by Peter Wong on January 8, 2024 (BeyondChron.org)
Seeing and watching the best films in a particular year doesn’t necessarily mean seeing the same films as other film writers and agreeing 100% with their assessments (e.g. “Past Lives”). But it does mean juggling timing, interest, and a willingness to explore that makes the search for candidates for year’s end consideration so enjoyable.
Take “Eo” and “No Bears.” Both films got shown at the Roxie in January 2023, yet they’d already earned critical plaudits elsewhere back in 2022. Or consider such highly publicized films as “Oppenheimer” and “Killers Of The Flower Moon.” This writer had to give both films a reluctant pass thanks to deadline dooms and other scheduling concerns.
This 2023 film roundup offers a mix of art film and Hollywood blockbuster, and this writer’s hope of piquing readers’ interest to try some of the lesser known titles on these lists.
Documentaries
This writer’s choice for 2023’s best documentary is Denise Zmekhol’s “Skin Of Glass.” The film’s odd title happens to be the popular nickname for the magnificent gleaming Edificio Wilton Paes de Almeida, thanks to its innovative use of glass as a core part of its architecture. How this symbol of Brazil’s future wound up as a memorial to a nation’s lost dreams got poignantly recounted by Zmekhol. The director was the daughter of Roger Zmekhol, the architect who designed the building. Yet it is by following the Skin Of Glass’ public history that the director finds her way to confronting both lingering wounds from her broken relationship with her father and the historical legacy of a dictatorship that corrupted the Skin of Glass’ promise.
Honorable Mention for 2023’s best documentary is Kaouther Ben Hania’s stunning “Four Daughters.” Subjects Tunisian single mother Olfa Hamrouni and her four daughters lived an economically hardscrabble yet emotionally close existence in a sexist society. But even the bonds of sisters combined with the bonds of mother and daughters couldn’t protect them from the tragedy that befell their family. Hania’s wrenching blend of documentary and narrative stunned as an example of cinema as therapy. The film mixed both talk therapy’s “nonjudgmental ear” and therapeutic role play via actresses playing Olfa and the two lost radicalized sisters.
The Mission–Bay Area filmmakers Amanda McBaine and Jesse Moss’ film delved beneath missionary John Chau’s highly publicized death to question the mentalities and institutions that contributed to his demise. While sympathizing with Chau’s zeal for adventure, the directors questioned the history of missionary work’s supposed altruism. What worthwhile aid is actually given to indigenous peoples by missionaries? Or are the real beneficiaries the missionaries who encounter allegedly “uncorrupted” societies?
The March On Rome–Mark Cousins’ timely and chilling film deconstructed the world’s first political propaganda film, which wasn’t “Triumph Of The Will.” Cousins’ granular analysis of Umberto Paradisi’s “A Noi (To Us)” shows how duplicitous editing and repurposed footage turned a Black Shirt march from a real-life political disaster into a triumphant celebration of rising Italian fascism. The director also reams societal complicity in enabling fascism, whether it’s forgetting a soccer stadium once hosted fascist rallies or the New York Times not trying to atone for shamefully supporting Mussolini in its pages.
Chop And Steele–Most Fun Documentary of 2023 honors goes to Ben Steinbauer and Berndt Mader’s endearing portrait of a pair of prankster friends. The pranksters, Found Footage Film Festival founders Nick Prueher and Joe Pickett, trick several unsuspecting morning TV shows with a joke strongman duo act. Seriously unamused Gray Television media conglomerate’s lawsuit catalyzes the pranksters to start examining whether they should pursue a more “practical” means of making a living. Their personal revelations would come through a combination of unexpected meetings and the coronavirus lockdown.
Kokomo City–Black trans woman sex workers may be low on the cultural respect totem pole. But D. Smith’s energetic directorial debut makes its four sex worker subjects from Atlanta and New York City intriguing on their own terms. Subjects Daniella Carter, Koko Da Doll, Liyah Mitchelll, and Dominique Silver don’t regret their line of work. In fact, they demand and earn viewer respect for being unapologetically who they are and dealing with problems outside the typical office job, such as dealing with a client who’s brought a gun to his appointment.
Taylor Mac’s 24 Decade History Of Popular Music–This concert film from Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman may be a cinematic tasting menu of Taylor Mac’s original literal 24 hour performance art event. Yet it thrillingly distills the MacArthur Fellowship winner’s performances of some of the 246 songs popular in the United States from 1776-2016 to “create a radical fairyness ritual.” In more mundane terms, Mac’s event turns the jukebox musical into a gloriously queer questioning of American history’s racist and capitalist roots.
Finding The Money–Why does money exist? And why does the U.S. government need to “borrow” money when it can print its own money? Modern Monetary Theory (MMT) answers these two questions and their implications. Maren Poitras’ fascinating cinematic primer on MMT explains the theory using lay terms and forgotten historical tidbits such as how the U.S. government’s financing of its World War II efforts showed MMT in action. Can this film inspire viewers to push for MMT use to solve such present day challenges as global warming?
Ask Any Buddy—For viewers who regard such things as glory holes and cruising on the piers as abstractions from a forgotten time, Elizabeth Purchell’s compilation film turns supposed fictions into the stuff of gay popular history. Her raw source material consists of excerpts from 125 works of gay male pornography from the 1960s to the 1980s. Artfully spliced together, these excerpts create an ur-chronicle of a day in the life of a pre-AIDS era gay man. From visiting a gay bar to the beauty of a gay hookup in an abandoned pier, what “respectable” society of the period called squalid acts became quiet acts of defiance. Worth it just for the glory hole graffito “Edith Head Gives Great Wardrobe.”
Onlookers—If Laos boasts a tourist dependent economy, why are the country’s foreign visitors uninterested in engaging with Laos on its own terms? Kimi Takesue’s quietly observational documentary captures that disconnect in such sights as visitors checking out Buddhist temple exteriors for interesting selfie backgrounds. Takesue also challenges her film’s viewers to do what the foreign tourists won’t and notice and react to the scenes of Laotian everyday life she captures on camera.
Honorable Mentions–Motel Drive, Time Bomb Y2K, Satan Wants You, Stamped From The Beginning, Copa 71
Features
This writer calls Yorgos Lanthimos’ wonderfully outrageous “Poor Things” 2023’s best feature film. Emma Stone holds the whole enterprise together with her memorable performance as Bella Baxter, the Frankenstein’s creature whose coming of age on an initially sexually-charged Grand Tour eventually leads to the type of female personal freedom GQP scolds cannot tolerate. Add into the mix Willem Dafoe’s wonderful turn (even beneath prosthetics) as the Dr. Frankenstein, Mark Ruffalo’s hilarious performance as a sexist creep, an unforgettably weird music score by Jerskin Fendrix, fisheye lenses lending the film’s events a surrealistic air, and the visual allure of a strange steampunkish world. The result: a unique and enjoyable modern classic.
Honorable mention goes to Todd Haynes’ fascinating drama “May December,” which was inspired by the Mary Kay Letourneau scandal. But the film’s examination of the impulse to understand the causes behind extreme human behavior and the limits of such attempts at discernment are entirely its own. Actress Elizabeth Berry (Natalie Portman)’s in-person research of Gracie Atherton-Yoo (Julianne Moore as the Letourneau character) may be prep work for her film portrayal of the notorious woman. Yet what truly motivates Elizabeth, Gracie, and Gracie’s husband Joe becomes the bigger question. Whether it’s empathy for regrettable actions or long-term unhappiness needing to be confronted, Haynes’ film leaves to the viewer the final responsibility of assembling its disparate emotional pieces.
Passages–Ira Sachs’ compelling drama fascinatingly centers on an anti-hero whose mercurial sexual fluidity brings heartache to those he claims to love. What does film director Tomas’ affair with the schoolteacher Agathe say about the state of his marriage to the self-effacing Martin? If Tomas is acting on his discovery that he’s bisexual, why won’t he allow Martin to end the marriage and forge a new life for himself? Is Agathe truly Tomas’ lover or his instrument for playing power games with Martin? Sachs’ ambiguous story matches the emotional uncertainties its central trio work under.
Eo–Jerzy Skolimowski’s Cannes Jury Prize-winning tale of the wanderings of the titular donkey through modern Europe may have been inspired by Robert Bresson’s classic film “Au Hasard Balthazar.” But the director’s memorable strobe light opening to the film establishes “Eo” as its own creature. The viewer empathizes with this four-legged generally silent witness to humanity’s capacities for kindness and cruelty. If angry soccer fans viciously beating the titular donkey to within an inch of his life doesn’t move the viewer, this might not be the film for them.
No Bears–Jafar Panahi’s latest film goes beyond being a cinematic middle finger to Iranian government repression. Its “see, I’m not directing a film or stepping out of Iran” setup pales in importance next to viewer curiosity about the import of the film’s title. While that meaning will not be spoiled here, it can be said its two main stories reflect facets of what the title references. In one story, the politically persecuted Bakhtiar and Zara seek an additional fake passport so they can escape Iran together. In the other, a fictional Panahi gets unwillingly entangled in Gozal and Solduz’s efforts to secretly elope from their rural village. Panahi may not do commercially cheerful entertainments, but his films honestly limn life’s emotional complexities.
The Boy And The Heron–Hayao Miyazaki’s possibly last film mixes together mundane human tragedy with universe-shaking fantasy. 12-year-old Mahito has lost his mother in a World War II bombing raid, yet is still too grief-stricken to accept his stepmother despite her being the spitting image of his deceased parent. But the boy must pursue the stepmother when she possibly disappears into a mysterious tower where time, space, and even other dimensions are bent in unexpected ways. The mysterious structure winds up being a metaphor for the director’s ambivalence about ending his creative career. Miyazaki also deserves plaudits for playing down the political aspects of the story’s time frame.
Past Lives–If some relationships are fated to occur, are there other relationships fated to be near misses? That question hangs over the relationship between classmates Na Young (later Nora Moon) and Hae Sung, the protagonists of Celine Song’s strong semi-autobiographical debut. Over a 24 year period, the duo are swept into and out of each other’s lives by such occurrences as emigration to Canada or involvement in other relationships. Do their divergent life paths make them practical strangers to each other when they finally meet again in the flesh?
Song’s answer may not be as clear cut as a viewer may expect.
Barbie–Greta Gerwig began blitzing viewer expectations by not turning this film starring the titular doll into a feature-length commercial. In following Barbie’s navigating the gulf between her boundless world of endless possibility and the restrictive lives Real World women endure under Patriarchy’s yoke, the results happily caused real-life right wing culture warriors to display publicly embarrassing degrees of immaturity. The rest of us were greatly amused by memorable performances from Margot Robbie as Stereotypical Barbie, Ryan Gosling as Barbie’s himbo Ken, and a show-stealing turn by Kate McKinnon as Weird Barbie.
Bottoms–Once untalented high-school lesbian PJ (a deliberately overage Rachel Sennott) gets punched in the face, Emma Seligman’s outrageous comedy shows anything’s insanely possible after PJ sets up a so-called women’s self-defense club with best friend Josie (Ayo Edebiri, also hilariously overage). Whether it’s a student with a previously undisclosed working knowledge of bomb-making to an insanely violent finale, the two friends’ use of the club to score with the school’s hot cheerleaders turns out to be the film’s most mundane plotline.
R.M.N.–The meaning of Cristian Mungiu’s newest drama comes from understanding its title happens to be the Romanian acronym for what English speakers refer to as MRI. But in this case, the “patient” receiving a brain scan happens to be a rural Romanian village whose inhabitants display contradictory thinking patterns. Resenting being treated as garbage by their foreign employers doesn’t make the villagers more sympathetic to the Sri Lankans brought in to work at the local bakery. Nor do the villagers’ desire for EU economic revitalization mean a willingness to embrace EU cultural values. Bakery plant manager Csilla’s desire to be the village’s cultural bridge to the future soon collides with the immobility of long-standing prejudices.
Showing Up—Kelly Reichardt’s newest collaboration with Michelle Williams reminds viewers that even in the art world, class differences exist. Lizzy (Williams) is an art world lower class everywoman juggling time for sculpting with an ironically frustrating day job at an arts college, a frenemy artist landlord who doesn’t prioritize fixing Lizzy’s hot water heater, and such family dramas as her father’s freeloading friends and a probably mentally ill brother. Reichardt’s empathy for someone whose plate of responsibilities often threaten to overwhelm her creative urges makes this an enjoyable if minor work.
Asteroid City–A documentary about and a performance of playwright Conrad Earp’s “Asteroid City” provides the framework for Wes Anderson’s newest mix of absurdism and poignancy. Its look may nod to both the Golden Age of Television and its period’s New York theater scene. Yet its failure to fully account for Cold War paranoia or societal sexual repression does prove jarring in spots. Still, the film’s historical-ish missteps are outweighed by its plethora of inspired absurdities such as the brainy teenagers’ memory game, a vending machine dispensing land titles, and a backstage spin out of theatrical reality.
Spider-Man: Across The Spider-verse–Joaquim Dos Santos, Justin K. Thompson, and Kemp Powers delivered both the year’s most satisfying superhero movie (even if it ends on a cliffhanger) and the year’s best use of the multiverse. Viewers met such memorable alternate Spider-people as Spider-Man India and Spider-Punk. Familiar superhero tropes such as joke villain turning deadly and several variations on the same origin story get mixed with dynamic animation differentiating the alternate worlds visited in the film. Most importantly, this film knew when to wow viewers with action and when to be bemused by the characters enjoying being Spider-people.
Blue Jean–Georgia Oakley’s powerful period drama set during Thatcher’s reign as Britain’s Prime Minister is a study of a woman caught between a sociopolitical rock and hard place. On one hand, the closet may be lesbian secondary school girls’ PE teacher Jean’s alternative to unemployment. But the pending homophobic government law known as Section 28 will make Jean’s life more constricting. On the other hand, her cautious closeted behavior starts turning off punkish girlfriend Viv and leaves new student and baby gay Lois open to homophobic bullying. Oakley’s film sympathizes with Jean’s situation yet refuses to write off her position as hopeless.
Polite Society–Nida Manzoor shows how to hilariously ream the “follow your dream” trope in this action comedy centered on two close sisters’ possibly changing relationship. Is wannabe artist Lena’s decision to marry rich and eligible Salim genuine or unaddressed frustration? Younger sister (and wannabe movie stuntwoman) Ria’s determination to stop her sister’s marriage for the sake of sisterhood and dreams will entertain viewers with berserk martial arts fights, beauty treatment torture, and even some video game nods.
Honorable Mentions–In Front Of Your Face, Elemental, They Shot The Piano Player, The First Slam Dunk, Hippo, Terrestrial Verses, A Thousand And One