Transcript of Hour 1: The Ear Flushing

This is the Dan Levator Show with the Stugatz Podcast.

Against the Spread is brought to you by DraftKings. DraftKings, the crown is yours. Roy, what do we got?

All right, we got Kings and Islanders 2-2.

Unite.

The Islanders have failed to cover the puck line against, uh, Pacific Division the last 6 games, and the Kings have covered the puck line as underdogs in 7 straight games against the Metro Division. But looking at the stats, the Kings just do not score, and the Islanders are 7-3-0 in the last 10. So I'm going to go with the Islanders as the favorites at a goal and a half against the spread.

Against the spread.

Tony, a lot of analytics and numbers there from Roy. We're going to the vibes portion of Against the Spread. La República Dominicana. Just like you saw in the video of me going around town at the World Baseball Classic and hyping up all the Dominicans. Dominican Republic minus 4.5 on the run line against South Korea.

Vamos a meter palo a todo mundo.

That's what they told me. So I'm taking the Dominican Republic. The lineup in the Dominican Republic.

Tatis.

Good pick.

Manny.

Keep going.

Hold on.

Manny. Machado.

David Ortiz. There's one Manny.

There's one Manny.

Miguel Tejada.

He's not there anymore. A bunch of guys in this lineup.

Big Bobby.

We saw him.

Not that big.

Stinned out a little bit.

I saw something on social of like that lineup, the Dominican lineup, and like, I think, was it 16 or something, man?

Fire lineup.

It's crazy. They're just hitting home run after home run after home run after home run.

Vladdy, like, Cattell Marte, who's one of the most underrated players in baseball because he's in Arizona and not as many people are paying attention to him. He's amazing. The fact that you've got tonight, and this is here in Miami, O'Neil Cruz doesn't even play, right? O'Neil Cruz has not been a starter for them for a— like the majority.

Where are they hiding this guy?

He's huge.

It's crazy that you've got the DR and that team that may very well win it all the way they're playing. Probably will.

This should be a wild atmosphere tonight.

It's going to be nuts. Like you have DR playing in an elimination game as they're going against Korea. And then tomorrow night it's Yoshinobu Yamamoto, the World Series MVP, starting for Japan against Venezuela. That's also a great team. That's tomorrow night. And those are both here in Miami. It's pretty cool to have this type of atmosphere here.

I'm looking at the prices because I checked out the prices the other day, and I guess maybe because I, I'd like to go actually, and I've been to the WBC before like years ago, and it's, it's an atmosphere, all right. Um, but I checked recently, and I guess it was because the matchup, the tickets were very expensive. But looking at tonight, tickets are pretty affordable.

Yeah, because you don't have the second, that second team that's right. It's a long trip from South Korea to Miami, where Venezuela you You have West and you have Durrell and everybody's here.

You're going to have a ton of Japanese media that shows up.

We already started seeing them on Wednesday night.

Yeah, they're like all the drones preemptively, like preemptively coming here and getting settled. Because I remember like last year during that championship game, I mean, there must have been like 200 media members alone, let alone fans that came over here because simply for Shohei, let alone the fact that now Yamamoto just won the World Series MVP. So the fact that you have those two guys playing together tomorrow night and that Venezuela is great. Venezuela could have won that game. They had an opportunity late. That's a team that if they lose here, like what a, what a disappointment. It's the way it's set up in your bracket. But to then have a matchup where you'll have Japan against DR and likely for a chance to square up against the United States in a championship game here in Miami, like no matter who wins, you either get a rematch of USA and Japan. You could get DR against USA, which, you know, happened a few years back, which would be electric. Like, it's real— it's really cool that Miami gets a chance to have this type of moment here before the season even starts.

As you said, like, you're probably looking at the DR-Venezuela game, which was $500.

I think the cheapest ticket was $400 to get in.

Yeah, it's insane. But we were able to go to different games. We went to the game against Nicaragua. We went to the game against Israel, which was Monday, and then Wednesday against Venezuela. And it was like, The Dominicans showed out every single time. They were just packed, that place, it was incredible. So anytime you can go to Dominican, that's why—

I'm thinking of going tonight.

For my package, I decided to follow the Dominican team because their fans are so amazing, they're so loud, they're so fun, that that's the atmosphere you want to see.

So if you can get to a Dominican game, head out there.

Jeremy, can you— Go ahead, Dave.

Can I just say very quickly on the WBC, I feel like MLB should be embarrassed. I see them on social media celebrating the events at the World— the bat flips and everything else. It's the antithesis of everything Major League Baseball stands for at this point. Shouldn't they adopt what we're seeing in the World Baseball Classic a little bit more? I mean, it really kind of, to me, stands as a black eye for what awaits us now in the regular season, which is more like, mute your emotions, stop, stop acting like a human being might. And when it's on display here, it's joyous and a marvelous watch. And I couldn't give a crap about who wins the WBC, but it's still There's something about it that really, it stems down to the youth level.

Like what we've seen from Team USA, right? Where Team USA has more guys playing this time around than in years past. Like they took it more seriously from that perspective. But we saw the way they went into their game, not knowing it was necessarily an elimination game, no matter what they try to say now. The, the vibes around the team where it's very muted as opposed to the joyous euphoria that you see. I mean, the way that the stadium would erupt at a walk, at a single the other way during that game the other night was amazing. And the players and the joy that they're playing with. And this is, Dave, like a construct of the fact that with Team USA, you have these kids playing showcase baseball from the time they're 12, 13 years old. The way that works, if you're a pitcher, is you show up, you throw as hard as you can for 2 innings. You leave and don't even finish the game and you come back the next time you're pitching. Like, that's where we're at. And it's not as much of a team atmosphere caring about winning and losing. They only get to the winning and losing stage really when they get to the major leagues, because in the minors it's also just about personal development if you're that excellent of a player.

And so that versus what you get at the younger ages where you have these kids, you know, clawing out of whatever position they're in. Not to sound like Dan talking about the NFL, but like you have these kids coming from these other countries, from third world countries, right?

They have nothing.

Who—

Sandy Alcantara came from absolutely nothing. There's a reason that he's turning around and saying, I am available for whatever you need in the championship game, whether it's as a starter or a reliever. And you have guys even like Matthew Boyd leaving Team USA like, no, I got to get back to spring training. It's just a different mentality. And I really hope that what Team USA is seeing and what some of these stars are seeing playing against these teams and having a chance to witness it starts to break down that barrier a little bit. It's better than it was when guys like Brian McCann were in the league, but it can still continue to get better from here.

Yeah, Carlton Fisk. But then the other example out there looming beyond the, the World Baseball Classic is the Savannah Bananas. I mean, that weirdness is more popular than, than the Major League Baseball version of what baseball is now. But you're absolutely right. It sort of has the vibe of like, we chose for our 10-year-old instead of golf to focus on that baseball. And it has that sort of proper vibe to it. It lacks a certain emotion.

Jeremy, to that point too, really quick— Zazz, I'm sorry. The juxtaposition of what you were talking about with the guys going to spring training and how David talked about yesterday, everything has already been negotiated. Everything has already been finalized with the club. Hey, you got, you know, X person for 7 at-bats. You've got this pitcher for 4 and a third innings. Like, that's all you have them for. And then you have Sandy saying, like, I'll burn my arm out to try and win a dozen.

And he could do it on his home mound. How cool would it be?

Because he knows he plays for the Marlins.

If Sandy pitched on Tuesday, But that's it. But that's anybody. They're there.

This team, this year, I'm excited about.

Start on opening day.

I'm as excited about this Marlins. Didn't sound like any team.

I'm just going for the— But how crazy is that though, right? Because if he pitches on Tuesday, like he's supposed to turn around and start on opening day for them on Friday. So it does put him— but he's like, I'm out there and the Marlins are right there encouraging it on Friday of next week. What? Of the week after that? Oh, hold on. 27th.

It's the 27th.

Yamamoto is gonna pitch his final start and then stick around to provide emotional support for the team. And it's fascinating because I was just in Little Tokyo here in Los Angeles, and it— the national pride for Shohei and Yamamoto, it's all over the place with Dodgers, um, Dodger stuff, but specifically those guys. But now Yamamoto, is that going to create like we talked about with You know, Sidney Crosby trying to play for Canada instead of playing for the NHL. Does that create some fraught emotions for Dodgers fans and for fans of guys that are, that are clearly prioritizing the World Baseball Classic over their major league team that's paying them millions of dollars?

You got USA-Canada tonight, guys. It'd be, it'd be pretty funny if USA beat Canada in hockey. But then Canada eliminated the USA in baseball. It was—

Hellebuck throwing out the first pitch?

That's a good question.

It's in Houston. So, so this Sunday we have Select Your Sunday. You can catch on the YouTube channel, 5:45 PM Eastern Time. Dave is gonna be— you getting on the bird? You coming in?

Oh no, no, no.

All right, good job out of me right there. So Select Your Sunday, 5:45 PM Eastern Time. We have— it's Selection Sunday. We have red carpet with Oscars. It's a whole shebang, all right? Uh, Adnan and Samson and all of us, it's gonna be a lot of fun. But I look at— I want to talk a little bit about the, the movies here, all right? I look at the Best Picture and what happened to when we had 4, maybe 5 nominees for Best Picture where I can realistically watch the show and I'm like Yeah, I got an opinion on all these movies because, you know, it's only 5 movies. Now we got 10 Best Picture nominees. I'm sorry, like, when they're doing the voting process, Dave, whichever one of these movies finishes with the 10th most votes, it didn't need to be nominated for Best Picture then if you finished 10th. Like, you need 10 nominees? Like, Dave, I've only seen 3 of these movies. That are Best Picture out of the 10. Like, do you have any idea how many you've seen?

Well, I mean, so an hour ago Chris Cody was lamenting having to watch sports too much, and now we have Zazz upset about having to watch too much movies.

No, but maybe I don't want to see all these movies. There's not 10 movies.

You have to watch them for work. You have to. It's for work.

It's because they were getting so much criticism about just having like the movies that no one ever watches, so they wanted to expand it so they could have the popular movies and the artsy movies.

It was a straw man. No one was complaining really like, "Star Wars wasn't nominated!" That this is a marketing ploy by the movie industry. Hey, Formula One was, you know, F1 was nominated for Best Picture. Right. We have to go see this now because if you're nominated for Best Picture, that means you're an amazing movie. It's all marketing to get more people to the movies.

Right, like I haven't seen F1. It looks cool. Maybe I'll watch it this weekend so that I could talk intelligently about it on Sunday night. It looks like a fun movie, but You're telling me that if F1 was not nominated for Best Picture, people were like, oh my God, I can't believe F1's not nominated?

No, no, nobody would have minded that at all. But it's also a very political process, too. You have producers with a lot of stroke in Hollywood, Brad Pitt being— and Jerry Bruckheimer behind it. So let's bring back tentpole box office summer smashes and let's incentivize like, hey, if you're one of those that help booey the theater industry, you're gonna get some love come award season.

Mike, you know I have one rule to live by, right?

Don't place parlays on multiple long shots. Don't say a game is won when it hasn't hit triple zero.

Mm-hmm.

Always drink your Jägermeister ice cold. That's the rule. Everything else is merely a suggestion.

Everything else? Everything else. Wearing clean underwear every day? Well, that's just a personal decision.

Brushing your teeth?

Obviously smart, but not a rule.

Never pee pee on an electric fence.

Okay, maybe there are two rules, but the one that is 100% that I insist on completely: Jägermeister must be drank ice cold or don't drink it at all.

Damn, that's cold.

Exactly.

You're finally starting to get it. Drink responsibly. Jägermeister Liqueur, 35% alcohol by volume, imported by Mass Jägermeister US, White Plains, New York. Quick break to tell you about a special Miller Time I had with my good buddy Mochetta. Mochetta texted me the other day. He said, hey, what are you doing for the game? I said, I'm just on my couch right now doing nothing, enjoying it. He's like, hey, do you want some company? I said, from you, Mochetta? Absolutely. Mochetta comes over to the house and I pull out the Miller Lite. Miller Lite made that casual hang a memorable good Miller time with my good friend Mochetta because Miller Lite brought us together. We took that first sip after we toasted our beers and we knew we made the right call. We watched a game, All of a sudden we're standing up on our feet, Big Threes are being drained, and white cans are being clanged. See, times like these, that's exactly why Miller Lite is my go-to. Clean, refreshing, easy to drink, brewed for taste with simple ingredients. The original light beer since 1975, and it still hits different for yours truly and his good friend Mochetta.

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Don Lebatard. John, can you rate my Al Pacino from that billiard scene in Carlito's Way if I do it for you? I think it's pretty good.

Yeah. Okay. Stugatz.

You think you're big time? Well, you're gonna die!

Big time!

That is on my infamous scale of 1 to 10, that's a, that's a 7.6.

Solid.

Good job, good job. That's a silly nominee right there. This is the Dan Levatar Show with these two guys.

How many of these movies have you seen, Mike?

I've seen 7. So where have you Scene 3, I'm only needing to get around to 3.

And which, which are the ones you need?

I need to watch The Secret Agent, which I got to see that. I will be seeing that before Select Year Sunday. Train Dreams, I've heard mixed reviews on. I haven't seen that. And Sentimental Value, I am hoping to get to before our Sunday. Those are the 3 that I'm missing. But most people assume One Battle After Another is going to win this year.

Love that movie.

Of the 7 films that I've seen, This is a— it's a great year for movies in that I don't think there's like a clear lead dog for me. If a gun to my head, I think my favorite movie, uh, of these was Marty Supreme. I, I've rewatched Begonia. I love the performances there, man. Begonia, I saw that one. Begonia, I, I really loved. I still have Marty Supreme just a tick over it. I loved One Battle After Another, probably need to watch it again. Hamnet, I get it. Hamnet was Tony, you know about that Hamnet?

I don't know shit about that Hamnet.

Hamnet, like, it'll get you in the feels. It'll get you in the feels. Okay. And this is a film that Jessie Buckley is going to win for best actress. This is a film that is built on the power of performance drawing emotion out of you. It's kind of meta that way because you're watching a performance of a performance. And I loved Hamnet. It's a movie that really, really stays with you depending on some of the life experience that you had. Hamlet is about William Shakespeare. He had a son whose name was— No spoilers! No spoilers! No, no, no, this is like—

Yeah, but I don't know what the hell it's about, Dave.

It's got Hamlet. I've never heard of that word in my life.

I just want the plot, Dave.

Yeah, I don't think— if you want to know nothing at all about Hamlet, shut your ears for the next 5 seconds.

Who goes into a movie knowing nothing? I just want the plot.

Right, well, like, I mean, part of this is also like— Now the next 5 seconds. History, yeah, so wait, starting now. William Shakespeare's son dies and he writes Hamlet as an ode to his soul. And his memory, and William Shakespeare's wife watches this performance for the first time and goes through a whole range of emotions. But it's really about William Shakespeare's wife.

Well, why is it called Hamnet?

That's what I'm saying. So like they actually explain it at the very beginning of the movie. There's like apparently no difference between Hamnet and Hamlet.

Is there a difference between Hamnet and Hamlet?

I know you're going to say there's an N and an L.

Yeah, N and L are different.

Yeah, apparently it's the same thing.

I don't know what language you're talking about.

It's apparently the same thing. But Hamlet was incredible.

I'm with Mike. I think though that this has been— in our cynical world, you have to express what you don't like about everything. I think this has been a banner movie year, and in fact, the best movie year we've seen in at least the last decade. You know, I think it's in contention for the best movie year that we've had this century.

Have you seen all these movies nominated?

Yes. And Mike, you didn't mention Sinners. Which also makes the winner. I saw Sinners. Ultimately, ultimately, for me, it's one battle after another. It was all right. You didn't think—

no, I liked it.

Careful. I liked it. Careful.

I liked it.

You can't say it's all right.

That's all right. Oh, I thought it was great. I thought F1 was only okay. Chris Cody's wife was like, F1, I'd be more into it if it was F2 or 3, but okay.

FF1.

Zazz, you know about that FF1?

Yeah. Okay, this is a sequel called F2, even though it's a Formula One-based movie, because they're definitely going to do a sequel, especially now that it's nominated for Best Picture. I'm super pumped about this. I think this year more than any other year, I'm not even that into the competition of Best Picture. I love the Best Picture nominees from last year. I kind of like rated them a little bit more than this year, but that's one last year. That's a great— who did?

Oh, We looked this up on Football America. We were talking about this, uh, uh, the— about the, uh, Enora.

Yeah, Enora. Enora was great. That, that was one of the, the times I'm like, yes, my favorite movie actually won Best Picture. Uh, Anatomy of a Fall last year, I think, was nominated. No, that was 2 years ago. I loved that movie. That movie was incredible.

Um, last year was Emilia Perez, A Complete Unknown, Conclave, Nickel Boys, Wicked, Dune Part 2, The Substance, I'm Still Here, Enora, and The Brutalist.

Yeah, last year was But Anora was— if Anora was slotted in this year's Best Picture nominees, I think I'd still rate Anora the best. Two years ago, I thought that those were bangers. Anatomy of a Fall is one of my favorite movies of the last five years. But I think this year it's really performance-based. You have Jesse Buckley, you have Sean Penn. Sean Penn is reportedly not going to appear at the Oscars, which is a bummer because everybody kind of wants to see how that speech goes, given everything that's going on.

Is he like— he's gonna win?

Yeah, he's a heavy— I mean, I know he's great. I, I, Dave, I took a look at DK predictions and I got— I have some money on Benicio del Toro because I think he was just unbelievable and, and efficient. But it's going to be hard because he's not the best supporting actor in his own movie. I, I don't think they're going to split the votes at all. But Benicio del Toro, in terms of laughs per second and, and just knocking the assignment out of the park If it weren't for Sean Penn in his very same— in this very same movie, for me it's Benicio, but Sean Penn's got to run away with this thing.

Yeah, that's why I keep saying One Battle After Another is Boogie Nights for anarchy. You know, it's, it's, it's really the pleasure— say those two movies, it's the pleasure of the journey more than it is the destination. And once you understand that, sort of like The Big Lebowski 2, the, the beginning, middle, and end are, are, take a back seat to, to the, the people you meet along the way. And yeah, so I, I think Benicio del Toro is great. Sean Penn maybe a, a tick better there. It's funny too, in the same way we talk about QB draft classes, like Cam Ward is great, but he would only be the 4th or 5th quarterback in the draft prior to that. Um, Begonia, which is an afterthought in this, uh, Best Picture race would have won last year, but it's not even in the top 3 or 4 probably in 2026, right?

Yeah, I think it's neck and neck with Enora, but certainly, I mean, it is a distant underdog this year, whereas last year, a thinner year for, for great films. 2024 was a banger of a year. I think 2024, top to bottom, was better than this year. But Sinners is actually getting a lot of traction in the prediction market space. Zazz, because Michael B. Jordan ended up winning the, the actor's award, and Timothée Chalamet's got like this whole weird moment in pop culture right now where he's gone from universally liked to people like forming a negative opinion about—

I like Chalamet because of the opera thing.

Because of the opera?

There's no way.

Whatever.

He's already headed that direction a little bit. Do I have to remind everyone that opera sucks?

People, people don't get that.

It's such an easy concept.

People can't cape it up for the opera like they've ever been to one.

Give me a break.

Don't look all disappointed like that, Jeremy.

Whatever, man.

He took out the ballet too and opera.

I'm not here keeping up for the opera.

When was the last time somebody went to an opera in here?

Please tell me.

Not me. I've never been to the opera.

I don't—

it doesn't appeal to me.

I didn't even say anything.

Okay. It doesn't appeal to me.

But then why is it— why is he getting tarnished because of an opera ticket?

Because he took out an entire field of 17 people.

No, see, that's the— that's the part of it, right?

Like—

People are caping up for the opera, Jeremy, that nobody has gone to.

It's— that's not the point. The point— it was people within the industry. But more than anything, it's the idea. This is not—

this has given the full context.

This is the straw that broke the camel's back for people. So Timothée Chalamet, we talked about it with Jess on Wednesday, but he was saying that he didn't want to be part of an industry like the opera or I think it was ballet that nobody cares about. Nobody cares about. But that was the part of the quote, but without the context of the full interview where he's saying, hey, the movie industry is headed in a strange direction. I don't want to have to be one of the people that, like, puts it on my back to keep it afloat. I want people going to the movies. I don't want what has happened to the opera and ballet with so few people going to it as compared to 50 years ago or 100 years ago.

Well, this is why a lot of people are saying Sinners has a real chance here. If there is an underdog to make a play on, it's Sinner's because there's a lot of growing momentum. I saw Sinner's, and the school of thought behind Sinner's winning, much to the point of like having a larger tentpole box office smash like F1 be nominated for Best Picture— Sinner's was huge for the box office. And there is a notion bubbling that if you reward a picture like Sinner's, you get more movies made like Sinner's, and that's a rising tide that lifts all boats. Like, I, I don't know how much like the industry will benefit from, you know, the secret agent winning, right? But the industry does stand to benefit from a film that had crossover pop culture appeal like Sinners winning because most people have seen it and most people enjoyed it.

The irony is that Marty Supreme would kind of qualify in the same way, no? Because Timothée Chalamet was such a big star in the marketing campaign.

Yeah, but first of all, I don't know that— I don't know the timing on the voting. Are they pulling their votes for Timothée Chalamet? I suspect a lot of people have already cast their ballots at this point, so I don't know how they would retract them because of his opera-based statements. But I feel like Marty Supreme Chalamet, and that is just based on his sort of particular intrinsic charisma, whereas it feels like if you look at the history of, of who wins Academy Awards, Michael B. Jordan is much more in line with like, he played two guys. It wasn't, it wasn't just one guy. He was twins. It seems like that's the sort of shiny object that, that voters would react to. I'm surprised Michael B. Jordan isn't assumed to be the best actor this year.

Is there like an all-time— again, 5:45 PM Eastern on the YouTube channel, we're going live with Select Your Sunday. Red carpet, and of course, the selection show for the tournament. Is there, is there like an actor or actress— although I can't think of an actress— but is there an actor or actress who is known as the best performance when they played two characters? Like when you played twins?

Yeah, Lindsay Lohan, Parent Trap, Multiplicity. She touched my pappy, Steve. Michael Keaton played like 20 dudes.

No, no. He says he's the same dude, man.

Come on. Well, they're clones, but like the clones aren't like—

Well, it's the same guy.

They got dumber. Each clone got dumber.

Yeah. And that's why she touched my pappy, Steve.

It's like Mickey 17 with, with—

That movie, that movie is one of the worst movies I've ever seen.

Oh yeah. Super entertaining.

Really terrible.

Really disappointing. Really disappointing.

Cool opportunity.

Follow-up effort. Fun performance.

Terrible movie. Yeah. Bad movie.

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Don Lebatard! Always good to see everybody despite the fact that everyone appears to hate me.

Stugatz!

Yeah, I love you, Woody.

That's on you.

I don't know you that well.

Yeah, they said that you both suck ass and were bitten in the ass. So those are both things that you were accused of during this.

You're upset at my ass.

This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz. Zazz, I've seen your takes on sinners. And number one, let me thank you for your courage.

My takes like they're out there. Oh my God.

Well, let me thank you for your courage. Yeah.

Don't look at me like that, Roy. You didn't turn around once during the show until now.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Well, I mean, Roy turning around actually kind of plays into this because look, Roy, I'm an ally.

Me too, Roy.

And I like Sinners.

Okay.

I like Sinners.

There's a but somewhere in here.

I thought it was, you know, when compared—

Now Chris Cody's wife's ears perked up. There's a but in here somewhere.

I think it's in, in the, the bottom half of movies that are nominated. And I'm saying this very carefully because I've seen 3 of them. I don't mean to offend, uh, at all, but I just thought it was, you know, it was all right. It was good.

Yeah, solid.

Here's— okay, here's where I stand on, on Sinners. It's good and I enjoyed it.

I'm gonna turn around too.

Better than all right.

You know what I'm saying? It was all right. I'll look everyone in this room in the eye, all right? I don't care.

I'm with you.

I say with my chest out. I can't be scared. I'll say it right in front of in your face. I like— I'll look right in your eyes, Roy, while I say it too. I'm right here. I like Sinners. It's a good movie. Here's the part that I object to.

Oh boy.

Before I saw Sinners, I was made out to, to feel that this is the greatest movie of all time. Yeah. Like, I went into watching it—

a lot of people feel that way—

this movie is apparently going to change my life. Based on what I'm hearing about this movie. So it was built up very, very, very high. And then I watched Sinners and it's like, all right, it's a good movie. That's it. It's good. My life didn't change.

I mean, was right about you.

Oh, everybody, stop grilling me. Yes. Tony, say something.

Pretty, pretty bad take. I mean, yeah, I thought it was all right.

Whoa!

Oh God!

That's not the ally you want.

You got the whole point about the cultural appropriation though and everything, right? I mean, it works on two levels. It's a thrilling horror vampire movie with a valuable message.

What is it? Is Sinner's MF?

What is it? Again, again, let me reiterate.

What?

Which part Did I say I didn't like it and it was not good?

Did you, uh—

I did like it and it's a good movie.

Did you not like the musical part? Is that what bothered you?

I'll be perfectly honest. I know there's a very deep meaning with the musical parts.

You like the blues?

But like, I didn't understand it, you know? I know there is a deep meaning.

He didn't understand that the banjo music wasn't the good music in the movie. He's like, wait, wait, they're the bad guys, but this banjo is delightful. The little trio that comes to the front door of, uh, I didn't like them.

They were nasty.

I didn't like them.

I did like—

they were, they were bad.

I really did like Jack O'Connell's performance in it as the villain.

Was he, uh, the, the main—

he was the white guy. Ah, yeah. So like, he was—

his name is Jack O'Connell.

Yeah, he was, yeah, he was the, the guy singing like the little sea shanty.

And I'll—

you know what, I'll also be honest with you. When I went in to see Sinners, I had this impression that Hailee Steinfeld apparently had the raunchiest of raunchy sex scenes.

It wasn't sexy enough.

Out of here.

It's a— it wasn't sexy.

That wasn't sexy enough.

She was a normal sex scene.

All I've heard about the movie.

It was pretty hot, but it was—

but like, Josh Allen is supposed to be embarrassed now.

So my favorite—

words more than the actions.

Honestly, my actual favorite movie that I've seen over the last few months, including award season, is a Jack O'Connell vehicle, but it is not Sinner's. It was actually The Bone Temple. Like, for me, I like Bone Temple more than I like any of the other nominated films.

My wife's read that.

I bet you did.

Yeah.

Now Bone Temple's not for anybody, and you do need to see the previous sequel that came out 2018.

Yeah, I want to see that.

But Bone Temple and Ralph Fiennes' performance was incredible, and Jack O'Connell was unreal in that movie.

Again, I liked Sinners. I think it's really good. That's it.

That's it. It's a good movie. It's a good movie.

Racist, I think.

What's the worst— we did this on Football America coming up, uh, in, uh, in a matter of minutes into your, uh, in your YouTube and audio feed and into your heart soon after. Uh, what is the worst Best Picture that you can think of? Crash. Crash is, I think, the correct answer.

That's always the one for me whenever I hear this.

When you look at the movie, it's terrible. But now I can't think of the answer that we came up with that— oh, the worst movie, the most overrated movie that people still prop up as being good is Dances with Wolves. That, that, that movie does not hold up, and I will argue with anybody who tries to say otherwise.

Another overheated turd from Football America.

You're GD right. You're GD right. The truth is the truth. It carries.

Does he even dance with a wolf? Dances with Wolves. Kind of.

Dances with Wolves.

He does. That's that movie that ripped off Avatar, right?

It's true. Avatar. Here's my hot take on Avatar. Avatar. You always read about, oh, biggest, biggest box office in the history of people. Then how come I have never met a soul who has seen any of those Avatar movies? I don't know anybody who's seen them. I've never heard anybody invoke them, brother, in pop culture. What? Okay, maybe I've known a dozen or so people who've seen them and they've been like, yeah, it's neat to look at. I've never heard anybody reference it. They have nothing to do in pop culture. I mean, people make Star Wars references 50 years after the fact. Nobody ever talks about Avatar. Something ain't right. Something's fishy here.

Keep in mind that Dances with Wolves won the Best Picture Oscar over Goodfellas.

For ripping off Avatar?

That's what I'm thinking of. That's right. That's right. Goodfellas. That's right. It beat out Goodfellas. Shame the devil.

What movie is that? Dances with Wolves? I've never heard of this movie in my entire life.

You've never heard of Dances with Wolves? It's Avatar, but not with Bruce Willis. It's what Avatar was based on. Kevin Costner. It's the other way around. And that beat Goodfellas?

Yes.

What year was that? Never heard of Dances with Wolves?

Never heard of Dances with Wolves ever.

Wow. Yeah, I, uh, I am one of those people that has seen every Avatar, and I've seen them all in the movie theater.

And wow, I like Avatar.

I kind of do.

Do you do the 3D?

I have. I, I kind of do it.

I can't.

I get vertigo.

I, I do. Everybody knows that about me. I do it as a rib because I don't really like the Avatar, although the second one wasn't bad. Second one was pretty solid, but I saw the third one, 20 milligrams, in College Station before the CFP game, and I fell asleep. It's bad. The third one, straight up bad. The gummy could have— no, and the bottle of red wine that I had to myself also may have played a role. What do you mean, oh my God? That's what's putting you to sleep.

It was the move.

Sounds like a damn perfect evening. It wasn't.

The thing is, it wasn't an evening. It was an afternoon. It was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. I was killing time before I hit the town in College station telling everybody that we were going to kill them, and we did, to the tune of 10-3. Yeah, he did. Gale force winds out there. It was so windy.

Bryce Fitzgerald, thank you.

Thank you.

Missed field goals.

Thank you. So it was the—

can I just say again real quick, I, I just want to extend, um, my heartfelt, uh, congratulations to the Miami Hurricanes on a really great—

all right, Roy, cut him off.

I mean, came up— he came up a little short. Very good.

All right.

It was the 1991 Oscars for the movies that came out in 1990. Dances with Wolves won. It beat out Awakenings, Ghost, The Godfather Part III, and Goodfellas.

I can't believe Godfather III got nominated.

Godfather III was nominated?

A legacy film. Ghost! Hey, what? You don't like Ghost?

You're nuts. You don't like Ghost.

You're nuts, man. No, I didn't say I don't like Ghost. I said it's a good movie. I said it's a good movie. I can't do a Zazzle like you guys can. Mike Ryan has—

You know about that pottery?

Whether or not he intends to or not, he talks like Zazzle. You know who really talks like Zazzle? Dan Le Batard. I don't think he realizes how the influence that Zazzle has had on his patois. But yes, I mean, listen, that's the worst. Maybe what'd be— oh, Chariots of Fire beat out E.T. That was bad. Star Wars not winning against anything is crazy given its cultural impact.

Shakespeare in Love also beat out some really good movies when it won.

Shakespeare in Love. I think it beat out Saving Private Ryan.

Yeah, which was an abomination.

Straight up. Crazy. But Pretentious Dave will tell you that sometimes, not every time I sit down to watch a war picture, Thin Red Line that same year might be a superior war movie. Really? The statement it makes about about the taking of life and all of that. Like I say, now I'm not so pretentious that if you said you have 2.5 hours to kill, I'll take Saving Private Ryan. That's a heavy lift too. But I find that movie is confused. I think Steven Spielberg, may I say, you know, he's a writer, I'm a writer, we're people, both of us. I can say this. I think Spielberg says one thing in the first 20 or 25 minutes of the movie and then says something very different and kind of contradicts the first 20 or 25 minutes of the movie. The rest of the way with Saving Private Ryan.

I just can't believe in '07 that The Departed beat High School Musical.

Departed. I mean, The Departed. Talk about an overrated movie. The Departed. Sheesh.

I mean, there's one reason and one reason only why Shakespeare in Love won that Oscar for Best Picture is because of Harvey Weinstein and the political pressure he put on the Academy.

What?

Really? Yes. He was a producer on that movie. Famously, Weinstein had a lot of—

But why did he put pressure on the Academy for that movie in particular?

Because that was his movie.

That was— I understand, but he had lots of movies.

Yeah, but that was, that was the movie that had the best opportunity to, uh, to win Best Picture.

Is that the only time one of his movies won?

No. Harvey Weinstein?

Well, that's why I'm asking.

Harvey Weinstein, the film producer?

That's what— like, why so much pressure for that movie?

I just really wanted to win. Okay. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, like, it works. It was a good production.

Yeah.

All right, so select your Sunday. This was a big organic Oscar conversation that we had.

I enjoyed this. I didn't enjoy when everyone was looking and staring at me.

More of that to come this Sunday.

I didn't enjoy— I didn't enjoy in The Departed that the criminal mastermind Jack Nicholson couldn't figure out, and his crew of 5 people, all of them were with him for 20-plus years, but the new guy who used to be a cop, like I don't think he's the guy. I don't think he's the guy who's working against. Must be one of the other guys who I've known for 25 years.

This is his hand doesn't shake.

Not the young guy.

So stupid. Select Your Sunday. Join us. Join us. 5:45 Sunday where we'll be talking this and the college basketball selection. We will be filling out brackets.

Sag mal, Nicola, hast du auch immer dieses Gefühl bei der Steuererklärung mit einem Bein schon im Knast zu stehen? Boah, nee, gar nicht.

WISO Steuer ist so die Steuer-App, mit der ich wirklich nichts falsch machen kann.

Wow, das heißt, damit ist alles sicher?

Ja, genau. WISO Steuer ist die Steuer-App, die dich versteht.

Weil Steuern betrifft ja dein ganzes Leben.

Arbeit, Kinder, Partner. Du kannst nichts falsch machen.

Stimmt. Nice. Fühlt sich gar nicht wie Steuern an.

Steuern erledigt?

Safe!

Mit WISO Steuer jetzt kostenlos testen. Dann Leopard! I'm like— You're Moneyball of sex? I'm basically Scott Hatteberg. A lot of walks.

Stugatz.

A lot of walks, but I'm on base.

When it comes to sex, I'm Scott Hatteberg. Other dudes, they can be Giambi. You know your role, you play well. I know my role. This is the Dan Levatar Show with the Stugatz.

All right. So, Mike, you look like you were in a pretty good mood this morning. I know you had a doctor's visit yesterday. Everything checked out okay?

Yeah.

I mean, there was one thing. I have like a blister on my lung that apparently hasn't grown since 2023, which was news to me because I didn't even know I had a blister.

How does that even happen?

Apparently, I got a scan for something different. Something showed up on my lung in the other scan. They just never told me. What? But I'll be okay. It could pop at any moment. I'll be all right. I'm just a little collapsed lung. They come back from that in the NFL all the time. So I should be all right. But all the blood work, everything else was good. But this is the headline. I had my ear drained. Oh, I had my ear flushed out.

Like in one of those commercials where the stuff comes out and like—

Where the ear gets flushed out.

Yeah. So like, but I had a professional do this because—

What's the like, what position are you in?

Paint the picture here. I had both my ears checked out.

Downward dog.

I had both my ears checked out. I did not need to do it to the right ear because my right ear was totally clean. Why is that? Because if you've watched this show for the several years that we've done it, I wear one headphone. That way the other ear— yeah, that way the other ear can pick up on all the other conversations that are being had in the studio. And the ear that gets the headphone really backed up with wax. My left ear now. So I had this thing flushed out and there was like a, like a a nickel-sized— not nickel-sized, nickel— a dime-sized stone of wax.

I'm picturing downward dog with your head.

Yeah, to the side. They put in hydrogen peroxide at first, and then you hear it all fizzing, and then they put like this Windex bottle filled with like some sort of solution. Yeah, that's like in the commercial. Yeah, a long hose that this nurse just squeezes into your ear until everything falls out of it. And this thing kind of fell out of my ear. It was huge, it was disgusting, and also like an amazing job by her. She must love her job. I'm like, this is very satisfying.

She's like, you have no idea.

She didn't barf. No, it is a— look, it is a little gross. Look, it's one— oh yeah, the video. Let the record show that that is not my ear. Oh, I think that was, uh, that was—

that looked like your ear.

Never said this before, but you shouldn't be watching us today.

That was not my ear. That was, uh, supplementary stuff.

But—

and not even the procedure that I had done. But Danny, you're fine. This thing fell out of my ear and I immediately had an incredible experience with it because I pushed the elevator down and I go down and I park my car. I park my car next to a construction site and it was like the scene where Spider-Man discovers he has powers for the first time. Everything was strange. I get in, like, I heard everything in this construction site. I sit down in my, in my car I put my seatbelt on and I hear the fibers of the seatbelt brushing against my shoulder. I'm like, these are all sounds that I haven't heard. Now I want this. And I'm in my car, Fela is playing, and I'm just like, this hi-hat. Am I a jazz guy now? I think I get jazz because I just had my ear flushed out. Dave, you got to do this.

Oh, I definitely do. Congratulations on becoming Daredevil. Um, man, that, that, that's a revelation. I've seen— here's a name drop for you. You know who used to be obsessed with this was, uh, Sarah Silverman, who was, uh, who, who used to be with Jimmy Kimmel. And she used to love doing that in his dressing room before and after the show to people who would let, let, let her do it, which was flush their ear. And some of the stuff that she pulled out really was, like Zaslow says, vomitous. I mean, like really gross stuff. Made me think less of people. That that's what was residing inside their heads.