I turned 40 this year. Like my 1985 birth year, I don’t demand a lot out of my movie life. It’d be nice to have one perfect film (I’m very picky, so I realize that’s ambitious), and at least a smattering of interesting stuff, with hopefully a bit of international flare.
I guess wishes come true! I have two 5 star films on my list, and the fall brought movie riches far and wide, with incredible international stories all over my list, and in general great stories the big screen can be proud of.
So many great movies in fact, that I have 10 Honorable Mentions instead of the normal 5, all lovely films worth checking out:
Yes, better than Sentimental Value, Norway’s international entry is not for the faint of heart. But every woman knows that. Beauty is pain. And that sentiment has never been as fully shown as this truly gross, excruciating take on Cinderella. And, more importantly, how maybe the Ugly Stepsister wasn’t made this way: she was forged from the cruel, terrible world she came from. They will definitely not be showing this one on Disney Plus anytime soon, that’s for sure.
What Eva Victor pulls off with her first feature is near impossible. Anyone who’s attempted to make a funny movie about sexual assault has failed miserably…until now. This movie is deeply personal, and as a result beautiful to immerse into, as we understand Eva’s headspace and how she processed “the bad thing” and how moving on from that is a process, not a finality.
Laura Poitras’s mirror into her future. One of our great investigative journalists today interviews Seymour Hersh, one of the great investigative journalists since the 1960’s, a legend in the industry. The doc succeeds on all levels: an ode to investigative journalism, a history of American power and how it is abused, and a fascinating character study of a complex human being, all wonderfully edited together by Poitras, Hersh’s heir apparent.
Each Safdie brother made their own movie this year. But Josh Safdie gets the edge. This propulsive epic sports movie paves new roads in the genre, by making us think just a little bit about why we root for the young brash competitor and his laser focus to be the best. Helping Josh win is Timothee Chalamet, giving a career best performance here making us simultaneously believe in and be repulsed by his complex, fascinating take on the sports hero.
This was a wonderful surprise. Josh O’Connor plays a Colorado cowboy who’s land burns in a forest fire, and is forced to live in a FEMA trailer while trying to recover/raise his daughter with his divorced wife. The movie feels like an Ansel Adams painting fused with a Kelly Reichardt story: gentle, gorgeous, and wonderfully emotional. Perhaps the most deeply human film I saw this year, that will make anyone tear up if they give it a shot.
Brazilian cinema is coming in hot and fast! Kleber Mendonça Filho’s grand tale follows a never better Wagner Moura, who gets sent on a mission to Recife during Carnivale…alongside other people, who are looking for him. It’s a strange, fascinating cat and mouse game, that slowly reveals its cards as the time goes on. This is one of those films that takes you on a movie journey that ends so far from where it begins, in the most satisfying of ways.
Jafar Panahi’s Palme D’Or winner unsurprisingly ends up in my top 5 of the year as most best pictures at Cannes do. This one takes us on the strangest road trip of the year, after a car breaks down near an auto shop, but the auto shop owner is side-eyeing the car owner in very ominous ways. The final 20 minutes of this movie has stayed with me long after the movie ended, the easiest way to know Panahi’s film rocks.
Ryan Coogler, free from IP based moviemaking, gives us this incredibly rich tale we all can sink our teeth into, just like the vampires in his story. But this isn’t just some monster movies: it’s also a complex love letter to the 1920s Mississippi Delta region, where Blues began and set in motion 100 years of music and culture. Everyone brings their A game to make this work, including unknown Miles Caton, and Michael B. Jordan, giving 2 career best performances. The musical number in the middle is the stuff only someone as brilliant as Coogler could conjure with that much electricity to glue your eyes to the screen, wowed by what is unfolding.
It was gonna take something truly special to top Sinners. Zach Cregger is that special, and so is his 2nd film. It expands upon the promise of Barbarian with an even more fun, exciting balls to the wall horror experience, completely grounded and somehow existential, with terrific leads, incredible supporting characters, a wonderfully structured plot, and an ending that had my audience up and applauding in their seats.
I’ve loved many of Paul Thomas Anderson’s films, but this is very likely going to be the film of his career. An incredibly timely and timeless American epic for the ages, about rebellion, generational understanding, power dynamics, immigration, racial politics, sexuality, and basically, what it means to be a human being. It also is just a heckuva fun thrill ride with great action, acting performances, and maybe one of the best sequences of propulsive filmmaking I’ve ever seen. A true must see for anyone who’s a movie fan.
