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50 From 50: Closing Remarks

3 Comments / 50 From 50 / Mark / April 14, 2024

Last year, I made a film-based resolution to watch 50 movies from from 50 different countries (lots of caveats and rules for what qualifies, as enumerated in that introductory post). This is not the first time I’ve done a project like this (see also: The 1978 Project and 50 Under 50), and it’s become tradition to do a sorta post-mortem closing remarks of the project at the end. Of course, I finished this particular resolution in December, but with all the year-ending shenanigans, Movie Awards, and whatnot, I’m only now circling back to 50 From 50 to close it out with a quick recap and general thoughts on the experience.

Genres

In terms of genre, there was perhaps more concentration than normal, especially around Action and Horror/Thrillers. Of course, the catch-all “Drama” category comes in at the top of the list, but that’s also because there’s significant overlap (i.e. a lot of those Action or Horror movies are also classified as Dramas). This does make a certain sorta sense, as foreign films that are easily accessible in the US tend to target more specific markets to garner a wider audience. It’s not entirely surprising that Comedy didn’t do quite as well, perhaps in part because Comedy doesn’t travel as well as Action or Horror. And, of course, it’s worth noting that I’m going off of Letterboxd’s preset genres, which has its own bias. Is “Crime” its own genre, or does it get lumped in with Action or Thriller? And so on.

Of course, I have my own biases, and it’s not an accident that Action and Horror are often well represented in my media diet in general. Indeed, for year-long projects like this, I’m sure the Six Weeks of Halloween marathon exerts a healthy influence (and 50 From 50 was no exception).

All that said, there is a wide array of genres represented in the 50 movies I watched. The only genres I didn’t hit were Animation, TV Movie, and Western. None of these are especially surprising, even if I could have easily hit at least two of those genres (if I had watched a Spaghetti Western or an Anime movie, for example), but by the time I thought of it, I had already progressed beyond the most obvious countries for those genres (more on this in a bit).

By Decade

While I did manage to squeeze in movies from 8 different decades, there is an obvious and pronounced recency bias in what I watched. This is at least partly due to a recency bias in what is widely available to watch in the US, especially on streaming. I did make a concerted effort to seek out certain movies though, and at least 3 movies on the list are not available on (legal) streaming in any form. Some of these are available on physical media (for example, Vinegar Syndrome put out a great release of Thriller that does not seem to have been picked up by any streaming service, even for rentals), but some are simply unavailable in any way except through… less reputable methods (i.e. Nokas). We’ll talk more about availability below, so I won’t belabor the point here, but despite the recency of most of the movies, there was still a fair sampling of older films…

The Map & Included Countries

This is perhaps the most filled map I’ve ever had for a single year, which is not especially surprising given the whole point of this project. The biggest surprise, though was that I didn’t end up seeing any movies from Ireland or New Zealand. Of course, both of those were excluded from 50 From 50 due to their presence in the Anglosphere, so maybe not entirely surprising, but it’s telling that I’ve already seen multiple movies from both of those countries here in 2024. The only country that I wanted to get to that I didn’t manage was Romania, which has a rich arthouse tradition, but I had trouble with availability (more on this below) and just ran out of time. While there were lots of the usual suspects (i.e. France, Japan, Italy, etc…) represented, I watched plenty of movies from unlikely sources that I probably would not have gotten to otherwise (i.e. Saudi Arabia, Senegal, etc…)

Miscellaneous Thoughts

As always, this sort of movie resolution was eye-opening, though certain issues kept cropping up.

One thing I think I underestimated at the start of this was the relative difficulty of finding qualifying movies. This is partly due to my own restrictions. Forbidding co-productions with Anglosphere countries really eliminates a wide swath of movies off the bat. In general, I tried to avoid movies with multiple origin countries, which restricts things further. You’d be surprised at just how many movies, even from countries with a strong film tradition, have multiple origin countries. I was not entirely successful in avoiding this completely, and in one case, I accidentally included a film that was a USA co-production (I maintain that when I watched it, it didn’t list this on Letterboxd, but that it changed later…)
Another thing that wound up frustrating me was that this resolution forced a wide range of countries, but didn’t particularly allow for deeper exploration of a particular country’s cinema. It was kinda weird to choose one movie to represent the country, and, like, I watched a bunch of shlocky movies that are probably not representative of a given country’s cinema as a whole. Of course, none of this meant I couldn’t continue to explore a given country’s movies further, but the focus on tackling a new country every week did cut down on that a bit. There were definitely some things I had planned for a specific country that got pre-empted by something else. For example, The Last Drive In showed a movie called Tigers Are Not Afraid, which ended up taking the Mexico slot that I had originally planned for the films of Carlos Enrique Taboada during the Six Weeks of Halloween.
I had originally made a rule that I would watch 20 movies from one qualifying country. This was meant to counteract what I just mentioned, but I would up not committing to one country and never got to 20 movies. That being said, I did get to 15 films from Italy and 12 films from Hong Kong (in both cases, I’m being a little more lenient and including movies with multiple countries of origin). Both were conscious efforts to increase foreign film watching, so I think that basically makes up for missing the 20 film mark.
Streaming availability was a primary driver of the mix of films described above. By far, the most useful streaming service for this exercise was… Tubi. A free, advertising supported service, it’s got a very wide selection, especially when it comes to genre fare. Surprisingly, Netflix was also a pretty good resource here. They actually have a pretty great selection of foreign films that you might not be aware of because the algorithm rarely puts it in front of you (except in some very specific circumstances). Amazon Prime was also a key resource, but it almost always is for something like this. Shudder also does a good job of curating obscure foreign horror films (yet another factor in the genre mix described above). Max actually has a pretty good portion of the Criterion catalog on their service, which was also very useful here.
Speaking of Criterion, it’s probably not an accident that a large proportion of the older films included on the list were Criterion releases. Of course, they also have a streaming service of their own, but it’s interesting that physical media purveyors like Criterion, Vinegar Syndrom, and Arrow are invaluable in making foreign movies more accessible to US audiences.

I found this whole exercise interesting and edifying, but I do think that perhaps it would be more valuable to do a deep dive into one country’s films rather than a shallow dive into many countries, as I have done here. I don’t have any current plans to start a new resolution, but if I wanted to do a foreign film based resolution, I would almost certainly narrow the focus to one country (and maybe even further by genre – Spaghetti Westers, Giallos, Anime, etc…).

Update: By popular demand, quick lists!

Best Movies

High and Low – Not especially shocking that Kurosawa directed the best movie of the bunch…
Decision to Leave
Lagaan: Once Upon a Time in India
This Is Not a Film
Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Best Obscure Discoveries

Big Bad Wolves – Definitely the biggest surprise on the list…
Cliff Walkers
Elite Squad
The Book of Sun
Thriller: A Cruel Picture

Ultimately, I probably didn’t need to split the list into two categories. It works as a top 10 (in no particular order). Also, I don’t usually like to spend time on “worst” movies from an exercise like this, but it’s pretty clearly Altered Skin. So there you have it. Onwards and upwards.

Cameron 4K Controversy

Leave a Comment / Movies / Mark / April 7, 2024

At Beyond Fest last September, James Cameron screened a new transfer of the Abyss and confirmed that the 4K home video release was imminent. Soon after, it was announced that True Lies and Aliens were also getting the 4K treatment. Then it was revealed that the remastering process heavily leveraged AI digital noise reduction techniques, and the digital streaming releases lead to some rather unflattering screenshots, particularly for True Lies. The internet, being a model of restraint and understatement, had a real normal one with this news.

To be fair, I also tend to prefer a more unvarnished approach to 4K scans. These movies were shot on photochemical film and a true transfer to digital will include things like film grain. Some of the boutique physical media peddlers, like Vinegar Syndrome or Arrow, are pretty good at doing a simple transfer based off of poorly preserved film (given their metier of cinematic schlock, that is most certainly the case for the movies they’re rescuing from obscurity). Sure the film grain is noticeable and sometimes you even get a nick or scratch or even a cigarette burn showing up, but that’s not a terrible thing in my book and I’d rather that than something that looks like it was filmed on digital last week. The process used on these Cameron 4Ks does create new data that was not there on the original print. There’s something to be said for preserving the film, warts and all (I’m looking at you, George Lucas).

On the other hand, the controversy and hate surrounding these three releases has gotten out of hand. In the case of The Abyss and True Lies, the last official US release was on DVD, and no matter how you slice it, the 4K looks much, much better than the DVD. It’s also worth noting that the process of doing a 4K scan is more complicated than I’m making it out to be, especially once you start throwing in things like color grading/timing and HDR. Folks who know what they’re talking about have technical complaints about these releases that are notable, but on the other hand, most (nearly all?) viewers won’t be able to notice the difference while actually watching the film in motion. It’s easy to look at a screenshot comparison and say it looks bad, but that’s not how you actually watch a movie.

One last bit of apologia, the 4K digital streaming release is different than the 4K physical disc release. There are some exceptions here, but as a general rule, the file size and bitrate of a 4K stream are going to be significantly smaller than the disc. A lot of the times, when you are streaming 4K, you’re not even really getting a blu-ray quality picture. Those unflattering screenshots I mentioned earlier? It’s not an accident that they came out when the 4K scans were released on streaming. The discs are not perfect, to be sure, but they’re better than the streams.

This sort of technical analysis is worth doing and has value, but I can’t help but agree with Jeff Rauseo: some people are taking this all way too seriously. I’ll give specific thoughts on each release below, but my overall feeling is that these movies look pretty good and are worth buying if you, like me, love these movies and want the best possible experience of watching them at home. There are some imperfections and I’d prefer the more natural film look to the digitally processed look, but that’s not a deal breaker, and two of these releases (The Abyss and True Lies) are massive improvements over their respective DVD releases. For crying out loud, the last The Abyss DVD release wasn’t even anamorphic widescreen!

True Lies

Conventional wisdom is that this is the worst of the three releases and I agree with this. That being said, it’s not worth getting too worked up about (like, seriously, I know social media makes it easy to issue death threats from the comfort of your toilet, but that doesn’t mean you should do so). Um, anyway, skin textures sometimes appear waxy, especially in closeups (Tom Arnold, in particular, was done no favors here), and you get some obviously artificial smoothing effects throughout. The color grading sometimes feels unnatural as well. That being said? This is mostly not a distraction in watching the movie. I’m calling this out because I was specifically looking for defects in the appearance, and even then, I generally found myself caught up in the story and forgetting about any of the issues with the picture.

I forgot how much I enjoyed this movie, which I probably still consider to be one of Cameron’s more… for lack of a better term, “conventional” looking movies. It’s a super fun action movie and I love it, but it’s not quite the visual spectacle Cameron was known for, even at the time (not saying that Cameron doesn’t know how to frame or block a shot – the craft here is great, it’s just not as visually stunning as most of his other work.) Perhaps this is why I’m more forgiving of the 4K’s flaws, which do sometimes stick out, but are mostly (if not fully) offset by the incredible improvement over the previously available DVD. Supposedly there’s a Spanish Blu-Ray scan floating around out there, and I’ve seen conflicting reports of this. Some of the screenshot comparisons make the blu-ray look great, others do not. After having watched the 4K, I don’t think it really matters that much. The 4K looks good enough.

This Twin Flicks review of the disc goes into some of the background of why this movie appears the worst out of the three recent releases, including comments from people who actually worked on the disc. It has to do with the film stock and lenses used to shoot the film in the first place (some of the weirdness mentioned is due to this, not the AI processing), plus there was damage to the negatives that happened in storage. So this was apparently a “lesser of two evils” choice, not a deliberate or experimental choice (nor was it due to incompetence or laziness).

Yes, it looks a little processed, but the image is clearer and sharper than the previously available releases and it’s absolutely the best home video release of the film available. Even the packaging doesn’t look too bad (previous releases might be slightly better, but this is nothing egregious).

Aliens

Generally looks better than True Lies, though you do still get the occasional distraction of a waxy face, especially in closeups, but that’s rare, and the improvements you get everywhere else, particularly when it comes to the blacks and shadows and detail in the Alien nest or the Alien queen scene. The level of detail is pretty astounding, and the colors tend to pop better too. Film grain has not completely disappeared, but it’s barely noticeable.

Aliens is the only one of these releases that had previously been available on blu-ray, so it’s probably the least important to upgrade, but it’s also one of my favorites and the upgrade is noticeable. The packaging artwork is a bit of a downgrade from previous releases, but that’s not the worst thing in the world (Update: in looking at the various posters for Aliens, this is clearly bottom tier and there have been tons of previous releases with much better artwork.)

The Abyss

This is probably the best looking of the three discs, and honestly, I didn’t really notice much in the way of flaws here at all. I mean, there’s very little film grain and it looks like the movie was shot on digital last week, but that’s not something that will be distracting or even noticeable to most folks. If you are really searching for something to dislike, you might be able to find some artificial smoothness or waxy complexions, but honestly, the only time I really noticed someone waxy was when a character had just drowned and their face looked a little waxy (trying not to spoil, but you know the scene if you’ve seen it), but, like, it’s kinda supposed to look that way. And you get so much improvement in everything else, especially in the underwater scenes or anything dealing with darkness or shadow. It’s more detailed, the colors more vibrant, everything looks significantly better.

As mentioned above, this is probably the biggest upgrade as well. The previous DVD release was non-anamorphic widescreen, which is almost unwatchable on a modern setup. If you like this movie, this disc upgrade is a no-brainer. The biggest flaw with this movie is the artwork on the packaging, which goes for that lazy floating heads photoshopped thing that just looks awful, especially when the original poster is so memorable (I tried using WordPress’ image compare block here, not sure I love it, but you can slide back and forth to see more of each poster).

(As an aside, I don’t always love the updated artwork that the boutique physical media shops use either, but they almost always have reversible artwork such that you can switch to the original movie poster artwork if you want, which is awesome.)

Ultimately, the only real disappointment here is the lack of film grain, something most viewers won’t even notice and which I got used to very quickly. If you’re a fan of Cameron, these are all definitely worth the upgrade.

The Oscars 2024

Leave a Comment / Movies / Mark / March 10, 2024

The Oscars, like most of us, have had a strange few years, but things seemed to settle in 2023 and I’m guessing 2024 will continue the slow march back towards normalcy. The pandemic had a big impact on the industry as a whole, which naturally trickled down to the Oscars, who tried some experiments, but have basically returned to a pre-pandemic format. The biggest innovation this year: starting an hour early, finally recognizing that the 3+ hour ceremony would actually be that long. Otherwise, we’ve got a reasonably successful host, movies normal people actually watched are nominated, and they didn’t try any other weird ideas (i.e. not presenting important categories, or adding a new category for popular movies or whatever that thing was, etc…)

So it’s also time for the annual reminder that the Oscars broadcast is the biggest source of income for the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, which is actually a very useful organization. As Steven Soderbergh noted a few years ago, what the Academy does for film archiving and preservation alone should be praised, and it’s all paid for by the broadcast. People love to complain about the Oscars, but that’s kinda fun in itself, and it’s not like any mainstream awards program wouldn’t court controversy or criticism in some way. Actually putting on the show is difficult and it does have a lot of benefits for the industry and cinema as a whole. Anyway, let’s look at the categories and make some predictions:

2024 Oscars Predictions

Best Picture: Oppenheimer. This appears to be, more or less, a lock. Strangely, I think it’s probably the one that “should” win as well, which is a pretty rare occurrence for me. Biggest competition seems to be coming from The Zone of Interest (maybe a more typical Oscar type film, but it’s also somewhat divisive and I doubt it could overcome Oppy) and Poor Things (I would say that this is far too weird for the Academy voters, but then, they gave last year’s oscar to Everything Everywhere All at Once, so who knows anymore.) I dunno, maybe Barbie because Greta Gerwig didn’t get the director nom, but that seems quite unlikely (if there’s a true desire to reward Barbie, there are some other category options as well).
Best Director: Christopher Nolan for Oppenheimer. Also something of a lock. Also probably “should” win. I suppose there’s an off chance that Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things) or Jonathan Glazer (The Zone of Interest) could win, but I wouldn’t take those odds. Martin Scorsese and Justine Triet certainly deserve to be nominated, but there’s almost no chance that either would win.
Best Actress: Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon. Seems to have the buzz, but not quite as strong as Oppy/Nolan. Genuine possibility that Emma Stone win for Poor Things, but I think that’s unlikely. It would be an upset, but not a shocking one.
Best Actor: Cillian Murphy in Oppenheimer. Again, plenty of buzz, and may benefit from the general Oppy momentum, but there’s an off chance that Paul Giamatti (The Holdovers) could win… I think I’m going long on Oppy this year though, probably a winning strategy.
Best Supporting Actress: DaVine Joy Randolph in The Holdovers. I know I just said I’m going long on Oppy this year, and Emily Blunt is nominated here so I guess it’s possible she could take this, but Randolph has the buzz (and probably the better performance, if that matters).
Best Supporting Actor: Robert Downey Jr. in Oppenheimer. This is another seeming lock for Oppy and Downey Jr. certainly deserves recognition. I think the funniest/worst potential outcome would be Ryan Gosling winning for Barbie (with a potential additional knife twist by not awarding Barbie anything else, even in the technical categories). To be clear, Gosling is great (and Barbie deserves some awardage), but I don’t expect him to win (nor do I expect Barbie to be shut out).
Best Original Screenplay: The Holdovers. This is a tough category, and I do think there’s a good chance that Anatomy of a Fall… it might even be the favorite (I would vote for it from this list of nominees), but I’m going with The Holdovers as the winner.
Best Adapted Screenplay: Oppenheimer. Again, I’m betting it’ll be an Oppy kinda night, but this category seems like one that could easily go to Barbie or American Fiction or honestly, any of the nominees. This category feels wide open…
Best Cinematography: Oppenheimer. Seems like a lock, but off chance that Poor Things could upset.
Best Film Editing: Oppenheimer.
Best Visual Effects: Godzilla Minus One. This category also seems wide open. The Creator has a solid chance here too. Both are relatively low budget movies with an impressive look that’s probably fueled by overworking some poor VFX company.
Best Production Design: Barbie though it could easily go to Poor Things. Honestly don’t know which, but I think Barbie needs to win something, and I’m betting it’ll be here. Poor Poor Things, I’m betting they’ll be runner up in many categories… though this is the one I think they could actually win (unlike many of the times above when I predicted they’d be runner up).
Best Costume Design: Barbie though again Poor Things could easily win. This would be the most stereotypical win for Barbie. The hot takes will be unbearable if it’s the only win (or if it gets shut out).
Best Makeup and Hairstyling: Poor Things. I have no idea, maybe Maestro.
Best Animated Feature: Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Best Documentary: 20 Days in Mariupol. Russia is bad, and Hollywood wants you to know they think that (this was my reasoning last year, and I think it will work again this year).
Best International Feature: The Zone of Interest. Pretty much a lock, I think.
Best Original Song: Barbie “I’m Just Ken”. Very possible that “What Was I Made For?” will take this.
Best Original Score: Ludwig Goransson for Oppenheimer.

And those are the categories I pick every year. Why don’t I pick the others? It’s a mystery! Anywho, if you’re a weirdo and want to plumb the depths of the Kaedrin archives for old Oscars commentary (if you go far back enough, you can even read what used to be called “liveblogging” of the event, which is what we did before Twitter), all my previous entries are here: [2023 | 2022 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006 | 2005 | 2004] (I took a couple of years off there for various reasons). If you are watching and on Twitter, I’m @mciocco (and when the musical performances start, I’ll be posting alcohol @kaedrinbeer). I don’t usually post much, but I’ll be around and obsessively reading Film twitter’s commentary/jokes. I may post a dumb “who should host the Oscars” poll, like I did last year…

Favorite Movies of 2023

2 Comments / 2023 Movie Awards / Mark / February 25, 2024

We conclude Kaedrin Movie Awards season with a traditional top 10 list of my favorite movies of 2023, only a month and a half (or so) late! This marks the eighteenth year in a row that I’ve posted a top 10. For reference, previous top 10s are here: [2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006]

It’s traditional at this point to discuss themes of the year in film, usually a fraught exercise even in the best of times, but there’s almost always something worth exploring in this space, however dubious it may be… The two big themes of this year: the decline of superheroes and the rise of… brands? There were a couple of successful superhero standouts this year (Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3), but there were a ton of movies that were both artistic and box-office failures (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, Shazam! Fury of the Gods, The Flash, and several others). Part of this is post-Endgame superhero fatigue, but part of it comes down to quality. DC has always been a mixed bag, but Marvel has clearly overextended (the likely culprit being the Disney+ shows, but the overall franchise service in the MCU was already getting overbearing) and the quality has suffered greatly. 2024 will likely continue this trend, but after a Hollywood strike-fueled delay, 2025 will see an uptick in offerings. Only time will tell if this will be the last gasp of a dying genre or a revitalization and return to dominance.

In 2023, at least, part of the slack was taken up by “brand” movies. Not all of these were huge box office successes and I don’t quite think that the genre has legs, but obviously we’re going to see more of these in the future. At minimum, we’re going to get several more Barbie movies, and who knows, we may experience a resurgence not seen since the heady days of the Mattel and Mars Bar Quick Energy Chocobot Hour. Um, anyway, there were tons of other brand movies in 2023, including Tetris, Air, Flamin’ Hot, and BlackBerry. Again, not sure how widespread this will ever get, but it was certainly a thing in 2023.

Smaller trends include half-movies, some of which were hidden by marketing, which is also a component present with the marketing of musicals as if they weren’t musicals. More heartening is the fact that 3 of the top 5 movies are, well, not quite original, but to be disgustingly businesslike, they are basically new IP (and there’s another original movie in the top 10). This is not exactly the Retvrn we may all desire, but it’s a promising step after the last few decades…

As of this writing, this top 10 list is pulling from a total of 119 movies I’ve seen that could be considered a 2023 release. This is less than your usual critic, but probably more than your typical moviegoer. Standard disclaimers apply, and it’s always worth noting that due to release schedules (especially in these plague years), some movies from 2022 that didn’t become available until 2023 qualify for this list. Alrighty then, I think we’ve covered all our bases, so let’s get to the feature presentation:

Top 10 Movies of 2023

* In roughly reverse order

Godzilla Minus One – The best Godzilla movie I’ve seen since the original 1954 classic. While this has plenty of monster smash action, the thing that sets this apart is the focus on a culturally and thematically rich human story at its core. Minus One centers on a flawed but striving protagonist that you can’t help but root for, and that imbues the struggle with Godzilla with much more power than most monster slugfests. It manages to balance spectacle with just the right dollops of melodrama and thematic heft, tying it all together in a surprisingly effective package.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Arbitrary Award Winner] [Kaedrin Movie Award Winner]

Killers of the Flower Moon – I’m not quite as rapturous about this Martin Scorsese epic on the plight of the Osage people as many folks are, but it’s an immensely well made film, energetic and agonizing at the same time.

This excruciating portrayal of a town of amoral monsters with no interest in or sense of right-and-wrong isn’t exactly fun to watch, but Scorsese does manage a few Coen-esque moments of dark levity here and there. It’s a bit indulgent and certainly overlong, but also something of an achievement that a movie this unpleasant can still succeed this well.

More Info: [IMDB] [Apple TV+] [Kaedrin Arbitrary Award Winner]

John Wick: Chapter 4 – The final installment (for now, I guess) of the Wick saga is also maybe a tad indulgent and overlong, but it’s suffused with grandeur and an unexpected melancholy that suits the series well. It looks great and has several of the best action sequences of the year, including an overhead oner that is utterly glorious cinema. A fitting end to the series, even if it will shamble on in spinoffs and sidequels or whatever they call it.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Movie Award Winner]

The Killer – David Fincher’s self-deprecating paen to the hollowness of perfectionism, a universal critique of the justifications and rationalizations we all indulge in all wrapped up in a tight genre exercise that’s thrilling and even a little funny on its surface levels. It’s better when you know more about Fincher, but his critique isn’t quite as devastating because he’s also making so much fun of himself (or, at least, his filmmaking persona). He’s in it with us.

Great performances from the likes of Michael Fassbender and Tilda Swinton (not to mention all the bit parts swallowed up by character actors like Charles Parnell) and a digital aesthetic that’s actually distinctive (something Fincher’s been doing for a long time). I wish it got more of a theatrical release.

More Info: [IMDB] [Netflix]

The Artifice Girl – Talky, stagey, micro-budget, ideas-driven Science Fiction is my catnip. Underseen and probably best experienced knowing as little as possible going in, so I’ll leave it at that, but it’s a movie that will turn the tables on you multiple times, despite mostly being set in a single room with folks chatting.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Movie Award Winner]

Anatomy of a Fall – The French court system, as portrayed in this movie, is absolutely wild (I’m assuming liberties are taken, but the wacky way the trial unfolds is one of the joys of watching this movie as an outsider).

I’m a sucker for twisty courtroom dramas, and this hits all those notes well (French wackiness notwithstanding), anchored by Sandra Hüller’s performance, but I’ve also always connected with the thematic point about the difficulty of recreating the past in the present as well. It’s a daunting problem even in the best of situations, but this movie is a good demonstration of the nuts and bolds of why it’s so difficult to know actually what happened (and not to sermonize, but it’s only going to get more difficult in the future).

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

The Pigeon Tunnel – Errol Morris documentary on the storied life and career of David Cornwell, more famous as his pen name John le Carré. It takes the form of an extended interview (or, should I say, interrogation, a key distinction that sets this apart from Morris’ other similar efforts), but it fits surprisingly well with Morris’ filmography and the impenetrable nature of Cornwell’s character.

Morris and by extension, the audience, is never quite sure where Cornwall is drawing the line between fact and fiction, but he’s such an engaging presence and natural storyteller that it doesn’t really matter. It made me want to read more le Carré, which is always a good sign when watching a movie like this.

More Info: [IMDB] [Apple TV+]

BlackBerry – The best of the rash of “brand” movies we saw in 2023, partly because it covers both the rise and fall of said brand (a few of these movies feel like two hour advertisements for the brand, but not this one), but also because of its good humor and great performances, particularly from Glenn Howerton as the enraged co-CEO.

He’s really cooking here, but even the bit parts from the likes of SungWon Cho or a terrifying Michael Ironside are lights out.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Command Z – Steven Soderbergh’s experimental series wasn’t seen by many folks due to its unconventional distribution scheme, but hopefully it’ll wind up on a streaming service soon enough where it will be seen by many. A unique spin on low-fi time travel with a humorous bent and solid performances, literally episodic in nature, but hits the sweet spot in the overall runtime of 90 minutes or so. It’s worth the hoop jumping that it takes to watch it right now, but it will hopefully be more readily available soon enough.

More Info: [IMDB] [Command Z Website] [Kaedrin Movie Award Winner]

Oppenheimer – Christopher Nolan’s epic biopic of J. Robert Oppenheimer and his role in the development of the atomic bomb during World War II is the obvious choice here.

Ambitious, adventurous filmmaking at its best, which is funny because it’s mostly just a movie filled with dudes talking in rooms about serious subjects, but Nolan just can’t help but make it immersive and thrilling. A masterpiece.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Honorable Mention

* In an order I dare you to discern

American Fiction – A black author writes a satirical parody of “black” literature in an attempt to expose the publishing world’s hypocrisies only to find surprising success. In some ways, it lets its satirical targets off the hook, but on the other hand, it’s probably a more entertaining and funny experience because of that choice.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

The Boy and the Heron – Hayao Miyazaki’s swan song, a contemplation of legacy that perhaps meanders a bit, but pulls it all together admirably in the end. It’s not a crowd pleaser and doesn’t balance the dream logic with its weighty themes as well as some of Miyazaki’s best, but it’s effectively done and worth checking out.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial – A solid farewell for William Friedkin. Formally tight but visually simplistic and unshowy, this is a film driven far more by its taught writing than its visual prowess, which fits with the story being told. I can’t help but think that there’s a better version that blends the two screen versions of this story, but this pure courtroom drama approach is certainly valid and Friedkin pulls great performances from the impressive cast as well.

The core drama is preserved and just as thorny as ever, even if we don’t see any of the action and only get the courtroom accounts of what happened (another film about piecing together what has happened in the past, and all the complications inherent in that enterprise).

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Dream Scenario – Great high concept story about a man whose life is turned upside down when millions of strangers suddenly start seeing him in their dreams. A sorta exaggerated parable of social media and memetic power that’s obviously quite relevant, it can’t quite maintain momentum throughout the runtime, but it’s a worthy attempt and Nicolas Cage is great in the role.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves – A charming action/comedy that’s way better than anyone could possibly have expected. Self-aware without being drenched in ironic detachment, it perfectly balances the goofy way a D&D campaign can progress and features plenty of fun characters and solid action. On the bubble for the top 10, but just barely missed and on another day, could very well have made it.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Arbitrary Award Winner]

The Equalizer 3 – It’s so funny to me that Denzel Washington has only made two sequels and they’re both in this series, but this might actually be the best of the three. The action moves to Italy this time around, and while it obviously engages in familiar tropes, Washington imbues it all with surprising gravitas, and director Antoine Fuqua captures the action well, especially in the finale, which almost resembles one of those slasher movies where you root for the killer.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Arbitrary Award Winner]

Ferrari – Michael Mann’s longtime passion project, a biopic covering a particularly tumultuous period of Enzo Ferrari’s personal and professional life (three pretty traumatic events converging in a relatively short time period) isn’t quite as fast paced or crowd pleasing as Mann’s best work, but it’s still effective and we get a few corkers of monologues or racing action that make the whole thing a worthwhile exercise.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Full Time – French film in which a woman tries to balance caring for her children, her job, and interviewing for a new career, all during a national transit strike. It might not sound like it, but it’s almost like a Safdie-style thriller, with a fantastic, pulsing, anxiety inducing score (that, for some reason, I can’t find anywhere – someone release this thing!) and excellent lead performance. It doesn’t quite descend into full-on tragedy and I think the surprising ending really cemented the film for me.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

The History of the Minnesota Vikings – Jon Bois has carved out a truly unique style of documentary filmmaking for himself that is perhaps overlooked due to the subject matter, but probably more because these things just show up on YouTube every year or so. That being said, these long sports documentaries that center around a thematically relevant graph are more interesting than the grand majority of talking heads documentaries or activist exercises. I don’t even particularly care about the teams (and sometimes even the entire sports) that Bois covers, but I can’t help but be compelled by these documentaries.

More Info: [IMDB] [YouTube] [Kaedrin Arbitrary Award Winner]

The Holdovers – Effectively captures that 1970s throwback vibe that it’s going for, with exceptional performances from Paul Giamatti, Dominic Sessa, and Da’Vine Joy Randolph. This is exactly the sort of movie people claim isn’t being made anymore, but here it is, and too many people probably skipped it. A nice coming of age drama with well drawn characters and darkly humorous tone.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

LOLA – British micro-budget found footage flick about sisters who invent a time travel device during WWII. Seamlessly integrates authentic newsreel footage with fictional found footage to effective ends, telling a twisty time travel story that is reasonably clever and somewhat unique (the time travel consists of information broadcasts from the future, not actual matter). Short and sweet, I’m guessing the David Bowie music license cost more than the rest of the movie combined.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One – The best half-a-movie of the year, by far. Tom Cruise and Christopher McQuarrie continue their consistent one-upping of themselves here with a couple of really amazing action set-pieces. Heck, even one of the more conventional sequences earlier in the film puts a similar sequence in Fast X to shame. It’s not quite as cohesive as Fallout, but it’s also only half a movie, even if it finds a good place to end.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon] [Kaedrin Arbitrary Award Winner] [Kaedrin Movie Award Winner]

Past Lives – Another one of those adult dramas that people like to claim aren’t made anymore, and to be fair, this one-that-got-away tearjerker is generally not my favorite sort of thing, but it’s well done, very well acted, and there’s plenty to relate to for just about anyone. I found myself surprisingly moved, and that’s one reason I like catching up with so many movies that I would otherwise skip at the end of the year…

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Rye Lane – The best romantic comedy of the year, with a charming and sweet chemistry between the leads, some visual flare, and a solid structure behind it. Brisk and frothy fun, it puts enough of a spin on the well worn genre that it comes off feeling fresh even if we’ve seen many of these elements before.

Part of this might just be its British origins, but I still think it’s distinct enough… Well worth seeking out.

More Info: [IMDB] [Hulu] [Kaedrin Arbitrary Award Winner]

When Evil Lurks – Intense Argentinian thriller about a vaguely demonic evil infesting a small town and growing in power or somesuch. It’s messed up and often shocking and thus quite effective. I don’t normally groove on this sort of nihilistic exercise, but it works well here and director Demián Rugna is capable of crafting exquisitely painful sequences. Not exactly fun, but if you can get on its sick frequency, you’ll have a good time.

More Info: [IMDB] [Amazon]

Just Missed the Cut

But still worthwhile, in their own way. Presented without comment and in no particular order:

Should Have Seen

Despite having watched over a hundred movies made in 2023, there are plenty that I probably should have caught up with. Sometimes they weren’t readily available, sometimes I couldn’t muster up the will to get to the theater, sometimes I just didn’t wanna watch (because reasons, that’s why). I will almost certainly end up seeing some of these and loving them, which is why the Kaedrin Movie Awards always has a category about the previous year’s movie…

That just about covers it for the top 10 movies of 2023 and Kaedrin Movie Awards season in general. The only thing that remains is Oscar speculations, which are coming up quickly… Stay tuned!

2023 Kaedrin Movie Awards: The Arbitrary Awards

Leave a Comment / 2023 Movie Awards / Mark / February 4, 2024

The 2023 Kaedrin Movie Awards Winners were announced last week, which means that it’s time for more arbitrary considerations. The idea is to recognize aspects of films that aren’t reflected in more traditional awards or other praise like a Top 10 list. However, any consistent, formal awards system will fail to capture all the nuances and complexity available; hence the 2023 Arbitrary Awards, an opportunity to commend movies that are weird or flawed in ways that don’t conform to normal standards. A few of these “awards” have become an annual tradition, some were stolen from other folks, but most are just, well, arbitrary. Previous Arbitrary Awards: [2022 | 2021 | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 | 2017 | 2016 | 2015 | 2014 | 2013 | 2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009 | 2008 | 2007 | 2006]

The “You know what happens when a toad gets struck by lightning? The same thing that happens to everything else” Award for Worst Dialogue: Shazam! Fury of the Gods. I give this award every year, but it’s always one of the most difficult because memorably bad dialogue is actually somewhat rare. Or at least, it is for me. A lot of the worst dialogue is bad because it’s distinctly unmemorable. Anyway, this sometimes means there’s a recency bias in this award, and I literally just watched this one. It has lots of awful dialogue, but the thing that pushed it over the top was: “The most powerful thing about you… is you!” Alright, that’s not great, but is it really the worst of the year? Well, it might not have been if they only said it once in the movie. Instead they say it again, just really calling attention to the badness. Also of note, The Marvels has a planet where everyone has to sing their dialogue, which is just awful but in an almost defensible way. I mean, I don’t like it, but I suspect there are a lot of people who could get into that idea and think it’s fun. That being said, it doesn’t even have the courage of its convictions and abandons the singing halfway through the scene. Anyway, this is more due to the way the dialogue is delivered than the actual contents of the dialogue, so we’ll just leave it as not winning.

The Proximity to Jason Voorhees Award for Heroic Stupidity: It’s a Wonderful Knife. There’s some things to like about this movie, but I found myself baffled by how stupid a lot of it was. A slasher inspired by It’s a Wonderful Life is an interesting idea, but they can’t even really get the premise right, let alone have the characters do things that aren’t just nonsense. Also of note: Scream VI has well and truly driven the series into the ground, and No One Will Save You gets a bit of a pass because the dumbest characters are the invading aliens.

The Garth Marenghi “I know writers who use subtext, and they’re all cowards” Award for Achievement in Didacticism: Killers of the Flower Moon. It’s a good movie, maybe even a great movie, and I think the grand majority of the movie is thematically rich and thought provoking, but then Martin Scorsese, perhaps worn down through decades of people willfully misinterpreting his movies as glorifying the actions of horrible people, literally comes on screen and says something to the effect of “These people were all bad.” I get it, and he actually does it in an interesting way that doesn’t ruin the movie or anything, but that’s why this award is here. One of the fun things about the Arbitrary Awards is that things that seem like they’re a bad category to win aren’t actually bad. They’re just weird (and weird is good in this context!)

Achievement in the Field of Gratuitous Violence: Sisu. The Finnish role in WWII notwithstanding, that guy sure did blow up them Nazis real good. Also of note: Thanksgiving, which has some pretty gnarly effects going on.

The “Scotty Doesn’t Know” Award for Best Cameo: Bradley Cooper in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Genuinely unexpected and probably even unnecessary, the two hallmarks of the best cameos.

Also of note: John Cena as a Merman (Merken?) in Barbie.

The Hank Scorpio Award for Cheerful Villainy: Pom Klementieff in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. In particular, the sequence where she’s chasing Cruise and Atwell through Rome in a HMMV-like vehicle, just grinning dementedly as she pancakes bystanding cars in pursuit. It’s the sort of performance the elevates an almost rote henchperson role into something much more… Also of note: Casey Affleck’s performance as Boris Pash in Oppenheimer. Infused with a perfect sorta smiling menace and dread, you almost don’t even need Matt Damon’s character to explain Pash’s past exploits to know how much danger Oppenheimer put himself in with that meeting. Genuinely want to explore more about Pash, who seems like an interesting (if a bit unhinged) guy.

Most Unnecessary Subtitle: Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. I mean, the whole title is somewhat bad, and honestly, most subtitles that aren’t sequels are unnecessary, but man, what were they thinking here? I really enjoyed the movie quite a bit, a frothy, fun spy caper thing that really didn’t catch on, but is worth seeking out if you like that sort of thing. But with a title (and subtitle) like that, I don’t blame you for not knowing about it…

Best Retired Spy: The Equalizer 3. It’s so funny that Denzel has only done two sequels in his career, and it’s these Equalizer movies he keeps coming back to… but this third installment is actually quite good! Maybe even the best of the series. Denzel’s retired spy turned drifter winds up in Italy, and finds peace… until he doesn’t and turns into an avenging spirit, almost like a slasher villain or something (but, like, heroic instead of villainous).

Best Badass/Villain (non-Human Edition): Godzilla from Godzilla Minus One. One of the great things about this movie is that they let Godzilla be a monster, instead of like, a sorta heroic monster that protects humans from bad monsters.

Most Underseen Romantic Comedy: Rye Lane. Delightful British RomCom that didn’t get much of a release here, but is well worth seeking out for fans of the genre (it’s on Hulu).

Best U.S. Military Cameo: The AC-130 in The Covenant. The movie has some tense action sequences and plenty of intractable bureaucracy, but I was not expecting the AC-130 “Angel of Death” sequence towards the end of the film. It’s disturbingly satisfying to watch.

Bleakest Horror Movie: When Evil Lurks. Absolutely messed up, nihilistic, doomcore, just plain mean movie. It’s pretty damn good.

Best YouTube Release: The History of the Minnesota Vikings. Clocking in at 9 hours and change, this is more of a TV series than a movie, but documentary director Jon Bois has really carved out a particular niche, complete with his own auteurist style. I don’t know if it’s quite as good as his History of the Seattle Mariners series, but it’s still pretty great.

Should Host the Oscars: Chancellor Jarnathan from Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Other candidates: M3GAN, The Cocaine Bear (which actually showed up at last year’s Oscar ceremony), and of course, The Entity from Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.

That does it for the 2023 Arbitrary Awards, but stay tuned, moar 2023 movie commentary incoming, including the traditional Top 10 list (this will probably take a couple weeks) and some Oscars commentary…

2023 Kaedrin Movie Award Winners

Leave a Comment / 2023 Movie Awards / Mark / January 28, 2024

The nominees for the 2023 Kaedrin Movie Awards were announced last week, and today we announce the award winners. The Oscars were also announced this past week, and the discourse has produced the usual unhinged complaints about snubs and relatability and other bitter recriminations. As with many things, the Oscars has had a weird few years in this post-pandemic era. Hosting woes, The Slap™, and ever present controversy has taken a toll, but it’s still fun if you don’t take it too seriously. Speaking of which, it’s about time to get to my silly little awards. I realize this is happening about a month or two later than most publications’ year end roundups, but I’m not a critic with access to screeners, so I’m still catching up with a lot of 2023 movies. Anywho, that’s enough preamble, let’s get to the fireworks:

Best Villain/Badass: Leonard, played by Dave Bautista in Knock at the Cabin. This was a surprisingly hard choice, and to be sure, Bautista’s Leonard isn’t your typical villain, which is probably why I ended up choosing him. Bautista’s soulful performance contrasted with his almost comical physical presence was a big part of it. The movie wasn’t my favorite, but his performance was memorable and effective.

The competition was also quite weak this year. I considered the Marquis, played by Bill Skarsgård in John Wick: Chapter 4, but he’s a sniveling weakling who hides behind Donnie Yen’s Caine (who perhaps should have been the one nominated, but he’s too sympathetic and friendly with John Wick – one of those weird borderline cases that come up in this award sometimes). Gabriel, played by Esai Morales in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One was also in contention, but he’s such a weird addition to the franchise – they play it like he’s been there all along, but this is the first we’ve seen of him. He’s certainly good in the role and I’m looking forward to the next movie, but he doesn’t really stand out. Also of note are the dueling Hugh Grant nominations for Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, both underrated movies deserving of more love (and Grant has lots of fun in both roles). It’s also nice to see a strong showing from the Slasher contingent in the nominees, but in the end, the unusualness of Bautista in Knock at the Cabin takes the cake.

Best Hero/Badass: John Wick, played by Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 4. I don’t know how this happened. Somehow, there’s been three previous John Wick movies and Wick/Reeves has not won this award. In some ways it’s fitting that this series finale finally generates the long sought after award win, in other ways, I worry that I’m becoming like the Oscars, handing out lifetime achievement awards over more deserving winners.

On the other hand, there really isn’t an obvious challenger to Wick and the choice is eminently defensible. Funnily enough, one of the leading challengers would be Tom Cruise as Ethan Hunt, who defeated Wick a few years ago for this very award (plus, to lean into the Oscar politics aspect, Cruise has won this multiple times). One other strong contender was Denzel Washington in The Equalizer 3, a movie I enjoyed way more than I thought I would (and which seems a bit slept on). Ultimately, though, it was finally time to hand the award to Wick.

Best Comedic Performance: Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings. A genuinely tough choice as there wasn’t really an obvious winner, though I do think that Lawrence’s performance is genuinely funny and she really put herself out there with this movie (sometimes, *ahem*, literally). The other nominee that I strongly considered and wanted to highlight was Glenn Howerton in BlackBerry. It’s a great performance, quite funny, and deserving of recognition. I dunno, maybe consider this a tie or something? This award is frequently strange because there are so many comedies that are more ensemble pieces than singular comedic vehicles. Plus, comedies are something of a rarity these days, with so many being a component of a larger genre (i.e. Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves is an adventure with a bunch of comedic beats for flavor, rather than primarily a comedy). Anyway, it’s nice to see an R-rated sex comedy these days, it’s a genre seemingly on the verge of extinction. Margot Robbie was great in Barbie, but I also feel like that’s more of an ensemble piece with a lot of humor coming from elsewhere. Paul Giamatti is amazing in The Holdovers, but while he delivers some zingers and humor, it’s more of a dramatic performance than comedy.

Breakthrough Performance: Sydney Sweeney in Reality and Anyone But You. I’ll admit to this award being somewhat nebulous, but it seems clear to me that Sydney Sweeney is going places, and that we’ll be seeing a lot more from her in the next few years. I will say that I wouldn’t have chosen her if I didn’t catch up with Reality, a high concept acting exercise that shows more range than expected. It seems obvious that Sweeney could achieve success with romantic comedies like Anyone But You, but it seems like she could choose more challenging roles and pull them off if she wanted to… Lily Gladstone was great in Killers of the Flower Moon and I suspect we’ll see more of her, and I do want to call out the last minute addition of Dar Salim in The Covenant. It wasn’t a movie I was particularly excited to see, but his performance was razor sharp and I hope we see a lot more of him in the years to come.

Most Visually Stunning: Asteroid City. Somehow, I’ve never given this award to a Wes Anderson movie. He’s one of our most distinct auteurs and visual stylists, with a brand of fussy, weaponized quirk that is truly beautiful to observe, even if you don’t love the movie (for the record, I really like Asteroid City, though it’s far from my favorite Anderson and probably won’t make the top 10).

It’s obviously worth noting Barbenheimer (Barbie and Oppenheimer) here, as they’re both visually stunning, and I’ll also through out extra mention to Poor Things and The Creator, which are also beautiful movies.

Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film: Command Z. A genuinely hard choice here, but I figured I’d spread the love around a bit. Command Z is one of those experimental Steven Soderbergh movies, but its genre elements (involving time travel, amongst a few other sub-genres) tickled me in just the right way. It’s worth seeking out, and you truly do need to seek it out because one of the experimental things about this movie is its distribution, which means it’s only currently available via its website. I’m sure it’ll show up on a streaming service at some point, but it’s worth the effort to watch now. I’ll hold off on the runners up, as some will be showing up below. The only thing I should mention though is that I caught up with When Evil Lurks a few days ago and it’s certainly worthy of attention for horror fans (and would have been nominated if I saw it before the nomination post). It’s not for the faint of heart, but it’s quite effective.

Best Sequel/Reboot/Remake: Godzilla Minus One. A surprising amount of good choices this year, but this was perhaps the most surprising in that I think it’s the best Godzilla movie I’ve seen since the original. The biggest problem with most Godzilla movies is that the human stories surrounding the monster are often so rote and boring. Minus One centers around a flawed but striving protagonist that you can’t help but root for, and that embues the struggle with Godzilla with much more power than most monster slugfests. Culturally and thematically rich, I haven’t seen this sort of thing in a Godzilla since the original. Lots of competition for this award though, including the trio of John Wick: Chapter 4, Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One, and The Equalizer 3, all with a similar sort of bent. Heck, it was even nice to catch up with Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and A Haunting in Venice, from series I hope to see more of in coming years…

Biggest Disappointment: Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania. Marvel’s fate post Endgame has been mostly mixed, but this, for me, was where I think it fully went off the rails. I can generally excuse things like poor special effects (like, seriously, did they let these shots finish rendering or what?) if the story is good, but this was so deeply unpleasant. Perhaps it was the near standalone nature of the first two films that made me like them so much, but nearly everything I loved about them was absent here. Not just some of the characters (Luis!) but even something as simple as the good natured relationship that Scott Lang has with his family (including his ex-wife’s husband, etc…) It was always something I loved about this sub-series, and it’s just completely jettisoned in favor of obnoxious daddy/daughter strife and crushed under the weight of Marvel’s franchise-service.

Best Action Sequences: Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One. Two of the most amazing action set pieces of the year here: one a stunt where Tom Cruise drives off a cliff on a motorcycle and another in which a train crashes. Even some of the more mundane set pieces were noteworthy – a car chase through Rome works incredibly well thanks to Tom Cruise and Hayley Atwell’s comedic tension, not to mention the deranged but gleeful grin that Pom Klementieff sports as she barrels her way through Rome in pursuit. It’s even more effective when you see Fast X try something similar, with much less success. Anyway, tons of competition here and you could certainly mount a strong case for John Wick: Chapter 4 (in particular, the overhead Dragon’s Breath sequence), but let’s spread things around a bit.

Best Plot Twist/Surprise: The Artifice Girl. Obviously I won’t be spoiling this here, especially since I went into this knowing very little about it (which helps with an award like this). Fortunately, this is an underseen movie, so you too could have such an experience. It’s talky and set mostly in a couple of small rooms, but it’s fantastic. Also a strong contender for Best SF/Horror and Best High Concept, I’ve again opted to spread the love with these awards and am sticking with this choice here. Plenty of other worthy nominees, but I feel like even just nominating them is a partial spoiler, so I’ll just leave it at that.

Best High Concept Film: Silent Night and No One Will Save You. Once again, a very tough choice here, so I’m choosing the cop out, because both of these movies essentially have the same gimmick: almost no dialogue in the film at all. It’s a neat gimmick and emphasizes film as a visual medium. If I had to choose one, it would probably be Silent Night, because it’s so clearly a John Woo movie, touching on many of his themes and hobbyhorses, but he’s able to distill his vision in a stripped down, visual way, rather than through clumsy dialogue.

2023’s 2022 Movie of the Year: Orphan: First Kill. The pickins were pretty slim this year, and this award has always been a little weird in that way. The idea was that I was frequently catching up with this after my top 10 that were worthy of recognition, so I created this award for that purpose. The problem is that I rarely catch up with something that’s really that spectacular, and last year was particularly rough on that front. Even some of the nominees weren’t exactly favorites (I’m sure lots of folks would look at that list and think the obvious choice was Triangle of Sadness, but while I respect what that movie is doing, I didn’t exactly love it.) Anyway, I’m giving it to Orphan: First Kill because I wound up having a blast with the movie. Like its predecessor, it’s not exactly good, but the premise in and of itself is almost hilarious. While this seems like simply more of the same at first, it does have a twist that really makes the movie. It’s not the greatest movie or anything, but I enjoyed it much more than I thought I would…

Congratulations to all the 2023 Kaedrin Movie Award winners! And stay tuned, for next week, the awards go arbitrary!

2023 Kaedrin Movie Award Nominees

1 Comment / 2023 Movie Awards / Mark / January 21, 2024

Welcome to the 2023 Kaedrin Movie Award season, which we’re kicking off with nominees in our standard categories! The idea is to recognize films for achievements that don’t always reflect well on top 10 lists or traditional awards. There are lots of formal award categories and nominees listed below, but once those are announced, we’ll also leave some room for Arbitrary Awards that are more goofy and freeform. Finally, we’ll post a traditional top 10 list (usually sometime in early/mid-February). But first up is the awards! [Previous Installments here: 2006 | 2007 | 2008 | 2009 | 2010 | 2011 | 2012 | 2013 | 2014 | 2015 | 2016 | 2017 | 2018 | 2019 | 2020 | 2021 | 2022]

Standard disclaimers apply: It must be a 2023 movie (with the one caveat that some 2022 films were not accessible until 2023 and are thus eligible under fiat) and I obviously have to have seen the movie. As of this writing, I’ve seen 93 movies that could be considered a 2023 release. This is right about where we were last year at this time, which means that I’ve actually caught up from being behind in early December, but 2023 has been a pretty jam packed year. There are still several films that I want to catch up with, but even though I probably have seen less movies than many critics have seen, I have seen more than your typical moviegoer and have certainly seen enough to populate the awards. I think that’s enough preamble, let’s get to it:

Best Villain/Badass
A moderate year for villainy here, lots of decent choices, but I’m not sure if there’s a true standout. I don’t envy the voting body on this one (um, wait a second…)! In accordance with tradition, my picks in this category are limited to individuals, not groups (i.e. no vampires or zombies as a general menace, etc…) or ideas. This exclusion also, um, includes inhuman monsters or creatures (sorry Godzilla, we’ll hit you up in the Arbitrary Awards). Sometimes there’s a fine line here and certain nominees might be borderline, but we’re all just going to have to learn to live with it.

M3GAN, played by Amie Donald in M3GAN
Leonard, played by Dave Bautista in Knock at the Cabin
Greg Simmonds, played by Hugh Grant in Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
Marquis, played by Bill Skarsgård in John Wick: Chapter 4
Forge, played by Hugh Grant in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Dracula, played by Nicolas Cage in Renfield
Jonathan Ohnn / Spot, played by Jason Schwartzman in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Gabriel, played by Esai Morales in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
The Sweet Sixteen Killer, played by [redacted] in Totally Killer
The Pilgrim, played by [redacted] in Thanksgiving
Marraine, played by Isabelle Adjani in Wingwomen
Choi Pro, played by Kim Ji-hun in Ballerina
Jim, played by John Abraham in Pathaan

Best Hero/Badass
A better year for heroism, though this time around there are a few standouts such that the voting will probably not get very contentious (phew)… One fun thing about both the hero and villain categories is that they are not as dominated by superhero movies anymore, even if there is one token representative from the genre… Again limited to individuals and not groups/creatures.

Brodie Torrance, played by Gerard Butler in Plane
Orson Fortune, played by Jason Stathan in Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre
John Wick, played by Keanu Reeves in John Wick: Chapter 4
Edgin, played by Chris Pine in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Miles Morales / Spider-Man, played by Shameik Moore in Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse
Tyler Rake, played by Chris Hemsworth in Extraction II
Ethan Hunt, played by Tom Cruise in Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One
Robert McCall, played by Denzel Washington in The Equalizer 3
Brian Godlock, played by Joel Kinnaman in Silent Night
Alex, played by Adèle Exarchopoulos in Wingwomen
Kora, played by Sofia Boutella in Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire
Jang Ok-joo, played by Jun Jong-seo in Ballerina
Pathaan, played by Shah Rukh Khan in Pathaan
Ria Khan, played by Priya Kansara in Polite Society
Guerrero, played by Marko Zaror in The Fist of the Condor

Best Comedic Performance
This is sometimes a difficult category to populate due to the prevalence of ensembles in comedy movies (this year being no exception). That being said, there were definitely a few standout solo performances this year that are definitely worth recognition.

Chris Pine in Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves
Jeffrey Wright in Asteroid City
Jennifer Lawrence in No Hard Feelings
Margot Robbie in Barbie
Ryan Gosling in Barbie
Michael Cera in Command Z
Glenn Howerton in BlackBerry
Paul Giamatti in The Holdovers
Jillian Bell in Candy Cane Lane
Mark Ruffalo in Poor Things
Vivian Oparah in Rye Lane

Breakthrough Performance
This used to be a category more centered around my personal evaluation of a given actor (rather than a more general industry breakthrough), but it’s trended more towards the youngsters breaking through as time has gone on…

Storm Reid in Missing
Matt Johnson in BlackBerry
Lily Gladstone in Killers of the Flower Moon
Iman Vellani in The Marvels
Dominic Sessa in The Holdovers
Charles Melton in May December
Priya Kansara in Polite Society
Tatum Matthews in The Artifice Girl
David Jonsson in Rye Lane
Sydney Sweeney in Reality and Anyone But You
Dar Salim in The Covenant

Most Visually Stunning
Sometimes even bad movies can look really great… But this is a pretty solid list!

Best Sci-Fi or Horror Film
It’s always nice to throw some love to genres that don’t normally get a lot of recognition in end-of-the-year lists. As an avid SF fan, it’s sad that the genre usually has to be combined with Horror in order to come up with a well rounded set of nominees, but here we are.

Best Sequel/Reboot/Remake
Always an awkward category to populate, especially given my normal feeling on this sort of thing (i.e. not a huge fan of sequels), but this year wasn’t that hard.

Biggest Disappointment
A category often dominated by sequels and reboots, but the occasional original film makes an appearance. Note that these movies don’t necessarily need to be “bad” in order to be a “disappointment”. Basically, these movies scored poorly on Joe Posnanski’s Plus-Minus Scale.

Best Action Sequences
This award isn’t for individual action sequences, but rather an overall estimation of each film. We’ve got a pretty great, extensive lineup this year. The added accessibility of streaming DTV actioners has been a boon to this category.

Best Plot Twist/Surprise
I suppose even listing that there is a twist is a bit of a spoiler, but I guess we’ll just have to risk it.

Best High Concept Film
A bit of a nebulous concept for this category, but there’s some good stuff worth recognizing here because they took chances on a weird concept.

2023’s 2022 Movie of the Year
This is a weird category that is sometimes difficult to populate. The idea centers around movies I never caught up with last year during the Kaedrin Awards season, but which are worthwhile in their own right. During the pandemic, things were even weirder with this category, but we’ve seemingly emerged from that wilderness. Still, I must have done a good job with last year’s catch-up, because pickins were slim this year. This list is modest and none of these would kick something off my top 10 from last year but a couple are worthwhile…

So there you have it, please congratulate all of the 2023 Kaedrin Movie Award nominees! Stay tuned for the winners (probably next week, but you never know), followed by the Arbitrary Awards and Top 10 list. I’m still catching up with various flicks, because as usual, those 9 and 10 slots in the top 10 are a little difficult to fill (not, I should add, because there aren’t worthy candidates, but more because there are so many vying for those slots)…

2023 in Movie Watching

Leave a Comment / Movies / Mark / January 14, 2024

We’ve already covered our 2023 in book reading, so now it’s time to examine our year in Movie Watching. Insert standard disclaimers concerning the arbitrary or rationally considered nature of dates and astronomical movements in the solar system and whatnot. As with book reading, movie watching in 2023 has basically settled into a plateau after a big spike during the pandemic.

I keep track of all my movie watching on Letterboxd, so if you’re reading this and are a member, we should be friends there. One of the neat things I can get from there is fancy stats and graphs and whatnot, so let’s take a deeper dive into my 2023 in movie watching:

Overall Stats

A general look at my 2023 in movie watching:

388 Movies Watched (-1 movie from 2022)
693.9 Hours Watched (-19.1 hours from 2022)
32.3 Movies a month on average (-0.1 movies from 2022)
7.4 Movies a week on average (-0.1 movies from 2022)

The general numbers are extremely close to last year, with only the “hours watched” metric being a little more volatile (interestingly, the differential was also down significantly last year – I suspect this is due to the occasional TV series being tracked “as a movie” on Letterboxd – something that has been declining for me). The numbers are also pretty close to pre-pandemic 2019, though that was a record-breaking year at the time (immediately shattered by 2020 for obvious reasons). After a few years, this seems to be the plateau.

Breaking that down by decade:

So watching by decade is roughly similar to the past couple years, though the 20s-60s mostly saw modest declines (steeper declines for 50s and 60s). That slack was picked up by the 70s and 80s and the 2010s and 2020s. I haven’t done the 50 From 50 postmortem yet, but I suspect most of those were recent (and took away from time that would have gone towards older movies). Perhaps its time for a movie resolution for older movies again, akin to the 50 Under 50 project?

Movies by week remains relatively consistent. The only interesting pattern is that towards the end of last year, I had a few months of remarkably consistent viewing, and that seems to have carried over into the first quarter of this year. Then I went on vacation (a few times) and things got a little more choppy as the year progressed, with a general spike during the 6 Weeks of Halloween. In terms of day of the week, we’re slightly more consistent here, but the weekend still gets the bulk of watches and Tuesday (which is game night) gets the least time.

Genres, Languages, and Countries

Here we see the usual dominance of USA and English language. You can’t really see it, but the 50 From 50 project did have an impact and overall count of USA and Anglosphere is actually way down. But since that project spread watching across tons of other countries, no one country stands out. The biggest changes came from a surprising showing from Mexico and Spain, which knocked China and Japan off the chart this year.

There some minor movement on genres, with Horror jumping up into the #2 slot after a stint at #5 last year. But genre fare still seems to be high here, and I do think the 50 From 50 project had some influence here as well – a lot of those films were horror or action (but again, we’ll need to do a full postmortem to really see what the breakdown was). Also of note: Documentary drops off the list of top genres (which aligns with a decline in non-fiction book reading last year as well). I don’t know that this means anything, but it’s interesting…

A new feature on the Letterboxd stats page is Themes and Nanogenres. Fun, but not too surprising – these are mostly related to action, thriller, and horror.

Despite the USA and English language dominance, you can really see the effect of 50 From 50 here in the map, which shows probably the most coverage of any year yet. Definitely the most coverage for South America and Africa in any given year, and the funniest thing about this map is that some countries that I normally cover were not – notably Ireland and New Zealand (both were excluded from 50 From 50 due to being Anglosphere countries – doesn’t mean I couldn’t watch anything from them or anything, but I didn’t go out of my way). Even funnier is that we’re only two weeks into 2024 and I’ve already seen a movie from Ireland. Go figure.

Ratings and Other Patterns

20.6% of my watches were a 2023 release, which is actually a bit of a drop from 2022. (Funnily enough 100% of my 2024 watching so far has been 2023 releases, so I’m catching up…)
24.2% of my watches were actually rewatches, which is just slightly below 2022 numbers (a 0.2% difference) so we’re mostly on par with that.
Ratings Spread continues to be roughly bell-curve shaped and centered on a 3 star (out of 5) rating. There’s a decrease in 3 star reviews, but those got distributed in the adjacent ratings (rather than more extreme ratings). Interestingly, while I rarely give out the 1 star rating, I gave out 4 this year. That’s actually a mild decrease from 2022, but I literally sought out terrible movies in 2022 as part of a project with friends. This year I just watched some bad movies on my own. Go me.
Letterboxd has a watchlist feature where you can add movies you want to watch (or at least, not lose track of). This year saw a notable increase in both movies watched from the watchlist… but also movies added to the watchlist. As a percentage, I probably did significantly better than last year, but overall still added 23 movies to the overall list. Will 2024 finally be the year in which I make progress on the watchlist? (So far I’m at parity – 3 added, 3 watched (not the same 3))

Stars and Directors

Sylvester Stallone takes the cake this year, mostly on the back of rewatches (including smaller roles like in Guardians of the Galaxy movies and The Suicide Squad). Only two women on the list (down from 3 last year), but it’s nice to see Lin Shaye and Michelle Yeoh on the list. Two black men on the list, an actual improvement over last year, though obviously not outstanding. So not exactly diverse, but not completely generic either.

The director list is significantly less diverse, though there are far fewer outliers here (usually there’s someone with more than 4 movies, for example) and there are a few folks where I watched 3 of their movies, but they’re not on the list because it’s limited to 10. Go figure.

Highs and Lows

The appropriately titled High and Low takes highest rated this year, certainly a worthy successor to last year’s The Godfather. Best. Christmas. Ever! (one of those Hallmark Christmas imitation movies that Netflix somehow manages to convince real stars to be in…) was the lowest rated thing I watched all year, which is saying something in a year when I also watched Sharknado and They Saved Hitler’s Brain. No surprise that Barbie was the most popular movie of the year on Letterboxd. And Most Obscure was a documentary I watched for 50 from 50 about Nokia (would make for an excellent double feature with Blackberry if you were so interested).

So there you have it, 2023 was a pretty great year for movie watching, here’s to 2024!

50 From 50 – Success!

Leave a Comment / 50 From 50 / Mark / December 17, 2023

Back in March, I made a resolution to watch 50 movies from 50 different countries this year (lots of caveats and rules for what qualifies, as enumerated in that introductory post) and about 50 weeks into the year, we have a success on our hands. Because I started in March, I’ve been playing catchup in terms of recapping qualifying movies, but I mostly caught up during the Six Weeks of Halloween. That said, this post will cover the final 9 qualifying films (and some may not be as thorough as others). As with previous movie-based projects, I will probably get to a Postmortem at some point, but it may be a while since we’re rapidly coming up on end of year posting and 2023 movie awards and whatnot. Anywho, let’s finish recapping the films that brought us to 50 from 50 success. More 50 From 50: [Intro | Part I | Part II | Part III | Part IV | Part V | Part VI | 6WH Week 2.5 | 6WH Joko Anwar | 6WH Speed Round]

Saudi Arabia – The Book of Sun – High school senior Husam finds himself drawn to the world of filmmaking and sets about making a no-budget horror movie with the help of his friends and one supportive teacher. A coming of age story mixed into a guerrilla filmmaking plot makes for a nice combo, and while this doesn’t cater to Western audiences, it’s more interesting because of that and still quite relatable. Perhaps the human impulse towards art and being opposed by crusty old deans are more universal themes than I thought.

While not quite as low budget as the horror movie within the movie, this production makes the most of its limitations, even deploying some mixed media and animation in service of an entertaining little story. At 130 minutes, it’s a tad overlong and some of the beats are derivative and predictable, but the pacing is brisk and it never really drags. This is one of those movies that sorta languishes in the depths of Netflix’s catalogue (though, hmm, it appears it’s no longer there) and I only found it because I was scouring Letterboxd for 50 From 50 movies from unlikely countries like Saudi Arabia. It’s not perfect or anything, but I’m really glad I stumbled onto this one, and it’s one of the bigger surprises of the whole 50 from 50 exercise. **1/2

Bolivia – Sealed Cargo – A police officer whose career is on the rise gets tasked with smuggling cargo containers filled with toxic waste to Chile. He commissions an old train for the trip, but things do not go to plan as the entire population of Bolivia is seemingly aware of the cargo and assumes it’ll be dumped on their land. There’s a lot of potential avenues for drama here, maybe even political satire, but nothing quite comes together in a cohesive way and the entire endeavor drags.

It’s well shot and looks good, plenty of painterly landscapes being traversed by an old-timey train, and it touches on lots of potentially thorny themes, including duty and honor, government corruption, local resistance movements, and so on. Alas, this doesn’t really deliver on any of those promises and sometimes veers sharply in confusing directions (at one point, a policeman decides to start literally eating the neon blue, probably toxic dirt that’s being transported for no discernable reason… another scene involves one of the policeman assaulting a woman who was trying to hitch a ride on the train to escape her local problems… and so on). Points for the attempt, but it doesn’t quite get there. *1/2

Mongolia – Genghis: The Legend of the Ten – The Mongolian title for this movie is Aravt, a reference to the way Ghengis Khaan organized his troops into decimal-based units of 10, 100, 1000, etc… It translates literally to “ten families” and consisted of ten soldiers from ten different families. This movie tells the story of one Aravt tasked with finding and retrieving a doctor to help with an illness plaguing Khaan’s troops. Naturally, they find themselves facing obstacles all along the way, including an abandoned infant that needs care and an enemy force informally led by a power-hungry soldier willing to betray everyone to get his way.

This feels a lot like a Western (the baby subplot reminded me of 3 Godfathers, for instance) with integrated Mongolian culture and history (perhaps that should be phrased in the opposite way, given that this is a Mongolian production). It’s shot well, another movie with lots of beautiful landscapes, and it features some decent small-scale action that gets a little more fantastical as the film approaches its climax. It’s reasonably well executed and entertaining enough, and though it doesn’t break new ground, it is interesting to see a sorta on-the-ground, soldier level view (as opposed to focusing on Ghengis Khaan and epic battle sequences, as a lot of movies have done) of the era from a Mongolian perspective. **

Denmark – Pusher – Nicolas Winding Refn’s debut is a crime movie about a drug pusher who desperately tries to recover from a botched deal and thus finds himself deep in debt to his suppliers. Shot in a vérité style, lots of handheld camerawork and long takes following our characters from behind, it does not paint a pretty picture of drug dealing.

Most crime films at least make some attempt to show why people would be attracted to this way of life before pulling the rug out later on, and sure, the opening of this film isn’t entirely miserable, but our protagonist is clearly not doing great. Once the inciting incident occurs, he’s immediately thrust into a life or death scenario that he has little hope of escaping. The ending has a bit of ambiguity to it, but not really, and it hits pretty hard. Kim Bodnia plays the titular pusher and puts in a remarkable peformance. Mads Mikkelsen is great as usual, but has more of a supporting role (apparently he becomes the main protagonist in the sequels). It’s an impressive debut and very well made, but its the sort of film that doesn’t really appeal to me. Your mileage may vary. **1/2

Egypt – Karmouz War (aka No Surrender) – In colonial Egypt, a police captain refuses to hand over British soldiers who raped a local woman. British forces lay siege to the police station in an attempt to force the release of the prisoners. Amusingly blatant anti-colonial propaganda with larger than life Egyptian heroes and despicable British villains. At its best, it reminded me a bit of over-the-top 80s action B movies starring Chuck Norris. At its worst, it reminded me a bit of over-the-top 80s action B movies starring Chuck Norris. It’s certainly a little overheated and ridiculous at times, but it has its moments. I stumbled onto this movie because it features Scott Adkins, but as it turns out, he’s only shoehorned into about 5 minutes of the movie, and while he injects some more acrobatic action into the proceedings, it’s certainly not a typical Adkins DTV actioner. Not a movie I’d recommend, but it’s got some interesting stuff in it. **

Cambodia – The Prey – Cambodian filmmaker Jimmy Henderson made a name for himself with martial arts actioners like Jailbreak, but here he tackles yet another spin on The Most Dangerous Game. An undercover Chinese agent finds himself in a jail that sells prisoners to trophy hunters. This time, the prisoner turns the tables and the hunter becomes the hunted. Obviously a tired premise, but this is a well executed version of the story with a few minor wrinkles that make it all a worthwhile exercise. I’m definitely going to keep an eye out for future Henderson offerings. **1/2

USSR – Stalker – Based on the novel Roadside Picnic, this tells the story of three people traveling into the Zone, a place where normal laws of physics cease to operate as expected. The titular Stalker is a guide, and the others are hoping to find a specific area of the Zone that grants your most desired wishes. Widely considered a classic, it’s one of those films I find rather frustrating. It’s absolutely gorgeous. The cinematography, framing, and compositions are exceptional and deserving of all the praise the film gets.

The ideas in the story are thematically rich and thought provoking, even if this sort of blunt philosophizing can seem a bit ham fisted at times (it’s certainly a step up from dorm-room philosophizing and I’m willing to grant that something may be lost in translation). It’s certainly not surprising that a Soviet filmmaker in 1979 would be interested in exploring the philosophy of desire and the human inability to actually know their deepest wants and needs. At this point in the USSR, central planning was clearly struggling, and this movie represents a sorta morose acknowledgement that it might be impossible to accurately know our own deep-seated desires, let alone those of others (especially at a societal level).

While it’s a visually spectacular movie, it certainly takes its time, lingering on nearly every shot much longer than needed. Yes, yes, this extra time gives you the space to consider all the ideas and ponder great mysteries and so on, but I’ve always been suspicious of Andrei Tarkovsky. In Solaris, there’s an infamous sequence where a guy travels from the countryside to a city via a highway, with visuals that look more “futuristic” as he approaches the city. It’s nearly five minutes long, and while it does emphasize one of the film’s themes (juxtaposing the natural world with the man-made world), did it really need to be that long? Lots of folks will say yes, but I distinctly remember listening to the Criterion Collection commentary for that film where they explain that the “futuristic” footage of the highway was actually filmed in Tokyo (and in 1972, Tokyo was sufficiently futuristic looking for those in the USSR) and that Tarkovsky included so much of it because he had to justify the expense of his trip.

Maybe I’m overstating this, as clearly Tarkovsky likes his films to be deliberately paced, but man, you really feel that time. In fairness, Stalker is not nearly as bad as Solaris in this respect, but the glacial pacing can be a challenge, especially when combined with some of the more surrealistic components of this story where you struggle to make sense of what you’re being shown. I have a lot of respect for what this movie is doing and I’m glad I’ve finally caught up with it, but it’s a hard movie to recommend and I’m not nearly as rapturous about it as a lot of people… ***

Pakistan – Altered Skin – Ostensibly a blend of zombie horror and conspiracy thriller, this tends to lean harder into the latter, with middling to poor results. I usually don’t mind a derivative plot if it’s executed well, but this is one of those examples where it’s trying to do two different things, but doesn’t really succeed at either. The acting and performances are awful, and it’s visually mediocre. Look there’s no shortage of crappy zombie films out there, but I was hoping the conspiracy angle would give this a leg up. Unfortunately, it’s poorly executed and the only real spin on the formula is the setting in Pakistan… but I don’t think that’s really enough to save this. *

Netherlands – The 4th Man – This was the last film Paul Verhoeven made in the Netherlands before heading off to Hollywood. A psycho-sexual nightmare thriller with some homoeroticism and Catholic guilt thrown in for extra flavor, it tells the story of Gerard, an alcoholic author who starts an affair with Christine, a cosmetologist with a mysterious past. Filled with religious imagery, gratuitous sex, and surreal, dreamlike violence, it’s certainly not a subtle film, but neither is it a bombastic exercise a la some of Verhoeven’s Hollywood productions. Indeed, I’m not sure if the story isn’t happening entirely in our protagonist’s head.

Speaking of whom, he’s played by Jeroen Krabbé, who has been in lots of stuff, but I most associate him with his memorable supporting turn in The Fugitive. He’s excellent here, as is Renée Soutendijk as the kinda, sorta femme fatale. It’s an interesting movie, I’m glad I caught up with it, and I’d like to explore more of Verhoeven’s Dutch films. Certainly not my favorite, but worthwhile! ***

And so that marks 50 different films from 50 different countries. Alright, there are some minor cheats here – Stalker being USSR when I’d already watched a Russian movie is questionable, for example. And I will probably not get to 20 movies from one country (as originally planned), though I did get to 10-15 movies from both Hong Kong and Italy, so I figure that counts for something. As mentioned above, I’ll probably do a postmortem for the project at some point, but it may be a while, as we’ve got a packed schedule coming up with the usual year-ending recaps and Movie Awards and whatnot…

The Great Movie Catch-Up, 2023 Edition

Leave a Comment / Movies / Mark / December 10, 2023

Tis the season to draw up a list of 2023 movie releases that I want to catch-up with before embarking upon the traditional Kaedrin Movie Awards, Top 10, and other year ending nonsense. Of course, the professionals are releasing their Top 10s and year end summaries right now, but for us normals who don’t go to Sundance and Cannes or get screeners and other opportunities, it takes a bit longer. So the Awards happen in January and the Top 10 usually in February (hey, at least we’re faster than The Oscars!)

As of this moment, I’ve seen 67 movies that could be considered a 2023 release. This is actually a significant drop from the last few years, even though my overall movie watching numbers have not declined too much. Part of the decline may be the focus on 50 from 50, but I think at least some of it has to do with the industry’s return to theatrical releases and floundering streaming channels. Obviously streaming exclusives are still a thing, I’m still seeing plenty of streaming slop, and while the theatrical windows for a lot of movies are returning to pre-pandemic levels, many are still available pretty quickly. I haven’t actually done a deep dive on this to see if it’s true, but it does feel like a heartening trend. Movies are back, nature is healing, etc…

Anywho, it’s traditional around here to take stock of the year so far and take a look at what I missed as well as what’s coming soon. The end of the year usually results in a deluge of prestige pictures looking for Oscar nominations. The pandemic threw a bit of a wrench into that pattern for sure, but it does seem as if this December is jam packed (and January will no doubt see some stragglers in theaters as well). Standard disclaimers apply: I consider some 2022 movies a 2023 release if it didn’t get distributed in the US until 2023. This list is not comprehensive. I probably won’t watch everything on this list. I will probably watch things not on this list. I started compiling this post a couple weeks ago and have already seen some of the movies on it. And so on. Let’s get to it:

Blockbusters

Napoleon – A Ridley Scott historical epic always piques interest, especially after the underrated/underseen The Last Duel, and the subject matter hasn’t been overdone (despite being of interest to lots of famous auteurs, notably Kubrick).

Update: I have seen seen this movie! It’s very messy and glosses over too many events in an attempt to cram in everything it can, but Joiquin Phoenix’s Napoleon is an astounding buffoon, the battles are epic, the pace never falters, and while it’s not entirely my thing, I’m glad I caught up with it. Curious about the rumored 4 hour cut, though I doubt it would change my feelings too much

Ferrari – Michael Mann’s passion project has been a long time coming, and it’s been quite a while since his last film (the disappointing Blackhat), but I’m always curious to see what Mann’s got cooking.

The Creator – This low(ish) budget came and went without much fanfare and I never caught up with it (such is the fate of movies that are released during the 6 weeks of Halloween). I’m not expecting much given what I’ve heard, but it looks visually spectacular and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it well enough.

Dumb Money – The story of the Gamestop stock craze is a fascinating one, so even though I tend to prefer a documentary over dramatizations, I’ll certainly give this one a look.

Next Goal Wins – It’s become fashionable to hate on Taika Waititi and the guy has mostly brought that upon himself (plus, the last Thor movie wasn’t very good), but I’m always curious to see what he’s got up his sleeve. This seems a bit derivative, but it could be fun. Alas, I appear to have missed out on the theatrical release, and you never know when things will show up on streaming/rental these days, so who knows if I’ll actually get to this.

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Mutant Mayhem – I’ve heard good things about this and the animation style looks interesting, but there are some hesitations as well. Will definitely check it out at some point.

Elemental – Disney has trained us all to wait for streaming, so that’s what I’ve done. Pixar’s star has fallen a bit of late, but they can still put out great stuff, so this is certainly worth a look.

The Super Mario Bros. Movie – Not expecting a whole lot, but it’s the second most successful movie of the year and it’s quite possible this will tickle some nostalgia in my bones, so I should probably take a gander.

Streaming Exclusive

Maestro (Netflix) – Bradley Cooper’s directorial biopic has lots of Oscar buzz and it’s interesting that Cooper has become something of an event filmmaker (in a way), so I’ll certainly check this out.

The Wonderful Story of Henry Sugar, Poison, The Swan, and The Rat Catcher (Netflix) – Wes Anderson made this series of short films based on Roald Dahl stories earlier this year, and they sorta just came and went in the way Netflix exclusives do, but I definitely want to catch up with them. Come to think of it, Asteroid City didn’t make too many waves either, but I enjoyed it well enough, and Anderson is always up to something interesting.

Candy Cane Lane (Prime Video) – Eddie Murphy Christmas movie jam that could be fun, I guess. Update: I’ve seen this. There are a couple of fun things about it and at least it doesn’t follow the Hallmark formula, but it’s maybe only a hair above Hallmark in terms of quality. Jillian Bell is great though, and this is fine low-stakes fodder, I guess.

BS High (Max) – Sports documentary about a sorta fake high school football team? Sounds interesting. Update: I’ve seen this, and it’s an absolutely bonkers story with some crazy twists and turns and a charismatic con-man villain who just gets worse and worse as the story unfolds. Stylistically straightforward, but worth a look even if you’re not a sports person.

Reality (Max) – An intriguing concept: the script for this movie is simply an FBI transcript of an interrogation into an intelligence worker who is alleged to have leaked classified information. Again, I may prefer a documentary over the dramatization (and there actually is such a documentary), but the gimmick here certainly seems worth a look.

May December (Netflix) – Lots of buzz in the film dork community around this one. I’ve never been much interested by Todd Haynes, but I’ll probably give this a look.

Rebel Moon: Part One – A Child of Fire (Netflix) – Zack Snyder’s faux Star Wars certainly looks interesting and bombastic and I’m honestly glad he’s not doing DC comic book movies anymore. Hopefully this will pay off.

Rye Lane (Hulu) – British romantic comedy with under-the-radar buzz, I’m into it.

When Evil Lurks (Shudder) – It’s always telling when a horror movie attains a reputation as being extra dark, as this one has, so I guess I should find some time for it.

Hit Man (Netflix) – Richard Linklater directed this movie starring Glen Powell that apparently did well in the festival circuit, but couldn’t secure a full release, instead going to Netflix. It’s unclear when this will actually be released, and at this point, I’m guessing it won’t be a 2023 release…

Independent, Foreign, and Art House

The Holdovers – Alexander Payne can be hit or miss for me, but this story about a grumpy prep school teacher forced to spend Christmas vacation with a student seems like it could be up my alley.

Update: I’ve seen this, and it’s a hit. I’m not as rapturous as some people are about it, but I like it quite a bit, and while it maintains an acerbic edge, it’s got some sentimentality and wit to it as well.

Poor Things – Yorgos Lanthimos is certainly a weirdo, but that often translates to interesting filmmaking. This has been getting lots of praise in the festival circuit, and I’m looking forward to catching up with it when it goes wide later this month.

Polite Society – Billed as an action comedy, this British flick sounds like an interesting and unconventional combination of elements like martial arts and a… wedding heist? This has been on my radar for a while, but it’s now on Amazon Prime, so I will definitely be catching up with it soon. Sounds like a hoot.

Sound of Freedom – The little Angel Studios thriller that could, this sucker cleaned up at the box office and garnered bizarre conspiracy theories about its support of conspiracy theories, but I will definitely catch up with it at some point.

The Boy and the Heron – Hayao Miyazaki has returned from retirement (again) and while I don’t know anything about it other than its director and the title, that’s enough to make me want to see it.

Jules – I’m going with “modern-day Cocoon” to describe this one, but it’s probably better than that sounds.

The Caine Mutiny Court-Martial – RIP William Friedkin… his final film sounds interesting enough and I definitely want to check it out.

Dream Scenario – High concept Nicolas Cage flick about a guy who starts showing up in everyone’s dreams. Sounds interesting!

Past Lives – An art house favorite that came out early in the year, but still seems to have some buzz around it.

Return to Seoul – A film that appeared on many critics best-of lists last year, but wasn’t really available to watch in the US until this year.

AKA – Alban Lenoir is a French action star that I know from the Lost Bullet movies (both of which are great fun) and this is his latest. It’s on Netflix, so why not check it out? (This approach worked well for those Lost Bullet movies, also on Netflix)

Pathaan – I saw a clip from this Indian action flick on Twitter the other day and, yes, I will watch this.

Full Time – I learned about this one from John Waters’ best of 2023 list (his lists are always edifying). He describes this as being about: “a normal single-mother hotel worker and whether she’ll get to work on time” and I’m sold.

Miscellaneous, Genre, Mutant Fam, etc…

The Toxic Avenger – Can a remake of the crude, schlocky 1984 masterpiece even begin to approach the original? I guess we’ll find out (and early indications are that it’s great). The involvement of Macon Blair and others in the production are certainly encouraging. As of yet, no idea when this will be released (it could very well be a 2024 release).

The Artifice Girl – Micro-budget SF about AI that sounds right up my alley. Whether or not I end up liking this, it’s exactly the sort of movie I write posts like this for: I never would have even known this existed if I didn’t explicitly seek out 2023 movies to catch up on…

Lola – Another Micro-budget SF movie (this one about time travel) that I never would have known about if I wasn’t going through this exercise. Looking forward to catching up with this.

The Conference – German slasher movie set at a corporate retreat? Sure, why not?

Sisu – This Finnish WWII action flick actually got a push in theaters early this year and I’m not sure how I didn’t catch up with it back then, but I didn’t, so I feel like I need to catch up with this one…

We Kill for Love – A documentary about the obscure sub-genre of the erotic thriller that had a moment in the early 90s (mostly with DTV, cable, and VHS, but which also broke into the mainstream for a bit). Discovered this when the director was interviewed on the Bulwark Goes to Hollywood podcast. Definitely an interesting interview and it makes me want to watch the movie.

Late Night with the Devil – Low budget horror movie about a TV broadcast that unleashes evil or somesuch starring David Dastmalchian. Not sure if this will come out in time for 2023, but it appears that it will be a Shudder release at some point.

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person – Goofy sorta premise about a vampire who is too sensitive to kill running into a suicidal guy that could save her life. Could be fun! That being said, I have no idea when this is actually coming out.

Blackout – Larry Fessenden’s take on werewolves is another movie I’m not sure will come out in time for 2023, but it sounds interesting and I’ve heard good things about it, even if Fessenden is another hit-or-miss filmmaker for me…

Phew, that’s a lot of 2023 movie releases to catch-up with, though as noted, several are not likely to be released in time.