The Big Picture - The Top Five Movies of 2025

Episode Date: December 5, 2025

Sean and Amanda are joined by Chris Ryan and Adam Nayman to share their five favorite films from the year. But before diving in, they cover a handful of movie news items, including the updated rumors regarding the potential sale of Warner Bros. (1:25), the massive box office success of ‘Zootopia 2’ (5:44), and the speculation that Leonardo DiCaprio has been cast in Michael Mann’s ‘Heat 2’ (11:15). Then, they each share their top five favorite movies from 2025 (25:20). Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guests: Chris Ryan and Adam Nayman Producer: Jack Sanders Shopping. Streaming. Celebrating. It’s on Prime. 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

I'm Sean Fennacy. And this is the Big Picture and Conversation Show about the best movies of 2025. Chris Ryan is here. Adam Neiman will join us shortly to talk about the year in film and we will all share our top five favorite movies of the year. But first, so much news has been happening. We had Thanksgiving holiday, and then we had a crazy avatar, the way of water, watch-along podcast.

We did speak of some news, very little film news in that conversation. Yogurt news, weightlifting news, college football coaching carousel. As always, critically acclaimed conversation among the three of us, thanks to everyone who participated in that. Let's get into some real news in the world of Hollywood. Imagine that was your first pod after reading the talk of the town piece. I hadn't really thought about that. Welcome to The Big Picture. Whoops.

This episode of The Big Picture is presented by Amazon Prime. You know how in every great holiday movie, there's that last minute scramble to make it all come together? From gifts to hosting essentials, Prime's fast shipping is always there for you during the holidays, especially when it's last minute and just can't wait. So if you need fast free delivery that saves the day, it's on Prime. Head to Amazon.com slash Prime to shop now.

Speaking of Hollywood, the latest breaking news in the day, WBD Sale Saga, Warner Brothers is for sale. They have accepted bids. We talked about this on our sentimental value episode. Kind of a bummer discussion. I'm not sure if this discussion will get much better, but news this morning lawyers for Paramount Skydance sent a letter to Warner Brothers Discovery CEO David Zazlov expressing, quote, grave concerns about the alleged unfairness of this process.

The attorney suggested the Warner Brothers Discovery Board has, quote, embarked on a myopic process with a predetermined outcome that favors a single bidder And we were meant to believe that that's Netflix. Thoughts? We're in hell. I mean, we are, like, we're in hell in many levels. The first that now we are all a party to the legal maneuverings of two studios. Like, every choice that I have made in my life is to not hear about the letter that lawyers for

Paramount Skydance sent to lawyers for Warner Brothers Discovery. Like, I just don't want to be involved. However, I am against my will, on top of that, the letter is going to invite another person into the process who has always been involved, but I don't want to hear from him. That being the president of the United States. Again, not my fault. And then we're going to have to sell a movie studio to another movie studio or another corporation, which means consolidation, job loss, and more people I don't respect. in charge of artistic decisions. So, thumb down. Okay.

Now, here's the greatest opportunity to zag in the history of podcasting. As a guy who's thinking about changing his allegiances to Newcastle United anyway, I have a lot of time for petro-state wealth. You know what I mean? Like, there's a land of opportunity

out there. Okay, so does that mean you're going Big Ellison or Big Netflix? In some ways, he's always been Big Ellison. It's true. Andy and I have talked about this on the watch. we believe in Philadelphia and we believe in Comcast Universal

the Xfinity Tower hovers over the Philadelphia skyline and I pray at the altar of Big Brian Brian Roberts The CEO of Comcast I don't know if anybody knows him as Big Brian

At the bars across Philly If you guys see Brian in any day No I am I still think that there is a lot of shoes to drop This is also going to be played out in court in Delaware, which is something I'm parroting that I read, but does sound unpleasant. I think this is going to take a really long time. And I think, to Amanda's point,

mentioning old DJT, he's going to milk this for as much screen time as he can get. Yeah, I do think that there's a very good possibility that this business is not closed until he's out of office. But that's just that's a lot. I mean, just another, again, we live in hell. Just say, as long as you like. Um, I think this, this is all unfortunate. Yeah. This whole story bums me out. And, uh, I do think we have to talk about it because it is really consequential to

what we do. However, business is going as usual while all this stuff is happening. Like, I will say that it. In the world of Hollywood. It just seems like there are shows getting greenlit. Yeah. I just say you got some projects to announce? Yeah.

So, you know, you guys thought Megatron was buried in C, but. Megatron returns, but you play Megatron. With no makeup? Just like as I'm dressed. Yeah. Yeah, that's a good idea. I'm imagining someone. I've taken a form you'd find reassuring.

I'm imagining someone tuning into this podcast for the first time when you tried to hold your breath. For seven and a half minutes like Kate Winsler. We really fucked up by not having a tank of water. I just, I've been reassured lightly by the swath of HBO renewals, by the swath of announcements of new Warner Brothers movies or whatever. And so I'm not putting my eyes. head in the sand. I think that this is going to be very difficult for an already beleaguered industry, but I don't think it's going to get resolved anytime soon, personally. You know, out of all of these movie studios, the one that is riding highest right now is Disney.

And the reason for that is it has a true juggernaut at the box office right now. Amazing segue. Thank you very much. Zootopia 2, which we have not had a chance to discuss yet on this podcast. It was the big film that opened over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. And I knew that this movie would do very well. I drafted it in my movie fantasy league. I had a strong feeling like it was going to contend

not just for the animated feature Oscar, but that it was going to do very well box office-wise. My daughter, having seen it, knowing kids have gotten obsessed with it on Disney Plus over the nine years since the first film. But this movie made $570 million in one weekend, including 220-plus million in China, which is something that happened all the time,

circa 2018, and now never happens. And guess what? The movie's also good. And I was delighted to go see it. with my child. We had a lot of fun. I'm excited to go see it with my child. I think your son loved Zootopia, the original, at least six times on our flights to and from Philadelphia, which once Brian Roberts sorts out, Worder Brothers, could he also fix the airlines going from L.A.S. Like, just come on, it's a major metropolitan city. What are we doing? If you've seen Taylor

Sheridan's 1883, you know travel used to be much more difficult than taking American Airlines direct, but I take your point. It's not easy. Knox watched it over and over again and laughed at the Slossie in every single time so I knew there was some engagement but I mentioned to you I was curious like how much he was retaining

of this story and what's going on so I asked him the other night hey Knox what happens in Zootopia and he had he said something about the rabbit and someone else have to go on a chase and then someone yells at them and then other things happened

which I thought that was good start yeah good start I mean almost podcast ready. Identified two characters? Honestly, beat my expectations. Those characters are Judy, hops, the bunny police officer. First film, a little bit of copaganda in there.

And then also the sort of sly fox character, Nick, who's played by Jason Bateman. Judy is voiced by Jennifer Goodwin of big love fame. Yeah. I haven't seen her in a minute. What's she up to? I mean, I guess... She's a voice of the star of the biggest film in America.

Do you think if you asked Knox what happens in Marlon Brando's one-eyed jacks, you would also say the same plot? description like could you it's a fungible one of the things about the movie and this really comes to the four in the second film which we're not going to review here

because you guys haven't seen it and you'll never see it no I mean you can come with us you might enjoy it with Knox sure the movie does something or the original does something that as far as I could remember had never really been done before

in a proper animated big kids movie with wide release which is that it just puts animals in our society and has them run thing, you know, live in the world as humans would. There are no humans in the Zootopia movies. So it's just like they all have jobs. They're all part of communities.

You've never seen that before? Well, I was trying to think of another example. Because in children's book, there are hundreds of children's books that do just this. Wait, so Zootopia is the one with the sloth working at the DMB. Yes. Oh, I've seen that. Yeah. It's really funny stuff.

The first one's really funny. But, you know, I suggested to Sean like the secret life of pets, but they're pets. And they're living in a world where they're also humans. So then they like open the refrigerator when the humans are gone. All secrets of the NIM. The Secret of NIM? The NIM, like the mice, right? Yeah.

But they're not, like, living in society as humans. But don't they have their own society? Are there humans in that movie? There's not like ice cream shops and the secret of NIM. What's going on in Madagascar? So, Madagascar and the Ice Age films, I think, are a good comp. But those aren't, like, societies. They're not, like, humans.

They don't wear clothes and go to work, you know? Like, that's the thing that I'm saying. They're anthropomorphizing all the way. I think someone needs to rewatch Avatar. Okay, and get some lessons about how other people live. He has no more tears. He needs to replenish. I just, I love stories.

I don't know what to say. I think these movies are good. They're the fast-paced jokes. There's a lot of stuff for adults, which is one of the reasons why I think this movie is doing well. You've also got the same thing that we had with the Minions movies where kids who were five when the first movie came out are 14 now and they're going because they're like, I love Utopia.

It's a part of my childhood. So they're showing up. And then there's a lot of kind of like my guy Rango. there's a lot of references to movies and movie history. There are two overt references to the Shining and Silence of the Lambs in Zootopia, too.

What are some of the movie references in Ringo? Wow, Sergio Leone, right? Spaghetti Westerns. All right, relax, Frog Sheriff. Total recreation of Chinatown. It's a retelling of Chinatown with the Frog Sheriff. Among other things,

there's lots of movie references in that. These ones are a little more... And if you've seen Caught by the Tides this year, you know that Rango pays it forward by influencing another generation. Compalantyce actually is Utopia prequel. I don't know if people know that. They should check that out.

Maybe we'll talk more about it. Also, do you know about, so Judy and Nick, the fox and the bunny, there's been a lot of shipping of their relationship over the last 10 years. People want them to get together. Okay. And the film seems to know that. And so it's exploring that idea. Okay. So you will see it.

A lot of assumptions about Judy and Nick. Well, we don't know. Is it a heteronormative circumstance? Yeah. Can there be interspecies relations? We don't really know. Karmie and sit on the bear. It's just like maybe,

but that doesn't really like then work for the story. That's right. Well, good luck, Chris. Solo viewing 10 p.m. IMAX. Just imagining an 11-year-old, like logging on to Reddit being like, Judy and Nick.

That's not what they're... It's a respectful relationship. They know how to communicate. That's not what they're redditing about. All right. Here's a big one. Yeah. Originally, I was like, I don't know if Chris needs to join us for the news, but I did need you here for this.

Leonardo DiCaprio pretty much confirmed a deadline this week that he is going to be starring in Heat 2. Now, he did not clarify what character he would be playing or what role or even at what stage the film was at other than he was still a long ways away. But he effectively confirmed that he's doing it with Michael Mann. Really interesting long conversation with Mike Fleming. He talked a lot about his relationship with Michael Mann over the years. They were going to make a James Dean movie together. and then they developed John Logan's The Aviator script for a long time. And they almost made it together.

Michael Mann walked away. Leo brought it to Martin Scorsese in the aftermath of gangs of New York. So this movie is not only happening, but it is happening with Leo. I mean, I've been trying to keep my reactions, like, low-key about this stuff. I have like a protective instinct. I'm close to you, and I just want to hold you. It's kind of like finding out God's real. You know what I mean?

I did this on the watch before I read the interview and then I went and read every other recorded interview of Leonardo Caprio that I could find over the last few years and he is very careful about when he is like I am going to be in this movie

you know sometimes he gets attached to things well he very rarely talks it's crazy he's going to be in heat too like this movie is going to get made yeah Michael man who's old and deaf and has like made Ferrari

who I worship like a pagan god is going to make a sequel to my favorite movie ever made with Leonardo DiCaprio and because of that probably like the cast of the year and the names being thrown around and everyone will come out. I am still fairly certain

in my heart of hearts I think he's playing Neil. I think he's playing the De Niro part. It makes sense in terms of his long term relationship to De Niro in terms of even the way he carries himself, the way he looks, the way he dresses when he's like doing press and stuff like that, he feels like

it doesn't feel like he's shareless. He's even really recently had that crisp Neil De Niro goatee going on. So, you know, I know you like heat. Yeah. You love Leo. I love Leo. What do you make of this? Again, I'm here solely for Chris.

I want what Chris wants. I feel protective. The Kilmer casting is the most important thing of all of this, though. I'll just keep... I don't know what you do. If he's playing the De Niro part, I can't think of a person not only that can match Leo, because the whole story of heat, obviously,

is this union of Pacino and De Niro. The movie exists because of that. So who's Leo's counterpoint? Well, here's the thing, too, is that is Michael Mann going to be very, like, detailed about, like, wanting these guys to look like younger versions of characters? in heat, or is he going to be like, we're breaking

the seal, and if Bradley Cooper is going to play the Val Kilmer part, or if, or whatever. Yes. Yes. Picking a older man, I think because I think Bradley Cooper would be older now than Val Kilmer was in heat, you know, for instance.

Austin Butler would probably be a little bit younger than Val Kilmer was in heat. So, like, you can just like let it go and just be like, we're viving. You know, I pick the best cast, the best actors I could find to capture the essence of the characters rather than be one-to-one, like, exactly. That's exactly how old and how he would look.

We never got any clarity on what that image of Austin Butler at the shooting range. What was he training for there? A lot of people are suggesting that was for Crockett, Sunny Crockett. Oh, interesting. Okay. Well, I wish you well. I'm excited about the film. I'll see you when it comes out.

You know, what if I just left to the big picture? There's just to be a vampire. Just getting your casket for three years. It's, you know, day 2,000 of me waiting for, yeah, that's really good. It's like me, but my Wilson ball is Wayne Grove. And I just go to an island until this comes out. Leo also talked about what happens at night, which it sounds like is the next movie he's going to make, which is his next collaboration with Martin Scorsese starring Jennifer Lawrence.

It's an adaptation of a 2021 Peter Cameron novel. that I guess Patrick Marber is adapting. It sounds like Apple is going to get behind it, which I find interesting, get post-killers of the Flower Moon, not in a negative or positive way. So Leo, when he was on the show, talked about how he had been watching Vertigo because that's what Scorsese had encouraged him to watch

for their next thing. This had not been announced when he talked about that. And then Leo also invoked the Shining and Shutter Island in the deadline interview. So that gives you some sense of what kind of movie this is going to be. You excited? Yeah. I'm pro

pro all these people Pro all their most recent work Yeah I'm I'm I'm comfortable with it being in second second place behind this movie Who was in the Hawaii movie The Rock and Emily Blunt

Yeah I think we can all take a break Yeah right Yeah Leo the Rock and Emily Blunt was the idea They did like a full like This is happening The Great Wizard Martin Scorsese

Has blessed us and we're gonna make casino In the islands and it was like I was like damn they're gonna make that But now it seems like it's gone down the pecking order a little bit Well, we'll have to wait and see. Let's talk about award season quickly. Okay.

A lot has transpired an award season in the last 10 days. So we've gotten the New York Film Critics Circle, the National Board of Review, and the Gotham Awards have all given out their prizes. A couple of interesting prizes to talk through. First and foremost, one battle after another is steamrolling this season. It has won best picture at every single race that we've had. Yes. Both critics, bodies, and actual awards. Yeah, peers, yes.

So that's, to be expected. You were kind of razzing me a little bit about that. Not rousing? I was asking. I was like sincerely asking, how does it feel to be cheering for the 1927 Yankees? Good. Feels good. It feels good. And you don't have any nerves. I don't trust it yet. That's where I am. I think that's a healthy attitude. I think that it's early December. The Oscars are in mid-March. and a lot can happen, and I don't trust the academy.

I think it's also worth noting that one battle has won the top prize at every single one of these things, but it was just an accident, the Jafar Bhanahi movie has also cleaned up as well. In international feature, sometimes in director, in screenplay, like, it is very present. So I would be surprised if it is the film that edges out one battle after another of the Oscars, but I think it's very much in the conversation. It's very competitive right now.

Panahy won best director at the New York Film Critics Circle. New York Film Critic Circle, not historically predictive of the Academy Awards, but very persuasive in terms of getting people nominations and getting people to pay more attention to things. In particular, they also spot-lit Rose Burns' performance. And if I had likes, I'd kick you, which I think is also very relevant to the race soon. Panahi, we'll talk about it was just an accident next Monday on the show. I interviewed Panahi.

It was amazing to speak to him. I spoke to him before the news came out that he has been once, again sentenced to a one-year prison sentence when he returns to Iran. So that news, I think, also, you know, bubbling to the surface makes the film feel more urgent. It's a very, very good movie. And it's also a much more conventional movie than you would be led to believe by his previous three or four films.

And because of that, I think also a lot of voters will be, we'll enjoy watching it for lack of a better phrase, you know, it is a very watchable film. And so sometimes you hear a story about, like, you know, an artist who's been under the watchful eye of a fascist regime and you expect something that doesn't have the sort of like thriller conventionality that the movie has. Just out of curiosity, the new kind of

you have to watch the movies to vote guidelines which are apparent, like they're not like contractual. They're just like you're highly... I think they're being virtually like clocked. Oh. I imagined it like when we have to do all of the like security

and harassment training, you know, and you have to like click through the thing. I think that's a good comp. Which, I mean, it's the most annoying thing on earth. But, and also is why I imagine people like paying other people to sit and screen, you know, whatever movies they don't want to watch.

Right. You can pay me to do that for you. I would do that. I mean, I'm not voting yet. They have not yet accepted me into the academy. No, not yet. Not yet. Yeah, but if anyone else, I'm, you know, historically

have been so supportive. Yeah. And admiring them. I do like that museum. Yeah. And when you're rubbing elbows with CEOs from big studios. That's right.

Yeah. So, you know, I'm going to be part of the Lawyers branch when I get nominated to the Academy. Yeah, the executives have a branch now. Anyway, I was just wondering whether or not, like, you know, some of the smaller films that are getting acknowledged in the Critic Circle Awards and the Gothams or whatever, once they start getting up to guilds and once they start getting up to, like, more larger precursors, do you think maybe some more popular films will, like, get a boost because they have been seen necessarily? I don't. I think the opposite is that what's happening right. now. I think the reviews for Avatar Fire and Ash, the sort of soft social reviews, were positive, but a little mixed. And Wicked for Good Reviews were very bad. Yeah. And so... But I was surprised by the absence of Sinners. At this particular award show.

It just in just, yeah. Yeah. So, you know, One Moussako, I believe won at the Gotham's, which happened before New York Film Critics Circle. Supporting performance. Sinners did make it to the National Board of Review top 10. Okay. But Sinners has not been acknowledged... And Coogler won Best Original Screenplay from National Border Review. But we haven't seen Michael B. Jordan win yet. We haven't seen a Delroy Lindo win yet. We haven't seen a Best Director win yet for him. So, you know, in theory, I still think that's the top three movie in the race.

For sure. But things are changing. You know, Smarty Supreme screenplay won for New York Film Critics Circle. Wagner, one for The Secret Agent, another one of those movies that, like, I think has a very strong chance to get into the 10 right now. So, everything's just very unsettled. The one thing that has emerged, to be true, and Amanda

cited this in the immediate aftermath of one battle, was... I started it. I should have worn a jacket. Straight up the frontrunner for supporting actor, and is winning in a lot of places. People just love him, and they love that character. I think it's Sean Penn, right? Sean Penn and Stellan Scars Guard, which I thought was like, three months ago, I thought that was a lock. And now I don't feel so confident

about it. So anyway, a lot is going on. One other thing I wanted to cite about the National Board of Review, the film F-1. Made the list. Now, as those blockbusters are falling away, I pitched a month ago, could F1 get into Best Picture? I still think it's in play. Can we just read the entire National Board of Review? Yes.

Let me start by saying that they choose their 10 best films of the year. And the National Board of Review is who? A curious collection of people who are film admires. And you say what? Are you part of it? I'm not. And historically, they can be. slightly more well they're both

mainstream and slightly more conservative and also historically more American. They do not specifically by their rules exclude international films but they do not usually include them like a couple of years ago they did include the boy in the heron which was strange for them to include a movie like that in their top

10 but for the most part you find a lot of American productions so their list this year is Avatar Fire and Ash F1, Frankenstein Jay Kelly Marty Supreme rental family sinners train dreams wake up dead manna knives out mystery and wicked for good so first of all that's one two two three four Netflix movies yeah two huge blockbusters in wicked for good and fire nash plus f1 is a blockbuster then marty supreme rental family sinners and then one battle wins best

best film so it's not on that 10 so they actually got to pick 11 okay and weapons is not on there weapons is not there okay I heard does that hear your feelings I you I like I love I love the pageantry of awards, but I don't know that it's good weapons will live on, regardless of its hall. Wow. This is just a full-throated support for Zach Krieger. Did you hear he's being, he's being scouted deeply by the team at Paramount? To do what? To become a part of whatever it is that they're doing there.

I read the Josh Gold scene. She was running the film division, flew to, like, Bulgaria where he's making Resident Evil to convince him to come be a part of the gang. Okay. Yeah. Good. To run Warner Brothers. once that's been purchased. Yeah, somebody's going to have to do it.

I just want them to make movies. Yeah, me too. Any other thoughts about what's transpired with award season in the last couple weeks? Hamnet was not mentioned once in that conversation in anything that you and I just said. It is in limited release right now. We're going to talk about it next week, at the end of next week.

The end of next week, yes. The schedule that was announced, we're going to switch it up a little bit so that Joanna Robinson can join us in person to talk about Hamnet. But that is something that we've had at number two on our Best Picture Ranking list for some time. Yes. You know what? Second guess that? No, because I drove by, I mean, I drove by a billboard today for Hamnet that listed every single audience award that it has gotten, which is literally every single, like every film festival, you know, in a lovely area where people go to see films. They love it. And it's a counterpoint to the other front runners.

Yeah. And it's a long. four months. And again, it also hasn't really rolled out, totally. Yeah. Hamid's Utopia 2 double feature for you? Yeah, it sounds fun. Okay. Well, let's take a quick break and then bring in our friend Adam Neiman. Well, as Frank Sinatra once saying,

it's the time of year when the world falls in love. Adam Neiman is here to talk about the best movies of 2025. Adam, hello. Hey, how you doing? could you look at me when we speak please I desperately need you to look I was looking down at my list I heard something about

something about falling in love and then I looked up and here I am it's very you know stereotypically it's very cold in Toronto right now if I were to pan my camera over you would actually see snow oh no well don't do that so you know this is why I this is why I look a little sad

I got a shovel Adam are you shooting on VistaVision on your end no not not not not shooting on VistaVision this is called the first webcam I've ever had. It looks good. And it looks okay, you know.

Any questions for Adam before we start? Adam and I were talking about child holiday party etiquette before this. So we've wrapped that all up. You're caught up. Yeah. Okay. And I was going to fake my death to avoid the child holiday party etiquette tonight. You can only do it once.

Yeah. And once you faked your death once, you have to go to the next one. So I think I'll wait. I wish you well on that. But can't you just come back and be like, I'm Adam Beeman? You know, like, like. Yeah, with a with a, with a, with a, With a mustache.

And that would also be your opportunity to completely pivot towards like AI slop if you wanted to and be like, this new Sora video rocks. Do you know how close I am to needing a pivot, Chris? You have no idea. It's coming. Sometime in the next two years, there's a pivot coming. Why not start today when we do our list, don't you think?

That would be a good bit if I just did a complete pivot away from my actual choices. Captain America, Brave New World. Yeah, no, what if I just like completely? endeared myself to like two members of the listenership. Yeah. You know, people who are just going to be really mad that something's not there. I'm going to do it for them. I'm pivoting. What is the cost of your integrity? That's something

we'll get to later today. I've been selling it for years. So, you know, it has a price. I can assure you. Movies this year. Movies. We usually talk when we do these top five lists at the top about whether or not this was a good movie here or not. And usually it's a lot

of wheel spinning and excuse making. but this is a question that is being actually posed to a lot of people in the world. Paul Thomas Anderson was confronted about this in an interview this week and he answered, he was like, you know, rumors of movie's demise is greatly exaggerated and then he listed 10 movies and he was like, these movies are great.

So, I mean, I'll start with you. Yeah. Was this a good movie here? It's an existential question, right? In the sense of, do you want one five-star all-time classic masterpiece and then a lot of other really interesting cool movies that I liked a lot.

You can get Minecraft and then a bunch of other stuff. But you've got the one undeniable rocket ship and then another, like, some interesting stuff. And like your mileage may vary on which movies are the interesting movies versus a year where you had three or four, four and a half star cinema feels alive masterpieces. And to some extent, that's like, how are you parceling out the excitement? It's because we had that one shining month of one battle after another, and everyone's seeing it, and that really was an event and movies felt really alive. And then, like, we're going to talk a lot about a lot of great films on this podcast, but there hasn't really been anything collective since then.

So to me, that is fun. That one month was amazing. That was, we had such a great time, and maybe we're going to get to do a few more months of it. But on the other hand, we've, we've had a lot of Mondays where we're like, oh, interesting, you know? The smashing machine. Did anyone see that? Yeah. So I think it's like it's always a good year when you get to go and see interesting work from filmmakers you like.

And there were a lot of filmmakers who I love who released films this year. Was it like good for the, like for movie culture, for movies outside of this bubble? I don't know. I don't maybe not the best that we've had Adam what do you think I mean any year you can have two Osgood Perkins movies just I'm not alone what am I here for

Did you seatkeeper? I did and I actually liked it more than the monkey It had some okay kind of cozy cozy kind of cozy cozy there's so many Yeah so many like cozy couples therapy horror movies this year Like I count at least at least four and then if you count compound movies,

there's like another four. And then every episode of this show, you know, so many. I think it was a good year for the festival hangover movies from 2024 that I personally liked and that people are probably sick of hearing me say that I like

because they got theatrically released this year. And then in terms of new releases, I do think that whatever I think of them or whether they end up on a 10 best list, stuff like Eddington and Sinners and one battle after another, and even now Marty Supreme, they have a kind of galvan

quality to them. Sometimes I wish other kinds of movies got to have that galvanizing quality or people chose to be galvanized by them rather than these kind of grand statement, American culture movies, but it was a kind of heavy artillery trio or quartet of those, like some good talking point movies. And then the rest is just for, as with everybody, it's not just subjective, but it's very self-directed. I saw less new releases this year than fewer new releases this year than I normally would because I just didn't have to. I saw some for one of my jobs. and some for another of my jobs and fun for friends. Like, I only went to see Keeper with my friend

because she wanted to and it was fun, but it didn't have to. I think if this had been a year where I had had had to sit through some of the stuff I've had reported back to me, I would think it was very bad. But because I saw less in a kind of self-directed way, I'm okay with it. And I like my top 10 list. It could have been a top 20 list,

and I didn't feel that way about last year. That's interesting. What do you think? I very much agree with Adam and that I'm very happy with my top 10 list, but don't know if I loved going in the movies this year as much as I have in years past. I feel like I have experienced and obviously

we're talking from a very privileged bubble of not only living in Los Angeles but getting to do this show with you guys occasionally and, you know, experience film in a very specific kind of way, but a little bit of a bifurcation in terms of like there's like this experience of cinema, especially at the end of the year with like the awards favorites coming out

and feeling like a kind of personal responsibility that I want to see a lot of this stuff before we get into next year debating about what was the best and what deserved what award. But for the most part, over the course of the year, like,

I went to the movies that I felt like I had a professional obligation to and had a little bit of a hard time getting it up for maybe some of the other blockbuster stuff. Like I really, really, really struggled with Marvel. I really, really struggled with some of the franchise stuff. I may be aged out of a couple of things. That being said, I really see a lot of like glimmers

of hope right now. Like even if the industry is in free fall in terms of its financials or in terms of the consolidation, like we talked about earlier with Warner Brothers, I do feel like I started noticing, I started experiencing movies in a way that I hadn't since 2019 and seeing films that seem to reflect life in a way and not be like mitigated by COVID restrictions or strikes or anything like that, where it kind of brought me back to the place where I'm like, I'm seeing some sort of window through which to look at the world. I think, yeah, I agree with everything that all three of you have said. It does feel like we are in a very transitional state for both the business and, if not the

art form, what is getting made? And so those franchises that you talked about, most of the major ones, Marvel, Jurassic, Mission Impossible, you know, they all had movies this year. they all were down relative to how they performed at the box office in the past. It feels like those tricks, those tools don't work. Some new stuff has come along, your Minecrafts and your Barbies and your Super Mario's, and those are going to eventually fill those gaps. But in the interim, that means the franchise stuff didn't feel very fun, with a couple of exceptions.

And so you're really reliant on things that are not that when you're doing a day-to-day, week-to-week movie conversation show. we did get somewhere from 5 to 25 O'Tore studio-backed big movies and some of them hit and some of them didn't but they felt like there was more pressure on them than ever because of the slippage of everything else and so it just felt like a very high ceiling

low floor kind of year for me when things were bad and we were sitting here on April 18th looking at each other like good Lord like what the hell is going on right now until you bought that Minecraft ticket you know I know. It just changed everything for me. It was wonderful. I think in general when you, I also similarly had a really hard time with the top five and I had a really hard time with the top 20.

And that's a good news. That's good news when you love a lot. You mean you had a hard time picking it down. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And even just for my personal list making, there's just a ton of stuff that is above average. There's not a ton of stuff that is unforgettable. And we'll explore what those needs are. I think what, you know what, maybe has got to me this year was the feeling that the bottom was kind of falling out on B movies a little bit and that they were often borderline unwatchable, either because of the way they were shot or how I was watching them on a streamer or something like that. And that that lack of volume that you would get at the movie theaters back in 2017, 2018, 2019, where you could go to a movie 50 times, you could go to the theater 50 times a year and reliably be able to see something.

kind of feeling like, oh, man, like, this is, this shouldn't have been released and I'm watching it, you know, is, that was a feeling that that kind of haunted me this year a little bit. I had a really hard time with all of the tentful stuff this year. And typically, in this top five list, I like, you know, to be representative. And this is a podcast that likes Hollywood and likes like a, you know, a big, dumb spectacle when done artfully. And I just nothing really came close. And I really, like, felt that whole. And that expanded to the entire seasons, right? Like the January through March that you were identifying the whole summer, more or less,

it was really, it was very, very stop and start this year in a way that I ended up doing a theme list instead of like a, I mean, and they are my top five favorite films of the year and they identify something that like I saw going to the movie. theater, but it's not, you know, Jurassic World Rebirth is not on it. I don't have a summer dumb time at the movies. You know what I was starting to think of, I don't want this to happen to movie-going culture, but it's starting to feel a little bit like going to concerts. And six concerts a year, you're like, that was awesome. And it's becoming more and more like, I'm going to plan to go see this in the best possible theater I can, in the best seat I can. At the time

I want to go see it. And for me, movies have always been like a rhythmic part of my life where it's like I can rely on going to the theater once a week and just checking something out. And that, to feel that going away, which might entirely be like personal behavioral stuff. No, I don't think it is. I think that's something that is sweeping over a lot of people who are not committed to seeing as many movies. And even some, you know, Adam's saying, I saw less than I usually do in part because I didn't

have the professional obligation. But also, if you just, if you felt. compelled to go check out whatever the version of Jurassic World Rebirth that is better, you know? You would just go because you like movies. But yeah, but that's the thing. I've always been of the mind of trying to see everything.

And it's not for lack of something better to do. You know, life, kids, Raptor Basketball, but I like going to movies. And I felt less compelled than usual and I don't want to think that's just a byproduct of being busy with other things. There are just a lot of things that felt like there's no point in actually

sitting through this. Until I hear other wise because I'm also very easily persuaded to check things out by people I find interesting on Letterbox or by friends I trust. Like my curiosity is piqued very easily by other people, but it's certainly not peaked by just trailers or obligations. So yeah, less new movies than I usually see any year. And that even was like when we talked about TIF back in September, I saw a fewer movies at TIF than I usually do too. That might just be a stamina thing or just busy with other obligations. Like even a usual year at TIF I used to see 30, 35 movies. It was like, barely 20, 25 this year. So I may just be slipping, you know, just personally.

I've seen 248 new releases this year. Jesus Christ. I've got at least 40 more that I feel like I want to see before the year is over. But that's light work for you. Well, it's one month. You probably shouldn't be on this podcast if that's how you feel you know. I mean, I don't think I'm going to get through all of them. I mean, I'm literally trying to do what Adam is saying. I'm trying to see everything. And I'm trying to see everything because I want to discover something. And so making this list feels a little silly because they're not a lot of discoveries on my list this year. And that's, to me, that's really the high ceiling,

low floor thing. And my fear about having a chalk list in the past this year, I kind of dispensed with that because I was like, I know what I love. I know what I want from movies. And there were a handful that really were giving me what I love in a very specific way. But I actually didn't feel the inverse of that. I didn't feel caught by surprise too often, even by smaller stuff. That might just be me. That might be the way that I'm going through watching movies at this stage of my life. But I want to be open to, I haven't heard of this filmmaker. I didn't see this movie coming or what a surprise from a reliable studio hand that they really stepped up and elevated. I had a harder time with those too. So it's a, it's an unusual year where some of

the things that are clear are very clear. They're written in neon red. Yeah. Yeah. And then everything in the middle feels a little bit hazy. So I'm very curious to have a discussion with you guys about what your favorites are. Did we, did we learn anything? About film or ourselves? Yeah, both. What did you learn about yourself by going to the movies? This year. I mean, I learned a lot about moms and dads and how they're different and how they're the same. I learned a lot about dads and a lot about what the people on a parallel, but very different track for me and life right now are feeling at all times. Two big daddy's right here and then father of many styles. Beautiful. And I was moved by it. And I am a little am used, but also I see

you guys. And I think that's beautiful. So I don't, I, maybe that taught me something about myself. Maybe that taught me something about my husband and, you know, everyone I work with. What did you learn? Tell us what you learned about men with children. Jake Sully has a child. Yeah. Do you see Avatar yet? It did.

Fire and Ash? Yeah. I saw Fire and Ash. You hate the original Avatar, right? No, not at all. You like it? I'm fond of James Cameron. very much overall he's got the best I've written this about like the best

metronome internally of any action director maybe ever he's usually really really good with his pacing where it's just like how much downtime can I give people till they're bored how can I push an action scene until people are exhausted like he's really great at that you see his DNA all in one

of the better movies this year which is one battle after another which has at least as much of James Cameron as you know Thomas Pynchon in it the new one which are we allowed to talk about it is the embargo broken this isn't an avatar themed episode right? Actually no and then we're going to delete the whole episode

so we've aired here no I mean just if you have any impressions briefly you feel free to share them but we're not supposed to review it no I won't review I will say that you know I saw it and I think it has an interesting relationship to the one before it may be to a fault yes but you know I mean James James Cameron

belongs at least as much in the company of those kind of uncompromising final cut weirdo directors as he does like the consideration of franchise cinema. I mean, his great movies are extremely important to me. And I find the whole

back to the Avatar universe thing kind of funny. I made an offhand remark on X the other day that there's more talking whales than this one than ever before. And I just got messages from strangers being like, okay, how many whales and how much talk about it? Can you, can you give me a number? So obviously there's people who have this

really endearing relationship to this piece of pop culture. I also think that however many hundred times people, People say there's no impact on the culture from this movie means it obviously made an impact on the culture, which is people thinking it doesn't have enough of an impact on the culture. There were a lot of things I liked less than Fire and Ash this year. Let's put it that way. Did you think it was weird at the end of Fire and Ash when it zooms out and it turns out the entire Avatar franchise has been scored by Lydia Tar and she, that's what she's been working on since the end of Tar. It was a real curveball. Yeah.

You know, the ending of Tar is essentially her like going to a sci-fi nerd convention. Anyways, so, you know, there could be crossover. I was actually thinking of a materialist's a crossover where instead of getting leg lengthening surgery, he just gets a navvy body. Yeah, that's good. I like to, you know, welcome to Pandora. Welcome, welcome to Pandora. Adam, I'd like to let you know that Sean started crying on a podcast earlier this week while

rewatching Avatar the Way of Water. You teared up. When I asked you if you were crying, you didn't say I'm not crying. I got a little lump in my throat. Yeah, you were a little weepy. Your eyes reddened slightly. It was because of this parentage. that we're talking about,

this parenthood that we're talking about, you know, this idea of the challenges of being a parent in the 21st century in 2025, which is... So you weren't crying at the whale, then? Well, the whale is probably

the most fully realized character in the Avatar films. I don't mind saying. Paiacomis... I'm extremely fond of him, I think he's great. He's wonderful. Okay. Well, I guess we should just do our list.

So we do this same every year. I'd like to do it in the same way, too. Let's just do our lists one at a time, we'll go five, everyone will share their number five, and one of the four, everyone will share their number four. If your film has been, one of your films that is higher ranked is identified, just kind of keep that to yourself as much as you can. And you can have your time to talk about it and why you chose it, I think.

I think that would be, rather than try to do the, okay, that's my number two and you're number four. I think that's confusing for the listener. If we've done it in the past, I apologize. We'll do it a little bit more coherently now. Adam, I would love to start with you. What is your number five movie of 2025? Minecraft movie. No, I mean, I want to do this list in the same order that the printed list is going to be in,

but there's a couple movies on this that I've also talked about with people on the pod, so I'm debating, cheating a bit. But either way, the fifth movie is The Secret Agent by Cleverman Donka Mendochefilo. This is a Brazilian film set in the late 70s. I love the opening title, says A Time of Great Mischief, which understates the case in terms of a military dictatorship and this kind of trickle-down corruption. And Wagner Mora, who is winning. best actor awards now left and right best actor new york film critics circle deservedly plays a guy

he was not nearly as cloak and dagger as that title suggests i mean the title is kind of playful and ironic you know he's not a spy he's a kind of administrative functionary but he has beef with the local government and he's kind of trying to keep his head down and forge some passports and this involves you know kind of being pursued by hitman and and kind of sort of trying to you know hide in this this little enclave of dissidents in Réphi. But what I love about it, I don't know what you guys thought about it.

It's like the best movie about movie going I've seen in a long time because Brazilian film culture is one of the richest, you know, most, you know, richest, most fanatical, passionate film-going cultures in the world and that this filmmaker is just doing a love letter to that period

of film going in his hometown. These movie palaces and the influx of New Hollywood films is the only movie you're ever going to see, probably where people are watching the Omen in a movie theater while also, you know, engaging in oral sex, which is a great moment. And the whole thing is, it's great, great moment. And then the whole thing is kind of shadowed by Jaws, which I find very moving to. The week I watched The Secret Agent, which includes a scene of a kid being like, I want to watch Jaws.

My own daughter was like, Dad, I want to watch Jaws. It was just one of those strange little life imitates art or art imitates life moments. But this filmmaker is so smart about the intersection between history and pop culture, and he's so playful, because this is essentially a movie about life under dictatorship and about political repression and the life and death stakes of that. It's also like two hours and what, 40 minutes long. I don't have the running time in front of me, but it's just like floating on air watching it. You know, some people compared it to once upon a time in Hollywood, which is a bit superficial, but in terms of building out a period with cars and clothes and theater marquees, I get the comparison.

So I think it's a brilliant piece of filmmaking. I'm really glad you picked it. This is number six on my list. And I agonized over whether or not I should include it in my top five. And I rewatched it again last night. And I'm having the filmmaker on the show. And I like it for all the reasons that you described. And he does something I don't know if I've ever specifically seen before,

which is use genre. convention and history and absurdity in a blender to make something that is like mysterious and emotional and I think the once upon a time in Hollywood comparison is fair you know I don't know if it's quite the same because it's not as kind of like it's it's the it's the emotional opposite at its conclusion you know it's not about payback or anything like that it's about coming to a sense of peace but it's a really a beautiful movie and vagnamore is amazing in this film and he's he's holding it on his shoulders the whole time I really like this movie, so I'm really glad you picked it. Yeah, the performance, we should say,

it has a trick in it, too. There's a structural trick that kind of hinges on that performance, which when I was watching and I sort of thought, is this too much? You know, is this too much of a stunt? But the performance is good enough that it sort of holds it, you know, that it holds it together. And, you know, for people interested in this film, a couple years ago, he made a movie, I think I know you like, Chris, I don't know if you saw it because it's up your alley, which is Baccaro, which is his sort of John Carpenter, his John Carpenter pestiche, which is sort of Amanda and I talked about it. Yeah, that's awesome.

Okay, I'll check it out. Oh, yeah, Amanda liked to do. I mean, a terrific movie. So he's been on a really good run. And this movie, for whatever reason, more than the other one seems to have really pushed through. He's also, he's in his late 50s, and he's a lot like a lot of the 70s and 80s filmmakers. We like a lot in that he was a programmer and film critic for years and then started making movies. And you can see his love and obsession with movies is in his films in a way that's very exciting without sacrificing like the, the enjoyment of,

of the movie-going experience. I haven't got a chance to see Secret Agent yet, but I did see Wagamora's Criterion Clause, which is a really good starter pack for some of the Brazilian cinema history of Adam. He picked Black God, White Devil in there, and I think he picked Pichote, right? He picked a few films that are like all-time classics.

Okay, man, and number five. Oh, me next. My number five is Train Dreams. I know, which... Your whole heart is open. My whole heart is open. As I said that it was once I actually saw, It, you know, Sean saw it out of Sundance or on his couch as part of virtual Sundance and

hasn't stopped talking about it. And that can often, you know, disinclined me. But I thought this was a completely beautiful, wonderful. It was surprising to me in that it had so many familiar like indie tropes, right? From the voiceover to flashbacks to a traumatic incident to like, you know, all the shots of the trees and nature. And there's a lot of stuff that Don Wrong feels like a rote's Sundance movie or something that you have seen before X-Rox 50 times and don't care about.

And this just comes together is more than the sum of its parts. I found it like pretty revelatory. To me, the exploration of grief and guilt, which are like entwined in this. and what is this character, Robert Greener, like, responsible for, and what could he have done differently and what would he have? That is, until the very last line shown instead of told,

which I really appreciated, even though there is that voiceover. Here's another thing. I have not read the Dennis Johnson novella. And I just have to say, how lovely to be free of all expectations of adaptation for one. It is, like, really, like, it's a lesson, you know? sometimes you just got to stop reading going well you know i have pretty much but going completely blind and so i was able to give myself over to it in a way that i sometimes find i can't with other adaptations and i don't know i was just i was very moved by it and and kept thinking about

specific like specific scenes it's lovely everyone says that you love when like mandy comes out you know Like the bizarro Amanda, who's just got a big heart. I know she's, I know it's in there. I know it's pumping full of blood. Forest Service station looking out. That's right.

Park Rangers out there. You know? What could have been? Who she could have been. That lookout is so beautiful. And like Carrie Condon shows up for 10 minutes and her American accident is, yeah, yeah.

With that accent. But listen, it doesn't matter that. And even the setup of that lookout, the production design is very beautiful. I did have some questions about how they go to the bathroom in a lookout. Like, What was the...

Oh, I think they climbed down for it. You think so? Okay, you think there's like an outhouse? Yeah, I don't know. Maybe there's like... Also, a very notable lookout scene in the film, The Wolfman, which we haven't talked about too much this year. You see that?

You see the Lee Wunel's Wolfman? Yeah, it's September 4 on my list. Was that this year? That was this year, yeah. That feels like it was like 20... Yeah. I don't even know. That didn't work out.

I'm really glad you picked Train Dreams. I will say, and I have read a number of pieces, including Adams. I picked the book up after I saw the movie. I like Dennis Johnson, not as much as Chris. Chris is probably the biggest

Dennis Johnson fan I know. And even in the first 100 pages of the book, first page, he changes a couple things that really dramatically changed the intention. I saw the movie first too

and I don't have a problem with it. But most people I know who read the book were like, oh, I don't know if I would have done it this way, which I find interesting. Fortunately, I don't have to read too much. Where I've arrived at it,

I very much like Train Dreams. It was in my top 10 and I was deeply moved by it. I've arrived at it that that's the whole point of adaptation is that you're allowed to take what you want from a book and not necessarily make it a facsimile of the sentiment of the book or even the action of the book. I mean, look what Paul Tom Sanderson did with Vineland.

Okay. Number five, sir. I'm really glad she took Train Dreams because my number five is Ephis, which I think is a very, very, very good double feature with Train Dreams because it's about, the passage of time and it's about watching your life

kind of pass before your eyes this is Carson Lund's kind of aching monument to hanging out and it came out sort of it did the festival run

in 24, came out in the spring of 25. I didn't see it until recently and it rocked me. It made me feel like I was 17 again

watching a Jim Jarmish movie for the first time. It's about two rec league baseball teams playing the final game at a New Hampshire baseball field

that's going to be redeveloped and turned into a school and these guys show up their age range from like 25 to 65 Adam I mean about like maybe seven

like there's some older men there too and you're asking me if I recognize that people are 65 years old just curious he's just saying as a 65 year old man did you see

speaking as a 65 year old yeah I think they're mostly mostly in their 40s Yeah, middle-aged guys who are like on the last innings anyway of being able to play baseball with their bodies, but are still out there. And what turns out over the course of the game is that they don't want the game to end. So, you know, the whole community is kind of sort of slowly trickling in. There's kids. There's a pizza truck.

Everybody's complaining. Everybody's bitching. And I love that this movie is about trying to hang on to the parts of your life that make you feel. feel alive. And so these guys are listening to old baseball games on tapes. They're, you know, breaking each other's balls. They're trying to run down fly balls and stuff. And then a movie kind of takes a little bit more of a surreal turn towards the end

as these guys refused to stop playing this game. And it just worked for me on every level. I think one's an incredibly talented filmmaker. I can't wait to see what else he does. And this was a real breath of fresh air at the end of the year for me. It was kind of the train dreams of baseball movie. You know, life is long, but then it's over, you know, and then what do you do? Great pick.

My number five is sinners, which is one of the most acclaimed successful and well covered on this podcast. Sure. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And because it is the film that has come out most recent, most the earliest on my list, I think it was fading a bit from my memory and my exuberance about it. I think a lot of people have seen it and some people have been like, well, this is a masterpiece and other people have said, this movie is overrated. and it's kind of gone through the entire washing cycle that happens to movies and I popped it in last night and I was...

And noticed you said popped it in. I popped it in. I popped the 4K right in. And I was choosing between it and the Secret Agent and I think just looking at it again and going back to it and getting sucked in by the score immediately convinced me that there is something really major about the synthesis

between the music and the storytelling in the movie. I don't think the movie is without flaw. I do think it has some flaws, but I think it's such an amazing act of imagination and a very similar act of genre collision that Mendoza Filo is doing as well in The Secret Agent. And it's also a big, bold vampire movie, and also a historical drama, and also a gangster movie, and also an interesting movie about the Irish, which I appreciate. We're set out to make a film. He honestly did, and if you listen to him in interviews, he talks about it all the time that he did a lot

of research into Irish history and I think it's going to get a nice amount of coverage in the next few months as an awards film and it's obviously its success is already confirmed and it's for a lot of people going to be one of their favorite movies of all time

but to me it is that it is the prime example of what Hollywood filmmaking can be specifically which is that someone who has gone through the system and understands what audiences want and can make something at scale that is tremendously personal

and gratifying and deep and worthy of reconsideration. I just love the movie. I think it's really, really good and I was forgetting it a little bit and so I was happy to be reminded. Okay, anybody else have sinners on their list? I do. Yes, you do, okay.

Anybody else have train dreams on their list? Anybody else have Ephis on their list? Wow. Okay. But Ephis is really good. It is really good. It is really good. Yeah. Evis is really good. Okay, Adam, number four. So my number four, I'm just, I'm torn because I don't want to cheat.

Like I want to do the actual top five, but there's like two movies. This is one of them where I've literally been on the pod to talk about them. So I might ask for like special dispensation to talk about an extra movie at the end. That's like just in my top 10, but I really like. But my actual number four is cloud, which you had me on to talk about. And I don't want to, I don't want to be redundant about it. This Kiyoshi Kurosawa's film, very funny, sinister thriller about a kind of internet reseller. who pisses off his clientele to the point that they want to, you know, hunt him down and torture him on live TV.

Like, we've talked about it, which doesn't mean I, you know, I don't want to say anything, but, you know, it was really nice. We had space to talk about it in Kurosawa and the extent to which he's broken through in the West. I mean, I think this movie being on Criterion Channel being put out as a Criterion premiere, I mean, before that, when it was being distributed by sideshow out of its festival, like it just seemed to get more attention than he gets usually. So it's an excellent gateway backwards into the filmography, but also just in terms of form, you know, I've said this before, but the way he sets his camera up and the way he cuts and the way he holds your attention, I just think he's peerless. I don't know if this is even his best movie. I mean, it's not, but even a kind of low first-tier Kurosawa movie as a new release is just, it's going to be something that I'm going to think is great. And I think Cloud, in particular, the way it morphs from kind of, not supernatural, but a very moody thriller into just a full-on action film. I loved reading reviews and seeing what people tried to compare it to.

People were like, this is like Call of Duty. And people are like, this is like Reservoir Dogs or John Wu, you know, or this sort of, you know, or, you know, a Johnny Toe film. But when it turns into the warehouse shootout, it's really quite hilarious. Have you seen this? No. Now I have to leave the podcast. Yeah. Yeah.

I think you'll enjoy this. It is a little, a lot of people definitely watched it after hearing you recommend it on the show. And, you know, we were like, yeah, I think I kept saying it was like heat for dumb guys. And. So the town? Yeah. No, like heat with fuckups in it.

Oh, I see. Yeah. Okay. And. So the town. I may have wrong footed them a little bit. They were like, I did not understand. this. And I do think if you've seen other Curacao movies,

it is a little bit more legible in terms of what he's interested in. Fair to say? Yeah. Well, yeah. I mean, he is, and this is a very high compliment from me. He is a weirdo. Yeah. You know, he's a weirdo. And I remember when I interviewed him this year at Tiff, I've been really lucky over the years getting to talk to him about different

films. He said that he wanted this to have what he called a kind of movie logic. He wanted reality to one fold according to kind of film logic. And he's such a cinefile himself. He's a great fan. He's said of John Carpenter and He mentioned Park Chen Wook is a director who he really admires, and there are some similarities in this to certain of Parks films. But yeah, he's very, very weird and he's very, very funny, but filmmaking is also quite severe.

And I hope more people check it out in his other films as a result of a podcast like this, because he's not obscure or difficult in any way. He's just odd. And I think he's one of the best living filmmakers, just period. This episode of The Big Picture is brought to you by State Farm. Having people in your corner to help you makes all the difference. For example, I'm usually loathe to trust Sean and his movie recommendations, but after many months of him waxing Rhapsatic about train dreams, I finally watched it, and I have to be honest, he was right. It was wonderful.

And like those people, State Farm is there to help you feel supported by helping you choose the coverage you need. Go online at Statefarm.com or use the award-winning app to get help from one of their local agents. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. Amanda, number four. Is, if I had legs, I'd kick you. Here come the moms. Yeah. Let's discuss this.

Yeah. Well, we'll discuss it some more maybe. This is the rise of Mommy Mommy. This is, not Star Wars Mommy, not Gen Z Mommy, just Mommy. Well, this is parent mommy because, you know, train dreams has many themes, but he is a father. And his relationship with his daughter is like a central part of the film and very moving. And, you know, there is an open-hearted quality to the way that story and that relationship is told, even though it is like a, it's very, very sad. And if I had legs, I'd kick you, which is one of the mom movies, is just absolutely the most nauseous I've been in a movie theater all year.

Like, just hard, ugly, mean shit. And, like, parenthesis, compliment, you know, parenthesis complimentary. So it is, I mean, it is a movie about how difficult being specifically a mother and not a father is. It is a film by Mary Bronstein, written and directed, and starring Rose Byrne and her performance is really picking up steam in award season as well, deservedly. But she is taking care of a child with kind of an unspecified illness. And her husband is away at work and on the phone. And again, I don't want to spoil who it is on the phone, but it's really funny when you're really, really, really good. And she just can't do it.

It's impossible. And it's really hard. And it's a very cinematic movie that is also like a systemic critique of all the ways in which the whole world fails, like makes it impossible to be a mother, whether it is the people at work or the, you know, people at the hospital. hospital system, like the person at the motel who will not sell you the bottle of wine, even though it's not quite midnight yet or 2 a.m. or whatever. I love the parking lot attendant. Yeah. Her war with the parking lot attendant is great. But like that's so insane. And we all know people like that, which is just like, how can you not see the person standing in front of you and like how do you not understand the situation and that everyone is just trying to

to get by and like not even do the best for their kid but just like trying to make it happen and the world is heartless and impervious in front of that so often so I thought it's like a really tough but like also very funny movie another a great movie about how therapy like is pretty useless which I'm like into as well you know like we've had too much therapy art and this is and without spoiling it there's a filmmaking choice throughout the movie and then at the end, that is, it ranks up there with the endings of the movies this year and isn't conversation with a lot of them, but is truly wonderful. So I'm really glad that you picked this.

Yeah. We're at the time of the year where my wife is catching up on a lot of the movies of the year. Yeah. And so she's watching screeners and she's checking in on things that I've been talking about and seeing and telling her about for months and months. So Monday night, I went out to a screening to see Avatar with you. And she watched Train Dreams. And I got home, and train dreams had been over for an hour, and she had been crying for the entire hour. And then Tuesday night, I went out to a screening. Yeah. And I came home, and she'd completed it if I had likes, I'd kick you.

Wow. And she was like, why did you do this to me? Yeah. Because it transports you back to a place. And you're the asshole out at a movie. And I was at a movie. Well, we had a... She apparently had a wonderful night with our daughter.

But she was like, for three years, I was inside of this mind state. Right. And there was a hole in your ceiling at one point. There literally was a hole in our ceiling. Yes. I said to Mary when I interviewed her on the show, I was just like, I really want to recommend this movie to my wife. And I think she'll love it, but I also am afraid to recommend it to her because you really tapped into something true. And with, I think genuinely interesting filmmaking choices. So I love that pick.

Great pick. Thank you. Okay, CR. Number four. Mine is sinners. Not a ton to add to what you said. The second viewing of sinners for me also, what stood out was obviously the music that's just featured in the film, but the musicality of the film itself, the way that you see very few Hollywood films go for the ecstatic in this way and be so, like, it's arterial spray. It's conalinguish.

It is like sweaty. It's dancing. And I think that this movie in my mind almost is now underrated. I was having the same feeling last night. And one of the best filmgoing experiences I had this year, I think the most I've felt kind of like, physically engaged in a film outside of maybe F1, you know, it was watching sinners and just like watching the other faces in the audience while I was watching it, like, light up at certain scenes. And I think that, you know, even the problems, this is the cheat is when you're like, yeah, but like the problems are cool or like the big swings that missed are cool,

but they are. Like, your mileage may vary on piercing the veil, but I thought it was an amazing swing to take. And I really admire the bravery of it, this film. is awesome. The performances are great. So yeah, that was my number four. Great pick. Okay. Number four for me is Marty Supreme. This is a little hard to talk about because it's not out yet, right? We've mentioned a couple times that we love it, that we think it's great. I think it's always a little annoying for the listener

at home and have to hear someone talk about a movie that hasn't been released yet that is on one of these lists. These are just the vagaries of listmaking in the podcasting universe. But this is Josh Safdi's new film stars Timothy Shalameh as a competitive ping pong player in the 1950s living in New York City and he is a very aspirational, ambitious and at times hard-hearted

and extremely difficult person. I think one of the most interesting movies I've seen about how a lot of men are in their 20s, which is fast-talking, rude, hurtful, intoxicating, gifted,

fun to be around, and also exhausting. And, you know, I really love the Saffty Brothers movies and I've been interested in their project for a long, long time. And this felt to me like the highest that they had gotten to the feeling that they wanted to convey. And I also think the movie, I think he's an interesting writer, him and Ronald Brunstein, Mary Brunstein's husband actually, when it comes to the world that he surrounds Marty with, which is very lived in, very real, very suspicious of everyone. I think there is like a big heart, but a big cynical chip on the shoulder about everyone that that Marty is exposed to and raised by and falls in love with and that the world is a hard world

and that there's upside to being as hard as you are and that there's also real downside. And I don't want to give away too many of our thematic discussions here that we'll get into when the film comes out, but felt like to me the cherry on top of what I thought movies were about this year when we got to the end. So I love this movie. I am at the disadvantage. I like to have seen the movies that I put on my list twice.

I've only seen this movie one time. It was a few months ago. I don't remember every single kernel of information about it. I liked being able to go back and revisit a bunch of the ones that I'm going to talk about today. But I had a grand old time

seeing this for the first time. So that's number four for me. Okay. Adam, number three. My number three is one battle after another, which I'm sure will come up for you guys on your list. Should we save it? I mean, I don't know

thoughts. It's your turn. It's my turn. Well, I mean, we actually talked about the movie already on this, on this podcast. I just recorded a different podcast with a different set of people about the film. I'm at the point now where also this term at U of T, I just finished doing my authorship class. We've just had like six weeks on Paul Thomas Anderson. And, you know, that's stuff that I'm teaching, but it's also discussions with students and looking at movies and doing readings. So on the one hand, I'm very inundated with this movie. But it also feels kind of oddly far away. because I watched it a long time ago for the first time. I wrote about it. The second time I watched it was at home. I still haven't seen it in, like, you know, biggest format presentation, you know, possible. And it's a filmmaker who obviously means something to me, not just in terms of liking him,

but I've done a lot of work on him. So in a way, it's almost like too much with this movie. I just hear people talk about it all the time. I'm extremely interested in the negative reactions to it. I think the negative reactions to it are fair. I think some of the negative reactions to it are kind of undeniable and not because they're mean-spirited or asking it to be something that it's not. But I think I said this to you guys last time. It's a function of how big the movie is.

I'm fascinated how the film can be the most commercially successful movie he's made exponentially, but also like the closest thing to a financial disaster. I'm interested in how a filmmaker who's been criticized, I think rightly in the past, for staying too much in his lane, has now done this huge swerve. It's a whole other, you know, series of crashes and side swipes that happen as a result. I'm really fascinated by how much it resembles his other work while also being in some ways, you know, very different. But what I said to you guys last time, I will say this, that I don't think you often have to look too hard at his movies to find him. Like, he's right there. And part of my struggle with this film, which I obviously like, I read a very positive review of it for the site.

I'm not against the film. I just picked it as the third best movie of the year, you know. But some of my resistance has been like, where do I find the weird Paul Thomas Anderson, the ambiguous one where it's not a one-to-one ratio between what he's showing us and what I'm seeing? Last time I watched it, I recognized him a bit more. And I wonder if I'm willing myself towards that because I really want to like his work, or if it's because it's kind of present and encoded into that movie. But in a way, I'm also just tired of the movie because we've just started.

we just have the award season thing has kind of just started and I think that that the title one battle after another is going to start to be how people feel about this discourse around it because it's nowhere near over you know we were talking about that right at the top of this episode Adam that there's many months now of this and yeah I had a very hard time pacing myself at the beginning at the release did you yeah I didn't notice that but I we will we will have to talk about it more for a variety of reasons okay Number three, Amanda. Another one for The Mamas, die my love, which is the Lynn Ramsey movie starring Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson that I think, you know, has become most famous as an example of movies questionable distribution strategy in year two. But I think that that is unfair to a movie and certainly to the film, which to me was electric and is the most I've lacked. in a movie theater this year and is it's another it's another movie about just how motherhood is just absolutely impossible and and to me it is a movie about how motherhood just like completely divides you from your other self um and so like being being a human woman and a mom at this at the same time does drive you to some sort of psychosis and it can be you know like

pretty literal as it does become in this film, which is based on a novel, which is about like severe postpartum depression and psychosis and she's hospitalized and all of that. And I did feel that the representations of that literal experience were great in this movie and it communicated something like pretty physical and feral about that time period of your life that I really responded to because it is surprisingly physical. And like I, you know, I know, I know. I know. I know. a lot of people made fun of just like Jennifer Lawrence like crawling around on the floor like she's like capital G going for it

but I don't know how else to tell you that like literally is what it feels like for the first however many months when you're it's just something really like primal takes over your body so I responded to that but I do to me I liked the movie more just as like a representation of the

very like complex and troubled psychological state that she's in mostly because she's a new mom, but also just because she's a person in the world and her husband brought home a new dog and moved her to Montana and is nice and really cute and Batman, but also like useless.

I'm waiting to hear the downside of any of those things. That all sounds great. You know, I did also, I saw this film with my husband. And I should say I started, this is another thing where to Adam's point, some of this is personal. I started 2025, three months postpartum, and then a fire swept through Los Angeles, and I left, you know, my home in a hurry.

So there is, there is some relating to aspects of the text here. But, I mean, it literally maps onto it. An incredible afternoon date movie with the husband and the father of your children, who also, by the way, loved it, thinks it's a really sick movie. So, shout out, you know, shout out family and shout out this, you know, shout out all the mamas, capital M. Do you think another Lynn Ramsey film will be released on 2,500 screens in the future? Probably not, but I don't think that's anybody's fault. I like this movie, too. Well, I do, but, you know, it's really, it's a great movie.

KCR, number three. Weapons. There we go. This is my wicked. No. No, I, uh, this is a, like, one that I think you can experience a couple of different ways, and it's been really enjoyable to piece together how I feel about weapons by through multiple viewing.

So the first time through it's like almost like a pure plot experience. You're racing to kind of pull ahead of or keep up with Kregor throughout the movie as he tells this story in this kind of short story anthology way of switching POV between these characters. The second time through,

I felt serene because I was able to just kind of enjoy the little tricks he was playing, the little things that I hadn't noticed before. But the third time I watched this movie, I think I really started to try to understand how I felt about it and what I think he was trying to say, probably going to be a mileage may vary for people

or depending on how you look at it and where you are in your life. I thought it was about why we need horror movies in the first place. And the reasons why we create these sort of mythical figures at the monsters at the end of the dream from True Detective

to explain the inexplainable tragedies that happen in our lives. And I thought that the way it dealt with addiction and the tragedies that can befall a community was really, really interesting. And aside from that, what a fucking rock and roll movie that is just an absolute blast to watch,

still has images that are seared in my brain, the kids with their arms to the side, obviously the hysterical ending of the movie. It's so good. And the image of Benedict Huang running towards Julia Garner and Josh Burlin at the gas station. And just some of my favorite sort of lasting memories of film in 2025 are going to be from weapons.

That opening when they're... And what is the music that is playing as... Beware of darkness by George Harrison. It's really very special. It felt like a movie also, I mean, this isn't really like, oh, this is why it's in the top five. But I love when I'm seeing images that I think have haunted a filmmaker for a really long time and he finally got it on screen. And there was something about the kids running that I felt like I was like, you saw this in a nightmare. or you saw this in your childhood or something

and it's been percolating in your mind for a really long time. So I definitely I think I'll revisit it again but I encourage people to do so. I told you earlier this week that this isn't on my top five. I told you it was my number seven

which it still is my number seven after all this winching I've been doing this week and you were surprised. I was. I was as well. I assumed it would be on the list. Yeah. I love it too.

I don't know. It's a pretty thin line here in my top 10. The tears are pretty collapsed. I like my 10 a lot. And I'm glad, like, you're feeling, like, if I had legs, is it number 10 for me? Like, there's some,

hopefully we're talking through some of these movies that we all like so much. Adam, I know that you were a little bit less sold on weapons, but have you happened to revisit it since your initial review for The Ringer? I haven't revisited it. I have read interesting things about it from friends. I think that the guy, the Craigor, he's, it's an interesting trend of comedians now making horror movies. And it's not just an anecdotal thing.

where it's like, well, who are all these communities making horror movies? The way that they, under the sign of Jordan Peel, like, there's these strategies where they have a kind of blackout sketch mentality, which is, you know, you develop the idea, you develop the idea, and it's like, how long is their attention span? I thought that Barbarian worked really well because the movie kept changing. Yeah. And similarly here, he keeps doubling back because it's like the sketch has almost kind of reached its end, and then he kind of needs to start another one.

So whether I think it works or not, I think it's an interesting byproduct of the guy being a comedian. I thought, I said this in the piece, that there's things about it that are effective and that work very well. And I think that some of the acting in it, especially at the beginning, is really terrific. Like, Garner's amazing in this. She's so good in the scene in the bar. Yes. You know, at the beginning of the film, which isn't like a heavy, like a heavy load-bearing

scene plot-wise, but she's just really good. And Brolin is good as well. But no, it's not a movie that totally worked for me. But I like hearing you talk about it. And certainly, you know, as someone who's interested in horror and trends in horror, this is kind of a big film. I feel like we're going to see lots of movies that are trying to be like this or at least be marketed this way. Like, you know, this is a movie where I think more than Long Legs, like, Long Legs was all campaign, not much movie. This was like a better campaign and a better movie.

But even when stuff like Shelby Oaks was being marketed in the fall, I sort of thought, oh, they're trying to market it like weapons. Because, you know, with horror movies, so much about marketing, you don't have a star, and sometimes you don't have exist an intellectual property. So the extent to which this film was a smash hit as an original piece is obviously a thing you want to see happen. Part of the fun of weapons is seeing it with the crowd for the first time we had no idea what to expect. It's a movie that multiple viewings, it may or may not stand up, it's debatable, but it was just electrifying the first time I saw. I just had so much fun. And that's true for a lot of the movies on my list, but that one did have a very very much. particular energy to it.

I really like what you said, though, and I had not heard that identified in quite that way, that his history is a sketch performer and the fact that his films do have this kind of structural, like this is an episode of Saturday Night Live full of nightmares feeling to it. And I do wonder if his future movies, if Resident Evil will be more linear or not.

Right. Because he's doing things probably, as Adam says, inspired by what he knows best. I think he equally draws from, like, Tarantino's script writing in that same way. but yeah for sure I think that there is a ticking clock in his brain that's like I'm bored I want to try

I want to do this from somebody else's Let's go over here. Yes, yeah, that's cool. Okay, my number three is no other choice which is Park Chan-Wook's new movie which is also not out yet and I apologize again. We'll do a whole episode about the film in January when it gets a wide release but this is his long gestating adaptation

of the acts by Donald Westlake a novel about a man who is going to be laid off from his long-time job I believe in the film, it's at a paper company in this film. No, in the book, it's different. I don't think it's a paper company. In the movie, it's a man who, a Korean man who works at a paper company. He's a father of two children.

He's married. He's living the middle class suburban dream. And then an American company comes in, buys the company, there's consolidation. And after he is laid off, he needs to find a way to get a new job. And he has a really hard time finding a new job. And he concocks a scheme to eliminate potential. contenders for the few existing jobs that are left at rival paper companies around town. This is extremely funny, elaborate, absurd, high drama, high comedy work of an established master,

like a person who knows how to make a movie better than most people who know how to make it. There are formal tricks in the movie I've not seen before. There are superimpositions, cutting style, transitions, metaphorical leaning, a really outsized and fun performance by Libyan Hung. This movie is an absolute blast. I thought it was really, really, really funny, really, really silly. And also, if you want it to be very cogent satire about, you know, the corporate complex, the incursion of AI. essentially what happens to men when they reach a certain stage of their life, how they confuse virility and economic status.

There's an incredible amount of design. I also talked to Dr. Park for the show, which will air in January. That was fascinating because in the interview, I don't know if I've ever had this before, and I'm not saying this is a good thing. But every time I would ask a question, he would explain entirely how he executed on the thing I asked about and also what it means

and I've interviewed hundreds of filmmakers and most of the time they're like you figure it out asshole you know like you can't be like what were you thinking thematically like anytime you say that people are just directors like shoot me in the face and he's like no this is exactly what I was going for this is what I hope you'll think about when you watch the sequence and I was already in love with the movie before that but it was fascinating to watch

watch someone, see how deeply he had thought through every single decision, not just on that formal level, which is so thrilling, but intellectually and emotionally and what it meant to him. And I hope people go to see this movie, because I think it's a great time. Okay. Number two, Adam.

So just going to say, no other choice. You emailed me. You were surprised. You know, you either day, like, why didn't you like this movie? I was going to say that it is absolutely the best made movie of the year that I personally didn't like. You know, and the personally didn't like part

as a whole other conversation but like craft wise man oh man I mean you know it's out of this world absolutely and like in a very showy way too yeah it is I emailed you because I watched it first because you told me you didn't

you didn't love it and then I hadn't seen it when you said that you'd seen it at Venice and you loved it liked it a lot and so I watched it and I was like damn I can't believe I had it doesn't like this and then I watched it a second time to prepare for the interview and that was when I emailed you where I was like what's going on bro

we're usually aligned on these it's one of my one of my trademark i'm just wrong you know because i i took i took shit from this from friends during tiff too like literally walking out of the screening people being like so that was great right and i was like you know it's the strangest thing i got to go be on my phone you know i'll see you guys yeah i just felt i felt i felt i felt i felt bad but that thing you were saying about explaining the intent it ties to the second movie my number two movie which is you know i'm going to be very on brand and pick the shrouds which is a physical that I think that what excites me about it, and I think why people are kind of skeptical,

because I've been talking about this movie, at least here a lot, I mean, two tips ago, you know, and there's this feeling, oh, it's because it's a Toronto movie or it's because of Cronenberg's past movies. The thing about no other choice is you can tell he's getting every effect that he wants. What I love about the shrouds is I feel like Cronenberg's getting every effect that he wants, but it's just right on that borderline of like, is this just a neptan off, you know? And I don't say that perversely. Like people have talked about it pertaining to late style and people have talked about how much it's supposed to be funny.

But of all the movies this year, it's the one I've watched the most because I take great pleasure watching it. I've watched it three or four times. And he is so relaxed. He does not care how people are going to react and respond to this movie. There's a confidence in this movie

that I find moving quite apart from the things in the film that are moving because it is about aging and it is about loss and grief and death. I think I told a story when we talked with the movie on the pod that I had a friend who saw this movie during TIF who had lost someone important in their life to cancer, and they couldn't get through the film,

which is totally at odds with how goofy it is, but it's not because the goofiness of it and the kind of speculative sci-fi that there is such a reservoir of grief in this movie, personal grief from the filmmaker and an understanding of how grief and loss makes people crazy. it's easily the best brainworm conspiracy movie that anyone's made

much better than Begonia I like Eddington fine as we've talked about I think there's a whole subgenre of kind of brainwormed discourse movies this year and how people invent conspiracy theories

to kind of get over what's bothering them and I'm like shrouds understands this and the shrouds sort of understands that relationship to you know

sex and marriage and to what happens when it feels like your other part is just kind of gone. You know, I have friends who've lost partners or even separated from partners who watch this movie and find it sort of impossibly moving.

And he just cannot be budged from his style and from his sensibility and his tone. And I guess I see so many filmmakers now being praised or saying themselves, very sincerely, by the way, I do not blame any of them for saying, we love David Cronenberg. This has been all over acceptance speeches for the last few years at festivals and festival rollouts

where it's like trying to make. this Kronenbergian or Kronenberg's the best or oh man you know I grew up on those films I respect all of that even though some of the filmmakers I like more than others but like the actual guy is still here you know needing financing for the work and making films that like this that are so small and scrappy so obviously shot in Toronto that the milk comes out of a bag you know I want I need I need this for me I need this to be kind of respected and admired and celebrated while we have it I love how close it is to seeming like a terrible movie. And I don't mean for that to be perverse.

I mean it. It's so confident. And I just think it's brilliant. I do chalk up some of that offness to budget. I wonder if this is a movie that has $10 or $12 million more in its budget. Because its conception is extremely strong. But some of the things that he's trying to pull off visually are challenging at the scope of the movie. But I agree.

I think this is a great movie. I had a really hard chuckle watching the Ready or Not 2 trailer yesterday and seeing that he is in the film which is something he has done many times over the years. He's incredible in Nightbreed the Clive Barker movie from some years ago so he will act from time to time

but him taking that gig in the aftermath of making the shrouds too I was like good just keep stack and cheddar when you say the shrouds understands this I like the idea that the shrouds is like the spice from dude The Shrabs understand.

You're referring to the cameo in this Red Here Not 2 sequel. I think To Die 4, I know it's on Criterion. I don't know if it's on Criterion Channel. Still, like, not an obscure movie. That is my favorite director cameo in any film when Cronenberg shows up at the end of To Die For as this inexplicably Italian hitman who keeps looking at Nicole Kidman and being like,

no, no, this way. Come this way. And it's because I think the film was shot partially in Toronto where because Van Sant definitely did goodwill hunting in Toronto. But yeah, that idea of directors who cameo, not in their own movies, but just kind of show up around the edges of other people, that's an all-time, an all-time funny one for me. Great stuff. It's Conan Brighen to die for. I honestly thought this was coming in a number one for you.

So now I'm intrigued. Yeah, now I'm trying to figure out what, but don't tell me. Okay, man, in number two. So my number two is Marty Supreme, which I, to Sean's point, most people haven't seen it. And there's not a lot that I can say or add to what Sean said. it won't totally spoil it, including why it's on my themed list. But, like, to quote Stefan, this movie has everything. And it's just like, it is really, and I won't enumerate what the things are,

though there are like are many of them, you know, and some of them are just like the sweeping, they recreate the whole world again with like with Jack Fisk, I believe is the production designer, like, you know, the Darius Conjee score, like Timothy Shalmay. Daniel Lopatin's score. Oh, sorry, Daniel Lepatin's score. and then who was Darius Kanji then?

Cinematographer, thank you. Sorry, I was confusing them. And then Timothy Chalmay going a million. Like a million and really, really fun. A great supporting cast

and it's just people going for it. You know? And that is just, it's really, I didn't feel like there were that many movies where this year, with the exception

of one we'll probably talk about soon, where Evan was just like, let's go really big. Like we've got a big idea and we're going to spend all of this time and energy and

create like a whole world and have an immersive experience. Like you, I have only seen it at the one time a couple months ago but had so much fun and can't wait to see it again. Canada's Wonderland is bringing the holiday magic this season with Winterfest on Select Nights now through January

3rd. Step into a winter wonderland. filled with millions of dazzling lights, festive shows, rides, and holiday treats. Plus, Coca-Cola is back with Canada's Kindest Community, celebrating Acts of Kindness Nationwide, with a chance at 100,000 donation for the winning community and a 2026 holiday caravan stop. Learn more at canadaswunderland.com. So that is actually the theme of my list that, like, we are all going for it.

So all five of my movies have that energy, and I think I'm hoping that that's representative of what I want from me. the movies more broadly. Okay, number two for you, Sierra. Oh, number two for me is one battle after another. Uh, so... Wow. Wow. Saving space for ballerina. No, the gorge, man.

Come on. The gorge. Uh, no. One battle after another. Only in number two, by the thinnest of most personal margins. So don't take it in any kind of like, I'm trying to be a takesman here. It was the cinematic experience of the year for me. Getting to a CET at IMAX. I've seen it several times since then.

I also really love to just piggyback off of what Adam was saying about it, the shoulders of this movie, in that it supports so many different explorations, both critical, both sort of probing at it and wondering why this choice, why that choice. I also am deeply fascinated by it as a work of adaptation and spent the last couple of months, like not slogging in a bad way,

but slogging just because of the way my brain is now through Vineland. and thinking about this guy, thinking about this book for decades and piecing together little parts of it and seeing, you know, reflections of Regina Hall's character, Tiana Taylor's character, Leonardo DiCaprio's character,

in the book. And also just imagining, opening up that book to any page and then watching what he does with like a flashback within a flashback, with an anecdote within another flashback, then zapping to something else and be like,

how the fuck did you write exterior this after reading that? Like the act of writing this movie has now become like my obsession of like how he went about making this as a screenplay. So that's where I'm at with it just in terms of how I've been thinking about it. But it's just so wonderful how adorable this movie is and how it's been, it's actually got a sturdiness to be poked at and to be thought about and to be talked about. So yeah, one battle.

I've been pleased to see that it's been a number one on iTunes for the last three weeks Oh, that's good That's encouraging That will not be reported in its box office receipts

Just putting that out there I see Van layth into the window That was for you Van That was for you brother I was talking about One Battles box office Which is doing just fine dude All right

Back off Okay number two for me is Eddington Good This can be our brainworms pairing Should I show you my phone For the entirety Should I just stick it in your face? Eddington is on my list for a variety of reasons.

I think it's Ari's best movie. I think it is, I'm not quite seen a film attempt to be simultaneously a docketrama and a satire. A movie that knows that it wants to be funny and poke you and bother you and put you in a state of discomfort and remind you of things that are not safe and not okay, while also saying like, this is not really that far from what happened. And that thin line in the exploration of that little stinker attitude that Ari Aster has about everybody where he's like, wouldn't it be funny if I just knock this girl's head, this little girl's head off, you know, that wouldn't be funny if this old man just jumped

off the top of this mountain? He does that many times in this movie. There are a number of occasions in which you see atrociously painful things happen to people who could be seen as innocent. I think one of the reasons why this movie really got put in the take blender is because people on both sides felt offended. Congratulations. That's part of the success of the film. I think there's also a case from a purely formal perspective that this is so assured and so conceived and realized. I also watched this movie again last night, popped it in as one

does, and from its very opening moments, which struck me so hard the second time I saw it, all the way through the end, everything he is trying to communicate is very clear. It will not come across, I think, if you are watching it casually on your couch with your phone

in your hand, but seeing the unhoused man walking across the highway. What are you for Clipped in Collins, by the way? giving a great performance, underrated performance, walking past the sign about the establishment of the incoming data center and then all the events that transpire

and then the closing moments of the film where we see said data center constructed. I do think is a great big statement about living under the thumb of powers that are much bigger than us and what we do to each other in the face of that loss of control. And I think it's an amazing Joaquin performance.

I think Joaquin and Astor have something very unique in terms of their collaboration and what they get out of each other. But I think it is really more like, people don't like this movie because it makes them feel bad about things that have happened in the world. Yeah.

And not in the extradextrtextual, I am a mom and I remember feeling pain. In the specific, I remember this day. And I hate this day. And that's hard to do. That's hard to accomplish. We talked about 25th hour recently and like the pain and the agate,

like the sorrow of 9-11 in the face of that movie. That's different than what this is. this is more like we're all complicit it's not really your fault but you're not making it any better and that's a bad feeling

and it's also done and there's nothing that you can do to undo it that I mean that final shot is absolutely brutal I also just think it's very very funny so I'm a huge admirer of this movie it really stands up

I think to a lot of its inspection that it has gotten over the last few months and happy to have it in number two okay it's time for number one It's going to say the irony with Addington is that the discourse at Cannes, which is not even a year ago now, is that the movie was too soon, which is one thing. And now it's been out for five or six months and it's aged well. Yeah. Like I think it's not in my top five.

Spoiler, it's not quite in my top ten, but I still wrote about it in the year end thing as an honorable or a dishonorable mention because it's good for all the reason Sean said it is. But it's aged very well. And I think a lot of the initial can reactions to it do not look very smart. I'll say that for sure. Speaking of Cannes, my number one film was the film that won the Pomodora can this year, which is a Jafar Panahue's. It was just an accident. I was listening in before I came on that you had Panahe on the show, which is amazing.

It was amazing. And I can't wait to listen to that, as I always listened to the interviews, whether Jena Jafar Panahi or Osgood Perkins or whoever, I can't wait. Two filmmakers of equal stature and equal success. But this is a film that, you know, beyond talking about why it's good, I hesitate to spoil it too much because it is a thriller. And this is an interesting year for Neon picking up international films and sort of trying to market them not just to an art house audience,

but market them as kind of art house event experiences like Cerat, a really interesting film that I also liked. You know, Neon did that and it was just an accident. this is a filmmaker who is known in the West more for the details of his life than for the Western distribution of his films and I think that people were skeptical of Panahy winning the Palm Dore at Cannes this year

because it's like well he's being rewarded for the political struggle or he's being rewarded for what he represents or he's being rewarded as a shot across the bow of a repressive regime and you know all of that is sort of true but the movie itself is so funny and brutal and visceral as this kind of possible

mistaken identity thriller and it's a real move back to the films he made before the period where he was making films illegally under house arrest I mean this movie was not made legally we should be clear about this

I'm sure you talk to him about it that a lot of it had to be shot on the fly you know unofficially it's an amazing act of just stress to make a movie this way and he's always been a critical filmmaker or a skeptical filmmaker

but he was a narrative filmmaker before and movies like The Circle and Crimson Gold. They're kind of plot-driven. They don't diverge too much from this Western idea of Iranian art cinema, you know,

the Kyristami Mode or Mushan Makmabov. But he was always, he had more of an engine dramatically. And then the movies he had to make after his imprisonment

and release and house arrest necessarily had no production value and no scope. They had to shrink down to the size of him making the movie. Anyone listening to the pod who hasn't seen it,

he made a movie called This is Not a Film, which is his record of house arrest, where he really was not allowed to pick up a camera at that point. So he keeps finding very cute rhetorical reasons. I'm not really making a movie, but what if I were to do this? He has that playful side.

Let's capture the blocking of my next film on my iPhone so that I can prepare to make that film. Yeah, if I were to do it. And then meanwhile, you know, I think in that movie at one point you see his DVD collection and Ryan Reynolds and buried is facing right out to the screen because he's very funny. And also this is, and it was just an accident.

You actually have a guy being buried alive, which is maybe more of a reference to taste of cherry by kyrostomy than Brian Reynolds. But it's a terrific, brutal, funny, you know, mistaken identity kind of ensemble thriller. And it's very slapstick, you know. It has one of the most amazing portraits of corruption I've ever seen where I'll say this is the one spoiler I'll have where. The credit card machine, is that what you're going to say? Yeah, the security guards have like tap to look the other way. And I've a friend who I have a friend who just moved back to Toronto.

from Tehran, my friend Azada, and she's like, yeah, that, she's like, that scans. I asked them specifically about that, because that sequence is hilariously stunning. So it's just odd to see this filmmaker whose reputation precedes him in a heroic way, and now the film is going to be seen in a way that a lot of those other movies aren't seen, because there is something more commercial about it. Films like Taxi or Three Faces or No Bears, they're all worth seeing, but they're very much festival films, and this is getting a push and a release and a kind of award season profile, which is, you know, nice to see. So I should be clear, I'm not picking

it for any of those extracurricular reasons, though those are interesting. And anyone who's listening to the pod who doesn't know about Chafar Panahi and his story, they're lucky that they're going to get to hear you fill it in an interview. I didn't know you were doing that. That's fantastic. The movie's also really good. And, you know, I think it's a claim is deserved, you know, beyond the good vibes or the virtue, you know, signaling that people might feel that they're doing by liking it. It's just a really good movie with the best last scenes of the year. Yes. Last two scenes back to back and it's just an accident are absolutely amazing. It's a great recommendation. I'm glad one of us has it on the list. It's a wonderful film.

We'll talk more about it next week. Okay. Number one, Amanda. One battle after another. Not a surprise. And probably not the time. Last time we'll talk about it on this episode. How often do we go to the movies, with this level of expectation, and sit down and just walk out and be like, they did it. Like just absolute instant five-star masterpiece, which it was, I, you know, I won't speak for Sean. He has his own turn, but it was for me. And, you know, PT, he's pretty good. Yeah, like good track record, you know, but I still, Leo, pretty good. everybody in this film, but I think to what you were saying, Sean, like the scale and the going for it and the breadth of this film, which is, you know, as Adam pointed out, like half Terminator 2 and like the searchers and Casablanca and like it's, you know, all of film history, incredibly rooted in our current moment from that opening scene of the detention, you know, whatever center you want to call that.

the performances the set piece like you know Benicio gets his moment like Sean Penn gets his moment the Christmas adventurers get their season I mean I just it's been getting into the Christmas spirit is slightly different this year and that's okay

I knew that it would be but here we are and you know and then I do you know to my theme that both the idea like of parenthood as it is expressed in this both through the Tiana Taylor character, through perfidia, and then through Bob, the prologue, and the, and the main movie, which is kind of how I understand them. And what you, like, what you give to your kids, what you do with your life, what is, what is possible, what you leave behind, how you failed, finding hope for the next generation. I find an incredibly moving. story in addition to being

like funny and wild and virtuastic and accessible also you know so I am excited to see this film again I think we'll probably be talking about it for the next few months but yeah I'm a fan well said Sierra number one

my number one is 28 years later wow there you go good for you um okay so you guys have spoken very beautifully about being parents, so I'll talk a little bit about being a kid. I think when I saw this movie in the summer, I was starting to come to terms of the idea

that my mom was probably not going to live for the rest of the year. And I don't, when you're going through something like that, especially as an only child, a lot of it is logistical and mechanical. Like, who needs to be where, what are we going to do about this? Is she going to get to this appointment on time, et cetera?

I had not really thought about what it meant. and I did not expect to find that in a zombie movie by Danny Boyle and picked up a franchise that was pretty much forgotten after a decent sequel 20 years ago. But here we are. And, you know, this film is dazzling. I have no problems putting it on there, even if I didn't have this personal narratives kind of attached to it.

But I think that the creative energy that this guy brings to a story that did not necessitate this level of, thoughtful execution, brazen kind of leaping into the future with like, what can we do with these phones to film things? And also just like imagining a country, which, you know, I've gotten to visit England several times over the last couple of years. And so this was, I feel like you could just as well call this movie, The Rise and Fall of the British Empire, dealing with Brexit, dealing with its own island kind of isolationism and its own mythologies and the stories that they're telling themselves about who English people are and their bravery and thinking so much

about Alfie Williams' character who gives an amazing performance as this central child, which going into the film, you're not, you don't know that this kid is going to be the hero in the movie. The way he watches his parents and the way he watches who he thinks is the hero and his dad kind of become this lout and who he thinks is this problem in his life and his mother who becomes like, you know, his responsibility. And then you get into the second and third act of this film, especially the third act with Ray Fines, who gives my favorite performance of the year and the character I'll never forget as this iodine, you know, his, sorry, he gives this performance as this sort of doctor whose skin is tainted with iodine because he's sort

of protecting himself from the infected. And they go through this death ceremony at the end of the film that I found profoundly moving and so this movie just never left me I've been thinking about it all year I think there are movies that I think are more successful

a lot of people have problems with the very last scene of this movie we'll find out in the bone temple if it works out yeah but we're going to the bone temple in like six weeks

I know but this is this was this was my film of year Chris is beautiful yeah can I can I have something to that because this is the movie I was going to try and sneak on it's on my top 10

yeah because I just wanted to talk about it. I'm happy to hear Chris talk about it. This movie rules, you know. And I've been very hard writing about Alex Garland in the past because there's just sometimes things I think the tone is off or he's two-sphere. This is a terrific script. I think the best thing Garland's ever written because everything Chris said there is not projection. Like, it's in the movie. Yeah. The illusions in the film to Shakespeare and to Kipling and this idea of the sun setting on the British Empire kind finally and whether it's time

or not. And that image of the land bridge, that chase across the land bridge is one of the great scenes in the year. It's so good. The causeway scene is incredible, just the athleticism of it, how it's filmed and the Bone Temple. It's a very moving film. And this is one of those, like, I just got to give it up. I didn't

think this team had it had it in them to make something that good together again. I'm so happy Chris picked it as number one, because it rocks. It's a really, really great movie. Great job, CR. Thanks, man.

You did it. Good time. I like this movie, too. I got to watch it again, I think. Yeah. I watched this, unfortunately, after getting off of a plane at 11 o'clock in the morning. That wasn't the ideal circumstance. This is after Vegas.

Oh, Atlanta, even worse. Yeah. I remember I was in a great game. I liked it a lot, but I was like, wow, this is audacious. I was just very upset by how quickly. I mean, I was affected by it, you know? But it was, Jody Cormer was just suddenly out. And I was like, well, I guess that's how it happens.

But this is upsetting. In the bone temple. Yeah. Yeah. That's how it goes. I'm going to the Bone Temple for number one as well. It's one battle after another. Yeah.

So all five of my movies are about two things. One is the thwarted male ambition, which I think is the primary theme of movies for me this year about big guys who are like, I got this, and they do not got it. And I do think that there is something broader being communicated about the state of life, at least English-speaking life as I understand it right now. about how people are feeling about the means of control right now who's making decisions and the powerlessness that other people feel

in the face of that especially a lot of guys who have like tricked themselves into thinking that they're in charge and then we're discovering more and more who's really in charge and I think one battle after that's a component of this

I think the other flip side of that is the kind of signal to noise confusion that comes with being apparent when you actually are in charge of someone and you have a responsibility and how overriding that responsibility becomes in your life relative to those forces at large. We're thinking about what's going on in the world.

You guys have been making fun of me for a couple years because I'm like, I'm not reading the news anymore. And you're like, how do you not know that the whales like flew over here and now they're in Zanzibar? It's just human interest news. Yeah. But I have increasingly checked out out of a lot of those things for a couple of reasons. I have definitely sunk myself deeper into movies in recent years and sunk myself deeper into my work. And I've also sunk myself deeper into my family life and being with my kid. And I'm already predisposed as ever.

everyone who's listening to this point in the show to loving Paul Thomas Anderson movies. When Lickrish Pizza came out, that was my favorite movie of the year. Most people who love Paul Thomas Anderson are like, yeah, that's probably a favorite movie. But it's going to be my favorite movie of the year. So it's not really worth exploring in that specific way. But in the same way that you talk about the deep emotional and personal connection that you make to a movie like 28 years later, which I think is really one of the primary reasons why this show, I hope, is a little bit different from other shows, which is that there's no pretense to objectivity. We're all alive and responding to the art in the very specific

through the very specific lens of our life and who we are as people. And this movie feels almost fake to me because of all of the ways in which I felt connected to it. I do respond specifically to what Adam is saying about going back to the film and saying, am I convincing myself of things? Like I do try to check myself on those things. I do try to say, like, well, I have these not just biases, but obsessions, and are the obsessions informing the way that I perform this show? In this case, I have no doubts about that whatsoever. I think that everything that you said is right, that this is somebody at the top of their game who spent decades figuring out how to construct this. And then one of the things that I have

loved, but I think makes me ultimately not a critic because I get very informed by these things, is getting to talk to Paul about making the movie in all the ways he was like, yeah, well, you know, in this case, we just kind of made this part up on the spot. I know. And I'm like, what? How did you, in this level of production with this many important people and this much money on the line? So much riding on it.

Yeah. And all this expectation and all the incoming doubt about its box office potential and would it stand up to previous work, that they were like, you know what? Good idea. Benetio. Let's do it that way. Let's shut down production for a couple days. Let's rejigger this whole thing.

And it worked. And that it flows. And that it feels like it's how. It feels like you're going down a waterfall while you're watching the movie. You're on the ride. And I find that just remarkable and breathtaking. And I think that the film also is not... I think it is what you're saying, which is that it is about the modern time.

But I don't think it really is a message about the modern time. I think it is a suggestion of potential and maybe a snapshot of something. But it is not saying... It goes about saying that white supremacist, fascists, are evil. Like, that doesn't need to be explained. But what happens next, I feel like, is what is most critical. And the movie ends on what happens next. We don't know.

We don't know where Chase Infinity's character goes. We don't know what happens to her. But we want to know. And we're excited for her and we're rooting for her. And as far as being a parent goes, I have to be hopeful. Sure. I can't be stuck in the world as shit. I'm as prone to cynicism as anyone I know.

But I'm forced to reject it. at least in the face of one work of art that I love, and two, the fact that we can't, we can't let go. We gotta keep going. So this was very obviously going to be my number one movie of the year. It is quite strange. You know, Adam, Chris was asking, what's it like to root for the 1927 Yankees

at the top of this episode when it comes to award season with one battle after another, you know, where it's like everyone agrees, this is the masterpiece. It's the perfect narrative of a filmmaker who has been nominated 11 times but has not been awarded for his work. it's the film bros are all I've all been rooting for PTA for 25 years and he's due and

even still I don't care like I you know and if it it deserves it like it deserves the attention and it's to me it's nice when something like that happens does that mean I'm part of the the problem of the power structure you know is it my time now maybe so part of the appeal of this movie is that it is it's to our generation and it's about how we are getting old and We're at this, you know, later phase of life of figuring out what we did that mattered and all the many things that didn't and how to how to speak to younger people like Jack in the booth. So, you know, I guess if it does win, it would be fitting that it's the one that we're aligned with. It's reflecting us back to ourselves. I'm still protecting my heart, as I said, you know?

Like, I'm not, I'm ready for tomfoolery. It is strange to watch a movie and you get like dirty work and Mo Bamba in the same film and you're just like, what the fuck is happening? Like, how did I arrive at this place in my life, but this is what I get? I think that one of the pieces that my students looked at, it was an assessment of Anderson's career from 99, like after Magnolia came out, and it's someone being like, this filmmaker means entirely too much to people. And that was like from 1999, you know, that there's this idea of looking for heroes and film cultures, like, what are those heroic qualities?

And it's like, get stuff done their way, makes the movie they want, you know, spends money well, but not poorly, and, you know, heart in right place and politics in right place. It is accessible, but, you know, still has a certain kind of integrity. And there's a lot of aspects of this movie, arguably, that align for this looking like a kind of culmination in the filmmaker's career. But he's such an interesting director that my question at the end of the movie isn't just what happens to the characters. It's where does this kind of filmmaker go next? And a lot of that is going to be dictated by this award season. If I say this unfortunately, because it shouldn't, right? But this movie's road to profitability goes straight through getting those awards.

And unfortunately, that idea of profitability is going to be what determines the size and scope and budget and scale of the next thing that they, you know, of the next that they get to make. Also, I wouldn't underestimate the degree to which he wants to embrace a. Award winning director Paul Thomas Anderson or if he wants to go make inherent vice or licorish pizza again and kind of like step back a little bit. To me, the magic is doing both. If you can do both and he's not shy about being

enamored with great Hollywood history. Like a director like George Stevens really matters to Paul Thomas Anderson. George Stevens is not a cool film bro pick. He's made a lot of great films that are admired but he doesn't have that same canonical obsessive

quality that like a Howard Hawks does, for example. And I think he would like a career like that where you're at the absolute top of the industry and working on your own terms, working with your own ideas and themes. So I don't know, I don't think he's going to have a hard time

raising money, but I would be surprised if he wanted to make another $150 million movie. He hasn't shown a lot of interest in stories like that. It would be fascinating if he was like, I'm making weapons two. You know, like I don't think that's what he's going to do with his time,

but it is an interesting question to see where he goes from here because this does feel like scaling the mountain top in a way that we have seen before from great filmmakers. Paramount Plus series. You think we should get him in the Taylor Sheridan universe?

I'm here to tell you that I checked out the news today and it's all going to be okay. Everything's good. Yeah, we're good. Wow. We fixed it. All the bad guys died simultaneously. No, they turned to the camera and said,

ah, my bad. I do want to do some honorable mentions. Jack, before we do that, what's your favorite movie of the year? It's one battle. Okay. A lot of I think it would be won battles, sinners, trained dreams.

It was just an accident in Eddington. There you go, Jack. With testament of Anne Lee, very close behind. Yeah, I was going to mention that in my honorable mentions as well. Another movie I think I probably needed to see again, some kookiness. Not everything is great. I will also say I haven't gotten a chance to see a lot of the very, either incredibly limited or not yet released films.

I'll knock off some honorable mentions to start because I did have a bit of a challenge with my top ten as I mentioned. So Secret Agent we already talked about in weapons we already talked about. Blue Moon is pretty high on my list I'm really really fond of that film I love Ethan Hawks performance in that movie we got two Linklater movies this year so that was very special

you know I still like sentimental value and I'm not afraid to say it I know the tide is turning amongst the film literati on that film I'm not backing down god damn it I think that movie is really good and really interestingly designed and very sincere and god damn it I love stories

I love stories and I also think Kelly Reicherts the master Mind is really, really special and thought about putting that on and I would like to revisit that movie at some point too. Amanda, what, can we get some honorable mentions for you? Yeah, I made a whole list, but it's on my phone, which is in my bag over there. Okay. Well, let's throw it to Adam so Amanda can get up. Okay. Am I allowed to go get it? Yeah, Adam, you got any honorable mentions? Yeah, Mastermind's very good. Blue Moon is very good. I like

the Testament of Anne Lee, which sort of plays like an episode of drunk history sometimes, which is a compliment. It does. A kind of interesting companion piece, not B side, but like double A side to the brutalist because it is really similar.

It's not the fake perception that it's similar because it's the two same filmmakers. Really interesting approach to like assimilation in America and building something in a country from the ground up. I like Testament of Anley.

And I definitely want to give a shout out because it's going to be on my 10 best list to Radur Judo's Dracula. I just watched this. Easily the most productively annoying movie I saw this year. It's so obnoxious. It's so good.

As someone pointed out, I laughed when they pointed this out that the funniest thing about it is that it's just called Dracula. Like, you watch this three-hour film, which goes out of its way to not really be a Dracula movie or to throw so many obstacles in the idea of like, what does it mean to adapt Dracula?

And he just calls it that. He's very funny. And that was one of those screenings where I thought they should have handed out I saw it at TIF, not only at TIF, but it was during Game 5 of the World Series, starting at 9 p.m. When the J's playing in the World Series, so we totally, we couldn't watch the game at all. They should have given out like medals for getting through it. It's a two-hour, 45-minute, episodic, sketch-oriented series of Dracula adaptations that features a tremendous amount of AI.

At least 15 minutes of pornographic AI, you know. You know, it is itself a comment on it. It is not celebrating or using the AI to make a better film. It's, you know, it's an absurdist satire of the use of AI and making IP in some ways, you know, adapting the great works for film. But, man, it's such an annoying movie. It's so long. It's a really elaborate prank. Yeah, it's an elaborate prank and sort of a troll.

But he has, I mean, again, I put it on the 10 best list as a double bill with sinners as vampire. movies, but it could just as easily go on a double bill with Tully, like, Eddington, the sort of, you know, A-N-I-Stinker, or as the filmmaker within the film talks about, he really should have called it Frankenstein, because it's this patchwork, you know, amalgamation of all these other kind of monster movie tropes. I certainly like it as a Frankenstein movie better than Frankenstein. But I like Dracula a lot. I think it's terrific.

Okay, you got your list? I do. I just made a long list chronological, chronologically. and many of your, you know, top fives are on there, so I won't read those. Black Bag, Steven Soderberg. Don't know a pop-up on yours. Yeah, well, but it's on, here it is on my long list. Paddington and Peru, which I believe was released here in 2025 in the United States.

Pavements, Alex Ross Perry's movie. Great show. Phoenician scheme, Wes Anderson. Sorry, baby. Yes. Victor's film. Let's see, scrolling. Blue Moon, you said, Mass, Mind.

Bagonia. I like Bagonia. I do, too. Adam does not. Adam does not, but I liked it. And it does make like a double feature with a lot of the other films on this list. Testament of and Lee be discussed. No other choice.

And then, you know, I wrote down three rom-coms where I would say it's genre experiments. I'm glad they tried. Okay. And it's materialist, Splitsville. And I'm even going to say, even though I have a lot of. know it's eternity. I'm glad we're trying. Let's keep trying. There's a fourth film that I would add to that list if I was you, and I don't know if

anyone here has seen it, that I really like an item. I considered for my five, and it's even more annoying than putting Marty Supreme and no other choice on there, but it's a movie called Pillion, which I saw as Kelly, right? Yes, this new Alexander ScarsGard movie. First-time filmmaker Harry Leighton. It's essentially a BDSM gay rom-com about two men who sort of fall in love under servitude and is like probably the hardest I laughed in a movie this year. That in Eddington were the two, I thought the two funniest movies of the year. Alexander Skarsgaard gives an amazing performance. A couple of people have mentioned this when we've done what's the last great thing you've seen. The movie's coming out for like a

week in five theaters in 2025 and then opening later in 2026. That's probably when people get a chance to see it. Is it going to be up for awards? I think that's why so it qualifies, but it's not, I mean, it's probably not going to really be. I think it was like, On the indie spirit list. Yes, it is nominated for indie spirits. You're right. I hope people check it out. It's really, really funny and really, really beautiful and sweet.

And I like that movie a lot. A couple of other quick ones. Two docs, one, Predators, which I mentioned I saw out of Sundance, which is about how to catch a predator and the sort of sociological, anthropological meaning of a living in a society in which we want to try to entrap pedophiles live on TV and then air the consequences of their actions. just a fascinating movie by David Osset, and the other one is cover-up, which is Laura Poitrace's portrait of Seymour Hirsch and his work as an investigative journalist. That's going to Netflix soon, right?

That's going to Netflix, I think, end of this month. Okay. Which is just, you know, can't wait to see that. In tradition with her work, which is always staggering, but also something that, like, I mean, we've probably talked about Sy Hirsch stories,

like, all three of us, like, multiple times and their 20 years of friendship. That'd be good if that only news you read was Sy Hirsch article. Well, his substack is aflame these days, so C.R., you want to shout anything out? F1, which we briefly discussed, but was kind of like the movie-going experience of the year and definitely broke those wall where I was like, I think I'm actually watching real sports while this is happening. Alex Carlin's Warfare, I would also throw out Splitsville, which I think was the hardest I laughed, this year in a movie, not least of which, because the idea that the two leads,

could land Adrian Arjona and Dakota Johnson, but once you get past that or go along with that, it is kind of part of the joke. And, uh, Havoc. Havoc. Yeah, this is how I'm Hardy movie Havoc. Right on. I do, I've just remembered one other movie. I want to shout out. I remembered one more too. But you want to go first? Well, I just... Is it also Havoc? Yeah. I didn't know. No, when you were talking about Ducks, Megadoc. Oh, Megadok. Yes. Just announced going to Criterion Channel December 16th. So people can check that out. That movie was really good. No, Final Destin Bloodlines

is so fucking fun and again is what it's all about getting in the movie theater watching people get mercilessly annihilated by all types of household products and medical equipment that's what I want

also picked by John Waters do you see John Waters? Yeah that was amazing Bloodlines Edington and Final Destination Bloodlines that's a that's I mean always that was his one too

yeah he always has great picks I had one other honorable mention you'll forgive me the most actually the thing I enjoyed watching most this year was the Ben Affleck Craterion Closet video.

You and me both Adam Damon. Said, said, said, without irony. My hot take is, my hot take is he should run for president. Oh, God. A thousand percent. Yeah, 100%.

I don't think that would turn out. I know, but like, again, wouldn't you risk at all? Just, I would. Wouldn't you risk it? I thought you would have a good caveat. Amanda. Amanda, I'm not, I'm not wrong about this, right?

that's the best closet video ever or it's right up there it's it is really great and i watched all of it wrapped um i was this year the jalo documentary where he that was last year where he talks about cameras for a while that's also if you haven't checked that out just him holding on to rules of the game and the content of the big ben affleck rules of the game millers crossing the elephant man the elephant man i'm not saying it i'm not saying it with a shred of funny no no he's there talking about he's there talking about rules of the game and he's like genre noir you know a great humanist he loves his characters it has the great line in films everyone has his reasons i'm like testify ben affleck i bet i bet everyone has their reasons but yeah it was great

well that just about does it we've done it again we've celebrated ben affleck here on the show as we so often do we have talked about films that we like a great deal and uh we're going to get back to the real work actually on monday we're going to talk about the golden globe nominations that's where the real work starts. You getting excited about that? Yeah, what's our call time? 4 a.m. Okay, great.

Hair and makeup at 4 a.m. No, it would probably be about 8 a.m. Okay. You can make that work? Yeah. Okay. Jack Sanders is going to have to make it work. He's the producer of this episode.

Thanks to him. Thanks so much to Adam Neyman, who is not the mean pod guy. He's the beloved, beautiful, perfect pod guy. No, and I'm so happy to see you guys, but especially Chris Ryan, my first ringer contact. Always happy to see Chris. I don't think we've potted together since last best of,

So this is always Who's fault is that? Probably mine. Yeah, you host like nine pods. Well, Adam's never like, I got to get a breakdown severance with you, brother. What was your favorite TV show of the year? Do you watch any TV?

Oh, chair company. Yeah. Oh, sure. I mean, that's a lay-up. Which I'm not even finished. Yeah, me neither.

I think is the best, best TV I've watched this year. Any closing thoughts you are? No, it's always just a great, great to go through a year of movies with you guys. Can you just do maybe like a little, like an impression of a famous actor or something just to send us off?

Okay. We'll see you. We've got to pee. We've got to go.