The Big Picture - The Top Five Movies of the Year | The Big Picture

Episode Date: December 6, 2019

Chris Ryan and Adam Nayman join Sean and Amanda to rank their top five movies of 2019, which got off to a slow start but has been flooded with great films over the last two months. The quartet discuss masters of their craft like Quentin Tarantino and Martin Scorsese making late-period career retrospectives, as well as internationally renowned auteurs like Bong Joon-Ho and Claire Denis stunning American audiences. Hosts: Sean Fennessey and Amanda Dobbins Guests: Chris Ryan and Adam Nayman Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, it's Liz Kelley and welcome to the Ringer Podcast Network. Throughout the month of December, the Ringer staff will be releasing their year-end reviews covering the best and worst of 2019 in sports, TV, movies, music, and more. This week, we're getting started with Shea Serrano and Rob Parvilla on the best albums of the year, and Alison Herman and Chris Ryan break down the best TV shows. We'll have tons more in the coming weeks, so make sure to check it out on TheRinger.com. New York. I always wanted to visit New York.

It's a very beautiful city. Yeah, it's very beautiful. Question. Do you know about my grandma's condition? I never waited for anyone who was late more than 10 minutes in my life. I'd say 15, 15, right? No, 10. I don't think so. 10's not enough.

You have to take traffic into account. I hate fucking whiskey, sir. I couldn't stop at fucking three or four, right? Why? You're a fucking alcoholic. You drink too much, huh? Every fucking night, every fucking night. That's it. That's fucking it. 왜? 너는 술을 너무 많이 마시니까 매일 매일 매일 마시니까 그게 다야

우리 다송이는 완전 예술가 체질인데 요거 한번 보세요 진짜 상징적이다 진짜 센데요? 그쵸, 세죠 역시 느끼시는구나, 케빈 쌤은 내가 알고 있는게 말이야 내가 들어본 제일 이상한 배는 이거네 난 동의해 well I'll tell you what I know that's the dumbest fucking bet I ever heard of I disagree

I'm Sean Fantasy I'm Amanda Dobbins and this is The Big Picture a conversation show about the greatest movies of the past 365 days. Joining us to capture the movies of the year are our close Big Picture colleagues, Chris Ryan and Adam Naiman. What's up, fellas? Hey.

Hey. Adam, you seem very upset, and I'm going to start with you. Are you upset about the year in movies 2019, or did you feel inspired by what we saw on the big screen? It was amazing. it changed my life um no it's the time of year where you start asking that that question and i think on balance the year it certainly got better than it was when sean and i did this at the halfway point i don't know if you remember that sean we were kind of like this year kind of could could stand to improve and it did, I thought it was a pretty scarily bad year through six months, even though there were some films that I really liked.

Chris, what about you? How are you feeling about where we ended up in 2019? I think it's a pretty good year. I don't think I can't claim to have seen as much of the great stuff that's coming in the next six weeks as the other panelists here. But I've enjoyed myself at the movies this year. The big thing that I thought was really interesting is that the theme seems to be, or the thing that we often talk about on The Big Picture is like how they don't make them like they used to,

how they don't make these kinds of like adult dramas or like interesting genre movies. And it seems like we had an abundance of those this year, but we kind of realized that sometimes those movies are just okay. And that was pretty interesting, I thought. Wow. So what do you want to throw dirt on right now? No, it's nothing in particular as much as like a movie like Dark Water, which I haven't even seen, but seems to be being met with like kind of like solid job. And it's like, that's how we greeted those movies in the 90s too.

And like Pelican Brief came out. We were like, way to go. Nice one. It's a good movie. But it's not like a game changing,-changing experience. Amanda, what about you? How are you feeling having traversed 365 days of movie takery? Sean Smith, the thing about me is that I love movies. Yes, yes, we know. Yeah, I would agree with you and Adam that the first six months, and I would even venture to say the first nine months, were pretty tough. And there were highlights. And I think even two of my top

five movies are from pre-September, which is pretty good. But, you know, we effectively have like good movie season and it starts with the festivals in September and it goes through the end of the year. And that has been like pretty joyful for me because it is fun to go and see these movies that you anticipate and you're like, huh, this is really good or, huh, this is solid and there is more attention on them and people are actually talking about them. We've kind of, in the same way that Disney and the major studios have eventized the movie going process, I do feel like we have all eventized like the good movie season. Yeah, I feel like that was changing a little bit in the last five years, but for some reason

everything feels very backloaded this year and there's been a of conversation, and I think a lot of the movies that we'll talk about here, most of which are available to people. There's not a ton of stuff that we'll be identifying that you can't see right now. Avatar 2? Avatar 2 just missed my list. Send me the link, bro. Yeah, well, I sat with Jim Cameron alone in a room for nine hours, and we watched the first cut together, and it looked pretty good. I would say solid.

Would you guys say that this was a year that's top heavy? Because that was one thing I noticed when I was kind of going through. I was like, man, the five at the top, because I was going to do a bit where my top five were going to be minus the five that are obviously the best to me. And it was going to be like kind of the next grouping. But I found that there's a really significant drop off

to the point where I would have a hard time like with a straight face saying like, yeah, like long shot. That deserves to be like in the conversation here. Well, I'd like to pitch it to Adam, because Adam and I did a top 10 list for TheRinger.com, and we did some negotiation back and forth, but there was a kind of presumptive four or five movies

that we felt like we couldn't avoid. Is that fair to say, Adam? Yeah, I think that it's fair to say. So much speaks to an overlap of taste, and sometimes it's kind of just recognizing in a given year that between critical consensus and what people are talking about and what's inspiring, interesting writing,

there are movies that, and that last category I think is important. This is also the time of year where some of the best film writing happens because you have movies that have the capacity to invite that. But yeah, you and i were pretty solid on about half and i thought that it was also interesting when we did this thing at the halfway point in

the year i've kind of stubbornly held on to to one or two of those movies but i i would in response to what chris was saying i'm not having the same kind of hard time filling out a top 10 or 15 that i was worried that i worried that i might I was telling friends back in May or June, this was the worst year of going to the movies I've ever had. And that's changed. I agree. Maybe we should use that as an entree into the conversation because all three of you guys have number five movies that were released a long time ago, released first seen a long time ago. Adam, we'll start with you. What's your number five? My number five is High Life, which is by Claire Denis. And, you know, I could have just as easily put it a little bit. I could have put it higher. I mean, it's a movie I know, Sean,

that you've seen and to some extent admire. Amanda or Chris, you guys see the film or no? I didn't see High Life. I did see it and was really moved by it. Was really moved by it. Yeah, I was moved by it too. And I mean, some of it is out to her loyalty because I just think Claire Denis is an amazing filmmaker. I think she's an incredibly brave filmmaker because she understands that it's the sort of flawed, obsessive, ugly parts of people that are also the most tender and I think the most universal. And it's a movie that I think A24 took a bit of a risk by buying and putting out there. It didn't seem to do that well, even though it's on brand for them and being kind of an edgy genre film. It's about a prison colony in outer space,

basically starring Robert Pattinson and Andre 3000. But in terms of images that have stuck with me during the year, the bodies dropping off the spaceship at the beginning or the scenes of Pattinson playing with his daughter, as a film of images, I don't think it's really been topped for me. And that's because she's just a supreme image maker and mood setter. It's the sort of edgy, strange genre film that we all say we want. And some of us were very happy to get it, I guess. One more entry in the Robert Pattinson rules category as well. Oh, yeah.

Just an incredible series of choices by him before he returns to big time studio genre filmmaking with the Batman. Chris, your number five is probably one of the least apparent choices in any top five list that I've seen, but that's not an insult by any means. I like what you did here. Can I be very honest? When you were sent the list, I did have to Google it to remind myself what it was. It did not make much of an impact. It's Standoff at Sparrow Creek, and it came out in January, and it is the directorial debut of a guy named Henry Dunham. It stars James Badgedale, and it is essentially an old school noir whodunit in the vein of like The Killing or, you know, even I guess more recently like Reservoir Dogs. But much less sort of self-conscious and flashy.

It is about a militia. It's about a militia out, I believe, in Michigan. And on the night in question, uh, a cop has been killed and they, they, the police or the law enforcement thinks that the assassination has been conducted by a militia. So there's this crackdown on like, on, I essentially like, you know, militias across the state and these guys all meet up in a warehouse and they try to figure out who among them is the killer. And it's, it's essentially like the inverse of Knives Out, I guess. But it's really, really taut and incredibly stylish and incredibly well realized.

Like I love seeing films, especially from first time directors, where it's really obvious that they've waited like most of their lives to make this movie. And I can't recommend it. If anybody's looking for a thriller, it's really, really interesting. I like the movie a lot too. How much of the political subtext or overt text do you feel comfortable talking about? Yeah, sure. I mean, it's actually part of a couple of films that I watched this year,

not out of any sort of interest in investigating the culture of flyover states or anything like that, or any kind of elitist shit. It was just like this I think to some extent dragged across concrete in some ways Mickey and the Bear, at least in terms of what it's about, and Donnybrook are all really

interesting movies that are about parts of the country that don't often get movies made about them. Some of them are, I think, fetishistic about those places and about some of the country that don't often get movies made about them. And some of them are, I think, fetishistic about those places and about some of the rituals and cultures of those places. But I thought it was really interesting that four movies were made this year or released this year that kind of investigated that kind of stuff. Speaking of things happening in flyover states that maybe we don't want to think about in our culture, Amanda, what's your number five?

My number five is American Factory, which is a documentary directed by Julia Reichert and Stephen Wagner. And I should just say off the bat, I mean, this movie has been quite celebrated and was recommended by a lot of people, but Sean told me to watch it. And it's so seldom that Sean tells me to watch something and I really enjoy it and respond to it. So I should. It's immensely rude. My whole job here on this podcast is to tell people to listen to things and watch them. I'm giving you credit. You shared something.

This is a moment of friendship on a podcast. Got it. Just accept it. So this movie is, it's a documentary. It is based at a former General Motors factory outside Dayton, Ohio, that was closed in December and December 2008, I believe, and then was purchased and reopened by Fuyao, which is a Chinese company. And the directors apparently live close by and just have a tremendous amount of access inside the factory of watching what happens when, you know,

both American workers and an American company, but like a really iconic American plant and model of labor is owned by and interacts with a Chinese company. And it becomes a story of globalization and capitalism and politics and ideology and propaganda. And it's one of those things where it's like, it's basically a miracle that this exists. It sounds like something you would design in a psychological experiment, you know, of like what happens if we put an American factory and, you know, Chinese owners and, you know,

let's study everybody, but it's real and it's situated in a sense of place and it has real characters and the amount of access that the filmmakers have. And then the filmmakers know what to do with that access. They know who to film. They find the right people. They are witness to amazing moments.

I think the editing is tremendous in it. It both has a real vision but is not particularly heavy-handed and asks so many questions of the situation itself and of the viewers. I have thought about it so much, was absolutely blown away by it. It's a very, very good film. I would say it's almost certainly the frontrunner for Best Documentary at the Oscars. My number five is a movie that three of the four of us have on our list. I'll take this opportunity for all of us to discuss it right now.

It's Marriage Story. This is Noah Baumbach's 11th feature film. It is certainly his most widely celebrated movie. It is the first movie of his that has firmly entered the Oscar conversation. It dominated at the Gotham Awards earlier this week. I would say the reason for that has as much to do with it taking place in Gotham, New York City as anything else because Noah Baumbach is the poet laureate of New York City to many people in the film industry. We've talked about this film a lot on this show. I'm obviously a huge admirer of what Baumbach does. In revisiting it this week and observing the dissolution of the romance and marriage that he is paying close attention to, it was interesting to watch the kind of

Easter egg storytelling that he does. There's a lot of subtle clues to all the things that are happening, characters that pop up early all the things that are happening, characters that pop up early in the film that you may not have paid much attention to that return to you when you watch it a second time. It's obviously immensely well-written

as all of Baumbach's work is. It's by far my favorite acting performance of the year is Adam Driver's work in the movie. Amanda and I talked at great length about our personal stakes in the idea of marriage and divorce. And it's still resonating with me.

It's funny because when I first saw it, it was evident to me that it was a little bit of an elevation in Baumbach's evolution. As a filmmaker, I felt like he had gotten more mature. But as a writer, I felt like he was holding back a little bit at times. Or he was pulling away from that acid touch that he brings to everything. This is like a little bit of a sweeter movie. And watching it again, I felt like maybe I was a little too hard on that. And it's,

there is still a little bit of like, what do you mean? Like you, you kind of critiqued it for its sweetness. It just felt like he was pulling punches. The first time that I watched it. Yeah. And especially if you watch a movie like the squid and the whale and you

realize that, which is just one of them is just a movie made of daggers. You know, every line is acid dipped. And this one didn't seem that way at first, in part because of the way that the movie ends. The movie ends and it kind of with a hopeful spirit in a way. And people will see that when they see it on Netflix this week. But nevertheless, I think it's just an amazing achievement by him and something that I look forward to watching again and again, see that when they see it on Netflix this week. But nevertheless, I think it's just an amazing achievement by him and something that I look forward to watching again and again, as I do all know about movies. Adam, any marriage story thoughts you want to share, though it did not make your list? No, I mean, I wrote about it for the site from TIFF. And I did that ranking of

Bombeck movies, which was really hard because they're all kind of the same to me. I don't say that sarcastically, like there's not a huge range that the guy has. And I was doing plot summaries for each of them. These are basically all the same movie. Which isn't totally true. What I said about Marriage Story. Is that it's one of the times where that hatefulness. That sometimes comes through in his writing.

Really does seem to come out of the fact. That the characters recognizably love each other. That you can be harshest and most hurtful. the people who you love and who you know really well. I also thought that visually for him, it had some stuff that was better than usual, sort of like ways that the characters get divided within the frame or obstacles coming between them. I love the way he used the two Sondheim songs from Company, which I won't go into for spoilers, but they're both towards the end of the movie and really strong. I was very moved by it at TIFF. It didn't make my list because as good as it was while I was watching it, it hasn't quite stayed with me. And it's maybe not far enough outside his wheelhouse for me to see it as like a huge breakthrough.

But I do think it's the best thing that he's made in a long time. And when you were talking about it as an award season movie, I know a bunch of people who said they think that it's just going to win Best Picture for sure. That there's a good chance that like Kramer versus Kramer, it's such an actor's vehicle and in some ways such a social cultural snapshot that in the absence of a big, obvious issues movie to win Best Picture, it's got a good shot. It will be interesting to keep an eye on that because I'm interested to see if the dialogue that was happening around the Irishman over the holiday weekend, if Marriage Story gets a similar dialogue when it hits Netflix on Friday. It's obviously not quite the same level of event, but just an enormous amount of people being able to instantaneously watch something that is

very accessible and well-made and featuring famous people. It's unusual. Last year when we talked about Roma, Roma is a beautiful film whether you like it or not. It doesn't have the same level of accessibility. Chris, you have this movie at number three. Yeah.

You know, it's really no a bomb back season in terms of the promo tour and the interview circuit. And so they can all sort of start to run into one another after a while. But I read an interview with him in, I think, Interview Magazine recently. And he kind of unlocked the movie for me by accident where he was kind of talking about it in terms of it being a legal thriller. And I don't think you necessarily need to watch it that way but certainly one of the things that really jumped out at me was about how much of it was about uh people being basically subsumed by institutions and systems and and about like how something is sort of um you know precious as family or love or like this idea of your

relationship can just kind of get carved up by other forces that are brought into it when you're going through a legal proceeding like divorce. And rethinking about the movie through that lens, I was like, that was actually kind of like a gripping, gripping like genre movie in some ways. Not that it needs to be because obviously the performances are so beautiful

and it feels very truthful and also is very professionally written. Like I always, I kind of respected how he would be like, and it's, it feels very truthful and also is very professionally written. Like I always, I kind of respected how he would be like, and here's a bit like here, I'm going to return to this joke. I'm going to set this joke up for an entire scene where like, here's like a little bit like there was always relief every two or three

minutes in that movie. So I just thought it was so expertly made, but I also thought it could be appreciated in a couple of different ways. He's talked a little bit about how it's a number of different genres operating at the same time. You know, there's this very intense blowout scene that it feels very much like a horror movie. There's this sort of physical comedy, almost like Chaplin-esque moment with Adam Driver in his apartment where all the things that he's doing physically are so amazing. Amanda, this is number two on your list. It is. Is there anything further you'd like to add about Marriage Story?

No, I mean, I think this is my sentimental pick, which, as Adam was pointing out, I think it might be a lot of people's sentimental picks in an Oscar season

that is otherwise kind of bleak or people looking at major issues or the fact that they're dying. And so, the Oscars do kind of like a hopeful uh

story and this for everything that is like bitter and acrimonious and you know ultimately failed in the state of their marriage sorry if that's a spoiler i don't think it is um it it does end with a note of maybe not quite a hope but warmth i, I think, which people will respond to. And, you know, I also responded to it. I have said before, basically, as a film watcher, I grew up with Baumbach and all of his movies are the same, Adam, you're right. And to me, they are a special kind of comfort food. And I think that this is someone ascending to another level, maybe of emotional understanding, if not of filmmaking. And, you know, I want that for all of us.

May we continue to get great Noah Baumbach movies and may we all continue to be married. Number four, Transit, Adam, is your number four. Talk to us about Transit. Yeah, I mentioned Transit, the halfway point of the year show too. transit adam is your number four talk to us about transit yeah i mentioned transit the half the halfway point of the the the year show too and transit is adapted from this sort of german novel in the 1940s which is a story with the world war ii backdrop it's about migration within europe against the backdrop of the nazis and fascism and people trying to get out of these traps and trying to not just transcend their lives,

but I mean, physically escape their circumstances. And so Christian Petzold, who in a little sidebar that I'm going to drop, I think is the great director of the last decade for me, with movies like Barbara and Phoenix. He's my guy. He had this ingenious way of adapting it, which is that he makes a period piece, but makes no attempt to make it a period piece. It's just shot now in Marseille. There's no period detail. There's no signifiers. It's very strange because it takes a very time and place specific story and puts it into a modern context.

So the past kind of impinges on the present and the present recontextualizes the past. I mean, in terms of the kind of movie it is, it's what Chris was talking about, the things they don't make anymore. I mean, it's very consciously a kind of 40s noir. You could compare it, and some people did, to a movie like Casablanca. It's a romance. There's things keeping the main characters from getting together. They're stuck in one place. They're waiting for their chance to leave. But as a movie that just collapses time, I think it's astonishing. And

even though it's a very measured, even, quiet, minimal movie, I've gone back and watched it three or four times. I actually have a friend in Toronto who, if she's listening to this, will laugh because I know she's seen it seven times. You know, like almost like it's a star Wars movie or something. It has a pull and a fascination. That's very, very quiet, but has stuck with me like almost nothing I've seen this year. And it's a chance on a podcast like this to maybe recommend something to the

listenership that they haven't seen, but that is easy enough to see. You can find this on iTunes. You can find it on YouTube. You can, you can find it and look at it. Sean it on youtube you can you can find it and look at it sean i know you saw it and liked it right i love it i don't love it as much as phoenix which i think is probably one of the oh yeah more underrated movies of the decade um which i think i

may have even mentioned when we last talked about it i don't know if you guys have had a chance to see this movie yet no um transit is really it it's pretty special and also unique and largely because of what you're describing, Adam, which is just the way that the film is staged is so unusual and it kind of disorients you as you're watching it, which is part of the point because the characters are so disoriented throughout the film. Speaking of disorientation, Chris, you're number four. Why didn't we love The Laundromat? Like what happened? So can I just say, I didn't know that this was your pick and you and I have never talked about the laundromat,

but Sean and I also loved the laundromat and I just feel like- What's the matter with everybody? I don't know, but I just, this is a nice another moment of friendship between you and me. Yes, Chris Ryan, preach. What's up with this?

I guess in some ways it's appropriate because in my very obviously limited sort of worldview, it felt like the Panama Papers kind of came and went to you know what I mean themselves where people were just sort of like this is too overwhelming slash who didn't think that we were all getting completely fucked over by like businesses in the world and that rich people were going to do anything that they had to do to stay as rich as possible but um I don't know maybe it's perhaps because Soderbergh so selfh's so self-effacing and seems to just be like,

hey, I shot this movie on an iPhone. It's up. Now I'm going to go do two more before the end of the year. But The Laundromat's important. I think The Laundromat's going to go down as one of the great movies about globalization, about the chain of despair that is enacted by that and is almost uniformly perfectly performed.

It is such a weird and inventive and thoughtful and unique movie. It's sort of essayistic in places where it'll have kind of like, you know, a 20-minute side movie about this family living in Los Angeles, but then it'll go back to these fourth wall breaking performances from Gary Oldman and Antonio Banderas, who were both extraordinary. It's so fleet-footed. It tries to explain something very, very complicated in a very straightforward way. I found it very emotionally affecting. I thought Meryl was unbelievable in this movie. And I thought it was just criminally overlooked this year. Yeah, I mean, Amanda and I are on the record about this movie. We love it.

We're quite confused by the reception. I think a lot of the points that you make, Chris, are accurate. I think that there is a Soderbergh effortlessness thing going on where people feel comfortable overlooking things here and there. I think there, whereas Netflix has been perfectly positioned to push out Marriage Story and The Irishman and the Two Popes this season, for whatever reason, and I don't know if that's an internal decision or just based on the reception that the film got at various festivals or maybe just this sort of lack of follow-through in terms of the campaigning, the movie just didn't have that second, that bounce, that oomph, that like, let's continue to pay attention to this and talk about it.

I don't think it's a perfect film. I think that there's a case to be made that it's a little overwritten at times. I'm not wild about the final five minutes of the movie, but I think in terms of like the anthological nature of it, it's one of the better versions of that that I've seen in the last 10, 15, 20 years. And Scott Burns and Soderbergh talked a lot about being inspired by Wild Tales, another great movie from this decade. And it's a format that I wish more more movies took we saw it last year with the ballad of buster scruggs i thought similarly on netflix worked perfectly well and i'm a big fan of it adam i don't i don't are you out on the laundromat i don't know if we've discussed it oh i'm so sorry to say i haven't

seen it oh wow there were there were like six screenings at tiff that i missed and then it was here on netflix but the raptors keep winning games, and that's what I do, because I watch them. Great, great. So glad I could be here. Yeah, but no, I'm going to watch it, and I was just glad hearing you guys talk about it and reading about it. It sounds quite novel, and just, I mean, here's to Soderbergh for just constantly trying new stuff. You know, I mean, I cannot think of a more inventive American filmmaker. He doesn't always hit it out of the park, but I loved High Flying Bird, which would be somewhere in my top 15 this year.

Such an interesting movie. I thought it would end up being the most ringer movie of all time, but then Uncut Gems came out. But no, I'm going to see The Laundromat when the Raptors have a break in their schedule Amanda what's your number four? My number four is The Souvenir

directed by Joanna Hogg I am apparently the only person with this movie on my top five which I was surprised My wife told me that I should not

be doing this podcast because I haven't seen The Souvenir I mean you guys are cowards a little bit but that's fine It did make the list

that Adam and I made in the longer list and we appreciate that. But here I am with it at number four, which I rewatched it last night in preparation for this podcast. And I'm like, well, number four is too low. This movie is just a gut punch and also so life-giving simultaneously. It is... So the basic story is that it's a deeply autobiographical story by Joanna Hogg about herself as a young woman. She's 19 or 20, and she is going to film school and trying to discover who she is as an artist

and is also in a relationship that, no spoiler, it's not the best relationship of her life. How about that? And, you know, that sounds like a kind of straightforward premise, but there is something in both the emotional honesty and also distance from it. It is, I was thinking a lot about how so many of this year's movies are about older men kind of looking back at their lives with a lot of regret and, you know, disappointment. And this is so interesting because I believe Joanne Hogg is almost 60 years old and she is also looking back at her younger self. But there is a real tenderness and a trying to understand and maybe even forgive some of the mistakes and just, you know, idiocy of being young,

which we all were. And I think, you know, it's extraordinary to see a female director doing that and extraordinary to see like a young woman's story being presented in this way. I do think also in terms of its exploration of what it means to be an artist, it doesn't just have to be for women. And I also, it looks so beautiful. She has such a specific visual painterly style. And the way that the actors move in her sets, it's just, it's so compelling to watch. I'm still blown away by this movie.

I'm a huge fan as well. And Adam, I know you're a huge fan as well. Chris, you need to get your ass to Amazon Prime, I guess, to watch this movie. I'm a huge fan as well. And Adam, I know you're a huge fan as well. Chris, you need to get your ass to Amazon Prime, I guess, to watch this film. How does one watch it right now? It is currently available on Amazon Prime.

I also, for the record, did not know that you had not seen this movie until this second. I know. And I take back everything I just said about Friendship. I heard it. I've heard a lot about it

in my house. And also, I just would say that there is, I believe, a Johanna Hogg collection on the Criterion Channel. Yeah, there is. One final, if i'd say one fast thing about souvenir the guy who plays the bad relationship the bad boyfriend tom burke he is slated i don't know if you guys know this to play orson wells in the upcoming david fincher uh thing manc which is the biography with the

screenwriter Citizen Kane. I mean, Tom Burke, if we're doing lists of performances of the year, he's unreal in The Souvenir. As like the worst, worst boyfriend ever. Narcissistic, addicted, manipulative, really good looking. And also powerful and, you know, you get it at the same time. We should also just mention that the main performance is by Honor Swinton Byrne daughter of

Tilda Swinton and that's her performance of the year for sure astonishing yeah she's terrific can I share one take on Mank

sure do you already have a Mank take yeah bring me Mank bring me Mank immediately bring me this film put this film inside me immediately so

pretend I'm God. Okay. And I'm like, you can have one. You can have Mank or you can have the Chinatown prequel. Oh, man. I'm going Mank. Okay. I want a film.

Okay. I don't want a series. I've seen a David Fincher series. I've seen two of them. What I want is a film from David Fincher. Justice for House of Cards season one. Bring me Mank. Yeah. That is a film from David Fincher. Justice for House of Cards season one. Bring me Manc. That's all I can say about that.

Number four, Adam and I both chose this film. My number four is Uncut Gems. Adam has got it at number three. Hmm. How to talk about my soul. So difficult to describe. All of my interests bundled into one movie and yet somehow more terrifying and more exciting and more viscerally pleasurable than I ever could have imagined.

I don't want to say too much about this movie because it's not yet in theaters, though I'm sure any consumer of Ringer content is well aware of our interest in it. brothers story of Howard Ratner, a Diamond District gambler and salesperson, I suppose, business owner. Proprietor. Proprietor, who gets himself into some trouble in New York City, circa 2012. And Kevin Garnett makes an appearance, and Lakeith Stanfield makes an appearance, and The Weeknd, and a young woman named Julia Fox, and Idina Menzel. Eric Boghossian. Eric Boghossian is doing some strong work.

Mike Francesa. Mike Francesa, my lord and savior. I just don't want to say too much about it other than to say that it is an electrifying movie that I look forward to seeing again. Adam, what do you want to say about Uncut Gems? The idea that the Safdies are perched on the verge of this kind of celebrity is just kind of amazing to me.

I mean, if you followed their work, they're genuinely independent filmmakers, really rough-hewn directors. You look at something like Heaven Knows What, which was a movie about a heroin addict in New York a few years ago, and you wouldn't think that these were guys who'd be getting anywhere near the Oscar conversation. And I think that what's really compelling is that they haven't changed. You know, I did an interview with them recently where I asked if they thought their work had gentrified and I thought Josh was going to strangle me through the telephone. But, you know, they've remained themselves. You know, the movies have this compulsive, urgent, hustling energy and they find a way to integrate and subsume like one of the biggest movie stars

in the world into that you know i wouldn't say it's like punch drunk love where in some ways anderson designed the movie around sandler i kind of think that in uncut gem sandler has to meet them halfway or three quarters of the way and he's got to keep up because the movie just works so fast but it's a terrific performance and yeah for people who have the intersection of interest between like, let's say like realistic verite American film and like NBA statistics, this is like the greatest movie ever made for the, for the intersection of those interests. Like there's literally nothing like it. Yeah. I think that's a great point you make about Sandler too, Adam, because if you look at what he's been doing to promote this film, you'll see how much he cares about it and how excited he is about it. Participating in magazine profiles, going to

award screenings, just generally being present when if he wanted to, he could just hole up in his million dollar mansion with his family and continue about his life making the movies he wants to make with his friends. But he is working hard to sell the movie. I'm personally interested to see if not only will it be an Oscar movie, but if this movie can make some money. I just really like the Safdies, and I like the idea of insurgent weird guys like them making increasingly bigger movies.

I tend to think that that creates great art long-term in the movie business. So I'm excited to talk more about Uncut Gems on this show. So Adam, we've talked about your number this show so Adam we've talked about your number three Chris we've talked about your number three I'm gonna hold the conversation on my number three and we're gonna hold the conversation on Amanda's number three and we're gonna go straight to number two for me and Adam which is also number one my order is getting thrown under the bus here but it's fine I'm sorry we've overlooked you why don't we let you vamp on your number one which is my number two and Adam's number two my number number one is Parasite, which is not surprising. It was also

on my 10 movies of the decade list. And I'm trying to do some internal logic in my own list making this season. I was absolutely blown away by this movie, both from an intellectual wow filmmaking and also the experience of just, I liked watching that and I would like to see it again. And it was just, this is an instant classic experience, which, you know, I don't think you have that often. And it does require kind of some larger forces of a movie coming at a certain time and being positioned in a certain way and about certain things. But, you know, as I said, I think this is kind of the late decade post-Obama era film, even and internationally, you know, because it is not an American film.

And I just think the script, the performances, the larger ideas, that it also that it has larger ideas, but is also not too highfalutin. It is what it is at the same time. And, you know, I think the way that it has already worked its way into the culture, that the Jessica song is a meme, it's popular, it's taken seriously by critics and by everyone who likes to, who wants to go and see it. And I think that's pretty rare. The thing I love about Parasite is that it feels contemporary morally. Like it feels like the characters and the way that they're interacting with the world feels very now. And I hadn't

really thought about that. Like when I saw it, you know, I was trying to think about like, why is this movie so meaningful to me? And a lot of it is just like, you're kind of just blown away by what Bong is doing. And you're just kind of mesmerized by like the tonal shifts and the way he handles everything. But then I was kind of trying to think about some of the characters and some of the things that happen in that. It really does feel like this sort of attrition

of kind of like the way in which we interact with society. There's an attrition in terms of like, they're not bad people. You know what I mean? Like nobody in this movie is fully a bad person. Even the people who are quote unquote the villains of the movie aren't, I don't think. Bong has gone out of his way to say he doesn't see it as kind of a heroes and villains, black and white kind of a movie. That in fact, sort of everyone is a bad actor. And you know, at the risk of spoiling anything for people, it's not even just a two family movie. It's

really a three family movie. And the consequences of the actions of the third family are really significant to the story. And it's been a tricky thing to talk about in general on this show because the more you say, the more you ruin the experience for someone else. And I don't really want to do that here. And we've underlined a lot of the themes

over the last couple of months about why it's resonating so much. But I think it's also just purely from a kind of filmmaking and genre perspective i don't know if it's necessarily as good as bong joon-ho can do but it is as accessible as he's gotten um and well i mean let's talk about how good he can do because you can't do better shot for shot than this guy right now, right? Just a born entertainer. I mean, he always has been. But I saw this at TIFF with a full audience,

and it's not just the plot or the character or the themes that's holding people. It's just the way it's made. He is incapable of composing something boring. He's incapable of moving the camera the wrong way. He's like a savant i think and the fact that he does that in a way that serves the deeper structural meanings that this movie has i mean one comparison shot and i were emailing about another movie this week and you know it's not to go off on this movie because i actually like it but compare how similarly conceptually this movie is in some ways to us the jordan Peele movie, which it's weirdly similar to

in terms of levels and families and class and division. And Us is so fussy and there's so many things getting in the way of what it's trying to do. And with Parasite, there's just no barrier. He just gets from point to point to point to point to point and you never feel ahead of him and he never kind of feels ahead of you. Pure construction. He's kind of a genius, I think.

I agree. It's interesting that you bring up Us too, because I think there are a lot of movies kind of on the outskirts of our list of our top fives and top 10 list that in most other years, even if they're imperfect films, and I think Us is imperfect, would have made their way onto the list. And it's kind of difficult to cut something like that out, which has, you know, Us has a lot of ingenuity and is also about something and has great performances and sounds great, has an incredible score.

It's funny, it's weird, and it just pales in comparison to Parasite. So that's one of the reasons why, even though maybe it is top-heavy, Chris, as you identified, but the top heaviness is heavier than usual. You know, there is a true weight to these like six or seven films that we're talking about here

that have been clustered over the last couple of months. Anything else to say about Parasite, guys, before we get to the last two? The only thing I would add is that it really just is rewatchable, which is not the only standard we use here at The Ringer,

but it is an important. I have watched it two times now and you're not bored for a second. And to Adam's point about him being a master of just there isn't a boring shot, there isn't a boring moment. It turns on a dime, but it is also layered and rewarding. I mean, the level of craft, which we talk about to the point that it sounds boring, is there, but also it's just immensely enjoyable. And I don't know how often you get like a true master working at the height of his powers that is also just like, wow, I went to the movies.

I agree. The other thing that I think recommends it is that it's great to recommend. It's a great movie to watch with someone for the first time and to get their reaction to it and then to talk about it. It's an all-time like see the movie first, then go get dinner movie, which is powerful. You know, like in our culture, I think that's a way to get more reaction to it and then to talk about it. It's an all-time, like, see the movie first, then go get dinner movie, which is powerful. You know, like, in our culture,

I think that's a way to get more people to see movies is to say, we're going to want to spend more time. Well, so many movies are, like, water cooler movies because they're like, did you see how Thanos

now has advanced this, like, massive 25-movie story? I did see. He did a great job. I am inevitable. Thanos did a hell of a job. He did a great job. Yeah.

When Thanos shows up at the end of Parasite, it was shocking. It was a wonderful moment. When he snaps. Snaps in there like, that's your house now. I hate both of you. Okay, let's go to my number three

and Chris's number two. And Adam's number one. And we'll clear the decks for Adam to speak first since we've all had a chance to talk about this movie on podcast. It's The Irishman, Martin Scorsese's latest film Adam you know you wrote beautifully I thought about this movie on the site um thanks maybe you can talk a little bit more about why it was so uh impactful for you and why it's your number one well I mean it's too long uh no it's not too long at all talk man no my god no uh it's it's it's not too long at all. Let Taquin talk, man! No. Oh my God. No, uh, it's, it's, it's not too long.

It's perfectly proportioned. I mean, I'm moved by the film very much around Scorsese himself. And we've all maybe kind of OD'd a bit on Martin Scorsese through no fault of his own, you know, he's not going and looking for attention when he did the Marvel stuff. And he's not dropping hints like he needs to be held up as a a paragon of american cinema he's not even like lobbying for an oscar because he got one already and that was a while ago for the for the departed but you have this guy late in his career making a movie about the end you know making a movie about aging and a movie about contemplation and regret and to some extent death and death very

much outside the way it's usually handled in the gangster genre like there's a lot of killing in this movie there's a lot of house painting i guess is the the real title i hear i heard you paint houses but um just a movie about time sneaking up on you and about the ways that you can kind of disappoint the people in your life under the idea, the misapprehension or the delusion that you're protecting them or looking after them. I find that that stuff, if someone else's name was on this movie, I mean, it wouldn't be, but if someone else's name was on this movie, we'd still give it its due and say it's very good. But as a late film for Scorsese, I just find it quite emotionally overwhelming to think about and to talk about. And I had the wonderful

experience, even though it's on Netflix, of seeing it here in Toronto, home of the NBA champion Raptors, at the Tiff Bell lightbox with an audience of mostly people under 40 sitting completely wrapped for three and a half hours, as if in rebuke to the idea that the movie's too long, that people don't have attention spans, that young people aren't interested in classical narrative, that Scorsese's boring and people care about Marvel. It was like a perfect night. I saw the movie alone.

My wife was home with our kid and I went and watched it myself. And it was, it felt saving for me in a way of an idea of film going that I still want to hold on to before I kind of get too old. So that's, that's hovering over it all for me in a way of an idea of film going that I still want to hold on to before I kind of get too old. So that's, that's hovering over it all for me. Chris, I think of you as sort of the, the Frank Sheeran of podcasting, you know, a lot of, a lot of tall tales at spoken at length to people barely listening. I always wear a really cool jewelry. Yeah. I, you and I have not, uh, not had a recorded conversation with the Irishman.

What do you want to say about this movie? It's interesting that we've so quickly gotten into a debate about how to watch it and whether or not it's too long

and whether or not it's actually as good as people have said about it. I mean, it doesn't really interest me that much, but it's interesting that that's happening

because I think that we're not learning from our mistakes. You know, like Wolf of Wall Street had the same debate about it. Why is it so long? What's this movie really about?

Silence had a lot of the same questions about why is this movie so long? And to me, they feel very much of a piece. They feel very much of like this late period of Scorsese. I found that it's almost like for as much as he is an influence, there's no one like him. He's like a very singular filmmaker.

And I don't think anyone else I've ever seen, I've never seen somebody who makes his movies the way he actually does and the way that they're edited. And especially the way that the first two thirds or half of this film's set up the last hour is so brilliant and makes the last hour so powerful as he like applies the handbrake to life itself

and tries to skid into the end. It's just a powerful experience to watch. And then it really is, it's just about death. And it's about one of those things that you just, I don't know that you can necessarily answer the questions that he's asking, but the way that he asks them are really quite moving. So, Amanda, I'm going to pitch a theory your way.

Okay. I think that the movie, obviously, I believe to be totally masterful, and I loved watching it. I've watched all of these movies now at least two times, often three times. And the themes resonate with me, and I love the performances and everything else, but the conversations around it that Chris is referring to and that Adam referred to as well, Marvel, the length, some of the choices that he makes throughout the movie,

I think is part of the package, and it's all purposeful. It's all by design, and it's all showmanship, and part of the reason why there's no one like Martin Scorsese is because of what Chris is saying, which is no one cuts their movies quite like him. Nobody kind of authors them in quite this way. But the promotion of the film and the way that it's done is also all by

design. The same way in many ways, even if it's not intentional, The Last Temptation of Christ is the same way. Taxi Driver and Raging Bull are the same way. The controversies that are born out of his movies that make him so iconoclastic is all part of the package. And you can reflect on those things while watching The Irishman and get even more out of it when you see it through the lens

of 50 years of creativity. You buying it? Well, you're not the first person this week even to float the, especially the Marvel aspect of it being intentional to me. I wouldn't say I wouldn't go so far as intentional. And I often play the room of like, you know, media Cassandra in these situations. And, you know, picking out here is what people are going to

complain about at any given time. So I think they had to know that some attention would come to pretty much every decision they make at this point. I mean, there are people paid far too much money in order to be like, well, people are going to complain that it's too long and you only have a woman doing X, Y, Z. So I think that they know, but to the extent that part of Scorsese's gift is just finding his way, not even to the center of pop culture and being able to identify and put his finger on things that people are going to respond to for better and worse than it is part of the package and i think that i don't know that anybody else if anybody else made the irishman you know as adam said it wouldn't exist but also it wouldn't be this fraught and in their crosshairs and that's because that it

is this movie is a much reflection on scorsese and his work. And you don't, you watch it with the context of Goodfellas and Departed and everything else that comes with it. So, yeah, I mostly agree with you. Do I think that it's calculated? No. It may be incidental, but I think eventizing a movie is something he's had a lot of practice at. Sure. And he's gotten very good at it over the years. And this is not a criticism.

It's a compliment. I think in a lot of ways, this is what you have to do to sell the thing that you created and that sounds ugly but it's not ugly you he wants as many people to see it as possible this is a movie that doesn't have uh i'm funny to you like a clown like it doesn't have like kind of signature moments though the signature moments are will hollow you the fuck out you know what i mean they're like they're just much quieter you, it's what it is is already a gif meme and a thing,

but it does not have that tenacity that a lot of the other sequences do in his other films. Any lingering thoughts on The Irishman? There's nothing as meme-worthy as Andrew Garfield

and Jesus talking back to him through the stone. That's my shit. Shall we go to the final film on our list? Yeah. So this is Amanda's third favorite film of the year. This is Chris's favorite movie, and this is my favorite movie.

And though it is not on Adam's list, I know he's a big time admirer of it. It's Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Amanda, why don't you start? I have talked about this movie at great length on this podcast. This, I love Tarantino as does everybody else. And I think to an extent, if you're our age-ish, Baumbach was a major influence on me as a film watcher. But of course, I grew up like watching Tarantino movies and kind of learning like, oh, this is what, quote, serious film is, which is not the case at all. But I mean, it is serious, but, you know,

in the sense of, oh, there's something more than a blockbuster. You know, you go see a Tarantino movie. And this movie is kind of the most in line with my interests and emotions of all of the Tarantino movies that he's made because it is a love letter to Hollywood. And it is an alternate history and a kind alternate history. It is wanting the best for people who maybe didn't get everything that they wanted in their life. I mean, that's putting it mildly in the case of certain characters. But anyway, and I,

as someone who moved to LA and watches movies, I just responded to the sweetness in it ultimately. And it's also a great hang, great buddy movie. Very, very watchable, despite the fact it's it's kind of getting off the hook at only being two and a half hours as opposed to three and a half hours.

Now it's like, oh, whatever. It's a walk in the park. But despite that, it, you know, it is lived in and companionable and sentimental. And I'm a schmuck at the end of the day. Adam, you came around hard on it. You said a second time you watched it.

What was it that clicked for you? Well, and man, I was saying about being of a certain age. I wrote this thing for you guys in the summer, about the summer of 94 and the pulp fiction for a scum divide and how pulp fiction really won that cultural war, right?

You know, there's so much made and so much made in Tarantino's image. And I've always been ambivalent about that because, I mean, he's obviously brilliant in his way and only he can do what he does the way he does it. A lot of people have tried to copy him and whether that's his fault or not, I think that there's a certain kind of cruelty and passivity towards violence and hipness that he unleashed on the culture that we're still wrestling with. You know, I think that I've always had mixed feelings about him while thinking that he's

singular. And in this movie, I felt that way towards the end. I mean, at this point, it's not a spoiler to just say that it gets violent towards the end. And I just found myself wondering, again, you know, is there any way that this guy can make a movie without indulging this violent, punitive side of him? Because it's not spontaneous anymore. It feels really kind of tired.

And the targets of that violence, which we don't have to relitigate, but they're disturbing to me. But I watched it again when I was flying home from London a couple of weeks ago. And I had this incredibly serene feeling while watching it where it's more than the sum of its parts because what's beautiful in it is so beautiful. And beauty isn't something I've really gotten from Tarantino much before. That passage of the neon lights coming on at the beginning of, I guess, the third act, it's like only about a minute long. You guys know the part I'm talking about, I'm sure, where all the different signs are coming on and you're just being invited into this world in the past in los angeles it's like a secret that he's sharing and it feels so generous i've never gotten that vibe from a movie from him before

and i don't think that even any of the other movies we've discussed that i like more because i'm the only one who doesn't have this on my top five list. I don't know if any of these movies, even The Irishman, are going to be around in 10 or 15 years as something that people talk about the way they're going to talk about Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. It is built to last, flaws and all, for me. And I just have to give it up to it, despite my doubts about the guy and his work. That's a big reason why it tops my list is because it feels like this movie and probably Parasite together feel like the two movies

that are going to have a decades long lifespan in terms of attention and interest and examination. And it'll be such a major mile marker in so many major careers. So when you think about with Tarantino, with Pitt and DiCaprio, we're going to talk about this movie every time we talk about the three of those guys.

Chris, why is it your number one? Well, I think it pairs really well with Irishman because it's about participation in history, you know, and it's about a filmmaker grappling with that, but it's also about characters and the way in which they merge themselves with history, which is like one of my favorite themes and topics in literature or television or film. It's about whether or not it's righting wrongs or not, like I think is up for debate. But I think it's about like identifying something that seems commonplace or disposable, like being in television westerns or being a stuntman or just being kind of like an also-ran in the history of Hollywood and actually affixing importance to that, that I really,

really appreciate it. In the same way way you could say Frank Sheeran might be a liar and might be just kind of a bullshit artist who was in and around the Philly mob and did a lot of dirty work but wasn't necessarily the person he made himself out to be. The depiction of this character becoming part of history is really fascinating.

Yeah. I find it increasingly difficult to talk about the more times I watch it I think it does have it's a filmmaker coming home Tarantino hadn't really made a movie set in Los Angeles since Jackie Brown and he understands LA better than almost any director because he spent his almost his entire life here and it does feel like he needed to get to the age that he's at to depict the Los Angeles that he was in love with in 1969. And even if it is not a literally true story, it feels like it is his truth. It's his vision of not just what he wants, but what he saw,

what he felt, the kinds of people he looked up to, why things didn't work out for those people in many cases. And it is sentimental and sincere in a way that I think is really uncommon for him. And even that burst of violence that you're talking about, Adam, that comes at the end of the movie, it doesn't feel as transgressive to me as a lot of the violence in a lot of his other films. And it doesn't even feel like he is, you know, I don't subscribe particularly to the, he's trying to mow down the hippie generation theory of this movie. And I kind of had a hard time

with a lot of the takery surrounding the movie. It's an interesting biological specimen of movie criticism analysis and internet theorizing in many ways. But I choose to take it

on its face in a very specific way, as I do pretty much all of his movies. And some of his movies work a lot better to me than others. This one, for whatever reason, I think it feels like it can be recycled and live on and on for me.

So that's my number one. Those are our lists. I'd like to give you guys a chance to drop one honorable mention, as I often do in these cases. Who would like to raise their hand first to drop an honorable mention? Can I drop a dishonorable mention? Oh my goodness, certainly. An honorably dishonorable mention. There's no way that I

would put Brian De Palma's Domino on a list of the year's best films because there's just too much that feels kind of wrong and compromised with it. But when we're talking about Scorsese, it's interesting to see De Palma as the flip side to that as a director of the exact same age generation who has not endured to the point where he can get a $200 million Netflix movie. He can barely get foreign financing for something that he supposedly didn't want his name on. And yet, much like Scorsese, only he could have made Domino.

And there's scenes and sequences and camera movements and ideas in it that only De Palma could make. And if you are like me, and you consider De Palma to be like equivalent to Scorsese in terms of being a great American filmmaker, just one who either didn't have the same instincts for Hollywood, which is not calling Scorsese compromised or crowd-pleasing, just that it's that showmanship you talk about with Scorsese, people really appreciate it. I think De Palma's showmanship sometimes makes people very uncomfortable. It's just the way he's wired. Like, Domino is a film that no one saw it this year. Got very little serious critical writing on it.

In some ways, I take that as a badge of honor for diploma that he's so alienated from a from a mainstream that doesn't like anything difficult or challenging i don't know if you guys saw it it's not necessarily a very good movie but it's a lot of movie and there's scenes in it no one else could have made them so i find it to be a pretty singular gesture uh as a movie and i hope people will seek it out if they can even find it at this point. I feel the same way about Dark Phoenix. It's a lot of movie. I've seen Domino.

I mean this with all due respect to Adam. I think it's quite bad. But the way that you wrote about it had me thinking about it in new ways, which I think is kind of the power of great film writing is it can let you recontextualize and understand things in a different light. I love De Palma. We talked a lot about Boundback. He co-directed a documentary about De Palma that is just one of my favorite film things of the decade. And I think really understands him and also understands his dyspeptic nature, which is part of the reason that I think he does not quite have that reputation

that Adam is talking about with Scorsese. Chris, did you come up with an honorable mention for yourself? Yeah, I'll go two small ones. Is that okay?

Of course. One is Plus One, which is just a lovely romantic comedy that came out in the summer. And the other is Sword of Trust, which is like a very

small indie film by Lynn Shelton starring Marc Maron, which is just like, yeah, I wonder whether or not movies like that will just become TV, you know, in the years to come, but it was a great movie. Amanda, what about you? So I'm going to do a few. I will say like I did it as part of my process. I'm sure people want to hear a lot about my list making process. Share all the spreadsheets. Well, I did a 10 and I would say like in the back half of my top 10, Knives Out and Little Women and The Irishman are all on them.

So, you know, go see Knives Out. Go see Little Women when it comes out. But for my honorable mention, I'm just going to have fun with it. Let's talk about Triple Frontier. Yeah. Fuck yes. Yes. Yes.

Triple Frontier is a little scene in Netflixflix movie that i saw with chris ryan and sean fantasy and had a great time yes and it's hot dads invests let's go that's all i don't that's release the chandor cut is hot dads invest Invest the film's synopsis on Netflix? It is. Definitely. It's like major thesis. Remember when it was like, what's your triple frontier nickname?

It was like a real thing that we did for like three days. We only did it. Like only us. No one else saw Triple Frontier, but it's on Netflix. Oscar Isaac in a helicopter listening to Metallica is one of the five best things that I saw this year. Ben Affleck just being like, we had a hard out.

Or maybe that's Charlie Hunnam. I've never missed a hard out. I've never missed a hard out. Yeah. Oh, my God. Charlie Hunnam being like, I choked someone out at Publix because they wouldn't move my shopping cart. I relate, my friend. Yes, I've been writing about the best movie performances for the site.

And I certainly put Ben Affleck's performance on this list because it is a true evocation of a man rung out. And whether he is channeling autobiography or not is hard to say. But, boy, he looks like shit and he feels like hell. He looks like a water raft made in the image of Ben Affleck.

You know that in our Triple Frontier crew, you're the Affleck. Thank you. Red fly. I appreciate that. I don't want to intrude. I just want to say I did see it. Okay. All right. And that's all. That's all I got.

Thank you. That's all I got. Thank you, Adam Neiman, for your support. We respect your sharing. I saw it. My honorable mention is Midsommar, a movie I've talked about many, many times on this podcast that also made me feel like shit. And I think that that is powerful. And I am about the power of film.

I am about film's power to make me feel things. And I rewatched it again last night. And it's staggering to me how nauseating the film is and how slow and and insistent upon its own magic it is it's just a disgusting and beautiful story about uh two people that should not be together which i really appreciate it's also about um what happens if you are sealed inside of a bear which is not good let me tell you you do not want to be sealed inside of a bear. It's not good. Let me tell you, you do not want to be sealed inside of a bear.

Well, that... I don't want to spoil Midsommar, but that's only part of the problem. You know what I mean? You can get out of a bear costume. You want to get out of a bear costume? I can get you out of a bear costume. What is the other part of the story?

Being lit on fire. That sucks. And being on a paralytic agent that like stops you from moving the only thing missing from midsommar is that's like two thirds of a good night and then it goes wrong you know what i mean guys thank you so much for uh sharing all these vulnerable feelings about the movies of 2019 may we all die in a bare skin fire going forward. Thank you for listening to The Big Picture, as always. Hello?

Is that Frank? Yes. Hiya, Frank. This is Jimmy Hoffa. Yeah, yeah. Glad to meet you. Well, glad to meet you, too. Even if it's over the phone. I heard you paint houses. Yes, yes, sir, I do. I do.

And I, uh, I also do my own carpentry. Ah, I'm glad to hear that. That shirt better not give her nightmares. In trouble for winning my daughter a T-shirt. Ha-ha, that's a new one. I thought we should talk. Okay. I don't know how to start.

Privacy is locking the bathroom door when you want to take a pee. Secrecy, on the other hand, is locking the door because what you are doing in a bathroom isn't what people usually do. Hey, Randy. Well, so you're still with Rick, huh? Still here. In there? Yeah, just knock.