EPISODE 286: The Films of 2024
Here it is Friends, our Films of 2024 episode - hope you enjoy.
Discussed on the show:
Haven’t Seen But Need to See
La Chimera
Seed of the Sacred Fig
Good Enough to Talk About
Trap
Cabrini
It Ends with Us
Babygirl
Many Folks Haven't Heard About
It’s Only Life After All
A Real Pain
The Wise Guy
Christmas Eve in Miller’s point
Made in England: The Films of Powell & Pressburger
Between the Temples
Emilia Perez
My Old Ass
I Saw The TV Glow
Kneecap
The Apprentice
Memoir of a Snail
Sheer Joy
Wallace and Gromit
Underrated
Furiosa
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
Juror #2
Bubbling Under
Dune Part Two
Civil War
Inside Out 2
The Bikeriders
Anora
The Brutalist
Gotta See It Again
A Complete Unknown
List of Its Own
Megalopolis
Not the Best Film of the Year
Reagan
Top Twelve Films of the Year
12: His Three Daughters
11: Small Things Like These
10: Wicked
9: Rebel Ridge
8: Conclave
7: Evil does not exist
6: Sing Sing
5: Robot Dreams
4: Nickel Boys
3: Challengers
2: All We Imagine as Light
1: Joker Folie à Deux
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The Film Talk is brought to you by you folks who listen and help out. Just go to patreon.com/thefilmtalk for details. Now on with the show.
Yes, dear listeners, I'm always perennially excited on this show, but even more so than usual, because I look to my co-host, Professor Dr.
Gareth Higgins, for recommendations of all the great films to see that I have missed. And we're going to talk about it in our Films of the Year episode. We're coming to the end of 2024.
I'm Jett Loe.
I'm Gareth Higgins. The Conversation never ends. And yes, it is our Films of the Year show, and there need to be at least two caveats about that.
Number one is films are released at different times and different places, and if you're listening to this show or live somewhere other than the United States, our year may not be the same year as your year.
That's right. We're here in the US and apparently we're going to go back to the 1950s.
Well, there was some great movies released in the 1950s.
Sure, because when you have to closet yourself, you've got to come up with other ways of telling the story.
You know, we're trying to tell the story in the most truthful and helpful ways possible. It's only part of our lives, but it is a joy to be able to spend time with movies.
The second caveat is there's always going to be loads of films that even the most avid critics haven't had the chance to see.
There's two in particular I've started watching, but I haven't had the chance to watch the rest of them, and I'm certain they would be, they will be among the very best films.
Terrifier 3.
What is called La Chimera, if I'm pronouncing it correctly, and by Ali Echey, Roarvacher, and Seed of the Sacred Fig by Muhammad Rasulov.
And dear listener, it's impossible to overstate the courage that it takes to make this film, The Seed of the Sacred Fig.
Muhammad Rasulov has had to leave Iran under threat of imprisonment, and it is partly as a response to what he's talking about in this movie and Jett, you know, talking about needing, you know, the pressure that many people feel to go back into a
closet with the changes in the American political scene. This film is an invitation to enormous courage. I don't know if I have the courage. I certainly am not living under the kind of threat or oppression that the people who made this film were.
And it's clearly an extraordinary film. And hopefully, maybe we'll do a whole episode at some point.
Seeds of the Sacred Fig, it's possible this could be one of your films of the year, unless it really doesn't like stick the landing.
No, it's going to be.
We don't know. Hey, hold on now. Film is a linear medium.
So it's not like you're looking at a painting where you can have an instant understanding at some level of totality and then look at the details as your eye scans the frame. This is a linear medium, so things could go wrong. But hopefully not.
Let's talk about your films of the year.
Well, I've got several different lists. I want to serve many people's needs here. So I do have a top 12 list.
Top 12. Then I have one film that's in a list of its own, that doesn't belong in any other list.
Sure.
I've got one film in the Got to See It Again because of the episode we just recorded, in which Jett changed my mind about it, film. We got a Bubbling Under Dune. It didn't quite make the top 12.
Let's just get to the movies because we're spending, this is like metadata, we're spending more time talking about the lists than the movies in the lists.
We've got a list of films most people haven't heard about.
We've got a list of films that are good enough to talk about, but don't really belong on any other list. Where would you like to start?
Dealers Choice.
Dealers Choice, films that are good enough to talk about, but don't really belong on any other list. M. Night Shyamalan's Trap.
Yes.
And I think what we'll do here, what we should do here is for films that Jett has seen, Jett, I'm speaking about you in the third person, for the films that you have seen, I'll name them and you say something about them.
For the films that you haven't seen, I'll try to say something about them that's spoiler free because I know you don't like your films spoiled.
Never.
All right. So films that are good enough to talk about but don't really belong on other lists.
M.
Night Shyamalan's Trap.
Trap. This is a great, if you know what M. Night Shyamalan is doing and you are there for it, you are going to be there for Trap.
100%.
It's exactly what I wanted from an M.
Night Shyamalan film starring his daughter taking place at our concert arena plus some extra, with Alison Pail.
I'm a shirtless Josh Hartnett. A shirtless Josh Hartnett.
Still with us. You know, it's everything you want from that film. Okay, what else you got?
It's a quote for the ages.
If you're there for it, you'll be there for it.
Exactly.
All right. Cabrini, which was a genuine surprise, a film about a radical social justice Catholic activist in the early part of the 20th century that kind of was arrived and sort of disappeared almost without trace.
If you want to see John Lithgow as an imperious bishop, you can actually see that twice this year.
I was going to say, is Cabrini a good great double bill with Conclay?
But Cabrini, actually, Cabrini is a film that I learned something from. It's exquisite to look at. It looks very much like the early flashback sequences in the Godfather Part 2, in the early parts of Vito Corleone's life in New York.
And it is a film about a Christian person, but it is not a Christian film, as it were. And it's one of the best examples of that I've ever seen. That's good enough to talk about, but not belonging on other lists yet.
It ends with us. There's a lot of controversy around this film regarding the alleged behaviour of some of the people involved in it.
And other than on the face of that and the need for accountability and the need for people to mature, whoever they are, whatever they've done. It's kind of sad because the film is a powerful film that I think probably will.
It will certainly save some people's mental health. It might even save some people's lives as a sort of a solid mainstream film about an abusive marriage and a woman freeing herself from that. I was compelled from start to finish.
The last film, I know you haven't seen it, I believe you have.
But now that you have recommended it, I cannot wait to see Cabrini.
And the last film only good enough to talk about, but doesn't belong in any other list, is a film that I'm sure you will see. It feels like an offshoot of your favorite film of all time ever, ever, ever.
A tangent, a homage, and even a kind of a slightly satirical comic reflection on it. And that is Babygirl, not an entirely successful film. It does star Nicole Kidman, Harris Dickinson, and Spain or France's Greatest Frogman.
We're not quite sure. And it's like a sidequel, a sidequel, as it were, to Eyes Wide Shut.
Did you hear there's a new version of Dream Novel coming out?
You've told me that this is like the fourth version.
I think it is the fourth version, at least. At least the fourth version. Okay, so Babygirl.
So to recap, we're talking Cabrini. We're talking, what is it? It lives with us.
It dies with us.
It ends with us.
It ends with us. Francis Grace Frogman, Babygirl.
And Trap.
And Trap. Fantastic. Okay.
What's the next list?
This is the list of films most people haven't heard about, but should have, and hopefully will in the future. It's only life after all. You, many years ago, coined a term.
I believe you coined the term, crafted nonfiction, was the term that you coined, because when we use the word documentary, we're talking about several different genres.
There's the kind of biographical or historical documentary that just tells a story that we already know. It's a visual representation of a book or a newspaper article. And it's very rare for there to be any sense of discovery in that.
And then there's other kinds of documentaries. Someone goes out with a little handheld camera, goes on a journey, and they discover things as they go.
One of the rarer kinds is the biographical documentary in which the act of making the film actually leads to discoveries for the subjects themselves.
And it's only life after all is the documentary of the band that true fans know are not called The Indigo Girls, but just Indigo Girls. Don't know if you knew that or not. Amy Ray and Emily Salyers.
This film is about 40 years in the life of these two women. It's about their friendship. Maybe someday someone will make a documentary about the film talk.
It's about their creative collaboration. And it's about American culture, US American culture, over those four decades.
And there are people, you know, full disclosure, my partner and I have spent a little bit of time personally with with Indigo Girls because of other work scenarios. These are the most down to earth celebrities I've ever met.
And the film just the face itself, partly because you get the sense they're not really even sure that they're worthy of a documentary being made about them. It's a really interesting, juicy meal of a movie. That's it's only life.
After all, Jett, do Indigo Girls play a role in your life?
I know I've heard the name. They have some hits. Am I confusing with the go-gos?
Similar generation, their major hit is Closer to Fine, an anthem for us all.
Could you sing it for us without getting some copyright infringement taken down?
Probably not.
Fair enough.
Let's move on. What's the name of that film again?
It's Only Life After All.
It's Only Life After All.
All right. A Real Pain.
Songtime?
No, that's the next film on the Oh, A Real Pain. John Lesko is a bishop. John Lesko stars as a bishop who goes on an organized tour of Eastern Europe with Jesse Eisenberg and Kieran Culkin.
Kieran Culkin is probably going to win a supporting actor Oscar for it. Jesse Eisenberg is a great director and writer. That's all I got to say about A Real Pain.
We're going to list these.
We'll put these in the show now. We'll put it on Patreon and on the podcast metadata, so people can click on these and make a note.
How about I just, let's just go through the titles of the rest on this list, because I don't think you've seen any of them.
Obviously, I'm a dedicated moviegoer. You are. I got chickens.
A hawk just got one of the, a hawk just got.
It happens a lot.
The hawks get chickens.
The hawk.
Where we are.
It's only life after all.
Let's move on.
Christmas Eve in Miller's Point. The most interesting family Christmas film I've probably seen ever. Made in England, The Films of Powell and Pressburger.
Absolutely fantastic film about those magnificent filmmakers. Between the Temples, the first substantive, close to leading role that Carole Kane has had probably in decades. Emilia Perez, which we'll do an episode on.
Sure.
I'm kind of curious about this Miller's Point. Let's do a show on this one too.
Yeah, yeah, we should. My old ass.
Is doing fine. Gareth, I see you on the Zoom. It's a little comedy, folks.
Oh, goodness gracious.
Yes, Aubrey Plaza. A drinking game for every time Jett makes an obvious joke. I'm taking a sip of the tea.
Sorry, it's not really the spirit of the season. I like your obvious jokes.
An obvious joke, which is, of course, is one of my films of 2024. John Lithgow plays a bishop.
As a bishop, yes.
My old ass.
I saw the TV glow, which is really the film most worthy of being called Lynchian of this film and much more than that.
It's kind of a horror film and it's kind of a validation film, particularly for people whose experience of gender doesn't accord with the conventions that have dominated our society.
Kneecap, the Northern Irish film about the hip hop band from West Belfast. We might do something on that. It's a film that I'm too close to the circumstances to be more objective about it.
I loved a lot of it, and it also has a joke in it that is so dehumanizing and so offensive, but would only be understood by people who come from where I come from or who know about where I come from, that it could lead to quite an interesting
We'll put that on the list too.
That's kneecap.
The Apprentice, the film about Donald Trump's early career, brilliant Sebastian Stan, brilliant Jeremy Strong, and Memoir of a Snail, a stop motion animation from Australia from Adam Elliott, the maker of Miriam Max, which is one of my favorite films
of the century. All right. So that's the list of films people haven't heard about, which segues us quickly, quickly, quickly.
Please, yes.
If I may quote your good self to a list of only one film, and that is a film of sheer joy from start to finish, also stop motion animation.
And that is the new Wallace and Gromit film, Vengeance, Most Foul, which people in the UK or those with a VPN can see on the BBC IR player as we speak. But from the 3rd of January, I believe will be on Netflix.
Do you like your Wallace and Gromit, Jett?
You know, there's been all this controversy.
Have you seen your Wallace and Gromit?
Of course. Yeah. Well, I was in the UK for what?
I think we're going to say you were in an episode of Wallace and Gromit.
You know, my stop motion animation character got cut, which is weird because you think they would plan ahead because it took three years to animate.
You think they would figure out in the animatics that it wasn't working. There is a controversy that of course, is it Wallace? It's a different actor doing the voice.
It's not a controversy.
Peter Salas died at 97 years old, and they've got a new actor who is fantastic with his Peter Salas slash Wallace impersonation.
I know, he's been in these past years.
He controversially died at 97 years old.
15 years ago. I'm just saying some people on the Internet.
Yes.
At Bob Dylan, no. That's a deep cut reference to the last episode.
Yes, it is.
Aren't that happy with it? No, but of course, Wallace and Gromit always comfort food. It's like in the US, there's dishes like mac and cheese, right?
It's a comfort food.
This is high-end gourmet mac and cheese with a bit of paprika on the top. Wensleydale cheese, of course.
Let's not gild the lily. What else on your list?
This is the underrated list. The underrated list. Is this your last list?
No, no, no, no. One, two, three, four, five. Five lists.
Okay. If you're up for it, you're up for it. Is that what you said about trap?
If you're with it, if you're here for it, you're here for it.
If the film talk is your thing, then this episode is your thing. This is your thing.
Underrated. Furiosa.
Oh, yeah.
Furiosa. The more I think about it. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes got a couple of like, it's a strange film.
So much effort put into the craft of the thing. And the Kevin Durant's performance as Chief Bad Ape. What a wonderful day.
Bad Ape. Don't remember his name. And just it's so strange.
I've never worked on it. I've been on a couple of film sets, never worked on it, never written a screenplay. So, you know, I know it's hard to do these things.
But when so much effort and elegance goes into the rest of the thing, the William H. Macy stuff and the lead human role seemed like afterthoughts to me. But overall, just there's real pleasure in watching Kevin Durant play that bad guy.
Well, you know, this is when we talked about Senator Dillon episode where it's like, well, maybe it's more about the, you know, the Seeger and Woody Guthrie.
I don't know if the filmmakers were that interested in that William H. Macy character or the humans. It's the ape story, which makes sense, right?
Where we've moved on from the humans, they had their day. Didn't work out. I mean, it worked out for a while for some people.
The Ponzi scheme, they're able to get out in time.
Maybe so.
But for other folks, no.
All right.
Well, the final film on the underrated list and maybe the most classical film, a film that could have been made at any point in the last 50 years, with the exception of the involvement of mobile phones in the plot, is Clint Eastwood's latest, because
he's going to make another, his latest directorial effort, Juror Number Two. Did you see Juror Number Two, Jett?
I will now, since you're recommending it.
Do you know anything about Juror Number Two?
Only that it's got the Nukem Boy from the fourth Mad Max movie. That's all I know.
Excellent. I'll say nothing. Just watch it.
Just watch it. All right. No.
No.
Bubbling Under.
Bubbling Under. These could have been in the top 12, but you can only have 12 in the top 12.
But why, if you already have another list that could have been that list, couldn't that have just been one list that was longer?
No. No, no.
Okay.
You can be underrated and not be Bubbling Under.
This is still underrated.
This is no, this is Bubbling Under. Underrated means people generally didn't like the films as much as I think they should have.
What is Bubbling Under?
Bubbling Under. Bubbling Under is could have been in the top 12, but there's 12 films that I thought were better. So these are really the top 17, I suppose, because there's five films in the Bubbling Under.
Why separate it with more lists?
Separation, you're right.
I mean, we have all is one. All is one. So by that token, we could just say every film is great.
These are five films that didn't quite make it into the top.
Didn't quite make the cut.
Didn't quite make the cut. Dune, part two. Tell us about Dune, part two.
Well, apparently it didn't make the cut.
Dune, part two.
No, it's Bubbling Under.
It's like the worms. It's a vast improvement on Dune, part one. It doesn't have to do the heavy lifting.
It's more adult. It's more subtle. It doesn't have this.
The comic relief is Life of Brian versus Jason Momoa is My Boy from the first one. Hold on.
Are you describing the reboot of the film talk? You said it's more adult. It's more mature.
The comic relief is better. Sure.
What else is Bubbling Under?
Civil War.
I'm sorry. I'm going to stop you. Bubbling Under sounds like a terrible 1970s sitcom Made in England but said in Australia.
Leonard Rossiter. At a wine bar. It's called Bubbling Under.
Leonard Rossiter and Joan Collins.
They did do ads for a cocktail or Campari.
They did.
Okay. Civil War. Civil War.
I wouldn't call that Bubbling Under.
I think in its presentation.
Bubbling Over?
It's Bubbling. In its superb understanding needs of film grammar and its subject matter, photojournalists. I think it should be in your top 12.
But that's your list.
It's your list. We're not going to fight over it.
Okay.
We're not going to fight over it. Inside Out 2. I think you would have this Bubbling Under under...
For me, it wasn't Bubbling, but I get it.
It didn't bubble.
Okay. It has a sophisticated treatment of emotion. I think it's wonderful.
I was hoping a lot because considering I'm raising kiddos that are the age of the characters in Inside Out 2, I was hoping for some tips.
Did they see it?
Because it would be lovely to hear what kids think of Inside Out.
I agree. What else you got on your list of Bubbling Under?
The Bike Riders.
Oh, the Bike Riders. Yes. That almost goes Bubbling over.
Again, going back to photojournalism, in the film, it's like there's a guy, a photographer did a book, it's a famous guy, Danny Lyons. They don't mention him by name for whatever reason, but it's a great photo book, The Bike Riders.
As a working photojournalist, I highly recommend it. And the film is, it's not perfect. It's got issues, but boy, it's really well done.
And I did spend the entire film being really happy for Edward Furlong that he's back acting before, during the end credits, realizing it was Norman Reedus. But that aside, it's a great film.
Edward Furlong. Anora, which you haven't seen, so I'm going to talk about it without spoiling it.
Please don't.
What I'll say is it's the closest thing to a John Cassavetes film that's been released recently.
It has an absolutely extraordinary, she has arrived central performance from Mikey McAdison, who you might know from Pamela Adlon's great TV show that transcends the genre called Better Things.
It also has a tone that is deeply troubling and very funny at the same time. And because you haven't seen it, I'll say no more. It may have, well, yeah, if I were to say the next thing that I was going to say, you'd consider it a spoiler.
So I'm not going to say the next thing that I was going to say, but please see it.
Can't wait to see it. Maybe we'll do a show. I don't know if you've seen his other films.
Have you seen, for instance, Florida Project and Tangerine?
I have seen the Florida Project.
Fantastic motion pictures. Can't wait to see it. Anora.
Sean Becker is a great director.
And the last of The Bubbling Unders is a film that dear listener Jett has been so concerned that I might spoil, that he literally hasn't even wanted me to mention its name or the fact that it exists.
But it's hard to not do that when you're doing a show about the films of the year. So I'm going to say the name of the film. And then Jett, you can ask me two or three questions about it and I will answer them in an utterly spoiler free way.
And that film is Brady Corbett's The Brutalist.
I'm not going to ask any questions. I did literally, I didn't even know James Mangold made Complete Unknown. So the Bob Dylan picture, I'm watching it, I'm going, why does this look exactly like Dial of Destiny?
Because I didn't know. I don't, I want to go in cold. I want to know nothing.
Say nothing, we're moving on. I appreciate that Bubbling Under, the last of the Bubbling Unders, which is by the way, when they tried to do like the spinoff reboot of the Australian, set in Australian English TV show starring Leonard Rossiter.
They called it last of the Bubbling Unders. And it was when they were very elderly.
Okay, well, I think in fairness, in fairness, I'm going to ask you one question about The Brutalist. And my only answer to your question will be, I'm saying nothing. That's what I'm going to say.
So tell us what you think The Brutalist is about, who's in it, and one other fact about The Brutalist.
I know nothing about it. My only feeling, if it's called The Brutalist, does it have to do with, you know, I'm a hobbyist when it comes to architecture.
Does it have to do with The Brutalist, I wouldn't call it a school like the Bauhaus, but The Brutalist area of architecture that became so invoked for a while that people hated.
But now a lot of people love like the South Bank Center and the Hayward Gallery in London. I'm assuming is he an architect? I don't know.
Don't say anything. We're moving on. I'm saying nothing.
I told you, I'm saying nothing.
Do we have any more lists? We have three more lists. Oh my God.
But two of those lists only has one film on each. One has the Got to See It Again.
That's not a list.
Got to See It Again list because Jett just changed my mind about it.
Doesn't a list have to have more than one thing? Otherwise it's just a thing.
That is an interesting question.
It's just a thing.
Doesn't a list have to have more than one thing? Not if it's a brutal list. Spoilers.
Okay.
A complete unknown.
I'm going to see again because, dear listener, if you haven't listened to our complete unknown episode yet, you'll get the chance to hear me have a revelation in response to my dear friend, Jett Loe's extraordinary visionary response from which I
God bless you, sir.
Render the penultimate list.
Okay. That is a list of its own, a film that does not belong in any other list, and a film that you'll have lots to say about.
M. Night Shyamalan's Trap.
Nope. This is a film in which John Lethgoe plays all the bishops, and that is Megalopolis.
Oh, yeah. You got to see that again.
Tell us about Megalopolis.
You can't tell someone about Megalopolis. You have to experience it. So, dear listeners, just watch Megalopolis.
I think it's on streaming. Some people are holding out for a criteria in 4K release.
You know that Francis Coppola, a friend of the show, I think we can authentically say Francis Coppola was at least once a friend of the show. He was a friend of the show for a good hour in 2009.
And we did actually, we re-published that interview earlier in the year. And obviously, what a fascinating man, fascinating career.
On 1st of January, Francis Coppola is going to do a live watching of Megalopolis and a conversation afterwards at 11 o'clock in the morning at the Aero Theater, or it's either the American Cinematheque, Aero Theater, or perhaps with the Egyptian in
Hollywood, because he's advocating that everybody should watch Megalopolis on New Year's Day every year and reimagine the future of humanity. And I just love that he's doing that. I love that he's doing that.
I love that he's become Tucker, a man in his dream. I think that's great. It's like if Tucker actually had a successful line of cars, there were incredible and changed the nature of cars.
And then still kept going. Wonderful. Absolutely wonderful.
Is that it for your list, sir?
We're on to the top 12. Finally on to the...
I thought we did the top 12.
No, we haven't done the top 12. We did the Bubbling Under.
What was the first list?
The first list was the good enough to talk about, but doesn't belong in any other list. Then there's the people haven't heard about. Then there's Sheer Joy, underrated, Bubbling Under.
Got to see it again because Jett just changed my mind about it and a list of its own. Okay.
So now we're on the top 12. We're on the top 12.
But before we get to the top 12, there's one more film that does need to be mentioned in this episode of the Films of 2024.
We don't like to be negative, certainly not for its own sake, but there are things that need to be responded to with constructive criticism. And so I'd be loathe to say, this is the worst film of the year.
It's certainly the film that gave me the most pause and raised the questions about how it could have been so much better, both in terms of its craft and the fact that it's about a really important person, a person who had massive influence and whose
influence has still felt today. But the film is just good lord, awful.
I know where you're going, except for one extraordinary sequence.
Except for one extraordinary sequence. It also has a central performance that in some scenes seems like it's as good as Ben Kingsley in Gandhi in terms of an impersonation of the temperament of this person.
And in other scenes, it seems like a multi-python skit. And that film is Reagan. Yeah.
And dear listeners, you might have a lot of questions here.
I would suggest if you can't see it, don't want to see it for whatever reason, you can go back and listen to our episode on Reagan. It is a very strange film. And it's easy to dismiss as just, well, this is just kind of semi-hack work.
A bunch of people are getting paid, but it's orchestrated by some true believers and everybody. And these are the people that need to pay the rent. It's tough in LA right now.
That's what it is except for the sequence in the center of the film, which completely upends everything and is the closest I've ever seen to those scenes in those usually cheesy dystopian sci-fi thrillers in which the band of rebels hacks the matrix,
Or to what Tyler Durden is doing in the films he's projecting in Fight Club.
And I think the last thing I want to say about it is clearly I'm not somebody who is a huge fan of Reagan and Reaganite policies, but I want a serious film about him. I want a serious film that doesn't portray him either as it did.
Like probably the only thing worse than portraying him as a demon is to portray him as some kind of supernatural saint and to not take seriously the guy's flaws along with his goodness. That's what Oliver Stone's Nixon does.
And my response, if people are afraid of telling a story about a flawed individual in which the flaws are named and explored because, oh, it might give him a bad reputation in the eyes of the public. I don't think that's true.
I actually, having watched Oliver Stone's Nixon several times, I have a lot of kind of empathy and compassion for the person of Richard Nixon.
It doesn't stop me feeling fundamental opposition to many of his policies and the way he showed up in public. But I don't need him to be a saint for me to respond to him in a humane way.
Obviously, other than the fact that it's intellectually dishonest, there's no positive purpose served by portraying a human being as a demon.
Well, I think that's done in order to motivate people to action, right? You have to marshal your forces in order to achieve what you're trying to achieve, and that's why we demonize people, right?
Hey, if you want, instead of seeing Reagan, I would also recommend the book Way Out There in the Blue about Reagan and the Star Wars program, which was the strategic defense initiative, which was just a bunch of baloney to blow up missiles and space,
and it was never going to work. Way Out There in the Blue, highly recommended. Okay, we've gone through all your lists, right?
We haven't done the top 12.
This is the last list.
This is the last list. I'm happy to say you have seen five of the top 12.
Whoa, I'm getting better. Now, is this list in like reverse order of top 12?
Ascending. I think you call it ascending order.
Ascending order. Number 12.
Number one is my film of the year. Number 12 is my 12th.
Is your 12th film.
12th.
Got it.
12th.
M. Night Shyamalan's 12th.
If you're here for it, you're here for it.
Okay.
What is it? His Three Daughters, which is another reason Natasha Leon is one of my favorite actresses these days. And to avoid spoilers, I'm not going to tell you, there's an actor who shows up in one scene in this film.
You'll punch the air with joy. This is a film about three sisters who are caring for their father while he's dying. And it's another one of those films that kind of transcends genre.
It's a comedy, it's a drama, it's mournful, and it's inspirational. It's by Azizel Jacobs, and as I say, lovely performance from Natasha Lyonne, and a beautiful one scene performance from an actor who I won't name, because you'll enjoy the surprise.
And one of those actors who never gets to do anything as meaningful as this, never gets to do anything as meaningful as this.
Do you know when you tell people no spoilers and they say to you, oh, don't worry, I won't spoil the big twist for you. And now it's been spoiled because you know this is a big twist.
So now we'll be watching the film, waiting for this cameo coming out of nowhere. So, all right.
Don't worry, it's baked into the film that you know this character is going to show up.
This film again is called?
His Three Daughters. It's on Netflix. Number 11.
Number 11. Also a kind of a not so much a side call, but a variation on the theme of A Christmas Carol, The Scrooge Story.
And that is an Irish film based on a novel by Claire Keegan called Small Things Like These, with Cillian Murphy and Emily Watson. And the Scrooge in this film is he's not a financial miser.
He's emotionally stunted because of things that the film explores. And it makes a whole lot of sense.
This is about the revelation of what was happening in what was known as the Magdalen Laundries in Ireland, which were church run institutions in which young women were effectively abducted when they became pregnant and were forced into indentured
servitude. And this film is about a good man becoming a courageous man. And it's deeply moving. It's a slow burn.
And it's a Christmas film as well. And actually interesting of Christmas Eve in Miller's Point, which is the most imaginative film, a family gathering at Christmas film, I think I've ever seen. Certainly the newest, the most innovative.
This is the most innovative version of a Christmas film. That's about like the experience of Christmas in a town and the difference between the lights, the carols, the spirit and the law. Put it that way.
That's Small Things Like These.
Okay. That's your number 11. Number 10.
Number 10, a film that you've seen about which you were not ambivalent at all.
We had a shared joyful experience in talking about it, despite the fact that we're really disappointed by how it looks and that is Wicked. Tell us about Wicked.
Folks, everybody, they don't need us talking about Wicked. The movie is making a bunch of money. They got the promos at the wazoo, so they don't need to hear us talk about Wicked.
I punched my fist in the air at the end. The Joy. What's it called?
Joy? What is it? Defying Gravity?
Defying Gravity.
Defying Gravity.
The film looks terrible. We've talked all about it. You can go back and listen to our critique of the film on the show, but Wicked, go see it.
Okay. What else you got?
Rebel Ridge at number nine.
Oh, yes. Rebel Ridge. We should talk about that on the show too.
Rebel Ridge.
We did an episode on Rebel Ridge.
No, we did not.
We did.
We did not. No, we did not, sir. Are you sure we did not?
The listeners, no, we did not. We've never discussed Rebel Ridge on the show, but we should. Something to think about.
We just talked about it to each other.
So tell, give the listener a couple of sentences on Rebel Ridge.
We only have so much time.
Rebel Ridge is like Die Hard versus Rambo on the, or Die Hard plus Rambo on the Bayou. And, dear listener, I know you'd be surprised that I would advocate such a film, but this film is about a guy whose ethical commitment is to de-escalate violence.
It's the complete unknown, but if Bob Dylan did not ride away in the motorcycle but help put away the chairs with Pete Seeger. Okay, Rebel Ridge, go see it, folks. What else you got?
What else on the list?
Number 8, the only film released this year in which John Lethgo does not play a bishop because he plays a cardinal, and that is Conclave.
Conclave. Listen, sometimes you want a ham and cheese sandwich. You want the mac and cheese.
You want something. You want some shepherd's pie.
The high-end cheese, the high-end cheese.
It's not going to be good for you, but you grew up with it and it makes you feel good. It's like Agatha Christie, but good. Conclave, go see it.
All right, what's number seven?
Number seven, Rayo Hamaguchi's film, Evil Does Not Exist, which I don't believe you've seen. No. No spoilers.
This is a guy who wrote and directed Drive My Car that that kind of was what you know, every now and again, there's a film not in the English language that just for some reason erupts into the Anglophile consciousness.
And, you know, Drive My Car is one of is is really one of the great works of cinema of the last decade or so. Evil Does Not Exist, if Drive My Car didn't exist, I would say the same about Evil Does Not Exist. It just seems so effortless.
It's a film about a small town facing a dilemma, and a single father trying to figure out how to manage his responsibilities. And it is achingly sad and extremely hopeful at different points.
And I think Hamaguchi stands in the tradition of a Bergman or a Tarkovsky. And so, as Jett would say, if you're up for it, you're up for it.
I can't wait to see that. Let's talk about that on the show as well. Maybe 2025, all the films that I should have seen in 2024 when we talked about them.
Well, looking at what's coming soon in 2025, that's probably a better way to spend our time.
Number seven.
Number six.
That was number seven. Number seven. Number six, good.
You gotta be a bonus. We're nearing the end. We're nearing the end.
I'm there for it.
You'll be able to hear.
If you're there for it, you're there for it. Number six is Sing Sing, which is a film of Colin Domingo set in a prison in and around a program called Rehabilitation Through the Arts.
It's a real program where theater skills and theatre production is taught to incarcerated people. And this film is what they might have called a docudrama or a drama documentary.
It is a piece of fiction, but it is rooted in the lives, not only of people who have been through that program, but many of the actors in the film are themselves graduates of the Rehabilitation Through the Arts program.
It's just a beautiful, beautiful film. And as we move into the top half of the top 12, any one of these six could have been my favorite film.
He's sound great. And I would see them. Do you know how many New Yorkers I've got piled up here that I haven't read?
They just keep coming every week.
Oh, sorry. I thought you were talking about people.
Well, that too. Number four.
Number five. Number five.
Number five.
Robot Dreams. Robot Dreams, which came out in late May and, again, sadly disappeared without trace. The one time I saw it available in a local theater, it was playing at 10 o'clock in the morning in the parents with children slot, which is fine.
It was because it'd be great for kids of the right age to see this film.
But the reason it was being presented to kids by theaters is because it's an animated film with a cute looking robot and not the only cute looking robot film this year, The Wild Robot.
Not to be confused with The Wild Robot.
Not to be confused with The Wild Robot.
Did The Wild Robot make any of your lists?
It should have been in the Good Enough to Talk About. It should have been in the Good Enough to Talk About list. It was in the Good Enough to Talk About list.
But Robot Dreams is a film for grownups about brief and it's based on a graphic novel. It's absolutely extraordinary. And I urge you, dear listener, and I urge you dear Jett to watch Robot Dreams as soon as you can.
Robot Dreams, okay.
Number three.
Number four.
God damn it. Number four.
Nickel Boys, which I just watched last night. I mean, I need to slow down even thinking about it.
It's not a first-person shooter.
It is. It's shot in the first person. Exactly.
That's really interesting to bring that up because while it doesn't have, there are some acts of violence in it. It's not what people mean by first-person shooter. It's about encountering the world and it reinvents the language of cinema.
It's actually two different people who we pivot between their two different perspectives. It's based on Colson Whitehead's Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Nickel Boys.
Colson Whitehead is one of only four people to win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction twice.
We're not betting on the validation of awards meaning something, but actually when you win the Pulitzer Prize for fiction twice, that does mean something, especially when the other book was The Underground Railroad.
I think he's one of the most important writers working today. And Nickel Boys, directed by Rommel Ross, who had not directed a fiction film before, is just a deep immersion for me, unimaginably painful circumstances.
And I hope it's just getting released at the moment. I really hope that people find out about this film and pay attention to it. It's the kind of film that makes you think about what you're paying attention to in your own life.
Well, what's the purpose of art?
This sounds from your reactions. I can, dear listeners, you can't see Gareth on the Zoom like I can, unless we put this on YouTube or something, right?
This film feels, sounds like it's transformative in the sense that after you watch it, maybe your own life and your perception of the world has expanded a bit. And maybe some of that is due to the first person re-shifting narratives.
I was playing Grand Theft Auto 5 the other day, and you can, you know, you press the button, you can switch between the characters. And so here we see an example, Nickel Boys perhaps using some of the gray we have from video games.
But instead of shooting people to get that money, you're dealing with the pain and joyousness of our brief existence. Nickel Boys. Okay, number three.
Number three.
Got that right.
Challengers.
Oh, Challengers, yes.
Say no more. We talked about this on the show. Loved every moment of it.
I love that Chani is in between Mahdib and the other guy, Stilgar. Zendaya is great. They're all great.
Challengers, go see it. Tennis never sounded so good.
Did you happen to see it a second time?
No, but I saw it. I was by myself in a massive, almost IMAX-sized theater at 10 o'clock in the morning with the huge sound system, and it was great.
So no spoilers.
You'll enjoy how it, well, I mean, first of all, Challengers is a film that will repay repeated viewings because there are revelations as the story goes on, but you'll also enjoy the first minute of Challengers in a different way than you did the
first time, because it only makes sense having seen the whole thing. All right. What number are we at?
We are at number one, my friend. No, we're not.
We're at number two.
We're at number two, my friend. Your second greatest film of the year.
All We Imagine as Light. I don't believe you've seen All We Imagine as Light.
Sounds great though.
So Indian film by Payal Kapadia. And this is a film about two women who are friends. They work in a hospital in Mumbai.
They are struggling to make ends meet. And they are in the midst of, frankly, the on-ramp to an epiphany of the kind that maybe each life, certainly each life deserves. And you have to look for it.
And I hope if you can see all we might as well is like in a theater, simply because, you know, there's this thing I like people talk about, being with an audience, being with popcorn, all the rest.
That's sure, that's cool for a film like Challengers or a film like Top Gun, Maverick.
For me, it's more about being in a room where the field of vision is bigger, where I'm like looking up and out at something that's much bigger than me, and where I can't just press pause and get up and leave, where I'm not distracted.
And there's many of these films that I've named, I've seen them on screeners, because, you know, we're fortunate as critics, we get sent screeners, we get to watch stuff at home, and there's upsides to that, of course.
But I really would much rather see things in a theater, not for reasons of ideological purity, but because there's a difference between, as the film historian Mike Caddo would say, there's a difference between going to the Egypt Room at the British
Museum and going to visit the pyramids themselves. The experience is qualitatively different. And I hope you get to see how we imagine the slide in the theater.
You should try the Vision Pro and then we have a little bit of bespoke software that prevents you from pausing it. But that way you can be within your total field of vision.
Is that like one of those headset things? Yes. See, I learned something new.
We've got there.
We've reached the number one film.
Have I seen this film?
I don't remember what it is actually, so we should probably just leave the episode there.
Thanks for listening, dear listeners.
Don't forget you can visit us on the... Have I seen... Don't tell you what it is.
Have I seen the film?
Yes.
Okay. Should I be able to guess what your number one motion picture of the year is?
Oh, yes. I think it could actually, if you were sitting down and crunching your numbers and thinking about this, I think it could also be your number one film of the year.
And so we discussed it on the Film Talk. Oh, we did.
Oh, we did.
We did one episode.
We're in a minority.
We're in a minority.
I've not seen this film appear at the top of anybody's top 10 or top 12 lists. In fact, I've only seen it appear on one person's top anything list.
Well, it can't be. It's not Joker, is it?
It's Joker, Folia. Of course it's Joker, Folia.
That is not, I mean, okay.
The two of us and John Waters and maybe also Quentin Tarantino, because he liked it too. To your listener, if you haven't seen Joker, Folia, here's why you should see it. It's an apology for the first film, or maybe it's what they always intended.
It's an answer to the first film, a film that I felt deeply alienated by and now I see as being the building block towards something extraordinarily good and extraordinarily important.
That is a film that's compassionate for people who've fallen through the cracks of society, but it's not really literally about people who would be institutionalized in a way that the character of Arthur Fleck played by Joaquin Phoenix would be
institutionalized. It's about the insanity of society, the insanity of a society that allows gaps between wealth, between rich and poor to widen to the point where many people feel like serfs.
It's about people achieving, well, achieving is the wrong word, being ascribed positions of authority and glamour and glitz whose gifts and skills don't really show any evidence of being worthy of having a role of authority in society.
It's the best courtroom drama, maybe since The Verdict, and it also has the single greatest scene of the year with, again, I want to be careful not to spoil things here. How would we describe that scene?
Because I remember you loving this scene as well.
It really is an answer to what looked like mistakes in the earlier film, and this scene in which an English actor called Lee Gill, it's my favorite performance of the year, it's my favorite scene of the year, where a character who is pretending
victimhood to himself, not just to the world, he has bought into a victim narrative about himself. Not to say that he hasn't suffered, because Arthur Fleck's character has definitely suffered, but he has responded to his suffering by projecting blame
onto the world. As Bruce Coburn says in a song from about 20 years ago about the psychological brokenness that led to the Second Iraq War, he has been projecting his shit at the world. Self-hatred tarted up his payback time.
This film is profound and it is also a musical that works. And complaining about it being a musical is like complaining about Gene Kelly singing in the rain. It looks extraordinary.
Every performance is balanced perfectly against every other performance. I saw this film three times and I'm not, I don't want to be guilty of like saw it like I know better than anybody else, but not by any means.
It just spoke to me in this profound way. And clearly it spoke to you as well. There's a lot more I could say.
We did do a whole episode on it, but Jett, what are your thoughts about Joker, Folly, the film of the year?
They should have, I'll disagree with you about that one majorly, but they should have cut out that cartoon at the beginning. They should use that as a promo.
That would have sort of gotten people into the vibe of what the film was, therefore we've gotten way better press. And we can talk about money because money, it's a business, and the business of movies is business, right?
They should have cut out that cartoon and then go 20 minutes out of it, you would have had something. That's all I got to say about Joker Part 2, that people can go back and listen. What Gareth said is absolutely correct.
It didn't speak to me in the same way, and there's reasons for that, but we don't need to delve in.
Oh, come on, we gotta delve, do a bit of delving.
So look, there's a reason why people use comedy as a deflection or a way to deal with trauma and pain. You know what I'm talking about?
A deflection, as it were.
Always with the jokes, you, sir. I appreciate what you're saying. Now, of course, I too have a huge list of films to go through, but we've taken up all our time.
So I've got an idea. Here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to throw out my list of films of the year.
I'm throwing it out. No, don't throw it out. No, no, no.
I'm throwing it out. Here's what we're going to do. Instead of recommending, because Gareth had a lot of lists, my winner for film of the year, instead of the actual pictures, is going to be a streaming service that we have in the United States.
Sorry about this, folks who are from overseas, overseas who are not living in the US. If you don't have access to this, maybe you have an equivalent, and that's Tubi. They have a huge breadth of films.
It's part of what people are calling Fast, which is free ad-supported television, right?
Yes, you get the ads, but that's like being in kind of a rundown theater where the popcorn is stale, but the juicy fruits are fresh, and you flirt with the person who's taking your ticket.
Or sometimes the projector breaks.
Yeah, and people talk during the movie.
On Tubi, if I log in right now, here's what it's recommending to me, and this is just what it's recommending to me, but these are films that you can watch and play it right away, and sometimes they have ads and sometimes they don't.
So right now on my Tubi homepage is Paul Schrader's Hardcore, Hard Times, the Charles Bronson picture of Walter Hill, Howard Hawke's slash Christian Ivey's The Thing, the original The Thing from the 50s, Thing from Another World, Polanski's
Repulsion, Last Holiday starring Queen Latifah, which is a gem, a Wayne Wang film, Last Holiday. Oh, did Wayne Wang make that? Yes, he did.
He directed Smoke.
Yes, he did. Meet Me in St. Louis, Judy Gollum, of course, the original Nosferatu, North by Northwest, and Agnes Varda's Wonderful Faces Places.
Mediocre, every one of them to the last.
Toobie is the movie theater where the floors are sticky but the movies are great.
It's a rundown, flea trap of a theater, but there's a great programmer finding gems for you. Toobie, I could not recommend it highly enough. That is my film of the year.
Now, to wrap up, do we want to talk about anticipated films of 2025?
I was going to say, what about anticipated resolutions? You got any resolutions?
Do I have resolutions?
Yes.
What? You mean things I want to change about my things? I'm resolving to do or changing about myself in 2025?
Hopes, anticipations, commitments, aspirations.
I live in the present.
Been a long show. I did type in anticipated films of 2025, but I got a CNN list. And the list of films from CNN is like 15 movies.
Every single one is a reboot, a sequel, a prequel, or from an existing intellectual property.
Yeah, I'm looking at it. Well, I mean, I'll be interested to see the second part of Wicked. There's another Avatar film apparently scheduled for next year, but they always get postponed and delayed by about a decade each.
But there may be a Paul Thomas Anderson film.
There's things coming out and we'll talk about them in 2025. I was going to do a whole spiel about where we want to take the film talk, where we want to take the show in 2025, but we'll save that for another time.
And perhaps when you and I are in the same space together, you and I have not met physically for many years, many years. But my understanding is there's an opportunity coming up within a few days in which we'll be in the same physical space together.
We're both going to be very busy, of course, in the space, but maybe we'll have a chance to talk. But listen, Gareth, I appreciate all your lists.
There's so many of them with so many films, but we'll put them in the show notes for people so they can click on and add them to their favorites or get them on whatever service that they can, or maybe even see them in the theater for such a thing as
Wild.
I know.
I've enjoyed doing the show with you. Thank you so much for your time and effort this year during our reboot of The Film Talk. We never thought it would happen, and it has.
It's the end of the first year of the rebooted film talk.
Thank you, Doolister, for listening and for telling us what you think, being in conversation with us. We welcome that info at thefilmtalk.org or facebook.com/thefilmtalk.
If you want to support the show with a little bit of a monetary contribution, we're grateful for that too, patreon.com/thefilmtalk.
But whether you support in that way or you just listen, we're grateful for you and we wish you the new year that you want.
I couldn't have said it better myself. Friends, dear listeners, or you know what? I'll just call you friends.
Friends, thanks for listening. I've been Jett Loe.
I've been Gareth Higgins. If you're here for it, you're here for it, and we'll keep talking next time.