Top 5 Needle Drops (Pt. 2)

20:45Josh Larsen:And then ultimately I think there's like some dismissal there. It's like, well, I'm on the train. I'm moving on too bad for that guy. Um, and to have, you know, the song is part of that, like this, because the song is as complicated as all of those emotions in the way its lyrics point against the poppiness in certain aspects. I've always wanted to talk to Wes Anderson. I've never gotten a chance to him. One of the reasons is to know how he gets a that kind of thing. Any director to get, how do you direct? It seems like if you're going to slow down and the point of slowing down, which I think you're right, is to get all of that.

21:26How do you direct it so that you get all of that? because how do you get an actor to flash through all of that at once? And I also wondered to what extent he knew the music that he was going to put into that sequence at that moment. I'll bet he knew. There are a few. I would imagine. I'll bet he wrote it in. I would think so. It's my favorite soundtrack, by the way. I agree with you that it's one of his like, yeah, I love that soundtrack. And by the way, there's a ton of Indian tunes, including Indian film music on that. And I think it's maybe one of his most cinematic sounding soundtracks maybe.

22:00This is Matt Rogers from Lost Culture East. That's with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bowen Yang from Lost Culture East. That's with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. You know when people try on new food and suddenly it's like, wait, that's the reaction a lot of people are having when they first try Kewpie mayo. It's the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle. You've probably seen it in the grocery store before. And if you've ever just walked past it, some people would say that's a huge mistake because this mayo is different. Most mayonnaise uses whole eggs, Kewpie only uses egg yolks, which gives it this rich umami flavor.

22:33It's smoother, deeper, and almost buttery. Once people try it, they start putting it on everything. Egg sandwiches, fries, burgers. Some fans even swear by dipping pizza crust in it. And once you notice it, you start seeing it everywhere. Chefs use it. Restaurants use it. People who really care about flavor use it. Never tried it? Grab the bottle with the red cap next time you're at the store. Put it on just about anything. Then you'll understand. QP, the original Japanese mayonnaise. How's the new place? Get your Wi-Fi figured out? I got T-Mobile 5G home internet and I'm loving it.

23:04Josh Larsen:It's the fastest 5G home internet. My old provider was so slow. Mine is slow. And only 35 bucks a month. Do I need to try this? Try it for 15 days. Love it or get your money back. I love it already. There are over 250 reasons to join T-Mobile. Find yours and check availability at t-mobile.com slash home internet. According to Oculus Speed Test Intelligence, date of second half of 2025. All rights reserved. Redeemed money back guarantee within 30 days of cancellation. Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts. I, um, I can't stop scratching my downtown. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown.

23:44Some things you'd rather type than say out loud. There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI. Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24-7. Healthcare just got less painful.

24:00Adam Kempenaar:Hey, what's up, guys? It's Haley Bailey. Okay, I need to tell you about something. I just got YouTube Premium. It's got tons of awesome features like offline downloads, so I can download my favorite videos before I travel and watch them whenever I don't have Wi-Fi. Because we all know airplane Wi-Fi is the worst. I get ad-free, I get background play, and there's like a ton more in there. You should try it. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Try it now for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium.

24:31Josh Larsen:Hi, I'm Sean Evans from Hot Ones, and I want to tell you about YouTube Premium. It has offline downloads, so you can watch without Wi-Fi. Background play, so you can lock your phone, and it still plays, baby.

24:43Adam Kempenaar:Oh, and it is completely ad-free. Yes, I said it, ad-free. Try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Trial eligibility varies. Terms apply. Cancel any time. Number two. Number two. This is one of the greatest. This would be number one if I didn't have an even better number one. That's how good my number one is, in my opinion. Number two is Amy Mann. Wise up from Magnolia.

25:20I mean, the experience, I saw that, I'm pretty sure it was opening weekend because I know it was packed. The theater was packed. It was here in LA where I live. And there was a lot of buzz about that movie and nobody knew what to expect. The preceding movie had been Boogie Nights. I think maybe people were expecting something on that level, maybe with a little bit more, maybe a little more form and less episodic and, you know, heady and emotional the way that it was. That moment in that movie is still like amazing to me. I feel like since that movie's come out, there have been something similar.

25:53But for those who don't know, first of all, that movie was written with Amy Mann songs in PTA's head. He knew Amy Mann. She had given him, I think, a tape of unreleased songs or I think something like that. Maybe they've been released. I can't remember. but he listened to them over and over again and lyrics from the song appear in the script and the references to the songs through the script and in the middle of it as almost a love letter to her as well as being a great dramatic moment in the movie every character stops what they're doing or basically pauses in the middle of what they're doing and they lip sync to the entirety of one of the most beautiful songs ever written wise up which incredibly sad song is as typical of amy man

26:54every character in all their different situations are all basically saying to themselves what this song is saying which is when are you going to stop repeating these really bad patterns in your life. When are you going to wise up? When are you going to stop dating the wrong person, listening to the wrong people, living for the wrong things, all of this stuff and the audacity of it. You cannot imagine if you were not there at the time, because like I said, I think that this kind of thing has happened since, but to stop a movie and have everybody acknowledge the song in some strange way and for it to make total sense.

27:32and it's so beautiful and heartbreaking. It's like you could have heard a pin drop in that theater and I just was like, what is happening? It's just an incredible kind of artistic leap of faith to take, particularly at that moment in his career. Great way to phrase it. It's still like mesmerizing. It's my favorite part of that movie.

27:53Adam Kempenaar:Yeah, it's so good. Let's go ahead and go out of order here a little bit, Josh, because it's my number two. Okay, go for it. Go for it. And it's a needle drop that is both non-diegetic. The song is playing over the film, but it is a performance scene. It's diegetic. It's they're singing it within the scene, even though they're not hearing the song ostensibly. Right. But they are. It's emanating from the movie world. The characters all singing it. They're all unified within the movie world. The characters are all unified by experience, by trauma. and the filmmaker then could have a music sequence like another very good needle drop like Donnie Darko.

28:38Adam Kempenaar:It could be like Mad World, right? Where it just goes from character to character, letting us observe each one of them while we contemplate the juxtaposition of their circumstances. But, you know, this song is fundamentally about, as you said, Rico, it's about life choices and it's about their regrets. And it's about misfits, which they all are. And it's about whether or not there's a possibility of growth and whether or not you can move forward. And in here you have PTA in 99, still kind of this renegade filmmaker saying, screw it to all the rules. And it's, you know, I'm going to actually unify all of them.

29:21Adam Kempenaar:And the song isn't going to be just backdrop. it's going to be this kind of vocal handoff where, where each character is actually going to express what they've been repressing. And the music is going to be the vehicle for that expression. And you're right. It's, it's, it's completely audacious. It's arguably totally absurd, but the, but that's, what's so brilliant about it. The Brechtian nature of it, the, the, just the pure, like emotional nakedness of it, I think is why it's brilliant and why it's so moving. And I remember sitting in the theater, just like you, If you didn't have that theatrical experience, it's hard to maybe fully appreciate it watching it on DVD now.

29:59Adam Kempenaar:But in the theater and you don't have many experiences like this anymore in the theater. There was a charge. It was sort of really are they going to are we going to go? Are we all we're all unified by this experience? Are we all together sharing this experience right now? Is this actually happening? That that was incredible. And I definitely didn't know the song at the time. even when I looked up later, I, I was like, I, I don't know who Amy Mann is. Then, then I put it together a little bit. Oh, the face, the voice. I grew up seeing the video for voices carry by till Tuesday and constant rotation on MTV.

30:36Adam Kempenaar:But you know, I was still surprised that that, that was her. I had no idea that it was apparently on the Jerry Maguire soundtrack. Cameron Crowe again had, had originally put that song on the soundtrack, but didn't use it in the film. it's, it's just a stunner. Yeah.

30:54Josh Larsen:I should have, I should have gone with this and we could have been three for three. Honestly, the only reason here's the only reason, and you guys have spoken to it. It's so unique. It's almost not a needle drop. It's, it's its own cosmic use of music that has rarely been repeated. Um, and, and I just, I just felt like, um, I don't know, I should, I should have done it. I just felt like it was too unique. It was too, too singular. and didn't quite fit the definitions I was working with. But I agree with everything. So what's your lesser number two, Josh? Go ahead, beat it. Yeah. Yeah. Well, okay.

31:31Josh Larsen:I think I have a filmmaker who one-ups Paul Thomas Anderson in the needle drop category. Are we ready to talk about Scorsese? Okay, you're right. The only one, perhaps. You're right. Okay. All right. You challenged me. Here we go. What do you do with Scorsese? I mean, in a way, the fact that Adam and I couldn't choose Goodfellas helped a little bit, but Goodfellas is actually integral to the pick I'm going to go with. And what helped me work my way through this is this dissertation I just finished up. I did devote a section to Scorsese's sacred use of secular music, and that led me to a bit of a peculiar choice.

32:11Josh Larsen:So I'm curious to see what you two make of this one. I'm not going to go with Rolling Stones, Jumpin' Jack Flash from Mean Streets. that's like, that's like the, you know, the, the source of Scorsese and perhaps all needle drops. I mean, I know they were used before that, but still, um, not going to go with that. If I were going to go with a Goodfellas pick and this relates to my pick, it would be the crystals. Then he kissed me when Henry and Karen are being ushered to their VIP table at the Copacabana. I'm going to go with something that I think of as a response to then he kissed me. And it comes from The Irishman, which I think is a response, a continuation, a culmination of all of Scorsese's mob movies.

32:54Josh Larsen:And that song, my pick is going to be the Five Satins doo-wop classic In the Still of the Night, which actually bookends The Irishman. So if I were restricting myself, I'm breaking two rules here. It both opens the movie and ends the movie. Not really credits necessarily, but yeah, it bookends the movie for sure. At the same time, Scorsese is employing in a new way, one of his techniques, the single take. Here, the camera is finding its way to Robert De Niro's Frank Sheeran, who's sitting in a wheelchair at this senior care facility. So something I noticed the first time I saw The Irishman in 2019 is the way the use of In the Still of the Night here is really the inverse of Then He Kissed Me.

33:39So when you think of Then He Kissed Me, it has this expectant rumble.

33:43Josh Larsen:There's an air of exhilaration to the music and also to the moment. It matches it, right? In Goodfellas. In the still of the night instead has a gentle swing. It has reflective lyrics repeating, I remember, I remember. It invites introspection rather than celebration. And that's fitting, of course, right? For a movie about a man slowly coming to grips at the end of his life with his days as a mob hitman.

34:17Josh Larsen:The music works this way, you know, as I was just describing, but the lyrics are interesting as well. I'll hope and I'll pray to keep your precious love well before the light. Hold me again with all your might in the still of the night. Now, in the context of this aging man who is beginning to reckon with his crimes, the singer sounds less like a romantic, making a romantic pledge. and more like this prayerful plea, coming from the darkness, pleading for some sort of redemption, which we know is a theme Scorsese is interested in, the possibilities of redemption. So in terms of this is my collide pick, basically, it's not necessarily colliding with the moment, but I think it's colliding or at least contradicting or commenting on Goodfellas and one of Scorsese's other masterful needle drops.

35:12Josh Larsen:For me, maybe because of that restriction, not being able to go with Goodfellas, I'm going to go with In the Still of the Night from The Irishman. It's one of the few of his movies, you're going to look at me like I'm an insane person because it's also one of his, it was instantly one of his most available movies. I didn't even have to go to the theaters to go and see it, but I haven't seen it. I have seen that opening sequence though because there were a lot of clips going around at the time. And it looks amazing. And I love that in a way. I don't know why, but the first thing that I'm flashing on is the movie.

35:46Did you guys see Trainspotting 2? Surprisingly decent movie. Talk to Boyle here on the show for that movie. I actually spoke for that movie too. And it's a surprisingly good movie in that it acknowledges his own mortality and subverts a lot of what is in the first movie. Instead of trying to go for the same thing that they did in the first movie, it acknowledges that you can't because we're all older now. And that's ridiculous to try to go for it.

36:10Josh Larsen:Yeah. You've really got to see the Irishman for that quality. But I understand the reluctance. Absolutely. If I hadn't, I mean, who wants to experience a Scorsese movie for the first time? Yeah. You know, on streaming, if you had the opportunity. I think you nailed it. So I understand the reluctance, but it's really rich. It's really rich as a commentary on, you know, what a quarter of his career. So, yeah.

36:34Adam Kempenaar:Yes. Agreed. And I'll just add that another option you could have gone with, certainly, and I wonder if you did consider it, is the Santo and Johnny sleepwalk, which would be a perfect example of collision. Because there, I think he uses it twice. And you would never, only Scorsese would think to use that when there's mob hits being carried out. Yeah. It's so well done. So, Rico, here's the thing. I know what your number one is, and I obviously know how good your number two was because I shared it. And the thing is, you're right. Your number one's even better. That's how good your number one is.

37:13Adam Kempenaar:I can't wait for you to drop it on our listeners. Have you built up expectations enough? There's no way to meet this level of expectation, my friend. You know what? Our listeners, when they hear it, they'll understand. They know my tastes and they'll understand why I'm so back in this. It is the moment in the movie before sunrise when, uh, Ethan Hawke's character and Julie Delpy's character who have just met a few hours before on a train going through Europe, decide they've decided to get off together in the city of Vienna and they go to a record store. And this is one shot. They go into a little listening booth again, literally drop the needle.

37:59Nobody knew this song at the time. There's no way that anybody had ever heard of this tune. It was a completely unknown tune by this woman named Kath Bloom, who I don't think, you know, that album may even be like self-released or something. I'm not even sure it was released on a label. I don't know how Linklater heard about it.

38:15Josh Larsen:There's a wind that blows in from the north

38:20Adam Kempenaar:And it says that loving takes this course Come here These two have just met, but they're attracted to each other. And we just hold on the two of their beautiful young faces while they kind of sneak shy looks at each other because they 100 % should kiss at this moment. They know they should kiss. They just met, though. Will they kiss? Should we kiss? I don't know. What? Is she looking at me? I'm not sure. Emma, it is like the most tangible moment. And you're like, and it's all one shot. It's you were literally watching two people falling in love on screen Julie Delpy later said that she kind of did fall in love with Ethan Hawke a little bit during the filming of the scene And what's what I really love about it is that it starts diegetic Other movies do this too and I realize I love this as a technique it starts diegetic And then and we're watching them in this moment and instead of showing us whether they kiss or not or resolving that scene at all suddenly it cuts with the music.

39:26It goes from being a diegetic song to a non-diegetic song. And it's just them now going through Vienna together and seeing all the beautiful sights of Vienna. And it goes from being this little intimate moment to something huge. It's not just about these two characters. It's about the feeling of finding somebody you're into, knowing that you're probably into each other, not waiting for just the right moment to do it and being in the perfect place with the exact right person at that moment. We've all had maybe a few of these perfect moments and it just captures it so intensely. And if you're ever in a...

40:04I don't know if I can totally say this. I just feel like whenever I'm down on humanity, I will go to YouTube and I will watch that clip and then read the comments. And it's just like a license for people to tell their most beautiful life story in the comments. They're all like, this reminds me of the girl that I met once in Spain, or this reminds me of the girl that got away, or this reminds me of when I met my husband, something like that, or just this perfect moment of travel or transcendence. Everybody has some way into that scene. And even in the moment that I saw it, I was just like, this has captured something so universal and so amazing.

40:42And it is also pure cinema. It's one shot, one song, no dialogue, It's just one of the most perfect moments of cinema ever. I feel like that and the ending of that movie instantly put it in my top 10 movies of all time.

40:56Adam Kempenaar:Yeah. Oh, I just realized I don't have to feel shame about this, Josh, before Sunrise is in the pantheon. It was ineligible.

41:03Josh Larsen:So there you have, you have an excuse.

41:05Adam Kempenaar:I have an excuse.

41:07Josh Larsen:Are you going to add it out where you, where you forgot to include it or? Yes.

41:11Adam Kempenaar:Take that out. No. And it, because of course it would have been eligible. Cause no, I, I, there's no way I knew that song that you're right. The scene is a wonder. I'm moved by every time and I will, I will every time. And I will point out on behalf of film spotting PA Sophie Kempinar that you will occasionally very, very regularly spot her wearing her Alton new t-shirt, the record store, because she, when she studied abroad, she was sure to travel to Vienna simply so she could do her before sunrise walking to her. and she went to the Alta new record store so she could have that. It's still there.

41:50Adam Kempenaar:My understanding, you can tell me whether this is true. My understanding is that that listening booth did not exist. They made it for the movie and they just left it there. Exactly. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. Totally, by the way, that's one of the episodes that I wanted to do this year. I 100 % wanted to do that thing. We just couldn't get it together. And I was in Germany last year. I was like, well, maybe if we do that episode, why don't, Mubi, why don't you just pay me to go down to Vienna and I'll just go record in there. it'll be a great little thing. Why not? It turns out they didn't. Um, but amazing.

42:23Adam Kempenaar:Next. Thanks man. Well done. Well done Rico. Yeah. Excellent.

42:28Josh Larsen:Your, your pick Rico was my number one, Richard Linklater scene when we did that top five and yeah, can't, couldn't go that way because of the Pantheon, but I am going to go with another number one filmmaker scene for my number one needle drop scene. This is a filmmaker we've already discussed, Wes Anderson. Hope people are up for a little more Wes Anderson talk. I think so, because this is a movie, I guess, kind of like Darjeeling Limited, not quite as highly regarded as some of the others in his filmography. But I'm going to go with a choice from The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou. And the song is Starover from Sigur Rós.

43:11Josh Larsen:It anchors the climactic encounter with the jaguar shark in the life aquatic with Steve Zissou, which was my pick for best Wes Anderson scene. I called it the I wonder if it remembers me scene. That's the response Bill Murray's Steve Zissou has to finally meeting this creature who's devoured his friend Esteban on an expedition years ago. Rather than this exercise in vengeance, though, Zissou has overcome. He's stunned. just has this experience of awe when he sees this creature.

43:44Josh Larsen:You know, it is Zuzu's moment, but it's also this experience of communal epiphany. All the other characters in the movie, almost every single one, they're squeezed into the submarine with Zuzu for this. And I do often reference the epiphanies that take place in Anderson's films. And for me, this is his grandest. Even if it's hard to, it's probably what I like about it. It's hard to exactly locate what's happening here. What is the nature of the illumination that is actually taking place during this epiphany? I mean, we do have what I mentioned, Zazu going from vengeance to reverence, but why are the others reaching out to touch him in this strange benediction?

44:23Josh Larsen:I mean, probably half of them have been wronged by him over the course of the movie. He does not deserve this, but it's happening now anyway. so there's something you know more mystical than those going on here that I've never quite been able to put my finger on and I do think holding all of it together and enabling that mystery is this Sigur Rós track you've got these swelling chords that sort of usher us into the moment you have the twinkling keys that start just when we get this these bioluminescent hints of something out there in the depths and the darkness. Could it be the shark? That's when those keys start to come in.

45:04Josh Larsen:And then, of course, you have Yancey Bergeson's glorious vocals, too, which they just break out over the screen as the shark cruises over the submarine.

45:22Josh Larsen:As we were talking about with Darjeeling Limited, The timing of the bits of music with the images is so precise and on track here. I didn't ever really think about what this song meant. I never had it translated before, as many times I've watched it, as I've picked it for other lists. So I took the time to do it. The title means Little Elf. It's basically about going to bed and encountering a magical creature. so okay i guess it actually is is translatable i always thought that they like spoke sang in their own language it's this is what i found researching it so maybe my information is incorrect but i believe this with a grain of salt then what i found does track though i mean a few lines i found that they did catch my attention stares at me a little elf transforms me into but doesn't move.

46:19Josh Larsen:And I like that notion of being transformed, but not exactly how or into what I think that fits so well for this moment, uh, in the movie. It's just this emotionally, even spiritually resonant experience that can't entirely be explained. So I don't know. I hope Rico that that isn't all gibberish that I found, but, but what, uh, what I did discover does track with kind of my experience of the moment, at least helped me process it. And, uh, It's another completion for me in terms of compliment, collide, or complete. This definitely completes that moment. And in a weird way, I've never really figured out, kind of completes the movie.

46:58Josh Larsen:Maybe someday I'll get there. I'm probably going to watch it again next week. I kind of feel like, as you were saying this, and I don't know if I've ever thought this through, though. But you're right. It's like he's done terrible things. He's wronged people. And they kind of forgive him. In a way, a lot of his movies, I mean, certainly the Royal Tenenbaums, a lot of them are about even Grand Budapest Hotel. These are characters who aren't always doing the right thing. They're not always nice. And by the end, they're somehow forgiven in a way. Yeah. Some redemption for the bastards, inevitably.

47:35Which is lovely. Yeah. You know, and it is like, by the way, it's also a really great use of that song because that could be a really obvious song. Like basically using any time using Sigur Rós because they are so cinematic by design. They're so orchestral in a way. But it really deserves it. Yep.

47:52Josh Larsen:You're halfway to a movie score with their music already. And so, yeah. But it really deserves it. And I think it may also work because he has such that picture box aesthetic where the image isn't necessarily grandiose. It's beautiful. It's beautifully composed. But it's kind of like, you know, it's not like an actual creature. It's not CGI. It's not like beautifully done. It's almost puppety in a way. But the music gives it a little more grandeur. Do you know, I saw, I actually saw the actual Jaguar shark prop because I was in London when the Wes Anderson exhibit was there at the design museum.

48:28Josh Larsen:It's, it's smaller. I want to say it's like maybe seven or eight feet. Yeah. It's like a, it's like a puppet. It's like a, you know, a model and not quite as awe inspiring as it was for Zissou, but, but interesting nonetheless. I remember actually seeing Grand Budapest at the Arclight Cinema here in L.A. And they had the Grand Budapest Hotel model. Again, it was large, but yes. That was there, too. That was incredible. But it's beautiful to see. This is Matt Rogers from Las Culture East. That's with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang. This is Bowen Yang from Las Culture East. That's with Matt Rogers and Bowen Yang.

49:05You know when people try a new food and suddenly it's like, wait. That's the reaction a lot of people are having when they first try Kewpie mayo. It's the one with the red cap and the little baby on the bottle. You've probably seen it in the grocery store before. And if you've ever just walked past it, some people would say that's a huge mistake. Because this mayo is different. Most mayonnaise uses whole eggs. Kewpie only uses egg yolks, which gives it this rich umami flavor. It's smoother, deeper, and almost buttery. Once people try it, they start putting it on everything. Egg sandwiches, fries, burgers.

49:38Some fans even swear by dipping pizza crust in it. And once you notice it, you start seeing it everywhere. Chefs use it. Restaurants use it. People who really care about flavor use it. Never tried it? Grab the bottle with the red cap next time you're at the store. Put it on just about anything. Then you'll understand. Kupi, the original Japanese mayonnaise. How's the new place? Get your Wi-Fi figured out? I got T-Mobile 5G home internet and I'm loving it. It's the fastest 5G home internet. My old provider was so slow. Mine is slow. And only$35 a month. Do I need to try this? Try it for 15 days.

50:11Love it or get your money back. I love it already. There are over 250 reasons to join T-Mobile. Find yours and check availability at t-mobile.com slash home internet. This is according to Oculus Speed Test Intelligence. Date a second half of 2025. All rights reserved. Redeemed money back guarantee within 30 days of cancellation. Amazon Health AI presents Painful Thoughts. I, um, I can't stop scratching my downtown. Yeah, but I'm not itching to go downtown and tell a receptionist I'm here to talk about my downtown. Some things you'd rather type than say out loud. There's no question too embarrassing for Amazon Health AI.

50:50Chat your symptoms and get virtual care 24-7. Healthcare just got less painful.

50:58Adam Kempenaar:Hey, what's up, guys? It's Haley Bailey. Okay, I need to tell you about something. I just got YouTube Premium. It's got tons of awesome features like offline downloads so I can download my favorite videos before I travel and watch them whenever I don't have Wi-Fi because we all know airplane Wi-Fi is the worst. I get ad-free, I get background play, and there's like a ton more in there. You should try it. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium. Try it now for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. If you like YouTube, you'll love YouTube Premium.

51:29Josh Larsen:Hi, I'm Sean Evans from Hot Ones, and I want to tell you about YouTube Premium. It has offline downloads, so you can watch without Wi-Fi. Background play, so you can lock your phone and it still plays, baby. Oh, and it is completely ad-free.

51:44Adam Kempenaar:Yes, I said it, ad-free. Try YouTube Premium for two months free at youtube.com slash premium. Trial eligibility varies, terms apply, cancel anytime. Well, I had to have or I ended up having one good opening needle drop. I thought it was fitting or I guess it's it's ironic a little bit to to or no appropriate to conclude my list with a closing needle drop. And I am going to reveal to the world just how uncool I was or certainly how non edgy I was back in 1999. Not that that will be a shock to anyone because I had heard of Pixies in 1999. Yes, I am going with back to back 1999 films here at number two and number one.

52:40Adam Kempenaar:I had never heard Pixies in 1999. So I had never heard the song that would be playing on a loop on my little MP3 player. Yes, I had an MP3 player throughout the entire fall after seeing David Fincher's Fight Club. The song, Where Is My Mind? Even though it was released in 1988 on their Surfer Rosa album, that scene with Edward Norton, Elena Bonham Carter, looking out on all the skyscrapers as the bombs go off and the buildings fall. the timing of the cut from Ed Norton's face. The timing of that cut and the flashes from the bombs with the snare hits building to the guitar ring.

53:39Adam Kempenaar:And then you get, of course, Ed Norton's memorable line. You've met me at a very strange time in my life. I actually think this number one pick, Rico, is like the evil romantic cousin to your number one pick from your two people standing there looking at each other. Yeah, that's right. And you've met me at a strange time in my life. All the cutting too to this song. So this is like you were saying, Josh, is you can have great songs that are used at the end of a movie and it's not just over the credits. It can even be somewhat leading into the credits, but it kind of feels like any great song could have been plopped in there that's not the case with your choice or this choice it's yes integral it no other song feels like it could be used in terms of the not only the the thematic resonance but also the way it's cut together the way the camera moves here the the rhythm of it the body movements it's all timed with the music that main shot is the wide shot from behind them and it tracks slowly forward as they hold hands it's in pace with this kind of dirge of the song and kim deals that that wailing uwu is just completely eerie and deranged and it's that's how i've always thought of it and it's it's hollow sounding too right and so it to me it really is like a voice in your head that just is incessant and will not go away i think it's the paradigm of to to use the terminology you were using just i think it's the paradigm of a complementary needle drop it goes without saying that the lyrics are totally appropriate for a movie about a main character having psychological issues.

55:38Adam Kempenaar:Where is my mind? Also, literally, the lyrics say, you'll have a collapse as financial buildings and potentially the market collapses. And the song, apparently it was fairly successful for them as a tune on that album. But then Sense, as you would imagine, has become their signature song. And Rolling Stone in 2021 did a top 500 greatest songs of all time. And it, it made the cut at number 493, which would not have happened surely without the boost it got from this movie. I mean, it, I think it's thought of, you already have one of the great twist, iconic twist endings in movie history. You add onto it, one of the greatest needle drops ever, and it just elevates it even beyond that.

56:28Adam Kempenaar:So the choice of Fincher here, I don't think we think of Fincher as one of the top seven needle droppers, even though there are other good options from Fincher, including from Zodiac, Hurdy Gurdie Man. Yeah, right. Exactly. Right. And possibly some others that are not immediately coming to mind. But he was the one that didn't he was the one of the five for me that that maybe wasn't in that that upper echelon of filmmakers who regularly employs them. Ironic because he's a rock video director. He starts out being a rock video director. Yes. Good point. You know, consciously didn't quite want to lean super into that.

57:09He was going to be an auteur, damn it. Maybe. Yeah, perhaps. Yeah. I mean, I'm a little older than you guys. I was around when the Pixies first broke. And for the college radio crowd, they were instantly iconic. That was one of the things that was amazing about them, actually. They broke on the scene. They put out basically three perfect albums. They put out one more after that. But the first three records that they put out, it was like every single song was amazing. The entire albums were amazing. It was the sound that you knew you wanted before you knew that you wanted it. And they also looked like they should not be the people to deliver it.

57:45They just looked like the squarest people. They were like from Boston. They wore like, you know, t-shirts, you know, Frank Black is kind of, you know, at the time he was calling himself Black Francis and he screeches like a banshee. You expected him to be this like crazy punk. And he's like this schmo wearing like a t-shirt and shorts. And, you know, Kim Deal was very beautiful, but also I loved when they came back. She basically was dressing like a soccer mom on stage and doing those exact kind of eerie vocals. It was this incredible thing. But they never quite during their lifetime had the impact on the larger culture during the first phase of that band.

58:25They broke up before they got huge. I mean, they were opening for U2 and stuff. They were always right on the verge of being gigantic. And people within a subculture really dug them. But it was, I feel like that was the thing that really brought them to mainstream fame for sure was that track. And it is like, in a way it's the ultimate Gen X moment because it's so, although you're right, all of those lyrics work with the images you're watching. The song is actually just about Frank Black being really high in the Caribbean, like swimming around looking at fish. Yeah. Like scuba diving or something and a fish that wouldn't leave him alone.

58:58It's like, it's the end of the world and you're listening to a song about a dude stoned in the ocean. You know what I mean? It's like, and yet it works. It is.

59:05Adam Kempenaar:It is perfect. Talk about collision. Indeed. Those are our top five needle drops. We do have some honorable mentions. I know you have some Rico that you wanted to share just before we get to those. I mentioned that I had a top seven. We've named all of them. They've come up. I had them in this order. Martin Scorsese, Quentin Tarantino, PTA, Wes Anderson, Sophia Coppola, Richard Linklater, Cameron Crowe, And then those are the top seven. And then I think number eight would be probably a battle between like Edgar Wright and Danny Boyle. Yeah, perhaps those seem like the filmmakers, the directors who most commonly use needle drops.

59:45Adam Kempenaar:I, of course, encourage any listeners to write in with other filmmakers they think of when they immediately think about needle drops being used in films, feedback at filmspotting.net. But Rico, who are some other, not who are some other directors, but actually what are some other films and some other needle drops that were really tough for you to omit? This one mainly because it's a pretty deep cut of a movie. I don't even remember who directed this. Maybe you guys can remember this. It's a 1987 movie called Five Corners. What I mainly remember it as is being, I think it's the film debut of screenwriter John Patrick Shanley, who went on to make Moonstruck, write Moonstruck.

1:00:23And there's this moment in it. It's typical John Patrick Shanley. It's about kind of like wisecracking people. I think that's set in Baltimore, something like that. It's a period piece. It's set in the mid 60s. So there's a lot of mid 60s music in it. But this moment stands out because there are a number of needle drops like the doo-wop stuff that you would imagine that would be in it. It actually ends with In My Life from the Beatles. But there's a moment right in the middle of it where these two kind of juvenile delinquent types who are playing hooky from school, who you're not quite sure how to feel about.

1:00:53They're, they're kind of cool. They seem fun. One of them, I think might even be an exchange student or something, but they're playing hooky from school. They meet up with these two gum cracking girls who are also playing hooky from school and convince them to hang out with them. And they go to, it's great because it's a moment with you. They, they, it's like, this is something they've done before that they know is going to wow these girls, but it's the last thing that you'd expect. They have created some device that allows them to open up an elevator doors. and step out through the open elevator doors onto the top of elevators.

1:01:29And as they go up and down inside the elevator shaft, being able to see the inside of the elevator shaft instead of being stuck inside the elevator, I think they've paired up as couples. One's on one elevator, one's on the other, and they're kind of going up and down and seeing each other and talking to each other. Suddenly, Delibes' Lachme starts playing, which is actually a pretty cliched cut. Since I've seen that movie, which I saw when I was pretty young, that is used all the time. It's a very elegaic piece of music. So anytime you want to convey grace, you use that thing. But to use that in the middle of this milieu, this gritty milieu, this moment of magic that is actually not all that magical.

1:02:08They're in an elevator shaft, but to them, it's this magical moment. That just really always resonated with me as this beautiful moment. I've since returned to that movie and it has some flaws, but that moment still kills. So that's one of them. Maybe should we go in a round or do I just get to reel these off. Oh, just go ahead and list the other ones that stand out to you. Okay. Hush from Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. That's my Tarantino pick that just captures what it's like to drive late at night in Los Angeles, if you've ever been here. All the Elliott Smith tunes from Good Will Hunting. That was the movie that brought him to fame.

1:02:41And I will always love it for that. I can't believe I didn't use anything from Repo Man. That album changed my own and a lot of people's musical lives, probably TV party by black flag from that, uh, soundtrack head over heels from Donnie Darko. Another example of kind of doing a music video in the middle of your film. And like the filmmaker is just like, that's what I want to do. And it's awesome. Um, an end credit song from my own private Idaho, the old main drag by the pogues, which kind of sums up the story that you've just heard. And I'd never really heard the pogues before that. It's beautiful.

1:03:15You gotta go with Blue Danube Waltz, 2001. That is a needle drop. That was not score. It wasn't written for the film?

1:03:26And Under Pressure from After Sun, the way that that... Oh my God, I just... Brings you to tears, that thing. Yes. And then finally, just for fun, Slaughterhouse, that's my David Lynch pick, which is this metal tune that's used twice in Wild at Heart. Yes. And the reason that I really love it is the second time it's used. The first time they go out dancing, they're like, let's go dancing. You think it's going to be like to some David Lynchian like 1950s thing. It's speed metal. They're dancing to speed metal. And then later they're driving through the desert and they switch through the radio and they hear it and they have to stop the car and get out and start dancing to speed metal in the middle of the desert, which then suddenly fades out and turns into like this elegaic Angelo Badalamente score.

1:04:13Only David Lynch would fade from a speed metal to like whatever Angelo Badalamente is doing with his beautiful lush music. So good. Josh, what about you?

1:04:24Josh Larsen:I'm just going to name one because though I'm happy you put a Sofia Coppola film on your list, Adam, I couldn't not at least mention where I would have gone and that would have been from Lost in Translation. Jesus and Mary Chain over the ending, Just Like Honey. It's just beautiful.

1:04:41Adam Kempenaar:Just a few for me, a couple that fit my criterion about discovery. Anyway, songs I wasn't familiar with the one that made your list already silly games from a lover's rock. I did actually mention this one already mad world from Donnie Darko, a song I hadn't heard until I saw that film link later, the song hero from boyhood by family of the year, how that's used in that movie. How about this one? damn it feels good to be a gangster by ghetto boys from office space so good so good now the this is this is all i have in terms of three more because it would just go on two more too too long three more that it just pains me that i couldn't find a way to fit into my list one of them is the one you said rico already under pressure from after son yeah cameron crow both in your eyes from Say Anything.

1:05:36Adam Kempenaar:That wasn't written for the film, was it? Peter Gabriel already had that, right? Okay, don't, I want to make sure. In Your Eyes from Say Anything and of course, Tiny Dancer. Almost Famous. Almost Famous. That's one of those tracks where it was just like, I would not, I was too much of a hipster at that time to give that song Credence and it was like, I don't care. It's a nausea song.

1:05:59Josh Larsen:There's a, yeah, I mean, we could do a list of, I wouldn't call it a reclamation project. Sure. Something where you could do top five needle drops as reclamation projects. That's a great point. They take a song that you dismiss, perhaps unfairly, but used in the right hands in the right films. It's a good point. Suddenly you're made aware of how good the song is.

1:06:20Adam Kempenaar:I didn't love Tiny Dancer when I saw it used in that film. Exactly. I wasn't a big Elton John guy, and now I'm kind of obsessed with it. And then PTA, of course, one of the most famous ones, maybe the most famous one in any of his films. It's Boogie Nights. Sister Christian. I'm sorry. It's Sister Christian in Boogie Nights. of course the use of night ranger so have to at least get that one on the record this was this was obviously fun because i had a lot to say about these picks and thanks rico for giving us four shows worth of uh of discussion i don't know if you knew you were in for this but you were no i knew as soon as it was like oh this is going to be a night yeah once again just remind people where they can find your show.

1:07:03That is M-U-B-I podcast, cunningly named after the film company that puts it out, Mubi podcast. And you can find it wherever pods are cast. And I hope you do.

1:07:17Adam Kempenaar:Yes, definitely seek it out. We thank Rico Galliano from the Mubi podcast for joining us. And we hope you will send us your picks or any other feedback about the top five. You can email us anytime, feedback at filmspotting.net. Thanks, Rico. Thank you, sirs. Our thanks again to Rico Galliano. So much fun. And next time we have him on, not that it was his fault, certainly, we'll try to have a strategy in place when we pick such a good topic, Josh.

1:07:43Josh Larsen:Maybe, I mean, we could do a joint list, though. Sometimes that works for a topic, sometimes not. But yeah, it was fun every minute of it. So it's so good to have Rico on.

1:07:53Adam Kempenaar:Producer Sam right now is banging his head against the table because he's wanting to announce to the world, I knew this would happen. I proposed a joint list, which he did to me. And I said, there's no way this can be a joint list. I already can't get my list down anything lower than 22. And you want me and Josh to agree on five? No. Yeah. Can't have been tough. So we remind you that you can find all of our picks and links to clips over at filmspotting.net slash lists. Josh, that is part two of our show.

1:08:29Josh Larsen:That's it for film spotting for now, but we have more coming ahead in the film spotting feed on Monday. Look for the movie racket with Michael Phillips. The movie law he'll be exploring on that episode is pictures are for entertainment messages should be delivered by Western union. Samuel Goldwyn shared that one on Tuesday. It's film spotting SVU. They'll be discussing desert warrior. This is a Hulu offering a 7th century Arabia set epic with Anthony Mackie and Ben Kingsley. The director of this one is Rupert Wyatt, who did Rise of the Planet of the Apes. On Thursday, we will have the next picture show for you where there will be a little bit more the end of Oak Street talk.

1:09:14Josh Larsen:They're pairing it with Steven Spielberg's The War of the Worlds. Friday, we're back with a draft and another guest. Roxanna Haddadi from Vulture is joining us. We'll be picking our favorite Ridley Scott films. Film Spotting is produced by Golden Joe Dessau and Sam Van Haugeren. Without Sam and Golden Joe, this show wouldn't go. Our production assistant is Sophie Kempinar. Ariana Martinez is our new marketing and social media assistant. Welcome, Ariana. Great to have you aboard. And special thanks to everyone at WBEZ Chicago. More information is available at WBEZ.org. For Film Spotting, I'm Josh Larson.

1:09:54Josh Larsen:And I'm Adam Kempinar. Thanks for listening. This conversation can serve no purpose anymore. Goodbye.

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