I continue to be a bitter curmudgeon who is unimpressed with most of the movies. Still gonna make my list, still gonna try to find things I actually like.
Don't Care List:
The Holdovers: Maybe I'll watch this eventually. I don't have anything against Payne's movies. It's just not a top priority for me.
Maestro: Aside from biopics always being middling to me, there's something about this movie that makes me uncomfy.
Air: Something about sports? Or sneakers? I don't care.
Nyad: Two words: sports drama. I'm already asleep.
Wonka: This shouldn't exist.
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Movies I Loved:
Barbie: One of three films I actually saw in a theater this year and with my mom of all people; we both had a great time. It's smart, it's funny, it's perfectly cast, and I had fun while also having things to think about. Probably my favorite of the year.
American Fiction: Hilariously, what I said about Barbie also applies here: smart, funny, and perfectly cast. I clearly was not in the mood for overwrought dramas (even though the Academy loves them). I want more films like this: actually funny, solid family story, and biting social commentary.
Past Lives: I took forever to watch this because on my understanding of the themes, I figured it would be a really hard watch for me. It was. I literally had to stop in the middle to write a little. It's still great though.
Talk To Me: On the flip side, we have this year's good horror film. It's a horror film with great themes that's actually pretty scary. I imagine that hand is going to become iconic.
Sanctuary: The second film I saw in a theater. I am a sucker for two people in a room stories and power plays and that was basically the film. The cinematography was also beautiful.
Reality: I guess more like three characters in a room, but this was a really subtle political drama that was actually really gripping to watch. There were a lot of acclaimed crime study type movies this year, but this one was the one I was most invested in. I thought the censoring effect was very creative.
Bottoms: A movie that made me laugh, but replace the commentary with just wackjob surrealism. God, I appreciated fun movies this year.
Poor Things: While I don't order these specifically, I am deliberately putting this on the bottom of the loved list because I have reservations. I can't resist Lanthimos movies, this is just a fact about me, but this ranks on the lower end of his films for me and it's because there's something about the script that just gives me the ick. The costumes, setting, music, acting, and themes in general are all excellent, but something really didn't come together for me. The first hour is kind of hard to watch but intriguing enough to continue, then there's about a half hour where I LOVED this movie, and then the rest of it I felt this strange mix of positive but slightly conflicted feelings with it having a perfect ending. Perhaps I need to ruminate on this more.
Movies I Really Liked:
How To Blow Up A Pipeline: A environmentalism action movie that does a really great job of showing all the different angles of destructive capitalist choices that destroy both the environment and the people who have to live in it.
Polite Society: I hesitated to watch this film, knowing what it was about, but I'm glad I finally did because it was really fun and actually had a completely satisfying ending. I would have felt differently about this film if it had ended differently so they really made the right choice here. Major props for creating a "villain" who the main character can seem like she's overreacting to with unearned hate, while also making every woman in their late 20s and older go, "I think she's right, but for reasons she hasn't noticed." Super clever writing there, and I appreciate it.
May December: My struggle with this film is while I did really laugh at the black comedy of it, I found the story of Charles Melton's character so sad (and so well acted) that I had a hard time not feeling down the whole time. I really might have to watch this one again.
Godland: I think this film proves that I can like a Western, especially if it's not set in America. I loved the consistently bleak and violent mood of the film and seeing the downfall of the main character, who I ultimately never sympathized with. Iceland is the perfect setting for a Western; who knew?
The Night of the 12th: French crime drama #1. This one was actually my favorite of the French dramas. I love the way the investigation is never solved, and the way gender affects these investigations is explored. Although I kind of wish the film didn't just state its theme so blatantly.
Anatomy Of A Fall: French crime drama #2. I feel like this was a perfectly good courtroom drama, but I don't know why it's so acclaimed? I liked it, don't get me wrong, but it didn't feel like anything particularly groundbreaking.
The Blue Caftan: This movie was really unique. It's kind of billed as a romantic drama, but when it says romance, it definitely doesn't mean that in the way you think. This is a story that highlights very different kinds of love, the kind that are more likely to exist in a restrictive society. I honestly love the kind of stories that show how love can mean so many things.
Saltburn: I didn't hear about any of the "shocking" scenes until after I had seen the film. None of them had shocked me, but I'm a weird film person. Overall, I liked the movie and had fun watching it. Derivative? Sure. I don't care.
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret: I read this book when I was ten, and this was such a good adaption. The time period is so well integrated, and it perfectly captures the feeling of being a preteen in any time.
The Zone of Interest: My issue here is that I think the movie is really good, but like the last Jonathan Glazar movie I saw, I was kind of bored. I am completely fine with slow movies, but with both films I felt like I was missing things because some aspects were almost too subtle. The mise-en-scene is incredible and the sound is brilliant, but I was annoyed that I had to keep looking stuff up because I could tell I was missing plot points.
All Of Us Strangers: The strongest thing about this film for me was the vibe. I wish I hadn't spoiled the dead twist for myself in the beginning, but I still liked it. There's ultimately a powerful metaphor for loneliness and grief in this film that really hits at the end.
Blue Jean: A nice little character study during an interesting time in LGBT history.
Blackberry: I liked it more than the Social Network. Fight me.
Nimona: A good adaption of the comic book.
No Accident: A former student recommended this one to me, and it was great to hear the whole depth of this case.
Milli Vanilli: A documentary about a well known music scandal that really shows the people at the center of it and the exploitation and blame they endured.
Movies I Liked:
Oppenheimer: Too Long Movie #1. I liked the movie just fine, not big on biopics overall but Chris Nolan is an engaging director, but way is it so long? Was the frame necessary? Can we just choose a theme and go with it? If people are just going to make movies this long, we need to bring back intermissions because I will never watch this length of film in a theater.
Killers of the Flower Moon: Too Long Movie #2. Someone stop these way too famous male directors. This one was almost four hours. Why? It's an important story to tell, but something is lost in the telling when I am halfway through the film and thinking, why exactly is Leo's character doing all this shit when he's married to an Osage women? Yes, cognitive dissonance racism and whatever, but the film didn't convince me that this made sense. It was too focused on the events and not the heart.
Priscilla: My attention was held by the story and the costuming was an A+. Mostly I avoid biopics but I saw some interesting discussion around biopics of women and that made me want to watch this one.
Saint Omer: French crime drama #3. I think this one resonated with me less than the other two for mostly personal reasons, so I can't really hold it against it for that. I think my main issue was that I couldn't really get the point: the writer relates to the defendant and . . . what?
The Burial: A fun legal drama about the funeral industry, one of my favorite topics. This movie felt like a film from the 90s, if that makes sense. Nothing too deep, just a solid movie.
The Hunger Games: The Ballad Of Songbirds & Snakes: I watched this before reading the book, was inspired to read the book, and then watched it again. I understand why the director didn't want to split it into two after feeling like he made the wrong choice with Mockingjay, but this book is over 100 pages longer and has a clear division. It would have really benefited from becoming a two hour movie and an hour and a half long movie. It moves way too fast in the beginning so two minutes in, I was lost. It did spark me to rewatch all the other movies and reread all the books though!
Dungeons And Dragons: Honor Among Thieves: The third film I saw in a theater. This movie was fun. It's not amazing or groundbreaking, but I don't think it was trying to be. It was Guardians of the Galaxy but fantasy, and I had a perfectly good time.
Saw X: I can say with complete confidence that this is the third best Saw movie, having seen all of them from 1-6 and skipping 7, 8, and 9. I have always said that the original is the only one that's actually a good movie but if you watch 1, 2, and 10, you have a decent horror trilogy (and you have to watch them in that order even though this one falls between 1 and 2). I have definitely gotten more squeamish since I was a teen and could have done without some of the gore (people forget that the first one wasn't that gory), but this one actually followed the original Jigsaw logic without the campy nonsense of everything after the second one.
Bama Rush: I find the topic insanely fascinating, but this documentary didn't really do it justice. The presence of the filmmaker's narrative didn't really add to the film, in my opinion, and I wondered after the fact if it had been added because of a lack of authentic footage of the process itself.
Movies That Were Okay:
Beau Is Afraid: Ari Aster, I see what you were doing there and yes, this movie did effectively make me feel like I was also having paranoid delusions, but that doesn't mean I had a good time. I get that it's an Odyssey-type thing, but did it have to be that long? This could have been an amazing two hour movie, maybe even two and a half hours, but no.
Money Shot: The PornHub Story: This documentary was fine but wildly unmemorable considering its topic. It reminded me of the Abercombie one from last year: it told me about a thing, but it didn't do it in an especially interesting or unique way.
Movies I Didn't Like:
Cocaine Bear: It just wasn't that funny. Too self aware.
Cade: The Tortured Crossing: Never change, Neil Breen.
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