Film Christ in a crib, it's been a while. How are we all? Time for my annual list of favourite films, which I seemed to have completely forgotten to do last year amid the whole link diary thing which haunted my every hour in 2023. To an extent, the whole thing is a bit pointless. Do you need me to tell you how good The Holdovers is (The Holdovers is excellent) or give you a spicy take on Megalopolis (which wouldn't have had nearly as much vitriol if it had been projected on a wall via a Raspberry Pi at the Liverpool Biennial)? Here's an aggregated list from the usual publications if that's the sort of thing you need.
If you want to see what my year in film was like, just take a look at my diary on Letterboxd. Some of my favourite viewing experiences weren't even released this year (The Wolf of Snow Hollow) or even a film (Douglas is Cancelled). Unfortunately, I didn't reach my usual goal of 365 films (one per day) due to the Olympics, binging Taskmaster and a change in my work hours which I'm still trying to get my head around. But nature abhors a vacuum and so here's a list instead of ten films which I've enjoyed this year which aren't featured in that aggregated list. In no particular order and with a short justification beneath:
Carry-On
Contains one of my favourite fight sequences of the year in which Danielle Deadwyler fights an assailant while the car in which they're travelling in tumbles out of control, glass and limbs flying everywhere and it all plays out in a single shot all the while the frame keeping parallel with their faces. However it was done, I really don't care, it turned the movie from being a pretty good thriller into something one of the best action films of recent times.
Fly Me to the Moon
The cat moment. If you've seen the film, you know the one and if you haven't I won't spoil it for you but I YELPED.
My Old Ass
An excellent example of how to employ your concept sparingly. Aubrey Plaza doesn't appear as much as the poster would indicate (perhaps she was only available for a few days) but her presence is felt throughout as the protagonist wrestles with the inevitability of time.
Damsel
Arguably this premise was done more convincingly, albeit on a much smaller scale in The Princess (which Disney+ have deleted since its 2022 debut but is
available to rent at the usual outlets). Like Carry-On, this is Netflix resurrecting a genre which theatrical companies are either ignoring or only supporting if their tied to an existing IP. Also like Carry-On, reviews have missed this and often branded it as "Netflix slop" when there's a lot of talented people working here at the best of their abilities to create entertainments that audiences are otherwise missing.
Fanatical: The Catfishing of Tegan and Sara
The world of para-social relationship laid bare. I've always had enormous sympathy for smaller scale celebrities who just want to live life like the rest of us, keeping their professions separate. They owe us nothing but their creative endeavours. I don't really care much about their social lives unless they're going out of their way to hurt people.
A Quiet Place: Day One
The central casting suggested that this wasn't going to be just a cash-in and instead, like the best prequels, of which there are few, it provides depth to the series. Although the horror aspects are present and correct, I wasn't prepared for how romantic yet sad it would be.
The Contestant
Best seen without much prior knowledge, this is deeply troubling exposition of the extremities of "reality TV" and its psychological effects on participants and viewers.
Anyone But You
It's been reported that Sydney Sweeney agreed to make Madame Web on the understanding that Sony would greenlight Anyone But You. One of them has made her a much bigger star and it's not the one in which she was barely recognisable underneath a massive pair of glasses. This was a much bigger hit largely due to a witty script and Sweeney and Glen Powell being just so damn charming. This is an old school romcom of the kind which needs our support.
I Am: Celine Dion
Having had a soft spot for Celine Dion since reading Carl Wilson's Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste, it was crushing to see what's happened to one of the most beautiful singing voices of our time. A companion piece to Pablo Lorrain's Maria (they share similar moments in which the singer strains to return to their original strength), this at least could have a sequel in which we see Celine triumph from adversity at the Olympics opening ceremony.
Argyle
Having found the Kingsman films pretty tiresome, I didn't enter into this with much hope but came out the other end absolutely beaming. It's just so fricking weird with gonzo action sequences and Bryce Dallas Howard at her most adorable. I'm not entirely sure what you were all complaining about.
* * * * *
If it looks like I haven't watched much contemporary non-English films, you'd be right, but that's largely because so much of the material picked up for release in the UK this year has been on the dark side or already in the aggregated list. But I am going to use that same list to try and catch up in the new year.
As for my worst, here are the films released this year which I gave one and two stars. I'm very forgiving:
Rebel Moon – Part Two: The Scargiver
Madame Web
Late Night With The Devil
I've noticed Last Night With The Devil is on some best of the year lists despite ultimately being a total wash because after being an incredibly tense, mysterious film for much of its run time, it saps all of that energy at the end by dropping an infodump. I might have been willing to give it three stars anyway, but the pointless deployment AI artwork, however limited the capacity is an ass move, whatever justifications the filmmakers may have. So not that forgiving after all.
