This is the thread where we discuss matters pertaining to the detrius that accompanies the "End of the Year in Cinema" -- 2023

so yes on All Of Us Strangers?

Hard yes, but I’m leaning into my middlebrow years at this point. Plus the story of a gay late-starter was always gonna work on me

Oh, also Jordan Firstman was kind of perfect in Rotting in the Sun, but the last thing I’d want to do is encourage that

European Film Awards nominations, a couple days late...

European Film

ANATOMY OF A FALL (ANATOMIE D’UNE CHUTE) - Directed by Justine Triet (France)
FALLEN LEAVES (KUOLLEET LEHDET) - Directed by Aki Kaurismäki (Finland, Germany)
GREEN BORDER (ZIELONA GRANICA) - Directed by Agnieszka Holland (Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium)
ME CAPTAIN (IO CAPITANO) - Directed by Matteo Garrone (Italy, Belgium)
THE ZONE OF INTEREST - Directed by Jonathan Glazer (United Kingdom, Poland, USA)

European Documentary

APOLONIA, APOLONIA - Directed by Lea Glob (Denmark, Poland)
FOUR DAUGHTERS (LES FILLES D’OLFA) - Directed by Kaouther Ben Hania (France, Tunisia, Germany, Saudi Arabia)
MOTHERLAND - Directed by Hanna Badziaka & Alexander Mihalkovich (Sweden, Ukraine, Norway)
ON THE ADAMANT (SUR L’ADAMANT) - Directed by Nicolas Philibert (France, Japan)
SMOKE SAUNA SISTERHOOD (SAVVUSANNA SÕSARAD) - Directed by Anna Hints (Estonia, France, Iceland)

European Director

Justine Triet for ANATOMY OF A FALL
Aki Kaurismäki for FALLEN LEAVES
Agnieszka Holland for GREEN BORDER
Matteo Garrone for ME CAPTAIN
Jonathan Glazer for THE ZONE OF INTEREST

European Actress

Sandra Hüller in ANATOMY OF A FALL
Eka Chavleishvili in BLACKBIRD BLACKBIRD BLACKBERRY
Alma Pöysti in FALLEN LEAVES
Mia McKenna-Bruce in HOW TO HAVE SEX
Leonie Benesch in THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE
Sandra Hüller in THE ZONE OF INTEREST

European Actor

Thomas Schubert in AFIRE
Jussi Vatanen in FALLEN LEAVES
Josh O’Connor in LA CHIMERA
Mads Mikkelsen in THE PROMISED LAND
Christian Friedel in THE ZONE OF INTEREST

European Screenwriter

Justine Triet & Arthur Harari for ANATOMY OF A FALL
Aki Kaurismäki for FALLEN LEAVES
Maciej Pisuk, Gabriela Łazarkiewicz-Sieczko & Agnieszka Holland for GREEN BORDER
İlker Çatak & Johannes Duncker for THE TEACHERS’ LOUNGE
Jonathan Glazer for THE ZONE OF INTEREST

European Discovery – Prix FIPRESCI

20,000 SPECIES OF BEES (20.000 ESPECIES DE ABEJAS) directed by Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren (Spain)
HOW TO HAVE SEX directed by Molly Manning Walker (United Kingdom, Greece)
LA PALISIADA (ЛЯ ПАЛІСІАДА) directed by Philip Sotnychenko (Ukraine)
SAFE PLACE (SIGURNO MJESTO) directed by Juraj Lerotić (Croatia, Slovenia)
THE QUIET MIGRATION (STILLE LIV) directed by Malene Choi (Denmark)
VINCENT MUST DIE (VINCENT DOIT MOURIR) directed by Stéphan Castang (France)

European Animated Feature Film

A GREYHOUND OF A GIRL directed by Enzo d’Alò
CHICKEN FOR LINDA! directed by Chiara Malta, Sébastien Laudenbach
ROBOT DREAMS directed by Pablo Berger
TEH AMAZING MAURICE directed by Toby Genkel
WHITE PLASTIC SKY directed by Tibor Bánóczki, Sarolta Szabó

European Short Film

27, directed by Flóra Anna Buda
AQUERONTE directed by Manuel Muñoz Rivas
DAYDREAMING SO VIVIDLY ABOUT OUR SPANISH HOLIDAYS directed by Christian Avilés
FLORES DEL OTRO PATIO directed by Jorge Cadena
HARDLY WORKING directed by Susanna Flock, Robin Klengel, Leonhard Müllner, Michael Stumpf

European Film
ANATOMY OF A FALL (ANATOMIE D’UNE CHUTE) - Directed by Justine Triet (France)
FALLEN LEAVES (KUOLLEET LEHDET) - Directed by Aki Kaurismäki (Finland, Germany)
GREEN BORDER (ZIELONA GRANICA) - Directed by Agnieszka Holland (Poland, France, Czech Republic, Belgium)
ME CAPTAIN (IO CAPITANO) - Directed by Matteo Garrone (Italy, Belgium)
THE ZONE OF INTEREST - Directed by Jonathan Glazer (United Kingdom, Poland, USA)

I'm looking forward to all of these films

I didn't dig FALLEN LEAVES as much as everybody else apparently.

But I have a dumb excuse if pressed.

I have a screener on that one and plenty of time this holiday weekend, but there are others in front of it in the queue for me, I'd say

Gotham winners:

Best Feature: Past Lives
Best International Film: Anatomy of a Fall
Best Documentary Film: Four Daughters
Best Leading Performance: Lily Gladstone, Unknown Country
Best Supporting Performance: Charles Melton, May December
Best Screenplay: Anatomy of a Fall
Breakthrough Director: A.V. Rockwell, A Thousand and One

IndieWire's 25 Best Films of 2023https://t.co/PZmZoE1qJ4 pic.twitter.com/X9W1YICqVj

— david ehrlich (@davidehrlich) November 28, 2023

01. Past Lives
02. The Taste of Things
03. Asteroid City
04. The Boy and the Heron
05. May December
06. Poor Things
07. Passages
08. Anatomy of a Fall
09. All of Us Strangers
10. The Zone of Interest
11. A Thousand and One
12. Barbie
13. The Delinquents
14. Oppenheimer
15. Killers of the Flower Moon
16. R.M.N
17. Love Life
18. Pacification
19. Kokomo City
20. La Chimera
21. Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
22. Earth Mama
23. Are You There God? It's Me Margaret
24. Godland
25. Beau is Afraid

NYFCC hands their awards out tomorrow btw

It begins (with a layup):

BEST ANIMATED FILM: The Boy and the Heron.

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

Sandra Hüller mostly earns the praise in Anatomy of a Murder, though Samuel Theis as her clueless husband is as fine.

To say nothing of the kid playing the son, who was equally fine

The kid was fine although I didn’t quite buy the business with the dog towards the end, but that’s more the fault of the screenplay. Huller’s performance was on another level than the rest.

Fabulous dog, though.

I don't think we're supposed to presume that the dog experiment is taken as actual evidence where it matters (i.e. the kid's decision, not the court's estimation). The son seems pretty clearly setting up a plausible structure by which to hang his choices on, to believe his mother

Another layup:

BEST FIRST FILM: Past Lives

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

Good.

BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR: Charles Melton, May December

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

These are getting decided at a super brisk clip this year:

BEST CINEMATOGRAPHY: Oppenheimer

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

Downey Jr. looking a little less invincible in supporting actor

The supporting categories are in diametric contrast this year, with the male lineup all but seemingly locked up rn (Downey + Gosling + De Niro + Ruffalo + now Melton), and the female lineup pretty much wide open but for Randolph in The Holdovers.

Yes, very very yes:

BEST NON-FICTION FILM: Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

(This is only the second time Wiseman's taken this award btw, after In Jackson Heights.)

I didn't know Wiseman had a film out.

It doesn’t seem to have played around here at all, sadly.

I hadn't noticed until recently that Wiseman splits his time between super-democratic institutional ethnographies and behind-the-rope tours of uber-rarified, exclusive enclaves. This is very much the latter.

the female lineup pretty much wide open but for Randolph in The Holdovers

BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS: Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

I've heard some buzz around Danielle Brooks in The Color Purple being a potential challenger to Randolph, though that'll probably depend on what the overall narrative around the movie turns out to be.

My hunch is The Color Purple is going to be a non-factor until the Golden Globe nominations ... and potentially after as well

BEST SCREENPLAY: May December

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

Gonna be a bit embarrassing when the Oppenheimer bloc overpowers the rest for the top prize

BEST INTERNATIONAL FILM: Anatomy of a Fall

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

BEST ACTOR: Franz Rogowski, Passages

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

The happiest surprise acting win since Regina Hall for Support the Girls imo

oh WOW.

I'm happy.

No chance of an Oscar nomination, of course.

The award is for the floral crop top.

Rogowski will win an Oscar a decade from now when he plays Joaquin Phoenix in a biopic.

BEST ACTRESS: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

feeling good about putting Killers of the Flower Moon, The Holdovers, and Anatomy of a Fall on my Vulture Movie Fantasy League roster

Oof, classic NYFCC wipeout

BEST DIRECTOR: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

BEST FILM: Killers of the Flower Moon

— New York Film Critics Circle (@nyfcc) November 30, 2023

Kill me

I can live with the best film choice as another example of NYFCC just being straight up addicted to Scorsese at this point, but absolutely GTFO with that director pick

Interesting that they voted on Best Picture first but announced it last. Presumably so their vote wouldn't be influenced by the announcement of the other winners?

Final @nyfcc award (though we voted on it first) is best picture to Martin Scorsese’s KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON pic.twitter.com/VyuTsMwlMs

— David Rooney (@DavidCRooney1) November 30, 2023

Easier to spread the wealth that way I guess

I took it to mean that the voters themselves didn't know the result, but I'm not entirely sure how it works.

Calling Oscar races early is very much the ne plus ultra of detrius, but after today, I am pretty comfortable calling Gladstone and Randolph pretty close to locks

De Niro too, with Gosling almost enough if the Academy remembers Kevin Kline won in 1988.

Return to Seoul is on Alfred's list! That was a cool movie

To clarify, I'm NOT a member of the abysmal MN group. But I am a member of this, which has somewhat more idiosyncratic nods:

GALECA: THE SOCIETY OF LGBTQ ENTERTAINMENT CRITICS — 15TH DORIAN FILM AWARDS LIST OF NOMINEES

Film of the Year
All of Us Strangers (Searchlight)
Barbie (Warner Bros.)
May December (Netflix)
Past Lives (A24)
Poor Things (Searchlight)

LGBTQ Film of the Year
All of Us Strangers (Searchlight)
Bottoms (MGM)
Passages (MUBI, SBS)
Rustin (Netflix)
Saltburn (Amazon MGM)

Director of the Year
Greta Gerwig, Barbie (Warner Bros.)
Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers (Searchlight)
Todd Haynes, May December (Netflix)
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer (Universal)
Celine Song, Past Lives (A24)

Screenplay of the Year
Noah Baumbach and Greta Gerwig, Barbie (Warner Bros.)
Samy Burch, May December (Netflix)
Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers (Searchlight)
Arthur Harari, Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall (NEON)
Celine Song, Past Lives (A24)

LGBTQ Screenplay of the Year (new)
Andrew Haigh, All of Us Strangers (Searchlight)
Arthur Harari, Justine Triet, Anatomy of a Fall (NEON)
Dustin Lance Black, Julian Breece, Rustin (Netflix)
Arlette Langmann, Ira Sachs, Mauricio Zacharias, Passages (MUBI)
Emma Seligman, Rachel Sennott, Bottoms (MGM)

Non-English Language Film of the Year
Anatomy of a Fall (NEON)
The Boy and the Heron (GKIDS, Toho)
Godzilla Minus One (Toho)
Past Lives (A24)
The Zone of Interest (A24)

LGBTQ Non-English Language Film of the Year (new)
Afire (Janus Films, Sideshow)
Anatomy of a Fall (NEON)
Cassandro (Amazon MGM)
Monster (Well Go USA, Gaga, Toho)
Rotting in the Sun (MUBI)

Unsung Film of the Year
Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (Lionsgate)
Monica (IFC)
Origin (NEON)
Theater Camp (Searchlight)
A Thousand and One (Focus Features)

Film Performance of the Year
Colman Domingo, Rustin (Netflix)
Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers (Focus Features)
Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon (Apple, Paramount)
Sandra Hüller, Anatomy of a Fall (NEON)
Greta Lee, Past Lives (A24)
Trace Lysette, Monica (IFC)
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer (Universal)
Natalie Portman, May December (Netflix)
Andrew Scott, All of Us Strangers (Searchlight)
Emma Stone, Poor Things (Searchlight)

Supporting Film Performance of the Year
Danielle Brooks, The Color Purple (Warner Bros.)
Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer (Universal)
Jodie Foster, NYAD (Netflix)
Claire Foy, All of Us Strangers (Searchlight)
Ryan Gosling, Barbie (Warner Bros.)
Rachel McAdams, Are You There, God? It’s Me, Margaret (Lionsgate)
Charles Melton, May December (Netflix)
Paul Mescal, All of Us Strangers (Searchlight)
Rosamind Pike, Saltburn (Amazon MGM)
Da'Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers (Focus Features)

Documentary of the Year
American Symphony (Netflix)
Beyond Utopia (Roadside Attractions, Fathom Events)
Kokomo City (Magnolia)
Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
20 Days in Mariupol (PBS Distribution)

LGBTQ Documentary of the Year
Every Body (Focus Features)
Going to Mars: The Nikki Giovanni Project (HBO, Confluential Films)
Kokomo City (Magnolia)
Little Richard: I Am Everything (Magnolia)
Orlando, My Political Biography (Janus Film, Sideshow)

Animated Film of the Year
The Boy and the Heron (GKIDS, Toho)
Elemental (Disney)
Nimona (Netflix, Annapurna)
Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse (SONY)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem (Paramount)

Genre Film of the Year (new)
All of Us Strangers (Searchlight)
Godzilla Minus One (Toho)
M3GAN (Universal)
Poor Things (Searchlight)
Talk To Me (A24)

Film Music of the Year
Barbie — Mark Ronson, Andrew Wyatt, et al. (Warner Bros.)
The Boy and the Heron — Joe Hisaishi (GKIDS, Toho)
The Color Purple — Stephen Bray, Allee Willis, Brenda Russell, Kris Bowers, et al. (Warner Bros.)
Oppenheimer — Ludwig Göransson (Universal)
The Zone of Interest — Mica Levi (A24)

Visually Striking Film of the Year
Asteroid City (Focus Features)
Barbie (Warner Bros.)
Oppenheimer (Universal)
Poor Things (Searchlight)
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-Verse (SONY)

Campiest Flick
Barbie (Warner Bros.)
Bottoms (MGM)
Dicks: The Musical (A24)
M3GAN (Universal)
Saltburn (Amazon MGM)

“We’re Wilde About You!” Rising Star Award
Ayo Edebiri
Lily Gladstone
Jacob Elordi
Charles Melton
Dominic Sessa

Wilde Artist Award
Quinta Brunson
Ayo Edebiri
Greta Gerwig
Lily Gladstone
Todd Haynes

GALECA LGBTQIA+ Film Trailblazer Award
Colman Domingo
Jodie Foster
Andrew Haigh
Todd Haynes
Andrew Scott

Much better.

I yield that our acting nods are disappointingly by-the-numbers. But Oppenheimer missing out nearly everywhere is a big consolation prize.

DGA awards are whatever the opposite of a surprise is:

Best director: Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Best first-time director: Celine Song, Past Lives

How delightful.

To clarify, actors have been nominated before in separate categories (lead and supporting) in the same year, most recently ScarJo in 2019. AFAIK, there aren't any rules against actors being nominated twice in the same category, it's just never happened before. But if Huller were nominated for Zone of Interest, it would be in supporting.

― jaymc, Wednesday, December 20, 2023 12:33 PM (one month ago) bookmarkflaglink

There is Academy precedent: Janet Gaynor's 1929 Best Actress win was collectively for 7th Heaven (1927), Sunrise: A Song of Two Humans (1927), and Street Angel (1928). But I wasn't that excited by Huller's performance in AoaF, and I haven't seen TZoI.

I posted that before I'd seen Zone of Interest, and now it seems like the only reason she was being pushed for supporting is because she was already being pushed for lead in Anatomy of a Fall. She's a lead in both.

I think the SAG 4 actors will repeat at the Oscars. If there was a real momentum swing toward Giamatti and Stone, we would've seen it tonight.

agree with that

I won’t rest easy until Gladstone is actually giving the Oscar speech. But if Poor Things does manage to get shut out of the top categories, that’ll be satisfactory enough

I finally dragged myself to a theater to see the nominated live-action and animated shorts. Next to the annual crop of misery porn, Wes Anderson's latest exercise in tweeness and artificiality looks darn good.

lol, yeah Henry Sugar really sticks out in that lineup.

Not really a film poster, so not sure if there's a better thread to do this, but I did want to get some thoughts down about Trenque Lauqne, which I saw last year, and was probably my favourite film (other candidates: The Boy and the Heron, The Eternal Daughter, Past Lives, Passages). Partly because I thought it wasn't amazingly well served by critics, who seemed to review it more or less favourably.

I'm just transcribing my notes, so it may be a little attenuated.

I saw it in one go but it comprises two parts, each just over two hours iirc. It is a very literary film, which is perhaps why I felt at home with it. I'm generally quite wary of films. A few critics used this term, and I agreed instinctively, but what constitutes 'literary'? It's slightly difficult to say - the typical shape or arc of a film is changed into chapters and nested narratives, two 'books' - i feel i recognise the structure and internal dynamics from books rather than film. Roughly speaking.

This did mean that the reviews I read felt 'illiterate' to a degree. 'Literary' + 'Argentina' seemed to mean name-checking Bolaño and Borges. Not entirely incorrectyly, but irrelevantly enough. Anyway, it's not important.

The trail of the 2 films comes in at a tangent, and a central absence (two men speaking in car park of a woman) and leaves, once again, with the same absence. The trail between the two points is picaresque or quixotic even, lightly handled, with a fantastic soundtrack.

Key elements:

• Narrative framing or nesting. The elusive mystery discovered by the main character (the woman, Laura, absent at beginning and end), exists as a trail of letters, a relationship, filleted between the pages of books, bringing with it emotional development - that plot, that emotional development is hidden, a meaning caché, with nevertheless a material trail to be discovered and to move things along. Stories within the story, itself only glancingly established from that initial conversation in a car park, establish themselves. My general thing from ghost stories is that nested narratives allow the materialisation of the immaterial or in some insubstantial to manifest itself into the main narrative, the 'real' if you must.

• The centre and the hinterland of Trenque Lauquen itself. Defined by not being Buenos Airies, it is itself a hinterland, but the passing in and out of its 'gate' is a constant rhythm to the film. It's also the drifting away from the centre - Buenos Airies, the males in the story, the original apparent centre of the story, all becoming gradually left behind as the peripheries of presence and relationships and even events become increasingly insubstantial and the main presence in the film.

• Especially the way men are pushed to the side despite being in the centre at first. They are in search of someone who already in that first scene cannot be reached, though they do not know it yet. Their masculinity is absurd from the beginning, but also uncomprehending (in different ways - the professor totally so, thwarted almost - the council worker uncomprehending, quietly heartbroken, not understanding until later if even then, understanding as much as he can maybe). I've seen people say the second film is much weaker than the first, but i don't think this is right. I enjoyed it more, it's true, but the second is characterised by a sort of diffusion of coherence, of purpose, which makes complete sense in terms of the overall film. Male certainty is undermined and in the end completely absent as a sort of irrelevance, slightly stupefied, uncomprehending. This does not come across as a particularly political point - it merely happens.

• Not quite doubles. A temporal love quadrant that isn't quite isomorphic, merely temptingly allusive, constituted out of psychological projection and narrative construction perhaps. You think initially the present is doubling the past but actually one of the legs isn't quite right.

• Mistaken identity (related to the above ofc). It is not at all clear that Emma Zunas is who they identify her to be

• I've written here 'the emotional mists of the narrative, a mirage of a narrative.' Not sure what I mean, I think it's just that the detection of Laura leads her to create the narrative that leads her in the end to oblivion. What word would we use to describe this? Fate? Destiny? Folly? Madness? None seem quite right - it's the success of the film that it creates a new mood to cover what happens here. A sign of a work of art imv.

• This is also a set of loosely related short stories about Trenque Lauquen, hooked together somewhat quixotically, as i say.

That's Trenque Lauquen instead of whatever garbarge i managed to typo in the first line there. Well done fizzles.

i like your post Fizzles.

I really kind of hated Passages. I have admired Franz Rogowski in previous roles - Transit, A Hidden Life, Great Freedom - but this film was so off-putting. He was portrayed as a person of interest but was completely unlikeable and uninteresting as a character and I couldn’t muster any empathy for him or for that matter the two other characters who cared about him. I have seen a lot of Ira Sachs’ films and have liked them all up until now

otm, he was unpleasant and destroyed people’s quite selfishly. that’s identified v clearly in the opening directorial sequence. he’s selfish and controlling - incidentally that scene also identified the importance of the language of body posture in the film, which is incredibly well handled.

it feels like it’s also about the hard work of healing that people do around him as it is the character portrayal of the cause of the destruction. idk i felt it was intelligent about that sort of obsessional love and lust and the sort of person that causes it and the sort of wounds it leaves.

If you liked Trenque Lauquen, you may also like The Delinquents out in the uk later this month Fizzles. Rodrigo Moreno isn’t a member of el pampero cine as such, though he shares actors (notably Laura Paredes) and a similar literary framework, though this is in some ways more of a traditional noir.

Intrigued as to what the Milei regime is going to mean for this wave of Argentine filmmakers - by all accounts he is taking his fiscal chainsaw to most cultural budgets - tho one of the defining aspects of ECP is their independence from traditional funding streams.

Thanks PG, I’ll keep an eye out for it. And I’d wondered that about the collective as well - it’s a very appealing creative structure (i must catch up with some of their previous works). My feeling is these things tend to have a natural life but i hope as you say the Milei administration doesn’t damage their approach and funding capabilities.

otm, he was unpleasant and destroyed people’s quite selfishly. that’s identified v clearly in the opening directorial sequence. he’s selfish and controlling - incidentally that scene also identified the importance of the language of body posture in the film, which is incredibly well handled.

it feels like it’s also about the hard work of healing that people do around him as it is the character portrayal of the cause of the destruction. idk i felt it was intelligent about that sort of obsessional love and lust and the sort of person that causes it and the sort of wounds it leaves.

OTM. The film's not blind about Rogowski's toxicity and Whishaw's attempts to distance himself from it.

Between Passages and Keep the Lights On, seems pretty clear that toxic lover really left his mark on Ira Sachs

i'm really still having trouble liking Emma Stone but i absolutely cannot put my finger on why

She's a woman?

lol

I liked her as an actress in Birdman and The Favourite. I thought she was great in those. And as ambivalent as I was about La La Land, her humorous audition scene near the beginning where she was reading a sad script and managed to squeeze out a tear only to be interrupted and startled by some casting underling endeared her to me.

I'm not looking forward to Poor Things though, I think it is the kind of movie I will most certainly not like. And I'm not sure she deserves a second best actress award right yet.

like somebody said they knew when they saw her in The Favourite that she was the real deal, i remember it being a fine performance. i should see Birdman. but actually i think she's good at accents and quite skillful, and she has that very "real" quality which is nice. still there's something on a personal level that doesn't draw me in. not that it matters.

I enjoyed A.S. Hamrah's recap in N+1, for the insights and takes I hadn't heard before.

imho Poor Things is worth seeing even just for the gorgeous set design.

Why hire the great Patrice Rushen to play gentle jazz piano over everything, in a score she didn’t write herself?

You know ... very this!

And, this bit is chef's kiss (I liked Barbie):

Richard Brody of the New Yorker became Barbie’s Number One fan among film critics, tweeting about Barbie or its principals some three dozen times, including one tweet in French and another that stated that Barbie was a better movie than 2001: A Space Odyssey, “except for the unrivalled Stargate sequence.” Brody had mentioned Barbie as early as February 2020, more than three years before the film came out, in a review of the Robbie-superhero-starrer Birds of Prey, in which he told readers he was “greatly looking forward to her performance in the title role of Barbie, the next film by Greta Gerwig, who, I suspect, will have an altogether more original view of Robbie’s art.” That is what you call advance praise.

really enjoyed those, although the one for anatomy of a fall was just a weirdly unimaginative take on the husband's blaring of the steel drum p.i.m.p. song (it definitely doesn't more than make him seem faintly ridiculous) and claimed the rest of the film was po-faced, which i vm disagree with

does*

Yeah, that's one capsule I just had to give the "different strokes" shrug to

Two more 2023 films that I saw recently and enjoyed: Monster (Kore-Eda) and Iron Claw (Durkin).