2024 End-of-Year Special

[00:00:19] Speaker A: Well, hello, everyone. Welcome to Odd Trilogies with Logan and Andy. I'm Logan Soas. [00:00:23] Speaker B: And I'm Andy Carr. [00:00:25] Speaker A: And on our trilogies, we usually take a trio of films and discuss the good, the bad, and the weird surrounding them. But today it's our, I believe, our fifth year end special. [00:00:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:00:36] Speaker A: Fucking crazy that we're at this point wild. Wild but excited. [00:00:40] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:00:40] Speaker A: Because this was a very, very fun year for movies. A very fascinating year in a lot of ways. [00:00:46] Speaker B: Right? Fascinating year for movies and a big year for us personally too. [00:00:50] Speaker A: Absolutely. I guess we can go right into that in terms of talking about the website. [00:00:54] Speaker B: Oh, sure. Yeah. Yeah. We can recap the year a little bit. Yeah, yeah. We launched our website this spring, which was kind of the big one. And, well, I mean, starting at the beginning of the year, we put ourselves on a more kind of organized, planned out schedule, which was new for us. Rather than kind of winging it from one episode to the next, we sat down, started 2024 and said, here's what we're doing for the year. [00:01:22] Speaker A: And one of our biggest goals for the year was to have more guests, especially people who've been wanting to be on the show for a while. And I think it's not like a 50, 50, just you and me episodes and guest episodes, but it's pretty close in terms of the amount of guests we had this year. [00:01:38] Speaker B: We had several. [00:01:41] Speaker A: All the way from, like beautiful Kurosawa films to fucking Venom. [00:01:45] Speaker B: Venom to Chris Pratt to God's Not Dead. [00:01:49] Speaker A: Yeah, that's definitely one of the highlights of the year. Again, we talked about it, I think, think on one of the episodes or maybe on the episode. But definitely one of my highlights of the year was watching our dear friend Austin Webster get into a Lego rant while you were sinking into his couch slowly. [00:02:06] Speaker B: One of your favorite images from the year. [00:02:08] Speaker A: I just remember how your look, you were only like maybe five feet away from me maybe. Yeah, maybe six or seven feet away from me. But it felt like you were miles away with how you were looking at me. [00:02:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:02:20] Speaker A: But, yeah, I mean, this year has been monumentous for us and we're so happy to see, you know, how we. How we've become this year and how much we've kind of our output has been. Yeah, both articles as well as, like also quickie reviews, something we really haven't done much of kind of trying out. [00:02:38] Speaker B: New formats and stuff. And I mean, we had your. Your idea for a series with Cinema Comorebi, which I've really, I've Enjoyed. [00:02:48] Speaker A: Been a lot of fun. [00:02:49] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a fun, fun new way to. And talk about films. Just kind of looking at one moment, kind of a one perfect scene. [00:02:56] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:02:56] Speaker B: Thing. And I'm excited to do more of that. [00:02:59] Speaker A: Same here. I'm excited to also, like, talk to more of our buddies if they want to be guest writers on that. [00:03:05] Speaker B: Right. Absolutely. [00:03:06] Speaker A: Add to it because. Yeah. Because I guess one of our goals. At least one of my goals is trying to get at least one of those a month, if we can. [00:03:14] Speaker B: Yeah. I think we had a. We originally kind of talked about. Yeah. About doing one kind of rigidly every month, and that hasn't really panned out in the last couple months of the year because it's always crazy for us. But, yeah. I think more importantly, just whenever one of us watches something that really speaks to us and we have a wow moment, you know, finding a way to express that in writing. [00:03:36] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:03:37] Speaker B: That gives us a good opportunity for that. [00:03:39] Speaker A: But while we've changed a lot this year and we've had more of an organization and we've had more episodes out than in a very long time, what will never end is our love for just making top tens of the year and spending hours upon hours talking about our top tens. Because one of the reasons why I think our friendship and why this podcast exists so much is because what we tend to gravitate towards as people are sometimes very similar, but also vastly different. [00:04:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:04:09] Speaker A: And that makes it very interesting, especially in a conversation. [00:04:12] Speaker B: Yeah. Well. And, you know, you and I, I think we generally have very similar tastes on things. [00:04:19] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:04:20] Speaker B: The way. The way any given movie resonates with us often varies wildly. You know, I mean, a lot of times, even if we feel the same about a movie in a binary sense, good or bad, one of us likes it way more than the other one. [00:04:34] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:04:35] Speaker B: Or, you know, one of us hates it way more than the other one. [00:04:38] Speaker A: That's some great foreshadowing because I know for a fact one of my top 10 is. I don't even think in your top 20. [00:04:44] Speaker B: Okay. [00:04:45] Speaker A: So I. If it is great. But I remember there's a specific film that really gravitated, like, I gravitated towards that. I remember seeing your review being like, yeah, no, that tracks. [00:04:57] Speaker B: I can think of a few like that from this year, so. Well, and I mean, my number one is Venom the Last Dance, so we know that's not gonna show up on yours. [00:05:06] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. I'm gonna say something about that movie in this episode, and I'm Gonna. Evan's gonna be so mad. But yeah. So this is our year end special for 2024 and we're gonna discuss our favorite films of the year. Just kind of go back and forth in terms of our top tens. We'll also talk about, you know, maybe some honorable mentions, but definitely dishonorable mentions as we talk about some of our least favorite of the year. But to kick it off, I'm gonna start with my number 10. [00:05:33] Speaker B: Okay. [00:05:34] Speaker A: A number 10 that I know for a fact is probably gonna get pushed out in the next month or two just because of the awards season. Films that, you know, couldn't get to see beforehand. Whether it's because of like, yeah, very strict you know, review copies or the fact that like there's no wide release for a lot of these. [00:05:51] Speaker B: Yeah, there's always some stragglers in awards season that don't wide widely release until like January or February. So. Yeah. [00:05:59] Speaker A: But my number 10 film is one that I genuinely, when I saw it, it I thought was really, really good. And I think over time has like, you know, seen a very recent. So there could be some recency bias to it. But I definitely have gravitated more as time has gone on. In my number 10 is of course Luca Guadagnino's Queer. [00:06:20] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [00:06:20] Speaker A: Starring Daniel Craig. A film that I think I will probably admire more. This could just be more of like a 9 out of 10 film for me with further rewatches. As of right now, it's technically by only like 4 out of 5 in my list. [00:06:35] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. [00:06:37] Speaker A: But I think this film is just very fascinating. It's very moody, it's gorgeous to look at. Everything about it screams passion project from Guadalupe. Yeah, he is just absolutely on, you know, full all cylinders ago on this beautiful film about just like, you know, just wanting to be loved and just what does that look like? And just trying to figure out who you are at a time where you yourself don't know where to go next and you know, self reflection, self preservation. It is very much like of the year where this man has two films. No surprise that one of those films is just absolutely just like off the walls, just completely. You'll bisexual to the point that it is just intoxicating. [00:07:30] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:30] Speaker A: And Challengers, the other film that he did this year with Justin Kurtzky Ritzkus as andy's most famous YouTube video Potion. [00:07:41] Speaker B: Silver man, my favorite video of all time. [00:07:43] Speaker A: Also wrote this film because Queer was basically written in adaptation wise was written during the production of challenges and then they shot it Afterwards. [00:07:56] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:07:56] Speaker A: And there's just a beauty to the film that I think is very melancholic and I think a lot of it very much has to do with Daniel Craig. We. Of all the things we usually don't talk about our top tens throughout the year, but we do tend to talk about what do you think? Who do you think is going to get like a best actor or not or who you think they're gonna really push for best actress and whatnot. And to be honest, like, it's been difficult for me this year to think about, like, what the five people they would pick for those categories for the Oscars, which is gonna be very fascinating. [00:08:27] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:08:28] Speaker A: But I do think that if I saw Craig as a best actor nomination, I would be like, very happy because I think it's very much like one of his best performances. [00:08:36] Speaker B: Sure, sure. [00:08:38] Speaker A: It is just heart wrenching and also very human. And he's just like, I will never take tequila shots the same way again. Watching that man just flamboyantly throw limes across tables after tequila. [00:08:51] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:08:52] Speaker A: It's a great film. It's not my favorite, of course, but I think it's like, you know, this is a film that I could definitely see growing on me with several rewatches. [00:09:01] Speaker B: Yeah, well. And that one is an interesting one for me. I'm glad to see it ranked among these for you. But it's an interesting one for me because I did watch half of it. [00:09:12] Speaker A: Yes, I remember. [00:09:13] Speaker B: And it was amidst right at the tail end for me of the awards season crush because A24 sent us a. In the IFJ. They sent us a slew of their kind of top, you know, most, I don't know, highly anticipated films of the year as screeners, like 24 hours before our deadline, like, after which we couldn't nominate anything. And so they sent us like four or five movies that could only be watched in 24 hours. And so I prioritized another film on our. On my list that I'll talk about later. And then I tried to watch Queer and I got. It was late at night, I got about an hour or so into it, was enjoying it, was on the vibe of it, but wasn't, you know, I'm not. I can't parse enough from a, you know, just the first hour of a movie to give it a real assessment. But I ended up not being able to finish it and then the time, the time limit passed. So I'll definitely try and revisit it at some point, but I was in the Hour I was watching. I was just really taken with the mood and the atmosphere of it. You were talking about Guadagnino being on all cylinders. I felt like this was maybe the most atmospheric film I've seen from him. Just really that kind of melancholy, neon, mid century look. [00:10:38] Speaker A: It is such a flip of the coin compared to. Again, Challengers has the same writer, the same director, as well as Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross as composers. [00:10:48] Speaker B: I think the same cinematographer, probably. [00:10:51] Speaker A: And it is vastly different in every way. And yet you still see that love and care that is in Challengers, but in a less like, high octane. [00:11:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:02] Speaker A: Almost coked fueled vibe of the original. [00:11:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:06] Speaker A: And it's also fascinating because I bought the. The book that the film is based off of, I believe by William S. Burroughs. Never haven't gotten to it yet because again, like Andy said, this season is like very busy for both of us, let alone trying to catch up on movies and write about movies and do stuff like that. [00:11:22] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:11:23] Speaker A: But apparently the. The original book is not only kind of semi autobiographical in a way, but also is technically unfinished. [00:11:30] Speaker B: Okay. [00:11:31] Speaker A: And the way that Guanillo gets around that in the film is actually, I think probably the part that if I rewatch it after reading the book, I will just probably fall in love with because it's very much an artistic liberty on how queer the film ends compared to apparently how the book does. [00:11:47] Speaker B: Sure. [00:11:48] Speaker A: And in it's very fascinating because we've had two directors this year who have basically been like, I've been wanting to make this insert film here for decades. And this was apparently Lucas, like, I've been wanting to make this film since I was 18. [00:12:01] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:01] Speaker A: He's in his 50s now. [00:12:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:03] Speaker A: And so it's like watching that being like, even though it's not my favorite Guanino film, I do think it's like you just feel the same amount of passion, if not just even more so. Just him with each little moment in that movie. [00:12:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:12:16] Speaker A: So, yeah, Queer's My number 10. What is yours, Andy? [00:12:20] Speaker B: My number 10 is the garden. Well, actually, this one was. Was kind of a struggle for me because there were two movies that I was kind of tossing between. And I'll say the one that I did not end up putting in first as an honorable mention, there's a movie, a very kind of small movie starring Marianne Jean Baptiste, who. I know her as the lead from in Fabric. [00:12:50] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. [00:12:51] Speaker B: And it's just a little movie about like the angriest woman you've ever seen. And Marianne Jean Baptiste plays her, and it's an incredible performance. I mean, I don't know that I've seen anybody so, like, just head to toe, boiling up with rage at every single thing. She's just a grumpy ass woman and it's about her life. And not a whole lot happens in the movie, but it's just like this kind of little investigation into, you know, humanity and the ways we bottle up our emotions into. Into very nasty things. But anyway, that ended up not quite making it, even though Jean Baptiste gave probably one of my favorite performances of the year. And I ended up switching it out for a movie that I wasn't expecting to get that much out of and is not necessarily, like, super up my alley genre wise. I gave my number 10 spot to in a Violent Nature. [00:13:55] Speaker A: Oh. [00:13:56] Speaker B: Which is a kind of inverted perspective slasher film, which you saw. [00:14:02] Speaker A: I did, I did. I really liked it. But you definitely liked it more than I did, which, again, like you said, is not usually the case, which is kind of surprising. [00:14:11] Speaker B: Over the last several years, I have become a way bigger horror head than I ever was. But, you know, something that I've. That has kind of stayed on the outskirts of my interest in horror is slashers specifically. There's a lot of iconic classic slashers that I have watched and appreciate and understand why they were so big, but don't really work for me. [00:14:34] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. [00:14:35] Speaker B: And so the kind of traditional tropey slasher has never really been my thing, but I watched this movie which is a Basically Friday the 13th from the perspective of the killer. It's a lot of walking through woods and tracking shots of walking around. So it's not gonna play well for everyone. But I just loved. It was kind of a mood piece for me. I was just entranced by the sort of constant slow movement of the film. I mean, you spend literally like 80% of the movie just following the killer wandering through the woods as he finds his next victims. Then, of course, the kills come, and they're great kills. They're awesome. [00:15:22] Speaker A: They're so insane. [00:15:24] Speaker B: They're bonkers. And, like, plot wise, not doing anything particularly special. It's really just the perspective shift did a lot for me. And so Chris Nash, the director, is somebody who I'm gonna be watching because this was his first feature film. [00:15:40] Speaker A: Yeah. Because he did, I believe, ABC's a death to Like. I think he did a short. He was a part of that series, in a way. [00:15:47] Speaker B: Yeah. So, yeah, I like the movie where the main character kills a bunch of people. [00:15:53] Speaker A: I mean, Again, yeah, it is. That was a film that I really did enjoy and I have my own issues with it, but I do think it was like really shocking to see. Not only like people rave about, you know, such a slow. Because it's a slow burn of a movie because of course the character is not running. Is exactly classic Jason esque in terms. [00:16:14] Speaker B: Of just like walking slowly everywhere. [00:16:16] Speaker A: But like the approach as well as just the, you know, the people around it talking about it as well as. Honestly, I think one of the reasons why I did see it in theaters and I wanted to see before it got out was because of your review. Because I knew your opinion on slashers and when I saw you talk about it, I was like, well, holy shit, I gotta see what this is about. Because it's like, you know, a mix of all these different. Cuz like there are people saying it's like the best horror film of the year. [00:16:41] Speaker B: Sure. [00:16:42] Speaker A: And I gotta say, for 2024, we've got some fine fucking horror. [00:16:45] Speaker B: Yeah. I have more horror on my list than I would have expected. [00:16:50] Speaker A: Okay, good. Because I mean me as well, even the films that I wasn't expecting to be on a top 10, like looking back over the year of just horror being like, damn, this was really fun. Yeah, this was really good. This was a surprise. Like genuinely didn't expect to enjoy something like Terrifier 3 as much as I did. [00:17:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:17:09] Speaker A: As well as like Smile 2. [00:17:10] Speaker B: Oh yeah. [00:17:11] Speaker A: Situations like that, they are neither one of those are in my top 10. But like, in terms of just like horror, that stands out this year. I 100% understand why this is on your top 10. Because this is very much taking a very simple idea and really executing it very, very well. [00:17:26] Speaker B: Yeah. And I just, I also love flipping a genre on its head without being like, you know, snooty about, you know, turning your nose up at the genre kind of thing. Because this is not, you know, it's not really trying to be a snooty art piece or anything. [00:17:39] Speaker A: No. [00:17:40] Speaker B: Yeah, just. What if we change perspective? And I really liked the. What it did with that. [00:17:45] Speaker A: Yeah. Nice, nice. My number nine is a film probably one of the last films we saw in theaters before the season got really busy for both of us. And that is. Look back. [00:17:58] Speaker B: Oh, nice. [00:17:58] Speaker A: The animated film that currently, if you have Amazon Prime, I believe it is streaming on prime right now. It is based off of the short kind of. I don't know if there's a term for in the manga, like space, like a novella. It's a Novella. Like the manga version of a novella. It was a creation from Tatsuki Fujimoto, which a lot of people who watch anime or remark might know as is. [00:18:22] Speaker B: That what a light novel is called. [00:18:24] Speaker A: It might be a light. [00:18:25] Speaker B: It's a really short story. [00:18:26] Speaker A: Well, there's also. Yeah, that could be a light novel might be considered that. But it's created by the guy that did Chainsaw Man. [00:18:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:18:31] Speaker A: And in between the first and second arc of Chainsaw man in the manga, he decided to make, I believe, three short stories. One of them is Look Back, which is basically taking a real life tragedy that happened in Japan as well as taking his own personal kind of feelings about, you know, creation, the creativity and art and the drive that leads us to go down a path to a job that may not be as glamorous as you once thought it was. [00:19:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:02] Speaker A: And it's a beautiful, the, the, the original manga, because I think it might just be called that. But the manga is beautiful. It's. You can read it in 30 minutes. It is just impactful. It's just beautiful. And when I heard that they're making an adaptation, I was like, holy shit. No wonder they're making an adaptation. Chainsaw man blew up when it was got its anime adaptation. So of course they're gonna probably touch anything Fujimoto is touching. [00:19:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:19:26] Speaker A: And try to make it into something. And what's great about Look Back is while that maybe could have been the foundation as to why this exists, that is not the reason why it's as good as it is. Like, it's as good as it is because it has such a clear artistic vision of bringing this manga to the screen. But use it in a way that is talking more about like the beauty of animation rather than the beauty of like, you know, drawing manga. [00:19:52] Speaker B: Right. [00:19:52] Speaker A: It's still there because again, the story is about a young girl who's considered like a prodigy in her school because she makes comedy manga that people really like. And then of course her teacher's like, hey, why don't you be nice and let this other girl try it? She does. This other girl makes this atmosphere, the atmospheric gorgeous, like little melancholy pieces that just makes her blood boil. Because it's much better artistically in her mind than anything she does. [00:20:19] Speaker B: They develop kind of a rivalry. A one sided rivalry. [00:20:22] Speaker A: Yes. And it's very interesting to watch that rivalry grow into basically a friendship and like kind of a camaraderie just around the beauty of drawing and creativity. And it does a great job of talking about, you know, the fraud fallacy as well as. Just like dealing with grief as well as how do you. How do you move on with your life when something happens? Or how do you move on in your life when you are like one of the only people who want to do a job that most people say is like, you know, why would you do that? No one with who's a real adult or responsible wouldn't do that or why would you do that? It's gonna. You're gonna kill yourself over this. Like, it's so much work. And it's a story that very much is not trying to find answers that are universal but are more so trying to almost give the answers that Fujimoto as well as the writer director of the adaptation have for why they do what they do. [00:21:13] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [00:21:14] Speaker A: And that leads to a film that is not only gorgeous, is beautifully acted by the two main actresses that are phenomenal in the film. [00:21:21] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:21] Speaker A: And also this is honestly made this one of the best movies of the year for me, just because of this. It is less than an hour. [00:21:29] Speaker B: Yes. [00:21:30] Speaker A: It is impactful, it is emotional. It is gorgeous to look at. And you can watch it in 58 minutes. [00:21:36] Speaker B: Right. [00:21:36] Speaker A: That is insane. Again with the not saying that long films aren't phenomenal. There's a lot of long films and I think both of our lists. But it's just like seeing a film that is so confident in itself and is like, oh, by the way, it's 60 minutes and it's done. [00:21:50] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:21:51] Speaker A: Is like, just very nice. [00:21:53] Speaker B: Yeah. There's. There's something to be said for the succinct conveyance of powerful emotion and expression. You know, being able to do that in such a small package. You know, in a lot of ways, this movie is kind of a less is more situation. You know, we. There's. There's not a lot of, like, fat on. And there's no fat on it. [00:22:14] Speaker A: No, not at all. It's basically just the manga. It like, it doesn't really. Yeah, there's a little bit of things added here and there, but it's clearly you have to add that because you're an animation. [00:22:24] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:22:24] Speaker A: It'd be fun to do it like that. Try that. [00:22:26] Speaker B: Well, I mean, even the animation style, which is incredibly scratchy. Scratchy and kind of hand drawn. I mean, obviously it was hand drawn, but like, it looks hand drawn in a way that a lot of anime doesn't. You know, just not a. It's not super showy with its animation, but it is incredibly detailed and expressive. And so in that way, I think It's a great less is more example of, you know, we don't have to show off that this is the most, like, finely, you know, glossy piece of animation you're gonna see this year. But you can see the care in every frame. [00:23:05] Speaker A: Oh, yeah. And even the two. There are, like, I would consider two specific moments that are, like, not really in the manga, but are clearly there because, you know, they can do it in animation. It is there there not solely because of that. They're there because not only that can they do that, but it just adds to the emotional resonance of how they're feeling at that moment. Yeah. Which just shows, again, animation with that kind of purpose just. It just works. It just works usually nine times out of ten with that kind of purpose as well as the dedication. Like, it's just great. It's. It's like. It nearly got me to tears when we watched it in the theaters. And literally, as. As we. As we left the theater and I went home, I read it. I read it again because it just, like, it is such a phenomenal story about, you know. You know, at the core of it, for me, it just feels like it's a story about, you know, you. Despite everything you're going through in your life, whether it's things you can control, things you can control, you know, everything around you in life is just passing you by. Why do you still do the things that you do? [00:24:10] Speaker B: Right. [00:24:10] Speaker A: And I think the film does a phenomenal job of just showing, you know, a beautiful example of why. [00:24:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:18] Speaker A: And it's. It's really one of those things where it's like, I don't think it's gonna win, like, best Animated feature at the Oscars, but if this film got nomin, because it technically can be because it is a feature. Yeah, I would lose my shit. [00:24:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:24:30] Speaker A: I'd be very happy if it did. But there is another film that came out this year that I think will get the nomination, but I'll get to that in my next one. But I want to hear your number nine, Andy. What's your number nine in the year? [00:24:41] Speaker B: Well, your number nine pick was a pretty perfect partner to mine because not only is it animated, but I would say it's another example of animation that makes great use of a less is more kind of principle. My number nine is a French animated film called Mars Express. [00:25:02] Speaker A: Damn. Okay. This was one of the films I wanted to see right before we did this, but I had to cut. [00:25:08] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:25:09] Speaker A: Like, last. But I'm still gonna watch it for them. Damn. Okay. [00:25:12] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a. It's a great little. Basically a kind of a sci fi transhumanism little crime fable. Very in the vein in terms of subject matter, in the vein of like Blade Runner, but tonally and visually very different. And basically it's about two partners, like detective partners. One who is human and one who is. Who is a human consciousness from a dead person that has been transplanted into a robot body. [00:25:52] Speaker A: I'm down. [00:25:53] Speaker B: I'm already down. [00:25:54] Speaker A: Okay. [00:25:54] Speaker B: The partner has kind of gotten this second life and they're working together on a case. And yeah, it's. You know, every time I think that there. That the sci fi genre has kind of had all it has to say about, you know, androids and what it means to be human and who really is alive and who has a soul kind of thing, I come across a movie like Mars Express that just maybe doesn't like, you know, completely break ground on the concepts it's dealing with, but comes. Comes at it from a new angle and expresses things in ways that I haven't seen before. And this is just a great example of that kind of how it uses its subtle attention to detail in the animation to express the character's humanity and kind of make you question like, okay, which of these people I'm watching is, you know, really the most human in the ways that we think about humanity. [00:26:58] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:26:59] Speaker B: The ways we associate with it. And yeah, it's just got a unique and gorgeous animation style that like, look back is kind of minimalist in a way. It's not super showy over the top or crazy detailed. But the way this movie handles movement, especially subtle movements and expressions on characters, faces, is just stunning. [00:27:26] Speaker A: Is it rotoscope? [00:27:27] Speaker B: No, I think it's just a. I mean, it's digital, but hand drawn, like digital hand drawn animation. And it's kind of a hybrid of 2D and 3D as well. But it does so in a way that's not distracting. And yeah, I just loved it. [00:27:45] Speaker A: Well, nice. Yeah, that was a film because I think it technically, its first reveal, I think was last year in the festival circuit towards the end. But it didn't start to get a main release until like, I think February, March this year. This was kind of a sneaky surprise throughout the year because I remember seeing early trailers when it was finally getting an American release. [00:28:05] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:06] Speaker A: And then I think it just came and went. [00:28:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:09] Speaker A: And then I think once it got into streaming, I think I saw you and a bunch of other you just like film friends, just like talk about the film. [00:28:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:28:17] Speaker A: And it's like, yeah, it's. It's astounding how, you know, And I think this might be just the. The American. The Americans in US just like, we think they're like, oh, these ideas about androids and just what it means to be human. Like you said, everyone feels like this the same way or like there's nothing more to be said. And then you just hop across the pond and you see another country's interpretation of those same ideas and being like, oh, that's just different enough. Yeah, I like that. Okay. [00:28:46] Speaker B: Right, right. [00:28:46] Speaker A: Yeah, so. Okay, good. No, I was actually gonna watch that sometime soon because I was like, I wonder if it's gonna be somewhere on his list. But damn, I'm. Yeah, Nice. Good. [00:28:55] Speaker B: Well. And reppin Home State, the Indiana Film Journal named it both Best Animated picture of the Year and Best Foreign Language film of the year. [00:29:05] Speaker A: Okay. Even better. I knew it got Best Animated Feature IFJ awards. I did not know it got Best Four. Okay, good. Let's just go right into it because my number eight is an animated film. Probably the biggest surprise for me this year. [00:29:19] Speaker B: Okay. [00:29:20] Speaker A: Because this film came out in September almost with very little fanfare. [00:29:24] Speaker B: Sure. [00:29:25] Speaker A: And then over the few months since it released, basically got popular because of the series that it's based off of, as well as kids and families finally seeing it to getting to me being able to see it and bawling my goddamn eyes out. Because the Wild Robot is, I think, one of the best films DreamWorks has genuinely ever made. [00:29:46] Speaker B: Okay. [00:29:47] Speaker A: Like, I think it's like, it's no surprise that the guy that basically the co directed how to Train youn Dragon, which kind of felt like that first how to Train youn Dragon revolutionize how we think of DreamWorks in the 2000 and tens. [00:30:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:02] Speaker A: And how they were kind of seen as like an actual competitor against Disney and Pixar to now in the2020s, having that same director come back to do the Wild Robot and be like, holy fuck, is this just like the best thing DreamWorks is, like, done in a while? Like, again, I think it's even better than Last Wish. Not by a huge margin. [00:30:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:23] Speaker A: Because I love Puss in Boots too. But I think like, the Wild Robot is just like it. Just the cast to the. Just the absolute animation style, the designs, the music, the story is so straightforward and it's so like, you know, you can tell from the very beginning. And again, that's because it's because we're adults, but you can tell from the beginning how it's going to try and pull your heartstrings. [00:30:51] Speaker B: Sure, sure. [00:30:52] Speaker A: And then when it does, and then just pulls so hard, you can't help but just like melted to a puddle. [00:30:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:30:58] Speaker A: It is just like, just shows how confident they were in the narrative as well as the fact of having a voice cast. [00:31:06] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:06] Speaker A: That just excels. I. I am so pissed we can't give Lupita Nyong'o so many more awards. Like, it's. I think I was talking to a friend the other. I think I was talking to Adam the other day. I was like, it is such a damn shame that that woman has been so good since the very beginning. They're like, now there's gonna be so many phenomenal performances under her belt that she. I think she will just unfortunately not get the Oscar for. Just because she won it for 12 years a slave. [00:31:33] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:33] Speaker A: But she deserved it then. But like, since then we've had, you know, fucking us. We've had so many. I mean, he even had Quiet Place day one this year, which apparently was really good. But like, this performance, her performance as the lead in the Wild Robot is genuinely transformative. Phenomenal. [00:31:51] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:31:51] Speaker A: It is like you can hear the acting in her voice. There's even a scene, because you have to do this in a film where you have a robot, especially a robot that's mass produced. There is a scene where she is talking to herself, basically. And it just is the hearing, the different inflections. [00:32:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And threads that needle of like a robot without emotional programming who kind of learns their own humanity. It's crazy. [00:32:19] Speaker A: And then like, Pedro Pascal is fun in that dynamic as the Fox Kit Conner. Just a sweet old duck boy, Catherine O'Hara. You have such a strong cast and it feels like a film that, like, you know, when it first started having trailers, I think we were all like, oh, the animation style is really good. But like, I wonder if it, you know, is really good. Like, we just kind of curious cause dreamworks because again, it's like after the Wild Robot, we're gonna get a Dogman film and a bad guys. [00:32:49] Speaker B: Right. [00:32:49] Speaker A: And then I don't like, we're not gonna get a Wild robot film for at least another two years. [00:32:53] Speaker B: Sure, sure. [00:32:53] Speaker A: But like, DreamWorks is just every now and again they will just like Shadow Drop. One of their best films in a while. [00:33:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:01] Speaker A: And it just is like, guys, what is happening here? I like, it's to the point where like, I think I put it in our, like our friend group chat where I said like, if inside out to beats The Wild Robot and best animated feature. I'll be so riot. [00:33:16] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:33:16] Speaker A: Because like the Wild Robot is genuinely one of the best films of the year as well as probably my favorite animated film of the year. [00:33:23] Speaker B: Sure. Yeah. [00:33:23] Speaker A: And it's probably one of DreamWorks best. So like. [00:33:26] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and just, I mean, I love that it was. The animation style is kind of. It's reminiscent of some of the kind of trending styles we've seen in modern 3D animation, but takes some steps to distinguish itself. I mean, this thing almost looks like an oil painting at times, which is really cool. And so I was really thrilled that it sort of took a stab at, you know, kind of pushing off in its own direction stylistically. And you know, I mean, also just that you said that how straightforward it is. It is pretty straightforward. But the thing. One thing I really loved about it was how like basically the plot of what would be the entire movie in any other movie is like the first half of this. [00:34:15] Speaker A: Yeah. [00:34:16] Speaker B: It's like we got to the halfway point. I was like, oh, we're already at the big like thing that I would expect to be the climax of the film. And then there's a whole other, you know, half of the movie after that. And so I appreciated that kind of daring to go beyond convention, a little embrace convention, but go beyond it. And just the way that it deals in a lot of subject matter that maybe we don't see a lot of in a lot of chilled kind of family animated films. I mean, there's a lot of talk about death in this and not even in the way that Pixar has kind of cornered of learning to understand grief and things like that, but more about just how everyday and part of nature death is. [00:35:04] Speaker A: Yeah. Like emotionless. [00:35:05] Speaker B: Yeah. Kind of the life cycle. Teaching that in a way that I think is really valuable to be putting on screen for kids to see. Yeah. And I'm just glad Chris Sanders kind of got his day. Cause he's kind of been an unsung icon of modern animation. [00:35:22] Speaker A: Yeah. Lilo had stitched how to Train youn Dragon to. Now it's like. [00:35:26] Speaker B: Yeah, now he gets his, you know, first feature length solo animated director movie and it's a hit. I love that for him. [00:35:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And I'm glad he is not attached to the live action remake of how to Train your Dragon. At least in a directing. [00:35:40] Speaker B: Or Lilo and Stitch. [00:35:41] Speaker A: Or Lilo and Stitch. Which. Yeah, that is next year, isn't it? Gosh, let's not think about that. What's your number eight? Pick Andy. [00:35:48] Speaker B: My Number Eight is a little movie that kind of snuck onto my radar. I don't really even remember how I found out about this movie because I've heard almost nobody else talk about it besides the people that I've shown it to. Okay. Which are some of my film critic colleagues. It's a Indian film, a, I believe, Tamil language film called Atom, which means translated is the play. And it's kind of a 12 angry men analog. It's about a theater troupe who is like, I think it's 11 guys and a woman. And they're all like very, you know, they kind of love to talk about how tight knit they are and what a great group they are together. They hang out, they spend all their time together. But then one night at a pool party that they're having, the woman confides in one of the men that she was sexually assaulted by somebody else in the group. [00:36:56] Speaker A: Mm. [00:36:58] Speaker B: And thus begins the kind of unraveling of this friend group as the 11 men take it upon themselves to figure out how to solve this issue kind of independently of the woman and her input on the situation. [00:37:14] Speaker A: Oh. Oh, okay. [00:37:17] Speaker B: So you can kind of see where this movie becomes sort of this sweeping but also very small scale and very intricate examination of the lies that men tell each other and themselves to kind of avoid really acknowledging the suffering of women around them while also, you know, kind of trying to assure themselves that they are the heroes in the story. Yeah. And there are, you know, there are characters who are really rootable in this. There are characters who are really despicable in it. And by the end of the film, they're all kind of flip flopped and twisted around and you're like, I don't know who I like at this point. Maybe none of them. And then the, the very, you know, the very final kind of sequence of the film is just a beautiful chef's kiss of like, ah, fuck it. [00:38:11] Speaker A: I am very interested. Again, Andy knows this, he should know this. But 12 Angry Men is one of my favorite films of all time. So if you just even compare it, as soon as you told me, like halfway through the premise, I was like, yeah, yeah, okay, okay. [00:38:26] Speaker B: It's. It's wonderful. [00:38:28] Speaker A: Well, damn. I think it was absolutely. Check that out. [00:38:30] Speaker B: I think it was the ifjs runner up for foreign language. [00:38:33] Speaker A: Okay. [00:38:33] Speaker B: I was the one who really pushed for it, so I was happy with that. [00:38:36] Speaker A: Well, good. They'll definitely have to check it out because that sounds phenomenal. All right. My Number seven is a film that for the longest time of the year. I think it's a real first world problem for a film to have where it was a. It was one of my 10 out of 10, five out of five films of the year. But towards the last month and a half or so, I kind of was like, you know what? I don't know if it's fully perfect. I'm not gonna be able to see it again. So I think I'll just knock it down a little bit. Still a nine. Basically a 9.5 out of 10 for me. My number seven is Luca Guadino's Challengers, A film that I just, absolutely just felt is electrifying from the get go. And it's such a shocking film to just be like a film about like a love triangle between two tennis stars and an ex tennis star. And to just have that be very much like very play esque in terms of the premise as well as how it's kind of blocked and the story precedes itself. And very much you get Luca Guanino being Luca Guanino and a lot of the choices, the look of the film, the era. Because I think it's like late 2000s. Because. [00:39:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:39:50] Speaker A: See like how these two rivaling tennis players were best friends and how they kind of like lost that over a girl played by Zendaya, who is absolutely fucking phenomenal in this. And she's also just like has the energy of like one of the worst people you'd. You're glad you've never met in your life. [00:40:09] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:09] Speaker A: She has phenomenal facial expressions. She says some truly horrible shit in this movie. [00:40:14] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:14] Speaker A: And she is fantastic. Josh O'Connor is getting a lot of love from this movie too. He's great. And Mike Feist, I would argue, is like the weakest of the three in terms. [00:40:25] Speaker B: He's given kind of the most straightforward role to play. Yes. [00:40:27] Speaker A: But he's also really good. Yeah, it's just a. It's just a bisexual mess of a film that has a. Probably one of the best Trent Reznor. Atticus Ross scores. Oh, in a long time. [00:40:39] Speaker B: Awesome score. Just so energetic. [00:40:41] Speaker A: It's. It is a. It is a techno tennis film, basically. It's a score where it's like, I can't believe the guy from Nine Inch Nails is doing a techno tennis score, basically. [00:40:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:40:55] Speaker A: And is also going to be doing the Tron 3. But yeah, it was just. I remember when it comes to. I think we've again, this is the fifth time we've done a special like this. But like, I think we both kind of talked about what leads to 10 out of tens for us in a lot of ways, especially immediately and initially, even though it's not that anymore for me, I think it's still so high up because of, like, there is a simplicity to the narrative. There's a simplicity to the approaches to everything that, like, when you see the intricate subtleties in, like, just being able to sell someone on the premise outright at the beginning of the film and then use the subtleties in the performances as well as the changes in the narrative in terms of when time, you know, flashes forward or backward with more context to the point where there's, like, a big reveal at the very end of the film that I think is very much telegraphed very early on, but I think is. It earns that big bombastic finale very well. And I think it just. It's a year for Luca because I think genuinely, like, it's. He's got two great films under his belt, and I think he'll definitely need that if his American Psycho remake is not good. [00:42:07] Speaker B: Right, right. At least he had this year. [00:42:10] Speaker A: Yeah. And also Potion Seller wrote this film. [00:42:12] Speaker B: As well, of course. Big win for the Potion Heads. [00:42:14] Speaker A: Big win for the Potion Heads. And also, in case you don't know the Justin, I'm going to ruin the name again. [00:42:21] Speaker B: I just say Karitskis. [00:42:22] Speaker A: I don't know if that's right. He also, I believe we talked about his wife's last film or his wife's directorial debut last year with Past Lives, because Selena Song. He's married to Selena Song. And basically, in Past Lives, there's a character that basically is a standard for the Potion Seller. [00:42:40] Speaker B: Right. [00:42:41] Speaker A: It was just funny to think just in the span of like a year. [00:42:45] Speaker B: Basically saw him on screen, and now he's writing to. [00:42:48] Speaker A: And now his wife's next film, I believe, has Pedro Pascal in it. [00:42:51] Speaker B: So they're both. [00:42:52] Speaker A: They're both doing incredibly well, thankfully, because they're both. [00:42:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:42:55] Speaker A: Justin is a phenomenal screenwriting power couple. [00:42:57] Speaker B: I guess she's a director, too. [00:42:58] Speaker A: Yeah. Maybe he'll. He'll make the jump. Who knows? But, yeah, Challengers is just an absolute blast. It has no right being as fun as it is. [00:43:07] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:43:07] Speaker A: Especially when it's pretty obvious, you know, where a lot of the dynamics are going to go. [00:43:12] Speaker B: Sure. [00:43:12] Speaker A: Well. [00:43:13] Speaker B: And something I really loved about it is that it's like the sports of it are not really the centerpiece in terms of the meat of the film, like, where it's really super interesting. But I just love that Luca went all out with the portrayal of tennis, like how the game looks on screen. Oh, there's. [00:43:32] Speaker A: There's one shot at the very end of the film that is just impeccable. [00:43:37] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:43:37] Speaker A: That is like, this is the coolest tennis has ever looked. And it's because you can't do this in real life. This is like only something you can do in movies. [00:43:45] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. This kind of shot, super cinematic and. [00:43:48] Speaker A: Stunning as Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross just blare. Techno beats into your head the entire time. [00:43:54] Speaker B: Like, if somebody wanted to make a straight tennis drama. I don't mean straight sexually, but like, inevitably it would be just more by the numbers. Sports drama about tennis. Please just lift from this movie. Like, stylistically. [00:44:10] Speaker A: Absolutely. [00:44:11] Speaker B: Because this. I really, really enjoyed this movie, but like, if it had twice as much tennis in it, I would not have complained. [00:44:18] Speaker A: No, no. Yeah, it is. [00:44:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:44:21] Speaker A: Very much a film that is constantly asking you to want more because it's basically characters that are constantly fighting, like asking others to want more from the relationship or this and that. And it is just. It's a blast of a film. It's definitely. Especially early on, I think, you know, because it came out in March, I think, you know, usually when we get two or three months in, we're just. We both are kind of like, gee, I wonder what's gonna be like one of the first films that really like, grab me. And this was one of those first films that was like, damn, that was. Why is the tennis drama with Zendaya so goddamn good? Yeah, so, yeah. Challengers is my number seven. What's yours? [00:45:00] Speaker B: My number seven. I know we've both seen and. Cause I think we talked about it at one point, but it's a. Oh, well, yeah, we did a friggin podcast episode this year about this director we did a rise of on Mr. Jeremy Sonja. [00:45:21] Speaker A: Ooh, it's in your top ten. Nice. [00:45:23] Speaker B: And he released his latest film this year called Rebel Ridge on Netflix, which is kind of a Jack Reacher vein, kind of crime action thriller about. About a. An ex marine martial arts trainer who basically takes on the racist police force of this little southern town. [00:45:50] Speaker A: Yeah, it's like an inverse of like the Rambo walking. Tall stranger walks into a town. [00:45:56] Speaker B: Yes. [00:45:57] Speaker A: Which uproots everyone's lives. [00:45:59] Speaker B: Right, right. Turns the town on its head. This lone wanderer and you know, beat by beat. Not super unexpected or surprising, but something I loved about this movie is Sonier seems to be kind of experimenting with the concept of taking a genre that's so entrenched in violence as a currency and kind of trying to pacify that. Because the whole shtick of this main character is that, yes, he's this master martial artist, you know, years in the Marine Corps, super specialized, but he's kind of all about disarming and defusing. All of his techniques and tactics are built around disarming your opponent and ending the conflict. It's not about killing people. It's not about, you know, I mean, he does break some bones, but it's not about, you know, destruction. [00:46:57] Speaker A: The most aggressive version of de escalation. [00:46:59] Speaker B: Yeah, it's de escalation. It's, you know, aggressive de escalation. [00:47:04] Speaker A: Yeah, like someone who actually wants to de escalate a situation, but in the most violent way. [00:47:08] Speaker B: Yeah. And so you get these kind of brief but punchy and beautifully edited and choreographed hand to hand combat sequences that are all built around, you know, getting the gun out of the picture, incapacitating without maiming. And, you know, it leads to some great little action moments that are just, just so unique in the way that they play out. And oh, my God. Aaron Pierre in the lead role, just transfixing. I mean, there's something about his eyes. Yeah, it's the eyes, but also just the confidence. I mean, he is very much a kind of reacher type, but there's a little bit more of a sensitivity to him and empathetic side to him where he's not just this walking meat machine who you can't wait to destroy somebody. He has a compelling emotional core to him. [00:48:06] Speaker A: He's. Yeah, he's perfect because he is a menacing, like, he looks menacing. Very tall, very muscular black man in a very noticeably racist small town. [00:48:17] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [00:48:17] Speaker A: And so when he is not escalating situations, but he's not backing down, it is very fascinating to watch how the actors are playing those roles, especially Eren, because it's just. Yeah, it's. I think it's the beard. The beard also that's. [00:48:34] Speaker B: Yeah, very nicely groomed beard. [00:48:36] Speaker A: Because I don't think either one of us realized that we had seen him two years or a year prior. Because he's an old. [00:48:42] Speaker B: Right. [00:48:42] Speaker A: He's mid sized and he looks, he's a beautiful man in that film. But like, he doesn't look. He doesn't look real and old. He looks way too chiseled. [00:48:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:48:53] Speaker A: And for some reason, the beard in. Because he's wearing the beard right now because he's also. He plays Mufasa in Mufasa, the Lion King prequel that I will not see. [00:49:01] Speaker B: No no chance. [00:49:03] Speaker A: No chance. But at this. But like, he is a phenomenal actor in that movie. I 100% agree with you on that. [00:49:09] Speaker B: And I mean, to watch him in that and think, okay, this guy's Green Lantern now is awesome and super exciting. Don Johnson. Yeah, Don Johnson is super fun as the kind of corrupt, not kind of very corrupt police chief because, yeah, at. [00:49:25] Speaker A: This point, Don Johnson has a face and has played, I think, enough racist roles that it's like the subtlety meter is like, how. How far do you want to go? [00:49:34] Speaker B: He knows exactly when to ham it up and play it down. [00:49:37] Speaker A: He literally was in Shanko. Unchained is one of the biggest races in that film, like a decade ago. It is. Yeah, he's great. Anna Sophia Robb is a really great foil. Someone who I haven't seen in a long time and I really like her. And yeah, that's just a really great choice. That is definitely one of my standouts of the year too. That just unfortunately didn't make my top 10. [00:49:59] Speaker B: Sure. [00:49:59] Speaker A: But yeah, Sonye, please. Gosh, whenever he gets that Eggers money, I will be so happy when he gets that budget that's like above like 10 million. Yeah, they'll be great. My number six is, I think at this point. Let me look. I'm trying to remember. No, we're still in my 9 out of 10 realize, but this is like now we're in my, like, I would say my 9.5 is like very much on the tail end of like, perfection. So, like, from. I think I'd say from challengers to like my number four almost. These are like films that are like near perfect films that I would imagine will probably higher on your list because I think you like one of these films a little bit more than I do. But my number, gosh, I already forgot the number off my head. Number six is Sing Sing, the latest film with Colman Domingo about. It is based off a true story, but also takes a lot of liberties with a true story about a man who is basically sent, who's been in prison for decades for a crime he didn't commit. And about that man building basically a program for prisoners to be in a thespian troupe and do shows every six months in that maximum security prison called Sing Sing. The film is. This was actually the last film I saw this year before making my list. This was a film that, like, it was supposed to get a release in August and I think it did for like a few months, but then like, bigger films showed up. So it got pushed out before I could get a time to see it. And I got to say, as someone who is just like, I think been so engaged in Colman Domingo in terms of just like the progression of his career and wanting him to just like get more love, because the man just is absolutely incredible. Sing Sing is the film where, like, I think I might be genuinely pissed if he doesn't get a nomination. Nor does Clarence Macklin, who plays Divine Easy in the film. [00:52:01] Speaker B: Right. [00:52:01] Speaker A: Who's like one of the main. He's like the newest inmate who's a part of the thespian troupe in if neither one of them gets nominations. Because this film is just phenomenal. It is a film about men who are in a system that is supposed to rehabilitate them, but clearly they are feeling dehumanized and feel like they do not have a chance at freedom or a chance at a second chance and therefore use art as a way to escape and as a way to. As a liberation for the parts of themselves they're not able to really express in a day to day life. [00:52:34] Speaker B: Life. Okay? [00:52:35] Speaker A: It's fucking phenomenal. It also was shot in like 18 days, which watching the film is insane. [00:52:42] Speaker B: Okay. [00:52:42] Speaker A: But I think what really, like brings the film together a lot. And again, Colman Domingo is phenomenal. Clarence Macklin is just incredible. But most of the cast is. Are people that used to be in the actual program that the film is showing. [00:52:58] Speaker B: Oh, yeah. [00:52:59] Speaker A: Like, it's called the RTA program of Sing Sing. A lot of the actors are inmates or used to be inmates that actually went through that program. So this is the first time they've ever been on screen. And you really cannot tell. Like, there is just a vulnerability, There's a ferocity to their performances where it's like, I don't know who you are, but I want more of you. I want to see more of you. I want to see more of that. And it's just. It's fun, it's emotional, it's heart wrenching. It's also funny because the play that they play that they do in the film is based off of a real play the RTA troupe put together. It's an original play where basically the inmates wanted to do a comedy about pirates, cowboys, Hamlet, gladiators. And so the guy that leads the whole thing, his name is Brent, he builds a satire, like a Mel Brooks style satire where they travel through time and they get to play all the roles they want to play. So it's fun to see this beautiful, heart wrenching film that just so happens every now and again, they're just like, having like a Billy the Kid style, like, you know, gunslinging scene or just like, there's literally a scene. It actually has one of my favorite lines in the entire, like, of all films this year where, like, someone just with complete sincerity, because I still don't understand how the time travel works. And it's just so funny to hear people in a film like Sing Sing just, like, have those pieces of levity on top of just like, men trying to figure out how to get that toxicity out in a way or, like, address the parts of themselves that are considered, you know, perceived as like, you know, they're aggressive, they're hostile, there's no artistic bones in their body. Yet all these men have such beautiful souls. [00:54:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:54:46] Speaker A: And it's fun to watch just the, you know, the evolution of specific characters as well as see again, Colman Domingo just basically be the type of actor where it's like, I would watch this man read a phone book, and he does that in spade. Like, he has so many scenes in this film where it's just like he is going. He is opposite of someone who's never been on screen, let alone being on screen as much as Coleman. But it's like a beautiful synergy. Like, it just is like one of those films where it's like, you know, you put this on your to watch list and you're like, this can't be that easy of like a. This is gonna hit me that well. And then it does. [00:55:21] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:21] Speaker A: This movie rocks. And this could be a recency bias thing, but in my opinion, Sing Sing is phenomenal. Highly recommend it. I can't wait to bother everyone that I know an Oscar season to watch this because I feel like they will get some nominations. [00:55:34] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:35] Speaker A: Especially with considering how, like, the actors on actors that Kieran Culkin and Colman Domingo do. Like, no one will stop talking about that video. I highly recommend that video. I watched it in full le because I just seen clips for a while because I didn't want to spoil myself of his Sing Sing stuff. [00:55:51] Speaker B: And without spoiling anything higher up on the list, did you end up seeing a real pain? [00:55:57] Speaker A: I did. [00:55:58] Speaker B: Okay. [00:55:58] Speaker A: I did. [00:55:59] Speaker B: And Kieran I was sure I wasn't sure about. [00:56:01] Speaker A: Kieran is phenomenal. [00:56:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:56:03] Speaker A: He is definitely one of the best films of the year, but is not in my top 10. [00:56:07] Speaker B: Okay. Okay. I mean either. But yeah, Sing Sing is kind of a. It sting. Stings for me because that one is if you listen to my guest appearance on obsessive viewer from A few days ago. You've already heard this story, so apologies, but that was a film I somehow missed this year, despite having multiple reasons to watch it and multiple. Making notes to myself of like, oh, yeah, I really need to watch Sing Sing because it was on the IFJ's nominations in several categories. I was like, oh, okay, I need to watch that before our meeting. Need to get to that. [00:56:44] Speaker A: I think I even asked you if you've watch, because I hadn't seen it yet. [00:56:48] Speaker B: And then so I didn't watch it and I forgot to watch it in time for our IFJ meeting. And then I went on Matt's podcast to talk about the IFJA top 10 on a list, which it is on, and was like, oh, if I'm gonna be on the top 10, I should probably watch all 10. And then realized as we started the recording that I was like, oh, I never watched Sing Sing. Whoops. Sorry, Coleman. Sorry, Matt. Sorry ifj, and sorry, Logan. [00:57:16] Speaker A: I mean, again, I think you'd enjoy it. I think it's just like. It just feels effortless in terms of. It's very clearly like, this narrative is based off of a true story that is just such an easy one to talk about in terms of, like, the messages as well as the being about real people and having real ex convicts or ex prisoners just be a part of the story. And again, hearing. And especially watching the film and then afterwards, hearing Coleman talk about the fact that, like, since they shot it in 18 days, the amount of scenes that are like, yeah, we did that in, like, one take and be like, that's insane. [00:57:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:57:52] Speaker A: Because to get that performance out of, like, a single take is kind of phenomenal. And. Yeah, well, even though you didn't see Sing Sing, despite the myriad of times you could have what is on your numbers. [00:58:04] Speaker B: My number six is probably one of definitely probably the most obscure one on my list because I think I know exactly one other person who's seen this movie. And they only watched it because I watched it and liked it and told them to watch it. [00:58:19] Speaker A: Oh, Andy's hipster pic of the top 10. Love it, right? [00:58:23] Speaker B: It's a little Indonesian film by director Yandy Laurens. It's a black and white kind of character drama in a very classical sense called Falling in Love. Like in movies. This one fell on my radar as I was kind of looking for, like, any, you know, getting towards award season. I was like, are there any, like, foreign films that I have not noticed that are, like, getting a lot of love? And so I found this one on letterboxd. And it is basically a kind of like look back. It's a movie about its own, the creative process that it's taking on. It's a film about screenwriting. It's a movie about making a movie about making a movie. So it's very meta in a way that I initially thought was gonna be really tacky and superficial. I would say for maybe like the first 30 minutes to an hour of the movie. I was genuinely worried. I was like, oh, is this gonna be one of those that, like, tries to be super meta and ends up falling into all the same traps that it's like, claims to be critiquing or inverting? And it was that for a while and I was like. And then something happens about halfway through where the film, I would say, like, truly reveals itself to you and kind of makes it clear why it seemed like it was playing on all those tropes and falling into those traps. It was deliberately being kind of a wrong headed meta narrative and then opens up into something that I think it was just really sweet and saccharine, but in a way that worked. And it's ultimately like kind of a movie about sort of the selfishness of love and the truth of love being like the ability to understand another person and feel their pain and see their perspective rather than, you know, loving them for the ideal version of them that you had in your head. And so it is a movie about love while also being a movie about screenwriting because the main character is a screenwriter who's trying to make him write a script out of like his own kind of an autobiographical film script. [01:00:54] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:00:55] Speaker B: And the script he's writing is about a screenwriter who's writing a script about his life. So, yeah, it's got some twists and turns to it that I really appreciate it. And a really just earnest, beautiful performance from Nerina Zubier in the kind of supporting role. So, yeah, snuck onto my radar and really thoroughly enjoyed it. Just a sweet, sweet movie. [01:01:22] Speaker A: Damn. All right. Holding out on me. An Indian film and an Indonesian film I have never heard of. And now I definitely want to check them both out. Nice. Okay, sweet. My number five, I believe, is probably gonna be in your top five, but we will see. But I feel like this is a film that we both saw and we saw it separately of one another. And you, I think, unsurprisingly, you probably had the time to see it before I did. But I remember when we did talk about it a little bit, we couldn't stop just like talking about, I would believe, like, just the effortless of this movie, as well as the fact that, like, this movie is bombastic, it is silly, it has a clear cut vision that is just unapologetic. And it's hard not to be. It's hard to, you know, not love the substance. I think the substance is one of the best films of the year. And I think to me, more people joking or like, whether they're joking or not, saying that she deserves, like a best actress nomination. I think you can't tease me like that. [01:02:28] Speaker B: You're right. [01:02:29] Speaker A: She's phenomenal in the film. Dennis Quaid is the nastiest part of that movie and he knows it, and I love that for him. And it is a film that is pretty much like very similar to Challengers in a way where it's like going in, you know exactly what type of story it's about to tell, but how it gets there is so much fun. This is the type of film that I think about halfway through the movie I was like, okay, this is an 8 out of 10 in my head. However, there's a cool idea that they put in the beginning of the film that if they go full hog wild on this, I could definitely see being like an easy nine. And then the finale goes full hog wild. [01:03:13] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:13] Speaker A: And it is. It is just disgusting and it's just like bombastic and it's. It ends in just the most just cinematic way. It is such a fun film that is just absolutely just making you feel a sense of dread. [01:03:31] Speaker B: Yes. [01:03:32] Speaker A: A film about just self image, about aging, about, you know, just being nice to yourself. Just be nice. Just be nice to yourself because you don't want to end up like this very much so is a film that is. Because I think it's Corley Farjeet or For Ja. [01:03:49] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:03:50] Speaker A: This is like her second or third film under her belt. And I am so glad that you know, as much as I'm glad that, you know, the Letterboxd crew that we are all kind of attached to, like, people were just raving about this on Letterboxd. I'm glad that just like, the general public have heard about this film and I've given this film a try and I've, like, watched it and loved it just as much as, like, film snobs or just, like, film buffs would. [01:04:17] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:04:17] Speaker A: And I have no real, like, confidence that it'll get anything at the Oscars, but if it did, that would be awesome because it's very much a. It's a body horror movie. It's Body horror. But it's also very funny. It's gorgeous to look at. There's the stark colors. [01:04:38] Speaker B: Great score. Great score so far. [01:04:41] Speaker A: And Margaret Qualley just, you know, showing up and being absolutely, just phenomenal. Yeah. Is it on your list? [01:04:50] Speaker B: It is. Yeah. It's a little further up the list. I'll talk about it more later. [01:04:54] Speaker A: Ooh, I love that. I love how they pulled that out. What's your number five, then? [01:04:58] Speaker B: Yeah. My Number five is the first and only franchise film on my list, and it's a movie that I know is not on your list because I think it took you maybe two watches to really warm up to it. [01:05:17] Speaker A: Whoa. Okay. I know exactly what you're about to talk about. [01:05:20] Speaker B: My Number five was. Was one of my most highly anticipated films of the year. Despite not being, like, super over the moon about the first two entries in the series, my number five is Terrifier three. [01:05:32] Speaker A: Your top ten list is wild. [01:05:34] Speaker B: It's crazy. Ridiculous. [01:05:35] Speaker A: I love it because terrifier three is a. Gosh, I get it. [01:05:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [01:05:41] Speaker A: 100%. [01:05:43] Speaker B: So. Yeah. I mean, I guess a little context on my relationship with the Terrifier movies. I watched the first one several years ago with my roommate, and it is not a great movie by any stretch of the word. It's maybe not even a good movie. But it had this kind of hold on me because I found the killer character, who is Art the Clown, played by David Howard Thornton in the nastiest clown makeup you'll ever see. He had a hold on me, and I found him deeply compelling, despite being a completely shallow character who's just there to kill people and be a goofball. And so, you know, I thought about that movie for a long time. And then two Years ago, Terrifier 2 came out and got a much, much bigger budget and a much wider release. It got a theatrical release. It kind of made waves at the time because it got a lot of, like, early reactions of, like, this is. You know, people are passing out in the theater. This is the most foul thing you've ever seen. [01:06:50] Speaker A: Was it unrated? [01:06:51] Speaker B: Unrated. Had it been rated, it would have gotten an NC17 and probably wouldn't have gotten a wide theatrical release. So they were just like, yeah, not rated. [01:06:59] Speaker A: Isn't that so funny how we. It's that we live in a. [01:07:02] Speaker B: That's the bureaucracy of it. [01:07:04] Speaker A: Yeah. The system is they will rather put an unrated film than an actual film rated by the impression. [01:07:09] Speaker B: Because if you say it's NC17, then you're gonna Immediately turn people away. Or that's what they think anyway. [01:07:15] Speaker A: Oh, my gosh. [01:07:16] Speaker B: But yeah, Terravar 2 was, I thought, like a substantial upgrade in terms of like, the violence and kookiness and the silly slasher ness of it, but unfortunately is like well over two hours long and has no business being that long and just is get super bogged down in plot and stuff and so had its warts. So I hear about Terrifier 3 coming out and I'm like, okay, I love this Art the Clown guy. I think Damien Leone, the director, is super interesting and I'm excited for this, but I hope it's not another fucking bloated mess. And he comes out with Terrifier 3, which is his Christmas horror film. Art now ruins Christmas for everybody. And I just thought this, this worked all across the board. You know, my. My gripes are fairly minor. It's super fun. It's gone full tilt. Looney Tune, like rated or unrated Looney Tunes at this point. [01:08:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:08:11] Speaker B: The level at which David Howard Thornton is operating as art is just next level, Buster Keaton esque physical acting and expressiveness. It's hilarious. It's stupidly violent and grotesque. And it's just. I think Leonie's finally found a vibe that he can operate on and that works for a lot of people. And it's. You know, I was just thrilled that Terrifier kind of finally became what it could have been all this time. And so I'm super excited for a fourth chapter. And yeah, just some of the best kills of the year. Some of the best sight gags of the year in general. And I just. I eat that shit up. So. [01:08:55] Speaker A: Oh, no, I will say Terrifier three is, I think, yeah, it is the film that I think a lot of people who probably weren't into 1 and 2 that much will probably won them over. Yeah, yeah, I'll go. I get it now. Like, is I. Because again, yeah, it took me twice, but I think it's just because, like, God. Because I tried my best to, like, get all the. Because there's like, technically four films before three that like, technically have Art the Clown in. [01:09:23] Speaker B: Yeah, he's kind of a anthological character. [01:09:26] Speaker A: Because the thing about that is, like, I think a lot of what puts some people off, and I think understandably so, is like, Art the Clown was almost kind of shoved down people's throats initially because it's like, we don't have enough serial killers and we have. We don't have enough iconic slasher villains anymore. And Terrifier one. I mean, again, yeah, I agree with you. I mean, Thornton's the best part of that movie because everything else around it's a mess. [01:09:50] Speaker B: Dog shit. Sometimes. [01:09:52] Speaker A: It's the type of horror film where you're like, you're doing your absolute best, Damien Leone, but you clearly have no money because this is all taking place in the abandoned factory. [01:10:01] Speaker B: It's kind of like, clearly should have been a short film because it has an insane kill, like 20 minutes in, and then nothing for the next hour and a half. [01:10:08] Speaker A: And then two, I agree with you, is like. Is the kind of jump where I think I had a spark in my head. It's funny, too, that you say let more plot, because I think I like the plot. I love the plot. [01:10:20] Speaker B: Adds direction to it, which it desperately needed after the first film. [01:10:24] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:10:24] Speaker B: I just think it gets a little long in the tooth with explaining shit. [01:10:28] Speaker A: Oh, for sure. It is too long of a film. And then three, Yeah, I thought it was really good when I first saw. But then I really understood it when I saw it with Austin. Because the more people you see this with that are game for it, it's a fucking treat. It's a blast. It's a lot of fun. There are still like. You know, there's maybe one moment in three where I would probably go. But compared to the other two films are like. I think Terrifier one has a per minute and then two has. Two has one kill. That is considered very controversial because it's. [01:11:01] Speaker B: Brutal for the sake of being brutal and just protracted. [01:11:04] Speaker A: And then Terrifier three, well, it does have one kind of Ew. Oof moment. The kills are just so much better. The film looks good. [01:11:12] Speaker B: Yeah, it looks surprising, really. Kind of embraced its genre roots. [01:11:16] Speaker A: And then the lead, I think, is Lauren Lovera. Yeah, Lauren. She is. [01:11:20] Speaker B: She got a huge acting upgrade between movies. Fantastic. [01:11:24] Speaker A: She's fun in two. [01:11:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:25] Speaker A: I think her and the. The actor that plays her brother is very fun in two. [01:11:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:11:29] Speaker A: And then when they come back in three, it's like, I'm all geared up. [01:11:32] Speaker B: Yeah. They went and did their practice and then. [01:11:35] Speaker A: Yeah. And to be honest, it might be a bit. I don't think this is much of a spoiler because we have some time before this. We'll definitely do an episode on the sequel to Terrifier because to be Honest. [01:11:45] Speaker B: Sounds like 4 is going to be the last one. [01:11:47] Speaker A: Yeah. And also the fact that, to be honest, I don't think there's much we can say about one, except for some maybe Some just kind of like follow up stuff. But yeah, Terrifier three is. God, I just like, I know you love that movie this year. I just didn't think of it as your top five. Like, that's great. I love that. Oh, man. Terrifier three. Now I just want to rewatch it. Yeah. Our friend Austin just bought the fucking 4K and in the box is awesome. Yeah, I love that. I might just buy Terrifier three and just pretend one and two. I like to. It's fine. All right, now we're in our top four of our 20, 24. And now we're at my four perfect films in my. Okay, number four is going to be the most recent of the perfect films. It actually, it is a film that is the last film we saw together this year. It is a film that I know you don't think is perfect and that's totally fine. And I was initially kind of, you know, initially hesitant to give it that re. That moniker until I just thought about it more and it wouldn't leave my brain. [01:12:56] Speaker B: Okay. [01:12:56] Speaker A: There's just aspects of it that, like, I think for a director that we literally have just, you know, talked about a week ago, by the time this episode comes out, our last episode will be about the director of this film. But I just absolutely adore Nosferatu. Yeah. I think what really kind of like, made me kind of gravitate more towards a perfection in my head is the fact that it's like rewatching all of his films leading up to our episode. I just think Nosferatu shows off all the lessons he has learned from his very beginning to like, you know, playing with the genre of horror a bit more in the Lighthouse, to working on a very big budget film and figuring out his pros and cons of like, how do. How do you use this amount of money in a way that feels like it's effective every single shot? [01:13:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:13:55] Speaker A: And I think leads to Nosferatu being probably his most grandiose film despite probably having the smaller budget compared to the Northman. [01:14:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:14:03] Speaker A: Having a cast that I think is just like. It's a cast that I feel like, you know, and I can understand. This is like one maybe one of your grievances where I don't think all of them are given, you know, constantly, like, the best stuff. Like, I feel like they're fine, but I think they least every person here gets a moment of like, oh, I get why they're here. This is a perfect moment for them. Like Emma Corinne, Aaron, Taylor Johnson, Willem Dafoe. Nicholas Hoult, who's been in, like, 47 films this year. And he is just, like, fucking great in this. His just absolutely losing my mind face is, like, etched into my brain since we saw it in theaters, with Lily Rose Depp being, like, the biggest surprise of all of them, because arguably, she was the one actress I haven't seen much of and I haven't. And the little that I have seen recently, it's like, you know, she was in Yoga Hosers. She was in the Idol. [01:14:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:14:59] Speaker A: The King, the Timothee Chalamet film that no one saw. And so it's like seeing her just, like, absolutely lose herself in the tragedy of that character. But nothing compares to a performance from Bill Skarsgard that is genuinely so fucking good. I genuinely could not hear his voice in the performance. [01:15:24] Speaker B: Yeah. Fucking unrecognizable. [01:15:26] Speaker A: His eyes are unrecognizable. His face, his voice. It is genuinely. Because, again, like most times when people talk about, oh, this character is transformative for this actor, you can barely tell it's them. You know, nine times out of 10, that is mainly true. But there are usually cues, because everyone has cues. Whether it's just like, facial cues, vocal cues where you can kind of hear that person or see that person, even if you have a bunch of prosthetics on them. [01:15:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:15:53] Speaker A: That is not the fucking case with Nosferatu. Bill Skarsgard as Count Orlok. I think literally at the end of the film, I think I looked at you and said, like, I was trying so hard to just even actively hear Skarsgard isms in, like, his voice, and it wasn't there. [01:16:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:16:11] Speaker A: Like, this is, like, in an era where studios are afraid to just do a Dracula movie. Like a proper Dracula movie. [01:16:19] Speaker B: Right. [01:16:19] Speaker A: In the last year, we have gotten a Dracula movie that is about the boat ride to London with the last voyage of the Demeter. And then we've gotten this year, in case no. 1. In case you're out there and haven't seen it, Abigail, which is basically a film about Dracula's daughter. We haven't. [01:16:39] Speaker B: It's a covert Dracula film. [01:16:42] Speaker A: Yeah. And even when Dracula. [01:16:43] Speaker B: Spoiler alert. [01:16:44] Speaker A: Yeah, even. Spoiler alert. When Dracula shows up in Abigail, they don't even say his name. Like they're that. [01:16:51] Speaker B: Like, it's all implications. [01:16:52] Speaker A: So weird that, you know, Universal's in a place where they're afraid to even make anything that's called Dracula. [01:16:58] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:16:58] Speaker A: And here comes Robert Eggers taking the rip off of Dracula that nearly got destroyed in its original time. Like back in the 1900s because of just how much of a ripoff it was from the original text. And we're now at a point where Robert Eggers is just making a bold face, straightforward, confident, gothic vampire horror film with fucking. Just with like the classic Nasty Looking Vampire. [01:17:26] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:17:27] Speaker A: The film that basically popularized the idea that vampires die in the sunlight. [01:17:31] Speaker B: Right. [01:17:32] Speaker A: And it's kind of wild to be like, holy shit, this movie is a hunt. This is based off a 102 year old film. And like, I am invested. I'm invested personally and I'm really enjoying it. And I think it's like, will Eggers make better films? There is a absolute good chance. Like, again, the Witch is still my favorite of his films. And while I. The Lighthouse isn't my favorite. I understand why you love the Lighthouse or even why people would love the Northman. But like Eggers, as a director who has been from the very beginning of his career screaming with his full chest that he wants to do a Nosferatu film, to just be able to back it up with like, by the way, here's my Nosferatu. And it's like his highest grossing opening weekend he's ever had. Like, I think that's phenomenal. And I think it's like, it's not tech. I guess a bit of a spoiler for my list. It's not technically my favorite horror film of the year, but I think traditionally I'm just glad to see that there's still some freaks out there making some gothic vampire horror. [01:18:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:33] Speaker A: In an era where it's like you feel like if you're gonna do a classic movie monster, you have to modernize it or make it weird or different. [01:18:39] Speaker B: Right, right. Filling that niche that is otherwise not being touched. [01:18:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Because there's, there's a good chance that there are. People are going to see this film and be like, well, that's Eggers. And like to see a lot of what he's done in the past. [01:18:52] Speaker B: Sure. [01:18:52] Speaker A: And while that's not wrong. [01:18:54] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:18:54] Speaker A: I think the scale and what he's doing it at is quite impressive. [01:18:58] Speaker B: Yeah, well, yeah, he is. You're right. When you said earlier that it is kind of like putting together all the things he's learned, you can see a lot of like, lessons learned on Northman and you know. Well, all three films put into this movie and there is a quality of it that is kind of a putting it all together that is rewarding to see. And also, you know, I think he is stretching himself in places not in a bad way. Like in a. You know, he's. Some of the imagery here. I was like, okay, that is not something I've seen Eggers do before. It is more like formalist and fantastical than he typically does. So. Yeah. And yeah, Skarsgrd and Rosedep are just incredible. [01:19:46] Speaker A: And again, shows just how much Eggers is confident in his vision of the adaptation. Because there are scenes. There are iconic scenes from Nosferatu and Eggers take on those scenes are just unique and fun. And very much is like, there are. Because now it just makes Northman the flashy, big budget film he has to a degree. [01:20:10] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [01:20:10] Speaker A: Well, as this is like the, like subtly flashy. Like. [01:20:15] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:15] Speaker A: Like overly versus subtle. [01:20:17] Speaker B: Yeah. Subtly artful. Yeah. [01:20:18] Speaker A: Because there are just some shots in this film where it's like, holy. You can just see the money on screen. [01:20:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:24] Speaker A: How the camera is moving. [01:20:25] Speaker B: Yes. And some brilliant, like, transitions and things. [01:20:28] Speaker A: Yeah. And also it's a film of the films in 2024. We get Aaron Taylor Johnson in his actual accent and it's. [01:20:35] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:20:35] Speaker A: And it's kind of funny. He's. He's fun. He brings a little levity. [01:20:38] Speaker B: Yeah. He's kind of the cartoon character of the bunch. [01:20:41] Speaker A: He's just a wren. He's just a regular German man in the 1830s. And then Willem Dafoe is Willem Dafoe. There's not much need to be said about him. [01:20:49] Speaker B: Yeah. He gets to do his thing for a few minutes. [01:20:51] Speaker A: But yeah. Nosferatu is my number four. What about you? You're number four. [01:20:55] Speaker B: So my number four. This will kind of paint how. How our respective receptions of the year differs. I love. Because my number four is my just now my final four star film. [01:21:12] Speaker A: Oh, okay. [01:21:13] Speaker B: Whereas I think most of your top 10 has been four and a half at least. [01:21:16] Speaker A: Yeah. A good chunk of it. [01:21:18] Speaker B: So I guess you could say there were fewer movies I liked. Absolutely adored this year than you. And that's. Okay. Let me see how it goes. [01:21:25] Speaker A: Let me be clear. Just because I have a lot of it might. If you go under my top 10, it falls off the amount of sevens. [01:21:32] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:21:33] Speaker A: Sixes I had. [01:21:34] Speaker B: Yeah. You were a big proponent of the summer of sevens this year. [01:21:36] Speaker A: And I'm. I'm still. Am I somewhere of sevens, guys? [01:21:40] Speaker B: Yes. Yeah. Right. [01:21:41] Speaker A: That's. That's. That is a hall. That is a film industry that should be thriving. That's how you should see it. [01:21:45] Speaker B: Thriving. [01:21:45] Speaker A: But yeah. Okay. So your number four is a four out of five. [01:21:48] Speaker B: Yes. This was one we actually saw together. So perfect. Because yours, your number four was one we saw together and is not a movie that immediately jumped out to me as, like, this is gonna be one of my favorites of the year. It's a fairly modest production, but it's just one that has stuck around in my brain. And that ends up being the movies that, you know, I really end up looking back on. The fondest is when it just wiggles into my brain and I keep thinking about it. My number four is a different man. [01:22:23] Speaker A: Ooh. Okay. [01:22:24] Speaker B: Writer, director Aaron Shinberg. And starring Sebastian Stan. Yeah, this one is. It takes kind of a classic moral being sort of the grass is always greener philosophy. [01:22:39] Speaker A: Hey, be nice to yourself, basically. [01:22:43] Speaker B: And. And just, you know, it tackles it through the lens of a subject matter that we don't see a whole lot represented on the big screen, which is, you know, life with a disfigurement or really any kind of disability. But that's specifically. Disfigurement is kind of the main viewpoint here. And it's a movie that, you know, deeply puts you inside the head and emotional state of its main character, makes you empathize with them, and then kind of just like, slowly makes you sick of them along with every other character as the movie goes on. And you're just like, man, all these people are kind of shitheads. But at the same time, I feel for all of them. I kind of love all of them. And yet, you know, I would probably not want to be friends with any of these people. And ends up being what I think is an incredibly. Somehow, at the same time, incredibly bleak, but surprise, deceptively heartwarming story about self image. And, you know, it's kind of the whole movie is about sort of running away from who you are and why that's ultimately fucking pointless. Because, you know, at the end of the day, we're all ugly. So deal with it. Like, you know, we're all ugly. We're all beautiful. [01:24:11] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:24:12] Speaker B: Figure it out. You'll be okay. [01:24:14] Speaker A: Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. [01:24:15] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. And I think Sebastian Stan is incredible. And it's. I think, yeah, he may wind up getting some attention, but I think he's kind of. It's kind of an underrated performance from the people I've talked to this year, because it's not. It's not the most showy performance of the year, but it is a pretty complex one because, you know, he spends the first act of the film under a prosthetic mask acting through that, really playing the pity card. And then by the End of the movie, he's fucking asshole and you hate him. Yeah, it's, you know, a great little character transformation he pulls off. [01:24:51] Speaker A: The best part about Stan as an actor is like, we are now so knee deep and it's, of course, it's an episode of our trilogies. How do we not bring back up the MCU at some point? But like, in terms of like Sebastian, Stan, in terms of his popularity, it's hard not to bring out the Winter Soldier. And just the fact that he's in that mid range popularity wise, I think of people who have skyrocketed off of the Marvel films where he has not felt like he is coasting in any way, shape or form. I think genuinely it's in the same boat as Elizabeth Olsen where he has used that as a springboard to do very interesting jobs. [01:25:29] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:25:29] Speaker A: And consistently do weird things. [01:25:33] Speaker B: Yeah, he's really good in. As of this year. Probably is, I think, pretty safely, like the MCU's biggest export or best export in terms of like kind of rose to renown through the mcu and has used that, like you said, as an. As a platform for which to do interesting things with his work because he also did the Apprentice this year in which he played Donald Trump. I have not seen. But apparently he. He gives it a more nuanced performance than a lot of people expected from that movie. [01:26:07] Speaker A: Yeah, because I think. Yeah, because he's just the type of guy, when he talks about the work, he is not very flash. He's very humble. [01:26:14] Speaker B: He's humble, but he reminds me of Ethan Hawke in a way, how deeply serious he is about the work, not about himself, but about the art of acting and how you can hear how important it is to him when he talks about it. So he's kind of. He's becoming a, like a back pocket guy for me where I'm like, I want to see him just in everything, do interesting things. [01:26:35] Speaker A: Put him in the odd trilogy's wallet. Put a picture of him in there with. Was it Frank Grillo, Ethan Hogg, Michael Shannon? [01:26:43] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [01:26:44] Speaker A: We'll have to add more women in our. In our. In our odd trilogy's wallet of like Libya. Nyong'o definitely is in that. [01:26:49] Speaker B: Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure. [01:26:51] Speaker A: No, I. Again, phenomenal choice. It is. It is, I guess, a bit of a spoiler alert, but it's in my top 20. [01:27:00] Speaker B: Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. [01:27:01] Speaker A: Because not only. Yeah, because I think, while I do think that there are elements of that film that like, especially the ending, which I remember that was the biggest contentious point in terms of how that film ends. I think the trifecta of Sebastian Stan, Renata Rheinz and Adam Pearson make this film just an absolute watch. Because I loved the little pulls I got from Ryan zve's performance and watching listening to you talk about what you pulled from her performance and then just both of us absolutely losing it as soon as Pearson is just taking up the screen. [01:27:35] Speaker B: Yeah. Dominates the movie. [01:27:37] Speaker A: I want a whole Oswald cover album. That's the kind of fucking film this is where it's like. It has no right having these three actors stand out so uniquely. Because again, if you watch the trailer, you just think it's gonna probably be mainly a Sebastian Stan. [01:27:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:27:52] Speaker A: With like, you know, Adam Pearson, of course, having the disfigurement that, you know, Sebastian and you, you know, Adam Pearson is going to do well. But you don't know how well Stan Ryan's vay and Pearson do until you see them build off of one. [01:28:06] Speaker B: They're an impressive little kind of mini ensemble. [01:28:09] Speaker A: I know we don't do that anymore, like, as often anymore with movies, but I'd watch this trio and fucking anything. They're phenomenal together. And I do think you are hitting a nail on the head where each one of them, I think, has a bit of an ugliness to their character in a very unique way. [01:28:25] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:28:25] Speaker A: And the director and writer of the film is really, really good. I want to see his other films. You. I think you watched. [01:28:32] Speaker B: I watched one of his other film. I think he only has one other feature. [01:28:35] Speaker A: Okay. [01:28:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:28:36] Speaker A: But yeah, Different Man's a great choice. That was. That was a lot of fun watching that in theaters because that is a very surprising film. And Sebastian Stan definitely deserves a lot of love for that performance. So, yeah. Number three. Oh, my gosh. I guess we're here. Number three. I think in all honesty, of every single film that I've seen this year, this. Of terms of films that I'd heard about throughout the year and actually gave a watch. This film being in my head a perfect film is entirely surprising to me to this day. [01:29:09] Speaker B: Okay. [01:29:09] Speaker A: It is a film that I never would have thought that because, like, this is the type of film where I feel like I would think is like, entertainment wise, like, perfect. [01:29:17] Speaker B: Right, Right. [01:29:18] Speaker A: Like I'd be selling to people like, oh, no, guys, you might not love this, but I think it's perfect in terms of watching it like that. But I am saying this with my full chest. [01:29:28] Speaker B: I'm tapping my foot because I think we might have the Same number three, hundreds of years. That's my number three. [01:29:34] Speaker A: We got it. We got it. We usually have one that we almost cross over. Hundreds of Beavers has no right being as fucking good as it is, as funny as it is. This is like the only comedy film, I think this year that had me crying. And it's a silent film. It is a silent pastiche, like an homage to Buster Keaton and Charlie Chaplin about a man who used to own a wine, like a cider, like an apple farm that a bunch of beavers fuck up that cider farm and has to become basically a trapper and basically has to start going after the beavers. [01:30:11] Speaker B: Yeah, well, and he's pursuing a woman whose father doesn't want him to pursue her. So he says you have to bring like a hundred beavers. Yeah. [01:30:21] Speaker A: Fascinating because it is a movie that in some way, shape or form hilariously brings in the idea of like a video game progression system, like logic, where it's like they use that as a way to do in a silent film sense, tell the audience what you know is going to be the trials and tribulations of our character. Where it's like the only way he can get better gear is if he has this many pelts or if he has this and that. And it's a film that was shot years ago that has technically been on road shows since 2022. [01:30:57] Speaker B: Yeah. It's been festivals for a while, but. [01:30:59] Speaker A: It finally got on streaming nationwide this year. [01:31:02] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:31:03] Speaker A: And it's now also starting to do theater runs again. And it's just so fucking funny. It's so well put together. It's so silly. It's unapologetically silly. I need to make this clear. [01:31:16] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a full on cartoon. [01:31:18] Speaker A: Yeah. It is a film that is like the. The lead actor, I can't remember his name off top of my head, but. [01:31:23] Speaker B: He is fucking Ryland Bricks and Cole. [01:31:26] Speaker A: The emotive. The emotive lengths his face will go to just basically change up. A shocked face, a happy face. He's so fucking funny. And also it's just the film that you go, oh, by the way, all the beavers in this film are dudes in suits. [01:31:42] Speaker B: Yeah. They're like. They look like sports mascots. Yeah. [01:31:45] Speaker A: And it's still a compelling, fun movie because the film goes to lengths you wouldn't expect. [01:31:52] Speaker B: Yeah. It is unbridled creativity. Bonkers in the way that it just does everything from physics to relationships to communication. [01:32:02] Speaker A: It's watching creators think of very, like, interesting, like, you know what's kind of crazy is silent films, if you did them today, you can kind of use video game logic to express the road to the finale. Or like, what if we kind of do, you know, silent film era stuff? But it almost kind of feels like an Internet. Like an early age Internet. [01:32:25] Speaker B: Yeah. It's a little YouTube poopy. [01:32:27] Speaker A: Yeah. And it works in cool. Incredibly well. [01:32:29] Speaker B: Yeah, it has. [01:32:31] Speaker A: This is a film that, like. And it's also great because while a lot of these films I'd love to see on the biggest screen possible, I think this film is phenomenal on the smallest screen. [01:32:40] Speaker B: Yeah, it works on any screen. [01:32:41] Speaker A: It works on any screen. Perfect. [01:32:42] Speaker B: You could watch this on your 2004. [01:32:44] Speaker A: Shrek TV because they fucking shot this on, like, mainly a green screen, but not in a studio. They took a green screen outside. Outside in the snow. And I constantly love how the crowd creators are like, we are so stupid. Why the fuck did we do this? But it just leads to the film having such a scrappy, like, very like. Of all the indie films we've seen this year and are definitely on our list in some way, shape or form, just feels very much indie. Just in the best way possible. It is such a funny film that is like, in an era where people go, there are no good comedies out there. Like. [01:33:20] Speaker B: Yeah, there are things. Multiple laughs a minute. I was crying constantly. Especially the first maybe hour or so is just a constant stream of downright hilarious gags. [01:33:34] Speaker A: The title shows up at the weirdest time possible, and I fucking love it. [01:33:38] Speaker B: Yeah. Isn't it like 45 minutes into the movie? [01:33:40] Speaker A: It's like 2/3 in. [01:33:41] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. Maybe over an hour. [01:33:43] Speaker A: I think right before the third act starts is when the title shows up as a title crawl. Yeah. In an era where comedies feel like they're, you know, especially studio comedies are very much lacking or like, they're just sparse in general film comedies. And also the fact that Looney Tunes feel like they're in such a weird purgatory. [01:34:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:34:03] Speaker A: Like purgatory. A place. It's good to have a film that is basically giving me the. The scratch to all those itches I haven't had in, like, a very long time. [01:34:12] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:34:13] Speaker A: It's so stupid. It's so silly. And I love everything about it. [01:34:17] Speaker B: Right. Yeah. Loved it. [01:34:19] Speaker A: Yes. All right. Mine, I guess I'm going to number two. [01:34:23] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:34:24] Speaker A: My number two, I believe, is probably the most obvious choice of the year because this film was highly anticipated. It had a huge run in IMAX theaters and even got a 70 millimeter release that like was sold out across the, like across the country. Almost very Oppenheimer esque. And it's very much a director we covered this year that we were both like, this movie has to hit it out of the park. How could it not be? It's Denis Villeneuve. It's in fact my number two film is Dune Part 2. This probably my favorite studio film, favorite blockbuster of the year. It is very much like the first time for years and years being told that the Dune story just cannot be done on a decent budget on screen. And here we are seeing Denis Villeneuve casually just go, I've proven you wrong. It's very much so. Just a beautiful, phenomenal film that honestly like it's one of the only films this year, the only film this year I got to see on proper 70 millimeter because of the Indiana State Museum. We saw it in a packed theater. Real assholes, elbows, like every single seat filled and it was like the most beautiful. Like as soon as the Hans Zimmer just like it's like the, it just like my eyes are lighting up as if I'm coming off the state, like off the seat and I'm just like, this is what films were made for. This is what theaters were made for. The experience, the energy. Because everyone's just locked in to this long ass sci fi epic that is not bombastic like a Star wars film, that is not as hopeful as like, I don't know, maybe a Star Trek film would be. [01:36:12] Speaker B: Or a Star wars film. [01:36:13] Speaker A: Oh yeah, or a Star wars film. This is very much a very dark, dramatic, beautiful take on a story that for the longest time is considered one of the best, most influential sci fi novels ever made. And I mean everyone hits across the board again. Timothee Chalamet was one of the parts that like after watching Dune Part 1, which I think is great, but is exceptionally slow because it's the slowest, quote unquote, most boring part of the book. He was the one that I think a lot of us were kind of like, well, he's got to really sell the muadib aspect because that is the most important part of that second half. The idea of the prophet and the idea of what profits, you know, put the idea of a prophet into somebody's head and just like the dangers of. [01:37:00] Speaker B: It and his dark femboy twinks, yeah, gonna be able to pull that off. [01:37:05] Speaker A: And man, he's fucking incredible. Like his. I think it's now gone all over the Internet for just months and months. But just like his first Muadib speech is phenomenal. And he's like low, like trying to go kind of. [01:37:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:37:21] Speaker A: And it just from him to I think Zendaya just having like. And again, considering that the first time we see her is basically just for five seconds of the first film, it's good to see her be like, yeah, this no surprise you're here because you're great. [01:37:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:37:36] Speaker A: And just you know, Austin Butler just being a little, little monochromatic freak for like most of the film. And you know, Florence Pugh just being like, oh, by the way, I'm here and I'm great. [01:37:46] Speaker B: Right. [01:37:46] Speaker A: Just a cast of like one of the best cast of the year. Just being nonchalant about how good they are and just pulling out one of the best blockbusters that I think from this point forward, you know, will be hard to top theater experience wise. So yeah, Doom Part two is my number two. What about you? [01:38:03] Speaker B: My number two is. We've already talked about it a little bit. It's the substance. [01:38:09] Speaker A: I was wondering if it's your number two. [01:38:10] Speaker B: Yeah, it was a little bit of a toss up between this and my number one. I've gone back and forth over the, over the year. But yeah, the substance. I don't know. What more can I say than. It's like a full throated, like violent, gross out exploitation film that also happens to be a beautifully prescient comment on beauty standards and self image and the kind of emotional and psychological rot that is that inflicts people because of them. [01:38:48] Speaker A: Especially the female perspective. [01:38:50] Speaker B: Exactly. Which is again phenomenal. You know, it's a picture of Dorian Gray for the modern era. [01:38:58] Speaker A: It does not hide that. Does not hide that. [01:39:00] Speaker B: Anyway. And it's just, I mean it's visually stunning. It's a beautiful soundscape. It's disgusting. It's high energy throughout the entire thing. There's like not a lull in the movie. No. And it's a long movie too. [01:39:15] Speaker A: It's like nearly two and a half. [01:39:16] Speaker B: Yeah. And Demi Moore is fucking incredible. She will inevitably be snubbed by most of the awards groups. A horror movie. I loved the effects of it. The cinematography, the editing, the score. Everything about this movie is fucking awesome. And at the end of the day, it's a silly gross out horror movie. And I just love that something like that was as good as it is, was as well conceived as it is and is as pitch perfect in delivering its intended psychological payload as it is. Just a great, great movie. [01:39:56] Speaker A: Yeah. Oh, absolutely. The substance, man. Talk about Mubi having like just Bat after bat, having like decision to leave a few years back and then this year having the substance, and the substance being, I think they're mostly popular distribution, distributed film. Yeah. Substance is a great choice. And before we get to our number ones, we got to talk about some dishonorable mentions. You know, again, we've been very nice. We have been talking and just like, you know, gushing about the best films of the year as well as some films that maybe didn't make it as much but we still liked. Now it's time to talk about the films that we despise or maybe just like our, you know, make our heads feel numb anytime we think about it. And I will definitely go first and I will speed round this. And there's a specific reason why I'm speedrunning this. [01:40:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:40:45] Speaker A: Because to be honest, one of our trilogies slated for the year, for this year that we want to do, all three of these films are in this list in some way, shape or form. But my number five of the worst of the year is Borderlands. [01:41:01] Speaker B: Yeah. Okay. [01:41:01] Speaker A: It is a film that, you know, I think it's. I mean, it's easily one of the worst films of the year because of the reasons why you think it would be. Where it's like, this is basically a PG13 version of an M rated game that is considered, you know, very crass, very gory, very, you know, vulgar and very silly. And you make it a PG13, almost family friendly version of that. Already a no go. Yeah. It's also a film done by, you know, Eli Roth who, you know, is very hit or miss, depending on who you ask. Then you also find out that that film was basically taken away from him and then reshot and recut into a much more basically oatmeal version of whatever it could have been. But when it was like possibly a rated R film. Yeah, it's the type of film where the guy who wrote the initial script to this movie was the guy that wrote and helped Showrun Chernobyl and the adaptation of the Last of Us. And he asked for a pseudonym because he didn't want his name attached to this movie. That's the type of film Borderlands is. It is. It's dog shit. It's boring. It's very much exactly what we both expected. I think to an extent it very much feels like it has the energy of like a 90s film that is trying way too hard to do something that clearly doesn't have any understanding of what his appeal is. So, yeah, that's my Number five, Do you want to go back and forth? [01:42:26] Speaker B: You just want me to speed run right through? [01:42:29] Speaker A: Alrighty. Number four is Kraven the Hunter, a film that at its best is bland as shit. At its worst, it feels unfinished despite the amount of times it was pushed back. It is a film that feels like if it came out 10 years ago, it would have been a Jason Bourne knockoff and maybe would have been better like that. Aaron Taylor Johnson is awful, but I don't blame him. Ariana DeBose is awful. [01:42:54] Speaker B: I do not blame her. She did the thing. [01:42:57] Speaker A: Alessandro Nivola is fucking hilariously awful. [01:43:01] Speaker B: Has truly the most random hissing in that one scene. [01:43:05] Speaker A: There is one scene where he's at a windowsill and he just screams in the funniest way possible. [01:43:10] Speaker B: I do think Naval is the only one in the movie who understands what movie he's in probably. [01:43:15] Speaker A: And especially since he's in one of the technically one of the best films of the year. It's like funny to see him in this. It also has one of the worst and also funniest designs for a final main villain I think I've ever seen in a superhero slash comic book film. [01:43:32] Speaker B: Yeah, number three also worth saying Craven. Also in my bottom. [01:43:37] Speaker A: Cool. Just start with number three. I want to say I'm so sorry, Evan. My number three is of course Venom the Last Dance. I think a film. The only reason why I am meaner to this than I am to Kraven is because Venom 3 is. Venom is the third film in a series that doesn't have this just mundane of films. Even though I don't really like the first Venom, that is still a movie. And Venom 2 is stupid fun. And I just think Venom 3 doesn't offer really anything personally. [01:44:09] Speaker B: Sure. [01:44:11] Speaker A: My number two hilariously is. Was not my number two until right before we recorded because I forgot we even saw this movie. Not only did we see this movie, we fucking covered it on the podcast as a film that is so bad that the only reason why the first film isn't on this worst list is because it came out in 2023. My number two worst film of the year is Rebel Moon Part 2, the Scar Giver. [01:44:39] Speaker B: Also my number two number two is. [01:44:41] Speaker A: That and then my number one. My number one is truly fascinating because this is the first film new film I saw in 2024. [01:44:51] Speaker B: Ah yeah. [01:44:52] Speaker A: In. In this year. January was my catch up of all and which usually is how January is. January was catching up on all the Oscar nominated to possibly going to be at the Oscars. Films the awards were constantly giving to others and whatnot. So February, there was a film that looked absolutely bad. And we thought, oh, this would be fun to see in a group. And it was fun to see in a group. The problem is, though, and the only reason why Rebel Moon is number two instead of number one is because at least Rebel Moon was not put in theaters. [01:45:26] Speaker B: It wasn't that bold. [01:45:28] Speaker A: My number one is an 80 million dollar film that boldly thought that someone, at least a single person out in the. In the atmosphere wanted this film. And that is Madame Web. [01:45:40] Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. [01:45:41] Speaker A: Madame Web is shocking in a way that I don't even. [01:45:46] Speaker B: Stunningly incomprehensible. Like. [01:45:48] Speaker A: Yes. [01:45:50] Speaker B: Yeah. Easily the most, like technically incompetent film put in theaters this year. [01:45:55] Speaker A: Does it take place in the time period that it does? Why is the villain look horrendously like a just inverse Spider Man? Why the fuck did you not. [01:46:08] Speaker B: Why did you use this movie? [01:46:09] Speaker A: Why'd you make this movie? Why'd you use shots from Sam Raimi, Spider Man? What is the. What is the goal here? And the thing is the crazy why it's number one is we don't know. [01:46:20] Speaker B: Why is the villain entirely ADR'd? [01:46:22] Speaker A: And yet it's still. It doesn't sound like a different actor. [01:46:26] Speaker B: No, it's him. He ADR'd himself and he sounds exact. [01:46:29] Speaker A: Exactly. It is a baffling film that I know a lot of our friends wouldn't give this moniker because it was funny and it was funny, but I hate to say it, this movie just fucking is abhorrent and is genuinely such a bad movie. And this really, I think, deserves number one because in the span of two months after this film's release, John Mulaney made fun of this movie at the fucking Oscars. [01:46:55] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:46:56] Speaker A: Like, there has never been a film that bad, I think, that has had that much of a turnaround that the Oscars makes fun of it and everyone in the theater fucking laughs. Like everyone. [01:47:08] Speaker B: Yeah. I mean, Dakota Johnson was making fun of the movie on the press tour for the movie. [01:47:12] Speaker A: Actors who have been constantly said are never really on the pulse of what is coming out, what's bad. Because why would you be. You're constantly working to hear an Oscars crowd laugh uproariously at a Madame Web joke. I think cements. Madame Web is the worst film of 2024. Is that your number one too? [01:47:33] Speaker B: No, Madame Web actually dodged out of my number one spot on sheer. Like I said, technically, I do think it's the most incompetent film of the year scrapes by on sheer, like, lunacy entertainment value. Not a movie I would ever want to watch again. But I was stricken with how wildly bad it was that I was like, you know what? I have had worse experiences this year. It is in my five though. So I won't, I won't prattle on too much about the films that I've already said were in my five that you've already, that we've already talked about. But my number. I'll say this as kind of a preface for my 5. I tend to use ratings like 5 star ratings on letterboxd as kind of my little stab at something like an objective assessment. Nothing in film criticism or any opinion is objective, but I use my star rating to kind of articulate this is what I think this movie is worth. This is what I think it's actual value is. You know, and then when I go and rank the films throughout the year in comparison to one another, it's a little bit more emotional, a little bit more subjective. And just like this is how I felt about it. This one is maybe a better film, but it pissed me off more, so it goes lower. Yeah. And so my number five is a good example of that. Is, Is Joker fully adieu. [01:49:07] Speaker A: Yep. [01:49:08] Speaker B: Just scraping probably objectively not, you know, in the bottom movies of the year, but just such a cop out and a waste of time and a rejection of what was interesting about the first film. Just Todd Phillips revealing himself as a hack asshole. [01:49:30] Speaker A: It's my number six. If we did like top, like worst. [01:49:33] Speaker B: Six of the year, it's my number six, number four. And number three being our Sony offerings, Kraven and Madame We. My number two edging out Madame Web on sheer like, irritating worthlessness is Rebel Moon Part 2. And my number one worst, which again another example of probably not technically the worst film of the year, but the one that irritated me the most, Borderlands. [01:50:05] Speaker A: I was wondering. [01:50:05] Speaker B: I knew it was just such a waste of every resource it had. A waste of money, a waste of time, a waste of a good cast. Not even if they were, you know, not necessarily good casting, but a talented cast. Just a movie that does nothing, absolutely nothing with anything. It has, you know, I'm a big Borderlands fan of the games. [01:50:29] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:50:29] Speaker B: What pissed me off was not that it's like, you know, oh, it doesn't, it's not accurate. [01:50:35] Speaker A: The story doesn't really matter. [01:50:37] Speaker B: Yeah. But you're making a movie about the 1 million different wacky guns video game and all of the guns are just regular guns. [01:50:47] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:50:48] Speaker B: There's one gun that spins around. It's like three barrels, but they all shoot the same. They're all just bullets. The action is absolutely uninspired. Not even mediocre. Just there. [01:51:00] Speaker A: Yeah. [01:51:02] Speaker B: Everything in this movie was an afterthought. Every single thing. And it like, it's just. You know, Roth, you just made Thanksgiving. Like you finally got some goodwill with Thanksgiving last year or two years ago. [01:51:14] Speaker A: Well, it's funny to say that because Thanksgiving was made after. [01:51:17] Speaker B: After this. Right, right. But you just won some goodwill only to squash it with this garbage production that should never have been made. [01:51:24] Speaker A: And to clarify, too, my worst of the year list, all except for Madame Web are like half a star. [01:51:31] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:51:31] Speaker A: So, like, this is really like, I. [01:51:33] Speaker B: Get Borderlands, I gave a whole one star, and I'm still making it my worst. Cause I gave Rebel Moon and Madame Web half a star because they're just like, more technically incompetent. [01:51:43] Speaker A: Madame Web is actually my only zero of these. [01:51:45] Speaker B: Yeah, sure. [01:51:46] Speaker A: I was like, I can't even. I don't know what the fuck, but I get it. I remember us sitting in the theater and just being like, well, man, we didn't even expect anything. And yet here we are, we're in a Dolby Cinema watching this fucking trash. [01:52:03] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:52:05] Speaker A: Oh, man. Hey, at least Cate Blanchett did tar after that. Good for her. [01:52:10] Speaker B: Good for her. [01:52:10] Speaker A: That's. [01:52:11] Speaker B: That is again, shows she's got like, an action movie coming out next year. A spy action. [01:52:19] Speaker A: God, If Soderbergh does three films in 2025, we're definitely gonna do a trilogy on that. Because that's insane. [01:52:24] Speaker B: 2025, Soderbergh Trilogy. [01:52:26] Speaker A: Yeah. But, yeah, that is our worst films of the year. Now it's time to talk about our best films. And the best part again, why we keep doing this, in my opinion, is. I know. I think I definitely. [01:52:36] Speaker B: I'm sure you know what mine is. [01:52:37] Speaker A: And I don't know if you know what mine are. [01:52:39] Speaker B: I doubt it. [01:52:42] Speaker A: Because it's funny because again, because I 100% agree in terms of. Just like, there is at a certain point where like when you're gauging stuff on letterbox or you're kind of reviewing stuff, there is kind of an in between of like rating it almost in an objective sense to a degree, but also subjectively, it's the emotion surrounding that where it could fluctuate as you go. [01:53:03] Speaker B: Well, and the kind of. The lasting impression. [01:53:05] Speaker A: Yeah much. [01:53:06] Speaker B: It's with you and that sort of thing. [01:53:09] Speaker A: And because of that. This is the film that I would argue because, like, I try my best when I do reviews and stuff, especially ratings, try to find the best way to have that nice, you know, kind of balance between the object. Objectivity about the good stuff as well as the subjectivity in terms of my experience not clouding, you know, if there is issues with the film or whatnot. Which is why I think, you know, challengers. While it was at one point I thought a 10 out of 10. I think when I took more time to think about it, I kind of dropped it down a little bit. [01:53:39] Speaker B: Sure. [01:53:40] Speaker A: But my number One is a film that, you know, I genuinely was kind of horrified to find, feared that I had my number one because we have so many people, including yourself, who enjoyed the film but didn't love it. And I was worried that I was gonna be the one person, like, in our space or like, in our friend group who was just like, oh, fuck. Why? Why is this hitting me? [01:54:05] Speaker B: And it's not anybody else. [01:54:07] Speaker A: Yes, yes. Yes, I was. It's when Keanu pulled that gun, I. [01:54:10] Speaker B: Really did when he said damn and shot a child. [01:54:13] Speaker A: But I will say that, like. And this is very true, and I don't think Matt knows this. Our friend Matt Hurt, who did the Kurosawa episode, where his number one film, I believe, is the same as mine. And when I saw his review and I read and I really gravitated and just resonated what he was saying as I was writing my review, I was like, well, fuck. So this is real, this film. This film is technically a horror film. It. It's a horror film in the most abstract, existential way possible. It's more closer to. I'm thinking of ending things than any other horror film that came out this year. Yeah, it is a film that, when I saw it in theaters, it felt like I was like, had. My heart was being grabbed out of my chest. I was uncomfortable. I had seen it by myself. I was having an existential crisis while watching it. And yet I was just blown away by its haunting soundtrack, its beautiful lead performances, and just a narrative that feels so modern and niche in a sense, where it's like. I don't really think every generation can understand what this story is trying to tell, but I think if it really hits you, it just hits you like a train. So my number one film is. I believe it's Jane Schuburn's or Schoenburn's. I Saw the TV Glow is a film that is basically about a man who is looking back at his life and talking. Basically a coming of age story about a man looking at the first real friend he ever made in high school, as well as the thing that got them, you know, to become friends. Which is an old TV show that used to run on like kind of Nickelodeon. Of course they don't really have it called the Pink Opaque, which is like very much. It's like an. Are you afraid of the dark? Very much a teen show. And it is interesting to watch how the movie, the trailer does its best. That it can't really explain what the film is about, but really can't. [01:56:19] Speaker B: It is a mouthful conceptual. [01:56:21] Speaker A: It's a lot conceptually, yes. And what is there is a film that is genuinely about the beauty of what nostalgia can bring to a person, as well as how it can be of a hindrance, how it can be dangerous, how horrifying it can be to not feel comfortable in your own skin. This is very much. And again, this is. This was really what threw me off because this does not describe me in any way, shape or form. And I'm not going through this personally. This is a trans narrative because the director is them themselves a trans person. And have basically have implemented a lot of the Truman of age story and the kind of like the idea of body dysmorphia and not feeling comfortable in your own skin. But like there are ideas in a trans experience that I think if you're willing to open up to, then you can be cis, you can be heteronormative in any way. You can really gravitate to the idea of the sense of like a loneliness. [01:57:20] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:57:21] Speaker A: Or like just a fear that like you are feeling something that no one else is feeling until you meet someone else. [01:57:26] Speaker B: The isolation that, yeah, you're the only person going through this or that. That you are lesser than everybody around you for it and things like that. [01:57:35] Speaker A: And it leads to some really interesting decisions that I can understand. Could put people off. But I really love the two lead performances. Both names. I think it's Bridget. Gosh, they're phenomenal in this. It's Justice Smith and then Keanu Reeves daughter and Bill and Ted iii. [01:57:56] Speaker B: Right. [01:57:57] Speaker A: They are non binary and they are phenomenal in the film. As well as Justice Smith, who I think I would argue is like his best performance in this movie. He is just very odd. [01:58:07] Speaker B: Bridget Lundy Payne. [01:58:08] Speaker A: Bridget Lundy Payne and Justice Smith, they're both phenomenal in the movie. And it's the type of film where the horrifying moments are just like the interpersonal moments in Family gatherings or friends. In the conversations you have with friends that you don't know, is this being too vulnerable? Am I being too much like myself? It is a film that is like, constantly being like, if you are one of those people like I am at times where you feel like you are constantly feeling like you're saying, I'm sorry too much or you're not being fully open even though you do talk to people, it is a film that just feels very much like it will just grab you and it'll open you up and just make you just look at things so much more differently than you did before the film. And yeah, it says a lot that this is a film that like, Yes, a lot of people have not really vibed with it well. And that's totally fine. Again, film is subjective, but it's been very phenomenal to see. I think like, Scorsese and I think even Spielberg have outright said, like, these movie. This movie has been like a one to watch this year. [01:59:11] Speaker B: Yeah. [01:59:11] Speaker A: And then like, you know, of course, Matt Hurt has talked about it also. Richard. Richard Probst Rice. [01:59:19] Speaker B: Right, right. [01:59:19] Speaker A: He also. [01:59:20] Speaker B: Independent critic. [01:59:21] Speaker A: Yeah, he just had. I think he just had a video with. With another friend of the podcast, Christopher Lloyd, where they talked about their favorite films of the year kind of battling back and forth. And I think those Richards. And it's just been like one of those films where it's like. It hilariously has become a point where, like, it wasn't intentionally meant to be a film that almost feels like you are a fan of the pink opaque, where like, you're finding. Slowly finding people who really love that film. But it has become in the last few months, when I've run into somebody who has seen the movie and also really gravitates towards it, there's just. There's an energy there that is such an easy connection of like, I get it. And I love that you like that too. And just. It's a film that just was shocking and it just freaked me out and just was like, what the. I'm watching this on like a 2pm on like a fucking Saturday. What's going on? I should be feeling this way. And I'm walking out to like, the sunlight and I'm like, I don't like this. [02:00:18] Speaker B: But yeah, I mean, it just very. [02:00:21] Speaker A: Much of all the films this year, it was the most emotionally resonant and I wasn't expecting that. And it has stuck with me since I saw it in like, May, May and June. [02:00:29] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, it's a. It's a movie that thrives on its specificity. And I think that's, you know, that's what you're talking about with, like, when you meet another person who really dug the film, you're like, oh, I see a connection between us now because of our enjoyment of this movie because it is so specific in the ideas it's tying together. And the, you know, it's a movie I'm super glad exists even if I didn't, you know, emotionally, viscerally resonate with it because it's tying together these ideas in a way that's clearly new to audiences. Like, it's clear why somebody like people like Spielberg and Scorsese sing its praises because their whole career has been about pushing the medium forward and putting to screen ideas and attitudes that audiences weren't ready for or expected. And it's a really transgressive movie in that way. And I think the way it weaves nostalgia and the pit, the triumphs and tribulations of escapism while also speaking to the trans experience in a way that's, you know, so specific that not everybody is going to get. [02:01:54] Speaker A: No, not at all. [02:01:55] Speaker B: Is really, you know, I mean, that's. That's why, you know, that's why we love cinema. And, you know, it's just a movie that embodies that. [02:02:02] Speaker A: Yeah. And it's one where it's very much. And I think shows just how phenomenal of a just auteur Jane is because she is able to make a film that is basically talking about the dangers of, like, being, you know, so having nostalgia be kind of an ingrained personality trait to a degree, but also showing the importance of having the conversation about, like, how even pieces of art can be the silly TV shows we saw as kids. Because sometimes those TV shows lead to a community and lead to friendships and lead to understanding oneself that, like. Yeah. You might not remember the show in full or you might not even remember how that show actually was. [02:02:44] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:02:45] Speaker A: But what it did for you mattered. And I think that is. Yeah, that is just a phenomenal thing that just shows like. This is technically her third film, her first film. You can't really watch anywhere. It's like a. It's like a pseudo documentary about, like, the Slender man craze. I think you can kind of see it. [02:03:01] Speaker B: She. [02:03:01] Speaker A: She might. They might have posted it on YouTube. Sorry, yeah. Jane, is they. [02:03:06] Speaker B: Them? [02:03:07] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. Apologies if I said she her, but I mean, it's. They are. You know, they did that documentary as well as they did. We're all going to the. We are all going to the world. Yeah. Which I watched. Yeah, I was gonna say I watched that right before. Speaking about a film that is very specific to a certain generation, that is a film I feel like is made for young millennials and Gen Z in a way that is like, damn. Just. I never thought of it in this kind of light. And yeah, I'm excited to. It's like one of those films where it's like, I'm excited to watch it again, but also scared because of, like, even the things that the film talks about almost meta. Narratively become like, shit, this film could sometimes could even become this. [02:03:46] Speaker B: Right, right. [02:03:46] Speaker A: But it's like, really, it's one of those things where, like, you know, I've always said that, like, you know, maybe even if a film only has. Even. Even if a year only has one film like this, I say it's a good year. [02:03:57] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:03:57] Speaker A: And I think we've had a lot of great films this year, and this is my number one. And I'm sticking to it. And I believe I know what your number one is, but I'm sure you do. Very excited to hear your take on it. Because I. I mean, I think the. If I know what it is, I haven't actually seen. I haven't heard you talk about it. [02:04:14] Speaker B: You 100 know what it is. [02:04:16] Speaker A: Okay. [02:04:17] Speaker B: It's. And, you know, this is one. I think this. I don't know if this happened last year or the year before. It's happened before. Where my number one film is a film that unfortunately, like, you, you know, you have not had the opportunity to see because it has not released wide. [02:04:31] Speaker A: No. Yeah. [02:04:32] Speaker B: And I was lucky enough to get to see it early through my press connections. But it's. It's the Brutalist. Brady Corbett's the Brutalist, which is, you know, anybody who's plugged into, you know, film circles and the awards race and everything, like, is, you know, maybe the least surprising thing on my list, given the rent, the love, the widespread love that this movie has gotten, you know, and I also. I also come at it feeling kind of. I don't know how to put this. Maybe. Maybe it's a slight sense of misplaced guilt that, you know, it's not a movie that has emote, like, viscerally resonated with me the way that, like, let's say I saw the TV Glow did for you. And a lot of times my favorite movie of the year is that. But this is a case where it's just a movie that is so Technically, well done and so beautifully woven as this human tale that it's like, this is not a movie that's specifically appealing to me. It just hits every fucking mark. Gorgeous. It's completely transportive and immersive and, you know, I mean, maybe my personal specific into it is my, like, kind of dormant love of architecture, which is not a hobby or an interest I, like, pursue in any material way. But, you know, we were raised in a town where architecture was very important and kind of a secret backbone to the town. And so I think I've just always had a love for stories about that or, you know, things about architecture. And, yeah, the Brutalist is about an architect, a fictional architect. It's a period piece. He's an immigrant. And it's kind of an immigrant story and a story of, you know, power and oppression and also kind of a backdoor, like, indictment of capitalism in a way that was really surprising to me how that kind of revealed itself to me after watching it. It was not something I was thinking about while watching it. But it's. Adrien Brody is absolutely incredible, as is Guy Pierce, which is awesome, because I feel like he hasn't done, like, a good movie in a long time. [02:06:59] Speaker A: He's all over the place. Yeah, it's good to see him in. [02:07:02] Speaker B: A film, and he's incredible in. And, yeah, it's also kind of stunningly straightforward. You have seen this immigrant story before, but you have not necessarily seen all the layers folded into it that this movie is dealing with. And it's just a huge film, yet incredibly small and intimate. [02:07:30] Speaker A: It has been such a weird year for a 24. Just because it's like, this is a 24, right? [02:07:36] Speaker B: It is. This was the other film that I got 24 hours to watch. And so I watched it first because it's three and a half hours. [02:07:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Again, there's probably some people out there that heard that and shivered because, yeah, that's a time commitment. [02:07:50] Speaker B: You know, it's this year's Oppenheimer in that it's three hours that just clicks by. [02:07:55] Speaker A: But it's like, I remember halfway through the year, actually think it was during the summer when we saw Maxine together, that we both were like, this is such a weird year for a 24. Because, like, what else do they have to release this year only to really find out in the back half of the year? A24 has basically shadow released mixed with, like, full blown released, like, four or five films distributed. And they're all over the place. I mean, like, Y2K just came out. [02:08:21] Speaker B: A few K. Yes. [02:08:23] Speaker A: Ago. But like at the same time as the Brutalist is getting like a New York LA release. Queer is a Day 24 film. [02:08:30] Speaker B: Nora was just a month or two ago. [02:08:32] Speaker A: Nora was also there. It just like, is it Noira 24? [02:08:36] Speaker B: I thought so. Or is it neon? [02:08:38] Speaker A: I thought it was neon. But even so, like, it's funny to say I Saw the TV Glow is also one of their shadow releases. Like it's a 24 has had an interesting year because now we're at a point where there are the public, general public, A24 films that are getting more appeal and then there are these like, I guess artsy a 20, which is. [02:08:57] Speaker B: Hilarious because they've always. They've kind of cornered the market on big arts. [02:09:00] Speaker A: That's so fascinating about hearing you talk about the Brutalists is like, it's very rare that we get just that much of like a film because every year there are at least two or three films that kind of run on the same energy that the Brutalist does marketing wise, where it's like, this is a masterpiece. You're going to be thinking about this for years to come. And so like we have seen enough of those that we have, I think both been kind of burned when like during awards season where they're just like, oh, this is the best thing in the world. You should check this out. So to hear all that from you and also see your review as well as see other people's reviews and the fact that like, you know, the film is constantly just like it is ramping up in love all the way to like a definite January release where it's gonna blow up again. But truly this will sound silly, but I think really cemented to me just how much this film really just works on every level is when we saw Nosferatu together. We saw it with your wife and one of my dear friends, Emma, who I love to death. And we've been friends for years and years. So the fact that she looked me in the eye and said that she would not only recommend a three plus hour film, that she would love to see it in theaters. [02:10:15] Speaker B: Yes. I think that is about architecture, mind you, that she said she had no intention of watching until and then I put it on and she got sucked into it. [02:10:25] Speaker A: That I think speaks the world to just how the film transcends from like the quote unquote usual crowd that would go for this to being like a story that could really work on any level. [02:10:36] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:10:37] Speaker A: And especially the fact, yeah, it's a film that has, like, actors and actresses that, like, it feels like I haven't seen in forever with, like, Adrien Brody, Felicity Jones, Guy Pearce, and again, we just talked about him. But Alessandro Nivolo, just being in the film too, and apparently being phenomenal, doing great in the movie. Like, it's. Yeah. I am not surprised. This is your number one. I am just now very fucking jealous. I can't watch it. [02:11:00] Speaker B: Yeah, it's, you know, like you said, we see so many movies and so many are marketed as, like you said, masterpieces or big awards contenders. It's like, you know, you almost want to be grumpy about a movie like this getting so much love, but it's like, deserves it, you know, it's good. [02:11:17] Speaker A: It's good. [02:11:18] Speaker B: I'm past the point, really, in my cinephilia, if that can be said dirty. But I guess aesthetically right, I'm past the point in that where I, you know, really enjoy seeing, like, awards sweeps. Like, I really love the idea of an Oscars where a different movie wins every award. Oh, yeah, like that. Just because I love to see that variety of recognition. But yeah, Brutalist is one of those movies that could. Could get nominated and win in any category, just about. Gosh, aside from maybe visual effects. [02:11:51] Speaker A: Yeah, love that. Well, it's great to hear. And I'm. Gosh, what a fucking list. I love that. I love your list. I mean, again, go through your list again. Just go through, like, from 10 to 1 just to give everyone a recap and I'll do mine again. [02:12:04] Speaker B: Yes. So my number 10 was in a violent nature. Number nine, Mars Express. Number eight, Atom. Number seven, Rebel Ridge. Six, falling in love like in movies. Five, Terrifier three. Four, a different man. Three, hundreds of beavers. Two, the substance and one, the brutalist. [02:12:24] Speaker A: Fantastic. Again, a wild list. [02:12:27] Speaker B: And I love it. [02:12:27] Speaker A: I love that's your list because it's like, that is a quite a surprising list in what I would have thought maybe. [02:12:33] Speaker B: Yeah, I mean, for me, definitely. [02:12:35] Speaker A: Because in my head I thought like, Terrifier three. I was like, what? He really. Would he really put that as top? [02:12:41] Speaker B: Is he so bold? [02:12:43] Speaker A: Is he so bold? But yeah, that's, I mean, again, phenomenal list. I think great across the board, especially ones I hadn't heard. I think you sold incredibly well and it's rude that you didn't tell me about them before it happens. [02:12:54] Speaker B: Save some secrets. [02:12:56] Speaker A: Oh, that's true. That's true. And just to recap, my number 10, my number 10 is queer. My number 9 is look back my number 8 is the wild robot. 7. Challengers, 6. Sing sing. 4. Nosferatu 3. Hundreds of beavers 2. Dune part 2. And then number 1 is I saw the TV glow. [02:13:15] Speaker B: Well, and, you know, this is why I love this. Doing this episode every year, because it's like, there's a lot of movies on your list that I also loved that just couldn't fit. You know, it's a competitive field every year, and they may have been in my 20, but couldn't have been in my 10. And there's ones that I never would have, you know, even considered on my top 10. But, like, when we talk about them, it's like, okay, I 100% get it. I saw the TV Glow is a movie that, like, I am just thrilled that, like, you know, you and our friend Matt and Richard, like, just adored to death and, you know, that there are movies like that that are so varied and specific in their approach that, like, one person's gonna love it and the other person is gonna be cold on it. The beauty is being able to see that love on somebody else. [02:14:10] Speaker A: It's always fun because it always tends to happen where you think the film that is not made for you or just being like, I don't think maybe this film will work for me. I don't know. And then you watch it and go, holy fuck. This movie's very much like, I'm in. I'm coded into this movie. It feels like when I don't understand why. It's always fun to find those surprises. And I think this year had a decent amount of those. [02:14:31] Speaker B: Yeah, it's. [02:14:32] Speaker A: I mean, it's funny that you talk about, like, you know, the ones that kind of nearly make your top 10, as well as, like, the ones that you, like, you love, but couldn't, like, you know, put it on this episode, because this episode would be 10 hours long. I wanted to talk about, you know, my. You know, now that we have the website, this will be our first year with the website in its entirety from January to December. And I'm so excited for, you know, articles and reviews and quickies we'll do in the future. And I just wanted to use the episode to be my announcement, I guess, for, like, one of my first articles, if not my first article for the year, because I think when I usually. Yeah, Scoop. Because I have not told Andy this. I told him before that I had a surprise, but, like, it's. Unfortunately, it's not a present. I already gave him his presents for Christmas. But, yes, Cole. Yeah, it was. It Was it was a box that said the Brutalist on it and you opened it and it was just cold. [02:15:26] Speaker B: Ground up in the disc tray of the. [02:15:28] Speaker A: Usually my process for doing top tens is that I usually do a top 20. Usually I go from one to ten. And then I'm like, you know, I'm curious. There are so many great films that I, you know, would have thought could have been in my top 10 or would have loved to have put in my top 10, but just. Just did not hit that barrier. [02:15:47] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:15:47] Speaker A: Like, for example, I think last year or maybe the year prior, the Boy in the Heron won Best Animated Feature and that was in my top 20, but it didn't hit my top 10. Stuff like that. And so I. This is not a new concept because I know other articles have done this, but I think I'm. My first articles is going to be my bottom 10. So, like from 11 to. [02:16:08] Speaker B: Oh, okay. [02:16:08] Speaker A: Because we have a top 10. [02:16:10] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:16:10] Speaker A: But if your. Your bottom 10 would be technically your quote, unquote, worst of your favorite of the year. So, like, I'm going to basically talk about my 11 through 20 films that I think are all pretty much great to really good that I think, you know, should still be watched even though this wasn't on this episode. And spoiler alert, you know, I. There are. Rebel Ridge is in my top 20, a different man's in my top 20. And to be honest, there is one film in my top 20 that if you had told me it was in my top 20, actually two or three of those films, if you had told, was in my top 25 months ago, I would call you a liar. So I think it'd be fun to really talk about the films that like, you know, we clearly recommend the 20 films we put in our. Both of our respective top tens. But it'd be fun to talk about the films that maybe if you haven't heard a lot of our top 10 films and you go and check those out, my top, my 11 to 20 might have a bit more films you've maybe heard or just kind of like are like, oh, I was wondering about that, but didn't give it a chance. [02:17:06] Speaker B: Right. [02:17:07] Speaker A: So yeah, I think it'll be fun to do that and kind of like do that as like a palate cleanser for the year to kind of get that. [02:17:12] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. [02:17:13] Speaker A: Because usually I do like a letterboxed like 10, like 11 to 20. Because especially that top 10 spot is. [02:17:20] Speaker B: Always kind of, you know, contentious. [02:17:21] Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And I will say, like, you know, my number 11 is like really was fighting for that top 10 spot was a real pain. Which we kind of talked a little bit in this episode. And so it'll be fun to really talk about that as well as just, you know, discuss again. There is. It is a good year of film where even in your top 20 you're just like, ah, could it be here? Fuck, I don't know, maybe this or that. Like, I had more sevens and eights, definitely more sevens. But like, I had enough eights that I was making my 11 to 20. I was like, well, fuck, did I like that more than this or just that? Like, compared to my top 10 where it's like my top 10 was like almost like fill in a blank Mad Lib. Like, well, this is this, this, this, this. Literally my 10 was the hardest thing. Queer. As much as I love, I had a really good time with that movie. I know as soon as I see the brutalist, it is gonna get pushed off. Yeah. But yeah, that is our. [02:18:18] Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, that's. That's awesome that you're doing that. I'm excited to, to read the, the spread of love that you're able to kind of reach past your top 10. Because I mean, similarly, it's, it's a, it can be a bitch and a half to whittle your favorites down to 10 and consider which ones you're not gonna talk about. So yeah, I, I relate to the restrictiveness of a top 10 list and the desire to express your love for maybe the films that, you know, are a little more imperfect but still had a profound, you know, impact on you to some degree. [02:18:51] Speaker A: Yeah, because I think in the past, I think either you or I at times have done like, technically, what are our 11 to 15 where we're like. [02:18:58] Speaker B: This is like, yeah, it's kind of honorable mention. [02:19:01] Speaker A: Yeah. And I think, you know, that makes sense now, but I think now, like then, but now since we have, you know, know the website and we're really excited to write more and have more people on to do episodes with as well as do, you know, pieces and maybe more ideas for that. I think it just would be fun to just, you know, in a, in a month that's usually a month for us of catch up versus like, you know, watching the films that maybe have been on our watch list that didn't come out from last year but like, yeah, years prior and also using this month to catch up on episodes we will be discussing. And down the line it's always good to kind of have an article in between where it's like, hey, you know, maybe you haven't heard of these films, or maybe you have heard of these and you haven't given a try yet. Please do. Because again, every year kind of has at least one or two surprises. And to be honest, my biggest surprise of this year is my number 20 in my top 20. And I never, ever, ever in my fucking life would have ever expected this film in my top 20. This was a film that, like, Adam sold me on it, and he's like, dude, I'm not fucking with you. Like, the last 30 minutes of this movie was, like, genuinely, like, I thought top tier. I think you'd really like it. I was like, okay. And then I watched it, like, casually. And then I went, well, fuck, this is actually really well made. And now I'm mad that it came out the way that it did. Okay, so, yeah, I'm excited. I'm excited. Yeah. So I would say tune in in the next few weeks. I'll have, like, my bottom 10. And, you know, if, of course, Andy, if you would like to do yours as well, that's fine. Of course it's fine. [02:20:37] Speaker B: Well, but I want to make sure. [02:20:38] Speaker A: Just, like, I don't want you to feel like you have to, because I'm doing it. [02:20:41] Speaker B: No, no, no. Yes. But. But I am thrilled that you made such an announcement that you're, you know, doing kind of an additional expansion of your year in review. Because I was actually toying with doing my own year in review that rather than, you know, kind of building out my ranking to a 20, going inward a little bit more and reflecting more on just my own personal movie watching of the year, the films that spoke to me, whether they came out this year or not. [02:21:16] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:21:17] Speaker B: And, you know, also kind of looking ahead to my relationship with films and the stuff I want to check off my list in the coming year. [02:21:26] Speaker A: Oh, shit, now you're stinging me. I'm excited to read this. [02:21:31] Speaker B: Our friend Evan Dossey, who guest on the POD for the Venom episode, he has done a lot of kind of personal movie journaling on his website in the last few months. And I was like, you know what I really love? It's a great read. He's. He. You know, the more Evan's one of those that the more personal he gets with his criticism, the better his writing is. And, like, it's just more and more interesting, the more specific he gets. So I was like, you know What? Going into 2025, I'm gonna take a little page out of Evan's book and, you know, Maybe write a little bit more. Reflect a little bit more about my own relationship with movies and the movies that I love and things like that. Beyond just the like what. What are my favorite things of the year or exploring my forever attempt to check off things on my watch list and things like that. And so I want to do more of that in 2025 and tee myself up by doing kind of a reflective 2024 piece. [02:22:33] Speaker A: Oh hell yeah. [02:22:34] Speaker B: Both of us will have a little January treatment. [02:22:38] Speaker A: Evan wrote for Midwest. He wrote the Craven the Hunter review. [02:22:42] Speaker B: He did, yeah. [02:22:43] Speaker A: Which I will. [02:22:44] Speaker B: He spent most of the review talking about superhero movies in general. [02:22:47] Speaker A: I gotta say. [02:22:48] Speaker B: Fascinating. [02:22:48] Speaker A: Yeah, I was gonna say that's just a little. If you want a little taste of like kind of that self reflective. [02:22:52] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:22:53] Speaker A: From general journalism on his part. Highly recommend the review over the film itself. Yeah, that review. [02:22:59] Speaker B: Get more out of that. [02:23:00] Speaker A: I read the review before I saw the film because again, I had no. I was like, I'm not gonna get spoiled by anything Craven. But his, his take on just really reflecting on what Craven really stands for in an era of like what. What is Sony even doing at this point? Especially, you know, now that we know that like Sony could have used Spider man the whole time but didn't want to. It is just like I highly recommend that review. Evan knocks it out of the park and it's really fun to read. Much more fun than anything Craven the Hunter the film has to offer. But yeah, that is our year end special for 2024. We are God, so pumped for the year. Like genuinely we have a lot of ideas and excitement for the episodes. More guests, definitely people you'll know, new people as well and as just talking about just, just really just the oddest things we can think of as well as the ones we've had on their backlog for quite a while and. But we will give you a little taster of our first January trilogy because you know, usually when we talk about January, Red Letter media quoted coined the term. Fuck you, it's January when it comes to January releases. And thankfully since the term was coined, January has gotten a tad better at times. [02:24:16] Speaker B: Yeah, it's gotten a little brighter. [02:24:18] Speaker A: However, we thought, you know, similar to how we wanted to get our dishonorable mentions out of the way before we talked about our favorite films, before we get into the trilogies of films this year that we love, that we're excited to gush about. We thought it'd be fun to gush about how much we despise this certain trilogy that actually Pertains to a lot of our worst of the year. Very relevant in the worst way and in the worst way. And Andy was the one that proposed this to me, and it felt like the easiest. Just like, of course we should probably fucking do this. We couldn't do this during the actual season these films came out of, because the third film in this trilogy literally came out at the most inopportune time possible. [02:25:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:25:01] Speaker A: And also neither one of us liked it enough that we felt like we had to force it out. But, yeah, we are doing a trilogy. [02:25:08] Speaker B: That Andy has coined the Sony's Spider Man Less Spider Man Universe trilogy. Effectively all of Sony's Marvel movies except for Venom. Because we already talked about Venom, and Venom is pretty much the best thing they have to offer. [02:25:26] Speaker A: Yeah. [02:25:26] Speaker B: So we're talking about the rest of the scraps. [02:25:28] Speaker A: We are talking about Sony's Scraps universe, basically. We are basically talking about Morbius, Madame Web, and Kraven the Hunter. [02:25:39] Speaker B: It's crazy to think that two thirds of that trilogy came out this year. [02:25:42] Speaker A: Not only is it crazy to think that those two thirds came out this year, but that two thirds were in our worst of year list. [02:25:49] Speaker B: Both of them. [02:25:51] Speaker A: Yeah. Because it is fascinating to think now that we're aware of, like, what led to them to the decision to make Spider man less Spider man villain films. [02:26:00] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:26:00] Speaker A: Or in the case of Madame Web, Spider man side character film. It is just it. Now that we're at the end, the tail end of it with Craven, it's just, why not start off the year by just having a fun time bashing on some batshit, truly odd films. [02:26:19] Speaker B: Yeah. [02:26:19] Speaker A: That I think we're still wondering whether or not we're gonna rewatch in honor of this trilogy. [02:26:25] Speaker B: I will not be rewatching. [02:26:26] Speaker A: We will go in. We will go in blind. [02:26:28] Speaker B: Craven's too fresh. I'm not revisiting that. [02:26:31] Speaker A: Oh, I'm not revisiting Craven. I'm not revisiting Craven. Unless you have a secret dash cam. [02:26:38] Speaker B: I did rewatch Morbius, like, within the last couple weeks just because I was bored. And I was like, I'm just trying. [02:26:44] Speaker A: To think of how many people do I really hate? Do I want to make them watch Adam Web or Morbius? But yeah, the date as to when that episode comes out, of course, because we wanted to get this out as soon as possible because we want to. [02:27:01] Speaker B: Have some room to stretch our legs a little bit in January, especially since. [02:27:05] Speaker A: We are more organized this year in terms of what we'd like to do. And we're going to be much more organized for this year. We thought it'd be best now that we knew when episodes were coming out, we could get this out as soon as possible rather than towards the end of the month, when it's usually, to be honest, my fault because just not enough time to watch these films. But now I was able to get a lot done. I was able to get a lot done now that I had a schedule. Who would have thought if a person has a schedule, it keeps a good you reflect a lot better and you get through stuff faster. Yeah. Tune in later this month when we talk about Sony's Spiderman Less Spider Man Universe trilogy, the scraps of Sony's Marvel. But until then, I'm Logan Sowash. [02:27:48] Speaker B: And I'm andy Carr. [02:27:49] Speaker A: Happy 2025. Thank you so much for listening. [02:27:52] Speaker B: Bye.