As a companion piece to my Top Ten list, every year I write a post to discuss some of the other major films that got a lot of positive attention. I find this exercise helpful in proving some context for my own choices and how I feel about the year in film as a whole. It's also a lot of fun. Please note that I will not be writing about films listed among my honorable mentions, including Killers of the Flower Moon.
So, let's get down to business. Right off, what happened with Barbenheimer? I enjoyed parts of both "Barbie" and "Oppenheimer," but they just weren't as good as I was hoping they would be. I found "Barbie" too beholden to its corporate interests to be as subversive as I wanted. Meanwhile, "Oppenheimer" was so self-serious and so concerned with narrative complications that it was a struggle to stay invested in the film. I know my expectations were off with both of these titles - "Oppenheimer" is far more about the politics of war than scientific discovery, for instance - which probably contributed to my inability to connect.
Looking at the other award season contenders, I continue to maintain that "Maestro" didn't do enough to make its Leonard Bernstein recognizably Leonard Bernstein, and Bradley Cooper seemed to have no interest in his subject as a composer or conductor. "Past Lives" is another of those quiet, low stakes melodramas that went over my head, like "Aftersun" and "Drive My Car." I had a terrible time trying to reconcile the tragic epiphanies and stylistic conceits of "May, December," and frankly the performances of both lead actresses didn't do anything for me. "The Color Purple" was a noble effort, but didn't get anywhere close to matching the Steven Spielberg version. "American Fiction" was daring, but a bit of a mess. I think I actually liked "Rustin" and "Nyad" more than most, but the performances were all that really stood out.
Among the smaller films, I was a little mystified at the response to "Are You There God? It's Me Margaret." It's a fine adaptation, but not nearly as interesting as a lot of similar recent coming-of-age films that made this version possible. Honesty, besides McAdams' and Safdie's performances, I found it a little bland. "Showing Up" with Kelly Reichardt didn't disappoint, but it's also the most conventional of her projects in a long while. Conversely, "All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt" was a beautiful film but featured an experimental narrative that left me cold. "Eileen" had a great setup and whiffed with the ending. "A Thousand and One" had a great performance by Teyana Taylor, but I don't feel the rest of the film lived up to her. "How to Blow Up a Pipeline" was compelling, but at the same time weirdly anodyne and apolitical for a film that should be all about provocation. Finally, "Passages" was fascinating and Franz Rogowski's performance made me squirm, which isn't quite the same as being good.
Foreign films are my Achilles heel again. "The Taste of Things" was absolutely captivating whenever it was in the kitchen, but the sensibilities of the romance lost me. Alice Rohrwacher's "La Chimera" had some interesting things in it, but I couldn't follow the narrative. Ditto "The Eight Mountains," which does a great job of conveying the beauty of the natural world, but left me unmoved when it came to its interpersonal relationships. There were a lot of films about teachers facing moral dilemmas this year - "About Dry Grasses," "Monster," and "The Teachers' Lounge" among them. The first two are far from their directors' better efforts, while "The Teachers' Lounge" was great but felt unfinished. Finally, I've never been much of an Aki Kaurismaki fan, and "Fallen Leaves" didn't do anything to change that.
Animated films had a great year. I've disqualified "Spider-man: Across the Spiderverse" for being a Part One film that literally ends on a cliffhanger. I loved a lot of its parts, especially Spider-Punk, but I don't feel right handing out the kudos until I see how things resolve. "Mutant Mayhem" gets full marks for being the best piece of Ninja Turtles media I've ever seen, with a great visual style. It's just a little too slight. "Elemental" is a legitimately solid romantic comedy and immigrant narrative wrapped up in Ghibli-inspired visuals. However, it was rightly called out for being very derivative.
Among the blockbusters, "The Super Mario Bros." movie is the one I've watched the most times so far, because that film's hold on small children is a little terrifying. No complaints, but it doesn't deserve much praise either. I give "Guardians of the Galaxy, Vol. 3" and "John Wick Chapter 4" all due credit for landing their franchise finales, but only up to a point. Oh, and I respect the very hardworking Taylor Swift, but her music - and her epic concert film - are not for me.
Films that got squeezed out of the honorable mentions include "Priscilla," "BlackBerry," "Pinball: the Man Who Saved the Game," "Perfect Days," "Landscape With Invisible Hand," "Robot Dreams," "Dungeons and Dragons," and "You Hurt My Feelings."
And that's my 2023 in film.
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