We are now in awards pre-season and we have a lot to discuss. How are we going to get to 10 Best Picture nominees? Can James Mangold pull off A Complete Unknown? Will Nightbitch be good? (Answer: yes, it's Marielle Heller). Why are there so many horror movies about pregnancy right now, and romcoms with older women age gap relationships? (Not complaining!) Listen and find out!

Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers):

• The Brutalist
• Anora, Sing Sing, Conclave, Maria (2024), Jackie, Spencer, Dune: Part Two, Emilia Perez, Blitz, Nickel Boys, Gladiator II, A Complete Unknown, The End (2024), Mother Mary, The Governesses
• Tár, Vox Lux, The Order (2024), Bram Stoker’s Dracula
• Saturday Night, The Piano Lesson (2024), Joker: Folie à Deux, A Real Pain, Past Lives, Everything Everywhere All At Once, CODA (2021)
• Sentimental Value
• All Quiet on the Western Front (2022)
• Mrs. Doubtfire, Wanted
• The Substance, The Apprentice, The Witch, A Different Man, Under the Skin, Walk the Line, Ford v Ferrari
• Christmas Eve in Miller’s Point, Heretic, Babygirl, Queer, The Room Next Door, A Strange Way of Life, The Killing of a Sacred Deer
• Nightbitch, Jeanne Dielman, 23, quad du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles, Honeyland, The First Omen, A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Can You Ever Forgive Me?, Diary of a Teenage Girl, Tully
• The Godfather, Her Smell, Wildlife, Gone Girl, Pride & Prejudice (2005), Pirates of the Caribbean series, The Boston Strangler, Colette, Silent Night
• The Idea of You, Anyone But You, Eileen, Twisters, Immaculate, The Deliverance, Madame Web, Bohemian Rhapsody, The Running Man, Barbarella
• Close Encounters of the Third Kind, Lawrence of Arabia, The Ten Commandments, Chinatown, The Witches of Eastwick, The Bucket List, As Good As It Gets, The Shining, Dr. Strangelove or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Bomb, The Taste of Things, The French Connection, Easy Rider
• Presence, No Sudden Move, A Star Is Born (2018), House of Gucci, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Mad Max: Fury Road, The Bikeriders, Molly’s Game, John Wick
• Red Rocket, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @sc00gle and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Sorry for the delay between episodes! A lot has happened - Maddie went to Cannes! We hate the suburbs! Maddie and Rachel saw Challengers!

Links:

Maddie's Cannes ranking on Letterboxd

The article about pop music's "middle class" that Rachel mentioned

Maddie's Seed & Spark campaign for the short film she's producing, Always Were - or if you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation, the Louisville Film Society fiscal sponsorship page

Maddie's newsletter

Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers):

• Megalopolis*, Anora, Bird, Red Road, American Honey, Cow, Passages
• The Hyperboreans (Los Hiperbóreos), The Wolf House (La casa lobo), Beau Is Afraid
• Rumours, Oh Canada*, The Substance
• Honey Boy, Hereditary, Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, It's Not Me(C’est pas moi), Titane
• Inside Out 2, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Vrse, Flee, The Boy and the Heron, Coraline, Paranorman, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Inside Out
• Love Lies Bleeding, I Saw the TV Glow*, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, Top Gun: Maverick, The Lion King (2019), Twin Peaks: The Return
• Challengers*
• Twisters, Joker: Folie à Deux, Wicked, Gone Girl, Maxxxine, Janet Planet, Thelma, Kinds of Kindness, The Bikeriders, Cora Bora, The Favourite, Poor Things, The Killing of a Sacred Deer, The Lobster, Dunkirk, American Animals, The Batman - Part II, The Master, Eileen, Godzilla Minus One, Inside Man, Mishima: A Life in Four Chapters, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Twister

The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @sc00gle and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠.

It's time for the Smartest People Oscar Predictions! Hopefully we are of some help to your ballots this weekend 🙏🏻 we also discuss the releases we're looking forward to in 2024.

Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers):

• Oppenheimer*, Everything Everywhere All At Once
• Poor Things*, Nyad
• Eileen
• The Boy and the Heron, Spider-Man: Across the Spiderverse
• Barbie
• The Zone of Interest*, Killers of the Flower Moon*
• 20 Days in Mariupol
• Anatomy of a Fall
• Maestro*, Society of the Snow
• A Star Is Born (2018)
• Green Book
• Asteroid City, Napoleon (2023)
• The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar
• Godzilla Minus One
• American Fiction
• Following, The Prestige, Tenet, Vice
• Dune: Part 2, The Taste of Things, Drive-Away Dolls, Love Lies Bleeding, La Chimera
• Civil War (2024), Ex Machina, Annihilation, Inside Llewyn Davis, Drive, Star Wars: The Force Awakens, MEN*
• The First Omen, Challengers, Hit Man, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Mad Max: Fury Road, Three Thousand Years of Longing, Nosferatu (2024)
• Longlegs, Joker: Folie à Deux, Joker, Faces of Death (2024), The End (upcoming), Nightbitch, Gasoline Rainbow, I Saw the TV Glow, Maxxxine, Mickey 17, Megalopolis, The Way of the Wind, They Follow, It Follows
• Margaret

The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @sc00gle and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠.