Best Movie Scenes of 2025, Golden Brick Winner

27:57Bye. I am with Ross. I have the same pick from Friendship. As he said, this is the dark comedy, deeply weird and uncomfortable. Dark comedy starring Paul Rudd and Tim Robinson, written, directed by Andrew DeYoung. They play neighbors and budding friends. But this movie, to me, it's somewhat, I don't know if it loses track, but it changes direction from the notion of friendship to focus and become another Tim Robinson portrait of the contemporary American male identity crisis. A crisis of our own making. We should say now as part of this guy's flailing and failing as a friend, as a husband, as a father, Robinson's Craig decides, OK, what I need now to get things back on track is to accept an offer of drugs from the clerk working at the mobile phone shop played by Billy Brick.

28:50The drug in question, licking an exotic toad with psychedelic properties. It's like ice cream on a hot summer day.

29:01Don't pop him. You look like you're going to pop him.

29:07Can you stay with me? I'm sorry. I need to go get some Rollos and a Red Bull. It's time for you to touch God. Like Ross, I almost don't want to spoil this for those who haven't seen Friendship. But basically, you know, what we get is an anti-drug trip scene. It's the opposite of every wild psychedelic sequence that the movies have given us very much to Craig's chagrin. He is quite, quite disappointed. It's just perfectly played by Robinson at his probably his most illogically indignant, which he's that's a specialty of his. And Burke here, Brick here, I should say, is, you know, this brain dead straight man.

29:46Also perfect. We get a little nice, you know, nice bits of visual humor from DeYoung as well as director camera angles, especially as Craig comes in and out of his trip. Just add to why this is such a funny scene. So that's my pick. The Toad is Mysterious from Friendship. A scene I did not watch, Josh, because I didn't get a chance to see the entire movie. You didn't get to it? No, and I did not. I did not want to take it out of context. It did seem like one of those scenes and one of those gags I had to appreciate within the context of the entire film. And we've had listeners, we had family members certainly all year on Discord bugging us about how we haven't or I hadn't caught up with friendship or we hadn't reviewed it.

30:32You saw it. I gave it a review when it came out. You just weren't a huge fan of it. Yeah. Yeah. I gave it a review when it came out. And I'm glad that I didn't spoil it then. And so if you ever do get around to it, you'll have that pleasure. Okay. My first mention, more love for sentimental value. And this one comes up, Josh, only because it literally just popped up in my feed on Instagram a couple hours ago. You know how the algorithm is always listening? It's always watching. Apparently it is because it knew I was preparing for this show. And it's the moment when Gustav, when Stellan Skarsgård, the father, the grandfather in this case, gives his grandson, who can't be more than about 10, he gives his grandson for his birthday two DVDs, and the DVDs are Michael Haneke's The Piano Teacher and Gaspardo A's Irreversible.

31:25Now, I will say this, though. It would be funnier if he just gave him The Piano Teacher or something more like The Piano Teacher and something else like it, because I just don't believe that even Gustav and how out of touch he is would give him Gaspar Noé's Irreversible. But the piano teacher is beautiful. That's hilarious. I wouldn't put it past that guy. Yeah. And what does he say? He says something about how it'll teach you everything you need to know about women and relationships or something. And it's beautiful. So Gustav's birthday gifts is my first mention here. For sheer audaciousness and insanity, yes, I'm also going to mentioned chasing Aunt Gladys weapons.

32:09Speaking of audaciousness and insanity, I'll just say three-way kill in No Other Choice, the latest from Chanuk Park. We're going to get to our golden brick winner and our nominees here in a second. I'll say that there is one choice. One of the nominees is definitely more of an Adam choice than a Josh, and there's one choice that's definitely more of a Josh choice than an Adam. The one that's more of a Josh choice is boys go to Jupiter. But there's a line in that movie, Josh, that I adore. And it's when a character says, nobody invented Gatorade. It's a liquid like milk. Well, hey, if it didn't get your vote, I'm glad it got a chuckle from you.

32:54I think it's true, actually. I do believe it's actually, it's just an element. Gatorade at this point is an element. I'm going to go back to another golden brick finalist and one that you love. This one I like considerably more, Grand Theft Hamlet. And it's not from the later performances. It's when they're initially trying to stage. They're in those early stages of trying to get a production of Hamlet done. I think they're just really playing around with the idea, even at this point, of staging Hamlet. And they're at the Vinewood Bowl within Grand Theft Auto. And And we hear one of the directors within the game say, if I could just request that you refrain from killing each other and don't kill the actors either.

33:37How does that go for him? It does not go well because like a split second later, of course, or a split second before, you know, someone, of course, gets killed. So those are some honorable mentions. A runner-up for me, I am going to give a little bit more love. And I think this may end the love I'm going to give to this movie here on The Rap Party, but I'm going to give a little bit more praise to Joel Petrikas' Vulcan Isadora. And this is a music moment contender as well. But Joel Petrikas, writer, director, and actor, he's the star of this scene, certainly. He plays Derek, who, with his friend Marty, is clearly on some kind of mission in the Michigan woods.

34:19Whatever they have planned, we don't know at this point. It seems ominous, mainly because of Marty's demeanor, as played by Joshua Burge, and his behavior. He is always angrily reminding Derek that nothing matters anymore. Their first night in the woods, Derek decides to, how do you put it, entertain Marty? he's got this old school disc man that i had like in 1995 on the on the dash velcro to the dash of my chevy s10 watch those potholes he's got he's got some speakers that he can plug into them and he's got these green glow sticks and he's also got his beloved jagermeister and he's got this whole little performance to Godsmack's voodoo worked up, except he's changed the words to feature his favorite liqueur, everyone's favorite liqueur, Jägermeister.

35:16And so I'm just going to give you a little bit of the words because I don't think for copyright reasons we can play it. Some of the words to Godsmack's voodoo, I'm not the one who's so far away. Josh, you can sing it along with me if you want. I know you know the words. Go for it. This is your bet. When I feel the snake bite enter my veins, never did I want to be here again. And I don't remember why I came. So snake bite, you know, he's dripping then this green liquid from the glow sticks on his bare chest. And while he's doing it, he's saying things like, oh, this is cool. This is so cool, dude.

35:54And then at one point he says something that is like the movie. Talk about just summing up the movie. deeply sad and also deeply disturbing at what it hints at, what it foreshadows. He says, this is what I'm going to miss about life. And you're like, okay, where's this going? But also if you think this is something that you're going to miss about life, I mean, I don't know if you're exactly the kind of person I want to hang out with in the woods or anywhere else. Yeah, definitely not in the woods at least. And he is so into it and Marty couldn't be less into it. There is nothing even slightly cool about this performance and, and just watching him dance and watching him groan and act like, I don't know, he's been bitten by a snake or something.

36:42I, it absolutely killed me. It was, I think at that point, maybe one I was considering as scene of the year, honestly, Yeah. Just for all the levels at play, because there is something almost moving about it, too. Yeah. Yeah. Yes. Moving about Derek's commitment and the commitment of Joel Petrikas to the character and and to the performance and to that film Volca Isadora. Okay. My winner, though, maybe not a surprise because I mentioned it on our top 10 films of the year show. And Josh, you did it. You caught up with The Naked Gun after Allison Wilmore put it on our top 10 list, and I praised it.

37:26And your letterboxed rating did not disappoint. You apparently sat there staring at it like you were at an insurance seminar. You gave the Buster Keaton face the entire time. I don't think that's what I wrote, but. Okay, well, close enough. That's how I like to imagine you looking at the film. You want to hear the real experience with Naked Gone. Going back to my early comment saying, you know, we go in rooting for a movie. We did the prep here, Adam. The whole family did the prep. I thought we were out for a dinner. Both daughters were in. Older daughter's girlfriend was with us for dinner in St.

38:02Andrews, enjoying the holidays. Good mood, laughing. We ended it with a whiskey flight. And I just thought, this is the time. Like if the naked gun is ever going to work for me, it's tonight, right? It's tonight. You know. Okay. I think I laughed at the scene you're about to bring up. I think, you know, we have that. Yeah. I thought for its first two or three minutes, it was amusing. We'll always have the snowman menage a trois. We will. Josh. Yes. Drebben and Beth Davenport. Liam Neeson and I can't believe I'm blanking on her name. I didn't write it down because why would I need to? I can see her.

38:45Pamela. Plain as day. Pamela Anderson. Thank you, Josh. Yeah. They have fallen for each other. And we know that because we get the romantic montage to the tune of, here's another music moment, right? We get the montage to the tune of Nothing's Gonna Stop Us Now by Starship. They're at a winter cabin getaway. It's this whole fantasy sequence, right? That's so magical that we get some actual magic. A snowman comes to life and starts frolicking with them outside, but also inside in the bedroom. And their little trio is just going along great until Frank and Beth push him away. And when they, Frank and Beth, end up together in the hot tub and they're laughing, facing the camera, but behind them is the snowman looking through the window at them.

39:39And it seems like the snowman's happy because the snowman has a happy face always, right? But then the song does that macabre fade in unison with the snowman's face turning evil. And the rest of the sequence is basically a horror montage with the cucked snowman trying to kill them. yeah that was my that was my biggest laugh in that movie and i do think it was my biggest movie laugh of the year well as i also said on ladderboxd i'm very happy for the people the many many people who feel similarly yeah that doesn't sound condescending at all i totally believe you we all have we all have our senses of humor adam i'm glad that's yours hey

40:24I'll miss you but I have to go you understand I I know I understand that's good let's go now to most moving moment let's go in the complete opposite direction and talk about the scenes that maybe made us well up Josh we'll see if we We have different tastes when it comes to what really moves us emotionally. Maybe we can actually get things started with this quick note from a listener. Jonathan Anderson sent us an email. I think, well, he says he already complained to you about it, but he emailed me as well. He says, I'm sighing in advance over Clark and Pa Kent on the porch, not making most moving.

41:11It's fine. Opinions are subjective. I just wish that you shared mine because that movie did a fair bit of good for my heart this year. chiefly in that moment. And I feel so bad about this because what were we just saying about being happy when movies make people happy, right? Yes. And I know Jonathan well, a veteran of many bolder meetups, film spotting meetups. I have to say though, Adam, I'm feeling pretty good and I think you should feel pretty good. And I think producer Sam should feel pretty good. We had the trifecta on this Superman movie. Yeah. Superman went over three. Do you remember when it came out and it had essentially saved cinema?

41:52Now, Jonathan aside, year-end lists, honors, awards, crickets. Are you saying vindication? I think it was a movie of its moment, which again, I think we said at the time, we both understood why certain aspects of it were appealing to audiences, where we were at the moment that it came out and some of the, you know, the good qualities about Superman that the movie tried to celebrate. But oof, I don't think that one has lasted too well in people's memories, at least by the end of the year. Great. More emails, Josh. We're going to get more emails now. You had to just rekindle the fire, didn't you?

42:31I mean, this is moving moment. We're supposed to make people feel, oh, I guess, yeah. Yeah, maybe a little different, but movement can take a lot of different forms. Tell us what moved you this year. All right. So I am going to share two honorable mentions first. And my first one comes from a golden brick finalist. Sorry, baby, sharing a sandwich. This is when John Carroll Lynch shows up for just one scene in Ava Victor's film and essentially wards off a panic attack for Victor's Agnes with a kind word and a bite to eat. It's just an incredible moment. Another one here, Adam, I have a sentimental value pick.

43:10Great. It comes from that late film, relatively late film. I think conversation between the two grown sisters at this point about how they survived their childhood. And I think I have the line, the one that really sealed it for me is when the younger sister says to the older, I had you. So in context, man, that one really does a lot of work. So those are my two honorable mentions. Here comes my spoiler warning, my big spoiler warning for my actual pick from Hamnet, the Chloe Zhao film. This is, as I said, not only a fairly recent release, but I think opening wider this weekend in some cities. And so if you are planning to see Hamnet, even think you might skip ahead a little bit while I talk about my pick.

44:01I'm calling it the laying on of hands. It's basically the ending of the film. The whole movie features Jesse Buckley and Paul Meskell riffing on the early family life of William Shakespeare. And at this point, at the climax it is, I guess I should say, it is major spoiler when Buckley's Agnes comes to the Globe Theater to see a performance of Hamlet, not knowing anything about it at this point. Her husband's been away working on his plays, hasn't really been sharing with her what they're about. So she comes, sees Hamlet, and discovers there that her husband, who she feels has been refusing to grieve the death of their son, their young son earlier in the film, she discovers he's been writing Hamlet essentially to process the enormity of that loss.

44:51And so Hamlet's death at the end on stage and a little meta touch here that works beautifully. Hamlet is performed by Noah Jupe, the brother of Jacoby Jupe, who played their doomed son offstage. So a little bit of connection there that I think you can sense and feel somehow. I actually didn't know it in the moment until after I'd seen the film and read about it. that death of Hamlet on stage, the dramatized death is shattering enough. But then you get Agnes, who is standing below the stage right at the front watching this, as we've seen it dawning on her, what all of this means. Her response, we're also waiting for her response.

45:33Like, is she going to be angry about this? Is she going to accept it? She reaches out to the actor's fallen body. And then if that's not enough, Chloe Zhao just keeps laying it on here. And for me, at works, the entire audience in response reaches out toward Agnes. And so it's this overwhelming note of profound communal compassion. It doesn't hurt that it reminds me of one of my favorite Wes Anderson moments, everyone in the sub reaching out to Steve Zissou during his epiphany. That came to mind. And yeah, I'm not alone on this one. When I put out a call via email for favorite scenes of the year, Tony Sturgeon responded and wrote this.

46:14I could really say that any moment when Jesse Buckley is on screen watching the play in Hamnet could win the category, but specifically the moment when she reaches out to the actor playing Hamlet, and then we get the overhead shot of the entire audience stretching their arms toward the stage was one I will not forget. So that's laying on of hands from Hamnet for my most moving moment. You're certainly not wrong about that in terms of it being a popular choice, because when I put it out on Facebook, we got a lot of comments and it was by far the most popular comment as well. So that scene had a profound effect on our listeners.

46:50It seems that movie seemed to have a profound effect on our listeners and I get it. And I think for me, it's actually a little bit similar to one of your honorable mentions, the sharing a sandwich scene in Sorry Baby, a movie I quite like. And I like Hamnet as well. And there's something about that sandwich scene as much as I enjoyed it in the moment, there was still a part of me that couldn't help but feel the falseness of it. And what I mean is the falseness in terms of not believing a scene like that could happen, but wanting it so desperately wanting to believe a conversation like that could suddenly emerge between those two people in that moment.

47:33Just not really believing we live in a world where it could happen. Well, yeah, I think that's what elevates it for me to be moving, because it feels miraculous, exactly as you're describing. And yeah, and I wasn't willing to go with the miracle there. And maybe that is, as I'm saying, something similar. There's a connection there with the end of Hamnet as well, because let me be clear, wasn't cold-hearted about it, didn't sit through it resisting it. I ultimately did get on board with it, but found myself at the end more moved by Paul Meskel as Shakespeare in that scene in his performance and him and those silent expressions with his wife.

48:19And also Noah Jupe, some of his deliveries of lines as Hamlet there, his reaction to the laying of hands moved me even more honestly than the hands. Yeah, he's surprised and startled. And yeah, yeah. Something about that, the forcedness of that moment didn't quite land with me. And I think I'll share this in our notes because I saw it weeks later. I couldn't help but laugh about it because it was similar to what I was feeling when I was watching it. Someone who I don't know otherwise, it just popped up in my feed on Instagram, did a video where they said something like, this is Jesse Buckley reacting at the end of Hamlet, at the end of Hamnet to Hamlet.

49:05And they basically just go over the top dramatizing how she doesn't seem to have any idea how to react at a play. She has no idea what a play is or how an audience member is supposed to react to anything. And it's very funny. I thought it was very funny. And something about the way she enters that scene kept me a little bit detached from it, Josh. But as you're going to hear in a moment, Hamnet certainly worked. It's emotional magic on me. I have another music moment contender that's an honorable mention, and that's the final performance of the song Our Love in the ballad of Wallace Island. Here's a spoiler warning that I'll give.

49:51And actually, you know what? I should just go ahead and say here with this honorable mention, my runner up that's coming next, and my winner. Spoilers apply across the board. Okay? So just be warned. Train Dreams, when we reviewed it and we both recommended it, I said that there was a line at the end that helped unlock the movie a little bit even more for me or helped really crystallize what I was responding to. And I'm going to give you that line, but this was another movie, Josh, that a lot of people on our Facebook page shared, maybe second to Hamden. And here's Brett Girt. he said the end of train dreams Dennis Johnson's words cut me to the core there's a line a little earlier that got me to that he was only just beginning to have a faint understanding of his life here he's speaking about Joel Edgerton's Robert Grainer even though it was now slipping away from him so when we reviewed it we we talked about or I certainly talked about how I was moved by the film but that that line that that struck me so much Josh and it it's a case where it reinforces what the movie to me means emotionally, but also what I think it's getting at in terms of its core idea.

51:06And it's one that I think we have also the screenwriters, Clint Bentley and Greg Cuidar being a little clever with us as well. Do you know what the last line of spoken dialogue is in the film? Because there's a couple more lines that the narrator says, but the last line spoken dialogue since I've seen it. Yeah. In the movie. And I only, I only caught this on that second viewing Roberts in the plane and looking down on the world and having this, this revelation. And the last line a character says in the movie is, Hey, you better hang on to something. And of course that's the pilot telling Robert to stabilize himself because in the plane, And she's going to do some movements in the air.

51:52And he needs to kind of brace himself a little bit. But that's the movie. That's the message. It's what we have. Hang on. Hang on to someone during our lives. And at the end, hang on to those memories. And that moment, actually, that line prompts the montage that ensues a split second later of Robert's life. all of the connections that he's made. It culminates the movie. That line really is the prompt for it. You better hang on to something. For me, it summarizes the entire movie. So that line is really one of the most moving moments of the year. Yeah, I could have gone with a couple from Train Dreams.

52:36Actually, the one I'll just throw in quickly here, I didn't make an official honorable mention, was what do you understand? Is that what he says to his dog at some point? Something like that about the dog, yeah. Yeah. He just kneels down and looks deeply at the dog and says, what do you know? And for some reason, that one probably got to me more than anything else in Train Dreams, though I agree there are a number of them you could choose from. So, again, you and so many of our listeners, apparently you're more artistically inclined than I am, or you like to go with the less obvious moment from Hamnet, I suppose, because you picked the end scene there where we have this bit of poetry.

53:19Okay, I guess my choice is two on the nose, Josh, but I'm going with I'll be brave. I'm going with Hamnet's sacrifice. The moment that moved me the most from Hamnet, I'm just going to lay it out there. The moment that had tears actively streaming down my face for 15 to 20 minutes, which does not happen when I watch movies. that was the actual the death scene in this movie and and the dam was already bracing to burst this isn't quite a spoiler because we know that anyone going into the movie probably knows that hamnet's going to die but the dam was bracing to burst already i knew this was coming but when jacoby jubes hamnet offers to go with his sister judith so she won't have to go into death alone puts himself up to death as well.

54:17And then we hear him say that line a couple times, I'll be brave. I'll be brave, father. Man, that's Josh where I was completely, I was gone. I was an absolute wreck. So the death scene itself is where Hamnet really, really got to me. the winner for me though. The scene I am ultimately going to go with, and we had some listeners who were also big proponents of this scene. Garrett Steiger on Facebook said, there's a five to 10 minute stretch near the end of 28 years later that absolutely wrecked me on both of my viewings. Brady Larson said, it's crazy and unexpected that the most moving scene would come from a zombie movie, but we are in the year of sinners and horror clearly made a huge splash Josh in 2025, if I think of 2025 moments that had my eyes leaking, nothing came close to Ray Fiennes last 15 minutes and 28 years later.

55:13His thoughts on dying and the stigma around death and the gentle, steady way Fiennes speaks wrecked me. I'm tearing up just thinking about them. I was hesitant, Josh, to pick a runner up and a winner that involved characters dying. It seems like pretty low hanging emotional fruit especially when they both involve children one dying and one one losing a parent here the bravery of the children is is paramount in in both as well And about 28 years later, I'll mention that the speed with which it all occurs, I think the word I want to use the alacrity with which it all occurs is a bit troubling. The speed with which they go from your mother's going to die to and now let's kill her and let you process it, Spike.

56:07It's still a bit much for me to take. I feel like it's a suspension of disbelief that the movie requires you to take. And even as I'm still wrestling with it a little bit, I was able to suspend that disbelief. And I was because of the sensitivity with which Danny Boyle ultimately handles it and Alex Garland as a screenwriter and certainly the performers in the scene, including Jodie Comer and including Ralph Fiennes there. And with this scene in particular, even though it is a scene about death, it's not really. The spirit of the scene isn't about grief and mourning loss. It is a scene about love.

56:50It is about hope. And it is a scene that offers the kind of closure that's a counter to Hamnet and that too few of us get in these types of moments. It's truly about life more than death. And I think that that's fitting too, especially with The Bone Temple coming out this weekend, a movie I am very excited to see because of this movie and because of how this movie ends in a scene like this in particular. But one of the things we talked about is the way this film seems to be setting up a trilogy that wants, I'll put this asterisk there, that wants more than other zombie movies or with a more pointed perspective than other zombie movies that I'm familiar with, wants us to really reckon with this idea of what it means to be human and how far we're willing to go to eliminate these figures.

57:50that seem less than human, it makes sense that we would have a scene like this that is about death, but like I said, is blurring that line into something that becomes transcendent. And that's why for me, it became something bigger and more important and one I wanted to champion as my most moving moment of the year. Yeah. For me, that was the strongest section of 28 Years Later is that whole Ray Fine section. So many interesting things going on, dynamics at play and definitely that moving, though I would agree, quite quick process that Ralph Fiennes takes us through. But the ideas it was playing with were definitely fascinating for sure.

58:34We do have more of our 2025 wrap party to come, our music moments, and our scenes of the year. And we remind you that, as always, you can see our full lists at filmspotting.net slash lists. another thing that's so fun about our live rap parties adam are getting to meet and hang out and see again so many films spotting family members those folks who have decided to actually financially support the show and keep us going all sorts of people come to the live shows but i want to say at least half of those we meet are probably family members come out for the show as well you know the discounted tickets we offer family members probably doesn't hurt I think now might be a good time as we're doing our wrap party to thank a few of those folks.

59:20So let's do that, including Family Plus member Mona Betancourt in Chicago, family member Sophie Belanger from Quebec City, and then also Family Plus member Alexander Matthew Lesher in Seattle. Now, Alexander has been listening since 2006, and that was a review Alexander wrote here of the three burials of Melchiatus Estrada. Melchiatus Estrada. Josh, did you review that back in 2006? Yeah. Oh, yeah. I saw it. You remember? I feel like I was positive. Yeah, Tommy Lee Jones. We were too. Directorial. Tommy Lee Jones. Yes. Debut. Debut, I believe. Only film, perhaps. I don't know. I think so. done other work okay yeah yeah alexander shared a bit more with us you do not discuss that movie much on the show anymore he says i'm not sure it's been uttered since until now that's quite possible uh alexander shared a couple of favorite moments from the show these go way back as well the american dreams review with sam van halgren now producer former co-host do you have fond memories of that one, Adam?

1:00:30Well, it was confrontational, I think. It was certainly a bit surreal to hear Sam praise a movie that everybody hated, it seems. I looked it up today, Josh, 39 % on Rotten Tomatoes. Not that that usually means anything. I'm just saying, across the board, no one really liked American Dreams. I'm sure you're looking up your review right now. And I was thinking about this when I was looking this over this morning. I think we've done this bit on the show, Adam. I am looking it up. Yeah. Three and a half out of four stars. Of course you did. Of course you did. You're in Sam's corner. Justice for Sam.

1:01:04What's so funny is over the years now, we've had these moments where Sam has disliked a classic, some movie that most cinephiles think is great. And then he rewatches it in the years since. And he goes, oh, yeah, I was wrong. It's actually really good. But I'm very curious to know what would happen if he rewatched American Dreams. Would he still be like, would he reverse or would he be like, no, I was right. This is a masterpiece. Why are we doing Boogie Nights for our We Were Wrong Once episode? Great point. Bonus episode for family members. Why are we not doing American Dreams? Okay. Good point.

1:01:45Let's change it up. Alexander shared another favorite moment from the show. Michael Phillips sign whenever no country for old men got mentioned during the best of 2007 episode. Did he really say we have a quote here? Yes. What a dumb movie named after a Yates poem. Give me a break. See, the thing is, my initial response reading this today was just like you. Did he really say that? But then I can also hear Michael Phillips saying that so clearly in my head. So I'm going to say he probably did. All right. Here's a movie Alexander credits with becoming a cinephile. Gary Marshall's 1982 soap opera spoof, Young Doctors in Love.

1:02:25That's a first timer. That's never been mentioned in 20 years on this show, Josh, until now. Probably. We also heard about movies that caused our other family members to become cinephiles. Mona Bettencourt said, Bringing Up Baby. That makes sense. And Sophie Belanger shared two titles, three titles, actually. 1995's Lehane, Jim Jarmusch's ghost dog, The Way of the Samurai, and One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest.

1:03:16bonus is coming soon. Sorry, Mona. It won't be Bringing Up Baby. Sorry, Alexander and Josh. Apparently, it won't be American Dreams. Bringing Up Baby was one of the we were wrong once options, along with Paul Thomas Anderson's Boogie Nights and Michael Mann's Collateral. The family did speak, though. They voted, and the winner of the family poll was Boogie Nights. So along with our upcoming revisit, a sacred cow, an early sacred cow look at one battle after another. We're going to have some more PTA talk. We are going to take a look at Boogie Nights. We are currently running a promotion. If you would like to join the Film Spotting Family and get access to all of that, you can go to filmspottingfamily.com and you can get 20 % off now through January 31st on any subscription.

1:04:05All you have to do is you use promo code Supreme, as in Marty Supreme. Use code Supreme. You can also click the link directly in these show notes. That's all you have to do. Use promo code Supreme or click the link in the podcast description. Another way you can help us is to go ahead and rate us or leave us a review over on Apple Podcasts or Spotify. It does help us reach new listeners. Plus, it just makes us feel good to see that high number. You know, 4.7, 4.8 is better than 4.6. I'm not a big math guy, Josh, but I like 4.7 and 4.8 better out of five. We would like to thank Ham Slides and Monroe for their recent reviews on Apple Podcast.

1:04:55I want nothing to do with Ham Slides. Old Nick released his demons onto the world of man. And the world of man fell before the demons. Next week, it is our 2026 movie preview. We are planning to move on. We will also have a review of a 2026 film that probably would make the preview our most anticipated films of the year. I think it at least make my list if it wasn't opening this weekend. And that is The Bone Temple. Josh, are you excited? I liked the last one more than you, but are you somewhat eager to see this? Yeah, I still liked the previous one. And Nia DaCosta here taking over as director from Danny Boyle, we should say, which is part of my excitement for The Bone Temple.

1:05:49I'm hoping to catch it, Adam, at that point when it releases. I think we'll be in Sevilla. So not sure about the new release scene in Sevilla, Spain, but I'm going to see if I can track it down. Okay. The preview will take the form of a draft, just like last year. We did pretty well last year in terms of our prescience 10 of the 12 films that were mentioned. We had 10 draft slots, but we each allowed ourselves one tie. So I picked Richard Linklater's Nouvelle Vague along with Blue Moon, and you picked Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride along with Guillermo del Toro's Frankenstein. Of course, Maggie Gyllenhaal's The Bride might just get drafted again this year because it did not come out in 2025.

1:06:37Ten of the 12 films that we drafted then ended up factoring into our combined top 20 films of the year. So we were feeling the zeitgeist, if you will, at least in terms of quality, but also in terms of the films that were among the most discussed of the year and are being talked about as part of awards season. That did include what was then Untitled PTA Film, which was my first pick in the second overall slot. Next week, we will also share our poll results. We asked you to tell us your most anticipated 2026 film, but we're just giving you the first half of the year. Up until Memorial Day, which one of these is your most anticipated film?

1:07:21Josh, will you please give our listeners the options again? Indeed. We have Wuthering Heights, the aforementioned The Bride, Project Hail Mary, that one with Ryan Gosling, The Drama, which stars Zendaya and Robert Pattinson, David Lowry's pop music world drama slash horror movie Mother Mary, that one stars Anne Hathaway and Michaela Coel, and The Devil Wears Prada 2 will also give you the option of Other. I'm sorry. It's actually quote Wuthering Heights, unquote. It's stylized and it doesn't count unless you say it that way. Got it. Okay. We'll remember that. Okay. You can vote in that poll and leave a comment at filmspotting.net.

1:08:02Results and your feedback will be featured next week on the show. We also wanted to give a plug to the Eastman Museum out there in the Rochester, New York area. If you are in that area, longtime listener Jared Case is the museum's curator of film exhibitions, and he knows that Film Spotting Madness Best of the 1940s is coming up, and they have a series, Josh, that ties in nicely with Film Spotting Madness Best of the 1940s. So if you're in that area and want to seek out some of those screenings, they're watching The Naked City from Jules Dassen on January 20th. Powell and Pressburgers, I know where I'm going.

1:08:45On 35mm, the 31st. Carol Reed's Odd Man Out on 35mm, January 28th. So worth checking out. We'll put a link to more details in our show notes. You can also find that on our website at filmspotting.net. And again, we want to thank Jared for being a longtime supporter of the show. And he even on the website mentions film spotting in conjunction with this series, Josh. A great chance for some listeners to knock out those 40s blind spots. This would be all three of these would have been blind spots, except for just a few months ago. I did track down. I know where I'm going set in Scotland, did a little homework on that and enjoyed it quite a bit.

1:09:23So so, yeah, hopefully some folks will be able to get over there. Quick note about our sister podcast, The Next Picture Show, looking at cinemas present via its past. they are still looking at 2025 as we are on this show. In fact, they now have their episode on the best of 2025. So if you want to hear from the whole crew, their favorite movies from last year, that is out now. New episodes of the next picture show do drop every Tuesday and you can find them wherever you get your podcasts. Emily said four words. I didn't know. Tell me if they catch brick. No, or bad brick. Nope. Tug. Tug. Tug might be a drink, like milk and vodka or something.

1:10:10Bad Brick, certainly not going to be one as we announce our 2025 Golden Brick winner. Our 17th annual Golden Brick Award. It goes to our favorite film from a new or emerging director. And the Golden Brick, yes, was named in honor of Rian Johnson's 2006 film, Brick, which was a new film from him. He was a new director, and it was a film that we adored that was not playing on a ton of screens, and we recommended it a lot. We talked about it a lot. Hopefully, we know at the time we got a lot more people to see it, Josh, and that's the point of The Golden Brick is to try to talk about a movie that is underseen and get more people to seek it out.

1:10:52We started out with 14 films on our long list, narrowed that down to five. And we feel pretty good overall about the list of nominees, our list of five finalists. Yeah. And I was thinking, Adam, as you were talking, you know, back when The Golden Brick started, we would only be discussing theatrical releases. And so a movie like Brick didn't play on a ton of screens. And I thought, hi, I wonder if this has changed in the era of streaming where, you know, a movie like Brick, if it had come out now would have been probably widely available via some service. Does that make it easier to find these?

1:11:31But then when I'm looking at the titles, these finalists were about to announce actually in some ways we're inundated with so many options and so many titles. We still need this championing that the Brick is all about. We need to kind of sift through all that stuff that's out there, especially in the indie or smaller film landscape and say, this is one we've been able to check out. It really rises to the top. It's distinctive in some way, not just newer emerging director, but I think we talk about directors who have a clear, unique vision to what they're trying to do or a voice, a distinct voice as well.

1:12:09and and yeah that's out there but in some ways in the streaming universe almost harder to find yeah i think you're exactly right there yeah there's a bit of a contradiction there more availability doesn't necessarily mean that more eyeballs are on it or that they feel more available and so we do feel even more of an obligation to champion these films and get them in front of people. And we did end up with five this year, a pretty good array of movies here, even though this may be the first year where we have 60 % of our finalists being documentaries. And those documentaries are Sam Crane and Penny Grill's Grand Theft Hamlet, David Ositz, Doc Predators, and Charlie Shackleton's Doc piece of criticism, Zodiac Killer Project, Unfinished Movie Zodiac killer project.

1:13:01And then we have Julian Glanders, boys go to Jupiter and Eva Victor's sorry, baby. Now, Josh, I would be happy to let you do the honors here. But as you said, I haven't even shared with you who won yet. You don't know. You're you're in the dark. I'm in the audience. The camera's on my expectant face. So give it to us. I'm going to give it to you. A reminder. I voted, you voted, Sam voted, our listeners voted. And by voting, we mean we rank the five. Our listeners only get to pick the one, but then we see how the voting comes out, and that is effectively a ranking. and we see what the average ranking is of those five.

1:13:46And whoever ranks the highest is the golden brick winner. Sometimes, it doesn't happen that often. There is usually alignment. Occasionally, Josh, we do have a listener's choice winner that is not the same as the overall golden brick winner. This year, there is alignment. The listener's choice winner is also the golden brick winner. And the 2025 golden brick winner is, I'm going to say not a surprise. Eva Victor's Sorry Baby. When you said it aligned with the listeners, I thought that's probably where we were going. And I'm really happy with this, Adam. I've said a couple of times that in my top 10 list, which Sorry Baby was on, I actually had Grand Theft Hamlet higher.

1:14:32And the one factor when it comes to voting for the brick, though, is looking forward to new work from the filmmaker. And I think Victor has shown they have just such a distinct balance of comedy and pathos, real genuine emotion. And also, there's some filmmaking chops to Sorry Baby as well that we might get to perhaps in one of our other categories. so yeah I think this is a great pick and I do like it when the listener pick and our votes align and we have unity here on the golden brick congratulations to sorry baby not a top 10 for me but a top 15 or or right around there certainly a top 20 and that's a really good point by you not only just excited based on the film sorry baby overall but the total package from Eva Victor as a director, as a writer, and as a performer, as an actor within this movie.

1:15:37That's certainly something that makes you excited for the future and their work. Formidable in every category based on Sorry Baby. The search for the 2026 Golden Brick winner starts now, and it starts probably where the 2025 search began. And the Sundance Film Festival, for us who are not attending, that means the virtual Sundance Film Festival. That's where I saw the Zodiac Killer Project originally. It opens January 22nd, runs through February 1st. The festival passes are sold out, but single film tickets just went on sale earlier this week. If you would like to partake, you can do that at Sundance.org.

1:16:16And we love to get recommendations. You can email us your golden brick recommendation, feedback at filmspotting.net. And if you would like to learn more about The Brick, our very loose criteria, and our past nominees and winners, you can do that at filmspotting.net slash bricks.

1:16:47Well, it's been a good healthy break. Time to think about what we've done in the past on Massacre Theatre, Adam, and now it's time to bring it into a new age. We are returning to our favorite game where Adam and I perform a scene. you get a chance to win a film spotting prize. Our first massacre of the new year. Adam, are you ready? No, but let's do it. Do you, do you even know what scene we're doing? I'm aware of the scene, but I have done less than our usual prep in that I have not even watched it. And you know what? That's fine. That's, you know what? I, I agree. Usually, usually I watch it for the first time just before we are about to record.

1:17:34So in the midst of recording, but since I did get a chance earlier today to watch it, I'm going to say, let's not even pause. Let's just dive right in. Okay. Now we do have to decide roles though. And I'm going to suggest, and this is going to be a clue that, um, I got to, I don't want it to be too obvious a clue. I would like you to play one part because of your affinity for the actor. I had a feeling you were going to go there because I don't have any idea who the other character is and the actor playing them. Now, that said, you know that I am still just going to play myself, right? No, no, no, no.

1:18:13You can't hear. That is the extent of my range, Josh. You know this actor's work very well. You are a huge admirer of this performance in particular. Yeah. And so I think you can channel something other than Adam Kempinar. It's not like this actor, though, has a very distinct presence. Here's another clue. I would disagree and say he does. Okay. And yet, in this performance, it's something different than what we usually see him doing. Okay. Enough clues. enough clues enough waffling indeed it's time to perform all i know is you're going to be highly critical of my performance when this is over as a director and everyone everyone can enjoy that when it's done i'm up first yes so i will give you the action please and action are you a drinking man, Reverend?

1:19:15It doesn't help. Nah, I suppose not. Can God forgive us for what we've done to this world? I don't know. Who can know the mind of God? But we can choose a righteous life, believe, forgiveness grace covers us all i believe that and scene i think i think you got close at the end of that last line yeah yeah yeah the beginning of the last line you were doing the actor as i think he's commonly perceived then you shift okay along the way and you and you got closer to the other side. So yeah, nice work. Nice work for being a little rusty. I'll take whatever I can get. If you know what film we just massacred, email the movie's title, your name and location.

1:20:13Feedback at filmspotting.net is the email. Your deadline is Monday, January 26th, and we will select the winner randomly from all the correct entries and announce it in a couple of weeks. You throwing a big event tonight? Your money come with Lord. All money come with blood, baby. Two more categories to go in our 2025 rap party before our scenes of the year. We have our favorite music moment of the year. Josh, what do you have? All right. I have three honorable mentions for you before I get to my pick. The first is the appearance by the Eddie Palmieri Salsa Orchestra in Spike Lee's highest to lowest.

1:20:58I think it anchors the movie's best sequence, The Money Drop. So had to consider it here. I have another one. This comes from Hedda. It's oh so quiet. Now to my mind, the Bjork cover is the definitive one of this mid-century number, but it does get a rousing rendition here. It's for a dance scene in Nia Dacosta's Hedda. And what I also like about it, even though it's kind of where the music cuts short, I love how it's this over-the-top, movingly choreographed and performed musical number. And then it just gets cut short, magisterially cut short by the appearance of Nina Haas' Eileen as soon as she comes on screen.

1:21:40So going with It's Oh So Quiet from Hedda for an honorable mention. And this last honorable mention, I'm just going to hint at. I don't want to spoil it. Adam, you like this movie even more than I do, and so you should get to pick it. So I'm going to save that and move on to my actual pick, and this is where I'm going with Train Dreams. As I said, thought about it for the moving moment category and went with it for music because I really love what I'm going to call Arne's Lullaby. This is an extended scene that is actually bookended by two musical pieces, and both of them come from William H. Macy's Arne, the grizzled veteran logger.

1:22:22So it's the end of a workday and Arne's tent is next to that of the movie's main character, Joel Edgerton's Granger. Arne is singing a song that he's made up, but it's one that embodies the mystical but reverent perspective that his character, I think, shares with the movie itself. Other loggers tell Arne to shut up, and that leads him and Granger to have this quiet conversation about the song. They talk about mortality, morality, and America. Granger eventually asks him to sing again, but Arne decides a harmonica might be better received instead.

1:23:16there's something fitting i think about pure instrumentation taking over at this point so much of train dreams is about what we don't know or can't understand regarding the vast universe it leaves us speechless but we still long to connect with it in some way and you know when words fail or are stifled music can also often step in i think that this quiet bit of musicality in Train Dreams does sum up a lot of what the movie is all about. And so, yeah, that's my, my music moment of the year. It's an inspired choice because I think it's a sneaky pick in that it's not one that I'm guessing you're going to find on any other lists of the scenes of the year.

1:24:00And it's one I didn't think about at all when I, when I started thinking about my favorite moments from Train Dreams. And yet I love every moment that William H. Macy is in. There's so So much truth in every moment he is on screen, and that's absolutely one of them. So I'm really glad that you brought that up and allowed me to reflect on some more William H. Macy from that movie. I've got a few honorable mentions, only a couple here, though. And this is a movie that everybody thought, or there was a lot of buzz coming out of Toronto. I think it was Toronto. This was a film that was going to be in the best picture.

1:24:41conversation and there was going to be a lot of buzz about maybe end of year top 10 list talk. And it certainly didn't come up at all for us on our show, Josh, but both dance scenes in the life of Chuck are pretty good as music moments. I, I do like the first one. I prefer that one to the second one, even though I liked the second one too, but I really like the first one with Tom Hiddleston and his dance number out on that street with the drummer performing that really catches you off guard there. Kyle Bailey, a listener on Facebook, said most of the testament of Ann Lee, and he's right. We mentioned during our top 10 show how so much of that film is music.

1:25:25It is effectively a musical, so you could go with a lot of different choices. But if I was going to pick one, it's All Is Summer. All Is Summer is the boat montage when they're coming over to America and how that sequence is edited and performed is really something. My other choice is one, Josh, that you mentioned as an honorable mention for you, and that's Puerto Rico, Eddie Palmieri, the orchestra highest to lowest from the Spike Lee movie. Everything about how the music is used there. The diegetic music is used there is so great. My runner up though, is from a documentary of sorts made by Alex Ross Perry.

1:26:11And it's the documentary Pavements. I'm going to call it Major Leagues, but as I'll get to in a moment, it's not just the song Major Leagues. And when I recommended this documentary about the 90s indie rock band. I said this, I can't speak with any authority about the group. I've never really listened to them. I wasn't a fan, but I wasn't not a fan. I just didn't listen to them in the 90s. And I've been struck, as I have heard them a little bit more, certainly heard them in the film, been struck by how wryly detached they seem, perhaps even cynical they and their music seem, yet how heartfelt and earnest the music can be.

1:26:54And the documentary is this perfect encapsulation of that because it's both a genuine retrospective of the band and a mockumentary. It's this film that has within it a jukebox musical that's called, named after one of their songs, Slanted Enchanted. And the musical is not, it's not real. It's staged for the movie. But if you have music and you have choreography and you have performers that you've cast and they're singing their guts out, well, then isn't it real? And what's more heartfelt and what's more earnest than musical theater? The last, I don't know, five to eight minutes of this movie, of the documentary, is this musical performance that we've seen rehearsals for.

1:27:42It starts out with this song called Spit on a Stranger. That morphs into major leagues. And then we also get some of the song called Here. And Alex Ross Perry is cross-cutting that performance with band performance from today, but also from the past and interview remarks from today. And it concludes the film, but it also functions as the finale of the musical. And it really adds some emotional weight to the band's reflections and to the band's resilience. You get the sense of the band's resilience having watched this film and the fact that they're all still friends and they've got their families now and the perspective that they have on their lives and on the band and their music.

1:28:27And when Michael Esper, who is a real legitimate Broadway stage performer who's portraying Stephen Malkmus in the musical version, when he starts belting out, I was dressed for success, this line he's singing over the chorus of singers who were singing, bring on the major leagues. And then he intones his final phrase and he's all alone in the dark, just a spot on him on the stage. I could throw this one back into the mix, Josh, of most moving moments. I guess I'm just a sucker for the sincerity of musical theater because, again, as a culmination of the entire film, it did really move me. I like it so much.

1:29:10I like the music so much, this amalgam of these three songs as musical theater that I'm actually afraid to listen to Pavement's version or their versions of those songs. I'm sure I'd like them, but I also kind of feel like how could they be better than what I just heard in the musical? That's what I want to hang on to. And I haven't listened to the full versions of those songs yet. So I love the Pavements versions of those tunes. And that's my runner up for music moment of the year. But I think the one you were alluding to earlier when you said the no-brainer music moment of the year, but also your honorable mention, Josh, or a runner-up for you certainly, is the juke joint dance, or I lied to you from Ryan Coogler's Sinners.

1:30:02Yes. This was like Hamnet on Facebook for moving moment. This is the one for scene of the year, but also music moment that came up most often. Total scene of the year candidate for sure. From our audience. And I'm just going to mention one listener here. This is Sean Stranglin who said, I think it's that 137-minute stretch from when Sinners began to when Sinners ends. You could just go with that as your music moment. We're going to single out here the juke joint dance sequence. It starts very grounded. And ends in the stars, literally. You have this moment or you have the staging of it. Our friend Mikado Murphy at the New York Times did an anatomy of a scene with it, Josh, that I just watched today with Kugler.

1:30:49That's a very fun watch. And he talks about establishing the stakes of the scene because you have Smoke and Stack who have differing opinions about how successful this night's going to be and Sammy's role in it and the music. And so he triangulates them where one is on each side of Sammy with him in the middle. But if you watch, you also see the Delta Slim, Delroy Lindo's character who is supporting him is behind him in the scene. And the music is original music by Ludwig Gorns and the composer, but also Raphael Sadiq, who's an Oakland musician and writer. And the voiceover where we hear one of the Saku's character, Annie, she says that the music, that there are legends of people born with a gift of making music so true, it can pierce the veil between life and death.

1:31:47Conjuring spirits from the past and the future in Africa, they're called griots. And it makes me think about the movie Lone Star, which I talked about recently on the show, where you have a movie that's conjuring the past, and you have the past and the present intersecting with each other. And even though they're very different films and using different techniques here, one thing they're doing similarly with the past and the present is that they are interacting with each other seamlessly. We have this use of the long take here in this scene. So there's no editing, and we have these ancestors, these musical ancestors interacting.

1:32:27Sammy doesn't know he's interacting with them, but we know that he is in this sequence. And the way the music and the sound design and the camera all start to swirl together, and it culminates in literally blowing the roof off of the juke joint. It was one of those moments we said, I remember when we reviewed it, you knew then this felt important. This felt like one of the, this had to be one of the scenes of the year at the time. And the reason why is because it's a showcase for bravura filmmaking, but it's that, and it encompasses and expresses some of the most potent ideas. Even at that point in the film, it comes, I think at about the halfway point, you know, it's expressing those potent ideas that the film is exploring the ownership of black culture and identity in particular.

1:33:17And it's one of those defining scenes in one of the defining movies of the year. And with that in mind, it had to be for me, the music moment of the year. And that's true, Josh, despite the fact, I will say this, despite the fact that I do wish, I do wish that Kugler didn't repeat Annie's narration from the opening of the movie. We hear her voiceover again. And I wish that that was something that we as viewers just got to piece together for ourselves from the beginning of the film to that moment, rather than needing it to remind us. But that is a small quibble with a moment otherwise that is mind-blowing.

1:34:02Yeah. It's willingness to trust your audience to not double up on that. But one of the amazing things about this, just I remember watching it, and it's the ability to sustain it because you pick up fairly early on, oh, I see what he's going to try to do here. And then it keeps going and it keeps getting more interesting. Yes. And it doesn't lose itself in trying to pull off the quote unquote trick. It's of a whole. The piece is of a whole. It's a sustained movement. It works as a piece of musicality. And yeah, it's absolutely one of the defining moments. I'm glad, glad we could mark it here on our wrap party show.

1:34:47That was a great transition because we have to now get to our scenes of the year. We just said this was a perfect candidate for it. But really, when you have four other categories and all of these honorable mentions and runners up and choices, they're all scenes of the year. They're all among your favorite scenes of the year. And yet we are giving ourselves the task of picking out just one or two or a few more actual scenes of the year. So how did it play out for you, Josh? It played out pretty easy when it came down to it. And I'm going to keep my honorable mentions quick because I have a lot to say about my actual pick.

1:35:26So here's three quick ones. Dinner party, black bag, the incident. That's what I'm going to call this sequence in Sorry Baby. This is the Brevera filmmaking choices made there. and third one, haircut and weapons. Those who've seen it know what I mean, the haircut scene. My pick though, my clear scene of the year for 2025 is Will You Pray For Me from Wake Up Dead Man. I don't know how this came up on the Facebook page you've been mentioning, if it did at all, Adam, but I don't know if I noticed as soon as Wake Up Dead Man started playing in theaters, than definitely when it hit Netflix. I don't know if I've noticed any other scene from last year.

1:36:11Maybe the Sinner sequence, but one that is mentioned so often in reviews and on social media than this one. This is the mid-movie interruption that writer-director Rian Johnson gives us in the latest Knives Out mystery. It seems like too obvious of a pick, maybe, as we were talking about with Sinners to put it here as Scene of the Year, but I'm still going to go with it because I do have some personal reasons for choosing it, which I'll get to. Now, at this point in the movie, Josh O 'Connor's Father Judd and Daniel Craig's Benoit Blanc, they formed something of a Holmes and Watson bond in the movie's murder investigation.

1:36:48And they believe this phone call that Father Judd's going to make to a construction company could help them find a crucial clue that might unravel the whole case. Bridget Everett's Louise answers the call, but she doesn't have the information. So Father Judd wants to quickly move on, but she has a request. Hey, Father, could I ask you something? Yeah, it's though, I mean, if you can make it quick, this is a priority for us. I wish she could call you back. Father Judd, could you? Louise? Oh, God. Louise? Will you pray for me?

1:37:31Uh, yeah, of course. Can I ask what for it? Um, it's, uh, my mother. Will you pray for me? This stops Father Judd and the movie dead in their tracks. And honestly, it shocked me as well. I mean, it shouldn't have because this far into the movie, there was already some intriguing theological imagery, some conversations. So it's not like it completely came out of nowhere, but I didn't know until that point that Rian Johnson was going to make religion, indeed theology, the central theme of wake up dead man. And honestly, Adam, I feel like he's been holding out on me. You and I have, we've interviewed him a couple of times.

1:38:18We've hung out around film spotting events. I had no idea he had this level of interest and thoughtfulness on stuff like this. And I think this prayer request moment is when I realized, wow, this is really what this Knives Out mystery is going to be about. Now, just on its own terms, it is so beautifully written and constructed and performed. Notice in the scene how Father Judd, when he initially wants to move on from Louise, he says, if you can make it quick when she asks, can I ask you something? And then we even get this sense of Blanc's presence in the room. him. He's waving his hand at Judd.

1:38:56And I think we hear him say something like, maybe she can call you back. Get rid of her. Get rid of her. Both of them are so eager to move on when she hasn't been proven to have the clue. And then when Louise unburdens herself, it dawns on Father Judd that this is his place. This is what he was called for. And he responds. The downshift in energy here is astonishing. I don't know of another movie that functions in exactly the same way. The downshift in energy and performance, in camera work, Judd slowly goes into the other room. He gently closes the door on Blanc to take the call in private. And then Johnson cuts to the room that Blanc is still in.

1:39:41And we see it's dark out now. It's been raining to show that Judd's been on the call for a long time and Blanc's been impatiently waiting. It's as if the silly world has stopped spinning for a moment and we've become attuned to what matters, being there for someone in distress. And in this case, it's something as everyday, but also as overwhelming as an ailing mother and a fraught relationship, which is what Louise describes. And I do want to call out Bridget Everett's performance here too. Johnson doesn't cut to her face until Louise starts breaking down about the fight with her mother. Before that, we just hear her voice.

1:40:16But when the camera finds her, Everett just steps up to the plate and hits it out of the park. Father, I am... I'm feeling pretty alone. I'm right now.

1:40:32I'm so sorry, Louise. You're not alone. I'm right here. I'm here. There's a meta element here too. Everett starred in the recent HBO series, Somebody Somewhere. And I only saw a few episodes of it, kind of watched it over Debbie's shoulder because she watched the whole thing. And I know from that, that series offered the same sort of honest portrait of complicated faith in America that I think Johnson is exploring here with Wake Up Dead Man. So the casting is perfect on every front. And I want to share a comment here from Devin Suber, actually, on Everett's performance. He shared this with our Scene Stealer poll that we put out a while back.

1:41:17I want to throw my weight behind Bridget Everett in Wake Up Dead Man. I was on board with the movie before she showed up, but she instantly grabs attention and reveals the film's beating heart. It's a small demonstration of what she does so well on HBO's Somebody Somewhere, pivoting from broad comedy to heart-wrenching drama without breaking a sweat. Honestly, it's miraculous. All right. So I'm almost done here, but here's why I had to elevate this scene. I had initially, when I first watched the movie, Adam, I thought, oh, most moving moment. This is it. And then watched the movie again, thought about it some more.

1:41:49And yeah, scene of the year. One year ago. So last January, I was, you know, like so many of us here in the U.S. facing the prospect of another Trump administration. And I posted something on social media, more of a reminder to myself, just thinking about the year ahead than anything else. I just said, what will your resistance look like? I will not become complacent, but I will also not become consumed. And I'll do what I can in my local context to do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly. It was a struggle to do that in 2025, especially to not be consumed. and especially as the year wore on and the cruelty, violence from the White House became worse than even I could have imagined.

1:42:32And I'm a pessimist on these things, believe me. Then this scene came around in Wake Up Dead Man and it came to me and it reminded me of that pledge I made to myself, you know, like Judd, that I need to be snapped out of my misplaced fervor in cases and just reoriented toward ways I'm best suited to help hold out against despair. it's safe to say there's more to spare now, the start of 2026, than there was at the start of 2025, pick your outrageous abuse. But I think I'm going to keep the scene in mind and keep it in the back of my pocket and think about, as long as I remember to take the call when it comes from someone else, or I don't know, trust someone will be there to take my call at some point, that we might actually be okay.

1:43:19So this is kind of a scene that was a scene of the year, the scene that I needed, which is why I had to have it as my last and final pick. Will you pray for me from Wake Up Deadman? Wonderful choice. And it will be interesting to see just how closely the two of us are aligned when we get to my choice here in a moment. And about that scene, which I agree is a very startling scene and a moving scene, what is so startling about it is not that you doubt ever, or I don't doubt Rian Johnson's intelligence or thoughtfulness as a filmmaker, but even within the context of this movie, that's when you realize his full conviction on this topic and the full conviction of his thoughtfulness on this topic.

1:44:09And that this, this isn't going to be a punchline and religion here certainly isn't going to be a punchline but it's also where you understand the conviction of father judd not that you doubt him at this point in the movie i think we do understand that he is fundamentally a man of action over words that he is a man of deed that he understands his calling but that is the scene where we absolutely there's no there's no denying it there's no there's no way you could you could ever question it after this moment. There's certainly no way that Benoit Blanc could ever question. I think it's a transformative scene for his character as well, observing Father Judd.

1:44:54That's a good point. Yeah. And Judd himself discovers it. That's part of the wonder of the scene is like, it's something that he had to be jolted towards. But yeah, I like your note about Blanc too, because I think it's true. We see that in his response as well. You mentioned the dinner party in Black Bag. I'm going to mention the polygraph scene in Black Bag, which is my favorite from that film. It's very hard to not single out something from one battle after another. I know the film of the year, especially when it was my number two and the number one for you and Allison and Michael. But I did say this to you and Sam via Slack in terms of scenes of the year.

1:45:35I really consider moments. They aren't moments. Moments like the chase, the Underground Railroad, their sequences. I can't pinpoint those downs down to scenes. Now, that said, our friend Mariah Gates on the Film Spotting Facebook page said in answer to the prompt about scene of the year. Benicio keeping his cool as he runs his Latino Harriet Tubman escape for his community members while simultaneously helping Leo as he flails about trying to contact the French 75. If I had to narrow it down to just a portion of that, it would be something in that hallway as he is navigating that and the calmness with which he does that.

1:46:14I do think that that sequence is maybe the filmmaking sequence of the year. And you know what? That's the one I'm going to carry in my other back pocket to get me through 2026. I need you, brother. Sensei, sensei, sensei, please. Courage, Bob. Courage. That's it. Courage. Yeah. Yes. Thank you. Hey, thank you, sensei. Thank you, sensei. Thank you. God damn it. Viva la revolution! I want to get to my very brief. I'm just going to list it. my runner up and then I'm going to get to where we really are connected on my pick for scene of the year. And so I'm going to, I'm going to breeze past this one because we don't see, it turns out after reading your letterbox review, we don't see eye to eye on this movie, even though I would love, and we're, we're, we're long enough into this show that, that I don't think we need to get into it, but for people who have seen it, and I think you, you even Josh, even though we see this movie differently and we see this scene differently, I think when I say it, you'll understand, you probably do understand why I see this moment as a fascinating one from the year.

1:47:31And it's from the documentary Predators, one of our golden brick nominees. And it's specifically the moment, though it's the ending of a scene that is crucial. And the context is crucial, but it's the line delivery when this character, who is a character, a man who is playing the role of a Chris Hansen impersonator, essentially, on the internet, a YouTube creation who calls himself Skeet Hansen, who, like Chris Hansen, he and his crew do actual legitimate work of catching predators, setting up these sting operations. And in the movie Predators, we see as they set up a sting, they get a man. I think he's a younger man.

1:48:17It's been a long time since I've seen it, but someone in his 20s maybe who shows up at this motel room. And the thing about this scene is that the police don't show up right away. So then things get really messy. The humanity that's on display gets really messy. Messy enough that even Skeet Hansen has to confront the messiness. And by the end of the scene, he still has to, Josh, apparently deliver for himself and for his viewers and get the click and get the video. And he still has to deliver his catchphrase. He has to say, you've just been skeeted, except he can't say it. He can't deliver it with the gusto that he normally says it because he just he can't even bring himself to do it.

1:49:08He can't get fully into character. And that half-hearted delivery and the blank stare with which he says it as he obliges himself and his audience, that for me is the movie. That's the movie in a nutshell, is that kind of despair and that conundrum. And so I think there's a lot going on in that you've just been skeeted line delivery. And maybe we'll just leave it there. That's my last honorable mention, unless you want to get into any conversation about that movie, Josh. Yeah, we need to discuss Predators at some point. We've kind of very briefly done it on my Letterboxd review. But yeah, I know you have a lot more thoughts on it.

1:49:53And I don't know what context we'll be able to do that. But maybe it'll just have to be offline with each other. Maybe so. My runner-up, this will be very brief because I'm literally just going to say one word. This is a case where I don't want to spoil it for people who may still be catching up with the movie I named my number one film of the year. Yes, actually, just ahead of one battle after another. From It Was Just an Accident, Jafar Panahi, I'm just going to say footsteps. And I'm going to leave it there. my winner my scene of the year and i do want to stress to people and i hope people by now especially people who have listened to the show for a while believe and understand our sincerity and our conviction josh that this this isn't remotely by design but it is fitting that as we close out our 20th year of doing this show a year in which we were able to celebrate that anniversary with Film Spotting Fest, an amazing opportunity to get together with our community of listeners, an event that was headlined by Koganada and by Rian Johnson that we ended up being each so captivated by.

1:51:09And really, I don't know what better word to use by moments that were so provocative to us emotionally, intellectually, different moments, but different moments from the same movie. And they even made us think along similar lines. And the movie is Wake Up Dead Man. My moment though, and spoilers, I'm throwing out the spoilers. If you haven't seen it, you need to stop. You need to go watch Wake Up Dead Man. If you have not seen it yet, it's on Netflix. During our review, I said that I was surprised. The moment I'm going with is, I'm calling it absolution. It's the confession scene. It's Martha Glenn Close, her confession scene.

1:51:55She's in the arms of Father Judd confessing her role in three deaths that she is confessing to in this moment. And I said during the review that I didn't expect to feel so moved during a murderers confession in a whodunit. And I want to be clear, I do feel some compassion for Martha there in her dying moments, despite all of the evil she's done, because she has confessed it and she's doing it with such clarity. but that that isn't really what i was trying to describe or or saying i was moved is is barely sufficient because it is a lot more than that and i i could even pinpoint it down to a specific moment within this scene where you know how we say or people sometimes use that cliche they say, I got chills or it gives me chills.

1:52:49No, I, I mean, I actually got chills. I actually got a chill watching it for the first time. And every single time I've watched it since Josh pulling the scene for, for this show and rewatching it and preparing my thoughts on it. I get that same little, I don't, I don't know what other word to describe it other than a chill watching this scene. And it's the kind of chill you get where you're marveling at how something all comes together, when an artistic moment all comes together emotionally, intellectually, the filmmaking, the acting, it's just all there. She's confessing her sins. She's going to her death.

1:53:30I don't know what Father Judd is going to say, but my only thought is that he's going to comfort her, right? He's there to comfort her. That's his role there in this moment. And so we're going to get this lovely redemptive moment where she receives grace despite all that she's done. The last thing that I imagine him doing is challenging her. He's not going to do that. That's never going to happen. You said something, Josh, talking about your scene about feeling shocked even though you shouldn't. And I'll use the word surprise. this is the first surprise for me what does he say after she rattles off the names of all the men who have died because of her he says and grace he asks except it's not a question he goes there he is he is going to force her to confront her role in grace's tragic downfall on her deathbed as she's confessing her sins.

1:54:30That's surprise number one. Surprise number two. This is the moment that really gets me. Glenn Close's response. Honestly, the fact that I left her off my favorite supporting performances of the year is criminal. Her face, her immediate resistance. Not that the reaction is surprising for her character, but the portrayal of it, the actual acting, the reaction is such an expression of hatred and anger. the way she hardens and clenches is is just a kick and he tells her to let it go and that's then surprise number three is watching martha soften and say and this is all happening in a matter of like 10 seconds right that's the beauty of it three surprises like this three little revelations in 10 to 15 seconds of screen time her softening and saying yes i see it now that poor girl and asking for forgiveness for grace grace i see it now forgive me grace I understand that the confession, I understand what it's supposed to be.

1:55:40and I think it is, and what I don't think it usually is, but I think what we see here is what it is supposed to be, Josh. It's not supposed to be what it usually is, which is, I did these bad things and here I'm admitting them, so tell me what penance I should serve and then I'll be absolved of those. The priest is there to be a mediator. He's supposed to be an instrument of God's mercy. It's called the sacrament of reconciliation. It's an opportunity for healing. And even in a moment like this, it's a moment of guidance. And that is, as I said, that's what I think we actually get in these fleeting moments.

1:56:25And what's notable about the scene too, is that when I talked about that clenching of her face, what does Ryan do? What does Ryan Johnson do? He gives us insert shots, two notable insert shots of her hands, her face and her hands clenching the way she resists man does she harden she does not want to let go of that anger and hatred right and then she does when she does let go her hands her hands let go mirroring father judd and his hands when he talks about how he faces the world When he faced the world as a boxer, he faced the world with his hands up, clenched his fists, ready to fight the world versus how he faces the world now with his hands out, ready to be more inviting and accept people in.

1:57:19I don't think it's by accident that he cuts to those insert shots of her hands clenching and then finally her hands releasing. and and that here here's where we're going to completely intersect not just on the movie but in terms of our frame frames of mind that scene has been in my mind a lot not just because of this show but because right this second over the past three or four days as we're taping this especially it's it's become increasingly harder for me to think about facing the world with my hands out. I'm, I'm as angry as I've ever been. I I've been able to, I've been, I will say this, I've been privileged enough to not be consumed by it at, to use your word up until now I've been able to let it not distract me as much as I, as it should.

1:58:19And, and the recent events in, in Minneapolis have, have, have forced me to confront it in a way that have forced me to confront it in a way that have, have caused that anger to, to rise. And I don't think the takeaway from this scene or from wake up dead man is necessarily that we shall let that anger go or that that anger isn't valid. I do think it's certainly a reminder for acceptance or that it's a reminder that we should be approaching the world that way, first and foremost. But I do think it's a reminder that we should be open to the idea of reconciliation. But I do think there's also a key part of that, Josh, which is open to reconciliation if those who have sinned are repentant.

1:59:13I think that's an important component of that as well. Confession and justice comes first. Exactly. So yeah, it's no, no scene. It's my number one scene of the year, not because of recent events, recent events tacked on to its, its relevance to me and why it's, why it's so important to me. But no moment impacted me more watching it as I, as I took it in than that, than that scene, that absolution scene from wake up dead men. And we've talked about both of our scenes in terms of being surprised and unexpected. And I think the ultimate magic trick of Wake Up Dead Man being this murder mystery is that it does have those twists.

2:00:03It does have those surprises in terms of the plot, the mystery plot. but we've been talking about different ones. We've been talking about next level, like provocative surprises that Ryan Johnson wove into this movie, even beyond the ones that I thought for sure we were just going to get going into the movie. I just, I just thought this was going to be the background, you know, the glass onion was the Island and you know, the, it was the family home and the first knives out, you could say. And then this church and this community was going to be the background. And man, the movie made it so much more.

2:00:42The layers there and the different emotional notes, the complexity of that final scene for me and your scene as well is what elevates this film. We're already talking about spoilers, so it shouldn't matter, but I'm going to say it again. Have you heard or have you been thinking about it all? Have you heard any theories about this film in terms of the character of Grace and something that Benoit Blanc may or may not reveal about the nature of what happened to Grace near the end of this film? but it's not something that Rian Johnson draws a sign with an arrow pointing to. Have you heard anything about that?

2:01:28No, I haven't, but I'm sure there's something planted and planned there. Well, so I'll just tell you briefly, it's really interesting because in the scene where he is doing his reveal, the pre-reveal, and then, of course, he gets stymied, right? is he is explaining that he had to think about it in terms of the myth, right? He had to think about it from a storytelling perspective, and these are his words. Not to solve whether it was real or not, but to feel in my soul the essence of that which it strove to convey. Now listen to this line. A holy priest struck down by no man, but by the hand of Satan himself, laid to rest in the sealed tomb of his father, but then risen by the will of God.

2:02:21As you listen to that, anything strike you as off or incorrect about that last sentence? No, you're just going to have to give it to me. It's too late here in Madrid. No, I'm with you. I even knew this and read it again last night and confused myself. A holy priest struck down by no man. The holy priest is Jefferson Wicks, of course, Josh Brolin's character, right? Struck down by no man, but by the hand of Satan himself, laid to rest in the sealed tomb of his father. He's laid to rest in the sealed tomb of his grandfather, the Reverend Prentice Wicks. That's right. That's right. Not the sealed tomb of his father.

2:03:04unless he is actually the son of his father, because Reverend Prentice Wicks is also the father of, he's the grandson and he's the father of Jefferson because he had a sexual relationship with his daughter. And that's the explanation for the hatred. Ah, okay.

2:03:56and greet no no she was probably abused she was probably abused and can't wait for the man to die and just wants his money and to get out of town okay yeah and is it possible that benoit blanc is actually dropping he know he figured that out and is dropping that into that revelation but just like us right now nobody nobody here nobody puts it together when he says that yeah yeah it's it's certainly possible i'm thinking about it in terms of the movie's themes and and your pick in particular and yet i see it now i see it now that poor girl forgive me grace that's what she sees right and i guess what i would say to no that's what i that's where i was going is like it, it doesn't.

2:04:51Cause then you're talking about, even if grace had been the grace that Martha thinks, yes, she still needs to confess for what she did to her and let it go. It works on either level. She still needs to let it go. But if she is actually seeing it now, that poor girl takes on different meaning. Yeah. Yeah. It's fascinating. I think, you know, So I think Judd in his position, we get a sense that he has, even if he doesn't know what you just pieced together, he still gets a sense that Grace is someone that needs to be understood fully. Right. Beyond how she's been depicted. And that's like how he allows Martha to get down that path.

2:05:36Well, and what you just said is actually a perfect way to sum up what we were just speaking to. Benoit Blanc understands it on the level of grace, that poor girl who was abused, perhaps. Father Judd understands it simply on the level of she didn't deserve that. Exactly. Exactly. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That is our 2025 wrap party, our scenes of the year. And, well, that was fun, even if we got into some relatively heavy territory there at the end. But that's what the movies are all about, Josh. It's not always a party. I mean, see, if we had a live audience, we wouldn't have gotten into all of this, right?

2:06:21We wouldn't have laid this on a live group. So next year, a little lighter. I would have had a whiskey flight in front of me and played more scenes from The Naked Gun. Exactly. All right. That's our show. If you want to connect with Adam and the show on social media, you can find him on Instagram, Facebook, Letterboxd, and YouTube at FilmSpotting. I'm at all those places as Larson on film. We are independently produced and listener supported. You can support the show by joining the film spotting family at film spotting family.com. You can listen early and ad free. You'll also get a weekly newsletter, monthly bonus episodes and access to the entire show archive for show t-shirts and other merch.

2:07:00Go to film spotting.net slash shop in that archive. You can find full reviews of many of the films we've talked about this week as part of the wrap party. Also reviews of all of our Golden Brick finalists and long listers out streaming this weekend. The new one from Matt Damon and Ben Affleck. They are Miami cops mixed up in a Joe Carnahan directed Dirty Cops kind of thing. It's called The Rip. It's on Netflix. In limited release, expanding is Gus Van Zandt's Dead Man's Wire. I recommended that on last week's show. And expanding a movie that we gave some love to this week. Hamnet, winner of the Golden Globe for Best Drama and Best Actress.

2:07:39That went to Jesse Buckley. In wide release, Charlie the Wonder Dog. Tagline, he's a good boy. Most of the time, it's an animated film featuring the talents of Owen Wilson. And out 28 years later, The Bone Temple. But Josh, if I heard you right, possibly you're not going to get to it. We'll see if it's playing near me wherever I happen to be. Okay. And if it has English subtitles wherever you may be playing or however that Good point. Hadn't thought of that yet. Next week, one of us may be talking about The Bone Temple, and we will have our 2026 movie preview. Film Spotting is produced by Golden Joe Dissot and Sam Van Halgren.

2:08:20Without Sam and Golden Joe, this show wouldn't go. Our production assistant is Sophie Kempinar. Special thanks to everyone at WBEZ Chicago. More information is available at WBEZ.org. For Film Spotting, I'm Josh Larson. And I'm Adam Kempinar. Thanks for listening. This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

2:08:48Film Spotting is listener supported. Join the Film Spotting family at filmspottingfamily.com and get access to ad-free episodes, monthly bonus shows, our weekly newsletter, and for the first time, all in one place, the entire Film Spotting archive going back to 2005. That's filmspottingfamily.com. Panoply