Surprise! Blank Check has started a newsletter! Your favorite connoisseurs of context are gonna go on even more tangents, commit to even more bits, and share opinions on even more pieces of entertainment industry news because - hey, why not. Thanks for joining us!
IN THIS WEEK’S EDITION:
THE BARDI PARTY REPORT
A few assorted thoughts this morning…
The Smashing Machine looks to be the opposite of a smash at the box office. I feel bad for The Rock. He tried something different, really put himself out there, and no one cared. We’re rooting for you, Dwayne! Don’t go back to Red Notice and Red One or whatever! I still need to see the film - Griffin and David just told me that it is NOT the inspirational sports drama it was marketed as. “It is in fact a Fat City-esque movie about learning to be okay with being a loser.” - David Sims
Speaking of Safdie Brothers - seems like Marty Supreme is going to be the secret screening at NYFF tonight. I can’t wait for this one, I need to see Timmé play psychosexual ping pong with GOOP. That’s what it’s about, right?
Taylor Swift released an album and that wasn’t enough for her so she had to release “lyric videos” in theaters instead. Okay.
I’m currently in California for some family stuff, so I missed THE event of the season this weekend - Griffin and David joined Sean, Amanda, and CR for a Big Pic Live Draft at the 92nd St Y! The theme was New York Movies, and Griffin drafted Muppets Take Manhattan. Of course.
Just a few addendums to the Burn After Reading episode - my mom lives in Georgetown and I *immediately* knew that the Cox house was Brooklyn Heights. There are no real stoops in Georgetown like there are in New York.
Also - my favorite character in the film deserves more of a shoutout. Raul Aranas as Manolo. He just found the disk there. It was just lying there. Over there, on the floor there. It was just lying there.
LET’S CRACK OPEN THE DOSSIER
Let’s Talk About Sex ::Griffin Newman voice:: Baby!
While devising the … “machine” seen in Joel and Ethan Coen’s 2008 film Burn After Reading, the brothers took primary inspiration from two sources. The first was, as mentioned on this week’s episode, a similar machine the Coens had spotted at New York’s Museum of Sex. As research, the Coens offered to take the star of their film to see said machine in person, but he declined, as Joel told Spout, “We actually at one point said to George [Clooney], ‘We’ll show you the machine if you want, it’s down at 23rd street and Madison.’ George said ‘That’s all I need is to be seen coming out of the Museum of Sex with you two guys.’”1
The other inspiration traces its roots all the way back to the start of the Coens’ careers. As I wrote in our Blood Simple issue in July, the key grip on the Coens’ debut feature was a man named Tom Prophet, Jr. Prophet was both the most experienced crew member on set—having previously worked on films like Robert Altman’s HealtH and Mel Brooks’s Silent Movie—and a pioneering figure in the world of dual camera rigs/sex machines. As Blood Simple cinematographer Barry Sonnenfeld told The Guardian in 2017, the Coens’ screenplay for Blood Simple “described one shot in which Frances McDormand transitioned from discovering the murder in the office to thinking about it at home.” In order to pull it off, Prophet “ended up designing a special rig.” Here’s how it worked: “The camera and Fran were both mounted on it; one moment you see her looking at the office, then we drop the rig 90 degrees and she falls through space on to her bed, which we’d put on the floor of the same set.” But after the shoot concluded, Sonnenfeld says that Prophet found another use for his invention: “Tom later used it for some sexual thing with his wife – we didn’t want to know.”2 But now you know—again, if you’re a longtime reader of this newsletter!—and now you also know that the Coens were so moved by Prophet’s machine that it was still inspiring their work nearly two-and-a-half decades later.
WHAT IS THE TEAM INTO THIS WEEK?
We are ALL recommending this incredible piece by Josh Abraham - a tribute to the Decade of Dreams, filled with characters from 755 films covered on the podcast. It’s like “Where’s Waldo?” for dang-ass freaks. It’s AMAZING.
You can pre-order your print here, along with other fantastic film and tv-related artworks by Josh!
Marie Bardi, Social Media: “I saw Predators this week - David Osit’s documentary about the legacy of To Catch A Predator. Not since The Act of Killing have I been so affected by a film’s willingness to engage with the complexities of voyeurism and punishment and catharsis and guilt. It should be streaming on Paramount+ after its theatrical run if it’s not playing at a theater near you - really powerful stuff.”
AJ McKeon, Editor: “Getting sucked into the Architectural Digest series on New York City architecture on YouTube with Michael Wyetzner. Maybe more relevant to the pod there is also a video where he breaks down the evolution of the architecture of Wayne Manor.”
JJ Bersch, Researcher: “I saw the Children’s Theater of Madison’s production of Matilda: the Musical over the weekend and it was a damn delight! Every time I see live theater I come away with the same impression: people are so talented, it’s crazy. I think my daughter and I are going to begin working our way through the Roald Dahl stories now, hope he never said anything weird or straight-up bad, I’m sure he didn’t.”
Alan Smithee, Pseudonymous Editor: “I’m basically only consuming horror media this month. I’ll recommend Dathan Auerbach’s novel Penpal. It’s full of legitimate creep-outs, and has an ending I’ll be thinking about for a while.”
THIS WEEK ON THE PODCAST
This week, Our Fran (Hoepfner, not McDormand) joins us to talk about Joel and Ethan Coen’s madcap dark comedy about a bunch of morons living in the DC area, 2008’s Burn After Reading.
And over on Patreon, we continue our ’90s Indie Comics commentary series, and jump to 2017 America, which has collapsed into a civil war (not pertinent in any way whatsoever), and discuss 1996’s David Hogan classic Barb Wire.
COMING SOON:
The Guardian, November 6, 2017.
Been staring at the Josh Abraham piece all dang day. Just incredible! I found Maestro!
Timmy's co-star is named Gwyneth Paltrow, not GOOP. (Her company's name is stylized in all-lowercase, ftr.)