On a recent episode of What Do You Wanna Watch? Ashley, Dylan and Nick were joined by Buddy Watson (legally required to say he’s from dashgamer.com) to give their predictions for this year’s Academy Awards. As has become custom for What Do You Wanna Watch? predictions, the wager was set: the winner would pick something for the losers to watch and discuss on an upcoming episode.

We’re now a few weeks removed from the Academy Awards and the winners being announced, so here are the final results for this year’s Oscar predictions:

• Ashley – 16
• Buddy – 16
• Dylan – 9
• Nick – 7

Congratulations to Buddy and Ashley! Unfortunately, their tie made organising the punishment for Dylan and Nick a little more difficult. Buddy and Ashley agreed to each put forward two films and then let a Twitter poll decide which film Nick and Dylan have to watch.

Please vote here: twitter.com/ExplosionPod/status/1233066416229634048

A Ghost Story

Rotten Tomatoes: 91%  |  IMDb: 6.8  |  Metacritic: 84

Year of Release: 2017
Directed by: David Lowery
Written by: David Lowery
Starring: Casey Affleck, Rooney Mara, Will Oldham, Sonia Acevedo, Rob Zabrecky, Liz Franke

Synopsis: Recently deceased, a ghost returns to his suburban home to console his bereft wife, only to find that in his spectral state, he has become unstuck in time, forced to watch passively as the life he knew and the woman he loves slowly slip away.

Some, no doubt, will find Lowery’s playfully surreal experiment (a ghost story told from the POV of the ghost) haunting, lyrical, and moving. Others (ahem, guilty as charged) will just find it maddening, inscrutable, and alienating. — Chris Nashawaty, Entertainment Weekly

Rationale: A slow-paced story featuring someone wearing a white sheet; this really doesn’t seem like something Nick would like given his high bar for suspension of disbelief and the recent revelation that he hated Call Me By Your Name.

Jack and Jill

Rotten Tomatoes: 3%  |  IMDb: 3.3  |  Metacritic: 23

Year of Release: 2011
Directed by: Dennis Dugan
Written by: Steve Koren, Adam Sandler
Starring: Adam Sandler, Katie Holmes, Al Pacino, Eugenio Derbez

Synopsis: Jack hates Thanksgiving because of his twin sister Jill’s annual visit. He is forced to bear with her for longer after actor Al Pacino, whom he needs for an ad, develops a crush on Jill.

The pic’s general stupidity, careless direction and reliance on a single-joke premise that was never really funny to begin with are only the most obvious of its problems. — Andrew Barker, Variety

Rationale: Both Nick and Dylan really liked Adam Sandler’s performance in Uncut Gems, possibly the best of his career. But can they appreciate this highest of highs without experiencing Sandler’s lowest of lows? Jack and Jill is one of the worst-reviewed films of Sandler’s career and, if you believe some voters, part of why he missed an Oscar nomination.

Serenity

Rotten Tomatoes: 20%  |  IMDb: 5.3  |  Metacritic: 37

Year of Release: 2019
Directed by: Steven Knight
Written by: Steven Knight
Starring: Matthew McConaughey, Anne Hathaway, Diane Lane, Jason Clarke, Djimon Hounsou, Jeremy Strong

Synopsis: Baker Dill enjoys his tranquil life in Plymouth Island. However, his life turns upside down when his ex-wife tracks him down and offers him $10 million to get rid of her abusive new husband.

Serenity is a genuine headscratcher, baffling on almost every level. Badly scripted, strangely acted and poorly pitched, there is so much to pick over it’s hard to know where to begin. Sometimes the best of bold intentions are just not enough. — Ian Freer, Empire

Rationale: The film is often described as “bonkers” with a twist called both ingenious and stupid. Let Dylan and Nick decide which it is.

Manhattan

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%  |  IMDb: 7.9  |  Metacritic: 83

Year of Release: 1979
Directed by: Woody Allen
Written by: Woody Allen, Marshall Brickman
Starring: Woody Allen, Diane Keaton, Michael Murphy, Mariel Hemingway, Meryl Streep, Anne Byrne

Synopsis: Isaac Davis, twice-divorced and middle-aged, dates high schooler Tracy while contemplating a relationship with Mary, the mistress of his best friend. His romantic life collides with his ideals, New York neuroses and loyalties.

Allen serves up a nostalgia that was utterly of its time; he incarnates an idea of the city that, even now, remains as strong as its reality and refracts his disappointed ideals into high existential crises. — Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Rationale: Dylan has stated he doesn’t watch films by certain problematic directors, with Woody Allen listed as an example. So it only makes sense to pick one of Allen’s most controversial works, whose portrayal of a middle-aged man dating a teenager plays very differently today.