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Episode 4: Auld Nani Syne II: Judgement Day
61 Plays1 month ago
Friend of the pod, theme composer, cinephile, and our only ever guest, Nani RETURNS for a no-mercy roundup of the films of 2025. He breaks down Kamalacore, why 28 Years Later is a Brexit movie, and the boys crown their Twinks and Mommies/Mummies of the Year.
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Transcript
Podcast Introduction and Social Media Updates
00:00:36
Speaker
All right. Welcome back to Twink Death, Twinkies. we we We've gotten up to six followers on Twink Death Pod um Instagram. Oh, that's nice. Yeah. And I've gone viral a couple times since returning to Twitter. So I'm going ah i'm going to put my i'm going to put the link in the at the bottom to maybe get a
Welcoming Back The Nanny State
00:00:55
Speaker
few more.
00:00:55
Speaker
people following following on instagram um but we have a guest with us today the nanny state the but composer of our theme song yes nanny is back thank you for having me the nanny state is a great music composer a great uh uh cinephile and anything else you want to plug nanny no that's that's pretty much me and it's just those two Shit at everything else, but... I think Nanny's like the only guest we've ever had on the show, and we've had you on twice.
00:01:31
Speaker
Yeah. Is it a year since we did last...
Film Roundup and Format Plans
00:01:36
Speaker
Yeah, go we did like last year, right? it was last year's film roundup. but So it's probably exactly like pretty much this day, because remember we did it at the end of my break, and this is the last day of my break, so... Samesies.
00:01:49
Speaker
Okay, yeah. Yeah, so obviously if you're a listener to the show, you'll know that we had Nanny on last year to do kind of ah a roundup of our best and worst films of the year. And we had a few like categories as well. So we're pretty much going to be doing the same thing again. um Q and Nanny have both come up with like top 10 movies, but I did not enjoy 10 movies this year. So I don't actually have that, but I do have answers for all the categories. So it should be good. um So yeah, if Nanny wants to start with us,
00:02:19
Speaker
top 10 where you can kind of just like dive in whenever. Okay. Yeah. I'll, I'll get started.
Discussion on 'Shelby Oaks'
00:02:24
Speaker
if If you've got anything to add on any of these, feel free to to jump in and we can discuss it as we go. So, uh, I 107 films that came out in I think I enjoyed about 35 of them. um And so whittled down those 35 to the 10 that I really enjoyed.
00:02:41
Speaker
it starting with number 10, which I was really surprised by, and I was not expecting it to be very good, ah is Shelby Oaks, the debut horror film from Chris Stuckman, who's a YouTube film reviewer, who I've never found his reviews particularly interesting or thought that he's got like a a particularly kind of great um insight into horror films. But he clearly knows what he's doing because I thought this was brilliant. I've rewatched it twice since I saw it. ah It's not massively original, but it's incredibly well executed. There's some really good scares in it. There's a scene in an abandoned prison, which is really terrifying. It mixes together elements of found footage with with actual sort of um regular narrative film in an interesting way.
00:03:26
Speaker
And um yeah, in a year that's not been great for horror, this was a really standout one. i and't Did either of you see it? i I turned it off after to like 20 minutes it because I was bored. Yeah, because you told me that you really liked it. And I'd seen the trailer in the cinema quite a lot of times.
00:03:46
Speaker
um So I was sort of curious about it because he's um he's like he's like a really weird YouTube reviewer because he never says anything negative about anything ever.
00:03:58
Speaker
um So I was kind of curious to see what kind of movie he'd make. And I wasn't like not enjoying it. I was just like, do you know when you're sort of like, I don't know, if I'd gone to see in the cinema, I probably would i would have sat and watched the whole thing. But I was at home and I wasn't sort of,
00:04:15
Speaker
Because I wasn't forced to watch it. I just kind of was, oh, maybe I'll watch this later. It did hit very hard in the cinema. So I wonder if maybe watching it at home doesn't doesn't grab as much. But yeah, that's fair enough. Did you see it, Q?
00:04:29
Speaker
I didn't. i can't I can't comment. I mean, I do think that seeing a movie in a cinema makes a difference. Like I was thinking about, as Bicky was talking about it, um...
00:04:41
Speaker
what was that movie from a couple years ago that like they made with only $10,000 and it ended up being a horror hit, like inside the house, the kid stuck inside the house.
00:04:51
Speaker
skin Oh, Skinnerink. I tried to watch that at home when couldn't. I was just trying to think of imagining watching Skinnerink at home and how quickly I would turn it off. but how that That's what I did with Skinnerink. I've still not seen it.
00:05:05
Speaker
Yeah, but watching it in the theater, I was like genuinely sort of like enthralled, but I'm sure if I watched it at home, I would be like, I'm not watching this. Anyway, let's move to Nanny's number nine.
Exploration of Netflix Releases and Unique Films
00:05:15
Speaker
Number nine, speaking of films that it's a shame we don't get to see in the cinema because this was sort of buried on Netflix, is um Ballad of a Small Player, directed by Edward Berger.
00:05:24
Speaker
which is Colin Farrell on a sort of decadent, several days long bender in Macau, going to a bunch of different casinos, getting pissed, falling in love, ah getting in his debt.
00:05:36
Speaker
It's little bit little bit uncut gems, a little bit um one car away. It's quite a psychedelic. he He may be in a Buddhist version of hell. We're not sure. ah But yeah, what's the nicest thing about it is it's one of the most colourful films of the year. And the so much these days is so washed out and drab and grey. And this is like every shot is full of neon lights and, you know, um beautiful, beautiful imagery. So yeah, a battle of a small player was, again, real surprise since it was really buried when it came out.
00:06:07
Speaker
Yeah, I didn't even see it or hear about it. And it's crazy it's crazy hearing you talk about it because I'm looking now. It's like Tilda Swinton and Colin Farrell in a movie on Netflix. And i didn't even it didn't even reach my consciousness. It just shows you two things. one how diffuse the all the streaming stuff has gotten at this point.
00:06:29
Speaker
And how everyone's existing in these little microcultures. And then two, how the algorithm... really determines what you see i wish they would just like i wish netflix this is like one of my wishes that will probably never happen but i wish that they would just stop doing the suggested algorithm thing because my netflix looks so different than my friend's netflix look you know what i mean like and it would just be great if it was just like here's what we have on offer this week you know i think i think it would create more of a more of a mono culture, you know? there's other Other streaming services do that more, don't they? Like Criterion and movies that will have like, this is the January selection. and yeah right
00:07:10
Speaker
I couldn't possibly comment because I don't have a streaming service. but um there are ways There are ways to watch movies online. You can you can find them.
00:07:22
Speaker
I just mean more for like the culture having a little more uniformity would be my wish. But since neither of us saw this besides Nanny, let's go to his number eight. One of these wampas. One of them will hit, yeah. Probably not this one. Number eight ah went straight to Shudder, and it's called Reflection in a Dead Diamond, and it's by Bruno Forzani and Helen Catet.
00:07:44
Speaker
And it is a bizarre 1960s kind of super spy, Le Diabolique style, colourful extravaganza. It's barely got a plot.
00:07:58
Speaker
ah It's kind of hard to describe it. it's like a um It's very you European spy, lots of gadgets, extremely gory, parts of it that look like a perfume advert. In fact, a lot of it looks like a perfume advert in the best possible way.
00:08:14
Speaker
ah Yeah, I can't really describe it. If you listen to this now, pause, go on YouTube and look up the trailer for Reflection of the Dead Diamond, and you'll instantly see why it's gone into my top 10.
00:08:26
Speaker
I feel like this entire show is just going to be movies that me and Q have never heard of before. is I've never heard of this one either. I'm like, what the fuck? I just Googled it. The post looks cool. At the top, we're we're going to give a bunch of recommendations that probably people haven't seen. And then when we do my top 10, it's going to be all like...
00:08:44
Speaker
that pretty much because I only saw like films that were wide release in theaters this year. So it's going to be stuff people have heard of at least.
Analyzing Dark and Psychological Films
00:08:52
Speaker
Okay, les let's see you Have either of you seen David Cronenberg's The Shrouds?
00:08:58
Speaker
This year, Daniel Kronenberg's most recent film. but um know Simple synopsis, Vincent Cassell plays a guy who's invented the technology where you can watch people decay inside of their graves. And he's obsessed with watching this camera feed of his own wife's grave.
00:09:16
Speaker
um And then somebody vandalizes the graveyard where all these bodies are stored and it sort unravels this giant conspiracy to do with um people in Iceland and China that are trying to use his grave technology.
00:09:29
Speaker
ah Like all Cronenberg films, it's both incredibly bleak to the point of almost being funny and... um Yeah, has his usual obsessions with the body and flesh and decay and corruption.
00:09:42
Speaker
um so yeah, if you enjoyed any of the recent Cronenberg films like Crimes of the Future, you'd definitely enjoy this one. I hate really hated Crimes of the Future. um I love Crimes of the Future.
00:09:55
Speaker
hated it. i thought it was really bad. i like... I don't know. I like old Cronenberg. Obviously, I like like The Fly and stuff. and Then I like the mid-2000s-y Cosmopolis, like Maps of the Stars kind of stuff. but um Yeah, I don't know.
00:10:11
Speaker
Crimes of the Future was not it. I think Kristen Stewart, I just can't. tolerating anything that isn't Twilight. That's right. She's still just playing Bella like fucking 20 years later and everything. And I just, I don't know.
00:10:29
Speaker
Well, once you have that franchise money, you don't really need to, you know, you get to work on the craft. Yeah. You get to do whatever you want for the rest of your career. Okay, this next the next film I know at least one of you have seen.
00:10:41
Speaker
ah so this is um Alexander Ullam's It Ends, which is a Yeah, how would you how would you describe it, Q? It's hard hard to... ah It's kind of, I mean, I guess like, I don't think giving the pre premise really gives much away. It's not, it's not like a super plot driven film, but I mean, basically these, ah the the start is pretty horror film, classic start. It's like four friends who are um on a road trip. They seem to have,
00:11:14
Speaker
grown apart somewhat, but they're doing this like final road trip and it's cut, you kind of get the impression it's right before they're, but they're all going to kind of maybe start their quote unquote adult lives.
00:11:24
Speaker
So I think a very common horror movie set up, um, And then they end up on this like never ending road, I guess is how I would describe it. That like they, for some reason, the car doesn't run out of gas.
00:11:39
Speaker
They can't find the end of the road. And every time they stop, people run out of the woods and try to attack them essentially. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And, but then this is a situation that goes on for days and then weeks and then months all set within this one car, which is where it gets, it's because it gets almost a bit Lord of the flies, isn't it? They start like coming up with rules about how they have to interact with each other because they, they're so stick sick of being in the car together. and Yeah. like, imagine, imagine being in a car with four people, you know, really, really well, and you just like, cannot get out.
00:12:14
Speaker
um Oh, that sounds like hell. It is. I'm so picky about like, um I don't think most people can drive to a standard that I can tolerate. And like, I don't drive, so I'm always a passenger whenever I'm in a car. But like, aside from my mom and my dad, I hate being in a car with anyone else because they just feel sick the whole time.
00:12:36
Speaker
Like get really bad motion sickness because I feel like everybody is a crap driver apart from my parents. um One thing I did notice about this film, I haven't seen it, spoiler alert, like the poster looks very similar to It Follows and I originally thought that it was the sequel and i wonder whether they did that on purpose to try and get people to watch it.
00:12:56
Speaker
Quite possibly, it looks, it's almost identical, isn't it? um Yeah. um But yeah, I definitely recommend this. um And the next film, I'm sure you both have seen Weapons.
Highlighting Talented Performances
00:13:07
Speaker
Yes. is my number five for the year. So what did you both think of Weapons? Because we don't really have a chance to talk about that together. I loved Weapons. um It's actually... it's I picked a few for my favorite film and it's actually one of the ones that I picked because I really, really enjoyed it. Um, I think it was one of the best like cinema experiences that I've had this year as well. Like everybody that I went to watch it with was really into it and like, it was funny. It was gory. It was, yeah, I really loved it. We talked about it on an episode, I think, but we did talk about it on an episode. Yeah. I mean, i feel the same way. It was like great,
00:13:44
Speaker
crowd pleaser. I saw it once in the cinema and then I watched it once at home with my boyfriend. But that was, again, that was nice. Weapons was nice because it was like sort of an experience that I feel like it was a film that managed to break through and kind of like everyone saw.
00:13:59
Speaker
um and I think that's rare in this like cultural climate that like there's a movie. I think it, I think it and Sinners are the only original films to make more than a hundred million in America.
00:14:11
Speaker
So yeah, everything, everything else that meant over was, was a franchise or IP or sequel or one battle after another. Didn't make, that's that made about 70 or something. It did well, but it didn't. Huh?
00:14:24
Speaker
hu Yeah. wow Okay. Interesting. I mean, it says 205 million, but that must be global, right? You're talking like box office in America. Yeah.
00:14:36
Speaker
Yeah. Unless it's maybe it's been updated since then. But yeah, it's certainly one of the only original films to break 100 million. and um And deservedly so. It feels really original. Yeah. they say brilliant cinema experience that the scene where the woman comes out with the scissors and sort of is walking funnily out the house and like the the shift in the audience from people laughing at that to 20 seconds later, everyone being really freaked out when she opens the car door. Brilliant feeling to be in a cinema when that happens.
00:15:05
Speaker
Yeah, it was a unique idea. It was well executed. um i think Julia Garner, i i know that she's like famous, but I think she honestly deserves like a lot more credit than she even gets, you know? Like I'm surprised Julia Garner hasn't really, like I don't think she's ever had like an Academy of Award nomination or anything. No. She seems like she should be that tier of actress, you know? i know she's like- I think she's kind of,
00:15:32
Speaker
I don't think she's made enough sort of Oscar Beatty type choices to be nominated, but I think if she did, she would definitely sort of get an audience. Yeah. I think night next year she'll probably do something very prestige. she Yeah. I wonder if she's like getting those opportunities though, because one thing about her is she's like an incredible actress and I'm not saying this to be mean, i'm just saying this like, to be honest, but she's like not- She's not She's not hot, yeah. She's not like conventionally hot. I mean, she's an attractive, cute girl. I'm sure many men find her attractive, but she's not like, yeah, she's not like crazy. She's not like a standard Hollywood hot. So I wonder if that prevents her from getting more of these like roles that that go to like, I don't know.
00:16:15
Speaker
Mikey Madison or what? Yeah, it's funny because you've got like you've got people like um like Sidney Sweeney who are consciously trying to be in serious movies where they look really ugly and they're terrible because they have no range. And then you've got actresses with like loads of range who aren't getting those roles. It's it's mad.
00:16:34
Speaker
Yeah. Not just Sidney Sweeney. I like her, but she's not ah she's not a great actress. No. I'm trying to figure out what yeah what exactly is um stopping Julia Garner from her big break. I think as the carli ha it's The curls are too tight. She loosens up the curls a bit. She's on the way to an Oscar for sure. Yeah. Okay. Number six.
00:17:02
Speaker
ah No, that was that was number number five. So number four, ah fourth best film of the year is The Assessment. Oh, yes. Okay, I'm glad this is the first. You shouldn't listen to it. This is the first one on your list besides weapons that made my list too. Brilliant. Okay. Excited to talk
Dystopian and War Film Insights
00:17:20
Speaker
about. All right.
00:17:20
Speaker
Do you want to give the overview of the assessment? No, no, you you go for it. Cause been, i've been talking for ages. you Okay. So I actually saw this on a plane and then watched it again on a plane because I liked it so much. Nice. i it's The same plane trip or set? Yeah. and I did it on the way back.
00:17:36
Speaker
Like I did it, I did it there and on the way back, but basically it's Alicia Vikander, another one who actually is really hot, but never really broke through to like super, super, super mainstream success. um I feel like they were trying to to kind of tee her up to be maybe like the next Angelina Jolie or something, but it like never quite happened anyway. um but she's married to Michael Fassbender and she's really rich. So I'm sure, I'm sure that's fine. She's doing fine. Yeah. But, um, so she in this movie she plays, um, so it's like a futuristic world where Elizabeth Olsen, and I forget the guy's name, but he's also really famous that he's Indian.
00:18:17
Speaker
Himesh Patel. Yes. Yes. Um, they live in this like, futuristic world and they're kind of like in this isolated area off the coast and you, ah and they're like, you kind of learn throughout the film, this just doesn't give much away that they're, they're very high level sort of like officials in this like regime. One of the rules of this world is that, you know,
00:18:42
Speaker
you um cannot have a child unless you pass this thing called the assessment. And the only way they allow people to reproduce is basically through artificial wombs after you've passed this assessment. And Alicia Vikander's character plays the assessor who... um yeah, comes to their house and has to like live with them for, I think, was it 10 days? How long does she have to stay there? It's something like that. But each day she's pretending to be a different age. So one day she's pretending to be ah like a toddler and then she's pretending to be like a teenager and then she's pretending to be a baby um and sort of giving them assessments and challenges along the way.
00:19:22
Speaker
And yeah, incredibly fucked up. it's It's one of the few films where like having scenes in it that I found genuinely disturbing that don't involve any violence or gore or anything like that, but just things where I was watching it through my hands thinking, no, don't do that.
00:19:39
Speaker
but but Yeah, it's really fucked up. It's really fucks with your brain. it gives you like a weird feeling. You would like it, but you'd find it interesting. um And yeah, I guess that's all I'll say. Alicia Vikander is really incredible in it, to be honest. It falls into my sort of category for my favorite genres, which is science fiction that has no guns in it.
00:20:00
Speaker
It's like science fiction that isn't about combat in any way. It's just about sort of ideas. It's like ah like a feature length and really good Black Mirror episode. Yeah, I guess the other thing that'll maybe sell it without giving too much away is like the assessment is incredibly intrusive. So like Alicia Vikander is allowed to like observe them pretty much 24-7. So that's like part of it too, I guess. Yeah, and part of it is like testing the boundaries of how they deal with the stresses of having a child. and yeah it's right yeah. Yeah.
00:20:32
Speaker
But whatever, think about all the things you do in a day and imagine if someone was allowed to sort of observe everything you do. That's- Yes. All right. So down to my top three. So yeah number three, Alex Garland's Warfare.
00:20:47
Speaker
Did either of you see see this? We really fucked this up, Vicky. I did not see this. I didn't see either. To be fair, like- Yeah, I don't really like Alex Garland movies, though. I'm looking at it now, and this just wouldn't be a movie I i probably would choose to watch. But maybe try to sell us. to try to sell us that Exactly the same for me. I've got zero interest into the war films at all.
00:21:11
Speaker
um But it is one of the most intense things I've seen all year. ah Probably the most, yeah, yeah, be up there. um It's all set in just one house overnight. They've got to hold this house that's being surrounded by by people. um And it's just edge of your seat stuff the entire time. As someone would say zero interest in war, there's a couple of moments in it where I leapt out of my seat into the shock and horror ah um Yeah, it's it's hard to sell because it just sounds like it's going to be another boring war film, but it's really not. It's really intense and um quite grueling, I suppose. I vaguely remember it coming out and on and people sort talking about it being really good. And I did like think about watching it, but I was just like, yeah, no. um But no, i think i know I actually don't mind war films either. I prefer them if they're like more like...
00:22:05
Speaker
like period war films to like, um, like contemporary war. Cause I like the costumes and stuff more. Um, and the boys are always cuter, but like, yeah, I don't know. Um, I might give it a watch.
00:22:20
Speaker
Okay. My number two film,
Thrillers and Psychological Dramas
00:22:22
Speaker
uh, Steven Soderbergh's black bag. Did either of you see this? I know this film, but I also didn't see it. Yeah. So one of two Steven Silverberg films. I actually did see this. um But, well, go ahead and tell tell me why you liked it so much.
00:22:39
Speaker
So much as I was saying that i really like science fiction films without guns, I also really like spy films without car chases and guns. And I think I like the fact that a bit like... um Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy or something like that. It's a spy film where I think there's one gunshot fired in the whole film. it's It's more like an Agatha Christie sort of dinner party murder mystery thing. um I just thought it looked brilliant. i thought the performances from everyone was great. I like the fact that it's basically bookended by those two dinner parties and that that's where the mu bulk of the ah dialogue and bulk of the sort of information is conveyed. um But yeah, I just thought it was a pretty flawless thriller.
00:23:17
Speaker
Really? um i am. I don't have much to say. i just, I got bored. but I'm not going to lie. That's what happened. And it's funny that you mentioned Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, because that's one of the few movies I've actually fallen asleep in a theater during. Although I was in one of those like ridiculous American movie theaters where you're like basically on like a bed.
00:23:35
Speaker
you know Right. That'll do it. And I was like stoned. So I wasn't like i wasn't in like the optimal situation to like really pay attention. um But yeah, i mean great performance by Cate Blanchett as always, and she's hot in it. and Yes.
00:23:50
Speaker
so Yeah, older that does the husband-wife dynamic is really, really good. Yeah. ali Speaking of Alicia Bickander, Michael Fassbender's in it. so Yes. Yeah. yeah um Right. And so then i my number one film, which I'm sure neither of you have seen.
00:24:06
Speaker
um is a film called Hot Milk with Emma Mackey and Fiona Shaw and Vicky Creeps. I did not see it.
00:24:17
Speaker
Also did not see it. It's just just a lesbian psychological thriller set on the Spanish coast where this woman is trying to get like this alternative medicine for her mother. Who's got like a psychological, a physical condition that might just be all in her head where she pretends that she can't walk. And she, and and then the Emma Mackey character starts an affair with another woman that she meets that lives in a nearby town.
00:24:43
Speaker
Um, it's It's interesting in that it's a psychological thriller where the stakes are very different to what they would be in almost any other psychological thriller. It's not life or death. It's not about some money going missing or a crime. It's, ah yeah, but it's just fantastic performances from everyone in it and one of the most affecting films I've seen in the in the cinema this year.
00:25:05
Speaker
I had to Google Emma Mackey and i i know who she is now that I've Googled her, but I always think whenever I hear that name, I always think of the one who played Princess Diana in The Crown, the Nosferatu one, the they them person.
00:25:20
Speaker
Who am I thinking of? Is her name Emma as well? Corrin? oh Yeah, yeah, yeah. i always mix them up by their names, but they look nothing alike. Emma Mackey looks like a rectangle with hair in a nice way.
00:25:37
Speaker
all Right. Well, that's my top 10 of which I think two he'd seen. But there's 10 films for you all to go out and explore. ah yeah I guarantee that Nanny will have seen all of the ones that we liked. Yeah, I'm going to do my top 10 now and we can take the assessment off because we talked about that. And I didn't go in any order. um So, oh, and we could take weapons off because we talked about that. So I'm down to only eight, which is good because I can i can move relatively quickly. i don't and There is going to be a couple that you guys haven't seen.
00:26:10
Speaker
all right.
Documentaries and Personal Stories
00:26:11
Speaker
So my number, I guess, eight, now that I took those other two off, was... um My Mom Jane, the Mariska Hargitay documentary. Did either of you watch that on HBO Max? No, I've heard people say it's good.
00:26:24
Speaker
I'll just quickly sell it. I mean, it's a lot more fascinating than it sounds. It's Mariska Hargitay. If you don't know, her mom was Jane Mansfield who died when she was only three. um and Mariska Hargitay was in the car along with all her siblings. Jane Mansfield had a bunch of, and they were like saved, like both their mom and Jane Mansfield's current.
00:26:44
Speaker
husband died immediately upon car crash. And they were saved by just like, this was like way pre cell phone. It was like the sixties. They were saved by just like people passing by like just saw this horrible car wreck and like pulled the kids out of the car and had to drive them like hours to this like hospital. They were in the middle of nowhere. um Anyway. So it's like a kind of a shocking story, but she has all her um siblings on film and she's the only one who doesn't remember her mom basically.
00:27:14
Speaker
Right. Because all of them were older. So she's kind of interviewing them about like who her mom like really was. And I learned a lot about Jane Mansfield I didn't know. And it was just like a really affecting documentary. And honestly, I think Mariska Hargitay is going to have an interesting career as a director because I've heard she's finally retiring from, uh,
00:27:35
Speaker
Law and Order and she wants to do directing now. And she directed this and it was like, really it was like really well put together. Um, and I guess I'll mention this one now just while I'm on it, there was this other documentary on HBO max called Enigma, which really shocked me. Um, it's about, and I don't think either of you have seen either of these. So that's why I'm bringing them up first.
00:27:57
Speaker
Um, I didn't really do the, um, I didn't really put them in like an order, but anyway, ah it's this movie about, I want to make sure I get the names right.
00:28:08
Speaker
um It's made by Zachary Drucker, who's a trans woman, um but it's kind of about Amanda Lear. do you guys know who she is? Yes. Yeah.
00:28:20
Speaker
She's like a famous German disco singer kind of anyway. And she ah basically like, her whole life people have thought she's trans, but she like has never copped to it. Um, she's like kind of maintained the stealth.
00:28:41
Speaker
Uh, so it's like trans investigation, the movie. It's a little bit like that. They do interview Amanda Lear and they do interview this other famous one, this other famous trans woman, April Ashley. um but it is interesting cause it does kind of have this air of like a mystery because it like all traces back to this like,
00:29:00
Speaker
French club in like the 50s, this like, and this kind of like, where like a ton of celebrities went and partied. um And at this French like kind of underground nightclub place is where April Ashley claims she met Amanda Lear.
00:29:17
Speaker
And part of what was famous about this club was that it was like drag performances. But like, Famous people of the day like went there all the time. like I don't know, like Marlon Brando. and like It was like a famous Parisian sort of nightlife scene. Anyway, that it kind of traces a mystery. so ok i was And having having seen the film, do you think she's trans or not? what what's What's your verdict? Definitely she is. Okay. Spoiler alert. You meet her now, and her you know she's like in her 80s.
00:29:49
Speaker
um It's just very, very funny because... Yeah, she's gonna she's gonna take it she's going to take the bit to the to the grave, which I got to... I kind of value that. not yeah yeah I feel like more more of them should be that way. She has a beautiful house in the south of France. Seems like she's living her best life in old age. But yeah, she's gonna she's going to take the bit to the grave. And actually, like she was so stealth that like part of the what made Amanda Lear famous was like she was actually...
00:30:18
Speaker
Um, I want to get the band right. Cause I can't remember if it's the Beatles or the Rolling Stone. She's brooks she's on the cover of her Roxy music album. soon Yeah. But she was like arrested in so she was like really close friends with Salvador Dali. And then, um, hold on
00:30:38
Speaker
hold on, hold on. I want to get this right. ah i think she looks She looks kind of like a Yassified um Joan Rivers. Yeah. I can't i can't find it now because she she hung out with like all these people, Jemmy Hendrix and Twiggy and... Oh, yeah. Uh...
00:30:56
Speaker
Yeah, Mick Jagger, the Rolling Stones. Yeah, the Rolling Stones wrote a song about her called Miss Amanda Jones, um which was her name at the time. Anyway, whatever. She was, like, also in that scene. Anyway, at that point, no one, I guess, knew she was trans. So that's how st stealth she was. Like, when in the 60s, she was able to, like...
00:31:15
Speaker
Like pre those rumors starting, she was like yeah with like the Rolling Stones. So anyway, it's, it's cool. All right. Unclockable. um My next film, I think at least Nanny's definitely seen as Marty Supreme.
Unique Cultural Film Elements
00:31:28
Speaker
yes I saw it last week. Yeah. Yeah, I liked it. I didn't think it was as good as Uncut Gems, but I thought it was like a for a similar conceit. It was like fairly well. Yeah, it's a fun sort of caper, isn't it? Like a run around. And yeah, it's I don't think it's as good as Uncut Gems, but ah I saw it on.
00:31:47
Speaker
Yeah, just after Christmas. And it was a fun film to just spend an evening watching. Yeah, i put I put it on there for that reason. And I think that they did a really poor job marketing it because I don't think people realized it was basically just an and like a retread of Uncut Gems. because it kind of Yeah, the trailer makes it look much more like it's a sports film. And really, that's only like 10 minutes of a at the end that's really about table tennis. is The rest of it's about Jews licking honey off of each other.
00:32:14
Speaker
Yeah. one of the most disturbing bits I've seen in the film this year. Yeah, it's similar to both Onora and Uncut Gems in the sense that it's like pretty much all the characters are Jewish and it's like they're going through sort of a like,
00:32:31
Speaker
I don't know, like a crime sort of caper that has a lot of humor moments. And yeah. Like a series of escalating cons and tricks. And yeah. Yeah. And there's a lot of like Jewish humor in it, which is very funny and specific. And yeah. So I don't know.
00:32:48
Speaker
Fran Drescher's in it. yeah All right. Um, which actually the one thing I will say about that film is I think Fran Drescher should get more, uh, do you call it? Serious parts. Okay.
00:33:00
Speaker
Um, my next one was after the hunt, which I know Bicky saw. Yes. I saw that as well. It was Luca Guadagnino's like, um, you know, his, uh,
00:33:12
Speaker
post me to movie. Yeah. His like post me to movie. I really, it got like zero attention and basically made like no money. And I didn't hear anyone talk about it, but I really, um i really loved it. I thought it was a really, I really liked it as well. Yeah. I don't know. Nani looks like he hated it.
00:33:29
Speaker
i i't I know. I did enjoy it. I thought the weird tacked on scene at the end that had clearly been filmed months later because they deliberately put in references to things that had happened in January of this year.
00:33:40
Speaker
And they'd even though they'd shot the rest of the film like the previous summer, i was and that whole scene felt really off to me. i said Overall, I thought... The fact that you can make this film means it's not a brave film to make anymore.
00:33:54
Speaker
like This would have been a really brave film to have come out in 2016 or 2017. But the fact that you can get major funding for a film with with Julia Robertson about how, Me Too went a bit too far. It's like, yeah, well, we were all fucking saying that at the time. You wouldn't make a film about it then.
00:34:11
Speaker
But now that it's like culturally acceptable to say that, now you can make a multimillion-dollar film about that idea. which by its nature means it's not a very daring idea to make a film. Oh, I agree. It's definitely was made when it was safe. I mean, I think the film less so than me too went too far, which I know that you were just giving a quick one off. I feel like the film, but the more complicated critique, which I think the film does get into is what actually quote unquote happened. Doesn't matter.
00:34:39
Speaker
Me too, for some reason, powerful women was like an opportunity for like a power grab. You know what I mean? Like, and that's, and like, that's like, doesn't even like discount that like real things happened. It was just like, that was like the underlying current.
00:34:57
Speaker
And that's kind of what you see Julia Roberts's character and the young woman's character do. It's like, they use it regardless of what the quote unquote truth is. Like, yeah.
00:35:08
Speaker
they use it as a tactic to kind of gain. Yeah. No, and know all the performances in it are good. i so I just sort of thought for what it's trying to do, I just thought it's not as brave as it thinks it is, but.
00:35:18
Speaker
No, it was just fun to watch. Yeah. You want to anything about it Vicky? I kind of agree with everything Nani's saying, but also still just liked it. I don't know. i like It was nice seeing Andrew Garfield in something again because I really like watching him. And i thought all of the clothes were really nice. like Everyone looked really like stylish. and I don't know. It was good. i enjoyed it.
00:35:42
Speaker
Yeah, like like every Luca Guadagnino film, it like was very fun to look at. i think all his films have a really like stylish you know element to that.
00:35:55
Speaker
um And that's who he's interested I mean, he almost always does films about rich people besides Bones and all. And yeah, Julia Roberts has an incredible on-campus apartment.
00:36:06
Speaker
yeah um It was also nice to see her acting again like as well. I know she's done like some things, but I do think she's talented and it was nice seeing her sort of flexing her chops again.
00:36:21
Speaker
um My next one was, again, I didn't really do like an order, but I do
Unexpected Film Experiences
00:36:25
Speaker
have a number one. um But i and i know my next one on my list was 28 Years Later. i thought it was like shockingly like interesting to watch. I didn't expect that.
00:36:35
Speaker
Did you hate it, Nanny? Yeah. Oh, I fucking hated it so much. Yeah. One of the worst films of the year. It's fucking awful. Yeah. I hated the, like, oh, right. Where do we even begin? Right. Right. Well, let me just say why. Okay. You sell it first before I get next one. No, no, no. I'm going to give like a sentence why I liked it. I did not see, at least I haven't in many years, seen any of the other films. Okay. Okay.
00:37:03
Speaker
So i don't I went in with like zero expectations except for understanding it was kind of a zombie movie and then was like a little like shocked by what I ended up seeing. And I think that's why I liked it because I was surprised. But I was only surprised because I didn't i don't think I ever saw 28 weeks later or 28 hours later. And if I did, it was so long ago, I forgot about it. So I went in with like kind of a zero expectation and then was like, I was like, Oh, it's a little more complicated than just a zombie movie, but now tear it apart because ok really only put it there because I was like, it was nice to be surprised in the cinema, you know?
00:37:42
Speaker
um i I hated how fucking video gamey it all felt. Everything from the camera movements like the to the like little slow motion spin around camera thing when someone gets a headshot. It just like feels like I'm playing a fucking video game. And it also feels like a video game the way that they've completely removed the metaphoric power of like the rage virus zombies thing that it turns you into this just rage and like everyone becomes the same. It's like, no, actually, there's different classes of zombies with different abilities. There's fat zombies that go on the ground. There's fast zombies that run really fast. There's giant zombies that are giants. It's like, oh, right, they're fucking enemies in the video game. I better go around with my bow and arrow and get a headshot.
00:38:19
Speaker
There's zombies with giant penises. There's full frontal nudity. That's true. I also hated the way it tried to sort of... um ah imply that the to people who live in that sort of island, um it's sort of mocking their little England sort of nostalgia for the old times with that picture of the ah the queen and like the flag on fire and sort of trying to equate that almost to a kind of like...
00:38:45
Speaker
Brexit Britain sort of view of the past. It's like, right, okay, fair enough. I get the point you're trying to make. But in the context of the film, they are nostalgic for a time before zombies, which is a fucking reasonable thing to be nostalgic for if you live in a the timeline that has zombies. That doesn't make you like backwards looking. It's perfectly normal if there's zombies around to be thinking, I really liked it 28 years ago when I was a kid and there weren't zombies. Yeah.
00:39:12
Speaker
i like i'm I'm curious. So I've also seen this, and i i guess I'm probably like in the middle of you two. I didn't hate it as much as Nanny did, but I didn't soup all of it. And i i really, really, really hated the ending.
00:39:31
Speaker
um I was curious, like did the ending even make any sense to you, Q, as like an American? Because it was i i so loaded with... like like British, um, he's talking about the, the, jimmy the Jimmy Savile ninjas. Yeah.
00:39:47
Speaker
I do know who Jimmy Savile is. okay I've seen that Netflix documentary. I did not realize that that, that, that gang was sort of referencing that.
00:39:58
Speaker
So I didn't get that. I clearly missed a ton of British cultural stuff that you would miss if you weren't British. so because I didn't think about Brexit once um or Jimmy Savile.
00:40:11
Speaker
So yeah. So I guess I just missed, I guess I just sort of missed, missed those references. Did it make you excited for the the next one for the bone temple comes out like next week?
00:40:23
Speaker
It did, unfortunately. Okay. No, I'm going to go and see it. Cause I was like, okay. I was like, now he's going to be with this like crazy gang and like, we're going to see that movie and you know,
00:40:35
Speaker
I guess I was just, I guess without really thinking about it too hard, I was entertained from like the beginning to the end. I just went away annoyed.
00:40:46
Speaker
um Like I was entertained for like maybe like the first half and then I was just ah progressively like more annoyed. don't know.
00:40:56
Speaker
I will go and watch the next one. i like This is, sorry, I may interrupt you. I just want to be clear. This is definitely not a film I'm going to like lie down on the tracks for, you know what I mean? Like I do have films I feel that way about, but this was just like purely it entertained me on an individual level, you know?
00:41:14
Speaker
Okay. um We already talked about Frankenstein, but it was on my list. ah Do you want to say anything about it, Nanny? Because Bicky and I... i still I still haven't seen it. Okay. I saw it in theaters, which I think is the way to see it. I also saw it as... Bicky didn't like it. You guys remember, we talked about this already on the show, but you go ahead and...
00:41:34
Speaker
if you want to say. Yeah, we we talked about already. um I actually have it in one of my categories um as like biggest disappointment. um Despite the fact that ah It was a Guillermo del Toro movie and I should have known what I was getting in for, but like, but yeah, I, I really hated I thought it was bad, but yeah, go back and listen to the previous episode. Yeah. Go listen to our whole breakdown of it. and My next film before, and again, that nothing was in order until my favorite film, which I think might make, make, could make
Entertaining yet Flawed Films
00:42:07
Speaker
me mad. um But this next film was ah the next film I put in my top 10, but not in any particular order was the house made. I know it's bad,
00:42:15
Speaker
um it's sydney sweeney and amanda seyfried i understand it's bad film uh but as a gay guy just kind of two divas diva-ing out um is really it's it's a bad film but it's one of the most fun experiences i've had in the cinema this year i went to sleep with my girlfriend on on i think christmas eve and uh yeah it was it was brilliant we're just really so fun my attention never drifted from the screen once it was yeah brilliant i've been I've been wanting to see it since Nanny recommended it. And like I've literally been checking on that um on the cinema website like every single day to find a time when the theaters are not busy. But it has been pretty much fully packed every single day.
00:42:59
Speaker
I love going to see this movie. One of the busiest screenings I've been to, I think. Yeah, I saw it in a packed theater. So think it's a surprise and a surprise Yeah, it made 133 million on 35 million.
00:43:14
Speaker
um so far globally. So... It's the most, um probably other than Bridget Jones, it's the most women I've seen in the cinema all year for any film. ah Maybe Bridget Jones will come up later. Who knows? It's obviously like a really like kind of stupid film in a lot of ways. And like the message is like,
00:43:34
Speaker
completely unbelievable. And like, you know, it's very, it's like a man hating film. It's like, you know, whatever, but, ah but really fun to watch. And ah yeah, absolutely. And Sydney Sweeney needed a W at the box office. Cause her haters were really starting to gain some traction with the, she's, she's not, she's not box office, you know, uh,
00:43:56
Speaker
but No, our racist queen came through for us. To be honest with you, the main reason that I didn't see it immediately when it came out is because it has the same name as a Japanese film from the 60s that i I watched this year.
00:44:12
Speaker
And I thought it might be like a remake of it. And it was the worst film I've ever seen in my entire life. I hated it. So I sort of like, oh, they're really remaking that? was fucking... big pile of shit that I thought would be really good.
00:44:25
Speaker
Um, so that was my main reason for not seeing it originally, but I think I'm going to try and catch it before it leaves. If, and if Sydney Sweeney is listening to this, which she isn't, um, I think you should go in this direction. i think you should stop trying to make prestige stuff and just, you can make so much money doing this sort of thing. Um, okay. My favorite film. if I'm wondering if I'm going to make nanny mad. I'm bit scared. Um, My favorite film this year was together. Uh, the Alison, um, Oh yeah. Yeah. Okay. Alison three and Dave Franco film. Um, I think the reason I love, there's a few reasons I love it. I love them as a couple.
00:45:08
Speaker
um I think they're like a really fun couple to watch like in interviews and, and it never seems fake to me. It always seems like they're like kind of, it seems like they genuinely love and enjoy each other and they have fun banter. And I like that she's older than him a little bit. I like just like everything about their relationship I think is cool. They seem like they'd be really fun to hang out with and have drinks with. um I found the backstory of them really relatable, a relationship that's kind of dragged on.
00:45:38
Speaker
um you know, a little too long without progressing. i feel like a lot of millennials can relate to that. Like, you know, ah this like, yeah, like they're not pulling the trigger on kids. They're not pulling the trigger on marriage. They're sort of just like, I don't know, sort of floating in this, this kind of like middle state, which again, I think our generation is really relatable. And then I found the horror element, um,
00:46:06
Speaker
cool i thought it was like a weird twist um and i don't want to give anything away by talking about what it is but i just i thought it was like a unique take on horror that like you don't often see and i thought it should have just gotten like way more attention than it got so yeah i agree it's It's also, um I have it under like biggest surprise because I didn't expect that I would like it. I thought from, because I'd seen the trailer, the trailer was pushed so much here.
00:46:38
Speaker
felt like every time you went to the cinema for months, it was it was the first trailer you saw. um So I was sort of like, ah I don't know if I'm going to like this. And I actually did enjoy it. I don't think I loved it quite as much as Q, but there was so that was mostly down to like not liking Dave Franco's voice.
00:46:58
Speaker
I think he's got a really annoying nasally voice, but other than thought it was really fun. It's good good for you that um I think they're letting, like James Franco is getting released from the Me Too prison this year.
00:47:12
Speaker
yay Because he has ah he has a movie coming out. I forget. i just saw commercial for it. So he's getting he's getting let Yeah. you'll get some more you'll get some more uh yeah he has a bunch of stuff lined up so yeah you're about to get some more james franco i love james franco i mean theo james has kind of been carrying the james franco torch for like the last few years but like yeah i do look there's a couple things in the works it looks like that are going to be coming out soon so anyway
00:47:44
Speaker
uh vicky do you have anything on your list that we haven't talked about probably you do i'm sure you um probably quite a lot yeah let me have a look Okay, so I'll give you a few of my worst films um because I have three.
00:47:57
Speaker
The first one I had was um Sebastian, which I know, i think i think maybe Q has seen, or maybe, I know Nanny has probably seen that gay film that came out.
00:48:08
Speaker
um It was about like, I can only vaguely remember the premise. It's about this like gay journalist guy who is like much this shagging around.
00:48:21
Speaker
I barely remember it. I just remember that hated it. gave it like one star. There's a lot of squelching sounds in it. Yeah, there are. There's a lot of sex. ah I just i don't like...
00:48:34
Speaker
like It wasn't graphic, but I don't like sort of explicit gay sex in movies. It grosses me out. Did did you see Pillion this year? No, I didn't see it um I think you've seen it already. No, I haven't seen it yet.
00:48:48
Speaker
Oh, you haven't seen it yet. and I think we should probably watch it and make an episode about it. but is i'll come I'll come back on for a Pillion episode for sure. um The other one that really hated on a similar theme was i'm Plain Clothes. I don't know either of you. Oh, no, it's this um i it's been on my list to watch, but I still haven't around to it. So Plain Clothes is um it's Tom Blythe and um the guy with the big ears who's in every gay British thing ever.
00:49:19
Speaker
um I don't know what name is. What's his name, that guy? Russell russell Tovey. yeah, yeah. The one with the ears will stick out. um Yeah, so basically um Tom Blythe plays this like undercover cop in America who I think is during like the ninety s and they're trying to catch people cottaging or like, is it cottaging if it's in like a public toilet?
00:49:44
Speaker
Yeah. nicola Yeah. um So he's he's basically trying to like catch people out cottaging as part of this like undercover sting operation. But then he meets this guy in there that he finds really hot, who gives him his phone number. And then they start this sort of like um no strings attached like love affair. And this guy's married and stuff. So why is it so bad?
00:50:09
Speaker
um Again, that was like too too much sex. And for me, um they they did the really annoying thing where they make the more masculine one be the bottom, which I can't stand seeing on film either. um Yeah, I just hate it. I love how trad you are about this.
00:50:25
Speaker
ah I just have very strict rules about like like gay gay stuff in in movies. Other than that, I like sort of like, I've said this before on the pod, I like sort of like the kind of Japanese like boy love stuff where maybe they'll like hold hands and it'll be sort of shocking. and but But yeah, anything anything sort of beyond that. um my I don't know where Q's gone. So what's what's the best gay film of the year? is it is it Black Phone 2?
00:50:55
Speaker
What? um No, that was also bad. That wasn't gay enough. We actually talked about that a little bit on a little bit on a previous episode. and But yeah, that was like that was not gay enough. I wanted more gay sex pervert in Blackphone 2.
00:51:11
Speaker
um But yeah, plainclothes was not it. um the other ah film on my worst film list i think nanny has kind of seen and i think we had a similar experience so this was the toxic avenger which i actually i think i will i think i walked out after about 15 minutes maybe less ah i could just tell it was not gonna get better I walked out about after, I stayed longer than you. I think I stayed for about 45 minutes. um And then I ended up
Critique of Cultural Films and Themes
00:51:45
Speaker
walking out. And this was a I think it's like a remake of like a sort of seventies film. um That's kind of.
00:51:54
Speaker
It's about this guy who works for as like a janitor, I think, for like a medical company. And then he gets in, he's got this like terminal illness and then he gets like um hit by this like stuff that turns him into like a toxic troll thing. it' um It's got Peter Dinklage, the little dwarf guy from Game of Thrones.
00:52:18
Speaker
Yeah, it was awful. It feels like it feels like a fan film, like like something that would have been put on YouTube in 2007. yeah Yeah, it was made, i think it was made in like 2020 and it sat on the shelf for years and you can really tell because there's so much sort of like wokey political stuff in it. i'm Like the main sort of um antagonists in one of the scenes are these um sort of incel bros who get offended that the the mascot for their like burger diner has been changed from ah sort of male cartoon burger to a female cartoon burger. um And then they all get sort of like um decimated by the sort of toxic Avenger. And it just you could just tell that it was it was made from...
00:53:05
Speaker
a mindset that existed like sort of five years ago that nobody really does cares about. That's an interesting lead into something I wanted to quickly talk about, which is, um, I think this year is really exemplified what I call the Kamala core films, which are films that were made with the expectation that Trump was going to lose the election and they would be released under a Joe Biden or Kamala, uh,
00:53:28
Speaker
presidency and they would be a sort of victory lap, cultural victory lap. um And they now feel really weird and out of place in the reality in which they find themselves released.
00:53:38
Speaker
So I've made a little list of the 15 that I've seen that I thought really... 15? Yeah, I'm sure there's more. All right, um you start with the most popular ones, because I bet a couple of the ones that are like the most popular is in the most people saw because- Okay, let's run through them quickly. Night Bitch, Captain America, Brave New World, Mickey 17, G20, Sinners, Jurassic World Rebirth, The Long Walk, One Battle After Another, the Lilo and Stitch remake,
00:54:07
Speaker
Mission Impossible, Final Reckoning, Superman, House of Dynamite, Perfect Neighbor, Nuremberg, and Running Man are all films that were clearly made with the expectation of being released and i um yeah in a ah slightly woker time and than than what we find ourselves in. Okay, so I'm interested, ah before you talk about, I know you both watched that Night Bitch one, so I will give you some time to talk about that, but I'm curious about a couple that were on the list. So like,
00:54:36
Speaker
um Are there any on the list that you liked? Yeah. Yeah. Plenty of them. I liked Sinners. I liked The Long Walk. I quite liked One Battle After Another, but not as much as as many other people did.
00:54:47
Speaker
I liked Perfect Neighbor. I liked Superman. um i Yeah, i I mostly liked Sinners. I thought the egregious scene at the end was dreadful and kind of ruined the movie for me a little oh The whole last act really is is a letdown, I think. su yeah the The long walk, i I didn't really contemplate on a like sort of political level at all, but I didn't like it.
00:55:14
Speaker
I couldn't. i mean the one The one that I had trouble with because I couldn't get out of contemplating it on a political level was one battle after another. i couldn't just relax and enjoy it because I just could tell from like minute 10, I was like, oh I'm going to be psyoped Yeah. Like, I was like, I was like, so I just, I couldn't stop seeing it from that perspective. I was like, I mean, it did get some laughs out of me.
00:55:40
Speaker
i will say that when he goes up to Leonardo DiCaprio and is like, you like black girls. Like there were some moments the theater kind of laughed, you know, but I was just like, I couldn't relax and and enjoy it at all Yeah. I think the, the main thing that I didn't like about the long walk and I haven't read the novel, but like, um I think whenever you have one of those sort of like death game type movies or stories, like,
00:56:07
Speaker
everybody's going to die by the end of it. So it it feels like, what's the point in investing in these characters? Like I thought everyone in that movie did a really good job. Like the acting was all really good and stuff, but like by the end of the movie, everyone's dead. And I'm sort of like, well, what a waste of time. That for me was the thing that was surprising about it because in almost every other film that is a sort of death game thing, they find a way out of it.
00:56:30
Speaker
Either like they start rebellion or they managed to escape or they changed the rules somehow. And I liked that in the long walk, they they tell you the rules and they stick to those rules completely. And there is only one person left alive by the end of it. In most of the films, multiple people would have got railed. would have started the revolution. i I agree. I kind of expected that there would be two of them left at the end. I didn't expect there be one guy left. I don't know. thought all the characters were...
00:56:58
Speaker
but like i don't know i thought i thought all the characters were like interesting and engaging to watch. And it just felt like bleak, just watching them all just get picked off one by one. And I know that's kind of the point, but was like, well, where's the, I don't know. I didn't get the joy out of it. I was annoyed. The point from the Kamala standpoint, the point of the long walk is that rural white Americans, should forego the chance to have their own candidate and lend their gun or their vote to the inner city black characters to enact the vengeance against the same class that exploits both of them. Because they, as middle class, as as lower class rural whites, are not sophisticated enough to be able to exact their revenge on capital in the same way that like a smart inner city black guy would be. That's the point of the film.
00:57:49
Speaker
Okay. Which they tried to sneak under the radar. Can I give two films, just since you gave that little category before we talk about Night Bitch, that I think are... I'm i'm going to call these...
00:58:02
Speaker
um we thought Dime Square was bigger than it was movies.
Influence of Internet Culture on Films
00:58:07
Speaker
And there's only two. So it's kind of the opposite direction of what you're talking about. Movies that thought this very micro niche internet phenomenon were a bigger deal than they were. And the two i I think this year that came out like that were Dime I Love and um Materialists. And I think the final dime square test, I have a theory on whether there's any lasting power to that is, uh, February 14th when weathering Heights comes out with the Charlie XCX soundtrack. Like, uh, so I think that that's, we're going to see if, if time square has any lasting, uh, what made you think ah about dime square with dime? I love it. I just... Well, okay, material is obvious for obvious reasons. Yeah, yeah. There's really no reason to even explain why that movie is a dime square movie. With Dime I Love, i just thought of it because it was kind of like the whole movie, the whole idea was
00:59:02
Speaker
was like BPD woman artist who were like supposed to sort of feel some sort of sympathy for, but she's also like a little bit evil. And I don't know. That was like, that was why I, I kind of put that in that category. I like i i have made it no secret that i hate Jennifer Lawrence. like I've been going on about how much I hate for years and years and years. I can't even look her face. But like I was semi-curious to watch that because I do love Robert Pattinson. Materialists was dog shit. Yeah, I want to be clear that Dime I Love is a bit of a stretch for a Dime Square film. I think Materialists is obviously a Dime Square film. It's like completely it's like New York...
00:59:49
Speaker
that, that class of woman, ni you know what I mean? Like Dasha's in it. Um, and I thought it was, yeah, I thought it was. Yeah. I had, I had Dakota Johnson as my worst performance of the, I thought it was awful. Yeah. I think, I think I lasted 20 minutes and I bailed on that. I think the other films that we, I think we have to at least mention the fact that none of our top tens included Begonia or Eddington.
01:00:15
Speaker
I actually put Begonia in my worst. Um, and I didn't see Begonia, but Eddington would probably in my worst if i completely forgot I'd watched it.
01:00:25
Speaker
But yeah, I hated it too. I i couldn't, i actually, i couldn't even get through it. Like I tried multiple times to watch it and I couldn't even get to the end. Um, That made me sad. The worst movie of the year for me that I thought I would like, though, was Mountainhead. either of you guys watch that? That was by the guy who wrote Succession.
01:00:44
Speaker
no Oh, owned yeah. no that um I don't think that came out over here. Oh, I was- I was obsessed with succession. So when mountain head came on HBO, i only saw it on HBO max. I don't even know if it had a cinematic release, but I was like, wow, this writing, this succession style writing did not transfer ah to like a film format. It's much better in like a quippy, you know, 45 minute episode type thing.
01:01:13
Speaker
It didn't work. That was my opinion. and also another simple favor was really bad.
01:01:21
Speaker
which i don' have my My favorite film of the year is not even that good, and I didn't even give it that many stars on Letterboxd, but it was just because I had the most fun watching it the cinema, and that was a Mission Impossible, The Final Reckoning.
Favorite Films and Critiques
01:01:35
Speaker
That's fair, though. That's a fair film to, like, classic. And I gave Tom Cruise, like, best performance of the year because I just i just had an insane amount of fun watching it. I love him. And I don't know. I don't want them to make any more. I think it's fine now. We can leave it in the past. But, like, and I didn't know what was going on half the time when I was watching it. I felt like it was so, like,
01:01:58
Speaker
chaotically edited. Like you couldn't. Yeah. They clearly have chopped it together over several years. Yeah. There were like, there were whole scenes where I couldn't even tell if people were in the same room as each other. It was so confusing, but I was just, i was just on the edge of my seat, just like lapping up like a dog. I didn't care. I loved it.
01:02:14
Speaker
Feed me more slop. Um, do you want to say anything? I mean, all I wanted to say about night bitch was the only reason I felt felt, not found it noteworthy was like, it's kind of in ah the vein of this, like these series of movies where it's like women are like, Oh, having kids was the worst but decision I ever made. Like, I feel like we were getting more and more of like those type of films. And I kind of felt like night bitch was in that category.
01:02:41
Speaker
it It definitely is. It also has that thing that it's sort of, we've moved on from, um you know there's like We could hate a male husband character for being an abuser or being a cheat.
01:02:54
Speaker
um And he isn't any of those things. But we're still supposed to hate him just because he he doesn't get what she's going through, despite the fact he's clearly trying really hard. But with just the fact that he is just a bloke is supposed to be enough for us as the audience to take her side. And it's like, I was just watching thinking, he's trying his best.
01:03:14
Speaker
but Maybe that's just me as as a man watching it. But yeah, didn I don't It just felt like I don't buy any of the emotions that she's feeling about him. um or that i but I buy that she's having those emotions, but that we're supposed to sympathize with them. I just didn't some just didn't ring true for me.
01:03:31
Speaker
Yeah. No, I mean, there's a lot of like, there's still a lot of films that are like trying to paint men as... either like, I'm like, you kind of have to decide what men are. Like, are they sort of buffoons who like, just can't take care of themselves or are they like evil manipulators? You know what I mean? Cause like these films seem to oscillate between a lot of these films that I think of in like the night bitch category, seemed to really oscillate between those two things where I kind of agree with you. I'm like,
01:04:04
Speaker
And Night Bitch, it's like this guy is like trying his best, you know? Like he's not really like all like an evil man. And it seems like he'd be willing to rearrange this whole thing if you expressed...
01:04:17
Speaker
the need to rearrange it. You know what I mean? Like, it just seems like you guys have made this choice as a couple and it's, this choice isn't working for you now. So let's switch it up. Like, which seems totally possible in the modern, in the modern context. I don't know. But yeah, I just felt like there's a lot of like kind of anti- like sort of natalist films. And like, I mean, I'm not going to have kids and I'm, I'm not saying everyone has to, and I don't really want like the daily wire to release some, like, I don't know, like motherhood is amazing films either. I just, I just, I used to see some neutral, so just kind of neutral portrayals. You know what i mean? Like this, this character is a mom, but that doesn't really, that's not what this movie is about, you know?
01:05:05
Speaker
I'm trying to think of any movie this year even had that, but whatever. Let's, um, I was going to say, do you want to do like, ah did you all have a scariest movie moment of the, uh,
01:05:17
Speaker
Yeah, we can well, let's do our categories now. I was going to say we could just transition to categories if you want. Well, I've gone through half of mine already. But, like, um okay, so, like, biggest disappointment, i put i put Frankenstein, and then they also put um Bring Her Back, that Australian movie. I don't know whether either you saw yeah, that fucking sucked. i wasnna star with like That was so hyped. I was like, I thought it was going to be really good. Cause I feel like while Australia does like good horror, they do really good horror. And there's loads of Australian horror films. I really like. Begonia was my biggest disappointment. So I've already talked about it.
01:05:52
Speaker
we we we should all just You should go through and just each say ours real quick. What was your biggest disappointment? Mine was 28 years later. Great. Okay. Biggest surprise. Last Breath, the film about the deep sea diver that gets stuck at the bottom of the ocean.
01:06:07
Speaker
oh Oh, I love that. was having a fucking panic attack in that in the cinema when was watching that. it's It's not a brilliant film, but it's somehow... No, it is a brilliant film. I loved it. Yeah, I was just... I was on the edge of my seat. I could feel my heart beating. I love the fact that...
01:06:22
Speaker
um It's genuinely pitch black. Like when, when the lights go out, like the screen is completely black and seeing that in the cinema and being in complete darkness. Yeah. It's, I mean, it's a dad movie, isn't it? But um yeah, it's for like a sky originals production or whatever it is. It's bloody good. Really scary. Yeah. I really enjoyed that too.
01:06:42
Speaker
um but Best of performance. ah So what was your two biggest surprises? Oh, my surprise. i We already talked about it. Enigma. Okay, yep. ah So best performance. I had Jennifer Lawrence in Die My Love.
01:06:57
Speaker
ah I just thought she's fantastic in it. She's, yeah, a bit, as you said, a bit evil and a bit mad. And like when she's spitting in Robert Pattinson's face and calling him a faggot because he can't get hard, was like, this is from the best things I've seen on screen all year.
01:07:11
Speaker
I was kind of like, oh, I was like, it's interesting. One thing I will give Die My Love is it's interesting because I feel like if that film was set in another time period, Robert Pattinson is obviously just going to hit her.
01:07:24
Speaker
right? Yes. Yeah. yeah And it it kind of like, if he could hit her, that film would be five minutes long. Yeah. But it kind of like showed, it kind of was a little bit, if you, you could argue it was a little bit of like an anti-female or like anti-feminist film, because it kind of showed this like woman who I would argue is basically being emotionally abusive to her husband and child. And,
01:07:51
Speaker
ah the husband has essentially no recourse because he has to just be sort of like the best guy. Yeah. I'd be interested to, I've not, I've not actually spoken to any, any women that have seen this film. Hardly anybody seemed to see it. So I, cause I watched it and completely sympathizing with Robert Patterson, but I wonder if a female audience is seeing something more in J.F. Lawrence that,
01:08:15
Speaker
Well, it kind of, like it kind of has that sympathetic it kind of has that night bitch quality where it's like, I don't know who you're supposed to side with really, but it's like Robert Pattinson is clearly doing his best. Cause he loves this like deeply, deeply troubled woman. You know what you mean? Like, and he really, really does love her. And it's like, ah yeah, it's just, I don't know.
01:08:41
Speaker
um Anyway. Uh, my best was Alison Brie and Dave Brinko. So we already talked about that. Um, um mine, I, well, I did two. I did Tom Cruise and I Indy the dog from good boy, which is like a shutter film that is absolutely terrible. Um,
01:09:00
Speaker
But the dog in it is the star of the movie, and he was so compelling. like Yeah. um Yeah, it was basically a horror film set from the perspective of a dog, and everything in the movie is completely unoriginal. The story is really boring. But I sat through it without turning it off because I was just obsessed with this dog that was on screen.
01:09:20
Speaker
so Yeah, he's got an incredibly expressive face, isn't it? and Yeah. Yeah, he's so cute. um Who is this performance? Mine was Dakota Johnson, the materialist. I didn't actually write one down, so I'm not going to say one. ah Mine was Jared Leto in Tron Uprising. It's one of the flattest, most dull performances of the year in in one of the worst films of the year.
01:09:43
Speaker
um Yeah. ah there's There's lots of fashionable reasons to not like Jared Leto, but the the main reason not to like him is he can't act. I actually, you know what? I'll give, I'll give one because i didn't get to mention this film, but I, it is a gay film. So our listeners will potentially have seen it, but I thought twin lists was really bad.
01:10:05
Speaker
um and I still haven't seen that. Yeah. And I've never heard of this. Uh, and it's just, um the guy, James Sweeney who plays the, it's like a, it's kind of like a sinister gay guy film, which is not how it was marketed.
01:10:22
Speaker
um Yeah. It's just really bad. I mean, I'll just, do you want me to spoil the premise for you? Cause it's, it's, yeah yeah, I'm probably, I'm never going to watch it if it's a gay movie anyways. This gay guy, the director of this film goes starts going to the support group for people whose twins have died, which is like really,
01:10:43
Speaker
um fucked up to do if you don't have a twin who died. um and the reason he's going is because he wants to hang out with this guy ah who's played by that really hot actor, Dylan O'Brien. and the he met and slept with Dylan O'Brien's gay twin before the twin died. and then the twin actually died because...
01:11:14
Speaker
After they slept together, the gay guy kind of freaks out and sees the twin, the gay twin on the street and is like, what the fuck? Like, why haven't you called me?
01:11:24
Speaker
And the gay twin walks toward him and then gets hit by a car. Oh my God. It's not his like fault exactly, but it's like, he was sort of involved in like the death. um Obviously it's not his fault in any legal way, but anyway, he builds this relationship with, um,
01:11:47
Speaker
the straight twin who's like in immense grief and doesn't tell him the entire movie that that's why he's there and lies and says he has a twin, even though he doesn't have a twin. It's like, anyway, whatever. It was just really depressing and bad. so that sounds crazy. What was your worst?
01:12:07
Speaker
We each gave our worst. Okay. What's scariest movie moment? um For me, it was um in Hollow Road, which Nanny and I briefly talked about before we started recording. can't remember when this came out. I think it was like March or April or something. think But the basic premise of the movie is that Rosamund Pike and Matthew Rhys, they play, um think they're both doctors or something. They work in a hospital or something. And their daughter rings them in the middle of the night saying that she's like ran somebody over.
Film Scenes and Performances
01:12:36
Speaker
um and They both get in the car and like drive to go and see her. and The whole film is just them in the car on the phone with their daughter. um but about sort of Halfway through to two-thirds of the way through, like it sort of turns into like a supernatural horror film. and There's this moment on the phone where you just like suddenly hear this other voice of this woman that's sort of ran into the daughter and it just really, really creeped me out. I liked the movie in general. I gave it quite, I i think I gave it like four stars or something, but that just like moment was like, it was one of the first times in a while that I've been like, in the cinema. And I was like, oh yes. I yeah i know the bit you mean, it's really creepy.
01:13:21
Speaker
uh mine would be uh from that film i mentioned earlier warfare there's a scene in it where someone's been injured and they're having to do like a to the field injury thing on him and somebody's got a morphine syringe and it's in the middle of this battle there and he does the syringe he does it the wrong way around so he morphines himself in his thumb And so one guy who's injured and then the other guy who's supposed to be helping him has now suddenly given himself a whole bunch of morphine and is all like, and it's just, and it's one of the moments of of the year where everyone in the cinema where it happened, it was like a shockwave. Everyone was like, no, you can really, you can imagine that would feel. And you could also imagine ah myself. I'm quite a clumsy person. was like, I would so be the person who would do that. I would so do the morphine thing in my own thumb.
01:14:05
Speaker
um Yeah. One of several moments in that film that really sort of shocks you. For me, it was when the mom started stabbing herself in the face in weapons. Oh, yeah, that was... Oh, what, with the fork? Yeah, yeah. Yeah. It was really scary as, like, a kid. I feel like we all... um Thinking about being a kid and seeing that. um We all did our favorite film, I think, already. We've all... Yeah.
01:14:29
Speaker
We've all given one. Um, yeah, I've done my worst films already. I think we've done our worst films. All right. My worst film was spinal tap too. If anyone's seen that, I know we shouldn't speak ill of Rob Rayner, given his recent stabbing by his own child, but fucking hell to have that as your last film is awful. Um,
01:14:47
Speaker
it's in, there's no original jokes in it. It's entirely jokes from the first film regurgitated. It's almost entirely set in one room. Elton John and Paul McCartney turn up. And the only gag is, Oh, it's them. And they're here with this fake band. And then they'll perform an entire song the whole way through, but it's not an original song. It's a song from the film 30 years ago.
01:15:07
Speaker
um Just really phone in. It felt like something that should have been like a charity special on during like children need or something. yeah So it's a shame for Rob Reiner that that's going to go down as his last film because it probably is worst.
01:15:22
Speaker
um What about, did you do you have a twink of the year in Annie? Oh, I do. Yeah, I do. I do. Theodore Pelerin in Lurker is my twink of the year. Okay, I have to Google him because I've never seen him before. Theodore Pelerin. Okay.
01:15:40
Speaker
did you Did you see Lurker, either of you? no but no but he he looks very very twinkly well done agree with her he's a sinister twink the best kind um yeah if if anyone's not seen it it's a great film it's a bit like saltburn meets the idol where this is that like the is that about like the the muse is the yeah i've seen um i've seen adverts for this and i've got it Yeah. Theodore Polarin's character works in like a boutique shop and this, uh, other guy comes in. He was a, he's a sort of famous musician and he manages to construct a series of lies that allows him to sort ingratiate himself in the inner circle of this musician and then starts kind sabotaging other people that are around this guy so that he can become his only friend.
01:16:27
Speaker
And, um, Yeah, it says it's got that salt burn thing where there's clearly obsession there that is partly sexual but is partly about power. um It's very all very glamorous people and sort of yeah music video style sort of stuff. And yeah, it's definitely worth watching. All right. my top twink of the year was Role Model, the singer.
01:16:48
Speaker
I've never heard of this person. You Google him. um i So he's like kind of this... like Gen Z, e ah he used to be like a rapper, but this year he transitioned into um a like country singer. and Everyone's doing that, isn't it? Country's the new the new thing. Everyone's going country. Yeah. And his, um, his song, Sally, when the wine runs out became a hit. And, uh, he came up with this really good gimmick. So like in the song, it's about this woman named Sally who like, whatever she's, it's like a very country premise. She's like the hot girl at the bar whatever. But um role model came up with this idea that on all of his performances, a new celebrity would come out and be the Sally, right?
01:17:40
Speaker
um For the song. So there's like a part in the middle of the song where there's like kind of like a I don't know what to call it, like a bridge. And so every performance he did, he brought out a new celebrity and it was just cracking me up because clearly more and more famous PR people were like,
01:17:57
Speaker
because most of the celebrities he chose were like older women and clearly people started being like, oh my God, we got to get Natalie Portman to be the Sally. Oh my God, we got to get, we got to get Hilary Duff to be the Sally. So like all these like kind of like older, but still very hot women kept doing this bit that ended up going viral on like TikTok. And I thought it was a really good idea. It was really smart idea. And then Hugh, you said to me sorry to interrupt, but you said to me like before we recorded, you like, you're going to really be mad at mine. Why do you think I would be mad this?
01:18:29
Speaker
ah Because he's what? Do you think he's hot? Did did you look him up even? um No, I don't think he's hot. but Anyway, and then he started bringing out then he started bringing out guys. So he brought out Bo and Yang, and he brought up Troye Sivan, and met let them be the Sally. So i just thought i just think he had a good year, and I think he's i think he's really cute. um And he's really funny in interviews, and he vapes in interviews. That kind of cracks me up. and I think he's just like a good little...
01:18:58
Speaker
He's like a, yeah, he seems like he's like fine for the culture. A nice little role model, if you will, given his name. And is straight, actually, like in real life. He has a girlfriend, and i' Emma Chamberlain. i guess she's like another Gen Z-E celebrity. So...
01:19:17
Speaker
Yeah, i also said to Q that he would be mad at my choice. um I chose the Asaja boys from K-pop Demon Hunters, who are like a fictional band of twinks. So they're not even real twinks. I have no idea what they look like in real life, but they're all really cute and I loved K-pop Demon Hunters. so Same, I was surprised by how much I like K-pop Demon Hunters. I watched it twice.
01:19:39
Speaker
The Asaja boys, S-A-J-A-A. They were the demon boys, right? Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh, I like that one too. thought they were good too. Oh, okay. Yeah, they were my twinks of the year.
01:19:52
Speaker
I liked K-pop demon hunters and I liked the parts with them in it, so... All right. All right. We were happy with each other. Okay. Let's do for this. I think we put this probably for Nanny, but it's good. Yeah. The year for us.
01:20:07
Speaker
So should Nanny go first for mommy of the year or. I think Nanny should go last for mommy of the year. I think we should end on Nanny's mommy of the year. Okay. Then you go first. Okay, my mummy of the air was Renee Zellweger for being in Bridget Jones again.
01:20:25
Speaker
um I love Bridget Jones as a character. I love all of the movies apart from the like third one, which I think is pile of shit. But like... it was just It was just nice to see her like slip that old skin back on. And I went to see it with my parents, and it was just like a nice family experience. And yeah, she's technically a mommy in the movie. She's got kids now, so she was my mommy of the year.
01:20:51
Speaker
I liked the bit in it where um Colin Firth's ghost is like looking down on her, getting railed by that black guy and nodding, nodding. So he's like, I approve of this in the afterlife. yeah Yeah. got to shag the hot chubby tree trimmer though. So yeah.
01:21:09
Speaker
All right. I chose a very stereotypical one, um Nicole Kidman, who actually had a very, um for her, slow year. um because two thousand and twenty i think she i think she needed a slow Yeah, 2024, he had jammed so much in. So this year, the only stuff that came out with her were- Holland.
01:21:32
Speaker
Holland. And then the only TV show she was The Last Anniversary, which she wasn't even in. She just directed it or whatever. Like it's an Australian So she had a chill year. has a shit ton coming out next year. will say, I feel like she's had quite a lot of her filler dissolved and her face is looking a little bit more normal again, which I appreciate so much for her on that. You're jumping in and ruining why I said she was mommy of the year, but thank you. Oh, okay, go on. What I really thought she was mother mommy of the year is exactly what Vicky said. She's regrown out her natural She's getting divorced.
01:22:13
Speaker
She has returned to kind of a more natural um look, which I think she looks really hot and really amazing. And she's kind of been doing this like post-divorce tour of like, not like fashion shows and stuff, but just making a lot of appearances with her daughters. Um,
01:22:31
Speaker
um And she's kind of just served cunt in every single one. And it's like, it's it's a different type of cunt than Nicole Kidman usually serves because I think she listened to the people and she decided, you know what, they want to see like the real me. And I think the return to the natural hair is an incredible feat because she's had four decades of straightening, clip-ons, extensions. Bleaching. So whatever they, she worked with some like serious...
01:22:59
Speaker
hair specialists, I think, to get that back. And it looks great. So that's why I chose her. I think i think she's returning to a more natural, motherly look, as Bicky already said.
Anticipation for Upcoming Films
01:23:14
Speaker
So I think mine would be Rebecca Ferguson. Okay. okay okay i yeah house House of Dynamite, which is not a brilliant film, but the 20 minutes with her in it are really good. ah She can't quite do the accent, but I'll let it slide. And then she's in that film coming out in a couple of weeks called Mercy, where she plays and an AI judge. And I'm um i'm into that. so I haven't seen it, but she is so insanely hot. I can, I can. Yeah.
01:23:41
Speaker
She knows she's got like an oral fixation as well. She's always got a toothpick in when you see her when she's not in in film, she's always got like something in her, like a toothpick or a lollipop or something like that. She knows what she's doing. She does.
01:23:53
Speaker
hot And I'm excited for Dune Part 3, I am. So, um yeah. Okay. I think that's it. Oh, I guess so but guess before we can go, like, if anyone has anything that they're looking forward to seeing in 2020. I don't have anything because I have no idea what's coming out. But go ahead.
01:24:12
Speaker
I'll just say that i'm i'll just say that i'm I might be the only person in America who's not mad um and very much looking forward to Emerald Fennell's Wuthering Heights. And I think that in the same way i will stan Red Scare um no matter how unpopular they become, I will stan Emerald Fennell no matter how unpopular she becomes. And I don't give a fuck. I'm going to keep stanning problematic women. LAUGHTER to the ends of the days, even if they managed to become hated by both left wing and right wing Twitter. I'll continue. I will say, I i will say i am intrigued Wuthering Heights. Enough to definitely want to watch it. And we'll definitely cover on the pod, I'm sure.
01:24:53
Speaker
Yeah. I think the film I'm most excited to see this year, Flowervale Street by David Robert Mitchell, who did It Follows and Under the Silver Lake. um it's i don't know anything about it other than it's set in the 80s it's got something to do with dinosaurs and it's got anne hathaway and ewan mcgregor and it that that'll be good anne hathaway another another good mommy of the year yeah see you see her in the odyssey trailer yeah i'm i'm scrolling through now to see if there's anything else that's jumping out but i think that's it um primates we all excited for primate
01:25:32
Speaker
What is Primate? pro ma monkey It's an eagle monkey film that's coming out in a couple of weeks. This year we should really um be in more contact throughout so we can do a mid-year check-in.
01:25:45
Speaker
and Yeah, we were going to do that last year then we just never really got around to it. But that would be good I think. Let's keep the group chat open and then we can we can update it as we see some films. Let's keep our three. Yeah, the three of us can chat on the side of Cozy Chat. So we have something there.
01:25:59
Speaker
make sure we're sort of all seeing each other's movies. All right. Well, happy new year, Minnie and happy new year. Happy new year. Great to see you. Okay. Bye. Twinkies.