Blank Check with Griffin & David

Congratulations! If you are listening to this episode, it means you’ve discovered the key in the mouth of the wooden clown we placed in your driveway. Actor, musician, and handsome man Brendan Hines joins us this week as we lead you on an immersive, life-changing experience through David Fincher’s The Game. We understand you may have some questions. How much did this whole thing cost? Is cocaine a...

Who loves Da Finchman? These guys do! MTV Movie Award-losing duo Mitch and Nick of the Doughboys join us to talk about David Fincher’s breakthrough hit - the nasty noir SE7EN. What can you expect from this episode? Lots of talk about “playground rumors” related to what this movie does and doesn’t actually show, a full taxonomy of Kevin Spacey’s on-screen persona, the true identity of the Zodiac ki...

The time has come for us to talk about one of the most successful, most influential, most respected American filmmakers of the past 30 years. That’s right, we’re talking about the director of ALIEN3, David “Da Finchman” Fincher! We’re kicking off “The Curious Pod of Benjamin Buttcast” in style, pressing play on our Alien Quadrilogy Blu-Ray with guest Matt Singer - and you better believe we’re watc...

Decision to Leave? More like, decision to watch a good movie! EMMY AWARD WINNER (but more importantly, David Sims Best Supporting Actress Nominee of 2017) joins us to discuss Park’s most recent film, a romantic noir that gets text messaging absolutely right. We’re getting into everything, from the complexities of Tang Wei’s performance, to the concept of “sand beaching,” to S. Craig Zahler’s tight...

We couldn’t be more excited to talk about the film we consider to be Park’s masterpiece - the gorgeous, twisty, and ultimately moving THE HANDMAIDEN. “Mother of the Blankies” Emily Yoshida joins us to unpack this puzzlebox of an erotic thriller, a brilliant adaptation of Sarah Waters’ Fingersmith. Come for the coining of a new Blank Check phrase (thanks, researcher JJ!), stay for a very crucial “t...

Remember when the star of TV’s Prison Break (Wentworth Miller, “human map”) wrote a screenplay that landed on the Black List and ended up serving as the material for Park Chan-Wook’s only English film to date? What a time to be alive! Mia Wasikowska superfan Emily St. James returns to Blank Check to offer her take on 2013’s Stoker, a movie that is not NOT about vampires. Join us as we fawn over Pa...

Move over, Dracula. Eat your heart out Edward Cullen. A new sexy vampire is in town, and he just happens to be a PRIEST! Park Chan-Wook reunites with the wonderful Song Kang-ho to put his own stamp on the popular genre with 2009’s THIRST. Inverse’s Hoi-Tran Boi joins us to chat about this darkly funny (and devilishly sound-designed) film, an adaptation of Emile Zola’s classic novel Thérèse Raquin....

From the twisted mind of Park Chan-Wook, it’s…a surprisingly sensitive romance set in a mental hospital? Writer and Comedian Karen Chee joins us to chat about 2006’s I’M A CYBORG, BUT THAT’S OKAY - a real outlier in Park’s career, and a commercial disappointment after the global success of his Vengeance Trilogy. Would it surprise you to learn that this film was inspired by, of all things, TOY STOR...

DA MOVIESH ARE BACK, BABY! Film Director Barbie joins the gang to chat about Christopher Nolan’s latest and an historic weekend at the multiplex. What’s the best format for seeing OPPENHEIMER? Which of the many character actors in this film makes the biggest impression? Will David make his sexy Christopher Nolan voice a new recurring bit? Plus - we address the SAG strike (solidarity!), the social...

It’s 2023. An all-powerful AI program named “the Entity” is sewing chaos and threatening the fragile equilibrium of the world as we know it. It is also throwing sick parties. Meanwhile, over at Blank Check HQ, the BENTITY has a few tricks up his sleeve to surprise Griffin, David, and Marie with a mission of their own as they break down Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie’s latest big-screen extra...

Park Chan-Wook’s loosely-linked “Vengeance Trilogy” comes to a starkly satisfying end with 2005’s LADY VENGEANCE - a normal flick…that’s all we have to say! Just kidding - we have LOTS to say about this one, with its stacked cast of lady convicts and grief-stricken parents. Our beloved Karen Han returns to the pod to correct our terrible Korean pronunciations and to tell us about “Jump Like A Witc...

What is an Oldboy? How do you feel about Greek Tragedies? How did Choi Min-Sik achieve that iconic (and insane) hairstyle? Was giving the 2004 Palme d’Or to FAHRENHEIT 9/11 over this film one of the greatest mistakes in the history of arts and culture? All those questions answered and more as critic Alison Willmore joins us to talk about OLDBOY, the first major Korean breakthrough in the American...

Park Chan-Wook kicks off his famous “Vengeance” trilogy and we kick off another episode where we talk about Ted Danson’s late 90s sitcom BECKER! Critic, friend of the pod, and Crystal Skull-apologist David Ehrlich joins us to chat about Park’s “Sympathy for Mister Vengeance” - a film that shows that revenge is not a dish best served cold, but is actually kind of sad and futile. Come for Ehrlich’s...

Park Chan-Wook’s 2000 breakthrough and Korean box office juggernaut - JSA (Joint Security Area) - is the rare international murder-mystery that dares to ask the question…”what if the real smoking gun was FRIENDSHIP??” Join us as we unpack this poignant and twisty thriller, and maybe some of you can unpack on your own time why Griffin chooses to bring up THE LITTLE RASCALS when talking about Korean...

It’s a brand new era for Blank Check - Griffin is in his “arriving early to work” era. Ben is in his “Bad Boy 2.0” era. And we’re all in our WORLD CINEMA era as we kick off our series on South Korean master (and March Madness champion!) Park Chan-Wook. Join us as we offer a brief overview of the evolution of Korean cinema - from 1960’s landmark THE HOUSEMAID up through decades of government censor...

Our Buster Keaton series comes to a conclusion as his period of creative independence does, with his first two features for MGM: THE CAMERAMAN and SPITE MARRIAGE. The former? Debatably a meta-masterpiece, with a Chinatown setpiece for the ages and one very adorable monkey. The latter? Well, you can see the downward spiral start to take shape. In this episode, we fill in the later years of Buster’s...

After his “blank check” for THE GENERAL bounced,  Buster Keaton found himself creatively and financially shackled. Thus, 1927’s COLLEGE lands on the lesser end of the quality spectrum (not to mention a very difficult watch with Buster putting on blackface for a scene - yikes). But, his follow-up STEAMBOAT BILL, JR. features some of the most memorable and dangerous stunts of Keaton’s career, and ac...

One of narrative cinema’s earliest training sequences, and one of cinema’s most famous trains - that’s right, we’re covering Buster Keaton’s 1926 films BATTLING BUTLER and THE GENERAL. Gentleman, scholar, and action movie aficionado Jamelle Bouie joins us to unpack this week’s double feature, providing some essential historical context for THE GENERAL’s unfortunate Civil War  setting. Plus, Ben st...

This week’s Keaton double feature sees our unflappable hero chased by two types of terrifying crowds: angry would-be brides, and a herd of cattle. How does he outrun them both? Jamie Loftus joins us to chat about Buster Keaton’s tremendous on-screen running (up there with Tom Cruise), his enduring sex appeal (we love a hot tired guy), and his compassion for animals (giving the bovine star of GO WE...

Buster Keaton released two features in 1924 - “Sherlock Jr.”, a film that was considered a commercial disappointment at the time but has grown in stature over the past century, and “The Navigator'', a colossal box office hit that hasn’t aged nearly as well. Actor and lover of old-timey things James Urbaniak makes his long-awaited debut on the pod (originally promised back in our Shyamalan days!) a...

The Great Stone Face…The Little Boy Who Couldn’t Be Damaged…whatever you call him, Buster Keaton is one of the most important figures in film history, and we couldn’t be happier to be spotlight him in our latest series PODCAST JR. Our beloved Dana Stevens - writer of the fantastic Keaton tome “Camera Man” - joins us to set the table as we dive into the filmography of one of Griffin’s favorite arti...

Our Danny Boyle series comes to an end with a mind-bending movie that dares to ask the question, “What if The Beatles didn’t exist?” Severance’s Zach Cherry makes his long-overdue first appearance on the pod to profess his love Boyle’s most recent film, while David nearly has a stroke from trying to wrap his brain around all its logic loops. We’re asking all the big questions - if the Beatles neve...

First they were addicted to heroin, now they’re addicted to *nostalgia* (but also still heroin)! Danny Boyle returns to the squalid Scottish world of Renton, Sick Boy, Spud, and Begbie for T2: Trainspotting, and Scott Aukerman and Sprague (aka the Artist Formerly Known as Shaun Diston) join us to talk about this under-seen legacy sequel. How did Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor’s real-life feud influ...

Calling all Sorkinistas - we’re walking, talking, and putting 1,000 songs in your pocket! Based on Walter Isaccson’s best-selling biography of the original Apple Genius, STEVE JOBS puts Danny Boyle in David Fincher’s shoes. What did we learn about this movie from the notorious Sony hacks? Is Michael Fassbender too hot to play Steve Jobs? Would it surprise you to learn that Ben Hosley is a life-lon...

Probably the only film in history to hinge on the shaving of pubic hair as crucial plot point, Danny Boyle’s 2013 film TRANCE is…certainly something! Filmmaker Nia DaCosta takes a break from post-production on THE MARVELS to return to the podcast as we peel back the layers of this twisty hypnosis thriller. What is this movie actually trying to say? We don’t know. However, we *do* know that Vincent...