EPISODE 100 CELEBRATION & Best Films Of 2025 So Far

Eli (00:18.412)
Hello and welcome to the establishing shot.

Eli (00:29.602)
Hello and welcome to The Establishing Shot, a podcast where we do deep dives into directors and their filmographies. I am your host, Eli Price, and we are here on episode 100. Very, very exciting. I'm just thrilled to be sharing this episode with you. I am excited that I've reached triple digits.

didn't know at times if I would keep going. it's, as an independent movie podcaster, would be very, very easy to just stop. and, yeah, so, it's, it's an incredible honor to have been able to do this for this, this long, not terribly long relative to other podcasts, but, a big deal for me and for this small little podcast. and so I'm super, super excited.

Have some good things in store for you today Obviously, we're not doing a deep dive into a director in particular or a film in particular today We're in the middle of a Spielberg series. So if you're looking forward to Keeping moving with that we will be picking it back up next week with Spielberg's warhorse So that's exciting on the last stretch of his career I've been a long time going through that. So yeah

That will be next week, but this week we're gonna take a little break and we are going to do a few things. first of all, I'm going to be doing a best of 2025 so far. I'm gonna share some of my favorite films of the year so far, kind of like a top 10 countdown so far. I've only seen 20 films this year so far, which I kind of listened back to my best of the year so far.

episode last year for 2024 and I was kind of at the same point at that point in the year at about 20 films and I ended up seeing a ton of films from 2024. So this list is just kind of like a so far kind of list. Usually the beginnings of years are movie years are less loaded with good stuff than the back end of the year. So lots of great stuff still to come.

Eli (02:57.07)
Some good stuff this summer with some big, you know superhero blockbusters Amongst other things so I'm looking forward to a lot of movies this summer in this fall, but I have seen 20 of 2025 so far so I'm gonna get into those So what I'll do is I'll count down from 10 to 1 I'll do my first 5 10 to 6 and then

What we'll do is we'll pause that countdown and I'm gonna do a episode 100 celebration in the middle of the episode. I got past and possibly future guests to send in submissions as well as a few listeners. And yeah, I basically asked people to submit their favorite film.

the movies that we've covered so far from the three directors Wes Anderson Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg and Yeah, I got a lot of great submissions for that. So I'm gonna share those Then I'll kind of share some of my favorites and then a couple of just reflections on being a hundred episodes into the show And then yeah, we'll finish the episode off count finishing that countdown from my fifth favorite to my number one movie of the year so far

Um, and yeah, it's going to be a fun episode. It is episode 100. So it's just fun for that reason alone. But, uh, yeah, let's jump right into it. The best of the 2025 year so far. Uh, so as I'm going through this list, you might hear some titles that you're like, I thought that was a 2024 film. And some of them, at least one of them for sure. I know was on a lot of 2024 lists.

but it really didn't get a release here in the U S until 2025. and so, yeah, so there might be, there might be more than one like that. I, I'm not really sure, honestly. but, but yeah, I kind of go by like the release year in the U S, when it actually got like a limited or, or, you know, internet release here. so yeah, so, but that aside, that thought aside.

Eli (05:17.132)
Let's start off with my number 10 movie of the year so far. will say all of these movies I have rated four stars out of five or higher. No five stars yet. So four, four and a half stars from 10 to one. So yeah, these are all movies that I think are really, really great. So at number 10, I have the movie, Ethos.

You might be wondering what in the world is that? cause I was wondering the same thing when I first heard of it. it's spelled E E P H U S if you want to look it up, later. So I've probably felt like that should be spelled out there. Ethos is a debut feature film by director Carson Lund. and it is basically a baseball hangout movie. It is, it follows,

these two teams of college age to middle aged men that are on a rec league kind of recreational baseball league. They're playing their last game at Soldier Field. I think it's called before it gets torn down and the field's getting torn down. They're building a school on the location. And so it's really their last, their last go in their rec league.

and, yeah, it's, it's really, it's, it's a, it's not a plot. There's no plot. It's just the following them through the game. conversations, yeah, some exciting, you know, baseball moments, I guess. but it's really just about the, simple things that bring us joy in life. I think at the end of the day, things that maybe don't matter to

anyone else except maybe you and the ones you share it with, know? Things that other people would say, who cares? But to you, it means the world because it's an escape or it's just something that you feel great passion or competitiveness about. It gives you life. It gives you something to strive for, some sort of...

Eli (07:34.862)
purpose or joy and that's really I think what this movie is about and yeah and it at the same time you know just by the nature of it being the field going away and them losing this it's kind of about the grief that you have for those things when you lose them and one thing I thought was interesting is it's about grief in the last moments of something

lot of times grief is explored in films after the fact, after the event, the terrible event or whatever has happened. But in this movie, when the game ends and the sun goes down and they all drive away, they all drive away. You don't go with them and see what they do after or what they, you know.

Eli (08:32.128)
what, how they feel about it later in life. you're just, yeah, you, just kind of grieve it with them as it slowly slips away. I think it's a really beautifully shot film. has some profound moments. Really, really enjoyed EFIS. At number nine, I have the movie I'm Still Here. This is the main movie I was talking about that you may say, wasn't that a 2024 film? sort of, but it wasn't released here until 2025.

This is a movie from acclaimed Brazilian director Walter Sals. It got Oscar nominations for Best Picture, Best International Feature, and Best Actress for Fernanda Torres in the movie. And it actually won Best International Feature. And I think it probably was the Best International Feature last year, or one of them at least. It deserved the award.

It's very good. It's about the very interesting true story of I think it's like 70s Brazil. There is a basically a military coup takeover. A dictatorship is kind of implanted in the government. And yeah, a bunch of kind of ex-Congressmen in the case of the husband of the family in focus in this movie.

and people in business, just people that had connections that this new military dictatorship doesn't like, were kind of just taken from their families and some of them, you know, were tortured and questioned and sent back and some of them just disappeared and never came back. And that's what this movie is about. It follows Fernanda Torres as the lead.

as the character Eunice Pava, her husband Ruben's Pava is taken one day. You kind of spend some time getting to know the family, just really connecting with them, which I really loved that section of the movie. And then, yeah, when the husband and dad is just gone, the rest of the movie, it's very devastating. You really don't see him again, which I think is a great choice.

Eli (10:53.942)
Yeah, it's a it's a inspiring yet sad movie. and yeah, just about the perseverance of this woman to provide for her family, but also seek justice, not only for her husband and her family, but for all of the people that lost, people due to this, this takeover. yeah, she, you know, moves to

Sal Palo with her family gets a law degree at the age of 48. and, it's about the perseverance, not just of this woman in the face of adversity, but about the perseverance of her family. Her family could have easily just broken the pieces. but you, you flash forward and see them well adjusted and successful. And, yeah, a really inspiring, you know, story with that deaf.

Definitely melancholy sort of feel to it. So I'm still here. Very good. I should have noted where you can see these. Ephus, going back a little bit, you can get on VOD right now. I'm still here is on Netflix, so you can go watch it there. My number eight movie of the year is Friendship. It is the debut feature

For director Andrew de Young so another debut feature here It is very much a Tim Robinson vehicle If you're not familiar with Tim Robinson, he's done some stints on SNL and also has the popular show I've never seen it called I Think you should leave I think is what it's called. I could be butchering that but

Yeah, it's definitely a Tim Robinson vehicle. He is it's a comedy. he is Tim Robinson how to describe him his humor is uncomfortable and and it can it's like it moves from like subtle uncomfortability to like loud in your face obnoxious uncomfortability, in the matter of like milliseconds and

Eli (13:15.776)
It's definitely like not a sort of comedy that everyone will vibe with, but I find it really funny. It's uncomfortable and it's like, you never know what is gonna come out of his mouth. And the character of the titular friendship that...

plays alongside Tim Robinson is Paul Rudd who plays really well against him. I love this character. Really, really funny. A lot of uncomfortable humor. It has a kind of horror score going. A very A24 film sort of thing. A comedy with a horror score. And you do get more horrifically uncomfortable as the movie goes on as this man spirals out of

out of control. But yeah, it's, you know, I guess it's in a way about just the loneliness and isolation that middle-aged men might feel, I guess. I don't know. It's really, really funny. It's probably the best pure comedy I've seen in theaters in a long time. So, highly recommend friendship if you like uncomfortable

over-the-top humor. And yeah, it's still in theaters, so you can go see it in theaters now, as of the release of this anyway. And yeah, at number seven I have the movie Warfare. This is a team-up of director Alex Garland of ex Machina Annihilation fame. Civil War was his last movie.

It's a team-up of him, Alex Garland, and Raymond Doza, who is a Navy SEAL veteran and a film military advisor in Hollywood. So this is his first time directing, co-directing with Alex Garland. He worked with him as a military advisor in Civil War. That's kind of, think, I don't know if that's how they met, but that's how they started working together more deeply, I guess.

Eli (15:36.238)
But yeah, this movie tells the real story of a mission gone wrong in Iraq in November of 2006. They got testimonies of the survivors of this mission. And yeah, built the story, built the, you know, I guess the screenplay, the story, whatever you want to call it around those testimonies. What I really liked about this, there's not really, there's no plotting, there's no plot kind of.

driving the movie. There's no real like character development necessarily other than just kind of like being there with them and kind of getting to know them a little bit that way. There's no explanation of the mission. You're just kind of dropped into the mission and you experience it with the team. You don't really know why they're there or what they're after. You are just like listening them to call codes and try to survive once things go wrong.

And it's this very, you know, this work gets thrown around a lot, but it is a very visceral experience. Very uncomfortable at times. It leaves you questioning the point of it all. A really interesting choice of an ending, kind of shot ending little piece there at the end. And yeah, I thought it was really, really extremely well made. Very like...

I saw it in theaters and it was really, really drew me in and yeah, made me uncomfortable, made me sad, made me angry, you know, as movie, war movies like this can. And yeah, I thought this was just a really well-made movie. At number six, I have the documentary, Deaf President Now.

This is a documentary by first-time director Nyle DiMarco and also award-winning documentarian Davis Guggenheim. Guggenheim has directed movies like It Might Get Loud, which was kind of a movie about some guitarists that I've watched in the past that I thought was really good. The Malala movie he directed

Eli (18:01.262)
Michael J. Fox movie still from a couple years ago. So he's a he's an accomplished documentarian joined by Nile DiMarco, who's a first-timer in the director's chair. This documentary is the story of a little-known civil rights protest by deaf students at Gallaudet University in DC in 1988. It kind of

uses talking heads of, which that's the term, they're signing, which is talking, but yeah, talking heads of the kind of student leaders of this protest from when it happened. So this is their modern-day talking heads of them looking back on this event. And it goes between that and archive footage of this event. It's in 1988, so there was tons of

media and news coverage of these events, as well as just filming of the events as they were happening by probably students. So there's a lot of archive footage to go with this event. But yeah, at Gallaudet University, the university itself was instituted by... I want to say it was Abraham Lincoln, but I'm not positive on that. I think I might have...

heard that, but don't. If that's just completely long, just give me grace. But they had had 124 years of this university with no president that was deaf, and these students decided enough is enough. They wanted a deaf president, someone who understood them, someone who understood their struggles, someone who could be a president that could actually speak for them, and yeah.

And so this, I should say, this university is a deaf-only university. It's, everything is, you know, all the professors sign, and yeah, it's just a kind of a safe space for deaf students to go and get a university experience that is catered to their needs. So really, really cool, but they were done with...

Eli (20:28.76)
Presidents that could hear Not because they would be they were necessarily like against them or are bad or necessarily They just didn't understand who they were or what their needs were because they weren't deaf. They they didn't know the struggle And yeah, I found this movie inspiring. I found it exciting You know because I didn't know these events Just anticipating what was gonna happen very moving

You know, I just really thought it was a great documentary. so I recommend checking out Deaf President Now. it is streaming on Apple TV Plus. So you can, if you have that, you can go check it out or you know, get a, a free, free trial to Apple TV Plus. I should mention too Warfare, I don't think is streaming or on VOD yet. It might be.

Yeah, it's on VOD now, so you can rent it at home. yeah, so all these movies you can watch at home if you need to so far, except for Friendship, which is still in theaters. yeah, that is my 10 down through six. And yeah, so at this point in the show, I'm going to transition into my 100 year celebration.

Eli (22:07.183)
I am so excited to be in...

Eli (22:19.31)
100 episodes, very exciting. I am so happy to just have been able to have this experience with you, the listeners, and also just with all of my guests that I've been able to have on, a lot of great guests, just some friends that love movies that helped me get this thing kicked off coming on as guests and just

Yeah, just kickstarting this thing. Shout out to Jacob Phillips and Hayden Fobb, Thomas Piers and Harrison Frederick. Those guys really came in at the beginning and helped me get this thing going. Before I really had any sort of networking to reach out to people, I was just like, get my friends to come on and talk about movies.

not that they were lesser guests, they were great guests because we love talking about movies and they're kind of just like me. Just love watching movies and talking about them. But yeah, shout out to those guys. Love you guys. Thank y'all so much for helping me kick this thing off, but man, we've come a long way. I've built a kind of a network of guests.

that I've had on or even future guests that I haven't had on yet that would love to come on. So it's just been such a great experience. I wanna share a couple of reflections on that, but first I would like to share some past guests and future guests and listener submissions to my question. So what I did was I asked people to...

send in audio or video of them sharing their favorite film of the directors we've covered so far. So, you know, we started with Wes Anderson, then we covered Christopher Nolan, and we, yeah, we were hitting Spielberg, chugging along, working our way through the rest of his filmography. So they could pick any movie from those three directors.

Eli (24:40.462)
And yeah, we got some great submissions since we covered Wes Anderson first I think I will share some of those picks first so We had a few people pick Wes Anderson movies. So here those are. Hope you enjoy those

Eli (25:05.826)
Those were some great picks. Can't really fault any of those. Yeah, Wes Anderson is just one of those directors that I love. He's just one of my all time favorites. Even watching through all of Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg, I think if I had to only choose one director in his movies from what I've covered so far, it might still have to be Wes. He's just...

I vibe with the humor and the emotional, just the surprising emotional moments that catch you off guard. Love some Wes Anderson. My favorite when I came out of that series was the Royal Tenenbaums, but man, really, you know, I could go with like Elijah said, I could go with Fantastic Fox on any given day. I could go on...

I could go with the Grand Budapest Hotel on any given day. I could go with Rushmore on any given day. there those four, especially, I just love. and even, you know, Joe picked, Asteroid City and that one is growing in my estimation. You know, it could, it could rise its way up to the top eventually. I just, I love Wes Anderson. Great, great picks from those guys. Thank you. next up we have some Christopher Nolan picks. So.

I'm going to share some of those submissions, so enjoy these.

Eli (26:45.1)
great great picks there. You know, the Dark Knight. There might be more of those choices to come with the Dark Knight trilogy, yeah, Inception, great choice. You know, it's hard. It is kind of hard to pick a Nolan movie. I have two kind of that sit at the top for me. My just all-time favorite is Interstellar. Love Interstellar.

just a I'm a sucker for sci-fi space movies and then you throw Matthew McConaughey and you know paradox black hole paradoxes and you know the the scene with McConaughey in front of the screen with his videos from his kids makes me cry every time even though I know it's coming and even though you know some people might not go for it it works for me

Love, love, love Interstellar. Saw it twice in theaters and I don't do that very often. love that movie. Dunkirk is the other one up there. I don't think there's a such thing as a perfect movie, but Dunkirk is up there close to it for me. Just so fun in the way it's constructed. Not a fun movie to watch necessarily.

you know, because of the nature of the content, but it's, it's so expertly clockworkly, if that's a word, designed and, and constructed love it. yeah, those would be my two Nolan picks there at the top. But, yeah, we did have some Spielberg picks as well. so I'm going to share a couple of those Spielberg picks and yeah, excited to.

hear what those are. I hope you are too.

Eli (28:52.524)
Great, great, great picks there. Love, been really, really enjoying some Spielberg. So yeah, it's hard. It's, it is hard to choose a Spielberg. I, I kind of like, I've, I've had a favorite Spielberg for a long time and even going through this marathon, it's, it's hard for me to change it. And that's Jaws.

Love Jaws, there it is behind me if you're watching the video. I just love Jaws. It's exciting. It has some emotional punching moments. I think it's more relevant today in its content than other than any other time. A quintessential American film.

The Godfather and this sort of kicked off the summer blockbuster for better or worse, I guess. I love Jaws. Other movies up at the top for Spielberg for me are E.T., Schindler's List, Jurassic Park. Love those as well. But yeah, great picks. Hard to fault any Spielberg movie. Well, there's a couple that you could fault, yeah, more picks to come.

I had a few submissions. A couple of them were by Pairs. if you remember, had Chasa and Charlize West on for an episode. They're sisters that are filmmakers that are friends of mine that I had on there. They submitted something. Jen and Sarah from Movies and Us podcast sent in a submission. They had some really great thoughts on a couple of their choices.

and then Andrew Kornes who has a podcast called the revisionist almanac where he goes back and Yeah, it's really interesting. He goes back to movie years rewatches a bunch of movies and then has some guests on to kind of revise the Oscar wins so best picture and the the actor Nominations they do nominations. They pick some winners

Eli (31:13.706)
revised for those years. yeah, that really fun concept. I think he shares a little bit about that in his submission. But yeah, so Andrew kind of, he called himself, I think a rapscallion and picked one movie from each director. So I included him in this kind of section, but yeah, these are some really great submissions. Enjoy those.

Eli (31:55.094)
Yeah, I again Spielberg Nolan Wes Anderson, it's hard to fault most of their a lot of their movies really for if any of them are your favorites Really Spielberg's only one that has a few that i'm like, well if that's your favorite Spielberg movie, you know, i'm not so sure about it, but nonetheless Great picks. thank you guys for sharing. I have a few more to share. these are from my family. So

Some of my in-laws, my mom, my wife, some, you know, some great submissions here. So enjoy these.

Eli (32:48.078)
Well, thanks to everyone who submitted for this 100 episode celebration. Thank you so much. means a ton to me that you took a moment of time to, yeah, to just share your favorite movies of stuff I've been covering. These directors have become near and dear to my heart, obviously, as I've worked through them. And yeah, it's been fun. I have a couple of...

I have a couple of reflections I would like to share after a hundred episodes. And the first one is just as I get closer to wrapping up my third director, three very different directors might I add in Wes Anderson, Christopher Nolan and Steven Spielberg. It really just solidifies my love of watching through filmographies of directors. I've done this with

You know other directors before I started doing this podcast watching through chronologically their You know their filmographies or even just kind of like even if it's not Chronological just kind of like skipping around and watching movies as they become available from a director to fill out the filmography I just love watching movies this way And and this do this podcast endeavor has just solidified that love

And really like one of the things that you've, you, you begin to find really this can apply to any art film, art form, film being the specific one I'm covering, but just that the fact that true art is found, not just in singular pieces, although it obviously is found, found in singular pieces, whether it's a film or a painting or a photograph or a piece of music.

True art is definitely found in those singular pieces, but I think it's especially found in the body of work of an artist. You get to see their shifting perspectives and ideas over time, and it ends up kind of adding up to a whole idea or a whole story or just a whole observation or picture of their perspective on the world.

Eli (35:09.326)
And I think that's really a beautiful thing to be able to take the body of work of an artist, watch it, look at it, enjoy it, think about it, explore it. It's like, it's one of the few opportunities we have to really like dive into the depths of who someone is. know, artists pour their work in

their heart and their souls into their work, into their art. And that seeps into what you watch and what you see and what you take in. so, you know, I just love that. I just love that endeavor to just take in the whole of an artist's body of work and explore what they see in the world, what their perspectives are. And then with

Especially with film, you're not just getting the director's body of work and their perspective and their ideas, but they collaborate with so many people, with writers and cinematographers and composers and editors, and you're just getting all of those people's ideas and perspectives seep in too. It just creates this body of work, this collaborative body of work that's

beautiful not because Maybe like the films themselves are beautiful Or like, you know, you might have you might have some that are better some that are worse some that are great Some that are not very good But that doesn't matter what matters is the the body of work itself is beautiful because it's a it's it's an act of creation It's a work. It's a especially like it's a collaborative community driven effort to create something that

people will enjoy to create something that will make people think, to create something that will make people feel and yeah, and create something that people will come together and watch and enjoy together. And so I just love, love, love that aspect of, you know, what we're about in this endeavor of, you know, doing deep dives into directors and their filmographies.

Eli (37:32.366)
The second, I guess, kind of take away or reflection from being 100 episodes in is just, I've just found great community around film. It started with just kind of a few friends that I had, I shouted out some of them earlier, that we just started talking about movies a ton and you kind of find community around that.

But then, know, as I've kind of branched out and met new people in the space, you know, there's a ton of independent movie podcasters out there like me who are, you know, self-producing their shows, editing their shows, getting them out into the world themselves. And it's a lot of work. And so when you find people that are working hard and hustling, doing something just for the love of the game,

like you are it's really easy to connect with those people and and so, you know, I've found community with With some of those people, know, you know people like Melvin and with cinematic doctrine that's been on a few times the the the girls that movies and us Jen and Sarah that you heard from and Andrew corns that you heard from too He hasn't even been on my podcast. I haven't been on his but we've

We've connected over social media, just encouraging each other in our podcast endeavors. so movie critics, people in that space on, it's people that have written books, exploring film on people that have been working. Some of my friends that have done some acting work or directing and producing work.

It's just, it's been fun to kind of just build this little community around myself, people that love film and love to explore it for, you know, all the same reasons I do and more and share our perspectives. You, it's, you know, built around the love of this art form. You get to explore it together. It helps you learn more about yourself. It helps you learn more about each other. helps you see different perspectives of the world.

Eli (39:59.512)
teaches you how to, and at the end of the day, all of this helps you grow, teaches you how to love and care for each other and the world better through that exploration together in that community, in that culture. And so I've just grown to really appreciate that aspect of this and encourage other people to find that.

themselves that community that that space where you can explore something that you're passionate about with other people and and and learn from each other grow And hopefully be become better people in the process. And so yeah, really really really love this community this independent movie podcaster community this you know, also, you know movie critics and

the community of just kind of pals, just friends that I like talking movies with in everyday life. yeah, really, really love it. It's an honor to have reached 100 episodes with all of you. And yeah, I'm just, I just don't even know what else to say. I can't believe I've made it this far. Hopefully I can keep chugging along and maybe get to 100 more, maybe.

We'll be doing 200 episode reflections before you, before we know it. So, yeah, that is it for my reflections on 100 episodes. Let's get back to the best of 2025 so far. So we left off at number six. So now we're at number five. This is the most recent movie I saw in theaters. I saw it just...

This past weekend. I saw the Phoenician scheme Wes Anderson's new movie. So This is gonna be covered on the podcast in the future. I don't have it slated or scheduled yet It might be next year before we get to it on the podcast But that's okay because that gives us time to get some bonus features to learn more about it and you know kind of have time to watch it again reflect on it that sort of thing, but But yeah the Phoenician scheme

Eli (42:26.382)
This is Wes Anderson's 14th feature film. Um, and it's his third major project in the last three years, you know, he had asteroid city come out. He had the kind of, uh, rolled doll shorts, um, which was a, a, you know, it's a big project. There was, there were four of them kind of add up to a feature length. Um, and then there's, um, this movie, uh, the Phoenician scheme. Uh, it is an all star cast. I'm gonna, I'm gonna blurt out all of these returning.

Cast members that have been in his movies in the past Benicio del Toro, Bill Murray, Tom Hanks, Bryan Cranston, Riz Ahmed, Jeffrey Wright, Matthew Amalric, Scarlett Johansson, Steve Park, Richard Ayoade, Benedict Cumberbatch, Rupert Friend, Willem Dafoe, F. Murray Abraham. I mean like come on that's Incredible incredible incredible cast and then there's two newcomers

One is one an actor that, you know, should have been in Wes Anderson movies all along and Michael Cera. He's great in this movie, really funny. And the other is Mia Threepleton, who I didn't realize until after watching it is Kate Winslet's daughter. So didn't realize that, but I can kind of see it. Yeah, great, great, great phenomenal cast.

Mia Threepleton is really really good. She hasn't been in a whole lot of anything, but she was really great, especially since she's acting off a part, well not a part, but across from Benicio del Toro who just is kill, he kills this role. Really really great. But yeah, it is more straightforward plot wise than a lot of Anderson's recent ventures like

Asteroid City or French Dispatch. More straightforward plot rise, but definitely faster paced. A lot happening in quick succession. There's some dream sequences thrown in there along the way. So yeah, it's very fast paced. So it feels like you're really having to tune in like you have for those other movies to really follow.

Eli (44:49.226)
even if it is a bit more straightforward plot wise. But also it's it might be his funniest movie yet and that's saying a lot because his movies are all filled with humor but this one is very very funny. I mean there's some Looney Tunes level like kind of like explosive comedy if you've seen it you know what I mean going on. And yeah really really funny.

But you also have this kind of political and social exploration of what we do with powerful rich men. You know, asking the kind of asking the question, are they redeemable? To what extent are they redeemable? Yeah, and yeah, just these men that are not good, they're doing terrible things and just keeping on doing terrible things and getting away with it. And what do we do with those people?

So you got that, but at the center of it all is this father-daughter relationship between Benicio del Toro's Zaza Korda, who's the lead character, and Mia Threepilton's Liesel. And yeah, just a really touching, as per usual for a Wes Anderson film, a touching relationship kind of at the center of it all.

I heard an interview where he said they actually that was like kind of the last thing that got infused to this one they had the kind of The story or about this, you know businessman And his kind of like his scheme to to build I don't know what it I don't really know exactly what they're trying to do But it doesn't really matter. You don't have to know exactly what they're trying to do It's kind of beside the point. But but yeah, eventually

He said as they wrote it, it kind of got infused with this father-daughter relationship. And yeah, some very touching moments. A lot more heavy exploration of religion in this one as well. That's very interesting. This is definitely one I want to see again.

Eli (47:12.692)
Wes Anderson's movies, I feel like especially his more recent ones really really Grow in my estimation on a second viewing. So I would love to see this one again I don't know if I'll get to see it in theaters a second time, but but maybe I would be I would be game for that So that's my number five the finnician scheme At number four I have on becoming a guinea fowl

You you might be thinking strange title. It is a bit of a strange title. But this is the second feature film from the Zambian Welsh writer-director, I hope I pronounced her name correctly, Rungano Nyon- Let me start over. Rungano Nyonny. She directed the movie I Am Not a Witch that released in 2017, 2018, which is another phenomenal movie.

That I saw just last year, I think Great great movie. Also, I think set in I don't know that that one's set in Zambia like this one is But I can find out as I vamp On this this one is set in yeah, I don't know Beside the point it is sets

in some country in Africa, I am assuming maybe Zambia, as well, just like on Becoming of Guinea Fowl. And another thing I'm realizing as I opened up the I Am a Witch page is that the lead character in that movie is the same name as the lead character in this movie, Shula. So maybe there's something there. Haven't really explored that. Just noticed it. Live on air.

But it follows Shula, who is a bit of a disenfranchised young woman, kind of both from her Zambian middle-class family that's steeped in its tradition, and kind of the modern world of corporate Zoom meetings. And so she kind of feels out of place a bit in both. She exists somewhere in between the two, but not really totally in either world.

Eli (49:35.712)
So if and that's kind of that kind of plays out as you go, but it starts with her driving down the road and Finding her uncle dead on the side of the road The the funeral processions begin the traditions. the zampian traditions begin and it's it really ends up being the story of these these cousins these I think four female cousins

Shula being one of them who are uncovering this incredibly dark shared secret about their predatory uncle and it's laced with humor and warm moments while always keeping this that darkness of of the content at the forefront without it becoming too overwhelming But yeah a really really effective movie

great great acting, some incredible imagery, some really like, I don't know if would say, don't know if moving is the right word, but just like emotionally impactful moments. And man, the thing that puts, that just like pins it up onto my number four of the year so far is just an ending that might be the strongest contender for best ending of the year.

I don't want to say anything else other than that because it's something you probably should experience I found it to be powerful and moving and Yeah, so on becoming a guinea fowl I will say it is in Let's see what the language is It says it's in English, but it's not in English. I don't know why it says it's in English on on the

letterbox page. I don't know what the language of Zambia is, unfortunately, but I am trying to look it up. Okay, the language is Bimba. They do... okay, I shouldn't say that it's not in English. It's like they speak in kind of like this mix of English and Bimba, which, you know, I can only assume is the main language at least in the area of Zambia where

Eli (52:01.51)
Shula and her family live. but, so it is, lie. is the second, foreign language, kind of like part four language film on my list with I'm still here. Obviously that's in Portuguese being in Brazil. but yeah, on becoming a guinea fowl, highly, highly recommend this movie. it's on VOD right now. You can rent it, or buy it digitally.

I don't know some of these movies sometimes end up in your library So I would check that too. You can rent you can rent the DVDs like in your lot from your library For some of these movies. This is a movie that like that had some Festival runs in 2024 released in the US 2025 so yeah, so it might be out there. I don't know but it's always worth checking if you want to watch it But yeah, so here we go

Number three. This is so far for me, this is the year of Steven Soderbergh. And you will find out more of that why as I move up my list. But at number three, I have his movie Black Bag. This, I loved this movie, got to go see it in theaters. It is one of two Steven Soderbergh movies this year. They released

not far from each other within months, a few months of each other. this, directed by Steven Soderbergh, who knows how many films this is for him, he just like pumps out films. But the script was written by the great American screenwriter David Kep. You've definitely seen a David Kep written movie before, I can almost guarantee it. He's written a lot of great stuff.

But it stars Michael Fassbender and Cate Blanchett as a married couple working for Britain's National Cyber Security Center. Which is kind of like a spy-ish kind of branch of the government in a way. They're basically all spies working for the government. But yeah, is, first of all, Michael Fassbender is incredible. Cate Blanchett is incredible.

Eli (54:28.526)
probably there I mean I think I can say with confidence they're two of the best working actors you know working right now really great they're a married couple I've been telling people that this is a spy thriller about monogamy because I think it is the the the premise is basically just that

The the fastbender character does a lot of internal investigation stuff. His wife comes up on a list that he's supposed to investigate For something that's going on doesn't matter a ton And so yeah, there's Him and some of their friends. There's some great great great dialogue sequences with all of them around a table Phenomenal phenomenal script by Kep here The acting is captivating. It's incredibly paced

And really like it can be enjoyed simply as just a spy thriller But it also has like some deeper stuff under the surface, you know, I said it's about monogamy I think I think it is I think it's exploring like how strange it is to devote yourself to to one person How strange yet right I guess I should say and beautiful that can be but also like really difficult at the same time and so

Yeah, so Black Bag, spy thriller about monogamy, highly recommend it. I wish you could have seen it in theaters, but if not, it is on Peacock Premium. So you can go watch it there or you can also rent it. Highly, highly recommend Steven Soderbergh's Black Bag. At number two. This is very difficult to me because number one and number two could, I could switch any given day, but

But as I'm going to keep my number one number one for now, it's it's been my number one for a long time this year. and, I think it was, I think it was the second 20, 25 movie I saw and it has been at number one since then. So, but we're not talking about that when we're talking about number two, which is Ryan Coogler's centers. What a movie.

Eli (56:51.168)
This is Ryan Coogler's fifth feature film, his first original film since Fruitvale Station in 2013, although Fruitvale Station was based on a true story. And I guess you could say this is based on the whole vampire movie genre in a way. But this is his first original feature.

film written and directed by Coogler since Fruitvale Station. know, obviously he had some time in some franchises and Coogler to me has really been the prime example of how to play the studio franchise game. You know, he starts his career off with Fruitvale Station, this promising based on real life drama, and then he jumps into two huge franchises with two Black Panther movies and a Creed movie.

which is in obviously the Rocky universe. And all along the way, just not bowing the knee to the studios and infusing these franchise movies with his own artistic details, with his own ideas, with his own culture. And yeah, and then using all of that cache to make this movie a big budget, completely original genre film.

Just like, Kugler is the man. to say that. Dude is awesome. But Sinners is more than just a genre film. Yeah, it plays within the horror genre, specifically vampires. But at the same time, it completely defies its bounds as well. For the first hour, I was just in a rapture by the world and the characters, and I honestly forgot.

that it was a vampire movie. Like, so the, you know, the vampire, the first vampire finally shows up. I want to say it was like 45 minutes or an hour in to the movie. And, you know, he's kind of on fire a little bit because the sun is hitting him. And I was like, what in the world's going on? And then it clicked like, yeah, there are vampires in this movie. I was so enraptured by the character building, which is phenomenally done.

Eli (59:11.822)
and just the world of these characters that I just like totally blanked for half a second that it was a vampire movie and then like click, you know, quickly clicked back into that gear when I remembered. yeah, so and I knew it like walking into the theater. That's how that's just how good the writing and character development and plotting is in this movie. Some powerhouse performances.

Michael B. Jordan with a twin performance for the ages You could say Michael A and Michael B Jordan. I guess Haley Steinfeld is great You have this this young guy miles Katen or Katton Playing Sammy. I'm just phenomenal. The dude has a voice too Yeah, the I'm gonna butcher her name but

One Mi Mo-Mosaku plays Annie. Phenomenal, phenomenal, phenomenal. Delroy Lindo pops up. Love some Delroy Lindo. Just, yeah, great performances all around. This has, I guess, like, it, so, you know, staying true to all of the vampire and horror kind of tropes.

all the while also staying true to the cultural and ideological interests of Ryan Coogler and his troupe. yeah, not to mention, I guess also Coogler's love of film that's kind of reminiscent of Christopher Nolan. It draws you in, it makes you want to see the movie on a big screen, love that. And then the other thing, this has two music sequences, one especially.

That are likely to be music scenes of the decade if not the century just phenomenal Never seen anything like though the one in particular that I'm thinking of but there's more than one in the film that are great But yeah, just transcendental kind of moments in the film There's just so much to be explored in this movie and it's entertaining at the same time. It's thrilling It's it's just so so good

Eli (01:01:36.046)
Can only imagine this will even I'll even love it even more seeing it another time Probably should be the number one of the year might be by the end of the year, but not yet time will tell and I guess that takes us to my number one movie of the year so far. I hinted at this already It is the other Steve Steven Soderbergh movie topping my list his movie presence

This movie came out towards the beginning of the year. I was able to catch it in theaters. And this movie was also written by David Kep. So, to me, it's a ghost story, but it's not a horror ghost story. It is a family drama that is told as a ghost story. And then it has a gimmick. The gimmick is it is from the POV of the ghost.

The camera basically is the ghost. So Steven Soderbergh himself operates the camera. You know, he said they kind of made these like special soft, quiet shoes that he walked around this house in. It's all contained within this one house. The POV never shifts away from the ghost's perspective. The ghost doesn't talk. It just observes.

It interacts some as you find out as the movie goes. It can make its presence known in certain ways. You don't know who the ghost is. And then it's centered around this family of four. It stars Chris Sullivan from This Is Us and the powerhouse actress Lucy Liu as the mom and dad. And then you have a couple of newcomers as the son and daughter.

Eddie Madej and then the central character is Kalina Liang and Yeah, she's she's great phenomenal. They really both are There's Yeah, the the ghost POV thing on the surface kind of feels gimmicky But at the end of the day Soderbergh's empathetically voyeuristic command of the camera

Eli (01:04:00.158)
Makes you feel for these characters and wonder, you know who the ghost might be it makes you kind of It's like fly on the wall like empathy fly on the wall in a way You get you feel sympathy for some of the characters you get mad at some of the characters you You know, you find out new things the character development

from this ghost POV, know, it's not seeing everything all the time. It's not omniscient. It's not omnipresent. You get snippets and the way the movie's edited together too. It's giving you just enough character development or just enough plot revelation at a time to make you want more to keep the movie going and moving forward. And yeah, it's really, so at the end of the day, to me,

This is just the perfect medium for the sort of cathartic expression of ecstatic emotion that in real life would maybe feel over the top, but in a film feels like a pure inexplicable expression of emotion. There's a primary example that is the ending of the film. This is, you know, along the same lines of I'm Becoming a Guinea Fowl, another contender for ending of the year to me.

just this Explosion of emotion that when I saw it made my hair stand on in Not because it's not again. This isn't a horror movie. It wasn't scary. It was just such a Such an explosion of emotion that I felt it in my whole body And that doesn't happen all the time with films Every once in a while, I'll have that experience with a film. I had it with this one

It blew me away, the ending. Some people, probably didn't, it didn't work for some people. And that's, that kind of is par for the course with this sort of movie and that sort of like ecstatic explosion of emotion. It either works or it doesn't for you in the moment. It worked for me. I loved it. I was blown away by it. You know, dare I say a perfect ending.

Eli (01:06:24.174)
of your emotion. So yeah, this is my number one movie of the year so far. Steven Soderbergh's Presence. Yeah, those movies that... So Presence is, you know, Black Bag was on Peacock, Presence is on Hulu. I don't think I shared where you can watch Sinners. I think it is available VOD now. It might even still be showing in some theaters.

had some pretty long legs as far as that goes. But yeah, that is my top 10. Just to read back down through it, 10 to one. I have Ephus, I'm Still Here, Friendship, Warfare, Death President Now at number six. At number five, I have Wes Anderson's The Phoenician Scheme, then On Becoming a Guinea Fowl, Soderbergh's Black Bag.

Ryan Coogler's Sinners coming in at number two and my number one film of the year so far is Steven Soderbergh's Presence. So I did see a lot of other movies. You might be saying there's a Mission Impossible movie missing and that's because I was a little bit mixed on the newest Mission Impossible. You might be saying there's a Bong Joon-Ho movie missing and I would say because I was a little bit mixed on those. I still really liked those two movies.

Shout out to a I'm gonna shout out three more movies really quick as honorable mentions That maybe are less known, but I think you should check out because I did like them Grand Theft Hamlet Really really fun really really Unique it is basically these guys in the world of Grand Theft Auto online trying to pull off a

Performance of Hamlet with other players in the game really really highly recommend that you can stream that on movie One of them days great another great comedy of the year with starring Kiki Palmer and SZA You can watch that on Netflix really good. The other one is You can rent it Currently I think is the only way to watch it. It is called the surfer

Eli (01:08:50.59)
Stars in Nicolas Cage It is Str a strange movie. I did not know what to expect going into this movie but it Let me just I'll just say this it takes full advantage of it being a Nicolas Cage vehicle and yeah Nicolas Cage doing Nicolas Cage things and I'm gonna enjoy that every time so

You should check those out and check out Mickey 17 and Mission Impossible Final Reckoning 2. I enjoyed those, but they didn't make the top 10. So yeah, that was my top 10 of 2025 so far and unfortunately the time is closing on episode 100. It's been fun. It's been fun to look back on the year so far, but it's also been fun to look back on a hundred episodes.

of the podcast. Thank you so, so much for listening. I just love and appreciate every single one of you that have listened to, if you've listened to half an episode, I love you and thank you and just greatly appreciate it. Don't forget a few ways to help the show. Just go, after you finish listening, just go rate the show on Apple or Spotify or wherever you listen.

Give it a star rating, leave a little review if you can. Would be greatly appreciated. That raises the visibility of the podcast. And then yeah, if you want to become a supporter, help me pay for all the stuff that it takes to make this happen. I would greatly appreciate that too. You can find out how to do that at establishingshotpod.com. So just go there. There's a link in the episode description as well.

Shout out again to all my friends and family and fellow podcasters movie critics that that sent in submissions to celebrate 100 with me. Love you guys. Thank you so much We are picking up again next week with our Steven Spielberg series With warhorse a fun movie draft to follow that up a really unique fun quirky movie draft

Eli (01:11:15.118)
I'll go ahead and tell you it's a written animals movie draft That I did with my brother-in-law who was my guest for a warhorse Movies or drafting animals that are written at some point in movies That was a really fun one. So those are the next couple episodes coming out. I'm looking forward to the sharing those with you guys Breaking more into the the hundred episode the hundreds of the episodes

And yeah, that's all I've got for this week. 100 episodes, it's been an honor, it's been fun. Here's to 100 more. I've been Eli Price and you've been listening to The Establishing Shot. We'll see you next time.