Films You've Seen in 2023

I like how someone else kicks off this thread every year. Really spreads the love around.

I did not expect to dislike Amsterdam as much as I did, since I also like a lot of the cast, but... it was just trying to be so many different things, and pretty indifferent about all of them. The film's message becomes clear about halfway through, but up to that point there is little to latch onto or get invested in. Honestly, I probably would have preferred it be more of a full-blown farce, as that probably would have been more entertaining. As it was, the quirk and seriousness just clashed together and left me mostly bored.

That said, the cinematography and costumes were quite good. That may not be much, but I want to start the year off on a positive note.

I just watched a film that had a much better mix of tones than Amsterdam did, and also makes much better use of Anya-Taylor Joy - The Menu. It's a dark, often mean-spirited comedy/horror film about the darker side of fine dining, with some amusingly on-point satire about class divisions and the culture of obsession. It's got a great cast, including the aforementioned ATJ (whose hair seems to change in size, volume, and color for every role) and Ralph Fiennes, doing his funniest work since Hail Caesar! John Leguizamo plays a washed-up movie star who is simply credited as "Movie Star" which is itself wonderful.

The film's pacing is a bit off-kilter (there's at least one fakeout reveal too many, needlessly prolonging the time till the climax). But there are several hilarious moments throughout; much like Bodies Bodies Bodies, I tend to laugh the hardest when the comedy is the meanest. Make of that what you will.

Also, it's interesting that Alexander Payne was originally slated to direct this (with Emma Stone set to star instead of ATJ). Payne's a great director with a keen eye for subtle character comedy, although his most recent attempt at social class satire, Downsizing, was pretty weak. Curious how he would have handled this film. (The director they settled on is best known for helming a run of Succession episodes, which is fitting for the tone the film strives to establish.)

(Quoting Jer's comments about this movie from the previous year's thread.)

I did not find this movie to be annoying, or the editing particularly choppy.  I did find it to be corny, wildly melodramatic, and deeply silly, with some very dodgy visual effects (particularly the pullbacks on the large cityscapes, and that train-bridge collapse), and a ton of completely unnecessary plot, character, and musical exposition.  Literally everything is operating in huge brushstrokes here, including the military propaganda elements.

That said, it's got some visually-sumptuous and very-well-choreographed action sequences, some committed big-hearted bromance, and a lot of hugely attractive cast members, so for me, it was just good dumb fun, if one doesn't take it too seriously (and man, one shouldn't).  Plus, bonus points for the two leads inexplicably Ratatouille-ing the British Empire's soldiers at one point (LOL).

Bollywood films, which tend to have a lot of super-glossy music-video-style musical numbers, probably aren't totally for me either (especially when the music spells out the plot -- or praises religious and/or political figures -- over and over again), but I didn't mind this one.

Roundup time, January 2023 edition!

Tár - Takes some time to warm up, as there's a lot of theme and characterization to layer in. But it pays off in spades. This is a smart, resonant film, exploring the cross between gender and power dynamics and grappling with timely themes (#MeToo, identity politics, cancel culture) in ways that are both thoughtful and subversive. Cate Blanchett is spectacular throughout, and one key scene in the third act should put her over the top with Oscar voters. Not quite my favorite film of the year, but it has - hands down - the best ending to any film in 2022.

All Quiet on the Western Front - The first 15 minutes of this film are spectacular, making for the most powerful anti-war statements in recent cinema. Unfortunately, the movie continues for over two hours beyond that, and while it certainly has its strengths - production values are high and the cast is quite good - it does grow wearying after a while, as the film insists on relentlessly driving home its "war bad" message at any and every opportunity. It doesn't help that the story is needlessly bloated by several negotiation scenes, set far from the battlefront, that disrupt the intensity of the core story in order to drive home the already-unsubtle message even further. Effective film overall, but Come and See this isn't.

M3GAN - A well-made, funny (if derivative and predictable) horror film that suffers mainly from a key character design flaw. The entire story rests on the audience believing that the titular doll should be, as advertised, the hottest toy on the market. Except she looks like a giant Cabbage Patch Kid possessed by Cthulhu. It's tough to imagine any child - let alone a roomful of marketing execs - seeing this sentient AI robot and not being just a teensy bit disturbed by her blank, dead expression. But if you can get past that, it's a fun slice of Blumhouse cheese, and not quite as violent as some of their other efforts.

Sick - A new slasher film from Kevin Williamson (writer of the original Scream) that's basically the pandemic version of Bodies Bodies Bodies. Set in April 2020, it features a fair bit of commentary about masks and social distancing, along with an obligatory killer of obnoxious college kids. Probably could have done more with the premise, but at 80 minutes or so it goes down pretty easy, and some of the (admittedly mean-spirited) humor about the early days of Covid are pretty funny. Or maybe I'm just a bad person for laughing at it, take your pick.

Yeah, I was looking over the director's other work on Letterboxd and noticed you had given Housebound a high rating. I'll check it out.

So I watched Housebound last night (taking advantage of my bargain AMC+ subscription before it runs out) and it was a lot of fun. Definitely longer than it needed to be, and the combination of Aussie accents and iffy sound mixing made it occasionally tough to catch what the characters were saying. But it is genuinely funny in spots, filled with absurdist shock humor that meshes nicely with its horror framework. (The brief, sudden shots of graphic violence are also used well throughout the film.) There's a similar vein of dark comedy running through M3GAN, though that film is broadly more standard and formulaic in its storytelling.

2014 was a strong year for Australian horror movies, wasn't it? Between this film, The Babadook, and the original What We Do in the Shadows. (Actually two of those are from New Zealand, but geography was never my strength.)