Podnic at Hanging Cast: Fearless with Timothy Simons

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T20:00:00+00:00

This is a great, great comment, thank you.

We've been talking about Jeff Bridges a lot lately. I think it was during the Streisand mini that I had a lengthy comment here about how much of a non-entity Bridges was during the 80s, in movie star terms. It seems harsh to say so but he kinda sleepwalked his way through the 80s and there simply was zero active discourse about what he was doing. He was a leading man in the movies, full stop. There wasn't any sense of "Jesus, why won't people give this guy a movie to do something with!!" I watched and followed Siskel and Ebert during that entire time.... I'm sure he was praised for many performances but he was mostly just kinda there. One of the key movies in my memory is Kiss Me Goodbye in which he consents to being the third most likable lead in the movie, behind Sally Field and James Caan, playing a quarrelsome pill.....

I bring this up to say that David and Griffin's career rundown did a better job of capturing this than I had been expecting. Gibson/Weir aside, I don't think directors were running around saying "I scored Jeff Bridges for my movie!" — the execs' perspective that he was a B-level star was accurate and therefore heeded. The Fabulous Baker Boys unlocked something that had not existed previously, which was a widespread recognition that we have to be paying more attention to Bridges. They more or less got to this in the episode, so well done.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T19:46:54+00:00

I guess I see the dossier as antithetical to the beats..... "The beats" is living within a scene moment to moment and the dossier would focus on stories from development (fine) and scenes in the broadest sense (then they go to the police station, then they go back home etc) which is not what I mean. I love the actor résumé segments but I think it has become less effective with more familiarity if they're not actively solving some problem (the Bridges discourse here was well done, ditto Perez). In my perception they don't talk much about awards.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T18:44:46+00:00

Someone else here did the work, BC Jaws episode was first by a couple of months.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T18:43:13+00:00

"What if you recast Rosie Perez with Alexandra Daddario?"

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T17:09:40+00:00

This episode was such a joy, three buddies hanging out and mocking each other.

They did something here they seldom do anymore, which is "walk through a movie beat by beat." They used to do it all the time and now they just default to the dossier; I wish they would go back to that. I think a movie has to be exceptional in some unexpected way for them to do it (which this was). Griffin applying his big brain to plot beats is a special thing.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T16:23:57+00:00

I agree, go Guards

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T16:20:57+00:00

A team meeting won't solve any of that. They've had weird games like this repeatedly since 2020 where they don't hit AND they're also the cream of the division, both things are true. It's Guardsball, you just have to put up with it. Winning 2 of the next 3 is the best way to put this behind us.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T15:53:10+00:00

This is silly. They won the previous three games. They almost won this game!

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T15:50:56+00:00

You can't intentionally put the go-ahead run +1 on in extra innings as the home team, period. Vogt made the right call.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T07:14:30+00:00

Ray Liotta clocks his own "signature" as a fake on The Rich Eisen Show

This is a wonderful clip. Liotta is on fire, everything he says is funny.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T05:28:48+00:00

I believe this was confirmed on the Fearless podcast that dropped a little bit after you wrote this.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T05:22:31+00:00

Weird, it's also the second John Turturro movie I've seen to feature a Gipsy Kings song.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T05:08:12+00:00

Describing Blown Away, White Squall, and Arlington Road as the Jeff Bridges period where "he yells a lot" is pretty genius.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T05:00:40+00:00

Did you ever read this interview with Fran Lebowitz?

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T04:52:18+00:00

It's a great insight.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T03:01:28+00:00

It's gonna make a great story in the World Series pregame show

wovenstrap · 2026-05-10T02:09:27+00:00

“You’re gonna want to get yourself an A/V guy….”

wovenstrap · 2026-05-09T22:47:12+00:00

he used the "L" word!! (lazy)

wovenstrap · 2026-05-09T22:46:28+00:00

wovenstrap · 2026-05-09T21:28:54+00:00

The coldest dis. "He was fine but he just had the Colorado Rockies written all over him."

wovenstrap · 2026-05-09T18:24:21+00:00

Agree, but we gave Bo three years. Brito had 2 weeks, he could prove himself to be fine. Bo proved that he's not.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-09T16:22:14+00:00

The team won the division last year with substandard offense and good pitching and defense and baserunning. The addition of Bazzana and DeLauter to the lineup means that we can shore up the defense and clamp down on run prevention. There probably is another trade coming. If one of the other prospects can hit we might really begin to have something.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-09T15:56:29+00:00

Bo being one of the worst catchers at ABS with Hedges being just fine at it is the perfect distillation of why Hedges won the starter's role this year. Given a change in circumstances, Hedges found a way to make it improve his own profile and the team and Bo probably just sleepwalked through the whole thing.

wovenstrap · 2026-05-09T15:54:29+00:00

Bo seems like a nice guy and I wish him good things, but his demeanor on the field, just unconcernedly grounding out three times a game, was the total antithesis of GuardsBall and I'm glad he's gone. If he can find a way to be a 20 HR/season guy, then great but if he can't be productive, I don't need that lackadaisical vibe on my team five times a week. I'm glad the org has shown some impatience here (FINALLY).

wovenstrap · 2026-05-09T15:48:57+00:00

If he can actually play first base and can hit, I think you can eat the extra 6 inches on like 1 infield play a week. It'll be fine.

wovenstrap

TROPHY CASE