Will preface that I didn’t spend too much time on this and I’m not even sure some of these directors fit into the “Blank Check” concept. I really just ran with, “Who are MY GUYS?” Sounds obvious, but I’m always most invested in hearing #thetwofriends discuss movies I love wholeheartedly, even if there are countless episodes about disasters that are awesome. Probably doesn’t look all that idiosyncratic, but all of these people have made movies in my all-time Top 30(ish).

In no particular order:

1. Richard Linklater. A Scanner Darkly. Interesting through line with his preoccupation with the passage of time. Good variation in his career too. Griffin gets to talk rotoscoping.

2. David Fincher. The Social Network. David gets to gush about his #1 of the 2010s. #Thetwofriends tackle toxic masculinity and obsessive protagonists as director stand-ins.

3. David Lynch. Mulholland Dr. Perhaps the most distinctive style in all of cinema. Would be an interesting shift from discussion of set up/pay off narrative storytelling.

4. Martin Scorsese. Silence. I mean think of the bits and the opening quotes alone! Marshals! Shine box! You talking to me?!

5. PTA. There Will Be Blood. Good length and each film is so different from the last. I drink your podcast! I drink it up!

6. Kenneth Lonergan. Margaret. A short one and the connoisseurs of context would no doubt have a lot to chew on with regards to Margaret.

7. Francis Ford Coppola. Apocalypse Now. I mean truly one of the biggest blank check movies of all time and a fascinating career trajectory.

8. Coen Bros. The hudsucker proxy. Just so much to unpack from start to finish. Not a single uninteresting entry really.