I only have four categories this year - the top 3 tiers, then everything else. From stuff I quite liked to stuff that's endearingly terrible to stuff I just didn't take to for whatever reason.
Boston Strangler - I liked where this ultimately went, but it was quite dour and I’m afraid I wasn’t in the mood for it (which is obviously more my problem than the movie’s).
The Boy and the Heron - Miyazaki’s films aren’t always my cup of tea, but I always appreciate the incredible artistry and this is no exception (on both accounts). This is Miyazaki at his weird and wonderful best, and I have never hated parakeets more.
Cade: The Tortured Crossing - The latest from Neil Breen, and all that entails. Only now he’s learned(?) how to do special effects. I think I’m still enjoying this guy’s fascinating take on cinema and what he’s capable (and not capable) of doing with it. But I was not on the same wavelength with most of the rest of the audience I saw it with, who seemed to think they were guest stars in a Rifftrax commentary.
The Deep Dark - This was a cool French “monster in the dark” movie with an amazing and scary monster and a bunch of very stupid victims. One of the minor hits of Fantastic Fest.
DogMan - A Fantastic Fest secret screening, this one apparently got laughed at when it played Cannes, but I liked it a lot. Caleb Landry is excellent as a Godfather-type figure, and the movie is chock full of good boys and good girls.
Dream Scenario - Another FF secret screening. Nicolas Cage is superb, which he almost always is. The concept is interesting and hilarious, but I’m not a big fan of the places the movie goes.
Eileen - Lovely thriller with two knockout performances (everyone is talking about Anne Hathaway, but Thomasin Mackenzie is just as good in a very different role). There’s a reveal here that’s so sudden and nonchalant that it actually made me laugh.
Elemental - This was very badly advertised by Pixar, who focused more on the worldbuilding than the characters and story, which is where this movie truly shines. It’s still not top-tier Pixar for me, but it is definitely worth seeing. The animation is beautiful and the story is sadly timely.
Enter the Clones of Bruce - Very fun documentary on the phenomenon of “Brucesploitation,” where Bruce Lee’s death triggered a whole sub-industry of movies starring off-brand Bruces. Special attention is paid to my favorite Bruceploitation flick, THE DRAGON LIVES AGAIN, which I adore.
Evil Dead Rise - A great addition to the Evil Dead canon, with an incredible performance by Alyssa Sutherland. Some great kills and gore (CHEESE GRATER), an all-timer title card, and a fairly good wrap-around story.
Fallen Leaves - This has all the trappings of your favorite romantic comedies. The meet-cute, the near misses, the end-of-act-2 falling out, etc. But in a very different milieu than you’re used to, especially if you came up as I did on 90s romcoms, where everyone seems to have lucrative jobs in publishing. This is really bleak a lot of the time, but that only serves to emphasize what a light these people are to each other. I liked it a lot.
Ferrari - I feel like I would have gotten more out of this if I were more familiar with the history of Ferrari and the people around him. The driving scenes are excellent and there is one crash that is the most horrifying car crash I’ve ever seen in a movie. I just wish the biopic parts were more engaging. Penelope Cruz is the standout and I was always interested in whatever was going on with her.
A Haunting in Venice - Far better than the previous Branagh-as-Poirot films. Michelle Yeoh is predictably great, but I do not buy Tina Fey as a person living in the 40s – much less someone who is supposedly even more brilliant than Poirot! Honey, no.
The Holdovers - This is a truly wonderful movie. Incredible 1970s homage, wonderful performances (I wouldn’t be a bit mad at Paul Giamatti getting the Oscar this year, but I want Da’Vine Joy Randolph to win even more). I just wish I didn’t feel like I’d seen this several times before. It feels like much more than an “homage” to Hal Ashby; it’s practically a cover. Nothing wrong with that, but it makes me wonder why it even has to take place in the 1970s and have all that period detail.
Indiana Jones and the Dial of Destiny - I actually really liked this, and I don’t really care if the de-aging tech is … whatever we’re finger-waggingly calling it these days. I kind of wish that it had the guts to end the way it looks like it’s going to end for a hot second. But I can’t deny I’m a complete simp for where they ultimately leave it.
The Invisible Fight - This was SUCH a fun Fantastic Fest flick, in which a guard on the Soviet-Chinese border wants to learn kung fu and the only place in Soviet Russia he can do so is an Orthodox monastery. Great fashion, great Black Sabbath needle drops, and an exercise in kitschy charm.
It’s a Wonderful Knife - The latest in the niche horror subgenre of “this classic story, but horror.” I appreciate the ideas here, and the performances are top notch (including Justin Long and his horrid veneers). But the mechanics of what is happening supernaturally are way too complicated and it kind of kind of lost me in the second half.
Joy Ride - This was a lot of fun, and I’m fully here for movies where women get to be disgusting and horny. This cranks the raunchy up from, say, GIRLS TRIP, but doesn’t have quite as compelling a story or group of characters.
The Killer - I know a lot of people loved this, but this was a miss for me. Maybe I’d feel differently if I’d seen it properly in a theater – as a David Fincher film deserves. It has a lot of LE SAMOURAI vibes, but I don’t like it nearly as much as that film.
Kim’s Video - Fun and fairly suspenseful documentary about how the massive collection of movies from Kim’s Video in NYC ended up in Italy and how one filmmaker and some friends basically hatched a heist and got them back. I couldn’t believe the things this filmmaker did to right this epic wrong, and there were times I wondered if he would be in serious trouble. But everything seems to have worked out, and I’m glad I can check out a video from this collection any time I want.
The Last Voyage of Demeter - I loved this, despite a lot of poo-poo-ing critics. This is essentially a “missing moment” fic that wonderfully elaborates on the small scene in Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” where the Count travels from his home in Transylvania to England. It’s quite good – good characters, great gore, and a rare movie where you know the ending but are still invested.
The Little Mermaid - With a couple of quibbles, I thought this was pretty great – definitely one of the better live action Disney remakes. Halle Bailey is a wonderful Ariel, and I appreciated that they built both the character and her relationship with the Prince into something I could root for. I liked a lot of the new music, but a couple of the new versions of the original songs bummed me out because they were so much better and richer in the 1989 version (looking at you, “Kiss the Girl”).
M3GAN - I feel like everyone loved this a lot more than I did. Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it a lot, and it was more thought-provoking than I thought it would be. But the killer doll here doesn’t have as much personality as her peers in the genre (I’m sorry, but she can’t touch Chucky OR doll!Tiffany). I was also very sad that I was apparently the only person in my theater who recognized the Martika shout-out.
The Marvels - Way better and more satisfying than most critics and Marvel fans would have had me believe. I love all three of these lead characters and their relationships and how they bounce off each other is wonderful. Yes, the movie has flaws – some of them serious – but I don’t care about them because it’s so much fun to watch – especially the two blockbuster ridiculous moments that I could have watched a whole movie about.
Missing - This was pretty great and I enjoyed watching it (though not quite as much as I enjoyed its sister flick, SEARCHING). The third act went a little too far off the rails for me, but it’s still a great watch. Joaquin de Almeida and his character’s relationship with our hero is the reason to see this.
Napoleon - This is beautiful and a bit baffling (the latter not necessarily a bad thing). Some of the battle scenes took my breath away, and I don’t usually get into those kinds of scenes because I frequently find them hard to follow. But the Austerlitz sequence was one of the most incredible things I saw on a movie screen this year. I was pleased that I was able to understand most of what happened despite knowing almost nothing about French history or Napoleon in particular. But like a lot of others, I really want to see the four-hour version, because the theatrical version feels like it’s missing some important bits.
No One Will Save You - I thought this was a fun take on the alien invasion / body snatcher story. Kaitlyn Dever is great, as usual, and the gimmick of almost no dialogue worked surprisingly well.
NYAD - Fairly by-the-book true story movie with two of the best performances of the year – from actresses I feel like I don’t get to see nearly enough of. Annette Bening and Jodie Foster are absolutely incredible and really elevate this movie, which manages to be thrilling and inspiring, despite the familiar tune.
Oppenheimer - I very much took to one half of the Barbenheimer phenomenon, but this mostly left me cold. I loved the entire Trinity segment and everything that led up to it, but most of the other two-thirds of the film felt like it didn’t belong and would have been better suited being expanded into a mini-series. In particular, I don’t know why the Robert Downey Jr. section is here at all. It leads to a pretty good reveal, I guess, but I wasn’t as thrilled as I think the movie wanted me to be. And the way his entire thing was fueled by what he imagined Oppenheimer and Einstein were talking about that one time, I just couldn’t believe we were spending all this time with this petty little bitch.
The Other Laurens - I remember enjoying this at Fantastic Fest, but for the life of me I couldn’t tell you much about it now other than it has a lot in common with THE BIG LEBOWSKI (though visually it reminded me more of LET THE CORPSES TAN). I was also thrilled to see Kate Moran in it, who I’d last seen in KNIFE + HEART.
Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields - This is a fairly comprehensive look at Brooke Shields’s rise to fame and her career – in particular, the roles and moments from her youth that raised eyebrows. Pop culture in the 80s had a fairly disgusting obsession with her, and I was glad to see that she got through that relatively unscathed.
Priscilla - This would make an interesting triple feature with JACKIE and SPENCER – all stories about women who are trapped, either physically or metaphorically. From very early on, you get the distinct impression that living at Graceland with Elvis (a life many girls would have killed for) is suffocating and miserable. Cailee Spaeny sells this really well, and Jacob Elordi is kind of a miracle as Elvis, giving us a look at some sides of him that are not so pleasant and fangirl-worthy.
Rustin - Another solid but basic biopic that is elevated by an incredible lead performance. I am ashamed to say I had never heard of Bayard Rustin before I started hearing about this movie, and it is amazing how much of a hand he actually had in the civil rights movement without getting much at all of the glory or legacy.
Saltburn - I liked this more than Emerald Fennell’s previous movie, PROMISING YOUNG WOMAN, which isn’t saying much. This has a lot of things going for it and is bonkers in many ways that I liked (and others not so much – I’ll never see a bathtub drain without an involuntary wave of nausea). But this reminds me too much of other, better movies. There’s a lot of TALENTED MR. RIPLEY here, as well as TEOREMA. The performances are where this stands out – from the always excellent and interesting Barry Keoghan to the fabulously aloof Rosamund Pike to the pretty and sincere Jacob Elordi to the amazing Carey Mulligan who plays a character literally credited as “Poor Dear Pamela.”
Saw X - I’d resisted this entire franchise for years, but just before Fantastic Fest I sort of resolved to burn my way through it as part of this year’s Shocktober. Funnily enough, then, this turned out to be the final secret screening at the festival. So now I was even more compelled to see the rest of the series. I … actually liked this? Having now seen the whole series, this one is less frenetic and more toned down than its predecessors (except perhaps the first one). And gives us MUCH more John Kramer, which is great because the movies always suddenly become better whenever he’s on screen, so having him in this as an actual main character was a treat. I wouldn’t say I’m a full-on Saw cultist now, but my eyes will probably light up whenever I see Billy the Puppet.
Scream VI - I really liked the previous Scream movie, which kicked off this “requel” trilogy(?), so I had high hopes for this one. And I did mostly like it. For one thing it was a much better “killer loose in New York” than JASON TAKES MANHATTAN (not a high bar). I just wish these new movies had the berries to actually kill off major “good guy” characters. Seriously, nine people die in this movie and FIVE of them are killers (or wannabe killers, in the case of two of them).
Sisu - Excellent, brutal action and (eventually) some kickass ladies. I just wish there had been a bit more story to match up with the punchy-punchy, slashy-slashy.
Sleep - Loved this at Fantastic Fest. Husband and wife are about to have a baby and the husband starts doing some increasingly terrifying things in his sleep. Great suspense and some pretty wild somnambulism incidents. I don’t even know what to say about Lee Sun-kyun, who plays the husband (and also played the rich husband in PARASITE), who tragically died recently.
Sly - I’ve cooled on Sly as a person after seeing him slide into the MAGA cult, but this is a great look at his career and the turns it has taken. Especially how he has managed to get so much mileage out of the main roles that made his career (namely, Rocky and Rambo).
Talk to Me - Probably the most talked about horror movie of the year, and for good reason. Love seeing a good Aussie horror with an exciting talent in the lead. The concept here is chilling and effective, and I’m looking forward to the prequel that’s supposed to be in the works. If I have anything against this, it’s how much the characters and their decisions frustrated me – more so than even the usual horror bad decision machines.
Tetris - I was waffling on this for the first half hour, and then this movie became something else entirely and I was fully on board. This was a year chock full of “how this product became a phenomenon” movies – from Air Jordans to Blackberry phones to Tetris but each of them has a different flavor. This movie doesn’t start the strongest but it gets so much better when it becomes an International Intrigue movie.
They Cloned Tyrone - This was great, with yet another incredible performance from John Boyega. The worldbuilding here is fun and has some important things to say, but I couldn’t help being reminded of GET OUT and how much more effectively I felt it tackled a similar idea.
Tiger Stripes - The Fantastic Fest blurb compared this to HAUSU (1977), which was all I needed to want a ticket. The actual movie isn’t quite what I expected from that description. Less crazy magical action and more body horror and teen melodrama. And it’s mostly great until it kind of fizzles out in the third act. It’s still an interesting take on period body horror.
Triggered - This has some good action setpieces and some fragments of a good story. I did like that the hero is kind of a coward who needs to redeem himself, and he’s not the only character who challenges your perception of them. It was just not as engaging as I wanted it to be.
Trolls Band Together - Each of these movies is less than the previous, but this was still pretty fun. I’m just laughing at how N’SYNC fans trolled (*rimshot*) themselves into thinking the group was actually getting back together to do a tour. They barely did a voice cameo!
Wham! - Loved this look into the ultimate 80s pop duo, especially as we get so much of Andrew Ridgley, who I think for a lot of fans – at least casual fans, like myself – was always a bit of a mystery. Or maybe it just seemed that way with him in the enormous shadow of George Michael.
Wonka - This is not exactly the best movie ever, or even the best Wonka movie ever, and there are far too many fat jokes for a movie in this day and age. But there’s a lot to enjoy here if you let yourself get caught up in it. The best parts are definitely when Hugh Grant is on screen.
The Zone of Interest - I found this a well-made and bone-chilling movie that it was a bit of a challenge for me to engage with. In many ways, it works like a dramatic exercise. There is no plot to speak of; it’s more an immersive experience. A German family builds an idyllic home life next door to the Auschwitz concentration camp. That’s it; that’s the movie, but it’s so much more if you’re willing to give it just a bit more attention. The sound design is the real star here and the only sign (other than some dialogue and a couple of shots inside the camp – though not of a single prisoner) of what’s going on. You hear gunshots, you hear officers yelling, you hear commotion, but you never see any of it. Just like the family doesn’t have to see any of it, except for the father who is the commandante. This isn’t shot in a “pretty” way – no close-ups and no editorializing whatsoever. Director Jonathan Glazer doesn’t want you to empathize with these people. He’s just showing you “the banality of evil.”
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