I know I’ve said this of a few years recently, but jeez, this was a rough one.  I think it was into October before I had five films that I’d feel comfortable with putting on a top 10 list.  And I didn’t feel good about a full ten until December.  That’s by far the latest I’ve reached that point.  But I got there.  With some runners up.
Part of it is the state of the industry.  Hollywood is in a bad place.  Not the first time, but maybe the worst.  Streaming, “AI” & tech-bro investors, the (very necessary) exposing of systemic abuse, the pandemic, the (also very necessary) writers’ strike.  Not great.  Plus, for a whole bunch of reasons, I had a very difficult time getting out to the theater and a bunch of things I want to watch are only available on streaming services I don’t have access to, so I missed a lot of stuff.

Top 10 Movies

10. Nazi Town USA – I normally don’t put documentaries on my list, and when I do, they’re usually the celebratory type, like “Corman’s World” or “Jodorowsky’s Dune.”  But this one hit hard when I watched it and remained one of the best, if most unpleasant, things I watched this year.  It’s a reminder that when folks say, “this isn’t who we are,” they’re simply wrong.  It very much is who we are and who we’ve always been.  “This isn’t who we aspire to be” would be more accurate.  “This isn’t living up to our ideals.”  It’s also a reminder that, as with all of the most vile and terrible things people in the US have done over the centuries, when it was over, everyone just went home, got jobs, had kids, and left those festering evils for the next generation. 

9. Monkey Man – It’s a martial arts revenge film.  If you’ve seen a few entries in the genre, there will be no real surprises.  But these are sort of “comfort” movies.  Justice fantasies.  And star/director Dev Patel does a nice job in his directorial debut.  Also, setting it in a fictional Indian city and dealing with elements of Indian culture help to give the whole thing a very different feel from the many Hong Kong and US based entries in the genre.  

8. I Saw the TV Glow – I went back and forth on this one.  It’s very A24 (if you know, you know).  However, even though I wasn’t necessarily blown away by it while I watched, the movie stuck with me and kept me thinking about it.  I was expecting a Horror movie, and that’s not really what this is.  Or, at least, not Horror like you might think.  There are no jump scares or violent murders.  Another reminder that we’re all a lot more alike than we are different, and many of us experience similar emotional damage in our youth, but for different reasons and to different degrees.

7. Conclave – I enjoy movies that give veteran actors a chance to really act up a storm.  One of the things I really liked about watching Game of Thrones was that it gave a bunch of older British character actors a chance to have one last meaty role.  This sort of papal version of “Mean Girls” is a lot of fun to watch.  I was very impressed by how this film felt as tense as any thriller, even though it’s just a bunch of old men in funny hats, talking.

6. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes – I’ve enjoyed the re-launched Planet of the Apes series overall, though I haven’t been blown away by any of them, really.  This one is probably my favorite to date.  In a sense, it’s a re-launch of a re-launch, since we’ve jumped the timeline forward quite a way since “War for the Planet of the Apes.”  I think this one spoke to me more because it felt like reading a Science Fiction novel from the 1970s.  Something about the plot structure and the overall content just had that 70s vibe, even though the film’s visuals did not.  It’s the first of the newer films that felt like it was really in the tone and spirit of the original series. (Sort of like how, whatever its individual quality as a movie, “Star Trek V” is the Trek film most thematically like the original Star Trek TV series).  I had a similar feeling with “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga,” where it felt again like reading a novel from the 1970s, and in fact, that movie was on this list until quite recently.

5. Mars Express – Another animated Cyberpunk film from France.  Sort of like “Renaissance” from 2006, this one doesn’t really break new ground on the Cyberpunk/Neo-Noir genre, but it handles things well and with visual flair.  I’d argue it also works better than that earlier film, if for no other reason than it feels much less like a rehash of “Blade Runner.”  Not to spoil too much, but this also has a suitably bleak, but slightly ambiguous ending.  I have complained frequently and loudly about the lack of adult Science Fiction in animation outside of Japanese anime.  This is still very much true, but at least we’re getting some, if slowly and drip-fed.  I do wish last year’s Scavengers Reign had been more of a success and we’d gotten a second season.  Alas.  “Mars Express” is not as good as Scavengers Reign, but that’s a darned high bar. 

4. Things Will Be Different – With Benson & Moorhead busy working with Marvel Studios, I’m glad we got a very Benson & Moorhead-esque film this year, the directorial debut of their longtime editor Michael Felker.  I guess you could call this a time travel film, maybe.  Sort of.  I guess.  As that, I’d put it alongside some other low-budget brain-breakers, like “Primer” or one I didn’t respond to, but many love, “Coherence.”  Mostly carried on the back of the two lead actors, I was at first reminded of the excellent and criminally underseen “A Dark Song” from 2016.  But as it went on, and I started to see where things were going, I started to think, “this feels like a Benson & Moorhead film.”  Thus, I was not shocked when one of them showed up briefly in the film, or when their names showed up as producers in the credits.

3. Hundreds of Beavers – In the mood for a sprawling, live-action Looney Tunes movie where a guy battles hoards of people dressed as wilderness creatures?  Apparently I was.  

2. My Old Ass – With this and “I Saw the TV Glow,” we have two very different, slightly off, coming of age films that really spoke to me, even though my specific circumstances were very different from the protagonist’s.  This one hit pretty hard in “the feels.”

1. Love Lies Bleeding – Sometimes you see a movie early in the year that you think is going to set the tone for things to come, and it doesn’t.  “Love Lies Bleeding” has been number one on my list since I saw it back in March.  Rose Glass’s second film is a glossy, sweaty, neon-soaked mix of classic crime film and surreal, magical realism.  I know Kristen Stewart has done her time and earned her stars, but I can’t count myself a fan.  Still, I thought she was really well cast here.  And Katy O’Brian’s ability to project such wide-eyed naiveté undercut with animal menace… chef’s kiss.  Plus another unhinged Ed Harris performance.  I’m always here for those.  For a whole bunch of reasons, this movie isn’t going to be for everyone.  Especially as the finale really ramps up and things get weird.  But it was for me.  

Best Barely Appearing in the Film But Likely to Get an Oscar Nom:  Isabella Rossellini for “Conclave”

Best Supporting Actress:  Aubrey Plaza for “My Old Ass”
Runner Up: Anna Baryshnikov for “Love Lies Bleeding”

Best Supporting Actor:  Stanley Tucci for “Conclave”
Runner Up: Aaron Taylor-Johnson for “Nosferatu”

Best Actress:  Katy O’Brian for “Love Lies Bleeding”
Runner Up: Lupita Nyong’o for “A Quiet Place: Day One”

Best Actor:  Ralph Fiennes for “Conclave”
Runner Up: Chris Hemmsworth for “Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga”

Best Director: Edward Burger for “Conclave” 
Runner Up: Anna Kendrick for “Woman of the Hour”

Almost There:  

In a year where I didn’t have ten movies I liked until near the very end, there were still some movies that were…almost there.  A couple even made the list for a short time before dropping to something I liked more.

Abigail: What? This movie looked so stupid. I wasn’t even planning to watch it, but I found myself with some time and it was free. Color me shocked that I actually had a blast watching it. And Kevin Durrand, man. 

Nosferatu: Fourth time’s a charm? This is the first Robert Eggers movie I really enjoyed. I didn’t really love it, and it’s my least favorite of the three films that share its name. But I’ve been wanting to like Eggers’s work since seeing (and very much not liking) “The Witch.”  So, I’m glad I finally have.  The visuals and details of his movies are amazing.  Now, he just needs to find some heart.  Unless he’s trying to be the next James Cameron, and the technique is all there is.

Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga:  I don’t know why this film tanked at the box office after the huge success of “Mad Max: Fury Road.”  However, I do understand why it wasn’t well received.  One of the things I like about George Miller’s Mad Max series is that each film is very much its own thing.  This is actually the first movie to be so directly connected to another, being a direct prequel to “Fury Road.”  I have to admit, that was the thing that put me off.  I don’t like prequels generally, and I really don’t like direct prequels (those that deal with all the characters we already know, but at a slightly earlier point in their lives, as opposed to something that takes place generations earlier).  All that said, I ended up enjoying the film more than I expected.  Did I love it?  Not really.  But I liked it a lot more than the idea and the preview led me to expect.  As I mentioned when writing about “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes,” this film reminded me a lot of reading a Science Fiction novel from the 1970s and I liked that. 

Will & Harper: This one was on my top 10 for a while.  It’s more the type of documentary I’d normally put on my list, more celebratory than otherwise.  Though it’s very sad, too, don’t get me wrong.  But I’m a sucker for deep friendships and road trips.  

The Substance:  This could also get the Hostel Award For Dramatically Overhyped Shock Value.  So many people were clutching their pearls and raving about how shocking, gory, and violent this film was, and I have to wonder, is this your first rodeo?  Maybe it was the cross-over appeal of the leads that brought in folks who aren’t used to Body Horror?  Whatever the case, “The Substance,” while lacking a modicum of subtlety, had some fun and interesting things to say about aging, celebrity, beauty standards, and superficiality.  I became more intrigued by the movie when I saw it compared to “Seconds” (1966).  Sadly, I don’t think “The Substance” lives up to the comparison at all, but it’s still an interesting watch.  And Demi Moore, an actress I’ve never had any love for, does turn in a really solid performance.  As she goes full crone-mode, she shows that she actually has a surprising amount of physical comedy skills.  For those who are interested, if you’ve watched any of Cronenberg’s classic Body Horror films, nothing in this movie is likely to push your limits.

The OK, I Guess Maybe I Understand Why Folks Keep Talking About Glen Powell Award:

Glen Powell in “Hit Man”

Video Discoveries:

The Devil’s Envoys (1942): Made under Nazi occupation, I know this was laying down some stuff I wasn’t picking up.  But it’s a cool Medieval Fantasy film, nonetheless.  The film feels like a synthesis of Bergman and Michael Curtiz.

Donkey Skin (1970): I never really “got” Catherine Deneuve before. I think I do, now.  Also, dang.  Fairy Tales are so messed up.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame (1939):  I honestly don’t know how I’d never seen this version.  In fact, I was sure I had, until I started watching.  This might be my favorite film version of the story.  And who knew Edmond O’Brien was ever dashing?  I sure didn’t.

The Bad Timing Award:  

It happens every year, as studios inundate theaters with Oscar hopefuls, just under the wire.  It’s only made worse by the fact that they can cheat, releasing movies in limited runs before the year’s end, while not allowing the general public to see films until the new year.  For an example, see “The Brutalist,” which doesn’t get a wide release until mid-January of 2025, but is making a lot of critics’ best of 2024 list, because they got a chance to see it already.  Anyway, this is a movie that would have made my list of best for 2023, if only I’d had a chance to see it before the end of the year.  I didn’t get to see it until midway through January, by which point, my list had already been published.

Poor Things:  Third time was a charm for Yorgos Lanthimos.  From trailers and on paper, I should love his movies.  But I absolutely hated “The Lobster” and “Killing of a Sacred Deer.”  So much so that I never saw “The Favorite,” and still haven’t.  But I ended up seeing “Poor Things” and I’m glad I did.  He really tapped into that Terry Gilliam/Jeunet & Caro thing that I love so much.  Wonderfully madcap and weird, with some great performances.  

Top 20

20. Dune: Part Two

19. Beetlejuice, Beetlejuice

18. Hit Man

17. Nosferatu

16. Wicked

15. A Quiet Place: Day One

14. Abigail

13. Inside Out 2

12. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga

11. Will & Harper

10. Nazi Town U.S.A.

9. Monkey Man

8. I Saw the TV Glow

7. Conclave

6. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

5. Mars Express

4. Things Will be Different

3. Hundreds of Beavers

2. My Old Ass

1. Love Lies Bleeding

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