I selected based on emotional attachment and exciting formal dynamics. I included TV, YouTube, and games, I speak to why they qualify. I could probably dig a little deeper and think of YouTube videos and even short things I’ve seen on IG (I have never used TikTok), but I don’t really remember and I don’t keep count all year. This is entirely just me sitting down and thinking about what I liked this year over the last week or so. I didn’t keep a running list, which I admire people who do, not I. Below you’ll find Poor Things called the movie of the year, but it’s nowhere near the top of my list. That’s because while I recognize its bravado and excellence, it didn’t hit me as deep as Iron Claw did, which I watched b2b basically. The best usages of the most tools—Poor Things—also doesn’t touch one guy using no tools but coming up with the biggest ideas I’ve seen in years, and shaking me to my core more than a movie has in memory—Skinamarink. I want to question my reality and reevaluate all my choices. I want to enter the dark room, give myself to the bright wall as it reveals itself, and come out changed, looking at the natural world like I never have before. That’s what a movie theater is to me, and that’s what these stories and this form can do. It’s my church. I come to worship, and be given the sermon. Poor Things won’t dictate how I live my life, it’s just so so good. The movie to end this period of moviemaking. Skinamarink is the future and the past. When we heard “time is a flat circle” in True Detective, Skinamarink was what he meant. Kyle Edward Ball is living an experience none of us can fully grasp, but his work is a tiny glimpse into it. That is what film offers. People live unique experiences that we can all benefit from learning about, and film offers us slices of it. “Movies, at their best, offer wisdom without suffering.” Sam Wasson said this, who just released his Coppola tome, and our interview is up in Reunion newsletter #1.
Skinamarink — the cinematic + art event of the year; high brow and low. This is both the greatest cinematic encapsulation of waking up as a disoriented child, as well as what a movie can look like from a mind impacted by schizophrenia. Pure cinema. Full heroin version as Lynch would say. One of the highest expressions of the form and the human being ever. Tetsuo comes to mind as a comparison. These come along a few per generation. Yes, this is a generational achievement. Books should be written on this work and Kyle Edward Ball alone. It's not a chapter. It's a book. A door stopper. Watching Skinamarink feels like listening to SOPHIE’s early early demos. I knew I'd never hear music the same again. Poor Things is the movie Coppola would make today, but Coppola could never go inside himself and emerge in cinematic form the way Ball has. Poor Things is the Apocalypse Now of the era. It's a bar for everyone else to set their sights on, and it's a period that, upon its emergence, nobody can ever touch again. Yorgos won the era. He declared himself the filmmaker of our time. Just like Coppola was of his. But Apocalypse couldn't do what Tetsuo did and Poor Things can't touch Skinamarink's usage of the cinematic form.
Hello Dankness -- You’ll find there’s a theme to my picks. It’s the end of cinema as we know it (not the end of cinema period). Making regular movies makes no sense. Make a movie that ends all movies…make something exceedingly personal…make something formalist…or why are you doing it? The trifecta of Napoleon, Holdovers, and The Killer are just like…why? Add Ferrari and prob some others (please ban Shailene Woodley from things). They’re not bad. They just add nothing. They’re retreads of stuff we’ve had before. They’re kinda like slasher movie sequels, which I love, but simply rearrange parts of the originals and let people come back to the thing they like, leaving no tension and nothing stays with you after. Sideways has quotable dialogue and memorable sequences, I challenge you to quote me anything in Holdovers. Napoleon is another historical epic just as epic as Kingdom of Heaven was like 15 years ago. The Killer is just Fincher-light. Everyone in all of these movies is executing, but who cares (by the way, who is Erik Messerschmidt’s publicist…WOW…MVP)? These things need to be subverted and rethought…or just stop. Hello Dankness lives to subvert and reconsider. Soda Jerk have been doing this for a while, a nice entry point is their Avalanches music video, but Terror Nullius is their prior big one. Hello Dankness is a rotoscope mashup of art, culture and civilization. It takes the Trump era and funnels it through the lens of my favorite movie movie The Burbs (Last Year at Marienbad is my #1 film but Burbs is #1 movie movie). The whole thing is sampled. It’s not really important I explain their format any further, just it’s unlike any other movie you’ll watch, both in the form they utilize, and the narrative construction. They trace a real emotional arc through the chapters. It’s years of work and it’s a high water mark of art making in the world right now. That this got a month at Film Forum is the miracle of the year.
The Outwaters — pays off the first half pace. Watch with the awareness of the formal gambit that everything is analog and in camera. It says it in the beginning, but you don’t quite realize how valuable a piece of info that is. I don’t want to go too far in on this, because it’ll ruin it. But it’s another huge formalistic subversion of tropes that absolutely sticks the landing. Please be patient. Kinda like Skinamarink, you might think nothing is happening for the first 30+ minutes, but it’s all constructed to bring you into a state. Yes, a state. It’s sorta like slow or durational cinema, but something else. These 30 minutes are like the time required to extract you from cinematic history. In this case, you probably think you’re watching a found footage horror movie, so you need to think about Paranormal Activity, and Blair Witch Project, and maybe even Willow Creek if you’re a head. The time Robbie Banfitch imposes upon the viewer is real estate in the form of mind share. Not everyone will make it. But for those who do, he owns you. And once he owns you, he f*cks you up. Outwaters is the fiercest f*cking a movie has done to its audience maybe since Irreversible. If cinematic history starting now took notes on these three, oh wow, what a time we could have. I don’t know what’s to come. I don’t know if it’s just the genre nerds on Shudder and Screambox who check this stuff out or what. If the beyond the box experimentation of Hello Dankness and the formal adventures of Skinamarink and Outwaters lead us into the next era, it would be magic. Cinema would not die. Outwaters should be notable for its formal experimental choices, not relegated to consideration with other found footage horror movies. It’s also leaps and bounds ballsier (intended in all ways) than Saltburn. Saltburn is like a meme and trending topic packaged movie pretending to impact the viewer the way Outwaters actually does. Outwaters f*cks you.
Pacifiction — bc it’s on a lot of people’s 2023 lists even tho it was also on my 2022. Massive. Massive in so many ways. Sucks Albert Serra is not a household name. Pedro Costa too. I wish we had a culture where these people were revered. Not everyone needs to be literate and into them, but to just be generally aware of their mastery, it would be a nice world.
Backrooms — Kane Pixels is making something with A24. Excited for it. Take a dive on his YouTube if you haven’t. It may require a little Googling to understand where to go in and what it all means, but it’s generally more fun to just dive in and get confused. Going in cold is scarier and more fun. The liminal space phenomenon is another of the huge ideas that I hope will spur some of the big inspirational works to come. If you’re completely new to it, the entry points would be to watch The Shining, then listen to The Caretaker with the reading alongside you. Then head into the Backrooms rabbit hole. Adjacent, coming through Creepypasta world, but the book Penpal, which originated as a Creepypasta Reddit thread, is another nice mood setter. You really have to get into the mood for Backrooms. The ennui. The feeling of being outside place and time. Watch it dark and probably with headphones.
Fargo (tv) — still ongoing, return to S2 form. Juno Temple is richest character on TV in years, and she’s fully established in the opening act (first half E1). Sam Spruell (also excellent in forthcoming The Settlers) is #2 best character. Holy cow. What a force. Jon Hamm and Steve Harrington (as Mike Patten!) are finally used well. Creator Noah Hawley takes 1988’s Betrayed and flips it beautifully. The bath scene. Woah. The big set pieces will get the attention, but the Hamm bath tub scene with his girls rocked me. Straight out of Betrayed. And somehow better with the absence of the Debra Winger character. It becomes more haunting. In Betrayed we know this is all supervised, and it’s going to end. Hawley heightens the dread in Fargo by cutting holes in the fence. We don’t know what will kill us. Militia ideology? Capitalist carpetbaggers? Boys masquerading as men? Actual ghouls? Every season of Fargo has one supernatural element and one call back. We haven’t gotten the call back yet, but the supernatural element is my favorite of the series since S2, which I don’t expect anything to ever top, and that’s ok. This is the only thing that feels like it was made in peak TV era. Everything else I watched felt compromised by the downfall of the industry. I’m so happy we got this, and at the same time, I commend Hawley and co for their achievement. Making this in today’s environment is even more impressive than S2 produced during peak peak TV era. //// Adding more, as it's ongoing. It started so strong. But as I've watched mid-season episodes, it's settled into another of these shows as long movies with a second act that is six hours instead of one. The pieces were set in the first two episodes. A few really fun set pieces occupied the middle. But this was to be structured as a two hour movie, not an eight hour series. So there's just been tons of fat in the middle as we approach the final episodes, which I still expect to be excellent. In comparison to S2 though, that had arcs within arcs (thank you for Zahn McClarnon + Bokeem Woodbine) and lots of heft to the midsection. It had multiple climaxes and delivered deep meaning to different character arcs. This season we're just waiting for Juno to face the badguys. She did it in episode one, and she'll do it again in end...but we're lost in the middle with nothing to say. Still, excellent. Cannot wait for the end which will be spectacular I’m positive.
Malum — formally, Anthony DiBlasi is the best horror director working today. I don’t think anyone can really argue with that. Skill wise, this is the kind of scene building only experienced otherwise in year end awards contenders. He’s excellent. This movie will f*ck you up. Malignant beats this for me because it’s such a massive idea, but DiBlasi is a better straight horror director than James Wan.
Taste of Things — never has a movie been more sumptuous. It’s delicious in all ways. Watching this real life divorced couple love each other, oh my god, too much. It’s gorgeous. It’s like the most easily likable movie ever. My parents haven’t watched it yet, but it’s already their favorite movie. I told them. It is decided. I’m going to get them one of those picture frame monitors to put in their country house kitchen that exclusively plays this movie on loop for them to watch forever.
God of War 2 -- the only game I really care about. 2 isn't as great as 1 (or whatever we're calling them bc this is like the 7th, but 2nd on PS4/5 I guess). I loved Death Stranding (same year as God of War 1) but while its format and story are epic, it doesn't hold attention w so much repetitive game play (like Red Dead, but better, Red Dead is so boring, it's fun for like an hour and then you just repeat the mechanics for months). Stranding does not satisfy like durational cinema, so I think it's a partial masterpiece. Conversely, the midpoint shift in God of War 1 is the moment Spielberg spoke of years ago saying videogames would make us cry. Transcendence. It's the best storytelling meets form I've experienced maybe in my lifetime. Ever. Bc it elevates the form, the experience of getting involved in an emotional arc, in story. I don't want to spoil it but it blows my mind anytime I think about it. It's the moment I knew film, the 7th art, would eventually be replaced as the highest art. Video games, AR and VR will replace film. Not yet tho. Film, like painting, won't go away, it just won't be the dominant form. That moment in the first game doesn't get matched by anything in its follow up. It's still wonderful. Odin is a huge and satisfying character, and Freya’s whole life on display is tremendous. What God of War does uniquely great is elevate the mechanics throughout, while tying those escalations to the story. You never step in the same river twice. The mechanics and story evolve parallel, so you’re executing the same mechanics, but with heightened emotion…or you’re executing new mechanics…always. I’ve never played another game I can say that about. The world hasn't wrapped its head around what that first game did, so movies are still top art. Last of Us 2 (a few years old, but I just played finally, and nothing better since) blows the original out of the water, with the formal choice of splitting the game play to create an unprecedented form of empathy in the viewer / player. More storytelling and experiential innovation. I played 2 just now, so it's new for me, and I thought about Israel vs Palestine throughout. It's clearly what the game is about, and creator Neil Druckmann (Jew from West Bank) has said as much. So beautiful. It’s the other narrative + formal innovation games has achieved besides God of War’s midpoint shift moment. But that's two years old now. So God of War 2 gets the spot on this list because it’s still excellent. Alan Wake 2 has a really cool concept of the FBI procedural, X Files meets Twin Peaks, as a game, but the supernatural element is so silly that I stopped playing after the first couple chapters. We’re not going to talk about Last of Us TV show, which is so so so stupid. And I’m very upset by recent casting announcements for S2. I hate this show so much and basically like anyone who likes it less.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part 1 — saw it four times in theaters. Loved it each time. Unfortunately swept under the rug this year for many reasons Tom Cruise did not deserve. Given where the world and arts have gone since it came out, it doesn’t resonate with me the same. But I watched it opening days one and two with very very satisfied audiences, and again with my very thrilled grandma. It came too late, and it wasn’t quite what Top Gun was, but it was incredible. The Venice sequence still gets me. I wish this one just got to live in a different time. Even though Top Gun owned last year, I somehow still feel like Tom Cruise is the cowboy who saved the town, only to be made unwelcome once society returned. It may be impossible to crack the code of how to adjust Dead Reckoning Part 2 (which will be something else now), but if anyone can do it, it would be Cruise and McQuarrie. If they somehow make this next movie relevant, I would consider it the feather in Cruise’s career cap, one of the biggest flexes ever. Regardless of the stock being sunk to the bottom of some Russian abyss like ‘the entity’, I have faith, and can’t wait for the next one. I love Tom Cruise and appreciate him as our greatest living champion of cinema. Yes, Tom Cruise, I said it. Not James Cameron, not Martin Scorsese. Tom Cruise. Greatest living champion of cinema. It would be Francis Ford Coppola, but he’s really living a different life now, on his own island, not making it his business to save The Town. Tom Cruise is our Gary Cooper or Randolph Scott, the cowboy who, whether we ask him or not, makes it his life’s mission to save our Town. I love him for it.
Loch Henry (Black Mirror S6E2) -- nothing has stayed with me more than this. I think about it more than Skinamarink. It still disturbs me. The video she finds with the song from the Bar/Bat Mitzvahs of my youth (I don’t want to spoil). Nothing has shaken me like that in recent memory. I was so surprised to get this from Netflix, and even Black Mirror, which hasn’t done much for me since it got acquired. Weird, if you read the discourse about this one, most key in on it being a warning about the dangers of your social media story taking on a life of its own that you then adopt (I guess that’s the spin Netflix thinks gets more ink?)…but to me its about the Petri dish a small town can turn into, how the generations cope and evolve; and how the rot can be irrepressible, how it may never go away, and spread. Haunting. Reminds me of Edward Paisnell the Beast of Jersey.
Godzilla Minus One — oh my god I loved it so much. Cried four times. Heard this guy wants Star Wars. PLEASE give to him. Life affirming! I thought a lot about Israel x Hamas while watching. Hamas says that the Jews desire to live is our weakness, and that their value for death and martyrdom will be what makes them defeat us. Give the death cult a screening of this movie! See what they think. F*ck off you b@stards. Life is for living. Life is beautiful. Sacrifice is going through pain to overcome challenges and coming home to your family. Must come home. Your family doesn’t want you to go out and blow up the bad guys and die honorably. They want to go through the challenges with you, hug you when you get home, and grow old together. I can’t believe America has another Godzilla vs. Kong movie coming out in 2024. Can this be canceled? We’re such a disgrace.
Pathaan / Jawan — I love going to opening Imax of big Bollywood movies, everyone yells and claps and whistles. SRK owned this year (three w Dunki but I haven’t watched yet). WOW. So so so much fun. I love how these are packed now. I went to opening day RRR a few years ago and there were four people in audience. Now they sell out (thanks to RRR). But yeah humble brag, I’ve been watching all of these for a while now. Do yourself a favor and watch War if you liked Jawan. Lots more good ones this year too, but SRK’s return to form was a big deal. He also had the only good part of Brahmastra (a lame remake of Shang Chi or Dr. Strange I can’t tell the difference), which I think was 2022, but his opening sequence was so awesome. As good as anything in these movies. SRK is India’s Tom Cruise. Love him.
Zone of Interest — a mega idea. The dualistic layered storytelling formally and metaphysically—woah. And the timing. Woah. I still haven’t wrapped my head around what it all means. I need to watch like a YouTube explainer or something. But it landed for sure. My parents told me the apples were a small act of kindness amidst evil, pulled from a real story. Jonathan Glazer is a big big mind. Special guy. Thankful for this especially right now.
The Iron Claw -- articles talk about excluding the youngest brother Chris but few mention the exclusion of the origin of the curse. The dad Jack Adkisson changed his name to German sounding Fritz Von Erich and adopted a Nazi persona for his wrestling character. The legend is that the a Holocaust survivor Jew who lost seven sons was upset he would capitalize on their pain and cursed him. Durkin spoke to it in one interview...said that's not the curse this story is about. The curse is the boxes of masculinity boys get put into. I agree. Too convoluted, it would take away from the story. But I loved the movie and do believe this is a story worth telling and I hope it gets told. I hate the Jewish aspect of the story being excluded. But I get why it needed to happen. Zac Efron is probably my best actor. He can clearly go (pardon the pun) punch for punch w Bradley Cooper in the commitment category. And his performance was the one actually tied to a gut wrenching character arc that got deep down inside me like nothing else this year. Maestro was performance performance, super cool, beautiful, wild work, seriously, but it meant nothing. It was just a thing. Cooper was awesome. But to no end. Just spectacle. And too much of it. Like it could’ve been a few scenes. Efron, woah, I mean, what has gone on in this guy’s life. I can only imagine the turmoil inside him. This is real. This is his actual physique. And the jaw situation. Everything Kanye’s gone through, it seems like Efron has even worse, but he keeps it quiet. I feel like this role was a massive moment in his life. Sean Durkin and he must have such bonded secrets shared together. They must be so deeply connected. The whole thing is a dual narrative of the character and performance, along with Zac Efron as a man. I was entirely engrossed with the movie as I watched it, but afterwards, I’m doubly haunted by what this last decade must have been like for Efron as a human being. By all accounts I’ve heard, he’s lovely and deeply considerate of those around him. I believe it. Of course I’m projecting here, but I sense that putting his body through what he’s put it through is like running away from whatever it is he’s running from. Which is of course…apropos for Kevin Von Erich. It’s a rare perfect role. I wanna know who wrote “we’ll be your brothers, dad” oh man what a bring-the-house-down line.
Beau is Afraid — my fav Aster. So happy he cashed in his chips to use on this one. I wish it weren’t also the end of his run of being able to financially drive projects. A movie lover’s movie and a nervous Jewish boy’s movie. Means so much more than the last two. Honors his prolific early career short films. I wish Joaquin Phoenix weren’t in so many movies because we’d be able to appreciate this role more. It kinda dilutes the performance when we get him doing the same things in Napoleon a few months later. Oh wow, I just had the weirdest thought. It’s possible, given Apple’s backing, that Phoenix could get nominations for playing Napoleon in a year when he played Beau. Beau is probably his best role. But he also made the entirely inoffensive but unnecessary and kinda random willy nilly Napoleon (I don’t remember who tweeted it, and it was originally about another biopic, but the meme goes something like “You thought you knew Napoleon, but did you know that…Napoleon fucked??? Coming this season to Apple TV+”) . Such weird times. I don’t expect A24 to put the machine behind this one, so this is really possible. Whatever, a lot worse things happened this year. Shailene Woodley ruined a Michael Mann movie for instance.
Divinity — the most adventurous idea packed movie of the year. Eddie Alcazar is playing with cinematic form and largesse in a way nobody else is; but I don’t understand how everyone isn’t. His approach is exactly what I would expect all of us to do, yet we just don’t. This is the most fun a Sundance movie has probably ever been. If you enjoyed the early 80s vibes of Mandy, this pulls from the same period but brings us different points. The energy is nonstop visual explosions. It connects in the same way Mandy does, with style leading the way (if you dug Mad Max Black & Chrome Edition…), while never losing track of the emotional center of the story it aims to tell. The cast is excellent. Another aspect I don’t understand why more people aren’t doing…Alcazar pulls in this very diverse group of people from different walks of life (body building, porn, B movies, TV…) and patch works them together to add dynamic tension to the scenes that kinda do the rest of the work for him. It’s kinda like he had the important parts of the story down…all these huge visual ideas…and then he just let the casting chemistry fill in the rest. It works. One of those you unfortunately know is a ‘cult classic’ before it even comes out, which just means it will be under appreciated and under watched. Maybe there’s a way it takes off at some point on streaming.
Poor Things -- no doubt the movie of the year. Yorgos wins. But I live by Walter Murch editing hierarchy rules. Emotion first. I did love it. And filmmaking achievement categorically beyond anything else here. Like by levels. The grandiosity of the idea sculpted as a story. The wonderment expressed in the production design, art direction and wardrobe. The casting being a who's who of international hitters. They cherry picked actors w major roles the last few years and gave them single scenes or short arcs that all smashed. What a luxury. It's like a blood on the streets buy real estate situation. This is the only real big movie achievement of the year, the only group who got their s**t together and made a real movie w real ambition and real construction and real execution...so they get their pick. In its way it's down here on my list because it's so big. All before it are there for a focus that stays with me today. Some specific emotional or stylistic touch that hit me deep. Poor Things is life itself...it's massive. It's a movie movie. But while it envelops me, I bow down to it, it doesn't go deep inside. I don’t care days later. Emma Stone gave the ultimate acting performance. I mean ultimate in that it's the end of something, it gobbles up everything from Dogtooth to final girls to Barbie. Whatever follows this, to be taken seriously, must lean in rather than extrapolate. She put a period on it. But it's still down here on my list. So conversely, Iron Claw, which I watched a day apart, tells a very specific story, and gives Zac Efron a very specific arc to provide us with. His achievement is going to keep me up at night. That pain he exuded and challenge in overcoming it is a mirror, I won't shake anytime soon. Emma Stone gave the performance of the century...but I'm staring off into space returning to Efron's facial ticks. I just watched both, so maybe I regret this and it changes. But I sense Poor Things will remain a marvel that never moves me to the core. A thousand bravos all the same, and I hope it wins every award there is to award. If Emma Stone and Willem Defoe don't sweep, I don't know what we're doing. I saw Charles Melton win some things already…ridiculous. No disrespect to him, but we’re talking different leagues. I hope the weirdly contrived hype for Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon goes away. That movie was an abomination, and their treatment of her as a character and actress was its greatest sin. She was asleep half the movie, the hype around it is so strange, and showed how journalism (film journalism specifically, but all too) is broken. She’s much better in the still unsold Sundance movie Fancy Dance. Not her fault Killers sucks. If people wanna go populist, I can’t blame them for giving Margot Robbie whatever they want for Barbie, but let’s call a spade a spade. Anyone giving an award to anyone but Emma Stone…deserves a Logan Roy “You are not serious people” gif.
Barry -- that month or so when HBO was wrapping Succession and Barry at the same time was a really sweet send off to the organization before it turned into Max. I didn't take Succession too seriously but boy did they stick the landing. I thought the show started decent, albeit missing the culture, then s2 and s3 entered monster of the week format x meme fodder and the show became painful. S4 was excellent though. They nailed the major story beats (except they used the wrong terrace) in a mercifully (considering how, say, Mike Flanagan would do it) condensed time span. They could have dragged it out but didn't. Thank you for that. I thought the off screen death was a tremendous choice, "you are not serious people" was the chrysalis, and the end end made all the mature and thrilling choices. That being said, Barry is the major work of the two. If this came a few years prior, in real peak TV time, it would be studied as a surrealist construction wonder and a performance stacked on performance exercise for the ages. They also sprinted to the finish line flexing muscles but they did it without missing a beat. It's like Succession took a cab and then looked good at the photo op, but Barry ran the marathon fast and consistent, had serious ideas and vision paced throughout. It's the thing Donald Glover wanted to make.
The Bear -- the seven fishes episode is a writing and performance marvel. The finale is a directing masterclass. Who cares if this is real or makes sense, it's just emotional. All of it. Starting w the perfectly invoked Bruce Hornsby song, to the first kiss sequence that made me nostalgic for the 1980s Molly, to the bifurcated closing sequence...S2 stepped this up in every way. It sorta stopped being plot driven and just became structured by emotional beats. What a choice. Structure every episode around a character’s crisis or catharsis. I could melt. Oh man. Not sure what S3 holds, I kinda don't want it tbh. I think they did it all here and I'd rather Carmy remain locked in our metaphorical freezer forever, stick us with the responsibility to find our own resolution in our hearts and minds. I'd rather the team pick another story and another group of actors. Maybe they'll identify this too and be able to take advantage of the chaos at Hulu to take a total left turn w S3. Given it grew a real mainstream fan base I imagine there would be pressure to repeat itself for the regular folk. I hope not. It's special when it steps outside the story and goes for the throat. They did such a good job on S2 that I think they'd be serving leftovers. So send em to Japan or something.
A Thousand and One — does NYC proud. Teyana Taylor is unsurprisingly surprisingly excellent. Eric Yue is a big DP. AV Rockwell is a big director. Very happy to see a movie check the cultural boxes and deliver as just a great movie. It’s so tedious waiting for these orgs to break out of the box checking wokeness. Bravo to AV Rockwell for doing it all this year.
Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell — unexpectedly formally adventurous. These long takes pay off with tons of camera tricks and blocking ideas. They make the slow cinema experience fully charged in a way I hadn’t experienced prior. The scenes have these GOTCHA moments that come with such subtlety but bravado. You can’t look away because of it. I didn’t know when the movie was going to end because I was so trained to be transfixed, ready for something to jump. Don’t get me wrong, the movie is sedate. It’s just when you consider it in the context of the kinds of film it will be grouped in with, it stands out and brings a youthful energy to areas previously kept quiet.
The Curse (tv) — hilarious to talk to people about this because so many people don’t get it, and it’s such a revealer. There’s so many sociological aspects to it that out people when they don’t see themselves in it. Very smart. Still waiting for the magnum opus moment from Nathan Fielder. This isn’t it. It’s great. But it’s not magnum opus. He’s got another level in him. He has a four quadrant world healer in him, I can feel it. We’ve never had a Nathan Fielder though, so I respect that it takes time for him, the industry, and culture, to get to the point of being ready to deliver that. I am grateful to have him and his wild mind. No intention to dismiss Benny Safdie and Emma Stone, they’re both huge. Still haven’t finished this, excited for wherever it goes. Really cool this exists.
Barbenheimer — they were both great. Nothing more needs to be said. They delivered. Great job all around. Great great job. Career highs for Gerwig and Nolan (well not Nolan actually, Interstellar is career high, but I’m happy he gets to give these interviews calling his movie the biggest financial success in movie history, good for him. James Cameron is going to send anthrax). These are together, but to be clear, Barbie is far superior. Gerwig did the thing, went from SXSW indie darling, to using all the studio resources to take over and subvert and perform excellently on the biggest stage. I’m very happy for her. Oppenheimer has two WOW moments (opening image on 70mm Imax and crowd scene), and generally feels excellent, but doesn’t really mean much.
The Idol — back to my Murch rules. Emotion. I've not thought about a show (besides Fargo) nearly as much as this. I loved watching it and wondering if they were in on the joke. If so, who? I know some of them so I know some of the background. Got stories while it was being made. My sense is Reza knows what’s a joke and what’s deadly serious. Levinson thinks it's all poetry, he was by accounts insufferable about this. The Weeknd wakes up and does 180s day by day so we get tonal shifts throughout his performance. It's hilarious how many people and ideas came in and out of this production. The oral history book on this would be the book of the era. Kyle Buchanan? In all seriousness, it touches a part of culture that makes culture from a standpoint very rarely actualized into art. It's a mess. But it's exactly what it needs to be. It gives us so much. I said Under the Silver Lake is the experience of talking to a guy at 215am at Tenants of the Trees 2015 right after the doors close and it's only Reza's friends. The Idol is what would come of that conversation. It's perfect in its way. (Google these references, you’ll understand if you care to)
De Humanis Corporis Fabrica -- on last year's list but technically didn't release til this year. Would be higher if I didn't already list it last year. It's incredible. Just putting here bc I don't want to leave it out in comparison to it being on so many lists, deservedly so.
Daisy Jones & The Six -- I became obsessed with Fleetwood Mac’s Rumors on a family vacation whenever Super Mario Bros 3 came out, which me 6-8 yrs old I’d say. The song “Silver Springs” wouldn’t have been on it. I know now that the whole thing became a phenomenon in 1997, but that never hit my radar until this year. I have been vaguely aware of the love stories and dramas behind the scenes, but until now I never did a deep listen back to those favorite records in the context of what was Lindsey Buckingham’s side, what was Stevie Nicks’ side, etc. I just liked the songs, melodic and emotional. Maybe I haven’t given Fleetwood Mac a relistening as an adult because songs like “Dreams” and “Gold Dust Woman” have taken on sorta tertiary meaning, like DJ records, Courtney Love moments, meme friendly things. I don’t hear those songs and think of 1990, when I first got really into the band. I genuinely didn’t think they were on Rumors until I relistened this week. It was a random clip of the 1997 The Dance performance that I saw on IG, of Stevie singing “Silver Springs” directly at the clear object of the song guitarist Lindsey. Made me think of Star is Born. Somehow this entire very well known phenomenon slipped my view until now. I did a dive into the song right away, had possibly never even heard it. Without context, WOAH. Then the story. It’s like the Vince McMahon meme. Bigger WOAH. The reemergence, the money going to her mom in the end. The 20 years-in-waiting look she gave him, which is perfectly captured on film. And then I hear it went viral again because of this show that I ignored Daisy Jones & The Six, which is partly based on the moment. So after my deep listen of the music, which made me ugly cry for days, I binged this show. I can’t remember the last time I binged a show. Is that because Netflix shows haven’t been for me for a long time? Is it because I don’t watch as much TV as I have in past? I really have no idea. I remember the feeling of inhaling a 10 hour series in days, where I can’t think about anything else and am just dying to get home to live with these characters again, and know where they go. It’s very much how I imagine drugs (I’ve famously never done drugs) could feel like when you try a new one. The initial burst makes life feel explosive, but then quickly it goes away and you return to baseline reality. I’m very happy I got at least one binge in this year. As Nicks asks “was it worth it” yes. The show is excellent. Not even cheesy. I’d have thought so in the beginning, like ok, I’m just gonna accept this and let myself go on the programmatic emotional journey. But it’s quite modern. It feels more like a portrayal of relationships we’d find in Rafelson’s 70s movies. Not for the mainstream. Too complicated. Too much lacking in clear solutions. Too grey. But they pull it off. The end wraps up in a blitzkrieg, I genuinely thought this was building toward a season two, like they’d just cliffhanger us. And then the whole thing wraps up expertly and beautifully in 20 minutes. The emotional juggernaut of those 20 minutes is so tasteful and anti-corporate. I don’t know how it happened. How Amazon didn’t remove it once they knew they had something good, and turn it into an endless run. Another way to look at how good the show is, and how good the Stevie Nicks story is…the Stevie character is played by Elvis’ granddaughter. Nobody talks about this. She’s just Riley Keough, an actress now with more than enough renown to market the show without utilizing the tag line that the arguably greatest male rock star’s granddaughter plays arguably the greatest female rock star. That’s another wild thought. That we don’t need to talk about it that way. It’s just all that good.
Marsh King’s Daughter -- most unexpected of year. Someone once said to me "the God Ben Mendolsohn," I don't remember who or the context, but I've never forgotten. We are really losing by not getting more great roles for him in his prime. He's magic. This movie is surprisingly tight and awesome. Probably the best straight movie story of the year. It's a great Friday night watch. Movie movie. Daisy Ridley doesn't ruin it. That other actor Gunther or whatever his idiotic name is actually does ruin every scene he's in but thankfully it's kinda like two movies so we get back to the scheduled programming when he disappears. The movie can survive him, but if Shailene Woodley played the Daisy Ridley role, it wouldn’t be on this list. I love movie movies. This is the kinda thing we had three of every weekend when I was growing up. I've been rewatching lots of em lately. I did an Andy Garcia triple feature recently. Good tight thrillers with excellent performances and simple but cool situation ideas. Nobody watched this movie so I understand why we don't get em often. But appreciate it when it comes.
Anyone But You — sometimes we gotta chill out, have a nectarine, and let a semi-woke—but still somehow as white as it gets, and also packed with racist tropes—romcom wash over us like a delicious salve to ease our pain. I loved it. What can I say? They used to also put these out every month. Big charismatic personalities, obviously super hot, hamming it up, taking it to 11, with stacked co-stars that are cherry picked from all over. These movies have been relegated to Netflix movie-of-the-week and pandemic movies for the last few years. This time, when the turning point needs to happen, its CINEMATIC!, they do Titanic, fall off a yacht, in front of the Sydney Opera House, get airlifted by helicopter, and have to sing to keep him calm, which is of course a song the entire audience knows by heart, so if you were in the right theater, everyone sung along. Not my kinda movie at all, but it was such a delightful twist to the end of the year.
This year’s upcoming releases look awful. I dread writing this again. Apocalypse incoming.