The Top Five Movies of 2024

26:46It's not untimely. And the historical narrative about the Turner diaries and about, you know, the incredible impact that that had on various acts of domestic terrorism. That's the part of the stuff that's really interesting to me. Jude Law being Gene Hackman with his jowls and all the, you know, like cop on the edge stuff. That's fine. It's very solid. Everything Chris said about how it shot is great. He's a really good location shooter, Kurt Soule. He's great with mountains and lakes and roads. But I thought the Nicholas Holt half of it was very good. And the climax, which we won't spoil, although you can spoil it by going on Wikipedia, I guess.

27:24But it's fictionalized. But the climax is fantastic. It's a really good set piece at the end, I thought. It's a very effective, semi-slow reveal of Holt's character's power throughout the movie, too. It's really funny. The archetype you're describing is also one that is somewhat similar to his character in Nosferatu as well. Trying to do right by his family. And it doesn't go as well for him in that respect. And then he's going to play Lex Luthor next year in Superman. So we're in kind of a fascinating Nick Holt period right now. I've always been a fan of his. I don't think I, you know, he's really getting, he got cucked out a couple times on screen this year.

28:04Like by Toni Collette, you mean? Well, yeah. I mean, in theory, it depends on how you read that movie. Superman we'll see we'll see if Lex Luthor can can triumph what do you think I think I like him when he's doing the favorite or the great rather or Mad Max Mad Max yeah more than straight narrow like my jaw is like iron set this was sort of the perfect split the middle performance for me so enjoyed him in that sometimes like when he's just playing straightforward leading man parts I'm a little less enamored with him okay so those are three films that are out in the world right now that people can check out.

28:39Let's talk about the year in movies. Yeah, we gave Nicholas Holt something to think about there. Yeah, that's right. Straighten up. Adam, was this a good movie year? This is what everybody says. And it doesn't mean that it's not. I mean, it's all the politics of release dates and what are you going to sort of count and where are you publishing your lists? You know, I get to publish the top 10 list in The Ringer next week and trying to be fair about what people have seen or haven't seen. But you're talking about the national board of view i like how chris described it as like a list for like a normal person who sees movies right and then there are different levels of exposure or accessibility i've written about this a few times which is the whole way recency bias works for top 10 lists and awards it's it's just very annoying it's amazing people haven't cottoned on to this yet that just because something opens in december does not mean it's good any more than things opening in january february kind of means that it's bad but you know the fact that i had like a long list of 18 19 movies that could have gone on a top 10, I think is pretty good.

29:41And a couple of things that came out this year, I think are extraordinary. So not a bad year at all. I thought it was a pretty good year. And to piggyback off what Adam's saying, I do think that movies could learn a little bit from the way television has been honestly shattered, where there isn't this kind of gold rush at the end of a year that I think mixes everybody's signals about what's good and what's bad. I think a healthier movie industry would promote all types of different movie going experiences throughout the year. That being said, I've just had an extraordinary last like six weeks going to the theater and seeing stuff at home that winds up on streaming.

30:19And I actually really wound up like, like Adam, like, I think I have like a 15 to 20 movie long list that I was like, this is really good. It's weird. Cause like, I feel like we go through months if when I appear on the show, like bemoaning things or talking about like, I think it was a really dry summer. And I think that maybe has like an outsized impact on the way I saw the year. And maybe it wasn't the dumpuary that we crave every year. But man, if I didn't have like a pretty cool list and up until like last night was still like moving things in and out of my top five, just to try and figure out what was what.

30:58Yeah, I was doing the same thing. I think for me, it was not a great year by any means. And I think part of that is maybe the sense that there were not as many genuinely breathtaking forever movies for me personally. And that's an odd, that's just my own personal metric. Your mileage may vary. I think also, I think one of the reasons why there is this real pile up this year in particular is because just a lot of movies could not be finished because of the strikes. And so this was an odd release year. And it was odd, honestly, doing the show this year because there would be two and three week stretches with no significant release, wide release.

31:36And I'm not sure that that has ever really happened since movies became so massively commercialized in the 1930s. So having, you know, November 8th, for example, being like a dead release weekend or having something like a movie like Sing Sing only reaching a very small number of people or a movie like Juror No. 2 only reaching a small number of people over time. I think it created a sense of dissonance that has already been growing over the years with the amount of streaming-only movies that we get. And I do feel like that has really shaken out. I do feel like there is now clarity on streaming movies are lesser than theatrically released films.

32:12The studios have the data they need to realize that. And that for the most part, the quote-unquote real movies are going theatrical. And then there is the hot Frosties of the world. And they're like, this is great for people at home who want to hang out and watch movies like this. And hopefully we're not seeing any more movies. You know, I guess with obviously with the notable exception of the way that Netflix still does business. So in that way, go ahead, Adam. Can I make a point based on the title of this podcast, though? And it is particular to viewership and listenership here. Because I was thinking the other day, I mean, I freelance for a lot of places.

32:43And I have tremendous editorial freedom here, considering that there's, you know, a site with really wide reach. Never told what to put on my 10 best list. I'm allowed to write about foreign language cinema, experimental cinema, older film. I'm very grateful for this. The title of the podcast, Big Picture, it's a big playing field of movies. So at the end of the year, when lists come out and people, not necessarily listeners or readers of The Ringer, but social media introduces you to all kinds of people, people say, I haven't heard of that. Well, because things aren't all equally widely distributed, but they exist.

33:15Or I haven't heard of that. Well, but aren't you curious to now watch it? But I can see where the polarization comes from because people feel that if it's movies that they haven't heard of, they must not be worth seeing or not be worth promoting or people are making them up, which is why whenever people describe what they think arthouse or foreign language films are, they're very far from the mark. People are like, oh, a seven-hour Belgian documentary from the point of view of a pigeon. I'm like, I'd love to see that. That's not a thing. What it probably is is a boring coming-of-age movie set on an island somewhere.

33:44I mean, it's all perceptual. So I think at the end of the year, if critics aren't calling attention to films that aren't as widely seen, they're not doing their job. Otherwise, what's the point of their job? So something like the National Board of Review has a very populist mandate. So of course it looks like a list of 10 kind of normie movies. Those are all pretty wide release movies. Don't they also do lists of foreign and independent? Like they silo these things apart. That's their mandate. To me, a good critic is someone who doesn't silo those things apart, but sort of tries to bring them together.

34:16You don't exclude populist movies if they're good, but you also don't privilege them. It's like Gladiator 2. They suck. And you also don't look too askance or too suspiciously at good movies made in other countries or in other styles. Most people who are skeptical of that would never consider themselves to be discriminatory or xenophobic. But it's like, if you haven't heard of something, watch it. If they can't see it, that's the problem. right so the the podcast being called the big picture is a is a is a good thing for me let me ask you a question that i don't mean to narrow cast your personal experience influencing how you feel about a year but i'm genuinely genuinely interested in your answer you've done a lot of um whether it's hall of fames you know uh it's like top fives or whatever like we wind up looking backwards a lot we live in a city that's got a ascendant uh an ascendant repertory theater scene Those repertory theaters seem to be hotbeds of young people going to the movies and discovering film history.

35:18The best movie-going experiences I've had this year were going to see Thief at Vidiots and going to see Sorcerer at the Vista, both of which were completely packed out with people having their minds blown by that experience. I also was at a fully full Lawrence of Arabia screening at the Arrow. I had Apocalypse Now. Do you think that the introduction of Letterboxd as a really viable social media platform and film sharing platform and this obvious groundswell of interest, at least in major metropolises, of young people going 10, 20, 30, 50 years into film history but reacting with the passion that you would kind of expect because they're not being given this thing necessarily routinely on a week-to-week basis by Hollywood now, does it change how you feel about going to AMC and seeing a movie that was just like kind of meh?

36:17It's a good point but the question doesn't really resonate because the mission of the show is still ultimately like the contemporary cinema. So it's like what movies are out now and then how do they relate to that history and how can we kind of contextually discuss them? Do I wish that rather than going to see Despicable Me 4 I could just go to a 70mm festival? Of course. I think I'm more asking like the same way that streaming music kind of made all music history flat because it was given equal kind of shelf space, whether or not this sort of emergence of like a very active social culture and interest in older films has like maybe kind of like taken new movies down a peg or two in terms of like the pecking order.

37:01I think as someone who teaches undergrads, right? I teach undergrad regularly at U of T. Toronto is a film-going metropolis. We have a big film festival, you know, and a big film community, big Cinematech in the Lightbox. I think Chris Asking is exactly right, actually, in that some of my, not all of them, students are all different people, but I think people are very sometimes hesitant to go see new stuff when there's the ability to catch up to older things. And if you go to repertory screenings in Toronto, where I spend a fair amount of time when I'm not, like, parenting or writing mean reviews.

37:33It's a lot of young people and they're much, much more interested in seeing things that are rare or seeing things that have been historically contextualized or things that have some kind of conceptual connection to now or thematic connection to now than just turning up for whatever is new. Like when I taught the film criticism seminar at U of T earlier this year, my students seemed much more interested in trying to write about and analyze and unpack old movies, then the assignment were like, go see a new release. They're like, really? Now, that also meant I got two separate papers on The Beekeeper with Jason Statham, which were very good reviews of that.

38:10You're about to get your third when I do my top five list. Of that movie. One of the most politically complicated movies of the year. It is. It'd be a great double bill with the order. It'd be a great double bill with a lot of things. But I do think that Chris is kind of on to something. And I also know from knowing Sean that you know your film history and know your like larger currents of film history and connections. Those are often brought to bear on this podcast, even though it is about new stuff. Yeah, I think that you were right. I think I'm a little bit, I used to caution against this when I was a music critic.

38:45I really didn't like what has happened to me, which is when someone was an active critic for a long time was engaging with music that could be defined as youth culture. And they got too old and they fell out of step with the modes of current creativity. And then a lot of their writing and criticism and experience with culture just seemed very angry about a kind of loss of their own youth. Yeah. And I'm very suspicious of that. And it's one of the reasons why I try to give a lot of time to very mainstream successful things like Marvel movies, like Hot Frosty. I think it's worthwhile to understand why those things resonate with certain groups of people.

39:27And by the same token, I think there's always going to be very few genuinely great, awe-inspiring movies, but it's important when they happen to put a big red circle around them and say, like, you know, like, Enora is not on my top five list, for example. But I think Enora is a great movie. And I think it's really exciting to be able to say, Sean Baker's been doing this for almost 20 years. There's a lot to discover. about what he does and what he means to the American cinema. And if you pay attention on a regular basis, the experience of a Nora will actually be that much deeper. You just have to keep paying attention.

40:02So if you backslide into I only watch Sorcerer now, and like I watch Sorcerer as my personality, as a thing that has happened to like thousands of men in Los Angeles in the last 10 years. Literally thousands. And look, I fucking love Sorcerer. I'm in many ways one of those guys. Yeah. But you can't be just that guy and be like, I love movies. You actually have to make the effort to see the kinds of films that Adam is describing and to also, at least for my purposes, you know, see the wild robot and take it seriously. Yeah. You know, and make an effort to understand it and figure out where it fits in the constellation of movie making and movie creativity.

40:36So I don't know. What I'm trying to do is not fall out of step with movies the way I did with music. And when I started to feel it, I stepped away from music. Yeah. No, I think I was really more asking whether or not this is a bubble conversation or not. I was just curious whether or not the time as a flat circle experience has come for cinema. And I think that there are elements of Letterboxd that are amazing. And the way that people can organize lists and share and for people to be like, oh, okay, now I can go back through. I just have a list of 200 spaghetti westerns I can watch. And that's just awesome.

41:12That was hard work 30 years ago. It was. And now it's like, I have 14 lists that I can cross-check and make sure. Well, just to circle back to that band-splain conversation that you had with Yassi, Adam, they were pointing out that once upon a time, if you really wanted to hear a British band that didn't have a U.S. release strategy, you had to pay$12 for a two-song single or CD single and have it imported to you. And how that rarity, that feeling of rarity, created a sense of anticipation and excitement around things that is much harder now because of what you're describing. And look, nobody advocates harder for Letterboxd than I do.

41:47I think it's an amazing platform. But one of the things that I think it does now that is super cool is when you open the app, The Substance has been among the top three logged movies on that app for like two months. The Substance being a successful film, period, is an incredible long shot. A non-American filmmaker, a star who has not led a major production in like 20 years, a movie starring almost entirely women about women's experience in the world and it's body horror and that app because of the fervor that it sometimes drives around a certain kind of a movie can help grow and sustain the success of certain kinds of films and that is ultimately Universal was behind that movie and then punted it but it's like that movie distributed that movie so I still think it has an incredible power in that respect too not just for the here is my spaghetti westerns list we could pontificate all day about what this year in movies means.

42:43Maybe it's better to just talk about the movies and talk about our lists. So we'll share five films. We've got some honorable mentions and then, like I said, Amanda will share hers at the very end of the episode. Chris, why don't we start with you? Okay. Number five. Strange Darling. J.T. Mellner's Cat and Mouse serial killer movie told in non-linear fashion. Featured, I think, my favorite performance of the year is Willa Fitzgerald. In case people haven't seen Strange Darling. As a young woman. As a young woman. And also features Kyle Gallner and Barbara Hershey and Ed Begley. This was a film that kind of hit me out of nowhere, has stuck with me, has some bones of like the 90s indie cinema that I kind of was grown up, grew up with.

43:32So it's obviously like I'm already like speaking the language, but I thought that it looked incredible. It felt incredible. It was challenging in really interesting ways. I think that a bunch of the films that I have here felt very contemporary and felt very of the moment in a variety of different ways. And it's just a little bit difficult to talk about Strange Darling without spoiling it for people. So I will just implore them to see it if they haven't already. And it was one of the most thrilling experiences with the movies that I had this year. one thing I wanted to point out about this is that at the New Beverly Tonight, Strange Darling is playing on a double feature with a film called Mademoiselle which I was not familiar with.

44:19Adam, if you were familiar with it, please let me know. I haven't seen it, but I've heard of it. It's Tony Richardson's follow-up to The Loved One and Tom Jones made in 1966 in France starring Jean Moreau and here's the logline Jean Moreau delivers a sultry and powerful portrayal of a frustrated school teacher whose suppressed sexual desire leads her to commit devilish acts of destruction in this erotic tale of eccentric human behavior. This is the movie that the director J.T. Mulliner and Giovanni Urbisi have said has most directly influenced the film Strange Darling. I watched it and I thought it was very interesting and very un-Tony Richardson and kind of a fascinating pure art house movie.

45:05Anyhow, I like Strange Darling. Adam, what's your number five? Well, keeping in mind that when the list gets published Tuesday, I reserve the right to move it around. I'm trying to give, I think, the most honest top ten in terms of where it's at. So I'm going to say that my number five is Nickel Boys, a movie that may or may not pop up for you guys on your list. Yeah, this is the only one that I didn't see that I wish I had seen. By the aforementioned Romel Ross, you know, there's a lot I want to say about it, but I'm going to write about it. And also, I don't want to step on any future episodes about it, but just it's a really unique approach to literary adaptation.

45:40It is a completely cinematic translation of a literary medium. It has a use of point of view that I think is genuinely original. And a couple of moments that stand out when that point of view between, let's say, two characters converges, it's just extraordinary. You know, this is a director who's just thinking through how do I do this material in a way that honors it, but also changes that I happen to see Ramel Ross in conversation in Toronto, where we talked about, you know, being a point guard as well as being a filmmaker. He's a really nice guy. And his approach to adapting the Coulson Whitehead novel, I think it's ingenious.

46:20And I think it's a movie that you don't want to risk saying too much about, not just because of narrative spoilers, but because the experience of watching it is very surprising. Usually prestige season literary adaptations, even good ones, are not formally surprising. In fact, the whole point is they want to be formally accessible. So just for the way he plays with language without completely obscuring the history and the cultural relevance of the material, I think he did an amazing job. And I think that the best directing prize that he won from the New York Film Critics Circle is one of the most heartening prizes I've seen in a long time.

46:58I love this movie. It will come up later in our conversation. And I think you'll find a lot to admire. You've been talking about it longer than anybody I know, actually. Had you read the novel? Is that why? Yeah. Okay. I would say it is faithful but wildly different. That's cool. I can't wait to see it. My number five is a movie called Evil Does Not Exist. This is Hamaguchi's follow-up to Drive My Car, a movie that has stuck with me pretty profoundly. I was thinking about this movie, Adam, when you were talking about how sometimes we get a little stuck on the December releases as the good movies.

47:30I have some December releases on my lineup. You know, Nickel Boys is a December release, but Evil Does Not Exist premiered some time ago, earlier this year, and it's been haunting me. And I was reminded of it because it feels not in conversation, but connected to another movie that I really liked this year that I was a little bit on an island with, which is Robert Zemeckis' Here. And I'm thinking about those two movies together because they're very much about place, pride of place, and what you can have and what other people think they deserve from a place. And Evil Does Not This is about a small fishing village in Japan that a kind of industrialized glamping company comes to and intends to build a campsite, which will then have a meaningful ecological impact on the community that lives in this Japanese village.

48:17All non-professional actors in this film. Hamaguchi, incredibly patient filmmaker, someone who's unafraid of mystery and interpretation, This movie has one of the most unusual and kind of confounding endings to a movie that I've seen in recent times. As with all of his movies, it has incredible music by Aiko Ishibashi. And I have only watched this movie once. And a lot of times when I make these lists, I feel it is imperative to see the movie a second time to make sure that the feeling I had the first time is right or not right. It's like watertight. and this is the rare case where I'm sort of like I had a very special experience watching this movie and the way that it made me feel and I almost don't want to sully that but I also want to continue to understand what he was going for because it is quite complex so I don't know when I'm going to see it again but I'll probably buy it and when I buy it and have a physical copy that's when I'll do it but I adore this movie and I adore here too for somewhat similar reasons they're both in my top 10 though not in my top 5 And just a second with Sean saying, Evil Does Not Exist is exactly this sort of movie that people who might look for more mainstream titles on this list would be well advised to check out.

49:31Not least of all because it has major horror movie vibes while not being a horror movie. The score, the sense of atmosphere is quite frightening. and if anyone is fans of Kyoshi Kurosawa, who is one of the world's great directors and who actually made three great movies this year, none of which are eligible for my list for different reasons, but three great movies by Kyoshi Kurosawa, Hamaguchi was his student. He was Hamaguchi's film instructor and there's Kurosawa-ness in this movie for sure. Great movie. Okay, Chris, number four. When we have overlap, do you want to just address them separately?

50:09Yeah. Number four for me is The Brutalist. which I got to see with you last week and lived up to all my expectations. Amazing cinematic experience. When people talk about four quadrants, this one hit the quadrants that are actually what you care about with movies, which is sound, image, performance, and writing. And I was mesmerized by it. It felt like an event. It felt like someone reaching for greatness in a way that you don't see directors do that often anymore. And really, the story itself is actually a little bit of a surprise to me. You could say that it's a guy trying to cram Godfather 1 and 2 into one movie.

50:53And that sometimes has loose ends or uncomfortable moments. But I was completely blown away by the story of this guy who comes to America as a refugee and rises, but not too far in the world of architecture in Pennsylvania in the post-war era. I'm very fond of The Brutalist. It'll come up again. Adam is a little bit less fond of this movie. I think we're going to, hopefully we'll have a spirited conversation about The Brutalist sometime soon on the pod. Let's talk about it in time. I'm writing about it for the site. Let's leave it for now. Okay. Adam, number four. Number four is a movie called The Beast by Bertrand Vanello.

51:35This is another movie that is very worth seeking out if the title is not immediately recognizable to you. This, for me, is, I mean, everything Chris said about the ambition and craft of the Brutalist is true, by the way. I mean, that's a movie that is going for a lot. This is a movie that's going for a lot in a different way. Brutalist is chasing Coppola. I think Bonello is kind of chasing Lynch. He's chasing a lot of really kind of conceptual, melancholy sci-fi. it's a movie that has three timelines past, present, future, three performances each by Lea Seydoux and George Mackay, they may or may not be the same characters in each timeline they may be reincarnations, they may be astral projections I think Benello's the real deal every movie of his is interesting it's often genre adjacent and horror adjacent, not everything he does works, I'm tired of movies where everything works I like movies where things kind of don't work, so the stuff that works is extraordinary I like that parts of this movie feel like Titanic I like that parts of this movie feel like Minority Report I like that parts of this movie feel like Mulholland Drive I like everything about it and I think that it's the movie I saw at TIFF last year that I've wanted to re-watch at least, other than one other movie on my list, the movie that I felt inclined to re-watch the most and yet I haven't because I don't want to spoil that first experience, a little bit like what Sean was saying about evil does not exist.

53:00I loved my first experience of the beast and I even wrote about it for film comment and they were like, do you want a screen or do you want to look at it again? And I'm like, no, let's, let's, let's, I would just, I remember seeing it at TIFF and some guy walked out. There were a lot of walkouts at this movie, which is often a very good sign. And there's this scene where like Lea Seydoux is like floating naked in a tub of black goo and a robot. It's like, you need to go to a nightclub and it's going to be the year 1982. And a guy walked out and I'm like, what are you doing? Where are you going?

53:27What possible better thing do you have to do right now than see where this is going? Shout out to Bertram Bonello. He's a real one. He's a really good director. Where are you at on David Lynch? I don't know if we've ever had that conversation. Massive Twin Peaks fan. Massive Mulholland Drive fan. And then kind of up and down with other stuff. I would be curious to know what you think of this movie. I'm of the camp that what works is remarkable and what doesn't work holds me back from loving it the same way that Adam does. But I get exactly what he's saying. We're sort of forgiving of our favorites a lot of times too, you know?

54:04And the messiness sometimes is an adventure that a tightly constructed movie maybe doesn't give you. Yeah. So I get it. I fully relate to what you're saying. My number four is a tightly constructed adventure. It's called Dune Part 2. Yeah. Which I don't know that I would have thought for sure would have ended up on my list when I first saw it because I was like, it's going to be a great movie year. It's March. and Dune Part 2 hit. And as I look back, I'm always fond of trying to find one event-style film to place into my list because it is one of my favorite types of movie experiences to have is to be amongst a big crowd of common moviegoers and to love a movie together.

54:45Because Deadpool and Wolverine is number one for you. Let's not spoil things, please. Keep them with some bated breath there. But Dune Part 2, I think is as close as we got to that this year. It is the second but perhaps not conclusive installment in the Denis Villeneuve adaptation of the Herbert novel. I thought this was like movie synchronicity at its finest. Like a person with a very strong point of view on a piece of literature who knows how to make wow moments with arguably the most stacked young movie star cast in recent memory. I actually could not think of a comp where we're kind of getting into like dazed and confused territory here where they, you know, Linklater had foresight about people who were going to be famous.

55:32But this movie brings together what feels like a next generation in a lot of ways to tell a very old kind of story with a very messianic kind of structure. But the moment very early on in the film where you see the sort of rival Harkonnen soldiers gliding through the sky to get to the top of a mountain. I was like, I have not seen that and I don't know what this is. I feel like I'm in safe hands with a genuinely creative artisan. And, you know, visionary is a strong phrase. And I'm not sure if I necessarily believe that Villeneuve isn't a visionary, but I think he's an amazing movie maker. And this is an amazing feeling movie.

56:09So, number four. Also, just really awesome to see a blockbuster that ends on a tough note. You know, complicated. We don't get tons of those anymore. So, it's nice. it's there's no like Michael Caine being like you did it Paul Atreides you know like it ends and you're just like fuck man like that was a real choice he made yeah yeah I really like it um okay number three CR okay uh Anora uh Sean Baker's film we've referenced a couple times in this podcast I haven't really gotten a chance to talk about it here um I just really cared about what happened to this person I really really did it's basically three movies in one it's you know a Cinderella the story in the beginning.

56:50There's a middle section that's brilliant that's basically after hours. And then there's this sort of complicated relationship dramedy that happens at the end. But throughout it, I was just like, I don't feel like I've ever seen... It's not that I've never seen a character like this, but I just was like, I really, really care what happens to this woman. And I'll do credit to Mikey Madison for that. I think it's a really, really, really special performance this from the opening music cue in the beginning as you glide through the strip club on a on a pan like you're just like i mean i this guy knows exactly how he wants this movie to sound exactly how this movie should look should feel to go from that nightclub to her small like apartment where she forgets to bring home the milk you're just so enmeshed in the highs and lows of this character's life and then that just roller coaster continues throughout the film um i thought i i I left it with a gut punch, thinking a lot about what the end of the film meant.

57:51I love that people are arguing about that. That's kind of a theme of some of the films I picked is films I think are going to be very divisive and people are going to have a lot of different opinions about. But I was just mesmerized by this whole thing. Is Anora on your list Adam? No. No, it's not. There's a lot of things about it that are very good. I think Sean Baker's a really good filmmaker. There's also things about this film that don't land for me. I will say, to Chris's point, because I always love everything Chris has to say and where everyone comes from. No, I mean it. It is a movie to talk about.

58:27Because probably at TIFF last year, some of those interesting chats I had with other critics and with friends, working backwards, was about the upshot of that last scene. or about the depiction of sex work, or about the culture clash within it, or the idea of extreme wealth. I will say that Sean Baker tends to make very similar plots. It's just interesting to see as he's gotten more successful, it's leveled up in terms of the kind of wealth and privilege that's kind of put on the screen. It's not a bad thing. The movie it reminds me of, I don't like it as much, but saying that it reminds me of it is a compliment.

59:00It reminds me of Uncut Gems, both in the sense that it is like a madcap realistic screwball thriller movie and also that it is by far the biggest movie that the person associated with it is made so with the Safdie is the question like where do they go from here is still open I don't know where else Sean Baker goes because he just won the Palme d 'Or and is making a lot of money and Oscar nominations for this movie it's not a criticism it's just like what do we do because he's a real indie hero filmmaker for me, I think. Yeah. When we did our episode about it, it's not on my list, but I said I think that's a culmination of all of his themes and maybe that elevation of wealth that you're talking about is a part of that.

59:38And I think that it is absolutely a neat pairing with Uncut Gems because these are both movies about people who have incredible desire that is unexamined. Yeah. And I think that we're meant to think about ourselves in that respect and why we want these things. They're both movies also that use time in a really wise way. You know, like time seems to last forever in the first act of anora it seems to go by in the blink of an eye in the second and then in the third it's kind of this ellipsis of like where are we going next dragged out yeah yeah very purposefully the fall is always a little bit more painful um okay adam number three my number three is very similar to anora in that it is a gig economy uh scrupal comedy the female protagonist sort of in the ruins of european communism which is do not expect too much from the end of the world, which I would also hugely recommend to anyone who's listening to this or watch it and saying, I don't know what that is.

1:00:30Go find out what it is. It is fucking hilarious movie. It is about a woman driving through Bucharest. She basically is working for a company that makes work safety PSAs, but from the point of view of like, don't get hurt. It's like looking for people who will sort of give testimonials about how it's not really their fault. There is a cameo from Nina Haas as the, I think the great granddaughter of Goethe. There's a cameo by Uwe Boll as himself. There's probably the worst language of any movie ever since Goodfellas. The slur per moment ratio or the expletive per moment ratio is off the charts. And it's hilarious.

1:01:05It's a movie about social collapse and late capitalism and just the absolute hostility that vibrates from this character who half the time is pretending to be Andrew Tate using a face filter. The female protagonist has this kind of alter ego she posts to Instagram with where she just has Andrew Tate's face and just vents her spleen about the world. And then it culminates, I'm going to write about this too when we do shots of the year. It has the greatest long take I've seen in years. A 40 minute long take, which is not about camera movement. It is just about pure duration. It's a shot that you could have taken in 1895.

1:01:44And it is also a better Bob Dylan movie than a complete unknown. Because the end of Do Not Expect You Went to the End of the World is a parody of the subterranean homesick blues video, except the idea is you add the words in post because it's green screen cards. It's the best comedy of the year. And a movie that even though it's long, it feels like it's about two seconds long to me. I like this movie. It's a good pick. Okay, my number three is Challengers. Challengers and Dune coming out so close together. again was a sensation of like we are we are truly back we are in incredible hands and guadagnino i think resisting the impulse to make something so commercial for so long i found fascinating because you could always sense right underneath the surface as a very kinetic filmmaker and somebody who if he picked up the pace had a chance to do something extremely cool this is a very simple seeming soap operatic story a love triangle on the surface a sports movie on the surface that I think is also about incredible, unquenchable passion for victory that exists inside some people.

1:02:54And in this case, it is in the character portrayed by Zendaya. And she is using everyone around her to supplement her desire and her ambition. Because her body won't cooperate. Yes. And her willingness to use other people and to sublimate certain feelings in order to get where she wants to go. and it's also just like a hilarious and relentlessly propulsive story about what happens to everyone who gets in her way. Also just features one of my five-year performances of the year, which is Joshua Connor as this sort of weaselly bastard who won't ever get out of her way and continues to place himself right in front of her.

1:03:37I really, really loved this movie. I think that this is, it is more of a divisive movie that I think I imagined when I first saw it and I first saw it in 2023 and when I saw it I was like god damn the score alone the Atticus Ross and Trent Reznor score and the inspired decision to basically put a four on the floor dance beat behind tennis yeah and 70 % of the movie I mean it's just a relentless use of music as well it's just so inspired to me and I've seen this movie three times now I really really love it it's a good meeting point I think for me and Amanda and our interest on the show so So as I look down the list, there's a lot of stuff I did like.

1:04:15There were some movies that maybe could have been swapped into here, but I'm not sure if I ever had quite so much fun at the movies as I had at Challengers. So that's my number three. Okay, number two, Chris. I'm going to go with Rebel Ridge, Jeremy Saunier's film about a martial arts instructor who comes to a small southern town to bail his cousin out of jail. and everything that goes wrong from there. It's about the corrosive forces of local law enforcement forced to, not forced to, but engaging in this thing called civil asset forfeiture, taking people's property, their money, their time, their freedom for essentially financial benefit.

1:05:00But it also is just like a movie that could have come out in 1983 and starred Chuck Norris. it is made though with such care and such excellence in scenes that you're just like this is just a transition scene to get him from one part of a riverbed to a bridge you're like how the hell they do that why did he take so much time to do it that way but it pays off it's just watching someone who really still cares about making really good genre films and um that's excellent it's a kind of a triumph that this film is as good as it is given how the reshoots and the delays they went under. And then on top of all of that, aside from really cool performances from Don Johnson, who's reliably awesome anyway, and Emery Cohen, Anna Sophia Robb, Aaron Pierre just becomes a movie star in this movie.

1:05:44And so if you didn't know that already from watching Underground Railroad, you will know it from watching Rebel Ridge. It was just one of the most satisfying films I've seen all year. Watched it like two or three times. Great movie on my honorable mentions for sure. It's a terrific movie. Aaron Pierre is fantastic in it. It's really good. Adam, number two. We probably don't have to talk about it. We did a whole pod on it. Juror number two. Look at you. Hey. Yeah. You know, people may have heard us say it. You saw that Forerunner yet, buddy? You saw that Forerunner, Benny? No, I mean, I really loved talking about it with Sean.

1:06:17That was a fun chat. I do think there is a little urgency around this movie and critics rallying around it. There's a sort of like white knighting of Clint Eastwood who can take care of himself, but still. and it is a movie remember we talked about that idea of distracted viewing you know what the common thing people have been texting about this movie with me is they're like I didn't look at my phone it is a great you can't look at your phone movie because it is told in such a precise measured classical pressurized way and again what an amazing ending that last scene which I wrote about so I won't go on about it here that's an extraordinary ending in every way the way it's written the way it's shot way it's acted.

1:06:57We haven't talked about it. We haven't. What'd you think? It was quite good. It was quite good. Some flaws? I wish I could do the Pepsi Coke taste test of not knowing who directed that film and know how I would have felt about it. Really? Yeah, because I think I went into it with a lot of God Clint late style. You guys need to understand the mastery at work here. I went in with kind of looking for that when I was watching it. I think it's fair to say that it's also a very procedural, for as much mysticism as might be attached to it, it's kind of a bare-bones showtime movie of the week kind of movie in some ways.

1:07:38Yeah, I think the kinds of movies that I thought about when I was watching it, and I think we talked about this a little bit, Adam, when we did the episode, but that period where he makes Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil and True Crime and Bloodwork, And he's like working through genre adaptation that is a very comfy period of movies for me personally. You know, that's sort of like 96 through 2003 era where he's like semi mailing it in. But him semi mailing it in is so much better than everybody. And for me, jury number two distinguishes itself because it is like a big moral gray cloak over his questioning of institutions for the last 15, 20 years in his films.

1:08:22and I love that about it and I echo Adam's sentiments about the ending which I just think is like I was I don't know a floored is the wrong word because it's sort of inconclusive in some ways but just like knocked out just like took my breath away so great pick Adam I like it my number two is a movie that Adam also has on his list which is Nickel Boys which I think both formally intellectually and emotionally and spiritually is just like wildly deep and new and exciting and is the kind of movie... To go back to your question earlier about the Sorcerer Boys, this is why I'm doing the show, is to discover a movie like this at a film festival and to tell people to watch it.

1:09:05And The Beekeeper, too. Well, I do like promoting movies like The Beekeeper as well. Those two films have a lot to say to each other politically, Nickel Boys and The Beekeeper. you know Nickel Boys is because of its decision to remove perspective and amplify perspective at the same time I think really confronts the viewer about what they're willing to tolerate in a narrative style film in addition to that it has something in common with my number one movie in terms of the use of archival footage that I find to be fascinating and in the wrong hands could go very badly but in both cases I think is an amazing choice and I think the film gets into this is so pretentious but like legitimately abstract poetry in the final 20 minutes of the film where you are like levitating you are being lifted off of your feet or off of your ass while you're watching the movie because it's so deep now I saw it with a bunch of friends at Telluride who I see a lot of movies with and half of them were just like what the fuck was that and I think a lot of people will watch Nickel Boys and have the same feeling and frankly if you watch it in your house like on Amazon it's probably going to seem even more strange.

1:10:15But it just knocked me out and I'm very excited about Romel Ross as a filmmaker. So that's my number two. Okay, Chris, number one. I love what you're doing here. My number one is Civil War. So Alex Garland's movie from earlier in this year featuring Kirsten Dunst and Kaylee Spaney and Wagner Mora as journalists who are covering the fall of a, I suppose, fascistic or at least third-term president, I say, suppose, because a lot of people took a lot of issues with the lack of clarity and lack of world-building that went into this very straightforward Heart of Darkness style up the river, but just down the Pennsylvania Turnpike type movie.

1:11:00I found that the imagery from this movie stuck with me. Yes, the ideas from this movie stuck with me, even though I know it's been criticized for having no ideas whatsoever, Amanda. But I keep thinking about it. and it's a fucking heavyweight title contender of a piece of filmmaking. And I'm not actually always like Alex Garland can do no wrong. Like I definitely have issues with some of his films. I think they get really sloppy in places. I think sometimes he gets enamored with the things that I'm not particularly interested in. This movie was not that. I was absolutely gripping my armrests for the entirety of this film.

1:11:36It was sonically and visually overwhelming. And I don't know. It's an interesting conversation to have. to ask people whether or not their feelings about this movie have changed since the election. I probably can't squeeze it in here, but I did think about it in different ways. You're saving it for JMO. I'm saving it for JMO. I'm saving it for my Letterboxd livestream. But yeah, that's my number one. Did you hate this movie? No, I wrote about it. I didn't hate it. I didn't like it very much. The last thing that you said about I wonder if people's feelings about the movie have changed is partially what I resisted about it, which is among other things, it felt opportunistic.

1:12:14Sure. But I suppose it is a very thin line because I always, again, respect what Chris says. It's a thin line between opportunism and prescience, right? He's not making a movie about the wrong thing. So my issue is kind of with the filmmaking itself, but that's subjective. And I'm not really a Garland fan. There's some good scenes in it. And the one scene performance by Jesse Plemons, obviously very memorable. And not just because it's been memed a lot. You know, that's a memorable little performance. He's very good.

1:12:51Yeah, I mean, I really love this movie. And I had a very similar experience that you did. And I rewatched it right before the election. And I think I liked it a little bit less, but felt like it was better. You know what I mean? Like I am actually in the church of Garland and I love his movies and I love the way that he thinks and I like his novels quite a bit. And I'm so excited that he is doing another 28 movie with zombie movie with Danny Boyle and some other movie warfare. He's making this movie warfare with Ray Mendoza, who is the consultant on some of the military action in civil war. And it's a friend of mine who works in the business was like, this is going to be the best movie of the year next year.

1:13:28I'm fully in the, in the cult. and I think it's prescience and my sense that it will be very warmly understood long term kind of like undid me a little bit but I really like it it's literally I think a number six for me right now so it's a good pick okay Adam you've got a number one slot I want it to be a surprise when I publish the list but I've also got to be consistent right I can't not mention it and have it be number one I went with Pascal Plant's film Red Rooms Thought about putting this on as well Which is a French Canadian film And what I'm going to say about it as a Mia culpa is I didn't think it worked The first time and Letterboxd which we've talked About for this entire Podcast you can find it there Someone shared it the other day we're like oh these are some really good thoughts On Red Room by Adam I'm like No I disagree with Myself and I wrote about the film Wrote about the film for Mubi later and said I think it's really good and I think it's better than really good.

1:14:29I think it's an amazing film and I'm really loathe for spoilers. I think spoilers are essential to like written serious criticism but when you're trying to introduce people to a movie you don't want to say too much. Interesting companion piece to Juror No. 2 in that it is a courtroom drama that is not really a courtroom drama at all. It has extraordinary courtroom sequence for about 10 minutes and then it's not about that. It's about a woman who, I'm hesitant how much to say, a vested interest in the trial of an accused serial killer. And the ways that she pursues this interest, which is kind of like investigative journalism and kind of like obsessive fandom and maybe something else, constantly surprised me.

1:15:15I have not seen a movie. We see movies for a living to greater or lesser degrees, all of us, right? We try not to be cynical. I think Sean does a great job of not being cynical. I do a less good job of not being cynical. I had no idea what this character was capable of. That's rare. I don't just mean that a movie is unpredictable. Movies can be twisted. That's easy to do, but I'm like, who is this person? What the hell is she thinking and doing? And why is she doing this? And the performance by this French Canadian actress, Juliette Carieppe, I think it's an all-timer. I mean, I don't know if the movie's an all-timer.

1:15:49I like it a lot, obviously, because I'm putting it at number one. She's unbelievable. and it's a movie that I think for fans of the pod who like a very obscure director none of us have ever talked about named David Fincher might want to watch because it has the Fincher juice that was my in for it this is really good Fincher methadone a movie in its own right obviously really good Fincher methadone and this performance a lot of it is in close up the close ups are often nightmare fuel a few critics have described this movie as being as scary as something that is not a horror movie can be in terms of, and it all comes back to this idea of what this character is capable of and why she is doing these things.

1:16:32And I love the idea of a movie about a character who knows exactly what she's doing and maybe not why, or has no idea what she's doing, you know, but is super competent in a kind of Stieg Larsson girl with the dragon tattoo way. Great movie. Number one. We've talked about how quite a bit over the last couple of years, many great filmmakers are resistant to making contemporary set stories because of the way that they resolve some of the natural plotting that comes from telling a story in the past because of cell phones and technology and what have you. this is an incredibly contemporary movie Red Rooms and there's a sequence in a bedroom near the end of the movie that is the most like stunning portrait of a modern mentality that I've ever seen I won't say anything more about it but I know I relate deeply to the way that you're describing the like what she's what what is she now she's doing what like and we're pretty like sick fucks you know this is like a trio of guys so we're into some gnarly shit.

1:17:37And to reiterate, for anyone who's now curious about seeing the movie, this is not incoherence. It's sort of a movie about a completely self-divided moment because everything that Sean said about the way I usually, when movies are like, we're about the way we live now, it usually means they're bad, you know? But this is a movie about screens and prisms and about self-curation and like how people present themselves in private versus public and absolutely about just like interacting with and interfacing with AI. And it does it all within a genre framework. Because Fincher, when he's really good, colors inside the lines of genre.

1:18:12He just colors vividly. You know? Pascal Plant is not a household name like that. But the way that this movie is directed, I hope it does good things for him in a good way. I hope it means he gets to make more movies that are as uncompromised as this, as opposed to leveling up to making some horror remake in the States or something. But, you know, really good film. That's a good segue to my number one, which is The Brutalist. And I will echo Chris's feelings about the film. I've seen it twice. And now that I know more about the movie, I think that that has probably infiltrated even more of my appreciation.

1:18:49And what you're saying about Pascal Plant and the way that he made Red Rooms, Adam, I think resonates to this conversation too, because this is someone who I hope gets to make more movies and gets more and more freedom. There's something fascinating about The Brutalist being made for such a small sum because it is such a big movie and it is such an extraordinary accomplishment and a sweeping movie. And it's not just its length, but its scope that is so thrilling. The performances I think in this movie are amazing. And while I do understand the concern that it is a very transparent and to some desperate grasp for greatness, I would rather have that than settling for mediocrity, settling for something small, settling for something that is cheap or cynical.

1:19:39And this is like, to me, I see no cynicism in this movie. I see no cynicism in the ambition to make something big and great. And it's evident to me like what some of the inspirations are. And I think that Godfather is there. And I think the American productions, the moral fables of George Stevens are there. And I think Visconti movies are there. And Bergman. and I think Berlucci yeah 1900 is there sequences from Paul Thomas Anderson movies The Master is vividly on the surface of this movie vividly on the surface of this movie no question about it you know what all of those movies I just mentioned are phenomenal they are they are among the best pieces of art that have been made in the last hundred years and trying to conjure that feeling that those movies give us is why I'm doing this is exactly why I'm doing this so So, you know, we'll talk about a lot more about the movie and most people have not had the chance to see it yet.

1:20:34And I am excited. I'm looking forward to the debate. I am looking forward to the division, you know, to quote your list. Because I just was so knocked out. And seeing it again with you is fun, too, because not only did we get a chance to talk about it, but I got a chance to kind of like wrap my arms around my expectations versus the actualization. Yeah, of course. You know? Of course. And we made a lot of jokes about this movie before it came out. And I had been desperate for a big, important-seeming film all year. And then you come to see the movie, and it's just like, just deathly serious story about alienation and assimilation and capitalism and pain and physical deterioration and how you, and, you know, patrons versus artists and so many big ideas.

1:21:23Some are going to say too many ideas. That's fine. but I love this movie and I hope a lot of people go to see it and I hope Brady Corbet gets to make a lot more movies honorable mentions I'll just rattle some off we don't have to spend a ton of time on them but the one movie that I was like this was like still last night trying to figure out whether it was going on is I saw the TV glow I just rewatched it last night it's just an extraordinary film a couple others Snack Shack, A Real Pain and then a complete unknown conclave and in a violent nature. Okay. Adam, you want to cite some? Yeah, I want to give a shout out.

1:22:01Someone whose movie I probably can't write about because she's a friend, but Brett Story's documentary, Union, which is about the unionization of an Amazon factory. This is courageous political filmmaking. You know that because people are hesitant to distribute it. It's a really good film. It made the New York Times top 10 list and got a big feature written about it in The New Yorker. Big contrast with Nomadland in that they did not want to film inside Amazon. You know, it's a really interesting companion piece to Nomadland. Brett's story kept her cameras outside and used cell phone footage that was snuck into the union meetings.

1:22:36So that's great to me. It's a kind of co-authored film. I mean, the movie that I can't put on the list because it's not a feature is Chime by Kiyoshi Kurosawa, who is, I mentioned before, best horror movie of the year, and it's 45 minutes long. and I don't want to steal Sean's thunder, but I want to tee it up for him. I'm going to throw Sean a lob here and I'm going to say, much to the consternation of my actual editor here at Ringer and with a couple of my friends looking at me like I'm a psycho, I put here on my top 10 list. In the end, I kicked off two or three other movies that I'm more certain are actually good for something like here, which I wrote about for a different publication.

1:23:19was very happy with that piece. That movie's bananas. That movie is bananas. And thinking about it and deconstructing it is necessary, I think. Here is my The Beast, in that I know that there are things about it that do not work, and I do not care, because what does work about it is so powerful to me. And the thing, I'll just pitch this to you guys. I'm putting you on the spot by asking you this. I've asked a few friends this before. Can you name me, what's the last movie made by a movie star like Tom Hanks that is about the erosion of the middle class and the impossibility of the American dream?

1:23:59Deadpool and Wolverine. Ryan Reynolds. I mean, that's the thing, is that that is what movie stars do in 2024. Movie stars don't make movies like here. And Tom Hanks and Robert Zemeckis, and is he absolutely boomer-fied and obsessed with the past and obsessed with the own impossibility of the life that came before him in his parents' world? Yes. all that stuff is true all the criticisms are true I am willing to let them go but the actual act of getting Sony Pictures to adapt this graphic novel about the arc of time and what is lost in that time and how it affects individuals is fucking deep man that's really deep and it's easy to make fun of the movie because they de-aged Tom Hanks or whatever but I think if you really make an effort to approach it sincerely it's a meaningful movie so thank you for putting it on your list Adam I appreciate it it's the great double bill this year with Megalopolis because with megalopolis there's no tension he just financed it himself so the movie is whatever it is on coppola's own terms for zemeckis to make that movie when a studio is footing the bill and for it still to be on his terms like that that's what makes it an interesting double bill with the brutalist right like they're they're they're they're very much both movies but how much control can you exert while you're being patronized i don't mean made fun of patronized i mean literally being subsidized to make this thing.

1:25:16And I'm sure people who work for the studio wouldn't want to hear this. It's great that here is going to lose so much money because that's what cult reclamation is made of. I wrote a book about showgirls, man. This is how it happens. You need to have the nuclear blast site of, of, of negative consensus for people to go look at something else. So when they see a movie that is about like American self-interest and colonization and the arc of the universe bending towards McDonald's with the, and I'm not going to spoil it, but anyone who watches that movie, please think about where the last shot ends up, not just where it finally goes when the camera moves, like whose position we're looking at the frame now from at the end with the stupid Benjamin Button hummingbird winking at everybody.

1:26:02Like that movie is kind of evil and kind of great. And in 15 or 20 years, people are going to say, how did everybody miss thinking this was interesting? At least. Yes. here will be heard from again. And I think it's also an amazing pairing with Forrest Gump. Robert Zemeckis' less embittered version of a piece about the arc of time passing in America. Okay, honorable mentions for me. You guys mentioned a bunch of movies that would be on mine, Civil War or Nora. I wanted to give a shout out to a movie that I'll spend maybe a little bit more time on in a couple of weeks that I just saw called Soundtrack to a Coup d 'etat, which is an unbelievable documentary that unlike one I've ever seen before, Chris, are you familiar with this movie at all?

1:26:41I'm not. It is essentially told entirely through archival footage, jazz music, and text on cards. It's about the relationship between American black music and Lumumba and the Congo in 1960, and the sort of radicalized politics of a new Africa in the middle of the 20th century, and the way that the CIA may or may not have used some of the musicians who traveled to Africa during that time to implement force and power. Two and a half hour movie, so dense as to be overwhelming. You have to be fully engaged because there is a lot of reading involved, but because of the way that it is scored by Max Roach and Ella Fitzgerald and Dizzy Gillespie and Charles Mingus, on and on and on.

1:27:35Coltrane makes an appearance in the film. Miles Davis makes an appearance. it's like it's like going down the big slope on a roller coaster and never stopping so fascinating movie that I hope more people get a chance to see I think it's only in theaters now and not available on VOD but that's soundtrack to a coup d 'etat I had Red Rooms on my list I had the first Omen on my list which is of course a horror movie that I liked quite a bit that I've talked about quite a bit on the show already I had Rebel Ridge you know I think I should give a shout out to Furiosa which you know we've been tough on this year but when I look at my list it still is like 13 or 14.

1:28:09Have you gone back to it? I've only seen it. I've seen it twice in theaters twice. I have not watched it at home but I will do that. And then the last one I wanted to mention is A Different Man which had a surprise win at the Gothams last week for Best Picture. This is Aaron Schimberg's movie starring Sebastian Stan and Adam Pearson. And I did talk to Sebastian Stan at length about the movie on the show but I never really devoted any time to discussing the movie which is about a man who's born with a condition that disfigures his face and that he has a remarkable surgery that makes his face look like Sebastian Stan's face.

1:28:43And he seeks out an opportunity to become an actor and play a man who has the condition. That play is written by a woman that he has fallen in love with who lives in his apartment building. Very convoluted, dark comedy, very, very black satire of self-worth and self-image that features Adam Pearson's bright, jovial, exuberant spirit in the center of it. I'm really enjoying Sebastian Stan's somewhat post-MCU moment. Just very cool. I know he's still in it. Yeah. I was very mixed on The Apprentice, but not at all mixed on him and Jeremy Strong in The Apprentice. And people should check out a different man.

1:29:18It's on VOD right now. I think that's it. Should we throw to Amanda? Any guesses on what's on Amanda's list? Civil War. No. Adam, do you have any guesses? No. I just look forward to hearing it. I know Challengers will be there. I do know that Amanda has seen Wicked. Do we think Wicked will be on the list? on Amanda's list. I think Nora will be on her list. Uh-huh. Yeah. I think you're right. But maybe not. No Wicked? I only saw the Instagram story that was like, okay, like... Adam, what do you think? Will Amanda select Wicked for her top five? No. No, Amanda will not select Wicked for her top five.

1:29:57But she will have time she was best director. Amanda will have something to say about you saying she would select Wicked for her top five. I know. I'm almost certain she will not. All right. All right. Let's go to Amanda now.

1:30:12Hi, everyone. It's me, Movie Mom, a.k.a. Amanda Dobbins. That's my legal name. It is Wednesday night. Everyone else in my home is asleep. I'm in my pajamas. And I'm here to tell you briefly about my favorite movies of the year. And I say favorite and not best because I haven't seen everything. As you know, I have been on leave since October. just kind of it's just the prestige season definitely the fancy movie season of the year and so I haven't seen a lot of what I suspect will be at the top of at least Sean's lists respectfully um I haven't seen the brutalist okay I've seen your memes but I haven't seen the brutalist I haven't seen a complete unknown I haven't seen nickel boys I haven't seen the piano lesson I haven't seen September 5 I haven't seen baby girl though I am going next week and I'm very excited.

1:31:00So this can't be authoritative. I have great respect for list making, and I'm not going to be out here proclaiming the best when I haven't seen everything. But I have seen a lot, and I do have some favorites. So I made a very, very quirky top five. And it's really a top seven because there are no rules when it's just me alone talking into my phone. But here they are. number five is it's two movies um it is the beekeeper the jason statham david air movie that came out in january 2024 and lonely planet the netflix film written and directed by suzanna grant starring laura dern and liam hemsworth if you can't tell by the pairing this is the uh the the junk category the the transcendent garbage um i haven't revisited the beekeeper since the election and I don't plan to, but I remember enjoying it at the time.

1:31:56And Lowly Planet really got me through a dark three days in early October because it took me three days to watch it. If you have seen it, I'll just say to you, swing route. And if not, check it out. It's on Netflix. What else are you doing? Okay. Number four, The Bike Riders. The Jeff Nichols film starring Jodie Comer, Tom Hardy, and yes, Austin Butler, Mike Shannon, Boyd Holbrook. Hi, Chris. How are you? We podcasted about this over the summer, and I remember, I believe it was Sean, but maybe it was Chris saying, I really like this movie, but I don't think it's going to be on my top five list at the end of the year.

1:32:35Guess what? It's on mine. Okay. Number three, the Glenn Powell special, Twisters, and Hitman. Dune 2 is not on my list because I figure that Chris and Sean at least have it covered. Adam, I know how you feel about Denis Villeneuve. So Twisters is my blockbuster of the year, aside from Dune 2, which is very, very good and should be nominated for a lot of Oscars. Like, get off my back. But Twisters had the fun summer and actually released in the summer, like, you know, we used to build things in this country sort of vibe. Hitman, which is the best movie that I saw on Netflix this year? Probably.

1:33:15Delightful Richard Linklater movie, co-written with Glenn Powell. And it occurs to me now that this would have been a really great adult Halloween costume. I wasn't really around for that. Did people go around as all the hitmen? I hope someone did. I hope that you guys had a great group costume and a great Halloween night. I don't really do adult Halloween, even when I'm dialed into the world, but that would have been funny. And to Glenn Powell, wherever you are, happy holidays. Congratulations. I'm back in January. Please come direct with us. Okay. Number two. I might be betraying myself here by putting challengers at number two, but I'm going with my heart.

1:33:59This is like the most Amanda movie of the year and we covered it a lot. Please go back and listen to those if you haven't. It is everything that I want in a movie. Luca Guadagnino, Zendaya, Josh O 'Connor, Mike Feist, just absolutely bumping soundtrack. Tennis, which I'm thinking about pursuing as a player in 2025. Stay tuned. And, you know, fancy hand creams, incredible product placement up and down the line. I loved this movie. I loved also just the vibe of this movie, which was, let's just put a bunch of cool things together and let it rock. Luca, I really feel, sees me. So listen, I love this movie.

1:34:48Really cool. I'm really bummed that it's not an Oscar conversation. but I do think that my number one has to be an aura. I'm just, when Sean texted me, asked me to do this. An aura was my number one. I, it, we did a whole podcast about it before I left, but what, what an amazing, what an amazing movie that makes you feel so many things at the same time. Um, I've been thinking a lot about that last scene and what I felt when I first saw it. And then how Sean and I talked about it on the podcast and kind of our different interpretations. and then the different interpretations that every person I've talked to about the movie since it came out has had.

1:35:26And just everyone takes something slightly different from it, while also being completely entertained and amused and a little repelled by the performances, but some of the characters in it. Anyway, it's a completely engrossing movie-ass movie. and also something just really intellectual and provocative that stays with you. So I just love it. If Anora wins Best Picture, we're in a great spot. Got to be honest with you guys, I saw Wicked today, and if Wicked wins Best Picture, you all have some splendid to do. Well, we're going to do that in January 2025. I love you all. And I, I just, I, I remain confused and I will continue to seek to understand what is, what the hell is going on.

1:36:25But I, I, I love doing this podcast and I love listening to all of you guys while I'm gone. So thank you for letting me talk about movies and thank you for all your kind wishes. And I will be back to yell at you very, very soon.

1:36:48thank you to Amanda good to hear our voice thank you to Chris thank you to Adam thank you to Jack Sanders thank you to our producer Bobby Wagner for his work on this episode speaking of the best movies of the year or not next week the Golden Globe nominations come out Monday morning I will be here with Joanna Robinson covering the first truly big domino of award season we'll see you then Okay.