The Top Five Movies of 2025

25:19Well, as Frank Sinatra once sang, it's the time of year when the world falls in love. Adam Naiman is here to talk about the best movies of 2025. Adam, hello. Hey, how you doing? Could you look at me when we speak, please? I desperately need you to look. I was looking down at my list. I heard something about falling in love and then I looked up and here I am. It's very, you know, stereotypically it's very cold in Toronto right now. If I were to pan my camera over, you would actually see snow. Oh, no. Well, don't do that. So, you know, this is why I look a little sad. I got a shovel. Adam, are you shooting on VistaVision on your end?

25:57No, not shooting on VistaVision. This is called the first webcam I've ever had. It looks good. And it looks okay, you know? Any questions for Adam before we start? Adam and I were talking about child holiday party etiquette before this, so we've wrapped that all up. You're caught up. Yeah. Okay. And I was going to fake my death to avoid the child holiday party etiquette tonight. You can only do it once. Yeah. And once you faked your death once, you have to go to the next one. So I think I'll wait. I wish you well on that. But can't you just come back and be like, I'm, I'm Natum Bayman, you know?

26:30Yeah, with a, with a, with a, with a mustache. And that would also be your opportunity to completely pivot towards like, AI slop if you wanted to and be like, this new Sora video rocks. Do you know, do you know how close I am to needing a pivot, Chris? You have no idea. It's coming. Sometime in the next two years, there's a, there's a pivot coming. Why not start today when we do our list, don't you think? That would be a good bit if I just did a complete pivot away from my actual choices. Captain America, Brave New World, number one. Yeah, no, what if I just completely endeared myself to two members of the listenership?

27:04Yeah. People who are just going to be really mad that something's not there. I'm going to do it for them. I'm pivoting. What is the cost of your integrity? That's something we'll get to later today. We could sell a whole podcast about that. I've been selling it for years. So, you know, it has a price, I can assure you. Movies this year. Movies. We usually talk when we do these top five lists at the top about whether or not this was a good movie here or not. And usually it's a lot of wheel spinning and excuse making. But this is a question that is being actually posed to a lot of people in the world.

27:35Paul Thomas Anderson was confronted about this in an interview this week and he answered. He was like, you know, rumors of movies demise is greatly exaggerated. And then he listed 10 movies. He was like, these movies are great. So I mean, I'll start with you. Was this a good movie here? It's an existential question. right? In the sense of, do you want one five-star all-time classic masterpiece? And then a lot of other really interesting, cool movies that I liked a lot. You can get Minecraft and then a bunch of other stuff. But you've got the one undeniable rocket ship and then another, like some interesting stuff.

28:12And like your mileage may vary on which movies are the interesting movies versus a year where you had three or four, four and a half star cinema feels alive masterpieces. And to some extent, that's like, how are you parceling out the excitement? It's because we had that one shining month of one battle after another and everyone's seeing it and that really was an event and movies felt really alive. And then like, we're going to talk a lot about a lot of great films on this podcast, but there hasn't really been anything collective since then. so to me that is fun that one month was amazing that was like we had such a great time and maybe we're going to get to do a few more months of it but on the other hand we've we've had a lot of mondays where we're like oh interesting yeah you know the smashing machine did anyone see that yeah so i think it's like it's always a good year when you get to go and see interesting work from filmmakers you like and there were a lot of filmmakers um who i who i love who released films this year.

29:16Was it like good for the like for movie culture for for movies outside of this bubble? I don't know. I I I don't maybe not the best that we've had. Adam, what do you think? I mean, any year you can have two Osgood Perkins movies, you know, just just on that alone. What am I here for? Did you see Keeper? I did. And I actually liked it more than The Monkey. it had some okay kind of cozy there's so many yeah so many like cozy couples therapy horror movies this year like I count at least four and then if you count compound movies there's like another four and then every episode of this show you know there's so many I think it was a good year for the festival hangover movies from 2024 that I personally liked and that people are probably sick of hearing me say that I liked because they got theatrically released this year.

30:11And then in terms of new releases, I do think that whatever I think of them or whether they end up on a 10 best list, stuff like Eddington and Sinners and One Battle After Another, and even now Marty Supreme, they have a kind of galvanizing quality to them. Sometimes I wish other kinds of movies got to have that galvanizing quality or people chose to be galvanized by them rather than these kind of grand statement American culture movies. But it was a kind of heavy artillery trio or quartet of those, like some good talking point movies. And then the rest is just for, as with everybody, it's not just subjective, but it's very self-directed.

30:45I saw less new releases this year than fewer new releases this year than I normally would, because I just didn't have to. I saw some for one of my jobs and some for another of my jobs and fun for friends. I only went to see Keeper with my friend because she wanted to and it was fun, but I didn't have to. I think if this had been a year where I had had to sit through some of the stuff I've had reported back to me, I would think it was very bad. But because I saw less in a kind of self-directed way, I'm okay with it. And I like my top 10 list. It could have been a top 20 list. And I didn't feel that way though last year.

31:17That's interesting. What do you think? I very much agree with Adam in that I'm very happy with my top 10 list, but don't know if I loved going to the movies this year as much as I have in years past. I feel like I have experienced and obviously talking from a very privileged bubble of not only living in Los Angeles, but getting to do this show with you guys occasionally and experience film in a very specific kind of way, but a little bit of a bifurcation in terms of there's this experience of cinema, especially at the end of the year with the awards favorites coming out and feeling like a kind of personal responsibility that I want to see a lot of this stuff before we get into next year debating about what was the best and what deserved what award.

32:00But for the most part, over the course of the year, like, I went to the movies that I felt like I had a professional obligation to and had a little bit of a hard time getting it up for maybe some of the other blockbuster stuff. Like, I really, really, really struggled with Marvel. I really, really struggled with some of the franchise stuff. I maybe aged out of a couple of things. That being said, I really see a lot of like glimmers of hope right now. Like even if the industry is in free fall in terms of its financials or in terms of the consolidation, like we talked about earlier with Warner Brothers, I do feel like I started noticing, I started experiencing movies in a way that I hadn't since 2019.

32:43And seeing films that seem to reflect life in a way and not be like mitigated by COVID restrictions or strikes or anything like that, where it kind of brought me back to the place where I'm like, I'm seeing some sort of window through which to look at the world. I think, yeah, I agree with everything that all three of you have said. It does feel like we are in a very transitional state for both the business and if not the art form, what is getting made. And so those franchises that you talked about, most of the major ones, Marvel, Jurassic, Mission Impossible, you know, they all had movies this year.

33:19They all were down relative to how they performed at the box office in the past. Feels like those tricks, those tools don't work. Some new stuff has come along. Your Minecrafts and your Barbies and your Super Marios, and those are going to eventually fill those gaps. But in the interim, that means the franchise stuff didn't feel very fun, with a couple of exceptions. And so you're really reliant on things that are not that when you're doing a day-to-day, week-to-week movie conversation show. we did get somewhere from five to 25 auteur studio backed big movies and some of them hit and some of them didn't but they felt like there was more pressure on them than ever because of the slippage of everything else and so it just felt like a very high ceiling low floor kind of year for me when things were bad and we were sitting here on april 18th looking at each other like good lord like what the hell is going on right now until you bought that minecraft ticket you know I know.

34:15It just changed everything for me. It was wonderful. I think in general, I also similarly had a really hard time with the top five and I had a really hard time with the top 20. And that's good news. That's good news when you love a lot. You had a hard time picking between. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And even just for my personal list making, there's just a ton of stuff that is above average. There's not a ton of stuff that is unforgettable. And we'll explore what those movies are. I think what, you know, what maybe is, got, got to me this year was the feeling that the bottom was kind of falling out on B movies a little bit and that they were often borderline unwatchable, um, either because of the way they were shot or the way, you know, how I was watching them on a stream or something like that.

35:00and that that lack of volume that you would get at the movie theaters back in 2017, 2018, 2019, where you could go to a movie 50 times, you could go to the theater 50 times a year and reliably be able to see something kind of feeling like, oh man, like this is, this shouldn't have been released and I'm watching it. You know, it is, that was a feeling that, that kind of haunted me this year a little bit. I had a really hard time with all of the tentpole stuff this year. And And typically, in this top five list, I like, you know, to be representative. And this is a podcast that likes Hollywood and likes like a, you know, a big, dumb spectacle when done artfully.

35:38And I just nothing really came close. And I really like felt that whole and that expanded to entire seasons, right? Like the January through March that you were identifying the whole summer, more or less. it was really it was very very stop and start this year um in a way that i i ended up doing a theme list instead of like a i mean and they are my top five favorite films of the year and they identify something that like i saw going to the movie theater but it's not you know jurassic world rebirth is is not on it you know i don't have i don't i don't have a summer dumb time at the movies you know what i was starting to think of i don't want this to happen to movie going culture, but it's starting to feel a little bit like going to concerts and six concerts a year.

36:30You're like, that was awesome. And, and, and it's becoming more and more like, all right, I'm going to plan to go see this in the best possible theater. I can in the best seat I can at the time I want to go see it. And for me, movies have always been like a rhythmic part of my life where it's like, I can rely on going to the theater once a week and just checking something out. And to feel that going away, which might entirely be personal behavioral stuff. No, I don't think it is. I think that's something that is sweeping over a lot of people who are not committed to seeing as many movies. And even Adam's saying, I saw less than I usually do, in part because I didn't have the professional obligation.

37:08But also, if you felt compelled to go check out whatever the version of Jurassic World Rebirth that is better, you would just go because you like movies. But yeah, but that's the thing. I've always been of the mind of trying to see everything. And it's not for lack of something better to do, you know, life, kids, Raptor basketball, but I like going to movies and I felt less compelled than usual. And I don't want to think that's just a by-product of being busy with other things. There are just a lot of things that felt like there's no point in actually sitting through this until I hear otherwise, because I'm also very easily persuaded to check things out by people I find interesting on Letterboxd or by friends I trust.

37:48Like my curiosity is peaked very easily by other people, but it's certainly not peaked by just trailers or obligations. So yeah, less new movies than I usually see in a year. And that even was like when we talked about TIFF back in September, I saw fewer movies at TIFF than I usually do too. That might just be a stamina thing or just busy with other obligations. Like even a usual year at TIFF, I used to see 30, 35 movies. It was like barely 20, 25 this year. So I may just be slipping, you know, just personally. I've seen 248 new releases this year. Jesus Christ. Right on. I've got at least 40 more that I feel like I want to see before the year is over.

38:24Okay, but that's light work for you. Well, it's one month. You probably shouldn't be on this podcast if that's how you feel. I mean, I don't think I'm going to get through all of them. I mean, I am literally trying to do what Adam is saying. I'm trying to see everything. Yeah. And I'm trying to see everything because I want to discover something. And so making this list feels a little silly because there's not a lot of discoveries on my list this year. And to me, that's really the high ceiling, low floor thing. and my fear about having a chalk list in the past this year, I kind of dispensed with that because I was like, I know what I love.

38:51I know what I want from movies. And there were a handful that really were giving me what I love in a very specific way. But I actually didn't feel the inverse of that. I didn't feel caught by surprise too often, even by smaller stuff. That might just be me. That might be the way that I'm going through watching movies at this stage of my life. But I want to be open to, I haven't heard of this filmmaker. I didn't see this movie coming. Or what a surprise from a reliable studio hand that they really stepped up and elevated. I had a harder time with those two. So it's an unusual year where some of the things that are clear are very clear.

39:23They're written in neon red. And then everything in the middle feels a little bit hazy. So I'm very curious to have a discussion with you guys about what your favorites are. Did we learn anything? About film or ourselves? Yeah, both. What'd you learn about yourself by going to the movies this year? I mean, I learned a lot. about moms and dads and how they're different and how they're the same. I learned a lot about dads and a lot about what the people on a parallel but very different track for me in life right now are feeling at all times. Two big daddies right here and then father of many styles.

39:59And I think it's beautiful. And I was moved by it. And I am a little amused, but also I see you guys. And I think that's beautiful. So maybe that taught me something about myself. maybe that taught me something about my husband and, you know, everyone I work with. What did you learn? Tell us what you learned about men with children.

40:24Jake Sully has a child. Yeah. Did you see Avatar yet? I did. Fire and Ash? I saw Fire and Ash. You hate the original Avatar, right? No, not at all. You like it? I'm not I'm fond of James Cameron very much overall he's got the best I've written this about like the best metronome internally of any action director maybe ever he's usually really really good with his pacing where it's just like how much downtime can I give people till they're bored how can I push an action scene until people are exhausted like he's really great at that you see his his DNA all in one of the better movies this year which is one battle after another which has at least as much of James Cameron as you know Thomas Pynchon in it the new one which are we allowed to talk about it is the embargo broken this isn't an avatar themed episode right actually no and then we're going to delete the whole episode so we've aired here no I mean I just if you have any impressions briefly you feel free to share them but we're not supposed to review it no I won't review it I will say that you know I saw it and I think it has an interesting relationship to the one before it may be to a fault yes but you know I mean, James Cameron belongs at least as much in the company of those kind of uncompromising, final cut weirdo directors as he does the consideration of franchise cinema.

41:42I mean, his great movies are extremely important to me. And I find the whole back to the Avatar universe thing kind of funny. I made an offhand remark on X the other day that there's more talking whales in this one than ever before. and I just got messages from strangers being like, okay, how many whales and how much talk can you give me a number? So obviously there's people who have this really endearing relationship to this piece of pop culture. I also think that however many hundred times people say there's no impact on the culture from this movie means it obviously made an impact on the culture, which is people thinking it doesn't have enough of an impact on the culture.

42:18There were a lot of things I liked less than Fire and Ash this year. Let's put it that way. Did you think it was weird at the end of Fire and Ash when it zooms out and it turns out the entire Avatar franchise has been scored by Lydia Tarr and that's what she's been working on since the end of Tarr. It was a real curveball. Yeah. You know, the ending of Tarr is essentially her like going to a sci-fi nerd convention anyway, so, you know, there could be crossover. I was actually thinking of a materialist's crossover where instead of getting leg lengthening surgery, he just gets a Navi body. Yeah, that's good.

42:50I like it. Materialist too. Welcome to Pandora. Welcome, welcome to Pandora. Adam, I'd like to let you know that Sean started crying on a podcast earlier this week while re-watching Avatar The Way of Water. You teared up. You didn't. When I asked you if you were crying, you didn't say I'm not crying. I got a little lump in my throat. Yeah, you were a little weepy. Your eyes reddened slightly. It was because of this parentage that we're talking about. This parenthood that we're talking about. You know, this idea of the challenges of being a parent in the 21st century, in 2025. So you weren't crying at the whale then?

43:23Well, the whale is probably the most fully realized character in the Avatar films. I don't mind saying Paiakon. I'm extremely fond of him. I think he's great. He's wonderful. Okay. Well, I guess we should just do our list. So here's where we do this every the same every year. I'd like to do it in the same way too. Let's just do our lists one at a time. We'll go five. Everyone will share their number five. And we'll go four. Everyone will share their number four. If your film has been, one of your films that is higher ranked is identified, Just kind of keep that to yourself as much as you can. And you can have your time to talk about it and why you chose it, I think.

43:56I think that would be rather than try to do the, okay, that's my number two and you're number four. I think that's confusing for the listener. If we've done it in the past, I apologize. We'll do it a little bit more coherently now. Adam, I would love to start with you. What is your number five movie of 2025? Minecraft movie. No, I mean, I want to do this list in the same order that the printed list is going to be in. but there's a couple of movies on this that I've also talked about with people on the pod. So I'm debating cheating a bit, but either way, the fifth movie is The Secret Agent by Clever Mendonca Mendoza Filho.

44:27This is a Brazilian film set in the late seventies. I love the opening title says A Time of Great Mischief, which understates the case in terms of a military dictatorship and this kind of trickle down corruption. And Wagner Mora, who is winning Best Actor awards now, left and right, Best Actor New York Film Critics Circle deservedly, plays a guy who was not nearly as cloak and dagger as that title suggests. I mean, the title is kind of playful and ironic. You know, he's not a spy. He's a kind of administrative functionary, but he has beef with the local government. And he's kind of trying to keep his head down and forge some passports.

45:03And this involves, you know, kind of being pursued by hitmen and kind of sort of trying to, you know, hide in this little enclave of dissidents in Recife. But what I love about it, and I don't know what you guys thought about it, it's like the best movie about moviegoing I've seen in a long time. Because Brazilian film culture is one of the richest, you know, most fanatical, passionate filmgoing cultures in the world. And this filmmaker is just doing a love letter to that period of filmgoing in his hometown. These movie palaces and the influx of new Hollywood films is the only movie you're ever going to see, probably where people are watching The Omen in a movie theater while also engaging in oral sex, which is a great moment.

45:47And the whole thing is, it's a great, great moment. And then the whole thing is kind of shadowed by Jaws, which I find very moving too. The week I watched The Secret Agent, which includes a scene of a kid being like, I want to watch Jaws. My own daughter was like, Dad, I want to watch Jaws. It was just one of those strange little life imitates art or art imitates life moments. But this filmmaker is so smart about the intersection between history and pop culture. And he's so playful because there's essentially a movie about life under dictatorship and about political repression and the life and death stakes of that.

46:19It's also like two hours and what, 40 minutes long. I don't have the running time in front of me, but it's just like floating on air watching it. You know, some people compared it to Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, which is a bit superficial, but in terms of building out a period with cars and clothes and theater marquees, I get the comparison. So I think it's a brilliant piece of filmmaking. I'm really glad you picked it. This is number six on my list. And I agonized over whether or not I should include it in my top five. And I rewatched it again last night and I'm having the filmmaker on the show.

46:56And I like it for all the reasons that you described. And he does something I don't know if I've ever specifically seen before, which is use genre convention and history and absurdity in a blender to make something that is like mysterious and emotional. And I think the Once Upon a Time in Hollywood comparison is fair. You know, I don't know if it's quite the same because it's not as kind of like, it's the emotional opposite at its conclusion. you know it's not about payback or anything like that it's about coming to a sense of peace but it's a really a beautiful movie and wagner moore is amazing in this film and he's he's holding it on his shoulders the whole time i really like this movie so i'm really glad you picked it yeah the performance we should say it has a trick in it too there's a structural trick that kind of hinges on that performance which um i when i was watching it i sort of thought is this too much you know is this too much of a stunt but the performance is good enough that it sort of holds it you know that it that it holds it together.

47:58And, you know, for people interested in this film, a couple of years ago, we made a movie. I think I know you like Chris. I don't know if you saw it because it's up your alley, which is Baccarat, which is his sort of John Carpenter, his John Carpenter pastiche, which is sort of like. That's awesome. OK, I'll check it out. And Amanda liked to do. I mean, it's terrific. So he's he's been on a he's been on a really good run. And this movie, for whatever reason, more than the other one seems to have really pushed through. He's also he's in his late 50s and he's he's a lot like a lot of the 70s and 80s filmmakers we like a lot in that he was a programmer and film critic for years and then started making movies.

48:31And you can see his love and obsession with movies is in his films in a way that's very exciting without sacrificing the enjoyment of the moviegoing experience. I haven't got a chance to see Secret Agent yet, but I did see Wagamora's Criterion Closet, which is a really good starter pack for some of the Brazilian cinema history. Yes, he picked Black God, White Devil in there. And I think he picked Pichote, right? Yeah, he picked a few films that are like all-time classics. Okay, Amanda, number five. Oh, me next. My number five is Train Dreams. I know, which... Your whole heart is open. My whole heart is open.

49:06As I said that it was once I actually saw it. You know, Sean saw it out of Sundance or on his couch as part of virtual Sundance and hasn't stopped talking about it. And that can often, you know, inclined me, but I thought this was a completely beautiful, wonderful. Um, it was surprising to me in that it had so many familiar like indie tropes, right. From the voiceover to flashbacks, to a traumatic incident, to like, you know, all the shots of the trees and nature. And there's a lot of stuff that done wrong feels like a road Sundance movie or something that you have, um, seen before Xerox 50 times and don't care about.

49:53And this just comes together, um, is more than the sum of its parts. I found it like pretty revelatory to me, the, the exploration of grief and, and guilt, which are like entwined in this. And what is this character, uh, Robert Greiner like responsible for and what could he have done differently and what would he have? That is, it's until the very last line shown instead of told, which I really appreciated, even though there is that voiceover. Here's another thing. I have not read the Dennis Johnson novella, and I just have to say how lovely to be free of all expectations of adaptation for one thing.

50:33It is like really like, it's a lesson, you know, sometimes you just gotta stop reading. Well, you know, I have pretty much, but going completely blind. And so I was able to give myself over to it in a way that I sometimes find I can't with other adaptations. And I don't know. I was just, I was very moved by it and, and kept thinking about specific, like specific scenes. It's lovely. Everyone says that. You love when like Mandy comes out, you know, like the bizarro Amanda, who's just got a big heart. I know she's, I know it's in there. I know it's pumping full of blood. I have a big heart at her forest service station looking out.

51:13That's right. Park Ranger Mandy. What could have been? Who she could have been? That lookout is so beautiful. And Carrie Condon shows up for 10 minutes and her American accent is... Yeah, yeah, yeah. With that accent. But listen, it doesn't matter. And even the setup of that lookout, the production design is very beautiful. I did have some questions about how they go to the bathroom in a lookout. Like, what was the... Oh, I think they climbed down for it. You think so? Okay, you think there's like an outhouse? Yeah, I don't know. Maybe there's like... I don't know. a very notable lookout scene in the film The Wolfman which we haven't talked about too much this year you see that you see the you see the Lee Whannell's Wolfman yes yeah it's number four on my list was that this year that was this year yeah that feels like it was like 20 yeah I don't even know it didn't work out I'm really glad you picked Train Dreams I will say and I've read a number of pieces including Adam's I picked the book up after I saw the movie I like Dennis Johnson not as much as Chris Chris is probably the biggest Dennis Johnson fan I know and I even in the first hundred pages of the book first page he changes a couple things that really dramatically change the intention i saw the movie first too and i don't have a problem with it but most people i know who read the book were like oh i don't know if i would have done it this way which i find interesting fortunately i don't have to read too much where i've arrived at it i very much like train dreams it was in it's in my top 10 uh and i was deeply moved by it i i my i've arrived at it that that's the whole point of adaptation is that you're allowed to take what you want from a book and not necessarily make it a facsimile of the sentiment of the book or even the action of the book.

52:47I mean, look what Paul Tom Sanderson did with Vineland. Okay. Number five, Sierra. I'm really glad she took Train Dreams because my number five is Ephus, which I think is a very, very, very good double feature with Train Dreams because it's about the passage of time and it's about watching your life kind of pass before your eyes. This is Carson Lund's kind of aching monument to hanging out. And it came out, sort of it did the festival run in 24, came out in the spring of 25. I didn't see it until recently. And it rocked me. It made me feel like I was 17 again watching a Jim Jarmusch movie for the first time.

53:27It's about two rec league baseball teams playing the final game at a New Hampshire baseball field that's going to be redeveloped and turned into a school. And these guys show up, the age range from like 25 to 65. Adam, I mean, about like maybe seven. Like there's some older men there too. And you're asking me if I recognize that people are 65 years old. Just curious. He's just saying as a 65 year old man, did you see? Speaking as a 65 year old man. Yeah, I think they're mostly in their 40s. Yeah, middle age guys who are like on the last innings anyway of being able to play baseball with their bodies, but are still out there.

54:10And what turns out over the course of the game is that they don't want the game to end. So, you know, the whole community is kind of sort of slowly trickling in. There's kids, there's a pizza truck. Everybody's complaining, everybody's bitching. And I love that this movie is about trying to hang on to the parts of your life that make you feel alive. And so these guys are listening to old baseball games on tapes. they're you know breaking each other's balls they're trying to run down fly balls and stuff and then the movie kind of takes a little bit more of a surreal turn towards the end as these guys refuse to stop playing this game and I it just worked for me on every level I think Lund's an incredibly talented filmmaker I can't wait to see what else he does and this was a real breath of fresh air at the end of the year for me it's kind of the trained dreams of baseball movies you know life is long but then it's over you know and then what do you do great pick my number five is Sinners which is one of the most acclaimed successful and well covered on this podcast films of the year and because it is the film that has come out most recent most the earliest on my list I think it was fading a bit from my memory and my exuberance about it I think a lot of people have seen it and some people have been like well this is a masterpiece and other people have said this movie is overrated and it's kind of gone through the entire washing cycle that happens to movies and I popped it in last night.

55:38And I was... I noticed you said popped it in. I popped it in. I popped the 4K right in. And I was choosing between it and The Secret Agent. And I think just looking at it again and going back to it and getting sucked in by the score immediately convinced me that there is something really major about the synthesis between the music and the storytelling in the movie. I don't think the movie is without flaw. I do think it has some flaws. But I think it's such an amazing act of imagination and a very similar act of genre collision that Mendoza Filo is doing as well in The Secret Agent. And it's also a big, bold vampire movie and also a historical drama and also a gangster movie and also an interesting movie about the Irish, which I appreciate.

56:26That Cougar set out to make a film. He honestly did. And if you listen to him in interviews, he talks about it all the time, that he did a lot of research into Irish history and I think it's going to get a nice amount of coverage in the next few months as an awards film and it's obviously its success is already confirmed and it's for a lot of people going to be one of their favorite movies of all time but to me it is that it is the prime example of what Hollywood filmmaking can be specifically which is that someone who has gone through the system and understands what audiences want and can make something at scale that is tremendously personal and gratifying and deep and worthy of reconsideration.

57:09I just love the movie. I think it's really, really good. And I was forgetting it a little bit. And so I was happy to be reminded. Okay. Anybody else have Sinners on their list? I do. Yes. You do. Okay. Anybody else have Train Dreams on their list? Anybody else have Ephus on their list? Wow. Okay. But Ephus is really good. It is really good. It is really good. Yeah. Ephus is really good. Okay. Adam, number four. So my number four, I'm just, I'm torn because I don't want to cheat. I want to do the actual top five, but there's two movies. This is one of them where I've literally been on the pod to talk about them.

57:42So I might ask for special dispensation to talk about an extra movie at the end that's just in my top 10, but I really like. But my actual number four is Cloud, which you had me on to talk about. And I don't want to be redundant about it. This Kiyoshi Kurosawa's film, very funny, sinister thriller about a kind of internet reseller who pisses off his clientele to the point that they want to hunt him down and torture him on live TV. Like, we've talked about it, which doesn't mean I don't want to say anything, but it was really nice. We had space to talk about it and Kurosawa and the extent to which he's broken through in the West.

58:17I mean, I think this movie, being on Criterion Channel, being put out as a Criterion premiere, I mean, before that, when it was being distributed by Sideshow out of its festival, like, it just seemed to get more attention than he gets usually. So it's an excellent gateway backwards into the filmography. But also just in terms of form, you know, I've said this before, but the way he sets his camera up and the way he cuts and the way he holds your attention, I just think he's peerless. I don't know if this is even his best movie. I mean, it's not. But even a kind of low first tier Kurosawa movie as a new release is just, it's going to be something that I'm going to think is great.

58:53and I think Cloud in particular the way it morphs from kind of not supernatural but a very moody thriller into just a full-on action film I loved reading reviews and seeing what people tried to compare it to, people were like this is like Call of Duty and people were like this is like Reservoir Dogs or John Woo or a Johnny Toe film but when it turns into the warehouse shootout it's really quite hilarious Have you seen this? so now I have to leave the podcast yeah I think you'll enjoy it it is a little a lot of people definitely watched it after hearing you recommend it on the show and you know we were like yeah I think I kept saying it was like heat for dumb guys and so the town yeah no like like heat with fuck ups oh I see yeah okay and so the town I may have wrong footed them a little bit they were like I did not understand this.

59:51And I do think if you've seen other Curacao movies, it is a little bit more legible in terms of what he's interested in. Fair to say? Yeah, well, yeah. I mean, he is, and this is a very high compliment from me, he is a weirdo. Yeah. You know, he's a weirdo. And I remember when I interviewed him this year at TIFF, I've been really lucky over the years getting to talk to him about different films. He said that he wanted this to have what he called a kind of movie logic. He wanted reality to unfold according to kind of film logic. And he's such a cinephile himself. He's a great fan, he said, of John Carpenter and David Kronenberg.

1:00:21He mentioned Park Chan-wook as a director who he really admires. And there are some similarities in this to certain of Park's films. But yeah, he's very, very weird and he's very, very funny. But filmmaking is also quite severe. And I hope more people check it out in his other films as a result of a podcast like this because he's not obscure or difficult in any way. He's just odd. And I think he's one of the best living filmmakers, just period. This episode of The Big Picture is brought to you by State Farm. Having people in your corner to help you makes all the difference. For example, I'm usually loathe to trust Sean and his movie recommendations, but after many months of him waxing rhapsodic about train dreams, I finally watched it, and I have to be honest, he was right.

1:01:05It was wonderful. And like those people, State Farm is there to help you feel supported by helping you choose the coverage you need. Go online at statefarm.com or use the award-winning app to get help from one of their local agents. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Amanda number four is if I had legs I'd kick you. Here come the moms. Yeah. Let's discuss this. Yeah. Well, we'll discuss it some more, maybe. This is the rise of mommy mommy. This is... Not Star Wars mommy. Not Gen Z mommy. Well, this is parent mommy because, you know, Train Dreams has many themes, but he is a father. And his relationship with his daughter is like a central part of the film and very moving.

1:01:48and, you know, there is an open-hearted quality to the way that story and that relationship is told, even though it's very, very sad. And If I Had Legs, I'd Kick You, which is one of the mom movies, is just absolutely the most nauseous I've been in a movie theater all year. Like, just hard, ugly, mean shit. And, like, parenthesis, compliment. You know, parenthesis, complimentary. So it is, I mean, it is a movie about how difficult being specifically a mother and not a father is. It is a film by Mary Bronstein, written and directed and starring Rose Byrne. And her performance is really picking up steam in award season as well, deservedly.

1:02:32but she is taking care of a child with kind of an unspecified illness and her husband is away at work and on the phone and again I don't want to spoil who it is on the phone but it's really funny when wonderful reveal really really really good and she just she just can't do it it's impossible and it's really hard and it is it's a very cinematic movie that is also like a systemic critique of all the ways in which the whole world fails like makes it impossible to be a mother whether it is the people at work or the you know people at the hospital system like the the person at the uh motel who will not sell you the bottle of wine even though it's not quite midnight yet or 2 a.m.

1:03:24or whatever. I love the parking lot attendant. Her war with the parking lot attendant is great. But like, it's so insane. And we all know people like that, which is just like, how can you not see the person standing in front of you? And like, how do you not understand the situation and that everyone is just trying to get by and like not even do the best for their kid, but just like trying to make it happen. And the world is heartless and impervious in front of that. so often. So I thought it's like a really tough, but like also very funny movie. Another, a great movie about how therapy like is pretty useless, which I'm like into as well.

1:04:03You know, like we've had too much therapy art and this is, um, and without spoiling it, the, there's a filmmaking choice throughout the movie. And then at the end that is, it, it ranks up there with the endings of the movies this year and isn't conversation with a lot of them, but is truly wonderful. So I'm really glad that you picked this. Yeah. We're at the time of the year where my wife is catching up on a lot of the movies of the year. Yeah. And so she's watching screeners and she's checking in on things that I've been talking about and seeing and telling her about for months and months. So Monday night, I went out to a screening to see Avatar with you.

1:04:40And she watched Train Dreams. And I got home and Train Dreams had been over for an hour and she had been crying for the entire hour. And then Tuesday night, I went out to a screening. And I came home and she'd completed if I had legs, I'd kick you. Wow. And she was like, why did you do this to me? Yeah. Because it transports you back to a place. And you're the asshole out at a movie. And I was at a movie. Well, we had a, she apparently had a wonderful night with our daughter, but she was like, for three years, I was inside of this mindset. And there was a hole in your ceiling at one point. There literally was a hole in our ceiling.

1:05:13Yes. I said to Mary when I interviewed her on the show, I was just like, I really want to recommend this movie to my wife and I think she'll love it but I also am afraid to recommend it to her because you really tapped into something true and with I think genuinely interesting filmmaking choices so I love that pick. Great pick. Thank you. Okay CR, number four. Mine is Sinners. Not a ton to add to what you said. The second viewing of Sinners for me also what stood out was obviously the music that's just featured in the film but the musicality of the film itself. The way that you see very few Hollywood films go for the ecstatic in this way and be so like it's arterial spray it's kind of lingus it is like sweaty it's dancing and i think that um this movie in my mind almost was is now underrated uh i was having the same feeling last night and one of the best film going experiences i had this year i think the the most i've felt kind of like physically engaged in a film outside of maybe f1 you know it was watching sinners and just like watching the other faces in the audience while i was watching it like light up at certain scenes and i think that you know even the problems this is the cheat is when you're like yeah but like the problems are cool or like the the big swings that missed are cool but they are like your mileage may vary on piercing the veil but i thought it was an amazing swing to take and i really admire the bravery of it this film is awesome the performances are great.

1:06:43So yeah, I thought that was my number four. Great pick. Okay. Number four for me is Marty's Supreme. This is a little hard to talk about because it's not out yet, right? We've mentioned a couple of times that we love it, that we think it's great. I think it's always a little annoying for the listener at home to have to hear someone talk about a movie that hasn't been released yet that is on one of these lists. These are just the vagaries of list making in the podcasting universe. But this is Josh Safdie's new film. It stars Timothee Chalamet as a competitive ping pong player in the 1950s living in New York City and he is a very aspirational, ambitious and at times hard-hearted and extremely difficult person.

1:07:23I think one of the most interesting movies I've seen about how a lot of men are in their 20s which is fast talking, rude, hurtful, intoxicating, gifted, fun to be around and also exhausting and you know i i really love the safty brothers movies and i've been interested in their project for a long long time and this felt to me like the highest that they had gotten to to the feeling that they wanted to convey and i also think the movie i think he's an interesting writer him and ronald bronstein mary bronstein's husband actually um when it comes to the world that he surrounds Marty with, which is very lived in, very real, very suspicious of everyone.

1:08:11I think there is like a big heart, but a big cynical chip on the shoulder about everyone that Marty is exposed to and raised by and falls in love with and that the world is a hard world and that there's upside to being as hard as you are and that there's also real downside. And I don't want to give away too many of our thematic discussions here that we'll get carry on top of what I thought movies were about this year when we got to the end. So I love this movie. I am at the disadvantage. I like to have seen the movies that I put on my list twice. I've only seen this movie one time. It was a few months ago.

1:08:48I don't remember every single kernel of information about it. I liked being able to go back and revisit a bunch of the ones that I'm going to talk about today. But I had a grand old time seeing this for the first time. So that's number four for me. Okay, Adam, number three. My number three is One Battle After Another, which I'm sure will come up for you guys on your lists. Should we save it? I mean, I only have your thoughts. It's your turn. It's my turn. Well, I mean, we actually talked about the movie already on this podcast. I just recorded a different podcast with a different set of people about the film.

1:09:21I'm at the point now where also this term at U of T, I just finished doing my authorship class. We've just had like six weeks on Paul Thomas Anderson and that's stuff that I'm teaching, but it's also discussions with students and looking at movies and doing readings. So on the one hand, I'm very inundated with this movie, but it also feels kind of oddly far away because I watched it a long time ago for the first time. I wrote about it. The second time I watched it was at home. I still haven't seen it in biggest format presentation possible. And it's a filmmaker who obviously means something to me, not just in terms of liking him, but I've done a lot of work on him.

1:09:58So in a way, it's almost like too much with this movie. I just hear people talk about it all the time. I'm extremely interested in the negative reactions to it. I think the negative reactions to it are fair. I think some of the negative reactions to it are kind of undeniable and not because they're mean-spirited or asking it to be something that it's not. But I think I said this to you guys last time. It's a function of how big the movie is. I'm fascinated how the film can be the most commercially successful movie he's made exponentially, but also like the closest thing to a financial disaster.

1:10:32I'm interested in how a filmmaker who's been criticized, I think rightly in the past for staying too much in his lane has now done this huge swerve. And it's a whole other, you know, series of crashes and sideswipes that happen as a result. I'm really fascinated by how much it resembles his other work while also being in some ways, you know, very different. What I said to you guys last time, I will say this, that I don't think you often have to look too hard at his movies to find him. Like he's right there. And part of my struggle with this film, which I obviously like, I read a very positive review of it for the site.

1:11:07I'm not against the film. I just picked it as the third best movie of the year, you know, but some of my resistance has been like, where do I find the weird Paul Thomas Anderson, the ambiguous one where it's not a one-to-one ratio between what he's showing us and what I'm seeing. Last time I watched it, I recognized him a bit more. And I wonder if I'm willing myself towards that because I really want to like his work or if it's because it's kind of present and encoded into that movie. But in a way, I'm also just tired of the movie because we've just started. We just have the award season thing has kind of just started.

1:11:43And I think that the title, One Battle After Another is going to start to be how people feel about this discourse around it, because it's nowhere near over, you know? We were talking about that right at the top of this episode, Adam, that there's many months now of this. And I had a very hard time pacing myself at the beginning, at the release. Did you? I didn't notice that. But we will have to talk about it more for a variety of reasons. Okay, number three, Amanda. Another one for the mamas, Die My Love, which is the Lynne Ramsey movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson that I think, you know, has become most famous as an example of movies' questionable distribution strategy in year two.

1:12:28But I think that that is unfair to a movie and certainly to the film, which to me was electric and is the most I've laughed in a movie theater this year. And it's another movie about just how motherhood is just absolutely impossible. And to me, it is a movie about how motherhood just like completely divides you from your other self. And so like being a human woman and a mom at the same time does drive you to some sort of psychosis. And it can be, you know, like pretty literal as it does become in this film, which is based on a novel, which is about like severe postpartum depression and psychosis and she's hospitalized and all of that.

1:13:17And I did feel that the representations of that literal experience were great in this movie and it communicated something like pretty physical and feral about that time period of your life that I really responded to because it is surprisingly physical. And like, I, you know, I, I know a lot of people like made fun of just like Jennifer Lawrence, like crawling around on the floor. Like she's like capital G going for it, but I don't know how else to tell you that that like literally is what it feels like for the first, however many months when you're just something really like primal takes over your body.

1:13:55So I responded to that. But I do, to me, I liked the movie more just as like a representation of the very like complex and troubled psychological state that she's in mostly because she's a new mom, but also just because she's a person in the world and her husband like brought home a new dog and moved her to Montana and is nice and really cute and Batman, but also like useless. I'm waiting to hear the downside of any of those things. That all sounds great. You know, I did also, I saw this film with my husband. I should say, I started, this is another thing where, to Adam's point, some of this is personal.

1:14:37I started 2025, three months postpartum. And then fire swept through Los Angeles, and I left my home in a hurry. So, there is some relating to aspects of the text here. It literally maps onto it. An incredible afternoon date movie with the husband and the father of your children who also, by the way, loved it. Thinks it's a really sick movie. So, shout out, you know, shout out family and shout out this, you know, shout out all the mamas. Capital M. Do you think another Lynn Ramsey film will be released on 2 ,500 screens in the future? Probably not. But I don't think that's anybody's fault. I like this movie too.

1:15:16Well, I do, but, you know, it's really, it's a great movie. KCR, number three. Weapons. There we go. This is my wicked. No, I was like, no, I, this is like one that I think you can experience a couple of different ways and it's been really enjoyable to piece together how I feel about weapons through multiple viewings. So the first time through, it's like almost like a pure plot experience. You're racing to kind of pull ahead of or keep up with Kreger throughout the movie as he tells this story in this kind of short story anthology way of switching POV between these characters. The second time through, I felt serene because I was able to just kind of enjoy the little tricks he was playing, the little things that I hadn't noticed before.

1:16:00But the third time I watched this movie, I think I really started to try to understand how I felt about it and what I think he was trying to say. Probably going to be a mileage may vary for people or depending on how you look at it and where you are in your life. I thought it was about why we need horror movies in the first place and the reasons why we create these sort of mythical figures at the monsters at the end of the dream from True Detective to explain the inexplainable tragedies that happen in our lives. And I thought that the way it dealt with addiction and the tragedies that can befall a community was really, really interesting.

1:16:41And aside from that, what a fucking rock and roll movie that is just an absolute blast to watch, still has images that are seared in my brain. The kids with their arms to the side, obviously the hysterical ending of the movie. It's so good. And the image of Benedict Wong running towards Julia Garner and Josh Berlin at the gas station. Just some of my favorite sort of lasting memories of film in 2025 are going to be from Weapons. That opening when they're... And what is the music that is playing? Beware of Darkness by George Harrison. It's really very special. It felt like a movie also. I mean, this isn't really like, oh, this is why it's in the top five, but I love when I'm seeing images that I think have haunted a filmmaker for a really long time and he finally got it on screen.

1:17:30And there was something about the kids running that I felt like. I was like, you saw this in a nightmare or you saw this in your childhood or something and it's been percolating in your mind for a really long time. So that definitely, I think I'll revisit it again, but I encourage people to do so. I told you earlier this week that this isn't on my top five. I told you it was my number seven, which it still is my number seven after all this whinging I've been doing this week. And you were surprised. I was. I was as well. I assumed it would be on the list. Yeah. I love it too. I don't know. It's a pretty thin line here in my top ten.

1:18:02It's not like... The two are pretty collapsed here. I like my ten a lot. And I'm glad you're feeling... If I had legs, is it number ten for me? Hopefully we're talking through some of these movies that we all like so much. Adam, I know that you were a little bit less sold on weapons, but have you happened to revisit it since your initial review for The Ringer? I haven't revisited it. I have read interesting things about it from friends. I think that the guy, the Craigor, it's an interesting trend of comedians now making horror movies. And it's not just an anecdotal thing where it's like, well, who are all these comedians making horror movies?

1:18:36The way that under the sign of Jordan Peele, there's these strategies where they have a kind of blackout sketch mentality, which is you develop the idea, you develop the idea, and it's like, how long is their attention span? I thought that Barbarian worked really well because the movie kept changing. Yeah. And similarly here, he keeps doubling back because it's like the sketch has almost kind of reached its end and then he kind of needs to start another one. So whether I think it works or not, I think it's an interesting byproduct of the guy being a comedian. I thought, I said this in the piece, that there's things about it that are effective and that work very well.

1:19:10And I think that some of the acting in it, especially at the beginning, is really terrific. like Garner's Garner's amazing in this she's so good in the scene in the bar yes you know at the beginning of the film which isn't like a heavy yes like a heavy load-bearing scene plot-wise but she's just really good and Brolin is good as well but no it's not a movie that totally worked for me but I like hearing you talk about it and certainly you know as someone who's interested in horror and trends in horror this is kind of a big film I feel like we're going to see lots of movies that are trying to be like this or at least be marketed this way.

1:19:47Like, you know, this is a movie where I think more than Long Legs, like Long Legs was all campaign, not much movie. This was like a better campaign and a better movie. But even when stuff like Shelby Oaks was being marketed in the fall, I sort of thought, oh, they're trying to market it like weapons. Because, you know, with horror movies, it's so much about marketing. You don't have a star and sometimes you don't have existing intellectual property. So the extent to which this film was a smash hit as an original piece is obviously a thing you want to see happen. Part of the fun of Weapons is seeing it with a crowd for the first time who had no idea what to expect.

1:20:22It's a movie that multiple viewings that may or may not stand up, it's debatable, but it was just electrifying the first time I saw it. I just had so much fun. And that's true for a lot of the movies on my list, but that one did have a very particular energy to it. I really like what you said though, and I had not heard that identified in quite that way, that his history as a sketch performer and the fact that his films do have this kind of structural, like this is an episode of Saturday Night Live full of nightmares feeling to it. And I do wonder if his future movies, if Resident Evil will be more linear or not.

1:20:52Right. Because he's doing things probably, as Adam says, inspired by what he knows best. I think he equally draws from like Tarantino's script writing in that same way. But yeah, for sure I think that there is a ticking clock in his brain that's like, I'm bored, I want to try, I want to do this from somebody else's POV. Yeah, that's cool. Okay. My number three is No Other Choice, which is Park Chan-wook's new movie, which is also not out yet and I apologize again. We'll do a whole episode about the film in January when it gets a wide release. But this is his long gestating adaptation of The Axe by Donald Westlake, a novel about a man who is going to be laid off from his longtime job.

1:21:30I believe in the film it's at a paper company in this film. No, in the book it's different. I don't think it's a paper company. In the movie, it's a man who, a Korean man who works at a paper company. He's a father of two children. He's married. He's living the middle-class suburban dream. And then an American company comes in, buys the company. There's consolidation. And after he is laid off, he needs to find a way to get a new job. And he has a really hard time finding a new job. And he concocts a scheme to eliminate potential contenders for the few existing jobs that are left at rival paper companies around town.

1:22:05This is extremely funny, elaborate, absurd, high drama, high comedy work of an established master, like a person who knows how to make a movie better than most people who know how to make it. There are formal tricks in the movie I've not seen before. There are super impositions, cutting style transitions, metaphorical leaning, a really outsized and fun performance by Li Byung Hung. This movie is an absolute blast. I thought it was really, really funny. Really, really, really silly. And also, if you want it to be very cogent satire about, you know, the corporate complex, the incursion of AI, essentially what happens to men when they reach a certain stage of their life, how they confuse virility and economic status.

1:23:04There's an incredible amount of design. I also talked to Dr. Park for the show, which will air in January. That was fascinating because in the interview, I don't know if I've ever had this before, and I'm not saying this is a good thing, but every time I would ask a question, he would explain entirely how he executed on the thing I asked about and also what it means. Okay. And I've interviewed hundreds of filmmakers, and most of the time they're like you figure it out asshole you know like you can't be like what were you thinking thematically like anytime you say that people are just directors like shoot me in the face and he's like no this is exactly what I was going for this is what I hope you'll think about when you watch this sequence and I was already in love with the movie before that but it was fascinating to watch someone see how deeply he had thought through every single decision not just on that formal level which is so thrilling but intellectually and emotionally and what it meant to him and I hope people go to see this movie because I think it's a great time.

1:24:03Okay, number two, Adam. So just going to say no other choice. You emailed me, you were surprised. You emailed me the other day, like, why didn't you like this movie? Just going to say that it is absolutely the best made movie of the year that I personally didn't like. And the personally didn't like part is a whole other conversation, but like craft wise, man, oh man. I mean, you know. It's out of this world. Absolutely. And like in a very showy way too. Yeah, it is. I emailed you because I watched it first because you told me you didn't love it and then I hadn't seen it when you said that you'd seen it at Venice and you loved it and so I watched it and I was like damn I can't believe Adam doesn't like this and then I watched it a second time to prepare for the interview and that was when I emailed you where I was like what's going on bro we're usually aligned on these it's one of my trademark I'm just wrong you know I took shit from this from Friends during TIFF to like literally walking out of the screening people being like so that was great right and i was like you know it's the strangest thing i got to go beyond my phone you know i'll see you guys yeah i just felt i felt i felt i felt bad but that thing you were saying about explaining the intent it ties to the second movie my number two movie which is you know i'm going to be very on brand and pick the shrouds which is a film that i think that what excites me about it and i think why people are kind of skeptical because i've been talking about this movie at least here a lot.

1:25:26I mean, two tips ago, you know, and there's this feeling, oh, it's because it's a Toronto movie or it's because of Cronenberg's past movies. The thing about No Other Choice is you can tell he's getting every effect that he wants. What I love about The Shrouds is I feel like Cronenberg's getting every effect that he wants, but it's just right on that borderline of like, is this just inept and off, you know? And I don't say that perversely. People have talked about it pertaining to late style and people have talked about how much it's supposed to be funny. But of all the movies this year, it's the one I've watched the most because I take great pleasure watching it.

1:25:58I've watched it three or four times. And he is so relaxed. He does not care how people are going to react and respond to this movie. There's a confidence in this movie that I find moving quite apart from the things in the film that are moving. Because it is about aging and it is about loss and grief and death. I think I told a story when we talked about the movie on the pod that I had a friend who saw this movie during TIFF who had lost someone important in their life to cancer and they couldn't get through the film, which is totally at odds with how goofy it is. But it's not because the goofiness of it and the kind of speculative sci-fi of it, there is such a reservoir of grief in this movie, personal grief from the filmmaker and an understanding of how grief and loss makes people crazy.

1:26:44it's easily the best like brainworm conspiracy movie that anyone's made much better than begonia i like eddington fine as we've talked about i think there's a whole subgenre of kind of brain wormed discourse movies this year and how people invent invent conspiracy theories to kind of get over what's bothering them and i'm like shrouds understands this yeah and the shrouds sort of understands that relationship to you know sex and marriage and to what happens when it feels like your other part is just kind of gone. You know, I have friends who've lost partners or even separated from partners who watch this movie and find it sort of impossibly moving.

1:27:22And he just cannot be budged from his style and from his sensibility and his tone. And I guess I see so many filmmakers now being praised or saying themselves very sincerely, by the way, I do not blame any of them for saying, we love David Cronenberg. This has been all over acceptance speeches for the last few years at festivals and festival rollouts where it's like trying to make this Cronenbergian or Cronenberg's the best or, oh man, you know, I grew up on those films. I respect all of that, even though some of the filmmakers I like more than others, but like the actual guy is still here, you know, needing financing for the work and making films that like this, that are so small and scrappy.

1:28:01So obviously shot in Toronto that the milk comes out of a bag, you know, I want, I need this for me. I need this to be kind of respected, admired and celebrated while we have it. I love how close it is to seeming like a terrible movie. And I don't mean for that to be perverse. I mean it. It's so confident. And I just think it's brilliant. I do chalk up some of that offness to budget. I wonder if this is a movie that has 10 or 12 million dollars more in its budget. Because its conception is extremely strong. But some of the things that he's trying to pull off visually are challenging at the scope of the movie.

1:28:39But I agree. I think this is a great movie. I had a really hard chuckle watching the Ready or Not 2 trailer yesterday and seeing that he is in the film, which is something he has done many times over the years. He's incredible in Nightbreed, the Clive Barker movie from some years ago. So he will act from time to time, but him taking that gig in the aftermath of making The Shrouds 2, I was like, good, just keep stacking cheddar. Adam, when you say The Shrouds understands this, I like the idea that The Shrouds is like the spice from Doom. the the shrubs understand you know you're you're referring to the cameo in this ready or not to sequel i think to die for i know it's on criterion i don't know if it's on criterion channel still like not an obscure movie that is my favorite director cameo in any film when cronenberg shows up at the end of uh of to die for as this inexplicably italian hitman who keeps looking looking at nicole kidman and being like no no this way come this way And it's because I think the film was shot partially in Toronto because Van Sant definitely did Good Will Hunting in Toronto.

1:29:42But yeah, that idea of directors who cameo not in their own movies, but just kind of show up around the edges of other people's. That's an all time, an all time funny one for me. Great stuff. It's Cronenberg and to die for. I honestly thought this was coming in at number one for you. So now I'm intrigued. Yeah, now I'm trying to figure out what, but don't tell me. Okay, man. And number two. So my number two is Marty Supreme, which I, to Sean's point, most people haven't seen it. And there's not a lot that I can say or add to what Sean said that won't totally spoil it, including why it's on my themed list.

1:30:11But like to quote Stefan, this movie has everything. And it's just like it is really and I won't enumerate what the things are, though there are like are many of them, you know, and some of them are just like this sweeping. They recreate the whole world again with like with Jack Fisk, I believe, is the production designer. like you know the Darius Kanji score like Timothee Chalamet Daniel LePatton score oh sorry Daniel LePatton score and then who was Darius Kanji then? he's the cinematographer cinematographer thank you sorry I was confusing them and then Timothee Chalamet going a million like a million a really really fun a great supporting cast and it's just people going for it you know like and that is just it's really I didn't feel like there were that many movies where this year with the exception of one we'll probably talk about soon where everyone was just like let's go really big like we've got we've got a big idea and we're gonna spend all of this time and energy and create like a whole world and have an immersive experience like you I have only seen it the one time a couple months ago but had so much fun and can't wait to see it again refresh your good vibes with tic tac with the right vibes it oh man to

1:31:47now try the different tic tac from fresh to fructing sweet tic tac refresh your good vibes so that is actually the theme of my list that like we are all going for it so all five of my movies have that energy and I think I'm hoping that that's representative of what I want from the movies more broadly okay number two for you Sierra oh number two for me is One Battle After Another so wow saving space for ballerina the gorge man come on the gorge no One Battle After Another only in number two by the thinnest of most personal margins. So don't take it in any kind of like, I'm trying to be a takesman here.

1:32:31It was the cinematic experience of the year for me. Getting to see it at IMAX. I've seen it several times since then. I also really love to just piggyback off of what Adam was saying about it, the shoulders of this movie in that it supports so many different explorations, both critical, both sort of probing at it and wondering why this choice, why that choice. I also am deeply fascinated by it as a work of adaptation and spent the last couple of months, like not slogging in a bad way, but slogging just because of the way my brain is now through Vineland and thinking about this guy, thinking about this book for decades and piecing together little parts of it and seeing, you know, reflections of Regina Hall's character, Tiana Taylor's character, Leonardo DiCaprio's character in the book.

1:33:22and also just imagining opening up that book to any page and then watching what he does with a flashback within a flashback within an anecdote within another flashback, then zapping to something else and be like, how the fuck did you write exterior this after reading that? The act of writing this movie has now become my obsession of how he went about making this as a screenplay. So that's where I'm at with it, just in terms of how I've been thinking about it. But it's just so wonderful how durable this movie is and how it's been. It's actually got a sturdiness to be poked at and to be thought about and to be talked about.

1:34:03So, yeah, One Battle. I've been pleased to see that it's been a number one on iTunes for the last three weeks. Oh, that's good. That's encouraging. That will not be reported in its box office receipts. Just putting that out there. I see Van Lathan through the window. That was for you, Van. That was for you, brother. I was talking about One Battle's box office, which is doing just fine, dude. All right. Back off. Okay. Number two for me is Eddington. Good. This can be our brain worms pairing. Should I show you my phone for the entirety? Should I just stick it in your face? Eddington is on my list for a variety of reasons.

1:34:38I think it's Ari's best movie. I think it is. I'm not quite seeing a film attempt to be simultaneously a docudrama and a satire. a movie that knows that it wants to be funny and poke you and bother you and put you in a state of discomfort and remind you of things that are not safe and not okay while also saying like this is not really that far from what happened and that thin line in the exploration of that little stinker attitude that Ari Aster has about everybody where he's like wouldn't it be funny if I just knocked this little girl's head off you know wouldn't it be funny if this old man just jumped off the top of this mountain he does that many times in this movie there are a number of occasions in which you see atrociously painful things happen to people who could be seen as innocent.

1:35:20I think one of the reasons why this movie really got put in the take blender is because people on both sides felt offended. Congratulations. That's part of the success of the film. I think there's also a case from a purely formal perspective that this is so assured and so conceived and realized. I also watched this movie again last night, popped it in as one does. And from its very opening moments, which struck me so hard the second time I saw it, all the way through the end, everything he's trying to communicate is very clear. It will not come across, I think, if you are watching it casually on your couch with your phone in your hand, but seeing the unhoused man walking across the highway.

1:36:02What a year for Clifton Collins, by the way. Giving a great performance, underrated performance, walking past the sign about the establishment of the incoming data center, and then all the events that transpire, and then the closing moments of the film where we see said data center constructed. I do think is a great big statement about living under the thumb of powers that are much bigger than us and what we do to each other in the face of that loss of control. And I think it's an amazing Joaquin performance. I think Joaquin and Astor have something very unique in terms of their collaboration and what they get out of each other.

1:36:35But I think it is really more like people don't like this movie because it makes them feel bad about things that have happened in the world. Yeah. And not in the, not in the like, extra textual, I am a mom and I remember feeling pain. In the specific, I remember this day and I hate this day. And that's hard to do. That's hard to accomplish. We talked about 25th Hour recently and like the pain and the agony, like the sorrow of 9-11 in the face of that movie. That's different than what this is. This is more like, we're all complicit. It's not really your fault, but you're not making it any better.

1:37:09And that's a bad feeling. Yes. But it's a true feeling. And it's also done. And there's nothing that you can do to undo it. I mean, that final shot is absolutely brutal. I also just think it's very, very funny. So I'm a huge admirer of this movie. It really stands up, I think, to a lot of its inspection that it has gotten over the last few months. And happy to have it at number two. Okay, it's time for number one. The irony with Addington is that the discourse at Cannes, which is not even a year ago now, is that the movie was too soon, which is one thing. And now it's been out for five or six months and it's aged well.

1:37:45Yeah. You know, like I think it's not in my top five. Spoiler, it's not quite in my top 10, but I still wrote about it in the year-end thing as an honorable or a dishonorable mention because it's good for all the reasons Sean said it is. But it's aged very well. And I think a lot of the initial Cannes reactions to it do not look very smart. I'll say that for sure. Speaking of Cannes, my number one film was the film that won the Pomodoro Cannes this year, which is Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident. I was listening in before I came on that you had Panahi on the show, which is amazing. It was amazing.

1:38:20And I can't wait to listen to that as I always listen to the interviews, whether Jafar Panahi or Osgood Perkins or whoever. I can't wait. Two filmmakers of equal stature and equal success. But this is a film that beyond talking about why it's good, I hesitate to spoil it too much because it is a thriller. And this is an interesting year for Neon, picking up international films and sort of trying to market them not just to an art house audience but market them as kind of art house event experiences like serrat a really interesting film that i also like you know neon did that and it was just an accident um this is a filmmaker who is known in the west more for the details of his life than for the western distribution of his films and i think that people were skeptical of panahi winning the palmedore at can this year because it's like, well, he's being rewarded for the political struggle, or he's being rewarded for what he represents, or he's being rewarded as a shot across the bow of a repressive regime.

1:39:20And, you know, all of that is sort of true. But the movie itself is so funny and brutal and visceral as this kind of possible mistaken identity thriller. And it's a real move back to the films he made before the period where he was making films illegally under house arrest. I mean, this movie was not made legally. We should be clear about this. I'm sure you talked to him about it, that a lot of it had to be shot on the fly, you know, unofficially. It's an amazing act of just stress to make a movie this way. And he's always been a critical filmmaker or a skeptical filmmaker. But he was a narrative filmmaker before.

1:39:52And movies like The Circle and Crimson Gold, they're kind of plot-driven. They don't diverge too much from this Western idea of Iranian art cinema, you know, the Kyrostami mode or Moshe and Mokmabov. But he was always, he had more of an engine dramatically. and then the movies he had to make after his imprisonment and release and house arrest necessarily had no production value and no scope. They had to shrink down to the size of him making the movie. Anyone listening to the pod who hasn't seen it, he made a movie called This Is Not a Film, which is his record of house arrest where he really was not allowed to pick up a camera at that point.

1:40:26He keeps finding very acute rhetorical reasons to be like, well, I'm not really making a movie, but what if I were to do this? He has that playful side. Let's capture the blocking of my next film on my iPhone so that I can prepare to make that film. Yeah. Yeah. If I were to do it. And then meanwhile, you know, I think in that movie at one point you see his DVD collection and Ryan Reynolds in Buried is facing right out to the screen because he's very funny. And also this is, and it was just an accident. You actually have a guy being buried alive, which is maybe more of a reference to Taste of Cherry by Kyrostami than Ryan Reynolds.

1:40:57but it's a terrific brutal funny you know mistaken identity kind of ensemble thriller and it's very slapstick you know it has one of the most amazing portraits of corruption I've ever seen where I'll say this is the one spoiler I'll have where the credit card machine is that what you're gonna say yeah the security guards have like tap to look the other way and I have a friend who just moved back to Toronto from Tehran my friend Azada and she's like yeah that scans I asked them specifically about that because that sequence is hilariously stunning. So it's just odd to see this filmmaker whose reputation precedes him in a heroic way.

1:41:37And now the film is going to be seen in a way that a lot of those other movies aren't seen because there is something more commercial about it. Films like Taxi or Three Faces or No Bears, they're all worth seeing, but they're very much festival films. And this is getting a push and a release and a kind of an award season profile, which is nice to see. so I should be clear I'm not picking it for any of those extracurricular reasons though those are interesting and anyone who's listening to the pod who doesn't know about Jafar Panahi and his story they're lucky that they're going to get to hear you fill it in an interview I didn't know you were doing that that's fantastic the movie's also really good and uh you know I think it's it's it's acclaim is deserved you know beyond the good vibes or the virtue you know signaling that people might feel that they're doing by liking it.

1:42:25It's just a really good movie with the best last scenes of the year. Last two scenes back to back and it was just an accident and are absolutely amazing. It's a great recommendation. I'm glad one of us has it on the list. It's a wonderful film. We'll talk more about it next week. Okay. Number one, Amanda. One battle after another. Okay. Not a surprise. And probably not the last time we'll talk about it on this episode. how often do we go to the movies with this level of expectation and sit down and just walk out and be like they did it like just absolute instant five star masterpiece which it was I won't speak for Sean he has his own turn but it was for me and you know P.T.

1:43:10he's pretty good he's like good track record you know but I still Leo pretty good everybody in this film. But I think to what you were saying, Sean, like the scale and the going for it and the breadth of this film, which is, you know, as Adam pointed out, like Half Terminator 2 and like The Searchers and Casablanca and like it's, you know, all of film history incredibly rooted in our current moment from that opening scene of the detention, you know, whatever center you want to call that uh the like the performances the the set piece like you know benicio gets his moment like sean penn gets his moment the christmas adventurers get their season i mean i just it's been getting into the christmas spirit is slightly different this year and that's okay i knew that it would be um but here we are and you know and then i do you know to my theme the both the idea like of parenthood as it is expressed in this movie, both through the Tiana Taylor character, through Perfidia, and then through Bob, the prologue and the main movie, which is kind of how I understand them.

1:44:27And what you give to your kids, what you do with your life, what is possible, what you leave behind, how you failed, finding hope for the next generation. I find it incredibly moving story in addition to being like funny and wild and virtuosic and um and accessible also you know so i am excited to see this film again i think we'll probably be talking about it for the next few months um but yeah i'm a fan well said cr number one uh my number one is 28 years later. Wow. There you go. Good for you. Okay. So you guys have spoken very beautifully about being parents. So I'll talk a little bit about being a kid.

1:45:21I think when I saw this movie in the summer, I was starting to come to terms with the idea that my mom was probably not going to live for the rest of the year. And I don't, when you're going through something like that, especially as an only child, a lot of it is logistical and mechanical. Like who needs to be where, what are we going to do about this? Is she going to get to this appointment on time, et cetera? I had not really thought about what it meant. And I did not expect to find that in a zombie movie by Danny Boyle that picked up a franchise that was pretty much forgotten after a decent sequel 20 years ago.

1:45:54But here we are. And, you know, this film is dazzling. I have no problems putting it on there, even if I didn't have this personal narrative kind of attached to it but i think that the creative um energy that this guy brings to a story that did not necessitate this level of thoughtful execution um brazen kind of leaping into the future with like what can we do with these phones to film things and also just like imagining a country which you know i've gotten to visit england several times over the last couple years and so this was i feel like you could just as well call this movie the rise and fall of the British Empire, dealing with Brexit, dealing with its own island kind of isolationism and its own mythologies and the stories that they're telling themselves about who English people are and their bravery and thinking so much about Alfie Williams, this character, who gives an amazing performance as the central child, which going into the film, you're not you don't know that this kid is going to be the hero of the movie.

1:46:56The way he watches his parents and the way he watches who he thinks is the hero and his dad kind of become this lout and who he thinks is this um problem in his life and his mother who becomes like you know his responsibility and then you get into the second and third act of this film especially the third act with ray fines who gives my favorite performance of the year and the character i'll never forget um as this iodine you know uh his sorry he gives this performance as this sort of doctor whose skin is tainted with iodine because he's sort of protecting himself from the infected. And they go through this death ceremony at the end of the film that I found profoundly moving.

1:47:43So this movie just never left me. I've been thinking about it all year. I think there are movies that I think are more successful. A lot of people have problems with the very last scene of this movie. We'll find out in the Bone Temple if it works out. We're going to the Bone temple in like six weeks i know but this is this was this was my film of the year chris is beautiful yeah can i can i add something to that because this is the movie i was going to try and sneak on so on my top 10 yeah because i just wanted to talk about i'm happy to hear chris talk about it this movie rules you know and i've been very hard writing about alex garland in the past because there's just sometimes things i think the tone is off or he's too severe this is a terrific script I think the best thing Garland's ever written, because everything Chris said there is not projection.

1:48:28It's in the movie. The allusions in the film to Shakespeare and to Kipling and this idea of the sun setting on the British Empire kind of finally and whether it's time or not. And that image of the land bridge, that chase across the land bridge is one of the great scenes in the year. So good. The causeway scene is incredible. Just the athleticism of it, how it's filmed and the Bone Temple. It's a very moving film. And this is one of those, like, I just got to give it up. I didn't think this team had it in them to make something that good together again. I'm so happy Chris picked it as number one because it rocks.

1:49:02It's a really, really great movie. Great job, CR. Thanks, man. You did it. Good job. I like this movie, too. I got to watch it again, I think. Yeah. I watched this, unfortunately, after getting off of a plane at 11 o 'clock in the morning. Right, yeah. That wasn't the ideal service. This is after Vegas? Coming back from Atlanta. Oh, Atlanta. Even worse, yeah. I remember I was in the lyrics game. I liked it a lot, but I was like, wow, this is audacious. You were in a bone temple of your own. I was just very upset by how quickly... I mean, I was affected by it, you know? But Jodie Comer was just suddenly out.

1:49:31And I was like, well, I guess that's how it happens. But this is upsetting. In the bone temple. Yeah. That's how it goes. I'm going to the bone temple for number one as well. It's one battle after another. So all five of my movies are about two things. One is thwarted male ambition, which I think is the primary theme of movies for me this year about big guys who are like, I got this and they do not got it. And I do think that there is something broader being communicated about the state of life, at least English speaking life as I understand it right now, about how people are feeling, about the means of control right now, who's making decisions and the powerlessness that other people feel in the face of that.

1:50:15Especially a lot of guys who have like tricked themselves into thinking that they're in charge. And then we were discovering more and more who's really in charge. And I think one battle after that's a component of this. I think the other flip side of that is the kind of signal to noise confusion that comes with being a parent when you actually are in charge of someone and you have a responsibility and how overriding that responsibility becomes in your life relative to the, those forces at large. We're thinking about what's going on in the world. You guys have been making fun of me for a couple of years.

1:50:42Cause I'm like, I'm not reading the news anymore. And you're like, how do you not know that the whales like flew over here and now they're in Zanzibar it's just human interest yeah but I I have increasingly checked out a lot out of a lot of those things for a couple of reasons I have definitely sunk myself deeper into movies in recent years and sunk myself deeper into my work and I've also sunk myself deeper into my family life and being with my kid and I'm already predisposed as everyone who's listening to this point in the show to loving Paul Thomas Anderson movies when Licorice Pizza came out that was my favorite movie of the year most people who love Paul Thomas Anderson if he makes a movie yeah that's probably your favorite movie of the year.

1:51:15But it's going to be my favorite movie of the year. So it's not really worth exploring in that specific way. But in the same way that you talk about the deep emotional and personal connection that you make to a movie like 28 years later, which I think is really one of the primary reasons why this show, I hope, is a little bit different from other shows, which is that there's no pretense to objectivity. We're all alive and responding to the art in the very specific, through the very specific lens of our life and who we are as people. and this movie feels almost fake to me because of all of the ways in which I felt connected to it.

1:51:51I do respond specifically to what Adam is saying about going back to the film and saying, am I convincing myself of things? Like I do try to check myself on those things. I do try to say like, well, I have these, not just biases, but obsessions and are the obsessions informing the way that I perform this show? in this case I have no doubts about that whatsoever I think that everything that you said is right that this is somebody at the top of their game who spent decades figuring out how to construct this and then one of the things that I have loved that I think makes me ultimately not a critic because I get very informed by these things is getting to talk to Paul about making the movie and all the ways he was like yeah well you know in this case we just kind of made this part up on the spot yeah and I'm like what how did you in this in this level of production with this many important people and this much money on the line.

1:52:43So much riding on it. Yeah. And all this expectation and all the incoming doubt about its box office potential and would it stand up to previous work that they were like, you know what? Good idea, Benicio. Let's do it that way. Let's shut down production for a couple days. Let's rejigger this whole thing. And it worked. And that it flows. And that it feels like it feels like you're going down a waterfall while you're watching the movie. You're on the ride. And I find that just remarkable and breathtaking. And I think that the film also is not I think it is what you're saying which is that it is about the modern time but I don't think it really is a message about the modern time I think it is a suggestion of potential and maybe a snapshot of something but it is not saying like it goes without saying that white supremacists fascists are evil like that doesn't need to be explained but what happens next I feel like is what is most critical and the movie ends on what happens next we don't know we don't know where Chase Infinity's character goes we don't know what happens to her but we want to know and we're excited for her and we're rooting for her and as far as being a parent goes I have to be hopeful I can't be stuck in the world is shit I'm I'm I'm as prone to cynicism as anyone I know but I'm forced to reject it at least in the face of one work of art that I love and two the fact that we can't we can't let go we gotta keep going so this was very obviously going to be my number one movie of the year it is quite strange you know Adam Chris was asking what's it like to root for the 1927 Yankees at the top of this episode when it comes to award season with one battle after another you know where it's like everyone agrees this is the masterpiece it's the perfect narrative of a filmmaker who has been nominated 11 times but has not been awarded for his work it's the film bros are all have all been rooting for PTA for 25 years and he's due and even still I don't care.

1:54:39Like, you know, and it deserves it. Like, it deserves the attention. And to me, it's nice when something like that happens. Does that mean I'm part of the problem of the power structure? You know, is it my time now? Maybe so. Part of the appeal of this movie is that it's to our generation. And it's about how we are getting old. And we're at this, you know, later phase of life of figuring out what we did that mattered and all the many things that didn't and how to speak to younger people like Jack in the booth. So, you know, I guess if it does win, it would be fitting that it's the one that we're aligned with.

1:55:16It's reflecting us back to ourselves. I'm still protecting my heart, as I said. You know, like I'm not, I'm ready for tomfoolery. It is strange to watch a movie and you get like Dirty Work and Mo Bamba in the same film and you're just like, what the fuck is happening? Like, how did I arrive at this place in my life where this is what I get? I think that one of the pieces that my students looked at is an assessment of Anderson's career from 99, like after Magnolia came out. And it's someone being like, this filmmaker means entirely too much to people. And that was like from 1999, you know, that there's this idea of looking for heroes in film culture.

1:55:55It's like, what are those heroic qualities? And it's like, get stuff done their way, makes the movie they want, you know, spends money well. but not poorly and you know heart in right place and politics in right place and is accessible but you know still has a certain kind of integrity and there's a lot of aspects of this movie arguably that align for this looking like a kind of culmination in the filmmaker's career but he's such an interesting director that my question at the end of the movie isn't just what happens to the characters it's where does this kind of filmmaker go next and a lot of that is going to be dictated by this award season.

1:56:30I say this, unfortunately, because it shouldn't, right? But this movie's road to profitability goes straight through getting those awards. And unfortunately, that idea of profitability is going to be what determines the size and scope and budget and scale of the next thing that they, you know, of the next that they get to make. Also, I wouldn't underestimate the degree to which he wants to embrace Academy Award winning director Paul Thomas Anderson, or if he wants to go make Inherent Vice or Licorice pizza again and kind of like step back a little bit to me the magic is doing both if you can do both and he he's not shy about being enamored with great hollywood history like a director like george stevens really matters to paul thomas anderson george stevens is not a cool film bro pick he's made a lot of great films that are admired but he doesn't have that same canonical obsessive quality that I don't like a Howard Hawks does, for example.

1:57:26And I think he would like a career like that, where you're at the absolute top of the industry and working on your own terms, working with your own ideas and themes. So I, I don't know, I don't think he's going to have a hard time getting raising money, but I would be surprised if he wanted to make another$150 million movie that he hasn't shown a lot of interest in stories like that. It would be fascinating if he was like, I'm making weapons too, you know, like, I don't think that's what he's going to do with his time, but it is an interesting question to see where he goes from here because this does feel like scaling the mountaintop in a way that we have seen before from great filmmakers.

1:57:57Paramount Plus series. You think we should get him in the Taylor Sheridan universe? I'm here to tell you that I checked out the news today and it's all going to be okay. Everything's good. Yeah, we're good. Wow. We fixed it. All the bad guys died simultaneously? No, they turned to the camera and said, ah, my bad. I do want to do some honorable mentions. Jack, before we do that, what's your favorite movie of the year? it's one battle okay a lot of my I think it would be one battle sinners train dreams it was just an accident in Eddington there you go Jack with testament of Ann Lee very close behind yeah I was gonna mention that in my honorable mentions as well another movie I think I probably need to see again some kookiness not everything is great I will also say I haven't gotten a chance to see a lot of the either incredibly limited or not yet released films so I'll knock off some honorable mentions to start because I did have a bit of a challenge with my top 10 as I mentioned so Secret Agent we already talked about on weapons we already talked about.

1:58:49Blue Moon is pretty high on my list. I'm really, really fond of that film. I love Ethan Hawke's performance in that movie. We got two Linklater movies this year, so that was very special. You know, I still like sentimental value and I'm not afraid to say it. I know the tide is turning amongst the film literati on that film. I'm not backing down, goddammit. I think that movie is really good and really interestingly designed and very sincere. And goddammit. I love stories! I love stories. and I also think Kelly Reichert's The Mastermind is really really special and thought about putting that on and I would like to revisit that movie at some point too Amanda what we got some honorable mentions for you yeah I made a whole list but it's on my phone which is in my bag over there so well let's throw it at him so Amanda can get up okay am I allowed to go get it yeah go get it Adam you got any honorable mentions yeah Mastermind's very good Blue Moon is very good I like The Testament of Anne Lee which sort of plays like an episode sort of drunk history sometimes, which is a compliment.

1:59:48It does. You know, a pretty, a kind of interesting companion piece, not B-side, but like double A-side to the Brutalist because it is really similar. It's not the fake perception that it's similar because it's the two same filmmakers. Really interesting approach to like assimilation in America and building something in a country from the ground up. I like Testament of Anne Lee. And I definitely want to give a shout out because it's going to be on my 10 best list too. Radu Juta's Dracula. I just watched this. Easily the most productively annoying movie I saw this year. It's so obnoxious. It's so obnoxious.

2:00:21It's so good. As someone pointed out, I laughed when they pointed this out, that the funniest thing about it is that it's just called Dracula. Like, you watch this three-hour film, which goes out of its way to not really be a Dracula movie or to throw so many obstacles in the idea of, like, what does it mean to adapt Dracula? And he just calls it that. He's very funny. and that was one of those screenings where I thought they should have handed out I saw it at TIFF, not only at TIFF but it was during game 5 of the World Series starting at 9pm when the Jays playing in the World Series so totally we couldn't watch the game at all they should have given out like medals for getting through it it's a 2 hour, 45 minute episodic, sketch oriented series of Dracula adaptations that features a tremendous amount of AI at least 15 at least 15 minutes of pornographic yes ai okay you know you know it is itself a comment on it it is not celebrating or using the ai to make a better film it's you know it's an absurdist uh satire of the use of ai and making ip in some ways you know adapting the great works for film but uh man it's such an annoying movie it's so long it's a really elaborate prank yeah it's an elaborate prank and sort of a troll but he has I mean again it would make a I put it on the 10 best list as a double bill with sinners as vampire movies but it could just as easily go on a double bill with like Addington yeah the sort of you know ain't I a stinker or as the filmmaker within the film talks about he really should have called it Frankenstein because it's this patch work you know amalgamation of all these other kind of monster movie tropes I certainly like it as a Frankenstein movie better than Frankenstein but I like Dracula a lot I think it's terrific okay you got your list I do I just made a long list chronological chronologically and many of your you know top fives are on there so I won't read those Black Bag Steven Soderbergh I don't know pop up on yours yeah well but it's on here it is on my long list Paddington in Peru which I believe was released here in 2025 in the United States Pavements Alex Ross Perry's movie great show Phoenician Scheme Wes Anderson Sorry Baby in a Victor's film.

2:02:35Let's see, scrolling, Blue Moon, you said, Mastermind, Begonia. I like Begonia. I do too. Adam does not. Adam does not. But I liked it. And it does make like a double feature with a lot of the other films on this list. Testament of Ann Levy discussed. No Other Choice And then, you know, I wrote down three rom-coms where I would say it's genre experiments. I'm glad they tried. And it's materialists, splitsville. And I'm even going to say, even though I have a lot of notes, Eternity, I'm glad we're trying. Yeah. Let's keep trying. There's a fourth film that I would add to that list if I was you.

2:03:19And I don't know if anyone here has seen it. But I really like and I considered for my five. and it's even more annoying than putting Marty Supreme and no other choice on there but it's a movie called Pillion which I saw as Kelly right this new Alexander Skarsgård movie first time filmmaker Harry Leighton it's a essentially a BDSM gay rom-com about two men who sort of fall in love under servitude and is like probably the hardest I laughed in a movie this year that and Eddington were the two I thought the two funniest movies of the year Alexander Skarsgård gives an amazing performance a couple of people have mentioned this when we've done what's the last great thing you've seen the movie's coming out for like a week in five theaters in 2025 and then opening later in 2026 that's probably when people get a chance to see it is it going to be up for awards I think that's why so it qualifies but it's probably not going to really I think it was on the Indie Spirit list yes it is nominated for Indie Spirits you're right I hope people check it out it's really really funny and really really beautiful and sweet and I like that movie a lot a couple of other quick ones two docs, one Predators, which I mentioned I saw out of Sundance, which is about how to catch a predator and the sort of sociological, anthropological meaning of living in a society in which we want to try to entrap pedophiles live on TV and then air the consequences of their actions.

2:04:40Just a fascinating movie by David Osit. And the other one is Cover Up, which is Laura Poitras' portrait of Seymour Hersh and his work as an investigative journalist. That's going to Netflix soon, right? that's going to Netflix, I think, end of this month. Okay. Which is just, you know, can't wait to see that. In tradition with her work, which is always staggering, but also something that like, I mean, we've probably talked about Cy Hirsch stories, like all three of us, like multiple times in their 20 years of friendship. That'd be good if that only news you read was Cy Hirsch articles. Well, his sub stack is aflame these days.

2:05:11Oh, sure. CR, you want to shout anything out? F1, which we briefly discussed, but was kind of like the movie going experience of the year and definitely broke the wall where I was like, I think I'm actually watching real sports while this is happening. Alex Garland's Warfare. I would also throw out Splitsville, which I think was the hardest I laughed this year in a movie, not least of which, because the idea that the two leads could land, Adriarjona and Dakota Johnson. But once you get past that or go along with that, it is kind of part of the joke. And Havoc. Havoc. Yeah, the Tom Hardy movie, Havoc.

2:05:51Right on. I just remembered one other movie I want to shout out. I remembered one more, too. You want to go first? Well, I just... Is it also Havoc? Yeah. I do know. No, when you were talking about Docs, Megadoc. Oh, Megadoc, yes. Which is awesome. Just announced going to Criterion Channel December 16th. So people can check that out. That movie was really good. Final Destination Bloodlines is so fucking fun. And again, it's what it's all about. Yeah. Getting in the movie theater, watching people get mercilessly annihilated by all types of household products and medical equipment. That's what I want.

2:06:23Also picked by John Waters. Do you see John Waters? Yeah, that was amazing. Bloodlines on his top 10 list. Eddington and Final Destination Bloodlines. That was his one too. Yeah, he always has great picks. I had one other honorable mention, you'll forgive me. The thing I enjoyed watching most this year was the Ben Affleck Criterion Closet video. You and me both, Adam Amon. said said said said said without irony my hot take is my hot take is he should run for president a thousand percent yeah a hundred percent uh i don't think that would turn out i know but like again wouldn't you risk it all just i wouldn't you risk it i'm not i'm not wrong about this right that's the best closet video ever or it's right up there it's it is really great and i watched all of it wrapped.

2:07:14Yeah, me too. Was this year the J-Lo documentary where he... That was last year. That was last year where he talks about cameras for a while. That's also, if you haven't checked that out. Just him holding on to rules of the game and the content of the big Ben Affleck. I was going to say, he's got rules of the game Miller's Crossing and the elephant man. The elephant man... Oh, I'm not saying it... I'm not saying it with a shred of funny. No, no, it's great. He's there talking about rules of the game and he's like, Jean Renoir, you know, great humanist. He loves his characters. It has the great line in films.

2:07:39Everyone has his reasons. I'm like, testify Ben Affleck. I bet everyone has their reasons. It was great. Well, that just about does it. We've done it again. We've celebrated Ben Affleck here on the show, as we so often do. We have talked about films that we like a great deal. And we're going to get back to the real work, actually, on Monday. On Monday, we're going to talk about the Golden Globe nominations. That's where the real work starts. Sure, yeah. Are you getting excited about that? Yeah, what's our call time? Uh, 4 a.m. Okay. Great. Hair and makeup at 4 a.m. No, I probably be about 8 a.m.

2:08:13Okay. Our time. You can make that work. Yeah. Okay. Jack Sanders is going to have to make it work. He's the producer of this episode. Thanks to him. Thanks so much to Adam Naiman, who is not the mean pod guy. He's the beloved, beautiful, perfect pod guy. No, and I'm, and I'm so happy to see you guys, but especially Chris Ryan, my first, my first ringer contact. Always happy to see Chris. I don't think we've podded together since last, uh, best of, so this is always, whose fault is that probably mine yeah you host like nine pods well Adam's never like I gotta break down severance with you brother what was your favorite TV show of the year did you watch any TV oh Chair Company yeah oh sure I mean that's a layup which I'm not even which I'm not even finished yeah me neither I think is the best best TV I've watched this year any closing thoughts CR no it's always just great great to go through a year of movies with you guys can you just do maybe like a little like an impression of a famous actor or something just to send us off okay We'll see you next time.