for the
2023 edition.
This year, for the first time, I served on the screening committee for Cucalorus, the independent film festival based in Wilmington, North Carolina, and caught 40 films I might not have seen otherwise, or even known about. A few of them, like the B&W Mexican film Dead Man's Switch, appear in the list below, even if they didn't play in Seattle, though most of the films I've listed did make it to area theaters.
This year, for the first time, I served on the screening committee for Cucalorus, the independent film festival based in Wilmington, North Carolina, and caught 40 films I might not have seen otherwise, or even known about. A few of them, like the B&W Mexican film Dead Man's Switch, appear in the list below, even if they didn't play in Seattle, though most of the films I've listed did make it to area theaters.
Anna Kendrick's Woman of the Hour and Jeremy Saulnier's Rebel Ridge, which premiered on Netflix, are notable exceptions. Despite the streamer's minimal promotion, both appear to have reached a lot of viewers, and not just those previously familiar with their work. At the very least: Rebel Ridge made a breakout star out of Aaron Pierre.
Of the films I wrote about, Ethan Coen's Drive-Away Dolls was by far the most-read review. Nearly 900 people clicked the link, though I have no idea why. To date, my 2020 Pop Con paper on Charlotte Gainsbourg remains my most popular post with nearly 17,000 impressions.
Links lead to Letterboxd, Seattle Film Blog, Rock & Roll Globe, and Video Librarian.
Top 10
1. Janet Planet (Annie Baker)
2. The Substance (Coralie Fargeat)
3. Love Lies Bleeding (Rose Glass)
4. Red Rooms (Pascal Plante)
5. A Real Pain (Jesse Eisenberg)
6. Between the Temples (Nathan Silver)
7. Dead Man's Switch / Arillo de hombre muerto
(Alejandro Gerber Bicecci)
8. Rebel Ridge (Jeremy Saulnier)
9. The Vourdalak (Adrien Beau)
10. MaXXXine (Ti West)
Runners-up
11. The Beast (Bertrand Bonello)
12. Anora (Sean Baker)
13. Civil War (Alex Garland)
14. The Girl with the Needle / Pigen med nålen (Magnus von Horn)
15. Flow (Gints Zilbalodis)
16. Nickel Boys (RaMell Ross)
17. Good One (India Donaldson)
18. The Fire Inside (Rachel Morrison)
19. The Last Showgirl (Gia Coppola)
20. Crossing / გადასვლა (Levan Akin)
21. Vermiglio (Maura Delpero)
22. Hard Truths (Mike Leigh )
23. Evil Does Not Exist / Aku wa sonzai shinai (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
24. Juror #2 (Clint Eastwood )
25. Bikeriders (Jeff Nichols)
26. Femme (Sam Freeman and Ng Ping)
27. Stopmotion (Robert Morgan)
28. Universal Language (Matthew Rankin )
29. Drive-Away Dolls (Ethan Coen)
30. I Saw the TV Glow (Jane Schoenbrun)
31. Dìdi (Sean Wang)
32. 20,000 Species of Bees / 20.000 especies de abejas (Estibaliz Urresola Solaguren)
33. In Our Day / Uriui haru (Hong Sang-soo)
34. Conclave (Edward Berger)
35. September 5 (Tim Fehlbaum)
36. Vulcanizadora (Joel Potrykus)
37. The Apprentice (Ali Abbasi )
38. Ghostlight (Alex Thompson and Kelly O’Sullivan )
39. Sing Sing (Greg Kwedar)
40. Immaculate (Michael Mohan)
41. Only the River Flows / He bian de cuo wu (Wei Shujun)
42. The Devil's Bath / Des teufels bad
(Severin Fiala and Veronika Franz)
43. Blitz (Steve McQueen)
44. Woman of the Hour (Anna Kendrick)
45. Trust / Confidenza (Daniele Luchetti)
46. Oh, Canada (Paul Schrader)
47. Hundreds of Beavers (Mike Cheslik)
48. Strange Darling (JT Mollner)
49. Gasoline Rainbow (Bill and Turner Ross)
50. The Order (Justin Kurzel)
Top Documentaries
1. No Other Land (Basel Adra and Yuval Abraham)
2. Grasshopper Republic (Daniel McCabe)
3. Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat (Johan Grimonprez)
4. In the Rearview / Skąd dokąd (Maciek Hamela)
5. Resynator (Alison Tavel)
6. Rainier: A Beer Odyssey (Isaac Olsen)
7. All We Carry / Lo que llevamos (Cady Vogue)
8. Lyd (Sarah Ema Friedland and Rami Youniss)
9. Lost Angel: The Genius of Judee Sill (Andy Brown and Brian Lindstrom)
10. Luther (Dawn Porter)
The rest (alphabetical): 7 Keys, All Happy Families, Anxious., Babygirl, Band on the Run, Banel & Adama, Bastion, Ben and Suzanne, a Reunion in 4 Parts, The Black Sea, Boca Chica, Bound, Brats, Breakup Season, The Brutalist, Catching Fire: The Story of Anita Pallenberg, Challengers, Chaperone, Christmas Eve in Miller's Point, Coma, Close Your Eyes, A Complete Unknown, The Dead Don't Hurt, Emilia Pérez, Faye, Fish War, Friend Divorce, Future Date, Heretic, The Heirloom, His Three Daughters, Hit Man, I Am: Celine Dion, It Doesn’t Get Any Better Than This, Lisa Frankenstein, Longlegs, Lone Wolves, Maria, Mother, Couch, My Old Ass, Nosferatu, Not If I See You First, The People's Joker, Linda Perry: Let It Die Here, Not Not Jazz, The Piano Lesson, Problemista, Queer, Sebastian, Sometimes I Think About Dying, Thelma, Tony, Shelly and the Magic Light, The Veteran, Where in the Hell, and Will & Harper.
Missed or haven’t seen yet: Alien: Romulus, All We Imagine as Light, All You Need Is Death, Close Your Eyes, A Different Man, Dune: Part 2, The End, The Feeling That the Time for Doing Something Has Passed, Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga, Green Border, I'm Still Here, In a Violent Nature, Inside the Yellow Cocoon Shell, Kneecap, Look Into My Eyes, Memoir of a Snail, Oddity, The Outrun, The Room Next Door, The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Wicked, and The Wild Robot.
2023 films: The Angry Black Girl and Her Monster, Dream Scenario, Maestro, Nyad, Pamela, a Love Story, Radical Wolfe, The Sales Girl, Sisi & I, Slide, The Stones and Brian Jones, and Youth (Spring).
2025 films: 7 Keys, Anna Comes Home, Chaperone, Color Book, Duino, Familiar Touch, Future Date, The Heirloom, Ick, Jackie Shane: Any Other Way, Messy, Operation Taco Gary's, Rowdy Friends, Slide, and Where in the Hell.
At least six of these films would've been contenders if they had counted for this year, but I saw most of them at Cucalorus before they had distribution, or before their deals had been announced--Familiar Touch was acquired by Music Box prior to its Cucalorus premiere. I was thrilled to moderate the Q&As for three of them, and I also got to chat with Color Book filmmaker David Fortune, who impressed me on every level. Here's hoping these films make it to town. I know for sure that one of the directors has submitted their film to SIFF for the 2025 festival. FWIW, I counted Scala!!! as a 2023 film last year, but 2024 would've made more sense if I was going by Seattle distribution dates.
Pre-2023 films: Another Country, The Blackcoat's Daughter, Blood Relatives, Bloody Nose, Empty Pockets, Broken Mirrors, Candy, Carlito's Way, Caveat, Cemetery Man, Cockfighter, The Comfort of Strangers, Condo Painting, Creepshow, D-Day: The Finished Film, The Day of the Locust, The Dead Mother, Demon Pond, Demon Seed, Demons, Despair, The Desperate Hours, The Devil's Rain, The Devil's Sisters, Divine Intervention, Dragon Superman / Dragon Ghost Flying Knight, The Entity, Extremely Wicked, Shockingly Evil and Vile, Eve's Bayou, Fanny: The Right to Rock, Frankenhooker, Frankenstein: The True Story, Glen and Randa, Green Fish, Gretel & Hansel, The Guest, Hawk Jones, Hester Street, The Hidden, High Crime, Hollywood 90028, Hugo, Human Desire, Hustle, I Am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House, Impulse, In the Radiant City, July Rhapsody, Le Combat dans L'ile, The Last Island, The Last Picture Show, Little Richard: King and Queen of Rock 'n' Roll, Looker, Lourdes, Loving, Messiah of Evil, Mortal Thoughts, Mud, Nam June Paik: The Moon Is the Oldest TV, A Nightmare on Elm Street Part 2: Freddy's Revenge, Nightmares Come at Night, Oasis, Paris, 13th District, La Piscine, Please Baby Please, Poetry, The Primevals, Querelle, Re-Animator, Red Sun, Saint Maud, Screamplay, Stage Fright, Stella Maris, Strange M. Victor, Stranger by the Lake, The Strangler, Sunday, The Swiss Conspiracy, Tchoupitoulas, Vampire Circus, The Velvet Vampire, Victims of Sin, The Wedding Party, Willy/Milly, You Are Not Alone, and Young Soul Rebels.
Short films: And I Will Rise, If Only To Hold You Down, Saint Frankenstein, and all 14 shorts on the Scala!!! Blu-ray set.
TV: Babylon Berlin S4, The Bear S3, Brokenwood Mysteries S1-2, Call the Midwife S13, Cobra S3, The Crown S6, D.I. Ray S2, Feud: Capote and the Swans (mostly for Gus Van Sant), Funny Woman S1, George & Tammy, Grantchester S9, Guilt S3, The Good Place S3, Hotel Portofino S3, Law & Order S22, Law & Order: SVU S24, Miss Scarlet (and the Duke) S3-5, MaryLand, Moonflower Murders, Mr. Bates vs the Post Office, The New Look, Nolly, NYPD Blue S1-5, Professor T S3, Quiet on Set: The Dark Side of Kids TV, Ridley Road, Sex Education S4, Slow Horses S4, Tokyo Vice S2, True Detective (S4): Night Country, Twin Peaks: The Return, Unforgotten S5, Us, and Van der Walk S4.
Books: Gillian Gaar's Queen & A Night at the Opera: 50 Years, Kathleen Hanna's Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk, David Milch's Life's Work, Keith Richards' Life (research for Anita Pallenberg documentary review), Julie Salamon's The Devil's Candy: The Anatomy of A Hollywood Fiasco, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein (research for a Crypticon panel on Frankenstein adaptations), and Colson Whitehead's Nickel Boys (preparation for the new film).
Images from Variety (Demi Moore in The Substance), Indiewire (Julianne Nicholson in Janet Planet), Lab111 (The Beast poster), The Hollywood Reporter (Luther Vandross / Sony Music Archives / Photographer Guzman), Rotten Tomatoes (Barbara Hershey in The Entity), and NPR (Gary Oldman in Slow Horses).
