Fresh Air - David Byrne's Christmas Playlist

Episode Date: December 24, 2024

The singer-songwriter and Talking Heads frontman presents some of his favorite holiday music — including songs by The Pogues, James Brown, LCD Soundsystem and Paul Simon. Find his playlist on Apple Music and Spotify. Also, our film critic Justin Chang shares his list of the best movies of 2024.Learn more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for this podcast and the following message come from Autograph Collection Hotels, with over 300 independent hotels around the world, each exactly like nothing else. Autograph Collection is part of the Marriott Bonvoy portfolio of hotel brands. Find the unforgettable at autographcollection.com. This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. It's becoming a Fresh Air tradition that for Christmas we ask someone who's deep into music and whose work We love to choose some of their favorite Christmas recordings. We started this two years ago with quest love yesterday

We featured John Batiste at the piano singing and playing some Christmas songs Today we featured David Byrne and his Christmas playlist which we recorded last Christmas Burn and his Christmas playlist which we recorded last Christmas. Burn is of course a founder and the frontman of Talking Heads which was a seminal New Wave band in the 70s and 80s. Although calling the band New Wave and punk doesn't describe how unique they were or how they expanded out from the stripped down music they began playing. Burn also founded the music label La Wacka Bop which releases music of different genres from the US and around the world. The restored version of the Talking Heads 1984 concert film, Stop Making Sense, was released last year. It's widely considered one of the best concert films. Byrne also created the Broadway shows, American Utopia, and Here Lies Love.

David Byrne, welcome back to Fresh Air. Happy holidays. So great to have you back. Happy holidays. Good to be back. So I want to start by asking you what are the criteria that you used to compile this list? I wanted to not take it too seriously. Not too seriously. the Christmas list and have fun. So when I'm putting together these kind of playlists for friends or whatever, I'm thinking, I want them to just have fun. Let's give them something that will bring a little joy to the holidays, because the holidays can be stressful for a lot of people.

Yeah, and we've got some songs about that, too, that you've chosen. Yeah, we have that, too. We do have that you've chosen. Yeah, we have that too. We do have that. Fear not. There will be some sad songs. All right. I want to start with something from your list that I really love that I hadn't heard before because I wanted to get off to a really strong start. So we're starting with a song that you wrote and recorded called Fat Man's Comin'. Now, most Santa Claus songs are so ho hoho cheery. This one is like high drama. It sounds like the theme song for an opening, like, dramatic film.

Tell me how and why you wrote this song. Well, continuing on from our previous conversation, I sometimes have a tendency to take things a little bit literally. So I looked at the whole Santa phenomenon and said, well, what if I just describe this exactly as what's happening? Here's a stranger who's sneaking, breaking into your house, basically, and leaving packages and dressed in a rather strange outfit. And I thought, what if I just write that, do that? The arrangement is by a guy named Jeric Bischoff that I'd worked with before, and his arrangement is pretty incredible. Really kind of catches

the flavor of when I'm getting this sort of slightly ominous, despite my description of what Santa's up to as being pretty accurate. It sounds more like a home invasion. Yes, yes. The arrangement gives it the appropriate mood. Absolutely. Let's hear it. This is David Byrne's Fat Man's Comin'. Coming from the land of the ice and snow, a roly-poly man in the dark, he's ridin'. Everybody knows that he's out there now.

Everybody knows that the fat man's comin'. His hair is white as the snow That man with the bird trim collar Coming in from the car Everybody says that you can't be real People say it's just my imagination But everybody knows that the fat man's coming Wearing boots on a belt of leather He'll be creeping into your home Leaving packages unattended So that was David Byrne's song, Fat Man's Coming, with David, of course, singing lead and an orchestration by Jared Bischoff.

I really love that. I hope you do more of that kind of like high drama song with Jerick Bischoff orchestrations. Okay, so the next song we should play from your playlist is the Pogues song, Fairy Tale of New York. And the frontman of the Pogues, Shane McGowan, died very recently. So we should just acknowledge him and play this song. It's a great song. I know it's a favorite of a lot of people. Tell us why you chose this and what the song means to you.

It's a great song. He's a great songwriter. It's a duet with Christy McCall, somebody that I've worked with on a couple of records. And it's incredibly moving. It kind of brings you to tears every time you hear it. He paints a picture of this bickering couple that actually love one another very much, immigrants who've come to New York and are finding a hard time of it, getting their footing. And she is accusing him of all these promises that he made to her about how great New York

would be, and they're all broken promises. It's not been great. But it's... The way he's telling this, the things she's accusing him of, he's sort of singing about himself. His, you know, unreliability and drunkenness and everything else. So it's, yeah, it's very moving. So let's hear it. This is The Pogues' Fairy Tale of New York, recorded in 1987. See you there in the drunk tank And old man said to me Won't see another one And then we sang a song

The rare old mountains here I turned my face away And dreamed about you Got on the lucky one Climbing like ten to one I've got a feeling This year is for me and you I've got a feeling, those years were made so happy Christmas I love you baby, I can see a better time when all our dreams come true They got cars big as bars, they got rivers of gold

But the wind goes right through you, it's no place for the old When you first took my hand on a cold Christmas Eve You promised me Broadway was waiting for me You were handsome You were pretty, Queen of New York City When the band finished playing, they held out for more Sinatra was swinging, on the drums they were singing We kissed on a corner, then danced through the night

The boys of the NY-Boy pity choir were singing Going back And the bells were ringing out for Christmas Day Oh my God, it's like heartbreaking from the first verse Yeah, cause he's in jail because he was Brunk in public. Mm-hmm. Yeah So I don't think they were like bitter Christmas songs like this when you were growing up I know there wasn't when I was growing up. No

It was during the 60s and 70s, I think, that I remember there being songs that sort of criticized Christmas as far as talking about inequality and the emphasis on consumerism and things like that. You started to hear those kind of songs. Danielle Pletka Was Talking Heads ever asked to do a Christmas album? No, no, no. No one thought of that.

And did you ever release a Christmas album on your label, The Wack-A-Bop? No, no. On one hand, Christmas songs are perennial. If you do one that people like, as we all know, every year you hear it again. It starts getting played again and again and again for a few weeks, and then it's gone again. But it comes back. So you're kind of, you're set for your song royalties or whatever. But if it doesn't click, you've just got this embarrassing thing.

That will only be viable for a month. Yes, only viable for a month and then will be completely forgotten. Yeah. Okay. So moving on, we've got another song about Christmas in the city. This is a classic. This is one of those songs that does get played every Christmas. It's James Brown's, Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto. Tell us why you chose this. John O'Brien It's a classic. And this was during the period

where James Brown was actually starting to make some social commentary in some of his songs. But even though he's making this kind of pointed commentary about economics and inequality, and he can't help but put it to a funky beat. There's a joy in the funky beat and how danceful it is that in a way is a response to the criticism in the lyrics. Yeah, you could easily dance to this. Yeah. Yeah. All right, so here's James Brown's Santa Claus Goes Straight to the Ghetto.

Santa Claus goes straight to the ghetto. Hitch up your reindeer, go straight to the ghetto Santa Claus, go straight to the ghetto Build every stocking you find The kids are gonna love you so Leave a toy for Johnny Leave a doll for Mary Leave something pretty for Donny

And don't forget about Gary Santa Claus, uh, goes straight to the ghetto Santa Claus, goes straight to the ghetto. Santa Claus goes straight to the ghetto. Tell him James Brown sent you go straight to the ghetto. You know that I know what you will see cause that was once me. Cause that was once me. Hit it. Hit it. Well, Santa Claus goes straight to the ghetto. One of the recordings, the Christmas recordings that David Byrne has brought with him today

to play for us. So yeah, that's a great recording. You brought several songs that are pretty sad and depressing Christmas songs. So... The holidays are hard. Yeah. What's hard for you about the holidays? Or what was hard for you about the holidays?

I've had holidays where I've been completely alone. By choice or by... No, not exactly by choice. It wasn't like, oh, I don't want to see anyone. It was just like everybody was gone and I was left eating a turkey TV dinner. I was like, I'm really pulling at the heartstrings there. But yeah, and that happens to quite a lot of people. But also, I don't know what it is. Maybe it's year end. Maybe it's just this kind of enforced joy that we're supposed to feel, that people kind of feel like, wait

a minute, you're not going to, you can't tell me to be happy. And we have James Murphy and the LCD sound system doing us all a gold. Christmas Will Break Your Heart, which in some cases is very true. Yeah, this is a great recording. I hadn't heard it before, so really glad you brought it. So here's LCD Sound System with James Murphy, Christmas Will Break Your Heart. Christmas will break your heart if your world is feeling small And there's no one on your phone you feel close enough to call And Christmas will crush your soul like that laid back rock and roll But your body's getting old It's much too time to be so bold

Christmas can wreck your head Like some listless awkward sex So you refuse to leave your bed And get depressed when no one checks Christmas will break your heart Like the armies of the unrelenting dark Once the peace talks fall apart But still I'm coming home to you. Not many Christmas songs have Christmas will crush your soul in the lyrics. But it's a great song.

I really like it a lot. And James doesn't sing that often, so it's a nice thing. Do you often feel like everyone else is having a better time than you are on Christmas? I mean, I certainly... Not so much anymore, but I used to feel like that. I certainly felt that way. I used to feel like, oh, there's this kind of... Look, they really are getting the kind of all the joy and they're going to parties and

whatever they're doing. I thought, I'm not sure I'm totally down with all this. Do you ever perform on Christmas? I think I have, and then on New Year's Eve, I've done that. Those are especially New Year's Eve can be a very lucrative performance date. It gets you off the hook of having to have a good time. Yes, you just go, okay, that's done. I provided the entertainment.

Yeah, yeah. And now, yes, that's done. I provided the entertainment. Yeah, yeah. And now, yes, I'll have a drink and go home. The next song I want to play, David, is I think the saddest Christmas song I've ever heard. It doesn't get much sadder than this. And this is a Prince Christmas song called Another Lonely Christmas. You want to tell us about why you chose this one? Oh, to cheer us up. Yeah, this is to cheer everyone up. Wow. Yeah.

Prince is amazing. Yes. Yeah, I thought, wait a minute, didn't he do a Christmas song? But he gave it the twist of being like, incredibly sad Christmas song. Echoing LCD sound system and some of the others. It's kind of like if you're alone for the holidays, it is, yeah, it is deeply sad. And he's alone because his girlfriend died

on Christmas Day several years ago. Yeah. You find that out deeper in the song. Yeah, yes, he's milking it there. Yeah, yeah, but he sounds so good on this. Yeah, he really gives it, it's a real vocal workout. Okay, so if you're in the mood for a sad Christmas song,

David Byrne has one for you and here it is, Prince's Another Lonely Christmas. I spent another holy Christmas Darling, darling, you should be there For the ones I dream about You are the one that makes my love shine You are the only one I care for, yeah My momma used to say Always trust your love

But now I guess that all applies to her Cause baby you promised me Baby you promised me you'd never leave Then you died on the twenty-fifth day of December Oh baby, last night I spent another lonely, lonely Christmas Darling baby, you should be there If you're just joining us, my guest is David Byrne and he is co-founder and was the frontman of Talking Heads and he's brought with him a Christmas playlist for us so we'll hear

more Christmas songs chosen by David Byrne after we take a short break. This is fresh air. Lonely, lonely Christmas Darling, darling You should remember There's only one I dream about now You're the one that makes my life so sad You see, you see, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na, na Hey, it's Tanya Mosley. It's almost the end of the year, and this is the season when we here at NPR come to you as a nonprofit news organization and ask for your support. Maybe you're already an NPR Plus supporter, and if so, thank you so much.

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Make America affordable again. Listen to The Indicator, the Daily Economics podcast from NPR. This is Fresh Air. I'm Terry Gross. Let's get back to my interview with David Byrne, the co-founder and front man of the band Talking Heads. He's put together a playlist of his favorite Christmas songs for us, and he's here to play and talk about them.

So I asked him about one of the songs he chose, Who Took the Merry Out of Christmas, by the Staples Singers. Peter Van Doren The Staples are basically a gospel group. They have secular hits, but they come out of the gospel and the civil rights tradition. And so here they're talking about who took the merry out of Christmas, but I think they're also talking about who forgot about the real meaning of Christmas. Yeah. Sometimes when I hear this song, I think instead of Mary, M-E-R-R-Y, they're singing M-A-R-Y.

They're talking about the biblical story. ["Merry Christmas"] ["Merry Christmas"] Who took the merry Christmas Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, polite and keen, independent right star Who took the merry Christmas? Yeah, hey, hey, hey People all over the world forgot about Mary To be his and buying toys, learning about Santa's joys That is really catchy. Yeah, thank you for bringing that. Did you spend any Christmases

in church? Oh, I probably did. My parents went to church when I was young. At one point, I remember they went to a Methodist church, which didn't have a lot of singing. And then they switched over to Unitarian. I asked my dad, why did you all switch? And he said, the music's better. What music was it? Was it like guitar? No, it wasn't. There was that period in church when it was like very folky? Yes, there was that period.

This was not that. This was going the other way. They had like full-on choirs and classical musicians playing. I mean, it was kind of incredible. So moving on, this is another anxiety, this is like an anxiety Christmas song. It's Paul Simon getting ready for Christmas Day. Tell us why this one's on your list. A couple of reasons.

I'm Paul Simon fan, especially his more recent records. I don't know the last five records or so, I think are some of the best five records or so, I think, are some of the best things he's ever done. To my understanding, they're a little bit underappreciated. And this is part of a long and continuing tradition of Jewish songwriters writing Christmas songs. Irving Berlin wrote White Christmas and Phil Spector did a Christmas record. It's a pretty long list, I think. And it's a song that starts off like, hey, we're all excited we're getting ready for Christmas. And then he talks about somebody who got deployed

to Iraq. Danielle Pletka Yeah, his nephew. Richard Hildesheim Yeah, his nephew got deployed to Iraq and all these other things. It's quite sobering thoughts. But those are the kind of things that people think about during holidays. And musically, this is another really like danceable song. It sounds like it's going to be a joyful upbeat song, but lyrically, it's the opposite. Yeah, that's kind of what he does though.

Have these perky, peppy songs sometimes, and then kind of the lyrics undercut it. There's a sample in the song. There's a lot of samples in the song. I read on a website, and I can't vouch for whether this is true or not, but according to that website, the sample was recorded in 1941 at the last sermon by pre-war American Christian preacher and gospel singer, Reverend J.M. Gates. Oh, he's a well-known preacher too.

Is he? Yeah, I'm not familiar with him. So this may or may not be true. I hesitate as a journalist to put this question mark on the air, but that's what it says on this website. It's a song website. Yeah. Okay, should we hear it? Yes. Okay, here we hear it? Yes. Okay, here's Paul Simon getting ready for Christmas. Santa Claus is coming to town In the days I work my day job In the nights I work my night

But it all comes down to working man's pay Getting ready, y'all getting ready Ready for Christmas Day Getting ready for Christmas I let the tape, the name, the undertaker go He's getting ready for your birthday I let the taste of the name of the undertaker go He's getting ready for your heart Not only that, the James, he's getting ready for you

Christmas Day, and not only the James But the in-laws, the police force Now, get ready for Christmas Day And I want you to bear it in mind. I got a nephew in Iraq, it's his third time back, but it's ending up the way it began. With the luck of a beginner of eating turkey dinner on some mountain top in Pakistan. Oh, I'm getting ready for Christmas. Get ready. For the power and the glory and the story of Christmas Day. Getting ready for Christmas.

Don't let it up in your mind. Time's gone. New York. New York. New York. A kind of really contradictory song again between the joyfulness of the music and the sadness and anxiety of the lyric. That was Paul Simon getting ready for Christmas. So we have another like Christmas heartbreak song here. And this is Alexander XXIII and Leve. So tell us about them and why you chose this song. I don't know Alexander XXIII.

I'm familiar with Leve. She's Icelandic and does songs that sound like they were written before the rock and roll era. It's kind of like a throwback to the kind of older school of Christmas songs. But much sadder. Yeah, but much sadder. Yes.

Okay. So this is in Christmas and let's hear it. I bought you a present but you'll never get it Cause me and you, you said our goodbyes this December, oh no So I went to the furnace, thought maybe I'd burn it But hard as I try, I can't even return it, oh no The most wonderful time of the year is breaking my heart So tell me this Christmas who'll keep you warm Who'll put your presents down on the floor? Under the tree that you bought with me

We'll watch all those movies that we both have seen Hundreds of times, we know every line But it's not about that, it's about the time Together on Christmas So this Christmas ain't Christmas at all I made cookies for Nikki like you used to do But I got so damn sad that I ain't wanted to all them all So please turn off Mariah, I'm not in the mood

Cause all I want for Christmas wants nothing to do with me now I really like that song And the way they do it with a male and female singer, it sounds like they're both yearning for each other, but they've broken up and they should get back together. Exactly. Yes, I'm going to burn your present, but you can tell she really thought, why couldn't this have worked out?

Yeah, because they love the same films. If you're just joining us, my guest is David Byrne, and he is co-founder and was the front man of Talking Heads. And he's brought with him a Christmas playlist for us, so we'll hear more Christmas songs chosen by David Byrne after we take a short break. This is Fresh Air. This message comes from the Kresge Foundation. Established 100 years ago, the Kresge Foundation works to expand equity and

opportunity in cities across America. A century of impact, a future of opportunity. More at Kresge.org. This is Fresh Air. Let's get back to my interview with David Byrne and it's a special Christmas presentation He's brought with him his playlist of his favorite Christmas songs, which he's playing for us Getting back to your playlist since we've heard some songs about heartbreak and death I thought let's lighten it up and play a song from your playlist. That's just about the enjoyment of shopping for Christmas And I don't know if this is meant to be ironic, but it really is about, let's go shopping. Yeah. And tell us why you chose this song. It's from 1983.

It's a sentiment that I might view with suspicion or assume was meant ironically, but it's a song about shopping, about the joy of shopping by a man named Joseph Washington, Jr., whom I'm completely unfamiliar with. But I thought, oh, my goodness, somebody's tackling this in a kind of unironic way. unfamiliar with him too but it's time for shopping. Traffic jams, gift shopping, it's time for shopping. And I've got Christmas gifts together, I'm gonna buy presents. For my lover, for my friends, for my family, for everyone that's been so good to me I'm going shopping. I'm voting for that it's not ironic because he's talking about the joy of buying gifts for people who you care about.

Yes. And kind of going downtown, mingling with all the other shoppers who everybody's kind of engaged in the same kind of activity. AMT. Do you buy a lot of gifts or have you kind of like signed off of that? BD. I kind of signed off on it. But I don't think I want to buy something for someone when I see the thing. Like so-and-so would love that. Then get it for them. AMT. Also as an adult, there's always this fear as you're opening a gift that it's going to be something you know you want to give away because you don't need it and you don't have room for it.

And someone's looking at your facial expression and going, hmm. Exactly, exactly. I remember a gift I gave to one of my parents and they opened it and they said, take it back, I don't need it. and they opened it and they said, take it back, I don't need it. Oh. It's the thought that counts. Yeah, I know. I was going to mention that. Ha ha ha.

So I want to end with a song that's actually a song that's really about Christmas. It's one of the carols, but it's an old song. It's from, like, the 1840s. It's Oh Holy Night. And this is one of those songs that it's an old song it's from like the 1840s it's Oh Holy Night and this is one of those songs that it's just a beautiful song it's a beautiful melody in the part that goes Fall on Your Knees there's some chord behind that part that is just it's kind of gripping a recent version that I really

like a lot is by Samara Joy and she won like two Grammys this year for best jazz vocal album and best new artist. And this is a song with her family because her family all sang gospel music and she's singing lead on it. And her father who performed with the gospel star Andre Crouch, her father both sang and played bass, I think. Anyways, he sings on it too. Do you like this song, David? Yeah, yeah. I haven't heard this version, so I'm really looking forward to this. Usually the versions I hear are very kind of cleaned up and very pristine. And this sounds like it's going to have a little bit more passion in it.

Yeah. Okay. Let's hear it. This is Samara Joy and the McClendon family. The stars are brightly shining. It is the night of our dear Savior's birth. Long lay the world in sin and error pining Till he appeared and the soul felt its worth A thrill of hope The weary world rejoices For yonder breaks A new and glorious morn Oh, fall on your knees Oh hear the angel voices Oh night divine O night when Christ was born

O night divine. What do you think? Wow. That's very moving. Yeah. Incredibly moving. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then I noticed some little kind of musical songwriting things like she sneaks in an extra

measure when she holds out a note. I hadn't noticed that. Yeah, little things like that where you go, oh. Is that just, yeah. That's the kind of thing you would notice. I guess so, yeah. Yeah. So that Samara Joy song was a song that I chose, but other than that, the songs we've been hearing today were chosen by David Byrne.

It's his Christmas playlist. And David, I'm so grateful to you for coming back on the show and doing this. It's been so much fun. And you've introduced me to songs I didn't know and performers I didn't know. I knew some of them, but not all of them. So thank you for that. I personally thank you for that. And I wish you happy holidays. Thank you. Same to you. Happy holidays. Thank you. If you make it through the holidays. Yeah. David Byrne and his Christmas playlist recorded last year. You can find and listen to the Christmas playlist that he put together for us on our website freshair.npr.org or in the show notes on the podcast. David Byrne co-founded and fronted the band Talking Heads. The restored version of the band's 1984 concert film, Stop

Making Sense, is available for rent or purchase on various streaming platforms. After we take a short break, the best films of 2024, as chosen by our film critic Justin Chang, who is also a film critic for The New Yorker. This is Fresh Air. This is Fresh Air. Our film critic Justin Chang spent a lot of 2024 in movie theaters, at film festivals, and in front of his TV. He says that it was, all in all, a stronger year

for movies from around the world than it was for Hollywood. Here's his list of the best movies of 2024. It's often said that December for film critics is like tax season for accountants. This is our crunch time when we try to take stock of the past 12 months worth of movies and determine our favorites. Good luck getting us to agree on anything. Earlier this month, the New York Film Critics Circle gave its Best Picture

Award to The Brutalist, Brady Corbett's sweeping post-war drama about a Hungarian-Jewish architect's American rebirth. A few days later, the Los Angeles Film Critics Association, of which I'm a member, gave its top prize to Anora, Sean Baker's madly entertaining farce about a Brooklyn sex worker. It says something about the quality of the movies this year, that as much as I like Anora and The Brutalist, both titles landed just outside my own personal list of favorites. Here then are the 10, no, 11 best movies of 2024. My number one movie of the year is Close Your Eyes, the latest from the legendary Spanish filmmaker Victor Erize,

who's best known for his 1973 classic, The Spirit of the Beehive. Close Your Eyes is the first feature he's directed in roughly three decades, and it's an intensely personal work about a long-retired filmmaker trying to solve the mystery of what happened to an old friend who vanished years earlier. What begins as a kind of cinephile detective story gradually morphs into an emotionally transcendent drama about the power of love, the agony of loss, and the pleasures of getting lost in the movies. The next two movies on my list are both indictments of corporate greed, with faintly apocalyptic

vibes. Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World is a bracingly foul-mouthed comedy from the Romanian director Raru Giuda about an underpaid production assistant driving from one thankless gig to the next. Evil Does Not Exist is Rusuke Hamaguchi's haunting follow-up to his Oscar-winning Drive My Car. It's set in a remote Japanese village that comes under environmental threat from the construction of a glamping site. Up next are the two most daring and inventive American movies I saw all year. One of them is A Different Man, Aaron Schimberg's audacious and assured horror comedy, starring Sebastian Stan as a man whose face is covered with tumors due to a genetic

condition called neurofibromatosis. He experiences a miraculous recovery, which is when his nightmare really begins. The other terrific American movie on my list is Nickel Boys, Rommel Ross's stunning adaptation of Colson Whitehead's novel about two black boys living in horrific conditions at a reform school in the Jim Crow South. In this scene, one boy's grandmother, beautifully played by Anjanu Ellis Taylor, is heartbroken and not being allowed to see him. She expresses her sadness to one of his friends and asks him to please give her grandson a

package of letters. They told me that he can't have visitors. I just... Would you please? Would you please? Yes ma'am. I came all this way. It's a crime that they won't let me see him. It's a crime. What kind of place is this that they won't let me see him?

My next two favorite movies put an enchanting modern spin on ancient myths. In La Chimera, the Italian director Alice Rohrwacher riffs on the tale of Orpheus and Eurydice. As a tomb raider in the Tuscan countryside, Josh O'Connor has never been better. The other one is Music, a brilliant rethink of Oedipus Rex from the German director Angela Schanilek. Her storytelling is enigmatic to the point of baffling, but it's also moving beyond words. Next on my list is No Other Land, a searing documentary from a collective of four filmmakers,

two Palestinian and two Israeli, who chronicled the demolition of homes in the occupied West Bank. It has yet to find a U.S. distributor, despite having won numerous prizes at festivals and from critics groups. No other land would make a harrowing double bill with my next movie, Green Border, a rip from the headline's drama that embroils us in the chaos at the Polish-Belarusian border. The veteran Polish director, Anieszka Holland, has spent much of her long career depicting the plight of refugees in wartime.

Green Border is one of her very best. The last two movies on my list illuminate the lives of their women characters with rigorous realism. All We Imagine as Light is a quietly shimmering drama about three Mumbai women who find solidarity in the face of societal repression. It confirms the Indian director Payal Kapadia as a remarkable new talent. And last on my list is Hard Truths, in which the great English director Mike Lee reunites with the actor Marianne Jean-Baptiste almost 30 years after they worked together on Secrets

and Lies. All I'll say about it is that Jean-Baptiste gives the greatest performance I've seen in ages, and it will be watched and remembered long after this year is over. Justin Chang is a film critic for The New Yorker. His list can be found on our website, freshair.npr.org. The New Bob Dylan biopic opens Christmas Day. Tomorrow we'll feature two related interviews from our archive, an interview with folk singer Pete Seeger, who's played in the film by Edward Norton and one with Bruce Springsteen who was

called the new Bob Dylan early in his recording career and later inducted Dylan into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. I hope you'll join us. Fresh Air's executive producer is Danny Miller. Our technical director and engineer is Audrey Bentham. Our interviews and reviews are produced and edited by Phyllis Myers, Henry Boldenado, Sam Brigger, Lauren Krenzel, Theresa Madden, Monique Nazareth, Thea Challener, Sisan Yikundi, and Anna Bauman. Our digital media producer is Molly C.V. Nesper. Roberta Shorrock directs the show.

Our co-host is Tanya Mosley. I'm Terry Gross. All of us wish you a Merry Christmas.