It's the beginning of a new year, and you know what that means: getting caught up on releases from the previous year for Best of 2025 lists and awards season! This week we talk about Dead Man's Wire (premiering this Friday, January 9!), Avatar: Fire and Ash, If I Had Legs I'd Kick You, Hamnet, Wake Up Dead Man, Marty Supreme, Train Dreams, and more!

If you'd like to participate in Maddie's Female Filmmaker Challenge, you can find the guidelines here!

Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers):

• Dead Man’s Wire
• Marty Supreme*, Train Dreams*, Hamnet*, Eddington, One Battle After Another, Wake Up Dead Man*, Sentimental Value*, Peter Hujar’s Day
• Avatar: Fire and Ash*, F1, Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, The Irishman
• If I Had Legs I’d Kick You*, Die My Love*, Nightbitch, Her Smell
• Little Women (2019), Arrival
• It Was Just An Accident, The Secret Agent, Resurrection, Safe
• Knives Out, Glass Onion, Emma., Good Luck to You Leo Grande
• The Smashing Machine
• Bugonia*, Kinds of Kindness, Call Me By Your Name, Moonlight, Green Book, Darkest Hour, Phantom Thread, Get Out, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Killers of the Flower Moon

The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @yeah.boice and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

Sorry it’s so late, but this week we discuss Sinners, The Phoenician Scheme, Brokeback Mountain, and the New York Times’ top movies of the century so far! (Episode recorded on 7/9/25).

Maddie’s ballot: Mulholland Drive (2001), Spirited Away (2002), Margaret (2011), The Master (2012), Under the Skin (2014), Carol (2015), Moonlight (2015), Phantom Thread (2017), First Reformed (2018), Portrait of a Lady on Fire (2019)

Rachel’s ballot: Mad Max: Fury Road (2015), Napoleon Dynamite (2004), Children of Men (2006), Y Tu Mamá También (2001), Brokeback Mountain (2005), Silence (2016), There Will Be Blood (2007), Moneyball (2011), Ocean’s Eleven (2001), A Hidden Life (2019)

Links:

The 100 Best Movies of the 21st Century - The New York Times

Maddie’s Letterboxd list The America I Love

Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers):

• Sinners*, Black Panther, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever
• The Odyssey (2026), Juror #2, Superman (2025), The Batman, The Fantastic Four: First Steps, Weapons, Wolf Man, The Royal Hotel
• Brokeback Mountain, This Is Spinal Tap
• The Phoenician Scheme, Asteroid City, The Royal Tenenbaums, The Grand Budapest Hotel
• Parasite, Mulholland Drive, Memories of Murder, Bloody Nose Empty Pockets, Titane, Love Lies Bleeding, Spirited Away, Margaret, The Master, Magnolia, There Will Be Blood, Phantom Thread, Under the Skin, Tár, The Zone of Interest, Moonrise Kingdom, Carol, Moonlight, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, I Saw the TV Glow, Phantom Thread, First Reformed, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, Mad Max: Fury Road
• Superbad, Children of Men, The Worst Person in the World, Michael Clayton, Fish Tank, Interstellar, The Gleaners & I, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, Past Lives, Anchorman, Napoleon Dynamite, Everybody Wants Some!!, The Tree of Life, Aftersun, Everything Everywhere All At Once, O Brother Where Art Thou?, Ratatouille, Ocean’s Eleven, Spotlight, Oppenheimer, Killers of the Flower Moon, Silence, Gone Girl, The Irishman, Little Miss Sunshine, Inception, Pan’s Labyrinth, Before Sunset, The Lives of Others, Almost Famous, Roma, Moneyball, Eephus, Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, Oldboy, Amélie, Ladybird, Call Me By Your Name, Suspiria (2018), A Serious Man, Bridesmaids, Lost in Translation, Marie Antoinette, Arrival, The Dark Knight, Anatomy of a Fall, Her, Boyhood, Wolf of Wall Street, Zodiac, Y Tu Mamá También, Brokeback Mountain, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, City of God, Inglourious Basterds, The Social Network, Get Out, Nope, Us, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, No Country for Old Men, In the Mood for Love

The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @yeah.boice and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.

TW: eating disorders

Last episode of 2024 and an important reminder that Rachel and Maddie are shrill feminist buzzkills with hater energy :) This episode we discuss Megalopolis, Emilia Pérez, Wicked, "live action" remakes of animated films, The Substance, and Conclave.

Links:

The episode of On Point that Rachel mentions: https://www.wbur.org/onpoint/2024/12/02/trump-authoritarianism-ruth-ben-ghiat-voters-strongmen

Movies discussed (* indicates spoilers):

• Megalopolis*, The Substance*, Emilia Pérez*, The Zone of Interest, TÁR, Joker: Folie à Deux, Honeyboy
• Nosferatu, The Iron Claw, Wicked, Crazy Rich Asians, West Side Story (2021)*, Singin’ in the Rain, West Side Story (1961)
• Moana 2, Moana, Inside Out, Inside Out 2
• How to Train Your Dragon (2025), How to Train Your Dragon trilogy, The Lion King (2019), The Little Mermaid (2023), Mufasa
• The Apprentice, Magic Mike XXL, The Terrifier series, Suspiria (2018), Nightbitch, Showgirls, The Souvenir*, The Souvenir: Part II, Tenet
• Conclave*, All Quiet on the Western Front (2022), The Brutalist, Nickel Boys, The Holdovers, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, La Chimera, Gladiator II, Heretic, A Real Pain, Anora, His Three Daughters, I Saw the TV Glow, A Different Man, Sing Sing, The People’s Joker*, Batman Forever, Babygirl, Will & Harper, Hale County This Morning, This Evening, A Complete Unknown, Queer

The Smartest People in the Room is hosted by Rachel Casey and Maddie Weiner. It is edited by Maddie Weiner. Original theme and interstitial music is by Scott Boice - follow him on Instagram @yeah.boice and find more of his work on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Bandcamp⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠.