Top 10 Films of 2025 (Pt. 1) with Michael Phillips and Alison Willmore

28:29It's a good pick now that I've seen this movie, but it is one I did not see coming. So enlighten us. I don't know why you didn't see this coming. You guys hate comedy is what you're telling me. Yeah, apparently. I think that The Naked Gun is absolutely one of the best films of the year. It is certainly, I would say, the most enjoyable, like purely enjoyable theatrical experience I had, even at a press screening, which as we all know is filled with people who are like me dead inside. There was a lot of laughter. There was just like a lot of just audible pleasure in just taking in this incredibly silly movie that is just jam packed with jokes.

29:15And I you know what? I would nominate Liam Neeson for an Oscar. I know that Best Leading Actor is like a packed category this year. But do you know what? Like the incredible like action movie face, the deadpan that he brings to this deeply ridiculous role as the son of Frank Drebin. I think he's so good in it. I think that years of making what I believe have been described as the geriatric action movie, you know, the stage of his career in which he has played all of these deeply serious action heroes has made him just the perfect comedy hero for this movie. And I think that like the kind of the delight in just like the kind of just throwing all these jokes out there and having them just be existing in a moment.

30:02You know, I think the whole montage with the snowman, incredible, the throwaway bit where they're retrieving a car that's crashed by using a giant claw machine. And everyone watches and is like, ooh, when they miss. But even just like a throwaway line, I think my favorite part of the movie is a part where Liam Neeson is like muttering as he's walking through the police station. I guess you really can't fight City Hall. And Paul Walter Hauser, as his partner says, very seriously, no, it's a building. I just love that. I love it so much. And I really enjoy Pamela Anderson's scat singing face. This one's for my electric new friend, Richard Kane.

30:42Wow. Sassafras, chicken and D. make it extra lumpy boys

31:01I just I think it's great I think Akiva Schaefer understands exactly how to get the sensibility of these films that you know like are made in a different era of comedy, studio comedy. And I think, you know, there was an awareness of how difficult it has been to do a big studio comedy these days to the point where they even did a PSA where Liam Neeson, you know, urged people, you have to come see this for the sake of the studio comedy. But I think that this was just a perfect, perfectly silly film. I enjoyed it so much. I want them to make a dozen more of diminishing returns until I get sick of them and tell them, you know, like, ugh, let it die again.

31:41And that is all I want. Bring them back. I want more. So some of the sequels may not appear in your top 10, but this one is at number seven. I think, you know, there's only the proper comedy franchise arc is to just end in a place where you're like, what did I even see in this in the first place? So that's what I want from this. Knowing that Josh is someone who doesn't appreciate this sensibility, the airplane, you know, Zucker Abrams parody sensibility. I can't wait to get him back here, back to this side of the pond and clockwork orange style, make him watch this film. It's going to be great.

32:19So I'm going to do it because I know you are a big fan as well, Adam, and you hinted it might come up at our wrap party for, you know, funniest moment pick. So, so I'm going to watch this and hope that, um, here's my hope. Yeah. Historically these haven't been my movies, but it's in my DNA. My, my dad, like just growing up, he loved these right. Airplane original naked gun. And so I've got it somewhere inside. My hope is Adam. I've aged into it. 51 is when it's going to kick in, right? This is, this is when I will finally get these comedies. If you're really going to complete the whole arc of turning into your father or your grandfather, then you'll start watching the roadshow version of it's a mad mad mad mad world like over and over and over you know well in three hours yeah a film i actually liked about as much as this naked gun remake i i really i i don't i love to laugh and i'm not quite sure why that one uh i i kind of just watched it like nipper the dog on the rca label kind of tilting his head waiting you know To me, I love that first iteration of the Naked Gun Police Squad on TV.

33:29I loved it. And it was also the closest to the source material they were ripping off, like M Squad, which nobody remembers, and all the Quinn Martin cop shows. And I thought, you know, I got a lot of laughs out of a couple of the Naked Gun movies, but I kind of went through what Allison's talking about, like, midway through the second one. So I don't know. this one didn't seem to have the deadpan knack or interest. It was just kind of a big, broad, violent action comedy with some satire in it, but not enough for me, I guess. So I don't know. I just, I didn't hate it. But Allison, I feel bad that I can't agree with you because I respect you a lot.

34:10Well, it's fine, Michael. It's fine. I'm judging you silently. No, I can't. I can't go on. I'm sorry. But she doesn't need your support because fortunately, I know I'm right. Yeah, she knows that. And also, she has the support of her former FilmSpotting SVU co-host and former IFC Films partner in crime, Matt Singer, who submitted a voicemail. We asked him for his pick for his favorite film of the year, and you're going to get his actual pick for best film of the year. But it turns out that The Naked Gun was indeed one of his favorites of the year, and he is going to proselytize for this film. And it's so appropriate for the conversation that you all were just having about how important it is to see movies in the theater.

35:00We're going to hear about Matt's communal experience, the transcendent, the spiritual experience he had watching The Naked Gun with other revelers this year. Hello, FilmSpotting. This is your very old friend, Matt Singer, with my contribution to FilmSpotting's 95th annual Best Movies of the Year episode. I can't believe it's been that long. Congratulations again. Wow, what an achievement. Anyway, I'm very confident that my number one movie of the year this year, One Battle After Another, it's going to get more than enough love on the show. So instead of yakking on about that again, I'm going to instead stump for what I consider my single favorite theatrical experience of 2025, which was the new Naked Gun.

35:56so the naked gun films all three original films are canonical texts to me they are as sacred as anything in the bible or the films of mel brooks so personally me i was very nervous about anyone tackling this holy work but to my very pleasant surprise director akiva schaefer and his team absolutely nailed how to make a naked gun in 2025. You just recreate the same style of nonstop nonsense from the originals. And with all due respect to the great Paul Thomas Anderson, made a fabulous movie this year, I would argue there is no scene in any film this year more sublime than Liam Neeson's Detective Frank Trebin Jr.

36:53chewing out Pamela Anderson's Beth Davenport for accidentally erasing his TiVo filled with all the season one episodes of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He gave it to her with specific instructions not to plug it into the internet. And what did she do? She connected it to her router. Do you know what that means? That means gone. No musical special. No Xander. No Spike. No Cordelia Chase. No Daniel Os Osborne. No Willow meets her doppelganger episode. Nothing. Sorry, I didn't know they were so... Frank, we're in the middle of an important conversation. Just stand there.

37:39Sitting in a crowded room of strangers collectively laughing at that scene so loud and so hard that we all missed the first couple jokes in the next scene was genuinely one of my big highlights of the entire year. Maybe not just in movies, just highlights of my life. As pathetic as that is, it's true. And it really, it serves as a reminder to me that while we are constantly told that the only thing that will bring people out to theaters, the only thing theaters are good for anymore are for quote unquote events. you know in in the right theater in the right crowd any great movie becomes an event anyway have a great 2026 guys thanks I haven't ranked the best bits in the naked gun but I think I'm willing to go on the record and say that that deadpan delivery by Liam Neeson of the Buffy the the Vampire Slayer, TiVo bit.

38:45That's top three. It's maybe top two. Matt's right. Thank you, Matt Singer, for that. Thank you for supporting Allison. Michael, you have to go back and watch it now. I do. I do. I have to press laugh first. I know I'm not watching it with Michael when I catch up with it. That's for sure. No, no. You don't need those bad vibes at all, Josh. Let's keep the good vibes going. You also have a off the beaten path choice here, and it's another comedy. Another comedy. I guess my vein of comedy, maybe it's one of them days. All I can say is one of them days made me laugh more than anything else I saw at the theater last year.

39:29And especially just these rapid fire exchanges between Kiki Palmer and SZA. They play LA roommates who are facing unfair eviction from their apartment. And it doesn't need more, I guess, than that to Allison's point and Allison's pick for me necessarily to put it on my top 10 list. You make me laugh this hard. You've got a shot. But I do think the topicality here is to its credit as well. I mean, we are facing an avalanche of American crises this year. And you could lay them all out before you probably get even to the affordable housing shortage. But it's one of them. It's important to a ton of people.

40:08and there's something exciting about a smart comedy addressing that with sharp, satirical humor. I mean, hat tip to Cat Williams, for those of you who've seen one of them days, as I call him Lucky the Prophet, just standing outside of the payday loan office, warning people, warning people away. Great recurring gag. What are the interest rates? Damn, I thought that was the year of establishment. If you don't have the money this month, you're not going to have it next month. Get out. Is he here every day? What did y 'all do to this here? He is so negative. You know, don't discount the director here, Lawrence Lamont's work, because great comedy like this, it requires smart directing.

40:59and he knows how to set up and how to frame a punchline, of which there are many in addition to that fantastic interplay between the two leads. So yeah, this is my final plea. I've mentioned it a couple times on the show throughout the year, but my final plea of 2025 for everyone to catch up with one of them days. Also, and right in line with Allison's endorsement of Liam Neeson in the Naked Gun, I would nominate Kiki Palmer for Best Actress, seriously. I mean, she's just... Yeah, she was on my ballot for the Chicago film critics. I mean, she rolls so... There's not a scene that she can't activate.

41:36There's, I mean, some of the material is better than others in this film, I think. But she just scores every... And she has a great ear and eye for how to propel every scene. Like, none of the bits, none of the laughs she gets stop the action at all. It's always just kind of in the service of the next beat. She's great. I mean, she's been on camera more of her life than not, right? She started as a child actress and, you know, big star early on in that realm. And I mean, she's barely in her 30s and she is just got the wiles and the skill level of like comic screwball stars of old. She's great.

42:09So, yeah, no, I like I like the idea of nominating more people for comedy for actual serious awards consideration in general, you know. She is great. Yeah. Yeah, Josh, as you said, you put her on your best actress ballot for the Chicago Film Critics Association. I had her just off. She was in there for a while. And then as I saw more movies, just got bumped off into that six to ten range. But One of Them Days is currently available. VOD, you can also see it on Netflix. And before we get serious, and Michael, in the case of our two picks, deadly serious, perhaps, we're going to keep the laughs going here a little bit.

42:51We have a voicemail from someone our listeners should be familiar with. She's been on the show a few times as a guest host and as a voicemailer. And we know that Allison is certainly familiar with her work as well at your publication. This is Roxanna Haddadi. Hi, this is Roxanna Haddadi. I am a critic with Vulture and New York Magazine, and I'm sure that my number one movie is on this list already. Pretty much any given day, it switches between Train Dreams and It Was Just an Accident, so I'm not going to talk about either of those. But what I am going to talk about as the movie that has stuck with me surprisingly this year is Roofman, which I was predisposed to like because I like Derek Sianfrance's movies.

43:37I like Channing Tatum. I like Kirsten Dunst. I like all the pieces of the movie. And I was surprised by how it came together and that it was marketed as a comedy, which was wrong. It is being described in interviews, like when I spoke with Sian Franz, as a movie sort of about a father's love and what he is willing to do. And I think that is more correct and fits more within Sian Franz's tradition. I'm someone who loves a well-done father of daughters story. And this is John Thorin. Thorin. From New York. Oh, New York. That's far from here. Yeah, a little bit. Oh, John, he made a very generous toy donation.

44:27Oh, that's so kind of you. Couldn't have come at a better time. No, I mean, really, like Christmas and birthdays. Just gift-giving time. I mean, I don't know. I just love kids. You have kids, John? Well, yes. Is it a family? And what I think this movie offered is a rejection of the fact that we have happy endings in our lives. I think the movie actually really demonstrates how untrue that can be. And there was something about its refusal to really stick with any genre that I still find really compelling. So that's my pick for my sort of unloved choice of the year is Roofman. I said we were going to keep the laughs going, but Roxanne is correct.

45:18I just caught up with Roofman because of Roxanna's recommendation and because of producer Sam Van Hulgren's recommendation after he heard Roxanna's voicemail. And it is being improperly sold. It was mis-marketed as a comedy. It has a few laughs in it. Channing Tatum's character is a bit of a goofball, but it's a pretty serious movie, more like you would expect from Derek C. in France. and it is a good movie. I love that Roxanna is highlighting this film. Not the comedy so much that I set it up to be or, again, that the marketing team behind it has made it out to be, but a good film. Allison, you've seen it.

45:59What do you think? I do not think it works, but not because it's not... I mean, I would agree. It's not a comedy. It does have a few light touches, but it is much more about this guy who can't like help himself even though he's in hiding and on the run uh and has broken you know out of jail can't help himself but like just get involved with this woman and her family and just and this community um i felt i needed it for me i i wanted it to acknowledge a little bit of essentially the creepiness of what he was doing in terms of of of the kind of lies he was spinning in terms of like needing to kind of love bomb everyone to be such a kind of like people pleaser, you know, to the point where he's like, he has built this whole persona up.

46:49I felt like there was a tension there that the movie never addressed because it was just too fond of that character. And I understand why. I think Channing Tatum is very lovable in that role as he is often, you know, like it's a kind of role he's very good at. But I appreciated like, yes, the way it started off as a bit more of a comedy and then just kind of kept this tonal tension there. Sure. Yeah. Throughout, as you kind of wonder when when is all of this going to fall apart? I think that's a fair criticism of the movie. Channing Tatum is charming in the movie and he's playing a character who obviously gets by a lot on his charm, even as he also is a very goofy and overly goofy character in a way that does cross over into creepy at times.

47:38And he gets called out on it a little bit. And I think you do see in Kirsten Dunst's character, mainly you see it in her eyes. You see it in the way she looks at him sometimes, that tension in the way she feels about him. But the movie probably could push that a little bit more than it does. I agree that the movie seems to love him maybe more than it should. I really love Roxanna's point, though, about the movie being ultimately a rejection of this notion that we expect from the movies, too, that we're going to get these happy endings sometimes, and things don't always work out that way. So an inspired pick, I'll say, for Roxanna of Roof Man.

48:22And then And we are going to tilt things a little bit more to the serious side of the scale now, Michael, with your choice, which is a documentary and one that has certainly gotten some acclaim this year, but I'm not sure that many of our listeners are familiar with. Please tell us about your, I believe, number eight film of the year. Yeah, it's my number eight pick. It's called Orwell, 2 plus 2 equals 5. This is a really good documentary from Raul Peck, whose films include I Am Not Your Negro, the James Baldwin sort of exploration. He's a filmmaker who uses all these different tools of nonfiction film and personal essay to create documentaries that are bigger and go more places while sticking to their main subject than almost anything else going right now.

49:12And this is about George Orwell in the final phase of his life as he was writing the dystopian novel 1984 on the island of Jura, I think is it pronounced? Jura? Off the coast of Scotland. This was in the 40s. The novel came out in 1949, and that was the year before Orwell was born. Eric Arthur Blair died of tuberculosis. And there's a lot of correspondence of his that weaves through the documentary. It's really touching and beautifully written. And his life in England and in the British Empire he was born into, and which formed his entire personality, is just as well dramatized as the making of that novel.

49:59And it's also a film that talks to America right here, right now, in terms of truth and lies and the phrase thought criminal and thought criminality, which is Orwell's perpetually topical way of getting at how not just authoritarianism or fascism, but how just that sort of governmental impulse can grow and take seed and mess us all up. The one drawback, I'd say, of the movie, having just seen it once now, down at actually the Refocus Film Festival in Iowa City this summer, which is all about different adaptations. And Peck uses a big bunch of archival footage from film and television adaptations of 1984.

50:51It's useful footage, but you're also looking at work that isn't really terrific. No one's really made a great adaptation of 1984 yet. but Peck's film I would have to say even that's not strictly at all adapting that novel it's the best film related to it I've seen and since we're living in a nation right now where the current administration is sort of determined to make that new math if you want to call it that of the film's title two plus two equals five the official language it's really a film we need right now And it's just also just an eloquent, elegant piece of nonfiction filmmaking. So seek it out when you can.

51:33Orwell, two plus two equals five. The very concept of objective truth is fading out of this world. I'm going to set down what I dare not say aloud to anyone. This prospect frightens me much more than bombs. I think you adequately explained this, Michael. Adequately? Adequately more than adequately. That's a little light. explain this, but I just want to underscore it, having just caught up with this because it made your list. I didn't expect the extent to which this movie really uses Orwell and his work and his vision as an instrument more than anything. It's not really about Orwell. It's using Orwell as an instrument to be a polemic, to highlight this notion of fascism and to want to make a point not only about America, but about what's happening in a lot of countries.

52:26All over the world. That's right. All over the world. Yeah. Raoul Peck's Orwell 2 plus 2 equals 5 is also available VOD. And that brings us to my outlier, my outest of outliers, which is a movie. I put it in this category because up until a week ago, maybe 10 days ago, I'm not sure I had heard of the film. It's one of those December movies. I don't know if this happens to all of you, but in this rush of trying to get prepared for the end of the year, you end up seeing movies pop up on other lists. And they are movies that sometimes flew completely under your radar going through the year. And then you see some of the acclaim and you check it out and you're blown away by it.

53:12And that's the case with the film I actually have as my number three of the year from Grasshopper Films. it's called Afternoons of Solitude. It's a documentary by director Albert Serra, the Spanish filmmaker. He made Pacifixion in 2022, Liberté in 2019, The Death of Louis XIV in 2016. I haven't seen any of those films. So Serra is a new director to me. I think it got put on my radar because this was a film that made Richard Brody's list, I think at number three this year. And it was also number one on Cahiers de Cinemas list. So Afternoons of Solitude, I'm thinking, what could this movie be? It sounds like a very intense, arty film, certainly with subtitles.

53:58It's going to be a very meditative film. And then I see that it's a documentary about a bullfighter. Not what I imagined, but I thought, I'm in. I have to check this out. after I saw it and after I loved it I was searching for some information about it in terms of its release and stuff in our inbox Josh and back in July we got an email about it from a listener in New York City Zach Stetson completely overlooked it but I'll read it now because it sets up the movie nicely he said would highly recommend seeking out the documentary Afternoons of Solitude by Albert Serra it's a fascinating hypnotic exploration of the bullfighting world and the toxic masculinity that accompanies it, all told through a distinctive queer gaze.

54:41It can be alternately quite disturbing and difficult to watch while also being incredibly enthralling and beautifully photographed. I think it's coming to Chicago this weekend at the Gene Siskel Film Center. Hope you check it out and maybe give it a mention on the show. Obviously, did not check it out that weekend at the Gene Siskel Film Center and did not mention it on the show. Just now saw it, and I knew this was going to be one of my favorite films of the year six minutes in to this movie. Sarah's camera observes the subject this bullfighter Andres Roca Ray in his hotel room after a fight his back is to the camera he's wearing his white traje de luches the the suit of lights after a fight he's disrobing with the help of a personal attendant he needs help getting out of it he needs help getting into it you you see you see both of those activities we see some blood spatter, but as he turns to the camera, you see that his beautiful white suit is completely covered in blood along his abdomen and thighs.

55:43And it's just one of the most arresting cinematic images of the year. Roka's slender, regal, almost saintly figure. It's like he's just suffered for our sins. That's how I felt looking at him bathed in this amber glow of this hotel room light with the bright red spatters of blood and the crimson red of his tie and the belt that he's wearing. And Zach said it, that scene, the movie itself, it's beautiful. It's disturbing. The talk when another man enters the room is of a surgeon that he needs to meet with and the wound. And the whole time, Roka is just going about his post-game routine, if you will.

56:27And the conceit of the film or the formal approach that Sarah takes is he confines all the filming or most of it he confines to the ring, the hotel room, and the shuttle or the van that transports Roka to and from the ring. He's either arriving in full regalia or he's departing usually in medical scrubs. And the camera is just fixed to the seat in front of him, unobtrusively. So we sit with him and have to contemplate how he is possibly contemplating the battle that either awaits him or that he just experienced. There's no talking heads. There's no history lessons. There's no voiceover. It's just pure observation.

57:15And if you struggle watching any animals suffer, it's a brutal sport. You probably shouldn't watch this movie. The bulls are put in the ring to be taunted and killed. And I don't want to romanticize it, and I don't think Sarah romanticizes it. He certainly doesn't want to let us avoid seeing that brutality. We watch the agonizing deaths of the bulls. I watched in horror for a lot of this movie, but I also watched in awe of, I'm going to borrow the words of the men who are part of his team, Roka's immense balls. That word comes up a lot. masculinity is a key theme of this movie. How closely to the bulls he operates, that's the expectation.

58:00How closely he cheats death again and again. That moment you anticipate and sometimes get where total control devolves into total chaos. And the craft of the bullfighter, the technical and physical precision that Sarah captures with his camera, for me, there was something profound in in roca's solitude the solitude of the title he's surrounded by thousands of people in the arena he's supported by this team that's always around him in the ring and in the van and and sometimes in his hotel room but in the arena it's just his will versus the bulls it's it's only his life that's on the line and even thinking about it in cinematic terms you have a system that makes it all go.

58:43You've got a hostile media, a fickle audience. This is all mentioned in the movie, or you observe it, and Roka's in the middle of it. He's the star in the classical sense, and none of it works without him. It's such a purely cinematic experience. And it does also, this movie, lets me establish my theme for my list. I always end up seeing a connection between my picks once I get them all on paper, as if there was something sort of subconsciously guiding my choices. And this year, boy, 2025, what a year. This is going to be such a cheery list. I was drawn to characters from different parts of the world, different cultures, different worldviews, customs, you name it.

59:23But all it seems locked in a struggle between past and present, and usually marked by some form of trauma. In Afternoons of Solitude's quiet frames, this archaic ritual clashes with modernity evolving into an elegy for men like Roka who choose to dance with death it stunned me and it caught me completely by surprise it's available on Mubi but some other VOD platforms as well with a subscription great I can't wait to see it has anybody seen it? no I haven't yet no I haven't seen it you're right Adam these are the ones that we'll get to one like this later on my list that, you know, only vaguely aware of, but you see it in this rush.

1:00:10And I think it's more of a testament to the power of movie that can do to you what you just described in this season, right? When maybe it's even the second film you're watching in a day. It's not the pristine, always viewing theatrical experience. We talked about the start of the show, but if it grabs you within this own chaos or experiencing, then there's it's extra credit there's something extra special going on there before we get to our next set of outlier picks we do want to share another special guest voicemail this is from our friend mitchell beaupray from over at letterboxd hello film spotting family and friends this is mitchell beaupray head of editorial over at letterboxd so my number one favorite film of the year is Clint Bentley's train dreams.

1:00:57But since that's gotten a lot of love in various year-end wrap-ups, I wanted to take a moment to shout out my second favorite of 2025, Kyoshi Kurosawa's masterful cloud. Whether it's in the slow burn, eerie atmosphere and introspective interrogation of 21st century commerce and capitalism in cloud's first half, or the market shift into a balls-to-the-wall action thriller in the second half. Kurosawa had me on the edge of my seat with a movie that feels like it's constantly reinventing itself. The filmmaker trades on themes he's explored in the past in films like Cure and Pulse, while bringing them into a new, more chronically online than ever age.

1:01:40A five-star picture, start to finish. Thank you so much, Mitchell. And of course, thank you to Letterboxd for just being Letterboxd. We need Letterboxd in our lives always. And I'm going to vow, maybe I shouldn't vow because sometimes I can't deliver on my New Year's resolutions, but I'm going to throw out a New Year's resolution anyway and suggest that in 2026, I'm going to try to finally see a Kiyoshi Kurosawa movie. I haven't seen any of his films. Marathon, maybe? Allison, Michael, anybody, Josh, any of these films that you know for sure other than cloud that i should see oh god i yeah that's um i mean i feel like you have to see the kind of j horror adjacent ones right like he um but i mean they all kind of i think fit together but i i cure maybe maybe you should start with cure yeah yeah that seems to be the popular choice at least in the little bit of research that I've done?

1:02:47I mean, like Pulse, I think is his maybe like considered like his most widely known one here, maybe. And I think Pulse is great, but maybe starting with Cure is the good way to go. If you want to start with Cloud, it's currently available on the Criterion channel and also some other VOD platforms. Next up, we are ready for our next set of outlier picks. These are maybe more obvious. These are titles that all have, or almost all of them have some pretty major Oscar heat behind them. And Allison, you are up first. This is a movie that not many have had a chance to see yet. I believe it comes out Christmas Day very much, though, in the Oscar conversation, especially for its lead performance.

1:03:32And I think it's your number nine of the year. Yeah, I think that Marty Supreme is a just a spectacularly entertaining, chaotic, stressful, wonderful experience. You know, I was very curious when the Safdie brothers split and went their separate ways to each direct their own movie, what that was going to be like. You know, the way that the Coen brothers split, and then you're like, oh, suddenly I see what each of you was bringing to this, like, group package, you know? You're like, Joel was kind of bringing the purgatorial sensibility, and Ethan was, like, doing the funny stuff, and now separately you're just doing that and I don't like it as much.

1:04:10But I feel like Marty Supreme suggests that a lot of what I have associated with the Safdie sensibility, the Safdie brothers sensibility, is still rooted in Josh. In particular, that desire to center movies on characters who are basically addicted to riding on the edge of chaos and just courting disaster almost compulsively.

1:04:36Come on, he's right here! Get him a car!

1:04:42Have you ever thought about what you're doing to me? Give us all money! One of the things that Marty Supreme does so well is take this very Safdie-esque hero and use him, Marty. Marty Mouser, who considers himself to be a kind of almost like chosen one of table tennis talents. someone who has a calling, someone who can't help but just pursue his, has a duty to pursue his talent, even though there is no money in it and there is no real way for him to achieve the greatness he thinks he can achieve in the United States, at least. But just to use that character as this representation of the American dream in all of its compelling and repellent, you know, best and worst.

1:05:27And I do think that this is the best role that timothy chalamet has done so far in in that you understand why people agree to you keep saying yes to him despite the fact that it always ends badly for basically everyone he ever meets because he is so convinced that he is on the right path and he is so convinced that he needs to be helped and uh and he is charismatic he is also just so irritating and he is also just like so destructive uh this movie that's it like brings like genuine destruction to to a few people's lives in passing um but it's i i just i enjoyed it so much i think that like uh it beyond just the the kind of thrill of watching this character kareen on these different adventures basically in his attempt to get to the the table tennis world championships in tokyo despite having done a lot to just self-sabotage of his ability to get there.

1:06:24I feel like it offers a lot of layers about how Americans have self-mythologized this idea of individual success, this idea of being an underdog, the idea of needing to win against all odds and needing to do it on your own. Even if you're not actually doing it on your own, you're doing it by stepping on a lot of people. I think the ways in which it manages to be, have this character be both so appealing and so kind of awful is an incredible art. And I think like it also just creates this like sense of like visual and oral texture and chaos. You know, it summons a 1952 that feels entirely lived in and with like none of the kind of distance or sepia tone nostalgia that we often see.

1:07:15It like sometimes inadvertently attached to depictions of the past. Whenever you put it on screen, it feels entirely alive and lived in in ways that I thought were incredible. It has such an array of great faces in, like, cameo roles, in the background. You can do a deep dive into the cast list of this and be like, David Mamet? Where was David Mamet? You know? Isaac Mizrahi. I still haven't figured that out. He's the theater director. Of course. But it does have an incredible array of faces. It has some very famous ones, including Gwyneth Paltrow, who has been lured out of semi-retirement to play a retired screen star.

1:07:54I think she's great in this. You've got, you know, Abel Ferrara, who got like applause when when I saw this film, a surprise screening at the New York Film Festival. The room erupted in applause the first time he walks on. And then you absolutely understand that even though Abel Ferrara was making movies long before Josh Safdie was born, that he was always a Safdie character also somehow before such a thing even existed. I mean, this is a movie that casts Fran Drescher and Sandra Bernhardt together in scenes together. Like the power of that. I just I just found it so alive, you know, and I think like there are a lot of ways in which this movie has things in common with Uncut Gems, which is I loved Uncut Gems.

1:08:38And I loved the just enormous understanding it has for those characters who, yes, like thrive on chaos and thrive on the idea that things could fall apart. But I think it feels more mature than that. And I think I've seen it twice now and I appreciated it even more the second time in just the ways in which it grapples with, yes, a character who is so certain that he knows what he's doing and that he he knows the path to greatness. And I do not want to spoil the end in any way, but I think it ends in this perfect note that balances the sweet and sour so incredibly. And in particular, really calls into question the idea of who the underdog is, you know, the kind of compulsive way we always tend to see ourselves as underdogs, even when we are very clearly not.

1:09:28um and yeah i just think this is a really great movie i think and um it made it made me think that also yes a lot of what i have loved about the kind of safty brothers sensibility also like lies not just in josh but in ronald bronstein who is has been the co-writer on all of these movies and is a co-writer here and it's i think he and josh safty seem to have a real kind of like chaotic uh mind melds together when they're making these movies so uh he is i guess sort of the third Safdie brother, the uncredited third Safdie brother. But I think he does a lot to bring to these movies something that I find key.

1:10:07I was just going to say in the terms of Bronstein works as editor for both of them on Uncut Gems and here on Marty Supreme. And to your point, Allison, about the chaos and the propulsiveness and being carried along through that, it's due to the writing, the performances, but the editing as well. So he's great. If you haven't seen Frownland, Bronstein's film Frownland, I mean, that's a great kind of introduction to the sort of itchy, scratchy, you know, comedy of panic that, that the, both Safdies and like that whole world, that whole sort of like loose conglomerate of filmmakers and collaborators.

1:10:40They all tend to work with each other, um, get at. And it really is that sort of, it's, it's the humor of the self-inflicted wound, you know, and, and, you know, that, that's kind of what I get from the other films I've seen. And I, this is the film I didn't see the one that hangs heavy I did not quite get the time to see this so I can't wait to see it Allison and I hope it just from the trailers I see what you mean about it looking like in ways beyond how it's lit and framed but it just looks like an artifact of 1952 in the best way production design costuming everything and the mustache and the mustache yeah his little and the mustache it's shot by Darius Kanji who is obviously like an enormous talent, but I think like brings, yeah, this really kind of like rich look to 1952 that I loved.

1:11:34Yeah. Yeah. This is a movie, Josh, we may discuss in full after the new year, one of those Christmas releases that we end up talking about later. So probably don't want to say too much, but you know, we've talked a little bit this year about my focus on sports movies, teaching a class about it. And as a ping pong film, I mean, Alison, it's like, she wrote my syllabus for me, right? Talking about the American dream, underdog stories, inspirational and the repellent side of that, the awful or the downside of that. It is all there certainly in this character and in this movie. And I'm sure we will get into how, if you had any doubts that this was going to be a Safdie brothers movie in the vein of uncut gems, even though it doesn't mimic the same style of Uncut Gems.

1:12:20He is absolutely a Safdian hero in the vein of Howard Ratner and some others that we have seen. It will be a fun one to discuss in more detail if we get that opportunity. It comes out Christmas Day. See it if you can. An 11 through 20 pick for me. Absolutely. And we're highlighting Timothee Chalamet seems like a lock for a Best Actor nomination. So let's move to another voicemail pick for a film of the year that's going to highlight a favorite performance of the year for this voicemailer. And this actress also seems like someone who's going to be in contention for Best Actress at the Oscars. This is our friend Melissa Taminga from Bellingham, Washington.

1:13:04Hey, Adam and Josh. As I reflect on what movies find their way most deeply into my heart each year. I think it's often the films that impact me in ways I can't quite trace or move me for reasons I don't initially understand, so that I'm feeling a flood of emotions, but my brain is still kind of scrambling to catch up. And The Testament of Anne Lee from writer-director Mona Faustfold was a film like that. And part of what I loved about the experience of Anne Lee was I was not at all sure initially I'd be able to get on board with the film even though i love musicals i had this oh this is a musical moment that quickly morphed to holy hell what kind of music musical is this and is that the kind of dancing they're going to be doing the whole time all of us have suffered on our journey we have made tremendous sacrifices to receive the greatest love that one can experience.

1:14:09So I think it was perhaps my very resistance in the beginning that made the surrender by the end of the film so intense because by the end, I was certainly completely in the film's grasp. And I honestly still don't know why a film about the founder of The Shakers, something I know or care a little about, got me so deeply. it certainly could be something to do with my own background growing up in a charismatic church always being a little scared of the the weird and dangerous fanaticism but being drawn to it and fascinated by it too I mean it might be something to do with the socio-political religious residences in the American landscape today it might be something to do with for better for worse the fact that musicals always do move me that sort of peculiar expression of song and dance that we really don't see anywhere else in life.

1:15:01And it might be something to do with the portrayal of a woman leader like Anne Lee. It's so vulnerable and so powerful at the same time. How often do we see portrayals like that? And maybe it's something to do with Amanda Seyfried, an utterly transformative performance. I don't know if it's any of that or all of that or something else, but I do know it moved me and provoked me like no other film this year and left me kind of ragged and raw and also well ecstatic about the power of cinema. So the Testament of Anne Lee movie of the year for me. Thanks, guys. Our thanks to Melissa. Amanda Seyfried's performance is another one that I was very fond of this year.

1:15:44And Mona Fastfold's direction. This is a movie that seems very much of a piece with the brutalists from last year in many ways. The direction that film she co-wrote, of course, but the direction, the subject matter, it's it's heroin tying to the hero of that film as well even though the subject matter seems like it couldn't be more different and yes i had no idea this is the benefit of watching a film coming in i think it's the benefit of coming into films as i often do knowing absolutely nothing about them except that it was based on a religious figure in the shakers i did not know that it had any kind of musical leaning whatsoever.

1:16:23And this film is pretty much a musical. And those dance scenes, the choreography of those scenes, the camera work and the editing of those scenes are a wonder. That's the reason, the biggest reason for me to see The Testament of Anne Lee. Yeah, it's a bold choice to do a religious biopic essentially that way, Adam. And I think for the most part, I'd agree it works. They pull it off. The idea of also just being like, how do you represent an ecstatic experience? It is something that is largely internal. So the idea of then channeling it out into a choreographed, these strange and beautiful choreographed numbers, I think is really effective.

1:17:08That comes out in limited release on Christmas Day, supposed to expand to more theaters in January and maybe even on into February. So look for the Testament of Anne Lee. Josh, you're going to now take us to a movie that's getting a lot of acclaim for a key supporting performance, and it's your number four film of the year? Yeah, Weapons, number four. And Amy Madigan's turn here as Aunt Gladys, it isn't even one of my favorite things about Weapons. To be clear, she's a hoot. But for me, it was a lot of the other stuff going on in this Bazonkers movie from Zach Greger's. Let me just list them here.

1:17:49The very concept, I was hooked the moment I heard about this, this idea that every child in this third grade class, except for one, runs from their homes at 2.17 AM the same morning. No one knows why or where they went. The filmmaking here is just so assured and in control from the imagery of those kids running down the suburban streets, you know, their arms out to their sides to the shocking set pieces. There are at least three that I don't think I'll ever forget. And speaking of at the top of this show, when we talked about theatrical experiences and being with people, you want to do that for comedy.

1:18:27You want to do that for horror. And there is a moment here. I think the bottom dropped out on our theater, just like the floor disappeared and everyone just simultaneously had that sense of, of just being outside of themselves, um, which the best horror horror can do. Uh, at the same time, this is a very serious movie. I found it to be, um, I think it has a lot of potency as a, as a Pied Piper inspired, uh, school shooting allegory. And speaking of American crises, the getting them weekly, we just had another instance of this, right? It's relevant again this week. So Weapons, for me at least, I think it was this expert horror movie that tapped into that impotent rage that so many of us are feeling right now, once again, when more American children or young people are being sacrificed at the idol of firearms.

1:19:21So add all those up. And yes, that Amy Madigan supporting turn, which kind of shows up and grabs the movie by the throat. I'm always looking for an excuse to add a horror movie to my top 10 list and weapons more than filled the bill this year. I paid off a great amount the second time too, which I, which certainly is not true of all, even really effective horror films because the contraptions sprung and you know what's coming or whatever, but there's something about the way this thing zigzags and then makes this insane and completely successful leap into basically the most violent slapstick you can possibly get away with.

1:20:01I mean, the fact that it turns kind of screwball, you know, slapstick comedy in the last 15 minutes and pulls it off is just sort of a tonal feat that is, you know, it's actually the sort of thing I love. And there are films, other films this year that sort of made similar mashup choices between like completely contrasting genres that pays off at great. And I think, I really can't wait to see what that filmmaker does next. But this is a really strong movie. Yeah, this just missed my top 10. I thought it was terrific. And I thought it was such a wildly unpredictable mix of really effective, creepy scenes.

1:20:45A few well-placed jump scares, but also, yeah, some just outrageously funny aspects as well. I think this has a great ending. I just like I remember seeing it, you know, at a press greeting and a friend of mine like punched another friend just in delight. I just like what happens at the ending. And I do I understand the read of it as being, you know, as you put Josh about being about a mass shooting. Though I also feel like one of the things I enjoyed about it was that it felt like it evaded anything, any kind of like easy allegory. You know, I think that even the shootings one is like glanced at, but then also there's something weirder going on.

1:21:29And I think for me, ultimately, like what was so successful about this film is also that it felt like it was grappling with a general sense of suburban disconnects. You know, like when we do finally learn what has been happening, in part, it is enabled by the thing that allows, you know, like this is a just like kind of a typical small town, you know, like in Pennsylvania, but where everyone just goes home to their houses at night. And, you know, I think that that is something that a lot of us do. But also because of that, like being kind of together, but also in isolation, you have like this kind of terrible thing that's happening in the middle of the community that the only person who really notices it is the unhoused drug user who just happens to be outside the community and actually pays attention to, you know, newspapers piling up outside of this like neglected house.

1:22:21Everyone else's eyes just glide over it. And I think there is something that it gets at about the kind of loneliness of a lot of its characters because they are living in a community, but they don't really have closeness, you know, including the teacher who it starts with, you know, Julia Garner's character, who you start off and you think you know exactly what this character is going to be. She's going to be, you know, made into a scapegoat by this community. And that happens. But also, she just is much more chaotic herself than you would ever dream. And I just, I love the ways in which the movie surprises you that way.

1:22:55Hey, I want to talk to you. I don't think we have anything to say to each other. I think you have a lot to say. You and every other person in this city, believe me, the message is loud and clear. I'm the problem. Got it. You know what? I think that's the first honest thing I've heard you say. You are the problem. What, you want to get in my face? You want to threaten me? nobody's threatening you right now the wrong tree okay this whole victim persona that you're taking on it might have that was such a plus to have the to have a character uh written and and beautifully performed uh that that doesn't kind of isn't just there for sort of the audience identification figure or any of that it's it's a much it's a much flintier sort of portrayal of somebody who's just kind of like you know kind of bumper carring her way through her own life inside this crazy scenario.

1:23:42And it's, it's great. And it's great to have a performance and a performer that doesn't, doesn't sort of like seek the audience sympathy first. Yeah. And I will say also, I want to shout out to Benedict Wong, who is at the center of, I think one of the most, probably the most disturbing scene in the movie for me. And one that happens in the bright light of day. Uh, you know, and it's when the bottom dropped out on our theater, incredibly upsetting. Also to your point, But Alison, I'm glad you said that about the allegory because you're right. It is there if you look for it. But I would hate for someone listening who, you know, hasn't seen weapons and it's like, well, I don't want to go see a school shooting allegory.

1:24:20It's just available. And I think if it had been more explicit, I would not have responded as much to the movie. There's one image that I think that pushes you in that direction. That's maybe, you know, it's been debatable whether that was a worthwhile image to include. But yeah, your description is apt where it opens itself up to that, but doesn't necessarily have to be about it. It can be about many, many unsettling things. Well, it's a film that came up in our opening discussion for a reason as one of the key original films of the year. Right. And you mentioned it, Josh, and we talked about it during our review when it came out.

1:25:00Some of the most arresting images of the year in any genre. But not only that, within the horror genre, one or two images that are now just part of the canon. when you think of great horror images. And to this discussion about what it all means, how much fun is it when you have a film like this? I don't think there was any movie. I'm pretty sure there was no movie all year. And maybe we can go back a couple years, Josh, where we got more email about a film and what it meant and what it meant personally to people that we got to respond to on the show than this film. And it's great when a film gives you that much to dig into.

1:25:42And there is that much to dig into with Zach Krager's weapons. So I'm glad that it made your list a very good film from 2025. Here's how good I think 2025 is. Richard Linklater, one of my favorite filmmakers, made two movies I loved this year. And I could only find a spot for one of them in my top 10. And, you know, somehow I still have this reputation as a cheater. you're even going to hear it I'm sure later in the show even though I I defy listeners to find the last time I cheated here's a prime opportunity did I cheat no Nouvelle Vogue guess what 11 through 20 I'm just going with Blue Moon and I am putting Blue Moon all the way up at number four on my list I talked about my theme for this year the past Rogers and Hart including Blue Moon My Funny Valentine, Bewitched, Bothered, and Bewildered.

1:26:39What a great song. The present and future, Rodgers and Hammerstein, including Oklahoma! Sardis, the night the entire movie takes place, the date I think is March 31st, 1943. This is the nexus with Ethan Hawks, Lorenz Hart, struggling to come to terms with his identity in this new reality. And the trauma stemming from his alcoholism and attempt attempts to go sober, this split, this fracture from Rogers and the heights that he clearly knows are inevitable for this new team, for Rogers without him. But one of the strengths of the film, and I touched on this during our review, is that the pain extends to Rogers as well.

1:27:30And you see his sincere attempts to reunite Rogers and Hart, whether it's out of pity for him because of where Hart is at in his life and career, whether it's out of nostalgia, whether it is out of love for him or all of the above, you see the crushing defeat that Andrew Scott, as Richard Rogers, continually shows in his performance with every heart misstep. And there are lots of heart missteps. It makes him, it makes Rogers almost a tragic figure in all of this too. And about Hawk, yes, Robert Capelo, the screenwriter and Linklater, they give him a lot of fun dialogue to spit out, but I'm going to say they don't make it easy on Hawk.

1:28:18They give us, the audience, those opening contrasting quotes. Hammerstein, set of heart that he was alert and dynamic and fun to be around. And then we get cabaret star Mabel Mercer, who said he was the saddest man I ever knew. They set the audience expectations that that Hawk has to then fully embody that contradiction. And I was thinking back on our discussion about the movie, Josh, and I get why you compared him to Jesse from before sunrise. I think I might have even said it was a good comp. I'm going to at least disagree with myself. Anyway, they talk a lot. They philosophize. There's a grandiloquence about both of them, I suppose.

1:29:03But they really couldn't be more different people or very different or more different performances. Part of that's just due to the volume of words and the pace. But I also want to be clear, my point here is to underscore how much depth I think Hawk brings to this performance. Jesse is young and smart enough to know that he doesn't understand that much about the world or as much about the world as he'd like to think he knows. He's a questioner. Hart, I think, is like Holly Hunter's character in Broadcast News. You know that great scene where the network exec says, it must be nice to always know or always believe you know better to always think you're the smartest person in the room.

1:29:44And what does Jane say back? No, it's awful. I'm not sure Hart, who is always the smartest person in the room, would ever admit that it's awful. but I also don't think he has to because we feel the torment. We sense it in every bravura turn of phrase, in every brilliant jab that he gets in, and he gets in a lot of both. I think there's so much radiance in Hart, but there's also a lot of desperation. And watching their minds at work, heart's mind and hawk's mind at work the that was that was one of my greatest movie joys of the year they should put my picture on that bottle the whiskey that made loren's heart unemployable it remains that much of a great movie going experience and that's why it's so high for me at number four yeah he hawk is very very good here i mean for my cfca ballot just on the outside.

1:30:49So the level of dexterity at work is incredibly impressive. Yeah, I think he's great. And I think also there are ways in which this scenario, the scenario of the film could feel unbearably contrived. You know, I've had I've talked to people who didn't like it as much who are like, well, it's just a play. And I felt like, sure, I can see that, except that I feel like the ways in which it tries to just kind of look at this entire life through this particular, this lens and this, you know, fictional, essentially like fictional, you know, night that in which, which he is watching everyone in his life essentially move on without him and understands that's happening.

1:31:28But I think it does it so well. And I think this is also like a theatrical person, you know, the idea like of him having an almost self-aware night, like a bleak night of the soul in which he is watching. He knows all of this is happening. And I think one of the things that is so wonderful about Hawk's performance is that he plays this character as though he is the talking is his way to kind of keep weaving this protective self mythologizing shield around himself. That's it. But he keeps like kind of like running out like you can you can sense that he's like his ability to maintain that is running out, you know.

1:32:02And as soon as like he kind of stops, you can see the tragedy that he knows is there underneath. If he stops talking, it's somehow the spell, it's going to end. Reality is going to set in, and he can't have that happen. That's why he just keeps talking and keeps talking as fast as he is. That's the desperation that I sense anyway. And I'm glad you said that because I do feel about the movie and the staging. It just doesn't feel. And here again, I'm in the bag for Linklater. But watching that film, I never sensed that confinement. I don't think that gives Linklater near enough credit in terms of the cinematography and the editing, how they use that space, how they block where all the characters are in that space, how every time.

1:32:51Ethan Hawke how heart turns there is a motivation to every single edit and every single composition how that space is used within Sardis I think it's a very sophisticated use of that space even though it's a single spot or a single space movie if you will so I'm going to praise Linklater and how he uses it even though Michael I don't think you're as big a fan of Blue Moon as I I like Linklater a lot. I do think, though, one of the best scenes of the year, easily, is that extended conversation on the staircase after the opening night crowd from Oklahoma has been ushered in, and it's just obviously a monster success and will change everything which Hart knew going in and new coming out.

1:33:43And that scene between Andrew Scott as Rogers, who was a very bloodless character in real life, a pretty steely cold fish, and you get elements of that, but you do get that sort of melancholy farewell quality in that he knows there won't be many more conversations like this because this man will be dead soon. So Dwight Wyman and I have been talking about bringing back a Connecticut Yankee. Terrific. I'm thinking of asking Vivian Siegel. Oh, my God. Oh, it's going to be longer than Oklahoma. I'll buy 50 seats myself. I've got a new title. Oh, Camelot. Well, I think we're going to stick with Connecticut inking.

1:34:27Camelot exclamation point. Okay, come on, I've been serious here. I'm always serious. That's why people find me so funny. So I was thinking if you feel up to working, then maybe... I've never felt better in my life. I think that's kind of the feeling you get. And certainly Hawk has a lot to play of all that going on. But there's just a lot going on sort of externally and under the surface. and it's like it's it's a wonderful five seven minutes and there's a lot of like hawk you know i have a i have that slight issue where i i just feel that he is you know in the interview he talked about working with philip seymour hoffman and he said that on on the lamette film before the devil knows you're dead right uh and hawk said that his whole impulse and the performance was on his work, and it was just to simply sort of show off to the co-stars he was working with that he revered, kind of just to impress.

1:35:27And I don't know what it takes for him to lose that impulse, even now, all these decades into his career. He's wonderful, but I feel that it's a bit of a trap playing this sort of garrulous and nonstop a character, he doesn't really quite sense when to deliver 100 % instead of 115. And even Linklater, you know, who he's obviously, you know, they have such a comfort level. And he's so, you know, he's wonderful in Boyhood, Hawk. And he's been wonderful in lots of things. Great in First Reformed. You know, really having to tamp down every actor's instinct he has to play a guy that buttoned down in the Paul Schrader film.

1:36:14But it's my slight issue with Hawk, and I think it's more me than him. So just disregard. Disregard my opinion. I already forgot what you said. I disregarded him so strongly. Thank you. Thank you, guys. Also, I will say, I've seen a lot of conversations about Before the Devil Knows You're Dead and comments that Hawk has made over the years. And one thing he said about shooting that film is that Lumet was one of those directors, and lots of directors have done this over the years, especially when you have heavyweights like Hawk, but especially Philip Seymour Hoffman, and they have a lot of scenes together like that, is he pitted them against each other.

1:36:50Oh, yeah, yeah, he did the Iliak-Kazan thing. Every day it was, can you believe what Philip Seymour Hoffman is doing? Look at what he did yesterday. Can you match that, Ethan? You know, everything was about trying to get him up to 115 % to match what Philip Seymour Hoffman was doing. So, I don't know. Maybe I'll cut him a little bit of slack for that. But Blue Moon, if you haven't seen it yet, it is available to rent. It's one of those more expensive movies right now. It's$19.99, but you can see it on most platforms. We have one more. No, we actually have two more outlier picks here before we get into some titles that made a couple of our lists.

1:37:26And we're going to throw it back to you, Allison, a film that you have at number three. Actually, up until the last minute, this was a movie that was on two lists. Michael jettisoned it for another movie. But we know that you're a big fan. Actually, I know that all four of us are big fans of this movie. It just turns out that, Allison, you're the only one that made room for it on your top 10. With the courage of my convictions. Yeah. You know, it turns out Richard Linklater made two pretty darn good movies this year. Steven Soderbergh, I think, made two pretty darn good movies this year. Which one of those two made the cut for you?

1:37:59Well, as much as I loved Presence, his unusual ghost story movie from the start of the year, Black Bag, his espionage, dinner party, thriller, slash salute to a marriage, I think is like one of the most underrated films of the year. I, you know, it's one of those movies. And I do feel like this year, maybe I waited the just the kind of the delight I took in the just like the the the actual stuff of movies a bit more this year, maybe because also it has felt, I don't know, like something that has felt more important to me lately. just the sheer pleasure of a movie going experience. But I also like, you know, Stoderbergh, he makes a lot of these like really kind of like almost experiments of movies, these doodles of movies that are usually based around one particular star and have like one big idea to them, either stylistically or in terms of concept.

1:38:56And so to watch him do something bigger, even though this is not an enormous film, it is certainly a kind of larger film than he's made in a while, has just been such a wonderful reminder that I think there is almost there's maybe no one better working today who knows how to appreciate movie star quality in his cast. You know, I think like out of sight, Aaron Brockovich, the Oceans movies are all just tributes to people on screen looking just like like demigods, gods who come down to, you know, like just like more beautiful, more charismatic, more compelling than the average human being and just like reveling in those qualities on screen.

1:39:31And I think this movie does that again. And to watch him like kind of take that back up and just to prove that he can do it so effortlessly when he wants to. I just I appreciated so much. You know, I think in particular, Cate Blanchett and Michael Fassbender as these married spies who have come up with, you know, particular rules about how that can work when they have to keep enormous secrets from one another. But they are also just like unbearably hot. You know, they live in this incredible London townhouse that becomes the scenes of two very tense, funny, thrilling dinner parties, one of which they drug people to try and get a secret out of them.

1:40:13But I think just like the ways in which this is also a John le Carre riff that is like, what if George Smiley were actually in a great marriage? You know, what if, what if, uh, it's, I, you know, it's so explicitly trying to play off of the idea of George Smiley, but to be like, yes, what if him being a wife guy wasn't this kind of sad, uh, like funny aspect of his character, but actually part of like, this is the kind of like defining quality, uh, of his life, uh, and, and his surprisingly happy home life. I just I think that this movie just moves along so well and so wonderfully. It really is just so pleasurable to watch.

1:40:52And it has this great supporting cast. Marissa Abela, I think, is like a particular delight. Incredible. But like Tom Burke, Naomi Harris, Roger Jean Page, Pierce Brosnan as a higher up. This is a kind of nefarious higher up. I just I think it's just such a good time. in just like in a lot of the basic things that we just like look for in a movie going, which is to say like larger than life stars, like twists and thrills and humor and sexiness. And it offered all of those things. It made me so sad that it did not become an enormous hit. It's one of those movies that I think will eventually like end up on Netflix and then people will make it their whole personality.

1:41:33But as is, it kind of came and went in theaters. and I think the people who did see it, I feel like most people I talked to loved it, which made me sad that it wasn't able to catch on more. I think it's great. I was puzzled, too, that it wasn't a bigger hit. I really enjoyed it, and it's my number 11 now, as of this morning, as Adam can tell you. But I finally saw a different one that I wanted to see. Is it David Koepp? Is that how you pronounce his name? Yeah, David Koepp. When Koepp and Soderbergh get together, as they did with Kimmy, you know the film for me from the COVID the worst of the COVID years I mean it's such a that is such a great bracing zingy sort of variation on a rear window a little bit and when they are just magic together when they just kind of have have this sort of pleasure principle foremost in their mind It's just a relief, too, from so much blockbuster viewing that we've kind of had in our lives where the stakes are always universe-ender scenarios, in the Marvel realm particularly.

1:42:45But just to see a film that has sort of the right size and amount of tension and conflict, it's not, and it's witty first and it's action-oriented second. And maybe that's what didn't attract the audience. People, I think, are just kind of inured to, you know, they come to expect a certain amount of rote, casual sadism on the fly. And the film is not really about that. It's about higher things. I love it. I mean, it was an easy second watch too. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. You're right. I do think like also the ways in which it outsources, instead of having a major action set piece, it has like a verbal set piece, right?

1:43:28Like it's a joust over a dinner party table. Yeah. There's dinner parties. Yeah. Those are absolutely the highlights. I had a similar journey to you, Michael, with Black Bag in and out of my top 10 list as we approached the end of the year here. I thought, you know, I'm a fan of Soderbergh, but not the champion that so many other people are. And I thought, oh, finally, I get to have a Soderbergh film on a top 10 list because it just feels like something I should have at some point. But you know what? As I said, this just turned out to be a great movie year, the more movies you saw. And so that's sort of what happened with Black Bag.

1:44:02I did give it a nod because I think to your point about the dinner party's house and the secret ingredient to Black Bag is the editing, which is Soderbergh doing that as well. And that first dinner party sequence is just a masterclass in the art form of editing. You could just show that and be like, this is how deciding when to cut and what to cut to and how long to hold something can communicate everything you need to communicate in a scene. I mean, there's a lot more going on there than that, but to me, that's the crucial element. So yeah, huge fan of Black Bag as well. A great scene with Marissa Bela, who I've championed throughout this entire year, that scene where there is some actual espionage going on, there's this whole satellite thing and Fassbender and Cate Blanchett, but it's still really just a dialogue scene.

1:44:52It's mostly verbal. We're seeing the espionage part is occurring over footage and all of the tension, all of the real action is what's just happening in the room between two people there. And that's what all of the good action in that film is either happening between characters and what they're saying or between the words of what they're saying. And everything, Allison, you articulated in terms of the dynamic between the married couple here, what's still so fun about this movie is because it's a really smartly written espionage film is that we know that everything is up for grabs, that we can't trust.

1:45:35They're spies. We can't trust anybody. We there's double crosses and triple crosses and maybe quadruple crosses. And so we never have our bearing and we're constantly grasping. And just when we think we may understand the dynamic of a relationship, we never we never know quite what we can believe. And that's the fun of this film, right, is the way it just sort of leads us along, constantly hoping for some solid ground. And I agree, Black Bag is one of the highlights of the year, 11 through 20 for me, but didn't quite make the cut. That brings us to, though I'll mention, on Prime Video and other VOD platforms, if you haven't seen Black Bag yet, that brings us to our last outlier pick.

1:46:19It's the number two film of the year for Michael Phillips, but I think appropriate for this title, I'm going to let a woman do the honors here, Michael, and jump in ahead of you. Let's hear from Amy Nicholson. Hey, film spotters. Amy Nicholson here from the Los Angeles Times. You don't need me to go on about why Sinners is the best movie of the year. So instead, let me gush about my number two, Nia DeCosta's Hedda, starring Tessa Thompson as a hell of a good Hedda Gabler. If you've seen the Ibsen play, any of its versions, it starred Ingrid Bergman, Cate Blanchett, Rosamund Pike, Maggie Smith, Glenda Jackson, you already know why this role is held up as the female Hamlet.

1:46:57But Nita Costa's brilliant adaptation showcases everything that this mean, nasty story already is, and she adds to it. She's got these smart casting staging tweaks that somehow, please do not haunt me on this, Henrik Ibsen, somehow make this had up feel even more pleasurable, even more alive. You sing. What? On edge. Hey, darling. What are you up to? You'll see. You're not leaving, are you? Best to resist temptation. Oh, come on, Eileen. You're stronger than that. What is good indeed?

1:47:31Sometimes I can't help myself. Jesus, these people. This movie is fun. It's gorgeous. It has so much to talk about afterwards, including raving about the costumes, the cinematography, the supporting performances by Nita Haas and Imogen Poots. if you are still finalizing your top 10 you gotta make time for Hedda. I tried like hell to to match it to match Amy on this I mean I really want I saw Hedda very late and this has been sort of my peculiar year that you know I left the Tribune in August I didn't see a lot of these movies that turned out to be many of the best 20 I saw this year I didn't see them in the usual pace.

1:48:11I saw them in great gobs of viewing in the last couple, three, four weeks, maybe four, probably two or three. And to see all this quality was almost disorienting for me, frankly. And Hedda just, I thought was just ripping, you know. I mean, I can't really weigh in on whether or not Hedda's going to work for anybody if they're not a little familiar with the Henrik Ibsen play, which is driven by sexual blackmail, which is a good start, you know, for getting your interest, I think. But it's, you know, as Amy sort of alluded to, it's about the trophy wife of the world's dullest academic and her incurable itch for this secret love from her past, right?

1:48:54But I can tell you this, I've never seen a stage or a film version of this play half as juicy as what Nia DaCosta has come up with here, starring Tessa Thompson. And it's just a great wholesale reinvention of this 1891 play as a 1930s Somerset Mom-type period piece. But that's really just in setting only because it's just this genuinely thirsty romantic tragedy the way it's handled here. and it opens up to all kinds of issues, really dramatically vital issues of sexism, racism, queer sensuality, black accommodations of the white-stockracy, we'll call it, that could drive a woman to just about anything.

1:49:41And I've always been really transfixed by this play, even if I haven't seen great productions of it. People have been debating what makes this character of Hedda so memorable is because it's not, it's, you know, and yet people were always perplexed by it. Every, back in 1891, it was people were like, what is she? Is she supposed to be sympathetic? Is she a monster? Is she a victim, predator? What is she? And even Henry James, you know, a pretty good writer actually, did a little criticism and he was intrigued by the play, but said, I don't know what type of woman this is supposed to be. and that's the kind of stupid response that has limited uh people's ideas about how to how to activate this this character in this material but i'll tell you no one has figured it out better than nia da costa because it's not one type it's 17 facets going on at once it's it's uh it's it's it's it's it's in every scene between thompson and nina haas uh imogen poots fantastic Catherine Hunter is great.

1:50:49It's just alive with electricity. And it's also DaCosta's most fluid direction of the day. She's always been a good director, but this is the most, I think, enveloping work I've seen from her. Really wanted to give it number one. Tried, but it's my number two. I like this from a lot. And I really I appreciate your insights into the ways in which that character has been received or baffled people over the years. Something I really loved about DaCosta's interpretation is that it suggests almost like this character is just like waging this kind of capricious war of destruction almost just because she's so kind of dynamic and smart and has no outlet for it.

1:51:33No outlet. No outlet. Thwarted. She is bubbling over with just like all of this potential that she sees no way of like channeling into anything other than this life. Yeah. And so it almost overflows into a desire to destroy the things around her, including this woman she loves, you know, like just out of a need to mark the world in some way. And I loved that. Love it. And Ibsen may not have been that much more enlightened than Henry James, but he said, I think this character has poetry deep down. That was the way he phrased it. And it cannot, nobody can really see it and she can't get it out because society is not there yet.

1:52:14is not ready for that. And just the way Dacosta's kind of reoriented the entire sexual energy of the piece to make this mysterious character from the past, Eilid Loveborg, female instead of male, and somehow moving the setting up a few decades did the trick, you know? And it's not just a gimmick. And I think anybody who does know the play and just doesn't really quite like this adaptation because it changed too much. I don't know. I've seen too many adaptations of great plays and great everything that just got into trouble and ended up being dull because they didn't change enough. So anyway, hats off to Acosta for making it the way she wanted to make it.

1:53:02And in all that scrambling you've been describing, which makes this endlessly interesting, there's another element she threw in. Having done the other Candyman film, I detected this flare of horror going on in the depiction of Hedda. This is like an infernal Hedda. And a lot of the imagery emphasizes that. The costuming emphasizes that. There are moments where one thing you ask, the many things you ask about this character, is she demon possessed? Is she downright demonic? I mean, where are some of these choices coming from? And there are a lot of motivations we've already touched on. And I would just throw that in because visually that's a choice that DaCosta, I think, is making here as well, which is also fascinating.

1:53:44It's actually got more use of the color crimson red than like a Guillermo del Toro film. I mean, it's like, yes, I love that insight, though, Michael, from you from Ibsen, because even that informs the notion or it allows me to understand without necessarily sympathizing with her any more than anybody else watching the film. we understand that it isn't any one thing or two things or three things that's driving her. She is potentially just this misfit. There is something fundamentally broken within her because of the way she can't interact with society. There's something missing, perhaps, I think, in the way you were describing.

1:54:21There's some disconnection. And that is interesting. That's a fascinating idea. And you're right about, you know, this is a movie that in the hands of other filmmakers, you would imagine it being like her husband, like her husband, stuffy, very stuffy. And there is nothing. I love the words that you were using, like ripping and alive, electric. That is, those are all terms that apply to this film and the direction of this film. The costume choices, the editing, the cinematography. It is one of those films that, you know, Josh, as you were saying earlier, my reaction to even a film like Afternoons of Solitude, you're watching so many films.

1:55:03Michael, this is one for you as well. You're cramming in so many movies. A lot of them start to all blend together. Head is one of those movies, 11 through 20 for me. You put in and it stands out immediately because of these choices that we're talking about in the performances as well. You know something special is happening with this film. So definitely seek out Nia DaCosta's head if you haven't seen it. It's streaming exclusively on Prime Video. We do have a few more outliers we have to hit before we get into our shared picks. We're going to go through this fairly quickly, but there are some some movies here, Josh, among our golden brick finalists.

1:55:42a lot of them, in fact, that actually made top 10 lists that that usually happens. I don't know if we've ever had quite this many, and you're mainly the one responsible. We'll, we'll all get to that. The film spotting golden bricks. This is actually our 17th annual commemoration. We're, we're doing this for the 17th time, the film spotting golden brick award. This is our film of the year by a new or emerging director. We did pretty well last year, gave it to Payal Kapadia for all we imagine as light. I think that was my number, maybe my number one of the year. Okay. So yeah, we do often have some crossover here in 2025.

1:56:24We had 14 films that made the golden brick long list, and we have narrowed that down now to five finalists and three of those finalists made your top 10. One of them also made Michael's list and Michael's going to do the honors in a second of telling us more about that choice. But we're going to go through these and Josh, you're going to start us off because one of these golden brick nominees is your number five film of the year. Boys go to Jupiter. This is my, you know, Hedda was for Michael maybe and Afternoons of Solitude was for you. Adam, it sounds silly because this movie came out in the summer, I believe, but it's the movie I'm the most excited about right now at this moment, having just seen it.

1:57:12It was just a thrill. Listeners can go back to our previous episode. I mentioned it briefly and we did run down that long list of Golden Brick titles. So if you're curious about what else has been in the mix this year, previous to these finalists, go back and listen to that show. I think I was kind of babbling because I hadn't written down any thoughts. I was just kind kind of in a giddy awe of the experience. But this is from writer-director Julian Glander, and he brings this lo-fi animated aesthetic to a pretty simple story, but also this has a lot of humor that's very beguiling as the movie is following a group of teenagers in suburban Florida, basically hanging out.

1:57:51I described it on that show, Adam, a kinder, gentler South Park, and I think that holds up after a little more thought. Part of that comparison is the social commentary that's going on here very lightly. It mostly centers on one of these kids, Billy, who spends his days speeding around on a hoverboard delivering food for a service called Grubster. His goal in life is to save up enough money, enough cash to move out of his older sister's garage. So this is very much low-key about the economic despair of America's youth, but it's hilarious with just so many funny asides, too many to keep up with.

1:58:29There are comic absurdities thrown in all over. And this treasure trove of clever mini songs, these stripped down electronica compositions that Glander did as well. I didn't mention the vocal work before, so I want to be sure to do that too, because that's part of what makes this such a treasure. You've got Sarah Sherman, Cola Scola, Julio Torres, Ava Victor, Janine Garofalo. They're all in it. The standout, though, is NPR, Planet Money's personality, Jack Corbett, as Billy, the main character here. Man, he balances this self-awareness, teenage self-awareness, but also like a lingering naivete that's oddly touching for this character.

1:59:15Corbett also sings a few of those songs. This is especially the case he has to toss off after every delivery, this corporate mandated sign-off. have a grubby day and there's something about the sad enthusiasm that that corbett delivers to that there's just enough earnestness as if he thinks it might matter it might get him three more cents if he actually like acts like he means it um that's makes the whole thing even sadder but still incredibly funny so i think this is one that could be like a perfect time capsule movie aesthetically and thematically for right now. And it looks like a mobile game Billy would play while zooming around on that hoverboard, not paying attention to where he's going.

2:00:00So it completely works with what this is trying to do. If you missed, boys, go to Jupiter. You know, first time around like me, just go check it out. Absolutely, especially if you plan on voting for the golden brick, as listeners also have a chance to do. I love, Josh, that you encourage listeners to go back and listen or re-listen to our previous show. But, you know, they can also just go to filmspotting.net slash bricks if they'd like to see the long list and these finalists. We'll make it easy on them. That's true. They can check out all of these titles there. Boys, Go to Jupiter, the first one that we are singling out.

2:00:37The next pick we will highlight is a documentary called Predators that is directed by David Osit. And this is a documentary that chronicles the arc of the NBC show To Catch a Predator that ran. I can't believe this. Is it true? It only ran from 2004 to 2007. It somehow feels ubiquitous in our culture for like two decades. And I know that as the movie does showcase, it has spawned so many versions that now exist on YouTube. And there are still some versions that Chris Hansen is producing himself, the famous host of To Catch a Predator. We talked about this a little bit, Josh, when I nominated it.

2:01:25It's a documentary that really challenges our comfort level with punishment as entertainment. It seems like a lot of us are very comfortable with that. It's overwhelmingly compassionate and humanistic in its approach, but will still make you, certainly made me, question your individual capacity for empathy. when it comes to people who commit or attempt to commit these acts. and I still have not been able to have a conversation with anybody yet about the ending of this film, about the documentary ethics of the ending of this film, which is, it's entirely possible. I'm completely overanalyzing. Maybe I am interpreting the ending and the formal approach to the ending of this film incorrectly.

2:02:19I don't know, because again, I haven't been able to really have a thorough conversation about it with anyone. I'm looking forward to that possibility. I do know that Predators was one of the most provocative films I saw this year. And for that reason, it is among our golden brick nominees. I saw it at true false. I think it was the world premiere. No, maybe not. Maybe not the world premiere. It might've been Sundance actually. Oh, Sundance. Okay. Yeah. And it does bring up all these ethical questions about what, you know what what do you overlook or sort of endorse in the name of of of you know indicting and confronting you know these these sexual predators or worse and or those who covered them yeah yeah right exactly yeah and and and or played played the role of the bait essentially for on behalf of NBC's advertisers, you know.

2:03:15Yeah, really, I thought people were in a very queasy state of suspense when I was in that audience. And again, I wouldn't have had, like we were talking about earlier, I would not have had that collective experience of several hundred people kind of just sort of wondering where this thing is going to go if we hadn't seen it in those conditions. So yeah, no, it's an 11 through 20 for me, all the way. Me as well. And there is some suspense in that there is a showdown that the movie seems inevitably to be leading to, that the movie would feel incomplete without it. And I'll just leave it there. You'll have to see the movie for yourself in order to determine whether or not it offers that to you.

2:03:57But I will note that's also part of my little bit part of how that's portrayed is also where some of my unease comes from. So a good movie to have a discussion about. Again, that's Predators. And that brings us to another documentary, Josh, and you have this one even higher on your list. Grand Theft Hamlet is at number three. I'll be brief on this because I've been touting this one since I saw it at the very beginning of the year and nominated it for a golden brick. Yeah, it's at the top of my list now. Basically, if it still is new to you, here's the idea. It's a documentary consisting entirely of footage from inside the video game Grand Theft Auto online Basically two out-of-work actors, the United Kingdom during COVID They tried to put on a version of Shakespeare's Hamlet within the game They held auditions, they led rehearsals, and they ultimately did stage a complete performance The results are very funny along the way But what puts it on my list is because this is incredibly moving and touching in ways you would never expect that are completely authentic and real world.

2:05:06And it's a bizarre movie that bizarrely renews your faith in humanity. I mean, if you can find humanity in this sort of scenario, you might be able to find it anywhere. And the filmmakers absolutely do. So that's Grand Theft Hamlet, another golden brick title to be sure to catch up with. I am also a big fan of this one. And I will say it has been a big year of Hamlet in different ways, But I do feel like it may be the most illuminating riff on Hamlet is in this movie for me when a character delivers one of the most famous speeches in Hamlet on a beach to a random guy who keeps trying to shoot him.

2:05:45It's true. As happens in the game. Right. And it's just, it's such a great moment. And actually a very moving moment, even though I've just made it sound hilarious, which it also is. And the way those things, Alison, they'll actually interweave with the themes of Hamlet in ways that these guys couldn't have anticipated in just trying to stage this. So it's like the art shines through no matter what as well. Thank you for coming to see our performance. It's nice to have an audience, even if there's just one. Right. Okay. Oh, look, we've got another audience member. This is Hamlet. William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

2:06:25I believe this is the first time it's ever been performed at the Vinewood Bowl. If I could just request that you refrain from killing each other. And don't kill the actors either. Just to make sure people know, Boys Go to Jupiter is currently available VOD. Predators, VOD, and Paramount+. Grand Theft Hamlet is exclusively available on MUBI right now. So Josh, you have another golden brick finalist that is on your top 10 list, and it is at number nine. Michael Phillips, you have it even higher, and we're going to get to you and allow you to divulge where it fell on your list, how high, and explain a little bit of your reasoning behind it.

2:07:11But here again, we're going to let someone else steal a little bit of your thunder. It's an annual tradition here on Film Spotting that we hear from this listener this time of year, longtime listener going back to, I don't know, he might have been about nine years old when he started listening to this show. All the way from Brooklyn, New York, it is Josh Youngerman, and this movie is his number one of the year. hey josh and adam it's josh jungerman calling from brooklyn new york because my favorite film of the year my favorite movie of the year is even victor sorry baby i think films a lot about this topic are usually not as messy in a good way and emotionally raw and also funny as even victor sorry baby there's some ways people treat you like you're a person who lives and breathes and things for themselves.

2:08:09And then some ways people treat you are not that way. And I think it really captures the sort of, I guess, messy headspace that I think a lot of survivors go through after an event that, like the movie, portrays happens. But I think more so than that, I think the film isn't just about sexual assault. I think it's about one person's coming of age in terms of discovering their, you know, gender identity and sort of coming to grips with sort of the person that they really are. And I think it's just remarkable and a perfect film and a favorite film of the list. Have a great rest of 2025 and a beautiful 2026.

2:08:51Yeah, it's a great assessment from Josh on Sorry Baby. It was my number three of the year. there was a time when Ava Victor's writing and directing feature debut in which she's also the star would have found the theatrical audience it deserved but I think this is just where we are now a lot of excellent films are just going to have to be discovered and chanced on by way of other means a little later I just think this is a really compelling example of how and why traumas of any sort deserve more emotionally complicated stories than we usually get from how it's handled because this is anything but a one-issue movie.

2:09:40I think the great strength of Victor as a writer is that she is not afraid of her own incredible sense of humor, very witty, both as an actor and a writer. And the way her character Agnes deals with all of this, what happened then to her as a student with a professor, how she feels about it now, how she wields that wit as a defense mechanism in various kind of stages of emotional crisis in the movie's present tense, it all kind of adds up to more than a story of one pretty awful incident. and so it's not an issue movie for me it's just really it's really just a great indication of a new talent you know accomplished actress but a new directorial talent who really really knows how to hit two, three notes at once and it sounds simple but it's a damn hard and a great supporting cast Naomi Ackie who can do no wrong I think Lucas Hedges John Carroll Lynch everybody's good in this but it is Ava Victor's show and if you haven't seen Sorry Baby, see it.

2:10:48Yeah, that one really stuck with me. Yeah, I had a chance to see it at the Chicago Critics Film Festival and this is the lowest ranking of the three Golden Brick finalists on my top 10 list, but I might have to vote for it when I get to that point. It's just one of the factors we do consider is anticipating future work from a filmmaker, what that might look like, what this film points to And man, Victor, to your point, Michael, such a multiple threat that I'm tempted that I might just have to go that way with the golden brick vote. But irregardless of that, just excellent, excellent film on all those counts.

2:11:27Am I remembering something correctly? And maybe Allison just wanted to stay quiet. I think you may not be a fan of this film. No, I don't think it works. It's because I hate women. Of course. You got to believe the readers. yeah this is interesting though tell me tell us more uh i just feel like it leans really hard on talking around things in a way that just felt to me like a shortcut to allow like like kind of creating blanks onto which the audience would kind of project more i think emotional complexity than i felt like the film actually summons for me on screen uh you know i do feel like it is a film about, I mean, it's about the language we use for trauma.

2:12:12It's about the language we use in general. Like the main character is an English professor. You know, the movie is very careful about, for instance, in that one scene, when she first goes to the, to see a doctor, you know, and the doctor comes in and it was like, so you were raped. And like, and they both like, her and a friend both flinch. And, you know, we're like, that's you like this, we like the words we would use for this are more complicated for a lot of reasons. But I also feel like it kind of hides behind that as well. Like there are a lot of scenes in which I don't think it's just humor for deflecting.

2:12:45I think in some ways it kind of, it talks around things because it kind of, like it uses the talking around as a way of, yes, like I think generating or kind of trying to summon a feeling of more emotional weight than it actually ever manages. and I found that very frustrating as much as I liked Aki's performance a lot in particular but yeah I found this a frustrating film that I just didn't connect with and not alone I mean some of the best writers in America including yourself on film I think we're very conflicted mixed at best you know about it's more than just tonal shifts or things like that it's more just about what's in there and I think I found that what I really loved in the scene that everybody sort of wrote about in detail about where the camera is and the duration.

2:13:39It sits there on the sidewalk still waiting for her to tumble out of the front door after whatever. We learn what happens or what happened later, but to me that felt like sort of inspired indirection and I thought a lot of the verbal facility of the film and that character and Victor just, I think, as a writer, period, kind of followed the same path. And I found that very fruitful and kind of telling. But other people, I think, you know. Yeah, I found it a little precious. Yeah, precious and facile. Yeah, right. So, I mean, it's a good debating point. And, yeah. But I also feel, yeah, you know, I mean, not that I think that you should have to baby a film, but also I think part of the reason I don't want to come in and smite this film from above is also it is the work of someone who is.

2:14:27it is a first film. It is coming from someone who I think will have a fruitful career. So I feel mindful of that as well. Well, the opinion of decidedly not one of the best film writers on cinema in America, mine, is I think it's a pretty good movie. It's in my 11 through 20. I'm more with Josh and Michael. And I didn't know for sure what scene you were going to mention. It's been a long time since I've seen it. Now that you talk about it, Michael, the street scene, I know exactly what you're referring to. The one that may come up later in the year for us still, Josh, when it comes to our wrap party, the scene I can't shake in terms of performance, but direction, editing, cinematography even.

2:15:09And it speaks to what you were saying, Michael, about hitting more than one note at once, it's that it's the scene in the car. It's the processing Eva Victor post this event. When the camera, we have to just sit and observe as she processes that moment, I think is the really powerful moment for me where a lot of that movie fully clicked. So glad to see Sorry Baby. Another one that's 11 through 20 for me. I know it sounds like I must have 50 movies. No, I'm not cheating. We haven't gotten to all 10 of my 11 through 20 yet. Sorry, baby is our fourth golden brick nominee. We do have one more and it's another documentary.

2:15:53It is Charlie Shackleton's Zodiac Killer Project. Now this is one I'm guessing most people listening or a good chunk of people listening haven't had a chance to see. It's still playing in very limited release. It does come to VOD on January 6th. We're not ready to throw out exactly what the closing voting date is for the Golden Brick, but I can tell you it will be after January 6th. So if you want to be a good, dutiful voter and make sure that you see all of the candidates, then go ahead and wait. You'll have time. I promise you. You'll have multiple days to vote. Give yourself a chance to see Zodiac Killer Project.

2:16:34If you can't see it in the theater, wait for it to come out VOD on January 6th. this is a movie that Josh, you saw, I think at that critics film festival as well. Yep. Is that right? That's right. Yeah. And I, I saw Sundance on demand. It was a Sundance movie that I was able to see at home, but it played at the refocus film festival here in Iowa city as well. And sometimes during this top 10 show, Josh, we like to work in quotes from some of our favorite veteran critics, I thought, how about some rookies? Can I be kind of a proud dad for a second? Because one of the assignments, and Michael knows how proud I am of my students.

2:17:19He's interacted with these very smart producing film criticism students. One of their assignments was to cover the Refocus Film Festival in pairs. They had to choose a movie. Then they had to come and record to 20 to 30 minute podcast about it and produce a podcast not unlike a film spotting episode. And a few pairs covered this film, Zodiac Killer Project, and listening and grading those episodes was so fun and so rewarding. And they had such great insights about the movie, which I'm going to give a few of them to you now without spoiling anything. Hopefully it will just entice people listening to seek out Zodiac Killer Project.

2:18:02They talked about how active a viewing experience it is, that it's a collaborative experience between the director, Charlie Shackleton, who you're hearing his voice over the entire time, the collaboration between him as the narrator and filmmaker and the audience. One of my students talked about how we see him talking and hear him. Eventually we see him in a recording studio. We see his reflection in the glass, and they noted how the clever coincidence, it is a clever coincidence that he's reflecting on these films and his experience with the genre, the true crime genre, as he's literally reflecting in the glass.

2:18:40Some people have criticized this film for being better suited perhaps as a podcast, as an audio podcast. And a student noted, a couple of students noted that no, actually it needs to be a film. It's much better as a film because Shackleton takes advantage of visual techniques like the use of still shots. And you can't imagine this film being the subject matter being as effective as it is without the use of the zoom ins that he heavily relies on. Again, the static shots, the empty space that I mentioned as well. They talked about things like the distinction between entertainment with the genre.

2:19:23and when something's entertaining versus engrossing versus sensationalized, which the nuances of that I found really interesting. And then they talked about with true crime and especially this particular project and the Zodiac Killer, how you think about closure and the lack thereof sometimes. And overall with this genre, it's flaws that Shackleton as a filmmaker certainly touches on and is critical of, but also shares some of his own appreciation for. He is clearly a fan of the genre, as critical of it as he is. And some of the students talked about why we are as a culture, and some of them as students even are obsessed and are passionate about the true crime genre.

2:20:10I found it illuminating. I found the film as a piece of criticism illuminating, and that's why it's among our golden brick finalists. Yeah, I think that note about the film techniques employed is a very important one, Adam, because for me, that's what stood out the most is Shackleton not only reusing the cliches, but recycling them in different ways. And in some shots, finding his way towards new techniques that he might, you imagine, have employed if he had gotten to make the film. So just on that cinematic level, it would not be fair to disregard Zodiac Killer Project because it shouldn't be a documentary.

2:20:58But working in documentary these days, true crime just has this sort of gravitational pull.

2:21:10after the project fell apart i just kept replaying all these scenes in my head scenes i'd never get to shoot mysteries i'd never have a chance to unravel allison what about this one have you seen it can you shoot this one down or do you like it oh no i'm a fan of this one i do feel like i the reason wasn't like hot like in my top 20, I think was, I did feel like it was a little slighter in terms of just scope. I think it's really witty. I think it is very clever as a piece of like media criticism that also is very honest about being like, yeah, we know that this kind of like this particular technique, this particular turn is like what they always do.

2:21:58And yet it's so compelling, isn't it? Like, it's so compelling. What is it about the genre that we find so compelling? Yeah, I just I found it a really enjoyable, clever film. What happens now? We have those five movies. Boys Go to Jupiter, Predators, Grand Theft Hamlet, Sorry Baby, Zodiac Killer Project, a formidable lineup. You, the listeners, do get to help choose a winner. You can vote in the Golden Brick Poll right now if you've seen all five or if you just can't wait. You can vote now at filmspotting.net. we'll rank our picks producer sam gets to rank his picks and we will announce the golden brick winner at our year-end wrap party right now we don't have a live show planned it's going to be a an in-studio year-end wrap party it's not going to be as festive will it josh i mean will you bring i don't know a party hat or something crackers adam we do we do crackers over here you know you just we haven't actually done one yet but you like wow both ends i understand and it kind of explodes.

2:22:53So, you know, you get a paper crown inside and then you have to wear it. You're legally required for the rest of the day. YouTube viewers. That's what you'll get to see for the wrap party. Me wearing a paper crown, apparently. Okay. Everybody tune in for that more on the golden bricks at filmspotting.net slash bricks. Still to come our consensus films of the year picks and our number one films of the year. This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

2:23:53Panoply