Blank Check with Griffin & David Blank Check Productions

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 starts researching how one buys a train.

Guest Links: 
Read Jamelle’s writing at The New York Times
Listen to Unclear and Present Danger 
Subscribe to Unclear and Present Danger Patreon

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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 WEST a week off to have sex). Plus, because Jamie is THE Hot Dog Queen, we get into a very involved, very long tangent about the world of competitive Hot Dog Eating.

Guest Links: 
Get Jamie's book Raw Dog (The Naked Truth About Hot Dogs) out 5/23
Listen to The Bechdel Cast
Subscribe to The Bechdel Cast Matreon 

This episode is sponsored by: 
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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!) and we’re getting into the billiards bits, boat gags, razor puns, and movie magic that make this double feature so special.

Guest Links: 
See James in The Country Club as well as Venture Bros: Radiant is the Blood of the Baboon Heart when they come out.

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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 artists. We’re going into Buster’s start as a vaudeville child star (sometimes in “Irish face”), the qualities of his work that distinguish him from peers Charlie Chaplin and Harold Lloyd, and we’re dissecting the gags and stunts featured in his first two feature films. Plus - Griffin gives one of his worst Box Office Game performances, and we all learn a bit about early child labor laws.

Guest Links: 
Get Dana’s book "Camera Man" now in paperback 
Read Dana’s film criticism 
Listen to Dana on Slate Culture Gabfest

This episode is sponsored by: 
Indeed (indeed.com/check)
Stamps.com (CODE: CHECK)

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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 never existed, would Charles Manson? If cigarettes never existed, how would that change the colonization of the New World? If John Lennon is alive in this universe, does this mean that Paul is actually dead? When does Ana de Armas show up?

This episode is sponsored by:
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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 influence this film? Is Spud’s arc in this basically just Bubbles’ arc in season 5 of The Wire? Which is the better “much-later sequel starring Ewan McGregor in an iconic role” - this, or the Obi Wan Kenobi series on Disney+?

This episode is sponsored by:
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