Godzilla Minus One (2023)

Everything about Minus One feels like a return to the golden age of Godzilla, a love letter to the original film and era. Set in the 1940s post WWII, the film is shot like a 40s film, acted like a film from the 40s, scored with music that feels right out of that time, with even the effects made to give the feel that you are watching a golden age movie. 

Minus One is a very different take on Godzilla than the recent American series of monster movies based on the character and Kong. Unlike that series where the titular kaiju is portrayed as an ancient guardian protecting humanity, this monster is pure destruction. He is war itself. This is about a nation reeling from loss and finding a reason to live despite it all.

The melodrama is laid on thick but due to the setting and the film's narrative it truly works. The film commits to its setting and approach and you get sucked into the stories of these lost souls. 

But the real strength (no surprise) is the monster himself. Godzilla very much reminiscent of the man-in-the-suit style creatures of the past yet still terrifying as the all out carnage he represents. The effects are strong and every moment he is on screen is exciting. The mayhem is felt in every thunderous step he takes. And this is the point of these movies, isn't it? To shake in the awe of Godzilla.

Godzilla Minus One

Writer/Director: Takashi Yamazaki

Frybread Face and Me (2023)

The story in Frybread Face and Me might be a bit rote, but it is told with such a lovely honesty that it remains a very watchable and touching story. It's quite simple but Luther shoots his film with a great eye for capturing the beauty in little things.

Freybread Face and Me is a coming of age story for a young man, likely queer though it isn't explicit, who finds more of himself when he returns to his people from the city where he didn't know himself. By connecting with his extended family, a lovely disparate bunch, he comes to understand himself and build connection in ways he wasn't able to before. It isn't an unfamiliar story for anyone, but Luther places it within his specific cultural context imbuing it with a greater power. 

The cast often feels a little amateur in a way that give off more honest and less "acty" performances. Tallman at the centre of this is quite strong and his screen presence is compelling. He carries this story on his shoulders and makes for a good surrogate for the film maker's story.  

While Frybread Face and Me is short, Luther packs a lot in without making any of it feel crowded. In fact the film even has time for us to sit with moments and reflect on them making watching Frybread Face and Me a lovely experience. 

Frybread Face and Me

Starring: Keir Tallman, Charley Hogan, Sarah H Natani, Martin Sensmeier

Writer/Director: Billy Luther

 

Saltburn (2023)

I'll make the case for Saltburn as inversion of the hero arc. The film plays without expectations, coding our main character in all the ways villains have been coded in the cinematic canon and then making him triumphant and heroic despite all that we have witnessed. Saltburn delights in upending all that movie audiences expect from narratives and giving it back to us in ways that are uncomfortable. It's a little bit Teorema, a little but Talented Mr. Ripley, and a little bit Funny Games, all rolled into a subversive slap in the face that is designed to make you question all that you understand about good guys and bad guys and how morality plays play out. 

The simple summation of the plot is how a poor, outcast Oxford student becomes obsessed with the popular rich kid and insinuates himself into his targets life with disastrous results. But that is just the framework for what Fennell is truly spinning here. She manages to get underneath the way audiences respond to triggers and cues in films and upend them, making us love who we normally hate and hate who we normally love or at least be confused about it. 

Normally we would side with the poor underdog against the elite bastards. That's how we are taught to approach these stories and we pat ourselves on the back for it while we subconsciously cheer on the real world millionaires in their exploitation of the world. But she flips this by giving us so many cues to dislike the usurper. She casts Keoghan as Oliver and makes him as creepy and queer coded as possible. We are purposefully disgusted by his actions cause they are too overtly sexual, involve behavior we may consider degrading (and queer, don't forget that), and he does the sorts of things we are supposed to be judgemental of that we would normally see the villain do. 

Now to get us back on his side, Fennell could have easily made his targets cartoonishly awful adversaries. We are used to movies where the villains are fiendish posh parasites and we can pat ourselves on the back for wanting to see their comeuppance. But she paints the object of Oliver's affection, Felix, not only as impossibly attractive (in an A&F model sort of way) and generally decent, if somewhat bland, sometimes vapid, but rather realistically human. She crafts the Cattons as individuals whose only real sin is the privilege they enjoy, a privilege that is extreme and essentially soul eroding, but she doesn't code them in the way the evil millionaires are usually portrayed in films. 

It's hard to explain the lengths Fennell goes to mess with the signals we are so used to interpreting and fucking with our emotional responses. In a pivotal scene Oliver is wearing horns (like a devil) while Felix is wearing wings (like an angel) and yet they are inspired by A Midsummer Night's Dream party thrown in Oliver's honour meaning Oliver is playing the likeable Puck while Felix is a mischievous fairy. We are constantly being pulled in different directions. So much of film language is about playing into our expectations and Saltburn seems dedicated to messing with those. So when the ending, a triumphant reordering of the universe, reveals its plot spinning out we find ourselves rooting for the what we "shouldn't" or perhaps we should? Saltburn gets us to reinterpret all we know about how we evaluate good and bad despite ourselves. 

And this is in itself inherently queer. The film is queering our hero narratives so that we come out the end with a sublime celebration of revolution on a personal level, something that queer people have strived for for centuries. I am not aware of Fennell's identification but her screenplay and film and her primarily straight cast, have made one of the queerest films, joyfully queer films, I have seen in a long time. 

I think the final scene in this film may be my favourite of any of the year. It is blissful yet dark, hopeful yet bitter, tragic and triumphant all at once and sums up all that Saltburn has done to us in its two hours and ten minutes of decadence and reclamation. Keoghan is masterful (he rarely isn't) and he and Fennell have created one of the most fascinating cinematic characters I've seen. The film is perhaps a bit messy in revealing its twists but that's part of the play as well. What it accomplishes with the audience's emotions is a little miracle. 

Saltburn

Starring: Barry Keoghan, Jacob Elordi, Rosamund Pike, Richard E Grant, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe, Carey Mulligan

Writer/Director: Emerald Fennell

Dream Scenario (2023)

Cage is certainly in the most interesting phase of his career so far. I find much of what he does, even when it's flawed, to be fascinating. Dream Scenario mostly falls into that category for me, but its final act lost me and wasn't able to recover. Still Cage's performance is one of the more interesting in a while. 

My main complaint is with the meta-text of Dream Scenario. The film wants to comment of viral fame, its rises and falls, and its darker elements. It sets up its high concept premise for this purpose and the script itself refers to this thesis numerous times explicitly. And for 2/3s of the film, Dream Scenario is saying some interesting things. But is missing something important that I worry is fatal to its case and the third act exposes that fatality dramatically. 

The premise of the film, which isn't a spoiler as it's in the trailer, is that Cage's character is appearing in people's dreams, even people who do not know him. It starts slow, with him just being present but having no agency, escalates into his avatar being more active, including a suggestively violent sexual scenario, and eventually to the point where he becomes the centre of people's violent nightmares. He goes from being a trend, to a phenom, to an outcast, being "cancelled" for what people dream he does. The film comments on this and the complications that arise from it, very explicitly labelling it "cancel culture" and even centring it with real world culture war references. 

And it would all be good except... well, it doesn't work that way. 

You see when we dream, the people we dream about, while perhaps representative of real world people we know, are creations of our subconscious that have no connection to the people they represent for us. Those people can't influence what our dreamed versions of them do. As the film points out in the beginning Cage's character has no agency. So much of the critique is tied to this idea. But in the real world, in real scenarios of "going viral" or social media fame, the people involved DO have agency. They are making real choices, they are having an impact that they themselves are either choosing or being wilfully blind to the effects of their actions. So unlike everything that happens in Dream Scenario real world internet fame is based on the choices people make, taking the steam out of any argument the film is making. 

I kept waiting for the film to address this but it never does. Near the end the film tries to tie this even further to its argument by having another, completely unrelated and suddenly appearing character (I hate deus ex machina moments), invent a way into people's dreams. I thought the film would tie this to Cage somehow, implying that he was actively choosing the actions people saw him commit in his dreams, but it never does. The film shies away from having any explanation for the phenomenon but it's arguments fall apart without one. I kept waiting for the film to find a way to tie his waking hour behavior to the dreams people manifested about him but it chooses not to. Also this final act starts to lean more and more into the silly side of things while the film up to this point had been walking a good balance between the normal and the absurd. 

In actually the tale here seems to try to absolve people of their responsibility in how people respond to their actions. It's the "I'm sorry you were offended" argument. By implying that Cage's character should not be held accountable the argument seems to be that those who profit from their actions on line or in other public spaces, are in no way capable of influencing how people see them. It implies that all speech is somehow consequenceless. It's a ridiculous but popular argument made by those who want to have their cake and eat it too.  

The film ends in a touching moment where he actually does enter someone's dream intentionally (now that the technology has been created - certainly not because he had that power before) and tries to give them what they want. We are to feel tragedy for him cause he lost everything over nothing. If only that's how the real world works. 

Dream Scenario

Starring: Nicolas Cage, Julianne Nicholson, Michael Cera, Tim Meadows, Dylan Gelula, Dylan Baker, Lily Bird, Jessica Clement

Writer/Director: Kristoffer Borgli

 

Stamped From the Beginning (2023)

Director Roger Ross Williams has crafted a film that meticulously lays out the case that white supremacy has been baked into the design of the United States of America since its inception. Basing his film on the non-fiction book of Ibram X Kendi and speaking to scholars from many backgrounds, Williams makes a film that both outlines this uncomfortable truth but is truly watchable and deeply impactful. 

Like Kendi's work it is named after, Stamped from the Beginning focuses on the experience of blackness in America under white supremacy (as opposed to the indigenous people's of the Americas experience of it) understanding how much of the economy and political structures that built the nation and continue to shape it today rely on racism and structural inequality to exist. The work here is sound but the film also is created in a way that makes it fascinating to watch. 

A big part of this is the hope that it lays within its argument. It manages to celebrate black excellence while making its critique. The film ends with both a warning and a large amount of hope. History should make us uncomfortable (at least) and if it doesn't it's not real history. 

Stamped from the Beginning

Director: Roger Ross Williams

Writer: David Teague

 

Next Goal Wins (2023)

Underdog sports movies are a genre of their own and are often heavy on the chicken-soup-for-the-soul style inspirationalism. What makes Next Goal Wins so much fun is how it takes most of the positives of the genre but subverts many of the cliches often surprising us. But over all the film works cause it just so damn entertaining. 

Waititi introduces the film to us himself, playing an overly silly pastor who is telling us a story, giving himself permission to take... liberties... with the story. He also sets the tone that we don't have to take what we will see too seriously. And that perhaps is something inherent in the story itself. Next Goal Wins is constantly reminding us not to view things the way a western audience traditionally would and instead enjoy the ride wherever it takes us for what it is, a value the culture of the people the story is about promotes. 

The script is truly quite funny but the best part is it doesn't fall into a lot of the traps one would expect. There is no romance subplot laid into the narrative. There is a nuanced and beautifully handled trans story embedded within it (inspired by the real life events). And the film works in a pathos along with the jokes that doesn't feel forced or heavy handed. Next Goal Wins remains light but doesn't do so by skimping on the emotion. It just chooses to laugh even when things are tougher. 

Next Goal Wins isn't a story about a climb to so-called "greatness" but instead a story about finding happiness. And damn if it doesn't make you smile. 

Next Goal Wins

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Oscar Knightly, Kaimana, David Fane, Rachel House, Beulah Koale, Will Arnett, Elizabeth Moss, Rhys Darby, Luke Hemsworth, Kaitlyn Dever

Director: Taika Waititi

Writers: Iain Morris, Taika Waititi

 

Mutt (2023)

I'm a bit of a sucker for film stories told over the period of a day. These snap shot of life style movies speak to me in how they restrain the story telling to a moment in time. It's like synecdoche, a piece representing the whole, a way of learning about a character or their journey by watching one bit. It's also about the way life just comes to a head sometime. 

Mutt, the story of Feña coming into contact with three important figures in his life but for the first time post-transition, is structured this way. This gives the film a chance to explore issues of presentation and bodies in ways that a lot of queer cinema does not. Mutt quite boldly goes there, creating a real intimacy between its main characters and its audience. 

Mehiel is raw and honest in his portrayal of Feña and this moment in his life when there is a real shift in how he is seen and how he can be. The film doesn't go in the direction you always think it will and its exploration of the little moments of trans life is so effectively portrayed through the smart and sensitive screenplay and the great cast. 

Mutt is truly accessible and may be for many audiences the first time they are considering some issues. But this accessibility does not mean it handles the story it is tackling with any lack of complexity or nuance, nor does it treat its subject as spectacle. Instead its honest portrayal of a pivotal day in the life of a trans man honours both its subject, the trans audience, and the cis audience that is engaging with it. It is a comforting watch as it is gives Feña a day where he gets to grow and struggle but start into the next day with an optimism. 

Mutt

Starring: Lio Mehiel, Cole Doman, Mimi Ryder, Alejandro Goic, Jari Jones

Writer/Director: Vuk Lungulov-Klotz

 

Nuovo Olimpo (2023)

The new sentimental film from director Ferzan Özpetek starts out and ends up quite strong. But so much of the middle is a mushy, melodramatic mess that feels more soap opera than art house. Nuovo Olimpo is as gorgeous to watch as its central characters (until their horrible "old person" make up later in the film) but its penchant for Hallmarky coincidence and its clumsy handling of love saps much of the good will it earns in its take off and landing. 

The opening sequence is a beautiful reconstruction of pre queer liberation connection. Our heroes meet at a cinema (no not that kind) where gay men frequent to meet each other for hook ups in the bathroom. They are all young and beautiful like the modern fantasy of this time and our protagonists are even more so because they don't hook up and instead feel an immediate connection that is too "good" for public sex. One is more closet than the other so they make plans, find a space they can truly be, have beautifully filmed sex, and make plans for a reunion but their plans go awry when they are separated by the chaos of a local demonstration and police action. It is the 70s so they have no way to find each other again. 

It was at this moment when I knew the film was going off the rails. The slow motion and dramatic music felt syrupy and more over the top than the film had been to this point. We then follow our characters separately as they jump through time to the near present, one becoming a surgeon and the other a successful film maker who even makes a film about their encounter. The doctor even sees the film with his wife and friends. It would have been so easy for these two to reconnect but they just don't despite the film's central premise that they each never got over the other. No one takes steps to find the other despite how easy it would have been at multiple points in story. At this point the whole thing just feels silly. 

But it's the third act that feels like low grade soap opera. The film maker is injured and the doctor is the one to operate on. The film draws this out because it's the film maker's eyes which are injured so he spends a long time with bandages around him face preventing him from seeing. They interact over and over to the point where the audiences eyes are rolling so far back in our heads that we need eye surgery. 

But...

when the film does it's final dramatic reveal and the two are finally reunited suddenly Nuovo Olimpo finds its backbone. It doesn't give them the long awaited reunion one is expecting. The parties are able to acknowledge to each other, the importance the remembrance of the other was in their lives, and then go on their way. It was a very restrained scene for a film that was so indulgent throughout. 

The the final moment is quite nice as well. The camera pans to a restaurant and we are back in the 70s, we see them as if they had not been separated but had had the chance to follow through with their plans. We see a world where their connection was not taken from them. The possibilities remain ahead of them along a different path. 

But the film overall is just too silly. It eschews any development of the political backdrop which kept them apart and leans into crazy koinkydink and schmaltzy moments like when the film maker runs into the woman who ran the theatre which gives her a chance to wax poetic on loving queer men and the sacrifices that entailed. 

I think there was a better film to be made here about how brief connections can impact us and contribute so much to who we are, about how different our paths may have been if small moments had played out differently, and about how cultures are designed to keep queer people from having real connection. But Nuovo Olimpo is just too silly a film to achieve any of that. 

Nuovo Olimpo

Starring: Damiano Gavino, Andrea Di Luigi

Director: Ferzan Özpetek

Writers: Gianni Romoli, Ferzan Özpetek

Wish (2023)

Wish is self-consciously attempting to be the most Disney Disney animated feature of all time. Designed for release in the studio's 100th year, Wish is meticulously crafted to reference almost every Disney animated feature that has proceeded, specifically borrowing from their very first feature, Snow White and the Sever Dwarfs, while incorporating animation and musical styles that invoke the studio's historic output. Its story is focused on one of Disney's central recurring themes, making a wish on a star, exploring the very idea of wishes and what they mean to us. It also touches on our very modern understanding of how we are all made of stars, bringing this story of liberation by tying all these ideas together. 

The film uses a mix of the current CGI animation which dominates the market, and the studio's traditional watercolour technique to create something that looks both familiar and brand new. Most of the time this visually worked very well, creating quite a fascinating visual pallet for the fairy tale, but occasionally it didn't quite come together which felt jarring in moments. Overall it is quite beautiful to watch and despite the current trend of audiences waiting for Disney films to hit streaming to enjoy at home, Wish does beg to be seen on a big screen. 

The story is bold but often feels a bit too esoteric to truly set the stakes (similar to a problem I had with Encanto) as it's not always clear what needs to happen to "stop the bad guy" meaning the resolution feels a bit dues ex machina. Pine's bad guy is somewhat over the top and there is a talking goat that feels more annoying than charming. But otherwise the character design is well done especially the heroine Asha who basically leads a rebellion against tyranny while looking gorgeously counter culture. Her friend group is a little tribute to the Seven Dwarfs with each one modelled after the famous Grumpy, Happy, Doc... etc, in a clever and fun twist that is subtler than some of the other deep pulls so it doesn't take us out of the film. 

That's certainly one of Wish's signature themes; references. Some will really enjoy this tribute while others may find it tedious. Besides the Snow White stuff (which is heavily laid throughout) there are many obvious (a citizen in town is named "Peter" and dressed just like Pan) while others are more subtle (the previously referred to goat dreams of a Zootopia). Pine's villain employs many signature moves and lines of your favourite Disney Villains. The film even starts and ends with the book opening and closing and the credits give us images from all the back catalogue. So for someone who considers themselves a Disney fan, Wish will offer much to be nostalgic about.   

The music falls very much in to the recents tradition of Disney musicals with songs that feel like they could be right out of Frozen or Encanto. Only time will tell is any catch on and become the classics that we associate with these films. I'm not sure there is anything that rivals the legends like Be Our Guest, Cruella DeVil, or especially When You Wish Upon a Star. But they certainly have a hook and can be quite catchy; there's even a song clearly trying to capture some of the Bruno earworm energy. 

So while overall Wish isn't the perfect Disney Animated Feature, it was certainly enjoyable and memorable. Perhaps it relies a little too much on sentimentality for all things Mouse but, if that's the worst crime it commits, then it comes off pretty good indeed. 

Wish

Starring: Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Victor Garber, Harvey Guillén, Jennifer Kumiyama, Evan Peters, Ramy Youssef, Jon Rudnitsky, Niko Vargas

Directors: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn 

Writers: Jennifer Lee, Allison Moore

Rustin (2023)

After Ma Rainey's Black Bottom Wolfe became one of the film makers I was most fascinated with. His energetic story telling style, use of colour and movement, and the way he connected music to his characters and narrative was exciting to me. As a queer film maker of colour his opportunity to tell the story of one of America's most important gay black men seemed like the perfect sort of Hollywood synergy. And now that the film has finally been released, Rustin lives up to its promise and is one of the most exciting films of 2023. 

Colman Domingo is the sort of character actor who is so good in everything his does, in all kinds of roles, that he blends perfectly into each film he acts in. To see him finally get to take on a high profile lead role like this, and to do exactly what I expected him to do, knock it out of the fucking park, is thrilling. His performance of Rustin is bold and filled with bravado. It is sensitive and subtle. It is complex and consistent. It is the sort of performance that should win awards.

Wolfe and Domingo have crafted a gorgeous and engrossing portrait of a man who was too much for his country, too much for the movement he gave his life to, too much for his racial community and too much for his sexual community. Rustin was an out man at a time when few men were out and few allies could be outwardly supportive. Rustin is dripping with the consequences of that world and its desperation for change that only people like Rustin could bring. His lack of shame is inspiring, not even just for his era, but for our current times as well. As anyone who has lived on the intersections of marginalizations knows, certain voices are often pushed to the back of history. Rustin is a chance to correct some of that. 

Rustin centres the story of its subject around his work behind making the March on Washington happen. As with so much of history, what we now view as important and virtuous, was fought tooth and nail at the time it happened. Rustin then plays out with an energy and tension as Rustin and his team pull off a miracle to make it happen, fighting all sorts of slings and arrows, making for excellent cinema. 

I also have to heap praise on Branford Marsalis' beautiful score that is filled from start to finish with the urgency, passion, pathos, and excitement that the film has. And the film has all of that. Both Domingo and Wolfe deserve to be at the top of the awards discussion this year. They have my vote.  

Rustin

Starring: Colman Domingo, Chris Rock, Glynn Turman, Aml Ameen, CCH Pounder, Michael Potts, Jeffrey Wright, Audra McDonald, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Bill Irwin, Johnny Ramey, Gus Halper

Director: George C Wolfe

Writers: Julian Breece, Dustin Lance Black

 

It's a Wonderful Knife (2023)

Writer Kennedy's Freaky was a clever and fun horror twist on the Freaky Friday story and he's taking another stab at it this time with It's a Wonderful Life. He doesn't kill it quite as effectively this time as the story leans a little too into the silly without finding the balance his previous film had. While Knife isn't terrible, and might make for a light holiday watch if you're searching for something new, it ends up being rather forgettable and perhaps a bit more laugh inducing (not always in the good way) than intended. 

I will give the film points for how casually it inserts queerness into its story. We've now reached the point where characters just get to be gay without there being anything about it. Knife maintains this new tradition which hopefully we'll see even more of in future seasons. 

So overall don't rush out to fight the crowds for this one. But if you happen to come across it there are worse holiday films you could watch. Just don't expect it to be very chilling. 

It's a Wonderful Knife

Starring: Jane Widdop, Joel McHale, Justin Long

Director: Tyler MacIntyre

Writer: Michael Kennedy

 

Priscilla (2023)

Dolly Parton tells a story about how, after his breakup with Priscilla, Elvis wanted to record a version of her legendary song I Will Always Love You, but the deal had to be that he would own the song in return. Being the smart business woman she is, she refused and his version never saw the light of day. In light of this, the use of the song at the end of Priscilla is a genius move, capturing the emotion the film needs while also, perhaps, giving the story of these two star crossed lovers a heart wrenching send off referencing this real life moment for a film that had no rights to any of his actual music. 

Priscilla is the story of a girl who becomes a young woman all in the control of a very powerful man. It is a difficult story to tell (despite my love for Luhrmann's Elvis film I've always maintained he bungles the handling of this aspect of the singer's life) even though the film's source is the memoire of the title young woman herself. Trying to explore this specific relationship without oversimplifying the complications and problematic nature of it is a real challenge that Coppola mostly manages to handle quite deftly. She doesn't vilify Elvis despite painting a portrait of him that is less than admirable. 

In many of her films, the subject of women living under the male gaze is explored and this story fits that pattern well. We see, quite methodically laid out, how Priscilla was groomed as a child into becoming the woman Elvis thought he needed. The film doesn't show him as a predator in the way we might expect, in fact his sexual boundaries are portrayed as being rather chaste with Priscilla, but in other ways; being controlling, demanding limits on what she can and cannot do, making choices for her. Her infatuation with him is obvious but so is the inappropriateness of their romance and how it isn't necessarily good for either of them. 

But where Priscilla falls down in how it fails to give us any reason to feel bittersweet about their break up. The film builds over time to Priscilla making the decision to leave and then driving off to Dolly's tearful singing. But its hard not to feel anything but relief. There is little conflict in our response. She needed to be out of there and a long time sooner. The film also sort of fumbles the development of her own agency. The premise here is that she is too young to have been able to have any real say in much of the decisions made for her and that the way she was handled continued to infantilize her to a certain degree. By the end the film needs us to see how she grew up enough to know what she needed to do but the film gives us little to make us see this. There is an awkwardly inserted scene of her taking a self-defence class that feels tacked on and she starts wearing her hair naturally. But very little in the film shows her coming into her own so that the final scene can carry the weight it needs to. Dolly does more of that work. 

Still the film tells a fascinating story and I appreciated that it didn't try to just make it all feel overly simple. It just needed to give us more in its third act to really give us Priscilla's story.

Priscilla

Starring: Cailee Spaeny, Jacob Elordi

Writer/Director: Sophia Coppola

Testament (2023)

Denys Arcand has made some of my all time favourite films. I have waited for him to make another good one for a while but he seems stuck in a rut and in Testament he shows glimmers of having something interesting to say, but mostly just ends up going through the motions. The film is a comedy that is rarely funny, a romance sapped of all emotion, and a commentary that has, well... nothing to say. 

There are moments, when Girard's character is reflecting in his head about being in the final stages of his life, and his final finding of some spark and desire to live a bit longer, which are quite moving and lovely. But so much of the film feels like a tired old man shaking his first and screaming get off my lawn.

His plot centres around a controversy over an old mural in a care facility. Arcand never attempts to paint any side of the issue with any sort of realism, instead reducing all involved to silly caricatures which don't reflect any thing like how these debates go down in the real world. I kept imagining how fascinating his story and central characters would be if he had spent time putting them in the heart of a realistic debate where they had to reflect on the actual issues and positions. Instead the side characters in Testament are all simplistic buffoons whose views are so silly no one could take them seriously. 

But he struggles with the relationships he is trying to build here too.  Never once did I believe in the love story being told here, a love story that becomes such an afterthought in its own movie, that there are developments that feel only tacked on without the film doing anything to earn it. A character and her daughter are estranged. We see the daughter once railing against ever seeing her mother again. Then she just shows up happy to see her. None of it felt real. 

Maybe Arcand still has another great film in him. As I said, there are slight moments here that show he might. But Testament is not it. 

Testament

Starring: Rémy Girard, Sophie Lorain

Writer/Director: Denys Arcand

 

The Killer (2023)

Some may call The Killer, mid-Fincher, and they might not be wrong in that it is does not wear its style on its sleeve or feel like it is shooting for some ambitious place in the cinema canon. But like some of Fincher's other supposedly "mid" movies, it is a solid watch that is well executed and gripping throughout. In fact I'd say I enjoyed it more than I enjoyed some of the more revered entries in his filmography. 

Like a lot of great films it is at its heart a simple story that has layered into it deeper themes and darker emotions. The Killer is the story of someone who loves their job (and their life) and is doing what it takes to keep it. One misstep and his world is a different place. How does her refind his footing?

Fassbender plays his character as a psychopath, but not in a traditional cinematic way where he acts chaotically unpredictably and gleefully cruel. His character is cold and lacks empathy. He's methodical and pursues his tasks purposefully. In someways I found his character more chilling than a usual movie villain. 

I also found it interesting how the film handled having an evil protagonist. As an audience we have a need to identify with the centre of our story, sympathize with him. The film has a few moments where it could give us an easy out by making him a "good guy" in a bad role, but Fincher doesn't do that. If anything the film just doesn't give us any good characters to compare him to. Still we are brought in to this story through him and he is our centre. We are witness to his inner monologue and often it is enjoyably sassy. I can't really discuss what the film does with this without spoiling the film's point but I will say I enjoyed its rather bold and somewhat cynical thesis. 

The Killer is a good watch with a strong enough central character and story to make rewatching it worthwhile. I suspect this will go down as one of Fincher's more watched films. 

The Killer

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Tilda Swinton, Arliss Howard, Charles Parnell

Director: David Fincher 

Writer: Andrew Kevin Walker

 

The Holdovers (2023)

I usually find director Payne's films a bit overrated but I thoroughly enjoyed The Holdovers. I can relate to stories about awkward weirdos and Payne captures this aesthetic perfectly in this anti-Dead Poets Society take. His characters are complex and nuanced even if his story goes pretty much exactly as you'd think it would go. Plus its Christmas setting and charming feel will make a nice addition to the holiday season viewing list. 

Giamatti is classic Giamatti here and Da'Vine Joy Randolph is delightful. But it is newcomer Sessa who truly shines. He's got a unique and off-kilter presence which is just incredible to watch. Paired with the other two they make for a lovely and off-beat group who push and pull each other through the somewhat familiar story in interesting ways. 

Payne has been quoted as saying he imagined that he was making this movie "in the 70s" and it shows. The film overtly apes a 70s film making aesthetic and evokes films like Paper Moon and even Midnight Cowboy (which I know was released in 1969).  The Holdovers does feel like you are watching a film from another time yet still feels very relatable. Truly the strength here lies in how the characters are allowed to be elaborately drawn without fitting any particular box very well. 

So while I did find the story a but on the predictable side, it was the richness of the characters that made their familiar arcs just feel satisfying to watch play out. 

The Holdovers

Starring: Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, Da'Vine Joy Randolph, Carrie Preston

Director: Alexander Payne

Writer: David Hemmingson 

 

Quiz Lady (2023)

So Quiz Lady's script may not be very solid and while the jokes land most of the time there are some clunkers. But the chemistry between Awkwafina and Sandra Oh is amazing and this is a showcase for the two of them that make it generally enjoyable. It's not likely to be a film you'd want to watch again but for light, silly entertainment you could do worse. 

Quiz Lady

Starring: Awkwafina, Sandra Oh, Jason Schwartzman, Holland Taylor, Tony Hale, Jon Park, Will Farrell, Paul Reubens 

Director: Jessica Yu

Writer: Jen D'Angelo

 

Nyad (2023)

I struggle with inspiring "true" stories ripped from the headlines. I find them often trite and a little dishonest. For me Nyad falls in to some of the traps of this genre in telling the story of famous marathon swimmer Diana Nyad in her later in life achievement of swimming from Cuba to Florida but mostly it overcomes them. Specifically much of this comes from the commanding performance of Annette Bening who is up to the task of bringing this champion to life. 

Nyad does a number of things right. I love how it focuses on the later achievements of athlete making this less about just her sheer remarkable prowess but about overcoming ageism and a certain amount of mysogyny too.  I also appreciate how it handled her experience as a sexual abuse survivor in a very tasteful and empowering way that never paints her as victim. So much of this is handled so well by the two leads, actors who are at the top of the profession. 

The film does play into the whole underdog overcoming and inspiring teamwork cliches but it's hard to fault it for that. These aren't bad messages to get out even if they are a little on the clunky side. But Nyad chooses to use archival footage of the real Diana letting Bening take on the dramatic aspects, reminding us just how recent this history truly is and and amazing her achievement is. Whatever sentimentality it might slip into, it's hard not to watch Nyad and not be inspired just a bit. 

Nyad
Starring: Jodie Foster, Annette Bening, Rhys Ifans

Directors: Elizabeth Chai Vasarhelyi, Jimmy Chin 

Writer: Julia Cox

Fingernails (2023)

When a film featuring this excellent cast with a fairly promising premise turns out to be this dull, it's a big let down. Fingernails, which tries to comment on our perceptions about love, feels truly unromantic and I'm not sure its "insights" into the issue it tackles do much more than... wait for it... scratch the surface. 

This high concept romance is set it a world where couples can be trained to love and submit to a biological test (that involves ripping out their fingernails) to confirm whether or not they have "real love" or not. People then make their life decisions about their partnerships based on the results of these tests. Clearly it is trying to say something about love and its nature but it never quite delivers on this promise.

Buckley and Ahmed are both strong (as they pretty much always are) but the film doesn't really build any chemistry between them or make you believe they are in love. And this, being central to the premise of the film, makes it feels like the story falls apart. The film spends a lot of time trying to make you feel she has little to no connection with White's character, to the point where they hit you over the head with it. Yet they can't seem to convince us of her feelings for Ahmed no matter how many "meet cute" moments the film tries to squeeze in. 

And in the end the film's main message seems to feel a little... obvious... I appreciated at least Fingernails doesn't attempt to offer any easy answers or end with a big romantic gesture moment. The film's main problem is its a slog. Maybe it's lack of revelatory meaning wouldn't matter if it was more enjoyable. But it's slow and dry making it a bit frustrating that its message is so rote. 

Fingernails

Starring: Jessie Buckley, Riz Ahmed, Jeremy Allen White, Luke Wilson, Annie Murphy

Director: Christos Nikou

Writers: Sam Steiner, Stavros Raptis, Christos Nikou

 

Anatomy of a Fall/Anatomie d'une chute (2023)

The conceit of this Cannes winner is the explore the end of a marriage through the gimmick of a trial and it's a brilliant metaphor. This mystery of did-a-woman-kill-her-husband, told through following her murder trial is the perfect symbolism for the autopsy of the end of a relationship. Evidence is provided, perspectives are examined, but can we ever know who is culpable? Triet's tense and gripping film plays this game so effectively and without relying on some of the cheap tropes of court room drama that we are used to from lawyer shows on TV. 

In the end we get a resolution to the trial but do we ever know for sure? The film both gives us a reasonable resolution but enough doubt to wonder. We cannot know these sorts of answers, not really, and that is a difficult, but salient, point. We are presented with the idea that at some point we just have to decide what we believe. It's a fascinating if uncomfortable thesis that is well argued. 

And the film itself is just entirely entertaining. It is a bit long but never feels so. Triet knows how to film a trial and we are enraptured throughout. Hüller is amazing. She is complicated and vulnerable and hiding something... because she is human. Aren't we all. She is as impenetrable as the subject of such a difficult trial should be. 

Overall the film is quite remarkable. I do struggle with parts of the third act which are hard to discuss without spoiling things. Mainly it's around the role of the couple's son and how his role in the trial both shouldn't happen in such a proceeding and the film's resolution relies on deus ex machina revelations from the child. I just feel the film fumbles these developments which weakens the otherwise outstanding story. 

I also struggle with the film relying on general audiences mistrust of bisexuals to fuel its complications. Like another very well made film recently, Passages, Anatomy of a Fall falls into the trap of the bisexuals-are-untruthworthy trope. I wish the film had found away around that.

But it isn't enough to ruin the film for me. I still came out of Anatomy of a Fall impressed and quite moved by the questions it asks us and the way it leaves us to sit with its implications. I love the film didn't have any dramatic reveals and instead plays out with a realism that doesn't give easy comfort one way or the other. Just like when a relationship comes to and end.

Anatomy of a Fall/Anatomie d'une chute

Starring: Sandra Hüller 

Director: Justine Triet

Writers: Arthur Harari, Justine Triet