NOTE: I went very long on this one so if you read these on Gmail, everything might look truncated. There should be a “View entire message” button that expands the message.
There are also mild spoilers for The Boy and the Heron and HEAVY spoilers for The Pope’s Exorcist.
I’ve been watching movies since I was a kid so this year, I did something different: I watched even more movies. I also started writing about them here on Substack and some of you have been kind enough to subscribe and read along. As for the rest of you…
Anyway, here’s some honorable mentions before the final list.
HONORABLE MENTIONS
Fancy Dance (dir. Erica Tremblay)
I was lucky enough to see this one closing night of the deadCenter Film Festival back in June. The reason it’s an honorable mention is because the movie has yet to find distribution, which is a shame because I think this was Lily Gladstone’s best performance out of the four movies she was in last year. She’s amazing in Killers of the Flower Moon, but Fancy Dance is truly a Lily Gladstone vehicle and I hope it gets some kind of release soon. People are saying that Tremblay and Gladstone are the new Scorsese and DeNiro. I’m “People” but I’m saying it nonetheless. Speaking of KOTFM…
TIE: Killers of the Flower Moon (dir. Martin Scorsese)/May December (dir. Todd Haynes)
I’m not necessarily recommending these as a double feature. What I am recommending them as are true crime movies that take the “true crime” of it seriously. Scorsese and Haynes are very different filmmakers dealing with very different stories, but both have clearly put a lot of thought into the way traumatic events are used for entertainment fodder. It’s really only in the controversial final scene of KOTFM that Scorsese directly confronts this but it’s woven all throughout May December, which is about an actress (Natalie Portman) doing research to play a woman loosely inspired by Mary Kay Letourneau (Julianne Moore) by spending a weekend with the family. The other thing both these movies have in common is that they were immediately pelted with bad faith arguments by people who’ve never seen a movie before. I’m being a little mean, but point is I think folks often project things onto movies that aren’t there, especially when it’s dealing with sensitive subject matter. It’s clear on the screen that they put a lot of thought into how to tell these stories, which requires going to some uncomfortable places. Skipping something that may be personally triggering is completely understandable. What I’m saying is that I’ve personally found commenting on a movie easier when I’ve actually *seen* it.
TOP TEN FILMS OF 2023
Barbie (dir. Greta Gerwig)
When Barbie enters the real world for the first time, she’s sitting on a bench as she takes it all in. It’s a wonderfully staged moment full of genuine emotion, so much so that I briefly forgot this was Mattel/Warner Brothers production and remembered I was watching a Greta Gerwig movie.
I think folks picking this apart for being too broad or (God forbid) sincere in its messaging were going to dislike it from the jump. And anyone complaining about “Disappointingly low T from Ken”1 is not a person worth taking seriously. The big ideas are there, but they’re woven into a big studio comedy that has jokes almost every minute and if you can see it as that, you’ll also see that it’s not as preachy as some folks are making it sound. What I’m trying to say is IT’S A FUN MOVIE AND I REALLY ENJOYED IT. The practical set alone should win this thing every technical Oscar.
The Pope’s Exorcist (dir. Julius Avery)
I go into each movie I’m seeing for the first time wanting to like it and always open to being surprised. But there’s always one movie that looks goofy as hell but I am 100% in on and in 2023 that was The Pope’s Exorcist. Russell Crowe is in the stage of his career where he’s taking bigger chances and clearly having the time of his life. Father Gabriele Amorth was a real-life exorcist for the Diocese of Rome, indeed making him the pope’s exorcist. You may be surprised to hear that The Pope’s Exorcist is playing fast and loose with the already questionable accounts of Fr. Amorth, but that is the last thing I cared about both times I watched the film The Pope’s Exorcist.
Quantum Cowboys (dir. Geoff Marslett)
When I was at deadCenter, I also caught a screening of Quantum Cowboys, a rotoscope multiverse western which just hit streaming in November. Geoff Marslett uses 12 different styles of animation and it’s crazy what he was able to pull off with a small budget. It has an unconventional structure that it took me two viewings to pick up on, but it’s not really necessary to enjoy it. You see flashes of Lily Gladstone’s charm and humor in KOTFM, but it’s on full display here. The story might take a while to figure out, but it’s such a fun ride and Marslett’s packed it with so many fun details that the story was the last thing I was concerned with.
The Pope’s Exorcist (dir. Julius Avery)
You are correct in noticing that The Pope’s Exorcist is on the list again at #7. Anyway, cinema isn’t always about the best calibrated story. Sometimes it’s a standalone image that captures the mind. For me, the greatest shot in the film is a grizzled Russell Crowe speeding around on a Vespa while “We Care a Lot” by Faith No More blares on the soundtrack. It’s a dirty job but someone’s gotta do it.
Jason Isbell: Running With Our Eyes Closed (dir. Sam Jones)
I first came to Jason Isbell as a solo artist, later on I would circle back around and dig into his work with Drive-By Truckers (I think The Dirty South is a perfect album). The main thing that stuck out to me is that Isbell was the last name of my late great-grandparents. There’s no relation as far as I know but it’s a fact I can awkwardly bring up if I ever meet him.
The doc itself is about the making of Jason Isbell and The 400 Unit’s 2020 album Reunions, which lends to an intimate look at Jason’s home life with his wife, fellow musician Amanda Shires. It’s a really wonderful portrait of a marriage between two artists where even during tense moments, their love for and admiration of each other is undeniable.
The Pope’s Exorcist (dir. Julius Avery)
As a fan of the Conjuring movies, I’m not worried about how Ed and Lorraine Newman were in real life. From what I hear, they were basically scam artists and as surprised as I am to hear this, it does not diminish my love for those wacky haunted house movies. The real-life Fr. Amorth, in addition to being a demon hunter, believed that yoga and Harry Potter were portals for demonic spirits. This was most people I grew up around as a Pentecostal preacher’s kid so 1) that line of thinking in a person doesn’t surprise me and 2) Russell Crowe is leaving box office money on the table if he doesn’t work this into one of the sequels.
A Thousand and One (dir. A.V. Rockwell)
On paper, this is a story that could’ve easily been turned into inspirational poverty porn. Instead, A.V. Rockwell is interested in depicting a rapidly changing New York City and one person attempting to navigate it. The movie starts in 1994 with Inez (Teyana Taylor) being released from Rikers Island and returning to Brooklyn where she abducts her son Terry from his foster home and takes him to Harlem. We follow them all the way through 2005, meaning both of them are practically in a different city by the end of the movie. Rockwell never judges her characters for the decisions they make. Instead, she shows them as they are, flawed people making the best out of the circumstances they’re in. In a just world, Taylor would get at least an Oscar nod because she’s a powerhouse in this.
The Pope’s Exorcist (dir. Julius Avery)
When it comes to spoilers, film critic April Wolfe has this saying: “It’s not what happens in a movie but how it happens that makes it worth watching.” The Pope's Exorcist is not exactly the kind of movie that would be ruined by spoilers, but here’s a warning just in case. When Russell Crowe—sorry, Fr. Amorth stumbles across a file revealing that the Spanish Inquisition happened because of demonic possession, I was literally ROFLing. We need more movies taking and committing to big, stupid swings like this.
The Boy and the Heron (dir. Hayao Miyazaki)
Martin Scorsese, Michael Mann, and Hayao Miyazaki all put out films this year in a succintly-named genre I’ve taken to calling Guys in Their Eighties Getting a Second Wind. The “Guys” in question are the directors and despite announcing his retirement in 2013 with The Wind Rises, Miyazaki kicked the front door back open and said gimme a pencil.
What I’m saying is The Boy and the Heron is Miyazaki at his best. Spirited Away is my favorite of his and the one I thought of the most watching this one. Both movies start with the protagonist moving to a new place they’re not comfortable with yet, only Mahito in Heron is grieving the death of his mother. Mahito’s father remarries to Natsuko, his mother’s sister, and they move out to her rural estate.
I’m gonna make the most hare-brained comparison and say stepping into a Miyazaki world is like stepping into an I Think You Should Leave sketch. Tim Robinson is a comedic genius and what he does best is create a scenario that seems normal at the outset and by the time you’ve fully bought in, things start getting weird and it’s too late to get out. Now, Miyazaki isn’t pulling push doors off their hinges or staging Coffin Flops, but he does take you into worlds where no one stops to explain how everything works. Mahito is thrust into a magic realm by following an obnoxious grey heron. There’s no clear separation when you’re entering a new realm; you’re just suddenly there.
It’s also a really powerful story about grief and how running from it only makes things worse. Mahito punishes himself in small ways throughout the movie and his evolution happens by allowing people in his life to love and care for him. In true Miyazaki form, you spend most of the running time being overwhelmed with all kinds of visuals and emotions but wondering where it’s all going. Then in the last ten minutes or so, it hits you all at once.
The Pope’s Exorcist (dir. Julius Avery)
Russell Crowe won an Oscar for Gladiator and was nominated for The Insider (one of my favorites) and A Beautiful Mind. Some would say it’s been years since he’s given a prestige-worthy performance and to that I ask, have you seen The Pope’s Exorcist?
Call this movie whatever you want, I had a ball and clearly so did Russell Crowe. The movie ends with him learning of 199 other evil sites like the house Amorth was in for the whole movie. Right, the plot is that there’s an evil house with a possessed kid in it. I haven’t mentioned any of that because 1) it’s not really necessary with a movie like this and 2) I legitimately forgot to mention the plot. That’s the magic of Russell Crowe playing a pope’s personal exorcist.
Thank you so much for reading. Here’s a real list of my 20 favorite movies from last year. Until next time.
This is a reference to a very real tweet from Ginger Gaetz, wife of Matt. I didn’t want to waste a lot of time on these losers throwing fake tantrums about a popular movie they were *invited* to premiere of. But suggesting you’re disappointed that a plastic doll man had “low T” is objectively hilarious.
Love the Isbell representation. I haven't gotten around to watching the doc yet but Weathervanes is probably my second favorite album of the year (after Foo Fighters' But Here We Are). He's arguably my favorite lyricist of the last twenty years and I think "Cast Iron Skillet", "King of Oklahoma", and "Middle of the Morning" are among the best of his catalog.
I kinda get the feeling that you liked the The Pope’s Exorcist a lot :-)
I liked it too, but I am not sure if it was THAT good...