Over the past year, I was doing a series of posts that I dubbed "An Anniversary Retrospective" and I would list my top 10 films from various years of cinema that were celebrating a milestone anniversary.
These posts have been very fun for me to do, and I have liked the responses that they have received...so naturally, I want to continue this as we enter this new year.
However, I am going to change it up a little bit.
I thought a lot about how a few specific years will be celebrating milestone anniversaries that I consider to be among the best in the history of cinema. Strangely enough, there are many years ending in "9" that I think are truly magnificent in their output.
1939 gets a lot of attention as the de-facto "Greatest Year for Film", but I want to shine my light on other years that end in "9" that I consider to be first rate: 1979, 1989, 1999, 2019, and to a lesser extent, 1959.
Instead of limiting myself to the anniversary motif, I will also be doing lists based around other years for film that I consider to be among the best-of-the-best.
I am going to start with 1989, a year that I feel isn't always grouped into such an esteemed list. I also feel like it is a great year in which we got some truly wonderful films that might be considered more mainstream rather than artsy...but it also is a year where we see a glimpse into what 90s cinema would offer us: a great indie scene that felt more inspired by 70s cinema and was mostly lost in the 80s.
I am also going to try to single out more than 10 films because some of the years simply warrant more films to be mentioned...or maybe I am just trying to meet an even number because I would rather discuss 20 films instead of 17 due to some kind of number-based OCD.
Oh well. It is my blog. ;-)
Some of these selections below will contain spoilers while some I may keep quiet on, so just be forewarned.
With that, let us begin with discussing 20 films from 1989 that I think deserve a mention:
Considering how the two most recent installments were rather "meh" in their eventual product, it does make me wish that they had just kept Indiana Jones as a trilogy.
After the more erratic response given to the second installment Temple of Doom, there is a definite return to normalcy with The Last Crusade, but it has an added dose of warmth and fun with the addition of Sean Connery as Indy's father Henry along with the flashbacks of young Indy played by River Phoenix.
While I might consider Raiders to be a better overall film, I can't really deny how enjoyable that Last Crusade is and how it is one of the greatest sequels ever made. It all comes down to that dynamic between Ford and Connery, which easily makes the funniest out of all the entries.
I remember growing up how my mother always said that when movies had three installments that the second film was always the weakest and that the third was an improvement. She strongly felt this about Indiana Jones (considering that comment was made well before Crystal Skull was released), and while there are always exceptions to the rule (ahemGodfatherahem), I do think it is true amongst the Indiana Jones offerings.
Having said that, Temple of Doom is a lot of fun too.
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#19 - ENEMIES: A LOVE STORY
Written & Directed by Paul Mazursky
Co-written by Roger L. Simon
Mazursky is one of the filmmakers that I feel doesn't get enough attention these days, but he was always good at crafting very witty but sometimes dramatic films like Bob & Carol & Ted & Alice, Next Stop Greewnich Village, Moscow on the Hudson, Down & Out in Beverly Hills, and my personal favorite: An Unmarried Woman.
One of the his best and more dramatic efforts was 1989's Enemies, A Love Story which resolves around a Holocaust survivor named Herman (Ron Silver) who migrated to the US and married his former maid Yadwiga (Margaret Sophie Stein) after he assumes his wife Tamara (Anjelica Huston) perished at Auschwitz.
Herman has also taken up an affair with Masha (Lena Olin) when he soon discovers that not only Tamara ended up surviving the concentration camp, but that she came to New York to be with him.
Like clockwork, both Yadwiga and Masha discover that they are pregnant.
This is a story that borders on the melodramatic and yet, it often feels surprisingly subtle and bleak with moments of intensity that feel earned.
Perhaps it is a film that suffers a little from truly being able to connect with some of its characters, particularly that of Herman, but Mazursky is able to get a lot of his female actors in terms of wonderful performances. Olin and Huston both received Oscar nominations (with some, at the time, thinking that Huston might pull off the victory) and they alone make the film worth checking out.
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#18 - DEAD POETS SOCIETY
Directed by Peter Weir
Considering I was only a year old when Dead Poets Society was first released, my first exposure to the film was seeing the trailer on a VHS rental. By the time I was 6 years old (circa 1994), I was very familiar with Robin Williams due to Hook, Aladdin, and his then newest film Mrs. Doubtfire.
I can remember seeing Dead Poets Society popping up and my mom immediately shutting down the idea of me seeing it: "No, it is for adults. It is too dark and too sad".
And sure, she was right...but that statement strangely stayed with me. It was my first instance of really remembering and taking notice to (even at that young of an age) an actor I thought was more of a funny guy and that he was in a movie that could be considered "sad" and "dark".
Nowadays, it is obvious the film has maintained a kind of solid pop culture hold particularly with Robin Williams' John Keating reciting the iconic "Carpe Diem" or the use of "O Captain, My Captain" complete with them standing on a desk.
On a random note, the film managed to win Best Original Screenplay at the Oscars in what was considered an upset over films like Crimes & Misdemeanors, Do The Right Thing,sex, lies, and videotape, and When Harry Met Sally.
Spoiler alert but you will be seeing all 4 of those films on the list ahead...so I do sort of feel inclined to say that Dead Poets Society was the weakest. However, that is the problem with comparisons in these cases.
There is a reason the film has endured for so long, but I do feel maybe these other films spoke to me on a deeper level.
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#17 - ROGER & ME
Written & Directed by Michael Moore
On the evening of March 23, 2003, I was watching the live broadcast of the 75th Oscars which was just THREE DAYS after we officially began The Iraq War. Tensions were high and we even had built in delays during the broadcast so news reports could be given before we returned to the ceremony.
A lot was said about this war and more informed opinions have involved in the years since, but there were those who believed right off the bat that this was not a war we should be having.
Michael Moore took to the stage winning his predicted Oscar for the iconic documentary Bowling for Columbine and proceeded to bash George W. Bush for the war. The audience boos, but some just sit in bemused or awkward silence.
Harrison Ford grinned, Martin Scorsese claps, Adrien Brody doesn't even know how to take it and glances around for reactions....but it was such a great and warranted moment and Michael Moore was totally right.
Needless to say, Michael Moore became a household name that night and it led me to seek out the film that had originally made him known in film circles: Roger & Me, a look at how the actions of GM CEO Roger Smith's closing down several auto plants in his hometown of Flint, Michigan led to the economical downfall of the area.
Moore portraying Smith as the out-of-touch buffoon that he was undoubtedly made the film seen as a disgrace to Smith and other higher ups at GM, but it became highly popular from people within the company who enjoyed seeing Smith be made a fool of.
The exposure led to GM's stock to drop, but Moore was also accused of falsifying details considering at the time, Flint was considered to be on something a slight rise (which we've since discovered would not be long lasting)...but regardless of what you have to say about Moore's choices, there is no denying that Smith deserved the drubbing.
Michael Moore may love to showboat, but his intentions are usually pretty spot on.
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#16 - TIE ME UP! TIE ME DOWN!
Written & Directed by Pedro Almodovar
This will likely be the most controversial film on this list...and the one that I often battle with in terms of the story it is trying to tell.
But it is Pedro Almodovar, a man who is able to master dark comedy in the most surprising of places.
Tie Me Up! Tie Me Down! is a film about rape/assault. You could completely argue that this is a film that plays out like a sick fantasy for a man who is willing to do whatever it takes to make a woman love him...but for those of you who haven't seen it, I will leave it vague as to whether or not that works out for the guy.
Ricky (an early role for Antonio Banderas) is a young man who is a released from a mental institution because he is deemed to be cured. However, he eagerly wants to seek out a relationship with a former porn star turned actress named Marina (Victoria Abril) with whom he slept with once when he actually escaped from the hospital.
After forcing himself into the apartment, he ties her up and tapes her mouth shut and makes sure she knows that he is doing this because it will be a way for her to get to know him better...and that by the end of it, she will fall in love and want to get married.
So yeah...this one is a doozy...
Almodovar, a filmmaker who is typically known for being a master when it comes to writing and directing women, faced some attacks for what seemed like a film that condoned the actions of a truly deranged man. I can understand that sentiment, but I view the film as a very dark melodramatic satire and despite its incredibly sinister undertones, we aren't meant to take it that seriously.
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#15 - HOMEWORK
Written & Directed by Abbas Kiarostami
Iranian filmmaker Abbas Kiarostami has gotten some mentions over the past couple of years on my blog via such films as Taste of Cherry and Where is the Friend's House? which both seem to be among the most known of his work.
Homework is something of a hidden gem, but what makes it stand out is that it is more of a narrative documentary.
Set at the Shahlid Masumi School, Kiarostami interviews several students along with some of the parents to get their insight on the standard practice of giving out homework to students...and while illiteracy among some of the students is a concern, the fact that some of the parents also suffer from illiteracy proves to be a major hurdle in them being able to help their children.
Perhaps the most famous documentary of 1989 is Michael Moore's "put him on the nap" outing of Roger & Me...but I did put Homework ahead of it because I think it hit more of a powerful note in the grand scheme. It is a very interesting, if not bleak, look at an issue that is certainly not discussed as much whether it be here in the States or somewhere like Iran.
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#14 - THE SEVENTH CONTINENT
Written & Directed by Michael Haneke
Co-written by Johanna Teicht
Leave it to Michael Haneke to destroy your soul and you still end up admiring him for it.
After making a bigger name for himself with such bleak and brutal films such as Funny Games, The Piano Teacher, The White Ribbon, and Amour, I feel like a lot of people have either forgotten about or not heard of The Seventh Continent, the film that began to net him notice on a wider scale.
You could argue that the film is something of a strange companion piece to that of Chantal Akerman's Jeanne Dielman in that we are witnessing a fair amount of domestic life and the routines within...but unlike that other film, The Seventh Continent focuses on a family and despite the routines, we do sense a certain bleakness beneath the surface...until the end shows us that perhaps it was far more devastating than we ever realized.
Perhaps the ending wasn't a huge shock for me when I finally saw the film as I had already seen a fair amount of his films by that point...but Haneke is a dark and relentless filmmaker. For every torture porn film out there...and you can even argue Funny Games may even flirt with that category...they have nothing on the intense emotional gut punch that Haneke seems to provide in pretty much everything he does.
It is a film that truly taps into that feeling of whether there truly is much meaning to existing and then approaches it with such a nihilism. As with any Haneke effort, perhaps you should wait to view this when you are in a stable from of mind.
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#13 - MY LEFT FOOT
Written & Directed by Jim Sheridan
Co-written by Shane Connaughton/Original Work by Christy Brown
Jim Sheridan is a filmmaker who has seemingly disappeared from the public eye. I can't even recall the last time I have seen one of is films, but during the 80s and up to 2003's In America, he provided us with some very solid vehicles that were often wonderful gets for his performers.
The legend of Daniel Day-Lewis began, in my mind, with his work as Christy Brown in My Left Foot, the autobiographical film about said writer/painter who suffered from cerebral palsy and could only work with his functioning left foot.
A lot of what makes this film work aside from its inspiring story is the dedicated work of Daniel Day-Lewis and the incredibly strong support given by Brenda Fricker.
Day-Lewis is now considered to be retired but a lot of his legend rides on the fact that he was a method actor who lived deeply within his roles during shooting...but he never thought that made him a better actor than others, it was just the process that worked for him and he didn't try to flaunt it in others faces like...say...Jared Leto.
His commitment to this role is simply stunning and considering his passion and strong spirit make him a compelling figure to watch, it is also no surprise to me that Brenda Fricker, an Irish actress who at that point was only really known to UK audiences for her performance on the soap opera Casualty, won an Oscar along with him.
It is a movie of great warmth and compassion and while some may write it off as dull and a bit of a slog to sit through, I find it to be a very inspirational piece.
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#12 - THE LITTLE MERMAID
Written & Directed by John Musker & Ron Clements
I feel very confident in saying that, as a whole, The Little Mermaid not only holds up very well in terms of films from the Disney canon, but it is undoubtedly one of the most important as well.
The modern standard of the Disney animated film truly began with The Little Mermaid, as its incorporation of a Broadway musical structure helped launch the flailing Disney Studios into the era that would become known as the Disney Renaissance.
The late writer/lyricist Howard Ashman, along with his composing partner Alan Menken, were crucial to the development of The Little Mermaid...and the results are certainly being felt to this day. Even if Disney may be struggling a bit again, the films of the Disney Renaissance are still held in high regard.
Aside from the fact that the film contains a contender for one of the best Disney villains (Ursula), it also has such a classic feel in its animation that sets it apart from the more computerized elements that would be sprinkled throughout the other Renaissance outings right after.
Not to mention, that Menken/Ashman score is a marvel.
Considering I was only a year old when it came out, I can't even remember a time of my life where this film wasn't a part of it. The nostalgia factor is real, but it is just simply a gold standard of how to do an animated film musical.
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#11 - WHEN HARRY MET SALLY
Written by Nora Ephron
Directed by Rob Reiner
I think a lot of people may take the writing of Nora Ephron for granted.
If you want to talk about modern day romantic comedies, you can easily make the case that she was the master at the form...and in turn, that may make many scoff who consider romantic comedies as a lesser artform.
What is kind of remarkable though is how much these kinds of films can truly stick the landing when done to their best potential, and as you may have gathered, When Harry Met Sally is one of those films that reached that lofty potential.
Told over the span of a decade, Harry and Sally (Billy Crystal & Meg Ryan) who share a ride from Chicago to New York as he is heading for a new job out of college while she is moving on to journalism school. After seeming like a mismatch, their paths keep crossing throughout the 80s and their attraction begins to blossom the more they spend time together.
A lot of the formula that has made modern day romantic comedies comes from When Harry Met Sally and because of that, I feel like much like the writing of Ephron, we take the whole film for granted for that reason.
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#10 - SANTA SANGRE
Written & Directed by Alejandro Jodorowsky
Co-written by Robert Leoni & Claudio Argento
Jodorowsky is known for being a pretty challenging filmmaker who is quite intense and bold with his representation of horror and violence...which does make you wonder how he would've fared if he had actually been able to tackle Dune.
It is kind of laughable to say that Santa Sangre is likely his most accessible film, but I would argue that it may be the closest thing he has to such a claim. I think a lot of that may be due to the fact that the film has more of a linear narrative...sort of like how Blue Velvet is easier to follow in David Lynch's filmography compared to Lost Highway or Mulholland Drive.
Santa Sangre is one psychotic and chaotic circus of a film...and the circus angle is fitting since our lead character Fenix (played Jodorowsky's son, Axel) was a former circus performer. We meet him at a mental institution as he sits naked in a tree where nurses try to coax him down with a plate of raw fish, because we all know raw fish just makes everyone overcome with excitement.
Fenix escapes the hospital and is able to locate his mother Concha (Blanca Guerra), who leads a truly disturbing religious cult and she forces him to commit brutal murders in her name.
So yes, this might be Jordorowsky's most accessible film, but to put it bluntly, it is still a mindfuck.
You could argue that film taps into that Freudian-esque mother obsession taken to a whole new level from that of Norman Bates in Psycho.
This is film that promises to provide madness and somehow still lives you in awe of the truly disturbing operatic scope that it provides. No words can truly do it justice, and it isn't necessarily for the faint of heart.
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#9 - KIKI'S DELIVERY SERVICE
Written & Directed by Hayao Miyazaki
For perhaps the biggest 180 turn I could possibly give you...
Is it just me or does Kiki's Delivery Service not get same level of attention and love as some of Miyazaki's other work?
I will admit that I don't think it is his best work by any means but considering the high quality of the majority of his output, it comes as no surprise that Kiki stands out even in a great year for film like 1989.
Very few filmmakers have had the kind of track record that Miyazaki has had...and particularly all the films that come out of Studio Ghibli.
Much like My Neighbor Totoro before it, there is a lot of pure joy while watching Kiki's Delivery Service that normally may make me scoff otherwise...but there is something magical about how this team can make a joyous film like this work.
Kiki is a young witch who is out on her year of independence in the real world, but she is finding difficulty fitting in with everyone around her while she works for an air courier service.
It's a simple but fanciful plot, and while I could see a lot of other studios/filmmakers dropping the ball here, it is the right kind of inspirational and lively film that Ghibli/Miyazaki know how to sell.
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#8 - DRUGSTORE COWBOY
Written & Directed by Gus Van Sant
Co-written by Daniel Yost
The film that began to put Gus Van Sant on the map, Drugstore Cowboy doesn't seem to be as remembered or as discussed as much as his other work. I had discovered the film through my interest in watching episodes of Siskel & Ebert and reading their reviews back in the 90s not long before Gene Siskel passed away. Both had included the film on their Top 10 lists of the year, and the description of it certainly intrigued me.
Set in the early 70s, a young couple named Bob and Dianne (Matt Dillon & Kelly Lynch), along with their friends Rick and Nadine (James LeGros & Heather Graham), bounce around the Pacific Northwest robbing pharmacies and hospitals as a means to support their drug addictions.
Drugstore Cowboy is the first of a few films on this top 10 that played a crucial role in highlighting a surge back to prominent indie filmmaking, which I will discuss more when I go into some of the other films on this list...but it was still a film that was mainly embraced by the critics while not receiving a lot of mainstream attention.
When I think about films that delve into drug addiction, I feel like two major examples that come to mind as they came out in the early stages of my filmgoing discovery were Trainspotting and Requiem for a Dream. There is undoubtedly a gritty bleak quality to those and frankly, I feel Drugstore Cowboy deserves to be seen and talked about as much as those.
I always think back to the scene where Matt Dillon has to identify Heather Graham's body in the morgue after she ODs. If I recall, it might one of the first instances, if not THE first instance where I saw such a scene in a film.
A truly haunting and unnerving piece of work that still ranks highly amongst Gus Van Sant's best.
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#7 - MYSTERY TRAIN
Written & Directed by Jim Jarmusch
Sigh...Jim Jarmusch.
While not exactly a household name, Jarmusch is one of those indie filmmakers who tends to be quite beloved in film circles but has yet to receive any kind of mainstream recognition like some of his contemporaries such as The Coen Brothers or Steven Soderbergh.
While I wouldn't consider it his best film, Mystery Train is very much a great film that ranks near the top of his filmography and is also a great example of what can be so wonderful about a Jarmusch film.
The film consists of three stories, all linked by the decrepit Arcade Hotel in Memphis.
The most remembered and perhaps indelible story is the first, which is called "Far From Yokohama", which sees a young Japanese couple named Mitsuko & Jun (Youki Kudoh & Masatoshi Nagase) traveling through the States but they stop in Memphis as Jun has a particular obsession with Elvis Presley...and conveniently enough, the rooms of the Arcade Hotel don't contain a TV...but each are adorned with a portrait of Presley.
But beyond that one story, the film feels like a quiet bubbling river moving along...and it is that sort of listless quality that may drive some crazy. You could say it is one of those films that shows a universe and we are there to witness it unfold in all its quirky, punk-like glory.
Also - the use of the "Chekhov's gun" motif is used so freshly in this film that I can't help but give it an extra bonus point for that purpose.
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#6 - CHAMELEON STREET
Written & Directed by Wendell B. Harris, Jr.
"Some people call me Mr. Wonderful...other people call me William Douglas Street, Jr."
When I first began watching Shark Tank years ago, I would always hear Kevin O'Leary refer to himself as Mr. Wonderful...but in truth, the REAL Mr. Wonderful is Wendell B. Harris, Jr. and William Douglas Street, Jr.
Chameleon Street is a film that premiered at the Toronto Festival of Festivals, or as it is now known, the Toronto International Film Festival...and would win the Grand Jury Prize at Sundance's 1990 Festival. Despite this, it would take nearly a full year for this small film to find a distributor and the reviews were extremely mixed.
For every review calling it a "disappointment" and a "disjointed" mess, there were others calling it "highly original" and "provocative"...and I suppose that can be the norm when dealing with a satire.
William Douglas Street Jr. is a high-school dropout and a highly experienced con artist who has posed as doctors and lawyers and athletes and even posing as a surgeon who somehow was able to perform 36 successful hysterectomies.
In recent years, Richard Brody of The New Yorker became a champion of the film, calling it "an overlooked masterpiece".
Yes, it is.
Chameleon Street was ahead of its time. The satire of it feels far more biting than anything else from that time period and it also shows us the great skill that Harris has...but Brody also pointed out that Harris' skill and content displayed in the film sadly mirrors the lack of attention he has been able to sustain for a career.
I have always felt that Wendell B. Harris, Jr. is someone who is a prime example of a marginalized figure who deserves way more than he has actually gotten. And while he is apparently in post-production on a documentary that his been a decade-plus long passion project that delves into such topics as the military industrial complex, I still think a work such as Chameleon Street is something that needs to be seen more. It made me happy to see Criterion promoting it on their Instagram last year.
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#5 - THE COOK, THE THIEF, HIS WIFE, & HER LOVER
Written & Directed by Peter Greenaway
Out of all the filmmakers on this list, Peter Greenaway has the distinction of being the only one in which I have seen just one of his films.
You don't really hear a lot about Greenaway these days, and for whatever reason, the rest of his filmography never seemed to be as readily available to me. Perhaps I should change that as I do think some of his efforts look quite intriguing and divisive...not to mention the fact that THIS film is quite the feast in various ways.
The Cook, The Thief, His Wife, and Her Lover is a film I discovered via that of online film critic James Berardinelli, who has been a fixture on his ReelViews website pretty much since the earliest days of the internet's mainstream infancy. He included the film on his Top 100 list, and it was one of several at the time (2002-2003ish) that I had not heard referenced anywhere before.
I didn't even see the film until around 2007, when it got a bit of a push following the Oscar win of Helen Mirren for The Queen...and needless to say, Mirren's Georgina was a far cry from Queen Elizabeth II.
Georgina is the wife of Albert (Michael Gambon), the abusive pig of a man who owns a French restaurant called Le Hollandais. Georgina is forced by Albert to come to the restaurant every night along with his posse, but one fateful evening, the neglected Georgina happens to catch the glance of a diner (Alan Howard) and before you know it, the two are in the bathroom beginning a fling.
In life, we often get immense pleasure out of sexual acts and great food...but somehow, this film manages to make you repulsed and enthralled with it all at the same time.
This is a film that manages to be glorious and repellant and sumptuous and revolting all at the same time...and it is better to go into blind, but with some caution.
Having said all this, I think I did myself a disservice not checking out the rest of Greenaway's work sooner, so I intend to change that!
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#4 - SEX, LIES, & VIDEOTAPE
Directed by Steven Soderbergh
The 1980s were a decade of glitz and access...a decade of greed and selfish tendencies; a decade in which conservatism dominated in a sickening way.
Amongst that glitz was a decline in prominence for great indie filmmaking. Sure, we did see the slow rise of Jim Jarmusch and particularly The Coen Brothers but there's a reason why when Roger Ebert reviewed 1984's Paris, Texas that he commented that film felt like it was a film that should've come out 10 years prior.
I have already discussed films like Mystery Train and Chameleon Street which fall under this indie umbrella, but there was something very potent about sex, lies, and videotape that made people at the time take notice and it truly feels like one film from that era that gave us hope that we would see an artsy indie uptick in the 1990s.
Even though he would go on to be an Oscar winning director who would manage to straddle the line between indies and bigger box office successes like Ocean's Eleven and Magic Mike, the story of Steven Soderbergh begins here...and frankly, I still think of this as his best film.
Much like Truffaut with The 400 Blows or Satyajit Ray with Pather Panchali, I do think this is one of the best debuts of a filmmaker...especially within the last 40-50 years. At the age of 26, he would win the Palme d'or at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival, still the youngest solo director to ever take the prize...and for his debut at that!
sex, lies, and videotape may have been a key film in unearthing a new interest in indie cinema, but it was also the perfect film to fight against that same conservative nature that dominated the 80s. Even today, we still live in a society that is far more accepting of violence rather than sex. If you look back at Ingmar Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage, that miniseries led to frustrated couples finally being able to air their grievances with one another and caused an uptick/acceptance in divorce as a viable option rather than staying in an unhappy marriage.
Sex, as a topic, is usually treated with shame but I think the film shines a light on how it needs to be talked about way more.
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#3 - CRIMES & MISDEMEANORS
Written & Directed by Woody Allen
The legend of Woody Allen ends here.
Despite solid successes and even winning another Screenplay Oscar for Midnight in Paris back in 2012, I strongly feel that Woody Allen has not made a truly great film since Crimes & Misdemeanors...one of the rare films of his where along with his comedic subplot (involving him, Mia Farrow, and Alan Alda), we get treated to a darker dramatic story that doesn't feel forced or pretentious (with Martin Landau, Anjelica Huston, and Jerry Orbach).
In fact, the film completely portrays these two stories as separate entities and doesn't even try to combine them at first...which might seem jarring, but it actually works out remarkably well. Then, at the end, the stories sort of collide by happenstance when they attend a wedding of a mutual friend/colleague.
Woody Allen, back when he did routinely place himself in his work, plays Cliff, a documentarian who is hired by his pompous brother-in-law Lester (Alda) to make a film about his life and successes as a producer. During the process, Cliff starts to fall for Lester's associate producer Holley (Farrow) even though he is married to Lester's sister Wendy (Joanna Gleason).
Meanwhile, Judah Rosenthal (Landau) is a well-respected and wealthy ophthalmologist who is having an affair with a flight attendant named Dolores (Huston) who is done with Judah's lies about leaving his wife for her. After she threatens to go to his wife Miriam with the truth, Judah panics and talks to his brother Jack (Orbach), who is involved in organized crime...and you probably already know where that is going.
I feel like Crimes & Misdemeanors is such a success that it comes as no surprise that certain themes from the film would become nearly identical plot points in future works of his such as Match Point, Cassandra's Dream, Irrational Man, and Wonder Wheel. Even though Allen himself felt Match Point was one of his best efforts, there is no denying that a lot of that film owes a debt to Crimes &Misdemeanors which truly manages to walk the fine line that is tragicomedy and makes it often quite profound.
Perhaps what really sells that angle is the small subplot where Cliff shows Holley an interview he made with Professor Levy (played by famed NYU Professor of Psychoanalysis Martin S. Bergmann) where he speaks about his thoughts on life and the universe...only for him to commit suicide during this process.
The film ends with a montage that has Bergmann as Levy speaking in voiceover that I find to be one of the most quietly beautiful moments I have seen in a film:
"It is only we, with our capacity to love, that give meaning to the indifferent universe. And yet, most human beings seem to have the ability to keep trying, and even to find joy from simple things, like their family, their work, and from the hope that future generations might understand more".
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#2 - DEKALOG
Written & Directed by Krzysztof Kieslowski
Dekalog was originally presented as a 10-part miniseries on Polish television, but most of them were released as short films in the United States with two of them getting particular notice: A Short Film About Love and A Short Film About Killing.
As it stands, each of the 10 parts focused on one of the Ten Commandments....and even the weaker parts still stand as quite good.
So yes...it was originally a miniseries...but as a whole, this is one of the great masterworks of the 80s and also a crowning achievement of Krzystof Kieslowski's career...which is saying something considering he would go on to make The Double Life of Veronique and the iconic Three Colours Trilogy.
When I originally posted my "Best Films of the 1980s" list a couple of years ago, I debated putting Dekalog on the list, but decided against it...and I will now atone for that by placing it on this list.
My logic at the time was that Dekalog was still technically a TV miniseries, so I excluded it from consideration...but the truth is that I feel like it is too good to ignore here...and besides, we discovered it in the States as a film...sort of similar to both Bergman's Scenes from a Marriage and Fanny & Alexander.
The setting for the film is a housing project in communist Poland and each episode focuses on various tenants facing an ethical dilemma based around, as I mentioned, the Ten Commandments.
Kieslowski passed away only 7 years after Dekalog was first released but in that 7 year period, he truly established a legacy as one of the best filmmakers to have ever lived...and sometimes I still think he is a bit of an unsung hero.
I feel a bit speechless about Dekalog if I am being honest. I read one comment on Letterboxd that viewed the film as a religious experience...and that isn't even related to the "Commandment" connection. It just feels like a monumental moment in artistic expression in a way that not many pieces of entertainment are.
It is art being presented at its best potential...or as close to it as one can get.
Frankly, Dekalog is in a class by itself...but then again, so is my #1 choice and I think both of them warrant the elusive spot. For now, that #1 film will be...
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#1 - DO THE RIGHT THING
Written & Directed by Spike Lee
The sad truth about Do the Right Thing is how relevant the film still remains...and that relevancy never left because its themes on race and police brutality have always been an issue.
It is even more crazy when you realize that in two instances, Spike Lee films lost out on major awards due to voting bodies opting for films that took on a rather docile look at racism. Do the Right Thing was infamously snubbed in the Best Picture and Director races and lost the former prize to Driving Miss Daisy. Years later, Blackkklansman lost Best Picture to Green Book, and while it didn't really have much of a shot, it is no wonder Spike Lee tried to leave the ceremony after its announcement...and in the press room afterwards, he made the proclamation that he doesn't get why he keeps losing to films about white and black people driving.
When I wrote about Do The Right Thing a couple of years ago, I had made a comment based off an interaction I had with a customer at one of my previous jobs.
At this job, I was actually the only white guy on staff. I was closest with a black native New Yorker who was just slightly younger than me in age...but he was talking to me about Do The Right Thing as he had never seen it, but kept hearing about it.
At the same time, we had a black female customer enter the store and she overheard the conversation and she interjected: "You know what I think? I think Spike Lee should've called the movie The Right Thing!".
This is in response to the fact that the character of Mookie, played by Lee himself, starts a riot where he destroys his place of work, Sal's Pizza, after the police end up killing the character of Radio Raheem in a clear case of police brutality.
It makes me think of that oft-quoted line of Martin Luther King Jr: "I think we've got to see that a riot is the language of the unheard".
And I thought a lot about that quote during 2020 as people rioted and protested the death of George Floyd at the hands of Derek Chauvin...and, it must be said, the COUNTLESS senseless deaths of people of color at the hands of the police.
Do The Right Thing was perhaps a bit too radical for the Academy, but it was the truth in 1989 and it is the truth today...sadly.
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FINAL THOUGHTS:
I do think it is remarkable how many fantastic films were released in '89. It just never seems to get the same kind of discussion as 1999 does in terms of great cinema years of the last 40 years or so.
And to be fair, this list left up some fairly popular films like Batman or other films that seem to have strong fanbases to this very day like Steel Magnolias or Say Anything. I also didn't mention Best Picture nominees Born on the Fourth of July, Field of Dreams, and the eventual winner Driving Miss Daisy...well aside from the fact that Daisy was the one to beat the snubbed Do The Right Thing.
As for the other two, I don't think anything is really wrong with July per se, but it is just not strong enough to make my top 20. I also never bought into the sap fest that is Field of Dreams...which I know may be an unpopular opinion but so be it.
I do want to address the movie Heathers, which had been classified for many years as a 1988 film but it didn't technically get a more widespread release till 1989. I had placed the film on my top 10 for 1988...which is a list I made last year as it was the 35th Anniversary. If I were to include Heathers on this list, it would've likely been somewhere in the #9-12 range.
I feel like a lot of my output lately has been a bit more erratic and a lot of that has just been me falling into a bit of a malaise, but I do hope to post a lot more stuff this summer compared to this spring.
Hopefully I can put up my discussion about 1999 next, but there are a few pieces I have been bouncing around with and one of them might get finished first. I guess I will just leave you in suspense then.
Until then, go watch one of these movies! Or all of them!
With so much content out there these days, it can be a bit surprising when something just falls into your lap that you had heard nothing about.
On April 11, 2024, Netflix dropped a Limited Series called Baby Reindeer that was created, written by, and starring Scottish actor/writer/comedian Richard Gadd. I had no prior knowledge of Gadd, but when the series began with a caption implying that it was based on a true story, I had to wonder. I mean...how true is "true". I always think back to the Coen Brothers and how Fargo begins.
It just so happens that Gadd did have a stalker, and the creation of this series came from the one-man stage show he had developed/performed in London.
Many of the elements from beyond this point were fictionalized, but Gadd does take certain incidents from his life to inform his fictional counterpart...and it takes the series into some darker directions that I certainly wasn't expecting at first.
Gadd's fictional counterpart is a 25-year-old Donny Dunn, the age Gadd was when this incident occurred. We first meet him at a police precinct in which he wants to report that he is being stalked...but when he is asked why it has taken him six months to make a report, he doesn't have an answer.
We then flashback to where Donny meets his stalker, the middle-aged Martha (Jessica Gunning). Martha comes into the pub where Donny is working and seems lonely and distraught. He does take pity on her and asks what she would like to order. She claims that she "can't afford anything", but he offers to get her a cup of tea on the house.
From there, Martha goes on and on about how she is very prolific lawyer who had worked with some of the "great, political minds" of the country, which apparently includes former British Prime Ministers David Cameron and Tony Blair. This begs the question: how can a lawyer not afford a cup of tea...or any drink for that matter?
The signs were pointing to Baby Reindeer being a very dark comedy...perhaps like some kind of strange Beef/Fleabag hybrid...but instead it takes a few darker turns. My final opinion of the show is actually quite positive, but I do struggle with some of these tonal shifts. I found myself wondering if certain events played out in such a way or if Gadd was writing the storyline in order to justify it as in many cases, I found myself wanting to yell at the screen for him to do more to try to stop Martha.
Donny looks onto Martha with pity, but it does seem as if on some subconscious level he sees someone else who needs help just like him.
My first response to Donny was that he was just some noob who was not handling having an admirer and instead of taking the appropriate steps to stop her, he seemed to almost milk her obsession. It makes you question what is exactly is up with this guy; is he simply a noob or is there something deeper within the service?
Early on, we get a scene where we see him joining a Trans dating site. No explanation is given, but you are left to wonder if he is perhaps fetishizing trans people...and it is made even more questionable when he creates an alias and acts as though he is in construction and not a struggling comedian who is working as a bartender.
Eventually we discover that right out of college, Donny was sexually assaulted repeatedly by a writer named Darien O'Connor that he greatly admired, and he had hoped would give him a jumpstart to his career. The experience led him to questioning his own sexuality and he would find himself sleeping around and taking drugs to try to cope. The self-loathing and self-destructive tendencies make a little more sense after this...not to say it excuses how he treats others. It is that old saying "HURT people hurt people."
Donny's desire to be wanted and sought after plays right into Martha's obsession. He may not see her as a sexual being, but he does love knowing someone views him as the best thing ever. She takes to calling him her "baby reindeer" which we assume has something to do with his facial structure and the fact he is roughly 20 years younger than her.
However, Donny's carelessness to the situation at first does become a bit more bracing when he realizes that Martha is indeed a former lawyer but one who has been charged for stalking and assault on multiple occasions.
Martha's obsession becomes Donny's own obsession as if he can't seem to live without being Martha's object. She will send him emails (because he does, at first, make sure she doesn't get his phone number) and the only reason she is able to email is due to its inclusion on his website. The emails keep pouring in but none of them are enough to incriminate here even though she is a former felon for the exact crime she is now committing.
I do want to take time to discuss the acting as I feel like our two leads are definitely worth praising. It is no surprise that due to the fact this is his story, Gadd throws himself into the role with abandon. He manages to walk that fine line between being a sympathetic anti-hero with great confidence...and a lot of that confidence comes from how vulnerable he is. He is not afraid to put himself out there and to make a fool of himself...but I would be remiss to not discuss Jessica Gunning's work as Martha.
I had some slight knowledge of Gunning prior to this, but not really familiar with her work. I had only seen her name pop up in various theatre productions or on the BBC show The Outlaws she did with, of all people, Christopher Walken.
Gunning has a difficult task here and in some ways, you can relate a role like this to something like Glenn Close's Alex from Fatal Attraction. This is a whole different kind of woman scorned, though. It isn't so much that she is a woman scorned, but she is a woman who is clearly suffering from a mental illness and not receiving the proper care.
Fatal Attraction, as entertaining as it is, didn't really try to analyze Alex as a character which makes her seem like just a straight up villain. The reason the role worked was that Glenn Close, being the stellar actor that she is, put in the work to understand the psychological backstory and even though the script may not tell us any of this, SHE does.
Gadd is able to show us that Donny contributes to egging on Martha, but he also shows that deep down, Martha is actually a person who simply needs help and perhaps has a method to her madness.
Nearing the climax of the series, Donny is able to incriminate Martha when she finally sends him a voicemail (once he slips and gives her a way to contact him via cell) that is violently threatening to him and his parents (which, by the way, the actor playing Donny's father is hilarious with his thick Scottish brogue telling off Martha over the phone)...but in the courtroom scene in which she pleads guilty to all of the charges against Donny and his family, Gunning is glorious.
I am not saying I condone what Martha does, but there is no way for me to not feel sympathy for her in that moment. Jessica Gunning was a marvel in this role, because she was able to dig deep into finding the humanity in Martha that truly makes you realize that this woman needed serious help.
And who else needs help? Donny.
In fact, even after Martha is sent to prison for 9 months which will then be followed by a restraining order, Donny still listens to all of the voicemails she left him...which he went so far as to categorize by her moods when she sent them.
If he is feeling down, he will listen to voicemails he finds in the "complimentary" section...and even earlier on, the whole ordeal actually turns him on to the point where he starts masturbating to her even though he admits to himself that he is totally not attracted to her.
The final scene is him at a pub listening to a voicemail that finally reveals as to why she calls him "baby reindeer". You could argue that it falls into a similar territory as Citizen Kane in that as a child, Martha had a small plushy reindeer toy that she loved and she still has it. She felt that Donny represented the "spit image" of this stuffed reindeer: "same nose, same eyes, same cute wee bum..."
In a recent interview, Gunning said she had already recorded this monologue prior to filming the courtroom sentencing and that she "clung" to it. She stated as follows:
"So in the courtroom scene, in the scene when she’s on her own at the bar, that’s actually the voicemail I read just to get me into that – I find it so emotional, that final voicemail. That’s the thing that I clung to in terms of her past. That voicemail is absolutely the thing I clung to for sure because I just found that so emotional."
In the end, both Donny and Martha are lost in various ways. Even though Donny is technically free of Martha, he never truly will be as he can't seem to let go of her obsession.
Martha probably got what she deserved, but I was left hoping she could get the help she needed. Donny feels like maybe he is on some kind of right path, but he still seems to be showing signs of potential self-destruction...even as far as him going back to the man that sexually assaulted him in hopes that he could somehow get another chance even if it may mean putting himself in danger again.
For some of its more erratic and indulgent moments, Baby Reindeer ends up leaving you feeling a bit breathless and uncomfortable. It is kind of hard to deny the appeal of a project when it manages to work so well at bringing those kinds of emotions out of you.
Check this one out. Just be forewarned that you will see depictions of sexual assault and also violence towards someone who is trans.
When I did my predictions post, I made a comment that a lot of the winners were set in stone...which would certainly make for a rather boring ceremony.
In truth, there were a lot of tech categories that could've gone in 2-3 different directions so those ended up being some of the bigger nail biters of the night. I will make sure to go into the tech categories more, but I do think that this is one of those ceremonies where you would likely be bored if you really hated the films that were winning.
Then again, you could argue that it was boring even if you DID like the films.
As a whole, I was mostly pleased with the ceremony. It moved at a fairly swift pace most of the time, and even if I do find Jimmy Kimmel to be erratic as a comedian, he does do a solid job in this role. His bit involving Trump's Tweet was certainly borderline "clapter" but it was humorous nonetheless...and I do enjoy how the clapback likely infuriated that prick.
There was a certain elegance to the ceremony that felt a little more "classic" and yet it still felt a little modern too. I have seen both sides of the argument that the Acting Presentations were either great or frustrating. There is a reverence to doing these tributes by previous winners and it is obvious how much these can mean to the nominees...just look at how moved Carey Mulligan was to get praised by Jessica Lange (although perhaps a lot of that was scripted...to be honest, I am not sure how personal these speeches are).
One comment I heard was that "we've already seen the films, we don't need to see clips". For me, I feel like the clips could be a possible gateway to get someone interested in seeing a film if they were potentially impressed by the clip. Like, Sandra Huller in Anatomy of a Fall for example...imagine if they showed a clip from her fight scene with her husband. To be fair, we saw a small clip of that during the Original Screenplay category presentation, but the clips can be potentially helpful to gaining more attention for someone who hasn't seen some of these films.
This may be in hindsight, but I remember when Marion Cotillard was nominated at SAG for La Vie en Rose and they showed the clip where she realizes that (spoiler alert) Marcel is dead. During that award season, Cotillard was sort of behind in terms of precursor wins. Due to the 2007-08 Writers Strike affecting the Golden Globe ceremony, she didn't get to give a speech there when she won. She did eventually win at BAFTA but I can still remember when they showed the "Marcel!!" clip at SAG and when it cut back to Cotillard in the audience, it just seemed like there was this energy of "Ummmm....that looked impressive".
At any rate, that could just be hindsight bias as I was a huge champion of Cotillard that season.
I did love the set and how much the lighting helped make it pop. It was that great mix of modern and classy, and I particularly loved when they put it in the violet hue...which just so happened to match presenter Zendaya perfectly when she came out for Best Cinematography.
I do have to comment on Best Song, as some people have said they feel that "I'm Just Ken" was more worthy to win over "What Was I Made For?". Frankly, I am not sure that a song that was a lot of fun and just happened to be staged at chaotic spectacle means it should automatically win.
It does come down to taste preference, but I do think Eilish/O'Connell warranted this win, maybe even a little more than their first one. It is such a haunting little number, and certainly worthy to win. I do think the Academy needs to stop nominating Diane Warren though. At this point, you almost get the sense that a small faction is desperate to give her an Oscar but she just isn't giving us anything more than bland filler year after year.
I also loved that we ended up getting Messi the dog from Anatomy of a Fall in attendance (although some suspect it was actually a lookalike) after reports claimed that some Hollywood insiders were actually jealous of how much promotion the dog got at the Nominee Luncheon. He even got his own seat!
I also want to discuss the tech categories, because this year was actually quite exciting with the results.
Oppenheimer more or less won what was expected of it: Cinematography, Editing, Score...but there were many that expected it would take Sound. It made sense as it certainly has a very dynamic and exciting sound design...but I am truly impressed and thrilled that they opted for The Zone of Interest.
If you did not see my review of that film (here) or know very little about it, The Zone of Interest is about the family of Nazi Commandant Rudolf Hoss who lived in a house right next door to Auschwitz. Putting it simply, the proximity to the camp leads to some truly...unsettling sounds: gunshots, screaming, the humming of the ovens burning up the bodies....
So yeah...it was a very intricate and disturbing soundscape, but also incredibly effective. I think it was an inspired choice...and the right choice, even if there was no denying the power of Oppenheimer's design.
Considering it is the 70th Anniversary of the first Godzilla film, it felt very sweet and exciting to see Godzilla Minus One take the Visual Effects prize...and it was a category that had a lot of people divided over what might win.
I think the real showdown was often between Poor Things and Barbie in a few categories, but a lot of people suspected Barbie would likely carry the day only for Poor Things to not only take both Production Design and Costumes, but it managed to overtake Maestro in Makeup/Hairstyling.
I will say that Barbie would've been a worthy winner in the categories it lost to Poor Things but I absolutely fell in love with those designs and found that film to be truly glorious to look at...when it wasn't trying to be TOO weird at least.
I am now going to go into my thoughts on the Big Eight categories:
BEST ADAPTED SCREENPLAY:
American Fiction - Cord Jefferson
I was kind of noticing a shift in predictions where people expected Oppenheimer would somehow pull off the win here despite the fact it basically won nothing in terms of major Screenplay precursors.
There was also some speculation that maybe Gerwig and Baumbach could sneak in and take it for Barbie being in a brand-new category after competing in Original basically everywhere else all season.
While I would've voted for Tony McNamara's work on Poor Things, there is no denying how witty and entertaining American Fiction was...if not maybe a tad toothless and not as brash as it could've been. I think he is still a worthy winner at least.
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BEST ORIGINAL SCREENPLAY:
Anatomy of a Fall - Justine Triet & Arthur Harari
The award season began with people expecting this category would likely go to The Holdovers with Past Lives as the dark horse (and now there is a claim that The Holdovers may have been plagiarized so we will see how that story unfolds...), but then at the Golden Globes, Anatomy of a Fall managed to win Screenplay in the combined Original/Adapted category and that set off the path to it being the near inevitable victor.
I feel like Past Lives would've been a worthy winner here. A lot of it may have seemed moodier and sparse, but it did have a certain whimsical and poetic beauty about it. I did also have stronger feelings towards Past Lives over Anatomy of a Fall...but I do support this win as many of the film's scenes that either involved the courtroom or the amazing fight scene that was Sandra Huller's defining moment were rich with amazing dialogue.
I also have to add that I LOVE the fact that they played the PIMP cover when they announced the winner as the use of the song is so crucial and unexpected in the film...not to mention, the Bacao Rhythm & Steel Band arrangement is insanely catchy.
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTOR:
Robert Downey Jr., Oppenheimer
Considered pretty much a foregone conclusion, I do feel like it was nice to see RDJ have this moment and that he won for a performance that was very good. Some have bemoaned that this falls under the career win category, and perhaps that is partly true.
If I am being honest, I would've voted for Mark Ruffalo...but I do think that RDJ does very commendable work as Lewis Strauss and provides the film with a great antagonistic energy. I keep hearing people say that he gave the role more than it needed. I don't know if I would necessarily put it that same way, but I would say that he manages to give the role a life/energy that I am not sure he has really given a role in quite some time...unless you want to count more of his earlier Tony Stark efforts.
RDJ's journey is pretty well documented and known, so to see him still soaring at a career high after his addictions nearly consumed him in the 90s is a wonderful sight to see.
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BEST SUPPORTING ACTRESS:
DaVine Joy Randolph, The Holdovers
Even more of a foregone conclusion that RDJ is that of DJR...funny how that intial thing works out.
When it comes to award sweeps, the amount of awards that DJR won amount to the biggest ever given to a performer. At first glance, I do have to wonder if this performance was actually THAT undeniable...but if we are going off of the performances here and the long-lasting effect she has after seeing the film, this was an incredibly worthy win.
This is a mostly subtle performance that only has one real breakdown scene...and even that is mainly done with a lot of restraint...but this is also a performance that relies a lot on command and screen presence.
I have been familiar with DJR for years due to her history in the musical theatre world and if there is one thing I can say about her, she is an actress of great power...and to see her be able to command the screen with, at times, very little dialogue is a true joy to witness.
She gave such a beautiful speech as well and it was a wonderful way to kick off the evening.
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BEST ACTOR:
Cillian Murphy, Oppenheimer
On his first nomination, Cillian Murphy manages to ride the wave of being the face of 2023's most epic film to win the award...but make no mistake, this is a very deserving win.
Murphy's work is compelling. Considering this is also a very subtle performance, it is truly remarkable how much he can achieve with his eyes. One thing I can truly say about Murphy as an actor after this performance is how well he would've worked in the silent movie era and that all comes back to those expressive eyes of his.
Considering how much he has been working for over 2 decades and always a solid strong supporting player in most films...including many of Nolan's...I found myself truly happy to see Murphy have his moment here.
Kudos to the other nominees: Giamatti, Domingo, and Wright.
As for Bradley Cooper...I think he needs a nap.
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BEST ACTRESS:
Emma Stone, Poor Things
This was the only acting category that had some suspense behind it, because you could truly make the case of either Emma Stone or Lily Gladstone winning.
I did fall into the Lily Gladstone camp as it seemed like there was a lot of passion for her and her SAG win seemed very unexpected as they often don't go for more passive performances.
However, the passion for Poor Things by what seems to be many of the international voters and tech voters may have possibly swayed everything into Stone's favor. Killers of the Flower Moon was not winning anything else, so once Poor Things started beating Barbie in the tech showdown, I think many of us suspected that Stone was very likely to take it.
The truth is that while I was not exactly a fan of Killers, there is no denying that Lily Gladstone is an actress of great power. Much like DaVine Joy Randolph, Gladstone was able to do so much with so little...but I think the real issue is that Gladstone was more of a supporting player.
I do have to wonder how this season would've played out had Gladstone chosen to stay in the supporting category, but I do commend her for being able to get the recognition in lead. I just hope that people will actually keep casting her as it is obvious she will help make any film better.
It also didn't help Gladstone that Stone was the true star/face of her film, and her work falls more into the "showboat" category. This isn't meant to be a knock at her though, because this is a performance that deserves such recognition.
I do think I may have been inclined to vote for Sandra Huller here as I feel her performance, while mostly subtle, does have a nice tightrope to walk so that we don't quite know at first if she is innocent or guilty...not to mention that glorious fight scene where she gets to do some fantastic yelling.
As it stands, I can't fault this win. Stone was my other real favorite in the category, but I do want to mention Carey Mulligan as well considering she was the only true saving grace about Maestro. I am anxiously awaiting for her to finally get an Oscar...because at this point, she honestly deserved two (if we are basing it just off of the actual nominees).
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BEST DIRECTOR:
Christopher Nolan, Oppenheimer
Nothing to really add that hasn't already been said.
I will reiterate mainly what I said about Nolan when I reviewed the film. I can't say that he is a filmmaker that I have ever had much passion for. I am one of those film people who has been saying Memento was still his best work for the past 20 years now.
Oppenheimer definitely took that spot, and that is what I find so remarkable.
Nolan achieved greatness here.
I will say that Lanthimos and Glazer both deserve mentions for sure as their work is so strong that I suspect both of them could win in a lot of other years.
Triet's nomination was also richly deserved here, and I wish that she got more attention rather than be overshadowed by the snub of Greta Gerwig.
Scorsese is definitely a legend and it is obvious that he still can direct with great authority, but I also don't think it was enough to stand out this year. If anything, I still think Killers was mainly a disappointment that was too long and didn't focus enough on Mollie (Lily Gladstone).
Nolan outdid himself and this is a very worthy effort for him to win on.
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BEST PICTURE:
Oppenheimer
Going into award season, there was a lot of talk about whether or not Oppenheimer would win Best Picture. I certainly thought it COULD, but I did feel like there was a case where Nolan would easily win Director but that something else could manage to slip in and win this category thanks to the ranking ballot system.
However, unlike films like The Power of the Dog, it is easy to see that Oppenheimer was one of those rare films that managed to ignite widespread audience interest and equal adoration from critics. I feel like we may have to go back to LOTR and Titanic to have films of peak phenomenon level and manage to get such strong award attention at the same time.
If I am being honest, I think any of you that have been reading my posts over the last few years will know that I tend to lean more towards indie & foreign films. I often like what they bring to the table, especially if they fall under the category of what may not be typical Oscar fare.
There are always exceptions to the rule, and Oppenheimer is CLEARLY one of those exceptions.
I already said that Nolan outdid himself, and it bears repeating.
For a 3 hour film, I found that Oppenheimer flew by (well deserved Editing win for Jennifer Lame right there!!) and while I would argue that Nolan is still rather bad at giving a lot of material to women (Blunt and Pugh were wasted despite owning all of their moments onscreen), everything else was easily his finest moments as a filmmaker in quite some time...if not, his finest ever.
I was not expecting to actually love this film as much as I did, and it does feel rather crazy to think of this as my favorite film of 2023.
Actually, that kind of mentality isn't unusual. I have seen so many YouTubers make the comment about how boring of a choice it is of them to name Oppenheimer as their #1 film of 2023 and yet...I will likely end up doing the same once I get around to finally making my top 10-20 list.
It is nice to be able to enjoy the results of these wins despite how a lot of them were predictable...something that I truly didn't get with either 2021 or 2022.
I’ve talked a lot about the kinds of films that tend to fall under the typical “Oscar Bait” platform. This year, you have something like Maestro as a very prime example of that trope…and done to such a laborious level.
Like a beacon of hope though, we’ve been seeing more unlikely films slip through the cracks whether they be foreign films (Parasite), sci-fi/fantasy/romances like The Shape of Water, or everything that was Everything Everywhere All at Once.
When I look at a film like Poor Things, I can’t help but think back to earlier last year when online film pundits weren’t quite sure how a film like this would be received by the industry.
I can’t say that I or anyone can be right every time, but I sort of had a strange feeling that this one would break through.
Even looking at the film now, I do have to wonder how well it would’ve done with the Academy had it come out 30 or 20 or as recently as 10 years ago.
Due to many personal setbacks over the last two months such as work and having COVID and the death of my beloved grandmother, I’ve been a little less engaged and available to watch new films…and it is due to that reason that I will be holding off on doing my Best of 2023 for a little while longer.
Here’s a spoiler for you: Poor Things is going to be firmly on that list. As the last of the Best Picture nominees that I got to see, I felt like I was watching a true visionary at work.
Set in a very abstract and colorful Victorian London (and partly in Paris and Lisbon), Poor Things begins with a medical student named Max McCandles (Ramy Youssef) who attends a class led by the eccentric and disfigured Dr. Godwin Baxter (Wilem Dafoe). When Max defends Godwin to a trio of cruel classmates, he takes him under his wing as an assistant and introduces him to Bella (Emma Stone). It is revealed that Bella is actually a woman who committed suicide by jumping off a bridge and happens to be discovered by Baxter shortly after she drowned.
Upon pulling her out of the water, he discovers she is pregnant and in order to experiment on bringing her back to life, uses the brain of her unborn fetus to implant into her...which therefore gives her an infant's mind and temperament.
Max does take a strange liking to Bella, which Godwin (whom Bella calls God) notices and he says he should marry Bella on the condition that he move into his home. In order to solidify all the rules, he hires a lawyer named Duncan Wedderburn (Mark Ruffalo) to oversee the process, but Duncan sees an opportunity to insert himself....which...umm...you can take that in multiple ways as you will soon learn....and he asks to take the curious Bella, whose intelligence is increasing rapidly, with him to Lisbon on a trip.
Bella's curiosity for the world seems to be as infectious as it is infuriating for those around her...but perhaps the greatest asset to Duncan is the fact that Bella has discovered masturbation, and he is happy to supply the sex.
I will leave the plot synopsis at that, and try to explain why this rather dark and ridiculous concept actually became a film that I very much enjoyed.
When a film explores subject matter such as suicide, child abuse, and body mutilation through a lens that can often be as uncomfortable as it is wacky, it comes as no surprise that it would have its fair share of detractors...but even with these detractors, I am amazed at how well this film has been widely received; it is a truly pleasant surprise that I am very happy to see!
Yorgos Lanthimos films are becoming such a distinct subgenre of their own in terms of the style and approach. His visual aesthetic seems as recognizable to me now as that of someone like Wes Anderson or Stanley Kubrick. With this film and his previous effort, The Favourite, Lanthimos did not write the scripts. Both films were written by Tony McNamara (with Deborah Davis co-writing The Favourite), and his writing style works so well with Lanthimos' touch. The film is FUNNY and has such a sharp wit that is practically frothing at the mouth. Lanthimos' early work such as Dogtooth and The Killing of a Sacred Deer had darker psychological elements mixed with absurdity...and both led to fairly polarizing results. For example, I was fond of Dogtooth but mainly disappointed in Killing of a Sacred Deer. I do think he is a good writer for the most part, but I do think McNamara proves to be an amazing asset to him.
Watching Poor Things was, as I stated earlier, being able to see a visionary at work...and the tech team deserves to be highly commended as well. The set design, costumes, lighting, and cinematography are all luscious and first rate. For the alternate reality they are trying to create, the film simply pops with glorious colors and sumptuous visuals as if it were like a new example from something out of the world of Terry Gilliam.
The film would also likely suffer to an unbearable level if it didn't have the right Bella Baxter, but this is easily the best performance of Emma Stone's career to date. This is a very brave and bold performance and it shows a lot of great physical commitment...and not surprisingly, her comic timing is down pat.
I do have to commend both Wilem Dafoe and Ramy Youssef for their supporting work as well, along with Margaret Qualley's hilarious cameo as Felicity and Kathryn Hunter as a French madam named Swiney.
The whole film works marvelously well, although perhaps it could've been trimmed a little more tightly here and there...but a lot of the film's best scenes involve Stone and Mark Ruffalo.
I think most of us know that Mark Ruffalo is a solid and commendable actor who has been doing wonderful work for decades now, but this might be my favorite performance of his.
Not only is Duncan Wedderburn such a departure for him, it really just goes to show you how much some actors never truly get to stray from their usual comfort zone. Even in interviews, Stone would comment how much Ruffalo would feel so upset by how ridiculously rude he was being and then just easily switch it on without any issue.
I mean...yeah...good actors can do it that kind of thing and Ruffalo is a good actor! In my opinion, Ruffalo should've been far more competitive for the Supporting Actor Oscar and he would also get my vote out of the nominees. His chemistry with Stone is so wonderful that it almost feels like some kind of screwball comedy pairing but in an acid-high of a world.
I would also fully support Emma Stone winning as well, even though she already has an undeserved first Oscar for La La Land...but her work here is pitch perfect.
Her and Ruffalo are both involved in some fairly explicit sex scenes which we all know tends to be the MPAA's Public Enemy #1 as opposed to violence and bloodshed. If anything, I feel like had the film focused on it a little more, they may have ended up flirting with an NC-17 rating but I am glad that didn't end up happening as that rating can be quite the death knell.
Like I said earlier, Poor Things will most certainly make an appearance on my top 10 list for 2023 once it is made. Among the Best Picture nominees, it easily makes my top 5.
For such a wacky and somewhat disturbing and profound and hilarious film, Poor Things tread a fine line the entire time and I honestly feel like it never really faltered.
