Movies for Music Lovers: 2023 Edition

Click here for the 2022 edition. 

There are films on my runners-up list that should be in my top 10, but I had to draw the line somewhere, and I decided to call out some of the smaller films I saw this year over the bigger ones, like Oppenheimer. I loved it, and I don't always love Christopher Nolan's work. A lot of people felt the same way, but I loved Rye Lane, too, which offered everything I want--and rarely get--from a romantic comedy, a genre that has fallen on hard times as of late, so there's a glimpse into my reasoning. 

Rye Lane is also a cautionary tale about the so-called streaming revolution. After premiering at Sundance in January and playing theatrically in the UK, it landed on Hulu, which has nearly 50 million subscribers. That's great in theory, except a proper theatrical release allows a film to stand out from the crowd, to qualify for post-festival awards, and to draw viewers to streaming through theatrical play. 

Raine Allen-Miller's directorial debut features two virtual unknowns of substantial charm, David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah--all British people of color--and despite critical acclaim, it didn't benefit from the advantages listed above. Nor has it been part of the end-of-the-year conversation in the US about 2023's best and most award-worthy films. That said, both the UK and Canada have recognized it in various ways. 

Ben Affleck knew all of this when he insisted on a theatrical release for his sneaker saga Air, which he made for Prime Video, and cast with top names, like Matt Damon and Viola Davis (it's fine). He was right, but not everyone has his clout or their name recognition, and it's better for Rye Lane to be seen by way of Hulu than to languish without any distribution at all, but it's always a shame to see good films get overlooked (for those who care about such things, it has an impressive 98% critics rating on Rotten Tomatoes). 

Review links: Letterboxd, Seattle Film Blog, Rock and Roll Globe, and Video Librarian.

Top 10 

1. Showing Up (Kelly Reichardt) 

2. Fallen Leaves (Aki Kaurismäki) 

3. Afire (Christian Petzold) 

4. A Thousand and One (A.V. Rockwell) 

5. The Holdovers (Alexander Payne) 

6. May December (Todd Haynes) 

7. Enys Men (Mark Jenkin) 

8. Rye Lane (Raine Allen-Miller) 

9. The Five Devils (Léa Mysius) 

10. Fremont (Babak Jalali) 

Note: If I believed in ties, Showing Up and Fallen Leaves would be tied for first. I've seen most every feature these directors have made, and these are among their very best. Also, Teyana Taylor is astounding in A.V. Rockwell's directorial debut. I can't stress this enough. 

Runners-up 

11. Killers of the Flower Moon (Martin Scorsese) 

12. Oppenheimer (Christopher Nolan) 

13. Priscilla (Sofia Coppola) 

14. Barbie (Greta Gerwig) 

15. Asteroid City (Wes Anderson) 

16. Past Lives (Celine Song)

17. The Killer (David Fincher) 

18. All of Us Strangers (Andrew Haigh) 

19. Anatomy of a Fall (Justine Triet) 

20. Return to Seoul (Davy Chou) 

Note: In a different year, Killers of the Flower Moon would have made my top 10, and maybe I'll regret its omission in the future, but I feel I need to see it again to say for sure. I didn't love it the way I wanted or expected to, but I'm not sure my expectations were completely realistic. For what it's worth, David Grann's source book was one of the best I read all year next to the expanded edition of Kier-La Janisse's House of  Psychotic Women. Also, I never had a film review go viral before until Barbie, an experience I'm unlikely to have again. It just goes to show what kind of reach music writer Ann Powers has, because her championing gave it legs that wouldn't quit.  

21. You Hurt My Feelings (Nicole Holofcener) 

22. Eileen (William Oldroyd) 

23. Dreamin' Wild (Bill Pohlad) 

24. Riddle of Fire (Weston Razooli)

25. Piaffe (Ann Oren) 

26. The Night of the 12th (Dominick Moll) 

27. Poor Things (Yorgos Lanthimos) 

28. Monster (Hirokazu Kore-eda) 

29. The Eight Mountains 

       (Felix van Groeningen and Charlotte Vandermeer) 

30. The Taste of Things (Tranh Anh Hung) 

Note: You Hurt My Feelings would be in my top 10, except...the ending gnawed at me. It's otherwise a near-perfect film, if such a thing can be said to exist. Where Nicole Holofcener tends to lose me is in her thoughts about middle-aged male and female vanity alike (see also: Brenda Blethyn's overly-pathetic character in Lovely and Amazing). Eileen represents one of two stellar Marin Ireland performances this year, including Birth/Rebirth. She had a role in Justified: City Primeval, too, but it didn't give her the chance to show what she can do, and she can do a lot. I vacillated about placing Piaffe in my top 10. It sounds ridiculous if you were to describe it--which I do in my review--but the execution is another story. Ann Oren is a filmmaker to watch. It's a bummer that Oscilloscope Laboratories didn't send out any end-of-the-year screeners. Props to Jim Brunzell for placing it on his top 10 without the prompt.

31. Aloners (Hong Sung-eun) 

32. RATS! (Maxwell Navelansky and Carl Fry)

33. Trenque Lauquen Pt 1 (Laura Citarella) 

34. Fancy Dance (Erica Tremblay) 

35. BlackBerry (Matt Johnson) 

36. R.M.N. (Cristian Mungui)  

37. Other People’s Children (Rebecca Zlotowski) 

38. Birth/Rebirth (Laura Moss) 

39. Reality (Tina Satter)  

40. The Unknown Country (Morissa Maltz) 

Note: I haven't had time to watch Trenque Lauquen Pt 2 yet, namely because it took awhile to secure a screener (thanks, Pat!), but it's something to look forward to in 2024. I'm also yet to catch up with About Dry Grasses, The Delinquents, and the new Radu Jude. I've been in touch with Max, one of the filmmakers behind RATS!, which I saw at Cucalorus. Really hoping he's able to bring it to Seattle. It's a pitch-perfect midnighter; totally over-the-top and lots of fun. Fancy Dance and The Unknown Country gave me the chance to see Lily Gladstone in person twice, an honor and a privilege I may not get to enjoy again any time soon after she receives her richly-deserved Oscar nomination--I'm also predicting a win.

41. Infinity Pool (Brandon Cronenberg) 

42. One Fine Morning (Mia Hansen-Love) 

43. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One 

       (Christopher McQuarrie) 

44. The Teachers' Lounge (Ilker Çatak) 

45. Tótem (Lila Avilés) 

46. The Iron Claw (Sean Durkin)   

47. Godzilla Minus One (Takashi Yamazaki)   

48. Master Gardener (Paul Schrader)  

49. Perpetrator (Jennifer Reeder)  

50. Monica (Andrea Pallaoro) 

 

Top Documentaries 

1. Even Hell Has Its Heroes (Clyde Petersen) 

2. Sam Now (Reed Harkness) 

3. Menus-Plaisirs - Les Troisgros (Frederick Wiseman) 

4. SCALA!!! (Ali Catterall and Jane Giles) 

5. Desperate Souls, Dark City and the Legend of Midnight Cowboy 

     (Nancy Buirski) 

6. Casa Susanna (Sébastien Lifshitz) 

7. Squaring the Circle: The Story of Hipgnosis (Anton Corbijn)

8. The Disappearance of Shere Hite (Nicole Newnham) 

9. Max Roach: The Drum Also Waltzes 

     (Ben Shapiro and Sam Pollard) 

10. We Were Famous, You Don't Remember: The Embarrassment 

       (Daniel Fetherston and Danny Szlauderbach) 

Note: Rest in peace to Nancy Buirski who went out with one of her best films.  

Documentary Runners-up  

11. In the Court of the Crimson King (Toby Amies) 

12. Love to Love You, Donna Summer 

       (Brooklyn Sudano and Roger Ross Williams) 

13. Youth (Spring) (Wang Bing)  

14. Rewind & Play (Alain Gomis)  

15. For Nick, From Dad (Nick Damore) 

16. Douglas Sirk – Hope as in Despair (Roman Hüben) 

17. Playland (Georden West) 

18. Kim's Video (David Redmon and Ashley Sabin) 

19. Our Body (Claire Simon)

20. Let the Little Light Shine (Kevin Shaw)

Note: I caught For Nick, Playland, and Kim's Video at Cucalorus. Thanks to Aaron Hillis for encouraging me to attend the Wilmington, NC film festival (Aaron, wearing a mask, appears in the latter film). Three documentaries I haven't seen yet, but for which I have screeners and/or streaming access: American Symphony, Beyond Utopia, and The Pigeon Tunnel.

The rest of 2023 (in alphabetical order): 

Air, All Dirt Roads Taste of Salt, American Fiction, Are You There, God? It's Me, Margaret, Beau Is Afraid, Before, Now & Then, Being Mary Tyler Moore, Blue Jean, Booger, Boston Strangler, Bottoms, Chevalier, Circus of the Scars - The Insider Odyssey of the Jim Rose Circus Sideshow (I get a shoutout in the credits), Cocaine Bear, The Color Purple, Cypher, A Disturbance in the Force, Dream Scenario, El Conde, Fair Play, Fantasy A Gets a Mattress, Ferrari, How to Blow Up a Pipeline, Huesera: The Bone Woman, I Like Movies, Immediate Family, Judy Blume Forever, King Coal, La Chimera, The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, Maestro, M3GAN, Missing, Money Shot: The Pornhub Story, My Love Affair with Marriage, Napoleon, No One Will Save You, No Straight Lines: The Rise of Queer Comics, Origin, Outta the Muck, Pacifiction, Passages, Perfect Days, Pinball: The Man Who Saved the Game, Polite Society, Pretty Baby: Brooke Shields, Quiz Lady, A Radiant Girl, Roberta, The Royal Hotel, Rustin, Ruth Stone's Vast Library of the Female Mind, Scrapper, She Is Conann, Sick, Silent Night, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Summer Solstice, Tetris, Theater Camp, They Cloned Tyrone, Wham!, When Evil Lurks, Wild Life, With Love and a Major Organ, Wonka, and The Zone of Interest. 

Pre-2023 films (alphabetical): 1970, Air Doll, All Light, Everywhere, All My Sons, Anguish/Angustia, Backtrack/Catchfire, Beautiful Beings/Berdreymi, Bellissima, Beyond the Valley of the Dolls, Big Time Gambling Boss, Born in Flames, The Burning Hell, The Case of the Vanishing Gods, The Cassandra Cat/When the Cat Comes, Class of 1999, Cry of the City, Dance Me Outside, Death Game, Divine Intervention, Downsizing, Entre Nous, Evening Primrose, Foxfire, Fresh Kill, The Getaway, Giant, The Glass Shield, Goodbye First Love, Haywire, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, Heartstone, Hit the Road, Alberta Hunter: My Castle's Rockin', If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do?, The Innkeepers, The Iron Prefect, The Killers (1946), The Killers (1964), Kiss the Blood off My Hands, Lady Killer/Guele D'Amour, The Liberation of L.B. Jones, The Line, The Lodge, The Mafu Cage, Margin Call, The Masque of the Red Death, Moi, Un Noir, A Moment of Romance, Nelson Algren: The End Is Nothing, The Road Is All, The Night Stalker, The Night Strangler, Night Tide, Nobody's Daughter Haewon, Noroît, Not Fade Away, Nothing But a Man, The Novelist's Film, Oki's Movie, Old, Our Sunhi, Pale Flower, Pat Garrett & Billy the Kid, Passion, The Passion of Joan of Arc, Perfume, Peppermint Soda, Peter Von Kant, Phantom Project/Proyecto Fantasma, La Pirate, Play It As It Lays, Possession, The Pirate, Prescription for Murder, Prisoners of the Land/Prisioneros de la Tierra, A Question of Silence, Ransom for a Dead Man, Red Sun/Rote Sonne, Remember My Name, The Ritz, The River, The Roost, Rosa La Rose, the Public Girl, The Rose, Sarah T. - Portrait of a Teenage Alcoholic, The Savage Eye, Screamplay, Season of the Witch, Secret Defense, She-Man: A Story of Fixation, Shoeshine, Sibyl, Sleep, My Love, The Slender Thread, So Evil My Love, Sour Grapes, Something Wild, The Spiritualist, Star 80, The Sunday Woman, Time of Roses, Tokyo Pop, Trigger Man, The Tripper, Tucker: The Man and His Dream, Unman, Wittering and Zigo, Wake of the Red Witch, Walk Up, The Watermelon Man, White Dog, Who Am I This Time?, Working Girls, and Yakuza Graveyard. 

Note: I finally saw Possession this year, and on the big screen no less--thanks, Beacon Cinema! Many of these screenings were thanks to Aaron Hillis's film series Playtime and The Film Foundation's film restoration series. While Playtime abides, Martin Scorsese and Co. pulled the plug on their series. It will be missed.  

TV/Streaming (in alphabetical order):

1. All Creatures Great and Small S3

2. American Experience: The Adventures of Saul Bellow

3. American Experience: James Baldwin: The Price of the Ticket

4. American Experience: Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie 

     Parker

5. American Experience: Groucho & Cavett

6. American Experience: Zora Neale Hurston - Claiming a Space

7. Andor

8. Annicka S2

9. Bad Sisters

10. Barry S3

11. The Bear S2

12. Beef

13. Black Bird

14. Bodies

15. Bosch: Legacy S2

16. Columbo S1-10

17. The Crown S4-5

18. The Curse

19. Doc Martin S8-9

20. D.I. Ray

21. Endeavour S9

22. Fellow Travelers

23. Fight the Power: How Hip Hop Changed the World

24. Finding Your Roots S9

25. Frankie Drake Mysteries S1

26. Grantchester S8

27. Hope Street

28. Hotel Portofino S2

29. Justified: City Primeval 

30. Last Call: When a Serial Killer Stalked Queer New York

31. Law & Order S21

32. Law & Order: SVU S23

33. Liaison

34. Marie Antoinette S1

35. Marriage

36. Mossback's Northwest S1-2

37. Murder in Boston: Roots, Rampage, and Reckoning

38. Nature: Dogs in the Wild

39. Our House

40. Pain Hustlers

41. Paul T. Goldman

42. Perry Mason S2

43. Poker Face 

44. Professor T S2

45. Reservation Dogs S3

46. River

47. Succession S4

48. The Super Models

49. Van der Valk S3

50. Vienna Blood S3

51. What to Do When Someone Dies

Note: I work at a PBS member station, so you'll always find a number of PBS/ BBC/ ITV dramas on my list. I also watched  stray episodes of Atlanta, The Good Place, and Dead Ringers, with plans to finish all three before I die. Or they disappear.

Endnote: I worked hard this year for very little reward. Did it make a difference? I would like to think so. Highlights: moderating a panel on Ti West at Crypticon with my pal, Tony Kay, and others (I really wish we had recorded it!), chatting with David Schmader about his lively guide to Pacific Northwest cinema, Filmlandia!, at Town Hall Seattle (listen here), interviewing Icelandic writer-director Guðmundur Arnar Guðmundsson about his film, Beautiful Beings, at Ark Lodge Cinemas, and introducing the Seattle Film Critics Society's first inaugural John Hartl Pacific Northwest Spotlight Award at the Uptown. 

Images: Austin Film Society (Michelle William in Showing Up), the IMDb (David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah in Rye Lane), Warner Bros / Parade (Margot Robbie in Barbie), Liquid Marmalade (Julia Louis Dreyfus and Tobias Menzies in You Hurt My Feelings), Succulent Pictures / The Guardian (Robert Fripp in In the Court of the Crimson King), Kinorium (Seymour Cassel, Colleen Camp, and Sondra Locke in Death Game), and Outreach (Matt Bomer and Jonathan Bailey in Fellow Travelers, which, like Godzilla Minus One, made me cry).

Movies for Music Lovers: 2022 Edition

Click here for the 2021 edition. 

This list represents my favorite films of the year. I missed a lot, I always do, so there are omissions that might have made the cut if I had gotten to them in time. There are also widely-acclaimed films I just didn't like. If you're curious, you can find a few of the former in the "Missed" section (and maybe I won't enjoy them as much as I hope; only time will tell). 

These days I've been writing more about old movies than new ones, so that influenced my list. I watch every new film I would like to see, in addition to those I feel I should see, but I don't have enough time and money to see it all, and non-local film fests aren't an option at present. 

Plus, some runs are so short that I don't find out about them until after the fact--like Please Baby Please at the Grand Illusion or Peter von Kant at the Uptown--because I didn't check the movie listings that week or because no publicists reached out to me (and I'm on a lot of mailing lists). It happens. Okay! Enough excuses, here's my list.   

Links lead to my reviews for Seattle Film Blog, Rock & Roll Globe, and Video Librarian. 

Top 10 

1. EO (Jerzy Skolimowski)

2. Decision to Leave (Park Chan-wook) 

3. Benediction (Terence Davies) 

4. Crimes of the Future (David Cronenberg) 

5. Lost Illusions (Xavier Giannoli) 

6. Happening (Audrey Diwal) 

7. Aftersun (Charlotte Wells) 

8. X (Ti West) 

9. Great Freedom (Sebastian Meise)  

10. Compartment Number 6 (Juho Kuosmanen) 

Note: I'm salty that Decision to Leave missed out on an Oscar nomination. I'm not sure Park Chan-wook will get the chance again, but you never know. He's hardly predictable.    

Runners-up 

11. White Noise (Noah Baumbach) 

12. The Fabelmans (Steven Spielberg) 

13. TÁR (Todd Field) 

14. The Unknown Man of Shandigor (Jean-Louis Roy) 

15. Armageddon Time (James Gray) 

16. Kimi (Steven Soderbergh) 

17. The Wonder (Sebastian Lelio) 

18. The Inspection (Elegance Bratton) 

19. She Said (Maria Schrader) 

20. Watcher (Chloe Okuno) 

Note: I loved White Noise. I didn't write about it, because I didn't have time to re-read the novel (I re-read the first chapter before time got away from me). It isn't 100% faithful, and nor should it be, but it feels personal, even as Noah Baumbach veers into action-adventure territory, i.e. the parallels with his own life aren't hard to find, and he's addressed it vis-a-vis his professorial father, who has a lot in common with Adam Driver's Jack Gladney.   

21. RRR (S. S. Ramouli)

22. Nanny (Nikyatu Jusu)

23. Flux Gourmet (Peter Strickland)

24. Everything Everywhere All at Once (Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert)

25. Emily the Criminal (John Patton Ford) 

26. Prey (Dan Trachtenberg)

27. Confess, Fletch (Greg Mottola)

28. Till (Chinonye Chukwu)

29. Saint Omer (Anna Diop)

30. Pearl (Ti West)

31. Brighton 4th (Levan Koguashvili)

32. You Won’t Be Alone (Goran Stolevski)

33. Thirteen Lives (Ron Howard)

34. Corsage (Marie Kreutzer)

35. Pleasure (Ninja Thyberg)

36. The Northman (Robert Eggers)

37. Both Sides of the Blade (Claire Denis)

38. Mad God (Phil Tippett)

39. Stars at Noon (Claire Denis)

40. Lingui, the Sacred Bonds (Mahamat Saleh Haroun)

41. After Yang (Kogonada)

42. A New Old Play (Qiu Jiongjiong)

43. Barbarian (Zach Cregger)

44. Nope (Jordan Peele)

45. The Banshees of Inisherin (Martin McDonagh)

46. Bodies Bodies Bodies (Halina Reijn) 

47. Neptune Frost (Saul Williams and Anisia Uzeyman)

48. The Silent Twins (Agnieszka Smoczynska)

49. Hatching (Hanna Bergholm)

50. Hit the Road (Paha Panahi)

Note: Pachinko, on Apple TV+, was created by Kogonada. I really need to catch up with it. Also, in April, Saul Williams is coming to the Northwest Film Forum with Neptune Frost.

Top Documentaries 

1. All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (Laura Poitras)

2. Nothing Compares (Kathryn Ferguson)

3. Fire of Love (Sarah Dosa)

4. Sweetheart Deal (Elisa Levine and Gabriel Miller)

5. Is This Black Enough for You?!? (Elvis Mitchell)

6. Ron Carter: Finding the Right Notes (Peter Schnall)

7. Navalny (Daniel Rohrer)

8. Cane Fire (Anthony Banua-Simon)

9. Bad Axe (David Siev)

10. All That Breathes (Shaunak Sen)

Note: I've been off the documentary beat at Video Librarian, so I didn't see as many as I normally do. I'll try harder in 2023. It was easier when titles were assigned to me.

The rest (in alphabetical order): After Blue, Ahed’s Knee, All Quiet on the Western Front, AmbuLAnce, Amsterdam, Apollo 10 ½, Apples, Argentina 1985, The Batman, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, Blonde, Bones and All, Breaking, Broker, Cat Daddies, Causeway, Cha Cha Real Smooth, Close, Deep Water, Earwig, Elvis, Empire of Light, Fresh, Funny Pages, Descendant, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, God’s Creatures, Good Luck to You, Leo Grande, Guillermo del Toro's Pinocchio, Holy Spider, Hellraiser, I Didn't See You There, Jane by Charlotte, The Jangling Man: The Story of Martin Newell, Living, A Love Song, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On, Meet Me in the Bathroom, Men, The Menu, Montana Story, Moonage Daydream, Mrs. Harris Goes to Paris, Murina, My Best Part, No Fucks Given, Official Competition, The Outfit, Poly Styrene: I Am a Cliché, Quant, The Quiet Girl, Resurrection, Sr., There There, Top Gun: Maverick, Triangle of Sadness, Turning Red, Vortex, Wendell & Wild, We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, The Whale, The Woman King, and Women Talking.

Note: I enjoyed many of these films, like Michael Bay's AmbuLAnce. Better yet, I got to see Yayha Abdul-Mateen II in person in Topdog/Underdog on Broadway--he was great! 

2021 Holdovers: Being the Ricardos, Don’t Look Up, The Eyes of Tammy Faye, Raging Fire, Val, and West Side Story.

Missed (or Haven't Seen Yet): Avatar: The Way of Water, Bardo, False Chronicle of a Handful of Truths, The Cathedral, Don't Worry, Darling, The Eternal Daughter, No Bears, Peter von Kant, Please Baby Please, Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, Smile, Three Minutes: A Lengthening, and Utama. I plan to catch up with a few before the Oscar ceremony; I may be reviewing others for Video Librarian.  

Non-2022 Movies: Abby, The Accused (1949), Alice, Sweet Alice, Bad Manners, The Beach, The Bitter Tears of Petra von Kant, Black Caesar, Blood Beat, Bloodthirsty Butchers, Bone, Broken Lullaby, Buck and the Preacher, Burnt Offerings, Candyman (2021), The Chase (1946), Children Shouldn’t Play with Dead Things, Chircales, Clouds of Sils Maria, Coming Apart, Conrad Veidt--My Life, The Corruption of Chris Miller, Crimes of the Future (1970), Crimes of Passion, Cruising, Dark (2017), Deep Red, Detour, A Double Life, The Double Life of Paul Henreid, The Effect of Gamma Rays on Man-in-the-Moon Marigolds, Electra Glide in Blue, Ema, Empire Records, Expresso Bongo, Eyes of Laura Mars, Farewell (Abschied), Fast Company, Fast Times at Ridgemont High, Freeway, Getting to Know the Big, Wide World, Girls in Prison, God Told Me To, The Go-Go’s, Going Places, Grace Jones: A One Man Show, The Grand Illusion, Grand Slam, The Great Moment, Happy Birthday to Me, Hardcore, Hell Up in Harlem, Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer, Horror Express, Images, In Bruges, In the Realm of the Senses, Ingrid Caven: Music and Voice, It’s Alive, Jane B. par Agnès V, Katalin Varga, Kill List, King Cohen: The Wild World of Filmmaker Larry Cohen, KRON, Kummatty, La Strada, Last House on the Left, Léon, the Professional, Lonelyhearts, Losing Ground, Love Bites, Lured, Lust, Caution, Mad Dog and Glory, Mademoiselle, Martin und Hans, Metropolitan, Mission Impossible: Fallout, Monsieur Hire, Moonrise, Mother’s Day (Muttertag), Moulin Rouge (1952), The Mystery of Picasso, Naked Alibi, Nathalie…, The Nice Guys, Night Has a Thousand Eyes, Night Moves, Night of the Werewolf, Nightbirds, Nitram, Nobody’s Watching, Normal Life, Of Time and the City, One-Eyed Jacks, Only the Animals, Out of Sight, Patty Hearst, Phenomena, The Ploughman’s Lunch, Pontypool, Prevenge, The Private Files of J. Edgar Hoover, Pump Up the Volume, Pushing Hands, The Rats Are Coming! The Werewolves Are Here!, Red Angel, Reflections in a Golden Eye, Rock Hudson’s Home Movies, The Rubber Gun, Sambizanga, Secondhand Hearts, The Seduction of Joe Tynan, Shivers, The Shout, The Sightseers, The Silver Screen: Color Me Lavender, Sparrows, Special Effects, The Stuff, Sunday Bloody Sunday, Suture, Targets, Thirst, Times Square, To Find a Man, Top of the Heap, The Trials of Oscar Wilde, Vamp, The Vanity Tables of Douglas Sirk, Walker, Walking and Talking, The Wanderers, Wild Things, and World’s Greatest Dad.

TV (in alphabetical order): All Creatures Great and Small S2; American Masters: Ailey, Marian Anderson - The Whole World in Her Hands, Althea Gibson - She Always Wanted To Be Somebody, Raúl Juliá - The World's a Stage, Bombshell - The Hedy Lamarr Story, Worlds of Ursula K. Le Guin, Terrence McNally - Every Act of Life, Rita Moreno - Just A Girl Who Decided to Go for It, Rothko - Pictures Must Be Miraculous, Oliver Sacks - His Own Life, and Laura Ingalls Wilder - Prairie to Page; America Outside with Baratunde Thurston; Andor; Annika S1; Around the World in 80 Days; Atlanta S3; Barry S3; The Bear S1; Before We Die (UK), Benjamin Franklin; Bosch Legacy; Call My Agent! S1-4; Call the Midwife S11; Classic Albums: The Band, Black Sabbath, Phil Collins, Cream, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, John Lennon, Bob Marley, Pink Floyd, Elvis Presley, Queen, Lou Reed, Rush, Sex Pistols, Carly Simon, and The Who; The Crown S2-3; Devs; The End of the F***ing World S2; Endeavor S8; Finding Your Roots S8; Friend of the Family; The Good Lord Bird; Great Performances: Uncle Vanya; Guilt S2; Hacks S2; Harlem Godfather S1; Hotel Portofino S1, Independent Lens: Storm Lake and Try Harder!; The Indian Doctor S1-3; Irma Vep; Jamaica Inn; Kidnap & Ransom S1-3; The Kids in the Hall S6; The Kids in the Hall: Comedy Punks; The Last Days of Ptolemy Grey; The Last Movie Stars; Law & Order S21; Law & Order: SVU S23; Light & Magic; Lovejoy; The Making of a Lady; Masterpiece: Magpie Murders, Ridley Road, and Sanditon S2; Minx S1; Miss Scarlet and the Duke S2-3; Moon Knight; Mossback’s Northwest S1-2; Ms. Marvel S1; Now Hear This S1-3; Reilly, Ace of Spies; Reservation Dogs S1-3; Severance S1; Sex Education S1-3; Show Me a Hero; Slow Horses S1-2; Station Eleven; Suspects S1-5; The Trick; Tokyo Vice S1; Under the Banner of Heaven; and The U.S. and the Holocaust.

Movie (and Music) Podcasts: I listened to every episode of The Rialto Report, Supporting Characters, Video Archives, and You Must Remember This, in addition to several from The Projection Booth. I also enjoyed the limited series on Siskel and Ebert and Sylvester.   

Thanks: To the Pop Conference for letting me talk about Tim Curry (on video) and to Crypticon for letting me talk about Alex Garland, Peter Strickland, and Ben Wheatley (in-person) with Jason Weiss and Matt Oakes. Since the pandemic, these sorts of opportunities have been few and far between. I participated in more live events prior to 2020, and I miss them. To KUOW, Rock & Roll Globe, and Video Librarian for letting me write/talk about any film or soundtrack that caught my fancy (and for paying on time). And to Aaron Hillis (Playtime) and Martin Scorsese (The Film Foundation) for introducing--and re-introducing--me to many fine films, all for the low cost of no dollars.      

  

Images: EO (Sideshow / Janus Films / The New Yorker), Decision to Leave (Mubi / The New York Times), White Noise (Netflix / Everyeye Cinema), After Yang (A24 / The Atlantic), AmbuLAnce (Universal / Cinema Blend), and The Last Movie Stars (HBO / TV Insider).

Movies for Music Lovers: 2019 Edition

Aisling Franciosi in The Nightingale / IFC

Click here for the 2018 edition.

2019 was a good year for film. In most other respects--personally, politically, professionally--it wasn't the best. But it wasn't all bad. There were plenty of bright spots; it's just that the lows were so low, I've had trouble appreciating the highs. I'm working on it. The movies helped. They always do.

Links lead to my reviews for Seattle Film Blog, The Stranger, and City Pages. My reviews for Video Librarian live behind a paywall. Sadly, Video Librarian's founder retired this year and put the magazine to bed. Then, at the last minute, he found a buyer for the website, so I'll continue to contribute in 2020. Grateful for the 11 years of work he sent my way--timely payment, too. With the advent of streaming, video-reviewing gigs aren't as plentiful as they once were, but the need for reviews of non- and post-theatrical films remains.

Top 10
1. The Nightingale (Jennifer Kent)
2. The Irishman (Martin Scorsese)
3. The Souvenir (Joanna Hogg)
4. Marriage Story (Noah Baumbach)
5. Uncut Gems (Josh and Benny Safdie)
6. Once Upon a Time … in Hollywood (Quentin Tarantino)
7. Parasite (Bong Joon-ho)
8. Pain and Glory (Pedro Almodóvar)
9. Hustlers (Lorene Scafaria)
10. First Love (Miike Takashi)

Note: Happy to see my piece about women + music in Tarantino's films in City Pages' roundup of the year's best music stories. ICYMI, I reviewed the new QT documentary here.   

Strickland does it again / A24

Runners-up
11. In Fabric (Peter Strickland)
12. Portrait of a Lady on Fire (Céline Sciamma)
13. Synonyms (Nadav Lapid)
14. Asako I & 2 (Ryûsuke Hamaguchi)
15. A Bread Factory (Patrick Wang)
16. Transit (Christian Petzold)
17. Fighting With My Family (Stephen Merchant)
18. Ash Is Purest White (Jia Zhangke)
19. Little Women (Greta Gerwig)
20. Charlie Says (Mary Harron)

Note: Fighting With My Family was the best Florence Pugh film of the year. 

21. Rocketman (Dexter Fletcher)
23. Destroyer (Karyn Kusama)
24. Diane (Kent Jones)
25. Atlantics (Mati Diop)
26. Us (Jordan Peele)
27. Gloria Bell (Sebastián Lelio)
28. Knives Out (Rian Johnson)
29. The Report (Scott Z. Burns)
30. Clemency (Chinonye Chukwu)
31. Dark Waters (Todd Haynes)
32. The Farewell (Lulu Wang)
33. Koko-Di, Koko-Da (Johannes Nyholm)
34. Booksmart (Olivia Wilde)
35. The Dead Don't Die (Jim Jarmusch)
36. Capernaum (Nadine Labaki)
37. Driveways (Andrew Ahn)
38. Dolemite Is My Name (Craig Brewer)
39. Her Smell (Alex Ross Perry)
40. Monos (Alejandro Landes)

Also worthy of note: Birth on the Border, Bombshell, Burning Cane, Carmen y Lola, Cold War (2018), Crystal Swan, Depraved, High Flying Bird, High Life, Invest in Failure (2018), Invisible Life, Joker, Jojo Rabbit, Just Mercy, Knife+Heart, Knives and Skin, La Flor, The Last Black Man in San Francisco, Les Misérables, Let the Corpses Tan (2018), Luce, Nailed It: Vietnamese & the Nail Industry, Marceline. A Woman. A Century, Non-Fiction, Olancho, Richard Jewell, Sex Weather, Sollers Point, The Sound of Silence, Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018), Swinging Safari, A Thousand Girls Like Me, Tomorrow Never Knows, Waves, and Wild Rose.

American Factory worker / Higher Ground-Netflix

Top Documentaries
1. American Factory (Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar)
2. Apollo 11 (Todd Douglas Miller)
3. The Apollo (Robert Ross Williams)
4. Amazing Grace (Sydney Pollack and Alan Elliot)
5. Miles Davis: Birth of the Cool (Stanley Nelson)
6. Rolling Thunder Review: A Bob Dylan Story (Martin Scorsese)
7. Marianne & Leonard: Words of Love (Nick Broomfield)
8. Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground (Chuck Smith)
9. You Don't Nomi (Jeffrey McHale)
10. Honeyland (Tamara Kotevska and Ljubo Stefanov)

Note: Of all the films I reviewed in 2019, Barbara Rubin and the Exploding NY Underground is the only one with a 100% T-Meter score. Also, Birth of the Cool will be coming to American Masters in 2020. I wrote a blurb about it for KCTS 9's e-newsletter. 

Doc Runners-up
11. The Edge of Democracy (Petra Costa)
12. Linda Ronstadt: The Sound of My Voice (Rob Epstein and Jeffrey Friedman)
13. Roll Red Roll (Nancy Schwartzman)
14. Memory: The Origins of Alien (Alexandre O. Philippe)
15. Storm in My Heart (Mark Cousins)
16. Making Waves: The Art of Cinematic Sound (Midge Costin)
17. On Her Shoulders (Alexandria Bombach)
18. The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman (Rosine Mbakam)
19. To Die in the Desert (Marta Ferrer)
20. Fyre: The Party That Never Was (Chris Smith)

Matt Baume introduces You Don't Nomi at NWFF

Missed or haven't seen yet: The Beach Bum, By the Grace of God, Cats, The Case of Hana and Alice, The Cave, David Crosby: Remember My Name, An Elephant Sitting Still, I Lost My Body, Leaving Neverland, Little Woods, Long Day's Journey Into Night, Love, Antosha, Lynch: A History, Maiden, Missing Link, The Mustang, One Child Nation, Peterloo, Raise Hell: The Life & Times of Molly Ivins, Sword of Trust, Tell Me Who I Am, The Third Wife, Toy Story 4, Weathering With You, What You Gonna Do When the World’s on Fire, and Wrestle.

Yes, I did see: A Beautiful Day in the Neighborhood, Greta, Honey Boy, Judy, The Lighthouse, Midsommar, and Under the Silver Lake.



Endnote: I continue to watch less TV than I once did. Last year, I said I looked forward to catching up with Atlanta, Barry, Better Call Saul, Sharp Objects, and the final seasons of Breaking Bad and Justified. I only caught up with Sharp Objects and Breaking Bad, not counting the made-for-Netflix movie El Camino, though I did catch up with Ken Burns' Country Music, The Durrells in Corfu, Fleabag, GLOW, Grantchester, Mindhunter, Press, Succession, Unbelievable, and When They See Us. Plus, I just started The Good Place--and I'm always caught up with Law & Order: SVU. Priorities!

Movies for Music Lovers: 2018 Edition

Thomasin McKenzie in Leave No Trace

Click here for the 2017 edition.

Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends! Though I spend a substantial portion of the year avoiding ranked lists as best as I can, I wait until the tail end of each one to give in to my most hierarchical impulses.

As with last year, I've decided to keep commentary to a minimum, but if there are any films you feel strongly about that you don't see listed below, feel free to leave a comment or drop me a line. If it isn't here, it's more likely that I didn't see it than that I didn't like it...unless you're touting Bohemian Rhapsody or A Star Is Born. It's not that I hated either one, it's just that when it comes to music films in 2018, docs were where it was at. In any case, I have screeners for most of the year's award-seeking films through membership in the Seattle Film Critics Society, for which I've served as trustee for the second year in a row, so I plan to spend January catching up with the films that I missed.

Amanda Seyfried in First Reformed

Links lead to my reviews for or podcast contributions to SIFFBlog, SIFFcast, and The Stranger. A few, like Bad Reputation, also appeared in The Portland Mercury (my reviews for Video Librarian live behind a paywall or by way of a print subscription). Starting in 2018, my Stranger reviews have found a second home at Rotten Tomatoes.

If I did a better job at keeping up with new films than in 2017, I failed to write about as many of them due to a variety of factors, including other responsibilities and distractions. Here's to a more creatively and financially fulfilling year for me, for you, and for everyone we know!

Top 10*
1. Leave No Trace (Debra Granik)
2. First Reformed (Paul Schrader)
3. The Favourite (Yorgos Lanthimos)
4. Angels Wear White (Vivian Qu)
5. Shoplifters (Hirozaku Kore-eda)
6. BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee)
7. Mandy (Panos Cosmatos)
8. Sorry to Bother You (Boots Riley)
9. Happy as Lazzaro (Alice Rohrwacher)
10. Annihilation (Alex Garland)

*The Phantom Thread didn't open in Seattle until 2018, and I missed the 2017 press screening. If I'd seen it then, it would've made last year's top 10. To make room for as many new releases as possible, I've given it a sort of honorable mention by acknowledging that I don't know where to place it, so for the time being: it lives inside this footnote. 



Note: I don't take back anything I've ever said about Lanthimos. Working with Tony McNamara and Deborah Davis's brilliant script made a world of difference to his filmmaking. I still consider The Killing of a Sacred Deer, which folds Michael Haneke's worst traits into one film, among 2017's most overrated art house efforts. Meanwhile, Luca Guadagnino, whose previous two features made past lists, fell from my grace with his pointless remake of Suspiria.

Runners-up
11. 1945 (Ferenc Török)
12. Black Panther (Ryan Coogler)
13. Can You Ever Forgive Me? (Marielle Heller)
14. Support the Girls (Andrew Bujalski)
15. Madeline's Madeline (Josephine Dekker)
16. Félicité (Alain Gomis)
17. Don't Worry He Won't Get Far on Foot (Gus Van Sant)
18. Burning (Lee Chang-dong)
19. The Ballad of Buster Scruggs (Joel and Ethan Coen)
20. Isle of Dogs (Wes Anderson)

Adriano Tardiolo in Happy as Lazzaro

Second Runners-up
21. Widows (Steve McQueen)
22. Roma (Alfonso Cuarón)
23. Claire's Camera (Hong Sang-soo)
24. If Beale Street Could Talk (Barry Jenkins)
25. Private Life (Tamara Jenkins)
26. Thelma (Joaquim Trier)
27. Thoroughbreds (Cory Finley)
28. Eighth Grade (Bo Burnham)
29. November (Rainer Sarnet)
30. You Were Never Really Here (Lynne Ramsay)

Note: I usually include documentaries in my top 30, but decided to separate them from narrative features this year. I don't have a good reason for this; it just felt right. I'll probably revert to form in 2019.

Top Documentaries
1. Won't You Be My Neighbor (Morgan Neville)
2. Monrovia, Indiana (Frederick Wiseman)
3. Whitney (Kevin Macdonald)
4. Filmworker (Tony Zierra)
5. Hal (Amy Scott)
6. Bad Reputation (Kevin Kerslake)
7. M.I.A. Maya Matanga (Steven Loveridge)
8. Shirkers (Sandi Tan)
9. Dark Money (Kimberly Reed)
10. Divide and Conquer: The Story of Roger Ailes (Alexis Bloom)

Gothic Estonian horror in November

Doc Runners-up
11. Milford Graves: Full Mantis (Jake Meginsky)
12. Bisbee '17 (Robert Greene)
13. Hale County This Morning, This Evening (RaMell Ross )
14. Boom for Real: The Late Teenage Years of Jean-Michel Basquiat (Sara Driver)
15. Naila and the Uprising (Julia Bacha)
16. McQueen (Ian Bonhôte and Peter Ettedgui)
17. Grace Jones: Bloodlight and Bami (Sophie Fiennes)
18. The Departure (Lana Wilson)
19. RBG (Betsy Cohen and Betsy West)
20. Three Identical Strangers (Tim Wardle)

Note: Of the fashion-oriented films released in 2018, Bonhote and Ettedgui's portrait of the late British designer Alexander McQueen ranks above them all. By contrast, Lorna Tucker's Vivienne Westwood documentary, Westwood: Punk, Icon, Activist, plays as if the subject pressured her to stick to a narrow script, and she probably did. Free rein shouldn't be a requirement for effective portraiture, but the film needed a director who saw the limited scope as an opportunity to tap creative impulses rather than a directive to keep them in check. As a corrective, I'd recommend Viv Albertine's 2014 memoir, Clothes, Clothes, Clothes. Music, Music, Music. Boys, Boys, Boys., for a more idiosyncratic take on Britain's fashion scene during the punk era, including appearances from Westwood and Malcolm McLaren.



Also worthy of note*: A Ciambra, After Louie, Aida's Secrets, Ask the Sexpert, Big Sonia, Birdboy - The Forgotten Children, Blaze, Borderline, Borrowed Time, Breaking Silence, Catwalk: Tales from the Cat Show Circuit, The Children Act, Damsel, The Death of Stalin, The Divine Order (2017), Driving with Selvi, En el Séptimo Día, Forever, Chinatown, Gemini, Gender Troubles: The Butches, The Gospel According to André, Half the Picture, Heaven is a Traffic Jam on the 405, Hereditary, I Miss You When I See You, The Issue of Mr. O'Dell, John McEnroe: In the Realm of Perfection, Just Charlie, The Kindergarten Teacher, Larger Than Life: The Kevyn Aucoin Story, Last Child, Lean on Pete, Let the Sunshine In, Little Stones, Logan Lucky (2017), Lou Andreas-Salomé: The Audacity to be Free, Love After Love, Love, Gilda, Mama Colonel, Mankiller: Activist, Feminist, Cherokee Chief, Men: A Love Story, M.F.A., The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Mom and Dad, Next Time I’ll Aim for the Heart, Oh, Lucy!, A Private War, Pushing Dead, Puzzle, Revenge, Ryuichi Sakamoto: Coda, Serenade for Haiti, The Sisters Brothers, Skate Kitchen, Spettaculo (2017), A Star Is Born, Stumped, That Summer, Tania Libre, Thor: Ragnarok (2017), Unsane, The Untold Tales of Armistead Maupin, Virus Tropical, Whipping Zombie, A Woman and Her Car, Wildlife, Yours in Sisterhood, and Zama.

*I count video releases, and I review a lot of videos, though it's worth noting that some films received theatrical releases in previous years, while others made their 2018 debut on video.

Barbara Loden in Wanda, her sole directorial effort

Missed or haven’t seen yet: Anna and 
the Apoc-
alypse, Aquaman, Assassination Nation, Beautiful Boy, Ben Is Back, Border, Bumblebee, Charm City, Colette, Crazy Rich Asians (though I've listened to the score; it's fine), Disobedience, The Endless (didn't grab me; may try again later), The Front Runner, The Great Buddha, The Hate U Give, Hearts Beat Loud, Hold the Dark, Incredibles 2, The Land of Steady Habits, Last Letter, Mirai, Monsters and Men, The Old Man & the Gun, On Chesil Beach, On the Basis of Sex, Paddington 2, A Quiet Place, Ralph Breaks the Internet, Sadie, Searching, They'll Love Me When I'm Dead, Tully, and The Wife.

Top Archival Releases
1. Sansho the Bailiff (Kenji Mizoguchi)
2. Wanda (Barbara Loden)
3. Belle de Jour (Luis Buñuel)
4. Edward II (Derek Jarman)
5. The Crime of Monsieur Lange (Jean Renoir)

Didn't like: Maniac (though Emma Stone is quite good), Mary, Queen of Scots, Molly's Game, and Wim Wender's Submergence.



Endnote: I watched less TV than usual, but I enjoyed GLOW the best (props to local filmmaker Lynn Shelton for her excellent work on the Netflix series). Also, that one bonkers episode of Law & Order: SVU with Judd Hirsch and Wallace Shawn. I look forward to catching up with Atlanta, Barry, Better Call Saul, Sharp Objects, and the final seasons of Breaking Bad and Justified in the months to come.