Episodes

  • Lost Highway with David Lowery

    Lost Highway with David Lowery
    Oct 27 2024
    1997’s Lost Highway - is it (as David Sims wrote on Letterboxd), “a movie about headache”? Is it David Lynch’s most visually beautiful film? Is it a dry run for Mulholland Dr? A radical reimagining of Bill Pullman’s screen presence? A psychogenic fugue? Lynch’s commentary on the OJ Simpson trial? An excuse for David Sims to go off on the concept of “free jazz”?? Folks - we are pleased to tell you that it is all of the above and more. The great David Lowery joins us to talk about Lynch’s deeply haunted neo-noir nightmare - a film that dares to ask the question, “What if you woke up one morning as Balthazar Getty?” Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook! Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    2 hrs and 41 mins
  • Joker: Hallie À Goodrich

    Joker: Hallie À Goodrich
    Oct 20 2024
    What if they made a sequel to the Joker movie that was pretty much the finale of Seinfeld but it’s also a half-assed jukebox musical, and EVERYONE hated it? What if Michael Keaton had a 35-year-old pregnant daughter, but he also had precocious 9-year-old twins and a Los Angeles art gallery on the verge of financial collapse? Both scenarios lay the groundwork for two of the most “they don’t make ‘em like this” films of the year, and BOTH conclude with the same Daniel Johnston song. You can’t make this stuff up, folks! Join the crew for a fever dream of an episode that features an all-timer of a Madame Web tangent, Griffin’s grand theory of Todd Phillips self-sabotage, and some earnest reflections on the past 499 episodes that have led us to this monumental achievement. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook! Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    2 hrs and 17 mins
  • Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me with Arkasha Stevenson

    Twin Peaks: Fire Walk with Me with Arkasha Stevenson
    Oct 13 2024
    One of the more harrowing films we’ve covered on the podcast (and the second film we’ve covered in 2024 with a memorable “gobble gobble” line), 1992’s TWIN PEAKS: FIRE WALK WITH ME was not the quirky, enjoyable plotline wrap-up fans of Twin Peaks wanted. David Lynch instead challenged the audience to identify with Laura Palmer’s humanity and pain, making her a real person - not just a girl wrapped in plastic. THE FIRST OMEN director Arkasha Stevenson joins us to talk about how this film (and WILD AT HEART) inspired her to become a filmmaker, the uncanny experience of watching it without any prior knowledge of the Twin Peaks series, and the directorial choices Lynch makes that create the film’s deeply unsettling atmosphere. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook! Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    2 hrs and 9 mins
  • Wild at Heart with Tatiana Maslany

    Wild at Heart with Tatiana Maslany
    Oct 6 2024
    If we told you this was the first time we’d covered a Nicolas Cage movie on the podcast - would you believe us? Well, baby - it’s true. And what a movie it is! The luminous Tatiana Maslany returns to talk about David Lynch’s smokin’ hot outlaw romance WILD AT HEART - a film that won the Palme d’Or and took Lynch away from the set of Twin Peaks. Get ready for lots of Cage career discussion (a favorite topic of Griffin Newman), a bunch of actor speak, and multiple “hey, did you know David Lynch was a fan of the Wizard of Oz?” asides. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook! Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    2 hrs and 2 mins
  • Twin Peaks (Season 1) with Eva Anderson

    Twin Peaks (Season 1) with Eva Anderson
    Sep 29 2024
    For a brief shining moment, Middle America went crazy for the surreal soap opera stylings of David Lynch and Mark Frost. We’re talking ABC, primetime, airing against “Cheers”-level mainstream. And then it all came crashing down. Listen as we take our first step into the intoxicating world of Twin Peaks - one of the most influential television series of all time and the project that would come to define Lynch for the rest of his career. Eva Anderson - who literally grew up in the town Twin Peaks was filmed in and can tell you for a fact that the diner cherry pie sucks - joins us to talk about how such a pop cultural oddity came to be, and why it has such staying power. Note - this episode covers Season 1 of Twin Peaks, but alludes to certain plotlines in Season 2 without directly spoiling them. Blank Check Theme (Cherry Pie Remix) composed by Alex Mitchell, vocals by "The ghost of Julee Cruise" aka Marie Bardi. Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Twitter, Instagram, Threads and Facebook! Buy some real nerdy merch Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    3 hrs and 7 mins
  • Blue Velvet with Jamie Loftus

    Blue Velvet with Jamie Loftus
    Sep 22 2024
    Lend us your (severed) ears! This week, we’re jumping back into our Lynch series with a trip to Lumberton, USA, as our beloved Jamie Loftus joins us to chat about 1986’s BLUE VELVET. We’re going deep on the star persona of Kyle MacLachlan, David Sims’ obsession with Dean Stockwell, and David Lynch’s unironic obsession with Americana. How does a movie that deals with such deeply disturbing themes end up being so watchable? That’s that Lynchian magic, baby! Be sure to listen to Sixteenth Minute (of Fame) Buy Jamie’s Book: Raw Dog: The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs Listen to The Bechdel Cast Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and X! Buy some real nerdy merch. Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    2 hrs and 52 mins
  • Beetlejuice Beetlejuice

    Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
    Sep 15 2024
    We’re taking a break from David Lynch to answer one of the year’s biggest questions - Is Burton Back, Baby? Ummmm…kind of! Grab your “Handbook for the Recently Deceased” commemorative popcorn tin and join us as we attempt to untangle the very messy BEETLEJUICE BEETLEJUICE. Which sequences wowed us with their sparkling ingenuity? Which plotlines would we excise from the script? What song would you possess people to lipsync to and why is it Bloodhound Gang’s “The Bad Touch”? And - the most important question of all - why has David Sims not been publishing movie reviews lately, why wasn’t he at TIFF, and what the hell is going on at the Sims Swamp? Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and X! Buy some real nerdy merch. Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    2 hrs and 11 mins
  • Dune with John Hodgman

    Dune with John Hodgman
    Sep 8 2024
    The sleeper must awaken. The filmography must contain a flop. We’ve arrived at the Planet Arrakis aka the Desert Planet aka DUNE (1984) - David Lynch’s attempt at wrangling Frank Herbert’s space epic into a single studio blockbuster. Did it work? Not really. Do we have fun talking about it? Hell yeah, we do! John Hodgman joins us to talk about all things “spice” - including the infamous glossary of Dune terms handed out in theaters, and a wild anecdote about Peter Berg reading Dune on an airplane. We talk about Lynch’s decision to turn down directing Return of the Jedi, the differences between Lynch’s take on Dune and Denis Villeneuve’s more critically successful version, and David finally gets the chance to let his Fremen freak flag fly by going FULL NERD. Buy John’s Books Watch Dicktown on FX/Hulu Listen to Judge John Hodgman See Judge John Hodgman on Tour Subscribe to John’s Substack Get your Congratulations merch Join our Patreon for franchise commentaries and bonus episodes. Follow us @blankcheckpod on Instagram, Threads, Facebook and X! Buy some real nerdy merch. Connect with other Blankies on our Reddit or Discord For anything else, check out BlankCheckPod.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
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    3 hrs and 4 mins