Excuse the Intermission
Alex and Max take you on a journey through film with this discussion podcast about movies.
Excuse the Intermission
Best of 2024 featuring filmmakers Kalee Quiñones and Marcus Baker
2024 has proven to be a transformative year for cinema, showcasing a vibrant array of films that span various genres and storytelling styles. In our episode, we share our favorite movies, touching on standout performances in films like "The Substance" and "Civil War," as well as the triumphant return of franchises like "Dune: Part Two" that further solidified their cinematic legacies.
• Exploration of the evolving landscape of 2024 cinema
• Discussion of standout performances, particularly Demi and Lily Rose Depp
• Analysis of "Civil War" as a pivotal film addressing societal themes
• Highlights of indie films that resonated deeply with audiences
• Nostalgic exploration of SNL’s historical roots in "Saturday Night"
• Trends in identity and personal exploration in contemporary filmmaking
As we look forward to 2025, we anticipate more cinematic innovation and creative storytelling that will continue to resonate with audiences of all ages.
how's it? I'm alex mccauley. I'm max fosberg and I'm erica kraus and this is excuse the intermission a discussion show surrounding our favorite movies of 2024. On this show, the three of us will list off our top five favorite movies from this past year and we will also bring on a rotating panel of some of eti's closest friends to hear from them and get their take on the year 2024 in film. Those conversations up next on the other side of this break.
Speaker 3:All right, gang, let's head on over to my conversation with Kaylee Kianis. Hey, listeners, we are here. Sitting across from me is ETI's very own Thanos, the inevitable. Kaylee Kianis returns to the show. I think it's almost what. I think last time you were on was in may yeah, I have.
Speaker 4:No. It feels like it's been so long it was when we did the draft, or no, because we did um furiosa.
Speaker 3:I randomly popped in for furiosa oh, you did yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So that was yeah, that was may it's like summer films.
Speaker 4:Yeah, yeah so uh, you have.
Speaker 3:you have returned to lay down the gauntlet, so to say, on the year 2024. We're talking about your favorite films from this year and, if I know you and I think I do you've got lots of different categories, lots of different lists. Yes, You're a big list maker. How about you start out by telling us how do you think the year as a whole was like legacy-wise? Where does this year? You know, we often talk about 1999 or 2019, or 2000,. What seven? As like some of the best movie years of all time. Where, where does 2024 land?
Speaker 4:I think it's been an amazing year. I really, you know, I've had a lot of fun at the movies. I feel like that question is hard for me to answer, cause I don't. This is kind of the first year going to the movies with Max you, um, like I, I don't usually go see all the blockbusters, I don't usually go see everything new, so this is kind of the first year that I really get to see the year in this like full picture, um. So that was really fun and I really did feel the experience of, like, how fun it is when you do go see everything and then when you do get to see the scale of everything within each other and it's really fun to compare and contrast and to really like see it as a whole.
Speaker 4:Um, I think we are in a great moment. I think it kind of started last year like poor things winning oscars, like. I just think that we're in a great, super exciting progressive moment and in filmmaking and um, so, yeah, I think it's really exciting. These films are awesome and it was really fun to go to the movies.
Speaker 4:I think there's a big range, kind of like thematically it's in my top five, where there's kind of these like their softness and harshness and like I feel like it's this year was really fun because there's just such a spectrum and yeah, but I don't know, I mean, in the scheme of things, I think these movies could easily, I mean, I think, number my number one and probably a lot of people's number one I don't think will be forgotten. I think it will go down in history as like a huge moment in film. Um, and yeah, the rest, I think well, yeah, there's a few. I think there's a few that like also just we're doing some really exciting things in filmmaking that were not really done before, and so, yeah, I think this year definitely did do a lot of shifting and I'm excited about that.
Speaker 3:Well, and as someone who you know, you just said that this is like kind of the first time you've been going to new movies and I know you kind of mentioned this in our waking life almost every day, uh. But I mean, do you think you're going to continue that, do you? I don't know if you want to talk about this at the end, but like I mean, you do you think modern movies, I mean you kind of just said that they're in a good place.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I mean, I think obviously I have. The reason he's bringing this up is because I recently was like this year, made me realize that well, films like which this is not on the, you know, on my bottoms, there's like not even on my bottoms of the films I saw this year seeing kingdom of the Planet of the Apes I felt like was a waste of my life, like which is fine, it was a great movie. That's the thing. These are great films. They're great, solid films. I'm glad filmmakers are getting paid to make these films. It's great. I'm so happy that there's some people thriving. You know, I'm glad there's like 55 people thriving in Hollywood. I'm so happy about that 55.
Speaker 3:But Kingdom of the planet of the apes didn't really teach you anything about oppression, or or? I feel like I know why you're saying this. Let's crack me up, okay, so?
Speaker 4:anyway, but yeah, so these films. I think that, like you know, it's hit and miss. That's the thing when you go to all the movies in the blockbuster. It's hit and miss when you aren't being so selective, like usually. I'm like hyper selective at what I go see, and so, um, um no, also just for money, since we're trying to save money to move to this crazy city which is totally psychotic because we're psycho. Um, yeah, like financially I might not do it this year, but I think that you know, I had thought about this, since I was saying that, because at one point I was saying I wasn't going to go see new movies as much this year. I do really think it's important for people to go support the theaters. You know, like I worked I was a volunteer at Grand Illusion for five years Like Hollywood, filmmakers need to work and I think that, like the movie theaters, especially with the way streaming is, like the movie theaters are the only way we can contribute to those filmmakers.
Speaker 3:Well, and it is like the movie theaters are the only way we can contribute to those filmmakers.
Speaker 4:Well, it's not even just the filmmakers right, I mean it's and the theaters, to contribute to the theaters.
Speaker 3:Well, it's the theaters, but it's also every single name in the credits. Yeah right, these people who I mean some of these movies have crews of hundreds yeah and uh, yeah, they need to be supported and the way.
Speaker 4:the crews don't get supported by us going to the movie theater, that's for fucking sure.
Speaker 3:Well, but the job is created because the assumption.
Speaker 4:To make money for all the above the line people, because the assumption is that people will go to the movies, right.
Speaker 3:So I mean it's a trickle down. It's a trickle down economics system.
Speaker 4:Love that. Let's talk trickle down economics. My favorite Great. But, no, yeah, it's true. I mean I'm saying I'm going to go, I'm going to keep going. I think that like, and it's really fun to go, it's so fun to go, it's the best way to see movies. I mean, my friend, tommy Mizell, just released his short film and we got to see that at the Beacon last night. Like, seeing a film on the big screen is completely different than seeing it at home you know you just got the blu-ray for dune part two and bike riders.
Speaker 4:No spoilers, some of the things on my tops here, but um, you know those films. I we watched a little bit of bike riders the other night and it's great. It's still amazing. But like some of those epic scenes, like even just them roughhousing in the countryside and stuff like that.
Speaker 3:Austin Butler, smoldering the camera is a lot better on a 50-foot screen than it is at home on your 42-inch.
Speaker 4:Yeah, so I was really grateful to have that experience so much this year and also becoming very cozy with the Tacoma theaters. I feel like they're like a second home a little bit.
Speaker 2:I love Grand.
Speaker 4:Cinema I love, even going to lakewood. Do I know? The amc, amc yeah like I love that theater, I love all the theaters. So, no, it's fun.
Speaker 3:I'm like getting getting a cozy chair and I think not to get too into our personal weeds, uh, but I think that's something I'm really excited about. Our move this summer or this spring is getting to know new theaters. Because, yeah, that's, that's always very exciting.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's really fun when you go to new places. I totally agree. I think we're going to miss, miss our home hometown, of course.
Speaker 3:Absolutely. I mean nothing will ever compare, at least for me, for to the grand cinema, I mean that will ever compare at least for me to the Grand Cinema. I mean, that has been a home away from home since I was 16.
Speaker 4:Yeah, but you know, discovering new places and meeting new screens and new people and new seats, yeah, it's exciting well, also, like after having brit here for your short film unplugged and she's down in la um, that got me really excited about going to more q and a's. I'm excited that we'll get a go to movies, and then we also get to go to q and a's and the filmmakers will be there and like hearing from them and like just getting that kind of insider information.
Speaker 4:That's I'm really excited about that. Like that to me, is going to be the really cool element. Um, but yeah, no, it's great to support the theaters. You know, there's some some more like doozies that maybe I could have watched on my smaller screen, but I'm still really glad I went and um, yeah, cool.
Speaker 3:Well, uh, you, you brought a couple of lists today yes is there a certain list you want to start with?
Speaker 4:okay, I'll start with top five. Let's start positive okay to to share. Okay, so I did. There's only three. So there's the top five films of this year, and then I have my bottom five list of this year, and then I have my first watches, which are separate, because I do think it is more important to watch the legends, the old films.
Speaker 3:Of course. Yeah, I know you feel the same way. First watch, that's a really fun list too. I feel like that would be really hard to keep track of, at least for me, and maybe this pod.
Speaker 4:Because you guys just watch so many movies.
Speaker 3:We watch a lot of movies yeah, do you have your Letterboxd stats? Yeah, I do, but they're not anything compared to you or Alex, I'm sure. Movies we watch a lot of movies, yeah do you have your?
Speaker 4:do you have your letterbox stats? Yeah, I do, but they're not anything compared to you, or alex, I'm sure I mean. Well, I think alex.
Speaker 3:I think alex took the cake this this year. Um he, he beat me by a a good amount of like films watched, but he only beat me by, I think, 10 minutes of time time spent, which is interesting. So I just watched more long movies, I guess. But you know he's a big tiktok guy, so dead.
Speaker 4:So I have 163 films logged, 95 films reviewed. I've been writing more reviews this year. That's the most reviews I've ever written in a year for me. So personal record for myself. I've been really excited about writing reviews, so check out my Letterboxd Kale's Q. Read my reviews.
Speaker 3:Make sure to like.
Speaker 4:Oh yeah, same thing on Instagram. Don't look at my shit on Instagram or Letterboxd without hearting it, because I know all of you and everyone. And Instagram or Letterboxd without hearting it, because I know all of you and everyone and I know all these people are not hearting. All I want is hearts. God damn it. So yeah, 279 hours watched. Most watched actor Ryan Gosling. I guess because we did it's funny, because I know it's because the ETI All of my watching is like, not all. If it's like solid, 70 to 80 percent of my watching is around eti episodes that we then have to watch um that's, that's part of the deal, you know it's.
Speaker 4:You become a ghost, a ghost host, ghost host of the pod yes, it's kind of nice though, because anytime there's not stuff to watch for the episode, I get to choose pretty much all the rest of the time any other watching.
Speaker 3:So I enjoy. How many gosling films did you join me on?
Speaker 4:I don't, I didn't even count, I doesn't have a number on my little rap thing. Might be because I'm not a patron. I should be a patron, but um wow, you don't support. Letterboxd. I don't support Letterboxd. I want to. You don't love it. We like to have money.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, we like money.
Speaker 4:But because I like food, I like to spend hundreds of dollars on food every single week of my life. That's very true. But yeah, and what else is going on? So one of my favorites here is First Watch, last Watch, first Watch was perfect.
Speaker 3:Yeah, which was John Travolta, jamie Lee Curtis. Yeah, on New Year's Eve last year.
Speaker 4:Yeah, our Jamie Lee Curtis, you and I on New Year's Eve last year, yeah, our fifth day of dating, already in love, and last watch was Baby Girl, oh, interesting. Yeah, because I didn't watch anything. I think I was just I was working. I actually, new Year's Eve I was editing, I was getting picture log on a short film. Short proof of concept.
Speaker 3:Doing the Lord's work.
Speaker 4:Doing the Lord's work, doing all the different types um but yeah, so no, this was really fun. My most watched theme moving relationship stories so very, you despite going to these hollywood blockbuster bullcrap movies, I still maintained watching the types of movies I wanted to watch see, you can have it both ways. Yeah, it's true um most watched nano genre eerie, disturbing fear. I don't understand that. Like love Letterboxd, but what is that? What is that as a nano genre?
Speaker 3:Eerie, disturbing fear. It's just words that they can put down. I think mine was like gory, horrific suspense or something like that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I feel like that's kind of the era we're in in a way, but people love horror Like I think horror is huge and like, but we're not.
Speaker 3:Horror is evergreen. I mean that, that the genre.
Speaker 4:It's funny, I feel like that's your disturbing fear is like h. They might as well put a24 as a nano genre.
Speaker 3:Yeah right uh, it's really funny. I was on set yesterday and, um, people were talking about super, the death of superhero films and like what's the next big genre? And someone was arguing that horror is the next big genre. And then I of course couldn't keep my mouth shut and was like horror has always been evergreen Horror since the 1920s, 1910s, whatever. Since the first films, horror has always been there, and so it's funny to hear that perspective from, maybe, some women.
Speaker 4:I feel like it's pulling in a broader audience, though now maybe a little bit.
Speaker 3:I think that, like yeah, I guess Maybe there's just more horror, more of it being made.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I feel Well, because of the iPhone thing, and like more accessibility, so more horror is being made.
Speaker 4:If you're working with these kind of DIY film tactics or guerrilla film tactics making a horror is my little brother. Shout out to Rich Brown, my little brother Always is like you should make a horror, you can make money.
Speaker 4:I'm like well, it's a little more complicated than that, but we'll see Like, well, it's a little more complicated than that, but we'll see I do have a crazy horror short in mind where I want to do this like couple, where as the relationship deteriorates the man gets sicker and sicker and like boils and craziness. So some kind of crazy like relationship horror drama.
Speaker 3:I know a really good makeup artist for that.
Speaker 4:Yeah, shout out, elena the best. Okay, let's get through these lists.
Speaker 3:We have the list okay, somehow I don't know what even happened. I'm sorry, so it's podcast. It's called podcasting, it's just chat, chat, chat, chat.
Speaker 4:Um. Okay, so top five films. Oh, I have I wish let's start from
Speaker 3:number five start oh yeah, that's how you guys do it see, I'm always just like, let's just no, start from five, and, and, and go down to your number one.
Speaker 4:Let's just give them the milk. Let's go, but okay, one second.
Speaker 3:Okay, baby girl Okay.
Speaker 4:So yeah, literally Okay. So five. I have two. I'm going to send Max a screenshot of my list so that you guys can post my messy, crazy notebook. Okay so five switched four to five several times. So five switched four to five several times. Five is bike riders bike riders Jeff Nichols, I love him. It's not his best film, but I love that film. I think that you know my favorite is shotgun stories.
Speaker 3:I'm always going to be like a first, same thing with boogie nights and PTA, like I just always love, like the first is the fresh, it's the one that's like well, marcus Baker always says that that the first film of a filmmaker is their best, is their apex, because it's every, because you don't know if you're going to do another one Right, so you put everything you've ever wanted into that first film.
Speaker 4:Yeah, um, so yeah, that's that's the next list which isn't in my notebook. Um top five Jeff Nichols. We really I, I think doing that.
Speaker 3:But anyway, we, we really I I think we kind of met we.
Speaker 4:We missed doing a jeff nichols episode uh centric episode, so um he's also like a midwest guy. I think that's a big like. I feel that like so. So I'm not from the south as you often twist south, south of washington.
Speaker 3:You are from the south, I'm not from the south.
Speaker 4:I'm from the midwest or the or mid-america, yeah um, you say gosh dog all the time. No, I do say y'all sometimes, um, not because I'm a hillbilly well, we all know that you're.
Speaker 3:You're just a billy, uh, because kansas doesn't even have hills right, yeah, your favorite, yeah, love that for you okay, anyway, so um what'd you love about bike riders?
Speaker 4:okay, bike riders, yes, okay, but yeah, so many other films. Okay, I was going back here. We've got my top five. I really love shotgun stories. I really love take shelter. I really love mud which we haven't even max still hasn't seen. Mud which is unfortunate hasn't finished mud anyway.
Speaker 4:Um. So yeah, those other three favorite favorite favorites, all-time favorites. And bike riders was great, though bike riders was seen mud, which is unfortunate, hasn't finished mud anyway. Um. So yeah, those other three favorite favorite favorites, all-time favorites. And bike riders was great, though. Bike riders was great. The casting is so good and yeah, just thematically, like these, like rugged, it's very male-centric, there's a lot of male-centric stuff and that's just life. We just live in a male-centric world.
Speaker 4:But yeah bike riders is very male-centric, but I do really like it. It also is told from the point of view of Jodie Comer, the wife. Her accent. Actually. At first I feel like this could have been like two or three if I liked her accent a little more, but I do like support her.
Speaker 3:She's great.
Speaker 4:She's going for it. That Minnesota accent is just so bizarre, but I've heard it sounds exactly like the actual woman so cool, she's awesome. So, yeah, exactly like the actual woman so cool, she's awesome. Um, so yeah, bike riders, I just love. I love the thematics, I love the cinematography. Like just the way, like the color is and like I feel like the way that film looks is very burnt into my brain, especially compared to any of his other films. It looks completely different, like super deep, contrasty, like black, the blacks of their leather jackets the like, and then like the cornfields and the blue sky of the Midwest.
Speaker 3:Yeah yeah, nichols is really good at the details, right Like the costuming, the world that he builds for his films. So yeah, bike Riders is fantastic.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and the dialogue. I mean Tom Hardy has so many great lines Like with the. What is the fire scene? What does he say? He's like burn it down.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're like, what about the bar? He just shrugs burn it down.
Speaker 4:Yeah, it's so good. It's so fucking good. I love it. Weird ending, I think also once again, why that one's five bottom of the list? The ending where she's looking out on him and he's working in the garage on his motorcycle he's like a settled man now because she straightened him out, doesn't ride, so like well, did she straighten him out or did did the lifestyle straighten him out? Right, because the person died. The tom hardy dies, sorry.
Speaker 3:Spoiler alert but yeah, uh, yeah, we're gonna spoil all these movies that we're gonna talk about today probably, but yeah, so the end is a little, a little goofy for me, but it's still great.
Speaker 4:I mean, I still love it, I mean it's a great. Even just that image, though, again like cinematography, of her looking out that window, and like that frame within a frame, like it's still beautiful and I really enjoyed her in the laundromat. All the locations we were talking about you know. So I go on and on. I love jeff nichols, so okay that's your number five number four sing, sing, oh my gosh. We went and saw this at the grand cinema and both of us just cried like babies just ugly crying.
Speaker 4:I mean, for me, that is my ultimate and that's why my number one of the number one, because the most ugly crying weirdly weird. We'll get into it though, anyway. So for sing, sing and the ugly crying, like it's just beautiful and it's cool how they made it. It's cool that they paid all their crew the same same amount, everybody on the whole crew. I like that's what I mean, where I'm like this is really a huge deal.
Speaker 4:This is a huge year that a film actually came to it that way, um, and that an indie film got made that way, and that's really exciting to me because we need we need less hierarchy in this world. I do believe like that that is a big part, like classism and hierarchies in the workplace and all these different things is part of what's I mean. Is it weird to compare something so like small, like film crews, to this bigger picture? But yeah, it's like. I think it's a metaphor to me of like we slash. I'm kind of a socialist, I guess is my point it's a different pod, that's a different pod anyway.
Speaker 4:So love sing, sing the story itself, the actors, the performances, I mean that main. Once again, I had to help me with names. Um, I love cole coleman domingo. I remember him. But the other guy really, like a lot of people, see right, the big, like divine eye is like just his, his eyes and the way he curtis macklin, I believe, is his name oh, okay, I got it. Divine eyes, the character yeah, yeah curtis macklin.
Speaker 4:Like just his, his energy in that film and like the arc. Like that's such a beautiful character arc and how that character finally begins to open up so quietly. I once again, I love those movies, how the images get stuck in your head. I hope these, I think.
Speaker 4:Well, it's always hard to know over time, right like if in two years these images are going to be as stuck in my head or if new films will replace those images and then you know, maybe they'll be gone, but, um, but yeah, them sitting at those desks, at in that scene, when he kind of finally opens up, divine Eye kind of opens up about his kids and stuff like that, and like the way it's shot right, you get a lot of dynamicism through the desks just being diagonal from each other and it's kind of this. It's very much an in-between moment, which is one of my filmmaker obsessions Also, I love Jeff Nichols, but I also love Sing Sing. It's like when you can capture those in-between moments right, this isn't a moment when they're in rehearsal, right like that's the heart, that's the, the real scenes of the film. But these in-between moments, that's where, like, the real intimacy happens and where you really, you know, find the magic. Um, so, yeah, I think that the magic really lies in between the lines and in between the scenes and, um, yeah, it, it's just such a, such an amazing film and also like fuck prisons, you know, and like, so, yeah, for me it's very political that film, you know it's, it's very, you know, it is interesting.
Speaker 4:Someone I I talked to, who I think is in a very different political belief system than I am was saying, you know, like they kind of uh, paint him as this, as this good guy, the colman domingo's character, and they never really tell you like why he went to jail and even though he's writing his letters, they never tell you why, which is kind of this interesting. You know way filmmakers manipulate you and the way filmmakers you know, but the thing is you have to have a likeable protagonist and like I loved, I loved fighting for that character and he is.
Speaker 3:He's trying to prove his innocence the whole yeah time.
Speaker 4:So I I think it's kind of uh right, totally interpreted that that he was falsely accused for whatever he is in for right, but yeah, but then it gets to me, it gets into the more, but then, like divine eye, was not falsely accused right, but then he gets out before uh Domingo's character, which I believe is Divine.
Speaker 3:They're also named Divine, something. Oh, okay, I think they're both Divine.
Speaker 4:Oh cool. Yeah, I don't know their names, but I guess the thing is, it's interesting where they were just pointing out of, like they just think that people that are in jail are bad people, right? Essentially.
Speaker 4:Which I do not agree with. I just thought that was interesting, like from a different point of view, just because, yeah, you're kind of, you almost take them out of that, and that's what I like about the film. What I love about the film is that you, you personally, what's the word? Humanize these people? Humanize these people because we treat people in jail, don't vote, they can't vote, which is fucking bullshit speaking of politics, but yeah, it's like we don't treat them like real people. So I think this film is really beautiful and important because these are real people who are stuck in jail cells and, um, I love that there's a program like that.
Speaker 4:Oh, my god, the end with the real footage yeah and you're like this is a real program that's really helping people, because everyone.
Speaker 3:A lot of these characters that you're seeing on screen are actual people who did time at Saint Sina and were in this program, which I've heard Coleman Domingo talk about. This is like the most nervous he's ever been on set because he's like I would walk on set and like I can't, I can't. It's hard to like act, to fake it Right, like I have to go to a really vulnerable real place and just kind of follow the beats of these actual inmates because they lived it and so like I you know I would feel like a phony if I was trying to ham it up or anything.
Speaker 4:That's so interesting and maybe part of how like that performance was, so like subtle and nuanced and yeah, so I love that film and just super inspiring and you know everyone, I think, also right like the ultimate flawed characters right in betweens as one thing with filmmaking and also like writing flawed characters, and I think that that setting just sets you up to really explore flawed characters and how they can redeem themselves. Um, okay, so now we're on to three this is where it gets a little crazy.
Speaker 4:Your notebook looks like something out of seven so three well, because I have a lot of notable mentions which I need to be careful of my time. I don't know how much time I have. You can cut me up, okay. Three doom, part two. It's beautiful really, just the end, I mean the beginning, all through. It's just like to me, it's like they need to put it in the louvre. They just need to put like this, playing on the wall in the louvre or something that's my, my goal.
Speaker 4:I'm gonna write a letter to the louvre chateau, francais, um, but anyway, dune's gorgeous. It's just so crazy and like, oh my god, just like them like battling zendaya and like, weirdly, like just there's so many cool scenes that like really surprise you and they're incredibly moving, just the way they're shot and they like kind of sweep you off your feet. Timmy like really I'm not a huge timmy once again, don't dislike him, just like not a huge fan, um, and do like when he stands up in the in the in the cave, yeah, and he kind of makes his speech like listen to me and this is what we need to do.
Speaker 4:That was incredibly moving and I love to compare that to one of my bottoms. Yeah, when another actor tries to do the same thing and not because I love this actor too, but not to do it like Timmy it's interesting how, when you make a really great film like this, you become the bar right it's like that.
Speaker 4:To me, that film is the bar for this year and the bar for many films to come. I mean, my cinematographer on the film I'm working on was like, well, I want to like look at dude and what. Like how we can get lenses like that, and like wanting to do anything we can to do something like that, because the way it looks and the way it feels is amazing. Um, and the ending also. Just as a woman, like those two women, florence and zendaya, just eye to eye in that final scene, just fucked me up, got some good ugly cries from me for sure um, because like, oh yeah, so crazy.
Speaker 4:Um also, it's kind of like that casablanca feel where, like he's doing something for the greater good, even though it's not what's in his heart, because he does love. Zendaya Breaks my heart, okay, so moving on. So two. Two is Challengers.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we loved Challengers.
Speaker 4:Challengers was so fun. Challengers was so good. I mean especially as an editor, right, it's so brilliantly edited, there's crazy fun edits. I mean especially as an editor right, it's so brilliantly edited, there's crazy fun edits. And just everyone is. I think it's like it's so interesting, it's like everyone's on fire. Every single actor is keyed in, locked in. It's very locked in. The whole film just feels so locked in. Luca feels so locked in, like everything. It's just so sharp and like just one of the best movie watching experiences, just where you're watching it and you're just like so immersed, it's so immersive. I would say Dune is not entirely that way. Dune does have a little bit, a little like want to be new, like just a little bit more space with it, but like challengers are just so tight and hardcore and I love that and Josh O'connor, that's all I'm saying different pod different pod um, okay, so number one max.
Speaker 4:You know, my number one is I do not okay my number one is the substance. I love the substance. Um, if you read my letterboxd review, it will explain more my real feeling is about it. But yeah, just like you know, like, yeah, just as a woman, this film to me is so important, it's so important and demeanor's speech at the golden globes was so important and like this film to me is like just a game changer of just like people you know, this film is very exaggerated and it's very much like showing something I mean, like I will never forget.
Speaker 4:Also, I don't think this one will ever leave, like all the ass shots, like I think that margaret quayle's ass is burnt into my brain forever now, um, which I'm totally not a bad thing not a bad thing. Um slash, just everyone loves dennis quaid. With the right, the shrimp also it's burned into everybody's brain.
Speaker 4:It's burned into all of our brains. Um, slash. Also like just that, that, uh, that low angle of demi over the the pot when she's cooking that chicken, and that that whole scene is like, oh, she's got to win the oscar, I want her to win the oscar so badly. I mean that fucking scene. And also just like thematically, just the idea that you would, that you would get someone younger than you to go live your life for you and then, in the time you had not working, that you would spend it eating yourself and full of gluttony and watching tv.
Speaker 4:You know, that's a bit, just every single bit of it has such like powerful commentary on where we're at right now and, um, and where we've been at, I mean, with women and the way their careers have been looking at like judy garland, and like just, this is how women have experienced the world forever and this is still how women have experienced the world forever and this is still how we're experiencing the world. And, um, someone was saying like what would imagine all the products that would go or all the businesses that would go out of business if women woke up tomorrow and liked how their bodies looked? And that is. It's just, it's fucked up and it's heartbreaking and it's something I feel like really grateful Once again.
Speaker 4:People always talk about thirties are the best, you know like I feel really grateful to finally be in a place. You know, I think I stopped wearing makeup like seven or eight, you know eight years ago or whatever, but like that was a huge shift for me and like these types of things, and it's just, I get it. I get that feeling of just like there is such a pressure to look a certain way and that's yeah, pretty much that's it. Our main expectation as women is to look a certain way and that is really upsetting because we have so much more to offer in this world.
Speaker 3:Yeah, that's very true. I love how your list you only have two American filmmakers on there Kind of also shows where filmmaking is.
Speaker 4:It's a lot of international voices and underrepresented voices making really good films, so I commend you for that well, it's like if these films wouldn't, some of these films wouldn't have gotten made in some other time and totally, and that's just. You know. I feel grateful that I could even have a list, because I don't know what I would have put on here. I would have been stuck with putting twisters on here or something. Okay, so going segueing quickly into my bottoms, because I'm taking up a lot of time and there's more people that have important things to say.
Speaker 2:But my opinion matters the most of course.
Speaker 4:Okay, bottom of the list. Number five on my bottoms. This is films I hated Long Legs, so disappointing. Just sitting there the whole time, just like, literally shaking my head, rolling my eyes like a 16-year-old girl, just so like what the fuck is this? Just from that first scene, the scene where she's writing in the or when she gets the like letter from, she gets the card from him for her birthday or whatever, and then he's behind her, like it just it just escalates way too quickly.
Speaker 4:It's just not my. It's not my cup of tea. I really like, honestly.
Speaker 4:it's made me really happy to see so many people that did like that film and that, like are excited about what Oz is doing and all this stuff, but I'm just like that is not my type of film, where it's just I don't know. I've been thinking about this a lot lately because, like I do it in my own scripts and my own stories of like, just wanting things to feel. It's like something like the Substance, my number one right. None of that film feels real and I don't hold it against it at all it's just.
Speaker 4:I think there's just something I'm trying. I need I tried my finger on it. What about? Like? Something like Long Legs bothers me. It feels the progression feels unnatural, or like the projection feels unnatural and it feels like things are it's not thought through why it doesn't make sense, or like it doesn't have a metaphor right. It's like to do something surreal and to do something that isn't. We don't need to make films about reality. That's definitely not our jobs. I do love Verite work, though that's my probably my favorite genre is anything Verite, but like yeah, so fuck Long Legs, that's enough said about that, but yeah.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, Long Legs Again. I just think, like the first, 45 to 50 minutes, 45 to 55 minutes really really solid really good. I didn't even get into the end, yeah, and then and then, yeah, I do think it just it. It gets a little, it gets a little wacky and ends up being a little loose and fast with its with its ideas at the end.
Speaker 4:And yeah, that's why one of the best openers.
Speaker 3:Oh my god, the opener is so good and and and also, like you know, I I also think, much like you know you always hear about oh, you know, don't show the shark um it'll be more effective and yeah, the, the character, that of long legs, when, when you're seeing him in short bursts or, or just hearing him or or, you know, just seeing him out of frame, like that was just so much more effective than than facing him. Uh, you know, in the, in the interview room or whatever okay, so four.
Speaker 4:Love you ridley. I've been watching more of his interviews. I I like understand he's like one of my idols right now. Of like his 12 cameras no, not that I'm never gonna be I'm always gonna be one camera girl. I think I hope I hope to always be a one camera girl, but, but glad. But yeah, gladiator 2 is total crap. Um, but I love that.
Speaker 4:Ridley loves it, regardless of my opinion so therefore, it doesn't you know more the reason for me to tell the world that I hate this film. Um, I don't know, it just bothers me. I think I just had I had very high expectations, right. That's always a big thing going into movies, why you shouldn't watch trailers. Um, it was also the names, right paul mescal, pedro, pascal, denzel, washington. It just feels like, how do you make a bad movie with these people? I just can't and like also, just literally, if they would have just taken out all the bad bfx, I think the film could have been and like so much better, just literally, without the. But then some people I think I even heard brady corbett saying on that round table. Brady Corbett, in a round table, was saying to Ridley like oh my God, when they fill the stadium with the water and like it works for some people.
Speaker 3:It definitely didn't work for you. It did not work for me either. Well, I was. It's the baboons. I love the baboons, though.
Speaker 4:That's why, when the movie first started, I was like grabbing max's arm, like oh, fuck, yeah, let's go with these fucking crazy vfx baboons.
Speaker 4:As soon as those baboons come on screen, I was just like, oh no, this is I'm out yeah, but then this is my comparison also, paul mescal, like at the end, when he's stands up like on the weird statue, it's like he literally steps like two steps up kind of partly on this statue and he's talking to the soldiers and he's like we will fight or whatever the fuck he says. But yeah, I don't know why I'm like don't even cuss that much, but I cuss so much on the pod.
Speaker 4:But anyway, maybe I cuss a lot all the time actually, but anyway. So yeah, he stands up and he's like saying this thing and I just didn't feel anything. I just hate when you're watching a movie and you're like I feel dead inside right now. And same with the mom. The whole connection with him and the mom and the mom was so good in the other one too, which is so it's just like well, that's because all she's asked to do in this one is cry yeah, oh my god, and I have to bring this up.
Speaker 4:It drives me crazy that like the scene where denzel just shoots the mom in the heart and then paul miscal just like runs off. It's so weird, it's like I felt robbed of a cinematic moment in that and drives me crazy. Okay, so, moving on, number three we watch. This is one of the first things we watched this year.
Speaker 3:Probably, I don't know, probably first five spaceman oh yeah it was so bad, oh no that was it was so I was anticipating this film. So much this year.
Speaker 4:Adam sandler and a sci-fi drama paul dano with the voicing of Spider Space, spider-man.
Speaker 3:I thought we were. Here's the problem with Space man. Yeah, it is probably a really great book because it's based on a book. It's probably an amazing, really inward book, deep book, but as a film it just does not work. I thought it was going to be much more about adam sandler as an astronaut, like stuck on a planet somewhere, and I just think that would have been way more compelling than him in this space station floating around talking to this weird spider.
Speaker 4:well, yeah, and then also for me, once again, it's like so much, I don't know, I love being a woman right now, because it's like I love evaluating every film based on how women are represented, because it's so twisted in every single freaking movie. Yeah, like him that the whole thing is him feeling bad about himself because he didn't show love to his wife, and it's just like. He's like I should have shown love to her. I don't know what was wrong with me. And then you're just like get the fuck out of here, man. Like you.
Speaker 4:I don't know, but I'm also in a relationship that's been one year, so I shouldn't hate on the men that can't show love that are in long, long-term relationships. I imagine it's hard to show love, you know, um anyway. So two another this was my first. My top two are both pretty hot takes kind of, but I'd hate trap right two's trap I can't believe.
Speaker 4:Two is trap trap is bottom two. Two hated the most. I can't handle trap. I love josh hartnett. I love him so much in it I wish I just think it's a thing. Once again, it's all about expectations. I want to see Josh in like either like back in his OG stuff of just being the hot crush, which is my favorite way to see him.
Speaker 3:So you want to objectify Josh Hartnett?
Speaker 4:No, or or I want to see him in some real drama like Wicker Park, one of my favorite movies.
Speaker 2:Right, it's like Great movie.
Speaker 4:Yeah, and like he's playing this like detective and like he's got a lot to chew on. He's like in love and confused and but yeah, this movie, just to me, gave him nothing to chew on. Slash too much to chew on. This movie gave him too much to chew on.
Speaker 2:And he was chewing it.
Speaker 4:And I got like the whole third act is I'm like what the I don't know, I can't handle it with him and his wife and like and like she. Just once again, the logic right it comes down to like film logic. It's not even about if it's realistic, right? I love surrealism. I do not like films that don't have strong like storytelling logic to them. Like that is what bothers me. Like with the ending where he's, where she even like her story, her monologue. I like that actress I don't know her name is, but she's allison pill allison pill's great she's, she's chewing it, she's doing great, but like she's like.
Speaker 4:I knew he had this other house. And then I finally went to the house when he wasn't there and I saw the ticket, the ticket that he had bought, and then what I can't, I cannot with trap. Okay, anyway, going on, I can go on about it and I'm sorry, I don't like. I mean, I love, like the ultimate. The best scene in that movie is when he looks down at the trap door. He's like you don't want to go down there. So good, that is great, but it's so like what, I don't know, I can't process the movie's just all over the place. So it's kind of hard for me to like be like, is this supposed to be funny? Is this supposed to be drama? Kid cuddy and that weird wig okay, anyway. So one number one bottom I do not like wicked, do not like wicked.
Speaker 4:I'm sorry, everybody, they're lining up outside with pitchforks I know I feel like just because, like working with gina um on my film, this like one of my, my lead actress in my film that I'm working on loves Wicked like passionately posted TikTok the day after.
Speaker 3:Erica is going to be very disappointed when she hears this.
Speaker 4:Yeah, I wish she was here.
Speaker 3:She's seen Wicked, I think. Oh, I think three, maybe four times now.
Speaker 4:I love Erica, I love Gina. I do not love Wicked.
Speaker 2:But yeah, so it's not for me.
Speaker 3:I do not love Wicked.
Speaker 4:But yeah, so it's not for me. I love Ariana Grande. I love her and I love Cynthia Erivo. It's great, but it's just, and I love the music Also.
Speaker 3:like I read this whole thing afterwards about like how it's like the low key. You love the two key performances. You love the music. What?
Speaker 4:I don't like the set design Like that crazy.
Speaker 3:You just hate the world.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the world is weird, it's like, and also the goats right, the 3D goats are weird.
Speaker 3:The whole animal subplot, the singing goat yes, that is a strange strain of this movie that you don't really expect.
Speaker 4:And then also I was talking to Gina and Jasmine. They're both theater actors and the Prince they're like oh, he's like one of the best dancer-singers, I guess Like the Prince, but that number just bothers me so much.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I did not like. I didn't like his performance, I didn't like his song. Yeah, just he didn't feel like a fan.
Speaker 4:He was too old for it, which I think then contributes to it all being a weird performance.
Speaker 3:Well, but they're all too old, yeah, I mean they're all in their 40s yeah and supposed to be at college. Yeah, which you know? I don't know. You can go to school whenever you want, but, like I would just rather watch harry potter.
Speaker 4:I just like harry potter what about?
Speaker 3:but also it's nice that harry potter doesn't have music. Do you like the original?
Speaker 4:absolutely. Yeah, I mean, that's like legendary. I mean I think, um, yeah, I just, it's, the wick is not for me. I just I I was slightly stoned and it was 9, 30 showing. I don't I feel like this was also. I maybe I will eventually re-watch this because I also still need to watch blade runner 2049, because same thing where I just went really late and late shows, kind of I had never like been like oh, I loved film.
Speaker 3:Well, yeah, if Kaylee watches anything, uh, after eight in the dark.
Speaker 4:Yeah.
Speaker 5:It's over.
Speaker 1:I just fall asleep.
Speaker 3:I got it from my dad, I'm guessing, I don't know, well, you'll you'll have a chance to rewatch wicked part one because wicked part two comes out next december.
Speaker 4:So great, okay, that's my mom. So then real quickly first watches. I'm just gonna go through this in a quick list because so well, yeah, as quick as I can. Five riddle of fire would have been on my top 2024, but it wasn't released.
Speaker 4:It was released in 2023 I guess, but, yeah, shot on 16 millimeter, which is fucking epic for a pretty big film well, not big, but for a indie film to shoot on 16 millimeter, I freaking. Noah bombach also is very known for like shooting on 16. Like. One of my life dreams is to shoot a film on 16. Um, and super funny kids love. Who doesn't love a funny kid? Who doesn't love five funny kids? Who doesn't?
Speaker 4:and like a trailer park fairy tale yeah, it's so funny and so so awesome. I love the adventure of it. I love the characters, the crazy, like kind of classic villain hillbilly guys. It's great, it's got some great yeah, it's great.
Speaker 4:I love that. For all dirt roads, taste of salt. Um, I love this film. Yeah, all dirt roads, taste of salt. I don't think I actually left.
Speaker 4:I went by myself that night in um Seattle to Grand Illusion um, just really amazing. I need to re-watch it because I really did love it. But yeah, essentially it's like about a young woman who is um, kind of just coming of age, coming of age young black woman and very like point of view kind of almost makes me think of what nickel boys is doing this year, maybe like what I've heard of. Like kind of feels very from her point of view and like there's the scene where she's sitting in the back of her dad's truck and just like feeling the wind and like you know who doesn't love a good feeling the wind driving shot anyway, so stuff like that. Just like very moving, um and really great family story.
Speaker 4:That was top four. And then three, then red line. I saw the red line, which I really love. Terrence malick is super inspiring, um, so I remember when I saw days of heaven that's my other like favorite of his. That just blows my mind where you're just like this like cinematic. The way it looks is just insane. But yeah, so then red line was just insane. I mean the poetry of it, the way he tells that story I don't like worst.
Speaker 4:I openly do not like war movies. I still haven't seen um dunkirk. I haven't seen dunkirk um, and yeah. So I don't watch war movies very often. But then red line I plugged in and it was just like rocked me and that lead actor in that he's so good. I like sent max all these weird posts because jim kazelle, fucking psychopaths, fucking trumper crazy person.
Speaker 4:Yes, he's really good in that movie, though he's really well cast sean penn always, oh my god, like baby sean penn and not even baby. Baby sean penn is like 40s sean penn, but like 40 sean penn. Mystic river, like just for me. When I watch him at the red line it just brings it all back. I love him so much. Okay, two Sorcerer I'd never seen Sorcerer. Yeah, friedkin Billy yeah, like just for me with Sorcerer rocked me. Yeah, just like just such a fun film and like just down to the brand.
Speaker 3:It's great visual storytelling. Yeah, not a ton of dialogue, no, but extremely compelling visuals throughout the film, and just with some trucks in the jungle yes, the trucks in the jungle.
Speaker 4:It's such a simple premise and it's like when they're in the, just the way that's edited to that scene with on the, the bridge, and the way it's edited changed my life and just how much you're on the edge of your seat and then like the ropes are snapping and the and it's like just close up on that and you know I love like they don't really cut to their reactions that much. It's like because you know, you know they're all like losing it and I think that's also a really cool filmmaker thing of like set your people up to feel attached to these characters and the consequences that they're going to experience and then just focus on the consequence don't focus on them, like doing some overacting thing of like, oh no, this is happening, right.
Speaker 4:it's like, just focus on that because you feel it, because you project your own emotions based on the setup, right. So source tours, just beautifully made. Love that film, love the end. And number one, la Haine, which was a big suggestion from Alex. Alex, that's one of his favorites and he had it on Criterion at his house and I was looking through and I was like, oh, I've always wanted to see this and he was like you've got to see it. So, yeah, I think that might've even been when I was last on for the Furiosa that him and I kind of talked about that film and then I finally watched it and, um, just beautiful thematically. For me it's just like I love when a film has meaning especially related to class um and black and white, which I know is one of your favorite things. Max is going to shoot something brilliant in black and white someday. I don't think I am, but I want that for Max because I do love a good black and white film.
Speaker 4:But, yeah, just like great performance from the guy. He's also in Black Swan.
Speaker 3:Vincent Cassell.
Speaker 4:Vincent Cassell. Yeah, I feel like you said his name in some other movie that he wasn't in. But yeah, or you guessed him for something else, but it was something Anyway.
Speaker 3:Vincent, it was something. Anyway, he's coming out in a Cronenberg movie this year.
Speaker 4:Yeah, the Shrouds, Fuck. Yeah, I'm ready. I would love that. I love Cronenberg, but yeah, I just think that film and it's such a, you know it has a little bit of verite feel to it where they're kind of just like walking around, running around, great choreography, great editing and the editing and the way the camera moves, I mean it's funny because my film is very much going to be this.
Speaker 4:next one is going to be very much on sticks but like I was just when I watched that, I almost like texted Seth, like we got to get more camera moves in there we got to get it moving around. It's so inspiring, just to see how much it emotes.
Speaker 4:It emotes so much when the camera's moving around like that. Um, also just the high energy rates, also the high energy performances, all those the performances, and like the bond between them and also the wardrobe, like they look so fucking cool in that movie like oh, that's what the wardrobe um yeah, and to achieve that when you are in black and white, that's pretty special like without color and they still look so cool, yeah, so true yeah.
Speaker 3:Well, those are some amazing lists, some hot takes, some great recommends, especially on the first time watch. If anyone has not seen any of these films, please check them out. Maybe not the top five worst, but yeah, don't watch those but the best and and the first time watches, uh gosh.
Speaker 3:Yeah, thank you so much, kaylee, for for coming on and sharing these lists. Make sure to follow Kaylee on letterbox, uh, and so you can see what she's watching all the time and and like her reviews, please, please, god. Like which she's watching all the time and and like her reviews, please, please.
Speaker 4:God Every night in bed I'm just like I got one, like today, or it's so stupid, so grateful to be on the pod again. I love the pod. I wish Alex was here, cause I love talking to Alex about movies. You're all right. But it was really fun when you're both there. Also, I really want to come on with Eric on now. Well, Eric and I were on together the first time we were on.
Speaker 4:So I just love that you guys have Eric on. Yeah, just so grateful to have gotten to be featured on this one. It's been a great year for film. I'm really excited I got to watch so many great films with you. Yeah, I look forward to watching more films in 2025 and dragging you to, to all the big releases, no matter how much you yell at me perfect, I'll be there all right thanks all right, now we're gonna go into our conversation with Marcus Baker.
Speaker 3:Well, listeners, welcome back in. I am here with, of course, erica Krause, co-host of Excuse the Intermission, and we are joined by an esteemed guest, one of the best Pacific Northwest filmmakers and a friend of the pod, who actually was just on a couple months ago, I think. Welcome back, marcus Baker. Marcus, how are you doing? Thank you for being here to talk about 2024.
Speaker 5:Yeah, thanks for having me. Uh, especially after we uh set the runtime record for that uh ridley scott episode, a record that I hold near and dear to my heart. Um, I actually have a trophy that I printed up my bed, so I expect to, to get a copy in the mail.
Speaker 3:Uh, oh, it's, it's where I mean. You'll get it when I get that, uh, when I get that copy in the mail.
Speaker 5:Oh, it's where I mean you'll get it when I get that copy of Kingdom of Heaven from Alex.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, I promise listeners that this episode probably won't be as long as the Ridley Scott bracket that Marcus, alex and I broke down a couple months ago. But please go back and listen to that in real time, because it is quite a marathon and a journey of three boys and their Sir Ridley.
Speaker 5:One of my favorite memories of the past year. I'll say that.
Speaker 3:Better than Gladiator 2 as well, probably even though longer. Erica, how are you doing today? Uh, welcome to the pod. I think this is your first time podding with marcus, is that correct?
Speaker 2:it is yeah yeah yeah, I was supposed to join that ridley scott episode, but you know I in hindsight I'm kind of glad I let you, the boys you know, go all out on that one.
Speaker 5:Might have been a lot of eye rolling. No, we're happy.
Speaker 3:I'm happy to have you here so that we have another witness, because Marcus is known for coming on these year-end pods and uh, throwing out some some hot takes, marcus I feel like, I feel like the take isn't going to be that hot well, okay, let's see, let's see how much you loved wicked let's, let's start there.
Speaker 3:what are your thoughts? Uh, then we can get, we can, both of you here. What are your thoughts, kind of in general, on the year 2024? How do we think overall you know, we talk about 1999 all the time, or 2019 as just like staple years in movie history what do you think the legacy of 2024 is going to look like?
Speaker 5:I think, when we take the long view on it, I think 2024 is going to be kind of a weird year to look back on.
Speaker 5:I mean, you certainly have your big movies with Twister and Dune and that kind of thing, but it's also kind of the year when superhero movies kind of collapsed. I mean, obviously you've had Deadpool and that kind of thing, but it's also kind of the year when, like, superhero movies kind of collapsed. I mean, obviously you've had deadpool and that kind of thing, but it feels like the culture has really started to kind of turn on that kind of movie. And I feel like in a weird way and you know, maybe this is the just the film director on me but I feel like it's kind of the year where that that first generation of a24 uh filmmakers has really started to break through into, like that, the sort of mainstream and kind of trying to uh shift it back into more original um, into original original filmmaking, I would say um. So I think 2024 is kind of, in my opinion, I think it's almost more of a shift.
Speaker 2:We'll look back on it as a year where that shift started to really happen. So I feel like for me, my experience with 2024 is that I agree with what Marcus said. For sure, I just feel like there was a lot of movies that were just like a lot of fun, lot of movies that were just like a lot of fun. I think a lot of the movies that kind of got a lot of hype were just movies that I personally maybe rated kind of like it right in the middle, not great in my opinion, but we were just having a good time with with movie, with the movie year yeah, no, no, I, I understand what you're saying, I and I agree with you.
Speaker 3:I think there are smaller properties that kind of populated the calendar this year and really overperformed when you think of something like a Lone Legs or even smaller stuff like, uh, a different man uh kind of made a big splash, especially after Sebastian Stan's uh Globe win, um, or the Substance, you know, uh, a small movie from a international filmmaker put out by Mubi, you know, is kind of like the, the movie, the talk movie of of the year, um, with a huge moment. So yeah, I think, and to what Marcus said, you know, the super, the collapse of the superhero, there was only one Marvel movie this year, which was that Deadpool three, um, which is a big reset or difference from years past. So maybe that is dying down. However, next year is going to be, if we're looking next year there's a Superman movie coming, so who knows, it might reignite that fandom as well.
Speaker 3:But yeah, I don't know if it's on the level of a 1999, but I was looking at my top 20 and I was like I'd be happy to own all of these on physical media. I think they all have really really good rewatchability, which is kind of the thing I rate the highest. Do I want to watch it over and over and over again?
Speaker 5:So yeah, I totally agree, and also to Erica's point. I mean, I, I think, like I think this year had a lot of movies that I had a lot of fun at, which is not something that I would necessarily say about previous years. In particular, I've got a trap Trap is one of the is some of the most fun I've had at any movie, and god knows how long and the people I was with and the, the way that I saw it, all that stuff that was great. Uh, twisters was phenomenal to see in a theater and like I had friends that were seeing it in 40x and raving about it and that was a great time. Um, and I will be the only person on your podcast to go to bat for argyle being fun time at the cinema. Argyle is not good, but it knows it and it's fun uh, yeah, no, uh no it's, it's not good.
Speaker 5:Don't shrug that off, matthew.
Speaker 3:Matthew vaughn is extremely overrated and I will stand by that yeah.
Speaker 5:I came here to stir the pot.
Speaker 3:That's the Marcus we love, All right. Well, yeah, let's Marcus, let's dive into your. I believe you brought us a top five list, correct?
Speaker 5:Yes, yeah, I actually I did lie, because I do. I have a couple different lists actually. Yes, you do yeah no, no, that's great you know, what you started.
Speaker 3:I think I was it last year, yeah, last year, when you brought different lists. You know we, we've got another couple other guests, they're going to be on this episode and, uh, you've, you've started a trend. I I had multiple lists thrown at me this morning with our, with one of the guests that I recorded, with um, and you know it's uh, it definitely started. You are our patient zero with the multiple lists. So what, what do you want to start with?
Speaker 5:um, uh, we'll, we'll start, not even necessarily with movies I want to talk about, uh, top film culture things that I love this year because, like, I think that's like to me that's like the most fun part of obviously the movies are kind of what it's all based around, but there were a lot of fun film culture things that happened this year. Um, I think number one we've got glenn powell's press tour for twisters where he's just going around being like telling these great stories about being on set of spy kids and working with tom cruise and doing like these like this classic movie star thing where he's like and you're like really like watching a new movie star being minted in real time, like that. That was great all summer I was eating that up.
Speaker 3:Yeah, the the glenn powell moment, uh, is is long and wide and what he had? What three movies come out this year?
Speaker 5:um. So he had two, one that was bought out of toronto, but I think it'll come out next year well, hitman anyone but you and twist.
Speaker 3:Yeah, hit man anyone but you and Twisters.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but every anyone will. You was last year.
Speaker 3:Okay, it came out.
Speaker 5:I saw it at Christmas last year.
Speaker 3:Okay, but yeah generally, calendar year wise, pretty, pretty, pretty stellar. Uh, 12 months for that guy and uh, I don't, I I hope it doesn't slow down, I cause I I do find him um, incredibly charming and engaging and yeah, that kind of the mold, the mold of a, of an old school movie star.
Speaker 5:Yes, yeah, absolutely. Um, so yeah, the. The Glenn Powell moment uh, hit me square in the chest and I was all the way here for it. Um, we got, uh, the desire, or, excuse me, the return of desire in cinema with hitman, obviously, challengers, baby girl, not necessarily like physical sex, but really like just the, the desire in cinema. You certainly get that in queer, um, and I I really liked just having that element back in movies after, like you know, a decade of sexless Marvel movies. We got big, dumb, non IP cinema, trap twisters and Argyle movies that are dumb as hell and I love them. We got the Megalopolisolis hype which started pre-can. Yeah, all that stuff was with like the weird ai trailer with the fake quotes and like the fact that it existed, and francis ford coppola was like I got 120 million dollars, I'm gonna make a weird movie um the uh, it was very.
Speaker 5:In my opinion, it's kind of the, the austin butler's voice of 2024 where, like, austin butler was going around in 2023 being like, oh no, I broke my voice. So like no like I did that specifically because it's a, it's a podcast. I need, and they all need, to hear my Austin Butler impression. So mega, the megalopolis hype was great and it was great up until until seeing the movie like until seeing the movie. At one point I was like, well, this is fun, this is a true story.
Speaker 3:Marcus and I were at a, a premiere for a, an indie film locally here in Seattle, and we we walked out into the lobby after the screening and there was a box of free movie posters and of course we, like kids in a candy store, just started going through each one and I pulled out the Megalopolis and just started laughing and Marcus snatched it and any extra copies with it and said this is going up in my house right away I guess this is since max has outed me on.
Speaker 5:This is where I out him on. Like max, alex and I have a group chat called glenn powell fan cam, so I just want to make sure that everyone's aware we are not an unbiased podcast this is a very biased podcast um, and then my last film culture thing was popcorn bucket mania.
Speaker 5:We had the dune popcorn bucket, famously. We had the alien popcorn bucket, the beetlejuice popcorn bucket, all these weird like collectible popcorn buckets and I just think that's fun, that's like a, that's like a weird specific thing to cinema. That's great. I love that. We need more of that.
Speaker 3:Um yeah, that's my favorite film culture thing did either of you ever get one of the popcorn buckets?
Speaker 5:no I did. I did not, but I have friends who purchased the dune popcorn.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, yeah, that is, that is an odd like and very specific thing and I it's a really great, you're right, it's a really great thing, especially for theaters. Right, like what? What a great way, to you know, stir up some excitement about some new movie is have a weird popcorn bucket yeah, that's cute yeah, yeah, yeah and just a lot of like fun movie memorabilia in general.
Speaker 5:I mean, like at one point I went into like a hot topic recently because I'm still 15 years old and there was like there was like Beetlejuice merch for the new Beetlejuice and I was like I'm glad that this is like continuing on to the next generation, that they too will have their own Beetlejuice to know and love and be angsty about.
Speaker 2:This past year definitely got more people back in theaters, you know, and I feel like I noticed I mean even like my parents, who don't really go to the theater a lot, you know, and maybe that was me moving home and encouraging them to come with me, but I they're. You know, my mom has seen Wicked three times now in theaters. My dad has been to the movies more this year than he has in in forever. It was. I think that's such a testament to like the kind of films that came out this year and like the popcorn buckets and like just these movies that got all this hyped. You know it got all these people hyped for for film again. Um, that kind of stuff definitely speaks volumes I, I totally agree with you.
Speaker 3:I mean, the fact that I was able to get mary fosberg and john fosberg into nosferatu on christmas at 10 AM is a gigantic win for theaters and movie culture in general. Cause, yeah, and even even though my mom, you know, fell asleep about five minutes into Nosferatu, and then I, I proceeded, I proceeded to nudge her to wake her up, and she turned to me and goes I'm sleeping Like I was in the wrong. However, I think she did eventually wake up and was scared by Count Orlok.
Speaker 3:But, yeah, huge win for theaters and people getting back back to to to the theaters this year for sure.
Speaker 5:Yeah, so those are my film culture things. And then as far as movies I loved, I know last year I came in with a whole angle. This year I'm going to narrow it down. It's simple. I got just a couple of favorites that I really loved this year. I really loved a different of the kind of like identity horror type films that came out this year. You got the Substance you got. I Saw. The TV Glow. A Different man was probably my favorite, but I know a lot of people love the Substance I also loved. I Saw, saw the tv glow, um, but soft spot for a different man because it's the kind of like dark comedy that I really love yeah, an incredibly funny movie too.
Speaker 5:That is like satirically funny, like uh, and and yes and again, like demands rewatches to really catch all the little subtle jokes throughout absolutely, yeah, just watching sebastian stan watch someone else live the life he thought he was going to be living and he's just entirely indignant about it. Some of the hardest I've, some of the hardest times I've laughed in the year this year. Uh, yeah, so we got a different man. Um, I caught before year's end because that's my cutoff, obviously I caught juror number two and like I'm not a clint guy, but like I fuck with your number two. It's like the type of like naughty, like naughty, like morality play that I really love, where it's just like a bunch of people who have to make a bunch of really hard decisions and that's the. That's the type of shit I love.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's, it's Clint's 12 angry men, right, but then also with a little twist there as well. Yeah, just again. Again an old school, an old school adult drama. That, uh, is simple in premise, uh, and even execution. You know, clint is notorious for being known as as mr one take where, where he'll get it in one take and make sure he's early for lunch, but yeah, a great movie that, oddly, was buried by WB.
Speaker 3:Not really any theatrical release, maybe a couple of theaters, but the fact that it was only released on Max, and quietly, really odd really really odd.
Speaker 5:Yeah, and I mean you read like the stories, uh, that came out pre pre-release, even where, like zazov like came into power warner brothers and was like you know, he had his executives asking these questions of why are we like making this guy's movies? They don't make any money. When, like american sniper like which isn't a movie I love by any means, but like that, movie 300 million dollars, not even that long ago.
Speaker 5:And like it's just insane to me that like the level of disrespect and the level of like just like it's clear that these guys don't care about cinema and like cinema's history, and like to me that's like the biggest insult. I mean clint's a fucking icon he is.
Speaker 3:He's an icon, yeah, I mean in front of the camera, behind the camera. He's been and he's worked for wwb. I think all his career, his whole career, his entire.
Speaker 5:He built that studio yeah yeah, we, we can't get into this. We could go all day on this. I loved Jir, number two though it's a really great movie, check it out. On Max, I loved Twisters. I think, max, I know you're a Villeneuve boy, but Twisters, to me, is the best big budget filmmaking I saw this year. I mean that to me, like I, I just keep thinking back to like that scene at the end of the movie in the movie theater and it's it'd be so easy where, like the tornadoes, like ripping out the the back wall of the theater and people are getting sucked into the tornado. It'd be so easy to focus on that. And instead of focusing on that, lee isaac chung like zeroes in on like the screws on a chair coming loose that someone is holding on to for dear life. And that's like the type of like big budget movie making we need, where it's like these little details and how they're like impacting a human's life, like that's what we need.
Speaker 3:I love that.
Speaker 4:And.
Speaker 5:I yeah, and like twisters is just, it's just like great old school, uh big budget filmmaking in my opinion.
Speaker 3:Such a great uh step up for Lee Isaac Chun too, right. And then another guy who has just been kind of around for a long time really makes a name for himself with Minari Uh. And then and then just I remember when this was announced, that he was directing twisters, and I was like what are we gonna? Is this gonna be like a, a family drama of sorts? Like, are the twisters just gonna be in the background? Um, but he is. He's a professional filmmaker and he knows how to do it.
Speaker 5:Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's just incredible, incredible filmmaking. Um, um, my favorite. And then the last two are that I have favorite Indies that came out this year. Um, I really loved good one. I know Alex isn't here to talk about it, but he also loved good one and I'm bummed.
Speaker 5:We can't like vibe over that but I loved, I loved good one. I love movies where, like it's just this subtle, unspoken tension and it's it's like you're, it's like picking strings on a guitar, essentially, where you're playing these different notes of 10th, and that film, to me, is it's just a masterpiece. I think, like the performances are incredible, the way it's shot is incredible, the way that, like, the way that, like it's it's cut together, I just I like love every single part of that film together. I just I like love every single part of that film. Um, and I had, like you know, I'd gone into it not really knowing what to expect and I came out loving it. So that's, that's definitely one that I haven't really seen a streaming release for it, which is kind of a bummer. I'm hoping it's somewhere but.
Speaker 3:I I know I really love that film yeah, I, this one's not on my radar at all, but what's, what's the what's the what's the story behind it?
Speaker 5:It's like it's very much like a Kelly Reichardt type story. It's like a like a college dates girl goes on a hiking trip with her dad and his friend and like, over the course of the trip, it's like revealed that there's like all these kind of like tensions with like her dad and his friend and all this kind of stuff. It's like revealed that there's like all these kind of like tensions with like her dad and his friend and all this kind of stuff. And it's it's just this very like note perfect story about kind of it's kind of a coming of age thing. I would say in a, in a yeah, I would say maybe in a little bit of a, not a dark way, but yeah, I just like. It's very like Kelly Reichardt, I don't know how to put it. It's very. It's very simple, it's very straightforward, it's not doing anything very flashy, it's just all about these kind of like inner tensions with these characters.
Speaker 2:Cool, I haven't even heard of this movie, but it sounds right up my alley.
Speaker 5:I'm just kind of like looking into it, right now, yeah, yeah, and the, the main actress, um, I'm gonna butcher her name, louise calais. Um, she's phenomenal in it. She is like a true blue discovery. Um, yeah, it's, it's a phenomenal film and I I really, really would recommend people check it out. Yeah, and then my last one. Max probably knows what this is because I've been talking it up pretty much since the moment I saw it. I absolutely adored Hundreds of Beavers this year.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 5:I want to kick off that train on here. I don't know if anyone else has mentioned it, but I loved hundreds of beavers. I it's this weird Mixed mash of like like cartoons and internet animatics and like web videos and like Buster Keaton movies and all these like insane ideas and, to me, what the thing I'm realizing that I love in a movie is I love a movie that takes a very simple concept and just stacks it up really high, and that film does that over and over and over again. Where it's this? It's this fur trapper in the 1800s, in a very cartoonish way, who, um, who, in order to win the love of a fur, uh, fur salesman's daughter, uh, has to give her father hundreds of beaver pelts, um, and it's, it's incredibly silly. It's like a, a Tex Avery cartoon turned up to a million.
Speaker 5:I had a blast watching. I saw it with a couple of people from the Film Society back in November, and then I, or back in October, and then, as soon as I heard about another screening, I like rounded up all of my friends and I was like we have to go see this. I bought all their tickets and we I organized the whole thing and it was great. They all loved it, and I to me. That's like, what movies are all about is having a good time with your friends, and I think 2024 gave us a lot of opportunities for that.
Speaker 3:So that's hundreds of people, that's a great call. Hundreds of beavers. I, uh, I threw on on uh new year's eve I was over at my buddy's house and you know everyone was was well into their you know fifth drink and and we had music going drink movie, totally.
Speaker 3:Then I I just threw it on. You know, just a party movie in the background. You know, I I didn't have any sound on because we were doing music, but uh, people definitely stopped and was just like what, what, what is this? And then sat down and were just like drawn into it. It's a, it's a visual delight, uh, of of images, for sure yeah, and I the way that they made it.
Speaker 5:it's incredible too. I mean, they made it over, you know, seven years and did all the VFX themselves and all this kind of crazy stuff and it's really, you know, it's the type of thing we talk about when, like, we think of, like a quote, unquote indie success where, like, you can do it yourself, and a DIY success and all those kinds of things. I'm sure it was an where, like, you can do it yourself and a DIY success and all those kinds of things.
Speaker 3:Um, I'm sure it was an absolute bitch to make it every step of the process, but I bet it was fun. Yeah, yeah, no. And I I've become way more like now that I'm I'm close to graduating film school. I am, uh, I am very sentimental to to those, those small indies that take seven years because I get it and yeah so, hundreds of Beavers, I believe it's on Amazon Prime.
Speaker 5:Yeah, it's actually also on Canopy, which is the library streaming service. I know they're doing limited runs of Blu-rays but I know they're doing like limited runs of blue rays but I think they're sold out currently. They have it as scarecrow, but I again I imagine it's like you know who knows how long that wait list is.
Speaker 3:Right, totally.
Speaker 5:Yeah, but it's a good movie. It's a great movie to watch as friends. I can't stress that enough. Great movie to watch as friends.
Speaker 3:Hell yeah, well, that's, that's a great list. Marcus, that is a good list. Yeah, and so varied. You know you're. You're such a man of culture, you pick, you pick every kind of apple. I love that. I do I do my best, I do my best um, do you have any, uh, anything that you're very excited about uh coming up in in 2025? What? What should we look for? What? What do you want to see this show cover? What do you want to come back and talk about?
Speaker 5:oh man, uh, come back and talk about. Well, I mean, I'll text you there's there's a lot, and the reason for that is that my hot take for is that I think 2025 is going to be our next 1999. Okay, yeah, realistically, like you look at, with we've had this weird combination of like stuff that's been pushed by covid and the strikes and all this kind of stuff for the past or the past couple years, um, and you look at just like just the broad overview of all the things that are coming out this, this, this year, I guess, and I really think, like I think it's going to be one for the books. I mean, we've got new PTA, we've got new Kelly Reichardt, we've got all these incredible new blockbusters, um, just just a slew of stuff. I should have, you know, I should have something pulled up that shows me a, a list, but we've got a ton of stuff that I think is really going to go down in in the books is like one of the best years we've had in cinema in, you know, since 1999 or, I think, even when we talked on the ridley scott episode, maybe like a 2007 or something like that one one of the great years in cinema. So I think I think that's going to be this year. It's going to be a lot of good stuff.
Speaker 5:Um, as far as, uh, things that I'm most specifically looking forward to, I'm going to pick out one thing, and it's not PTA. I like the new Ari Aster. I'm sure that'll be good. We might get a new Jordan Peele movie. I'm sure that'll be good. We'll get a new Avatar movie That'll be fine. Those are fine. Called Moonglow by Isabel Sandoval, which is a noir in the vein of Casablanca and Isabel Sandoval, it's honestly kind of a similar premise to Jury, to Juror no 2, where it's a detective investigating a crime that they committed. And Isabel Sandoval directed Lingua Franca, which is one of my favorite movies of the past decade. She directed um Apparition, which is like really hard to find, but it's like just one of the most incredible films I've ever seen. Um, she made Senorita, um, yeah, and I just think when I I don't know, that that's going to end up being my favorite.
Speaker 5:I don't want to make any big productions or anything, but like that's the one I'm most looking forward to, cause it's very much like she's a filmmaker that I feel like I would say that there are very few filmmakers that I watched their work and I feel like we are speaking the same language, and she is one of a handful of filmmakers that I feel like we speak the same language. Um, and for that reason I'm really excited for moon glow. I'm I think it's gonna premiere at can. I think we're still kind of waiting to see, but I'm really excited for that what a great name, great title.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's phenomenal.
Speaker 5:Yeah, um, I'm really excited for it. So look it up, keep an eye out for it. I think it's going to be one of the best movies of the year.
Speaker 3:Honestly oh, moon glow. All right, you heard it here first. Uh, yeah, the one that, yeah, that wasn't on my uh, upcoming watch list, so I'm, I'm, so I'm excited I'm adding it right now right, yeah right on uh any other, any other hot takes, uh, or, or things you want to leave uh the listeners with.
Speaker 5:As far as as film, something in the film world, Um no, I mean, I think I think it's going to be a good year for cinema and, you know, I hope, uh, eti continues on strong and strong as ever. I know Eric has been doing a great job as the host. I've listened to some of her episodes and she's she's doing great and I'm I'm just excited for where the podcast is going and excited for 2025 for the most part it's mostly gonna be a good year.
Speaker 3:Hell, yeah, hell yeah, yeah. Well, thank you so much, uh, for again joining us. You want to plug anything? Is there any any marcus baker films? Any Marcus Baker films coming soon that people can see?
Speaker 5:Yeah, I've got a short called Three Women and a Possible Fire Next Door that will be doing the festival circuit this year, so keep an eye out for that. Hopefully we'll be doing some festivals in and around Washington and beyond, and then I'm always doing stuff with the Film Society as well. We are getting ready to launch just a slew of new events in February, so keep an eye out for that. Come check those out, come say hi to me, come say hi to Kaylee, come say hi to all of us. We would love to meet you and hang out?
Speaker 3:Absolutely, yeah, and really, if you're a film lover, go to Seattle Film Society screenings, because not only is Marcus's beautiful face there, but it's everyone in the film industry in Seattle and it's just such a great time and great people, and thank you so much for all your hard work on that.
Speaker 5:Absolutely yeah, thank you so much, and thank you so much for all your support as well.
Speaker 1:Seriously Okay, max and Erica, how are you guys doing today, 2024,? If it wasn't officially, I guess we should say it was unofficially behind us last week. That episode is lost to the podcast gods. And so this is now our first recording, official recording that will be published and broadcast of 2025. So how are we doing today? Any um hangover thoughts on the draft episode that we can just sort of tease, but it's not really a tease Um how are we doing?
Speaker 3:Uh, good, yeah, Just uh, god. So sorry to the listeners. It was a banner of an episode I had, so much fun doing it.
Speaker 1:Some of it was some of our best work. Rest in peace.
Speaker 3:Sometimes you have to give a sacrificial lamb to the gods to keep doing this wonderful show.
Speaker 1:I just hate that it had to be in the form of all of our favorite 2005 movies.
Speaker 2:I know right be in the form of all of our favorite 2005 movies I know, right, it really does feel like a sacrifice too, because it was, like you said, one of our best episodes, like just vibing, and that. That happened with our tim burton episode too, where we had like just a killer episode and just good vibes and then we had to redo it. But you know, shit happens, it's all good, but like a good sacrifice yeah, yeah, uh, yeah, so we are.
Speaker 3:We are double backed up today, so, don't worry, we, uh, we we've got, we've got this recording in all kinds kinds of forms. So, uh, we will, we will be releasing this show.
Speaker 1:So that was. That was the films from 2005 last week. This week we are focusing on the, on the films from the year 2024. We've had a long time to prepare for this episode, you know. I think just about everything that was on our respective watch list were able to get to, except for a few exceptions, which we will, of course, shout out at the end. No list is ever complete as letterboxed, and everything else in life has taught us, I feel like. So where do you guys stand right now on just kind of an overall vibe check on the year 2024?
Speaker 2:erica, we'll start with you um, well, I kind of mentioned this earlier. I feel like the my experience with this past year just either. I feel like a lot of movies just were a really good time. It was a fun time in theaters. We kind of mentioned how, um, this is definitely the year that I feel like really brought more people to the theater, um and um, just a lot of like a lot of energy. I feel like we had like some really great horror films that came out this year, like a solid list of them. Um, we had some pretty solid blockbusters. I had a great time. This is my most, I think like looking at my list, the most movies I've seen in theaters ever.
Speaker 3:That's that podcast. Life Erica Welcome.
Speaker 2:I'm not mad about it, I'm I'm super excited and um, just looking back at all the, all the things I've logged, um, just a lot of fun memory is attached to all of them. I feel like I was having a good time. I was having a fun time.
Speaker 3:Yeah, you know, I I feel like we had a lot of uh, smaller properties that will go down as like great, great films in the years to come. I was looking at my top 20 and I would love to own all of these on physical media Right, like and, and films that you know kind of came out of. You're going to have to now because what people miss last week was your resolution to put the remote down and stop streaming.
Speaker 3:Yeah, we're ending streaming, we're we're starting the the the end of streaming here, uh, in this household and um, but yeah, I mean there's, you know whether it's something like a real pain uh, from Jesse Eisenberg, which was a small film, kinds of Kindness, which, again from a huge filmmaker like Yorgos, but had a very small moment, rebel Ridge, kind of flying under the radar all year. I just feel like there was a lot of really great and kind of a deep roster of small, independent original films this year, and maybe that's just because my taste has changed so much. But yeah, I was really happy because again and I think I've said this before on the pod, alex, when you and I were, you know, podcasting about 2024 and 2023, you know I was under the influence that this movie this year would be a terrible year. But again, I'm looking at my top 20 movies right now of 2024. And, man, I love all 20 of these films and I think that's something I didn't expect.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I think mine goes even a little deeper, and maybe that's because I dangled this carrot out in front of myself going into the year because I was pretty high on a lot of the potential projects that we would get in the year 2024. And so like I'm going down my list and I'm still at film like 35 and I'm like, oh, I gave this movie four stars and so there's just like a lot of B, average B minus movies out there and I think you hit sorry about that alarm. I think you hit the nail on the head where you said that a lot of them are original. And so to look and see something like blink twice, you know, in the thirties, for me, I think of my experience watching blink twice and how kind of shocked I was at how good that movie turned out. And you know that's not to say that I would go around recommending it to everybody or necessarily. You know, think that I would have at the time ended up mentioning it here on a best of episode and it's. You know, I already said where it was and I think that out of the 2024 releases I logged something like 78 or something around those lines. So it's right in the middle of the pack releases. I logged something like 78 or something around those lines, so it's right in the middle of the pack, you know. But when everything in the middle of the pack is like a four star movie, the way I kind of grade my stuff out to be like a yeah, like a B average, I'm really I'm comforted by that. I think that this is going to be looked back on not as a spectacular movie year by by the general public, but as one that I think especially too, with a lot of sequel stuff coming in 2025 and we'll see what 2026 has in store but one of the stronger years of the decade in my opinion. Just kind of looking back on my list from 21 and 22 and 23. So I had a great time at the movies this year.
Speaker 1:Stat I have some stats. Of course it's it's letterbox wrapped time out of um or for for the year, I should say so um 500, just over 500 hours watched of movies. Now, of course that's not all 2024 releases, but it's always fun to look at this stuff. And 319 films logged I've gone higher than that before, but I feel pretty good about where that was and a lot of reviews written. That's something that I don't think I mentioned last year on my resolution or last episode for my resolutions going into this year. But if I'm going to use Letterboxd, if I'm gonna use letterbox, I'm gonna put my thoughts down on there. That's what it's for.
Speaker 1:Like it's not just to say this movie's three and a half stars. Like anytime I see somebody you know, maybe they they log a classic for the first time. This happens a lot, actually, where someone watches, let's just say, eyes wide shut, and they give it three and a half stars and they give it the heart and that's it. I'm ready to unfollow that person on the spot, cause I'm like there's no way you can just give, eyes wide shut, three and a half stars, not tell us why or what you thought about it or anything else like that, and then just go on to the next movie. I just I don't trust that person, so I don't want to be one of those users.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to keep the reviews coming. I think I pumped out like 230 of them this past year out of 300 movies watched, so a good average. A lot of the times, rewatches don't necessarily warrant any type of review. You can go back and check the first log for those. But yeah, I had a really good time um last year with the movies yeah, yeah, I love, uh, I love that we're pulling numbers up here.
Speaker 3:Uh, I was able to get in 295 films. I wrote about 144 reviews um 493.5 hours watching movies this past year, so I don't know if I was just watching longer movies, but yeah, I like that. It felt like the right. 295 felt about right Because I think it was last year where I was like in the 400s.
Speaker 1:I think we were both over 400, yeah, and now that that was a lot and I could.
Speaker 3:I could feel that I, when I looked at myself in the mirror, um so uh, yeah, 295 felt really good, really good this year it was a little weird seeing uh m night.
Speaker 1:Shamalan is my most watched actor of 2024.
Speaker 1:But then when I think back because I believe this happened in 2023 as well where when we're doing like a director's retrospect and you go back and you log a bunch of their films, that director is typically going to be your most watched. So I think two years ago for me it was John Carpenter. When we did a big John Carpenter episode this year, we did a big M Night movie and I went back and watched a lot of his stuff and visited a lot of his films, kind of you know, around that mid 2010s era for the first time, and so he ended up being both my most watched director and filmmaker, because he, of course, puts himself in every movie he makes. So I thought that was pretty funny.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I think mine was Tim Burton, and again, every movie he makes, though I thought that was pretty funny. Yeah, I think mine was tim burton.
Speaker 2:And and again, just because you know, we did a huge tim burton episode. That's who mine was too. Yeah, my most watched actor, johnny depp, and I'm like, oh, that was the tim burton episode, the tracks, all that work for an episode that is just it's, it's half there.
Speaker 1:Okay, so let's get into our top fives from this year. How difficult was it for you guys to finally quote, unquote, cement these? I know that we both have a few things, or all of us have a few things that we still want to watch, but how much movement happened within the last couple of weeks of 2024, or even once you got around to some things here during the first few weeks of January?
Speaker 3:You know, I feel like three of these films have kind of been up towards the top all year for me, but then, you know, looking at the top 10 of my list, I feel like all of them have touched the top five. So yeah, quite a bit of movement, I feel like, and it's always fast and furious in these last couple of months leading up to the New Year's Eve.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I agree, my top five has definitely shifted quite a bit recently. There's two movies that have been pretty consistently in that area, um, and then my number one has has remained number one for since its release, um. But yeah, looking at my top 10, it's shifted quite a bit. But I did have to do some rearranging yesterday just to kind of solidify and I'm like, okay, I based my top off of just my not only how much I enjoyed it, but just like my experience watching these movies and I'm like, okay, was it the best movie of the year? And like, and I'm like, ok, was it the best movie of the year?
Speaker 1:I mean I based off of how I enjoyed it, that that's how I had to kind of rearrange things. Was there anything that that took a real nosedive for you guys? That was maybe in your top 10? And then at the end of the year you ended up having it kind of on the fringe Cause I look at something like alien Romulus and I remember walking out of the theater after seeing alien Romulus for the first time, saw it twice in theaters and after that first experience I was like this is, this isn't going anywhere.
Speaker 1:This is top five for me. I love it. And then I don't know if it's fallout from doing this podcast and hearing other people's opinions including like yours, on it max, um or or other things just becoming a lot stronger. But it's like it's outside my top 10 now and just kind of looking at the things around it, I'm like I had a better time with rebel ridge than I did rom. I had a better time with Smile 2 than I did Romulus. That's not to say that I hate Alien Romulus now, but at the time of seeing it, you know middle of August, I thought I was really close to reviewing it as like a five-star film honestly. So that would be one for me, that I was like, eh, you know, kind of fell out of favor a little bit.
Speaker 2:That's funny. That movie kind of dropped for me too because I had it at three for quite a while. Because very similar experience like I left that theater just blown away by that movie. I think I even texted alex like holy shit like, and just I mean, seeing it at imax.
Speaker 2:I think it was also like the experience of seeing it in imax. Um, I, I just loved it. I did rewatch it recently and it didn't hit the same, you know, like watching it at home. And then when I started to really think about my top five and a lot of these movies are like the rewatchability for me, so yeah, now Alien, I still really like it, but it did, it did kind of drop for me a little bit.
Speaker 1:It just feels a little, um, you know, not as heavy hitting as that first watch yeah, did you see that freddie alvarez was like for the home video release, like for a 4k that's coming out or something? I think he's like we went in and we fixed some of the CGI on Ian Holm.
Speaker 3:I've seen videos of this. Yeah, and because it's not, it's interesting, they went in and they fixed it on the Amazon Prime stream of it.
Speaker 1:Oh, okay.
Speaker 3:But, like the Blu-rays that already have been sold, have just like the original look to it.
Speaker 1:Again, this is why physical media triumphs, because you can't catch directors making little corrections like this Exactly.
Speaker 3:Well, and yeah, why even go and do that? Just wait, just wait for, or do a re-release or something, I don't know. Yeah, yeah, to change something on streaming is just odd. And you know, and I've seen stills of it side by side and you know, sure, they put some more shadows in there, but, and they keep the camera a little wider, they don't go in as close on in home.
Speaker 3:Um so really, this is what I do when I edit my instagram photos yeah, it's just to hide the imperfections a little bit yeah, a little bit um, I think, a movie that I really loved when I saw it and, like I, I'm pretty sure I gave it five stars and was just like, oh, this is gonna be around and and now it is, it's nowhere near the top 10, I think it's in the top, it's in the top 40, but uh, it fell quite a bit, was inside out too. Um, uh, which uh was a really, really great movie and is a very important pixar movie, but, um, I think uh, I don't know, I just had just a lot of these other films I think meant more uh as the year went on, and so that's that's definitely a film that dropped uh on my rankings.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was quite smitten by that film as well. Um, and then I saw it kind of plummet here towards the end of the year.
Speaker 3:Yeah, cause you know we're adults honestly. I mean that honestly kind of comes down to that Like I don't know if I'm ever going to own inside out too, I don't.
Speaker 1:Sure, yes, okay, well, let's. Let's start with our top fives here and kind of crank through these. If we have any overlaps, we can save discussions for maybe the host who has them at the higher rank and maybe give those conversations a little bit more gravitas. So, erica, let's start with you.
Speaker 2:What's your number five? This was kind of my hardest decision, but I recently just saw this and I'm going with Baby Girl.
Speaker 2:Oh nice I really loved Baby Girl. It was just I know it's got kind of a mixed bag out there of you know, people who really loved it or were kind of like whatever, but for me it was emotionally and just like aesthetically, I thought the whole thing was just super enjoyable. I really enjoyed Nicole Kidman, but I also am a big Nicole Kidman fan in the first place. I just I really want to see it again, but that's my most recent favorite that I've seen.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I'll go see this with you again because I've still yet to catch it.
Speaker 2:And I've I've confessed my love for Nicole on this pod before she was my desert island actress, like two years ago or whatever. When we did that I saw somebody compare the two. I really, really like it just made so much sense to me, the vibe of it, the soundtrack alone. I mean the minute I left the theater I had the soundtrack playing in my car. I mean it was just so good and I highly recommend anyone to see it a lot funnier than uh.
Speaker 1:I expected it to be a lot of laughs in my theater screening when I went and saw that well, same director as bodies, bodies, bodies, one of kind of one of my, you know secret, not really secret, it's not a secret, but just like one of the one of the favorites of this decade so far.
Speaker 3:Yeah, your number five max my number five, uh, one that has been, has been bouncing around the top five all year for me is uh, the first omen. Is this on anyone's list?
Speaker 1:it's, it's not.
Speaker 2:I hate saying that that's crazy, baby girl actually trumped the first omen. I did bump the first omen to six on my list, but it was. It was up in my top five for most of the year the first omen is also currently sitting at six yeah, the uh, the first omen was just such a uh, such an amazing theater experience for me.
Speaker 3:I was by myself, early in the morning watching the first Omen, after preparing for that week's episode and watching all the Omen movies and again just being blown away by the look, the feel, the technical aspects. But then you know, a lot of like, just great little world touches throughout this film that make it a really rich, rich movie to watch, and I think I've rewatched it twice or three times. Now I have the Blu-ray, one of the four that I ordered right away once it, once it came out, um and just like, apart from maybe one other movie, my favorite horror of the year, for sure. Uh, I don't think anything got got close to me for it. Um, and yeah, it's just a revelation of a, of a performance from Neil Neil Tiger free, who is fantastic in this, and some of the images.
Speaker 3:You know whether it's her spider hair, spider web hair in the bed or doing the freak out outside the church, or you know that moment that I think Alex and I have talked about or touched on a lot, uh, during this year of when, when the music kicks in and they hold the baby up and, uh, they hold Damien up in the air after being born down there in the catacombs and it's just, it's just a fantastic ride. I, you know, you know, I, I still think like the very end little stinger is is really, really bad and trashy. But um, the the rest of this film just is is so good that I, I don't even care the.
Speaker 1:the thing about that stinger is and I most recently watched this film maybe like two weeks ago now is that it's feels shorter and shorter every time I I watch it, which is really good it doesn't. It's not like this five minute scene that just drags on and you're just like god, this really leaves a bad stain here, you know, like on the whole movie. Um, it's, it's, it's just like hokey and it's over. And then you get the credits and you get the mark corbin score playing again and stuff, and it's just hokey and it's over. And then you get the credits and you get the Mark Corvin score playing again and stuff, and it's just all really really good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean, I think we're all full send on this movie, right. I also own the Blu-ray. I got the Mark Corvin score on vinyl over the holidays, and so everything about this movie I am just in love with as as well as I think erica is, and so if there's going to be like one sort of eti movie for the year, this might be it, I think yeah, also I I think out of my top five, the.
Speaker 3:This is the film with the director that, like I'm least familiar with, so arkisha stevenson. Like just so, so excited to see arkasha stevenson, so excited to see what she does next absolutely so.
Speaker 1:The movie for me that that very, very slightly beat out. The first omen is challengers, and I think what it finally came down to for me was that challengers is just more of an original story with more. It's two completely different movies, right. But when I was making the list I was like what, what movie do I think took more chances and that's challengers. I also recently rewatched this. I watched it with my mom and sister over the New Year's holiday and just talking to them, you know, during the movie my sister had already seen. So we're kind of talking. But then we're also getting to vicariously watch it kind of for the first time through my mom's eyes, as she's experiencing the story throughout and it's funny to say, like the twist in the turns of this movie. But there really are some big emotional swings and it was about at like the hour 45 mark, like once we were getting kind of close to the match point scene and everything, where my mom she made the remark and she was like, oh, I'm starting to think this movie really isn't about Zendaya and I'm like it's about Zendaya and I'm like it's not about Zendaya, it is about our two guys, and so I think that it plays so well. You can watch it as a Zendaya movie, though. I mean, she's getting nominated at these different awards bodies or by these different awards bodies for Best Actress, and so she does kill it in her role and I wish that you know we were getting more supporting nominations um there, because I think you know for for mike feist and joshua o'connor, because they're both phenomenal in the movie and it really is their movie. It is all about their relationship.
Speaker 1:And then it's also like this is, I think, luca's biggest swing like that he's taken to date, doesn't he's?
Speaker 1:He's gone on record of saying like I don't, it's not like tennis was a passion of his.
Speaker 1:He doesn't even necessarily really care for sports, even the more like European sports, and so I think that take that, that looking at him, being able to look at this story through a lens of somebody that's like well, I'm just going to shoot the shit out of these tennis scenes and just make them look really cool.
Speaker 1:I'm not going to try and romanticize it or make it look like how I wish it looked on TV, or obviously not like a gopro on a tennis ball, but that is like the shot that you're getting through digital effects of it going back and forth across the net, the insane stuff that must be filmed using, you know, like a glass wall or something of the ball being bounced on the ground and you are looking at this angle from as if you were, like in the earth, under the tennis court, like this is so you're an ant yeah, the stuff that he does in this movie is is really exciting, um, including, just, you know, the non-linear timeline and piecing everything together and seeing these different relationships and the dynamic play out from junior tennis to college to young adults, to where they all are now in their lives.
Speaker 1:and it's really nice to kind of have a movie that is made about people in their mid-30s. Like you don't, you don't necessarily get that a whole lot, and and so I I love challengers, obviously. The music is another big thing for me. I also own that score on vinyl now too. Like full steam ahead on the campaign trail for Trenton Atticus to pick up another one and to get Compress Repress performed at the Academy Awards this year would just be remarkable. So Challengers really just like checks all the boxes for me. It's really cool filmmaking, there's great performances, it's a sports movie, it's super horny, like there's just so many good things happening in challengers I did really love challengers too, actually yeah, challengers is yeah, it's.
Speaker 3:Uh. It's remarkable, too, that he did two films this year and he's doing and, and there's a third one coming in 2025 the matter in which he is prolific is not in the way that I mean.
Speaker 1:Like that, someone like a steven sodeberg you could say is prolific where, like Steven, will shoot two movies on an iPhone and then he'll make maybe you know a quote, unquote studio picture and then he'll do some other stuff and before you know it he has like five films released in three years or whatever. Luca is making these with huge movie stars, with huge budgets, and he hasn't missed. Like every single one of them, in some category or another ends up getting nominated for an academy award or he's getting critical recognition at the end of the year with lists like this, and so he's the way in which he's prolific. I don't know if we've really ever seen anything like it, at least not this century yeah, well, my number four is strange darling, um, I had.
Speaker 2:I was kind of like debating. I'm like, do I want to give this movie like a top five status for me? And I, just based off of my personal experience watching this, I I don't think I had like, aside from one other film, I just feel like this was one of the most like one of the funnest movies I'd seen all year and and I know that there's kind of like you know, I feel like I saw a lot of people disappointed in this and I remember when we talked about it before, I think Alex was saying that when you're expecting a twist, it's hard to be totally surprised. I had zero clue what this movie was about. I had seen one trailer, kind of wrote it off. I was like, oh, I already know how this is gonna go, and then I totally forgot about it.
Speaker 2:And one night I was bored. It was like 10 30 at night and I went out and saw this and I left with my jaw dropped, um, totally right up my alley, just um, a great horror, but also just had a lot of layers to it and like one surprise after another and I think that's why I've rated it so highly because I it takes a lot for me to just be surprised these days, especially when it comes to horror movies, and I feel like I'm always kind of predicting the next move in something and and this was one of those movies that I, I really didn't know how it's gonna go and um, and the minute you think you know where it's gonna head, then it totally throws you for another loop. Um, and then just kind of like, aesthetically, I, I, you, I thought it was just shot beautifully, the very gorgeous colors. And Willa Fitzgerald, she blew me away with her performance. I mean, I already love Kyle Gallner.
Speaker 3:Our king.
Speaker 2:Yeah, our horror movie king. I mean, he really does no wrong in this genre. It was great to see him in this role as well. But I had never even heard of Willa Fitzgerald and I'd love to see her in more things moving forward. But I just I had so much fun with this, with this movie, and and I have yet to rewatch it I think I'm a little nervous to rewatch it because I I have such a like it has such a gold star in my mind and I don't want that to like take away. I don't think it'll ever be as good as like that first watch. Um, but yeah, I, just I, I love it. I mean, I really did leave the theater just being like, oh my God, like this was insane, just a wild ride the whole time.
Speaker 1:I'm so happy that at major cineplexes the 10 PM window is back. I had talked about that a few years ago. We lost that during COVID. It seemed like the last window was the seven o'clock. Maybe you could catch like an eight 20 showing of something, and in that last they just programmers or whatever theater managers were just not putting stuff in that 10 PM slot, and so that's really fun. I mean that's, and that's definitely where I missed out on this movie, was not going to see it right away and having that the buzz just grow too loud online for the twist in this movie. Oh, it's so good and and you know it's it's almost worse. When you see a review on you know social media or something, that's just like go in as blind as possible and you're like, okay, well, you're telling me then that there's a twist by saying that you know it's so hard to recommend, talk about this movie and recommend it to people, because I really want people to just like not know anything about it.
Speaker 2:And I like a horror, you know, horror lover like myself. I want to just tell people like, oh my gosh, like you should totally watch Strange Darling, or like, let me read. I just I know my friends and they'll go read about it and I'm like, but don't read anything about it, like, don't like, go in blind, go in blind. So, of course, like you have that expectation already of like, oh, something crazy going to happen. Because I remember when I saw Barbarian and my experience was very similar and like I feel like a lot of people were talking about this movie, like the way they talked about Barbarian.
Speaker 1:Very much so.
Speaker 2:And I loved Barbarian, but I still was like fully anticipating some like weird shit to happen and go down.
Speaker 2:And I enjoyed the movie, but I don't know that Barbarian, like I didn't even be dramatic when I say that. I was just sitting there the whole time just like holy shit, holy shit, like what, like I mean, and it just takes so much for that to happen. But it's hard to talk about that with people, you know, and and I this was one of those movies, like one of probably my number one movie of the year, that I want to recommend to people, because I didn't hear enough like love for this movie and and thankfully my best friend and I, like she, saw it the same time that I did that night, just in different cities, and so we called each other right as we got out and we were just like, oh you know, cause we had the same experience, but I just wish more people could have had that, and I and I and I know a lot of people did. But, um, it is a hard, it's hard to explain it without ruining it, you know.
Speaker 3:I will say that the year of 2024 really brought the uh, the tactical format of which a film is made to the forefront between this, the Brutalists. I think they used cameras from the 70s for Saturday Night and this movie is very overt. Before opening credits it's like shot on 35 millimeter film.
Speaker 1:You think giovanni was like I'm shooting this movie, this is my first big movie and we're fucking telling people absolutely, he's the dp on this, uh, and, and so I I love it for that.
Speaker 3:It's, it's in my top 15 for sure. Um, strange darling, and I just love that people are are conscious of that, and that's like a, a selling point for film now for for for movies. Uh is is like well, how, how was it made? Um, so, yeah, it's, uh, this is a great pick my number my number four film is from Alex Garland.
Speaker 3:It is Civil War Again. This came out back in March, I think, and saw it in IMAX out in Gig Harbor Was blown away by the sound in it, the look of it. I love a road movie and this is probably one of the most harrowing, violent road movies that we get, with different vignettes, whether we're at the gas station with guys being hung up or at the Christmas decorated road with the sniper and the mansion, or one of the best five minutes just coming in hot for five minutes. Jesse Plemons' scene of what kind of American are you? And honestly, I think a film that will kind, like you know, I don't want to be all doom and gloom, but where the world is right now, where our country is right now, one that might, you know, stand the test of time here, is like wow, this uh, this uh, was kind of seen coming whatever, whatever is going to come, um, but yeah, I, I really love this movie.
Speaker 3:I I also have purchased this on physical. I just re-watched it the other day and it's just as thrilling at home as well. And actually I noticed on the second, on the second watch flew by the first watch, you could kind of feel the length, but, like the second watch, all of a sudden we are at the assault on the white house. Like it is, um, it is such a well-paced film, uh, and you know kirsten dunst is doing great stuff, uh, kaylee spaining with a with a huge year, um, so, uh, I love it, can't, can't wait to see. Uh, I think alex garland is doing another war movie here coming up in 2025, called Warfare.
Speaker 1:Yeah, co-directed by a former Iraqi war veteran, I want to say so that should be pretty interesting. Yeah, I think you know just to we already touched on Romulus still really liked that movie. Kaylee Spaney is amazing in Civil War, I think. I think she's kind of in some circles. I think she's sort of won the year 2024. It was just like and and you could even extend it maybe to like 14 months or 16 months because of priscilla at the end of 2023 as well, she's totally announced herself as like a name above the title kind of actor. This was a huge climber for me. I mean, this was in my top 20 for most of the year and then I rewatched this as well over winter break and it's inside my top 10 now. I think that I put in that review that I was developing a hot take and I was kind of preparing to let that take out here on our pod. The best of episode here I I think I'm pretty sure Civil War is Alex Garland's best movie.
Speaker 2:I hands down.
Speaker 1:I it's better than Ex Machina. I'll say that it's definitely better than Annihilation and it's 100% better than Men. Yeah, I'm pretty sure Civil War is better than Ex Machina. I love, I think it's. I think it's 100 better than men. Yeah, I'm pretty sure civil war is better than ex machina. I love, I think it's.
Speaker 1:I think it's telling us it's bigger it's bigger it's telling us more things, it's showing us more things, whereas ex machina is a great and an incredible first feature film, like an amazing first feature film, but I don't really think that that movie in 2024 is as especially now, in 2025, is as smart as it was 10 years ago and is as like eyeopening as it was back then, and so you know everything kind of falls time.
Speaker 1:But I think that I think that you're right, max, that the ramifications of the subject matter in Civil War, those will continue to age in just such a more interesting way, I think, whereas like the stuff in Ex Machina, with AI and with, you know, women being suppressed, with their feelings and their emotions and what's expected of them so much has been said on that and what's expected of them so much has been said on that. And and maybe he wasn't kind of the forefront of that, but then just to like double and triple down on that with his next three movies I was like pretty much done with garland and and for him to come back in this way with civil war was just really really cool totally agree, totally agree um, okay, my number four is a comeback story as as well of sorts, I suppose, um you know, denny villeneuve, back on arrakis.
Speaker 3:Um, this is higher on my list is it higher on your list?
Speaker 1:we can save it, we can save it for then. Um, just interesting though, because I feel like and when you think of scale and like release and and hype this, it's so weird that this movie now feels like underappreciated. Yeah, but but that's where it stands, so we'll talk about it more yeah, yeah, I do agree, it does feel underappreciated.
Speaker 2:I loved dune um. My number three is actually civil war, um, oh nice. Yeah, I won't go on and on about it because I think Max said a lot of really amazing things, but I mean just to kind of add to it a little bit, my experience watching that movie was just mind blowing. I mean, alex Garland has turned me into like a mega fan. At this point I am so excited to see what he continues to do. I really loved annihilation um back when it came out and and I did like ex machina. But this movie like just seeing it in theaters, like the sound, like max said, was just unreal. I mean just the crisp gunshots and just you really feel like you're there.
Speaker 2:And then just the cinematography, the, the, the sound, like the music, I mean everything about this was just so top tier for me. I think it was sitting at number two for a while, um, but and then, yeah, I watched it at home a few, a few times and, um, it is one of those movies that'll stick with you for a while. I mean this movie was like a horror movie to me and I think I appreciated it because it was something I hadn't really like. I don't really gravitate towards this kind of movie a lot, but it was jarring. It's a very jarring experience.
Speaker 2:And I remember just kind of sitting in my seat with my friend afterwards and him and I were just kind of like looking at each other. We're like holy shit, that was intense. And then when it came out to stream, I know my dad had watched it and he was like, hey, I watched Civil War and whoa, like I just mean it was beautiful and yeah, like the word to describe this that I felt was just jarring. I mean I loved it, it was so good. That's my number three.
Speaker 3:No, your number three. My number three is my most recent watch and it's Nosferatu. And I am an Eggers stan and I think Northman was my number one when that movie came out and the experience of watching Nosferatu and seeing Eggers at what I consider, you know, probably the top, at least right now, top of his game as far as, uh, technical aspects go and and being able to to bring this, this vision of, of, of what a film that obviously means a lot to him, fantastic. And Lily Rose Depp is really, I think I think is probably the performance of the year. I think she beats out Neil Tiger Free.
Speaker 3:I know we just did a whole episode on this movie. But Lily Rose Depp in this film and the way she's able to navigate, as I said on that episode, between sane, insane, loving, hating, but then also sacrificial at the end and the acceptance of that, it's pretty remarkable for someone who you know again, I had only seen in yoga hosers and ads for the idol. So, yeah, really, really, really, really, really, really love Nosferatu, love Eggers. You know what else can be said? Go listen to the last episode. We also I also just did a an episode with the silver screams crew on this movie. So there's there's lots of max gushing about nosferatu content out there okay, my number three is the substance.
Speaker 1:Is this higher on your list, erica?
Speaker 2:yes, we'll save it till then you want to say you don't want to talk about it. No, no, no, we'll just Substance. Is this higher on your list, erica? Yes, save it until then. You don't want to talk about it.
Speaker 1:No, no, no, We'll just collaborate here in a little bit. We've talked all year about how much we love this film.
Speaker 2:That's true. I know people probably are just like.
Speaker 1:God damn, stop talking about the substance.
Speaker 3:The first omen.
Speaker 2:Well, my number two is another I really like. Sat there last night just thinking like I'm going to be true to myself and just put this on my top five, because no movie has gotten me to the theaters more times in a row than Wicked, and I'm listen, I has gotten me to the theaters more times in a row than wicked and I'm listen, I. I went and saw it yesterday for my fourth time in theaters and I'm not ashamed of it and um, did you go to the sing-along edition?
Speaker 2:I sure didn't, you know, know. But uh, this movie, like, I was fully prepared to not like this movie and I and we me and max kind of talked about this when we did our, um, our, we did an episode on wicked or like with wicked, I guess mentioning, and, um, I was a hater, like I was, I was fully prepared to like shit on this movie.
Speaker 2:And here I am several months later, fourth watch logged yesterday, and not straight, like, not at home, like this is at in in the theater your true loves are usually the the things you don't expect yeah and um, and you know I'm a huge musical person now, not every musical is created equal in my books, but I think that this is one of the best musicals I've enjoyed in a really long time and I just the soundtrack is amazing. I'm fully on board with Ariana Grande's performance. I think that after I mean, I have really like dove deep into the lore and like just what this, what went on during the production of this film and and how long it's been kind of in the in the making and and how much it meant to a lot of these, these people and I think there's, you know, just seeing all over social media um, a lot of silly. Like the press tour for this was just very especially with Ariana and Cynthia just crying all the time and and it was just kind of silly. But when you realize, like what this meant for both of them and I mean Wicked is a very well like dearly loved Broadway production. I've never seen it on Broadway. I grew up watching the Wizard of Oz but just Wicked the story of Wicked I had really not a lot of like knowledge about and it's kind of fascinating and it's just so creative to me the way that it all like it ties in the wizard of oz and and how they took that and then and then made this and um, I just I had.
Speaker 2:So I loved this movie. I love the music. I think the performances are unbelievable. I think just the dedication alone from our two, like the two girls is just so impressive. And you know, we have a lot of like practical set design happening. I just really appreciate it. It's like it feels like art to me. I just really appreciate it. It's like it feels like art to me and it feels like this is what this is like big movie making. You know, it's such a spectacle and oh, I just like I'm just not even. I was like, oh, my God, I can't believe I'm gonna go see this again and again and again, and and and I'm like, and I do it again. You know it was just is so much fun and the way it's brought so many people together and, um, it's so much deeper than people realize. Like I really do like the, the lyrics to some of these songs I mean they're they're heavy hitters. I just it's a really special movie and yeah, I loved it.
Speaker 3:I just fucking. It is such an old school like giant production. That is something to see on the big screen and Ariana Grande again. I think I said this on our episode that Ariana Grande was a revelation, like I had no idea. I had no idea she was that funny. I had no idea she could, you know, pull this off, and I just thought she. She steals the show in every scene.
Speaker 2:I agree. I think that there's like this big misconception that you know she was. It was kind of an odd choice for her to be in this, but they made her work for this. Know, I mean, he, the, the director, um john m2, he uh, he very like famously has said that ariana was not his choice for glinda and and you know, he was very like like hesitant about that, but she just showed out and just the training and just the dedication on her end for this role is where I feel like I don't, I want to see more recognition for that. You know just what she's done to prepare for this role and and she nails it. I mean not to say that Cynthia was you know any any less, but I just think that the way that Ariana Grande just transformed for Glinda was so like something to be, something to be proud of on her end and and yeah, like I had no idea she could be so damn funny, she really stole every scene that she's in.
Speaker 3:That's a great pick, uh. My number two, much like erica, is a very max pick, uh, and that is jason reitman's uh, saturday night. Uh, as someone who loves snl, loves like industry, someone who has read the big SNL book covering the years, especially this first year that SNL started, this is just like nostalgic crack for me. I love movies about making movies, even though SNL is a variety show, but it is a behind-the-scenes. Look at how this first episode aired.
Speaker 3:Granted, I don't think it's, it's not exactly accurate and a little bit embellished at places, but just a movie that again moves really quick. It's, it's always on its feet. It's got a good writing with great performances from an awesome young cast. When you're talking about Rachel Senate, uh, gabriel LaBelle, um, uh, cooper Hoffman, uh, and then then and then you have older guys, like you know, like a Tracy Letts or Willem Dafoe, coming into to bat cleanup. So it's just, it's just a really great fast pace talkie. That a movie that that I've loved really a lot this year and I've watched multiple times. So check out Saturday night.
Speaker 2:I did love that movie. I'm also a huge SNL fan and just growing up with that in the house a lot when I was young and I thought that movie was just so well done.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And a really great like love letter to SNL.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and, and I think everyone who, like you know, plays these famous actors Chevy Chase, dan Aykroyd, john Belushi they do such a great job of not imitation but of embodying. And one of the most thrilling moments is when Lorne Michaels was supposed to be the first weekend update anchor and they're doing the screen test for him and it's just, it's not working at all. And he makes the decision in real time to be like chevy, put on the jacket and and then you know, the rest is history yeah, cory, michael smith is the actor who plays, yeah, uh, chubby chase, and in my opinion, it's his movie.
Speaker 1:It's in. I wasn't as high on this film as the two of you, um, but he was like a revelation watching watching the film. Yeah, he was very fuckable. Yeah. So my number two is pascal pallance red rooms, and I don't really think I've gotten to chat about this movie yet here on the pod, and it's a hard one, a lot like Strange Darling or some of these other thrillers. Because the reason why I love this movie so much and the reason why I ultimately put it above the substance was one it is it's more tight, it's more concise, it comes in just under two hours and I don't think that there is a single frame wasted. And that's not to say that the substance waste any frames or any time. However, you know, the substance is like a that two hour and 20 or two hour and 40 minute film or something along those lines two hour and 20 minutes and it we just get so batshit crazy at the end and I love it for that. Red rooms kept me guessing the entire time as far as, like what is going to happen in this world. That feels extremely real.
Speaker 1:This has been compared to like a prime david fincher movie, and it is exactly that. This is like you were watching seven mixed with the girl with the dragon tattoo, and then you put in like a courtroom thriller. You, you marry those two films with a courtroom thriller. And so part of me, and not having any connection to any of the actors, to the filmmaker, to this setting, I mean this takes place in Canada, but there we're all speaking French in the film. I believe it's like Quebec that the film takes place in.
Speaker 1:But the lead actress, juliette Garropy, who plays Kelly Ann, is this person who we meet in the opening scene, that is obsessed with this huge murder case, this trial that is sweeping the country, and she's waking up at the crack of dawn every day. She's actually sleeping outside the courthouse so that she can be one of like 12 people from the public led in to observe this trial. And from the moment that you step into the courtroom, you are so uncomfortable because you have no idea why she wants to be this close and this involved to the case. And so the entire film. You are off balance because you don't know her motivations. So the entire film. You are off balance, because you don't know her motivations. Is she this person who is just like a reflection of the most extreme case of, like a true crime podcast junkie gone wrong and who is super obsessed and it's unhealthy? And is that what the film is trying to tell us? Or is she perhaps involved in these cases in some way? You learn that she is like a cyber whiz and that she can hack into things and that she has this incredible online presence about herself and that she can find things at a moment's notice and can trade in these black markets and the dark web, where these Red Rooms videos, which are like recordings of a mural of murders where they live, and so the entire film. You are.
Speaker 1:You really are off guard in a way that I just, in so many of these other films whether it's it's strange darlings, or blink twice or cuckoo, all these other great, great thrillers that came out this year red rooms it rose to the top, and this is another film that I already own on physical, that I've watched multiple times and that is just aging so well already and in in in a world where we might not get another david fincher movie like this, it was like a shot of adrenaline to the heart where it was just like this is scratching all the tingles.
Speaker 1:This is giving me all the vibes that I look for in like a horror thriller, a really tough watch, but also one where you don't see anything. Everything is just either described to you or or the violence that these recordings are happening off screen, they're being watched off screen, so it's a. It's a tough watch with really heavy subject matter and it stays with you, I'm telling you. But also, too, it's not like you're watching um, something that feels explicit, necessarily. So highly recommend red rooms. I think you can rent it on demand on, you know, like Apple or Amazon, for four bucks right now. So highly recommend it.
Speaker 3:This is like the one film I did not get to, that that multiple people in my life have told me that I need to watch and I'm I'm a terrible friend for not doing that.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I have. I have added it to my watch list because of Alex's glowing review, so I'm excited to to check this out. Well, yeah, yeah, my first. My top movie of the year was the substance.
Speaker 2:I mean, let's, let's get into it, let's do it um, yeah, and like kind of going back to what I was saying, like how I, how I picked my top five movies is is really based off of like my, my experience watching these and just movies that really took me somewhere new. It felt like um, and and for me, like my, for me, the substance just felt like a breath of fresh air. I mean it felt familiar, but also just like a collaboration of everything I love in horror and and then also just like some like it's. It makes you think too. I mean, as a woman, there's a lot of like heavier topics and like just kind of it's not just some like slasher film, you know, it's not some like just gory, like gore porn, you know, like it's. There is a bigger, you know, storyline happening and, um, I just I loved this movie for everything that it was and, um, I wish I would have gotten to see it more than once in the theater, but I did watch it. I've seen it a couple times at home and it's still just super enjoyable.
Speaker 2:This is a movie that I will watch. This will be on my horror rotation for sure. I think that we can all agree that Demi just killed it and is having the comeback of the year, in my opinion. Margaret Qualley amazing. I mean, yeah, I'll let you take the floor, alex.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean just to continue on the Qualley thought there. I mean just to continue on the quality thought there. She's someone else who you could say is like winning every single year right now, because she is also working with extremely exciting directors and working on extremely exciting projects that don't live inside of an intellectual property and that aren't part of a franchise and that are all saying something really interesting and really different from one another. I mean, she was in my second favorite film of the year last year, sanctuary. She was also in poor things, which was in my top five. You know she does this film this year and she's also in kinds of kindness this year, in 2024. And so I just love what she's doing. And then the Demi part of it is becoming such an interesting thing to follow because I think every I mean she's insatiable in the role and it's undeniable how almost like born for it, that that she seemed to be for this role. Maybe it's just because she gave such a great, passionate speech at the Golden Globes when she won best actor for musical comedy. But her best yeah, I think that's how they do it Right Best female performer, musical or comedy. And so I I think that now, all of a sudden, the film feels where it feels like it's saying as much as it was saying that first time you see it, because the first time you see it, everything does feel so fresh and so great. And not to say that I've necessarily fallen victim to the pundits out there who have critiqued it for for almost being one note. I think that we can accept it as a film. That is being one note because what it's trying to say is so important that beauty standards and the projection that women have and the pressure that men put on them and how they're seen in society and everything else is it is so important to just make a two and a half hour film about that and introduce these wild and crazy concepts with the body horror imagery to really hammer that point home.
Speaker 1:I feel like her her speech in this campaign trail that she's been on has brought it back around full circle and her talking about how, like at some, this movie is a microcosm of my career. I've been told that I was only a popcorn actress and I'm only good for this and I can't do that. And now look at me. I'm here accepting the first award that I've ever won for anything, and then you hear that and you're like that's absurd to me. More has to have been recognized by some other awards body at some point in her career and she hasn't. So it's like she, she truly has become like her character in the film and it's it's for for all the right reasons, and so I love that about the movie, all the right reasons, and so I love that um about the movie. And then also too, just I'm so happy for corley forget, because this is someone who it's like you know, watching, watching some prospect and in the g league they grow up and they're fucking, you know, at the all-star game or whatever, and that's just.
Speaker 1:It's so great because I I was a day one revenge fan and and tried to show revenge to every single person I knew, and I still think that that movie is fucking incredible. And if you ever need to watch another wild, crazy French film that that is trying to say a lot as well and doing it in a really crazy way, watch revenge, because that's corley's first film and a remarkable movie, and so, yeah, I just love to see that she's getting her flowers, demi's getting her flowers, that everything is just like everything's sparkling right now when it when it comes to the substance, girls. So I love it yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:I mean just to echo the, the fact that you're that they're able to marry a genre picture, such a heavy genre picture, with the themes that are going on in this film. It's just and for it to be a huge hit, a huge, you know, moment in cinema this year.
Speaker 1:Doesn't it kind of feel like poor things in that way? Yeah, a bit, you know, moment in in cinema this year feel like poor things in that way. Yeah, I know like and and that's where I'm like the me best actress thing could really happen, because that's that's where emma you know I think it feels stole it out from under.
Speaker 3:Uh lily gladstone last year but, I think it feels almost almost bigger than the poor things. I think, again, because it's such a genre picture where it does lean very body horror. That's just like a whole new crop of people, of fans that even poor things wasn't probably able to capture. Yes, agree, and it helps that those types of fans are extremely loud and extremely online and so, yeah, the substance. I think if, if you are to pick a movie that won 2024, it might, it might be the substance for sure I agree with that.
Speaker 1:I feel like a demi win at the oscars would would be. It would almost be like a win for tony collette and hereditary. It would almost be like a win for florence, pew and midsmar. It would be one. It would finally be like a true horror performance being recognized on that level. Um, in a way that you know, poor things is probably more fantasy at the at the end of the day than than horror, body horror, even though it has some of those elements as well. But really interesting stuff. Probably going to be the most fun race to track here. Um, going forward into oscar, oscar season.
Speaker 3:Okay, my max is number one, right, well, yeah, and and my number one, you know we touched on it is doom part two the most unforgotten, monumental blockbuster of the year, uh or the most forgotten no, no, most forgotten monumental yeah here we go.
Speaker 3:Uh, no listen I dune 2, 10 years from now. I truly think that Dune, this pair of films and we'll see about the third one when it does come out, but probably the whole trilogy will go down as some of the great sci-fi of all time. Up there with 2001, up there with Blade Runner, up there with Star Wars, better than Star Wars. Yeah, dune 2, part 2, it was huge. Unfortunately, I do feel like it coming out in March is just such a mistake. It should have came out in July, when it was the hottest month of the year, so you could really get into being on Arrakis.
Speaker 3:But yeah, denny is a true master of filmmaking and what he's able to do in this film just turns it up a level from the first one. I think we kind of talked about on our dune episode that you know. That first one was a lot of establishing the lore, you know, explaining the world, and then this is just like just giving it scale and and and and, really exploring the space. Uh, and dune 2 is, is, is an epic. It's an epic that that you don't get to see all that much anymore.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it is too bad that it came out in March, because it might as well have come out in March of 2022. It doesn't feel like a movie from this past year and I think yet again, it'll be on the really probably the producers guild will nominate it for a lot of things, but then also the just the Academy awards. Like we, we need this movie to have a big award season push to remind people of how great it is, and and to and to not just like in casual conversation, be like oh yeah, dune, dune 2 was really good. But to talk about it in the way that you're talking about it, max, we're like no, what, what's happening right now is like one of the great achievements in in modern cinema and especially 21st filmmaking, 21st century filmmaking.
Speaker 1:And when you look at the span of Denny's career and like sure could he be making more films like Sicario or Prisoners if he wasn't I don't want to say like tied up in this franchise, but like if he wasn't doing these Absolutely, but like this is clearly something that he is wanting to do. I don't feel like he's trapped in an IP right now and so everything that we're getting with these two films, and with Dune 2 specifically, is like blood, sweat and tears, is passion. You see it from the different actors, like you see, when I rewatched it in that final showdown with with Timmy and Austin Butler and the knife fight, it is like such good stuff that is almost on the level of you know, like a um, uh, I don't even know star wars, but like a lightsaber battle yeah, a lightsaber battle like a like a uh, luke skywalker and uh, darth vader hey, darth vader, thank you.
Speaker 1:I really don't know, um, where, where we're having these confessions of you know oh, we're actually family and all this other stuff but like, destiny is destiny and I have to do what I have to do. Like it's just, it's really good and of course, it's coming from a, you know, an all time banger of a sci fi story and so, like, the ingredients are there and what Denny's doing is like whipping up something masterful. Um, I think it's also, you know, like not to say that Timmy and what he's doing on his campaign trail for best actor, for a complete unknown, is like hurting this film's chances, but to to see Chalamet also, not out there there, really on the Dune II trail right now.
Speaker 1:I think it's hurting its legacy a little bit right now. So it just does. And Zendaya is out there, but she's out there for challengers right now. So who are you going to ask to go out and promote this film? Austin Butler, lea Seydoux, rebecca Ferguson? That's not really going to be the vibes really come come award season. I don't think like maybe we get a big fun ensemble table or at least people sat in sort of the same rows at the oscars, but I just, I just don't know. I just feel so bad for this movie because I feel like it's its moment has kind of come and gone and I just hope it comes back and in some, as do I as do I.
Speaker 1:I agree. Okay, a movie that that's moment is is happening right now and that I've completely fallen victim to, as evidence by making it my number one film of the year, is that animated feature film flow and flow. Is it my number one spot right now? Because, for a movie that doesn't, for an animated film that does not personify these animals as humans, that contains no humans, that has no spoken language in it, only animal sounds, it's basically a silent film, although it's not, because the verbal interactions that these animals have with each other are so emotionally striking and so incredibly powerful that when I finished this film that is less than 90 minutes long, I could not believe how invested I just was and still am. This movie ends on an incredibly mysterious note somber note, hopeful note, all the different things and I'm like I need to know what's happening with cat right now. Um it the.
Speaker 1:The quick gist of the film is that we are in a post-apocalyptic world that feels like it is probably in southeast asia.
Speaker 1:It could also potentially be south america, but a very, um, a very like.
Speaker 1:It's not a tropical setting, but it's a, it's a. It's a very wooded area with with mountains and with rivers, and what's happened is that all signs of human existence have faded and we meet this cat, and this cat is trying to survive amongst a world of other animals that are running wild, that are forming packs. There's dogs, there's deer, there's birds, there's lemurs, there's all these different animals that have come together to just sort of forge a new life without humans and a great flood comes, and it is clear that this flood has come before and is potentially what wiped out human race. And so we are with these animals, cat sort of kind of forms, this little band of merry travelers that it roams around with, and just the peril that these animals, and the cats specifically, are put into. I mean, I'm looking at my list and I'm like I care more about that cat than I did the threesome relationship in challengers. I cared more about that than I did michael monroe and long legs. I cared more about that cat than fucking Lisa and all the geek and listen.
Speaker 1:I'm a cat person through and through. This movie is a big win for cats and a big L for dogs, and I'm sorry if I take heat for that, but like love to see it and in my goodness it is just like. It's so remarkable and the the achievement of animation in this movie and this is something else that listeners would have missed because of last week's episode not being published. My big goal for 2025 is to watch more animated films, and this is really the movie that sparked that interest in me, because the animation style in this film is unlike anything I'd ever seen before. It is. It is like some wild mold of like rotoscope animation with it almost looks it's been written about as like it looks like old PlayStation graphics, but it also looks incredibly real at times, like the water. The way that water is rendered in this movie like eat your heart out.
Speaker 1:James cameron avatar stuff looks way worse than this and he had a fucking you know 200 budget to make that movie and this is some small little lothkian film that is just like from this director who edits and composes and writes and does everything on his picture.
Speaker 1:I think I thought he gave a great speech at the Golden Globes when this upset things like Inside Out 2 and the Wild Robot, and walked away with the statue for Best Animated Film, and he said that this movie was almost hard for me to make because I actually had some money and I had some help on it and so to give roles out to different people. I can't wait to see If this is what he's doing, as he's starting to release a little bit of control and not have such a burden to make these films. I can't wait to see what this filmmaker does next. Flow is just a remarkable, remarkable, remarkable film that who knows if I keep it there over time, but as we stand right now on January 12th or 13th or whatever it is of 2025, and I look back at 2024, it's the most emotionally invested that I was in a film this year and in over the last like handful of years. So huge recommendation for Flow.
Speaker 2:Flow. Yeah, this is another movie that I have also added to my watch list, because one of my goals for the new year and this year ahead is definitely to watch more movies that get more of an emotional response out of me.
Speaker 1:This is a great movie for those of us who are dead inside. This will wake you up.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and as a fellow cat lover, I yeah, it's. It's high on my watch list. I'm going to try to get to it this week sometime.
Speaker 3:Hell yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, so a couple of things just kind of on my fringe that I want to give a shout out to. Long legs stayed in my top 10 all year. I recently rewatched that. Felt good about its placement. The Beast also kind of crept into my top 10 after a recent rewatch. I just picked that up on physical media Also. A funny thing that I noticed on this rewatch of the Beast one of the timelines that Lea Seydoux's character exists in is like 2042, I want to say it is. And she makes mention of when her parents came to the United States but then they had to leave because of a civil war and I was like, hmm, extended universe with Alex Garland's Civil War perhaps Just a little catch that I caught there and then rounding out my top 10 along with Civil War the first showman is in there as well is Enora.
Speaker 1:Enora, you know, I saw a film that I hope doesn't start to become underappreciated just because of you know, maybe, how that film has sort of fallen out of favor as far as being like an Oscar favorite. And we're finally going to give Sean Baker some, some, some critical recognition. Well, I mean, he's already received a great amount of critical recognition, but awards body recognition, um, so I still definitely want to shout out a Nora. And then, you know, a real pain is there in the top 15, rebel Ridge. And then we get to the top 20 and it's like smile to the order is a really cool movie, good one I loved.
Speaker 1:I hope I haven't listened to Marcus yet and so I hope that Marcus talks about good one. Um, twisters. You know it was still a great time. That kind of rounds out my top 20. But then when I look back through that like 20 through 40, and I see things like juror number two and trap and blink twice and stop motion and strange darling and hit man and carry on, I'm like this is this is really a really fun year for movies.
Speaker 3:Yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it really is. And again, like it, it's not like they're like huge, huge movies from huge people, but like it's just a really girthy, you know amount of of good, which is which is kind of what you want, right when, when it comes down to looking back at a year, um, I will also shout out anora. Uh, it's been in my top 10 as well. I have seen the Brutalist and I will wait for you two to see it to talk.
Speaker 1:I did see where you had it placed on first blush.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it's in the top 40. But Anora, I think should be very mad if things keep going the Brutalist's way. In my own humble opinion, a Different man is fantastic. Great Little Film by Sebastian Stan again won the Globe for acting in that that the bike riders. You know, jeff Nichols has really just kind of risen to like one of my, my go to like favorite filmmakers. I recently just watched Loving for the first time and kind of one of my. Another goal of mine this year is to start to put together favorite filmmakers' filmographies on physical and yeah, I need every Jeff Nichols movie because I really really love what he does.
Speaker 3:Snack Shack it's a great coming-of-age film. Again, gabriel Labelle, who was in Saturday Night Just some nostalgic 90s feelings there while you're watching that. Kinds of Kindness, really really loved that. Yorgos, after having such a big year with poor things, then decides to do like a weird anthology short film experiment with a bunch of really really, really talented actors. You know, again, kind of came and went, didn't really have a moment. But gosh, it's all. Three of those stories are just disturbing and beautiful and really fun to watch, really fun to watch. Dee Dee is another great movie, another coming-of-age film. That really stood out to me. And we Live in Time, just a throwback, romantic two movie stars in love. Really, really good movie. From what was that Joe? Is it Joe Wright, I believe. Isn't it Mr Atonement? Um, really really good movie. Uh. From uh, what was that? Joe is a Joe right.
Speaker 1:I believe, Isn't it Mr Atonement, uh, or John?
Speaker 3:John, John Crowley, excuse me, John Crowley, uh, who did Brooklyn, Brooklyn, uh, which was?
Speaker 2:a great movie when that came out. Yeah, I a lot of those movies and you know I I also really loved love lies bleeding Um. I I had such a fun time watching that Um, and I recently watched I rewatched it and I just really loved it. But a lot of the movies we've already mentioned have are still in like my top 20. I love smile too. I had a great time with that. It's kind of a big surprise for me.
Speaker 1:One of my biggest surprises of the year. As well, I loved Smile 2.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I know this movie has kind of fallen on my list, but at the time I loved the Fall Guy Another fun movie about making movies. Another fun movie about making movies. Um, it's definitely not so high on my list but I I did really enjoy it a lot more than I thought I would. But, um, yeah, smile too, just such a fun. The first one is not nearly as exciting as this, as the second one one, and so and I'm and I'm curious to see what they'll do with a third if they make one.
Speaker 1:So A couple others that I just I quite enjoyed. Night bitch, like a movie that has like no footprint except for, like, the book lovers of it, and I'm not sure if they think it's a faithful adaptation or not. But going into that movie cold, just a really fun dark comedy. I thought amy adams was really enjoyable in night bitch, um, and also immaculate. I still stand by everything that happened in immaculate. I think that the first omen is is the the far more successful version of a similar story, but immaculate's dope.
Speaker 1:And then furiosa too, kind of like the little brother to maybe what's happening with with dune part two, whereas maybe we're gonna look back on on furiosa here in five years and say why didn't we treat this like fairy road? Um, furiosa is also really solid, I think. Yeah, all great calls were there any? Because I still have a few where I'm like this could change. The moment that I see nickel boys, this could change when I see the brutalist, even though you know I I usually ride with what max has to say. But like there are still some out there where I'm like this list it's still a work in progress. Are there any others for you guys I mean, other than Red Rooms and Flow.
Speaker 3:Honestly, after hearing what you had to say about both those films, they're probably the two biggest omissions that I have from the list or from this year that could get into that top 15, top 10 area.
Speaker 2:Yeah, there's quite a few movies that I just didn't get around to seeing. I really wanted to see Sing Sing, I really wanted to see A Real Pain, and I obviously still will watch these movies. And then, yeah, nickel Boys gosh, there's, there's a lot that I didn't get to. I didn't get to the wild robot and I heard that that was just amazing.
Speaker 1:Um so, and a lot of these could definitely could creep into my top 15, top 10 even it's always tough with international releases as well, because I I love adele exarchopolis, as listeners of this podcast know, and she came out with three films in france this year. Um, she had a huge year. She was the voice of ennui and inside out too, so still had a really big year here. But, uh, a couple of films that released overseas that haven't made their way here yet, beating hearts, all your faces and planet b I I gotta see all three of these films because, who knows, could end up being one, two and three on my list that power
Speaker 1:um, also want to give a quick shout out to the taste of things, just speaking of international releases, because you look up the taste of things and it has a 2023 release. However, it wasn't available to american audiences, I don't believe, until around this time last year of 2024. So a movie that I watched in 2024 that I couldn't have watched any earlier. However, it is a 2023 release. The same can also be said for Red Rooms. Red Rooms, I believe, played at a festival in 2023. But that really caught on, I would say, around September of this year, so that really does actually feel like a 2024 release, whereas Taste of Things was on a ton of lists last year at the end of the year, but just another one like that was kind of just holding space in my top five for a lot of the year. And then it's always tricky with shorts. I mean, I think that we should give a quick shout out to a few shorts that we really liked.
Speaker 1:I watched this film called Look Back not that long ago, about a week ago, which is like an hour long. It's an anime. It's about two girls who meet when they are in primary school. They both learn that they, they both find out. They're kind of rivals. At first they're drawing manga for their school's newspaper and then they they learn to kind of grow together as artists and they just go on this incredible journey that has real highs and then real, real lows, and it's just incredibly powerful. I think that anybody who loves art or who makes art and you know can sometimes question maybe what what that does to you and your relationships to those people around you. Does it make them stronger? Does it make them weaker? How much should you be giving to your passion? I think that this film Look Back has so much to say about some of those themes, so I highly recommend that film.
Speaker 1:And then also just a couple of great concert movies came out this year. The Kendrick pop-up was great. I watched a Blackpink concert. That was great. The Weeknd had a great um live stream on youtube that was very theatrical. So those are things that I just give five stars on letterboxd but then I put way down at the bottom of my list because you know they're not technically movies but you can log them and you can rate them.
Speaker 3:Uh, fish monger, monger, fish monger, if. If we're talking about shorts, uh, blew me away. Blew me away this year. Uh, from neil uh farron. Um, we saw that at a couple different. Uh, we saw it at tacoma tacoma film fest I believe, yeah, um and yeah, shot in beautiful black and white period piece, uh, kind of horror comedy, uh, with some death metal in there and about sirens and mermaids, and just just hilarious, just beautiful, just scary and really, really good.
Speaker 2:I saw a really great short this year called Nightstock oh no, zero stars on letterbox on there for the people, oh it's on there, go go search it
Speaker 1:um, chime is just another quick one that I want to shout out. Chime, which is like a 45 minute long, you know kind of middle ground. Uh, horror film from kiyoshi kurosawa, really disturbing movie that I believe is everywhere on demand right now, as is hundreds of beavers, and I put this way down. So I logged 77 movies from 2024 and I put it at 70 below my concert movies, below my shorts, because I'm just like I don't. I don't know what this movie is. It is a theatrical released feature film, so I should figure out a place to put it amongst the actual movies on my 2024 list. But it is just such an experiment in filmmaking that feels so familiar and yet so new and it's way too long. It should be one of these like 70 minute um not the first time it's come up today.
Speaker 1:Oh, interesting.
Speaker 1:Um so I feel like it. If it should be like a 60 to 70 minute long movie, I think they they would be able to communicate everything that they want to try to communicate and do all these different fun film techniques, without it starting to feel worn out or anything like that, but one that I can definitely recommend to people who, you know, kind of grew up with like the tech, savory cartoons or who love three stooges type of stuff. All these, all these different, um, you know, just filmmaking styles that feel they feel cartoonish but that also feel very, um of of a certain era, kind of like the golden age of of filmmaking, or maybe even more like television, I don't know. Hundreds of beavers is just such a weird film that I watched I don't know two weeks ago. I don't know how I feel about it still.
Speaker 3:I threw it on. Uh, I told this story earlier, but I threw it on on New Year's Eve over at our buddy Tim's house while everyone was celebrating bringing in the new year and people were weirded out.
Speaker 1:It's an odd one. I can't wait to hear how it was brought up earlier. Okay, so that. A lot, a lot of good stuff in 2024. Great conversation, great lists from the two of you. We will be back next week on. Excuse the Intermission, this episode will actually be airing on yours truly's birthday, I believe.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:My birthday's on a Thursday this year. The 16th right, which this this year 16th right, which will be the 16th yeah john carpenter and you me and john uh, he's coming on next week to celebrate yeah, we'll figure out what we're going to talk about.
Speaker 1:In celebration of that. We always like to put a fun little wrinkle on birthday episodes. Maybe it'll just be a den of thieves pantera episode, I don't know. Um, but until next time, please follow the three of us on letterboxd to track what we're watching between shows, and we will talk to you next time. On excuse the intermission where movies still matter.
