Best Picture Brainrot - A Countdown to the 100th Oscars

Adam Sadiq, Sarah Sax, Drew Vollmer
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Best Picture Brainrot is a 100-week countdown to the 100th Academy Awards, where your hosts Adam, Alexis, and Sarah watch every Best Picture Oscar winner in order, starting with 1927's Wings to... whatever the Academy picks for their 100th winner.  Learn about Oscar history, film history, even some world history while your hosts discuss every winner in detail and continuously suffer from ever-worsening brainrot.  New episodes every Thursday. Follow along on Instagram:  @bestpicturebrainrotpodcast Letterboxd Adam - https://boxd.it/9fMt Alexis - https://boxd.it/I7k7 Sarah - https://boxd.it/6VQMl

  1. 1d ago

    69 Weeks Until the 100th Oscars | Ben-Hur (1960)

    We are 69 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and we bid farewell to our good friend William Wyler who has brought us bangers such as Mrs.Miniver and The Best Years of Our Lives but now brings us his arguably most famous Oscars work - 1960's Ben-Hur. Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ sounds like a curious novel to adapt if you are a famous Jewish Hollywood director.  Alas, William Wyler set out to make "a thinking man's biblical epic" in direct competition to Cecil B. DeMille's The Ten Commandments.  Shots fired!  They both even star Charlton Heston.  Ben-Hur is the story of Judah Ben-Hur, a Jewish prince who is send into slavery and returns home to seek revenge against his childhood friend who now rules for the Romans in Judea.  All this while his story intersects with the rise of Jesus Christ in a slightly Gump-ian way.  It's big, it's epic, it's long and it won the most Oscars of all-time.  A big stature to live up to - so does it? In this episode you're gonna hear: The way Wyler saved MGM by creating a movie of unprecedented scaleExhaustive discussion of how painfully hot Charlton Heston is in this movieWhat leprosy is and why everyone threw rocks at lepersIf there's room for another new-age biblical epic in the Oscars canon Follow us @bestpicturebrainrotpodcast as we keep delving into Oscars history with a brainrot spin Letterboxd Adam - https://boxd.it/9fMt Alexis - https://boxd.it/I7k7 Sarah - https://boxd.it/6VQMl

  2. Oct 22

    70 Weeks Until the 100th Oscars | Gigi (1958)

    We are 70 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and... buckle up.  Vincente Minelli's French-Belle Epoque-set Gigi is our 31st Best Picture Winner and I assure you, we have a lot to say about this. Gigi is a (14-year old) girl who is a courtesan (mistress/hooker-in training) under the tutelage of her grandma and great-aunt (pimps) in the roaring French ages where you're either too rich to have real relationships, trying to siphon money off those rich people, or too poor to even be discussed in the bounds of this story.  Weirdly this is an enduring story that adapts a novel, and has been adapted into the stage.  On it's surface, this feels like it could be something subversive, but does the group read it that way, or does it read it to filth?  I'm sure you can guess. In this episode you're gonna hear: How Aretha Franklin's assessment of Taylor Swift informed our opinion of this movieAn emergent new viral hashtag - #FreeGigiThe shortest Brainrot section of all time because the whole episode is rotThree frustrated hosts trying to figure out what the heck was in the water of 1958 Follow us @bestpicturebrainrotpodcast as we keep delving into Oscars history with a brainrot spin Letterboxd Adam - https://boxd.it/9fMt Alexis - https://boxd.it/I7k7 Sarah - https://boxd.it/6VQMl

  3. Oct 15

    71 Weeks Until the 100th Oscars | The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957)

    We are 71 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today, we go back to the World War II well with a non-Wyler-led epic about POWs on the Pacific front who are forced to build a river crossing in the lovely jungles of Burma.  The Bridge on the River Kwai is our first David Lean, and our 30th Best Picture Winner.  Featuring special guest - Zach! You likely know him best for originating the character of Obi Wan Kenobi, but Alec Guinness was an Oscar-winning actor whose most significant role before Star Wars was in this movie where he basically acts as a summer camp counselor wrangling troublesome youths who need to unite to solve a common goal.  But here's the catch - they are all prisoners of war of the Japanese forces.  Nevertheless, this is the task that Guinness' Colonel Nicholson must take on - keep the men alive and productive in hostile conditions.  Does he take it a little too far?  Let's find out! In this episode you're gonna hear: The real story of Sir Lieutenant Colonel Philip John Denton Toosey and how that inspired (or didn't inspire) the events of the movieWhich Eddie Murphy character vehicle was inspired by one of Alec Guiness' performancesValuable technical camera information from an expert in the craftThe results of the 3rd Brainrot Awards! Follow us @bestpicturebrainrotpodcast as we keep delving into Oscars history with a brainrot spin Letterboxd Adam - https://boxd.it/9fMt Alexis - https://boxd.it/I7k7 Sarah - https://boxd.it/6VQMl

  4. Oct 8

    72 Weeks Until the 100th Oscars | Around the World in 80 Days (1956)

    We are 72 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today, we're sponsored by Kalshi because we're talking about a bet.  A certain bet, a specific bet about if it is possible to go around the world in less than 3 months.  Yes, Around the World in 80 Days is the winner of these 29th Academy Awards. You may be familiar with Jules Verne's novel - but this movie brings the story to the big screen in vibrant color and scale that has rarely been matched in these first three decades of the Oscars.  It's a vibes and hijinks movie about a colorful cast of characters trying their best to see the world as fast as they possibly can; it's really some bored rich people stuff.  The cast is all-star and was notable in 1956 for introducing us to the idea of the celebrity cameo, so we have this to blame for Marvel, I suppose.  It's a real global romp that carried a lot of charm in 1956 - but can we say the same 70 years later? In this episode you're gonna hear: The gang flex on everyone with how far our global travels have goneWhat Todd AO is, and why it changed the game with this movieHow Mexico's Charlie Chaplin brought a level of global star power to this filmVery polarizing opinions on this film - who will prevail? Follow us @bestpicturebrainrotpodcast as we keep delving into Oscars history with a brainrot spin Letterboxd Adam - https://boxd.it/9fMt Alexis - https://boxd.it/I7k7 Sarah - https://boxd.it/6VQMl

  5. Oct 1

    73 Weeks Until the 100th Oscars | Marty (1955)

    We are 73 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today, we've got the meats.  Marty tells the story of a sweet New York butcher who finds love after 34 years of trying, which is a crazy long amount of time, apparently.  Maybe when you're Italian! Marty Piletti and Clara Snyder are both old, busted individuals for the 1950s - or at least that's what all of their friends and family tell them!  They've internalized the fact that they'll never find love and instead spend all their nights hanging out with their parents or, in Marty's case, his bum friends.  But it's a chance encounter that will change everything.  It's a focused story that fits within a tight-90, praise be.  It's a sweet story and one of the smallest to win Best Picture, but will we fall in love with Marty? In this episode you're gonna hear: About our meat plugsIf Marty and Clara are actually as busted as people sayHow director Delbert Mann dipped in and dipped out of the OscarsAdam forget how to say the name of the main woman character of the movie Follow us @bestpicturebrainrotpodcast as we keep delving into Oscars history with a brainrot spin Letterboxd Adam - https://boxd.it/9fMt Alexis - https://boxd.it/I7k7 Sarah - https://boxd.it/6VQMl

  6. Sep 24

    74 Weeks Until the 100th Oscars | On the Waterfront (1954)

    We are 74 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today we go back to a city we've been in a few times before, New York.  But this time, we're bound for a more working class lifestyle by hitting the docks.  On the Waterfront is Elia Kazan's story about a man who has to make the hard choices when faced with his work versus his morals. Terry Malloy works, appropriately, on the waterfront as a longshoreman.  He lives what he thinks is a good life until a traumatic event shakes him to his core and forces him to confront a world of corruption and making the choice to stand up for what is right.  Elia Kazan controversially tackles this subject by seemingly comparing it to his own life and ostracism for ratting out members of the Communist Party to the House Un-American Activities Committee.  The problem is... he sort of cooked - but you'll hear what we think in the episode. In this episode you're gonna hear: How Elia Kazan's real-life drama impacted the creation of this movieDiscussion on how Marlon Brando's acting still resonates todayAbout where this 8 Oscar-winning movie was still snubbed at the Oscars in some wayA pitch for new dating services from the Brainrot crew Follow us @bestpicturebrainrotpodcast as we keep delving into Oscars history with a brainrot spin Letterboxd Adam - https://boxd.it/9fMt Alexis - https://boxd.it/I7k7 Sarah - https://boxd.it/6VQMl

  7. Sep 17

    75 Weeks Until the 100th Oscars | From Here to Eternity (1953)

    We are 75 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today we welcome a colorful cast of characters all clad in aloha shirts.  Yes, Fred Zinneman's From Here to Eternity is the story of the crew of a Hawaiian military outpost in the looming days of World War II, and our 26th Best Picture Winner. An ex-boxer with the suspicious name of Robert E. Lee Prewitt arrives at the Schofield Military Barracks; he's pressured to join the boxing team but refuses and most of the rest of the men make his life hell for it.  This movie was co-created by the Army but subsequently unendorsed due to its depiction as a giant fraternity.  Which is funny given this was allegedly adapted from the "boldest novel of our time" in the 1950s - so they should have known what they were getting into.  The book may be bold, and some of that boldness may have made it into the film, but how does that land for us today? In this episode you're gonna hear: Discussion around the big "twist" that this movie has at the endHow Montgomery Clift is one of the crew's favorite actors of this eraIf From Here to Eternity compares to all of the other great movies of 1953Bush-era brainrot and how it applies to this film Follow us @bestpicturebrainrotpodcast as we keep delving into Oscars history with a brainrot spin Letterboxd Adam - https://boxd.it/9fMt Alexis - https://boxd.it/I7k7 Sarah - https://boxd.it/6VQMl

  8. Sep 10

    76 Weeks Until the 100th Oscars | The Greatest Show on Earth (1952)

    We are 76 weeks away from the 100th Academy Awards and today we go to the big top - that bastion of family fun, dazzling feats of human agility and... criminal clowns?  These are all part of The Greatest Show on Earth - Cecil B. DeMille's circus epic (for lack of a better word) and the winner of the 25th Academy Awards. A movie about the circus should have a commensurately wacky plot, and this movie delivers in spades.  We get another back-to-back love triangle that features a young Charlton Heston in his breakout role; a character named Buttons the Clown played by Brainrot alumni Jimmy Stewart; gangsters; cavalcades; dogs riding horses - you name it.  That's the circus baby!  Such a chaotic movie is bound to bring the chaos out in us (and it does) - so how does that affect our thoughts on the film and its Best Picture legacy? In this episode you're gonna hear: How Cecil B. DeMille found his lead actor in the most 1950s of placesWhat Hasbulla would have done if he was included in this movieThe activities of the 25th episode Brainrot Reunion for our favorite film charactersDrew giving an impassioned defense of the rating he gives this movie (good or bad?  Tune in to find out) Follow us @bestpicturebrainrotpodcast as we keep delving into Oscars history with a brainrot spin Letterboxd Adam - https://boxd.it/9fMt Alexis - https://boxd.it/I7k7 Sarah - https://boxd.it/6VQMl

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Best Picture Brainrot is a 100-week countdown to the 100th Academy Awards, where your hosts Adam, Alexis, and Sarah watch every Best Picture Oscar winner in order, starting with 1927's Wings to... whatever the Academy picks for their 100th winner.  Learn about Oscar history, film history, even some world history while your hosts discuss every winner in detail and continuously suffer from ever-worsening brainrot.  New episodes every Thursday. Follow along on Instagram:  @bestpicturebrainrotpodcast Letterboxd Adam - https://boxd.it/9fMt Alexis - https://boxd.it/I7k7 Sarah - https://boxd.it/6VQMl

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