The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: 'Queer,' 'Nightbitch' and 'The End'

Listeners tell us they like it when we disagree. Well, they're in luck because we differ on two of the three movies we talk about on this week's episode. Funny enough, they one we agree on is the one I assumed we wouldn't. Check out the conversation below.

My Interview With Joshua Oppenheimer, Director of 'The End'

Nine years ago, I interviewed Joshua Oppenheimer for Rolling Stone to discuss his great documentary The Look of Silence. Recently, I interviewed Joshua Oppenheimer for Rolling Stone again, this time to discuss his great new film, the divisive musical The End. We talked about global warming, doomsday bunkers, Trump, and the right and wrong kinds of hope. You can read my profile here.

Venice/Telluride/Toronto 2024: The Wrap-Up and the Rankings

"How long were you out of the country?"

When I went through customs in Toronto on the way back to Los Angeles, I actually had to think about that question for a minute. For the first time since 2019, I did the fall festival double-shot of Venice and Toronto, which I very much enjoyed. Nonetheless, when it was all over, I could feel that I'd been away from home for quite some time. While I'd been gone, I'd ridden water buses and suffered through some pretty bad humidity. Then I got to Toronto and battled rain and chilly evenings. At some point along the way, I may have pulled a leg muscle. You never know what festivals are going to throw at you, but that's the fun -- you're just grateful to be part of the experience.

All told, I was gone about 17 days, seeing a ton of movies at both Venice and Toronto. Not that you can catch everything, of course: Conflicting screenings and other logistics kept me from April, Diciannove, Hard Truths, The Life of Chuck, Vermiglio and others. (Plus: Nickel Boys only screened in Telluride.) But I'll get to them all in due time. What matters is the amount I did catch, and the memories I now have of seeing so many of these films at their first screenings. That communal spirit -- that shared moment of discovery -- is incredibly special. I missed Susan, and I'm glad to be home, but those memories keep replaying in my head.

The below rankings are a list of everything I've seen that played at the three festivals, either over the last few weeks or at some point earlier this year. (You'll recognize several Cannes titles, not to mention a few Sundance films.) Links lead to individual reviews...

53. Megalopolis
52. Beetlejuice Beetlejuice
51. William Tell
50. Nutcrackers
49. Joker: Folie à Deux
48. King Ivory
47. The Assessment
46. Eden
45. Oh, Canada
44. Emilia Perez
43. Heretic
42. Rumours 
41. Babygirl
40. We Live in Time
39. The Shrouds
38. The Outrun
37. Will & Harper
36. Bring Them Down
35. Nightbitch
34. Sanatorium Under the Sign of the Hourglass
33. Misericordia
32. I, the Executioner
31. Conclave
30. The Substance
29. Sudan, Remember Us
28. Chain Reactions
27. The Girl With the Needle
26. Paul & Paulette Take A Bath
25. The Order
24. Better Man
23. Sharp Corner
22. Separated
21. Wolfs
20. Bird
19. September 5
18. Presence
17. I’m Still Here
16. Queer
15. Maria
14. The Wild Robot
13. Flow
12. On Becoming a Guinea Fowl
11. Homegrown
10. Pavements
9. All We Imagine as Light
8. The Room Next Door
7. The End
6. Anora
5. Grand Tour
4. Caught by the Tides
3. The Brutalist
2. The Seed of the Sacred Fig
1. A Real Pain

I imagine some folks will look at my rankings and exclaim, "Really? Megalopolis is really the worst movie you saw?" I'm looking forward to revisiting the Francis Ford Coppola film, and I've told anyone in earshot that they really do owe it to themselves to see it, just so they can make up their own mind about this ambitious swing. But, yes, I do find it a crushing disappointment. Likewise, I am working on gut instinct when I say that Jesse Eisenberg's beautifully intimate character study A Real Pain is slightly greater than the far more imposing works by Mohammad Rasoulof (The Seed of the Sacred Fig) and Brady Corbet (The Brutalist). They all demand a rewatch, so we'll see how the end-of-the-year list-making shakes out.

But for now, I'll say that Venice and Toronto provided me with some excellent movies and a few cases where I'm very much out of the consensus. I know many who loathe The End, whereas plenty think I'm wrong for being lukewarm on Babygirl. But these are my rankings. Consider this post a preview of coming attractions of the movies worth putting on your radar, even if you end up liking some of them more or less than I do.

Toronto 2024: 'The End' Review

Decorated documentary filmmaker Joshua Oppenheimer has made his first feature. It's a musical about the end of the world. I think it's pretty terrific. Here's my review of The End.

The 2022 Movies That Aren't Based on Anything

It's become a fun annual tradition: At the start of the new year, I'll put together a list of upcoming movies that aren't sequels, remakes, reboots or in any way based on true stories or preexisting material. My 2022 edition is over at MEL. Hope you enjoy.

Are Documentary Sequels Ever Good?

Did you want a sequel to Tiger King? Well, Netflix put one out this week anyway. For MEL, I looked at documentary sequels over the years, picking some of the best and the worst. Hope you enjoy.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: 'Call of the Wild' and 'Emma,' 'The Act of Killing' and 'The Hospital'

The new movies aren't what's most interesting about this week's episode. That would be our two Reboots: Joshua Oppenheimer's The Act of Killing and Arthur Hiller's The Hospital (which also could be called The Act of Killing.) Lots to dig into with those two films. I enjoyed our chat, and I hope you do, too.

My Interview With Joshua Oppenheimer

I caught The Look of Silence, the follow-up film from Joshua Oppenheimer, who previously had made The Act of Killing, at True/False. It's stayed with me ever since. For Rolling Stone, I spoke with Oppenheimer about both films and how he's had to let that part of his life go and move on. Hope you enjoy.

True/False 2015: The Wrap-Up

Another True/False, my third, has come and gone. So, let's recap what I wrote about the festival and take a look at my final rankings.

As far as the below list goes, please note I didn't include The Act of Killing, which I've only seen in its theatrical cut. (The festival screened Joshua Oppenheimer's preferred director's cut.) I also decided to leave off Arena of Life, four shorts from Polish filmmaker Bogdan Dziworski, which were, mostly, exceptional. So, here we go, with links leading to individual pages/reviews....

15. What Happened, Miss Simone?
14. Finders Keepers
13. How to Change the World
12. The Chinese Mayor
11. Silvered Water, Syria Self-Portrait
10. The Visit
9. Tales of the Grim Sleeper
8. Kurt Cobain: Montage of Heck
7. Best of Enemies
6. Going Clear: Scientology and the Prison of Belief
5. Bitter Lake
4. Heaven Knows What
3. Western
2. Cartel Land
1. The Look of Silence

I struggled a bit deciding where to place each of the movies in my top four. All I know is they were the four finest films I saw at the festival. Second viewings will help sort out their placement.

In addition, I wrote a long overview of this year's festival. Rather than doing a standard recap, I explored the notion of how to change the world -- an idea that came to me after watching, you guessed it, How to Change the World. I wondered if a film, or a group of activists, or even a film festival can legitimately make a difference in the world. I hope you enjoy what I came up with.

And, finally, my thanks to Kevin B. Lee for including me in his annual rundown of critics' favorites from True/False. Look how handsome and wise I am.

'The Act of Killing' Review

The Act of Killing has gotten pretty consistently good reviews across the board, but I think I'm the first person to call it a surreal, nightmare version of The Weavers: Wasn't That a Time. (It's nice to be known for something.) My review of this stark, shocking documentary is up at Paste.