Volume 124: Favorites of 2023 / A Storm Foretold
The Voice of Energy Vol. 124
Greetings, friends. A fine Friday to you all. Today, as promised, I bring you my run down of my favorite films of the past year, and a review of a chilling documentary that should be required viewing for all U.S. citizens of voting age.
My Favorite Films of 2023
This is, as all lists of its type should be, imperfect. There are plenty of films from 2023 that I wasn’t able to see in theaters and/or haven’t caught up with via streaming. And there are a good few that just haven’t made it to theaters here (All of Us Strangers and The Zone of Interest, for example) because the powers that be consider this a tertiary market. But I did see a lot of movies last year (208, if my Letterboxd tracking is to be believed) and there was a good number released during the year that just passed that I really enjoyed. Here is a list of my 25 favorites, placed in alphabetical order rather than ranking them. Do let me know if you agree, disagree, or are shocked that I left off something that you loved.
Afire
Even though it sidesteps the inherent privilege enjoyed by the characters on screen, I still found myself moved by this exploration of the dangers of an artist shutting himself off from experience and the fragility of our existence on this planet. I would have likely been more annoyed with the schlubby waffling of the struggling writer Leon (Thomas Schubert) if I didn’t see so much of myself in him. (available to stream on the Criterion Channel and available for VOD rental)
Anatomy of a Fall
The marketing of this film annoyed me with its custom URL and hashtagging in hopes of a viral sensation. These unnecessary deals with the film company devils thankfully were quickly washed aside by the genius onscreen. In lesser hands, this could have been TV movie melodrama. Let’s all then give thanks to the controlled, thoughtful direction of Justine Triet and the stem-to-stern brilliance of every single actor in the film. (available for VOD rental)
Barbie
Enjoy this moment when the discourse is all about how a major toy company took a chance on handing one of their most valued pieces of IP to a daring, unabashedly feminist filmmaker and let her run colorfully, but carefully, amok. The floodgates of bad imitations are sure to follow. (available to stream on Max and available for VOD rental)
The Blue Caftan
A sublime, poignant drama about a closeted tailor in Morocco wrestling with his wife’s failing health and the feelings being stirred in him by a newly hired male assistant. The calm and quiet of this film allows the simple conflagrations that do occur feel downright devastating. (available to stream on the Criterion Channel and available for VOD rental)
The Boy and the Heron
Hayao Miyazaki wouldn’t dare go quietly into that good night. He puts a psychedelic spin on the same themes of generational trauma and the echoes of World War II and the impact of losing a loved one that have marked his previous films. All hail the murder parakeets. (in theaters now)
The Civil Dead
A perfectly silly conceit from comedians / filmmakers Whitmer Thomas and Clay Tatum following a schlubby photographer and the ghost that haunts him. The laughs are wry, subtle and spiny. (available to stream on Showtime and Fubo, and available for VOD rental)
Elis & Tom
The rare wonder of the creative process has rarely been evocated as well as this documentary does as it tracks the making of the one-and-done collaboration between two of Brazil’s finest: Antonio Carlos Jobin and Elis Regina.
Enys Men
A psychedelic folk horror fever dream in the vein of Repulsion or A Field In England but with a hand-tooled quality that adds grit and grain to every frame. (available to stream on Hulu and available for VOD rental)
The Holdovers
A visual and tonal return to the low stakes yet hugely moving dramedies of the ’70s with fantastic performances from the three leads — Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph — as a trio of lost souls forced together over the holiday break at an exclusive boarding school. (available to stream on Peacock and available for VOD rental)
How To Blow Up A Pipeline
No moralizing or proselytizing necessary. Just a continued ratcheting up of tension and bittersweet release as a group of environmental activists set in motion the titular action against the oil industry. (available to stream on Hulu and available for VOD rental)
Infinity Pool
Ugly, unsettling, gross, and with much to say about how wealth and privilege poisons the brains of anyone dumb enough to let it. In other words, a film worthy of the Cronenberg mantle. Will be forever haunted by Mia Goth shouting out “JAMES!” (available to stream on Hulu and available for VOD rental)
The Killer
Perfect? Not really. Effective and entirely thrilling? Without a fucking doubt. Hard to say what’s the better set piece: Michael Fassbender in a bone-crunching physical skirmish or his battle of wills with Tilda Swinton. (available to stream on Netflix)
Killers of the Flower Moon
Like watching an ancient structure being demolished in ultra slow-motion. Leo plays dumb so well, and Lily Gladstone easily carries the film on her blanketed shoulders with subtle eye movements and a steady voice. (available for VOD rental)
Maestro
Bradley Cooper and team got all the period details and mannerisms of Leonard Bernstein down cold, but it’s Carey Mulligan who is the beating heart of this film. Her every scene, particularly in the color portion, left me breathless. (available to stream on Netflix)
Menus-Plaisirs Les Troisgros
I struggled with this film intellectually but it struck a deep chord with me on an emotional level. The care and technique exhibited by everyone that passes before Frederick Wiseman’s camera filled me with envy and wonder.
Oppenheimer
While I sorely wish cooler heads had snipped out the unnecessary sex scenes, those distractions are minor within the epic sweep of Christopher Nolan’s portrait of the making of the atomic bomb and the person who carried the burden of its creation on his frail shoulders. (available for VOD rental)
Passages
A well-oiled portrait of one man’s unchecked ego destroying the lives of the people he purports to care about. Ben Whishaw is his usual brilliant self. Franz Rogowski levels up even higher as the film director who burns through the goodwill and patience of his two lovers with molten temperatures. (available to stream on MUBI and available for VOD rental)
Pilgrims
The brother and former partner of a man who died under horrific circumstances return to the scene of the crime not so much seeking answers but rather to achieve some kind of catharsis that they mistake for closure. Devastating. (available to stream on Tubi and available for VOD rental)
Poor Things
Emma Stone has hopefully locked down another Oscar for her daring and hilarious performance as, quite literally, a child in a woman’s body hungrily traversing a lightly fantastical world. Mark Ruffalo meets the moment as a sleazeball. We should be very happy that a major film company was willing to get this into wide release. (in theaters now)
Priscilla
Sofia Coppola’s latest plays like a drawn out, dream-like montage tracking the occasional highs and the frequent lows of a young woman pulled into the orbit of the biggest star. Cailee Spaeny captures the maturity and ardent spirit of Priscilla Presley with such subtlety. So low key that you probably missed it. (available for VOD rental)
R.M.N.
The spark of xenophobia builds to raging wildfire in this sharp, prescient drama from Cristian Mungiu. The return of a ne’er-do-well to a small village in Transylvania runs perfectly parallel to the arrival of a few Sri Lankans to work in a factory as both upend the lives of those around them. (available to stream on AMC+ and available for VOD rental)
Saint Omer
While attending the trial of a young woman who, without seeming regret, left her baby to die on a beach in France, a novelist finds herself unpacking her family history and her own fears about being a mother. A slow simmer of a film that director Alice Diop never lets boil over — something few directors would dare. (available to stream on Hulu and available for VOD rental)
The Swan
Wes Anderson’s style-over-substance filmmaking continued to disappoint in his feature from this year (Asteroid City), but he found an interesting gear to explore in the quartet of shorts he made based on Roald Dahl stories. The best of the bunch was this heartbreaker about a tender lad abused by bullies brought to stirring life by the astounding Rupert Friend. (available to stream on Netflix)
Talk To Me
The most inventive horror film of the year. Chock with tension, surreality and gory moments that are only hard to endure because of who is being hurt in those scenes. Can’t wait to see where the Phiippous go from here. (available for VOD rental)
Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem
Was the world clamoring for yet another take on the TMNT? Not from where I’m sitting. But color me delighted at what directors Jeff Rowe and Kyler Spears and a bevy of writers (including Seth Rogen and Evan Goldberg) came up with. The animation is cock-eyed and distended, as if drawn by older elementary kids, and the story is just plain fun. (available to stream on Paramount+ and available for VOD rental)
A Storm Foretold: Roger Stone And Die (2023, dir. Christoffer Guldbrandsen)
When we first see Roger Stone, political consultant and strategist to many conservative politicians, onscreen, he's lighting a cartoonishly big cigar, looking for all the world like Baby Herman from Who Framed Roger Rabbit? all grown up. The look on his face is smug and defiant as he opines that "saving Western civilization is hard work."
By the time this alarming and timely documentary fades to black, Stone is seen in the booth of a greasy spoon, barely hiding his snarling contempt and anger as he scrolls through his phone. He very recently learned that he would not be receiving a preemptive pardon from President Trump for his role in fomenting the January 6th insurrection.
The two years that transpire between these two scenes are as fascinating and terrifying as you would expect. Taking full advantage of his subject's unquenchable ego, Danish filmmaker Christoffer Guldbrandsen was given a shocking amount of access to Stone.
We follow the buffoonish public figure to political events that range from sizable rallies to glorified keggers and watch as he revels in both being convicted for lying to Congress and then receiving a pardon for his crimes from Trump. Guldbrandsen catches Stone engaging in all manner of incendiary rhetoric, from offhand snipes at Denmark's free healthcare to dismissing Rudy Giuliani's efficacy as a lawyer ("He likes booze and pussy a little too much") to chilling calls for bloodshed. As he says in the lead up to Election Day 2020, "Fuck the voting. Let's get right to the violence." (Not for nothing was Guldbrandsen's footage subpoenaed by the Congressional committee investigating the events of January 6.)
You know what happens next. But what you might not be aware of is how quickly Stone made a heel turn once he realized Trump wasn't coming to his rescue for a second time. Stone can barely mask his fury at the former president as he demands a second impeachment and the figurative head of all Trump's cronies on a spike. It's a startling flip switch and one that will not serve Stone well as he attempts to move forward in the political sphere.
Or will it matter at all? We've surely all experienced some level of frustration at how there seems to be no number of misdeeds that will take these conservative blowhards out of the public eye. Cut off their head and three more spring up in its place. Yet, a movie like this gives me a scintilla of hope. Guldbrandsen wisely uses Stone's craven need for attention against his subject, letting him prattle on and fume on the record as he slowly hoists himself upon his own petard of blinkered logic and bloodthirsty rhetoric. If this film doesn't drum Stone out of public life, likely nothing will.
A Storm Foretold arrives in theaters today.
FTA Pick of the Week
Our new regular feature — a recommendation of a movie to watch that is hiding below the fold on one of the major streaming services. In other words: fuck the algorithm.
Baby It's You (1983, dir. John Sayles)
Despite his long, celebrated career behind the camera, John Sayles is poorly represented in the streaming universe. Only a sliver of his 18 feature films are available to watch right now. Which is why it is worth shouting about when one does pop up out of the slipstream. Sayles' first non-independent film, Baby It's You is a tender and finely detailed look at the relationship between a young couple (played by Rosanna Arquette and the wildly underrated Vincent Spano) in the ’60s as they negotiate their cultural differences and the trajectory of their lives (she to college; he to petty larceny and washing dishes in a nightclub). Written by Sayles from a story idea of producer Amy Robinson (apparently based on her real life), the film eschews getting bogged down in period details to poignantly center on the romance between the leads and their individual coming of age struggles.
Baby It's You is now streaming on Paramount+.
Over at BlueSky, my good friend Erik was concerned about my mental health when he learned I was watching a Roger Stone documentary. I hope that review eased your mind some. Nothing much else to report at this early juncture of 2024. No new writings outside of this to share nor any startling developments in my life as a small business owner. Tho, myself and Andrew Neerman, the two minds behind Megalith, are holding a pair of events at our shop in a couple of weeks that you'd be foolish to miss. Details here. We have several more on the horizon, so stay tuned for that by following that IG account or the one dedicated to my shop.
Thanks, as always, for reading. Back next week with more reviews. Ceasefire now.
Artwork for this edition comes from Chung Hyun's exhibition Mass*, which is on display at the Seoul Museum of Art through March 17.*
This newsletter was written on the unceded land where once stood the traditional village sites of the Multnomah, Wasco, Cowlitz, Kathlamet, Clackamas, Bands of Chinook, Tualatin, Kalapuya, Molalla, and many other tribes who made their homes along the Columbia River creating communities and summer encampments to harvest and use the plentiful natural resources of the area.