Blank Check with Griffin & David · Blank Check Productions

The Hudsucker Proxy with Mike Mitchell & Nick Wiger

August 10, 2025·3 hr 41 min·5 clips

Griffin Newman calls The Hudsucker Proxy one of his 10 favorite movies of all time, sparking a passionate debate.

This episode of Blank Check features the first in-person crossover between hosts Griffin Newman and David Sims and Doughboys hosts Mike Mitchell and Nick Wiger, recorded in New York as part of a home-and-home podcasting exchange. The discussion opens with the employee orientation scene from The Hudsucker Proxy, which Griffin describes as a showcase of the film's screwball comedy pacing. The hosts note how the film's dozens of one-scene day players feel like they were pulled from 1930s Hollywood. Mike Mitchell reveals he had never seen the film before preparing for this episode. He initially worried the style was over the top but quickly came around, calling it a ten out of ten. Griffin discloses it is one of his ten favorite films and one of his ultimate comfort-food rewatchables, though he acknowledges he would not rank it as the Coens' best. The group discusses the film's production history. Made for 40 million dollars with Joel Silver producing, it represented the Coens' calculation that they could make a commercial crowd-pleaser. It remains their most expensive film. The entire production was shot in Wilmington, North Carolina, with elaborate miniatures and Art Deco sets that were later reused for both Schumacher Batman films, Roland Emmerich's Godzilla, and The Shadow. Griffin argues the film was wrongly dismissed as pastiche at the time. He contends the Coens were not simply imitating Sturges or Capra or Hawks but mashing up fifty years of film comedy styles, making the result closer in method to how George Lucas combined Westerns, samurai films, and mythology in Star Wars. David notes that early Coen Brothers criticism often accused them of being technically perfect but emotionally cold, all irony and no feeling. Griffin pushes back, calling Hudsucker Proxy arguably their most sincere and nakedly emotional film. The conversation covers Tim Robbins' six-foot-five frame and how the Coens deliberately emphasized his height for comic effect rather than blocking around it. Nick Wiger identifies the blue letter guy and the mailroom screamer, credited to Emmy winner Richard Schiff, as standout minor performances. A lengthy digression about Star Wars' Yaddle covers her original backstory of living in a pit for 150 years as a prisoner of war, Yoda blocking her promotion, and the Disney Plus retcon where Count Dooku kills her. The group debates Grogu and predicts Lucasfilm has a team of writers trying to engineer a viral Grogu moment for the upcoming film. The episode includes ad reads for Mubi, where Jim Jarmusch's Father Mother Sister Brother is streaming, and Fast Growing Trees. Nick's chair breaks before recording begins.

As heard by us

A sharp argument for why this comic mash-up keeps slipping out of easy labels.

The episode treats The Hudsucker Proxy as a collision of mismatched pieces, and it is most convincing when it leans into that strain. It moves from screwball timing to studio era echoes to the question of whether the lead's dimness reads as charm, frustration, or just a…

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You want sharp movie talk that can't resist a good tangent.

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