Mixed Bag

We bid farewell to the year gone by with a round up of our favourite films of 2025. From arthouse to blockbusters, international cinema to Aotearoa-grown, the Mixed Bag trio have a lot to say about a bunch of films that will never feature on this podcast because they are too good.

We'll be back soon with our first real episode of the year discussing Avatar: Fire and Ash!

"You there, boy, what day is it?"

"Why, it's Mixedmas, sir!"

Celebrate the festive season with the most of Mixed of all Mixed films, Mixed Nuts! We're joined, as is tradition, by the Ghost of Christmas Pod, Lucas Neal. Letterboxd describes this simply as "The events of a crisis hotline business on one crazy night during the Christmas holidays." It's a French farce with a lot more suicide jokes than you'd expect for a Christmas film, we can tell you that much.

Over in the Pop Corner, we chat Wake Up Dead Man and Wicked: For Good, plus shout outs to Castration Movie, Herculine by Grace Byron, the video game Is This Seat Taken?, Stranger Things, Die My Love and Train Dreams.

His mind...

Our final movie from this round of personal picks as we look forward to the holiday season. We discover that one of the hosts has her own cognitive malfunctions to deal with (Paul Bettany face blindness). We reminisce about Jamie's close personal connection to Jennifer Connelly. We forgive Matt for his bad takes about Anomalisa (Cass writes the blurbs).

From the heights of notoriety to the depths of depravity, John Forbes Nash Jr. experiences it all. As a brilliant but socially awkward mathematician, he made a groundbreaking discovery early in his career and stands on the brink of international acclaim. But as the handsome and arrogant Nash accepts secret work in cryptography, he becomes entangled in a mysterious conspiracy. His life takes a nightmarish turn and he soon finds himself on a painful and harrowing journey of self-discovery. (Sourced from Letterboxd).

Pop Corner covers The Red Shoes (1948), Amelie the Musical, Gretchen Felker-Martin's Black Flag, Ivy Wolk's episode of StraightioLab, the Pixies and our upcoming Fringe show, Once Upon A Time in Homowood. If you listen to this podcast you are the direct target audience for the show, so come along!

Cass worked a full 16-hour day the day before recording this pod so she worried she would fall asleep on mic. Instead, she decided to let herself be fuelled by hatred as she brings one of her least favourite movies to the pod for her personal pick. Matt's a fan, Cass is a foe, but at least all three hosts can agree that the film looks good.

Anomalisa is a stop-motion animated film written by Charlie Kaufman about a man who sees everyone else in the world as having the same face and voice. When he meets Lisa, who appears to be the only exception, he is instantly besotted.

We'd love to hear your takes on Anomalisa - message us on Instagram or email [email protected] if you love this film, hate it, or have anything else you want to share! Also, in Pop Corner we talk about Miss Major Speaks, the films of Lynne Ramsay, Stress Positions, the YouTube show Interior Motives, the podcast Three Bean Salad, The History of Sound, and Rosalía's album Lux.

It's time for Jamie's Personal Pick, and you know she's gonna choose a big ol' Dyke Drama. Some Sapphic Cinema. A Movie for Muff-Divers. So she's chosen a movie about one of the world's gayest sports, roller derby, featuring a pre-transition Elliot Page and bi-con Alia Shawkat and... NO LESBIAN CHARACTERS!?!? 😱😱😱 Can it be true?!?!?

In Bodeen, Texas, an indie-rock loving misfit finds a way of dealing with her small-town misery after she discovers a roller derby league in nearby Austin. (Sourced from Letterboxd).

Join the team as they grapple with this egregious display of lez erasure. In Pop Corner they also discuss Hamnet (Maggie O'Farrell), Over The Garden Wall, Lily Allen's West End Girl and Elliot Page's own Pageboy.

It's spooooooky season so it's time for the Foe of the Podcast, Mike Bryant, to arise from his crypt once again and bless the pod with another scary feature that is mixed in quality.

This time around, we're travelling just a decade ago to Goosebumps (2015) starring Jack Black, based on R. L. Stine's children's horror novel series of the same name.

After moving to a small town, Zach Cooper finds a silver lining when he meets next door neighbor Hannah, the daughter of bestselling Goosebumps series author R.L. Stine. When Zach unintentionally unleashes real monsters from their manuscripts and they begin to terrorize the town, it’s suddenly up to Stine, Zach and Hannah to get all of them back in the books where they belong. (Sourced from Letterboxd)

Will this Jumanji imitator be more Jumanji (1995) than Jumanji (2017)? Will Zach, Hannah and Champ ever find meaningful character development and most important of all, what is YOUR favourite Goosebumps book? All this and more with the terrific Mike and a bumper Pop Corner as we haven't caught up in ages. Happy Halloween Baghags and may your treats be well mixed with all sorts of sweets!

We cap off Tissue Box Office with a film where the tragic death is of not a long-haired brunette, but a short-haired blond! And also, he's a dog.

A newly married couple, in the process of starting a family, learn many of life’s important lessons from their trouble-loving retriever, Marley. Packed with plenty of laughs to lighten the load, the film explores the highs and lows of marriage, maturity and confronting one’s own mortality, as seen through the lens of family life with a dog. (Sourced from Letterboxd)

Over in the Pop Corner, we talk about One Battle After Another, Lilith Fair: Building a Mystery, Prime Minister, Spettacolo! (2017), Marwencol (2010), Pavements, When We Were Trans by Kit Heyam, Corpses, Fools and Monsters by Willow Maclay and Caden Gardner and this new album by some lady called "Tailor Swiffed" that people are listening to for some reason (Cass wrote this).

We are Jamie-obsessed on this next installation of Tissue Box Office, to the extent where everyone keeps accidentally renaming Ryan Gosling's character after our beloved cohost. While it's clear the whole Mixed Bag trio are bona fide Gos-heads, what do they think about the film that launched a million teen girl crushes?

An epic love story centered around an older man who reads aloud to a woman with Alzheimer’s. From a faded notebook, the old man’s words bring to life the story about a couple who is separated by World War II, and is then passionately reunited, seven years later, after they have taken different paths. (Sourced from Letterboxd).

Plus, in Pop Corner we talk Gloria (1980), A Dream of a Woman by Casey Plett, Dear Zachary (2008), Survivor: Australia vs. the World, Splitsville and the 2025 Emmy Awards.

We continue on our journey through the wonderful world of weepies with 2002's A Walk to Remember, the sleepover classic beloved by every teen girl who ever said "I can fix him."

When the popular, restless Landon Carter is forced to participate in the school drama production, he falls in love with Jamie Sullivan, the daughter of the town’s minister. Jamie has a “to-do” list for her life, as well as a very big secret she must keep from Landon. (Sourced from Letterboxd).

This episode we put forth our theory of straight-haired brunette death and the dead sister phenomenon. Plus, pop corner discussion of Baldur's Gate 3, Hollow Knight: Silksong, Detroit: Become Human, Man's Best Friend (Sabrina Carpenter), The Straight Line Was A Lie (The Beths), Jaws (1970) and The Naked Gun.

Let's go to the beach, beach, let's go get away with Bette Midler and Barbara Hershey! Next on our Tissue Box Office list is a classic platonic weepie that somehow has little to no cultural footprint in Aotearoa New Zealand.

A privileged rich debutante and a cynical struggling entertainer share a turbulent, but strong childhood friendship over the years. (Sourced from Letterboxd).

But before we dive into the beachy waves, we unpack the 2025 NZ International Film Festival in a bumper Pop Corner. Hear our thoughts on Sirât, The Mastermind, Resurrection, Sorry, Baby, A Useful Ghost, Dreams (Sex Love), Blue Moon, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Weed Eaters, Twinless, Little Trouble Girls, Sentimental Value and The Shrouds. Also, hear Matt and Jamie almost come to blows over Freakier Friday, and witness Matt's incessant bullying of The Life of Chuck.