Best of 2023 — Film
In college I went to the movies multiple times a week. Tickets cost $4.25 and a night spent in a dark room not talking to people was way more appealing to me than whatever themed fraternity party was happening. Between kids and the pandemic I fell out of the habit of seeing films in theaters. I made a renewed effort this year to get out every other week or so and go see something new. I was richly rewarded for my efforts.
How To Blow Up A Pipeline
Brands are now entertainment properties! With Air, Tetris, Blackberry, Flamin’ Hot, and Barbie all released this year, it’s hard not to worry about the future of moviegoing. Any of the junk we buy is now fertile ground for Hollywood to backfill against slumping superhero sales. I for one can’t wait for Mentos the Motion Picture!
I’m particularly salty about this because my favorite movie of the year stands in such stark contrast to all the above. Buying a ticket to How to Blow Up a Pipeline felt like I was signing up to be on an terrorism watch list. The pithy description is “Oceans 11 for environmentalists.” The film doesn’t waver in its point of view: direct action isn’t just a valid approach, it’s necessary. The movie itself felt like someone winding a piano string past its breaking point — it’s tense, gripping, and persuasive. It makes a movie celebrating the marketing team at Nike feel absolutely repugnant.
The Holdovers
My favorite Alexander Payne movies feel lighthearted right up until the moment they most decidedly are not. While a sense of melancholy is inherent in the premise of The Holdovers—teenage boys forced to spend Christmas at boarding school with the schools’ worst teacher—the first half of the film is still a breezy affair with plenty of opportunities for Paul Giamatti, Da’Vine Joy Randolph, and Dominic Sessa’s characters to get on each others’ nerves.
But as the film unwraps the profound sadness within each character—culminating in a quietly devastating visit to an ill family member—the laughs feel more like an act of defiance. Small acts of rebellion and agency are sandbags stacked up against the flood of injustices thrust upon these three. It’s great.
Godzilla Minus One
Godzilla is one of the best metaphors in fiction. It’s the perfect introduction to engaging with film on a deeper level. Monster = nuclear bomb. It opens up so many doors to examining how films can reflect a culture or process a moment in time. 2016’s Shin Godzilla brilliantly satirized the ways bureaucracy gets in the way of informing and safeguarding the public in the wake of the Fukushima disaster.
Godzilla Minus One returns to post-WWII Japan to tell a weighty, intimate story where Godzilla exists as manifestation of collective PTSD, particularly for the veterans who are tasked with going to war once again. Godzilla is absolutely terrifying in this movie; the way he's introduced echos the reveal of the T-Rex in Jurassic Park. Then later on the film goes full-on Jaws. The sound design and score had me feeling like a Maxwell ad.
I feel like the American Godzilla movies have such thin human characters, they all fall into "when are they gonna get to the fireworks factoryyy" territory. Here the characters are so much more fleshed out, even if they sometimes vocalize their motivations too directly. A sad toddler will always reduce me to a blubbering mess. I’m glad they still make ‘em like this.
The Caine Mutiny Court Martial
Sometimes you gotta recreate a nuclear explosion on film. Other times, all you need to do is give great actors an even better script and then get the hell out of their way. Adapted from a 1950’s stage play (itself based on a novel), this film exists entirely in a courtroom as members of the US Navy recount a potentially mutinous act. No flashbacks, no flashy camerawork, just competing accounts of what happened aboard the ship, almost entirely confined to a single room. And it’s riveting.
TMNT: Mutant Mayhem
My first grader seems really interested in how movies are made. I think part of it is that it keeps things from being too scary. Finding out that the aliens in the Star Wars cantina are people in costumes—and someone else made those costumes just for that movie—was a revelation.
It’s also obvious when he’s really into a movie. I took him out of school early to go see the Mario Bros. Movie. He sat and watched it politely, aside from pointing out a few things he recognized. When we went and saw TMNT, he literally kept standing up during fight scenes, hands on the seat in front of him, jaw to the floor. He even knocked his Skittles onto the ground in excitement. That would normally be an afternoon-ending meltdown. He didn’t even notice.
The movie was amazing. It was grimy and funny and sweet. The sketchy, gross art direction fit the world perfectly, and having all the voice actors recording in the same room added this scattershot spontaneity that made the characters feel like actual teenagers, talking over one another constantly. I can’t believe they made a Ninja Turtles movie this good. It hasn’t happened since 1990.
The Killer
I’m oddly drawn to David Fincher. I think it’s because like Fincher, I get more joy from the process of creating than the end result (not to mention the post-mortem discussion). My favorite film of his—Zodiac—is a process film. It’s about the obsessive lengths people will go to tie the threads together and solve the problem in front of them. His latest movie about a methodical assassin is similarly process-oriented. Michael Fassbender is a contract killer with a stringent code of conduct. But unlike Zodiac, The Killer is a laugh out loud funny film. The humor stems from subverting Fassbender’s code and the viewer’s general expectations around the genre. Throughout the movie, Michael Fassbender’s Killer rattles off classic killer-for-hire mantras—Anticipate, don’t improvise. Forbid empathy. Trust no one. Fight only the battle you’re paid to fight.—each undercut in spectacular fashion as the job becomes more personal. It’s a tight, thrilling film. Also I don’t think Michael Fassbender blinks the entire film.
Showing Up
Good art isn't a result of any particular genius. It comes from consistently putting in the hours finding a rhythm as you refine your craft. But life, “uh, finds a way” to get in the way of creating. It doesn’t have to be a major disruption, either. Just the day to day annoyances, hiccups, and obligations are enough to keep an artist away from their work. Showing Up does such a good job illustrating this without resorting to inflated stakes or contrivances. It’s a great portrait of normal people trying to achieve what little creative wins they can while managing the daily responsibilities thrust on them.
Barbie
Generally speaking, movies are made for me. Stories about complicated men? Front row seats, please. Stoicism in the face of adversity? Can’t get enough of it. So it was really cool to dress up and go see Barbie with Lauren and a theater packed with equally fashionable women and girls.
From the surface-level references (people talking about the age they breathed life into their first Crazy Barbie) to the anxieties women feel about the pressure to have it all and be it all (but not too much!) this movie was made with such specificity and love. I know up above I was complaining about movies centered around brands, but this is so much more than a movie about a toy. I love that so many women got to have that experience of thinking, “who are you and how did you get into my head?” that I take for granted watching stuff made for me, by people like me.
If you haven’t figured it out by now I’m, “mansplain how the Godfather is a commentary on the Hollywood studio system in the 70’s” Ken.
Biosphere
A quirky comedy about the last two dudes on Earth! At least, that’s what I thought going into it.
This movie takes a big swing, and when it was over I wasn’t quite sure if I liked it. I was sure that I was supremely uncomfortable at times. But what’s stuck with me is that these two childhood friends stuck at the end of the world have one of the healthiest relationships I’ve seen on film. I wish I could communicate with such clarity and empathy with the people I care about. To say more will spoil it, just gird yourself for a very bizarre experience.
Lightning Round!
You made it this far, so here is a 1-2 sentence review of all the other movies I saw this year that didn’t make the cut.
The Night of the 12th - A moody French police procedural that I would have liked much more if I were familiar with the real life case (which is apparently infamous in France). Knowing that the case remains unsolved would have made me focus more on the process than trying to figure out whodunit.
Polite Society - A super fun action comedy in the vein of an Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz or Shawn of the Dead. But it needed a little something extra—more violent, more visually inventive, or weirder—to reach those same heights.
You Hurt My Feelings - Cute but too saccharine. Julia Louis Dreyfus is best when she’s mean and she doesn’t get to flex those muscles here.
Blackberry - Glenn Howerton is hilariously unhinged in an otherwise okay film.
John Wick: Chapter Four - So ridiculous but also so incredibly fun.
Tetris - No.
Air - I would have so much rather watched a movie about Peter Moore (played incredibly by Matthew Maher) designing the actual shoe. Watching this felt like being at work.
Super Mario Bros Movie - Watching this movie was like your kid dragging you onto a theme park ride you’ve been on a dozen times. Familiar but completely without thrills.
Asteroid City - I think I’ll like it more as it ages. The first viewing left me cold, but reading more about it has made me appreciate what Wes Anderson was trying to accomplish.
Bottoms - Marshawn Lynch crossing out feminism is the hardest I think I’ve laughed at a movie this year.
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One - Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell have such amazing chemistry. I want them to be in a Audrey Hepburn/Cary Grant-style screwball comedy together. I need to just accept that they’ll never make anything like the original Mission Impossible again.
They Cloned Tyrone - What a fun, pulpy, movie. It oozes style and I’m so happy John Boyega is free from the Star Wars machine.
Oppenheimer - I’m in the minority in thinking that the final hour of this film—post trinity test—is the best part. I wanted to explore more of the tension between Oppenheimer’s pride in his creation and his attempt to distance himself from the consequences.
The Creator - This movie gets so many little things right. The world building is the best I’ve seen all year, and the visual effects are nothing short of jaw-dropping (which really says something). But the story was so basic it felt like the amazing world it exists in was wasted.
May December - Such a bizarre, disconcerting film. Everyone is throwing 100mph, from the actors to the production designers to the composer. I still can’t decide if I liked it, but I keep thinking about it.
The Boy and The Heron - Such a sorrowful story, but also one of the more affirming films I’ve seen this year.
Reality - This was less of a film, and more of an experiment. It is a literal retelling of the arrest and interrogation of NSA leaker Reality Winner, told in almost real time. I found it to be more awkward than tense.