The Official Review Thread of 2023

[anonymous1980]

SILENT NIGHT
Cast: Joel Kinnaman, Scott Mescudi, Catalina Sandino Moreno, Harold Torres.
Dir: John Woo.

After his son is hit and killed by stray bullet caused by a gunfight between two rival gangs during Christmas Eve, a man becomes hellbent on revenge. This is John Woo's first American film in a long, long while. It is also a film that virtually has no spoken dialogue (emphasized by the fact that the protagonist gets shot in the throat and loses his voice in the start of the film). While John Woo shows that he still can direct gunfights and action scenes like no one else, the story suffers a bit. It needed that extra oomph of emotion to make it really special but it just gets lost in the violence. Both Joel Kinnaman and Catalina Sandino Moreno give good nearly wordless performances here. So overall, it's an okay entry to the recent trend of "dark" Christmas movies.

Oscar Prospects: If Sound Editing was still a separate category, it could've had a shot.

Grade: B-

NAPOLEON
Cast: Joaquin Phoenix, Vanessa Kirby, Tahar Rahim, Rupert Everett.
Dir: Ridley Scott.

This is the film about both the military career of Napoleon Bonaparte as well as his relationship with his greatest love, Josephine. This is the latest from director Ridley Scott who, at 86, seems to be still going strong, He can still direct battle sequences as good or better than directors half, heck, even a quarter of his age. There are indeed some spectacular battle sequences here but for me, the best parts of the film are the private conversations with Napoleon and Josephine. Both Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby are at their very best in these scenes. It seems like Ridley Scott made two good movies here but has trouble making them flow in unison, making for a clunky rushed film that could've used to be either longer or shorter, depends on the footage he took. Anyway, it's still a good movie.

Oscar Prospects: Production Design, Costume Design, Visual Effects and Sound are possible.

Grade: B.

[Sabin]

Mister Tee wrote
I wonder if Sabin's ultimate issue with the show is one of genre classification. The kind of scene he describes wanting is the sort of scene you'd get on most any other comedy show. And The Bear, per the Emmys, is a comedy show. But -- say it loud -- that's as much category fraud as we've seen at any awards show, ever. Not that there aren't laughs on the show -- Oliver Platt is pretty consistently hilarious. But, if Jeremy Allen White wins the best actor Emmy, it'll be for that support group monologue that doesn't have a smidgen of comedy in it. And the now-legendary Christmas show is harrowing drama, start to finish.

Maybe to some degree, but how many dramas are out there that can find the time to chill out for a second? Like... almost all of them. I object to the idea that the world of The Bear is busier than the world of The Sopranos, The West Wing, any show with people who have insanely busy lives and tons of pressure. In that sense, I guess it's subversive by saying no, not those shows, this show about working class people with precarious lives. It might just be one of those shows where I need to see the last episode to see how I feel about it and if I can shake the feeling that there is something in it that feels akin to a stunt.

You're right about its cultural impact. Also, I'm fortunate enough in my city to have some family. My cousin Michael and I would call each other "Cuz" before The Bear. Since The Bear, it's now and forever "Cousin." I cannot deny that this show has mattered.

[Mister Tee]

I wonder if Sabin's ultimate issue with the show is one of genre classification. The kind of scene he describes wanting is the sort of scene you'd get on most any other comedy show. And The Bear, per the Emmys, is a comedy show. But -- say it loud -- that's as much category fraud as we've seen at any awards show, ever. Not that there aren't laughs on the show -- Oliver Platt is pretty consistently hilarious. But, if Jeremy Allen White wins the best actor Emmy, it'll be for that support group monologue that doesn't have a smidgen of comedy in it. And the now-legendary Christmas show is harrowing drama, start to finish.

The show is about folks who live on adrenalized anxiety. I've heard from some who work in the restaurant business that this frenetic pace is very true to their daily lives. Whether it works for you as watchable art is a personal choice. I know people who gave up on the show at episode one, which came at audiences like a series of punches to the face. It was 70s Altman, crossed with Uncut Gems (the latter of which made my friend say "I thought I was going to have a heart attack"); it took multiple episodes before it slowed down enough for me to feel I was getting to know most of the characters. Many people just can't deal with that style...and even those who appreciate it can acknowledge it can be unpleasant. The show certainly doesn't have the warmth that most comedy shows, even insult-filled ones, have as baseline. (Though it does offer moments of grace -- like Marcus' almost enchanted Scandinavian sojourn, or Olivia Colman's unexpected cameo.)

I doubt it will ever have the pleasant hang-out episode that Sabin seems to want. Weirdly, though it can seem unstructured/meandering (dealing with things like kids' parties, or the half-hearted courtship of Claire), the show is actually pretty tightly contained: every moment since Carmy's return has been focused on first trying to save the restaurant, and then, when Michael's gift is uncovered, re-imagining the place as Carmy's dream project. I don't even know if the show will be ongoing; the last episode was titled The Bear, which may indicate the creators feel the show has done everything it set out to do. I would honestly be fine with that; the reason I don't, as a rule, love television is its insistence that shows run into infinity (or to the point audiences don't like them anymore). Contrarily, if it goes on, I'll be happy to tune back in.

And, as flipp says, any show that produces an episode like the Christmas show has to be saluted. I understand Jamie Lee Curtis contacted the show's creators and told them she needed to play the mother of the family. If that's true, she cast herself in the best role of her career. Part of the pleasure of that show was the unheralded arrival of "guest stars" -- because there were no giveaway opening credits, you found yourself thinking, Wait: is that Sarah Paulson? Does that look like John Mulaney? And then the show just got strung tighter and tighter, till the inevitable explosion. Truly great stuff.

Lasting cultural impact: these days, whenever someone keeps repeating something to me that I've already absorbed, "Heard, chef" has become my go-to phrase.

[danfrank]

I like The Bear the way it is. It’s the most compelling television I’ve seen in years, and that Seven Fishes episode was some of the most intense drama I’ve ever seen on TV.

[Sabin]

flipp525 wrote
Wait, what are you talking about?! There are numerous scenes of them shooting the shit behind the restaurant while smoking.

I do see what you’re saying though to a certain degree.

I think the now-infamous extended Christmas episode (that was the height of a state of panic in a totally different way) prevents the show from being truly overrated this year. That was an amazing episode of television.

And I would put money on Jamie Lee Curtis win the Emmy next year for Guest Performance in a Comedy.

(And loved Sarah Paulson in it!)

(I knew I was going to hijack this thread)

I disagree with the word "numerous" unless you're referring to this kind of a scene:
Carmy goes outside. Richie is smoking.
Carmy: Hey, you gotta get back to work.
Richie: Yeah, in a minute.
Carmy: No, seriously.
Richie: Yeah, I fucking know, cousin.
Carmy leaves.
Richie: Fuck.

I'm not talking about that kind of a scene. I'm talking about people hanging out, they make jokes, and we get to know them. I might be overstating it but there's a handful of moments like that throughout the series. Every episode of The Bear is generally about one thing: can we save the restaurant? Occasionally, we will get a scene or a moment where someone's life and job is not entirely consumed with those kinds of stakes or when a cloud of miserable anxiety isn't hanging over them so we get anything resembling a good time. We've seen shows about jobs before. Every once in a while we get stories like "The office might be closing" or whatever. Every once in a while in The Bear there are stakes besides "The restaurant is in trouble." Like, I can't imagine a season of The Bear where everything is going great. Or fine. It's a show that can only exist when it's basically breaking conventional rules. I like it when shows break conventional rules. But that's so much of The Bear that it feels more like an exercise than anything else. But hey, maybe season three and onward will prove me wrong. Either way, I seem to be very much in the minority on this one.

That Christmas episode was very good and I think Jamie Lee Curtis did the best acting I've ever see her do. That being said, I would trade it and every episode for one half hour episode where there was one subplot where nobody wanted to work and Carmy had to try to make them because they got a super big order and every time it looks like they were getting back to work something came up or maybe they were just fucking with him or something. I don't need that all the time. I need that sometimes. Once again, I've been to a Chicago Beef. You'll never convince me that doesn't happen.

[flipp525]

Mister Tee wrote
To wit: I'd already done The Bear on my previous trip, so I was marginally acquainted with actress Molly Gordon for her Claire role.

.
I honestly think it's an act of insecurity that we can only observe them in a state of panic. Like, I haven't worked in that kind of restaurant but I have worked in the service industry. We can't have five minutes of people shooting the shit on break? Let alone in a Chicago Beef? I've lived in Chicago. I can buy elevated cooking there, I can also buy that level of pandemonium, but I can't buy that nobody takes a break and shoots the shit.

Wait, what are you talking about?! There are numerous scenes of them shooting the shit behind the restaurant while smoking.

I do see what you’re saying though to a certain degree.

I think the now-infamous extended Christmas episode (that was the height of a state of panic in a totally different way) prevents the show from being truly overrated this year. That was an amazing episode of television.

And I would put money on Jamie Lee Curtis win the Emmy next year for Guest Performance in a Comedy.

(And loved Sarah Paulson in it!)

[Sabin]

Mister Tee wrote
To wit: I'd already done The Bear on my previous trip, so I was marginally acquainted with actress Molly Gordon for her Claire role.

Definitely not the thread for it but The Bear is one of the best shows I've ever seen that leaves not completely cold but close. It has a lot of talent and it makes a lot of interesting choices and I don't know how I would react to it if I could just recommend it to folks as a curio. But it's not set up to demonstrate anything other than punishing anxiety and no less than survival of the restaurant stakes in lieu of any downtime with these people to get to know them. I honestly think it's an act of insecurity that we can only observe them in a state of panic. Like, I haven't worked in that kind of restaurant but I have worked in the service industry. We can't have five minutes of people shooting the shit on break? Let alone in a Chicago Beef? I've lived in Chicago. I can buy elevated cooking there, I can also buy that level of pandemonium, but I can't buy that nobody takes a break and shoots the shit.

Anyway, I really do admire all the work that everyone did with that show. It really is an achievement but I can't see it as anything other than the most overrated show of the year.

[Mister Tee]

When I visit my parents, I gorge myself on hulu, since they have it and I don't. Such an undertaking, I discovered this time around, can reveal an entire incestuous network of actors/writers/directors who work together and are a coming thing.

To wit: I'd already done The Bear on my previous trip, so I was marginally acquainted with actress Molly Gordon for her Claire role. Now, after watching, on consecutive nights, Theatre Camp and Shiva Baby (the latter of which had been eluding me since its debut a few years back), I know her as writer/co-director, friend of Ben Platt, and part of a group that extends to Ayo Edebiri (also of The Bear, and lately Bottoms) and Rachel Sennott (Shiva Baby plus Bottoms). A whole world of interconnections unfolded before me.

Theatre Camp is a pleasant enough undertaking, obviously more accessible for those of us who've floated through the milieu than others. There's sentimentality and contrivance, but enough witty touches that it breezes by pretty smoothly.

Shiva Baby (which i should probably discuss in a different year, but nobody'd see it if I posted there at this point) is a very promising piece of work -- signalling the arrival of a strong writer/director in Emma Seligman -- and I was impressed initially by how much it got going in a swift manner. But I confess, after a while, I felt trapped inside the house/environs, and wished the film would take me elsewhere. All the stuff that emerges at the shiva feels like the set-up for a bigger story, but, instead, we stay on-site and the film starts spinning its wheels a bit. In a way, the final sequence sums up my issue with the film: we go through elaborate machinations to get everyone into the car, but, once we do, the story just stops. To back up, though: the set-up situations were very interesting (I truly wanted to see that further story), and a bunch of good actors -- Sy Abelman!, and the always welcome Deborah Offner -- carry the film along a good ways.

Less significantly, I watched Branagh's Poirot movie A Haunting in Venice, a painless enough effort, and Quiz Lady, which I'm not even sure counts as a movie. The latter has its bright spots -- some quite funny throwaway lines, amusing teamwork between Awkwafina and Sandra Oh (in an uncharacteristically flamboyant part), and some sharp skewering of the vast trivia nerd community. (There's one moment when Awkwafina, asked to name Oscar-winning films, rattles off the list chronologically, and I was embarrassed to note I could do the same.) But the film also encapsulates problems I have with nearly every contemporary comedy (and why I can't really think of a pure movie comedy I think is outstanding since...I don't know...Groundhog Day?): too many moments when characters do outlandish/stupid/not-credible things to move the plot along, and too much "we're satire but we'll work it all out with hugs by the end" stuff (Seinfeld famously resisted this motif, but wasn't able to convince enough creators to follow the lead).

[anonymous1980]

CASSANDRO
Cast: Gael Garcia Bernal, Roberta Colindrez, Perla de la Rosa, Raul Castillo, Bad Bunny, Joaquin Cosio, El Hijo del Santo.
Dir: Roger Ross Williams.

This film tells the true story of Saul Armendariz, a gay amateur wrestler who gained fame in the Mexican wrestling circuit as the titular "Cassandro, the Liberace of Lucha Libre" and all that entails. This is the narrative feature debut of documentarian Roger Ross Williams (and incidentally, there is a documentary about this story as well which the film made me interested in seeing). This pretty much follows the same old formula of the sports biopic. We see the rise, the fall, the rise again and tragedies and triumphs in between all that, only this time it's about a gay wrestler. However, Gael Garcia Bernal is truly magnificent in this. He makes this story compelling and he's basically the reason to see it. You can tell he gave it his all. It's another case of the great performance doing all the heavy lifting of an otherwise mid film. So, yeah, see it for him.

Oscar Prospects: Gael Garcia Bernal has a longshot chance at Best Actor. That's it.

Grade: B-

[anonymous1980]

ALL OF US STRANGERS
Cast: Andrew Scott, Paul Mescal, Claire Foy, Jamie Bell.
Dir: Andrew Haigh.

As a man begins a new relationship with a mysterious stranger, he encounters the ghosts/visions of his parents who died when he was very young. There are moments in this film that even though both my parents are still alive and well, it hit quite hard emotionally and I fought back tears. This is a beautifully made film exquisitely acted by its main quartet of actors. But I have to be honest, I'm still kind of processing the ending which I, at least as of this writing, think is a step too much. I won't spoil it here but I have to say, it's keeping it from making me give this full marks. It is still one of the best films of the year though and so far, it's my favorite among writer-director Andrew Haigh's works. I still highly, highly recommend it.

Oscar Prospects: I would give this Actor. Supporting Actress, Adapted Screenplay though I think its best chances is with the last one.

Grade: A-

BOTTOMS
Cast: Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri, Ruby Cruz, Havana Rose Liu, Marshawn Lynch, Dagmara Domińczyk, Nicholas Galitzine, Miles Fowler, Punkie Johnson.
Dir: Emma Seligman.

Two best friends decide to start a school fight club for girls so they can lose their virginities to cheerleaders. This movie may not have reinvented the wheel. It is a teens-wanna-get-laid comedy. It is also a queer teens-wanna-get-laid comedy. Both have been done before. But the style and the humor of this film is so unique and exists in its own weird world. It is not quite an all-out parody spoof yet it is also not like a simple straight high school comedy. It exists in between. And I have to say, it largely works. I laughed a lot. The actors pretty much give it their all here. Rachel Sennott, Ayo Edebiri along with Marshawn Lynch of all people are all especially friggin' hilarious. I saw this on Prime Video and I highly recommend people looking for a good laugh to seek it out.

Oscar Prospects: None.

Grade: B+

[anonymous1980]

WISH
Cast: Ariana DeBose, Chris Pine, Alan Tudyk, Angelique Cabral, Victor Garber, Natasha Rothwell, Jennifer Kumiyama, Harvey Guillien, Niko Vargas, Ramy Youssef, Jon Rudnitsky, Della Saba (voices).
Dirs: Chris Buck, Fawn Veerasunthorn.

In a faraway magical island, a kingdom is ruled by a sorcerer who takes people's wishes and grants them only as he pleases. Then a young girl befriends a wishing star. There's a lot of things to admire about this film. The fact that it attempts to do something somewhat original yet also do something that is a throwback to many of the classic Disney animated features throughout the years. Ariana DeBose and Chris Pine both giving excellent voice performances with Pine playing an actual villain for a change (during a time when a lot of Disney animated features have no villain). And some of the songs are pretty good. But the script, the concept and the world-building is a clunky mess. You can see what they were going for but it really needed a few more rewrites in order for it to actually have stakes and make sense. This isn't the worst thing Disney Animation has made but far from the greatest.

Oscar Prospects: Could it receive a default Animated Feature nomination? I doubt it. Original Song is stronger.

Grade: B-

THANKSGIVING
Cast: Patrick Dempsey, Nell Verlaque, Addison Rae, Rick Hoffman, Jalen Thomas Brooks, Milo Manheim, Gina Gershon.
Dir: Eli Roth.

A year after a deadly Black Friday stampede that killed a few people, a masked killer starts viciously murdering the people he deemed responsible one by one. Based on that fake trailer he made for Grindhouse which a lot of people have been begging for him to make, Eli Roth quite possibly managed to make his best film (I've seen a few, not a fan of those Hostel movies I had to watch for work). This is a highly enjoyable and very gory slasher flick/whodunit much in the vein of the Scream and I Know What You Did Last Summer movies. I have to say, I really had fun with this. I also predict this will become a Thanksgiving movie staple in the years to come.

Oscar Prospects: None.

Grade: B+

[mlrg]

We’re off-topic but the farther out I get from 2019, increasingly my favorite of the nominees is DiCaprio for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the one time he would be my choice.

I agree with this. Once Upon a Time in Hollywod has become a real comfort food watch for me and I don't think DiCaprio has ever been better.

That’s exactly how I feel about Wolf of Wall Street.

[dws1982]

We’re off-topic but the farther out I get from 2019, increasingly my favorite of the nominees is DiCaprio for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the one time he would be my choice.

I agree with this. Once Upon a Time in Hollywod has become a real comfort food watch for me and I don't think DiCaprio has ever been better.

[Reza]

We’re off-topic but the farther out I get from 2019, increasingly my favorite of the nominees is DiCaprio for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the one time he would be my choice.

And I thought all the scenes with DiCaprio were the most tedious in Hollywood. I had him nowhere on my personal list even though I knew he was going to get a nod.

[Sabin]

Reza wrote
You really underestimate Banderas. I think he was clearly heads above Driver, Pryce and DiCaprio - second only to the winner Phoenix.

I just mean in terms of likelihood of a nomination. Banderas is quite good (maybe he came in second?) but he didn’t score a SAG or a BAFTA nomination. Even Christian Bale — whom Tee and I neglected to mention, which actually does speak to the potency of the year — picked up a Globe and a SAG nomination.

We’re off-topic but the farther out I get from 2019, increasingly my favorite of the nominees is DiCaprio for Once Upon a Time in Hollywood, the one time he would be my choice.