The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: 'Highest 2 Lowest' and 'Wonder Boys'

On this week's episode, we go long on Spike Lee's latest. We have less to say about the fairly forgettable Nobody 2, and then we travel back to 2000 to revisit Wonder Boys. Lots of good stuff in here, which you can check out down below.

Cannes 2025: The Wrap-Up and the Rankings

About halfway through this year's Cannes, I received some bad news that I had been expecting: A good friend succumbed to cancer. Within 30 minutes of hearing of her passing that morning, I was off to a movie, which featured a father dying of cancer. The movie after that featured a mother dying of cancer. Death was on my mind anyway, but over the next several days it kept popping up in the films I was watching, almost as if they were channeling my inner monologue, projecting my new reality up there on the screen.

I should not have been surprised. After all, movies tackle dramatic subjects, and few are more dramatic than mortality. I pride myself on being able to block out the world's distractions when I go to review a film. (I consider that a crucial part of my job.) But I felt the occasional jolt of recognition when death came creeping into a film's plot: "Oh, right, that. There it is again." Repeatedly, I was reminded that I existed in a new world, one without that person I just lost.

At the same time, it was extraordinarily surreal to be here at Cannes while processing my friend's passing. The place is just so damn beautiful, and the movies are so rich and rewarding. All festivals are a bubble from the real world -- that's one reason why people love attending them -- but a big part of me was able to shut out my sorrow simply because of my stimulating environment. Death may have followed me from screen to screen, but Cannes is so alive that you can trick yourself into forgetting. Still, I'm smart enough to recognize that my sorrow will be waiting for me when I return to Los Angeles. Bubbles have a nasty habit of bursting.

* * * * *   

With that acknowledged, let me now add that I found this to be a deeply great edition of the festival. Some of the movies I was most anticipating let me down -- the Spike Lee, the Wes Anderson, most certainly the Ari Aster -- but there was ample compensation from the expected heavy-hitters who did deliver the goods. And, of course, there were the revelatory discoveries, like Oliver Laxe's Sirat and Mascha Schilinski's Sound of Falling, easily the best movie I saw in Cannes. God bless Mubi, who took a chance on her ambitious, kaleidoscopic drama that spans roughly 100 years and four generations of different families living in the same home. The esteemed distributor is actually behind my Top Two from the festival, which also includes Kelly Reichardt's The Mastermind, one of the finest films this very fine filmmaker has ever produced. From the dazzling execution of Bi Gan's Resurrection to the formal rigor of Sergei Loznitsa's merciless Two Prosecutors, the major auteurs came out swinging. And that's not even mentioning two movies beloved by many here and merely really, really liked by me: Jafar Panahi's It Was Just an Accident and Kleber Mendonca Filho's The Secret Agent. 

Before I reveal my rankings, let's now take a moment to mention the films I wasn't able to get to, like Adam's Interest, The Love That Remains, Mirrors No. 3, My Father's Shadow, Urchin, A Useful Ghost and Yes!, to name just a few. (Some may notice that I didn't review Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning. I was set to do so, but my L.A. screening got canceled midway through because of a fire. It's a long story, but everyone's fine, so don't worry.)

From worst to best, here's a list of everything I saw, with links leading to individual reviews: 

37. Eddington
36. Eleanor the Great
35. The Wave
34. Fuori
33. The Richest Woman in the World
32. Leave One Day
31. Splitsville
30. The Chronology of Water
29. Alpha
28. The Phoenician Scheme
27. Romeria
26. Highest 2 Lowest
25. Honey Don't!
24. The Little Sister
23. The History of Sound
22. The Six Billion Dollar Man
21. The Plague
20. Woman and Child
19. Case 137
18. Pillion
17. Eagles of the Republic
16. Arco
15. Young Mothers
14. Enzo
13. Nouvelle Vague
12. The Secret Agent
11. It Was Just an Accident
10. Renoir
9. Die, My Love
8. Orwell: 2+2=5
7. Sentimental Value
6. Resurrection
5. Sirat
4. Sorry, Baby
3. Two Prosecutors
2. The Mastermind
1. Sound of Falling

For the first time since I started going to Cannes in 2013, I saw every film in Competition, all 22 of them. What that means is that when the jury, headed by Juliette Binoche, announces its awards, I won't have the usual FOMO feeling of "Oh shoot, I didn't see the Best Screenplay winner" or whatever. 

However, that doesn't mean I'm any more confident about what will take home the Palme d'Or than I was in previous years. Remember: I have never correctly guessed the winner, and I'm just as uncertain this year. Part of the problem is that the jury is made up of new people every year, and unless you're hanging out with them, you're just speculating on where their head is at. That said, here's my thinking. I could see It Was Just an Accident, Resurrection, The Secret Agent, Sentimental Value or Sound of Falling winning. Forced to narrow down the field further, I'll go with the movies that are perceived as the front-runners: It Was Just an Accident, The Secret Agent and Sentimental Value. (Why are they "perceived" to be the front-runners? Oh, because the people who like to make predictions about this stuff have said they are.)

My gut tells me it's either going to be It Was Just an Accident or Sentimental Value. In one corner, you have Jafar Panahi, one of cinema's giants, who has recently been freed from prison, enjoying a hero's welcome here at the festival when his film premiered. In the other, you have Joachim Trier, whose last Cannes film, The Worst Person in the World, took home Best Actress for Renate Reinsve. Sentimental Value seems to be the most beloved film, but while it's dangerous to make predictions based on the temperament of the jury president, I just feel like Binoche would be more inclined to go with a more challenging, politically incisive film for the Palme. So I'm picking It Was Just an Accident. If Sound of Falling or The Mastermind win, I would be ecstatic. 

Regardless how the awards shape up, readers should be excited about a bunch of great movies coming their way soon. Now, off to sleep for me, and an exit from the bubble into whatever awaits me on the other side.

Cannes 2025: 'Highest 2 Lowest' Review

Man, it is no fun to pan Spike Lee movies. Alas, I was pretty torn on Highest 2 Lowest, his ambitious, thought-provoking crime thriller that re-imagines Akira Kurosawa's High and Low. My review is here.

'Press Play With Madeleine Brand': The Most-Anticipated Movies at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival

This year's Cannes is now underway. Before the storm, I jumped on a call with Madeleine Brand to preview four films to keep an eye out for, including Lynne Ramsay's Die My Love. You can hear our conversation down below.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: The New Avengers, 'Pavements' and My Preview of the 2025 Cannes Film Festival

Long episode this week, for obvious reasons. For one thing, we had a lot to say about both Thunderbolts* and Pavements. Also, I went long offering a list of the films I'm most excited to see at Cannes, including Mirrors No. 3 (pictured above). And then, hey, we're gonna be on a bit of a break while I'm in France, which tends to make it hard for us to wrap up a show in a succinct manner. Enjoy all of it down below.

'Press Play With Madeleine Brand': Previewing the 2025 Movie Year

It's a new year, which means it's time to start thinking about the films worth getting excited about in 2025. I was on Press Play alongside Shawn Edwards to discuss everything from Wicked: For Good to Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning to Sentimental Value. Listen below.

My Interview With Matthew Libatique, Cinematographer of 'Maestro'

Years ago, when I co-wrote a book of career-spanning interviews with cinematographers, I met Matthew Libatique. He's a smart guy, so I was glad to have the opportunity to chat with him again. This time, our focus was just one film: Maestro. Read all about it here.

The 25 Comedies of the Last 50 Years That Most Deserved a Best Picture Nomination

This Is Spinal Tap. Bamboozled. Toni Erdmann. Airplane! My full list is here.

The Legacy of 'Hare Jordan'

Nike had been enjoying a lot of success with its Michael Jordan/Spike Lee commercials. But for the 1992 Super Bowl, the company decided to mix things up. And then someone had the bright idea of pairing Jordan with Bugs Bunny. For Cracked, I told the history of those icons' first ad, "Hare Jordan." Hope you enjoy.

Denzel Washington as the GOAT

On Tuesday, Denzel Washington could receive his 10th Oscar nomination. For MEL, I examined one heck of a career, one that's far from over.

In Praise of Wesley Snipes in the (Early) 1990s

What a run Wesley Snipes had about 30 years ago. You know what happened after. I weigh both aspects of the actor's legacy over at MEL.

Branford Marsalis Quartet - "Mo' Better Blues"

All these years, and I never knew what the signature song from the Mo' Better Blues soundtrack was called. Duh, it's "Mo' Better Blues."

Spike Lee and I Hung Out at the New Academy Museum of Motion Pictures

Inconceivably, I have now interviewed Spike Lee on four different occasions. Every time I get to talk to him, I pinch myself. For Rolling Stone, I took a tour with the Oscar-winning filmmaker of his new exhibition at the Academy Museum, which opens today. (It's a gorgeous facility.) We discussed his movies and his memories. Hope you enjoy.

Cannes 2021: The Wrap-Up and the Rankings

For most of the year, I assumed I wouldn't be attending the 2021 edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Partly, that was because I figured there wasn't going to be a festival due to the ongoing pandemic. (And if it was held, the odds were good that American journalists wouldn't be allowed to travel to it.) Well, all that changed in late May, and quickly I found myself throwing together plans to fly to France, which included figuring out Covid protocols that seemingly changed on a daily basis -- not just for air travel but for the festival itself. I was hardly alone in feeling a little discombobulated: The other U.S. critics I knew who were going were all trying to decipher confusing and contradictory information, too.

But I made it, and I'm so glad I did. I haven't traveled to a film festival since Sundance 2020, and it's remarkable how quickly muscle memory kicked in. I joked over the last several months about being out of festival shape, which isn't so much about physical conditioning as it is the rush-rush-rush, grind-grind-grind of doing a festival on a daily basis, which requires a lot of patience, stamina and a willingness to be flexible. Considering we were taking part in an international event in the midst of a pandemic, not to mention enduring a new press ticketing system and an unpredictable Covid testing program, the ability to go with the flow was crucial. I wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Because this year's Cannes was super-sized, packed with more films than usual, it was inevitable that I wouldn't be able to see everything on my wish list. The 2021 edition may have featured more options, but there's still only a finite amount of time to see films, and with reviewing responsibilities taking priority, I had to make peace with the fact that I would have to let promising movies like Vortex, Petrov's Flu, The Velvet Underground, Ali & Ava and Paris, 13th District slip away. I'll get to them eventually. 

So, let's get to the rankings. Links lead to individual reviews....  

29. Flag Day
28. Where Is Anne Frank
27. Stillwater
26. The Stronghold
25. Nitram
24. Annette 
23. Benedetta
22. Supremes
21. The French Dispatch
20. Ahed's Knee
19. Everything Went Fine
18. Belle
17. Cow
16. Val
15. Deception
14. Titane
13. Murina
12. Compartment No. 6
11. Bergman Island
10. A Hero
9. The Story of Film: A New Generation
8. After Yang
7. Hit the Road
6. Drive My Car
5. The Souvenir Part II
4. The Year of the Everlasting Storm
3. Red Rocket
2. Memoria
1. The Worst Person in the World

As I was putting together my list, I knew what my top two would be, but not in what order. Festival rankings are always a bit arbitrary, and picking a favorite often comes down to deciding between two very different films, and different impulses. Apichatpong Weerasethakul's return to the Cannes official competition for the first time in 11 years is an absolute triumph: a big, bold artistic stunner. It's the kind of film that invites "Masterpiece" hosannas. On the other side, there's Joachim Trier's thoroughly lovely and wise story of turning 30 and trying to figure yourself out. Hardly as formally inventive and singular as Weerasethakul's landmark, The Worst Person in the World nonetheless moved me beyond words and, for this moment anyway, wins by a photo finish. But it's worth pointing out that my Cannes rankings tend to shift over time: In 2013, Blue Is the Warmest Color beat out Inside Llewyn Davis, and in 2019, I slotted The Lighthouse higher than Parasite. By the end of their respective years, those films' placement had flipped. I would not be surprised if Memoria eventually reigns supreme.

My own indecision reflects that of my peers. There was no clear-cut critical consensus, with a wide range of films enjoying their own niche of support. Some people raved about The French Dispatch. Benedetta, Annette and Titane had their passionate champions. Everyone generally really liked Drive My Car and A Hero. Outside of Flag Day, another absolute stinker from Sean Penn after his The Last Face face-planted at Cannes five years ago, critics tended not to be too hard on the Competition films. And even Penn's folly inspired a few rave reviews. 

What was largely not commented on, at least among the people I was with, was the fact that ... we were watching movies in theaters again. A lot of movies in theaters. After basically avoiding theaters for more than a year, I was inside them for the last week and a half. That return couldn't have started better than by seeing the latest installment in Mark Cousins' The Story of Film series, which is no doubt why Cannes programmed it to open the festival. If it's perhaps a little too self-conscious about reminding everyone that, yes, movies still matter, A New Generation is stuffed with clips of the best and brightest films from this century, including a list of helpful suggestions for under-the-radar titles worth seeking out. Soon that initial giddy buzz went away and we went back to the grind of covering a film festival, as always. But, my god, the fact that we were there at all was a miracle I don't think enough of us paused to acknowledge.

I have a spectacular failure rate when it comes to predicting what will win the Palme d'Or, so I'm tempted not to even make a guess. But I'm going with A Hero over Titane or Drive My Car. Asghar Farhadi has never won, so the jury (headed by Spike Lee) may decide he's due. Plus, the film is seen as a return to form for him after the disappointing Everybody Knows. It wouldn't shock me if Lee went for something a little stylistically bolder, but it's always a risk to assume that the movie that most resembles the jury president's M.O. will win. So let me put it this way: If he gives it to The Worst Person in the World or Memoria, you won't hear me complaining.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: Jason Statham, Billy Crystal and 'Bamboozled'

I wasn't a fan of either of the new movies we reviewed on this week's episode. You can hear us discuss Wrath of Man and Here Today, but the best part of the show is our long talk about Spike Lee's divisive satire from 2000. You can hear the whole thing down below.

My Interview With Delroy Lindo

Will the Da 5 Bloods star receive his first Oscar nomination on Monday? It's possible. For Screen International, we did not talk about that, though: We were too busy discussing Spike Lee, the Vietnam War and that MAGA hat his character wears. Hope you enjoy.

Best of 2020: The Top 10 Movies of the Year

Early this year, I was looking ahead to some of 2020's most-anticipated movies when I remembered The Many Saints of Newark, a prequel to The Sopranos. This presented a problem since I was more than likely going to be reviewing the film ... and I had never watched The Sopranos. Well, I had watched the pilot several times -- weirdly, it was something I'd often turn to as comfort viewing on airplanes -- but I had never gone beyond that. Frankly, the show just seemed like this intimidating commitment -- it was how many episodes? -- and so I hadn't bothered, content with the fact that maybe, some day long in the future, I'd finally get around to it. Well, the future was now.

So I started doing the math: If the movie was set to open in September, it might premiere in Venice or Toronto, so I had to get The Sopranos done by mid-August. There are 86 episodes -- each one about an hour -- and with other festivals like Cannes in the interim, I'd have to be strategic about how much of the show I needed to watch each week in order to get it done in time. (After all, I had screenings just about every night, not to mention the usual unknowables of a writer's life.) Susan hadn't seen The Sopranos either, so we decided we'd watch it together. The trick was figuring out how to schedule our lives to make room for such a sizable undertaking. 

We'd gotten through a few episodes of The Sopranos when the world changed in March. Everybody has his own story about the shutdown that occurred that month -- how we all went from life as usual to the slow, scary realization that everything was stopping -- and mine involves some major markers. First it was the announcement that South by Southwest -- which I was going to be attending for the first time -- was being canceled. Then it was the NBA pulling the plug on the season. When major pillars of the film and sports industries waved the white flag, it was clear where we were headed. My life as I knew it was put on hold. No more places to go, no more bags to pack, a calendar that was suddenly a lot less full. 

Instead of the usual runaround of my hectic schedule, I had The Sopranos ... and a lot more free time than either Susan and I had anticipated. There was now no need to figure out how to carve out part of the day to sneak in an episode. Suddenly, it was the highlight of the day. Whereas pre-pandemic I almost never was able to see Susan on a weeknight -- I'd be off to a screening, and then doing some writing when I came home -- now, we had the sort of 9-to-5 life that so many others enjoyed. I got to have dinner with my wife, and then we'd watch The Sopranos. It was so cozy and pleasant you could almost forget that a terrifying virus was infecting and killing so many people.

The truth is, I needed the structure -- I still was working, but my whole life had been upended -- and The Sopranos gave me a focus early on in the pandemic. Also, the show was simply terrific, and the fact that Susan and I got to share it gave us something to talk about that didn't involve COVID or the election or anything else. What was funny was that, as we got deeper into the show, I suddenly became aware of all the Sopranos spoilers out there in the world that had never meant anything to me before. When a show has been out for two decades, it's absorbed into the culture and spit back out as memes and quotable dialogue. All of that used to be a foreign language that I couldn't decipher -- in the midst of our binge, though, I quickly became aware that I was going to have to shield myself from social media so that I wouldn't get plot points ruined. (Although, to be fair, I sorta guessed that Ralph Cifaretto was doomed before a random tweet clued me into that fact.)

But for the most part, though, I was amazed just how little had been spoiled for me. I had done a remarkable job since the early 2000s of simply staying away from the Sopranos discourse. And so the show was like this perfect, untouched thing that came into my life, providing my wife and me with twists and surprises and things that deeply disturbed us. (You've been upset about Christopher Moltisanti's death for a long time. It's still fresh for me.)

Of course, The Sopranos doesn't play in 2020 the way it did back then: For one thing, we knew that James Gandolfini was dead, which gave the show an inevitable sense of melancholy. Also, it's fascinating to watch technology evolve over the course of the series' run. (Among other things, David Chase's show is a time capsule for the golden age of the DVD player.) There are the episodes before 9/11 -- neither the characters nor the audience has any idea what's coming -- and then the ones after the terrorist attacks, but even those felt slightly naive now simply because they all took place before COVID. Watching The Sopranos this year, I kept being reminded of all the everyday activities I took for granted that were now gone. Tony and his family got to eat in restaurants! He and his cohorts would have meetings! A show about family -- a word that had several meanings -- was also about people having to intersect in each other's lives in intimate ways. You almost envied these guys -- they didn't know how good they had it.

The only thing I knew about The Sopranos going into our binge was its ending, which had proved so controversial at the time that even I was engaged in the debate. (Despite not having seen the show, I was nonetheless firmly on the side of those who thought Chase's pointed non-ending was wonderfully audacious.) As we reached those final episodes, I got tense partly because I knew we were quickly arriving at the conclusion. But I also knew that this exercise, which had been started because I needed to be ready for The Many Saints of Newark, was drawing to a close. I was going to have to learn to live without The Sopranos and face the global crisis at hand. (Ironically, like so many other movies that were supposed to come out this year, The Many Saints of Newark was ultimately pushed back to 2021.)

Once the show was over, life started getting a little back to normal. I was lucky: I was busy with work, and my family (for the most part) avoided the virus. I could tell you the same story that a lot of people could tell about 2020 -- that it was awful and challenging. I could tell you about how the Black Lives Matter movement that rose up after the killing of George Floyd fundamentally changed the way I saw America -- and that it inspired me (and Susan) to take stock of all the small ways that we contribute to white supremacy and consider what we could do better. But the larger contours of 2020 aren't very interesting to hear from my perspective -- many, many people had it much worse than me. Other people's voices were more important than mine.

Lately, I've been thinking that 2020 isn't over when the calendar switches to 2021. This year feels larger than just a year. It will soon be January, but the virus will still be here, and the societal ills the pandemic revealed will still be here. Trump will be gone (fingers crossed), but Trumpism won't be. Racial inequality isn't going away. Economic hardship isn't going away. There are difficult fights ahead. This was a year of grieving, but the grieving won't end in 2020. A lot will be awful and challenging in 2021, too. I hope we have the strength to handle it.

* * * * *

You are probably wondering when I'm going to list my Top 10 movies of 2020. Here you go...

1. Nomadland
2. David Byrne's American Utopia
3. First Cow
4. The Nest
5. Collective
6. Driveways
7. I'm Thinking of Ending Things
8. Sound of Metal
9. She Dies Tomorrow
10. The Father

If you see my Screen International list, you'll notice it's very different. Here are the reasons why: For Screen, we only include releases that are 2020 premieres -- meaning, they first played somewhere, including a festival, for the first time in 2020 -- and documentaries weren't included in the Best Film list. My Screen list will give you a hint of two 2021 releases I'm looking forward to revisiting in the new year.

Going back to the above list, allow me to also show some love to the movies that ended up 11-15, which are Fourteen, Vitalina Varela, City Hall, Lovers Rock and The Surrogate. All are terrific and also worth checking out.

The best animated film of the year, outside of the short World of Tomorrow Episode Three: The Absent Destinations of David Prime, was The Wolf House (No. 18 on my list), and I also want to mention how great Relic (No. 16) is. In between was Hamilton (No. 17). The idea that there were "no good movies" this year is preposterous.

* * * * *

I was grateful to the outlets that remain so good to me, including Screen International (where I've now been writing for 15 years) and MEL (which had its best year yet in 2020). And my thanks to my editors at Vulture, Rolling Stone, Popular Mechanics and SyFy, who handled a tough year with a lot of finesse. It was very fun to moderate Q&As, even if it was over Zoom, because it brought a small sliver of normalcy. (Speaking of normalcy, I'd be lost without doing the Grierson & Leitch podcast on a weekly basis.) Also, I'm happy to announce that my seventh book will be coming out in March: This Is How You Make a Movie is, admittedly, an immodest title, but I'm hoping readers will enjoy the conceit as much as I enjoyed exploring it.

And, as always, thank you -- today and everyday. I was asked by college students recently who I write for -- in other words, who do I imagine my audience is? I told them that I picture my dad, but I also think of all the people out there who I will never meet who get something out of my work. So maybe that's you. Well, I just want you to know that I appreciate it. And I hope you have a good new year.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: The Best Films of 2020

The year is almost over. Let's take a look back at 2020's finest films. Will and I each present our Top 10 lists on the podcast. Enjoy!

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: Aaron Sorkin, David Byrne and 'Shithouse'

I gushed about American Utopia on this week's podcast. And, hey, we both liked The Trial of the Chicago 7 and Shithouse. Hear the whole episode down below.

The Grierson & Leitch Podcast: 'Hamilton' and the Best Films of 2020 (So Far)

We devote a good chunk of this week's episode to reviewing Hamilton, which neither of us saw on stage. Then, it's the halfway point of 2020, which means it's time for each of us to pick our four favorite films so far from this year. (We have no overlaps in our picks, by the way.) Hear the whole thing down below.