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

(Tho certainly less distinguished work has won others their third Oscar)

The question for me in supporting actor is whether Ruffalo and Dafoe both make it in for Poor Things. I can imagine a scenario where Melton wins the most critics' prizes but gets snubbed altogether in favor of Downey, Gosling, DeNiro, Ruffalo, and Dafoe. But I haven't Poor Things, so I don't have a good sense about their relative chances.

*haven't seen Poor Things

Actually, it's De Niro I'm starting to consider being the one Melton knocks out, not Dafoe (who twice in the last five years has gotten an acting nomination that was also the only nomination the film received)

feeling good about putting Killers of the Flower Moon, The Holdovers, and Anatomy of a Fall on my Vulture Movie Fantasy League roster
― jaymc, Thursday, November 30, 2023 12:29 PM (four hours ago)

What's your full list? I have a few major regrets on mine

Cahiers du cinema's top 10:

1. TRENQUE LAUQUEN
2. CLOSE YOUR EYES
3. ANATOMY OF A FALL
4, THE FABELMANS
5. FALLEN LEAVES
6. UNREST
7. DO NOT EXPECT TOO MUCH FROM THE END OF THE WORLD
8, THE TEMPLE WOODS GANG
9, LAST SUMMER
10. A PRINCE + SHOWING UP

✨ Nº 804 | TOP 2023 DE LA RÉDACTION ✨

Découvrez en avant-première le #Top10 de la rédaction des #cahiersducinema !

👉 Les tops individuels sont à retrouver dans le nº 804, en kiosque le 6 décembre, et déjà disponible en version numérique pour nos abonné·e·s ! pic.twitter.com/dt1JQwZJO5

— Cahiers du Cinéma (@cahierscinema) December 1, 2023

Also, unless I'm missing something, John Waters has joined Amy Taubin and apparently all other film contributors in NOT submitting a top 10 list to Artform, in the wake of the firing of editor-in-chief David Velasco

hmm

@Eric:

Killers of the Flower Moon, The Holdovers, Anatomy of a Fall, Poor Things, American Fiction, Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour, American Symphony, and 20 Days in Mariupol

Until the last minute, I was considering Oppenheimer / Perfect Days / You Hurt My Feelings instead of KOTFM / Anatomy of a Fall / Eras Tour. Pretty sure I made the right choice.

I made my picks too early, before it was clear the new Waititi was going to be a non-entity across the board (I already knew critics hated it, but y'know, Jojo Rabbit):

• Poor Things
• Rustin
• Barbie
• Past Lives
• Next Goal Wins
• All of Us Strangers
• Ferrari
• The Taste of Things

I didn't realize Close Your Eyes is the new Victor Erice. I may try to catch it during the AFI EU Film Fest going on here this week.

NYT critics share their top 10s:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/12/01/movies/best-movies-of-2023.html

Manohla Dargis

1. ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ (Martin Scorsese)
2. ‘Oppenheimer’ (Christopher Nolan)
3. ‘Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros’ (Frederick Wiseman)
4. ‘Occupied City’ (Steve McQueen)
5. ‘A Thousand and One’ (A.V. Rockwell)
6. ‘Asteroid City’ (Wes Anderson)
7. ‘May December’ (Todd Haynes)
8. ‘Showing Up’ (Kelly Reichardt)
9. ‘Orlando: My Political Biography’ (Paul B. Preciado)
10. ‘Stonewalling’ (Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka)

Ten more: “All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt,” “Earth Mama,” “Fallen Leaves,” “Ferrari,” “John Wick: Chapter 4,” “Past Lives” “R.M.N.,” “Scarlet,” “Will-O’-the-Wisp,” “Youth (Spring).”

Alissa Wilkinson

1. ‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ (Martin Scorsese)
2. ‘Past Lives’ (Celine Song)
3. ‘The Zone of Interest’ (Jonathan Glazer)
4. ‘Reality’ (Tina Satter)
5. ‘A Still Small Voice’ (Luke Lorentzen)
6. ‘Oppenheimer’ (Christopher Nolan)
7. ‘Smoke Sauna Sisterhood’ (Anna Hints)
8. ‘Godland’ (Hlynur Palmason)
9. ‘The Eternal Memory’ (Maite Alberdi)
10. ‘Menus-Plaisirs — Les Troisgros’ (Frederick Wiseman)

And don’t miss: “Afire” (Christian Petzold), “American Fiction” (Cord Jefferson), “American Symphony” (Matthew Heineman), “Anatomy of a Fall” (Justine Triet), “Anselm” (Wim Wenders), “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret” (Kelly Fremon Craig), “Barbie” (Greta Gerwig), “BlackBerry” (Matt Johnson), “Eileen” (William Oldroyd), “Fallen Leaves” (Aki Kaurismaki), “Four Daughters” (Kaouther Ben Hania), “The Holdovers” (Alexander Payne), “May December” (Todd Haynes), “Poor Things” (Yorgos Lanthimos), “Priscilla” (Sofia Coppola), “The Royal Hotel” (Kitty Green), “Showing Up” (Kelly Reichardt), “The Starling Girl” (Laurel Parmet), “The Taste of Things” (Tran Anh Hung), “You Hurt My Feelings” (Nicole Holofcener)

Past Lives was a nice film whose traction has surprised me.

Not me. It's this year's perfectly fine, very safe, minor-key, nothing-wrong-with-it indie ... this year's Aftersun

I like both movies but I found Aftersun much more affecting.

👉 Les tops individuels sont à retrouver dans le nº 804, en kiosque le 6 décembre, et déjà disponible en version numérique pour nos abonné·e·s ! pic.twitter.com/fCb0LE8ig2

— Cahiers du Cinéma (@cahierscinema) December 1, 2023

That's

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GAQRfHXWgAAnpDC.png

Richard Brody's top 20:

01. Killers of the Flower Moon
02. Asteroid City
03. Barbie
04. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
05. Showing Up
06. Passages
07. Civic
08. A Thousand and One
09. Earth Mama
10. Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game
11. The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar/The Swan/The Rat Catcher/Poison
12. Menus-plaisirs - Les Troisgros
13. Petite Solange
14. Ferrari
15. Orlando, My Political Biography
16. Walk Up
17. Origin
18. Priscilla
19. The Color Purple
20. Our Body

The French fucking LOVED The Fabelmans (rightly):

Les Inrockuptibles' top 20

01. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet)
02. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg)
03. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat)
04. The Animal Kingdom (Thomas Cailley)
05. Close Your Eyes (Víctor Erice)
06. Red Island (Robin Campillo)
07. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou)
08. Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell (Phạm Thiên Ân)
09. Tár (Todd Field)
10. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt)
11. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese)
12. In Our Day (Hong Sang-soo)
13. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells)
14. The Rapture (Iris Kaltenbäck)
15. The Killer (David Fincher)
16. Trenque Lauquen (Laura Citarella)
17. De humani corporis fabrica (Lucien Castaing-Taylor and Véréna Paravel)
18. Soul Mates (André Téchiné)
19. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (Christopher McQuarrie)
20. A Brighter Tomorrow (Nanni Moretti)

I guess everyone does 20 now.

Rolling Stone

01. Past Lives
02. The Zone of Interest
03. Killers of the Flower Moon
04. Poor Things
05. Showing Up
06. The Quiet Girl
07. Anatomy of a Fall
08. The Delinquents
09. All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
10. Barbie
11. American Fiction
12. All of Us Strangers
13. Return to Seoul
14. Beau Is Afraid
15. Skinamarink
16. Passages
17. You Hurt My Feelings
18. Bottoms
19. The Boy and the Heron
20. Oppenheimer

Not me. It's this year's perfectly fine, very safe, minor-key, nothing-wrong-with-it indie ... this year's Aftersun

― active spectator of ecocide and dispossession (Eric H.), F

I didn't find Aftersun safe!

"Safe" wasn't meant to be bad, per se. You Hurt My Feelings, which is uber-safe, is one of my favorites of the year

Adam Nayman (of the Showgirls: It Doesn't Such monograph fame):

https://www.theringer.com/movies/2023/12/5/23988275/best-movies-2023-top-ten

01. Showing Up
02. The Zone of Interest
03. Killers of the Flower Moon
04. May December
05. Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret
06. All of Us Strangers
07. The Killer
08. Fallen Leaves
09. The Boy and the Heron
10. Afire and Knock at the Cabin (tie)

But this is really the best part:

Honorable Mention: Oppenheimer
Maybe I’m the problem: While I thought that measured ambivalence was the best response to Christopher Nolan’s billion-dollar biopic, I keep getting told I’m wrong by friends and strangers alike, that Oppenheimer is simply too accomplished—too structurally complex and thematically intricate; too ideologically sober and technically dazzling; too beautifully shot and vividly acted—to leave off any half-decent year-end list. (Some of these suggestions have not been very nice.) As somebody who’s always had mixed feelings about Nolan’s grandiose showmanship, I’ll concede that Oppenheimer represents a considerable achievement, and yet I’m not fully convinced that the film stands for much more than its own ingenious engineering—a monument to a filmmaker whose need to be at the top of the heap provides its own kind of psychodrama.

That's about where I am -- except his narrative gets rickety in the last hour. I wonder if losing his brother as a co-writer is a factor.

Independent Spirit Award nominations

Best Feature
All of Us Strangers
American Fiction
May December
Passages
Past Lives
We Grown Now

Best International Film
Anatomy of a Fall – France
Godland – Denmark, Iceland
Mami Wata – Nigeria
Totem – Mexico
The Zone of Interest – U.K., Poland, U.S.A.

Best Documentary
Bye Bye Tiberias
Four Daughters
Going to Mars
Kokomo City
The Mother of All Lies

Best Director
Andrew Haigh – All of Us Strangers
Todd Haynes – May December
William Oldroyd – Eileen
Celine Song – Past Lives
Ira Sachs – Passages

Best Lead Performance
Jessica Chastain – Memory
Greta Lee – Past Lives
Trace Lysette – Monica
Natalie Portman -May December
Judy Reyes – Birth/Rebirth
Franz Rogowski – Passages
Andrew Scott – All of Us Strangers
Tiana Taylor – A Thousand and One
Jeffrey Wright – American Fiction
Teo Yoo – Past Lives

Best Supporting Performance
Erika Alexander – American Fiction
Sterling K. Brown – American Fiction
Noah Galvin – Theater Camp
Anne Hathaway – Eileen
Glenn Howerton – Blackberry
Marin Ireland – Eileen
Charles Melton – May December
Da’Vine Joy Randolph – The Holdovers
Catalina Saavedra – Rotting in the Sun
Ben Whishaw – Passages

Best Breakthrough Performance
Marshawn Lynch – Bottoms
Atibon Nazaire – Mountains
Tia Nomore – Earth Mama
Dominic Sessa – The Holdovers
Anaita Wali Zada – Fremont

Best Screenplay
American Fiction
Birth/Rebirth
Bottoms
Past Lives
The Holdovers

Best First Screenplay
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
May December
The Starling Girl
Theater Camp
Upon Entry

Best First Feature
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
Earth Mama
A Thousand and One
Upon Entry

John Cassavetes Award
The Artifice Girl
Cadejo Blanco
Fremont
Rotting in the Sun
The Unknown Country

Best Cinematography
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
Chronicles of a Wandering Saint
The Holdovers
Monica
We Grown Now

Best Editing
How to Blow Up a Pipeline
Rotting in the Sun
Theater Camp
Upon Entry
We Grown Now

Robert Altman Award
Showing Up

That is an extremely gay (male) best director slate

Happy as I am to see Belton and Brown gaining traction, to nominate Whishaw and not Rogowski is some perverse shit.

They did nominate Rogowski?

Catalina Saavedra – Rotting in the Sun

This is an inspired nomination imo

oh, oops!

I watched Eileen last night: I appreciated its brevity but it had none of the book's strangeness despite Moshfegh as co-scenarist. Unlike Natalie Portman in May-December Anne Hathaway's ability to present herself as an AI version of herself isn't put to shrewd use.

Congrats to Marshawn Lynch on his first ISA nomination.

National Board of Review unambiguously adds to the Scorsese gangpile:

Best Film: Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Director: Martin Scorsese, Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Actor: Paul Giamatti, The Holdovers
Best Actress: Lily Gladstone, Killers of the Flower Moon
Best Supporting Actor: Mark Ruffalo, Poor Things
Best Supporting Actress: Da’Vine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Best Original Screenplay: David Hemingson, The Holdovers
Best Adapted Screenplay: Tony McNamara, Poor Things
Breakthrough Performance: Teyana Taylor, A Thousand and One
Best Directorial Debut: Celine Song, Past Lives
Best Animated Feature: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best International Film: Anatomy of a Fall
Best Documentary: Still: A Michael J. Fox Movie
Best Ensemble: The Iron Claw
Outstanding Achievement in Stunt Artistry: Director Chad Stahelski and Stunt Coordinators Stephen Dunlevy & Scott Rogers, John Wick: Chapter 4
Outstanding Achievement in Cinematography: Rodrigo Prieto, Barbie & Killers of the Flower Moon
NBR Icon Award: Bradley Cooper

Top Films (in alphabetical order):
Barbie
The Boy and the Heron
Ferrari
The Holdovers
The Iron Claw
Maestro
Oppenheimer
Past Lives
Poor Things

Top 5 International Films (in alphabetical order):
La Chimera
Fallen Leaves
The Teachers’ Lounge
Tótem
The Zone of Interest

Top 5 Documentaries (in alphabetical order):
20 Days in Mariupol
32 Sounds
The Eternal Memory
The Pigeon Tunnel
A Still Small Voice

Top 10 Independent Films (in alphabetical order):
All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt
All of Us Strangers
BlackBerry
Earth Mama
Flora and Son
The Persian Version
Scrapper
Showing Up
Theater Camp
A Thousand and One

I’d be interested to know if the RS list is based on points/votes, or the staff just sitting on a Zoom and arranging 20 movies to make a point

Putting Barbie at 10 and Oppenheimer at 20 is kinda on the nose

gaws that NBR list

RS list is just David Fear's own list, is my understanding

Yeah, the Board is year-in, year-out the most detrius-y of the established "big 4" crix groups

I've found this year good to great; this consensus is a garbage bag of mayo.

"We are also thrilled to honor Bradley Cooper with the NBR Icon Award — an equally impressive actor, writer, producer, and director, who brings his passion, artistry, and dedication to everything he does, including his latest beautifully sublime film, ‘Maestro.'”

I mean, that's why it's called "detrius" (sic, for those new to the room)

This beautifully sublime thread.

That Cooper award is absolutely "no notes" perfect

Right up there with the top 8 categories getting split between only 3 films

i find Bradley Cooper impossible to take seriously, maybe i'm being unfair.

i see clips of him in Maestro being particularly "impassioned" while conducting and i just think of

https://media.giphy.com/media/v1.Y2lkPTc5MGI3NjExa2hteXNvZmp2NHdmOTJ4ODhvOTY1enV6YmRmOHE4Y2UzdXZ0M3hkZiZlcD12MV9pbnRlcm5hbF9naWZfYnlfaWQmY3Q9Zw/iuHIqpwpp0gwg/giphy.gif

i find Bradley Cooper impossible to take seriously, maybe i'm being unfair.

― omar little, Wednesday, December 6, 2023 bookmarkflaglink

I watched him on a recent episode of Stephen Colbert, where Colbert was weirdly VERY fawning... like really overdoing it even for a talk-show host trying to make his guest feel comfortable. But the funniest thing about it was how Cooper kept emphasizing how long he's been working on this film - he's been working with a speech coach "every day for 8 hours, for six years"... he's been working with his co-star for five years... and then later in the interview he says they didn't have a script until 4 years ago. Like, this seems like a super inefficient way to prepare for a movie!!

John Waters returns! I hate his #1! He was missed!

https://www.vulture.com/article/john-waters-best-movies-of-2023.html

01. Beau Is Afraid (Ari Aster)
02. A Prince (Pierre Creton)
03. Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)
04. Full Time (Éric Gravel)
05. Last Summer (Catherine Breillat)
06. Sparta (Ulrich Seidl)
07. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki)
08. Strange Way of Life (Pedro Almodóvar)
09. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan)
10. Do Not Expect Too Much of the End of the World (Radu Jude)

I missed the screening for the Kaurismäki.

Loved it, but I'm Scandinavian so my mileage did NOT vary