told David that he’d have to pick another film because I wanted this one, but he just replied with “lol” - power move. It’s horny and cold and Scottish and dreary and features possibly Scarlett Johansson’s best performance as an alien inhabiting a woman’s skin.

Are the aliens nice? Sexy but not nice. Don’t fall into her trap.

ET: THE EXTRATERRESTRIAL (1982) - Selected by AJ McKeon

You can’t argue with a classic.

Are the aliens nice? The nicest!!

THEY LIVE (1988) - Selected by Ben Hosley

This makes absolute sense as a Ben pick. These aliens are “the man” and Ben Hosley won’t be brainwashed by their subliminal mind control! He’s here to kick ass and chew bubblegum, and he’s all out of bubblegum!

Are the aliens nice? Only if you don’t question them.

THE BLOB (1988) - Selected by Marie Bardi

The 1988 version of The Blob is GNARLY. It’s NASTY. It’s bright pink. Sometimes you just want to see a bunch of idiots get blobbed. It’s nice when aliens are cute like ET, or make you feel connected to something bigger and cosmic, but it’s also awesome when an alien is just fluorescent goo that melts and then absorbs people.

Are the aliens nice? Hahahaha

THE VAST OF NIGHT (2019) - Selected by Alan Smithee

Another Blank Check pick that is perfect for the person who selected it. A mysterious audio signal? What if the aliens were trying to reach us through podcasts?? Really makes you think.

Are the aliens nice? Hard to say. They do be abducting people, though.

MONDAY FUNNIES BY JOE BOWEN

LET’S (BRIEFLY) CRACK OPEN THE (OLD) DOSSIER

“I never thought of [1977’s] Close Encounters [of the Third Kind] as a science-fiction film,” Steven Spielberg once told his frequent interviewer/documenter Laurent Bouzereau. Instead, Close Encounters was, to Spielberg, “science speculation because I had a real deep-rooted belief that we had been visited in this century.” As proof, Spielberg offered, “If I had thought of it as a science-fiction film, I wouldn’t have taken so many drives out to the California desert, hoping to have a UFO sighting.” And yet, Spielberg clarified, “I have never had a UFO sighting.” This, despite the fact the he had earned it by making 1964’s “Firelight,” the aforementioned Close Encounters, 1982’s E.T., 2005’s War of the Worlds, 2008’s Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and now, of course, this past weekend’s Disclosure Day: “I’m the one person who perhaps deserves a UFO sighting [laughs], and yet, it hasn’t happened for me.”¹ But if that day ever does come, we should now feel secure knowing that Spielberg will personally deliver the footage to the nearest Kansas City news affiliate.

WHAT IS THE TEAM INTO THIS WEEK?

Emily St. James, Friend of the Pod: “I really dug Katherine Packert Burke’s All Us Saints, a novel that takes the trans killer trope from Psycho, Dressed to Kill, Silence of the Lambs, etc., turns it inside out, dissects it, and explores what might drive a person to do such a thing. Burke herself is trans, and she’s clearly done the research, but the appeal of the book is in its bloody exploration of a family that has been in crisis for nearly a century, whose secrets can (and have!) literally killed. Happy Pride, I guess?”

Ben Hosley, Producer: “Back in March when we had Jane Schoenbrun on the for the Picnic at Hanging Rock episode, I promised I would read Black Hole by Charles Burns. Thanks to our editor in chief Marie (who lent me her copy), I FINALLY had the pleasure of reading and making good on my promise. Holy fuck did it live up to hype! It’s thrilling and surreal and absolutely devastating. It really brought me back to high school, a time in one’s life when you are so horny that you are clinically insane. Miss those days (kinda.) Very hyped to see what Jane does with it for the Netflix series adaptation.”

Marie Bardi, Social Media: “I watch a lot of garbage true crime docs on Netflix, but one that dropped this weekend - Maternal Instinct - is going to stick with me for a while.”

JJ Bersch, Researcher: “This past week, New Yorkers of every stripe—and friends of the Big Apple scattered across the globe—celebrated a truly historic occasion: the release of Ancient History, the first new album from hometown hero Wiki in three years. It rules.”

Joe Bowen, Checky the Comic: “The Rocketeer is one of my favorite fictional characters, and there’s a new book from IDW called “The Rocketeer: Thrills, Spills, and Chills.” The title doesn't convey much about the contents, but it includes the full Dave Stevens run (which is absolutely gorgeous, and occasionally goes out of print), plus an anthology series featuring art from folks like Darwyn Cooke and Bruce Timm. It's an amazingly comprehensive collection (almost 400 pages!) in digest format for only $13.99 retail.”

Alan Smithee, Pseudonymous Editor: “I’m recommending the documentary The Barkley Marathons: The Race That Eats Its Young. It’s a documentary about a (roughly) 130 mile foot race that’s held in Tennessee. It’s considered one of the hardest races in the world, and rarely does more than 1 of the 40 or so people who run it every year even finish it. It’s a fun doc, but the reason I think it might be of interest to the BC community is because the guy who created the race, who goes by Lazarus Lake, is extremely Ben Hosley coded. He’s got a rascally twinkle in his eye that’s highly Hosleyan. He has filled the race with bits (the entry fee every year is just whatever he needs, so one year every runner had to give him a white button down shirt, another year it was socks). He deliberately makes the directions for the race extremely esoteric so that most of the racers get lost at some point. And, most importantly, he spends the 60 or so hours that the race takes sitting in camp smoking cigarettes (he freely admits that there’s no way he could finish the race himself). I had a blast with the movie, but particularly with Laz who reminded me of my friend Ben.

One more thing I remembered this morning. The doc is directed by Timothy James Kane and Annika Iltis. According to Letterboxd, this is Iltis’s only film credit. Kane has done one other movie: he’s credited with addition photography on, you guessed it, Spawn.”

AJ McKeon, Editor: Gas station coffee loaded with French Vanilla Coffee Mate

THIS WEEK ON THE PODCAST

This is “Spielberg Face: The Movie.” This is radical empathy. This is Emily Blunt Supremacy. This is DISCLOSURE DAY. Griffin, David, Ben, and Marie break down Steven Spielberg’s latest offering, his first sci-fi film and his first contemporary-set film since War of the Worlds in 2005.

CRITICAL DARLINGS
By the power of Grayskull, we have cartoonist and co-host of the podcast, Mattie Lubchansky, in studio to discuss Masters of the Universe!

MEANWHILE ON PATREON…..

Recorded after a marathon episode, we feel like we have been hit hard and harder as we tackle 2026’s American 3D concert film directed by James Cameron and Billie Eilish: Billie Eilish – Hit Me Hard and Soft: The Tour (Live in 3D). At the end of the episode, you’ll also be able to hear our discussion live from Madison, Wisconsin, as part of the 2026 Wisconsin Film Festival. At the Historic Barrymore Theater, we were joined by JJ to discuss Babe: Pig in the City.

COMING SOON:

WE ARE STILL WAITING ON OFFICIAL ARTWORK, but here’s our schedule for the next few weeks as we tackle PODD-C: The Films of Andrew Stanton

JUN 14 - Disclosure Day (Spielberg) with Marie Bardi
JUN 21 - Finding Nemo with Rebecca Alter
JUN 28 - WALL-E with David Ehrlich
JUL 05 - John Carter with Matt Singer
JUL 12 - Finding Dory with Zach Cherry
JUL 19 - The Odyssey (Nolan) with Marie Bardi
JUL 26 - In The Blink of an Eye with Joey Sims
AUG 02 - Toy Story 5 with Marie Bardi

1. Laurent Bouzereau, Spielberg: The First Ten Years.