148: Top 25 Films of the Century

Four and a half years of podcasting have led to this. For their biggest episode ever, Alex and Nick list their 25 favorite films of the 21st century (so far). The guys discuss the films that mean the most to them, movies that changed their lives, accepting pain through cinema, getting extremely drunk with an A-list star a decade ago, and so much more.
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Watch Alex's films at http://alexwithrow.com/
Watch Nick's films at https://www.nicholasdostal.com/
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Transcript

0:09

Hey, everyone. Welcome to. What are you watching? I'm Alex Witt. Throw it. I'm joined by my best Benedicto. So how are you doing there, Rick fucking Dalton? You're just. Oh, yes. Yes. Finally. Finally. Well, you've given me some good ones, but this one, this one, this one's a serious one, and this one's a worthy one. Hey hey hey hey hey hey hey. All right. Hey. Never mind. Oh, I bet. Hey hey hey. Oh. Working I to I love you too much for you. All right. Hey, hey. Yes, we did say that. We're going to take this episode of all episodes. We're going to take this one seriously. We're not going to be trolling. We're going to be committed to our lists. We're going to be in support of the other person's list. I'm releasing this episode on January 1st. We're recording it on whoa! An infamous day December 7th, 2024, the day historically. I'm going to release it on January 1st. Barring the brutal, it should be the best movie of all time that we've seen. I think yeah, I think our lists are pretty locked. We've been doing this podcast. What are you watching for four and a half years and in a lot of ways, every episode we've done has been leading up to this one. I've been teasing it in various episodes for about a year, but the days here, 25 full years of the 21st century have passed by. If you count all of 2000 through all of 2024, that's 25 years. And the list is relatively simple on its face. We're going to talk about our top 25 films of the century so far. What that top 25 films means is up to the individual person. It's up to anyone who's making a list, but it's a big episode. We have not shared our list, so we could potentially have 50 movies to talk about potentially, so we're going to jump into it quickly. Yes. But before we get going, I just want to talk a little bit about how you're feeling about the the task. How was it researching this? I set this record date December 7th in June, and I went, here you go. This is when we're recording it come hell or high water and yeah, it's been a time I, I that's when I made my first draft. Something's changed. My one through ten didn't really change. Maybe some reordering. My 25 through 20 were fucking hell to get to because there were just so many of like, how do I decide? But how you feel it? Well, I feel great. And I mean, and this is really cool and I and I realized in the craftsmanship of this list how much this podcast has meant to me over these last four years. Well, a lot of these, not a lot of them, but some of them have come from the podcast and and but then also it was just sort of like reliving like these last 25 years were like the formative years of us growing up. Like we were like essentially our ages. We started high school pretty much around the the start of the new millennium. We remember Y2K, too. Yeah, that's when I started high schools in 2000. I saw that fucking movie last night. God, it was bad Y2K. Oh. I was going to say, did you see that? So dumb. Sorry. Keep going. And and, you know, and then, you know, now we're the ages that we're at, and, and we've seen what we've seen and we know what we know, but there, there is actually something, I think, rather important about, making a list like this, because we have fun with our lists. We do a lot of different fun things to try to get like as many movies out there as we can. So I had like this crazy idea. I had this idea when it started where I was like, I'm only going to talk about the most important movies of the last 25 years. And that version of my head was, what do I think the best craftsmanship of film has been? But then I looked at my list and I. And I looked at it and I was like, this is not me. Like at all. Like there would be like specs of me, but it ended up turning into something that I'm like, this is kind of a ridiculous, snobbish film list that you could look up anywhere. And then you were encouraging me the entire time like, hey, like just like pick the movies that meant the most to you. Yeah. And and that really opened up a lot of different things. So I'm very, very happy with my list where I've done a little bit of both, like my top ten have been what I think are the most important, and then the rest are sort of like these meant a lot to me. So this is a very, very nick list. But also like if aliens were to come down and they wanted to examine, like the last 25 years of film history from humans, if I gave them this list personally, just from Nick to the aliens, I would love to get this list. I think this is a great, great list. So that was kind of like what it came down to. I love that. And yeah, since June I had, which when I did my first draft, I definitely had some evolutions with the list because yeah, it kind of we have we've intentionally not talked about this a lot, this project of ours. So that's what I arrived at. And I'm like, yeah, I'm including movies on here that I like. And then I've talked about liking, but do I like this more than X or Z? Like, no. And I'm, I'm getting I'm venturing into a little like snobby territory just to include blank and blank. And then genuinely at the very end of November. So about a week and a half ago, I got my list and all my honorable mentions, and I made a new draft called the Fuck It All Draft. And I will make a like a brand new list that is you. That is just you. And I did that. And that is more or less what's here. And I had I had a few rules set up for myself. I'll get to the rules when they as I get to the movie, I had to break those rules. I just had to go. This is stupid. Like I've set up arbitrary rules. I'm going to break the rules. So my list, I'm looking at him right here before me. If yes, if I handed this list to anyone or people listening to this. If you're going to check off these movies, if you haven't seen any of them, you're going to have a wild journey of human discovery of the dark sides of human nature. You will absolutely know that the list was authored by me, but you are going to see 25 extremely worthwhile movies. I ain't saying they're going to be easy movies, but these are movies that I just love with every fiber of my being. Everything gets whatever you want to say. If it's four stars, it's four out of four, five stars. They're five out of five. They're a pluses. Every movie I'm going to mention today is at the very top tier of my movie obsession as it relates to the past 25 years. So yeah, I'm just absolutely thrilled to jump in and I'm really excited to talk about these rules. I had to break and how it's just being kind of silly. But yeah, it's and, and I'm really, really curious how many we have in common. Maybe I'm underselling it, but I think it's I definitely think it's going to be under ten. And I'm thinking more like five. Like, honestly, I don't know, though I don't know it. I have no idea where they show up. Yeah. If I have one from a director and you do two, but it's a different movie from the same director, I think we could get a lot of that, but very I don't think I mean, in terms of placements, I don't think we're going to have like the same number, like 13. I don't think that will really ever happen. I just mean, will my number 13 be anywhere on your list? Will your number 20 be anywhere on my list? I don't know, I think we're going to if if I was to guess looking at my list and knowing you, I would say there's a definite seven that will you just share. Because somewhere in our list I don't somewhere. Okay. Seven somewhere. That's my seven spare. Seven spare. Okay. I had one rule that I did keep. I mean, I definitely had rules that I kept, but the one, the biggest one, which I'm going to get to, I'm looking at my list. It's going to it's going to take a while. But the biggest one that I broke, it really changed things for the list. And it really opened it up. But that also, of course, every time you quote unquote open something up, you're excluding something else. So that was the whole thing. That was the whole exercise. But yeah, there's there's no double features here. Everything else. One movie per slot. That's it. Yep. Yep. Already. And man you're going first number 25. Okay. All right. So this one I, I can't believe this. For the longest time on my list, this wasn't even on my list for, like, for so many iterations of this list, this movie was not even on it. And I'm talking about my absolute number one favorite movie of all time. So my number 25 list for the top movies of the 21st century is my absolute favorite movie of all time, and we're talking 2000 and ones below, directed by the great Ted. To me this is great because fans, you know, I do think some new listeners are going to check out just by virtue of the episode title, but we're also going to get the defense, the you know, what do you watchers, the mad. Yeah, the mad Movie from the beginning. And our very first episode, you said this was your favorite movie of all time. So I thought you were going to do this a little bit, like kind of play with the formula. And I love you. I'm here for it. It's your list, man. It's your list. Yeah, I, I honestly didn't know. I was like, Will that make the list. It it's a I love easy thing because like and it was one of those things where I was like, well, because this is typically a movie that a lot of people don't give a lot of credit to if you were to listen to the masses. This is a movie that never comes up in anyone's list. It's a movie that never actually gets talked about in a lot of ways. And in most ways, people actually write this movie off as a wish. It was a Scarface wish. It was, you know, I'd rather be watching Goodfellas. Yes. Something you. And I'm not saying that blow does not have, like, absolute ties to all those movies there. There's a formula to blow that's been done before. But all the reasons that I love this movie in terms of its filmmaking and you and I have talked about this, we've even referenced that we had our own episode, episode 66, where I did our blow deep dive, which is honestly like a very uncomfortable episode for me. There are a few I wouldn't mind redoing for various reasons, and I'll get to those. Not not because of you, just because it's like we were. Oh no, I mean, we've every episode we've grown. So like, we would just have a completely different approach to how we tackled it. We commentary it's on the table anytime, anytime. And I think I was just vulnerable talking about why this is my favorite movie of all time and thinking of what people think of it in terms of exactly what I just spoke about, was like, these are like the ideas that people have about this. But for me, this is a movie that taught me a lot about life. In terms of the way that life moves, you go through these eras with people and, they mean what they mean to you in these moments. And then how real are those moments? How faithful are these people and relationships in your life as it goes? And I think this movie, even on a filmmaking level, execs shoots this idea and communicates it so beautifully that I think this movie is an absolute well-done piece of filmmaking business. And so I wanted to honor it by putting it on this list, because it is my favorite movie, but with also the viewpoint of it actually being like, I encourage you to look at the movie. It's a different lens. Don't give it that comparison to Goodfellas or Scarface or things like that. Kind of just take it for what it actually is. And it's really kind of just about how does one move through life? Mistakes, choices, consequences? All of that is kind of in the movie. And there's some moments in here that are just absolutely, astoundingly brilliant. Yeah, great use of music. I mean, a lot of good lines. We talked about it like, what do you know about cocaine? I mean, just what a great deal. Yeah, I love this movie. I love it, I love I saw it in the theater that weekend. It came out with my mom had the wow that had the. Yeah. Had this, had a CD, just a white line of coke on the top. It looked like a giant, scratch or something. That was a fun one to play in the car with mom, mom, look at the front of this. What's that stuff? Yes. Yes. Great pic. Very glad to see it popped up there. Wow. Here we go. My number 25 as I was doing my list, one of the things that changed things for me, one thing that I was excluding that I didn't realize were what movies impacted my own filmmaking. I started making movies made them in 2008, and I went, oh my God, I can't believe I missed this, had this hole. So here we go, folks. Wow. Right at 25 coming in nice and light. Steve McQueen's first film as a director 2008 hunger. Fucking hell. Oh, what a film. Yes, this is one of the movies I studied the most in April 2016 on my blog, which I don't really update a lot anymore. Because of this podcast, I did a shot for Shot Breakdown, in which I took a screenshot of every single shot in the film and wrote a 1 or 2 sentence, not description, but what I think the shot meant. Why I think it was used, why I think it was composed this way, why I think it lasted for this long or this little amount of time. When I started that venture, I thought they were going to be about 100 because there aren't a lot of cuts in hunger. There were 468. I'll have you know. So it was way more than I thought they were going to be. But still, 468 cuts for a feature film is nothing like it's very, very, very, very small. Yeah. That, God, what did I, I saw night bitch. Never mind. I'm not going to do what I can do. God damn, I saw night Bitch last night before Y2K. And I swear to God, there were 468 cuts in the first ten minutes. I thought I was going to lose my fucking mind. I was like, I can't. Oh, my God. Like, I almost wanted to leave because it was just I got what it was, dude. But it was too much anyway. Hunger Steve McQueen. Another really fun thing about this list is I've spent my entire November 2024 rewatching every single movie I'm going to mention today. A lot of these movies you're seeing a lot. But hunger is not one where I'm often like, let's sit down and fire up hunger. Fuck yeah. Like it's tough. It's a really, really it's a tough movie. Yeah. Sitting down knowing I mean, this is my number 25. So it was on the edge. And then like comparing these movies, do I like hunger or appreciate it or whatever more than blank, which ended up being like my 26, 27, 28. And it was the filmmaking aspect of it because the long one take conversation was, I mean, I just ripped that off for my short film earring. So yeah, this introduced me to Steve McQueen, to Michael Fassbender. I love this film. I was, even just talking like, in the way you were saying about how there's certain movies that influences even in an episode we did the movies that influence us as filmmakers. I don't know, somewhere else there's going to be another Steve McQueen movie here, but I was wondering if was going to be in your list because, I remember when we first met and I was just asking you, I think you had just done that blog. Actually, yes. Now that, yeah, the dates are pretty close. No, no, no, I was getting ready to do it, and I was talking to you about it because I'm like, I don't know how fucking long this is going to take. Like, it seems really big. Yeah. You're right. Damn, I forgot about that. Yeah. And and that was actually, like, a very key moment for me to kind of like, start to understand the process of filmmaking is if you actually go and break down a movie shot for shot, what that does to you, if you're in a studying capacity, like, actually, how does that work? And it actually is a hunger's a great one because of the lack of cuts, because if you have to justify every single cut, every single scene, that can get exhausting. But the exercise is really in like, if we're not cutting and we're saying, this is what this means, what does that mean? And it really kind of simplifies things in a great way. Yeah. And also the first time I saw this, just sitting there on my couch, it was like randomly on demand for free. In late 2008, 2009, I was a little drunk, honestly. I just got home and I went, oh, I've heard of this. And I turned it on and was riveted for 90 ish minutes. I didn't even know you could do this. Like the sound in this, of their of the beatings is so effective that I don't know. I mean, I've never really heard anything like it. It really sounds like, a very hard night. Stick hitting flesh and bone. It just sounds exactly like it. What a film. What a film. All right, 24, baby. All right, 24. This is another movie that was not going to make the list at all. And then I realized that this has been a director, that I have been basically one of the biggest fans of over the last 25 years. And I was like, is there not going to be any movies that are going to make the list that he directed? Like that makes no sense to me. So I'm talking about the great Nicolas Winding Refn right here. And coming in at number 24 is The Neon Demon from 2016. Nice. The Neon Demon. Yes. I love this movie. And and similar to you, like, I went back and this was one of the movies that I rewatched because I, I knew there were certain movies from him that I was like, you know, I love drive. Drive is great, but I, I've always looked at The Neon Demon as his best work to date. Same here, same here. And I've seen it so many times and I get something new from it every time. And it absolutely influenced me. This was around 200. This came out in 2016. We were balls deep in there. I go at this time we were and and and it was. And it was just like a thing where I was like, this is absolutely an unbelievably influential movie on me in so many ways. And then I rewatched it and it hit me just as hard as it ever does. It's a fucking gorgeous movie. He really is. He has an esthetic that a lot of people, I think may not make fun of, but a lot of other movies try to duplicate his esthetic, but no one does it. Like him, he makes every single moment of a screen look beautiful. And and it's also when I looked at this list, this is also like that really kind of fun, artsy, fucked up, like experimental, like, you know, throw it against the wall and see what blood splatters everywhere kind of pick. So I, yes, I'm very happy. This is in my list. And The Neon Demon from 2016, baby, that's an interesting year. There's actually I have quite a few movies from that year. Oh, cool. Okay, I love that. Yeah. And just, we got to see this together at the premiere at Arclight. He was there. Refn, Keanu, they were all there. That guy in front of us. I mean, really almost lost. It just almost puked. I almost threw up. It was heaving. Yeah, just heaving and then kept it in. And then we got to meet Refn and Cliff Martinez the next day at amoeba. Well, yeah. I mean, you officially got to go up and got a record sign of so cool. So yeah, that's a great pic. That's an APS then. Yeah, there are a few that some some directors whose movies I love are completely absent from my list. I just I could not find room for them. And I mean, yeah, I'll just say he's one of them. He's one where I'm like, I yeah, I just can't find. And I love these movies, but that is also my favorite. So I love that we agree on that. My number 24, you know, there are two sorties. Another one, there are two movies on my list that I openly admit. There are better movies that were made this century. Even as far as like my honorable mentions, I get it. Yes, I get it. These are on here strictly not really for filmmaking reasons, but because they affect me so emotional. The first one of this, my number 24, is warrior from 2011, directed by Gavin O'Connor. A movie that still helps me make sense of my extremely complicated relationship with my brother. When this movie came out, it we were estranged. We had been for years. He passed a few years later. So, yeah, there's that is always with it. Just that little twinge. And in episode 131, I got to talk about this film with my best good friend Taylor. It was just it was a great time. So yes, warrior, I love I think a lot of the movies I'm going to mention today may have been mentioned on this podcast before because, I mean, it's I typically decide what the episodes are. So it's, well, it's been fun for four and a half years kind of doing this. And that's why it's I'm like, hey, if you want to hear my full thoughts on Warrior episode 131, but yeah, it was a big deal for me to put that on the list because they're just yes, I get it. There are better made movies. Yes yes yes okay, okay. But that one hits me. Wow, does it hit me? But not only that, but though I mean, yes, of course you could say that. That there are better movies made. I can say that about, like, you know, blow. I mean, Jesus, I mean, there sure, sure. But but at the same time, there's also there's like warrior is a very well-made movie because it is. Yes, exactly. Exactly. And it's succeeds in doing what it the power of film is capable of doing is making you feel the way that you feel. And any time that we've ever brought that movie up, or when we release that episode, I remember there were a lot of other people, men particularly, that were chiming in and saying how much this movie emotionally meant to them as well. Yeah, yeah. So of course we are talking about like the craftsmanship of film and all this and that. But like, if the movie really does hit like that, it's as a success as an art form. I think it's a great pick. And I think that's a wonderful pick for you to have on your list. I almost that that was that was a tough one. I was I was really circling back to that one a few times and I was like, yeah, I don't think it's going to make it. But, I wanted to I wanted to stop because I love that movie. You bring up a really good point. Yeah. Real quick is that I have a ten for ten hit ratio of recommending this to people and then coming back and being like, wow, I like it. Just it's a very, very well-liked movie. I've talked to any number of. Yeah. Men, especially from any different backgrounds. And it, it just hits in that way without also being like a man's man movie. It understands the point of view of the Jennifer Morrison character or the wife. Right? Yeah. Great movie, great movie. It absolutely is. It's a wonderful movie. 23 oh 23 back to back 2016 movies here, folks. Oh, wow, this is crazy. I don't think that this time we would release this, but we did a commentary recently on this movie and I think so either either that's coming out, it'll be coming out soon. It will be coming out soon. I didn't that's not where I thought you were going. Oh my God, Kenneth Lonergan's Manchester by the sea. And honestly, it was, it was in that rewatch of the commentary that solidified this movie for me because, I mean, you know me very well. This movie has meant a lot to me since the day we saw it in theaters together. Yeah. And I've always referenced this movie as a comfort movie. Like, I can literally put this movie on at any time, and I'm weirdly like, relaxed and calm. It's a very strange phenomenon. But also when we were watching it and we were really just digging into the whole entire like, the writing, the structure, how he's playing with form and breaking these rules. I this is just an absolute masterpiece in terms of that, I think, and I just can't think of one wrong note. This movie the entire had and I love it with all my heart, and it was one of the ones that I was like, it'll be funny because one of the honorable mentions is what beat this from being in the in the top 20. But yeah, you're going to get it. You're going to get a giant kick out of what I almost had here. So I have a few of those too. Yeah, yeah, I had to go with my heart. But again I can back it up. I like the writing and just being something that it's like, even though my script consultant hates this movie with all of her heart, I actually vouched for this movie for the writing. Yeah, yeah. I mean, I agree, it won the Oscar, Casey Affleck won best actor. It, it won the Oscar for screenplay and Casey Affleck won best actor. Yeah, if all goes according to plan, I haven't published that yet, but my plan was to publish that commentary on Christmas Day. Yes. So this will be coming out a week later. So yeah, I think so. That should be up by the time this recording gets out. But yeah, that was a that was a fun commentary and one that we, we always had something to say, like more than enough. There was always something to latch on to. And we had some laughs at it because you and I do think parts of that movie are very funny. But then, yeah, we did. We ended up talking about like form a lot more than I thought that was. It was a fun commentary, so please go check that out if you haven't heard it. Yes. One of my favorite commentaries we've done, because I remember starting it and it was sort of like, oh, we're going to have a fun time with this. But then we both organically settled into just like paying attention to what the film was doing, the moments that were happening, and it just kind of wowed me in a way that, like I, it movies always wowed me. But this was a brand new wow. And I was like, that's it. It's it's earned its spot on the list. Yeah, that's funny because as of our recording right now, our most recent episode is The Insider, which was episode 145. You just talked about Manchester by the sea, but in between those, I'm going to release another episode of a movie directed by Michael Mann. Smooth. That's how we do it. Miami Vice number 23. Boom boom go fast, baby. Oh oh, I love that. That's on your list. I love, oh yeah, I love it. I had to have, I had to have at least one Michael Mann and that kind of honestly, if we were doing this in 2020, I'd probably have Ali because that movie meant so much to me for boxing. But as the years have gone on Miami Vice, it's just so fucking cool. That was my my one biggest wonder of this whole entire episode was because I know how much Ali has meant to you for so many reasons. And I was like, I wonder if that's going to make your list just because of everything that's gone on and everything, but, but I, I love that you had Miami Vice on here. I was, I was man, that was one that was always circling. Yeah. And it's kind of a thing where. Okay, so if I only wanted to have one Michael Mann spot, which I'll just spoil. Yeah, I do, this is it. This is the only Michael Mann spot. I think someone watching the my 25 movies, if they were so inclined. I think you're going to get a little more like Michael Manis and a whole lot more uniqueness if you fire up Miami Vice as opposed to Ali. And I do love Ali, I love that movie. I love The Insider, I love collateral, Blackhat man almost made the cut girl. But yeah, Miami Vice like we you know, that was a really fun episode to record. And it's just it's cool. Shit. And I, I think I was kind of responsible for you checking this one out, and I did not think, oh, you 100% like it. And then and then when you loved it, I was like, fuck yeah, that's right. Yep. Yeah, I, I mean, we, we've released that episode, but I'll never forget like the first time you told me how much you liked this movie and I and I was like, what part? And I hadn't seen it, but I just, I hated Colin Farrell at that time. And I was there gonna be getting bombed critically. So I was just. Oh, yeah. And the train of like, all right, well, that's that's that. I love that journey for you. And and then I watched it on the plane and I was like, this movie is awesome. Yeah. It's so good. And yes, not so good even at the time. And then ten, 15 years later, people were like, wow, did we sleep on this? And now it's regarded, yes, I would say regarded as his, probably most respected movie of this century. I don't know, I mean, people like collateral, but it's like, if you get Miami Vice, if you know, you know, it's that type of thing. If you've watched it once and you're like, I didn't understand a fucking word of that. Hey, that's fair. You know, sometimes Los Angeles is a really cool barometer for what movies become that type of following. Yeah. Because LA, they're always playing older movies like every theater house now it's like that's the new trend is like, hey, what's a good movie? We could play Miami Vice. I have seen pop up on Alamos. I've seen it pop up yet, at two different American Cinematheque showings. So I was like, oh, this movie has got that because I don't see how being played over and over again, I even don't even really see collateral being played. Don't much don't Miami Vice I will see that routinely get popped up. And it's getting like screen time. And I'm like, all right, that's really it says something. It's because I think one of the reasons is because as we discussed discussed in that episode, it is a very dense film. It is not really something you are going to get with all those like parking garage meetings, like, what's this? What's this? You know, tell this one branch Monday, tell the other Tuesday what? But every time you watch it more will be gained because it all tracks and it all pays off. It's. Yes, that's. I think that's one of the reasons. Because you can rediscover it on your own and be like, whoa, oh, look at that. And if you're just kind of paying attention, you're realizing that almost everything they're saying doesn't even matter because you're exactly like, it's it's just forwarding what's what you're going to get next. But it's just the attitude that they all have in the way they talk to each other. You're like, well, I don't really know what's going to happen next. But I mean, essentially there's a meeting, there's a meeting that we got to go to. They got to find this guy and, and, and then, but then you just watch their behavior and it's just like it washes over you. It's so cool. Yeah. All right, 22. All right. 22 I know, I know, this movie is on your list, and if it's not somewhere, you have some explaining to do. Ladies and gentlemen, one of the things that Alex's told me to do for this in the outline is to reference, any episode where we have spoken about this movie and we started this podcast in 2020, and I believe you started talking about this movie then I'm talking about 2023, Christopher Nolan's Oppenheimer. Fuck yeah. Yes. Oppenheimer makes the cut. Great. Wow. I didn't expect that. Oh, wow. We couldn't have started talking about 2020. It came out in 2020. It feels like you've been talking about it since before it's come out. Ben. It's it was incepted into my head decades ago. That's how I was ready for it. I did not expect this to, make your list, I love it. I didn't expect this to be your favorite movie of that year of 2023. I flipped out when you reveal that. So. Oh, man, that's great. I wanted to ask up top, but I didn't want any spoilers. Like, are there any Best Picture winners on your list? And here, you know, here is one that's cool. I kind of forget this one best picture sometimes because I really didn't think it was going to happen. Like there's no fucking way. What? Everything. So. Well, not everything, but yes, not everything. But like quite a bit. It did awesome. Yeah. No, I mean, this was, like, you know, my picks that I've had before are very, very nick picks, and there's more of those to come. But this was one of those ones where I'm like, I even though this is the this is the most recent pic I have of any movie on my list. This is 2023, but it's undeniable. Like, this is an absolute behemoth of a film making just like masterpiece. And I'm not even saying that with recency bias because it is that recent. But this movie will stand the test of time, I believe, and I believe this will always be looked at as potentially one of the great biopics. But also, I think one of like the best looks at what America was at a certain time in its history. Yeah, I think this movie just is an absolute just it's perfect. It's from start to finish, from where it goes. I've seen it twice, so I saw it two times in theaters, and then that was enough for me to be able to I, because I've seen every movie on this list at least two times. Because it's hard to say. Your top 25 if you haven't seen it a bunch of times. Yeah, but this was one where I was like, no, this is this is going to be one of those movies. So it had to make my list because it is that good. And I think it deserves to be on here. Number 22, I love it. I've seen it twice as well. I just saw it a few more times. Oh yeah. That's that's all you've seen. Yeah. That's all it's oh what a I, yeah I think this movie is going to age. Well I think this, we talked about this so much when it came out, but it kind of has partially ruined new movies for me because it was $100 million and it looks amazing. None of it's going to look dated. None of it's going to look like shit. So when I see movies with a higher price tag than that, that have terrible CGI and I see them all the time, I just go, you, you don't have to do it this way anymore. At least one person has shown us you don't have to do it this way anymore. So I can't forgive your horrible CGI. Like I just, you know, whatever. So we'll we'll see. I wonder if it if it helps change movies. We are a little too close to it, but I, I think it's going to. Yeah. I just think it's going to last forever and ever, I really do. I think it's going to be a huge like it. The fact that it won Best Picture really helps its legacy. So yeah, I love that. It's on your list. Oh yeah. And I think there's also something in the fact that not a lot of people are talking about it right now. Yeah. And I but I think that's just because there's sort of just like this understanding. It's just sort of like, oh no, that was that's good. That's as good as movies can be made, you know, it really is. And it especially if you're talking about that big budget that that this is what movies can do on a big substance level and on a grand scheme. Yeah, absolutely. All right. My number 22 I can't I don't know if it's going to be on your list, but I'm fairly certain something by this director will be on your list. We talked about it in episode 129, a heartbreaker. One of the best romance stories I've ever seen. Blue Valentine, directed by Derek C. Friends, released in 2010. Wow. It didn't make your cut. Hey. Okay, okay. No. Okay. I I'm not saying it didn't. I'm not saying. Okay, okay, okay, I will I'm sorry, I shouldn't assume. Yeah. I mean, we talked we broke it down in that episode. Like I every time I go back to it, it just hits for me. It hits in a way that, yeah, you know, there's going to be a lot of movies on my list. What I like to say, they know pain and they know alone. Manchester by the sea, that movie knows alone. I don't know what the hell the people involved had to tap into previously or go through previously in their life. But it knows alone and Blue Valentine knows pain. Oh man just knows. And I'll never forget seeing this first time going. Could this happen to me? No, I mean just with anyone like down the line, like, could this happen? And I've been very fortunate, but I, I've seen this happen to people. I mean, I'm old enough now where I've seen people get married or be together for a while. It's lasted. And then, you know, a corner turns or things have just been going the same way. They've been going for a while, and things can disintegrate. And, hey, at least this movie's honest about it. I know not everyone wants to watch movies like this. 24 over seven. I don't even either. I like to have some fun sometimes too, just not with movies like this. In this movie gets it. It just gets it. Well, speak for yourself because I have a blast with this movie. Every time I know, I know, so do I, so do I, I love it, that's what. That's why these are our list. Because I like this. This is a comfort movie I love this. All right 21 this was one where just got it's got to be on the list. I've talked about it too much. It can't not be on here. It's one of my favorite directors. Again 2016 making its third and final showing of the years Jim Jarmusch's Paterson. Oh, wow. Well, I actually snuck in, hell or high water as a saying earlier because I didn't know. I didn't know if it would circle list. So I did that. And when you kept saying 2016, I was like, it's got to be here. Well, you are surprising me about this is this is like a Nick movie. So it makes so much sense. Patterson is there. And I have to say, I think this is Jim Jarmusch, his best movie. Oh, wow. Wow. Yep, I, I do. I think he nailed exactly what it is he does best here. I've always said that this movie, it works as a big giant poem, but then each scene is its own little poem. I know this movie's not for everybody. A lot of people easily get bored with this, but I think this movie absolutely does something masterful in terms of looking at life from a very, very observational way. And I love movies that do this, and you can really walk that tightrope of it working in it, not working. And to me, when you can get observational film in a very, very human way, you've done something that's very difficult to do because, you know, film, it operates in such a way where we want to see action, we want to see what's going to happen next. And for a movie just to kind of sit and live in subtlety, you know, going by the day by day, Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and not a lot happens. But when you really let it wash over you, what you end up getting by the end of that week is a slice of life. And that's what I think Paterson does. And it's so sweet. It's so tender. It's just very real. I feel like I know a lot of those characters, and it just spoke to me in a way where I was like looking at my list and I go, how do I not put it on here for me? But then also in what I'm talking about in terms of what it does in that observational film way, it's one of the best examples I can have of observational film. I love it, I love it, it's a very you choice. I've, I've only seen it the one time in the theater, but I was very impressed with it. And yeah, we've said it's one of the things we've always said is that there's good slow and there's bad slow cinema. Yeah. One of the things it's so cool about slow cinema is Paterson is let's just call it two hours. It's a little less, but it's two hours that two hours even if it's 90 minutes, that 90 minutes is going to go by at the same amount of time as anything else, because time is just always moving forward. But what some directors are telling you is that, yes, we're we're sharing this 90 minutes together. But you are now on my time and I am dictating how long things last, for how long the shots go. I don't care about convention. And that's one of the things that I love about slow cinema. Sometimes, yes, it can lose you, but I love that observing someone just in their natural state. And what's going to happen? I don't know what happens. What the hell is going to happen when, you know, we go outside today? Yeah, I love that stuff. Yeah, that's a great pick. That's that's exactly it. Oh, okay. 21 for me wasn't on my first draft and then rewatched it because I'm like, you know, I got it. And then boom, bumped up and couldn't believe I didn't have it on there. Another personal one, but it is 2012, Rust and Bone, directed by shy You. It yeah, I love this movie. The, I'm a big fan of combat sports, hand-to-hand combat, boxing mostly, but what Matthias show Naz does to his body in this. I had forgotten how authentic it is. And he's just made of, like, horse muscle and, like, tell me that's it. It's not. He's not care. Doesn't care about definition. And he's really just an animal at one point, Marion Art says, if we're going to keep doing this arrangement, there's a way to do it to where we don't treat each other like animals. And this movie understands pain so well. Her performance is one of my favorite so far this century. Favorite acting performances, and I love this movie so much that this is the only film that I actually quoted in my wedding vows to my wife, which might seem a strange thing, but what did you say? I paraphrase, and I said that they say when you break a bone, it can actually heal in a way in which it was stronger than it was before. But when I met her, I didn't have a broken bone. I had a broken heart, and she mended that in a way that was stronger. It's frayed. Yeah. So that was. And I just kind of came up with that. But I mean, I look, that's the it said toward the end of the movie, this also has just a very simple the very, very end is very simple. But like the last 15 minutes, are I just mad? I fucking get it. You're on the ice. You got you got no choice. You're just slamming away. Oh, man, I love it. And it's not a film. I think one thing I was getting a lot from my list is that in my, with each passing year, I seem to grow less and less sentimental and is something that I am not into. Oh, yes you do. I'm not interested seeing it, particularly in movies. Cheap sentimentality and the word love, I believe, is only said once in this film, and it's as the camera is fading out to black and it's not even said, face to face. It said over the phone. And that's like how afraid these characters are of real intimacy. And then that's what makes the end so much more profound. I love this film, Rust and Bone. Oh my God, I this, this movie made its debut on, our podcast and episode two two. That's right. Good memory. Yes. It two baby I had that. It did. Yeah I have a I have a question because I, I find your this is a little off topic, but I find your, your regression in sentimentality to be one of my favorite attributes as you move on, as, like a filmmaker and film goer. I because because I, I, I'm a very sentimental guy. And I do appreciate it, but but but I have like a line in terms of like what I like and what I don't because I do think sentimental sentimentality can be very useful if it's very real. But, in thinking about blow, does the sentimentality in blow work for you or does it not? Absolutely. It's totally earned and authentic. And she fucking dies. Like when they're out there on the corner, like, we're not like, you know, I'm not going to make it that long if it ventures into. We cut to George Young at the funeral sobbing and sobbing, which I doubt he didn't realize. But if they're doing that to tide it straight, pull our heartstrings. Yeah, and that's what pisses me off. There is. Yeah, I agree, I mean, part of me, like I can be sentimental and real well, I don't know, ish. It'd be interesting to have Ali on here to talk about it. There's, you know, life life just kind of gotten away. Go watch the movie we made together. I'm alive. That a lot of that kind of beat sentimentality out of me. I look at things in a much more, I just have, like, a realistic perspective on a lot of things. And in terms of movie dumb, what I've realized kind of in the back half of the century so far, is that sentimental films now carry with it a sense of extreme victimization. Oh, I do not like totally. These are not the kind of movies I like. I don't like people who are victims and who are crying and oh my God, I went through this. Oh my God, I like movies where yes, sure, you may have gone through something, but what the fuck are we doing now? Like, let's get to it, let's get done. Or yes, I went to this thing. It is having a profound impact on me, but going in a corner and crying about how you were victimized as a child and all this, and you can't get your life back on track and that. It just doesn't interest me. Whining doesn't interest me. So earned sentimentality. Warrior has some scenes of genuine oh yeah, heartfelt sentiment that aren't inherently realistic. Like. But I mean, the scene with him and Tom Hardy and McNulty on the bed is very sentimental, but that is coming from a place of genuine pain. And yes, realistic alcoholism. That's what I like. I like my sentiment with, yes, some rawness there, that's all. Yeah. And that's just me. That and yeah, there's a lot of movies on my list that have dashes of sentiment, but they don't dip into this. Yeah, sentimentality. It's drama versus melodrama too. Like, I can really, really like intentional melodrama if it is designed that way. But Rust and Bone for me never really dips into melodrama. It's like, fuck, both of our lives kind of suck. Like one for physical reasons. One because I'm an animal who doesn't know how to do anything and I can't raise my son. What do we do? Let's start having sex like primal beings. What then? What if we are doing that? But then we actually start to gain some feelings. It. There's some sentiment in Rust and Bone to me, but wow. Oh, there is for sure. That's what I like. Oh, yeah. I mean, it's the hardest. Yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Good stuff. Yeah I mean I appreciate the question because I, I do yeah I'd like to be able to explain myself so people know I'm not a fool. Sociopath. Number 25. You all right? I have to mention this because I, this is a rule that I had, and I. And I think you've broken, but it honestly helped me in my list in a in a good way. I made a I made a rule for myself at a certain point where I was like, looking at my list and I'm like, I want to have the directors that mean a lot to me represented. So I'm only picking one movie per director. So I only had like one of I stuck to it and it really helped. And I couldn't have a 2020. I couldn't have a top of the century list without an appearance from the great Martin Scorsese. So coming in from 2013, The Wolf of Wall Street, yes, yes, I love yes, I love it. Yes. This this is, one of the most tried and true comedies I have on the list. Absolutely. But this is, my one of my biggest about-face movies I've ever had. We talked about this on our Martin Scorsese episode. It was a movie that I absolutely hated with all my heart. When I first saw it, I just thought it was just. I just thought that's just straight his face. He was like, fuck that series that. It's like, this movie is pure trash. Yeah, yeah, I yeah, I was like, what is this? And then I don't know what happened. But then it came on TV one day. That's how long I had waited to see it. And I just instantly fell in love with it. And then I just watched it more. I'm. I must have seen this movie. I don't know, a lot of times. Oh, yeah, honest to God, it's one of his best. I really believe that. Oh, yes. Even though it it's it's long, it's drawn out. It displays, I think, a testament to Scorsese, especially at the age he was at when he made this just a very, very there's an energy behind this movie that, not only does Scorsese not really tap into this is like Scorsese on overdrive with this movie. It's not a this is a movie example of like, not a lot of movies ever encapsulate this kind of energy. This is just a straightforward, in-your-face, breaking all of the rules work. Breaking the fourth wall, then were not breaking the fourth wall. Were were going into levels of the depravity of human beings and letting that be comedy and then also showing us a very, very real part of what America actually is and what was at that time in terms of the greed, in terms of the power, in terms of all of this. This movie really is sort of like a, an allegory for what money and power can really do to someone when you're living in this country. Yeah, I think it's an absolute masterpiece. And I was thinking about what Scorsese's movie is going to make my list. And then when I looked at all of them and I know there's going to be another one coming up for you, has to be. No, I was like, I was like, I think for for me, it's it's got to be Wolf. It's got to be Wolf. Well, I fucking love this movie, you know? And you think you're like, it's so well assembled. It moves so well. Why didn't Thelma win best Editing? So I looked it up. Gravity won editing, which is fair. Much fair. Wolf of Wall Street wasn't even fucking nominated. Ridiculous. What ridiculous. American hustle. Get the fuck out of here, Captain Phillips. Okay, Dallas Buyers Club. Absolutely not. 12, 12 years a slave. Okay, okay. But mean for editing. For editing. Yeah, yeah, yeah, absolutely. Needs to be on there in the Great Gatsby. Won Oscars. I forgot production design. Oh, God. Jesus. Yes. Good rule for you to have. I will discuss that rule of yours a little later as it relates to my. Yes, I actually forgot when I introduced Blue Valentine, my number 22. With the intro of that, we were starting a kind of a mount Rushmore of pain, so I. Blue Valentine 21, Rust and Bone number 20. My favorite film directed by the great Denny Villeneuve. 20 tens in Sundays. Holy shit. It had been a while, and it had been a while since I had seen it, and I put this on two weeks ago and just went. I mean, I had forgotten the names. Abu Tarek or the name. I had to May and I was like, oh, my God, I just, I, I, you know, I remembered all the beats of it, but this was also film. I was coming out of a movie. I don't even remember which one. Love landmarks has to row. Yeah, and I saw this poster in Sundays. I had no idea who I looked at the, you know, the blocking of the everyone involved. And I'm like, Denis Villeneuve, who the fuck is this? Who are these people? But you know, the quotes on the walls and I had like their the quotes on the poster and it's an evocative poster of the bus burning. So I go, okay, hey, why not? And I bought a ticket. I mean, I had no idea what any, any of it was in like in minute one, Radiohead is blaring away and some kid is getting his head shaved and looking right down the barrel of the camera, and I'm like, whoa, okay, here we go. And I was riveted. I was grabbed at that first minute and completely dumbfounded, riveted until the final scene, just as I was for this viewing. This is, this is a movie that understands pain very well. I adore it by far my favorite Villeneuve still, and I really wish I really, I have to I don't want to be dismissive, but I think a lot of people think his career started with prisoners. That was his next film after Incendies, and that was his first coming over to America. But it just it didn't start with prisoners. Go back to this one and you're going to be yes, you're going to have to read subtitles because it's not in English. But my God, yeah, I really, really love this movie. There's it. There's no better movie to have no idea what you're about to go into watch and you just blind buy a ticket, walk into a theater and sit down and watch this. I honestly think like like I there's that's that's to way too specific of a category to try to do an episode. Yeah. But yeah, I truly believe that this is the best movie you could ever have that experience with because of where it starts and then where it was like, yeah, how? Like you like, I can only imagine you walking out of that theater and be like, I didn't even come here to see this. Exactly. It was like it wasn't even on the list to see. I just still had some time to kill. And I came out of, like, kind of a subpar movie and wanted to make the 45 minute drive worth it. So I just moseyed on in doing Sundays. Exactly. Yeah. And just sitting there and being, like, feeling like I just gotten into a fight. Like I felt emotionally gutted, like, Jesus, it is I, I agree, that was the movie that really came close to making my list as well. I was really bothered that it didn't because I really wanted to showcase that. So I'm glad we're talking about it. Yes. Yeah. That's, it that's my favorite Villeneuve as well. I think it has to be. It's it's just an astounding work. Man. So good it is number 19. We're moving, we're cruisin. All right. Number 19. This is a movie that America loves. Oh, God. This is. This is Barbie. Here is you. You'll know what I mean when I say it's. This is 2014. The only two, do I haven't done it from 2014. I don't think I do. I think this is my 2014. Yep. This is the Damien Chazelle whiplash, right? Wow. Very good. Yes. Very good. Yeah. This to me, this is an all timer ending. Oh, my God, I, I even oftentimes wonder if it's my favorite ending to any movie ever. This was I think this might be the last indie movie to ever be what indie movies used to be like. This was like that little engine that could wear it was this No Name young director made a short film happen to get a big star and J.K. Simmons to do it. God, enough money put together this whole entire thing and then released it, and then it became a giant hit of that year. It won Oscars. And then Damian went on to become the great director of Babylon. And which if, don't say anything, but if you're only including one film per director, that's that. That's a statement. So that's cool. Okay. The movie you just said I thought might be appearing, but obviously I wholeheartedly agree with whiplash being here. The final ten minutes of which are breathtaking. It it's just and we we've recently just rewatched this, last time we were re re, we rewatched it after the 2023 Oscars, right after Oppenheimer one, when we were planning to record podcast all day that Monday, and we were both insanely fucking hung over, I couldn't yes, because I had way too much fun after Oppenheimer. What, all those Oscars, I love it. I, that was my only time this year being hung over. That was it. I don't drink that much. Holy crap, I was upset. I know. Well, hey, believe me, that's not I could. Oh, whatever. Never. I could fill in the blanks of other vices. No. All right. Whiplash. Yes. Great, great. I love it. It's just an amazing, amazing movie. And I really think Damien Chazelle has an undefeated record. As a director, I think even La La Land, we've talked about it like it's not. Musicals are not my thing. But I can't tell you how many times on random days I will think of that movie because it's because it's just well-made. That's why it's well-made. Are you're saying it's just a well-made movie? It's a well-made movie, and the emotions in it really sometimes get to me. And I think he is like one of our best younger directors that we have right here. And whiplash is just a genius down. Then keep using that word too much today, but it's just an astounding piece of business start to finish here. A lot of directors have a really, they have a third act issue and really like, or not even that, but like a final 5 or 10 minute issue. He excels there. So whiplash. Yes. That final I mean, it's not even it's like the final 25. It's. Yeah. It's like it should he goes, what do you think I'm a fucking idiot? I know it was you. You're like And then the Paul Riser look and then even you and I are watching it together. When he's on his final, you know, he's going, he's going, and we're at a profile shot of him and he's just doing his. I don't know the different what the different drums are called. I'm sorry, but he's just like in the middle. And then the shot is holding and I go watch. He's going to kick with his right hand really quick. And it's like the doom doom, doom, doom, it's so fucking good. First man. Once they land on the moon, it's like awesome. And then that ending is very evocative. I think the last ten minutes of Of La La Land are the best part of the movie. Oh, the best part. Yeah. The end of Babylon is the end. One of the biggest swings of all time. So yeah, he has a great he knows how to handle endings and I cannot wait to see what he does next. I have no idea where he's going to go. Me three and the last accolade I'll give this movie is if we were to do a top 25 acting performances of this century, JK Simmons performance in here would 1,000% be on there. I don't know where, but it would be. It would definitely be on that list. Well deserved Oscar. Such a such a good win. And I mean, I've been watching that guy since he was in us in the early and the late rather 90s. Like, oh yeah. So just great to see that, like pay off. I love it when they give it to these veteran character actors. Chris Mack is going to be up there when he's like fucking 82 years old, because I will have written him a role that wins him an Oscar. Jokic number 19, arguably the top of my 21st century Mount Rushmore of pain. There had to be in your read to end the most painful movie in the most honest movie I think he he's made is 2000 and threes 21g. Yeah. Which I put on again. Still haven't put this in order. I'm going to I probably will like before this year is out. I've always wanted to drop this in my editing timeline and put it in order. I I've done that for myself with a few movies along the way, just just as an exercise for myself, just to see what can be learned. I have a feeling this is going to be much less effective in order, which I think is kind of the point. But I mean, Naomi Watson, this just excelled to a place of she's just living in this place of chaotic guilt, shame, horror, pain that I, I so I just, I see her I felt seen by that movie. I still do and I, I, we talked about it in episode 80, the Bardo podcast, the movie that yeah, no one is still seed, but I love that movie. I love this is one of my favorite directors so far this century. His his entire career has been in this century because he was 20 and had to have film by him and yeah, I love this extremely difficult, painful movie. I love your list so much because you have so far included pretty much almost as we continue on every single movie that killed me to not put on there. There you go. That's what we're do it. Yeah. You have a few on yours too, where I'm like, damn, I couldn't. Yeah I wanted to have that. Yeah, yeah. 21g is I think even just as a, if you were just to kind of sell that movie in a pitch meeting. How do I say this? There's three different stories going on, basically. And Sean Penn is a man who needs a heart transplant. Naomi Watts loses her husband, and her husband's heart goes to Sean Penn. And then these two find each other. But. And he lost. She. Naomi Watts lost her husband because of Benicio del Toro, who is going to also come back into the mix because, I mean, essentially they're going to try to kill him. Sean Penn and Naomi Watts are like, fuck this guy. We're going to go try to kill him. And most ingeniously, this is being told radically out of order. The first few times you watch it, you're like, this doesn't connect. Let me tell you, as someone who's seen the film in the we're close to being in the 20s now. It definitely connects. It definitely lands. It's just it's a puzzle piece of pain, the jigsaw puzzle of pain. And it's also beautiful though. What I mean, this is my type of sentiment. There is a look that is shared between two of the characters we just said were they're in a hospital and they look at each other and there is so much community. That is sentiment to me that is so well earned. It's like, I fucking see you and hey, I see you and life goes on. Here we go. What now? God, I love it, man. It's so good. I'm so glad. I'm so glad. Because these were all the movies that, like, it hurt me so much to not put them on. And because you've put them on yours, we get to talk about them. So, Yeah, exactly, exactly, I love that. I was hoping that would be the same for your list as well. It has been so far for. Yeah, so far, yet I bring the lighter side of things with Manchester by the sea. Exactly. The Neon Demon, and if we're okay, if we're going to go into the the your Mount Rushmore of pain here, I think I got one. I got one right here. Number 18. Yes. We're coming in with one of my. I cannot talk about her enough. I think she is one of the defining directors of this century. And that's Lynne Ramsay. We're coming in with you were never Really Here from 2018, which we, I referenced in, episode two of our top ten of the 20 tens. She was a very important director that I really wanted to have on here. I love Morvern Callar so much. I think that's amazing movie. That's from 2002. We need to talk about Kevin. These are like three for three, just like absolute off the chart bangers of movies. But they're fucked up. They're fucked up. Yes, dark. They're very, very. And this is the darkest. But if you're talking about like a film work, an art piece, a piece of business that talks about trauma in a very, very specific way. I remember you took me to this movie and you were just like, I, you have to see this, and I have to see this with you. Yeah. And I didn't know anything about it. I was sort of like, oh, it's a Joaquin Phoenix movie. And then from the start, from the cinematography to the way that we're watching Joaquin move through his actions and behaviors, I was like, this movie is just like, absolutely nailing it out of the park in terms of what film can do, and it never stops. It keeps going like this all throughout all the way. And so you get to this very sort of like abstract metaphorical. You're not really sure what to make of that ending, but there's so much to unpack for yourself in that ending that it allows for you to kind of like, take what you want, or maybe leave what you don't want to kind of have be there and, she's just not a director that ever gets talked about and I. No, no, that's and it's just, a shame that she doesn't because I think she's produced some of the highlight works of this century. And I couldn't have this list be without her. And this is my favorite movie. She's done. Yeah. You were a little disappointed in episode two that it didn't make my list. And it didn't make this list either. And it's kind of what you're saying. It's okay. Like 20 frames and stuff. This is. Yeah, I mean, it was right there. It's just right. And you know what? This is actually like the inverse. Patterson. Because you were never really here. It's focusing on one person. What it feel. She didn't do this, but what it feels like she did is that she made and cut and was about to deliver a two hour movie. And then a week before she got a crazy editor and she said, hey, let's get fucking crazy, let's get weird, and let's make the movie 90 minutes right now, like just with this final cut. And they cut out, I mean, to the very raw is to the bone of what you don't need in the gaps that you can fill in. And that's what makes it so much so compulsively rewatchable, even though there's a lot of fucked up shit in it. But you're you, you're like, oh, that's oh, that's who that person is. Okay. I mentioned on some episode, I think the one where the books where I'm reading a lot of books based on movies, I did read that book and it fills in all those gaps, but I had seen the movie so many times by that point that I had filled them in all myself with that. Yeah, it's just it's so well done. And that's my favorite walking performance. And my favorite Lynne Ramsay movie. She's what she's going to give us 1 in 2025. I can't believe we're getting a new one I know, same here. Very excited. Great. Pick. My number 18, is the director. I had to have a film by him, and I had to. And I'm like, I'm only going to include one, but my God, how do I make this decision? And then I just came down to the scope to feel all the vibes. 2011 The Tree of Life, directed by the great Terrence Malick. I had to have a malick, and it was either this one or the one he made. Right before that, I ended up crying about an episode 126 of Terrence Malick or Terrence Malick podcast. I love the new world. I love every movie is made. My favorite is The Thin Red line, which is from the former Century Tree of Life. My god, yeah, it's just it's just that good. It feels like the movie he set out to make as a director and every movie since, I mean, I don't know, his next one is about Jesus, so we'll see what how that comes out. I guess he's still editing it, so we'll see. But everything else has been a little bit more weird and experimental on purpose by design. And this was like the last thing that had form and structure, while also having the Malick miss that. It's just pure him. So the Tree of Life. Yeah. Love it. I mean, this movie is going to show up later on in my list. Oh. I'm just going to say that this is just that this is pure cinema and absolutely in the hands of a master. Okay, cool little teaser for us there. All right. Number 17. All right. Number 17, you're going to love this. This is, a movie that I have not been able to stop thinking about. We recently did a deep dive on this. I believe it was episode 136, Trey Edgar Schultz's Trey Edward Schultz's waves. Yes. Yes. And quite a high spot. Wow. I didn't expect that at all. I love that waves makes the list. Duke. Yeah. This movie is it. This this is this. Oh my God, it's it's literally everything. It is a watching it. This last time, it just took me to a whole other level too. It's just honestly perfect. It's. Yeah. Every every piece of this movie is so well internationalized and just on a word, intentionally compiled and, it's just beautiful. I have not been able to stop thinking about it since we did that deep dive. It is. It's on my mind. I'm. Listen, I listen to that soundtrack cause you found a Spotify. Yeah. Where? It includes every single song on there. Fuck buttons. I sorry. Okay. It's a great song. No, it's a great song. What? You called me that on the goddamn episode we're doing here today. But. Was at all time. Yeah. And and like, and I this was a movie that I started out on my list of not being there at all. It's. Yeah. As, like my my list. Kind of like this was the one that was always in the honorable mention. And I'm looking at it and I'm like. I think it's too good. I think it's too good to be on the mention. So then it made it came in at number 25 and I was like, okay, here's my honorable mention that made it. But then I started looking at all my movies, and I have Oppenheimer before this, and I have like Wolf of Wall Street, Martin Scorsese, all of these movies. And I was like, no Waves is too good. And so it went from not even being on the list to 25 to 17, and I stand behind it. I love that it's made it this far on the list. I love this movie. I think it's amazing and thank you because you're a big part of it. Well, hey, my pleasure. I, I still tell this, you know, to anyone who will listen like you want some. It's entertaining. It's going to move. It has a lot of great music, cinematography. But this is also a movie that understands pain. So that's how I set it up for people. Just like a good friend of mine, a guy I work with. Watch it. And he said, I don't even know if we mentioned this. He's like the I love the aspect ratios. It was like a wave coming in and getting tighter and then going out. I went, yeah, exactly, exactly. So I did not expect that to make your cut. And another just kind of organic segue. My number 17 was not on my list either. And I went, it feels really, really like dumb to not have this. And I don't know, I'm going to get to the end and Nick's going to be like, where was The Irishman? Directed by Martin Scorsese, released in 2019? Okay, our 17 spot. So and it's so funny because you do that like what you do with waves. And then I add it to my list, like I put it at 24 and I went, well, no, I like it more than this and I like and it just keeps creeping up. It just keeps climbing like, all right, 17 we're going to stay there. And this was yeah I watched it yet again. I watch it at least once a year and I'm dying laughing for a lot of it. I and then it has these moments of still stillness, like when, oh my God. Joe Pesci's reaction at the bar when he is watching the news story about the Bay of pigs, he just lets down this little look of like, God damn it. And it's so subtle and it's so different from his Tommy in Goodfellas and especially his character Nicky in Casino. Yeah. The Irishman, it just it had to be here. It felt this was one where I was releasing. I still haven't gotten to my big Rule Breaker yet, but I was releasing the reins and just going just be you and let a let in what feels right. And the Irishman obviously felt right because I've seen it a lot of damn times. Yeah. You see. Yeah. Well, I mean, you yeah. I mean, that's been your, I mean, then we faced a lot of criticism and backlash and honestly, I don't know why. I mean, at this point now, I mean, you can't really fault Scorsese. He, he only makes three hour movies. It seems. So I think it's I, I think that's done though. But we'll see. Yeah. Yeah we'll see. I mean I mean I loved him just doing it like, screw it. Just do it, just do it 3.5 hours. Let's do it. And I mean, and you talk about like endings to like, you get some backlash fast. Like, I mean, from everything, the way that whole entire thing is orchestrated from the drives to the phone call with De Niro. I mean, it's just all it's all masterful, masterful stuff. Yeah, yeah, that movie I and I love, I still wish it was called, I heard you paint. I heard you paint houses. Yeah. That's still Netflix to let them do it. It is. They should have let him do it. I don't think I did. Yeah I agree it's more evocative titles based on the book. But they got nervous that people are going to think it's about literally about a house painter. But then Scorsese, his biggest fuck you as you don't see The Irishman in the beginning as the title card. You see, I heard you paint houses and you're like, yeah, yeah, I love it. I love it so much. I remember I saw them the first time in the theaters opening day, because it was a thing where it was like it was coming on a Netflix, but it's only being released in theaters for like a little period to the same year. Yeah, it went to. Yeah. And I remember that happened and I go, I think I know Scorsese well enough to know that there's some shenanigans going on here. And this was meant to beat the title. And then, sure enough, that's exactly what it was. Damn right. Number 16, we're moving right along. Can't be the top 25 if I don't talk about my favorite screenwriter, Martin McDonagh, and coming in at number 16 In Bruges. Yeah. And eight. Yeah. Wow. Great pic. Wow, I love this. This movie has meant so much to me since the day that I saw it in theaters. It was a I mean, I had been so familiar with his play writing style, hearing that he was coming out with his very first movie, I was like, how is this going to work? How is his language? How is his content ever going to work on film? How will audiences accept all that? And I mean, I love every single one of his movies, but I think he knocked it out of the park with this one. I still think to date, this is his best movie, but that's not a knock on the rest of them. His style is his style. But I mean, 2008 In Bruges, just like this movie just hits. It's funny, it's dark, it's got everything. The character, relationships and dynamics are sweet and yet fucked up and it everything that makes Martin McDonagh who he is as an artist is in this movie. And I love it, love it, love it, love it. Yeah. One of my favorite comedies ever. Let alone the past 25 years. I love that you included it here. Yeah, I mean, I love this movie as well. And when I went to Paris last year, October 2023, I did a day trip to Bruges just because of this movie. There is no other reason for me to go. I just went to all the places they went to. Didn't have time to go up in the tower. You had tickets, but I just. I wasn't going to have enough time. I only had like four hours in the damn city. But I went to every other place. They went to their hotel, the park where I, you know, he comes across him trying to do bad stuff. And it was great. It's just this little village. But it was so. It was just so cool. It, you know, the I got to go to the church where apparently contains the blood of Christ and, God and great, great partying scene when they're all just doing drugs in that room and you really get the, the energy going around. But they're also giving you really important story stuff there, too. Like, you know, my wife was black and then who killed her? And then you just hear Colin Farrell, Harry waters, and then we were like, oh, that's Ralph Fiennes. Okay. Love it. Love. I love this movie. He is just my favorite writer ever. I just get what he's doing. I love his blend of comedy and drama. It's unlike anything you've ever heard before. I mean, chances are, if you've never seen a Martin McDonagh movie, you're going to be like, oh, okay. Oh, I mean, yeah. All right. There's a moment in the movie where he's running from. Ray finds they're in, like, this gun chase, and there's a level of distance that's existing now between ray fines and Colin Farrell, and Colin Farrell is like, he knows he's about to get a shot taken at him. And he goes, no, no, there's no way he can reach me. It's too far. And then the shot happens. And what happens from there is what happens. But I've never seen a fucking movie do that. Well. And like the way Ralph finds like also silently understands that. And he, like, gears up. He like, resets himself and he goes, all right, I'm not run in the streets anymore. I got one, one shot at this I fucking love. Yeah, I love that moment. Love that moment. I've just never seen a movie kind of take that idea of a moment. And I'll never forget in the theater, I was like. Like, I can't believe they actually, like, got that little idea in there. I loved it, loved it. All right. My number 16 go to. First of all, this is the first official shared movie we have. We can I can reveal it. First official shared. Wow. And given my number 17, believe me, people, I'm not fucking with you. There's no fuck with three in this list. My number 16 made my first draft. I go, it's going to be here. But then I went, I how do I not have The Irishman? Because I've seen it so many times. And The Irishman is one that's going to be in my life for a very, very long time. I know I'm going to keep watching it, but I also had to have The Wolf of Wall Street. I just had to. This is out there. I'm not going to lie. There was the tree of life was in between them. And I went, you know what? Just be a little cute. 17 the Irishman 16. Wolf of Wall Street. This is also me breaking the only rule I really had for myself, which was one movie per director. So my first draft was one movie per director. And I looked at it and I said, there are some gaps here. There are some major gaps that do not make sense. I have to forgo this rule. I didn't go crazy. I didn't include two Malick's. But Scorsese is someone that gets to. So yeah, The Wolf of Wall Street, I don't I don't know how the hell to pick which one I like more, but in episode 99, they were right there, too. I think Wolf of Wall Street was my fifth favorite. Scorsese and The Irishman was six when I had to do like a coin toss to win. I can't decide. I love them both and and The Wolf of Wall Street is easily my favorite comedy of the century so far. I think it's the funniest movie it's been released. No slouch to In Bruges, of course, but yeah, Wolf of Wall Street there is no nobility in poverty. I've been a rich man and I have been a poor man. And I choose rich every fucking time, because at least as a rich man, when I have to face my problems, I show up in the back of a limo wearing a $2,000 suit and a $40,000 gold fucking watch. Fanboys duke it out, and I'm here for comedy. Now, if anyone here thinks I'm superficial or materialistic, go get a job and fucking McDonald's because that's where you fucking belong. But I mean, the humor in in, in, in Wolf of Wall Street is just really the, the it's it comes out of the circumstances of the of what these people's lives actually are and their reactions to it. Oh, I, you know, I, I was wondering if that was like, because I knew the Irishman had to be because you've talked about it too many times over. I would have called you out on it. That's what I mean. Like, and it wasn't on there. But I think The Wolf of Wall Street is the fastest three hour movie that has ever been made, and that's crazy. So I just I had to include it. And then The Irishman being 3.5 hours and one that I can, just put on any time, my wife is always like, again, she'll say that and I go, yeah, like it's all the fun decisions are am I doing Blu ray? Which I have the criterion Blu ray versus Netflix Blu ray looks better. Nerds like me, but Netflix is just there. You just hit play. I'm just like, there's no work. I just hit play. Cool. I love it. I love both these movies. But yeah, that's my first director double feature that that was a hard, hard, hard fought battle for me. But when I made that final fuck it all draft, this is when I started putting in more than one movie by director, and I'm fine with it. So there. No, I agree with you. And especially because if that movie, if they both mean that much to you. Yeah. Like if yeah, if I felt that way about both those movies, I would break that rule too, because fuck it, fuck it. Number 15, top 15. And speaking of directors that I, I actually this was my hardest director to actually stick to that rule. Because my first list had three of his movies on there. Oh, shit. This is, this is an all time director for me. We're talking about Richard Linklater and coming in at number 15. We have Before Sunset from 2004. God damn it. I mean, great pic, but it's just it was God damn it, it was right there for me. I mean, it was right on. I was this was this was the year. This was 26. This is an honorable mention. But I just went, God damn it. So I love that you went with this one of the three that you had. Yeah. This this would have been my Linklater film as well. Great pic. This came in and starting at episode three, this is our first director we ever did. And then we revisited him in episode 130. And if I recall, because I didn't listen to episode 130, I believe I we both gave Before Sunset. Our number one pick is that's feel accurate. My three is everybody wants some two is dazed and one is before sunset. I think your two is before sunset and one is everybody wants them I believe. I think that makes sense. Yeah we did that in the hitman episode but yeah good. Good call I don't I can't recall. And here and here is an example. Yes. Everybody wants that that's your hundred percent right is my favorite Linklater movie. But the four said, If I'm making a top 25 of the century, this is my contribution. This is Linklater's contribution to that list, because the romance that exists between Julie, definitely and Ethan Hawke in this movie is just. You've just never seen a movie do this. Never. It's it's just them walking around Paris, talking. But they're not like, because the first one is they're meeting and you're kind of living in that world of, like, brand new romance. This is now where life has happened. They've been apart and there's still something here. And I think Linklater is, in his way, a filmmaker that no one's able to quite do what he does. Boyhood. That was my other big thing. I was going to church purely for the reason that no one had ever made a movie like that. But what he accomplishes in this movie is beautiful, and I think it deserves to have recognition on the list. And it wouldn't be a list of mine without Linklater and him operating at his absolute best. And Ethan Hawke just my guy doing his thing. It's. And then that ending. Oh come on. Yeah, it's another really good selling point is that this is a no bullshit, no cheating, real time movie. If the narrative begins at high noon, 12 noon, it ends at 1:20 p.m. you are. Every minute is accounted for. That is extremely difficult to do. Linklater is someone who's obsessed with time. I am too, in my creative writing, I just I it's just it's a you can weaponize it. You can weaponize time for your narratives and use it to where boyhood spanning, you know, this whole 14, 16 years really seamlessly. And it's three hours long before sunset is 80 minutes and every single second is accounted for and that it's very difficult to pull off. And brilliant. And I had a lot of fun visiting a few of these locations in my little Paris jaunt. It was just kind of walking around. It made the city look so beautiful. It's just it's over, exposed, like a few stops. It's just it looks very warm. It's it's gorgeous. It's beautiful. So, yeah, we're getting to the point in our list where, like, we're talking about the heaviest of hitters. And this one. Wow. You're going to this is going to surprise you a little bit. Not because of what is included. But yeah, I only did one movie by him. Had to do a movie by him. And a lot of people think it's going to be something that it's not. I think you're going to have another movie on your list by him, but I had to be true to myself. And my favorite movie, the David Fincher's directed so far this century is Zodiac. I fucking love Zodiac. I can't yeah, I don't know. I can't help it. I love the movie. He made two movies later as well. But I love the killer. Oh my God, I love the killer. But Zodiac man, this one really holds up. I loved it in the theater. I mean, I don't have this even as a prompt, but one of the biggest Oscar gaffs of the last 25 years is just not nominating this for anything. If you want a debate like that should have won. That should have won. Okay, but at least those things you're debating about were nominated. This going zero for zero is utterly absurd. And it every time I watch it I'm like, what happened there? I talked about it in episode 33 all the way back in episode 33, we did a deep dive on this, so I kind of broke it down there. But yeah, this one never gets old and they just released it on 4K. I haven't watched it yet, but never gets old. I love it. I this was one of our I don't have this on my list. I figured I figured for the. For what? For that exact reason that you just mentioned. But I mean, yeah, it's filmmaking doesn't get better. Yeah. I mean, his attention to detail and perfectionism. I don't know how that man gets anything done. I don't. And that movie, how it didn't win anything is crazy. And I wish it was on my list. I so wish it was on my list. Yeah, I mean, I totally get it. The Netflix just released like a three part documentary series about basically. Yeah. Re positing that Arthur Lee Allen was the killer and it was made a good companion piece because I didn't remember what a lot of the real people looked like. And do you think based off the document or any that that is the guy? I've always thought it was him. I my first, I like, knew a little bit about the case. I became a little more obsessed with it after this movie, and then after college, I got all the great Smiths books I read. I've read all the different, you know, things, but, I've always thought it was him. And what's cool is they get people, like kids that he used to babysit. Like he'd be friends with women. Maybe he was sleeping with the women, I don't know, and he would babysit their kids, and he was a nice guy, but they're like, yeah, we went to, like, a damn lake or something. And he pulled over on the side of the road and told us to stay there for an hour. And then in that time is when one of these murders happened. The kids didn't see it, but they're like, the murder happened like 50 yards that way while we were just waiting in the car. It's like six year olds. He comes back all out of breath and shit. He's like, all right, let's go. So there's there's stuff like that. It was cool. It's a cool, you know, three episode doc to watch. I don't know, whatever that awesome, awesome movie went from. Like what tipped it to make Zodiac? The only Fincher movie in my list is John Carroll Lynch, because that entire game, when he is at work and they are all stuffing it out and he just keeps eating his own shit like that blood in my car was from those chickens are like blood like, Like what? That dude. Yeah. Great film. All right, keep it going. 14. So this is a movie for a lot of reasons. From when I first saw it to what it means now, I think this is on your list. I think I think, oh, I hope, from one of my top five favorite episodes we've ever done. Oh, from episode 28, our Heath ledger episode, Brokeback Mountain. This coming in here, number 14. Whoa. Did not expect this to be on your list. Holy shit. Well, I love this, I love this. Yeah, I remember seeing this movie in college with friends. I brought this up on that episode. I'm sure I did, and it was at a time where gay cinema was not, it was just laughed at, made fun of. It was weird. It was. Yeah. And everyone did it. It went through. I mean, that movie went through all of the hazing and all of the this or that. Oh, people boycotted it because it. Yeah, people who hadn't even seen it like major chains were boycotting it because it was going to be this. Oh my God, how dare this gay cowboy movie like and and now you fast forward because this is 2005. Yeah, my only movie from 2005. You know, we're basically 20 years removed. What I think this movie is and is now that we can remove ourselves from all that stupid stuff that they were thinking of in 2005. It's just an unbelievably heartbreaking love story. Yeah. Every time I watch this movie, it just gets better. These characters are so lived in that these lives are so true to the times that they were living in, to who they were and who they didn't know that they were. I mean, the conflict that is going on in Heath in this whole entire movie is just breathtaking to watch. And at the end of that movie, when you get that scene, I mean, that's as heartbreaking as heartbreaking gets. And I think this is just like an unbelievably well-done movie that just speaks to the longing that, life can get in the way of love. Yeah. For whatever reason, it to me, this is still a very universal love story just told through a certain perspective that doesn't have anything to do with what 2005 thought it was. Yeah, yeah. We've, as a culture changed a lot since 2005. I was wow, it was not popular to be championing this film, especially as a college student hanging out with a bunch of like, whoa, dudes, you know who you just got? I got made fun of a lot, and I felt so immature and childish. And, yeah, this is gained such a new appreciation. I mean, it it really is flawless to me. I got to see it in the theater at Alamo in the past few years. I bought the 4K, which looks gorgeous, so yeah. Oh, wow. There's oh my God, it looks and sounds so good. And yeah, he just gives one of my favorite performances of the century. I think it's a crowning achievement of his work and of acting. And yeah, it's a movie about unrequited love, not unrequited gay love. It's just an unrequited love, that's all. Yeah, yeah. And not unrequited because they don't love each other. It's because whatever society, their circumstance. I think I even said this on the heath pod. It's like, what if they just, like, moved to the village and they're just, you know, bumming around the village wearing their same type of stuff and they're like, the gay cowboys are walking around the village in 1960s New York because they couldn't they couldn't afford that. There's they don't they're scraping by every penny. And then, yeah, they meet women and like you said, life gets in the way. That's the movie. Like this is the way. Yeah. Great. Exactly. My number 14 had to have a movie by him. It was our second ever commentary. We had a lot of fun doing it. And I've gotten notes. People are like, I'm really surprised. Did it commentary for. But I learned so much more about 25th hour, directed by spike Lee, released in 2002. Another movie that I've studied a lot. And one of the things I mean, a defining event of the century so far, it's 911. At a time when every movie was being instructed to ignore it, to sweep it under the rug. Like, we can't go near this right now, spike. Oh, lifelong New Yorker goes, fuck that. I'm going in and I'm taking this pre 911 book that was written before that tragedy. And I'm 911 izing to a fair amount this movie where I'm not going to it's not the only thing we're talking about. And when Edward Norton said fuck Osama bin laden and it cut to real pictures and video footage of Osama bin laden, people in the theater just gasped. They were like, yeah, oh my God, in this came out, I guess it would have been like 14, 15 months after 911. And it was it was so evocative and still is, because that event defines who we are. And this movie is going that event defines who we are as a society. But then you can also take it as a microcosm of this one story drug dealer on the, his last day of freedom and man, this is another one. I thought the sequel was just there. I thought you do a real time sequel. He's going in there. He's going in for seven and a half years. And the thing is, they didn't it didn't have to be. Seven and a half years later, it could have been 12 years later because he had to stay in longer because he, you know, had bad behavior. He had to join a gang or something to survive. I don't know, I just I really thought they could have done that. The writer got ridiculously famous. He created Game of Thrones, so I don't know. Just would have been cool. Like 26 hour. I don't know something, but I just say that out of love for it. I don't they don't have to do that for me to love the movie. But yes, love this film. Love it. Barry Pepper wow, I still can't, oh my god. Yeah. What a understated performance from him. Yes. I cannot wait to reveal where this is in my list. Oh wow. I didn't even think this is going to make it. Wow. Tricky, tricky. Okay. Tricky. And I'll have you know where it is on the list is is where it started and stayed. Okay, cool. So this is going to be interesting as we go down. I think we if we are sharing more in common that's when we're going to. Yeah. Yeah. You know I just love that idea okay cool. So I didn't know that all right. Number 13. Number 30. Oh, God. Yes. All right. This is I think has to be, one of the more recent movies that I've seen that earned its spot on here. I rewatched it for this list because I was like, I got to see where this lands. 2011 great year. I believe that has my most, views. Most movies on the list. Lars von Trier. Melancholia. Wow. Oh, my. Oh, yeah. God, I fuck right there. It was. Hit it just like it just went out of the list. Damn it. But this is not my final mention of melancholy, but great pick, I did not. You're surprising me in movies that mean more to you than I thought they did. I mean, I fucking love this movie, so. Wow. Great. Great. Pick it. It. When I first saw it, we watched it for this 2011 years. It was episode 44. Favorite movie top ten of 2011. And, this movie hit me like a like a bus on the street. I mean, it just affected me in such a way that, like, movies don't. Yeah. And when we talked about basically what this movie is, is that this is the first half of this movie is a complete example of what depression is, and the second half is a complete example what anxiety is and watching it a second time through those lens. So this probably is the only movie that I've seen on here. Two times, but it affected me even more like I knowing now what the movie was, not just taking it in for that first time, but watching it and seeing every step of the way what it was doing, catching all of the things, all of the little side characters, especially in that first half, I was like, this is just a it's it's out of this world. Good. It was it was sort of one of those things where I was like, I don't think I can not have this high up on the list. It it is, it is, it's a it's a powerhouse of cinema. Well, and I love that I have it up here, I do too. I really did not expect that this. I love this movie, this talk about stealing scene. I mean, it it was really hard for me to watch the first time. It's still very hard for me to watch because what Kirsten Dunst does in this and how she danced slips down into it. It's depression manifests itself differently within all of us, but if you have it, not this character, this woman playing this character knows depression and the the man making this movie knows it. And then I did some research and she yeah, she had her struggles like her very she was hospitalized for it. Her very bad struggles. And I could see it. Oh my god. And then the way her sister Charlotte Gainsbourg in the depression sequence is handling. Yeah. Her sister's depression so well. And then the in the next sequence, Kirsten Dunst is handling Charlotte Gainsbourg anxiety so well because, yeah, I mean, another thing this movie understands about depression so well is that we I say we but like I said, I do feel like I'm allowed to be a part of the club. We expect the worst to happen. So often. So when the worst is imminent and it's coming, we're like, all right. Yeah. And so what. And her just her attitude of like, yeah, I knew this something like this is going to happen. Who cares? It's so like I've responded to really crazy things just with a shrug. And people are like, are you okay? And I go, yeah, it's just life, man. Like, I get it. Oh man, I get it. Who? I'm being on the other side. I feel like I'm qualified to talk about anxiety for sure too, because when you get to that second half, I don't know if there was ever a moment that I felt like, because I guess I saw what the movie was doing, and you're seeing Charlotte Gainsbourg kind of like ramp up in that way. But when they do that great device of like, well, if you look through this little like little telescope thing and as long as the plan or the moon or whatever it is, is just right here. Very good. And when she looks at it and it's not good anymore. Yep. Like that feeling and what that then does. But I got to tell you to your point, this was my experience of having an anxiety attack is that it would last usually for about 2 or 3 hours of just like having actual physical symptoms and being in that space. But when it was over, I couldn't even be bothered. Yeah. You're like, what's up? How's it going? Like if the if, if the world was going to be like, oh well yeah. You know, and it's probably yeah, it's going to suck. But you know, whatever because your body is just done. It's except watching Kirsten Dunst. It's acceptance. Yeah. You kind of get there. And I love seeing that because that's in the face of Charlotte ramping up. Kirsten is just like, you know. Yeah, it's a thing. It's a thing. We're all going to die. It's it is a movie that understands psychology also very well. Yeah. Dunst triggers are she's fine until her mother starts speaking at the wedding and then she's not fine. And you go, oh, that's okay. Like, oh, I get all this like it's a very it's a psychologically astute movie. And and Lars von Trier's most accessible film, which is a hell of a suicide, is because there are some crazies in it. But it's also gorgeous, though. It looks gorgeous, but yeah. Oh it's beautiful. Oh my God, table discussion on that for now. For now. Love that. Yes. Made your list. Yeah. We're I mean we're getting close here to where people are going to. It's going to be a little bit of like playing the hits. But oh God. What I had is yeah, I've seen this in a few years. I hadn't seen it till I think till we since we did our episode deep Dive on it, which was all the way back in episode seven, one of our first deep dives. I know alone this movie knows alone better than most. Sofia Coppola's somewhere from 2010. Johnny Marco, I got you. I know what you're going through. I just, I get it. I will never be at your level of fame. I'm never going to be able to dislike having an apartment at the chateau. Hey, I'm moving out today. Would you mind boxing up my stuff? I'm going to take my Ferrari. Ferrari out for a little spin. I'm never going to be there. But that's one of the things about a lot of movies I'm talking about is it doesn't matter what status you're at, doesn't matter how big your wedding is going to be when you have the thing, that thing this can latch on to you of isolation, of worthlessness, of depression. And this just gets it so well, leading to a final kind of 15 minutes that I think are just so profound and beautiful. I adore this movie. I was so happy to rewatch it, to have, a reason to rewatch it for this and just marvel at it. Slow cinema as well. Very intentionally slow out. Gorgeous. Gorgeous. This is my biggest disappointment that I don't have it on my top 25. I get it man, I do. I you have listed a few that I have as well where I'm like, God damn it, I'm so glad you have it. And I love that it's so high on your list, because if it wasn't for you, I would have never seen this movie. I don't think it's crazy that it's not on my list, because I'm about to talk about it in a way where it would should be on my list, because this movie's meant so much to me. Since I've seen it, it continues to mean that much to me. It's in my honorable mentions. But that's it's not right. It's not right, goddamn it. It's hard. It's really hard. It's really, really hard. But, it's I remember I the last time I saw it, I saw the Secret Movie club was doing a double feature of Marie-Antoinette, and so. Oh, cool. So, I mean, I was just so happy because I was like, let's go. And they played somewhere second, and it seemed like everyone who was there had never seen somewhere. So because it seemed like everyone was there for Marie-Antoinette. And, so I would ask people in the break, I'm like, have you seen somewhere in there? Like, oh, I've never seen that. I go, oh, I'm so excited. And the coolest thing that happened was, is that when everyone was walking out, when Marie Antoinette was over, everyone was buzzing. But when somewhere ended, everyone was very thoughtful. And they're still. Yes. And and I'm sure there were some people that didn't like it. I am sure, because they are probably like, why did we just watch that? That was really slow and really boring. And we've always said this. It's an interesting double feature because Marie Antoinette is based in pop bubble gum, so sentiment and pop music and all that somewhere is a complete, not complete. But in some ways, a deviation from that in a, in a lot of ways, I guess. Yeah, yeah, it is and and I've, we've always said that if you kind of are on board in that first scene of the car going around, if you can, if you can kind of, sort of kind of be like, all right, all right then you're in. Yeah. Yeah. But if you just look at that scene is like, what the fuck is this? It's probably going to be for you again. You sit down for the movie. It's 96 minutes. I believe she's telling you right there. You're on my clock. You're on my time. No, not all 96 of this. 96 minutes of this movie are going to be a car going around in circles. But you're here with me, so let's hang on and let's just go. Let's cruise. Love like a sunset. What a film, what a film. Number 12. I think this is now officially our second shared movie. Okay, coming in for me, number 12, Blue Valentine. Nice. I knew it had to be on here. Nice. Oh, yeah. And I know we we've, you know, we've talked highly and I did mention, you know, when I look back to our episode of our movies that that made us want to be filmmakers, and I talked very heavily about Place Beyond the Pines. We did a deep dive. One of our first deep dives was on that movie, and I love that movie with all my heart. But what Blue Valentine does, we did a deep dive on that. And that's episode 129 yep, it is a hard movie to watch, but it is a very, very raw, unfortunate, but real reality for I think a lot of you brought that up. A good point is that you're like, I hope I never have to go through this. I think more people go through something like this than don't, especially in like this country. And I think people don't want to watch movies, by and large, that you remind them of, that people like us, we're we're I mean, I I've never been through something exactly like this, but there are movies on my list that showcase really difficult things that I have been through. I don't need to be reminded of them all the time, but I, honestly, someone who said this best on our podcast was Mickey when she just said she feel seen by these movies. Yeah, that's that's what it is. You just feel seen by them and you're like, oh, fuck, they get it. Yeah, yeah. And I agree with you. I think a lot of people go through this. You think they still am. I know you, yeah. You know. Oh, look, I've stolen money before, okay? I know what it's like to get busted. That's what it feels like, okay? I didn't steal it. I got a job. Okay? This is my job, all right? I make money, okay? I got money. I can take girls out on dates with. Just a, you know, good to know. Okay. We'll see them. Call it. Go away. Go away. That's a weird name. Okay. And Derek in France is like my soulmate filmmaker. I. Everything that he's ever done, I underst stand. I just get it. And Blue Valentine is one where I got it. When it came out in 2010, I was like, I had never seen another filmmaker up until that point. Kind of like start to kind of touch on that funny bone of like, oh, even though this is what it is. But I'm like, I see the world a bit like how you do. And if I was to tell stories, I would want to touch on the humanity of them. The way that you touch on the humanity of your stories and his whole entire thing is it's all about being human. It's a very Cassavetes approach. See, in France likes to play a lot with time and like the spanning of a life and things like that. I think at all of his stories in some way kind of revolve around that. And this is, this is ten years of a relationship I believe is something around there. It's it's like it's however old the girl is supposed to be 7 or 8 because, you know, Michelle Williams is pregnant in the first part. So how? Six seven. Eight, however, six seven. That's how much time is passed. And that's been enough time to for things to fall apart. Yeah. And and I think this is just a very, very hard to watch but beautiful and shining example of movies of the last 25 years. So it's made my number 12. I really I love it. I really thought if you're only going to do one see in France it would be fine. So I kind of love it was Blue Valentine, I love that I as I was talking and backing up your point for Blue Valentine, I almost gave away my number 12. And you know, when I include movies like double, Scorsese and I include more than one movie by a director, that is what's kicking out melancholia over for sunset. But my first draft of my list did not include this, and it seemed, utterly ridiculous, especially after episode 141 to not have Paul Thomas Anderson's Phantom Thread on my list. So at number 12, it is Phantom Thread, because this movie, really helps. Talking about acceptance really helped me accept my mother's death. I saw it for months after she died. She died right in front of me and it was terrible. And it I mean, it's still there's a whole that gets put in there that doesn't get filled. I have realized it's just the whole you get used to the whole. And movies like this help. There are nice comfort in there. You were never really here helps. There are movies that help. And every time I watch this, I just fall under its spell. I think it is beautiful. We know now that DDL is indeed coming back. At least he's only going to be in his family members films. That's what I posited, that maybe he could still be in his wife Rebecca millers movies. She directs, but now he's going to be in his son's movie and it's on the table now, the PTA, like down the line, you know, cast him in something like a supporting role gets that fourth Oscar, whatever. That doesn't matter. Phantom thread I love this movie and a real joy to have Mikey on to talk about it. She, that was amazing. She did what? We didn't ask of her, but what I hoped would happen was to bring a feminine perspective to the movie and to our podcast, which I would love to have more of. And we talked so much about relationships, like I mentioned my wife Ali on the podcast, but I don't really talk about our relationship that much. And then I, you know, the stuff Mickey was asking, I'm like, yeah, let's go into it. And it all made me realize like, damn, this movie, like this movie is part of me. This is in my DNA. I just, I yeah, I love it. Phantom thread I was going to say this would have shocked me if this wasn't on your list. Yeah, well, yeah. Like it's somewhere I'm like. I'm like, I feel like it. Phantom thread is not on this list. It's not a true list. So I'm so glad that it was. I unfortunately, it didn't make my cut, because of said director role. But I got it nut nevertheless. I mean, let's face it, we're talking about PTA. He he was probably my number one director of most movies throughout this entire century. Yeah, I was like, shit, if I really have to, like, stick to this rule, it's it's all of them, like all that. I mean, he's that good. Yeah. He I dare say he might be the director of the century. He's so far. Yeah. He's really. There are a few other one. There's some that I'm going to mention. Yeah. But he's really he's just excelled. He had those three in the 90s and then he's taken it. And now his movie coming out next year is, it's the PTA to end all PTA movies. It costs, I think like 150 million. His most expensive movies, 39 million. Magnolia. So it is it's an Imax. It has Leo. I have no idea what it's about. It's coming out in 2025. It's going to be a massive swing. And we're going to see because I have no idea. But I'm I'm excited for it. And he's got to follow Licorice Pizza. I don't know how you do that. A movie that everybody loved everybody. But I actually I actually am do for a rewatch that because we've been talking about it a lot. So I'm going to do that today or tomorrow. Just you know, there are some movies. Oh, do decide because I knew I knew that one wasn't going to make this list, but I yeah, that movie and a lot of people I'm, I'm really hoping that a few years from now that it actually seems like it's getting it reclaimed a little bit online, and all that noise is kind of dumbed down. I'm seeing a lot of like, it's just a really good vibes movie, which it is. Yeah, put it on like have in the background. It's great. But yeah, we'll see if it if it performs better than Licorice Pizza. Yeah I love Licorice Pizza. That's not the movie we just talked about. It's not even on our list. We're talking about are you spy? All right, number 11. We're getting there. Wow. Here we go. All 11. Number 11. It is my second favorite movie of all time. Wow. It has jumped up there. Bum bum bum bum bum bum bum. Quentin Tarantino's from 2019. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood is my number 11. I have no idea what the fuck you're doing with your top ten then, because this I thought this was. I thought we were looking at 1 or 2. Maybe. So this. All right, here we go. Obviously, I love that it's. Hey, no complaints for me that it's here, but I definitely thought higher placement. But yeah. Great film I mean, I don't even know really. No. There's probably not much of a justification for why it's not in my top ten other than I. I just kind of went with my top ten in a certain way. Maybe I'll regret it later on down the road, but this was my this was my thing that I really wanted to do. But this like it's 11, it's right at the cusp of this would actually be in there if it wasn't. Yeah. There was just no movie in the world. That brings me as much joy as this movie does. And it's very well-made. Very. Yeah. Your birthday weekend. That was the weekend we did Phantom Thread Pod, David Lynch pod, Manchester by the sea commentary. We ended that weekend, that Sunday night, going to Glendale and seeing this in the theater together, and it was awesome. We had a fun time. We remember that. We bought the drinks. They were like, yeah, you just bring them over here. But we like we literally had to walk outside. We like we were at look was with glass. We had we I got a beer. You got like a mixed drink and they're in glass. And he goes, yeah, you can walk it over to your theater. And I look at you and I'm like, we have to actually walk outside. There's no way that was like, there's like, there's just no way. And I'm like, just walk fast, just go, just go. But yeah, it was a great time. That 16 year old serving us alcohol, I had no idea what he was doing. He was a cool dude. But yeah, he was like six feet in there, low like, yes, that's a big one for your 11. My 11 is a big one as well. We're getting into the all timers here, the big ones, and bear with me because this didn't initially make my list. So Prometheus what stole fire from the gods? He gave it to man for this. He was chained to a rock and tortured for eternity. Number 11 Oppenheimer by Christopher Nolan. Oh, it. Didn't get a chance. I think. This guy I. Never. Get. A new. One. Yeah. It's. This makes all the sense in the world. By far the most recent on my list. But I had. I felt good about my list, and as. Just like, I'll just show it to the wife. Most of the movies on my list, she will never, ever watch. That just wouldn't happen. They're not her. And she looked at it and she's like, what the fuck is this? That's literally what she said. And I go, what do you mean? She's like, Where's Oppenheimer? I said, well, I wanted to have one movie per director, so I didn't want to. I kind of wanted to hold to that rule. She's like, that's stupid stuff. No one has talked about any movie more than you talked about Oppenheimer. It has to be on here. If it's not on here, your list is bullshit. And she was right. So then I added it and it was, hired. She goes, it's not good enough. Like, it cannot be that high. It needs to be. If it's not in the top ten, I will take 11. This is how she's talking. Me and I went, okay, All right. Fine. So here it is. And she's right. And I'll take a left. Yeah. She's like fine. But, obviously if you've been following along the podcast, I mean, my God talked about it. Episode episode 1 or 2 was our review. And then in September 2023, I did a bonus episode about my growing obsession. Episode 118 and our top ten films of 2023. It was both of our favorite films, and then episode 125 was my exhaustive solo commentary that Nick will never listen to. I'll only put it on if I'm watching Oppenheimer again from start to finish, and I'll put on your commentary. I told myself, if once enough time passes, what? Because like I was watching the movie, like almost every week for like a year, I'll put on the commentary. The commentary is fun, but man, I was fucking cruisin. I never stop talking. And I just went, just go. I crushed the Celcius when I was new to that drink. Now I'm getting to understand that it's a devious little substance, Jesus Christ. But when I was new to that, I could have wanted just cruise and I never took a break. I didn't do anything. I just went and I got some really good feedback from people is very nice. But yes. Oppenheimer surprising. No one is my number 11. The only surprise that some people were probably like, why the hell is a higher? Well, I think I understand because I'm not saying that Oppenheimer is you were once upon a time in Hollywood for me, but if we're really kind of taking these movies that clearly you saw Oppenheimer so many times in theaters, I saw Once Upon a Time in so many times year. Right. Because once you once you make that step into the top ten. We're talking movies here, kid. Yeah. And that that is my only Best Picture winner. I which I think says a lot about how I feel about the Oscars. But yeah, that's that's the only movie on my list. I it's not even a spoiler. It's the only movie of mine that has won Best Picture. And I think that is really because the Oscars. Yep, yep. But I wonder if my next one is not on your list at all. Which would be wild stuff. I was spoiled it, I spoiled it. All right. Wow. Here we go to step into the top ten. I actually have a way to set up mine, but you sound like you've done something on your own. No, I'll do it when I set mine up. You go first. I don't know where you're going. I don't know where you're taking us. If you were just to break down the art of filmmaking. We've talked about so many great movies, and a lot of them could actually be in this conversation. But I think these ones stand the test of time for a lot of different reasons. And if I was to really start to kind of think about, all right, maybe these aren't exactly like the Nic movies, but these are what I truly, as a art form view. To have as much value is anything that we've seen this whole entire century. So I just took this top ten a little bit more seriously and a little bit more objectively, but still mean a lot to me for for very reasons. And there's one in here that is absolutely anarchic, and I can't believe that it's where it's at. But it is, but we'll get into it. But that being said, my number ten is an Academy Award winner. I believe it is the last Academy Award winner I have. We're talking about one of the greatest movie years of all time, the only Coen brothers movie that I have on my top 25. It goes to No Country for Old Men. Wow. So right at the edge of my. I can't believe that that didn't make it. I fucking love this movie. And that is another one that's just right there. Right on the edge. Right on the edge. And again, this was this is one of those ones where I like it just in terms of filmmaking craftsmanship, man, it does not get better than this. Like this is just a movie that follows a narrative from a book that, operates just like the book does, and it just sort of moves through these decisions that these characters are making, and we learn about who they are and their philosophies in life by their actions. And it is a completely take it or leave it attitude that the Coen brothers, I don't believe they've ever done anything like this since or before in terms of just. And then I'm sure that is honoring Cormac McCarthy's disassociation with this story. But all that being said, I think that's even more of a testament to the movie for the Coen brothers to be able to step outside of themselves, to kind of just tell a story in this way. And I know there's a lot of people that have problems with a certain aspect of this movie. I think we talked about it in one episode or did a commentary. Yeah, we did, we did. Yeah, yeah. But I mean, the thing is, is like this, this I don't I don't buying any of that. There's no problem with it. There's no problem. This is as intentional as movies get. Yeah. And as well done as filmmaking can be. And so I was like, this has got to make my top ten. I believe that this is one of our best movies that we've had with the last 25 years. I agree, it, devastated me that it couldn't make my list. And my second favorite Best Picture winner. I don't have them up on the last 25 years, I believe, and one that I've seen as many times as Oppenheimer. I've had a lot more time to see it. But yeah, it's just we've talked about it a lot. It's that good. It has again, it's just that good. Success rate a great not double feature, but like a great companion to the book because it's it's just it's like lifted. They have to leave some stuff out but a lot of it is just lifted right from the book and it's yeah, they never touched on this type of tone again before or since. No, it's a very detached, like you said, tone. And it just man, it works. I love this movie. I love doing the commentary with you on it. I see, I think I get an idea of what you're going to do here and we're, you know, we're cruisin in the podcast. We're going to go as long as we go and I, I'm only going to have one story time, which I'm going to try to keep under five minutes. It's going to be in a while and one soapbox time now. It'll be fun. Yeah. This isn't story time. This is slightly soapbox time. And when I mentioned warrior up top, this one by number ten, there are better made movie. No country for Old Men is a better made movie. In the movie, I'm about to list. Okay, fine. Quote. This film changed my life. End quote. That's a term that people who love movies say a lot. I say it a lot. I'm accused of that. But what does that mean, 90 to 95% of the time when I say that, I mean, this movie changed how I view this art form, this art form that I am obsessed with movies on my list, and I've already mentioned in movies, and I'm going to mention that's what I mean. Like, it changed my life. Well, very, very few movies. I mean, it's really like 1 or 2. I watched them and they changed my outlook on life for the better. They change the way I actually interact with people. They change the way that I process information, that I actively process my trauma. And they mean more to me than just about any other thing. So the movie in my lifetime, not just of the century, but the movie that definitively changed my life and still makes me live my life in the fullest, best way I can, is Denzel Washington's first film as a director, Antoine Fisher, released in 2002. Oh, nice. Nice. If you know me personally, you know how important this is to me and how important it was in 2002, which was a very turbulent time for me. One of my best friends was die in a car accident. It was absolutely terrible. And I found this film right after. This film also deals with a lot of really, really intense subjects, some of which the physical, nightly, daily physical abuse I was going through in my household at the hands of my brother and had no escape to it. And you're just there's this acceptance of like, oh, I'm coming home tonight to more terror and horror, but I have nowhere else to go. And then getting older and thinking for a long, long time that just because I survived that, that was enough. And my brother's alive and as I mentioned, were estranged. And it's just it's just like Antoine is from his foster family. And then when my brother died and I'm like, oh, I thought I'd gotten over all this stuff because I survived it. And in a lot of ways, when he died, the pain of acceptance had just started beginning. And therapy that I needed. And I thought PTSD was for soldiers in war. I didn't know I could be diagnosed with that, and I'm not a young black kid. I haven't gone through all of the terrible abuse that Antoine did as a kid at the hands of his aunts. You know, he went through a lot of bad stuff, but, well, do I know using anger as a reaction to shit I've been through? Do I know getting really not knowing how to handle confrontation and either being at a very calm zero or going to an aggressive 100 very quickly, which he's doing in the beginning. I think a lot of movies, fumble therapy and just get it wrong. This gets it really, really right. I could go on and on and all, and I still want to do a deep dive in this movie, with my dad on as well, because this, this is our movie together. So I, I'll be indebted to this movie forever for the rest of my life. And you know it when we were talking about earlier sentimentality. This is sentimental film. This hits on a lot of sentimental beats. Oh, yeah, but he doesn't get on there at the porch of his former abuser and say, I can't believe what you did to me. He says, I am still standing. I am still strong. You could not destroy me. There's a lot of this language that's in the beginning. The first chapter of I'm Alive that you're using in the apartment and I, I yeah, pulled it from here where it's like, I. You beat me down, but I didn't let you. And I'm always going to be like this. I'm still standing tall. That's my soapbox. Like, whatever, whoever's listening to this, if you've been through some shit, we've all been through some shit. I'm just saying I've been through a lot of shit. And I do not let it define me. My my only sibling, my father's oldest son, died by suicide. My dad never has let that define him. That's. That's a choice he makes. And he talks about it. He talks, you know, mental health. That's why I've used this podcast sometimes to talk about struggles I've had in the past with mental health and just various things, because it's like, it's okay to talk about this shit. It's okay. I mean, a lot of us can't help the shit we've been through. We just got to deal with it now. This movie helped me understand how to deal with it. Fucking love this movie. Indebted to it forever. Yeah. You. You. Yes you would. This would not be a list without this movie for you. Like this is. Yeah, I remember you. You mailed this to me, but you mailed me a DVD copy of this, and it had you always do this, like, very cute little thing where you give a little notes, and I believe, like that one said something like in a few sentences summed up exactly what you said, bear like like knowing this movie is like knowing a part of me that like, this is a way in of understanding exactly who I am and why I am through this movie. And so I just remember watching that movie and having that lens through it, which is another reason why, you know, we always bring this up on the pod where it's like, this is why we want to talk about movies in these ways. Because I'm like, even though I might be talking about some of these in just like the art form level. But when you can kind of get to movies like warrior, for example, movies like this, where it's sort of like it doesn't matter if it's as well constructed or this or that, but if it works to you, if it speaks to you, if it clues you in to who you are and who you want to be, or just you feel seen by, that is what we're all here for. That's why this podcast exists. So I love that. I love that that's on the list. Definitely one of the first movies that I felt like it was just holding a mirror up to me in a lot of ways, and I absolutely felt seen by. So yeah, that's why you're look, is someone just looking at my list without listening to the episode and they're like, wow, number ten. Okay, I wonder, that's that's a choice. That is why the choice was made. Nice. Number nine. Number nine. This will now be the third movie that we share. Oh. Number nine coming in hot. Terrence Malick, the tree of life. Nice. Wow. Okay. Oh, we. Have. This lady. Oh. You love. Love me. Oh, love. Oh. If I'm looking at the last 25 years. And I'm kind of looking at all the movies that, like. Like, I mean, regardless of whether or not you like that style of movies, we had never really seen anything quite like it. No. And I mean, he started this kind of idea with, Well, to the Wonder was after Tree of Life, right? Yeah. There's a movie right after 2012. Yeah, but Tree of Life just kind of comes in with this brand new thing that I don't think people knew what to do with. If this movie's not for you, that's totally fine. It's it's hard to actually maintain attention at a certain level. But what he's given us here, when I say pure cinema, is cinema in its most artful form. And, and when I kind of look at the last 25 years and like, this is an achievement, this is absolutely an achievement in film. And so number nine. Yeah, absolutely great placement. Like no no notes for me. Obviously it's I already had it on there. Just it's yeah. When I look at my list I'm like, well you put that masterpiece at 18 and you know I just did I don't know, I don't know, I could easily have an 8 or 9. Yeah. Easily. Again, like I went in a direction with this top ten I get it I get it. Yep. Number nine for me. We just talked about it in episode 142. It is our shared favorite, David Lynch film. It happened on Mulholland Drive 2000. Oh wow. Do I love it. And I mean double Naomi Watts on my list. Her work and Naomi Dry work and Naomi dry work and Naomi dry on me drive. Good street name. Cool. That's the name of my, next book. I don't. What the fuck? In Mulholland Drive, a dual role in Mulholland Drive. And then going to kind of a dual role in 21g. Her sober versus not sober self. I think Mulholland Drive, as we stated, is a crowning achievement of a career that is completely and utterly singular. Got a lot of good feedback on our David Lynch episode. Thanks everyone for that. And I know a lot of you were checking out his stuff, either for the first time or rewatching it. And yeah, have fun. Love this movie. Love it. It's it's it's coming up for me. Oh, nice. Nice. Okay. Your number eight. All right. Number eight. I don't know what you're going to think about me when I say this, because this is a movie that I don't think that you really like, okay? And I don't know, I it's certainly not a movie we've talked about in the pod. That or if we did, it's a very, very brief brief. We never devoted an episode to this. But okay. And this is also a little bit just me personally, I think this is one of the most creative movies, and it's got one of my favorite all time performances from an actor in it talking about I can't believe it's 2004, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. Wow, wow. It's never been for me. I've tried. I have tried always. I'm sorry everyone. I think most people making a list like this would have this at their 1 or 2, but believe me, I get it. I just, I, I don't know, there's a, there's a detachment that I have with it, but I may not even include that because I want to keep this positive, but, no, no, I understand why why so many people like it. I really, really do. And it is not a movie I actively dislike, but I get I totally get why you have it here, and I love that you have it here, because this is a very Nic movie. I totally get it. It's a very, very Nic movie. But I remember watching it. I remember very specifically, I had just moved in to an apartment in college. I had never lived away from home. That night. I remember we were about to watch a movie and I was homesick. Sure, we put on Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and I had never seen it. It had just come out. I will never forget the opening shot, the opening shot of the movie, but it's the opening credits where Jim Carrey is weeping in the car. Yeah, and to me, like that image is burned in my head, like I if if I'm thinking about seeing a human being on film in a moment of complete visceral tears and and all that, I'm thinking of that moment. And I just never seen a movie do this. Like the way that you could just construct and literally visually deconstruct time and space and play with this, but all together through a narrative of, of, a breakup. So I've always gone back and rewatched it, always loved it, but I hadn't seen it in a few years, and I want to say maybe even like 5 or 6. So when I was like putting my list together, I go, is that really going to be in my top ten? I still think it holds up in terms of its creativity. Jim Carrey's performance in that movie moves, and it's my favorite performance of him. That movie is exactly that time period. Yeah, so it is a little bit of me, but it's also a little bit of recognizing that this was one of those movies in the last 25 years that really did make a splash, and people are still talking about it to this day. Yeah, it's still it's hugely popular. And this is not something that I could ever, like, disparage anyone for having on a list like this, because I know it's just kind of a me thing. I actually, I know the time before that that you watch it. It was at my fucking bachelor party, because this is one of the worst relationships of all time. Movies that Dan put on his playlist for my bachelor party. Great idea. I remember you sat there and watched the whole thing I think the rest of us were getting into, I don't know, some sort of shenanigans, and I could stand to rewatch it too. I've never watch it with this commentary on. I think that would be cool. I know it's on the DVD I have, I own it. That one left my mind, but as soon as you said it, I was like, oh yeah, of course, number eight for me probably so far the one that I am, the 1 or 2 that I'm surprised. Major cut. This is my. Let me make sure I'm saying this accurately. My favorite romance of the century, Brokeback Mountain. Oh, you are too much for me. I'm a horse bitch. I wish I knew how to quit you. Why don't you? Why don't you just let me be? Because of you, Jack. Then I'm like this. I'm nothing. I'm not. I'm nowhere. Oh. Yes, you can fuck off me, honey. It's all right. And Heath ledger is. Yes. It's just right up there. It's like A181B of my favorite performance of the century so far. I, I get that I'm not mad that Philip Seymour Hoffman won his only Oscar for Capote, but that was a thing. No one was going to stop that train. But in another year, this was his. And as we said in episode 28, what what we could have had had his passing not come so quickly. But what we're left with is a lot of really, really good specific performances. And his and Estelle Moore is as good as screen acting gets it. Just as I love this movie, I'm so glad it made your list. I'm sorry. Oh yeah, there was no way. And and I love that it's in your top ten because that's. Yeah, that's it's it's a it's a perfect placement for it. Especially because like obviously Philip Seymour Hoffman Philip Seymour Hoffman off good good job Harvey you took your time I there's something about Seymour that follows by half that it my mouth just doesn't want to do because I could say Dustin Hoffman perfectly fast, but Philip Seymour Hoffman just wants half wants to come out. I've already of those two, though, I have a few that I get. The worst is when I listen back to episodes that I haven't heard for a year or two and I'm like, you just fucking said that all wrong. So now I just own it. Whenever I'm saying names, I'm like, guys, you know, I don't. I'm sorry. My wife makes fun of me for this every day. Every day of my life. Sorry. I keep calling it. I mean, I mean, in his performance in Capote, we talked about that, you know, and it is amazing. But when you look at, like, that lens of time now and not just because of his passing, but I think people would look at that performance differently now. Yeah. Outside of just the time frame of when it happened, I'm encouraging my mom because she she saw it once and she didn't like the man, mumble. That's what she calls it. I mean, he's just so he's just paralyzed. He's so trapped in it. And I was like, you gotta watch it again. Yeah, we posited that he, the first time he's ever had physical affection may have been from Jack twist there on the mountain, like he may have never. We said he could be a virgin like we. There's so. And I mean, he lost his parents so young he had to raise his siblings. There's just there's so much in there. There's so much in there. I. And this would be in my if my dad was creating this list, this would be in his top five. This is another movie we loved together. He it just it's so honest. It's such an honest movie. It is. And it's so again, it has genuine heartfelt sentiment, but it is never get. I cry every time I watch this, but it is. It's just not dipping into that cheesy sentimentality. This stuff comes from such a genuine place. And Jack, I swear, could be anyone. It could be Stacey. I swear it could be anyone. I swear. It's just it's the acting, the performances. Yeah. It's great the fact that ang Lee did this. So I'm so glad he won Best Director for it. This should have won Best Picture, obviously, but it's an American masterpiece made by a non-American. And those are some of my favorite movies. Because you have it. They have a really an outsider's lens. They're like, no, I really see you all for who you are. Oh, I just love it. Exactly. Love it. Yeah. Number seven, I know you're going to love this. Okay. Number seven. Shame. Fuck, yeah. Yes. Yeah, I didn't think. I didn't think it was going to make the cut. Obviously. Just barely missed my list. It's like circle in the outer will. Best chance there. Yeah. You know, I had to get in one. Steve McQueen. I got in hunger. But you got to start off the list. No. At all. In all seriousness, I didn't know. I just didn't know. I didn't know if it was like that much. Yes. Shane. Yes, yes, we talked about it on episode 45. We did a deep dive on it. Yep. I don't know if raw honesty put together with just genius filmmaking. If this is what you get. It is a very tough movie to watch, but I do think this is a movie where I don't know if we talked about this on the pod, maybe we did. This is one where you were talking about blow. This is an episode I wouldn't mind doing over as well. We've just the the podcast has evolved a little bit. We could get into further discussions, but yeah, no, go ahead, go ahead. Every time that I've watched this movie since that initial blow of all of that isn't there, I'm able to kind. I'm still emotionally like moved and rocked and I go through all of it. But I'm not. I'm not Aja anymore. I'm not. I'm not feeling that I'm actually able to meet the movie at its level and then see the fucking brilliance that's actually happening here. Shot, first shot. And, you just recently sent me the screenplay. Oh my God, of this movie. And I read the whole thing. Yeah, it's an easy read. Yeah, it's an easy, easy read. But at the same time, when you're looking at, like a film making, like composite, this is what actually translates from from word to the final cut. My God, like that man Steve McQueen is just what his vision is. That's not on the page. Yeah, I love that what he fills in for you. The best example is the opening. It's the train. Yeah. When he wins, Michael Fassbender and the girl are exchanging Jesus. This unspoken like raw sexual story between the two of them. None of that is on the page. No, like the details. Like she's wearing a writing ring. They exterior looks. It could be viewed as flirtatious or whatever. And then the sexual energy that Fassbinder brings to that are enough. But McQueen, Elaine Fassbinder, the acting, of course. But, you're just kind of looking at this movie as like, this is a man that knows exactly how he wants to communicate his ideas. Pure artistry. And Steve McQueen is proved it, I think. And, you know, we talk a lot of 2020 about small acts, those series of movies and what he does. 12 Years a Slave. I think he is a director of this 10th century, but this is this movie has made my top ten because I think this is an actual demonstrate of how good film can actually be. And if you can watch it from a education standpoint. Don't take away the emotion. Don't try not to watch the movie from just a, emotional standpoint. Break it down. Watch what he's doing with his cuts, watch what he's doing with what we see and what we're actually getting. And you will get a perfect example of what film can be. It's amazing. Yeah, but very well said. Obviously, I agree with all that. Again, fans of the podcast will know that, I'm no stranger to this movie. It's one of my favorite movies. And yeah, like when I was rewatching it recently, as I tend to do often, I was I was even picking up new things about it. And I'll take like that scene at the, first scene at the bar when James Badge dials, goes over to the girls and he's, you know, guess the color of their eyes, all that, that entire conversation is I'm not talking about cuts, but it's two shot setups. That's it. It's just. Yeah. Here, when we can see Michael Fassbender's face and it goes the opposite side and we can see the women's faces. When I was watching it, I was really studying this and going, he McQueen does not give a shit about the camera being on straight. The person who's talking, it doesn't matter. Like you get it. Where in the world he doesn't. He cares about closeups sometimes, but not all the time. That makes his closeups so much more impactful because a lot of the movie, you're back like a 70s movie we're seeing like their full bodies communicate and talk and it's just, yeah, if it's if the content is too much, you can study it, you can look at it and you can put the damn thing on mute in the first scene and go, wow, what is this apartment? Just the design of this apartment. Tell me about this guy. So nothing on the walls. There's no picture. There's no art. I'm so glad that made your list. I did not know that was going to make the list, let alone the top ten. Very, very excited. Yeah, funny that you have. That one is your number seven, because my number seven is none other than I had to have a movie by him. I can't believe it's only just one. But it is Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, directed by the great Quentin Tarantino. There it is. Possible that Jesus Christ, fuck you, shoot! Damn it, Rick, I got fucking lines. Embarrass yourself like that in front of all the goddamn people. Oh, you're drinking all night fucking drinking again? A goddamn fucking whiskey sours. Oh, fucking bullshit. And you're a fucking miserable drunk. You fucking remember in your fucking lines of practice. Tell me not to look like a goddamn rag. Just you sitting there like a fucking bat. Boom! Hey. Fucking whiskey. I couldn't stop a fucking 3 or 5, right? Wow. Your fucking alcoholic drink too much. Every fucking. Not every fucking wife loves it. That's fucking it. That's fucking it. You stop drinking right now, all right? Make a promise to yourself. You're going to stop fucking drinking. Oh, fucking oh oh. God. Yeah, I knew this was one that was going to make both fabulous. Hence Rick fucking Dalton in the beginning. But yeah, I mean, what else is there to say? It's just it is Tarantino's crowning achievement of the century. I'll say it just didn't get waited fairly by the Oscars. That's fine, I don't. The main reason I mention the Oscars so much on this podcast, I do love them. They are a little silly, but one of the main reasons I talk about them a lot is that a lot of regular people, decades from now, look at what won Oscars and they will just watch that movie and they'll go, oh, well, that won the Best Picture thing. And then you talk to people like us and we're like, yeah, but that was politics. That was this and that. So that that's the main reason I bring up the legacy. The Oscars so much. But whatever. And you love it. It's all good, I do, I love to fuck with them and have fun with them and whatever. But yeah, it was such a blast to see this with you like this is a movie you can just throw on any time. Great hangout movie. I love Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, seeing it with you in the theater, that really cemented in me how hysterical like the first 30 45 minutes are. And then it'll get these long stretches of not a lot of humor. Like when we go to spawn, there's not a lot, and you're like, oh, I mean, it really does change its vibe. Austin leading to it's not even a title card reveal. He's using the title of his movie as the pen in his screenplay, like it's that's supposed to be your. The last thought when we're watching a movie isn't like, like you don't end the movie and go, the tree of Life, no country for Old Men. But you read that on screen. Once upon a time in Hollywood. Dot dot dot. Given the carnage we've just seen and how that deviates from real life and you go, wow, what a beautiful fantasy we just saw. Because that's what this is. Obviously, this doesn't exist in real life. And it might have Leo's best performance. Wolf could also be his best, I don't know. But it like, it's funny how when it came out, we're all like, yeah, another great Leo performance, but even you and I were talking about in 2019, I'm like, no, this is a great portrayal of a manic depressive. Like, no one's talking about this. Like, this dude is not just some like, actor. The way he stutters when he's off screen but doesn't stutter on screen. And then, I mean, what do we need to say about Brad Pitt? He is the epitome of cool in it. And then the one who really got the big shaft when it came out was Margot Robbie, who just got criticized by what people thought that character should have been. And she is magical in this movie, and she gave us Sharon Tate back for two hours and 35 minutes. Masterful movie. You know, when you look back at that 2019 in like, what the Oscars and what the the fan viewpoint was of that movie, I think it's just a very misunderstood movie. Yeah, in a lot of ways. I think people's expectations, from Quentin have been of a certain kind of we expect I don't even know what, because he's done some things in between his movies that a lot of people don't care for. There's a lot of people that did not like The Hateful Eight. Yeah, there's a lot of people that didn't care for Death Proof. You know, there's a lot of things where, you know, Quentin has always been under a microscope in terms of what people think or view. But somewhere along the line with Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, everyone just decided was like, nah, like, this is it. Yeah, this this rocks and and and then and then I think over time, I'm starting to hear more. Less people don't like that movie. I hear more people just don't like him. Yeah. Like, yeah, as an artist. So like, I but I don't necessarily hear the backlash of Once Upon a Time in Hollywood anymore. I think people are like, maybe it wasn't my favorite, but I don't hate it. Yeah, there's just there's two groups of people and there's just like the people that are just sort of like, not now, not my favorite Quentin, or they're the ones that are like, no, this is like life. And that's and that's kind of where it lives. Yeah. And I it is life to me. And I think it is his. I think it's really what he was working toward and that it makes it this like mysterious Phantom 10th and final movie. What's it going to be? I don't know, but we'll we'll see eventually when it comes here, I'm going to I'm going to throw up my hands and go on. Maybe we'll get it like. And by 2030, I hope. Jesus, I don't know, I, I don't know, I mean he's scrapped the other one that he scrapped on the critic, I don't know, I mean, that's crazy. It is that he I can't even imagine building it up that now it's like, no. Just kidding. Yes, that's another one we share. I've been keeping track. We'll go through at the end how many we share? You are. You're on track to. Because you said seven. I said five and we already have more than that. But all right, you're number six. I know for a fact that we have not spoken much about this movie. Oh, I don't know why we haven't. You're the one who showed it to me, but over I don't I just don't think that I've actually spoken about, like, how much I actually watch this movie. You're going to laugh so hard. Number six is in the Mood for Love by Wong Kar. Oh, okay. Okay, good. I wondered if this would make like if this would sneak up and make your make your list. Yeah, we talked about a little bit with Mickey, but yeah, great pic. I watch this movie like once a year. Wow. Yeah. The the first time I saw it because you, you lent me your DVD copy of it. Yeah. And I remember I watched it. This was must have been I don't know what like 20, 16, 15 or 17 somewhere. You were still living in LA? I'll be honest with you. I watched it and I. I was in and out same, same. You cannot be in and out with this movie. It wasn't until I went to, I don't know what you were not call him. He was a teacher of mine in some sort of respects. Thomas. Ethan Harris. Yeah. You remember him? We had lunch with him. He broke down scenes studying film. In a way. I went to his classes for about like, a year. They were. Honestly, they were as big of a part of my film education as you were. And he broke down this one scene from this movie, and it blew me away. How did I like not think about this movie in the way that it was? And so I went home and immediately rewatched it. I didn't know movies could do this right. I had a realization about myself that I've never had because of this movie. I believe that I, in my life, have probably turned down love more times than I would probably want to actually say that I did. Don't really know the reasons for it. And I'm sure they're valid in some ways. I haven't really broke it down, but when I think about it now, I get a little sad. Yeah, I'm starting to feel this longing for things that these characters missed. And I'm thinking about my entire life in a way that I've never thought about it before. It is a little bit of a new relationship I'm forming with the movie. That's just Nick, that's just me. But since I've watched this scene from Thomas, Ethan Harris classes, this has become a bit of a film education movie for me. And it's just, it's just wild to me. And so this is made my number six spot. And yet I don't think we've ever really talked about this movie that much. We haven't. Yeah, I'm actually due for a rewatch. When Mickey brought it up during the Phantom Thread part, I was like, yeah, I need to go back and rewatch it because I probably haven't seen it since 15 or 16. But it is. Again, we're talking about you're on the director's time. This thing's only like 96 minutes long. It's rated PG, so it's not gonna it's not going to get explicit in any way. But wow, it it's all about longing, that unrequited stuff. We're talking about what's said, what's not said. It's a beautiful film and yet really has its own language. I mean, yeah, it really does. And you're talking about like, you know, specific specificity of a certain time period, like you've very much feel that you are in China in the 1960s and this is how people are and how people were, but how ultimately even those differences don't even matter, because it's a universal language that he's speaking in. And like the colors, oh my God, my God, the the costumes, like all of these components are going into it too. And I'm just like, I and I'm a fan of Wong Kar Wai. I've seen most of his stuff. I like it, but in coming from a place where I didn't appreciate this movie to now it being like one of the number one movies that I feel like I respond the most to. I can't believe it didn't even mention it on the freaking podcast. Weird movies that inspire us to be filmmakers because I think this was a while ago, too. Yeah, yeah. And I think I already made there I Go. But because Thomas Ethan Harris stuff was kind of in the middle. But then after all that and when he showed me this scene, I was like, I, I didn't know, I just didn't know. And I love it. And now and now it breaks my heart because I'm like, I think I'm this person. Well, there's still time. Life is not done. You know? There's the mood for love. It's all over. No, it's it is not over. That would be a fucking sad sight. This isn't like the Stone age where they live till they're like 22. Great pic, great pic, I actually am. I do need to rewatch that. Rewatch it. Let me know what you think I'm going to I an observational film too. If we're talking about Patterson, this is a great just like look at the life going on around. It's amazing. It's also a for me that that is a movie. Put the phone on Do Not Disturb and I put it you have to over there out of arm's length. And then you'll get that urge. You'll get the. Oh, I want to look up. What else do they been? And then you just sit. Sit and you're like, nope, it's 96 minutes. I did that twice this morning with movies. I'm going to mention my number six. It was I mean, it was just going to be this. And then my wife got on me about it. But in episode 101, I called this my favorite Christopher Nolan movie. And then I've gone back and forth. But memento, has to be in the top ten of the century list because this movie helped redefine the way I saw movies at this point, it may seem a little like, oh, it's one of those like Goes in Reverse movies that didn't exist in 2000 when this came out. Like, I mean, it did, but not like this and not having the a single idea about what this movie was about and clocking it in real time, and then this becoming one of the movies that I just studied and watched over and over and over and picked it apart. And, you know, technically following was in the 90s, but for the most part, Nolan is one of those directors who's a 21st century director. We've had him the whole time, and I think he is one of the 21st century directors, and as happy to have him on here twice. Memento as it relates to the 21st century, I just I can't even put into words how meaningful this thing has been to me. I love this movie. Watch it any time. Again, another one I like. It's crazy that this did not make my list. Like I figured since you're only doing one director, you know one movie per director. So I figured. But I get it, I get it. We're getting down to the wire, man. It's tough this is it. We're at the top five. My top five here. When I wrote my first draft, I put them on there in this order and they never change. But I'm excited to get into them. I have to say neither did mine. Oh, I can't believe this was. This was one where I really had to think about it because, I've, I've championed this movie for as long as this podcast has been going. It's meant so much to me over the years of the last 25 years, every time I watch it, it always delivers. It's closer. From 2004. Mike Nichols wow, okay, okay. I was like, it's got it. Yeah. That was one that I kind of lost sight of. But I knew I'm like, all right. If my math is right, I think he's going to have this. I love it, man. This I mean, one of the just great screenplays to me. I fucking love the screenplay for what this movie is. It's absolutely perfect. Oh, yeah, it is this. It's for damaged people and, and and, I mean, it's based off of a play. And in my opinion, I think this is the one example where the movie gets it right and nothing else will be better. Well, I, Mike Nichols, I think just encapsulated everything that this play is supposed to be and wants to be in what it's trying to express. I, I think the writing of this movie is brilliant. I think the acting performances across the board, it is by far and away my favorite Julia Roberts performance I've ever seen. Oh yeah, yeah, the Jude Law, Clive Owen, Natalie. It is just an acting powerhouse and directing in that is just top notch. Like, no perfect. Like I, I the I don't have any notes. This movie is just it's a love story for adults. Is the back of the DVD always said with no special features. Always piss me off. I love it with all my heart and it's I it's just never left me. When I was making this list, yeah, I was like, top five. I'm sure I'll go down, I'm sure it will go down. But then I'm looking at, I go, no, no, I think it's that good. I spent the whole lot of the week talking about you, and it tells me you fucked it with your eyes closed. It tells me you're awake in the night, screaming for your mother, your mummy's boy. Shall we end this? It's over. Great film, great script, firecracker script. She hates your hands. She hates the simplicity. Great stuff. I love. That's also, like, it's very fitting for you that it's on the list. I love it, it is, it is yet. Yeah. Number five, I will not apologize for who I am. I am who I am. And I started my morning with a double feature. I had to finish one because I like got a little too late last night. So I finished one of them.

And then at 6: 2:43:21

30 a.m., with a large cup of coffee, fired up the scariest movie of the 21st century. And that is gas far and away is irreversible. It is indeed. I can do it. My fifth favorite show of the century so far, and I will not apologize for who I am. This movie is a punishing assault of a few horrific crimes, and if you are in the world of it and you accept what you're in, then there is intentionality to it. It was made for a reason. I before I even saw this film, I read Roger Ebert's review because it was like a really controversial and controversial movie. And I believe the last line of his review is this is not pornography. And he gave it a favorable review. And I remember going, okay, that's you know, it sounds like an important distinction to make. And I'll say, like having watched, all three or technically four Terrifier movies twice this year, it kind of dilutes the opening scene a little bit because I was watching it and I'm like, I mean, this is still terrible, but, you know, we've cinema's just gotten so much fucking crazier and stuff like 2002, this was, wow, this was rough. And then, you know, that's that's a rough 12 minutes of the movie, about 12 minutes to like minute 12 to 24. It's rough. And then we get to ten minutes right in the middle, which I have seen in full twice, and I either put it on mute or I just, you know, disassociate for a little bit. I've seen it, I get it, it's not fun to watch. It's extremely punishing. I do think this is a horror movie. I do think this is a scary movie by design. Also weird that I put too, like chronological reverse movies right in a row. Memento and irreversible. Oh no way, said he was heavily influenced by memento, but for a gas bar and the way pods we talked about the majority of his career in episode 59 and then his later two films, his most recent two films and episode 60. And we talked a lot about this movie and talked about why we thought he made it and what the point of it is. And I do think there's a point, and I do think, I do think movies like this have a place to exist. And this is not something I'm watching every single day, but in terms of intense cinema, this is as intense as it gets. But also it's also really well-made, like it's really well shot. It did not make it for a lot of money at all. And once you get past that scene, that unforgettable, brutal scene, you're just coasting in a kind of like Jules and Jim love triangle. Nothing bad is going to happen. It's just going to be all vulnerable and emotional. And then where the film is leading to its end is truly one of the most vulnerable scenes I've ever seen between two people where they're just naked, not engaging in any sexual activity, but just waking up from a nap and they're naked and just being in love and like, blowing raspberries on each other's necks and just being kind of goofy. And they were married in real life, and it's so beautiful. And I think this movie is a punishing masterpiece. And I love it. I completely agree, that episode of our Gaspar No is one of my favorite episodes we saved. Done same. It was very, very hard not to put any of his movies on my list. Yeah, it, just because I do look at him as particularly as, like, one of, you know, we've said in that podcast is that he is a true artist of our time. And just because a lot of his content is what it is and exactly what you're saying, there is intelligence, there is integrity, and there is justification in the logic of what he's trying to express that, do not make it pornography. Yeah, they make it a point. And, and so, yes, it's very hard to watch, but it is very well made and there's reasoning for it that is so good. And, he is one of the best artists of our time. Yeah we do. He is tough. He's very, very tough. But maybe not necessarily with that movie because he doesn't really let you have it. But there is fun. He does like there is room. There's fun in the party scene. Like seeing Vincent Cassel be like it, be like a dick. And he does his line of coke, and he's playing that and doing it really well and annoying his girlfriend. And he is a playful, devious little fucker. No way is. And when I watch this movie with the commentary on and as the rape scenes coming up, he just goes, so now we're coming up to a scene of a woman that's going to be raped. And it's just so like, matter of fact, and like, yeah, I made a scary movie with my friends. That's what we did. And we're we're, you know, smoking cigarets and watching the rape takes between setups and going, wow, let's push it harder. And just going, yeah, it's a movie. This isn't real life. I don't know, I don't know. I understand who I am, but I can't apologize for it. You know, we know we need to do, for our next merch. We need to make a what are you watching, like, reference to, like, watch this with a cup of coffee. With a cup of coffee? Yeah, that's one, cause I like that. That's a good quote. You said our next merch. We don't have merch in general. That's the next phase of why we merch. We. You made, you made a shirt and I made a shirt. I have a hoodie. Yeah. You never sold it? Yeah, I have a hoodie. That's. I mean, I know how to do that. It's just more work monetizing this shit. It just takes so much more work. I don't know at the time, but, yeah, there is a way to do it. But that would be funny to have a quote like that. There'd be a few quotes on there. Yeah, you're a fucking asshole. I took you to the stairs in Georgetown. That's a good quote. That's not a quote. That's not that's that's something I say that. No, no one's going to say that. People will say, you should watch this with a cup of coffee. You should let me handle this. Oh, you want to take over the merchant? Oh, wow. Stepping up. All right, Joker number four. We're getting up there. All right. I prefaced it earlier. Where I said, you're going to be shocked at where I put this movie number. My number four, top five. Number four spot is the spike Lee joint 25th hour from 2002. Wow, dude, I knew you like this. I didn't know you liked it this much. Fuck. Fuck. Jacob Polinsky, sexual or otherwise whining malcontent fuck Francis Xavier Slattery, my best friend, judging me while he stares at my girlfriend's ass. Fuck naturelle Rivera I gave her my trust and she stabbed me in the back. Sold me up the river. Fuck you bitch. Fuck my father. All this grief standing behind that bar, sipping on club soda, selling whiskey to firemen and cheering Bronx bombers. Let's go, Yankees. Fuck this whole city and everyone in. From the rowhouses of a story to the penthouses on Park Avenue, from the projects in the Bronx to the lofts in Soho, from the tenements in Alphabet City to the brownstones in Park Slope to the split levels in Staten Island. Let an earthquake crumble it. Let the fires rage. Let it burn to fucking ash and land. Let the waters rise and submerge this whole rat infested place. We. Know. No! Fuck you. Montgomery! Bobby, you had it all and you threw it away, you dumb fuck. I had my top three already in the bag. I knew exactly what they were going to be. I knew what order they were going to be, and instantly as I was writing it, this just flew out of me at number four. Like, I cannot tell you the impact that this movie has had on me since we rewatch this. This is a vitally important movie for anyone and everyone to see. I think it speaks to what you were talking about, that post 911 era, but I think it also speaks to America. Oh yeah. This is just an unbelievably well-done movie. I think it's my favorite spike Lee movie. Yeah. It's a movie that I always had a feeling for when I was younger, but I didn't appreciate exactly how good it was and what it is. And then you just get to some just like real life human relationships, like the way friendships are, the way men are with each other. Yeah, ultimately there is so much to chew on with this movie blown away by it. And so when I headed at number four, I didn't think it was ever going to leave the spot. And it hasn't. And I stand by it. I think it's a thing. It's a masterpiece. It is. I love that. And again, had no idea that this is actually a funny, one of my favorite commentaries we've done. Yeah. I mean, we going to do a deep dive. And what happened was we sat there and put it on together because we both hadn't seen it in a while, and we put on the movie and I couldn't shut the fuck up. I just kept telling you all this stuff about it, and you were like, whoa, really? I'm like, I was throwing you all this trivia. So then we watched it and then recorded the commentary. So it was like we watched it twice in a row. And that was it was just a fun way to do it. But yeah, I agree with everything you've said this. I mean, I think the best movies made I it's my favorite and the best movie he has made so far this century. Yes. No question. I yeah, I go back to it all the time. You can just rewatch it like any old time. It's something you can just put on. You're always it's always going to get you seen that? All right. Now we're never seeing Frank Straub. Okay. Oh, now, Hoffman's going over to Frank's apartment. They're going to argue above fucking ground zero like it's crazy. It's so good. Oh, my God. And just the writing. Yeah, like, everything about the movie is just firing on all cylinders. Yeah. If you liked the movie and haven't read the book by Game of Thrones creator David Benioff, go read it. It's it's, a lot like No Country for Old Men in that this adaptation is so loyal. It is so loyal to the text of the book. And it's because he adapted his own book. But yeah, great call again. Had no idea it was going to be bumped so highly for you. I love that it might be the like one of the most impactful movies is that especially since doing the podcast that we've that that's happened for me, we're getting into this. I mean we're getting down here. So number four again, probably not going to be a big surprise to people if you've been following along the podcast or you've if you've been in my life for the past five years, because in episode 136, we discussed Nick's number 17 pick. Waves made in 2019 by Tran were Charles. Yeah, number four. There were no second chances there. No second act. There is no goddamn motherfucking second place. You better come in to every single match with a plan. Because if you don't have a plan, I can tell you right now your rival has a plan, and it will manifest itself in your defeat. And you will lose. Go. Get up over your head. Wow. Of all the movies so far this century, there are two that are my pendulum of filmmaking. And this is all the way on one side of it. Frantic, kinetic, wall to wall music, wall to wall sound, heightened performances, screaming scream. Every murders, all of it neon I just, I love it. It's a lot of fun to do that pod with you. But this is I sat in the theater completely spellbound the first time I saw this, thinking like, this is all I've ever wanted to do, and this is how I've wanted to say it. This is what I want to do, I love it. We've talked about it a lot. I, I did not expect it to make your list, so I'm thrilled that it did. And he, I guess, has a new movie coming out or it's been made. So 2025 should be a good year from some of these people. We're talking about who we haven't had a movie from in a little bit. But yeah. Waves. What else, what else to say. Love it. Yeah it's that good. Truly is more than anything. I'm so happy it made your your list. It's awesome. Drum roll for the top three. Wow. Here we go. Number three. We just finished talking about this movie, on our David Lynch episode. I do believe that this is in absolute perfect example of what filmmaking is and can be talking about and letting masterpiece of Mulholland Drive. Yeah, I should I gotta tell you. So I did I should have, but you're doing very good at downplaying when I say them because I didn't know. But like at the end of our lynch pod, you were like, dude, this fucking movie, I go, I know, and you're like, no, like this. Like, this might break into like my top ten of all time. And I went, really? And you're like, we're getting to the point in our list where I'm like, it's just that good because I don't really know what else to say. And drive is a mind fuck masterpiece of the 21st century. Man's attitude. Man's attitude goes some ways the way his life will be. Is that something you might agree with? Sure. And? And you answer because that's what you thought I wanted to hear. Or did you think about what I said and answer because you truly believe that to be right? I agree with what you said, truly. What I say. That a man's attitude determines to a large extent how his life will be. So since you agree, you must be a person who does not care about the good life. How's that? We'll stop for a little second. Think about it. Can you do that for me? Okay, I'm thinking. No, you're not thinking. You're too busy being a smart Alec to be thinking. Now, I want you to think and stop being a smart Alec. You try that for me. Look, it's it's just truly, a crowning achievement of this last century in terms of what the art form can be. And it's basically all I can say about it. We've talked about it on that episode. It is just. It is. It's that fucking good. Yeah. And, no notes. No, no, this is the girl. No notes at all. All right. My number three. We did a whole commentary on it. Just cruising through these like, as we get up here. It's just sort of like, yeah, it's this. Well, yeah. Because we're also, I think we're in the territory of this being our longest episode ever, which is fine. I wondered if that would happen, but I mean, yeah, Mulholland Drive, it was my nine. It was your three. What else to say? They should have given him fucking best director for it, Ron Howard. Thanks a beautiful mind. Beautiful mind. Both of our shared number one's not number three. We did a commentary. It was my number three. But I also like. How do I not have Phantom Thread like I got have Phantom Thread. But of course I to have one of the most volcanically explosive movies of the century, Paul Thomas Anderson's There Will Be Blood, released in 2007, one of the all time great screen acting performances by Best Actor winner Daniel Day-Lewis. Yeah, I love there Will Be Blood. I mean, what else to say? Can you know? Yeah, exactly. How can absolutely insane that they made this. They were making this and no Country at the exact same time, like 30 miles apart. Two absolute masterpieces that ended up going again. They were just pitted against each other at the Oscars, as it happens. What a god. What a time when to like, just grade A masterpieces. There will be blood. Well, do I love it? Okay. Number two, number two, this movie defines our last 25 years in terms of an American culture. Yeah, more than any other movie. And that is 20 tens David Fincher, the Social net. Yep, yep, I knew it. I know it's scary to kind of think that in the world of like, social media, where where we've gotten to no one, I don't think could have predicted that this is where it was going to go. Social media, over the course of the years since, Facebook has been around to what it's become. Now, we are even more desensitized to our each other in terms of our human connection. I don't think it's necessarily a cautionary tale, because I don't think it knew it was going to do that, but it started here, and we and they made this movie back in 2010. And I don't know, I just think that this movie actually speaks a lot to our times socially in our country that we're in now. It's another sequel on the table. You can do it. God, can you imagine this have changed? I mean, Army needs work. So, you know, get him in there. He does, he does. He's all right. But he needs the work and let alone for two roles. Garfield soon great. Eisenberg's the directing movies. Now Sorkin needs. Sorkin needs another script that he passes off to a capable director. Yes. I mean, this was, I think, of Fincher's work, this if we're defining the what the first 21st century is with film, this does it better than Zodiac. Agreed. I just love Zodiac. So again, this was like Fincher won a Fincher one. Be how do I decide exactly? Yeah, and it was it was tough. It was right on the edge of making my cut. So yeah, again, no argument, no notes for me at all. It's an important movie. It is. It is an important movie. And it it is a statement that it comes in right. It two hours flat like the quote unquote the late. Oh yeah. We should be. It's what a lot of us think of when we think of a motion picture. Oh, that's a two hour time commitment. And this is and that's all on purpose. It just it definitely is. My number two is a bit of a white whale. This podcast we've never talked about it in full. I have always wanted to always mention it episode one, because it used to be one of my top ten films of all time, and that is my favorite film by one of my gods of cinema, who's going to give us two movies in 2025? The great Steven Soderbergh 2000 traffic. Wow. To this movie. I just rewatched this. Yeah, I like so did I, and I used to watch it every year, but I think two, 2 or 3 years had gone by and I was really taken again, just how like, inherently good Benicio del Toro's character is without ever really expressing why. He's just like, I want to do all this so I can put lights in parks and make Tijuana a better and safer. He's just a man of inherent goodness. He's seeing all this collapse around him. That's just one aspect of it. Like I yeah, this movie really helped click. What film direction is it helped click that into focus and help clicked in a lot of things. I was seeing and viewing as it relates to drug use, just in my real life things I was observing, not things I was doing, but things I was exposed to it. It was a it was a movie that I really needed at the time. It's one that I think really holds up. In rewatching it, I did get a little sad for a little for a very specific reason. And that is Steven Soderbergh defines his his filmography as films and movies, and he said traffic is a film, and he stopped making films after Che Bong, and now he only makes movies. And we love these movies. We love magic Mike. Oh yeah, I love them. He's going to give us two. He's going to give us one. From the perspective of a fucking ghost, I've never seen that in my life. It's called presence. The trailer is awesome. It's going to be out later this month. This is a serious movie, and it's like it's a serious Steven Soderbergh film that I don't think he's interested in making anymore. And we lost something when he stopped doing movies like these. I will watch anything he does. If he just wants to entertain us with movies, that's fine. But this thing is a masterpiece and I'm so glad he won Best Director for it. I had no idea this was top two. Oh my. I was actually surprised to not hear it on the list. And I was like, oh, maybe this isn't going to make it. So hitting a top two? Yeah, I just rewatched this because I wanted to see and unfortunately it didn't make my list. But I, I upon the rewatch of it, there is something about Benicio. I know exactly what you mean because you're watching him do what he does, and he's he's just human and all of it. Like, for like, there's never like, he does what he needs to do at times, but you're always getting a very, very human reaction, a response from him in a world around him that is putting up walls, putting up guards, people are trying to do other things. He kind of maintains his truth, and it's really beautiful to watch in a movie where the whole entire point of the movie is everyone doing what they need to do in impossible situation. There, you know, like even Michael Douglas talk about the war on drugs. Like it really was like the worst thing to call it because it can't be one. It can't no matter what actions are done or progress is made, it's never going to stop this. How do we do that? How do we how do we live in a world with that? How do we just keep it at bay? Basically, yeah. And I mean, he goes down to Mexico and says to that guy, to that Salazar, he's like, what are you doing to treat like addiction? And the guy goes, oh yeah, and an addict overdoses. It's one less addict to think about. And you're like, damn, this is this is the attitude that some people still take about this stuff. Like, this is this is not it wasn't ever going to work the way it was set up for that. And I think I haven't done this, I, I should be careful in what I say. But the final sentence of this movie is and we're here to listen in. That is, it might be my favorite line of dialog of the century so far in terms of what it means, in terms of who says it. Yeah, in terms of like, I'm not Mr. Big Shot Beltway guy. Like I'm here in a room listening. That's what I need right now. I don't need to be telling, telling, telling, explaining, explaining. I need to listen. I think a lot of people need to listen when it comes to stuff like that. Still then and still. So yeah, yeah, this will always hold a very, very special place in my heart for a number of reasons. It would love to do a deep dive or commentary. It's since you just rewatch it too. I was like, man, we can. I have a lot to say for commentary, and there's some funny stuff in it too. Like occasionally like Louie. Goose bumps. Hilarious. So, you know, it could. It breaks up the it's not like a dead serious movie. There's some serious shit, but he's moving it along, you know, he's moving it along. Oh, I love it. Here we are. Yeah, we can totally do it. Commentary. Be fun. Okay. Number one, I think I think we both know what our odds are going to be. I, you know, a mine is going to be I mean, I could joke around, but I think I know what yours is going to be. I think it was your number three. It's there will be blood. Wow. I was always torn between number one and number two with this or the social network. And I had my reasons for the social network, but, like. Man. Wow. I think there Will Be Blood is just one of the best made movies I've ever seen across the board. It is because, like, I don't really have a personal attachments, like some of these movies that we talked about, like closer, for example, like there's some movie that for whatever reason, I resonate with that on a very personal level. Like, I don't know what that says about me. But I always have, even when I first saw it. That's a movie that just talks to me. There Be Blood doesn't necessarily talk to me, but when I observe the art form of what movies can do and what PTA gives us with that, I'm like, it's the I think it's to me, it's the best example of film I've seen this entire century. So I because I looked at it, I was like, am I really putting Social Network above that? And what are my reasons for that? Because I think it's relevant. I think it's important. And it is a well, I mean, don't get me wrong, it's my number two weighing that against there will be blood. I'm like, I, I just don't see how I can in good conscience put there will be blood. Second, I just think there will be blood is just a goddamn masterpiece of the art form. Wow, I love that, I love that I'll wait till honorable mentions. I thought you could throw a curveball and give us, like, a different number one. But yeah, I love that again. What I'm realizing here is how I knew you like these movies, but I didn't know you like some of these this much. And that is cool. That's awesome. Yeah, my number one, it has been revealed. It was your number seven. This will surprise no one. Yes, I finished at 530 this morning. Steve McQueen. Game changing, movie redefining masterpiece of my life. Not just this century, but shame. From 2011. I make you angry all the time. I don't know why. Oh, you trapped me. To force me into a corner. And you trapped me. I've got nowhere else to go. What sort of fucking shit is that you like, brother? So what? I'm responsible for you? Yes. No I'm not. Yes, you fucking are. I didn't give birth to you. I didn't bring you into this world. I am my brother. I'm your sister. We're family. We're meant to look after each other. You're not looking after me. I'm looking after me. I'm trying. I'm trying to help you. How are you helping me, How are you helping me? How are you helping me? Look at me. How are you helping me? You come in here and you're a weight on me. Do you understand me? You're a burden. You're just fucking dragging me down. How are you helping me? You can't even clean up after yourself. Stop playing the victim. Not playing the fucking victim. If I left, I would never hear from you again. Don't you think that's sad? Don't you think that's sad? My brother. Didn't change how I looked at movies, but it reinforced, like, oh, this is what you want to do too? I was just gearing up in four months. I was getting ready to shoot my short film earrings when I saw shame in like, they're different. I don't go as hardcore as shame does. I didn't have any damn money. Like it wasn't the intention. But I knew we were going dark places and I had never dealt with suicide as a topic in a movie. And I'm like, all right, it's kind of heavy. And I saw this and it was it granted me permission it when in terms of filmmaking, it went, yes, go on your way. This is it's okay. Like and then as Mikey said in our Phantom Thread episode, some people could watch this and be just aghast by what's in it. My wife is not a fan. I showed it to her. She's not a fan. I recommended this movie to people cautiously. I always say I'm no, I'm not a fucking lunatic. Like, I'll watch anything, but I'm not going to go. I've recommended irreversible for a few people, including a few women who, just heard what it was about and asked me. I'm going to set you up for that accurately. I'm not going to trick you into be like, oh, yeah, whatever. It's like a crazy, like, fringe French movie. I'm going to tell you what you're getting yourself into. I'm going to tell you what you're getting yourself into shame without spoiling it. But I think if you've lived a certain life and you haven't let those things necessarily break you, you can feel seen by this movie and you can feel see the beauty in this movie. Because I do think this movie is beautifully painful. I think it understands pain. Yeah, damn near better than any movie I've seen. I also think you and I can go out for a drink. We can go have a beer. You can, or you can go have, you know, a tequila soda. Maybe we have two that's drinking. But then there's also leaving Las Vegas. Leaving Las Vegas is not fun to watch in terms of drinking. It's not glorifying drinking. The hangover is making drinking look fun. Shame is not glorifying sex, and it's certainly not glorifying sex addiction. This movie has a lot of sex. It's 101 minutes long. There's a lot of sex in it. It's rated NC 17 for a reason. I do not think a single frame of this is sexy at all. I was rewatching it this morning, going back to the God, I've seen it so many times. It's it would be embarrassing to admit, like I've just seen it so many times, but I'll never forget seeing it in December. The E Street cinema in downtown DC and being not like uncontrollably heaving sobbing, but having tears stream down my face at the end of that threesome scene and like going, well, why are you so emotional about this? And I'm watching this guy, this character who I really care about, and it's just the skeletal remains of a man who's barely living like all those walls he had up keeping work life completely separate from family life that's come crashing down in the bar. His show of emotion when she's singing New York, New York, which to me is the ultimate example of fuck your clock 101 minutes is going to pass. Start this movie at a time. You don't pause it. 101 minutes is going to go by. But when you were watching New York, New York, and you really think it's done, and then she just launches into a third verse, you're on my clock, you're on my time. If you accept that, what of it then? What am I telling you? The fact that he, Fassbinder, is that single tier that comes down during that, and that's such a huge release of emotion for him. Take that up until the one of his final scenes, when he breaks down on the pier there, and the evolution that I think his character, the arc that I think his characters come across in the few days we've been with him. This movie represents me in terms of my filmmaking style. It is absolutely the other pendulum of me. I mean, I, I studied the shot construction, how long he's holding shots, how few setups he has, and then, yeah, the emotional side I, I, I know pain, I know alone, I know addiction, maybe not personally. I've been around it my entire life. This movie gets it better than any movie I have ever seen. Then many, many conversations with people who are addicted to all sorts of things. This taps into it. I still feel absolutely seen by this movie. It will be one of the most important and best movies I ever watch in the history of my life. I'm been obsessed with movies since birth, and this is one of the 5 or 6 best ones I've ever seen, ever, let alone this century. And I'm so happy it made your list. Like I really didn't expect. I didn't expect it to, I didn't, and which would have been fine. What do you think? It's not going to be on my list of top 25 of the year. I didn't I don't know, I didn't think so. So yes, very glad that happened. I got it right. Well, we can do honorable mentions. One man. There's one I got to ask you about like right away. Go for it. Patrick Bateman, honorable mention 20. Okay. That's I was like Johnny early on there. Like he's got a so that's okay. So American Psycho comes in honorable mention honorable mention right there okay. And I mean honestly that really wasn't actually that hard to not put on my list. I get it. It's a movie that I love for my reasons. I will always try to get people to want to see that movie and be like, hey, if you want to, you know, if you've got a dark sense of humor or things like that. And it means a lot to me personally. Again, if I'm passing it down to the aliens and I'm like, guys like, this is these are the movies that you should see. I'm okay with American Psycho coming in at 26. And, I yeah, if we were to do I mentioned this before, our, top 25 performances of the year. Yeah. Man. Woman, child, whatever it is. Christian Bale in this would be 1,000% number two, what would be number one? DDL well, we have to do we have to film that episode in the Marvel Figure It Out film at oh, we're filming now. Wow. Oh yeah. Yeah Jesus. Going on on cam again on cam folks. Hey I would love to do that. I mean, you know what could be a fun could be a very cool follow up idea to this. It could be a lot of well, now that you're teasing it, people are going to be like when it when does it get released? All right. So that's one of your honorable mentions. I'm going to do two real quick because they were on your list before sunset. Or just not having a link later, hurts. It really hurts. And then not having I already had a Fincher, but not having The Social Network hurts that I mean, both of those hurt me. So I do love that they made your cut. So my number 27 was somewhere. That was the one where that was the one on your list that didn't make my cut. That is the only one though. Oh that's cool. Yeah, we've done all right. So we've done two. All right, let's give me another one. So we had 26 American Psycho 27 somewhere 28 The Wrestler oh, there's no Aronofsky. Same on our list. Yeah, I and that was not easy for me. I got down there and I went, man, that was a tough one man. Because again, like Nolan, other than pie, his whole career has been this century and that was tough to not include it. So that's a good call for me. I'm glad at least we're mentioning him. Yeah. Yeah, because I, I thought for sure Requiem was going to be on years. I was like, oh, that's got to be on that. I wanted to I do think that helps define the century, I really do. But it yeah, I mean you know, it get it gets tough. It definitely gets tough. Oh and then another easy one I'll mention is the new world, which I really, really like. That was also tough. Like do I include both do I? At one point I took Tree of Life out and replace it with New World and I went, it's just wow. Yeah. I was wondering if you were in it. Yeah, it was, it was difficult. All right. You ready for number 29? Oh, God. No joke here. Okay. Saraband. Oh, dude, I almost fucking did that. I was almost going to shoot it. Put this at 25. I really was going to be like, dude, I had this Birdman. Like, why not? I love it, that's a great call. That's a great call. Until I made my decision with blow at 25, Saraband was my 25. Like for the whole list, I was like, no, I'm going to start out with Bergman. That was going to be my 25. Same here. Oh my God, that would have been hysterical if we did that, if we both started out with Bergman. But yeah, I thought about it. I'm like, it's his last movie and it's a really good movie. I don't think my 30 is going to surprise you. Well, I have all right. There's one that would never be or wouldn't be on your list. And then one that I'm surprised. So I'll do one. His entire career has been the century and I had it. This is one that got bumped off when I was doubling up on Directors Dogtooth by Yorgos. I really wanted to include it. I really, really like this. Didn't have any more. Yeah, I yeah, to not have Yorgos was tough, but Dogtooth by Yorgos Lanthimos 2010. Wow, what a film. Go check that one out, folks. Yep. Oh yeah, my last two years. It's one that I'm very surprised didn't make either of our lists. It was one that just got bumped out right at the end. It was in my first draft in the top 25 debut film 2007 Michael Clayton. Oh yeah. Dude, I yeah, I it didn't make my honorable mention, but I that was a tough one. It was, it was I, it was a that was a very, very tough one. All right. My my number 30 is I mean you know, you'll you'll understand it at midnight in Paris. Oh nice. Lovely lovely. Yes I figured just yeah. Just. Yeah. Know I like that. I like I just was always sort of like. I feel like that's always going to come in at my, like, last 30 spot for honorable mention, right? Just because I just happen to like that movie but like it it's a good number 30 it is. But you know what? Almost you know, it almost fucking got it. What? Dude, I had the hardest time not including Wall-E. Really? Holy. That would have fucking thrown me. I would, I know that one resonates with you, but I would've been like, really, Wally? That's funny though, that it was circling. I rewatched Wall-E yesterday and I just started weeping again, like I always do, and I had to turn it off because I was like, I don't want to be sad right now. Throughout the whole movie. I'm just a fucking mess. I have not cried like that. I can't even tell you. I had tears streaming down and nothing bad is even happening. So like they're chasing, they're in. There's something man, I don't know. What do you say? There's something like some of us. It's just. It's that thing that happens. Fucking black cat. So emotive. Like I put that fucking thing on and I'm like, Jesus, I had to go for it. I had to get one in real quick before we, like, run down the list. I want to know which years are on your list the most in which you're not on it at all. I was stunned photographers, the ones I have the most. I was stunned because I have three films in four different years, so four years are tied. And I was like, what? Wow did not. That's crazy purpose. So 2002 I have 25th hour, Antoine Fisher and Irreversible 2010 Blue Valentine in Sandy's Somewhere 2011 two good years in a row. Warrior, the Tree of Life. Shame 2019 The Irishman, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood and Waves. Good Years I never when I was living in 2010, like during that time. I didn't think that was a good movie year at all. And it's so funny to me that it popped up. 2011 wins with three being in my top 25, then this surprising one was 2016 has three. That was surprising because 2016 has zero for me. So. So 2016. So if were to if we're taking honorable mentions out of it, yes, I am tied with 2004. I have three 2011 I have 3 in 2016. I have three. Wow. So from 2011 it's shame, melancholy. And Tree of life. Tree of life. And then 2004 Closer and Eternal Sunshine, both in my top ten and then before Sunset and then 2016, a very close in order to Neon Demon, Manchester by the Sea and Paterson. They are they're all like, right there. Yeah. That's cool. Our most recent movie was shared 2023 Oppenheimer. I did not have anything from 2004, 2009, 2014, 15 1618, 2020, 2021, 2022, or 2024. Although I will admit that I flirted with getting a little cute and putting in Nora at 25, I flirted a little bit. I thought I flirted, I was like, yeah, let's let's not. We loved it. We praised enough. Let's not be so I could care. Time needs to pass. I don't know if you saw what I did with my, list there. What I, what I started and ended with 25 and one. Oh, shut up. The screen double feature I did that warrior was my 25 for a long time. And then I went, nah, that's fun. Let's start with Steve. We had 11 in common. Yeah, we oh, we had 11 twin more. Okay. We had Oppenheimer, but The Wolf of Wall Street, waves, Brokeback Mountain, Blue Valentine, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, The Tree of Life, shame, 25th hour, Mulholland Drive, and Your number one, there Will Be blood. Fucking love it. No movies for 2006, 2009, 2012, 2015, 2017, 2020, 2021, 2022 and there is an honorable mention for 2003, with Saraband. But other than that and the honorable mentions, there was no word from 2003. Yeah. Wow. So 2015. I was telling this to Ali right before we recorded like one of my full years in LA 14, 15, 16, no good movies. There were good movies, but nothing making my final list. I'm like, we kind of shit is that? I mean, yeah. The only movie from 2015 that I even gave thought to was just a movie. That means a lot to me. That's Mississippi Grind. Oh, yeah. Yeah, that would have been fun to include. Yeah, that was that could have been in an honorable mention, but, All right, let's get down to brass tacks. Let's finish this up. How do we how do we end? We've given you our top 25 movies of the century, movies that we will give to the aliens. And you want to know about humanity? Here you are. Yeah. We've come a long way. So how does it all? How does it all end? How does it all wrap up? This was dealer's choice. I said we can't double down. This is where I'm going to do story time. This is a story, you know? But it's up to you if you want to go first or you want me to go first. It's a good story. I spent a lot of time thinking about how I want to wrap this up, and I think I have a great movie for it, but there's a good reason behind it. We've already tackled him a little bit, but I cannot tell you that. I truly think that the more that I'm watching from this one particular director, he's vastly on his way to being in my top. Like I he might even break into 2 or 1. I love Krzysztof Kieslowski with all my heart. And he did a movie, one of his first movies called Camera Buff. Yeah, but I just rewatched it's number one. It's just it's pure Kieslowski doing his thing. It's actually quite, the most simplistic breakdown about how to actually go about making a movie and being in the movie business. Yeah, yeah. Like it's literally as simple as, like, oh, I have a camera. Oh, I like using this camera. Oh, I'm going to record something. And then some people are going to see it and like it and recommend to me how to do things better. Oh, here's a bigger lens. Like it literally just kind of grows in the most I mean, it psychologically does a little bit more, you know, this guy kind of loses his whole life. But, these are the people telling you, yes, these are the people telling, you know, these are the things that are in your way. These are the tools. You get that further your trade. This is the life of making a movie. And these are the sacrifices that you make. And to think that we've now watched the last 25 years of film, knowing that every single one of these directors made these sacrifices, did all of this, but ultimately love film. They have a passion for it. And Camera Buff is basically that it can be dangerous, is a passion. It can be this or it can be that. But nonetheless, we feel compelled to fucking do this thing. And so, that's my, that's my nice little way around in it out camera I love it. Amazing director. I fucking love him so much. Yeah, he I mean, think about it, but he might he should be in 2025 at the least. I don't know if he needs to be next, but we should cover him. Like, we should just do it because there's not that many movies and I'm I'm kind of going through them all. So. Yeah, so, so that's a great, great movie. Great call. All right. This is just going to be a little story time I'm a allow me a little leeway your honor. Some of my story times venture into like dark mental health bad places. This is not that. This is a good story. And I promise I will relate it to a what do you watching recommendation. I've never told this story before. On Mike I've told it in person, and it was after the encouragement of folks like you and a few guys I work with. They're like, you just have to tell it, tell the story. It's not disrespectful. I'll just tell it. So I'm going to tell it now. At the very end of what is likely to be our longest episode yet. So I'm doing it as a little gift. Okay, December 2014 I'm living in Los Angeles, and I have plans to meet up with two of my friends later that night. It's a Saturday night. Okay, we're meeting up at 11, which is well after my bedtime now, but this is two years ago. This is ten years ago, so I'm meeting up with them. We're going to meet at a bar 4100 and Silver Lake. Okay? And I'm like, leaving my home much, much earlier to go to the bar just to kind of like, start drinking away my sorrows. So I am in an Uber to go to the bar at like 830, which, as you know, a bar in Silver Lake is not going to be that crowded at 830. But I'm like, I don't care. I'm going to go put in like hours of drinking before by to Fred show up, because that's what I'm going to do. So I walk into the bar. It's not very crowded, it's lonely. It's low lit. There's some like red lighting, and I go without looking at anyone and I just seat myself at that kind of the end of the bar. But, you know, the bar is like a big oval, but I'm just seated. There's no one sitting next to me. Both chairs are empty, but there's a couple to my left, one empty chair, and then there's a couple there. And I'm not like looking at them. I'm just. I ordered a drink. Real vodka, because that's what I drank at the time. And I'm hearing this voice to my left and I'm thinking, there's no way that's who I think it is. I'm in Silverlake, like on a Saturday. This isn't like I love this bar. It's one of my favorite bars. This isn't like a hot shit bar. Where in a list celebrity would be at do I look over? Because, like, this voice is so distinct, it has to be this person. There's no way. It's not this person. I'm just kind of glance over and I see it. He's wearing a hat, but it is that person. It's who I thought it was. And I'm like, wow, what a weird. I've never I'm like, shoulder to shoulder with this guy. This is crazy. He and his friend, they were just friends. They put a napkin on their drinks to signify that, like, hold the space for us. And they get off their barstools and he comes up to me, puts his hand on my shoulder, and he says, my friend and I are going to go out and smoke. Do you mind watching our drinks for us? And I went, it would be my honor to watch your drinks for you. And he goes, my name is Kiefer. Nice to meet you. And I go, I know who you are, sir. Kiefer fucking Sutherland sitting there having a few drinks, dressed cool as shit in a hat. And I came into this bar like, fucking pissed off. I was mad about life at you. Could probably get my sense, my vibe. There's no way I'll be able to. I'll never be able to prove this. Never. But how it played out. Because I'm like, whoa, you're like patting me on the shoulder. That's cool. I kind of have like an in with Kiefer Sutherland. Like, I'm watching Kiefer Sutherland drink. This is okay. This is weird. It was as if they went outside and while they're having their cigarets, they said, why don't we go in there and make that kid's night? Let's just go in there and make his night. I don't know if they did that, but these two walked back in and he comes right up to me and he's like, hey, thanks so much for watching our drinks. What are you drinking tonight? Your drinks are on me. I'm like, I've just been drinking vodka. What kind? I'm like, rael? And he's like, no, not anymore. Orders me tops. I never even heard of it. It's top shelf vodka. No idea how expensive it is. And he's like, I got you all night moves. His chair so that now he's sitting next to me and I spend from 845 until the bar close at two, getting incredibly drunk with Kiefer Sutherland and having one of the best nights of my life that did not turn into anything bad or dangerous. We were just sitting there talking and as so like when every time he looks away, I get on my phone, I'm like, and I'm texting my friends and I'm like, you're going to think I'm fucking with you, but you need to get here because Kiefer Sutherland is getting me drunk right now, and I'm not joking. And they're like, ha ha! And I go, all right, man, he might be gone by 11. Like, you need to get here now because this dude like this is happening. So they like seeing their face. They had like run over to the bar, they run in and they see me. And at this point, it's like a scene out of a movie. Kiefer's like, got his arm around me, like, you fucking maniac. Like he's like laughing with me. And then, man, as as the bar got more crowded, more and more people started noticing him. And his voice just carries. It's very distinct. And everyone, everyone is coming up to him, calling him Jack Bauer. Everyone, are you Jack Bauer? Are you Jack Bauer, are you Jack Bauer? People are gaining within a matter of minutes. They're gathering that like, I must be Kiefer Sutherland, personal friend, because I'm, like, chummy shit with this dude. And so I'm getting a lot of attention from people at the bar. Like, how do you know Kiefer? Like, is that the guy from 24? Is that Jack Bauer? I'm like, I just met him tonight. Like, I don't know him. I don't know him. And I promised him when I saw, like, where the night was going, I was like, look, I'm the type of dude. Like, there's never going to be an ask for, like, a picture for autographs. Not I'm not even going to ask you like, about your career. Nothing like that. Like I see what's going on here. And like, if this is just two dudes having a good time, he's like, absolutely. And I went, all right. And that's what the night's going to be. That's that's cool. I'm not going to ask this dude for anything. And that's just what it was. His friend was really, really cool. She was a musician. We stayed friends for the rest of my time in LA. I went to see her perform a few times. Kiefer was one of the nicest, coolest, chillest people I've ever met. He was so open and would talk to me about a bunch of stuff. I got insanely drunk. I never wanted to go to the bathroom because I was afraid you just couldn't leave. So I was just like, sit there, kind of like white knuckling it. And then as I got drunker, basically at one point just said, like, can I ask you like 2 or 3 movie questions? I'm like, the biggest movie nerd and my friends are hype me up like he's seen everything you've been in. And so I asked him, you know, started talking about movies. And my strategy is always talk about the deep cut movies and I know mean a lot to them. And the second movie I mentioned was Lars von Trier's Melancholia from 2011. His face, like his eyes, got big and he went, you've seen that. And I was like, oh man, I studied that. What you did in that is so precise. And so then we just then we start talking about movies. I told him I was just getting ready to, screen my feature film, wait at a few film festivals. I'd been done with it. I was like, tell him the plot of it. And he goes, oh, that's what it's about, man. It's about love stories. Like, it's not all this other bullshit. It's about love. It's about connection. And that's it. That's the story. It was just it was one of the best nights of my life this century. It's definitely the most time I've ever spent with, like, a top tier A-list actor just getting plastered with him for like, five, six hours. The night ended, he left, gave him a hug, and I just said, oh, I will never forget. This. Of course, didn't get like any contact info. It was just that it was the night. And one of the coolest things about it is that I had two friends there with me. So people know that I'm never. I'm not lying about this like there were people who can fucking back me up. And I'm like, right? Like this happened. I'm not insane, right? So that was my one night getting very drunk at a bar. It's over. Like with Kiefer Sutherland. And we talked about melancholia, which would absolutely, as I said, almost made my list. I was thrilled it made your list. That's my story. Time for what are you watching? God, it was a great night. It was so cool, man. And he paid for my two friends drinks all night. And they that could not have been a cheap tab and would not even begin to accept any form of payment for me. Yeah, that was it. That's my Kiefer Sutherland story. It's an awesome time. Let's go through 25 to 125. Hunger 24. Warrior 23, Miami Vice 22. Blue Valentine 21. Rust and bone 20. In Sandies 1920 one grams 18. Tree of life 17. The Irishman 16. Wolf of Wall Street 15. Zodiac 14. 25th hour 13. Somewhere 12. Phantom thread 11. Oppenheimer top 1010. Antoine Fisher nine. Mulholland drive eight. Brokeback mountain seven. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood six. Memento five. Irreversible four. Waves three. There Will Be Blood two. Traffic one. Shame. Give It to Us 25. Blow 24. The Neon Demon 23. Manchester by the Sea number 22. Oppenheimer 21. Patterson 20. The Wolf of Wall Street 19. Whiplash 18. You Were Never Really Here 17. Waves 16. In Bruges 15. Before sunset 14. Brokeback mountain 13. Melancholia 12. Blue Valentine 11. Once Upon a Time in Hollywood top ten. Number ten. No country for Old Men that rhymes. Number nine. The Tree of Life eight. Eternal sunshine of the Spotless Mind seven. Shame six. In the mood for love five. Closer for 25th hour three. Mulholland drive to the Social Network one. There Will Be Blood best movie title of all time. It really is. It's an awesome movie titled so Good. We did it. Feel good, feel great. These lists are extremely representative of who we are and they are very good. Pics of the century so far in film go watch these. Let us know what you're thinking of them. Let us know whose list you like more. Yeah, seriously, let us know whose story was cooler. I think I'm going to win. Oh, I see, do you? I think so, this is a big episode, folks. Is definitely going to be our longest episode yet. We had a lot of fun. I think I'm only going to do clips for the movies. We shared, so they'll be 11 clips. That's kind of cool. That's it. Let us know what you think of our list. Let us know what you think of movies so far this century at Y w underscore podcast on X Twitter, Letterboxd, Instagram. But as always, thank you so much for listening for the past four and a half years. We love you and happy watching. Unfinished. Hey, everyone. Thanks again for listening. You can watch my films and read my movie blog at Alex withrow.com. Nicholas Dose Telecom is where you can find all of Nick's film work. Send us mailbag questions at What Are You Watching podcast at gmail.com or find us on Twitter, Instagram and Letterboxd at AUI underscore podcast. Thank you so much for listening to us for all these years. It means so much to Nick and I and and the final runtime of this episode is just barely longer than our Christopher Nolan podcast. So this is officially the longest episode ever of what Are you watching? And if we ever eclipse it, please punch me in the face. We have a lot of fun stuff coming up for 2025. The Oscars are really gearing up, so we're going to be talking about those. We still have to do our top ten of 2024. We're getting a few surprise heavy hitters here late in the year. I feel 100% confident saying that a complete unknown is absolutely. What are you watching? Approved. Nick loved it. I did not think I was going to like it at all. Silly me. But our next episode is most likely going to be Nick interviewing me about a crazy movie challenge I did all throughout 2024, and the perhaps even more insane challenge I have coming up for myself in 2025. Thank you all so much again. And as a nice little bonus, right before we started recording this episode, my wife flew into the room and had a few things to say. So enjoy testing! Oh, here I am. But I can't hear myself. You never. I don't hear myself. If I only could make a deal with God. Oh, you should tell people that you saw my first. The first version. I'd like everyone to know that Alex Withrow did not have Oppenheimer on his top 25 list. And he talked the first draft, you say. And I said that was stupid. No, you said, this is fucking bullshit. I said, this is fucking bullshit. You've talked about Oppenheimer more than anything you've ever talked about in your entire life. Meaning the eight years that I've known you. So revise it and come back with a proper list that I read. I revise it, put it at 15, and you still said it was bullshit. It's almost bullshit. Yeah. He didn't know what he was doing. Actually. 8 to 11 right there. Oh, yeah. Yeah it is. He's lying to the people already sweating it. What's your favorite movie of some of your favorite movies of the past 25 years? Lion King is done. Why? Because it's 94. Oh, so it has to be 2000 hangover. There you go. Bridesmaids. Hang on. Bridesmaids. Game night. Rough night. Game night. Blockers. Triangle. Sadness. Triangle of sadness. Love it. Uncut gems, the one with Robert Pattinson when he's running good time. That's a good one. Sicario. Oh, all this. Aquarius. By all I mean to get there, I will tell you what was not my favorite movie was the worst movie I've ever seen in my life, which was strange. Darling, you you're 25 minutes in, I asked, I asked Alex why on earth he thought about showing me this movie and then it felt, can I talk? It felt like a high school movie, like a friend was doing a movie and they wanted to show their friends before submitting to their professor. That was not on my top 25. Thanks. No comment.