NEAFC
Graham and Dave choose their favourite top ten films of 2023
Past Lives
Oppenheimer
Beyonf Utopia
Saltburn
Tar
Pope's Exorcist
May December
Evil Dead Rise
Graham and Dave choose their favourite top ten films of 2023
Past Lives
Oppenheimer
Beyonf Utopia
Saltburn
Tar
Pope's Exorcist
May December
Evil Dead Rise
Category
🗞
NewsTranscript
00:00 Hi, welcome back to Not Everyone's a Film Critic, a podcast that very rarely gets recorded
00:13 or a podcast if you prefer.
00:15 From myself, Graham and Dave, and the Scotsman, Dave, it's been about, how long has it been?
00:20 I think it's been about four weeks because we've been on holiday and various things have
00:24 happened so there's not much you can do about that, is there?
00:27 I mean we've got about 60 episodes in the bank so if you're really that desperate to
00:30 see our faces, which I assume you're probably not, but you can go back in the archives,
00:35 which we would both recommend, Dave, right?
00:38 Yeah, binge watch this vodcast, I think so, I think so, it'd be a good use of a day.
00:43 You can watch us on Freeview now, which to be honest is kind of always where I expected
00:47 myself to land up.
00:48 You have got a face for Freeview, there's no doubt about it.
00:56 No Netflix here.
00:58 No 499 here.
00:59 What are we doing again?
01:00 Talking about films, that's it.
01:01 So yes, we have reached kind of the end of the earth, December the 1st, and I've seen
01:11 loads of films, I think the past four episodes or whatever, I've seen nothing and it was
01:14 just you carrying us the whole way.
01:16 I've gone to see absolutely everything and I've took the review section out of today's
01:20 episode so if you want a quick segment, one film's really good, it's going to be talked
01:24 about later on.
01:27 Dream Scenarios, a good first hour, it kind of gets lost after an hour, and Thanksgiving's
01:33 really good if you like gory stuff, and Eli Roth, there you go, reviews, done.
01:38 What we are going to be doing is something probably more important for you because you
01:41 can have a bit of free time, hopefully, over Christmas to sit and watch lots of movies
01:44 or series and things.
01:45 So we're going to pick our top 10.
01:47 Now we did pick our top five halfway through the year.
01:50 I haven't watched the episode back so if these don't mirror, I don't care.
01:54 I've totally forgotten what I chose.
01:58 Films probably, probably the only five films I've seen at that point, but no, I think I'm
02:02 going to do about 46 I've seen in the cinema this year, which I know pales in comparison
02:07 to you, but we're going to do 10 till one.
02:11 I think we might have a few crossovers and I did kind of do this list a bit quickly,
02:16 but I did have a bit of a battle with it and there's some films that I've missed out which
02:21 I think are unfair.
02:22 So this might be subject to change.
02:24 It's very horror oriented, but I'm going to stick with it for this show.
02:30 I kind of fought with myself five minutes before, but I'm going to give you the first
02:33 choice.
02:34 We're going to go 10 to one.
02:35 We've got half an hour or so.
02:37 We'll probably get episode, like the film number seven by the 25 minute mark and fire
02:41 through the final six in the last five minutes.
02:45 But what's your number 10, Dave?
02:46 We can rattle through them.
02:47 Yeah.
02:48 So I find the top nine quite easy, but the 10th I find very, very difficult.
02:52 Indeed, there's so many films could have been there.
02:54 So with apologies to Mission Possible, The Leftovers, Bo is Not Afraid, Saltburn, Sisu
02:59 and Marcel Lechelle, which is on your favorite, Graham.
03:02 None of those quite made the cut, but they're all just knocking on the door.
03:05 But my 10th favorite film of the year is How to Have Sex, which is a catchy title and sure
03:11 to get people in cinemas, but it's a really clever, good and interesting film directed
03:15 by Molly Manning Walker.
03:17 Her first film, which is remarkable given how assured it is.
03:21 It's about three teenage girls who go on holiday to Mali and Crete.
03:24 It's as debauched as you would imagine.
03:26 It's a window into the world that I know very, very little about.
03:30 As a middle aged man, it's quite shocking, but it's quite sweet as well.
03:33 And it's got a lot of very interesting things to say about consent.
03:38 And the lead actress is called Mia McKenna Bruce.
03:42 And she is a star of the future.
03:43 She's absolutely superb.
03:44 She really holds the attention throughout the film and highly recommend it.
03:48 It's not even streaming yet and should be out in streaming by the new year.
03:52 But it's a fabulous film and I really hope it wins some BAFTAs and stuff.
03:55 It'll not get anything for the Oscars, but maybe BAFTA friendly.
03:58 So my number 10, How to Have Sex.
04:00 I haven't seen it yet, but I've heard it's really good.
04:03 It just kind of coincided with the short run in cinemas in my holiday, which means that
04:07 I've kind of nullified, but I do actually want to catch that.
04:11 My number 10 is probably something I've spoke about a lot throughout this year.
04:14 So people might think it's quite surprising, people who know me, because I spoke about
04:18 it quite a bit actually when I bought it on Blu-ray and stuff like that.
04:22 And I think in time, it'll become a film I remember probably more than some other films
04:27 on this list because of the impact it had and I thought was so different and experimental
04:31 and like nothing I'd really seen before.
04:35 And I think that's in a good way.
04:36 I also absolutely crapped myself at one point, so definitely has to go in there because horrors
04:41 don't really do that for me anymore.
04:42 I'm a bit desensitized, but Skinny Meringue is number 10 for me.
04:48 If you haven't seen it, like it's, is it a difficult watch?
04:51 Yeah, it's as difficult.
04:53 I'd say for like 95% of the public, they'd be like, okay, because it's more, it's less
04:59 about plot, it's more about feeling.
05:02 It's difficult and it's also uncomfortable, but I think it's really, really clever filmmaking.
05:06 And I think in time, we'll probably see better films that have been inspired by it move forward.
05:13 And that's no disrespect to the guy who directed it.
05:15 You know, naturally, I think when people pinch things from different films, but in the sense
05:20 apart from The Exorcist, which nothing's really kind of matched The Exorcist since that, apart
05:24 from one film.
05:26 But I think a lot of like old horrors in the past have maybe not been the best film of
05:30 that genre, but they've completely regenerated a segment of that genre and give people new
05:37 ideas and better films have come from it.
05:39 And I think Skinny Meringue will do that.
05:42 Would I recommend you watch it?
05:43 I don't know.
05:45 I would, but be patient with it.
05:47 But for me, because the kind of films I like and what I'm into, I think for the ambition
05:52 alone, it's getting in the top 10.
05:54 Still haven't watched the entire thing.
05:55 We watched half of it and find it a bit much for late at night.
05:59 So we have to start.
06:00 We have to try it again.
06:01 But yeah, definitely.
06:02 Definitely don't watch it late at night.
06:05 Even like the most fearless person on the planet will probably be like, you're not gonna
06:11 be able to sleep well.
06:12 I think it's fair to say.
06:15 My number nine is All of Us Strangers, which hasn't had a huge release this year.
06:22 But it's a wonderful film.
06:23 It's a kind of metaphysical ghost story.
06:26 Andrew Scott and Paul Mescal, both actors at the top of the game.
06:30 Andrew Scott plays a man who's living in this kind of spooky, empty London tower block.
06:35 And he enters a relationship with Paul Mescal, quite an intense physical and psychological
06:41 relationship.
06:42 But in the middle of this relationship, he visits his dead parents in his childhood home.
06:47 And it's a really interesting, twisty story.
06:50 I mean, beautifully acted by both of them, and directed by Andrew Haig, who's a brilliant
06:55 British film director and just a really confident, interesting film, which I think should have
07:00 got a lot more love.
07:01 And it doesn't seem to have, which I think is a shame.
07:03 So my number nine, All of Us Strangers.
07:06 It would help if my mute button actually worked.
07:16 My number nine, to be honest, I kind of forgot about it.
07:18 And I feel really bad about it, because it's one of my favorite directors ever.
07:21 And I was kind of toying with not putting it in, due to some other things, which I possibly
07:26 enjoyed a bit more.
07:27 But then I thought about my experience watching it.
07:30 And I did really, really enjoy it.
07:32 It's like, I think it's been my favorite of his since The Grand Budapest.
07:38 So Asteroid City, Wes Anderson's Asteroid City, for me, I know some people really hate
07:42 it.
07:43 I think you were one.
07:44 And I really liked it, the scene with the alien, when he's like walking away.
07:49 And he's like, to people who haven't seen it.
07:52 That was funny.
07:53 I liked that scene.
07:54 I liked that scene.
07:55 To people who haven't seen it, you'll be like, what are you on about?
07:57 But it's a very funny scene, and probably one of the bits I laughed at most.
08:00 Apart from, actually, whilst we're on it, because we're not doing reviews this week,
08:06 there's a bit in Dream Scenario, which I can categorically promise you, I laughed for the
08:11 longest time, to the point where people in the cinema were getting annoyed, because I
08:15 got myself the giggles.
08:16 And I won't give away the plot, in case you haven't seen it, but the bit where he farts.
08:21 Yes.
08:22 It's a very funny film.
08:28 Outside of the Nick Cage farting in a very peculiar situation, the scene with the alien
08:35 and Asteroid City made me laugh most.
08:37 But I'm a big Anderson fan.
08:38 I kind of like his style and what he does.
08:40 I know some people don't.
08:41 I know some people like some of it, but not love all of it.
08:45 For me, I tended, where Anderson could like, where Anderson could fart a film, and I'd
08:50 probably enjoy it.
08:51 Well, next week, we're going to do our worst films of the year.
08:55 So we'll talk about Asteroid City again then.
08:58 It's very divisive, very divisive.
09:02 My number eight film is by my favorite director in the world.
09:06 You just talked about your favorite director.
09:07 My favorite director in the world is Hiro Koreida, who's a South Korean director.
09:11 And he just does a wonderful film every year and never lets you down.
09:16 They're all kind of a similar kind of atmosphere of film.
09:22 You were never going to be like, oh, it's Ridley Scott.
09:24 You've got to be something different.
09:26 You've got to be something like a-
09:28 Hiro Koreida, he's very good.
09:29 You would enjoy his films.
09:30 But they're all quite sweet.
09:31 They're all quite family-oriented.
09:32 And he says it in a purple floral shirt, for God's sake.
09:37 I need to get more contentious films into this list, Graham.
09:41 You can-
09:42 Death, Cath, the Cutie, just, oh, Father John Misty.
09:46 Just get out of here.
09:49 Well, Broker is a very fine film.
09:51 It is about a pair of people who basically steal a baby, which doesn't seem like a particularly
09:56 jolly plot point.
09:58 But they basically take a baby which has been left behind at a church by a mother.
10:02 And they essentially are looking to sell the baby.
10:04 But despite that sounding like quite a bleak plot, it's a lovely, warm film.
10:09 It's kind of a road movie of sorts.
10:11 They end up teaming up with the mother of the child to try to find the child the perfect
10:15 home.
10:16 And it's just lovely.
10:17 It stars Song Kang-ho from Parasite, who's a wonderful actor.
10:22 And yet anyone who hasn't seen any of Koreida's films start with maybe Shoplifters, which
10:27 is maybe his finest film.
10:29 And I would say Broker after that.
10:31 But he's a wonderful director.
10:33 And you could do far worse with Your Christmas and Settle Down and watch two or three of
10:37 his films, because they're heartwarming, lovely, and kind of festive, even though they're not
10:40 about Christmas.
10:41 So number eight is my very pretentious list, is Broker by Hiro Koreida.
10:46 Yes, if you are watching Dave's list rather than mine, make sure that you are in Tweed,
10:50 because you'll enjoy it significantly more, so I've been told.
10:55 My number eight is probably something you completely expected me to have in there.
11:00 And I've kind of thought pushing it higher up, but when I look at the films I've got
11:03 above, I can't say the films that are above it I enjoyed less than this.
11:08 But I thought this was a really good movie, and I came out of the cinema being like, "Oof,
11:11 that was a-- that potentially could be a classic in years to come."
11:14 And it was a really fresh idea, a really fun idea.
11:17 It's on Netflix now as well.
11:19 There's two films, actually, that have been released this year that are now on Netflix
11:21 that are both in my list.
11:23 Talk to Me is my number eight.
11:26 I thought it was really good.
11:28 If you haven't seen it, it's about sort of a grieving child who's lost a parent.
11:35 And it kind of has that elevated horror thing that people seem to think is now a new thing,
11:42 about how she deals with grief.
11:44 And I think sometimes it's kind of indicating you get addictions and stuff like that.
11:48 You turn to things to cope, and she turns to this friend who has an embalming hand,
11:54 like a severed hand, sorry, a severed embalmed hand that if you touch it, it gives you a
11:58 connection to the afterlife, but it's kind of high.
12:01 But it's at that point when it changes from being really obvious what the story's about
12:05 and actually turns into a really good horror.
12:07 It's really different.
12:08 It's got some super gory moments in, but it's not just based on gore.
12:13 It's not just based on the supernatural.
12:14 I thought for two people who basically do a YouTube channel, for that to be their direct
12:18 total debut is really good.
12:21 And I think a lot of the time we can sort of poop on content creators or YouTubers and
12:26 stuff, but it's proof that a lot of these people are very creative and very talented
12:31 and probably deserve a shot.
12:32 Not all of them, Jake Paul, but some of them deserve a shot.
12:37 - Yeah, I loved it.
12:39 It's a great film.
12:40 It's one of the best horrors of the year.
12:42 I must admit that my list hasn't got any horror in it, which is really bad, actually.
12:46 I don't know how I managed that, just because I'm being pretentious.
12:49 But it was.
12:50 It's an absolutely cracking, cracking horror film.
12:52 My second favorite horror of the year.
12:54 I think you might get onto the slightly better horror in a wee bit.
12:58 But yeah, it's a great film.
12:59 Highly recommend to anybody watching it.
13:01 - I have for the record one, two, three, four, five, six, potentially seven.
13:09 - Well, that is why we dovetail together so well, isn't it?
13:11 So we have 20 films that people can watch, although I think we might cross over on one.
13:15 But yes, I know it's an absolutely brilliant film and a really classic horror.
13:19 A great one to settle down with a bottle of wine on a Friday night and get really, really
13:23 scared.
13:24 And it's funny as well, which is great.
13:25 Really, really good horror.
13:26 Totally agree.
13:27 It's certainly in my top 20.
13:30 So my number seven is kind of a horror, actually, in a strange sort of way.
13:34 My seventh favorite film of the year is The Beasts, which is a French film.
13:39 It's about a retired kind of cosmopolitan couple who retire to this bucolic part of
13:45 Spain.
13:46 But as we know in horror films, bucolic parts of any country tend to be filled with absolutely
13:52 nutters, and this is no exception.
13:53 So they move to this lovely farm, but they fall out with the locals, including two genuinely
13:58 terrifying brothers.
13:59 I mean, properly, properly terrifying brothers.
14:02 And their lives are just destroyed, basically.
14:05 It's really scary.
14:06 It's incredibly tense.
14:07 I mean, properly keeps you on the edge of your seat.
14:10 Something very bad always seems just about to happen, or does actually happen.
14:15 And it does something very clever, which I'll not give away, in the final third, which kind
14:19 of elevates above your usual kind of people go into the middle of nowhere and get targeted
14:24 by terrifying inbred locals plotline.
14:26 And the final third is genuinely, genuinely interesting.
14:30 You don't see it coming whatsoever.
14:32 It pivots very quickly.
14:34 And it changes what it's focusing on.
14:37 So it almost becomes a different film in the final third, which I really enjoyed.
14:41 Totally wrong-footed me.
14:43 So yeah, my number seven film of the year is The Beasts.
14:46 >> Interesting that I had wrong-footed you, considering you've got two left feet.
14:53 My number seven is something we actually seen together.
14:55 I think it's only one of the list that we've seen together.
14:58 But when I was going through the films I've seen in the cinema, I've got a list on Twitter
15:02 if anyone's interested.
15:03 It sounds like a plug, but if you want to just see what I think of films, which ultimately
15:07 changed my mind at certain things, pop on, follow me on that.
15:11 I do a list, a thread throughout the year of how many films I've seen.
15:14 And when this one popped up, I was like, oh, God, yeah, that was probably the most fun I've
15:17 had in the cinema, or one of the most fun times I've had in the cinema this year.
15:21 It's a super small film.
15:23 It was played at Fright Fest, but #ChadGetsTheAxe.
15:28 >> Great film, put fun.
15:30 >> Which I think is quite funny, considering Talk To Me was made by YouTubers, and Chad
15:34 Gets The Axe is basically poking fun at YouTubers.
15:38 It's effectively these stupid YouTubers, I think it's Spicy Steve and some other guy,
15:43 he's called, I can't remember his name now.
15:44 Nice guy, I spoke to him after the film, because the cast and the crew and whatnot were there.
15:49 These social media, I don't want to say influences, because they're not really influences, but
15:54 they kind of are.
15:55 They're just YouTubers that go into this haunted house, or what's meant to be called Devil's
15:58 Manor, it's meant to be called, and they go in to make a video, and it actually turns
16:03 out that it's actually full of people from a satanic cult, and it's just brilliant, because
16:08 you basically don't like any of the people in the movie.
16:11 They're all ridiculously stupid.
16:13 You can identify someone that you know that's similar to them.
16:18 Didn't say you would like the person that you identify them with, but you will definitely
16:22 know someone like this, and they're basically just one by one, get picked off a bit, and
16:27 it's kind of fun to watch, which probably says more about me than it does anything else,
16:31 but I thought #ChadGatesJax was great, and considering, like I said, I think it was all
16:36 filmed on an iPhone, pretty much, but you've got the comment screen down the side, pretty
16:43 much all the way through the film, because the film's streamed live on YouTube.
16:46 The comments down the side are just hilarious.
16:49 So funny, so funny.
16:51 And they just add so much to it.
16:52 I mean, the bit where the guy keeps popping up and says, "Show feet."
16:56 Just brilliant.
16:57 But very, very good, and that's my number seven, and I think considering how much it
17:03 cost to make and how little fanfare it's probably had because of that, and the fact that the
17:07 budget's not massive, it's probably quite a big achievement.
17:10 >> No, I agree.
17:11 I thought it was great fun.
17:12 It was one of the most fun kind of cinematic experiences, just all around, having the cast
17:15 there is fun, and being in a full cinema with people cheering and laughing, it was really
17:20 good fun.
17:21 It was excellent.
17:22 >> My number six, and now that I'm actually thinking about my list, even though I'm saying
17:25 I don't have horror films, I do have kind of horror films.
17:27 So here's another kind of horror film, which is quite a new film, which I just saw last
17:31 week, which is The Eternal Daughter, which is directed by Joanna Hogg, another one of
17:37 my favorite writers and directors.
17:40 Her films, The Souvenir, part one and two, were my favorite film of 2019 and my third
17:45 favorite film of 2021, and this is her first film since that.
17:50 It's another kind of autobiographical thing.
17:52 She does these things where often a character's a filmmaker, she's a filmmaker.
17:56 A lot of her films are about the mother-daughter relationship, which isn't covered a lot in
18:00 cinema, so I really like that.
18:02 And this is a kind of metaphysical ghost story, the second time I've said that phrase, but
18:06 it is once again one of those.
18:09 And it stars Tilda Swinton, one of you and I's favorite actors, not once but twice, she
18:14 plays both a mother and a daughter.
18:16 The daughter is loosely Joanna Hogg, and her mother is the same name as her mother, it's
18:23 the same name as the mother from The Souvenir, part one and two, so it's kind of a weird
18:27 continuation of that, but very different in tone.
18:30 The mother and daughter go to this really spooky, empty hotel.
18:34 The daughter's taking her there to celebrate her birthday and also to talk to her about
18:38 her life, because she's going to make a film about her, so it's kind of a film within a
18:40 film type of thing.
18:42 But this empty hotel, there's kind of weird noises, you don't really understand why there's
18:46 no one else there, you're not sure if they're actually there or not, you're not sure if
18:51 the guests are real, if anyone's real, really.
18:53 It's a real puzzle of a film.
18:56 Amazing atmosphere, and I mean, Tilda Swinton is just absolutely superb, and playing the
19:00 two different characters on a relatively low budget is just an absolutely spectacular performance.
19:06 I find it quite scary, quite creepy, I've thought about it more than maybe any other
19:10 film this year.
19:11 I'm not sure still whether I entirely understand it, but I think there's a number of different
19:15 ways to read it.
19:16 I think you'd really enjoy it, Graeme, I think this might have made your top ten of the year
19:20 if you'd seen it.
19:21 But it is still in cinemas, should be in cinemas for the next week or so.
19:25 And yeah, I just absolutely loved it.
19:27 So my number six film, The Eternal Daughter.
19:33 And Graeme's on mute.
19:35 Long day, innit?
19:42 It's half past 11.
19:46 I think this is where we might have some crossover, I think.
19:49 I managed to get it in the Black Friday sale last week on Blu-ray, which is always a good
19:53 sign because look, I don't know whether people can see this.
19:56 You know what, I'm not going to turn my laptop around, I'll drop it.
19:58 The way this episode's going, I'm going to drop the laptop.
20:00 I have a lot.
20:01 I've run out of space, basically.
20:03 So if I buy a Blu-ray now, it's getting shoved somewhere where it really doesn't fit.
20:09 So if I buy a Blu-ray these days, it has to be a good film.
20:12 And I got it in the Black Friday sale last week because I thought, "Blimey, brilliant."
20:16 Pearl.
20:19 Great movie, based on an origin story of the main character from X.
20:25 And I think what was so great about it for me is it's a good film, but I had three zombie
20:31 cocktails before I went.
20:32 Now, if you've ever had a zombie cocktail, there's a reason it's called Zombie, from
20:35 Ark in Glasgow.
20:36 So by the time I got there, I was pretty trashed.
20:39 And I started soaping up halfway through just as it got really interesting.
20:45 So yeah, Pearl's great.
20:46 I mean, I really liked X.
20:47 I thought X was amazing.
20:48 I think Pearl's a really good origin story, and it's a completely different film at the
20:51 same time without being so far removed from the original film by Tai West that you feel
20:58 like you're not watching the same character.
21:01 The character is definitely the same, but not so much as X.
21:04 Gorey, sort of, I think Mia Goss, brilliant.
21:11 And I think it's so unhinged, it fits right into my category of films I'm bound to like
21:17 because it's unhinged alone.
21:19 So Pearl, number six.
21:21 Yeah, I agree.
21:22 Pearl's my favorite ice and out horror of the year.
21:24 It was just knocking on the door.
21:25 It's probably my 12th or 11th favorite film of the year.
21:27 And like you say, Mia Goss, what an absolute star.
21:29 I would go and see anything that she's in.
21:31 I'd watch anything on telly she's in.
21:32 She's an absolute superstar.
21:33 Wholeheartedly agree.
21:34 Well, my number five is Barbie.
21:38 It's the highest grossing film of the year.
21:41 It is one of the best films of the year.
21:44 What more needs to be said about Barbie?
21:45 Greta Gerwig, I've always been a massive fan.
21:47 It doesn't matter what she turns her hand to, she does something very interesting with
21:51 it.
21:52 I don't think anyone else could have made a Barbie film as interesting as the one that
21:55 Greta Gerwig's made.
21:56 Obviously, Margot Robbie, born to play Barbie.
21:59 Ryan Gosling, funniest performance of the year for me.
22:02 It's absolutely hilarious.
22:03 So many great lines.
22:04 I've been to see it at the cinema three times.
22:07 I can't remember the last time I went to see a film three times in the cinema.
22:11 And I will watch Barbie every single year of my life until I die.
22:15 Every single year.
22:16 Not a year will go by when I don't watch it again and sing along with the Ken song.
22:21 And I've got a t-shirt.
22:23 Big fan.
22:24 It's really good.
22:25 The biggest blockbuster of the year.
22:26 It's a genuinely intelligent film that has something interesting to say about feminism
22:30 and patriarchy and everything else, but does it with the lightness of touch that unless
22:34 you're a real right wing loon, you cannot find offensive or find anything to hate about
22:39 it.
22:40 So basically, unless she appears more, then you're going to like it.
22:41 So Barbie, if you've not seen it, everyone's seen it.
22:44 Everyone's seen Barbie, but watch it again.
22:46 It's probably on Netflix or something.
22:48 And I will certainly watch it this December again, probably with my family.
22:53 I think it's a good family kind of Christmas film.
22:55 So my number five is Barbie.
22:58 I think it's kind of a shame that I haven't put it in because I really like Barbie and
23:04 for all the reasons you said, I just felt it was things I liked more this year.
23:09 I think my main issue with Barbie is that I didn't like it as much as everyone else
23:15 seemed to love it.
23:17 I really liked it.
23:18 I would borderline say I loved it.
23:19 I thought Ryan Gosling probably deserves the Oscar for best supporting actor.
23:24 But I just felt like, I don't know, I wanted it to be like a 10 and I was like, "Oh, that
23:31 was good."
23:32 And that's kind of as far as it went.
23:34 I felt like it didn't teach me as much as I wanted to be taught, which other people
23:40 found it taught them a lot.
23:42 It was fun.
23:43 I enjoyed it.
23:44 I would probably go see it again.
23:45 I'd probably be tempted to buy it on Blu-ray if it wasn't 15 quid.
23:48 I don't know.
23:49 I couldn't force it in my list.
23:50 I had it actually at number five at one point and it gradually dropped down the more I remember
23:54 films I've seen this year.
23:55 So make of that what you will.
23:57 But great film.
23:58 Very good.
23:59 I'm literally like, to find issues with it, I'm like looking for a needle in a haystack.
24:05 People are wondering why it wasn't in.
24:06 It's not because I was angry about the feminist message in it.
24:10 I really liked it.
24:11 I really agreed with it.
24:12 I thought it was very good.
24:13 - You're such a misogynist for putting the opinion of Barbie on your list, Fionn.
24:17 I can't believe that you hate women.
24:23 - If anything, I wanted it to teach me more, if that made sense.
24:27 But I think it's really good.
24:28 And I think a lot of kids who see it, especially the speech about why being...
24:32 I can't remember what it starts with, being a woman is hard or never easy.
24:37 I think that would be quite good for younger teenagers to hear that and stuff because it
24:40 kind of...
24:41 Well, I don't want to go into it, but I think it would be good.
24:45 - Mine, number five, is a film that was...
24:47 I think I had it as number one halfway through the year, so it's dropped five places.
24:51 I know it's controversial to some people in the sense that they didn't think it was as
24:56 good as it was made out to be.
24:57 I thought it was fabulous.
24:58 And when I came out, I did a swear word and said that was brilliant.
25:03 I've spoke about it a lot on previous podcasts, so I won't go on about it.
25:06 It's a very good film.
25:07 Number five is The Whale.
25:09 - Yes.
25:11 I'd completely forgotten that The Whale was this year.
25:14 That's one of these films that I'm going to get onto that, but you always get the films
25:16 that come out right at the start of the year, and they're kind of in the Oscar race for
25:20 that year, and you forget that they were released this year.
25:23 That's a great call.
25:24 The Whale, I'd completely forgotten about, but that would be just probably just outside
25:27 my top ten, but no, absolutely cracking film.
25:29 - Yes.
25:30 Great movie, great performance.
25:31 - Yeah.
25:32 Well, my number four, we're doing quite well for time.
25:35 This is good.
25:36 This is good.
25:37 My number four is another film that's been really recently, because a lot of good films,
25:40 kind of Oscar-y films are coming out at the moment.
25:42 There's some more coming out, Maestro's out next week, and Zone of Interest is coming
25:46 out, and Poor Things, but May/December, which is kind of in the Oscar-y running for, I think,
25:52 the acting awards particularly.
25:53 So May/December, it's not had a mass release.
25:55 It's by a director called Todd Haynes, which I'm a big fan of, Dick Carroll, and stars
26:00 Nathalie Portman and Julianne Moore, who are both, like, obviously great actresses, and
26:03 they're both right at the top of their game in this.
26:05 It's wonderful to see them acting opposite each other, and it's a really naughty, kind
26:09 of chewy story.
26:11 So basically, Nathalie Portman plays an actress who's researching a role.
26:15 She's going to play Julianne Moore's character, and Julianne Moore, at the age of 36, married
26:20 with kids, has an affair with a 13-year-old boy, and ends up having his child in prison.
26:28 When she comes out of prison, she continues the relationship with him.
26:32 They have two further children and get married.
26:36 So this has been a tabloid scandal in America, and she's kind of been threatened by everybody,
26:42 and yet she's still with the boy that she essentially seduced at the age of 13, which
26:47 is child abuse.
26:48 Now, the film takes a very interesting approach.
26:50 It's quite funny, blackly funny for such a pretty horrible subject matter.
26:56 It kind of makes you sympathize with Julianne Moore for a part of it, because she is in
27:01 this happy relationship with the guy.
27:03 The guy seems happy.
27:04 They've had kids together.
27:06 He's only 36 when we meet them, and he's already had three children, the first of which when
27:11 he was 13.
27:12 A lot of stuff happens in this film, but make no mistake, it does not make any apologies
27:17 for her character.
27:19 She is a child abuser, and she may be a woman, and she may have married her victim, but he
27:24 is a victim.
27:25 It's a really chilly, chilly piece of cinema, and Julianne Moore's character goes through
27:30 a lot of different things during the film.
27:32 I would urge anybody to go and see it.
27:35 It's a really, really interesting film.
27:36 How it got made, I have no idea, because the subject matter is absolutely gruelling.
27:40 But it's May/December.
27:42 You won't see two better performances.
27:43 I've stuck a fiver on Natalie Portman's win, Best Actress.
27:48 I think she's got a real chance there.
27:51 It is a great film and highly recommended.
27:52 So my number four, May/December.
27:56 >> Mine is very different.
27:58 Definitely not got that subject matter in the slightest.
28:03 >> My number four is Evil Dead Rise.
28:04 >> Yes.
28:05 >> It's great.
28:06 Opening scene, probably the best opening horror scene of the year.
28:10 >> Yeah.
28:11 >> Evil Dead Rise comes up behind, if you've seen it.
28:14 Again, this is on Netflix, so you can go and watch it.
28:17 Not for nothing, but I think most people have a Netflix account these days.
28:21 It comes with a lot of packages and stuff.
28:22 So if you like horror, you like a bit of gore, a bit of slapstick, a bit of hilarity, if
28:26 you're a fan of the Evil Dead franchise, you've probably seen it already.
28:29 But if you haven't, watch it.
28:30 It's not one of those really bad sequels that doesn't deserve to be in the same conversation
28:37 as Evil Dead.
28:38 It's really gory, it's really fun.
28:39 It doesn't have too much of a plot line without being completely plotless.
28:45 It's just good.
28:46 It's just a good gory horror film.
28:49 I think if I had to choose between the best gory horror film of the year, there's two.
28:53 Evil Dead Rise and Thanksgiving.
28:55 I really like Thanksgiving as well.
28:57 But Evil Dead Rise is in a different realm in terms of the quality of the film and the
29:01 fun that comes with it.
29:03 So Evil Dead Rise 100% for me.
29:05 I agree as well.
29:06 It's a wonderful film.
29:07 I had great fun with it.
29:09 My number three film, a bit like you with The Whale, is something that came out in January.
29:12 A lot of people have forgotten about it because it was in the Oscar race for last year.
29:15 But Tar, I absolutely adore Tar.
29:17 I think that when we talked about the films earlier, I think that was maybe my number
29:20 one film.
29:21 It's dropped down a wee bit now.
29:23 It's Cape Lanchette.
29:24 Is that how you're pronouncing it?
29:25 Cape Lanchette.
29:26 Cape Lanchette.
29:27 Cape Lanchette.
29:28 So she is just, I don't think she's ever been better.
29:32 She disappears into the role of this kind of conductor, this superstar conductor, who's
29:38 fairly abusive to people.
29:40 And how abusive she is, whether she should be punished in the way she is punished or
29:43 not is a question for the audience.
29:45 But she disappears into the role and it's got the best closing scene of any film this
29:49 year.
29:50 The final scene is just absolutely breathtaking.
29:53 It's just a great film.
29:54 So anyone who has not seen Tar, it was out very early this year.
29:58 It was out in America last year.
30:00 So it's dropping through the cracks of a lot of lists, I think, because a lot of film critics
30:03 thought last year, but it did come out here this year.
30:06 So Tar is my number three film.
30:08 I actually did sort of think about that film.
30:16 I don't think it quite makes it, but I really enjoyed Tar.
30:18 I kind of, again, I was kind of like, no, that was last year, but it wasn't.
30:21 I seen it this year.
30:23 The Oscar nomination, I think, was after, just before the Oscars.
30:27 And I really enjoyed it.
30:28 Really good film.
30:29 I do think Cate Blanchett is probably her best role.
30:35 She's done.
30:36 So I agree.
30:38 My number three, and I got a seat on the plane to Canada again, and I was so happy about
30:45 it and I realized actually it's even better than I thought it was.
30:48 And it's just one of the best films I've ever seen in my life.
30:52 And it's a film I'm going to be obsessed with for the rest of time.
30:55 Pope's Exorcist.
30:56 So good, man.
30:57 Is that really this year, the Pope's Exorcist?
31:02 I think because we've talked about it so much, it feels like it's about two years old.
31:08 Just so good.
31:09 I can't even put it into words how much fun it is.
31:14 Like I completely forgot.
31:15 I was gutting myself laughing on the plane.
31:18 Now I'm terrified of flying to the point where I shake on a plane.
31:20 This is a seven hour flight to Toronto.
31:22 Sorry, Toronto.
31:23 I got to get it right.
31:24 I don't pronounce the second T. The bit where the nuns are like checking him out, which
31:32 wouldn't happen.
31:33 And he goes, "Cuckoo."
31:39 It's Lethal Weapon with priests.
31:42 Every minute's perfection.
31:43 I can't believe it's not in my top 10.
31:46 I'm going to put it in my top 10.
31:47 It's number nine and a half.
31:49 This is a staggering work of genius and I can't wait to watch it again.
31:53 Did you know that doing a sequel has been confirmed?
31:56 I can't wait for that.
31:59 I just want that to be made right now.
32:01 Make two at once.
32:02 Just make as many as you can.
32:04 Just get Russell Crowe to just make Pope's Exorcist films for the rest of his life.
32:09 It's the bit when they're trying to sack him at the Vatican.
32:12 Obviously he's the Pope's Exorcist and he goes, "Speak to my boss."
32:18 And he's got his espresso in that.
32:20 Oh man, Russell Crowe deserves everything he gets.
32:23 Fabulous film.
32:24 Fabulous film.
32:25 Very good.
32:26 Going to something a little bit different, my second favorite film of the year is another
32:30 one which hasn't been seen a huge amount, didn't get a mass release.
32:33 Beyond Utopia, which is a documentary by Madeline Gavin about families trying to escape North
32:39 Korea, which is something I knew very, very little about.
32:43 You can't get from North Korea to South Korea because there's the DMZ, the demilitarized
32:49 zone.
32:50 There's no way to get between the two countries.
32:52 To get from North Korea to South Korea, you've got to go via China, Vietnam, Thailand, and
32:58 then get boat to South Korea.
33:01 These families who escape, you can escape over a river and there's basically machine
33:04 gunners and searchlights and everything, but you can get over this river to China and try
33:08 to escape.
33:09 There's various networks set up and people who help people try to get out of North Korea.
33:15 It's one of the most exciting films of the year.
33:18 It plays like a thriller.
33:19 It doesn't play like a documentary.
33:21 Find yourself thinking several times in it.
33:23 You've got to remember you're watching real people because they're hacking through jungle
33:27 to get into Vietnam and all of its films on camera.
33:31 I don't even know how the filmmakers got the footage.
33:34 You don't know who's going to survive and who doesn't.
33:36 There's no spoiler to say not everyone makes it.
33:39 People do die on the journey.
33:40 You meet these people and then you lose them.
33:44 It's absolutely soul destroying.
33:45 It made me cry a huge amount, but it is exciting.
33:48 It's an action film almost.
33:51 I think it'll win the Oscar for best documentary.
33:53 I really hope it does anyway.
33:54 Hopefully, it'll get a bit more love if it does get nominated.
33:56 Hopefully, it gets re-released because you want to see it on a really big screen as well.
34:01 My number two, Beyond Utopia, I would recommend it so much to anybody to watch it.
34:05 It's just a wonderful documentary.
34:08 My number two is very much a new addition.
34:11 I think you know what's coming.
34:16 We haven't spoke about it in depth because obviously, I hadn't seen it until last week
34:21 when I got back from Canada.
34:22 You'd recommend it for weeks.
34:24 I've missed the unlimited screening.
34:27 Really like the main actor, so I was kind of sold I'm going to see it anyway.
34:30 I just think it's, can I say bloody brilliant?
34:33 I've said it now.
34:34 I've done it now.
34:35 What are you going to do?
34:38 I think if people are in any way kind of taken aback by that language, they shouldn't go
34:42 and see Saltburn.
34:43 Yes.
34:44 You'll never catch me.
34:45 What's that famous quote?
34:46 What's it called?
34:47 The guy and the dancer.
34:48 Have you seen that?
34:49 No.
34:50 Oh, man.
34:51 What's it called again?
34:52 The dancer.
34:53 It's gone out my head.
34:54 What are you going to do?
34:55 Shoot me.
34:56 Brilliant.
34:57 If you know, you know.
34:58 If you haven't, you've just been into a really bizarre segment of the podcast.
35:04 Saltburn, brilliant soundtrack.
35:06 Amazing.
35:07 Disgusting.
35:08 Absolutely disgusting.
35:09 Absolutely disgusting.
35:10 Filth.
35:11 Total filth.
35:12 Love it.
35:13 Love it.
35:14 End scene, best scene of the year.
35:17 Incredible.
35:18 Yeah, I was seeing Tar is the best final scene of the year, but Saltburn definitely gives
35:22 it a run for its money.
35:24 Saltburn is the best scene of the year.
35:28 The end bit is just brilliant.
35:30 Like impossibly good.
35:32 No, I agree, Saltburn.
35:35 It's just outside my top ten.
35:37 I had one or two tiny wee niggles about it, but it's an incredible performance by, I'm
35:41 going to try to pronounce his name, Barry Keegan.
35:44 Nope.
35:45 Nope.
35:46 Do it.
35:47 Barry Keoghan.
35:48 Keoghan.
35:49 Keoghan.
35:50 So says Google.
35:51 Nope.
35:52 I'm sure Google is right.
35:53 He's just great in it, and it is disgusting.
35:55 He's also naked in it.
35:58 Yeah, he's very naked in it.
35:59 He's extremely naked in it.
36:01 He's not naked in it.
36:02 He is a very confident man.
36:04 With good reason.
36:06 Good reason to be confident, I'd say.
36:09 Good dancer.
36:10 Good dancer.
36:11 Yeah, it's great.
36:12 It is disgusting.
36:13 It's, yeah, it's just almost impossible to recommend to anybody.
36:19 I cannot recommend it to anyone apart from you, Graham.
36:22 You're the only person I could recommend it to, because I don't want to be responsible
36:26 for people to go and see it.
36:28 The only thing, the way I can describe the film to you, and this is how I'm going to
36:32 sell it, it made me be sick in my mouth a little bit, but I swallowed it afterwards.
36:37 High praise.
36:40 I actually think they should put that on the DVD box.
36:44 Graham Falk, it made me be a bit sick in my mouth, but I swallowed it.
36:47 The Scotsman.
36:48 Five stars.
36:49 It made me be sick in my mouth, but I did it again.
36:53 No, no.
36:54 It's absolutely tremendous, I'm looking forward to going to see it again, unbelievably.
37:01 But anyone who doesn't know, it's about a guy at university who goes and stays with
37:05 a very wealthy family over the summer holidays, and he's a kind of cuckoo in the nest, and
37:11 very bad things happen, and Richard E. Grant's spectacular in it as well.
37:15 It's very, very funny.
37:16 And it's just really, really funny.
37:17 It's one of the funniest films of the year, but there are moments in it of just complete
37:22 filth.
37:23 I love that scene with the apple bottom jeans and the boots with the fur.
37:27 It was two wedding casual scenes.
37:29 He's got the whole crowd looking at her, and he's like...
37:35 The scene with Pet Shop Boys is very good.
37:37 It's very good as well, yeah.
37:39 Every scene's great.
37:40 No, totally agree, totally agree, fantastic film.
37:42 I thought that was going to be your number one.
37:43 So my number one film of the year, which will come as no surprise to anyone who knows me,
37:47 because I've been raving about it past lives.
37:50 Past lives is not just my favourite film of the year, it's one of my favourite films
37:53 of all time, it's in my top 20 of all time.
37:55 I love films that make me look at the world in a different way, and this changes the way
38:00 I actually think about my daily life in a funny sort of way.
38:04 It's a film by Celine Song, her debut film.
38:08 It's another female debut directorial effort, which is just absolutely fantastic.
38:13 It's about two childhood friends in South Korea.
38:16 The girl's family moved to Canada, and then she moves to America later in it.
38:20 And it just looks over their 24-year relationship, where they get separated, then they get reunited
38:26 in America.
38:27 They're clearly meant to be together, but he ends up getting girlfriends, she ends up
38:31 getting married.
38:33 And it's just this lovingly shot, beautiful film about love and about the impossibility
38:39 of love.
38:40 And it introduces this concept of in-young, which is you only end up with the person you're
38:45 meant to be after 8,000 past lives, the past lives of the title.
38:49 And so in one life, you might just touch hands when you walk past each other in the street.
38:53 In another life, you might be together for a couple of days.
38:56 In another life, you might never meet, but it constantly builds up.
39:00 And after 8,000 lives, you end up with the one you love, which I think is a beautiful
39:05 concept.
39:06 The end of the film made me cry hard.
39:09 I cry all the time in the cinema.
39:11 It made me cry to a horrible extent that I was actually beginning to snort.
39:16 I was like big, big snotty tears.
39:19 It's beautiful.
39:20 Graham, you genuinely would enjoy it.
39:22 You'll never go and see it.
39:23 I know you'll never go and see it, but you would absolutely love it.
39:26 It's a triumph of a film.
39:27 And I just hope that it pulls a parasite and takes all the Oscars in a surprising manner.
39:32 It'll get Best Foreign Language Film out of Cantor, but I think it'll be up for Best Film
39:36 as well, maybe Best Director.
39:38 And I hope it wins everything.
39:39 So my number one film of the year, which is irritating Graham massively, is Past Lives.
39:45 I really hope I haven't seen it in a past life.
39:50 It just, it's so you, it actually annoys me a bit.
39:55 Like it makes me sick.
39:56 Oh, you might touch hands and you're different, but no one cares.
39:59 Does it make you sick in your mouth, but you want to swallow it or not?
40:03 It makes me sick in my mouth and it comes directly out.
40:07 My number one is Far More Normal.
40:09 It doesn't make you think about life quite as much as that, but will make you think about
40:12 life and it's about how.
40:16 If you like Barbie, apparently it's about how men are bad, but no, it's a really good
40:19 film.
40:20 And as much as I wanted to push Saltburn up there, this is a film where I went to see
40:24 it and for every minute of the film, I was glued to it.
40:29 Look, it's not an unknown film.
40:33 It's going to be something that's at the top of a lot of people's lists.
40:36 Even people who don't really watch films that much.
40:38 But I thought the film was excellent.
40:40 I thought it was best in a couple of decades and I kind of thought we'd lost it recently.
40:47 He obviously hasn't with this film.
40:50 I think Cillian Murphy deserves the Oscar for it.
40:53 Oppenheimer, 100%.
40:55 By far the best film I've seen this year.
40:57 And I think anyone who says it's not, look, film's subjective, but anyone who says that
41:01 Oppenheimer is not the best film of the year, they're just saying it because it's popular
41:04 and they don't want to say it.
41:05 It was an absolute masterpiece and that would get in my top 10 of films ever made.
41:12 And look, I'm not as obvious as it may seem.
41:15 I like weird things as well.
41:16 I mean, Necromantic is in my top five films.
41:18 I'm a little bit twee as well sometimes, but verging on the kind of sick in your mouth
41:22 might swallow it bit.
41:24 However, Oppenheimer was my number one because it was just blummin' brilliant.
41:28 And it does make you think, does make you think we're all knackered.
41:32 We're all idiots.
41:33 Yes.
41:34 And it's correct.
41:35 It is correct.
41:36 There's no doubt about it.
41:37 The accuracy of it.
41:38 And if we look back at 2023, the main thing we're going to take from 2023 is it's all
41:46 knackered.
41:47 And that's what I want to leave you with at the end of this episode.
41:49 Merry Christmas, everyone.
41:51 [MUSIC PLAYING]
41:54 [MUSIC PLAYING]
41:57 [MUSIC PLAYING]
42:01 [MUSIC PLAYING]
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42:07 [MUSIC PLAYING]
42:11 [MUSIC PLAYING]
42:14 [MUSIC PLAYING]
42:17 [MUSIC PLAYING]
42:21 [MUSIC PLAYING]
42:24 [LAUGHTER]
42:26 We're all knackered.
42:28 We're all going to die alone.
42:30 [LAUGHTER]
42:31 Pretty much.
42:32 Thanks for joining.
42:35 Cheers to that.
42:36 Goodbye, Graham.
42:37 See you next week, hopefully.
42:38 Jane, Jane, turn it off.
42:39 [LAUGHTER]
42:40 [END OF RECORDING]
42:40 (laughing)