The Big Picture - The 25 Best Movies of the Century: No. 13 - 'Get Out’

Episode Date: September 1, 2025

Sean and Amanda return to continue their yearlong project of listing the 25 best movies of the 21st century so far. Today, they discuss Jordan Peele’s ‘Get Out’ starring Daniel Kaluuya and Allison Williams, the funniest, most astute critique of a so-called post-racial America. They share why they chose this to be their signature horror film of the list, how its release was a culture-shifting event that changed the face of horror, and wonder what the reception of the film would have been if the infamous alternative ending of the film was used. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Producer: Jack Sanders This episode is sponsored by State Farm®️. A State Farm agent can help you choose the coverage you need. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there.®️ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

This episode is presented by State Farm. Life's full of decisions, big and small, and sometimes you make movie ones you can really stand behind. For example, I was wise enough to stick around through the mid-credits during Ryan Coogler's sinners. And unlike my co-host, Amanda, I got to see a very special sequence with the great buddy guy, among other things. State Farm gets it. Making confident choices can make all the difference. That's why, with the State Farm Personal Price Plan, you can choose the right amount of coverage to help create an affordable price for you. a State Farm agent today to learn how you can choose to bundle and save with the personal price

plan. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Prices are based on rating plans that vary by state. Coverage options are selected by the customer availability, amount of discounts and savings, and eligibility vary by state. I'm Sean Fennessey. I'm Amanda Adams. And this is 25 for 25. A big. Big picture special conversation show about Get Out. Now sink into the floor. Number 13. Mm-hmm.

Lucky Number 13. Is Jordan Peel's Get Out? This movie was released on February 24th, 2017. It's Peel's directorial debut. It stars Daniel Kaluya, Allison Williams, Bradley Whitford, Caleb Landry Jones, Stephen Root, Catherine Keener, Lekeith Stanfield, Little Rel Halree.

This movie is our horror pick. Yes. So let's talk about Get Out. Get Out is a tremendously important movie to this show. This is one of the signature movies that was here at the launch of this show. Right. One of the very first guests on this show was Jordan Peel. And I don't think I quite knew at the time what a culture-changing event the movie was.

And you did a little bit because you changed your Oscar pick last minute to get out over the shape of water. Well, that was a whole year after the movie came out. Sure, but like wishcasting was, you know, you understood that there was something in the air. Yes. I have kind of set the course straight on my best picture predictions since then. I've gotten a little bit better at doing this professionally. But back then, I was really following my heart. And what Peel did with this movie, I found to be, frankly, stunning.

And it's one of the reasons why it's here, but it's not the only reason why it's here. So let's talk about it. This Being Peel's first movie, you might think if you had followed his career prior to this, that he would have made something slightly different. He was one half of Key and Peel, which was a sketch comedy duo. They had a series on Comedy Central for some years

that was well-liked and pretty popular. And turns out he's an insane horror head. And his biggest inspirations are West Craven and John Carpenter, and he wanted to make a movie that reflected his experience in the world using the tropes and tools of horror. And he did so with this fascinating, fairly modestly sized.

I think the budget of this movie was $4 million, more or less an independent production that Blumhouse helped to distribute, and kind of changed the face of horror. Honestly, the last eight or nine years is very much living in the shadow of what Get Out accomplished and it elevated Peele to external circumstances.

So for you, why is this movie on this list? Because we did need a horror pick, but it is not limited to, a horror pick. The influence has gone beyond horror, both in the movie world and just pop culturally. This was an absolute phenomenon, certainly in the movies, but also sociologically, pop culturally, and phenomenon for Jordan Peel, in the sense that this is his first movie, and now he's like one of our generations' autos, you know, and it really did happen like that.

This was less than 10 years ago. And this gives us Daniel Kaluja. This gives us a better understanding of Allison Williams. That's not fair. It's a great utilization of Allison Williams. But it's really, really hard to overstate how big a deal this was. And how it did come out of not quite nowhere, but pretty much, you know, as you said, Jordan Peel was part of a comedy duo. this was a Sundance premiere that suddenly is making over $200 million worldwide and is being

nominated. And Jordan Peele wins the Oscar for screenplay within a year. So the size of it, we don't have movies with this kind of giant impact anymore, give or take your Barbenheimer's. But it was, if not box office wise, it was kind of on that level as a sensation. Yeah, there's a variety of reasons for that. I believe that this is the highest grossing original debut for a filmmaker in movie history, which is just a staggering statistic when you think about it. And the fact that it happened in horror at a time when horror was finding its way as one of the only reliable non-franchised-driven ability to powers to get people into movie theaters. And I think this movie kind of set the course for a generation of people who got

really excited about a number of filmmakers that were kind of working around the same time or followed in their wake, some who were associated more with like your A-24 brands, some who were more classically kind of Blumhouse studio oriented, but, you know, you're Robert Eggers' and your Ari Aster's and a whole host of other people who are all roughly around the same time. They feel like a class. And they live alongside some other filmmakers who weren't working in horror like Coogler, like Reda Gerwig, like Damien Chiselle, like Barry Jenkins, who are kind of like the people that we are depending upon most to make movies special these days and people who have really

come into their own in the last decade. This movie in particular is so great Because one, it's just a fun, funny horror movie If you go in with an inability to process Any of the real world stakes and consequences And satire of the film You probably could still have fun If you were complete dunderhead

Or you've had one side of your brain dulled You could still enjoy the thriller aspects of the movie That's obviously not what makes it special The mechanics are good But what makes it special is this is really the sharpest critique of a post-racial America that we've had at the movies. And the reason that I think it has that imprint that you're talking about sociologically is because there's so many ideas and phrases in this movie that have stuck to the ribs of our diet.

And did pretty instantly. It is the post-O Obama era movie, and I was chagrined and amazed to learn last night that it debuted at Sundance quite literally three days after Trump's first inauguration. So, like, this stuff was happening all the same bad. And we, like, we kind knew, but we didn't really know. But the idea of the sunken place that I would have voted for Obama third times if I could. All of that stuff really did instantly become kind of Rosetta stones, for lack of a better word, shorthand for us trying to make sense of a world that we had been living in for a long time. But with the election of Trump, first time kind of was revealed, or not revealed, but put back on center stage. And then we had

to look at the last eight years. And this movie really became central to that, in addition to being just like a dynamite horror movie. Yeah, I think the satire really moves in two directions in that way, too. And I really felt this watching this this time because we have some distance from the Obama administration. The one way it works is very obvious, which is that, you know, the villains of this movie being upper middle class liberals and not your redneck, you know, your typical like Texas chainsaw massacre living in the outlands kind of crazy person who doesn't understand anybody that doesn't look like them was very cutting at the time and very clever and one of the funniest and best parts of the movie. And that that is a condemnation of what white America thought it had accomplished in electing Barack Obama and then reelecting him and this idea that we had kind of like moved past a very ugly. history in America. The movie also operates as this really interesting critique

of Obama and the era of Obama politics, which I find kind of fascinating. And I think that I mean, I wouldn't have gotten, you wouldn't have gotten that if you hadn't seen

the consequences of what the Obama administration wrought where there was this attempt to communicate a kind of unity amongst the world. Yeah. And that the right exploited those pursuits

unity by doubling down on division and making that the primary characteristic of American politics, that we are different and our differences are the friction that makes us exciting and real and gets us going every day by looking at social media and what have you. And that's an unintended consequence, but this movie also has like, it has a role in that, it has a part in that that's sort of like we kind of mishandled or we miscommunicated about what it meant not just to have a black president, but to pretend as though we'd gotten past something that we are not getting past any time soon. Yeah. I mean, it's not a coincidence that he and Peel's most famous, at least to me speech, was like the Obama anger translator. Yes.

Right? Which was contemporaneous with his presidency, but it's like this is what he's probably, you know, like actually thinking and imagining. Likewise for the handshake line for Barack Obama as well, where like, you know, any black member of his cabinet or the press, he reads like super warmly, gives him a pound and any like older white woman, he's like, oh, hello, madam, you know, and the code switching that was evident in the Obama presidency. And, you know, I think you can really, like, overreach on a movie by looking at the political status of the country at that time. But in this movie, it's so obvious.

Yeah. I mean, it's literally in the text. Like, that Bradley Whitford line has become iconic in a bad way, but an effective way. But, you know, it is written there. He is taking these things head on and, like, with proper nouns. Yeah. It's unusual to be able to literalize. an idea like this and have it not feel ham-fisted

and in this case it doesn't feel ham-pisted. I think it's because he has this really acute understanding of horror genre tropes and that stuff works really well. The movie is not gross. It's not, doesn't feature monsters, which you're not a huge fan of. Obviously, the monsters are among us.

I was also, I was thinking about our recent, though I don't know, yeah, our recent conversation about the horror canon and like whether something like Silence of the Lambs is horror And we decided on violence as, and like violent scream time as the definition. And this doesn't have that much violence. I mean, once it does, there are some kills. But it's not even really a movie about kills.

The thing that makes it pure horror to me is that there is a kind of mad scientist, fantastical trope that you would find in a Vincent Price movie in the 1950s. The idea of this body swapping that is transpiring, this idea of having a host body is like, it's almost Kronenbergian in a way. It's not as fully realized in terms of like makeup effects and things like that. But there's stuff that is ripped right out of classical horror that is placed in here. But it's not, it doesn't define the movie. And it's probably not even the first or third thing you think of when you think of the movie, which is one of the reasons that I think got crossed over so hard. Right. I do think there is also an essential...

horror aspect of it, which is this structure and the way it involves the audience and also quite literally the title, which is just like you just, you need the character to leave from like the minute, like, don't get in the car. And even like the little real character says, like, do not

get in the, you know, do not go, don't go in the house. And the whole thing is just like, no, no, no, why aren't you leaving? Why? Why aren't you leaving? But what's amazing about the movie is that that is a very classical horror structure, but the way that it brings the audience in and the signals that it gives to the audience of like,

no, no, you, like, you need to leave. Everything is, is messed up here is like an amazing sociological text about the liberal class and racism in America and also about how we watch these movies, you know? And it is like indicting the audience at the same time that that you're watching it. It's both very simple and very, very complex and effective. There's also something really fascinating about the way that the text speaks to the movie-going culture around the movie. Like, obviously the idea here suggests that deep down these upper-middle-class liberals, and for the record, I am an upper-middle-class liberal, are predatory figures, you know, and that they are looking to consume and adopt and co-opt black culture, black, life, black identity, black bodies.

Like, that is the idea that is central to the movie. And then, of course, this movie becoming a phenomenon, powered in part by black audiences loving the movie and talking about the movie. And then white audiences, some of whom needed to catch up to the movie. Right. And then start referencing things like The Sunkin Place on podcast, for example. I don't mean to be too self-indiding, but there is something really interesting about the way that the movie's ideas can become realized in the real world.

And I don't think that this ever creeped into any kind of weird, you know, mid-90s rap territory where, like, the next generation of artists are ripping off the ideas and co-opting them and stealing them. But it was a kind of fascinating little reflection in the pool that he filled with this film. So I love that aspect of looking at it. And especially when you think about the idea of the Stephen Rood character, who's a blind art dealer. You know, I had forgotten that until my rewatch. And I was like, oh, this is, this is quite. literal. He just, he wants to be able to have your talent and literally your eyes and see the

world and then, and then be his own person. You know, the, I thought of sinners for a lot of reasons, obviously, but in terms of black art, black, black ownership, black, um, cultural influence and how the creative industry and or the world at large metabolizes that, if you will, they're definitely in conversation. For sure. And I think cooler is clear. clearly climbing the steps that people help to build here. There's some history of black horror, for sure. There's a really good series on Shudder called Horror Noir, which is about the history of black performers

and black writers and directors. But it's not a very deep history. And so him emerging in this way as this central figure in Hollywood, while more or less sticking to the horror genre has been interesting too. And for me, has been really exciting, the fact that he followed this movie up with us. And then he made Nope, which I just mentioned, I recently saw again and was my favorite movie of 2022. And I'm so curious to see what he does in the future. And if he is sticking to this, because Nope was the sign of somebody who was reaching towards Steven Spielberg for the first time.

You know, somebody who really had a bigger vision in mind just in terms of the canvas that he wanted to draw on. This is a really small film. This is a very modest movie that basically takes place in one apartment and one house. And it just goes to show like how far you can get even in modest circumstances and modest settings. And a lot of that comes down to a couple of key things. One is he's got an incredible sense of craft and pacing in this movie. The music is wonderful. Michael Abel's score.

Score really underrated. Another thing that jumped out to me on rewatch. Excellent score. The sound design is really strong in this movie. the costuming is modest but really sharp. You know, the way that Bradley Whitford is styled, the way that Catherine Keener's styled. The turtleneck for the auction, yeah.

The turtle neck. Allison Williams, all white, get up in the moment when she's shipping milk. There are some really good choices there. And then the production design where the sunken play sequence in the movie where Chris sits in a chair and is effectively hypnotized by Catherine Keener's character is a pretty big visual achievement for a $4 million movie. Yeah. I mean, it looks phenomenal, and it completely sells you on the idea, which is this really

blow-bearing metaphor about basically what happens to black identity when it is like subsumed by white power. And he makes it feel like a slick sci-fi psychological experience. Right. And it builds visually like the template for the rest of the movie and the reveal plot-wise in a, like in a very smart way. It just doesn't, it doesn't look cheap, which is just essential, especially when it's only $4 billion.

And I had forgotten how early in the movie it comes. Like when they sat down in the chairs, I was like, no, really? Like, sunk in place already. But that's kind of a risk to ask people to go into this, you know, this high concept, other places so early and trust that they'll buy in and stay for the rest of what's to come. other thing, too, and I've thought of our conversation about I know what you did last summer, is, you know, this is a movie that features a character who's coping with a trauma

that he hasn't really reckoned with totally. The death of his mother is this signature event in his life and he's not at peace with it, and he gets stuck in that chair because Keener's character has located the fact that he has this vulnerability, and she's going to attack it so that she can control him eventually.

And it exists. It's a part of Chris's character. It's not the primary focus of the character. It's not the thing that we go back to over and over again that they keep circling and read in the movie. It's just something that happened to him. Like all people have had terrible things happen to them and it's exploited, but it isn't the motivation.

It does even, at one point, he and Allison Williams are like by a lake and it's cutting between the auction itself and an emotional moment between them. And it is used to explain his character's motivation as why he doesn't leave at that example. exact moment. So it, you know, like, it's still character development, but he doesn't give a speech where he's just like, I had a trauma. And so that is why I take photographs and, you know, why, like every single laundry list of a thing. He, it's, as you said, it's just part of who he is

rather than the defining plot thing of the movie. Peel during interviews, and I think during our interview, use the phrase social thriller to describe the movie. And he wasn't rejecting horror by doing that, but I think he was, and he was citing the Stepford Wives a lot as a big influence, the 1975 version, because that's a movie about a person who enters a world where everything seems a little bit off. Right. And that they're disoriented by that and they feel like they're potentially going to be taken over by that. And it's also like exploring social structures through, you know, scientific metaphor. And the polytests of American culture

and what we feel but don't say and all these other ideas. So it's clearly a cool influence and you could say Stepford Wives is kind of a social thriller. It's not really a horror movie. But there's also plenty of horror stuff in here too. You know, like it doesn't shy away from that.

And so I was found that fascinating. And then the other thing, too, is I feel like a lot of Hitchcock and Eminus Chabalon in this movie too, which is that's where some of the thriller part comes in. I can feel a lot of psycho with the sort of like, the movie is constantly making you feel unnerved

and though something is clearly very wrong here and Chris is in trouble. Yeah. But it never, it takes a long time to be like, this is what you think it is. This is in fact exactly what you think it is. There's a moment during the party, which is one of the best sequences in the movie,

where Chris runs upstairs. And when he runs upstairs, all of the white patrons at the auction, just stop talking. And they all look up. at the same time. And that, to me, is the moment really, beyond some of the awkward conversations or some of the things that we see Bradley Whitford doing or the oddity of Caleb Landry Jones' hyper-aggressive

older brother. But that's the moment where you're like, they're all watching him. Yeah. There is something that he is prey in this, in this deadly game. And all that stuff is just really well handled. And I think it's amazingly well told. And it could have gone off the rails at any time. Yeah.

I mean, that's the thing is that in addition to it being such a phenomenon. It's just also really, really good. And they even land, can we talk about the endings? Yeah, of course. Because famously, there were a few options, including one where Chris is arrested by the police instead of saved by Lowe and a TSA police car, which is genuinely really, really funny. And also, you know, it's a release, which I guess in one way you need, though you ask the important question, which is like, is the other ending, does it make a better movie? Is it truer? Like I, you know. I think it's an interesting conversation. The movie was tested. Yeah. And they listened to the audience and what the audience wanted. And the audience wanted Chris to survive. Yeah. They wanted Little Roll to save him.

They wanted Allison Williams to die And they got what they wanted And the movie went on to be a mega sensation And it won Jordan Peel and Academy Award For Best Original Screenplay Right So they did the right thing Yeah, yeah totally

Like in the grand scheme of things And I remember vividly Being in the movie theater Seeing for the first time Lil Roe popping out of the car And the audience went apeshit They were so excited and loved that moment And it's fun

Given the strength of the ideas and where the whole conceit is going. Yeah. No, I, yeah. The more sort of like dramatic and true ending. Right. Is probably him getting arrested? Yeah, totally.

But I think the, you know, focus groups are in general, like the bane of everyone's existence, but it's like you have to believe that it would not play as well and that it would not, as many people would not be as excited to go see it. And then is it the success that it? it is, is it as widely seen and discussed as it is. Almost certainly not. Yeah. Because you wouldn't walk out of the movie theater feeling exultation.

Right. You would feel sad and depressed. Then you would think, then that, it actually puts on the audience if you do that. Whose fault is this? Right. Instead of we had fun. Yeah. And whose fault is this is important?

But it doesn't usually make for movie phenomenons. Yeah. And the movie still sort of asks that. It has some ideas. We can eight years later. pointing right back but um yes i think if the whole movie is pointing right back um it's yeah less people are people are less excited they you know it's what's the feedback sandwich you know like you want like a happy thing and a happy thing with the with the the real truth in the middle

yeah yeah no it's a good way of putting it um you mentioned kaluya yeah so one of our great actors he is and he doesn't work that much and he has since won an academy award And whenever he's in a movie, it kind of feels like an event. Yeah. Because he's a bit sparing about what parts he takes. I had forgotten what a special performance this is. And this is not a speechifying Judas and the Black Messiah, hyper charismatic leading man part.

It's a very reserved character. It's a character who has to fit in in this environment, who is confused and disoriented and is sort of a detective as he's figuring out the case of what's going on, sort of the victim, to becoming more entrenched in the plot to capture his body. Kaluya has this great stillness as an actor, super expressive eyes,

and one in the scene with the sunken place when he loses it and bursts into tears. He's phenomenal in a big emotional moment. But in the rest of the movie, he's kind of doing a little bit of a Paul Newman. Like, is it, what's going on here, guys? Yeah, I'm just watching. Yeah, you know, like, I'm a little smarter than you

and yet I'm kind of stuck. It did remind me a little bit of like Cool Hand Luke where he thinks he knows what's going on, but maybe doesn't have any power. And it really hit me watching him this time around, just paying close attention to him rather than trying to solve the movie in any way, which is something that happens the first time or two that you watch this. I was thinking about how on this rewatch, and when you get to the sunken place moment, like right before he falls back and it is, you know, that shot just of his face and his eye. eyes. And I had the moment of like, oh, there's the shot. Oh, there's the shot. Sorry, there it is. There it is. And that is like a single shot that is like a single shot that we think of when we think of get out. This movie. Yeah. And, you know, and we have those shots for a lot of different movies, but they're not usually just like a person's face acting. And that it's just,

it's just him. And that's it. And you know everything is pretty remarkable. He's very special in this movie. All the actors are very good. It's surprising what a, it's not, a star-studded cast, but it's a lot of very accomplished performers that I think carry the movie. The Bradley Whitford and Catherine Keener parts could have been a lot worse and less talented hands. They both have this very interesting mix

of broad TV styles, you know, presentational acting. But then obviously Keener has like a really kind of serpentine, quiet communication style that is very powerful. And they're both

really, really special. And then Allison Williams, who, you know, I've had a crush on for a long, long time. Of course. And is obviously just an insane person. In this rewatch, I was just like, okay, so could my hair do that? And, like, what would I need to do to get my hair to do that? You know, which is intentional. The movie is she is drawing you in.

She is the trap. She is complete, or the bait, I suppose, in the trap. And she is weaponizing what we knew about Marnie from girls so well in this movie. And it has actually interestingly gone on to be a little bit of a scream queen. You know, she's in the Megan movie. She was in a Netflix streaming movie some years ago that was like fairly violent body horror movie and she seems actually pretty comfortable

in genre and doing this kind of work. But at the time, this was very surprising. Yes. And she presents herself obviously quite innocently through roughly the first hour of the movie. And like I said, the hard cutaway to her wearing all white listening and I had the time of my life.

I always think of, you know, I can't give you the keys, right? And just like the little hand flip. But yes, also the hard cutaway for her. her to her drinking milk and Googling NCAA draft. You know, which is not so good. Eileen made a really good point, though, there, which is that you wouldn't want to target a well-known person,

would you, if you were this family? I mean, it's true, but it's like, again, the Lowell's investigation is played for comedy, which is much needed. But he has a point that this person has just disappeared and none of the, no one's doing anything. No one cares. And then like, no, we've spotted him and there's no follow-up.

Yeah, I mean, one of the big heavy ideas in the movie is the historical precedent of disappeared black people. Like, not just representing the slave trade, but throughout American history from the 17th century on, this idea of like, there was a black person in a community and they are no longer there and no questions are asked. And that that is the other idea. The movie opens with Lekeith Stanfield's character being kidnapped by Caleb Landry Jones. and that is an echo of hundreds of years of American history. So the movie really is kind of having it both ways. Like it is not afraid to confront you with this really tough, cynical, hard truth about the world that we live in. And also, Alison Williams sipping milk.

I did want to cite this quote that I read from Peel around that decision to have her drinking milk. And it resonated with me. So here it is. There's something kind of horrific about milk. Think about it. Think about what we're doing. Milk is kind of gross. Okay.

To that I say, thank you, Jordan Peel. I mean, I think it's always used to on films, see also Baby Girl, you know? Very good point. It's a, it's a rich liquid, a lot to work with. Anything else in the movie itself that we should cite that is effective or works? I like seeing Erica Alexander as the cop, you know, love her from living single. She's great. Betty Gabriel is an amazing performance in this movie, and I'd hope that she would get more fun stuff to do after this movie.

But she's so great as both the maid and woman whose body is taken over by the grandmother of the family. And she gives this crazy dual performance. And I had forgotten about her getting in the car at the end of the movie and then resulting in the car crash and kind of flipping. And then the revelation of the scar above her head. There are so many little details in the movie that were really fun to revisit. I had forgotten that Bradley Whitford's character is killed by a deerhead, which is, you know, the signifiers are right there, you know? It is both like on the nose and just,

and perfect because, and then Caleb Landry Jones is killed with a, a croquet ball. Yeah, I thought it was a, a pool, but, you know, same thing. Yeah. So, they're both really good for two reasons. The deerhead is great because one,

obviously a slaughter deer is prey. And so the Chris killing him is the prey killing the predator. But also a deerhead, a croquet ball. Right. These are signifiers of white wealth. Exactly. But there's also a lacrosstic that's just being like juggled throughout the entire first half of this movie. All that stuff is these are small character choices that work really, really well.

This movie lives on profoundly. The sunken place is a phrase that is in our culture that you will hear about all the time. You mentioned the Obama line. Would you vote for Trump a third time if you could? Black is in fashion. All of the quotes from the white attendees of the party are chilling. willingly funny. Yes.

And clearly reflect experiences that Jordan Peel has had in his years moving through the world. Yeah. We mentioned the money, $255 million internationally, made $176 million in the United States. And it actually made $80 million overseas, which is darn good. We used here, black films don't travel, comedy's own travel, and horror films don't travel. This is all three, did pretty good business. Four Oscar nominations. One screenplay.

Yes. Caluia was lost to Gary Oldman For darkest hour Yeah I just, you know I didn't even think it was a good Churchill I'm record on the record on this Okay

Sir Gary now But is he Sir Gary? He's Sir Gary He's been knighted And it is Sir Christopher Nolan Okay, yeah Cool Director he lost to Guillermo D'Otooro

Sure And Guillermo do Toro's film The Shape of Water One Best Picture that year It did Let's look at the 2017 Best Picture lineup It was stacked

I can do it off the top of my head Dunkirk, Phantom Thread, Lady Bird, Get Out, Shape of Water, Darkest Hour, Call Me By Your Name, that's Seven. What else am I missing? Like Filomena or some shit? The Post? Oh, the Post. I liked The Post. I'm sorry to the Post. Three billboards outside Ebbing, Missouri. What a time we were having in 2017. And did you say Darkest Hour? I think so. Shape of Water, call me by your name, Darkest Tower, Dunkirk? I said Dunkirk. Get Out. Lady Bird, Phantom Thread, The Post, three billboards outside having Missouri, nine.

Oh, nine, okay. Interesting. I got seven out of nine. That's pretty good. This was before they made the change to 10 permanent? I guess they only did that recently. 2017 was, like, a very powerful year. Best director is fascinating that year because it was known for Dunkirk, Peel for Get Out,

Gerwig for Lady Bird, PTA for Phantom Thread, and GDT1. Yeah. Well, I mean, Shape of Water. one of over all those movies which i think maybe like you could make an argument or i amanda could make an argument that to a director those are my favorites of each of those directors right dunkirk for sir christopher uh ladybird for gerwig let's see phantom get out for peel phantom thread for pta uh maybe not call me by your name even though i do really like it but You know, Luca contains multitudes to me.

Yeah, darkest hour for Joe Wright, of course. Oh, yeah. No, not anymore. Okay. And certainly not the post for Stevens Billboard. No. But, again, I did like the post. Yeah, it's a fun movie.

That was a really, really, we didn't know how good we had it. We were just starting to do this. Yeah, we didn't. We didn't know. We did. That was fucking cool. I remember. And fans of third coming out of nowhere and not playing any festivals.

Yeah. And then it came out. magical, and then getting all the Oscar nominations, which we did not expect. I know, that was very exciting. That was a great morning to wake up. It was. You want to, we got to do it.

We got to do, which, why this is the Jordan Peel movie on the list. I think it's the one that's easiest for us to agree on. I know, I mean, I know why I think it is, but you feel very strongly about Nope. It's a movie that continues to reveal itself to me. And I think its ambition is much bigger and much harder to unpack. The metaphors, the satire, the phraseology of Get Out is very approachable and very easy to understand.

Nope is like a much bigger movie about not just spectacle, which is literalized in the screenplay, but the idea around black artists and how members of the black community are integrated or ignored in American culture is so complex in Nope. And to do that inside of a movie about a giant alien that eats people and horses is like a crazy feat to me. It also just features some of the craziest most beautiful production design that I've seen in a movie this century. So I am really taken with it and it's ambition. And it is the thing that I am kind of begging for, which I said at the time. I understand that many people watch it. Like my wife just watched it again with me on my birthday.

And she was like, there are things. about this, I completely understand the things about it. I don't understand at all. And I think it is a little bit alienating, and you can see that in the way that it was received. Yeah. But it also has another great quiet Kaluya performance and Kiki Palmer throwing 105 miles an hour. So I love it. I understand that it's not for everybody. It is like pretty easily my favorite of his now. Okay.

But I think this is also like a five-star movie. Like I think both of these movies are great. Us, to me, is more flawed. us was the first actual pod that we did together where I was like this show is gonna be good the show between you because we saw it

and then we were like we got to do a deep dive on it that's really interesting and we didn't really totally understand everything but we were kind of working it out together and I just think

it's great to have him doing this stuff I made a long list of potential horror movies that we didn't do here and I guess we'll be giving away some of the movies that are not going to be

included on the final 12 but we're getting a little like on the list we're getting to a place where people are like I think you could pretty closely guess somewhere between 9 and 11 of our movies.

I know there's one though that no one's guessed and I'm really excited about that. It's, I love it. So let the right one in. Hereditary. The witch, the others,

pulse, martyrs, train to Busan signs. It follows the Babadook 28 days later, the strangers, the whaling, the host,

the invitation, the ring, the conjuring. All of these movies I like. They're all really good. Even I like some of them. Yes. You know,

there's obviously been a huge wave of international horror. that's hit stateside we're not really representing that in any way on this list

but there are also movies like the studio horror like the conjuring that's a very good film yeah I've seen that one

wait that's the Vera Formiga and Patrick Wilson one yes yeah I've seen it I think the fifth

one and the Bobbitt is the yes okay great you've seen that too that's about the terrors of motherhood

yeah I mean aren't they all yeah this one's the best in my opinion it is I think it's the best, but I do think also it's just it is, it is both a great horror movie and then, like, one of the great American films of the first 21st century so far. It accomplishes so much in such a small container, which I love.

And then Peel, new movie next year? I'm excited. Yeah, I am too. It's so nice when someone like that, it's like what I want to do is make movies. Yeah. He could have done anything. You know, we had a conversation earlier this month about comedy movies and how comedians don't feel they need to make movies anymore to stay in the culture.

But this is a guy who grew up loving the people under the stairs, you know, and... Just like you. Yeah, that's beautiful. Now, he wants to make stuff. It is really beautiful. Okay, recommend it if you like. Now, you already mentioned sinners. Yes.

I think this is a really good... That's a great double feature. Do you think there are people out there who have seen sinners and not get out? Probably not. It's the tricky part about doing a recommended if you like episode about... about a movie we've covered on the show. It's a little bit more challenging to be like... I mean, I like to think that these episodes

will find their way to people who, like, don't care about the Fantastic Four or whatever is going on in movies this week, but I would imagine if you have seen sinners like you probably did at some point, make it to get out. Well, if not, you should check it out. Yeah, if you're 12, then thank you for listening and do your homework and then see, get out.

Well, I think also if you're 60 and you stopped going to movies and didn't see Get Out, but you really like They Live, or Kronenberg's The Brood, or the people under the stairs, or The Shining, you will like get out. It is in conversation with those movies, or even, like, Shadow of a Doubt, the Hitchcock movie,

or there's a lot of movies about sort of like, is what's really happening, happening right now? That incredible feeling that a good horror movie can convey to you that this movie just absolutely nails bang on. So I'm really glad this made it to the list. Too high, too low? You feel good about it? Maybe a little too low.

But, you know, couldn't you have said that about so many of the movies, though? Yes. And every other movie, like, you know, I stand by. Yeah. Children of Men is the one where I'm like, ah, this may be a little too high. I don't know. We're getting so much feedback about Michael Clayton at 25. And we explained to you guys why. Like, we explained this is how you make a list. We had to kick off strong. Yes, I know. We said that then. We say it now. So by the time this comes out, I will have introduced Michael Clayton to a crowd.

I know. I'm really jealous. I'm sorry, everyone, that I missed it. And when this episode comes out, you'll be in. I will be in Venice. Yeah, I will. How exciting for you. That's really wonderful. I hope it's going well. Yeah, me too. Well, I think that's it. Any closing thoughts on Peel? Get Out.

Yeah, this is a really good movie. Great movie. Thank you to everybody listening at home. Thanks to our producer Jack Sanders for his work on this episode. Later this week, we'll be back from the fall film festivals. We'll have a full report on every movie we've seen. We'll see you then. You know,