It’s New Year’s Eve, and while I’m usually a pretty optimistic person I think things are only going to get worse in 2025. This year started shitty, it only got shittier, and it ended on one final flourish of shittiness; you would think this leaves one feeling hopeful for an eventual upswing, but I’m not seeing it right now. Check back with me in April.

That said, at least we can close things out with a banger: My guest is writer-director Steve Pink, co-writer of Grosse Pointe Blank and High Fidelity and the director of Hot Tub Time Machine and its sequel, and he’s chosen to tackle Luc Besson’s 1990 breakout La Femme Nikita, a movie that still vibrates with raw talent and style even though its maker has done his best to ruin it in the rear view.

It’s a good one, and though I struggled to find a connection to Steve’s latest project — the documentary The Last Republican, opening Friday at the Film Forum in New York — we managed to end on a hopeful note. So go forth and listen, and maybe we can make it through this nightmare after all.

It’s available in all the usual places:  Apple, Spotify, YouTube Podcasts, your podcatcher of choice … or you can download the episode directly from the web and listen to it as you’re hunkered down behind a pillar, waiting for that sniper to reload so you can take him out.

Then, get caught up on Shiny Things, where I’ve just dropped my lists of the year’s best movies and discs. It’s free to read, but you can always subscribe if you feel like it. Subscribers will have a better 2025 than everyone else. I can’t help it, it’s been decided.

That’s it! See you in the new year, and may the door hit 2024 good and hard in the ass as it leaves.