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The Best Films of 2025
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Arthouse Garage host Andrew Sweatman and film critic Russell Miller share their top 10 films of 2025
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Transcript
Introduction to Art House Garage and Russell Miller
00:00:08
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 Swetman. And today on the show, we're counting down our top 10 films of 2025.
00:00:24
Speaker
Joining us once again is North Carolina film critic Russell Miller. Stick around.
Discussing 2025 Movies and Podcast Updates
00:00:35
Speaker
Welcome back to Arthouse Garage. 2025 has come to a close and, you know, I've got some mixed feelings about the year as a whole, but there were some good movies and that's what we're here to talk about today. My guest and I are going to run through our top 10 films of the year and also mention some of our other movie favorites, favorite performances, screenplays, scores, etc.
00:00:55
Speaker
Joining me today is Russell Miller, film critic for North Carolina, who's graced this show with his presence many times. Russell is a member of the North Carolina Film Critics Association. You can find his writing on various film outlets online and find him on Twitter and Instagram at MoviesMillers. Welcome back to the show, Russell Miller, and how have you been?
00:01:14
Speaker
I'm doing great. I am busy, busy, but you know that no matter how much chaos reigns in my life, I will find time, slice it out of my life to make sure that we can do a top 10 list.
00:01:28
Speaker
Absolutely. take me of like like yeah yeah so i I knew we could count on this and, you know, but the podcast has been. the podcast output has been slower than usual here the last several months and year or whatever but I want to always make sure I do a top 10 and you know hopefully can find a new rhythm to get back into something more regular but had to do a top 10 and had to have you on for it so I'm always glad to have you back But yeah, so we're going to do kind of our usual thing. We're going to do our top 10, starting at 10 down to one and back and forth.
00:02:06
Speaker
um And if someone has the same movie higher up on the list, we'll interrupt each other so that ah person who has it higher can have sort of the first first and go at it. And then we'll also look at the rest of our, or some honorable mentions of different things. I have a couple of performances going to mention that were my favorites of the year.
Movie List Predictions and Frantic Viewing
00:02:27
Speaker
just kind of the other things on my film critics ballot basically is what i'm gonna run through do we want to do a wager this time we we haven't talked about this that's fine no i mean i i won last year i beat you uh i think we had what did i pick did pick three i don't even remember how many yeah remember the wager is how many movies will we have in common whoever gets it right that's right get some and last Oh, no, we had... yet I think I picked two, and we had two. We had Nosferatu and Heretic.
00:03:04
Speaker
Yeah, those were the two we had. Overlapping. And then Loser Vice, the winner of Blu-ray of some kind. yeah is the the wait you So yeah, let's do it. ah yeah you were just saying but But I won last year, so you get to you get to pick this year. How many do you think but you have in common? Yeah, i' looking at my list, I feel like we might have...
00:03:25
Speaker
I'm going to say three again. Three of these I think might be on your list. I feel pretty good about, but I could be wrong. i don't know. well I'll say three. I'll say three.
00:03:36
Speaker
I'll go with two. I'm a little skeptical, but that's only because don't know what you got to watch since you voted. That was kind of like through the holidays and everything. I've kind of finished up wrapping because our voting is just starting, whereas yours ended like three weeks ago. Yeah. So I know you're making a mad push and watched a bunch of stuff, but then ever since that, I don't know what you got.
00:04:04
Speaker
to check out so i'll tell you as with most years i kind of like make that mad push and then i'm kind of burnt out movies i've seen a few things but i haven't watched much since then really so i don't think my list has changed that much but uh we'll see we shall find out see all right well then without further ado i guess we should get into our top 10 uh let's see who usually goes first i always start so i think you usually go first and that way i get to finish with my number one since it's my show And as we always do, if one of us has the movie higher, we cut the other one off.
00:04:39
Speaker
Correct. Yeah. and then, you know, we, we addressed, we, we, we both take a, you know, a stab at the film once we reach it on the person that has it higher. But so, because we don't know each other's lists, um, you know, it'll still be like, oh, we're wonder how high they have an element of surprise a little bit. That's right. Yeah.
00:05:00
Speaker
So number 10, if you're we're we're ready, we can rock and roll. Go for it. and What's your number
Top Film Discussions: Marty Supreme and Scarlet
00:05:06
Speaker
10 of the year? So my number 10 is a probably like the last movie you got to see before voting,
00:05:13
Speaker
ah which was the A24 film Marty Supreme. I am going to cut you off there. oh That is the last movie I saw before voting. guess. We'll be talking about it a little later. Okay. yeah Smells good. you get to go first. I guess I'm going first. My number 10 is ah a little bit of a curveball. I have a couple curveballs on here.
00:05:36
Speaker
um I think that you mentioned that you watched this. you didn't say anything else about it, so I don't know. But it is an animated film, and it is called Scarlet. watch this with your kids i think i only got through the first 10 minutes and then like my wi-fi was was killing me that day so i only got but yeah like as soon as i saw it i was like man this is this is uh um visually pretty cool i really really ended up liking it i didn't see again just in general i watched less movies this year than i usually do and i was i had the mad dash at the end of the year but um
00:06:09
Speaker
i so i only saw a handful of animated things um but this one really stuck out to me i you know i saw another one called uh arco that i thought was quite good yeah and um k-pop demon hunters i watched about a million times because my kids love it and i love it i just love the songs from that one yeah i've seen that one a hundred times but uh scarlet i really was taken with you know it's a really interesting it's just gorgeous animation first of all like uh you know I wish it played in the theater around here. i could take in all the animation on the big screen, but it looked really great even on the small screen.
00:06:46
Speaker
and The plot is really unique. It's sort of a so it the plot of Hamlet, but with some big changes. Instead of a Hamlet, we have Scarlet, and so it's gender-swapped. She's their main character.
00:07:00
Speaker
and The beginning of the film plays out like Hamlet with you know, Uncle Polonius has betrayed her father and um she goes to kill him but fails.
00:07:14
Speaker
And then she is killed. And then most of the film plays out in the afterlife. It's a very unusual kind of anime feeling set up to this. But so she's journeying through the afterlife.
00:07:27
Speaker
um And they call it if there's another word besides afterlife. I can't remember the the other world instead of the after afterlife. It's the other life or something like that. Anyway, IMDb says a realm between life and death.
00:07:42
Speaker
And like time doesn't really make sense there, and it's it's very unusual. But um then she's kind of journeying to... And Polonius is there, too. He's like the evil king. And so she's kind of journeying to defeat him, making friends along the way.
00:07:57
Speaker
There's a lot of like celebration of diversity. and oh because time doesn't make any sense, her like best friend is a... ah a medic from like 2025. He's like a modern, he's from modern Tokyo. But it's, so it's very, it's very strange. But then all these Hamlet characters are showing up kind of reframed in different ways.
00:08:16
Speaker
And it's, there's a lot of action in it, but ah it it has kind of a Lord of the Rings feel. One thing I did watch this year is there's a Lord of the Rings anime. I think it came out two or three years ago, but it reminded me of that.
00:08:30
Speaker
So. Oh yeah. Lord of the Rokirum, I think it is. that what you're... Yeah, War of the Rokirum. War of the Rokirum. That's right. And I really like that as well. So it had a similar feel to that. Yeah, so a big fan of it. directed by Mamoru Hosoda. Sorry about pronunciation. He also made Wolf Children, The Girl Who Leapt Through Time, Summer Wars, some things I've heard of but never seen. Oh, I have seen Bell, which was his previous one. I didn't think I'd see that. Yeah. I actually saw that in the theater, and I like to
00:09:01
Speaker
the animation of it. I thought them and that would have been an incredible theater experience. Oh yeah, it was with a little, you know, that's how I felt like the story didn't make a lot of sense, which you could say that. was freetelling But yeah,
00:09:14
Speaker
in a way that i had trouble following But as far as the visuals, like, you know. And it's thick got the music in that as well. So, I liked Belle a lot. I like Scarlet more. And then he also made Mirai, which I haven't seen, but know is is well loved. Yeah, big fan of Scarlet. So recommend Scarlet as my
Animated Films and Upcoming Releases
00:09:33
Speaker
one of my curveball picks for the year. But there you go.
00:09:37
Speaker
That sounded like a movie I would be interested in checking out. I just i made it through almost all the other animated. The Little Amelie was really, really fantastic.
00:09:49
Speaker
You a chance to check that one. I want to see that. That was probably the best one. Naja? Naja 2? Oh, The one that grossed like a billion dollars in China? Yeah. That was a...
00:10:02
Speaker
incredible experience. I took the kids to see it in IMAX and it was like like ridiculously long, it was almost three hours, but it was just the last third of that movie is absolutely insane.
00:10:18
Speaker
bonkers like dragon ball z type of fighting just action non-stop with all these different characters if you've seen the first one you kind of understand a little bit but it's not necessary to watch the first one to to have fun with the sequel but That was a pretty incredible animated movie from this year. I'll just shout out since we're on the animated front. Yeah, didn't check that out. And I was just seeing that actually Scarlet will hit theaters February 6th. So it's actually not out yet. i didn't realize.
00:10:49
Speaker
But a month from it was 2025 release. So anyway, yeah check it out. It's competing for this year's Oscars and awards. Yeah, maybe I'll go see it in the theater when it comes. but All right, now it's time for your number nine.
Oscar Contenders: My Father's Shadow
00:11:04
Speaker
My number nine is my first foreign film of the year, or the first one that I'm to mention on this list anyway. The UK submission to the Oscars.
00:11:16
Speaker
This one is called My Father's Shadow. ah It's directed by Akinah Davies. He wrote the script along with his brother. But this is a a fascinating film that's set in the the early ninety s Let me see. I got it written down here. 1993. So basically there's a an election happening in Nigeria. This is kind of like the surrounding events.
00:11:48
Speaker
And these, it deals primarily with, ah like the name kind of implies, my these two young boys go with their father. They accompany their father to Lagos, um which I'm not sure if that's like the capital of Nigeria. it's just one of the cities there in Nigeria.
00:12:10
Speaker
But it it takes place during, there's like a crisis that's happening with the election where the results get overturned um and the guy that's ruling tries to stay in power. There's, you know, there's like a mention of a scandal, I believe. But basically it's it's the POV, the main protagonists that you're following are these two boys. You're following the older ones point of view, but really it... you're kind of getting some perspective from both of these kids.
00:12:44
Speaker
They're probably 10 and 12 or nine and 11 or something like that. So you're following the older brother, And you're spending some time with them and their dad as he takes them. they they They walk into town and then meeting with some different people that he knows there.
00:13:05
Speaker
um And it's kind of an unexpected thing. like Like their dad has, he's supposed to be working. Um, but, uh, but he has to take them or he ends up taking them with him.
00:13:17
Speaker
And, uh, so it's kind of a last minute type of a thing where it's an unexpected scenario, uh, the way the film plays out. Um, and so these, these boys, these young boys that really, they don't get to spend a lot of time with their dad because of the country, the economy,
00:13:37
Speaker
He's working a lot and he sends money back as he can. and you know, but, but he's more or less kind of like an estranged father. Like he's just, he's not very present with the boys, but he he's, he's a good guy. It plays almost like the second act of Moonlight um with this, with this main actor. His name is Sope Derisu, if I'm getting that right.
00:14:02
Speaker
So he kind of feels like the Mahershala Ali role in Moonlight. And, you know, he's a very, like, you can tell he's a, he's a, he's a, he's very tender with the boys. He takes some swimming and there's some scenes in the water towards the end of the second act where he's talking to his, his older son about his young, his younger son is kind of mad at him because he's away so much. And, you know, there's that friction there and it really turns into quite a, ah
00:14:35
Speaker
you know, a tearjerker of a film. But it was an excellent, excellent movie. um My Father's Shadow, I believe, is Sony Pictures Classics. I don't know that it's in wide release yet, um but but it is a ah fantastic movie. I'll be so happy if it gets a...
00:14:56
Speaker
international feature but that category is so stacked this year that i don't know that it will get an os any oscar love but it was just one of the best movies that i got to see uh from 2025 so uh make a note of it and if you get a chance to check it out absolutely do so Yeah, this one was definitely on my list. And yeah, there's always like five to 10 things that I really wanted to squeeze in, but didn't have time. So this is one that I go to beautiful we need to make time for. Oh, yeah. And it's ah it's a movie title.
00:15:30
Speaker
um And it yeah, I don't think it's out yet. I think it's coming to theaters in February. If I'm looking at the poster correctly, I'd have to look up and see. Oh, you have to move it right now.
00:15:44
Speaker
but eventually it'll be on movie or you can go to the theaters and see it probably next month as well. So excellent, excellent film. Especially if you're a dad or you have, you have sons.
00:15:58
Speaker
um Yeah. It'll, it'll leave you misty eyed by the end. mess you up yeah Definitely to check that out. All right. Time for my number nine. This one is another bit of a curve ball, maybe. And it is a horror movie.
Exploring 28 Years Later
00:16:14
Speaker
called 28 years later did you see what you we did because i think you texted me about this oh yeah i definitely got earlier in the year ended up liking this a lot more than i thought i would and kept thinking about it because it did come out earlier in the year um but i'm a huge fan of 28 days later it's my favorite zombie movie um and i'm a pretty huge fan of just about everything danny boyle has done and alex garland who wrote it And so I was excited that they were working together again. and it just, but for one thing, i think Danny Boyle is just, he's unexpected in terms of what he's going to do with like editing and music. like It's just kind of, it's a little off the wall even at times. um
00:16:59
Speaker
Just, but you don't, it it doesn't feel like your traditional horror zombie movie. None of the, That one, 28 Weeks Later is this the the second one, I guess, and it's different director and not nearly as good. But but yeah, Danny Boyle always is doing something interesting. in the And 28 Days Later, in the first one back in 2003, think. um had all this music from uh this sort of i can progressive rock godspeed you black emperor is the name of it and like the just the music of that film is such a big part of like how it feels this one has like this punk band i can't remember the name of it you look it up but just unexpected musically um but what i really loved about this is just like
00:17:49
Speaker
this mild spoiler for the end of 28 days later but like the island of uh great britain the uk is is quarantined at the end of that movie um and so this is saying like what 20 years later or 20 28 years later i guess um what is what does it feel like in a quarantined nation that still has survivors living in communities but there's uh zombies with the rage virus is what they call it and also you know in a post-pandemic world this feels a little different too to to be seeing you know a mass illness taking people out and uh yeah i just really thought that aspect of it was really fascinating um it's got jody comer who i love in everything she's ever done she's incredible she's not a huge huge role in this i mean she's pretty major but um
00:18:41
Speaker
it especially in the first half of the film you don't get a ton of time with her but then she becomes very important in the second half or so and where this goes was very unexpected and very emotional um ray finds is this sort of mysterious figure in the distance and you eventually meet him and learn about him and he is also very unexpected what's going on with him But yeah, really moving.
00:19:07
Speaker
i think the main kid, Alfie Williams, he plays Spike, is does a really great job. It's a good child performance. And his father is Aaron Taylor Johnson, who also not a huge role, but important. And anyway, just a unique little, I say little film, but I mean, part of this trilogy and it's apparently sequels are coming. i like the end of this film and then the very end of this film,
00:19:31
Speaker
sets up a sequel in a bizarre way but i'm really curious to see what's going to happen next uh but i did really really like this and sort of the reflection on life and death that it ends up um kind of embodying at the end that was uh really really good and that is now streaming on netflix according to imdb so you can watch it now if you haven't but big big fan of 28 years later Yeah, that that movie fell. It was it wasn't my top 10 for quite a while, but after I started getting into a bunch of the Oscar-y films, it ended up falling out, and it ended up placing closer down to like 15, 16, 17, somewhere in there it landed.
00:20:11
Speaker
But yes, like a great, great... film that you know like the production design especially like all of the ray fines you know the area that he lives like what's some incredible work there uh and and for again like what you mentioned ah like basically a horror zombie film it was incredibly emotional and sentimental uh the the um
00:20:44
Speaker
the The scene where the the child is is reflecting on his mom and because she's very sick and has some some things going on through the film. its I don't know. I can't remember. It's clearly explained what it is. i think the great brief yeah yeah yeah yeah we kind of you may figure out what it is at the end yeah exactly um but there is like some sequences again that that uh the film uh contemplates like uh you know and and in life in some ways
Emotional Impact of 2025 Films
00:21:20
Speaker
existence reflecting on memories um you know it is it's it's incredible and
00:21:28
Speaker
That movie, I mean, just like it brought me to tears basically through some of those sequences, um which was a really, I mean, this year, more than any year in the past that I can remember had so many films that just like wrecked me.
00:21:46
Speaker
Like by the end of the film, I was just like emotional, like like ah an emotional cheese grater, just like, Like just roughing me over. And we'll get into some of the, as we go through my top 10 list, some movies that like really got to me, but there was just an incredible amount of movies. Usually there's only maybe like two or three that, that really like make me tear up.
00:22:10
Speaker
But this year there was probably at least like a half a dozen or more that I was just like a blubbering, slobbing mess by the time it was done. maybe you're just go yeah i feel like as i get older movies make me cry more 28 years later was was one that i'd like in some movies you kind of got an idea like yeah i've heard hamnet is probably going to make me tear up a little bit or but 28 years later just came out of left field surprise yeah well damn well damn boy got me with that one i just looked up the band didn't see that coming music it's called they're called young fathers is the name of the band so anyway yeah just a weird musical choice but i think it works pretty well but anywho that is my number nine so it's time for your number eight
00:23:02
Speaker
My number eight film, let's see if you appreciated this one maybe more than I did. My number eight film was the new PTA movie, One Battle After Another.
00:23:16
Speaker
Once again, i'm going to stop you right there. okay i i'm sorry to do this to no it's fine i mean i wasn't as high on that one as as a lot of other critics were but uh we'll we'll break into one you know later on this movie is one that i really loved but if you want to go ahead and talk about it now i actually would love to let you do that because i don't no no let's let's let's hold the course here let's hold the course Because there's like so many things that I could say about it. I was like i don't know what to even say. i don't want I don't want to spoil where it's at on your list. So we'll let it reveal itself in due course.
00:23:51
Speaker
We're already on two two in that we haven't come. That's right. Look at that. this is good All right. Well then my number eight, and again, I will see you i feel like this one, but ah my number eight is Train Dreams.
00:24:05
Speaker
The Joel Edgerton film that really surprised me. like I'd heard good things about it. i kind of knew basically the premise. I was like, I don't know if that's going to really work for me. It doesn't sound like my cup of tea, but I, it really did. and it took maybe 20, 30 minutes in and I was like, okay, I'm really in for this. But it's this really quiet film.
00:24:28
Speaker
It's written and directed by Clint Bentley. It is adapted from a novel with the same name, I believe. And it tells the story of Robert Grenier. It kind of goes through his whole life. He, let's see, he was born and, sorry, late and lives till like the and ah sorry late eighteen hundreds m lives
00:24:52
Speaker
1960s and like how much change happens in the world in that time is crazy but mostly it follows his career as a logger he works cutting down trees and he's he's just just this quiet tender man and he marries felicity jones early on in the film and There's sort of a big surprise around halfway through that I won't get into, but um it kind of follows his marriage and family life. And as he yeah he has to leave his family for months at a time to go where the trees are. And um but one of the things I loved about this is the...
00:25:28
Speaker
ah just the cast of characters of the the men working at the logging site. and Clifton Collins Jr. is there. Paul Schneider has a small role. William H. Macy is there. Just all these like kind of small supporting roles of these interesting, like pioneer men, basically. And I just really was fascinated with it. The cinematography is gorgeous.
00:25:52
Speaker
Just the tone of it is is, for the most part, very gentle and kind of like, um you can almost call it slow cinema kind of feeling. But really was a fan of it. Carrie Condon shows up near the end and ah i thought a really great performance.
00:26:08
Speaker
um And where this takes you by the end of it, just like like quietly moving, but then extremely moving for me. So I was a really big fan of this Joel Augustine. I think does a great job. Felicity Jones is really wonderful. Yeah.
00:26:22
Speaker
yeah So this train dreams just really kind of sucked me in and I was a big, big fan of it. Yeah. Yeah, this one fell just outside of my top 10. I think this one ended up at like 12 or 13. I thought it might be on your list. This is one of the ones I thought. 13. it ended up, again, like i caught this one a little early because I actually went to see it in the theater. cause Yeah, you started at a festival, right? i i for me ah No, I didn't get to any festivals this year, oddly enough, with some other...
00:26:51
Speaker
Activities that I have kind of, ah you know, locking in some of my so like time. don't know what I did either. I made the one for a couple screens. Yeah, I went to, I actually got to see this in our our art house, independent cinema.
00:27:06
Speaker
They show a bunch of the Netflix films. And so I went to see this because I heard the cinematography was great, which it just won, i think, Critics' Choice oh the Cinematography Prize this past weekend.
00:27:19
Speaker
So, so it's, it's, ah you know, got a good chance to maybe get an Oscar nomination for the cinematography. Beautiful, beautiful film. Like you said, very slow and very sentimental, like through, you know, after you, you know, he, he, the first part of the film, you know, it's just kind of like telling about his life and,
00:27:41
Speaker
the work that he's doing, the logging, some of it's in relation to the train companies that are like expanding their railroads out West and, you know, different areas of like the the Northwest, you know, part of the United States.
00:27:55
Speaker
And, but then once you, you kind of see, you know, his family life and it really turns pretty sentimental and, and And this film didn't quite, you know, knock my legs out from under me as far as like emotionally bowling me over. It held me there, like right at the precipice of like wanting to like start balling for like, like basically the second half of the movie. Like it just kind of like held me there, but it never pushed me over the edge at any point, but it was a very sweet and a very, um,
00:28:31
Speaker
Yeah, like thought-provoking and, you know, again, like looking at time and you mentioned like kind of how things change and, you know, the world that this man is in, things moving around him and changing things.
00:28:50
Speaker
And it reminded me, I can't remember if i mentioned it to you or not, the old 90s movie, A River Runs Through It. because I think you did say that via text, but I have not seen it. Yeah, and it takes place, at that River Runs Through It takes place in Montana.
00:29:04
Speaker
This takes place, I think, in Washington State, if I'm not mistaken. I think that that's right. Something like that. Either Washington, Idaho, somewhere in the Northwest United States.
00:29:15
Speaker
um But, you know, the same type of ah of ah of an area. And it reminded me, they had very similar vibes, if you're familiar with that film from the 90s.
00:29:25
Speaker
But very, very touching and, and um you know, reflecting on life and, you know, the type of person that you want to be while you're here and the way you use the time that you have.
00:29:40
Speaker
um All things that I really liked about Train Dreams as well. Yeah, and I just want to say one more thing about it. and i just remembered it's like the the narration, I think, is really, really well done. there's like ah and i assume some of it is probably straight from the novel, but especially at the ending as he is seeing the world changing. Like one one image that I think is striking is right at the beginning of the film, it shows this. He's like riding on a train and looks over and sees like automobiles on ah on a, like a, a,
00:30:11
Speaker
a road bridge and but and we've learned that he had built this train bridge which is now basically our yeah and uh he's like an old man looking out the window and then we kind of then flash back to his younger life and see that again at the end uh but yeah some of the other things at the end and the way the uh narration talks about it that that for me it was like like okay yeah this emotional thing happens like around halfway um which get i'm not gonna spoil And I was also like a little on the verge, like, okay, this is pretty emotional. But then where that narration takes us in the very end was like, what really kind of nailed it down for me. So yeah, big fan that.
00:30:51
Speaker
That is my number eight. Very nice. Time for your number eight.
00:30:59
Speaker
we're my We're at my number seven. oh you're number seven. That's right. That's right. Yep, number seven. So my number seven, if any cinephiles are out there listening to this and they like question my judgment, I mean, come at me on all platforms. and No, to to have this one ranked higher than one battle after or another, we'll draw some blood with some people. But my horror film...
00:31:25
Speaker
Which is I guess technically wasn't straight horror. ah But my horror film of the year, quote unquote, was the one I had probably the most fun time in the theater in 2025. And that was Weapons.
00:31:42
Speaker
Nice. The new Zack Kreger film, the director of Barbarian. um He wrote and directed this one. And Although there was a lot of discourse about um the actual plot of weapons, which just to kind of briefly summarize it, if you if you saw the poster, if you saw like the the title or or any of the the promotional materials, it's like these these children all run off into the night.
00:32:12
Speaker
They all come from one single classroom, um which the teacher is played by julia garner um but they all live in different communities around this different city they all just like take off into the woods in the middle of the night i think it's like 2 17 or 2 11 or something yeah at the same time they've got all these videos yeah all these like camera footages from people's front porches as these kids take off and the whole town is left wondering what happened. How did these kids all disappear? Like, why, why did they all just, you know, it's like a a fantastic setup, just like an amazing, you know, thought provoking concept.
00:32:57
Speaker
And so Zach Craig, Plays the first act like pure straight horror where there is like some really, really intense scenes um without spoiling anything. You probably know like the hair scene.
00:33:14
Speaker
If you remember. Yeah. and In the car. That's wild. Yeah. but But, you know, as it as the film um moves past the first act and into the second hat act, it it kind of shifts gears because it changes perspective. I think through the course of the film, we follow about six different points of views where we're We're tracking with different people. So the protagonists change as the film goes on and we're given different viewpoints and and that the story unfolds via different perspectives, first from the the the teacher, but then we get like into some different people, you know, around town, one of the police officers, this drug addict, is of different people were following their story.
00:34:03
Speaker
you know, what's happening to them as the story is being told. um And then, so so i guess the film kind of shifts from a horror into like more of like a mystery. um And so like the the scares kind of dissipate, but then by the finale, like it really like cranks up the humor and the whole final sequence is just like kind of like,
00:34:34
Speaker
bananas humorous you know you're laughing out loud in the theater um so he blends a lot of different genres zach crager combines a lot of different elements into the the horror film and while like on paper the themes that he works with it seems like he wants to say something more about like the school shootings and like, you know, the the violence that takes place in the school system with, especially there's one scene that a lot of people were like trying to decipher the meaning of with the, there's that one point.
00:35:09
Speaker
Yeah, where where Josh Brolin's one of the one of the children's father, one of the children that that disappears, hes he plays a father. Josh Brolin has a dream where he sees a like an assault rifle floating over a house.
00:35:27
Speaker
And so the the messaging there is you know like has to do with you know like violence associated with children. And again, tying in the theme, that the actual title of the film, Weapons, yeah once you see the film, you kind of make some of those connections there. But ultimately, what the film had to say about any of that subject matter was pretty ah ambiguous and didn't really like you know make a lot of sense to a lot of people. And so even in some of the interviews that Kreger has given, like he didn't really even know what the hell he was saying. He was just making the movie as the ideas came to him. So... you know But but i just I have to give the film props because i I clapped at the end of that movie. I haven't clapped at the end of a film in the theater in a long time. And I just had so much fun watching that.
00:36:15
Speaker
yeah And it was such a rush and a fun time at the theater that I had to find a place for it on my list and shout it out because ah it was it was pretty pretty exceptional as far as just to a fun theatrical movie experience that I had in 25 years.
00:36:33
Speaker
Absolutely. I love weapons too. And I, I agree. I think, i think what held me back was I wish it had nailed down the thematic stuff a little bit. Yeah. because It it like has echoes that feel like all these students from one class are gone.
00:36:47
Speaker
And, you know, and in a sense, without spoiling the ending, like you can see, you can like make a case that, it's about being radicalized or something like that i don't i don't know it's it's it is it's a little tenuous but i do love thematically a lot of the things that it's doing and you have the blending of the comedy and horror which is like so zach craig made barbarian which i also love i actually probably like that one a little more but it does a similar like thing where the structure of the story is unusual and so like here where we're shifting perspectives i thought was really effective too uh just like you know
00:37:23
Speaker
just confident in like in a way that felt like oh he knows what he's doing and he's like taking care of But he also, he was in a sketch comedy. He's in The Widest Kids You Know, Zach Craig. So like the sort of the connection with horror and comedy, I think is always there. so that's kind of cool. But yeah, big fan of weapons. Didn't make my list. I ended up. Oh, I forgot to mention Amy Madigan as well.
00:37:43
Speaker
She was just one supporting actress at the Critics' Choice. So yeah, Amy Madigan was fantastic. She was incredible. The hair and makeup work that went into some of those sequences.
00:37:55
Speaker
Excellent. Excellent stuff. that's definitely good movie especially if you're a horror fan rewatch it especially it ends up if it ends up getting some oscar attention then i want to rewatch it and and definitely key in on her performance more closely because i thought she was really good but yeah well there you go that is your number seven my number seven is ah film from Park Chan-wook, No Other Choice.
00:38:21
Speaker
Are you going to be interrupting me? know you're gonna interrupt me on that one because i know you were excited. No, had that one as a ah mention to talk about later. Let's all chime in. Yeah, I really was a fan of this. um And, you know, I haven't seen every Park Chan-wook film. like i I actually have missed out on some of the big ones. But from what I have seen of him, he he's able to strike a tone that's just really unique. And this one is similar in terms of like, it's, it is, there's, there's funny things in it. It's very tense, like Hitchcock feeling it's ah horrifying in certain moments. And I know some of his other films kind of are more horrific. Like I haven't seen old boy actually, which is a huge blind spot, but I know it's pretty dark. um I have seen and loved the handmaiden.
00:39:14
Speaker
which, ah yeah, there's a lot to say, but also very, very darkened moments. um Many things to say about that film, but I really loved it. The Decision to Leave was his most recent one a few years ago, which I was a little less of a fan of than some other people, but I did like it. And it that one plays up the Hitchcock sort of like tense mystery thriller kind of feeling. And this one blends a lot of those things while also having...
00:39:40
Speaker
this really strong commentary on capitalism and and sort of so the the premise, just reading the premise alone, was like, oh, I'm going to like this. It's about a guy who's up for a job. He's desperate for a job. And he decides the best way to to to get a job is to kill everyone else who's applying for it, like murder them. So it's got that ah just kind of really clever and crazy premise. yeah And it it does...
00:40:07
Speaker
feel timely as we're you know seeing capitalism i mean forever, but just continuing to make the world worse and worse and people are struggling and all of that. And so and it and it really is moving in that too and and because you you meet this main character.
00:40:26
Speaker
um name is hold on i'm gonna look it up so i want to say everything well here um main character is monsoo played by byonkhyun and uh he's incredible in this and he he's been actually winning some awards i i believe for this performance um but he has a wife and two kids and two dogs in this beautiful house. We find out it's his childhood home. And he is is recently out of work. He works at paper,
00:41:02
Speaker
factory, I guess. It's funny going from Train Dreams with the logging to now this is a paper company that's treating that. We see a lot of log things going on at his factory. um But loses his job at the beginning and pretty quickly realizes he's going to have to sell this home, which he had worked and worked to purchase.
00:41:23
Speaker
from after he grew up there as a child. so you know, there's there's sentimentality and and really emotional connection to that physical space of this home. And obviously his kids love it there. And...
00:41:37
Speaker
yeah there's there's a lot of twists and turns of the story. I was just remembering like his relationship with his kids and how interesting that is and relationship with his wife and how interesting that is. um And it's, you know, ever so ever since Breaking Bad came out, I always think about that when it's like, oh, and a regular guy, quote unquote, who's committing crime secretly does that sort of thing really well because he' like his wife doesn't know that he's up to this plot of trying to murder these other people.
00:42:02
Speaker
And each person that he goes after ends up being zany in a way that's kind of funny even though it's very dark it's like a very dark darkly humorous um so just really enjoyed it it has some really just stomach turning moments of kind of horrific things um as he's like disposing of bodies and stuff like it's pretty it's pretty crazy um yeah i'm just a really big fan of it and and it the ending the way it ends without a clear sort of ah you know hero or villain or whatever i don't know how how do i say that but it has a lot of ambiguity ambiguity emotionally to the way it ends in a way that i thought was really well done um you know after not loving uh decision to leave i was a little hesitant but i really really was into this so big big fan of no other choice
00:42:55
Speaker
Yeah, it was a I'm so happy i got to see it. I got to see this movie in IMAX. i want i want to see it. Yeah. Earlier in December, they had just a few select screenings of this film. And I remember because I watched Decision to Leave on my laptop and I was continually disgusted. I was like,
00:43:19
Speaker
How gorgeous would this film look like on an actual like high quality guy? Not only was it on my laptop, but it was like in such poor quality that I was and and it had my name in the middle of it as other like screener links often do like right smack in the middle of the screen. And it kept like irritating me to no end the whole experience. So when I saw that this movie was going to be an IMAX, I was like, I have to make time for this film.
00:43:48
Speaker
And so, yeah, it was, it was, in a this was, um despite the fact that Avatar beat, for for me, like on our critics ballot, you know Avatar Way of Water beat Decision to Leave as far as like my number one, this year I gave it to no other choice but for my personal award because I was like, eh, Avatar, been there, done that.
00:44:14
Speaker
So, yeah, I'm so happy I got to see this in IMAX. Yeah, it is a a very, very dark comedy. um But it is pretty hilarious. Like at times, this movie will absolutely make you be cracking up.
00:44:31
Speaker
There's the one person that he's like stalking outside of his house for long, like several scenes. And the way that all plays out is so crazy. nothing He's like on like a hill. He's like, he's like trying to like crawl up the hill and like hiding behind bushes. is Listening to him and his wife talking while they're on a hike and stuff. and Like all these little. And how some of the actual like scenes, like breaking in, how they play out. It's just like, yeah.
00:44:58
Speaker
I mean, Park Chan-wook is, I mean, besides, you know, being a fantastic director, like out of all the um like international films from the air, because of course this film is Korean. It's in spoken Korean, of a film from South Korea. He, I i don't expect that he's going to really be recognized by the Academy this year, but he is an international director that really deserves some, some love for the, um for the quality
00:45:33
Speaker
of cinema that he is producing i mean he's just he's in the top echelon of like great uh you know film directors uh from from different parts of the earth he's yeah he's making top tier stuff no other choice was an excellent excellent film You know, it's funny, I just saw like on my phone, my letterboxd thing will like send me notifications of new news stories that they put out. And today said, Park Chan-wook discusses how Looney Tunes influenced No Other Choice. And I was like, you know what? I can see it. Yeah.
00:46:05
Speaker
i was going to say, that that tracks. That just popped up today. So anyway, nice that is my number seven. So it is time for your number six. All right.
00:46:16
Speaker
So my number six film is my first... documentary film that I will mention this this top 10 list. And that is um Put Your Soul on Your Hands and Walk.
00:46:33
Speaker
ah This film, this documentary, um it's it's done by se p Sepita Farsi. is She's an Iranian director. The film is not...
00:46:49
Speaker
overly cinematic. It's basically, and and that's probably to the, you know, the fault of the film a little bit is that it's just not a very cinematic film in its engagement with the viewer.
00:47:03
Speaker
But what it basically is is comprised of is this director gets in touch with this Palestinian woman. Her name is Fatima.
00:47:15
Speaker
And she's living in Gaza. All right. And so the director basically like records and documents all of her phone calls that she does through probably between eight and 10 months of of a year while she, while while this woman that's living in Gaza basically experiences ah life in in Gaza while Israel is bombing the city. Like there's constant bombardments of like shelling and so like
00:47:51
Speaker
She sets up times to you know speak with this this director um and and calls her. Sometimes the the director will call her, but they're basically like kind of you know playing phone tag at times.
00:48:05
Speaker
But because there's always like the threat of death hanging over the situation for this this woman living in Gaza, this Palestinian woman,
00:48:15
Speaker
you never know what what call is going to be their last, right? Because she will walk down the street and talk about like, this is where some bombing happened last night, um you know, and like 13 people were killed. And like death is very much a part of like something that she,
00:48:39
Speaker
is is having to grapple with. Like it is ever present, like the threat of like being killed, right? and And you really, you get to know this woman, this this Palestinian woman, Fatima. She's a photographer. She wants to be a journalist and she writes poetry. Like she reads a couple of her poems um to to the director the film's director while they're doing these these calls, these video calls.
00:49:09
Speaker
ah that the director records. But this woman, Fatima, you can really tell what a beautiful person she is.
00:49:19
Speaker
um just from their conversations. like with I think it's it's right on the poster for the film itself, if you Google it. She's just got a a bright face. She's smiling constantly. like Even though she talks through some very, very painful situations of like family members that died, like cousins that were killed from the bombings, she's smiling and she's like talking through like these pains that But she's got a smile on her face all the time. Like this person has such a positive, happy soul, despite all the tragedy and devastation that is taking place around her, um you know, both to the city that she lives in, but the the toll on human life.
00:50:07
Speaker
that that this bombardment is just taking on on you know the citizens there. And by the by the third act, you kind of you kind of know where things are going. I'm not gonna spoil it, but it is heartbreaking.
00:50:23
Speaker
This movie is just, yeah, I mean, besides you having to see this woman um you know just deal with this devastation, once you kind of find out like how everything transpires by the film's conclusion, it's it's just an absolute tragedy that those events are taking place and that Israel itself gets so much so support from, at least here in the United States, our government, as they continue to commit atrocities on, you know,
00:51:00
Speaker
families, women, children. Like this isn't just like a battle between soldiers on a battlefield, right? Like there are beautiful human lives that are being taken in this conflict. And I just had to shout out that film, that that the title, or that the film's title, Put Your Soul on Your Hands and Walk is an actual, like a verse from one of the poems that she reads describing walking down the streets of Gaza.
00:51:29
Speaker
and And the director really keyed in on that and how beautiful of a statement that is, or how but simultaneously like scary to you know be taking your life in your hands as you go outside and walk down the streets of of the town you live in, right?
00:51:46
Speaker
But yeah, just an incredibly beautiful, touching, moving film, a documentary. I'd encourage anybody to check it out if you get a chance.
00:51:58
Speaker
And I should have looked up where it is streaming. Is that another?
00:52:05
Speaker
think it's rentable online right now, according to my Google. Okay. I was going to say, they sent me a little link to to watch it, but I don't see what streaming service.
00:52:18
Speaker
I think you might just be able to check it out on. um Yeah, oh, because Kino Lorber purchased or like has the distribution rights, so it probably won't be in many theaters.
00:52:28
Speaker
um Yeah, just seeing her face on IMDb, like with her. Yeah, I have a beautiful little smile. I mean, yeah, what a film. Go check it out if you get any any opportunity.
00:52:42
Speaker
Yeah, i definitely. I watched that. was another one that I didn't catch up with this year, but I had hoped to. But yeah, well, I will check that out. I guess we can move on to my next film, but it's keeping things in a similar part of the world. And that is of the film, It Was Just an Accident.
00:53:04
Speaker
which is the Jafar Panahi film, which, so I knew like the, I knew kind of the basics and I just pulled up the Wikipedia article about him to kind of get the details of this right. But he was, has been arrested in the past by the Iranian government for being a filmmaker that's speaking out ah about political things. And I just remember that a few years ago, let's see when this was,
00:53:34
Speaker
I think it was like 20, at some point the 2010s, I remember a bunch of filmmakers calling for his release because he'd been put in prison. you And I also know that he, for the last several films, I think, has been like having to kind of make them in secret. Like he doesn't have permission to be filming in Iran. yep and he has not been able to make it to different film festivals and things because he's either being held up at airports and like, I just, i frequently see his name around that kind of controversy because he's an Iranian filmmaker.
00:54:06
Speaker
And, uh, you just, visa doesn't get approved or is, yeah. kind of stuff like that So I believe he like, wasn't able to make it to con this year or something like that, or barely did. I can't, Yeah, this film won the Palme d'Or. So anyway, that's just a little background into who this filmmaker is, if you haven't heard of him. Jafar Panahi and Neon picked this up, so they have the Palme d'Or for the last, whatever, several years now.
00:54:30
Speaker
yeah But this film, it was just an accident. I didn't really know. Actually, I have not seen any of his other films before, so I didn't really know what to expect with this. It is just so quiet and unassuming.
00:54:44
Speaker
Like there's maybe no music at all. I can't, I don't remember any music um that it just really sneaks up on you, but ended up being like such an emotional film for me.
00:54:56
Speaker
We also don't really understand what's going on. But basically, the premise is that there's this mechanic. He's just like a everyday kind of blue collar worker.
00:55:07
Speaker
And one day someone comes into his shop and we don't know why at first, but he like kind of freezes when he hears this guy's voice and he seems to be paying attention to the way this guy walks. And.
00:55:18
Speaker
um It turns out that when this character, and again you find this out pretty early on in the film, it's like the premise, when our main character had previously been arrested for ah being a protester, that this person that has wandered into his shop and he hears the voice of was the the police officer who like tortured him for years.
00:55:39
Speaker
And so like that obviously is a very charged like premise. And he ends up connecting with other people who. um And were the same mistreatment. Yeah, exactly. Some of whom he knew a little bit, some of whom he didn't. And.
00:55:58
Speaker
I stern also mentioned that he kidnaps this person to exact some sort of revenge. We're not sure what. So this whole film is finding these other people who know him. This guy's in a box in his van. And what are we going do with them? Should we just let them go? well Are we even sure it's him?
00:56:16
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. The part of the premise is they're trying to make sure because a lot of these people were blindfolded as they were tortured and like abused. And so they're like, are we sure? you know, for sure And, you know, they're trying to get confirmation.
00:56:31
Speaker
Or you like, you know, murder him or whatever you want to do. Exactly. or Whatever we want to guy do to this person. Yeah. So just a wild premise. And yeah each person has a little more information about like, oh when he would do this to me i would feel this part of his hand so i can tell from that like all those sorts things and it just kind of builds to this finale that um is uh maybe not exactly what you expect from the finale of this but i thought was really really good um what a what a final what a final shot yeah probably probably if not the best final shot of the yeah probably the best final shot of the year
00:57:08
Speaker
Yeah, man, incredible film. It just like the way things slowly wash over you and you sort of like, it's not like it just explains this all to you all at once. It's like little bits and pieces and you just like gradually like, wow, imagine how you would feel if this had happened to you. And, and you know, some of this must be, I mean, it kind of analogous to his actual life, right? Jafar Panahi. So you can see the place where this came from within him.
00:57:37
Speaker
But I just looked at an IMDb. It's also listed as a dark comedy because it is, it is very funny in places, even though it is this like very serious situation drama. um Yeah.
00:57:49
Speaker
Anyway, just a really unique film and one that I knew nothing about going in and, and was really, ah really taken with. So that is my number six. Awesome. Yeah. That was a great to international film from this year, but not I expect, um,
00:58:04
Speaker
Yeah, if if the if it's not locked in, it's almost as sure of a lock as you can get that he will get an Oscar nomination for Best Director. um But yeah, PTA is probably going to be taking the top fries, but...
00:58:20
Speaker
There can be no arguing against how much of a directorial achievement ah the it was just an accident was. yeah the yeah The vision that he had for this film, the setup and the payoff and the final shot is just, man, chef's kiss. Sounds so good. Wow. You can rent it online, it looks like. I don't know if it's streaming anywhere for free, but you can't watch it. It was just an accident is that English direction or the english translation of that title.
00:58:50
Speaker
So yeah, that is my number six. And now it is time for your number five. All right. Number five. My probably... hot takeiest take of the of the list uh i have the superior safdi film oh at number five the smashing machine yeah ah So Josh's brother, Benny, directed and wrote the screenplay for The Smashing Machine.
00:59:23
Speaker
um you know and And so this film will probably be more controversial as far as like me loving it as a critic, probably due to some...
00:59:37
Speaker
serious faults within ah not only like the the screenwriting it's probably when when you boil it down that's probably like the weakest part of the film there is some serious problems and i'll fully acknowledge um you know those right here and right now front um but also like get into it and explain like kind of kind of how this film worked for me um but This is... The screenplay really fleshes out the Dwayne Johnson character. So he's this guy, his name was Mark Kerr. He's a mixed martial arts UFC champion from think. Late early 2000s. And the way that...
01:00:32
Speaker
and the way that it depicts this guy's character really I could relate to because, um you know, obviously the rock plays him. He's like this like gigantic human being, but almost right off the bat, he's in this like ah a doctor's office with this little old lady.
01:00:55
Speaker
And he just strikes up a conversation with her. And, you know, just ask her a couple of questions in a really, really low voice. a really mo And you you get a sense pretty pretty clearly right off the bat that he's just a very kind, mild-mannered individual.
01:01:15
Speaker
You know, like a sweet guy. Despite the fact that he's like this monstrosity of a human being that could just like, you know... wipe you off the face of the planet with like one solid punch, you know, and he like gets in the ring and just like beats the tar out of people, you know, um, which I mean, it's, it's, it's kind of wrestling. So some of it is not, but I mean, it's still, you know, he's hurting people in some capacity. Uh, but, uh,
01:01:45
Speaker
But, you know, you you get an understanding that he's just like kind of a gentle giant type of a figure, which I kind of relate to personally, being pretty tall. um You know, but he just doesn't have a lot of hatred in him. You know, he's he's just like a nice, nice character. but But on the other end of the script is the Emily Blunt character who plays his his wife.
01:02:09
Speaker
um And they're married in the film, or at least... at least they're in a relationship, like they live together. but But Emily Blunt's character is woefully underwritten.
01:02:20
Speaker
um And Emily Blunt does her best with what she's given, but you really don't have a clear understanding of like her character motivations. like There's no character arc for her. And you just don't quite understand like why she is there. like Why is she with him? Because despite the fact that they love each other,
01:02:43
Speaker
you You can tell that there's different aspects of their personalities that make them a little bit toxic. And they really need to be like going to therapy. Like they need to be going to some couples counseling. But you really get a sense that they care about each other. And as you watch him go through some of these fights and some of these ups and downs of his career,
01:03:05
Speaker
um you know, in some of the some of the um setbacks, but also some of the victories that he has. um You know, you feel and experience of their highs and lows together of of their relationship. That's really what it kind of boils down to in the end is like the the relationship dynamics between Dwayne Johnson and Emily Blunt and and, you know, where it all goes. And I found that aspect of the film was something that like really got to me, especially with like the my relationship situation, like I'm a soon to be divorced man. And like how you, there may be love there. There may be like, you know, something there, but at the end of the day, you just are not the right fit for each other. And there's like just a toxic environment that, um,
01:03:55
Speaker
results because of you being mismatched in some areas of of life and your views on things. And I just, that, that aspect of the story really resonated with me. But yeah, like I said, I,
01:04:11
Speaker
I completely understand any of the other faults that other critics have with the film. Dwayne Johnson is, he's not the greatest actor on the planet. You know, he's, he he definitely upped his game for this one. You've got to give him credit because he really, you can tell he he stepped his game up from, you know, most of the,
01:04:30
Speaker
rampage you know sky skyscraper blockbusters that he's used to doing type of films and he really like he was like that's right i'm gonna do an a24 movie now and i was he's gonna be a serious actor quote unquote so it's all right and yeah caught up with it but yeah interesting to hear your take on it oh yeah i mean for sure he he definitely um ah pushed himself into some areas that, you know, he clearly hasn't like stretched into as an actor, at least not in quite some time.
01:05:04
Speaker
I was impressed with his, and his performance. There's also great makeup and hair work being done on the film, but, but yeah, I mean, you know, like I just attached to this film more than a lot of other people because of the plots, the character, you know, in the in the situations that it depicts, but yeah,
01:05:24
Speaker
Yeah, i you know, definitely some faults with the film, but I really enjoyed The Smashing Machine. Again, a film that totally wrecked me by the end. I was just, yeah, I was in pretty rough shape by the end of Smashing Machine.
01:05:37
Speaker
But yeah, great, great, great film from Benny Zafti, if you can appreciate what he was going for. Yeah, there you go. this Again, this is one that I have not come up with, but I do think it's a pretty hot take to have this higher than Marty Supreme.
01:05:52
Speaker
yeah i guess pretty sure we'll see not many critics out there are gonna gonna feel the same way but yeah have personal connection to it i love that but but yeah that's that's interesting that's a take there you go i'll probably watch it and be like damn he was right but i haven't watched it yet but um let's see We will get back to Marty Supreme pretty soon, but not yet. My number five is Sentimental Value. Oh, let me stop right there. Oh, okay. We're going pause. Now you get to interrupt me. And that brings us to three in common. So that means I win.
01:06:29
Speaker
what if What happens if i go over we over? Well, do we have three? i mean, you'd be the closest. I've interrupted you twice and you've interrupted me once. Yeah.
01:06:41
Speaker
Yeah, that's right. Yep. So yeah, we, we, yeah, there's, ah there's only, a yeah, there's only room for us to go higher. We've never made it to four though. Let's see what happens. Could we go there? We got four more titles or four more numbers. So, all right. we you number four yeah We've got to circle back around to two of them, but yeah we'll see.
01:07:06
Speaker
Stay tuned, everybody. You're number four. is what we're at yeah there we go We have been going for an hour, so we're about halfway, but you know we'll keep on rocking here. What are we?
01:07:18
Speaker
So that would bring us to mind the journey right Yeah. I just did Smashing Machine as my number five. So number four. Number four, I have the Perfect Neighbor.
01:07:29
Speaker
Netflix documentary. Another documentary made my list. and loved it I really loved The Perfect Neighbor. This film, um another very emotionally raw film that basically, um to to kind of summarize it, this is this is a a fantastic feat of editing, where basically, um, the people that put this film together, they just captured all this body camera footage.
01:08:03
Speaker
Um, but also like ah in, in like, uh, police interviews, um, inside of like, you know, uh, like after they've arrested somebody or or, you know, brought them in for questioning, whatever, they have the videos recording. And i'm I'm assuming like all of this is like released to the public. So there's transparency.
01:08:24
Speaker
um But they get a hold of all this footage around this this particular woman that lives in Florida um because she keeps calling the police out um to complain about her neighbors.
01:08:38
Speaker
The kids ah from the neighborhood are all playing in this yard that's adjacent to her property. And so she puts up warning signs, but because she doesn't own the entire space in between her house and the next house over from her,
01:08:56
Speaker
the the kids are allowed to play there, but because the kids will make noise and they'll be kicking around, ah you know a soccer ball or a Frisbee or whatever, you know, that'll land in her yard.
01:09:08
Speaker
She'll like lose her mind and continually calls the police out um to, to, I guess what she hopes will like harass her neighbors and to like get her neighbors into trouble.
01:09:22
Speaker
Right. And so, and so the the filmmakers are able to cut and piece together all this police body camera footage from probably a year or two worth of police calls. yeah I think that's right.
01:09:39
Speaker
And to construct this narrative and this story um and really help you understand like, you know, from the police's perspective, how much this woman, it's and it's funny that the film gets its name from like how this woman describes herself.
01:09:57
Speaker
Like she says to the police, she's like, I'm basically the perfect neighbor. Yeah. And hilarious, but which is dark yeah hilariously ironic, but also like when you find out where the story goes, deeply disturbing,
01:10:12
Speaker
um you know, that that she continually calls and and is trying to get the police to do something about the neighborhood kids that are playing.
01:10:24
Speaker
But eventually, like, this all escalates into violence. And what basically, like, without spoiling the movie, there is a shooting involved.
01:10:37
Speaker
And... where it goes and just how emotionally raw the film gets as like, again, with with that kind of a violent escalation of things um and, you know, all the subsequent, ah you know, police deliberation,
01:10:59
Speaker
you know, what are we going to do about this situation? Was it manslaughter? Was this just an accident? You know, and then those there's different laws in Florida and other states called stand your ground laws that they explore.
01:11:14
Speaker
um It really felt especially considering the body camera footage ever since the George Floyd incident and like the accountability and transparency with violence within the police department, it really felt like such a timely documentary that really stood out to me besides being very emotionally affecting to see, you know, once the violence escalates and and the acts that are perpetrated on you know,
01:11:43
Speaker
pretty innocent bystanders in all of this um and the children that are affected really really wrecks you pretty hard you know definitely again like kind of tearjerker to see in real time like again this is documentary footage you're watching people experience like some very very heartbreaking situations and you know like i mentioned some of them involving children it's not the easiest watch to get through but it is a very timely and important documentary i thought um the the perfect neighbor uh was was just an excellent film from from 25 that i really you know found a lot of interesting things were being discussed so yeah Yeah, no, I totally agree with you. And I think so. I didn't watch a ton of documentaries this year, but this is one that I did. And this is I put this at the top of my documentary ballot. So I was a big fan of it as well. and It was funny because my wife mentioned it first, which she doesn't watch a lot of movies at all, but she had watched it. mean, we had watched it in two sections with one of her friends.
01:12:51
Speaker
who like she goes over to this friend's house and they watch all kinds of netflix true crime stuff and so so i was like oh it's just one of those netflix crime documentaries no this is like really good and uh so when i yeah saw that it was winning awards and stuff like oh this is the one else i was talking about and um yeah i think the editing of it all with the all the you know first person body cam footage is um impressive and lends a certain feeling to it that is urgent and sort of intimate in a way that's like makes it more upsetting, I think. um
01:13:24
Speaker
but yeah, just like the aftermath of things at the end is really compelling. And yeah, I think what's interesting too, that I thought was um just interesting was that the way that it's not overtly about racism, like cause she's she's not like, I think there is a reference to her like using a racial slur at some point. Yeah. a woman But it it's not like she's out there being overtly racist every single day the the way, but but she is bothering them all the time. um
01:13:55
Speaker
And just the way that it's like... ah
01:13:59
Speaker
don't know, seeing how there probably is a racial component to what happens, even though it's not overt. don't know, because and you see, you're just like feeling the echoes of like civil rights still today and and the way it's like, oh, she like knows what she's not allowed to say.
01:14:17
Speaker
she's very intelligent. Racial things. Yeah. She's just kind of like pushing the limits of like what she thinks she might be able to get away with because she knows the laws.
01:14:29
Speaker
She knows like kind of like you know where she you know where she can go and where she can't go as far as like drawing the line. But yeah she you know she's just obviously a problem a woman with some serious problems. Yeah, that's interesting too, to consider. like She yeah definitely has some mental health issues, but still is, I try not to spoil anything, still is capable for what she's doing. and Yeah.
01:14:58
Speaker
Yeah. Anyway, very interesting movie. Perfect neighbor. Big fan of it. And that was your number four, you say? Streaming on Netflix right now. Streaming on Netflix. That's right. Check out. that's where I watched it. All right, time for my number four. We are going to circle back to One Battle After Another. Paul Thomas Anderson's movie starring Leonardo DiCaprio, of course, as well as a lot of other people. And I think there's so many things about this.
01:15:27
Speaker
Seriously, I think that's the thing. is like There's so many things I like about this. The thing I always think about is just how good are these performances like across the board? Leo is great. And like, you know, there were the longest time it was like, he desperately wanted his Oscar. And then then he finally got it for the Revenant and like, he's good in that, but like, this is a good Leo performance in this one tier. And Benito del Toro going viral on for all the right reasons, like so good in this, like his his performance. And it's like pretty small role, honestly, it's so memorable.
01:16:01
Speaker
Sean Penn just being such a weird screen presence in this, but like you can't your eyes off of him. Tiana Taylor is so good. Regina Hall is in this and is great.
01:16:12
Speaker
The young woman who plays his daughter, Chase Infinity. So, so good. Yep. A debut performance. fantastic and probably of the year yep yeah yeah i think so i think that we don't have that category in my film critics association but that was like if i was like young actors or like first time actors this is that's who i would have voted for that's definitely up there just so impressed by this and like also the cinematography from start to finish and there's some sequences that are so great like there's a car chase that's uh
01:16:49
Speaker
I've never met things I've seen in a long time. Just on the edge of my seat the whole time with it. The structure of the story is so interesting too that it's, you know, we have, basically it follows this activist group who are, you know, it essentially it's it feels so timely too because it essentially opens with them like,
01:17:08
Speaker
breaking into an ice facility and breaking out the people that they have detained that they don't use the word ice but like that's essentially what this facility is um but then it's like the echoes of this what 16 years later or whatever it's like where the story ends up a lot of the story takes place um and it's it's a very what house two hours and 41 minutes but i was just glued you know i am someone who like a long run time be a turn off to me, but this I was so into and such an interesting direction based on, you know, Paul Thomas Anderson has done a lot of things, but like from where he was last time with licorice pizza to this is like quite a different,
01:17:49
Speaker
realm of course he also made there will be blood and punch drunk love he's like he can do a lot of different things um i haven't seen all of his films but i haven't seen him do action and like this really is an an action film in a lot of ways like there's several action sequences in it um and it's very political of course and it's um
01:18:11
Speaker
just kind of it has those action things it also has it's very funny in places too and that's kind of a theme that i have like all these like serious movies that are also really funny um Yeah, I'm just a really big fan of this.
01:18:26
Speaker
I think some of the things with Sean Penn's character are so bizarre. Some of the racial stuff going on with him. So weird, but it's like such an important part of the story. Yeah. One of the groups he wants to get in, and like he's been kind of invited, but like they know that there was something in his past.
01:18:42
Speaker
The group is called the Christmas Adventurers Club. It's really kind of like wild and out there, but so like somehow like... and funny and dark. Yeah. Yeah. somehow like very still grounded and like based in reality like you know that there's like groups out there that functions very similar and like have some of the same you know very bias and and you know racist views on things um But yeah, I mean, like all the all the stuff, because the the very basic premise is that like Leo's character, Bob, he's a revolutionary.
01:19:20
Speaker
He has a daughter with Tiana Taylor's character, which is just that I think that image is in the poster of like her pregnant firing like a a submachine gun or some sort of like assault rifle or something.
01:19:33
Speaker
But all those performances are like dialed in. um And then so the the film kind of like jumps forward in time to where Bob and her name is Perfidia, I think. Perfidia? That's correct, Perfidia. you have a dog You're right, they're almost like ah a political Bonnie and Clyde at the beginning of this. But yeah, go ahead that.
01:19:54
Speaker
and And then the film jumps forward in time 16 years to where Bob is raising their daughter on his own. Because perfidia I don't know if I should even spoil and talk that much about it. But everything. Yeah, it's like first act stuff. But basically, like she's no longer in the picture. And so Bob is raising the chase infinity his daughter, he's raising her on his own. But like he's kind of turned from revolutionary into like, just kind of like this bummy, like drug, druggie, you know, type of guy. um And, but, but there's still like this kind of threat that looms from the Sean Penn character who plays like an army type of dude, like that's chasing down these revolutionaries and it's like been on their tail for years and decades, you know, and he finally is able to catch up with Leo's character towards the end.
01:20:53
Speaker
And as things go, you finally kind like progressively learn about some of his motivations for why he needs to track them down. And, you know, it's it's very um suspenseful.
01:21:07
Speaker
ah Yeah, I really loved this film and so many basically like this this movie, if it doesn't win Best Picture, um you know, it'll be it'll be like the closest runner up probably in history. it's it's squarely in line to win best picture it's probably going to win a ton of technical categories um you know like was mentioned the editing uh it is very cinematic with some of the chase sequences at the end um but uh you know that this is this is one of the most
01:21:45
Speaker
I guess I should say like the the biggest directorial achievement of the year. <unk> too Yeah. His, his, I will mention another one later. We'll, we'll, we'll talk to a little bit as far as like visions and directorial achievements, but this PTA, what he did with this film is, is just, you know, this is like best of the decade type of work.
01:22:09
Speaker
um You know, he really does something incredible with this film that although this film isn't like one of my favorite PTAs, like I already, like I liked licorice pizza, uh, better than, than one battle. Another hot take maybe for some people. I don't know. I love licorice pizza too. Yeah.
01:22:30
Speaker
I love licorice pizza. I loved, uh, um, uh, we just mentioned it. they they lewis la they will go yeah there be that I love that film more. So this, you know, this is, this is a movie that I respected more than I connected to as far as like, ah but you know, just everything that PTA is doing in this film, um you know, just tip of the hat, you know, like, wow, sir, what, what an achievement in cinema. you know, on on most every level, the amount of performance work that he is able to gather in one movie is astounding.
01:23:16
Speaker
Like, yeah, like you mentioned all the different players that are just even Regina Hall, like, you know, the, the the number of acting nominations that this film could get on oscar morning could break records right like they could there could be so many nominations for this film it's unbelievable like what paul thomas anderson was able to do it's it's really otherworldly um and i think too he was
01:23:46
Speaker
100 and he he was my ah my director ballot too he was my top one and and it was like all the performances but also like a story that feels really grand and huge and big and has a scale but also has these really small human moments too and like can can do both really well i i'm always so impressed by so yeah he's he's my director of the year too for for this film leo's costume gotta shout out leo's costume Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yeah. The glasses the bathrobe.
01:24:16
Speaker
Oh man. It is so funny with him. yeah like The stonery. One of the funniest things too is like when the shit starts to go down and he's like, I just smoked way too much weed. He's like, calm down. It's so funny to me. And like that. Yeah. I don't know.
01:24:32
Speaker
Also good. Anyway, that is my number four. One battle after another. And now I just want to go watch it again. But there go. It comes out on Blu-ray, I think, in like two or three weeks. I think think it might be streaming. January 20th. I'm waiting for the 4K to come out because I need a copy of that bad boy. for sure It is streaming on the HBO now, it looks like. Yeah, that that checks out. Yep.
01:24:59
Speaker
Warner Brothers title. Well, then it is time for your number three. My number three is another foreign film. Not my last foreign film, because we'll be talking about another one here in a minute, which you already mentioned, but we'll leave that for later. This is an an Arabic film, The Voice of Hind Rajab.
01:25:22
Speaker
ah That is spelled H-I-N-D-R-A-J-A-B. The Voice of Hind Rajab. It is Tunisia's submission for the Oscars. And while this is not a documentary per se, it's It is, it's like a reenactment, basically.
01:25:43
Speaker
So if you're not familiar ah with the events that kind of surround the premise of this movie, basically there, this is another film, we're going back to the Middle East, um in Gaza,
01:26:01
Speaker
There's a lot of, um like again, bombings and war that is taking place in that area of the world, if if you know if you're not familiar with that fact. yeah But basically, basically in in the city of Gaza, they have certain sections of the city that are like declared war zones, right?
01:26:26
Speaker
And so there's you know once you cross this street or this boundary, you are in a war zone and while while things are happening like all over the city there is ah so there are certain areas that you just when you go in you okay maybe i and need to explain this the the the film's promise little uh before i get into that um there is a phone call that takes place And the film actually uses the actual recordings of this little girl. She's sixyear old she's six years old.
01:27:02
Speaker
And she calls into what would basically be a 911 call. She places a phone call and the dispatchers get on the phone with her and they're talking to this little girl. You actually hear her voice.
01:27:18
Speaker
and These actors are interacting with the actual phone call right so so you're hearing what actually happened she's describing herself in the in the car that came under attack that came under fire um from the Israeli government and.
01:27:41
Speaker
Basically, everybody else in the car was was killed. And the little girl is describing this. You don't, she she obviously is very small. She doesn't under understand the full concept of like life and death.
01:27:55
Speaker
She refers to the people in the car. She's like, they they're sleeping, right? She has such an innocence to her. And your your heart is like just being torn open and ripped apart through basically the entire film.
01:28:08
Speaker
um But she's on the phone with these 9-1-1 nine one one workers or like Red Cross type of workers. But in Gaza and in the cities or in the city, a bit but the neighborhoods of this this city, there are areas that are like sectioned off as like war zones where you're not allowed to go in there or at least like emergency services are not allowed to go in there. Like basically if you drive in there, you could just be killed and like the Israeli government just denies responsibility. Like, oh, we don't know what happened.
01:28:49
Speaker
Everybody, nobody's supposed to be in here right now.
Emergency Workers and Real-Life Conflicts
01:28:52
Speaker
Like, why are you here? um You know, and so like a lot of emergency vehicle workers have been killed and murdered in this war and in this conflict trying to save people.
01:29:04
Speaker
And so there's a crap ton of red tape that these workers are trying to like wade through. you And you're experiencing this all in real time as she's having these conversations.
01:29:17
Speaker
They'll lose the call. The call will drop. They'll call her back. We'll find some information from her family out about like what's happening, where she is, how they can go pick her up. And all these workers are trying to figure out how to get involved into this war zone area to save this little girl. Like the ambulance, they keep saying the ambulance is eight minutes away from her. Like they can go get her, but we can't just send these people in unless we have this red tape figured out, unless we are able to like get clearance from the Israeli government and they know the ambulance is on its way. We're trying to save this little girl's life.
01:29:58
Speaker
And it just is absolutely gut-wrenching and heartbreaking. um You know, as this little girl is pleading on the phone for help and the film, i watched it about a month ago and I didn't have it this high. i didn't have it at number three on my list initially.
01:30:18
Speaker
But it's such an emotionally raw film, ah probably that I've seen so far this decade. One of the most emotionally raw things I've seen in a long, long time. That it has just haunted me for, you know, the weeks and months since I've seen it.
01:30:35
Speaker
It's just stayed with me and, you know, really... reiterated to me like what a God awful thing is happening in the Middle East right now. You're getting, you know, via this and some of the other films that I have had on my list, you know, put your soul on your hands and walk.
01:30:54
Speaker
a glimpse of what people are dealing with in a different part of the world that we, you know, sometimes just going on our day-to-day lives and, you know, we have this come up and that come up and like, Oh man, like I had a, rap I had a bad day today, you know, like, you know, try and keep some perspective of like people that have like real, real problems and real like traumatic things that they're
Film Analysis: Begonia
01:31:21
Speaker
having to work through. And,
01:31:22
Speaker
you know people that are just dying, like needlessly and senselessly, the violence that is being perpetrated is, you know, just like, a like atrocities that are taking place in in some areas that it's important to remember some of those types of things when you think about, you know, what what you have and like, what means the most to you, um you know?
01:31:47
Speaker
Yeah. So great job. Check it out when you can. It's a foreign, another foreign film, but well worth the watch. It's been on my list. I, I actually don't know if I can emotionally handle i'm going to have to like watch it all that I can, you know, steal myself for that. Cause that, yeah, just the premise. The entire ensemble casts is, is fantastic.
01:32:13
Speaker
um You know, even, even though you're reading subtitles of like what they're saying, you know, you've got like, a main man and woman that are on the phone with her, like, and they've got the headsets and they're communicating with their dispatcher, trying to like encourage him to send the ambulance, even though he doesn't have permission.
01:32:32
Speaker
And, you know, they're all making phone calls to try and like, coordinate this girl's rescue and yeah it's it's it's a rough watch but if if you've got the strength it's it's an incredibly important film at least it was for me i uh i really loved the the voice of henry job well that is your number three correct that was number three all right changing the face a little bit here sorry this a hard one to follow i guess but i'm just gonna go for it my number three is a different sort of film it is yorgos lanthimos begonia oh remember if we talked about this one at all i think i did a little bit i think i texted because you watched it on the same day that i went and watched it like that's right yeah yeah that's right i went to see it early today a couple of friends my friend urgent and his partner uh colby went and saw this together and uh i just loved it so much um i you know i really like to pour things i'm again almost a completist with yogas lanthimos but not quite but i i'm a big fan of everything i've seen of his i like the lobster a lot i really love um oh my gosh dog tooth uh a whole lot and i haven't seen kinds of kindness yet um but then oh man
01:33:49
Speaker
i need to catch up with it still but i love poor things and um you know was interesting because that movie kind of brought him a little more into the mainstream um and having him a stone in and i just i'm a little obsessed with him a stone as well and like how unique her career has been and and you know that she's choosing to do these sort of unusual things with the almost and um this film if you don't know is about emma stone is like a high-powered executive of a like a wellness company reminds me of like goop or something like i don't know what sort of company it is but like um she you know has her life structured and is in the business suit going to meetings all the time like that's kind of her vibe and uh these two young men jesse plemmons
01:34:44
Speaker
and his is it his i'm trying to remember now is it his brother his cousin cousinn cousin don jesse pumans plays teddy and uh aiden delvis plays don um they are sort of conspiracy theorists and they think that she's an alien and they want to kidnap her and prove that she's an alien and um they do kidnap her pretty early on in the film and that's such a strange premise.
01:35:10
Speaker
But another one that's like really dark. yogo film You gotta know that it's going to be weird. um But like they shave her head. And so if you look at any of the images of this, it's Emma Stone with her shaved head, sometimes covering her in like a crazy amount of lotion for some alien reason.
01:35:29
Speaker
And I think
01:35:35
Speaker
thinking I love Emma Stone in this um because she's, you know, at different times having to like play off of each of these young men and kind of get to know them as she's trapped and like watching her in that situation is really interesting. Jesse Plemons is like, I think the VIP here, he's so good in this. i I think that we, I think this is what you and I texted about. I who's lead and who's, yeah I think they're co-leads essentially Emma Stone and Jesse Plemons. But he has this like long greasy hair.
01:36:06
Speaker
And um don't know, he just feels like someone i went to junior high with or so you know something like something familiar about. When he puts on a business suit and puts on a ponytail, it's like he doesn't really belong that. But like he's so good and he has such conviction. And you also pretty quickly realize that like his cousin Don is really being manipulated by him and has probably a learning disability of some kind. like It's not clear exactly what.
01:36:37
Speaker
Um, and so that also is dark and like this movie gets really dark, uh, even around that, um, kind of stuff. And also some of the stuff in Jesse Plemons past we learn about and like, um, yeah, it just keeps you guessing, um again a dark comedy a lot of dark comedies on my list this year um and uh a pretty unforgettable ending which again i'm not going to spoil but i'll say like there's like the ending and there's like you know the thing you'll remember from this but then like the very tail ending of this i actually think it's incredible if i just kind of this be good yeah it kind of goes to like showing just a lot of people in their everyday life in this kind of unique world that of this film um
01:37:26
Speaker
Yeah, that's all I'll say. without so Maybe I've said too much already. I don't know. But ah well I really, really like it. Yeah, this one of the scenes of the year is, I guess, yeah I mean, without spoiling it, I'll just say the beam me up Scotty scene. I think that's good. And I think. that was Yeah, that was just, yeah, where where that film dialed it up immediately to like an 11. Yeah. And had one of the best scenes of the year.
01:37:54
Speaker
You know, it's funny because I think... I remember when the trailer dropped on online, I saw people tweeting about it and like people speculating a lot of things about the ending and and like what what's going to maybe happen. And I think even if you are spoiled in this movie, it is still absolutely worth watching because like that's not...
01:38:11
Speaker
that's not going to take really any of your enjoyment away of of this. I don't think. yeah So anyway, really big fan of of this film and, you know, it's about human nature and and that kind of thing. And it and it really is. um And I think like, that's what Yorgo Slytherin does really well is find these really unique situations, you know, with like poor things. We have basically a Frankenstein situation of like ah the,
01:38:36
Speaker
and ah an adult figuring out the world for the first time and looking at the the world that we know with new eyes and like experiencing that and like this what this situation um yeah says about human nature and our our wanting to believe in something and conspiracy theories and radicalizing young men and like all of that kind of plays into the story in some interesting ways and and the ways that she's like as this corporate executive wanting to give lip service to doing the right thing that comes into the story and in some interesting ways so anyway a lot going on this movie that i really really connected with so big big fan of begonia that is my number three yeah jesse clemens he made my best actor ballot like i had him actually number one
01:39:23
Speaker
there's a two we say What's that? Oh, no, I did not have him at number one, but close. We'll talk about it. He was just so dialed in. As much as I loved Leo and Timothy and Ethan Hawke and Blue Moon is fantastic.
01:39:39
Speaker
um you know like There are some other great performances this year, yeah but Plemons was just so dialed in, and he...
01:39:50
Speaker
More than those other ones, Timothy doesn't really get his scene until like the end of the film. Bob has scenes here and there in one battle.
01:40:01
Speaker
um Ethan Hawke is oh man neck and neck with with Clemens as far as just like the character they have to embody. But just because...
01:40:12
Speaker
You know, Plemons plays such a wound up, like hardcore conspiracy theorist guy that's yeah going to some extremes just with like the kidnapping and everything you've already explained to us about the film, accusing Emma Stone's character of being an alien.
01:40:32
Speaker
i don't know if you mentioned that, but yeah, basically like there's that, like, so the film evolves into like a two-hander character. between them where they're just kind of going back and forth and they're both like standing their ground on their you know approach to the situation um you know and so he's really got to like amp up like his his uh like what you know for him to reach his objective um you know he just my goodness that performance like bowled me over he is so incredible in that film so i i yeah i had to give it to him for my vote in my ballot, i put him at the top of the list because I really felt he he was doing some special work and, mean, he's great
Film Analysis: Sentimental Value
01:41:17
Speaker
actor. Like we've seen him in Civil War and a crap ton of other movies, just doing some amazing work. But this one, he really got like the spotlight. He got the center stage. If he's not, he gets a big role. he's not in the, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I would imagine if you like broke the film down into actual minutes, you probably spend more time with his character than Stones.
01:41:36
Speaker
But it's I mean, like, as far as like dialogue, um you know, it's it's very back and forth between the two of them. and Both, you know, would be probably co-leads.
01:41:48
Speaker
um Yeah, yeah and that's really just because the the way it opens is like we're seeing him and learning about his yeah life. get one than it is She's this presence ah from afar that eventually comes.
01:41:59
Speaker
that held into the whole situation. Yeah. I want to mention really quick to the score. I love of of this film. It was my number one score. It's just in Fendrix and, for things also kind of kindness, which I need to see. But, um, I i remember.
01:42:18
Speaker
Yeah, go ahead. I was going say, this one's not nearly as quirky and like off the wall as as Poor Things was. yeah but yeah Yeah, similar vibe maybe. But I remember I read that he didn't... So normally I think when you're scoring a film, you have something like close to the finished film that you're like timing things to. But they didn't do that at all. He just gave him keywords, like inspiration words. And he like made the whole score off of that. And so it's amazing that it works as well as it does. But it also explains why... like there'll be like big, like emotional, like things happening in the music. And he's just like riding his bike to town or whatever.
01:42:52
Speaker
And so it's like the timing of it doesn't always sync up. Just kind of works in a Yorges Anthem movie. If the things don't quite match up the way you think. Anyway, big fan. And I think one of the, one of the keys, I gave them keywords. i'm looking bees, basement, aliens were like words that he gave for the inspiration for the music. And I, you can kind of hear that. I think.
01:43:14
Speaker
Listen to it. Yeah. That's my number three begonia. So that brings us to your number two. my number two, we will get back on the sentimental value train. All right.
01:43:30
Speaker
yo came true yo came trier directs and yeah another fantastic besides one battle um you know the the great ensemble that pta put together trier puts together just an awesome ensemble yeah of the of characters in sentimental value um where to start with this one. So, so basically um the father figure in the film played by Stalin Skarsgård is,
01:44:08
Speaker
um He has two daughters in the film, which are played by Renata Rensvee and a new, I guess, new as far as I'm aware of her, actress named Inga Ibstotter.
01:44:26
Speaker
ah And both of, like, all these all these performances are just top tier. It's not really explained how much of a role he had in their upbringing. but There's definitely some, like, animosity there. There's, like, he definitely has not the smoothest relationship with his daughters. Mm-hmm. Like, um you know, he's there as a father presence, but he's either somewhat estranged or like kind of in and out of their lives. Basically, he, Scar Scar plays a director in the film. He's a film director. He he makes movies, or I guess he writes them as well.
01:45:03
Speaker
But he hasn't amounted to like the big deal that maybe he himself thinks that he is. Yeah. But he finally gets a script that turns out to be a pretty big deal.
01:45:17
Speaker
And he invites his one daughter played by Renata Renski to be the main actress in the film. But she turns him down.
01:45:30
Speaker
and but because because like his projects have failed before, never got off the ground before, but this one actually does. and the the character al the Al Fanning plays ends up taking Renata Renski's role.
01:45:48
Speaker
So all three of these women, Renata, Al Fanning, and Igna Ibstader, are all... like putting on a fantastic performance. They're all putting on a show along with Stellan, of course.
01:46:04
Speaker
um But basically the film kind of dissects and and breaks into ah these relationship dynamics as we watch Stellan start to get involved with this film project. And so we it explores a lot of, you you know, the filmmaking aspects that really stand out to like cinephiles, you know, as he's working through to like try and make this movie and what he was trying to accomplish with maybe the, not only the creation of the film, but also inviting his daughter to star in the film. Like you, you start to understand his motivations and,
01:46:56
Speaker
later on in the movie and it's really, again, we're, we're getting back into like movies that will, will wreck you a little bit and will really, um, be pretty emotionally affecting. i found this one to be a really, really touching story. Um, you know, without really getting too much further into all the relationships and where everything goes by the end. um You know, just a very, very fascinating film that dissects, you know, some of these some of these relationships and.
01:47:32
Speaker
You know, the father daughter dynamics and, you know, their their views towards their father and, you know, how they feel about him, you know, all those things are kind of explored in the film.
01:47:45
Speaker
Also, I have to shout out um the best cinephile joke of the year when Stellan gives... do you know what I'm talking about? No. Is it the chair thing? When Stellan gives his grandson the birthday present. Oh, yeah. That is so If you're a cinephile and you know anything about, like, yeah, Monica Belushi, you know, like old films, ah that one caught me off guard. I was howling.
01:48:15
Speaker
What a great, what a great joke. But yeah, like a very, very nice film. foreign It's mostly in spoken Norwegian and some English.
01:48:26
Speaker
It is Norway's submission to the Oscars this year. It will almost for sure get a Best Picture nomination. you think so? I hope so. i'm i'm um with With the cast and the support that it has in the acting categories, yeah you know, that'll probably get some nominations. I expect this will break into Best Picture. um it is, and and Trier too is is in serious contention for her directing Oscar nomination.
01:48:54
Speaker
a lot of people liked Worst Person in the World, which was Joaquin Trier's last film. They liked Worst Person more I am on the sentimental value side of that. and I think this this movie got to me more and means more to me than Worst Person in the World did.
01:49:13
Speaker
But they're both excellent films. I mean, you're comparing apples to oranges here, which would you like more? Yeah. think I would say that I like worst person more probably but yeah just different like that one's about this young woman's you know yeah love life and experiences and this is like this family father daughter thing so just so different but uh both excellent and I really love this film as well um yeah I think you're right maybe with you know with worst person being as popular as it was kind of ah in the art house world like I don't know if it's like not like a household name but
01:49:45
Speaker
and Maybe this is poised to like put some of them on the map Oscars-wise. could see. Stellan Skarsgård being as prominent as he is. And Elle Fanning, too Obviously, he's in this and is is great in it. But Renata Reinsva, I would just cherish her being nominated for the Oscar. Because I think she's someone who like I wish was a household name because she's so good. like I've had such a crush on her since I first saw her and in my first year. I don't even remember. But ah she's so good in this. and um
01:50:17
Speaker
yeah, I'm seeing what I was going to say about it when I had it at my number five. But yeah, I love her in it. I love yeah the father-daughter. And both the father and the daughter have and both daughters, really, but especially Renata's character.
01:50:30
Speaker
there like i think i think initially I expected we would get a lot of her story and her motivations more than we would get his, but we get a lot about him as well. And like it really is painful that he can't connect with his daughters the way he wants to, even though you totally understand why they wouldn't want to. And and it reminded me a lot of, I kept thinking about Ingmar Bergman.
01:50:54
Speaker
First of all, just like, this feels like the kind of story he would tell in a way, but also, yeah for sure you know, he was famously not a very good husband or father, but like an incredible filmmaker. And so I think that was just on my mind as I was watching this film.
01:51:12
Speaker
and And yeah, it just feels like that sort of small story where you're having... I'm not like a chamber piece almost. i think a lot of Bergman's films you would describe that way. Yeah, they just had some great scenes. I love like the Stellan Skarsgård meeting Elle Fanning at Cannes. I don't think they ever say it's Cannes, but it seems like it's Cannes. And her wanting to buddy up to this art house director and be in his film. and like he Those kind of things surely happen. you know It just that felt fun to witness. But I think one of the most moving scenes for me, too, is when he
01:51:47
Speaker
um really wanted his old friend to to do cinematography, I think, for the movie he's making. And he finally like pushes for that to happen, and then he finally meets up with him and realizes like he is so old that he can't really do it anymore. yeah like how like What a gut punch that was. and So he's like dealing with aging and not having the career that he'd hoped and all of that. and And I think too, which this is going to come up with another film in a minute here, but like the power of storytelling and art in um reconciling personal differences or like processing emotional things because so much of this is like he wants his daughter to star in this movie that's sort of about his life because we learn about his past and his mother. And we get into that later in the film and And that's also important to his motivations and, um
01:52:40
Speaker
the the film being the thing that he hopes will reconcile them or hopes that like she'll be able to see him ah in a way that she hasn't been able to or see his point of view like what yeah you know yeah and see that he's seeing her more than she realizes he is or something like that too and I think it's just like the testament to like creativity and art can can bridge those kind of emotional gaps and I love that this film was about that so yeah very beautiful and touching And even even the other daughter, like, because it mainly explores the the film because Renata Brunson is the lead actress for the film, but even her sister, Igna Ibsdodder, is, a you know, plays her sister who also has a pretty significant so supporting role in the film as like another perspective of of her relationship with her dad. Yeah.
01:53:38
Speaker
you know And I actually i have to shout out her performance because I think on my ballot, I had her as my favorite supporting actress role of the year. too yes She is incredible.
01:53:51
Speaker
um And I had no idea who she was before this film. And and as as good as Renata is, i was like halfway through the film, there's like some sequences between the two of them together.
01:54:03
Speaker
that I was like, oh my God, who is this? Who is this actress?
High-Energy Films: Marty Supreme
01:54:09
Speaker
um And so like this, yeah that but like that performance ah put her on the map. I was blown away by, i mean, just in the cast and in its entirety is is just operating on such a high level.
01:54:24
Speaker
yeah You know, I actually think I prefer this ensemble as great as as one battles was. I think I actually gave this one the edge um just because, again, I emotionally attached to some of these relationships. Stellan, you know, as he's trying to reach out to his daughters like he probably hasn't been able to connect with them before.
01:54:49
Speaker
you know, in that like father parent dynamic yeah isn't explored as deeply or, you know, like emotionally resonated with me, you know, more than the the characters from one battle did. um You know, partly because I'm ah i a dad and I'm like at a point in time in my life where I'm trying to connect with my kids and make sure I'm you know present and fully there in their lives.
01:55:13
Speaker
um So yeah, like it's in, in even the present that he gives his, his grandson, you know, like there's that disconnect there where he like thinks this is a good gift for his grandson, which is like, I can't spoil the joke. I can't spoil the joke. But you know, you can see the intent is there, but he just doesn't get it. Right. Cause he's, yeah he's this film guy. He's this, um,
01:55:39
Speaker
you know, he, he just is focused on making his cinema projects and that's like, you know, what he yearns for and, you know, Hey, uh, like you mentioned with Bergman, you know, like props to the filmmakers that can tell these stories, but, you know, maybe sometimes they come at the expense of some personal relationships, you know,
01:56:05
Speaker
um you know and And so they they have that struggle there to maybe connect with people in a medium you know that's not cinema. in In real life, they may you know have have difficulty connecting with people. And that's, you know what a shame. But to see it depicted on the screen like like Trier does in this film, it's it's really something special to me. yeah I really love sentimental value.
01:56:31
Speaker
And I love to like what you're talking about with the sisters, and like how I think early in the film, we, so we get this sense of, they do have a different dynamic, like we're not as character. I think Nora, I was just looking, um, like doesn't even want him to be around him at first. yeah Um, when her sister, Agnes is like,
01:56:48
Speaker
you know, give him a chance. He's like, he's showing up for birthdays and stuff, whatever. So I think that, that sister dynamic feels grounded and real. And I wanted to mention a movie from a few years ago, real quick called Bergman Island. That is about Ingmar Bergman or it's Mia Hansen love as the director. It's about, um, a writer who goes to the island where Ingmar Bergman worked and wants to like use it as inspiration and right there, but it ends up, um,
01:57:14
Speaker
kind of talking about some of these same things as they're like talking about Ingmar Bergman, because there's like a little museum there about him. um But it ends up being about, it goes into some other places too that I really love, but it also stars Anderson or Anders Danielson Lee, who's in Cinema Value and in Worst Person in the World. So anyway, um quick shout out for that movie. But that was, so that was my number five and your number two, right?
01:57:39
Speaker
That's it, yeah. So that means time for my number two. my number two we are going to circle back finally to marty supreme man i loved this movie so much and i did watch it literally the day before voting and i was like oh my gosh i didn't think i was going to watch anything else stayed up late to watch this and it almost made it to the top of my list i loved it so much um it is i described it to a friend that's like it feels a lot like um a safetyy
01:58:09
Speaker
other Safdie movies, Uncut Gems. It feels like an Uncut Gems, but like a little bit more prestige is is the way I kind of described it. um But I think like there's there's an incredible confidence to what Safdie is doing behind the camera just in so many aspects of the filmmaking. like You just get a sense of like he he's the way it's edited, the the music in it, the score, and like the all the performances, but even the casting. like I was so just kind of blown away by the casting of this and how well it works. Like, of course, we have Timothee Chalamet, who did make the top of my ballot. Like, he's I think he's so, so good in this. And...
01:58:55
Speaker
I do hope he wins some awards for this, but like yeah that he's, he's so good in this, like start to finish. And like the physicality of playing ping pong, like being about such a bizarre world is like the world of competitive ping pong too is such an interesting thing and like telling this sort of an epic i want to be one of the great story which i think you know timothy chalamet has himself said he wants to be one of the greats in the acting and so it it feels like a role that he's uh connected with you you get that sense at least i did watching it but then like
01:59:28
Speaker
Gwyneth Paltrow, first of all, and she's a great actress. like I have positive feelings about her. It seems like a weird choice for this somehow, like for this kind of a procedure, but so good. Like she's so good in this and like being a love interest for Timothee Chalamet.
01:59:42
Speaker
Yeah. It's just like such a bizarre choice. And that's like 15, 20 years, like older than him, probably at least. Yeah. And, but it works so well. And that's just, that's the least bizarre of the casting choices and they all work so well. So let's talk about Kevin O'Leary from shark tank as like the, one of the top build actors in this.
02:00:05
Speaker
don't, has he ever acted before? I don't know. I should probably look that up. He's so good in this too. Like that is such a bizarre choice um to, to put in this film, Tyler, the creator as his friend, Wally.
02:00:18
Speaker
So incredibly good too. I didn't know he was an actor either. um was just like continually like, oh my gosh, is that time of the creator? And Fran Drescher plays his mother, Marty's mother, who i I, you know, she's been doing all the, um,
02:00:33
Speaker
Screen Actors Guild stuff. Like that's where I've seen her in the news and things, but I haven't seen her act in a long time. She's very good. So I was just like so impressed by the casting of this. In addition to the incredible, like just the kinetic energy that this film has from start to finish. It's very propulsive. Yeah.
02:00:50
Speaker
i think the writing is is really strong the ping pong scenes are like thrilling and and like he's he plays this character who okay i actually haven't researched this but i believe it's like he's not based on a real person but it is there's like echoes of like competitive ping pong becoming a big deal at this time and yeah marty marty maliser is an actual person Okay, I should, I guess I should have researched this.
02:01:16
Speaker
Yeah, he was a table tennis, like ping pong guy I think they took some liberties with like all the things that they like put him through.
02:01:28
Speaker
um i did. Yeah, I didn't read a ton about it. But I was immediately like, is this guy real? Is this a real like, because I mean, he's hilarious. Like, He plays like Timothy plays Marty Mauser as this like really slick kind of smooth talking ping pong champion. But he's also like, he's kind of a weasel. Like he's, he's willing to exaggerate. He's willing to lie to get what he's after. So there's a, that's one of the best parts of the movie for me was like this guy, there's ah definitely like a lack of integrity that this guy displays. Like he, he has a
02:02:08
Speaker
he's an individual with very little, um like you can't respect him. He, he doesn't have a lot of accountability. He dreams of being the best and the greatest, but he's willing to just like kind of do whatever and say whatever and be whatever to like kind of get him there. Um, even if it's like, you know, maybe some uncouth methods or, you know, if he's got a swindle or whatever, um,
02:02:34
Speaker
you know Like I said, so he's a very good smooth talker to try and like get his way or to get what he's after. um but but an yeah go ahead how well Timothy plays that and then the character arc, the character journey that that character goes, especially that last act and you know the arc that Chalamet undergoes really in probably like the last 10 minutes or so is just...
02:03:04
Speaker
Incredible, incredible work. um yeah There are very few actors that could have pulled off that that big of a swing as far as like where that actor goes like from like where he starts at and we see him at the beginning of the film to where he is at at the end Very few actors could have the acting chops to pull that off. He sells the shit out of that final scene.
02:03:37
Speaker
Really incredible work. um Yeah, any any basically other actor, that film would not have worked nearly as well as it does. He really does yeah some incredible work. that there's There's some special stuff going on with that last sequence.
02:03:53
Speaker
I can't spoil the finale, but yeah, one of the best final sequences, final shots of any film in 2025.
02:04:01
Speaker
I think you're right. And music plays into it too in a cool way. yeah a Needle drop. Yeah. But I think that, I think you're right. i guess saw something funny on Twitter that was like, people were not liking this movie because he's not a good person. It's like, okay, we watch a lot of movies about people that aren't good people, you know, but I think you're right. bob like Like, I guess if you go into this movie thinking you're going to love every decision that Marty makes, you're going to be disappointed. yeah But, um,
02:04:31
Speaker
the yeah The ending, you're right too. I think it's it's not, it doesn't, the sort of the character growth, it doesn't hit you over the head with that. I think it yeah and it it's not so much in the writing, it's in the writing and in the plot of what's happening, but it mostly is in that performance. And I think you're right that like Timothee Chalamet he only does he have this propulsive confidence throughout so much of it in the smooth talking thing that he even there's a scene where he like camera exactly what it is but he confesses to Gwyneth Paltrow's character I only came up here to try to steal your jewelry or like he he tells some thing that he uh was not great like a an unethical thing that he was planning to do in a funny way yeah um
02:05:17
Speaker
But, yeah, I don't know. i just I was totally with this movie. And, i again, I watched it the night before voting. And I was tired when I put it on. And it's two and a half hours. And I was glued to it. And I absolutely loved it. so if you If you know anything about the Zafdi brothers and you've seen Uncut Gems or you've seen Good Time and you know like the energy that those films have like and now we get to see in one year marty supreme and the smashing machine yeah both like to compare oh here we have josh and here we have you know the um now i can
02:06:02
Speaker
Benny, right? Benny,
Existential Themes in The Life of Chuck
02:06:03
Speaker
yeah. We can see which of the Zafti brothers was the adrenaline junkie of the two. Just from the film's construction.
02:06:15
Speaker
you know this This is, ah like you mentioned, a very propulsive film where it's just once it kind of like kicks into gear, you know it's just um it's it's a wild ride.
02:06:26
Speaker
um But yeah, Chalamet leading the way. um He is able to yeah really put on one hell of a performance.
02:06:37
Speaker
and And I wasn't buying it. Like, this was you know for For the first two-thirds of the film, I was like really questioning. I was like, ah this probably won't make my this probably won't make my list. But then by the last act, you know like and and Timothy's you know that that drastic turn that that character takes really was like, oh my goodness. what you know Like I said, he's he's put he he's doing something special with that last last little bit of work he puts in.
02:07:10
Speaker
And he actually won the Best Actor Prize just the other night at the Critics' Choice. So he he just got a Best Actor Prize. He just got a Best Actor Prize. So he's not only putting himself in line for a nomination, but he is highly competitive to win this year. So we'll see. We'll see if Timmy walks away with a statue.
02:07:34
Speaker
Yeah, that'll be great. um'm I'm rooting for that to happen. I'm a big fan of his performance in this. Yeah. That is my number two, Marty Supreme. That means we are on two hours into our conversation. We're onto to our number one films of the year. we finally got there.
02:07:50
Speaker
And I, wait, have I, have I interrupted you? yet No, you've already circled back to the one I interrupted you. So I have no idea what you're about to say. And I have no idea what yours is. because We haven't, we've already come back around to, we've already come back around to one battle. We've already come back to Marty. So it's a mystery.
02:08:06
Speaker
There's no way we have the same number one. I think I know what yours is though. Yeah. I bet you might. young i You might have an idea what mine is? I really don't. No, I really don't. Well, you should know.
02:08:18
Speaker
sent it to you in the mail. Oh, okay. Yeah. Okay. I thought this might be on your list, but I was like, sorry to second guess it, but go ahead. Ever since I watched this movie, this is the new film written and directed by Mike Flanagan, adapted from a see Stephen King short story.
02:08:38
Speaker
This, this, you know, The script for the life of Chuck, um, is really something that, uh, with me. Um, just in in terms of like the movies that I go for these, you know, in this day and age, um,
02:08:58
Speaker
And I'm going to lean on Andrew a little bit here, even though I don't think this was his number one. And I guess, yeah, like, I guess he wouldn't have stopped me if it was, but I'm pretty sure it's not his number one. It's not my number one. I did like it. I watched it in the screen. I'm going to lean on him a little bit here as we talk.
02:09:15
Speaker
Because we like this is a this this movie, this one that audience prize last year and and not last year, 2024. This one, the audience prize in Toronto, like the people went and saw this movie loved it.
02:09:33
Speaker
But this is an insanely difficult film to market, because what do you what do you how do you talk about this film? What do you say about this film? um You know, despite the fact that it's a Stephen King short story, the script is really special. It's inspired from this story. But but how do you talk about what this film is, the life of Chuck?
02:09:55
Speaker
How do you talk about it to, like, explain to somebody, you need to go see this film and why you need to see it? um so So just to kind of give somebody an overview, this film is split into three acts, right?
02:10:12
Speaker
and it And it actually specifically outlines that as it breaks the story down. title the first act, act one or whatever, yeah.
02:10:22
Speaker
That's right. That's right. there's ah the The screen goes to black and it and that actually tells you you're moving into the first act, second connector act, third act. Um, but the first act is very dark and filled with what I guess would be like existential dread.
02:10:39
Speaker
Like the, you're, you're contemplating pretty heavily the end of the human existence. Right. Um, and humanity is at least from like your perspective, you don't find out until later what, why the first act is the way it is or or what's happening.
Chloe Zhao's Hamnet
02:10:59
Speaker
um But you you're you're really kind of forced to see like the end of the world is upon us, right? And some of the character interactions, the things that they're doing like, if it's all going down, you know, within the next week or the next month or the next year, if everything is coming to an end and the human race will no longer exist, what are you doing with your time left?
02:11:28
Speaker
What are you Who are you reaching for? Who are you reaching out to? Who are you spending time with? it's It's discussing those topics, which, of you know course, for my, that's like catnip for me, you know and like what I love in cinema. um but But then the second act gets into... um you don't really see him much in the first act, but you kind of under so start to understand Tom Hiddleston's kind of the primary character, although he's pretty much absent from, and in your, the story just alludes to him throughout the first act.
02:12:06
Speaker
You see his character, you see Chuck is up on billboards and he's in the news. And so like, people are like, who is this Chuck guy? Who is he? do you know him? You know, and then there's like, so there's this ambiguity of like, what is the who is this guy? And why is he so important?
02:12:26
Speaker
And I'll kind of avoid talking about his character and how it functions within the story. But needless to say, in the second and the third act, his eric his character becomes much more prominent. In the second act, you really start to explore like the life of Chuck, the Tom Hiddleston character.
02:12:47
Speaker
What a wonderful human being he was. And there's a dance sequence. and every Anytime you pull up Instagram, or a reel on on TikTok and you see Tom Hiddleston dancing. Like if you love those videos and you see Tom Hiddleston busting a movie automatically like stop and watch Tom Hiddleston go into town, there is an entire sequence of this film that you will absolutely feast on. um Tom Hiddleston is fantastic.
02:13:19
Speaker
friggin great he is so good and of probably one of the best dancers that i'll ever like have the privilege of seeing uh bust a move on screen but uh you know like you you explore his life and some of the things that he did as he grew up his relationship with his mother and um
02:13:44
Speaker
And then by the third act, you really kind of get a clear picture of like, okay, this is this is why the first act act functioned like it did.
02:13:54
Speaker
And, you know, again, just a really, maybe not like a ah a devastatingly sad movie, um but more more along the lines of like a life-affirming film.
02:14:10
Speaker
Like none of us knows how long we have on this earth. And again, where we appropriate our time, who we choose to spend our time with and like the things that we choose to do with our time. um This, this movie really stood out to me in talking about some of those themes.
02:14:33
Speaker
And there's actually a documentary that I'm going to mention once we get into like our final, like, concluding thoughts and some other films that we want to highlight that this film would make a fantastic double feature with. ah yeah I'll just mention it right now, but it's a movie called come see me in the good light.
02:14:50
Speaker
We'll get into that later, but, but yeah, like, both strike a very similar, like almost identical tone in their balance of like kind of a a sadness or like a dread like that, like I'm describing to you, the first act kind of dives into like existential dread or the end of life, end of humanity, but it balances it with like, at the same time, like a joy and optimism that is really pretty profound.
02:15:22
Speaker
Um, I, this movie really moved me, um, you know, and, and really made me contemplate a lot of, you know, aspects of life in, in new and interesting ways that, uh,
02:15:35
Speaker
It's stuck with me ever since I saw it back, I think over the early summer. You know, it's just really stayed with me for a long time. And and this movie means a lot to me. So I had to leave it. Nothing I've seen since then has surpassed it. So my number one film, The Life of Czech.
02:15:54
Speaker
yeah I should have guessed that because yeah you've talked about it a lot and you sent me a copy of it which I watched and really really liked and you know um I'm just more and more I'm still kind of working my way through the work of Mike Flanagan but I just a really am a fan of his and this like feels like a Flanagan movie but it also it's so interesting that he's like he's and got this working relationship with Stephen King adapting so many of his things because i think that was the first time i heard of him was with gerald's game he adapted that and dr sleep uh funnily enough i like i had started this podcast and then kind of got burned out and took off like a year and then dr sleep came out and i was like i think i want to talk about this movie on the pockets it's like that was the movie that kind of got me to podcast again oh and i've i've watched uh fall of the house of usher which adapting edgar allen poe or sort of like
02:16:47
Speaker
Making this Edgar Allan Poe inspired universe. i don't know if you've watched it, but it's really good. I will recommend it. it's It's his latest TV show on Netflix. He's done ah Haunting of Hill House. I've seen about half of himm working through that. Haunting of Bly Manor. I have not watched.
02:17:02
Speaker
Midnight Mass is supposed to be great for people with religious trauma. So I'm really looking forward to that. But then Fall of House of Usher. It's a, i I told my wife that it's, it reminds me of like succession, but horror sort of. And it's like about this wealthy family who has fallen in the fall of the house of Usher, which that is the title of an underground post story.
02:17:27
Speaker
but know, it fleshes it out like way more than what the short story has in it. um But like you, you learned at beginning of the show that every other member of the family has died besides the patriarch, maybe the wife, I can't remember.
02:17:43
Speaker
But then every episode is like one of the family members dying. and so you learn what happened and all of them are inspired by a different Edgar Allen post story. so there's like a telltale heart episode. There's a, um,
02:17:55
Speaker
cask of amontillado episode so as a literature nerd growing up and like english major i loved all the post stuff in that that's totally an aside but follow-up house of usher i really really liked um so then i watched life of chuck and i was like oh this is great and it's like stephen king but not horror but it does have that sort of existentialism like you're talking about and like it really does make you, you know ponder like the end of a life and like all that, that, uh, effects. And like, um, yeah, I don't know. I really liked it a lot. And, um,
02:18:32
Speaker
there's a lot about dancing that dancing sequence and then we like see him in the dancing club as a kid and you know there's this whole interesting thing with a mysterious room in his grandparents house that i was really fascinated by but yeah it just has there's a certain like the tone that Mike Flanagan has, at least in the house of usher, which I've seen in Dr. Sleep, like it feels similar, but with a more, yeah, life affirming or like, ah I don't know. And then once you kind of understand what the first act is,
02:19:06
Speaker
yeah, just really moving in like ah a thought provoking way. So yeah, I was a big fan of this. I had it on, let's see, I had it outside of the top 10, but in the top 20 for sure. Yeah, around 18 or 19, it looks like on my master list here. But yeah, I really liked this movie a lot. I think it's a great choice.
02:19:24
Speaker
Nice. There you go. Thanks for sending me the 4K Blu-ray. I appreciate it. Yeah, man. Well, then it's time for my number one. Yeah, you might have might haven' a guess as to what this is, but it is... i do. It's one of two movies, oh and but I'm pretty sure i'm pretty sure this is a...
02:19:47
Speaker
Well, it's interesting. It here shares something in common with my number 10 pick. That's Scarlet. And it is the film Hamnet. Yep. Yep. I got it. I have it written down right here for anybody that has any any questions. Right. Number one. There it is. Andrew's top 10 Hamnet. What was your other guess? What was your other guess?
02:20:06
Speaker
I had you, I had, I put sentimental. Oh, the other one that thought I had, I had sinners here at number three no sinners that I had just as like my predictions for Andrew's top 10 list. I liked sinners a lot, but i was just yeah, sinners made my top 20, but not my top 10. Same. I have it at 14. It looks like, uh, I really liked sinners and it won a bunch of stuff in my association. One of the scenes of the year, the dance sequence, fantastic stuff. Mm-hmm.
02:20:36
Speaker
You gotta get that movie crossed, but break into Hamnet. It was my number 11 film. Really? Okay, nice. I love Hamnet much. it Marty bumped it. incredibly oh yes that's right marty um i love chloe jacques she's just i've loved everything she's made so far and uh she made nomadland few years ago another movie that just absolutely wrecked me i really like her ah her marvel movie the eternals uh but this movie really did you not like the eternals
02:21:12
Speaker
i anything marvel like posts end game i've just been kind of like i yeah yeah that would be kind of like i was like wow that way to dampen an incredible directing voice. Like, you know, you can tell that like- I say like she made the best Marvel movie that there is. No. Yeah. Yeah. Like she does what she can, but you can tell like you have to follow the Marvel mode mold, you know, like yeah you could, you could just like see her directorial like voice and Disney and Marvel are trying to like cram it into this mold and just like, you know, you have to fit in here. Cause we call the shots. that's so true that always like this is like an insane i don't know if this is true but i remember it was like she was showing kevin feige some of the stuff that she had worked on he's like oh how did you get these visuals of this vfx of of this landscape like no i just filmed at the right time of day and like this is real in camera like looks a little good like she's that good of a dream what are the odds
02:22:15
Speaker
yeah But anyway, she also, I mean, she does work with light Nomadland and in Hamnet, like beautiful mini, mini, like the cinematography is great. oh This story, Hamnet, is the sort of like semi-historical, you know, who knows if it's really true kind of thing, but it's based on a novel about William Shakespeare.
02:22:41
Speaker
And, um, his wife, Agnes is actually sort of the main character here. It's sort of a two hander too, but I guess I would say, i don't know. How do you feel about that? Actually? well metco Definitely. it probably plays more of a supporting role than, than primary character.
02:22:58
Speaker
Um, you know Because we do definitely follow Jesse Buckley's POV for most like the run time. You spend most of your screen time with her.
02:23:11
Speaker
Yeah. She's unbelievable. Yeah, absolutely. yeah jesse bucke weigh on no you're good you're good Jesse Buckley has become one of my favorite actors. She's so incredible and so emotional in this, and like but embodies this sort of like...
02:23:29
Speaker
Initially sort of like a untamable wild spirit and then this very maternal version of that. And then by the end, just so incredibly moving.
02:23:41
Speaker
This movie is such a tearjerker. Like there's a scene. So like, if you know anything about this, like the premise is, about William Shakespeare and his wife and their son that they lost. Um, and so like that, that's like a known thing that's going to be part of the story.
02:23:59
Speaker
Um, I didn't know how exactly they were to handle that, like the scene where that happens, but like, it is really tough and it's like, it's a bold thing to put that in your movie, you know, the way she did. Um,
02:24:12
Speaker
And so I think, like I saw some criticism of this song, it's like too much of a weepy, like it's being manipulative or whatever. But I think like for people that have lost a sibling, have lost a a child, like that's real, you know? And I think being able to deal with the emotional fallout of that is is a significant thing. Processing that grief.
02:24:34
Speaker
But yeah, I think- this markley's I mean, she made my best actress. Like yeah that that was, she was my number one. She's incredible in this. Paul Meskel is good. I was just realizing my number one a couple of years ago also i had Paul Meskel. So I guess I'm just a Paul Meskel Stan at this point. I don't know, but, but, um, you know, there's a lot, we, we see the meeting falling in love.
02:24:58
Speaker
Um, All that's just beautifully told. He's ah obviously as a writer and he's writing these plays and we see him starting to get success. But like he's like going off to London. and Yeah, he has to he has to go to the city. And so he's absent for periods where... So you have this idea, oh, he's off being Shakespeare, but we don't really see a lot of that um until we kind of get to the end of the film when he has been so absent that she's really frustrated with him. And this is after...
02:25:28
Speaker
And she also blames him for not being present when their son passed. And so there's like a lot of really tough emotions tied up in that. And I was mentioning earlier with sentimental value, know, when the play is the thing, when the film is the thing that the, the way that art can help to bridge those divides, because like, that's what the end of this film is ah And it's not really a spoiler. It's just like how, um,
02:25:58
Speaker
the the play of hamlet uh was a way and again i don't know how much of this is historically true but that doesn't really matter at least depicted in the film yeah like how much it helped william shakespeare work out with this this grief yeah and processes feelings and then she also bears witness to that and is part of that and and um the way that all plays out is just absolutely the most emotionally devastating thing i've ever seen in my life i thought the ending of this movie was so so good and yeah know that that really was what clinched it was like this is the best movie i've seen all year and um like everything leading up to that i thought was incredibly well done and uh just the editing and the everything of the finale of this um i i feel like it was pretty perfect and uh yeah that's why i am this my my number one film the year
02:26:53
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, this and Sentimental Value, they would really make like an interesting like to to like watch as a double feature. I mean, you if you had the if you had the emotional bandwidth to be able to handle those, they really would fit together as like a companion piece for you know people using like their art and you know specifically like performance art or like you know filmmaking as a way to like allow them to...
02:27:21
Speaker
to capture and process and put their, you know, emotions into, you know, either either a stage play, or in, you know, sentimental value, like a, yeah like, if like a film production.
02:27:38
Speaker
But, you know, and then just kind of see, again, like the family members in those relationships, like, I don't see that you're grieving this process. I don't see that this is hurting you the way it hurts me. Like, you know, did you not love your kids?
02:27:57
Speaker
And just to see Buckley's face, that the camera lingers on her so much during that third act yeah um as as she's experiencing the the play without like spoiling. i basically just spoiled that. No, I think i kind of already did too. And again, it's a movie thats downloaded like if you know that's what it's building towards. I think you'll still enjoy the film. just Yeah. but I mean, you know, go, go see the movie. Go, just go see him. There are within, within that final sequence, there are like surprising things that happen that I'm going to get into. Like, and that those things are like, how, how the play presents those things, how it all like,
02:28:42
Speaker
what she has to see, how it's performed. I just need to stop talking because I'm describing it exactly what happens. Just go watch it. but Yeah, just go watch Hamlet. It's so good. It's one of the best moves of the year. no doubt about it. just found that all so electric. I almost want to like...
02:29:00
Speaker
obviously there's really hard things to watch in this. I could always just skip over some scenes to rewatch this because like it is like an emotionally daunting thing to watch, but I really want to watch that. in me Oh, and and I mean, Buckley is just locked in. You know, she is just one of the best actresses that it's that's working, you know, like, you know, from...
02:29:21
Speaker
women talking to know she's just been in so many good roles that uh like she's in my number one of that year women talking yeah all mescal was in uh all a strangers the number one of that year yeah yeah there you go it's all coming together to like rip andrew's heart out of his chest i had no man land pretty high too think it was like four that that movie as much as I appreciated it, because I could connect with that, like with kind of like the lifestyle that my brother lives, um and that he doesn't have like a stable, like he he kind of bounces between places as far as like, he'll work in an area, and then he'll move and work in another area.
02:30:02
Speaker
um you know that That movie didn't like resonate like so hard with me. But Chloe Zhao is fantastic. i mean like Even The Rider was a fantastic film. If you ever get to see that or if you ever get a chance me to. watch it yeah That's a fantastic movie from a few years back.
Notable Films Outside Top Lists
02:30:23
Speaker
Chloe Zhao is just... She's she's not only like a ah very visionary director,
02:30:30
Speaker
but She has the cinematic eye, like you're talking about, like the footage she's able to capture. a lot of those, like what what they call it, ah you know, like the in the evening, the twilight you know when when the sun's going down the door and yeah land to the rider uh but you know you you know the the magic hour whatever yeah like when you capture some really stunning um you know like footage and and some incredible like camera work cinematography work um but yeah it's spread all through hamlet as well like that that
02:31:12
Speaker
Chloe has just got an eye, you know, like not many people in the business possess yeah for capturing some some just incredible images on and putting them on the screen.
02:31:25
Speaker
Yeah, this film just looks gorgeous from start to finish too. And like seeing the Globe Theater in in like sort of, you know, it's quote unquote heyday of being reconstructed obviously for this film. It's really cool. It's like an English major who grew up reading a lot of Shakespeare over the years. And having two films this year that are like Hamlet adjacent on my list is interesting with Scarlet and with this.
02:31:46
Speaker
um But yeah, just such a huge fan of this. And it it's one that like i think... it's like incredibly good. has a lot of filmmakers and themes that I like. And also was just, you know, it feels tailor made to me in a way of like, it's got the Shakespeare and the Hamlet stuff about grief, you know, and anyone, you know, relate to grief, but, um and like using art to like work through that stuff, I think it feels familiar to my experience as well. So anyway, all those reasons I really, really love Hamnet.
02:32:18
Speaker
So that is my number one of the year. Here we go. We made it. So wait, what was that? Three in common? Sentinel value, one battle, and Marty. Yep.
02:32:31
Speaker
Three it is. I really thought you might have no other choice just because i know you'd gone to see it on the IMAX and it was like Oh, yeah. A really gorgeous one that you had to see. I thought you might have Begonia too, but...
02:32:45
Speaker
There you go. All right. So it was closer down to like, like the 18 to 20 ish range. like kind of lower down the teens. Yeah, I got to see i think i right I just finished a movie. I just finished left handed girl, like about an hour before we started recording.
02:33:00
Speaker
That was a great, a great movie from Taiwan. Sean Baker wrote that or had a hand in writing that. Yeah. Maybe like produced or something too. Yeah. Yeah. And, but I finished that and I think that put me at 70.
02:33:14
Speaker
So I watched about 70 films this year or right in that ballpark, but yeah. So, so yeah. Yeah, Begonia fell a little bit further down into like the teens. But yeah, that ending, what a what little wild ride. yeah I think i watch this game is a low year for me. watched about 40 and typically I'm closer like 60 or 70, I think. in it but i I've shared before, but like my daughter was very sick at the beginning of this year. We've been still trying to get back on our feet from all that. It's part of why the podcast has not happened as frequently. All that's going very well. Just still you know busy and
02:33:53
Speaker
figuring out the exact way to put a podcast into my life. yeah Same thing with me. Like I've, I've been a lot of my extra time that i used to appropriate towards like my writing. I've had to put on hold because I'm studying for like some courses that I'm taking for a new job that I'm yeah looking to get. So I just haven't had the time to do as much writing this year, but totally yeah, I mean, that's life. That's how it goes sometimes. Yeah. One day ah the New York Times is going to call us and say, will you be our film critics? We'll pay you. And that'll be our day job. But until then, even not New York Times. I don't know. I'm mad about that sometimes.
02:34:32
Speaker
Until then, we'll we'll have our top 10 list. We'll squeeze it in when we can. but Count on it. Take it to the bank. Well, let's talk about our abouts. Yeah, we talked about maybe just having a couple minutes to go over. yeah A few of the other things. we sha out at the time or five minutes Do you Yeah, you go you want to go first or I can't. don't care.
02:34:50
Speaker
It doesn't matter. um you go yeah ill Okay, I'll jump in. You go for it. I have to shout out Resurrection. anita This is a movie, I don't know the director's name. It's either B or Bai, Bai Gan.
02:35:06
Speaker
is ah I believe, so this is ah is a Chinese film. Yeah. This is an in an incredible movie. This didn't make my top 10 list, but further down closer to like the 20 range too. It's hard movie to connect to, but as soon as it started, and so I was kind of like wondering at what point I was going to connect to this film.
02:35:31
Speaker
and it And it really kind of like kept me at arm's length because it's just, it's, it's plays like a fever dream almost. and is like kind of Trippy, right? Yeah. It goes from like one thing and then it morphs into another.
02:35:45
Speaker
yeah, but The production design, the cinematography, the editing of this film, as it progresses, like even though it's a two and a half hour plus movie, like I was engaged thoroughly through this film because it just...
02:36:02
Speaker
it kept like as it is is it keeps going, you get more and more of an understanding of the scope and the vision that BeGone has for this film, the more blown away I was. Like there's there's monsters and and like crumbling statues and vampires. And the last quarter of this film is like a long take.
02:36:28
Speaker
that once you like see, like holy crap, like it is astounding the the the visionary directorial achievement that Resurrection is. if like If this movie comes in and I believe it's starting to get a wide release pretty soon, at dig international cinema,
02:36:52
Speaker
Find this movie and go watch it. It is unbelievable, like, what this director was able to do. The story is broken up into, like, four sections or so. And so it tells kind of, like, different stories. And it's really kind of bizarre.
02:37:10
Speaker
um but But the filmmaking ah is so on point, like I could not believe some of the things that I saw on the screen in Resurrection.
02:37:25
Speaker
um It is something special. So I had to shout that out really quick. let me say that let me say first of all just i'm on my imdb page and like the imagery just looks incredibly striking like colorful and like yeah i really want to see this and also i believe that the music is done by m eighty three which is a band that i really like and they they've done a few scores before i think um and just i don't know their music takes you on a journey so just like seeing these images and on a big screen i i'm gonna prioritize that that sounds great anyway go on
02:37:56
Speaker
Oh man, it's an incredible, it's a cinematic experience, like one of the best of the year. F1, the best dad movie of the year. if you want to watch a movie that's great for for dads, F1 is fantastic. that made That was down the list of my top, you know, but late teens, you know, like right around 20. The movie that I mentioned would make a fantastic double feature with Life of Chuck.
02:38:20
Speaker
Come see me in the good light. You would love this movie, Andrew. This is a, it's on HBO. um It is a documentary about this like slam poet.
02:38:35
Speaker
So she does like performance poetry. um And ah and she's diagnosed, like, or early in the film, you understand she's been diagnosed with, like, basically an incurable ovarian cancer, I believe.
02:38:51
Speaker
um and you get to see the world through her eyes as the the filmmakers follow her around through the last, i don't know, maybe six, eight, 10 months as she's getting different, um you know, tests done.
02:39:06
Speaker
But you're, you're staying with her character as, as she's going through these things and you're experiencing again, like kind of like what matters to her the most. And like, you're, you're seeing, know,
02:39:21
Speaker
like, and encroaching death on somebody that is able to articulate it and give you some different perspective on the life, the moments that they have left.
02:39:37
Speaker
A lot of that in 28 years later, like all these films talking about like existence and life and death. Yeah. Come see me in the good light, a fantastic documentary. Seek it out and watch it.
02:39:52
Speaker
Or if you have HBO, it's available to stream right now, but it is a fantastic documentary. um I will shout out the two neon horror movies, some of the best hair, makeup work of the year, Keeper and Together.
02:40:08
Speaker
Both. Yeah.
Podcast Wrap-Up and Listener Engagement
02:40:10
Speaker
um i didn't see Keeper, but I did see Together. Go ahead, though. Okay, yeah, yeah. Together was was good. I actually think I prefer Keeper.
02:40:19
Speaker
That one was the more pure horror movie. Together was just kind of like a fun time by the end. That had a great final sequence, or one of the final great final sequences, Needle Drops. Yeah, incredibly. But i was good Parkins.
02:40:32
Speaker
yeah yeah yeah osgood perkins had one of the best like pure scary horror films with keeper i think i prefer that's probably my favorite osgood perkins film right there was keeper um incredible hair and makeup work in that film is as well um you're up for a good scary time check that out i have to throw out some international features really quick surat the spanish entry to the oscars uh It's spoken Spanish, French.
02:41:05
Speaker
This movie is... It has a couple of moments, like one of the most like holy shit moments of any movie I saw this year. If you get to go see it in the theater, ah I want to go see it in the theater just to be able to like watch everybody else react to a moment that happens in this film.
02:41:30
Speaker
It was so good. Yeah. i' I have to say The Secret Agent, the new, like a Brazilian movie, spoken Portuguese, is an excellent, it's a long movie. it's it's too It's 230, 245, but it was a very, it's a little bit of a slower um kind of a mystery. A guy is in hiding and, you know, you the story involves a story.
02:41:58
Speaker
unravels You start to understand like who he's hiding from and who's after him. and it gets a little bit more. The third act is pretty pretty excellent as far as like the dramatic tension. um Yeah, Left-Handed Girl.
02:42:13
Speaker
I just finished that one up a few minutes ago. a grade to A great ah Taiwanese film, Spoken Mandarin. Again, focusing on like a small...
02:42:23
Speaker
um you know, marginalized societal section of, of, uh, individuals, a mom. I can't really even talk about it, but a mom and two daughters and some of the things that they go through.
02:42:40
Speaker
Um, and i already mentioned Ethan Hawke and blue moon is great. When we talked about actors earlier, last couple that I'll mention are the two of the most recent films that I got to watch from searchlight.
02:42:53
Speaker
Is This Thing On? i want this ah think that was around number 14 for me. um That movie, I had no idea what that film was about.
02:43:05
Speaker
But Laura Dern and Will Arnett play a couple that have decided to split and get divorced. but there's still something there and he moves out and it just explores their relationship and their, the relationship that they have with their kids is they're like going through this process.
02:43:29
Speaker
Uh, Speaking from my own experience, it's not the most fun time, but it is very emotionally affecting. And I really loved that film. And The Testament of Anne Lee, the two searchlight films that I just got to catch within the last like week because they finally got on it and sent me the screeners for...
02:43:48
Speaker
for their films. yeah Testament of Anne Lee is something else. A musical featuring Amanda Seyfried as Anne Lee, who is like, I guess like an Yeah, like the Shaker movement, right? yeah Yeah, that she's like a religious figure that is able to convince people that she has gotten this vision of what we need to be doing uh like from god or something and she she has the path she knows what we should be doing and is able to like really through like these song and dance sequences um for you know make for some like stunning imagery a very cinematic film that if you get a chance to check it out you especially would love the test yeah i would really like it yeah
02:44:43
Speaker
You dig on that film probably a little bit. Yeah, those are some of the great boom films from 2025 that I wanted to at least spend this couple minutes, highlight a few of them.
02:44:55
Speaker
Yeah, I'll do the same thing really quick. I had Frankenstein just outside my top 10 at 11. really thought it was good. And Guillermo del Toro, of course, loves his monster movies. And um i think that everyone's really good in it, especially Oscar Isaac.
02:45:09
Speaker
yeah The Lord i've just won an acting prize. Oh, did he? For that? Yeah, he's good in it as well. He won a supporting actor, yeah. i really like a gig work Mia Goth is great in it as well. as kind of she' so She was on my supporting actress. For supporting actors, I had Tiana Taylor in one battle and then Mia Goth and then Odessa Azean from Marty Supreme. I'm not sure if I'm saying that right, but she plays Marty's girlfriend. I think she's really good. yeah um I mentioned K-pop Demon Hunters earlier. It really is great. If if if you like the Spider-Verse movies or um what's the other Sony Pictures Animation one?
02:45:45
Speaker
The Martins vs. Machines? Yes, vs. Machines. Very similar animation styles. Yes, similar sense of humor as well. yeah and so i think I really do think it is really good. um I liked J. Kelly a lot. I thought it was a little overly sentimental, but I had it in there as well. For sure, is somebody that loves the cinema.
02:46:03
Speaker
Yeah, exactly. yeahp It's a movie about movies big time. um I did have sinners up there. Oh, if I had legs, I'd kick you. want to mention mostly for the lead performance. I think Rose Byrne is quite good. burn man It is. a It's like uncut gems, but if it was about a parent with a kid of special needs, which is, you know, about your wife yeah yeah because like ah a big plot point in the film is like, should we have a G tube or not?
02:46:33
Speaker
and my daughter has a G tube, so I can know all about that. I ended up not loving the movie, but I, you know, I was respect it. And I think it is very stressful on purpose. You know, it's got that safety energy. I think they ah produced it, um but pretty good. I liked it a lot, but really stressful. too I liked, let's see.
02:46:58
Speaker
That can be enough to mention there. i was going to say the plague I thought was quite good, which is about boys at a, like tween boys being horrible to each other at a swimming camp, synchronized swimming camp.
02:47:12
Speaker
um And it's kind of got some scary stuff. Like it's horror adjacent. It's got horror elements with it. And yeah Joel Edgerton is their coach. but Some really good kid performances. and I liked it i like it quite a bit.
02:47:26
Speaker
um Together I also liked Alison Brie and Dave Franco trying not to become a joint. It's like an interesting premise and is fun and pretty scary at moments. Oh, and then Die My Love. I liked the performances a lot. I didn't love the film overall.
02:47:46
Speaker
no as Lynn then Ramsey is the director, but then it's... Jennifer Lawrence is very good. and Robert Pattinson. She's sort of a young newlywed mom who's having a breakdown, essentially. Maybe it's sexist of me to say it so glibly, but that's the premise, and it is very good, and she is very, very good in it.
02:48:12
Speaker
but I think that's probably everything I need to mention. Let's look really quick. Yeah. Everything else on my ballot was pretty predictable. One battle after another score I thought was quite good.
02:48:24
Speaker
um The Hamnet score is very good. Although some of that, it's interesting. I think the music of that final sequence was not original. It was the same composer, but he made it for something else. It's like in a previous film and she, Chloe Zhao heard it It was like, this is what I need to score the end of the film with and kind of match them to that and that it works really well. So I thought that was kind of cool.
02:48:46
Speaker
ah Yeah, that can be all my, my honorable mentions. Obviously see there's some big blind spots, things that I really wanted to catch up with is this thing on and leave are two of those for sure.
02:48:57
Speaker
So yeah, there's still some 2025 films I need to see, but yeah, saw some good ones. Yeah, for sure. That means I won the wager this year, right? I said three, didn't I? That's right.
02:49:11
Speaker
You already sent me life of Chuck. What's that? You did already send me the life of Chuck, so we could just call it even, I guess. but Oh yeah, that's right. Yeah. Well, thank you so much for joining me for this. We should probably wrap up. We've been yapping a long time, yes but thank you as always. I'm sure we'll do this again before too long.
02:49:34
Speaker
And thank you everyone for listening to Art House Garage. We've got a few years worth of episodes now. You can hear all those in your podcast app of choice. Our theme music is by composer Paul Hunefeld. Learn more at appallingproductions.com. If you want to support Art House Garage, become a patron over at patreon.com slash arthousegarage or find a link in the show notes. You can also buy an Art House Garage t-shirt.
02:49:55
Speaker
at arthousegarage.com slash shop. If you want to support us without spending any money, leave a rating or review in your podcast app. You can also stay in the loop about Arthouse Garage and the films we're covering, subscribing to our email newsletter at arthousegarage.com slash subscribe. you can also email email me directly at arthousegarage.com. And of course, follow on social media. You can find us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Letterboxd. Just search at Arthouse Garage.
02:50:19
Speaker
in all those places or find links in the show notes and that will do it for this episode thank you again so much for listening and until next time keep it snob free