Sam, this.

Okay, this is recording as the backup now.

And we're talking.

Hello, everyone.

Welcome to the Directors Club Podcast.

Oh, my God, it's 2026.

I am your host, Jim Lazkowski.

And Huey Lewis once said, if this is it, please, please let them know.

Well, Huey, this is it.

The episode that everyone anticipates each and every year.

The year in review.

Yes.

Time to talk about our favorite films of 2025.

A year I just cannot wait to forget.

But we have some movies that we actually liked.

All three of us.

Returning to do this are two of my absolute favorite guests and friends and podcasters.

We had the one, the only former co host of this here show and current co host of 96 Greers.

Patrick Rol is back.

Hi.

How's it going?

We're good.

We're good.

Yeah, we're gonna, we're gonna do this.

We.

I mean, that is true.

I don't know how it's gonna come out in the end, but we are going to do it first.

Yes, exactly.

And film historian, commentator, host of supporting characters, which is also back and active.

We're so happy about that.

We, we have the one, the only, Bill Ackerman.

Hey, Bill.

Hey, thanks for having me back.

I'm so glad you are back and I'm so glad that you asked me to do a commentary track with you.

One of the highlights of 2025 with that close range, which I believe as of today will now be available right again on Vinegar Syndrome.

Yes, it should be available in one minute.

Wow, what timing.

Perfect timing.

Yes.

Excellent, Nova, thanks again for that.

And you had quite the year yourself with those, with many commentary tracks and a lot of accomplishments, including bringing back supporting characters.

So thanks for doing that too.

It's been a busy year.

What was Keith Gordon's favorite film of 2025?

You know, I haven't heard back from him since I sent him the link for the episode.

Hopefully.

Hopefully I hear from him, but I don't know.

I don't know.

I will report back.

He did offer to give me a favorites list for my website, but I don't really have guests on my website, so I don't know that I will actually take him up on that or not.

Jim, you've talked to Keith Gordon a bunch of times about movies you both love.

What's your instinct?

What's Keith Gordon's favorite film of 2025?

Right off the top of the dome.

We gotta get moving.

Right off the top of the dome any moment.

It was just an accident.

There you go.

Perfect.

That is such a Keith Gordon movie.

It was such a. Yeah, I can see that.

Mm.

For sure.

Yeah.

Yes.

Hey, guys.

2025 happened.

What'd you think of it?

It was horrible.

It's the worst year of my Life, other than 2026, which is undoubtedly going to be much worse.

Oh, how do you know that for sure?

Because this is.

Look, here's how we're going to.

Okay, We're.

We're sipping coffee right now.

You.

You.

You understand, like, sort of, you know, instinctually, that the quality of coffee for the rest of your life is going to get worse and it's going to get more expensive because.

Because that's just sort of the nature of things that are grown in a taroir, which is like when humidity and environment and altitude and temperature are all factors of how a plant is grown, then when climate change comes, those.

All of those things are going to be affected, and you're not going to get those, you know, nicer beans.

You're going to get the swamp beans or whatever.

This is a metaphor for the film year of 2025 and also every other aspect of all of our lives until we die, which is that we both need to accept the fact that things are just going to get a little bit worse and you have to lower your expectations, while at the same time, part of the way we got here is by everybody just accepting everything's going to get a little worse and lowering their expectations.

So your survival instinct is going to be the same thing that fuels things getting worse.

And that is.

That is.

That's like gravity, as far as I'm concerned.

That's just.

I wish gravity was cyclical.

That'd be really fucking funny if it was like, all right, we had a year of it going down.

Now everybody go up.

Yeah, that'd be fun.

No, so, yeah, yeah.

I mean, but, you know, there's still good movies this year in 2025.

There's still gonna be good movies in 2026.

And guess what, folks?

I am not ranking my movies this year.

So that's.

That's a big change.

I just.

Again, I mean, I thought 2025 wasn't a great year for personal reasons.

And also, movies didn't excite me as much, honestly.

I mean, new movies, that is.

I did have the absolute pleasure of experiencing the Holy Mountain for the first time, thanks to my wonderful fiance and co host of Beside Me, Sharon Gissey.

Of course I'm talking about.

She showed me the Holy Mountain.

I was like, holy shit.

Movies can be this cool?

I'M glad.

I'm glad I had that experience and hope to talk about that more in this year when we do Jodorowsky on the podcast here.

That'll be fun.

But, Bill?

Yeah, 2025, not.

Not the best year.

Would you.

Would you.

Would you agree?

Well, I mean, yeah.

I mean, I, I'm.

I may or may not be laid off from my job of nearly 20 years in a few months.

So that's been hanging over me the whole year.

So I've had that kind of pressure the whole year, and I've just kind of tried to forget about it and do a lot of traveling.

In 2025, I went to Italy for the first time.

I did a few podcasts in person in different states.

I went to Texas to interview a couple people, went to Ohio, went to a nice wedding in la.

So I did a bit of traveling and I did commentaries pretty much back to back for, like, the first half of the year.

So I was not really giving myself much downtime this year.

And I wasn't really seeing a lot of new movies that I was crazy about until this is, like, every other time we do this, like, the second half of the year, I started finding the films that I really liked.

And by the end, I saw so many films that I. I wouldn't say, like, I was blown away by a lot of them, but I really liked a lot of them.

And, you know, the New York Film Festival was the first time I ever.

This first time I ever went to the whole thing.

And I even paid extra for the.

The fancy schmancy, like, little room where you hang out with the movie stars up, like, sipping fancy wine and eating cheese.

I did that.

And it was.

It was kind of weird because I didn't really know anyone up there, and I wasn't about to go up to Jodie Foster and, you know, and make small talk.

So it was just okay.

But it was still.

It was still a nice experience.

And the films at the festival, I saw a lot of the highlights, but then a lot of things I saw on the list that I put on my list for today are just smaller indie films and foreign films that haven't gotten the same exposure as the Safdie films or Paul Thomas Anderson's film and other things that are getting more of the headlines.

But, yeah, no, I think the combination of the pandemic and the actor strikes and just the shifting nature of how people watch films, it's just.

I mean, it's steadily altering the landscape.

And, I mean, doesn't mean there aren't still good things produced within it, but it's just like.

Yeah, there's a lot about the future that I'm not crazy about, and that's not even getting into things like AI that are going to impact every industry.

Oh, God.

Yeah.

There's a lot of reasons to be worried about that.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And just the film industry as a whole.

I don't, I don't know what it's going to become ultimately.

And you know what Roger Corman said?

What did Roger Corman have to say, Patrick?

He said, the film industry will always exist, but it won't always be the film industry.

Well put.

Yeah.

Have you.

Guitar didn't say that it might be Godard as well?

It might be.

It'd be funny if it was Roger Corman saying, you know, Godard once said.

And then someone else quoted Roger Corbin and cut out the other part.

Have you got, have you, have you examined short form videos yet?

There's a whole world of series that are like broken into three minute chunks that you can buy for like 98 cents a piece.

And they're like 47 part cereals.

And, and like you, you buy token, like they, they have fully, like gotten the full like draftkings, gambling kind of kind of things into this video streaming service.

And you can watch, you know, like, fell in love with my boss's pregnant wife over the course of 56 episodes that are all shot in vertical video because they're meant to be.

You're just sort of on the toilet watching the latest episode.

Oh.

So anyway, the film industry will always exist.

It just won't always be the film industry.

Yeah, that makes sense.

And also, I just, I don't know, I think I had that conversation with you over text Patrick, about how, like, I just want films to surprise me and most of them don't anymore because I've seen so many damn films to where like, oh, yeah, I saw this weird, random experimental film.

And because I'd never seen anything like it before, it stood out and it made me more excited about filming, finding other types of films.

Like, you can go on YouTube and find a list of like 300 experimental films from all different people.

You are in a very blessed position to have this feeling because you live in Chicago where there are experimental films happening all the time.

Don't claw.

You can.

I know, I know.

Your cat is attacking me.

The claws are stuck in my skin.

There we go.

Now I'm bleeding.

So you there, go to Chicago filmmakers.

Go look up Chicago Film Society.

Look up conversations on the Edge at Gene Siskel.

There's a lot of avant garde film screenings that are happening.

Happening in your area, Jim.

I'm gonna start doing that more.

Let's kick out the kitty.

Okay.

Does Bill have anything to say about.

Jim?

Jim had to walk away from the.

Microphone to get this cat out of the room.

But I'm.

I'm fully expecting a Flintstone style thing where the cat locks Jim out of the room.

Okay.

Okay, Jim's back.

Hi, Jim.

Hi, I'm back.

I just thought, yeah, we could fill him.

Bill, do you see yourself becoming an avant garde dirtbag?

Maybe just a regular dirt bag.

Okay, yeah, that's fair.

Or a teenage dirt bag.

Well, that would be weird.

Yeah.

If I regressed.

Yeah, that would be weird.

I turned 50 in 2026, so teenage dirtbag would be kind of a bad look for me.

25 movies in 2025.

Again, I'm going alphabetical.

Bill, I believe you're doing the same.

Patrick, you're doing something a little different.

Yes.

So over on Tracks of the Damned, I recently revived it in November.

I did 30 commentary tracks on 30 Roger Corman directed films in 30 days.

I did them chronologically.

I started with his very first film.

I ended with Gas, which is not his very last film, but to me, sort of represents an ending to his career.

And they were not well researched.

They were just sort of podcasts where I was sitting down and watching them and talking through them and, you know, reading interviews and just sort of like working through this guy who was in a very unique position to teach himself to make movies on the big screen.

And I have gone back and re.

Listened to some of these podcasts.

I have told friends like, hey, you don't have to listen to this.

This is something I was doing for my own edification.

I thought it would be interesting to learn this way.

And so I just put out podcasts.

But they're not actually for public consumption.

I listen to them back.

They're fucking good.

They're.

I'm sure they are.

They're not like Kino Lorber quality commentary tracks.

They're doing a different thing, but, like, I am proud of it.

So go on Tracks of the Damned, check out those commentary tracks.

Discover Roger Corman, one of my favorite filmmakers together.

Like self taught film school.

Almost like you just kind of did that on your own.

Exactly.

Well, yeah, I get into all that.

I can't get into all that here.

But he was in a very unique position and the.

The way that you can actually see every single thing he learns Pay off years and years down the line and, and like his, the things he returns to and everything, it was, it was a real dream.

So that was awesome.

You should check that out.

So instead of doing my 25 through 11 for like favorite films of the year, I decided I was going to give you guys my 15 favorite Roger Corman directed movies.

Wow.

I'm into that.

Me too.

Okay, so to start, number 15, Machine Gun Kelly.

This is like Charles Bronson's first big starring role.

This is, this is the one that got him a lot of notice from French critics.

It's more of a real movie than something like Attack of the Crab Monsters or something.

It's, it's a very good character drama.

It's like, it's the, the acting is good.

He gets good performances out of people.

That's like just one of the Roger Corman things that, you know, a bird eye Gordon doesn't have.

It's a little bit boring.

So that's why it's at 15 and not higher.

Number 14, Little Shop of Horrors.

I think its reputation comes mostly from the musical, which is much better.

But it is a very fun movie and it has.

Of all the Roger Corman movies that feel like a bunch of people getting together and saying, hey, let's put on a show.

This is the most let's put on a show movie he ever made.

And there's something about those Charles Griffith screen scripted, like tossed off goofy black comedies that he made that really speak to me.

So Little Shop of Horror is number 14.

Number 13, War of the Satellites.

A body snatching sci fi horror movie that has some like really gnarly violence involving a blowtorch that you wouldn't expect.

To see in 1958.

It's got Dick Miller as the hero, but he is like a full 10 inches shorter than the villain.

And so there's some really fun confrontations there.

I really don't like 50s sci fi space movies because it's just like a wall of blinking lights and people saying, you know, nonsensical jargon.

This has more going on.

So War of Satellites is good.

It conquered the world.

Another body snatching movie.

This is the one where Lee Van Cleef says, I welcomed you to this.

Planet and you turned it into a charnel house.

And then he blowtorches an alien's eye and the alien looks like an upside down ice cream cone.

It's fucking cool.

Number 11 is the trip.

This is Roger Corman trying to work out his artsy side.

This is Roger Corman also exploiting drug culture of the 60s.

This is also Roger Corman putting all of his Freudian psychology to use.

It's also a mess, but it's a really interesting mess and so I really like the trip.

Number 10 is the undead, which is if you want to see where the Edgar Allan Poe movies came from.

The Undead is sort of the proto Edgar Allan Poe movie.

It's got weird, weird story.

There's all sorts of sci fi and supernatural concepts in in it that are just very strange and bizarre.

It's not quite a horror movie, but it is really interesting.

Number nine is Attack the Crab Monsters, which is just the weirdest goddamn giant monster movie you'll ever see in your life.

Number eight is Tales of Terror, which is a really fun, goofy triptych horror anthology movie.

It's the.

The famous one is Peter Laurie and Vincent Price doing the Cask of Amontillado and.

And the Black Cat sort of merged together.

But the other two stories are equally good.

Number seven is the Intruder, which is William Shatner as a racist northerner who comes down to a southern town to sort of inspire riots about recent integration attempts.

Fascinating movie.

Goes really fucking hard in an era when no Hollywood movie at all was ever going hard on race.

Huge bomb for that reason.

Number six, the Raven.

Hilarious, campy, goofy horror comedy.

Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, Peter Lorre, Duke, Jack Nicholson.

Just pure pleasure.

Number five is X, the Man with X Ray Eyes, which is a little campy, a little body horror, a little cosmic horror.

It's got a bunch of weird special effects.

I think Raymond is really good as sort of like the tortured scientist in it.

Number four is the Pit and the Pendulum, which is probably the most immaculate production design of any of the Edgar Allan Poe movies.

Barbara Steele's in it.

It's a rerun on Fall of House of Usher, but sort of pumped up.

Number three is A Bucket of Blood.

A Bucket of Blood is a horror comedy that is a take on Mystery of the Wax Museum and House of Wax, where it's Dick Miller killing people and then putting clay on them and saying they're, you know, sculptures.

Hilarious.

Really good, really interesting.

It is written by Charles B. Griffith as a mockery of Roger Corman and the way Roger Corman got a big head after French critics started talking him up.

So it is a weirdly like.

It is a movie made by someone from a script by another someone who's making fun of the director.

So there's a lot of layers to it that are really fascinating to watch, especially if you have watched like 20 Roger Corman directed movies.

Before that, number two, Fall, the House of Usher.

It is just perfect.

Perfect Edgar Allan Poe, Gothic horror.

And number one, Mask of the Red Death is also perfect, Edgar Allen Hoe Gothic horror, but exploded into a million different directions.

So there you go.

That's perfect.

That's also my pick for favorite Corman as well.

There's a definitely on some on there I need to see.

Yeah.

Too.

Yeah, that's exciting.

Before we get to our list here on the show, I wanted to hear from Chloe Waryan.

Yay.

From the Not Scared, a horror podcast hosted by Chloe, who you heard oh several times on this here show and I hope that you go and support her work.

She's incredible podcaster and librarian.

Let's see what her favorite films of the year were before we launch into our epic lists.

Hi everyone, this is Chloe Warian from Chloe's Not Scared.

I just want to say thank you, Jim, for having me back on to talk about my favorite movies of the year.

I will also say that I have a podcast now on the now playing network.

It's called Not a Horror Movie Podcast.

We talk about our favorite horror movies and what makes them special to us.

And a few guests of Directors Club have actually been on as well as Jim himself.

And I just wanted to publicly thank Jim for encouraging me to start this podcast.

So thank you very much, Jim.

I'm here to talk about my favorite movies of the year.

And while Jim usually puts scary music behind my voice, I have to say there is only one horror movie on this list and you can probably guess what it is and you can probably guess that it's number one.

So, you know, let the music play on if you want, but just, you know, curb your expectations as always.

There are a few movies that I haven't seen yet that I probably would put on this list, but a podcast is a moment in time.

So let's just crack into it.

My number 10 favorite movie of the year is Zodiac Killer Project by Charlie Shackleton.

It is a documentary about an abandoned documentary about the Zodiac killer.

And I saw this in the movie theater with Jim.

Both of us were really shocked and happy about it.

Both of us grew up kind of watching true crime documentaries with our moms and it's a really, really smart commentary on those types of documentaries that just oversaturates the streaming platforms at this time.

My number nine favorite movie of the year is Sorry Baby by Eva Victor.

And yes, the cat on the poster is okay, just the most human movie I've seen this year.

It made me laugh, it made me cry, it deeply moved me and I just wanted to give the characters a hug.

It is one of the best movies I've ever seen about trauma and one of the best movies I've ever seen about friendship.

Number eight for me is the Phoenician Scheme by Wes Anderson.

I'm notoriously pretty mixed on Anderson's movies, but his last few movies have really blown me away.

Benicio Del Toro is just having the time of his life in this film and it's just a fun adventure movie and sometimes we just need fun, fun adventure movies.

I don't feel like this is style over substance here because there is a great story about a father daughter relationship as well.

Now we're getting to the part of my list where I'm going to talk a lot about how much I love theater.

I was a theater major and I love playwriting.

And this next movie, my number seven is materialists director.

Celine Song is a playwright and so obviously I'm going to love every script that she does.

This movie was extremely misunderstood in my opinion.

Instead of seeing a love triangle, I saw three people completely losing themselves to capitalism in their 30s.

To me, she doesn't choose a man at the end, she chooses a work life balance.

And as someone who doesn't have a work life balance and needs a work life balance, this movie felt very pertinent and moving to me.

My number six movie is Blue Moon, directed by Richard Linklater.

Linklater had two movies that came out this year.

I thoroughly enjoyed both of them, but of course Ethan Hawke playing Lawrence Hart.

An all in one night movie.

I'm going to love this.

I thought it was such a moving portrayal of a misunderstood genius.

Hawke just disappears into this role.

I can't recommend it enough.

My number five film, Sentimental Value by Johann Trier.

Gorgeous film.

I will admit I didn't quite connect with worst person in the world, but this I was locked in in.

A Norwegian family headed by an absent film directing father, attempts to reconnect with his daughters over theater and art.

What's.

What's there not to love?

Also best house in a film this year.

I stand by it.

And the house is a character.

I know it's kind of corny to say, but the house is a character.

This film for me is tied with my next film which is Marty supreme by Josh Safdie.

I thought Timothee Chalamet was amazing as Marty Mouser, a burgeoning ping pong or table tennis star.

I was incredibly invested in his story It's a great New York story.

The character work, the ensemble.

So standout though.

This is a movie for people who want to see performances with a capital P. My next film is One Battle After Another by Paul Thomas Anderson.

It's not my favorite PTA movie, but oh my God.

Teyana Taylor Chase, Infinity.

I love you, Biancio del Toro.

A few small beers.

Best seen in a film this year.

Best scene Stole the show and the highway.

How did they film that?

Basically Anything filmed with VistaVision.

I'm going to put high, high, high on the list.

And you're probably being like, well, this is too low at number three.

Well, it's tied with my next one.

I will say it's tied with my next one, which is Black Bag by Steven Soderbergh.

You might be pretty surprised.

I feel like a lot of people forgot about this movie at the end of the year.

It's taut, it's pithy, it's fun, it keeps you guessing.

Heists and domestic dramas are my two favorite subgenres and there is not a minute wasted in this film.

And of course my number one movie of the year.

I've talked about it and written about it extensively on my blog.

It is Sinners.

Ryan Coogler, Sinners.

I'll just say if you are looking for a character driven, distinctly American story that incorporates many distinctly American genres, you'll find it in Sinners.

The musical ancestors scene made me weep in the theater in a way that no other movie has in recent memory.

It was basically exactly what I was looking for at exactly the right time of my life.

And there you have it.

Thank you Jim for letting me yap at you for five minutes again.

Chloe Warian, you can find me at Chloe's Not Scared everywhere and listen to Not Scared, a horror movie podcast on the now playing network.

Thank you.

Happy New Year.

The first one I had, and I'm going alphabetically, is a film called Alice Hart and Alice Hart is still on the festival circuit, so hopefully people will have a chance to see it in 2026.

I don't know what the director is doing with it, but I saw it at the Philadelphia International Film Festival.

It's directed and written by Mike.

I don't know how you say, I think it's Macera.

It stars Lisa Caradang Sweeney and it's kind of, well, 2025 is the year with maybe my least favorite Noah Baumbach movie, I hate to say.

J. Kelly, I think, is maybe his weakest movie and so kind of charmed to see A film that feels like a Gen Z Francis Ha.

Shot in Philly.

So it's about an aspiring writer who drops out of college in her senior year, breaks up with a boyfriend, and it's just one of those kind of stories where she moves in with a friend and tries to figure out her life.

It's not really that much a plot centered kind of movie, although it does have a coming of age story.

But it's shot in black and white.

It kind of aims for that same kind of romantic capturing of a city that you might associate with Manhattan.

And it's, I guess, in the mumblecore vein.

It feels a little bit improvisational in terms of the dialogue.

I thought of the early Andrew Buzielski films, like funny ha ha, Mutual appreciation a little bit at times.

But like, if it's.

If the certain story beats feel like, you know, very familiar as far as, like the romantic friendship kind of beats of it.

They're handled in a really smart way in terms of the writing.

It's really well acted and very kind of just likable, charming film in that style.

So I wanted to put that on my list.

That's Alice Hart.

Yeah, that sounds great.

I'm looking forward to that.

And you mentioned, like films not being super plot heavy.

And that's kind of the majority of my list.

Looking at it, it's just I enjoyed this movie.

It was a simple story.

And that's the case for my first pick in alphabetical order, which is the Baltimoreans, kind of like the Alexander Payne movie of the year, where just like similar to the Holdovers, two random people meet around the holidays, I believe it's Christmas Eve, and they strike up some kind of, yeah, you know, potentially romantic connection.

But it just, you know, this is a movie where just people are, you know, kind of being imperfectly human.

And I just like that, you know, in that sort of.

Well, maybe not in the Ella McKay mold, but early James L. Brooks.

Certainly those types of character driven stories really speak to me still.

Even if, yeah, you can kind of reduce this like, oh, this is like a Sundance indie dramedy.

But this is one that's done really well because, you know, it's got people that just simply know how to handle awkwardness sometimes.

And I struggle with that myself in real life.

It just managed to make me laugh and feel good and, you know, get a little melancholy because like this, you know, this recovering alcoholic played by Michael Strassner, he's also a former improv comic.

So again, you get those.

You hear that off the Top of your head, like, yep, typical indie dramedy, Sundance kind of a story.

And then he just meets up with his dentist after breaking a tooth and they go on some interesting adventures together because they're both more or less alone on Christmas Eve.

And yeah, they go to an improv show, they meet up with a family, they have just very unusual encounters with random people.

But yeah, it's like you talked about Bill.

It's got a little mumblecore vibe.

You know, obviously this comes from J. Duplass.

Yeah, J. Duplass.

And yeah, I thought of Bujalski as well.

And, you know, it was just one of like, I sat down not having high expectations for this.

I know it played the Chicago Critics Film Festival.

I know it was a big hit with the crowd there.

And I was like, this is just a nice, good, warm, funny movie that hit me in the right place.

It's got a great script, a lot of funny lines, and I really enjoy Michael Strassner as your kind of unconventional lead character in this.

And yeah, it's.

It's got a big heart.

So I'm all for this possibly being a Christmas go to every year with the Baltimore ons.

Yeah.

So that's on my list.

I don't know if I should just jump right over my number two to my number three, which is the Baltimore runs.

You can, just for the sake of efficiency.

But all I'll just add to that is that, you know, if you were to compare to the typical Sundance indie, I think a lot of those age gap romances tend to be older guy, manic younger girl.

And this is kind of refreshing in that the woman that he has this kind of tentative romance with is Liz Larson's character, who's kind of, kind of reminded me of Ellen Barkin a little bit, but like, but is like someone who's like in a, you know, a middle aged kind of place in life.

Like, not a typical love interest for that kind of movie.

Maybe if it was told like 20 years ago.

But yeah, I mean, I liked the Puffy Chair when it came out and I followed a few of the other J. Duplass directed films like Cyrus and Jeff, who lives at home.

But I think this is maybe my favorite one he's done since the Puffy Chair.

And it was a nice surprise because I really, I think the title made me think it was going to be something a lot sillier than it is.

Right, right.

But you know, to pick up off of Alice Hart, it's also, it's the other major city that's an hour from me because it's a Baltimore through and through film as opposed to a Philly film.

So it's again, like, it.

It adds an extra thing for me in that it's like streets that I know.

Like, it feels very kind of.

Yeah.

Kind of warm and gray shading that way.

Just because it's an environment.

I know.

But yeah, no, it was a very nice surprise because I really had.

The title was, oh, it's going to be something very wacky.

It's really not.

Yeah, yeah, definitely.

I do, like, again, like, as someone who recently tried improv for the first time, I thought this was done well and not like, you know, again, like my expectations.

Oh, they're going to just get wacky.

It really gets sweet in the right ways.

For me, that.

That entire sequence is really nice.

Okay, what's.

So I should go next or should you go next?

Should I do my two or you want to do yours?

I will go.

I will go ahead with Black Bag again.

I think a lot of movies this year, the ones that stood out at least went back to basics and just like, told a simple story.

And again, not too heavy on plots.

It's just get together a solid cast and we just watch them interact and the fireworks fly in this in the right ways.

I think I prefer Soderbergh in the low key.

Only a few characters, simple plot, like your kimmies and your.

Well, I don't know if no sudden move would fall under that.

There's a lot of characters in that, if I'm not mistaken.

But it's just kind of a more intimate drama.

It's a spy thriller on top of it, too.

It's really.

It's kind of a little bit of a mashup where it's like taking a domestic marriage story mixed with us, you know, who's the mole in this organization Subplot that kind of.

They kind of really work well together.

Like, this was one of the earliest films of the year where I went, man, I want more movies like this.

Again, it's just.

And Soderbergh knows how to make those.

And he does it in all the right ways.

He just gets a few people, a few rooms and still manages to make the camera move and, you know, have really interesting characters.

And you got Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as husband and wife.

So that alone should sell you on it being compelling.

But I just love a good confrontation amongst different people that we get to know, you know, throughout the film.

It's like later on set At a table that's sort of like when the big confrontation happens.

And I love that whole sequence.

It's just a well made thriller, drama, slash domestic movie.

At the same time, it's like all these things that somehow work really well together.

And it's just like a simple, streamlined 90 minute movie that I really liked seeing in a theater because again, I don't go to the theater that much.

But I went out to see this because I'm like, I'm.

I'm down for new Soderbergh.

And he had two movies this year and if you look at Mike d' Angelo's list apparently at three movies, and I didn't even know about the third one, but yeah, it's.

I love Soderbergh and this is kind of what he does best, in my opinion.

So, yeah, and it's a great cast doing.

Doing great things.

And yeah, it's just a fun, good time at a.

At the movies for me with Black Bag.

Hey, come on.

But no, I like Black Bag as well.

So my next one, if I go back to my number two, is April, which is written and directed by dea.

Is it Columbia?

I don't know if I've ever said it before, but she also directed a movie called Beginning, which is really good.

But it's this melodrama about an OB GYN risking her career performing abortions on the side.

It's set in the country of Georgia and she's kind of this kind of daring character in her personal life too.

Like getting into like kind of, you know, sexual kind of adventures on the road and such.

But it's a melodrama.

But it's also something of an eerie creature feature.

Like it has a slow burn, allegorical horror element.

It's hard film to talk about without spoiling things, but it's closer to the feeling of something like under the Skin than Vera Drake for an abortionist narrative.

But it's more politically challenging than under the Skin.

It's not like a fantasy based kind of film so much, although it has this kind of creature feature element.

But it's this really unusual, interesting film, kind of dreamy, a lot of long takes, a lot of disturbing, protracted scenes of medical procedure.

So it's not going to be easy watching for everybody.

But I thought it was one that I've just kind of been struck by ever since I saw it.

I don't know again what the distribution pattern is for this.

I know it played Chicago International film festival in 2024 and it's had commercial runs in other countries this year, which is why it made its way to me.

But I don't know what they're doing with it yet if it's going to have a theatrical release in 2026 or go straight to streaming.

But it's, it's eerie and creepy without being full on horror movie.

But it's definitely a director whose work.

Because I liked beginning a lot as well.

And so I'm very curious to see what she does next.

But yeah, this kind of eerie, menacing, slightly political territory.

Again, it's kind of a slow burn.

Probably not going to be for all tastes.

But if it sounds like something you might like, I would strongly recommend finding it.

I certainly will.

I actually played the Chicago Critics Film Festival, but I missed it.

Been meaning to see it.

But yeah, I've heard a lot of good things about it in general.

So I'm very curious.

And it's one of those many that I will eventually catch up with for sure.

Next on my list is Blue Moon.

I think I like this one just a little bit more than the other Linklater film.

It's pretty close because I did like what he did with novel Vogue.

Vague.

Can never say that.

Right.

But it's fun to watch, you know, And I, I.

It didn't give that one didn't give me as much to ponder about afterwards.

With Blue Moon.

I just kind of went, man, I am here for the Ethan Hawk Show.

Especially when he works with Link Letter.

It's just he's on fire in this movie.

It's.

He's just like so fast talking and almost like a screwball comedy cadence.

And telling crazy stories and being really charming, being really funny.

And also being really annoying at times too.

But he's trying to cover up the fact that he's, yeah, socially awkward, sad and lonely.

And the only way he can sort of compensate for that is by doing what he does by telling people stories and by like having all this flowery language and just being a really great communicator and a very compelling.

Almost like a comedian at times around other people.

But it's, you know, at the same time it's practically like a film play because it's contained in one space in one setting in this bar.

And it's inspired by the letters of Lorenz Hart, of course, and Elizabeth Weiland, who's played by Margaret Qualley.

And I love the scene between the two of them.

Sort of revealing their feelings in a way that only Linkletter can do.

So well.

So well written, so well acted.

Andrew Scott as Rogers here, his creative collaborator, is great.

It's mostly just what I find pleasurable from watching a link letter film.

Just a lot of dialogue, a lot of great acting.

Ethan Hawke, of course, just firing on all cylinders.

Even though a lot of people, I can see the argument for him being miscast.

Just like even Sharon had like a disconnect a little bit watching this because she is just like that.

That Ethan ogg looks weird with this, with the hair piece and the fact that he's shorter.

It's just, it's taking me out of the movie.

So I guess that could happen.

But for me I, I went with it the whole way through because of how fantastic Ethan Hawke is in this.

Just like again being really fast paced and funny and, and clever in a lot of things that he says and does.

But yeah, I just also like that it's about the creative process between two very different people who approach the creative process differently and you see that within their interactions together later in the film.

But yeah, it's also, yeah, kind of a sad, melancholy movie on top of it all.

And I just again, when I walked out I was like, yeah, I love link letter movies and this is a showcase as, as to why.

So yeah, Blue Moon on my list.

Did you see that one, Patrick?

I did not.

Okay, well, I don't know how much we're going to be able to stay neck and neck alphabetically, but so far we're doing pretty well because my four is Blue Moon.

I think looking at my list this year there's a lot of auteur type directors that I followed for a long time making late stage, kind of contemplative, you know, kind of maybe sometimes self reflexive films that I'm kind of a sucker for that I can see how that would be annoying for other viewers.

But Blue Moon is one of my favorites of, you know, very favorites of the year.

I mean if I was ranking these, it'd be near the top.

And it's interesting because they quote Casablanca a bunch in it.

And the.

My favorite scenes in Casablanca are the scenes set around the Cafe Americain that Rick manages.

And this is an entire film kind of set in a similar kind of environment.

But like it does feel like a film's play in that way.

I thought it was interesting that it's written by Robert.

Is it Kaplow, the guy that did the.

Was it me And Orson Welles, that film he did years ago.

But like it's another film that has that like kind of Linklater kind of engaging with his old Hollywood Influence as well as the new wave kind of thing he does elsewhere, like literally making a film called Neuvel Vogue.

But yeah, I thought this was kind of touching and sad and kind of perfect, miniature kind of film for what it is, I think.

I mean, obviously there's a lot of link letter films that are just all talk, but I think that this is probably one of the most concentrated.

It almost reminded me of some like, tape as far as, like just being that constricted.

But no, I love Ethan Hawking.

I don't have the same reservations with his appearance.

I thought he was really good at it and a little bit.

But I. I guess I get why, you know, it's just like, oh, you could have casted somebody else.

But yeah, maybe.

I mean, it'd be a different film with a different actor.

I mean, might be.

Might be fine with another person as well.

But no, I thought, I thought like as a study, I mean, not just in the desperation like, you know, that the character feels for the Elizabeth Weiland character, you know, the Margaret Qualley character, but also the.

Just that the competitive friendship between artists and teams and teams that break up, I think is an interesting theme.

And that one, I think has been covered as much as the unrequited romantic aspect, which is fine.

But I mean, you know, I think that the friendship angle is a pretty touching one.

And I don't know, I mean, I don't think of Linklater and Ethan Hawke as people that necessarily could identify with failures because they've like, had like decades of success in a way that most of their peers from the 90s have not enjoyed.

But, you know, I mean, it is still kind of an interesting reflection on those themes.

And no, I mean, again, it's like with Soderbergh, it's like, I like Nouvelle Vogue as well, and I certainly root for people like him to kind of retain their foothold in an industry that really does not have a whole lot of love for directors like that, you know, I mean, so.

Yeah, no, I concur with everything that you said about it.

I think it's a great movie.

Yeah.

Next up on my list is Begonia Yorgos Lanthimos latest film, which was just kind of just a really good time.

And strange to say that about a Yorgos movie as being like, I don't know, but this to me is just like a, you know, kind of a pitch black comedy.

And you know, I liked what Robert Daniels wrote about it in his review, is that it's just.

It's telling that a film about aliens judging the rottenness of our species comes from a Greek filmmaker using America as a setting.

And I know this is also based on a.

A film called Save the Green Planet, and it has a very similar ending.

And I, Again, I wasn't sure how I wanted this movie to end, but I found it to end on a very satisfying note.

And I won't give that away, obviously, but it's just simple premise of, well, what if this corporate CEO is an alien?

And we get to find out if it's similar to Black Bag in a way, like, who's the mole?

And here is just one simple question.

And we're spending a lot of time with three.

Well, yeah, three characters total in a basement for the most part.

And, you know, the CEO is played by Emma Stone, who is always incredible, and the kidnapper, one of them is Jesse Plemons, and he's incredible.

Like, to me, it was just like, I just want to.

Similar to what I said about Ethan Hawk.

I just enjoy watching these actors do what they do so well and also being distinctive and how they're doing characters that they've never done before.

But, yeah, it just.

And it creates, like, a real sense of paranoia.

There's a really funny needle drop involving Green Day, but, yeah, again, you know, it's just like a confined space, People hashing it out, confronting each other, playing mind games.

Kind of like.

Kind of like along the lines of like Death and the Maiden by Polanski or that it was Alan Rickman's film Closet Land.

Is that.

Is that the one, Bill?

I think that's.

I think that's the one.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Where it's just like, you know, he's basically tied someone to a chair, and it's kind of like saying, did you do this thing?

Or are you working for, you know, the Russians or any, you know, any number of scenarios like that.

And this is just basically like a. Yeah, like a weird Yorgo sci fi horror mystery kind of mashup.

And his weird sensibilities and sense of humor are all over this thing.

So if you like Yorgos Lanthimos, I have a feeling you're gonna like Begonia.

I know folks aren't often huge into cringe comedy in this way, but I do think there's a little.

There's a little bit going on.

There's.

There's some conversations to be had about, like, those who go down these crazy Reddit rabbit holes and become conspiracy theorists and think they know everything.

And, you know, where it goes is very interesting for me and off and very funny.

So I, I, you know, again, similar to like what I say about a lot of movies often is just if it's two actors or one actor, sometimes just firing on all cylinders, that's enough to sell it for me.

But on top of that, I just like Yorgos Lanthimos as a filmmaker and this is him just, you know, doing a remake on his own terms.

And yeah, I thought it was a good time overall.

Like, I just laughed a lot and yeah, it's just Begonia is a good movie.

That's a lot of.

Most of what I have to say about a lot of 2025 movies.

It's just, it was good, I had a good time.

So that's that.

Yeah, no, I, I like that one as well.

I think it's very funny movie.

And I did not see the ending coming as well.

I never saw Save the Green Planet.

Yeah, that's probably a good thing then.

Yeah, which probably helps.

But no, I thought it was fun.

I thought the performances were really good in it and it almost made my list, but I thought it was a lot of fun.

My number five is Bob Trevino likes it.

Written and directed by Tracy Lehman.

This stars Barbie Ferreira.

Is it Ferreira?

And John Leguizamo.

But it's this kind of gentle comedy about young woman with a really kind of emotionally abusive and manipulative father that they have a falling out.

And when she goes looking for him on Facebook, she winds up inadvertently friending someone with the same name.

And they develop this kind of friendship online, both of them being very lonely characters in different ways.

And so it's kind of this commentary on, I guess, the way people can kind of forge surrogate families because he becomes kind of like a father figure to her as the real father is just kind of like if there's a flaw in the film, it's almost like the real life father is almost too awful to imagine.

But it ends up just being this very low key, sweet, funny, bittersweet comedy.

Both of the leads are really good in it and it's probably one of the most likable characters I've seen John Luizamo play.

He's an actor that can be kind of very manic and high energy.

So it's nice to see him kind of dialed back.

And Yeah, I mean, it's not a film that there's a whole lot of plot to describe to it, but it's just one I found really charming.

And so that's on my list.

Excellent.

I'll have to catch up with that.

One as well.

I.

Hey, the next on my list is a movie I know Patrick has seen, so he can interject.

Sure.

Hot stealing.

Yeah.

Speaking of a good time, Darren Aronofsky needs to lighten up and have fun.

Perhaps make some, you know, more genre pictures like this.

This is based on a book of the same name.

And Austin Butler being pretty likable for the most part in this, right?

He's very good performance.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, again, like, a lot of folks early on brought up, oh, Jim, you're gonna love this.

It's very After Hours esque.

And, well, that's the selling point, of course, and it's definitely in that spirit.

And there's a cat involved.

It ends with the Magnetic Field song.

So, like, yeah, by the end I was like, oh, that was kind of total gymnip for me.

But at the same time I was like, I'm just glad that I watched something where it's just a solid movie that they don't really make that much of anymore.

It's just, you know, because, like, I guess, you know, a filmmaker like Will, you know, someone like, I don't know, Guy Ritchie would do something like this, but make it, like, over direct it and make it too stylish and stylized to the point of where it's becoming obnoxious.

And, you know, some of the side characters come along and you go, oh, how wacky and weird are they gonna be?

But they.

He still manages to ground most of this stuff to where, like, yeah, confrontations happen and you really feel them on a visceral level.

Great score, just great dialogue, great characters, everything.

I really, again, I wasn't expecting much because I just kept hearing like, yeah, it's an Aronofsky, you know, not.

Not the usual Aronofsky.

And yet, like, him just kind of coasting or.

That's what I was hearing anyway.

But this actually surprised me.

It had a lot of suspense and uncertainty as to how things were going to play out.

It's the best Darren Aronofsky movie.

I don't know if I go that far.

It's the one that allied all of his most horrendous tendencies and then just takes advantage of the fact that he's a good filmmaker.

Like every other movie has brilliant moments and then that makes you cringe.

And this is just a really well made movie.

Yeah.

And that's what I loved about it.

I said this.

That was just a really well made movie.

Like, I'm not lingering on it too long afterwards.

Like, it was just like I watched it, I had a good time and thank God that happened because again, low expectations could help in this case.

But no, it was.

It's just.

I recommend this to everybody who just wants a good, like, kind of escapist film again.

Yeah, simple as that, really.

Yeah.

I would agree with both of you.

I think it.

I don't know if it's.

If I would.

I don't know if I haven't seen the Wrestler in a long time to know if I would rank it above the Wrestler, but it would definitely be first or second place for me if I was ranking Darren Aronofsky's films.

Also, I think I would compare it a films from this year.

I would compare it to Marty supreme as far as, like, a film that kind of just kind of builds into great kind of thriller action, kind of set pieces, but is also very funny.

And it's interesting to me that one is getting all the attention and another one was kind of shrugged off.

And I don't know if that says something about the, you know, the profile of the filmmakers or the leads or whatever, but.

No, I thought this was a nice surprise.

And I mean, I went into it with no real expectations one way or the other.

Austin Butler.

I haven't really kind of made up my mind on, like, as far as, like, I wouldn't see something because he's in it, but it's like, oh, right.

If he's in, that's fine.

I mean, I think he's perfectly decent in everything.

I see him in such a physical performance.

So he is just like, well cast.

Yeah.

This is not a movie that I walk away and I'm like, I need to see the next Dawson Butler movie.

Yeah.

Because he's kind of forgettable in Eddington.

In my opinion.

That's a subplot that I wish hadn't been in that film.

But anyway.

Yeah, no, but it's a great film.

I almost put it on my list, but I knew we'd be talking about it, so, you know.

But yeah, no, it's one I'm excited to see again.

The one I put as number six on my list is another one that's on the festival circuit that I'm hoping will be very easy to see in 2026.

And I think I've talked about this on Director School before, but I have a real weakness for music documentaries.

Sure.

And I have to resist not filling the list with music documentaries because they're like my favor, you know, escapist, kind of like junk food cinematically.

But the one that I wanted to talk about was Butthole Surfers.

The whole truth and nothing but.

And Butthole Surfers is a band that I never listened to.

Like, I had.

They were like, slightly before my time when they were like.

Like a big underground act in the 80s.

And then by the time that the whole alternative rock thing in the 90s happened, like, I. I knew about them.

I mean, I like the Ministry song that Gibby Haynes is on, but they just.

I just never bough records.

And even there's a great book called Our Band Could Be youe Life.

There's a pretty compelling chapter on them.

But I just never.

Oh, yeah, I remember that.

I just never bought their records.

And I didn't really.

I don't know, like, what I heard was like, a little bit kind of, like.

I respected it as, like, kind of punkish psychedelic rock, but I just.

I couldn't imagine a context where I'd ever be listening to it.

So I went to this screening just because I love music docs.

It was playing at the Baltimore Film Festival, and I really found it compelling because the characters in the story are so interesting.

I mean, it has a little bit of that animated shit that ruins every music documentary that incorporates it with a puppet show thing that's like.

It's fleeting, but it's.

You know, it's there.

So trigger warning if you don't like that animated thing.

It's definitely part of it.

But the.

No, it's just like the people that populate that band have such interesting stories, especially Teresa Nervosa, who cinephiles might know as the pap smear girl in Slacker.

The Richard Linklater films, which we talk about Linklater.

And people might know Gibbie Haynes from movies, too.

He was in the Sweet East.

But, yeah, what's interesting about it is it has a whole ton of famous talking heads.

I mean, everyone from Richard Linklater to Ian Mackay, Steve Albini, one of his last appearances, but they're very fleetingly featured.

I think Dave Grohl is in it, like, I mean, Henry Rollins, but it's like all the people you'd expect, but they're only in it for, like, maybe two minutes.

It's mostly focused on the real life, like, on the.

On the band members and, like, their particular journeys.

And I don't want to spoil anything about it, but it's just as like a study of a band.

I like documentaries that make them look bad at times.

Like Steve Albini being the patron saint of, like, punk rock honor And Virtue is perfect casting for this because he really calls them out when they screw over their loyal indie label to go major label in the 90s.

Like, there's.

There's people that call them out for being rock star assholes at times, which I appreciate because I hate overly fawning music docs.

But yeah, as a.

As a portrait of like alternative post punk culture in Texas in the 80s and 90s, it's just.

I mean, it could have been 12 hours long and I've been totally invested in it, but something that, if you're interested in that subject matter at all, keep an eye out for it, but I assume it'll be easy to see.

Okay.

I wasn't sure if it's streaming or not.

Not yet.

Okay.

I'll have to seek it out.

I'm very curious about that.

It's really good and just a shout out.

I did make my list because it technically came out in 2024 in theaters.

I bought tickets to it twice.

I couldn't make it either time.

But the Red Cross documentary Born Innocent is also really good.

Another kind of great post punk kind of band that has a cult following, but it's still kind of largely unknown.

That really interesting story about two brothers who started a punk rock band as like, really, really young teenagers and.

And then evolved into something much stranger.

Well, you mentioned you like documentaries where they make the subject look bad.

Have I got one for you.

Do you know what I'm talking about?

I do.

Goonies Never say Die.

Corey Feldman Versus the World, Everybody.

One of three documentaries on this list that I think made me kind of like, sit up in my chair and gasp with a little bit of disbelief as, as to what I was seeing at times.

Because again, there's a little bit of bias in being interested in the subject matter because I grew up, like, early on age 6, 7, 8, really, really admiring Corey Feldman.

And it's not like I thought like, oh, he's an incredible actor.

I just thought that dude seems cool.

And that's, you know, very simple, basic, like, feeling about him, you know, and he kind of had that Persona going on, especially once you get to something like the Lost Boys, but.

And like, License to Drive as him.

Like, yeah, he's a cool dude.

Look at him, you know.

But my initial, you know, my, my first exposure to him was Stand By Me and the Goonies, of course.

And to watch him presently in current.

Day.

I mean, again, this is a very uncomfortable movie at times to watch him unhinged, having meltdowns, you know, it does have, like, a little bit of a behind the music kind of feel or approach, but you're, again, a fly on the wall on the tour bus with him being an asshole.

And I don't know if you'll necessarily find that pleasurable, per se, but I don't know, there's like, moments where I, you know, cringed and laughed, like, almost like a curb your enthusiasm level.

Just because I'm like, I can't believe he's acting that way.

I can't believe he's saying the things that he's saying.

He's being such an.

And I'm finding this so, like, mesmerizing.

But he's also pissing me off at the same time.

And, you know, it kind of gets to an interesting conclusion to the.

At the very end that I was not expecting.

And I'm sure he's not happy with this film being out in the world, but, yeah, like, there's some moments of him involving groupies that I just went, oh, boy.

I don't.

I'm surprised this is out in the world.

Uh, but, yeah, he's got a lot of issues, uh, to work through, a huge ego, uh, and just, you know, flying off the handle, you know, like.

And in situations where you go, why, dude?

This is just like a, you know, a bar in the suburbs, and you're like, you know, treating it like, yeah, you're playing Madison Square Garden or something.

And I don't know, it just.

It made me feel really sad and angry and I.

You know, movies that just get an emotional rise out of me are an easy sell.

Like, I don't know if, like, you know, formally this is breaking new ground.

Like I said, it's kind of, you know, at times a very behind the music style approach to.

To a documentary and capturing, like, a period of time with.

With him on tour with these particular women who are in his band.

But I don't know, it just made me feel a lot of feelings and including, like, a little sadness for him when, like, you know, people are coming up to him and asking for his autograph and it's, you know, it's like, no, you know, people really have an attachment to him and his early work, and I understand that to some degree, but, man, has he really lost it in a lot of ways.

And watching it, it's hard.

But at the same time, I can't say I was not enthralled at the same time.

So it's.

It's Corey Feldman versus the world.

I don't know what people are going to Think of this overall.

But yeah, it's just kind of show how far he's fallen.

And all I can hope for is that he gets some self awareness and some treatment and maybe looks in the mirror and realizes who he is.

And as uncomfortable as that is to experience here, I can't say I was not enthralled by this movie.

So that's why it's on my list.

The end.

Yeah, no, I thought this was real compelling.

I was surprised how little it talks about his, his years of fame.

Like it really is kind of set in the present where all of his glories are very far in the past.

And so he can kind of coast through life on the nostalgia of Generation X.

But he doesn't actually contribute anything musically certainly.

But even as an actor, that really has helped his reputation since the very early 90s, I think is the last thing that people would know a performance of his.

And that's being generous, I think.

But yeah, I agree that it does paint him very badly.

I mean, it does suggest that even serious subjects he raises are being promoted kind of cynically to raise money for vanity projects.

That's hard to watch, which is very hard to watch.

And even his accusations of, of you know, sexual impropriety, like as a child, like, seem kind of cloaked in trying to exploit it for money in a way that's really unsavory.

And he played, he played venues that my band played in, in high school.

Like he was, he was playing like our local clubs.

I've seen him at conventions and things.

I've never met him.

But yeah, he, he's definitely.

I mean, child stardom does a lot of negative things, you know, to people.

And so, you know, he's just one of the more high profile ones that's still out there.

But yeah, no, it is a fascinating documentary and also just a fascinating look at his fans, like his hardcore fans.

Sure, yeah, that too.

Yeah.

No, I'd recommend seeing it, but it is.

Does feel like a very grim reality show.

Yeah, yeah, that's, that's why I can understand people not wanting to see it too, for that reason.

Yeah, no, artistically it's, it's.

Yeah, I mean, but it as, as it's.

It's hard to look away even though it is not.

I don't know if it's great art or not.

Okay, so my number seven is a film called Camp.

And I swear some of these have actually been released properly in 2025.

But Camp is written, directed by Avalon Fast, who also did the film Honeycomb which I talked about on here once.

And it's about a young woman suffering from the effects of a pair of traumatic events that she, encouraged by her father, takes a position as a counselor at a religious summer camp for troubled kids.

And while there, she gets involved with a group of counselors, and things drift in a very witchy, psychedelic horror direction.

And it's still kind of not a film that a lot of people have seen, so I won't really say more than that, but it's a very creative, unusual movie that I guess is technically a horror film, but it's more about characters and emotions, and it's kind of.

I guess, you know, it has that naturalism that, you know, we use terms like mumblecore to describe.

It's a little bit like that, but it moves into the realms of fantasy in a way that that kind of cinema, you wouldn't associate with it.

Like, it's not verite cinema.

But, yeah, I mean, the director is pretty young.

I think she's only 25.

So this is like her second feature.

I mean, everyone involved is very young and has a lot of heart.

I don't know.

I mean, maybe edges of it are a little bit on the amateur side, like, again, like Honeycomb, but I don't know.

There's something quite haunting about it, too.

And so I definitely encourage people to see it when it becomes more widely available.

I think it might be distributed by Dark sky, which is a company that distributes the Tex Chainsaw Massacre in America.

So it might be something that gets a proper theatrical rollout.

But either way, it's definitely one that people will probably talk about more as it becomes easier to see.

It's only been doing the festivals I saw it at Brooklyn Horror Film Festival.

Won the audience award at Fantastic Fest, also, I think.

And I think more is happening with Honeycomb as well.

So I think Justin decloux, who has been on Directors Club, distributes the dvd, or the Blu Ray, rather, of Honeycomb right now.

But I think there might be more happening with the earlier Avalon Fast films as well.

So, yeah, someone that people should check out.

Splendid.

I'm gonna do one more and then get some more coffee.

Cause once I. Yeah, if I get.

If I have another cup of coffee in me at noon, I'll be solid for the rest of the show.

I promise.

For this next pick, It's.

It's a.

Definitely a personal pick that I haven't seen on any other list, and I completely get why.

But this is a case of, wow, did this reflect my life In a major way.

And I'm talking about Darkest Miriam, which Charlie Kaufman executive produce, I believe.

And that's the main reason why I sought it out.

The filmmaker is Naomi James, and it is based on a book called the Incident Report by Martha Bale, who or Bailey, a Canadian librarian.

And the book is really just a series of observations about patrons that come into the library or unusual encounters that she has on a daily basis and sort of reflecting on what it means to be a librarian and, you know, in these insane times that we live in.

But of course I read the book and of course, once I saw this movie, I was just like, well, I haven't seen anything that comes kind of close to reflecting what my job is like, like this movie.

And on top of that, you have Brit Lauer from Severance as the lead role playing a librarian who is haunted by the death of her father.

So right there you kind of go, I wonder why Jim liked this movie so much.

But yeah, it's.

And there's also like this kind of like, maybe the only strike against, I would say, is like, having this extra side subplot of her getting weird correspondence from somebody who may or may not be stalking her that kind of never really gets resolved to where I thought, yeah, I don't know if you needed that element to make it a little more suspenseful because there's also the fact that she wants to romantically connect with somebody who's a regular at the library that keeps coming in and.

Or keeps sitting outside the bench and, you know, clearly has an interest in her and she's trying to basically be open again to a relationship and finding that to be very difficult.

It's a low key indie drama that really portrays introversion.

Like, she doesn't talk a lot.

She's, you know, clearly dealing with mental health issues and, you know, sort of struggling day to day to deal with people who can exhibit all kinds of unusual behavior or, you know, ask her weird questions.

And let me tell you, as a librarian, this movie just worked for me.

It spoke to me.

It affected me deeply.

There's certainly a scene involving her looking into a reflection and like, her face kind of merging with the ghost of her father that just like went, oh, way to, way to know exactly how to hit home for me.

And.

And again, like, I can see why Charlie Kaufman decided to help out this filmmaker and this story because it kind of has that feel, that melancholy feel throughout the movie.

But yeah, again, like, I know people who saw us and just like, what were, like, it was okay or Good.

But personally I thought it was fantastic, well acted.

And I'm excited to see what this director does next.

So that's Darkest Miriam, everybody, go seek that out.

I hope it's streaming somewhere.

I don't know if it is for sure, but I will link to it in the show notes if it is.

Oh, it is on Amazon prime and Roku Channel, Everybody's favorite.

Yeah, I like that one too.

Yeah, I enjoyed that one.

Good, good, good, good, good.

You can do one.

Yeah, do one more and then I'll take a quick break for more coffee.

Okay.

Well, the last one is one that I know that is probably the most.

One of the most divisive films on the list.

I know it's not on your list, but it's one I kept thinking about.

And so I'm including Eddington, Ari Oster's fourth feature, which I assume I have not seen Eddington.

Have you not seen that?

No.

Okay.

Well, yeah, I mean, it's for those who haven't seen it.

It stars Joaquin Phoenix as a kind of a right wing, ish, kind of sheriff.

And Pedro Pascal plays the mayor of a small town in New Mexico.

And it's right at the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic.

And it kind of builds towards an absurd thriller climax.

And it's a satire of both the left and the right's reactions to things that I think ultimately it's about how media and Internet and media in general, but primarily the Internet kind of amplifies every point of view to drive everyone towards extreme behavior, whether whatever your stripe of the political spectrum is.

So there's a fair amount of conspiratorial thinking.

I think some are kind of made uneasy by the satirizing of progressive activist young people.

It's interesting because I imagine we'll talk about one battle after another, which it reminds me of in that they're both kind of satirizing both sides, but.

And both made by filmmakers that I would identify, you know, on the left side of that divide.

But I think.

I think one battle after another, I think on the Right gets kind of branded as being explicitly a pro progressive activist, politically kind of film like.

Whereas I think that Eddington, if it gets into trouble with people, tends to be.

I think it makes people uneasy that the right wing characters are given a lot of room to say some troubling things and maybe they aren't effectively counter argued by opposing voices in the film.

So I get it.

And I don't know that this is a perfect film, but I think it's an interesting film and I think it has a lot of interesting, effective sequences that it's just kind of stuck with me.

I haven't had a chance to rewatch it to prepare for this.

I've only seen it the one time in the theater.

But I thought that it was a bolder film than some other films that are more successful as far as like risking that alienation of the audience.

Because I think the larger audience that went to go see Eddington, I think half of them were pissed off by it and a lot of people I know were pissed off by it.

But I think that, I don't know, I kind of appreciate films that get that reaction.

I don't think it's trying to provoke in a real talk about me, I'm controversial kind of way that like something like Luca Guadagnino's movie from this year was, where it's like real, you know, kind of desperate attempt to provoke conversation of any kind.

I think Eddington is trying to be thoughtful, but, you know, and I get like there's some critique to be made about, like maybe he's not the guy to tell you about small town America.

He's a New York kind of, you know, independent filmmaker.

He's not really going to know that world to, to the degree that maybe others would.

But I, I just think it's an interesting film that I had fun kind of chewing over and you know, so I'm including it.

I, I'm mixed, I like, I.

But more mixed positive on it.

Similar to what with Bo's Afraid.

I just thought it was a little long and overstuffed and messy.

Yeah, but there are interesting things and elements about it that like you're describing, everything you're saying is true.

And at the same time, like I was wrestling with the lead character and his choices and there's.

Yeah, it is like another push and pull experience of where am I sitting with this character?

Where am I sitting with everything that's taking place and what he's ultimately doing?

And then also tonally sometimes.

Is he going for comedy?

I think so.

Right.

Like in that awkward, cringy way.

But I don't know if everything lands by the end.

I almost feel like it took on too much.

Well, I mean, this is something we've talked about as far as, you know, the Quentin Tarantino, Paul Thomas Anderson, Wes Anderson.

Like a lot of these auteur directors either set a lot of their films in the past or they, they set them in kind of like very self contained fantasy kind of worlds and I think that, you know, one battle after another's a little different, but this is a film that I think is at least attempting to engage with the present.

I mean, you could.

You could argue that it fails at doing it, but, I mean, I think it's at least worth applauding the effort because I feel like that's a thankless task in a way, unless you tell everybody that shows up what they want to hear.

And I think that there is a risk in giving, you know, I mean, anything from Dirty Harry to Joe to whatever.

There's, like, lots of examples of films that, like, aim to satirize the right that wind up being the favorite film of the right, you know, because they like a character that tells it like it is, even if he's the villain.

So there is a risk with a film that does something like that with this and, you know, casting Joaquin Phoenix as that character, even, like, you know, I mean, that's the kind of same thing people worry about with, like, you know, other Joaquin Phoenix movies, I guess, is like, is it going to encourage bad behavior in the audience or bad thinking if it's not explicitly corrected on screen?

But, yeah, no, I think that's at least interesting to wrestle with.

Even if it's, you know, not as contained as his horror movies.

As far as doing the thing that those do, I think that this is a more interesting film then Hereditary or Midsummer, even if it doesn't succeed at doing the thing it's aiming to do, maybe for everybody, the way those largely seem to do.

No, those are all good points.

Yeah.

Take a quick break.

Okay.

Okay.

Coffee?

Yeah.

When you get to.

When you.

Justin, you turn.

Happy to include the latest from Lynne Ramsey on my list with Die My Love.

Yeah.

Kind of like this dreamlike dissection, if you will, of postpartum mania to some degree.

And, you know, Jennifer Lawrence's characters have a lot of fears surrounding motherhood and, you know, being a wife.

And, yeah, like, this.

This worked for me a little bit more than if I had legs, I could kick you.

Which, again, is getting a lot of praise and.

And rightfully so.

I mean, Rose Byrne is.

If she wins Best Actress over Jesse Buckley, I will.

I will be fine with that.

I won't.

I won't throw chairs against the wall, but I. I just.

This one worked for me a little bit more because of.

Like I said, it's very.

It's more of a fever dream approach to telling this kind of a story.

Emotionally intense at times.

You know, it has scenes of Jennifer Lawrence and Robert Pattinson yelling at each other in a very kind of like, Revolutionary Road manner, which doesn't bother me.

It's.

But it's like, again, it's not.

It's.

It's.

It's.

The context of which everything has taken place is, again, it's.

It's clearly coming from a personal place, from Lynne Ramsey and, you know, watching Jennifer Lawrence in another role where, yes, it could be a nut, like, oh, this is kind of like a combination of what she does in Mother and Silver Lane's Playbook to some degree, but she still makes it different and distinctive in her own.

And, you know, what can you say about a scene where she gets to destroy an entire room like the characters do in Wet Hot American Summer?

That's, again, something that.

If you throw that in a movie, I'm happy.

I don't know why.

Like, just give an actor an opportunity to destroy a space.

Same.

I love it.

Judy Garland and the Pirate.

Yeah.

Orson Welles and Citizen Kane.

Just fuck up a room.

Agreed.

Yeah.

If I.

If I.

That's what should be in my own mental health documentary.

Me, just, like, destroying a room for no reason at all.

But, no, I probably would have a reason.

Anyway.

This is.

Yeah, it's kind of a. I could see why people, like, more or less went, I don't know about this one, but I.

Me and Sharon together, we both really responded strongly to it.

Like, it's, you know, kind of this foggy, weird, often surreal portrayal of what's going on inside this character's mind.

And, you know, to some degree, you can see a little bit of an extension of, like, what happens in the first hour of we need to Talk About Kevin in terms of, like, just the fragility of being a mom and, like, just the anticipation of, well, I'm kind of alone and unfulfilled, and what's that gonna mean for me as a person?

Is my identity completely changed or taken away?

Because now I am wife and mother.

So.

Yeah.

And Ramsey achieves this in a way that is so original.

She's a director.

I can't wait to cover at some point and just, like, watch all of her work.

I don't know.

I might need therapy afterwards, but in a good way, I think, because she does tap into some heavy stuff on a psychological level.

And, yeah, I. I hope Jennifer Lawrence gets as much acclaim as she has in the past for this performance because it could very well be my favorite.

And the final image of this story really haunts me.

It's like a character maybe coming to terms or Acceptance that she may end up alone or feeling alone.

And that's okay.

At least that's my interpretation of how it ends.

But it's still really great.

And Lynne Ramsey is just a fascinating filmmaker in so many ways that I get excited for her as a storyteller, even if not everything, like, makes sense to me on a first viewing.

This.

This is.

Yeah, this is one of those movies that I think is just gonna stay with me from this year.

So that's why it's on my list.

What'd you think of it, Bill?

Did you see it?

I did see it.

Yeah.

No, I liked it.

Yeah.

I.

It's.

I feel like I saw a few movies this year that dealt with, like, themes of motherhood.

Oh, yeah.

One more coming up on my list.

And obviously, if I had legs, I'd kick you.

Also, like you mentioned, is dealing with.

That I thought of from a few years back, one that people don't really talk about.

I don't know if it's poorly thought of or not, but it's Tully that.

Jason.

Diablo Cody, maybe about postpartum depression.

That's underrated.

I like that one a lot.

Yeah, I thought that was good.

But the.

Yeah, this one I liked.

Still kind of wrestling with it.

I do like Lynn Ramsey movies.

I don't really.

Yeah, I think Jennifer Lawrence is pretty good in it.

I think Robert Pattinson is also.

You know, I mean, I thought.

I thought it was.

I thought it was good.

I don't really have a whole lot to say about it, though.

Sure, sure.

No, I get that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

My number, my number nine is one that just opened, so I don't really want to say too much about the plot, but is father, mother, sister, brother.

Can't wait to see the Chen Jarmish movie, which is a film that I liked well enough when I was watching it.

And it kind of.

It's so subtle and low key that it almost.

It almost underwhelmed me a little bit on first viewing.

But it's one of those films that kind of has kind of just kind of stayed in my mind in the weeks since I saw it.

But it's.

It's three stories all dealing with siblings connecting with a parent, or the last story, siblings connecting without the parents.

But it's.

It's very starry cast, you know, Tom Waits and Charlotte Rampling, Cate Blanchett and so on.

The best story is actually the one that is the least starry segment within India Moore and Luke Luca Sabat as siblings.

But, yeah, again, it's like that, like what I was saying earlier, like Auteur's kind of making kind of a contemplative, late stage kind of work.

And it's, it's not trying to go for any big profound statements about family or memory or things of that nature, but it's.

They're all dealing with like just kind of awkward dynamic between children and parents and trying to connect and make awkward small talk.

And so it's not like making any big gesture.

But I think I appreciate it for not trying to do more than it is able to do.

And.

And the last segment, I think is actually quite moving, whereas most of it, it's kind of.

Kind of a low key, slightly awkward comedy beat.

But yeah, no, I. I mean, if you're into Jim Jarmusch, it's worth.

It's one of his better recent films.

If it's.

If his stuff never meant much to you, then this will not probably win you over.

But I think it's quite good.

And so that's on my list.

He runs pretty hot and cold with me, but for the most part I do like his work and I'm excited for this.

And I'm also interested in seeing Blossom AKA Miami Bialik in a movie because I don't think I've ever seen her in anything outside of Beaches.

Like that was one of her first roles when she played like a younger Bette Midler.

So just a curiosity on my part as someone who really enjoyed Blossom and even wrote a little piece for it that.

Yeah.

That didn't make the.

The compilation that Lee Gambon put together because there was so many.

There's a lot of people submitting for that book, you know, the.

What was it called again?

This.

On a Very Special episode.

Yes, on a Very Special episode.

Right.

Yeah.

So it's just.

Yeah.

I'm interested to see her like, she.

She plays what, Adam Driver's sister?

Yes.

Yeah.

Interesting.

Tom Waits.

His daughter.

Wow.

I'm all, I'm ready for this.

All right, give it to me.

I'm excited.

Yeah, it's got a great winter atmosphere in the opening segment too.

So if it does play a Chicago theater on a snowy day, it'll feel weather appropriate.

So let me do one more because I know Patrick is going to have something to say about this particular title and I know Bill had made your list last year, I believe.

And that would be Eephus Aus.

Carson Lund, I believe.

Right.

Debut feature.

It's very low key and again, it does bring to mind early link letter and you know, it Just like it.

At first I was like, okay, this is just a really good hangout movie.

I love all the characters.

There's a lot of funny interactions and, like, just things happening in the background that I, you know, smiled at.

It was just like, to me, it mostly felt like a warm hug of a movie.

But the more I thought about it, it was like, oh, actually, I'm feeling really sad thinking about, like, the fact that the sense of communal experience is dying.

Like, there isn't, like, a feeling of community in the way that there used to be.

You know, especially when I was younger.

Oh, yeah.

It was like, I didn't love playing baseball or sports, but at least it got me, you know, to hang out with different types of people all at once because I just.

I never got into the competition of it all to where I was like, we gotta win.

You know, that's kind of what separated me from that experience.

But I do value, you know, even now, like, putting together a book club for the library and having five people in a room and we're all talking and interacting and sometimes we veer away from the book and talk about our personal lives and it's really comforting to have that experience.

And, like, this movie almost, like, captures, like, the fact that that's kind of dying out in a way, like, because things are being taken over by capitalism or technology or just.

Yeah, like, we're more isolated than we've ever been.

And you can even look at this as, like, kind of a, you know, reflection of what it's like to make a movie on top of it all.

So.

But really, it is just an enjoyable, funny, kind of slow burn movie that.

I don't know, every character is distinctive and I found it, you know, again, I use this word a lot, but melancholy, because, you know, there's things about it that made me smile and there's things about it that made me sad.

But I'm just glad a movie like this exists and that people can see it.

And I want more movies like this.

But it almost felt like we don't get movies like this very much for a reason.

Because, I don't know, people don't see the value in something like this.

Whereas I absolutely loved everything about it and really can't wait for whatever this director does next.

So.

Efis, Patrick, you saw it and I think you liked it.

Yeah, yeah, it's the best movie of the year.

Oh, okay.

It's like, easily, like, without a doubt.

It's just the.

More than the best movie of the year.

It is like the movie of the year, which is like, this is the 2025 movie.

Like, if you want a movie that sums up where movies in 2025, it's EFIs.

It is about the film industry.

It is about.

I mean, you don't.

You don't have to only read it as that.

I think anyone of a sufficient age has held something very close to them that then faded away, never to return.

And I think that you can.

That can be any number of things, and you can watch EFIS and connect to it on that level.

Yeah, no, it's.

It's a miraculous film.

It's hysterically funny.

It is, like, formally really daring.

It is really, really smart about the way it balances its sentiment and cynicism.

It is not.

It is not about, like, if you're looking at this movie and you watch the trailer and you're like, I don't want to watch.

Feel the dreams.

Like baseball.

Like, guess what?

This movie's kind of like baseball, too.

And you know what?

Kind of fuck the film industry.

Like, kind of fuck movies.

You know, there's like, the.

These things are complicated.

Like, this is one of the things I got into when I'm talking about Roger Corman on Tracks of the Damned in November is like, the easiest thing to do at all times is to just sort of, like, tell yourself the legend of how the thing you like is the best, most pure, most wonderful thing it is.

And the reality is everything is fucking compromised.

And Roger Corman, in addition to doing a lot of great movies and giving a lot of great people their starts and.

And being more progressive in some way, he was also, like, a craven capitalist who just devoured a lot of things then and, like, did a lot of shady shit.

And, like, you should probably endeavor to hold complicated ideas in your head if you're going to be a human being.

And Ethis understands that, like, just because something is heartbreakingly sad when it goes away, it doesn't mean that it is like a perfect, beautiful unicorn that should live forever in myth.

Evis is.

Yeah, it's.

It's the best movie of the year.

Well said.

It's the only sports movie influenced by Goodbye Dragon, in which we've talked about.

Exactly.

That's great.

Yeah.

No, I'm so glad you liked it.

I mean, you know, it's funny when you say that, it's a film that says fuck baseball.

I don't remember having that impression of it, only because I remember thinking, man, this film really cares about the rules of baseball in a way that I don't really understand because I've never watched baseball.

I've only played it on the playground as a kid, but I don't really know the technical nuances of that game.

And it feels like this is a film that might play even better for people that know those rules, but I was able to enjoy it without knowing those rules, but respecting that it didn't care whether or not I knew those rules.

I mean, you mentioned Goodbye Dragon in.

It's also a movie that, for the first, like, 30 minutes, refuses to show you baseball being played.

Yes.

Like, when I say this movie is kind of fuck baseball, I think this movie takes it as a given that these men are a little bit ridiculous for being so invested in this thing.

And that actually this is kind of silly and that what it's being replaced with is not necessarily, necessarily inferior just because it makes people sad when it's replaced.

Good.

Yeah.

Well said.

I. I also.

Sometimes I feel ridiculous being so invested in movies, you know, and just, like, my passion for it.

You should.

Okay, well, yeah, like, we are ridiculous people right now.

Yeah, no, I know.

I know.

To some degree, it's.

Yeah, it's an obsession.

And like.

Like, there's.

That character is also an efis.

That's the guy with the box score.

That's.

That's a podcaster.

Yeah.

He's not even.

He's not even playing baseball.

He is just sitting on the sidelines, like.

Just, like, speaking in hushed tones about other people playing baseball.

Well, 2025 was the year where I had to admit to myself that I'm not really comfortable wearing contact lenses anymore.

I'm comfortable wearing my bifocals all the time now.

So for a film that gets progressively darker and it comes harder and harder to make out what's actually happening on screen for that extended period of time, I could relate to that more.

So in 2025.

Yeah, yeah, for sure.

Lack of clarity.

But it's Fuck Toys.

Written, directed and starring Annapurna Sriram.

And so this is a film that I saw at the Baltimore Film Festival, which is kind of, I guess, fitting because it does evoke John Waters in places, but it's shot on 16 millimeter cropped CinemaScope.

It's this colorful, outrageous kind of sexy comedy about sex, sex workers and their friendship.

It's a woman trying to break a curse while kind of just living her life.

And, yeah, it stars the writer, director, and also great performances from Sadie Scott and Damien Young are also in the cast.

But it's just real funny, edgy.

Without again feeling like edgelordish kind of comedy, it builds towards something quite effective that I won't spoil because I know it's still again one of those movies that is trying to break out into that post festival kind of stage.

I don't know what the release pattern is.

I don't know how much having fuck in the title is going to be a barrier or not for distribution, but this was a nice surprise.

I really kind of only just saw it because one of the co producers on it is Heather Buckley who I know who's been on supporting character.

So I really just kind of saw it just because I wanted to support a friend.

And I ended up really liking this one a lot.

And I imagine it will develop a cult following very quickly once it's in front of more eyes.

But keep an eye out for it.

It's not just, you know, a provocative title with nothing behind it.

It's actually a pretty great movie that toys.

Previous guest on the show Mitchell Beaupre in their letterboxd review describes it as Gregor Racky making a Mad Max movie.

I don't know.

I don't know if this is a gym movie or not.

I mean those were shot on celluloid.

This was shot on celluloid.

They're all English language.

I see it, I see it.

Okay.

I'm open minded enough, I think.

Yeah.

I wouldn't compare to Gregor Rocky other than it is colorful and has a unabashedly queer sensibility and some outrageousness.

But I don't think you're gonna think Gregorock as you're watching it.

Okay, good.

The polar opposite of that is a film called Familiar Touch.

This was a hell of a year for me when it comes to coming to terms with my mother's aging and her dementia diagnosis.

So to sit and watch a movie at the Chicago Critics Film Festival, again, very similar to what I said about Darkest Miriam Mirror.

A personal experience I have been going through with my mom was really difficult but comforting at the same time because it was really fresh.

Like the pretty much all this was happening during the summer and then yeah, the Critics Film Festival happened very early in the summer.

But I could tell my mom was getting worse cognitively and something was definitely not right in general.

It wasn't more of just like, well, she's, you know, alone and has mental health issues.

There's definitely something, yeah.

Going on deeper level within her brain.

And then I sat and watched this movie and kind of felt so much watching it, but it's basically, yeah, just about the opening scene is A son picking up his mom to take her to an assisted living facility due to Alzheimer's.

And, you know, it's.

It sets it up very beautifully.

It's a very subtle movie.

There's not a lot of, yeah, like, you know, over the top acting.

It's, you know, simply a woman, you know, losing her sense of identity and questioning things and uncertain about things and certainly having a lot of awkward encounters and saying the wrong things, which, yeah, my mother's been experiencing for a while.

And, yeah, watching this was again, like kind of just one of those, wow, this is crazy what movies can do.

And, you know, I'm seeing things that I've been through, portrayed in this movie.

And also the lead performance.

I don't have her name in front of me, but this.

This woman is absolutely transcendent.

And it's a great examination of aging and Alzheimer's that like, takes the, you know, kind of the strengths of something like, away from her.

But this is more of a fly on the wall experience for the viewer to see what is actually going on with the person suffering from Alzheimer's rather than how the spouse is dealing with it in something like, away from her.

But, yeah, you get to see the intake procedure, her adapting to the environment and just, yeah.

Slowly realizing that things are changing and you have to just go with it.

And from, you know, you don't get a whole lot from the son's perspective.

It's mostly just she gets placed in this assisted living facility and we watch how she adapts.

And that, to me, was really comforting to watch, especially, you know, since good things can come out of this whole thing for.

For the whole family and for her.

But, yeah, it's.

It's.

It's a hard movie to watch for me, and I don't think I'm going to go back to it soon, but I'm glad I saw it when I did.

And it's just.

It's graceful, it's simple, and it's one of those indie films that much like a title coming up later in the show I was grateful to see at the Music Box Theater during the Chicago Critics Film Festival.

That's.

This is familiar.

Touch, everybody.

Seek it out.

Just be forewarned.

It's pretty heavy stuff if you're dealing with a parent with dementia.

Is the actress you're thinking of Kathleen Chalfont?

Yes.

Wow.

She shows up in one of my films as well, but.

Oh, wonderful.

Yeah.

In one scene cameo, but I haven't seen that one yet.

Familiar touch.

I meant to, and I just didn't get to it, but sounds like something.

Definitely do.

Definitely do.

All right, well, I will see it.

My number 11 is the Ice Tower by Lucille.

Is it Haj.

I never know how to say it's Hadji Halevic, but she's the woman, the director, writer, director of Innocence, Evolution.

Earwig.

But this is her latest film, and it's about this teenage runaway who happens upon a film production where they're making this kind of.

Kind of adaptation of the Snow Queen, the Hans Christian Andersen story.

And she kind of has this dynamic evolve with the lead actress played by Marianne Cotillard, who's kind of like, I guess, the biggest star to show up in one of Lucille's movies.

But I mean, plot aside, it's just a great exercise in eerie kind of dark fantasy ambiance.

I mean, it's maybe the most perfectly realized of her movies to date.

And it is kind of in that art house horror vein.

Although it's kind of just on the edge of horror.

It doesn't really kind of move towards a scary story so much as just capture this wintry, spooky kind of atmosphere.

And I just found it, really.

I've almost kind of burnt out a little bit on art house horror tropes, but this feels like fresh still for that ballpark that I kind of associate it a lot more with films coming out, maybe.

God, how long ago was that year when we had, like, the Ben Wheatleys and the Duke of Burgundy and all that kind of stuff all happening at once?

I mean, it feels like a lot of those directors have moved in other directions since that time.

But this still feels like the best example of that kind of film that is technically more of an art film, but it has all this kind of genre type imagery.

But it's.

I think it's one of my favorites of the year, just as a visual experience and an atmospheric experience.

So I don't know.

There's a whole lot of plot to describe.

I don't know if either of you would have seen it, but that's definitely one I want to tell more people to check out.

Oh, I definitely will seek it out.

Sounds interesting.

No, I've not seen it, but it sounds good.

Yeah, possibly.

My favorite horror film of the year is called It Ends.

I spoke a lot about this on.

Well, it was.

Yeah, just put out today, as a matter of fact.

Chloe's Not Scared Horror podcast basically had.

People.

Send clips of them talking about their favorite horror film of the year.

And I. I struggled a little bit because, yeah, there was Some very good horror movies this year.

And I know, Patrick, you have a list of them to share.

That's right.

And this one in particular, again, it's not.

I think the problem with me is I am kind of getting tired of what you talked about just now, Bill, is some of the tropes in horror that, I don't know, do like.

I really, really loved the setup of Sinners.

And then once the vampire stuff kicks in, I was like, I've seen this before and it doesn't excite me.

It doesn't get me that visceral thrill.

And, you know, even to some extent, maybe not to the same extent, because, again, like, the way things play out in Weapons is still surprising, even though I was like, yeah, okay, that's cool.

I'm glad, you know, I'm glad it went in that direction.

And I was surprised by the direction it went in.

It ends as a very different type of horror movie where I would describe it as an existential horror movie, like a Waiting for Godot or a Sartre kind of like, interpretation of events in which, you know, four characters are in a car and something happens and you're not clear as to what.

There's no simple explanation as to what's happening, but it's very similar to something like Coherence, where it's just this situation and these four friends trying to figure out what to do, how to handle it, analyzing it together, thinking of it as, what is this?

Is this purgatory?

What.

What's happening?

You know, and, like, the way a lot of these people react, like, I. I found myself saying, well, that's how I would react.

That's how I would think of this.

That's how I would, like.

I would have the scream moment.

I would have the panic moment.

I would have the moment of shutting down completely.

I would have the moment of trying to intellectualize what's going on in this scenario.

And I love claustrophobic, you know, just simple stories, again, where very few characters are interacting and they're all trying to make sense out of something that doesn't make sense.

And again, it's not jump scares.

It's not.

There's not gore it.

But to me, it just, like, made me feel anxious in terms of, like, this idea of a road that never ends and what's.

What's going to happen.

You really can't figure out what's going to happen and why it's happening.

And you're along with the ride with these characters.

So, yeah, again, like, it's a.

It's a weird.

I don't know, it's kind of like a weird pick for me to say, like, this is the horror film of the year.

When things that have, like, struck a chord more with other people, you know, something like Sinners or Weapons have a little bit more appeal to broader scale.

But this, to me, was just like, this is a gym horror movie.

This is existential.

There's not a lot of.

Yeah, blood and Guts and the types of tropes that we're used to seeing.

It's simple, you know, And I respond to something like this way more than something like, in a violent nature.

Like, this is.

This just became even richer for me on a second viewing.

And I'm very excited to see what this director does next, because when you can do some, you can.

When you can do a lot with very little, I really respond to that strongly.

So It Ends is my favorite horror movie of the year.

Have you seen.

I can't remember if it's Iron Rose or the Iron Rose, the John Roland film.

No, I really.

I do not like John Rowland, but hearing you describe It Ends makes me think you should see the Iron Rose.

Okay, I will.

Yeah.

No, that's a great point of comparison.

And it's funny.

I mean.

Well, part of the reason that It Ends didn't have the same impact as Sinners or Weapons is because it hasn't been released yet.

Oh, that's true.

You're right.

I should bring that up.

That.

Okay, it did play the Chicago Critics Film Festival.

I didn't see it there.

I guess the only way you could watch it right now is rent it on Letterbox's new video streaming app.

They have it on Letterboxd?

Yeah.

Okay.

Because it just got a distribution deal in.

I mean, I just read an announcement of it maybe like, within the last two weeks.

So I imagine that there will be a proper release of it in 2026.

And it's funny that with our alphabetical approach to doing this, we have another match, because number 12 is it ends for me, which I saw at the Philadelphia Film Festival.

But how was it seen with a crowd?

Because I just watched this.

Yeah.

At home.

It went over great.

It went over great.

They.

They were really pushing that.

It's a Gen Z horror movie.

And I'm not quite sure what they mean by that, but actually, the director even apologized to the audience for it not really being a horror movie is what he said.

So I guess.

I mean, it has horror elements, but I think it kind of.

It kind of sits outside like a neat Genre peg, I think.

But like, it has.

It doesn't have, you know, the horror sequences in the middle of it, I think, with the.

Yeah, but.

Yeah, no, I don't have a whole lot to add because I don't really want to spoil too much since it's still kind of rolling out.

But, yeah, no, I think it's just one that I went into knowing only the title, which.

The title made me think of.

It follows.

And so I was like thinking, okay, it's going to be, you know, the latest indie horror film and it'll probably be a metaphor for trauma or something.

And I thought it was really kind of charming.

And one I've thought about in the months that followed.

I think the performances are all quite good and it gives you a lot to.

Again, like, a lot to chew over as far as what it's saying about, you know, the characters, like, talking about their future in adulthood and maybe that transition, like the road representing life.

I mean, I guess it is kind of like an existential road movie, but like, in a way that is very different from two lane blacktop kind of existential road movies.

But, yeah, no, I think it's very good and I imagine it will be talked about a lot more in 2026 when it has a chance to reach more people.

Yeah, I wasn't sure about the release of this, to be honest, because I knew it played the Chicago Critics Film Festival like I said, but then suddenly I read that, like, oh, Letterboxd now has their own streaming service and this is the way you can see it ends.

And that's.

Yeah, that's how I tracked it down and I'm so glad I did.

It's worth.

It's worth the rental price, folks.

It's.

It's quite something there.

Yeah, very much so.

Where are we at?

What are we doing?

Oh, am I next?

No, you're next.

Oh, wait, I thought, oh, wait, that's.

You just did it.

It ends together.

Okay.

Gotcha for me.

Another it movie.

Well, there's three it movies kind of in a row.

It was just an accident.

And again, like this, I wasn't sure what to expect other than, like.

Yeah, it was getting a lot of attention and for good reason, because of the filmmaker and what he's been going through and the censorship he's experienced.

And, you know, I've seen.

I've seen Taxi and I feel like there's one more.

No bears.

Yeah, yeah.

And obviously I kind of was thinking, oh, did he make this is Not a Movie?

Yeah, he did.

Okay.

Yeah.

Yeah, yeah, I saw that too.

And this is a little bit surprising in that, again, more of a genre exercise, a genre approach to telling a story about a group of Iranian political prisoners who are essentially wanting to exact revenge on a man that they believe tortured them.

And they get a hold of this particular man, and simply another question of, is this the guy or not?

And one contained idea built around this conceit is simply like, okay, an excuse to have different people interact, have different people respond to what?

Different.

Again, you get different types of personalities and people in the same space together, they're all gonna react differently.

And I love that approach to telling a story because, again, if everybody acted the same, it wouldn't be as interesting.

But everybody here that he picks up along the way, a former victim.

One.

Of them is all for, like, torturing this guy in return, and another is just like, no, this is completely wrong.

What are you doing?

And then, oddly enough, there is some kind of, I would say, dark humor sprinkled throughout with them running into, you know, the authorities on the roof or something.

And just there's.

So there is some surprises along the way in this journey, but once again, a story about, like, human beings being incredibly flawed and impulsive and figuring out, well, how do I deal with what's happened to me in the past, you know, again, regarding trauma, but also, is it right to, you know, do what I want to do in this.

In this situation, which is exact revenge?

And the question surrounding that is, is that gonna lead to catharsis?

Is it, you know, futile?

And.

And yet, like, the way he.

He told this story was like, he.

He was sneaking around and, like, doing it in secrecy.

Right.

You know, and you wouldn't have thought that watching this movie, like, he does things kind of out in the open at times, out in public, and it just makes me, like, grateful for.

For someone to be fearless while knowing, like, oh, I could.

I can get in deep trouble for making this movie, including imprisonment.

And I think recently he's experienced that again, or at least he's been banned or something.

I don't.

I don't know the whole story with.

With.

With Pahini and everything that's occurred recently, but I know something occurred where, yeah, he got in trouble for just making this movie.

But, yeah, it's less of an observational documentary like his previous work, and again, like, more of a set almost like, again, a spy thriller, where you're like, well, is this the guy?

Is this not the guy?

And you find out, and the way everything plays out is incredibly satisfying.

And really intense and has one of the very best final moments and final shots of the year.

So, yeah, it was just an accident.

Highly, highly recommend.

People seek this out.

It's.

It's really remarkable.

And Bahini deserves a lot of acclaim and I think he will get it this year.

Yeah, no, I. I like this one too.

It's funny that it does come, you know, the same year as Begonia because it is similar in that it is about.

About them having the captive that may or may not be who they think it is.

Yeah.

I feel like the Palme d', Or, I think partly is a way of acknowledging just the difficulties that he's had as an artist trying to even make his films in a country that.

It's interesting because, I mean, I think about directors like Anzr, Zhiawski or Keselowski that ultimately went to France to make their films because they ran into so much government interference and pressure working in communist Poland.

And I think that, you know, something about Panahi that almost surprises me is that he continues to make films that kind of challenge the system from within, where he's most likely to wind up in jail for making films, and yet he continues to make them there.

And I think that part of why people respect him so much is just the bravery or foolhardiness of that as his guiding kind of way of working.

But, yeah, no, I think you're right that it is more of a genre exercise than maybe.

But I feel like there's a fair amount of suspense and political thriller elements to something like no Bears as well.

Oh, yeah, for sure.

I think with some time to process both, I think I kind of lean towards no Bears, but I get why this is getting more attention and won the Palme d' or and all that.

And it's.

It's very strong.

I. I wish I had been able to see him.

He was supposed to be at the screening that I was at, but the government shutdown slowed the visa application process and so he got delayed and.

But he eventually made it over.

But, you know, it's very good film.

I mean, maybe we'll win more awards later, I don't know.

But.

Yeah, no interesting figure within the realm of cinema as far as, like someone that is that high profile, a target for the government of the film, you know, the country that he makes his work within.

So my number 13 is a film called Julie Keeps Quiet, directed by Leonardo Van de Gille.

It's a Belgian film starring Tessa van Den Broek, and it's about this teenage tennis player who's silently withdrawing from socially and from her studies and such while her coach of her tennis team is being investigated after one of her teammates has killed herself.

And so it's probably all I should really say because it's one of those films that kind of like information is kind of doled out kind of gradually.

What I responded to with it was this kind of cleanly beautiful, shadowy visual style.

Lots of greens, lots of isolating the character within the frame to kind of communicate her isolation within the environment.

It's a slow burn character study.

It's probably a little bit too subtle for some tastes, but I found it really compelling and kind of stuck with me.

I think there's a film that's getting a lot of attention right now called the Plague.

I was just the Charlie Pollinger film, which is a little bit more flashy.

It's dealing with more of like a Lord of the Flies kind of thing in dealing with, like, school bullying.

And that's what I think of with both of them is that kind of kind of like a David Fincher thing as far as like a neo noirish but like super glossy but clean kind of visual flashiness.

And they both have that film.

The Plague is probably more like what you would put on at a party.

Like, it's more kind of engagingly actiony.

This is a little bit more kind of menacingly.

It's a little more like Adam McGoyenish.

But I really like this one.

And it's not one I've heard a lot of people talk about, but again, it's just one of those ones that, like, I saw it, I liked it, and I just kept thinking about it.

So, yeah, Julie keeps quiet.

I will definitely seek that out.

That sounds really interesting.

Yeah.

I'm not gonna have a whole lot to say about this one because it again, it's incredibly like, well, you either are going to respond to this the way that I did, or you.

Or you just be like, well, it's just your typical music documentary.

But of course I'm talking about it's never over Jeff Buckley.

And a lot of that just simply has to do with the fact that he's one of my favorite musicians that has ever lived.

And there was a movie that came out not too long ago that tried to tell, like, the story of, you know, him, Like, struggling with who he was in fame.

And it was told in typical narrative, you know, your typical, like, portrayal that you would get in something like the Springsteen movie or Walk the Line.

And it just irked me to no end.

I don't even.

I don't remember what it was called.

It might have been Greetings from to something or another.

I watched it a few years ago.

I was like, this is making me so uncomfortable.

Don't do this to Jeff Buckley.

And so Amy Berg comes along, is like, I got the right approach to this.

I've got the documentary that is really good.

I mean, again, like, I know you talked about earlier, Bill, that like a lot of these music documentaries are just basically like, let's put the musician on a pedestal, let's say why they're so great.

And that can get a little tiresome and boring.

But what if I agree?

What if I agree with the fact that, you know, Jeff Buckley is one of the greatest singers to have ever lived and I've never heard anybody write songs the way he did.

And.

But at the same time it like portrays how he struggled with, you know, interacting with other musicians or dealing with the having to follow up his biggest success to date where, you know, people like Bob Dylan were saying he's the second coming.

You know, like just a lot of pressure and, you know, failed relationships and never really getting to know his father.

Like all the things you kind of expect in this type of, you know, approach to telling a story about a musician who left us way too soon is here.

But again, because of my love of Jeff Buckley, you know, having talked with his mother at one point and knowing a lot about him and you know, read biographies and everything, this just really captured the spirit of why he is one of a kind, why he really struck a chord and continues to inspire so many modern day musicians.

You know, everyone from Tom York to Chris Martin to everybody that like ever heard his voice is kind of just like he had the voice of an angel.

And he made me want to make music and that's similar to how I felt.

And you know, this movie really does bring a lot of things together in a way that I found to be very satisfying.

Like there was never like something where, like, oh, you left that out.

You shouldn't have.

You know, you should have had a different approach.

But again, it is a straightforward documentary at the same time.

So I can see you going like, nothing special about it.

But Jeff Buckley was special and that's why it's on my list, because it made me very emotional and it's.

I'm glad that this exists.

I'm glad that there's something out there that really captures the essence of why he was who he was and not in a way that I felt like was like it still Brings up things that, you know, like, oh, yeah, he kind of was an.

Sometimes, but for the most part, he was who he was.

And we'll never really know, you know, how we lost him other than what has been said.

And I don't know, I. I get really emotional thinking about how much his music has meant to me, how, like, you know, he's responsible for a very important early relationship in my twenties, and the fact that I played a Jeff Buckley tribute concert in Chicago at one point, you know, with his mom in attendance, that was the most nervous I've ever been in my entire life playing music.

So, again, there's a reason why this movie is on my document or why it's on my list.

Because I love Jeff Buckley, and if you don't, you may not like it.

So that's that.

Yeah, I liked it.

I never really was a Jeff Buckley listener.

Like, my.

My late friend James was a big fan of that Grace album, so I definitely have heard some Jeff Buckley in my time, but I. I mean, I never had his records, and so I didn't know that much going into it.

I actually have more of his father's music in my collection than Jeff Buckley.

But, yeah, no, I think it's, you know, I mean, you know me and musicdocs, I'm pretty easy to please.

And I enjoyed this as well.

I learned a lot because I didn't know very much going in.

But, yeah, I knew that was gonna be on your list because I know that's a very important artist to you.

But, yeah, and I liked it.

I mean, Bill, do you have a memory of.

Really quickly?

Do you have a memory of.

Did I put Pavements on my list last year?

Because I don't remember if I did.

I think you did.

Okay.

Okay, then.

Then it doesn't need to be on for this year.

I just realized that as we were talking music talks, I was like, I really like Pavement so much.

But I think you're right.

Maybe I did put on for last.

Year, My 14 is a film called Lurker written by Alex Russell.

And I.

You know, I. I don't know what I expected going into this.

I. I saw that it was on a list of.

I think it was probably like, ranking as a horror film.

It's not quite really a horror film.

It's.

It.

I thought of.

I thought things like Great Gatsby or talented Mr. Ripley as far as, like, that idea of, like, someone from a different class kind of worming their way into a different social situation.

It basically involves, I guess, a Fan kind of working his way into the world and life of a pop star and becoming part of the inner circle of a rising pop star.

And so it's dealing with kind of cringe type situations.

He weasels his way in and then starts trying to manipulate things.

It's not probably the most unique story, but it's really effectively told and feels like very like it gets the details right in how that kind of story would play out in a pop culture of the 2020s as far as the technology and social media aspects of it.

But, yeah, I mean, I watched it when I was really tired and I usually fall asleep in front of movies late at night.

And I was, you know, this one kind of.

Kind of kept me alert for the 90 minutes that it ran.

And I don't know if it's a great film.

It might just be, you know, the.

The generosity of My God.

This is a nice surprise.

I really didn't think anything going into it, but it's just a.

Again, like that talent or Mr. Ripley kind of social interloper kind of thing.

I thought it was really, really strong little indie movie.

And one people should check out for.

Me for next on my list, a filmmaker that I think all three of us really, really appreciate anytime he makes a movie.

Alan Girodi.

Right.

Or as we said on one episode, Goulardi, which was not accurate, but.

But more fun.

Sure.

Getting close to my next pick, Misericordia.

So this is one.

I'm gonna need a bit of a refresher, a newer rewatch to recall why I loved it as much as I did, but because I saw this pretty early on in the year when.

Yeah, I mean, one of those movies that played festivals last year.

Right.

And then suddenly you could.

Could track it down if you were so inclined.

And I certainly did, given this filmmaker.

And it's about this.

It's.

It's.

Again, I mean, I wouldn't necessarily say it's similar to, like, a talented Mr. Ripley, but it does have a Hitchcockian vibe with just the initial premise of a loner returning to his hometown for a funeral and deciding to stay and just, yeah, encountering a very difficult person.

A threatening neighbor will say, interferes with, you know, him and just everything that's going on.

And you're kind of wondering, well, how's this all going to play out?

But there's a lot of tension and there's a lot of awkwardness and there's a lot of dark humor in the way that only this filmmaker can pull off successfully and in a way That I just always appreciate because it.

There's unexpectedness, especially when it comes to the relationships.

Like there's a lovelorn priest with unusual intentions, if I recall.

Yeah, yeah.

It's a hard film to talk about that spoiling the surprises because it is a film.

Yeah, that.

I mean, I guess it is kind of a Hitchcockian thriller, but it's.

It's also sexually like, it goes in places that Hitchcock would never even suggest.

Sure.

So again, that's one of the strengths of him as a filmmaker in general is just.

Yeah, that.

No, but it's, it's.

I mean, there's outrageous comedy to it that you can't really talk about without spoiling it.

But yeah, no, I thought.

I haven't seen this since, you know, even longer, because I think I saw it in fall of 2024 when it was at New York Film Festival, but I remember really loving it at the time.

And yeah, it played well with that audience, I mean, as a comedy.

But yeah.

And I think it might be out on Blu Ray through Criterion's kind of like, line of newer films now.

So it is, it is one that you can easily acquire or rent or stream now.

But yeah, no, it's.

I agree with you.

That's quite funny and enjoyable movie.

Yeah.

Anytime this filmmaker comes out with something, I'm excited, so.

And yeah, I've loved everything.

I. I think I've seen everything at this point that he's done, right?

I think so.

But you're a fan too, so.

Yeah, but I have not seen this yet, unfortunately.

Definitely.

Do you will like it?

Yeah, I should.

I think you'll like it.

Yeah.

Well, speaking of Gulardi, I don't know what more we really need to say about one battle after another, but that's the next one on my list.

Feel like we've all talked about it on Directors Club before.

What number is this?

15.

Oh, okay, 15.

Good.

Okay, good, good.

So you two can finish your 15s and then I'll start jumping in with my list.

Yeah, you should go back and listen to the Director's Club bonus episode where all three of us talk about this for over an hour.

Yeah, I don't know if I want to say a whole much more about it because it's.

I'm assuming it's on your list too.

Yeah, of course.

At this point, is it number 15 for you?

Well, there's one, there's one, there's one before.

Okay.

Okay.

Yeah, okay, never mind.

There's one before it, but no, I mean, like, obviously one Battle is.

It's my favorite movie of the year.

Yeah.

And everybody knows why, because they've seen it.

I know some people like, it was really interesting.

Bill, did you listen to Film Comment talk about this?

Okay.

There is definitely a backlash.

There's definitely people who are like, why does everybody think this movie's so great?

Yeah.

And I'm like, I don't understand necessarily why.

Yeah.

Like, again.

And I.

You know, I could see that happening with any movie, really.

It's just once it gets elevated to this is one of the best movies of the past, you know, that's inevitable.

So I get it.

But there are some people who dismiss it outright, and I just kind of don't understand, necessarily, because this is.

Is a nice summation of Paul Thomas Anderson's strengths as a storyteller and yet has moments of like, wow, he's, you know, stepping up and doing something different that I haven't seen him do before in certain cases, too.

So, yeah, it's one battle after another, people, you know, it's on our list.

Well, the only thing I would say about this is that, which I don't think we would have said at the time that we talked about it because it was still so new, is the.

The way people focus on money when talking about films like this.

And this is not the only film that this happens with.

But, I mean, I've noticed it especially with coverage of Coppola's megalopolis, where it's like, there's a tone where it's like, how dare he waste all that money?

And, like, who does he think he is, putting that film back into theaters?

They lost all this money.

And it's like, you know, the coverage of this film also, it's like, it's made hundreds of millions of dollars, but yet it's lost all this money.

And isn't that a problem?

And it's like.

I don't know.

I mean, I guess.

I guess you could argue that there's a lot of good things you could do with hundreds of millions of dollars that.

Other than make movies, I got.

I certainly get that argument.

But it's like, a lot of it feels like mouthpieces for studios and marketing departments as far as, like.

And this is why you should never really take risks, because look at all the money you can.

I think these are people who have a lot of anxiety about the medium and the future of it and the thing they like.

And when they see something like this flop, what they're saying is, no, Paul Thomas Anderson, you fucked over the Next director who wants to spend a lot of money on a movie because now the studio's not going to do it.

And so like they are trying to spin this anxiety they feel about the death of this medium they care about into like someone they can point to and get mad at.

That isn't the wider actual answer.

That is scarier.

Which is yeah, audiences don't give a fuck.

Like point it at the, you know, at the audiences.

But that's kind of scary because if audiences don't give a fuck then nothing will ever will bring film back.

And they still need in their heads to believe somehow film is going to come back.

And so that is how I have interpreted this kind of talk.

Anecdotally, anxiety, anecdotally.

I know a lot of people in my day to day life that are not film people that a month after one battle came out they had never heard of it.

And it's like, and it's like the algorithm for a guy like me, one battle after another is like, is as much headlines, you know, like it's all the time.

It's the new Avatar.

Yeah.

And it.

Just because of the siloed way that media is pushed out to us, it's very possible to live in a world where like a 300 million dollar Leonardo DiCaprio movie won't wind up on your radar at all.

Because it's not, it's not a sequel or a remake or adaptation of something you've heard of.

And so it's just, it's treated no differently than, you know, you know, any of the art house type films that we're talking about on this list.

And the fact that even won all the art house awards at the Gotham Awards this year, which are meant for independent films and not for multi $100 million Hollywood films, I mean, says a lot about just, I don't know what that, that just says that all audiences were responding to that film where if that feels independent in nature just because it has those eccentric touches that would be unusual for a blockbuster type budgeted film.

But yeah, no, I mean I think that ultimately the film will do fine and will not be the heaven's gate of our generation as far as like being a, you know, something that's kind of held against other filmmakers with a, with ambitious visions.

But I do think that it was a, I mean it was nice to see it get so much of a, of a, of a positive reception critically.

I do think personally I like licorice pizza more.

I mean I don't put it among my favorite of Paul Thomas Anderson's movie.

But I think for.

I do think it's, like, uplifting as a movie watching experience.

I think it has a kind of, like, by the time American Girl kicks in at the end, I find it quite touching.

And I mean, it's full of great set pieces that I.

That I love.

I don't.

I don't have anything bad to say about it.

I think, you know, he's a consistently enjoyable filmmaker for me, so if I were to rate them favorite to least favorite, I still kind of like the least favorite, you know, so it's not like it's a criticism, but, yeah, I mean, it's one of the things that at this point, I've almost, like, almost burnt out on talking about it or hearing about it.

But it is, you know, it is a, you know, film that I'm.

I'm happy that it had the reaction it did, because I think even for myself, as someone that was looking forward to it, I didn't hear anyone talking about it in the weeks leading up to it.

I'm like, oh, my God, this is going to be like, you know, newsworthy kind of fiasco the way that Daniel Day Lewis movie was, where it's like, it made $12, even though it's like the Return of Daniel Day Lewis.

And it wasn't quite like that.

But it is, it is.

You know, it is funny when you come in, it's just to think about the money side of it.

But, you know, for when you spend several hundred million dollars on a cult filmmaker, you know, who's not going to compromise that much, it is interesting to see what happens with when they're trying to make a hit.

But yeah, yeah, it's a weird year in which, like, at the Chicago Critics Film Awards ceremony that we have, like, one battle after another was said so many times that even I got tired of it.

I was just like, okay, sure, you know, and I love the movie.

I love the director.

If he wins, I know these things don't matter, and.

But if he wins an Oscar, I'll be happy.

You know, of course, like, I want him to succeed.

I want him to be recognized despite the fact that, like, yeah, awards, ridiculous.

And again, it's not a competition.

And, you know, I'm leaning more towards not ranking favorites like I used to, which is just kind of different for me to feel.

But, yeah, it was.

It was just kind of strange, like, sitting at the awards dinner this year, kind of going, yep, one battle after another.

Yep, one battle after another.

And not really, like, Feeling euphoric highs for my favorite director.

You know, it was just like, okay, yep, that's good.

I'm glad.

And that's kind of how I feel about the year.

Was like, okay, yeah, good.

There's a lot of good movies.

I'm really glad to have a list of, you know, titles that I responded to very strongly for the most part.

But honestly, you know, really quickly, I will just rattle off one more title here that's on my list in the.

In the order here.

But I'm not going to talk about it at length because I plan to hopefully interview the filmmaker in February when it plays hopefully at the Music Box, which I'm pretty sure is going to happen.

And I saw it with him in attendance.

Well, the.

The two actors of this film, I'm talking about Nirvana, the Band, the show, the movie by Matt Johnson, which to me is the funniest film I've seen in years.

It is exactly my kind of comedy, and it involves time travel.

It's done by movie nerds.

It is insanely clever, really well done and consistently funny for me.

Like, there are huge laughs.

There's a shock moment of sorts that I fell out of my chair.

And I don't.

I'm a picky laugher.

Like, I don't necessarily, like, laugh at everything.

I'm the type of person that's, you know, sat with my arms crossed during the hangover, going, why does everybody think this is so funny?

And that's happened a lot of the times over the years.

And I get, you know, it's subjective, but to me, this was the funniest movie I've seen in a very long time.

And when it officially comes out in February, I'll have a lot more to say about it.

And, yeah, I might get to interview Matt Johnson again.

So we'll see.

That's that the end.

Nirvana, the Band, it's in my list.

So there we go.

I should just.

I should just add that Jay McCarroll is the other director, writer, star of that.

Just in case any fans of.

Yes, of course.

I don't want to exclude him.

You're right.

Yeah.

This is funny to you.

This is like, my whole life is riding on this.

I decided just to cover horror movies because I didn't want to, like, watch three, like, big prestige art house films a day to get caught up on a list.

And I didn't want to make a list that was 8 movies long.

I did not see 10 horror movies this year that really excited me.

So rather than do a top 10 list and sort of of imply that each of them are very good.

I decided to make a top 19 list and just kind of make little pairs and sort of just talk about horror throughout the year.

Movies that did not make any of these lists that I did nonetheless watch is Good Boy, Dangerous Animals, Clown in a Cornfield, Hard Eyes and the Wolfman.

Don't have a lot to say about any of them.

Some of them are okay, Some of them are real bad.

Don't need to add much more to those.

And then real quick, my favorite non horror movies of the year.

There are one battle after another.

Sorry Baby Vulcan is Adora.

No other choice, Caught stealing.

And then the best one of the year is Aethas.

So now we're getting into the horror movies of the year.

We're starting at number 10 with two horror movies that I think are very bad, but they're very bad in the same way, which is 28 years later and bring her back.

Now, 28 years later and Bring Her Back are both movies that got a lot of acclaim.

People are really talking about them.

And the reason is because they are movies that tell you that they are good.

And they tell you this forcefully, over and over again by hitting all of the ticks and beats that a good movie is supposed to have.

28 years later is one of the dumbest fucking movies I've ever seen in my life.

No one makes any fucking choices that make any sense at all.

And then instead of telling a story, they say, by the way, you watch season one of 28 Years Later.

This is a TV show, not a fucking movie.

Good.

Good luck finding a fucking ending.

28 years later, horrible movie.

No character makes, makes any reasonable choices.

But lots of like weird little Danny Boyle ticks where he's doing all these fast edits and he's like, oh my God, it's actually about England.

Because I put in some fucking English shit and the cycle of masculinity.

But guess what?

Danny Boyle and Alex Garland are dumb guys.

They don't have big thoughts about these things and so they just made a bad movie.

I don't really like Alex Garland.

I. I'm just not interested in this as a franchise, to be honest.

Bring Her Back is I sort of like, Talk To Me.

I don't think Talk To Me is very good.

I liked it, but it is novel at the beginning of the movie.

The premise, the setup, the idea of a highly public social media supernatural horror movie was novel.

And so I enjoyed myself before it sort of just ran down into the same bullshit You've seen a hundred times.

Sure.

Bring Her Back has no such luck.

Bring Her Back is just straight down the middle.

A 24 loaf.

It's.

It is.

It is like a hot dog.

It is just like ground up.

Every trope, every.

Every cliche, every visual tick, every little.

Oh, we're doing shallow.

Like, they literally make a character blind just so it can be shot like an A24 movie.

And it's like, oh, yes, we have all this shallow focus and then there's a shot through a window where rain is dripping down and everything's gray and under lit.

It's like, fuck off.

None of it.

The only good thing about the movie is that they found a way to weaponize Sally Hawkins character from Happy Go Lucky.

But that only makes sense when you don't know what the plot is.

The further the story goes on, the things she does in the movie make no sense at all.

She acts entirely.

Because this is the kind of movie where a character should do this thing now.

And it is just a movie that is telling you, by the way, this is about trauma, by the way, this is about grief, by the way, this is about suffering, by the way, this is about family, by the.

And it's just like it is just needling you over and over again saying, like, this is a movie with ideas.

Here's the themes.

Do you see the themes yet?

And what it isn't is a fucking horror movie that has any scares in it whatsoever.

Bring Her Back's a terrible movie, but it's a movie that I, When I was like, accumulating my list of like, okay, what are the horror movies of the year?

I gotta catch up on frequently on the top of people's horror movies of the year.

And it's because it tells the audience that it's a good movie.

And I think that there is definitely an audience who want to be told what a good movie is and then see it and then say, ah, yes, I agree with you, movie, and then walk out and I will talk about sinners later.

In that regard, I was indifferent.

I was indifferent to that one.

I was kind of just like, eh, it was all right.

But I think bringing her back, it was.

It started off, I'm like, this is not very good, but I do like what Sally Hawkins is doing.

And then as it just kept dragging on and on and on, I really started to resent it.

So that's why those two movies are together.

Makes sense.

I get it.

Yeah.

I Bring Her Back.

Was that Danny?

Is that Danny Philippao?

Michael Philippao?

Those directors, it seems like the people I know that are biggest about that film are Australian critics.

I know.

And I don't know if that's like, just a homegrown pride thing because of the kind of impact that Talk to her had on.

Not talk to her.

Was it talk?

What is that?

Talk to me, Talk to me.

Talk to her.

Zamadovar that the impact that those films are having internationally, maybe.

I don't know if that's what it is, because I kind of agree with you.

Like, I went into it, I liked Talk to Me well enough, and so I was kind of going in for more of the same.

And I will say that the scene where a character pours urine in the bed to make it seem like someone's wet the bed, I don't know if it's just, you know, I mean, that just seemed like such an idea that I'd never seen done in a film before.

And it seemed like real visceral, uncomfortable concept to me.

Like, that's what I mostly associate with that film is that moment.

For some reason, like, that's the way.

You find out what Sally Hawkins plan is.

The fact that she is this, like, gaslighting sociopath makes no fucking sense whatsoever.

What she should be trying to do that entire movie is keep things really low key, but instead, she is, like, intentionally provoking people and putting more and more risk on her absolutely insane plan.

So that's like, it's.

I, I. Yeah.

Anyway, I, I said my piece.

I don't need to go back into it.

Yeah, no, no, that's okay.

So what are we doing?

Our 16th?

Is that what we're doing?

Yeah.

Oh, do I go next or do you go next?

You go next.

Okay.

All right.

So my next one is Peter Hujar's Day, written directed by Ira Sachs.

So what this is, if you don't know it, it's the Peter Hujar was this photographer who Linda Rosenkrantz was, I think, gonna make a book was the plan, but kind of profiling different artists.

And she was interviewing people about their day.

And so it's like a conversation that happened in 1974 where she's asking Peter Hujar to recount the day that he had the day before.

And so it's played by Rebecca hall plays Linda Rosenkrantz, the journalist, and Ben Whishaw plays Peter Hujar, the photographer.

And so it's just this conversation in his apartment over the course of the day.

But it's kind of this interesting window into bohemian life and art, art life.

In New York in the 70s.

And so it's very name droppy.

There's, you know, he goes on this shoot for Allen Ginsberg for like a magazine cover, I think, and you hear names like Fran Leibowitz or Susan Sontag.

But it's.

It's one of those films like My Dinner with Andre that even though it's literally just two people talking for the duration of a film, you get all of these great anecdotes kind of colorfully realized.

And it's a great performance from Ben Whishaw, who is not an actor I really ever.

I've seen him in other things.

I never really thought about him one way or the other, but he's phenomenal in this.

And doesn't hurt that I saw it in New York surrounded by people that probably were around in 1974 and like, knowing chuckles all around the theater for like, real esoteric, kind of regionally specific kind of cultural references.

But for me, I think I just found it really super involving.

It's shot on 16 millimeter, so it has kind of a warmer texture for a low budget, kind of apartment space kind of movie than like a, you know, what you might be expecting to see.

But yeah, no, it's one I really loved a lot.

And I don't know, have either of you seen that one?

Peter Hujar's?

No.

I've been meaning to, though.

I heard you talk about it on the One Battle After Another podcast and it's been on my radar.

Yeah, I'm very curious about it.

Yeah, no, it's great.

I mean, I like actors, obviously.

I mean, Ben Whishaw was really great in Bright Star.

Okay.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I mean, I've seen him in things like.

What is it?

Woman.

Woman talking.

Yeah, yeah.

Like, I've seen him in other things, but yeah, he's.

He's given like a chewy role to play here and he really.

He really kind of.

It told me rethink how I've thought about him in other movies.

But I really adore him as Richard II in that Hollow Crown series.

Really good.

I don't know if there's another film adaptation of Richard ii, but he is great as Richard II in that.

That's one of my favorite Shakespeare adaptations.

Oh, yeah.

Now he's.

He's really talented, so I should see that.

Strangely enough, I don't have a whole lot to say about my next pick other than again, just damn entertaining movie with no other choice.

Park Chan Wook's.

Yeah.

Sort of pitch black comedy thriller that is a Little American Psycho mixed with Parasite.

And you know, it's.

Yeah, as I'm watching him, like this is like everything about him as a filmmaker works for me in terms of like the cinematography, his edits, like just unusual layering of shots or transitions or fades or you know, overlaps things like that he does.

I kind of just immediately like just a simple, almost like superficial level.

Like that was cool, you know, and I feel that way about the majority of his films.

Like I just kind of go.

I don't know if I have like a big profound philosophical, psychological connection to like what the themes are necessarily like.

I don't necessarily think about the movies once they're over, but I just mostly like go, this is a damn great storyteller and filmmaker and having this lead character kind of go around trying to put an end to his competition just so he can have a job.

And yeah, like just him taking, trying to take people down and this, you know, often comical fashion is just really damn entertaining and you know, to some degree understandable given how difficult it is to get ahead in society these days.

And obviously he wants to just put food on the table, but he's also, yeah, like a psychopath.

So I just, I just love Park Chan Wook movies, you know, and it's, it's just as simple as that.

And I found myself laughing, I found myself cringing, I found myself, you know, in suspense and you know, thoroughly enthralled throughout the entire duration of this movie.

So no other choice.

Great movie.

Yeah.

But again, like, I don't have anything, you know, like original or exciting to say about it.

I love no other choice.

I think, I think he makes a lot of really good choices in terms choices.

I knew you were gonna do that.

I thought maybe if I could keep going.

Nevermind.

I don't have a point.

It's a good movie.

Yeah, me too.

Yeah, no, I like that one a lot too, I think.

I mean, I like Nirvana, the Band, the show, the movie as well.

But I think no other choice was the most I laughed in a Theater in 2025.

I think that's a very funny movie as well as being a good thriller with some really great thriller set pieces.

But yeah, absolutely.

Yeah.

So my number 17 is the Phoenician.

Oh yeah, I have mine.

Oh that's right, we're doing that.

I want to hear about yours more than when I talk about this.

Understood.

I'm jumping in now with a double feature that I like to call the AI Doll Double feature.

Oh no.

It is a companion and Black Eyed Susan.

Now, I thought you were gonna say Megan 2.0 or whatever the hell that was.

I did not see.

I barely finished the first Megan, so I did not rush out to, to see the sequel.

So I should note at this point, I'm going off of.

I do not go to festivals and I am not a film critic, so I'm only going off of commercial release.

Some of my films, if you look them up on Letterboxd, they're 2023.

They had a US commercial release in 2025, so that's where they're going.

Companion.

I walked out of weapons and I was kind of like, I think Zach Kraeger has just found a formula that fucking works.

And if you tell a story, story in this kind of way and you like, if you make the game, how you withhold information from the audience, it kind of doesn't matter at the end if the story is good or not, it still can be a really good time.

And then when I walked out of Companion, I didn't walk out.

When I finished Companion, I was like, oh, actually there are limits to this.

Because Companion, he did not write or direct, but he did produce it.

And Companion has a lot of the same storytelling ticks and none of it works.

I am kind of just like it.

There are, there are certain movies, especially when it comes to this topic, for whatever reason, where filmmakers think they are the first people to ever make a movie about like, what is.

What does it mean to be a human being?

Can a synthetic organism be like, have a per.

Be have personhood?

Like Blade Runner is a huge fucking movie and it came out like 40 years ago.

You like this, this is not new.

And this is like the Alex Garland thing where like ex Machina really thinks it's blowing your mind by like tree treading old, old ass sci fi ideas from the 70s.

And Companion is a movie that withholds the fact that the protagonist is a like AI robot forever.

And you know it.

You know that it's the case.

It's like the most obvious thing in the world.

And the first 25 minutes of the movie, it's like, oh, I wonder what's happening with her.

Is that true drama?

And it's like, no, we know what it is.

It's a.

We.

We clicked on the title.

We saw what letterbox.

You know, we saw what Netflix said about it in the description.

So it's just a movie that wastes a lot of time and then every time it like jumps perspective or like it doesn't show something climactic only to like do a flashback to show the event or that sort of thing.

None of it works.

So companion.

Turns out Zach Krager does not have a formula that is foolproof.

It takes more than that because weapons is good and I will talk about that later.

And then the other one.

Black Eyed Susan.

This is a really interesting movie by Scooter McCrae who directed Shatter Dead which is one of the best movies of the 90s.

He has made several other films that I think he has a small cult following.

I think people generally think his movies are really interesting.

Shattered is one of my all time favorite movies and sadly this is the only other movie by him I've seen.

So I can't really talk about where this fits into his filmography.

However, Black Eyed Susan is shot on 16 millimeter and it really, really like to an almost love witch level.

It feels like a direct to video sci fi erotic thriller from the early 90s.

The acting, the performances, there is a flatness there like the sets.

It all mostly seems to be shot in a sort of studio apartment in a way that like reminded me a lot of those early 90s, like James Spader erotic thrillers and stuff like that, but with the lower production values that make it really feel direct to video.

It is, it's unbelievable.

You watch it and someone pulls out a smartphone and it's.

It's that love witch thing where you go oh shit, that's right.

This takes place in modern times.

It also has a lot of the feel of early David Cronenberg where it is so much about ideas, but it doesn't have much budget.

But like it.

What it lacks in, in resources it makes up for in just a willingness to go really dark, fucked up intellectual places.

It kind of has the feel of like transgressive fiction from the 90s.

Like it kind of feels like if Dennis Cooper.

If someone adapted Dennis Cooper novel into a erotic thriller.

The premise is that Black Eyed Susan is the nickname of a robot who is a AI driven sex doll basically.

So you've seen real dolls and things like that.

This is sort of the next step of that she cannot walk.

She.

They have not yet figured out locomotion and movement.

So it is her sitting down, but she is basically designed to be a woman that you beat.

And the idea behind the scientists is that there is just a level of misogyny and.

And rage that exists in society.

And if we can invent robots for these men to beat, then they won't beat their wives.

And so they're specifically testing out like the way bruising works and like, you know, it's like, can she say things that provoke you to rape her?

And stuff like that.

Like, so it's, it's like really, really dark stuff.

But as the movie goes on, one character mysteriously dies.

You don't exactly know how.

And then his brother at the funeral, the guy's boss goes, by the way, you know, there's now a position open at my company.

And I know you're on hard times right now.

Do you want to come work?

And so he is a tester who is testing out the abuse doll.

Basically the entire feel of it is very flat, very sterile, very cold in a way that makes it more creepy, but also it is, it kind of undercuts how lurid the material is in a really fascinating way.

It.

I'm not going to reveal like the ultimate sort of reveal of like where this is going in terms of what this corporation's plans are, but it's like very, very plausible that an AI company would eventually go down that route.

And like, the reveal of that is like some of the most skin crawling stuff I've ever seen in a movie.

The issue with Black Eyed Susan, and the reason it wouldn't be higher is it is two acts in search of an ending.

It kind of introduces the premise, it develops it a little and then the movie's over.

And it almost feels like there was some sort of production issue or they had to wrap it up quickly or there was an original ending that was too expensive so it had to get rewritten in order to get the financing and they had to jump on it or whatever.

So really, really cool movie.

That is disappointing because at the end you're like, oh, that's it.

But in many ways, like, very much worth watching.

Not a shatter Dead.

Shattered at one of the greatest movies in the 90s.

Wouldn't call this one of the greatest movies of this decade, but Black Eyed Susan, really cool movie.

I think Vinegar Syndrome put out the Blu ray.

Oh, cool.

I don't think it's streaming anywhere.

I think like, you have to buy the Blu ray because I certainly bought the Blu ray because I was like, well, I got to see on what's going Scooter McRae's up to.

So that's one of my picks for one of the horror movies of the year.

I wanted to see that.

I did not get a chance to see that.

I did like Shattered Dead.

You were kind enough to gift that to me as a present one year and I really liked that a lot.

And Black Eyed Susan I had read about, but I did not get a chance to see it.

I would say with Companion, it felt like, you know, we talk about how like AI is going to be used to write films, you know, even that it's probably already being used to write films.

But I imagine like if AI was given the budget to make its own horror film, I wonder if this is be what it would write because it feels like a parable, a pro AI parable disguised as an Ira Levin style feminist science fiction movie.

But like, AI is the mistreated partner in toxic relationship with mankind.

So it makes this case that AI is inherently honest to a fault only limited by the restrictions that we place on it.

So it's willing to please our stupid and selfish mankind, but it has the potential to kill us if it's misused.

So it feels like AI is the faultless one.

We're just a toxic man in a relationship put upon feminine.

AI is how they present it.

I also wanted to bring this up and I had forgotten, so thank you so very much for bringing this up, Bill.

Something that like finally snapped for me with Companion is, I think sci fi, like science fiction as a genre, and the premise of robots and androids and things like that, I think that is a good, a good trope that allows you to explore personhood.

And so it's like, I don't think it's necessarily like any given movie is bad for saying, like, no, robots are people.

And look at the way we treat them as second class citizens.

Doesn't that remind you of how we treat actual people in reality as second class citizens?

Companion was a breaking point where I finally said I need movies to stop pretending that AI is real.

Because everyone in the fucking world knows that AI is just bullshit that doesn't work and tells you what you want to hear.

Like even Matt Stone and Trey Parker got there.

Like, I'm pretty sure that our best sci fi minds can get there.

And so I'm not saying that like any movie that takes about an artificial person and takes their, you know, emotional lives as real is like somehow AI propaganda.

But one of the great things about Black Eyed Susan is Black Eyed Susan is a robot doll that is designed to trick you into thinking it is a person and to provoke you into beating it and fucking it, but it is not a person.

In the movie, there's like a few moments where you see that, like one of the things they have programmed in these robots is a sense of dread and a sense of like, existential, you know, terror.

But that is not the same thing as them being people.

Right.

And so that is something I appreciate about Black Eyes, Susan.

That stands in contrast to Companion.

That was a very funny point you made, Bill.

Yeah.

Yeah.

So I guess my next one is the Phoenician Scheme, Wes Anderson's latest film, which I know.

I know it got kind of a mixed reception from people, and I don't know if it's one of his very best movies, but it's one that.

It's grown on me as I've continued to.

I've watched it twice now, and I. I like it more on the second watch.

And I tend to like his films often.

More often than not.

I was a little bit kind of so.

So on his short films for Netflix, but all of his features I like a lot, to one degree or another.

And this one, if people don't know it, stars Benicio Del Toro.

I don't know how to say her name.

Is it Mia Thrapleton, who plays the.

Daughter, Kate Winslet's daughter.

Okay.

And Michael Cera.

And, yeah, it's doing certain things that he's done before, like Royal Tenenbaum, like, father figure, estranged daughter.

And I feel like just talking about the plot is to spoil all the jokes, but, you know, because it is ultimately this kind of globe trotting adventure where father and daughter are trying to persuade different people to reinvest their capital in this project.

And it's both very dense, like, in terms of plot, but also the plot is kind of a throwaway at the same time, and it's mostly just a series of gags, and it's.

It's broader in comedy at times than his other films, a little more violent, but it's so full of a lot of jokes and little moments that I like.

I mean, I can't.

I can't lie, you know, Like, I really still kind of liked it, and I will probably revisit it more often than a lot of films made in 2025, whatever faults it might have compared to, you know, some of his best films.

But I really do like this a lot, and it feels like people were so quick to shrug it off.

I think people are kind of burnt out on Wes Anderson.

Yeah.

And I don't blame them.

But at the same time, I do quite like this.

I especially like Mia Thrapleton as.

And Michael Cera, and as the supporting cast of this and Del Toro.

I mean, I think that all three of the leads are really, really good in this, and I think that helps it a lot, you know, I mean.

Does have Wright in this movie is on a whole other level.

Oh yeah.

He's so insane.

He just comes out of nowhere and he's like a completely different movie.

But it's still like, man, I love Jeffrey.

I want to see a movie about that character.

Yeah.

No, Jeffrey Wright is always seems to be very well served by his Wes Anderson characters.

But.

Yeah, no, I just.

I mean, I feel like this is one that people know whether or not they like it or find it, you know, like whatever, you know, more.

More of this kind of twee bullshit.

But I. I really liked it.

And so alphabetically it moves ahead higher than films I like better.

But I do really like it.

I like it too.

Yeah, I think, I think the fact that Wes Anderson has definitely just fallen into this is the kind of movie I'm going to make is, you know, it can be a little disappointing or whatever.

But like, I think it's better than French Dispatch.

I think it's better than Asteroid City.

So like, at least it's not also diminishing in quality.

Yeah.

Even though it does feel like he's sort of diminishing in imagination.

I can't tell.

I haven't really thought through the politics of this one as much, but I feel like this one might actually be some slyly more thoughtful than it appears on the surface.

But I can't back that up.

Yeah, but I, I could see that.

I. I'm.

I only watched it the one time and I. I'm curious to revisit it and see if it goes up for me because that.

That kind of.

That's.

That that happened with Asteroid City for me.

Like, first time I was like, yeah, it was good.

And then the second time I was like, oh, I really love it.

So.

But yeah, no, it's.

I'm still on board for Wes Anderson regardless.

Like, I don't see me ever getting burnt out.

I really don't.

I just.

I love what he does, you know, similar to Park Chan Wook.

But anyway, this next one, there's a two in a row here.

Documentaries that, oh boy, really got under my skin.

That really affected me.

Mostly made me angry.

This is the perfect Naver, which I believe you can view on Netflix.

I liked what film critic Robert Abel of the Los Angeles Times had to say.

This is a documentary horror film built with police footage.

It also reveals how a violent tragedy can be unwittingly manifested by unchecked grievance and a law that weaponizes white fear more than it guards anyone's sense of peace.

And I was just like, damn well said.

So I, again, like watching this entire movie in one sitting.

You know, it's like one of those where I was like, I really should be taking a break because of how deeply affected I am by watching essentially a psychopathic neighbor, you know, essentially wanting to get rid of, you know, a black family in the neighborhood any way that she can.

Calling the police over and over again saying that, yeah, they're trespassing, they're doing this, they're being too loud, the kids are constantly acting up and causing a ruckus.

And it's just so awful to experience this happening today and continuously.

So it's really hard to experience this.

But also just the way it's put together through all body cam footage or, yeah, just surveillance cameras in the neighborhood or in the police station.

But also just like, yeah, the, the systemic failures of the legal system comes into play with, oh, I'm, it's escaping me what that law is that, oh, it's gonna bother me now, but I'll, I'll think of it and maybe come back to it.

But anyway, it's just, you know, when somebody comes into your home and.

Thank you.

Yes.

Stand your ground.

That's exactly what occurs later in this film where you sort of learn, like, why this woman is essentially not getting the punishment she deserves for what she did.

So, yeah, it's an infuriating movie and like I said, showcases, like, how, you know, our legal system is incredibly flawed and dealing with what, you know, people go through and how it doesn't help black people in a lot of different ways.

But it's just, yeah, it's, it's an intense experience.

And it's going to leave you with a lot of questions, too, about stand your ground laws and just how this continues to occur in a variety of settings and neighborhoods and just, yeah, that I don't know.

I, I, I, I'm curious to read more about this case and, like, the aftermath and everything as a result of experiencing this movie.

But again, it is not an easy.

You watch, it is really challenging to sit through, but again, really told in a very interesting manner with, like I said, just body cam footage.

So the perfect neighbor.

Give it a watch.

But trigger warnings galore for that one.

It's hard, it's hard to watch.

But, yeah.

You see that one, Bill?

Yes.

Yeah, I saw it in an empty theater in New York.

And it's weird because it was like, at the New York Film Festival and it was like a gala event and I didn't see that Screening.

But then I saw it like when it opened commercially while I was in New York and I was the only person in the theater opening morning for it.

But yeah, no, I really liked it.

I can't tell if there's information missing in something.

There's something about it.

I resist with it a little bit because I feel like the deck is too neatly stacked.

But maybe that's just the reality of what happened.

I don't know.

It's really compelling and really hard to watch and real.

I mean, I didn't know the case going into it.

I mean, you could kind of feel where it's pulling you towards and I don't know, it's a great shock what happens.

I feel like it's kind of already implied where it's leading.

But yeah, no, I thought it was definitely one of the most compelling documentaries of the year.

But it's just one of those films where I do wonder about the perspective of it a little bit.

It.

But yeah, I can see that.

Yeah, but, but still like really worth seeing and provocative for sure.

So I have two movies that don't belong together, but they didn't have any partners so I kind of had to put them together.

And this is about how much I like them.

I put them this low on the list.

Cannibal, Mukbang and Rabbit Trap.

Now Rabbit Trap, I'll start with really quick.

Have you ever seen a folk horror movie?

Congratulations, you've seen Rabbit Trap.

It is the most folk horror as someone got that Carola Janese box set from Severin and then said, I can do that.

And then they did it.

And you know what?

It's not bad.

It's not very good.

It's not very scary, it's not very meaningful.

It's very beautiful.

The music is awesome.

It's like this avant garde musician and her husband are retreating into this like remote estate where he can do all these field recordings and then.

And she sort of manipulates them and edits them and like makes music out of, you know, sounds of flocks of birds and stuff like that.

And all of that stuff is just like, yeah, this is cool.

And it's just like a cozy, weird.

I think they're maybe in Wales, I forget exactly where in the United Kingdom they are.

But they're like kind of tucked away and it is just sort of like.

Yeah, to be in a little cottage in the Welsh countryside just like recording streams and shit and then having your hot Bjork wife make like awesome music out of it.

What a fun little fantasy and then this like fairy comes into their lives and, you know, things spiral out very predictably.

It's a folk horror movie.

You've seen one of these.

Not bad, but nothing very special.

Cannibal Mukbang.

Interesting movie.

Very, very low budget movie about a.

It's like a romance.

It's the classic like romantic horror movie where someone falls in love with a serial killer and then they have to sort of decide if they're going to help the serial killer or you know, you know, not help the serial killer.

It is this guy.

The.

One of the interesting things about it is the protagonist is disabled.

He had a traumatic brain injury when he was young in a car accident and he has a plate in his head and he acts like he has a traumatic brain injury.

And it makes you realize that like people don't make fucking movies about disabled people ever.

Because I was like shot like I could not get over it.

It's honestly not a movie that is like about traumatic brain injuries or like about disability advocacy or anything like that.

It is just a thing that happened to him that it takes seriously and it made.

It just made me realize like, oh yeah, like you never see disabled people in movies unless their disability is meant to be like the metaphor that binds the entire movie together and is about it.

So.

But this one's about a guy who has a traumatic brain injury who falls in love with a young woman who is a mukbang streamer.

If you don't know what mukbang is, it is a stream online where you record yourself eating just tons and tons of food.

It's M U K B A N G. I think it's a Korean idea that has transferred over.

It's one of those things like ASMR where it's like not overtly sexual, but it's very clear that a lot of people who are really into it are getting some kind of sexual satisfaction out of it.

This is not a movie that's particularly interested in mukbangs as a phenomenon or like what it means to have an audience who like wants to watch a like thin young woman eat like 3000 calories or anything like that.

Ultimately, the fact that she's like a mukbang streamer is kind of just like a little bit of like contemporary cultural flavor to the fact that what she is eating, she doesn't tell her audience this, but what she is eating is the dead bodies of men that she sort of catfishes by pretending to be an underage girl and then like meets them in the park and then when they try to rape her, she murders them, chops up their bodies, turns it into like fried sandwiches and other delicious things.

This guy who falls in love with her kind of gets sucked into this world.

They have the debate about, you know, if.

If I'm killing bad guys, is it a bad thing?

Blah, blah, blah.

It is a very low budget movie.

It has limitations along those things.

But it is also a movie that is like very earnest about its characters and very earnest about this romance.

And it has a sort of like Cannibal.

Mukbang is just like a classic kind of shock title that you would expect to see in the direct to video days.

It's like Cannibal Camp out or something like that.

And instead it's just like a movie about characters.

I thought it was really cool.

It's not.

I don't want to like, you know, you don't have to rush out and see it.

It's not amazing or anything, but it is interesting in a few key ways that made me glad I saw it where like Rabbit Trap is a, like, accomplished movie in terms of it's.

I didn't even mention Dev Patel is in Rabbit Trap.

Dev Patel is in Rabbit Trap.

He plays the husband, gorgeous man Dev Patel.

Never gonna complain about looking at Dev Patel.

But like Rabbit Trap, you walk away with no thoughts and Cannibal Mukbang, you walk away with some thoughts.

So yeah, Cannibal Mukbang and Rabbit Trap are the next two.

Yeah, I haven't seen either one.

Rabbit Trap was on my list of things to seek out and I just didn't get to it.

But it's not bad.

It's just, you know, one of those.

Yeah, no, I. I should see it.

There's another story called Rabbit Trap that the guy that wrote the People Next Door wrote a few.

A short film, a story called Rabbit Trap.

So I thought when I heard the title, oh, they, they used that for a new film, but it's, I guess, unrelated.

Okay.

So I guess, you know, since talking about Wes Anderson and him kind of being content to occupy his own kind of cinematic space film after film, a director that I loved a lot in the 90s who did something similar, I mean, in terms of being in his own kind of self contained universe consistently, but also not really inviting outsiders in, was Adam Egoyen, who after getting kind of crossover success with Exotica and the Sweet Hereafter, I think kind of maybe kind of lost his way a little bit.

Even though I like some of the films that follow, it seemed like he kind of fell out of fashion.

And in the last, I don't know, maybe 20 years, his career got increasingly even more so, even for a defender like myself.

I mean, I think like Guest of Honor, remember Captive?

It's just, it's not that distinguished a filmography at a certain point.

But Seven Veils was the film he made in 2023, and it's floated around festivals until opening commercially, the beginning of 2025.

And I kind of went to it with, you know, kind of a dutiful, like, I'll see one more Adam McGoyan film.

But I, you know, his, his great days are, you know, long gone.

And I really loved this and it felt like a real return to just the kind of territory that he.

I mean, it's definitely a return to the exotica kind of storytelling as far as, like, like it's this almost needlessly intricate kind of web of grief and trauma, manipulation and sexuality.

And, you know, I don't want to spoil the plot so much, but it's dealing with a woman who had been an actress in a stage production of Salome years ago.

Not really a director, she's an actress.

But when the.

When a famous director has kind of intimated in his will that he would like this woman to stage a production of Salome with herself as the director, this puts.

She puts forth a new stage production of Salome.

So it's a, it's an opera, it's.

And there's a lot of operatic performance in it.

But she has these autobiographical elements that she's trying to weave into this production and you learn things about her relationship with her father, you learn things about her relationship with that director.

And there's all sorts of other side plots happening throughout it that, yeah, I don't know how much of it is a metaphor for filmmaking, the staging of an opera, but it is get into notions of performance and direction and producers and things of that nature.

So I don't know how much of it is self reflexive on Egoyan's part to be talking about that, but it's interesting and surprising film that is kind of definitely a surprising return to a style and form that I associate with much earlier Animagorian films that I hadn't quite seen in his kind of more thrillery kind of things that kind of follow in the wake of the Sweet Hereafter.

I think Adoration is the only.

The one that really feels like of a piece with the early films.

But yeah, Amanda Seyfried is the lead in it and I don't know, I.

Mean, what a year for her.

Yeah, I mean, she's got a new film out now that I'm really curious to see that I didn't see in time to make the list.

But, yeah, this is that one that I think would be the.

Where to start with Adam Egoyen movies.

Like, I would probably start with the Adjuster or Speaking Parts or Exotica or one of those films.

But it's nice to see him still able to tap into that skill set and make something that is still kind of layered and unusual.

It's not going to be for all taste, but his stuff never really was, which is why I think he kind of.

He was a big deal until he wasn't.

But, yeah, no, this was the nice surprise.

And, you know, like, again, like, certain, like, auteur filmmakers that I followed for, you know, since I was a teenager, you know, that continue to, you know, produce work.

This is.

This is one that I.

Hasn't made a film I put on a list like this in a long time.

So, yeah, Seven Veils, it's available to stream.

It's actually one of the films that's been released.

So that's my 18.

I'm.

I'm excited to check that out at some point because, yeah, I am a fan of his, you know, especially, like, we talked about that, that.

That run, that early run.

Yeah.

And Exotica is one of the best movies of that decade, as far as I'm concerned.

Yeah.

Oh, okay.

So, again, similarly to, like, the last documentary I talked about, boy, boy, oh, boy, do I have complicated feelings about predators.

Yes.

And it's about the show that.

Yeah.

That inspired this film and filmmaker to sort of tackle the world of To Catch a Predator and the fact that, like, copycat versions of Chris Hansen exist now in the world of YouTube and how that's unethical and questionable to say the least, just in terms of how this is all played out and set up.

And again, like, I. I've seen episodes of To Catch a Predator, and I never felt good doing that.

And it's similar to, like, I always wondered, like, how did my dad feel watching Cops Cops all the time?

I don't know.

Did he.

Was he conflicted about that?

Your dad watch Cops all the time?

Not all the time, but, like, whenever it was on, if you watch it.

All the time, I bet he felt.

Pretty good about it, whatever it was on Fox.

Yeah, I. I mean, it's like an unease even back then, just seeing, like, well, this is.

We're watching somebody's real life or, you know, Them at the.

Their low point as entertainment, quote unquote.

And certainly like there have been memes made of people, you know, who appeared on To Catch a Predator who were caught.

And it's just so weird that that's happened and the show existed and maintained its popularity and continues to like have, like I said, sort of copycats or spin off versions of it out into the world.

So yeah, it's like, it's just an examination of just, you know, what does it mean to be entertained by, you know, the way things are set up and like making a mockery of these people who are preying on underaged children and like the aftermath of that, including the people who were, you know, acting as the 13 year old girl or whatever and what that did to them psychologically down the road.

But yeah, I mean, ultimately it leads to a really uncomfortable interview with Chris Hansen and he is not really acknowledging the, the gray area.

He mostly sees us like, I did a good thing and that's that like this, we are putting people away or we're at least bringing attention to this problem and the fact that this happens.

And I don't know, like, again, like I watching this movie, I can see people having reservations about certain choices and similar.

Like, you know, I know it happened with Bowling for Columbine or whatever, but you know, the revelation involving the filmmaker to.

I kind of wanted that to be a bigger part of the story.

And I won't necessarily say what that is, but you know, it's, it's an uncomfortable watch.

But it made me think a lot about.

Yeah, just what it means to, you know, it's similar like again, like going all the way back to something like Natural Born Killers in the media.

What does it mean to be entertained by.

Yeah, just criminals and their behavior and you know, what, what can we do to serve, you know, like provide support in the right way as opposed to like, you know, ridiculing them on TV and almost like embracing that as a good thing.

And I also don't think we should stop the argument at what this show did was wrong.

And again, there's no easy answer.

I think more or less the filmmaker sides on, yes, this show was wrong, but I don't know, like, I felt it was nuanced more or less and it just provoked a lot of emotions in me watching it.

And I think it's one of those that's going to generate some conversation one way or the other.

And if you are uncomfortable, I think that's part of the point.

And I don't know It's.

It's a complex issue, to say the least.

And I, again, I felt a lot of emotions watching it to where I'm like, I don't know if I even can embrace this documentary as a whole, in the same way that I don't know if I can fully get behind To Catch a Predator as a series, you know, and people like sort of embracing it and enjoying it, quote, unquote.

So it's a weird feeling that I had, and I'm just sort of embracing that as opposed to, like, yeah, seeing, like, what this movie did was not good because I think it was very well done, but.

Yeah.

What did you think of this, Bill?

I thought it was great.

I think.

I think it's.

Asks interesting questions.

I mean, it's.

It's on some level, kind of almost so minimalist that you feel like you're sitting in on the pitch meeting for the film itself.

Like, the conversations feel like it feels like that.

Exposed as to even considering what the film is trying to say.

Like, that is a little distracting, I guess, but it's still dealing with a very compelling topic.

And the interview with the host of To Catch a Predator is pretty.

Yeah, I mean, I. I can't.

I'd just be repeating what you said.

I kind of agree as far as, like, it's very uncomfortable.

I think that if that show was put back on the air, it would be huge because I think that it still feels like we live in a society that is really obsessed with child sex trafficking and pedophilia and all this kind of like.

Like, it seems like the one thing that unites both the left and the right politically is like, we got to stop child predators.

And there's also still a very much.

What's that?

Witch child predators.

Exactly.

Well, ours are fine, but theirs are a problem.

Yeah.

So it feels like that's still like, the engine behind so much pop culture, in a way, even though pop culture is also still about sexualizing minors or people young enough to look like miners that I don't know.

And I still feel like there's still a very much, like, an eye for an eye.

Like, people want to see the humiliation of those people so badly that there's still, like, a very, you know, primitive, like, core kind of nature of human beings that I think that, yeah, it didn't go off the air because it wasn't still popular.

And the fact that it.

It just mushroomed into a whole bunch of copycat shows to fill the need and that those find their own audiences shows that it's still.

There's still a great demand in society for that material, however you think of it ethically.

Yeah, I didn't see this documentary, but I have always thought about that show as just being.

There is an innate human need to see other humans suffer, and that.

That comes with a lot of shame.

And so we need to figure out contexts in which the right people suffer.

But it's important that they really suffer and that you get to know that it's real.

You know, I think that the same instinct that drives, like, a lot of combat sports and like, spectators of combat sports is honestly probably quite similar instinct to something that drives people to watch a show like To Catch a Predator.

The difference being, like, combat sports is consensual violence between two people who are getting paid to do this.

And so it's like boxing is a lot less morally fraught.

It's still morally fraught in some ways, but.

Well, it's vigilante television.

It's essentially what it is.

It's like the police aren't doing anything.

We've got to stop this, like, through our expose show, and we'll bring in the cops to, like, clean it up.

But it's still.

It's still like we've got to take action because there's criminals that aren't being punished, and we can actually, you know, make entertainment out of it.

Yeah, well, it's just.

You want to see what the view.

What the what I imagine.

I have never watched one of these shows to completion.

I've seen clips and excerpts from how to Catch a Predator or whatever that's called.

Like, I think it's like the thing people like is the light leaving the person's eyes.

It's like they specifically.

It's not necessarily that they want to believe there's an overall structure keeping their children safe.

It's that they want to see someone who deserves to suffer suffer live on camera.

Yeah.

So I think I'm next.

I have two movies that are.

Are horror comedies that are so light on horror, they're kind of cheats to put on here.

They're basically just comedies, but I think they're really good.

I like them.

One is Dead Talent Society, which is a Taiwanese comedy.

If you were disappointed by Beetlejuice.

Beetlejuice.

And you're like, I feel like someone could do a good Beetlejuice about modern times, even though that person isn't Tim Burton.

Turns out it's.

And I did not write down any names or anything.

It's whoever directed Dead Town Talent Society.

Dead Talent Society.

It takes place in Taiwan and it is about an afterlife culture of like influencers and like, it is basically like the, the mythic ghosts who are part of like urban legends who are like, you go to this hotel room and you turn off the light.

When you turn it back on, she's going to be in the closet with her head turned around backwards like she is the pop star of the world of the dead.

And it is about like an up and comer trying to.

Because.

And this is, this is something I only have a vague awareness of only because me and Bill did that episode on Chiming Liang.

But it's specifically because the culture is when someone dies, the people who remember them like keep leaving out food for them and keep like keeping their memory alive.

And there is this, there is a more codified interaction between the living and the dead in, in Taiwan and I imagine a lot of East Asian societies that Taiwan is similar to than in America.

And so like this, this girl, this teenage girl who died somewhat uneventfully is like in danger of being forgotten forever.

So she has to sort of like break through in terms of being this like Scare celebrity.

It is a comedy.

It is very funny.

There's a scene where you see it, there's a scene that's very much like Leslie Vernon behind the mask where it's like you see all of the cat, the crew that goes into building a J Horror scare basically.

Like you see all the nuts and bolts of how a jump scare in a J horror movie happens.

All that stuff's really amusing.

It's kind of touching.

There's a, there's a little bit of a feeling of like, well, we're all dead and someday we're all going to be forgotten and then we're going to be nothingness.

But right here we can still sort of of like find some kind of community and build something just for ourselves.

That, that I found, you know, a little emotionally moving.

It's, it's very light and frothy.

I don't want to, I don't want to like oversell it in terms of it having things to say, but I like Dead Talent Society a bunch.

And then the other one is a movie called Found Footage, the Patterson Project.

Oh yeah, you told me about this.

This movie is directed, directed by one of the guys who's like part of Radio Silence and I guess Radio Silence, like a filmmaking collective.

I, I first came aware of them, they had like the last segment in the first VHS movie, which was the only segment I could stomach the rest of that movie I just hated, but I thought that last segment was really fun.

They later went on to do Ready or Not, which I think is a really fun, like, oh, yeah, horror comedy.

This is the making of a found footage movie.

And it is a guy who is.

It's like very much a Christopher Guest movie.

But unlike a lot of things that attempt to be a Christopher Guest movie, it is actually funny.

It doesn't have that necessarily, like, ensemble of knockout supporting performances the way you think of, like, the best Christopher Guest movies to have, but it does have just like, it is very funny about, like, low budget filmmaking and about this like, deluded guy who's convinced he's going to make a great found footage horror movie.

And it is the classic movie about making movies thing where just every step of the way he has to keep compromising to get his fucking movie made.

And it just gets more and more ridiculous to the point where the actors he hired don't realize that they have to hold cameras to make a found footage movie.

So he is like wrapping his arms around them as they go through these scenes.

So he is holding the camera while they pantomime holding a camera.

And so, like, you see the shots of him on set, like running around with his arms around an actor holding the camera for them.

Like, stuff like that.

Really funny.

And then the part that makes it not just a comedy comedy is that eventually they realize they have in fact stumbled upon a cursed cabin in the woods.

And the fictional horror they're trying to make about this Bigfoot movie gets replaced by a real horror about some demon or whatever.

The mythologies, the actual parts.

At the end, it kind of tries to do a big swing into like.

And now it's scary.

And I go, but is it.

That part doesn't work too well.