Steve Newall: Flicks.co.nz editor on Bird of the Year 2025

The highly-anticipated Bird of the Year vote is set to close tonight - with the champion bird due to be announced tomorrow.

The annual contest has grown into a cultural phenomenon, and it's produced plenty of memes, international headlines, a bit of vote-rigging scandal, and even controversy when Last Week Tonight got involved.

Flicks.co.nz editor Steve Newall weighed in on the most popular birds - ahead of voting closing at 5pm tonight.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
EDB Join me now is editor at flicks dot co
dot m Z. Steve Neil, good morning, Good morning now.
I am very keen to hear what you think about
the new Paul Thomas Anderson movie. It's called One Battle
after Another, and I am hearing great things. And I
missed the screening this week, which was very disappointing, but
it's top of my list of movies to go and know.

Speaker 3 (00:32):
As it should because I'm going to tell you more
good things about this film. This is this is my
favorite film of the esfr this might be one of
the well, it's gonna be one of the best films there.
I think we look back, look back on twenty five.
Paul Thomas Anderson has remarkably never won an Oscar, and
you think about its films, they will be Blood, The Master, Phantom, Thread, Magnolia,

(00:57):
Boogie Knights. His run of films is incredible, but he
is very seldom made film set in the present, and
I don't think think he's necessarire. I don't think it's
made anything that has this kind of sense of energy
and Urgency in the same way as this film does,
even though it runs at two hours fifty which is challenging.

(01:18):
But no you don't because this film I could have
actually done another forty five minutes in the theater with this.
So this is a film that follows. Leonardo DiCaprio is
the lead here in his first film for Pta. Their
pairing works really well. Leo's kind of in that territory
that he's been in for his last few films, kind
of being a buffoon, like he's just really good at it,
and he's this hapless When the film opens, he is

(01:41):
a current revolutionary. Then there's a bit of a time
jump and he is now like a washed up former
revolutionary playing stone a dad to a teenager. But sort
of what it sets up is that a set in
kind of contemporary miracle. Although it's not really like this
is now. This is torn from the headlines. We know
who the president is. There's an emphasis on deportations and

(02:03):
militarization in this film. It's kind of weird thinking this
has been in the work for some time, right, Based
on a nineteen nineteen novel by Thomas Pension or sort
of loosely adapted from it some sort of chronological changes,
but Sean Penn, in a magnificent kind of cartoonish o
Fish Marcho performance, is a military dude out to track

(02:26):
down DiCaprio and his daughter, and I think to go
too much for them into the narrative would would give
too much of the film away. I didn't know much
about it going and I already really liked it. But
this is a big budget art house or tur film
that has the Yeah, it crackles with energy. It's so
much fun. It's really really funny, and it's a real

(02:47):
I think it captures a lot of the energy of
the twenty twenty five we're living. And you know, even
though I say it's been in the works for some
time and its source material is now thirty five years old.

Speaker 2 (02:55):
You mentioned two of the cast. It's a good cast though, too,
Isn't it odd?

Speaker 3 (02:57):
So DiCaprio's This is Oscar, This is Oscar chat Territory.
Tiana Taylor plays his romantic partner and the revolutionaries. She's awesome.
Bennicie Old del Toro fantastic, Sean Penn, rad and relative
newcomer Chase Infinity playing DiCaprio's teenage Daughter is so incredibly
the world cast. Look, I love the film. It's got

(03:19):
great performances, it's got it's an action, thriller, comedy, kind
of got some satirical elements in there as well.

Speaker 2 (03:27):
But that's the great thing. It's not just fitting in.
It's you don't just fit it into the genre and everything,
and that's what's clever clever about it.

Speaker 3 (03:34):
And the thing I really came away thinking about this
film was like, I love the counterculture art of the seventies.
I love Thomas Pinson's writing, I love Joseph Haller, I
love Kurt Vonnegut. It's kind of got that energy. But
it's not a retro film, and I can't think of
anything that I've seen recently that feels like it's got
the kind of spirit of the seventies. But it's set

(03:57):
in the present day and has present day production values.
So yeah, really something special. I think it sort of sits.
It's a much more ambitious film than ari Asta's Eddington,
But like Eddington, I think it's going to be one
of the films I gets looked back to define define
our decade now very quickly.

Speaker 2 (04:14):
Bird of the Year, of course, that is wrapping up
today at five pm exactly.

Speaker 3 (04:19):
And you don't need there's no electoral role for this,
so you're not you're not a dropkick if you if
you haven't gotten around to being on an electoral role
for Bird of the Year, you can just go to
Bird of the Year dot co dot nz. Why is
this entertaining? That's the that's the question. Sorry, it's Bird
of the Year dot org, dot enz. But why this
is entertaining? Was it for flex? I asked the campaign managers.
Each bird has its own campaign manager, ruining the campaign.

(04:41):
You might have seen like different ads coming to your
social media or heard on the airwaves or digital billboards whatever.
I might ask the campaign managers which screen character their
bird was most like, and so this is a chance
that it's really like, you know, get the entertainment crowd involved.
But for instance, hoy hoo, the Yellowayde penguin, they're like, oh,
they're like Gendalf. They're ancient, majestic and one of the

(05:01):
rarest penguins in the world, just like wizards. The kahu is.
They thought that was like Stanley Tucci playing Paul Child.
Much like the Tucca who is everywhere, is doing all
right and is known by everyone. Tucci is Julian and
Julia character Paul Child comes to mind, happily eating whatever
is placed in front of him. This is a really
fun piece to put together, and if you want have

(05:23):
a bit of a chuckle and see some of the
candidates there is I think there's like something like seventy
in title. They didn't all reply to this, and that's
probably for the best, but you know, so some of them,
like the Poconoi, the Southern New Zealand dotrial saying that
they're like the Umpu lumpas uh. I love some entertaining
arguments in the air. But whatever you do, whether you
look at this piece and get your votes on for

(05:43):
Bird of the Year by five pm to you.

Speaker 2 (05:45):
Can find that article at flicks dot coz.

Speaker 1 (05:48):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks he'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.