A lot of things these days might make you wonder "Why go on?" Some are dramatic. Some are insignificant. Even if you do wonder, you usually just end up carrying on anyway.
Two major cineplexes have closed in Albuquerque in the past year or two, and I can't say that I miss them. There are fewer and fewer reasons to hit a multiplex these days, given the bloat that is usually on offer. Sure, it's fun to sit in a dark theater with strangers and experience art and entertainment. Maybe someday that won't be an option anymore. We'll cope. Or we'll go underground. The point is, I can't imagine I would miss 99 percent of the titles on the average marquee.
Last year I whined a bit about over-long "prestige" movies glutting the market, and there was more of the same this year. Too many movies run significantly longer than two hours, and too few deserve such an indulgence. And still more of our old stand-bys disappointed us. I can't believe so many old male filmmakers still command big budgets and rapt attention. For me it was a parade of hard passes.
If you still have the patience for Martin Scorsese giving a dull history lesson for three and a half hours, you have my admiration and/or sympathy. Christopher Nolan pontificating melodramatically for three hours? Be my guest. Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix playing war games (2 hours, 38 minutes)? I'd rather live out my days in exile. A Bradley Cooper vanity project (2:09)? Did you see the trailer?! Michael Mann brought out of mothballs to cultivate another Italian accent from Adam Driver (2:09)? Maddon'. Alexander Payne and Paul Giamatti stretching a '70s period piece to a relatively brief 2 hours, 13 minutes? ... Maybe?
I believe in life cycles, hitting about every seven years or so, and it feels like another moment to flip the script and purge some stodgy former favorites. I didn't think I'd walk out on a Wes Anderson film, but his "Asteroid City" was so pointless that I could not imagine staying seated in the theater and feeling myself slowly age. We clicked off Todd Haynes' "May December," even though it was streaming for mere pennies. Things culminated on New Year's Eve, when I forced myself to watch all of "Barbie" (interminable at two hours, but thankfully streaming it in my living room) and literally woke up sick the next day. (Surely a coincidence?) I was so insulted by what Greta Gerwig and Noah Baumbach considered to be clever and cutting edge that it made me rethink my relationship with film the past 30 years. That is not bubblegum hyperbole.
But, also like last year, that doesn't mean it was a bad year for movies. 2023 was OK. I settled on a cool dozen films to rank as the best of 2023, and I had to rely on the multiplex for only two of them -- the rest turning up either at my local arthouse cinema (check out my history of The Guild here) or via boutique streaming services like Mubi or Fandor. (Every title below gets a link to my original review.)
There was no doubt that "Past Lives" would end up at number one, and by a pretty wide margin. The debut from Celine Song, starring Greta Lee as an immigrant finally coming to terms with her childhood sweetheart, is 105 minutes of pristine storytelling, the perfect example of why movies exist. (It might be back in your local theater this week.) The next four on my list were alternately fun (Nicole Holofcener's picking apart of a marriage and Matt Johnson riffing on the BlackBerry phenomenon) and deeply moving (another immigrant tale, "Fremont," and the best depiction of male friendship I've ever seen, "The Eight Mountains").
More simple, mainstream fun was found in "Bottoms" (at the cineplex) and "M3GAN" (on DVD). Only one documentary made the Top 12, but a bunch of others get an honorable mention below. One fun discovery was a three-part documentary, uploaded to YouTube, about the old Comiskey Park in Chicago; a fan's passion project shows a fine command of archival footage.
I've tried as much as possible to help you find the movies that are listed. The site Just Watch has a simple search function to figure out where movies might be streaming. I subscribe to Netflix, HBO Max (still, despite my "Barbie" trauma) and indie standard-bearer Mubi, and I do free trials or short-term deals with the likes of Hulu, Amazon and Criterion to strategically gobble up a bunch of titles I've flagged ahead of time. I even still have a DVD player, and the local library is a reliable source of new releases. Maybe I'm desperately staving off irrelevance.
I get it -- like my previous career (journalism), the movie industry is undergoing significant changes, based on technological advances and old-fashioned capitalist greed. It's a blessing and a curse to have so much "content" instantly available at our fingertips. (By the way, check out "Fingertips" on Apple-TV+.) This time of upheaval can leave a viewer skeptical or overwhelmed or just frustrated by the paralysis of choice.
But (like the newspaper business) nothing has changed about the underlying purpose of filmmaking: It's about telling stories. The delivery methods are in flux, but the mission hasn't changed over the past century, since the Talkies arrived. Spin a compelling tale, don't overstay your welcome, and give me something I won't soon forget. What follows are a bunch of movies that do just that, and which are worth your time.
THE TOP DOZEN of '23
1. Past Lives: Just a perfect movie about personal connections across decades and continents, and a sense of longing and belonging. Including the best screenplay of the year by Celine Song. (DVD)
2. You Hurt My Feelings: Julia Louis-Dreyfus can do no wrong in another finely tuned screenplay by Nicole Holofcener. (DVD)
3. Fremont: A heartfelt tale of a lonely immigrant. Every generation gets the Jim Jarmusch it deserves. (Mubi)
4. The Eight Mountains: A magical study of male friendship, captured over decades. (Criterion)
5. BlackBerry: A giddy retelling of the rise and fall of the millennium-era technology, with a charming Canadian sensibility. Matt Johnson, an emerging master storyteller (see also "Operation Avalanche"), gets the nod for best director. (Apple/AMC)
6. The Elephant 6 Recording Co.: The perfect depiction of creative collaboration, and a faithful tribute to a very American music movement around the turn of the millennium. (Kino)
7. Bottoms: Pure stupid fun, as Rachel Sennott teams up again with Emma Seligman ("Shiva Baby") and co-stars with Ayo Edebiri for a spoof of high school clique flicks. (MGM, Fubo)
8. The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic: A "brutally honest and gripping account of a handicapped man embarking on a mission, by himself, to finally meet his online soul mate." (Fandor, Hoopla)
9. The Royal Hotel: Another young dynamic duo, Julia Garner and Jessica Henwick, trapped in the Australian outback for this "winking pseudo-horror psych-out." (In theaters)
10. Fallen Leaves: A minor-key story of two lonely people struggling to make a romantic connection. (Mubi)
11. M3GAN: This "Frankenstein" story for our times, a cautionary tale about an AI girl who gets out of control, is gonzo fun. (Amazon)
12. Jethica: "A clever, simple story is buoyed by a stellar ensemble cast to explore the ideas of obsessive relationships, hauntings and atonement." A tiny gem. (Fandor)
JUST MISSED THE LIST
- The cyber thriller "Missing." (Netflix)
- The fun romp "Theater Camp." (Hulu)
- The sci-fi bro film "Biosphere." (AMC, DVD)
- Christos Nikou follows up "Apples" with a semi-futuristic story about relationships, "Fingernails." (Apple)
- The slow-burn political period piece, "Chile '76." (Kino/DVD)
- The gay-rights '80s period drama "Blue Jean." (Hulu)
- The smart slow-boil suspense film "Afire." (Criterion)
- From Romania, an examination of prejudice, "R.M.N." (AMC)
MORE TOP DOCS
- A deep dive into the mind of a psychedelic-music pioneer, "Do You Have It Yet? The Story of Syd Barrett and Pink Floyd." (In theaters)
- The well-paced and well-argued political polemic, "South to Black Power." (HBO Max)
- A slick look at a mysterious disappearance in the Australian Outback, "Last Stop Larrimah." (HBO Max)
- A fascinating, if sluggish look at the '70s sex researcher, "The Disappearance of Shere Hite." (In theaters)
- A sympathetic profile of Mr. October, "Reggie." (Amazon)
- A look at a female metal band in Lebanon, "Sirens." (In theaters)
- The matter-of-fact "Take Your Pills: Xanax." (Netflix)
- A fond tribute to author and editor, "Turn Every Page." (Criterion)
TOP PERFORMANCES
- Julia Louis-Dreyfus, effortlessly funny in "You Hurt My Feelings."
- Colman Domingo, commanding the screen in the earnest biopic "Rustin."
- Anaita Wali Zada, stoic but moving in "Fremont."
- The ensemble -- Greta Lee, Teo Yoo and John Magaro -- in "Past Lives"
- Mark Duplass, making it look easy, in "Biosphere."
- Ana Scotney in "Millie Lies Low." (Starz, Hoopla)
- Petri Poikolainen in "The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic."
- Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri, bro'ing it up in "Bottoms."
THE LEFTOVERS
Some 2022 films we caught up with: Both "The Silent Twins" and "Dear Mr. Brody" likely would have cracked last year's list. The former was a powerful period piece, based on a true story, about quirky sisters. The latter was a fascinating documentary profile of a tragic hippie who intended to give away his inherited riches but instead left of a bunch of disappointed people in his wake. ... We were disappointed in Jafar Panahi's "No Bears."
Wayback Machine: We finally reviewed the foundational mockumentary, "David Holzman's Diary" from 1967 and the Maysles brothers' masterpiece, "Grey Gardens.". ... Our favorite director, Krzysztof Kieslowski, finally got his due, with his Three Colors Trilogy screening at the Guild ("Blue," "White" and "Red") (also on HBO Max). ... Retro reviews of some of the all-time greats included "12 Angry Men," "Terms of Endearment," "Slap Shot," "Glengarry Glen Ross," "Basic Instinct" and "The French Connection." ... We continued to delve into the Godard canon, with some classic early and 'mid-60s offerings and a pair from the '80s and '90s. ... There was a gem at the annual noir festival, 1965's "Mickey One" with Warren Beatty, along with late Bogart, "The Harder They Fall."
Streaming Services: In a bid to clear out the backlog, we did a short stint with Hulu and discovered the thoughtful dark comedy about suicide, "On the Count of Three"; the disturbing story of a marriage in limbo, "The Killing of Two Lovers"; a brutal cringe comedy about a reunion of college pals, "All My Friends Hate Me"; and another winner from Hannah Marks, "Mark, Mary + Some Other People." ... Amazon turned up "Reggie" and not much else.
R.I.P: We said goodbye to Paul Reubens (Pee-wee Herman), Alan Arkin ("The In-Laws"), Wayne Shorter Burt Bacharach (paired with a Dionne Warwick doc) and Sinead O'Connor.
GUILTY PLEASURES
- Owen Wilson spoofing the PBS legend Bob Ross in "Paint."
- A fan's tribute to the Chicago White Sox' old ballpark, posted for all to see on YouTube, "Last Comiskey."
- Nicolas Cage doing his thing in the inconsistent but often amusing "Dream Scenario."
IT'S NOT YOU, IT'S ME
(Well, maybe this time it is you.
Some of our favorites let us down.)
- We walked out of the latest from Wes Anderson, "Asteroid City." We labeled it the Twilight of Twee.
- We also turned off Todd Haynes' tedious "May December."
- OMG, the technicolor yawn that was "Barbie," from the formerly respected duo of Greta Gerwig (director) and Noah Baumbach (her co-writer). It was insipidly irritating and the absolute low point of the year.
- Kelly Reichardt and Michelle Williams just couldn't find the magic again in "Showing Up."
- Sarah Polley failed to make a book leap off the page, giving us the chatty, leaden "Women Talking."
- Luca Guadagnino delivered an unintentionally comical bomb, "Bones and All."
COMING ATTRACTIONS
Here are a bunch we wanted to see but didn't get the chance:
- All Dirt Roads Taste Like Salt
- Adults
- All of Us Strangers
- Drylongso
- The Delinquents
- Plan 75
No comments:
Post a Comment