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 -> -> -> CLICK HERE TO JUMP STRAIGHT TO THE FIRST POST OF THE COUNTDOWN OH BOY! <- <- <- How did this thread come about? a series of posts and replies in the 2023 genchat thread, conveniently pasted for you below: Chadzok posted:why is there not a year-end thread for top 10 movies or whatever like the video games forum does? yes this is a shameless attempt at harvesting movie recommendations, December I play catchup and it would be nice to have everyone make effortposts for me personally to enjoy Gaius Marius posted:Because you haven't made it MacheteZombie posted:
Chadzok posted:I really don't think it matters who starts it, only a tiny fraction of people who would post their lists would even look at/care about usernames. make it and people will post. it'll be great. someone else do it please What's the deal with this thread? What's going on here? Can I get an intro statement? hello fellow movie loving goons! the end of the calendar year is upon us, and like all great media consuming zombies on the internet, i'm sure many of us are thinking about what we enjoyed the most this trip around the sun. even more importantly, how to quantify what we enjoyed most. i was recently thinking about the games forum's goty thread which is loads of fun and something i've participated in multiple years in a row now. i was wondering if anything like that had or would happen in CineD. clearly, i wasn't alone in wondering this and the topic came up in the genchat thread. so... screw it. let's give this a shot Rules - bc otherwise this poo poo will be a big mess
to the best of my knowledge, this is the first time this forum is doing this. who knows if it'll take off or if anyone will give a poo poo. i hope you do  idk what else to put here, but things may be added/removed/etc. enjoy! ShoogaSlim fucked around with this message at 03:04 on Jan 2, 2024 |
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Dec 17, 2023 09:39
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nice. barely had to lift a finger. let the harvest begin also placeholder for list which will go here soon. I'll be self-limiting myself to 2023ish movies just because. no-limits is cool too (edit: posted it further down instead) Chadzok fucked around with this message at 05:06 on Dec 22, 2023 |
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Dec 17, 2023 10:33
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Thanks to LetterboxdI was actually able to do this, normally I can't remember what I was doing this morning let alone what I've watched this year. I hadn't watched many films in a long time (a while ago I watched half of Molly's Game [which I now think is a decent film], and something about it just made me feel kind of weird about the whole idea of films as a form of entertainment/art) so it was easy to have a great time catching up on highly acclaimed works. 10) The Fabelmans (2022) - Spielberg still has it. A pure distillation of all the things that takes his films a step above the typical big budget fare. If you think about the plot it's really not at all interesting but Spielberg and Kamiński could make an hour in the supermarket entertaining. 9) Palm Springs (2020) - This sort of film used to be a lot more common, an extremely well made, lightweight, entertaining romcom which comes in under 90 minutes. When this is the sort of thing you want to watch, you can't do better. 8) Frances Ha (2012) - I thought I would hate this but in the end it was incredibly endearing. A much more interesting twist on the typical coming of age story told with humor and compassion. None of the characters in this would want to be friends with me which makes me kind of sad. 7) The Killer (2023) - Fincher on Fincher, I found this funny, self aware and perfectly crafted. The sound design was a standout for me. 6) Everything Everywhere All At Once (2022) - I don't have anything to really add here beyond what has been said elsewhere. Of all the new films I've seen this year this is the one I predict will have the most influence over the next decade. 5) Metropolitan (1990) - I love Jane Austen so was incredibly happy when I eventually realized that this was an homage. Fun and empathetic towards some terrible people. I don't understand why most of the actors in this didn't have more success. 4) Killers of the Flower Moon (2023) - These actors on screen together couldn't really go wrong and Scorsese uses them to tell us a story which both is important and more significantly feels important while you're watching. Unlike I lot of the other films on this list is kind of flabby and overlong but I think it works here. 3) Past Lives (2023) - This is kind of sentimental but I loved how carefully observed it was and how the finely tuned the final act was. Made me tear up in a happy way. 2) 12 Angry Men (1957) - I'd seen a stage adaption of this already, and was slightly surprised by how they were basically identical. Over 50 years old now but it is more gripping and better paced than almost anything else, I don't see how you could watch this and not be engaged. 1) In The Mood For Love (2000) - this worked for me in so many ways. The story, visuals and music combine to create an unforgettable atmosphere. Absolutely beautiful. Also rans were Tar, Licorice Pizza, Asteroid City, The Green Knight, "Paris, Texas", The Departed, Sicario, Mission: Impossible and The Godfather. distortion park fucked around with this message at 18:13 on Dec 18, 2023 |
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Dec 17, 2023 16:17
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hot drat distortion park coming in hot with a great list. letterboxd is a lifesaver for tracking stuff like this. and yeah Chadzok i assumed i would keep my list to 2023 as well but honestly i watched last and first men (2020) for the first time this year and was blown away so i might rethink my usual strategy for end of year movie lists
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Dec 17, 2023 17:42
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Hooray, thanks for making this, Shoog! I’m not sure what criteria I’ll be using for my list yet. I’m leaning towards just 2023 stuff as I didn’t have as many amazing older first-time watches this year as I did last year (just look at this! jesus!) but once I’ve made both we’ll see. Really looking forward to seeing everyone’s lists!
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Dec 17, 2023 19:08
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e: Sorry, will try to edit in my picks tonight
Bright Bart fucked around with this message at 13:10 on Dec 18, 2023 |
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Dec 17, 2023 20:33
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I waiting until the 31st to try and make sure I can see any many 2023 releases as possible - Saltburn, 20 Days in Mauripol, Priscilla and a few others are in my to watch queue, but I really love doing my end of year writeups on Letterboxd. Here's my previous couple years: 2022 Ranked https://boxd.it/jKKIs 2021 Ranked https://boxd.it/eQnTu
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Dec 17, 2023 23:47
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Cool! Movies are where it's at, good idea for sure.
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Dec 18, 2023 00:51
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I, Butthole posted:2022 Ranked https://boxd.it/jKKIs very interesting to see jackass forever on this list. curious to know what made it stand out for you
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Dec 18, 2023 01:00
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I'm pretty set on new stuff thanks to TIFF, so this is a great exercise. Gonna try to keep it to 2023 plus a bonus older one I saw for the first time. 1) Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (2023) - A Vietnamese movie exploring deeply Catholic themes with some of the most beautiful scenery and adventurous long takes I've seen on film. A masterpiece of gorgeous, dynamic camera work, always directing your gaze and searching along with its protagonist for a narrative and a truth. Slow cinema but never still, with some of the most aching shots I have seen and a potently personal take on the deep echoes of a colonial religion. Catholic imagery refracts throughout, from temptation, Samaritans, Damascene roads and babies by riverbeds, idols everywhere, stained glass and baptism. Combined with verdant green and wild animals, what follows is an enigmatic and almost Gnostic journey through Creation that is open and resoundingly felt. 2) Do Not Expect Too Much from the End of the World (2023) - Following a chaotic film production assistant as she pays the bills by helping a reckless multinational furniture firm and in her spare time parodies Andrew Tate's toxicity (he did live in Romania), I liked it at first but its sheer anarchic length and repetition stayed with me and grew. A shaggy shotgun blast on the construction of narrative and the despotism of hypercapitalism with that touch of art film overlength. 3) Close Your Eyes (2023) - Victor Erice's (Spirit of the Beehive) return after 30 years is a marvelous meditation on aging, art, and humanity. I could watch the beach scenes for the rest of my life. A beautifully enveloping contemplation of life and time and the stories we tell about how it should be. 4) Kokomo City (2023) - shot in high-contrast black and white like a music video, it follows trans sex workers clear-eyed about themselves and how society wants and shuns them. Has a few kinks, but it's so full of life and has a helluva final scene. Plus it introduced me to this old bisexual blues song: Sissy Man Blues 5) Four Daughters (2023) - The second doc on my lists, and an excellent examination of women's radicalization, but also of family, generational abuse, patriarchy, Islam, all told in a formally fascinating way where the director has actors interact with the remaining family members as their lost sisters/daughters. 6) Rachel Getting Married (2008) - A perfect marriage of script and direction and performances to create a hosed up loving family. Jonathan Demme had an insane range. e: added numbers Segue fucked around with this message at 03:44 on Dec 18, 2023 |
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Dec 18, 2023 01:22
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^ i'm going to attempt to keep a spreadsheet and score the results. could you add numbers to your list so i know whether it's descending/ascending/something else? edit: ty for the edit, i'll update my list for your entries ShoogaSlim fucked around with this message at 07:01 on Dec 18, 2023 |
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Dec 18, 2023 02:04
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It's incredibly frustrating how many great movies still haven't been released wide yet. I don't want to dip into past years of film but I also don't want to make a list before I've seen Zone of Interest, Taste of Things, or The Holdovers.
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Dec 18, 2023 04:16
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I would like to nominate "Evil Does Not Exist." I contested some choices it made but ultimately I think the story goes the way it should. Best minute+ shots of rivers and wood chopping that you can find today.
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Dec 18, 2023 05:15
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That's from the drive my car dude right
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Dec 18, 2023 05:18
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ShoogaSlim posted:very interesting to see jackass forever on this list. curious to know what made it stand out for you dudes rock (for real, Jackass is always a good time and it was the first movie I'd seen in cinemas since the start of the pandemic, it was v v cathartic)
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Dec 18, 2023 05:41
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I, Butthole posted:dudes rock i mean i agree just, it's interesting to see it show up in a "best of" list. i suppose it deserves notoriety for bringing back the "event comedy" to theaters. movies like borat come to mind, and ever since marvel's dominance, they're few and far between. i saw it in theaters also with some non-movie buddies and it was nice to have something to invite them to and have them agree to go to.
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Dec 18, 2023 07:00
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ShoogaSlim posted:i mean i agree just, it's interesting to see it show up in a "best of" list. I also try to make sure my end of year lists are subjective rather than "best piece of artwork" because objectivity is folly imo I'd promote a piece of poo poo I enjoyed rather than some object d'higharte that I didn't click with Like, The Fabelmans absolutely was a better movie than Jackass 4, on a technical and thematic level. Did I enjoy it more tho? gently caress no! Part of that is the film, part of that is a circumstances surrounding it - that's what it should be judged on, I think, because art doesn't get interpreted in a vacuum. That's also super subjective though, so ymmv and that's OK!! I could also put a good bet that Johnny Knoxville, unlike Spielberg, has had therapy of some sort which makes him the bigger person I, Butthole fucked around with this message at 08:03 on Dec 18, 2023 |
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Dec 18, 2023 08:00
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Jackass Forever owns, dude
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Dec 18, 2023 10:29
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jackass rules. i'd rather watch it over and over on repeat for a week than watch even half of The Fabelmans once. that's just me, tho. as for how to go about picking which movies make my list this year, letterboxd has a really helpful set of filters and sorting options that allows me to do the following: - only movies i watched this year (diary date) - sort by rating descending - and i can even limit the list to ratings in a certain range * scratch the "hide rewatched" - unfortunately it winds up omitting all entries from your list, including the first time which isn't labeled in your diary as a rewatch. it's more of a setting for movies you've only watched a single time as opposed to showing you all entries without repeats. bummer. doing the above reminds me that i finally saw Barry Lyndon for the first time this year and was really impressed with it. i had been putting it off for years and years because of its length and i figured it would be too daunting to manage but i was way wrong. i'm actually excited to dive into this a bit more because, for the past few years, my top 10 of only movies released in a given calendar year inevitably wind up getting filled with mid stuff that i'm lukewarm on. i see a decent amount of movies as far as your average joe is concerned, but not to the level of some folks on this forum, i'm sure. so yeah now my list for this thread will include movies i really enjoyed from this year as well as some fantastic stuff i watched for the first time that i missed out on previously. this is going to be a difficult list because i first saw Tar at the beginning of this year and absolutely loved it, so now it's between that, The Holdovers, and Zone of Interest for my top spot.
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Dec 18, 2023 11:48
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Movies are so hosed up because of how many things just will not be in wide release or VoD until 2024 that by all rights should be 2023 movies That being said I still have plenty to watch until I'm ready to make this list, including poor things and monster and passages and american fiction and and and. I don't even know if I want to focus solely on 2023 releases or incorporate the other amazing movies I saw for the first time this year (American Graffiti, Barton Fink, Paddington, etc.) Glad this is happening!
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Dec 18, 2023 12:46
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Gaius Marius posted:That's from the drive my car dude right According to wikipedia, yes! I don't know much about his filmography, I just saw it at a film festival.
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Dec 18, 2023 19:18
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Jackass is what we have today instead of Buster Keaton.
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Dec 18, 2023 19:32
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I’ve decided I want to keep the list that actually counts towards this poll strictly to 2023 films, as otherwise a lot of great films from this year would get swallowed by old classics. However, I also made a separate list of my favourite older films I watched for the first time this year, so here’s that. with a reminder to Shoog that this is not my list for the poll: 10. Once Upon a Time in America (1984) A sweeping epic in the best possible way, with a fantastic focus on character over action. 09. To Sleep So as to Dream (1986) Part silent film homage, part treatise on loss, part off-kilter detective story, and one of the most assured debuts I’ve ever seen. 08. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989) Arty and political without ever skimping on hilarity and pure entertainment. Brutal, disgusting, and funny as hell. Gambon is magnetic. 07. Welcome Back, Mr. McDonald (1997) A live broadcast of a radio drama goes awry as everyone insists on various changes that leave the cast and crew scrambling to make something comprehensible. Unbelievably funny and truly makes you appreciate the magic that is creating art. 06. The Red Shoes (1948) It’s The Red Shoes, baby! Powell and Pressburger at their most expressionist, a truly sumptuous and powerful movie. The central dream ballet sequence is phenomenal. 05. Love & Pop (1998) The live-action debut of Hideaki Anno (Evangelion, Shin Godzilla), an unflinching look at societal sexual exploitation shot on consumer-grade camcorders with so many wild angles it’ll make your head spin. 04. In a Lonely Place (1950) Atypical for a Hollywood noir of this era, but also one of the best examples I’ve seen. Some really thoughtful themes, especially with regards to how people will bend over backwards to accommodate toxic masculinity - talk about ahead of its time, drat. 03. Blow Out (1981) The film where I finally “got” De Palma. Just a loving superb and taut conspiracy thriller, impeccably well-made and written, with an ending that made me sit straight up in my seat and gasp. 02. Le Bonheur (1965) Of course Varda has started finally getting her due a lot more recently but I remain shocked this isn’t as well-known and talked-about as other French New Wave touchstones. Great use of colour and music, and a wickedly subversive story that truly floored me with its gut-punch third act. 01. An Elephant Sitting Still (2018) It’s a four hour movie about sad people by a Bela Tarr protege, what the gently caress is up!!!!! An incredibly bleak portrait of Chinese society that still manages to be utterly compelling despite its slow pace due to fantastic character work, exceptional intimate cinematography, and evocative performances. It makes me so sad we will never get to see anything else by Hu Bo. Best movies of 2023 list coming soon!
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Dec 21, 2023 23:15
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Escobarbarian posted:04. In a Lonely Place (1950) I watched that for the first time last year, so good! Just incredible noir that hasn't aged a day, Bogart's best too maybe.
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Dec 22, 2023 03:53
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Ok, here's mine. You'll see why I was wanting a thread like this, I end up giving a lot of time to more mainstream stuff and don't do enough digging around. 10 - Phantom Thread (2017) I'm allowing myself one not-2023 movie here but I'll put it at 10. I've never felt the most important relationship in my life, to my partner now and forever, be so "seen" by a piece of media before. Now, I need to clarify this, because she's never poisoned me with mushrooms before (although the looming threat of a slow death from anti-freeze is always close to her lips). But this movie accepts, understands, respects that intimate relationships can take a form that appears, from the outside, to be complete insanity. A well-meaning fly on the wall might look at what is happening and just see abuse, posting or quoting  until the E/N thread is shut. But you cannot know how the dynamic feels from within, how fulfilling it can be to have someone that has completely experienced your full range, your best and your worst, and vice versa for them - and understand that at least some of those worst things will very likely always be there - and they might even get worse. Merging completely with another human in that Giger-esque manner means you both have to work out - well whatever, you work out - processes of resolution, therapies, acknowledgement, understanding, periodically poisoning each other. The moment of honesty at the end, when they both see and accept the horror of each other and can laugh and love about it - I was stunned. The on-screen reflection of what I'd always felt about myself and my partner led to some great conversations with her and I feel like even managed to deepen what I already thought was a bottomless commitment to making us work, through thick and thin.9. The Killer This movie was not the greatest but had that one loving hell of a fight scene that I can use to spit on every John Wick movie, and I definitely rate it above the majority of the lesser 2023 movies I saw. 8. The Creator Sci-fi is my fuckin bag baby, they did a wonderful job making this all look convincing on a significantly lower budget than all the Star Wars and Marvel fare. It wasn't the best script and what the hell was up with the weird-rear end perspective on that ship in the sky (is it in space? is it hovering about every city? it seems to be all these at once) but when they fuckin died in each others arms in the climax of the film I absolutely burst into tears. I couldn't think of a better way for me and my aforementioned insane partner to go out and I hope we embrace on an exploding capital ship one day and I hope I take the last few seconds to tell her about our amazing robot child. 7. David Holmes - The Boy Who Lived I love all the projects and the career path Radcliffe has taken since Harry Potter and I actually feel like watching this movie I understand why his career looks how it does. He wants to do justice to this amazing, amazing person and the guilt and sorrow he and his friends feel. An incredibly affecting work, please watch it. 6. Killers of the Flower Moon Great movie and kind of an interesting partner to the recent Watchmen series for how it shone a light on the Tulsa massacres. I feel like every lovely loving thing in history should be brought back up and shoved in our faces on a regular basis. Please someone do it for the Australian Aboriginal people. 5. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (and the other Wes Anderson Roald Dahl shorts) This is the best thing Wes Anderson has done in ages and I'd really like short-form film given centre-stage more often. I need to watch it again. And again. And again. 4. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse They did it again. Come on guys - one more and you'll have the best super-hero and the best animated trilogy of all time. 3. Oppenheimer Nolan at the top of his form. I especially love his driving, anxious, thumping soundtracks but it does have the effect of triggering my anxiety (in a kinda good way) and I had to pop a xanax after this flick. gently caress me, thermonuclear weapons are loving scary and I don't like being reminded of them. 2. Past Lives I was wondering through this whole movie if there was going to be 'more to it' and the fact that it didn't, that the premise was so simple, and that it carried this simple emotional strand right through to its end, made me have an incredible respect for it. It felt like something new to me, like it did something I hadn't seen a film do before. I was choked up through a whole lot of this movie and I loving cried so, so much at the end. So simple, beautiful, heartbreaking, heartwarming, just lovely. 1. The Boy and the Heron Miyazaki movies are on constant rotation in our house with two young girls. It's so hard to find media that is respectful enough of a child's intellect and point of view that they take them on a well written and thoughtful emotional journey that allows them to experience the emotions that we seem to think are 'adult' but that they experience just like adults. Loss, poignancy, anxiety, playfulness, imagination, wonder, struggle, daydreaming... They haven't seen all of them yet - there is a definite progression in the age suitability, which I love because my kids can grow up with them and experience a new one every few years. I saw The Boy and the Heron myself to assess where it sits in the age scale and while they won't be watching it for a few years yet (it's more on the freaky-zaki side than the family-zaki) I can't wait to experience this movie again and again, subbed and dubbeds, through my eyes and through theirs. If this is truly his last, well, what a wonderful treasure of a catalogue he's left for the children of this world. What a gift, what a wondrous childlike attitude he's held throughout his career. I wish I could give him a huge hug.
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Dec 22, 2023 05:05
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Escobarbarian posted:08. The Cook, the Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover (1989) Escobarbarian posted:I’ve decided I want to keep the list that actually counts towards this poll strictly to 2023 films, as otherwise a lot of great films from this year would get swallowed by old classics. However, I also made a separate list of my favourite older films I watched for the first time this year, so here’s that. with a reminder to Shoog that this is not my list for the poll: I understand why people don't give the film more love. Bad release, expectations for something more action oriented, the unmoored nature of the narrative, the brutality. Even with all that said the extended cut is not only my favorite Leone, it's my favorite gangster movie. It so effectively kills any lingering romanticism or glory in the career. It does a lot of what Scorsese has been trying with Killers and Irishman but in my opinion Leone managed it so much more beautifully and elegantly. I want nothing more in my life than to see the full vision that was planned.
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Dec 22, 2023 07:53
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Can't go wrong with Sergio, saw Duck You Sucker for the first time recently. My fav is probably Once Upon A Time in the West. That is fun that GTA3 referenced The Cook, that game sure rules.
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Dec 22, 2023 08:03
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esco, nice list! i've heard of at least one of those movies before lol. i'm excited to see what winds up on your actual '23 list chadzon, also nice list! i don't agree with a few of your picks, but one of your inclusions did influence me to revisit my own (in progress) and change it up a little. also, i rewatched phantom thread this year for the first time in a few years and bumped it up from a 4 to a 5 on letterboxd. it's pretty flawless through and through. funny, endearing, romantic, sly, twisted, beautiful. wonderfully shot and acted, and the score is incredible. nice inclusion. i'll take a page out of esco's book and post a preliminary list of pre-'23 movies i watched for the first time this year that wow'd me. i watched a handful of classic movies and a few more modern gems that took me by surprise. i won't number these for my own sanity but it's a 10-1 list for anyone curious.  Carnage (2011) directed by Roman Polanski i started borrowing dvd's from the library near my job this year, which has been a joy. along with the tangible disc and not having to deal with artifacting or packet loss or whatever, there's also the debatable benefit of on-disc trailers. i saw a trailer for carnage before something else i watched and was surprised i'd never heard of it. turns out it was on hulu and i'm pretty sure i turned off whatever dvd i was about to watch to pop on this quick little comedy. i love a flick where the actors are working with restrictions like a single setting and having to carry a movie entirely on their evolving performances. all four characters here are firing on all cylinders and it's a really fun ride.  The Killing of a Sacred Deer (2017) directed by Yorgos Lanthimos this was the very first disc i got from the library this year, and i had been intrigued to check it out for a while. the dark and oddball humor plus heavy subject matter is dialed up to the max here. i love catching up on colin farrell's better roles and seeing barry keoghan's range. it was also nice to see nicole kidman in another foreboding marriage.  The Favourite (2018) directed by Yorgos Lanthimos yorgos on a roll. after seeing poor things i figured i would fill another gap in my lanthimos blind spot. part of me was aware that this movie was a "thing" a few years ago, but something prevented me from being curious enough to catch it. i think i didn't think it had any/enough of a comedic angle to it, and it's possible i wasn't over the first time i saw the lobster and didn't have confidence in my ability to "get" lanthimos' style. but watching this was great fun and i loved seeing the back and forth tenacity of emma stone and rachel weisz. the closing shot is masterful.  Berserk (1997) directed by Naohito Takahashi (and others) ok this isn't a movie but it's listed on letterboxd so i'm counting it. i'd heard about berserk over and over throughout the years and it had come up even more when i got into dark souls games as a huge inspiration. my interest was piqued but i never really had the motivation to watch. finally, a good friend of mine strongly suggested it and claimed it was far and away much better than any other anime show out there. i finally pulled the trigger and was pretty much hooked from episode 1. anybody who's seen this knows how batshit the ending is, and i'm so glad i have context for all the memes that show up online. the story is super interesting with it's themes of power, destiny, fate, etc. the action in this is cool but really it's the music and the themes that elevate it.  A Serious Man (2009) directed by Joel & Ethan Cohen i think i tried watching this a few years back and the opening confused me and i gave up on it. i gave it another try this year and during my first watch, i wasn't completely sure it was grabbing me. there were funny parts, there were weird parts, there were parts that felt like they didn't belong, but i kept with it. by the time the credits started rolling, i knew it was a great movie. this is another movie i grabbed from the library, and i liked it so much i borrowed it again a few weeks later for a repeat viewing. i dove into some of the special features and learned some additional yiddish phrases i wasn't already familiar with, and found myself really enjoying cracking into some of the overarching themes.  Last and First Men (2020) directed by Jóhann Jóhannsson this movie played at a small indie theater near me in los angeles, and i almost snagged a ticket but wound up not. fast forward to october of this year and i signed up for a free trial of shudder to watch some spooky movies for halloween month. turns out i hate most straight up horror movies and was feeling like there was no salvation anywhere to be found on the channel. after scrolling around a bit, i see this movie in the list and remember almost seeing it in theaters and being intrigued by the trailer. i popped it on and was enthralled the entire time. some might argue this isn't really a movie and is more... something else? but for me, the 100/10 visuals and the narration are two perfect ingredients for a really special audiovisual experience. i had no idea prior that johann johannsson was the composer for a handful of other movies i really enjoy, and i wound up diving into his body of work after seeing this. really sad we'll never get to hear another composition of his or see another film directed by him.  Aftersun (2022) directed by Charlotte Wells saw this at the very beginning of this year after hearing all the buzz around it from last year. this movie is a gut punch. i cried at the end in the theater. i'm kinda scared to watch it again, but i know i will sometime very soon.  Harakiri (1962) directed by Masaki Kobayashi in an attempt to tackle some of the movies at the top of the letterboxd top 250 narrative entries, i wound up grabbing this from the library since it's currently at the #2 spot. there's a lot of baggage that comes along with being that high on a list of every rated narrative entry on a movie rating site, but this absolutely delivers. the setting, the characters, the simple but complex and unfolding story, the ending. it all just works so well. smarter, more scholarly film enthusiasts can probably say a lot more about this better than i can, but it's just an awesome movie.  Barry Lyndon (1975) directed by Stanley Kubrick depending on what day it is or what company i'm around, i might say stanley kubrick is my "favorite" director (sometimes fincher, sometimes paul thomas anderson, etc). but this movie has always been a blind spot for me in kubric's filmography. i was daunted by its length and subject matter and figured it was just something i would go without seeing and that was that. again, wound up grabbing it from the library and giving it a fair shake. i'm having a hard time remembering what other movie i watched where there was either commentary or a behind-the-scenes thing that referenced lighting a scene entirely via candlelight like barry lyndon. that was part of the motivation to finally give it a go. turns out, it's a friggin masterpiece. there's a theme this year between this, the favourite, and even berserk, that has me really appreciating the aristocracy as a setting for storytelling. especially when there's black humor involved.  TÁR (2022) directed by Todd Field keeping with the kubrick theme, finding out that the director of this played the piano player in eyes wide shut just helped to further solidify this as my favorite movie from last year. cate blanchett is a powerhouse in this, and i love the power dynamics that are going on all around her character's existence both internally and externally. it's shot beautifully, it's got grand scale and depth and is a long movie but just the right length to tell this story in all its complexity. i listened to mahler for a good amount of weeks after this came out and dove into a bunch of critical analysis on youtube and podcasts. there's a lot to uncover beyond the surface but it also works perfectly well on the surface, too. the ending is also really bonkers in such a great way. ---- ok that was a lot of writing and copying and pasting. i can't wait to do it again for my actual top ten from the current year! 
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Dec 22, 2023 09:02
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Berserk rules for sure. In general 90s anime is a golden age indeed!
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Dec 22, 2023 09:40
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Okay, like Escobarbarian I've made a list of my favorite 10 non-new-release first-viewings (which shouldn't count towards the poll). Fairly new to watching Good Movies, so lots of low-hanging fruit - it turns out there are a lot of amazing films out there! With that - please recommend movies you think I'll like given this list! 10. Scanners (1981) – David Cronenberg: I started getting into Cronenberg last year with the release of Crimes of the Future. While Scanners is definitely not the “best” of his that I’ve seen, it’s the one that’s stuck with me the most – obviously the scanning sequences are standout, but the whole vibe of this desolate Canadian landscape is just great. 9. Lost Highway (1997) – David Lynch: Patricia Arquette is so cool. 8. All About Eve (1950) – Joseph Mankiewicz: At least three of the films on this list are movies about making art in some way (and my current #1 new release is, too), so I guess I just like that stuff. To torture a metaphor, the web of relationships and tensions turn into a remarkable tapestry of resentment and power. 7. Paper Moon (1973) – Peter Bogdanovich: RIP to the piece of poo poo Ryan O’Neal, you made some real good movies. The monologue Trixie gives trying to get Addie back in the car is great. Too bad about Bogdanovich screwing things up with Polly Platt, it would have been cool if he could have kept making movies this good but I guess having sex with young actresses was too tempting. 6. Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1969) – George Roy Hill: Newman and Redford are, incredibly, more charming here than in The Sting. The bit where they’re trying to learn Spanish so they can rob Bolivian banks is the funniest scene I’ve seen this year. 5. Old Joy (2006) – Kelly Reichardt: Having grown up in Portland, nostalgia maybe influences my opinion on this movie, but it’s just such a beautiful, relatable meditation on friendship. Loved the long segments with Daniel London just driving and listening to lefty newsradio. 4. Stranger than Paradise (1984) – Jim Jarmusch: First Jarmusch I’ve seen, besides The Dead Don’t Die, which didn’t inspire a ton of confidence - but watching some old Siskel & Ebert reruns, this sounded good, and it really was! Remarkably heartfelt for how cool everyone is (or at least, how cool they’re trying to be). Also hilarious - in particular I’m thinking of the scene in the movie theater. 3. Millennium Actress (2001) – Satoshi Kon: Incredibly creative animation, so many breathtaking transitions from “movie” to “real life,” as the two dance, drawing together, then apart, and on and on. Maybe my favorite movie about movies? 2. Black Narcissus (1947) – Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell: This is also the year I discovered the Archers, and I was blown away. A thrilling study of sexuality, repression, and religion. Gorgeous sets and costumes, the exactly right number of extreme close-ups. Which leads to… 1. The Red Shoes (1948) – Emeric Pressburger & Michael Powell: So, I discovered the Archers this year by randomly attending a screening of this without knowing anything about it besides the basic premise and that it had a high average rating on Letterboxd. Amazing melodrama, obviously the central ballet sequence is astounding (how did they do this in ‘48???), and more than anything, the movie is a gripping exploration of art-making. Do you have to be a bit unwell to create something beautiful? Or is it the other way around? Honorable mentions: The Lion in Winter, Sunrise: a Song of Two Humans, Alice In Wonderland (the Disney original), Romeo+Juliet, Eastern Promises
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Dec 23, 2023 01:31
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smug n stuff posted:9. Lost Highway (1997) – David Lynch: Patricia Arquette is so cool. For sure! Just rewatched True Romance too. Lost Highway is one of my favorite movies, have shown everyone I know that clip of Bill Pullman playing sax. Recommendations, sure, all of David Lynch if you haven't, especially Blue Velvet, Wild at Heart, Mulholland Drive, and Twin Peaks. Repo Man of course. The Killer (1989), Scarface (1983), Body Double, American Pop, The Castle of Cagliostro, every Coen brothers and Tarantino movie if you haven't. And every Miyazaki. Also Breakin' (& 2), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (1990), Do the Right Thing, Suspiria (1977), Infernal Affairs, Clerks, King of Comedy, Murder My Sweet, Rock 'n' Roll High School, and Wrath of Khan. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 09:43 on Dec 23, 2023 |
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Dec 23, 2023 09:26
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Here are my honorable mentions, some standout movies I watched this year. Letterboxd is helpful as always here. Some rewatches of note, some new to me oldies, and a few 2023 picks. For my top 10 list I'll post soon, that'll be a mix of old and new too, but all new to me. The honorable mentions: Dream Scenario - Nic Cage is just the best. He's delighted me and my friends for decades, his higher quality B-movies are always a treat to see, and his more prestigious movies like this are a delight as well. He is just the king. Anyways this movie rules, and he delivers a great performance. Outlaw Johnny Black - Speaking of ruling, Michael Jai White is such a "class up the joint" guy in low budget B action movies. And this opus of his is a great fun zany take on the spaghetti Western. Thumbs up. Dragon Ball Super: Super Hero - Orange Piccolo is the best, this movie is so fun. I haven't seen Super myself, but have seen the movies, and this is just a really good time. Red Rock West - One of my favs, Nic Cage, Dennis Hopper, Lara Flynn Boyle, a cool neo-noir ride from John Dahl. Always goes down smooth. God of Cookery - Stephen Chow is the greatest comedy actor ever, and he has delighted in so many movies, what a run. This is one of his finest. The Maltese Falcon - Bogart is the king of noir, and this is where he really got rolling. Doesn't hurt it's based on one of the most influential hard boiled crime books. Earth Girls Are Easy - Finally saw this after being curious for years. It is an 80s delight. Duck You Sucker - my first time seeing this one, such a great flick. Sergio Leone Western with Ennio Morricone music. Nuff said. Out of Sight - Hadn't seen this since I was a tween sneaking into the theater. This time around I appreciated it a lot more, plus I'm a big Elmore Leonard fan now. The Boy and the Heron - Thank you Miyazaki! While my favorite movie is still his first, The Castle of Cagliostro, his latest is quite cool too. Just great to see 2D animation like this on the big screen. Django - I usually go dub for spaghetti Westerns, but rewatching this particular one in Italian really added to it. Such a classic. Live and Let Die - One of the great theme songs, and one of the quite cool movies. If you enjoy fun shlock, this still delivers. The Guard - a bit like Banshees of Inisherin meets Hot Fuzz. Cool movie. Godzilla, Mothra, and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack - Known to the fans as GMK, this is the ultimate Godzilla film. Rewatched a lot of G flicks this year with friends, lotta fun. And an honorable shout-out to every Godzilla movie, including Minus One of course. Also rewatched the original from 1954, that holds up, such a masterpiece, even better than the latest one for me. Any way you rank them, god bless Godzilla. Heavy Metal fucked around with this message at 12:30 on Dec 23, 2023 |
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Dec 23, 2023 12:18
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Some great lists here, my watchlist is growing at an unsustainable rateShoogaSlim posted:
wtf, that's perfect
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Dec 23, 2023 16:51
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I love reading and writing these lists in Games and TVIV - glad to see an edition here. When's the deadline?
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Dec 23, 2023 17:42
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The only movie left from this year that I plan to watch is The Color Purple, (sorry Iron Claw I'm just burned out on theaters right now, maybe next year) and I somehow doubt that will worm its way into my top 10, so here is a top 19 consisting of only stuff from this year, because there are 19 movies from this year I want to talk about. It was a pretty good year! Movies That Might've Made This List If I'd Had the Chance to See Them (rant about movie distribution goes here) American Fiction All of Us Strangers The Zone of Interest Origin Perfect Days Fallen Leaves The Teachers’ Lounge (definitely not coming to where I'll be on Christmas) About Dry Grasses Do Not Expect Too Much From the End of the World The First Slam Dunk Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell Evil Does Not Exist Tuesday Dream Scenario Top Ten First-Watches From Earlier Years (in alphabetical order) 10 Things I Hate About You American Graffiti The Banshees of Inisherin Beauty and the Beast (1991) Muppet Treasure Island Paddington The Power of the Dog Return to Seoul Sleepless in Seattle We're All Going to the World's Fair Da List 19) Rye Lane, dir. Raine Allen-Miller A sweet, short rom-com about two Black young adults in South London, both recently out of relationships. For me it was too fast-paced to really understand and fall in love with the leads, but the dialogue is charming, the cinematography is joyous and inventive, and the music supervision is very cool. It's a Hulu original, so if you've got Hulu and are looking for something cheerful, give it a go! 18) Joy Ride, dir. Adele Lim An Asian-American woman adopted by white parents as a child returns to the country where she was born to find her mom. It feels like we all collectively skipped over this one, but maybe give it a second look if you saw the description and the genre and thought "Eh I'm good." All four leads are really strong, especially Sabrina Wu, and while many of the jokes will not be to everyone's taste (I'm still working out if one late sequence is astounding or astoundingly tacky), the story has its heart in the right place. 17) Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret., dir. Kelly Fremon Craig Adaptation of the classic 1970s book for older children by Judy Blume. I never read it as a kid (I, as a young boy, was more into the Fudge books), and was pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the movie. Alright, it's essentially Lady Bird For Tweens, with all the sweetness, edginess, and baggage that entails, but I think Lady Bird is a great movie overall and am glad tweens have something like this to watch. It kept me thinking "being a young girl must SUCK jesus" which is obviously the sign of a good movie. 16) Killers of the Flower Moon, dir. Martin Scorsese The Osage tribe of indigenous Americans, made recently wealthy off the sale of oil wells, is gradually subjugated through the efforts of a network of white people, led by a well-respected cattle rancher. It's a relentlessly straightforward, well-crafted movie, anchored by best-in-class performances from Robert De Niro and Lily Gladstone, but I never quite fell in love with it until the very end, when a beautifully stylized sequence tapped into the real sense of anger muted behind the camera for the first three hours. It's still an achievement, though, and well worth seeing. 15) The Boy and the Heron, dir. Hayao Miyazaki A boy still reeling from the loss of his mother goes on a journey into a fantasy world to rescue his father's new wife. There's a lot to love about this movie, from the animation to the voices (full disclosure I saw it dubbed) to the score, but on the whole it's one of Miyazaki's clumsier films. The fact that it ranks this high this year is a testament to his artistry - his ability to capture complex emotions in his animation - more than anything else. 14) Bottoms, dir. Emma Seligman Two dorky high school lesbians start a fight club so they can get in bed with popular cheerleaders. Teen movies often create universes which are way more oppressive and depressing than they have any right to be, and this movie is no exception. That's undoubtedly due to the strength of its production design and its performances, but the screenplay is nothing to sneeze at, either, combining campy fun with a surprisingly in-depth exploration of the violence society does to us and that we do to each other. And Ayo Edebiri is a star (though I preferred her deployment in Theater Camp, an overall much worse movie - funny how that happens). 13) Afire, dir. Christian Petzold A novelist travels with his friend to a cottage near the sea to work on his next book at the height of wildfire season. This, Passages, and the next entry on the list make a neat trio of movies from this year about complete rear end in a top hat artists. Petzold's film is undeniably strong, and you can really feel the tension he creates under even the most minor interactions between the major characters. The only thing keeping this from being one of the year's best is its ending, which I will not spoil here, but which truly baffled me. 12) The Holdovers, dir. Alexander Payne Over the winter holidays at an expensive boarding school in Western Massachusetts, a strict, long-suffering Classics teacher bonds with a bright, yet troublesome young man. When I first saw the trailer for this movie, I thought it looked terrible, but it really surprised me. The two lead characters are some of my favorites of the year, and although the story has a slow start, it progresses into sweet, satisfying territory. Familiar, but comfortable rather than cliched. (I will say I'm not sure where the hype for Da'Vine Joy Randolph's performance is coming from. It's fine? Feel free to set the hounds on me for this take.) 11) Shortcomings, dir. Randall Park When the manager of an arthouse theater in California finds himself on the outs with his long-term girlfriend, he drifts through the city in search of something intangible. That description does not do this movie's breezy, faintly satirical tone justice, but it's the best I can do without giving away crucial details. Justin H. Min's performance here as the lead rear end in a top hat is one of my very favorites from this year. Despite appearances, he and Park craft a stunningly sophisticated portrayal of a young man in transition, trying to be the best person he can be but slowly figuring out that his best isn't good enough. Add in a strong supporting cast and the best exploration of race of the year, and you have a real winner. 10) Showing Up, dir. Kelly Reichardt A sculptor working as an administrator at an art school in Portland prepares for her next show while dealing with the world around her. This is a movie which takes real pains to show the totality of life as an artist, from the highest highs (opening a show!) to the lowest lows (your landlord won't fix your water heater!). Reichardt captures feeling wanted and dehumanized at the same time really well. There's not much more I can say about this one without giving the experience away - if you haven't seen it, check it out! 9) Asteroid City, dir. Wes Anderson We witness an abstract filmed adaptation of a popular in-universe stage play about a convention for young astrologers which, to put it mildly, goes off the rails. Putting aside the notion of the framing devices within framing devices (which I really don't mind at all, to be frank), this is a confluence of a lot of conflicting ideas about faith, science, and art. What I love about it, though, is that its ideas are all in service of and expressed through its many characters and plot threads. In that way it is similar to many plays in the era of theater it's imitating. I also, as someone with a dicey attention span at the best of times, appreciate Anderson's decision to tell us how many scenes there are in advance - so we can keep track, of course. It's funny and often thought-provoking. Anderson at his most flat-out enjoyable. 8) Beau is Afraid, dir. Ari Aster A middle-aged man plagued by anxiety and delusion goes to his mother's house for her funeral. This is a pretty controversial pick - a lot of people, probably rightly, view a lot of this movie as empty strangeness and masculine bloviating. I, however, always love to see the neuroses of a particular director laid out for the world to see, and this movie has that in spades. From the abrasiveness of the opening shot to the self-indulgence of a long animated sequence just after the film's midpoint to the Actual Terror of the attic scene and the bathtub scene, this is Aster at what I can only imagine is his most unfiltered. The message may have the subtlety of a hammer, but the setpieces and humor are arresting enough that if you sit back and enjoy the ride, you'll likely have a great time. 7) Oppenheimer, dir. Christopher Nolan I'm not going to bother with an introduction for this movie. It's Oppenheimer. I love it, you may love it or may not, let's move on. 6) Anatomy of a Fall, dir. Justine Triet A woman goes on trial for the murder of her husband. In a lot of ways this is one of the simplest movies of the year. But there's so much more to it than its premise - it's an exploration of marriage, of power, of what drives people to do what they feel is right. As its title implies, this is more a scientific dissection of a marriage than a movie about a sensational murder. It's a unique vibe for a courtroom drama, and the addition of a few key elements of specificity (thinking about the dog in particular) gives the story just enough dimension to remain consistently interesting. Slice of life, but not. 5) Kill Boksoon, dir. Byun Sung-hyun Being an assassin is easy. Parenting is hard. If you're not already sold based on those two sentences, I don't know what to tell you. It's my favorite action-adjacent movie of the year, but it's also a great interpersonal drama, funny when it needs to be, touching when it needs to be, exciting when it needs to be. Jeon Do-yeon gives one of my favorite performances of the year. My enjoyment of this isn't all that complicated; it's just a really entertaining movie. And it's a Netflix original, so if you're a subscriber you have no excuse. 4) May December, dir. Todd Haynes An actress, as research for her next movie, visits its real-life subject: an ex-teacher who made tabloid headlines when she was discovered in a sexual relationship with one of her preteen students. "Delicious" is the best way to describe this movie. The way the story is told makes you feel like one of the regular people in the Georgia town where the film takes place, watching the relationship between the actress, the woman, and her grown-up husband from the sidelines. You want to turn to your neighbor and say "did you see that," tutting with your mouth while gleefully swallowing everything going on in your head. In the end, regardless of your feelings on the situation presented, you've become the tabloid. As I said on Letterboxd, it's Exactly My poo poo, and it features potentially my favorite joke of the year. 3) Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, dir. Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, and Kemp Powers In lieu of actually talking about this movie, I'm going to write out what was going through my mind while I was watching it: WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAAH 2) Monster, dir. Hirokazu Kore-eda When her son starts acting strangely, a woman goes to his teacher at school for answers. People will call movies "devastating" and I'll usually be skeptical, but this one really fits the bill. The first half is perfectly fine and compelling, but it's the second half where this movie becomes truly great, overwhelmingly joyous and sad and hopeful and fearful. Kore-eda methodically peels back the layers of his characters and his story until the truth hits you all at once, and the movie transforms. I needed a whole day to recover from this, and I still get emotional thinking about the ending. Fantastic stuff. 1) Poor Things, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos A woman created in a mad scientist's experiment grows up and sets off to see the world. Of all the movies from this year, this is the one that I think people will be talking about years from now. It's hysterical and audacious and, at times, offensive, but as a whole, it contains so much and tackles its central issues from so many different perspectives that it transcends all of that. Emma Stone and Mark Ruffalo are astounding. Since I've seen this I've absorbed a good deal of criticism of it, feminist and otherwise, and what makes this the movie of the year for me is that I can look at all of it and say "This is probably correct, but I don't care." movies!!!
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Dec 23, 2023 23:08
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Shneak posted:I love reading and writing these lists in Games and TVIV - glad to see an edition here. When's the deadline? glad you're glad to have it here! i'm glad, too i figure the deadline would be the same as the games deadline. if anyone objects or really wants more time, i can't see a reason to object unless anyone else wants to chime in. we could use more participation in this for any tallied score to be meaningful, although that's only a small portion of the fun. the real fun is gushing about your movies and having a place to put those thoughts and read what others have to say about theirs. speaking of participation, does anyone here have proficiency with spreadsheets? i'm kind of a god drat idiot when it comes to this stuff, but i'd like to get better and am giving it a whirl. chatgpt is surprisingly helpful at understanding contextual questions about what you want to do with data in a spreadsheet and giving you bulleted lists to follow and precise formulas.  right now, i have two questions i can't get past 1. trying to sort the list of movies with their calculated total score is baffling. any time i try to sort asc or desc it just bugs out and adds more rows. i'm sure it's because i'm trying to sort a column with a formula as opposed to just a standard value, but i can't get around it. the only thing i can do right now is copy/paste the plaintext version of what's already there into a separate sheet and sort that way. 2. how do we deal with tie scores? i'm sure there's plenty of data in the games thread where hundreds(?) of people are voting. but in a small poll like in this thread, there are a handful of movies with the same score. is that normal? would that just be considered a "tie" for the slot? it would result in a very wonky outcome and i'm wondering if there's an elegant way around that? i suppose you'd have to introduce some additional variable to wiggle the score around somehow. idk...
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Dec 24, 2023 01:28
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ShoogaSlim posted:2. how do we deal with tie scores? i'm sure there's plenty of data in the games thread where hundreds(?) of people are voting. but in a small poll like in this thread, there are a handful of movies with the same score. is that normal? would that just be considered a "tie" for the slot? it would result in a very wonky outcome and i'm wondering if there's an elegant way around that? i suppose you'd have to introduce some additional variable to wiggle the score around somehow. idk... There are a lot of ways people do that on forum things like this. A couple I know to tie-break are based on how many lists a title is on, what number ranked they are on lists, stuff like that. And if there are still ties after stuff like that, I think it's cool to include some ties.
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Dec 24, 2023 01:35
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yeah but unfortunately for such a small sample size, it falls apart a bit. if 5 lists all have a different number 1 pick. they're all equally scored at 10 each and only 1 list per. but yeah ties aren't so bad
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Dec 24, 2023 02:48
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And we’re back! 2023 was a very good year for movies, with a slightly higher quality of blockbuster than most years and a lot of returns to form by many of the greatest living filmmakers. There ended up being so many things I liked that some great movies like Barbie, The Boy and the Heron, and Evil Does Not Exist didn’t even make it into my top 20. First up, here’s ten honourable mentions, listed alphabetically: All of Us Strangers Anatomy of a Fall Fallen Leaves Godzilla Minus One Monster Rye Lane The Holdovers The Killer The Royal Hotel Theater Camp and now, the actual list of my ten favourite movies of 2023: 10. Oppenheimer Because I work at a one-screen cinema that is one of only three screens in the country able to play 70mm IMAX prints, we had sold-out screenings of this for weeks and weeks. It was exhausting and because we have people doing shifts in the auditorium we all ended up seeing it like 30 times each. Thankfully, the movie is so sick it wasn’t a problem! Stupendous visuals, a ton of fantastic performances (and classic line readings that became injokes at work, especially “I don’t like your phrase.”), excellent pacing, and Nolan’s best solo script to date. Even if he still doesn’t understand who women are or how sex works. 09. Killers of the Flower Moon Scorsese still hitting hard as ever in his old age. This is a brutal look at white greed and entitlement that stays riveting throughout a wildly long runtime, and has just so many stunning scenes and performances and ideas, culminating in one of the best and most affecting series of climactic scenes I’ve ever seen. It isn’t perfect - I think the depiction of Ernest presents him as too much of a victim of manipulation without getting into his head and seeing his own selfishness. And I think a lot of the Osage/indigenous criticisms are fair - fundamentally Scorsese made a movie for white audiences to ruminate on their own faults, rather than about and for indigenous audiences. Hopefully an Osage filmmaker will make their own movie some day, but considering what this film itself is actually aiming for, I think it’s a triumph. 08. John Wick: Chapter 4 I can’t get down with those who wish the John Wick franchise had stayed more grounded. Did y’all not see this poo poo?? Very possibly the best martial arts-adjacent movie to ever come out of Hollywood, Stahelski, Reeves, and the entire team outdid themselves in every way with a lunatic amount of utterly incredible action sequences, gorgeously shot and cut with ridiculously impressive choreography and variety. They put anything south of Fury Road to shame, really. Meanwhile, the world-building is as fun as it’s ever been and the story manages to contain actual pathos. A new peak for a killer franchise. RIP Lance Reddick!!!!!! 07. Hit Man Richard Linklater has long been one of my favourite directors, but his recent work hasn’t quite been on the level as his mid-2010s peak. While this may not be as meaty as those films - in fact, it’s probably his biggest crowd-pleaser since School of Rock - it makes up for it by being absolutely loving hilarious throughout and having two amazing gorgeous leads with insane chemistry. Of all the movies I saw at the London Film Festival this year, this one had by far the wildest crowd - there’s one scene that was so funny and satisfying and well-performed that people started clapping and cheering just at the end of the scene! And my friends who went to other screenings said it happened in theirs too! There’s still no news on an actual theatrical release for this one - Netflix own distribution rights, but nothing’s been announced, and I think it’s actually showing at Sundance next month for some reason - but I highly recommend everyone seek it out whenever they can. 06. Past Lives The early buzz had me awaiting this one for months and months, eventually catching a special screening in mid-July, several weeks before the actual UK release. I had the same experience as Chadzok initially - wondering if it was going to move out of the one gear it was in, before realising it was more just a detailed examination of its central ideas. Which is of course not a diss! It examines them so beautifully and tenderly, and you really feel the buried emotions and weight of the years that have passed. Even then, though, it sneaks up on you, and by the end I - and seemingly everyone else in the screen, judging from the noises I heard - was a complete mess. 05. May December Only Todd Haynes could have directed this movie. It’s such a devastating look at generational trauma, loss of innocence, arrested development, and repression, as well as a cutting analysis of the concepts of performance and facade, especially with regards to how so-called “method” work can affect people significantly for little gain. The fact it does all this without making anyone a villain or anything other than fully three-dimensional - and that it does so while being extremely darkly funny a lot of the time, with some excellent melodrama - is nothing short of a miracle. The screenplay - by first-time writer Samy Burch - is incredible, while there are a whole bunch of incomprehensibly good performances, with Natalie Portman doing her best acting ever, and relative newcomer Charles Melton deserving to be up there with industry legends like RDJ and Gosling in the Supporting Actor Oscar noms. 04. Poor Things This entry might be a little shorter than the others because it was the end of the festival when I saw this and I was fuckin exhausted and just wrote a jokey Letterboxd review I can’t steal from, but this is the first thing Yorgos Lanthimos has made that I felt lived up to the first movie I saw by him, Dogtooth. Idiosyncratic, bizarre, and audacious, with absolutely beautiful cinematography, a consistently hilarious script, and one of the wildest and bravest lead performances I’ve seen in some time. I cannot wait to see this again! Bella Baxter is a friggin icon!! 03. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse The first Spider-Verse was so gorgeous and funny and truly set the bar for 3D animation in the modern era, so I had no idea how a sequel would manage. Turns out, really really loving well. The visuals are so sublime and vibrant they make the first look like your typical Fox animated sitcom - in greyscale - while the humour lands just as well as before and the story is a layered and intelligent examination and critique on the concept of canon and shared belief on what has to define a character. The voice work is absolutely astonishing, especially from the new villains - Oscar Isaac’s desperate rage is fantastic, while Jason Schwartzman feels like he found the role his voice was made for with The Spot. Also Daniel Kaluuya is there being the coolest guy in the multiverse! Even I’m side-eyeing myself at putting this above the couple movies preceding it but whatever I just find the experience of watching it so joyous and thrilling and I cannot wait for the third installment. 02. The Zone of Interest Jonathan Glazer finally follows up Under the Skin a decade later with one of the most emotionally draining films of the century so far. Focusing on Auschwitz commander Rudolf Höss and his family - and their picturesque, happy family home located right next to the camp - it explores the banality of evil about as well as any movie ever has, slowly expanding in horrifying ways without ever showing the atrocities happening just past the garden wall. The cinematography - frequently reminding me of Jeanne Dielman and even Ozu films when showing the family moving through the house - is so unnervingly normal in a way that makes the times it departs from that style even more effective. There is so much I could talk about here, but I want anyone reading this who hasn’t seen it yet to go in largely blind, so I’ll just say that even in a year with Flower Moon, this managed to have the most intense and stirring ending of the year, and one nobody who watches it will soon forget. A masterpiece. 01. Asteroid City A frequent criticism of recent Wes Anderson movies is that, while they still look great, they have abandoned the heart of his earlier movies like Rushmore and Tenenbaums in favour of something more clinical. I’ve never really agreed with this, but the heart certainly isn’t as on-sleeve, as they say, in the newer ones - it takes more burrowing to get to the real meaty thematic work. This can frequently be frustrating, however, and I’ll admit that The French Dispatch and especially Isle of Dogs didn’t always win me over. Which made Asteroid City such a stupendous achievement in my eyes - while you still have to work harder to get to the heart, once you get there it is so satisfying and so meaningful that it absolutely floored me. Some of the positives about this movie are ones that always apply to Wes - the framing and camera movements are always perfect, the production design is sumptuous, the ensemble cast is impeccable - but there are some ways in which I would put it above almost everything else he’s ever made. I think it’s easily one of his funniest scripts, for instance, making me laugh out loud almost constantly, with a great many brilliantly-realised characters. But let’s go back to the themes for a second. Asteroid City is a return to Wes exploring grief, in a delicate and meaningful way, but there’s a whole bunch more going on. First of all, it functions so well as a look into the unknown and our various reactions to a bizarre and unexplained event, from those who try and impose order to those who give himself over to chaos. There’s a key moment with Maya Hawke’s character that is essentially the Rosetta Stone of the whole movie, and it’s wonderful. More interestingly, there is a lot in here about artifice in storytelling: we find Wes confronting and in fact defending his style in a way I never thought he’d do. This movie calls so much attention to how unreal everything is - hell, most of the cast are real actors playing fake actors playing characters in a play, except it’s actually a live production of a documentary about the creation of the play, which even just typing it makes my head spin - yet this fundamentally does not detract from the power of the film to affect and move an audience. This is most notable in the scene with Margot Robbie, in which she is literally just reciting lines outside of the context of the play she was cut from, and yet it still manages to be incredibly emotional and heart-rending. Of course if this scene doesn’t work for you - and I know this isn’t uncommon among viewers - the point won’t be made, but I found it so beautiful and touching, a profound statement on the power of art, especially the way Anderson makes it. So there we go. Asteroid City is my favourite movie of 2023, and of the decade so far, and easily one of my top three movies from one of the best working filmmakers. And after writing all that, I think I’m gonna watch it again tonight. Thanks for reading! BONUS: I went to an Asteroid City exhibition when the film came out over here with a ton of original costumes, props, etc. It was so sick and I got a cool shirt I’m wearing right now! Pictures here! Easier list for Shoog: 10. Oppenheimer 09. Killers of the Flower Moon 08. John Wick: Chapter 4 07. Hit Man 06. Past Lives 05. May December 04. Poor Things 03. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse 02. The Zone of Interest 01. Asteroid City Escobarbarian fucked around with this message at 16:14 on Dec 24, 2023 |
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Dec 24, 2023 16:03
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Escobarbarian posted:BONUS: I went to an Asteroid City exhibition when the film came out over here with a ton of original costumes, props, etc. It was so sick and I got a cool shirt I’m wearing right now! Pictures here! i went to one of these, too, in los angeles a few days before the actual theatrical opening. it was really fun! and i also got a junior stargazer shirt. you're making me rethink this movie's place in my list. i saw it so early in the year and enjoyed it, but it's since faded from memory a bit. need to revisit. great list all around! Escobarbarian posted:Easier list for Shoog: i did all the copy/pasting before seeing this lol but thank you 
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Dec 24, 2023 21:16
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