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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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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 02:16 |
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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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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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All That Jazz is just perfection So is this a "best of 2023" thread or just "best films watched this year" thread? I'm kinda confused.
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Dec 27, 2023 10:51
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This is copy-pasted from my Letterboxd list (https://letterboxd.com/aewade/list/2023-ranked/): 1. Killers of the Flower Moon, dir. Martin Scorsese: the master at work. Late-era Scorsese is somewhat less immediate in tone than the killer 70s-90s run, but the current run is supremely My poo poo. Scorsese is luxuriating in gaps, and just oozes confidence in the craft but also in his audience - the space in between is the meat of the film. The lingering silences, the glances, the stares, the handshakes, the flailing grasps - it all quietly conveys the disgust and hatred of the colonisers towards the indigenous people. Sure, there's outward explosions of violence, but as Scorsese himself tells the audience at the end, it's not the point; the backroom dealings and institutions, the silent monolithic powers that be, continued to deliberately and methodically hurt and dismantle their targets for personal gain. This story didn't stop. Ernest and Mollie's early interactions are outright horror-coded, and the oft-talked about runtime lets the arc become uncomfortably strangled as it progresses. The relief at the conclusion is palpable, but also entirely undercut and deflated but the revelations of injustice - it's a purposefully placed gut-punch that underscores the bleakness of the story that still manages to evade outright nihilism. Precise filmmaking, pure cinema. 2. Poor Things, dir. Yorgos Lanthimos: watching this in a packed out screening at a film festival was simply a highlight of 2023. Emma Stone channels the best of Buster Keaton for the first act, and Lanthimos follows suite in framing gags and revelations in a simple, but trademark distorted way (the reveal of the mechanical horse-drawn carriage lives in my mind three months down the line). Summarising the wildly creative and insane worldbuilding and presentation in words can't do it justice - the easy comparisons lie with Gilliam and Burton, but Lanthimos has a skill and uniqueness that makes those comparisons feel rote. An incredibly fun and perverse ride. In a just world, Ruffalo's himbo performance would be getting as much attention as Gosling did for Barbie, but here we are. 3. Priscilla, dir. Sofia Coppola: Sofia Coppola has never really "hit" for me as she has for others; the dreamlike haziness of Lost in Translation or out-and-out AESTHETIC of Marie Antoinette never really landed. Before starting Priscilla, my immediate thoughts were of the maximalism of 2022's Elvis and how it would compare - instead, it lands in the space of biopic "women-in-society/gender horror" subgenre that's been deservedly ramping up over the past decade, and goddamn does it hit hard. Where as contemporaries like Spencer have previous equated the horror aspects of the subgenre with mental health - which as I type it sounds uncharitable, although no less true - Priscilla aligns entirely within the characters' decisions, circumstances, and personalities, giving the titular protagonist more triumphant agency and heightens the antagonism of Elvis and his hierarchical support structure. An absolute knockout. 4. Late Night with the Devil, dir. Cameron Cairnes and Colin Cairnes: I feel like I often come late to the indie horror darlings that get filtered through the fan communities, so I'm maybe over-representing Late Night... here. In my opinion, however, it's a hilarious and genuinely frightening splatter fest with some primo-Cronenbergesque body horror practical effects, and I simply cannot go past praising David Dastmalchian in the lead - after however many years of seeing him in the "character actor" space, the pastiche of Leno/Letterman/Conan-cum-occult conduit is surprisingly nuanced and suitably panicked. Pressure-cooker tension and possession paranoia...who could want more? 5. Kindred, dir. Adrian Russell Wills and Gillian Moody: a documentary that feels uncomfortably intimate and personal, the way great documentaries should be. I saw this directly after a screening of a restored Rabbit-Proof Fence, which it serendipitously linked with - this certainly coloured my feelings on it, I guess - but it's a straightforward presentation of identity and representation that deserves to be seen more than it will be. 6. Beau Is Afraid, dir. Ari Aster: I've been...wary of Aster in the past. The "elevated horror" tag that got attached to him really tarnished my opinions of Midsommar and Hereditary - even now, while I think they're both -good-, they're not --great-- examples of the genre. So going into Beau Is Afraid, I was, well, not defensive, but not ready to enjoy myself. But holy poo poo. Aster and Phoenix ratchet up the anxiety and suspense in all the right ways, the bleak black comedy is pitch perfect, and the stylistic diversions to outright surrealism before an unholy horrific ending was incredibly entertaining. Fun for the whole family! 7. 20 Days in Mariupol, dir. Mstyslav Chernov: One of those special documentaries that you need to watch only once before it sears itself into your brain. Terrifying. 8. Oppenheimer, dir. Christopher Nolan: I'm just going to quote the great John Waters here: "Deserves the Oscar for being a big-budget, star-studded, intelligent action movie about talking." Engrossing viewing, and surprisingly personal for Nolan. 9. Poison, dir. Wes Anderson: Asteroid City was great, yeah, but I have problems recommending it - Anderson has fully committed to formalist and structuralist experimentation at this stage of his career, which I love, but it doesn't quite suit everyone. That's fair. Poison (and the other Netflix-Dahl shorts) contain elements of his experimentalism in a much more accessible manner - the theatrical staging and narrative are more straightforward, and I honestly believe more effective for it. The underlying moral of Dahl's short story is blunt, yes, but Anderson has no room to tie himself in knots (which I think Asteroid City ended up doing), which again heightens the impact of the whole thing. Throw in an amazing assortment of players, and Poison stands out in the cadre of shorts. 10. The Venture Bros.: Radiant Is the Blood of the Baboon Heart, dir. Christopher McCulloch: Look, this is a gimme. It's the conclusion of a cartoon that's sporadically been running over two decades and seven seasons. It's full of in-jokes and references, and relies on viewers having a near-obsessive level of attention to detail for something mentioned briefly in an episode three seasons ago, which is the MCU-level of bullshit I despise, but it cleanly (if hurriedly) puts a bow on twenty years of the best-kept secret of television and ends it by using purposefully cringey leetspeak which encapsulates the entire series' theme of nostalgia and the ghosts of the past in a single punchline. I adore it. Honourable mentions: When Evil Lurks, dir. Demián Rugna (thank you for proving it's possible to have a slow-burn in a 90 minute film!); Godzilla Minus One, dir. Takashi Yamazaki (living up to Shin Godzilla was going to be tough, but it came close in a traditionalist-kaiju-flick sorta way); Anatomy of a Fall, dir. Justine Triet (exquisitely constructed but the pacing got to me - also, how in the gently caress are French courtrooms like that?); Barbie, dir. Greta Gerwig (not without fault, but perfect for what it is); Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, dir. John Francis Daley and Jonathan Goldstein (dumb in that smart way, which speaks to me); Cocaine Bear, dir. Elizabeth Banks (dumb in that dumb way, which speaks to me); Afire, dir. Christian Petzold (2023's Triangle of Sadness-esque black comedy); May December, dir. Todd Haynes (I didn't love it, but the loudest, most melodramatic music sting over a shot of sixty hot dogs on a grill followed by the line of "We need more hot dogs" was perfection).
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Dec 30, 2023 09:01
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I feel bad for not liking Spiderverse 2 as much as other people but man it was just felt exhausting in a bad way.
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Jan 1, 2024 23:30
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| # ¿ May 10, 2024 02:16 |
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Without adding more to people's workload, I think for the next year edition it might be better to have a 2024 releases differentiated from the older releases? That way there's a new theatricals (which ended up happening anyway) but the other lost of older releases could show MotM's and other stuff? Maybe even a top 5 for the older releases?
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Jan 2, 2024 01:15
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