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The Best Films of 2024
189 Plays18 days ago
Arthouse Garage is back! After a long hiatus, the podcast is back to look at the best films of 2024. Film critic Russell Miller returns to the show to talk about the best scenes, performances, and films of the year.
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Transcript
Introduction to Art House Garage Podcast
00:00:09
Speaker
Hello, hello, and welcome back to Art House Garage, the snob free film podcast where we make art house, indie, classic, and foreign cinema accessible to the masses. I'm your host, Andrew
Countdown of 2024's Best Movies
00:00:19
Speaker
Swetman. And today on the show, we're counting down the 10 best movies of 2024, as well as some of our favorite scenes and performances. Joining me is our favorite list maker, film critic, Russell Miller. Stick around.
00:00:36
Speaker
Welcome to Art House Garage. Uh, today on the show, Russell Miller, my good friend and film critic is back once again. If you've listened before you've heard his voice, he is a film critic at Miller's movies and, uh, writes for a few other outlets. Where are you writing these days,
Podcast Hiatus Explained
00:00:51
Speaker
Russell? And welcome back to the show. Uh, yeah, still writing for, um, the, uh, the website movies we texted about as well as my own blog. And, uh, yeah.
00:01:02
Speaker
Yeah. And frequent contributor to the art house garage podcast. Um, I'm excited to do a top 10 show. I wanted to say a quick word at the beginning about hiatus. You know, I haven't done an episode in several months and there's a handful of reasons for that. The main of which is that my, it's a very personal thing and everything's fine right now.
00:01:24
Speaker
But my daughter got very sick and she had to be in the hospital for quite a while. She actually still is, but she's coming home very soon and she's doing very well. um But because of that, I had to scale back some things, kind of put the podcast on hold.
00:01:39
Speaker
I also, you'll hear in a few minutes, there's some major movies that I just didn't have time for this year, um but I know Russell saw all of them, so he'll fill us in. So it's just been kind of a weird year on my part ah in terms of movie watching and podcasting. But um again, my daughter Rosie is coming home very soon and she's doing well and hoping to get kind of back on track in the coming weeks, but I thought top 10 episode, which is, you know, dropping a little late as it is here in late January. But, uh, it's good, good reason to get back into it and, uh, I kind of recap what I have seen this year and and kind of talk through some of our favorites. So yeah, thanks for joining me for this, Russell. I really appreciate it. Yeah, of course.
00:02:21
Speaker
you Not like you have too much of an option. You ever recorded a top 10 show without me and I hear it. You taught me that. I've been to your house. I know where you live, man. Yeah. i I have no other options. You're totally right.
Annual Movie List Competition
00:02:37
Speaker
um Well, before we get into the the favorite things, we have a little competition we've done every year where we kind of try to guess how many movies we will have in common out of our top 10.
00:02:50
Speaker
Explain how that's gone in past years and and you are giving the guests first this year, correct? Yeah. So in the last couple of years, we just try and guess how many films that we will have in common that will both that will make both of our top 10 lists. Um, and we have a wager, whoever wins gets a, um, the, the loser buys the winner, uh, a Blu-ray, um,
00:03:18
Speaker
Last year you guessed three and you nailed it. And I bought you, what did I buy you? Um, are you there? God, it's me, Margaret. Yeah. Oh, and, uh, and, uh, eight mountains. I got you eight oh yeah eight mountains as well. That's right. Yeah, me too. Um, but, uh, and then you got, you actually got me, you got me, uh, when winters, you got me. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
00:03:47
Speaker
So yeah, we just buy each other movies just because. Yeah. It's a good, good excuse to do that anyway. You also just are like, Oh, I already have this one. I'll hint send it to you. So you just are always giving me things that which I always appreciate. ah But so, so it's your turn to guess first. So how many movies do you think we will have in common on our list this year?
00:04:10
Speaker
this year I'm yeah I told you before I think I'm gonna have to go with two just because it seems like they're like so we did our shared our top five lists halfway through the year and we didn't have any overlap of those lists So, um, which do you, do you have your top five lists? We can recap it. Uh, let's see if I can, I don't have it right in front of me, but my line is my five was number five was Furiosa. Number four was civil war. Number three was how to have sex. Number two was hundreds of beavers. And number one was a dune part two. And then I actually wrote down your list. Your list was number five was the outrun. Number four was challengers. Number three was porcelain war.
00:05:03
Speaker
At two, you had Love Lies Bleeding and then your favorite film from the halfway point was I Saw the TV Glow. So we had no overlap there. i I'm gonna, yeah, I'm gonna have to say two. I don't think I'll have three.
00:05:20
Speaker
questions is whether we have, yeah, even one. Yeah. I think I will. Hmm. I'm going to go big and say three. So my guess will be three. oh You think we'll have three coming again. That would be based on I'm not sure what but just to be just to be risky I guess but yeah so I mean if it's not clear we don't share our top 10 lists with each other and we text about movies but we are at the end of the year we're a little cagey about how much did I love this movie or not you know so it's kind of a fun though fun little dance we do every year three might be crazy it might be and it would yeah
00:06:02
Speaker
There's one movie that I'm not even sure if you've seen yet that would probably make your list, but I just don't know if you have it. And therefore it would be too late to change my guess. No, I'll stick with three. I'll stick with three.
00:06:19
Speaker
because I'm looking at my list and there's some stuff in here that I think you liked a lot. We'll see. We'll, we'll find out. Uh, so before we do our top 10, we are ah and just also, uh, we're about to go through a few other categories like actor and actress favorites, animated film and documentary film.
00:06:35
Speaker
Um, but the, when we do the top 10, we go back and forth counting 10 to one. And then if, if I say my number 10, and it is also on your list at a higher number, then you interrupt me because whoever has it higher kind of gets the first word on it and just so you should be like, Hey, we're actually going to talk about that on the person's list that has it higher. And we just wait. And then exactly once we get to it, we break it all open.
00:07:01
Speaker
All right. Well, then without further ado, let's do, I think we have performances up first. So yeah, I'm, I'm basically going off of my ballot that I submitted and I have seen a few things since I submitted this and um and not much shifted around in between now and then, but um yeah, I'll have ah maybe a few things to say, but, uh,
00:07:23
Speaker
My favorite. or Let's you go first. Your favorite actor of the year. Or should we do supporting? Let's do supporting first. Supporting actress.
Favorite Supporting Performances
00:07:30
Speaker
Supporting actress. Supporting actress? Yes. Actress. Okay. We're going to start with the actress. My favorite of the year was, oh man, Danielle Denweiler in the piano lesson was, I mean, she had the best as far as her performance, straight performance goes of like, um you know, pure Oscar-y scenes where she just put it all out there and more or less just like knock my socks off. But there were so many good performances, um you know, in like the supporting actress category. This is the one where actually like um in a lot of the categories for the North Carolina film critics voting,
00:08:21
Speaker
Um, I would just put like, like maybe two or three or four nominees, but like her supporting actress, I just like filled up all five of the slots. yeah Um, I use three slots for all three of the ladies in, uh, in his three daughters. Oh, nice. Yeah. That movie was so, so good. And all three of those actresses, um, just knocked it out of the park. Um,
00:08:50
Speaker
as well as I also had Margaret Kweli in The Substance. Really liked her in that and Felicity Jones in The Brutalist was fantastic. um Yeah, those are some of my favorite supporting actress performances. Yeah. Uh, so I have not seen that Danielle did while her film yet, but I did love her in, um, till a few years ago. She's just incredible. And, uh, yeah, it was a great choice. Uh, and then I want to say quickly to thank you for encouraging me to make time for his three daughters. Cause I did love that movie very much. And I think, yeah, all three are very, very deserving. Yeah. Carrie Kuhn. Yeah.
00:09:31
Speaker
Um, what's the lady's name? Uh, Tasha Leon, Elizabeth Olsen. Yeah. Those men, such a good movie. And all three of those ladies just, I mean, it's pretty well split up, but, uh, they each get their, their moments to shine and, uh, they just embody those characters so well. Such a good movie. Yeah.
00:09:59
Speaker
Highly recommend that once on Netflix. Check that one out. It's easy to easy to access and it's not terribly long. Very, very good movie. ah My best supporting actress this year is Katie O'Brien in Love Lives Bleeding. So she, in that film, I think it just stood out to me because she's, though the physicality she's bringing to it is so unique and it's it's a film that's very,
00:10:23
Speaker
It's very sensual. It's also like, it's just about like the strength of bodies and cause she's a bodybuilder. She's also very beautiful. And so there's a little bit of like, uh, you know, the kind of beauty that Hollywood doesn't always highlight or as sideline sometimes brings that energy to it. But I also just think she's great. Um, both in, in her scenes with Kristen Stewart, the, there's a big scene, which I won't spoil anything, but like, there's a competition scene, um,
00:10:53
Speaker
near the end of the movie is is really remarkable uh yeah i just love what she was doing and it was a cool thing too she kind of manifested that role there was a thing it was like years before that movie came out there was like a a ah tweet that went out like so and so i was looking for bodybuilding lesbian female for this role and she tweeted at it Like raise my hand, I'm right here. And then she ended up getting it. I thought that was really cool. ah But yes, love Katie O'Brien and that. I also had a couple of the women from Dune part twos and Dea and Rick Ferguson, I thought were so good. I loved what Kaylee Spainy was doing in civil war, but she was great in that.
00:11:28
Speaker
no And then ah I was at Elle Fanning for A Complete Unknown on on my little list here. So yeah, I thought there were some really good ones. I think we had no overlap there either, but we both had great choices. I had not watched His Three Daughters, I'll say, when I made this ballot that I'm looking off of here, but B.I. Kitty O'Brien as my supporting was so, so good.
Favorite Lead Performances
00:11:51
Speaker
All right, now let's move on to Best Supporting Actor. ah Who did you have for a supporting actor?
00:11:57
Speaker
I loved Harris Dickinson in Baby Girl. Yeah. It is so, so good. I loved his performance in that movie, but I really wanted to spend a couple minutes and highlight a film that I don't think that you've seen yet. Did you get to see the movie Original Bird? No, I did not. That was one that I wanted to make time for, but I didn't.
00:12:28
Speaker
Bird, well that that's a movie that you would be right up your alley. um In my voting, I'm goingnna i'm gonna taunt you with some of these.
00:12:42
Speaker
ah No, hopefully I'll encourage you to watch a couple of these, because I know that you would love them. ah Barry Keogan was my number two and my supporting actor on my ballot. And Franz Rogowski, both for Bird, he was number three. I forgot that's him. Oh, you know, I love him.
00:12:58
Speaker
Yeah, I know you like both those guys, but they were incredible. That movie, it it didn't make my top 10. It's more kind of floating around like the 2019, 2021, something like that, like kind of in the low teens, right around 20. But that was an excellent movie that I would encourage anybody. I'm pretty sure it's available to stream on movie right now.
00:13:24
Speaker
Um, but it's, it's a little slower and, um, but it has kind of, uh, I don't want to say like a love lies bleeding, you know, but, but kind of, you know, like a a love lies bleeding bird man type of ending to it that will throw some people off or kind of throw them for a loop. But the, but the movie, uh, was really engaging in the acting.
00:13:52
Speaker
And that film was so amazing. Keogan and Rogowski just killed it. um One last supporting actor ah I will mention that was on my ballot was George McKay in Femme. I didn't catch this one either. Another smaller movie.
00:14:12
Speaker
that was excellent. um It's been available to to rent or you know stream. I don't know if it's on any streaming services right now, but it's been available for quite a while, a really small movie, oh but an excellent film. That one is actually right outside of my top 10. And yeah, George McKay is Plays a supporting character in that and he is fantastic. Great, great movie. Check out Femme if you get a chance.
00:14:49
Speaker
Yeah, absolutely. We'll do it. And, um, Harris Dickinson is someone who I think would have made my ballot for baby girl had I seen it in time, but I have seen it since. And yeah, he's, he's doing incredible work in that. Um, and, uh, yeah, we can move on from there. And then I also remembered another supporting actress that I can't believe I forgot to say, which is Anjanu Ellis Taylor in Nickel Boys who plays her mother. And he's, oh my gosh, she's so good in that. It's not a huge role. like She doesn't have very much screen time.
00:15:17
Speaker
Uh, in the, in the whole film, but she's incredible when she's on screen. And, uh, yeah, I just wanted to throw that out there as well. But for my supporting actor, um, I'll tell you my number one, and then I want to mention one other as well. Uh, number one, I had Hugh Grant in heretic and a little controversial cause he was maybe, I think some people had him in best actor category. Um, but he really is. this a Okay. It was, I was like, is he supporting or not? Cause it really is the two young women are the,
00:15:47
Speaker
the leads in it. ah you're following them as the protagonist Yeah. But I love the work he's doing in that movie. And ah it's suchs such a, you know, sinister thing for him, which, you know, I was looking at, he has a played villains in the past. ah The one that I remembered was in Paddington too, which is, you know, very different energy to the villain and heretic. But ah But I think just every- Nobody dies in Paddington, too, from what I recall. There's a train robbery, but it's a little more cartoony. But ah yeah, just the one he's doing in here, taking like every little moment of questioning what's going on in his mind and and how he's messing with the girls. And so good. Love, love that one. But the one I want to mention, too, is
00:16:34
Speaker
Jonathan Hyde, who you may know, I was like, when I watched this movie, he's in the movie Sebastian, which I don't think that you've seen probably, but maybe I'm wrong. Um, and he, I was like, where have I seen this guy? And I was like, oh yeah, he's, um, he's in Titanic. He's in, uh, Jumanji growing up. He's like the the hunter guy and he's the dad in Jumanji. And then he's also the butler in Richie Rich. So like I knew his face so much from being, when I was a kid, he's much older now. but He has a great supporting turn in Sebastian as a sort of a ah client of this sex worker, but he you he gets this big ah heart to heart, a few great scenes where he just kills it. And I really love what he's doing in Sebastian. So um yeah, there you go.
00:17:22
Speaker
Oh, and then I also had Bill Skarsgard and Nosferatu in there as well. So incredible. well youtube should But, okay. Oh, and then also Brandon Wilson and Nickel Boys, who was not the lead, but the supporting. Okay. Anyway, now it's time for support or sorry, best actress, lead actress. Who do you have? Um, I got a couple written down. Oh, so having Nicole Kidman in there.
00:17:50
Speaker
But after, ah like, Nicole Kimman was my number one for my ballot, um but after I submitted it, I um i watched Hard Truths and Marianne Jean-Baptiste is,
00:18:07
Speaker
oh
00:18:10
Speaker
she plays a ah very cynical, bitter, um but simultaneously like hilarious character. like She is just pissed off at the world in the movie Hard Truth that I mentioned. um It's a new Mike Lee film. And and he and she is she is so funny. like She just basically is so bitter. ah She like just like more or less picks fights with people. like
00:18:46
Speaker
not confrontationally like fighting but like verbally like she is just ready to like verbally duke it out with anybody and just like choose everybody's ass um and it's so funny her character is she's so good but but the movie takes a hard left turn halfway through and because she is so sour and just ah you know mean in a lot of aspects of her life like with her family and especially her husband ah that film really kind of makes you sit with her character towards the end of the film and it it it loses its humor and trades it in for um like some self-reflection and just has some
00:19:40
Speaker
ultra like sucker punch in the gut moments um that Mary on John Baptiste just she kills it. um Yeah. So I probably would have moved her to my number one if I had seen hard truths before I did my ballot. um I also put Saoirse Ronan on my ballot in the outrun um over blitz. I thought she was just so much better in the outrun.
00:20:09
Speaker
Um, what a fantastic film. And, uh, and I'll throw a bone to Mikey Madison and a Nora yeah also a great performance. Yep. Very nice. Yeah. Um, for my, uh, all, all good selections, I have not seen hard truths yet, but the rest I really liked, uh, I'll just do my top five really quick Zendaya and challengers. Love that movie and love what she's doing in it. I actually put Lupita Nyong'o for a quiet place day one kind of a random thing.
00:20:36
Speaker
This is one where I was like, Oh, there's a lot of movies I haven't seen yet. Like I hadn't seen the substance yet. And I hadn't seen a few other things, but I love Lupita and everything she does. And she's really, really good in that movie. Like that movie is good because of her basically. Uh, but then I did have search around and in the outrun.
00:20:50
Speaker
And then at number two, I have Mikey Madison and Inora, who is so good in that. like We may end up talking more about her, we'll see. But then at number one, I had to put Lily Rose Depp in Nosferatu. She is just otherworldly and creepy, but somehow still grounded and seems like a believable human being, even though she's doing crazy things and like there's moments when she's possibly possessed and contorting her body in crazy ways and she's scary she's empathetic she she's just I I was really taken away by my breath was taken away I guess by by her her performance in that so that was she made my list I think she was at number four or five she's towards the bottom of my
00:21:41
Speaker
my list, but I nominated her as well. So good. Yeah. The physicality of that role, the commitment to everything that she was doing was, uh, yeah. Yeah. I mean, there's so many, we'll talk about more about that, but there's so many things she's doing or there's so many things about that movie that are so good, but none of it would have worked. for much like said broad But like, just how you put yourself in like your whole body and soul into that role. Yeah. She just did some great work. Frightening and amazing. Um, all right. Time for best actor.
Animated and Documentary Highlights
00:22:20
Speaker
Who do you have? Best actor. I have it. I had a number one is Keith Kupfer. I don't know that you got to see ghost light yet. No, I didn't. Okay. Yeah. So, so he is,
00:22:34
Speaker
He is a a relatively unknown um ah you know like actor, but he is the main father figure in the film Ghost Light. And he does some incredible work. ah i won't yeah i won't I won't get too much into like what Ghost Light is about, at least not right now.
00:23:01
Speaker
Um, but Keith is so good and his performance is as like a dad in the film, um, brought me to tears on multiple occasions. He is wonderful in the movie. He wears his heart on his sleeve and you can just see like the, the, the things that he experiences in the film.
00:23:27
Speaker
Your heart just breaks for this poor man. He is so good in that movie. ah And I want to yeah bring some people's attention to that film because not a lot of people have seen Ghost Light. It is a wonderful, wonderful little movie. Yeah, it's one that I really wanted to make time for ah mainly because Alex Thompson and Kelly O'Sullivan, who directed it,
00:23:53
Speaker
are, at least Kelly is, I believe, maybe Alex too, are from Little Rock. I've been to Arkansas. I've seen their previous film, which is called, hold on, I've almost got it in front of my eyes here, St. Francis, which was like a dramedy about, do you remember St. Francis? Did you see it?
00:24:11
Speaker
Uh, you know what? I'm thinking of another movie. I'm thinking of something else. I'm thinking, say Francis is this little indie about, uh, a nanny basically. Uh, but it was so just really, really well done. Really liked it. Um, but anyway, I did not catch up with that, but it also Catherine Malin Kupfer.
00:24:28
Speaker
is in, are you there, God, it's me, Margaret. I'm just looking at the IMDB and seeing these connections, another movie we both loved. But anywho, that's a great choice. I mean, catch up. I had had Hugh Grant, and best actor, but you already mentioned him in supporting. So yeah, hu Hugh Grant's great. Adrian Brody is phenomenal in The Brutalist. ah Yeah, he he will probably win an Oscar in a couple months for that role. He is just, yeah, putting on a show in a three and a half hour film and yeah, he is excellent in it.
00:25:12
Speaker
Nice. Yeah. And this is going to come up at some point in the show that the, one of the things I have not caught up with yet is the brutalist. It's probably my biggest omission, both big because it's significant and big because it's so long. It's like literally. me me Um, and that's, you know, part of why I have it and my biggest regret, but I am going to catch it soon. But, um, anyway, uh, good choices. My number one best actor for the year was Coleman Domingo in sings Sing Sing.
00:25:41
Speaker
thought he was so, so good in that. Um, and I, I loved that movie. It's, it's one that like I, we texted about it. I think like I kind of expected, I don't know what it just, i as a film, as a whole, I felt like it was missing a little something or a little bit more emotional engagement, uh, would have like knocked it over the edge. I really liked it a lot, but I thought he was incredible.
00:26:03
Speaker
And he's just an actor I i love anyway, and i I would love to see him win some awards for this one because I think he's just incredible in it. So, Coleman Domingo, in s instincting big fan. Also on my list I had Justice Smith and I Saw the TV Glow, really just odd and and ah understated performance. and And part of that movie that I think i was nervous going in was him as a you know a recognizable face in this kind of indie movie. What's he going to do? But he, I thought knocked it out of the park with um how kind of shy and awkward and in kind of what he's embodying in that I thought was great. um And then I'll just mention one other, which is Andre Holland.
00:26:44
Speaker
who I always love and everything he's in. He's in Moonlight and he's in, um um if Beale Street could talk, but he this year is in a movie called Exhibiting Forgiveness that ah you know as a whole, the movie, I didn't, I had some problems with it, but I thought he was fantastic and has some really wonderful scenes. So yeah, but I would have mentioned that one as well.
00:27:08
Speaker
All right, that does it for our actors. ah We're going to do a couple little kind of categories of film and just say our favorite thing and talk just a minute about it. um And then favorite scenes and that will be top 10.
International Film Mentions
00:27:20
Speaker
So but first up in the sort of film category list, which is favorite animated film, what was your favorite animated film this year? So my favorite animated Um, out of the big ones, um, I really liked the wild robot. That was, that was a nice movie. Um, I really, really liked memoir of a snail. That was such a great movie. Although it, um, I didn't, did you see, did you see, I did it now. Okay. So that one, I'll say, um, I watched all the animated movies with my kids. Um,
00:27:59
Speaker
because I, you know, it's something like I can do with them. I did not realize that Memoir of a Snail was a rated R animated film. okay And then all of a sudden there's a ah naked claymation figures on the screen. And I'm like, what, what is going on? What in the world and earth am I watching? And then my kids were like kind of thrown for a loop. It's it's nothing like Um, you know, like too crazy. It's, but, uh, but I was kind of shocked and I was like, Oh, okay. This is, I mean, pretty heavy film. All things considered, like it's, uh, you know, kind of a tearjerker by the, uh, by the end of the movie. Um, but, uh, but yeah, it definitely has some more adult themed content than a normal, uh, anime. Um, but, uh, but it was an excellent film, uh, memoir of a snail.
00:28:54
Speaker
But my favorite animated of the year was Wallace and Gromit, Vengeance Most Foul. Oh, nice. That movie, and this was my number 11, so it just fell just outside of my top 10. It is so much fun. I've watched it it. I mean, it just came out on Netflix, like literally maybe two weeks ago, I think January 5th or something, it came out.
00:29:19
Speaker
Um, I got access to it in december, but we've watched it like I think three times like i've watched it with my kids we just throw it on and uh the the Robot is uh, because because the uh, the I guess i'll just real quickly like Wallace is an inventor And he creates this robot gnome as like a helper an assistant to help uh Robert, like, well tidy up the house and to trim the hedges in the garden, you know, fix things and clean up and, and this, so this robot, it kind of represents artificial intelligence, um because the one of the characters ends up kind of
00:30:15
Speaker
hacking the robot and turning him evil. Is it the penguin? Wasn't the penguin back? What's that? Yes. isn't that Yeah. I remember. So I loved Walsock Robert when I was younger and i but had many retir in the old episodes. yeah Yeah. You'll, you'll flip for this one. the The penguin is back and that's the, that's the vengeance most foul, uh, uh, the, uh, you know, the, the, in the title. But, uh, but so the, so the gnome ah The robot gnome gets turned against him and it is such a riot. Me and my kids like quote the gnome. He's walking around just like neat and tidy and it's so good. You'll you'll have a blast if you put it on, watch it with the kids. It's good for her. you know, families all ages can, can find something to enjoy and, and get a few laughs more than a few laughs. I mean, that's got so many good one liners in it. And it's just an all around entertaining film for anybody, you know? Yeah. Yeah. That's definitely one. So watch that with the kids, but don't watch. mit mar nail with the smell
00:31:30
Speaker
Uh, maybe when they're a little older, they can handle some more. he That reminded me of, uh, Jersey Anomalisa. Uh, I've seen part of it. I haven't watched the whole thing. It's, you know, it's, it's not claymation. It's like, uh, puppets, uh, stick figure animation, but like suddenly there's like a full on graphic sex scene. Exactly. It's not as, these, these characters are much more, uh, they're not as lifelike. And so it's not quite as.
00:31:58
Speaker
wild like that like that. I would have probably turned that one off. yeah I let my kids finish watching them more. It's it's you know not as hyper-realistic as Anomalisa, so it's not quite to that level, but there's some definitely some adult things going on in Snail.
00:32:21
Speaker
Well, yeah, I am sad. I haven't caught up with it, but, uh, for my animated film, I had three on my ballot first, or number three, I had the wild robot, which you mentioned. which I really liked a lot. Took my son to see that in the theater and really great animation, some some wonderful kind of moments in that film. um Yeah. And then number two, I had a movie called Look Back, which is an anime film. um It's really interesting. It's about a so but two young women who love to draw manga and become friends. And it's about sort of the collaboration that they build over the years.
00:32:55
Speaker
But then it has kind of a twist that I won't spoil. And then I didn't know before I watched it, that it it mirrors a real life um sort of crisis that happened in Japan at an animation studio a handful of years ago. So yeah, do if you are interested in that, it's only like an hour long too. um But do a little research about that and then watch the film and it's, I found it really rewarding, really liked it. But my number one,
00:33:17
Speaker
animated film of the year was Flow, which I'm pretty sure you saw. It's about a cat. I also took my son to see this in the theater. I had the screener, but I was like, you know what? This seems like a good big screen thing with animated stuff. I enjoy that when I can. And I was curious if my 10-year-old would you know hold his attention because there's no dialogue in the entire film.
00:33:37
Speaker
um It's just about a cat trying to survive and it's not clear exactly what's going on. There's a flood happening. um So it seems like maybe this is like a global warming thing. It's not really clear.
00:33:49
Speaker
um But it's about all the characters are animals. There's dogs and there's birds and um they each end up having their personalities and it looks beautiful. I found it really engaging and emotional and and yeah, really, really a big fan of Flo. So recommend that one. That was my best animated. Next up on our list here is favorite documentary. What do you have on there?
00:34:16
Speaker
um So I'm going to mention a couple that I don't think that you've seen, and I'll leave the one that I'm pretty sure you have, that you watched at Sundance, I'll leave that one for you to cover, but my favorite, but probably the best um the dock of the year in my opinion was No Other Land,
00:34:42
Speaker
ah Which is ah about oh So it's the it's it's these These two guys ones Israeli and ones Palestinian and These guys are recording how how basically um The government of Israel has just come into the the hills of Palestine and they're taking over this you know section of I don't want to call it wilderness but it is like hilly rocky area and they're they're wanting to utilize this area for like tank training or something I can't remember what the official government
00:35:27
Speaker
ah designation is for why they are doing this but there's there's a there's people living in this area and there's not a lot of them but there's little villages and stuff up in the hills and very crude ah kind of rudimentary structures of concrete blocks you know and just they're not elaborate dwellings but they the Israeli government has just come in with bulldozers and you watch these like so they've got video recordings of them just coming in and knocking down people's homes and it is gut wrenching to say the least to just watch these people that like there's not much that they can do about it you know like what are they gonna do like you know ah attack somebody and uh
00:36:20
Speaker
You know driving a bulldozer, you know, they basically have to stand aside screaming and crying, you know while they while these people just kind of like You know flatten these parts sections of their their little villages, you know, and it is just a God-awful thing to watch for a lack of a better term and terminology, you know um really really You know affecting oh documentary that, you know, probably as far as I know, it has not been picked up for distribution yet. And it's probably because of how difficult that'll be to market. But it's such an important film, as far as knowing what kind of things are going on, ah you know, in the world of the world scene and knowing, ah you know, what some of these people are up against.
00:37:18
Speaker
ah Very very excellent and affecting doc the other one I will mention just briefly is sugar cane a film about the ah It was covered kind of in the news a little bit, but back in I think it was like that 2020 2021 maybe in the late teens like There was a a cover-up of I guess what more or less amounted to kids being abused and even some of them like ended up suffering and dying, kind of at the hands of these ah communes in in Canada that were run by the Catholic Church. And they just had all these Indian children there that were a part of this, you know, a part of these schools as they were trying to
00:38:16
Speaker
Uh, I don't want to say indoctrinate them, but introduce the Bible to them and, uh, you know, like teach them, you know, like, like school them and a lot of the parishioners, you know, abuse the kids. And there was a whole, you know, thing about it where the Pope actually like publicly apologized, um, you know, about that, you know, about what happened kind of in post. I think most of it took place back in like the 19, uh,
00:38:45
Speaker
40s, 30s, 40s, 50s, something like that. But sugar cane, it gets into ah kind of some of the you know the evidence that they're digging up now you know in the 21st century and and how they're starting to go back and look at all these atrocities that were committed by you know members of the church and ah you know really how that's just kind of devastated the community to learn about some of these things that some of these people had to deal with, you know, and they're now like in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and they're looking back on, ah you know, but those things that they experienced when they were young, and, you know, again, not all of them survived. And it was ah pretty horrific, you know, doc to kind of, I'd heard about it in the news, I remember just kind of like, you know, hearing that that had happened, but to
00:39:42
Speaker
Understand the whole store or at least you know parts of the story a little you get a little bit more of it in the ins and outs of what exactly happened with with that whole deal was Some gut-wrenching stuff as well. Yeah, two good ducks Catch them when yeah, I haven't caught either of those but it sure can in particular seems like something I would really connect with so I should make time for that. I'm pretty sure that's a national geo do Yeah. it looks like it's on disney plus in hulu Exactly. Should be available to stream right now. Well, I'll mention a couple of documentaries. Um, one, I, uh, this is what I had at number three, a movie called the battle for like Kipia, which I saw at Sundance, which is about like Kipia is a, ah a region in Kenya. And it just was a really well done and kind of shows both sides of, uh, the conflict going on there, which is basically indigenous people.
00:40:37
Speaker
who their livelihood is on the land and ah being able to raise livestock and that sort of thing. And then um the white colonizers who have come in, but it's so interesting because they are, ah I don't want to get too, too in depth of it, but um the, you know, the white people are also Africans and have lived their whole lives in Africa. and um But I have these generations of farms that they own and are continuing to kind of claim more land and but put the Lakepia natives out of um out of their livelihoods, slowly and gradually. and um
00:41:15
Speaker
There's political ramifications, people trying to ah kind of fight on both sides of this, um but really incredible. and and um you know if Without taking a side, very much just showing both sides, ah the the Indigenous people are are obviously being harmed greatly here. and um Yeah, it's just a really, really well done because it's complicated. and There's a lot of different angles to it, but the the film does a good job of covering a lot of things. So highly recommend that one. It's not streaming anywhere yet, but I imagine it will be before too long. At number two, I had a film called Hummingbirds, which is funny because it was on my top five of the year last year in 2023. I had seen it at Bentonville, but then it didn't get distribution until this year. So it is a 2024 film.
00:42:08
Speaker
but finally able to cast a vote for it and it actually played I think on the POV PBS stuff so I think it is available somewhere to stream now I can check on that in a minute but it's these two young people who live near the border in Texas and they sort of deportation is always hanging over their heads but they're also very politically active and and they're activists and they are just young and vivacious and full of life and creative and artists and it just kind of at a lot of the footage is just camera phone camera footage that they've taken but it um is and it's ah edited together and to a really just beautiful and kind of poetic and
00:42:53
Speaker
It's just full of life is the best way I can say it it just you you leave the theater just kind of elated that and And feeling some hope for the next generation and that sort of thing. So I really really loved hummingbirds And then at number one, I did have porcelain war which I think maybe the one you're referencing that I saw at Sundance as well and uh, really loved porcelain war and it's about Ukrainian artists who, um, you know, live in the countryside and make their art and love their life. And then of course, the, the war. ukraine war
00:43:27
Speaker
Yeah, where Ukraine comes along. And so it's interesting because you you kind of meet these people and see what their lovely little life is. And then you realize, oh, they also have to be soldiers. Like there, there's not enough state sanctioned soldiers to, to protect them. So if they're going to still live there, they have to learn how to use assault rifles. And like, just become soldiers to protect their home and one of them is like a trainer and he trains his like almost like militia minutemen kind of thing um but beautiful because also ah like hummingbirds just so the the artists and and all the people you meet are just um just lovely people and and you see that they they love their life and they love their homeland and
00:44:10
Speaker
um And they're forced to do this, this, this crazy thing of fighting in a war. Uh, and then it kind of culminates in this really tense battle scene where we're on, on the ground in a battle. And, uh, yeah, I was just really, really moved by it. Um, and then, you know, for that one and for battle of like, keep ya.
00:44:27
Speaker
i I was at Sundance and I got to interview some of the filmmakers around it, which was and just a great experience for me. And, uh, definitely I think enhanced my appreciation of both of the films, but I do love porcelain war. And I know it's on the, the shortlist for best documentary Oscar. And it's, it's one that I wouldn't be surprised if it got some love there. But again, I, there's a lot of documentaries I haven't had time to catch up with, but big, big fan of porcelain war. You did catch porcelain war. Did you watch it? Yeah. Yeah. Great. Yeah.
00:44:53
Speaker
i send you Yeah, it's, it's harrowing stuff, because like, I don't know that maybe a third of the way into the film, like, they're, you know, just like everyday people like, you know, you and me, only they've, their lives have been turned upside down. You know, they they like to continue doing some of the art stuff that they like to do, like you and me recording, you know, podcasts and talking about movies and stuff. But at the same time,
00:45:22
Speaker
they're learning how to like fly drones and they like attach you can see like they they actually like attach cameras to them you see them like dropping bombs yeah on you know like Russian like see with some aerial shots of like bombs dropping and exploding on you know, Russian enemy lines like like you may actually be seeing witnessing like the last moments that somebody is like, yeah, we don't know because you don't see it. But, you know, they are fighting war. At the same time that they're like, you know, trying to still have some semblance of, you know, a life and doing some of the things that they love.
00:46:07
Speaker
and enjoy, but you know, they're in the middle of this conflict that they didn't start, they just got a drug, you know, and more or less like kicking and screaming into this. And it just talk about like, you know, we we covered civil war earlier in the year, like the senselessness of so much violence and death just makes you sick. Yeah.
00:46:30
Speaker
Absolutely. Great movie. powerful
Top 10 Films of 2024 Introduction
00:46:32
Speaker
Powerful film. Yeah. Definitely recommend Porcelain Warren. All right. Next step on our run-up show here, we're going to do favorite international. Did you still want to do that? Or is that going to come up in your top 10? I couldn't remember what you said. on Um, yeah, I will mention a few because I didn't have, normally I have like quite a few international features in my, um, top 10.
00:46:55
Speaker
um But I'll just speed through a few of the ones that didn't make my top 10 list. Seed of the Sacred Fig. It's an Iranian film. It's in Spoken spoken Persian. um That film is so, so good. ah Basically this this man um goes to work for the government. He gets into this like, he's trying to get a job as a judge, um but he gets promoted to a detective And he's gunning for one of these like top tier jobs. So, you know, he's, he's ambitious, he's got a wife and two daughters and everybody's happy that he's got a raise. Um, and you know, he's, he's moving up the ladder or whatever, but he gets assigned a pistol. And like, that's like, as part of his job, it's never revealed exactly if he needs to use it to like kill people or not. But then one of the, one day the,
00:47:52
Speaker
pistol goes turns up missing. He can't find it anywhere and he will get in deep trouble if the government finds out that they assigned him a pistol that disappeared. And that just the that just kind of opens up a wormhole of like suspicion and like he's wondering like where it could have went. Was it somebody in his family that took it? like He knows that he always puts it in the same place every day.
00:48:22
Speaker
And things just deteriorate and continue to spiral until, oh like some just unthinkable things play out towards the end. It is a long movie. It's almost, I think it's close to 245, but it is a very, very a good movie. worth I think it's gonna be in theaters coming up here in the next month or so. Great film. You should check it out. Another movie, Red Rooms.
00:48:50
Speaker
It's a Canadian film, but it's in so it's in spoken French. This movie is almost like, it's like an anatomy of a fall. It starts out in the first third as like a courtroom case. But the person that's being ah like charged with a crime is basically like a like a serial killer. And the second two thirds of the film get into oh like these two women that are investigating his crime. And it is a very, very dark and disquieting film. It handles some very, very mature and ah disconcerting subject matter. ah So it might not be up everybody's alley, but it is an excellent film. oh All We Imagine is Light. i will Did you get to see All We Imagine is Light? I know you wanted to. I knew I wanted to, but I didn't.
00:49:42
Speaker
Okay, I didn't know if you were going to mention it or not. Very, it's a smaller film. It's a very quiet film. Indian takes place in Mumbai. The director is Pyle Kapadia, and she explores the lives of these two nurses.
00:50:02
Speaker
Again, very kind of quiet and intimate as these women are kind of discussing their love lives. They're both nurses, so they work kind of in the same field. They roommate together, but the one's husband is away from her. He's working in Germany, and the other one's kind of a little bit younger, and they just have some really quieter, like, introspective moments as they live in this huge city, but there's so much loneliness there.
00:50:36
Speaker
and Excellent movie, encourage anybody to watch it. The last two I'll just mention really quick, The Count of Monte Cristo, a French film. You've probably seen the one from the 19, late 1990s. This one is completely different. Like I thought, oh, okay, I'll more or less get the, you know, the whole story. Like I kind of already know. No, this, this movie is a schwa swashbuckling three hour kind of epic adventure.
00:51:06
Speaker
It is fantastic. Go check it out if you like any of that kind of cinema. And then Brazil's submission to the Oscars. I'm still here. um the the main The main actress just won the Golden Globe for um Best Actress.
00:51:31
Speaker
And I'm trying to remember, I know her last name is Torres, Fernanda Torres, yeah. She just won Best Actress. She's so good in that movie. Check out I'm Still Here. It should be available to, I think it's actually coming to the theater soon. um So you might be able to catch in your local cinema here in the next month or two as well.
00:51:53
Speaker
Nice. It's a good list. I'd say my my three biggest regrets that I haven't seen yet are The Brutalist, All We Imagine is Light, and you're the Secret of the Sacred Fig. The Seed of the Sacred Fig. So yeah, I hadn't seen any any of those. But um yes, ah definitely on my list to watch soon. um I'll just mention one because at number three, I had this movie, Amagloria.
00:52:17
Speaker
which I again saw at Sundance and it's it's a small movie, um the French filmmaker. And it's about a young Parisian girl. and It's a great kid performance um by this a little girl named Louise Maroie Panzani who plays Cleo. And she has a nanny named Gloria ah who is from Cape Verde. She's African and asked her mother ah Cleo's mother has has passed away and so she's raised by her father.
00:52:47
Speaker
But then, so this nanny is a huge part of her life. um We learned that the nanny has kids back home in Cape Verde, but to make ends meet, she's nannying in Paris and um she there's a crisis and she needs to go. It's actually not a crisis. She's having a grandchild and her her child needs her to be there. um and the the sort of the surprising thing is that Cleo begs, can I go with her? Because it's it's as if she's losing her mother, you know. So she ends up going with her for like a two month stay to Cape Verde, this little white girl in and running around in Cape Verde and um the just this coming of age story on her part, the interactions between ah the jealousy of
00:53:30
Speaker
ah Gloria's actual children and who who have had less of her in their lives than this girl whose dad is rich. And so it's really interesting kind of how that plays out um and and some so how they're kind of all growing in a situation, but really recommend that Amagloria Not streaming anywhere at this point, but um i I hopefully it will be soon. I don't know if it has distribution or not. It's a low key kind of foreign film. I'd see this on movie or somewhere, hopefully down the road, but I really, really liked it. And then at number two, I had look back at the anime film I mentioned earlier.
00:54:05
Speaker
And then my number one is actually on my top 10 list. So I'll hold back on that for now. So yeah, there you go. Um, and then you said you might want to run briefly through some of your technicals and I might do the same. Uh, if there's any, any, you know, score cinematography editing, some of those you want to mention that were some of your favorites kind of quickly before we get onto to our top 10 lists or then we'll do scenes and then top 10.
00:54:30
Speaker
Yeah, I mean most of the most of the cinematography mentions will probably get to in my top 10 scores. i Probably my favorite score of the year was challengers. I will be talking about that later. That score is such a banger. oh Trent Reznor, Atticus Ross, they just put it down.
00:54:56
Speaker
Oh, good. Yeah, that's it's amazing. ah The best fraud to score. Yeah, there's ah there's some some real bangers. But but yeah, as far as some of the other texts, I'll probably get into most of those when we cover the actual films themselves in the top 10. So let's go with that.
00:55:15
Speaker
Yeah. I think that same is true for me. I was going to mention the challenger score, which I love so much. Um, and then screenplay things we'll talk about with the top 10. Yeah. So we can kind of move on from there. Um, we're going to talk about a few of our favorite scenes of the year. We've, we've pledged to keep this short because we've done this really long before. So I'm mentioning two or three, uh, of our favorite scenes of the year. Do you want to kind of go back and forth and you start? Um, uh, okay. I'll start with.
00:55:44
Speaker
a movie that I want to shed some light on, a real small film, ah but it is called Good One. And just a real quick premise, a girl and her father and one of her father's good friends go on a camping trip. ah supposed to be four It was supposed to be It was supposed to be the two dads and their their kids.
00:56:11
Speaker
um you know, the one has a daughter that has a son, but the son backs out. And so it's just the girl and these two guys. And it's a very quiet film and it is a very, oh, I don't want to say, uh, so, so I don't want to reveal what happens, but probably about two thirds of the way through the movie.
00:56:41
Speaker
there is a... I don't even want to say what happens or or how it happens but it just um completely reframes the movie and it just becomes so uncomfortable where these three are just out camping in the middle of the woods, middle of nowhere and something happens and it's just ah So, so good. oh Yeah, I mean, it and it's that was, I believe that was a directorial debut. I don't have it in front of me, but I can pull it up really quick. But that was one of the movies that I. Yeah, that was one of the movies that I nominated. India Donaldson is the director and I nominated her for best ah first feature for our our awards. So I will throw that one out there.
00:57:40
Speaker
That one scene, I won't spoil it and say anything about what happens or what's sad or anything like that. But yeah, it is over a campfire at night and it's, uh, it's so good. Uh, yeah. Sounds pretty enticing. Yeah. You've sold me. I got to go see it right away.
00:58:01
Speaker
Um, let's see, I'll mention, I don't want to get too in depth with anything. So, uh, I really liked the movie heretic. We've mentioned a huge, huge grant in that. Um, but I love the how it's called the lesson scene. It's, you know, sort of, if you've seen the trailer, you know, the premise that they're these Mormon missionaries and they knock on the door and then things become sort of tense and uncomfortable. And you're not sure how evil is this guy? Is he evil? What's going on?
00:58:28
Speaker
Um, but then once things kind of really get going, there's essentially like ah a Ted talk, almost a presentation, a history lesson, um, about the religions of the world and some other things. And I don't want to get into too much detail about that either, but I loved that scene. Uh, I think that's when I was already really into this movie and that's when it hooked me and, uh, maybe we want to play some Monopoly.
00:58:53
Speaker
Yeah, nice Monopoly talk in there. Absolutely. And then I'll just say we're not going to spoil anything, but the final moments of that film, too, I thought were really well done. Yeah. Yeah. OK, that's all I'll say about here. What's your next one? All right. I will.
00:59:10
Speaker
ah I can't even really say I already told you about a few of the movies that I felt like mentioning. Just go watch a few of these movies for the final scene.
00:59:24
Speaker
Immaculate has a banger of a final scene. oh Yeah, it does. And yeah, ah Alien Romulus. There's a a final scene in Alien Romulus where you first get to see ah this. That was probably one of the scariest moments that I that like made me sit back in my chair a little bit when I went to see the theaters. I haven't seen it yet. oh But As far as actual scenes, i will i will we we covered it in our Civil War episode, but the Jesse Plemons scene in Civil War is one for the yeah is one for the books. Jesse Plemons. In Civil War, plays a you don't really know whose side he's on, but he's just a ah military guy.
01:00:16
Speaker
that has just more or less like taken the law into his own hands and there is a sequence that plays out that you oh you know it's like a life and death scene for pretty much everybody involved and you just don't know how it's going to play out because he is obviously like pretty unhinged and he has a very narrow view of who being an American is and so yeah he's he's willing to take out anybody that doesn't fit that mold. It's a rough sequence.
01:00:53
Speaker
yeah He's such a good actor and he's so frightening in that sequence too. it That's a great choice. um I'll mention for Nickel Boys, ah loved that film and it's ah it's really more visual than anything but the ceiling reflection sequence where they're, it's like halfway through the movie or two thirds and um you know the whole thing is in these POV shots where we're seeing first person from um the lead character primarily and there's a scene where they're just walking in town they're looking up at this reflective ceiling and so for kind of for the first time you're seeing them both because you're usually looking through their eyes right and so we're looking through their eyes at the ceiling and um they're talking about um i mean i can't actually remember exactly what their conversation is about but it's also you know the way they're reflected back to themselves and
01:01:46
Speaker
um Because of the color of their skin how they the experiences they're having like that's all very apparent and um Really really love nickel boys and that that was the visual of the the movie for me what else you got no more ah The last one I'll cover here is the ah Baby girl um There is a scene where a father figure by George Michael plays about, I think it's right kind of as the second act is winding down. yeah um But the film kind of hits a high where the the the two main characters like Harris Dickinson and Nicole Kidman are, I mean, she's more or less having an affair with him. He's a much younger guy, but it's, you know, everything is consensual with it. but
01:02:43
Speaker
the song father figure cues up and it is so like the needle drop in that film is so incredible it's almost like they the director reverse engineered this movie she's just like i love this song so much how can i How can I make a film about this song? yeah yeah You know, yeah as you're saying that, like that might be right. i mean Even the title of the movie, Baby Girl, fits perfectly in with that. I'm going to start with this song, and I'm going to write a script about it. And it's so, so damn good. um Yeah, like that is my scene of the year.
01:03:28
Speaker
ah the the song plays out while, I mean, it's obviously like some, but but like, I can just imagine the director of the film going into like, you know, some sort of a board meeting or whatever at 824, then like, okay, so what you got? And she's like, she just like starts playing the song. She's like, okay, now imagine Harris Dickinson without a shirt dancing. And the people at 824 are like, how much money do you need?
01:03:58
Speaker
Yeah, this is a hit. You've got it. That's right. We're good to go. It is so such a good scene. And like, yeah, even though, you know, that that's kind of like a turning point and things aren't going to, you know, end on that kind of a high note with your characters. That was such a gratifying sequence. I was like, holy.
01:04:23
Speaker
This is so good. It is such a good scene. and I was going to mention, except I knew you were already were going to mention it. but yeah it's I think it's yeah one of the things of the year for sure. That song is blowing up you know because of it. yeah um but yeah I've listened to it so much in post. My kids know it. like my my My older son walks around like, I will be your father, Faber.
01:04:49
Speaker
that's really funny yeah Great choice. And there's some other really good scenes in that movie too. I think the the milk scene obviously is a memorable one. I think the the conversation where they're sitting in a car and you finally get to a little bit more information about like what he's going through is one of my favorite moments in that film. I don't know if that film is going to come up again. So I wanted to mention a couple of things, but yeah, i was ah I was a fan of it for sure. um Let's see. I'll mention a couple other just like ending scenes and i'm like i'm not going to talk about the details but the ending of nosferatu incredible like mind-blowing so good um and then history daughters you mentioned like it's basically the end it's like the climatic scene uh and there's some really nice editing that goes on in it again that's a very like dialogue heavy talky movie um there's a really emotional scene near the end when things kind of uh
01:05:43
Speaker
things that have been built up to kind of happen. I'll just say to try not to be spoilery about it. um Yeah, just for anybody that's curious, it's three daughters and their father is sick and dying. It's like basically like his last few days they're spending together, but with him. And it just has like such a powerhouse, like, you know, again, a sucker punch.
01:06:10
Speaker
kind of like leave you in tears ending. It's so good. Phenomenal. Really well done. And and the three daughters have are somewhat estranged as well. And so it's about those relationships and yeah, really, really incredible.
01:06:24
Speaker
Um, and then one more that I do want to mention is in, I saw the TV glow and it's the, the sort of music sequence in the bar because it's, it's got, uh, there's a band playing and there's ah actually a fun cameo, uh, that maybe I won't spoil in case you haven't seen it like an indie rock cameo in the, in the band. Uh, and it's a great song. Uh, but then they're also having a conversation at the bar. That's very significant.
01:06:49
Speaker
where she has been missing for a while and um comes back to to find Owen and and tries to sort of tell him what's going on without, but it's hard to explain. And he's like, what are you talking about? ah So it's an important scene and and kind of thrilling on a story level. And then also just, I love the music that's going on in the, kind of in the background. But yeah, so that's my one of my favorite scenes of the year too.
01:07:18
Speaker
very cool There you have it. I think we can wrap up our favorite scenes and that means, well, but maybe I'll drop an ad break right here, but now it's time for our top 10 films of the year. um Yeah. Was this a hard list for you to make this year?
01:07:32
Speaker
Here we go. um Yeah, I mean, I didn't get to see, I got to see about 90, just under 90 movies, I think, for the year in totality. Last year, the year before, I was, I think last year I hit 220, I'm sorry, 120 the year before, maybe 140 or 150. So I came in way lower than I normally do. I think but maybe because of the strikes, the writing strikes last year, there just wasn't as many movies that really piqued my interest. But,
01:08:01
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, you know, that that so between 8 and 12, 13, like on my list, I really had to play around with which ones I wanted to talk about the most because I really love all those movies. And like I said, I already got to mention a couple of them, but yeah, there's still some great, great films from 2024 that I really loved.
01:08:31
Speaker
You always see more films than I do anyway, but yeah, I mean, again, we mentioned that there's a weird year for me. I probably saw maybe like 50 or something. So again, there's a lot of things I wanted to catch up with, but didn't, uh, but I felt like I had enough, uh, really excellent things that I could pull all a pretty good list together. So I feel great about my list, even though I didn't see some big things, but, uh, who usually goes first? Do I usually have you go first? Yeah, I usually start.
01:08:59
Speaker
All right. We'll take it away with your number 10 Russell. So my number 10 is my, is my favorite comedy of the year. Um, at least as far as like, obviously other, some other films have like some, some comedy worked into them. But as far as like a pure straight up comedy, uh, my favorite comedy of the year was hit man. Big surprise. Richard Lee Glader wrote a banger of a script. Um,
01:09:30
Speaker
He's so, so good. oh And Hitman just is kind of a, I'll give you the IMDB quick rundown. um Glenn Powell plays a professor moonlighting as a Hitman. He he goes to work for the city and starts having to impersonate this Hitman.
01:09:54
Speaker
and they're obviously trying to catch people that are hiring these services so they can arrest them and nobody actually like gets killed but right but then he meets a woman and is that he's very attracted to oh but this script is so good as far as like straight-up comedies um it kind of it kind of functions in in the same way that another script that's like a, it was actually my second favorite comedy, Hundreds of Beavers.
01:10:29
Speaker
okay it It kind of functions in the same way in that the script gets into an aspect of the story, milks it for like some really good laughs, but then just when it kind of teeters on like, okay, I've had enough of this shtick, it turns into something else and starts heading in a new direction. And that's exactly what Hitman does. Glenn Powell's fantastic.
01:10:57
Speaker
Link later is is just he's so good like you just You know, I didn't see this when it first came out in June like I got waited a few months, but then I was like, okay. I need I need to catch See what link later's latest is all about and it was really it it blew me away Yeah, link later's is a really great one. You know, he's got some good stuff up his sleeve and I won't you know spoil anything more about the film as far as like where it all goes but Yeah, Hitman is so much fun and so funny. And again, kind of a sexy rom-com to boot. a Check it out. Man, I've got to see Hitman. That's another regret of mine. I'm sure there are going to be more of those as we go. But I did watch hundreds of beavers in.
01:11:47
Speaker
Freakin loved it. It's so good. Uh, I think it's streaming for free on like 2b or somewhere now Um, but yeah very creative. I almost put that in my top scenes, you know, maybe the final sequence or something I don't know. It's a hard to pick a favorite. Yeah, anyway My number 10 is also a comedy of sorts Maybe not an outright comedy like that, but it's called my old ass. Did you see my lids? I love this movie. Um, I ended up seeing it, uh, you know, they, a few of the theater chains do their like mystery movie things. And that's like, you don't know what movie you're going to see, but it'll see it's coming out soon. And I, you go on Reddit and people kind of figure out it's probably this. And so I was like, Oh, I really want to see my own ass. And they said it was that. Um, so I, I saw it there. And then I,
01:12:33
Speaker
i There's not a lot of movies that I watched that and I'm like, Oh man, my wife will love this, but this was one and she did. I knocked it out of the park. I am not always the best at picking what she's going to like. She loved this movie too. Um, but what the premise is, is, um, a young woman is turning 18 and for her birthday, she does mushrooms with her friends in the woods and she is hallucinates her older self. My old ass. That's the where the title comes from. And her older self is Aubrey Plaza.
01:13:02
Speaker
And ah it's just so it's very funny. It's very creative. I kept thinking about the movie Groundhog Day, which is a movie I really love because it has maybe a similar tone in terms of like.
01:13:15
Speaker
There's something, is this something metaphysical? Is there so almost a science fiction element? Like why is, in Groundhog Day, why is he repeating this day? In this movie, her older self knows things about the future that seem to be provable. And it so it's like, is she really, really her future self? Is this all in her head? It's not clear.
01:13:35
Speaker
Maisie Stella plays the young Elliot, and then Aubrey Plaza is the older Elliot. But it's also just really sweet, her her relationship with her friends, and there ends up being a love story around it as well.
01:13:50
Speaker
um But I just thought it nailed the ending, too. And again, in a similar way to Groundhog Day, where it's um it's incredibly sweet, but also very moving. um And yeah, I just I can't recommend it enough. And it is streaming on Amazon Prime, so you can watch it right now. ah Yeah, really sweet, but well-written and thoughtful ah ah little comedy. Loved it. Yeah, I liked it. It was a good movie.
01:14:20
Speaker
I, uh, I, it was hard for me to, to watch something like that and not critique it from like my own. Like if, if I had access to talk to my younger self, because it focuses on the younger character, which obviously like very intelligently, you know, the film focuses on, on her.
01:14:49
Speaker
i i yeah know like I would have been fascinated to to have a story about like what you would do as like an older person speaking to your younger self. That would have made a much more kind of like ah heavy duty film break into Audrey Plaza's mind. um Because it's funny in the movie, she like just kind of disappears for a few days. I'm like, you have access to talk to your younger self and you go on like some sort of sabbatical where you're just like gone for a few like, what are you doing? Like you need to like be using this opportunity to like, help yourself out and there's one as many ways as you can.
01:15:32
Speaker
um about like, yeah, I still enjoyed it quite a bit for what it was. Although I, I kind of thought that there was a lot more the film kind of dug could have dug into it. It did steer more into like the humor aspects of it, as opposed to like, how serious and contemplative of a ah premise that would need to like have access to your older self or your younger self, you know? oh But it was it was still a good movie. I still enjoyed my time with it. Yeah, that totally makes sense. Yeah, because it has its cues comedic and its cues. Yeah. ah
01:16:13
Speaker
and It's more about her. It's a coming of age story more than anything. um But yeah, it was interesting to consider what the other side of that would have looked like in Aubrey Plaza's life. And then she gets sucked back to talk to her younger self, like what that does to her. Yeah. ah Because, I mean, she has a very emotional ending in the the film, which I think I appreciated too, because it did get more emotional than I expected it to. And I thought she nailed the performance of that too. yeah But anywho, that's my number 10. What is your number nine film of the year? So I'll say that and last year, 2023,
01:16:55
Speaker
um if you listen to that podcast show i had no horror films in my top 10 uh i don't i don't typically go for a lot of like heavy duty horror thriller um you know like psychological thriller films um obviously like if they're good they're good ah but this year my 2024 had so many like just weird twisted perverse, like, effed up films that were so good. A very strange year for films for at least for my viewing experience. And my number nine film is starting off here on on my list. One of the one of the stranger movies that I saw. And that is Strange Darling. Oh, yeah, I'm darling.
01:17:50
Speaker
is i know this is one that you've seen yeah not on my list but i really loved it such a wild ride of a film and i have to you can't talk about straight so so it is about it presents like right off the bat like with the title card sequences uh you know explaining to you what's going on it's talking about this serial killer that is it's a fictional but it presents it like it's true. A serial killer that's loose in, I think, Idaho that goes on like a murder spree from 2018 to 2020 or something like that. ah And I had to look it up afterwards and find out if it was actually, like, if this actually happened or not. um but But the script is, oh,
01:18:43
Speaker
Well constructed and that it is comprised of six different acts and then an epilogue like But you I think it starts with the third and then it moves to the fifth and then back to the first fourth something like that, but it bounces around and each portion of the you know, the the
01:19:10
Speaker
each section of the film you're given new twists and new reveals and just the way that it is set up is so engaging and so it just like sucks you right in um this game of I guess more or less like cat and mouse of these two main characters a man and a woman and there's a lot of like sexual play and tension between the two because they start out like romantic, but you know that one of them is going to end up trying to wipe the other one out. ah But it is just so well thought out and constructed as far as the screenplay goes that it is highly engaging. Both the lead performances ah are are both like unknown. but i I don't think I've seen them in anything else that I can think of right off the top of my head.
01:20:08
Speaker
ah But yeah, just a great psychological thriller from top to bottom. ah Strange Darling, my number nine film of the year.
01:20:21
Speaker
I absolutely loved that one too. Um, didn't make my list, but I considered it. And I think I may have put it in screenplay. with that gerald Yeah, I just, yeah. Well, if it's Fitzgerald is the lead actress, she is freaking great. She is so good. And then Kyle Galner plays opposite from her. They are just knocking it out of the park. The whole movie, they are so good.
01:20:47
Speaker
100%. I didn't think a movie could successfully pull the rug out from under me that many times, but does it's so impressive. Yeah. And I almost don't want to say anything else, but, um, exactly it is also say too. It's, it's very good, gritty. ah You talked about F that movies. It's, uh, it's real dark and, and, and.
01:21:06
Speaker
nitty gritty dirty But like you're gonna be a comfortable for some scenes, but it's really really well done. We're getting this this whole this whole This whole top ten list of mine down here. We're getting into the dark. We're getting into the dirty. We're getting into the gritty here Buckle up All right, this is going bye-bye
01:21:31
Speaker
All right. Well, I'll move on to my number nine, which is a film that another one that was on my top five last year ended up getting released this year. It's a movie called big boys, which another sort of like my old ass, kind of a crowd pleaser comedy. Um, but I was so taken aback and so surprised by this movie. Uh, cause I knew it was a ah queer coming of age story. And so when you hear that, you think.
01:21:56
Speaker
Okay. This is going to be, this is going to be heavy. This is going to be traumatic. Like what, but it's really not those things. It really is a crowd pleasing comedy. It's got some like cringy moments, but, um, it's, and also I just think it's written with, um, an incredible amount of insight into like the, a young male brain, even. So the, the lead character's name is Jamie. He's played by Isaac Krasner and, um,
01:22:25
Speaker
Sorry, I had to clear my throat. He actually made my, my top five actors ballot list. I think he's so good in this. Uh, so unknown actor, he took, I tried to explain his energy. He's, he's like very charming and endearing. Um, and you can see why he might be kind of annoying to the people around him. I was trying to think of any comparable person, kind of, uh, Andy Milanakis. I remember Andy Milanakis doing things like that sort of.
01:22:55
Speaker
energy, but Andy Menakis is so obnoxious and you kind of like on some level can't stand him, but Isaac Reza are so likable and you just like want to be his friend and want to give him a hug and he's so sweet. ah So the story is he's this young boy and he, you know, pretty early has queer attraction and is kind of dealing with that and hasn't told anyone who doesn't know what to do about it.
01:23:18
Speaker
And he, uh, he loves cooking and, uh, he's also, a he's a bigger guy, big boys. It's part of the title is that. And he goes on this camping trip with his, um, Cousin, uh, who's Ali is his female cousin and her boyfriend, uh, played by David Johnson, the third. and His name is Dan. He's also kind of a bigger guy. And, uh, really quickly Jamie has a ah crush on Dan and the ways he acts around him, they're really,
01:23:49
Speaker
funny and yet some of the cringiness comes in there. ah But it's also really sweet and it um yeah it just digs into like what that experience is like. Even for me, you know as a straight man, growing up having confusing feelings and crushes, and it taps into a lot of that in a kind of ah ah visceral way that I was really surprised by.
01:24:09
Speaker
Uh, it's directed by Corey Sherman written by Corey Sherman, uh, his first film. And, uh, I just really, really love it. It's, you can rent it on demand right now. Um, I hope it gets a streaming platform at some point. Uh, I really think it's great. So there you go. Big boys. nice This is one that I have not seen yet that I've been.
01:24:32
Speaker
Shop and Fort, I have my eye on it in a couple of places to see if I can get ah get it on sale when it goes on sale, because you it made your top five list last year. So it's a midway point. um So it's been on my radar for a while, um but it finally got released. So it's available to like rent or purchase.
01:24:59
Speaker
And I've had it on my wish list now for like a month or two and I'm waiting to catch one of these days. but Yeah. Just thrilled that I finally get to talk about this movie and, and be see actually I, I, there's a podcast episode where I interviewed the director and producer.
Discussion on 'Heretic'
01:25:16
Speaker
Um, and yeah, so I highly recommend checking that interview out as well, but all right, that is my number nine. So we're up to number eight. What's your number eight film of the year? So number eight, we don't have to spend a ton of time talking about it because we already talked a little bit about Hugh Grant.
01:25:35
Speaker
Uh, number eight is heretic. And well, I'll tell you what, we're not going to talk about it right now at all. Cause it's going to come up again later. I had this predicted. So yes, there's one tally Mark one in common. Uh, we'll talk about that one again later.
Deep Dive into 'Evil Does Not Exist'
01:25:53
Speaker
Well, then I will talk about my number eight, which I'm pretty sure is not on your list, is a film called Evil Does Not Exist, which is a Japanese film. This was the one I mentioned from, it was my best foreign film of the year.
01:26:07
Speaker
um And it's Ryusuki Hamaguchi who directed Drive My Car ni call and Wheel of Fortune and Fantasy. I also really loved ah from 2021. But Evil Does Not Exist, it's a quiet, so my first two here were crowd-pleasing comedies. This is not that. This is a really quiet, slow movie streaming on Criterion I see now. And it is about this man who lives in a village near tokyo a really small village then they rely on this water source uh like everyone in town relies on this water source um they have a river kind of flowing nearby and oh basically a sort of
01:26:54
Speaker
tourist destination company wants to set up like a camp uh glamping they actually use the word glamping over and over and it's really funny because it's in japanese but then they're saying glamping it is a combination of glamour and camping and explaining what glamping is to these you know japanese villagers who don't know what they're talking about um but it's about sort of the conflict that arises there with capitalism trying to kind of come into this village and this man who is a local and um they they first come give this presentation here's what we want to do and put this campsite here and here's how many ah here's where the septic tank will go and here's how many um people can come at a time and they have all these concerns about well here's all the reasons that that is actually not going to work you can't do that you can't put this septic tank here that's going to ruin the water supply all these things
01:27:50
Speaker
And so they try to work with the, the locals and the, the lead character, um, Takumi is kind of caught in between where they, they try to use him as someone to smooth over relations in a way. Um, and it just, it's really slow and quiet. All the characters are given i more time than I expected. and We have a couple of people that work for the company that's coming.
01:28:14
Speaker
and we have time to get to know them a bit um and then getting it slow and kind of it I found it very moving and then the ending is surprising I'll say um but I really really liked this one evil does not exist yeah great great follow-up again like if you've seen drive my car slow cinema um You know, like a lot of well thought out dialogue methodically placed, but methodically paced film. If that's up your alley, you'll love Evil Does Not Exist. Another great international feature. Yeah, it's been out for quite a while because it debuted last year, I think, either at
01:29:03
Speaker
um If not, it can. I know it was out by TIFF and then it didn't really start getting a ah wider release and and become available for the majority of people to watch until this year. on I think in the spring, I finally ah was able to catch up with it. and Yeah, I
Exploring 'Baby Girl'
01:29:23
Speaker
think that's right. Cause I heard some buzz around it last year, but then, you know, it came with all the screener packages this year and it was doing some award campaigns this year. So, um, um yeah, so that's my number eight. So now we're on to number seven. What's your number seven? All righty. We're back to, we're back to, uh, the strange and upsetting. sure Well, that this was not quite as strange and upsetting. Um,
01:29:50
Speaker
And in some ways maybe, but we're back to my scene of the year. George Michael, father of the year in Baby Girl. um Both of the, you know, two of my favorite performances of the year by Harris Dickinson and Nicole Kidman. um But I, is so the the just a ah light, you know, a couple of sentences about the premise. Nicole Kidman is a married woman with two daughters.
01:30:20
Speaker
Harris Dickinson is a young gentleman that works at her company as an intern and they obviously like have like some chemistry um and and up like she ends up having an affair with him.
01:30:38
Speaker
um But there's a lot more going on under the surface of this film than just a, I mean, because some people are like, it's just like a Fifty Shades of Grey plus, you know, um this movie has a lot more to say, even though it doesn't really spend much time talking about it, ah there's a lot there.
01:30:59
Speaker
um that if you're kind of paying attention, you can connect some dots. ah And I was really kind of blown away. This is ah directed by and written and directed by Helena Raine, who also directed Bodies, Bodies, Bodies. um So this is really kind of a hard, you know, left turn for her to go from a movie like that to writing and directing Baby Girl.
01:31:25
Speaker
um
01:31:28
Speaker
But I will say that, um so in the in the film, oh one of the aspects that really stood out to me was, and I mentioned this to you via text message, so so Nicole Kidman mentions ah kind of right off the bat that she was raised, because one girl asked her where she got her name.
01:31:51
Speaker
um And so she she mentions that she was raised in cults and communes. um And that kind of stood out to me as being a kind of an interesting aspect of the story, because you don't get hardly any information on why these two, like,
01:32:21
Speaker
are attracted to each other um but you're given the information of a little bit later on in the film and that Nicole Kidman well and even kind of right off the bat the first scene Nicole Kidman and her husband Antonio Banderas are having sex but the she does not finish she has to go after they're done and she watches some porn on her computer and and and does something to finish herself off. yeah and And you go on to find out later on in the film that she does not finish with her husband because she has some urges and interests other than what he understands and is taking care of um as far as their husband and wife relationship goes.
01:33:17
Speaker
And that's so interesting to me because then once it gets into her affair and once it gets into especially like even that song by by George Michael, the lyrics from the song are in in the and the actual like song he sings, sometimes love can be mistaken for a crime, and in the chorus, I will be your father figure, I have had enough of crime. That is so fascinating to me.
01:33:53
Speaker
um coming from a place where I was born and raised into a religious cult ah for all intents and purposes, what I consider to be um you know a religious cult, and how my experiences is my and my upbringings shape my interests without getting into like going into that rabbit hole, you know and and how those things can spill over. and affect you in your adult life and in your sexual interests and your relationships and I found that
01:34:28
Speaker
whole subtext so engaging um and and fascinating as opposed to just like some 50 shades of gray surface level like a movie that's trying to get you aroused and you know just kind of get your mind going ah you know and it's like ah you know and it's arousing sexual interests, fantasy, whatever realm. I found some of those comments and some of the commentary that that film didn't really break into, but it just kind of touched on a few of those things. So you understand a little bit of these characters. um I found some of that connective tissue under you know under the radar of this movie to be so ah fascinating as you watch these characters
01:35:25
Speaker
kind of coming together and then with some of the the highs from the end of that second act and that scene um you know with the with the George Michael song just blew me away and it was so great. And yeah, it is ah certainly a steamy film. Watch it with your significant other. I'm not going to comment on the morality of like you know, having affairs and whatnot. You know, in that whole discussion, we can save that for another podcast. but But needless to say, found the movie to be absolutely enthralling. Baby Girl is so good. And it's the the the sexy Christmas movie. I never knew that I wanted. There you go. Yeah. Yeah, I saw some people saying it was a great double feature with Eyes Wide Shut, another kind of sexy Christmas movie starring Nicole Kidman, although she's a much you know smaller role in it.
Analysis of 'Sebastian'
01:36:22
Speaker
ah but But yeah, I really like Baby Girl as well. I like what you're saying. I hadn't considered all of that. You mentioned the cult thing to me. yeah um But yeah, I mean, just people raising cults often don't have great father-daughter or father-son relationships. So I think that's, I think you're onto something and I think that tracks in a way. um Because you're right, it's like,
01:36:41
Speaker
he said something about it doesn't explain why they're attracted to each other but you do have a sense early on that he's there's something about how i think she can sense that he wants to overpower her or whatever whatever she's after you know however you want to say that um she kind of since that because he has there's the dog scene in the street and all of that is kind of first interaction ah But yeah, go ahead where you can say ah I was gonna say like he he more or less because even even his character I just watched this movie again like ah like the other day watched for a second time I don't even think he wants to control her um But he understands that that's what she wants and so like even their first scene together where they go to like a hotel room and
01:37:28
Speaker
You know that they're there to like hook up or have sex, but he doesn't even have sex with her. He's trying to like figure out what she, he's interested in her, but he he more or less is like, I'm not sure what what you're looking for here. He says something to that effect, and he's just kind of like feeling out and like testing the waters of like, giving her different instructions and commands and Figuring out like what she wants and how she is aroused and turned on by those things Like he's feeling that all out like for himself um And just as their relationship evolves Yeah, it's all super interesting and fascinating at least from from my perspective and Yeah, I agree
01:38:23
Speaker
And the other thing I was going to say is just that I really like, so I almost felt critical about this, but it's like, it's a fine line between his, like, you don't know much about him and like, what are his motivations? Like, we don't know his background and that sort of thing. And we start to get a little like bits and pieces of it, but I mean, it does work really well with him as sort of a more mysterious.
01:38:43
Speaker
figure or something. Um, but yeah, like it's like any, any little bits and pieces into his psyche. I'm just like, they're just like, Oh, I love it. I want, I want more. what What else is going on in that brain of yours? Um, yeah, it's, it's so interesting. And like the i'll say the, the relationship with Antonio Banderas, her husband is interesting too, where that kind of ends up and where some of the bumps along the road there. Uh, I was just fascinated to see how they,
01:39:09
Speaker
would play out, but yeah, I really liked baby girl. I think the other thing too about this, I think this is my, I watched it with my wife and um she was like, well, all the, all the Tik TOKs and stuff I saw made this seem like it was going to be just, you know, soft core pornography. Basically it's really not like there's, there's less sex in it than you might think. yeah But it is very steamy, but so I don't know if that makes more people want to watch it or not, but, um, whatever that's worth. I, I.
01:39:36
Speaker
you I thought the the balance of all that was well done and yeah I thought it was very well well written and directed for sure. yeah Nice, nice choice. i That was one I hadn't seen before voting, and that it I considered squeezing it in on the top 10 list, but I ultimately couldn't, but I really liked it a lot. My number seven is a film I don't think you've seen. ah we I know you haven't, because I mentioned it earlier, Sebastian. Really interesting movie that I saw at the Real Queer Film Festival. And the premise is that this young man named Max
01:40:12
Speaker
he He's a writer and he wants, so hes he's writing for some different publications and really wants to write a novel. And he starts getting a lot of traction and like attention on his writing when he starts writing, um it's a sort of, he has this source that is a ah male sex worker and he's like telling like stories of what it's like to be a sex worker. Well, the twist it's not really a twist you find out very early on.
01:40:39
Speaker
He doesn't really have a source it's himself he's he's actually having these experiences and he just says that he has. It's like a third party situation. It's always going on apps and um he's gay so he's meeting up with men.
01:40:53
Speaker
um and It is very overwhelmed by the things that he's experiencing early on, and but then ends up having um some real connections with people where Jonathan Hyde comes in. He's an older man who hires him, and and we learned that he had a great love of his life that died. And um and Jonathan Hyde has some some great scenes where he's kind of talking about that.
01:41:18
Speaker
um So yeah, I just found it really fascinating and and thrilling and ah very well written that kind of some of the ah twists and turns along the way of, uh, of Max's kind of journey with this, this kind of, uh, crazy double life that he's living in. There's moments when he's almost found out and that sort of thing. Um, yeah, i really, really like Sebastian.
01:41:43
Speaker
And I highly recommend it. No real recognizable names besides Jonathan Hyde, at least for me. Director is Mikko Michaela, who is Finnish finn British ah filmmaker. And Max's slash Sebastian is played by Ruarid Malika, who I haven't seen in anything before, but he's a very, very good actor. So yeah, there you go, Sebastian. Check it out. Awesome.
01:42:09
Speaker
a adding it to my wish list and making a note of that one right now. I haven't heard of this film, so now it's on my radar. It's one that it played at Sundance, actually, but I didn't see it when I read the the long line. I was like, oh, that sounds good. And then I was playing again at the real queer festival here. I was like, oh, I need to see it and end up really loving it.
01:42:36
Speaker
All right. Number six. We're up to your number six. What's it going to be? All
'Porcelain War' Documentary Discussion
01:42:41
Speaker
right. Now we're, we're back into the twisted and disturbing movies. Um, my number six is my only, the only international, uh, feature that made my top 10 list this year. Normally I've got a couple of them, two or three. Um, but this year the girl with the needle, uh, foreign film of the year.
01:43:05
Speaker
And it is, it gets into some really, really dark and disturbing, pretty much as disturbing as it can get um content. So viewer beware.
01:43:20
Speaker
oh if if yeah like what I'm gonna say here, ill I'll keep pretty vague. um It is the Danish submission to the, oscar it is Denmark's submission to the Oscars. It has been spoken Danish. um But basically, the film takes place right around the end of World War I. So it's in the late teens, early 1920s, is the timeframe that the film takes place in um But there's the main protagonist woman that we are following her a kind of journey. And some of the things that happened to her, she's working at a a building that, ah sewing, they make the uniforms and stuff for the soldiers that have been at war, or that are at war, and and repairing, you know, the uniforms, whatnot.
01:44:17
Speaker
um And she has kind of a fling with one of the managers there and you really want to see her character happy But she ends up one of the other characters that ends up coming into her life is based on a real-life person from the 1920s that is was basically like a Danish serial killer. um So this person actually like existed.
01:44:50
Speaker
um you know like there there is like you can look You can Wikipedia this this this person, ah this woman, and what she did. um And that'll tell you whether this is a movie that's gonna be for you or not.
01:45:06
Speaker
um if if you know I say dark and disturbing content and you are a little bit leery of that. but But yeah, where all the story goes with its twists and turns and you're really invested in this this main woman's story and and what happens to her and you want to see her happy um but it just gets into some really effed up stuff. But it is, but like at least the structure of the script is very, it's a very well crafted movie from a technical aspect with not only the story, but also the visuals of this film just absolutely blew me away.
01:45:56
Speaker
And there was some like, and this is probably one of the strongest years, probably the strongest year for cinematography that we've had in quite some time, probably since I've been recording with you. The number of movies this year that really had some stunning cinematography from like Dune to Maria had some great camera work.
01:46:21
Speaker
ah The Brutalist was a beautiful film, Nosferatu, just otherworldly cinematography on display this year. ah you know as from As far as from ah you know some of these ah you know these these images, The Girl with the Needle was my favorite. That made my on my North Carolina film critics ballot my favorite.
01:46:49
Speaker
visually stunning film of the year. So if that says anything about the movie, It is a very beautiful film, like just stunning imagery that took my breath away. And yeah, not a movie that a lot of people will return to to watch again and again because of the content. ah But as far as just like a great film, at least in terms of my estimation from the year, I really did what was pretty taken with The Girl with the Needle.
01:47:26
Speaker
ah Looking at the poster, is it black and white? Yes. Yep. Nice. Wow. Okay. The entirety of black and white. The one that I heard buzz around, but have not seen. So definitely need to add it to the list. All right. Well, my number six is a movie we've talked about a little bit already. Porcelain war. This is the documentary.
01:47:48
Speaker
about the Ukrainian artists we already talked about. So we don't have to say much more. I did think to say that the title Porcelain War um comes from the fact that ah two of the main characters, ah Slava and Anya, they're a married couple and they, one of the things they make as artists are these beautiful porcelain figurines. And we see them, but how long it takes them to do it. She sort of creates them and, or maybe I'm getting this backwards, one of them sort of molds them and and you know fires them so that they're hard clay and then the other paints them with these really intricate things, little owls and dragons and things.
01:48:28
Speaker
um and they have one of them with them and they take it and their soldier friends are like passing it around and it's like the sweet moment but then also there's a great sequence where they're kind of talking about the history of their lives and of of the Ukraine um and we see like the story they're telling is played out in animation on the surface of this porcelain figure it's this is really a stunning sequence um where we're seeing you know at first like stick figures but then it becomes more detailed and all these little people running around on the surface of this
01:48:59
Speaker
a porcelain figure. So really a a creative a lot of creative touches in the film, including that one. um And I think there was one other thing I wanted to maybe say, just it's remarkable that the Literally the the cast of the film are also the crew of this film. They were like the co-directors. One of them is also the star Slava Lyontiev. And then Brendan Belomo is an American who kind of, he co-directed it.
01:49:29
Speaker
but um those the three main characters, Slava, Anya, are married, and then Andre ah has a wife and daughters that have fled the country. And so part of his story is, you know, he's he's staying here to to fight for their country, but his family is apart from him for their safety.
01:49:47
Speaker
um I talked to them at Sundance and I asked. And hey so Andre was there and his wife and his two beautiful daughters were there. And I got to interview them briefly. I hadn't even seen the movie yet. So I didn't know who I was even talking to. um But ah came to find out. So then I actually got to interview this a second time after seeing it over Zoom like a week later. And like that was the first time they'd seen each other in like two years or something for Sundance. Like they all came for Sundance.
01:50:17
Speaker
which was remarkable and and they were going back to he was going back to the Ukraine and they were going back to their place where they were, I think they're in Paris or somewhere like that ah for their safety. So yeah, it's just remarkable. I'm just like their real lives here intersecting with the world at Sundance. It just gotta be so jarring to to be living in the conditions we see in the film, i like modest home fighting in battles every few weeks. And now I'm here in,
01:50:48
Speaker
the United States at a film festival and everyone's got cameras in my face. It's it's wild. And also a big part of the film is Andre's dog Frodo. Maybe it's Slava's dog. I can't remember. one One of them has this dog Frodo that um not only is just like a cute little dog that's in the film, but ends up being an important part of the story. and As someone who's, the Frodo is like sort of his connection to the world and in some moments. ah There's more to it than that, but Frodo was there at Sundance too. I got to take his photo and stuff, which was cool. um So love a dog and a film. And ah this was a ah great one.
01:51:28
Speaker
So yes, Porcelain War, I've said more than enough about it already, but really, really ah think very highly of that the film and and everyone who made it. So that is my number six. Awesome. And it's time for your number five. All right. We're into the top five. Let the second twisted party continue.
01:51:50
Speaker
We're breaking into Nosferatu. I'm I'm going to stop you right there. Well, then we're going to talk about this. for out later as we are ah Well, then I'll do my number five, which is the film Anora, which I thought was so great. I love Sean Baker. I actually haven't seen tangerine, but still, which I need to watch. I've loved the Florida project and red rocket.
01:52:18
Speaker
And am I forgetting another one? Oh my gosh. What am I forgetting of his? Lance really quick. It is. Yeah, that's the main ones. He has some older ones that I haven't seen either, but, um, I really love what he does. He finds these kinds of people and sort of, you want to say the margins of society sort of that doesn't exactly fit with the Nora. Um, but.
01:52:44
Speaker
also people involved in, you know, ethically dubious situations, but really finds a humanity there. And um while his films are fictional, they're they're like very based in real life situations. um And Anora, I thought really furthered that in a really interesting way. And sort of my, a couple of things. So first of all, Mikey Madison is incredible as the lead as Anora.
01:53:15
Speaker
um and how just vivacious she is and how um she would obviously be very selective to this this young man, Yvonne Mark Edelstein plays um this rich Russian mob son, basically, or he's not even a mob son, his parents own a company or something, I can't remember the detail there. um But like, incredibly, just ridiculously wealthy and
01:53:48
Speaker
Immature is pretty evident early on, but they absolutely believe that they would you know meet in the way they did, but still like feel real feelings for each other.
01:54:00
Speaker
um So very well acted and that I was surprised about how much of a comedy it is. It's like kind of a very dark comedy for the middle section of the film yeah um as they're searching for him and her interactions with these like bodyguard people that end up being big characters in the film, bigger than you expect them to be. um And then the finale that's absolutely just wrenching and and and heartbreaking and uh brings things full circle so it's it's almost like this whiplash of tone but with the three acts of the film but they all work really really well and it um and and flow right into one another and sort of my here's my little take on on sean baker's movies so if you've seen the florida project you know it ends with um this sequence that's
01:54:53
Speaker
almost almost, it almost feels like a fantasy sequence of like a very wonderful thing happening for the young girl. if That's the lead character. ah And in a Nora, it almost takes a similar, like we have this fairy tale over the top happy sequence happening right at the end of the first act. yeah And in this film, we're going to see what's on the fallout. Yeah. So we're going to hit this high and then what's the fallout of that for the rest of the movie. and ah I thought that was just a really brilliant way to construct it. um Again, well acted all around. There's some scenes. If I was going to pick a scene from this, I don't want to spoil anything, but there's a a moment of of her acting, of Anora's acting, or any as she goes by.
01:55:40
Speaker
Um, when basically she finally is able to have a real confrontation. They're on kind of on the steps of an airplane. Um, and she has a, uh, a realization of the reality of the situation, I guess. Um, and, and the, just seeing that on her face is incredible.
Film 'Anora' and 'The Substance'
01:56:00
Speaker
And yeah, ah really, really love this movie. And, uh, that's, that's the moment of it for me. So yeah.
01:56:08
Speaker
It's a great movie. I was hoping that would be on your top 10 list. i had I had predicted that it would be um But yeah, I came in at my number 12, so it was just outside of my top 10 movie ah ten Top 10 movies, so I'm excited to add a little bit in here. Yeah, the the film structure is somewhat similar to the girl with the needle in that it hits that high at the end of ah the first act. And there's the song that plays another great scene of the year. That I probably would have mentioned if we would have taken some more time with the scenes of the year. ah There's a song called Greatest Day.
01:56:46
Speaker
um that that plays by take that oh and it is such it's actually the movie opens with that song like in the dancing club where where Inora works and but the film again hits that high with that song playing in the background.
01:57:05
Speaker
um as as she's getting together with this like young guy um and it's just so much fun and again to just kind of you know at that point that things are not gonna end well yeah but but just the slow kind of demise of things between you know all the characters involved and where it all goes and then the the just
01:57:36
Speaker
The ending of the film lays you out. I won't spoil anything about that sequence other than when the black screen hits every iota of air in the theater is just absolutely sucked out of it and all you're left hearing is like the windshield wipers going and it is so damn good um it just like lays it just levels you lays your ass out on the floor um
01:58:09
Speaker
But yeah, Sean Baker just nailed the hell out of that ending. Stuck the landing as as good as any film that I saw in the entirety of 2024.
01:58:21
Speaker
Totally agree. That ending is incredible. Yeah. Love, love, love it. or And yeah, excellent, excellent choice. And that brings us to number four. What is your number four film?
01:58:33
Speaker
My number four film is The Substance. and i let's let the Let the perversion continue. oh Coralee Fargee just directs the ah hell out of this film.
01:58:52
Speaker
it's a body horror movie like no other. um Basic premise is Demi Moore, who is phenomena phenomenal in the film. ah I didn't mention actresses, but there's just so many good ones this year, and Demi Moore is right up there with the best of them.
01:59:16
Speaker
ah She plays an older actress, surprise, surprise, um who is obviously like past her prime and being pushed out of the limelight. She is a, I don't want to call like ah not a yoga yoga instructor, but like some sort of a TV personality where she runs ah a fitness show, an exercise show, like you would commonly see back in the late 80s, 90s, you know, a Richard Simmons type of character. Transercising or something. Yes, exactly, you know, and and ah and so obviously like she's past her prime and so the the incredible Dennis Quaid, who is like the
01:59:59
Speaker
ah you know the stereotypical a-hole running the show is is interested to get her out and get in new blood you know like the new hotness and the film is so damn funny this could have easily been like even even though it steers way into like the body horror and the freaky weird stuff that the movie gets into oh it is it is a laugh out loud comedy uh like
02:00:32
Speaker
for all things, I was laughing my ass off the last third of this movie. And it's and it's not like ah you know like jokes landing funny. It is just pure insanity funny yeah yeah of like where the film, the situations that are presented are just so, for lack of a better term, bat shit crazy.
02:00:58
Speaker
and that I was having such a riot watching this in the theater oh and I actually would have seen the theater twice I would see it when it first came out then when I was in Chicago for the film festival, I got there early and and I had some extra time before some of the screenings I was gonna go see started, so I just wanted to see the substance for a second time, but yeah it's just so much fun. And again, like just the body horror elements are off the charts. ah There's a scene involving a New Year's Eve party that very well could have been in my, it should have been in like the scenes of the year. I didn't mention it because
02:01:40
Speaker
I knew I was going to be talking about it. Yeah. But it just just goes completely off the rails. And just when you think the movies like, you know, hit its max, like it can't get any wilder and saner, it just dials it up to an 11 and goes another, you know, further down the rabbit hole of craziness.
02:02:03
Speaker
And I just had such a good time with it. um The substance is one wild ride. If if Blood and gore are not your thing. You may not enjoy this movie. I will say that that this is a no holes bar. Like just, you know, everything in the kitchen sink is thrown at you in this film. So if you if you want to give it a go, be prepared for anything because you will see it.
02:02:33
Speaker
yeah
02:02:36
Speaker
Yes. Uh, I really liked the substance as well. This is not one that I had watched before voting. Um, but then I also, I really liked it. I, it was a like not a love for me, but I really, uh, I think the premise is great. Demi Moore and Margaret Qualley are incredible. Dennis Quaid is so hateable and and kind of fun in a way. Um, and, and I do wish that I'd seen it in a theater. I think with a crowd, this would be ah yeah a pretty different experience. I watched it at home. yeah Um,
02:03:06
Speaker
And yeah, and I appreciate so many things about it, like the premise and like all the the setup of how the substance works and all of that is really thrilling to figure out as you go. I found myself like like the ending is so nuts. And i I kind of was expecting the ending to, and maybe maybe some things went over my head for sure. I was hoping that the ending would tie in thematically with kind of the overall uh, you know, theme of, you know, the way Hollywood treats women and and that sort of thing where it seemed like it just went gonzo crazy, which is fun as well. And it does end with, well, I don't want to spoil anything, but I, I'll just say like at the beginning, there's the, um, yeah, the imagery with the, the, uh, Hollywood star sidewalk. yeah I thought that was really a very clever touch the way that starts. And then and it kind of comes back the way it comes back.
02:04:00
Speaker
it's true Punch me in the face like there's no way in a million years anybody could have ever predicted that ending would
02:04:11
Speaker
Yes, it's absolutely nuts. And the, yeah, so some of the twists, like I so i was, I don't know, there's a moment I'm trying not to spoil it, but like where I was like, Oh, I think I know what she's going to do. I think that the decision she's going to make, and it's probably going to go really bad and it does. And, but like still even knowing that it's going to go bad, you you're not prepared for what happens. There's no way you can be not prepared for what that movie brings.
02:04:40
Speaker
Yeah, a mad respect for it. ah Yeah, didn't make my list, but I really liked it a lot. I remember, I think I told you at the end, of the movie ends and the the credits roll and I just like stood up in the theater full of people and I just said out loud, well, F me.
02:05:00
Speaker
movie was And i don't I don't know if if like kind of ah on the immaculate side, people had as much fun with that movie as I did. like Because to be once immaculate got into the third act, like I was just like, okay, we're just here to have fun. like I'm not taking any of this seriously.
02:05:20
Speaker
and and you just sit back and enjoy the but ride you know and just laugh your ass off if you're if you're taking it like serious um you know obviously you're gonna be like oh god this is you know this is like a living nightmare and but if you're if you're skewing towards like oh yeah i'm just i'm just here to have fun with this And you can get, uh, you can have a ah ah hell of a good time with the substance. Yeah. And yeah, and to be clear, so like we split on immaculate a bit just because I, yeah, what are my the seriousness what that movie is doing. Yeah. exactly I wish it had been more serious, I guess, but I, with the substance, I was fully like along for that and was, yeah, laughing and and enjoying, as cringing and grimacing, I guess more than anything, but yeah. here Yeah. Yeah.
Insights on 'Nickel Boys'
02:06:12
Speaker
All right, well, let's move on. Time for my number four, which is the movie, Nickel Boys. And, uh, I, yeah, it was just really surprised by this. I actually did not know the, the sort of, I want to say gimmick. It makes it sound cheap because it's really powerful, yeah but it's, ah as I mentioned earlier, it's all in first person POV shots or almost all. Um, another beautiful film could have mentioned that in the photography.
02:06:41
Speaker
Gorgeous. Yes, absolutely. Gorgeous cinematography. um yeah The first person thing sounds like it would be like too much or like it would get old or something, but it really doesn't. They do some surprising things with it. um It's not really a spoiler to say, but I was surprised when it happened, like that you shift perspective to other characters. yeah where Now we're seeing through someone else's eyes and like the moments when that happens are are really intentional and um but there's also almost like documentary sort of style or it's showing you some footage of Martin Luther King or um Some you know other historical footage or photos and that sort of thing and it so what the story is is these two that really this the main character is who were with for the first long section of the film and his name is Elwood and
02:07:35
Speaker
kind of in the wrong place at the wrong time, gets his you know very promising educational opportunity that he's headed to, gets cut short, he's arrested, and goes to this juvenile camp, essentially, ah called, ah what is it, is it just Nickel nickel Academy? um Which is segregated, and so he's in with the other black students who are all there for you know, various crimes and misdemeanors. And of course, he's been wrongfully accused, he's done nothing wrong. and This is based on a true, so the film is based on a novel, a nonfiction novel sort of, but and Nickel Academy is not a true place, but there were very similar places that this is sort of an amalgamation of some true things that have happened. And he becomes very good friends
02:08:29
Speaker
Go ahead and say, I'm sorry. I was just going to say it's the, the, the school is in Florida. It's the Dozier school for boys. Yes. Yeah. So that it's, it's based on that real place. Um, he becomes good friends with Turner played, played by Brandon Wilson, uh, and then on Janelle's tellers, his mother Hattie. And, um, it's just incredibly emotional throughout, uh, and the script is incredible.
02:08:55
Speaker
the ending I did not see coming at all. um And it's it's surprising, but it's not like it's a you know a cheap twist or something. It just is, um it drives things home in an even stronger way than what we've seen up to that point. um And there ah ends up being some we we i and I don't want to spoil because some of these things were surprises to me, but like the timeline is not what you initially expect it to be. um Yeah, I was just really taken aback. This is directed by Ramel Ross ah and incredible, incredible film. Highly, highly recommend Nickel Boys.
02:09:38
Speaker
Yeah, a great movie. This is a movie that I need to revisit. um I actually went down to Savannah to see this. I got to a ticket and went to Savannah Film Festival for this one. um And I ah drove the four hours from Charlotte to Savannah and then like went right into my screening of Nickel Boys. So I was, I think I'd like worked and then drove and then went right into my screening at six, like six o'clock in the evening. So I was pretty tired. um And I need to give this movie like another shake because I was struggling to, it is on the slower side as far as cinema goes. Yeah, and it's pretty long. Yeah, it's 100 minutes.
02:10:22
Speaker
Yeah, it's just know not quite and two and a half hours, but there were some stretches through the film that I was like really struggling to kind of like stay awake. um So this is a movie I would love to revisit, but yeah, in an excellent film. I did miss some parts of it. I was tired. I was trying to keep my eyes open and pinching myself. I've been there many times. Yeah.
02:10:47
Speaker
but But yeah, everything that you're saying about the the camera work and the point of view ah perspectives that the film ah you know kind of plays around with, um all excellent stuff. And even just finding out, you know kind of like as the film goes, you realize like one of the characters is actually like typing up and like Google searching some of the stuff and you're like this is all like real like this all happened and of course it's based on a book that a lot of people know I have not I have not read the book oh but but all
02:11:26
Speaker
you know, based on actual events. The school in Florida is a real school where, you know, just like some terrible abuses, um, you know, took place and, uh, yeah, just some sickening stuff that, uh, you know, like, again, some of the documentaries that we, you know, talked about earlier, sugar cane, you know, it just makes you kind of sick.
02:11:52
Speaker
ah to think about some of the things that people went through and to kind of share in their experience, especially how Nickel Boys presents, um you know, that with the with the camera work, like you were talking about. Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, let's move on to your number three. Number three was my number one film.
02:12:22
Speaker
at the halfway point, and that was Dune Part 2. I originally labeled this as a perfect movie. My review on my blog and and my original post, I left it at a 10 out of 10. And I talk in my review about how this is but this is like basically a perfect movie.
02:12:49
Speaker
um And I stand by that assessment, even though um the the next film in my rankings ah is, I don't have it as a 10 out of 10. And so that may be a little bit of a contradiction on my behalf.
02:13:07
Speaker
on my behalf ah But Dune Part 2 is just a technical masterpiece. It is so, so good. A superior film than the first Dune, in my opinion, of course. ah But the vision that Denis Villeneuve has for both the films, but you know especially now this sequel, is so strong and his ability to adapt What most people considered an adaptable material? um And make this world that's something that that I like talk about in my review that I wrote is just how When when cinema was basically like invented? They had no way of knowing that what a powerful medium it would be in taking people to other places whether it's to you know, like
02:14:04
Speaker
you know, Tatooine and Star Wars or onto the beaches of Normandy and and saving Pride of Ryan or, you know, any of the places that human imagination could go. And now we have the planet Arrakis that we can visit in this fully fleshed out, this world feels so real and lived in and to see the journey of Paul Atreides,
02:14:33
Speaker
um and the the the work that Timothy Chalamet does in embodying this character and the prophecy and how he's struggling against like, you know, where he knows things have to go in the story. I just found that the the the second half of this, the main, I guess, book ah to be so gratifying and just ah engaging on so many levels oh that that even though like I kind of backed off of it as far as being you know like my favorite movie of the year um in terms of like my emotional investment in the film and just like
02:15:25
Speaker
Will this be a movie that I watch every winter like I do, you know, The Lord of the Rings or something? Probably not. and ah But it is just such a well-crafted and directed ah film in pretty much every aspect of the filmmaking involved. that the It's just, yeah, I have to, you know, flirt with the word masterpiece pretty hard when I talk about you know, both of the dude movies, but especially this second part. oh Yeah. And in the way he concludes that, that
Themes in 'I Saw the TV Glow'
02:16:03
Speaker
story. I mean, it is, it is just so good. I completely agree with everything you're saying. I loved in part two. Um, and I do think it's, you know, as we look at some of the great sci-fi movies ever made, I think it belongs in that, in that group. i that really conversations
02:16:21
Speaker
Yeah, the the second one is incredible. And not just visually and story wise, what you're saying, but like thematically, you know, all the stuff about, is he the savior because he's actually chosen? Or is he making political moves? And like how that all plays out is really arresting. And yeah, I mean, the the first thing I think about is just some of the visuals, ah the the fight with Austin Butler in that first sequence, we see him and I mean, even just the opening, we have these sort of soldiers like floating, floating up in there in the screen. It just, yeah, there's so many great, great visual moments. And of course the sandworms and that sequence when he first arrived, oh my gosh, I'm getting goosebumps thinking about it. Like it's such a, such a good movie. oh So yeah, great choice. ah You know, should have been on my list. Maybe I'm talking ah a lot about it really liked it. But no, I really liked it. But wasn't, wasn't quite on my list.
02:17:15
Speaker
my number three film of the year was also my number one at the halfway point. It's I Saw the TV Glow. And I still love this movie. I just saw a couple things I connected with really, really strongly um that we'll talk about in a minute. and But ah I saw the TV glow. He's a strange movie. Um, I think a lot of people expected it to be more straightforward horror and it's not, it's really, uh, slow and methodical and moody. Um, the director, Jane Schoenbrunn also directed, we're all going to the world's fair.
02:17:48
Speaker
Did a podcast where I talk about both of these films a few months back, so check that out. um But it follows Owen, played by Justice Smith, and Maddie, played by Brigitte Lundy Payne. And they are kind of awkward teenagers who find each other as friends. And they're both obsessed with this TV show called The Pink Opaque, which is sort of a Buffy-style ah kind of sci-fi horror show.
02:18:14
Speaker
And they just, it's their favorite thing in the world. They say things like, this show feels more real than real life. And they just have this mysterious kind of connection with it. And then Maddie disappears one day and both of them have sort of troubled relationships, troubled home lives, I guess. And Owen is left thinking, where is she? And and when she comes back, what the things she's saying are very confusing and they are related to this TV show.
02:18:43
Speaker
So that's kind of the gist without getting into too much detail but it's just I found first of all visually and and just like the but the tone and the the color palette and the music also arresting and ah just the mood that it evokes is really um unique and and incredible.
02:19:09
Speaker
And ah then thematically what it's doing is really interesting too. it's So Jane Schoenbrunn is a trans filmmaker and it theres There's, I think probably the primary reading of this is as a sort of a trans allegory, ah but it's similar to, and I've talked about this in the podcast before, similar to how The Matrix, you know, works on this level because The Matrix is also made by trans filmmakers. And that's a really ah prominent reading of that film is, you know, the the gender dysphoria sort of journey of that.
02:19:42
Speaker
ah what Neo is going through. But of course the Matrix works on so many other levels too. So I think this does a kind of a similar thing where the metaphor definitely applies to that, but you can feel it in other ways depending on you know who you are watching it. um But I found it really powerful. Talked about the scene I really love. I think the ending is, ah it's mysterious. you know David Lynch just recently passed, very lynchy and ending. And Gene Schoenbrunn is a big fan of David Lynch and has gone on record talking about that.
02:20:11
Speaker
um But yeah, this just really, really worked for me and ah is one i've I've watched a couple more times since then I just kind of keeps me coming back and I really like it a lot. So that's I saw the TV glow.
02:20:25
Speaker
Yeah, you had to wait for your Blu-ray copy. but That's right, yeah. Oh, yeah. Speaking of buying each other movies, you order two, and they only sit one, and then, yeah. But it came eventually, but. Took a hot minute for it to show up, but I got it. Yeah, very a very, ah like a time capsule of a movie that's so fascinating. Yeah, oh yeah, that too. Because, you know, like in this day and age, you, you, ah you know, they, they,
02:20:54
Speaker
usually drop like whole series that you can just stream all at once or whatever. Whereas like if you experience the 90s like I did and that you did for the most part like shows would drop once a week and you had to go sit down in front of your TV at that exact time Or you didn't watch it, right? like you Or you just never see it. Exactly. Or, I mean, you're like, obviously, BCR, like, you you could record it and then watch it. Maybe a friend taped it. Yeah. yeah But, uh, but, uh, you know, just that experience of like, okay, so there's like late night shows that only come on like Saturday at 10 30 or whatever, and you'd have to go and, and you know, set, set, uh,
02:21:41
Speaker
your time aside that specific time and day for your favorite shows and just sitting like in in a darkened room like ah you know like again like a late night, Saturday night, Friday night, Sunday night show that you would watch. ah There's so many of those like Eerie Indiana and There was a show called Monsters, I remember coming on like super late on the weekends. ah There was like an old CBS show that I got up like a couple of times and watched. ah So many of those kind of like weird shows like The Pink Opaque, which I believe is just like a fictional show, oh but created just for the movie. But there was a lot of things like that that existed back then that,
02:22:29
Speaker
is just like so cool to see a movie made in how, you know, how how kind of a weird and wild the story goes and, you know, exploring that premise of how, like, you know, almost kind of like trance, and again, getting into with the allegory of like trance, but also like transforming, like,
02:22:59
Speaker
to sit there at night and the film actually depicts it as such as kind of an out of body experience. um yeah you know Just like the glow of the TV is the only light in the room. ah It's just such a cool, cool movie. really Really, really entertaining film that I look forward to going back and kind of revisiting.
02:23:26
Speaker
Absolutely. Loved it so much.
Family Drama 'Ghost Light'
02:23:28
Speaker
um That is my number three. What's your number two? Number two film of 2024 was for me in the sad movie or the at least the movie that got me to cry the most.
02:23:48
Speaker
And that was the movie Ghostlight. We mentioned it a little earlier, my favorite my favorite actor acting performance of the year with Keith Kupfer. But it's such a powerful and affecting film. oh It explores ah the Romeo and Juliet, but you know, like,
02:24:11
Speaker
uh it's been done in a million different movies uh but it explores it in kind of a different aspect uh so so just quickly kind of cover the the main actor keith comforter he plays a father in the movie and i don't know if you even know this but his wife is His actual wife in real life and their daughter in the movie is their daughter in real life. So it's like a family ah Playing a family like a family of actors playing a family in the movie of a father wife and daughter and So Keith come for he plays a
02:25:05
Speaker
ah a father, a husband and father, who's kind of looking for an outlet. And he ends up kind of getting reeled in ah by um a woman that runs a local theater played by the but lady from ah Triangle of Sadness, Dali de Leon.
02:25:32
Speaker
ah yeah She plays one of the characters in Triangle of Sadness, ah but she also plays in in Ghost Light a theater, kind of like a theater production manager. Her name is Rita in the film, and she kind of reels Keith's character and his name is Dan in the movie and more or less like kind of gets him this like older father husband emotionally closed off but she starts reeling him into this play production he just kind of like sits in it first um and you you don't really understand there's like some some background things that have happened that you don't until like the second act
02:26:20
Speaker
really kind of quite get ah ah an understanding of what's going on behind the scenes and like some of the things that this ah this father has dealt with in the past. oh And it's all building up towards the third act, which is like a stage play of Romeo and Juliet and Keith's involved in this stage production. And his interaction with his wife um who begins to suspect like why you know like what's going on is he having an affair and His daughter who is also like kind of an actress in like some school plays ends up getting involved in the same theater production um but where it all goes and once the the pin kind of drops as far as you finding out the aspects of
02:27:14
Speaker
their lives and some of the things that they've went through and then it goes into the the Romeo and Juliet play and it is just devastating on every level like I cried so many times through that third act once once it you know once the the the whole explanation of what's going on drops and you have to see him working through and processing his emotions uh you know it just like leaves you curled up in a ball on the floor weeping profusely in a puddle but it's just so good as much as uh like some of the other films like his three daughters will really get you like on an emotional level
02:28:05
Speaker
Ghostlight topped it for me for the year as far as just being that one ah and fantastic little movie that's just so emotionally effective and it wasn't emotionally like I didn't feel like it being the manipulative um kind of melodrama Uh, it was just a very sweet and, you know, nice family drama that, you know, just rips your heart apart.
02:28:44
Speaker
but agree I really got to watch ghost line. I can't believe it. Yeah. From IFC. So, you know, not a lot of fanfare, not a lot of publicity, not a lot of marketing out there for it, but a great movie.
02:28:58
Speaker
up there with the best films of the year. Seek it out, watch it when you can.
'Heretic' Revisited
02:29:02
Speaker
So good. All right. That is your number two. So it's time for my number two, which is heretic. So you mentioned earlier wow and, uh, I just loved this movie so much. It, uh, you know, I always connect with things that have to do with like faith and doubt and, uh, especially in the horror context sometimes. yeah And, uh, Yeah. so But I just really connected with this right off the bat. And it it was about ah Sophie Thatcher, who plays Sister Barnes and Chloe East's Sister Paxton. They're just sitting on a bench talking at first of the way they're communicating. They're actually talking about sex and pornography a little bit and kind of the funny ways they think about those things.
02:29:53
Speaker
um just reminded me of people that I've known, you know, so much, like people I went to college with and stuff. Because she's saying something about the, she felt so sad for the performers and the pornography she was seeing. Yeah. But she also recognized the real connection that might've been there. Just so funny, like out of over-spiritualizing everything. Exactly. Yeah. I didn't grow up Mormon. The moment that God was real.
02:30:22
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. That's what she says. So it's so, uh, so interesting on that level. Um, but then of course they go as missionaries, they knock on this man's door and we have Hugh Grant giving this incredible performance as Mr. Reed. And, um, they're just dancing around like, Oh, we can't come in if your wife's not here. yeah And oh, he's almost, she's in the other room. Don't worry about it.
02:30:45
Speaker
Uh, and then, uh,
02:30:49
Speaker
but quickly, yeah you quickly understand he's not being truthful about at least some things. And, uh, as I mentioned earlier, we get this sequence where he's sort of teaching them about history and history of religion and and stuff. And, um, all of that was so interesting and also the ways they're kind of.
02:31:07
Speaker
Picking at it are valid too. And so I just think the script is really, really well done. oh yeah um Clearly written by some ex-religious people who yeah are really smart. yeah um But then I also like, again, I want to spoil the ending. And I think some of the horror stuff, ive there's a lot of different reactions to this. A lot of people really didn't like it. um And I think the kind of the horror elements of it maybe don't work for everyone. um And because it gets a little It's a little unexpected and a little it almost seems like it's getting off track in a way But I i felt like it all came together in the end pretty well yeah um And the kind of the point that he wants to make ah Hugh Grant's character um Which you know you initially feel like oh, this is this is the opinion of the filmmakers and maybe it is But it does undercut that in the final moment as well in a way that I thought ah Was really clever
02:32:04
Speaker
calls back to something else that that had been talked about in the movie and ah doesn't give just such a you know overbearing you know one view of you know whether it's organized religion as a whole or kind of what they're involved in. um Yeah, so I just like that it balanced the the sort of critiques a bit with that. Authors found it to be a thrilling movie and and ah yeah, all the performers were great. um Sophie Thatcher is fantastic as well. It's always employees, but yeah. So I really, really loved Heretic. As soon as I got like 10 minutes in, I was like, oh yeah, this is for me. i'm Glad you encouraged me to watch it. I think, yeah, I think after I saw it, I said to the Jurassic Park if
02:32:51
Speaker
He's like, it's right up your alley. Yeah, exactly. You're right. Yeah. yeah So it was your number, or what, eight you said? My number eight. Yeah. I mean, immediately, of course, the the the girls that are depicted in the film are Mormon. um And so they are visiting Hugh Grant ah as you know they're they're doing their proselytizing or their evangelical work.
02:33:18
Speaker
And you know there's not a lot of people out there that can relate to going into somebody's home and sitting with them on their couch and trying to discuss the Bible with them. like you know There's not a lot of people that do that. you know There are some, obviously. And I'm pretty sure you are somebody that's done that. And I am somebody that has done that.
02:33:43
Speaker
And yeah to like watch these two girls like you know basically, like put we can put ourselves in their shoes because we've been there so many times before. And obviously, like I've spoken to a lot of people that you know, a lot of like normal people, and quote unquote normal people, ah you know, they're they're just like, yeah, no, just get off my porch. I don't have managed to talk about it. But the weirdos, the weirdos, the ones with all the crazy, shenanigan ideas and all the um conspiracy theorists, they're the ones that want to talk with you. They're the ones that want to tell you all about what they've got going on between their ears.
02:34:30
Speaker
And, uh, like I immediately could identify, uh, with, with the characters once, uh, once things started to go off the rails. Um, you know, I, I knew, uh, I knew things were not going to end well. This is not going to end great. Uh, but, uh, and even as I won't spoil anything more about the movie, but yeah, it's, uh, at least for for me an extremely relatable premise. I found all this stuff about the religious themes and and all that stuff was so well thought out and instructed.
Epic Tale 'The Brutalist'
02:35:08
Speaker
ah The game of cat and mouse that you know yeah that Hugh Grant is playing with these girls is is really fascinating. And and yeah the third act definitely didn't wane as far as once it kind of gets into
02:35:23
Speaker
the actual horror elements of it. The first two acts were by far the more engaging for me. Yeah, I agree. ah But but yeah, still a really excellent film as far as, you know, thrilling horror ah with the religious aspects woven in there. um You know, i just utterly fascinating stuff for me. And yeah, you know,
02:35:51
Speaker
a great year for horror man you can't can't deny it yeah it really was nice i'm glad you loved heretic too um yeah so good well that's my number two so it's time for your number one and i have no idea what you're gonna say you have no idea because you have not seen it yet oh i do know it is then yeah you uh you We'll know soon enough why it is my number one Because I'm sure you get to watch it pretty soon here but the a lot of people have not seen this movie because it is not widely available it's just now starting to break into some theaters and Get a wider release because a 24 is gonna be pushing this bad boy for a best picture win um And that is the brutalist
02:36:44
Speaker
i Flew up to Chicago with the sole purpose of seeing this film because I popped up on my radar I think coming out of tiff and the Buzz was strong that this was a this was a big-time movie And I was not disappointed the brutalist is an epic film and when I say epic I mean it in terms of how the film covers a character's journey um you know through like time and space in a way that not many films capture.
02:37:26
Speaker
ah you know i This movie, um when I walked out of the theater, and it's drawn a lot of comparisons to the film sense, but There Will Be Blood is another film that kind of covers a character's journey through time,
02:37:42
Speaker
in space and in such a kind of a wide angle lens view, like ah like a macro view of this person's journey. And just to quickly kind of cover what the film is about, Adrien Brody, ah who is utterly fantastic, as I already mentioned,
02:38:10
Speaker
is an immigrant. He is immigrating to the United States. ah from He's Jewish. He immigrates sometime post-World War II. I think it's ah think if it doesn't say it in the film, it's got to be right around the 50s, the late 40s or the early 50s. And it just kind of tracks his journey as he comes to the United States He meets up with his cousin in Pennsylvania and his wife and his niece are left behind in Europe. And he comes here. He ends up going to work with his cousin who manufactures furniture and so has like a furniture store. And he gets involved with a character, ah kind of a wealthy benefactor played by Guy Pearce.
02:39:08
Speaker
who is incredible and and in a lot of ways hilarious in his supporting role. He is just so damn funny. And they begin to have a relationship as like Guy Pierce wants to build this kind of like mega structure for his small town in Pennsylvania.
02:39:33
Speaker
um Of like a religious center, but also like a ah community center with like, you know basketball courts and prayer rooms and like all like this massive and He figures out that that Adrian Brody isn't isn't used to be an architect and so it's this journey that you follow this this character that's you know was an architect before and the war before the Holocaust and now attracts his journey and his relationship with Guy Pearce as they start working on this project together and and where all that relationship goes and it is just as epic of a story
02:40:22
Speaker
and in its scope as they come. I'm not gonna get further into the plot and what happens. There's some just incredible scenes with Felicity Jones in the second ah half of the film. She's not in the first half at all, but eventually she does come to America. And and it just, it more or less kind of shows how um the American dream you know it's not all that it's cracked up to be. ah People like want to come here ah to escape different you know governments, regimes, whatever. And even in the the imagery of the mill at the film's like poster, you see the Statue of Liberty ah like either like sideways or upside down, depending on... you know I can't remember the the actual poster at the top of my head, but it presents that imagery in a way
02:41:19
Speaker
that you know really depicts how freedom and the land of the free is is not as good of a country as I feel like the United States is. like It is not a perfect place to live. It is not without its flaws. It is not without those it will prey on and take advantage of others.
02:41:43
Speaker
ah And it's just such a powerful and moving film. I can't really say enough good things about it. It is utterly fantastic. And it was worth the ah trip and the time that I spent to go to Chicago. I left just stunned beyond belief. And so happy that I made time for it because it ended up being a really, really tough movie to try and catch, you know, because A24 still got the reins held on it pretty tight. Yeah, yeah.
02:42:14
Speaker
But a fantastic film. Go check it out. It will be in the top, probably two or three contenders for Best Picture. I just got to see it. It actually played in Little Rock for one night where a Cinema Society brought it. And I just couldn't make it that night. And I was so bummed that I couldn't go. It's a more movie. Fortunately, they do have an intermission. It's like it's got a 15-minute intermission, wo like worked right into the film. So it pops up.
02:42:42
Speaker
And it just does a countdown going on the screen so you can go use the restroom and take a little break if you need something to drink, whatever. I'm hoping so. Usually with Oscar stuff, they'll bring the best picture contenders back to theaters and stuff. So maybe I can catch it on the big screen then. But yeah, wow. It's just not wasted here in Charlotte. So I just posted my review finally just last this last week. But yeah, go catch it if it starts hitting theaters nearby.
Celebrating 'Nosferatu'
02:43:11
Speaker
Yes, yes. Wow. Well, then it's time for my number one, which we already know if you're if you're paying close attention, it is Nosferatu from Robert Eggers. And I just fell in love with this movie so quickly. I i knew I would like it. A big fan of Robert Eggers, loved the witch, really liked the lighthouse and the Northman as well. I just really liked the vision that he brings to things. yeah And you know when I heard he was making this, I actually didn't even see a trailer I know you do that often where you don't watch the trailer to kind of yeah be surprised by things. And I was just like you know what I think when I'll hold back and and not even have a hint of what this is going to feel like.
02:43:55
Speaker
um And I think it's his best film since The Witch. I think ah he brings so much of the, he obviously has this love for history and and kind of bringing um a time and place that is unfamiliar to us modern audiences and bringing it to the screen with as much authenticity as he can.
02:44:18
Speaker
um and And Obviously, the story of Nosferatu is a well-known-ish story. I actually had not seen any of the previous versions of Nosferatu, but i you know I knew it's but originally based on Dracula and all of that.
02:44:34
Speaker
um But what he does here is so incredible. ah I think it's my favorite cinematography of the year. um There's so many incredible points where it's it's sort of calling back to early cinema of the, the you know, 20s and or even earlier, and the way things look and the coloring of things.
02:44:57
Speaker
Um, there's just some incredible Shots, I think often of the the sequence in the forest near the beginning where nicholas holt is approaching the castle and it's this dark forest with just this one a pulls up pathway And such incredible stuff and I mean the soundtrack is incredible the score Is uh, just basically perfect all the performances I think are incredible. Um Yeah, just the use of light and dark, uh When the Nosferatu shows up, Count Orlok, you first meet him and the way it's, he's, you know, coming in and out of frame in ways that are physically impossible and um the camera work with all of that.
02:45:41
Speaker
yeah And Nicholas Holt is so incredible and and he's a bigger role than, a much bigger role than I expected actually um in the film. And Lily Rose Depp, I already talked about at length, is ah just and and makes the movie even though there's so many other things that make the movie too. I mean, Bill Skarsgard, for God's sake, like what he's doing is Absolutely out of control as well. And I i think it's I think it was smart that they withheld what his character design looks like yeah ah Because I mean out of context it might even kind of be silly or something but in the content of the movie it's so terrifying and Like the moments when you are first seeing him in the firelight and then when you you get a full view of him popping out of the coffin ah fairly early on so frightening
02:46:31
Speaker
um It's also, it's really scary, but it's also very emotional. Like there's some some stakes and some deaths that I didn't expect to happen that yeah were really tough. And then it leads up to this epic finale that it's it's just mind blowing and and the the visuals of that finale are incredible.
02:46:54
Speaker
Willem Dafoe's character and all his dealings with everyone are so fun. like It's not a movie with a lot of levity. and he doesn't even like He has a couple of like funny lines, but more than anything, it's just like his energy brings something I think important to like the tone of the film.
02:47:11
Speaker
um yeah it' I can go, I just feel like creatively, it's just firing on all cylinders in a way that I knew pretty quickly, like, Oh, this is way up there on my list. And, uh, ultimately made it all the way to the top. Loved it so much. Oh yeah. if you read anything why did you have it What's that? You had it at what? Six. Five. Yeah. my top five Yeah. I mean, if you know anything about Robert Eggers, you know that he crafts his movies to perfection and.
02:47:40
Speaker
You could not have asked for this movie to be crafted any more perfectly. Like, really, you there's nothing pretty much that he could have done better. Like, the the world that he takes you to, you know, like Eastern Europe, you know, 1800s Romania, where, like, is I believe where, um you know, the the vampire story originated.
02:48:09
Speaker
And so it really kind of like you mentioned delves you takes you right into this like Time and place that is ah you know, it harkens back to the original like vampire stories and tales and And it just feels so real the castle and the You know, you it puts you in the the perspective of the Nicholas whole character character and how you know, he's he's like falling asleep and waking up and You're you're losing your kind of like sense of what's what's real here and what's not ah But it's just so affecting and and even though I you know, I've heard that it doesn't um
02:49:07
Speaker
really do much as far as like taking its own version of the original Nosferatu movie, which I just bought and I haven't watched it yet. ah But I did buy the 1922 version and I've got it on my watch list, so I'm gonna be plugging that in here pretty soon. It doesn't you know like just do its own thing with that story.
02:49:34
Speaker
you know, it it more or less like kind of fleshes out this world and and makes it so much bigger than like the original story did, but it and more or less like hits all the same story beats um of like that.
02:49:48
Speaker
that that calling to the darkness, you know, just like the the tagline from the movie, succumb to the darkness, you know, that Lily Rose Depp's character is is going through and his, ah you know, Count Orlock, Bill Skarsgard's craving for her.
02:50:09
Speaker
ah You know, but just playing with that dynamic and flushing out that world and just making everything so real and lived in and and And just so much fun, even though it's like dark and disturbing and horrific But it's just at the same time like so engaging and so much fun ah to be transported and and you know going on the journey with them. It's what a great time. I've seen it twice now. When I first screamed and then I went to see it in Dolby and it was just so, so captivated both times I've seen it.
02:50:53
Speaker
I've seen it twice as well. i watched I had a screener and I watched it at home and I was like, I got to see this on the big screen. So I met and watched it it with a friend and the, yeah, you you mentioned the Dolby. I was going to say three quick things. One, the sound design, especially the sound of drinking blood. yeah yeah Absolutely insane. It's so cool and like so like creepy and scary. um I would just say the opening sequence, I absolutely love. um It just pulls you in and and kind of grabs you and freaks you out in the first 30 seconds. yeah
02:51:27
Speaker
ah but then also The live rats he really had all these rats running around on set like just the commitment to that and uh Yeah, that's a incredible visual touch and you know, i've read different things about Apparently they smelled horrible and like it was like a real challenge for the production But uh, yeah, we're willing to talk about how like the rats are all like super nice and sweet and they'd like stand up and look around And he's like kind of walk through him and try not to like step on the rats
02:51:59
Speaker
It was just like an all over the floor in that one scene. oh But yeah, just to ah yeah a film that's crafted and you know so transportive. Yeah, it's just you can't really say enough good things about the technicals. I think Behind the Grow with the Needle in Nosferatu is my number two, as far as cinematography goes, just a gorgeous film.
02:52:28
Speaker
every way that a movie can be. So many sequences that just you know will will stay with you for months and months after you've seen the film. So good.
02:52:41
Speaker
Absolutely. I had it on a bunch of my first score was number two, cinematography, number one, adapted screenplay. I had it number two just behind Nickel Boys. I'm hoping that it gets some serious Oscar nominations. It could pull four or five technicals.
02:52:59
Speaker
uh, this coming on Thursday when Oscar out nominations are announced. And, uh, and if it gets this Thursday, wow, I will be like, it has an outside chance of making the Oscar best picture list. And I will be absolutely blown. I will lose my mind. If it makes the best picture lineup, I will go bat shit crazy. I will be screaming and yelling. It'll be a wild time, but I hope it pulls it off.
02:53:27
Speaker
Well, there you have it. That's our top 10. I think we both had a great list. Do you have any honorable mentions? I had a couple. I actually did have Dune part two in my top 15. Challengers was up there for a minute, but I ended up squeezing out. I almost had Flow in my top 10 as well, the animated.
02:53:48
Speaker
Um, but it ended up, think it was like rearranging those last few, uh, before voting. And, uh, uh, and I think baby girl might've been in the conversation too. Had I seen it before, maybe not top 10, but like definitely right outside. Um, yeah. What about you? Any honorable mentions? We've covered most of them. Wilson Grumman was right outside of my top 10. And noura we we already talked about that his three daughters. We talked about, uh, femme was in my top 15.
02:54:17
Speaker
That is such a good movie. I've already talked about it previously, ah but you know people um shouldn't sleep on that movie because it is it's ah another small movie like Ghost Light um that just you know not a lot of people are are making the time for, but it is And that is, that's an Andrew Swetman movie. if they're ever in going like it yeah If you would watch them, you would, you would have toyed hard with that one in your, in your top 10 list. Uh, but femme is an excellent, excellent film. Uh, like rounded on my top 20, how to have sex. You know, we mentioned.
02:54:58
Speaker
Hundreds of Beavers, Conclave. Conclave is a great group. I still haven't watched Conclave either. I just had that Blu-ray. Yeah, the other day, I wanted to watch it another time, a second time, other than what I would see in the theaters. And Conclave is, it's a really just well-rounded film. It's not like the greatest film of the year, but it's just solid and, you know,
02:55:22
Speaker
Ray Fiennes and like the cast is great and the script is great. Edward Berger directs, you know, his follow-up to All Quiet on the Western Front. So, you know, great writing, directing, just a ah ah well paste, uh, in constructed movie. Uh, that one is streaming now on peacock. And then also I was going to say film is streaming on Hulu. I just got out. So yeah, some availability out there for a couple of those. yeah Um, more thanly check out if you get a chance. Oh, and, and we talked about it earlier too. Bird was like right around my top 20, the outrun and bird, some smaller movies.
02:56:04
Speaker
Yeah. I had the outrun in my top five at the halfway point. I really actually liked it. So I recommend that one to you. Yep. Good movies to check out. Let me get a chance.
02:56:18
Speaker
Well, you won the bet here with two in common, so I guess I owe you a movement. We'll have to work. Nicely done. Nicely done. I, you know, I, for a minute, I was like, maybe, maybe I could pull through with three. I didn't know if you would have heretic, actually, or no fraud, too. I, I wouldn't, when we had those, I was like, maybe I'll pull it. I thought you might have a Nora, actually. It was just outside. i mean That's one that I had in my top 10, but then after watching,
02:56:47
Speaker
a couple other films. ah The Girl with the Needle I watched and then I think Nosferatu and then it ended up getting bumped out. now I was like uh yeah because I wanted to talk a door after I first saw it I was like oh yes I'm gonna get to talk to North but I still I knew that like I had a few watches left for December and yeah a couple of those movies bumped up to door down the list far a little bit farther so i
02:57:20
Speaker
oh Well, thank you so much, Russell, as always, for the coming on for the list show. we If we cut it off in just a minute, we'll be out out under three hours. and Well, we we shaved an hour off of our two, because we wanted to do this in two shows, yeah so we shaved it down an hour.
02:57:44
Speaker
Well, keep an eye on the podcast. um I'm going to, you know, now that I'm back in the saddle, keep things going and excited for the movie year ahead. Thank you again, Russell, for coming back on the show and helping me get things going again. Always love a top 10 show. and And this was so