Almost amazingly so, I am now pretty firmly into my third decade of serious filmgoing, and over the last few years I have become more engaged with assessing why I keep coming back, what I look for, just exactly what, if anything, I am getting out of this anymore. And like anything else it has required reassessment. My habits have changed, I have become more inclined to say “no” to things that just simply disinterest me, and my desire to remain in the cultural zeitgeist is just not there anymore (which arguably keeps me out of several conversations, but I sometimes think that I prefer the silence anyway).
What keeps me coming back to the movies year after year (day after day sometimes) is rarely the spectacle. At this stage, what I am most looking for is the intimacy of spending time with people, flawed, messy, complicated people. I want to be with characters that in observing I begin to change my perspectives. I look to the movies for connection, and I am seeing that reflecting more and more in my tastes when I construct these lists at the end of the year.
The ten films that I have put together as my “favorites” of the year are still a mix—as with anything like this, there is much here not represented, but I would be lying to myself if I insisted on including things simply for their cultural notoriety. But I like to look for patterns, and lists like this should (and at least for me they do!) change, and they are more snapshots of a particular second of time than anything else. For a more traditional “ranking” of the honorable mentions, click here.
10. Beau Is Afraid
Dir. Ari Aster, USA
A24
179 Minutes
Ari Aster’s nightmare comedy is at times more of an endurance test, not just for any patient viewer but for Joaquin Phoenix’s Beau. Full of anxiety, tics, worries, Beau journeys home to be present for the burial of his mother, Mona (Patti Lupone, all but ignored since the film was released) after her untimely death by a falling chandelier. So much of the picture is a bit baffling, but Aster’s frantic style, his earlier horror films, and psychedelic sensibilities give all of these vignettes a compelling variety of tones, images, and styles, a difficult to shake narrative of a man just trying to get to his mother’s house.
9. Asteroid City
Dir. Wes Anderson, USA
Focus Features
105 Minutes
One of the duller current trends is the “make blank in the style of a Wes Anderson movie”, which ultimately ends up being one of or a combination of a) a pastel color palate, b) a character in the center of the frame staring straight ahead), and c) a symmetrical layout. A depressing aesthetic trend in its complete lack of engagement with a visual scheme that Anderson is clearly committed to, regardless of the unwarranted eye-rolling from people who, for some reason, want him to do something “different”. But why should he when there is so much uncharted territory to still cover? Asteroid City is not just committed to looking “like a Wes Anderson movie” (whatever that means), but it is also very interested in engaging with the notions of artistic style in general as we meet its characters and the “actors” playing those characters, while also grappling with our own notions and expectations of the actors playing these characters. Gathering for an astronomy convention in the desert town of Asteroid City, the ensemble is suddenly quarantined after a visit from an alien (credited to “and Jeff Goldblum as The Alien”, maybe one of the biggest laughs I have had this year). Adding an extra layer, or complication, we are also privy to the fictional creation, production, and premiere of the play Asteroid City. With comedy as dry as can be, short and simple truths (namely, none of us know the intention of our stories, but we have no choice to just keep playing the part), both delivered “like characters in a Wes Anderson Film would” (again, whatever that means), Asteroid City felt a “return to form” in my response to Wes, a filmmaker who is at least partially response for who I am today, an artist who is so lucky to unabashedly get to be himself on the screen. Again, whatever being yourself ever is or ever can be.
8 (tie) Godzilla Minus One
Dir. Takashi Yamazaki, Japan
Toho
124 Minutes
Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning - Part One
Dir. Christopher McQuarrie
Paramount Pictures
163 Minutes
Until a couple of last minute screenings the tenth film on this list was Mission Impossible, which was disappointingly knocked off for a film that will appear later on this list. And not feeling right about it, instead it just felt right to break the rules, and coupling it with Godzilla Minus One as a “tie” appeared the perfect opportunity to talk about my two favorite “big” movies from the year. For good reason, as both spectacles just so perfected reminded me of one of my bigger angsts when it comes to several films these days: that I am not looking at the manipulation of reality in the frame, but instead at the attempt to use artifice to recreate a reality, leading to all kinds of uncanny moments and clear falseness (fake fire is a particular annoyance to me, and that is just indicative of a leaning into using computers to “take care of things” instead of facing up to the actual challenge of "how do we possibly create that?"). Tom Cruise seems to know this, and in his early sixties still insisting on providing as much reality as possible, and the number of times I felt like holding my breath or muttering expletives as he motorcycles off a mountain or dangles from a train breaking in half felt like a natural, human response to looking at something really taking place before my eyes (I am not naive, I know there is both a place and utilization of computer effects in both this and other films, but it is just so tiring when it is used as the “go-to” instead of the “in addition to”, and really has been part of my drifting towards more live theatre and music in recent years, most notably post-lockdowns).
On the other hand, Godzilla Minus One incorporates an economy of effects, making them matter and making them scary. This is perhaps the most terrifying depiction of Godzilla, but all the more effective because, in a really rare occurrence, the human story is treated as something crucial, not just dropped in while audience simply wait for the Godzilla scenes. I saw Godzilla Minus One twice, once on original release and a second time during a black and white reissue, and both times really marveled at its scale and magnitude, not just of the behemoth himself but of war, of loss, of the ability for histories to be wiped away not gradually or politically, but through sheer impact of violence, in one short burst of breath it can all just vanish.
7. Eileen
Dir. William Oldroyd, USA/UK
Neon
97 Minutes
Ottessa Moshegh’s screenplay of her own novel Eileen feels the perfect blend of her darkly comic narrative sensibilities alongside the internal voices of her characters that feel nearly impossible for anyone else to properly adapt. But, maybe most importantly, the three core players here (director William Oldroyd, and stars Thomasin McKenzie and Anne Hathaway) understand this tone and these characters so well. Eileen’s day-to-day during the Christmas season in her small Massachusetts town is shaken at the arrival of Rebecca, the new psychologist at the prison where she works. Living often in a fantasy land, guided by fantasies of sex and connection, Eileen concocts the potential of some kind of life with Rebecca, though Rebecca’s intentions take her somewhere unexpected. Eileen makes so many movements of tone, with Eileen maybe wishing to find herself in some kind of romantic melodrama, the ideal that something new and exciting can take her away from this, something, anything. But it is also simply such an entertaining yarn, terrifically pitch black, funny, tense, with a great score and a pair of strong performances. And a great new dark Christmas film to add to that roster.
6. Perfect Days
Dir. Wim Wenders, Japan
Neon
124 Minutes
Wim Wenders’ work as an artist, between films, documentaries, shorts, photography, 3-D experiments, is one that I have continuously found myself drawn towards, and he is responsible for some of my very favorite films (Until the End of the World, Paris Texas, and Alice in the Cities are enough for me to live in on that desert island question). But I would be remiss to say that it has not be particularly easy to be a Wenders fan in keeping up with his work for the last couple decades. But Perfect Days, with its steady observation of the daily activities of toilet cleaner Hirayama (beautifully played by Koji Yakusho), feels like the Wenders of old, content to just simply exist with its character, bask in their everyday, listen to some tunes, and experience the sounds of their surroundings. Most importantly, Wenders’ returns to his philosophies of what the image can do, attempting once again to capture reality, whatever that possibly means.
5. Godland
Dir. Hlynur Palmason, Denark/Iceland/France
Sideshow/Janus Films
143 Minutes
Hlynur Palmason’s Godland has the look and the feel of something decades old, a natural extension of the visual scope and themes of obsession of Herzog’s films with Klaus Kinski, the rhythm of Tarkovsky, or the languor of Bela Tarr’s characters. It is a film so hypnotic in the individual beauty of its images tucked within a narrative that is about the creation of images, the displacement of man to a foreign environment, the (failed) attempts to capture or overpower nature, and the challenge of faith while existing with all of the above as our character, the Danish priest Lucas, tries to build a church in Iceland. It is certainly not a piece for everyone in any mindset, but in succumbing to its beats there is true beauty here from start to finish.
4. Anatomy of a Fall
Dir. Justine Triet, France
Neon
151 Minutes
Justine Triet’s wonderfully absorbing Anatomy of a Fall found me bafflingly engaged by a film so predominantly in the space of law. But its interweaving of perspectives, moments that reframe and challenge both our understanding of events and our inherent biases that come from the scenario, and contrasts of silence and bombastic explosion sometimes make me question whether this should even be lumped together as a “courtroom drama” at all. Anchored by a major performance by Sandra Huller (who in too many ways feels is continuously being taken for granted by nearly every organization that could award her a prize), this is not a film about answering questions but one that points to people and tells them that they craft their own answers no matter what amount of evidence is or is not in front of them. It is a film that asks where our answers come from when there is not enough material to concretely answer them.
3. Poor Things
Dir. Yorgos Lanthimos, Ireland/UK/USA
Searchlight Pictures
141 Minutes
Yorgos Lanthimos is one of those directors where I can understand the critiques against him and I can understand those who are turned off by his style, both visual and narrative, but I have been on his side since Dogtooth and I just cannot seem to deviate my enjoyment from his progressively more complicated worlds. I so strongly admire how with big bigger budgets, numerous Oscar nominations, and interest from Hollywood talent, he just insists on using these resources to continue putting out such strange rejections of these genres. Re-animating the body of a pregnant suicide with the brain of the baby, Godwin Baxter (Willem Dafoe) gives life to Bella Baxter (Emma Stone, so much beauty to her physicality here, almost like watching a silent comedian again). Poor Things follows Bella in numerous environments, charts her discoveries (from carnal pleasure to the intellectual to a balance of the two), and explores her dynamics with the many men who seek to try and control her, both bodily and mentally. Broadly comic, visually pleasing, and well-performed, I can see the holes in Poor Things narrative, but its pieces are so enjoyable and its risks several. Maybe I will break from Yorgos soon, but this time is not the time.
2. About Dry Grasses
Dir. Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Turkey/France
Sideshow/Janus Films
197 Minutes
As Ceylan’s films seem to get longer, their characters seem to get more complex, with discussions, decisions, ramifications, consequences, and characters that feel born from some 1800s novel than what is normally funded for the screen. I sometimes just completely marvel at how close he comes to depicting reality, how nothing feels contrived, everything earned. The film follows Samet, a teacher from Istanbul doing working at a school in a small, remote village, over the winter semester. Mostly well-liked, especially by his student Sevim (the kind of bond that develops between intelligent students and teachers engaged by their interests, one built on recommendations of texts, hopes for scholarly pursuit, mentor/protege, etc.), Samet runs into trouble when Sevim accuses him of possessing a confiscated diary during a routine school search. Alongside growing anxiety about the accusations of misconduct, Samet’s friendship with his roommate and colleague Kenan and their budding friendship, and potential romance, with Nuray, a handicapped teacher in a nearby village, leads to tensions both personal and philosophical. As with his previous films, Ceylan has his characters recite reams of dialogue as they outwardly discuss their general points of view while frustratingly withholding their personal traits. One feels like they are dropped into a room with real people having conversations, with connections frayed from the ripple effects of every decision, from the verbal to the physical, across the three plus hours that we get access to this world. This is, of course, nothing new for Ceylan, but About Dry Grasses might be his best effort yet.
1. The Holdovers
Dir. Alexander Payne, USA
Focus Features
133 Minutes
The day that I ended up seeing Alexander Payne’s The Holdovers I was actually planning on seeing something else. I feel odd about dropping the name, but it was something that I was seeing as more of a “cross that off the list” watch than anything else, nothing I was particularly interested in but was coming up enough to feel like I had a bit of due diligence to check out. But I decided to see The Holdovers instead, which I was very much looking forward to as, for me, Payne has zero misses. And much like About Schmidt in 2002, Sideways in 2004, Nebraska in 2013, and, yes, Downsizing in 2017, I walked out kind of on air, and during it found myself never looking at my watch because no part of me wanted to know how little time I had left with these three characters. Following the cranky, cynical, quite bitter New England board school history professor Paul Hunnam (Paul Giamatti, perfect here) tasked with watching over the handful of boys “holding over” at the school during the Christmas holidays, the film settles into the two week period with the school cook Mary, grieving the recent loss of her son in Vietnam (Da’Vine Joy Randolph, perfect here), and Angus Tully, an intelligent but brash boy who is one expulsion away from military school (Dominic Sessa, somehow in his first ever film role, again, perfect here). We know these beats, we have seen these characters, we have seen some of these scenarios, we have heard some of these songs in other movies, we have heard some of these cues—but why is it that they feel almost outside of the scope of cliche here and made to look so human?
For me, Payne films are about finding connection and finding it outside of spaces that one is comfortable within. In that way, even a high concept premise like Downsizing feels at home in his filmography. Shot like a 70s film (sadly digitally, though I did get the chance to see the film on 35mm at one screening), but also working with the rhythm of one, The Holdovers gives one the chance to just spend time with these people, learning what they withhold, wondering why they volunteer information when they do, wading into the waters of connection gradually, and even at the end never all in. I saw The Holdovers three times, I laughed at the same parts, I got misty at the same parts, but I found new glances, new gestures, finding more joy in a simple handshake than most proclamations of love in a weaker film. There is so much magic in existence, so much joy in the small, so much humanity in this film.
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And these films are also of interest.
Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret. (Kelly Fremon Craig, USA)
The Beasts (Rodrigo Sorogoyen, Spain/France)
The Blind Man Who Did Not Want to See Titanic (Teemu Nikki, Finland)
The Boy and the Heron (Hayao Miyazaki, Japan)
Corner Office (Joachim Back, USA)
Dream Scenario (Kristoffer Borgli, USA)
The Eight Mountains (Felix van Groeningen/Charlotte Vandermeersch, Italy/Belgium)
Falcon Lake (Charlotte Le Bon, France/Canada)
Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismaki, Finland)
The Iron Claw (Sean Durkin, UK/USA)
John Wick: Chapter 4 (Chad Stahelski, Germany/USA)
Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese, USA)
Knock at the Cabin (M. Night Shyamalan, USA/Japan/China)
Linoleum (Colin West, USA)
Master Gardener (Paul Schrader, USA)
May December (Todd Haynes, USA)
Memory (Michel Franco, Mexico/USA)
Moon Garden (Ryan Stevens Harris, USA)
The Peasants (DK Welchman/Hugh Welchman, Poland/Serbia)
Priscilla (Sofia Coppola, USA)
The Promised Land (Nikolaj Arcel, Denmark)
The Rat Catcher (Wes Anderson, USA)
R.M.N. (Cristian Mungiu, Romania)
The Royal Hotel (Kitty Green, Australia/UK)
Shortcomings (Randall Park, USA)
Skinamarink (Kyle Edward Ball, Canada)
Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt, USA)
The Sweet East (Sean Price Williams, USA)
The Taste of Things (Tran Ahn Hung, France/Belgium)
The Teachers’ Lounge (Ilker Catak, Germany)
A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell, USA)
Tori & Lokita (Jean-Pierre Dardenne/Luc Dardenne, Belgium/France)
Totem (Lila Aviles, Mexico/France)
The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar (Wes Anderson, USA)
You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener, USA)
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"Awards" (red indicates "winner")
Editing:
Kristoffer Borgli - “Dream Scenario”
Stephen Gurewitz - “The Sweet East”
Lucian Johnston - “Beau Is Afraid”
Yorgos Mavropsaridis - “Poor Things”
Laurent Senechal - “Anatomy of a Fall”
Cinematography
Eigil Bryld - “The Holdovers”
Maria von Hausswolff - “Godland”
Jamie McRae - “Skinamarink”
Wolfgang Meyer - “Moon Garden”
Rodrigo Prieto - “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Score
Jerskin Fendrix - “Poor Things”
Mark Hadley - “Linoleum”
Bobby Krlic - “Beau Is Afraid”
Richard Reed Parry - “Eileen”
Robbie Robertson - “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Adapted Writing:
Sofia Coppola/Sandra Harmon - “Priscilla”
Kelly Fremon Craig - “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
Tony McNamara - “Poor Things”
Ottessa Moshfegh - “Eileen”
Eric Roth - “Killers of the Flower Moon”
Orignal Writing:
Akin Aksu/Ebru Ceylan/Nuri Bilge Ceylan - “About Dry Grasses”
Kristoffer Borgli - “Dream Scenario”
Samy Burch/Alex Mechanik - “May December”
David Hemingson - “The Holdovers”
Justine Triet/Arthur Harari - “Anatomy of a Fall”
Supporting Actress:
Merve Dizdar - “About Dry Grasses”
Anne Hathaway - “Eileen”
Da’Vine Joy Randolph - “The Holdovers”
Patti Lupone - “Beau Is Afraid”
Rachel McAdams - “Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret.”
Supporting Actor:
Willem Dafoe - “Poor Things”
Glenn Howerton - “Blackberry”
Mark Ruffalo - “Poor Things”
Dominic Sessa - “The Holdovers”
Donnie Yen - “John Wick: Chapter 4”
Actress:
Jessica Chastain - “Memory”
Julia Garner - “The Royal Hotel”
Sandra Huller - “Anatomy of a Fall”
Alma Poysti - “Fallen Leaves”
Emma Stone - “Poor Things”
Actor:
Nicolas Cage - “Dream Scenario”
Deniz Celiloglu - “About Dry Grasses”
Paul Giamatti - “The Holdovers”
Joaquin Phoenix - “Beau Is Afraid”
Koji Yakusho - “Perfect Days”
Directing:
Yorgos Lanthimos - “Poor Things”
Alexander Payne - “The Holdovers”
Justine Triet - “Anatomy of a Fall”
Wim Wenders - “Perfect Days”
Takashi Yamazaki - “Godzilla Minus One”
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Television (alphabetically)
Billions (last 4 episodes)
The Curse
Dead Ringers
The Great
I Think You Should Leave with Tim Robinson
Lucky Hank
The Marvelous Mrs Maisel
A Murder at the End of the World
The Other Two.
Platonic