Best of 2023 - End of Year Report

Oh, Hi Mark. And goodbye to 2023 - a good year for film, not so good in other fields of human endeavour. My film count was a bit down on last year - I saw 90 in total, including 82 new viewings and 59 trips to the cinema (just under half at the Luna in Leederville). Anyway, here are my favourite 10 films that I saw in 2023, with a podcast at the bottom of the words.

[Click on the titles for links to full reviews]

10. Cairo Conspiracy (2022)

A terrifically tense religio-political thriller about a first year university student dealing with events above his station in Cairo. Stellar performances in this rare glimpse into Egyptian culture.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 (2023)

James Gunn polishes off his Guardians trilogy with aplomb, centring the dramatic story on Rocket while allowing the rest of the crew to bring the chuckles and action stylings. Nobody quite hits the nails with the musical beats like Gunn.

8. Talk to Me (2022)

Best Aussie film of the year is also probably the creepiest. The Phillipou brothers, straight out of Adelaide, give us a way into the demon world via a mangy old porcelain hand. Sophie Wilde is fantastic as the focus of the story, grieving her mum and possibly finding some answers to her questions via the hand. Having the courage of its convictions adds value to the finale of the film, too.

7. Citizen Sleuth (2023)

I saw this at the 2023 Revelation Film Festival and it was my pick of the roster. It's a doco about a young woman called Emily Nestor who ran a true crime podcast that 'investigated' a road death in her area. It's part thriller, part expose on current fads, part exploration of self (that of Nestor, specifically). It really gives you something to chew over.

6. Final Cut (2022)

Great stuff, this. It started out as the worst film possible - terrible acting, poor timing, awful 'comedy', until you realise what's afoot. Romain Duris is on top form as the director of a low-budget zombie film, who runs into all manner of trouble during filming. The set-up, and eventual pay-off are cleverly worked and the climax is just reward for sitting through the brave intro section. Top farce work from actual director, Michel Hazanavicius.

5. The Old Oak (2023)

Ken Loach reckons he's done after this film and if so, he can't have served us a much better exemplar of his style. This film sees a bunch of Syrian refugees pitching up in the grim north; Durham, to be precise. Some of the locals aren't fook'n aven it man, and this attitude sets local barman, TJ, against the rest. A lovely plea for understanding and sense in a shitty world.

4. Aftersun (2022)

This is a fine two-hander about a young dad and his near-teenaged daughter trying to connect on a holiday in Turkey. Debutant director, Charlotte Wells strikes a rich vein in the relationship between Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio - they're brilliant together. An unsettling undercurrent runs through the film that keeps us guessing and wondering about what happened after(sun). Amazing filmmaking.

3. The Boy and the Heron (2023)

Not far off the very best from the guvnor of Ghibli Animation, Hayao Miyazaki. It involves a young boy who moves to the countryside during WW2 following the death of his mother. Once there, odd things start to happen, mostly stemming from the malevolent heron of the title. This fantasy-infused delight is kind of like a wrap-up of his career and it'll be a shame if he does hang up his quill (yeah, he probably doesn't use a quill).

2. Babylon (2022)

Damien Chazelle's vibrantly messed up ode to Hollywood's golden era just spanks along from the get-go. The opening party sequence is worth the ticket alone, but the filming on location stuff that follows is even better. Brad Pitt and Margot Robbie bring the wattage but the real star is Chazelle himself. He moves the pieces around the board with a confident exuberance that belies his inexperience (this is his FOURTH feature, for fuck's sake).

1. Saltburn (2023)

A late dash to the finishing line for this filthy, icky satire on privilege and desiring it. The disgustingly eccentric Catton family have, and Oliver Quick have not. But he want. Debauchery and skullduggery ensue at the Saltburn manor over a hot summer. The cast, the dialogue, the cinematography, the music - all superb. Emerald Fennel has delivered a modern classic.

Some more highlights from films I saw in 2023 are laid out below:

Best kids' films: Wonka, The Amazing Maurice, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse.

Feelgood films: Tenor, Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny, Wonka, The Crime is Mine.

Feelbad films (but still good): Living, Godland, Prison 77, All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, The Blue Caftan.

Weirdest films: Sick of Myself, Eo, Freaks.

Best shits and giggles: Cocaine Bear, Renfield, Palm Springs.

Best scenes: The diner scene in The Innocent, the hallway brawl in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3, the train sequence in Mission Impossible: Dead Reckoning Part One, the Battle of Austerlitz in Napoleon.

Best performances: Bill Nighy in Living; Noémi Merlant in The Innocent; Fares Fares in Cairo Conspiracy; Sophie Wilde in Talk to Me; Cillian Murphy and Emily Blunt in Oppenheimer; Richard E. Grant and Rosamund Pike in Saltburn; Nicolas Cage in Dream Scenario; Sandra Hüller in Anatomy of a Fall; Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio in Aftersun.

Best songs: 'In the Meantime' (Spacehog) in Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3; 'Syntynyt Suruun ja Puettu Pettymyksin' (Maustetytöt) in Fallen Leaves; 'Under Pressure' (Queen and David Bowie) in Aftersun; 'Destroy Everything You Touch' (Ladytron) and 'Murder on the Dancefloor' (Sophie Ellis-Bextor) in Saltburn.

[Now, I'm not going to do a 'Worst of 2023' because I really only saw one terrible film last year. The rest were just blurgh (Slumberland, Operation Fortune, etc.) or run-of-the-mill blockbusters (Black Adam, Ant-man 3, Avatar 2, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, etc.). The most egregious of the lot, though, was Ari Aster's interminable neurosis toss, Beau is Afraid. Well, Shady was almost afraid but the overriding emotion was more anger than fear. Awful fucking shite.]

Comments

The Christophers

The title of the film refers to a series of paintings started by Julian Sklar in the 90s but left unfinished for reasons made clear later. Sklar, as played by Ian McKellen, is eccentric and irascible, and seems to be a blend of famous British painters, Francis Bacon and Lucien Freud. As Sklar is getting on in years, his grown children hatch a plan to have the paintings 'completed' for sale, with, or preferably without, their father's knowledge. For this undertaking they must enlist renowned art restorer (and dab hand forger), Lori Butler, an old acquaintance from art college. The premise is fine, but unfortunately, as created by Steven Soderbergh (director) and Ed Solomon (writer), it doesn't have any legs. Paradoxically, the best bits are probably also part of the reason it falters. McKellen is superb as the lovelorn painter, artistically blocked and emotionally bitter. His pithy, acerbic dialogue is great and he gives the performance full welly, but the actual storyli...

The Captive

Screening at the Spanish and Latin American Film Festival , Alejandro Amenabar's first film since 2019 is a mildly controversial take on the 5-year captivity of legendary Spanish author, Miguel de Cervantes. We begin the film as Cervantes is led into a dusty courtyard in Algiers, along with many other kidnappees. Before he can be sold as a slave, or sliced up for insubordination, he presents a letter from the Spanish court, signalling that perhaps it's better he be kept as a hostage for ransom. The film takes a bit of time to get rolling from here but when it does it settles into a clever mix of melodrama and weighty ideas. Cervantes, with his weak left arm acting like an acting crutch, slowly becomes the cheerleader of the prisoners, writing his stories in the air, only stopping when he temporarily runs light on material. The story takes a hurdle when the Bey, a high-ranking provincial governor (Alessandro Borghi) overhears the stories told in the courtyard and summons Cerv...

Head-On

I saw this confronting 2004 drama at the German Film Festival as part of a retrospective of Fatih Akin films. Unfortunately, there was only one screening in Perth, there might be extra shows in other cities. Akin's a great stylist, authentic and functional, and his films are informed by his cultural standing as a German-Turkish writer/director. In this film, a rough looking bloke called Cahit (Birol Ünel) smashes his car - head-on - into a wall after a heavy night on the turps. While getting treatment, he meets Sibel (Sibel Kekilli), a young woman who recognises his shared dual nationality status. She's looking for a 'Turkish' guy to marry, so her parents will get off her back. Initially sceptical and aggressively dismissive, Cahit realises Sibel is dangerously desperate, so he agrees to the sham marriage. There's an early bump in the road when Cahit kicks Sibel out on their wedding night for asking about his dead wife. Soon enough though, things settle into a room...

Franz: Becoming Kafka

In this fractured, somewhat unconventional biopic, various characters take on the role of narrator, breaking the fourth wall within the story. As curious as the method of delivery here is, the bones of the film itself still function to paint the picture of one of the 20th century's most lauded writers. We witness Kafka's less than perfect childhood with unloving father and powerless mother; his possible spectrum hovering; his near-crippling insecurities; his tricky relationships with women; and eventually the illness that brought on his early death. Director Agnieszka Holland is still firing at 77 years old, she's quite happy to lean towards experimentation and, along with her co-writer, Marek Epstein, she imbues the film with a surrealism similar to Kafka's work. Aside from the 'to camera' narration, the timeline jumps around, even bringing in elements of 21st century Kafka tourism with French, Japanese and American tour guides, who may or may not be on the lev...

The Magic Faraway Tree (Me) (Kids)

I probably read these books as a kid (can't remember) but I certainly read them to my kids a few years ago, so the whole family took a trip to the Palace cinema to check out this new film version. It's adapted from the Enid Blyton book(s) by Simon Farnaby, the writer of Paddington 2 , Wonka and Mindhorn , and directed by Ben Gregor, a British TV journeyman. The cast is chock-full of screen dignitaries, from Andrew Garfield and Claire Foy, to Python Michael Palin, to Dame Judi Dench as a talking fridge (!). Modernising this classic kids' book series from the 30s and 40s means adding some stuff about screen (over)usage, the splintering of the family unit, and the desire to get back to the basics of life. In this case, the Thompsons go rural in a rundown barn with old tractors, and chickens living on the stove. The family is made up of Tim and Polly (Garfield and Foy), and the three children, Beth, Joe and Fran, played by Delilah Bennet-Cardy, Phoenix Laroche and Billie Gadsd...

The Quiet Girl

This is a great film, especially in the way that it manages to create something interesting out of a reasonably mundane synopsis. A young girl is sent away to a relative's house for the summer where she is treated better than at home. Sounds like it could have a bit of Rohmer-style youthful awakenings? Or maybe some gritty Loach-ian societal comment? Even perhaps a revenge tinged 'fear the youth' theme? Well, it's none of the above, and more power to its style. The Quiet Girl herself (Cáit) is a newcomer, Catherine Clinch, and she was apparently found via an Irish language school call out. She's incredible - meek, direct, no airs nor graces whatsoever, with a clear-eyed awkwardness. She's almost like a little female Bowie in The Quiet Girl Who Fell to Earth (no, not a film but I thought I'd italicise anyway). There are orbiting performances that complement her perfectly. Carrie Crowley and Andrew Bennet play Eibhlín and Seán Cinnsealach, the couple who tak...

The Talented Mr. F.

Screening at the German Film Festival, this is a mind-boggling tale of a 'you-tuber' dickhead who nicked a short animation film off a couple of German university students and passed it off as his own work. The thief, or the 'talented' Mr. F. of the title, is Samuel Felinton, a ubiquitous pud with a probable case of Narcissistic Personality Disorder (NPD). This diagnosis has been mentioned on Reddit but his baggage is weighty so fucks knows what's wrong with him. We open with Moritz and Julius, who made a cute little robot anime, uploaded it to YouTube to see if anyone liked it, and when it gained loads of hits and positive comments, took it down. Emboldened by this public favour, they then started to enter their short, Butty, into various film festivals. When the replies came back that it couldn't be accepted because the film was already doing the festival circuit, the lads freaked out. Turns out Butty 's brief online life was enough time for Felinton to d...

Case 137

Here's a police procedural drama from the Alliance Francais French Film Festival with a minor key change. Case 137 is based on true events from 2018 during the Gilets jaunes (Yellow Vest) protests in Paris. The case (or dossier in the version originale) involves a young lad who was shot in the head with an LBD riot gun (basically rubber bullets) and then left on the street. He survived, but with life changing injuries. The IGPN internal affairs department are brought in to investigate. Léa Drucker takes the lead as Stéphanie, a single mum dealing with resentment from her ex-husband, his new girlfriend, and most other members of the force, who believe the cops should look after their own and not 'police the police'. Her teenage son is also concerned that everyone he talks to hates 'les flics'. There's a slight hitch in the case when it's discovered that the injured guy and his family come from Saint-Dizier, also Stéphanie's home town. Director, Dominik M...

Amrum

The preview film for the 2026 German Film Festival is a sombre little drama about a child's perspective of the end of WWII. Jasper Billerbeck plays Nanning, a 12 year-old doing his best to look after his pregnant mother and younger siblings in the tiny farming/fishing island of Amrum in Northern Germany. The opening scene shows German planes flying overhead, indicating that even this lonely outpost of the Reich is not untouched by war. The story really acts as window dressing for the suppression of emotions and trepidation related to the very probable approaching end of hostilities. We find out early on, in a clever moment in the family library, that Nanning's (absent) dad is a high ranking Nazi, and his mum, Hille, is fully on board with the doctrine. Auntie Ena lives with them and is much more pragmatic, and as anti-Nazi as she can be in the circumstances. The two sisters are played by Laura Tonke and Lisa Hagmeister respectively, and they're fantastic. Diane Kruger, who...

Best of 2024 - End of Year Report

Ho ho, yo yos. Here's my rundown of films in 2024. By my best count I saw 124 films last year, 115 of them new watches (though not necessarily made or released in 2024), and 61 of them at the cinema. Of those cinema trips, 28 were at Luna Leederville , 14 at Palace Raine Square and 10 at the Backlot Perth , with 6 other cinemas making up the numbers. So here are my 10 favourite films from 2024, with a top 5 pod down the bottom... [Click on the titles for links to full reviews] 10. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga (2024) George Miller's follow-up to Fury Road tells us the story of how Furiosa got to where that film started. I reckon this was the best blockbuster of the year, certainly the most entertaining, with one epic action sequence and a couple of fine performances from Anya Taylor-Joy and Chris Hemsworth. Great fun. 9. The Taste of Things (2023) Don't go in hungry! This is a foodie's shan-grill-ah, the high culinary masterwork of the last decade or more. Juliette Binoch...

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